Life of a Nobodyby XinrickChaptersNobody's loveNobody's discoveriesNobody's daysNobody's fightNobody's partyNobody's normal dayNobody's MoonlightNobody's discovery's and decisionNobody's testNobody's down timeNobody's travelsNobody's New Adventure part 2Nobody's New Adventure part 3Nobody's Lesson: Fair Game pt 1Nobody's Lesson: Fair Game pt 2Nobody's Lesson: Fair Game pt 3Nobody's MeetingNobody's chanceNobody get's more girlfriendsNobody's good to bad day pt1Nobody's good to bad day pt2Nobody's lesson: SharpshootersNobody's breakdownNobody's bigger partyNobody's lesson: Graceful Dahlia part 2Nobody's daughter goes to RaptureNobody's slow dayNobody investigatesJoy's weekNobody's UndergroundNobody's dating CocoNobody's dating BrigidNobody's spare timeNobodies fighting timeNobody's plans and actionsNobody's new travelsNobody's testNobody is busyNobody's rough dayNobody's getting tired of chapter namesNobody's wholeNobody's average dayNobody's visit to DaybreakNobody trains and Joy searchesNobody talksNobody witnesses WarNobody goes travelingNobody's council, Joy's journeyNobody's inner discovery, Joy's TalkNobody's bad day, Joy's messageNobody meets a friendNobody does a lot of stuffNobody goes back to RaptureNobody's return to BoletariaNobody does a lot of thingsNobody's fighting Data X-bladersNobody becomes KingNobody's training and learning...again.Nobody solve's some problems and does some interviewsNobody's HomeNobody goes to warNobody ends a WarNobody's WeddingNobody's simple dayNobody's pissedShit happensNobody is told Hard Work is for the weakNobody trains Part 1Nobody does...things?Nobody becomes a chick cause that's original (please don't hate me)Nobody does some heart searchingNobody's fight on Two FrontsNobody talksJoy visits NexusNobody goes to the VoidNobody's busyNobody does more trialsNobody's dayNobody spends time with MomNobody talks to MotherNobody has an adventureNobody has a bad dayJoy start's the WarNobody meets new peopleNobody takes his timeNobody finds a LibraryNobody in The Hero's Tomb Part 1Code NullNobody learns Code CraftingNobody goes to SinnohNobody talksNobody find's NullNobody finishing up PokemonNobody finishes up SmithingNobody becomes DeathlessNobody starts an Admin GameNobody continues the gamesNobody finds the Mushroom 13Nobody does the fusion dance...a lotNobody and the Gang in: Blinded with ScienceNobody learns a lotNobody hangs outKite's DayNobody's dayNobody deals with stuffNobody's normal lifeKico has a turn yay!Kite fights VincentKite makes a DealNobody learns some thingsNobody Fight's Void King'sKite vs Clockwerk, then start of Band of ThievesNobody finishes the dungeonKite's endeavorNobody meet's Alternate TimelinesKite checks on somethingsNobody figures out their futureNobody...get's a BreederNobody slowly losing itI am fineThey're still hereNobody on the front linesNobody settles somethingsLife of a NobodyNobody's lifeNobody's New Adventure part 1Nobody's lesson: Graceful Dahlia part1Nobody figures out stuff.Nobody's trip to the futureNobody becomes an Admin(cause being a King wasn't enough)N̨̲͔̉ͫ̌e̘̙̳̩͌̾ͮx̸̂̈͊ͭ̊u̟͉͉̜͎͕ṡ͉͕̃̉̎̚͡ ̷̫̮̍̉W͙̖̙̩̯͙̅̐̓i͓͔̙̻̋̄͑ͭͬ̌l̢̾̒ͫͨ̊l̨͓͇͔̤̓ ̼͕̼̼͕̙ͪ́̌̔ͧ͂̌B̥̤̟̮̘̙̱ů͙̦̱̜̕r̶͚͊͋̓͗̍͊n͇͕̪̳͍̝͚StoryNobody spends time in the VoidKico deals with some...heavy stuffI can be better...with helpNobody...N̴͎̉ö̴̠b̵̦̄o̴̠̓d̷̮̃y̷̮͠..Ń̷͎͎̘̹̹̩̥̮̠́̐͂̑͗̅̄̋͊̒̉̏͘̚ǫ̷̛̯͇͉̰̯͓̀̿̎ͅb̵̯͇͍̰̠̠̺͖̩͓́̎̀̐̾̇͐̓̀͜͜ó̸̳̀̋̈́̄̓̉́̆͌́͛͘̕͝d̸̨͕̼̤͔̻̓̋́̋̄̔̆̀̏̚y̵̛͍̭̫̤͓̱̰̩̺̬͇̰͍̣̿̅̌͆̉̾́̚͘͘͝Nobody's lovebeep… Huh? beep... What? beep… That’s getting annoying. As the constant beeping I heard I decided to mull over my day. ”Okay so I managed to kill a Neoshadow and a Guard Armor, then have obvious bad guys telling me ‘oh hey I’m just gonna be a puppet master cause I’m a dick’ and then got shot by an asshole and flung on top of a carriage…” I think to myself while opening my eyes blearily, a dull pain still coursing through me. ”Sounds like a good a start as any.” I mentally sigh out, slowly putting a hand over my eyes to get the damned light away as I looked around for something noticeable. And just my luck I’m in a hospital, the heart monitor, the chairs, the constant background noise of either people moaning and groaning about their pain, doctors and nurses talking to each other or to their patients, and I’m just sitting here feeling like I got hit by a truck. “H-hello?” I try to call out, my voice sounding raspy and the obvious sign of a dry throat making itself known as my throat started to hurt. And much to my luck I thankfully got a nurse to appear with, strangely enough, a visitor. “How are you feeling?” The nurse says simply, the grey mare having honest concern written on her face at seeing me. “Dry throat, getting shot in my legs, shoulders and arm, and the dull pain of getting hit by a truck….I’d say I’m doing fine.” I explain before coughing in pain, regretting my decision of trying to explain it in a smarmy way. The nurse looked at me with an unamused look. “Well, it seems other than your attitude everything else seems fine. You really are lucky to be alive. The bullets that shot you were a .50 caliber, who ever shot you either wasn’t aiming to kill or was a terrible shot as they missed your bones, just grazing them by less than a millimeter.” “Wait...how do you know about that?” I ask curiously, kind of thinking that ponies were still in the medieval period in tech when it came to weapons. “Bit of a gun nut personally. Those griffins really know how to use them, but the minotaurs made them long ago. Though, how did that happen, you were shot eight times.” “Let’s just say a masked man’s friend didn’t get enough hugs as a kid.” “I think the news reports did have some photos with two people like that… Well, anyway, don’t worry about any bills, the crown is paying for this service.” “How, why, and where the hell is my cloak?” I ask, just now noticing I wasn’t wearing my cloak. “It’s being washed. Somehow it didn’t have any holes or tears, but it was soaked in blood. As for… well… your body seems similar to ours, are you a race from another land?” “You could...say that.” I say slowly, not entirely a hundred percent sure I should just out and out say where I really came from. “But why is the crown paying for this? I thought royalty were supposed to be greedy assholes?” I ask, pretending to think that Celestia and Luna were stuck up and terrible. “Well, if you didn’t destroy that monster Princess Celestia’s student and her friend might have gotten hurt. You were on top of the carriage they were in when paramedics got there and those two were trying to tend to your wounds.” My jaw dropped, not believing that Twilight and one of her friends were there ever so conveniently. “Um...is one of them here?” I ask honestly, keeping down my inner fanboy at meeting one of my favorite characters. “Twilight is, she says she saw when you got shot and has rarely left your side over the last two days.” “Two things…” I start before coughing again. “Okay three things. One can I get a glass of water? Two, why would a Princess’s personal student be near me when I’m just...me.” I say, my tone shifting to a sadder note considering ‘me’ is just a sassy asshole that thinks he’ll just be alone forever. “And three...two days? Really?” “Yes, two days. Second, you saved her, and a lot of ponies when you killed those creatures. They’ve been terrorizing everywhere from Canterlot to the Zebra lands, I think you have some fans… just look at all the gift baskets to your left. And third, I’ll be back with that water.” She left the room. When the nurse left I decided to do just that to see these gift baskets, and holy damn were there quite a bit of them. Quite a few were filled with food ranging from carrots, apples, candy and baked goods, all of them had cards giving thanks, ‘get well soon’ and…”Oh my god why?” I ask myself, seeing a few cards that had ‘special picture inside’ and my mind raced to an immediate ‘perv zone’ and thought of fangirls sending nudes. “Why...just...why?” I mutter, my entire face having turned the brightest shade of red ever. The door to the room opened and I placed the nudes back into the basket and dropped them off the side of my bed. Even though she was anthro, I recognized that purple coat and mane anywhere… Twilight… “Oh, you’re finally awake.” She said as she took a seat at the foot of my bed. “Uh...hello.” I say nervously, my mind running a mile a minute at seeing Twilight in the flesh, and the fact that quite a bit of mares sent me nude pictures to their hero. “I saw a lot of what happened… even heard what you were talking about with those two… so the kingdom you come from is called earth? I’ve never heard of it before. Is it far away?” “Far away doesn’t begin to describe it.” I say with a little chuckle. “I’ve never seen weapons like what you used before, those magic crossbows and that giant key, what are those? Does your kingdom make them?” “They wish.” I say, a little bit of pride entering my voice. “But...it’s hard to explain where I come from and...honestly…” I say before thoughts of my family and what little friends filled my mind. “Oh no…” “Did something happen to your kingdom?” “I could care less about my kingdom...just...thought about my family…” I sigh out sadly, knowing that I’ll probably never get to see them again. “Oh.... did the monsters like from a few days ago…” “Do you want me to explain what happened truthfully, or do you want me to just completely lie about it?” I ask simply, wondering if she’ll even believe my ramblings. “... I can see it’s touchy… alright then, subject change. So what are those weapons you used called?” “Well… those ‘crossbows’ are called, if memory serves, ‘Gun Arrows’. Yes bland ass name I know. But the key? Um...not entirely sure if I should explain that because way too much to explain and something bad might happen if I do.” I say, knowing that talking about a Keyblade could cause her to search for answers or learn certain things she shouldn’t know. “I guess it’s just some kinda powerful magic item. When you used it to kill that creature, it released something… what was it?” “That I can explain.” I say with a little nod. “Okay so, those monsters...there called Heartless, beings of darkness that steal a person’s heart to become what they are. The thing I killed was called a ‘Guard Armor’, and before you ask, the ‘Heart’ in this scenario is kind of like your soul in a sense, not your actual beating heart right now but...something even more.” “I guess I shouldn’t ask about how you know this, guessing it relates to your kingdom in some way? Well, that aside, a few people said they saw you in the public library before the… Heartless… appeared. You like books?” “Two things, one I had nothing to do with the heartless appearing just so you know so let’s get that out of the way, and about the books? Well...libraries and books were basically the number one things in my life, ever since I could read.” I say with a kind smile. “Heh, same. I studied so much in my youth I didn’t make friends until just a few years ago really… So you have a place to stay?” “Nope.” I state. “Nowhere to go, nowhere to stay...just the loner I’ve always been.” She laughed. “Well ‘loner’ since you like books, you can move in with me, I literally live in a library and an unused guest bed… my assistent likes to sleep in a large basket for some reason?” “Where have you been all my life?” I ask, slapping a hand over my mouth at my own stupid words. “Parden?” “N-nothing!” I say suddenly, my face beat red. “So uh...oh! What’s your name, I was only told by the nurse your name was...Twilight I presume?” I ask, hoping this will work to change the subject. “Yeah, that’s me. Most ponies get the wrong idea about me since the Princess taught me personally. So, I’m guessing your name isn’t what ponies have been calling you, White Knight?” I chuckled at hearing that. “Listen ma’am, I’m no ‘white knight’, even if I am awesome.” I say with a cheeky smile. “But...the names Bexn, or just Ben if you want.” “Alright then, Ben. The doctors said it will be a few more days til you’re good enough to leave, and I think someone is gonna come by a little later to ask you some more… direct questions.” “Listen I only ask direct questions after the first date.” I say with growing smile. Twilight chuckled. “Then I guess Princess Luna and I are gonna have no other choice in the matter, you seem to have won her over when word reached her.” “Wait wha?” I ask, my jaw dropping at hearing that I just won Luna, the princess of the moon, over with my little act of being a hero. “Uh...wai...wha……huh!?” “Let’s just say Princess Luna has a type, that type being anyone who can single handedly kill monsters. You are literally the first person in thousands of years to do that. Speaking of which, she should be here already? I’ll go check real quick.” Twilight left the room, leaving me all alone to fan out. ”HOLY SHIT I’M GONNA MEET PRINCESS LUNA!? WAIT NO I HAVE A CHANCE TO DATE BOTH PRINCESS LUNA AND TWILIGHT! HOLY FUCK THANK YOU GOD!” I mentally fangasm at the thoughts rushing through my head. “Well you seem happy.” I looked next to me, seeing the person who spoke… it was that masked man. “Have a good rest?” “Oh come on~.” I whine. “Relax, I’m not here to do anything other than just check up on you. Good to see you woke up faster than I expected.” “Glad I made a good first impression.” I say, rolling my eyes. “But glad to hear you’re not as...trigger happy as your gun slinging subordinate.” I say, knowing full well that mister shoots first ask questions later wasn’t the guy in charge. “He was in charge of his crime family back on earth. Majority of them are working for me now… they are behind a lot of things back on earth, can you name a recent mass murder that took place before you came here?” “I mean there was that one mass shooting at a school but I doubt it was from a collective of masters, seems to easy.” “The Greyville City high school shooting?” “Yes, heard that the kid responsible basically turned himself in with a goddamn smile on his face.” “Yeah, Greg Ventral. He’s with me to, lot of them have raw power I can use. He broke himself out of juvie and killed the wardens too. He’s a good asset to me, and Josh is the king of them all.” “And yet scar over his blind eye tells me someone beat him in quite a way.” “He did that to himself. Punishment for leaving someone alive.” “Ya know… it sounds silly in context of a professional family of killers to leave someone alive...but oh well, books aren’t always a good thing to base life off of…” “Truer words have never been spoken. Just stay on your guard, this Equestria has some use to me, and I will consume it… just like the millions before it.” “Congrats on the Satan impression, mind sounding more cliched than you already are?” I ask sarcastically. “You got a mouth on you, personally I like it. Just remember this, if there is one thing that will stop me, it isn’t you. I just like to see my opponent’s try to stop me. Zeke already knows how far I will go and how strong I am.” “Well it wouldn’t be a good story if only one main character didn’t stop all powerful bosses like yourself.” I say honestly. “But again, can’t base stories on real life...even if everyone has their own story.” I say, starting to sound like Auron right now. “Yeah, all our stories start, but just remember,” He jabbed his hand into my chest. “It can end abruptly.” He vanished into thin air, leaving me clutching my chest. “G-good talk.” I cough. “Ow…” The door opened and I sat up as Princess Luna and Twilight entered. “Greetings warrior… Ben… odd name for a warrior.” Luna said. “Says the princess with a name that explains her job.” I retort. “I mean really, ‘Luna’ is another word for the Moon.” Luna smiled. “A man unafraid of mine presence. Truly our children will be grand!” My face turned a bright shade of red. “Whoa whoa whoa! Let me at least take you out on a date first before we talk about that!” I say quickly, starting to get a little frantic at hearing the sudden ‘let’s have kids’ talk. “Can we at least kiss then?” ”Playitcoolplayitcoolplayitcoolplayitcoolplayitcool.” I think to myself, taking a deep breath before talking. “If it means kissing a beautiful princess such as yourself, it would be the best honor to have.” I say, trying to act like a gentlement. ”Nailed it.” I mentally add. Luna literally jumped on me, her tongue invading my mouth. “Easy Luna, don’t make his stay any longer than it has to be.” Twilight said. ”AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!” I mentally scream while having my first kiss taken by a very energetic Luna as my entire body was stock still as she kissed me. “Aw, then I shall stay here with you two until his recovery. We will make a proper herd!” Luna states as she presses against me... “But I like walking…” I whimper a little. “Also Princess...can you get off…” I say nervously, a certain something bumping Luna’s leg with as much subtlety as a truck at a prius convention. “Oh, so you like me after all?” She says with a sly smile. “Wh-who else would...be in this herd?” I ask nervously, hoping to have some help and not get molested. “Sparkle of course!” “Luna, let’s date him before you try and screw him.” Twilight said. “W-well...I hope I’m good for you both...also question, don’t you think this is...literally the least ‘princessy’ a princess can ever be?” I ask. Luna looked at me. “I have been trapped in the moon for a thousand years. Modern years were a quick adjustment, and quite frankly this attitude makes the nobles uneasy, which is fun for me since they’re all asses, and I generally don’t give a damn.” The lunar princess licked my ear. “Plus, I’m horny.” I shivered at the touch and hearing her say that only made my fears grow. “Um...I’m not as ‘big’ as ponies...two I’d like to keep my hips from being broken, and three I’d rather get to know my mare before the plowing begins…” I state, hoping to get that across here. “One, that’s fine, that’s why they made sex spells. And two, fine. But my attitude won’t change. So where are you staying?” “Um...Twilight offered me a place to stay in her library.” “Then I shall move in! Canterlot was getting bland anyway.” In a flash of blue magic, luna vanished. “Um...don’t you think she’s being kind of...quick for all of this?” I ask Twilight. “And not just talking about the...obvious.” “She still has some mentality from a thousand years ago. Back then ponies would marry at ten, or thirteen, and be parents not long after. She’s adjusted well, but she sticks to some things from back then.” Twilight said. “And honestly, I don’t blame her for wanting to leave Canterlot for a while, though I doubt Celestia will let her escape the paperwork.” “Well when one princess happens to instantly want to ditch paperwork for someone she loves it makes sense...but why do I have a feeling I’m going to have a very bad tea party after a while?” I ask with a frown. “Tea party?” “Does Celestia drink tea?” I deadpan, hoping she would figure out the obvious reason why I said ‘tea party’. “Not often. She prefers coffee.” “You’d think she was a morning person. Given that her name is ‘Celestial’ and the sun is a ‘Celestial Body’.” I say, having a feeling I’m going to break my cover on knowing about the show. “You’d think huh. Well, I guess I’ll call Spike at home, and tell-” Just then the nurse came back in. “I have your water sir, also, Twilight,” She pulled out a phone. “Someone named Spike is on the line for you… also how did he get my phone number?” As the nurse gave me the glass of water, Twilight took the phone. “Spike…. Wait, she, yes Spike Luna is moving in.... Yeah, a date she really wants a herd too… You can move into the guest room, that was supposed to be your bedroom anyway….. I know, wait, how many?! I, I don’t even wanna know, just make sure the…. Thanks, alright, also, how did you get this number, this is some ponies personal phone… How did Luna know this number?! … I guess that makes sense…. Alright, see you in a few days. Bye.” Twilight gave the phone back to the nurse who left. “Well that was crazy.” I thanked the nurse and started drinking the water. “So...what happened?” “Luna’s moving all her game consoles and ‘special built’ gaming computer into my bedroom, or as she is calling it, our bedroom now. She even got a bigger bed to fit the three of us, and she got you some new clothes. Spike managed to check on the houses circuits and made sure she won’t blackout Ponyville with all those gaming consoles.” “Ya know…” I start. “Maybe this...will be the first time I’ll be happy.” I smile warmly, tears forming in the corners of my eyes at the rush of joy flowing through me. To my surprise, Twilight kissed my cheek. “Everyone finds happiness at some point. I just hope Luna plans on paying the electric bill from now on.” “She’s a princess, she could pay for the entire town and then have enough to build an expansion on the town just for funsies.” “Fair enough. The only reason I’m not freaking out over this is because, A, I think this might work out… in some crazy way. And B, Luna has become a close friend… and if you didn’t come along she would have started dating only me, and I’m making you my sanity anchor from now on.” I weigh the pro’s and cons of making a dirty joke at what she just said but shrugged it off. “Well I’m glad to be of service to help make sure you both don’t torture each other...but um...what would my fangirls think?” “Either they’d keep sending nudes, yeah, I saw, or they’d try and join.” “Um...I never had a girlfriend to begin with and Luna already took my first kiss so I’m pretty sure I’ll just stick with two…” I say sheepishly. “But...thank you...thank you so very much…” “Don’t mention it. I’ll be back later. I’m gonna get you some non-hospital food, if Luna appears again while I’m gone, pray.” With that, Twilight left. And for possibly the first time ever, I did. “God….you are now the bestest friend ever. Thank you.” I say, tears streaming down my face and the biggest smile ever to grace my face appearing as I started crying, not of sadness, but one of the greatest joy I’ve ever felt since ever. To be continued... Nobody's discoveriesSo once I was discharged from the hospital in Manehattan, sampled some of the foods from the gift baskets and had my cloak back on I had a luxurious ride in one of the more royal carriages driven by two stallion pegasi. The ride to Ponyville with Twilight was uneventful, but breathtaking as I got to see the world from so high up...only to remember that I had a fear of heights and started focusing on Twilight and her talks about the town. The lavender mare explained that Ponyville was quite a town, even if it was small. The citizens were more used to ‘unknown visitors’ because of all the weirdness happening almost every week, and the citizens were welcoming and happy, but she warned me to expect a pink pony to suddenly bombard me with a million questions per hour just to figure out what I liked and who I am. “Yeah I’m gonna get along with her great...” I groan, having a feeling that Pinkie is going to be a nightmare and I won’t like it. The more we continued the more she explained about her friends and life at the town, and before long we actually landed in town. I got out of the carriage and looked around, seeing that it was a small but ‘homey’ looking town, a quiet place to relax and enjoy the country instead of the constant hustle and bustle of Manehattan. “Reminds me of home…” I mutter to myself, having lived in a small quiet town for most of my life as I surveyed the town. “So...when will I meet Ms. Gonna piss me off a lot?” I ask Twilight curiously, wondering why I wasn’t bombarded with questions. “HI TWILIGHT!” Yelled an energetic pink anthro pony. She shook Twilight while saying that… where did she even come from? “Who’s the stiff?” She asked, pointing a thumb at me. “Well excuse me for getting out of the hospital not too long ago.” I frown. “But who are you bouncy girl?” I ask, pretending to not know who she is even though I was giddy on the inside to have a Pinkie Pie party. “I’m Pinkie Pie! And thanks for noticing! I just got a new bra!” “Listen...I don’t need to learn about your ‘Party Balloons’ okay?” I say to her, not believing I just called the pink mare's breasts ‘party balloons’. “How did you know I call them that?” ”Fuck, I’m blowing my cover...think of something quick!” I think to myself, trying to think of something to distract her. “Uh...names Ben.” I say simply, hoping to get her back on track instead of on boobs. “Hi Ben. So you’re the guy Luna and Twi are gonna date?” “Yes…” I nod. “I suppose she told you everything?” “I get to plan out the baby showers!” “Oh for the love of!” I throw my hands in the air. “Can she stop thinking like that? As much as I’d like to grab that moon sized rump I’d at least take her on a date...I just hope she hasn’t beaten anyone for gawking over her…” I say, before realizing what lewd things I’m saying and blushing mad under my hood. Pinkie pulled out a recorder. “Luna owes me two hundred bits now.” She said before bouncing off into the library. “How about no!” I shout before rushing after her in an embarrassed fuss. “I don’t want her hounding me for that!” I saw Pinkie bounce back my way. “Easy money.” With that, she bounced off. I put a hand up to my head and sighed out bitterly. “Great….just great...fucking things up already...can we go to your house Twilight?” “I might have a talk with Luna.” Twilight said, walking up to me. “Thank you…” I sigh out. “I just….want this to work alright? I don’t….I don’t want to lose…” I mutter, shaking my head at just saying something stupid. “So you like my ass?” Luna said, somehow getting behind me. “Thought you were a boob man.” “For the love of…” I mutter before turning around. “Can we at least talk about this behind closed doors? I...I don’t…” I mutter, rubbing my arm in embarrassment. “Shy? Cute! Well, in any case, the dining hall is set for our date/conversation.” “Well...sounds good enough for me at least. I’d like some food that either didn’t come from a gift basket or from the hospital…” I nod. We all walked over to the dining room. Three plates of salad, something I think might be meatloaf, and buttered bread sat on the table. We all took a seat. “So Ben, what was that key sword you used to kill that monster?” Luna’s voice and expression quickly turned serious. “Well sooner or later you will learn…” I sigh out. “I already have an idea… Starswirl had something similar.” “He had a Keyblade?” I ask, not entirely liking that thought. “So it’s the same weapon then, good to know. Yes, he did, he studied them.” “Why I didn’t tell Twilight was...I was scared that if either of you knew then...dark paths could come to you if you tried studying them.” I say, not knowing the full ramifications of studying such weapons but knowing that magical items of power could always lead to darkness. “Starswirl filled ten books, all sealed away to anyone but myself, about what he learned about them. His was a gift from his master.” Luna explains. “Do you know who Starswirl’s master was?” I ask curiously, hoping to get some glimpse into how that old stallion knew about the keyblade. “He referred to him as, Eraqus.” ”That old son of a bitch.” I think to myself with a hidden grin, thinking that Eraqus would do something like that. “So...this ‘Eraqus’, do you know what he looked like?” “I saw him once, he was very young, maybe five years older than you.” ”Twenty three? Damn.” I think to myself. “Well glad to know. How long have these creatures, or better known as ‘Heartless’, been around?” “Only in the last few months. Eraqus once said that this world was naturally resistant to darkness.” I nod. “Sounds like a good thing to know...but no matter how resistant some things will always push through…” “He said that too. When Starswirl died, his Keyblade was buried with him in his tomb. He said if darkness invades, I should retrieve it, and I want you there when I do… also, none of this conversation reaches my sister, understood?” “Understood.” I nod. “But your sister...Celestia correct?” I ask. Luna noded. “Um...do I have to worry about her...while we date?” I ask worriedly, knowing that family can be overprotective of their family. “I wish, sister prefers holes over poles.” “Didn’t...need to know that but alright.” I sigh out. “Meh, not many know that about her. So, in one of Starswirl's books, it mentioned how Keyblades have wills of their own, can you clarify?” “I don’t know much about Keyblades, so I only have limited information on it.” I say. “Alright then, what about a Keyblade also known as the X-blade. He was very interested in that weapon.” “That, my dear princess, is the strongest Keyblade in existence. A Keyblade that is said to open up something of great power. And I will leave it at that cause people who have seeked it have, more often than not, been egotistical maniacs with too much time on their hands.” “I see. One other thing kept popping up in his books, something called, Kingdom Hearts, what is it?” “Of course he said that…” I grumble. “It is, as legend says, the heart of everything. Of every living being with a heart, and...believe me even though this sounds crazy, the heart of every world.” I say simply. “I figured. Well, then a few more things. Who is Xehanort?” “Oh for the love of…” I sigh out. “Listen, I’m sorry if I’m sounding paranoid here...I just...don’t want you wrapped up in something that...could get you both killed…” I explain sadly, my breath starting to sound shaky as I my mind goes through all the ways they could die. “Damn depression…” “I see he is dangerous then. Last question, who are God, and Core?” “Xehanort is a dangerous man yes...but God and Core...God is a being of unimaginable power...a ‘Creator’ in a sense...and Core? I’ve met him, Twilight can attest to that...and just from looks and speech...a thoughtful planner that’s...a ‘Destroyer’ in a sense.” I explain. “So that’s what his last book meant when he referred to them as, the Brothers of Unity.” “Ya know...for some reason I feel like I’m being spoiled a major surprise…” I say, kind of confused on why but shrugged it off. “Anyways anymore questions? Or can we move onto something lighter.” “Well, just one I guess… and it’s very important.” Luna says. “Besides how much you want to get laid?” I ask sarcastically. “Hah, sadly no. What is a Nobody? The last book mentions them once, and that’s it.” I lifted a finger and was about to say something, but then closed my mouth and wondered something. “Hold on...don’t freak out but I’m gonna do something stupid…” I say before snapping my fingers, hoping God was right that I could summon Nobodies. When nothing happened I felt like I wasn’t ready to do something that special, but then I suddenly heard...something. Where is...my heart? Said something as a small white and grey creature crawled forward into all of our views. The thing ‘stood’ there as it’s muzzle moved around, ‘looking’ at all of us. “Luna, Twilight, that is a Nobody...a ‘Creeper’ as it’s called.” I say simply, still hearing it’s questions of where it’s heart is. Luna went down and looked at it. “So… this is what Heartless leave behind after their work is done…” “This is a low ranking Nobody. Small in size but can be dangerous in big numbers. There are thirteen total nobodies documented, but I’d rather not test my luck on trying to bring out anymore.” I say, the Creeper now questioning who Luna was. “How much pain the person it once was must have been in, yet the body refuses death, as the book stated.” “Yep…” I nod before waving my hand, a small white hole appeared below it before it quickly was consumed by white energy and simply vanished. “They are...special creatures. Having the body and soul of people that were separated from their heart.” Luna sat back down. “I am surprised Twilight hasn’t said anything.” Luna had a smirk. Twilight was way too busy writing down literally everything me and Luna were talking about, her eyes as wide as dinner plates and small white sparkles dancing in them as so much wonder and knowledge was basically being dumped onto her. “I suppose that’s why she hasn’t been talking.” I shrug. “Anyways, can we talk about something that’s less...serious and more ‘get to know each other’? Cause I’d rather not feel like crap and being too paranoid to explain things that are to that level of seriousness.” “Fine.” Luna said. “... So what kind of video games do you like?” “I like all of them besides horror games. Could never stand them.” I shrug. “I prefer challenging games, or mass multiplayer. Somepony gave me a new game yesterday, though I don’t know who.” “That’s all fine and dandy, but what was the game?” I ask curiously. “... It was odd… It was the point of view of a… I’m not sure who the character was, but they were in a dark place filled with monsters, I made it to what looked like a moon lit beach, and a man in black with a blind eye appeared, then it said ‘game over’.” “Did you get any names?” I ask, my curiosity peaking as the thought of the beach in the World of Darkness filled my head. “The blind eyed man called the character, “Test subject one” and he seemed like he could see me. Must have been a horror game cause that did scare me a bit.” My mind rushed through multiple possibilities, but the only thing I could think of was Core’s buddy messing with Luna. “Mind if I take a look at this game after we’re done with our date? Cause it sounds...interesting.” “Sure, I loaded it again, and now the level looked different, it’s paused upstairs.” “Well...that sounds interesting…” I say slowly, still concerned about this situation. “But anyways, what light hearted question next?” “I kinda wanna ask you something personal, that alright?” “Ask away miss ‘I wanna know if my boyfriend likes boobs or butts’.” I joke. “Are you a virgin?” And I tried so hard for my head not to hit the table. But I failed and with a thunk my head collided with the table. “Um...I told Twilight...I never had a girlfriend...and you...took my first...kiss…” I explain nervously, not sure if my voice was muffled or anything. “Oh… then good thing I made it sloppy. That aside, how did you get to Equestria?” I brought my head up and with the most ‘flare’ in my voice I said “Magic.” “Fair enough. So what kind of books do you prefer?” “I am dating a bookworm like myself,” while Twilight said ‘Hey!’ at that comment. “I’m living in a library that happens to be a tree for some coincidental reason, and the best thing to happen in my life happened to involve books, so...I have literally no idea what books I prefer.” I explain. “Then you would have loved the Canterlot Libraries.” Twilight said, finally done with her notes. “I lived there when I studied under Celestia.” “Well I’m gonna need to learn more about the history of this place and a lot more...but question….why the fuck was there a war about cheese?” I frown, still confused on the ‘cheese’ war thing. “... Well… that was… let’s just say cheese was new at the time and it was a delicacy everywhere.” Twilight said, quickly munching her salad. “And here I thought a magical crazy man started throwing cheese at people.” I chuckle, knowing I’m the only one to know the joke but still wanting to say it. “Where is Spike?” Luna asked. I looked around for the little guy but then saw the little drake walk into the room and towards the fridge. “I didn’t hear anything, I still hope you're paying for the electricity princess, and I was hoping you’d soundproof your room.” The drake says, sounding a lot more professional then he should. “Listen, we’ll have some... bro time later alright?” I ask him as the purple dragon rummaged a few snacks for himself. “Thanks, now if you’ll excuse me I have comics to read, snacks to eat, and questions to write down to ask you when we have bro time.” Spike says before closing the fridge door and heading off to his room. “That seemed...a lot easier than I originally thought…” I say with a little half frown. “But I suppose having to make sure this place didn’t blowout the entire town, have a princess suddenly live with you, and having Twilight start dating me is quite a lot to take in….” “Spike is a dragon. Mentally he’s our age, but physically he’s about nine.” Twilight said. ”Keep forgetting that this isn’t entirely like the show.” I think to myself. “Well that sounds nifty...so about Luna’s question on boobs or butts...well I’m the kind of guy that loves a mare for what they really are on the inside, not so much on what’s the outside...but a good looking lady never hurt.” I chuckle. “You can feel my inside tonight~” Luna teased. “We’ll...still need to soundproof our room…” I say sheepishly. “Spells.” Luna deadpanned. “Still.” I deadpan back. “But let’s talk about more than just sex lives...how in the name of hell did you get your hands on all those game consoles? Also do I even want to know how ‘specially made’ your computer is?” “I got into gaming to help adjust me quick to the modern world, and I’ve become an addict. Most of the extra money I get I spend on new games. And my computer can hold enough digital games to replace all my consoles. But I keep it solely for pc gaming, and game mods that look fun.” I look between Twilight, the lovable nerd that I’ve always liked, and Luna, the beautiful princess of the moon that happened to be a game addict, and I just sighed happily. “Ya know….I’m so glad this isn’t a dream...this is literally the greatest dream come true…” I smile. “You want sex dreams?” Luna asked. “So you want me to plow you out of dreams and the in dreams?” I ask. “You can do a lot more in a dream than just with a book of sex spells.” “I can imagine.” I say, feeling like steam was coming out of my head even with my cloak’s hood up. “Well, in any case, thank you for going along with this. You can imagine that being a ‘demon of the night’ before Twilight saved me gave me hundreds of dates before.” “Listen...this is the greatest thing to happen to me since I discovered books.” I say simply. “I just hope...I can be the man you both want and need instead of….thinking I was a waste of time…” “Don’t be like that. They say everything happens for a reason. Someone must be looking out for you if you ended up with us.” “You could say that.” I chuckle. “But...I thank you both...so much for letting me be in this relationship...not everyday you just kill heartless and then suddenly have two beautiful women want to date you.” “Tell that to the fans who sent those nudes.” Twilight said, laughing at the fact. “I didn’t expect them to send nudes okay?” I say quickly. “I mean...gift baskets and the ‘get well soon’ was obvious when I’m a hero but...nudes were the last thing on my mind…” “Well, when you put into accout there’s four to five mares per stallion in every city in Equestria, they had some hopes. That’s why herd relationships are common, and making a comeback with this gender shift over the last two generations.” “Damn.” I say simply, not knowing that four to five mares would date a single stallion. “Um...it wouldn’t be a surprise if more mares joined in...right?” I ask, having a feeling there will be more than just the three of us but not sure when. “Well, traditionally, the mare asks, and the stallion or ‘monarch’ of the herd decides. And informs the others… though I think Luna will be the monarch in this herd, she basically did start it. Though, I am unsure how many mares would even join with us, Luna and I kinda tend to scare ponies who know us by reputation.” “I’m sorry but right now I see two adorkable women who are either very into books or practically obsessed with video games...not sure how people can’t immediately see that.” I chuckle. “Titles.” Luna said plainly. “I am a princess, Twilight is the prized student of my sister. They place us on pedestals and they end up feeling inferior and… small, so they tend to fear us and respect us without even knowing us.” “And given that I’m now probably considered a national hero where I killed all but two things...that might add to the problem.” I shrug. “But anyways, I know about your sister, but what about relatives? Any relatives that I need to worry about?” I ask, hoping I won’t have a sibling or parent trying to fight me. “Well, no one on my side really, but I imagine Twilight’s brother will be cross.” “He might.” Twilight sighed. “We were so close as foals, he’s always looked out for me. Mom and dad will be happy, they never thought I’d get into dating, and Cadence… I’d rather not think about that.” I immediately thought of why Twilight wouldn’t want to know what Cadence thought but shrugged. “Oh well. At least I know I may have to deal with one person….probably gonna have to ‘prove my worth’ to Shining cause reasons and...a boatload of fun for a while. “Oh, it’s not that Cadence won’t be thrilled… she just might be too thrilled.” “That depends on your definition of ‘thrilled’.” I frown. “Cause if Luna is a good example…’thrilled’ can mean a few other things.” “Well… it’s still legal for royalty in the Crystal Empire to give Mares in Waiting as wife gifts to a newly married couple… and she kinda liked that idea… mainly because the Mares in Waiting are similar minded as her.” “Oh boy, can’t wait to have mares in maid outfits trying to gain my attention…” I say, which then immediately made me think of Twilight and Luna in said outfits. “Oh dear…” I mutter to myself, feeling my face heat up at the sight. “Well, dinner seems to be done.” Luna says as I look at our plates. They were all empty. “To the bedroom so we may try out that game, then head off to bed.” After putting the dishes away and me learning a tad more about the tree library we all went to our shared room...and good lordy was the room both big and jam packed with stuff. “Wow…” I say simply, seeing the place filled with gaming consoles, the big tv, the computer and all that stuff and a few more things. “So...where did you put the character at?” I ask, hoping to get some bearings in the game instead of just rushing head long into the unknown even for a video game. “The PC.” Luna says, taking a seat in the roller chair and taking the PC out of standby. “When I reloaded it, it said I was in some place, called, The Lab and-” When the PC turned on, the pause menu showed a man in a gashed face mask wearing purple robes… Core. “This isn’t where I left it?” Luna clicked continue, and Core waved his hand, and Twilight and Luna fell asleep. “Finally, that took forever.” “Well I’m sorry that I wanted to spend some quality time with people.” I frown. “So...how the hell did you put them to sleep, how the hell are you breaking the fourth wall of a video game, and how the hell did you program it this well?” I ask, having a good feeling the bastard could hear me through the game. “Somehow one of our latest test subjects managed to send an sos in for form of a disc, it contained some data, and she somehow managed to link a live feed from her perception to the disk. She must have encoded Heartless into the data for that to happen. Though, it helped us in catching her. Since Luna loaded it up as a game, she was in control of the test subject. “I am impressed with the advances in Subject 1c, that was advanced stuff. Still, it lead to her recapture in the end.” I took a seat on the computer chair and looked at the screen. “That is quite something.” I shrug. “But...why would one of your test subjects want to run and hide?” “Not all are willing brainiac. Majority are ones I took before their world was consumed.” “Makes sense, I doubt a lot of people would want to work for you willingly cause…’Destroyer of Worlds’ right here.” “Oh, now that’s a name I haven’t been called in a long time. So the fact you know that name means you also know God is my brother?” “Pretty obvious when you think ‘God is the Creator, wouldn’t there also be a Destroyer? And if so wouldn’t they be brothers?’.” I explain. “But quick question...why was I bored when seeing my world fall?” I ask curiously, still a little confused on why it was boring. “Funny, I had no part in my brothers imagination. That was all him, as for you… I took a sample of your heart when we last met. Your heart is full of self doubt, depression, and the best of all, it’s half dead.” “Ah, so that’s why I was bored.” I shrug. “But oh well, can’t be a winner all the time.” I say. “But that sounds worrying...half a heart isn’t really good when the heart is...quite important to a lot of things.” “I’ll only say this once, a heart is the source of all your emotions. Looks like half were left to die when you were on earth.” “If this is some Birth by Sleep shit I’m gonna be a tad pissed.” I frown. “Birth by Sleep? … Oh, those games.” “Yeah, those games that are apparently real cause Multi-verse theory.” I shrug. “It’s a lot simpler than that dear zombie, fact is, your world, and all it’s parallels and such, were nothing more than figments of my brothers imagination, given and sustained life within his mind.” “I’m sorry but Morpheus want’s his speeches back.” I say sarcastically. “Next time you meet him, ask, it’s the truth. The reality you exist in now is your True Reality. Then again, what does Reality even mean when you look at it like that?” “You make your reality, your choices help shape it, and those that you actually give a damn about help you shape it whenever you stutter in life.” I say. “Or we could believe that everything is Nothing and leave it at that.” “Smart, has a mouth, and a heart that wants to be fully alive again. You’ve surprised me.” “I feel like that’s the greatest achievement to surprise a god.” I say simply. Core laughed. “Please, god is just a name. I will let you know that, now that you’ve gained my full interest, expect a few foes coming your way.” “Where would the fun be if I wasn’t being attacked by bad guys?” I ask. “Now even though I’d like to live a happy quiet life for once I think others wouldn’t want that, whether it be you or someone else.” “True.” Core looked off screen. “Yellow, test this guy for me, and take Subject UV-C20 with you.” “Understood.” A feminine voice spoke from off screen. “Shit…” I frown. “So...anywhere specific I need to go to start fighting?” “Not right away. We’re evil, not irrational. Five days of peace and free time, then Yellow and C20 will test you.” “Well at least I won’t die a virgin.” I chuckle. “But thank you for the five days.” “Relax, if I sent them to kill you, I would have ordered it. I suggest you prepare well, C20 is one of our stronger fighters, and frankly, he’s been wanting a brawl.” The PC turned off, the CD drive ejecting the Disk, and it faded into darkness. “Welp...this isn’t going to be fun.” I sigh out before turning the swivel chair around and getting up, trying to wake up the two sleeping mares. “Hmmm.” Luna groaned. “When did I fall asleep. Were we going to bed?” “Yes, we were going to bed and there would probably be some plowing involved…” I say honestly. “Oh, why the change of mind?” “If you two are gonna go at it, I’ll bunk with Spike tonight. I’m not ready for sex yet.” Twilight says as she exits the room. “I think that would be for the best.” I say honestly. “But why the sudden change? Well...I suppose I just want to be with one of the most beautiful mares ever.” I say, hiding the fact that I only have five days of peace and training before a fight starts. “Well then, last one to strip down naked is on bottom.” Luna says with a giddy smile. To be continued... Nobody's daysDay One As I woke up from sunlight shining in my eyes I grumbled bitterly. “Go away sun...no one likes you…” I mumble before cuddling up to something nice, warm, fuzzy and soft...before realizing what I did last night. “Did you sleep well?” Luna asked as my vision started to clear… to put it short, I was buried under her chest. “Mmm-hmm.” I hum, holding Luna close to me as steamy memories of our late night rushed to the forefront of my mind. ”I am the luckiest man ever.” I think to myself happily. “I told you spells would be fun.” She chimed. I moved my head out of her breasts as I got a bit of fresh air. “Um...quick question...did you use a...protection spell?” I ask worriedly, not wanting Luna to get pregnant after just a single time. “Relax, alicorn reproduction is more of a… force of will, type of deal.” “Oh thank god.” I sigh happily, glad about that little tidbit. “So...want to see if breakfast is made?” I ask, having a feeling Spike made breakfast. “Sure, just… help me find my pants… I forgot where I threw those.” After taking a well needed shower, cause I didn’t want to move around smelling like sex, and getting dressed me and Luna headed down to the kitchen, hoping breakfast is being made. “So...what you going to do today Luna?” I ask curiously, knowing what I’m going to be doing for the next five days whether the mares I care about like it or not. “I was thinking later today we can go after Starswirl’s Keyblade.” She replied nonchalantly. “Sounds like a plan I suppose.” I say before the scent of pancakes wafted into our noses. “Oh my god I haven’t had pancakes in a long time.” I say with a giant smile, this time it being visible to Luna because of my hood being down and not hiding my face. “A smile, you must be in a good mood.” She said as we went down, seeing Twilight and Spike at the table with a large plate of pancakes and bowls of oatmeal. “Well I’m sorry that I’m happy for pancakes.” I chuckle, walking towards the table. “Morning.” “Morning.” Spike nods while eating his breakfast. “You’re lucky I soundproof spelled the bedroom before I left you two… cause I could still hear it…” Twilight grumbled. “What spells did you use?” “S-sorry…” I say nervously, sitting down and starting to eat my plate of pancakes. “I didn’t think Luna was that loud…” I mutter. “Well, to be fair, your head was often between my boobs.” She said as she took a bite of oatmeal. “Pretty muffled I guess.” “I am so glad I’m mentally your age…” Spike mutters, knowing that if he was a normal nine year old he would have thought this was icky and rush out the room. “Sorry Spike…” I say sheepishly. “Please Spike,” Twilight says. “You brag about sex every time you and Rainbow get together… then she comes here and does the same thing…” “Damn.” I say, slightly surprised him and Rainbow were going at it. ”Didn’t think that would have happened, thought he would still be ramming his head into a wall because of Rarity.” I think to myself. “Well...shut up…” Spike says simply, blushing a little at having Twilight say this in front of both her new boyfriend and girlfriend. “I take it greed-growth is a factor for the height factor?” Luna asks. “Well...he is a dragon…” I trail off while Spike blushes. “Shush! I want to eat breakfast.” Spike says before continuing to eat his breakfast. “That is true, I’d like to eat without thinking of...other things…” I trail off, blushing a bit before eating more of my pancakes. “Well, in that case, would you like to know more about Starswirl’s Keyblade?” Luna asks me. “Yes I would.” I nod. “And wherever his tomb is, because if it’s in the middle of a magical volcano I’m gonna be a little pissed.” “It’s nowhere like that. He said it was called, Mana Drive. It gave him the extra mana that made him such a grand spellcaster. It’s with him in his tomb, located in the castle ruins in the everfree.” “Sounds about right.” I shrug. “But this Everfree, I doubt it’s as friendly as the name suggests?” I ask. “Those Heartless seems to crawl there all the time.” Twilight says. “Fluttershy has seen them wander near her home often.” “That doesn’t sound fun.” I sigh out. “But is there someone there?” “Zecora… she disappeared…” Twilight says sadly. “Well…” I frown, before taking a deep breath. “Sounds like I’m going to have to do a solo mission then. No way in hell-” “I am the only one who can touch Mana Drive.” Luna cut in. “Starswirl locked it to my heart before he died.” “Christ…” I groan, rubbing my temples gently. “Well this is gonna be fun...well I suppose I’ll learn the ways through a good training ground.” “Plus, it is a good thing you came here Ben. The lock on Starswirl’s tomb was sealed by his fellow wielder’s Keyblade.” “Well you’re welcome for being convenient.” I say sarcastically. “But to be honest, you're welcome. Means a lot to help the one I love.” “Sweet. So, when shall we head out?” “Once we’re done eating.” I say, continuing to enjoying the wonderful food that was pancakes. After a good breakfast me and Luna took off towards the Everfree, and no matter how many times Twilight tried to argue about how she wanted to see the tomb of her number one idle I rejected it because it’s too dangerous, she doesn’t want to see a long rotted corpse, and that it’s way too fucking dangerous. “So...how deep is this castle?” “The old pathway is grown over, but as long as we follow it, we’ll be there in a few minutes.” She says, using a sword like a machete to hack branches away. I nodded, raising a hand up and trying to summon a weapon just to be safe. What I got this time was Lexaeus’s ‘Axe-sword’. Now how in the world this giant great sword was an Axe as was is still beyond me but I slung it up to my shoulder as we continued onward. The bushes rustled. Luna and I got into battle stances. What came out… was morbid. It was a person, but the head was half of a Soldier Heartless helmet. “Run!” It screamed as it took off. “That’s...really concerning…” I say worriedly, wondering why half of a Soldier Heartless told us to run. Luna ran after it. “What is wrong?” She yelled as she chased after it. “Ah god damn it…” I groan before running swiftly towards Luna. “Luna stop! This might be a trap!” I shout to Luna. When I caught up, the Half Heartless, half person was in fetal position, Luna trying to calm it down. “Hush, what has you so scared?” She asked as she pet it. “This…this shouldn’t be possible…” I mutter, seeing the poor person in this position. “How…?” He looked at me. “You, y-you’re the new one, the, the one the monster took interest. You, you have the key, please kill me!” It yelled as he ran up to me and groveled. “Please, I, I can’t get captured again!” As the half heartless wished my weapon quickly vanished before I summoned Roxas’s Keyblade and stabbed the thing through the chest. “I’m sorry…” “Thank you…” It said as it vanished, the heart floating away free. “Ben!” Luna shouted. “He, how could you?” “That...that was a test subject.” I say sadly. “The poor thing was forced to become half a Heartless...I have literally no idea how that’s possible but...I gave the poor person peace...for however long.” Luna sighed. “I… Who could have done that?” “The only one that could possibly know…” I say. “Core, and whatever scientists sick enough to follow through with that kind of experiments.” “Rude.” We turned around. A man with blond hair, green eyes, and wearing a lab coat stood there. “I was retrieving subject E5, and now all that research is gone to waste.” “I’m sorry but I think it’s fine to destroy research that turns living beings into Heartless.” I frown. “There’s a fine line with knowledge, the things we should know, and things we should never know, and what you did is, at least in my opinion, something we shouldn’t know.” He huffed. “Ignorant child.” He lifted up a finger. “Dark gas.” He said, as a black mist surrounded Luna and I… it was hard to breath. We both ran as fast as possible away. “Bastard lied to me…” I growl. “I never lied.” I looked to my side, Core was leaning against a tree. “Of for christ sakes…” I groan. “Howdy.” “Sorry about Grand, he hates stupidity.” “Gee, I never knew.” I say sarcastically. “Anyways, how the fuck was that possible? The half Heartless thing?” “E5? That was just increasing the darkness in their heart, making it do physical change rather than mental.” I wanted to point something out but decided against it. “Well that’s nifty to know. But how was saying ‘there’s certain things people should never know’ a stupid thing? Seem’s pretty sound to me.” “Grand want’s to learn everything. He took that as an insult. Also, relax about the Gas, it’s just a hallucinogen. I’m using it to talk to you, and Luna is currently having a nightmare that’s leading her to a cliff side, chow.” He, and the forest went dark. When I woke up, I was where we were ran into the test subject and scientist. “Oh shit oh shit oh shit!” I say to myself quickly, rushing off to find wherever Luna ran off to, hoping to find her quickly. “LUNA! Luna where are you!?” I call out, hoping Luna would wake up before falling off a cliff. I finally found her, above the cliff leading towards the down area of the castle. She was close to the edge. “LUNA!” I shout, and in an act of blind desperation I summoned Xaldin’s spears and vanished suddenly, appearing near the lunar alicorn and grabbing her before she fell off the cliff. “Luna, wake up please wake up…” I plead. She twitched. “Huh?” She opened her eyes and looked at me. “... I had the weirdest nightmare.” The spears around me vanished as I pulled Luna into a hug as I shook in fear from almost seeing her fall off a cliff. “It’s...it’s alright Luna...you’re alright…” I cry, trying to stop my tears from falling. “Me, you’re the one who’s crying! What happened?” “That mist...it put us asleep. I talked with someone and you….you…” I stutter, only hugging her more. She looked up, and saw the cliff side. “I almost fell off? I haven’t done that since I was two hundred.” “That’s n-not funny…” I stutter. “No, I’m serious. Alicorns are… VERY hard to kill. Personally I’ve fallen off this same cliff four times in my childhood, been hit by more cannon fire than I care to recall, and once was set on fire. It would take another alicorn to kill me.” I was shocked at hearing how much stuff hurt her but didn’t seem to bother her that much. “I’m sorry but...when you get your new Keyblade...those are the least of your worries…” I say, taking a deep breath and trying to calm myself down. She hugged me. “Relax, Starswirl taught me all kinds of spells and abilities I can use with it. I’m no fragile flower.” “You’re still my flower…” I state. “Now that was just cheesy. Well, we’re here now, the tomb is actually down this cliff… Wanna see something cool?” “Anything that doesn’t involve you getting hurt would be cool right about now.” I say with a smile. Luna carried me like how prince charming carries the princess. “I won’t, but you’ll scream like a girl.” She ran, and jumped off the cliff. Still holding me in this emasculating way. I didn’t scream but only pouted. “I am a man damn it, I don’t need to be held like this…” I whine, summoning roxas’s keyblade again just in case of emergency glider. There was a loud thud. When I looked up, we were at the bottom of the cliff, and Luna was still standing, smiling. “Best landing yet.” “Good for you.” I say before kissing her cheek. “I can see why knights hold princesses like this~” She teased, making me struggle until she let me go. “Baby.” “Whatever.” I say while standing on the ground and dusting my coat off. “Anyways, where to next?” Luna pointed behind her, where a large, steel door stood. “There. That door was locked by a Keyblade, so this will be your job.” “Alright.” I say while walking up to the door, lifting up my Keyblade and pointing it at the door, the key point starting to glow and shooting a small beam of energy towards the door. After a moment a sudden k-thunk was heard as if something was being unlocked. The doors opened by themselves. Luna walked in, and I followed. There, in the center of a large room, was a stone coffin, with a Keyblade resting on top. It’s handle was four daggers, two on each side crossed, the blade was as long as me, and looked like Luna’s hair, and the tip of the blade held a crescent moon, wearing a blue hat with stars on it. They Keychain was the same as the tip. “It’s been years since I last saw it.” Luna said, slowly picking up the Keyblade. “Sometimes Keyblades are just as obvious as their owner.” I deadpan. “He did say they chose their wielders.” She retorted, giving the Keyblade a few good swings. “So… wanna have a match?” * * * Day Two After a thankful night worth of sleep after too much practice with our sparring, I slid out of bed and stretched my limbs, feeling them crack as I gave a satisfying sigh. ”Four more days…” I think to myself, hoping to get stronger before my dead lines up. “Mummm” Twilight said, slowly waking up. “Morning already?” She asked. I got a cheeky grin before leaning down and kissing Twilight on the lips as a sort of ‘wakey wakey’ thing. “Well it’s better than my alarm clock.” She joked. “Way better.” I smile. “Now come on, time to wake up. Even though I hate mornings I’ve got more shit to do then I normally want.” “Twilight!” Spike yelled from outside the door. “Rarity is here… she wants to see Ben.” Twilight’s eyes shrank. “Oh no!” She squealed. “Wait...we forgot about Pinkie’s party…” I say worriedly. “Um...maybe she just needed some extra time for that...right?” I ask, knowing that Pinkie was a monster when it came to preparing parties. “But why is Rarity here?” Twilight sighed. “She’s been trying to match me up with someone for as long as I’ve lived in Ponyville. Now that she knows about… this… She’ll want to know EVERYTHING.” “Well I have enough charm to make sure she stops bothering us.” I say with a smile. “Tell that to Luna.” Twilight deadpanned, to which I noticed Luna wasn’t here. “Where’s Luna?” I ask worriedly. “She woke up early… so likely she’s downstairs… talking with Rarity about everything.” My face immediately turned a shade of red I thought impossible before a dust cloud in the shape of me was left before I looked to where Luna and Rarity might be. “Five hours!?” I heard Rarity shout… too late... “Fuck.” I sadly say out loud, probably loud enough to have Rarity and Luna hear me. “That sounds like Mr. Endurance.” I heard Luna say, to which I awkwardly walk down the stairs. “Yup, finally awake.” “No one needs to hear how long I can last Luna.” I say with a frown. “Not to miss pompous over here.” I say, pointing at Rarity who, in fact, still looked like a pompous unicorn even if she was friendly. “What? I was just telling her how long out match yesterday lasted after you helped me retrieve the Sword.” Luna said, having a devious smile. “Oh for the love of…” I groan, taking a deep breath before leaning towards Luna. “And which ‘sword’ are we talking about here? Cause I’m getting mixed messages here…” I whisper. Luna pointed eyes at Rarity, to which I suddenly got the message. “Oh…” I mutter before turning to Rarity. “So how can I help you today?” I ask the white unicorn mare. Rarity was suddenly in front of me, looking me over. “Hmmm.” She squeezed one of my arms. She then took my height, and basically examined me. “Not built like a warrior, but Luna’s word and you actions over the news prove otherwise. An underdog! Oh how exciting!” She declared. “Go fuck yourself.” I frown. “That is the last thing I wanted to hear this morning, I’m sorry that I’m not ‘up to standards’ as you want me to be.” “Rude, temperamental, ill mannered, four mouthed… kinda reminds me of a book character I once read… Well, sorry if I offended you White Ni- …er, Ben. After hearing and seeing what you’ve done, I just wanted to see how you were built.” I take a breath and rub my head. “Listen...I’m sorry if I was rude...it’s just that...women where I come from made me feel like crap at every turn because ‘oh hey I’m popular, I can do whatever the hell I want cause I can get laid like a stupid whore’.” I say in a kind of decent impression of a ‘popular girl’. “And the look and sizing me up just to see how ‘built’ I was...brought back bad memories.” I sigh out, rubbing my arm sadly as I looked down. “Well, I may be a lady, I am not a, to be frank, bitch. Besides, Twilight is dating you, and Luna here has fallen head over heels for you, so you must have a kind heart under that rough exterior.” She suddenly leaned in uncomfortably close… so much to the point her chest was touching mine. “Luna has made an offer… but I will leave that to you to give me a chance, please take your time.” She sat back down on the couch… letting me breath again… they’re as big as Luna’s. I blushed brightly, feeling steam pillow out of my head at hearing that. “I’m...I’m sorry...but I try and want to be kind…” I say nervously, thinking about the possibility of having a third mare in my new herd. “Oh dear...three mares? That’s...quite something.” I say sheepishly. “B-but how are you doing today?” I ask Rarity, hoping to start a conversation that didn’t involve me being upset or involve thoughts about dating another sexy mare. “Like I said darling, take you time to think. As for my day, it’s been rather calm as compared to… recently.” She said solemnly. “It’s only going to get more lively from here on out that’s for sure.” I say, hoping the fight four days later won’t hurt anyone. “Rarity was telling me about her sister Sweetie Bell, and if I could help with her nightmares.” Luna said. “That sounds fine enough.” I say, not wanting to gamble on if I could enter dreams like Riku could. “It’s been happening ever since those monsters appeared. She’s such an innocent little filly, I hate to see her scared.” Rarity said, looking at her coffee cup. “That...doesn’t sound good.” I say worriedly. “It’s pretty odd as well, she’s dreaming she’s on an island… and then, this man in a black coat is there, leaving someone on an oddly shaped tree, then, she says everything goes hectic, a big ball of darkness in the sky, a giant monster with a hole in it’s chest, then a boy fighting it. It ends there usually.” My eyes were wide as I heard everything. “Oh no...oh no…” I mutter. “Well looks like I’m gonna be helping Luna here…” “I already checked last night Ben.” Luna states. “They are… memories, in dream form. Though, I know they aren’t Sweetie’s. I tried all I could, but they were just memories.” “In any case, I should be off.” Rarity said, getting up. “Sweetie has been clingy lately and I’m worried she won’t do well if I don’t check on her at school.” Rarity left, and Luna gave me a serious look. “Luna...you have no idea what Sweetie’s dreaming about...but I do.” I say. “How Sweetie is dreaming about that I could not say…” “I could tell, so what is it?” “I...can’t say.” I say simply, keeping that little bit of info to myself. “But all I can say is that she shouldn’t be having those memories...they belong to someone else.” “I know that much. I believe it’s someone… off world, calling for help. That’s how Starswirl met Eraqus in the first place.” ”Why the hell would Sora be calling for help? Especially at that point in his life?” I think to myself worriedly, so confused by this. “Well I’m still going to help, cause that giant Heartless is called a ‘Darkside’...and I really don’t want you to get hurt while fighting it.” “Again, you saw what I did yesterday. I beat you about four out of six rounds in our match. Plus, I have hundreds of years worth of combat experience above you. I’ll be fine, I'm just worried about Sweetie.” “I’m still tagging along whether you like it or not.” I frown. “But you just got lucky I don’t know half of my powers.” “Of course.” She sips her coffee. “I imagine only you know this world in question anyway.” “Her memories are of an offworld...called Destiny Island.” I say simply. “Before that event happens it’s actually quite a lovely place.” “Well then, I always wanted to try this.” She summoned Mana Drive, and tossed it into the air. The glider that came out was Like Aqua’s, but with Luna’s colors. “That was always cool when Starswirl did it.” “Well alright.” I nod before checking the room before summoning Roxas’s keyblade and tossing it up before summoning Terra’s bike, but this time looking more silver and gold instead of white and black. I hopped onto the bike and got ready. We made it to Destiny Island, where everything seemed fine. The kids weren’t on the island, but nothing was like in Sweeties dream. “This is the same place as in her dream.” Luna said as we landed. “But… nothing seems wrong.” I flew up to the area where Sora, Kairi and Riku always sat at during the sunset and searched the area, wondering what sort of thing I could find. “Is it before or after…” I mutter, not entirely sure if this is before the first game, or after it. “Something doesn’t feel right…” “Huh? Hey there!” I looked at the source of the voice, exiting the door from the other side of the island… was Micky. “What’s going on?” He asked as he ran over to me. ”The fuck?” I think to myself in confusion, wondering why the hell Mickey is here. “Oh, hello. I’m sorry I was just...looking around.” I say before hopping off of my bike and the thing vanishing. “You’re from another world.” He says. “Can you help me find some people?” He asks as Luna walks up. “Who are they?” She asks. “Terra, Ventus, and Aqua. It’s been almost a year and I haven’t seen or heard from any of them.” “Um…” I say, thinking about if I should help or not. “Well...sounds like those three are probably in a very...special situation.” I say, having a feeling that just from what Mickey said it’s passed Birth By Sleep. “Yeah, that’s why I gotta find them. All I have to go on are the last known worlds they went to… and I didn’t find anything here.” “Well...here’s a hint.” I say before taking a deep breath. “Black Water, Silver Earth, and Sleeping Wind.” I say. Mickey looked at me confused. “You can have future premonitions?” “You could say that.” I shrug. “Well… it’s really vague, maybe I should tell Master Yen Sid about this? Well, thanks anyway.” He pulled out his Starshard, and was zapped off world. “So… how much was crap?” Luna asks. “None of it actually.” I say honestly. “I don’t buy the ‘see future’ bit.” “Okay the ‘see future’ part was crap but what I said was fact. All you need to do is be wise enough to understand it.” I explain to Luna. “But I’m sure with the help of Yen Sid he’ll find a way to meet his friends again.” “Well, alright. Still, nothing is off about this world. What is sending Sweetie Bell those memories?” “Now that could be a premonition.” I say honestly. “But I don’t know.” Thud We both looked at the doorway that leads up to this semi-separate island. There was… Sweetie Bell, but gears and cogs were sticking out of all her body. “Finally.” She said, walking over to us. “Took your time.” “And why in the name of hell are you here and have gears and cogs sticking out of your body?” I frown. “Sweetie, what happened to you?!” Luna said, scarred. “I’m not… I’m not your Sweetie Bell. I’m one of the escaped test subjects Core had… TS-1, they called me.” “No wonder why she was having nightmares…” I mutter to myself. “So you’re one of the escapees?” “Yeah, been free for about a year, and finally I feel an energy of something other than Core, so I sent memories to myself in this reflection at the start date Core was able to send Heartless to this reflections Equestria. Guess it worked after all.” “Refle-” I mutter before face palming. “Of course it’s that kind of multiverse theory…” I groan. “Yes, my reflection-verse was completely destroyed.” “I’m sorry to hear that…” I sigh out. “But...maybe we could protect you from Core...if at all.” She smirked. “Please, Core made me to be a… replica of a special type of Keyblade.” “Which?” I ask. “It has no name, but the wielder gains a partial control over time, able to create events paradox free for as long as they put energy into it. I was a failure. I could only send memories, and such, back in time, not people.” “That cheating son of a bitch.” I huff, knowing full well what Keyblade she was supposed to replicate. “I can still shift, but other than that, I do need a place to protect. My home, and everything that existed with it is gone. If you let me come with you, I’ll be your second Keyblade.” “Welcome to the team.” I say simply. “Cause I’m gonna need all the help I could get because...Core happened to take interest in my world.” “And I know why. It’s heart is innocent, as such, anything innocent put into darkness becomes something… Demonic.” She walked over to Luna. “As a failed Keyblade, I still should chose my wielder, and I chose her.” “Well that’s just all kinds of nifty.” I say simply. “Just more and more things popping up out of the wazoo just to greet me in more confusing ways.” Sweetie chuckled. “Since when did that game even make sense.” She says, shifting into a near replica of young Xehanort’s Keyblade, only with Gears and Cogs sticking out of it, and moving. Luna held Sweetie, looking at her… it… with worry. “It all goes back to this… Core, doesn’t it?” She said. “Core is a Destroyer, and he is commanding people that love to destroy, so most likely yes.” I shrug. “But anyways we better head back, better give Sweetie her new present and...maybe have a party afterwards cause this is some heavy stuff.” “I wonder who else Core has done this to?” Luna says, looking out into the ocean. “He’s doing it to a lot of people...and all those people are unwilling...that scientist made that one poor person into what he was before I...killed him.” * * * Day Three ”Three more days…” I think to myself. ”Well at least I’m getting better with my powers…” I think, remembering me and Luna having another practice fight and this time I could summon a whole three Creepers! It wasn’t much but it was rather irritating to hear them all chant ‘where’s my heart’ for at least five minutes. But that’s not the only good news, Sweetie Belle got to meet her new Keyblade self, and let’s says that situation was...really something. Sweetie Bell, er, the Keyblade one, who wanted to go by Time Bell, to reduce confusion, stood across from her parallel, who was sitting at our kitchen table. “So… you’re me?” Sweetie asked. “Yes and no.” Time Bell replied. “It’s...rather confusing to explain.” I say sheepishly. “Why are we even here, I thought I made it clear I chose Luna?” “Because I thought it would be nice to show you to...well yourself given that you caused her nightmares.” I frown. She glared at me. “You have no idea how much this hurts me, seeing the people I saw die back in my world, walking around, alive, but it’s not them.” “Whether that’s true or not, you can see what you’re trying to defend now. The innocent that have no idea what horror’s you’ve been through.” “And you drag a twelve year old girl into battle?” “No, I’m going to ask her.” I say simply. “There is no way in hell I’m dragging a child through my troubles.” I say before turning to Sweetie Belle. “So...Sweetie, any questions about this...entire weird situation?” She looked at me, giving me what seemed to be her most straight face. “Are you gonna date my sister?” I looked at Sweetie for a moment, trying my hardest not to laugh. “So when you have...yourself staring at you, hearing the both of us talk about very serious stuff...you ask if I’m going to date your sister…” I take a breath. “Makes sense, but it’s only been a day since she asked.” “That’s how long her relationships usually last.” Sweetie deadpans, making Time Bell laugh. “Either the people she dates are complete assholes, she tries to date people and then immediately throws them under the bridge, or is just mean.” I frown, hearing that and making me feel like Rarity is now just a bitch. “But she told me to think about it...and when you’ve never had a girlfriend before then suddenly having two then another girl asks to be your girlfriend...it’s quite a lot…” “Well, she really is nice, she just dates, or rather, chooses poorly who she dates.” “Cause you know, all women that act ‘high and mighty’ can be nice but always choose wrong people at every damn corner.” I groan, face palming. “Jeez, it’s like highschool all over again…” “In any case.” Time Bell cut in. “What could she even do? I don’t get why Core was interested in the majority of reflections like her and I.” “Pure of heart I suppose.” I shrug. “Innocent children trying to find there way in the world, not having a single care in the world about the bad parts of life and just...lives life.” I explain. “Wait… pure of heart…” Time bell walked over to Sweetie Bell, staring her dead in the eyes. “No darkness… nothing… So that’s why he had thousands of reflection Sweetie Bells.” “That’s...morbid.” I frown. “What did you expect from the king of Heartless?” She snapped. “Milk and cookies?” I ask sarcastically. “No need for arguments right now.” “Coming from the guy who hates everyone.” “Either way.” I say with a dismissive wave of my hand at that line of thought. “But Sweetie...I know this entire conversation is probably going way above your head at this point but…” I sigh out. “Do you want to have the strength to protect those you care about?” I ask. “Well, if it means helping people that have been hurt, then yeah. I might not get everything at the moment, but I’ll learn. Plus, Time Bell looks like she could be my twin.” She replied, showing an innocent smile. “Time? Do you think you can be with Sweetie?” I ask honestly. “I know you picked Luna but she was already chosen by a Keyblade.” “I suppose,” she replied. “Mana Drive didn’t like me all that much.” “Thank you.” I smile. “But looks like Luna’s gonna have another trainee.” “Besides you?” Time remarked. “From the visions I saw, she straight up kicked your ass in that match.” “Again, she’s lucky I barely know my powers.” I say simply. “But oh well, we’re going to train and train and get stronger...and Sweetie...I’m probably going to agree with your sister it’s just...still worried is all.” I say nervously. Sweetie squeed… (heart attack!) “That would be so great!” “Can you not hurt my heart with cuteness?” I ask, holding my chest playfully as such a cute scene. “But alright...I just hope your sister doesn’t have too many standards.” I sigh out. “Just that they’re nice to her, and her loved ones… you can guess where they tend to fail at…” “Yes, I fully understand.” I nod, knowing full well that Rarity’s breasts can cause bad things to happen. “Well, should I at least learn how to fight now or what? Schools’ canceled today anyway, Applebloom is busy with chores, and Scootaloo is practicing flying with Rainbow.” “Sure, but we’re gonna need to go to somewhere open and not surrounded by buildings and people.” I say. “... well, I think the fields just out of town could do. Open, flat land, and nothing but one tree for about two miles.” “Sounds perfect.” I nod. “Now let’s get going and help teach you how to fight.” When we made it to the fields, Luna and I gave Sweetie the basics of sword fighting. Luna even taught her a few basic spells. Now that she understood generally what to do, she stood across from me, in a battle stance. “Hope I do alright.” She said. “Don’t worry Sweetie.” I say before bringing a hand up and a blue and white Claymore appeared in it. “You’re going to do fine.” I smile, readying myself for a fight. Sweetie was the first to attack, she landed a fair blow, but the Claymore took most of the impact. Guess blocking isn’t like in the game? I swung, hitting her and she flew a few feet… before back flipping midair and landing on her feet. “Wait… how?” She questioned, realizing what she just did. “That is a little ‘ability’ warriors learn, called ‘Aerial Recovery’. Helps make sure you are ready for another swing instead of landing on your back and open.” I explain before dashing forward and swinging my Claymore at Sweetie. She blocked with the protect spell Luna taught her, and it nearly knocked my Claymore out of my hand. She used to opportunity to land a swing at me… which sent me flying across the ground. “Ohmygosh! Are you alright?!” I got up before disbanding the Claymore, bringing out my two Gun Arrows. “No need to worry Sweetie, I’m still up for fighting.” I say with a smile, pointing one of my guns at Sweetie. “Hope you like arrows being shot at ya.” I say before shooting a single bolt towards Sweetie, aiming towards her left arm and hoping it wouldn’t hurt her too much. She blocked to my relief… oh crap they do bounce back! I barely dodged my own shot. ‘Wha?” She said… sounding like someone was talking to her. “Ummm alright?” She lifted Time Bell up to the air. “Light Volley.” She was floating in the air as light projectiles shot out her Keyblade’s tip. “Crap!” I shout before disbanding my gun arrows quickly. “Guard!” I shout before thrusting my hand out, a giant checkerboard shield appeared in front of me, the thing crackling with energy as it blocked the projectiles towards me. Sweetie dropped to the ground, and Time Bell reverted back into her… I’ll call it her human form for now. “Glad that worked.” She said. The energy shield disappeared before I started clapping. “That was great Sweetie.” I say with a smile. “What do you think Luna?” “Was impressive. I’ve never seen a move like that.” She replied. “They’re called Shotlocks.” Time replied. “Usually it’s called Dark Volley, but only those with large amounts of darkness in their hearts can use it… I modified it. Since Sweetie Bell’s heart is pure light, than those projectiles would have hit… match over.” “Makes sense.” I nod, knowing full well what Shotlocks were. “But because I can guard like that I suppose it didn’t go as planned.” “It’s not impossible to guard against them, but it’s difficult. Your best chance to guard against one it to do it right when it activates. Well, anyway, that was fun. You should go home Sweetie, I wanna tell Luna and Ben some things.” Sweetie noded. “Okay.” She ran off back towards town. “Glad to see she’s coming along.” I say with a little smile. “But Time...what do you need?” “To tell you some things about Core… and his only known weakness.” “Well good to know he has a weakness.” I say thankfully, glad to know he actually has something weak about him. “He talks about this… thing, from another Equestria, another reflection, called The Crystal Heart. It was made by some master there long before the Empire was there, when activated with a Keyblade, it turns on fully, and he, and his Heartless, can’t set foot on the world.” ”The Crystal Heart huh…” I think to myself. “That’s quite a weakness, but I bet it’s only in that specific place right?” “I’m note sure. Frankly, I don’t know what it is, but if the reflections are close enough, then it could be the same here. The heart in that world, it acts like a light amplifier, spreading its protection around the entire world. Though, it’s just a hunch.” “That sounds like quite a Keyhole…” I say simply. “It’s not a Keyhole. In that world, the heart was made by someone called, the Master of Masters. No idea who that is, but Core seems to know him.” “Well with a name like that…” I say, thinking to myself about this ‘Master of Masters’. “Um...why do I have a feeling he’s...like the grand master of keyblades?” I ask with a frown, not knowing much about this Master but having a good feeling that if he is somehow involved with Keyblades then he must be the greatest. “I don’t know, but Core hates him. Enough about that though, there’s something Core is after, the X-blade.” My eyes widen at hearing that name. “I-I thought…” I stutter, my mind rushing through what I know about Kingdom Hearts. “I thought...it was shattered?” I ask worriedly. “Another has been forged from what I gathered while I was there. Someone from… wherever you’re from wields it now, and Core wants this person to fight to the death before he claims it.” “That’s not good. That is not good at all.” I say worriedly. “Let’s hope I can find him before something bad happens.” I say worriedly, knowing that if Core want’s the X-blade then only terrible things could come to pass. “From what I gather, the one wielding it isn’t helpless, he can fight. He gave Core the gash across his mask.” “Well I mean he’s gonna have to be strong just to be able to wield that!” I say. “Half pure light, half pure darkness. That’s what makes the X-blade. This person’s heart is that by nature. Born with a balanced heart.” “Well glad to know he’s in a better boat than me…” I mutter, remembering Core telling me half of my heart is dead. “Anyways...who’s hungry?” “Define hungry.” Luna said, giving me a seductive look. “That’s not till tonight.” I roll my eyes. “I mean for actual food, jeez Luna no need to think that.” “A thousand years… stuck in the moon, immobile, just looking at the world below… I’m horny.” “Get a room you two.” Time said, rolling her eyes. Day Four After another night of joy with Luna I took a shower before she woke up, just standing in the water thinking about everything Time just told me. ”Two more days…” I think to myself, putting a hand up to my bare chest sadly. ”Let’s just hope I’m strong enough…” I mumble to myself before actually showering and getting out of my little sad corner of thought. After I exited the bathroom with a fresh pair of clothes on I grabbed my cloak and headed down stairs and head to the kitchen, seeing Spike and Twilight up already. “I hope we weren’t loud...again…” I say nervously, blushing brightly. “I increased the strength, so no.” Twilight said. “You two are better off together than I though… also… I was wondering if just you and I could be together today? You’ve spent three days with Luna…” “Sorry Twilight.” I sigh out. “Just...a lot of things were happening that needed both me and Luna to look at. But today’s going to be my Twilight day.” I smile. “I’m sorry but I didn’t wake up to hear cheese.” Spike points out groggily. “Spike, don’t be so rude.” Twilight says. “Well, if that’s the case then I have the perfect idea.” “Nah it’s alright, it looks like he just woke up.” I say, seeing the young drake yawn loudly. “But that sounds great, can’t wait to spend the day with you. So...any list I need to know about before it’s shoved into my face suddenly?” “Actually, I was thinking we could visit Princess Celestia, then head to the Canterlot history museum.” “Well I suppose it’ll be good to see my future sister in law.” I say with a nod. Twilight chuckled. “Well, make this date end well, and we’ll see how close we get to that.” “Um…” I frown. “And by that...you mean?” I ask, wondering what she meant by that. “... Cadence is in Canterlot at the moment... “ “Oh great, another future sister in law I’ll have to meet, and then an older brother I’m gonna have to fight cause reasons.” I sigh out. “Oh dear today is just gonna be a load of fun.” “I wanna argue… but that’s likely what will happen…” We took the train to Canterlot. It was a long ride, but it was an amazing ride. The view going up the mountain was breathtaking, why didn’t riding on my glider give me a view like this… oh yeah… haven’t ridden it that much... “The view is wonderful.” I say with a smile. “A lot better than back home.” I point out, knowing my world has all there great sights but just a simple train ride like this making me see such a sight beat it quite a lot. “We should be there soon. We can head to the castle pretty quickly from the train station, and the museum is just a few blocks down from there.” “Let’s hope I make a good impression...or not cause massive property damage.” I say worriedly. “Are the nobles as bad as Luna said?” I ask, feigning ignorance on those bastards. “A good quarter are… they’re second only to the crown.” “Can I beat any of them?” I ask, wondering if I could hurt any of them. “No, doing that is punishable by… well, you can guess.” “My christ is Celestia strict.” I frown. “But I suppose Heartless are up there, knowing that nobles are greedy, black hearted bastards.” I grumble. “Part of why Cadence is here, she goes where my brother goes. He still is captain of the guard, and the Heartless seam to keep away from the Empire for some reason.” “I know why…” I say simply. “And that...is most likely due to the Crystal Heart.” “That’s what I figured.” We got off, and headed towards the Castle. The guards let us pass through and we made our way to Celestia’s throne room. “Hello princess.” “Greetings Twilight, and you must be Ben. Luna has wrote much about you in her emails.” Celesta said, giving off a warm smile. “It is a pleasure to meet you your majesty.” I say, bowing to the princess “Please, at the rate you and Luna are going, that won’t be necessary.” “Can Luna stop telling everyone!?” I shout while flinging my hands in the air. “Jeez they're not called ‘bedroom things’ for nothing.” I frown, blushing brightly. “She and I were raised in a time where privacy was a luxury. And everyone was close. Believe me, she’s being tame with her actions.” “Listen as long as we’re not doing it in public that’s fine by me…” I sigh out. “But anyways, it’s nice to meet you in person Celestia, hope the ‘royal duties’ haven’t been too boring for ya.” “The Heartless have been an issue, and that’s about all really. Your actions have brought hope, but sadly some try to follow your example. I don’t blame you, those that fought did so of their own will, though many don’t come home…” I sigh out sadly. “This is why being a hero sucks sometimes. It makes good hearted people act like complete idiots...and sadly I can’t be everywhere.” I say sadly, not knowing if I could just hand out keyblades to those that would love to help me and Luna. “I just hope they stop….I don’t want people dying because of me…” “Luna and I have felt the same after war… we fight with out troops in battle, and many common people think they can help… I just wish that law was passed.” “Well...sometimes law can’t stop people…” “It’s not a law to stop them, it’s to help train them at a young age. I brought it up over two hundred years ago, yet the council of Law and the noble votes reject it every time. They say ‘the royal guard is supposed to protect us, not we protect ourselves’ … ignorant asses…” “Then apparently I need to step in and tell these dick holes that they need to get off their fat lazy asses and do something for a fucking change!” I shout, my anger rising at the lazy fucks. Celestia smiles at me. “No wonder Luna likes you. You kinda act like I did when I was your age. Well, talking with them won’t do, and threats are clearly out… maybe we can use your image?” “My image? You mean the whole ‘White Knight’ thing?” I ask curiously. “Exactly. You’ve already proven your strength, and many nobles, and council of Law admire you for this. If you could just speak at the next meeting with them with me, they might finally approve it. Then they, and their children can be better protected from this threat.” “Sounds like a plan.” I nod. “Let’s hope they at least listen to me instead of huff and puff and blow themselves up.” I sigh out. Celestia laughs. “If I didn’t prefer mares I’d date you as well. Well, the next meeting isn’t for a few months, so we have time for you to ‘show off’ and save people, and for me to get everything ready.” “You know I have your sister, Twilight, and most likely Rarity dating me. Can’t you just...ya know...bend your ‘interests’ a little?” I ask honestly. “Getting a little greedy aren’t we? Sorry, but I’ll stick to mares. Now run along you two.” “Well I see a lovely mare that want’s a special someone.” I chuckle. “But alright, see ya later Princess, have a nice day.” I say with a smile before turning on my heel and heading off. “That went well.” Twilight said. “Surprisingly well.” I say honestly. “But she’s a kind and wise mare, so I suppose my ‘surprisingly’ shouldn’t be there.” I shrug. We left the castle and headed towards the museum… it’s TEN STORIES! A ten floor high building, with five basement floors… all for public viewing… it’s beautiful… “I take it earth didn’t have anything like this?” Twilight asked. “There were museums like this back home, if not bigger, but I’ve never been to one so…” I trail off. “Well, the history stuff is on floors six, seven, and eight. We should head there first. Can you believe this place even has a food court?” “Not surprised because...the place is huge.” I say honestly. The elevator ride was oddly calming. The music was… abnormal. “Huh, wonder who the singer is?” Twilight ponders. “I don’t know but I am not enjoying it.” I frown. “No one needs to hear ‘monster’ fifty times in a row and have it be called a ‘song’.” “True enough.” Twilight said. “Must be a newcomer.” We thankfully got off and were met with a giant skeleton… as in an actual giants skeleton. “Oh, they finally put that in.” “Spooky scary skeletons~.” I say in a spooky tone, seeing the giant skeletons. “But what are those giant things supposed to be?” “Trolls… fifteen thousand years ago.” “Killed them with fire?” I ask simply. “No, volcano explosion did them in… so close.” “Yeesh.” I say with a frown. “Were they friend or foe?” “Not much is known. Though, their diet consisted of trees, large fish, and rock oddly enough.” “Huh...okay then.” I shrug while walking through the exhibits, searching for more things. “How much history is in this one place?” “Our hisotry is dated Pre-aliconrian/alicornian, Pre-Discordian/Discordian, and lastly middle age and new age.” “That’s quite a lot of history.” I comment. “Yeah, pony kind has been around since late alicornian. We didn’t advance much until middle age though.” “Sounds interesting.” I say. “But anything of interest in your history? Cause I don’t think I could memorize all this history.” “Well, there’s the Passing, that was the end of the alicornian era.” “And yet Celestia, Luna, and Cadence are still here.” I say, having a feeling the ‘alicornian era’ involved a lot more than just those three alicorns. “Cadence is only twenty seven. Celestia and Luna didn’t appear until around the discordian era.” “Huh...didn’t know that.” I say, finding this history lesson quite interesting. “Yeah, Cadence became an alicorn through an ancient trial. Celestia and Luna were found near the edge of the Wastelands back when ponies were escaping the madness.” “Wow…” I say, honestly surprised about all of this. “I wonder what other historical things I’ll learn while with you.” “Everything.” She said. Twilight practically became my tour guide through the museum, telling me about all the important events, and some rather interesting ones. The hall of relics was interesting… and surprising. “And here we have the Skyblock.” She said, pointing at the red cube in a display case. “You...you have a Gummi?” I ask, tilting my head at seeing such a thing here. “Gummi?” “Gummi is…” I say while thinking for a moment on how to explain it. “There magical and they help you go into space. I’m not sure how to explain it but imagine them as a special material that is great for space travel, and they can be as big or small as you want. If you want a good looking ship that can fly? That’s good. If you want a giant doughnut with guns on it? That can also be arranged.” I explain. “But I’m not a rocket scientist here.” Twilight stared at me. “... you’re serious?” “I am serious.” I say with a smile. “Besides, why would I lie to such a smart mare such as yourself?” “...first off, thanks for the compliment, second… how is that possible? The Skyblock fell to Equestria back in the alicornian era.” “They are magical. That’s the best answer I have.” I say, not knowing the finer details of these things. “And as far as I know they are light, strong, and don’t have any of the drawbacks of metal.” “That doesn’t make sense though, the alicornian ers as the beginning of life on Equestria… how could something that’s used in space travel exist back then?” “Multiverse theory, think about that for a moment.” I say. “But then how did this come through something as impossible as a gateway to another universe?” “You’d be surprised how easily someone can make something that sounds impossible possible.” I shrug. “Can you?” She deadpans. “You thought killing Heartless was an impossible feat.” I counter. “Hard, not impossible. Guards have managed to do it, but not like you can.” “Summoning beings with a snap of my fingers. That doesn’t sound rightfully possible in anyway shape or form.” I shrug. Twilight’s hand glows… and a small floating fat cat appeared. “Familiars, though yours are not that, summoning is still a thing.” “Being made of nothing.” I say simply. “According to you and Luna, they are the bodies of those who lost their heart to the Heartless, they aren’t made of nothing.” “Yet their realm is, by both appearance and definition, nothing.” “It’s not nothing if they can exist there, that makes it something.” “Whatever you say.” I say with a shrug, going to drop this before it goes into a full blown argument. “But believe me when I say that people have done the impossible…” “Alright, I guess when it comes to this stuff you do know more than me. Still, I wonder where the rest of this… gummi pieces went? We’ve only ever found the one.” “Well they would be on other worlds, in space, deep underground given that a lot of time has passed since it probably crash landed, or something else.” I shrug. “But hell if I know. I just got here not five days ago.” “Fair enough.” The rest of the museum was great. The newer area’s, aka, the middle/new age sections, held things that were very similar to stuff from earth history. After that Twilight dragged me back with her to her old home… where I met her parents… “So, that’s about it.” Twilight said, explaining to her parents how we met. “It’s a pleasure to meet you both…” I say nervously to Twilight’s parents, rubbing my arm and hoping I don’t make an idiot out of myself here. “So… he’s into books, was a social recluse… and the mind of a genius… Twilight, you found someone who can relate to you.” Her father, Nightlight, said. “And a hero to boot! There’s a theme with you now Twilight.” Her mother, Twilight Velvet, said proudly. “Well glad I’ve met your expectations.” I say sheepishly. “Believe me, we had no expectations with Twilight.” Night Light deadpanned. “Dad!” Twilight yelled. “Sorry sweety, but your mother and I did, kinda, give up on the idea of you dating a long time ago.” He looked at me. “She once studied in her room for so long, when her mother opened the blinds, she hissed, like a vampire.” He chuckled, much to Twilight’s embarrassment. All I could do was laugh at hearing such a thing. “Oh, oh my god Twilight!” I laugh happily. “Holy crap, I needed that.” I say with joy filling my heart. “Well I’ll make sure to make your daughter happy...now I believe I have a future brother and sister in law to meet.” I say. “Where are they if I may ask?” I ask curiously, wondering if they were here so I could get the ‘hearing Cadence talk my ear off’ and ‘Shining be an older brother’ out of the way. “Well, Shining is visiting some old academy friends, while Cadence went out for a bit, she should be back soon though.” Velvet said. “So, I hear you also snagged princess Luna?” “Yep. I am a very lucky man to have both Twilight and Luna as girlfriends.” I say with a warm smile. “If Night Light had allowed it, I would have had some of my own friends join our marriage, but he’s… a nervous stallion.” Night Light’s face turned red. “Don’t worry...I’m still a nervous wreck with having two girlfriends after having a life with no girlfriends.” I say sheepishly. “But don’t worry, I’ll make sure Twilight is a happy mare.” “Good to hear, that’s another thing you and Twilight have in common, both of you are new to dating.” Nightlight said. “Yep, but knowing Luna I’m pretty sure she can help push us along in our dating...and not in another way.” I say, my cheeks flushing a little and just glad my hood was up. The sound of a door being knocked down echoed. “Oh Twilight!~” “Oh no…” Twilight buried her face in her hands. “I have...a very bad feeling about this…” I say before three kunai appeared in my hand, not sure if I’ll need a weapon for self defense or if I’m just being paranoid. Soon enough, a pink alicorn entered the living room, wearing a white dress and red skirt. “So you must be Twilight and aunty Luna’s special someone~” She teased. “Yes…..yes I am.” I say slowly, looking over the pink alicorn. “And...you must be Cadence...my future sister in law…” She giggled, sitting next to me, pushing me pretty close against Twilight. “That would be correct, so how’s my sis-in-law been? She a screamer?’ “Cadence!” Twilight yelled. “We have not done the dirty yet. Twilight is not Luna here.” I say bluntly. “Aww, that’s no fun. Well, in any case, I knew Twilight would come today, Luna sent me an email, and I went out to get the two of you a few things.” She lifted up a rather large bag that… had XXX over it… dear lord... “Can…can you not?” I ask nervously, steam billowing above my head as thoughts rushed into my head about what’s in there. “Fine.” She waves her hand and the bag vanishes. “Luna will just have to go through it all.” “I’m in front of Twilight’s parents, I don’t want to talk about….that kind of stuff right now.” I say, trying my best not to stutter here. “We don’t mind.” Velvet stated. “It’s about time she started that dirty work.” Nightlight said. “Not you too…” I groan, placing my face in my hands as a groan escaped me. “God...next thing you know Luna want’s me to bang her in public while she wears a maid outfit…” I say, hoping my words were muffled enough. “Now you know how I have dealt with Luna.” Twilight said, dreading removing her face from her hands. “I’m… glad you all approve, but is all the sex talk necessary?” “We are just excited you finally found someone.” Cadence said. “I knew love was in your future, but I didn’t expect it to be with a herd… Shining won’t go for one…” “I understand why...I’m scared I’ll be spending too much time with one or the other...and I don’t want either of them to think I’m just leaving them…” I explain sadly, not wanting either Luna or Twilight to think I’m favoring one or the other. “I hate favorites...and favorites could ruin a herd…” “That’s why communication is key in any relationship, two party or more.” Velvet said. “Night and I talk out things every thursday afternoon and we’ve been together since high school.” “Well congrats on having a nice love life. I’ve either been ignored, or insulted by every girl ever. And even if I do have girls that like me it’s mostly been friends…” I explain. “So I’ve...been alone for a while…” “Well you are no longer alone Ben.” Cadence says. “Twilight cares about you, Luna is almost obsessed with you, and I’m sure some other mares have their eyes on you. In my opinion, that old you is dead, and has risen like a phoenix into this new, strong, hero, who just needs to realize this is not his old home.” She leaned in close. “We’ll talk more about that later.” She whispered. “Well my first attempt at being a hero already had mares send me nudes so...there’s that.” I shrug, before nodding at knowing we’ll talk later. “Oh, you get mine?” “Wait what?” I ask with a small frown. “I sent you a nude also.” “Aren’t you married?” I ask with a frown. “Panty shots of me are worth hundreds, that nude will be worth well over a thousand. Consider it an early wedding gift. Or do you prefer cash?” “I am not selling nude pictures of you, and I’m already dating someone that has more money than they know what to do with.” I explain. “Still, well if you aren’t going to sell it can I have it back… it’s actually one of the ones I gave Shining back when we were dating…” She had a sheepish grin. I only groaned and put my face back into my hands. “What is with you mares?” “Meh, we don’t cool down until we’re about thirty.” Velvet said. “Only reason Twilight isn’t the middle child is because Nightlight had a vasectomy.” My mind, for some ungodly reason, buzzed with lewd imagery of Velvet, Cadence, Twilight and Luna and all I got was an obvious nose bleed even though my face was hidden. “Damn it brain…” I gulp. “Um...does anyone have a paper towel? I...had thoughts I shouldn’t have….” I say worriedly. ”Damn it brain! Two of those mares are married!” I mentally shout at myself, while a ‘I don’t give a fuck’ thought rushed through my head for some reason. Day Five: Final Rest Me and Twilight both decided to stay a night over Twilight’s parents house and enjoyed cuddling each other instead of being separated whenever Luna needed my ‘services’. But sadly even our warm cuddling was overcome by the hated sun and the haze of consciousness. After getting dressed for the day the two of us held hands and headed down to breakfast, the simple act, forever brief, was heart warming and made me feel whole...until we got to the kitchen and then I saw a white stallion suddenly staring at me at the table which held our nice breakfast, their parents and Cadence. “Morning.” I say simply. “So...you’re dating my sister huh?” Shining asks simply, his features neutral and calm. “Yep.” I nod. “Making sure she’s happy?” The stallion asks. “But of course.” I reply simply. “How so?” The white stallion says, pushing his chair back and getting up. “Made sure she talked my ear off about history, which I was quite interested in.” I say before letting go of Twilight’s hand, the mare looking rather concerned at why we were just talking instead of something worse. “She does love her history.” Shining shrugs, the stallion walking towards me with trained steps only a soldier would know. “Oh yes she does.” I say with a smile. “Asked her so many questions about it she kept on going, always segwayed into the next topic.” “So…” We both say before standing next to each other, the stallion being about five inches taller than me as we both stared each other in the eyes. A silence filled the room before both of us punched each other in the face, the two of us staggering back. “OW!” We both shout, rubbing our cheeks in pain. “Damn dude, think you could lighten up a little?” I ask. “I should be asking you that.” Shining says while being quicker to recover from the simple punch. The two of us stood back up and stared at each other, before Shining raised a hand for a handshake. “Glad to meet ya.” The stallion says with a grin. “Nice to meet you to Captain.” I say while grabbing the stallions hand as we had a firm handshake. “And don’t worry, your sister’s going to be safe and happy.” “You better.” Shining says simply. “So you two done?” Twilight asks. “Cause the food is getting cold.” “Yeah yeah.” We both say at the same time before going to our seats, me sitting down where Twilight would be and Shining sitting next to Cadence as he continued to eat and I started to eat a delicious breakfast. “So, Cadence… might wanna invent a smell proof spell next, Shining’s bedroom is next to ours…” Nightlight said calmly as he sat down, causing me to laugh. “Oh dear…” I chuckle, calming myself down from my laughter. “But anyways how are people’s mornings?” “Good enough.” Cadence replied. “And I’ll get working on that Night…” She said sheepishly. “Well you could tell my morning.” Shining shrugs. “Yes I could.” I nod. “But even though it would be fun to stick around I believe we’re going to be taking the train home right Twilight?” I ask her, knowing we can’t stay here long. ”Especially since it’s my last day before a fight and I need to train…” I think to myself a little bitterly, hoping to train more so I could at least give some sort of a fight. “Yeah, we should leave after breakfast.” Twilight adds. “I’m sure Luna was lonely.” “I’m sure she’s kept herself busy.” I shrug, having seen her in my dream real quick just so she could ask how I was doing. “But I’m gonna have a busy day today…” We took the early train back… to where Luna tackled me… and nearly smothered me under her chest. “Welcome back!” She states, hugging me into submission. I pushed Luna away and took a thankful breath of air. “Can you not...smother me with boobs Luna?” I ask honestly. “But it’s good to see you again.” I say while kissing her cheek. “Glad to know. Oh yeah… There’s a package for you.” She says. “Didn’t have a return address.” “I wonder who it’s from…” I frown, hoping it’s not a prank or anything. “Well let’s get back to the library and see what the package is.” After getting to the library I saw the package. The package was a small box, 5x5 inch. I opened it and there was a letter, along with what looked like a Keychain… and a smaller black box. The letter read, Ben As you can either guess or not, this is Core. I sent you a… prototype I want to see work. The prototype is the Keychain. I want to see how well it works in your fight tomorrow, as for the black box, well, consider it a gift from… yourself… “What is your game…” I mutter, confused on why Core would just give me presents to help me fight, concerned on why he said that I got a gift from myself, and a bit furious that I was I was now a test subject working out his new prototype.I opened the black box. It was a silver Wayfinder. I decided to see what this Keychain did, so I switched out the one on my normal Keyblade for the new one… The form it took was oddly fitting for me. The handle was a creeper, morphed into the shape of a handle. The blade and tip of the Keyblade was a Dusk, swallowing a heart. “Well that’s creepy.” Luna said. “That is rather creepy.” I say with a frown. “But...why did I gift myself...a Wayfinder?” I ask, concerned to no end about this entire situation and just hating that I’m willing to be Core’s test subject just to see if this new ‘Dusk’ Keyblade worked. “Wonder what it’s supposed to symbolize?” Twilight asked. “Reunion maybe?” “No...it’s to show how far I’ve gotten in summoning Nobodies…” I frown. “I can summon at least one Dusk right now and three or four Creepers...if I train I can probably bring it up to two Dusk’s or five Creepers...how the hell…” I frown, finding this super concerning. ”What has that bastard done to that piece of my heart?” I think to myself, hoping he hasn’t made a double that will try and kill me. “Maybe Time Bell can tell us something?” Luna suggested. “She might know more.” “She may know more but even her knowledge is limited…” I say before nodding. “Twilight, want to come along and learn a lot of new things?” I ask the purple unicorn. “Always.” She replies. We made our way to Rarity’s, where Sweetie Bell and Time Bell were watching TV. “Oh, hey, where’d you go?” Time asked. “Just a date with Twilight.” I say to Time. “Sorry I missed a training day, but...I’d rather not let training take over my life when I want to make sure my girls are happy.” I say honestly. “But we have some questions…” I say while showing both my new Keyblade and my silver Wayfinder. “Know anything about these?” Time bell walked up, picking up the Wayfinder. “Well, clearly it’s a Wayfinder… standard magic has been placed into it, and I think I can feel a connection locked inside it, don’t think a Keyblade can open that though.” She handed it back and took the ‘Duskblade’. “Now this… is weird…” “Know anything of help? Cause I thought it was supposed to be a ‘tracker’ of some kind…” I say before grabbing my Wayfinder and putting it in my pocket. “Close… now, do you know what Core uses to make his… twisted Keyblades?” “Literally anything he can get his hands on?” I say bluntly. “Cause if you’re anything to go on...he grabs a random person and then starts testing on them to see what works…” “Close. My body, heart, and soul were used to make me into what I am, with my own memories being used as a sort of… glue, or wielder. This was made from a heart, someone’s heart that he likely ripped out… but the voice is concerning…” “What’s the voice?” I ask worriedly, hoping I’m not just using someone’s own body as a weapon. “The voice is yours Ben. As if her took your heart… but I can tell you still have your heart, so this makes little sense.” “What’s the voice say?” Twilight asked. “It’s really quiet, but it’s something like, ‘return to life’.” “Wow...that prick…” I growl. “I met Core at a hospital in Manehattan...he told me he took a little piece of my heart, which he discovered I’m...interesting cause my hearts not entirely okay...but I didn’t expect a piece to be turned into a Keyblade…” “From what I’ve seen, a piece is all he needs to regrow it, then forge a new one. The memories stored within the new heart aren't all there though, that takes time to regain them from the soul and body… so this is what he did…” She handed it back to me. “Well, as for your heart, what’s wrong with it?” “Well glad to know this is basically my clone…” I frown before grabbing the ‘Duskblade’ and seeing it vanished. “But...apparently...it’s half dead.” Time pondered. “A half dead heart… where did I… damn it, I know he said something about this long before I escaped, but I can’t remember.” “Well let’s hope I find someone that actually knows what the hell is going on that won’t probably kill me.” I sigh out. “This sucks…” “We got time.” We turned around, there was a woman, in Core’s get up, but yellow instead of purple, and a man… A tall man, black hair, red eyes, and his body looked like it was half Invisible Heartless, and the head was human. “You still have six hours.” The woman spoke. “Oh, TS-1, this was unexpected.” I immediately stepped forward and two laser beams shot out of my hands. “Time Bell is not yours to take back, and don’t you think it’s cheap to have me fight an Invisible so early?” “My orders are to deal with you, not recapture her. Frankly, she was a failure anyway, so she’s useless to us.” She held a hand up to the half Invisible. “This is Jet, my wielder for the fight, but as I said, you have six hours.” “A half Invisible...wielding a female Core as a weapon...yeah how is that even remotely fair?” I ask honestly. “A Guard Armor is one thing, but good lord.” The female Core, much like Time Bell does, changed into a Keyblade, Its handle looked like the Heartless symbol and the blade was an arm or darkness that held what looked like a heart in its hand. They keychain was a black heart. Jet picked it up. “Fair now?” Jet spoke. “Just the fact I’m fighting an Invisible so early…” I sigh out. “But anyways...six hours left…” The female Core changed back. “That’s right. We came early to make sure you’d be here. Might as well talk.” She walked over to the kitchen, and sat at the table. “Okay…” I sigh out, walking over and taking a seat at the table as well. “So...turning people into Heartless but still having a heart...how?” I ask with a frown. “Also when I said ‘fighting an Invisible so early’ I meant in more of a ‘I’m fighting an enemy that is probably way above my skill level’.” I explain, remembering Invisible’s were endgame level Heartless in the first game but even then were really tough to even prepared players. “Simple, we make the darkness in their hearts manifest physically. It changes the body, and we’ve learned that everyone, when turned into a heartless, the type is based on their darkness. Half Purebloods are rare, as Purebloods are made from negative emotions of intelligent life as a whole. Much like creatures known as Unversed, though, they are made when the light and dark of a heart are split in two.” “Well...that’s just all sorts of grand. And here I thought the worst thing was cloning Nobodies.” I say. “Good lord…” “That was our intention. Heartless are loyal, but mindless. We wanted something… smarter.” “I hate all of you…” I sigh out. “But how the hell did you did you turn...me into a Keyblade? And the whole Wayfinder thing?” I ask, thinking that was the most disturbing. “We grew another heart from the sample Core took from you, as for the Wayfinder, Core himself handled it, so that part is unknown to me.” “I better not be finding out you made another clone of me just to have the powers of heartless instead of nobodies…” “That would be meaningless.” “Okay so here’s a question...why? Why...all of this?” I ask, motioning to both all of her and all of the half pureblood. “I know there’s supposed to always be ‘light and darkness’ or ‘creation and destruction’ but come on.” I ask, still finding this whole thing just mind boggling. “We are doing what has always been done. Fighting a war. Light against dark, creation against destruction, both want to gain control, to bring a ‘unity’ of their own making. We chose dark, and it seems you have chosen light. It’s all a war in the end.” “But...you can’t have one without the other...sometimes wars just can’t go on forever...I’m not trying to be some philosopher telling people that this war is stupid and it should end but...to be blunt this war won’t end ever.” I say. “Whether one side ‘wins’ or not it’s all going to...seem like a waste of time and energy don’t you think?” “Perhaps, but if it was sent to a draw, then where would life be?” “Now that is the right question.” I say honestly. “But hell if I know. I have the powers of beings that rant and rave about ‘Nothingness’...life is confusing don’t ya think?” “As it has always been, but that’s what both sides want, for the confusion to end. If light was to win, everything would continue onwards forever, in a repetitive cycle of rebirth. If dark wins… it all ends, and the cycle is over, the confusion gone. Blissful silence.” “Ya know...I remember a game called ‘Dark Souls’, and not to get to into the lore of it there was an age where everything was grey, and things were simple, quiet, and ‘normal’...but then light and darkness came about and destroyed it…” I sigh out. “But hey, in my opinion life wouldn’t be life if it wasn’t confusing. Light can be nice but get’s boring and monotonous, dark is boring because everyone would probably die and there would be nothing left...but oh well, philosophy only makes things more confusing.” I say while rubbing my head a little bit. “That confusion is where darkness began, and what it wants to end. So, can you guess why Core want’s the X-blade?” “Kingdom Hearts obviously.” I nod. “Exactly. But is Kingdom Hearts the heart of every world, or ALL worlds?” “I hate Xehanort for confusing that so much.” I groan before sighing out. “But Kingdom Hearts is, and if memory serves, the heart of all worlds, and the heart of all living beings. It’s like ‘God’ in a sense, a being that’s all powerful and connected to everything...but given that one ass hole decided to see if you can make fake Kingdom Hearts from either the all worlds side or all man side….” I groan before I rubbed my temple. “True enough. In every reflection, there is only one Kingdom Hearts, and one X-blade. It has no reflection, no other versions of it. There is simply the one. When obtained, Core will consume it, ending everything at once. No escape anywhere.” “Or he could find some random bull shit answer that explains everything.” I shrug. “But who knows, as far as I know Kingdom Hearts is just a giant ass heart shaped moon, a more...white moon then that yellow rip off Xemnas tried creating.” “Who?” ”Fuck…” I think to myself quickly. “It’s no one special.” I say quickly. “If they can find a means to make an artificial Kingdom Hearts, then they must be. I will have to inform Core about this.” ”Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck….” I mentally rant in my head. “Quick question, how the hell does Core have a female reflection? And possibly more when he’s...well Core?” “He was human once, we all were, long ago. The details are… not important, but Core, is the one to reach out to us, and we’ve worked together to further understand darkness, just as brother God has researched into light.” “Why can’t people research ‘Nothing’? Cause if you go to deep into ‘good’ or ‘bad’ then you’ll just end up with this. Or at least find something that is an equivalent to a ‘middle ground’...” I sigh out. “Or am I spouting nonsense here?” “We already did that… you see, our bodies aren't actually that of a Heartless.” “I noticed.” I say. “You’re...somehow a Nobody but not a Nobody…” I say, my heart just...knowing it somehow. “Precisely. Like Core, all of we reflections, as Nobodies, turned out hearts into Keyblades of Darkness. Unlike Nobody's born in between light and darkness, we were born in darkness, wandered it for ages, and found our corrupted hearts, forging them into the Keyblades we now use. We replaced the holes where our hearts were with pure darkness from the Heart of Darkness, and became something beyond in between… Demons.” “Ya know...I was just about to call you that.” I say in a joking manner. “Please do,” I felt a cold creep down my spine as she spoke, feeling like she was smiling at me from under that mask. “We prefer it.” “That’s not creepy at all~.” I say sarcastically, trying to hide my discomfort with sarcasm. “Oi vey...but you said that Core want’s the X-blade...yet I think I heard a little something something about someone else already having the thing...how?” I ask. “Brother God. He was from your land, his heart was balanced, and God used parts of that heart to forge it a new body, and placed its power within. If the original X-blade body was to be reforged, it would be useless, a ‘Nobody’ Keyblade.” “I think I already trademarked that.” I say while summoning my ‘Duskblade’. “Cause seriously, this obviously screams ‘Nobody’ Keyblade...both figuratively and literally I think…” “In appearance, yes, but the power isn’t there. X-blades old body, if reforged, would not hold power over kingdom hearts, just over Nothingness. Maybe you should seek it.” “Well it would be interesting…” I say honestly, not sure if I would go mad from hearing all the Nobodies wanting their hearts back or feel at peace. “Question...what would happen to the beings of darkness if they were apart of this ‘Blissful Silence’ you want?” “Vaporized. Like you said, one cannot exist without the other, all will end, no acceptions. Even Core would die.” “Yet somehow I doubt it would last forever.” I say. “But yeah that sounds boring, just to have everything go…’poof’ in a shroud of darkness.” “No darkness, no light, not even nothingness. True end.” I raise my hand up but put it down and start to chuckle at hearing that. “Okay so...nothingness won’t exist...but nothingness will exist? That just...sounds silly don’t you think?” “Do you even know what came before nothingness?” “Something that came before nothing? Hmm...well honestly I couldn’t tell you, I could guess and sound like an idiot but I honestly don’t have an answer.” I say with a shrug, not really sure how to answer the question to be perfectly honest. “There was a name for it, back before the world became stars… Void. That is where everything truly began, and where it will return to.” ”I honestly should have thought of that…” I think to myself, thinking that the answer was obvious. “The Void huh? Sounds about right now that I think about it.” I say. “Another question…I know Core told me that you’re evil, not irrational...yet why are you being so…’friendly’?” I ask. “Four more hours. I act on orders, we all do.” “Seems right but...if Core wanted I would be long dead by now...I doubt ‘interest’ is the only thing keeping me alive.” I say, knowing that evil people could have multiple reasons for keeping people that obviously oppose them alive. “For the fun of it. We see something that can finally challenge us, people that might actually have a chance to… kill us. It’s all quite thrilling. I get chills just thinking about it.” I opened my mouth, wanting to say something really freaking stupid but then closed my mouth. I opened my mouth again before closing it…”Listen I don’t need to know what gets you off alright?” I say bluntly, mentally ramming my head into a wall at just saying those stupid words. She started laughing, madly. “Oh how I wish one swing from me wouldn’t kill you dead. I look forward to the day you can match our power, we all do, cause the rush of battle makes the kill all the more satisfying.” “I suppose my brand of comedy isn’t enough to keep me alive?” I ask, getting a little smile at having her laugh and kind of being a smart ass as well. “Still, I wish we could fight now… Oh well, we still have three hours, what would you like to know?” “First up.” I start. “Can someone make me food? I’m getting hungry and I can’t fight with an empty stomach.” I say to either Luna, Twilight or Rarity, hoping someone will make some food. “But besides the need for food...don’t you think a half Invisible is a tad much for...someone of my fighting level?” I ask. “Your heart sample placed you in a range just high enough to survive. Plus, the fight isn’t the real test.” Sweetie Bell placed a sandwich in front of me, and Time Bell placed… a dead, oddly familiar, white cat, in front of female Core. “Choke on it.” Time said, stomping out of the room. “... AH! OPAL!” Sweetie yelled, running out of the room crying. Female Core removed her mask… the whites of her eyes were black, her pupils crimson red, and her teeth were like tiny needles. “Thanks.” She lifted the dead cat up, and chomped, biotting half off in one bite. She finished after the second. “Nothing like recently killed.” “Well...that happened…” I say before eating my sandwich. She placed her mask back on. “As Demons, we need not eat, but when we do, it must be recently killed, or alive.” “I honestly don’t need to know that but okay.” I shrug. “But...how dangerous is having half a heart?” I ask. “Half dead you mean?” “Technicalities.” I roll my eyes. “I still have half a working one.” “It can be reversed, takes time, use emotions you didn’t use before. Kindness, compassion, happiness, love, all that jazz.” “Well I’m certainly going to have that in spades.” I smile...before it slowly turned into a frown. “And I’m pretty sure you and your buddies are going to make sure that doesn’t happen huh?” “We were interested because it’s a rare event, very few like that have been cataloged. The sample we got gave us all we need to know. We don’t care about it anymore.” “Which is why Core made me a test subject with his ‘Prototype’.” I say. “We want to know exactly how a person, wielding a Keyblade made from their own heart, while still having it, will react to each other. We imagine the wielder and Keyblade will work well together.” “Sounds good in theory, and I’ll be the guinea pig to help show if that theory is sound or not.” I say. “But wouldn’t you and Core be better to test this? Given how you and Core are….besides gender literally the same person?” “Our data would be inconclusive. We already forged our corrupt hearts into Keyblades, and what is there now is pure darkness.” “True.” I nod. “But I hope I give a good first impression against you and Jet, cause fighting a Guard Armor, while a good way to show strength...wouldn’t be much to compare against the big leagues.” “One hour. Jet, call for Crow, and have him lure the second subject.” Jet nodded, and vanished into a DTD. “What other test subject is trying to run away now?” I ask. “Not like that. This test subject is known as Zeke, and he wields the X-blade.” “I fucking hate you.” I say with a frown. “Now you’re going to keep my girlfriends hostage if I don’t play along.” “Zeke would be on your side. After all, he has a hopeless plan.” “But isn’t that how good guys always start out to defeat ‘evil’? Have a hopeless plan that ends out working perfectly?” I ask honestly. “It’s hopeless, cause he wants to make us human again. That is what makes it hopeless.” “Even demons can be more human then...well humans.” I shrug. “But I don’t know if that’s hopeless, I don’t know what hopeless is after...everything that I’ve just went through this past week.” I say with a shrug. Jet reappeared. “Crow will be here with Zeke Ventral soon.” He says. Female Core sighed. “Well, then our time is almost up. Any last questions?” “Last question? Well...can you, Core, or any of those stuck in Darkness...ever find happiness without everything disappearing?” She was silent. “... No, not after we lost… them…” I looked at her and just nodded. “I don’t know who you lost...but if it means anything...I’m sorry you had to experience such a thing.” I say, my tone soft and understanding. She flinched. “... T-” The front door was broke down, a guy in what looked like a thug was being held by the throat by a guy in black Ventus armor… holding the X-blade. “Come near my family again and I will send you to oblivion!” He threw the guy into the kitchen. The thug looking guy looked at female Core. “All yours.” He vanished into thin air. “You’re welcome.” I say loud enough for the female Core to hear, hoping she noticed my words even though her possible ‘thank you’ was cut off by sudden armored man. The man in the black Ventus armor walked into the room. “... Yellow? Wait… crap…” He noticed me. “... Well this is deja vu.” To be continued... Author's Note Longest chapter so far woo! Again a major thank you to BioQuill for all the help. But what's this? More plot development? New things being discovered? And an armored man wielding the strongest weapon in existence? I wonder what this could mean? Anyways I hope you all like this story and I'll see you all next chapter (Also this story will have chapters posted up whenever there done, sometimes it might take a bit because multiple chapters in a day or something along those lines) Nobody's fightAuthor's Note Hello everyone, it's Xinrick. This chapter will be in the third person all the way through(but will go back to First person next chapter) and I thank BioQuillFiction and Lancerot for the crossover. Eclipse is from a story written by Lancerot that is pending to be submitted but helped write this story. Also this story involves spoilers for Lancerot's story so read at your own risk if you want. But if you don't care then please enjoy this chapter. Nobody's fight Ben took a deep breath. “So! How can I help you today?” He asks honestly, seeing the armored man. “First off… the hell is she doing here?” The man asked. “Before you suddenly burst in we were having a nice conversation before I had to fight her and her buddy.” The white cloaked being explains. “By the way it’s nice to meet you, name’s Ben.” He says with a nod. “Zeke, and… I’m sorry, you look like something I fought in my Mark of Mastery exam.” “Is it the white cloak?” Ben asks curiously. “Yeah, how’d you guess?” “As far as I know these cloaks only come in black, so if you said you saw something like me then it’s a little obvious.” He shrugs. “Judging from your speech, you’re from earth also?” “That is correct.” He nods. “And I’ve heard quite a bit about you my fine friend, being apart of some murder family yet being a nice guy travels fast.” He says, knowing ‘Yellow’ told him that but still. Zeke was silent. “I’m gonna ask, are you with Core, or against them?” “Well I’m supposed to be fighting against them so there’s that.” Ben shrugs. “Ms. Core here, or ‘Yellow’ as you called her, and her buddy Jet were supposed to be a little...test I suppose.” He says honestly. “But me and you have a lot to talk about...like a lot a lot.” “Your time is up.” Yellow said, getting up and walking over the Jet. “How did I miss him?” Zeke questioned. “He’s half Invisible. That’s why.” He says in a half joking manner. “Har har.” Zeke replies. “Well, in any case, this won’t be good.” He arched his back, and the Xehanort's guardian appeared. “Might as well go full out.” “Can we at least move to somewhere less….populated? Please?” Ben asked, summoning his Duskblade and getting up, moving closer to Zeke while looking at his new opponents. Yellow turned into a Keyblade, Jet wielding her. “Time to begin.” It was a haze, one swing and both Zeke and Ben were thrown through the wall of Rarity’s kitchen and rolled on the ground until they stopped. “Well fuck.” Zeke said, getting up quickly. “You don’t say?” Ben asked, raising his left hand and focusing, summoning Vexen’s shield and slightly surprising me that I still felt his keyblade in his other hand. “Thank god.” He muttered before getting up and readying himself. “I’ll ask later.” Zeke said, summoning another Keyblade. “Discord, now or never.” “Again, we have a lot to talk about.” He says, not really surprised to see Discord as a Keyblade considering a part of his heart was turned into the blade he has now. Zeke raised Discord into the air. “Chaos realm.” Jet, Ben and Zeke were all swallowed into a bubble, to which reality seemed to be falling apart. “This should be safe for a fight.” “Oh dear…” Ben muttered. “Shit’s about to get weird…” He muttered before taking a careful step forwards towards Jet. “Dark mass.” He said, summoning a large orb of darkness that circled around him. Zeke charged in. Swinging Discord. “Reality Shift!” His attack met the orb, and it was destroyed. Jet jumped back. “Unexpected.” Glass shattering could be heard before I swung one of Xaldin’s lances down towards Jet while he was distracted, stabbing the being in the shoulder before I grabbed a second lance and thrusted another one towards him, hoping the second hit will land. He caught it, and shoved it though Ben as he threw him off. Zeke ran over to Ben. “Healing hit.” Zeke tapped Ben on his head with Discord, and Ben’s injury vanished. “Man this comes in handy.” “Lucky…” Ben frowned before getting up and summoning Saix’s claymore, ready for Jet to make his attack. Jet lifted his Keyblade into the air. “Hellhounds.” What looked like Neoshadow Dogs appeared from behind him and charged at us. “Fuck.” Zeke said, throwing the X-blade into a Strike Raid, destroying one. Ben dismissed the claymore and brought out two Gun Arrows, starting to fire at the other dogs. The bolts of light destroyed one of the dogs and stunned another before he was forced to reload his weapons. “This is just great.” Ben mutters, not liking how this guy could summon allies easily while he was piss poor at it. “Two can play at that.” Zeke says, his Xehanort's Guardian pulsating with Darkness as a Darkside rises from the ground. “Thank god that worked.” He muttered. “How come everyone knows how to summon things like a champ while I can barely make two Dusks?” Ben asks with a frown, feeling a tad bit weak when seeing both Zeek and Jet’s actions. “Practice… this was the first time I actually did that.” Zeke admits. “Been around for nearly a year.” The Darkside Zeke summoned took swipes at the Hellhounds, vanquishing them instantly. “Been at this for all of a week or so.” Ben sighs out, dismissing his weapons and summoning his Keyblade and Vexen’s shield. “Got a plan? Cause I’d rather not run in like an idiot.” He asks, hoping Zeke has a plan.” “This reality bubble won’t hold forever.” Ben looked at Zeke confused, clearly hearing the different voice. “Gonna ask later.” Ben says before waving his keyblade up and summoning five Creepers, the nobodies muzzles glowing brightly before two move towards Jet and three close in on themselves and start pulsing. “Any suggestions Discord?” Another voice from Zeke spoke. “One, Just slash him Zeke.” “Alright.” Zeke’s voice spoke. The three creepers suddenly vanished, appearing above Jet as spears descended on the half heartless. “Well let’s get moving.” Ben says before moving forward, using his Creepers as a distraction to move forward, the two other creepers turning into swords and swing at Jet as well as Ben slashed at Jet with his keyblade, thankfully landing our hits. Zeke rushed in fast, swinging Discord. Zeke landed the hit, and Jet was given what looked like a tear of darkness across his back, he quickly was being swallowed by it, until only the tear remained floating in the air. The bubble vanished, and Zeke and Ben were left standing in Rarity’s back yard looking at the tear. “Well… that was a thing…” Zeke said. “Seemed...too easy…” Ben frowns, the creepers appearing next to him as he kept his shield and blade at the ready. “Fight’s not over, I sent him to a place where someone could help us. Jump in you idiots!” The first voice spoke, making Zeke and Ben look at each other. “Onward.” Ben says before dismissing the creepers and dashing through the portal with reckless abandon. Zeke followed close, and the two were in for a… rather rocky ride. Eclipse, Twilight’s twin brother, was wandering around town, getting used to having to moving around. Damn, it’s been awhile since I’ve had two legs. He thought as he neared Rarity’s shop. His dark, purple, messy hair with it’s blue and red streaks partly covered his blue-green eyes and the wind blew down the street. Looking around at other ponies, he wish he didn’t stand out with his darkening gray coat. He expected to encounter drama, as this is Rarity he was talking about. He, however, was not expecting a rift to open up above the ground in front of the shop. “Well shit….can’t go one day can I?” Three people came out of it, first was a man, with the body of an Invisible Heartless, and the head of a human, then a man in a white version of an Organization XIII cloak, wielding a, what he would call a ‘Duskblade’ and a familiar blue shield, and the third, was someone in black Ventus armor, wielding what looked like a Keyblade for Discord, and the X-blade. “Yeah, can’t go one day.” He said in response The one in the black armor got up first. “Damn, where are we now?” “Fuck if I know.” The one in the white cloak groaned before getting up. “Note to self, don’t jump through portals all willy nilly.” He grumbles. The one with the Invisible body stood up. “Test is not yet over.” He said, rushing in for an attack. “Well, sorry to interrupt, but I kinda need to get to Rarity...so I’ma going to burst your bubble, but the test is over.” Eclipse says before summoning Oathkeeper and Oblivion to his side. “And here I thought Huxley was trying to cosplay Roxas.” The one in the blackarmor comments. “Says the one in Black Ventus armor and the X-blade, being a Elementary schooler's OC.” “How about you both shut up for five seconds alright!” The one in the white cloak yells. “Fuck this isn’t a schoolyard rant!” “Oh, it isn’t? My bad, I thought we were in candy land.” He looks around. “I retract my statement.” The half Invisible looked at the newcomer. “Distraction.” He took one swing at the pony, and sent him flying through Rarity’s home. “Again… really?” The black armored man says. “Wow, he can actually hit. Haven’t met anypony who could since Nightmare.” Eclipse said, revealing a reflect spell over him. The black armored and white cloaked people run over to him. “Names Zeke, that’s Ben, you alright?” Zeke asked. “I’m fine, Rarity is going to be pissed….again...but that’s nothing.” He says, standing up from a crouched position. “The name’s Eclipse...well at least, it has been for eighteen years.” “Out beats the both of us.” Zeke commented. “Nonetheless, you haven't ever fought against one of Core’s creations…” “Who the hell is Core, and why come to my world? I was planning on a nap later.” He says, getting into a fighting position. “Well too bad, life sucks and shit isn’t going to work like that.” The man in white says simply. “But all I can say is that Core is a bad guy, and he’ll be happy to find another person that interests him.” “As long as he stays away from Twilight….” Eclipse mumbles as he stares straight at the Invisible hybrid. “So, who’s ugly?” “That would be Jet, a powerful being that works for Core.” Ben says simply. “And his Keyblade is one of Core’s reflections, Yellow.” Zeke answers. “So let me get this straight…..We have a half Heartless, wielding a Keyblade made of a multiverse version of this Core person, and you two unintentionally dragged me into this?” “Was Discord’s plan.” Zeke replies. “I take full blame.” Discord’s voice says from Zeke’s mouth. “Trust me Eclipse, whether Discord was to blame or not you were going to be apart of this anyways, whether you liked it or not.” Ben says with a frown, still staring at Jet and ready for the fight to continue. “Fine...Guess no holding back then?” “Not at all.” Zeke said, his Xehanort’s guardian reappearing, wielding Keyblades also. “Oh, that’s new.” “Unexpected.” Jet says, looking at the Heartless attached to Zeke’s back. “Core will be informed about this.” “Screw off!” Zeke yelled, throwing both the X-blade and Discord in to Reflect Raids. Eclipse dashes forward in a flash and yells, “Now!” Before his Keyblades glow and start to fight for themselves. “Show offs!” A different voice called from Zeke. Sorry! No your not! “Nice to see you again Oathkeeper… Go eat shit Oblivion.” Zeke catches Discord and X from the Raid attack “Knock it off you three.” He comments, going in for a frontal attack on Jet. “Quit talking and fight.” I say while dashing towards Jet. “Duh!” Zeke yelled, vanishing and appearing behind Jet and making a cross slash attack, knocking the half Heartless down for a moment. “Combat has improved.” Jet says. “Improve this!” Ben shouts before ramming his shield down onto Jet’s head. Eclipse pants and sweats as if he is doing all the work his keyblades are doing as he launches a cure onto both Zeke and Ben. “Thanks.” Zeke rushes around Jet, delivering four blows, two from his Keyblades, and the other two from the ones the Guardian holds. “Dark Void.” Jet says… The sky quickly goes dark and eyes start to replace where the stars and moon would be. “Impact level two.” He mutters, as all goes black. Pain beyond definition rushed through Ben, Eclipse, and Zeke. Then, the sky turns to normal, and the three lay on the ground, groaning in agony. Jet’s Keyblade shifts back into yellow Core. “Only at level two, hoped for more resistants.” She said, walking up to them. Oathkeeper and Oblivion rushed past her, landing in front of Eclipse, and lose their glow. “Ow…” Ben groans in pain, his weapons disappearing after being hit by something so painful. Zeke’s guardian, and a chunk of his armor backside are gone, revealing a large bleeding patch of skin. “D, damn you.” He grunts. Eclipse has seemingly fainted, his heart not strong to begin with. “Hate...this….” Ben groans, trying to move himself even if he was beyond pain right now. “Not yet strong enough.” She says, kicking Eclipse to the side and walking over to Ben and Zeke, holding both by their neck’s. “You are improving, that’s the good news, but you barely scratched Jet, and couldn’t even handle Dark Void?” “What….is it with you people….and monologues…..” Eclipse mumbles, making u to hear this. She looked over to Eclipse, dropping Zeke and Ben. “So you woke up, maybe you are worth a look at after all.” “Ha…try your luck, you might just… get the …losing hand.” She picked him up by his head hair. “You sure about that?” She grabbed his left foreleg, and squeezed, an audible cracking and gushing of blood happens as Eclipse’s screamed in agony. “Still weak.” “AT LEAST I FIGHT!” Eclipse yells at her, tears blinding him. She went close to his ear. “If I fought… it wouldn’t last long.“ She tossed him over her head, throwing him near Zeke and Ben. “Let’s go Jet, we gathered some surprising data.” The two entered a DTD, and vanished. Ben shakily got up, his entire body protesting against moving from being injured so much. “Christ…” He groans in pain. “Are...you two...alright?” “Don’t ask him that.” Zeke points to Eclipse. He manages to stand, and carefully lifts Eclipse up. “Where is the damn hospital?” “Down…..town….by town hall….” Eclipse mutters out as the blood loss starts to affect him. Ben and Zeke rush towards the hospital, many residents looking at them in fear. Mainly from the battle that they all saw. As they made it Eclipse was sent to Emergency care quickly. Zeke and Ben sat in the lobby. “Well… this was way worse than I expected.” Zeke confesses, his armor disbanding, revealing his, now torn, brown shirt and blue jeans. Ben shakily pulled his hood back, showing his bruised skin, black hair and turquoise eyes. “And here I was thinking their ‘test’ wouldn’t involve one shots.” Ben says bluntly. “So...wielder of the X-blade huh? Sounds like a great responsibility huh?” Zeke chuckled. “Supposedly I am supposed to keep Light and Darkness balanced on all worlds. Though, it’s become more of a fight to keep them in the sky rather than balanced.” “Makes sense.” Ben shrugs. “But before you kicked down my...soon to be girlfriends door me and Yellow were having an honest chat about stuff. What do you want to know first?” “Core and I have done the same many times. He told me that his wife was killed by Heartless… she was the first wielder of the X-blade.” “So that’s why…” Ben mutters, looking down sadly before taking a deep breath. “Yellow told me...they couldn’t be happy because they lost someone or some people special...I didn’t think of them losing their significant other…” “He told me she was the only one to beat him in a fight. When he lost her, he took the X-blade, and charged head first into the realm of darkness, he fought till he died. Now he’s… this… Makes you think how anyone could turn evil after something like that, or do something really stupid at least.” “I don’t know….but Yellow, I think, was about to tell me ‘Thank you’ before you burst it when I apologized to her…” Ben says. The Nurse interrupts the two, telling them that Eclipse was stable and that if they want ANY time with him then they better hurry before the elements of harmony come. “Christ…” Ben mutters, pulling up his hood and getting up. “Let’s hope they don’t immediately try to attack us like idiots…” He mutters, still feeling weak but not wanting to deal with ponies that don’t understand anything. The two found Eclipse in a cast that took up most of his left side. “So… you gonna be able to use that arm at all?” Zeke asks. Eclipse shook his head. “Not for a while at least. Though, before anyone else comes in, tell me, do you two know of earth by chance?” “We came from there… how do…?” Zeke questioned. “Did you ask to become a pony?” Ben asks. “First question, because I needed to confirm that this Core bitch wasn’t just after any old people, people like us who escaped are who Core’s after. Second, Yes...and I asked for a new life and apparently that old man either A: has a sense of humor or B: he took me by my exact wording because next thing I knew, I was being born.” “Talk about being literal.” Zeke says. “Pretty much.” Ben says with honest surprise. “So...we were told the elements were going to be here...think you can tell them not to attack me and Zeke here for no reason?” Ben asks, having a bad feeling that given Eclipse is hurt they’ll just blame him and Zeke and attack them cause convenience sake. “Yeah, don’t worry…if Core could beat me no problem...and I’m this world’s strongest warrior? You really just need to duck once.” Eclipse says, his pride shattered. “No need to be down. Besides, this should be a good lesson for ya.” Ben says honestly. “One doesn’t learn if they constantly win, in loss a true warrior learns.” “Besides, I think you’ve interested them, so they won’t kill you… right away…” Zeke says. “It's not me I’m worried about. Honestly if it was just me at risk I wouldn’t care. But …. With me out of the way….” Eclipse says, not wanting to think on the ‘what if’. “If needing Keyblades is the issue… I can hand them out.” Zeke says. “Ha...Luna and Celestia have twin Keyblades...but other than that I’m it here. If you want, go wild, but I wouldn’t. No one to train them and I’m sorry, I’m not taking them off world...not yet.” “I think some soldiers from my world could do in training them. Everyone on the world I’m at has a Keyblade.” “Fine, but keep it small. With Nightmare gone the Heartless are less common, but now Nobodies have started to show up more, however small their numbers.” He says before getting sleepy “Aaannnd that’d be the painkillers…..fuck.” Ben turned his head a little, hearing a subtle ‘where is my heart?’ drift through his mind. “Well he’s not joking…” Ben sighs out. “But we better leave to give the poor guy his sleep.” He sighs out. “Besides we still have notes to compare.” “Yeah.” Zeke says, opening a portal with the X-blade. “This should take us to your world, we can talk there.” As the two enter, they fail to notice the group of people rushing in as the portal vanished, leaving Eclipse alone with the people entering. “Be safe you two….” Eclipse whispers out as the portal vanishes. As the two stepped out of the portal Ben looked around to see that they were indeed back in his home world. “God help me if Luna finds me…” He groans, still being in pain and knowing that being smothered by lunar boobies won’t help him at all. “So Zeke...want to see my girlfriends worry over me?” He asks, knowing that it’s only a matter of time before they swarm him. He took a seat on the ground, there were in the open fields where Ben and Sweetie practiced at. “Hah, my wives will worry, then kill me…” He commented “Sounds like you have a caring family. But I only have Twilight and Luna, most likely going to ask Rarity to tag along cause I have to help Sweetie and...Time Bell...out a lot.” Ben shrugs before taking a seat next to “Time Bell?” “Oh yeah…” Ben sighs out. “So during my conversation I got to have a very good explanation on something’s...like how Core is making those heartless hybrids and Yellow also explained that he used a version of Sweetie Bell to...make a Keyblade. She goes by Time because she’s that Birth By Sleep ‘No Name’ keyblade, the blue one that controls time.” “Bastard.” Zeke summoned Discord. “On my equestria, a survivor of the Keyblade war was using Nobodies to capture or kill the inhabitants. Those he captured he ripped their hearts out and made into more foot soldiers for his army of Nobodies, there was only fifteen survivors in total, well, sixteen, Chrysalis managed to survive and hide. Well, during some trip a few people took back to the place he was experimenting, they found Discord as a Keychain. Unlike Yellow, he can’t turn back, he can’t even use his magic without me to cast if for him.” “Shit…” Ben says bluntly. “Um...wow...I...have literally no idea what to say about that. And here I was going to talk about how me and Yellow got all philosophical about this war…” The cloaked man says, looking up at the blue skies. “Fucking hell...here I’m living in a place that’s peaceful, where you got dumped off into a hell hole...but...glad to know there were survivors…” “It wasn’t where I first arrived, I wanted to try and see if I could find another survivor God told me about, Huxley, but I didn’t find him then, so I left, wanting to find a place with more action. I found it, now I have eight amazing wives, and eleven kids. None are by blood, but that could change soon.” “I was about to say. I mean I know Luna likes to plow like a rabbit in heat but jesus, I doubt you could last that long with eight women...no offense.” Ben says sheepishly. “None taken, spells help, and they all take turns… well, that’s as personal as I’ve ever gotten about my sex life.” “Yeah me to...at least this time I don’t have Luna basically spouting out how sex goes with me.” Ben chuckles. “Celestia and Cadence practically told me that if Luna will probably make me do it in public...which is scary.” Ben explains, not really sure why he’s talking about this but finding it funny. “Sounds like Rune, she’s one of my wives. She’s as horny as you can imagine… she read off every fetish in a small black book she has… it’s over a hundred pages long…” At this Ben fell on his back laughing his ass off. “Oh, oh, oh-ho my god haha!” He shouts, rolling around laughing at such a thing. “Yeah, so, you said you’re dating Twilight, Luna, and possibly Rarity?” “Yes yes and yes.” Ben nods, calming down from his laughing fit as he pulled down his hood. “Twilight is kind and we share a common interest in books and history, Luna is dating me because she’s nice and...is head over heels for me because I can kill Heartless easily, and Rarity? Well she asked if she could date me and when I told Sweetie that it was a possibility she seemed so happy...not to mention Rarity needs someone that isn’t a one night stand.” “Twilight, Fluttershy, Luna, Celestia, Hearts Care, if you ever went on the internet she was known as Button’s mom, Rune, Rainbow Dash, and Chrysalis. Well, also Toriel, but she isn’t a part of the marriage officially yet.” “That is quite the roster of ladies that love you….also why do you have a wife that’s an abbreviation for ‘Tutorial’?” Ben frowns, finding that little thing weird. “It’s just her name. Her world was odd though, but everything went fine in the end. She joined in cause I kinda… brought her two dead kids back to life, and her new adopted one really liked me and the others.” “And you said you did all of this...in a year?” Ben asks. “Less. Shit happens, simple as that. Lot’s been rebuilt, but all the ones who had their hearts taken are stuck out there as a Heartless and a Nobody. I know I can bring them back… but I’ve been hitting dead ends.” “It’s weird how a loner with half a dead heart became a national hero, dates two wonderful mares, and is somehow making friends with someone that is so much better then him…” Ben chuckles. “But hey, I can summon Nobodies and you can summon Heartless...maybe we could help each other out, you help me figure out more of my powers and I’ll help sort out the Nobodies you need.” Zeke looked hopeful. “That could work, we should test it, can you try and summon someone’s specific Nobody? I wanna try something.” “I don’t know about ‘specifics’ but I can summon up a Dusk if you want...also now that were on this topic once you help me learn more I want to see a Darkside and a Twilight Thorn fight, that would be freaking awesome wouldn’t it?” “Beyond words. Still try and summon… hang on.” Zeke raised his hand, focusing on exactly the hearts lost in the darkness he could access. A large body appeared. “If I did it right, I think the heart in that thing is my worlds Pinkie Pie, try and summon her Nobody.” “Um...I’ll try.” Ben says worriedly before summoning his Duskblade. “Oh and this keyblade? Formed from a piece of my heart just so you know.” He says before focusing, pointing the keyblade at the Large Body. After a few moments of searching I heard a Nobody appear, and when I looked up I saw a Dancer swaying about in front of the large body, but this Dancer seemed a tad more...pink than usual. Where...is my heart? A hollow female voice hums in my head, the voice reminding me of Pinkie Pie. “If we’re right then there’s your heart.” Ben says, hoping this will work. “So...how should we do this?” He asks, feeling a little out of breath here from summoning a specific Nobody. The Nobody attacked the Heartless, the two taking strikes at each other. “I think they got it covered?” Zeke questions. My heart...my heart… The female Nobody hums, sounding a bit more energetic even if it was hollow. The Dancer Nobody was the winner, and before the Heart floated away, it caught it. “So… I wonder how it will-” It swallowed the heart. “Never mind.” Zeke says. The Nobody flashed a blinding white, making Ben and Zeke cover their eyes. When it faded, they saw a familiar pink pony, Pinkie was back. “Crap, she’s naked…” Zeke commented. “Oh dear…” Ben says worriedly. “Wh-what happened?” The pink pony asks, rubbing her eyes and yawning. “It...feels like I was sleeping…” The anthro mare says groggily, sounding like she just woke up from a long sleep. “Holy hell it worked…” Ben whispers to Zeke. “You got a towel or something?” He asked Ben. He stood up and walked over to Pinkie. “You alright?” “I think so… wait… am I dreaming? I’m always naked in my dreams.” To this, Zeke chuckled, helping her up. “Sadly no, so we better get you home soon. Good thing no one else is around here.” “No...” Ben says, his entire face beat red from seeing the naked mare as he turned around to give her some dignity. “Jeez…” “Not just yet, we gotta get a few more at least. How many can you summon at a time before you can't go anymore?” “I can still create more...but I may need to take a break or two because of the stress...I can summon five Creepers, summoning specifics is a little rough.” “You think you can manage seven? Not all at once, but it’s practice that pushes you.” “Yeah...I think so.” It took well into the day, the sun was even setting when they were done, but Ben and Zeke did it, they brought back nine people. Pinkie Pie, Cloudchaser, Flitter, Applejack, Rarity, Derpy, Applebloom and Sweetie Bell, they were all back. They were all from Zeke’s world, but it was a start to fixing everyone lost. They all were naked, but his world Luna and others found them earlier, and brought clothes for the ones who returned. “That’s all of them… everyone is gonna be so happy when I get home… So, if you have it in you, anyone from your world you wanna try and get back?” Zeke asked, using a quick Cure on Ben. “Thanks…” Ben says with a nod, straightening himself after using his Keyblade as a makeshift cane from the entire situation. “So, got at least one more in you, it will be anyone from here that might be gone.” “Twilight told me Zecora disappeared…” Ben says before raising his hand up and summoning a Sorcerer Nobody, this time the being looked a shade of grey with black stripes on it, the cubes it normally has around it resting around her. Where is my heart? The feminine voice asks, the obvious accent showing she was a zebra. “Do you think you can find someone’s heart of this world?” Ben asks Zeke, knowing he’s been mostly focusing on people from his world but still. “Well, If I focus on the Nobody I think I can.” Zeke held up his hand, placing all thought into two things, the Nobody in front of him, and the Heartless that will appear. Soon enough, a Wizard Heartless appeared, and looked at the Nobody. My heart… She says, before the cubes surrounding her spun a bit before surrounding the Wizard heartless, the blocks smacking the otherwise weak heartless multiple times. The blocks made quick work of the Heartless before the Sorcerer floated forward, it’s always covered arms opening as a white hand grabbed the heart and swallowed it hole. After a quick flash of light appeared yet again a naked zebra appeared. “You okay?” Ben asks worriedly, the first one moving over to the mare on the ground rubbing her eyes. She twitched, and looked up at Ben. “... I am too tired to rhyme.” She fell back asleep with that. “Well…” Ben sighs out before getting up and walking over to Zeke. “You think this is a good start?” He whispers, keeping his voice down to let Zecora rest. “We’re practically bringing the dead back to life, I think we just won something over Core.” He replied, summoning Discord. Anyway we can have a CALM portal back home? Sure, but just this once. A light shoots out of Discord, revealing a portal of Light. You’re welcome “Alright, we’ll be off, I’ll be back some time later, hopefully with a means of stable travel without relying on X.” Zeke, and the others from his world, walked into the portal, and it closed when the last of them entered. Ben nodded, before throwing his keyblade up and summoning his Keyblade glider, gently picking up Zecora and putting her down comfortably enough on the bike as I steered it towards town. “Well...that was an eventful day…” Nobody's partyAs I flew my giant bike back to town I thought about everything that happened the past...day? Two days? I don’t know. But all I knew was that it was filled with a bunch of new discoveries, new pains, and training thankfully as I helped Zeke somehow resurrect the dead. “I hope Zeke’s having a grand time back in his world…” I mutter to myself, finding pride and joy at being able to help people in such a way. “But...Yellow…” I mutter, the thought rushing about how someone that so happily called herself a ‘Demon’ flinched and was probably about to say ‘thank you’ to such an open display of care. “I thought it would have been shrugged off…” I comment to myself, still not sure what kind of repercussion my care had on Yellow. I landed outside the library and carried Zecora inside, laying her down on the couch. Twilight and Luna came in, looking a mix of happy and confused. “So what exactly happened when… whatever that was went down?” Luna asked. “It’s gonna be quite an explanation...so can someone make something to drink and some food?” I ask honestly. “Already on it.” I heard Spike yell from the kitchen. I explained everything that happened to Luna and Twilight, Zecora woke up during the explaining and we filled her in. After everything was said and done, Zecora looked at me. “A true hero you have become, even if you think you are no one.” “Aw I’m nothing more than a simple man.” I say simply, feeling like I should have added something to that. “I can vouch for that.” Luna says. “True, and besides I wouldn’t have been able to do half of that without some help.” I shrug. “But what do you last remember Zecora?” “... A creature, small and red… next thing I knew, I was on this couch like a bed.” She replied. “Alright.” I nod in understanding. “Looks like I’ve got more to explain.” “Pray tell, young fellow.” “I’ll give you some cliff notes because it’s better. The thing that attacked you was a being of darkness called a ‘Heartless’, you lost your heart and then turned into two beings, a Heartless, and a Nobody, which Nobody’s happen to be beings that are the hollow shells of what normal people are.” I explain. “And how you became whole is because, as I explained, me and my new friend Zeke summoned Heartless and Nobodies that were of the same person, which you were one of them, and in one instance if a Nobody and Heartless were to be killed they would go back to being whole...or if a Nobody absorbed there heart...so yeah.” I shrug. “Confusing I know but whatever.” She looked at me for a time, then sighed. “Then my home is lost… I’m too sad to be cross.” “I understand...I lost my home to before...all this happened.” I say honestly. “But...you can stay with us if you want until we get your home back.” “An offer most kind, thank you for letting me sleep for the night.” “Is it alright with you three?” I ask the two mares and dragon. “Zecora is a friend, It’s fine with me.” Twilight says. “The Everfree is crawling with Heartless… this may be better for her in the end.” Luna replied. “So… what are we gonna do about Rarity? Her house is… destroyed…” “Oh yeah...fuck.” I deadpan. “Well first I’m going to have to apologize a bunch for….making her, Sweetie and Time practically homeless until their house is fixed…” I say worriedly, rubbing my forehead in worry at not knowing what to do. “How bad are the damages?” “Well, just use your funds Ben.” “As far as I know I’m dirt poor.” I say while rummaging through my pockets, and the only thing in them was my Wayfinder. “Oh… I forgot to tell you, after your meeting with my sister, she set up an account for you, and placed funds into it. You have about… thirteen million bits in savings.” My jaw dropped at hearing that. “Uh...wai wha?” I ask dumbly, not knowing what to do with that ass ton of money. “W-well…” I stutter before shaking my head. “Looks like most of that is going to Rarity’s house being fixed.” “It will only cost a few thousand at most I think, but it will take a month or more to finish. She could stay here as well. Not many rooms, but that basement of Twilight’s could work also, just clean it up.” “Laboratory!” Twilight declares. “There’s expensive and delicate equipment down there.” “There is a storage facility in town.” “... Fine, I don’t use them that much these days anyway.” Twilight sighs. “I really hope this place can get bigger cause...we’re gonna need more room.” I say honestly. “So...what’s on today’s list that doesn’t involve fighting?” “Well, you and I can go to Zecora’s home in the Everfree and retrieve essentials for her. Other than that I guess help Rarity and them move in as well. Twilight, do you know any spells from the Nature’s Housing book?” “Yeah, oh, I see where you’re going with this.” Twilight said, grinning. “I always wanted to try those spells on a large scale.” “Well don’t over do it. No need to have this tree going from this size to the size of a small mountain while I’m gone okay?” I joke. “I’ll only expand back a bit, under too I guess.” “Alright.” I nod before getting off the couch. Well alright, let’s get going Luna. Zecora’s stuff won’t magically appear here by themselves.” I shrug. “True, well, it could but in this case no. I would need to know where everything in her house is for that to work.” We headed out, more Heartless were around than I expected, but they were all weak… compared to that Jet… We found Zecora’s hut in the forest and managed to gather most of her clothing, toothbrush, books that seemed important, and her cauldron, cause I think this is important to her. We placed all the things into it and headed back. Zecora was glad to see the cauldron more than her other things we brought. “What’s so special about this cookware?” Zecora looked up at Luna. “Old and ancient. Blood and lore have passed it down freely, now finally to me.” “Sometimes the simple things have the most history to it.” I explain. “But anyways I better head off to Rarity’s and deposit some of my new found money to fixing her house...god I’m gonna get an earful because of this.” I groan. “Oh, here.” Luna said, handing me a silver bank card. “The code is 2012.” “Oh the irony…” I mutter to myself taking the bank card and putting it in my pocket. “Thank you. But onwards to meeting a nag.” I say before heading off to Rarity’s house. When I arrived, I saw Rarity, Sweetie, and Time packing things up. “Well, didn’t think you had the balls to show up.” Time said. “Looks like I owe Sweetie ten bits…” “I’m sorry but I didn’t see you helping me and Zeke fight a being basically backhanded the two of us like we were nothing.” I frown at Time. “So shut it. Listen Rarity, I am incredibly sorry about...well literally everything. I’ll pay for everything, god knows I have enough money to do that and then some.” I chuckle, still thinking my bank account is massive. Rarity looked at me, inhaled, and then spoke. “While I don’t blame you for what happened to my home, I am grateful you are paying for the damages… my insurence sure didn’t want to… So, how did you come into the money to pay to fix the place?” “Let’s just say being the boyfriend to royalty has it’s perks...like seriously I have more money then I know what to do with.” I chuckle, still finding the amount of money I have hilarious. “Glad to hear… maybe some of what’s left over can go to increasing the showroom after it’s rebuilt… Anyway, I don’t suppose you have a place for us to stay?” “That depends on how much the repairs cost, but yes Twilight is willing to clean up her basement to let you three stay there. We’re also housing Zecora just so you know.” I say honestly. “Oh, they finally found her. Thank goodness.” “Something like that.” I say, leaving it at that and not wanting to tell Rarity that she died but was brought back from the dead. “Well, alright. We just have a few more things to pack. Thankfully my sewing machine is on wheels.” “So, who was the guy in black armor?” Time asked. “I know he’s the one Core has the most interest in cause, he had the X-blade, but who was he?” “That is Zeke, and he just so happens to control the Heartless in a way. But sadly he doesn’t have the power to control all of them everywhere, so there will still be the ‘ambient attackers’...no stopping that.” I explain. “He’s a nice guy when you get to know him. Eight wives can do that to ya.” “That’s not what I care about, his heart, you couldn’t tell?” “It was in balance?” I ask. “Well of course I could tell, that’s the major point about the damn thing.” “No, not just that. His heart was… it was like, billions of Keyblades were in it, and… it was like… Kingdom Hearts.” “I did sense that to some degree...I think it’s because he holds the X-blade...the first Keyblade...I mean I heard it’s voice through Zeke after all.” I explain. “... A Keyblade, who’s in perfect sync with it’s wielder, can talk to them… but through them… that’s… not even the X-blade can do that. It was like… his body was another X-blade from what I felt… It just makes no sense…” “You’re literally a keyblade yourself, I’m a human living in a magical land of ponies….do you want me to explain why ‘makes no sense’ sounds bullshit?” I ask. “Not like that! I could feel he was human still, but he was also a Keyblade… Gah! How the heck do I explain this!?” “Magic?” I ask simply. “Simplest thing to answer all these weird questions.” I shrug, not really knowing how half of this shit worked but knowing that it’ll be explained sooner or later. “Ugh, never mind. Just… next time Zeke shows up, I’m gonna talk to him.” “Well I think he has questions for you as well.” I say. “But anyways let’s get home and get you three settled in.” I say before feeling something in my hand that wasn’t there before. “Huh?” I question before lifting it up and finding a pink envelope. ”THERE we go.” I think to myself, having waited for more than a damned week for this as I looked it over and saw it was for Rarity and Sweetie. “Oh hey, Rarity, Sweetie, I got’s a message for ya.” I say while handing the envelope to them. Rarity took the envelope. “Oh, one of Pinkie’s?” As she opened it, a small blast of confetti shot out. “Yes, definately one of hers.” She unfolded the letter, and read it out loud. “You are invited to Ben’s ‘Sorry you got your butt kicked, glad you’re safe, welcome to Ponyville Party. Please head to Twilight’s library, once Rarity and them have gotten there it can… start… How does she do this?” Rarity questioned, examining the paper. “No idea but whatever. If it means I get an awesome party then sweet.” I smile. ”Please don’t let this somehow segway into me calling Pinkie’s ‘Pinkie Promises’ bullshit…” I think to myself worriedly, not wanting to hurt Pinkie’s feelings when she’s throwing me a party. As we got home… the tree Library looked like it grew a couple dozen feet wide and tall. As Rarity, Sweetie and Time placed their things inside, the whole Library was covered in streamers, balloons, a big banner that read ‘Ben’s Party’ and several large fold out tables with food, drinks, and one massive cake in the middle of it all. “Wow, she did more than I expected.” Rarity commented. “Well I’ve been here for more than a week, maybe she wanted to make this extra special for the days she missed.” I shrug. “Been too busy for this stuff anyways. But thank god it’s here.” “You were hoping for a party?” Twilight asks, coming out of the kitchen. “I mean… I kinda figured… from how you act around others… it wasn’t your thing…” “When I first saw Pinkie and heard her name I thought ‘okay first up that’s just stupid to name a person off of their color, but she seems so energetic that parties is probably her thing’.” I shrug. “But seriously naming your child after their skin color is like my parents calling me ‘Whitey’...and where I come from that’s kind of a racist term.” I point out, not sure why I pointed it out but feeling like I had to. “Oh, well, I’m not entirely sure about the whole name thing, but alright…? Well, anyway. Pinkie said when you got here to try the cake. I think she left to pick up some other things, so she should be back soon.” “Okay.” I shrug before walking over to the cake and cutting off a small piece and trying the cake. Now through my entire life I only liked ice cream cake, cause other cakes just didn’t taste right to me normally, but this cake...just destroyed all thoughts that any cake besides Ice Cream was good. I gave a happy moan of satisfaction as I ate cake, the explosion of wonderful goodness lasting even after I finished my small piece. “Ho...that was good.” I sigh out happily. To everyone's surprise, the cake’s top popped off, and Pinkie jumped out, did two mid air flips, and landed perfectly next to me, and hugged me. “Glad you like it!” “Your welcome.” I smile, blushing a little at the sudden hug by bouncy mare. “But...thank you for this party…” I say honestly. “Your welcome.” She says, letting me go. “Oh, and don’t worry, I was in a compartment inside the giant cake, not actually in it. Speaking of which, You can come out!” We all looked at the top of the cake… Celestia flew out. “My, those short cuts really are something.” She said, landing next to me as well. “Hello Ben.” “Hello Celestia, how you doing?” I ask with a smile, hugging Pinkie with a smile. “Fine, Luna tell you about my little ‘gift’?” “Yes, thirteen million is quite the ‘gift’.” I say simply. “Please, I could have given you a trillion from my personal funds, but that might have been too much.” “I barely know what to do with two thousand bits alone, but thirteen million is...quite a lot to be perfectly honest.” I say. She smiles at me. “Well, in any case, I’m not missing your party. Also, I have a gift for you.” She levitates a wrapped gift from the cake’s storage area, giving it to me. “Thank you.” I nod before grabbing the gift and unwrapping it. “Let’s hope it’s not more money.” I joke. “You might like it.” I open the box… and there’s a small silver crown in it. “Suprise, your own crown. Best part, it’s enchanted to stay floating above your head at any angle you place it at. Since you’ll be fighting a lot, that should come in handy.” “Bitchin.” I smile before grabbing the silver crown and putting atop my head, the crown floating above my head but crooked a little to my right side. “Thanks Celestia, it means a lot.” “Glad to hear.” She said, rubbing my head. “Now then, shall this party start?” “You know it!” Pinkie said, pulling out a small party cannon and shooting confetti everywhere. The sudden explosion made me vanish away and get into a fighting stance, holding two spears while the other four float around me. “Please...don’t…” I say, panting a little at having the sudden explosion happen and instincts kicking in. Pinkie blushed. “Sorry.” The party started after that, music, food, good friends, my two amazing girlfriends, and all that good stuff. No one told me the drinks were alcoholic until… I had three and was wasted. “You lightweight.” Luna teases, keeping me sitting upright on the couch. “Go *hic* ffuck yourshelf…” I slurr, hiccuping as my face was flushed red. She smiled, kissing me on the cheek. “Love you to.” “I *hic* hash an a-*hic*nnounshment…” I slur, raising my fourth glass with stupid idea’s and a giddy ass grin on my face. “Who wantsh to hear it?” I ask, swaying madly and chuckling like a madman. Luna was laughing her ass off next to me. “Well, go on then, what is it?” … Sun… is killing me… So, this is a hangover… Did I drink a lot? As I was coming slightly out of my fog and back into reality, I could feel I was… on top of something soft… I lifted my head up, struggling to open my eyes, and I saw Luna was under me… naked, which has become the norm for how I wake up these days. As I tried to move more I noticed something heavy was on me as well. I managed to look up and saw… Pink… Pinkie was naked on top of me… What the hell… no, no, I didn’t… I looked to my sides and saw it was only worse… Twilight, Rarity, and Zecora were all around me, naked and cuddling around me…. How drunk was I?!?!?! When that… finally happened, and everyone woke up, I was sitting in the kitchen with them all, awkwardly waiting for what happened yesterday… I had a feeling I could guess, but I still wanted to hear it. “Well, you were drunk, like really drunk.” Luna started. “I noticed when I had mares on top of me, below me, and three others around me completely naked and cuddling.” I deadpan. “So….who want’s to go first in explanations on how I probably slept with all five of you?” “Well, after you stood up to make an announcement you said you would date me darling.“ Rarity said. “Then Zecora offered… something about some warrior rights from her home land for saving a life, something like that, then Pinkie said she’d join the ‘Ben’s party boat’ as she called it. We all agreed in the end… the party kept on… lewd things happened, that’s when Time and Spike took Sweetie to bed… and well, you woke up to our bedroom aftermath…” Rarity explained, blushing as red as me. “... you’re quite good darling…” “Oh my god…” I groan, my head smacking the table. “I mean...Luna helped.’train me’ as it were but….all five? Shouldn’t I have been...out at two or something?” I ask. “I enhanced the spells… a lot…” Luna admitted. “Things just got so hot so fast…” “I never met a stallion that could make me scream like you did last night.” Pinkie said, placing a plate of pancakes on the table for everyone. “Oh my god!” I shout, not believing everything that’s going on. “Can someone shoot me already? This is just…so beyond embarrassing…” “I think Zecora did that last night~” Luna teased, causing Zecora and I to blush hot pink. “Oh my god people…” I groan loudly, lifting my head up and starting to eat my pancakes. “I really hope my stuff is being washed...and I also hope our bed didn’t break…” “I threw it into the wash after we all got up.” Twilight explained. “Though… we may have a more… concerning matter…” “Did any of you forget a protection spell?” I ask quickly, my eyes dilating to pin pricks here. They all were silent. “Oh...um…” I say before pushing the pancakes away for a moment and getting up. “I’ll just...take a shower…” I say slowly, not believing any of this right now. “Well, we won’t know til a week from now…” Rarity says. “It’s not my season yet… but it is soon…” “Same.” The others, save for Luna, said. “That doesn’t change the fact that I still could’ve gotten you all pregnant…” I say, my voice filled with worry. “Not to mention that I was drunk of all things….god fucking damn it I didn’t want to ask while drunk…” I say sadly, tears welling up in my eyes. “And I practically dragged you two into it...god damn it…” I say, putting a hand up to my head as the hangover pain is still there. I felt someone hug me. “It’s alright Ben.” Luna’s voice cooed. “We all were drunk, and for that to happen to me, that’s a lot of alcohol. Besides, we still care for you.” “I admit, I’d rather get pregnant while drunk with a drunk that cares for me, rather than by a one night stand that I’ll never see again.” Rarity says. “Children bring those with hurt souls together, everything will become better.” Zecora states. “I expected this to happen eventually given my sex life.” Pinkie deadpanned. “But least the father is gonna be a mega badass!” “You...” I take a shaky breath. “Are all the greatest things I could ask for...something I’ve always wished for…” I say, before hugging Luna tightly. “Thank you...even with my stupidity...thank you…” “Besides… least this would make us an ’official herd’ now.” Twilight says. “I….whether sex was involved or not...I would have happily loved you all and made it official...just wish I wasn’t drunk during it...I can’t remember how great it was.” I joke with a little smile, tears streaming down my face. “I uh, remembered for you... “ Luna said, to which I gave her a confused look. “When you were sleeping I recovered the memory of our… ‘night’ and placed it into my mind. When you sleep next I’ll put it back and play it as a dream.” “I...hope I didn’t try to act all ‘kingly’ because I got a crown…” I mutter. “UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhgggggggggg.” A loud moan from the living room was heard. We went to see the cause… and saw Celestia… sleeping on the ceiling. “Damn, I must be turning into a lightweight.” She muttered. “Why is everyone… oh crap.” She suddenly fell onto the floor face first. “Damn it, I slept defying gravity again…” “How in ze fuck?” I ask simply, not entirely sure how that was supposed to happen. She got up, and managed to look at me, with bloodshot eyes. “Oh, Ben.” She smiled. “Holy cow you, I, I heard all that noise from upstairs while I was finishing off the beer and food… you, if you had C-cup breasts, and were a pretty mare, I’d love to know what that was all about.” She said, managing to roll into the couch. “I think your soundproof spell failed last night… wait… I think I… I think I’m still drunk…” “How?” I ask worriedly, not sure how you fall asleep drunk only to wake up drunk. “Can someone get a bucket?” I ask quickly, not wanting Celestia to vomit on the floor. “I got this.” Luna walked up to Celestia, lifted her up into a sitting up position, and smacked her across the face. “Snap out of it!” Celestia fall over, drooling in her sleep. “... welp, she’s lost.” “Apparently…” I say with a little nod. “I just hope that soundproof spell didn’t wear off...god only know’s what Spike, Sweetie and Time might be thinking if that happened…” There was a squeak of rusty door hinges as we turned to the source… Time was there. “You are lucky I know soundproofing spells… or else…. ALL OF EQUESTRIA WOULD HAVE HEARD YOU!!!” She walked into the kitchen, leaving us all red faced. “Fucking hell…” I say in surprise, not knowing that we were that loud. “Um...maybe you...overdid it a little Luna?” “I was drunk also so likely…” She mutters. “Let’s just be thankful we can all walk okay right?” I say, hoping that none of us will walk funny for the rest of the day or longer. I sigh out before seeing Pinkie walk to the kitchen, not wanting to waste the pancakes she made for me before I noticed that she had a strange limp to her movements, something that… “Oh my god…” I mutter, looking at the others mares just shuffling worriedly at feeling their legs not entirely working right. “Also yes I’m finishing those Pinkie.” “Like you finished me last night.” Pinkie mutters, but sadly it wasn’t quiet enough. “I heard that!” I shout, blushing brightly at having Pinkie joke about such a thing. One Week Later. We were all in the new living room Twilight made with her magic while expanding the house. The girls all went to the doctors to get the results… none of them seemed pregnant in their actions, but still, we were just waiting for the mail to get here now. “This is… unnerving…” Twilight said. “Ya think?” I deadpan while pacing back and forth, worried shitless about this entire situation. “How much longer til Derpy gets here with the mail?” Rarity asked. “She’s not usually this late.” “I have no idea…” I say, before hearing a doorbell ring. “I got it.” Time Bell said, walking over to the door, then back into the living room. “So, should I read it out or?” “Please darling.” Rarity asked. “Just fucking read it…” I say worriedly. Time bell opened the letter, looking over all the documents enclosed. “Welp, looks like you all cut it close, no one is pregnant… I owe Spike ten bits now…” “Can people stop betting on shit that revolves around me!?” I shout while flinging my hands into the air. “I mean it’s been one bet after another. ‘Does he like breasts or boobs?’ ‘Will he date these people?’ ‘Will he get five mares pregnant after a single drunken night?’, for fuck sakes people stop...I’m already having enough trouble as is I don’t want to learn that most of my time here is nothing but a silly ass bet…” I sigh out sadly. “Hey, not our fault you make it easy. So, not parents after all… Well, guess life happens, but I guess it was a swing and a miss.” Time left the living room, leaving me and the girls alone in here. “Well...at least your not pregnant…” I say, walking over to the five mares. “I want cuddles now because Time thinks it’s alright to mess with a man that already has enough mental issues…” Rarity got up and gave me a kiss. “From what she’s told me, she has issues to, she saw so much death… things worse than death… She promised me not to tell this, but she doesn’t sleep.” “I can imagine, but all I can say is...we can help her. All she needs to do is ask for the love she really needs...or have it forced on her in the name of loving cuddles.” I say simply. “A simple act of kindness can help a lot of people.” “Ben, she uses her small grasp on time to keep herself awake. The one time she did fall asleep… she just kept screaming… crying… She was a sweet innocent girl and they stole that from her, they stole her mortality Ben. One time she fell out the window from my room, we saw her neck snap and she just got back up like it was nothing. She’s been through worse than hell.” “Well I’m next in line cause I’m gonna be fighting the fucker that caused it sooner or later.” I say with a shrug. “But...even if I couldn’t compare my problems to hers….we’re here for her now. We should still help her...she doesn’t deserve this kind of pain…” I explain. “No one does…” To be continued... Nobody's normal dayI was relieved that the girls weren't… knocked up… The rest of the day went along calmly, I was reading some more history books, Twilight reading a science book, she was leaning against me, it felt kinda nice just to do this. Time was here too, writing some stuff in what looked like a journal. “No… maybe…” She muttered, jotting down something else in her book. “Something wrong Time?” I ask while looking away from my book. “I mean...besides…” I trail off, remembering what Rarity told me about Time’s nightmares. “Ever since Core did this to me I’ve been getting small glances of possible future events, and just now I’m finally able to catalog them, though, it all seems like gibberish.” She replied, not even looking up. “The future is always gibberish.” I say bluntly. “But what do you have written down now?” “Not sure, it’s like… I see Keyblades, clashing, and that armor guy just taking hits from a guy in a black version of your cloak.” “Well that doesn’t sound good.” I frown. “But I suppose it’s not unheard of for stuff like that to happen. Fights come to those who want to help those that need it.” I shrug. “Yeah, but what I hear disturbs me greatly.” “What do you hear besides the fighting?” I ask curiously. “The Keyblades crying, screaming ‘not again’.” “Oh no…” I mutter, my eyes widening at hearing that. “No...there can’t be another one…” I say, shaking my head in worry. “Do you hear anyone else saying anything? Like people talking or just the Keyblades?” “Keyblades talking, people, they both have a static when I hear it, not much is clear. Though, I did hear…. A name I think?” “Do you know what the name was? Anything is better than nothing.” I say honestly. ”I hope I’m wrong about this but...a Keyblade war…” I think to myself bitterly. “I think it was Zeke’s voice, that armor guy, yelling out in anger… Hux… Hux-something…?” “I’m not sure if he told me anyone with a name like that...but Core seemed to like someone specific as a puppet…” “... Oh, Huxley. Core often referred to that guy by Puppet.” “That’s not good…” I frown. “Let’s hope it doesn’t happen...or if I could be able to stop it…” “I did say ‘possible’, so nothing I see is set in stone. Why do you think I bet on you? I go by what I think was the likely possibility I see.” “True…” I sigh out. “But remember Time...all of us are here for you…” I say. “Three.... Two…. One…” She muttered, then a flash of magic blinded me as someone teleported in the livingroom. “Called it.” “Oh, hey Ben…” Celestia said, so she popped in? My eyes are still adjusting. “Tia what in thine holy ass are you doing here?” I ask, rubbing my eyes to help them readjust. “And next time can you make your entrance less blinding?” “Sorry, was in a hurry… well, anyway, I have a question to ask.” “What is your question princess?” I ask curiously, wondering why she just popped on in. “Can I… erm… barrow you…?” “I’m sorry you have to wait in a line of five mares.” I joke. “And before you ask, no you can’t turn me into female.” “No, not that… I suppose I should elaborate… you see… my parents-” “OH HELL NO!” Luna’s voice rang from upstairs as she teleported in front of Celestia. “You are going to lie to mom again, and use my boyfriend to do it!” “Holy hell Celestia can you not? And to be perfectly honest why are you only interested in mares? Just a tad curious.” I ask honestly. “Preferences or one too many bad dates with guys?” “I’ve always been into mares… but my…” She looked over to Luna. “our parents are… old fashioned… I’ve been hiding my sexuality from them since I was old enough to realize I was a lesbian. I’ve been… afraid of their judgement…” “Well don’t worry, they’ll fear my judgement.” I say with a smile. “So who are your parents again?” I asks, having literally no idea who the hell they were. “Our father is named Locus, the alicorn of space.” Luna explains. “And our mother is Faust, alicorn of life.” ”Holy shit they were right.” I think to myself, having seen some fanfiction of Faust being their mother or Faust being the ‘goddess’ of Equestria. “But now Faust will fear me more because she’s a hypocrite. She’s the alicorn of life, yet I have a feeling she hates people who are gay or lesbians…” “No...” Celestia said. “She doesn’t hate them… she just… as the alicorn of life, she… just finds it sad and unnatural about the whole ‘miracle of birth’ between same sex couples when magic or surrogates are required…” “And the fainting.” Luna added. “Mother has always been more… nervous about sexual topics, very much more than you Ben, she blushes when normal couples are talked about, same sex makes her faint.” “Well I can knock her out just by saying ‘sex’ and your father can deal with me back talking the fuck out of him.” I say simply. “Oh dad is no issue, this is only for mother’s sake.” Luna explains further. “He knows sister’s little secret, but is happy so long as she is.” I take a moment before groaning loudly and rubbing my temple. “So only the Alicorn of Life has a problem with life getting the chance to...do whatever it wants….for fuck sakes that’s still hypocrisy!” “Meh.” “Wait,” Twilight cut in. “I thought you two were found alone near the border of the badlands like in the books?” “Oh, that’s all crap story tellers made up about us as the ages drew on.” Celestia deadpanned. “The only reason mother and father got together is because they were the only two old alicorns from the alicornian era of equestria to survive… well they didn’t say, but I can imagine it was a war.” “It’s always war, no matter what you do, no matter what age you're in...it always ends with some good old fashioned, wasteful, useless war that is caused by someone calling a woman chubby.” I say with a shrug. “Or something like that I don’t know where I was going with that, but seriously war is fucking stupid, and rarely gets anyone anywhere in the long run.” “Look Ben, please, mother has already assumed I’m in this herd with Luna, please just play along, name your price. They won’t even meet you again in your lifetime.” I think for a moment. “The price can be anything right? Besides sex of course, I wouldn’t want to force that on you.” I say. “That’s right.” “Okay...my price…” I start. “I want you and Luna to take off your pants and show me both of your asses. I want to do a little...comparison of sorts.” I say with a perverted smile. Luna burst out laughing while Celestia looked mortified. “Ben, sit dog…” Twilight muttered. I think there’s an anime style dark aura around her… and she’s cracking my shoulder bones... “How about you relax for ten fucking seconds instead of getting pissy.” I growl at Twilight, not liking how she’s suddenly starting to turn evil here. “I am honestly curious, because I’m dating Luna I want to know if Celestia is just as nice, so stop cracking my shoulder bones and let me just do this simple thing that Celestia told me I could do.” I frown, staring down at the pissed off Twilight. “On one condition…” Celestia said, making Twilight stop breaking my shoulder and causing her to look at Celestia. “I… get to… Kiss Twilight…” “Say what?!” Twilight stuttered. “Sure.” I say with a smile. “Whatever makes you happy Celestia, I’m already doing something outside your comfort zone so I’ll allow you to be happy.” “Do I have any say in this?!” Twilight asked. “Seems not.” Luna deadpanned, finally breaking out of her laughing fit. “You cracked my shoulder bones Twilight, so no you don’t have any say in this.” I state as bluntly as humanly possible. “I may be a pervert but I still care about women, and I’ve fought against women, so I know how strong they can be.” I state. “So kiss her already, you probably made out with Zecora or Pinkie while we were drunk so who cares?” Needless to say, Twilight was about ready to slap me when Luna and Celestia dropped their pants, to which Celestia saved me from a hand shaped slap mark by grabbing Twilight and placing a deep kiss on her… to which when It was over I think Twilight’s brain was fried as she was unresponsive after that. We asked Time and the others to look after her while Luna, Celestia and I went to Canterlot to meet their parents. “Ya know...honestly I couldn’t tell whose was better.” I say honestly. “I mean both of you are very lovely women and anyone would be lucky to have either of you but still.” “Still not joining Ben.” Celestia said. “This is just an act, then when mom and dad leave, you can go back to deal with Twilight and bone zone my sister and I can go back to my girlfriend.” “I understand Celestia, I never said you had to, and I will never force you.” I say gently. “I may be a pervert, but I care about a women’s, or mares, decision in life. You can love mares as much as you want and all I can see is a happy and beautiful sister in law. So no need to be all ‘still not joining’.” I say with a smile, suddenly hugging the rainbow maned alicorn happily. “Thank you, but you did send some mixed signals with what I had to do to get you here.” She said, letting me go as we entered her throne room. “I’m sorry I find lesbians sexy.” I whisper with a blush. “That’s part of shy sister is one I imagine.” Luna comments. “The idea of making men watch what they can’t have…” “That’s just a bonus.” Celestia replies. “They will be here soon, I hope she locked herself up the bedroom…” “Let’s hope this goes well.” I sigh out. A guard entered the throne room. “Princess, Locus and Faust have arrived.” “Thank you, send them in.” Celestia said, she and Luna taking a seat on their thrones. I leaned against Luna’s. I fixed my silver crown a little bit, making sure it was good. “How do I look?” I ask Luna. “Iike royalty… edgy royalty…” The doors opened and what I saw… confused me. They looked like a normal mare and stallion, no wings or horns. The stallion was a silver color with a mane like Luna’s, while the mare looked like a shorter Celestia, but with a red mane. Not even flowing, just flat. “There’s our girls.” The stallion said as he entered. “Hi mom, dad.” Luna said, smiling with a wave. “Sir Locus, Madam Faust, I’ve heard so much about you two.” I half lie, smiling at the two normal looking ponies. “We’ve heard a bit about you as well, White Knight.” Faust said. “I haven’t seen a Keyblade in years.” “Um...should I even question how you know that?” I ask curiously. “We never told the girls this,” Locus started. “But we were in the Keyblade war… barely made it out of that chaos when… well, I’d rather not say.” “How come you never told us this?” Celestia asked. “Keyblades are dangerous tools Celestia, they cost the mass population of the universe their lives back then.” Faust stated. “We figured it would be best to leave it as story, or legend… seems the truth came out though.” “That would be a combination of my bad, and Starswirl’s.” I say honestly. “Starswirl had a Keyblade?!” Celestia asked in shock. Luna elbowed me. “Ben!” “She was going to figure it out sooner or later.” I say bluntly. “But don’t worry Celestia, there’s nothing more to that now then just stories. So can we get back to the topic at hand? Like how I’m dating both of your daughters?” “Yes, the topic of… Keyblades has left a sour taste in my mouth.” Faust said. “So, how did you meet our daughters White Knight?” “Please, no need for my ‘Hero’ name. Call me Ben.” I say with a smile. “But how did I meet them? Well it started with Luna wanting to meet me after I beat...Heartless…” I sigh out. “Yes, Heartless are around and are attacking places...but Luna was so happy to see me be a hero she just had to have her hands on me…” I say sheepishly. “Hah, little LuLu just loved those stories of heroes slaying monsters. Not surprised.” Locus said. “She once made her own ‘tower’ out of mud and waited to see if any ‘knights’ would show up and save her.” “I was nine!” Luna defended, a clear blush across her face. I gently patted Luna’s head. “You could have just told me.” I smile. “But Celestia? She was kind and nice but didn’t want to be as….forward as Luna. After a few dates she learned to love me and I agreed to date her along with Luna. And I couldn’t be luckier to have both the sun and the moon by my sides.” I smile warmly. “That’s lovely to hear.” Faust said. “I’m glad Luna has found you… so… Celestia… where’s you *gulp* girlfriend?” We were silent. “Is there a problem with Celestia having a girlfriend?” I ask curiously, the first to break the silence. “Mother! How did you find out?!” Celestia asked, scared. “Well, after I heard Canterlot was invaded by changelings I came to check on you… only to walk in on you and that Queen Chrysalis going at it... “ Faust said, making Celestia blush. “So… how did that happen?” “So you would rather date a women that can change into a man, then just a man and a woman….how the hell did you even get to date her Celestia?” I ask curious. Celestia’s face glowed red. “Well… when she changes into a male the parts are… still female… and I ran into her while I was out in a pub… using an illusion spell to appear normal, she was in disguise, we talked, got drunk. Next thing I knew I woke up in a hotel room with a changeling queen… we nearly gave eachother a heart attack… but we just… kept going like we did until…. Her whole hive now works among ponies in Canterlot and she lives with me here.” “Ya know…” I start. “I didn’t expect you to sleep with someone so much that peace could be solved….” I say simply. “So...what would happen if I were to say I’m pretending to be Celestia’s boyfriend? Cause me and Luna we’ve been together for a while now, and although Celestia practically wishes I was a mare so she could have me...which begs the question do you like mares with...extra parts?” I ask curiously, knowing that’s a thing in my original world but feeling like it would be more possible here. “Also Madam Fauster, why do you think it’s unnatural for two consenting adults, of the same gender, is sad?” I ask. ”Are you freaking kidding me? Did I just realize that Faust’s name could be placed into ‘Foster’s home for Imaginary friends’?” I think to myself with mild irritation. “Well… I just wish they could have a child without magic… children born from magic tend to have mental or physical issues… and a surrogate means it’s not truly both parents child… That’s all really.” “I understand.” I nod. “But life finds a way. That’s the best I can say to most weird shit that happens in life.” “True enough, now, Celi, I believe Ben also asked you a question as well? Something about hermaphrodites?” “Well…” Celestia was blushing. “I… I… no, just no…” “Is there spells that could give a mare a...actual real working set of parts?” I ask Luna curiously. “Ben, is this a fetish of yours?” Luna asked. “No, I’m just curious is all.” I say honestly. “I mean when you think about it from the history I’ve been learning magic can literally do...just about anything really. Tend to the earth, move the sun and moon, do daily things in life, even time travel and go to other worlds.” I explain. “Also quick question, shouldn’t you two have horns and wings? Or is that just a disguise of some sort?” The two looked sad at the mention of a horn and wings. “... they were sliced off of us. During the war.” Locus said. “Jesus christ…” I say sadly. “Well...this is the part where I shut up and stop talking before asking another question…” I sigh out, looking down and letting my shoulders sag in bitterness that I brought up something terrible for my two in law parents. “We can still fly and use our magic without them fine… but just the…. Well, let’s try and find something to better the mood then.” Faust said. “How about… A… Well, I got nothing aside from Luna and Celestia’s childhood stories.” “Are they as embarrassing as I think they are?” I ask with a growing smile. “Cause I’m up for hearing it. I mean, I can’t say much besides ‘I helped bring the dead back to life’ but that’s about as simple as can be.” “Wait, you know necromancy?” Locus asked. “No I don’t...but I had a little help from a friend as we both have...special powers. Want me to demonstrate one of my powers?” I ask. “I don’t want to scare two seasoned warriors so much that they suddenly blow up half the castle.” “We left our Keyblades at the Graveyard and disowned them.” Locus said. “May those hunks of metal find peace.” “I have a feeling they're not…” I say before snapping my fingers, suddenly a Dusk appeared and swayed in a passive manner. “I can summon Nobodies, my friend can summon Heartless. We just found the specifics and boom, out popped up naked people.” “So… I wonder who this was…” Faust asked, slowly approaching the Nobody. “I have no doubt that many of our comrades are stuck like this as well.” “His heart is in a state of perfect balance. And with that balanced heart he can control the Heartless he summons.” I explain, the Dusk looking around and asking where it’s heart was, knowing Faust is approaching it but not really caring at the moment. “With his help we saved eight people from their hearts from darkness...and I have a feeling, when I’m better at doing this, we can bring back so many more.” “Abilities that were used to kill each other… used to heal and bring back those lost… If only things didn’t end the way they did.” “We can’t change the past...and what caused the war was sad and regretful...but all we can do right now is look straight forward and make do with what we have and carve a better future.” I explain. “I’m not gonna have the past be the example of the future.” “Words well spoken. Tell me, have you run into anyone else who has had control of these forbidden abilities, but uses them for the wrong reasons?” “I’ve met two...maybe three but the third ran and the fourth had a handicap. One showed a sliver of doubt in her life of darkness and rage...one is consumed by it…but I have a feeling I’ll meet plenty more who would use their powers for evil...but where’s the fun if everything’s all sunshine and rainbows?” I ask. “Light can’t survive without Darkness, and Darkness can’t survive without Light. It’s a fact we all must learn, but some are just too blinded by one side they can’t figure that out...but I’m in the middle of both...for I am wise and stupid, sad but happy...I am Nothing.” I say. ”Can I stop talking like a fucking philosopher for ten fucking seconds?” “In other words, still in puberty?” Locus joked, causing everyone to laugh… even the Dusk. “Okay okay, that got me pretty good.” I wipe a tear from my eye from laughing to much. Joy? It’s...how? The Dusk asks me and only me, the being looking over at me and tilting it’s head. “Sometimes dad jokes are just so good even Nothing can find Something.” I smile. Luna and I headed home after dinner with her parents… Chrysalis joined in the dinner and… well, Faust did faint, but that was because of the tongue kissing she and Celestia did. All was good, life was still nothing more than madness and the library was tame… wait, what? As Luna and I entered, we saw Time waiting for us in front of the bedroom door. “You broke her…” She stated, looking unamused. “Listen, she tried breaking my shoulders.” I say. “And you broke her mind.” “As I was going to say, she was getting super pissy over me giving a price that Princess Celestia was, albeit worried for a few moments, willingly accepted...by letting Celestia kiss Twilight…” I say honestly. “I mean she probably kissed Luna a bunch...and Pinkie, Rarity and Zecora…” I trail off. “She was drunk, no memory, well, clear memory, but she was sober then, and now, she’s on some kinda kissing fetish frenzy!” “Where’s Twilight?” I ask. “In the bedroom, with Pinkie, Rarity, and Zecora, all three covered head to toe in each others lipstick and saliva!” She stormed off. “What did Celestia do? It was a fucking kiss…” I whisper to Luna worriedly. “I am just as lost as you…” Luna admitted, gulping as we opened the bedroom door. Only for us both to be grabbed by hands covered in what looked like lipstick kiss marks and spit. “Get in!” I couldn't’ tell who said that, all everything became was a blur of kisses and lipstick. To be continued... Author's Note So yeah...this is a chapter. It's random, weird and a tad unfocused, but hey a normal day for Ben shouldn't be 'normal'. All I can literally ask is to please not hate me or BioQuill for writing this...mess. Nobody's Moonlight“So...many...kisses…” I pant, not believing how many times these girls could kiss. So just to recap after me and Luna stepped into the room and then dragged to bed we were all into a kissing frenzy, all of our clothes on the discarded just so we could all kiss even more. If you’ve ever heard of ‘showered with kisses’ then I would have been in waterfall of kisses with all this. “I...love...you all.” I chuckle, a goofy smile plastered on my face after all that. I got out of bed and into the shower… lipstick all over your body is a pain to wash off… After that I dot dressed and saw Spike, Sweetie, and Time in the living room. “You look like a tornado hit you.” Time said. “You could say that.” I say, my smile never leaving my face after what happened. “So how are you three today?” “I’m meeting up with Rainbow today.” Spike said. “I’m gonna draw.” Sweetie said. “I am gonna try and figure out more of my visions.” Time said. “Sounds good…” I nod. “Hey Spike...mind if I try something real quick?” I ask, summoning my Duskblade. “What?” He asked. “I just...want to see something.” I say while grabbing the blade part and holding out the guard towards Spike. “I believe this is a ‘vow’ to gain a Keyblade….so grab the handle if you would.” I say to Spike, hoping this’ll work. He held the handle and I began to try and remember the words. "In your hand, take this Key... So long as you have the makings, then through this simple act of taking, its wielder you shall one day be... And you will find me, friend—no ocean will contain you then... No more borders around, or below, or above, so long as you champion the ones you love." With that, Spike let go of the handle. “That’s it?” “If memory serves then yes. I don’t know how long it’ll take but soon you will be able to summon a Keyblade that’s just for you.” I explain. “Core did something very different than that…” Time muttered. “I am not a Master, and I don’t know if I could just wave my hand and give people Keyblades, but for right now that’s all I got. I don’t want to do what Core does cause…” “It’s Inhuman?” Time Bell offered. “Exactly.” I nod. “Well I do feel a power in Spike that wasn’t there before so I guess we just gotta wait for it to appear.” “If that’s all then I’m off.” Spike said, getting up and exiting the library/house. “Alright.” I nod. “Let’s hope I can do that with the other girls…” I say. “At least...when they wake up.” “I’m sure it will be soonish.” A voice spoke from nowhere. “Why hello there disembodied voice. How can I help you today?” I ask, looking around for the being I knew was around. “Dak!” A large snake/chimera like creature appeared in front of me. “I was hoping to spook you… you really are an odd one.” “Hey Discord.” Time said. “Hello Time Bell.” “Oh I’m the odd one, but you can go around looking like that.” I frown, seeing Discord and still finding even his features odd. “Anyways Discord, what do you want? Cause I doubt you want a Keyblade.” “Keep the things… after the war I never really want to see one again.” “Another one from the war huh?” I ask. “Yes, I fought along side Sun and Moon butts parents. When I saw you had one is the news on TV I did get flashbacks… besides the point, I figured I should tell you a few things about my least favorite topics right under sanity and ethics.” “Like how bad cheese and chocolate milk go together?” I ask, just a random thing crossing my mind at this point. “That is delicious and irrelevant to my point. I’m here to see how much you know about the Keyblade war.” “I know it was a giant massacre, there’s a giant Graveyard filled with Keyblades that are rusting over, and a few guesses on what happened after the war.” I say. “I’ll tell you this much. There were two types of survivors. Those like me and the royal sisters parents, who fled the battle, and those who stayed… and committed near genocide… But that aside, how many Keyblade wielders do you think fought in the war?” “In the millions? Or billions?” “Literally ALL of them… you see, the impact the war had on the multiverse, quite frankly tore holes between the dimensions, meaning every Keyblade war in each reflection got mixed together and became one massive battleground. This is partly why some Keyblades if not most you see in the graveyard are more than just one.” “Yet I have a feeling there were groups that didn’t take part in the war at all...because there’s always those groups that just run away…” “There was one group that didn’t participate at all, and fled to the outer worlds, to keep the light alive… that war should have ended everything, but if it wasn’t for that group, we wouldn’t be here. But my point is, the tears in reality are not healed completely in the Graveyard.” “That doesn’t sound good…” I frown. “This means that the genocidal survivors of the Keyblade war that still know this, can hop from one reflection to another with ease if they know where to ‘slice’.” “Damn…” I frown. “But um...question, who were your master and Luna’s parents master? Cause if you three were Keyblade wielders then you must have had a master…” I say, not knowing anything that happened before the Keyblade war. “Back then things were very different, but I guess you can say my master was Foreteller Gula. There used to be five unions all Keyblade wielders had to choose one to be in, and there was no going back to go to another. The royal butts parents belonged under Foreteller Ira’s union. None of us made it to the Master title… the war hit first.” “Okay then….but would it be weird if I said a version of you is...a Keyblade?” I ask honestly, knowing I heard Discord from Zeke. “You think I didn’t sense that version of me? I could tell, he was much, much, younger than me though, so that reflection of me must have been born after the war in his universe.” “This reflection crap is very confusing…” I grumble, rubbing my head gently. “Multiverse theory is a bitch.” “From what I was told, there was only one universe, one reality, back when the worlds were one… the multiverse was a result of not only the world breaking up into the stars we know today, but the reality around the world breaking as well.” “Sweet lord…” I mutter. “But...I know you’re retired and all but...I have a feeling you’re time of being ‘retired’ is coming to a close Discord...I don’t know when and I don’t know if you’ll ever decide to wield a keyblade again but…” “Like those two, I’m never touching the things again. I may be a chaos spirit, but what I saw that day was not chaos, that was murder. I do know someone who might be able to help though…” “Please, cause I have a feeling I’m gonna need all the help I can get...and hopefully it’s a teacher cause I’m not sure Luna could teach me, my four other girlfriends sooner or later and Spike…” “His name is Luxu… and he’s one of the Foretellers… well, sorta. He had a much different role during the war.” “Why do I have a feeling it involves some sort of chest or box?” I frown. “Cause if the other Foretellers were training new Keybladers he probably had a job to….maybe hide something.” “Yeah, his master’s last invention ever before he disappeared. Only he know what’s in it, but getting to Luxu is… tricky.” “How tricky?” I ask with a frown. “Do I have to go through three magical volcanoes and Nothingness just to get to him?” “... We’ll be in Core’s world…” “Fuck that then.” I say while throwing my hands into the air. “I’d rather not walk straight into enemy lines just to find him.” “Core has bases in every dark realm reflection, but Luxu is on the one place even he fears in that place.” “Void?” I ask. “No, a place called Moonlight… the only light in the realm of Darkness.” “Sounds fun. Too bad that I’ll never be able to get there.” I frown. “I’m still too weak sadly.” “So are the heartless that get near the place. Core doesn’t even go near the place, he’ll never see us and I’m sure Luxu will be able to help.” “Hopefully…” I sigh out. “But getting to Moonlight won’t be as simple as opening a door and walking through it to immediately be there.” I frown, knowing that getting to a place so special as that it’ll be a nightmare just to get close. “I can oped a DTD just a few miles from it, though when we get out the Pureblood Heartless will start appearing.” “Well let’s hope I’m fast enough.” I say before tossing up my keyblade and my glider appeared. Discord held out his hand, and opened a DTD. “No need for that in a DTD, besides, that cloak of yours will be enough.” “I’m coming too.” Time said. “If Ben’s too scared of the dark then someone’s gotta watch his back.” “I’m not scared of the dark.” I frown. “There’s a difference between being scared of the Dark, and being scared of what lurks in it. Major difference.” I say. “That’s a scared child's logic Ben.” She deadpanned, getting and and standing next to me. “Why do you think people are afraid of the dark? Because of what lives in it.” “Whatever you say.” I say before disbanding my keyblade glider and grabbing my Duskblade. “Well, onwards to Moonlight.” We entered the DTD, and when we came out we were on a trail of sorts. “Moonlight is three miles ahead.” Discord said. “We best move fast.” “Right then.” I say before heading off to Moonlight quickly. As we made it to the two and a half mile mark till our location, a hoard of Neoshadows appeared. “Of course this happened.” I groan before summoning Xigbar’s Gun Arrow’s and pointing them towards the Neoshadows, firing at them and trying to clear a way through the hoard. The arrows looked like they did nothing, the Neoshadows taking the shots like bullet sponges. “Genius.” Time said, running up and punching one of them right in the jaw as it vanished in a puff of darkness. “Only Keyblades can work in the Realm of Darkness.” “This is literally my first time here so shush.” I say before disbanding my gun arrows and summoning my Duskblade and Vexin’s shield as I cleaved my way through the Neoshadows. Discord was casting defensive and healing spells on the two of us. He shrunk himself to about the size of Mushu from Mulan and was riding in my hood. “Just keep running. If a Guardian Darkside finds us we are screwed.” “I hate everything…” I grumble while continuing to cut my way through the Neoshadows, the hoard not looking any smaller as me, Discord and Time kept getting closer to Moonlight. Then, in front of us, a swarm of Shadow heartless, looking and acting like a living tornado of darkness popped in front of us. “Demon Swarm. These things are smart Ben.” Time said. “Oh what the fuck…” I groan. “So how do I kill that thing? Or is it obvious with the giant glowing orb that’s trying not to say ‘I’m a weak point’?” “Good luck getting to it. We gotta avoid this thing, or else we may-” Something slashed the Demon Swarm. “What the?!” When the Demon Swarm fell, who was behind it surprised me. Master Aqua. “Come on!” She shouted, running ahead. “What’s Aqua doing here?” I mutter to myself, but shrugging it off as I dashed towards Aqua. We followed her as she hacked whole hordes of heartless in just a few swings. No doubting she was strong. We made it to what looked like a building, glowing white like the inside of castle oblivion. When we entered… I felt surprisingly calm. “You all alright?” Aqua asked. “Uh...yes…” I say with a slow nod, looking around the place. “But...this is Moonlight?” “Yes.” She replied. “It was built here by my friend Luxu, a hiding place that does stand out, but repels the Heartless.” “Time? Discord?” I ask, hoping the two were still with me here. “Behind you.” Time said. “Here.” Discord said, jumping out of my hood and returning to full size. “How did you get here?” Discord asked Aqua. “I was saving a friend from falling into darkness. He made it out, but I ended up falling in his place.” Aqua said, looking sad. “Has any large amount of time passed in the Realm of Light?” “More than you can imagine.” I sigh out. “You’ve missed a lot Master Aqua, but I’m sure you’ll be able to go back to the Realm of Light and see for yourself.” “I hope. Did you three escape from Core’s lab?” “I did.” Time said. “But that was a year ago and I made it back to the realm of light.” “Why come back?” “Look out for this idiot.” Time pointed a thumb at me. “Hey!” I snap at Time. “You didn’t have to come along Time, that was your own decision. But no, I am from the Realm of Light, we came here to meet Luxu...I didn’t expect to see you here Master.” I say, wanting to be respectful to Aqua as a Master. “I was wandering the realm of darkness when that Core found me. Such a powerful darkness, even among the never ending darkness here, I could feel it from him the most. I ran to escape him, and that’s when I found this place and met Luxu. He was glad to have the company. Come on, he’s in the other room.” Aqua led us down a narrow hall until we came across a door with a large blue eye painted on it. She knocked on it. “Luxu, we have company.” “Send them in.” A rather young voice, maybe a year or so older than me, spoke. We entered, and we saw a guy in a black organization XIII cloak sitting on a chair next to a fireplace. “Now how did you three get here? Wait, Discord?” He got up and walked up to Discord. “Long time no see friend.” Discord said, shaking Luxu’s hand. “Hello.” I say nervously, making sure my crown was in it’s right spot given that I’m talking to someone very important, even more important than Aqua here. “Oh, hey. Who are you?” Luxu asked. “The names Ben.” I say to the young man. “And I’m...a special kind of Keyblader…” I say while scratching the back of my head nervously, not feeling right with pointing out I’m ‘special’ to two masters that are way beyond my own set of skills. “I see, your heart is partly dead.” He said nonchalantly “Well it’s coming back to life with the amount of joy I’m in all the time.” I say with a smile. “But...still a partly dead heart isn’t good...right?” “What starts a heart dying is lack of emotions. You look like you're getting better, but I can tell you still hang on to the anger and grudges from your past. You are still rude to others, and generally it’s because they say something rude to you. Word of advice, let that crap go, and you’ll thank me later.” “Trying to, but it’ll come to me. Having five girlfriends can help with trying to get a heart back ya know?” I chuckle. “It’s not just the ones you care about that you need to respect and care about, it’s the ones you hate that you gotta care about also.” “That is true...I showed one of my enemies care…” I say. “I hope she’s alright though.” “Oh, so then that’s what that was.” “There was a woman, Yellow as she was called, and I showed her sympathy. She was probably going to say thank you but...for some reason I doubt the ‘she’s a reflection of Core’...unless reflections can be gender bent then she’s probably someone else entirely.” I say, having thought about that whole situation a tad too much in my free time. “Then that’s what happened at their lab. Ha, Core must be pissed.” “What happened?” I ask curiously and worriedly. “Did something bad happen?” “Some time ago, one of Core’s labs exploded in a burst of light, I’m talking atomic bomb bright. After it all settled, they were chasing one of the Core reflections and she escaped through a DTL. One of those this deep in the darkness, she must have escaped with a fragment of the Grandfather Light. I could see her heart from where I was… it was pure light, which it was not before the explosion.” “That is very strange….but this ‘Grandfather Light’...does it have something to do with Kingdom Hearts?” I ask. “Kid, it made Kingdom Hearts! It made everything! It’s like our god in a sense, but it largely died off save for the pieced Kingdom Hearts made into the Keyblades. If they have a fragment of it, then it must have come from a powerful Keyblade to make an explosion that large and purify a heart that dark.” “Well here’s the thing...Yellow explained to me that Core, and all his followers that had hearts, literally ripped their hearts out and shoved pure darkness into themselves, forging their hearts into Keyblades. They are literally Nobodies with darkness for hearts...and they call themselves Demons because of that.” I say. “I know. The Grandfather Light undid all of that to that female Core! That shit can do literally anything! It’s why they fear it above anything and everything.” “Listen, I’ve barely been in this for barely two weeks, and I barely know anything.” I say while rubbing my head. “Jeez this is a lot to take in…” I sigh out. “So anything else I need to know right now that I’ll need to know?” “Just one.” Luxu leaned in close. “So who’s the cutie with the gears stuck in her?” “This is Time Bell.” I say while patting her head. “She is…” I start, trying to find the right words. “A Keyblade…” “I was one of Core’s experiments.” She said. Luxu took one of her hands and kissed it, making Time actually blush. “You are still a very pretty lady.” He added, making her face turn even redder. I smiled at the scene. “She needs someone special in her life.” I say with a nod. “Someone that she can trust...and looks like you could be one of those people Luxu.” I chuckle, seeing Time’s beat red face just looking so precious here. “I-I-I-I-” Time stuttered. “Anything you need melady?” Luxu asked Time. She gulped. “B- Ben needs someone to teach him and the others a-a-about Keyblades…” She managed to say. “She also wants a date…” I joke with a cheeky smile. “But yes, she is correct...me and many others need to learn so we can stand a chance against Core and whatever crap he’ll throw at us next.” I explain in a more serious tone. “Alright.” Luxu said. “Been wanting to get the heck out of here anyway. So Aqua, you coming?” “Wait, you had a way out of this darkness this whole time?” Aqua asked, disbelief across her face. “It would be weird if he didn’t.” I shrug. “I mean, he looks like someone who’s traveled too long of a distance. So it would be weird if he didn’t have certain ways out of certain places.” “Yeah Aqua, you think I entered this place without a means of exiting?” Luxu said. “I never said anything cause you never asked.” Luxu summoned the Gazing Eye, and shot a beam of light at the fireplace. It glowed a bright white, and turned into a… steering wheel? “This whole building is a gummi ship I built specially to fly in and out of the realm of darkness… I just wanna do one thing first.” He walked into a DTD, then immediately ran back out. “Now we can GTFO.” He said as massive explosions were heard in the distance. “How do you even know what the hell that means?” I ask with a frown, slightly confused here on how he knows some lingo from Earth. “My grandpa told me about it. He visits when Aqua is out sometimes.” “You have an grandpa?” I ask with a raised eyebrow. “Yeah, my dad’s dad? Duh. His name’s God.” Luxu grabbed the steering wheel, and the whole building began to move. “My dad went by Master of Masters.” “Wait WHAT!?!” I shout in disbelief. “You mean to tell me you're the grandson of God?” I ask. “Yeah, why? He sounds important to you?” “Well…” I start, taking a deep breath. “Um...I’m not sure if God would like this but technically where I come from...I’m apart of his imagination.” I say sheepishly. Luxu looked at me. “Oh… OH! So that crazy old man finally pulled it off! Ha!” “Yes yes the power of Imagination can make you do literally anything and everything.” I say with a frown. “I don’t understand and I don’t think I’ll ever understand how he did...that.” “No, you won’t.” Luxu deadpanned. “Now… what world are you living on?” “Equestria.” Discord said. “Ah, been there. Well then, off we go!” “That was a better landing than expected.” Luxu said. The whole ship was upside down and we crashed just behind Twilight's library. “YOU ALMOST DESTROYED MY HOUSE!!” I shout at him, holding Xigbar’s gun arrows and thankfully learning how to defy gravity in the moments we were ‘flying’. “But I didn’t! Now then… what’s going on with the white lady with the rainbow hair outside?” Luxu asked as we saw Celestia standing outside the ship on a monitor that appeared when the ship took off. “Oh for christ sakes.” I grumble. “Luxu you suck at driving just so you know.” I frown. “Never claimed to know how to drive this thing.” He stated, getting back up. “Is everyone else alright?” I ask, hoping Time, Aqua and Discord are fine. “I’m good.” Aqua said. “Saw my life flash before my eyes… I think I might just take a short vacation, because it was all just fighting…” “Never been better.” Discord said. “Been better.” Time muttered. “Well thankfully Aqua you can have that vacation.” I say honestly. “Now how the hell are we going to get out of this house that’s upside down?” I ask with a frown. “This place is probably a wreck after your crash landing.” “Easy.” Luxu punched a person sized hole in the nearest wall. “Like that.” “I didn’t mean destroying part of your ship but whatever.” I say before walking outside. “Relax, I can repair and build another one.” When we got outside, Celestia was there with a concerned look. “Ben? What the heck is this? And who are they?” “Okay so that is a Gummi Ship called ‘Moonlight’. The two people inside are Keyblade masters, the female with blue hair is called Aqua, and the man in the black coat is Luxu. And why this happened is because Luxu sucks balls and driving.” I say with a shrug. “Albeit I have a feeling I wouldn’t have done better cause I don’t know how to drive a gummi ship...or drive to begin with.” I say, going right side up and stepping down on solid ground. “I never claimed to know how to drive!” Luxu yelled as he jumped out of the ship and landed face first on the ground. “Dirt… I actually missed dirt…” “Son of the Master of Masters….I can probably see that.” I say, thinking that the Master of Masters would probably be a kind guy who wasn’t like a ‘all seriousness’ kind of man. “Anyways Luxu, this is Celestia, princess of the sun and very concerned alicorn at having your ship crash land behind her student, and my girlfriends, house.” Luxu looked up at her. “Sup?” He dropped his head back onto the ground. “He’s rather… eccentric…” Celestia said. “And sadly he’s going to be one of my masters...and the others I’m planning on giving keyblades to.” I say with a shrug. “But thankfully Aqua is the more...calm and collected then ‘face in dirt’ over here.” “I was alone in the realm of darkness for sixty years realm of light time and about a month realm of darkness time… I’m kinda crazy alright?” Luxu said as he got up. “Though I am kinda acting more like my father before the war…” “I can imagine.” I say with a nod. “Anyways...I suppose I should meet you to the students you and Aqua are going to have...after Aqua spends some time relaxing and taking a break from fighting.” “Sure, but quick question?” “What be that quick question?” I ask curiously. “Where the fuck is the nearest restaurant? I and Aqua have been living off of light energy for a long ass time. I wanna taste food damn it.” “Oh Pinkie~.” I call out in a little sing song tone. “People need food and a party stat!” No sooner that I called out to her, she dragged us all inside where everything was already decorated with food everywhere. To which Celestia and Luxu got into a drinking and eating contest. Aqua ate about two whole cakes, and it was a near repeat of my part. Difference being that I woke up on the couch with everyone passed out around me. Luxu was missing, and so was Time. I know I saw them pass out yesterday? “God my head…” I mutter while putting a hand on my head. “Well...might as well see where Luxu and Time are…” I mutter while getting up and gently moving myself carefully to the basement, thinking I would find the two downstairs in Time’s room. When I got there, I saw Time cuddled up against Luxu on her bed… both had clothes on, thankfully, and I just carefully closed the door. “Better not ruin that moment.” I mumble to myself with a warm smile. “Man last night was fun.” As I made my way back upstairs I noticed I didn’t see Celestia either. I looked up… just in time for her body to fall on me. “Hu! What?” She said as she woke back up. “Did I sleep defying gravity again? Why do I do that when I’m drunk?” “Mmmm” I hum, my face full of Celestia’s boobs and thinking that this was nice. She noticed where I was and jumped off me. “Oh! Sorry Ben. That was unintentional.” “I didn’t complain about a face full of boobs.” I say with a smile, my face red from having boobs in my face. “But sorry Celestia, I didn’t see you up there...and it’s alright.” I say while getting up. “Well consider yourself lucky Ben. You’re officially the first man to ever feel my breasts.” “And boy were they just as heavenly as Luna’s.” I say with a goofy smile. She laughed. “Well that was a one time thing alright? I should get back to Canterlot. Thanks to my needy girlfriend and now with parties like these I’m behind on paperwork. Oh, when Luna wakes up tell her expect her half of the paperwork in the mail, alright?” “Alright, I’ll tell her.” I say with a nod. “But have a nice day Celestia.” I say with a smile and a quick hug. “Thanks Ben. You act like I always imagined a brother-in-law or a little brother would.” She teleported away, leaving me in a room full of hungover mares. “Welp...better get the day started.” I say while starting to wake up all the mares and Aqua. “Come on, time to get up, we got a lot of work to do today.” I say. Too be continued Nobody's discovery's and decisionAfter a while of people coming down from their hangovers, and when people were done throwing up in the bathroom or in buckets when people were busy with the bathroom, Spike and I decided to help get people breakfast, Spike with the actual cooking and me just getting people some Water or the soda Sprite surprisingly. “Don’t you think...soda is bad in the morning?” Twilight asks quietly, holding her head as her head still felt like people were smacking it with sledge hammers. “Surprisingly Sprite of all things can help with hangovers. Where I came from a study showed that caffeine free soda can help speed up the chemicals that cause a hangover and stop it sooner.” I say while taking a swig of the sweet soda. “That’s good…” I smile, glad to taste soda again while handing out the glasses of water for Aqua, Twilight, Rarity and Zecora while I put glasses of Sprite in front of Pinkie and Luna. “By the way, where’s Luxu?” Aqua asks, looking around slowly and not seeing the two. “He’s…” I start, thinking a little about how to say it. “He’s helping someone finally get a well deserved rest.” I smile softly, thankful for Luxu to give Time her first ever calm night of sleep. “Time is sleeping?” Rarity asked. “Yes she is...and the scene I saw was just beyond adorable.” I say with a smile. “How old is Luxu anyway?” Luna asked. “Well, that’s hard to say.” Aqua added. “He told me when he went into the realm of darkness he was sixteen, but that he was thirtyfive before that, fourteen when the Keyblade war hit, and now sixteen after however long her was in the realm of darkness. I think he can control his age. With what I saw Core could do, it wouldn’t surprise me really.” “Yeesh...and here I thought seeing Luxu and Time sleeping and cuddling together was nice now you're making me think about immortality here…” I say with a frown. “Or at least agelessness, that’s probably a lot easier then that.” There was a sudden small flash on the table, and a tiny Discord walked up. “Hey Ben, everyone.” He said. “Sup Discord.” I say with a nod. “How you doing this morning? Having fun not having a hangover?” I ask, taking another sip of my Sprite. “Last time I had a hangover was after I fled from the war. Lasted well over a hundred years… so can imagine I never touched alcohol again.” “I can imagine.” I say with a little frown. “So, what’s on today’s agenda? Cause I still have to hand out Keyblades to my girlfriends here and...have a feeling I’m gonna have to take a very important test soon…” “Sooner or later. I’m gonna show you something after you’ve eaten and such. I’d rather show you as soon as possible.” “Alright.” I nod. “Breakfast is ready.” Spike says, while I help out placing breakfast in front of all the mares and lady. “I read up on what to serve for breakfast, and apparently honeyed toast and eggs are perfectly good for such a thing.” Spike says honestly. Breakfast went on as usual. After that I did a few other small things then met up with Discord outside. He was back to being full sized. “Ready?” I summon Vexen’s shield just in case. “Um...ready for what?” I ask, not knowing what I need to be ready for. Discord grabbed my arm, and I felt how a dog sticking it’s head out of a moving car looks. When that feeling passed, I was in a barren wasteland… surrounded by rusted Keyblades. “I felt I should show you the graveyard.” “Still as barren and sad as a graveyard should be.” I say while looking around the area, rusted Keyblades as far as the eye can see but...in some places there wasn’t anything there when Keyblades should have littered the place. “Weird…” I mutter, not sure what to make of the Keyblades going missing. “So you noticed. Some one has been taking them. If they had found a new wielder then I would know, but they wouldn’t have left footprints everywhere.” “Maybe...maybe it’s Zeke…” I say while putting a hand to my chin. “That human Keyblade? The Keyblades from the graveyard he took them from are all stored within him. They’d vanish as if they had found a new wielder, this is not the Keyblades doing, nor his. But that was just one strange part, the other is further ahead.” Discord and I walked for what felt like miles. The further we went, the more I could imagine the battle, the bloodshed. We walked into a cave of sorts, where… Ventus was sleeping in a crystal coffin. “That is what’s new here.” “What in the hell's?” I say breathlessly, my eyes furrowed in concern as I saw Ventus in that coffin. “He...he shouldn’t be here…” I say worriedly, shaking my head at this worrying sight. “He should be….somewhere completely different.” “I know. I sorta entered Aqua’s dreams to see what was up with her. I felt something off here not long before you arrived in this world Ben, but this just makes no sense. And that’s coming from me.” “What...what happened to Castle Oblivion?” I ask seriously, finding this way too worrying. “He should be there...not in the Keyblade Graveyard...what the hell is Core doing?” I mutter the last part, knowing this has something to do with Core in some way shape or form. ”I mean technically we’re all fucking with time in some way shape or form but this...this is fucking with time to a whole new level…” I think to myself, my mind racing through all the possibilities of what could have happened. “I checked on that place before I came to you this morning… it’s fallen Ben, the whole place was swallowed in darkness.” “B-but how? That place should have been locked up tighter than Celestia’s willingness to date a man!” I say, not knowing why I compared Castle Oblivion with Celestia. Discord chuckled. “Not the time for a joke, but good one. I’m not sure either. Only Aqua and the Master Keeper could undo it, so I’m at a loss. I’m not even sure how this kid got here.” “Someone has fucked with time...to no end…” I say seriously. “Should we move the coffin? Aqua might want to know about this...she’s the one that’s trying to help him the most…” I say. “Let’s just hope Terra’s alright…” I mutter, having a feeling that if Castle Oblivion is fucked over then Terra is in major trouble. “Maybe. The boy’s heart is not with him, but he is the one who made that coffin around him, so it might be possible to talk to him.” “I would be the best...he’s technically a Nobody at this point…” I say while walking over to the coffin, hoping my heart would reach out to the kid with no heart. “How the hell did this happen Ventus?” I mutter. There was no response. I took a deep breath and stepped closer to the coffin, gently putting a gloved hand on the crystal coffin. “A kid that was supposed to be comatose made this? How in the nine hells…” I mutter, trying to find a way to open the coffin. “Try mentioning Aqua, or something familiar to him?” Discord offered. “Maybe…” I nod. “I met Aqua, one of your dear friends…” I say simply. “A nice woman, kind and smart, always smiling and just a great person to be around.” I say, even though I met her under bad circumstances and her being drunk. The crystal cracked. “Keep talking about these things!” Discord insisted. “How he’s even doing any of this is beyond me, but keep at it.” “Have you ever seen Aqua drunk? The smart and stoic Aqua bumbling around and giggling like a madwoman, oh lord was that quite a sight.” I chuckle. “But right now she’s doing alright...Aqua talked about you and Terra, how much she want’s to save you both and be together again…” I explain gently. “She would be the happiest girl in the world to see you awake and happy again…” I say, not sure if any of this will help crack the coffin more. The crystal coffin cracked greatly, it looks like one more thing might do it. “You can meet Sora in person when you wake up…” I mutter. The coffin broke, the crystals shattering into dust as Ven fell on the ground. “ …….s…….s…...sor…… sora……” “Good morning.” I say with a smile. “But yes, you can meet Sor-” Before I could finish, Ventus stood up. His eyes looked hollow, like when Xehanort first split him into Ven and Venitus. His Keyblade appeared, and he screamed an inhuman sound. I covered my ears, Discord did the same as he continued. He finally stopped, and spoke. “No… no… NOOOO!” He yells, as a dark aura cloaked his body and he went in to strike me. I summoned Vexen’s shield and blocked the strike, summoning my Duskblade in my right hand and swung straight at Ventus, hoping to keep my attacks from hurting him badly. ”What in the hell? Is Venitus doing something?” I think to myself worriedly, hoping there’s an answer to this. “Stop it!” He yelled as his dark aura grew. His attacks still coming. “Discord! Need some help to calm him down!” I shout, blocking his attacks the best I could against the berserk Ventus. Discord snapped his fingers, chains wrapped around Ventus, making him fall to the ground as he struggled. “STOP! STOP! STOP!” “How?” Discord asked. “His heart is not with him, how is that much darkness in him?” “Vanitas…” I mutter while pointing my Duskblade at Ventus’s chest. “Leave him alone!” Ven yelled. “Leave Sora alone!” He spat out. “Ventus listen! We have done nothing to Sora, why are you freaking out?” I ask Ventus, hoping to get some answers. ”Hell considering a few factors I haven’t seen or heard anything about the bastard…” I think to myself, having a feeling Sora might have went to one Equestria or another by accident. “Help him! Someone help him!” Ven kept screaming. “Keep that man away!” “Ven calm down!” I shout. “What man do you want Sora to stay away from? What the hell are you talking about?” I ask worriedly, hoping my worst fears aren’t coming true. To my surprise, Ven broke his chains, and pointed his Keyblade into the air. “SORA!” He yelled as it shot a beam of light into a sudden portal. When it faded, a heart floated out of it, and down into Ventus. When it entered, he passed out. “What the fuck?” I say simply, looking at the passed out Ventus and not really sure what to do. “Uh...want to...go back home?” I ask slowly, disbanding my weapons and gently picking up the unconscious boy carefully. “How…” Discord said. “He… his heart is back? Like he knew where it was…” “I’d love to explain at least...what I think of the situation but we need to get back...we need Aqua to see this…” I say. ”If Core killed Sora Riku and Kairi...then what the fuck is going to happen to the whole multiverse?” I think to myself worriedly. Discord nodded, and grabbed both my, and Ven’s arms and that rush wind feeling passed over and we were in front of the library. As we entered, Aqua spotted us. “Ven?!” She yelled, coming over and taking him from me. “How?” “We have a lot of explaining to do…” I say to her. “Let’s go inside and let Ven sleep in a bed….” Discord and I explained everything that happened to Aqua, she was shaking when Discord told her about Castle Oblivion, and the rest seemed to more confuse her rather than calm her. “But… if the castle is gone, then how did Ven get to the Graveyard?” “And how did he somehow get there in a coffin made entirely of some kind of crystal?” I add, still confused on that part. “But...all I can say is Ven’s safe...but Terra is another story…” I say nervously, knowing his situation is quite a special one. Aqua looked at Ventus and rubbed his arm. “Ven… what happened?” Ven moaned, which startled us. He got up on the bed and stretched. “Man… that was a power nap… Aqua?” “Ven!” She cheered, hugging him tight. “Wow! Aqua, I was just napping! You act like it’s been years since you saw me.” “Yeah...about that…” I say sheepishly. “As far as I know...you’ve been….asleep for maybe at least eight to ten years…maybe less.” “What? No way! Um… who are you anyway? And where am I? Last thing I remember was leaving Aqua and terra to finish their Mark of Mastery exam.” “Wait what?” I ask, tilting my head in confusion. “Did you...see anyone when you were leaving? Anyone at all?” I ask with a frown, knowing for a fact that’s not what happened in Ven’s storyline. “No… I was just waiting in my room for them and then… I think I fell asleep.” “You don’t remember any of what happened Ven?” Aqua asked, concern all over her face. “Remember what?” “You...have a lot to remember.” I say simply. “Aqua can fill you in on some things...I can fill in the rest.” I say, hoping my explanation fits the storyline well enough. “Wait.” Ven said. “So… Terra is missing, Aqua and this Luxu guy were in the realm of Darkness, and who is Sora?” “Wait...you don’t know who Sora is?” I ask in confusion. “You were screaming the guy’s name when you were flipping the fuck out when I got you out of that coffin.” “Sorry, I don’t remember any of that. But… coming from anyone other than Aqua I’d call you a liar. So, if this is all true then what the heck happened to me when this… Vanitas… merged with me? All I can remember was being in my room waiting for Aqua and Terra to tell me what happened.” ”Which is weird cause he was there when Terra and Aqua were doing their exam…” I think to myself. “But this Vanitas, the dark half of your heart, when you and him merged the X-blade was formed, and Aqua and Mickey had to fight you to stop Vanitas from causing havoc since he was in control of your body...in your mind however it was you two fighting to see who would be in control of...well you. It ended with you being comatose, Terra’s body and heart being in Xehanort's control while his Armor is...doing something, and a bunch of other things.” I explain as best I could. “I know it literally makes no sense but believe me it’s true.” “Wait… Xehanort as in the old guy with a bald head and silver hair?” “Yes.” I nod. “He decided to use you as a test subject to forge the X-blade, and when that worked and failed he stole Terra’s body by very forcibly shoving his own heart into Terra’s body…” I explain. “But that’s probably something you don’t want to know or something I ramble to much.” “You remember something about him Ven?” Aqua asked. “Sorta… I remember a big house, lots of kids, and he walked in and took me… the other kids wished me luck… Sunset Orphanage? … Right! That’s where I was before Xehanort adopted me!” I leaned over to Aqua. “The fuck is he talking about?” I whisper to the blue haired lady, not knowing a single thing he’s talking about. “We didn’t know anything about Ven’s past other than he was Xehanort’s apprentice. Ven, you remembered where you came from?” “Yeah… It’s still fuzzy though…” Ven spoke, scratching his head. “This is just so weird…” I say while scratching the back of my head. “You have amnesia that’s for sure...but it seems a little too selective…” I frown, finding it weird that he forgot literally everything from when he went to his room to now. “Well...we’ll figure it out in time in suppose...even though time is all sorts of screwed up at this point…” “Whatever the case, Ven is remembering things he couldn’t before.” Aqua stated. “He may not remember our journey across the worlds, but he’s finally remembered something about his own past. I’ve been worried since he came to live with Terra, Eraqus and I that he’d never remember.” “Yeah…” I nod. “But right now I have to do important things, you and Ven spend some time together...I think you still have a lot of stuff to tell him.” I say honestly, not knowing what sort of things Aqua’s been through in the Realm of Darkness. The day went on rather uneventful after that, besides the oaths I had my other girlfriends take. The things Ven said still rang in my head though, bothering me to no end. It wasn’t til dinner when Ven and Aqua finally came downstairs. “Hey.” Ven said. “Hey Ven.” I say, with a nod. “So, what world is this?” Ventus asks curiously. “Equestria.” Luna said, sitting at the table with a pile of paperwork Celestia promised would come. “Oh, so… Ben, you have a Keyblade?” Ventus asks, wanting to know more about me. “Why yes, yes I do...well technically two but...I’m not showing you that one.” I say before raising my hand and summoning my normal Duskblade. “This is Duskblade...a special kind of Keyblade that...was made out of a part of me believe it or not.” “From all the stuff you and Aqua told me, I believe it.” “I also have other special powers.” I say honestly. “But it’s best if I wait to show you, Aqua and Luxu. By the way where has Luxu and Time been?” I ask, wondering where they’ve been all day given I haven’t seen them for a while. “They went out while you and Discord were gone.” Sweetie Bell said. “Not sure where.” “Well as long as there having fun on their date I’ll be fine.” I say with a shrug. “They both deserve some time alone...let’s just hope they're not doing anything bad.” I chuckle. “Define bad.” I looked up, seeing Luxu and Time standing on the ceiling. “Nice trick huh?” Luxu said. “It’s just a gravity spell.” I say simply. “But what do I define as ‘bad’? Well...I could say you two were doing something me and Luna did after our date...but I’ll just keep it clean and say you two didn’t pull and pranks.: “We are not horny perverts like you.” Time said before giggling like crazy. “Though, what we did was pretty bad.” “We spiked the ‘non-alcoholic’ wine at Celestia’s Day court, the whole bunch of them were so wasted after one sip.” Luxu explained as he laughed. “Okay that’s pretty bad…” I frown. “Dude you do know you just made the co-ruler of a country a silly drunk during her job right?” I ask. “That’s not good at all...even if it’s funny that’s actually a very bad thing to do…” I say, knowing that sometimes you just shouldn’t mess with someone important when their doing something important. “That's just it! We recorded the whole thing on video, the nobles there confessed in their drunk state so many illegal things! They're all likely in jail now.” “Damn.” I say honestly, my eyes wide with the fact that in a drunken stupor a bunch of nobles explained their illegal doings. “Well...that’s something. So when are we going to get down to training? Cause while peace is a fine and dandy thing I’m still worried about Core...and sorry if it get’s in between you and Time here Luxu. I know you two love each other dearly, your cuddling this morning told me enough.” I say with a warm smile. “Fine… I’ll teach you some things tomorrow… but tonight, how about a few Keyblade facts?” “The things are actually sentient beings with minds of their own?” I ask honestly, having been shown that by Zeke. “Yeah, that's one. Another is that the ‘body’ of the Keyblade is flexible.” “I believe Terra has done that...and his Armor…” I say, knowing full well about the ‘Lingering Will’ in the Keyblade Graveyard. “Not like that. A Keyblade and all it's power are in the Keychain. The body can actually be anything the chain attaches to.” “I know that. That’s how my Duskblade is how it is right now.” I say, still having the Nobody designed keyblade out. “You miss the point, if the keyblade’s chain is taken off and attached to say, a sword, the chain altars the body it's attached to, changing it into how it looks.” “Huh...I thought only Keyblades could have the Keychains…” I say honestly. “But then how the hell can someone turn something like a normal keyblade into a giant fuck off cannon?” “Magic, duh. Spells and abilities made, and perfected over the years. Just takes practice and time.” “More magical mumbo jumbo bullshit.” I sigh out. “Makes sense. What other facts about a keyblade do you want to tell us? That your Keyblade actually has a human eye in it or what?” I joke, having always found the fact it has an eye in it a little weird. “That's besides the point. A Keyblade will keep it's wielder alive. With the proper training a Keyblade will allow you to control how you age, be it slow, not at all, or fast. You decide.” “No wonder why you're so young.” I say simply. “Or maybe that’s just the realm of Darkness doing something silly I don’t know.” “Kid, officially I’m over a billion years old. That was well before the realm of darkness crap.” “My god.” I frown. “Doesn’t life get...ya know a little boring after that long of a life?” “I keep busy. One thing I always loved watching was how the worlds and people change. Never static.” “Sounds about right.” I shrug. “But how does it feel having a girlfriend?” I ask honestly. “Cause having five is wonderful.” I say with a smile. “And no I’m not meaning it in a pervy context Time.” I add with a frown. “Well, this is the newest thing for me, never bothered because I outlived everyone. Time no longer has her mortality, so who better to spend eternity with?” “Sounds about right.” I nod. “Spending the rest of your life, even if it’s for eternity, with the one you love is always a good thing.” I smile, looking around at the ladies that I love dearly. “For once I’m with Ben.” Time said. “So Luxu, what's the place you're from called?” “Daybreak Town. After the war I… went around through all the reflections… only one was still intact so I hid some things in it then locked it away, and flung the world into the realm of light, well, closer into it.” “So we have Daybreak Town, which most likely takes place at Daybreak or sunrise, then we have Twilight Town, which takes place at sunset or Twilight...and then Traverse Town is always at night...what other ‘time of day’ themed towns are there?” I ask with a frown, finding that all sorts of silly. “Huh, well in any case, where be the food?” It was late in the night. For some reason I couldn’t sleep. I kept trying, but nothing seemed to work, so I got up and walked around a bit. Everyone else is asleep, yet I’m wide awake at ass-crack in the morning. I walked into the living room, turning the light’s on and just dropping onto the couch. “What’s worrying me?” I mutter to myself, wondering if I was worried about anything. “Is it Ven’s words? Is it Core messing with Sora, Riku, and Kairi?” I mutter while rubbing my forehead. “Christ…” “Not quite.” I jumped, looking and sitting up to see God standing across from me. “You’ve been well Ben.” “Nice to see ya again God.” I say. “But yeah, I’ve been well...your grandson’s downstairs just so you know.” “I saw, we talked before you came down… that might be the last time I see him…” “Why?” I ask, my voice mixed with curiosity and worry. “Is Core up to something?” “When is he not? Anyway, I saw you met Zeke, and brought back people. I was hoping you two would do that.” “Well it wouldn’t be right if we just decided not to resurrect the dead.” I chuckle. “But yeah, nice guy even with his family’s history.” God sighed. “And that’s why I am here. Next you see Zeke, tell him, and the others, I will be in hiding for… a while…” “Do you need some help?” I ask. “And...did Zeke say something bad about a missing loved one?” I ask, knowing that if Yellow kind of freaked about losing someone important than Core would probably do the same. “Your actions towards Yellow altered her. In the same day, she tampered with something my brother stole from the X-blade when it was with it’s second wielder, back when the world fell into multiple. That part of the X-blade cured Yellow, turning her back into the human she was… Unum… a reflection of Core’s wife he tricked into joining him.” “The Grandfather Light turned Yellow back into a human huh? Also why am I honestly not surprised to hear Unum was a reflection of Core’s wife?” I ask with a frown, feeling bad about knowing an important thing before I was told it. “So Luxu told you about that? Good. As for that, you probably assumed it already. Thanks to her efforts, Zeke now has two upper hands on Core, and he’s responding with rather sadistic actions. I have to leave and hide where I know he won’t be able to find me. He’s finally coming after my greatest secret.” “That power?” I ask while tapping my head gently. “Trust me, I’ve thought of that power before and how overpowered it, you better keep that power safe.” “That’s why I must hide… if Core is to learn how it works… He won’t need the X-blade to achieve his goal. Ben, I must also ask of you something rather… unpleasant…” “I’ve been suspecting unpleasant things for awhile...I mean besides that cheap one shot Unum threw at me that one time.” I frown. “This is your choice… if Core is to find me… he will make it known, taking the information and power from me by force… if he does find me Ben… please, find where he will be holding me… and kill me.” “Well that’ll be tricky because I have no idea where you’ll be if, or when, Core finds you.” I say, keeping my thoughts clear with the ‘if or when’ part. God smiled. “Just trust in ‘Xion’, she can guide you to me if the time is to come. Use her to end me, my life, and memories, will be erased from existence with one swing from it.” “But...won’t I keep all your memories?” I ask. “That was...one of the conditions about her weapon.” I point out. “Normally yes, but not when you use it’s special ability… Essence Eater… it will take everything away… even… earth…” “I understand.” I say with a nod. “I’ll make sure...and sometimes...you gotta leave the past to move forward. And I’m willing to take that step forward…” I say with a determined look on my face. “This is why I ask you Ben… your heart isn’t healed enough to fully understand what you have accepted… and it pains me to hope it still is like this when the time may come…” “I’m a bookworm, even if my heart was whole I’d understand the cost…” I say simply. “Really? THen you know killing me means mass genocide of an entire multiverse… everyone that ever has or ever will be gone…. No recompense can wash that much blood off Ben… think clearly now, even with a partly dead heart… do you have it in you to kill one… and simultaneously kill everything?” “You’re making this sound a lot worse than it already is.” I say. “You’d be doing what Core wants to do to our reality… I only feel I should make sure you understand.” I sigh out, looking up at the ceiling knowing my girls were sleeping up there. “Listen...I know that killing an entire multiverse sounds terrible...but...it’s for the best that the multiverse you made...doesn’t exist if it means all of creation can be saved.” I say simply. “It sounds cold hearted but...it’s just one of those things a hero has to do. Will I feel bad that I killed god? Yes. Will I feel terrible about killing an entire multiverse? Most likely, cause that’s how it is. But if it means I can keep my friends and family safe...then I’ll make sure to do my part in keeping everything safe.” I say, knowing full well the shit storm I’m gonna be pushed in. “But hey, as an old master once said ‘Yesterday is History, Tomorrow is a Mystery, but Today is a gift...that is why it’s called the Present’.” I say with a warm smile. God smiled. “Thank you child… you should go upstairs now… get some rest.” As Ben went back upstairs, and climbed into bed, God was suddenly cloaked in darkness… and Core stood in his place. “That was almost too easy… Zeke is gonna have quite the ‘party’ to host when the time is right.” With that, he vanished into a DTD. Too be continued... Nobody's testI woke up early, the talk me and God had worried me, concerned me, and yet somehow confused me. Worried cause he had to go into hiding from Core, concern because he told me to murder him, but confusion because...it didn’t feel like God for some reason. I got up and got out of bed without waking any of my girlfriends up thankfully and took a warm shower and be clouded by my thoughts. ”God knows Core is going after him, that’s true...but somehow I don’t buy that ‘I need to hide’...shouldn’t he be in a world of pure light? If I were to kill God he said that I would basically be handing Core everything he wants, which sounds like complete bullshit to be perfectly honest…” I think to myself, starting to think about our entire conversation and pointing out the things that are right but the parts that were so complete bullshit it’s weird. ”Maybe I’ll ask Luxu...hopefully he’s alright…” I think to myself, sighing out and continuing to shower. After exiting the shower fully clothed and having my cloak and crown on I headed down to the kitchen to make myself a little breakfast, not entirely wanting to have a big one after what ‘God’ told me. ”Something doesn’t add up. If God dies then an imaginary multiverse is gone...not all of Creation….and if God dies than Core won’t be able to gain God’s knowledge. God would probably tell me that but Core could just as easily tell me that.” I think to myself, my hood up and covering my face as I continued to think things through. “Hey Ben.” Aqua says with a smile, seeing me sit down and eat a bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios. “How are you doing?” She asks, not seeing my face and not knowing how much thinking I was in. ”Wait! He said ‘our reality’ not ‘our True Reality’...why did he make that little mistake?” I think curiously, eating my cereal and thinking more and more about the situation. ”Technically my ‘first’ reality is back on Earth, this may be my new reality but still...but when he said ‘our reality’...something’s not right here and I don’t like it one bit. I think to myself, finding another part of our conversation that’s wrong. ”And what about ‘Essence Eater’? Why would God want me to do that on him? Why not go to Core and use that on him? Why couldn’t he just tell me ‘if I’m captured, kill Core with this obviously super overpowered ability’...God of Destruction and God of Creation...wait Core wouldn’t be so fucking stupid as to basically say ‘oh hey I captured God, catch me if you can fuckers!’...” I mentally trail off, eating my cereal before I stopped for a moment. ”Oh that SON OF A BITCH!” I mentally scream, clenching my spoon hard in anger. “Ben? Are you okay?” Aqua asks worriedly, sensing my growing anger. “Yes I’m fine.” I say simply, taking a deep breath to calm myself. “I’m just going through a conversation I had with someone important and calling out his bullshit.” “Who’s the ‘someone important’?” Aqua asks curiously. “Someone who thinks that they can play a bookworm.” I frown. “But little does he know that a bookworm always calls bullshit on things they look over. Now sure did the person have a good point or two? Yes. But was the overall conversation fact and I should believe it? On a second look fuck no.” I frown, starting to get pissed here. “What did this person say?” Aqua asks curiously. “Let’s wait for Luxu, he might help me point out this shit.” I say simply. ”I hope.” I mentally add, not sure if Luxu is fine with his conversation with ‘God’. ”As far as I know most Gods can shapeshift...should have immediately thought that…” I mentally groan, hating myself for not seeing such easy shit. ”Am I reading too much into this? No, no, Core is a crafty little bastard so I need to think things through...too bad I was tired as hell at the time.” I think to myself bitterly, not believing I fell for Core’s crap. As Aqua and I sat around I heard Luxu whistling, as I looked up I saw him walk in… holding a tiny ukulele? “Sup guys?” He asked. “Two things, one Stitch want’s his Ukelele back, and two did you talk to ‘him’ last night?” I ask with a frown, putting an emphasis on ‘him’ to make him see who I was talking about. “Wait, how’d you know I stole this from that blue fuzz ball?” “Not important and you should give it back, it’s not nice to steal things from good people.” I deadpan. “Well, more borrowed anyway. I did take it from his bed… but I left a note saying I’d give it back later, and he has my Wayfinder as collateral.” “Alright then. So let’s go on about the conversation you and ‘God’ had last night.” I say, wanting to bring that up. “Gramps stopped by last night?” “That lying bastard.” I growl. “Listen...I’m not a hundred percent sure and I think my brain wasn’t that well off since I wasn’t sleeping well...but I think Core pretended to be God and meet me.” I explain. “So technically yes, ‘Gramps’ did stop by last night Luxu.” “Shapeshifting… Neither Core or gramps can do that…” “Well somehow the fucker did and now thinks he’s played me like a fool. But thankfully the bastard was inconsistent as fuck that I can say that he is full of shit just as much as the Percy Jackson's first book 'The Lightning Thief'.” I state. “Well, whatever you referenced aside, the only reason I think he would have done that was an attempt at getting your other Keyblade.” “He said that it can revoke someone’s existence. Do I believe it? Kind of. But am I curious on why he told me about it’s power when I could easily use it on him? Hell if I know.” I shrug. “Memory Stealer?” “Essence Eater.” I say, not knowing if he meant the Keyblades 'memory stealing' ability or it's actual name. “That’s the special ability, the name of the Keyblade is Memory Stealer. Let me see it.” “The Keyblade has two abilities apparently.” I say while summoning Xion’s Keyblade, it somehow shapeshifting to look like Gazing Eye. “Or...three because it can take the form of whatever Keyblade is around...and decided to look like this…” I frown. Luxu took it. “I know all about this damn thing…” “What other special things surround this mystery of a weapon? Cause stealing away memories and giving them to be, not to mention being able to revoke existence is broken as fuck.” “It only works against someone with a whole heart. A Nobody, or even you with a partly dead heart, would be immune to it’s effects.” “I suppose that’s why I can wield it.” I say honestly. “Maybe I don’t know the half of it.” “I really wish gramps didn’t give this away…” “I asked for the weapons of thirteen special Nobodies, and I got a fourteenth, which is that, because he wanted me to.” “Xion…” Luxu muttered. “Clones are...very special.” I say. “I don’t know the full story behind that but...I believe she was an experiment that could wield a Keyblade incase a certain Nobody didn’t work out.” I explain, not knowing if he knows about Organization XIII. “I know all about that bullshit!” Luxu shouted, startling me suddenly. “Her… damn that old geezer…” “I’m sorry...but to be perfectly honest...I didn’t know you existed until Discord told me about you. I don’t know anything about your past, or who your friends were…” I sigh out. “I’m just guessing with what you do and don’t know…” “Xion… in your reality, the one you were born in… she was supposed to replace Roxas, but as you might remember from how… the story went… she originally had no face til certain memories and determination to forge her own identity took hold, right?” “As far as I know. She looked more like Kairi because of Sora’s memories seeping out of Roxas. But to others it either had her hood up all the time or, for some reason, looked like Sora.” I say honestly. “Yeah… I knew her… Took some risks meeting her using darkness to semi time travel. Mixed the land of dreams and science with darkness, I got some rather interesting results.” “That sounds...both dangerous and interesting at the same time.” I say with a raised eyebrow. “It was. When I was given Gazing Eye, I could see the future, and I saw her. I was alone at the time, so I decided to take the risk and visit her in her dreams. I made it so she would only remember my visits in her sleep, so nothing in terms of destiny would change for her. We became quick friends.” “That sounds nice.” I say with a nod. “So how was she? Besides…” I trail off, not wanting to explain what she was designed for. “... honestly, I would call her innocent with how she acted at times. When I saw her… death… I reacted, and the week before it was to happen, I copied all her memories and made this out of them.” He pulled out a Castle Oblivion card… With Xion as the image. “Everything she is, will be, would be, and was, is stored in this card. I keep it with me as a reminder.” “I understand.” I nod. “Oh, actually talking about things that have some hidden meaning that’s being explained.” I start before pulling out my silver Wayfinder. “Time told me that there’s something hidden in this thing, which is weird cause...normally it was supposed to be just a little charm between friends to remember each other by…” I say, not entirely sure about why Time said something about it having something hidden in it. He handed Memory Stealer back and took the Wayfinder. “Huh.” He said as he looked it over. “Thought only mine was like this.” “Say what now?” I ask while taking the keyblade and dismissing it. “Well, typically the magic within Wayfinders link the hearts of those who you care about, or have made an impact on you. Increasing your strength with theirs, but this one seems to be part of a set.” “Well...what set is it from? Cause I was just given it with the keychain to my Duskblade.” I say, not entirely sure how that’s supposed to work. “Oh… oh… Was it Core who gave you this?” “You know if the keychain and wayfinder he gave me are somehow homing beacons I’m gonna throw them in a pit.” I frown. “No, they aren't… This Wayfinder used to be… Core’s… grandpa told me that him and his wife used to have Wayfinders. His was Silver, this one, and his wife's was purple.” “Ya know I was about to say gold...but apparently not.” I frown. “Oh well. But this was Core’s Wayfinder huh? Why did he give me it? Seems a little weird…” “It means one thing… No more holding back… He held onto this for countless years, the fact he gave it away means he no longer wants to just ‘toy’ with us.” “Well then…” I frown. “Or he gave that away cause he probably looked at it and remembered his...dead wife…” I say worriedly. “She’s beyond dead Ben… back then, when a Heartless killed someone, they didn’t become an Emblem Heartless, the heart was consumed with darkness till it rotted and faded into void.” “Well...that’s one way to make sure someone’s dead.” I say with a frown. “She was the first wielder of the X-blade, and the only one ever to beat Core in combat, and she didn’t even use the X-blade to do it.” “Now there’s either two reasons why she died...either she was cheap shotted after a long grueling fight...or something even worse than Core is alive…” “Trust me when I say… there are much worse things than Core, but they had nothing to do with her death. She was killed by a… an Embodiment.” “Um…” I frown. “Are we talking about an Embodiment of Darkness or is it a specific kind of enemy that I should worry about?” “They’re the original Purebloods. Old as Light and Darkness, stronger than anything you’d think possible… even Core can’t hold his own against one.” “I wonder if there are Embodiment's of Light and Embodiment's of Nothing…” I hum in curiosity. “Well, for light, Keyblade’s are about it, as for Nothing? Only Nobodies made by a Keyblade wielder taking someone’s heart out come close to that.” “Okay then…” I nod. “But sheesh...even right now in this huge expanse of a multiverse there’s still so much that makes you feel even smaller.” “Grandpa once told me something from back when everything was one world, dimension, etc. He said ‘the reason we seem so small on a world so big is because if we matched it, the world wouldn’t be fun to explore.’ That kinda holds up with Multiverse as well.” “That old man.” I chuckle with a little smile on my face. “Well thank you for explaining everything. Now I know for a fact that Core is trying to trick me into killing God.” I sigh out. “Hell, he even said ‘if I’m captured, Core will make it known.’ which is a giant fucking lie, but the more important thing is ‘Trust in Xion to find where I am’.” I say while shaking my head. “Christ...but we better get to training if Core isn’t wearing the kiddy gloves on anymore.” “Exactly. From now on, you and the others will be training more… brutally. When Aqua and I feel you’re ready, we’ll give you your Mark of Mastery exam. After that… training will take an unorthodox route.” “I have thirteen weapons to master, and then I have to take my Mark of Mastery test…” I sigh out. “Then I have to learn how to master summoning Nobodies...then I need to learn to master a bunch more shit...holy hell I have a long to do list…” I groan. “Well I’ll go wake everyone up so they can get their breakfast and coffee or tea, then they’ll start their back breaking work, and I’ll start my everything breaking work.” I say, comical tears falling out of my eyes as I sadly imagine how much crap I’m going to be put through. After breakfast, Luxu, Time, Sweetie, Luna and I all met up at the usual training area. We all stood in a line as Luxu and Aqua stood across from us. “Now then.” Luxu started. “We all know for a fact that none of us properly stand a chance against Core or even one of his lackeys. To understand where they draw power from, you must learn the sins that drove them to such… darkness.” “Well if memory serves the Ventral family was the crime family. They literally did everything from murder, sending drugs, thieving, hell if they wanted to I have a feeling they would have actually wanted to commit a full blown genocide. The only one I know that isn’t a dick monger is Zeke, as he is quite a nice man if the X-blade leads to anything about his character.” I explain, knowing at least where Core could get a bunch of hardworking and skilled killers from. “Yes. But you must all now learn just how far your own sins can drag you. How deep the darkness in your minds and hearts sinks you... “ I summoned my Duskblade and Vexen’s shield. “I have a feeling I’m going to need these.” I say, feeling like I’m going to get attacked by a lot of things soon. Luxu walked up to us, raised his hand, and shadow versions of ourselves appeared and jumped us. Everything went dark for a second until I shook the thing off me. “A little warning next time before I scream ‘rape’...” I frown, readying myself for whatever is to come after that weird event. I looked around, and quickly noticed that only me and the shadow me were in the field. “Well...okay then.” I say before gently shuffling towards my shadow, my sword and shield ready to fight this thing. “Hehe, pathetic.” My shadow spoke, standing up as the darkness around it faded, revealing a copy of me, but it’s eyes… looked like Yellow’s. “Too dead to care, yet still you have fears.” “I’d call it ‘caution’.” I state. “No need to rush in on an opponent blindly.” I say, continuing to shuffle forward carefully, trying to find the proper distance between us. “So, you're my sins huh? Point something out that I did wrong besides ‘I don’t give a crap about things’?” “You did nothing.” The shadow said simply. “Understatement of the year.” I roll my eyes. “And nothing is what you’ll continue to do.” It says, raising its arms as if taunting me to strike. “Oh really? Well let’s test that!” I shout before leaping forward and striking with my sword. Now here’s the thing about fighting your ‘sins’, they are tricky as hell depending on what sins you’ve done. Mine didn’t do anything and yet nothing happened, my Duskblade just went right through it like it didn’t exist. “Wh-what the?” I ask before a force suddenly rammed itself into my chest, pushing me to the ground and away by ten feet. “You have done nothing for most of your life. When times are hard you don’t bother to solve anything, you do nothing but read.” It says, a force ramming into my right leg. “Bullies picking on you everyday, you do nothing but take it.” It says before another force it’s my left arm. “Nothing is all you know, and Nothing is what you’ll do.” “Shut up!” I shout before dashing forward towards the shadow, my entire body burning in pain from the force hitting me and trying to attack again, thrusting my shield at it first only for it to stop like it hit something...but sadly it was a good few inches short of actually hitting the damned thing. “Oh come on.” I groan. “Nothing.” It says before I started coughing, kneeling down and coughing up blood. “How does it feel, losing to an enemy that has done nothing to you?” “Lying bastard, you’re doing something and I’ll figure out your gimmick.” I growl, getting back up and wiping away the blood from my mouth. “If you think that.” It says as another swing from my Duskblade fazed through it. I jumped away from the shadow and dismissed my weapons before summoning Siax’s claymore, dashing forward and trying to hit it in the chest, only for it to stop mere inches from its black form. “How can something stop nothing?” It asks before I was blasted with another wave of painful force. “It’s happened before, and it’ll happen again.” I state, dismissing the claymore and summoning Xaldin’s lances, vanishing into the wind and thrusting to lance's forward, and yet again it stopped. “Okay this is starting to become bullshit!” I shout, being pushed back again. My sins chuckled. “My, such ferocity… must come from those bags of blood and flesh you claim to care for.” “THEY ARE NOT BAGS OF FLESH!” I roar, disbanding my lances and summoning twin laser swords, dashing forward and slashing in an ‘x’ pattern, hoping this time it’ll actually hit. Another force pushed me back, and I landed in water. I swam back up and saw my Sins standing on the water. “I believe this is where you say a witty remark?” “Go to hell.” I frown, summoning Demyx’s Sitar and plucking one of the strings, a jet of water shooting towards my Sins. It moved ever slightly to dodge. “Sad really, so many tears you cried in the past, now they are all just about gone. Vast and endless is this ocean of your past tears. To fill up eternity, we truly had a bad life.” “You don’t say?” I ask bluntly. “But right now we have a new life, and that life is full of joy and love...and this?” I ask while showing the water around. “Even if I may not have many left...they will be shed in joy instead of sorrow.” I state with a frown, dismissing the sitar and summoning a deck of cards that vanished in my hand before I brought up five and threw them all at him. “You need a living heart to cry in joy.” He taunted as he dodged all the attacks without effort. “That’s the part you have yet to bring back. You are a human Nobody. Only the few memories of your few joys let you mimic it now. You… we have no joy.” “And yet I have laughed, smiled, and loved so genuinely. I was told I had half a dead heart, but I only have part of a dead heart now. But I still have a heart that’s filled with love and happiness, that dead part will probably linger a bit more but it won’t for long.” I state. “It will for as long as you leave your joy to keep drowning in your tears.” I looked at the thing in confusion. “Um...I’m not really drowning right now...so that doesn’t work.” I say, feeling like I’m going to regret that. “You aren't.” He looked down. “They are.” I looked down at the water… my friends, girlfriends… my family was just floating under there! “Tick. Tock.” “FUCK!” I shout before taking a deep breath and diving into the water, swimming towards everyone in hopes I can catch them. ”Please...I don’t want to lose everyone...I don’t want to lose everything I have….I don’t want to lose my joy…” I think to myself, swimming quicker and hoping to get them before they actually drown. “Truth is… you suffered something similar back when.” My sins said, somehow walking next to me and talking under the water. “I believe that’s when all the pain began… the arguing they did, the divorce… the suicides. All because you didn’t listen to one simple order, you ruined your own life.” I tried to ignore my sins words, trying to swim faster towards the ones I cared about. ”Yes I screwed up....yes I ruined my life...but God...God gave me this new life, and this new life has given me so much...and I won’t let all that slip away...not again.” I think, wanting to save everyone. ”I won’t sit there and do nothing...I will protect those I care about...and all those I love… “Air’s getting little low there? You could swim back up, leave them… or are you actually willing to die trying to save them?” “You know I am!” I screamed. The water and everything vanished as only my sins and I stood in a white void with cracks all around. “Welcome to what’s still dead in your heart.” My sins said. “Um...it just needs a little paint and redecorating and it’ll be as good as new.” I say while looking around, feeling a little bad that I’m joking about the dead part of my heart but not really knowing what to say. After I said that, a new crack formed. “Keep joking, that slick mouth just breaks it more.” “Well that sucks.” I frown. “So...this is what a dead heart looks like...never…” I say trail off, having literally never seen what it would be and still a little taken back at how white and cracked it is. “How...how do I fix it?” I ask, reaching my hand out like I could touch it and try to mend it but my hand shaky and unsure about how to even go about this situation. “The emotions are there, but your tears aren’t. You fear what unknown joy can bring you. You’d rather look into despair because it’s familiar. You don’t have joy, because you antagonize it still.” “But…” I start. “Luna, Twilight, Pinkie Zecora and Pinkie...Celestia and soon Spike cause I really need to have my ‘bro time’ with him...that has brought me so much joy to my life…” “And yet here I am. Your antagonized joy…” “Okay honestly, how is making jokes or being sassy ‘antagonizing’? There are plenty of people with good hearts that make jokes or are sassy and they’re still happy with life…” I explain. “I mean sure...I’ve lost one of my parents...but still.” “It’s because you never moved on. You never tried to accept what happened and move on. You rejected others, kept yourself in solitude, and left me to rot… I became a part of your darkness… and your greatest sin… Rejection.” “Oh…” I mutter. “So...if I move on from my past...and accept what happened...I’ll be better?” “You still talk as if it’s easy. You don’t get it.” My sin raised it’s hand, and my Duskblade appeared. “You lost me long… long ago Ben.” “Well…” I start, summoning Xaldin’s weapons. “If you're me...then you know I’m stubborn. And I’ll get back what I’ve lost...it won’t be easy...never said it wasn’t...but this is my story, and my story is just beginning.” I state. “Alright then.” My sins pointed my Duskblade at me. “Let’s just see how hollow that promise it.” He charged at me, knocking the lances I threw at him to the side as he got closer to me. I raised my arms up, not in a taunting gesture but in the way one would ask for a hug. “Welp...let’s see how hollow it really is.” I say with a kind smile, ready for the attack. He stopped mid swing from my face. “... you… you aren’t serious?!” “Afraid of Acceptance?” I ask with a smile. “Come on, you know you want a hug.” He was hesitant, moving slowly. When he finally wrapped his arms around me, I heard the Keyblade drop and he started crying as the room turned a blinding white. When it faded, we were standing in a playground, and when my sins let me go… he looked like I did when I was five. “You kept your promise.” The five year old me said with a teary smile. “Of course little guy, I would never break a promise.” I smile, getting down on a knee and putting a gentle hand on his head. He hugged me again. “Thank you!” He yelled as he jumped off. “Oh, and now that we’re whole again, your Duskblade is no longer… the Duskblade.” “Oh, well let’s see what it looks like now.” I say before raising my hand and summoning my former Duskblade. It was completely different, the handle was like two crescent moons, a sun at the hilt, the blade was the body of a person, or the outline of one? They held their hands over their heart, and were looking up as two large wings were sticking out of it’s back to make the ‘key tip’. “I call it Reunion.” My Joy said. “Wow...it’s...amazing.” I say with a giant smile on my face. “Thanks. It...it means way too much for words.” “Well then, I best go play and find the ones who keep you feeling… well, my emotion. They should be rushing in here soon. Now, go wake up… Master Ben.” The child says with a smile, waving a hand gently before rushing off to find his friends. Everything went white. When I woke up, I was in the bedroom of my home with Twi and the others. “What...what happened?” “Ben!” Rarity, Twilight, Pinkie, and Zecora yelled as they tackle hugged me down onto the bed. “Thank goodness.” Twilight said. “The hell happened?” I say, my voice muffled by the women on top of me “You’ve been out cold for three days.” Rarity explains. “You’re the first to wake up.” “Wait what?” I ask with a frown, trying to get the women off of me. “Come on, you can smother me with kisses and boobs later, what the hell happened to the others?” “Mark of Mastery exam.” Luxu said, looking at us from the doorway. “Time takes a different toll, and for you, and the others, I had it placed in your realm of sleep. You were all to fight your past sins, and fears. So, how’s it feel to be a Keyblade Master now?” “Well besides the fact you lied about how we were supposed to train before the Mark of Mastery exam…I’d say…” I say before raising my hand and Reunion was summoned. “I feel whole...for the first time in so long.” I say, tears threatening to fall. “That’s what I was hoping for,” Luxu commented. “I lied about the training because the training I had in mind only Masters can…. Learn from and… survive… So, I conducted it then, rather than later. Trust me when I say, the powers you’ll have as a Master will allow you to have a chance against the training, and later on, Core.” “Okay then...but what about the others? If I’m the first one to wake up, after three days...I fear what the others might be going through…” I say worriedly. “Each takes their own time. My exam I was out for close to a year.” “How come my exam was so different?” Aqua asked as she entered the room. “Because your master was a big teddy bear who didn’t want you to be put through the hell that is a TRUE Mark of Mastery exam. You are a master, but you got the title the easy way Aqua.” “Well…” I start before my stomach growls loudly. “How about food? I’ve been out for three days and I’m starving!” “Sure. We eat, wait for the others, then train.” Luxu says before heading off to the kitchen. To be continued... Nobody's down time“Ah~, that was good.” I sigh out, patting my stomach after having what I could consider an all you can eat buffet of food and cake. “That was delicious.” “Glad you liked it, we wanted to make it special for you when you woke up.” Twilight says with a smile. “Thanks.” I smile. “But hey...I’m a Keyblade Master now, I have a whole heart, and a new Keyblade. And I still need to master twelve other weapons, and those fuckers are going to be a pain in the ass to figure out all their special powers...does anyone in town know how to play a Sitar?” I ask curiously, knowing full well I’m gonna have to learn how to play the damned thing if I want to use it’s powers correctly. “I can!” Pinkie cheers. “How?” I ask with a frown before Pinkie somehow pulled a wooden sitar out of the ether. “When I was learning about all the kinds of parties I needed to know for specific people I found this and it was a great thing to learn, along with so many other instruments.” Pinkie explains with a warm smile. “I’m….” I start before taking a deep breath, remembering this pink ponies weird antics. “I’m not going to question it, but I’m gonna need Sitar lessons because...one of my weapons happens to be a sitar.” I say before showing Demyx’s sitar...which led to Pinkie giggling like a mad mare. “It’s exactly what it looks like doesn’t it?” “Of course it does!” Pinkie giggles. “Who even makes a sitar like that?” “This sitar is made to resemble the symbol of all Nobodies.” I state. “So thinking it’s that is quite a lot of disrespect to those I want to save.” I frown. “O-oh…” Pinkie stops her giggling and looks down. “I….I’m sorry…” She says sadly, causing me to sigh out and disband the weapon before getting up and walking over to Pinkie. “No need to be sad.” I say while hugging the pink mare. “I’m sorry if I sounded mean...please don’t be sad…” I whisper, trying to hug her worries away. “I-it’s alright…” Pinkie says, hugging back. Luxu came running down from upstairs. “Sweetie and Time are awake… also for some reason Time is pissed at you Ben.” Luxu said as he took a seat. “The fuck did I do?” I ask with a frown. “I did literally nothing to her, why is she pissed at me?” There was a sudden crash as Time somehow broke the ceiling, or her floor, and was standing right infront of me as she gave a HARD suckerpunch to my face… causing my head to go threw the nearby wall. “Man I needed to get that out of my system.” Time said, instantly cooling off. I pulled my head out of the wall and then walked over to Time. “Time…” I say before putting a gentle hand on her shoulder, acting calm in my furious state. “Why, in the name of all that is holy, did you hit me for no fucking reason?” I ask, giving a smile to her as my hand on her shoulder started to tighten and my self restraint working it’s best for me not to smack the hell out of her. “My Mark of Mastery. Made me realize I keep way too much anger inside and I don’t dish it out. That was for just being a little bitch. Man up Ben.” “Oh?” I say simply. “Well if you want.” I say before suddenly grabbing Time by the throat and ramming her into the ground hard. “How about instead of being a bitch Time you do something better than randomly smack people.” I growl, not wanting to deal with this shit right now. “I’m going out for a while.” I say simply. “Not yet.” She says. I look back at Time, and she snapped her fingers, and somehow… I was back to eating breakfast. “She really want’s to pull this shit doesn’t she?” I frown, starting to hate this situation. “Who?” Rarity asked. “Oh, just Time abusing the fact she can control time. Cause you know, her anger issues have to involve me for some stupid fucking reason.” I shrug. “Don’t know why, and I find it really retarded.” “Um… Ben, Time can only send memories back in time… You did zone out for a second though.” “Morning.” Time said as she walked in. “So Ben… any good dreams?” She gave me a sly grin. “Oh you know, the usual.” I shrug. “How was your dreams? Anymore nightmares or was cuddling up to Luxu helping you not have nightmares?” “Later. Sweetie is up too, we both are masters now. How’s it feel?” She asked, sitting next to me. “Well…” I say while putting a hand over my heart. “I’m finally whole...and it feels nice.” I smile. “After so long...my Rejection turned into happy Acceptance.” “Like a real victim of depression.” Time teased as Rarity left the room for some reason. “So… how was the wall?” “Something that I don’t want to deal with again.” I frown. “But you know, now having to deal with you being all ‘I’m just going to attack Ben for no fucking reason’ is going to be annoying as hell.” I grumble. “It wasn’t just for no reason. There was a version of you in my Exam and he really pissed me off.” “Oh boo fucking hoo.” I say. “Nobody said it wasn’t going to be easy, or that it wouldn’t piss you off, but taking it out on people in real life for no reason is stupid.” “You wouldn’t be saying that… basically it started with Luxu greeting me… and he kissed me, and when he stopped… it was you I saw…” “You could have just said you liked me.” I joke with a smile. “You want an express ticket to the moon?” “Listen how about you spend time with Luxu alright? I’m pretty sure you want to spend time with your boyfriend then with me. You hate me enough as is so why do you even want to be around me to begin with?” I ask honestly. “To apologize. That whole exam was just messing with my emotions and… making me remember what Core and them did to me… So I had to release some stress.” “Ya know punching me wouldn’t relieve stress right? Especially when you give me a good reason to hit back.” I explain. “And you did… then I made it all unhappen. Look, frankly the only reason I don’t like you is because… well, you remind me of my reflection’s Scootaloo… She went insane from the experiments… and now she works for Core.” “I’m not her. No matter how many times you say ‘I remind you of her’, I’m not your sociopathic Scootaloo.” I say simply. “Remember that, I may be sassy but I’m not her….” I say, trying to hold in my complaint about being compared to another person. “You just have that same attitude she did. It’s hard not to see her when I hear you talk. I’m gonna go hang out with Luxu, if we don’t come back don’t worry, it just means we fell asleep.” She said, getting up and walking out of the room. “Okay so that’s a good reason to worry…” I mutter to myself, not thinking about those two doing anything stupid but the fact that sleep could make the two vulnerable. “Whatever...I wonder what I’m gonna do today?” I hum to myself as I thought about things to do today. Not long after the event with Time, Luna woke up, we had a quick… round and now she and I were in front of Aqua. Since Time is Sweetie’s Keyblade and she doesn’t have any other, she’s just watching. “Alright then, Ben, Luna, you both are masters, therefore you should know some Master only knowledge.” “What sort of master knowledge?” I ask curiously. “For starters, the ability to bend light to your will.” Aqua raised her Keyblade up, and three orbs of light floated around her. “You can modify this into various attacks.” “I wonder…” I mutter before summoning Reunion and raising it, white and grey thorns starting to come out of it before a single ball of light was made, the thorns circling around it like it was protecting it. “Um...those are Nobody thorns right?” I ask curiously, wondering why the hell that happened. “And...is that supposed to happen?” “From what I know, it can be unique to each master. Now, there is something iven more useful you can utilize, but far more taxing.” A circle of light appeared around Aqua as a second her walked out of her. “Duplicates from light. Like illusions, but they can attack.” “Cool…” I say, not entirely sure if I wanted to try that yet since the first ball of light felt a lot harder to do even if it looked easy. “Hmm...I wonder if I could…” I mutter before snapping my fingers, three dragoons suddenly appearing. “Huh...when I was with Zeke I barely had the strength after summoning one...now I can summon three without a problem…” I say before waving my hand, the three vanishing without a trace. “So besides control over light what else can a master do?” “One last thing is the ability to lock and transform a world via it’s Keyhole. But that’s a last resort… and only a Master Keeper Keyblade can do that.” “Like Castle Oblivion.” I say, still not able to believe how Core managed to mess with it. “Yes. Exactly like that.” “Sounds fancy...but wait...wouldn’t a Keyblade master be able to unlock the world? I was told that it was impossible but still.” “Again, only with the Master Keeper. It’s power is to reshape worlds. It’s one of the five legendary Keyblades.” “Now what the hell are the other four legendary Keyblades?” I frown. “Cause I have a strange feeling that one of those legendary weapons can just so conveniently fuck with the Master Keepers ability.” I frown, not liking this situation the more I’m hearing it. “Well, they are called that because they were the first five Keyblades to exist first. The X-blade, the power to create and control how life and the hearts of life exist. The Master Keeper, the power to reshape worlds for better or worse, as well as the travel between them. The Kingdom Key, the true power of a Keyblade and what they stand for. Way to Dawn, the power of darkness, but to be used to protect light and the balance. And lastly, No Name, the Keyblade that controls time, and space.” “Well isn’t that just fantastic.” I say simply. ”And funnily enough she met the wielders of the Kingdom Key and Way to Dawn.” I think to myself. “But it just so happened that Core tried making a copy of No Name, which happened to be Time Bell...actually why the hell is that keyblades name ‘No Name’? Seems...curious to say the least.” “Because the concept of time itself is real, but we gave it a name, therefore, time has no real name, so it’s called, No Name.” “Yet so many names could fit for it but I understand.” I nod. “So anyways back on track before I start derailing everything, I believe we’re going to train on how to bend light?” I ask. “Cause what I did seemed easy but it...really wasn’t.” “Yes, for today, you are to do the two techniques I showed you until you can no longer perform them. That will be all.” “Right then.” I say with a nod. “Um...question...there’s such a thing as a ‘Door to Darkness’...would there happen to be a ‘Door to Light’ and ‘Door to Nothing’?” I ask curiously, knowing that what Zeke did with Discord was not a DTD like what Core normally uses. “From what I know… I’m not sure. I know that DTD’s are real, and DTL’s are a theory, but a DTN is new to me.” “Well...I’m just gonna warn you that if a portal appears out of nowhere then it’s not my fault...training with something new and given I have Nobody powers can...lead to some weird situations.” I say, giving a warning before I happen to do something stupid. “You want to go first Luna?” “Sure.” Luna focused and took a meditative stance. A ring of light appeared around her and two other Luna’s were around her. “Wow… now this gives me ideas~” She, and her copies gave me rather seductive looks. “Uh...I don’t think I can handle three Luna’s at the same time…” I say worriedly, my face turning beat red at the seductive looks. “Not in front of Aqua please…” “Settle down you two.” Aqua said, chuckling a bit. “I was thinking, Ben, if you can make fourteen light replicas of you, then you can have each wielding one of your weapons.” “Can I at least master the damn things first? They would work so much better cause Clones would probably be of my skill level...and right now my skill level is that of comparing a Shadow to an Invisible…” I sigh out. “Or in simple terms, I suck at fighting still.” “What I saw back in the Realm of Darkness proved otherwise. I can teach you everything a Master should know about Keyblades, but as for weapons, you might have to find others to help you there.” “That is true...I wonder if I can use specific Nobodies to help teach me…” I say with wonder. “I mean they can only teach me so much but still…” “Well, if it’s still around, maybe some of the people of Radiant Garden can help. They all seemed skilled in a variety of weapons last time I was there.” I face palmed. “Of course, why didn’t I think of that! I mean some of these weapons came from their Nobodies after all.” I say, accidentally letting that slip. “Wait?” Aqua asks with a raised eyebrow. “Oh um…” I start before sighing out. “Do you want the cliff notes or the whole explanation? Cause I have a feeling I’m going to have to talk to you about this…” I say, not entirely sure if Aqua would want to hear the story about my thirteen weapons. “Did something happen to Radiant Garden?” “Well…” I trial before, trying to collect my thoughts about how to start this entire conversation. “My thirteen weapons, yes including the keyblade, all came from what I call ‘Organization’ Nobodies, the kind of Nobodies that still look and sound human but are still Nobodies.” I explain. “I’ll explain more when we get to Radiant Garden...it’ll be for the best cause of...certain things.” “Alright then. So, let’s go.” “Right then.” I say before pulling my hood up and fixing my silver crown on my head before bringing out Reunion and tossing it into the air, the bike now instead of grey and white, was a mix of reds and blues. “I’d recommend you opening the portal...I’m not good with that stuff yet.” I say sheepishly, not wanting to open a portal then suddenly appearing in the sixth circle of hell. Aqua opened a gateway and her Master Keeper turned into her regular glider, but kinda looked like Ventus’s was morphed into it. She hopped on and Luna took a ride with me. It took a bit of time, but we found Radient Garden and and landed in what I think was the town square? It’s where Aqua fought Terranort, that’s all I know. “Everything here seems normal from the last time I was here.” “Yes it does…” I say before hopping off my bike and it turned back into Reunion. “But...I can’t shake off this weird feeling all of a sudden…” I say, summoning Vexen’s shield and ready for a fight. “Oh, why, hello there young fellows.” We turned around and saw Merlin walking our way. “I must say, I remember you young lass, been what? Nearly a year now?” “Uh, yes sir. I came because my friend here wants to master a variety of weapons he has.” Aqua replied. “Well then, you might wanna check with the castle guard and staff. They all specialize in combat up there.” “Thank you sir.” “If they give you any fuss, just say Merlin says to let you in. If that old child of mine Ansum has any respect for me still they’ll let you in.” “Wait what?” I ask while raising my finger up in massive question. “Did you mean that as...Ansem is actually your son or in a different kind of context?” “I would like to think myself his father. I found him as a young lad, raised him into the man he is today. Taught him everything he knows. You’d think he’d at least visit from time to time.” “Well…” I start. “He’s probably a busy man, and I have a feeling that specific kind of busy involves that entire castle.” I say while pointing to the huge thing. “Yes, he always dove deep into research even as a child. Brilliant by all means, but he forgets to take his time and go slowly. Just last year he hired a new apprentice right off the bat because he wanted to conduct an experiment about those with amnesia taking on new identities.” My eyes widened at hearing that. “Oh fuck no…” I say breathlessly. “Merlin, did this apprentice happen to have silver spiky hair? Tan skin and thin but strong looking?” “Yes, he was found with a blue Keyblade and armor wrapped around him of all things. Can you believe that?” “Terra!” Aqua yelled, running right towards the castle. “Sorry Merlin, we’ve got to go!” I shout before throwing my keyblade up into the air, summoning my glider and riding off, grabbing Aqua and making her ride behind me as we headed off towards the castle. “Shit, I didn’t think we were this close…” I mutter to myself, hoping we won’t be too late for Terranort to start attacking the others and make them Nobodies. We reached the castle gate, and the guards did let us pass at mentioning Merlin. We got off my Glider and I ran/followed Aqua though the castle til Luna and I lost her. “She must really care for this Terra.” Luna said, catching her breath. “Terra is Aqua and Ventus’s best friend. Aqua lost Ventus in his coma and she almost lost Terra to the Realm of Darkness, but she took his place...but I’m sad to say there’s a hitch hiker in Terra’s body which is terrible.” I say, catching my breath quickly and trying to search around the place. “Come on, we have to find her before shit hits the fan.” I say before bolting off again, thinking of the right direction to find Ansem’s study. After a few turns I finally caught up to Aqua… who was with the Terranort, and Ansem the Wise. “I’m sorry miss, but I have no idea who you are.” Terrenort said. “Terra you have to remember.” Aqua pleaded. “My name is Xehanort. And that’s… all I do remember. I’m sorry if I knew you before, but I don’t now.” “Young lady.” Ansem spoke. “If you truly are this man's friend then do you have anything to jog his memory? I’ve been curious about my assistant here as well since I took him in.” “Would ‘Gazing Eye’ give you any ideas?” I ask while walking into the room. “Please Xehanort, do you know what the ‘Gazing Eye’ is?” I ask, knowing full well that Xehanort is stuck in Terra’s body. “Gazing… eye?” Terranort asks. “Is that a spell?” “It does sound like one doesn’t it.” I say simply. “But no, it’s actually a Keyblade. I’m sad you wouldn’t know your own Keyblade Xehanort.” I say. “Hey Aqua, want to know what happened when Terra fought Xehanort?” “You… tell me please.” Aqua begged. “That old bald bastard decided, after Terra was succumbing to darkness after kicking his ass, rip out his heart and shove his inside Terra’s body. Terra’s heart is still in his body, but there was a little...hiccup with Xehanort’s plan...Terra’s Lingering Will, that is still in his Keyblade Armor in the Keyblade Graveyard.” I explain. “After Xehanort got his ass kicked he became an amnesiac and him being Ansem’s apprentice was going to happen either way.” I explain, going to leave it at that so I don’t sound like I don’t know literally everything about the past present and future. “Uhhh.” Terranort said. “That’s… quite a story kid… but nothing you said clicked at all.” “May not click right now, I’m not a doctor nor do I know much about amnesia, but it’ll come to you.” I say, leaving out that I know five people are going to get killed and turned to Nobodies while Ansem has to run and become ‘Diz’. “If you say so…” “Terra,” Aqua said, crying. “You have to remember. Remember our home, Ventus, master Eraqus.” Terranort flinched. “That name… why does hearing it make me feel guilty?” “Ansem the Wise, can two hearts live inside the same body?” I ask. “And if that is possible, would both hearts try to take control of the host body and gain dominance?” Ansem stroked his chin in thought. “It’s possible, the body would submit to the strongest heart, and that heart would in turn consume the weaker, but if both are of equal strength then they would be stuck in a limbo, or fuse together, creating an entire new… being…” He looked over to Terranort. “I propose that this amnesia is due to this man right here, having the heart of this fine ladies friend Terra, as the body is home to Terra’s heart already, but is battling against a heart that was once held in the body of the man named Xehanort.” I say. “Why he remembered Xehanort is because Terra was the last one to fight the man who took over his body, Terra’s ‘Lingering Will’ happened to inhabit a special suit of armor that then beat him into unconsciousness and was sent straight to Radiant Garden somehow and that is how the amnesia took place.” “That, that’s absurd.” Terranort said. “How can that possibly happen, no spells or science can pull off such a feat.” “There are things stronger than both spells and magic.” I say before summoning my Keyblade, Reunion. “This is a Keyblade.” “That… that looks like the thing I was found with… Well, sorta.” “Can I see it?” Aqua asked. “Um, sure.” Terranort walked us over to his quarters in the castle, where he opened a large trunk and there was Aqua's armor, all in pieces, and her Keyblade, Stormfall. “See, it’s just a strangely made sword.” Aqua picked up Stormfall, and it reacted, glowing a bright flash of white before us. Her armor also vanished from the trunk, and when Aqua pushed the button for her armor to appear, it did. “Never thought I’d see these things again.” “How? I ran test after test on those things… they were just hunks of metal.” Terranort says, flabbergasted at such an event. “What you had in your possession is known as a ‘Keyblade’, a weapon of light that is mean to protect those from the creatures of Darkness, like Heartless. The thing you also found next to the keyblade was known as ‘Keyblade Armor’, and as it says in the name it is special armor that can help defend yourself against magic and physical attacks. Only those chosen by Keyblades can use Keyblade armor and even then some forgo the things entirely.” I say with a shrug. “I understand this makes about as much sense as someone praising a single ant as a god but it’s all true…” I say simply. “If this is all true, then why wouldn’t I recognize someone who says she was my friend?” Terranort asks. “Why only that name… Eraqus? Why did that only make me react?” “Terra…” Aqua started. “Xehanort… tricked you into striking him down, because he tried to hurt Ven.” “What?” Terranort looked shocked, horrified even. “But I... I-I never killed anyone.” “You have never killed anyone.” I say to Terranort. “But the two people battling in your body have. Terra killed his master because he didn’t understand the situation, but Xehanort...Xehanort has probably killed many...and could have killed more.” I sigh out. “I’m sorry man, this may seem so confusing in every which way…” I sigh out. “Yes it is, and rather boring as well.” We all turned around… and Core was leaning against the wall. “Such dribble.” “The fuck are you doing here Core?” I ask, summoning Reunion and Vexen’s shield as I stepped forward to keep everyone away from him. “Simply put… I’m here to collect Xehanort. I finally found a reflection of him, and now that he explained what his intention was, I am here to gather more of him.” “He’s still Terra, and I don’t want you to get that greedy son of a bitch.” I frown, readying for a fight. “Please.” He walked up to me, flicked my shield, and I was sent flying thru the wall. “You may be whole now, but you still pose no real threat.” He passed Aqua, and walked up to Terranort. “This will only hurt a lot.” He jabbed his hand into Terranort, and ripped out a black heart. “Lucky that Terra can put up a fight, otherwise I would have had to take the whole thing.” Terranort collapsed on the floor, his hair turning brown as he fell. I quickly came back into the scene and didn’t like this one bit. Core let the heart float for a bit before Darkness formed around it… making the Young Xehanort from Dream Drop Distance. “Well, that was easier than what I was planing.” Xehanort said. “You’d be surprised how easy things can be at times.” A DTD opened behind them. “This was all I wanted, enjoy the ‘fight’ against me when it comes. If you live long enough to see it.” Core and Xehanort walked into the DTD, leaving Aqua to rush to Terra’s side. “DAMN IT!” I shout in rage, ramming my fist into an undamaged part of the wall I was thrown through. “I lead that fucker straight to help….” I growl, hating this situation more and more. “Damn it.” I growl, a crack forming into the wall as I punched it again. “Great...just...fucking great…” “Ooooouuuuucccchhhhh.” Terra’s body spoke. “That felt way worse than what I was expecting.” “Terra!” Aqua cheered, hugging him tightly. “You’re back!” “Yeah. Didn’t expect that, but at least Xehanort is out of me… even though whoever that Core was seemes to be way worse…” “He want’s to use Kingdom Hearts to bring about Void.” I say to Terra. “Core’s not the worst, but...he’s the worst in the current situation.” “Void? You know what, I’ll have the fill in explanation later, right now… I’m gonna do something I kinda have been wanting to do.” “What’s that Ter-” Aqua was cut off by a sudden kiss on the lips from Terra. My jaw dropped at seeing this before I jump up and down in giddy enjoyment. “The ship is real oh my god!” I say with a giant ass smile plastered on my face. Too be continued... Nobody's travelsAfter Terra was done kissing Aqua the woman’s face turned beat red and steam billowed out of her head before she suddenly fell over “Uh...Aqua?” Terra asks worriedly, wondering why Aqua just fell over like that. “I’m sure she’ll be fine.” I say with a giant ass smile on my face. “T-t-terra...k-k-kissed me…” Aqua stutters breathlessly, moving a hand up to her lips in disbelief. “What did you mean by that?” Ansem asks me curiously. “What’s the last word for ‘relationship’?” I ask before the good doctor nodded in understand. “I understand.” Ansem says before Aqua quickly got up quickly, summoned her old Keyblade and started smacking Terra with the blunt end of the weapon. “Aqua stop!” Terra pleads, raising his hands in some defense against the very flustered girls assault. “You don’t just kiss me like that you idiot!” Aqua shouts, her embarrassed and flustered tone sounding like that of a girl from a high school anime finally being kissed by her lover. “Alright alright no need to beat up the poor guy for finally showing you his true feelings.” I say, stepping forward to try and stop the super embarrassed Aqua. As Aqua cooled down a bit, Terra basically told Ansem that he quit and the three of us walked around Radient Garden for a bit to sight see, and to find people who could train me in the other weapons. The ones in the staff I already have dates set up for training, and we were looking for some others who might be able to help. “I thought finding the other eight wouldn’t be this hard.” Terra said. “Well I mean we need to find seven cause a girlfriend of mine knows how to play the Sitar surprisingly.” I say with a shrug. “But yeah, finding seven masters of seven different weapons is going to be a fucking nightmare…” I groan before rubbing my forehead. “Where’s a pub? I’m pretty sure we can find at least one of those people playing cards and beating people’s asses.” I say, not entirely sure if Luxord’s human form was there. “Hey, huh?” We turned around, and saw Braig standing behind us. “Terra?” “Yeah-” Terra was speaking before remembering. “You were the one helping Xehanort!” “Oops, guess cat broke out of the bag.” His weapons appeared, and we summoned ours. “Listen, how about instead of losing your other eye in a fight you can’t win how about we all just calm down alright?” I ask, not wanting to start a fight right now with the one eyed gunner. “Besides, it’s a good thing we found you cause I have a...request of sorts.” I say before switching my Keyblade out for the weapons that looks similar to Braig’s. “No way…” Braig said, suddenly right in front of me and looking at my weapons. “These are the ZRX17 models! How in the hell did you get these?!” “Oh these?” I ask while looking them over. “I call them ‘Sharpshooters’, but I was...given these beauties from a friend.” I say with a little smile. “But the main reason why I’m sort of glad your here is because...I need help actually learning how to use these damned things instead of pointing and shooting like an idiot.” I say sheepishly, even though I had combat experience with the bloody things I would still like to learn from the person that actually knows how to wield the things. “Your friend must have really liked you to just give these things away, they cost over 9.7 million munny each and the energy core is forged out of the essence from the sun of whatever world they were forged on.” My jaw dropped at hearing how special these damned things were. “Holy christ…” I say breathlessly. “I...didn’t think they were that special...I mean there special yes but still…” “Heck yeah! These things have so much magic placed into such a slick frame, the upgrades are so expensive it’s cheaper to make them yourself, and they allow both anti-gravity, AND small time shifts for the shooter of up to fifteen seconds to stop time completely!” ”I thought time was Luxord’s ability? But holy damn these things are awesome!” I think to myself in joy. “Well that’s just absolutely amazing in every sense of the word.” I say with a giant smile. “So anyways my one eyed friend, do you think you can help me get the hang of these or are you too busy gawking at how awesome these things are like I am?” I ask, still not able to believe how these things actually had a part in why Xigbar had those powers. He seemed to be thinking the offer over. “Well… Xehanort promised me a Keyblade, if you can match, or top his offer, then I’ll train you pipsqueak. My price as a merc is rare or legendary weapons, and a Keyblade tops just about all of them.” “Ya know, I’ll tell you legendary info that you possibly never believe.” I say honestly. “Want to know what it is?” He seemed reluctant, but leaned in to hear. “Xehanort was going to kill you and string you along as his pawn because of your greed.” I whisper to him. He seemed to jump back at this info. “That sleazy backstabbing old coot! My greed may be my biggest flaw, but I don’t want to die because of it! I ain’t that greedy!” “True, but Xehanort is a crafty bald bastard.” I say with a shrug. “So anyways, think that’s enough to slake your price to train me? And maybe, if you're lucky and these two don’t stab you with a knife thirty seven times in the chest for the shit you pulled on them you might just be able to get a chance at learning how to get a Keyblade.” I say with a warm smile. “Also I’m not joking on these two wanting to beat the crap out of you.” He looked between Terra and Aqua, and gulped. “Uh, sure. My gummi ship is parked just outside of town… I can drive us to… wherever you guys are from… that all?” “Actually no.” I say. “How much of this world do you know? And if you know a lot can you tell me if there are...special individuals who have mastered certain weapons and abilities?” “Personally, no… Last partnership gave me this bad eye, but I know a place that might… just um… keep those two and your Keyblades under control… lot of baddies that will kill you as soon as they look at you.” “I’m pretty sure who we might meet will be nothing in comparison to what we have seen.” I say simply, dismissing my weapons. “Alright then, follow me. We’re heading to Knowhere.” “Why do I have a feeling that’s supposed to be a bad joke?” I ask with a frown. We followed Braig out of town to his ship, which was rather large, and the inside… holy hell this guy is dangerous. Every inch of wall has either a locker with weapons, a weapon rack with a weapon in it, and ammunition boxed all over the floor. “Sorry, I don’t usually have company.” “I’m pretty sure you should clean before you knock something over and hurt yourself.” I frown, not liking how this place is literally covered in weapons. “Like come on, every inch of wall is filled with weapons…” “I told you I collect them, guy’s got to have a hobby.” Braig said, taking a seat into the driver's seat. “Will be a two hour flight, find something to pass the time. Anything with a red label, touch and you might break it, green means loaded, blue means broken, and yellow means take it, I got lots more of them.” I sigh out and start rubbing my temple through my hood, not believing this shit. “Christ...anyways, what is this ‘Knowhere’? Cause it seems a tad weird when you say ‘we’re going Knowhere’ like it’s an actual place.” I say, not knowing that he said ‘know’ instead of ‘no’. “It is, a colony full of criminals and such, takes all forms of currency, and built in the head of a long dead Celestial being. Man, when you see it, imagine what the thing that killed it must have been, sends a shiver down my back.” We started to lift off, and soon we were heading off. “I’m sorry, but what?” I ask with a frown. “Did you say a Celestial being? Um...define please.” I say worriedly, not knowing much about this. “You live under a rock kid? Celestial being, a creature of unknown origin that’s been around since the universe. Massive, powerful, capable of some really cool shit. They’re just about all dead, save for some distant descendants they made with regular life forms.” “This is starting to sound like something from Marvel Comics.” I frown, not knowing if they would know a comic book company or not, but just spouting it out. “To each world their own kid, but with my experience, everything seems to exist somewhere.” “And I suppose ‘Everything’ just so happens to be a Celestial.” I say, not knowing if I was right or not and just making up crap. “Heck if I know, I’m no historian.” Braig shrugs. “Whatever, anyways how long is the trip?” I ask, feeling like just using my Glider would be faster. “Still got an hour and a half, just have a look around, got a shooting range four doors down the hall, just remember the labels.” “Thank you.” I nod before turning and heading off to the shooting range to get some training with my guns, not wanting to just hope that auto targeting with the things would always get me out of a jam. After I entered the shooting range I was shooting for a good while and was getting a little better, but I looked over and saw a few guns from earth. Huh, didn’t know these were here. “Well I suppose some things would still be similar...but then that begs the question...is there a version of Earth that isn’t imaginary?” I ask myself with a frown, finding that little thing odd. “But...if that’s the case then…” I frown, questions starting to flood my head with everything that might entail. “No, the doctor in Equestria told me Minotaurs and Griffons made the things so...maybe I’m just getting confused for no reason.” I shake my head, trying to not think about complex crap about if even the imaginary multiverse actually existed in the ‘True Reality’. “Hey.” I looked around, and saw Braig there. “Ship’s on auto pilot, we’ll be there in a half hour. So, you see my latest additions?” “Yes I did, and I must ask...where in the name of hell did you get those? And who gave or sold them to you?” I ask curiously, slightly worried about this whole thing. “Odd story, I got them as payment for delivering some packages before I came back to Radiant Garden to check on Terra. I thought it was a rip off at first, but ammo he gave with them was just too good to pass.” “Do you know what the person looked like? Any defining features or did you just skip over literally everything about the job because you wanted fancy weapons?” I ask, hoping to get more details about this. “Hey, that job was sketchy from the start. Who has a merc deliver bio-tech components and pays in weapons? Anyway, they guy I got them from and paid me with the weapons was some cyborg looking guy. Glasses, lab coat, had his brain under a glass dome, that guy honestly freaked me out.” “Are….are you fucking kidding me?” I ask, my body going stock still. “That place exists in this giant realm? You just handed something to a mad scientist called Dr. Gero...who is most likely working for someone you don’t want to meet.” I say before disbanding my weapons again. ”Are you fucking kidding me? Dragon Ball world actually exists? For fuck sakes that’s only going to make our effort a million times worse…” I think to myself worriedly. “Look, it was a job and I got my pay in both munny and weapons out of it, when you work illegally you don’t wanna be that picky about what you do, you just gotta be good at it.” “I know I know...but sometimes even if you're working illegally you have to have boundaries on what you will do and what you won’t do…” I sigh out. “But whatever, thank you for telling me Braig, now onto the part where you start teaching me how to shoot these bloody things, cause I don’t want to trust it’s auto aiming for everything.” “Auto aiming… Oh, that’s an upgrade. There are five in total for that model, so you’ll need two of each, save for the fifth.” “Can you tell me all the upgrades for the things?” I ask curiously, wondering what other specialness this thing can do. “First off, is that Auto Aim you said, second is the rapid-fire-tracer mod. Third are the Time-trigger fire mods, fourth is the extended mags, and lastly is the rifle-shot-bullseye mod.” ”He’s going to be so pissed when he figures out I have all those things…” I think to myself. “Alright then...but what do you think of this?” I ask before putting the rifles together and charging a shot, before shooting a big blue and black shot that bounced at a paper target and tearing the thing to shreds before it vanished. “Wow… I need to get a set of those… So you already have the mods installed… again, you must have laid that friend good to get those…” “Trust me, these babies aren’t the only thing in my bag of tricks.” I say with a little smile. “But I hope we’ll find some people that can help me out at Knowhere...but I doubt it cause things aren’t that convenient.” “It’s Knowhere, if you can’t find it there, then you pay someone to.” The ship landed in a docking station and we walked around for a bit, Braig leading us to what looked like a weapons shop. “This is the guy I buy some of my mods and weapons from. He should know about everyone who uses any kind of weapon.” We entered, and we saw what looked like Bobafett's sister. “Diana! How you been?” “So, so. What you in for Braig?” Diana asked, looking over me, Terra and Aqua. “Kid I’m with is looking for people.” He pushed me forward towards her. “He’s a… my apprentice.” “Oh, about time you picked one up. So, kid, what weapons do you use?” Diana asked. ”Okay I know that four are in Radiant Garden…” I think to myself before taking a deep breath. “Okay so I’m going to need to find five other masters, each one having mastered a Scythe, Kunai Knives, Chakrams, a Claymore, a deck of magical cards…” I trail off at the end, not entirely sure if I should mention Xemnas’s twin laser swords. “Magic cards! Didn’t think anyone other than the old gambler up at the casino had a set of them.” “Well…” I say before a 52 card deck appeared in my hand. “I hope he’s someone who likes a Fair Game.” I say with a smile. “But is there anyone else with the kind of skills I’m looking for? Cause not only do I have to learn from Mr. One eye here.” I say while moving my hand to Braig. “I have a crap ton of other weapons to master. “I can get you a list of names, contacts, aliases, and known hideouts. Though good luck with that gambler Dorlu.” “Trust me, I already have a lot on my plate as is. But thank you for this.” I say with a nod. “So...given that this is a ‘criminal city’...where would this gambler be specifically? Cause I have a feeling casino’s are literally around every corner.” “Yeah, and he played the owners for them, and won them all. He’s likely in the Gamora. That was his first major win.” “For some reason that sounds like a woman’s name.” I say, giving a half frown at the casino named after a woman. “Just expect a lot of strippers… of all genders to greet you. Oh, and Braig, that package arrived.” “Finally!” Braig cheered, walking up to Diana and signing some papers before a small robot came by and dropped off a box. “Been looking forward this this baby.” “Mind if I get that list? Also what’s in the box?” I ask curiously, not wanting to be in the dark about another damned box. “List will be in a bit son.” She said, as Braig walked over to me, holding a small, odd looking gun. It looked like a toy alien blaster from the 1950’s, but it had a blue crystal at the end of the barrel. “You have no idea how hard it is to get these things.” “We’re inside the head of a giant fuck off being of unknown power, at least to me, so hearing that something’s ‘hard to find’ sounds a tad bit bullshit.” I frown. “It’s not really.” Diana said. “That gun comes from a whole other dimension. Back when Celestials like the one we’re in right now lived everywhere, a ship of advanced beings came through here, and one of their ships carrying cargo was lost. Billions of years later, we found several parts of it, as well as a small hundred of those little things. They may be small, but they are as deadly as deadly comes.” Diana explains. “Well alrighty then.” I say with a little nod. “Who knew a gun that looked like something from cliche 1950 alien movies are actually really fucking deadly.” I say. “I’ll show you why later.” Braig said, holding the little thing in a pocket in his shirt. Diana gave us the list, and we headed off for the Gamora. As Diana warned, lots of naked… everything… We finally found a lounge area… where Luxord was sitting on a couch drinking a cup of brandy. I took a deep breath and stepped forward towards the human Luxord. “Hello.” I say simply to the man. He looked me over a bit. “You clearly are either desperate or lost. People of your groups type, save for blind eye over there, don’t come into these types of places for game, drinks, skin or drugs. So why are you here?” Dorlu asked. “Let’s just say…” I say before normal sized cards swirled around me and into my open hand. “I’d like to learn the rules so to speak.” I say. “And as far as I’ve heard you’re the only one who knows how to use these things properly.” He stood up in shock. “I thought I was the only one who had magic cards.” He looked around. “Look, I can, and will help you, but first, you got to do a favor for me.” “Not surprising to be perfectly honest.” I say honestly. “But anyways, what be thine favor?” “You see that wolf girl at the bar?” He pointed over at the bar. So other anthros are real too? “I kinda need you to… keep her distracted long enough for me and her daughter to pack up and GTFO this place, deal?” “You want me to distract a mother from beating your ass?” I ask. “Her daughter already has twins by me, and she only lets her live in the casino because she hates humans, and this floor is as close as I can get to her without having my legs bitten off. We’ve been meaning to get out of here for a long time, but that literal bitch has her own daughter on a shock color. I can get it off, but someone has to keep her occupied.” “Quick question...I know that you already have kids with her but...do you two actually love each other and not just for obvious reasons that could make it seem fake?” I ask, knowing that women flock to money and power like moths to a flame. “Money and power can make women do a lot of stupid things…” I say honestly. I received a surprise smack from Dorlu. “You smart mouth kid! That woman is all I think about! The whole reason I gambled for these casino’s was for us to live in luxury away from that mother of hers. Sadly as long as her mother is around my poor Crystal is nothing more than an obedient slave to her mother's voice.” The gambler could tell, even behind my hood that was concealing my face, I was smiling at hearing that. “Glad to hear that Dorlu. Don’t worry, I’ll keep her busy while you and Crystal go off. I thank you...and I’m sorry...I’ve been surrounded by assholes that would use their money and power to get whatever they want...I’m sorry for thinking that.” I say before checking my deck of cards and seeing all the cards having a bunch of X’s and O’s on them just as I thought they would. “I’m pretty sure I can keep her busy for as long as you need.” “Good luck, just remember… it won’t be easy since you’re human.” Dorlu walked off, and I got ready to confront an overprotective mother. I shuffled my deck of cards without a single thought about it, the cards feeling second nature as I walked up to the mother. “Hello ma’am, would you like to play a little game?” I ask the wolf in question. She took one sniff, and looked confused. “You smell human… but also Equine? You ever been to a world called Equestria?” “Yes actually, how did you know?” I ask, being taken off guard only to lead to massive curiosity at this. “Your smell. You smell like pony.” She took another sniff. “And Zebra?” “One of the laws in Equestria, due to the massive difference between males and females, is a male can be in a herd. I have five loving girlfriends, and one of them happens to be a Zebra just as you said…” I say with a nod. “But anyways mind if I ask your name?” “Nyla. So, you here for the furry ladies like most humans?” She said as she poured a cup if scotch. “I have five girls back home so no. I’m not here to cheat on the five women I love.” I say simply. “Hah, now that’s a laugh.” She said, taking a sip of the scotch. “Humans and men only come to Gamora for two things, sex, and sex. And trust me when I say, that even though they are the same word, in this building, they have separate meanings.” “To some men who live here that may be true, but I am not one of those dick blisters.” I frown. “You may have seen a lot of men just go about their lives doing that but thinking that all men are like that is short sighted and kind of stupid. Hell, I used to see women thinking that they are so much better than men yet flocked to assholes that treated them like crap when they could have easily been with someone that actually gave a damn about their feelings, needs, and well being.” She chuckled. “For a pup, you’re pretty smart human. So, you’re too young to be here unoccupied. Your family here, or you escape the slave traders?” “I have some adult friends with me…” I say before taking a deep breath, trying not to let my sudden anger show. “And you just saying the word ‘slave traders’....would give any decent bastard a cause for finding and beating the bastards who even dare treat living breathing people like property than as actual human beings.” “I get that the term ‘human’ on your world means more than just your species, as it does on many, so I’ll look passed that. But even the Nova fear the new slave traders kid. They showed up out of the blue and took over within a week.” I frowned at hearing this. “Do you know anything about these people? What they look like? Names?” “Got some freaky weapons, mix of magic and science, they often buy slaves more than trade, and the one’s they trade… do not look like they did before. They do something to them, and they look a lot like… That guy.” She pointed and I turned to look at the person… Jet! ”Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck!!! I think to myself quickly and worriedly, now understanding who was owning the slave trade. I could tell he saw me, walked over, and sat next to me. “Whisky.” He said, and the barkeep poured him a cup. I took a deep breath and tried to be casual about this. “So how have you been?” I ask Jet. “Upgraded.” He said, taking a sip of his drink. “Yay~...” I cheer in a ‘dear god why’ tone. “Sounds like you’ve been busy…” “Not as much as before. With Yellow gone, progress is much slower than usual.” “Yeah I heard a little something something about that.” I say honestly. “But I suppose this is one of your ‘me days’ or are you here on break from work?” I ask curiously, knowing that if Jet was here then he and some others were the reason for the sudden Slave trade. “Work, on break.” Jet says simply. “Ya know…” I start as I thought of something stupid to say. “Sometimes I wonder what would happen if we were actually friends instead of...ya know.” I say, not wanting to give the wolf details about our past encounter. “Unknown. My free will was taken from me when I became this. I only follow orders.” He took another sip. I sigh out. “Kind of thought that…” I mutter before shaking my head. “Oh well...I just hope someday you get your free will back…” “If you say so.” He took another sip. “I only follow the one with the stronger dark heart near me.” “Even towards your own death?” I ask. “Yes.” I rub the back of my neck, starting to feel awkward at this point and hoping that Luxord was long gone with his wife. “Jeez...this is awkward…” I say bluntly, not knowing what to say to the Invisible next to me. “Hey kid!” Braig said, grabbing my arm and startling me. “I need a thousand more munny for a three-way with some strippers, you got the cash?” To my surprise, Jet handed him the munny. “Thanks you stranger.” “No need sir.” Jet said… almost like he was told to do it? “I was going to tell him to fuck off but thanks for that.” I say with a nod. Jet shrugged. “His heart was darker.” “Greed and Lust can do that to ya...but Wrath…” I say, slightly hinting at Core here. “At least to me...that’s where it can manifest the most.” I say, not really knowing why I’m being philosophical to a slave bent to Core’s will. “Can I ask you something?” Jet asked, catching me off guard. “Uh...sure.” I say simply, trying to get my guard back up. “That man… his heart is darker than my current master, but my current master ordered me to follow her and only her, but that goes against my programing of ‘follow the darkest heart’... which is the right choice? Follow that man, or my master?” “Ya see…” I start. “This is where ‘Free Will’ comes into play. Even if you were ‘programed’ into doing what you believe you should do, it’s all up to you in the end Jet. If you want to follow that guy then whatever. But if you want to stick with your master then that’s fine as well. No matter how much programming you’ve been through, and even if you didn’t have free will, you still have free will to choose who you follow. Your master would be pissed that you disobeyed their orders but whatever.” “Do I follow my programing, or my orders?” Jet asks, wanting a clear answer here. It suddenly clicked in my head… so long as Braig is on our side, and if Jet follows him…”Follow your programming. Follow the one with the darkest heart.” I say simply, wanting Jet to at least be on our side instead of me having to fight the guy again even if he didn’t have Yellow to help him. “Alright then. New master uploaded.” He got up, and kinda floated over to Braig. “Well that was something.” Nyla said. “Why you have him follow your friend?” “Cause his old master is, as far as I know, a psychopath that takes slaves to have them tortured and tested on to look like that and be even more of a slave than they already were. So instead of being a slave but having a will of their own, they are a slave and have no will of their own.” I explain. “Also because that guy is my friend and I’d rather have Jet on my side then on the enemies side. “Makes sense to me I guess. Since you’re in the advice given mood, mind if I ask a question?” The wolf lady asks honestly. “Sure, I’m a good guy that want’s to help others.” I say with a smile, not wanting to reject others in need of help. “Do yourself a favor, don’t say ‘good guy’ too much around here. Last ‘good guy’ that got caught in this place was… well, death by sex… the other meaning of it. Anyway, my question is, my daughter likes this gambler, he owns the place, and every other casino in Knowhere, and he did it all by gambling for it. Is it wrong that I don’t trust him for that?” I took a deep breath, thankfully forgetting the part I didn’t want to know. “Is it wrong not to trust a gambler for owning casino’s? Well that depends, what’s the gambler like? Does he look like a greedy man that just does it for the money? Is he a man that just likes the thrill of gambling?” “That’s what creeps me out about him. He’s not greedy, just damn lucky. Those cards he plays with are magic, but they are made to play a fair game. He ain’t greedy, and that’s supposed to be a trait in gamblers. It doesn’t feel right for me to see a gambler without greed.” “Maybe it’s not for the money or for the casino’s...maybe he’s trying to gamble for something that’s a lot deeper.” I say. “Yeah, rights to see my daughter. She does have… kids by him already… but hey… sperm donor was a gambler and he nearly gambled me into slavery… I don’t know if it’s just my old emotions or fear for her to turn out like me.” “I understand.” I say with a nod. “It’s alright to have your fears of the past...but if you dwell on them too much they're doomed to repeat.” I explain. “But let me ask...how was this gambler to your daughter? Was he kind and gentle to her? Cause if that’s true...then I suppose he was gambling the most dangerous game of all...being able to be with your daughter, the one he loves dearly against a wolf that hates gamblers due to her past.” I explain. “If I’m right and he does love her with all his heart then...he would have gambled away everything just to be with her.” “She did say he gambled this place so she could live in luxury, and she and the twins do live in the penthouse… Crap, I’m the bad guy here….” “It’s alright.” I say gently. “A mother was scared for her daughter, worried that something might happen to her like what happened to you…” I explain. “But...they both love each other...and I think it would be for the best if you gave them your blessing, instead of being paranoid give them your okay to be happy...and maybe you could be with them and be a nice grandmother.” I say with a smile. “Hey, I’m old, but grandma? I’m not that old yet. My race live to be up to four hundred years old, and I’m bearly forty. Anyhow, tell them they have my blessing when you see them on your ship.” She gave a sly smile. “Grandmother is a term for a person with grandchildren, I didn’t mean to say your old...but really? Forty is considered ‘old’? I’m sorry but you look like you're still in your twenties.” I say with a smile. “But alright, I’ll give them your blessing...but how long did you know?” I ask, wanting to know how long she knew about our scheme. “I’m a K9 race, ears that can hear up to a mile away.” “I shouldn’t be surprised.” I say with a little chuckle. “But you sure you don’t want to see them off?” “I’ll be leaving this dump sooner or later. I’ll find you, I know where Equestria is anyway. Got some family that live there, and finding a human on that world will be too easy.” “Huh, didn’t know wolves lived on Equestria. I mean I was already told about Griffon’s and Minotaurs but not about wolves.” I say in surprise, knowing about Diamond Dogs but didn’t think wolves existed. “Yeah, we tend to make settlements far off the beaten path. Some place called Night Howl Crest. All I know is that it’s far down south.” “Alright then.” I say with a nod. “But I ask you this because you have a sooner rather than a later.” I say honestly. “You can come along...I’m pretty sure you’d love to smell Equestrian air instead of...this.” I say, surprised that my sense of smell hasn’t burned away from all the shit here. She seemed to think it over. “Well, been years since I last smelled fresh air… Alright, but you gotta help with my unfinished business first.” “And what would that be?” I ask, having a feeling it’s going to be one fetch quest after another here. “It better not be distract a mother that could beat a grown man easily.” “I ain’t you kid. No, I got a… friend that disappeared two days ago… this goes with your hating the slave traders, because it’s not uncommon for them to take visitors that are new to this place. If she’s there then you gotta break her out fast, or she might end up like tall and ugly floating next to your friend over there.” “Listen I don’t want to know what Captain One Eye is doing right now.” I say honestly. “But who am I looking for exactly? Details will make this all the more better as I’m going to rush into a place where even worse people are in.” “Details I don’t got… but there is a guy here that might talk… he goes by Ramilua. Has a small shop two miles from here. Just ask for him when you get there.” “Okay then. Well this is going to be an interesting adventure. What I originally thought was going to lead to finding people to train me turned into a search and rescue...and talking to a mother to let her daughter be happy with the one she loves.” I say honestly. “But any defining features of the shop? Cause as far as I saw there’s an ass ton of shops around.” “Look for the pink neon rose.” ”Well there’s Marluxia.” I think to myself, hoping to add that person to my master list. “Thank you Nyla, I’ll find you when I finish saving the person.” I say before getting off of the chair, the cards vanishing before I headed out, hoping that Terra and Aqua were fine in this place. ”Let’s hope this won’t go poorly.” I think to myself worriedly. Nyla left for the ship while Terra, Aqua, Braig, and now Jet and I all headed over to the building with the big pink rose on it. When we got inside we were greeted with the scene of a… beauty parlor? “Greetings.” I looked to my side and my jaw dropped. Larxene?! “I’m Nelare, are you scheduled for an appointment or do you just want a quick makeover?” “Um…” I take a deep breath. “Two things...first is a question, are you a master of Kunai Knives?” I ask honestly. She was suddenly holding one between each of her fingers. “Yeah. I use them to cut hair, Ramilua uses a scythe to cut hair, but we both were trained with them to be assassins… We grew up here.” “Not to take you away from your work but mind if I talk with you and Ramilua in private? It’s...something important, for two reasons.” I say, not wanting to talk about things in public. “Sure. Hey Ramilua! You got a request!” She called out as a Marluxia with short pink hair walked out from the back room. “I thought she wasn’t coming toda- oh, who are you all?” Ramilua asked. “Hello.” I say to Ramilua. “Two things...one is a little...personal thing. Can you two teach me how to wield Kunai and a Scythe?” I ask, showing them both that I can summon the weapons at will, three kunai in my right hand and the pink scythe in my left hand. “And two...Nyla sent me here about helping someone.” The two looked at each other in surprise for a second. “Well… we can’t just up and leave the shop…” Nelare said. “Unless,” Ramilua added. “You can assure we can either start a new by making a new one, or getting us jobs at high traffic salons!” He finished with a little flourish. “I...can most likely assure the later. I know this wonderful salon in a nice town that just so happens to have many people with contacts to help give you two more publicity. It’s on another world but it’s nice and colorful and you’re more likely to pass out from too much candy then being shived.” I explain honestly. “But as I was saying before, Nyla sent me here to help someone...got any info?” I ask, disbanding my weapons. The two looked at each other and smiled. “It’s a deal young lad! Now… as for the info. The leader of the new slavers in Knowhere is an elderly human woman by the name of Nancy. She has lot’s of strange creatures at her disposal, and few sentient being’s that do the moving of… cargo. She’s not some pushover old lady either. I went down to those docks for a personal order and I saw her behead five life forms in one swing with some human weapon.” “What it look like?” Braig asked. “Um… was metal, no visible technology, handle was wrapped in cloth and the blade was rather thin.” “A Katana? Huh, I got my fair share of those things.” “Anyway, I can give you directions to the docks they park and trade at, you just let us know what ship to board so we can get out of this place.” Ramilua finished. “Braig will show you the ship, but where is the docks?” I ask curiously. “Also just so you two know a few others will be coming along...other people I’m asking for to be my master…” I say, wanting to warn them before they meet. “That’s alright.” Nelare said. “So long as we can finally leave this place.” “The docks they park at are on floor negative six.” Ramilua said. “Far in the back. If you hear crying you're on the right path.” “Yeah, this doesn’t sound like the set up to some stupid horror movie. Move around a creepy place and if you start hearing crying then you're on the right path, but if you start hearing the wails of the damned you’ve gone too far.” I say joke, sounding like one of those guides pointing towards the right direction out of hell. Braig took Nelare and Ramilua to the ship while Terra, Aqua and I went to floor negative six. It seemed to be largely restraints of sorts here, to our surprise, and we kept walking until we were far in the back… and the sound of crying was heard. We snuck around the corners until we saw a rather large ship, hundreds of people, humans and other, in cages with heartless everywhere. There were a few people with weapons, and standing just outside the ship, was what I guess the Nancy woman Ramilua warned about. She was rather old looking, a katana in its sheath strapped to her side, and she was looking at a locket around her neck with… a sad expression? “What’s our move?” Terra asked. “Hmm…” I hum before waving my hand, three assassin’s appearing before they phased through the ground and weren’t there to the untrained eye. “There’s a lot of heartless...and I don’t know how strong Nancy was...but that sad expression...hmm…” I mutter before taking a deep breath and thinking through this, the Assassin’s waiting for my command as I started gently moving towards the area, hoping to not get caught too soon. We snuck in closer, and I had the Nobodies attack the heartless swiftly. I summoned a few Samurai's as back up, and Terra, Aqua, and I began unlocking the cages. We dealt with the guards, and split up to cover more ground. “Anyone here a friend of Nyla?” I ask, opening another cage. “Here!” A woman’s voice called out. I opened all the cages as I went, and arrived at the one she was in, she was a mermaid?! “Nyla sent you?” She asked. “Yes and we better leave fast before shit hit’s the fan.” I say. “Um...should I carry you or can you change your...mermaid half into legs?” I ask, having literally no idea how Mermaids work given they were in so many mythologies. “My brother was taken into the ship, get him out and near water, he can help.” “Of fucking course…” I mutter before summoning Dusk’s to keep guard before bolting towards the ship, summoning my shield and Keyblade as I made my way through the place. ”Let’s hope this doesn’t go horribly wrong…” I think to myself, knowing that at any moment shit could hit the fan. I ran into the ship. The cages in here were empty, save for one… Demyx? I thought as I recognized that hairstyle anywhere. “Holy hell, someone did come!” He said, I ran over and noticed he had legs. “Don’t worry man, I’m gonna get you out of here.” I say before unlocking the cage and summoning my sitar, starting to strum the thing before a gentle mist of water surrounded Demyx. ”This is tiring as fuck…” I think to myself, even with second nature trying to take over it was still a pain. “Thanks.” He said, taking control of the water and creating a floating ball water. “This should help my sis out. Names Meyd, did Nyla send you?” “Yes, your sister is outside being guarded, now come on you fishy bastard we have some leaving to do.” I say before switching to my Keyblade and shield again. As we ran to the door, we were stopped by Nancy. “Interesting creatures, these Nobodies. The unnoticed other side of the coin when it comes to stolen hearts.” She said. “Listen, I’m just here to stop slaves from being taken away okay?” I ask honestly, readying myself for a fight. “But I saw you looking at your locket...anything I should know before I have a sword pointed at me?” I ask curiously, wondering if I could get a little knowledge about that. “Just mourning my lost family members. First my sister, her husband and my nephew… and most recent, my daughter.” “Where there hearts taken away?” I ask cautiously. “My sister and brother-in-law were killed before we left earth, and my nephew is missing, likely dead. My daughter was killed by a Keyblade wielder, but her heart was shattered in the killing blow, taking her and her unborn child’s life!” “Jesus christ…” I frown. “That’s….that’s just….fucking hell…” She raised her katana at us. “You and your allies all wield those accursed weapons. Whether you are guilty or not. I will have vengeance!” She was cloaked in darkness, rushing at us at much faster speeds than I expected. “So working for Core helps?” I ask while raising my shield swiftly, hoping to block her attack. “Who wields a Keyblade to kill innocents?” “His Keyblade and heart were stolen by one of you!” She swiped at the air, sending a energy wave of darkness at Meyd and I, hitting us both and sending him back some feet. “By who?” I ask with a frown. “A traitor!” She slashed at me, and I barely dodged. “Who you mean Yellow? What is it because she actually got some fucking free will and decided to ditch the bastard? Besides, from what I figured out Yellow was his wife who he tricked into thinking was a female version of him.” I say before swinging my Keyblade at the woman quickly, hoping to actually hit the much quicker foe. She blocked it. Damn that Katana is strong. And deflected it. She slashed again, and cut my arm. “When you care about the ones you love when drowned in your own sorrows and guilt… you do anything just to hold onto the past.” “THE PAST ONLY MAKES THINGS WORSE!” I roar at her as I shield bashed her. “If you focus on the past then you’re only going to be a depressed mess that will cling to literally anything good or bad! Look towards the future and try to find some sort of light!” She merely looked at me. “I am a Ventral, darkness is what we thrive in, what we strive to become! My closest loved ones may be gone, but Core can let us live our dream. We will become human demons!” She suddenly closed the gap between us in an eye blink. I was ready to take the attack, only to open my eyes and see water holding her back. “Hit her dang it!” I heard Meyd say. “That won’t hold forever!” I growled before my Keyblade started glowing a bright white as I slashed the women bound in water, the strike managing to hit her thankfully as the light turned to thorns and suddenly shot into her from where I struck her, twisting and turning around in her body like a bunch of snakes trying to wrap around it’s prey. “Human demons my ass.” I growl, swinging again dealing the final blow as more thorns struck out at her and ripped at her insides. She coughed up blood as she fell when the water holding her let go. “Heh… heh.” She placed her Katana on the side, and her pendent over it. “Sister… brother… daughter… I’ll be seeing you.” To my surprise, her body began to crack, like glass. The cracks kept going, and then, she shattered, nothing left of her other than blood and shards of glass. Did… Did I just kill her? “You finally went to where you belong ‘demon’...in hell.” I frown, taking a deep breath as I tried to calm myself from killing someone. ”Just calm down...self defense after all. She tried killing you and she didn’t give me a choice. She wanted to be a demon so I killed a demon. There’s a point…” I thing before taking another deep breath, this time shakier as my body shuddered. “C-come on Meyd...let’s go meet your sister.” I say, walking off outside the ship. “Sure…” He said, catching up to me. “Um. I grabbed these.” He showed he was holding the Katana and Pendant. “There’s two pictures in the pendant.” I took it and opened it. On the right, was the picture of a blond haired woman with blue eyes, leaning against and smiling at a tall, dirty blond man with green eyes. On the left, were four people, one was a girl… I’m guessing her daughter… two men, one holding the Katana she was using… and Zeke?! “No matter how much they try to forsake their humanity and try to act like demons...they still love each other…” I mutter, still not believing Zeke was in that picture of all people but still. I took a deep breath and closed the pendant and grabbed the Katana. “Meyd, mind if you and your sister come with me and a few friends?” “Sure, we only came here looking for odd jobs and got grabbed. I wanna put this place as far behind me as possible.” He said. “You're not the only one man.” I sigh out. “You're not the only one…” I say before heading off, seeing the Nobodies defending the freed slaves like I ordered and finding Terra and Aqua. “You two okay?” “Yeah.” Aqua said. “So…” Terra said. “Where are we taking them?” “Braig is gonna fucking hate me for this…” I grumble. “But I still have two other masters to find, but um...can you take Terra to Ponyville and get Luxu to fix his gummi ship? And someone that actually know’s how to pilot fly the fucking thing? Cause I don’t want these innocent people to die because of his shitty piloting.” I say, wanting Luxu to be here to help the innocents here. “Will do.” Aqua said. As she and Terra jumped on their gliders and left, I was standing around the others. “I don’t suppose any of you know about chakrams or claymore’s?” I ask curiously, hoping someone might be able to help me here. “I think I know someone in my world who can use chakrams.” A kid spoke up. “There’s a man in either Radiant Garden, or the Olympus Coliseum that knows everything about large swords, Claymores are likely one of them.” Another person spoke. “I don’t think this is your standard ‘Claymore’.” I say before showing them the claymore in question. “I know it looks more like a club but it’s a Claymore...but thank you both it means a lot.” “It still counts as a sword though.” The same person said. “True, and I thank you. But hopefully without much delays a gummi ship will appear that isn’t a slavery ship and take you to a new world just so you can all get to grips with being free and then will be sent to your home worlds if you want.” I explain. “That okay?” I ask while seeing everyone nod. “Alright, let’s get going.” Too be continued... Nobody's New Adventure part 2Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.Nobody's New Adventure part 3Author's Note Finally! Done with this 30,000+ 3 parter is done. My god was this a behemoth for five different people to write. Am I happy with it? Yes but I feel it could have been more focused and...detailed I suppose but eh. For this chapter there is a special difference between all of our chapters. Some short and sweet that will segway into the next chapter, others longer and are just there to fill in the ending to make it different but either way. Hope you liked it. Nobody's New Adventure part 3 Ben walked through the castle halls, still clad in his white trench coat and his crooked silver crown resting on his head but seeming to have an air of loneliness even if he was humming something that sounded enjoyable. “Let’s hope I can get home soon…” He mutters to himself, barely being gone for a day or two and already being homesick and lonely. “Hey Ben.” Huxley called out, walking down the hall towards Ben. “Oh, hey Huxley.” Ben says with a little wave. “How you doing? Thought you had stuff to do that wasn’t here?” Ben asks curiously. “I was planning on leaving later today but I wanted to make sure Zeke was fine. I didn’t see him after I left...even though I asked you guys to come and get me when he woke up.” Huxley said with a little anger in his voice. “Weird...anyways did you at least catch the monster fight? I think with how the empire is it was broadcasted everywhere here…” Ben says, hoping he at least caught it. “I think I went to bed before it happened.” Huxley said remembering that he went to bed around nine or ten. “Well that sucks. I think they’ll be showing it again for a while at least.” Ben says, hoping that’s true. “But do you want to know the winner?” “Let me guess it was the Twilight Thorn right?” Huxley guessed. “Yep. It threw out two giant spheres of energy to help take it down.” Ben says. “It was actually close but Twilight Thorn add the edge in agility, brain power, and the mere fact it can summon a god damn spirit bomb at will.” “Sweet. By the way what was in that room anyway?” Huxley asked wondering what was in the room of hell. “Horrors you don’t want to know about.” Ben says seriously, an involuntary shudder going down his spine at remembering it. “Good to know...Is that Kira. Hey Kira!” Huxley shouted. Kira looked over and waved. “Hey guys. Whatcha doin?” “We were talking about the giant monster fight.” Huxley said. “Oh, yeah that was awesome! The others and I were watching the whole thing. I knew the Twilight Thorn would win, but Jenny lost the bet to Alex so she was grumpy the rest of the night.” Kira said sheepishly. “I can imagine, but frankly why would someone want to be upset? It was a giant monster fight!” Ben says with a smile. “But how are you doing Kira? Hope...things didn’t give you nightmares…” Ben trails off, referencing the Hall of Sins. Kira’s smile faltered a bit. “Nah, I’m fine. What happened yesterday was unnerving, but that’s to be expected in our line of work.” “I understand.” Ben nods. “Also just to mention, the Twilight Thorn wouldn’t shush during the fight...seriously try being super excited about a fight but keep hearing the thing ask where it’s heart is.” He explains. “But to give some context...given that I have a heart and summon Nobodies I can hear them talk.” “I just had a thought what would be in that vault of hell.” Huxley said. “I don’t know. What do you think?” Kira asked sarcastically. “Some kind of device that makes keyblade’s.” Huxley said “That’s a tad specific, but no.” Ben says bluntly. “Well it was a thought, I don’t know what’s in there.” Huxley said. “And it would be better if you kept it that way.” Ben says honestly. “Yeah, It’s not like that’s exactly what was in there.” She said nervously, while winking and sticking her tongue out. Ben patted Kira’s head. “That’ll do Fox...that’ll do.” He chuckles, finding her little antics silly. “Anyway I’m going to check on Zeke before I leave, see you later.” Huxley said. “Okay Huxley, stay safe. Kira mind if I meet the rest of the Foretellers?” Ben asks Kira. “I’d really like to know the five of you. And learn more about what you all have done cause I have a story or two.” “Oh before I go should I take Elzin to your world so he can tell you what happens in the other Equestria Girls movies?” Huxley asked Kira. “There’s more than one?” Ben asks curiously. “I mean it is Hasbro and MLP so I should have expected that but...still.” “Really!? Cool. But I should probably take this seriously. Cause it could depict the future of my reflection.” Kira said with a, slightly cute, serious face. “Has anyone ever told you you're serious look is cute?” Ben asks honestly. “A few times. Oh, and there back in the common area. C’mon!” Kira smiles before grabbing Ben’s hand and drags him along to the common’s. “Okay Kira calm down!” Ben laughs while following along quickly, finding her actions silly and causing his loneliness feeling to fade away like dust in the wind. “Well that just happened.” Huxley said looking at Kira drag Ben. “Bye guys!” Huxley said. “Bye!” Ben calls out to Huxley. “Okay now where am I?” Huxley asked looking around at the signs apparently he was in the abandoned area. “Huxley.” Suddenly, Lan called out as he walked towards him. “Oh good I was worried I would have to fight this ghost alone, now I got Lan and Megaman.” Huxley joked. “Yes, yes, I have the same name.” Lan said with a sigh, “And what’s this about a ghost?” “Nothing its just were close to an abandoned area and normally that’s where there are ghost’s” Huxley explained as a ghostly wail came from direction of the abandoned area. “Ah alright. So are you lost too? I don’t want to admit it, but this is a very confusing building. It’s difficult not to get lost.” Lan said tiredly. “Yeah I know and did you not hear the ghostly wail?” Huxley asked as the ghostly wail went again. “Yes, I have noticed that. But it’s probably just the wind.” “I was looking for Zeke but I got lost here.” Huxley said. “I was just roaming around, why don’t we go back to the guest rooms and decide where to go from there?” “Sure let's head back.” Huxley said. They retraced their steps, and after a while they made it to the guests room. “So now where do we go from here?” Huxley asked. “Well I’m pretty sure you could ask the guards to show you the way. Now I have to go to the Common area to meet with my team. See you later Huxley.” “See yeah.” Huxley said as He asked the nearby guard where Zeke was. “I hope your family actually likes me.” Ben says honestly to Kira, hoping to not make a bad ‘first’ impression. “I’m sure they will. The five of us are a band of misfits anyways, so you won’t be the weird one out. I hope we can share our adventures so far.” She said. “Well I have quite a story that would make even a band of misfits feel upset.” Ben explains honestly. “But um...I might be a little ranty just to give a fair warning...I tend to rant.” “Eh, it’ll be fine. Promise.” She smiles. Eventually, they made it to the common area where the rest of the Foretellers were waiting around. “Heyo!” Ben calls out to the Foretellers. “How you all doing? Did you catch the fight?” “Yeah, we all did. Pretty sweet! I knew that speed would trump brute strength. And I got 5 munny.” Alex gloated. Jenny just glared and blew a raspberry at him. Ben laughed. “Glad you thought it was amazing. Also how many times have you all told Kira is adorable?” Ben asks curiously, having thought Kira was a silly ball of adorable joy. “About, at least, twice a day. She does it intentionally or does a clutzy thing that is pretty cute.” Dan said, making Kira blush in frustration. “It doesn't happen all the time!” Kira defended. “Listen, I’ve barely known you for a day Kira and even I know it probably happens all the time.” Ben chuckles. “Anyways I should probably explain the whole ‘summoning Nobodies’ thing correct?” “That would be nice to know.” Dan said. “Okay so, just like Zeke I was given the ability to summon Nobodies, as well as have all fourteen Organization weapons. But the drawbacks are I can’t learn magic like normal Keybladers can, but I have ways around that if I think about it enough, and there’s the whole…” Ben takes a deep breath. “Hearing voices in my head.” Ben explains. “And no, there not the usual voices in my head due to past depression, no. Whenever a Nobody is around, whether I summon it or it’s just an ambient thing, because I have a heart I start hearing them ask where their hearts are...which in numbers can get really annoying or with the Twilight Thorn sounding like if a Giant decided to ask something in a giant fucking echo chamber...you get the point…” He grumbles, rubbing his head gently at the faint pain of a headache. “Sounds like a huge pain.” Alex said. “Don’t worry, I have had voices in my head before.” Ben says offhandedly. “Yeah...nothing like having half a dead heart before coming to Equestria...isn’t life grand sometimes?” “Well that’s the burden of power. It isn’t just swooping in and saving people.” Jenny said. “No no I mean literally before I even met God himself.” Ben says. “Remember when everything was going to hell back on Earth? I was in the middle of my school library thinking that the ‘End of the World’ was boring as piss. Then I learned that because of….circumstances my heart was half dead…” “Wow, that had to be ruff dude.” Alex said. “You seem fine right now.” “That’s because I accepted my sins...in my Mark of Mastery exam.” Ben explains. “Oh! So you’re a Master like us?” Kira said. “Yep. And with me, myself and I here.” Ben explains before summoning Reunion. “I finally have a full healthy heart with five happy girlfriends back home. Oh and also Reunion...the ‘me, myself, and I’ isn’t just a joke, Reunion is literally me if you didn’t hear me tell Luxu that.” “So that’s why it doesn’t feel like a normal keyblade.” Alex said. “And five girlfriends huh? Looks like he got you beat by one Lan.” He said with a smirk. “For now.” Jenny said with a matching smirk, and Lan’s displeasure. “Listen how about we not compare harems and just be happy we have people that love us for who we are alright?” Ben asks honestly. “It doesn’t matter how many girls we have, as long as you and your lover(s) are happy then that’s fine.” Ben says while putting a hand near his heart. “God knows I’m happy to have girls that love me…” He says gently with a warm smile. “Yeah, I agree with you there.” Lan said. “Ditto. I may not have a harem like the two of you, but I’m happy with my Pinkie. I’m sure Dan can say the same about Rainbow.” Alex said, with Dan coughing and looking away. “Okay so besides our love lives how about we talk adventures, I’m pretty sure I have the most to talk about since I went inside a Celestial Being’s hollowed out skull.” Ben says, already feeling like he’s going to be great friends with the Foretellers. Eclipse yawned and stretched awake as he rolled out of bed. “Man, these beds are nice.” He walked over to Oathkeeper, her body still bent and dented. “Listen Oath, I-” I’m sorry. “...What?” I said I’m sorry. I...I was so caught up in Oblivion and trying to get you ready so we can go get him back that I-I forgot that you are hurting to. I ignored it because I wanted my brother back. I ignored my Wielder. I ignored you. “Oath, there is nothing to be sorry for. I would act the same way and you know Oblivion sure as hell would. You're worried about not only your brother, but your twin. You are his light, and he is your darkness. You need each other, help each other, and despite your arguments I can tell you love each other. I...I just wish I could have made peace with my darkness so we could have him back, I miss the guy already.” Eclipse says looking out the window. .....There might be a way…. But it’s risky and goes against one of the many rules us keyblades follow. After hearing Oathkeeper’s plan, Eclipse smiles. “Well, I was never one for tradition anyways. We can do it, after we get you repaired, and I keep my promise to X and open that orphanage, at least get the building plans written so it can be worked on while we’re away.” Are you sure? If the plan fails, you could lose both me and Oblivion. Though Oblivion would be free from your darkness, you could lose the ability to wield a keyblade forever. “After the shit I put you two through, consider it a favor payed, k?” Eclipse says calmly. “I may never get over the life I had taken, but I can help others live theres. That is the jist what X told me, and I’ll stick to it, even for you two.” And that is why you could wield us. Oathkeeper said with happiness in her voice. Huxley walked into the room with all of Zeke’s wives. “What up everybody?” Huxley asked. “You know it’s rude to walk into a bedroom without knocking.” Twilight said. “I did knock nobody answered.” Huxley said as they looked at him “Anyway would it be okay to talk to Zeke alone. “She’s in the shower.” Rune said, giggling. “If you came ten minutes sooner~” “Fine I’ll wait outside.” Huxley said walking outside. “Tell me when she’s decent!” Huxley said standing by the outside door. Huxley waited outside the room for ten or twelve minutes before Zeke came out… wearing short-shorts and a tight top. “Damnit Rune…” She muttered. “Whats up Shanna.” Huxley joked. “Sorry I missed you coming back anyway how you feeling?” Huxley asked. Zeke hit Huxley in the arm. “Still Zeke, but whatever. And thanks for asking… honestly, nervous, pregnant, obviously, and kinda hungry.” “Well I think I have something to at least make you feel less bad about the whole situation.” Huxley said as he looked into the room “Could you ask your wives to give us some time alone...and not for that reason RUNE!” Huxley shouted at Zeke’s horny wife. “We’ll be fine. Come on, lounge is just down the hall.” Zeke said as she led Huxley down the hall into a rather large library, complete with a large fireplace burning. “So what’s up?” Zeke asked as she took a seat. “Promise to tell nobody, but you’re not the only one that’s been ‘cursed’.” Huxley said grabbing a glass of cold water. “Cursed?” “Let me show you” Huxley said pouring the glass over his head and becoming shorter “Gah that’s cold!” the feminine voice of Huxley said. Zeke pulled Huxley’s hood off. “...Well…so your a b cup?” “That’s not the point here also D cup actually.” Huxley said opening his cloak to let his boobs out “Look during my trip two important things happened. One, I kicked Core off earth with a genie wish,” “Hacks.” Zeke said. “Genie's are hacks.” “Look it means no more of your family will try to kill us. And the second thing was I fell into a cursed pool and can turn into a girl...I’m surprised it didn’t happen when we fell into the blood pool but anyway.” “Is it a ‘change at will’ deal?” “No it cold water turns me into a girl hot water turns me back sort of deal” Huxley said. “Well, odd.” “Yo, I was told that-” Ben cuts himself off at seeing Huxley. “Um...okay I should have knocked…” “God damn it.” Huxley said facepalming “So...how the fuck did Ranma get here?” Ben asks, pointing at Huxley. “Hey Ben, whatcha doin?” Kira came into the scene, along with the other Foretellers. “Oh...well not entirely unexpected.” Eclipse is walking around and see’s the crowd forming. “Hey guy’s what’s….oh….you to huh? Ah oh well.” “I suppose we’ve all heard of Ranma half?” Ben asks curiously, completely ignoring Zeke’s terrible outfit. “Yes and does anybody here know chinese?” Huxley asked as they all shook their heads. “Great.” Huxley said Zeke scratched his head for a moment before summoning Discord. “You thinking what I’m thinking? She asked the chaos spirit. One mass genderbend coming up! Discord flashed, and everyone, save for Zeke and Huxley, were engulfed in smoke… and they all noticed the difference, even their clothes were changed. “Um…” Ben frowns before looking down. “C-cup? Eh, oh well.” He says nonchalantly, not really caring that he was now a woman. “Can I have my normal organization cloak back?” Ben frowns. “Mini skirts, or anything that doesn't go below your knees sucks total dick.” She frowns, fixing her crown. Lan was silent, but walked up to a nearby mirror to look at ‘herself.’ “Hm… not bad. But first.” He grabbed a nearby hair tie and put his now long, black hair into a ponytail. “There, now my look is complete.” “This is awesome!” Alex said, fondling his own B- cup boobs. “Hey, uh, I’ll be right back.” He scurried off. Eclipse shouted out after Alex. “Wait till you get a period!” She said before sighing. “Not again….” “I’d rather not know why you said ‘again’ but I have a feeling me and Lan are the only ones not that ‘worried’ or ‘scared’ about this.” Ben says with a frown. “God help me if Luna or any of my girlfriends find me like this…” “Well, now you guys will know how we feel.” Jenny said, Flexing her arms. “Man, I’m jacked!” “I ALREADY DO!” Shouted Eclipse exasperated. “Zeke why did you do this?” Huxley asked. “Two reasons.” She started. “One, now we all have been through the anime comedy cliche of being genderbent, and two… I was kinda curious.” Huxley just grabbed a nearby newspaper and smacked Zeke “No, bad X-blade wielder turn everyone back” Zeke rolled her eyes. “Fine. But… after Alex get’s back… I don’t wanna hear him scream. His fingers are, well, you can guess where those will be stuck at.” “I’m okay with this, as long as I don't get a period again.” Eclipse shrugs. “Or go into heat...that’d suck.” “Alright then.” Zeke raised Discord up and in another flash, everyone, but Zeke, Huxley and Eclipse, were back to normal. “So,anything we should discuss?” Ben slightly frowned. “Ya know...I expected that to last longer but oh well.” Ben shrugs. “Anyways I came here to see how you were doing and whenever a meeting could be brought up. Remember I’ve got important things to talk about.” “Is it as important as removing Core from all reflections of a world?” Huxley asked “That reminds me.” Zeke said. “When you wished that, what was the wish exactly?” “I wish Core was unable to step on any reflection of earth.” Huxley said. “I guess that could include worlds that where a part of earth like the land of dragons...maybe?” Huxley said confused. “Then… he can’t set foot, but Heartless, Unversed, and other followers of his can… not much different honestly.” “God damn it and just when I had a win too... anyway I also wanted to ask what's with Oblivion?” Huxley asks. “Well, you still do, we now know that genies can affect Core… so we should try and find them. Also, what about Oblivion?” “Well when I tried to use it last it was white.” Huxley explained. “For a second there I thought you were talking to me.” Eclipse chuckles nervously. “Why would I be asking you? It’s not like you had anything to do with it being white...right?” Huxley said as he looked at Eclipse. “I hope not…but there is a problem with my reflection of Oblivion.” “What happened.” Ben asks with a frown, now wanting to know what happened to Oblivion. “Well…he...damn it I'm just going to say it. My darkness swallowed him.” “Congratulations.” Ben frowns. “Now if I may so kindly ask...how in the name of fuck does that happen?” “When you have a heart that is tearing itself apart as we speak, weird shit happens...all I know is Oathkeeper is both pissed and depressed at the same time. Plus I can not summon Oblivion at all right now.” Eclipse retorts “Damn…” Ben frowns. “Well...if you need any help in solving that we’re all here for ya.” “I have a plan, but I promised Oathkeeper I wouldn't tell anyone about it. Sorry.” “No need to be sorry. I understand.” Ben nods. “Everyone’s got to do things on their own. But again, we’re here to help in any way that’s within our power.” “Damn strait!” Alex said, with the rest of his team nodding in agreement. “Admit it Alex, you just like my horse ass right now.” Eclipse said with a eye roll. “Hmm? You haven’t turned back to normal yet?” He taunted. “I thought you naturally looked like a sissy.” “Don't make me summon Oath to kick your ass. She may be dented, but she will still take you on any day lover boy.” Eclipse smirked. “Okay you two, how about we not fight? Eclipse has probably the worst situation out of all of us right now. So how about we calm down and not fight?” “I was messing around about fighting, take it easy. I won't be fighting with Oath until she is repaired.” Eclipse says. “Hmm. Whatever. I guess I shouldn’t have picked a fight.” Alex said. “Anyways…” Zeke cut in. “Eclipse, in terms of Keyblades, if Oathkeeper is out of commission and Oblivions is… whatever is up with him, I might be able to help.” She offered. Eclipse shook her head “Sorry, but fighting with any blade other than those two would just….seem wrong.” “You forget one thing though,” Zeke said as two Oathkeepers appeared in his hands. “Multiverse, and multiple.” The oathkeeper blades were not bent, nore damaged at all. “It’s still her, just a different body. I guess Oblivion was only affected largely because the Keychain was affected.” “I guess… It’ll work but it still seems wrong for some reason.” Eclipse admits. Zeke tossed the two Oathkeepers to Eclipse, and he tried talking to them to hear Oathkeepers voice. Don't worry so much Eclipse, it is still me. Keyblades and their reflections work differently than others. We all share a mind, so while I am wielded by say Zeke, I will still be with you at the same time. “Okay, that's some stress off my back.” Eclipse says with a sigh. “Why are you still a girl? By the way I just noticed this now.” Huxley said. “The way gender bending spells work is this: First, the change is normally temporary unless said person doesn't want to change. Second, if the time limit is up, the spell cancels unless as I said, the person doesn't want it to end. I am okay with it for now so no harm done.” Zeke took the bent Oathkeeper. “How to fix you?” She muttered. “Magic?” Huxley asks as everybody looked at her “What? It’s the obvious solution...I think” “A Keyblade forge.” X speaks though Zeke. “Making one though it’s…not easy…there was one that Mors, er, Lord Death used… wonder if he knows where it is?” “How about the Skyforge in Skyrim? That might be a Keyforge?” Huxley asks “I’d have to see.” “For some reason I thought the Cooper Clan would know something about a Keyblade forge…” Ben frowns. “Anyone know else know about Sly Cooper?” “Played the hell out of them.” Zeke said happily. “Yay! Someone else that knows about the game.” Ben smiles. Zeke’s eyes went wide. “Dude, we can go to that world!” “Then get robbed by Rocket Racoon.” Huxley says sarcastically. “How fucking dare you!” Ben says, sounding insulted here. “The Cooper clan is nothing like common thieves, and no they are not Rocket Racoon...I think I saw him when I went to Knowhere…” Ben says with a little thought. “I think there was a tree that said ‘I am Groot’...eh oh well.” Ben shrugs. “So you saw the Guardians of the Galaxy” Huxley said “Kind of. I at least remember the racoons name.” Ben says honestly. “Marvel Comics makes good hero’s.” “Why do I have the feeling Elzin has something that would piss us off like them turning Captain America into a nazi or something stupid like that.” Huxley said “Ya know...if Superman can be written as a Russian then I wouldn’t be surprised.” Ben sighs out. “Fan fiction writers have also tried that whole thing...oh no…” Ben mutters as his eyes widened. “Oh no...nonono….fan fictions are probably real...” “Certainly feels like that some days….” Eclipse says with a mane flip. “Oh no….it's started…” “Not even Core will prepare us for some of that weird shit…” Ben frowns. “If we meet Core...can we murder all of Sonic the Hedgehog reflections? That one thing has created too many shitty fan fictions….even if there are possibly good ones…” “And have us sonic 06….” Eclipse says depressed. “I remember when those games were good...played a couple in a arcade…” “Let’s not completely break the fourth wall here guys. We’re getting paid after all.” Kira said. “That depends on what we’re being paid for, but fine.” Ben says. “Good now back to the conversation of keyblade forges.” Huxley said. “We’ll have to speak with Lord Death about the forge.” Zeke says, quickly grabbing Unum and leading the group to the mirror in the council room in Lord Death’s seat. “I keep forgetting the damn code…” She muttered. “Hold on.” Ben says while summoning his sitar and a gentle fog covered the mirror. “No spontaneous singing in the council room.” Zeke says. “I wasn’t going to.” Ben says before writing the code to call Lord Death. “Yeah right and I’m a boy at the moment” Huxley said. “And there.” Ben says simply before the numbers ‘42-42-564’ on the fogged up mirror. “And if I did it right then he should be appearing.” A sudden flash of light showed on the mirror before a small boxed screen showing Lord Death’s masked face appeared. “Howdy, how’s it going?” Lord Death asked. “It’s nice to meet you Lord Death.” Ben says with a smile. “Sup” Huxley said casually. “Nice to see you again. Lord Death.” Lan said. Eclipse kept quiet during the introductions. “Mors, X said you know of a Keyblade forge, we need to repair a damaged Keyblade and maybe learn how to make more.” Zeke said. Lord Death scratched his masks chin. “Yes, I remember. Well, bad news is that after the world broke apart into many, I have no idea where those forges ended up, good news, they are indestructible… bad news, you can put the fire out and take it apart and scatter them.” “I believe one of them ended up in the province of Skyrim in Cyrodiil.” Huxley said. “I have no idea what that place is.” “It’s in a world named Nern. Hopefully we can find it to repair Oathkeeper.” Eclipse said. “Huh… I think… let me remember… Uh… Maybe… was it a place mainly inhabited by elves? Two in particular?” “Mainly yes, however humans are also a majority.” Eclipse informed Death. “I believe the… what did those two go by… Snow elves and … Dwemer? Yes, those two races made the majority of Keyblade forges in the past before the world split apart. If you are to find parts to a Keyblade forge, it’s there, or one still intact and not taken apart.” “Well we have two places to go first a place with warm water so I can stop being a girl then Skyrim.” Huxley said as they all looked at him “Oh! Yes that was a place that had one that was older than I am!” Lord Death said happily. “I used it back when I was just a smithing apprentice. If it’s still there, try and bring it to me, the art of forging Keyblades is likely known only by me.” “Let’s see if I have a DTL to Skyrim.” Huxley said looking at his book. “Nope sorry” Huxley said disappointed. “To know for certain if it’s a Keyblade forge, just tap the fire with a Keyblade and watch the flames turn into liquid fire. No, not lava, literal fire as a liquid. It’s rather amazing to see.” “I think I got this.” Zeke said, summoning X and pointing him up at a wall. “You know what to do.” The X-blades tip shot out a beam of light and a large DTL opened up. “Never fails.” “Thanks Lord death. May your heart be your guiding key or whatever the saying is.” Huxley said running head first into the portal before coming back out. “Umm the portal leads us to a mountain.” The others quickly followed, and were standing in snowy mountain. “Well… Weird.” Zeke said, the snow not affecting her all too much. “Not as cold as I should be… the hell?” “Why have you come here?” A voice called trembling the ground as everybody looked to see a dragon stand there. “Hello…” Ben says nervously, not sure if he should summon any weapons because of the giant dragon. “You are Paarthurnax, last of the Dovah?” Huxley asked. “Yes how did you know?” “We are not from this world and we were looking for a keyblade forge.” Huxley said. “You are looking for the Skyforge then.” Paarthurnax said. “Great thanks,” Huxley said levitating. “Race you!” she said before Paarthurnax spoke. “YOU WILL NOT STEAL THE SKYFORGE OUTSIDERS!” He roared as the world trembled. “Huxley, sit!” Zeke said, summoning Discord and using the chaos spirit’s magic to slam Huxley into the ground. “Idiot…” Zeke muttered as she turned to the dragon. “Please forgive my friend, he’s a hard headed ass… anyway, as you can see, we have Keyblades. We just want to look at the Skyforge, and if you know of another Keyblade forge, one that’s either in wrong hands, or in pieces, please, tell. We don’t mean any harm.” “Hmm maybe I misjudged you outsiders. I have been guarding this world for so long and the last outsiders that have come here tried to slay me but couldn’t due to not being of the Dovah or being Dovahkiin.” Paarthurnax said. “Forgive my bluntness but has Alduin returned?” Huxley asked “How do you know of my brother?” Paarthurnax asked before retracting his question. “It matters not, the answer is yes my brother has returned and was slain by the Dovahkiin years ago.” Paarthurnax said. “This is kinda over my head.” Zeke admitted. “So, who or what is this Dovahkiin?” “Dragonborn the main protagonist of Skyrim” Huxley said before asking “You’ve never played Skyrim before?” “How about we ask the dragon?” Eclipse says. “Excuse me Paarthurnax, Would you mind telling me and my companions who and what the dragonborn is? It might be vital to our mission.” “She is a Dark elf.” Paarthurnax explained “Thanks! Any idea on her where about's?” “No I do not keep track of her.” Paarthurnax said “Well with our luck we’ll run into her.” Huxley said “Thank you for your time Paarthurnax. Now, we should be off.” Eclipse says with a bow. “Race you to Whiterun” Huxley said flying off. “You little!” Eclipse shouts summoning her Keyblade gliders and using her metal wings to catch up. “Thank you…” Ben says to the dragon with a bow before summoning his keyblade glider and hopping on. “Well we better follow those two before they hurt themselves...or more importantly others…” Ben sighs out, waiting for his companions to saddle up before following Eclipse and Huxley. “Yeah.” Zeke said, summoning X, to which Paarthurnax screamed. “The fuck!”. “Is that the X-Blade?” Paarthurnax screamed “Yeah, long story.” “Hey did the dragon just scream?” Huxley said flying back curious. “Yeah, do you know about the X-blade?” Zeke asked Paarthurnax. “Only in legends passed down by the gods themselves.” Paarthurnax said “Then how do you know what it looks like?” Huxley asked. “Mystical things that only dragon’s can understand probably.” Ben shrugs. “Makes about as much sense as anything else does.” Jenny said saddling on Ursus. “Well Eclipse probably beat me to the town but she’s a horse so probably not allowed in so we should hurry up before she causes a scene.” Huxley said flying away. “Yeah we probably should.” Ben nods, following Huxley quickly. “This coming from the guy who’s literally flying…” Zeke muttered, turning X into a glider and following after them. “Let’s not get left behind.” Lan said as he and his team followed. As the group flew down the mountain Huxley caught up to Eclipse, who was waiting on the ground some ways from the town gates. “Hey maybe we should rethink part of the plan” “Like?” Zeke asked, landing. “Well we have a magic talking horse and I’m guessing they won’t let us in with her so we need to split into two groups I know a second forge that might be a keyblade one.” Huxley said. “Leave her by the stables and rape happens.” Zeke commented, causing Eclipse to wince. “So we splitting up or what? Cause to be perfectly honest I think only Huxley knows where everything is.” Ben says honestly, wondering if they’ll have to split up or something. “Just don’t leave me in the stables, for all we know with me being a pony it could be compatible, not to mention I don’t have plans on losing a female virginity any time soon.” Eclipse says, slightly terrified now. As they formulated a plan a khajiit walked up to them. “M’aiq knows many things. Forge is in two pieces.” He said as everyone ignored him as he walked off. “Did somebody say something?” Huxley asked. “Random cat person talked about a forge in town. Probably just rambled about the actual town blacksmith.” Ben says, not really caring about some random person just saying something random. “Fair enough.” Huxley said going back to the plan. “I feel like he said something important. But we don’t have the time to chase him down.” Dan said. “Okay so the lunar forge is to the northwest of Whiterun passed a small pool of water... maybe I should head in town and buy a map to show you better?” Huxley proposed. “I should know the way. I fu r da my way around for many hours….why couldn’t I finish that?” Eclipse says, confused. “We no speak dragon remember?” Ben says honestly. “But yes buying a map is a must, even if someone know’s the way.” “Okay I’ll be back.” Huxley said walking towards the town. “So...what now? Foretellers? Any ideas?” Eclipse asked while they waited. “Well, considering how our groups would be split up. I’d say Huxley, Zeke, Kira and I are one group. Eclipse, Ben, Jenny, Alex, and Dan are the other. But which of us should go to Whiterun?” Lan said. “Well, I can be counted out of whatever group goes to the city. I don’t think this is a modded Skyrim so companions who are not Human, Mer, or Beastman would be left in the stable instead of brought in.” Eclipse shrugged “So my group gets the forge while your group checks to see if my hunch is correct.“ Huxley said, returning with a map. “That was fast.” Zeke said. “There was a band of Khajiit who sold me a map.” Huxley said handing the map to the pony. “Don’t eat this.” Huxley joked. “Don’t tempt me…” Eclipse says, rolling with the joke. “So, time to split up? As group A went into the town a dark elf gave them a glare before heading into the breeze home “Damn bandits thinking they can come to my city.” She said getting her dragonbone armor and weapons. “Okay the Skyforge should be just here.” Huxley said as they saw guards standing in front of the companions home.’ “I feel like those guards could know something.” Kira said. “Hey is there a problem? We need to talk to the Companion leader.” Zeke said “Oh you’ve got here Bandits.” A woman said as the guards readied their weapons. “Were not-” Huxley was cut off by a crossbow bolt to the shoulder “bitch!” Huxley said pulling out the bolt and casting cura. “Looks like we’re doing this the hard way.” Lan said, summoning his keyblade. “FUS RO DAH!” She shouted, knocking Lan to the ground. “Don’t kill them!” Zeke said as a sword flew by her face. “Hey you're attacking a pregnant lady here!” Huxley said as another crossbow bolt entered her shoulder. “Bitch screw this ‘Gilgamesh!’ “She called out as she grew six more arms. “Well that’s new.” The woman said as she was punched by two fists. “Goblin punch.” Huxley called out before turning to Zeke “You just going to stand there or you going to help us fight?” Huxley asked as Zeke summoned a random keyblade “If they’ll let me,” Zeke said, taking a swing at a one of the companions that was attacking with a large hammer. Before Zeke’s Keyblade could meet the hammer, another Keyblade appeared and crossed it’s attack. “They won’t…” “Hold on!” Huxley said as he summoned seven more weapons. He quickly despatched of some of the companions non-lethally . “Murdering Bandits.” The Dragonborn screamed as Zeke knocked her out with her keyblade. Zeke walked up to Huxley and smacked her upside the head. “How… how in the multiverse is it, that I was raised by murderers, but you always managed to pick fights with everyone you meet?” “Hey they attacked us first...you were there weren't you paying attention?” “And you didn’t think to say ‘we’re not bandits, we come peacefully’ and leave fighting as a last resort?” “We did she shot me with a crossbow bolt and I said screw it.” “I’ve been shot with BUCKSHOT and still settled a fight with words!” “Okay, let’s all relax!” Kira yelled. “We shouldn’t start out like this! We come in peace!” “Oh great more guards let’s try to surrender this time...” Huxley said as they raised their arms and Huxley turned back from her Gilgamesh form. As the group surrendered they were escorted into the palace along with the dragonborn. As they were presented before the jearl, he sighed. “Sonna, why have you started yet another brawl?” “They’re bandits!” The dragonborn replied. “If they were, then why is it that guards and people alike saw you attack first while these people simply walked in? This is the tenth incident in a single month. What are you trying to prove?” Sonna was silent. “Figured as much.” “Might I add we have a pregnant lady in our group.” Huxley said as Sonna’s face reddened. “That would be me.” Zeke said. “Less than a month, but it’s growing.” “Sorry about knocking your guards out.” Huxley said as the jarl looked at her. “Since it was not your group that started this, we will only charge you a fine for the injuries to those who were hurt, as for Sonna…no longer are you my thane.” Sonna hung her head. “Fair enough…” “Why did you think we were bandits anyway?” Huxley asked. “Well a few days ago this man in a mask and purple cloak told me of a group of bandits that would try to steal the Skyforge with strange key like swords” Sonna said. The group narrowed their eyes at this information. “So, Core has been here too.” Lan muttered. “Your honor I would like to ask that you go easy on the Dragonborn here as she attacked under the influence of a Daedra.” Huxley said “No idea what that is.” Zeke added. “I take it that’s this world’s term for Demons.” “Yes it is, and why should I?” Jarl Balgruuf asked. “Because this daedra's influence is powerful and stronger than Molag Bal.” The jarls eyes narrowed. “With robes like those… are you necromancers?” “No I just like the look I can’t summon anything but my sword... anyway His influence is stronger than any of the known Deadra and he is cunning, he almost made me lead an army on her,” Huxley said pointing to Zeke. “He made me believe she was worse than any deadra and a vile heart as evil as darkest pit of Oblivion...So I ask you Jarl Balgruuf give her mercy she was not in her right mind.” Huxley said. Zeke rolled her eyes. “Again, how did you not get born into my family with anger and gullibility that high?” “Not now I’m trying to do some good for a woman who saved the world.” Huxley said giving her a death glare. “Fine, but you still owe me an apology for all of that crap.” “Later.” “Well, you are all clearly outsiders in this land with your speech, weapons… and pour taste in clothing. Fine, Sonna is my thane again, and as punishment for her actions, she is to act as a guide for your group during your stay.” The jarl said, waving his hand. “And Sonna, get over it, she said no.” “Thank you Jarl Balgruuf.” Sonna said. The group walked outside, where the dragonborn turned to them. “So… sorry about that… shooting you in the shoulder twice thing… And the shouts…so where are you all from, I’ve never seen clothing like that in Skyrim nor weapons.”she said mumbling something about mods “Wait did you say something about Mods?” Huxley said catching that “Uhh… that’s from whenever I spent time with the prince of madness… We’re kinda drinking buddies.” “Oh yeah how is the champion of Kavatch?” Huxley asked as she wondered. “Still king, and mourning his loss... wait how do you know that?” “I played Oblivion.” Huxley said as she dragged her and the group back to her home. “Okay Keyblades in a Skyrim that hasn’t been modded referencing the Oblivion event as if it was a game are you guys from earth?” Sonna asked. “Wait… you’re a survivor?” Zeke asked. “Wow, didn’t expect that. This is the first time I’ve meet a survivor that didn’t have a keyblade.” Kira said, with her brother agreeing. “Second for me.” Zeke said. “So, you’re like a friend of ours, you were reborn as a dark elf?” “Actually I asked to become this I wasn’t reborn...I just was teleported in at the wrong place and just so happened to ask to be the Dovahkiin.” She explained. “That’s why my name isn’t all dark elfey” she said. “I’m surprised that another survivor was in this reflection. So, what was that stuff the jarl said about a girl saying no?” “Reflection?” She asked ignoring the girl part. “Ever hear of a multiverse?” Huxley asked “Yes?” Sonna asked “Basically that.” Huxley said as she was smacked by a scroll. “Don’t just leave it off like that.” Kira said. “Reflections are better explained by other versions of a world. For example both Zeke and Huxley are from a world called Equestria, but they are different from each other even though they share the same name. As in a Reflection of each other.” “Ah.” Sonna said. “That makes sense. So, I remember you guys talking about the Skyforge? Is there something you want to smith?” “Basically we believe the forge is part of an ancient object known as a Keyblade Forge and we need to bring it together or at least use part of it to reforge something...I wasn't paying attention” Huxley said as she was hit again by a scroll. “Please don’t use my scrolls to hit people.” “Anyway before we go may I have some hot water?” Huxley asked “There is some in the fire boiling.” Sonna said. Huxley poured some into a cup and dumped it onto her head “Gah hot hot hot!” Huxley said as he changed back into a man. “What?” Sonna asked. “Long story.” Zeke said. “And again, what did the jarl say about a girl?” Sonna’s face turned red and she looked said. “Well, there’s this girl I like and we dated, she’s been with me since before I did this whole Dragonborn business… and she won’t marry me…” “Bumer, not like you know anything about that miss wont say no to marrying sixteen wives” Huxley said as Zeke surrounded him with keyblades. “You try looking them right in the eyes and have them get sad. Unlike your world, my world they all have eyes you can’t look away from.” Zeke said, disbanding the Keyblades. “Why sixteen though?” Sonna asked. “It’s legal. And it wasn’t all at once… it was in groups…” “Anyway I know the feeling try being dumped by somebody you didn’t even know you were dating stings.” Everyone gave Huxley a look. “That… is just pathetic... “ “Hey at least I can turn a girl down...unlike now when I can’t turn two girls down... yeah that light thing you stabbed me with must have done something to me.” Huxley said. “You mean you can feel your emotions now?” Zeke deadpanned. “No it's like I can’t say no...” Huxley said. “Don’t worry Huxley. We all succumb to that feeling.” Lan said placing a hand on his shoulder. “Anyway…” Sonna said, cutting in. “She went off for a while to rebuild her family castle now that we killed her father, talk about daddy issues there…anyway, I should go with you to the Skyforge, the others likely either want a rematch, or something.” Sonna said as she led the group to the Skyforge, where some of the members met them. “Hey…so, you all still mad?” “That depends, are we able to get a rematch?” Aela spoke. “No, sorry.” Zeke said “Then yes we are.” Aela said. “Get over it we are just here to improve the forge.” “And how will you do that?” Farkas asked “With these.” Zeke said, summoning Master Keeper. “They are more than they appear.” “Neat trick are they as good as real swords?” Aela asked. “Better.” Zeke walked over to the side of the companions building, and with one swing, made a four foot long hole in it, where you could see the inside of the place. “They got quite the kick.” “You're paying for that hole you know” Huxley said as one of the companions asked to pay for the hole. “Duh.” Zeke replied. “I don’t break what I can’t fix or repay, speaking of.” Zeke summoned DIscord. “Repair.” In a flash of purple, the hole was gone, and the wall was fixed. “Well that fixed that” Sonna said. “Anyway about that forge.” The companions looked at each other. “Well, you’d have to talk with Gray-Mane about messing with it, but I have a request first.” Aela asked. “Let me guess, you want a keyblade or to fight one of us” Huxley guessed “Close.” She said, pointing as Zeke. “I want her to participate in an archery duel, well, we’ll be using targets, not each other, but still.” “Why me?” Zeke asked. “You got the eyes of a hunter. I can tell you were born and raised to fight.” Zeke sighed. “Well, you’re not wrong… Fine.” As Aela and Zeke walked around to the back, the two were handed three arrows and a hunting bow. Three targets were placed in random places. One was strung above the skyforge, another atop the roof of the companions hall, and the last was across from the two. Aela drew her bow, and the arrow landed center of the target. Zeke did the same and the arrow landed center, next to Aela’s, earning a surprised look from her. She drew again and fired at the target on the roof, landing another hit in the center. Zeke repeated, and her arrow landed next to Aela’s in the center also. The people were whispering at this point, impressed with Zeke’s accuracy. “Nice shot.” Huxley called out. “Thanks.” Zeke replied. “Last shot,” Aela said. “Winner takes the boon.” Zeke wondered what exactly she meant, but Aela shot the last arrow dead inside the center. Zeke took her time aiming the final shot, she fired, and shot the arrow into Aela’s, and it was stuck in the end of her arrow. “Well then…” Aela said, shocked. “Tie.” “Whoa! A total Brave moment!” Kira said amazed. “Well anyway with that done let's upgrade the forge then meet up the talking horse.” Huxley said. “Talking horse?” Sonna asked. Eclipse lead team B across the plain, only a few mudcrabs getting in their way. “So, anyone prepared for bandits?” Eclipse said as they got within eyesight of the forge. “Yep.” Ben says while summoning Sharpshooter. “We’re all warriors, so we should be fine. But don’t let your guard down.” Jenny said summoning Ursus. Alex and Dan did the same. Eclipse summoned both Oathkeepers. “Well then…Let’s do...this ohmygod not now!” Eclipse says, some panic entering her voice. “What’s wrong?” Ben asks worriedly, wondering why Eclipse suddenly started to panic. “Eh…Erm...it’s spring…I’m a horse...and a mare at that…line up the pieces…..” Eclipse says, looking around frantically. “I hate you…” Ben mutters before waving a hand and suddenly two Snipers appeared next to Eclipse. “There, if anything tries to either attack you or molest you my fine Snipers will keep you safe alright you horny mare?” “Fuck you!...but thanks.” Eclipse says, embarrassed. “This is so strange.” Dan muttered. “Is that horse talking?” One of the bandits asked. “Who care’s, that good meat.” Another bandit said. “What are you two idiots standing around KILL THEM!” The chief said, before he suddenly had a strange arrow lodged in his head before he fell over, blood pouring down his wound. “So who else want’s an arrow to the head before they can even blink?” Ben asks, himself and his two Snipers already taking aim at the bandits and ready to kill them in a moments notice. “And what was that about meat?” Eclipse asked, appearing behind them in a blur, his eye having a slight red tint as both blades pressed against them. “Eclipse!” Ben shouts. “Calm yourself damn it!” Eclipse shakes his head as his eye goes back to normal “Thanks!” “No problem.” He says while the Snipers knock out the bandits quickly enough with their giant crossbows. “Christ...anywhosits...let’s get going before bad things happen.” Ben says quickly. “Agreed. We should avoid any more conflict if possible.” Dan said. “Hopefully no other bandits would be foolish enough to run with our group.” The group agreed and headed on their way. After a few more bandits easily taken out, the group finds the lunar forge. “If I remember, it only works on nights both moons are out.” “So we just wait here till night time?” Alex asked. “And I don’t know the Song of Time…” Ben frowns. “I have an instrument but I don’t know the song...oh well, we might as well wait.” “Well at least we have some down time now.” Jenny said sitting on the ground. “There were a bunch of bandits on the way here. Do we look like nobles or what?” “You never played Skyrim did you?” Eclipse said. ”They would attack someone wearing nothing but underwear and holding a stick.” “I kind of thought of it as ‘they’re bandits, they’ll attack whoever cause fuck it’.” Ben shrugs. “All I’m saying is that if I were a bandit I would be targeting the big dogs with the big pockets. Considering this is reality and all.” “But those people also have trained guards normally.” Eclipse says with a shrug. “That would just make it all the more fun to steal.” Jenny said with a smirk. “Not that I know anything about that.” “Can we stop thinking about that please? We’re hero’s, not bandits.” Ben frowns. “Or are we?” Jenny said with a smirk. “Dun dun duuun!” Eclipse says jokingly. Ben took a deep breath. “Why?” He asks breathlessly, motioning a hand to everyone. “Just...just why?” The rest of the group laughed. As time passed they all just made idle small talk about various subjects. Then came night fall, and the two moons rose to the sky. The metal in the forge had started to glow white as the moonlight touched the forge, causing power to practically bleed off the mantle. “Whoa, that’s trippy.” Alex said, breaking the silence. “Okay where’s the hidden monsters?” Ben frowns, not knowing what might happen but calling out that something might appear suddenly. “No monster...at least, none in the games. So, if no one else is going to…” Eclipse says, summoning one of his keyblades and sticking it into the fire to see what happens. The fire turns liquid as soon as the Keyblade touches the flames. “Well, there’s our answer.” Eclipse says, marveling at the liquid flame. “Hooray, we found a piece.” Ben says. “Now...how in the hells are we going to move this?” “Magic?” Jenny asked. “...well shit. We didn’t think things through.” Eclipse says with a frown. “Well…” Ben takes a deep breath. “How the hell are we going to start tugging this thing all the way to where Zeke and the others are? Cause I don’t think having a Twilight Thorn rip this thing from it’s foundation and lug it with us is a good idea…” “I don’t know, but I do know that I’m going somewhere private for the next ten minutes. Call me when you get an idea.” Eclipse says, trying to hide her blush as she walks slowly away from the group. “Hold on…” Ben sighs out before snapping his fingers, two Assassins following Eclipse underground while the Snipers also follow along to guard Eclipse. “There, two extra guards just in case.” Eclipse nods in thanks before they hear. “HOW STUPID ARE THESE FUCKEN BANDITS?!” Followed by shouts of male agony. “Fucking hell…” Ben grumbles, glad to know Eclipses guards are doing what they were told. The group was sitting in the companion hall drinking all except for Zeke who was pregnant and Huxley who didn’t like the taste. Eclipse was surrounded by the children and a few grown women, being covered in pets while she had her face buried in her hoofs, muttering something akin to ‘stupid, nice, soft pet’ The Foretellers where drinking some booze. “Hey I had an idea.” Huxley said to Zeke. “What is it?” “Well you need the Keyblade forge right?” Huxley said “Duh.” “Well you could ask Sonna what group she joined and if it's the legion you can ask her to take you to General Tullius, who can help you take back this world from elf nazis.” Huxley said “Well, if she can take me to the world’s leader(s) then that would make treaty and unity negotiations easier.” “Hey Sonna, Zeke has a question for you.” Huxley called out as everybody looked at him. “What's the question?” Sonna asked. “First who’s the ruler of Skyrim?” Huxley asked. “Elsif the Fair, why?” Sonna said. “Okay we were wondering if you could take us to meet General Tullius we may have a solution for the Thalmor.” Huxley said. “That would be great, bastards have been trying to take Skyrim back under their control for years now.” Sonna said. “So we should head out to Solitude.” Huxley said. “Can we head out tomorrow? Unum wants to sight see.” Zeke replied as Unum nodded. “I stay quiet an awful lot during these trips.” Unum said. “Sorry Unum.” Ben says honestly. “But...sometimes there’s not really much to say sometimes. I should know.” He says honestly. “Actually if we head out tonight we might make it tomorrow morning” Sonna said “Fine… but I’m sleeping on the way there… not like that…” “Might be bumpy.” Huxley said. “Let’s get going.” Ben says. “But...where the hell is Solitude again?” “Give me the map I bought and I’ll show you.” Huxley said as Eclipse handed him the map. “It’s here.” Huxley said pointing at the top of the map. “Alright let’s get going.” Zeke said, knowing she would fall asleep during the ride. “By the by...this randomly came to mind but did that dragon we first met sound like Mario to any of you?” Ben asks curiously, wondering why that random thought came up. “He is voiced by Mario’s voice actor so yes.” Huxley said as they left the Jorrvaskr. “Ah, okay then.” Ben nods. “Didn’t know that.” “Anyway let’s ride to Solitude.” Huxley said as Sonna went to the stable and got out her black horse. “This is Shadowmere.” Sonna said as he got close to Eclipse. ‘You’re mane looks like lavender but smells like hay.’’ Shadowmere neighed. “I don’t think you want to make an enemy.” Ben frowns, two snipers appearing in front of Eclipse. Eclipse seems to be fighting herself to keep calm. “N-no need for the snipers...after all what’s the harm in a roll on the hay- I mean another traveling companion!” Eclipse chuckles nervously, her tail swishing slightly and a blush apparent on her face. “Please don’t kill my horse. It’s going to take a week for him to respawn.” Sonna said. “How about we all just calm down before I literally smack a bitch.” Ben frowns, glaring at Eclipse in this situation. “So calm down, the Snipers are staying up, and you’re not doing something stupid got it?” Eclipse both nods in thanks and pouts at the same time as she simply crosses over and walks besides Shadowmere, whispering something in neighs in his ear with a small, horny smile. The Snipers are still hovering over Eclipse like the guards they were ordered to be. “Why does that horse look like a heartless?” Zeke asked. “So I take you kill you-know-who?” Huxley said. “Yeah that was before I joined the legion though.” Sonna said. “Right.” Huxley said as Zeke wondered who she killed. “Who did she kill?” Zeke asked. “Not important. But we really need you to play Skyrim or any elder scrolls game.” Huxley said. Eclipse rubs her hoofs together excitedly as she summons her Keyblades. “Oh I am sooo going to pay for this in the morning, but so worth it! Stop!” She shouts, targeting the group and the nobodies, but leaving Shadowmere alone. She takes out the Nobodies and run with Shadowmere to the stables giggling like a schoolgirl. Sadly, the spell was not that powerful as Eclipse had other things on her mind. “No bad horny horse.” Huxley said grabbing Eclipse by the tail and dragging her out of the hay. “NOO! It would have been over with! The heat would be over!” “Do I need to send you back to Daybreak?” Huxley asked. “No…” Eclipse pouts, all sense of masculinity thrown out the window due to this heat. “Don’t make me send you to my worlds Twilight, she loves Unicorns.” Huxley said. “Don’t tempt me….” Eclipse grumbles. “I’ll be good...just...let's get this done so I can go home to Luna...this heat sucks…” As Sonna had said, a day by the carriage had them at the entrance of Solitude, where after a quick stop at the inn for food, the group made their way to The Blue Palace, to meet with the High Queen, and general Tullius. “Hello High queen Elisif.” Sonna said. “Hello Sonna, who are these people with you?” Elisif asked. “We’re basically emissaries for her empire.” Huxley said, pointing to a missing Zeke who was distracted by a voice coming from coming pelagius wing. ”Where did Shanna go?” Huxley asked “Is that a horse in the palace?” A random member of the court said. Eclipse sighed, pissed after not having any true relief yet. “First of, I have a name, it’s Eclipse. Second, I’m a pony, not a horse, and third I am their guard in a way as I have enough power to probably kill everyone in this court without-” “No bad pony.” Huxley said, which caused Eclipse to hiss at him. “Sorry about her she’s pissy about the whole horse curse thing.” Huxley explained. “Horse curse?” “She pissed off Sheogorath and he turned her into a horse that’s always in heat.” Huxley said as he got a death glare by Eclipse. “Anyway Sonna look for Shanna we need her here to do the thing, Sorry for bothering you we’ll comeback as a group.” Huxley said as they went down to see the Pelagius wing open. “That's not supposed to be open, you don’t think...” Huxley said as they heard Zeke's voice down there. As they chased Zeke’s voice they wound up in wonderland. “There you guys are, this guy is awesome!” Discord’s voice spoke from Zeke. “That’s not Zeke is it.” “It’s Discord, and frankly this Sigy guy is a laughing stock!” “Ah tell yeah nobody has been this fun sense Ah came and killed me self back after the oblivion crisis.” He said in a scottish accent. “Great we got the Hero of Cyrodiil to deal with.” “Ah lady nobody’s called me that in years.” Sheogorath said. “D-do the thing with the dogs!” Discord asked as Flaming dogs fell from the sky. “Personally the ‘hotdog’ rain is a bit too literal for my taste, but this is still amazing. I’ve never met another being with so much raw chaos power.” “Well he is the prince of madness.” Eclipse meanwhile is keeping herself from jumping on the many deformed and crazy ‘horses’ for a roll in the hay. “Keep calm, keep calm, keep calm.” She repeats as she shakes in excitement. Discord chuckled. “Look, just let me have ten more minutes of fun and I’ll let Zeke go do her peace making thing and whatever. Oh, and I’ve been meaning to give you these.” WIth a snap of Zeke’s Discord controlled hand, Huxley, Ben, Eclipse, and Unum, were each holding one small gold token with Discord’s eye on it. “Think of it as a… logic free wish, kinda like a genie wish but not nearly as strong.” “Give me that.” Huxley said grabbing Eclipse’s coin. “You will get it back when you aren't a horny horse.” “Meany!” “Hey I could use it to wish to get rid of my curse, but do you see me do it?” Huxley asked. “No.” He said “Well it’s your wish, but It is limited, a genie is stronger than I believe it or not.” “I think I’ll save it for later then.” Huxley said as he put his and Eclipse’s token away. “So when did you take over?” “Walked by that room, and I was suddenly in control. With this much madness and chaos my own powers are very much amplified. Sadly I still am stuck as a Keyblade. Hope that will change in the future.” “Neat.” Huxley said not getting any of that. Discord spent his time having fun mostly and doing random chaos things, mostly to Eclipse and Huxley. When the time was up Sheogorath bid Discord farewell and asked him to visit again. As soon as they stepped out the door Zeke gained control again. “Well, that was kinda odd… still, was mostly funny. Especially when he turned Huxley into a ballerina.” Zeke chuckled. “Whatever Shanna by the way you’re going to need to referred to as that to not confuse the queen.” Huxley said as Zeke just looked at him before using discord to spawn a bucket of cold water over his head “Ow you placed the bucket on the wrong side.” Huxley said rubbing his head. “Fine, let’s finish this so we can all go home, cause Ben is lonely looking, Eclipse is horny, you’re clearly not having fun, and I just wanna see my kids.” Zeke said as they walked back to the High Queen. “We're back we found our friend she was in the pelagius wing talking to a painting.” “But there are no paintings in the pelagius wing.” “Yes the painting of the old man with a beard and miss matched clothing” “Anyway let's get back on point what did you want to talk to me about?” High queen Elisif asked “Well Shanna here is actually the ruler of an empire and she wanted to aid your fight against the Thalmor.” Huxley said “And how many of her forces are willing to aid us?” Elsif said as we all turned to Zeke. “Our forces in term of soldiers are always growing, but a fair three hundred are still on standby for general defence. Though, ten special ones would do, sadly two of them are off on missions right now.” Zeke said. “Your army is so small, yet you claim to be able to help us?” Elsif said. “Size isn't everything.” Huxley said “And each soldier could, can, and would take on entire platoons of your own without much effort from what I saw of the guards and the one’s training outside. If you want a demonstration I am more than willing to let some stress off, and no one would die by my blades.” Eclipse said casually. “Well we would need a demonstration of that, but if it's true then we could use you in the upcoming battle to retake the imperial city from the thalmor.” General Tullius said. “Say the word General and I can give you your demonstration.” Eclipse says, summoning both Oathkeepers to her side, keeping their tips pointed at the ground. “Spellswords? Hmm. Very well, if you say that the opponents won’t be killed I say a test is in order.” General Tullius said. “Shall we?” Eclipse said with a grin. The group was lead outside where the soldiers were training, being about a platoon not including recruits. “Troops line up you're about to be tested a platoon vs a small horse cursed by a deadra.” The general said as the troops stood still unfazed by the fact the had to fight a small, gray horse. “Wow stone cold warriors.” Huxley commented on as the general corrected him. “Actually they're just in alert mode so they can’t act freely. They have to stay in line.” The General said. “I have a feeling a few in the back are chuckling~” Eclipse says with a evil grin, both blades hovering around her. The men all marched on prepared to attack but were quickly defeated by the small gray horse. To say it was funny was to say Pinkie Pie hates new people. Eclipse, before it even started, unsummoned one of the Oathkeepers and even turned off her scan, with promising to also not use any moves that would level the building. And still, the gray pony tore through their ranks. A reflect spell, a shocklock, and a frenzy of speed later, all 100 troops were groaning on the floor and Eclipse was just smiling. “Thanks for the warm up! Any of you ready for me actually trying?” “That's enough you’ve made your point no need to humiliate my men any further.” The general said as Eclipse unsummoned the other Oathkeeper. “Well that was fast.“ Lan said startling Huxley. “Where did you guys come from?” Huxley asked. “You left us in Whiterun... we used our Keyblade rides to get here.” Lan said. “So you saw that huh?” Eclipse said with a smirk. “I’m surprised no one has phased through the floor yet…” Ben mutters, wondering how a world made by Bethesda was so normal. “This is real life, not a game Ben.” Kira said. “But it’s Bethesda…” Ben huffs. “Fine…” He sighs out. “Don’t worry the bucket trick still works.” Sonna said as she remembered how she got through the whole thieves guild. “I am so glad that even in real life...glitches still exist.” Ben chuckles happily. “They don’t call the universe the ultimate computer without a reason.” Zeke says. “Everything glitches. God called the X-blade a rule breaker when he gave it to me.” “Ha.” Ben laughs. “Glad to know things can still be weird in the funniest of ways.” “Anyway can we get back on point?” General Tullius asked. “Right now that we’ve shown you what the Keyblades can do, do you have faith in our plan to take Cyrodiil back from the Thalmor?” Huxley asked “Well that was certainly a show, but you said the weapons can’t kill right?” Elsif the fair asked. “They are driven by the wielders intent. Only if you wish to kill your enemy will they spill blood.” Zeke answered. “Makes getting the enemy troops captured alive easy.” “That's where the problem lies, if we have too many prisoners where would we put them all?” Elsif asked. “Not to mention the current emperor is at the Imperial City right now and bringing him to Skyrim would be problematic as the last emperor was assassinated here a few years ago.” General Tullius said. “We can take the prisoners to our world, plenty of room, plus we try and rehabilitate them. Give them the chance to live among the people again.” Zeke added. “World?” Elsif asked. “Oh right, technically were not from Nirn... just think of us as messengers of the divines.” Huxley said. “Okay?” Elsif said confused. “We’ll catch you up after this war of yours is done and over with.” Zeke says. “Trust me I’ve met Hermaeus Mora and I don’t think he knows about other worlds other than the realms of Oblivion or Nirn.” Sonna said. “Are you following any of this?” Ben whispers to Lan, feeling a tad too lost here. “Well considering you all left us behind in Whiterun, not really.” Lan whispered back. “Sorry...I thought you and the others were keeping up…” Ben whispers nervously. “Anyway we should leave to Iron out a contract for the the two of you” Huxley said opening a DTL back to Daybreak. “Come on guys we need to find a way to get the forge fixed while Ben and I need to head back home.” Huxley said as everyone left through the DTL before Huxley walked through the DTL he handed something to Zeke “Give this to Eclipse when she is back to he.” Huxley said walking through the portal. “I’ve still got crap to do with Zeke…” Ben frowns, knowing that Luxu would probably like to talk with Zeke and having to talk to Daybreaks Council for a few reasons. “Wait what he mean when Eclipse turns from a she to a he I thought she was cursed?” Elsif asked. Back in the daybreak empire Huxley grabbed his stuff then found the Foretellers and Ben talking. “So what are you five planning to do after all of this?” Ben asks the Foretellers. “We’ll first go home. I have a test tomorrow and Ms. Cheerilee is pretty strict.” Alex said. “But before that, we wanted to talk to Luxu.” Lan said, “There are somethings we have to settle.” “Hey guys.” Huxley said cutting of this conversation. “Oh, hey Huxley.” Ben says. “What brings you here? Thought you were going to immediately leave once we got here.” “I wanted to grab my stuff and say goodbye.” Huxley said holding up a back over his shoulder. “Yeah, we were about to do the same. Wasn’t there something with Elzin you wanted to tell us?” Jenny asked. “Yeah I’ll bring him around your world soon-ish I have stuff to do in my world, like making sure Aqua didn’t head to castle oblivion on her own or something like that.” Huxley said hoping she didn’t do something reckless like that. “Yeah...that would be a bad thing…” Ben frowns. “Anyways, why do you want to talk with Luxu? Anything important or should I not bother asking?” “He was friends with the original Foretellers, so we wanted to ask him if he has any advice for us and our Unions. Also, we wanted to settle things between us. Like he said, he sees us as the ghosts of his friends. I don’t want there to be any tension or bad blood between any of us.” Lan said. “Ah, makes sense.” Ben nods. “Oh that reminds me, I need to be told that story, I don’t think you told me about it or just gave me cliff notes about it.” Ben explains. “We basically gave you a Rotten Tomato summary. We’ll tell you later.” Jenny said. “Anyway see you guys tell Zeke that I left.” Huxley said opening his book and pressing a button and walking through a DTL. “See ya.” Ben waves. “Let’s hope Luxu just appears like before…” “You rang?” Luxu said, walking out from behind a column “Oh hey it's the ghosts.” “These five want to have a nice talk with you. Probably get you to see past the ‘ghost’ bit and all that fanciness.” Ben says. “I’ll leave you to it while I go find Zeke and tell him a few things.” Ben says before turning on his heels and walking off, giving the Foretellers and Luxu their space. Luxu looked at the Foretellers. “So what do you want?” “Well for starters, you can quit the ghost shit. That's what we wanted to talk about!” Jenny said harshly. “And why?” “Look, Master Luxu, we want to be friends. I know we kind of just took on the mantel of the former Foretellers, but treating us like this isn't right. We aren't them, we only want to succeed them. That includes you as well.” Dan said. “Do you even know how they started off?” Luxu asked. “How we met?” “We would like too.” Kira said, “If you're willing to tell us.” Luxu inhaled. “They… started off as… not good people. Criminals, stole a lot, put people in hospitals. They were caught, and tossed to the heartless. They only survived because my dad and I managed to be nearby and heard the screaming. We helped them, they tried to mug us, dad knocked them out, and then we took them home with us. It was rough for them to break open their shells, but they did, and we became a family… I made their masks, because they hated their faces. Hated what they did, who they were.” Luxu took another breath. “Dad gave them new names, the robes, and had them become the Foretellers, guardians of the light. They followed his every world to a T, out of thanks, and gratitude.” “They owe you two everything.” Alex said. “You guys sound as close as we are. I mean all of us found each other achieved by coincidence, and we are a family. Just like how you guys were.” “Yeah, that’s why I call you guys ghosts. Your pasts are so similar, it’s like they're back from the dead. Everytime I see you guys I see them… and I hate how I see them… like invisible corpses floating in front of you… I can’t unsee their bodies, their deaths… I can’t unsee any of it no matter how much I wish I could, but I look at it to remind me that… if I stepped in, saved them… things would have been different.” “You followed your father's orders just as they did. If you did anything else, they might have held it against you. You did nothing wrong Luxu.” Kira said. “Dad knew the war was genocide, what kind of parent just has their kid watch that massacre? I did nothing while my family died not far from me… their death is on my hand… all because dad told them one of them was a traitor… when the truth is, there was no traitor, that nightmare was his, he turned them against each other and sent me away so I didn’t mess with the plans… he’s a slave to the Gazing Eye and its predictions.” “What your father did was despicable yes, but he was only doing his role. We saw all of his inventions. Each one more vile than the next. But he was ready to throw away his life to protect the world's light.” Lan said seriously. “Yet he knows just as well as I do that the Gazing Eye’s predictions are only a chance of many to happen. When one prediction happens there’s many more to follow of what can happen. He made sure that he, and all his reflections, they made sure the Keyblade War happened everywhere, at the same time just to have a chance at destroying the X-blade.” “Well get over it!” Jenny said grabbing the front of his coat. “I’m sure you heard this somewhere before, but what's done is done! What good is it to just keep reminding ourselves of what happens and think about what could have been! We all have a past and we all need to deal with it!” she let go of his coat and calmed down a bit. “ We aren't them, so stop treating us like ghosts.” Luxu grabbed Jenny’s head by the temples, and in a pulse of magic, sent all his memories of the war into her mind. She dropped him, screaming in fear. “You try and live passed that hell!” He screamed, kicking her to the side. “I can never unsee it, all of that I always see and hear, every moment of my life it’s there, haunting me. When you see hell, you do one of two things, die in it, or laugh. I took the hard way and walked through it, watching that war and not stopping it when it started is my sin to carry for eternity. What will your eternal sins be?” “Then is that it?” Lan stepped forward, while Jenny was carried away by Alex. “We aren't saying forget about the past. We already know how the past can haunt someone. But can you honestly say that you aren't happy? If I remember right, you were with a girl called Time Bell back in Ben's reflection. Is the past stopping you from being happy with her?” “No… no we keep each other's nightmares away somehow… I knew there was a reason I didn’t… end it like the others… I realized it was because of her. Hard headed, stubborn, and broken like me. It’s how we connected, it’s why we’re together. Gazing Eye showed me all my possible futures… meeting her was the one with the smallest chance of happening. I lived on to make it happen.” Lan nodded. “We want to befriend you master. We aren't them, but we want to succeed them. Make up for the mistakes the Master did, as well as make sure their memories live on. Please, Master Luxu!” He bowed. Luxu sighed. “I can look past the ghosts I see you as, the memories you bring up, so I’ll try. If you really want to succeed them you’ll need to know more about the kind of power you posses.” “What do you mean?” Kira asked. “You are using the powers of the First Masters, and you have yet to realize the potential you have. I’ll swing by your world in a week, we can talk more then.” He said walking away. “And sorry about your friend. She’ll experience some trauma, but she’ll be fine given time.” Eclipse walked through the hall as she slowly became a he, much to his relief. “Damn...much longer and I would have been like Zeke at the rate I was going.” “And maybe next time don’t destroy the guards I made for you.” Ben frowns, finding Eclipse during his walk to find Zeke. Eclipse rubs his head. “Sorry about that… the only thing on my mind was getting that damn heat to end. Plus it itched like crazy doing nothing.” “Even though I have ‘pony’ girlfriends their anthro.” Ben frowns. “Also I don’t think it would be good to do it with a full on pony...also you would have beaten me for even agreeing to such a thing.” Ben explains, putting his hands in his cloak pockets. “Did I say it was smart or did I say the only thing I cared for was getting off through someone's manhood? But anyways, I’m sorry for the trouble.” Eclipse said honestly. “It’s alright man don’t worry.” Ben says. “But glad to see you’re turning back to normal. But question...why the hell were you perfectly normal here when you were a mare then suddenly went into heat in Skyrim? I thought the time tables for each world were roughly the same?” “Actually, they are drastically different. This was explained in Dream Drop distance, time in different worlds flows differently. For me it has been over eighteen years. I don't think anyone else has been in their world for that long.” Eclipse explains. “Oh...that makes sense.” Ben nods. “Sadly I forgot that…” He sighs out. “Well let’s hope it hasn’t been weeks or years back home, don’t want them all worried shitless…” “Mine are already going to be worried because last they saw me I was insane. But yea, lets hope no huge time gaps between here and our respective reflections.” Eclipse agrees “....Is this the first time we aren't at each other's throats?” “When were we at each other’s throats?” Ben asks curiously. “Huh...must have been thinking of Huxley. Seems like everyone has a keyblade now and days, so you can't just point and say ‘you have a keyblade!’ and know who they are.” Eclipse says embarrassed at the screw up. “Well we are all distinguishable because of looks. I have the white cloak, Huxley has the black cloak.” Ben says while showing his white cloak. “I also have this fancy silver crown cause I’m awesome.” Ben smiles and points to his crown. “Huh… I wonder if my Luna is going to try and get me one if I ever marry. Welp, we will just have to see.” Eclipse shrugs. “Oh also, have time to hear on what I’ve been working on ever since I saw a human again? “Do you want me to give you the honest answer or the smart ass answer?” Ben asks with a cheeky grin. “Haha.” Eclipse says with a smile despite his angry tone. “I’m working on a spell matrix to allow me to turn into the form of whatever inhabitants live in a world. Example, going to your world I would be anthro, and coming to Huxley’s world I would be a human with strange hair and eyes. It’s not done yet, but I hope to finish it before anything happens to me.” “Hopefully it get’s done because that sounds fancy.” Ben smiles. “Yea, but I think Huxley wants to prank his Twilight before I get to do that. But it could be useful for all of us when it’s done. Now, what were you doing before you ran into me? I don’t think you came down here looking for little old me.” Eclipse says bluntly. “I was heading off to find Zeke.” Ben says honestly. “I have to tell him a few things.” “Oh, well good luck. One of two things is gonna happen. Either Rune got him or he is busy with the counsel filling out paperwork about the Elder Scrolls world.” “I don’t know much about Rune, but I have a feeling he’s busy with paperwork or something.” He says with a shrug. “I mean, besides the weird fetish book…” “Lets just say, if you have a perverted marefriend, she and Rune would be best friends and leave it at that. “Well my Luna’s more...needy than perverted.” Ben shrugs. “But hey she’s been stuck in the moon for a thousand years it’s going to take a while to steady that girl.” “Makes sense. The only reason mine didn’t jump my bone was because we both worked together to defeat Nightmare Moon….who was her mark of mastery test apparently.” Eclipse says. “Well, you best be off. Keep in touch k?” Eclipse says with his trademark grin “Yep.” Ben says while patting Eclipse’s head gently. “Stay safe you very worrying pony.” He says while heading off to find Zeke again. Zeke was resting in the library, half of her wives were with her as she read over one of the books the Aqua from the new reflection Diamond Tiara made accidentally gave her. “Knock knock?” Ben asks while knocking on a bookshelf like a door. Zeke looked up. “Oh, hey Ben. Something up?” Zeke asks, putting the book down. “One, Huxley finally left to his world so there’s that.” Ben starts. “Two, I suppose now’s a good a time as any to say meet your wives and friends I suppose. And three...well as soon as Luxu is done talking with the Foretellers I’m pretty sure you two should have a talk.” Ben says honestly. “I was hoping for that. Also, anything you need?” “Well the first one was to meet the many women you’ve managed to marry you lucky bastard.” Ben frowns. “And two, should I head on home and then you call me to a meeting so I can tell everyone what Core’s been doing to my knowledge or should I stay here and wait?” “For the council we can have that meeting next week. As for the wives, well, you know Unum, then there’s Toriel, Derpy, Rarity, Twilight, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Flitter, Cloudchaser, Celestia, Luna, Rune, Hearts Care, and Chrysalis.” “One of you...can you please explain how his hips aren’t in another dimension?” Ben asks one of Zeke’s wives. “Also...is Toriel some goat mother looking person?” Toriel chuckled. “That was a nickname I had back home. Zeke and X managed to bring my two deceased children back, well, Chara was possessed by darkness, and Asriel was an artificial Nobody of sorts. My kind, our bodies don’t stay after death, they turn to dust when we die.” She explained. “Zeke and X made a heart for him.” “Okay Ms. Tutorial.” Ben says with a nod. “Glad to know all that...but besides the obvious thing of you look like a good school teacher...I met two weird skeletons...one that slept in the middle of where I was walking and one that kept calling me ‘Human’ and trying to be friends...while sounding like Skeletor for some reason…” “That was Sans, the one sleeping, the other is his brother Papyrus. Sans might not look like much, but since he and his brother moved here, Sans has become one of the highest ranked fighters in Daybreak. And if he gets hit once, he’s gone.” “RPG rules, got it.” Ben nods. “The weakest of the bunch happens to be the strongest and sleep keeps his fragile yet powerful strength up.” “Something like that, just don’t mess with his brother…last person who did Sans…well, shoved a bone up…well, you can guess.” “Was it a boy or a girl? Cause I can make a dirty pun out of it.” Ben says with a cheeky grin. “Perv.” Rainbow said. “Hey I have to hear my worlds Spike talk about how he ‘fluffs your cloud’ on a constant basis Rainbow, so shush.” Ben glares at Rainbow. Rainbow blushed. “Multiverse is so weird.” “Trust me, it’s only going to get weirder. Just be glad you haven’t met a fan of eldritch horror because that is going to be proven true in very horrible ways.” Ben explains. “Anywhosits, I presume we have people to start bringing back from the grave or are you too tired from all that’s happened and the bun in your oven?” “Oh right.” Zeke said, standing up. “Well, go big or go home.” Zeke and Ben raised a hand into the air, the power in the air was tangible with the amount of Nobodies and Heartless appearing. It went on for a few moments, less than five minutes, and it stopped abruptly. “Wow, so my Heartless can appear on the world? Meh, the moon was still a good battleground.” “I think it’s because of some magical bullshit that surrounds you.” Ben points out. “You being the ‘balance’ and all that jazz, giving the Heartless some sort of spark of light so they can be here, while Core and all his dick waffle comrades have no spark and so can’t be here...if that made any sense at all…” Ben sighs out, pinching the bridge of his nose because he thought he sounded like an idiot. “No, you did alright.” Eclipse said, leaning on the doorframe. “Anyone going to get these people clothes?” “They probably should and when did you get here?” Ben asks Eclipse. “Just now. I heard the sound of fighting and it wasn’t in the arena so I wanted to check it out. Now Zeke, can Discord help here? I think we are scaring these poor people.” Eclipse says looking at a confused anthro mare. Zeke rolled his eye and simply pulled out Discord and in a flash of pink the people were clothed. “So let’s take a headcount of who was saved shall we?” Ben asks. “WIth the amount of power we did… Discord?” Zeke asked. “Over 9/10 of this Equestria’s population is back, the last bunch… moved on.” Discord said with a hint of sadness, Zeke gritted her teeth. “One bastard did all that damage…” “Hey Discord...When people die completely, they go to one of two places right? Kingdom hearts or the Void.” Eclipse says. “Actually, depends on the world.” “Damn. I was hoping I could maybe help bring some back when I learned how to use Oathkeeper’s power.” Eclipse says. “I have a feeling I’m missing something, but is there extra magic to Oathkeeper and Oblivion?” Ben says, confused about what Oathkeeper’s powers were. “Well, is there anything you wanted Eclipse?” Zeke asks before remembering. “Oh right Huxley gave me this coin and told me to give it to you.” Zeke said handing the coin to Eclipse. “Thanks. And I was wondering if you wanted me to stay or not? I could leave if you want but I wanted to know if you wanted me to stay for your kid.” Eclipse says acting nonchalant. “Which?” “The bun in your oven. After all, it’s not everyday your cuz get knocked up. And if there is one thing about the Ventrals I accept whole heartedly, is the importance of family.” Eclipse says firmly. “Yeah, I’ll send a letter when the due date is near, got a month and a half, cause half Keyblade babies grow fast in the womb.” “I’ll be there. Well, hopefully. Oath and I have a plan and I just hope we come home in time to be here.” Eclipse says with a nod. “Alright then, well, if that’s all I just gotta talk with Luxu then start working on the aid for everyone who came back… that’s gonna be a headache. Well, later you two.” After leaving the Library I found a good place to make a portal and leave. "Well off I go then." I say, summoning Reunion and opening a DTL. "It was nice meeting you Daybreak Empire...let's hope I can come back in a more relaxed case..." I sigh out before walking through the portal, the light disappearing in an instant as I found myself home. "Ben~" Someone said with an eerie cheer. "Oh...shit..." I frown before being grabbed by three mares suddenly and nothing but my attempts at freedom could be heard before the library door slammed shut. To be continued... Nobody's Lesson: Fair Game pt 1Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.Nobody's Lesson: Fair Game pt 2Three days past since my first training session with cards, and considering Dorlu had a horny wife I could understand why he didn’t want to train me in those few days. “Wonder if he’ll be free today…” I mutter while walking around the old part of Ponyville, wondering if I’ll spot the gambler soon. “Let’s hope I don’t see him having to use crutches.” I chuckle to myself, taking a look around to see if he’s anywhere. I spotted him sitting on the police station steps, smoking a cigarette. “Oh, hey Ben.” He said as he saw me. “How you doing Dorlu?” I ask with a smile. “Hope the missus isn’t too much for ya.” “I love it when she goes wild, but she likely is pregnant again, which I don’t really mind, she’s just wondering how many in this litter if she is.” “Well at least she’ll raise her kids in a more...friendly world I suppose.” I shrug. “I’ll say, the kids we have when we first came here didn’t know what to make of being outside, they even asked what a tree was... “ “Ha.” I laugh. “That must have been quite an experience. So you free to help train me or busy with work or family?” I ask curiously, hoping he’s free to train. “Right now Crystal is at the doctors to see if she is, yes they can tell that fast with her race, the kids are in school, and the boy’s in there don’t have anything for me at the moment. Sure, you trained?” “Why of course.” I say while snapping my fingers, a Gambler nobody appearing behind me. “Good things to practice with but can’t compete with a master that’s for sure.” I say before the pink Nobody vanished. “So where should we go to start training? Cause public areas aren’t good for training.” “I think near the Everfree is good, not much is out there, and anything that crawls out of it we’ll be able to send back.” “Yeah that’s true.” I nod. “Let’s get going and see if that creepy forest doesn’t try to attack us for no reason.” Dorlu and I walked over to an area next to the Everfree’s border. We were a good two miles from town and half a mile from Fluttershy’s cottage, so we were pretty isolated. Dorlu stood across from me, his deck floating around him. “Let’s see what you got then?” “Alright.” I say before summoning my cards. The both of us looked at each other before a flurry of enchanted paper started whirling around us. “Ready?” I ask. “Ready.” Dorlu says before tossing up five cards that started to float above him. “Let’s see if you know how to play the game.” He says before the five cards flashed up one ‘O’ and four ‘X’ faced cards before flipping back around and shuffling around swiftly. As I followed along I heard something and reacted instantly, a card whizzed by my head before I threw six cards at Dorlu...only to have them bounce away and return to me. “No attacking me as per the rules.” The gambler says before I flash up my hand, thankfully the ‘O’ card flashed up and I sighed out happily. “No need to get complacent.” He says before a sudden explosion knocked me sideways. “Crap!” I yelp before skidding to a halt and throwing several cards at him, which he simply deflected before smaller cards fell down and exploded, causing the Gambler to skid back with raised arms, giving me enough chance to dash forward with a giant card and slash down at him. “Gotcha!” “Not quite.” Dorlu says before a card wall appeared in front of him that blocked my attack. One card swiftly turned around and showed a slow time stamp on it before I was smacked away, my entire body feeling sluggish and slow. A card appeared above me with a thirty second ticker counting down how many seconds my ‘slow’ condition lasted before I felt something hit my stomach and knock me back. “This sucks…” I mutter before I summon a pinkish orb which Dorlu immediately answered to. Dorlu saw the same thing he put me through but with four cards that flashed one ‘O’ and three ‘X’s before they flipped around and, to his surprise, shuffled a lot quicker then his shuffling did. Dorlu flashed up a card but it was an ‘X’ and he was pushed back a little, my slow condition immediately wearing off suddenly. “How’s that?” “Good good.” Dorlu says with a smile. “Now...Look closely.” He says before summoning a card and disappearing behind it. Ten cards suddenly appeared in front of me, one with Dorlu on it, three with explosive stamps, two with time stamps and the rest blank before they all fell to the ground and moving around perfectly even on the forest floor before they all flipped up with their backs facing me. I followed the proper card and didn’t notice any cards doubling but I placed my hand on the ground and my cards snaked around past the cards on the hunt for any tricks on the ground. I stood up and with a deep breath I flipped up a card, but the card in question seemed to stay still for a moment before a smaller card flipped up and showed Dorlu, the small card resizing and the man walking out of it. “Impressive.” “You haven’t seen anything yet.” I smirk. “Let’s see if you can follow along.” I say before doing the same trick on him, summoning five cards, one with me, one bomb, one time and two blank before I let them all fall to the ground and slide around. Dorlu was looking at the card I was in but he didn’t notice that I swapped to an extra card before hopping off to one of the cards that I snaked around just to make sure the guy didn’t do any tricks. After a few moments Dorlu picked a card, before it turned around to find ‘Gotcha’ written on it before I suddenly appeared before him and tapped his head with a card. But before I could start celebrating a job well done that I managed to win the Dorlu I was focused on glowed. “Aw fuck.” I frown before throwing up a card shield as the glowing ‘Dorlu’ exploded. “When the fuck can card clones be made?” I ask, looking around for the bastard. “You did surprise me don’t get me wrong.” Dorlu says before tapping my head behind me. “Changing to a card that wasn’t even apart of that little guessing game was smart, and the speed of your shuffles did put my ‘practice’ speed to shame but still not enough to beat the master.” Dorlu says smugly. “Didn’t answer my question you smug bastard.” I frown. “It an advanced technique.” He says simply. “Took me a few years to figure that little trick out but when you figure it out it a life savor.” “Spoken from experience right?” I ask. “Once or twice.” Dorlu shrugs. “Well want to go again?” I ask, walking back to my starting position and summoning all my cards back. “Nah, kids should be getting out soon and Crystal should be home with the news. Oh, Nyla wanted to talk to you about…something.” “Wonder what she wants to talk about.” I say, already thinking of some of the things she want’s to talk about. “Well no need to stand here and wonder. Just surprised something didn’t suddenly jump out at us…” “Guess nothing brave enough was nearby.” Dorlu said, shrugging as he started to walk towards town. “Probably.” I nod, following Dorlu. “By the by where’s Nyla again?” “She said she’ll be at your place to talk, so she should be there waiting for you.” “Wonder why…” I mutter. “But anyways thanks Dorlu, see you tomorrow?” I ask, hoping to get some more training in. “If not come by my place, wife and I will either be celebrating or out buying supplies ahead of time.” “Right then.” I nod. “Welp, see ya.” I say before summoning my glider and riding home. I landed at the front door and disbanded my glider. Once in I saw Nyla and Twilight sitting on the couch and drinking what looked like either hot tea or coffee. “Welcome back Ben.” Twilight said. “Hello Twilight, hello Nyla. How are you two doing today?” I ask kindly. “I’m fine, Nyla wanted to talk to you about some things though.” Twilight said, motioning for me to sit next to her. “What do you want to talk about Nyla?” I ask, taking a seat next to the canine lady. “It’s about, well, your weapons, and a few other things, but your weapons first. Twilight told me that you have a teacher for all but two, right?” Nyla asked. “Luna has someone that says they know someone for the claymore.” Twilight added. “Right, but I think I know a guy who can teach you the other one, chakrams.” “And who would this person be?” I ask curiously, really wanting to know who this chakram master is. “Well, first off, you two can only meet in private. He really isn’t supposed to be… well, can’t say with Twi here, but I think you two will work out fine.” “I’d rather not walk into a trap here lady.” I frown, not liking how she’s describing this. “I may be an idiot but I’m not that big of an idiot.” “Look, I know it sounds sketchy, but… hang on, can she, uh…” Nyla motioned for Twilight to leave, which she understood and left the room. “Alright, so the guy I’m talking about is a…inlaw of sorts back home.” “Hooray, another trip to Knowhere…” I grumble. “Not…exactly.” She says, looking nervous. “How ‘not exactly’?” I ask. “Cause I’m liking this less and less.” “How much do you know about the multiverse?” “Quite a bit actually. Why do you bring it up?” I ask curiously “Well, it’s like this. There’s more than one multiverse, a multiverse of the multiverse we call realms, divided by void in between, and special ‘barriers’ acting as walls that keep them, well, from the void and each other.” “Sounds about right. But why do you bring this up my fluffy friend?” I ask honestly. “I wasn’t born in THIS realm.” “Then how in the hell did you get here?” I ask with a worried frown. “I’ll show you.” She said, standing up. She tapped on a bracelet she had, and it changed into something like a pipboy from Fallout. She tapped the screen a few more times and a portal opened up in front of us. “Like that.” She deadpanned. “Fucking Bethesda…” I frown. “Actually, the design was used from it, but the tech in it, it’s all Freak Inc.” She stated. “There’s a fuck ton of questions I have right now…” I say honestly. “And I doubt I’ll get any of them. Anyways where does portal take us?” “My in law's house.” She said, walking in as I followed. When we exited we were in the tallest, widest, and fanciest hallway I’ve ever seen. “Crap, missed the entrance again and went right in…” She muttered. “Well isn’t this fancy to the nth degree.” I say while looking around. “Yeah, he really only had this built to… well, you’ll see.” She said, walking down the hall. “Keep up.” “I’m admiring fancy shush.” I say while following along quickly. “But mind if I ask who this ‘in law’ is? Cause the way you made it sound your in law isn’t entirely your favorite person.” She rolled her eyes. “Well, you know how big your friends and their herds/harems are?” “One friend has sixteen wives. What does this guy have twenty or something?” I ask. “What’s higher than a centillion?” “Centillion and one.” I deadpan. She elbowed me. “He has over that many wives, as in there is no known number yet made or named to count that high up, and when that limit was reached his first wife, who started the whole thing, found a loophole and, well, not technically are the newest ones wives, but, look, it’s complicated, for sanities sake, we just call him the man with infinite wives.” “Why in the salty fucks does this guy need that many wives?” I ask incredulously. “His first wife's main fetish… of which she got from a manga about a harem.” “A harem’s one thing, having five or six wives is fine for a healthy harem, sixteen wives is grounds for breaking a hip...but an infinite amount? That’s grounds for sex induced insanity.” I say, not believing any of this. “Not if you’re a god it’s not.” She said nonchalantly. “Now define ‘god’.” I say. “Because I know a ‘God’ and he’s a nice guy...but the term ‘god’ is kind of weird at this point for me.” “He was born human, went thought a lot of hell and pain, got lucky and just plain in the right place at the right time without meaning to be, and, well, he became a god. The Human God some call him.” “You didn’t answer it…” I mutter. “He has the ‘god’ title, a title, or rank, whichever, which in the eyes of every high being in the realms, makes you a god.” I take a deep breath. “So ‘god’ is just a title then. Nothing else to it?” I ask. “Well, you need the power to back it up, but yeah, that’s about it.” “Okay then…” I nod. “But I suppose Twilight told you about all my weapons?” “Yeah, this guy can find you a teacher for them easy if he doesn’t teach you a few things yourself. Though, your realm isn’t supposed to be ‘accessed’ just yet.” “I’m worried about what you mean by ‘accessed’...” I say worriedly. “You know that friend of yours, Zeke, and his Unity thing?” “Yes I do know Zeke and his Unity thing.” I nod. “This guy has had about ten years head start and already all of his realm is united as well as a fuck ton others.” “Well that’s a thing.” I say honestly. “That sounds like quite a feat...even though Zeke is a very special guy.” “Yeah, well, Cript is too. How many people can make their own universe just to act as a home of your family?” “Fucked if I know. I mean, if I master my weapons and figure out how to utilize their attributes then I possibly could...in a fuck lot of time.” I say with a frown. “Seriously it took me two months to learn advanced math and I’m already thinking of crap that’s probably never gonna happen.” “Well, anyway, we gotta hope we run into someone in this hall who can call him for us.” Nyla replied. “Hopefully.” I sigh out. “But I suppose it’s because of his ‘infinite harem’ that this ‘Cript’ if memory serves is your in law?” “Yeah, my sister was one of his earlier wives. At the time she was like the rest of my race, pumped full of darkness like you wouldn’t believe and she attacked his kids classroom in a darkness fueled rampage.” “Oh...that happened…” I say, not knowing what else to say. “Yeah, if it wasn’t for his Humanity Blade, we likely would have ended up dead.” “Adding another question to the massive list of questions I already have…” I sigh out, not knowing what the hell’s going on. “The Humanity Blade is basically, if there’s a single trace of humanity left on a person, it will snag onto it when attacking someone, encase them in crystal, then expel all the darkness. If they’re all darkness, then it just hurts them like any sword would.” “That sounds like something Zeke’s capable of doing.” I say honestly. “Not sure how it works, but it has saved a lot of races and people. So, anything else you wanna ask?” “The whole ‘pip boy makes dimensional portals to other reflections without the need of keyblades’ is probably a primary question right now.” I say honestly. “It’s called an Assistant. It can do a lot, can store well over a world’s worth of physical items by changing it into digital code, and the apps do most of the other stuff via special magic embedded in as the code.” “What’s this ‘Freak Inc.’? Cause it sounds like either a one stop shop for fetish items or something completely different.” I ask. “It’s Cript’s company. They started off making weapons, and with the shadow creatures starting to act up in mass, he quickly became vastly wealthy. He soon moved onto food, medicine, they made just about everything.” “Heartless made him push towards helping others...huh.” I say. “No, shadow creatures are different from heartless, and WAY more dangerous.” “That raises even more questions…” I frown. “Oh dear...what are these ‘shadow creatures’ if there not heartless?” “Monsters made from the purest darkness given physical form. Back when some scientist went made and made them, control them for years til he was defeated. Now though, so many other evils have used them and now they can reproduce or spawn via special crystals. Then there’s the Inhumans, and the Subhumans.” “So how little does Kingdom Hearts logic stand in this vast multiverse?” “In this realm, everything is reality. Everything you know as fiction law plays some part in this realm.” “I really hope Dragon Ball isn’t a thing here...cause Core is strong enough as is I don’t want Frieza appearing out of nowhere being stronger then him…” “Ha, Core wouldn’t last a nanosecond against Cript, trust me, he calls himself a demon, but not even a devil has lived against Cript.” “Well I’m sorry for not having the power to literally reshape reality to my whims.” I frown. “I’m a simple guy who has to master thirteen different weapons one at a time, and each of them has their own separate brand of problems…” I sigh out, rubbing my temples lightly. “Every weapon does.” Nyla said. We kept walking til we finally saw someone in the distance. We have to have walked at least four miles of hallway! We ran up and upon seeing the person I did a double check. Sebastian Mecalius… “Hey, can you call Cript here?” Nyla asked. “Certainly.” He replied. Yup, that voice is Sebastion’s. He vanished in a haze then reappeared in a second. “Master Cript will be here shortly.” He said before vanishing again. “So...Sebastion huh?” I ask. “Where’d you find him?” “Cript broke his contract with that kid, turned the kid and that ex demon into humans, then adopted the kid and employed the guy.” She replied. “Huh…” I say simply, my eyerbrows knitted together at having such a simple explanation given. “So this Cript...does he have the ability to bend reality to his will?” “Yeah, but he doesn’t use it much.” “I believe I’ve read some stories where reality benders thought life was either too easy or too boring after you’ve done specific things…” I say. “Is that true or am I just making up stupid shit?” “Depends, Cript can still occasionally find strong enemies to fight, but mostly he runs his company and spends time with his wives and kids.” “Sounds about right I suppose.” I shrug. “But...reminds me of Zeke to a point. Spending more time with his family and friends and trying to keep Daybreak from doing something silly.” We talked a bit more, just to pass time before a man in a brown trench coat, black shirt and blue jeans walked up to us… I had to look at him for several seconds before realizing he looked a lot like Zeke, only with brown hair rather than blonde and brown eyes rather than red. “Sup, long time no see Nyla.” The man, Cript, said. “I’ve been busy, how’s my sis?” Nyla asked. “She’s good, spends just about all her time in the nursery, as usual.” He then looked at me. “Uh… So who are you?” “Names Ben. And I was told your Cript correct?” I ask. “Yeah.” “Nyla told me you could help me with a little...problem I have at the moment.” I say. “Ya see I can’t seem to find a master for Chakrams and Ethereal Blades.” I explain. “Is there anyone you can point me to to help out? Cause hearing Nyla talk about you you seem to be a really busy person.” “Well, I can give you two options there, I can loan you a teacher, or one of my kids who has mastered those things already.” Cript said. “You have a kid that mastered both of those weapons already?” I ask curiously, finding that a tad strange. “Yeah, I have them trained in a wide variety of weapons. Heroes of tomorrow, that’s what everyone expects and according to the ‘boss’ they’ll be needed.” “Too.Many.Questions…” I whine, before shaking my head gently. “But who would you personally pick? Cause you’re basically picking the person to help me already.” “Personally… Huh, who would do the best…” He snapped his fingers. “Yeah, she’ll do.” He said, tapping on his assistant, as Nyla called it. “I sent the message to my daughter, Trinity.” “Right then.” I nod. “But has she mastered the two weapons I talked about? Or just one of them?” “She’s mastered both of those and ninety others.” “Can I stop feeling like I amount to nothing?” I ask with a frown, starting to get worried here. “Seriously it’s starting to get just a tad bit annoying when I’m weaker than someone that’s a fuck tons weaker than a god here…” “Different realms carry different variations of strength. Think of it like this, you play a game and become strong as hell in it, then you play it in multiplayer, and you aren’t as good as you thought. Same basic principle, just apply it to, well, everything. Right now, your reality/realm is ‘single player’ and my realm is ‘multiplayer’.” “Well that’s just fancy.” I sigh out. “Question...Nyla said that Core wasn’t anything compared to you...what would happen if he got his hands on Void powers?” “He’s moved up ten ranks, but that’s about it.” Cript said. “Trust me, there’s much stronger everything out there, even with all that Core has done, he’s not the evilest thing out there.” “Even though Core is dead set on making everything turn to Void.” I frown. “Him and about ten million other villains out there, only reason we let them run around for awhile is because we know someone else is gonna deal with them, or they’ll do something to mess themselves up.” “Sounds about right.” I nod. “But thank you for helping me here. I have a feeling I won’t be getting this help again any time soon though.” “Meh, I help you, and Trinity finally gets some field work. She’s been wanting-” Cript was cut of when a gust of wind that his hard enough to peel the wood off that walls blasted us. When the dust, and wood shavings cleared, there was a fourteen year old girl, red hair, green eyes, wearing a white dress and two MASSIVE WINGS were on her back. “There she is.” Cript said. “Hi daddy.” The girl said. “Hi Trinity. So, this is your first field mission, basically just train this guy, the one in the white coat, in ethereal blades and chakrams. Don’t show off too much, alright?” “Sure.” She said, smiling. “I do have to add the Ethereal blades and Chakrams do come with special properties though…” I say sheepishly, thinking I should have told them this earlier. “How so?” Trinity asked, tilting her head as the walls began to repair themselves. “I have Eternal Flames.” I start before summoning my two chakrams, the thing’s appearing in a burst of flames instead of just appearing in a flash of light surprisingly. “And then there’s Interdiction.” I say before the chakrams vanished and two Ethereal blades appeared, Nothingness thorns seeming to crawl along the red and white blades. “So I have to deal with a fire elemental chakrams and Nothingness blades.” I say before dismissing my weapons. “Then there’s the fuck ton of hidden abilities these damned things have...I should have told you this before I asked for a trainer…” I sigh out, rubbing my temple bitterly. “No need.” Trinity said. “I have those same chakrams, and those blades are rather standard, so I know what they do.” “Why do I have the feeling all my weapons are ‘standard’ in your reality…” I frown. “But anyways thank you so much for helping me. But the Ethereal blades by themselves seemed pretty standard by way of Red Lightsabers, but the ‘Nothingness’ attachment to it might not make it standard...I think.” “You’d be surprised how many weapons like that exist.” Cript said. “Either way, you two go. Oh, and Ben, right?” “Yes?” I ask curiously. I was suddenly floated and looking Cript right in the eyes, which changed to look like Core’s. “Make a move on her, and you really will know what Nothingness is first hand.” He said before vanishing. ”She’s fourteen for one thing...and two I wasn’t going to try and hit on her to begin with...I can understand overprotective father but jesus.” I think to myself as I fall on my butt, wondering why he changed his eyes to Core’s for some reason. “Oh well…” “Sorry about that.” Trinity said. “He’s a dad after all.” “I’ve seen that happen in too much manga and anime to know.” I say before getting up. “Anywhosits let’s get going back to my world. Let’s hope my girlfriends aren’t panicking at another disappearing act.” I say. “So...who’s going to magic up a portal back there?” “I got this.” Trinity snapped her fingers, and Nyla and I found ourselves just outside the library. “Nailed the landing. So you live here? Huh, this might be weird for me.” “The place has enough space for quite a lot of people to be honest. But yes this is where me and my five girlfriends live, along with three other people.” I say honestly. “But why is it awkward? Is it because you’re not good with libraries or what?” I ask, not wanting to bring up the huge wings in case it was a sensitive topic. “Well, while my birth mother is an angel, my other mothers largely come from Equestria reflections. So if I call anyone here mom, it’s involuntary and force of habit.” “Now while I want to say that can lead to some funny jokes…” I say worriedly. “Me and my girlfriends had a little scare one time...I’d...rather wait until after we’re all married for kids ya know?” I say, not entirely knowing if this is just wasted words on a fourteen year old. “Sorta, my mother is a cherub so… expect them to be… well, just make sure you use physical protection. A cherub in the room makes anyone they came near… EXTREMELY fertile for twenty-four hours.” “I do hope magic can stop that…” I say worriedly. “It won’t…” “Fuck.” I grumble. “Anyways want to have a look inside?” “Sure. Oh, and tell no one about where aunt Nyla and I come from. This realm isn’t supposed to be accessed just yet.” “Okay the hell does that mean?” “It means we aren’t supposed to enter it until a specific evil has been unleashed.” “I know Core’s not that big of a threat to your family but still.” I frown. “Core’s worrying enough in my realm as is…” I sigh out before walking over and opening the door. “Twilight! I’m home!” I call out into the library, hoping to find the purple unicorn quickly. She came down stairs quickly. “We might have an issue…” Twi said, making me frown. “I leave for five minutes and there’s already an issue.” I frown. “What is it?” “The radio went off saying there was some giant monster with bone armor completely destroying Manehattan!” She panicked. “The fuck?” I frown. “I...don’t remember any Heartless or Unversed looking like that…” “I think I know what it is.” Trinity said, grabbing the back of my cloak. “Come on.” She said. I blinked and found myself looking at what must have been a massive, ten mile high beast, that definitely wasn’t a Heartless, standing in a largely destroyed city. “Yeup, Titan…” “I’m sorry did you just say titan?” I ask, looking at the giant monster. “It’s a type of shadow creature, a rather strong one too… by normal standards.” She flicked her wrists and two white and blue chakrams that looked like they were made from gold appeared in her hands in a flash of light. “Watch what your teacher can do.” She said, flying over to it. She, from what I could make out, threw on chakram at it, and what happened next made my jaw drop. There was a small breaking noise, then the thing was falling over… sliced in half. She flew back over. “Thank goodness it was a level one titan.” She said. “I fucking hate this.” I say simply. “I...suddenly a monster that I’ve never seen appears randomly in Manehattan…” I started before his eyes widen. “Oh no….Oh nononononono!” I start repeating as I freaked out. “Three of my girlfriends could have...no...no…” I mutter, tears threatening to fall as I thought of three of my girlfriends dying while I was gone and me not being able to do anything. “Hold on.” Trinity says, placing a finger on forehead followed by a small static shock. She then closed her eyes like she was focusing. “Okay, found them. Ten miles away from the city, perfectly fine.” She said. “Special ability dad taught me, and a few others.” I fell to my knees, tears rolling down my face in joy at hearing there alright. “Oh...oh thank god they’re alright…” I say happily. “Well while they’re heading home… as for the city… looks like my relatives who work in the afterlife are gonna be working overtime…” “And here I am...who’s supposed to be the ‘White Knight of Equis’...and I couldn’t save shit…” I sigh out while getting up. “Well...we better get back…” “Relax, you know what they say, every warrior has an angel watching over them, well that’s what I’ll be until you can travel across the world in a nanosecond.” She said, patting my back. “I have five other masters that live here, four that I need to talk to on another world, and one more that I need to hunt down…” I sigh out. “But hey, if you help me get that strong then it’ll help me out in so many ways…” “That’s why my family exists, kinda our thing.” She said, putting a hand on my shoulder then I found myself back in the livingroom in Twilight’s library. “By the by is that just speed alone or some teleportation shenanigans?” I ask Trinity. “Speed.” She replied. “Angel, well, half, but still, can move stupidly fast.” “I can imagine.” I say with a nod. “But do you want to know all of my weapons and what other masters you might see me train with or no?” I ask, wondering if she’ll want to know them. “When I looked into your memories earlier I saw all of that already. Just let me know when you want to train and I’ll be there, til then I’m sight seeing.” She said, walking off. “Alrighty then.” I nod. “Wonder if Dorlu want’s to train again...maybe he has the time.” I mutter to myself while heading off to find him. To be continued... Author's Note Sorry that this chapter was maybe a tad bit too distracted from training but it's a lot more prominent then you'd think. Hope you enjoy the chapter and next chapter our hero will finally master cards...hopefully. Nobody's Lesson: Fair Game pt 3After the scare and event that happened in Manehattan, I realized a few things. First off, there are things that are just way too powerful exist. Second, that some people can be too OP given Cript and his daughter, that thing destroyed the city in the time I was gone and she took it out in one swing. Lastly is that I need to beat Dorlu and finally master these cards. I don’t know if beating Trinity is even possible with what she can do, but I think she can train me in being stronger. “Good lordy…” I sigh out, scratching my head as many many thoughts rushed through my head. “Hopefully Dorlu is around and hasn’t been deployed to Manehattan…” I mutter before looking around for Detective Gambler. I walked into the police station and it was hectic with people moving back and forth, and papers were scattered everywhere. “Ben!” Dorlu called out, walking out from the chaos. “What are you doing here?” “Hoping to not see this for a start.” I start, looking around at the chaos worriedly. “It’s because of that monster right?” “Yeah, lot of folks here are being sent there to scout for survivors and… clean up. I gotta head out soon, some reports tell that heartless showed up not long after the thing was killed.” “Well shit…” I frown. “That’s not good. I better go out and help cause I’m supposed to be the ‘White Knight of Equis’ after all.” I say while twirling my finger pointed up in a ‘whoop-de-doo’ kind of motion. “I think Celestia would appreciate that.” Dorlu said, picking up some papers. “This is, from what I was told, Equestria’s first major tragedy since the changeling invasion, and no one even died in that.” “Yeah, nothing like starting to realize the world is a fuck lot bigger than you originally thought.” I sigh out bitterly. “Anyways I better head off, I’ll be there a lot sooner than most of the guards, unless you want to tag along on my glider.” “I have my own way.” Dorlu said, tossing out two cards that grew and stuck to his back like wings. “I’ve been meaning to try this out too.” “There’s a lot of things you have yet to accomplish my fine friend.” I chuckle while summoning my glider. “With just a little imagination those cards could become so much more. Come on we’ve got work to do.” I say before hopping on my glider and speeding off to Manehattan. After about twenty minutes of flying with Dorlu we both made it to the island city and things were not pretty in anyway shape or form. “Shit…” I frown. “You take on the heartless, I’ll look for survivors.” “Sounds like a plan.” I say before speeding headlong into the heartless, landing on the ground as I dismissed it, summoned my keyblade and shield and ran in, killing Heartless that tried attacking me in the process. The day was pretty long as I played exterminator and cleaved my way through Heartless rather quickly if I do say so myself, but sadly there was so many of the damned things. “Jesus hell where do you things keep coming from?” I grumble while continuing to rush through and kill heartless, trying to find survivors in my spare time to help Dorlu out. We found more corpses than survivors, and those that were alive were… heavily injured. I used cure more times today than I ever have, and even then it only made them stable, sealed deep wounds, and even fixed broken bones, but anything that was… missing… didn’t come back. Damn it, did Core bring that thing here? “Ben, some reports came in about a group heading our way, make sure they make it.” Dorlu said. I nodded and flew off on my glider, finding the group about five miles from where we set up camp. I swiftly flew down outside the camp and jumped off my glider, walking up to the group. “Hi, here to help.” I say simply, readying myself for a fight that may come. “Thank the stars.” One of the people in the group, a grey stallion, said. “There’s more injured over in the old library ruins, including some foul-” He was cut off by being cut. In a blink all of the group was hacked in half, the one responsible… a little girl, no older than ten, holding a small dagger. “Finally found the stragglers.” She said. “Oh come the fuck on~.” I groan, readying my sword and shield for the little girl. “Who are you? And why did you murder them?” She smiled at me, some kinda psycho cutesy smile. “I’m Jenny Ventral, and collecting the stragglers corpses is my job.” “Corpse collecting doesn’t seem that good for a ten year old. Even for a Ventral in my opinion.” I say honestly. “Core needs spare parts for his latest creations.” “Did he not hear some weird reports of a fucking titan that destroyed the city?” I ask with a frown “He sensed that thing appear, surprised him too. But he decided to take the opportunity to gather resources.” “Of course he would…” I sigh out. “Just peachy. And here I thought that after hearing Core was just a little bitch in the grand scheme of things I wouldn’t be so worried.” I joke before dismissing my sword and shield and summoning Fair Game. ”Good a time as ever to try and be a ‘master’ at this…” I think to myself, thinking that she could be a handful if she’s that fast. “Let’s play a little game shall we?” I say with a little smile, the girl suddenly sensing a weird foreboding that felt very worrying even for her. “This is a fight, not a ‘game’.” The child says before bolting after me, trying to slice at my neck to finish me but was immediately dropped to the ground as a crushing pain suddenly shot through her. “Oh I’m sorry, I forget you’re a Ventral.” I say with a little chuckle. “‘Games’ are always ‘how many kicks to the head will kill a puppy’ right?” I ask, seeing the girl get up and jump away, her knife at the ready. The girl vanished and appeared behind me, but then a ‘thump’ was heard as she gasped, her failed attempt at trying to deal a fatal blow to me winding her this time. “My god can you wait five seconds to know the rules?” “Fine.” She growls before getting up and appearing in front of me. “What are these ‘rules’.” She says, poison in her tone. “And no we don’t play ‘how many kicks to the head can kill a puppy’, my father loved dogs!” She shouts at me. “Wait really?” I ask honestly, surprised at hearing that. “Ventral's may be monsters but we’re still human...to some degree…” She says with a shrug. “Anyways, rules go.” “Okay so rule one, no killing.” I say, quietly making some hidden rules without her knowing. “Two, we both have a set time limit so whoever runs out of time first loses.” I say before two cards appear, showing that me and Jenny had the same exact amount of time. “And with each minute or subsequent hit we deal to each other will knock off our time. Whoever runs out of time first is the loser alright?” I ask, seeing the girl nod. “And three, keep the speed to visible alright? Wouldn’t want to make this too easy right?” “Yeah yeah.” She says before readying herself, putting away her knife and dropping down into a battle stance. “Whenever you are.” “Ready.” I say, cards starting to circle around me. “Fight!” I shout, a hidden timer already ticking down on Jenny as she bolted towards me, swiftly and with purpose, swinging a fist towards me that was blocked by a card quickly. The card flipped around and a slow stamp was on it as she was pushed back, her movements feeling slower as her time ticked down steadily from the hit. I grabbed the card and threw it at her, the big card splitting into ten smaller cards all homing at her, which she dodged with just the smallest of movements as she dashed towards me and punched me in the stomach. I gasped in pain at being punched really hard as my time went down as well before I skidded to a halt. “Look closely.” I say before vanishing behind a card, seven different cards appearing with me on it, two blank, two explosive and one time stamp before they all moved around swiftly. As Jenny was focused on my card that slipped under another card I decided to do a little trick that almost got Dorlu as I shrunk my main card down and swapped it with another card. “My mother taught me how to beat this silly ‘find the real card’.” She says before seeing each card flip up back first, walking over to the right one and flipping it, only to spot a time stamp on it and knocking her back, slowing her down even more. I revealed myself and readied for her next strike, the game still in full effect and things going a little too easy for me. She got up and shook off the dirt. “Alright, time for a trump card.” She said, lifting up one of her hands, which had some kinda symbols on it. “Oh Caster.” She said, a crazy eyes man and a hooded woman appeared. “Rule breaker, and some extra magic if you please.” They nodded, the crazy eyed man summoning a book and darkness began pouring out of it, while the lady pulled out a dagger and I could feel the game change. “And mind if I ask why the rules have proceeded to be changed to?” I ask, looking at my cards to see if the timers were still there. ”God please tell me my hidden rules are still in effect…” I mutter before sensing they were still in effect. ”Yes!” I mentally cheer. The corpses she made were covered in the dark magic from the crazy eyed man and then… they crawled to each other, and stood up before changing into a deck of black cards that fell into the girl’s hands. “Isn’t the game better with more cards?” She mocked, tossing cards out that nearly mimicked what mine did. ”Crap, she learned by watching?!” I mentally panic, readying myself. “While that’s true it only seems to be fair that I told you the rules of the game I made. So mind telling me the rules you made up?” I ask, taking a deep breath and starting to relax and focus. “The cards I placed have mixed in with the cards you already placed out, to keep it fair, some of yours are in my deck, and mine in yours. If you pull out one of my cards, you miss a turn, same applies to me, but now, thanks to my Casters, no physical attacks are enabled, only spell cards, you run out of magic then you skip a turn to recharge.” “Who knew Deja Vu could become real life.” I say, finding this kind of funny that Chain of Memories is now the new rules. “Welp, let’s get it started.” I say before my deck appeared in my hand, feeling the dark cards intermingled with them. She pulled out a card, to which the number was seven and seven fire blasts hit me. “Oh, the number on the card determines the potency of the attack, and how many hit you, when summoning, the number determines how many of what you summon appear.” She added. “What about Aces? Since they can count as either one or higher than a King.” I say, wanting to at least know that bit. “Those are basically a ‘wish card’ pick extra magic, an extra turn, or you can draw two cards next turn.” “Alright then.” I nod before picking up my card, turning it around and five icicle spears shot out and hit Jenny. “Just gonna point out that this feels less like a fight and more of those anime’s about children’s card games...just saying.” “I’m ten, what did you expect?” She retorted, pulling out another card to which I was hit by four gravity spells at once. “I don’t know...taking care of your own pony or something?” I ask, trying to ignore the pain as I drew my card, eight bolts of wind slashing at Jenny. “Do we still have the timer I set or do we have a new thing to point out our health?” “That is when a joker is drawn, timer starts for ten seconds, we basicly bombard each other for that time to try and and knock the timer off each other down enough to win.” “I really wish we were normal people…” I sigh out. “Even back home normal is impossible for a Ventral, no matter where we go, police and fear is there, whether we did something or not.” She said, pulling out a card, to which three heartless appeared, charging at me. “Each summon takes the according number of seconds off your timer regardless. Beat them in less, you gain the time back.” A card appeared in front of all the heartless before splitting off into smaller ones, glowing and exploding, killing all the things rather quickly. “That work or is that a little no no?” She pulled another card, a queen. “One queen, nice. Two queens or three kings drawn, winner automatically.” She said, placing the card in her pocket. “Sadly, I miss a turn.” I draw a card, and it just so happens to be a king. “Well looky there, I suppose we’re both getting lucky here.” I say before placing it in my pocket. “Go ahead.” I say, moving my hand in a ‘pass turn’ motion. She drew a card, to which two… half human half heartless things appeared. “I think you’ve seen these things before, you like?” “Three things, one don’t you think the police would actually stop hunting down a criminal family that...they can’t stop?” I ask before drawing a card and flipping it around, two Nobodies suddenly appeared and...they looked rather different than what I was accustomed to. “Two, when I said ‘I wish we were normal’ I meant more of ‘I wish we could be friends’ to some extent or another...and my third point was taken up with these giant wolf Nobodies.” I say, seeing the two growl before I looked at my card, seeing that it was a six. “I’m missing something...rather important. This was a six yet I got two...does it depend on the strength of the thing that was summoned or what?” “Yeah, you can use a higher level card to summon one or two strong allies, or the number of weaker allies the card allows.” She said. “As for friends… Maybe in another life.” She said, pulling out another card… which was a joker. “What’s the Joker's time limit?” I ask, readying myself for our fight. “Thirty seconds.” She said, drawing cards like crazy, to which I did the same. Magic was practically being flung like kids in a food fight if a bystander saw it, wind, fire, ice, gravity, all sorts of normal spells hit us both which dwindled both of our times like cocaine addicts on a severe Netflix binge before our time was up and we both ended up without a single card left in our deck. “Shit…” I frown, but glad it was my turn as I reformed my deck. She drew her last card, he deck reforming as she did and a three fireballs hit me. She started chuckling. “So, what reason do you have, for fighting?” She asked. “I’ve been rejecting everything for so long.” I say. “Too long...but now I have those that I love and care about, those that accept me...and I accepted back.” I say, my cloak covered in suit, ice, and other magical residue at this point. “And...even though you're a Ventral...and I barely know much about you’re family...but you can be that which you never thought you could…” I explain. “What? Be like cousin Zeke? Different? Everyone thought of him as odd, raised by the families best, yet never killed, never really participated. He just never seemed to care about anything.” “I think Zeke was the first in your family to have the balls to find a way to be apart of the family without being thief, murderer, slaver or anything else.” I say. “He found a way to be a kind person, yet still be of dark origin.” I explain, starting to look down at the thought of what that one Ventral I killed wanted to be if she wasn’t haunted by being a Ventral. “That’s why his difference shocked everyone. His red eyes man fate labeled him for the greatest monster of the family. Those red eyes are how our family started after all.” “And you're probably right. I’ve never seen him fight, but I think it would take a real monster to decide not to fight in a line of monsters willing to fight every chance they got.” I say. “Besides, it wouldn’t be fun if the strongest got to do everything without anyone to stop him.” I explain, remembering that in plenty of stories. She hung her head. “Do you even know how the Ventrals became villains… became real monsters in the first place?” “I have no idea but I think it involves a nice person being called a demon in some old age because they had red eyes.” I take a wild guess. “It was back in the fifteen hundreds, our oldest traced ancestor with the Ventral name was doctor to spanish royalty. He managed to marry into the family and his wife gave birth to three sons, one born blind, one mute, and one def, you know the old cliche. He and the kids were thrown out for some religious BS and the mother was hung. Years later he was a doctor in a small english town, raising his kids to heal as well. The blind son though, managed things he shouldn’t have been able to do. “Perfect amputations, stitching, all of it. He met a ‘witch’ that passed through town one day, and in exchange for medicine for her illness, she’d give him an elixir that would give him sight. He laughed it off, but helped her anyway. Out of curiosity he drank it, and he could see, his foggy eyes cleared, revealing the red behind the fog. His family celebrated, though something was off, his surgeries ended in deaths, and his patients never healed, only got worse. He was hunted down by the church and was to be hanged. In his cell, something changed, she gave him sight, but took his healing away, and replaced it with death’s eyes. He used it to his advantage and escaped, killing the whole church on the way out. The Ventral family continued after that, every red eyed Ventral keeping the legend alive.” I remained silent for a bit. “A potion took away healing hands...only to give death’s eyes…” I take a deep breath. “I...I really don’t know what to say really. I mean...I could spin something silly but...wow.” I say, hearing that entire story just made my head do a little spin. “But...I don’t know the proper name of it but I think it’s a thing...have you ever heard of a cycle where the beginning cycled to the end?” “Yeah.” “Well...I think Zeke...might be the one to bring the healing touch back into your family.” I say. “I’m not entirely sure if Zeke will go blind or anything but...just meeting him the few times I did...he always seemed like the one that you could always trust on for help, to always make those that are broken heal and be better in life. Maybe he’s the one to bring the healing hands out of the ocean of blood, as it always tried to for so long…” I explain, not entirely sure if this is true but it making all the more sense the more I thought about it. “Maybe.” She said. “Maybe the legend is just that, a legend…But hey, all stories have a source, right?” “Yep. All stories have a source…” I nod. “A bookworm wouldn’t be a bookworm if they didn’t know the source. And now knowing this…” “Still, if the story is true…then if there was no magic on earth, where did the witch and the elixir come from? After all, a witch and elixer’s are magic, so where did they come from?” “It’s funny...cause when you started saying that I thought Core...but I have a feeling he’s either involved in it somehow to gain a powerful family with hearts dark enough to easily bribe...or someone working under him. Or it could be one of the many monsters just fucking with Earth that God or Core couldn’t stand up to.” I shrug. “Maybe. Maybe something slipped under God’s defence. EIther way.” She said, taking the dagger from one of her ‘casters’. “We have a game to finish. What do you say? One last draw, both of us using our trump cards?” “Let’s have a little wager shall we?” Ben asks with a smile. “What you offering?” “My life.” I say, patting my chest. “If you win, I die, but if I win, you have to sever all ties with Core and and get help from Zeke. Unum was able to be saved from darkness...hearing your family’s story and knowing that your family still has humanity left in it...I know you can be saved as well. It’ll be tough but I’ll be damned if I’m wrong.” I say. “I accept, though, if I win then I’m not killing you. I’d rather take you alive, Core has been getting more interested in you given his newest…allies.” “Trust me...I’ve met some people that makes Core, and any of his allies look like ant’s. It’s...actually quite scary to be perfectly honest.” I chuckle before putting a hand on my next card, hearing the inaudible clock tick it’s final time. “Ready?” “He knows, why do you think he’s interested in Zeke so much? Other than having the X-blade, he found something interesting about our families red eye legend, but only Josh knows the whole thing.” She said, readying her dagger. The card I drew started glowing a bright white as I lifted it up in the air. “Ladies first.” She drew a card, but rather than something like an attack or summon appear she started charging at me… really fast as the dagger glowed. “Doom.” I say, the simple word echoing somehow before everything seemed to slow down for her. A cloaked being appeared behind me that only Jenny noticed, something that even the strongest Ventral feared. “Crap.” She muttered as she stopped charging and came to a stand still. The cloaked being move forward, grabbing her head with both it’s hands and poured some kinda energy into her head, making her scream in both fear and pain. After it was over, it dropped her and she was out cold. I looked over and just like one of my hidden rules stated, once it took into effect her entire time was lost. “I win…” I mutter, before falling to my knees as my eyes started to blur. “Fuck…everything hurts…” I mutter before gently moving over, our ‘game area’ dissipating as I checked her pulse. ”Doom was just to knock her out...thank fuck I managed to do it…” I think to myself, feeling a steady heart beat. “Oh thank god…” I sigh out happily. “Let’s get you somewhere safe…” I mutter as I get up shakily, gently picking her up and carrying her off, making sure to keep her knives away from her. “Crap...don’t have enough energy to summon my glider or Nobodies...and those wolves died in that flurry of spells. That was fun Jenny…” I say to the unconscious girl, hoping to find Dorlu and get home before I pass out. “Trinity?” I call out, hoping she somehow heard me call out to her. “Waz up?” A voice came out from above me, when I looked up, she was floating over me. Thank god she now is wearing jeans and a T-shirt. “Too weak...fought a very powerful ten year old in a children’s card game.” I say. “Cast Doom...hurt like a bitch.” “Oh.” She floated down and gave me a rather large bottle with green liquid in it. “Mega potion.” She said. “Oh thank god.” I smile before fixing Jenny’s position and taking the bottle before drinking a little bit of it, and already I felt a whole lot better. “Thank you. Oh, this is Jenny Ventral...and if you haven’t already looked at my mind of the events that happened then I beat her with the bet that if I win she cut ties to Core and get a lot of help.” I say. “Nice, reminds me of dad’s stories of how he did stuff before he made the Humanity blade.” She said, looking over Jenny. “Huh, well she’d been twisted pretty good, that I can fix… but how did she ingest cursed blood?” “Soul Eater world....” “No, not that junk. There’s some other blood, really old and really nasty in her. I think I can analyze it, but I’ll need her laid flat on the ground.” Trinity said. “She actually told me her family origins...which all started with a blind doctor, a witch and a magical potion.” I say. “It’s a long story but I think I can tell you...and should I wake her up? Doom took a lot out of her…” I say, staring at the once murderous child and now seeing the sleeping form and finding her in such a vulnerable state that you’d mistake her for a harmless ten year old. “Let me just see something.” She said, her hand glowing with light as she passed it over Jenny. “Oh…” She said, the light in her and fading as she looked horrified. “What?” I ask worriedly, hoping this isn’t as bad as I think. “Well…it’s a long story, but you know the bible story about Cain?” “Not really but I do remember that Cain killed Abel if that means anything.” I say worriedly, not really that much into religious work. “Yeah, well, that did happen, but the events after took a different take. You see, like how this realm was once one world, that’s true for my realm too, though, you know, differences. On that first world, Cain killed his brother, but unlike in the bible, he creates something new in a newly made existence, something that exists in all realms now. Murder. He became that fact, the physical representation for murder. As time passed, his power comes from every death from every murder committed. As such, those that kill so many, he changes, integrating himself into their bodies, souls, minds, etc. His signature are red, demon like eyes with black whites. We call those he has access to in that way, Psychopathes. This girl has the blood of an ancient psychopath in her, maybe an early or even from Cain himself.” “But the story she told me was that the original Ventral gave birth to the children, one who was deaf, blind and mute. The blind one had hands that could practically cure anything, but then a witch told him he could have his sight back for medicine, and when he took it he gained red eyes and gained the ‘eyes of death’...which then turned his hands of healing into hands of death...and then he took that in stride when he was sentenced to death…” I explain. “Well, it’s still a possibility, Cain was still at large til my dad helped him, then there are still old and powerful Psychopaths out there. That which could have been one that tried to create more… or she was a member of Nexus, but that’s a whole other thing.” “Yeah…” I sigh out. “I just hope to help her out to be honest. Zeke is a red eyed Ventral yet he wields the X-blade and has saved countless worlds and saved Unum...I maybe getting a little off topic here but still…” “Well, with this blood in her, she and anyone like her, as in family, has a direct connection to the fact of murder. I don’t think I can take it out, though dad might… He was fated to be a new Cain, but after the first time that fact turned him, he did a turn around and now only uses that power when dealing with other Psychopaths.” “And the world just keeps getting bigger and bigger.” I chuckle. “But the Ventrals...from what I’ve been told they still have some grounds in humanity thankfully...so maybe that can help pull them out of their blood thirsty rage...or god help those that stick with their bloodthirsty ways.” I frown, still holding onto hope that if one can be saved then others can as well. “Well… dads Humanity blade should work, but he’ll have to make another one. That might take some time, unless he pulls the ones he keeps in the vault.” “I don’t know if I should ask for him to make a new one or ask for the spare…” I say honestly. “Either one works, but the spares he keeps in case of realm wide war, which has happened several times.” “That’s concerning.” I say worriedly. “But question...am I even allowed to have one? Cause the strength of that blade sounds like there’s a catch or two behind it.” I say honestly. “Well, it’s powered by the user Will power, as long as you’re determined to win, the attacks will stay strong, and as the name suggests, anyone with humanity in them will be saved by it. As for getting one… even his kids have to take a special test his boss made, and it’s not easy.” I take a deep breath, closing my eyes and trying not to groan in rage. “I spent two whole months on math tests…” I sigh out. “I mean...taking a major test while I have twelve others waiting doesn’t sound that bad...but how do you define as ‘not easy’? Cause ‘not easy’ for you could mean ‘impossible’ for me.” “Dad’s boss made it that it’s, well, to simplify it, since you’ve played Kingdom Hearts, fighting the Lingering Will at level forty, when he’s level one hundred. It’s three trials, one to test your inner strength, one to test your outer, and the last to test your willpower, showing you your greatest pears and darkest moments.” “Huh...even though that sounds simple that sounds really fucking hard.” I say simply. “But not impossible thankfully.” “You’ll have to prove to dad you can take the test though, there are few exceptions for an outside the family person to be given a humanity blade.” “And I have a feeling those few exceptions were stuff that impressed him right?” I ask curiously. “Either you get adopted into our family, which thanks to a family curse, you become biologically his child also, or you can either beat, or equal at him in a fight.” “There’s no way I can beat a literal god...unless I figure out how to master and mix all my abilities together to be a ‘god’ of some form...but that’s not for a long ass time…” I sigh out. “Oh dear…” “There are perks to being adopted, instant power upgrade, a demigod title, and an Assistant.” “Now while that sounds tempting it sounds too easy of a solution for some reason.” I say honestly. “I mean sure it would be awesome but...I don’t know why…” I say. “The choice is yours, but beating or meeting dad in terms of power is near impossible unless you’re a Psychopath. Getting adopted and being an adult you’d be given some rather impressive opponents to practice against. As in the other kids.” “Hmm…” I hum. “I got it.” I start. “I’ll be adopted but there needs to be a deal along with it. And Cript is gonna need to be the one to hear it.” I explain, already having a good idea of how I can do this. “Alright then, I think I can call dad now.” She tapped on the device on her wrist and then it made a beep noise. “Three, two, one.” She counted. In a flash, Cript was standing next to us. “You rang?” He asked. “Cript. I have a deal.” I say to him. “And that deal is, I am to be adopted into your family, but that will only happen when I am able to pass your test and gain a humanity blade.” I start. “I will still be apart of your family but all the powers, curse, and demigod status will be withheld until I have passed that test. Sound good?” “Wait… you want to join my family for a Humanity Blade? For what reason?” “Psychopathes.” Trinity said to Cript’s surprise. He sighed. “Crap. They shouldn’t be here…Alright, you got a deal, but just to warn you, you also get a new mom, who will also be genetically your mom, among a few things you might get from them.” “The only mom I know of...was my fault…” I say before shaking my head. “Listen, I want to save any Ventrals I can...and Jenny is the first. Their family was probably poisoned by a Psychopath to become them but I don’t know...I just don’t want blood of another soul that wished they were different on my hands…” I say bitterly, knowing that I would have to kill more but still. Cript smiled. “You’re more like me already than I expected.” Cript held out a hand. “Deal, and welcome to the family.” “Thanks…” I smile. “But don’t be expecting me to call you dad okay?” “Your own pace, but whatever.” Cript said as I took his hand. Instantly my body felt… different. When I stood up I had one of those devices on my wrist. “Assistant goes to everyone, it’s free, can do a stupid amount of stuff, think of it as the ‘menu’ for a game. Also you can buy shit from my company just by, well, the store option, and it’s basically that game breaking inventory were you carry a shit ton of stuff while no differences externally. Oh, and you can set ‘waypoint’ to teleport to places, Trinity will show you the basics, one is set to your room back in my realm, yes you have a room, and later.” He finished as he vanished. “Later…” I say. “So...question, can someone steal this?” I ask, hoping to christ nobody can steal this. “If they try it will turn into something akin to a transformer and beat the hell out of them.” Trinity said. “The safety features in these things are ridiculous, and only you can take it off.” “Glad to know these things can’t be taken.” I sigh out thankfully. “Anyways, how do I disguise this? I don’t want anyone freaking out when they see it.” “Mentally. Just think of something you want it to look like until you tap it, taping it disperses the disguise.” “Alright then…” I nod before thinking for a moment, before seeing the thing somehow transform into a bracelet with a heart shape on the top. I checked it and saw that it opened up to hold pictures and I smiled warmly. “Thank god…” I mutter with a smile. “Now all I need is pictures and I can have it remind me of my new family…” I say with a smile, hoping to get a family photo soon so I can remember it. “Take off your hood, I wanna see if there are any physical differences.” Trinity asked. I raised an eyebrow before mentally shrugging, gently taking off my hood and glad to feel my crown was still there sitting proud on my head. “Anything different on my normally wonderful looking face?” She was grinning, then laughed a little. “Uh, I think I know the race of your new mom.” She said, chuckling. “I better not look like a troll…” I mutter, checking my face in hopes it’s not different. “Nope. More… canine.” She chuckled. “...How?” I ask worriedly. “Wolf eyes, ears on your head, fuzzy sideburns, and your hair is now a dark blue.” She explained. “Are my eyes still blue?” I ask, remembering my original parents loved my shiny blue eyes. “Yeah.” “Oh thank god…” I sigh out. “But...what are my girlfriends going to think? And does this also include a tail?” I ask. “Check.” I took a deep breath and focused on if there was a tail...and in fact yes, I did have a tail and it was wagging. “Oh no…” I whine, and to add insult to injury my whine sounded like that of a dog’s whine. Trinity broke out in laughter. “Sorry, but I never saw the change before you just look so… Sorry.” She said, wiping tears away. “Anyway, let me see if you’re on the sibling list.” She said, checking her Assistant. “God...my girlfriends are not going to let me live this down…” I mutter, putting my arm back around Jenny as she breathed gently, soundly asleep in my arms and curling up in my hold. “Let’s see. Here you are, Ben Cronthgh, that’s dad’s last name, age eighteen, level seventy nine, list of weapons, skills, stats, ets… Ah, here we are. Your mother is Den.” “Does she have a sister named ‘Nyla’?” “Yeah. Looks like she’s now your aunt for real.” “And I’m technically related to Dorlu...he’s not going to like this.” I say nervously. “Well, not by blood to him, just his kids.” Trinity corrected. “Well, enough worrying, we got people to save, stuff to do, and you, according to your states, are close to mastering your cards. Yes it tells that.” “Wait seriously?” I ask in amazement. “More of the fact that I’m close to mastering Fair Game, that’s awesome.” I smile, glad to achieve my second weapon. “Yeah, from what I saw, just one last tough opponent to beat and you get the master rank for them.” “I have a good feeling I’m going to have to fight Dorlu for my master rank. Only feels right ya know?” I ask honestly. “Yeah, and with your assistant, go on and buy some stuff if you want, it materializes in front of you after purchasing it.” “Uh...sure.” I say before before summoning a card and gently putting her on it, the card floating in the air as I tapped my Assistant as it flashed back to normal. It pressed the ‘shop’ button and up came a screen with a...Moogle on it asking if I wanted to buy, sell, or Synthesis stuff. “Huh…” “Well dad does have a sense of humor. Want it normal or that okay?” “No no this is perfect. Reminds me of when I played and went to a Moogle shop.” I say before pressing ‘Buy’, and noticed I had a shit ton of Munny. “Alright then, what you gonna buy, weapon, accessory, other? Other is normal things like games, furniture, the usual, even instant homes.” “Does a fuck ton of munny come with being a family member or did I just never notice I was somehow ambiently collecting the stuff?” I ask honestly, going to accessories and checking that out. “You get an allowance of a million rem a week. Rem is a…special currency in my realm, equal in value to all other currencies. I know that sounds broken, but that’s part of why it’s used.” “Makes sense…” I say while perusing the thing, starting off on the small sections and seeing what I can buy. “Oh, Sweetie might like this…” I say before pressing a button and accepting, losing three thousand Munny before out popped up a silver necklace with a golden gem in it. “A ‘Resist All’ necklace. It looks pretty and I’m sure it’ll help her in fights.” I say with a smile. “And maybe I should get the others something nice, I’ll save money for something of my own but I’ll keep that off to the side after I beat Dorlu.” I say while going back to looking through it, already planning out gifts as I pocketed the necklace. “The weapons are usually pretty expensive. One of them being the Mouse.” Trinity said. “I immediately thought of ‘Mickey Mouse’ for some weird reason.” I frown. “Damn Disney.” Trinity chuckled. “No, it’s basically a hand held nuclear reactor that fires a beam through a elemental crystal, amplifying the power.” “That sounds like the perfect toy to give to all children. Coming to stores now, ‘The Mouse’! Capable of murdering all your pesky problems and giving you two different types of cancer all in one!” I say in my best ‘tv salesperson’ voice. “Well it’s not priced at fifty billion rem without a good reason, plus only like, ten were ever sold and whatever wasn’t was hidden in other dimensions and such.” “Kind of sounds like the RHYNO from Ratchet and Clank.” I say, remembering that game series. “Anyways we got shit to do, no need to go on a shopping spree now, heartless are still attacking innocents and Dorlu needs our help...or my help I don’t know what you're going to do now.” “I’ll look for survivors, you get some medicine with this thing and bring it to them, then challenge Dorlu.” “Alright, before Jenny killed them, a survivor said more were at the library ruins.” Trinity nodded and flew off. “Right then.” I say before summoning my glider and flying off after Trinity, summoning Gamblers, Snipers, and Assassins to help protect Jenny and also left a note saying I was going to be gone for a bit helping people, stay here and the Nobodies will protect you from anyone that may try to do her harm. After a while me and Trinity found the library ruins and for a bookworm it really hurt to see a library filled with so many stories just destroyed so remorselessly that it kind of pissed me that. The survivors came out, to my surprise I recognized one of them as Applebloom’s cousin. “You with the royal guard?” She asked. “No I am not Babs Seed. I am the White Knight of Equis!” I say with a little flourish, just to help the kid laugh at my silliness. She smiled. “Oh, you’re that guy that fights the monsters, did you kill the thing that destroyed the city?” “I-” “It was all him.” Trinity cut in. “He’s not a hero without a reason, right?” Trinity said, giving me a ‘play along’ look. “That is definitely true my fellow friend.” I say with a smile. “Cleaved the thing down in one swing of my mighty sword.” I say while summoning Reunion. “I’m sorry I couldn’t get there sooner though...could have stopped so much destruction…” “Well, at least you came, better late than never, right?” She said, walking off to get the others. “That’s more true than you’d ever expect.” I sigh out, following Babs along to help her with the other survivors and guard them from any Heartless. Thankfully it went a lot smoother than I originally thought, Heartless did appear but I stopped them with ease, even though a Reverse Armor appeared just for irony’s sake, but I took it down just the same. “Reverse or not you're still a bitch.” I say with a grin, going back to helping the others to safety. “Wonder where Dorlu is? I hope he’s alright…” I mutter to myself, hoping my master was alright in this Heartless infested wreck that was once a city. “He’s in the main tent.” One of the injured said. “How many survivors did he find?” I ask curiously, knowing he’s a good officer and has an eye for detail. “So far there’s fifty.” The man said. “How many were originally in the city?” I ask worriedly. “Sixty thousand.” He said. “Oh…” I say before taking a deep breath. “Every life we can save right now matters. We’ll mourn the dead later.” I say, trying to force down the feeling of sadness at not being able to stop that thing before practically the entire city was killed by either the Titan, Jenny, or the Heartless. After a while me, Trinity, and the survivors we found made it to the main tent, where I saw many ponies crying and helping others calm down we all made it. “I’m here to see Dorlu.” I say to a guard, letting him know instead of just rushing in. He moved aside and upon walking in I saw Dorlu looking over some of the major injured. “Hey Ben.” He said. “This gives me some flashbacks to some days back at Knowhere.” “Just a little...I didn’t expect something like this to happen…” I sigh out. “But how are you doing?” “So-so. Really makes you think, first that whatever it was, now heartless. Feels like the whole universe is against us sometimes.” “All you can do is look at the positives sometimes.” I shrug, glad I had my hood covering my face and hid my tail under my coat. “But I managed to beat someone really powerful in a game.” I say honestly. “Got to do something really fancy as well.” “Really, that’s good. The cards are tricky to master, but once you got the hang of it, they do pretty much what you want.” “When you manage to input the spell ‘Doom’ into a hidden rule then that can always make things wonderful...too bad it took a lot out of me.” I say sheepishly. “I can imagine. Well, any lock finding supplies? Medicine and such are needed badly.” “Sorry no…” I sigh out. “But...maybe…” I start before I focus and snap my fingers, five Nobodies dressed up as doctors standing there at the ready. “Didn’t think that was possible…” I mutter, their faces and uniform symbols being red Nobody symbols. “Heal the injured.” I order as they immediately rush off, starting to do what they actually looked like, being doctors and helping the injured at great speed and precision. “I...honestly didn’t know that these Nobody's existed...but hey any help right?” “Yeah. Must have been doctors before…. Well, they became that.” “You’d think that.” I say, glad to see them all healing the injured. “Why I thought they existed was because giant wolves are also Nobodies...that world is starting to get a whole lot bigger than I thought.” I say. “Anyways after we’re done and take a day or two as a break, want to try another fight? Just to get that over with?” I ask honestly, hoping to get my mark of mastery done. “Sure, could use a break from all… this, plus these Nobodies of yours seem to have it handled. Let’s make it quick though.” Dorlu said. “Wait right now?” I ask honestly. “Cause I don’t think it’s gonna be quick…” I say honestly. “Relax, we fight in the hot zones we can take out heartless at the same time.” Dorlu said. “Two birds with one stone.” “Sure. And maybe it’ll be the match I master Fair Game.” I say with a smile, hoping that to be true even if stats say that might be true. “Only if you beat me.” Dorlu adds as the two of us head off into an area with a fair amount of heartless around them. “Ready?” “Ready.” I say, summoning my cards and noticing that Jenny’s cards are long gone. After a moment the both of us summoned a big card and clashed together, a gust of wind pushing outwards as we both swapped out the big card and threw smaller cards at each other. The two of us always dashing around slaughtering heartless, which I swapped out my cards for my Keyblade briefly just to kill heartless that got too close just to make sure they didn’t stick around, before leaping back in with Fair game. We both did our little games at the same time, the two of us guessing correctly before vanishing in cards, leaping out of others and clashing again and again with new and varying ways. He would surprise me with coming out of well placed cards I didn’t notice he placed, I surprised him by turning him into a six sided die! The fight continued and felt like it lasted forever, so many cards clashed, bruises and cuts littered our bodies before suddenly Dorlu grinned and a flash of light blinded me. “Look who’s on top of the game!” He shouts before his throwing his deck out, a ton of cards littered the area as I knew full well what he was doing. Now what I didn’t know is that he summoned three card clones and started assaulting me on several sides which I was hard pressed to defend, but thankfully a quick card clone and quick dodges helped wonders. Another brief flash of light appeared, before I chased Dorlu who vanished and a skyscraper sized card appeared, before a giant cage appeared around us both before I started at him. “Do you know the rules?” He asks while four cards appeared, but they all appeared blank which instead of flipping around he decided to keep it for me to see, but then each card started flashing ‘X’ and ‘O’ in varying degrees of speed, but I was a fan of the fight and even though it went to blazing speeds I was ready. All that was standing between me and total victory was one final card that practically vibrated between the two choices. “Now!” I shout before it hit ‘O’ which surprised Dorlu, his entire deck flying to my hand before I flung it straight at him, causing him to stagger back and take a knee, panting in exhaustion. “Look’s like I am on top of the game.” I say before flipping a card towards him like a weapon. “Do I win?” “Yes my apprentice, you have become an official master.” Dorlu says with a proud smile, my card suddenly glowing before I looked at the back and saw the Nobody symbol on the back got a strange...mark on it. It wasn’t a checkmark or anything, but it looked like a good enough sign to me that I mastered it. “Thanks Dorlu...you were an excellent master.” I say with a smile, the deck disappearing before I lowered my hand, the man grabbing it gratefully and I hefted him up. “Well, now that you have mastered the cards, are you gonna tell your girlfriends about your new body?” Trinity asks curiously. “New what?” Dorlu asks with a raised eyebrow “It’s….” I sigh out before taking off my hood and fixing my coat, showing my new features. “Nyla is now my aunt because of magical reasons…” I say nervously. Dorlu just looked at me, then laughed. “I’m sorry, but you look like that grumpy cat meme!” He yelled out in his laughing fit. “I’m sorry, but you're technically fucking my cousin.” I frown. “Also I’m part canine, not part cat asshole, and I don’t want to figure out if I have a canines sharp teeth on someone living.” I growl, the obvious sign that I’m part canine blatant enough in the growl. “I guess you’re a good example of what my kids will look like grown up.” Dorlu said as he calmed down. “Either way, glad to have you in the family. I didn’t know Nyla had a sister.” “Well she’s in a...strange place.” I say sheepishly. “But I hope to god my girlfriends don’t treat me any other way cause if they try to treat me like a dog then I’m going to slap one of them.” I frown. ”And I know at least one of them will enjoy it...still not into that…” I think to myself, remembering the ‘spanking’ thing one night. “Well, let’s head back.” Trinity said. “Yeah, I also need to check up on someone that I hope is still alright.” I say before summoning my glider. “Need a lift back to the main tent Dorlu?” “I’m good, if you see Crystal let her know I’ll be home in a week.” Dorlu replied. “Alright.” I nod before the glider floats up. “See ya Dorlu, and thank you for everything...even though the math could burn in a hole.” I frown before flying off to find Jenny and make sure she’s alright. I flew back and found Jenny, she was still out cold, and the Nobodies I posted told me no one appeared as far as they sensed or saw. “That’s good…” I sigh out thankfully before pulling up my hood and fixing my cloak to hide my tail as I grabbed Jenny and made sure she was comfy flying along with me, dismissed the Nobodies and thanked them for their work and headed off home. After a while of flying I finally made it home, I picked Jenny up off my glider and dismissed it, and when I got to the door of my house I heard... “So when should he get back?” A female voice I never heard before spoke. “I’m sure it’s… soon.” Twilight’s voice replied. I took a deep breath, and entered… to which I was greeted with Twilight, sitting next to a twelve foot tall wolf lady with… six… breasts...I walked over to the couch and gently put Jenny on the couch, putting a pillow under her head and made sure she was comfy, before walking over to the two and waving my finger towards the wolf woman. “Why...is there a Dire Wolf lady with six tits in our house?” I ask in a very calm tone. “She says she’s your…mother?” Twilight says. “You’re Ben?” The lady asked. I raised a hand for the two to wait, before I walked into the kitchen. The two heard some rustling before I came back with a big bottle of scotch. “SO! How can I help you today?” I ask, opening the bottle and already taking a swig of it. “Uh, I asked if you were Ben?” The wolf lady asked again. “If any of my girlfriends laugh I’m honestly going to be pissed.” I sigh out before lowering my hood and fixing my coat, showing off my new wolf parts. “But yes, I am Ben. I suppose you are my new mother, Den. I know your sister Nyla...but these breasts...why are there six? I mean...I know normal dogs anatomically have six nips but still…” I say, trying not to be happy to see titties but seeing six on one lady is kind of something. Den’s only response was grabbing me, causing me to drop my scotch, and hugged me tight between her… assets. “Oh, a new pup!” She cried in joy. ”I am so thankful that my six girls taught me proper breathing in these mounds.” I think to myself gladly. “Uh...I know you're happy but...I’m not ready to call your mother…” I say, my voice muffled by fluffy breasts. “Oh, that’s alright, before Cript saved me, and before I got injected with darkness, I was the tribe den mother, I raised the young but was not allowed any myself.” She said, not letting up on the hug. “I can see why.” I deadpan. “But...it’s more of a personal issue I...need to get past…” I say, moving my arms up and trying to hug her. “But...sooner or later...I’ll call you mom…” She gave me a kiss, and a wolf style kiss, aka a lick. “I’ll be happy for that day young pup.” She says, nuzzling my face. “This is going to need some getting used to…” I say, nuzzling her back gently. “But I suppose you met my girlfriend, Twilight. I wonder when the other four will get here.” I wonder, before it just so happened the door opened. “We’re home!” Pinkie calls out and bounces in. “We’re a-” “What the?” Rarity starts. “Dire Wolf…” Zecora mutters. “How is she bigger than me!?” Luna freaks, before closing her mouth quickly. “I’m sorry but...who are you? And why are you hugging...Ben?” Luna asks, seeing my cloak and my blue eyes and knowing it’s me but the other new things was pretty new. “Hey girls...this is Den...my soon to be new mother…” I say, while the mares tilt their head at the ‘soon to be’ part. “It’s...personal. I’d…” “You can tell us.” Pinkie says calmly, which surprised the fuck out of me seeing Pinkie not flipping out at seeing a new person. “Well, Ben here,” Den started. “Ben here made a deal with my husband. He’s been adopted into our… special family, and as such is now, because of a curse, biologically mine and my husband's child upon adoption. He’s got a new large family. Also, Nyla is my sister. She’s just not as big as I am in terms of height and… assets, because she was the runt of the tribe.” Den explained. “Wouldn’t really say that to be perfectly honest.” I say honestly. “But anyways I think they were talking about what I wanted to talk about...about my former parents…” “Oh, my bad.” Den says, letting me go. “It’s alright Den, they needed to know that anyways.” I say while grabbing a tissue and getting the saliva off of me. “Lordy…” I sigh out. “So my former parents...it’s a long story…” I mutter before grabbing my bottle of scotch and taking a swig. “Well, I was born in a normal family, we all got along great. One day, when I was about six, we went to the beach, my mom told me to stay on the sand but my dad said I could play in the water so long as I was in sight. They bickered over what was best for me, so I just jumped in the water anyway. Not knowing about waves, I got dragged out pretty far…then some asshole on a surfboard hit me and I went under. He got me out, and my parents took me to the hospital. That’s when things went south in a burning truck…When I came to in there I heard my parents arguing outside, saying that if I had stayed on the sand I’d have been find, if I was let out in the water dad would have kept an eye on me.” I say, taking another swig before continuing, already feeling tears of regret forming on the corners of my eyes. “Things went on like that for the next few years. They argued over everything and me being the source/in the middle of it all, I just started doing my own thing. One rare day when they both agreed I shouldn’t go out that night cause some robberies and muggings were happening around the area, I, in my infinite fucking wisdom, didn’t listen and snuck out the window. Well, I got mugged and on top of it all the cops thought I was the mugger when they drove by me. Parents picked me up, and apparently the system screwed them over with a large fine neither could afford alone. Dad ended up taking an overtime shift as his job at the bread factory…he fell asleep cleaning the ovens and they turned on automatically to keep some kinda schedule…Dad was baked alive.” I explain, taking a heavy swig this time before continuing, tears freely falling now. “Mom, having to pay my fine and the the funeral caused our insurance dropped us after they found out I got arrested once, fell into depression. I woke up one morning to find a ‘do not disturb’ sign on my mom’s bedroom door and for once I was listening…only for an hour later to hear gunshot…I ran in, saw my mom blew her brains out with dad’s old hunting shotgun… Got shipped off to child services and my grandparents took me in. I stayed away from people and such till, well, I came here, where you girls kinda threw yourselves at me and…made me care about people again.” I explain, looking at everything, sniffling before openly sobbing. “If I didn’t fuck up for once I could still...they could still…” I stutter, taking the bottle and practically chugging the thing now just to take away the pain. Den took the bottle from me and gave me another tight hug, to which the others joined in. “Pain like that should never fall on a child’s mind.” She said, petting my head. “When I first got injected with darkness the madness I felt made me lash out at everything around me…I was in the den…seventeen newborns…I couldn’t do anything because of what some sick warlock did to us…Things went on like that til I was in a new master’s care and ordered to attack the classroom of Cript’s children at the time…rather than kill me, he saved me. His true power is seeing the good still in anything. You, from what I was told about that girl you brought, are just like him. You’d rather save than kill, even if you fall in the process.” “I...I…” I mutter, my tears still falling as I tried burying my face into Den. “Please...I don’t want to lose...another mother…” I plead. She nuzzled the top of my head. “I have been through hardships like you, and I am in the most, well, happy, and open, family to ever exist, one that you are now a part of… but you also are making your own family I see. Like any mother, I will be there when you need me, for you… and how ever many grandkids you have.” She giggles before I snap my head up. “Mom!” I bark with a huff. “We don’t have grandkids yet. Wait until we’re married damn it.” “Some of your siblings do, about a quarter of them.” “I’m not them.” I huff. “Yeah, most of them are older, or younger with a few trillion your age.” “I’m not going to bother with knowing who I’m related to and who I’m not. All I care about is knowing that you're my mother...and…” I start. “That’s...all I really care about at the moment.” I smile. “Thank you pup.” She said, licking my face again. “So, as the newest pup, would you care for a feeding?” I blush brightly. “You girls wouldn’t mind right?” “Only if we got some!” Pinkie and Lua said simultaneously. “She’s our soon to be mother in law girls!” Rarity snapped. “So? Most of Ponyville's milk comes from mare milk brands, only cows are used for the big cities.” Pinkie said. “Mrs. Cake has a milker in the basement.” “Does that mean I’ve been drinking Cake brand breast milk for the past half year?” I ask in surprise. “Only when you eat there, when you have a cup here it’s either mine or Luna’s.” Pinkie said. “Magic.” Luna said. “Otherwise we’d have to be pregnant to have milk in the tanks.” I wasn’t sure if my new ears were as beat red as my face was, but all I could imagine was the obvious. “Uh...yes please.” I say with a shy smile. Needless to say… everyone managed to join in. Time, Sweetie, and Luxu walked in at the most… nude part… and walked right out. That kinda killed the mood so mom left, saying she’d be back later some time to visit, probably with some of my brothers or sisters… which Trinity now is actually now that I think about it. “Sup bro?” The angel in question asked, taking a seat next to me on the couch. “A lot of things happened...did you know that moms breast milk tastes good and actually helped get scotch out of your system?” I ask curiously. “Well yeah, all our moms breast feed, but few do it once the kids can eat on their own. Mama Den is just devoted like that. As for the milk, yeah all our moms…milk is magically enhanced, being married to dad they’re gods by marriage, few earned the title. It’s like a cure all for a bunch of stuff, plus they act as liquid exercise. Expect some muscles tomorrow morning.” “Well then…” I say in surprise. “Magic is a wonderful wonderful thing to be perfectly honest.” I chuckle. “I just hope Luxu, Time and Sweetie aren’t...bleaching their brains at the moment…” I say nervously, remembering seeing them enter and then promptly leave. Trinity looked through her Assistant, and showed me that, in the store section, there was actual brain bleach. “Fifteen rem for that last twenty-four hours or less gone from your memory.” She says. “While it sounds tempting I’d rather not.” I shrug. “But...I’m glad Den is my mother...got me to get something...very important off my chest…” “And you and your girlfriends onto hers?” She said with a sly smile. “Honestly it happened when I figured out I was drinking Luna and Pinkie’s breast milk for a majority of my stay in this new world.” I say honestly. “But Luxu, Time and Sweetie kind of saw us doing that…” I say sheepishly. “But besides that...I kind of did need it. Just to...know I now have a mother again…” “Lot of us are orphans, broke, or just plane alone. Dad takes them all in. He has this one move to, he often does it to some bad guys the Humanity Blade can’t save.” “Sounds like a nice guy.” I say. “Well, first off, you know how some people say everything is a computer simulation virtual reality?” “I barely played MMO’s so no.” I say simply. “Well, just from hearing that you should get the idea… well, it’s not false. We are literally a massive ass game a higher being made to both kill time and dive into it every so often to give help to he dubs the ‘protagonist’ which was a few other people before my dad popped up.” “Makes sense.” I shrug. “There’s always a bigger fish, no matter how big you get.” I shrug. “Yeah. Well, that higher being is my dad’s boss and friend, Jose. He’s had a lot of names but that’s his name this time around. Dad’s move accesses realities ‘code’ and he hacks into the person, erasing memories and even resetting the age, then he takes the de aged ex villain and raises them as his own. His alternative to death, a literal Reset.” “Well I can’t do it to that extent but…” I say while looking at the sleeping form of Jenny. “I’ll at least start by giving someone another chance.” “Just to make it easier I placed a sleeping spell on her. In case she doesn’t keep her word. Don’t worry, the spell keeps her in a…sleeping beauty like state. No need to worry about food or water, spell takes care of that.” “I don’t know how binding a ‘bet by blood’ is but I probably should have done that to make sure she wouldn’t go back on her word…” I sigh out. “Cause you know, even Psychopaths have to obey either their code of conduct or a rule that even they wouldn’t go against.” I shrug. “Some do.” She said. “Otherwise… I guess Cain would have died fighting dad.” “And here I was thinking religious stories were all but piles of shit because of some of the people wanting to ‘spread the word of god’.” I sigh out. “God’s, the ones in my realm, as in bible god, is retired, and most of the Jesus’s are pothead hipsters…” She grumbled. “My version of ‘Jesus’ happens to be the first Keyblade master and very dangerous scientist because he made….very powerful things that have no right to exist but still do.” I frown. “I can see that, dad keeps a vault full of stuff like that back home, safer there than anywhere else. Oh, I got you a present. My way of saying ‘welcome to the family’.” “Really?” I ask honestly. “Well...thank you. Wish I kind of got something for you for helping me this much…” “No need, first the standard gift.” She said, handing me a computer chip the size of my hand that was in the shape of an X. “Put it up to your forehead.” “This better not do something weird…” I mutter before putting in up to my forehead a little reluctantly, worried about what might happen. As soon as it touched my skin it sunk into my head, giving me a small headache before everything felt…super clear. “Chip X, helps the brain process information of everything, and kinda turns it into a supercomputer.” “I mean I was a living calculator before this but thanks.” I say with a smile. “Still bad about the headache though...anyways you said that’s the ‘standard gift’...” “Well, before I give you that, the chip X helps the Assistant show you the ‘HP’ bar of others. That was a spell matrix dad is proud of. Turn it on in the settings.” I looked though the setting in my Assistant and there was indeed an HP bar reader option. Mine was set to off, upon turning it on I saw green bars floating above Trinity's head, a number at the bottom of them, and a slam list of things next to her face. “Takes a bit of time getting used to.” “Fuck you have a lot of stuff about you.” I say honestly. “That’s my battle stats. Yours are pretty neat too, now for my personal gift.” She raised her hand into the air, and as if on cue lightning came out of nowhere and hit her hand, the light taking form into what looked like a ring that she placed into my hand. “Ta-Da!” She said. “An ethereal armory. Basically any angel weapon you can conjure with this ring on.” “Well I suppose having some armor wouldn’t hurt from time to time...maybe I can find one of those ‘halos’ that give a person plenty of nifty buffs besides just having a halo over one’s head.” “Oh, those are a status thing. Only archangels have those, and you have to earn that rank, which is easier than the test for the humanity blade, but again, you have to be an angel.” “I kind of thought that.” I say while putting the ring in my pocket. “Thanks...sis.” I say, not believing I would say that when I’ve never had any siblings at all. “What a day…” I sigh out, the entire day feeling so long. “Mastered a weapon, became the son of some multidimensional god, beat a Ventral without killing her, and...got a mother…” I explain. “Maybe this will be a good start for me to shedding the past...hopefully…” “I’m sure it will.” Trinity said, placing a hand on my shoulder. “If you ever feel like you need a challenge, just head on home and walk into the arena, no shortage of challenge there.” “I’d rather wait on that cause I already have plenty of masters that are gonna give me a run for my money.” I say honestly. “But um...how do I set way points?” I ask curiously. “Open up maps and tap on the ‘you’ icon, sets it automatically.” “Right then…” I say before doing just that, finding the write button and tapping on the ‘you’ icon. “And that should do it...I should probably set way points to other places when I get there…” I start, already thinking about how I should set quick travel spots to my friends worlds. “Yeah. The Sunset looks nice here.” Trinity said as I noticed the sun was setting through the window. “Yeah…” I smile. “A lot nicer than Earth...but why did a Titan just randomly appear? Do they just do that or what?” “Sometimes. Though, we tend to manage to keep them away by not entering other realms too often, leaves bits of itself in the realm they enter, and that’s a way they can enter.” “Ah, makes sense.” I nod. “I just hope they don’t keep up their random encounters like this...one destroyed city I couldn’t save…” I look down bitterly. “As long as portals are kept at minimum, and I set up a perimeter on this world, we’ll know when something from home realm sneaks in here. There’s over six hundred different species of shadow creatures, little under a hundred humans, and five variations of Subhumans, but the last ones aren’t as bad as you’d think.” “I can imagine…” I shrug. “But...at where I am now how difficult would it be to fight one of those things?” “If you hit the weakspots, it would be as hard as fighting a Darkside with armor, little harder I guess, the armor they have is the hardest part. Cutting through that is the challenge. That takes raw power.” “Yeesh.” I frown. “By the by...you said I was ‘78’...should I wonder about that or just throw it out the window like power levels?” “That’s your “level” a scientific and magical calculation of all your power and abilities in number form.” “So it’s just like power levels...I should probably ignore it because many stories and anime’s have shown that power levels are bullshit.” “More like a videogame level system honestly. For instance, I’m level 98,879. And then there’s higher than that.” “Right then...but if I was 78 when before I mastered Fair Game…” I mutter, now feeling a little giddy about wondering if I leveled up. “Oh well, I better not focus on it…” “That eagerness is how dad indirectly got the whole realm to train in combat for self defense, humans/intelligent races have a natural desire to challenge each other. He just finally made it measurable so they can see themselves get better.” “Well I have masters to make that happen.” I say honestly. “So I won’t bother thinking about it for a little bit. I’m gonna take a break, it’s been two solid months just focusing on one weapon and I’d like more than a three day break before more craziness happened.” I chuckle. “Sure.” Trinity says, standing up. “Just remember, condoms, and a wolf’s endurance.” She said, leaving me to quickly get what she meant. “Uh…” I start before I suddenly got a shiver down my spine, only to see five girls staring at me at hearing what Trinity said. “Uh...now listen girls…” I start sheepishly, before trying to bolt but sadly getting caught in a magical hold. “I don’t want my hips broken~!” I whine. “It’s been a while and we haven’t spent time with our lover so shush.” Luna says simply. “I’m...glad you didn’t laugh at me though…” I say. “Everyone else has been laughing at me because of how I look now…” “Remember Ben, we’re all covered in fur, you getting some on you just makes you look more sexy.” Luna says, floating me over to her. “Now I want to say that’s weird...but knowing you girls it’s probably normal…” I say with a frown. “Exactly, now let’s find out if you has a wolf’s endurance to match that look~” Luna said as they all started closing in around me. “I love you all.” I smile, just glad to have girlfriends that love me so much. To be continued... Author's Note So fucking much in this story! New revaluations, a new family for my character, a look into his past that is pretty depressing and so much more, and he mastered a weapon yay! Hope you all enjoyed it. Nobody's MeetingAfter a week and a half of apologizing, gift giving and family time Ben finally heard a knock on the front door. “Wonder who that is…” Ben hums to himself, fixing his hood and tail and making his Assistant look like a bracelet before walking up to the front door and opening it. “Hello?” Before him stood a man in Keyblade armor, not Zeke. “You’re Ben, right?” He asked. “Yes I am Mr. Armored person. Who are you and where’s Zeke?” Ben asks. “You are being summoned to Daybreak to speak to the council about integration of this reflection, please bring two visitors with you to act as key speakers.” He said, opening a DTL behind him and walking into it.. “Luna! Trinity! Gonna need your help!” Ben calls out into the house. Trinity was the first to race down. “What happen, dad’s message said shit happened!” She said, looking around. “Bring Jenny, I just met a messenger from Zeke...cause he couldn’t appear himself for some reason.” The cloaked man says, worried about the situation now. Trinity took a sigh of relief at that. “Oh, I thought dad’s promotion did a thing.” She said. Luna came down before Ben could ask what Trinity meant. “Something about who Ben?” Luna asked, barely putting on a shirt as she came down. “We’re taking a road trip.” Ben says. “Oh, to where?” “A friend’s world.” Ben says while pointing to a DTL. “And there’s our ride.” Trinity walked into it, caution to the wind as she entered, Luna and Ben followed closely, Ben carrying the still sleeping Jenny on his back. Once in Daybreak the trio made their way up to the castle, stopping outside Zeke’s office. “Knock knock!” Ben calls out, ‘knocking’ on his door with his foot. “Enter.” Zeke’s voice calls out as they open the door. As they enter the first thing Ben notices is that Zeke has gotten a helper for the paperwork, stationed in a slightly smaller desk near the front door, and Zeke’s chair was rather low. “Oh, hey Ben…Your Luna, who’s the angel… and why is my younger cousin with you?” “I have a laundry list of shit to explain…” Ben sighs out. “Also…” Ben starts. “One...your chair is rather low...and two why do you look like Da-er Cript?” He asks, almost letting slip that word when he only want’s to call Den ‘mom’ at the moment. “Well, the thing with Cript I have no idea, coincidence likely, As for the chair…” Zeke slowly rolls his chair out to the side, showing Ben his legless form. “Core… tried to get me to activate my killing mood, I didn’t let him and lost my legs for it.” Zeke states, sighing. “What a dick.” Ben frowns. “And here I thought I had the worse situation to talk about…” “Let’s head to the lounge, more free room to talk.” Zeke looks at his helper. “Rich, take over for a while.” “Yes sir.” The stallion replied. The group headed out to the lounge, Ben’s Luna pushing Zeke against his wishes. Once settled, they began to talk more freely. “So, I ask again, who’s the angel girl?” Zeke asks. “This...would be my new sister and teacher, Trinity.” Ben says, putting Jenny gently down on a couch and putting her head on a pillow. “Still surprised she looks so harmless while sleeping when not long ago she tried murdering me with a children's card game.” Zeke chuckled. “She did do that, though she somehow did it without magic back on earth, she loves card games. And when you say new sister… did you finally marry?” “No, not yet.” Ben explains before sighing out. “Have you met Cript?” “Yeah, back when I was helping another survivor, John, cause Core and an apparent long lost brother of Core and God, had a fight and a good chunk of the world was fucked up. Cript… snapped his fingers, fixed the moon, clapped his hands, stopped the world from falling apart. He’s powerful, even offered me a spot in his family, but I said no unless I can match Core. If I can’t do that before my son Blake and daughter Nix turn one, then I’ll take the offer.” “Well I made a deal with Cript.” Ben starts. “Which is ‘only when I get the Humanity blade will I get all the demigod powers’.” He explains. “And here’s the side effects of such a choice…” Ben sighs out, standing up and fixing his tail and taking off his hood, showing off that he has a wolf tail and all the face changes. “So...yeah…” Zeke just stares at Ben. “Wow…So…your new sister is an angel, and from what Cript told me, your new mom is a furry?” “My mother is a six breast, twelve foot tall anthro wolf named Den….” Ben explains. “And she’s my mother and I am so happy that she is…” He says with a warm smile. “Six…breasts…don’t let Rune hear that, she’ll look for a spell to pull that off.” Zeke jokes. “But… wow, so…Trinity, is a demigod then?” “Yeah.” She replied. “Dad got a promotion.” She states happily. “Oh did he?” Ben asks, but shook his head. “No side tracking, I have a ton of crap to explain and I don’t need to get distracted.” He frowns. “So I mastered Fair Game.” Ben says, bringing out a single Nobody Card without having to ‘summon’ it. “So now I have eleven weapons left to master...and it’ll still be a nightmare to learn.” “Huh. Nice job. So what else happened on your reflection? Being a part of Cript’s family must be…interesting.” “I mean I have a bunch of other relatives living in Ponyville, but as long as I have mom I don’t care.” Ben starts. “But anyways, a Titan suddenly appeared on my reflection. And yes, I did just say ‘titan’. Destroyed all of Manehattan...only a hundred or so survived…” Ben says bitterly. Zeke gritted his teeth. “Core’s work?” “Actually… that’s from my realm.” Trinity says. “They are called shadow creatures, slightly smarter than heartless, triple in numbers, if not near infinite, and one common shadow creature for you, is equivalent in strength and speed of a novashadow. They make their way into realms via residue left over from realm travel, a gust of air carrying even a small amount of atoms can give them a trail, though, if they don’t have enough to go on only one trip can be made.” Zeke looked surprised. “Well, that’s a thing that we’re likely to face later on.” “Likely.” Trinity responds. “So… anything we’re missing?” “I made a bet with Jenny that if I beat her at her own game she cuts all ties with Core and tries to get a normal life…” Ben says. “I should add that...I couldn’t save your aunt but...I’ll try to save your family...whoever want’s the chance to have a normal life where their name doesn’t instantly cause people to try and attack them.” Zeke sighed. “Even those that would love a chance at normalcy, they won’t admit it or defect for three reasons, Josh would kill them, my grandpa would hunt them for sport, and their general fear. Being in public we all gained a fear of someone spotting us, was part of why when we rested it was usually in abandoned areas, forests, and the main reason we were always moving around. I’ve lived in almost every continent since I was born.” “Well I know two people I need to kill.” Ben frowns. “I’m willing to bet my life on having your family get the second chance they so desperately need.” Ben explains. “And you are also an important part to that.” He says. “Because I was told your family’s origins, and how someone fucked with your family in the 1500’s.” “That old witch story? It’s just a legend Ben, no magic existed on earth.” “Actually…” Ben starts. “Jenny explained that Josh knew more about it. And Trinity, along with Cript, explained that their is some weird and very bad blood circulating in every Ventral.” He explains. “Trinity would be better at explaining this cause….fucked if I know to be perfectly honest.” “Basically, you have Psychopath blood in you.” Trinity says. “I could have told you that.” Zeke says bluntly. “No, a Psychopath is someone who has become a physical representation of the fact of murder. Once that connection is made to that fact, they gain power from every murder ever. That explains your family’s Killing Mood rather well, the Psychopath blood absorbing the energy a body releases upon death, and no, not a soul, more like… the lost potential. Somehow back when someone gave your ancestor Psychopath blood, and since Psychopaths are strong enough to kill most high level entities, they can easily traverse between realities. Your ‘god’ must have let his guard down or this ‘witch’ forced her way in. Red eyes and black whites are the sign of a Psychopath.” Trinity explains. Zeke looked up. “So…that means Core is one. His eyes are exactly like that.” “I think there’s a difference between Core’s red eyes, which could probably be natural and not having weird demon blood, or it’s because of the shit he’s done to himself.” Ben explains. “I don’t know this is confusing.” “No, Zeke is likely right.” Trinity says. “Though, since Core has had no access to void he had no way to surpass his realms limitations, he’s as strong as a humanoid in this reality can become without traveling to another realm, meaning only I am likely stronger than him, and Ben here can now surpass him with time.” “I’m not entirely sure if I needed to go to another realm to be that strong…” Ben says. “I don’t know...but I feel like just mastering all my weapons will lead to something...a lot bigger than I originally thought…” “Maybe. Either way, when dad finally has the ‘routs’ into this realm open things stronger than Core will enter, you’ll need the training.” “Well I was going to have to train anyways because I have thirteen weapons to master. Now down to eleven but still.” Ben frowns, feeling like he’s the one that has the biggest ‘training road’ out of all his friends. “I’d go to train somewhere else, but without proper legs I’m kinda stuck in this chair.” Zeke says. “Don’t suppose you know anyone with good prosthetics? No world we’ve found has yet to have the type I’d need.” “Haven’t you looked for a Fullmetal Alchemist world?” Ben asks curiously. “Automail dude, you practically make suits of the stuff.” “I’ve tried, no luck. X says it’s either a world that fell before I got here of is too new for him to distinct from others.” “Your keyblade armor. Can’t you make anything with that? I know you have a shit ton of smart people that would know how to make those working prosthetics.” Ben explains. “Or hell, just find a world full of Dwarves, their normally master blacksmiths.” “We looked into it, but the problem there is that, I have no magic in me, other than this apparent blood stuff in me. Twilight says even if we did make it, only magic would work, but since I have no magic within me, it won’t work, and medicine, though largely advanced, has no methods of mechanical surgery for the nerves connecting to the metal limbs.” “Didn’t you tell me that you were a human keyblade?” Ben asks curiously, feeling like he’s pulling this out of his ass for some reason. “Or am I finally going crazy and spouting nonsense?” “No, I am now, but what’s that have to do with anything?” “I kind of thought that means you literally have magic in you cause you're technically magic.” Ben says. “Seems weird that a human keyblade isn’t magic in someway shape or form.” “A keyblades body can be made from anything when the keychain is attached, in this case, my heart, while my body now has a keyblades durability, and even those break. Unless I had magic before it happened, It’s like I’m a keyblade with a zero or negative magic number.” “Trinity…” Ben sighs out, rubbing his temples. “Mind helping cause I’m clueless here.” “Well there are prosthetic's that my family can get you, things are a bit hectic there. Long story short, dad’s promotion made him a REAL god, he’s got his own realm to create and a lot of moving and such is being done right now, opening portals would be risky, but I do have prosthetic's on me, kinda a rule to keep a city's worth of med supplies on you, though I don’t know how to attach them.” “Cripe…” Ben sighs out. “Wait...maybe…” Ben mutter before snapping his fingers, three doctor nobodies appearing. “I call these ‘Medics’, maybe they have the medical know how to attach prosthetics.” Ben says, looking over the three. “Do you know how to attach prosthetics to a person?” He asks. Trinity looked them over. “Maybe. The legs I have in mine will require only a small surgical incision, from what I know, but it’s in a rather…well, Zeke will have to be awake for it and it’s right over the nerves. Think you can handle that?” Trinity asks the Nobodies as they nod. “Well, you ready?” She asks Zeke. “If it gets me walking and a chance at Core again, I’ll muscle though it.” Zeke answers. The ‘surgery’ took less than an hour, and for Zeke, the incisions that the Nobody medics made was the easy part, once the legs were inserted in them he felt multiple vine like things grow through the still flesh parts of his legs, even in his bones. He managed to say conscious and once the pain had faded, he stood for the first time in two weeks. He, Trinity, and Ben were out in the castle gym, Zeke testing out the new legs. “As you can guess, it’s not ordinary metal Zeke.” Trinity says. “It’s monofilament, a metal Wolverine can’t cut though.” “Now that’s saying something.” Ben says in honest surprise. “How do they feel?” “Light.” Zeke says. “I expected them to feel heavier.” “That’s monofilament, light as aluminum, stronger than any metal in this realm. It’s combat leggings so there are… well, just feel for a small button.” Zeke felt along the sides of the new limbs, finding the small button near his still flesh part. He pressed it as a holster opened up on each side, a small handgun in each already. “Wow… they loaded?” He asked, taking them out. “Yes.” Trinity said. “Handy.” Ben says. “Think you’ll ever need a gun or you sticking with X and any other keyblades you normally use?” “Like John…if I need to I’d rather not get blood on any keyblade. And like I told him, if my killing mood ever happens… keep me occupied till it wears off, or kill me then and now.” Zeke said to Ben’s surprise. “You sure about that man? I mean sure Jenny said you were supposed to be the strongest of the Ventrals cause of your eyes but…” Ben says worriedly, not wanting to strike a friend down. “I don’t want to kill again…” “Josh only had one red eye, and when his killing mood happened he caused the marines and the NSA to get deployed on him, and about half of time square was completely destroyed, like a mini nuke went off. Mine will be worse.” “And that is where I can use Fair Game to stop you cold.” Ben says. “It won’t work.” Trinity adds. “At that moment he’ll be a Psychopath, nothing short of dad could stop him, so Ben, get strong fast…cause I will have trouble dealing with him when and if it happens.” “I’m sorry, but we don’t have the Hyperbolic Time Chamber here.” Ben frowns. “I can’t get that strong in such short time.” He says worriedly, feeling like he needs to get stronger that fast. “You should at least master your Knives then, you’d be able to match him in speed at that point.” “Or I could master my Scythe and use it’s hidden Doom property and make him weaker with each hit.” He brings up. “But yeah that’s true...well I needed to figure out what weapon to master next so glad to talk about this now rather than later.” “Just remember this Ben.” Zeke says. “If I’m in the killing mood and I pull out the guns… just use protect, dad taught me to never miss a shot.” “I can imagine.” Ben sighs out. “But I think sooner or later I’ll be something no one ever thought I could be.” Ben says, having had this strange thought in the back of his head after he mastered Fair Game. “With dad around, that is gonna happen.” Trinity says. “Though, with his new position our purpose is slightly shifted.” “Shifted how?” Ben asks curiously. “With dad a real god, or Admin now, he, nor us as his kids can fight specific battles. For example, I’ll be able to help deal with Zeke and his killing mood, but as for Core only you guys can fight him, I’m not allowed. Only in… special cases, can we hop in.” “Right then.” Ben nods. “But...that doesn’t include me right? Since technically I’m his son…” He asks worriedly, not wanting to just suddenly have a ‘you can’t do that’ sign bash his face in when he needs to help his friends. “Since you aren’t a full member of the family, plus this IS your story, shared with the others, that’s an exception. Afterwords though, it depends on the battle. Since dad is now… well, looking over this stuff, he might be able to bend some rules, but only if needed.” “My story isn’t going to end when Core’s dead that I know for a fact.” Ben says. “But where that story leads I have no clue…” He sighs out. “I think we can all agree that Cript is possible what happens next, but I do have a question. How did he go from having a god title to becoming a literal god?” Zeke asks. “All it said was that it was a payment for his last mission, whatever it was.” Trinity says. “Wonder how much the house has changed, I know the location is different now, but still.” Trinity ponders. “Yeah that’s true…” Ben agrees. “Hope mom’s okay with the move.” “They’re all likely alright Ben, I’m more worried about dad honestly, went from the fighter to the orchestrator, that’s the job of an admin, while the bad things are… largely random, it’s his job to pick the ‘heros’ and now that he’s an admin, we as half admins, yeah the curse added that, can’t take the ‘thunder’ of the heros.” “But..I am a ‘hero’...” Ben says worriedly. “You know what? Screw it I’ll learn more about this later Zeke’s probably either zoned out completely or just clueless…” “I get the jist of it Ben.” Zeke says, putting the handguns away. “Makes you wonder, now that’s he’s one of the most powerful beings, to just… create, how’s he gonna react to not being able to help when he can handle it so easy?” “Probably go a bit stir crazy not being able to fight things anymore.” Ben shrugs. “Anyways we came here because of council meeting and to see if you want to help Jenny or if I should be her ‘councilor’ on the way to a better life.” He says. “Also...does your family actually care about bet’s that they lose fairly?” “Only if it’s with another family member. Otherwise, well, she would have killed you in your sleep. I’d keep her sleeping til you get that blade, might try and get one too when I accept. Either way, with Core getting… more active and then this stuff from Cript’s realm, shit’s gonna hit the fan, fast.” “Yep.” Ben nods. “All the more reason to train.” Trinity said. “Look, even though it can technically be considered cheating your way up, dad can now give you all… boosts, for lack of a better word. Plus, if Core is, or is becoming, a Psychopath, you’ll get stronger faster.” “I made the deal that I would only get a power boost when I get the Humanity Blade, which won’t be for a long time because I need to master all my weapons.” Ben says. “Yeah, but I don’t mean the family boosts, I’m talking about… think of it as… an advanced level boost, or like finding a rare candy in pokemon.” “Oh…” Ben says while thinking about it. “Well that’s true...Zeke?” He asks, wondering what he thinks about this. “While a boost is welcome, with Core advancing and getting more aggressive with each step, we may have to take what Cript offers, he is now a real god, plus with him no longer being able to fight himself, this will ease his mindset about everything.” Zeke says. “Will the others be getting similar offers?” “Yeah, from what I figured he has a great interest in you… survivors? Anyway, yeah, if they haven’t already met him he’ll meet with them soonish.” Trinity replied. “Right then.” Ben nods. “So might as well accept the good power boost...by the by has there ever been a Hyperbolic Time Chamber in existence? A place where you can get a year’s worth of training in only a day?” “Yeah, dad has one in the vault back home, but like I said, opening portals won’t be safe for a while. Maybe… dad?” As Trinity said ‘dad’ Cript, to everyone's surprise, just fell out of the sky, face down. “Ugh…” He muttered. “Uh...you okay dad?” Ben asks with a worried look, wondering if he should help the poor guy. “I’m good.” Cript says as he gets up. “Changing from a ‘main character’ to an Admin has never been done before, power rush was insane and making a whole new… well, let’s just call it a creation, is mentally taxing. Just a tad dizzy, so what you up to? And when did Zeke get monofilament legs?” “Trinity said she had prosthetics on her, I summoned newly dubbed ‘Medic’ Nobodies and they performed the surgery very well all things considered.” Ben says. “I still wonder if they're supposed to be healers or if they’re supposed to be something completely different…” “Let me check.” Cript says, checking his Assistant. “Medic Nobody, no attack, only healing, and they only heal whoever they are ordered too.” He read off his device. “Why am I not surprised that thing could tell…” Ben sighs out. “But that’s good to know. Kind of thought I would have seen the things throwing out scalpel sharp thorns at people like medical ninjas or something.” “Meh, so what you guys need?” “Trinity said you can hand out power boosts like rare candies. Wondering if that’s true and if so is it alright if me and Zeke get it? And no it doesn’t affect our ‘deal’.” Ben says, adding the last part cause sometimes ‘deals’ can be pretty important to people. “Fair enough.” Cript says. “You are among a variety of heroes in this realm, so it is technically my job to help. Let me think on what can help here…. Oh. Well here’s one for Ben, this is usually either a one in who knows how many chance of getting, but I think this will help you out.” Cript held out his hand, to which Ben shook it as a sudden headrush hit him hard. “Sorry about that though.” Cript says as they stop. “Fucking headrush…” Ben grumbles, holding his head as he tried to get his bearings back. “So what’s the power?” “It’s the same ability that helped me train stupidly fast and learn crap impossibly fast. Copycat, any info, technique, or even power you can copy it almost as fast as you saw it. If it’s an attack of someone stronger than you the one you copy and do will only be half as strong though.” “Makes sense.” Ben nods. “Thanks...dad.” He smiles, wanting to tell him that after he told his story to his family. “No problem, now for Zeke…” Cript thinks, wondering what ability to hand him. Cript snapped his fingers. “Got an idea.” Cript walked up to Zeke, placing his thumb on Zeke’s forehead. Blue electricity and a migraine in Zeke’s brain soon followed as he went to his knees. “Yeah… that was gonna hurt more now that I think about it…” “The Fuck was that?” Zeke moans, clutching his head. “Blunt answer, I reworked some of your brain’s neural pathways, and gave you power over electricity, well, we call it electronium back home, but it’s generally the same thing. It’s not enough to do much with, but you will have faster reflexes and keener senses. Enough to, oh say… dodge bullets.” Zeke finally managed to stand, doing his best to grin. “Nice.” He said, still holding his forehead from the migraine. “That’s good to hear.” Ben nods. “But how’s mom? She doing okay with the move?” “Oh, Den is good.” Cript says. “She’s also………VERY pregnant…. again.” “Why?” Ben asks, wondering why he said ‘very’ like that and worried about things now. “Let’s just say that… well, demigod children aren’t born like normal kids, they’re ready to be born minutes after they… conceive. Though, they don’t actually need to be born then, that’s actually up to the mother, Den has always had large litters, but now, well, explaining this is… not easy. Basically… do you really want me to flat out say it?” “I already have Trinity as a sister how many more brothers and sisters will I suddenly have?” Ben asks. “Well… they’ve gone from one to nine, and no not always was the nine from wives like Den… to basically… well, how many sperm cells are in… well, a shot, that’s how many, though, it’s… well she looks nine months pregnant but with how her body is now she’s holding… billions…” Ben looked between Trinity, Zeke, and then Cript, and then placed his face into both of his hands. “The...the fuck….” Ben whimpers. “Den’s not the only one though… all your mothers are… like that, physically they look nine months with one, actuality… they have billions. Guess they got tired of not getting the full pregnancy experience?” Crips says unsurely. “Zeke….” Ben says, looking up to the man with a hilariously sad look. “Help…I can’t…” “I ain’t joined yet, and I’m disturbed.” Zeke replies. “Just get used to it.” Trinity says. “It will not be the weirdest thing you all see, or hear, in your lives.” Trinity finishes bluntly. “I suppose there was a good reason for getting a bottle of scotch the first time I met mom...besides the fact I told her and my girlfriends how I lost my parents…” Ben says. “You might want this.” Cript says, tapping on his Assistant as a large keg appeared with some mugs. “Asgardian…doesn’t give me a buzz but you’ll need it.” He walked over to the keg, replacing the mugs with small shot glasses. “That is really all you’ll need.” He finished as he vanished in a flash of light. Ben decided to be the one to first pass out from alcohol poisoning. “Please stop me before I do something stupid.” Ben says before gently getting his shot glass full of Asgardian mead. “Here’s to hoping I forget what my dad just said.” He says before downing the shot glass. No sooner did the liquid pass his lips, Ben fell over in a drunken slumber. “Wow… effective…” Zeke said, looking between his one shot drunk friend and the keg. “I best take him home.” Trinity said, pulling the sleeping Ben over her sholder. “Lightweight.” She said, summoning a mug of her own and dipping it into the mead, downing it in under a minute. “Huh, apple, but a hint of raspberry.” She said, tossing the mug and walking into Daybreak, grabbing Jenny before heading off, leaving Zeke with the mead. “The fuck do I do with this?” He asked no one, looking over the keg. Ben had snoozed off the Asgardian mead for the majority of the day, finally waking late into the night. Only Rarity was with him in the bed, the others were not present. Though, in his hungover state, he barely had the sense to go back to sleep, getting up to look for them instead. “The fuck happened?” Ben mutters, his head screeching in pain. He stumbled over to the bathroom, splashing cold water and taking some headache medicine Zecora had stocked up on, the magic and herbs taking some of the pain away. After two more quick sips of the rancid tasting potion, his headache was minor enough to ignore, though he was sure a bright light or loud enough noise would be enough to spike the pain back. “Fuck asgardian mead…” Ben mutters, holding his head and walking downstairs, not caring that he was only wearing a white shirt and his underwear at the moment. “Hello?” He mutters, hoping to find someone else at home besides Rarity. As he walked downstairs he could hear laughing and small talk, followed by a familiar voice. “How much longer will he be out?” The voice of his new mother Den rang in Ben’s ears, followed by the painful memory of what Cript had told him before drinking the one shot of Asgardian mead. “I’m here Mi-I mean mom…” Ben says, fixing himself to not say ‘milf’ cause that would cause his head to cave in even worse than his crippling hangover. When he finally got into the living room he saw Den surrounded by his girlfriends, and to his surprise Luxu, Time and Sweetie Bell were there. True to what Cript said, Den did indeed look very pregnant, though just how he imagines she’d look with a normal litter size for her species. “Morning pup.” Den cooed, not wanting to spike Ben’s obvious hangover. “Morning mom…” Ben mutters with a smile, his tail wagging gently at seeing his mother again. “How’s pregnancy?” “Filling.” She joked. “While I don’t mind at all, I’m getting used to walking around this big again, before the others and I did this we would give birth often the next day, left us feeling rather… cheated.” She explained. “It’s alright mom…” Ben says. “Uh...does your breast milk cure hangovers?” He asks curiously, still holding his head in minor pain. “We’re out.” Time, Luxu and Sweetie said, running for the basement. Den giggled at that. “I guess not everyone is open the the idea of continuous breast feeding. Yes Ben, it does, just be wary of my belly.” “Thank you...but isn’t there a milker around to help keep me away from your belly?” Ben asks, looking at Pinkie and Luna specifically for that reason. “We…hand milk…” Luna admits sheepishly. “Feels kinkier.” “Oh…” Ben slowly nods. “Well...okay then. I suppose I’ll just have to be careful...also I’m worried that that ‘hand milk’ will...lead to the bedroom fun…” “I’ll go buy a milker.” Pinkie says, jumping out of the room. “I think the pawn shop has one for sale, just needs cleaning.” With that, Pinkie jumped out of the house. “I don’t want a pawn shop milker used on you girls...or mom…” Ben mutters. “Anyways...what are you doing here mom? Besides...being a convenient hangover cure?” “I told you I was gonna come by and visit again, though, your siblings I brought ran off to look around.” Den explained. “Some of my siblings?” Ben asks. “Where did they run off to?” “Squirrel is likely exploring around, Tiara and Scootaloo are probably late night shopping with Trinity.” “Wait...why are you talking about Diamond Tiara and Scootaloo?” Ben asks curiously. “Remember sweetheart, multiverse of multiverse. They may exist here, but these are… some, of the reflections we adopted/saved. Diamond Tiara was saved since her world… well, I’d rather not say, and Scootaloo and Squirrel were adopted back when Cript only had four wives.” “I understand.” Ben nods. “Well...let’s hope our world’s Diamond and Scoots don’t see them...I know two of them will freak out…” He says sheepishly. There was the distinct sound of gunfire outside, causing Ben to run outside, and quickly put on his cloak. Out near the Everfree, he saw an anthro Diamond Tiara, and Scootaloo, both dressed in some kinda strange armor, shooting at each other. Diamond Tiara with a shotgun, and Scootaloo with twin laser pistols. “You are not winning this one!” Tiara yelled, firing off a shot that the Scootaloo dodged with ease. “You need to work on your aim sis.” She retorted. “WHAT IN ZE FUCK!?!” Ben shouts. The two stopped, looking at Ben confused. “Uh, dude, you interrupted our match?” The Scootaloo said. “Yeah, I was finally gonna break her win streak.” Tiara added. “I don’t give a racoons right ass cheek right now.” Ben says, walking up to the two and the mares seeing the obvious worry on his face. “What was I supposed to think when I immediately heard gun fire, only to see you two trying to shoot each other huh? Laugh it off and say ‘oh it’s just a silly thing they do all the time’?” He asks, his tone adding the worry he was feeling at just seeing the two trying to shoot each other. The two looked at each other, then back at Ben. “Duh!” They said in unison. “Aren’t you the new kid?” Tiara asked. “The one that’s the main cause of his parents collective suicides yes.” Ben says bluntly. “And I’ve barely been apart of this family for more than a week and a half and I still have barely looked into this...so just suddenly seeing family trying to murder each other isn’t really that good of a sight. And yes it was practically trying to kill each other when I see laser pistols and shotguns involved.” He huffs. To his surprise, the two started laughing. “He thinks these things can kill us!” Scootaloo yelled mid laughter. “Yes yes, laugh at someone actually worried for his new siblings safety. That just helps.” He says, tears forming in the corners of his eyes. “Great...just fucking great. I show worry for people and I get immediately laughed at...thanks.” He says bitterly, holding his head in pain from his hangover acting up. “Hey, you didn’t know these things can’t kill us.” Tiara said. “Frankly they bearly sting when we get hit, plus the regen factor is a welcome when fighting combat practice or live combat.” “Well I wouldn’t know that because I’ve barely been apart of this family and all my fights so far have been, besides training, life and death.” Ben frowns. “I don’t even have the special power boost you two have because I wanted to get stronger on my own before getting it...but I’m just rambling like an idiot and no one cares. Just like older siblings should right?” The two looked at each other again. “Uh, we’re four years younger than you.” Scootaloo said. “I’m taking the ‘older’ part because you’ve probably been apart of this family longer than me.” Ben shrugs. “Cause you know, age is one thing, age as a demigod is another.” “We’re still only fourteen.” Tiara said. “Cript adopted me about a year ago and Scoot’s here was back when dad had four wives so… five years ago?” “Six.” Scootaloo corrected. “Well congratulations.” Ben sighs out while holding his head in pain. “And you’ve also spiked my hangover pain...christ I’m not drinking that Asgardian Mead again…” Scootaloo poked a finger at Ben’s head. “Detoxify.” She said, his hangover gone as if someone dumped water on Ben’s head and it washed off. “Okay thank you…” Ben says with a little smile. “Don’t mention it. Still, where the hell is Squirrel?” Scootaloo asked, looking around. “He better not be-” She was cut off when an anthro Thestral appeared behind her, a sword through her chest. “Oh real mature.” She grumbled, pushing the sword out as her wound healed in seconds. “I still win.” The thestral said. “Who are you and why are you named Squirrel when you're a thestral?” Ben asked. “I am Squirrel, and I was named that because before dad picked me up I was the town orphan/thief who lived in trees.” He replied. “Ah, makes sense.” Ben nods. “So...fan of swords huh?” “Back in the village I grew up stealing daggers and kitchen knives to hunt with, after dad adopted me I kinda… kept the habit. So you’re Ben? I heard you got Keyblades, among other things.” “Thirteen different weapons actually.” Ben says honestly. “From a deck of cards to ethereal blades, lances to claymores, shields to tomes actually.” Ben shrugs. “Want to see them? I sadly only mastered two so far but hopefully I’ll master another.” “How about a quick keyblade match?” Scootaloo asks, her keyblade appearing in her hands. It had an odd design. It was a cloud with wings at the top, gold pillars ran down from it to a dark base where the grip and guard was a dark cloud with what looked like red rain starting to fall. They keychain was equally odd, a black and white cloud with a blind eye. “Been awhile since I used Fate Splitter here.” “Is that your Keyblades name?” Ben asks before summoning his keyblade. “Meet Reunion.” “Nice.” Scootaloo said, grabbing Fate Splitter by the grip, she tugged on it, and the Keyblade split into two, the colors changing as it did, one was all bright clouds, the other was dark clouds, a blood red wing, and the gold on the blade was rusted looking. “Bet yours can’t split into two.” “I don’t know what my keyblade does honestly. All I know is that this keyblade is literally me and became this when my heart became whole.” Ben explains before summoning his ice shield. “But I normally like using a shield along with Reunion. Remember I don’t have a healing factor...don’t have the standard demigod powers the special bundle gives.” “Meh, I’ll go easy then.” She said, jumping across the field in one leap. “Three hits wins!” She called out, taking a stance akin to Sora in Valor form. “Well this is gonna hurt.” Ben mutters while raising his shield and sword in a stance like that of a Spartan. “Who’s the ref?” “I’ll handle it.” Squirrel says, he and Tiara standing on the sideline. Ben and Scoot’s nodded. Ben blinks twice and Scootaloo was already a foot away from him, too his shock, when she came in for a slash, he, without even thinking, did the same, their blades meeting in a cross as Scootaloo’s eyes went wide. “No way. You got the copycat ability too?” “Well Dad said I’d need it.” Ben says honestly, unable to do much as Scootaloo’s strength was keeping him from counter attacking. “This just got interesting then.” Scootaloo jumped back, readying her blades to find a weak point in Ben’s copycat ability. Ben took the initiative and dashed towards Scoots, stepping down and swinging both his keyblades at her a lot faster than he’d originally thought he’d go. She jumped into the air, and slammed her Keyblades on Ben’s back. “Point one, me.” She said, stepping off her partly flattened brother. “Ow…” Ben mumbles before getting up and getting back in his stance. “Hmm…” He hums before switching his stance, this time his hands crackling with energy as he got into the stance of Sora’s Master form. “Let’s hope this works.” To his shock, his white cloak crackles with energy, turning a distinct pattern of yellow. “Oh, you can do that?” Scootaloo asked. “I had no idea I could do this…” Ben says honestly. “I thought only a specific person could do this but apparently not.” He says before taking a deep breath, his magic, strength and speed feeling so much better now that he’s in this form. “I just wish I had a drive gauge here to tell how long I can hold it…” He mutters bitterly. “Bottom right of sight, don’t you keep that vision sensor on battle mode?” Scootaloo asked. “You know, your Assistant and chip X?” Ben sighs out. “Now that you tell me that I just noticed it.” He says. “Probably too focused on the person to see the bars and all that.” He says, now noticing his drive gauge, his health and all the other things a Kingdom Hearts hud would have. “Anyways, Master Form here we go.” He says, cracking his shoulders before jumping into the air slightly and bolting after Scootaloo, his Keyblades swinging in a giant circle towards her. She met both his keyblades with one of hers, her armor suddenly turning a familiar pattern of red. “I prefer Valor honestly, I like the speed.” In a red haze, she was behind him. Ben’s copycat kicked in, turning around and blocking her attack before he even realized what happened. The two stepped back. “Hope you put that copycat to good use, you learn a lot about people when fighting them with it.” “In more ways than one apparently.” Ben says honestly, before he twisted around and a forceful wind followed by a keyblade tried smacking her back. She reacted by unfolding her wings, which Ben actually had not noticed, and took the the air, casting Thunder spells and throwing strike raides at him with her other keyblade. Ben countered with Reflect, a dome of magical glass appeared and blocked and deflected all her attacks, before he dashed and swung his keyblades at her, the explosion of Reflect caused helping add to his attack. Scootaloo blocked them, flying in a circle around Ben, firing a barrage Mega Flares. Ben kept up his Reflects, noticing that his mana was dropping quickly with the constant amount of magic he was forced to use. “Yeah, Mega Flare sure is fun to use isn’t it!?” Ben shouts at Scoots, not entirely liking his situation that he couldn’t stop. “Only when you can shoot off a lot.” Scootaloo replied, she was about to shoot off another barrage of Mega Flares when- “Kids, stop playing and come inside, it’s late out.” Den’s voice called from the distance. “Yes mom.” Scootaloo said, stopping her attack and flying down to the ground next to Ben. “Let’s pick this up some time later.” She said, walking over to Tiara and Squirrel. Ben nodded, before his Master Form ended and he tried taking a step forward, before doubling over in pain. “Okay….ow….too much master form…” Ben groans. “Uh...little help? In a weird amount of pain right now.” He says, not sure if it was because of his reflect magic doubling back at him or if it was just because he went into Master and Valor form for the first time. Squirrel walked over, casting a healing spell Ben didn’t recognize and helped him up. “Yeah, copycat must have taken a toll considering the level difference between you and Scoot’s, even if she did hold back.” “I also think it’s because I suddenly got a new ability my body didn’t originally have…” Ben sighs out before standing straight up again. “Well let’s see.” Squirrel grabs Ben’s arm, bringing his Assistant out and looking through the stats menu. “Yeah, well according to this you received master form as a level bonus nine levels ago in your spar with Scoot’s. That much leveling so fast probably messed with your body also.” “I’m going to need a major explanation about all this later because I have to get back and meet Zeke, I have a council meeting I sadly forgot about.” Ben says, gently taking his arm away from Squirrel. “I just hope I’m not too late.” He says while fixing his cloak’s hood and covering his tail. He opened a DTL, told them to let his girlfriends and mom know he went to finish up some work. When Ben walked through the DTL, he was met with a rather angry looking Luna. “You forgot about me…” She said in a deadpan voice. “I’m so sorry Luna…” Ben mutters, lowering his head bitterly at sadly forgetting his girlfriend. “Just...too many things…” He sighs out, knowing he screwed up royally and thinking she’d hate him for this. “While I’m made you left me I did have a fun time, Rune and I traded some… fetishes and I thought of a good way you can pay me back for this.” She stated. “I’m not going to get pregnant.” Ben looks at her dead in the eye with a stern look behind his hood. “That is the one thing I’m not going to do here. Also I don’t want weird fetishes here, Twilight made me listen to her secret math fetish for months I don’t want weird things thrown at me got it?” “Are you really in a position to argue? But no, they aren’t that bad, but your payment for me is simple. Fourteen.” “I have no idea what you're talking about.” Ben says honestly, not knowing what ‘fourteen’ is. “When we get married, I want fourteen foals, one for each weapon you have, including those two keyblades.” She explained. “I have a feeling I’m gonna need two more wives for that feat…” Ben says worriedly. “Fourteen foals with me only.” She added. Ben sighs out. “Listen, you're only getting thirteen. No one besides myself is going to keep my ‘special’ Keyblade. That weapon is off limits alright?” “I’m not saying they’ll inherit it, I’m just counting that one as a weapon of yours too. Besides, with Zeke his kids are half Keyblade, with ours they might each get the weapons you have, though I’m not sure about that last one given what that God fellow told me about it while I was stuck here.” Ben made a face between worry and anger. “What did ‘God’ tell you?” He asks simply, hoping Luna didn’t listen to Core pretending to be God. “He said to first tell you ‘if you think I’m Core I’m gonna slap you’ and then we just talked about your world and he gave me a rundown on how bad Core really is. Other than that he said congrats on your new family, the one you made and the one you were adopted into.” “Oh, well that’s good to hear.” Ben sighs out thankfully. “But how bad did God describe Core?” “He’s been keeping an eye on Core since apparently someone under his command is something called a ‘sleeper cell’ or something like that, God placed in there, and from what they have written it’s not looking good. Core’s readying armies and as God feared he now has means of controlling Nobodies, and Dream Eaters.” “Well Core’s going to have a bad time knowing that I’m better at controlling them.” Ben says with a frown. “But that is so not good…” “He also said Core is working on something that is taking a lot of hearts to make, though from what he said it seems like it’s specific hearts.” “That’s not good…” Ben frowns. “Does Zeke know anything about this?” He asks, having a feeling God would tell Zeke about this important stuff. “Yeah, the three of us were all talking about it. Zeke also wanted to talk with you after the council meeting, which you’re half an hour late for…” Luna finished as Ben B-lined it for the council hall. He made it through the doors, Luna next to him and Trinity appearing somehow on the other said. “What?” Trinity asked. “Nothing.” Ben sighs out, not believing he is a half an hour late. “God I hate being late…” Zeke rang a bell that was next to him. “Ben, you’re half an hour late. I’ll admit though given that mead managed to mess me up to when I tried some we’re overlooking the tardy. This meeting is now in motion. First order of business, Ben, how many worlds other than Equestria have you been to?” “Three.” Ben says. “Radiant Guardian, Knowhere and the Keyblade Graveyard.” “And how has their state of peace been?” “Radiant Garden is in working order. Knowhere is about as good as you can see from a massive black market, and the Keyblade Graveyard...is worrying. Some of the Keyblades are missing from there if memory serves. Oh, and my reflections Castle Oblivion has disappeared.” Ben adds quickly. The council muttered among themselves, causing Ben to worry. “Have you encountered any survivors of the Keyblade war?” Leon asks. “Three. My reflections Discord, and Celestia and Luna’s parents, Locus and Faust.” Ben nods. “Does anyone else other than you and likely these survivors wield keyblades?” “Discord, Locus and Faust, after they survived the Keyblade War, stabbed their keyblades into the ground and will never touch them again. Hoping they would rust away so nothing like…that would ever happen again.” Ben explains, still saddened by the giant wasteland filled with Keyblades acting like tombstones. “I have a Keyblade.” Luna says, summoning her Keyblade. “Oh, Sweetie is able to wield Time Bell and Terra, Aqua, and Ventus are on my world as well.” Ben says, his mind slightly jumbled at being so late and the fight he had with Scoots. “Also Luxu.” “How advanced would you say the technology is in your reflection given the worlds you’ve seen.” Cid asks. “My girlfriend Luna here has every gaming system known to Ponykind, has a specially made gaming computer...but besides that I haven’t looked into it that much sadly.” Ben sighs out, knowing how much gaming there was but not knowing their full technological advancements besides the stuff he normally saw. “But as far as I was told, Minotaurs on my Equestria do make guns, and griffons are apparently the ones that help show others how good they are. I don’t know if the people of Equestria use them but just thought I’d mention that…” He says, rubbing his temple gently, trying to get his thoughts in order here. “Has any major event or catastrophe happened since you’ve been on your Equestria?” Shining Armor asks. “A Titan destroyed all of Manehattan…” Ben says bitterly. “Killed all but a few hundred…” He says. “59,000 lives were lost…” The council muttered, louder than last time, among themselves. “We were told about this, Titan, from Zeke, who spoke with you and a god named Cript.” Lord Death said. “We now know that there are greater things than Core, or even Kingdom Hearts, but this changes little of our original goal. Core is our enemy, if these… shadow creatures and dark beings from beyond the void are to interfere we are placing you in charge of dealing with them.” “Can you help me with that Trinity?” Ben asks, knowing his angel sister knows a lot more about this than he does. Trinity stepped forwards. “I am Trinity, one of the human god, now Admin, Cript’s daughters. While the new laws my family and father must follow restrict us from fighting the main threat, we can still offer aid in the way of supplies, advanced training, at the cost of speeding up the possibility of beings from our reality entering. While we can deal with them, we are afraid in terms of lending… soldiers, to fight with you in your battles, we are limited in what we can do. This does not mean we refuse to help, we can, but not directly.” Trinity explained. “So what you are saying is that you will train us to deal with the threats, but you can not physically aid us on the battlefield?” Lord Death asked. “Exactly. As a peace offering, and sign of good will I can give you something you’ll likely make use of.” She said, tapping her assistant and several crates appeared. “Within these few, small boxes, is a digital library of my realms history, including Fathers.” The council muttered again, slightly annoying Ben. “We will accept.” Zeke says. “But as you said, we must be cautious about how we receive these items. We don’t want anymore Manehattan incidents… I feel like there’s a joke there but I’m not making it. Meeting closed.” Zeke said, ringing the bell again. “That went a little better than expected…” Ben mutters to himself while standing up, thinking he should start leaving right now. Luna placed a hand on his shoulder. “Come on Ben, Zeke wanted to talk to you.” She reminded him. “Oh yeah.” Ben nods. “So do we just go to his office or just wait in the lounge?” Ben asks, not really sure where to go. “Office.” Luna said. The group made their way to Zeke’s office, his helper wasn’t there, likely off the clock, Ben assumed, and Zeke was at his Desk. “Glad you could make it.” He said, motioning them to take a seat. Ben took a seat. “Listen I’m sorry about being late. It was less about the mead, which yes gave me an insane hangover, but my sister...Scootaloo believe it or not wanted a practice fight.” He explains. “I didn’t think it would take that long...also apparently my copycat ability let’s me use Drive Forms now.” “At this point I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, though me having my reflection Scootaloo as a daughter, now you saying she’s your sister feels… odd. Anyway, I wanted to ask you a favor Ben.” Zeke says, a serious expression on his face. “What’s the favor?” He asks. “Well, it’s about a family member of mine. Not Jenny, my brother Kevin. I think he might be able to leave willingly knowing him, join us.” “I’m sensing a massive catch here.” Ben frowns, knowing that things aren’t as simple as they seem. “Well, for starters Kevin is the family… clown, to say the least, when he’s not working he’s stupidly drunk, but that’s not the point. Point is, he… likely knows where my mom and dad are, since Core seems to have taken all of my family to work as his ‘allies’. The only issue is that our eldest brother, Dillen, always enjoyed messing with him in…not so nice ways. If he’s with Core than likely he’s been experimenting on Kevin. Willing or not. Thing is though, we both know a grand secret about each other.” “And what’s the grand secret?” Ben asks, not wanting to make a joke about how the Ventrals care about their family only to have them torture each other for funsies. “Kevin knows about my dream back on earth. If I could escape I was planning on faking my death then getting a new identity set up and work as a marine, saving people rather than killing innocents. Now Kevin is a different story. I was there the day he first killed. His killing mood never activated. To make it look like it did he kinda blew up cars and shot at whatever.” “Well that’s a thing.” Ben says honestly. “I suppose some people just don’t have it for some reason…” “No, Ventral's do, this is where we found out a secret, Dad is a pure blooded Ventral, mom married in. What does that tell you?” “Something weird happened?” Ben asks. “Kevin isn’t a Ventral by blood. We found out via DNA test, dad’s not his…well, biological dad. Mom never said so we don’t know if he knew or what.” “Would seem silly if he didn’t know.” Ben shrugs. “My point is, that’s our trump card in getting Kevin with us, even though he’s not Ventral by blood he was high ranked. If he still carried that into working with Core, we can learn what the bastard is up to.” “Sweet.” Ben smiles. “That will help so much in our quest to stop the bastard.” “Yes, plus, Kevin was rather good with explosives, so you should remind him to… let his boss know he quits, before you leave. I’d go with you but… well, the wives got me on a twenty foot leash since I lost my legs, even though Core dragged me into the realm of darkness that time.” “Do you know where to start? Cause I’d rather not go on a man hunt with just a name and high hopes that he loves Mythbusters enough to blow things up a lot.” Ben says honestly, not wanting to rush into this new thing blindly. “Umum said when she was still under Core’s influence, he saw someone with Kevin’s description at Core’s…cattle farm, as he calls it.” “That doesn’t sound creepy at all.” Ben says sarcastically, finding the mere thought of that horrifying. “It’s likely a place where Core placed people to later fuse with Heartless or Unversed. Though why it’s called that Unum didn’t want to say.” “I don’t want to know.” Ben frowns. “But I have a place with generic creepy name somewhere...cripe…” Ben sighs out, still not knowing where to go. “I think Luxu might know where it is given he likely stalked Core’s work during his time in the realm of darkness.” “That’s true…” Ben says with a nod. “But I don’t think he want’s to stand next to me because of...reasons.” Ben says nervously, still remembering how quickly those three left when ‘breastfeeding’ was talked about. “Let’s hope he helps, I’m sure Time would like some payback against Core so there’s a reason for her.” “That is also true.” Ben nods. “Anythings else my friend?” “No, that was pretty much it, you should go home, your Luna has… new things to show you.” Zeke said, groaning. “She and Rune talked for three hours…” “Thankfully it’s nothing to terrible that would make me run away from her.” Ben says nervously. “But she want’s fourteen…” Ben whimpers. “Dude, so far I have twenty six kids, including the adopted ones. That’s with all my wives, plus, you’re still human...ish. It will take more than a month and a half for your kids to be born.” “She want’s fourteen by herself.” Ben frowns. “I don’t know how many kids your wives had but still…” “So? You, from what Cript pretty much told us, are a part of a family that is way to huge to count the numbers, compared to that Luna is keeping it tame.” “I’m sorry I’m not you.” Ben frowns. “You take things in stride while I’m still concerned about so many things. You are strong and smart, and the leader of an entire world...while I have five girlfriends, am I complete jackass half the time, and still have anxiety issues.” Ben explains. “I also...just got done explaining how I made my parents both commit suicide not long ago...so yeah…” “Think of it like this, the past shackles you, the future frees you. You need to find the key in the present, for me, forgetting about my past and how fucked up my childhood was was when I saw my first born kids. It like, none of my old problems matter, these little guys, and girls aren’t me, they have none of my past problems, so why keep that over my head and make them suffer? I’m not saying forget about your past, just don’t let what makes you suffer make them suffer.” “I know…” Ben nods. “My girlfriends and mother made sure I’m happy...I just didn’t expect to get an infinite amount of siblings...and a billion extra siblings not long after…” He says sheepishly. “Hey, think of it like this, you went from the only child and losing your family, to gaining the biggest family to likely ever exist. Weather with them or with your girlfriends, you’re never gonna be alone or away from family ever again.” “Yeah...and hell knows that I need this family to stay sane…” Ben smiles warmly. To Ben’s shock, Trinity wrapped an arm around his neck and noogied him. “That’s why dad has so many and is always adopting. He knows how it is to be totally alone.” “Sis stop~.” Ben laughs, trying to stop the angel from her antics. Trinity let go, playfully shoving Ben. “Now that you’re on the path to getting over yourself, get your butt home, spend some time with mama Den then go fuck your still awake girlfriends.” She said, opening a DTL behind her. “Alright alright fine.” Ben laughs. “Okay Luna.” Ben says before moving swiftly, picking up Luna in a bridal style way. “Let’s get home, and I’m not forgetting this time.” He says with a warm smile. “Thanks for the talk Zeke, hopefully we can have a...more friendly get together alright?” “One can pray.” He replied as Ben walked with Luna in his arms, Trinity followed, the portal closing. “Let’s just hope Kevin can help…” To be continued... Author's Note So fuck tons of things happened in the chapter, hoped you all like it and more chapters will hopefully be Nobody's chanceTwo days passed after my meeting with Zeke and I kept thinking about what I should do about everything. “Everythings going so fast…” I muttered, my mind in a haze of how I’m supposed to be the one to end Zeke’s life if it was necessary. “Fuck this I’m going to go somewhere.” I frowned before tapping my bracelet, my Assistant appearing before I tapped on a ‘Internet’ button. “Hmm...oh I know.” I muttered to myself before typing in ‘Overlord’. “Please tell me I didn’t miss out on such an amazing thing.” I hope, looking at the description of the ‘Overlord’ manga and anime. “Huh, it has a manga and anime?” I question, before scrolling down and seeing that it came out...2013. “Oh god damn it.” I huff to myself, hating that something great would have came out a year after the world went to shit. “Whatever…” I mutter, selecting the Wiki page and starting to read all I could about it. Twenty minutes passed as I finally finished reading everything I’d need to know, from the characters, story development, and just how amazing the entire thing is.“Well...might as well head there…” I say before summoning Reunion and opening a DTL, summoning my glider and speeding on through the door before it closed behind me. When I exited the DTL I noticed a crap ton of plains. Grassy plains as far as the eye could see, especially when I’m forty feet off the ground! As I continued flying I noticed a thing that shouldn’t be in a nice grassy plain...a massive fuck off tomb. “I’m this early?” I ask myself, surprised to see that the tomb wasn’t already circled by dirt and looked like a makeshift hill. “Hmm…” I mutter before starting to fly down towards the place, gently landing seventy feet away from the Tomb. “And if memory serves Sebas should be investigating…” I mutter. And speak of the devil and he shall appear. An old one eyed butler walked out of the Tomb and started investigating the area, only to see me sticking out like a sore thumb and he gently put a hand up to ear. ”Maybe this wasn’t a good idea…” I thought to myself, having a bad feeling about this before the butler gave a small nod and started walking over to me. “Uh...hello?” I called out, trying to be friendly and raised my hands up in the air, showing that I was here with no hostile intent. “Hmm…” The old man hummed to himself, looking at me with a piercing gaze seemingly sizing me up. “What is your name?” “The names…” I start, trying to think of a false name on the spot. “Name’s Fenrir.” I lie, but my tone and body language showed that I wasn’t. ”I’m gonna need Rarity to resize this…” I mentally grumble, my ears and tail always feeling a tad too uncomfortable whenever I hide them. “Why are you here?” The man asks, his hand seemed to crack in anticipation. “I wanted to meet the Leader of the Great Tomb of Nazarick, the most feared guild in all of Yggdrasil. I have always wanted to join the guild, Ainz Ooal Gown...but I feared that I wasn’t ‘monstrous’ enough for it.” I explain. Sebas looked at me, his gaze and aura telling me either two things, either he didn’t buy my crock of shit, even though I do wish I could actually join the guild, or he was trying to force me to break and tell him the truth. After what felt like an eternity the man nodded. “I understand.” He says. “But what are you exactly? Your cloak isn’t in the database and it’s hiding your appearance far too well.” He says, his tone steady and even “Oh this?” I ask, motioning to my cloak. “It was...a gift from a very talented tailor. She explained it was one of a kind and that no one else could ever receive one.” I explain before fixing my coat and hood, showing off that I had more wolf like features and a tail. “And now you can see why I’m not as…’monstrous’ as the guild members here.” Sebas raised an eyebrow, which I couldn’t tell if he was surprised or not. “Alright. Follow me, I have already informed my master of your appearance and arrival.” He explains. “But...what is out there?” He asks, not having had much time to investigate the area. “Grassy plains as far as the eye could see.” I say. “I see…” The well dressed butler mutters. The old man turned on his heel and headed back into the tomb, which I took that as my cue to follow him. Now here’s the thing, I looked up as much information as I could about the inside of the Tomb of Nazarick, but holy hell is it huge! Even with the shortcuts Sebas showed me to get down to the 6th floor arena I felt like I just walked across two states without stopping. “This place is huge…” I grumbled, finally getting to the arena proper and seeing quite the roster of monsters. I recognized everyone in the room and remembered everyone. First was the guild leader himself, Momonga the Elder Lich, wearing his ‘God level’ equipment and holding the Staff of Ainz Ooal Gown. Next was Albedo, the Succubus who stared at me with a smile, but I had a feeling that was just a facade. Next was Cocytus, the giant light blue Death Knight insectoid, the being not even trying to hide how he tried sizing me up as a warrior. Next were Aura and Mare, the crossdressing twin Dark Elves. Aura was staring at me with a wide smile, eagerness at meeting a new person all but present, and Mare acting shy at meeting someone new. Next was Shalltear, the young vampiress with an overly stuffed bra that just looked stupid given her frame and size, the girl staring at me with a tad bit of anger and ruining her chance to praise her master. And next was Demiurge, the Demon Lord, who was glaring at me with a quizzical look, already thinking of ways to manipulate or harm me which I did not like in anyway shape or form. “So is this the wolf you informed me of Sebas?” The Lich asks, turning over to me and the butler. “Yes sir.” He says, bowing to Momonga. “So you’re Fenrir?” Momonga asked me, his red eyes having a piercing glow to it, whether that was of his own volition or not I don’t know. “Yes sir.” I say with a nod, not bowing but showing that I did respect his position. “And you are the leader of one of the most infamous guilds in Yggdrasil, Momonga.” I say, while the skeleton’s body seemed to shift ever so slightly from a more defensive stance and into a more…casual stance? “Please, tell me what race you are?” Momonga asks. “I’m a Werewolf.” I say. “I’m a Weapon Master. I can use anything to slaughter my foes. From kunai to claymores, axe swords to chakrams, I’m your guy.” I smile. “That’s quite a list.” Momonga says in surprise. “Let me see if that’s true.” Cocytus steps in. “I want to see if you’re truly a weapon master.” He says, before swiftly bowing to Momonga. “If you allow it Master.” He quickly adds, not wanting to seem disrespectful to his master. “What level are you?” The elder lich asks curiously. “Cocytus isn’t a foe to be taken lightly.” “I managed to become level 100 but...then this weirdness happened.” I say honestly, which was the truth in some way. “Alright. Step into the ring, Cocytus? Don’t hurt our guest too much alright?” Momonga asks, having the utmost confidence the floor guardian would be able to manage that. “Yes my lord.” The insectoid chitters in jubilation before bowing to Momonga. “Well let’s get going then.” I say while hopping down into the arena, walking into the center of it. “Let’s have a fair fight okay?” I ask, hoping that’ll actually happen considering what I know of them. “Of course.” Cocytus states. “Champions provide true tests of strength to those looking to test themselves.” He explains, walking to the center of the arena with me. “Am I allowed all my weapons?” I ask him, summoning Lexaeus’s Axe Sword and resting it on my shoulder. “Of course.” He says, readying his halberd. “I will be the referee and if anything gets too close for comfort Albedo and Demiurge will break you two apart.” Momonga states, not wanting his guest to get too hurt if he couldn’t stop Cocytus. “Ready?” He calls out, raising his staff two inches off the ground, the both of us getting into battle ready stances. After a brief moment he tapped his staff onto the ground, the tap echoing before me and Cocytus dashed at each other, our weapons clashing together, the sound of metal striking against metal reverberating throughout the stands. Cocytus used his size to his advantage, pushing me back as one of his claws went for his mace. The mace came at blinding speeds from an overhead swing forcing me to switch to Lindworm and dodge the strike and parry with my own. Lindworm shot out only for the halberd to be spun with enough force to send them back. Lindworm floated around my body as the mace came back for another swing. I jumped on top of it racing across his arm and kicking him in the face. While he staggered back his last free arm raced up grabbing me around the waist and knocking me to the ground. Before I could roll out of the way the blade of the halberd came down forcing another switch to Frozen Pride as the blade clashed against it. The strike left an indentation in the ground but luckily I wasn’t winded. As he brought the halberd back up I rolled away and switched back to Skysplitter. Charging forward my axesword was ready to strike. At the apex of my swing another blade came from Cocytus’s free arm blocking my strike as another ringing of metal echoed out. His mandibles clicked in excitement as he pushed his advantage swinging wildly with the sword and mace. Taking a large leap back I pulled out Sharpshooters and began pelting him with shots only for the swinging of his halberd to cancel out most blows. A puff of cold air was released as the sound of Cocytus’s laughter echoed out. He was enjoying this immensely. To answer his enthusiasm I pulled out Skysplitter and charged once again. The joy was ecstatic as I jumped into the air with my weapon ready to strike. The blades once again clashed and the power within the ax exploded as the area around the us was uplifted and turned into a desolate wasteland of torn earth. Cocytus released a large gash of cold freezing the now torn earth. Even though it was cold the power coursing through my body was more than enough to keep me warm as the clashing of our weapons sent more earth out of place. As I jumped back I switched back to Lindworm and finally took stock all around me…The very arena was torn to shreds but Cocytus was still very willing to fight. Reluctantly, I prepared myself for my next plan. As he started another flurry of swings I ‘accidentally’ lost my footing stepping back as my weapon was knocked away and the halberd, sword, and mace crashed around my head but leaving me undamaged but startled. It was too close for a dive but it looked convincing I hoped. “Hot damn.” I panted, my body coming down from it’s massive power boost and adrenaline. “Outstanding!” Momonga say, clapping his boney hands together at having such a match happen. “Wonderful, wonderful!” “That was a really great match.” I smile, getting up shakily. “So, did I make the cut?” Cocytus gave me a look, the warrior having saw through my ‘fall’. “You didn’t just ‘make the cut’ as you say, you are an outstanding warrior!” Cocytus says with joy. “I’ve never had a fight like that in ages.” “Sorry about the arena...forgot my axesword could do...this.” I say sheepishly, looking around at the displaced earth. “I’ve never heard or seen weapons like the ones you use.” Cocytus admires. “What are their names? I must know.” The death knight says with giddy anticipation. “My axesword is called Skysplitter.” I say. “Why that is when it can do this to the earth I have no idea. Next up are my lances, Lindworm. Then Sharpshooters are my crossbows.” “You are indeed a Weapon Master.” Cocytus says, ‘smiling’ down at me. “Glad I could live up to my name.” I smile, before turning around and seeing the other Floor Guardians in a mixture of awe and respect. “I didn’t expect Cocytus to be so evenly matched.” Albedo coyly smirks. “That.Was.AMAZING!” Aura shouted, bouncing up and down in childish glee at seeing such an amazing fight. “I suppose it’s to be expected.” Demiurge points out, pushing up his glasses with a finger and keeping a straight face. Mare politely clapped. “G-good j-job you t-two.” He says, trying to sound normal but the spectacle of strength kind of scary. “Wow…” Shalltear gulps, not sure what to think about the fight other than that simple word. “Glad to know you were all entertained.” I say with a smile, wincing a little as I tried staying up right. “Ow...okay maybe that took a little too much out of me.” “I can imagine.” Momonga chuckles. “Not many people get to see Cocytus fight like that, and seeing it today makes me happy to see Cocytus is still in top form.” “Thank you Master.” Cocytus bows, thankful for the compliment even if I could tell he was actually a little tired from our fight. “Glad I got to show how strong I was.” I smile. “But I’m not that strong to be honest. I still have a long time before I can match Cocytus here.” I say, trying to act humble while Cocytus laughs. “You are a great warrior. Being humble is also a sign of a good warrior.” Cocytus says, pride filling his words at telling me I was a good fighter. “Thanks Cocytus.” I chuckles warmly. “I think your audition is over.” Momonga says, causing everyone’s head to snap up to the Lich. “Wait what?” I question, my wolf ears twitching and not entirely sure I heard that right. “You heard me.” Momonga says before floating down gently and walking towards me. “Not only was this a chance to prove to Cocytus your standing as a warrior, but this was also an audition to show me if you had what it takes to be apart of Ainz Ooal Gown.” He explains. “Master! You’re not saying…” Albedo gasps, her emotions actually showing for once besides a smile. “Yes Albedo.” Momonga nods. “Upon the definition of his skills has proven to me, Leader of the Tomb of Nazarick, to have the requisite power to become one of us. Ainz Ooal Gown will truly be feared throughout the land thanks in part of your presence and strength.” He chants. “Kneel.” He says before I kneel, not believing this was actually happening. “Welcome to Ainz Ooal Gown.” He says while tapping the Staff of Ainz Ooal Gown on my shoulders. “And you shall never know defeat so long as this guild stands behind you.” He finishes. “Thank you.” I say, joy rushing through me at being apart of this wonderful guild. “Thank you so much.” “Now while every guild member has made an NPC to their own specifications, I’m sad to say that Nazarick cannot make or hold anymore NPC’s.” He explains. “It’s alright sir. Just being apart of the guild is the greatest honor I could ask for.” I say before standing up. “As head of the Floor Guardians I must be privy to your plans whenever you head out on an assignment.” Albedo says, stepping forward into the conversation. “We are on high alert due to the entire tomb changing locations. What once was a swamp is now nothing more than grasslands in all directions.” “I understand.” I nod, understanding the situation. ”Should I make a joke about Shalltear’s breasts? Probably not.” I think to myself, not wanting to make a joke about how the grasslands is about as flat as the head vampire’s tits. “I wish to discuss something with you in private Fenrir.” Momonga says. “Yes sir.” I say. “Please, no ‘sir’.” He says with a raised skeletal hand. “We are both equals. That has always been in Ainz Ooal Gown, no guild members are below anyone else. Everyone is equal in this guild.” He says simply. “I understand.” I say, glad to know I don’t have to say ‘sir’ all the time. “Is there anything else you want of us master?” Albedo asks, hoping to have Momonga say something inspiring in front of all the floor guardians and the newest guild member. “Yes actually.” Momonga says before looking at everyone. “Keep watch over the area, we must not let our guard down in this uncertain time.” He says. “Wouldn’t it be best if the tomb is hidden master?” Demiurge asks. “That is true. The Tomb is vulnerable at this point. Mare is there anything you could do for this situation?” Momonga asks, as I took a step back so they could talk. “Yes, but it would be difficult with just magic. If we were to use dirt and vegetation to cover the walls then it could camouflage the entire tomb.” Mare explains, before sensing a very pissed off woman. “You dare to desecrate the walls of Nazarick with dirt?” Albedo growls, a dark rage aura surrounding the succubus. “Albedo!” Momonga snaps, snapping Albedo out of her little ‘rage state’. “Don’t make needless remarks.” He scolds, the woman shrinking a little at the little scolding. “Forgive me my lord.” She says quickly, bowing deeply. “Are you confident dirt would be sufficient Mare?” Momonga asks, wanting to continue with his thought. “Yes, of course...if you allow it.” The dark elf boy says nervously. “Wouldn’t it be unnatural if there’s just one random hill in the middle of a flat grassland?” I pipe up, wanting to question that. “When I was roaming around I didn’t see any hills around so one random hill in the middle of nowhere would look strange.” “That is true.” Momonga agrees. “We’ll have to make some dummy hills as well to better hide.” He says. “We’ll also have to use magic to hide all the open areas the dirt and vegetation can’t hide naturally.” He states. “Finally...there’s a question I have for all of you. Including you Fenrir.” He says while all of us look at him in wonder of what he’ll ask. “First, Shalltear, tell me in your own words the kind of person I am to you.” He says, wanting to know what everyone personally thinks of him. “Beauty incarnate.” Shalltear says, her cheeks flush at saying these words. “There is nothing living nor undead that could match your radiant glow.” She gushes, which kind of creeped me out considering she sounded like she was getting off to it. “Cocytus?” Momonga asks. “A man who’s strength cannot be rivaled by any guardian. You are truly worthy of ruling the Great Tomb of Nazarick, always and absolute.” Cocytus explains. “Aura.” Momonga says simply. “Compassionate, and you’re always three steps ahead of the game.” Aura says with a beaming smile. “Mare.” “Y-you’re a leader who is kind and merciful.” Mare answers. “Demiurge.” “A man who makes wise decisions, and acts upon them efficiently without any form of hesitation.” Demiurge answers, the demon smiling at having told his master what he thought of him. “Sebas.” “You are the head of all the Supreme Beings, and even though all the other creators have left us behind you mercifully stayed by our sides until the very end.” Sebas answers. “Albedo.” “You are the highest ranking member of the Supreme Beings, our ultimate master and the ruler of Nazarick.” She says. “As well as the man whom my heart belongs.” She adds with joy. “Uh…” Momonga stutters a little at the sudden showcase of love towards him. “And lastly, Fenrir.” “I see a man who can make the best out of any situation.” I start. “A man who is both powerful and wise, a man who can roll with the punches and still make it out on top, and lastly...a friend that will always be there when others need it most.” I explain with a smile. “Thank you.” He nods. “I have heard your answers and given you your orders. Now work faithfully in my name.” He says. “Lord.” The NPC’s all say at the same time before Momonga puts a hand on my shoulder and we suddenly vanish in front of them all. After a brief teleport Momonga sighed out loudly, which sounded like the sigh of someone who was way too stressed. “Oh man…” He mutters. “Beat?” I ask curiously. “Oh yeah.” Momonga says. “You have no idea how it feels to suddenly lose all context of basically everything and have NPC’s treat you as their master.” He explains, dropping the facade of ‘Guild Leader of Ainz Ooal Gown’ and acting more ‘human’ right now. “I can at least vouch for one of those.” I shrug. “So what do you want to personally talk about?” “I haven’t seen or heard anything about you at all. I’m pretty sure one of the guild members would have saw a Werewolf wanting to be apart of the guild.” He says. “Also I have never heard nor seen any of those weapons.” He says. “Honestly I kind of thought you would be ranting about how all of us were being so serious about putting you on a golden pedestal covered in all the most precious gems of all time.” I say honestly. “That is one of the things I was going to complain about.” Momonga sighs out. “Do you want to hear a lie or know the truth?” I ask curiously. “Truth. I have never seen anything like you or your weapons in Yggdrasil...I mean besides the Werewolf part.” Momonga says. “You have to promise that the NPC’s won’t know anything about this.” I say sternly, my face showing how serious this knowledge is. “I’m good at keeping secrets.” Momonga nods. “I’m not from here. Or from Yggdrasil.” I say, causing the Lich to look at me, his jaw dropping in the process. “Yep, I’m ‘off world’ as it were.” “H-how?” The flabbergasted skeleton asks. “Magic.” I say. “Magic that is beyond anything you could do. I don’t know what spells you know or how powerful your spells are but it’s beyond your comprehension.” I say, lying about not knowing what spells he knows cause I could see it from the little ‘hud’ that I had that only I could see. “Wow...is there anyway I can learn it?” Momonga asks curiously. “Gonna have to halt you right there man.” I say while raising a hand. “I have a feeling the NPC’s would try to take that and make you do some really bad things to people of other worlds. I’d stick with this place and try to get your bearings alright?” “Yeah...they’re...a little bit too serious…” Momonga says sheepishly. “But why did you come here?” “To meet new people and hopefully gain friends. Cocytus see’s me as an ally, but I’m worried about the others. And frankly when I joined this guild I kind of thought I became your friend.” I explain with a shrug. “Yeah...but honestly I’m just glad there’s another human being out there. Whether it was from Yggdrasil or not.” Momonga chuckles. “So what are you going to do now?” I ask curiously. “See what I can and can’t do.” Momonga says honestly. “I know I have all my spells, all the cooldowns, my health and mana, everything from the game but...I don’t know anything about this world so I’d like to get my bearings.” “Good first start.” I nod. “Get your bearings and start small. Then start adventuring and making up plans for the future.” “Is this a one time thing or what?” Momonga asks. “Because your an off worlder and all.” “I have five girlfriends back on my home world so I can’t stay here.” I say. “But while I may be gone I’ll still visit from time to time. And besides.” I smile. “Ainz Ooal Gown is a lot more than words and a name, it’s a bond between friends.” I explain. “And as long as we know we’re routing for each others success in life then we will know no defeat.” “Here here.” Momonga agrees. “But wait...five girlfriends?” He asks. “Yep, and trust me they are all handfuls and a half.” I chuckle, the skeleton not believing I was that lucky. “And don’t worry, magic keeps my hips from breaking thankfully.” “I’ve only seen Albedo love me for little more than a few hours…” Momonga says. “And...she is a tad...clingy.” “One of my girlfriends was like that because of...reasons.” I say nervously. Three days pass, and many many things happened. First after our private conversation where I got to learn a lot more of ‘Momonga the human’ than ‘Momonga the Guild leader’, then after a while Momonga gave a rousing speech about how he will be known as ‘Ainz Ooal Gown’ forever onward, which all the NPC’s praised him to hell and back for. Second while me and the newly dubbed Ainz, who was wearing his ‘Momon the Adventurer’ gear, appeared outside the tomb we found Mare doing a really good job at covering the tomb. A quick conversation and gift giving Mare, Albedo and I were all handed rings of Ainz Ooal Gown. Third was that I kind of got a guided tour through more of the...player centered area’s like hot springs, bars, war room, and a lot of other places. Fourth involved Aura trying to ‘tame me’...which ended with her flat on her back and me holding Lindworm pointed at her throat. Let’s just say that entire situation was really bad for Aura when Ainz found out. Fifth involved, surprisingly, a chess match with Demiurge...which I lost. Thankfully not as horribly as I first thought given that I was a living supercomputer but the cheeky demon had more experience in it so that couldn’t be helped. And all this time I kept getting a weird look from Albedo. “Okay woman why are you staring at me like that?” I ask with a frown, the Succubus ever so subtly flinched. “Is there something wrong?” Albedo asks through clenched teeth. “Listen, Ainz told me how much you love him, and your actions have proven you’d rip out your own heart and sell your soul to the most darkest of beings just to see him happy.” I explain. “But I’m not here to ‘take him away’. I’m not a blind follower who waits on hands and knees for him. I’m a friend that won’t hurt neither bone or cloth on the guy.” I frown, glaring at the woman who has so little faith in anyone that isn’t Ainz. “If you say so.” She glared at me before warping away with her ring. “Christ almighty.” I grumble, rubbing the back of my neck before warping off to the throne room, hoping Ainz is there. Sadly Albedo was there as well but Sebas was next to her talking to her. “Oh, Lord Fenrir.” Sebas says, apparently not expecting me to be here of all places. “I have orders from Lord Ainz that you and Albedo are to meet him outside Carne Village.” “And the reason?” I ask, not wanting to blindly follow orders here. “A village of humans are being attacked by a group of soldiers.” Sebas says to me, before seeing Albedo putting on a suit of armor and opening a portal. “We better not keep Lord Ainz waiting.” Albedo says before walking through the portal. “Thank you Sebas.” I nod before fixing my hood and coat, hiding my face and more defining details, walking into the portal as well. After a brief moment me and Albedo appeared to see Ainz sending off a giant Undead Knight while looking down at two girls, one severely injured. “We’re sorry for making you wait my lord.” Albedo says, staring at the humans with a hidden look of contempt. “It’s alright you two, you arrived right on time actually.” Ainz says, looking down and seeing the older girl wince in pain, blood coating her clothing and hiding her severe wound. “What should I do with these lower life forms?” Albedo asks bluntly. “These two are no threat. The humans wearing the armor are the enemies we are after.” Ainz says, looking towards where his Death Knight ran off to. “It looks like you're injured.” He says while pulling out a fancy bottle full of red liquid. “Here, drink this.” He says while gently moving it towards the two. “B-blood!?” The little girl asks in fear. “No, it’s not blood. It’s a healing potion.” I say, the two girls staring at me in confusion. “Just drink it, we don’t want you dying from blood loss.” I state, honestly not wanting to see the poor girl die in front of us. “O-okay…” The elder girl nods, taking the vial and opening it, and chugging the whole thing. After a moment her wound glowed green and she felt as good as new. “Wow…” She mutters, looking over at her back wound and seeing that even the blood stain on her clothes was gone. “And who knew it was great at removing blood from clothes.” I joke. “Is the pain gone?” Ainz asks curiously. “Oh, yes.” The blond haired girl nods. “Have you two ever heard of magic?” Ainz asks, wondering if he’s the only mage here. “Yes, I have a friend who frequents our village.” She explains. “He’s a pharmacist and practices magic.” “Perfect. Then it’s not hard to understand, I am a magical caster as well.” He says before raising his hand. “Anti-life cocoon, Protection of Arrows wall.” He says, two green circles appearing in front of his hand before a giant bubble appeared around the two girls. “I cast a protection spell around you two. As long as you stay inside this barrier you will remain safe. But just in case.” He adds before moving his hand into a pocket dimension and pulling out two horns. “Take these as well. If you blow these horns an army of goblins will appear to do your bidding.” He explains. “Don’t hesitate to use them if you need it.” He says before the three of us start our leave. “W-wait!” The blond girl says. “Thank you so much for saving us! We are forever grateful.” “Thank you very much.” The brown haired child says, wanting to give thanks as well. “It was no problem.” Ainz says simply. “Can we please have your name?” “Oh yes.” He says, before I start noticing swelling opera music that, for some magical reason, came from Albedo. ”How in the hell?” I think to myself. “You shall know my name, and tell everyone of my power!” He says before turning around, his mage cloak swaying in the wind that did not exist. “I am Ainz Ooal Gown!” He says with confidence, his tone absolute that he is beyond powerful to the two girls. After that naming scene, and a quick disguise for Ainz, we all made it to Carne Village, and the first thing I noticed was the massacre that happened...then the pleading of a rich prick begging people to have all his money if they keep him alive...which was thankfully stopped by the sound of a lot of stabbing. “Uh...do you think it went just a tiny bit overboard?” I whisper to Ainz. “A little…” Ainz whispers back. “Death Knight, that’s enough.” He calls out to it. “You have served me well.” He says, the monster stopping in it’s tracks from murdering more people. Ainz stepped in front of the Death Knight to meet the people and the guards that should have bolted a long time ago. “I am Ainz Ooal Gown, it is a pleasure to meet all of you.” He says, staring at everyone who were freaking the hell out. “Don’t worry about my Death Knight, no harm will come to you. Tell your super-I mean owner my kindness.” He says, the guards thankful to hear that they won’t die. “However, next time such heinous acts in this area, I will bring death to your entire kingdom.” He threatens, sounding a lot more like a ‘promise’ than anything else considering the creepy ass mask. “Leave! And make sure to speak Ainz name.” I shout, causing all the guards to drop their weapons and run away screaming. “Sheesh, you’d think they would have run away from the massacre instead of waiting till now…” I grumble. “U-uh pardon me sir…” An elderly voice asks, causing us to look over that the Chief of the village. “Why did you come here?” “I could not stand here and watch innocent people get mindlessly slaughtered.” Ainz states simply. “Call it a...moral obligation.” I add with a shrug, the town ‘aweing’ at us. “Be at ease.” Ainz says to the people. “This village is under my protection, you no longer need to be scared.” He says while walking towards the people, mutters of worry moving through the people. “I don’t do this kind of work for free though. I expect to be fairly compensated in return.” He explains, the villagers calming down and smiling at one another. ”I suppose ‘fair compensation’ is a good word around here.” I think to myself, not entirely sure why the villagers all turned from worried they would be murdered to happy people because they had to repay Ainz. Hours passed, Ainz learning quite a lot about this world and I listened to him talk about all the things he learned, even though I already knew about all this through the Wiki I still acted out how I would if I was learning new things. As the sun started setting and I was out on a walk, seeing the entire village get rebuilt I heard a thunder of...hooves? I looked over into the direction and saw a band of people on horseback, coming straight towards the place. “Yo Ainz! We got company!” I call out, the mage and his armored companion walking over to me as they both saw what I saw. “Well we better say hello to our new guests.” Ainz says, hoping to not have another bloodbath on this villages soil. Ten minutes later and me, the village chief and Ainz met up with the horse riders, the leader trotting his horse up and meeting us all. “I am the Chief Royal Warrior from the Re-Estize Kingdom, Gazef Stronoff.” He introduces himself. “The king has order me to hunt down the knights that have been terrorizing surrounding villages, your people are safe now.” “I’m sorry to say your about five hours too late there.” I point out, causing Gazef’s eyebrow to raise in confusion. “Are you the chief of this village?” He asks the elder, who nods. “Who are these two?” “Well you see-” The chief was about to start before Ainz stepped in. “It’s alright. It’s nice to meet you General, my name is Ainz Ooal Gown, and this is my partner, Fenrir.” He says, while I waved a gloved hand at the general quickly before putting my hands back in my pockets. “I’m a simple magic user who stumbled upon this village while it was being ransacked by those knights.” He explains, Gazef having a mixture of horror and amazement plastered on his face before he got off his horse. “Thank you sir Ainz. If you weren’t here the villagers would have been lost without you.” He says seriously, glad to hear this ‘man’ saved the village. “General!” A man calls out before a scout walks up. “We spotted an army of unknown origin surrounding the village even as we speak.” “Whoever is attacking this village either hates the kingdom, that village, or just really likes watching people getting murdered.” I frown, still kind of finding how much the village gets attacked quite worrying. Five minutes later we were in the chief’s house talking about what’s to happen. “It must be one of the Six Scriptures.” “You mean the ones who attacked the village earlier?” Ainz asks curiously. “Theocracy soldiers no doubt.” Gazef answers. “It looks like they dressed up in Imperial armor to throw us off.” “As I thought.” Ainz nods. “Does this village hold some significance in anyway shape or form?” “If you don’t know why they're attacking, then they certainly aren’t after you.” He says. “Which only means one thing.” He says, keeping his tone and face leveled so he doesn’t show any anger or contempt. “You must be pretty despised Chief Warrior.” Ainz points out. “Indeed, well lucky me.” He says sarcastically, looking outside. “To think, even the Slane Theocracy want’s me dead.” He says with a grin. “Seems a tad weird why their targeting you.” I frown. “When you’re the strongest warrior in an entire kingdom it makes sense.” Gazef answers. “So what’s the plan?” I ask. “Do we wait for an ambush? Or charge head first?” I ask. “I’d like to hire you, name a price and I’ll make sure you get it.” Gazef says. “I’m sorry but we’ll have to decline.” Ainz says, which I remained quiet in understanding. “I kind of thought that.” The human chuckles. “Very well. Please take care and thanks again. This village owes you gratitude, and so do I.” He says before Gazef and Ainz shake hands. “I know this sounds selfish and I have no right, but please, grant these people your protection one more time.” He says. “I have nothing to offer you now, but I beg you, please-” He says, trying to kneel before Ainz stopped him. “There is no need for you to go that far Gazef.” The masked skeleton says simply. “We already promised to protect this village. You don’t need to bow or plead with us.” I say. “We take our word seriously. Now go on General, you’ve got a job to do.” I say, seeing the general nod. “Oh, take this.” Ainz says before handing Gazef a statue. “Let’s say it’s a...good luck charm.” Ainz says, seeing the General look over it before nodded and putting it in his pocket. “Thank you.” Gazef nods, before heading outside and getting himself battle ready. After a minute or so he was already on horseback and charging forward with all his soldiers. Ainz stepped outside and saw Albedo, having to put on his ‘higher than thou’ persona. “When I first saw these humans I saw them as nothing more than insects like you do Albedo. But the more I talk to them the fonder I grow, like a child amongst helpless animals.” “Is that why you promised the great honor of your name at his request my lord?” Albedo asks. “Perhaps.” Ainz answers. “Maybe Gazef is one of the exceptions, where he is a great man even if he’s human.” I suggest. “He’s charging head first into a pack of angels, yet he shows no fear and has the air of one that will win this fight.” “Lord Ainz.” The chief calls out while running towards us. “Those Marauders are still out there, why did you send the Warrior Chief away?” “He was their true target, not the village.” Ainz explains. “Do we just stay here and wait for him to deal with them all?” The chief asks worriedly. “No. We have a plan, while the General is fighting he’ll give us a chance to escape. He’ll try to cause as much commotion as possible to make sure we have enough time.” Ainz explains. While I was listening to Ainz talk the chief and his wife into a calm state I sniffed the air, and something seemed...off. “I’ll be right back…” I say before putting on the ring Trinity gave me just in case as I dashed off towards the strange scent. “Hopefully it’s nothing too bad.” I mutter, knowing what’s to come next for Ainz and Albedo. As I continued through my investigation the scent of blood, black powder and...cake? “Why the hell do I smell cake?” I ask myself, summoning Lindworm just in case as the scent grew stronger. “If this person figured out how to make cake bombs this is gonna suck…” As I got closer to some bushes I could hear someone… humming? Behind the bushes was a guy, dressed in some kinda modified riot gear, with several cakes and a variety of explosives around him. “Huhu, bored as fuck so I’m screwing around~” He sings tunelessly. ”Da fuq?” I think to myself, before gently sneaking into the area. “Uh...hello?” I ask, readying to summon a weapon in case he tries to attack me with explosions...or cake. “Huh, oh… would a thermite explosive be too… cliche to serve in a red velvet cake?” He asks, not even turning around. “It fits for me but I don’t know?” “I’m pretty sure you’re not supposed to mix thermite with cake…” I frown. “Now using thermite to cut a car down the middle without hurting anyone, that’s always a fun time.” I say, remembering that Mythbusters episode. “Meh, using it to blow up shipyards was cool too.” He replies. I noticed he was rather skinny, with flat, dyed, neon blue hair. “C-4 is just too…well, to many chunks left to spray while thermite melts down what’s around it.” “By the by why are you trying to mix explosives with cakes?” I ask curiously. “Bored as fuck. Boss has me on standby so I’m taking a vacation…it’s not been fun at all.” “Working with crazy people you don’t like is never fun.” I say honestly. “But...mind if I ask for your name?” “Kevin.” He replied, pulling out a cupcake with a stick of TNT in it out of his jacket. “Need things that go boom, I’m your man.” He says with confidence. “I’m also a good baker.” “Do you know of a man named Zeke?” I ask, not wanting to just believe this was the specific Kevin I was told about from Zeke. “My baby bra was named Zeke. Was the family legend to be, but he didn’t want any part of it. Uncle tried scaring him with a branding and death threat, but that failed miserably.” “I know.” I nod. “He told me all about it. He’s a really nice guy once you get to know him.” “I know, me and him spent a lot of time together, took him on a bunch of missions with me. This one time, I took him with me to rob the Louvre in Paris, guards came up and Zeke used a fire hose to soak them, then a single taser made them all dance like drunk irishmen.” He chuckled. “We graffitied the Mona Lisa that day.” I couldn’t help but laugh at hearing that. “Oh god! That is just hilarious.” I smile. “Oh man...but onto not boring business. Zeke wanted me to find you and...try to persuade you to our side of the fight, instead of you having to work for Side Show Douche bag you call a boss.” He paused, placing down the cake and explosives and seemed to think about it. “Well… I wouldn’t mind, I’d think I speak for a lot of the family when I saw working for Core has been worse than when Grandpa was the family boss. But… I can’t leave for a few reasons.” “Zeke told me the three reasons why.” I say. “But I have a feeling there’s other reasons besides your uncle, your grandpa, and the common folk basically hating you for...reasons.” “I can get used to people’s hate, and Uncle Josh actually wants to leave too. Rumor has it his son is getting married, the only issues for me, are Grandpa… and this.” He pulled up his sleeves, were what looked like tattoos of castle oblivion cards were inked onto him. “These little bitches keep me on a leash…Dillen’s idea, fucken psycho.” “Well that sucks…” I frown. “Do you know anyway to get them off?” “They’re made from memories. Do you know how to destroy memories without hitting me upside the head? I’d rather not get amnesia.” “Yes I do actually.” I say while summoning Memory Stealer, the thing deciding to look like Reunion in this situation. “Say hello to Memory Stealer, with this wonderful weapon I can erase those tattoos and whatever memories are keeping you bound.” I say with a smile. “Huh…and it won’t cut my arms off, right?” “Nope.” I say. “All I need to do is gently tap your tattoo’s and they’re gone.” I say with a nod. “So, which arm do you want to start with?” “Well then, let’s see if it works.” Kevin said, lifting up his arms. “Right then.” I nod before tapping Memory Stealer on one of his tattoo’s, willing it to eat the memories that tattoo were keeping him bound to Core’s work. One by one each tattoo vanished, once all were gone Kevin was rubbing his arms. “Man, you have no idea how weird it feels to have cards under your skin. So, what’s your name anyway? I feel like I should know but I’m drunk half the time Core’s making us have a meeting.” “Ha.” I chuckle. “Anyways, the name’s Ben. One of Zeke’s friends.” “Oh, right. I remember a bit about what Core wanted you for. Something about rec...recreation?” “Do you mean ‘Reincarnation’?” I ask curiously. “Ya! That’s it. He found out you can use Nobodies to bring back animals and such that have been long since dead, and he thinks you being a human, with a heart, that controls them, can bring back people from the dead or something.” “Core’s...Core’s really fucking dumb.” I say as bluntly as possible. “Anyways, just so you know I managed to beat your cousin Jenny in a card game...does she also have those marks on her arms? Any knowledge on how to have her not stab me while I’m sleeping is wonderful because I want to help your family...and knowing they hate Core helps a lot more.” “Little Jen? Let me deal with the punk. But he had a point about that reversing death thing. I mean, a Nobody shouldn’t exist yet it does. He thinks the Realm of Nothingness has odd powers he wants to learn.” “Well sad to say he’s not going to figure it out.” I say bluntly. “I...don’t know exactly why he can’t but I just...know ya know?” I ask, not entirely sure if I’m making up nonsense or something here. “Meh. So… where too?” “Back to my world.” I say honestly, thankfully having put a waypoint in the throne room of the Tomb before I swapped out Memory Stealer for Reunion and then opening a DTL. “Well, let’s get going my friend.” I say while summoning my glider. “Need a ride or you just walking through?” I’ll walk.” Kevin said, walking into the DTL. “Right then.” I say before flying into the DTL. Brief quick travel later we both appeared outside my house. I got off my bike and knocked on the door. “Knocky knock ladies! We got a visitor!” The door opened and I was greeted by Rarity. “Hello Ben darling…who’s your friend? Also, where have you been?” “Firstly this is Kevin Ventral, older brother to Zeke and is all around a very nice guy. Loves explosions and baked goods.” I say with a smile. “And the second...well I just went out for a little stroll on another world, made new friends, happened to join a guild and then found this guy.” I explain. “Sup?” Kevin asked. “Well, come in then you two. Ben, Twilight and Luna are in Canterlot for a few days, something about a Celestia and Chrysalis. Zecora is going to be gone as well, her family is visiting and she’s meeting them halfway at the Baltimare shipyard.” “Oh cool.” I say with a smile, walking into the house. “Did mom visit? And how’s Luxu, Time and Sweetie?” I ask. “Also is Jenny in a bed or on the couch?” “Den hasn't been by yet, those three are in Las Pegasus for whatever reason, and Jenny is fishing by the river near Fluttershy’s home.” “Wait Jenny’s awake?” I ask worriedly. “Well… when I say fishing I mean Trinity kinda took her sleeping body and flew her out for some fresh air. The two are ‘fishing’ though it’s rather one sided.” “That’s...not creepy.” I frown. “Anywhosits, thank you for telling me this Rarity. Kevin, we have a new destination, and you can now see how colorful things are without having anyone getting stabbed for the hell of it.” I say with a smile. “Dare it be true?” Kevin joked. “So… just a quick question… why?” “Why what?” I ask. “Specifics Bob I can’t read minds.” “Why… do you live with only women?” “I has five girlfriends.” I say simply. “And we all live together.” “Uh huh… so… dare I ask the brand of painkillers you must be on? I mean, I’ve been in orgies with twenty women but… those are usually once a year type deals.” I burst out laughing. “Well let’s just say magic does wonders when you can have five women acting like seventy.” I chuckle. “It’s the main reason why my hips are still intact and I can walk straight.” “Alright. So, Jenny?” “Yeah, I think I need to tell you that whole debacle.” I say sheepishly. “So she decided to face me in a children's card game, shocking I know, but it was all around fun, she tried murdering me but I stopped her cold. She’s been asleep in case she wouldn’t abide by our deal of ‘if I win she cuts all ties with Core and get’s some serious help’...so there’s that.” “Well, considering she distrusts you is reasonable. Her mom and older sister were killed by some of you guys.” Kevin said. “Nancy was…” Ben mutters, clenching his fists and looking down sadly. “There’s not a single day that goes by where I don’t regret having killed her….” I say sadly. “I really didn’t...but she sadly gave me no choice…” Kevin looked away. “So… you're the bastard that killed her then?” “Go ahead and hit me…” I say sadly. “I’m...I’m so sorry…” “No… you don’t deserve that mercy. I know her dad has completely lost it now, he’s gonna get himself killed sooner or later too, that leaves Jenny an orphan then. Just…” He grabbed me by the scruff of my coat. “Look after her, or I will see if you can regrow the thing your girlfriends seems to love about you when the bedroom is mentioned.” “I was planning on it.” I say. “Zeke told me how much family matters for a Ventral...and I hate myself for taking a life...even if she was screaming ‘I’m a human demon, now face me or die’...” I explain. “But...since you're here...you can probably help me in this...I don’t know much about her and...I think the girls would be surprised to hear that Jenny’s going to be our adopted daughter…” He says while gently dislodging his hands from his coat. “Come on...I have a lot of mistakes to try and correct…” I mutter while continuing to walk towards Fluttershy’s house. After a few minutes of walking in relative silence and me sulking in my own sadness we finally made it to Fluttershy’s house, and we immediately saw Jenny lying behind Trinity as she held a fishing pole and wore a fishermans hat. “Yo Trinity!” I call out. She turned around. “Yo!” She called back. “Yo, I have a request.” I say while walking towards the fishing angel. “I need you to wake Jenny up. Kevin, Zeke’s brother and her cousin, thinks he can help her not shank me while I’m sleeping…” I say, even though I’d rather get a royal ass kicking from her instead of dying because of mine and Kevin’s conversation. “Alright.” She waved a hand over Jenny’s face, the little girl starting to wake up. “Ugh… I feel like sleeping beauty at the end of the original version of her story.” Jenny said groggily as she sat up. “What…the hell happened?” “Morning sunshine.” I say gently. “I’m sorry you had to stay knocked out...wasn’t a hundred percent sure if you’d keep to our deal...but hey Kevin’s here.” I say, motioning to he man next to me. “Kev?” She looked over to him. “Did… did you give me another pot brownie?” “Not this time runt.” He said, rubbing her head. “We… need to talk.” ”Here we go…” I think to myself. ”I’m so sorry...But...I’ll make sure Jenny has a good life Nancy...I just wish I didn’t do it…” I think to myself, still having regret about that entire situation. “About? Oh, I lost the deal with that punk…great…” “Not just that…listen… you know how one of the keyblade wielding punks like him… killed your sis and mom?” “How could I forget?” “...This guy, the one you lost too… is the one who killed your mom.” Jenny looked like she was going to burst. “W...what?” “Yes…” I say sadly. “She...we fought...I tried talking her out of fighting...she gave me no choice…” I say, my voice quivering in sadness and regret. “If you want to hit me then hit me...I won’t stop you…” It was then, in a flash, she changed, she now looked more wolf than I did, and she was being held back by Kevin. “I’LL KILL YOU YOU WORTHLESS PEICE OF SHIT!” She roared. “MY SISTER AND MOTHER WERE WORTH MORE THAN YOU COULD EVER AMOUNT!” “Jenny!” Kevin called, tightening his grip on her. “You know as well as I do after… first your mom’s sister and brother in law get killed, then Zeke vanished, and then your sister, it was only a matter of time before they died.” “I’LL STILL KILL HIM!” ”DO YOU THINK I DON’T KNOW THAT!?!” I roar at her. ”I’M THE CAUSE FOR MY OLD PARENTS DEATHS! YOU KNOW NOTHING ABOUT THE PAIN I CAUSE MYSELF EVERYDAY!!!” I shout, tears streaming down my face. “Do you have any idea how much I regret killing her?” “Ben! That’s enough!” Kevin yelled. “You’re not helping in the slightest.” “How are you helping him Kevin!?” Jenny yelled. “How can you side with him?!” “If we don’t we won’t ever be able to get out of Core’s grasp! It was a mistake to side with him, you know this!” Jenny seemed to shut up at that. “We’re bad, we’re evil, but that thing is not what I signed up for, I only joined because I wanted to see new places with you guys. Why else do you think I always took the international jobs? Without him, his allies, and Zeke we’re as good as dead.” “Z-Zeke’s alive?” Jenny asked, her from returning to that of a little girl. “W-We all thought… Core said he died with uncle Barry and Aunt Merry…” “He said that to get us more on his side… I found out and got the ringer for it, if it wasn’t for this guy… look, I know you want him dead, believe me… feeling’s parly mutual, but you need a home, Core didn’t keep tabs on you, he did with me. He can… he WILL keep you safe, alright?” Jenny was silent, only nodding. “I know… this is more fucked up than the things we’ve done before… but if it means we get out of this shit alive then fine by me.” Jenny muttered, glaring at me. “Just… what did mom say… before she died?” “She chuckled before saying ‘sister, brother, daughter...I’ll be seeing you’...and she left her pendant and katana. I gave them both to Zeke because...he deserves to even see them more than I do…” I sigh out. “I regret ever having to do that...and I don’t want to do it ever again…” “I’ll make sure of that…” Jenny said as she exhaled. “So…what now?” “Well...as per our deal you are going to get some help and not be a homicidal maniac...and I’m the one to do it.” I say. “I...I just hope this stupid idea of mine could help make up for my mistakes…” “Well… first off, getting advice on not killing from the guy who killed my mom is kinda... “ “Hypocritical?” I ask. “Yeah, and second… who is the giant wolf lady walking over here?” Jenny asks, and literally out of nowhere a record scratch could be heard before I whip around. “U-uh…” I stutter, looking over at Den. “H-hi mom! I didn’t expect you to be arriving so soon!” I say sheepishly. Mom came over to me, a large smile on her face. “You sneaky little pup, you got me a granddaughter already!” “I’m not his-” Jenny was cut off by mom hugging her tightly. “I wanted to adopt her mom.” I sigh out. “She’s not actually my child just...listen I have a lot to explain right now I’m already depressed about it anyways.” “But, you're adopted into this family, minus the extra powers Ben, curse is passive.” Den explained, still hugging Jenny. “Actually…” I sigh out. “The werewolf you're hugging is Jenny Ventral…” “So?” “She became that because of the power of Darkness.” I state. “And...she want’s to murder me because...I sadly had to...kill her mother…” I say bitterly, knowing full well that something bad’s going to happen to me. “And?” I looked at her and tilted my head, my hood falling down from my ears screwing with it and showing Kevin and Jenny that I was part Dire Wolf. “Listen mom, I want to help Jenny so much but she’d rather see me dead than anything...all because of my own mistakes…” “Ben, you really should look up your family more, most are actually former villains, some even former Psychopaths. Long story short, we don’t care so long as you are correcting your arong.” “Wait what?” I ask. “Um...honestly this family is too fucking huge...do you two have anything to say about this?” I ask, wondering what Kevin and Jenny think. “I’m lost.” Kevin said, getting up. “Welp, anyone needs me, I’ll be in that forest smoking my weed.” “Her fur is so soft.” Jenny said, still being hugged by mom. “And that could happen a lot more...if you choose to be my daughter.” I say gently. “Den is the best mother in the world...and I know I don’t deserve this at all...but please...I’d rather see you happy…” Jenny looked like she was pondering the question. “On one condition.” She finally said. “No murdering me, or my family got it? I kicked your ass once I can do it again.” I deadpan. “That’s a given, no. My condition is that I will not be the daughter of an unmarried father.” She said firmly. I sigh out. “Fine…” I mutter before tapping my Assistant and looking up wedding rings. “I’ll marry my five girlfriends...but if you happen to get more mothers don’t blame me blame the laws of this world.” I explain. It was then that Mom was now also hugging me. “Oh! My pup is becoming an Alpha!” “Mom~!” I yip, my face burning bright red here. “I need to buy wedding rings for all my girlfriends, and maybe a few extra just in case…” I explain, but hugging her anyways. “Thank you...for being my mother…” I say again. “I’m just so proud! Oh!” She dropped Jenny and I. “Wait til I tell the others.” WIth that, she teleported away. “That was Den...your soon to be grandmother.” I say. “She is...a very wonderful mother...do you want to know more about her?” I ask, summoning up eight wedding rings and putting them all in my pocket. “After I process what exactly just happened.” Jenny said. “Trust me, when I first met her I thought I had to drink heavily...but sadly that only went downhill...and probably mentally scarred three people.” I say nervously. “I’m a Ventral, we’re immune to a lot of crap, including mental scarring… though, this maybe an exception.” “Have you ever walked in on six people being breastfed at the same time?” I ask. “Yeah, one of Kevin’s birthday parties… walked in the wrong room there…” “Oh god.” I say, trying to hold in my laughter at hearing that. “Oh dear...but I wanted to say that fight we had...it was fun considering it was mostly a children’s card game.” “I’m ten, what you expect?” “Expecting you to either not murder people, or be more fluffy.” I say, patting her head gently. “I mean seriously, you're more wolf then I am.” “Well, wait, what was that thing your mom said about a curse?” “Apparently, my new father has a curse placed on him, that any person, no matter the age, is adopted into his family they...are now genetically related to him and his infinite amount of wives and children. And for me, you are given a specific mother to help take care of you and get you more...accustomed to it all.” I explain sheepishly. “Huh…So, since she said it was passive, that means when you marry and I accept the adoption…I become your genetic daughter and one of your wife's daughter genetically?” “I’ve barely been in the family for more than three weeks. Ask my sister, Trinity.” He says while pointing to the Angel. “Sup?” Trinity replied, still fishing as if what recently happened didn’t transpire. “Also, Ben… you’re so screwed.” She added. “Why?” I ask worriedly. “Out of the whole family…you’re going to be the first child to marry. It’s gonna be a BIG deal.” “Uh...how big?” I ask worriedly. “I sense a very terrible thing being thrown my way.” “Here’s a perspective, you know how big this reflection is? We’re gonna need a building the same size for everyone to fit in.” “Um…” I start. “Can...can I go to dad’s world and do it? I’m pretty sure he has a place big enough…” I say worriedly. “Oh, sure. I’ll let him know, though, mamma Den likely has told everyone already.” “How soon will I have brothers and sisters hounding me for a ‘party’?” I ask worriedly. “Also...maybe that’ll be a first for Pinkie...making a ‘universal party’ sounds like quite an achievement.” “I’d say… a week at least, two at most.” “Okay...so that’ll give me enough time to probably have other women hop on the ‘marry train’ before the actual wedding takes place…” I sigh out. “Go get em hound dog.” “Welcome to the family Jenny. Where every concept of ‘what the fuck’ you originally thought has now been thrown out the window so hard it burst into flames.” I explain, feeling like this is gonna be a nightmare and a half. Jenny just looked at the ground with a blank expression. “Well….this is gonna….be a thing?” She questions. “And if I know anything from stories and anime...it only get’s worse.” I say, the sheer absurdity of the entire thing making me laugh. To be continued... Nobody get's more girlfriends“I have a week or two before my siblings hunt me down and have a ‘godly bachelor party’...then the week after that me, and my five girlfriends are going to getting married…” I say to myself, having finally figured out how to make Lindworm into a flying snake thing and taking it out for a ride. “I have five rings...and three more just in case…” I mutter continuing to enjoy the flight before I heard a loud screech. “The fuck?” I mutter before looking around carefully, only to be shocked at seeing seven Air Pirates attacking...Gilda? “Get away from me!” Gilda shouts, slashing at the Heartless to get them away from her. “Never fear citizen!” I shout, switching to Reunion and landing on a flying card and dashing towards the Heartless. “The hell?” Gilda asks, her and the Heartless actually turning towards me before I swiftly killed all of them rather quickly all things considered. “Who in the hell are you?” “I am the White Knight of Equis ma’am.” I say simply. “Slayer of Heartless, good person all around, and an all around badass.” I explain with a grin. “Badass huh?” Gilda says, clearly unimpressed. “...Too much?” I ask. “Yeah.” ”Christ…I did sound like a bad comic book hero…where the hell did that even come from?!” I mentally argue with myself. “Well, anyway…. So, what are you doing here? I haven’t seen a griffon in town before.” “I’m usually delivering packages for out of town or to pick them up. Being a griffon I can fly for longer periods of time compared to most ponies so I usually get stuck with the long distance deliveries.” “Sounds about right.” I nod. “But you living in town or outside of town?” I ask curiously. “I live with my roommate Derpy.” “Wait you're living with Derpy?” I ask, honestly shocked about that. “Yeah…after a friend and I had a falling out rather than go back to broken down, likely heartless infested Griffon Stone, I stayed and then Derpy came along…dropped a few hundred pounds of mail on me, treated my injuries then I just kinda moved in after that, she got me a job at the post office and I just kinda stayed.” “Yeah I heard Derpy tends to...do that on accident.” I say sheepishly. “By the by...does Derpy have a daughter?” I ask, wondering if Dinky did exist. “Yeah, little Dinky. No clue who her dad is sadly, I’ve been like a big sister to the kid.” I frowned at hearing that. “Well glad to know you’re helping Derpy and Dinky.” I nod. “But why did Air Pirates attack you randomly? Normally those things have some semblance of a reason to attack people…” I ask, wondering if there was some reason beyond just ‘random convenience’. “I don’t know. Was delivering a package to some address way out of town when they popped up.” “That’s concerning.” I frown. “Well I might as well tag along just so you won’t get attacked again...also...just a curious thing, has Derpy ever said anything about me? Like...a majority of the mares in Equestria?” I ask. “Well, considering she and Dinky were in Manehattan when you first showed up she did send you some get well gifts, oddly enough it was a pineapple. Other than that… well, let’s just say she may or may not have a full body pillow of you in her room that may or may not be anatomically correct.” “Oh…” I mutter, steam pillowing from my head. “And...she hasn’t tried to ask if she could join my herd...why?” “We both agree she’s got a hot bod, but she thinks males turn her down because of the eye thing. Personally that’s just cute to me.” “Her eyes are adorable!” I say with a frown. “Why no one would want to date her for that cute face alone is beyond me.” I huff. “Well, let’s get this thing delivered and then I can introduce you two, she may be my friend, but I wanna see the train wreck that is you two meeting.” Gilda said, starting to walk along the road. “I promise to not make it as much of a train wreck.” I say, sitting down on my floating card and following along. A mile or so out and we found the ‘address’ which was literally just read as “shed two miles outside of town” and landed in front of the small shed. It was green painted, red light bulb on the side and a brown roof with a door and window right next to each other. “Who can live in such a small shed?” “You’d be surprised.” I shrug. “Either people that just want a small house out of the way or people that just really want a roof over their head.” I explain. “Now...let’s see who lives in this creepy as hell shed.” Gilda knocked on the door, to which there was the sound of metal clanking and a cat screaming. “Why are you still in here cat!” A rather familiar voice yelled. When the door opened… Cript was there. “Oh, hey Ben, oh, my mail!” Cript took the box and walked into the shed…to which Gilda and I followed…seeing it was bigger on the inside…much bigger. “Dad...the fuck are you doing here?” I ask with a frown, looking around the inside of the ‘shed’. “Oh, making sure the Radist systems and functions are still working. Haven’t used this thing in a long time so wanted to make sure it was all still good.” “‘Radist systems’?” I ask with a frown. “Oh and Gilda...this is my dad…” I say, still not entirely sure why the hell he was here to begin with. “You know what a Tardis is?” “Of course it is…” I sigh out. “Found this thing in a time lord scrapyard, last owner was dead outside the door and the key was broken off inside the lock. Managed to get the key out and the power was about dead when I entered, got it running again and kinda made it my house after reading through the owner's manual.” He said, placing the package on the console. “Course, that was way before I became a god.” “I kind of thought that.” I nod. “But why does it look like a shed instead of a police box?” “Was like this when I found it, never found the circuit board for the chameleon functions so I just left it as is. Talked with the Doctor about it once and turns out mine was the newest model before the time war whereas his was already a museum piece. Now that’s lucky.” “Right then…” I nod. “But I suppose mom already told you and everyone?” “Oh yeah. Since the whole family, save for the infants are going to be there I’m having two worlds made, well, three, one for your bachelor party, one for the lucky ladies bachelorette party, and the one for the wedding.” “Oh dear…” I sigh out. “But don’t be surprised if there’s more wives...sometimes things happen ya know?” “Oh, I know. Heh, I remember when my first wife suggested a herd. I ran for the nearest closet… don’t you dare make a joke about that.” “It’s not my fault you walked into it dad.” I say, trying to contain my laughter. “But anyways...I think we kind of...blew Gilda’s mind with all this…” Dad and I looked at Gilda, who was just looking at the ceiling with an open mouth. “Yeah… Speaking of,” Dad grabbed the package, quickly opening it as what was inside was a pulsating white crystal. “Still not sure how this got here…” “Don’t know…” I frown. “Anyways...can you try to keep my family off my back for longer than a week? Also…” I start before tapping Gilda’s shoulder. “Gilda, you home?” I ask the dazed griffoness. She shook. “Wha…oh…HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE?!?!” She squawked, finally out of the daze and now in the freak out. “Maybe we should leave. Besides you have to show me where Derpy lives.” I say nervously. “I don’t want to...try and explain any of this right now.” “You two go on ahead.” Dad said, still looking at the crystal. “I’m trying to… wait, nevermind.” He said suddenly, tossing the crystal. “I’m stupid, I forgot about what let this thing exist…. Here.” Dad floated the crystal over to me. Holding it made me feel… kinda happy. “Keep it.” “Thanks...what is it?” I ask curiously, wondering why it made me feel happy. “Basically it’s pure light element condensed into a self recharging crystal. Lots of other crystals that are basically infinite resources of elements exist. That one is for light. Oh, do yourself a favor and try not to break it, weakens the power.” I immediately summoned my assistant and put the thing in my ‘bag’. “Yeah that’s going to stay there for a long ass time.” I say with a frown. “Anyways, Gilda, we have a cute mare to meet.” Gilda just nodded as she began to walk out the door. “I’m gonna pretend this didn’t happen.” She said as we got out. “It’s best if you did.” I nod. “I’m...sorry. That tends to happen sadly…” “Well… follow me then.” Gilda said as she took flight. I got on my cards and followed next to her. We ended up back in Ponyville, near town square actually when we landed, the house we were in front of was two stories, rather cozy looking with a nice front and back yard. “Welp, here’s home sweet home.” “Cozy.” I say honestly. “Ladies first.” Gilda rolled her eyes, walking up to the door and opening it. Inside was…really nice, some fancy furniture, pictures of Derpy, Dinky and even Gilda all hung on the wall. This was…a nice surprise. “Huh…” I say. “Looks nice.” I smile, looking at all the pictures and glad to see the three of them happy. “Yeah.” Gilda said, taking a seat on the couch and tossing me a…Diet Cola. “She takes a lot of vacations with Dinky and I tag along. Finally got to see some real amusement parks.” I put the bottle in my pocket and nodded. “Glad to know you’re having a nice time here.” I smile. “Must be nice...after having a break down you found people to pick you back up.” I say, looking down and sadly remembering my previous life. “Yeah, Derpy has always been lucky, kinda balances out her clumsiness. I guess I was meant to find her and be friends. Kinda restored my faith in ponies.” “Derpy could restore joy in anyone that’s for sure.” I chuckle. “But are Dinky and Derpy home or away?” “Dinky should still be at school, and Derpy should get off work in an hour or so. I guess if you plan on her joining this herd of yours I should show you around her home.” Gilda said as she got up and pulled me along. “And maybe if I’m lucky I can also have you.” I half joke. Gilda immediately stopped. “Dude, first off, I’m not easy to get along with, I still wonder how Derpy does it, second, you could never handle my tits.” “Firstly, we’re getting along perfectly fine. And two, I handle Luna’s, Twilight’s, Zecora’s, Rarity’s and Pinkie’s tits, at the same time.” I explain. “Ha, you perv. Well, anyway, first off is my room I guess.” Gilda said as we got upstairs. She opened the first door up here and inside was a not very decorated room, the only decoration was a slightly bloody closed letter pinned to the wall. “Well, here’s my room.” “Should I even ask about the slightly bloody closed letter?” I ask worriedly. ”Kind of thought I would see an instrument case or something…” I think to myself. “Oh, actually I keep that as a personal reminder. Was the first piece of mail Derpy dropped on me the day we met, address is all covered in blood and unreadable so I kept is as a…keepsake.” “Ah, I understand.” I nod. “But um...do you play any instruments? You look like someone that would.” “I used to play the flute when I was little, but I haven’t played in years, plus I never went back to Griffon Stone to get my old stuff when I moved here, so if it’s not stolen it’s likely buried in dust…. Assuming the roof didn’t cave in already.” “I'm sure someone can make you a new one.” I say honestly. “Cause I'd like to hear you play the flute.” “Heh, maybe. Playing a flute with a beak isn’t easy. Well, next is Dinky’s room.” Gilda closed the door, and a little bit down the hall to the right was a door with the words “Dinky’s room” written in fancy letters. The door was painted with a green field and a large blue sky above it. She opened the door and it was a kids dream come true in here, dresses and even a child sized manikin was dressed in a fancy dress, dolls and stuffed animals were scattered everywhere, and her bed was the top part of a bunk bed with a slide to go down and a ladder to go up. Though, I did notice the high end gaming PC on the desk under the top bunk. “As you can see, Derpy spoils her to death.” “Hot damn.” I say in surprise. “Well...as long as she's not acting spoiled…” “Derpy did have Dinky earn the bed and computer, the rest is actually gifts from her grandparents, save for all the games on that PC, Derpy buys her those.” “Sounds like a nice family.” I nod. “But how is Dinky? She nice to friends?” I ask curiously. “Her only friend is a filly named Ginger Snaps, and Dinky herself is nice, though, she’s almost as shy as that pony Fluttershy at times. I think that’s why Dinky likes playing games, she pretends she’s not… herself.” “Trust me...I know that all too well…” I sigh out. “But hopefully I can be a nice father figure.” “I know Derpy would agree.” Gild said, closing the door. “And lastly the kink de resistance.” Gilda dragged me over to the last door on the hallway. When she opened the door… I nearly had a heart attack. Pictures of me, most clearly fan art cause I DID NOT POSE IN THOSE CLOTHES! Were everywhere and as Gilda said… a full body pillow of me… nude… with all the right… parts… “Wow… you look as red as an apple.” Gilda said. “Uh…” I mutter, not entirely sure what to make of this. “Why hasn’t she asked to be in my herd again?” I ask, trying to keep myself calm and not freak out about all…that. “Seriously...there’s a difference between ‘cute’ and ‘creepy’...and this is on the borderline of ‘she would probably rape me if she had the chance’...” “Not her fetish as far as I know.” Gilda said. “But hey, from what I hear Luna was practically dry humping you when she visited you in the hospital.” “She kissed me and that's it…” I frown. “But seriously...who made these? I feel very violated here…” “Fans, who then sold them to porn shops and over the internet.” Gilda deadpanned. “The worst one she showed me was this one sex doll that comes to life via special words then screws you.” “If I find any of these people bad things are going to happen.” I frown. “And not the 'bad things’ they want…” “Meh, well Derpy only went with the body pillow. So now we just kinda wait around I guess.” Gilda said, closing the door and the two of us went back to the living room. “Why didn't she ask again?” I ask Gilda. “Self conscious about her eyes due to bad boyfriend experiences.” Gilda said as we took a seat. “Besides, she wonders how she can compete with three of the elements of harmony, princess Luna, and the most exotic female just below dragon, a Zebra.” “Damn….” I frown. “That's…something...but please tell me her room is sound proof...I hope Dinky doesn't hear her...private time…” “Yeah, she had that done with a special spell box she got at a porn shop in Canterlot. So… are the rumors Celestia and Chrysalis are a thing?” Gilda asked. “Yes actually.” I say honestly. “Surprising what sex and love can do...but the porn industry here must be huge…” I say, not sure why a porn shop has a portable 'soundproofing’ box. “From what I heard you should have gotten that answer when girls of all races sent you nudes while you were in the hospital.” “I didn't look at most of them...saw mares but all races?” I ask curiously. “Uh...kind of thought Dragons wouldn't see me as…’likable’ to begin with.” “I’m just going off rumors really. Though the dragon lord’s eldest daughter has made it public she likes you if the international news is to be believed.” “Listen I need to cleave my way through this planet's heartless population, I barely know anything outside Ponyville and Canterlot sadly.” I explain, never really having the time to travel to the other countries and clean up their Heartless problems. “Then you dude, need help. Why not ask… that guy, your dad, and those odd balls that you brought from… wherever.” “My dad can’t really help cause he’s...really busy. One of the ‘odd balls’ is a police officer but he can’t do everything, others are trying to have a normal life or do what they like...like a scythe wielder and kunai wielder being salon workers.” I shrug. “But I’m the main guy who has to do it…it’s my job after all and not many know how to use the main weapon I use.” “Not even that girl with the white wings?” “My sister?” I ask. “No...she’s also busy.” I sigh out. “But maybe, sooner or later, I can get…’apprentices’ and get some help.” I say before summoning Reunion. “And why I say that is because you need a ‘Keyblade’, which is what this is specifically to help mow down the pesky bastards.” I frown. “Well, where are you gonna find them? I’m guessing you can’t pick them up off of wherever.” “Actually…” I start. “If you do a special ‘oath’ then you’re able to get a keyblade. Not entirely sure why my four out of my five girlfriends and Spike didn’t get one sooner…” I mutter. “Spike…you mean the dragon living with Rainbow Dash?” “Thankfully I don’t get to hear him brag about it.” I sigh out, before turning the weapon around so it’s handle first for Gilda. “But if you want a keyblade, all you need to do is hold the handle and speak an oath. It’s all up to you my fine griffiness.” Gilda rolled her eyes at that, but was looking at the handle. She was clearly tempted, but before she grabbed it…“Gilda!” Screamed the high pitched voice of a filly. “I’m home.” Said the small, grey furred and blond maned filly named Dinky as she came into the doorway. “Maybe later.” I mutter before Reunion disappeared. “You got a special visitor.” I say to the little filly. “Guess who I am?” “Your that white knight guy… my mom wants your babies.” Dinky deadpanned. I groan, before rubbing my temples. “Christ she needs it bad…” I mutter. “How many times have you heard her say that?” “It’s unintentional when you come up in the news.” Dinky said, taking off her backpack. “When mom act’s, well, all fangirl she really goes all out.” “Well she’ll be glad to know about why I’m here.” I say with a smile. “But what do you think about me Dinky? Given that all I’ve heard most of the day is how Derpy thinks about me.” Dinky looked at me with a judging face. “...Stupidly lucky like mom.” “Even a child can see I’m an idiot…” I sigh out. “Wonders…” “It’s from what I’ve gathered.” Dinky said as she sat on the couch. “The day you showed up and kill a massive heartless you pretty much, in the same day, nail Princess Luna, Twilight Sparkle, then later Rarity and Pinkie Pie, and Zecora… wait… are you here… to add my mom?” “I saw her room sadly.” I sigh out. “But besides that Gilda explained that...she’s really lonely.” “That’s putting it lightly.” Dinky added. “Either way. But Gilda told me that people don’t like her because of her eyes...which frankly I’m rather concerned about people wondering why they would leave a cute woman just because of her eyes.” I say honestly. “Well…mom’s love life is that of Rarity’s before you hooked her. Picked the wrong men, then again, they chase her for her chest, butt, or money.” “Which I am after none of those.” I say simply. “I have too much money, and I don’t care how she looks physically. I care about the woman behind her physical features.” I explain. “That’s good.” Dinky said. “The ones only after the money are the worst.” “Remember how I said Derpy is lucky?” Gilda asked as I nodded. “She’s won at least one lottery every year since she was old enough to buy a ticket.” “Financially speaking Mom and I can live in Canterlot and not worry about investing money til I have grandkids.” Dinky said. “But mom and I like Ponyville and she likes her job.” “I’d rather live in a cozy town with people that actually give a damn about you then a city with a bunch of fuck wits with their heads shoved up their asses.” I frown. “Language.” Gilda said. “Kid in the room.” “Whatever.” I sigh out. “Anyways, when is Derpy getting home? Cause I’m pretty sure the moment she steps in here she’ll tackle me and I want to be prepared.” “Mom should be here in half n hour.” Dinky said. “Til then… is it true Luna is a game addict?” “Our room is filled to the brim with consoles and her gaming computer.” I deadpan. “I have never seen a woman that addicted to video games.” “Huh, alright. So… they say you have fourteen weapons?” “Yes I do.” I nod. “Can I see one?” “Sure.” I say while summoning my keyblade. “My signature weapon, Reunion.” “Do you have cards like the new cop downtown?” “Yes I do.” I nod, walking over and pulling a card from behind her ear. Dinky took it, looking It over. To my surprise she flung it at Gilda, who became trapped in It. “The heck!” Gilda shouted. “Wow…they work.” Dinky said. ”That...should not have happened…” I think to myself before snapping my fingers, Gilda being freed from the card and it coming back to my hand. “No trapping family in cards okay?” I ask, now just noticing a symbol on Reunion like on Fair Game. Dinky gave a cheeky smile. “Sorry, wanted to make sure they worked. And sorry Gilda, but if I flung it at Ben he likely would have stopped it.” “No more ice cream for you for a week.” Gilda grumbled. “Aw… fair enough.” Dinky said. “Anywhosits.” I say while making my weapons disappear. “How was your day Dinky?” I ask, hoping to have a casual conversation while we wait for Derpy. “Usual, waited for Cheerilee to hand out the tests, took them, then just kinda listened to music the rest of the day.” Dinky said. “Her tests are boring.” “Try taking nothing but math tests for over a month and a half straight.” I shudder. “She did.” Gilda said. “Dinky has an I.Q. that could rival Twilight’s.” ”I feel like there’s going to be a trend…” I think to myself worriedly. “Okay then...not sure how or why but okay.” I nod. “I’ve just always been smart for my age.” Dinky said. “Part of why I don't have many friends and why I keep quiet in public, people don’t like my ‘smart’ mouth.” “Listen, there’s a difference between being smart, and being sassy.” I explain. “Smart is basically telling people they are wrong, sassy is basically doing the same thing but in a more...joking or jerk kind of way.” I shrug. “Not when you’re eleven and you can catch mistakes serious ‘adults’ make. Once on a field trip to the mayor's office I got lost and found myself in her office, found her books for the town budget and her math was… well, let’s just say the town owes me for having the extra cash to rebuild the public pool.” Dinky said. “And the mayor got mad even though she did agree I was more correct in the numbers than she was.” “I think the mayor was mad because it’s her job to be correct and not screw up...and when she was pointed out she was wrong she probably got mad at herself or something.” I shrug, not knowing the whole situation. “Either way, people just get made when you correct them. Too prideful to accept help for anything.” “True.” I nod. “But oh well. So, I heard Gilda’s side of things, but what do you think about having Gilda here? Gilda said you treat her like a ‘big sister’, is that true?” “I do.” Dinky said, cheering up. “She’s tough, doesn’t take mouth from anyone, and mom’s last break up Gilda here scared the scum bag by flying him high up and dropped him into the lake.” I laughed at that. “Oh wow, that is hilarious.” I chuckle. “My finest work.” Gilda said, her voice filled with pride. “Glad to know you’re happy Dinky.” I smile. “A child should never be sad with life. No matter what.” The sound of the door opening caught our ears. And as expected Derpy came in. “Hey, Gilda, Dinky, I’m home.” Derpy said…when she entered the living room her eyes were covered with…seaweed? “Had an accident delivering some food to the petshop.” “How did you get home with those on your eyes?” Gilda asked. “I can see on my bad eye side, but I can only see the ceiling right now.” Derpy explained. “So anything happen?” She asked as she tried pulling off the seaweeds, the things tangled in her mane as well. “Here, let me help.” I say while stepping forward and helping the mare get the seaweed out of her mane. “Oh, Gilda, who’s your friend? He sounds nice.” Derpy said. Once the seaweed came off and she saw me she froze. “Yep. Just as adorable as I remember.” I smile. “Hello Derpy, it’s nice to see you.” I say kindly. Derpy still didn’t move.. But when a smell I quickly became familiar with started to arise she somehow did a sonic boom indoors, breaking anything glass as she zoomed upstairs. “Yup! About what I expected!” Gilda shouted, our ears ringing. “What the heck!?!” I shout, putting my hands over my ears and on my knees, blistering pain coursing through my head. ”God damn Dire Wolf hearing…” I think to myself, the pain hurting quite a lot. “Anyone else notice mom wet her pants?!” Dinky yelled/asked. Well, at least she didn’t know what that actually was. “I’m sorry my head feels like it got run over by a truck!” I yell, having noticed her pants wet but still. “Christ…” I grumble, starting to get up and just thankful I’m not deaf. I looked up, and to my surprise Luna and Trinity are there. Trinity put some kinda liquid in my ears and the pain left. “The heck happened?” She asked. “Luna and I were shopping then we hear a sonic boom.” “Derpy is my number one fan and she...has a lot of pictures and things that makes me feel violated.” I sigh out. “Well, fan art can never compare to the real things I have.” Luna said while Trinity started putting that liquid in Dinky and Gilda’s ears. “Derpy’s probably in her room.” I sigh out. “Sorry for you two to have to randomly appear here because of sonic booms...didn’t expect Derpy to move that fast…” “I don’t think Derpy moved that fast since her body pillow arrived.” Gilda said, still rubbing her ears. “I didn’t need to know that…” I mutter. “Oh, you should get used to it if you want her for your herd.” “Oh, you plan on adding to the herd?” Luna asked. “Then I must meet this mare.” “I have the weirdest feeling there’s going to be three more.” I say honestly. “One is Derpy...who is currently in her room most likely...then two others…” I trail off, still not sure if Gilda would even want to be apart of my herd anyways and maybe someone else. “But anyways, let’s go find her.” I say before heading off to Derpy’s room. “Allow me.” Luna said, having me step to the side as she opened the door, to which she was met with a scream. “If all goes well then please, keep those clothes off.” Luna told Derpy to my embarrassment. When I got to walk in I saw Derpy…holding the body pillow of me under the sheets. “I...I...I’m so embarrassed…” “I’m right here, if you wanted a hug you could have just asked.” I say sheepishly, knowing what’s under the sheets. “Instead of...trying to blow my ear drums out…” “Heheh…sorry.” Luna stepped forward. “Young filly, please tell me, if you were to be offered a place in our herd, would you accept?” Luna asked. “M-Me…in your herd? W-w-w-w-w-w-with…the w-white knight?” She stuttered. I stepped forward and gently put a hand on her cheek. “Yes. Do you want to be apart of my herd?” I ask gently, hoping she isn’t completely overwhelmed with everything. Her response was kicking the body pillow out and she dragged me under the sheets, as she started stripping me. “Well while this goes on I’ll be downstairs.” Luna said, closing the door behind her. Five…five hours. She can really take it, and she clearly needed it. “I see you...really needed it…” I say, starting to get dressed. Derpy chuckled. “I haven’t had anything other than my hands and toys to get me off since Dinky was born.” Derpy said, going through her closet. “So… like my ‘bubble butt’?” She asked, knowing I was face first in her cutie mark for a fair hour. “I do love your ‘bubble butt’.” I chuckle. “But I love you for you Derpy...and that’s a fact.” “Well, so far you know what you’ve been told and I only know you from what I’ve heard. Can’t wait to meet the you the news cannot report about.” Derpy says as she finishes getting dressed. “Call me Ben, that’s my ‘real name’. White Knight is the news name.” I say simply, stretching out a little from our ‘fun’. “Hey...do you ever think I could manage to get Gilda as a herd member or do you think that’s stupid?” I ask. “I think it would be good for her. She’s never been in a relationship and when it comes to friendships I barely managed to get to her try them again. She’s changed a lot since I first dropped that mail pile on her. I think she just needs the griffon way of choosing a mate.” “And I have no idea what that is.” I say honestly. “Cause Griffon’s aren’t the ‘fight me and win my hand’...I think that’s more ‘dragon’ oriented.” “Well, if my porn knowledge is right, and it is, for Griffons they have to see how good you are…by experience. Meaning if you can manage to get Gilda in bed, if what you did to me is just a part of what you can do, she’ll accept in half an hour. As for dragonesses, the mate in question has to fight the father, take a scale from them, then give it to the dragoness.” “How important is the porn industry here? I mean dear lord this is...kind of a lot for ‘porn’.” I explain. “Actually, most of this stuff comes from the Diamond Dog kingdom. After their new queen was crowned they got industrial. Most of the porn supplies in the world comes from there now, which makes sense given public sex is legal there, among other lewd activities.” “Oh god damn it…” I sigh out. “Well...anyways let’s go down stairs...foods probably made and they might be worried I accidentally broke your hip.” I say while getting fully dressed, putting on my cloak and heading on downstairs. “So, you two are still walking?” Gilda asked as we entered the kitchen. “Yes we are.” I nod. “I hope we weren’t keeping you from something.” “I was just telling Gilda here about your bedroom abilities.” Luna said, tapping Gilda on the arm. “She expects you in her bed after dinner.” I open up my Assistant and purchase a potion, and downing it and feeling way better. “Alright then.” I nod. “But um...did any of you...hear anything?” I ask worriedly. “No?” Dinky said. Luna leaned in and whispered. “I saw through the keyhole.” She said, making me blush. “Got to say, looking forward for when all of us gang up on you next time.” “So what’s for dinner?” I ask quickly, hoping to change the subject. “You and I are having Beef stew and the others are having Veggie.” Gilda said. “Right then.” I nod. “Need any help cooking or is it already made?” “It’s all done.” Dinky said, holding a bowel. “Dig in.” We all sat down and began eating, talking a bit too. “So Ben, Dinky and I played a new game that came out on the computer. It’s multiplayer so I ran home to get my laptop.” Luna said. “What’s the game?” I ask curiously. “Minecraft.” Dinky said. “It’s basically build whatever and survive.” ”It’s 2011 here?” I think to myself, remembering Minecraft on Earth came out in 2011. “Sounds nice, I suppose it looks like a world of squares?” I ask. “Yeah, basic, but fun.” “Right then.” I nod. “I really need to see what videogames are here...never decided to look it up because ‘saving the people’ and all that.” “You should take a vacation sometime Ben.” Luna said. “I’m sure Trinity wouldn’t mind and frankly Gilda here told me something interesting about the dragon kingdom.” “Right now is my ‘vacation’ because I’m looking for other girlfriends at this point...but after that I’m gonna need to be gone for a long time. Got to cleave through the world's Heartless population and try to make everywhere besides Equestria and a few outside places more….livable.” I sigh out. “Why not ask Zeke for help?” Luna asked. “He’s probably super busy and I need to make sure the planet is safe...I mean I can give more people Keyblades, and when the others actually summon theirs I’ll have to train them...or Luxu I don’t know…” I sigh out, knowing my list of shit to do is going from ‘laundry list’ to ‘Twilight’s list’ here. “I suppose Luxu and Time Bell can help in that regard. Luxu by himself could likely deal with the stronger ones while Time and Sweetie Bell handle the others.” “Hopefully.” I sigh out, finishing up my dinner after that. “Anyways, Dinky, what do you think about me in a ‘father’ sense?” I ask the filly. “I see comedy in my future.” She joked. “You...have no idea.” I say, shaking my head with a warm smile. “But it would mostly be a ‘what the heck’ kind of comedy…” “I guessed.” Dinky said, finishing her soup. “So, if Luna is gonna be my mom also then… does that make you prince and me a princess?” “Yes actually.” Luna said. “By marriage you’d become princesses, Ben becomes a prince, you know how it is.” “Sometimes I forget I’m wearing this thing.” I say while tapping the silver crown on my head. “Not sure why…” I mutter. “But what do you think about becoming a princess Dinky?” “Permission to rub it in Diamond Tiara’s face?” Dinky asked her mom. “Permission denied.” Derpy replied. “It’s mean, and unladylike.” “I’m sorry but Rarity want’s her lines back.” I joke. “Speaking of… I haven’t seen her reopen her shop yet?” Derpy asked. “Any reason why?” “She’s been busy either going to fashion shows, doing other things or being my girlfriend.” I shrug. “I’m sure she’ll reopen her shop here.” I say honestly. “She wouldn’t keep her stylish clothing away from the good people of Ponyville.” “I know the reason Ben, but that’s a secret between the women, and a surprise for you.” Luna teased. “Of course it is.” I sigh out. “So many surprises from my wonderful girlfriends.” “You’ll love it, trust me.” After Dinner Gilda and I… did the do and she’s now on board with the herd. Darpy was wrong, was after two hours. We also borrowed her soundproof box thing. With how late it was I spent the night there, and the next day Gilda, Derpy, Luna, Dinky and I walked back to the library and we told the news to the rest. “Yay! More milk for Ben!” Pinkie cheered. “Pinkie!” Twilight retorted. “There’s kids here.” “I’m not caring.” Jenny said, reading a book on the couch. “I’m confused.” Dinky said. “The girl on the couch is going to be your new sister, Jenny.” I explain. “She’s nice when you get to know her...just don’t make her mad okay?” “So you’re gonna be the bad influential sister?” Dinky asked. “Likely.” Jenny replied. “You smart for your age too?” “Haven’t had much school when your family is criminals that are on the shoot to kill list of every country. But I taught myself what I could. If you’re referring to maturity I can be more mature than Ben if I tried.” “...I think we’ll get along well.” “Just stay out of trouble you two.” I say simply. “I will.” Dinky said. “Expect me in handcuffs by high school.” Jenny replied. “You better not.” I frown. “A future princess shouldn’t be a criminal.” Jenny raised an eyebrow at me. “Princess? Me? … nah.” “Technically speaking when you’re apart of our family and I finally decide to marry all of my girlfriends you will be a princess.” I say simply. “Just don’t abuse your power.” “At most I’ll bankrupt the kingdom.” She mutters. “Why?” I ask with a frown, having heard her muttering. “Shits and giggles.” “Not surprised.” I sigh out. “Well I just hope we can help you not do that ever.” “Let me handle this.” Luna said, patting me on my side as she went up to Jenny. “How about this, if princess isn’t your thing, how about… future dungeon keeper?” “... keep talking.” “All the enemies we have yet to meet, the worst that we will have rot for the rest of their lives, it would be your job to keep them in chains behind bars, and if they escape, you can either rearrest them, torture them, then throw them back in their cells, or kill them. Your choice.” “...Deal.” Jenny said as she and Luna shook hands. “Well alright then.” I nod. ”Who knew Jenny would agree to murdering criminals…” I think to myself. “So, if that’s all darlings what next?” Rarity asked. “Dragon lands.” Luna said. “A very special princess there, if rumors are to be believed, has a thing for Ben and plus, a marriage with them will be instant peace between our kingdoms.” “Who is this dragoness again?” I ask curiously. “Also yes, I would like to know of another place besides Equestria...and is on the same planet for a change.” “Honora the princess of the current dragon lord.” Twilight said. “Her younger sister is named Ember, the two are… different. Ember wants to be dragon lord while Honora wants to explore beyond her kingdom. Her… condition makes that hard.” “Uh…’condition’?” I ask worriedly. “She’s a Snow Dragon.” Luna explained. “She was born in the dragon kingdom of fire, an egg lost and adopted by the fire dragon lord. She can’t leave her room or else she’ll suffer from heat stroke in minutes.” “Well I suppose it’s good that this,” I start before summoning Frozen Pride. “Is purely based on ice magic. Good shield to.” “That, and we asked a favor of Braig.” Rarity said. “You asked Braig for a favor?” I ask, not remembering that tidbit. “It was while you, Derpy and Gilda got to explore each other.” Luna said. “We knew of this and to be honest had planned to see her for both public and personal reasons. After the Manehattan incident, we need something to show the people Equestria will come back. The fire and Ice dragon lands are already at peace because of Honora, marrying her to an Equestrian prince to be will let the people know progress is being made, and we can get aid of the dragons. Their lands are rich in ores, and we are rich in gold and gems. It will all work out in rebuilding the city.” “Well glad to know that, not only will I get a dragon girlfriend but also help out in more ways around Equestria then murdering Heartless.” I nod, glad to be helping out as much as I can. “Yes, all we need now is-” Rarity was interrupted by Braig breaking down the door. “Speak of the devil.” “It took half my ammo cache but I got it.” Braig said, placing a small box on the table. “Pay up.” Twilight levitated a big chest, then when Braig took, he nearly fell over holding it. “Pleasure doing business, and Ben, when you’re done being lazy I’m training you next.” Braig said as he left. ”Prick.” I think to myself. “So...the hell’s in the box?” “We asked Braig if he knew of any items that let the user become immune to heat. He knew of several, but had none so we paid him to procure it.” Luna said, picking up and opening the small box. Inside was a ring, it looked like it was made from frozen fire. “He said it’s a ring of frozen lava. Made on a dangerous world, located in dangerous places. We paid him in about five hundred thousand bits, to which he agreed.” “Oh, okay then.” I nod. ”I suppose it’s best he get’s out and does stuff...and for me to not use my Assistant to basically get everything I need at a flick of my wrist…” I think to myself. “Anyways, when are we going?” I ask “Three days.” Twilight said. “Celestia and Chrysalis are coming too, they’ll be acting as our escorts since the changelings and dragons actually have had peace before, and Chrysalis wants to re-establish that.” “Well that’ll help out a bunch.” I nod. “But three days huh? Sounds like forever with most of the crap I’ve been doing lately.” “These three days are part of your vacation darling.” Rarity said. “Our way of saying… get to the bedroom, we’re not leaving till we have to go.” Rarity said as all the girls looked at me with those eyes. “Dinky, Jenny, have fun getting to know each other. Don’t burn anything down and if you see Sweetie, Time, and Luxu, mind explaining to them about my two new girlfriends?” “I’ll handle it.” Jenny said. “And if you actually don’t come out in three days I’ll get Kevin, think he’s living with someone named Cheerilee?” “Huh…” I start. “Well alrighty then. Thank you Jenny.” I nod. “Pay me when you escape or get out.” Jenny said as the girls dragged, well, carried me upstairs, locking the door behind them. To be continued... Nobody's good to bad day pt1Three days of plowing my girlfriends later I gently made my way out of the room they were all sleeping in and made my way to the kitchen. “My pelvis hurts.” I grumble while walking in and making myself some breakfast. “He lives.” Jenny said, she and Dinky walking in. “Welp, he’s not limping or broken, pay up Dinky.” “Dang it.” Dinky said as she handed over… a raw chunk of gold, to Jenny. “Easy money.” “Why does everyone bet on me being injured or saying something?” I whine. “I bet on you at least having a limp or broken hip.” Dinky mumbled. “Clearly your body isn’t normal.” “You missed a lot by the way.” Jenny said, pouring herself some cereal. “Well start explaining.” I say, starting to eat my cereal. “Day one, taught Dinky here how to shoot, kill, stab, and dispose of bodies.” “We practiced with fish and a manticore Jenny killed… don’t tell Fluttershy.” Dinky said. “Does it involve a sassy white rabbit?” I ask curiously. “No…” Jenny mumbled. “Sneaky little rat stayed in her hair the whole them after he caught us…” “Then what did you kill?” I ask with a frown. “Also why did you teach Dinky how to kill? Self defense reasons that’s fine but to straight up murder?” “Little bit of both.” SHe confessed. “But we killed in total, ten fish, a manticore, and our boredom.” “Okay then.” I nod. “Anyways, next?” “Day two.” Dinky said. “Found Kevin and Cheerilee setting up some stuff outside the school. Guess Kevin is gonna teach gym? Some hours later some guy with blond spiky hair crashed in town hall, then shot back into space for no reasons, and after that we met your mom Den… needless to say that happened…we told her you were busy then she said some stuff about wondering if… something or other could happen, then that was about it for the rest of day two.” “I’ll have to call mom…” I sigh out. “Anyways, day three?” I ask. “Day three… we spent it with Kevin and Cheerilee cause that sound proof magic box of yours broke…” Jenny said. My forehead met the table rather quickly. “Uh...how loud were we?” “Well, Celestia stopped by to see how we were doing before Dinky and I left… if she had brought Chrysalis with her, she would have ended up in the changeling equivalent of a food coma.” Jenny explained. “Noise wise… no one walked within a ten foot radius of the library.” “Oh dear…” I sigh out. “Well we’re gonna have to fix that and double the strength…” I sigh out. “But anyways, congrats you two, you are going to have a total of eight mothers by the end of my stay at the dragon lands.” I say honestly. There was a crash, Jenny and I ran outside… and saw Luxu, Time, and Sweetie Bell scattered outside of Luxu’s gummi ship. “We’re back horn dog.” Luxu said as he got up. “Why didn’t you have Sweetie or Time drive?” I ask bluntly. “I did, this crash was all Sweetie.” Luxu states. “Can people stop sucking at driving for five seconds?” I ask bluntly. “When you stop being emo.” Time says as Luxu helps her up. “Also.” She tapped the door of the ship… it opened and a small mountain of bits fell out. “We got kicked out of, and likely bankrupted, every casino in Las Pegasus.” “Sweet christ.” I sigh out. “Also I’m not emo.” I frown. “Also, don’t tell Rarity but Sweetie got a tattoo.” Time added as Sweetie blushed. “Tattoo’s I don’t care about.” I say bluntly. “Now something more...private than that I will worry about. But what’s the tattoo?” “I...I’d rather not…” Sweetie mumbled worriedly. “I still have no idea how that happened.” Luxu said. “She didn’t drunk, mainly because she’s underage, yet after her fourth soda she got wasted on sugar… later followed by the craziest sugar rush ever.” “That’s...something.” I say worriedly. “But where did she get the tattoo?” Time looked between Sweetie and me, quickly walking over to me and whispering it. “Her…breasts…” “Oh for fuck sakes Sweetie.” I groan. “Really? There?” “The tattoo guy said I wasn’t the only one to get one there…” Sweetie mumbed, her face a cherry red. I only sighed out and shook my head. “We’re going to have a serious talk later. But right now I have to wake up the girls. I have to start traveling to the Dragon Lands later today.” “Oh, really?” Luxu asked. “Well while you and your herd are out, Time and I will find a doctor to remove Sweetie’s tattoo, and no one needs to know about the rest that went down in that now… half… two thirds, burned down city…” “How the fuck?” I ask, completely shocked at hearing that part. “That’s my fault…” Time admitted. “Some gang members tried to hit on Sweetie, knowing she was under age and I… lost it and hunted down them all… heh, turns out they pretty much owned that city so… well, at least the cops don't have to worry about them anymore?” Time said, nervous. “And, before you rant like hell, we did find a place where Heartless were holding people, ponies, whatever, and got rid of it, so there.” “Well...at least you helped save people.” I sigh out. “God only knows what Celestia’s going to say about hearing Las Pegasus being burned down.” I grumble. “Anyways, meet Jenny, she’s going to technically be your niece after I marry Rarity.” I say to Sweetie, pointing to Jenny. “Jenny, this is Time, Luxu, and Sweetie…” Luxu walked up to Jenny. “... you a murderer?” “Was.” Jenny replied. “Tried killing Ben?” “Yes.” “Failed?” “... yes.” “Got anger issues?” “Yes.” “You insane?” “Little bit.” “We’ll get along then.” Luxu said, shaking Jenny’s hand. “Glad to hear that.” I nod. “Oh wait...I forgot when Celestia and Chrysalis are supposed to get here…” I frown, sadly forgetting that little tidbit. Jenny looked up. “Three… two… one.” There was a loud thud behind me. I turned around, seeing Celestia carrying a… rather exposed Chrysalis bridal style. “Good news, I just got word Los Pegasus was burned to the ground.” Celestia said. “And I get to run what is rebuilt!” Chrysalis said, sounding semi-drunk. “And I suppose you're half drunk because…?” I ask Chrysalis. “I’m marrying this whore in that cities ashes!” Chrysalis yelled, kissing Celestia’s face. “Heh, that’s what I love about you bug-a-boo, you call me what I want to hear~” Celestia teased. “We have kids present.” I frown. “Mentally seventeen.” Jenny said. “Mentally thirty five.” Dinky said. “Had a test confirm it.” “I’m sure at this point we give no shits.” Jenny added. “Should have thought that.” I nod. “I’ll go wake up everyone else.” I say. “You can talk while I do that.” “Wait A minute!” Chrysalis said, rolling out of Celestia’s arms, dropping to the ground and standing- Oh my god her shirt and pants fell off and- SHE'S NOT WEARING UNDERGARMENTS?! She then walked over to me, her… chest, mere inches from my face. “Y-you’re that white night guy, right?” She asked, still drunk but apparently able to remember. “Yes...why aren’t you wearing any underwear?” I ask worriedly, taking a step away from her. She looked down at her nude self, a drunken smile on her face. “Oh… I haven’t really left the bedroom since sexy sun butt and I started dating, plus, changelings are usually always naked, even when we shape shift our skin will look like the clothes.” She said. “But… but… what was I gonna ask? Oh, right. I need a… fav...favor.” “What favor?” I ask worriedly. “First off, stop looking down, only Celie sees between the legs, and secondly, secondly… Oh, I found a thing out in the badlands when my soon to be niece and nephew in law love bomb shield... Whatever me and my hive out of the city.” “You never told me this Chrysi?” Celestia said, using her magic to teleport in a blanket and covering Chrysalis. “Well I would have but I felt it was more this guy’s ally.” “Um...I’ll look into it.” I nod. “You better.” Chrysalis said, failing to flick my nose. “The things look like you did before you..you got harry…you hit puberty? Meh, anyway, they no like me so they shot at us with… guns, and big boom things.” “I’ll take her inside.” Celestia said, the group of us walking inside, which, to my delight, the girls were up now. “Hi Luna.” “Greetings sister… sister in law?” Luna said, the last part with a bit of confusion towards Chrysalis. “Glad you’re all awake.” I nod. “So yes, Chrysalis is here, Los Pegasus happened to burn down in a terrible accident that involved the murdering of Heartless, and Chrysalis is drunk for some reason.” “Drunk on love!” Chrysalis says. “She’s not joking.” Celestia confirmed. “We… tried something new last night and she’s been like this for… thirteen hours… last night included…” “Oh dear…” I mutter. “Anyways, we need to travel to the dragon lands correct?” “Yes. RIght.” Twilight says, pouring everyone some coffee. “Just…give us like three hours…maybe four to shower and wake up, eat, all that.” “Sorry.” I say sheepishly. “I think I’ll take a shower first.” Derpy said, flying upstairs. “All the… sweat from those night might have made my feathers stiff.” Derpy finished, hurrying upstairs. “Yeah it’s gonna take them a while.” I say. “So how’s life been Celestia?” “Thanks to Chrysalis here, not boring. Before she showed up it was all paperwork, meetings, and sleep. Now…well, I’m not saying exactly everything but life’s been good. So… what do you think that stuff Chrysi was talking about was?” “I don’t know but I know I’m going to have to solve it.” I say honestly. “I’ve mostly been ‘protecting’ Equestria, I need to help the other countries soon.” “Well, Chrysalis’s hive is all in Equestria now, so we can see what this mess in the badlands is about after we finish our work in the dragonlands. So… Luna emailed me about your mom… she seems nice.” “Yeah...but mom is wonderful.” I smile. “One of the best things in my life. Right next to all my girlfriends.” “Well I hope to meet her someday.” Celestia said. “So, we got time to kill… tv?” “Sure why not.” I nod. “Might as well do something with our free time.” Five hours later everyone was ready, packed, and about to head out. Turns out we may spend the night there since it’s a long fly. Speaking of a MASSIVE dragon landed outside Ponyville, something akin to the passenger area’s of zeppelins attached to it’s back. We climbed in and it flew off. Fast. Celestia and Luna were setting the sun and moon by the time we arrived. We were greeted by the dragon lord, an even bigger dragon than the one that flew us, and a smaller one, blue scales… wait… every dragon here is naked… oh dear… “Greetings, White Knight.” The dragon lord said. “Celestia, a pleasure, Chrysalis, we have been looking forward to meeting a proper changeling queen.” Chrysalis, who was STILL drunk, managed to bow. “My daughter Ember here will escort you to your rooms, White Knight and his mates will room with Honora, Celestia and Chrysalis, given your relationship, shall room in the master guest room for the night.” “It’s a pleasure to meet you.” I say. “But may I ask a question?” “You may.” “I heard from one of my ‘mates’ that ‘dragon courting’ involves fighting the dragoness’s father...is that true?” I ask curiously, wondering if that’s true. “Yes, but in light of our attempt at peace and coexistence with the ponies, we will allow you to court her as if you were in Equestria. From what your mate princess Luna has told me it involves meeting them, talking, then lots of breeding after that.” “There’s a lot more talking and ‘getting to know each other’ then just breeding like rabbits.” I say quickly, glaring at Luna. “Says the guy who screwed his two newest additions for three days straight.” Gilda said. “A majority of the time I’m dragged in there so shut up.” I huff. “You could just say no.” Luna said. “Yes darling, we’re not savages.” Rarity added. “Bullshit!” I cough out. “Oh sorry, I had a cough.” The girls, save for Pinkie and Derpy, rolled their eyes. “Sir dragon lord, pray tell… is there a Heartless threat here?” Luna asked. “Those beasts of darkness… sadly yes, but our fire is more than enough to deal with what has so far shown up. If that fails then our size plays into our advantage as it has in the past. Our current issue though comes from a new creature we’ve seen not before, akin to you ponies and your bodies but not as… colorful, or furry.” “Fuck…” I mutter to myself. “Pray tell, what does this being look like? Any specific features?” “...” The dragon lord thought for a moment. “They are usually dressed in armor of some sort, but they fly in loud machines, and there’s a mark on all their armors.” The dragon lord dragged a claw in the dirt, drawing the mark… he didn’t need to finish, it was the american flag… “They all typically have this symbol on them. Not sure if it’s of their homeland or if it’s a magic one.” ”HOW DID I FUCKING KNOW!?!” I mentally shout, not believing that Earth actually did exist. “Oh...well looks like I have a lot of work to do…” I sigh out. “But anyways let’s not talk about depressing things and possible things I have to murder with extreme prejudice. Where is Honora’s room again?” The dragon lord’s daughter, Ember flew down to us. “This way.” She said, leading us. Turns out the ‘rooms’ were just caves that the inside was well decorated. She dropped off Celestia and Chrysalis at theirs first then took my group the Honora. It was dug rather deep, and not a few feet in we felt rather cold wind blowing out from inside the cave. The further we went the colder it got. After some meters underground the cave walls were all ice and the floor was covered in snow, only light was from some kinda brightly glowing crystals embedded into the ice. We finally reached what seemed to be a large bedroom, a white scaled, bright blue eye’d dragoness was on an actual, yet frozen, chair reading something. “Sis, your… mate is here.” Ember said as she left. Honora put her book down, looking at me before walking over. “So, you’re my mate to be?” She asked. ”Damn...didn’t think the anthro version of Blue Eyes White Dragon would be this hot… I think to myself in surprise. “Yes. Yes I am. And I believe you are the lovely Honora?” I ask. She kept looking me over, as if judging me. She went as far as to take off my hood and find my tail. She seemed surprised, but shook it off that I was a Dire Werewolf. To my, and everyone’s shock, she stuck he hand in my pants, and grabbed my boys. I yelped, her scales are SO COLD! “Yes.” She said, thankfully letting go and retracting her hand. “We will make many eggs together.” “Can y-you not grab my privates so suddenly?” I ask, feeling really cold just from her touch. “This is part of how a Dragoness chooses a non-dragon mate, I have been reading as such.” She spoke…somehow with a swedish accent. She then grabbed the book she was reading…and I couldn’t believe the title. ‘How To Pleasure The Opposite Sex, Same Sex, and Other Races’. “Was expecting you to be pony, but you are close enough so it still fits.” “I know you're a snow dragon and all but...is your touch always that cold?” I ask worriedly. “Oh, sorry. To me the room feels what you would feel…as a warm summer day, but I guess you feel it as cold as it looks huh?” “The only reason why I’m not freezing right now is because of my cloak, some magic, and this fancy thing.” I say while summoning my shield, Frozen Pride. “Oh, that reminds me, we have a gift for you.” Luna said, handing me the ring the girls payed Braig to get. “Gift for me?” Honora asked. “Why yes.” I nod, before summoning my cards and places seven other black boxes on them as they soon floated over to the rest of the girls. “I know this isn’t the best time...and I know that all of us just met you…” I say nervously, getting down onto one knee and all eight boxes opened, all showing beautiful wedding rings magically made for all of them. “Will...all of you marry me?” I ask, hoping beyond hope they say yes. “YES!” They all, even Gilda to my surprise, shouted, tackling me to the ground. Meanwhile, with Jenny “Dinky! I grew dog teeth, ears, and fur and I’m not in my fighting form! I think Ben proposed!” “I figured.” Dinky said, Jenny turning to her, eyes widening. Her pony fur was stripped blue and grey, as was he mane, her equine ears were now more canine, she also had canine teeth, but most surprising was the fact Dinky now had a pair of WINGS. “I get the teeth and fur…but the…where did the wings come from?” “...I have no idea…” Back to Ben, three hours later That ring made Honora’s once cold touch rather warm and pleasant now. Needless to say...all my new wives wanted to have a special…celebration as it were. “I’m pretty sure part of this room melted with our...activities.” I say sheepishly, cuddling up to my new wives. “I know.” Pinkie said. “I felt the cold drips when I got to be on top of you.” “If that is sex that makes eggs…I’m gonna love this…marriage, right? Yes, I’m going to love it!” Honora said. “Marriage means you are my mate for life.” I state. “Till death do us part…” I say, but that wording only made me sad as I tried to hold them all closer. “Please...don’t ever leave…” I whimper sadly. They all cuddled and managed to hug me. “We are going nowhere lifemate.” Honora said. “We may have just met, but I know we will forever be with you.” “Ain’t that a fact.” We all jumped, dad was at the doorway. “Sup kiddo?” “Hi dad.” I say sheepishly. “So...this is my harem.” I say while naming off all my girlfriends. “Girls, this is Cript...my dad.” I say, not entirely sure if I’ve introduced them to him yet. “First off, relax, I saw nothing. Secondly, I came to congratulate you, the one finally balling up and proposing. Ben…heh, did better than I did, the day I finally did manage to nut up and propose to my first wife, she already had the same idea and was gonna propose to me. Man, that was a fun dinner.” “Even though you probably had a long time to date her and I’m proposing to women I’ve known for...all of a few minutes to a few months.” I frown. “Oh wow I probably moved a tad fast here…” I say worriedly. “Welcome to my world.” Dad said. “Want to know what helps?” “Having magic to help keep your hips intact?” I joke. “I have clones for that, but besides that, cause wife one is always… adding, to the marriage of ours, I invented this little scape goat to constant talking.” Dad shot out blue lightning from his hands, hitting each of us in the head. It was like I was living all of my new wives lives at once, their memories pouring into me. When it stopped, I had a slight headache. “Memory sharing, I just saved you all about two months to two years of surprises about each other. So… no secrets between you all now.” “Okay then…” I say, before my eyes widened. “Oh dear…” I mutter, fearing what they might have seen and slightly fearing what crap I’ll be seeing in my memory. For the next few hours before we went to bed talking about each other's memories. Needless to say, Pinkie’s and Luna’s were VERY perverted… as their private times were also shared, and from memory I know what it’s like to fuck… me. Dad left not long after we started talking. On the plus side this has given me even more insight into what makes my girlfriends tick, and what turns them on, a weapon greater than the ones I can summon has just been given to me on a silver platter. The next morning Honora went out with us to meet with her father. It was the first time ever she’s left her room, her face when the sun was up, added with her not even feeling the heat around her, thanks to the ring, made her cry with joy. Having her memories now also I felt the pain, wonder, and general feeling of what that must have been like, even though she had those memories of us in the sun, to experience it is another thing. I did notice something was off in my memories though, a scene from not long after Rarity moved in for her shop being rebuilt, I think a day after she agreed to the herd, from all the girls that were there at the time actually. They were talking, then suddenly, like bad editing, it cut to them doing other things. A lot of memories of mine from them were like that. I’m only assuming Luna had removed memories of a certain thing, for what I’m not sure, but I won’t ask. Her and her dream walking abilities she can work with memories. We all sat at a large stone table, some vegetables were prepared specially for the girls while meats were made for me, Gilda, and Honora. “It is amazing to see you able to wander outside now Honora.” The dragon lord said. “It is equally amazing father.” Honora replied. “After today the dragons will have peace officially with Equestria, re-established peace with the changelings, and we will discuss the issue of the equine-ish beings.” The dragon lord announced, several other dragons, including Ember, were here. I’d say a lot happened about the Equestria and Changeling peace treaties was something to talk about, but it was just signing a large stone tablet, one for Equestria, one for the Changelings, and then sign paper ones that said the same thing. A few photos were taken and that was it. “Now, lastly, the issue with the new race.” Two dragons, larger than me, were carrying what looked like a still well armored soldier, in chains, over to us. “White Knight, would you please do the honors of interrogating them?” All eyes were on me. “I’m not really the ‘interrogating’ type but I’ll try.” I say while walking over to the well armored soldier. “Alright listen, we can either do this the easy way, or the hard way. The easy way, you just tell me all we need to know and you stop bothering literally every living being on this planet. Or the hard way, where I start actual torture methods.” I say to him bluntly. “And trust me, I may not know torture, but I’m pretty sure I can figure out something to make your life even worse than it already is.” He chuckled. “You folks get done talking peace now you're thinking torture? Hypocrites.” He said. “Isn’t that what America does?” I ask. “Tries to talk about peace but tortures its own citizens? Also what were you doing to these dragons? I only heard so much but I doubt it was for ‘peaceful’ reasons.” “You get swallowed up by a black hole looking thing, wake up with your whole base on some beach, then while exploring see real life fucken dragons in the same week and see if you aren't gonna shoot first ask probably never.” He retorted. “I had that same situation happen except with ponies.” I say honestly. “Then you lucked out.” “I understand the whole ‘suddenly getting shoved onto a different planet’ thing is quite a shock in several ways, but don’t you think you would have at least tried to ask a local for help? You know like what you're supposed to do? Instead of acting like a cliche in a random story or movie like an idiot?” I ask. “The first thing we see when getting here are fucking dragons, we didn’t attack til some smaller red one shot fire at us.” “Sadly this is true.” The dragon lord said. “The dragon known as Garble has been imprisoned for this, but we imprisoned this being for using a new type of bullet we’ve never seen before.” “AP ammo has been on earth for a while.” “Can you believe that the ‘earth’ I came from is apart of someone's imagination?” I ask the man. “Heh, why not, first some creatures right out of a video game start invading earth, then we wake up here, now you tell me this? Why the hell not.” “Good man.” I nod. “But just so you know, I’m still human, even though…” I say while pulling my hood back and showing wolf parts. “Sad to say...things happened. But where are the others? I better be the ‘ambassador’ here.” “Like I said, our base, somehow intact, appeared on a beach fifty miles from here.” “Sweet, well that’s going to be easy enough.” I say while summoning my keyblade glider. “Want a ride there? Cause I think handing you over as a sign of peace would be a good thing right now.” “I’m coming too.” Luna said, pulling out her Keyblade and summoning her glider. “If the dragons were a bad first meeting with our world then maybe I can help sort it out.” “By the by, what year was it on your earth soldier?” I ask, unshackling the guy. “2037.” “Damn, a whole 15 years before my Earth went to hell.” I chuckle, finally getting the shackles off of him. “Ya see, my imaginary earth kind of went to hell in the whole ‘2012 mayan calander’ bullshit. Didn’t actually happen but people just went berserk about it so...eh.” I shrug. “I was like, four when that happened so I don’t remember much.” The soldier said, rubbing his wrists. “Well glad to know your world didn’t go to hell until Heartless started showing up.” I say while getting on my bike. “Hop on. But what’s your name soldier?” “Lenny Grinlock, call me Len.” He said, getting on the bike. “Names Ben, or as this world knows me, White Knight.” I say honestly. “Ready Luna?” I ask, ready to speed off to find more humans. “Yes.” She replied as we both sped off. Len lead us to where his base was, over quite a distance we were met with the scene of a military base right out of a sci-fi movie. There was even an energy shield over it. Damn, technology must have tripled in progress after 2012. We landed just outside the gate. Len got off, and walked over to the barrier. “This is base capitan Grinlock, open the force field.” There was a siren noise for a sec before the shield flickered and faded. “Welcome to Base Redemption.” “It sure took the bastards long enough to actually make shit like this.” I frown, getting off my glider and it vanishing. “Seriously, first in 2000 was supposed to have flying cars, then later ‘holograms’, but all we got was a bunch of bullshit.” I huff. “Captain!” A random soldier came up. “We thought those things ate you or something.” “At ease general, they’re as intelligent as us, the one that shot at the heli was apparently some young punk of their kingdom, he got his. Oh, this is Ben, a…former earthling, and a blue pony woman.” Len said, pointing to us. “That would be my fiance, Princess Luna, Diarch of Equestria and, while this might sound crazy and impossible as fuck, ruler of the moon. She raises it and lowers it for the night to start and all that.” I explain. “Would explain the perfect day and night cycles.” Len said. “So general, what’s happened in my absence?” “Still no contact with any other possible earth survivors, reactor is doing fine but the fuel’s gonna run out in a month, and the men’s morale has… dropped.” “Well it’s a good thing me and Luna are here to help build some semblance of a peaceful relation between this world and all of you.” I say honestly. “If we can do this all right you can have the help of at least three kingdoms, the Dragons, Changelings, and Equestrians.” I say honestly. “Sir?” The general asked. “General, our first encounter went bad because of a dumb youth, to be honest I do trust the apparent princess lady more mainly because we’re at eye level as compared to those dragons.” “I can see that…” I mutter. “But anyways, while here and trying not to panic about dragons, have you seen any Heartless around?” I ask curiously. “Heartless?” The two asked. “Those weird shadow things that pulled you all into that black hole thing.” I say. “Weird shadow creatures with either a weird heart symbol or pure black creatures? Anything at all?” “Oh, yeah. We’ve seen them largely coming from a cave ten miles east of here.” The general said. “They leave the base alone for some reason.” “Either because their waiting for you all to lose moral, your resources, or waiting for that one jackass to be like ‘let’s join them because I’m an idiot’.” I frown. “But seriously have none of you ever heard of Kingdom Hearts?” “Kingdom hearts… I think a game like that was released late 2017…but it was the third one if I remember…god I was nine I should remember this.” “Teen wielding a giant key and killing things?” I say, trying to help him remember. “Yeah…that sounds about right.” “Yes captain, I played it, it was the last game in the series.” The general said. “Was…really good.” “Lucky bastards.” I frown. “I had to wait 5 damn years for that thing? Come on Square you're better than this.” I complain, not liking Square Enix for having to make a game take 5 damn years to make. “Anyways, who’s the leader here? We have a lot to talk about.” I say, not wanting to get too distracted with rants about a video game company. “Uh…” The general pointed to Len. “He is the base captain.” I face palmed. “Oh for fuck sakes.” I sigh out. “Well thanks for telling me that now.” I frown. “I did refer to him as captain for a reason.” The general said. “It’s a different title officially, but I like captain better.” Len said. “So Ben, what’s happened your end?” “We’re...gonna have to sit down for this.” I say sheepishly. “There’s so much crap that it’s not even funny.” Luna and I spent a good few hours telling Len what had been going on my end since I was picked up in 2012. I still found it a tad odd how fifteen years passes on earth when it’s not even been a full year for me yet. I chalked it up to God and left it at that. When I was done Len told me about some things from back on earth, how the heartless, and unversed from the looks of it had been seen around since 2012, but were just rumors until they started full on invading in 2020. He said china fell, then europe, followed by canada and japan a year later. If they didn’t take people they were either killing or throwing them into the black holes like what happened with this base. “Then that’s when the whole base came too, and we were here.” Len said, finishing his story. “Damn.” I say simply. “That’s a whole bunch of something. Did you happen to see any weird hybrids or humans helping out with the Heartless and Unversed?” I ask curiously, wondering if this was Core’s work. “Lots. Most we managed to take photos of matched missing person’s descriptions of… bodies, that were never found in the 2012 riots. Many called this a dead coming back thing but I don’t buy that.” “Mind if I see those pictures?” I ask curiously. “I might be able to tell some of those people but I’m not a hundred percent sure.” The general came up with a large file filled with photos of the heartless fusions and the people helping them. I searched through them all rather quickly. “Damn it Core…” I mutter to myself, still horrified that this asshole is going to such lengths to just slaughter everyone. One picture caught my attention and I didn’t like it. “Wait…” I mutter, staring at the picture and seeing...Josh Ventral? “Something doesn’t seem right with this one.” I say showing them Josh. “This man is named Josh Ventral...but something about it doesn’t seem right for some reason.” I say, looking at the picture more closely, knowing that Josh and the other Ventrals are forced to work for Core but not entirely sure if there’s anything else there that might tip me off. “Well that’s a mystery to us too. First off, he and all but one Ventral went missing back in 2013, and when this picture was taken and ran through the system, reports of him being in four different countries, at the same time, came in. It’s as if someone cloned them all.” “That bastard!” I bark, slamming my fist into the table. “How the fuck did Core figure that out? But...wait, Josh was in your Earth?” I ask curiously, finding that very weird. “We have no idea, he’s been missing for a while, like I said, all but one vanished, and he’s reported to be brutal, but these...Clones, if that’s why there seems to be more than one of him, act way more ruthless than any reports. For starters, the Ventrals made it known they largely only kill cops, because that’s who’s chasing them all the time, rival gangs, and thugs. Meaning they only kill innocents when their legendary Killing Mood starts. These ones kill anyone who steps out of line, even so much as a sneeze and they’ll kill you.” ”Too many things don’t add up here…” I think to myself. “Okay...so apparently Core managed to clone Josh and then take away everything made him...well him. Just so he could have an army of loyal, blood thirsty soldiers that don’t give a damn about anyone.” I explain. “I’ve met Josh before, got shot eight times in non-lethal areas, but I’ve also met his family...even they would say this is just mindless killing.” “Then it looks like whoever this Core is has some rather frightening resources, and a dark side too dark for the legendary Ventral family. Perhaps one of our men can go with you to see what’s up for himself, and report back at some time.” “Let’s hope whoever you want to tag along with me doesn’t die.” I sigh out. “But from what I heard from two Ventrals...Core is a monster, going way beyond even their comfort zones with the shit he does...which involves cloning, torture, and sick hybridization projects as you see in these pictures.” I say. “Well don’t worry, this guy can handle himself, he has a knack for surviving the impossible, even went toe to toe with a Ventral copy back on earth and walked away.” Len pulled out a walkie talkie. “First Sergeant Mike, report to the debrief room now.” He called. “He’ll be here soon, and trust me, you don’t make the rank of First Sergeant a week in the marines without impressing someone.” “Sounds impressive, but has he ever gotten super powers from ‘God’?” I ask. “Cause I have and it’s amazing.” “Well his combat abilities are nothing to dismiss, the Ventral he fought had some strange abilities too and he still took them down.” “Sounds like a badass.” I chuckle. “Can’t wait to meet him.” “Captain?” A voice came from the door. When I looked… I didn’t believe it. He was older, had a gash on his right cheek and blue eyes, but it was Zeke! “What’s the mission?” “How in the fuck?!” I yelp, not understanding how that was possible. “Okay...this is the second person that just so happens to look like a friend of mine.” I think to myself. “Sorry, it’s nice to meet you. Names Ben.” I say to the soldier. “Your mission Mike is to play follower to Ben here so we can gather useful field information. Gear up and meet him at the front gate with a report.” Mike saluted then headed out. “He’s a master marksman, hand to hand combat is second nature to him, and he’s a wizard with computers.” “I expected nothing less to be perfectly honest.” I say. “He a team player or does stuff by himself?” I ask curiously. “Just wondering cause cooperation right now is a must.” I state, not wanting to have Mike just suddenly head off and do something on his own without me knowing about it. “Either or really, put him in a team he follows whoever is named leader, in this case you, and alone he’s a one man army.” “Good to know.” I nod. “But...would it shock you if I said that he looks exactly like 2 people I know?” I ask curiously. “Not really I guess, lots of people can have the same face but never meet.” “No as in literally everything about them besides eye color and maybe hair color.” I say. “Eh, so anything you want to know about him other than his people skills?” “Well…” I think for a moment. “Is he a straight up soldier? Just the whole ‘must protect the people’ kind of guy or does he know anything outside that field?” I ask curiously. “A bit of both really. He’ll follow orders, but he tends to put his own spin on them. Once, a field report had said he managed to capture, alive, the Korean dictator during this Heartless invasion of the nation. I looked into it and Kim Jon is currently in a secret prison back on earth…Assuming it's still there.” “Let’s hope for the best I suppose.” I shrug. “Anyways want us to go anywhere specific? Cause I already have a spot that I need to investigate.” I say, not entirely sure if he told me where to head off. “Then head there, his mission is to view and report. Aid if asked. Other than that just do what you normally do.” “Right then.” I nod. “And Luna? Staying here to make peace or coming with me?” I ask, wondering what she’ll be doing while I’m long gone. “I guess I'll be here for a bit longer to talk about some things with the Capitan.” Luna said. “Alright.” I nod. “But just so you can tell all your men this Captain, if any of them hits on my fiance…” I say coldly. “The shit you all saw back on Earth will be child’s play.” I growl. “Relax, she's royalty so we’ll treat her as such. We’re military, besides, no longer being on earth and with no USA to serve…we do need a new…President…or perhaps a princess.” “Oh?” Luna said. “We are a branch of the U.S. Government, but seeing as our government is likely fallen or falling, perhaps to keep moral up here we can join the government of what princess Luna here governs?” “You’ll be the military of the Equestrian Government, ruled over by Princess Luna, and Princess Celestia, her sister.” I say. “I’m sure Celestia would love to hear about this.” I chuckle. “Also...I think I can try you people some weapons.” I say honestly. “Guns are fine and all but having magical weapons helps solve problems a little better.” “Heh. Find us a supplier and we’ll talk.” Len said. “I guess with that out of the way you find Mike and head on out.” “Alright.” I nod, giving Luna a quick goodbye kiss and heading out. After a quick walk I soon found Mike fully prepared. “Yo Mike!” I call out, jogging up to the man. “Sir.” He replied. “Where to?” “Badlands.” I say while summoning my glider and getting on. “I’m pretty sure this is faster than any car you have so hop on.” I say, hoping to get their quickly and figure out what’s going on there. Mike got on and we started heading off. It was still a ride so we had time to talk. “So I heard you are basically the best soldier ever.” “I do alright.” He replied. “You say ‘alright’, I say being able to fight a Ventral, win, and keep a captured target alive either has the elements of luck or your amazing at doing your job.” “I do alright.” He just repeated. “Okay.” I nod. “I also heard the captain say you got First Sergeant in a week. How did that happen?” I ask. “Was a Private, sent to some basic field work in the U.K station, those creatures attacked, I walked out of the U.K with a few hundred surviving civilians and killed several thousand of those human Heartless fusions.” “Damn.” I say, surprised at hearing that amount of people survives and heartless were killed. “What weapon did you use the entire time?” I ask curiously. “Switched out with whatever was around. Used mostly guns, and combat knife when ammo ran out.” “Nice.” I nod. “So how was your fight with that Ventral? Notice anything strange about him?” “Her, and… that wasn’t a Ventral, that was a monster.” “Mind explaining?” I ask curiously. “She was known for slave trading, her name was Nancy, she fought like a monster, not like the Ventrals tend to do.” I took a deep breath, trying to calm myself. “Did you kill her?” I ask sullenly. “Yes.” ”Fuck…” I think to myself bitterly. “Core, the Ventrals new boss….gave them powers. Super strength, speed, stamina, and a few other things. They hate their boss besides two people...but they're forced to do his dirty work...but because of a cloning project Core took out the restrictions out of the clones.” I explain. “That would explain it.” He said. “Did you see a number on her? Anything at all that might make you think she was a clone?” I ask curiously. “Yeah. On her right hand was a tattoo of the number 98.” “Not only is that fucker desecrating all over a dead woman’s body…” I growl. “This is bad...I fought Nancy...the actual one...and I was forced to kill her...it’s still terrible to me…” I mutter, continuing to fly towards the badlands. “They care about family, Ventrals don’t tend to die unless they have nothing left to lose, or they make a mistake.” “Yeah…” I sigh out. “But Nancy still had a ten year old girl named Jenny...which I adopted actually...she hates me but is willing to give it a shot thankfully.” “...good, that little freak show needs non criminal influences.” “She already taught my other daughter how to defend herself…” I say sheepishly. “Heh, sounds like her.” “You talk like you knew her?” I question. “...Research.” “Sounds a lot more than ‘research’ here.” I say. “Don’t worry, there are no eyes or ears around. Just the two of us. If you have anything to talk about or say I’m all ears.” “...I got nothing to say.” “You sure?” I ask. “No ‘who are you?’ or ‘how did you summon this huge flying bike out of thin air’?” “You’re my mission, and I could care less about a keyblade glider.” “Now how did you know this was a keyblade glider?” I ask curiously. “...I played some of the games.” “So did I my friend.” I say honestly. “So how was Kingdom Hearts 3?” I ask. “Was it awesome? Was it worth the wait?” “Didn’t play it, was…busy, at the time of release.” “Fighting off Heartless and Unversed?” I ask curiously. “More like…getting my life together.” “How so?” I ask curiously. “Rather not say.” “That bad huh?” “You could say I became a new man after it was over.” “Fighting video game monsters tends to do that.” I shrug. “But anything else? Cause we’re both Kingdom Hearts fans so we can probably talk about that for a bit.” “Well…so it’s all real here?” “Yep. Keyblades, Kingdom Hearts, Heartless, Nobodies, Unversed and Dream Eaters. Everything you’ve played is a reality.” I nod. “I have the powers of Organization 13 and can summon Nobodies, but I’m not a bad guy and I’m not a Nobody just so’s ya know.” “Huh. So what time frame story wise it this?” “It’s all fucked up to be perfectly honest.” I sigh out. “What do you know about Multiverse Theory?” “If it’s a ‘what if’ or an alternate version that might happen, it exists.” “Now take that, and put it in between two mirrors.” I say. “Damn.” “Yeah.” I nod. “A shit ton of reflections for all of this.” I sigh out. “But for this reflection, the time line took place where Terranort was still a student under Ansem the Wise...but then I interfered with Aqua and got him back...also it just so happens that Castle Oblivion is magically gone, Ventus has his heart back and is awake and the main game series is about as fucked as can be.” I say, not figuring out a colorful metaphor for it but still. “Huh, so I guess not long after that X-blade blew up then.” “Pretty much. Except there’s the tiny little catch that a man, who looks exactly like you but with red eyes, happens to have the X-blade.” I point out. He seemed to tense up at that. “Zeke Ventral?” “You know him?” I ask curiously. “He...he’s dead. His body was found shot to death by police back in 2018.” “Now here’s the small thing…” I start. “Where me and Zeke come from...it’s basically someone’s imagination land.” I say. “And the ‘mayan calendar’ thing that happened in 2012 was our worlds end basically. So the ‘god’ of that imagination land told us ‘welcome to real life, want’s some kick ass powers?’ and me, Zeke, and several others, decided to go with a Kingdom Hearts theme.” I explain. “Lot to take in I know but that’s about the sum of it. And apparently when we all thought Earth was just a figment of someone’s imagination it just so happened to actually exist. Who would have seen that sudden cliche as fuck twist?” “Well, if it exists in God’s mind then technically yes it does exist. That whole 2012 thing happened on Earth, the riots, all of it, so maybe Core and these heartless are tearing it up for some reason?” “My Earths ‘God’ just so happened to be just a very powerful random dude. Not the actual Christian ‘God’...also Core happens to be God’s brother cause reasons.” I shrug. “Huh, so sibling feuds or is he after something on Earth?” “It’s not a sibling feud that’s for fucking sure. I don’t know what Core’s after but...Core is after his brother to figure out how to do the whole ‘make a multiverse through imagination’ cause the guy want’s to do cliche bad guy stuff and end everything as we know it.” I explain. “I’m guessing a bullet won’t kill him then?” “Core can cleave a planet in half without trying.” I deadpan. “Then…huh, can I ask you something?” “Shoot.” “You said Zeke Ventral, the one you say you know, is from earth. When did you two get…picked up?” “On the day when people started rioting.” I say. “I don’t know what Zeke was doing at the time but I was at school not giving the greatest of fucks. And none of the student or teacher body gave a fuck either believe it or not.” “Huh, some high school. I was… at ‘home’. Parents were stocked up like hell, I was up in…my room, watching the neighbors pack up and leave. I took a nap, then woke up when some fucker shot the house down with a tank. Parent’s were dead and I left the rubble a day later to make sure they weren’t around.” “How the fuck did some random asshole get a tank?” I ask, completely flabbergasted at hearing that. “Didn’t bother asking when I found him, I just made him choke on the barrel of a shotgun as I fired slugs into his stomach.” “Brutal.” “It was payback… I noticed something off that day too.” “What would that be?” “...I had killed for the first time ever that day…and nothing happened.” “What do you mean ‘nothing happened’?” I ask worriedly. “Were you expecting some thrill at killing? Feelings that ‘I got my parents murderer’? Or guilt that you just murdered someone?” “...I was Zeke Ventral.” “Well that explains why you look exactly like Zeke.” I shrug. “I suppose you were shocked you didn’t have a ‘Killing Mood’ and all that right?” “Yeah. I didn’t even notice my eyes were blue till a week later when I found a not broken mirror. That surprised me more than no killing mood.” “Well either someone ripped you out of your body and put you in a new body, or some weird shenanigans happened that I don’t know about.” “The fact you know a Zeke Ventral and I was Zeke ventral before faking my death, something is up here.” “Remember when I said God happened to create an imaginary Earth?” “Yes. I believe we both come from there?” “Yep. I don’t know which one is the ‘real’ one here, but I think either you are a clone of Zeke, or Zeke is a clone of you. I have no idea, this makes less and less sense the more I go along with this.” I sigh out. “In a reality with magic, Keyblades, and other realities, not much will make sense.” “Ain’t that the truth.” I chuckle. “But I suppose you faked your death because you didn’t want to be targeted by your family?” “Not that. Everyone knew the Ventrals were disappearing back then before this recent comeback. I figured I’d disappear in a different way. I found a person, bad guy, with my general body type, shot the hell out of them, then payed a favor to the local coroner to rig the tests so it would come out as my DNA in the blood sample and not the actual person. Made sure that was their only option, broke and shot at any other way to identify. I laid low for a few years before I finally got out, had a part time job for a year then joined the marines not long after that. Forging a false identity was easy.” “Considering what I was told about you and what the Zeke I know could do...sounds about right.” I nod. “Even if one of us are a clone then I guess it doesn’t matter anyway. I’m a little over thirty, and have my own life, I’m sure he’s got his, so at this point are we even the same person?” “Do you have sixteen wives?” I ask curiously. “Cause the Zeke I know does.” “Damn… I haven’t even had a girlfriend before.” Mike says. “I got the short stick in this mayan clone crap.” “For some reason most of us have harems.” I say. “But whatever, you’ll get a girlfriend sooner or later. Your a thirty year old Zeke, I’m sure you’ll find someone nice.” “Just keep calling me Mike, less confusion and I have gotten used to it- Look out!” Mike tried to move us to the side, but something hit the glider and we were now crash landing. We crashed, my glider disbanding on impact as Mike and I rolled through the dry dirt. “Well, well, well.” A REALLY familiar, yet older, voice spoke. “Looks like I got two birds with one RPG.” I looked up, seeing an older, scar covered me. “My christ, who knew age didn’t agree with me.” I say, getting up as I stared at the older me. “So...what cliche bullshit is going on here?” Mike got up fast, pointing a rather large pistol at the older me. “That’s Ben Tanor, well known crime lord and co-leader of the Garette crime family. The only family to match the Ventrals.” “I suppose ‘cause of dead parents’ made you go murder crazy instead of super fucking depressed?” I ask, summoning my Keyblade and Shield. “Oh I was once a depressed fuck, so bad. Then I wake up, school’s being shot up, and my wife to be was the one with the mini-gun in both hands. Rather than kill me she noticed I wanted some payback for those idiots, gave me a shotgun and we’ve been dating ever since.” The evil me said. “You lucky bitch. You actually had a girlfriend!” I shout. “Oh well, shit happens. Anyways, why are you working for Core again? When you obviously know that he’s a psychopath even beyond your standards?” “Truth be told, I just like killing, besides.” He snapped his fingers. Two Titans appeared, one grabbing Mike and I while the other lifted the evil me to eye level. “Who said I’m working with that piss ant?” “Y-your the one…?” I stutter, looking at the titans. “Yup, I managed to send that titan to that New York rip off to see how well they do, and they do damage well!” My older self noticed thorns starting to trail over the titan’s hand. “How….” I growl. “HOW FUCKING DARE YOU!!!” I roar, a very bright light and sound of glass shattering resounding across the badlands. After a few seconds the titan was missing both a hand and arm as...everything started to get blurry for me. My older self saw me floating in mid air, missing my cloak but being covered in thorns, bandages, and a very dangerous aura even to him. ‘I’ looked at him with bandaged eyes as I took a deep breath. The older me stared at me, then laughed. “Well then, not bad. Now, see what you could be if you had the taste for blood.” I saw his eyes turn like Core’s, and in a blur, my arm was sliced from finger to shoulder. “This is the power of a Psychopath-” He was cut off. I saw dad side kick him… out of sight. “Now this isn’t good…” Dad said, using some magic to heal me. “You better?” “D-daddy?” I ask, my voice sounding completely hollow and echoey as I remained in my form. “Wow you must have hit your head if you called me that.” “No...I’m his Joy…” The new, more childish voice said to him. “Oh! Well…hi? One sec.” Dad summoned some kinda sword from his Assistant, the blade was black and it gave off the look of being on fire. The evil older me came flying back…from the other direction, and was impaled by dad’s sword. “Why hello Psycho.” “Why hello Cript, been a while.” The older me spoke, his voice now like thousands of people talking in unison. “Is this your newest brat?” “Yes, now how about I show him what I do to scum like you, shall I?” “Heh, as always, we’ll see.” The two vanished, energy was thick in the air all of a sudden as half of it felt like poison to breath, and the other half felt like breathing in mist. Up in the sky I saw the two clashing, dad dodging every attack the Psychopath aiming for with ease. His hand got covered in some kinda…one's and zero’s as he went in for an attack, only to be knocked to the side by a newcomer…who also had the Psychopath eyes. “Sorry human god but we have to keep our numbers.” They both said, vanishing in a mist of red. “Damn… great, out of retirement again…” Dad muttered as he flew back over to me. “Sorry I couldn’t show off son.” “It’s alright...but Ben’s...kind of not here at the moment.” Joy says worriedly. “Asleep or what?” “Anti-form.” The child says through me, showing off the more ‘Nobody like’ anti-form. “His...rage kind of broke for a minute.” “Oh…wuss.” Dad said, tapping ‘my’ head as Joy fell asleep and my body began to return to normal. My cloak and crown on me again. “Man you need training. Finish up with the weapons you got then see me fast kid.” Dad said, placing my barely conscious body next to Mike’s unconscious one. “Let’s see…oh, the place you want is about ten more miles ahead, good luck, and here’s some good news, they aren’t from your earth.” Dad vanished as I fell into unconsciousness. “Well that sucked.” I grumble, walking up to a playground bench and sitting down on it. “That’s what happens when your rage breaks.” Joy says, sitting down next to me. “So you can somehow take over my body?” I ask, looking over the child and seeing he was an adorable half Dire werewolf. “Also your adorable by the by.” “Thank you, but yes. When you were in your anti-form you kind of…’passed out’ and I got the chance to see Dad…” The pup says while rubbing ‘his’ arm. “That...that man wasn’t us...right?” “Of course not.” I say with a little grin. “I mean seriously, did you see how ugly he was? When I grow up I’ll still be as handsome as I am now.” I joke while Joy smiles warmly. “Ben!” Luna’s voice rang out behind me as I suddenly found my face in boobs as I was tackled. “Where have you-Oh, sorry.” She said, getting her chest of of my face. “No no, I was happy with that.” I smile. “Ben…” Joy huffs. “Fine fine...but anyways do you want the long or short of it Luna?” “Short now, long when we meet back up in the physical world.” She answered. “So apparently there’s an evil, and very old version of me, and he happened to get my rage to break...then Dad came in...fought...it was blurry to be perfectly honest.” I sigh out. She kissed me. “Ben, it’s already midnight, you’ve been missing all day. I can’t use magic to track you in the badlands because the dark magic interferes with such spells. My dream walking is all that works and I can’t track unless you know where you are.” “It’s best if me and Mike just go home…” I sigh out. “Hi Luna.” Joy says. “But please...we both need to be home and not in the badlands anymore...too many bad things happened…” “You’ll have to wake up and head back then Ben, I can wake you, so… sorry.” Luna slapped me as everything went black. I came too fast, feeling the phantom slap from my dream, but I noticed right away that Mike and I were in restraint jackets. “Oh for fuck sakes.” I grumble. “Okay why am I in a restraint jacket?” “Silence prisoner.” I looked up, seeing a guard with…an energy sword. “You will be questioned in the morning.” “I just woke up, I need some context here please.” I say worriedly, wondering why I’m restrained and a prisoner. “We got readings of massive power out in the desert appearing then vanishing suddenly, and when we searched we found you and that man out cold.” “Oh...well I can calmly and completely say that was not mine or my friends fault.” I say simply. “You have proof?” “I witnessed what happened, and trust me what happened I couldn’t do.” I say simply. “This world is filled with magic and...outsiders just so happened to have a fight here if you can believe that.” “...You’ll be questioned in the morning.” He said, closing some kinda second door over the barred door that was already there. It was at that point I realized the room Mike and I were in a padded room. “Fuck…” I mutter, summoning Fair Game and starting to cut myself loose. “No idea where I am, I’m being held against my will, and I’m being blamed for something I didn’t do…” I grumble, managing to cut myself out of the jacket. “I hate this…” I sigh out. “Yo, Mike? You awake?” “Huh?” He started, waking up. “...Crap.” He said as he saw the situation. “Yeah...sorry about that…” I sigh out, stretching my arms a bit. “I...didn’t expect any of that to happen….how you holding up?” “So so. Well, you wanna risk breaking out and not knowing what’s going on, or wait and see what happened?” “I’d rather break out to figure out what the fuck is going on.” I frown. “We were kidnapped here when we were knocked out, and for some reason they put us in restraint jackets and left us in a padded room like we were lunatics.” I say while helping Mike out of his restraints. “They said we were ‘prisoners’ and that we’re going to be ‘questioned’ in the morning.” Mike looked at the jacket, seeing a logo on the back. “Uh, Ben.” He showed me the logo, and it was a green leaf with a white plus in it. He then got up and looked at the room, and out a window the room had. “Same logo on the ship from what I can see here.” “Does this mean we're in a hospital?” I frown, seeing the plus and leaf and thinking ‘medical center’. “I think so. Huh, space hospital…that looks like it crashed. Wow… so… they clearly aren’t a threat to us anyway, they’re all doctors and other staff.” “With energy swords.” I point out. “But they apparently think we did...what you were knocked out for probably.” I say worriedly. “Well, either way we best stay and wait. Rather not ruin my new clean record.” Mike says as he lays down on the floor. “Fine…” I sigh out, sitting down and waiting. “Christ, this day went from absolutely wonderful, where I finally proposed to my eight girlfriends, which they all thankfully agreed to, to weird because suddenly ‘earth exists in real life’...then complete bullshit where a version of me is super fucking evil and my dad has to solve my damned problems.” I sigh out, summoning Reunion and Fair Game, noticing the symbols on them. “Welcome to my life.” Mike says. “Nothing ever goes according to plan or hopes, that’s why I have non. Night.” “Oh yeah…” I sigh out. “Night.” I say. ”Thirteen keys… I think to myself, not sure how I knew what the marks said but it seemed important. To be continued Nobody's good to bad day pt2The wait for our captors was long, boring, and really uneventful as me and Mike just sat around waiting for whoever the fuck we were supposed to wait for. “My god this is boring.” I grumble. “Welcome to jail.” Mike said. “You, Zeke, whichever, have been in jail before?” I asked. “Nine times, three times I… er, we? We I guess, broke ourselves out. FIrst self breakout, classic laundry shoot jump, second, stole a guard's keycard, and last time we managed to knock out some guards and caused a riot as we made it to the parking lot… delivering an armored swat car to the family while we were at it. Heh, dad and mom were proud. We called in a favor to a makeup artist and managed to go to Disneyland.” “Now while breaking out of prison is a bad thing that actually sounds hilarious.” I chuckle. “Yeah. Looks the guards had when the last time it was Solitary I broke out of was the best laugh I had. Thankfully, being a Ventral, with red eyes no less, gave me a rep without needing to earn it. So some trades and… a few stolen bullets later I managed to blow the lock off. Since no guards usually checked on solitary, most I alerted was the smoke detector… that’s how the riot started. Smoke alarm triggered some safety protocol and the cell doors everywhere opened up.” “That’s basically the best way to get out, during a massive riot.” I chuckle. “But it’s a double edge sword if any ‘break out’ movies told me anything.” “Oddly enough I wasn't in a car chase after that though. Not sure how, I know guards saw me hijack the truck so maybe they thought the riot was more important than an escaping prisoner?” “They probably thought ‘again?’.” I say, pretending I was a guard that was tired of having a Ventral, yet again, breaking out of prison. “To be perfectly honest you’d think the police would just stop after the first few times you break out...maybe they just found the definition of ‘insanity’ after the hundredth time a Ventral broke out.” I joke “We don’t get arrested that much. Only, myself included… Zeke too I guess, nine Ventrals in our family history have been arrested. Four of which were the only ones to be executed after arrest.” “I think I remember one Ventral that got arrested with a smile on his face, went to juvie and then proceeded to kill guards, than warden, and went straight back to being a jack hole.” “Was likely my brother Dillen… psycho takes the term megalomaniac to a whole other level.” “I think it was someone different because the place was still standing and too many people inside were still alive.” I say, trying to remember that one person’s name. “Ah fuck it. Who cares right now…” The door to our ‘cell’ opened as a…a…a Nage male slithered in here. “So you two were at the scene of the power surge?” He asked. His human half was armored, and his snake half was half covered in some type of armor. “And who might you be? Cause it’s not everyday a Naga appears while two people are being held against their will.” “Naga?” He asked. “It’s a word for your kind on various worlds sir, likely during your kinds early space travels.” A guard outside the door replied. “Ah. Well I’m Doctor Grethic. And you two are here for questioning because we need to know what that power surge was?” “Okay...everything that I explain is the hundred percent truth okay?” I ask. “You sure you want to hear the...rather absurd happenings?” “My race was a predator one, I can hear your heartbeat so I’ll know if you’re lying.” He replied. “Okay so those power readings you just so happened to get was because two god like beings were fighting.” I say. “Absurd right?” “Not really. On my world we worshiped a whispering bolder for thousands of years before it finally broke open. Whispers were a god like being trapped in it. Let’s just say I’m plantless cause of the red and black eyed bastard.” “What ‘red and black eyed bastard’?” I ask worriedly. “Cause considering my line of work, I have seen...at least two people that would be happy to do such a thing.” “She was my race, but her eyes were black with red pupils like a felines. Her body was tattooed in some runes, wrapped in chains. When she broke out of the chains her tattoos practically evaporated away. It was Genocide.” “Congratulations...you’ve met a ‘Psychopath’. Now those people are actually completely different from your regular crazy people…” I sigh out. “Remember those energies? One of them was a Psychopath, the other was a man who goes out and tries to stop them…” I explain. “Well, as relieving as it is to hear someone can fight those beasts and live, this is disappointing.” “Yeah…” I sigh out. “And the two of us did about the middle ground of ‘fuck’ and ‘all’ against the bad guy. Sorry you didn’t get to meet the person that can actually fight the bastards.” I shrug. “So, what are you doing here on Equis? Seems random to find a spaceship in the middle of nowhere.” “If it wasn't obvious from the logo and the view from outside, were a hospital ship. Any ship with injuries or things of the such call out to one of us, we send out a rescue ship, treat them here and then we send them off to where we took their ships. Typical protocol.” “Makes sense.” I nod. “Mike? Any questions about this whole...situation?” “Just wondering, what made a ship this big crash?” He asked. “That is a curious thing. Did you happen to get shot down by something?” I ask. “Well, yes and no. We spotted someone, a humanoid drifting in space WITHOUT any gear. We took the body aboard but to our shock they were somehow alive. When they came too they explained someone was after them then suddenly the alarms rang. Strange sliver creatures appeared. The person of they were after managed to evade them, but they wound up in sector four C. During the fighting the primary and secondary engines blew, we only have the backup and it’s only enough to provide power, not fly the ship.” “Well...shit.” I say worriedly. “Yes, that is accurate of the situation. We were hoping this suprise energy spike was something we could use to help build a new engine and jump start the ship.” “Well sadly no.” I say. “But I know a lot of people that are willing to help you out in your time of need.” “That would be grand, but I do have a favor to ask of you two.” “And that favor would be?” “As I explained, the person who we brought from their space floating managed to hide somewhere in sector four C, but we can’t contact, nor dare we go in there.” “Right then, so we have to go into possibly Sliver infested territory to find a random person we have no idea about...what did this person look like?” I ask. “Female, brown hair with green eyes. Human, mostly, she has strange symbols tattooed on her arms and hands. Also, she seemed to be able to somehow summon a strange key looking weapon.” “Got a name?” I ask curiously, getting up and readying myself for the search. “We didn’t get the chance before those Sliver beasts appeared. But they have largely left, only reason we won’t go into sector four C is because it’s quarantine. When the ship crashed and the power was restarting, the computer reported the patients with… Necragilver, escaped.” “And that’s a deadly disease?” Mike asked. “Yes, by spit or blood the infected seem to die, then walk around with reduced brain functions. They have slowed heartbeats, so they are not the story book zombie, but it’s close.” “There fucking zombies.” I frown. “No matter if you say ‘it’s close’, or ‘it’s a fungus’, no it’s a fucking zombie and everyone knows it.” I say, still hating how people say that a ‘zombie’ can be somehow different when they are the exact fucking same. “Sorry for ranting...but anyways, want us to just cleave through the zombies and find the person?” “They are our patients, not some undead. There is a cure for them, but our ship didn’t have enough so we were going for a resupply when we found the woman and crashed.” The guards behind him gave him two futuristic looking rifles. “These are stun rifles, they’ll paralyze them patients, but I warn you, the patients despite lacking large brain functions, are fast. And no, they only bite or attack when hurt, they’re more likely to run away from you rather than attack you on sight.” “Well good to know that.” I nod while grabbing the rifle and checking it over. “Uh...Mike? Mind showing me how to actually use a rifle properly? I...never used a gun before.” I say nervously, which is funny because I use thirteen different weapons. As we were walked over to the entrance to quarantine, Mike showed me how to fire the rifle as it was not much different from a regular rifle. Once we got to the entrance we walked through a decontamination chamber and then we were in quarantine. It was still very well lit, no blood or dead bodies like in zombie games. We saw one ahead of us and when they spotted us they bolted away from us. “Huh, so the doc wasn’t lying.” Mike said. “They are fast. Think you can keep up?” I ask, knowing I could keep up with that speed surprisingly enough. “This isn’t a shoot-em up Ben, they’re just sick, scared people. Let’s find this woman and get out of here.” “I was just asking in case we had to actually fight.” I say simply. “But yeah, let’s just hurry up and find her…” I say, moving carefully through the place. As we walked we came across more and more of the sick people, who tried to run or hide from us. We found one locked door, to which Mike managed to break down. Inside was a rather ransacked looking room. “This was the only locked door so far.” Mike said out loud. “Hello?” I call out, hoping someone was in there. “W-w-who’s there?” A female voice asks shakily, the fear in her voice blatantly obvious. “We’re friends.” I say gently. “Come on, you can come out.” “Fine.” She answered, but to my surprise she dropped from the ceiling, she knocked the wind out of me before yelling “Stop!” I managed to look up, Mike had the stop spell clock over him and she was pointing…a Kingdom Key at my face. “Talk or I’ll gut you.” She threatened. “Here we are, trying to get you out of a zombie infested area, and you immediately decide to attack us…” I frown, summoning Reunion and readying it. “As I said, we’re friends.” “That’s what the one with the blank face mask said, then he kidnaps my son and kills my husband.” I groaned, pulling back my hood and showing my face. “See? No weird mask being worn by an asshole.” I say. “For the third time, we’re here to help you out. Who are you?” She removed the Kingdom Key from my face, and let me get up. “Name is Skyla.” “Nice to meet you Skyla, the names Ben. The person that you just stopped is Mike, he’s a friend of mine. But who was your husband and son?” I ask honestly. “My husband was named Greg, and my son is named Sora.” “Oh...shit.” I frown. “Um...maybe that’s….” I take a deep breath. “Fuck.” I groan before pinching the bridge of my nose. “Can we get out of here first? I think it would be best if we talked without there being zombies around here.” “Sure, let’s wait for your friend to come off the spell first.” After Mike was no longer under the Stop spell Skyla, Mike and I were in the mess hall, eating some pizza, surprisingly, and I started asking Skyla questions. “Okay before all of this.” I start, while motioning to the ship we were in. “What do you last remember?” “Running from those silver creatures in this place that looked like a rocky, sandy place where it was always night time.” She replied. “I heard them as 'Slivers’ but you say 'silver’. Also this is a space hospital.” I say to her. “I figured. All I know about them is that the man in the mask can make them appear, along with some dark creatures, and some more colorful but still dangerous ones, each seem to carry a symbol on their bodies though.” “That sucks…” I sigh out. “But you're thankfully safe now.” “My safety is unimportant. I need to find my son.” “About that…” I say nervously. “I don't know if this is true but either three things happened to him…” “If you know anything, talk.” She spoke, a touch of anger in her tone. “This is all a guess but it's either, A, he joined that blank masked bastard. B, he's long dead, or C, he is somewhere with friends and being a hero.” I explain. “First off, the blank masked man kidnapped him, I saw it. Second, that better not be the case… it can’t… and lastly he’s only six.” “You weren't with him after he was kidnapped. I hope he's not dead...and time is a finicky bitch.” I say. “Kinda hard when a fat monster is holding you back. All I know is that after this, dark portal thing the man dragged him into closed that fat monster was about to kill me, then this light appeared and it was gone, I was alone in my son’s bedroom holding this.” She summoned the Kingdom Key. “A bunch of other monsters started attacking everywhere. I managed to kill some, but was knocked out. When I came too, I was in this place called Joto.” “Okay then.” I nod. “Well you certainly have a story...Mike? Any questions?” “How did you end up in space without a suit?” Mike asked. “I met someone in a dream my first night on that other world. He was… unique.” Skyla said. “How so?” I ask curiously. “He was… rather old, spoke about the fact my world was taken by darkness and that this… Keyblade, he called it, could help me fight it. He wore a blue robe and had a long white beard.” “Did he also have a pointy hat?” I ask. “It was crooked at the top, plain blue same as his robes and he did have glasses.” “Well...you might have met Yen Sid...but I don't remember him wearing glasses.” I shrug. “Whoever he was, he told me how to use the Keyblade to travel between worlds, and I did. For the past two months I’ve been searching and finally I run back into the masked man, I wind up in some everlasting night world and am attacked left and right by monsters.” “Did you see a sign saying what town you were in?” I ask, feeling like she went to Traverse town. “There was no town, only rocks, sand, a series of roads, and monsters everywhere.” “Oh dear…” I mutters. “Please, continue.” “I found some kinda jail looking place, so many people… I searched for Sora but guards and monsters found me, then some small person in a black version of your cloak jumped me, opened a dark portal and threw me in. I woke up on this ship when I came too. Not even sure when I passed out.” “Damn…” I frown. “That sucks...well at least now you're on a world where 'sunshine and rainbows’ is more in the literal sense.” I say honestly. “I’ll consider moving after I find my son.” She said sarcastically. “I have to find him… he’s all I have left now…” “I hope I'm wrong…” I sigh out. “But anyways I'd recommend settling down for a bit okay? You need rest even after...all this crap.” “I’ll rest when I’m dead….and even then, I’ll haunt the mother fucker for stealing Sora.” “Oi vey…” I sigh out. “But dying would be a bad idea.” She sighed, looking me dead in the eyes. “You can’t understand… you’re not a parent, and if you are, then you’re not a good one if you won’t die to find them when they’re lost.” “You know, if I didn't just become a father I would have slapped you really hard and you wouldn't be able to stop me.” I frown. “Then start learning how to care.” She got up, opening a DTL with the Kingdom Key. “When you’ll die for your kids, smiling the whole time, find me.” She walked into the DTL, it closing behind her quickly. “That was a massive waste of fucking time.” I frown. “Good to know Sora’s mom is alive but...Sora’s kind of...dead.” I sigh out. “I don't know a hundred percent but Ventus is awake...so him being alive is kind of slim.” “She’s a parent.” Mike said, patting me on the back. “She’ll refuse truth till the end. She’s not wrong though…” Mike got up. “You are a father now, right now to kids, one in law and one adopted, you felt guilty for her mother's death, so imagine how she feels, failing to protect her son, the most important part of parenting.” “Well I wouldn't know because one is legally about 30 mentally, and the other is a part of a family of mass murderers.” I say simply. “Was.” Mike corrected. “She’s yours now, treat her as such.” “Listen how about I get passed the bajillion things alright?” I sigh out. “Got too much shit to do and less time to do it.” “One thing at a time then.” Mike said, walking off. I sighed out. They’re not wrong either. I still need to master the rest of my weapons, get hitched somewhere along that road, and now it seems learn how to be a dad properly…might wanna talk to Zeke about that one. “One thing at a time? Fuck you.” I grumble bitterly, knowing that, even if he was right, it was fucking impossible for me. “Not in my life.” I sigh out before heading off, readying myself to just head on home and try to think about the fuck load of things I have to do. To be continued... Nobody's lesson: SharpshootersOn the way back to the Dragon lands to pick up the girls, then Luna at the military base, if she didn’t already head back to the dragon lands already, Skyla’s words kept ringing in my head, and it was pissing me off. I care about my family, yes I’m new at…all of it but I care! It seemed Mike agreed with her, but I don’t know why though, I know he’s not exactly Zeke but he…came from a mostly caring family given my interactions with them…crap this is all confusing. Next time I see Skyla I’m slapping the bitch out of her. “You look mad Ben.” Mike said as we were heading near the dragon lands. “The bitch said I didn’t care about my family and you agreed with her, don’t I have the right to be mad?” I ask with a frown. “Fair point, but look at it like this, you told a woman, a mother, who lost her son, husband, world, everything she cared about, to rest. I know you meant well, but by telling her that, she thought you didn’t think her son was in danger…and even if Sora is…gone already, she won’t belive it till she either see’s the body or Core tells her himself. She lost everything in less than a day and how the ability to find the one thing from her past she’s betting all hopes on that her son it alive. On your part, it was poor wording.” “I’m not a people person…” I grumble. “True, that’s obvious, but trust me, when one of your new wives has a child by you, you’re ‘stay calm getting mad isn’t a good idea’ perception is gonna turn a one eighty. You’ll have a whole new set of responsibilities, no longer to just your wives, but your kids. You can’t live without them, right?” “Of course.” I deadpan. “Well they can’t live without you, and no kid should grow up only hearing stories about their dead father who got himself killed to save them.” “Wait, so now you're on my side?” I ask curiously. “I’m in the middle, love them enough to die for them, care enough to always come back home. That’s something Skyla lacks, she’ll die for her son’s safety, but that will do him more harm than good.” Huh…love them enough to die for them, care enough to always come home. “Thanks… that kinda helped.” I sigh out. “Also I must add that you saying ‘take one thing at a time’ thing is complete and total bullshit. You may be a soldier and all that but I doubt you’ve ever had to go to every country around the world and cleave through the Heartless population, master 11 more weapons, worry about the wedding, have a ton of people, including yourself, to get stronger to protect everyone…” I explain, taking a deep breath and trying not to rant or rave about how shit my life is. “You get the idea…” “Yes, treat it like college, cram as much in as short a time as possible.” He replied. “Never went myself but the few soldiers back at the base that did go all said that’s what they did. Take like, an hour or two a day for a few weapon classes, or jump headfirst into one specific training and try to get it done as fast as possible.” Mike finished. “That's the problem though.” I frown. “I have so much shit to do and no time to do any of it that it's…” I take a deep breath. “You and your buddies didn't have to be good at magical weapons, kill magical creatures, and so much other shit...but I'm gonna have to do it all anyways.” “Speaking of, mind if I ask where we can obtain magical weapons, I have a feeling they’ll last longer and be more effective against this fight.” “I'll try to figure something out.” I sigh out. “Maybe I'll figure something out.” We arrived back at the Dragonlands, Luna was there and I was greeted with a large group hug and informed Chrysalis about the ship that attacked them. They likely attacked, judging her people based on their appearance. We headed back home and as ordered, Mike tagged along and when we got home, Dinky gave us a surprise. “How did this happen?” Derpy asked, looking at Dinky’s new wings. “They just appeared.” Dinky said. “Also congrats on your engagement mom.” “Okay so apparently you got wings because of your mother.” I say honestly. “Because of our new family curse more...defining features of the parents appear.” I say. “So congrats Dinky, you are now an Alicorn.” “You’re dad’s right.” We all looked at the doorway, seeing dad walk in. “And yes Ben, I’m watching you guys, but not in your private moments. Also, the family curse is only half responsible, the rest is your new… demi-god gene, powers, whatever you call it, it brings out the more… helpfull, genes in a person, letting their full potential emerge and manifest. With some time and training you can control how you look at the snap of a finger, but til then, you’re an alicorn.” “Hi dad. I’m not sure if you two met him but this is your Grandfather, Cript.” I say to both Jenny and Dinky. “And thank you for explaining that to me cause I barely know anything about our family curse.” “Nice to meet you Ben’s dad.” Derpy said, shaking dad’s hand. “Cript is fine.” Dad said. “Like I said, the curse makes any child adopted into my family, no matter how far along the generation, genetically me and my spouse's genetic child. In my case, it’s one of my spouse's. And like I said, as Ben is a demigod, so are his kids now, and you all by marriage.” Dad finished. “Thank you.” I nod. “Well, while it was nice to be home for all of three minutes I have training to do...then go around the world being a hero…” I sigh out. “Good luck son.” Dad said before leaving. “See ya dad.” I nod. “And I shall be going, sorry.” I say while heading off to find Braig. “Take care.” My wives all said as I left. Finding Braig was easy, he parked his ship in the middle of a park. I knocked on the door…only to hear an explosion go off. “FUCKING HELL!” Braig’s voice screamed as he ran out. “That’s not good…” I mutter. “You okay in there!?” I call out, hoping he didn’t do something stupid. “Just set off a grenade when you spooked me.” Braig said. “Was moving them, the knock spooked me and I pulled the clip on instinct.” Braig said as he walked up to me. “Instinct can do that to ya.” I nod. “So anyways, you’re my next teacher. Got free time?” “Yeah, I know a good place to practice so let’s go.” Braig and I walked into his shit, no signs of an explosion but there were more weapons on the wall, somehow, and ammo everywhere. He started the ship and we flew off to a world two worlds away from Equestria. Where he parked was a rocky mountain area with some snow on the top. “Welcome to ER-P7, otherwise known as Kelg.” Braig said as we walked out. “Never heard of a world named ‘Kelg’.” I say honestly. “What’s special about it besides rocky mountains and snow?” “Two things. One.” Braig points to the area. “It’s got the perfect environment for you to practice anti-gravity and teleporting.” Braig then walked over to a cliff side, showing me that the entire world below was all heartless. “Second is that, this world has had Heartless in millions on it for as long as travelers can remember. Some say this world has no keyhole, me, I think it’s just hard to find.” “Pretty sure it's hard to find….” I say. “But damn it I already have one world filled with Heartless murder, now I have even more heartless murder…” “We’re not here to exterminate, we’re here to use that.” Braig pointed one of his arrow guns at the swarm below us. “For combat practice.” “Right then…” I say while summoning my gun arrows. “Shoot specific things or what?” “First off, let’s see how you are with them.” Braig said, crossing his weapons in his signature pose and vanishing, reappearing upside down some feet away. “Teleport and defy gravity.” “Simple enough.” I say while doing exactly that. I teleported a few feet away from him and was also upside down. “Next?” I ask, already being used to this because of Lindworm and the few times I did defy gravity. “Next, how far can you teleport in one go.” Braig teleported up… so up I only really saw a black dot in the sky. I took a deep breath and teleported, sadly not as high as Braig but a good distance up where I could see more of him then just a black dot. We both teleported back to the ground. “Not bad, the key to longer teleporting is knowing exactly where you want to appear, the magic in the guns can only take you so far, to actually get distance you have to channel your own magic into them, acts as an overdrive for the teleporting.” Braig said, both of us on ground. “Makes sense. I've mostly done quick teleporting in fights so this will help.” I nod. “Anyways, next on the list?” Braig connected his two arrow guns, making the american version Kingdom Hearts 2 cut rifle. “Accuracy, we’ll start with the stronger, yet easier way to get direct hits.” I did the same as him and we walked over to the cliff side. He looked through the scope, or whatever it was. “See that Fat Bandit heartless in the Soldier heartless mosh pit? Headshot it.” I connected both crossbows together and looked down the sights, seeing the Fat bandit. From my little ‘scope’ I could see the bastards head clearly. ”Take a deep breath and focus…” I think to myself, taking a deep breath and exhaling, pulling the trigger and the arrow whizzing past, destroying the Fat Bandits head on impact as it vanished. “Good.” Braig said. “Now rapid teleport while defying gravity above those freaks, take out as many as you can til you’re unable to feel your trigger finger.” I nodded, before doing exactly that. Hundreds of Heartless were killed rather quickly and even though my trigger fingers felt numb I kept on going, too focused on how I have to keep getting better and better whether people tell me to stop or not. “Come on...come on…” I mutter to myself, feeling a liquid drip on my hands as I kept on teleporting around, defying gravity and murdering Heartless. After a lot longer I teleported back to Braig, panting from the amount of effort I put in and the one eyed marksmen could easily tell my numb trigger fingers were bleeding. “How was that?” “Passable.” He said. “Take a power nap, I’ll go look for a potion to heal those bleeding fingers, word of advice, gloves.” He said, pointing at one of his gloved hands before walking to his ship. “Fine…” I mutter before putting away my gun arrows and summoning up my Assistants shop, buying a potion and two leather gloves. I chugged the potion, felt a lot better and put the gloves on. “Maybe that’s what that feeling was…” I mutter, summoning my gun arrows and readying to continue. Braig came back out, even though I already drank a potion I took the one he gave me. “Alright, now for part two.” He took out a red bandana, and wrapped it around my eyes. “Blind shooting, not always are you gonna be able to rely on your eyes.” “Right then.” I nod. “So...am I supposed to aim at anything specific?” Without warning, Braig forced me to kneel on the ground, placing one of my hands on the ground. “The key to hitting a target blind takes heightened senses, lost your eyes, you got your ears, those go too, well, you have that new sniffer, and if that’s all gone, feel the ground for their faint vibrations. If all of that is gone by some unholy hate against you, use your aura to send magic pulses in the air, like magic echo location.” “Right…” I nod while my ears flick and turn, able to hear all the heartless down there. “Kill one hundred using only your hearing, after that’ I’ll pop in earplugs into those things, followed after that with a pin to block your sense of smell, and once that’s gone and you master shooting with feeling vibrations I got some special gear that makes you unable to feel a bullet passing through your arm, then you’ll be using your aura, which requires some time to figure out.” “Alright…” I nod while my ears turned and flicked at all the noises, before I took aim and fired, a mixture of my aim and the magical auto aim these things had helped me get a little better hits. I continued to fire at Heartless, thankful for my new Dire Wolf senses as I kept on firing, finally killing my hundredth Heartless. “K.” After returning to Braig he shoved something in my mouth, tasted like… a cold hamburger. “Gotta eat.” He said as I finished it, he then placed earplugs into my ears, turned me around and shoved me. I stopped myself before I probably fell of the cliff. “Cripe…” I mutter, sniffing the air and by god did Heartless not smell good. I wrinkled my nose at the constant scent of Darkness before I took aim and fired, hitting Heartless and killing them swiftly enough. “God this smells bad…” I mutter, missing a couple times but continuing to fire, which I noticed that my guns didn’t have to reload, which was unsurprising but surprising to me. With the lack of hearing them die I had to go off the decreased smell of darkness, which I hope was accurate, because it’s also hard to count. After I think I hit my hundredth I somehow teleported back up to Braig. He just put something that clung to my nose like a crab pinch, which hurt, but I got the message. “Okay…” I mutter, taking a deep breath as I made pulses of Nothingness magic, sensing the Heartless but because I didn’t want to accidentally summon a Nobody I started firing, this time I could tell a lot better how many I killed instead of guessing with my nose. ”I did use this a lot…” I think to myself, not entirely minding that I’m doing quite well doing all my shooting. After a while my arms and trigger fingers hurt again but I just pushed through the pain and kept on firing, the mental picture of me getting stronger to protect my family keeping me going even if I was done. “Okay...that should be it…” I say, stopping after my hundredth kill. “Anything else?” Braig took off my ‘handicaps’ and seeing after all that time blindfolded hurt my eyes, even if it was night. “We’ll rest up, first thing in the morning you’ll see what you did.” “Alright.” I nodded. “Where am I sleeping?” “Couch.” Braig said, Following him into the ship, seeing a couch I didn’t notice before. “Alright.” I nod, before walking over and sitting down on the couch. “Well, night.” I say, laying down and getting comfortable. Braig didn’t say anything, he just walked into what I guessed was his room and closed the door. I sighed, wondering what he meant by what I did. I managed to get some sleep even though I was bothered with what Braig said and a few other things stuck in my head. I got up and stretched, readying myself for another day of training. “Let’s hope I didn’t accidentally do something terrible…” As I walked outside the ship, Braig was sitting at the cliffside. “Good you woke up sunshine.” He said. “Glad I got some sleep. So what did I do?” I ask curiously, walking over to the cliffside. Upon reaching it, I saw that there were FAR fewer heartless, and in the center of it all, a massive metal hatch. “How you managed to walk on that a few times and not notice it surprises me.” Braig said. “I didn’t think I killed that many…” I mutter. “Anyways I never saw or noticed that at all...did you know it was there?” “Nope, during your blindfold test I saw it start to surface after a bit, that’s why I kept throwing you down there.” “You threw me down there never.” I say bluntly. “Anyways, what do you think is in that hatch?” “No idea…let’s open it.” Before I could protest, Braig had already teleported down to it. “Okay…” I mutter before teleporting down along with him, readying my weapons in case the Heartless will attack us. I had to summon large nobodies in order to help open the abnormally large hatch…when it did open, light flooded out, we were blinded, and when it faded, the Heartless were gone and the watch was wide open, revealing a long fall to wherever this thing led. “Damn…” Braig said. “Well...glad to know that’s where the Keyhole is.” I say honestly. “So, want me to hop on down there?” “Not without me.” Braig said, jumping down the hole in a freefall. I jumped after him, both of us activating out anti-gravity near the end, letting us land safely down in what was some kind of entrance. “No one knows if life ever existed here, this is possible proof of live forms that might have lived here… HA! Fame and fortune here we come!” “I have enough fame and fortune back home…” I state. “And frankly that only makes shit harder for me honestly…” “Whatever, come on.” Braig said, we pushed open the large doors, and light turned on instantly. We wandered in hallways for what had to have been hours, most rooms filled with metal crates, furniture, all covered in dust. We finally came into a rather unique looking room, mainly because there was only one thing in it… a Keyblade forge. “Well now, this world held Keyblade wielders?” “How in the fuck?” I ask worriedly. “That’s...that’s something…” I frown. Braig walked over to some kinda crystal sitting on a desk. He touched it, then a hologram or something appeared. “Greetings, I am…was, Trica, if you are viewing this then I, along with the rest of this world, have long been dead. This facility you find yourself in was built after the first invasion darkness dealt on light, a way to keep Home safe by developing new, powerful weapons. After years and years, with the help of our grand lord Kingdom Hearts, we finally succeeded.” An image of the X-blade appeared. “A Keyblade, a weapon unlike anything to ever exist, the power to destroy darkness, but also to keep it at balance with light.” “The X-blade?” I mutter. “I thought that was made before the worlds were split?” “It was.” Braig said. “This ‘world’ was part of it before it split, that’s how old this place is.” “How do you know that?” I ask curiously. “Take a look, this place has clearly been abandoned for a long fucking time and this hologram which is talking about creating Keyblades, put two and two together.” “Makes sense…” I mutter, scratching my head as this just got more confusing. “Well I better get in touch with Luxu so he can see this...he’d have a field day here.” The hologram woman began speaking again. “With instructions from the lord Kingdom Hearts, we built a special forge designed to create Keyblades, and this very room is where the first keyblade, the X-blade, was forged. By carefully mixing light and darkness as well as minerals only found in the void above us, the X-blade became reality, and upon completion, formed a link with the lord Kingdom Hearts. He wielded it himself and cut darkness down, sparing us from the clutches of darkness, or void. We continue to forge Keyblades and in the event darkness returns, the generation of life will be armed and ready.” The hologram faded out. “Well shit…” I mutter. “That’s a whole bunch of something.” I say. “I’ve got to call Trinity and get her to contact Luxu…” I muttered, tapping my Assistant and seeing if I could actually send a message to Trinity. I think I did cause after a bit, Luxu came out of a DTL. “Hey Ben, your sister said you…wow this place is old…” He said, looking around. “It is.” I nod. “There’s a message crystal there, which had a woman named Trica explain everything about this room and how the X-blade was made to some extent.” I explain. “WHAT?!” He screamed, finding the crystal fast and having the hologram play again. After it was done, he was rather silent. “This room… is the birthplace of Keyblades…” He finally spoke. “Apparently.” I say. “I don’t know how Braig knew about this world, and I don’t know why this world just so happened to hold this stuff...but it would explain why there was millions of heartless around…” “I trained with my master here.” Brag said. “You think I’m an asshole, the old bastard had me kill heartless with a slingshot before he let me near even a crossbow.” “Well...that’s a thing…” I frown. “But hey, we found the birthplace of Keyblades, the original Keyblade Forge, and a bunch of other things could happen right now...which actually raises a question...why is that here when in Zeke’s reflection it was split in two?” “When I was a kid there were Keyblade forges, a fair amount, dad used to say there were more than that before but eh, they’ve always been around…this one is the very first.” Luxu said, walking over to it. “Wow…” I mutter, not believing that this was the very first Keyblade forge. “It’s probably been forever since it was last used...I wonder if it’s still good.” “One way to find out.” Luxu said, magicking up a large backpack. He dumped the minerals in it, some of which I knew, the rest was new to me. He gathered several of what looked like Orichalcum+ and some other minerals I had no idea what they were and tossed them in. There was a bright flashing light and what floated out was a keychain, it looked like a heart wearing an Organization XIII cloak. “Wow.” Luxu said, holding it. “That’s a whole bunch of something.” I say honestly. “So that’s how keychains are made…” I mutter. “Uh...is a part of Grandfather Light in there?” “Yeah, otherwise that flash of light wouldn’t have appeared.” Luxu said. I summoned Reunion. “What would happen if I put Reunions keychain in there when it doesn’t have a piece of Grandfather Light?” “Let me take care of that.” Luxu said, walking over to me. I took off Reunion’s Keychain and gave it to him. He put on some kind of ring that had a kingdom key image on it, then shoved the hand holding Reunion’s keychain into the forge’s fire. I was surprised he didn’t scream, must be the ring. After a bit, there was a flash of light, a flash of darkness, then a flash of a strange grey light and Luxu pulled it out. He tossed it back to me. “Congrats, you’re keyblade is for the dawn.” He said. I grabbed Reunion’s keychain and put it back on my blade. “Why did it flash grey?” I ask curiously. “I understood the light and darkness flashes but grey? I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a Keyblade gaining the power of Nothing.” “From what I know, it goes like this. A flash of light means it’s got grandfather light only, flash of dark, grandfather darkness only, flash of both, it’s a balanced weapon, like the X-blade, but a flash of grey, that’s dawn, the power of both light and darkness and a connection to the place between the two, aka, Nothing. For them to exist it’s like… being born with six fingers on each hand, what are the odds?” “Slim to none?” I guess. “Something like that.” Luxu took a look around. “Wonder if all the keychain recipes that they had to have made are written down around here?” “What were some of those materials you brought? I only know some but not all of them.” I say honestly, wanting to know what else was there. “Also...I’ve noticed a massive lack of Moogles...where are they?” “Typically moogles are on their own world, Radiant garden, or if you has a Moogle shop game to summon one to you, as for the minerals you don’t know…that’s a secret.” “Alright then.” I nod in understanding. “So how are we going to get this thing out of here? Or should we just keep it here?” Luxu seemed to think about it for a time. “Agh! I don’t wanna mess with this place cause it’s practically sacred, but leaving it here might risk Core finding the place…” “And we all know that Core should never find this place.” I state. “So we better get moving.” “Hey you two!” Braig called out, he was standing in a doorway that was not there before. “You might wanna look at this.” “Shit…” I mutter before following Braig. “What did you find?” “Look.” He said bluntly. Luxu and I walked over to him, and in the room was a skeleton, very old, holding two crystals, and…a pure white X-blade…“Now that’s fucked up…” “How the fuck?” I mutter, seeing the crystals, the pure white X-blade. “I’m so confused...Luxu do you have any idea what’s going on?” “No, but we might soon get an answer.” Luxu walked over to the crystals, picking the out of the skeleton’s hand. He activated one, and a holographic book appeared. He flipped though a few pages. “...this is the recipe book for every Keyblade made here…and it’s a LOT.” He activated the other crystal, and a hologram Trica appeared over the skeleton, her arm holding the pure white X-blade pulsating with light and she was quite scared. “I… this was a mistake.” she started. “Lord Kingdom Hearts warned us that pure light could be more dangerous than pure darkness… he was right, we didn’t listen, we used the purest light we could find and tried forging a second X-blade… we succeeded, but it created a link with light and only light. You’d think that’s a good thing, but upon wielding it, the light was so bright… everyone turned to ash in seconds, the ashes rose, turning into black bodied, yellow eyes monsters.” “I can only hide, hide while they pour darkness into the forge, creating Keyblades of darkness. This facility was made to create the weapons to protect the future generations of life…now, it’s creating the weapons to end it… all because of this Keyblade…Whoever finds this Keyblade… destroy it, destroy Shadow maker, for in it’s presence they only grow stronger…” The hologram faded, leaving behind just the pure white X-blade and Trica’s skeleton. “This…this place was also the birthplace of purebloods…” Luxu muttered. “So yeah I’m gonna destroy that damned thing.” I frown. “What weapon would be good for smashing the damned thing?” “No idea.” Luxu said. “It makes darkness stronger when someone wields it, but that would mean the light in it grows in equal strength…we can’t touch it or face the same fate as the people here did, and we can’t leave it cause Core would make use of something like this.” “If we can’t touch it and we can’t break it, how the fuck are we supposed to move it?” I frown. “But wouldn’t Nothingness be able to destroy it?” Braig walked up to it, and took off the Keychain. “You overthink things.” He said, nothing happening to him as he held the Keychain. “Guess only when attached to a blade does it do that nasty stuff.” “Apparently…” I say with a frown. “Well this sucks...but we better start packing things up and hiding them away.” I suggest. “Zeke could make great use of this recipie book.” Luxu said, flipping through the paces. “Hey, here’s Gazing Eye…wait, what?” “What?” I frown. He showed me the book…on two pages were the Duskblade, and Reunion…“That’s freaky…” “How the fuck?” I question. “That...shouldn’t be a thing. I thought both of those...were new…” I mutter, summoning Reunion and looking at it. ”Sorry I’m clueless.” Joy told me through my Keyblade, not knowing how that’s possible. “Not exactly.” We all turned around, seeing God walk into the room. “My word, never in my life did I think I’d see this legendary place.” “Hi God.” I say. “I hope you’re having a nice day and not having Core do a shitty impersonation of you.” “Hey gramps.” Luxu said. “Hello Luxu. This place was just a legend back when I was a child, the Keyblade Factory. I’m surprised to see it still standing.” “It would seem silly if something so legendary would fall apart.” I say honestly. “But yeah me and Braig found all of this suddenly while I was training...and good lord is there a lot to explain…” I sigh out. “I know Ben, I heard.” God walked over to Braig, taking Shadow Maker’s Keychain from him. “You poor thing, you shine too bright you make everything around you a monster.” He said to the Keychain. “Also you are a lying bastard.” I frown. “You said Earth was an imaginary world, yet I have a few dozen human beings from a real Earth not a few miles away from the Dragon Kingdom.” “It is in my head Ben, and Core, even though he can’t set foot on it anymore, is making rapid advances to discover where I hid my secrets. So much so, in order to save anyone I had to work in a way that nearly exposed me to Core, as well as call upon a few old friends for favors.” “I have a feeling you won’t tell me…” I sigh out. “But hey I got a new dad and mom just so ya know.” “Really? Well, that explains the look, I thought you just got cursed.” “Yes and no.” I say honestly. “My new dad is Cript, and he has a family curse where I’m now genetically his son, as well as the son of a Dire Wolf named Den.” I explain. “Wow, you lucked out then I suppose.” “Well when you’re figuring out there’s worse shit than Core that exists I suppose it would make sense.” I shrug. “But back to how the DuskBlade and Reunion were already keyblades before I got my hands it?” “The Duskblade has always been a Keyblade Ben, I should know.” God lifted his hand, and summoned one. “It’s also my Keyblade. The keyblade of those with dying hearts, close to being a Nobody, struggling to stay a somebody. As for Reunion, that one is new, my guess, that book is connected to that forge, anything made in it is recorded.” “Well Reunion only gained a piece of Grandfather Light from the forge, Reunion became...well Reunion after my Mark of Mastery where my heart came back to life.” I explain. “Ah, so that’s it then. Explains I still have Duskblade then.” “Yep.” I nod. “Just gotta figure out what made your heart start dying to begin with then you can get started from there.” I shrug. “I had too much Rejection...but once I started Accepting everything thankfully came up wonders.” “I know my sins, to face them though…will end me…isn’t that right brother?” God said as Core walked in the room. “Sounds about right.” He spoke, summoning a black Fenrir. “Yeah how about ‘no’.” I frown, taking a step forward and summoning Reunion. “I’ve dealt with enough shit this week, I’m not going to have more stupid shit be thrown my way.” “Oh, I’m not here for you Ben, nor you Brother, I’m here for the forge.” “That is also not going to happen.” I frown. “And besides, why would you want the forge? You already have your own somehow.” “Yes, that I do, but this forge created the X-blade, and something strong enough to pull that off it can do it again.” “I’ve heard rumors you now have Void powers, why the hell would you want the X-blade still?” I ask with a frown. “Void is a resource, a playground for Admins, the materials there could be used to create anything, everything, even the perfect anti-X-blade.” “Not surprising.” I sigh out. “But I'm going to try and make sure that doesn't happen.” “You can try.” I blinked, and Core had the black Fenrir at my neck. “But you’ll die.” “I hate you...but I hate my 'future’ self more.” I frown. “Fucking prick.” I raised Reunion, Core quickly dodging. Luxu went in to strike, locking blades with Core as God tried to strike at Core’s back, to which Core used his free hand to grab God’s keyblade. Braig ran off someplace and I ran up to join the fight. Core released a wave of darkness, knocking God and Luxu back and staggering me, he was running back to reach the forge. I let my new… wolf instincts, kick in, and ran on all fours, tackling Core and crashing him into the floor. “Down mutt!” Core yelled as he kicked me off. I quickly shifted into Master Form, holding Reunion in one hand and a Kingdom Key in the other and righted myself. “I'm not a mutt.” I growled before dashing back in, swinging both of my Keyblades a lot faster then normal. Core locked blades with both my keyblades, he was pushing them towards me, and I was doing the same. A surge of energy rushed through me as I pushed Core back, a powerful aura surrounding me as I switched my Kingdom Key out for Skysplitter and slammed it down on top of Core, the ground around us cracking and shifting. I saw Braig teleport and take God and Luxu away. He also appeared behind me, putting something in my pocket before vanishing somewhere. “Core!” He yelled, gaining both our attention. I felt my blood run cold, he was holding the Shadow Maker Keychain, pointing his arrow gun at an atomic bomb placed over the forge. “One wrong move and I blow this whole place to hell and back.” “Where did you get that?!” I screamed. “Had it in my ship’s attic. Now then, Core, play nice.” “That still doesn’t explain how the fuck you got that!” I bark. “But yeah let’s listen to the man willing to shoot an atomic bomb….I doubt even you could survive it at point blank.” “...I’ll get hurt pretty bad I’ll admit.” Core said. “But you’re just a greedy mercenary, what reason would you have to blow all of us up?” “Three. One, the peaceful retirement life has been rather boring, Two, I wanna destroy this keychain and do a good thing for once, and three, Ben, you mastered the arrow guns in a day when it took me years. Talk about a prodigy.” “Wait really?” I ask in surprise. “Yeah, you just have one last test to become a master marksmen.” “And what would that be?” I ask curiously, not wanting to make a smart ass remark right now. “Just pull out the box in your pocket, and pull the trigger.” I frown, pulling out the thing he put in my pocket. My eyes widened when I saw it. “Dude...come on…” I mutter. “Thanks Braig…” I say honestly, giving him a kind smile before pulling the trigger. There was a flash, and I saw myself next to Braig’s ship, he, God and Luxu there as well as a mushroom cloud exploded, a shield around the ship keeping us from the heat and explosion. “Oh thank god the teleporter worked…” Braig said, letting go of a clearly long held breath. “You cheeky fuck!” I bark at him. “Here I thought you were going to do some ‘bad ass sacrifice’ thing but apparently not...but can you warn me next time?” “Sure, next battle with Core I’ll explain the plan through a megaphone so everyone can hear.” He said sarcastically. “What about the Forge? From what Lord Death told me those things are supposed to be indestructible…” I ask worriedly. “If it didn’t break, then it should have at least released the grandfather light and darkness in it.” God said. “Those things can be removed with force, and I say that was more than enough.” “And I made sure to drop the keychain to that damned Keyblade before teleporting.” Braig said. “Well, all in all I say that’s a job well-” The ground broke apart, Core rushing out of it, his whole body and skin melted and disfigured as he sliced Braig in half. “You’ll all pay!” He screamed before vanishing into a DTD. “Oh shit!” I yelp, rushing over to Braig and trying to find something to buy on my Assistant. “Come on come on, revival items have to be here somewhere…” I mutter, hoping to find a damn thing here. “Kid.” Braig said. “Heh, It’s alright, this was coming, I did a lot…a LOT, of bad, this is karma.” “Fuck karma!” I bark. “You are not dying after you just decided to become a hero ya one eyed bastard.” I exclaim while continuing my search. “Heh, isn’t that how it goes in books?” “Fuck the books!” I bark. “I’ve based shit on books all the time, I’m not going to have a weak ass cliched death befall a friend and master.” Braig was silent...to silent. “No...no...nonono…” I mutter. “Yo Ben, what I…oh…” I looked up, seeing Dad there. “Well…that’s bad…” “Your shops shit. I’m frantic yes but I haven’t found any revival items.” I frown, tears brimming in the corners of my eyes. “Let’s see.” Dad kneeled down to Braig, he waved his hand over him and an hourglass appeared over Braig’s head, a little bit of sand still falling. “They won’t work… his time is used up…” “And yet another weak ass death cliche appearing here…” I grumble. “So...can’t save him?” I ask. “I can do one thing, but I need to ask you, will you take care of him?” “Wait...you're saying…” I start before my eyes widen in realization. “Oh...yes. Yes I will…” Dad lifted his hand up, it glowed as the lines of ones and zeros appeared again, he shoved his hand into Braig, a crack appearing showing more code running around as Braig’s body glowed. When the light faded, where Braig laid down was now a baby. “Congrats, he’s barely a minute old now.” “Well…” I start. “I have two daughters to take care of I might as well start figuring out how to take care of a baby.” I say nervously. “He…won’t remember who he was, what I did is a reset, who he was is memories now, who he will be…well, raise him right.” Dad vanished in a blink as I picked up baby Braig, the second I touched him he turned into a Dire wolf pup, my colors…but he has Pinkie’s hair. “Oh my god…” I mutter, trying to contain my laughter at seeing Braig now being genetically related to Pinkie. “Yeah...he’s gonna be raised right.” I smile warmly. “So...anyone know how to drive a gummi ship that isn’t Luxu?” “I got it.” God said. “Thank you.” I smile, gently cradling my new son. During the ride back to Equestria I went into Braig’s old room. It was actually the only room without any weapons in it. I looked around, and found a tape recorder of all things. Took a while, but I found a tape labeled…’Will’. I played it. ”If anyone is listening to this, then I’m dead or worse…retired. Heh, that means you my friend are the owner of whatever and everything is in my ship is yours. If you are that shit eater Ben, heh, don’t hide it kid, then this is all still yours, but there’s something else I’d like you to have. Up in a secret panel in this room is a custom made mod for your arrow guns, it’s an add on to your auto aim, makes each shot bend to hit the target. It’s neat. There’s a few other things in there so go through them if you want, my only regret, being too greedy. I left my family at a young age because I wanted things my way, never saw them again, don’t let no prick kids of yours come out like me, consider it my last request if I’m dead. See ya around kid. The message stopped. I chuckled, tears falling down my face as I heard everything. “Thanks man...and don’t worry...you’ll get a new and better life.” I smile, before searching the room and trying to find the secret panel. I found it quickly, and attached the mod. I skimmed through the stuff in there and found a photo of what must have been Braig when he was younger. He looked like his dad, his mom was brown haired, he seemed to have a sister, she had dyed green hair and the house behind them was nice looking. “Alright…” I nod. “I wonder if they're still alive…” I mutter. When we arrived back home God left and parked the ship behind Twilight’s place. Upon telling the girls what happened and handing Pinkie her new son…she started feeding him…just, pulled her shirt and bra down right there…that’s gonna be normal soonish anyway. Dinner was done with and the girls dragged me into the living room with a surprise. They handed me a small box, and when I opened it, it was a key, not like a keyblade, but a house key. “And why do I have a house key when I have a keyblade that can literally lock and unlock literally any kind of lock in existence?” I ask curiously. “Cause it’s for our house.” Luna said. “When more than just Twilight and I got joined in, and with Rarity’s home broken at the time, we figured… we should just have our own place to call home.” “And this place is too small when there’s magic to literally make it bigger?” I ask. “Zoning laws.” Twilight muttered. “Legally this is as big as the Library can be.” “Oi vey...so where are we going to live at now?” I ask curiously. “Also, can any of you besides Luna summon a Keyblade? I completely forgot about that for some reason.” I frown. “We haven’t tried, we’ve been… occupying our time.” Zecora said, blushing. “Come on Ben, everyone get ready for a walk.” Luna said as Pinkie pulled a baby stroller from her hair…somehow, and everyone else was starting to walk out the door. She walked us into the Everfree, which seemed…calmer now for some reason, and we came upon the old castle…it was restored, actually no, redone, it looks more modern with some of it’s old features still there for appearance. “Like it? Celestia thought of restoring it and we split the cost.” “Sweet, now we’ll have enough room for all of us and our kids.” I smile. “Since it’s so big we do have to hire some help, no offense but I think your Nobodies would scare the babies Ben.” Twilight said. “There still going to be guards just in case. I won’t have them out constantly but I’ll still have them make sure somethings are safe.” I say. “That’s all we hoped for.” Luna said. “Come on, let’s go shopping for the new infant then get ready, tomorrow we move in.” “Hooray.” I say. “I mastered a weapon, got a new son, and now get an awesome castle. Everything’s going to go great for all of two weeks.” I say, just knowing bad shit’s gonna happen soon but glad things are going to look up for once. To be continued... Nobody's breakdownAfter a thankful night with my ladies, a nice shower and getting my cloak washed thoroughly, I did a quick check up on my new son. Thankfully we got him a crib but we weren’t sure what stuffed animal to give him, but normally a bear works the best in my opinion. When I quietly opened the door I saw my son gently sleeping with a stuffed animal by his side I smiled gently before gently closing the door. I continued walking down the hall and even though it was getting to be morning I looked down bitterly. “Thank you all for caring so much…” I mutter to myself, feeling the two rings in my pocket, the present Trinity gave me and the Ainz Ooal Gown ring Momonga gave me. “But...I just can’t…” I mutter sadly, tears welling up in my eyes and knowing full well I’m not going to keep my promise to them. ”Please...don’t be sad…” Joy says worriedly, Reunion magically appearing out of nowhere and floating next to me. “What do you want Joy?” I ask bitterly. ”You being sad goes against everything our fiance’s are trying to do.” Joy states in my head. “I know that...but no one’s going to help me with this…” I mutter. ”Don’t be stubborn.” Joy says. ”I don’t want to disappear…” “You're not going to disappear Joy…” I say honestly to my inner emotion. “I just...have to go through shit by myself is all.” I sigh out. ”You have all your friends and family to help. Stop putting yourself down.” Joy tells me, not wanting me to be so sad. “I know…” I sigh out. “I know…” I mutter. “Sneaking out?” I jumped as Jenny appeared behind me. How does she do that?! “Why do you ask?” I ask, taking a deep breath and dismissing Reunion. “Cause your fiance's are still asleep and you don’t wake up this early.” “What are you doing up so early?” I ask curiously. “You saying I get up early is one thing, but you being up early...something wrong?” She reached into her pocket and…pulled out a small revolver, not pointing it at me, she just had it in her hand. “I clean it early, shoot it around noon then find ammo for it from Braig’s old ship.” “Alright then.” I nod. “Might as well keep busy I suppose.” I shrug. “But I hope your liking any of my fiances and Dinky…” “Dinky is alright and in terms of those women… they’re alright, at least Dinky talks to me without making me feel like a stupid kid.” “Sorry.” I sigh out. “Maybe it’s because they still see you as a child from a troubled past….and they just want you to have a normal life now...even though that’s impossible in every way possible.” I shrug. She sighed. “Least you’re not as dumb as I thought if you can figure that out. By the by… you should close your windows when you…roleplay…caught a photographer taking pics of you all and I kinda sorta…comatose.” “I’m going to have some…choice words with that bastard.” I growl, cracking my knuckles. “If he wakes up this year.” She chuckled. “Dropped him off near the hospital at least, but I don’t think he’s waking up this year.” “At least you didn’t make him comatose for the rest of his life.” I say while patting her head. “It’s a good first step at least. “Yeah… but I did find his camera… he’s good at what he does so I didn’t let his work go to waste.” She grinned evilly. “Whatever.” I shake my head. “Well anyways, I’m gonna be gone. Tell the girls when they wake up I’m gonna be training.” I say before opening the window and summoning my glider. “Also I hate how you were right about the sex dungeon...there’s no way in hell I’m going there anytime soon.” I grumble She nodded, walking off as I flew off. I headed towards the spa first to find Ramilua, since I don’t know where he lives, and waited for it to open. Man, I am early if not even Applejack’s stall is open yet. “Hopefully he comes here...god damn it.” I mutter. Only ten minutes passed before Aloe and Lotus appeared and opened shop, telling me Ramilua will be here in half an hour, of to head to his house a few blocks away. Zoning laws in this town are odd. I headed off looking for the house the two described, finding it rather fast. Red brick with a wood roof and stone fence surrounding the whole place. There was one of those machines to talk with someone inside the house from outside so I pushed it. “Who’s there?” A voice I did not recognize spoke. I push the button again. “Hello?” I ask. “Uh...this is Ben. I’m here to see Ramilua? And Nelare just to see if she’s doing alright.” I say, not knowing who this new person was. “Who is this?” “One moment.” The gate opened as I entered. The door also opened as I approached it…creepy, but I walked inside anyway. Upon entering I was met…with a rather elderly looking pony woman, pointing a fucking RPG at me. “Who sent ya!” She demanded. “Uh...I’m friends with Ramilua and Nelare.” I say worriedly, raising my hands at the very aggressive mare. “Nana.” I heard the voice of a rather sick Nelare speak. “Nana the tissue…” Nelare froze as she came into the scene. “Nana… this is a friend of mine, the one who got us out of Knowhere.” “Oh.” The elderly mare said, unloading and putting the RPG away. “Sorry dear, been away from home for a while, old habits.” “It’s alright ma’am.” I say sheepishly. “I should have said I was a friend sooner. But anyways, I can see you’re...not entirely doing well Nelare.” “Egh, don’t remind me.” She complained. “So Ben, this is Nana, she was stolen by pirates when she was a filly here on Equestria, and when I say pirates, I mean the space kind. Grew up their whore, killed them all in their sleep one day, crashed their ship into Knowhere and was living there ever since. We rented the old Salon from her.” “Oh...no wonder why she immediately...kind of acted like that.” I say sheepishly. “I’m so sorry ma’am…” “Eh, I got over it decades ago. With how old I am not even sure if any of my family is alive. I know mama was pregnant when I got taken, but that mare would be only five years younger than I am.” Nana said. “Well right now you are back on Equestria, where the sun’s shining, flowers are blooming, and a national hero is trying not to have a mental breakdown about too many things.” I say jokingly. “I got something for that.” Nana said, walking to the kitchen and coming back with…a brownie. “Yes it’s got pot.” She added. “I don’t think I should have pot when I’m about to ask Ramilua if I can start training today…” I say nervously, hiding the fact I’ve never had pot and am scared of declining. “Trust me, next to Frizt this will calm your nerves.” “Nana, Frizt will get him high and drunk for at least a week.” Nelare said. “Can’t believe that’s a legal medicine too…” “Only in fifty planets.” Ramilua said, walking out from behind Nelare. “Seems I missed a bit while I was finishing up my bedsheets.” “Which is weird cause if memory serves weed is literally the most harmless out of the ‘illegal drugs’.” I frown, before sighing out. “I’m sorry but no, I’d rather not start my morning with a pot brownie.” I say. “So Ramilua, morning. Um...should I wait till after you're done working for us to start training or...do I have to somehow start helping you out at the spa?” I ask, not really surprised if I might actually have to pick up how to be a good at that. “No, but there is something you can do here that is training. Close your eyes and hold out your hands.” He said before walking off. I was skeptical. ”If this involves cleaning this house I’m gonna be kinda pissed…” I mentally frown before closing my eyes and holding out my hands. When I heard footsteps come near me, I tensed up a bit. When something was dropped into my hands, It made me fall to the ground with it’s weight. I opened my eyes, seeing almost cartoony large barbells in my hands…I’m stuck… “These are the same barbells my master made me train with, lift them ten times every hour.” He said before walking out the door. “Jesus how much do these damned things weigh!?” I yelp, trying my best to heft these things up. I get on my feet and try to lift with my legs but even then it’s hard as hell. “Those are magic, they amplify gravity on themselves, so even though they're still somewhat small, they will always weigh five times the planets normal gravitational pull on them.” Nelare said. “Hard to come by actually.” “Well lucky me.” I grumble. ”I’m sensing a Dragon Ball Z trend starting up…” I think to myself as I struggle to heft it up, and hey with the help of my legs and my possibly stupid amount of base strength I lift it up a grand total of...two inches. “And I’m supposed to lift these things up to my shoulders while standing correct?” ”Well...this is gonna suck…” Joy says in my head. ”Trying to concentrate Joy.” I mentally grumble, slowly but surely gaining progress and lifting the things. “As high as you can reach over your head.” Nelare corrected. “Sure...fine enough with me.” I say, still struggling to lift it. “And if I can’t lift it up ten times in an hour?” “Rama used to tell me it was stacked onto the next hour, so… good luck.” Nelare said, sneezing before walking back to her room “Fuck…” I grumble, wondering if I could just cheat my way through this to make this less of a goddamn nightmare with my new gravity powers...but I shook my head and unless I literally needed to I won’t use it. “Well...let’s get started…” I grumble, before starting my very painful road down trying to lift these damn things. And let’s just say that this entire training session was a massive fucking nightmare. I lost track of the time as I kept trying to lift this damned thing. And just like Nelare said, the thing stacked...and so far I was just glad I kept the thing up let alone trying to lift it above my head. “This….fucking...sucks…” I groan, my arms stinging from the amount of force they were under, but the thoughts of me just losing to something simple enough made me just hate myself over it. ”No, I’m going to finish this damned thing even if it tears off my arms.” I mentally growl, not wanting to give up again as I finally lifted it up to my head. I took a short break when Nana brought out some ice tea, then went back to this. I could barely feel my arms as I tried lifting them up one more time. “Come on…” I growl, trying my damndest to lift this thing which I thankfully got it up higher and higher. “Almost…” I mutter, lifting it higher and higher until, for once today, it was above my head. “Finally…” “Well done.” Ramilua said as he came back inside the house. “You been at this since I left?” “I took one break, and that was to have tea with Nana.” I explain. “But besides that short little break I’ve been doing this for hours on end.” I explain, lowering it down and trying to lift it up again. Ramilua chuckled. “You know, there is a trick to these kind of exercises.” “I don’t know if I can bend gravity now that I mastered a specific weapon, but no I’m not going to cheat my way with that.” I say honestly. “But what’s the trick?” “Not that.” He took one of the weights, holding it like nothing. “These are meant to train not just your strength, but your control of your magic as well. Can you guess how?” “Does it involve adding your magic to your arms to lift it up that way or no?” I ask, thinking that it’s like you have to lift it up with your physical arms and magical ‘arms’ in this situation. “Yes, your body when it uses magic to run rather than how it biologically runs off energy from things you ingest, is twice as effective due to magic being a form of raw energy. When flowed into specific parts, like the arm or leg muscles, they still gain the workout, but it feels like less effort despite still working your muscles properly. Took me a month to learn that.” “Well goody for you, I feel like my arms are about to dislocate.” I say while managing to lift it up again. “But thanks for the ‘trick’...even though it’s not really a trick to be honest.” “It’s how beings that are like us have managed in the universe. Humans have two things going for us, an adaptive intelligence, if you’re not a religious bigot, and magic, and even then it’s not something every humanoid being has. But what we do with it is how humanoids have survived in the universe at all, aside from Keyblades like what you have. We create, craft, and always find tricks to survive.” “Yep.” I nod, taking a deep breath and focusing...and just like that it felt a fuck lot easier. “Sheesh...you’d think I’d have figured this crap out already.” I sigh out. “Mastered three weapons that needed magic put into them, and even if it’s different the same principle still applies…” I shake my head, starting to now do this easier, even if my arms were numb and shaking like hell. “This will teach you how to better manage your magic and strengthen your control, after at least a week of this, you can apply it to your scythe and other large weapons you may have, letting you better aim and swing them by using your magic to balance out their weight.” “Makes sense.” I nod. “By the by...have you ever seen cherry blossom or rose petals around whenever you use your magic or is that just special to my weapon?” I ask curiously, knowing Graceful Dahlia had magic to it. “Let me see it.” “Uh...sure.” I nod, dropping the weight which caused a loud ‘thud’, before I summoned my Scythe. “I don’t know much about this weapon…” I say, focusing and tapping it on the ground. A moment or two later the two of us saw petals gently float around me. “Are these cherry blossoms or rose petals?” I ask curiously. “Cherry Blossoms.” Ramilua said, grabbing one. “They are often a symbol of death on many worlds, in some cultures even insanity, madness, but death is the most common. Mind it I hold it?” “Um...sure.” I say, moving it so the handle was pointing towards him. “For some odd reason it looks like rose petals…” He took it, holding it and swinging it a bit before purposely cutting his finger on it, the blood on the blade looked like it was absorbed by it. “Yes, this Scythe was made from a demon cherry tree. Rare.” “Did you say this was made from a demon cherry blossom tree?” I ask, finding that shocking. “Yes, they only grow on worlds or in places where the blood of countless innocents, mainly children flow, drinking it and it’s wood and bark, if you can call it that, become harder than Vibranium.” “My weapons just keep getting weirder and weirder.” I frown. “First Braig tells me my gun arrows are the gun arrows that practically no one could get, then Dorlu says that he only knows about one magical card set, and now I’m told my scythe is made from a demon tree.” I frown. “Jeez, and here I thought these were simple weapons.” “These are no simple weapons. You know, my master had a scythe like this, only a person with a heart of pure light or darkness can force the demon cherry trees to turn themselves into weapons. They say those killed with weapons from these trees get their souls devoured by it.” “Huh...no wonder why it has a ‘doom’ effect to it…” I mutter. “That’s nifty to know about...I’ll try not to murder anyone with this that’s for sure.” “It’s only a legend. This weapon was born in the bloodshed of innocents killed, forged to kill. I just wonder, whoever made it, was the blood of evil, or more innocent on their mind?” Ramilua pondered as he handed it back to me. “You probably wouldn’t believe me where this weapon ‘originally’ came from.” I frown, taking my weapon and it vanishing. “Honestly I don’t care to know. Just make sure if blood is spilled with it, make it blood that should be wiped from creation.” “I’ll make damn sure about that.” I nod. “So, besides me lifting this magical weight, what about any other training?” “It’s nine in the afternoon Ben, we’ll save the rest for tomorrow. Til’ then, take an ice bath, helps when you stop flowing magic through your muscles and they start feeling like overcooked noodles again.” “That’ll help.” I nod, my arms numb at my sides. “Well I’ll be off. Thanks Ramilua...but when should I drop by tomorrow?” “Before I head off to work. That would be best.” “Right then.” I nod while summoning my glider and getting on it. “See ya tomorrow.” I say before flying home to get some rest. When I walked inside I noticed something odd. It was quiet. It’s a big castle, yes, but still it’s not this quiet. “Hello?” I call out. “Anybody home?” I ask worriedly, hoping my family is safe. I found Jenny’s room and upon opening the door I saw her with headphones on playing what looked like Minecraft on her Pc…when did she get that? I knocked on the door with my foot, hoping she could hear it. Jenny jumped a bit, taking off her headphones and turning around. “Oh, you're back.” She said. “I am back yes.” I nod. “So, where is everyone? I know the place is big but it’s eerily quiet.” Her eyes shifted. “Uh…heheh…here’s the thing, when they woke up and you were gone again they got into an argument that you don’t trust them, it’s dumb male pride, typical BS… so they made a decision about how to deal with it…” I felt my arms again...before I punched a wall and caused a crack in it. “Why the fuck would they think that?” I ask angrily and bitterly. “You made a promise, you leaving this morning before anyone of them woke up made them realize that even you won’t keep a promise to them if it means they could get hurt. So, they had Braig baby and Dinky spend the week with now aunt Celestia, I got to stay here cause I wanted to, and they managed to head off someplace…off world.” My eyes shrink to pin pricks. “Oh no...oh nonono…” I mutter, starting to panic. “This isn’t good...do you know where they went?” I ask worriedly. “Is Luxu with them? Terra? Aqua?” “Luxu told them of a place they could train but that’s all I know.” “Christ.” I growl. “Well yay for me, I need to find out where they are.” I frown. “Can’t train for one day without those girls scaring the shit out of me.” I say, a nagging feeling in my mind that...they don’t care about me because of this stunt. “I wonder if Trinity knows where they are...practically nothing can get past her.” I roll my eyes. “But uh...where did you get the PC from? Luna or Derpy give it to you?” She lifted her arm, showing me she had an Assistant on. “Grandpa Cript gave everyone one while you were gone, with about 9.8 Trillion in spending money each. Luna about fell over and Rarity kept stuttering.” “Yeah that’s dad for ya.” I chuckle. “Well let’s just hope I can find them with this thing…” I mutter, bringing up my Assistant and trying to search for my fiance's location. Sadly my lack of experience in using this thing was against me so I flew back to Twilight’s old Library where I know Trinity, Luxu, and Time were, Rarity said Sweetie switches between her parents home and her sister’s home to stay close to the whole family. I almost broke the door down, when I was inside I saw Luxu reading a book… laying upside down against a wall. “Figured you’d show up.” He said, not even looking my way. “Where.Are.They.” I growl. “Not telling.” “I spend one day training and they decide to bolt thinking I don’t give a shit about them and you do the ‘not telling’ crap!?” I bark in anger. “Yeah, they made me promise, and unlike you, I don’t break my promises even if it get’s those I love hurt. They trusted you to stay with them and help them train. You were gone when they wake up like a horn dog in a one night stand when they wake up after making a promise to help them train too. Help them gain their Keyblades. How do you think they felt?” “I DIDN’T BREAK ANY FUCKING PROMISE!” I shout in rage. “You should at least have left a note, I have lived longer than I wish I could have and I can only tell you this about women, in their minds, when you made the promise, the signal that you were going to keep it was to be there when they woke up, you weren’t, so to them, that means that you are breaking it.” “That’s bullshit in at least three ways.” I frown. “One, they never gave a specific time, and considering over twenty people are telling me to get stronger I was going to spend my time training, then help them all train like I promised. But apparently fucking not.” I frown. “Two, they should have kind of expected me to be training all things considered with my schedule and all, especially Twilight-” “They did, but they put their hopes on you at least being able to spend mornings with them, not run off at sunrise and coming back at, what is it, ten almost in the afternoon? What time can you give them when most of them would already be asleep by then save for whoever is watching that baby of yours?” I look down, my mind now rushing to ‘you failed them’, and so many other terrible things. “Please...where are they?” I ask, tears threatening to fall. “I promised not to tell… but if you can find it out, like… if you read my journal that is upstairs in the bedside table, that’s you finding it out.” I looked at him, my hopes of finding them rising but my suspicion beating it down. “And the catch?” I ask. “Cause that sounds too easy.” “I have no idea what you mean.” Luxu says in a fake ‘normal talk’ voice. “I’m just making conversation. It’s not like any dumbass can figure out this is a favor or anything.” That last part had a sarcastic tone to it. “Fine.” I mutter. “But hey uh...do you have any idea about what this symbol means?” I ask, summoning Reunion. “I can read it but...can you?” I ask, walking over and pointing to the strange marking that said ‘Keys’ to me. He looked at it, then looked back at his book. “That’s the mark of the King of Nothingness. Some old god that was made when Light and Darkness started clashing. Those with that mark are his knights or some BS like that, gain thirteen of them and you get the rights to challenge him for the crown. Or so the story goes.” “Oh…” I say before disbanding Reunion. “Well...that’s a thing.” I nod. “I met him once….he’s alright, but his personality is…unusual.” “Well when you're apparently the ‘King of Nothingness’ I’d expect it to be unusual.” “When a king talks to you like a…crap what’s a term that’s not offensive? Best I can say is a stereotype gay, that’s how he is….down to the fucking starbucks…” I stared at him for a moment. “Um...okay then.” I nod slowly. “Well, thanks Luxu. That makes this weird thing a lot more...understandable I suppose.” I shrug. “Whatever.” He said as I went upstairs. Finding his journal and skipping to the latest entry. ___/___/___ Ben’s fiance’s asked me about some world they could go to hide and train for a while. Some crap about wanting to prove they can take care of themselves without Ben so they can protect him better than he could protect them. Ugh, makes no sense to me but that’s Ben’s freakout when he finds out. They wanted a challenge where they could learn to kill if needed and train in proper combat. Several worlds came to mind but only one could teach them the skills they asked for specifically and I’m wondering why the fuck Ben didn’t do this already? Meh, after helping them summon their Keyblades, which I was surprised Twilight got a Gazing Eye too, somehow that suits her, and gave them the world’s name and coordinates. 678-785674-3453768-456734636-879869847-8568567 Long ass trip from Equestria to Tamriel, but fuck it, they’ll fit in alright there. “Shit.” I frown before closing the journal. “And wondering why I haven’t went to a world to get the proper skills? I’ve been getting that enough as is.” I grumble to myself before putting the journal away and summoning Reunion. “Well...let’s hope I can find them.” I say before summoning a DTL and walking through it all the way to Tamriel. God knows how long later I finally stepped out into Tamriel proper. “Now...which Elder scrolls area am I in again?” I ask myself, looking around and trying to get a good survey of the area. I don’t think I’m in Skyrim, it’s sand for…everywhere…am I in the Khajiit homeland? “Well...didn’t expect to be in a desert.” I frown, keeping my hood up and my tail hidden. “I just hope they don’t hate me too much…” ”They don’t hate you.” Joy says to me in my head. ”They just...want to keep us safe…” “I know Joy...but…” I mutter, putting my hands in my pockets and walking, thinking the girls would just either run or attack me if I was on my glider. With fur the hot sun was…extra hot. How do those damn cats live here? I was panting at this point when something startled me. “You look like a new traveler to these lands.” I jumped as a distinct Khajiit voice spoke from behind me. When I turned to look it was a female, dressed in what I recognized from the games as Hammerfell clothing. “You could say that.” I nod. “Um...have you seen people who looked…’different’ around here?” I ask. “I am looking at one.” She deadpanned. “I’m looking for eight women. My fiance’s actually...and I’m worried sick about them.” I say worriedly. “Please...if there’s anything you can tell me…” “If they are new here like you then they may be in the border cities. Closest one near us though is Orcrest, which is near all three main cities next to our borders.” “Thank you.” I nod. “And...which direction would that city be?” “You can follow Khajiit to it, you’d likely end up lost considering you’re already going in the opposite direction of Orcrest.” She pulled out a small leather flask. “Drink, Khajiit could hear your pants of overheating from ten feet away.” “Thank you.” I nod while taking the leather flask, uncapping it and taking a small drink from it. I put the cap back on and handed it back to the Khajiit woman. “Well...let’s get going I suppose.” She nodded, turning around and leading the way. It took two hours but we finally made it to the city, it was nothing special, tall stone and wood walls, shaks from wood and clay, and with it being late there were mages casting spells to place glowing orbs of light on set poles. Huh, magic street lights. “So Khajiit wonders, why did your mates leave?” She asked as we were walking the streets. “I’d...rather not say.” I say bitterly. “It’s all my fault...I just hope...they still care about me at all…” “Khajiit can not say much, but personally, if they are worriers like Khajiit, then did you do something to insult their honor as such?” “For some odd reason when I wasn’t there when they woke up they took things completely out of proportions.” I sigh out. “At least...to me.” I mutter. “Oh, Khajiit might know what this is about. You see, most females,like Khajiit, talk not just verbally, but physically as well. We interpret actions, large and small, as they seems to mean. If you left without explanation or even a note behind to set their minds at ease, then they became furious.” “Yes yes I already know that.” I say with a raised hand. “But the problem with that is, they already know what I do, because there’s one of them that really likes to plan out their day and the rest would understand that I also have stuff to do...but they took the ‘I have to do things’ to the extreme of ‘I suddenly don’t care about them’.” I frown. “Ah, no then this is not the case. I’m guessing you in your lands are well known and is a busy person, yes?” “Basically.” I shrug. “Then this is them saying, ‘you need the free time, we can do things on our own so you can be without distraction’. If you have no time to spend with them, or don’t make it, then why should they be there to pester you when they seem to know your importance?” “I always try to have time for them…” I say sadly. “I always try to be good to all of them...I try and try...but…” “But!” She whacked the side of my head. “You are one man, one person. You know, and they know you can only do so much, so they made a decision for you. Even if it hurts you, they made the choice to give you space and time for your business. Khajiit bets if you do find them that they will likely say you should go back and finish what you need to do.” “No...they won’t…” I sigh out. “I just know it…” I mutter, tears coming back and trying to fall as I had another thought of them looking at me in such a disappointed or hateful way. “I...I don’t want to fail them…” “Ah, you are a broken man who has placed your stability on them. Your family likely knows this as well, this is likely another reason they left to give you time and space. If you can trust them to be away and take care of themselves, then they will know that you truly care and trust them. Even though your emotions and mind are telling you otherwise, spend too much time with them and you become obsessive, and without you even realizing it, you are indirectly hurting them. And before you shout saying that’s not true, if you're about to yell, as Khajiit knows you were about to, this only proves Khajiit’s point.” “You're not helping…” I say bitterly. “I don’t want to fail them..yet you're telling me I basically am.” “No, you miss my point now. Khajiit says, failing them is one thing, you have them on a pedestal, and to you, failing them and losing them are the same thing. Life, relationships, you will always fail, this is fact no one, not even the gods can escape. You are only ‘failing’ them because you keep trying so hard not too. It makes little sense, this is true, but it is fact. You try to stretch yourself too far and now you stand in foreign lands looking for them as a consequence of your own stubbornness and clouded mind. No one likes to do something that disappoints the ones we care about, and you keep trying not to, but that is what is disappointing them.” I just stopped and stood there. “Well…” I mutter. “Glad to know...their disappointed in me…” I mutter, biting my lower lip and trying not to cry or whimper. “The trick now is, making it up to them, so stop wallowing in your own sadness and let’s come up with ideas.” “No…” I mutter. “They came here wanting me to stop worrying about them...they want to be strong and that’s fine, and I was going to help...but they just decided to up and leave, thinking I’m just some jackass that doesn’t care about them.” I sigh out. “I doubt they’ll take any of my crap...all I wanted to do was make sure they were safe…” I mutter. ”Ben…” Joy says to me in my head worriedly,not wanting me to be this sad. “Ben…” I jumped, turning to see Luna behind me. “Oh...hi.” I say with a small wave. “I’ll...just be going if you want.” “Ben, leaving to train on our own was an idea we had for a while…ever since you brought me to Radiant Garden actually. We weren’t planning on acting on it until after we all had Keyblades and basic training. I’m a master now so…when you left without a word this morning I knew you went out to train…we all did, but even then…Ben, we love you, why you doubt that sometimes hurts at times, but we don’t blame you. We left cause with all you need to do…it’s too much. You are one person trying to divide your time when you don’t have enough to begin with. So we acted on the plan, take some load off of you. Fact is Ben, while it only hurts cause you make us feel like we can’t do anything to help you.” Your only driving them away… A voice says in my head says. “I…” I mutter, putting a hand up to my head. ”No…” Joy starts. They’ll abandon you just like your parents did... ”No no no…” “I’ll...just…” I mutter, holding my head and feeling a horrible pain in my head. I was suddenly brought into a hug by Luna. “Ben, I know you don’t mean to make us feel like that, and we hate ourselves for making you feel like we don’t care…but we need this, and you need this…besides, now that we’re found out, you can visit during the week. That’s how long we’re going to be here.” She’s lying… ”Luna’s not lying!” “I’ll just...be going…” I mutter, pushing Luna away weakly before turning around and walking away, still holding my head as I just walked. “Ben!” Luna shouted, tackling me to the ground. “You are not leaving like this!” “Why?” I ask simply, my voice hollow from the sadness I was feeling. “You want to train by yourselves...I’m only letting you do so.” I say, Luna knowing full well tears were falling even behind the darkness my hood caused. “Not with you like this Ben, not with your sadness talking for you.” Luna growled, placing her hand over my forehead. “I think you, Joy, and I have to take care of something.” Everything went white. When Luna appeared she could tell it wasn’t the normal ‘playground’ we last met at...it was an open field with Shadow like creatures circling around Joy. “So these are the issue?” Luna said, me suddenly appearing next to her, still feeling my sadness but my thoughts felt clear as compared to earlier. “They were circling around him a moment ago.” Joy growls, summoning Reunion and getting into the same ready stance as I normally did. “What do you want?” I ask Luna. “Can’t you see I’m starting to have a breakdown here?” I ask bitterly, a shadow monster leaping at Joy who cleaved it in half with ease. “You can cheer him up now ya know?” Joy glares at Luna. “This is both your fault here.” He frowns, ducking another shadow creature swiping at him. “Ben.” Luna starts. “Do you know what these shadows are?” “Depression, negative thoughts, abandonment issues, and oh hey a mild case of PTSD over there.” I say like I’m checking them off like a goddamn check list. “You know, the normal things a guy has through a very shitty life.” “You aren’t wrong. These are your inner demons, trying to reclaim Joy.” “I’d rather not become Rejection again thank you very much!” Joy barks, a card being summoned and blocking another ‘demons’ attack before it split up and shredded the thing in a flurry of cards. “Your other emotions are busy making sure the other parts of your emotions and psyche don’t fall apart here jackass.” “It’s not my fault I feel like shit and was currently proven that I am being a piece of shit.” I frown. “And this is why it’s partly all our wives fault.” Joy frowns. “It’s not their fault…” I say bitterly. “It’s mine.” “That’s true, but it’s still their fault.” The young wolf says, summoning Sharpshooters and shooting a bunch of monsters and killing them, but either they're really good at regenerating or they keep respawning. “You knew you were having problems but kept them away from them, thinking that you’ve said ‘enough’ to them, and then it just so happens that they all decided ‘let’s just head off without telling Ben because we want to get stronger’ on the exact same day.” Joy frowns, summoning Frozen Pride and blocking another attack. “I may be your ‘Joy’ but I’m also the part of you that also want’s to speak out for help. Sometimes you need help to feel joy.” “Younger in body, older in mind he is.” Luna commented. “He’s not wrong…Ben, even though you’ve started telling us things, you still hold so much back, why are you afraid to cry or show your fear to us? We know you’re afraid of losing us, but we are also afraid of losing you damn it! You hold back the majority of your emotions and think the weight of the world's problems are on your shoulders alone when there’s a FUCKING ARMY OF LOVED ONE’S READY TO HELP CARRY YOUR SHIT!” Luna yelled that last part in her canterlot voice. “Why won’t you just accept the help? ...our help...” “Because…” I start, the Shadow beasts stopping to stare at me and Luna for a moment. “I’m scared...I’m scared that if I share any of my burden with you...I’ll only end up hurting you. If I try to show any other emotion than just moments of sadness or Joy...I’ll lose everything…” I whimper. “I...I don’t want...I don’t want to lose everything again…” I finish, falling to my knees and just openly sobbing over how stupid everything was. Luna knelt down, lifting my chin so I looked at her, she was giving a warm smile. “Ben…Life caters to no favorites, even if it looks like that, that’s just luck or planning. But even you have to admit, meeting us, coming to Equestria. Perhaps luck is doing you favors to rebuild yourself. You have a large family, friends, lovers…and soon, a mini army of pony, griffon, and dragon wolf hybrids running around. We’re not afraid to carry your burdens cause we know you will be there, and we can take comfort in that…even to the grave. I know the thought of losing those you care about tears you apart, you’ll do anything to prevent it, and that’s something we love about you, but you have others to keep each other in check too. That’s how a herd works, we keep each other in check. You need to know this at least, you aren’t alone anymore, and even if all of use aren’t with you at the moment, we are still there for you, and you have others to rely on. You’ll never be alone again. So long as you remember us.” “I don’t…” I mutter. “I don’t want to be alone anymore…” I mutter. “Can I point out how adorable and hilarious seeing that ‘mini army’ of kids is?” Joy asks, getting a giant smile and trying his best not to burst into laughter at the heart warming moment. “That is a funny thought.” I chuckle. “Can you just imagine be being tackled by ‘that’ much fur, feathers and scales?” “We better stockpile diapers like hoarders.” Luna added. “Wonder, will we have one or two at a time, or litters~” “Oh my god woman.” I groan, the shadow creatures starting to back away. “I still haven’t married you yet, and you're already wondering how many kids are going to be in there?” “It’s a reasonable question, I’d call Den about it, but I don’t have her number for her Assistant.” “That’s true…” I nod. “I’d...better call mom to…” I say, still trying to calm myself down from all my sad and bitter thoughts. “I know I keep things away...but next time…please don’t just up and vanish without a word?” I ask worriedly. “Yeah that’s one of the reasons. You vanished without a word and we immediately thought you were kidnapped by Core.” Joy huffs. “Or someone just as equally deranged.” “Fine.” Luna said, kissing me on the cheek. “New rule, no up and leaving without at least telling someone. And you can’t get out of bed til at least three of us are up, no acceptions.” “You already know I’m training with Ramilua right? So all of you would know where I’m at...also no I am learning how to use a scythe, not how to work at the Ponyville Spa just so’s ya know.” I point out. “Pitty, Pinkie’s porn stash had a scene with a sexy barber~” I facepalm at hearing that. “Too much information!” Joy barks, the young pup’s face a new shade of red at this point. “Joy, you are part of Ben, that means EVERYTHING he does to us, you know and feel, so don’t even try to play innocent ears here.” Luna says. “Hey at least she’s not connecting all our dreams together.” I say honestly, before I see Joy literally have a nose bleed. “Damn it…” The pup mutters. “Great...now you gave Luna an idea now that I’m here as well.” “Heh, naw, Dream sex can make the sheets worse than they are when Ben and us do it while awake.” Luna jokes. “Okay then.” I nod. “Well...at least I won’t be dragged into sex almost every day.” Joy says, magicking up a tissue and stopping his nose bleed. “And because I’m your emotion I’ll never have my own body technically.” “Heh. Well Ben, what should happen next?” Luna asks. “Well I have seven other girls to apologize to…” I sigh out. “I just hope they’re as…understanding as you.” I say sadly, knowing that at least two of them might smack me and be bitter about it. “They will be. Pinkie might screw you on the spot though, apparently the desert heat put her in… heat.” “Okay so apparently I’m going to have to stay here for a while.” I chuckle. “Also...what do you think the others would think about Joy?” I ask curiously. “If they don’t think I’m adorable they have problems.” Joy huffs, which only made him more adorable. Luna chuckled. “They’ll think he’s adorable, even Gilda. So Ben…the girls and I still want to train on other worlds, but I feel some new conditions can be made about it.” Luna says, a smile still on her face. “I promised to help you all...but apparently all of you thought I lied.” I frown. “You didn’t lie Ben. We just realized you have too much as is…we’re sorry for making you feel like that, but we figured you needed the burdens taken off, and so, as a Keyblade master, and a well made fighter after being in many Equestrian wars, I’ll take over training the others, anything advanced when you have the time you can teach us. But let’s get to the others before I bring up the idea.” “Alright…” I nod. “I love you.” I smile gently up to Luna. “Love you too my white knight.” Everything went white. After waking up Luna helped me up. “Well let’s hope that never happens again… ever.” Luna says, dusting off my cloak. “The part about being in my head or the part where I start having a breakdown in broad daylight?” I ask. “The last part, I don’t mind entering your head again… if only to try and find your lust and see what kinks you keep secret.” She gave a cheeky smile. “I’m pretty sure most of the crap you ladies have I don’t have.” I frown. ”There’s at least one they probably would enjoy. Joy mentally adds. ”Shut up Joy.” I mentally tell him. “Anyways, where is everyone else?” “The Inn nearby. Even though the decorations are different bits are as good as this world’s Septims because they’re both gold coins.” “Khajiit has no idea what just happened.” Luna and I turned, seeing the Khajiit woman still there. “But that was some advanced magic.” “Sorry miss. But uh...yeah magic let’s go with that.” I say simply. “But me and my fiance had a...little personal talk.” “Khajiit understands, and wishes you well.” She replied. “Thank you for trying to help my fiance miss.” Luna says. “You did a lot, and you’re a stranger.” “By the by...I’m sorry if this sounds offensive or anything but is your name Khajiit or do you just say that because of some reason I don’t know about?” I ask curiously. “Khajiit can see the confusion, it is part of our culture as when translated to this language, we refer to our kind in the third person, my name is Tsavssi.” “It’s nice to meet you Tsavssi.” I nod. “And...thank you for helping. But I have seven other fiance’s to meet.” I say while getting up with Luna. “I understand. I do ask a favor of you however.” “And this magical favor is?” I ask. She looked around real quick before whispering in my ear. “Get me the heck out of this place.” “That can be easily arranged.” I whisper back with a nod. “Why is that if I may ask?” She pulled back the sleeves on her clothes, revealing broken chains and shackles. “I’m the ‘wife’ of a bandit leader that’s terrorizing the desserts. I escaped then ran into you not long after. I said nothing in case you were untrustworthy or my ‘husband’ was on to me.” “Have you ever thought of going to another world?” I ask with a little grin. “...What?” “We’ll explain in a bit.” Luna says as we take Tsavssi with us to the Inn. My talk with the girls and the exchange of apologies lasted about two hours, lots of crying, and Pinkie dragged me into the closet for sex. After that was done Luna had us all sit in a circle of sorts. “So, first off, we all now have Keyblades, so that’s a good thing, we can also now open DTL’s, Ben, what do you think this means?” “No matter where I go you’ll somehow find me?” I ask sheepishly. “That’s the second part, the main thing is that we can travel between worlds now, meaning we can come home after training off world before Ben does. Twilight, care to think of a schedule?” Twilight smiled and nodded. “Well, if Ben is waking up at Sunrise, we can all try to wake up before, Celestia rises the sun at 5:45 on the dot, if we wake up at four am, we can all spend a rather early, yet enjoyable family breakfast then Ben can leave to train at sunrise and any free time between waking up and, eating and then Ben leaving at the end for training can be spend bonding as a family…however we decide to spend it~. That aside, while Ben is away training, at least half of us can leave to another world to train, Luna being the teacher in this case will always have to go given she also has the most experience in combat aside from Ben. As long as we can come home at eight, eight thirty in the afternoon before Ben comes home is he’s coming home at nine and we go to bed at ten we can get six hours sleep, and if Ben decides yes also we can take weekends off entirely from training to just spend together.” Twilight summed up. “That sound like a good plan Ben?” “Good enough for me.” I smile. “Besides...I want more family time…” “Then it’s settled.” Rarity said. “Waking up early on the days when I’m not training will be good to help me design clothes. Maybe some new cloaks for Ben.” “What about this land?” Honora asked. “Shall we leave now or the next day?” “I recommend now, and now for you Tsavssi.” Luna said, looking at Tsavssi as she sat at the only table in the room. “Our castle is in need of workers, what skills do you have?” “My ‘husband’ only ever had me cook cause it’s all I’ve ever done. My parents were both well known chefs and are still talked about these days. He kidnapped me because originally, he liked my fur and chest, but after learning I could cook I became his personal cook. I’d have poisoned the lot of them but the guards kept close eyes on me at all times.” “I’m pretty sure you still could have poisoned them all if they cared more about your fur and chest.” I frown. “Fucking bandits.” I growl. “Their gluttony outweighed their lust.” She replied in a deadpan tone. “Suprising.” I frown. “Well anyways, have you ever wanted to be in a place that’s nice, warm, has greenery everywhere, and the closest dick bag you can find is either imprisoned or getting their ass kicked by me?” I ask her. “As well as be well fed, housed, and capable of finding an actual mate that loves you for who you are instead of for lust or gluttony reasons?” “Such a place would be a welcome change to not only I, but the whole of Tamriel.” “Well you're getting a one way trip to the world we all live on.” I smile. “And, if you want, can work in our castle, where you will be fed, paid, and housed until you either want to leave and make it out on your own, or you can always stay in basically the lap of luxury as a hard worker we all treat as an equal.” “Show me this place and I will cook you my mother's famous Moon Sugar soup.” She replied with a chuckle. “Girls?” I ask. “Ready to head on home?” I ask. “Yes, we should get some moonsugar though.” Luna said. “Tsavssi here will be losing that bet.” After a quick shop to buy ten pounds of moon sugar, I opened a DTL, which scared Tsavssi, but she was calmed down by the girls as we walked through it. When she saw the castle, she acted like a new york tourist. “How do you like the castle Tsavssi?” “It is like something from a youngling fairy tail.” She replied, still looking around. “And you are willing to pay me and give me a home?” “We are all literally royalty here.” I say honestly. “We have so much money we don’t know what to do with it half the time. So yes, we are willing to pay you and give you a home.” “I… thank you. This means much to me…” To my surprise, Tsavssi hugged me, then let go quickly. “So… where will I be sleeping?” “I’m pretty sure there’s a lot of living spaces here…” I say honestly. “I’ll have to show you your room…” “There is a living quarters for all the different servent types, one for maids, one for butlers, two for guards, and one for the cooks, it’s connected to the kitchen so no need to worry about the long hallways.” Luna said. “I’ll show you there and then we can get started on this moon sugar soup.” With that, Luna lead Tsavssi off to the kitchen. “So…” I say, looking at the other ladies. “How have all you been? I mean...besides Pinkie because she showed me that a while ago.” “Well while we were there we did mostly some odd jobs.” Twilight said. “I think I might wanna learn blacksmithing after helping the one in that town.” Gilda said. “Alright.” I nod. “I know we just got done with all the apologizing, crying and all but...remember I’m marrying you all...I don’t want any of you...to…” I sigh out, sadly not able to get the words out because of how I said this already. “I’m sorry…” “We didn’t think it though either Ben.” Twilight said. “We want to help you but you kept rejecting so we tried taking matters in our own hands love.” Rarity said. “I never rejected anything…” I say. “I promised to help you, and sure I didn’t want you to get involved with this but…” Gilda wrapped an arm around me and gave me a noogie. “Your crap is our crap, that’s the one thing I know about relationships. Anything you have to deal with, so do we, otherwise we aren’t good partners.” “Just...don’t vanish on me again alright? I was scared when I came home…” I say honestly. “Sure I don’t leave a note telling you where I’m at because you know what I do normally...I...kind of don’t.” They gave me a confused look. “We left a note on the bedroom door.” Derpy said. “Uh...you did?” I ask in confusion. The walked me to the bedrom, which was well passed Jenny’s room, and showed me the note taped on the door. Ben, Gone off world to train for a week so you can focus on your training more and we can get stronger too, don’t freak out, we’ll be back in a week and if you get worried Celestia knows the name of the world Luxu gave us. Love, your Finances. “Jenny was around and heard you all practically arguing about stuff, then she told me you all went to Luxu, who also said ‘I promised not to tell’, but told me in written form where you were.” I frown. “I...probably would have had a breakdown regardless but...still.” I sigh out. “Would have saved ya some sanity though.” Pinkie said. “Not...really.” I sigh out. “I’ve read enough books and played enough games to know bad guys would force you to do that.” I say honestly. “And frankly I’ve called practically every cliche a bad guy has done or is in general.” They just chuckled. “Well either way some good still came out of it, you’re going to be more open with your feelings, and let us carry your burdens equally, and don’t worry, if it turns out to be too much for us, we’ll say something.” Twilight said. “Well...okay.” I nod. “But frankly I’ve mostly said my peace at this point. My dead parents, the fact I don’t want to be alone anymore...and a few other things.” “Yeah, been a rough day all around for you.” Gilda said. “Well, Luna and Tsavssi are likely making dinner… what to-” “Beeeeeeenn!” I heard mom’s voice call. “I’ll...be a moment.” I say while getting out of Gilda’s hold. “Not sure if on my Assistant…” I mutter, bracing myself for a giant dire wolf grabbing me in a big hug. Just that happened as Mom gave me, and three of my fiance's caught in her reach, a huge hug… I immediately noticed she had a flat stomach now. “Hello puppy!” She said, squeezing me tighter. “H-hi mom.” I say sheepishly. “Oh uh...Derpy, Gilda, Honora, this is my mother, Den.” I say to them, my voice muffled by my mother’s hug and boobs. “I’m not surprised.” Gilda shrugs. “She’s tall.” Honora says in surprise. “Her boobs are huge!” Derpy yelled. “Luna complained about how her boobs are bigger than hers.” I laugh. “I’m always filled with milk, can’t blame me.” Mom says as she puts us down. “So, Trinity texted saying you were looking for help for your castle.” “Yep.” I nod. “And I suppose the pregnancy went off without a hitch?” “Oh I already have seven litters of several million since I last visited.” She said nonchalantly. “Question…” I start. “Um...Luna brought this up...but will all my kids be part wolf? And two, would all my wives have a normal pregnancy or would they have litters like you do?” I ask nervously, rubbing the back of my neck. Mom looked at my wives, mainly their hips it seemed. “Well, once married and they become demi-gods by marriage, they will become more fertile than any normal being can, but the Assistant has features to choose whether or not they have one at a time, or litters as big as the rest of your mothers do. Me included.” “Well...that’s good to know.” I nod. “But hey, I managed to stay well after my first full blown breakdown.” I say to her. “Want to know why?” “No need sweetheart, just as long as you’re okay now.” She said kiss/licking my head. “Just be glad that washes out.” I grumble. “Oh, also Joy says hi.” I say to her. “Joy being a...separate personality I suppose?” I say, not entirely sure about how to word it. “But he’s the literal embodiment of...well my joy.” “Oh really?” Mom says with a smile, patting my head before I feel…something off. Not quite a headache but close as an aura poured out of me and…Joy sat on the ground between mom and I. “Oh! He’s adorable!” “How in the hell?” Joy asks in confusion, looking at himself. “I’m a goddess son, there are powers and magic, and other things, you will learn later.” Mom says as she grabs Joy and starts hugging him. “Um...this new.” Joy says, his voice muffled. “Also, shouldn’t I be in Ben’s head? I mean...I’m his literal joy after all.” He says nervously. “You technically are sweetie, I just used a small part of Ben’s aura and soul to make a body you can link your personality to. You’re like Ben’s little twin brother.” ”Uh...is that true?” I think curiously. ”Uh...surprisingly yes.” Joy says in my head. “Um...doesn’t that mean I have to also marry Ben’s fiance’s since I’m technically him?” The young pup asks curiously. Mom patted his head. “Don’t be silly dear, you may be his Joy but with a personality difference like yours you’re more like your father’s emotions/past lives.” “I’m so confused.” Joy says honestly. “Trust me Joy...it will only get weirder now that you have your own body.” I chuckle. “But welcome to the family little bro.” I smile. “Girls? What do you think of Joy?” “What do you mean past lives?” Derpy asked. “Easy.” Mom says. “Most past lives, when a soul is reincarnated, the past life will be…reused in a different way since the soul must have room for the new consciousness for the new being. Looks like Joy here was Ben some many years before Ben was born, maybe his first time alive at all, the fact Joy is a child means he died a child sadly…but took on the role of Ben’s joy when he reincarnated into Ben.” Mom explains. “Ben’s father has Six of these.” “This is only getting more and more confusing.” I sigh out. “Well...I mean I’m my own person.” Joy says sheepishly. “But um...how old would I technically be? I mean...by looks I’m probably about twelve or something...but I’m mentally 23 considering my time as...well…” Joy sighs out, not wanting to talk about his time as ‘Rejection’. “Hmmm.” Mom thinks. “Oh, I know who to call.” “GhostBusters?” Me and Joy say at the same time with cheeky smiles. Mom tapped on her Assistant and after a moment a black fog appeared and…the grim reaper. “Hi.” Mom said with a smile. “Oh, hey Death.” I say with a little wave. “Oh uh...question, are there multiple grim reapers?” To my shock, SHE took of her hood revealing a…human Twilight. “Yes son, there are.” She said. “A whole school for that actually, even death dies.” “Two things...okay three things actually.” I start. “One...did you just call me son? Two, I didn’t think a human Twilight would be a Grim Reaper...and three do I actually call a Grim Reaper when I cast Doom?” I ask curiously. “One, yes, I’m one of your dad’s wives, his third actually, and no I wasn’t a grim reaper then, two, I picked up the grim reaper job after the last Death realm guardian quit, also.” She shifted into a pony Twilight. “This is my real form, the human one just makes the job easier, and third, yes, a student at the school actually appears for those moves.” “Cool.” I say with a nod. “So...about Joy here.” I say honestly. “Um...what are we supposed to call you?” Joy asks Grim Twilight. “Cause uh...Den is our mother and uh…” “Biologically yes, but I’m no less your mother than she is.” Grim Twilight said, patting my head with her hoof, which was gentle, but still felt hard. “So what was it you wanted?” “Momma Den said you could tell me my proper age.” Joy says, giving a wave to Grim Twilight even though he was still being hugged. Grim Twilight looked between Joy and I. “Oh reincarnated then, this will be simple.” Her eyes turned black as she gazed at Joy, then me, then she blinked, her eyes returning to normal. “Well, from what I can tell your soul itself is over three hundred years old, quite the time gap considering it seems only Joy and you are the only personalities your soul has in it.” “That’s not true.” Joy says. “He has other emotions that I played with on the playground.” Joy says honestly. “They just...decided to stay in his head I suppose. Or were less vocal.” “No, when I say personalities I mean past lives.” Grim Twilight clarifies. “Only you and Ben are in the soul as…people, to simplify it.” “Uh...does this normally happen to people with multiple personalities?” I ask curiously. “Yes, if the personality in question when they were alive was rather strong willed or the soul itself is unstable in some way after it’s been reborn.” “Well…” I start. “That’s something.” “I know I’m more...physical but...is this a permanent thing?” Joy asks, starting to get used to actually having a body. “Being in Ben’s head is great and all, I always have someone to talk to...but having my own body...it’s nice.” “Consider it a gift.” Mom said. “Thanks mommy.” Joy says with a smile, hugging her as best he could. “Now for the extra facts.” grim Twilight said, a scroll appearing and opening in front of her. “Let’s see…First name ever given after birth, Kenneth Grodsen. Born 1709, mother was a maid working for an english nobalmen who was his father and even though it was kept secret only the three of them knew and officially Kenneth was on record as the maid's child who lived and worked with her when he was of age, though his father did care for him, birthday gifts and such. Died at age eleven after falling ill with an at the time unknown disease, laid to rest at Timothy cemetery where his gravestone still stands yet the wordings have long since been worn off.” With that she rolled the scroll up and it vanished. “That’s your past life in a nutshell.” “That...sucks.” Joy frowns. “Certainly does.” I agree. “But hey, now you're here with a new family, wonderful and loving relatives, and cool powers.” I smile. “Actually...can you summon my weapons?” “Well...I think so.” Joy says, raising his hand and summoning Reunion at least. “Well... we'll figure it out later.” Joy shrugs. “He should at least be able to summon Reunion.” Mom says. “Well...alright.” Joy nods. “Oh wait crap! What time is it?” I ask quickly, remembering I had to go to Ramilua early in the morning. “Too many things happened and I almost forgot.” “How about we just...take a break alright?” Joy asks, disbanding Reunion. “Let’s spend more time with mom...we barely do anyways.” “Yay!” Mom cheered. “Pinkie! Push the button!” Mom threw a button, with the words ‘that was easy’ on it, at Pinkie, who caught it. “Uh...are we missing something here?” Joy and I ask worriedly. Pinkie pushed the button, and in a blink… there were decorations, tables with food, servers, and what I assumed were my new brothers and sisters EVERYWHERE! “Instant party!” Mom yelled, taking some food from a nearby table. “Well…” I start. “That was easy.” Joy finishes. “But hey, we have family to meet...a lot of them.” Joy says nervously. “Don’t worry Joy, you're not the only one nervous about making a good impression.” I say sheepishly, the two of us taking a deep breath and walking over to the food table, wanting to get something to eat first. To be continued... Nobody's bigger partyAuthor's Note WARNING! THIS CHAPTER IS VERY RANDOM! Nobody's bigger party “I have a bad feeling I’m going to forget some people…” I sigh out, munching on a very delicious cinnamon roll. “You're not the only one.” Joy agrees, nibbling on a cupcake worriedly. “I just hope they like us.” “So where should you start?” Luna asks, drinking what I’m assuming in champaign. “No idea.” I sigh out. “Maybe wait and see who’s going to try and either make a conversation, attack me for some reason, or get my attention in some way shape or form.” I shrug. Some time had passed before someone came up to me…I wasn't surprised. I met the butler’s kid…Ciel Phantomhive… “Greetings.” He spoke, wearing a blue tux. “Greetings young Phantomhive.” I say with a nod. “How are you doing?” “Good. I just got back from clearing out demons, usual, so I must ask what missions have you done yet?” “I have done no missions for the family yet.” I say. “We’ve been busy...training and trying not to die from very powerful people.” Joy explains. “Sounds like the usual in this family. So how did dad pick you up?” “Aunt Nyla brought me to dad’s house, with the original intentions of getting a master in some weapons...little did I know that I’d join this family soon after a fucking Titan destroyed Manehattan.” I frown. “Oh, what type? Standard, Omega, Boss, Armageddon, or Nova?” “Trinity cut it down the middle so I have no idea what the hell your talking about.” I shake my head. “Listen...we’re about as new to this as me suddenly gaining a body.” Joy says with a frown. “You’re talking to a kid who sold their soul to a demon, somehow ended up becoming a demon, then had a god show up, make me half human and turn my demon butler human, you quickly realize as new as something seems it can and likely has happened before. But let me clarify them. Standard titans are several miles high, covered in bone armor. Omega are twenty times the size of the originals with a space looking effect on their armor, Boss titans are basically living skeletons and are covered in every inch with their bone armor, Armageddons are as big as a Galaxy and would make that planet eating Marvel beast feel like a baby, and a Nova titan is small, about my size, but pack the punch of a Boss titan.” “And here I thought Attack on Titan was weird enough with it’s Titans.” I mutter. “Thanks...now I can tell which is which when most likely some jack off summons the fuckers again.” “I should also tell you about shadow spawners then. Basically…how to put this…it’s a large black Crystal, just kinda floats while darkness pours out of it and various Shadow Creatures come out of it. Shadow Creatures can also breed and they breed fast, so you find a nest, exterminate it, fast, and sometimes, most commonly, a spawner and a nest will be in the same location.” “What would happen if a person can just summon them with a snap of their fingers?” Joy asks. “It’s an ability people who can manifest darkness at will can do, but most likely they have a dark Elemental Crystal on their person. That’s where they originated from, Elemental crystals that can control anything from creating unlimited Electricity, to bringing back forests. They are common back home and with dad learning how they were made and placing the recipies for public viewing you can guess it’s both good for the people, and bed for them when the wrong types of people make them, or get ahold of them.” “Yeah.” I sigh out. “By the by, is there anyone that would try to...randomly try to attack us in some way shape or form just to give a family ‘hi’?” Joy asks, not wanting to have someone punch them just because it’s a ‘hi’. “Depends, the family works according to the three factions dad made when his company got big. The leaf, healing and medical practices varying from science to magic, the world, people and face to face verbal conflicts settled with words and paper, and lastly the Hazard symbol, the one where the fighters who will keep life safe from the front lines work, developing weapons, new combat magics, and of course, advanced combat training.” “Well then…” I say, finding that a whole bunch of something. “So...anything I should and shouldn’t say around people?” “Depends on their person also, but for the most part everyone is rather…loose, in terms of speech. Or interpretations.” “Oh dear.” I sigh out. “So...should we go out and talk to people or are they just going to come to us?” Joy asks nervously. “Well you two are the guests of honor here, you best socialize with your guests and family.” “Oh dear…” I sigh out. “It’s best we don’t split up Joy...better to not have any repeat talks with people.” I rub my forehead, already feeling a headache coming on from this before I finish my cinnamon roll and heading off to talk to someone, my tail and wolf features not hidden even if I’m still wearing my white cloak and crown. “Okay.” Joy says, wolfing down his cupcake before following me. “So...who first?” Joy wonders, looking around and seeing too many people to talk to. “No idea…” I frown, seeing too many people as well, all with variations on added body parts like wings, tails, weird sentient tentacles and too many others. A small kid walked up to me, he wore a green striped shirt, brown hair and red eyes. “Oh, hello.” I say to the kid. “So you’re the new guy?” He asked. “New ‘guys’ technically.” I say while patting Joy’s head. “But yes...and who are you?” I ask curiously. “Chara.” “A different Chara alright then.” I nod. “Sorry, a friend of ours is...married to Toriel. And she said her sons are Chara and Asriel...so we’re trying not to get confused.” Joy explains sheepishly. “You get used to it.” Chara said. “There’s twelve reflections of me in my math class alone. You get to tell us and your reflections apart after a while though.” “Have you ever wanted to murder a reflection of yourself with a bloody passion?” I ask curiously. Chara just gave me a look. “Really?” “It’s...a long story.” Joy says nervously. “I know about the games, I played them.” “No no, it’s about a personal experience I had...were a reflection of mine is...not the happiest of campers to say the least.” I explain. “Ah. Well not sure what to tell you there honestly. Our family kills monsters, when we get our humanity blades we can save some with humanity in them still, but till then they’re the Afterlife’s paperwork.” “Alright then.” I nod. “Anyways onto happier things.” I start. “How’s life been for you in the family?” Joy asks, hoping to change the subject. “Good. School is school, gym is as always, the fun class, and homework sucks.” “To true.” I chuckle. “What do you think about...us?” Joy asks curiously. “Just from looking at us?” “You… use a lot of shampoo?” He says. “I have eight fiances and I train a lot, so I have to make sure I am actually clean.” I frown. “So have you seen what dad’s done with his realm? And to the one he inherited?” “I didn’t know he inherited a realm but I heard he is probably making one.” I shrug. “Also I think I’m going to see sooner or later cause I’m going to have to ask him for a big enough church to get married in.” I chuckle. “Didn’t think I’d need that big of a place to marry them.” Chara shrugged. “Eh, and yeah he’s making one and the one he inherited he’s changing so rules in that/this place are much simpler and some other things still apply.” “Wait, why did you add ‘this’?” I ask curiously. “To ‘in that/this’?” “The realm dad inherited is your multiverse, and it’s respective multiverses. When dad became an admin, everything and everyone who knew him was gonna forget him, everything undone like a rest, which is what it was. Dad bypassed this by being the first Admin created being to become an admin and so he had everything move to his new realm where he incorporated it as a reflection of his realm, and those just go on from their and so on.” “Huh…” “That’s something.” Joy finishes for me. “Yeah, weird stuff, but that’s the price of admin hood, dad was the exception because he was the first to become an admin. He has always had a special way of bending or bypassing rules.” “He seems like one of those guys to bypass some rules.” I shrug. “Well you guys keep talking to the others, I’m gonna look for some more food.” Chara said as they walked off. “That’s a good first start I suppose.” I shrug. “Wonder who else we’ll meet.” Joy says, now wanting to meet people and have fun. “Hold on their little guy, we don’t know these people so we still better be careful.” I say honestly, looking around for who else to talk to. We walked around for a bit, seeing some rather interesting characters, before I ran into someone who had to be a mom, considering it was Celestia, twice as tall as the one I knew and twice as…featured and curvy. “Hi.” She said, shaking my hand. “Hello.” I say while shaking her hand. “I’m pretty sure our Celestia would beg to date you.” Joy says accidentally, causing the pup to blush and look down. “Uh...s-sorry for saying that…” He apologizes for his blunder. “It’s alright.” She replies. “It’s not like I haven’t done things with my reflections before.” She laughed. “Sorry, that’s between mothers and Cript.” Both me and Joy blushed brightly. “O-oh…” I mutter. “S-so! H-how are you doing today?” Joy asks quickly, trying to get his mind off of steamy thoughts. “It’s always nice to meet new children. Our family is becoming so well known for it. Is there anything about our family you want to know specifically?” “How many of them are here? And who should I talk to next cause I’m not sure if I can talk to them all in such a short time.” I say nervously. “Uh, members in the family total of here?” “Sorry...but yes.” I nod. “Too many people...we’re kind of nervous.” Joy explains for me. “Well, in total… not sure, we stopped counting a long time ago, here though are about a hundred or so.” Momma Celestia said. “Alright then...so I have to talk to ninety seven more people.” I sigh out. “I’m gonna need a drink.” I grumble. “You’re not getting drunk.” Joy frowns. “Remember the last time you got drunk?” “No because I passed right the hell out. Damn Asgardian Mead.” I grumble. “Heheh, well either way, enjoy your party. Gifts are outside by the way.” Momma Celestia said as she walked elsewhere. “Wait what gifts?” I ask curiously. “I have no idea.” Joy says honestly. “Well...let’s talk to someone else before we look at the presents. Wouldn’t be right if we jumped towards presents immediately.” “True.” I shrug. “So...who else here…” I felt a slap on my back as I turned around, seeing Squirrel there. “Sup?” He asked. “Hi Squirrel…” I say. “Why did you slap my back?” “Hi Squirrel.” Joy says to the Thestral. “To get your attention.” He replied casually. “Met your daughter Jenny, little ball of fire huh?” “She’s something alright.” I say honestly. “Actually, where is she? Is she around here or what?” I ask curiously. “Last I saw her she was jumping head first into the cake castle that’s in your backyard… it’s as big as this castle actually.” “CAKE CASTLE!?!” Me and Joy yell in disbelief. “How in the nine hells was that possible?” “Logic.” Squirrel laughed. “That’s a family thing we say when something makes no sense to us, chock it up to logic and move on.” I take a moment to put that into some sort of logic, then start thinking about Jenny in that situation and start laughing. “Oh my god! That’s actually pretty hilarious.” “So we have a cake castle in our backyard, we have gifts...um…” Joy starts. “Is this for his bachelor party or is this just a happy family party?” Joy asks. “Family party. Dad and Fred are planning your bachelor party and the moms are planning the bachelorette party for your wives. I’m betting clones, lots of them, all of, well, you guys, and oceans of lube.” “Uh…” I start, trying to figure out what Squirrel just said. “Nope.” Joy says, his face already blushing. “Nope nope nope. We’re still too young to die from nosebleeds.” Joy says while shaking his head, his ears flat against his head. “You are, he’s not.” “Don’t care.” Joy says with a frown. “Anyways, what did Celestia say about a bunch of gifts?” “Just a little something from the family that accepted the invite. They’re piled up in your front yard, one present for each member of the house.” “Oh god…” I sigh out. “What about Dinky and baby Braig? There still up with Celestia.” Joy says worriedly. “Crap…” I frown. “Well...let’s just enjoy the party right now. I need to stop worrying about stuff right now.” We walked around inside a bit more, and then saw something…concerning. Three Pinkie Pie’s. “Hi Ben!” The one on the left said, walking up and kissing me. “Check it out, I’m your wife, and they-me are your moms!” “Uh…” I mutter. “Well...um...glad to see you Pinkie. And yes...there also my mother’s…” I nod. ”How has the universe stayed together?” I think to myself worriedly. “So...how has it been to talk to...yourself?” “We have lots in common.” The Pinkie on the right said. “And a fair amount of differences.” The one on the left said. “How has the universe stayed together again?” Joy asks. “Um...I always had the weird thought that, if Pinkie met herself, something really bad would happen.” I say nervously. “Cause you know...you all bend the laws of physics without the need of god like powers.” All three chuckled. “Reality isn’t as fragile as sci-fi says it is.” “Cartoon physics says otherwise.” I point out. “Anyways, I believe it was you two and a massive group of bakers that made a massive castle sized cake?” Joy asks. “Nope.” The two said. “That cake was made with your father’s special mix of magic and alchemy.” The Pinkie on the right said. “Well...alchemy makes more sense than just ‘logic’.” I shrug. “So how are you enjoying the party Pinkie?” I ask. “He means his fiance Pinkie by the by.” Joy says, adding some clarity to his question. “I’m doing great!” She cheered. “I ate so much ice cream already!” “That’s good to hear.” I nod. “So, I suppose you already talked to everyone already?” “Almost.” “Surprising.” I say honestly. “And we still have so many more people to meet at this one party alone.” Joy sighs out. We said goodbye to Pinkie and…Pinkie…and Pinkie…for now and walked off to talk with more guests. “Who next who next…” I mutter, looking around and still not knowing who to talk with. “I don’t know…” Joy sighs out. “There’s just too many people…” Time passed as Joy and I must have had rather short conversations with many people, a few mothers, mostly brothers and sisters. Each conversation told me a bit more about my new family. Overall everyone was rather nice, some loud, some quiet, others normal, well, normal-ish. “Well...this was fun.” I say, grabbing another cinnamon roll and eating it. “I’m just glad people brought cases and bottles of stuff instead of having one major drink.” Joy says, taking a sip of his mountain dew. “No need for someone spiking drinks.” He points out. “True.” I nod. “Well...want to check out the gifts?” I ask, the pup smiling before the two of us head out to find the presents we heard about. It was a tower, presents all wrapped up covered in paper and the sizes varied. “Good evening.” We looked to our side, seeing a butler there. “Hello.” I nod. “How are you doing today?” “Good. Greetings sirs, I am Edward Glafram, at the request of the head butler of your family estate I am assigned to serve you directly.” “It’s nice to meet you Edward.” I nod. “Who’s this tower of presents for again?” Joy asks curiously. “We heard it was for us but we just wanted to make sure.” “The gifts are all mixed sadly, but names for the desired recipients are on them.” Edward explained. “Also I feel I should bring up some information and orders I received after meeting with your wives.” “And that would be?” I ask. “I am under strict orders to makes sure that during your training you stick to the schedule your wife Twilight has set up for you, while you train with your teacher I will school and educate young Joy here and when it's time to head home, if you refuse I have been given orders to, and I quote, ‘drag you back unconscious if need be’.” I groan. “Of course she would do this…” I groan. “Excuse me, but you said you’ll ‘school and educate’ me?” Joy asks. “To be blunt sir Ben, would you trust yourself to keep yourself in check? And yes Sir Joy. While Ben isn't a full member of the family yet, you are, and therefore need the proper schooling.” “Me and Ben are the same person still.” Joy points out. “Everything he knows, I know.” Joy explains. “Do you know the proper advance Magic schematics for creating basic food items from the atoms in the air or how to construct weapons from your own mana?” Joy raised a hand up...then lowered it...then raised it again...then lowered it. “Damn it.” Joy frowns. “Your schooling begins tomorrow.” Edward said plainly. “Shouldn’t Ben be schooled as well? Again the part of ‘we’re the same person’ still applies here.” Joy says. “You two know that Joy has a body of his own are by definition separate people but you are connected both by soul and mind. If wanted Joy could live an entirely different life separate from Sir Ben.” “That’s true but I’m not going anywhere without Ben.” Joy says with a frown. “That is why you two are listed as blood brothers in the family archives.” “Never mind.” I shake my head. “So, do we have to wait for a specific time to start unwrapping gifts or do we just start opening them?” I ask, knowing the butler is misunderstanding what Joy is saying. “You may start now if you wish.” “Yay!” Me and Joy cheer before rushing headlong into the tower and starting to unwrap gifts with my name and Joy’s name on it, like two kids during christmas. The first gift I opened was oddly enough shoes. There was a note with them and apparently they're enchanted to let me walk on water…even up waterfalls…nice. Joy opened his and it was, funnily enough, a puppy. It was brown, blue eyes and floppy ears. I noticed it had a weird collar on it, but shrugged it off. My next gift was…a classic bomb you'd see in Loony Toons...I did chuckle but this is likely real. Joy’s next gift was… a PlayStation 4…wow…I am so gonna borrow that often. My third gift was a stopwatch, when I looked at the note I got a little worried, it let's me stop time for five minutes and go back in time two...gonna keep that away from Jenny. Joy opened another and pulled out...The Fat Man from Fallout...how did it fit in a box so small... “All of these presents are awesome...but how the hell did a portable nuclear rocket launcher fit in that?” I wonder. “Don’t know, don’t care. I has puppy!” Joy cheers, hugging his puppy gently and happily. I opened my next one and it was at first I thought it was a sniper rifle…till I pulled the trigger and an arrow shot out, hitting another present. A sniper rifle that shoots crossbow bolts…huh. “I really hope nothing special was in that…” I say worriedly. Joy picked up the gift. “It's one of mine.” He opened it… and pulled out a skull…The bolt through an eye hole and out the back. “Okay one, why the hell is there a skull in here? And two, you shot the skull!” Joy says with a frown. The skull then screamed, scaring Joy as he dropped it and then it managed to hop and turn to face him. “The time is 7:56 pm.” It said. “Any alarms to set?” “Uh...Edward...the fuck?” Joy asks worriedly, pointing to the skull. Edward walked up, seeing the skull. “It's an alarm clock.” He said bluntly. “Most demented alarm clock I’ve ever seen.” Joy whimpers. “Let’s move on to our other gifts alright?” I say sheepishly, patting Joy’s head and hoping to calm him down. Joy nodded, opening another gift as he pulled out… a diamond sword. “Cool.” Joy smiles. I opened one too, and inside was a coupon that just said 34 on it. “Coupon with 34 on it…” I mutter, before blushing brightly. “No...it doesn’t mean that does it?” “That is a coupon for planet 34 sir.” Edward said. “A world where all sexual fantasies and desires are legal, though the darker one’s are only allowed in hyper realistic simulations.” I rub my temples at hearing that. “Of course it is…” I mutter, putting that away and making sure that none of my wives ever find it. Moving on, Joy opened another gift and it was single toy soldier. “Cool.” Joy smiles, checking the toy soldier out and seeing if there was anything special with it. “Wonder why you only got one. Back home you could get fifty of those things with ease.” I point out, wondering why he only got the one. After looking it over and finding nothing interesting about it, Joy tossed it back into the box...then the box glowed as the toy soldier grew into a green robot. “Awesome!” Joy says happily. “That’s a thing.” I chuckle. “Anyways, onto more presents cause we have barely scratched this tower.” I say, grabbing my next present. “God the girls are going to be so happy to see all this stuff.” I opened the present and inside was...a mouse… “Hey there little guy.” I say with a little smile. “You got any cheese?” The mouse asked. “You can talk…” I start. “Well...not on me right now but I can get you some.” “Yes I talk. I'm a Castle Mouse.” He explained. “And that is?” I ask. “I'm the mouse that lives in the castle walls. Every castle has one.” “I didn’t know that.” I say honestly. “So what’s your job little buddy? Besides living in my houses walls?” “I can act as a messenger to others in the castle and find lost things.” “Cool.” I nod. “Have a name?” “Tin.” The mouse nods. “Nice to meet you Tin.” I nod. “Names Ben, this is Joy, and you’ll soon meet the other inhabitants of the castle soon enough.” I say, kind of surprised the girls haven’t come out to get their presents. “Well let’s see my next present.” Joy says, getting his next present. Joy opened the box, inside was a bunch of apples…that are skull shaped. “What’s with all the skulls? What did they have too many skulls for the skull throne or something?” Joy asks worriedly. I took one, it smelled like an apple, so I took a bite...huh…not bad. “Surprisingly...not bad.” I say, eating more of the apple. “And hey, no cries of the damned scaring the crap out of us.” I finished the apple skull and grabbed my next gift. I opened it and it was a hand mirror. Huh. I thought as I looked at myself in it. There was a flash. And Joy started laughing. “What's so-” I cut myself off…why do I sound feminine…”Oh no…” I mutter, looking back into the mirror and finding myself a female. “Oh god…” I mutter, seeing myself as my ‘female self’ again and grabbing my chest, my breast feeling like it’s gotten...bigger. “Why me~.” I whine, not liking this. “But your so pretty.” Joy smiles. “Go to hell.” I frown. “Now how do I change back?” I grumble. I looked at myself in the mirror for a bit. Then there was another flash and I did a quick check. Yup, male again. “Oh thank god.” I sigh out thankfully. “Never letting the girls find this.” I say sheepishly. Joy rolled his eyes and grabbed another gift. Inside was another box. “A box within a box huh?” Joy sighs out, before grabbing the box and opening that. Out of that box was a strong wind as cookies, cake, ice cream, and anything remotely containing sugar flooded out… And didn't stop. Joy’s eyes widened and closed the box quickly, his entire body shaking with joy. “It...spawns…amazingness…” Joy says, looking at me with wide eyes and it filled with sparkles and childish glee at having his own box of sugary goodness. “Just make sure to eat in moderation, no need for you to somehow get diabetes you silly demi-god pup.” I chuckle. I grabbed my next gift and inside was… Gloves. Each pair with one of my girlfriends names on them. I spotted Luna in the distance and wondered...I put the pair that had her name on them on and pretended to squeeze, to which I saw Luna yelp and cover her chest. ”Awesome!” I mentally cheer, getting a cheeky ass smile on my face before squeezing again. “Perv…” Joy said. “Oh come on, you’re me so you're also a perv.” I point out with a cheeky grin. “Not in public.” He deadpanned. “That is true.” I nod, taking the gloves off and putting them back in the box. “I don’t like that kind of affection in public...but it never hurts to show how much I love my fiances.” I chuckle. Joy rolled his eyes, opening his next gift. It was one of those magic eight balls. “Hmm…” The pup mutters before shaking the eight ball and checking the whole to see what cheap ass ‘fortune’ it’ll give him. Ask a question. “Oh…” Joy starts. “Um…” Joy wonders before shrugging. “Who will I fall in love with?” He asks before shaking the ball. Four loves for life I see. Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, and Jenny Ventral. “AB...Sweetie...Scoots...and…” Joy mutters before his ears perk up and he blushes brightly. “Wh-why is…” “What?” I ask, looking at his answer before seeing the four girls he’ll be dating. “Oh...um...dad did say that Incest is fine…” I say sheepishly. “Oh dear...wonder how Jenny’s going to take that bit of info.” I chuckle nervously. “Take what?” Jenny asks, appearing from behind, and causing Joy to freak out and throw the eight ball away. “Scared much?” “N-no!” Joy yips quickly. “Just...uh….surprised.” He says nervously, his face beat red. “Whatever. So, cake castle has fallen…took a hundreds of stomachs, heh, so I came to open gifts.” “Well me and Joy have already opened up a few gifts.” I nod. “You’ll find anything from weird skulls, a nuclear rocket launcher, to a puppy.” I smile. “My puppy.” Joy says, holding his puppy. “Sweet.” Jenny says, finding a gift with her name on it and opening it. Inside was a locket. “Boo…was hoping for a weapon.” she opened it up and looked confused. “Why does one side hahava picture of those CMC and the other has a picture of Joy in it?” “Oh...you want the straight answer or do you want Joy to sputter like an idiot?” I ask curiously, seeing Joy try to justify how that’s a thing but just looks down, ears flat against his head as steam billowed out of his head. “Dare I ask?” “Joy got a magic eight ball that actually gave real futures...and it just so happens this little guy asked who he’ll fall in love with.” I explain. “And it just so happened that he’s going to fall in love with the CMC...and you.” I say honestly. Jenny looked at Joy, who was cherry red at this point. “Really?” “I m-mean...you are p-pretty…” Joy says nervously. “But...yes.” He nods, resigned to his fate of getting smacked upside the head. “Huh…” Jenny walked up to Joy, and to my and his surprise, planted a kiss right on his lips. When she broke it…there was a spit trail. “I guess you'll do.” She said with a cheeky smile. “Uh~” Joy started, his mind going completely blank here. “I...think you broke him Jenny.” I say nervously. “Then let me fix him.” Jenny gave Joy a smack, which brought him back before she grabbed him by the collar of his shirt. “You'll have to prove yourself as my alpha though, till then, I’m the alpha, and you're my bitch.” Jenny then grabbed Joy by the tail and dragged him off. “HELP!” Joy pleads. “I DON’T WANT TO BE APART OF THIS JOKE!” “Sorry Joy, but this is what happens when you get a girlfriend.” I laugh hysterically. To be continued... Nobody's lesson: Graceful Dahlia part 2Morning came and I hit the breakfast table. Our new cook already had quite the spread set up and after most everyone was up Joy finally crawled out from his bedroom. I took immediate notice of his dog collar. “She didn't…” I mutter. “No.” Joy said, sitting down. “Thankfully she said she'll wait til at least sixteen for that stuff…this is just her way of claiming me.” Joy replied with a sigh. “But hey...at least that joke didn’t go ‘all the way’...” “Thankfully.” I sigh out. “But it’ll get to that point sooner or later. But oh well, I have to go back to training.” I say honestly, finishing up my delicious breakfast. “I’ll be schooling young Joy the today.” Edward said, appearing out of nowhere. “Morning Edward.” I nod, seeing Joy hop up onto a chair and start eating his breakfast. “Sooner or later I’m going to have to learn about all the crap our family can normally do on a daily basis...but I have a feeling Trinity will teach me that when I get around to it.” I say, accidentally forgetting she is my master for two weapons. “Well you’ll start learning that sooner or later.” Joy shrugs. “Yes. I shall also be teaching Jenny and Dinky. Since both are enrolled in miss Cheerilee's schoolhouse I will have to talk about the proper arrangements.” Edward said. “Oh yeah…” I nod. “Almost forgot about that…” I sigh out. “I have a portal door already set up to send the young ones to the house schoolroom for the new arrivals who have much to catch up on. I’ll talk with miss Cheerilee and then make it back to begin the lessons. It should take no more than an hour or so.” “Right then.” I nod before chugging my orange juice and taking all my dishes to the sink and putting them neatly down. “Well I’ll be off. Ramilua is probably wondering where the hell I was yesterday so I’ll need to explain all that.” “Just make sure you tell him you're alright. Ramilua might not be too happy with you having a breakdown.” Joy says, sipping his milk. It was at this moment Jenny came in, skipping and…wait, skipping?! “Sup?” She asked, jumping in her seat next to Joy. “You seem happy today.” I say honestly. “Especially with the skipping.” “You’ll see why soon.” She replied. “Oh dear…” I say worriedly. “Also...don’t do anything too rough with Joy alright?” I say worriedly. “She already has a collar on me...it can only get worse.” Joy sighs out. “Don't worry. I won't.” Jenny says with a cheeky grin. “Christ.” I groan. “Anyways I have to get going.” I say while walking over, patting Jenny’s head gently. “Don’t worry, after I master my scythe and nothing pops up we can have our road trip.” I say to her before heading off. ”God only know’s what crap she’s trying to pull...I know she hates me but why the hell is she trying to be like this? I know she can be a good kid…” I think to myself bitterly, thinking I’m not being a good dad to her. It was the very next second that her scheme came to light as a familiar set of voices scream echoed down the hall. ”CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS SOUL MATES YAY!!!!” “But...but I like being unharmed…” Joy mutters worriedly. “Whoa whoa hold up!” I bark towards the three hyper kids, hoping to stop the kids before they accidentally hurt Joy, themselves, or destroy a part of my house. My bark fell on deaf ears as they ran faster than bullets and tackled Joy in a three way hug. “OW!!” Joy yips, having jammed his elbow on his chair as he was tackled out of it. “What the hell!?! You don’t just tackle someone like that out of nowhere, even if I am your soul mate.” Joy says bitterly, trying to rub his pained elbow. When he tried to move his other hand to rub his elbow he grabbed something…softer. Sweetie’s blush and gasp said it all. “Oh...oh no…” He mutters, blushing brightly. “I’m...I’m so sorry.” He mutters nervously. Rather than sitting through this train wreck still moving I bolted. I did laugh the whole way to Ramilua’s though, feeling only sorry for the hell Joy is about to go through. I landed outside Ramilua's house and knocked on the door. “Coming.” Nana’s voice called as she opened the door. “Oh, hello Ben.” She said with a smile. “Hello.” I nod. “How are you doing today?” “Just fine. What about you. Word is you had a mental break down.” “And who told you this?” I ask honestly. “Your daughter Jenny has a really popular Facebook and Twitter pages where she posts stuff from her life and stuff you're doing.” “I know she hates me…” I sigh out. “But literally posting everything she knows about me? What the hell?” I shake my head. “But yes, I did have a breakdown.” “Glad you seem better. Ramilua is in the attic, sorting through some old things.” “Alright. Mind if I come in?” I ask politely. “Sure.” She nods, stepping to the side to let me in. “Thank you.” I nod, walking in and putting my hood down and letting my tail out cause it’s indoors. “So...where do I put my shoes?” I ask, wanting to be a good house guest here. “Near the door.” She said, sitting on the couch. “Thank you.” I nod, taking off my shoes and placing them near the door carefully. “So, where do I go to get to the attic?” “There's an open ladder hatch in the hallway.” “Thank you.” I nod, before walking through the house to find said ladder hatch. And lo and behold it was right there in front of me in the hallway. I grabbed the ladder and gently heading up. As I popped my head around I saw Ramilua moving around some boxes in a standard looking attic. “Hello.” I say, hoping not to startle the guy into dropping whatever he’s moving. “Hey Ben.” Ramilua said, looking through a box and not even turning to look at me. “How you doin?” I ask. “Besides cleaning your attic?” “Not really cleaning more looking for something.” He replied. “Looking for what?” I ask, curious about what the guy could be looking for. “Books on old haircuts or something?” “A tracer box.” He said. “Tracer Box?” I ask, raising an eyebrow at hearing that and not knowing what to do. “It's a box, solid metal with one button on the top.” “Need some help?” “Yes please.” He replied. I nod before getting fully into the attic and started helping Ramilua out in trying to find said box. I grabbed a box, inside it was packed with VHS tapes and the box. “Found it.” I say. “Also...are these VHS tapes?” Ramilua got up and looked, grabbing the box. “How did it get in Nelare’s things?” “No idea.” I shrug. “Just found it and the VHS tapes...so what are the tapes for? Private stuff?” “No, she just likes old movies.” “Oh…” I say before gently looking at them. “Holy crap she has Lilo and Stitch in here?” I ask in surprise, randomly finding the disney movie in there. “Yeah. Lot of weird movies like that have been popping up.” “Weird.” I point out. “Well anyway, now that I found it we can begin your training for today.” Ramilua said as the two of us went into the backyard. “And what will be on today’s agenda Ramilua?” I ask curiously, ready to summon my scythe if need be. He pushed the button on the box and a sci-fi style laser scanned me, then the box changed into a robotic replica of me. “You will be testing your speed against yourself.” Ramilua said. “Um...sure.” I nod, summoning my scythe. “Is it as fast as me or is it faster?” I ask, wondering how this is going to be a challenge. “Well...if you say so.” I shrug, before dashing to its right side, as swift as an arrow and insanely fast, but not fast enough for Ramilua to not track with ease. My robot moved just as swift and followed my every move. “Oh...I see.” I nod before I bolt around and around, trying to get towards it’s back, but the robot stopped me with it’s own speed every time. “It's built to mirror your every move by the millisecond. You have to figure out how to either be faster, or clever.” Ramilua said. “Alright then.” I nod, raising my hand and seeing the robot does the same, even if we’re moving around rather quickly. ”Hmm…” I think to myself. “Well let’s just see…” I mutter, swiftly moving forward and trying to bash the thing with the butt of my scythe to try and get behind it, but it stopped my weapon with the palm of it’s hand as it copied my actions. “Well...shit…” I mutter, hopping back. The copy did the same and we circled each other for a bit. ”If it copies everything I do this isn't gonna be easy… I’m speedy but not that fast so I gotta do something that either it can't mimic or something…” I think, trying to come up with something. “Hmm.” I mutter before tossing my scythe over to it and made a motion to swiftly grab it. And the bot actually did what I did and caught it perfectly. “Great.” I mutter with a grin, moving my hands up like I was still holding the scythe and it held it just the same, before I made the motion of slamming the blade into the ground, which the bot did as well and cut straight into the earth. “Uh...sorry about your backyard…” I say worriedly, thinking this was a horrible idea in hindsight. “Nothing some terraforming can't fix.” Ramilua said. “Alright then.” I say before dashing around without being slowed down by the scythe, but still holding it like the bot did. As I moved faster the dummy seemed to go a little slower from the weight of the scythe as well as trying to force it through the ground, and five minutes later and a surprisingly symmetrical line set up later, I managed to stand behind it. “Crap...that’s...even with that little trick I still had to spend five minutes.” I say honestly, but surprised I still managed to do it. “Finish it Ben.” Ramilua said. The scythe reappeared in my hands before I set the blade under it and cleaved right through it, bisecting it from bottom to top. “And there you go. One bisected robot, extra side of happy student.” I chuckle. “You are doing well… Come back here in two hours, then your final test will begin.” Ramilua said, walking back inside. “Kay.” I nod before hopping on my glider and flying off to town. “Maybe I should pick up some groceries? No, I already have specialty cooks at home that my family practically handed me...maybe I’ll get an apple. Besides I haven’t met Applejack or Big Mac yet.” I say to myself, hoping to find them and enjoy a good talk. I landed my glider in the town market and as hoped, managed to find Applejack’s stand. “Howdy partner, what’ll ya have?” She asked as I walked up to her. “An apple please.” I say, grabbing the necessary bits out of my pocket and putting it on the table. “So, how are you doing today Applejack? Do you know who I am?” I ask curiously, not sure if the apple farmer actually knew who I was. “You're that White Knight fella marrying my friends and some others. And I'm doin fine thanks for asking. Farm's never been better.” “That’s good to hear. But the names Ben, no need for my ‘hero name’ with friends.” I say while taking an apple and biting into it. “Oh yeah, I can tell the farms never been better.” I chuckle, tasting the farm grown deliciousness that was an Apple family apple. “Not just that, that sister of yours does jobs on the farm from time to time. She managed ta use some real fancy magics to get every tree to grow full of apples seconds after they're bucked clean. We have ten harvests worth and been sell’en ta a lot of new folks in bulk.” “Damn, Trinity sure is a hard worker.” I chuckle. “Also...have you heard about Apple Bloom dating someone yet?” I ask curiously. “Bloom is dating?” “God damn it Jenny.” I groan, pinching the bridge of my nose. “Okay, if your sister get’s home, ask her about a kid named Joy. You’ll figure it when she explains it.” I sigh out. “But how’s the family been over all?” “Granny’s the same, and Big Mac left for a long haul delivery but is running later than usual. Should have been back last night.” “Where was he going?” I ask curiously, having a bad feeling about this. “Just Pinkie’s family farm. Takes no more than ten or twelve hours.” ”Shit.” I think to myself before practically wolfing down the rest of the apple, taking out the apple seeds and putting them on the counter and eating the core and all. “Alright Applejack, I’ll be right back. Got to make sure your brothers safe.” I say while summoning my glider. “But either one of two things happened….he’s either found a nice girl and forgot about the time, or he’s in trouble. Which are you hoping for the most?” “If it was a girl I’d believe that the most. He’s hopeless when he’s got a crush.” Applejack said. “I find it hard he’d be in trouble, he’s got a good sense for danger. Part of how he survived Apple Bloom all these years.” She chuckled that last part. “Ha.” I chuckle. “Well anyways, have a nice day Applejack. I’ll find your brother and make sure to either bring him back if he’s in trouble, or give a good word if he’s found a nice lady.” I say before flying off to the Pie family rock farm. Three hours later I soon found the Pie family rock farm. “Holy shit it is as bland and colorless as the show explained it was.” I say in shock, surprised to see it like that. “Wait...I haven’t even met Pinkie’s parents yet...shit.” I groaned, landing in front of the home. Big Mac’s cart is out front… still loaded with apples. Huh. Not a good sign. I knocked on the door and it fell over. “Hello? Anybody home?” There was no response. I walked in, find the place mostly empty save for a glass of water on the kitchen table that was half gone. I summoned Reunion and looked through the bedrooms. They were all bland, few personal items aside from pictures and a few posters. I couldn't even tell which was Pinkie’s old room. There was no attic so I had to check the basement. It was dark, but lit with a single, surprisingly bright, light bulb. In the back there was a wooden ladder, going down a hole on the basement floor. “Okay if I’m starting to hear a banjo behind a chainsaw I’m out.” I frown, summoning Frozen pride and going towards the back and carefully going down the hole. The ladder went into a deep, dark, cave system of sorts. I ended up summoning my chakrams and letting the fire burn for light. The further I went the more this felt like something Silent Hill or a resident evil game would do to screw with you. I finally came across a door and when I opened it I was in a…Laboratory? “Okay Resident Evil wins.” I mutter to myself, summoning Frozen Pride and Reunion again while gently moving around. “The fuck is a lab doing down here?” ”Intruder Alert.” A loud yet calm computer voice said before I felt a prick at my leg. I looked down, seeing a dart in it as I got… really tired. “Fuck me…” I groan, trying my best to stay up even as the sleep dart tried pulling me under. “I...hate...cliches…” I grumble before my vision left me. “Sir, this is the intruder.” “Good god they're coming out of the walls…” “This one is a whole other race from the others.” “I can see that…him huh…this cloak looks unusual. Did you scan him and his items?” “Yes sir, his DNA came up as a...well, canine and human.” “Abnormal. And his items?” “They results were inconclusive.” “Run advanced scans on both those items. Place him in project six.” “Yes sir.” “I fucking hate everything…” I groan, shaking my head for the fifth time and finally getting some semblance of being awake here. “Christ.” I managed to adjust to the light and I was on a lab table, strapped down...naked… with an I.V. Looking thing taking blood OUT of me. “THE FUCK!” I bark, cutting the thing off with my claws. “Crap...how do I get this thing out without messing with a vein?” I mutter to myself, hoping this won’t end poorly. ”Test doner seven, can you understand me?” A voice spoke from a speaker somewhere I couldn't see. “How about you get your ass down here and talk to me directly.” I frown. “Against protocol. Here.” The straps came undone by themselves and the I.V. thing somehow floated out of my arm and onto the floor. ”Now then, is there anything you'd like to know before we proceed?” “Really? You have to start with ‘is there anything you’d like to know’ bull? I find a weird lab, most likely had you fucks do tests on me like I’m some common fucking animal, and you are wondering what I want to know first? You suck at this if you didn’t already know what I wanted to know first.” I rant. “Christ, and here I thought scientists were supposed to be smart.” ”We have been underground monitoring the life above since ten million years ago each new generation was vastly different from the last.” “So your mole people?” I ask. “Cause you sound like mole people if you’ve been underground for ten million years…” I say. “But besides that, what did you do to the Pie family and their Apple family visitor?” ”Insults aside, they are all safe, you will meet them shortly. You are the seventh test subject for Project six.” I look around the room. “Yeah, you see...I don’t take very kindly to being a fucking test subject to mad people so...so you have two options. Either let me and your other ‘test subjects’ that you kidnapped and probably tortured go, or I destroy this whole place and save those that you kidnapped, and you can’t do jack shit about it.” I explain. “That sound fun?” ”The base is connected to the other test subjects, you included, by a tracer chip now embedded within your brainstem, any harm to the base or staff will activate facility wide quarantine and…decontamination…and disposal of test subjects.” I take a deep breath. “So...tell me...what is this ‘Project Six’? And please explain to me why I still can’t just murder all of you and keep going without giving a single fuck?” I ask. ”Yo Joy, mind getting Trinity? I’m kind of stuck in a secret bunker underneath the Pie’s rock farm. I mentally tell him, thankfully getting an okay from him. ”You and the others are test subjects now. The disposal process will… consider it advanced neurosis. The tests are simple. Just walk through the nearby door.” Behind me, a door opened up. “By the by, is there a...certain amount of stress these chips can undergo before they just shut down?” I ask curiously, wanting to know that cause if so I can break it with ease. ”Unkown. If that were to happen though you would either die instantly or be paralyzed from the neck down given the chip is now a part of your brain stem.” ”You wish.” I think to myself, before walking through the door. ”Christ, why am I always shoved in these shitty situations?” I mentally groan. Once through the door my clothes were on a table, to which I quickly put them on. ”The first test will be simple.” Some kind of display cases came out of the ground and there were three in total. One had a heartless, the other, some kinda baby brown bear, and the third had…a HUMAN BABY! ”Which defines you?” “Okay what sort of crazy alien bullshit is going on here?” I ask, horrified by this. ”It's a simple question. Which defines you?” “How you got a heartless is beyond me, getting a weird baby brown bear is another, but where did you get a fucking human baby? What the fuck is wrong with you you sick fucks!” I bark. ”Subject seven the infant is only resting. Any louder and you will awake them. But which defines you. Monster. Beast. Or human?” ”I really hope Joy get’s Trinity cause this is bullshit.” I think to myself bitterly. “Human.” I frown. “But when I get this chip out of me, all of you are so dead.” I mutter angrily. ”Interesting.” The displays went back into the ground. Another display came up, this one with a photo of me. ”Who are you?” “Why should I answer that?” I frown. “I thought my name was ‘Subject Seven’, so you already know who I am.” I sass. ”Subject seven is your code name for these tests. Again. Who are you?” “I am me.” I say. “I am who I am. And you don’t need to know who I am cause you will never know who I am. Cause you kidnapped me and started testing on me like a bunch of fuck holes.” ”Inconclusive answer. Philosophical yes, but not the answer needed to proceed.” “Let me ask you a question, who are you? That’s the better question then trying to figure out who I am.” I say with a frown, crossing my arms. “Go on, tell me.” ”I am a quiz dungeon run by AI code and ‘dungeon masters’ spawned in after creation updated.” “Your a fucking quiz dungeon AI?” I ask. “Are….are you…” I groan, rubbing both of my temples. “Are you fucking with me right?” I ask, not believing this. “That’s it, where’s the exit, I’m done.” ”The exit and rewards will be granted after you properly proceed through the next three questions.” “I will properly proceed when I shove my foot up your creators ass that he’ll basically become my new slipper.” I frown. ”Please answer the questions accordingly. Subjects one through six have already passed and left the area, rewards in hand.” “Why though!?!” I groan loudly, face palming. “I start freaking out about a bunch of people disappearing, most likely being murdered, only to be dropped into some quiz show run by some fuck wits that were hear some fuck knows when. I was poisoned, dropped here, and was most likely very violated by all of your tests, and I still have no answers to anything. Your questions can go fuck themselves. This isn’t a fucking quiz show damn it…” I growl, swiftly losing my patience. “But my names Ben, or as the the inhabitants of this world have come to know me, ‘White Knight’.” The voice actually groaned. ”Alright thanks for that… now last question and you can leave.” The whole room lit up, and the photo of me went away and a single die came up on a table. ”Odd or even?” “What kind of die is it?” I ask, seeing a die and not sure if it’ll change into any other kind of die. ”It will determine the type of prize you get. Even prizes or odd prizes…” “Even?” I ask, still not a hundred percent sure about this. The dice rolled itself, landing on four. ”Here. The voice said as a…PS4 appeared in front of me. ”Now get out.” I blinked and was outside the Pie family home holding the boxed console. “THE FUCK!?!” I bark in rage. “Did anyone else have to go through that crap?” The door opened and I saw Pinkie's sisters, one holding a…mario mystery block, the other a large, rather cute, caterpillar thing, and the last was holding a spider that looked like it was made from diamond. Her parents were each holding Zapp apples, and Big Mac was holding a pillow. “These prizes were random.” The purple haired sister spoke in the most monotone voice ever. “I’m going to find whoever made that and smack him.” I frown. “But the PS4 is nice.” “Ben!” I looked outside, seeing Trinity fly down. “Joy passed the message. You didn't check your emails did you?” She asked. “No.” I frown. “Why do you ask?” I ask, hoping nothing bad happened. “Dad was gonna add a variety of unique dungeons and junk to the underground of every world to test out some stuff…what's with the PS4?” “I’m gonna smack dad.” I frown. “Cause apparently he decided to shove me, the Pie family, and Big Mac into a strange lab, where we were all probably tested on and violated on, and put into some stupid ass ‘quiz show’ thing, and the ‘AI’ said that if I destroyed anything a stupid ass chip in my brain stem, which I’m now calling fake as fuck right now, would kill me.” “A gameshow one? Dad must have hit randomize when making the themes…as for putting them there, he put them there yes but it's random who goes in, a chance of luck thing. Speaking of.” She zoomed into the basement. Less than two minutes later she reappeared with a…Kingdom Hearts 1.5 and 2.5 remix game for my PS4. “I got a free wish. Here.” She said, placing the game on my PS4. “Thanks.” I nod. “But do I actually have a chip in my brain stem? Or no?” “Heck no. The thing is new and dad would never make something like that, it was all talk and when I did ask it said ‘you would be teleported back topside missing the last hour of your memory.” “I fucking hate everything…” I mutter. “Well...at least I got a nice game and a PS4…” I shrug. “By the by, Big Mac, if it wasn’t for the dungeon being a prick, would you have stayed here this long?” I ask curiously, wondering if Big Mac had a crush on any of the Pie girls. He chuckled nervously. “Heh. Well we've been in that their dungeon… nine times trying for different prizes.” He said. “This pillow is my latest…and worst prize yet.” “Then what was that lab?” I ask, now kind of confused here. “But anyways, so you weren’t failing to try and be nice to the cute girl right there?” I ask, pointing a finger towards the long haired girl. “Marble is it?” I ask her, getting a nod from the shy mare. “Wha? No.” Mac said. “Marble is like a little sister ta me.” “Right then. It’s just that Applejack said you were hopeless when you had a crush.” I chuckle. “Anyways, want to go home now big guy? Or are you too busy having fun in a quiz show?” “It's fun.” The monotone one, Maud, said. “This is a diamond spider. Yes it's alive. Named him Chalk. Other things are in the shed out back.” “Right then.” I nod. “So, grab your things Mac, Applejack is worried about ya, Apple bloom is dating someone, and I don’t know about Granny Smith.” I say, wanting to get back so I can train. Big Mac stood still. “Applebloom is dating…” “I’ll explain it when we get home alright?” I ask. “It was nice to meet you all, and hopefully me and Pinkie, along with the rest of my fiance's can drop by to say hi.” I say to the Pie family. “Also yes, I’m marrying Pinkie, not sure if Pinkie sent a letter or not...albeit it wouldn’t be beyond her to have already sent a letter.” “She already sent us invites to the baby shower.” Pinkie’s mother said. “Wait...she’s…” I frown. “When?” “You forget Braig…” Trinity said, patting my back. “No I didn’t forget Braig, I wouldn’t never forget him. For some reason I thought she was actually pregnant…” I say nervously. “Anyways...I’ve had too much crap on my mind because of that dumb quiz thing, I just want to go home and get back to training.” I sigh out. Big Mac got his prizes from his runs. One of which was actually a bag of infinite honey roasted peanuts. Odd but useful, and we headed out. An hour later and I dropped Mac off at the Apple Farm and I flew off towards Ramilua’s house. When I landed in the backyard Ramilua was standing with his own scythe in hand. “Your final test is going to begin.” “Final test?” I ask worriedly, getting off my bike and looking at Ram. “I barely trained with it, I barely know any of it’s abilities, how the hell is this already my ‘final test’?” I ask worriedly, summoning my scythe and getting into my fighting stance just in case. “You advance fast. A scythe master only trains with another for a short period of time before solitary training is ordered. Your final test is the same as every. A tribute to the harvester.” “There’s still so much I have to learn…” I mutter. “How am I supposed to figure it all out on my own when this weapon is about the most confusing to me?” I ask, my worry getting the better of me here. “Once you master the basics, you can only improve and master from there. This is how scythe masters are. You catch on rather quick. But like I said, your final test is a tribute to the Harvester.” “And...this ‘Tribute to the Harvester’ is?” I ask, still having a bad feeling about this. “Find the demon that was born when your scythe was still a tree and harvest it.” “That’s great, I have no idea where the hell it even is.” I frown. ”Damn...God didn’t tell me anything about this…” I think to myself. “But...how am I supposed to do that?” I ask curiously. “Because as I say again, I barely know anything about this. I may be a quick learner but I have no idea about anything about things…” “Hand me your scythe.” Ramilua asked, holding out his other hand. “Okay…” I nod, handing him my scythe. Once he took it he he pricked a finger on the blade and slashed at the air, and the screams of what sounded like the cries of children echoed out as a red DT… something opened. “Through there.” Ramilua tossed my scythe back. “If this leads me to Silent Hill I’m gonna be pissed.” I frown while grabbing my scythe. “Well...wish me luck.” I nod to Ramilua, entering the red door and hoping this doesn’t end terribly. When I exited I was in a long dead forest. Long dead trees and animal skeletons littered everywhere. “Well...this is...not a pretty sight.” I say while starting my journey through this barren hellscape. “Hello? I’m looking for a weird ass demon tree.” I kept walking then I noticed my scythe get hot. Following the heat I could barely hold onto the scythe, the heat burned my hands even through my gloves. The heat suddenly went away, and I looked up, seeing a large bleeding tree, taller than a skyscraper as skeletons were embedded in the wood. “Well...that’s something.” I say with a frown. “What, does Griselbrand live in this thing?” I ask worriedly. I got closer and around the tree was a moat of blood. “Scary, ain't it.” I turned around. There was an elderly man with a lot of junk around him. How did I not notice this hobo camp? “It is…” I agree. “But...I can’t imagine just how beautiful it was before it was so ingrained with blood and death…” “Was a paradises to put a word to it.” The old man said. “People kept progress and nature in balance, then we found an old scripture in the deepest part of the ancient tombs. That's when it went south.” “And this is why people don’t dig too deep in ancient tombs.” I frown. “It was a simple sentence, who’d have guessed an old piece of paper was a prison.” “That’s...something.” I say worriedly. “Who are you if I may ask my kind stranger? It’s not everyday you meet a kind old man near a tree like this.” “Just the last thing alive here. When that thing escaped the prison, it killed everything. I only lived because I was up in a space station. It crashed down and I still walked away. Been alone here for forty six years.” “Well...what would happen if I said I can take you to a place where it’s more sunshine and rainbows?” I ask curiously. “I’m too old for good endings kid. To be honest I'm pretty sure you're in my head, if not then what took ya?” He chuckled. “Names Grath by the by.” “Names Ben.” I say. “But I...didn’t know your world was in such a state...my master, a Scythe Wielder, told me that I had to do something with where my scythe originally came from...I just...didn’t expect Graceful Dahlia to have come from that big of a tree.” I chuckle. “But if you want to know what a happy world looks like, one last time, just tell me and I’ll make it so.” “Maybe. What brings ya here anyway?” “A tribute to the Harvest.” I say, tapping my scythe on the ground and staring at the tree. “I have a demon to kill...and it’s in that tree.” “Do me a favor and spit on the red eyed bastard.” Grath said. “I will.” I laugh. “Anyways, how the fuck do I summon the damned thing again?” I ask, gently floating over to the tree. “Knock knock asshole!” I shout, tapping the tree with my butt of my scythe. A hand tore itself out of the tree, startling me as a…Psychopath. But… it was a child! ”Well well, the wolf mutt.” It said as it crawled out. “Silent Hill it is.” I frown. “So...random Psychopath child crawling out of a demon tree...this...is fucked up in several ways.” ”Hehehe. Oh how Silent Hill ripped us off. I bet you're wondering how a child became a demon like us huh?” “I’m seeing a lot of blood, murder, bloody murder, and possible traces of necromancy so…” I check off. “I think I have a good idea but mind clueing me in?” ”This planet's race was a war faring one. They created me, forced an innocent youngling to kill a grand hero and that let us enter the boy. They then feared us and locked us away till our rediscovery.” “That’s pretty fucked up.” I frown. “Pretty fucked up indeed.” ”To each their own. So what brings the mutt child of the human god here?” “I’m here for a Harvest tribute.” I say, showing off my scythe. “Graceful Dahlia here is apparently made from this tree...how I didn’t know this is completely beyond me when it originally was created by a Nobody…” I frown. ”How little you know. Many truths mean every lie is true and every truth is a lie. It's all the same and different to someone.” “I’m sorry what?” I ask, now completely confused. “I’m royally confused now…” I sigh out. “But yes, I know very little. And I have a feeling you’re going to tell me about things or going to murder me.” ”Either or matter not. You're now Cript’s child. I lay a finger and he comes in a blink.” “Then mind explaining to me what the ‘Harvest tribute’ is?” I ask with a frown. ”Simple really. The first to give and teach Man the way of harvest for life was death, as Psychopaths, we are the first to harvest life of sentients before their time was used up. Harvest a life like the first of both harvesters. Good, bad, young, old, matters not so long as the blood is spilled.” “Well…” I frown. “That’s...something. So I have to...kill someone?” I ask worriedly, not liking where this is going and gripping my scythe tighter. ”I can see your sins child, blood is already on your hands, one from mercy, one from progress, justice.” “I...didn’t want to kill her…” I mutter bitterly. “I still feel terrible about it…” I sigh out. “So...just kill someone? And that’s it?” I ask, already knowing I’m going to have to do it. ”Your scythe led you here. The blood it seeks is mine and the trees.” “Yeah that seems simple enough. Just got to get the blood from a Psychopath that’s in a demon tree.” I say. “Yeah, easier said than done really.” I say, already knowing what kind of power a Psychopath could tap into. ”Decisions decisions. What to choose? Fight me and die, run away to try another time or ask for help from those that will lend it?” I took a moment, thinking about who might help me, but thinking about all my fiance's first. “Christ...I’m gonna need help.” I sigh out. ”But...they can’t help...they barely started training….shit shit shit…” I think to myself worriedly, thinking of other people that could help but they're all probably busy. “Just...give me a moment.” I say while moving away from the child and tapping my Assistant and thinking of who might help. “Crap crap crap…” I mutter, checking through my contacts at who might be able to help. “Christ…” I mutter while tapping my Assistant and calling Edward. The butler appeared in a flash of teleportation. “Sir.” He said. “Do you know anyone that can help me with my special...situation?” I ask, pointing towards the Psychopath in the tree. “That’s apart of my test for my Scythe. Harvest tribute and all and fuck if I can kill him by myself.” “The only family I know of who have also dealt with Psychopaths are your father, and mother’s Andy and Zechariah.” Edward said. “Knowing dad’s busy, Mom is...mom...who are Andy and Zechariah?” I ask curiously. “Two of your mothers.” Edward deadpanned. “Yes yes I know I’m an idiot.” I sigh out. “Sorry just...I’m still having a bad week here…” I shake my head. “But um...are either of them busy at the moment? “They are all free.” “And here I was hoping I’d have a more ‘I don’t need help’ situation…” I sigh out. “Christ...well might as well meet someone new, let’s meet Zechariah…” I say. “Uh...how do you spell her name again?” I ask, about to just type in her name in the quick search but not knowing how to spell her own damned name. “Z.E.C.H.A.R.I.A.H.” Edward spelled. “Thank you.” I nod, typing in said name in the quick search, finding the person and pressing their name, calling them up. “Let’s hope this works…” I say, not really knowing what race this lady will be but feeling it’ll be a shocker. ”The Angel who was the only one to defect from us. It will be interesting to see them again.” “An angel huh?” I ask, wondering how this encounter will be. “Well let’s hope she either appears or picks up…” I mutter, starting to absentmindedly twirl my scythe without even noticing. After a bit of time I felt a tap on the back of my head. “Hello.” Said a female voice that…made me…kinda turned on to hear…oh god... “Trinity told me about you…” I say worriedly, blushing a bit and trying to keep myself under control. “It’s nice to meet you.” I say while turning around to meet my angel mother. She wasn't what the biblical depictions stated. Rather than a naked baby she was a tall, soft skinned woman with long blond hair, light blue eyes and she wore a white robe with a gold lace tied around her waist. “I have been watching you a bit. Gotta say, impressed.” “Glad to hear that…” I say honestly. “But um...you’re a Cherubim correct?” I ask curiously. “By birth yes. All those such powers and all but I worked my way into the Archangel class.” “Oh~, okay. Cause I was wondering why you either weren’t the biblical version of a Cherubim...both the ‘naked baby’ and ‘Dark Souls like’ creature…” I say sheepishly. “Fucken Dante’s Paradiso…” I mutter, remembering that four headed...thing. “As much as I’d love to continue this chat I believe we have…that to deal with.” Zechariah said as she pointed at the Psychopath. ”Long time no see Zechariah. You look well.” The Psychopath said. “Drop dead.” Mother Zechariah said as…she pulled out a great sword that would make Cloud feel small by comparison. “Mind helping me murder this kid?” I ask, readying my scythe and focusing on the Psychopath. “The Psychopath yes, the child we save.” “Well I have to Harvest the Psychopaths blood either way. Mastering my scythe and all.” I explain. “I got that part handled.” Mother Zechariah said as she pulled out a smaller sword in her other hand. It was all silver with a near heavenly white aura around it. On the blade were some symbols but I didn't fully recognize them. “Save the kid, kill the demon.” “Well this will be some good training to do that.” I say, spinning my scythe in the air and cherry blossoms swirled around me. Mother Zechariah handed me her silver sword. “This is a humanity blade, it's strength is funneled from it's welders will power. Let's see how strong your will is.” I nodded, grabbing the silver sword and taking a deep breath, steeling my will and readying myself to fight. I felt deep inside, put all my emotions into a swing with both my scythe and the humanity blade. The cross slash sent a visible energy wave that when it hit the tree, sent chunks of wood, splinters, and blood flying. When the dust, and blood, settled, all that was left of the tree was a broken stump with the psychopath standing in the center of it. “Damn…” I mutter, not expecting my attack to literally make the monster of a tree turn into nothing but a stump. “Next up, saving kid.” ”Those blasted blades have been a pain.” The psychopath said, appearing right in front of me. ”Time to play.” It smacked me and I was sent flying for several MILES. “Ow…” I groan, skidding in midair to a halt and dashing back towards the kid and my Cherubim mother. “This will be troublesome…” Mom went in, swinging at the child as it quickly pushed the blade aside and palm struck mother, sending her back a few meters. “Damn, Ben, distract it.” She whispered to me when she flew back next to me. “Alright.” I say before pointing my scythe at the kid, a sphere of thorns surrounding the being as I dashed forward, raising my Humanity Blade and swinging it at the kid, seeing the cherry blossom thorns start to rush down on the Psychopath. It hacked them apart with a sword it quickly summoned, then rushed me, slicing down my arm which was followed by a spin kick. A lot of blood was flowing from my wound. Mother was swinging the sword at the psychopath, it was fast in dodging her attacks. I started spinning my scythe rather quickly, before dashing towards the kid and swinging both my scythe and my Humanity blade like a very fast top and hoping to hit the kid. The kid actually pulled out a rope which wrapped around me then he yanked it and I honestly can't remember what happened next. I am way to dizzy. “Oro~” I groan, not sure why I sounded like Kenshin but just felt like saying it. I shook my head a few times to get back to my senses. When everything stopped spinning I saw mom was locked blades with the Psychopath. ”Here's my opening.” I realized as a charged in fast, slicing the psychopath with my new Humanity blade as a crystal like thing quickly coated its body. “Good work.” Mom said. “Once the Psychopath is out, finish it, they are as weak as butter without a host.” “Cool.” I nod, readying my scythe to strike down the Psychopath. There was a black mist coming out of the crystal and then it came out. It was like a red version of Venom from Spiderman was crawling out of the crystal. I sliced it in half and it evaporated into the air. The crystal around the child fell apart and he laid there unconscious. “Nice work.” Mom said, taking the Humanity Blade back. “When you earn yours you will make great use of it.” “Thanks mom.” I nod. “So...I ‘killed’ a Psychopath…” I start. “Now where’s the flash and congrats on mastering this thing?” I wonder, looking all over my scythe and wondering if another symbol will appear. It did, over the back of the blade where the blade and body met. “Open…” I mutter, reading the symbol before disbanding my scythe. “Well...that’s that I suppose.” I say. “Time to go home…” I mutter, starting to think about what to do next. “Do you want to take the child or should I?” Mother Zechariah asked. “I’ll take him…” I say before landing and picking up the child. “He needs a family...and a father and eight mothers would do the child some good.” I say while summoning Reunion and creating a DTL back home. “Hope the kid is willing to have me as a father…” I say sheepishly. “Thanks mom...also...how long will your...effect last?” I ask sheepishly. “Different for each person. Also what about him?” She pointed at Grath. “Oh yeah…” I mutter. “Hey Grath! Want a ride to a new world and home?” “Sure. Just let me pack my things.” Out of the junk around him Grath only grabbed a dirty backpack, some canned food, and a toothbrush. “Alright I am ready.” “Alright then my new hobo friend.” I say with a nod. “Walk into the light. I swear you’d think you were going to heaven if you believe in that.” I chuckle. “You and an angle lady just got rid of that thing that killed off my world. There is something akin to a god or higher.” He said walking into the DTL. “If only he knew.” I chuckle to myself. “Well it was nice meeting you mom, hopefully we can see each other again.” “Same. Also here.” She tossed me a birthday card. “There's so many kids and such in the family we just celebrate all their birthdays in one week long party. That's the gift everyone gets, a rule free wish.” “Sweet.” I say with a warm smile, taking the card and putting it in my pocket. “Actually...crap I don’t know when December is on Equestria…” I frown, remembering my actual birthday from Earth. Mom pointed at the assistant on my arm. “I know…” I sigh out. “Seriously...this has just not been my week.” I grumble, before walking into the DTL with the child in my arms. Once on Equestria, Grath set up camp in a rather deep hole in the cliff side wall at the castle home. I went back inside and upon doing so the child changed, he was now a wolf like Joy or Jenny, but with pony ears and a horn. His hair was the same color as Rarity’s. “Rarity is gonna be so happy.” I mutter with a little smile. I continue to walk around, wondering who I’ll bump into here. “I wonder how Joy is doing? He’s got school and girlfriends to deal with…” I walked into the bedroom where thankfully the girls were at and I put the new addition on the bed. “Another adoption?” Luna asked. “Yep, and he’s Rarity’s son.” I say. “You wouldn’t believe the situation this poor kid was in.” “Oh… a son?” Rarity said, getting up and looking at the boy. “Heh. I had hoped my first child would be a girl but, what can you do.” She said, patting the sleeping child’s head. “Well considering I met a specific mother of mine…” I say nervously. “I’m going to be as fertile as possible. Even spells can’t stop it somehow…” “Bathroom now!” Luna, Pinkie, and Derpy said as they pulled me into the bathroom shower. “Wrong thing to say…” I mutter, not really caring that I’m being pulled into the bathroom. “But...shouldn’t I be with all my girls?” “In a bit, then we’ll join.” Gilda said. “I gotta check up on Joy, the CMC and Jenny have been having him play tea party and house for… since you left. “Oh my god…” I sigh out. “He has work to do, not playing house…” “Sex now kids in two hours.” Luna said as she closed the bathroom door, turning on the shower and things got busy… fast. To be continued... Nobody's daughter goes to RaptureTwo hours of nonstop love making later, I walked through the castle and wondered where Joy was. ”Yo Joy, where are you?” I mentally ask him. ”Having a...nice enough date with the Cutie Mark Crusaders.” Joy mentally tells me. ”Okay where in this giant ass castle?” I mentally groan, wanting to find them soon and tell Sweetie about her new nephew. ”At the apple farm.” Joy mentally tells me. ”Alright, I’ll be there real quick.” I mentally tell him before opening one of the many big windows and summoning my glider, speeding off towards the farm to see how Joy and the girls are doing. After about five minutes I flew over to the Apple farm and saw the CMC’s tree house. “There we are.” I say before landing a few feet from the actual ramp leading up to the tree house. “Hello?” I call out, not wanting to barge in there. The door opened and I saw Applebloom open the door. “Hi Ben.” She said with a smile. “Hello Apple Bloom. How are all of you doing?” I ask, getting off my glider. “Hope Joy’s been nice to you all.” “Hehe. He's been good. We've been playing house for practice.” “Practice?” I ask with a cheeky grin. “I heard that!” Joy barks from inside the tree house. “We also took that future tellen eight ball and have been seeing what’s in store. Hehe. So far a fun future.” “What kind of ‘fun future’?” I ask with a smile. “Well in terms of a house we get a whole planet like his pa, and in terms of kids…that just said ‘incalculable’.” “AB!” Joy calls out in shock, making me bend over laughing hysterically. “We also asked about you. Said the same thing.” “Oh dear.” I chuckle. “I’m sure all of them will be happy at least...hey Sweetie! You got a nephew!” There was a high pitched squeal of joy as I looked inside the tree house. Sweetie squeezing Joy like crazy. I also noticed Jenny in the back corner of the club house. “Halp!” Joy groans. “Can’t...breath…” He says, trying to get some air. “Alright Sweetie, don’t squeeze Joy too much.” I chuckle. “Anyways, how have you all been?” I ask, seeing Scootaloo grinning at Joy’s predicament. “Good so far. Just figuring some things out.” Scoots said. “Alright.” I nod. “Jenny? I suppose you’re enjoying Joy’s ‘torture’?” I ask, knowing she enjoys me and Joy being either embarrassed to hell or in pain. “It's cute I can't lie. Never knew a boy could blush that much.” She replied. “Glad to hear that.” I nod. “Anyways, I just finished mastering my weapon, and considering you have free time want to head off and go have fun?” I ask my daughter, hoping she’ll just allow some father daughter bonding at least once. “Sure. Scoots, you're head wife while I am gone.” “Yes!” Scootaloo cheered. “Lead the way.” Jenny said to me. “Don’t I get a say in this?” Joy asks worriedly. “Apparently not.” I say before summoning Reunion and spawning a DTL to the world Ramilua told me about. “You’ll get up there don’t worry.” I say while moving out of the way and letting Jenny go in the DTL first. We both went in and once there we were met with a pile of mangled corpses. “Reminds me of my dentists attic.” Jenny said. “Your dentist was a serial killer?” I ask with a frown. “No, just disposed of bodies we needed gone.” Jenny replied as she walked over to the corpses and took off a revolver from one of them and ammo from the rest. “So which way?” I summoned Frozen Pride and Graceful Dahlia. “Let’s see now…” I mutter, looking around to wherever we should go. “This way.” I say, starting to walk in a random direction. Jenny followed and no sooner we turned the corner I was tacked to the ground where a hook that was EMBEDDED into a person's arm to replace the hand was at my neck. “Hello little fish-” Bang. The person's head exploded as Jenny blew a hole through his head with her new revolver. “So what we learn?” “This place is filled with crazy people?” I ask curiously, getting up and brushing the blood off of me. “That…and remember to look up.” Jenny pointed up, when I looked up I saw two more of those crazies crawling on the ceiling. “That’s creepy.” I say while switching my scythe to one of my Gun Arrows. I raised my gun up and shot two arrows at them, both piercing through their heads with ease...which blew up their heads in the same instance. “Okay then...that’s nice.” “Wonder what else is here.” Jenny muttered as she walked off. “Probably mutants, monsters, more crazy people, and a lone man who’s trying to figure out how the fuck all this happened.” I say with a shrug. “But...how much do you hate me and Joy? I don’t know if how your acting is just because your a Ventral...or because you hate us a fuck ton.” “Joy, I am just messing with honestly. You…I want to drop dead.” “I know…” I nod. “But remember...if you ever need me, no matter how much you wish I was dead...I’ll always be here for you.” I tell her. “Whatever.” She replies. Opening a large metal door leading into a glass hallway with a view of the underwater city and ocean around it. “Oh...well this is new.” I state, still on my guard even though I was seeing that an entire city was built in the middle of the ocean. Entering the next building we were met with a crying, pale skinned little girl standing next to some kinda armored tank person. They had a drill attached to one arm. “Oh…” I mutter to myself, not liking how this might go. “Well that's creepy.” “Hey at least it’s not ‘Silent Hill’ creepy.” I whisper, gently moving away from the pale girl and the tank like being. “Wuss.” Jenny said, firing a shot at the tank like being and it turned red and roared in rage, charging at Jenny, who went full wolf and slashed at the being, it's head falling off and it's body falling over. “Well that was just too easy…” “That only makes it more worrying…” I say with a frown, looking over at the girl that was doing nothing right now. ”I have a bad feeling about this…” I think to myself. Jenny walked over to the girl, and put her revolver to the back of the girls head, I reacted and pushed Jenny down. “The fuck Jenny!?” I bark. “What? She's not gonna survive a place like this anyway.” “That’s why we’ll save her.” I say bluntly. “There’s obviously something wrong with her besides having a giant tank of a being with her...I don’t know much about this world but I already have a feeling these girls were heavily drugged with something…” “So what's the matter with killing a druggie?” “Besides the fact that a little girl was probably tested on without her being able to do anything?” I point out. “She’s not a monster, she’s probably a tortured soul that needs help…” I say before opening up my Assistant and checking what the hell this world actually is and who the girl was. “Waste of time in my opinion.” “Your a Ventral, anything that involves ‘sparing a life’ is a waste of time to you all.” I frown. “Just like relying on loved ones is too much trouble for you?” “I don’t want them to get hurt in my own damned problems.” I say bitterly. “They are your family, your problems and dangers are theirs now the second you started dating them.” “I know that...and I’m trying my best to let them know my problems.” I sigh out, seeing the title ‘Bioshock’ show on my Assistant. “And you’re now my daughter...and I want to help you be better than just a person that’s made for killing.” I say with a frown. “Some father…takes a person with a sicker mind than Core’s to kill a mother and then raise their child.” “Yet Nancy said she had no one left.” I say. “She said, in her own words, that the Ventrals become ‘demons’ when they don’t have anyone left for them. If you were Nancy’s daughter...then why did she think she had no one left in her life?” I ask, my mind now starting to think of many possibilities of why she would do such a thing. Jenny growled. “Shut up.” She warned. “I wanted to have a father daughter day, and I thought that killing stuff, preferably monsters or crazy people like the ones we just encountered, would help you relax and try and ‘open up’...” I start, before I raised my head and got a serious confused look. “Wait...Jenny, have you ever had a ‘killing mood’ before?” I ask, finding that sudden thought really weird for some reason. “Duh. Tokyo four years back. Was an accident but hey…there went an anime convention. Surprised they never released the security footage.” “That’s...even weirder now that I think about it.” I frown. “You’re a Ventral by blood yes...yet…” I start, before shaking my head. “This is getting more and more confusing the more I think about it. You have killing moods yes...but...why did she say all that?” I ask worriedly, scratching my head in confusion as more questions arose in my mind and leading to maybe an answer. “Cripe...you're probably not going to like what I’m thinking about.” I shake my head. “What? That my dad screwed another woman and she gave birth to me. I've known…” “How long?” I ask, hiding my anger from Jenny as I heard what she said. “Since I was five. Dad got drunk at a friends party and got too flirty with a striper. A year later same stripper finds dad and drops me off at his hideout at the time. M…Nancy raised me like a daughter but she only ever saw me as a friend. She did mess up dad bigtime for that but I still saw her like a mom. She was all I had after all, my birth mother left me.” I listened carefully, and I clenched my fists in anger and bitterness. “Wow…” I start. “Your fathers a prick, Nancy should have thought about you before making her decision…” I growl, raising my gun arrow towards a corner of the room and firing it, the sound of a head exploding filled the room and a body hit the floor. “You hate me for killing Nancy, that’s fine...but how in the wide world of hell she didn’t think of you as her own daughter is….kind of beyond me at this point.” “Simple. I’m a bastard. A child born from drunken unfaithfulness. She looked at me and cared, but remembered dad's mistake and could look no further. After all, what if Luna, or Twilight, even if they were drunk screwed another and was carrying their child. Can you honestly look me in the eye and tell me is you did raise them that every time you saw that child you would not see that mistake, that moment of hate and feeling of betrayal?” I stared Jenny right in the eyes. “I would not see a moment of hate, or a feeling of betrayal. I would be pissed at the person that would even dare try to do such a thing to my wives most definitely, but the children wouldn’t be at fault. I would never take out my own anger on innocent children who were born because of a mistake.” I say with a frown. “And besides...I’ve told myself I was a mistake several times, thinking I was nothing more than a giant waste of space, a murderer who killed his parents just for not listening to them in once in his god forsaken life.” I growl. “But here’s the thing, we both have a second chance to live a life that is filled with love, joy, and happiness with those that care about us. I have my wives, Dinky, Joy, and my new family, and you have your new family that see’s you as nothing less than a girl that needs love, care, and help.” I explain seriously, hoping my words could get through to her. “You agreed to be my daughter, and I want you to know that, no matter what you did in the past, you're getting a second chance to enjoy a life of being a daughter, not a ‘friend’, not a ‘mistake’, but as an actual daughter that your parents love and cherish. Alright?” Jenny didn't reply. Verbally. Rather, to my shock, she hugged me, crying loudly as she squeezed tighter. I disbanded my weapons and picked her up and hugged her, closing my eyes as tears formed at the corners of my eyes as I just hugged Jenny. “It’s alright...daddy’s here…” I whisper with care, just staying there and hugging the crying child. Something poked my back. When I looked around it was that pale girl, who had glowing yellow/white eyes. She looked confused. “Daddy?” She asked. I smiled gently and patted her head. “Daddy’s here.” I say with a smile, having looked for what these girls are and wanting to help her out. “I’ll be your daddy if you want.” She nodded, jumping on my back making me give her a piggy back ride. “Go see mama!” The girl said. “Onwards to mama.” I smile, heading off to find the pale girls mama. “Now...where’s your mama again?” I ask the pale girl, still holding Jenny gently. She jumped off and lead the way. We walked for a great while before we came to a door with a smaller door that she crawled through and after a bit it opened and behind it was a woman dressed in a fancy dress… pointing a shotgun at me. “Why has my little one brought you here?” She asked. “She wanted me to see her mama.” I say, motioning to the little girl. “I want to help.” She looked at the little girl than at Jenny. “You are not from Rapture, this much is clear. What brings…people… like you here.” “I originally brought my daughter here for some murdering monsters and crazy people...then we both had a heart to heart…” I say, still holding Jenny gently in my arms. “And it all started with helping that poor girl and whoever else might have been stuck like that.” I explain. “The fact you are not dead yet makes you a good sign for aid. Rapture has fallen thanks to its founder, Andrew Ryan. He founded a city without morals so those who flocked here when it opened, it went south from their thanks to eve and plasmids. My little ones are injected with a unique sea slug that produces this eve, they are like a safe with gold that every splicer in the city will kill to get every last drop of eve they can.” “And I suppose those giant tank things with drill arms are meant to be unstoppable bodyguards?” I ask curiously. “Big Daddy’s. Yes, they protect any and every Little Sister. They are genetically bound and bonded to their Little Sister, and will die for them. The people they once were are either long gone or trapped by genetic tampering and mind alteration.” “Huh...that’s something.” I say with a frown. “So, you want me and my daughter to help save all the Little Sisters before they become bloody shakes for crazy people? And maybe kill Andrew Douche Monger in the meantime?” I ask, already wanting to kill the bastard that’s responsible for all of this. “Killing Ryan is top priority, and beware of a man who goes by Atlas. He has been trying to kill Ryan for years and used Gorilla warfare to do it. He claims to be just but I don't trust him. Save any Little Sister you come across on your path to Ryan, to save every Little Sister in Rapture is a pipe dream given the city's size and the splicers.” “It’s not the first time I’ve done the impossible.” I chuckle. “Jenny?” I whisper to the girl in my arms, wondering if she is asleep or not. “Call Trinity.” She mumbled. “That crazy girl can get the Little Sisters easy.” “Alright.” I nod, gently nuzzling the top of Jenny’s head before using my Assistant to call for Trinity. “Sup bro!” Trinity's voice yelled behind me before I even sent the message. I jumped from shock. “Gah!” I yelp, still holding Jenny in my arms thankfully. “Jeez, can I stop getting spooked here?” I grumble. “Anyways, can we get some help? Little Sisters need saving.” “Ah. Gotcha. So once I get them where do I put them? Your house or our parents house?” “Are you gonna cure them of...whatever the hell this is?” I ask the woman who called them ‘my little ones’. “I can remove the excess eve yes, will only take few moments per little one.” She gave an example by patting the Little Sister that led me here, a white light went from her hand to the girl as the girl began to glow. In a flash, the child was no longer pale and her eyes were a deep green. She gave the woman a curtsy and ran over to me. “She likes you. Good. You are better than those Big Daddies. I shall look over these two and cure little ones. You deal with Ryan.” “Right.” I nod. “Ready to kill a madman who thinks he’s god Jenny?” I ask with a smile, hoping to have a happy time with murdering crazy people. “Next world dad...I need to calm down a bit still.” Jenny said as she jumping out of my grip and and sat on the floor, the newly cured Little Sister joining her. “Alright.” I smile, glad to hear her call me ‘dad’. “Well I’ll be off. Question, where’s Atlas and or Ryan right now or do you have no clue?” “Ryan is likely still in his office, a control room for all of Rapture and Atlas, not sure, all I can say for certain is that he has access to a lot of Eve. So he actually might be in the same place as Ryan, just in a different area. There is an Eve bank where little sisters used to store the excess eve they gather, but after the fall it was drained by splicers.” I crack my knuckles and ready both Frozen Pride and Graceful Dahlia. “Well this is gonna be fun. Got any directions or a map I can use so I don’t run around in circles?” “There is a tram three floors below. It can take you to a building that connects to the one with Ryan's office. He likely barricaded himself in and has all security active. And splicer bodyguards everywhere. Unless you know how to fly it's impossible to use the trash shoots.” “I can fly...three different ways.” I chuckle, starting to float in mid air just for funzies. “So, three floors down is where the tram is, and I use the trash shoots to get their quickly and without much of a problem with guards or security?” I ask curiously, stepping down from my little floating. “Alright…but hurry. The longer you stand or float here the more time Ryan and Atlas have to make things worse.” “Right.” I nod, before rushing off to quickly find my the trash chute and then to the tram. I checked my Assistant and thankfully it gave me a very detailed map of the place. Splicers came in swarms to stop me but a slice of my scythe cut them all down. I finally found the trash suit and used my arrow guns to teleport up in a blink up. Once at the top and out I saw the well dressed man of the city stand behinding a thick glass wall. “Clearly not Atlas.” He said, not even looking up from his book he was reading at his desk. “Come for entertainment?” “If by hearing you scream like those that have been tortured in this damned city then yes.” I nod. “Do you fear death?” I ask, summoning Graceful Dahlia and and gently twirling it. He looked at my scythe and then back to his book. He raised one hand…and the Star Seeker Keyblade appeared. “I've seen much, so the effect is lost on me.” “Okay...how?” I ask with a frown. “My great grandfather was one of the few selected to escape and keep the light of worlds alive from the Keyblade war. This keyblade is his. Passed down the family since his death.” “Okay...so you’re the great grandson of a man that wanted to keep the Light alive...and I suppose you decided ‘fuck it’ and made this hell hole?” I ask curiously. “I made a utopia to escape the norms and rules of government and the way the world works. Here, there are no gods or kings, only man. A man built this city and it was man that destroyed it.” “Now while your ‘utopia’ sounds nice on paper, you obviously can tell that in practice it sucks total balls.” I frown. “Not how I would have put it exactly, but yes. The city was meant to be self run by all who live here. If man was given true reign over their lives in a place where consequences are not delivered by an authority but by people, what does that say about man.” Ryan disbanded his keyblade and put his book down. “Man is dark, when handed paradise where the only rule was to keep it self sustaining they chose to abuse the gifts I gave and created their utopia, hell or heaven, I built the temple and man decided to ruin it.” “That is true.” I nod, disbanding my scythe. “But if memory serves, a single part of a utopia is supposed to have a figure head set the example. Kind of like God in the whole ‘Garden of Eden’ story. Now sure, there were only two people, but he gave them a simple task to follow and that’s about it...but temptation got the better of them since they didn’t have an example to follow.” I explain. “Examples can make or break a lot of things, stories and video games proved that enough.” “Men choose, and slaves obey. The few that chose led the slaves into the city we see now. Funny enough, why are we split as a species. Half are followers, less are leaders, and the rest are selfish. Undecided. I built a city to prove the nature of man wrong, yet when given true freedom only a handful stayed men while the rest became slaves.” “Sadly that’s just how people are.” I shrug. “People are either complacent, unsure about what to do when they actually get a say in things, or stuff like that.” I say honestly. “So mind if I ask, who sent you?” “I won’t tell you, but I suppose whoever sent me wanted to kill you on the basis that you caused all of this? Whether it be the hell hole that people made it into, or the entire ‘everyone’s fucking grotesque monstrosities’, frankly I don’t know...but I’d think it’s more ‘people are grotesque monstrosities’ in my personal opinion.” I explain. “Very well. But now, here is a choice for you.” Ryan pushed a button on his desk, a door opening and letting me walk in. I walked in and in one hand Ryan held a loaded revolver’s grip to me. “Are you a slave?” He pulled out his other hand, which held a key card of sorts in it. “Or a man?” “What does the Key Card do?” I ask curiously. “I’d rather have all the facts before choosing. Being a man doesn’t mean ‘be an idiot’.” “The card unlocks my personal chambers be a man and take what you find inside far from here so Atlas never finds it, or take the revolver, kill me, and what you find in my chamber.” “Honestly...you never looked like a guy that would cause all this death and destruction for shits and giggles.” I say while taking the card. “You look like a man that hoped for the best...but just didn’t quite get the last number on the equation as it were.” He nodded. “Take a left down the hall to your right.” “Thank you.” I nod. “Stay safe Ryan...and hopefully if you ever try to make your ideal utopia again you don’t find weird magical shit. I mean seriously, who the hell finds a weird needle filled with ‘summon bee’s from arm’?” I ask, just finding that little thing weird as fuck. “Not all plasmids are pure science. I did world travel in my youth.” “World traveling is nice, and when you find things that are any kinds of magical, science is proudly pushed off a cliff in a burning truck.” I chuckle. “Well, I’ll grab some things and then proceed to murder Atlas, cause he sounds like a prick.” I say. “Unless you have a warning about the bastard.” “Just that we have a past and he was not always called Atlas.” “Father?” I ask bluntly, having a rather good feeling that cliche is here. “Friend. Now go to the chambers, then come back here before leaving.” “Right.” I nod before heading off to find the specific chambers, summoning Frozen Pride and Graceful Dahlia just incase there was some trickery here. After following his directions I entered the specific chambers Ryan told me. It was like a luxury mansion, tall roof and large rooms, all decorated fancy. I walked around for a bit and after that bit of walking I ran into a small child. “Who are you?” He asked. “Oh, hello.” I say. “Didn’t expect to see you here little guy. What are you doing here?” “I live here. Father said some bad men grew me in a lab as a baby and he managed to save me before they took me somewhere away from the city. Sorry if that's random, I've just never met someone other than father before.” “I’m a friend of your fathers. And don’t worry, it wasn’t that random.” I shrug. “He told me I’m allowed in here and look around, maybe take things but I don’t think I’ll take anything.” I say honestly. “Son.” I turned around, seeing Ryan standing there. “...Would you kindly wait in your room while this man and I talk.” Rather than respond the child went straight to where his bedroom must have been. “I hate doing that…” “Nice kid.” I say with a little smile. “I suppose you saved him from bad things?” “Atlas, or Fountain as he was called before, took my and my wife's dna and made young Jack there. He was planning on using Jack as a last resort if I wasn't dead by the time Jack was of age. Little did Fountain know spies and DTL’s work well together. Once Jack was “born” I raised him here and destroyed the lab. He is genetically superior to humans. Flexible dna to contain adam and eve without prolonged consequences like the Little Sisters, can wield every produced Plasmid, and is a born professional with any form of combat…there is only one fault… Fountain embedded codes within the boy before birth. ‘Would you kindly’ commands him to do whatever is ordered, weather it is spoken or written. There are others but I am afraid only Fountain knows them.” “I suppose you might need help getting rid of those words...and I can probably beat out the words Atlas knows. I’d rather not see a poor child reduced to a mindless killing machine...that’s just terrible.” I sigh out. “Just please find a way to remove his programming and…raise him away from here…” “You do know that you can come with me and you can take care of your son on the world I live on right? I’m royalty and I can make sure you’re safe.” I say honestly. “And a sister of mine is roaming around saving all the Little Sisters so they can get cured. I’m pretty sure when I got here you just got yourself a ticket to having a happy life that isn’t filled with...bad things.” Ryan sighed. “No happy endings for me I am afraid…you see…Adam when held within a body unable to hold it properly mutates it…and with the lack of food here I have been modifying adam to act as food for Jack and myself. While Jack is fine… I…” Ryan pulled a sleeve back, showing his skin was turning black and looked rotted. “I’m running on pure willpower to not be just another splicer.” “Well..that’s not good.” I frown. “Even a world filled with magic and proper food couldn’t save you?” “No. Looked and researched. Only cure is a bullet. Kill Fountain, take Jack someplace safe and loving, a farm maybe, he always liked farms in the picture books.” “I think I know a farmer that wouldn’t mind taking care of him.” I say with a nod, summoning Sharpshooters. “I’d...recommend giving your son some last words...explain things to him...even if he cries…” Ryan nodded, walking over to Jack’s room while I headed for this Adam bank place. I swapped out my Sharpshooters and summoned Skysplitter, ready and willing to make Atlas feel pain. I checked my Assistant and saw where the Adam bank was and carefully moved my way towards it. I arrived at the locked glass doors, seeing a man in the distance messing with what looked like parts for a massive machine. I used Skysplitter to break the glass door down, startling the man as he turned to look at me. “Christ lad!” He yelled. “Knock knock.” I say. “Who are you?” I ask, putting Skysplitter on my shoulder and staring at the man screwing with the machine. “A-Atlas… Ryan sent you didn’t he?” “And so did a bunch of other people.” I state with a frown. “So congratulations, you're going to die asshole.” He chuckled. “I helped that son of a bitch build this city. It's potential is smothered by his ideals. This whole place is full of Bioweapons and technology that any sane person would gladly pay highest bid. This city was founded on progress, you think you can stop progress?!” “I can halt it by murdering you.” I say. “And besides, with you gone people will only see Rapture as a hell hole created by monsters, or have you completely forgotten the crazy and grotesque abominations roaming the halls of this place?” I ask, walking over to him. “So, start telling me about the kid you wanted to be nothing more than a mindless killing machine.” “...How do you…Ryan…how did he find out about Jack?” “None of your business.” I growl. Fountain huffed. “Imagine it, an army of loyal, born genetically enhanced warriors. Able to wipe a whole city with just one soldier. This is where Ryan and I agreed on in the beginning, no gods or kings, only man…even if the new race of man become something inhuman in appearance, evolution states that the victors are those with the better genes.” I walked over and I grabbed his arm and breaking it like a toothpick. “Okay, so do you want me to break your other arm or do you want me to just take the step towards me obliterating your head?” I ask. “I don’t have time for your mad scientist bullshit here. Tell me what other ‘code words’ you had in Jack. He spits in my eyes, then his other arm became covered in ice and the second he opened it I was frozen solid. He broke free of my grip at that point and ran over to a tube that had a long needle on the end of it. Once he jabbed it into his arm a red liquid flowed into his body. His arm healed and his size increased to about three times of what he was. “Evolution can not be stopped, natural or artificial.” He said, moving fast and side swiping me across the room which broke me out of the glass. I got up and brushed off the glass. I looked Atlas dead in the eyes. “My turn.” I say, a massive aura surrounding me before I vanished and rammed Skysplitter into his stomach, the very drugged up man feeling like he just got hit by a freight train even with his ‘evolved form’ as was sent flying across the room. “Evolution can never be stopped, that’s true...but how does Evolution stand up to Nothing?” I ask, an unconscious action causing my left hand to glow grey. His reply was his whole body turning on fire as he tackled me, it burned like hell fire every second he had hold of me. He rammed me into the wall, which was all glass as a crack formed in it. I rammed my left hand into his stomach, not really knowing what to do but for some reason, completely unknown to me, his fire started to die down. I was confused by it but couldn’t care less as I forced him off of me and summoning Graceful Dahlia and slashing one of his legs, the blood being swiftly drained into the scythe. I spun around and swiftly struck his other leg before leaping back and summoning Frozen Pride and getting into a strong defensive stance. “Come on, is that all you got?” I ask, seeing that even though he was still bigger and drugged up he seemed quite a bit weaker now. “You… are worse than he warned…” Fountain grunted. “Who warned you about me?” I ask, having a bad feeling about this. “Didn’t say, just some man in a blank face mask said a wolf man in white robes might show up...“ ”Two things...one how did that asshole know I was coming here? And two can that bastard leave me alone for a while? Jesus christ.” I think to myself bitterly. “Well alright then. Now, I think my scythe is willing to cut your head off.” I growl. “He gave me something… something incase you did show up.” He ripped the metal floor up, and pulled out…a black heart with wires and some other things attached to it. “If I can’t win this city, than no one will.” He flipped a switch on it, and the timer on it started counting down from five minutes. “Oh for the love of christ!” I shout. “How do I disarm the bomb asshole!?” I bark, starting to move towards the guy. “Try and die.” Fountain said, pulling out a shotgun from under the floor as well and pulling the trigger on his head, his skull exploding into hundreds of shards. “For all that is fucking holy...Trinity!” I call out, hoping she’ll appear and help. “Sup!” She said, appearing behind me again. “Took a while but all the Little sisters are safe and cured, sent them to your place, also that lady and Jenny are at your place too.” “I need help with both getting Jack to my place and the fact that there’s a Heartless bomb ticking down…” I say, pointing to the ticking bomb. “Seriously, how the fuck does that work?” “You’d be surprised.” She said, looking at the bomb. “Yeah…shit. You go get that kid I’ll…kinda just throw this into a black hole.” She said, picking up the bomb and vanishing. “Fuck…” I sigh out, rushing off and disbanding my weapons to find Ryan and Jack. “Hopefully the two of them are alright after...that.” I groan, hating this situation more and more. ”I hope Jenny is getting better…” I think to myself, my fatherly instincts kicking in for some reason about my daughter’s safety, even if she’s just mentally frazzled. After a few moments of running I finally made it back to Ryan and Jack’s place and opened the door with my key card. “Ryan? Jack?” “Here.” Ryan said, walking up to me holding a sleeping Jack. “Here.” He said, handing the boy over to me, he started to stir a bit. I held the child in my arms gently and carefully. “You told him what’s gonna happen?” I ask Ryan. “I am now…son.” He said, the boy sleepily looking at his father. Ryan had tears in his eyes. “W...Would you kindly forget…everything about Rapture and me.” At that said, the boy slumped back into unconsciousness. “Dude…” I mutter, looking at the poor guy. “That’s…” “It’s best he remembers nothing of me or this place I built. Speaking of, the Little sisters?” “All back on my world.” I say with a nod. “But...would Jack get Star Seeker? Technically Jack is your son…” I say, knowing how Jack was ‘made’ but still thinking about that. Ryan summoned Star Seeker, placing it in Jack’s hand as it disbanded. “It’s his now. Come with me real quick.” I followed Ryan into a rather empty room, only holding a single computer and keycard reader. “This computer only uses Genetic keys from me. It’s my eyes and ears on what goes on in the city.” “Nice.” I nod. “So...why did you bring me here?” I ask curiously. “My Keycard please?” He asked, holding out his hand as I gave him back his Keycard. He swiped it in the computer and pressed a few buttons and the whole room turned red as an alarm went off. “The reactors are built into a large underwater volcanic system. Once they blow it will shake the ground enough to send the city sinking into the dark abyss next to us. Anything left will be too broken to work and any splicers left alive will drown or starve in a short time.” “Atlas was an asshole and thought ‘oh hey let’s sell all the horrors down here for money’.” I growl. “He tried fighting me, which I got the upper hand...then he decided to activate a bomb that I had someone swiftly take care of...but after the bomb was activated the fucker blew his own head off.” I explain, summoning Reunion and opening a DTL. “Well...it was nice meeting you Ryan. Hopefully you find your utopia in the afterlife…” I chuckle a little, knowing full well that I couldn’t save him. “There are no gods or kings my lad, only man.” Ryan chuckled. “If there is a god… then I have some major sins to atone. Goodluck lad, and make sure Jack is raised as a child, not a weapon.” “I once thought there weren’t any gods...then I got a dad that basically is a god.” I chuckle. “But don’t worry, I’ll raise Jack right. He’s still young and I’ll make sure his ‘code words’ are gone.” I say starting to walk towards the DTL. “But...I’m sorry I couldn’t help out sooner Ryan.” I sigh out. “As long as Jack is safe, I can die in peace.” Ryan said. I walked into the DTL, right as I got out on the other side and it was closing I saw something fly out of it. I picked it up. It was an old photograph of Ryan, holding what I’m guessing is Jack as a baby. In the background his signature saying painted on the wall, but there was something added to it on the bottom part of the picture. “When men become gods may we finally achieve our Rapture.” I looked at the words and sighed out, putting the picture in my pocket. “God damn it…” I mutter, walking towards my home. After several minutes of walking I finally got to the front door and opened it, hoping to see someone after what just happened. “I’m home!” I call out, not really caring that Jack is still unconscious and would possibly wake up. “Over here!” Pinkie called from the dining room. When I entered…there were a LOT of little girls in here. “So… did you adopt them all?” Pinkie asked. “I know I adopted at least one girl and this little guy.” I say honestly. “I...don’t know about the rest of them...but how’s Jenny doing?” I ask worriedly. “Did she...look upset or anything?” “She went straight to her room followed by one of these little girls the whole way. Last I checked they’re still there. Jenny is showing her Youtube and other stuff.” “Alright…” I nod, handing Jack to Pinkie. “Figure out this little guys mother, cause I’m adopting him...I’ll go check on Jenny.” I say, turning and heading off to find Jenny. ”I know a crap ton of little girls are here and they want to know something but...Jenny needs my help more than me suddenly adopting a ton of little girls.” I think to myself, swiftly making my way to Jenny’s room and knocking on the door. “Hello?” “Come in.” Jenny’s voice called out. I entered and saw Jenny at her computer, the little sister I first met looking at the computer screen with great interest. “Well...Pinkie wasn’t wrong.” I chuckle a little. “But...are you doing alright?” I ask nervously. “I still need to process exactly how things are now. I’m feeling a bit better but I still just need to sort stuff out upstairs, ya know?” “I understand…” I nod, before raising an eyebrow. “Are those...wings?” I ask, pointing out the new wings Jenny somehow had. “I don’t remember you having wings…” “Say what?” Jenny asked as she looked behind her, eyes widening upon seeing the wings. “What the-” She freaked, swear interrupted by falling off her computer chair. “Ouch…” She groaned, standing back up. “Wait…something else feels off.” She said, lifting up her pants, her legs now more cat like. “The fuck?” “Wings...with cat like legs…” I frown. “Wait...you're genetically Gilda’s...but wait you became my daughter before Gilda was my wife…” “Yeah, but till now I didn’t exactly ‘accept’ you or them as family. Now that I have I guess… transaction complete?” “Makes sense.” I shrug. “Well...looks like you're going to have to get used to having wings and flying...also that’s probably confusing being part wolf, part human, part griffon now huh?” I say sheepishly, not expecting such a change to her legs. “As long as I don’t get wing boners like Derpy does when you’re mentioned I’m okay with it… seriously if she was a guy she’s be hard always. And yes that’s why her wings are always open when you see her.” “Honestly I don’t understand why she hasn’t learned to control that…” I sigh out, rubbing my temple bitterly. “Seriously, at least four of my wives are perverted to hell…” “Can you control your erections at will?” “Trying to learn that.” I shrug. “But oh well...but I think Joy will be happy to see you like this Jenny...and maybe a little miffed that he can’t grow wings even though he can fly without any weapons.” I roll my eyes, knowing full well that I have some form of gravity control even without having my weapons on me. Jenny’s eyes went wide. “Oh crap I left him with the CMC and with Scoot’s in charge to boot!” She said in a panic, running out the door and leaving a dust trail. ”Are you doing okay Joy?” I mentally ask him. ”Scoots is in charge my ass!” Joy responds with a laugh. ”I suppose you showed them that you're in charge?” I mentally chuckle. ”Nothing like showing them I’m better at puppy dog eyes, and I gave them all keyblades and started training them they realized I’m in charge...but how’s Jenny?” Joy mentally asks worriedly. ”Got things to figure out...but she’ll be near you soon enough. She freaked out about leaving you with the CMC and having Scoots in charge.” I mentally tell him. ”Oh that’s good...wait does she have wings!?!” Joy mentally asks me, flabbergasted at such a thing. ”Yep, finally excepted the whole family thing and she became Gilda’s daughter...I better tell the griffon.” I mentally chuckle, heading off back to the dining hall to get things sorted out. Once back in the dining hall the woman that the first little sister lead me to walked up to me. “We never exchanged names. I am Brigid Tenenbaum, and again, thank you for saving all the little ones.” “It’s no biggie. Just a hero being a hero after all.” I say with a smile. “Hey Gilda, Jenny’s your daughter now.” I say. “Cool.” The griffon replied simply. “But what is it you will be doing for them now?” Brigid asked. “Well there are two options...maybe three I don’t know.” I shrug. “The first one is seeing if you want to take care of all of them besides the one that’s grown attached to me and my daughter Jenny...or I can adopt all the Little Sisters.” I say. “Which one do you think is good?” “Raising all these little ones will be tricky, even with a house this big. The second option, but with a condition.” “Besides the obvious ‘treat them with love and care and don’t test on them like a fucking asshole’, what is it?” I ask. “They already see me as mother…considering my part in what happened to them… I need to be here so they can stay safe. Mentally they are still… in need of help. I wish to join this family also.” “Well...I’m gonna need to buy more wedding rings.” I chuckle. “But you sure? This family can be…really confusing and weird. In the more happy sense.” “It’s better than deadly and hazardous.” She replied. I nod. “Too true.” I say while bringing up my Assistant, and buying three more wedding rings, putting the two spares in my pocket and gently handing it to Brigid. “Wife number nine...welcome to the family Brigid, and all the little sisters.” I say with a warm smile, putting the ring on Brigid’s ring finger that fit perfectly cause magic. “Fancy. I look forward to the courting.” She said with a sly smile as she went over to a group of the Little sisters…daughters now. “Hey Ben!” Trinitiy’s voice rang out from behind me… AGAIN! “Can you stop appearing behind me!?” I shout, turning around to see her. “No, it’s fun, and besides, I counted every one of these little sisters I found. Guess how many.” “Please, tell me how many new daughters I just gained.” I ask. “Including your one new son Jack…” She looked at her Assistant. “Two hundred and sixty nine… and in the place where they made them records said over a thousand were around before… well, all that shit happened so… a lot died before we got there.” “At least you helped save a lot of them.” I chuckle. “But sheesh, two hundred and sixty nine extra kids?” “Yup, also, when mama Den comes by again, she is gonna freak so much. You fell into dad’s shoes better than I thought.” She said, elbowing me before vanishing. I rubbed my temples and groaned. “Christ…” I mumble. “Brigid, what would happen if I were to say my mother happened to be a twelve foot tall female dire wolf with six breasts about the size of your body?” I ask curiously. “I’d say you must have been the runt of the litter.” She replied jokingly. “Well...my original parents are kind of...dead.” I say nervously. “Dad adopted me and mom was happy enough to be there for me...and that’s kind of why me and Jenny are like what we are...as well as fellow children...by the by did someone figure out who Jack's mother is?” I ask, normally knowing that all our kids would change depending on their mother. “I am his mother, and he’s quite the hugger.” Zecora said, Jack now looked like a roughed up version of Joy with black and white striped hair in a mohawk. He was awake now and clinging to Zecora like his life depended on it. “Luna...do you know how to get rid of ‘code words’ from someone’s head?” I ask. “You mean mental programing?” She asked. “Sadly yes.” I nod. “A guy on the world me and Jenny went to decided ‘this is a great idea, let’s make genetically enhanced killing machines for funzies’.” I frown. “The guy’s dead thankfully but...I just hope Jack can be more ‘normal’ and happy...like right now.” “Well, it will take a while, especially if the codes alter the person completely. I will begin tonight and keep at it for as long as it takes.” “Is there anyway I can help?” I ask, hoping to help my son out in anyway. “I can handle it Ben, don’t worry. You just be the boy’s father.” “Well I’m gonna have to make sure I’m a good father to over 200 kids...it’s gonna be a pain but I think I can...maybe manage it without my back breaking.” I chuckle nervously. “Think of how your father must feel… how does he manage that anyway?” Twilight asked, pondering her own question. “He’s a god, with an infinite amount of wives and kids, he just has that many clones or something.” I shrug. “Seems simple enough to me...or he’s just really busy and everyone doesn’t bother him that much.” “A bit of both.” Dad’s voice spoke from behind me. “Can people stop appearing behind me for five seconds?” I grumble. “Or is that just a thing people like to do all the time?” “Kinda.” Dad said, patting my shoulder. “So you’re following my example in terms of family… you best learn how to make omnipresent copies of yourself. If you do go that far.” “Christ.” I grumble. “But apparently I am following your example...on accident kinda.” I say sheepishly. “It’s okay, same was with me. You think I started off adopting and marrying every woman in sight? The adopting I’m okay with, the wives… yeah that’s my first wife’s doing…you think Luna and Pinkie are horny? Ha, they got nothing on her.” “All my wives are horny...why I don’t know.” I sigh out. “But I’d rather not know that. But now I have a crap ton of children to take care of, figure out what next to do in life, figure out how to make clones, and also figure out if I’m going to marry two more women because reasons.” I say, remembering how I just grabbed three more wives when I originally thought I would have had five. “I can help with the clones, but that will be for next chapter, for now let’s fix up your house to… better hold all these kids, alright?” “This castle is already huge...what are you going to cast a spell to make this place a ‘House of Holding’?” I joke, remembering the ‘bag of holding’ in Dungeons and Dragons. “Not exactly.” Dad said as he walked over to a wall near the dining room door. “Here’s good enough.” He pulled a small black tile out of his pocket and placed it on the wall. In a second the castle shook and the small tile became a massive screen displaying the whole castle layout. “Let’s see here…” Dad mumbled, looking through the various rooms. “Here is alright.” He pressed on the floorplan for a room not far from here. A bunch of things popped up on screen and he pushed one of them all the way up and did several other things. “That should do it.” “Should I even ask what your doing?” I ask worriedly. “Follow me.” I followed dad to the room from the floor plan. “This was a regular sized bedroom for one right?” Dad asked. “Yep.” I nod. “Not anymore.” Dad opened the door… and it was like stepping into another world. The room was now easily four times the size of the actual castle, decorated as a little girl's dream land… puppies, cats, swimming pools, fucking candy trees! Even… almost ironically, ponies too. “Overkill or what?” “I think my little daughters deserve it after being brought here from...Rapture.” I sigh out. “Ryan wasn’t a bad guy...he just didn’t get the last number right…” I say bitterly. “Not everyone can win, but humanity be damned if we don’t try. By tomorrow all these girls should have mothers so I’ll send you a list so you can, well, keep track of who’s who’s daughter, mother, whatever.” “That’s gonna be a good idea. Pinkie, Rarity, Zecora and Gilda already have kids...but suddenly an extra two hundred and whatever amount of little girls...it’s gonna be a nightmare to keep track...oh god, do I just have all their birthdays in one week like you or what?” I ask worriedly, now thinking about how to be a good father to so many kids and just getting worried I’ll not be good enough. “Saves sanity and memory.” Dad replied. “Yeah…” I nod. “I just hope I’ll be a good father...I just helped Jenny see me as a father...even if she’s still thinking about it all…” “These things take time, for both parties involved. Just be glad you have me for advice.” “Oh yeah…” I sigh out. “Thanks Dad...don’t know what I would do if you weren’t here.” I chuckle. “That’s what parent’s are for. See ya next chapt- Tomorrow.” With that, dad vanished. “Fourth wall breaker.” I laugh, walking out and closing the door behind me. To be continued... Nobody's slow dayAfter two solid hours of named two hundred and sixty eight I sat down at the dining table and started eating a bowl of popcorn cause fuck it. “Christ…” I grumble as I much on popcorn finally. “Naming is hard…” “Greetings sir.” Edward said, placing a plate with an inch thick cooked steak, large scoop of mashed potatoes and gravy and a equally large pile of corn and peas mixed in front of me. He also placed a glass of what I think is wine and next to the plate and a small bowl of vanilla ice cream behind my plate. “Your personal family doctor will be arriving from the family home world soon and your father will arrive around seven or eight in the afternoon.” “Thank you Edward.” I nod before putting my finished bowl of popcorn to the side as I started eating my next amount of food. “Is Joy doing well with his work?” I ask curiously, hoping the little guy is doing good. “Or has he even started?” “He is managing though it seems the subject is difficult for him to a degree. Miss Jenny does well enough.” “That’s good.” I nod. “Um...is there a family therapist? I...have a feeling Jenny’s going to need someone to talk to that isn’t me, even if she needs to think things through.” “I will inform the new doctor when she arrives. Would you care to view her profile?” “Sure.” I nod. “Might as well know the new doctor before she arrives.” Edward handed me the file and I opened it and looked it over. Dr. Navare Age: 47 Gender: F Race: Human Doctorates: Masters Anatomy Masters Biology Masters Bioengineering Masters Advanced Magics Masters Advanced Alchemy Masters Advanced Bio-Reconfiguring Summary: Well read and educated, is rather strict with patients, does well with children, Makes all prescribed medicines both magic and science based herself. Takes no chances. “Quite a doctor.” I say with a nod. “I’m sure she’ll like it here...maybe.” I shrug, continuing to eat my food. “She is ranked 387 in the families best performing doctors. It's a thousand numbered list.” “Jeez.” I frown. “Well...a doctor is always needed, no matter what their number is. As long as they can back up their words and master degrees then I’m fine.” Edward nodded. He left to do something and then Joy came up to the table, Edward reappeared and gave him the same as what I was eating, only the wine was replaced with a…Pepsi. “Thank you.” Joy smiles, taking a sip of his pepsi and digging in. “Hey Joy.” I say to him, the pup nodding. “Surprised to see Jenny have wings?” “Yeah, she told me she was Gilda’s daughter.” Joy says. “But...I could tell she’s been thinking a lot. What did you do?” “Just a father daughter talk.” I say honestly. “Jenny just needs some time to think...and the both of us will be there, me as her father, and you as her boyfriend.” I chuckle. “Jenny was a tad surprised about me being in charge of the CMC, but honestly those three are just silly marshmallows trying to be ‘tough’.” Joy chuckles happily. “But I was told you adopted 269 kids...why?” “I also got an extra wife.” I say with a shrug. “But hey, they were all stuck in a hell hole and I didn’t want them to be there anymore...so there all my kids now.” “I expected you to have a ton of kids from all your fiance's.” Joy chuckles. “God only knows if I can walk after making sure about that.” I sigh out. “Wonder if any of them will be here to eat...or Jenny appear to talk more…” Joy and I ate for a while before someone else appeared. It was Jack. He took a seat at the table and looked around, rather confused. “Hello.” I say to the little boy. “How are you doing?” He looked over at me. “Better I guess...how did...I get like this?” He asked, pointing at his new body. “I…I don't remember much…but I know I didn't look like this.” “It’s alright.” I say. “But you are now my son, and because of some magical mumbo jumbo, you became part Zebra, because your mother is my fiance Zecora.” I explain. “Remember the woman you hugged a lot?” “Yeah...she just felt... safe when I woke up. How come I can't remember anything before waking up?” “That’s...rather complicated.” I sigh out. “Hello. My names Joy.” Joy says to the child with a smile. “Are you… my brother? Mom said I got a LOT of sisters and one baby brother…” “You have a baby brother, a brother that is about your age, and a lot of sisters.” I explain. “But Joy is your Uncle. He’s my little brother.” I say while patting Joy’s head. “Oh…so who's the brother my age?” “Sadly that brother hasn’t woken up yet. He...went through a lot.” I say nervously. “But he is your mama Rarity’s son. But how are you feeling about everything right now? Besides feeling like something's amiss?” “Just confused. I can't remember anything from before waking up here, so I can't tell what's odd and what's normal. The few things that are coming to mind are picture books of farms and such.” “I do have a friend that works at a farm. If you want I can take you there.” I say honestly, finishing my food and starting to eat my ice cream. “Alright. What kind of farm is it?” “Apple farm.” I tell the child. “Just apples?” “Not sure if it’s a hundred percent apples, but there are many species of apples, and one kind of magic apple that only happens a few days of the year.” I explain. “Huh. Alright. So…what is this place? I can tell it's a castle but…the location just feels so…unfamiliar.” “Well this is your new home.” I say honestly. “But...it’s a long and slightly complicated story.” I sigh out. “I’m sorry I don’t know how to explain it without sounding silly...but have you ever thought about if other worlds had life?” “I think…I remember reading it was a possibility. Not sure where.” “Well you're on a different world called Equestria.” I say honestly. “A land filled with sunshine, rainbows, and all sorts of magical things.” “So… a relatively peaceful world?” “Yep.” I nod. “But crazy things tend to happen on a weekly basis so...there’s always a time when things in happy land aren’t always so happy.” I chuckle. “Is…there a government or is it all one for oneself?” “Oh god no.” I say honestly. “The many countries of this world has either a monarchy, a diarchy, or a kind of ‘rite’ system to be in charge.” I explain. “For instance, the rulers of Equestria are Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, even though I’m going to marry Princess Luna and have the title of ‘prince’, even have a fancy crown for it,” I explain while pointing to my silver crown. “I most likely don’t have a major say in the politics...nor do I want to get involved with that complicated crap. While in the Dragon Lands, yes there are dragons, they have a ritual called the ‘Gauntlet of Fire’, where all dragons, whether male or female, can attempt to try and get a staff that shows you are the Dragonlord.” I explain, mentally thanking Honora for explaining that all to me. “Does that make sense?” “As much as suddenly being part wolf and Zebra with no memories. So…this land is Equestria…is the…Princesses just leaders or…?” “The princesses don’t just sit around doing jack nothing acting all ‘I’m the best thing in the world’, they help their subjects the best they can, willing to fight for the innocent as hard as they can...also Celestia and Luna control the sun and moon respectively.” I explain. “Huh…odd evolution.” “Magic is weird.” I shrug. “Well that aside I guess I’ll explore this castle for a bit.” With that hallway got up and walked into the hallway. “Okay.” I nod, finishing up my ice cream and sighing out. “That was good.” I smile, tapping my stomach and glad to have eaten. “You the head of the house?” I turned around, seeing a woman in a lab coat, red hair and was carrying only a white box with a red cross on it. “Yes I am.” I nod. “And you must be Dr. Navare?” “Yes.” She placed the small box on the table and opened it, pulling out a metal syringe with a glowing yellow liquid. Me and Joy both take a deep breath...before leaping away and me summoning Vexen’s shield and Joy somehow summoning Lindwyrm. “Nope!” The both of us say at the same time. “No needles!” We both say in fear, not liking this at all as we tried using our summoned weapons as shields. “Ugh…babies.” She snapped her fingers and…our weapons disbanded and we were walking towards her, unable to control our bodies. “You demi gods all think you're invincible. Psst. If that were true I’d be out of a job.” She made us both hold out an arm and injected us both with the yellow liquid. “Ow!” Me and Joy both yelp. “Demigods can still have crippling fears of Needles…” I frown. “Best way to inject high grade anti toxins. There are poisons that can kill you in ways of slowly to Slowly and PAINFULLY. This medical cocktail will neutralize any and all poisons that can affect you two…and now I got to do the rest of the house.” “Still hate needles…” Joy mumbles, the both of us rubbing our arms. “Well...thank you Dr. Nevare.” I say to the lady. “Just...wish you could have told us that before...but our reactions would have probably still been the same…” I say sheepishly. “I figured. I’ll set up shop in one of the rooms. Oh, and Ben, your father is going to arrive soon so he told me to tell you to wait outside the castle.” Nevera said as she closed her box and began a search for her new office. “Alright.” I nod, walking back to the table and getting all my plates and washing them real quick, putting the dishes down to dry and chugging my wine. “Off I go.” “Tell dad I said hi.” Joy says while going back to eating his food. “I will.” I say while heading outside to see Dad. After a little walk I opened the front doors and stepped out on the dirt road, taking a deep breath of fresh air. After a few minutes a portal opened up and dad walked out of it. “Hey son.” He said, stretching, making audible pops from his joints. “Hey dad.” I nod. “So, what’s on today’s docket?” I ask, stretching out as well and audible pops resounding from my joints as well. “Ah~, that’s nice.” I sigh out, feeling at least some stress leave my body. “Today I guess I can teach you two things. First as my own personal keyblade technique, and none of the other kids know it so consider yourself lucky, and how to make omnipresent clones of yourself.” I summon Reunion and spin it a little bit. “Thanks dad. So, I suppose there’s steps to learning this stuff or do I just have to learn these abilities all in one go?” “It's a move I learned from having a Psychopath bound to my soul for…my whole life up till… two years ago? Yeah two years I think.” “Crap.” I say, my eyes widening at hearing that. “Oh uh...did you hear how me and my Cherubim mother beat a Psychopath?” I ask curiously. “Yes, and that's part of the reason I’m showing you this. What's the best way to kill a monster?” “I can name at least three...but I doubt those mean anything to specific monsters.” I say with a frown. “But what is the best way to kill a monster?” “With its own teeth.” Dad said, summoning a Keyblade that looked a LOT like the Void Keyblade and sliced his wrist with it, the blood flowing out of him and coating the blood, fixing the blade a dark red aura. “Sins Passed. Fueled by the users regrets. Mine is…I have my share.” “I...have several…” I mutter bitterly. “But is that it?” I ask. “Use your past sins to help murder your opponents?” “No better weapon than murder. That's what a Psychopath is after all, Murder given a body.” “Sounds about right.” I nod. “I was about to say ‘destroy the heart or brain’...but I suppose just straight up murder seems like a better option...even though both of those choice count…” I say with a small frown. “So...is this a ‘last resort’ kind of thing?” “The Psychopath you and Zechariah fought was dormant for a long time, so it was rusty. When you run into a more… active… one, use this move, breaks through their basic defenses and deals damage that would, to a planet, be a one hit genocide. To them, it's a forty percent hp drop per hit. Against those fuckers, that's a big number.” “Christ.” My eyes widen at hearing that. “Well...that’s something.” I say with a little nod. “Well...that’ll help in several ways...I mean, in case I can’t save them or anything.” “That's what the Humanity Blade is for, the True Psychopath acts, well, like a parasite that forms within the body. It's a Fact. Something that can't be Proven wrong. It's complicated but basically so long as there is murder and bloodshed there will be Psychopaths. But anyway, the humanity blade reaches to whatever is left of the original person, host, whatever you want to call them, and once it grasps them, purges the Psychopath out of the body while also giving the person a major dose of…guilt. The realization of what they did as a Psychopath hitting them all at once. Lot of therapy, lot of tears.” “Yeah...I’m gonna have to help the former psychopath boy I adopted...he still has yet to wake up…” I say worriedly, hoping to help the poor kid before something bad happens to him. “Yeah. Now, try to activate Sins Passed.” “Okay…” I nod, before bringing my Keyblade up and cutting my arm, blood dripping down onto the blade. Reunion started to glow a dark red. “Good. Now attack me with it.” I nodded, getting into a sturdy stance before dashing towards Cript, swinging my Keyblade at him. The attack hit, dad just stood there as my Keyblade sliced him in half. Before I could freak out over slicing my father in half his top half grew new legs…and clothes somehow…and his lower half grew a new upper body, also fully clothed. “Good, now for clones.” They both said nonchalantly. “You almost gave me a heart attack…” I say worriedly. “I didn’t think I could cut you in half…” “You can't. I dropped my defense low enough so you could hurt me. Not that it did too much. Took out about… two percent hp. Also fixed that crick in my back.” The one on the left said. “So guess what type of clone ability this is?” The one on the right asked. “Starfish logic?” I ask curiously. “Also...how did you get clothes so suddenly?” “Yes actually. It's called the Starfish Cloning Ability. As for the clothes that is a trick involving a lot of time using this ability. Sadly, you don't have this ability. But, I can give it to you using the Copycat ability.” “That would be nice...but that sounds really painful though…” I say nervously. “Meh, you get used to it. A simpler way is with hair or blood. Anything containing your pure DNA can grow into a clone. Saved my ass once that feature.” “Sounds nifty.” I nod. “But...they're all ‘me’ right? I won’t have to fear my kids being pissed about me not being there for some weird reason?” “Do you know what Omnipresent means?” “Yes I do.” I nod. “Sorry...I think while browsing on my Assistant I saw something called ‘Boruto’...looked like an terrible sequel to Naruto…” I frown. “Ehg. Anyway, you'll be able to control the clones, or control one and be able to switch between clones, gaining the memories that clone did while on “autopilot”. When you aren't controlling the clone there isn't much difference personality wise, and the clone identifies itself as both you and a copy. This is because once you make this clone, or clones like me, there is no longer just one you, there are many now. The only way to truly tell the one under the ‘you’ control from an autopilot is combat. The true you will always make the body you are controlling, well, as strong as you. Others in autopilot will be twenty five percent weaker.” “Damn…” I state. “And here I thought you were going to teach me shadow clones or something but this...is quite a lot.” “Shadow clones can't have sex and give you the memories.” Dad said, raising an eyebrow with a sly smile. “Wait...I completely forgot about Aqua, Terra and Ventus…” I frown. “Oh well...but yeah all my girls, and my newest wife, are going to enjoy me having clones…” I chuckle. “Yeah. And here is a work out you can enjoy. You can have one with each, and a spare to train and master your weapons. Also you die in a clone body you reappear in control of a random other one. Something like immorality but used for more family and recreational use.” I think about it but feel slightly...off about it. “All of my clones are me...yet...for some odd reason it doesn’t feel right…” I say, not entirely sure why that is. “Maybe it’s the whole ‘are clones just as real as the real you?’ kind of question...I know my wives won’t mind in anyway shape or form...but still.” “Depends on your mind in that one. An unstable mind controlling multiple bodies can make the clone start to identify as someone other than you. Happened to me a few times. But what keeps them you and you you is that they all share your soul.” “Alright then…” I nod nervously. “But...as you can obviously tell I am not of sound mind to be perfectly honest...I doubt that’ll be the only mental breakdown I have…” “Alright then.” Dad grabbed my hand and pressed his thumb into it. “Hold still.” I felt a sharp prick, like getting stabbed with scissors before he let go. “And ability is imprinted.” “Ow…” I grumble. “Thanks dad...I don’t think I’ll be using it right now though...I’m still having a bad week…” “Ah. Alright then. So what are you gonna do next?” “Worry…” I say sheepishly. “Worry about Jenny, worry about the son that has yet to wake up because of his Psychopath part...worry about all my new kids...and worry if me buying two extra wedding rings equals me suddenly marrying two extra women…” “In my family…most likely. But let's focus on the kids for now. Let's start with your son you saved from the Psychopath. Lead the way.” Dad said. I nod. “Well Rarity would most likely know.” I say. “It’s her son after all.” I say while heading inside my castle. After a while of walking and some directions from Rarity I lead dad up to my unnamed sons room and opened the door, seeing the standard looking room with the child in the bed, under the blankets and somehow holding a stuffed bear. “There he is.” “Ah.” Dad said, walking over to the child. “ Yeah…about what I expected when. Psychopath host is a child.” “The Psychopath explained that the people on the child’s world wanted to make a monster to kill a great hero...well they succeeded and then frantically made a cage for him…” I explain. “Been like that until some jack asses decided to set it free on accident.” “The death of a whole realm or of a grand hero? Psychopaths get their power from lost potential. The lives taken before their time leave a…mark on existence. The bigger the mark the more the power. The biggest marks are what draw the Psychopath to the host, all that lost potential is forever bound to them, but there is still one last requirement.” “Well when I got there the Psychopath happened to murder the entirety of a planet besides an old man that’s living in a cave near my house...and was stuck in a demon tree…” I explain. “That wouldn't have been enough…so a specific person's death is what brought the Psychopath to this kid. Someone who would have been a hero unmatched.” “Yeah...I also have a feeling that the kid who became a monster also went on a rampage until they sealed it away…” “That's what happens when they take over…it's a process they force you to watch, controlling your body while all you can do is beg for mercy inside. You feel the blood on your hands drip and splash... “ “That’s...not good.” I mutter. “But...can you help wake him up?” “Yeah… but here I give you a choice. Do you want him to remember all he did, or have him remember something...false.” I looked down bitterly. “I don’t want the child to suffer...he’s only twelve or something…” I say. Dad waved a hand over the kid. “Ten. So you choose to let him forget? And remember a lie?” “I know it sounds terrible to make him remember a lie...but if it means he’ll wake up without the guilt of killing an entire planet then...I suppose that’s my decision…” I explain, feeling bad about it but not wanting the child to only feel like he’s a demon. Dad nodded, placing his hand on the kids head and blue electricity sparked. After a bit a ball of light with flashing images and screams was pulled out. Dad held it in his palm, and crushed it, the orb becoming dust. He then sent a single blue jolt of electricity at the kid's head and sighed. “A very war focused race back then. Manages to forge a memory of him living in a…peaceful area of the world at the time. Then he gets adopted by a wolf man and a white pony lady, then the rest you can guess. In his mind, this will be his first day in a new home once he wakes up.” “Alright.” I nod. “Thanks dad...it means a lot.” I say, feeling slightly upset I couldn’t help my new son. “It's not the first time I have done this. And it's never easy. His name is Yer from what I saw in his memories. He’ll wake up soon. Best tell your kids and wives ahead of time.” “Alright.” I nod. “But now I need to figure out what weapon I need to master next…” I mutter with some thought. “Oh wait, I need to check on Jenny. I hope she’s gotten better…” I say worriedly, heading off to tell everyone about Yer waking up and to find Jenny. After a few moments of telling everyone I could I searched for Jenny, immediately thinking she’s in her room and knocking on her door. “Hello?” “Enter.” Her voice replied from inside. I gently opened the door and walked in. “Hello.” I say while closing the door behind me. “So your new brother is finally going to wake up soon.” “Okay.” She said, doing something on the computer. “How are you doing?” I ask. “Are you doing better?” “I guess. You need anything?” “I wanted to tell you about your brother and to make sure you were feeling better.” I say. “I’m...sorry if I made you so upset…” I mutter, rubbing my arm worriedly. “Not upset per say, more…like you made me realize something.” “Realize what?” I ask. ”Please don’t say ‘you're an idiot’...” I think to myself worriedly. “My family is stupid.” “Uh...which family?” I ask curiously. “The Ventral family or...my family?” “The one I was born into. We accepted Core’s offer thinking anywhere we go we’ll be hunted down…yet now that he's trying to replace us we realized there's a lot of places we could life without fear…but out of habit we burned a lot of chances so far.” “I kind of thought that…” I nod. “But hey, I’m here to help all the Ventrals if able...just to repent for the one Ventral I killed…” I sigh out. “But hey, if what Kevin said is true then I have three people to murder, his brother, his grandfather, and the obvious one being Core.” I explain. “Everyone deserves a second chance...even those that fear being given that chance.” “Yeah. But that's the problem. They're paranoid. They won't feel safe around people, cities, and especially law enforcement. If my family is to gain a second chance they need to be put in a place as dangerous as they have lived.” “Have you been hugged by Den?” I joke. “I’m pretty sure her hugs alone are dangerous.” I laugh. “Jokes about grandma aside, what would be the “safe” place for them? A world filled with danger that the current Ventrals can thrive in and the next generation can choose to leave without the past gens fears.” “That’s true...but there’s still so much to think about and so little time.” I shrug. “But frankly...I just want them all to know that they have people on the outside that are willing to help them out and give them a new life that doesn’t involve murdering everyone that looks at you funny.” “Well I do have a few ideas. If every fictional thing we knew on earth exists as an actual world then I already have a few ideas.” “Really?” I ask. “Also, what card games do you like to play?” I add, wanting to know that little bit, whether she liked to play Yugioh or Magic the Gathering. “I don't play card games per say, I just like to make up rules for a game with normal card decks. I do collect cards though. Any kind of card. Dad stole a Babe Ruth card, autographed by the whole team for me on my seventh birthday and I don't even watch baseball. I just like cards.” “Okay then.” I nod. “Kind of thought you’d like to play a card game like Magic the Gathering or something.” I shrug, remembering how much I liked playing that. “What's that?” “Okay so, Magic the Gathering was a pretty popular card game back home.” I start. “Hundreds of thousands of people played it…” I continue before buying two starter decks from my Assistant. “Here, why don’t we play a game?” I ask. “The rules are in the boxes and everything, and I’ll explain to you some of the lore and story behind it. Sound good?” I ask curiously. “Is it a card version of world of warcraft?” “Actually no, Blizzard actually made a World of Warcraft trading card game. But Magic the gathering is something completely different.” I say, putting one of the starter decks on Jenny’s bed. “Oh. I played a lot of Warcraft back on earth when me and the computer could stay in a place with internet for a week at least. Was trying to log back into my account.” “As in the RTS Warcraft or the MMO Warcraft?” I ask curiously, starting to think about my old account back home. “I remember playing WoW a bit...wonder what patch it’s on considering we’re in ‘real life’.” I wonder. “Who knows but I think my account is deleted considering it's been ten or something years on earth last I heard. Damn and I was Level 59 too…” “I had a level 60 hunter...don’t remember what race though.” I say, not entirely remembering what my race was. “...Huh…wait…how would an MMO work in the real world?” “...” I thought for a moment. “I mean...it’s still a game technically…” I say before thinking a bit. “Imagine Kingdom Hearts as an MMO, but everyone’s almost always exclusively apart for reasons.” I shrug. “But what about the character you made? Would they exist in a reflection elsewhere of what?” “I...have no idea.” I say honestly. “Horde or Alliance?” I ask Jenny, wondering what side she was on in WoW. “But I’d have to ask dad about how that works…” “What's the difference?” “A few things…” I say with a shrug. “Oh well...but hey if you want I can get myself a laptop and we can both play WoW if you want. Get some father daughter bonding time over video games.” “Sounds like a plan. Bet I can get to level 10 faster than you.” She said, jumping on her pc and creating a new account. I quickly summoned a laptop and got WoW downloaded to it, before it said ‘Legion’. “Huh...Legion? Is that the newest expansion or something?” I ask curiously, seeing it update a bit. “Not sure, don't care.” Jenny said, starting to spawn in the world already. I quickly got the game up and running and saw Death Knight. “What race you picking?” I ask curiously, scrolling down to Troll Death Knight. “I typically go elf.” “Blood Elf or Night Elf?” I ask, hoping to pick soon and not have to deal with her trying to do PVP crap. “Blood.” She replies. “I like the way they look.” “Right then.” I nod, choosing a troll death knight and logging in, happening to start off at...level 55. “I win.” I say cheekily. “Wonder how fun this class will be.” I smile. “What did you name your character?” “Check again.” Jenny says, showing me her pc screen…Level 60. “Bought the deluxe pack.” I looked over and saw...get to level 100…”Okay that’s weird…” I frown, using the level 100 thing on my death knight. “Well...what’s your blood elves name again?” “Vikra.” Jenny said. “Wow this game changed a lot.” I spawned my Death Knight in and saw I was on a ship. “The hell?” I mutter, going through a sudden tutorial on how to play a Death Knight. “Mine’s Xin just so’s you know.” I say while going to the map and then going all the way out. “The fuck’s a ‘Draenor’?” I frown. “No idea. Damn they changed the setup… crap I think I entered a dungeon and- Holy shit!” Yelled Jenny. When I looked at her screen her character was dead. “A troll one shot me!” “What level was the fucker?” I ask worriedly, going through the tutorial and flying off to find Jenny’s character. “400, this fucker has either great skill or no life. Or it’s a shared account.” “How in the bloody hell is there a level 400 character there?” I ask with a frown. “Glitches, new updates, an admin, a hacker. You name it.” “Blood Elves are on the horde side...and so are Trolls...was it a player character or a random enemy?” I ask, finding this rather concerning for a first time back. “Player.” Jenny and I spent a good three hours playing WoW. We found that creep that one shot her and turns out it was a hacker and with one swift message he was promptly banned. We spent the rest of the time doing missions and exploring the new areas the new updates added. “Panda’s, lich king's, primordial dragons...jesus christ we sure missed a fuck ton.” I say, not believing Blizzard had all this time to update their game. “This is fun.” “Yeah. Got plenty of space on this pc too so I am buying all the good games. This one called Overwatch looks like a better graphics copy of TF2…still looks neat though.” “And considering we basically have infinite money…” I start. “We’re going to be even heavier gamers then Luna I just know it.” I laugh. “Wanna bet?” Luna’s voice called from the doorway. “Glad to see you two getting along.” “If there’s anything me and Jenny hate more is a hacker trying to fuck with us.” I frown. “But yeah, I’m really happy we’re getting along...but seriously we missed a shit ton of things in the game we’re playing...and there’s still an asinine amount of games we’re still figuring finding all over the internet, glad I got a PS4.” “Speaking of your father has been redecorating the castle and defying the laws of space time all over the place.” “Well...how so?” I ask curiously. “Adding rooms mostly. Making the inside of the castle bigger than the whole of Canterlot, somehow, added a nice garden, and…well…not sure how to put what he did to Ponyville.” “What did he do…?” I ask, wondering what in the nine hells he did to Ponyville. “How did he say it…we are still on Equestria, Ponyville is just surrounded by a new world? He put up large poles then when they turned on save for some massive gates the whole of Equestria seemed to vanish but outside the gate Ponyville is still on Equestria but inside it's not? It's…confusing.” “Christ…” I grumble. “I mean...I heard that the place where we all have our wedding will need to be...the size of an entire universe.” I say sheepishly. “Wait...I forgot something…” I frown. ”How in the fuck could I forget my bachelor party?” “Well he’s eating a pumpkin Pie in the dining room right now so go talk with him.” “Yeah.” I nod. “Sorry Jenny, I have stuff to do. I promise to have more game time with you when I’m not trying to figure out what new crazy crap is happening.” I sigh out, closing out of the game and turning off my laptop, putting it on her bed and getting up. “But yay, I’m getting back into video games, and I have a wonderful family to play with.” I smile, patting Jenny’s head and hugging Luna before heading off to find Dad and figure out what he did to Ponyville. I quickly made my way to the dining hall, seeing dad eating that pie. “Hey dad, so what did you do to Ponyville?” “Ever hear of a pocket dimension?” He said, taking another bite of pie. “Yes I have...so you put Ponyville in a pocket dimension?” “No. If I put it in a pocket dimension it would be like what I did to the inside of your house. I took Pocket dimension logic and gave it steroids till it looked like Wolverine’s muscles inflated to the size of monster truck wheels. That way Ponyville is not only in it's own universe, but also still on Equestria. This is my work around to the whole ‘finite resources’ thing every world deals with at some point. I put the spawn rate at high…I actually put every spawn on high, and let it generate a world and universe by ripping off Minecraft world generating logic.” “Well...alright then.” I nod. “That sounds nifty...why though?” I ask curiously. “Just...wondering why you just decided to do that to Ponyville of all places.” “Why not?” He replied. “This isn't old tec and it's a great bonus for income for the town. Farms, mining companies and construction companies will flock to Ponyville with all this new, untouched land.” “True…” I shrug. “And makes sense I suppose. But plenty of people are going to be confused on that whole thing.” “I informed Celestia of this she sent an announcement in the papers not long after this went up.” “Okay then.” I nod. “Glad to at least know Celestia knows about it and is going to tell everyone.” I say, thinking about what I’m going to do for the rest of the day. “So what are your plans?” Dad asked as he finished his pie. “I don’t have plans for today actually.” I say, frowning a little. “That’s...actually kind of a first to be honest. Normally I’m either being told to do stuff, fighting stuff, or training…” I say, thinking about what to do today. “Still can’t believe Rarity said this cloak was tacky.” I frown. “It is just plain white. Kinda...boring. Maybe you should ask her about giving it an upgrade design wise?” “He’s got a point deary.” Rarity says while walking into the room. “So what? You want to add a splash of black, blue, red, what?” I ask, knowing full well I’m not going to get out of this. “Hmmm…I have an idea but first I need to make a stop at the train station.” “Stop at the train station? Meeting someone?” I ask Rarity, wondering who she might be meeting. “Yes. She was a friend I made on a visit to Manhattan before…you know…her boss didn't make it but she did and since she's just getting out of recovery I figure she can live and work at my old boutique.” “Oh…” I say. “I should come along...I need to be there to show her ‘oh hey I helped save people’...” I say, still feeling bitter about not saving all of Manehattan. “But who’s this friend of yours?” “Coco Pommel. She's as timid as Fluttershy at times. Her old boss was a…well a bitch to put it bluntly. Coco did all the work for her and got none of the credit.” “Her boss is a bitch.” I frown. “Hate her boss died...but she’s still a bitch.” I say. “Anyways, I suppose she’s going to help you out with my cloak?” “I’m sure she’d be ecstatic. Come now, the train arrives in half an hour.” Rarity said, leading the way. “Alright. Off to meet Coco.” I say, already thinking about how the mare might look like considering her name. Surprisingly Rarity summoned a keyblade glider, even though it seemed like a more purple and white version of Aqua’s glider I was still happy to see her summon it as we both flew off towards the train station. Five minutes later we landed and waited by the train station. “So what does Coco look like?” “Cream colored coat with a near sky blue mane. She wrote last that she had a trinket from the Manehattan incident but other than that she also said she has a large blue backpack.” “Alright.” I nod. “For some odd reason I thought her coat would be a ‘coco’ kind of color...not cream colored.” I shrug. “Well whatever the case I hope she enjoys moving here to Ponyville.” “So do I.” I nod. “Again...I’m kind of sorry for destroying your house way back when…” I say sheepishly. “It feels like years since I first came to Ponyville…” I chuckle. “All is forgiven long ago. Also speaking of… next month will be a half a year since you first appeared in Equestria Ben.” “Half a year?” I ask, flabbergasted at such a short time frame. “You sure? Cause I’m pretty sure I’ve been here for at least two months.” “Luna and Twilight have counted the days. A lot has happened so the time flew by. Days like today where very little has happened at all are nice and the ones I love best.” “Days where you can do about jack nothing and just enjoy your time with family is always great.” I agree with a warm smile. “Yes, makes you wonder, when our time comes to enjoy the rest of our days like this one, will we be able? There will be more threats, that’s for certain, but then again I guess that’s why Heroes like you exist Ben, you sacrifice your peace of mind and life so others can keep theirs.” “As long as I have a family to return home to then that’s the best prize I could ever ask for.” I smile. “But frankly...having a ‘peace of mind’ sounds over rated when you look at my life as a whole.” “Perhaps that’s why your father decided to offer a place in his family. I only met him twice but from what your mother said about him it seems he gave up a chance for normalcy for duty to others. You do the same, but you still have a family to anchor your sanity to.” “Kind of.” I chuckle. “But hey...at least I have a family now.” I smile warmly. The train whistle drew both our attentions to the incoming locomotive. It wasn’t as pink as she show had it, in fact it looked like it got repainted to also have blue and green. It came to a screeching stop and once the doors opened ponies flooded out. Rarity and I kept an eye out for Coco but it wasn’t till the flood was dying down that the mare we were searching for came out of the tram. She was dressed in a yellow top, blue jeans with a red scarf around her neck. “Hello.” I say with a little wave to Coco, having remembered to put my hood up and hide my ears and tail. She noticed me and speed walked up. “Hi, oh hello Rarity.” Coco said. “Hello darling, how have you been?” “Good, thankfully. I see Ben is with you.” She added. “Oh, I suppose my ‘White Knight’ look is not needed here?” I ask curiously. “Rarity has told me a lot about you so I didn’t think you’d mind.” Coco replied with a smile. “So…shall we head to the new Boutique?” “Sure.” I nod. ”Wow...she’s really cute.” I say, carefully looking over the mare wanting to help make a new cloak for me. Rarity walked us to the renovated Carousel Boutique, which was now three stories, twice as big, and had two large window displays. “Luna and Twilight helped me with the new designs.” Rarity said, taking out a key and unlocking the door, inside were mannequins, all dressed in amazing dresses…and some male clothing. “Clothing for the opposite sex I’ve done but I hope to make it more common in terms of orders.” “Right then.” I nod. “Place is bigger...and Coco’s first job as tailor of Ponyville is to make a new cloak for the White Knight of Equestria…” I say, still feeling like that title means shit considering what happened in Manehattan and how I can’t get over the damned thing. “Oh, well then can I have the cloak so I can work on it later or tomorrow?” Coco asked. “Still can’t believe some people think this is ‘tacky’.” I grumble, taking off my cloak and showing my normal body, a very well toned eighteen year old from many days of fighting and training, blue fur covering my arms, my ears and tail freed from the cloaks confines, and my crown still resting on my head. “Mind making that a little bigger so my tail and ears don’t stiff? Seriously you have no idea how much that actually hurts.” “I can do that, should take… a week or so and I can give it back looking like it’s a whole other outfit.” “Can you at least keep the white? It would be weird if a ‘white knight’ wasn’t wearing his white cloak.” I say, walking over to a mirror and looking over myself. “Sheesh, when did I get buff as hell?” I ask, flexing my arm and noticing the muscle flexing, the muscles being defined and strong, not big and more for looks than actual practicality. “I have some things you can wear in the meantime darling.” Rarity said, handing me several pairs of jeans and shirts, and four pairs of shoes. “Oh… not sure how well the shoes will fit given your… claws on the toes…” “Thanks Rarity.” I smile, looking down and noticing that my shoes have been practically reduced to sandals and I never realised it. “Uh...I never realized my shoes were now sandals…” I say nervously. “We can figure out that later.” Coco said. “Oh, Coco, I have something for you upstairs, I’ll go get it.” Rarity said, quickly going up the stairs and into the living area. “So, Coco…” I say, deciding not to stare at myself for a few moments and took off my torn up shoes and socks. “How are you doing today?” I ask, hoping to strike up a conversation with the cute anthro mare. “Alright. Thankfully my old apartment building was mostly intact after that thing was killed so I could grab my things and the task force that helped me heal is going to mail the rest of the items here so I can fully settle in.” “I hope my Medics helped…” I sigh out. “I’m...sorry I wasn’t there before it destroyed everything.” “It came out of nowhere so nothing could have prepared you or the crown for it. I spent some time looking through the broken buildings. I did find something in a broken gutter near the library though, you should see it.” Coco pulled out something I thought I lost when I first came to Equestria, it was cloth, with a nike logo on it. My wallet. “How the hell did you find my wallet?” I ask curiously. “I can only guess when you first appeared and fought that purple knight monster it fell out during the scuffle. I’m sorry but I did look inside… Saw that picture…” I inhaled deeply. It was the only picture of my birth parents I had when I was older…before...I took the picture out of it’s slide and smiled gently. “I know you're long gone...but I hope you're happy about who I became.” I mumble to myself. “I’m still sorry...about everything...but please...be happy with who I am now and not the bastard I was…” I mutter, tears welling up in the corners of my eyes. “It’s a nice picture of them in the park, you take it?” “I...honestly don’t remember.” I shake my head. “It was over ten or so years ago…” “I was wondering, who was that lady looking at them in the back?” “What?” I frown, looking at the background and seeing the new person. “Weird...I never saw that person before...I wonder who that person is?” I frown, not knowing who this person was but for some reason having this unbridled hatred at the person. “Well whatever the case, glad to be here. So, did you hear what they have planned in terms of rebuilding?” “Rebuilding Manehattan?” I ask. “No, I haven’t heard anything about it.” I shake my head. “What are they doing?” “Once everything is cleared out they plan on making the whole of what’s left a massive memorial. Think about it, a massive park and in the center, a plaque with all the lost ones names, and holding that massive plaque, a statue of you, hood up.” I smiled gently. “That sounds nice…” I nod. “But...even hero’s can’t save everyone I suppose…” I sigh out. “So...uh...you seeing anyone?” I ask curiously, before I swiftly facepalm. “I am so sorry for just saying that randomly.” “It’s fine. And…aren’t you already engaged?” “The more the merrier I suppose. I mean, I happened to get an extra fiance because of strange circumstances...but sorry to just drop this suddenly, I’m just being an idiot because...cute mare here…” I mumble the last part, motioning to all of Coco and how cute she is. “Heh, thanks for the complement. Most stallions that try and ask me out either stutter or ask for the dirty business first and a relationship never.” “I’m sorry, I know it’s bad to just say it outright…” I say nervously. “Also I hate those kinds of people...just asking for nothing more than sex when they have a wonderful mare such as yourself.” “Heh. I take it that Luna and Twilight asked you out right? Cause you sound really new at asking mares out.” “I only have three girls that joined my herd without sex involved.” I state. “But in order, Luna was horny and loved me because I was a hero, Twilight joined because she wanted to be in a harem and was basically dating Luna at the time, Rarity joined in because Luna told her about my sex life for some reason, and then proceeded to fully join when I was drunk, Zecora the Zebra joined because of strange circumstances you probably wouldn’t understand, Pinkie joined because I was drunk at the same time of asking Rarity out, Derpy was a very huge fan of mine and...well I plowed the hell out of her anyways, Gilda the griffon because apparently griffons have the line of thought that ‘prove yourself in bed’ counts as a good segway to dating, Honora the dragoness princess because apparently she had her eyes on me for some time…” I explain my entire experience with women. “So...yeah...and my newest fiance Brigid, decided to tag along because I helped her out in a very serious issue.” I explain nervously. “So why ask me?” “Because…” I start, blushing a little and scratching my cheek nervously. “I’m...a sucker for a cute mare…” I mutter nervously, my tail wagging without my consent. “Daw.” She replied, blushing. “I’ll talk with Rarity about it, knowing her she might say yes, if that’s alright?” “Knowing Pinkie, Luna and Derpy...they’d ask what fetishes you are into…” I grumble. “You wanna know or should I keep that a secret til after I talk with your fiance’s tomorrow?” She asked in a teasing voice. “Frankly I’d rather not know any of my fiance’s fetishes.” I sigh out. “But knowing them they’ll force it on me whether I like it or not.” I groan bitterly. “Back darling!” Rarity chimed as she came back downstairs. “Here you go Coco.” Rarity said, handing Coco a keychain. It wasn’t any keychain though, that Keychain went to Oathkeeper! “Found it in one of the new rooms Ben’s father… renovated, before we left and I was just making sure the keys worked.” Rarity said, handing Coco the keys and Oathkeeper Keychain. “Right then.” I nod. “Well, Coco is wondering if she can join the herd.” Rarity looked between me and Coco. “Oh that would be rather nice, I’ll let Luna and the others know and we can talk with Coco about it tomorrow. Well, I’ll let you get settled in for now Coco, but if things go well you’ll be moving into the home we share with Ben. Night.” Rarity said as she started to walk out. “It feels like this place will be completely empty...and I feel kind of bad.” I say honestly. “It was only half a year ago when I crashed through a wall to fight a bad guy.” I chuckle. “I believe that was someone else darling, you were talking with that Yellow Core remember?” Rarity said as I walked towards her and the door. “Yeah, but now she isn’t ‘Yellow Core’ anymore. She’s Unum...a reflection of Core’s dead wife.” I say sheepishly. “Trust me...when I figured that out that was both really creepy...and really fucking weird.” “I guess it's something I'll have to get used to. Night.” Coco said as Rarity and I left, closing the door behind us. “Now...what next?” I mutter to myself, already thinking of what next to do for the dwindling day. “Perhaps some family time. The girls back home should have a surprise ready.” “Yeah...that would be good.” I nod. “So let’s go home.” It was a short glider ride back home. When we got back home Rarity lead me to the kitchen fast. When the doors opened the girls, mom and dad, the kids...and countless dire wolf anthro pups were there. “Surprise!” They all yelled. “Jesus christ that’s a lot of puppies.” I say. “But why the surprise?” “Your family birthday week passed and you missed it.” Mom said, giving me a kiss lick on the cheek. “So your father planned this with your wives and kids. I also brought some of your older siblings. Just the ones who can walk. They're ten months.” “That’s good.” I smile and hug my mother. “But is this a party or something? Or am I going to be literally dog piled?” I chuckle. “Party.” Dad spoke up. “Your mom and I each got you something nice too.” “What would that be?” I ask curiously, wondering what nice things they got me. “I got you this.” Mom said, handing me a wrapped box. Inside was a necklace made from what looked like small bones. “It's a hunter's necklace in my culture. It's made from the teeth of fallen warriors passed. Not much of my kind survived what happened to us so you're the first hunter in the new generation.” “I hope I can be such a good hunter.” I say while putting on my new necklace. “Thanks mom.” “And I have two gifts.” Dad said, he gave me a small box and a stop watch. “The box is…well, you'll find out, and the stopwatch, well, stops time for up to twelve minutes, and can send you back and forth in time twelve minutes. Not a time machine exactly but helpful.” “Oh yeah, this is very helpful.” I smile, putting the stopwatch in my pants pocket and thankfully finding the several ring types in my pants pocket instead of my coat pocket and I opened the box. There was a blinding light that came out of it. I dropped it to cover my eyes and when the light faded and I looked…I saw them…my birth parents…“Ben!” They both said, hugging me tight. “M-mom! D-dad! Wh-wh-what?” I stutter, my eyes starting to water and not believing this. “H-h-how?” I whimper. “My doin.” Dad, Cript dad, said. “They have been watching you ya know. After all, life gets the best tv. Reality tv anyway.” He chuckled. “And we are so proud!” Mom said, squeezing me tighter. “But...but…” I try to start. “I...it was my fault…” “Ben, that's something we need to tell you.” Dad spoke, he and mom getting serious. He reached into my pocket, pulling out the photo of them. “This woman in the background. She is a murderer. She knocked me out at the bread factory and when your mother was resting she added some kinda drug to her so she stayed asleep when she made it look like she shot herself. She’s a professional killer.” “It's in their death reports too.” Cript dad added, handing me a file with a skull on it. “Grimm reapers take good notes. They nicknamed her the ‘Suicide Killer’ because she makes all her kills appear accidental or suicides.” I stared at all four of my parents, only to look down and start shaking, a grey aura starting to surround me in pure rage. “Well...looks like I’m gonna be hunting this bitch until I rip her head off.” I growl. “Take it easy there kid.” Cript dad said, snapping his fingers and I felt…suddenly calm as my aura faded. “She is a professional killer and from what I learned, is backed up by Core so she's even deadlier. Her strength is rather impressive actually. Best you master weapons before taking her on. Just be careful around her. She has the potential to become a Psychopath also.” “So...who am I supposed to call mom and dad now?” I ask sheepishly. “Cause...mom and dad are here...but mom and dad are also here…” I say, pointing between my parents. “Well most kids call me mama.” Mama Den said. “Mama, then my name so call me mama Den.” “Just call me Cript if it helps.” Cript said. “I do have something to say to you Ben.” Dad said, holding out his hand. “And that would be dad?” I ask, holding out my hand like there’s supposed to be some sort of handshake. He shook my hand. “Congratulations, you're a son of a bitch.” Everyone broke out laughing at it, even mama Den. “Jesus christ dad!” I laugh, not believing he just said that. “Still my dad...so...who do you want to meet first in my giant family? The massive amount of dire wolf pups that are my brothers and sisters? My fiances? Or my massive amount of adopted kids?” “I am gonna talk with your girls and meet your kids. I can't believe I'm a grandma!” Mom said. “And I'm gonna talk with your new father. We are both your father now so, I should get to know him more.” Dad said, walking over to Cript. “So what do ya like to do besides sex fella?” “Like any dad, one that's always fun is embarrassing my kids.” Cript said with a wicked smile, snapping his fingers and…hundreds of my baby photos starting raining down. “Where the fuck did you get those!?!” I yelp as I dash around and grab the baby photos, hoping to christ no one saw them. “Daw. You had a cute little butt Ben!” Luna called out, a photo in her hand. “Stahp!” I whine, grabbing the photo and hoping I got them all. “Jeez…” I mutter, having a bad feeling mama Den found one. “Uh… dad… Why did you try to eat a tampon?” Jenny asked, holding another photo. “He thought it was ice cream.” Mom laughed. “I was barely over a year old!" I bark, but my shoulders sagged. "Can...someone kill me? Please.” I whimper, completely defeated. “I don’t want this torture to continue.” “Relax.” Cript said, holding a…frying pan? “This will just feel like a bad dream.” He hit me with the frying pan and unconsciousness took me instantly. “Was that...really necessary?” Joy asks worriedly, my mom and dad spotting a child version of me talk. “Yes.” Cript replied. To be continued... Author's Note Weird and magical things happen slow days like this chapter...so please don't hate it. Nobody investigates“Gah!” I bark, sitting up quickly in shock. “Oh god...that was probably...just a horrible dream.” I mutter, hoping my old baby pictures was just a figment of my imagination. I saw I was in the bedroom, Derpy and Twilight, one on each side, next to me napping it seemed. I gently moved out between them and got out of bed, finding myself thankfully in pajama pants at least. I put on a shirt real quick and headed off, wondering what I missed. As I roamed around I was starting thinking about what my mom and dad said. “I’m...so glad there back…” I smile warmly. “Oh...actually...what would they think of Joy?” I ask myself, continuing to look around and search for literally anyone in the halls of this giant castle I call a house. “Yes yes, I’m adorable.” I hear Joy giggle, the sounds of my parents ‘d’awing’ over him was present and it only made me smile. After I walked closer to the sounds I turned the corner and saw my mother hugging and petting Joy, not believing she is seeing a puppy version of her baby boy and my dad was just smiling at the sight of his wife and new son here just being adorable. “So, Joy, your…wait, you’re Ben’s brother right?” Dad asked for clarification. “It’s a little complicated but technically speaking yes.” Joy nods. “I may be his literal Joy given physical form but I’m my own person...I just happen to be him when he was about twelve years old.” “Alright, but anyway, your sisters in law did say you got some ladies lined up too, one of which being Jenny, isn’t she like, your niece in a sense?” “That’s...where things get really confusing.” Joy says sheepishly. “Because we’re biologically the sons of Cript, who is literally a god, incest is fine and has none of the scary drawbacks.” I explain, walking into the room. “Hi mom, hi dad. I see you’ve met Joy.” “Hi Ben.” THey both say. “So gods are…genetically superior or is it something else that does that?” Mom asked. “It’s that, magical mumbo jumbo, and some other things that make about as much sense as me having a brother come from my head.” I shrug. “Oh, we also talked with Den and…you are your father's, first fathers, son. He couldn’t stop drinking my milk when I was pregnant with you.” Mom said, making Joy, dad and I blush a bit. “And don’t deny it either hun.” “...Guilty.” Dad admitted. “No wonder why…” I mutter, scratching my cheek gently and not wanting to voice why I like that. “Well that explains at least a thing…” “Your new family is…interesting to say the least.” Mom spoke up. “Cript and Den are certainly characters, and your wives are each lovely, though to be honest Pinkie scares me a little.” “That’s just Pinkie being Pinkie…” I sigh out. “She runs off cartoon logic sometimes...also eats too much sugar if you didn’t notice.” “How is she not diabetic?” “Either because she’s a pony, she’s magic, or she stuffs all that stuff in the ‘trunk’ as it were.” I say sheepishly. “Well whatever the case she did want to talk with you.” Dad said. “Something about a list.” “Cripe…” I grumble. “Well I better go off to find her. Don’t hug Joy to death Mom, I know how much you like cute things.” I chuckle a little. “But do any of you know where Pinkie is?” “Kitchen maybe, last I saw she was baking with the cook.” My mother said. “Thank you.” I nod, before turning on my heel and heading off to the kitchen. After a quick walk I found Pinkie’s scent surrounded with actual baking. “Hopefully she’s right…” I mutter, speeding up my walk towards the kitchen. Upon entering the kitchen I saw Pinkie and the cook surrounded with many trays of sweets and pastries…they were even making candy. “Hi Ben!” Pinkie said, pulling out a tray of what looked like lollipops out of the oven. “I see a ton of candy and pastries...why this happening?” I ask. “Some of it better be an apology for you all making fun of me…” I mutter, still upset about what happened before Cript knocked me out. “Nah, this is just something I promised Bon Bon I’d help her with a week ago, been kinda busy so I’m rushing to finish this up.” “Well that’s not good.” I frown. “Need any help or you got things?” I ask curiously. “I can at least help deliver stuff.” “I actually need you to pick up some things for me.” Pinkie said, jumping over and giving me a list. “Some of my family made rock candy, I sent them a letter and got one back saying they finished and it’s ready for pick up, some more apples from Applejack’s farm, and zap apple jam, then some Blazing gems from Luxu, and lastly pick up Bon Bon and bring her here.” “Sounds like quite a list.” I say before grabbing the list and nodding. “I better get to Applejack’s farm first, better get an important item that’s close by first.” I say before opening a window and jumping out, summoning my glider and flying off towards town, hoping Luxu is also there. I arrived at the old library home, it got an upgrade! It was still a tree but was now more wide around and easily TEN stories tall. I walked inside and there were a lot of people in here, some on computers, others looking through the books. “Hey Ben.” I turned around, seeing Luxu and Time walk up to me. “Christ, what did you two do to this place?” I ask, not believing how big this place got. “Also I’m gonna need some Blazing Gems.” “Well after everyone moved out I decided to give the place a major overhaul. Celestia donated some books and the rest are from my personal stashes I hid all over the reflections. Also here.” Luxu handed me a bag filled with blazing games. “Still have no idea how Pinkie makes hot sauce out of them, but it tastes great on tacos.” “Thank you...but I suppose all the computers and all the other stories are doing good things?” I ask. “Yeah. Cheerilee now has her classes use the newest text books, fresh off the printers from Canterlot. She also has foals check out book here.” “Cool.” I nod. “I suppose you’ve also been keeping tabs on the stuff I do or do you care little? Also what about Terra, Aqua and Ventus? I haven’t checked up on them in a while and I feel kind of bad about it…” I sigh out, having had too much shit to do and too little time to spend with friends. “They’re living with Applejack these days. Those three have been helping her pick the fields faster than she and her two siblings ever could alone.” “That’s good, and I suppose you heard about Joy and all that?” I ask. “Yeah. Cript actually asked me to hold onto a thing for awhile yesterday.” “What would be the thing?” I ask. “Also, I just so happened to figure out my original birth parents were murdered...straight from their mouths after Cript revived them.” “Yikes….well good luck finding their murderer, also he had me hold onto a book, looked burned and was locked.” “Why’d he ask you to keep a burned and locked book?” I asked, finding that rather weird. “He’s reorganizing his own vault and needed that somewhere else so it isn’t lost.” “Okay then.” I nod. “But how are you two doing over all?” “Doing well.” Time said. “Celestia was impressed with what I did in Las Pegasus so she hired me as…political muscle.” “And while other people are doing a hero’s job I’m somehow getting a statue in the center of Manehattan holding up the many names of the people that died…” I sigh out. “Christ...feeling less and less like a hero with how little I’ve been helping people…” I grumble. ”And the whispers aren’t fucking helping. I think to myself, having tried to block out the growing whispers in my head that were now just a little more vocal but still out of ‘hearing’. “You’re the people’s idols dummy.” Time said as she flicked my nose. “You’re the original hero in these parts, all we are are…follow ups, sidekicks, that’s what they think of us, you, you’re the hero to them, like it or not.” “And I’d be glad to be the hero they need and deserve.” I say. “Hmm...maybe I should head off to Zebrica or something...maybe figure out where the hell the Minotaur nation or the Diamond Dog nations are...they are probably in need of help.” I shrug, wondering about those two races. “From what I hear the Minotaurs are doing well against heartless attacks, Zebra magic is keeping them away and the diamond dogs, there’s rumors they’re dealing with them, trading stuff.” “If those fuckers are dealing with Core or his goons so help me god I’m gonna bitch smack one of them.” I frown. “But after I get done with Pinkie’s grocery list I’ll be heading to their nation...wherever the hell it is.” I took the bag and headed off to the apple family farm. It was full of ripe apple trees as always, I saw Aqua and Ventus on their gliders, using Aero to blast apples out of the trees while Terra flew around with a large net attached to his glider, catching the apples. “Yo!” I call out, flying down and landing gently near the tree line. They all landed near me. “Long time no see Ben.” Ven said as he came up and hi fives me. “Heard you’ve been busy.” “More busy then you can believe.” I sigh out. “So how have you been? Hope Terra and Aqua are still together.” “More than together.” Aqua said as she wrapped arms around Terra. “Got married last night.” “Why didn’t I get invited?” I groan. “It was an old Keyblade wielders style wedding.” Terra said. “It’s only meant to be done by the two being married, no witnesses or guests. A more public one is being planned for a month from now.” “I’m sorry...but I think that style of wedding is only after a normal wedding.” I frown. “And no, I don’t want to know about how certain keys fit into certain keyholes.” I joke with a cheeky grin. “Well the reason this type of wedding is so unique is the way the ‘till death’ part works.” “Should I even ask?” I ask curiously. “Cause it sounds important.” “If death is to claim me, then I will still fight, wielded in your hand, powered by your light.” Terra said. “It means if I, or Aqua dies, but one of us is still alive, our bodies will turn into a Keyblade to continue fighting for the ones we care about.” I put a hand over my heart. “Can you...tell me how to do it?” I ask, not wanting to leave them all if I ever die. “Sure. But if you do it, then there is no after life, you’ll become a keyblade body, mind, soul, and heart. Linked forever by their rules.” “Ah...well...I’ll think about it…” I sigh out bitterly. “Anyways, I’m here for some zap apple jam?” “Applejack has it.” Ven said. “She’s just waiting at the house for Pinkie…or you since you’re here.” “Thanks.” I nod. “Just make sure to soundproof your room you two...no need for people to stay away from the apple farm in general.” I joke to Terra and Aqua, laughing before jogging off to meet Applejack. I arrived at the house and knocked on the door. “Coming!” Appleblooms voice said from inside before the little filly opened the door. “Oh, hi Ben. You here for Pinkie’s pick up?” “Yep.” I nod. “You got the zap apple jam? Oh, and do I have to pay you?” I say nervously, completely forgetting about if I had to pay these people or if it was just free. “Pinkie payed in advance.” The filly said before dashing back inside before coming back out with jar of the rainbow colored treat. “Here ya go.” “Thanks Applebloom.” I smile, putting the jar in the bag. “What do you think about Joy?” I ask the filly curiously, wondering what she thought about the little pup. “He’s cute, especially when we gave him a scarf.” “You gave him a scarf?” I ask curiously, wondering why I didn’t see him with it. “Yeah, Sweetie made it while Scoots and I stitched some things of ours to it.” “Huh...wonder why I didn’t see it…” I mutter. “Well, glad to hear that you enjoy being with Joy. By the by….when I immediately left after you tackled him...what happened?” I ask nervously, wondering what they did. “Jenny had us drag him to the clubhouse and had us figure out how our future house life would be.” “Really?” I ask, surprised by hearing that. “And how did that work out?” “Pretty good. According to that 8 ball I do most of the cooking, which I’m okay with, Scoots takes care of the older kids, and it said Sweetie stays in the bed alot. Hope she don't get sick.” ”Oh...okay…” I think to myself, having a good feeling about what might be the actual thing about that. “What about Jenny?” “She didn't say.” “Right then.” I nod. “Well glad to hear you enjoy being with Joy...oh actually, Joy said that he beat you three in giving ‘puppy dog eyes’ and he’s teaching you how to use keyblades...that true?” “Yeah!” Applebloom said as she summoned the Sweet Memories keyblade. “His puppy eyes are too cute to say no to and he wanted us to know how to protect ourselves.” “Good for him.” I smile gently. “Well I best be going. Got another stop and got to pick up a friend. Have a nice day Applebloom.” I smile, summoning my glider again and flying off to the rock farm. It was as barren as last time, though there was random junk everywhere. They must still be using that weird ass dungeon thing. I landed outside the door. I knocked. “Enter.” Said the monotone voice of Pinkie’s sister Maud. I entered and saw Maud sitting on a recliner that was not here last time playing a 3ds. “Still having fun with that dungeon?” I ask curiously. “Yes.” She replied plainly. “Got this new game two days ago.” “Sounds good. I hope it didn't distract you from making rock candy.” I say. “Or...your family job in general.” “It’s on the counter.” She said. “Didn't take long to make. Plus this is why pause was invented.” “I know.” I chuckle before walking over to the counter, seeing the rock candy already packed and I put it all in my bag with the rest of my stuff. “Thanks.” I nod before heading out and flying back to Ponyville to find Bon Bon. I didn't know where she lived so I landed in the market to ask around. Didn't take long as a nice vendor pointed me to her place. It was two stories, brick, white room with various flowers and plants around. I walk up and knock on the front door. “Hello?” I call out, hoping they're home. “Just a second.” A female voice called out. After a bit a woman with green fur and mane and yellow eyes opened the door. “Howdy.” I wave. “I'm here for Bon Bon, Pinkie couldn't make it so I'm here to pick her up.” I explain to the mare. “Oh hey… who are you?” She asked. “Uh…” I frown, before looking down and seeing I was in my normal clothes on. “Oh, sorry. I don't have my cloak on. But the names Ben, or as I'm known around the world, White Knight.” I explain. “This is just...how I normally look.” “The what?” “The hero that kills monsters? The man who helped save Manhattan? The guy thats going to marry three elements of harmony, princess Luna?” “I just got back from a year long tour of the minotaur lands. They don't get too much Equestria news over there.” “Where's Bon Bon?” I sigh out. “But you have way too much to catch up on in Equestria news…” “She's in her lab. Down the hall to the left, first door.” “Thank you.” I nod. “And if you want at least some cliff notes, go to either the Spa and asks for a person named Ramilua, or go to the police station and ask for Dorlu.” I say before walking in and heading down to Bon Bons lab. After a few moments I found the right door and checked to see if there was any noises coming from it before I knocked. There was nothing so I knocked. “Who is it?” A female voice asked. “It's Ben. I'm here to pick you up cause Pinkies busy.” “Oh. One second.” There was the sound of quick packing before the door opened, revealing a white and violet manes, cream colored coat mare dressed in a lab coat. “So you're Pinkie’s fiancée?” “Yep, just not wearing my normal coat.” I nod. “Also question...are you and the mare I just met roommates or what?” I ask, wanting to at least know if people were right about the pairing. “We’ve been friends since school. So yeah she’s my roommate.” “Alright.” I nod. “Well let's get going. No need to keep that hyper mare waiting.” I say before walking outside the house and summoning my glider. “Hop on.” I say, getting on it and there was enough room for the mare. She got on and I flew us over to the castle. Once we landed I lead her to the kitchen… where there were even more candies and sweets… and Joy sitting in the corner eating some. “Thanks Ben.” Pinkie said as she came up, hugged me and too the items and mare to the messy counter. “Your welcome Pinkie.” I smile, walking over and starting to eat sweets with Joy. Pinkie and Bon Bon got to work, mixing the zap apple jam with the rock candy that Bon Bon finely grounded to powder. They mixed it with some other stuff and it turned out they were making it into a frosting which they started placing on a cake that just needed the frosting added. “What are you two making?” I ask, munching on another cupcake. “Besides cake?” “That’s it really, Pinkie and I came up with a recipe to cake frosting involving her family made rock candy and zapp apple jam. We’ve just been needing to try it out.” Bon Bon said. “And the blazing gems?” I ask curiously, wondering why Pinkie needed that. “My ten alarm hot sauce calls for it!” Pinkie said, dropping the gems into a pot with boiling water and a few other things into it. “Uh...okay.” I nod. “What do you think about my mom and dad?” I ask the pink mare. “They’re neato! We're learning about stuff you never talked to us about. Like your arachnophobia.” Pinkie said, giving me a candy spider. “I hate spiders…” I grumble, tossing it away worriedly. “I hope they kept any...embarrassing stories away…” “Well thanks for helping Ben, Bon Bon and I got the rest covered, you go have fun with Rarity, she and Coco are in her sewing room working on your cloak.” “Oh sweet.” I smile, getting up and heading off to Rarity sewing room quickly, hoping to get my cloak and see how good it is now. We need to put an elevator in here, it’s just stairs at the moment so yeah… I finally made it to the sewing room where I saw fabrics scattered and those two at my cloak that was being worn by a mannequin, and there were new features. It had those grey and black thorns sewn into the arms and chest, the hood now resembled more of a Dusk’s head, the zipper also went all the way up the hood rather than stopping at the neck, and they were doing something with the lower half. “Wow…” I mutter, really liking my cloak design. “Oh, hello love.” Rarity said, quickly giving me a kiss before heading back to the cloak. “You like the design?” “It looks great. The Dusk design is cool, but what else are you doing with it?” I ask curiously. “We are altering the lower part to flow more and have a flare while doing it.” Coco said. “The cloak is also going to get some enchantments your father Cript is going to help us with.” “Really? Cool.” I nod. “What kind of enchantments?” “He said some elemental protection, general defences, and some special features.” “Yay, surprises.” I sigh out. “But how close are you to finishing it? It honestly feels weird to not have my cloak on…” I say sheepishly, not wanting to say I felt naked without it but still. “Well we are just finishing up this, then your father will do the rest and that will be that, should be done by dinner time or tomorrow morning.” Rarity said. “Well...I was kind of planning on going to the Diamond Dog nation today...but I suppose tomorrow seems fine enough.” I say. ”I just hope there not pawns under Core’s thumb...I don’t want that fucker getting a foothold here.” I think to myself worriedly. “I advice not letting Pinkie or Luna tag along… Diamond Dog nation is the porn capital of the world.” “I wasn’t going to bring anyone anyways.” I state bluntly. “Maybe Joy but that’s about it. No one else, I’m a hero and I need to be the hero a good portion of the world see’s me as.” “Alright, just before you leave say your goodbyes, or we will hunt you down.” Rarity said with a sly smile. “God help me…” I grumble. “But before I leave...did Coco tell you all something only you're allowed to know and for me to never find out?” “No.” Rarity said. “I didn’t.” Coco said. “Alright.” I nod. “Well see you.” I say, patting Coco’s shoulder and kissing Rarity’s cheek. “Thanks.” I say while heading out, swiftly moving through the house and telling everyone bye and getting Joy to tag along, which he wore a nice looking scarf as he followed me on a card he started surfboarding on as we headed off towards the diamond dog region that I thankfully got the directions from Gilda who really didn’t care about tagging along to porn central. Even at the speed we were going it got late when we arrived. The whole kingdom was a tall, walled in place with one main gate and mines all around the surrounding lands. The main city as it seemed was rather modern looking to my and Joy’s surprise. When we landed the people didn't even bat an eye…we blend right in! “Well...glad we blend in.” Joy says honestly, keeping his guard up though. “Just be careful, I’m pretty sure many a dog will try to hit on us whether we’re dating or not.” I frown. We walked through town, finding it rather interesting, though occasionally some people dug themselves out of the ground. And dug themselves into it. Guess it’s normal as no one batted an eye either. If we wanna find evidence of the Diamond Dogs dealing with Core we gotta think. Where would that happen…on Knowhere that trading thing took place in an older spot of the place so maybe same rules apply? Where’s info when you need it? “Taverns?” Joy asks. “Taverns are probably the best place.” I sigh out. “Let’s hope things don’t go poorly.” I mutter. We looked around and saw a place that looked like a restaurant and a bar, Joy and I entered and to our surprise the barkeep was human. “What will it be?” She asked as Joy and I took a seat. “No booze for minors.” She quipped, putting a cup of water in front of Joy. “Get me a glass of water as well, I don’t want booze at the moment.” I say with a little raised hand. She placed the glass in front of me. “You ain’t from this city.” She said. “Tourists?” “Just heard some rumors about the place, besides the obvious.” I say honestly. “We’ve been hearing monsters are being handled everywhere but here...yet they don’t attack. Know anything or know anyone that might know about this weird coincidence?” Joy asks, acting like a kid that’s just been hearing about the dangerous stuff. “All I know is that the last guy who asked that question took his answer to the grave. Some detective from Minos came here a month ago asking the same thing, was found dead a week ago, the scene was brutal.” The woman said. “I do know he had a knack for journaling, his is likely in his coffin with the poor guy.” “Have you seen anyone…’interesting’ around here? Like they don’t fit right in this weird ass world?” I ask curiously. “I’d rather not bump into the wrong person by accident.” “Well yesterday on my way to work I saw another human in the streets. Some guy that was rummaging through garbage out back. Other than that no. And yes that’s odd as I’m the only human in this city, least til I saw him.” “What did he look like?” I ask, having a worse and worse feeling that one of Core’s lackeys are here. ”It’s Core, or that evil me.” I think to myself angrily. “Kinda short, red shirt, dyed green hair, and had some kinda backpack with him.” I looked at Joy, who just had a thoughtful look. “Thank you. Do you know anyone that might be alive and know something?” I ask curiously, knowing full well just asking this puts her in danger and us. “Nope. Anyone who asks questions like yours and act on them go missing and are often found dead.” “Right then.” I nod. “Thanks for telling us all this...and sorry.” I say sheepishly. “Whatever.” She said. “Ten bits for the water, each.” “That’s...bull…” I frown. “Water station’s been out for three days, supply and demand.” She said. “Has there been any reports on why that happened or was there just the usual ‘something bad happened, we’ll fix it’?” Joy asks. “Just some punks stole the main pumps, the whole pumps. Those things are two inches thick and weigh at least a ton, must have been some kinda mess, they need to build new ones or else in two more days city’s safe water supply will have run dry.” ”How in the hell?” I think to myself, wondering how the fuck some punks stole whole fucking pumps like that. “Thank you for everything.” I say while grabbing my wallet and giving her thirty bits. “Ten bits for you.” I smile, wanting to be nice at least. “Thanks.” She replied. “So...what’s there to eat?” Joy asks, just wondering what small thing to eat here. “Beef, beef, Pork, and Beef.” She said plainly. “I’ll have some pork.” Joy nods. “Any specifics on the beef besides ‘you just get beef’?” I ask curiously, wondering if she was just being silly. “Hamburger or ribs? Cook’s out sick so that’s all I can cook with what we got.” The barkeep said. “Ribs please.” I say with a little nod, feeling like the bad things happening here seems a tad too coincidental. She left into the back room and about ten minutes later came out with a plate of barbecue ribs for me and a slab of cooked pork for Joy. “Anything else?” “That’s it, thank you.” I nodded. “Thank you.” Joy smiled cutely, before digging into his food happily. We ate our food, which wasn’t half bad, and when we finished she gave us the bill…only three bits? “Here’s you go.” I say, handing the bits. “But let’s see now...the food is cheap but the water is expensive...I suppose you're having a good amount of meat being brought in?” “Diamond dog lands may not look like much, be we carry more meat products than Minous and the dragon kingdoms put together, meats all raised underground since top side is largely holes. Beef is the most common at a bit, and pork second at two bits.” “Sheesh, sounds nice.” I nod while getting up. “It was good.” “Thank you.” Joy smiles before the two of us leave the tavern. “Yeah...this seems kind of convenient…” Joy mutters, finding all the weird murders over people asking questions, and how their water supply getting instantly shivved seemed quite weird to happen so closely. We headed for the water plant first, it was all fenced off but Joy and I used out gliders and flew over it. There wasn’t anything locked and when we got in we found two tanks filled with nasty looking water and two massive holes in the wall. So that’s where the missing pipes used to be. “Jesus christ...who the hell could pull them out? I doubt normal diamond dog ‘punks’ could do this..” I mutter. “I have a bad feeling about this…” Joy mutters, his ears twitching and keeping up on listening for anything out there. We examined the spot where the pipes went and they looked sliced off. Something able to slice cleanly through two inch steel and strong enough to carry them out. Liking this less and less. “We better leave...I have a feeling someone of power would know what’s going on.” I frown, having a feeling people in charge would be able to tell us. “Hello?” Joy and I froze as a flashlight shined on us. It was a diamond dog, dressed in a security guard's uniform. “What? What are you two doing here?” He asked. “Cripe…” I sigh out. “Question, have you heard of the ‘White Knight of Equis’?” I ask curiously, hoping the guard knew who I was. “Yes I know, I’m not wearing my cloak, but it is me, and I can show you proof if you need my guard.” “You have proof?” “Yes.” I nod, raising my hand and summoning Reunion. “Only the White Knight can summon a weapon like this in this way.” I say. “And only he knows it’s weapons name.” He says. “Alright, you proved it. But what are you doing looking into stolen pipes? Things slow in the pony lands?” “This worlds name is ‘Equis’, which means I’m here to protect the entire world.” I say. “But me and my sidekick here are investigating some very...strange rumors.” I explain. “This being one of them. And it just so happens someone very strong cut through this and hauled it away, no ‘punks’ could do this no matter how hard they tried.” I frown. “Have you heard any rumors around about how the pipes were stolen or destroyed?” “...Well, only the royal detectives have seen this, but I do still have the security footage. It’s odd to say the least.” The guard said. “Can we see the footage?” Joy asks hopefully. “Yeah, the office is this way.” He said, leading us to the office. It was fair sized, a few desks and a table with many screens. He looked through a desk then pulled out a video tap with red tape on it. He put it to play then fast forward to the part with the pipes. There was someone in a hooded robe on screen. His head lit up and there was a flash as the pipes vanished and he walked away. “Unicorn, strong one too it seems to magic away pipes that big.” “Magic can teleport it away, but what about the part where they cut the entire things off?” I frown, rewinding it and putting the thing in slow motion, watching every single little detail about the footage. “Come on you cheeky fuck...tell me your secrets on how you did this…” I mutter. “It was the teleportation.” Joy, the guard, and I jumped as we turned around, seeing Cript dad there. “Come on that’s teleporting 101.” “So the fact that the pipes were completely cut off was a teleportation spell?” I ask with a frown. “Yeah, when you teleport only part of an object what’s left behind is left with a clean cut where the magic didn't cover. Also here.” Cript dad handed me my new cloak. “And here.” He handed a smaller version of it to Joy, but the hood on his looked more like the Samurai rather than a Dusk. “Figured why not.” “Yay!” Joy cheers, putting on his coat happily and finding it fits perfectly. “Thanks dad.” I nodded, putting on my cloak as well. “This blot your pa?” The guard asked. “Yeah, his mother is a dire wolf.” “Ah.” The guard said, satisfied with the answer. “Okay so we know about the teleportation part...but that still doesn’t explain why they would just take the pipe? Yes if you cripple a nation's water supply they start dwindling…” I frown. “Then why aren’t Heartless around here and why investigators are dying left and right just for asking questions.” Joy adds, finding these questions rather worrying. “Your side quest.” Dad said. “But here’s a hint, each person’s magic smells unique to a dog.” With that dad vanished. Me and Joy frowned, having a good feeling that our tracking by scent skills were going to be put to the test. “Thank you very much...uh...sorry what’s your name again?” “Oh, Kreg.” The guard said. “It was nice to meet you Kreg, and thank you for showing us this.” I nod. “It was nice meeting you.” Joy smiles, the two of us starting to leave, putting our hoods up and feeling cool again. “This feels cool.” Joy chuckles happily. We walked up to where the pipes were teleported away and took a....sniff. Bad water mostly filled our noses but there was something faint…caramel? “Why the hell does the magic smell of caramel?” I frown. “Well we have a lead at least...let’s just make sure we stay away from a place that makes caramel.” Joy says sheepishly. We both left the entire water plant and started moving through the place, following the scent of caramel magic through the place without looking like a bunch of jackasses...even though our cloaks made us stand out like sore thumbs. We ended up in…a suburban area surprisingly. And we were brought to a house that was wood, one story with a nice yard. “Oi vey…” I mutter, walking up to the front door of the house and knocking on the door. “Hello?” “Coming.” A female voice called out. After a bit, to our surprise, a wolf pony person opened the door. She was pony cause diamond dogs don’t have wings. “Hello? Wait…the white knight?” “Hello.” I nod to the wolf pony. “How are you doing today?” I ask curiously. “Uh, w-what are you doing here?” She asked flustered. “Me and my partner here are wondering something. May we come in?” I ask kindly, Joy staring at the wolf pony and just smiled happily. “S-sure.” She said as we came in. It was a nice home, and cozy. Joy and I sat on the couch across from the woman. “So… what brings Equestria’s greatest hero to my home?” “Have you heard about the water pipes somehow disappearing?” I ask the wolf. “Anything at all?” “Who hasn’t, someone broke into the facility and stole them…somehow. Heard they’re huge so whoever did it had the resources.” “Ya see...there’s a saying ‘the nose knows’...and for some reason me and my partner here just so happened to have caught magic with the scent of caramel.” I explain. “But we were brought here...and you’re part pegasus...mind explaining that Ms…?” I ask, hoping she’ll give us a name. “Please, any information would be wonderful.” Joy says, wanting to get to the bottom of this. “Star Gem, and sorry but I’m the only halfbreed in this area, as for regular ponies there is the mailman, Letter Check. But he lives on the other side of town.” “Then why were we brought here?” I frown, sniffing the air again just to make sure that the scent was right. I could still smell it, slightly stronger sure but I didn’t smell anyone else. “Uh...mind if we search the house? I just...want to make sure of something.” “Sure.” Star said. I searched the house and kept sniffing, following the faint yet growing smell of caramel. I ended up in stars room and the scent was coming directly from some kind of necklace that was hung on the wall among others on display. “Hey Star? What’s this necklace?” I ask worriedly, hoping this isn’t some possession type of thing. She came over and looked at it. “A friend of mine asked me to have it, said it was payback for the eighty bits he owed me. I’m no rock expert or anything, ironic given where I live, so I just put it with my other necklaces.” The necklace looked like the metal was regulat iron and the gem was opal, but smelled like the caramel I was following. “Have you ever wore this?” I ask, glaring at the necklace and having a bad feeling about this. “And where did your friend find this?” “Dunno. He works in the mines so he probably made it.” “Yet the thing is filled with the same magic that stole the water pipes.” I frown. “Have you ever wore this?” I ask, hating this damned necklace more than ever. “No, opals aren’t my thing. I was gonna sell it for my eighty bits actually. Wait, it was used to steal the pipes? How?” “It’s probably enchanted…” I frown. “I don’t know how…” I frown, gently poking it and wondering if it’ll either shock me or cause some sort of effect. When nothing happened I pocketed the gem. “Man…not Iron Side…” “Ironside?” I ask, raising an eyebrow at the wolf girl. “The friend that gave it to me… you think he’s the one who stole the pipes?” “Where does he live?” I ask curiously, wanting to make sure this jack wipe didn’t just screw over a country. “Across from me actually.” She went over to the window, pointing at the house directly across from us. “There.” “Well alright then.” I nod. “Thank you for your time Ms. Star. I hope you have a nice day.” I say to her, patting her head gently before me and Joy head off to Iron Side’s house. After a little bit and knocked on the front door of Iron Side’s house. “Hello?” I call out, hoping the person was here. There was no response other than a cat’s meow from inside. I took a sniff. It was a real cat. “Of course…” I mutter, trying to door knob to see if it was open at least even though the person probably wasn’t home. It opened and out of worry I summoned Sharp Shooters, as did Joy. We walked in and aside from being dusty it was a nice enough place. Dude even had a PS3 and a small library of games. We walked into the bathroom and saw the tub completely taped over. “Yeah...this isn’t really fucking worrying.” I frown. “Yeah...why is the bathtub tapped over?” Joy asks worriedly, hoping that isn’t hiding a body. “Meow.” The cat came out, walking over by me, then to Joy. It was completely white. “Meow.” Is meowed at Joy, looking him dead in the eyes. “Hello, trying to tell us something?” I ask curiously, hoping the strange cat is trying to tell us something rather than being annoying. “I’m not sure if the girls are allergic to cats...:” “Rarity has a cat…had a cat…” Joy said nervously. “Oh yeah.” I say while picking up the pure white kitty. “How you doing little one?” I ask, hoping the cat’s at least fed. “Meow.” Was all it said. “Good.” I nod, petting the cat before putting him down gently. “Well so far this house has shown us jack all besides dusty as fuck, a taped over bath tub, and a pure white cat…” I frown, Joy walking over to the tub and gently poking a hole in it and hoping to christ nothing bad happened. The stench of decay filled the room in seconds, and with a dire wolf’s sense of smell that’s STRONG! Joy and I bolted, Joy grabbing the cat as we exited. We immediately rushed over to Stars house and opened the door, letting the cat in before rushing over to some bushes and collectively threw up on them. “Ho fuck! That is just wrong!” I whimper. “Never...again…” Joy whimpers, throwing up some more into the bushes. “Whimps.” We looked up, seeing dad floating in front of us. “Little death and you turn tail and flee.” “Two things, one, I have only killed one person and they just shattered...and two that’s both the first time we smelled necrotic anything...and our noses are really sensitive.” I groan. “Excuses. Anyway, just so you know I am kinda watching/following you.” “Kind of thought that Cript.” I sigh out. “Anyways...we have an enchanted necklace, a dead body...and a loss of leads.” Joy groans. “Or at least as far as we know cause that necklace smells exactly what the magic used back in the water pipes is…” “Well, now that’s cheap.” Cript said, floating down and looking at the necklace. “It’s just for storing a single spell. Cheap.” “And now we’re back at square one of ‘who did it?’, but now we have the question of ‘who used that necklace?’, because I have a feeling the spell on that is a teleportation spell…” I sigh out. “One time use too.” Dad added, tossing back the necklace. “Whoever put the spell in it had a vague idea of what to do.” I grabbed the necklace and put it in my pocket. “Fucking weak.” I groan. “Well...maybe we can solve at least two mysteries by going to meet the leader...they might know something about both the water pipes, and the fact that Heartless aren’t attacking here and all the deaths for people asking it.” “Killing someone and doing that to the body… that’s the mark of a professional. If they can’t hide the body they can prolong its discovery. Hiding the smell is one of the better ways. There still might be evidence in the house. Notes, items, the works.” “We could probably...try to stomach through the smell and see the body…” I sigh out. “Christ...being a detective isn’t a nice job…” I grumble. “There is a reason those hoods zip all the way up you two, added a gas mask spell that turns on when you zip the hood all the way up, also yes you can see with it like that.” “You could have told us that…” We sigh out, zipping up our coats all the way up. “There we go…” I mutter. “Time to get back in there and investigate.” I say, heading off back into the house with Joy. When we were back in we were hoping the gas mask wasn’t a joke...only to be thankful that the gas mask worked, and soon we were on our way to investigating the entire house and trying to find anything. Joy tackled the rest of the house while I tackled the possible body in the bath. I took a deep breath and started taking off the tape, hoping to figure out the things situation. When the tape came off the body looked like it was oozing pus as the eyes went from a dead grey to a long dead black. Flesh had fallen if in some parts while it was grotesquely swollen in others. His fur looked like he had mange. He also had pants on so I took a deep breath and checked the pockets. There was a few bits and some folded up piece of paper that was partly soaked in dead body juices. Queen’s Dog House 7:00 Is what it said. “Well...at least it’s a lead...but where the hell is it?” I mutter, memorising the place and time, even though it was a little ambiguous due to it not giving either a ‘day/night’ kind of thing for the time. “Well it’s better than nothing.” I mutter. When I got out Joy said he found nothing so we went back to Star’s place. When we entered the house we pulled down the zippers and took a breath of fresh air. “That’s nice.” “So, what did you find?” Joy asks curiously. “A note telling Iron Side to head to the ‘Queen’s Dog House’.” I say. “At seven...and that was it. No day or night part given.” “It was a reminder.” Dad said, appearing next to Joy and I again. “Only notes to remind yourself are so lack of info. Cause it’s only what you need to remember.” “There are two things wrong, what’s the proper time, and where’s the place…” I frown. “Hey Star?” I ask. “Queen’s Dog House?” Star asked. “I know the place actually, used to work there…not proud of it.” “Is it what I think it is?” I frown. “Yep. Strip club. Not many places hire hybrids unless they actually listen to the crowns laws about hybrids or their clients are into other species or mixed species.” “Oh dear…” I sigh out. “I don’t think this is gonna be good…” Joy says worriedly. “Well...who knew an investigation will lead us to a freaking strip club…” I shake my head. “Oi vey…” With the address given to us we found the strip club rather quickly. It was a surprisingly new looking building, had a sexy Diamond dog woman with a gold tiara on the entrance. As Joy and I began walking in the Bouncer stopped us. “I.D. please.” He asked. I brought out my wallet and checked my I.D. and it just so happened that it showed my new face and name. “Here’s you go.” I say while showing it to the bouncers, Joy rummaging through his pockets and finding his I.D. as well. “Uh...here you go.” Joy says, bringing it up to the bouncers and even though he was the look and size of a twelve year old it read that he was over 300 years old for some reason. “Tall, go in, small fry, nice try.” The bouncer said as he was letting me in but holding Joy back. “Sorry little guy.” I say while patting Joy’s head, making the little guy huff. “Sheesh, beings in their mid twenties can be believed to be a thousand or so years old, but when a twelve year old has honest I.D. saying he’s three hundred is apparently ‘too far fetched’.” Joy grumbles while I just chuckle and walk on into the strip club. Upon entering I was met with naked and near naked woman everywhere, a fair amount mixed or a race other than Diamond dog. Where to look…“Hey puppy.” I turned around as a griffon-diamond dog mixed lady in a…lacy, bikini, spoke to me. She had wings and a lion’s tail but the rest was largely diamond dog, save for a few feathers near her elbows. ”Oh dear…” I think to myself bitterly. ”Should I just openly say ‘has this guy come here?’...christ I should have thought this through…” I think to myself worriedly. “Hi…” I say to the sexy woman. “So what brings you here? Ball and chain too old?” She puts, grabbing my hand with the engagement ring and petting it. “I won’t tell~” I growled. “I’m engaged, and no I’m not here to ‘entertain’ myself. I’m here to ask a question, do you know someone by the name of ‘Iron Side’? Or anyone here that knows of him?” I ask curiously, hoping the stripper would get her thoughts away from my pants and to some actual helpful talk as I pulled my hand away, making sure my ring was still on my finger. “Iron Side?” She asked, breaking the ‘slutty’ persona. “He was checking up on his cousin, regularly, and no, not like that. She works the… bathroom…” The woman said, pointing over the the only bathroom door in the building. “Thank you.” I nod. “But...considering how you stopped to say that word...is she doing what I think she’s doing?” “Relax, it’s more of a…well, no one actually uses the bathroom. Just watch where you walk, and…don’t touch the walls…or doorknob.” “Oh for fuck sakes.” I groan, pinching the bridge of my nose bitterly. “Thanks…” I mutter, starting to walk towards the ‘bathroom’. “Seriously...a messy as hell bathroom is a medical problem waiting to happen and I don’t even know the health codes…” I mutter bitterly, putting my hands in my pockets and ignoring the many women staring at me. I, rather trickily, opened the door and inside was all white, and there was stalls…made of clear glass as several women were sitting behind the locked stall doors. “Anyone specific~?” The woman in the first stall asked. “First up this already looks like a slave pen for some reason…” I say worriedly. “We let the highest bidders in sweetheart~. This glass is bulletproof.” I take a deep breath. “And by ‘highest bidder’...” I start, trying my best not to just get super pissed here. “Bathroom sex fetish. You new at this?” “No...it’s just I said ‘this looks like a slave pen’, then you said ‘we let the highest bidders in’...so that’s kinda your fault honestly.” I shrug. “Whatever. So you gonna bid or talk?” “I’m looking for a relative of Iron Side. I was told she was here.” I say. “Oh, last stall.” She said, pointing to the last stall as a diamond dog woman dressed in only toilet paper, clean, was there looking confused at me now. I walk over to the last stall. “Hello.” I say. “What’s your name Ms…?” I ask, even though I was in a fucking strip club I wanted to be at least nice to some extent. “Copper Plate. Why are you looking for me specifically?” “Iron Side...sadly came down with a case of murdered.” I state. “And I’m wondering if you know who might actually want to murder him for whatever reason.” Copper Plate looked horrified. “Y..you’re sure it was Iron Side?!” She asked in a panic, unlocking the stall door and grabbing me by my cloak. “Are you sure?!” “I found his decaying body in a taped over bath tub.” I say. “I’m sorry...but please, tell me who would even go that far to kill him? Has Iron Side done anything weird? Has he been talking to the wrong people? Tell me everything you know please.” She cried for a bit before trying to compose herself. “H-he, he was trying to become a detective. Since a lot of underground types come here he asked me for leads. I told him a while ago that a new gang rented the whole club out, they were lead by some… woman, human surprisingly. She didn’t do anything but talk with someone else about random stuff. I told him this and a month later he was in the gang under cover to gather evidence for the police. Last I saw him I gave him this enchanted pendant with a teleportation spell for use in it in case it went too far for him.” “That’s...even weirder…” I frown. “The necklace you gave him, what did it look like?” “Amber stone, cheap metal, was just in case of emergency for him.” “Well apparently the gang that Iron was in gave them a key to stealing the main water pumps…” I frown. “That’s not good…” I frown. “What was the lead? Who is this gang?” I ask, already having a feeling I’m gonna have to beat some people here. “I just told him what I overheard. The woman was recruiting locals at some park, and the gang…they didn’t have any name I heard, just a symbol.” “Mind showing me this symbol?” I ask, having a bad feeling about all of this. “You got a pen and paper?” I quickly brought out a pen and pad of paper, due to how many damned times Twilight told me to carry them. “Here’s you go my toilet paper clad lady.” “Har har.” She said, taking the items and began drawing. When she gave the drawing back to me, it was a symbol I somewhat recognized…this was from a fairly new game back on earth…Dishonored I think, but it was over the Heartless symbol. “Well…” I start. “Shit.” I frown. “My worst fears just happened to come true. Do you know anyone that is possibly related to this symbol at all? Anyone that knows more?” I ask. “Just rumors. One regular here does have this symbol on his left hand. He usually comes around seven.” “What does he look like?” I ask, my hood hiding my rage. “Pure blooded griffon from the look of him. Black feathers too, red tips.” “Thank you.” I nod. “You have no idea how much you’ve helped me here. Now I can stop this hidden choke hold on this entire kingdom.” I growl, patting the dog’s head gently. “Just catch my cousin’s killer… I’m gonna cash in my vacation days…” She said sadly as she left. I sighed out and left the ‘bathroom’ as well, and then immediately the entire strip club and found Joy. “Figure anything out?” Joy asks, getting up from his seated position. “Well we’re gonna have to wait till 7 to find the proper fucker behind all this.” I frown. “I just hope nothing bad will happen…” I sigh out, checking the time and wondering how long we’ll have to wait. It was five, about two hours to kill. Well, guess I’ll leave and steak out from the outside. I walked outside and saw Joy playing tic-tac-toe with the bouncer. “Cat wins.” The bouncer said, no winner on the board. “Seems like you're having fun.” I chuckle. “I was bored, he wanted to play.” Joy shrugged. Luckily there was a restaurant with window seats across from the strip club so Joy and I walked in there, took seats at a window with a good view of the club and tried to act like we were just killing time rather than waiting for a suspect. “So...one of Core’s lacky’s are here.” I sigh out. “What was your first clue?” Joy deadpans. “There’s the part where I saw a Dishonored symbol mixed with a Heartless symbol...which is rather worrisome because if memory serves from trailers that symbol gave you magic powers…” I explain. “So having Dishonored powers and Darkness powers...that sounds kind of worrying.” I frown. The waitress came and we ordered some burgers and some soda. After half an hour the griffin that was the description Copper gave us walked up to the strip club. Joy and I payed for the meal then headed out. The bouncer still didn’t let Joy in but he stood close to the door just incase. I entered and looked around for the Griffin. I spotted him sitting at a table drinking with a view of the pole dancers. I swiftly made my way over to the Griffon in question. “How are you doing today my obviously not evilly designed friend?” I ask the griffon honestly, making a joke about how his design just said ‘evil’ with the black and red motif. “You stupid? Cause the White Knight of Equis clearly doesn't know the meaning of discrete or camouflage. You stick out like a sore thumb Knight.” “So does the black and red griffon trying not to literally have ‘Evil’ flash above him in giant neon letters.” I deadpan. “Mind finishing up your drink and taking this outside? I have some...choice words.” “Again, I ain’t stupid. I’m staying right here. You won’t risk making a move on me and scaring these people and I can keep my head.” He said as he took a small sip. “Then let me ask why you’re just murdering everyone here and have most likely crippled the kingdom’s water pumps?” I ask, finding that weird. “Fine, but here’s my catch. You ask me a question, I ask you a question. Deal?” “Fine enough.” I say. “So you want to ask your question first or answer mine first?” “I’ll answer, consider it kindness. It’s the bosses plan. She got the whole underground working to move in on the crown fast. Now here’s a question for you. What reason do you have to fight?” “My reason is to make sure shit lords like your boss and your bosses bosses don’t just destroy everything without a single fuck given.” I explain. “And you must know that you are literally a shit stain to your boss and would sooner kill you if you aren’t useful right?” I aks. “I know I’m disposable. We all are. That counts as your question by the way. My question, what’s your relation to Gilda?” “Why is that important?” I ask. “I just want some clarification here, are you a relative or something for you to warrant worry?” “I’m her father.” “I’m her fiance.” I say to him. “Ah, already on opposite sides of the law it seems. I left Gilda with her mother when she was just four. Work like mine it’s best to cut ties before the enemy finds them.” “Well Gilda’s always been a rebel...but do you have a ‘collar’ on you as it were?” I ask curiously. “Like you are now forced to work with these sick fucks by force instead of by your own volition?” I ask, hearing Joy mentally tell me he’s called for help. “I signed up for this yes, my only reason for still working with the boss is that she’s insane. Why do you think Iron Side died? He hesitated on a job and she killed him. Professional killer, and little emotions.” “Who’s your boss?” I ask. “She goes by Clare. Wears this metal mask that looks like a mechanical demon face of sorts, or a sad robot. Either or I’ve never seen her face. So… how did you and Gilda meet?” “Why should you care anyways? I have a feeling you’d rather see her dead now because of what side she’s on.” I ask with a frown, knowing full well that if you pick a side you’d sooner kill family without a second thought if they were on the other side. “Sides aside she’s blood. Griffon’s value blood ties more than gold before our homeland pride was shattered. Call me old schooled.” “We met when I was helping a her friend, who happens to now be one of my fiance's as well.” I say with a nod. “But let me ask, what was the ‘old school courting’ for griffons?” “Dominance. Female picks out a mate and if he could ‘tame’ the female they were wed.” “Looks like Gilda is ‘old school’ in one way.” I say sheepishly. “Heh. Good to know. Has she spoken of her mother at all?” I sigh out. “Sadly no. I’m either too busy or she’s busy trying to get stronger because of your boss and their group for us to try and get closer through words…” I say bitterly. “But I’m sure she’ll talk to me about it. You have any words about your wife?” “Not much. We were wed and had Gilda very quickly so we didn’t know each other well enough sadly. She was a…proud griffon though. Never asked for help nor needed it. Part of why I felt safe leaving Gilda with her. Out of the griffon’s in that sad place she could raise Gilda with a sense of pride.” “And you can be proud of your daughter now.” I say. “She’s strong, tough, and will be a wonderful mother with the rest of my herd.” I say. “I never understood ponies and herds well, but to each their own. So what else do you want to know?” “You said your boss is going towards the crown...so your boss is literally going to kill the new leader and make this a foothold for her boss?” I ask. “Her plan is simpler than that. It’s pure regicide. Chock the water, food will follow, and with the crown gone, the kingdom dies. Frankly she’d prefer to blow the city to hell and deeper, but her boss want’s the queen’s heart for some reason.” “Excuse me a moment.” I say while turning around and calling for help, just to make sure Joy’s call got through. ”Shit shit shit shit, things bad happening!” I think to myself worriedly, hoping to nip this problem before it fully chokes the country. “Thank you Mr…?” “Delto. So do you even know who the current queen is?” “I’ve heard...but sadly because of the amount of shit the ‘White Knight of Equis’ has to do sometimes my mind gets sidetracked.” I sigh out. “Who is the queen? And honestly...I was debating on whether in Diamond Dog territory whether it was ‘Alpha’ or ‘Queen’, so I just went with ‘leader’.” “Well queen is more of a… title. The queen is declared based upon popularity among the peoples. It can be anyone but this queen is unique.” “How so?” I ask, wondering what’s special about this queen besides having possibly made this kingdom what it is today. “Well for starters, she is a Pony, not a Diamond Dog.” “Oh...now I’m curious on how that happened.” I say honestly. “But you said that your boss and your fellow workers are going after the queen correct?” “Sorta. You see, the Queen is bound to the kingdom via an ancient necklace. It keeps her stuck in the castle too. It's powered by the people's devotion to her also. It's called the Queen’s Heart. Something about it the Boss wants. Sadly it only comes off if the people no longer care for her or if she dies.” “Well that’s not good…” I frown. “So I just have to stop your boss and her followers before the queen dies huh? Sounds simple enough in a ‘this is going to suck’ kind of way.” I sigh out. “Are they in the middle of attacking the queen or are they still getting there?” “It won't take long for them to reach the queen. They plan to start the attack in four hours. I’ll be there also. So if it comes to it, don't hesitate to end me.” To my surprise in the corner of my eye there was letters forming. -Optional: Kill Delto. “I’ll...think on that.” I say. “But...do you have any last words I should tell Gilda?” I ask. “As a father, not as a murderer.” “Tell her…check her favorite swing at the old playground.” With that, Delto raised the hand with the mark. It glowed and he vanished ar darkness covered him. “Well…” I mutter, before vanishing and appearing outside. “Not good not good not good.” I mutter, starting to fly in the air and summoning Reunion and Frozen Pride. “So little time…” I mutter before bolting off to the castle. “Hey!” Joy calls out, the pup wielding Sharpshooters and following next to me quickly. “So yeah...this is a whole bunch of things.” “Four hours till this entire kingdom is bricked...and we don’t even know where to start besides the castle...not to mention that weird leader…” I growl, continuing to fly off towards the castle. “And I have a good feeling we’re not going to get help cause ‘it’s our quest, no helping’.” I say in a tad bit of anger, not sure if we’ll be able to save everyone. When we flew to the castle and upon landing were stopped by guards. “Halt!” They barked. “Don’t give a fuck, need to warn the queen.” I frown. “Provide identification and maybe we’ll escort you to her majesty Rune.” “Does the cloak and weird looking sword not already explain how obvious it is to tell who I am?” I ask the guards. “Or are you out of the loop of all the porn that’s been made of me?” I explain. “This little guy is my sidekick, haven’t thought of a name yet, so how’s about you lead us to the Queen or she’s going to die in the next four hours.” “Wait… Rune?” Joy asked, slightly confused. “Wait...oh for fuck sakes of course it’s that horny as hell mare…” I groaned, facepalming at now remembering Zeke’s horny as hell wife. “Yes, it’s that Rune.” I say, our memories being shared to plenty of an extent. “Oh jeez…” Joy mutters, now remembering Unum’s words to Zeke. “Anyways, can we please meet the Queen? It’s a matter of her own safety.” “We got role play strippers here all the time. ID then you can enter.” One of the guards said. I walked over and walked through the door without caring. “I have diplomatic immunity! I am a Prince of Equestria and am marrying the Dragon Lord’s daughter, you can suck my dick.” I state while just walking through. “Thanks for the offer!” I jumped as my reflections Rune appeared in front of me with Pinkie style teleportation. The only difference between this one and Zeke’s is that this one was red highlights in her mane. “So this is the real White Knight of Equis…kinda thought you'd be taller.” “I’m eighteen, I’m pretty sure I still have room for growing.” I say. “Anyways my very horny majesty, you’re life is in danger.” “Yes, trained assassins with magic beyond this world are coming to kill you and destroy this entire kingdom. They’ve murdered every investigator, destroyed the water pumps, and are coming for you in four hours.” Joy explains, wanting her to know full well that she’s in danger. “And their boss won’t stop until she has your head and your necklace.” “Oh…well shit.” She said. “So… ah! I give you White Knight and….White Squire…full legal reign of the kingdom so long as my head doesn't roll.” “Sweet.” Joy smiles. “Thank you your majesty.” I nod. “Now, your guard said that you have...role play strippers...the fuck lady?” I frown. “I didn't make this place the porn capital and not indulge a bit every now and then. Before I got here this city was mostly dirt and brick houses. Now it's modern.” “Yet for some reason your guards thought I wasn’t me...so I’ve been role played before?” I ask, wondering if that horror of an idea is something. “To this castle. Yes. Sixteen times. Maids each had one for their bachelorette parties.” “Oh lordy…” I sigh out. “All this guys wives would tell you your ‘role players’ have nothing on him.” Joy says while pointing to me. “Shut up Squire…” I growl, my face going beat red. “This is not the time to talk, we need to be ready for the assassins…” “Gah!” We turned around, seeing someone in black clothes and a gas mask stabbing one of the guards. A bit further back was more, a woman in a metal mask, and Delto. “Delto, take care of the Squire. I’ll deal with the Knight. Rest of you… have fun.” Everyone nodded as they scattered, Delto rushing at Joy and the Boss, or Clare, as Delto said, charged at me. “Run!” I shout to Rune, summoning Samurai’s to handle the others before dashing towards Clare and trying to slash at her, Joy dashing to the side while summoning Fair Game and drawing Delto towards him and off to the side. Clare pulled out a black Fenrir keyblade and we crossed keyblades. “So you are the White Knight. Real name Ben, age eighteen, born 1993, November 5th, blood type B positive, 2.1 gpa, B average.” “Random things are random.” I frown, thorns starting to crawl up my keyblade and trying to stab at Clare’s hand and face. She blocked and dodged them effortlessly. “Father dead, mother dead few years later. Foster care for two years before grandparents took you in.” She added, pulling out a crossbow and firing at me. I raised my shield and a pillar of ice shot up from the ground, blocking the crossbow bolts. “How do you know any of this?” I ask, moving to the side of the pillar and dashing forward, slashing again at the masked woman. I hit her in the face and her mask broke and fell off…it was HER! The wan from the photo! “I’m a professional.” She stated emotionlessly. I jumped back and stared at her, glaring at her angrily. “You were the one who killed my parents…” I growl. “Yes.” She said plainly. “Why?” I ask, my clothes shifting and getting a yellow tint to it as I swapped out Frozen Pride with Skysplitter and held both my ax and keyblade at the ready. “One by one. Life must die. One by one. Be that in people… or planets.” “Just another sick bitch.” I growl, my ax’s magic starting to surround me. “Well, looks like I can still kick your ass!” I shout, vanishing and swinging Skysplitter at the killer. I hit, she flipped mid air as she was thrown from the hit and her mark glowed as she used her black keyblade and she made a tear…in the air. My brain and eyes felt terrible as it felt like they were rejecting seeing the tear she made. A black knight walked out of it, a blood stained greatsword in one hand and a battle scarred shield in the other. “Kill him.” She said as the knight began attacking. “Shit!” I shout, the aura surrounding me got even bigger as I defended myself with Skysplitter and Reunion. “The fuck is this thing!?!” “A lost soul of the void.” Clare said, taking a seat to watch me fight. “Once a proud warrior now twisted by the hollowness of deep void. Something less than a shell or shadow of who it once was.” ”God I hope I can get some help…” I think to myself. ”Never thought I’d fight a void creature again…” I think to myself, hoping to at least do damage to this thing. “So you can just summon these fuckers at will?” I growl, starting to hear a solitary whisper in the back of my head, not entirely sure what it was saying while I kept trying to fight against the lost soul. “Yes. It's pure beastial rage and power now. So long as I can give orders and open portals I can summon them. What comes out of the tear though is random though.” “Well shit…” I growled, before stomping down and cracking the ground beneath me, deflecting it’s sword strike and ramming Skysplitter into it’s side with enough force to most likely destroy a mountain. It skidded across the ground, hitting the wall across the room. It then twitched as it walked out of the hole in the wall it made. “Get back in the hole!” I shout, appearing near the soul and using Skysplitter as a baseball bat and ramming it into the knight, straight back into the hole it made and even dug it deeper into said hole. When the dust cleared it was still standing in a battle ready stance. “Oh come on! How do you kill this fucker?” I ask, jumping away from it and readying myself for it’s next attack. It dragged it's sword in the ground, making a circle around it. It then made an aura around itself, it's armor and body growing about five feet and it's helmet falling off…it's head looked like Cthulhu and a dog had a baby…”What sick fuckery is this!?” I shout, finding that face extremely horrifying. It charged at me, swinging it's sword that I blocked with Skysplitter. We crossed swords and butted shields as it stared me in the eyes… it’s eyes look like they have eyes!!! I quickly close my eyes and with the thoughts on how to fight this abomination was buzzing around I continued to fight, except with my closed eyes I saw a white...being for some reason. I just shrugged it off as I kept trying to fight the thing, my precision not being lost even with my eyes closed. “Hey ugly mutt!” I looked back as much as I could, seeing Joy with Sharpshooters charging a strong attack with them. “Bite this!” He fired as a massive bolt was shot, hitting the abomination between the eyes as it roared in pain and backed away staggering. I lept up in the air. “Megaton Press!” I shout, ramming my hammer down on the monsters skull and my aura flared out, causing the entire ground to crack, shift, and even raise the ground up as if gravity wasn’t there. When it all faded the beast slumped over as it's body began to rapidly decay till nothing but a still scary skeleton remained within the armor. I looked up, seeing Clare clap. “Bravo.” She said. “Not many have killed them before.” “I put Delto in a Card after he lost.” Joy says to me. “Thanks Joy. Now it’s on to you.” I say, pointing Skysplitter at Clare. “What about me?” She asked so…uncaringly. “Your turn to die.” I growl, knowing full well this bitch lost her humanity a long time ago. “You can try.” She said, standing up and leaving herself wide open. “Give it your best shot.” I took a deep breath, the aura around me starting to coat the ax as well as nothingness thorns. “Gigaton!” I shout, bolting towards her and cracking or breaking the ground as I ran. “Hammer!” I shout, swinging my ax like a War Hammer and swinging it at the open Clare, what felt like an insurmountable amount of force being swung straight towards the cocky murderer. It made contact. There was a blast and I was sent flying back, hitting the wall across the room as some blood came up from the impact. I saw the dust clear and Clare was unmoved… not even phased. I saw something on the floor next to her though…something that made my stomach turn…Skysplitter’s mangled, broken blade. I looked at my hand and only it's grip was there...“I expected at least a bruise.” Clare said, tossing the broken blade at me. “H-h-how…?” I ask, coughing up blood and forcing myself out of the hole I made. “How the fuck?” “Core’s been tinkering with void. I’m the first test subject he tested every experiment with. Void is my skin now. No force can harm me.” She walked over to the unconscious Rune in the other corner and somehow ripped the necklace off her. Clare broke the necklace as something fell out of it…a keychain? “Target aquired. I’ll see you later pup.” She said as she teleported away, her surviving followers doing the same. “Damn…” I groan, coughing up more blood as I just shuffled over and grabbed Skysplitters blade. “Fucking hell...well everything went wrong...and I’m still a fuck wit...hooray.” I fake cheer, still glad to see Rune alive. “You okay?” Joy asks, rushing over to my battered side as he was just covered in dust and some rocks. “I’m coughing up blood, my body feels like shit, and Skysplitters broken...what do you think jackass?” I growl at Joy. “Maybe Cript could fix it…” Joy says, still seeing the destroyed weapon. “He could have also warned me that the whore was that stupid strong.” I said, spitting blood on the ground before moving over and gently shaking Rune awake. “Wakey wakey sleepy head, you're not dead.” “Huh?” She groaned. “Ugh…feels like last year's new year’s party…” She groaned as she rubbed her head. “Don’t know, don’t fucking care.” I state. “How did a keychain get into your now destroyed necklace?” “Calm down, your still hurt.” Joy says to me worriedly. “Don’t give a shit. Come on Rune, someone must have told you how special your necklace was besides ‘it makes me queen’.” I frown. “Uh…” She pondered. “Nope. Just some stuff about it being made after the alicornien era.” “Oh for fuck sakes.” I growl, helping Rune up. “Your alive, your necklace is fucked, your still queen, and I'm going to get Equestria to help you out in your water problems.” I explain, before doubling over and holding my ribs in pain. “Ho fuck...that hurts.” I groan, coughing up blood again. “Oh for fuck sakes…” Joy frowns before bringing out a health potion and making me down it, making me feel a whole lot better. “I'm sorry your majesty...is there anything we can do to repay your destroyed castle?” “Maybe… I wanna meet Celestia.” Was her response. “In what way?” I ask, wondering if it was just for political or steamy ways. “Proper treaty and to see if her and her sexy shapeshifting lover are as loose with boobs as rumors say~” “I'm pretty sure if I was a woman they'd force me into a threeway.” I sigh out. “But I'll see if she's available, and if she's busy then tits will make sure she's not.” “Yay. Well in any case mind doing me one more favor?” “And that would be?” I ask. “Mind finding the missing pipes for the water?” “I have literally no idea where to start.” I frown. “Our little investigation involves a teleportation spell...so we have no clue.” “Sorry…” Joy says sheepishly. “Let me out now!” The yelling of Delto from one of Joy’s cards caught our attention. Joy brought out the card in question. “Do you know where the pipes are?” I frown. “Duh.” He said. “I’ll show you the hideout.” “And what's to say you won't just bolt after your free?” “Uh, cause if I didn't die here then boss will kill me later. The second the young one put me in this card, I was branded a traitor in her mind.” “What a bitch.” I frown. “But hey, we can help each other out, I can give you a new and better life, I can make sure your daughter doesn't murder you, and you can help me figure out what powers you have and help us figure out what's with your boss...and help find the pipes.” I say while Joy waved the card and let Delto out. “We don't kill those that can get a second chance.” Joy says. “And Gilda will be happy to see you.” “She won't remember me.” Delto said. “She was too young to. And her mother likely did not speak of me after I left.” “Right then. Well you can solve that problem.” I say. “Anyways, lead the way to the pipes while I think if a punishment for following a crazy woman who's beyond fucked with.” I say, still carrying Skysplitter and scared that if I disbanded it it would just disappear forever. We followed Delto around the city until finally stopping at… the water plant? “Back here? Really?” “No one ever noticed that the tanks rose in height on the security footage. We just had them teleported to the bottom of the massive tanks.” “Christ…” I sigh out. “Well let's get to work I suppose.” It took two hours and a crane to get the pipes out but they were fished out and repaired, and started pumping out water immediately. “There we go.” I sigh out. “Back to normal. Now, I wonder what Cripts going to think about my failed fight…” I mutter to myself. “What failed fight?” I jumped as Cript’s voice spoke from behind me. “I fought my parents killer...and apparently she's been subjected to every void related test Core could think of.” I say while showing my broken weapon. “Hit her as hard as I could...only destroyed Skysplitter and hurt myself a lot. Killed a void Knight though.” “And that was the mission. Keep the queen alive, kill the void knight. Did you not look at your assistant for mission details?” “I think my mission should have read 'keep queen alive and unknown keychain away from enemy, kill Knight’. Seriously I don't know why Rune’s necklace had a keychain in it.” I frown worriedly. “That's for you to learn. Besides, she’s a… boss. For a later fight. So… about Skysplitter.” “I don't know how to fix it...and I'm scared about fixing it because I'll probably screw it up, I don't know this things origins, I mean my scythe came from demon tree for god's sake.” I explain. “Hand it over.” Cript said, holding out his hands. I hand both parts of my weapon over to him, both the undamaged grip and the mangled and broken blade. “Please help.” “On it already.” Cript had both blade and handle float in the air before they flashed a bright light. When the light faded Skysplitter was whole and fixed. I grabbed it, then the weight made me nearly fall over. “Fuck!” I yelp, using my other hand and lifting it up. “That's weird...it wasn't this heavy before...but I always used master form with it though…” I say sheepishly. “Not that. Your weapon was mental thought made reality. Technically it was just an image made real. Me fixing it made it real. The same can be said with your other weapons. Save for reunion. That's been real.” “Wait, Sharpshooters and Graceful Dahlia are both real...how is something real a magical image?” I ask curiously, finding that sort of confusing. “It's how you first existed when you came into this reality, you were an image, a thought existing in a dimension made in his head. For him to give you a ‘physical’ body he had to pump a LOT of magic for you to feel real. Overtime your magic body would absorb materials from food, air, etc, and become real. But as my adopted child that was sped up, think about it. First time here you were shot a bunch and are still able to use the arm that was shot to swiss cheese.” “He only shot my arms twice.” I say. “Not a thousand.” I frown. “But can I still 'unsummon’ Skysplitter now?” I ask, understanding what Cript was saying. “Yeah. But your weapons will weigh a bit more now. Also…have you considered getting your weapons upgraded?” “I didn't know I could.” I say. “I thought I was just going by normal Kingdom Hearts rules, not 358 days logic.” I say, remembering how you could get the 'ultimate’ version of the weapons. “More like… well, can't describe it exactly. But You can buy already prepared upgrades for weapons, but the best you have to make yourself.” “Didn't know that…” I say with a frown. “I'm gonna have to spend a day just looking through this fucking thing.” I frown, staring at my Assistant. “It can't just be an emergency health potion all the time.” “Heh. Yeah. So anyway. You should head home I guess.” “We should.” I nod. “I just...want to cuddle with Jenny…” Joy sighs out. “And Delto is going to be our family's Butler for as long as he lives so he can have some sort of punishment.” I frown. “But yeah...let's go home…” I say before me, Joy, and the forced along Delto flew off home. After fifteen minutes of flying me, Joy, and Delto landed in front of my castle. “This be my house.” I say to the black and red Griffin. “Impressive.” The griff said. “So… do I get a uniform?” “Yes you do, but you'll have to wait.” I say before walking up and opening the front door. “I'm home!” I call out, hoping my fiance's can hear me. “Joys back and I brought a visitor!” There was a blur that rushed at Joy. When I looked it was the CMC in…the cutiest footie pajamas ever, cuddling against Joy. “Welcome back!” The trio said. “Guess what Joy!” Sweetie said. “Me first!” Scoot’s cut in. “Take a breath you silly fillies.” Joy laughs happily. “What's going on? You all seem happy in your adorable pajamas.” “Well.” Sweetie started. “My parents are on business again and won't be back for two years and since Rarity watches over me when they have businesses I’m going to be living here for two whole years!” “And my parents said if I wanted I could sleepover at Rarity’s new place whenever and for as long as I wanted so long as I call so I’m here 8/10 times!” Scootaloo explained happily. “And I got to be here every day for two months cause summer vacation started today!” Applebloom said happily. “Though AJ said I can only sleep over four nights a week.” Apple Bloom said with less joy at not being able to stay over the longest. “That's great to hear.” Joy cheers, cuddling up to the three. “Well you're going to have to help on the farm for those three days…” I shrug. “But where's everyone else? And how's Jenny?” I ask, hoping she's been happy. “She's been marathoning this anime called…what was it…?” Scoot’s pondered. “Darn. Oh! Gurren Lagann!” “She's my daughter alright.” I laugh. “Soon she will learn how to get the powers to pierce the heavens.” I smile warmly. “Nice hood Joy.” Scoot’s said, noticing Joy’s new cloak. “Uh…. White Squire?” “Sadly yes, I have to go with this because I'm Ben's 'sidekick’, because he's the 'White Knight’ and all.” Joy explains. “Ah. Alright then. So let's go let Jenny know Joy is back.” Sweetie said as she and the other three carried Joy with them. “Maybe they'll be as happy to see me…” I mutter, walking off through the house and hoping to find my fiance's. “Hello?” I call out, feeling alone in these massive halls. “Surprise!” I heard Pinkie say as she jumped me from behind. “Welcome back hunk.” “Hey Pinkie.” I smile. “Glad to get a hug. Anything new?” “Just some news for you. Girls can tell when we get to the bedroom.” Pinkie said, leading the way to the bedroom. “Listen I think the only one would possibly be pregnant right now is you because you were in heat and we...kind of forgot protection if memory serves.” I say honestly. “Not just that.” Pinkie said, still walking. “Oh wait...all of them?” I ask, my eyes widening. “Yup. That's surprise number one.” “Alright…” I nod before walking over to our bedroom door and opening it. “Surprise number two is…” We arrived at the bedroom. All the girls were sitting around a crib… Braig’s crib to be exact. Pinkie walked over and picked him up. “Hi sweetheart.” She said. “Mama.” Braig said. “His first word?” I ask with a smile, walking over to baby Braig. “Hello.” I say gently to the baby, hoping I didn't look threatening or upset him. “...pa!” He cheered, grabbing my nose. I chuckled softly, gently tickling the child. “Pa’s here.” I smile gently. “How many more surprises?” “Well did Pinkie tell you?” Luna asked, giving me a kiss on the cheek. “I figured it out.” I say with a smile. “So Braig said his first few words and I knocked up all my girls...wonder if I'll swiftly knock up the two other girls I'll probably somehow end up marrying.” I chuckle a little. “Not just that.” I turned at the doorway, seeing the family doc here. “You know about god/demigod reproduction? At least in this family. Right?” She asked, looking at a clip board. “Congrats girls...have fun giving birth to a few...million kids maybe.” I say nervously. “I mean, if that's what I think is going to happen.” “Sorta.” The doc said. “For starters… three...two...one.” At the moment all the girls, save for Coco and Brigid, grew nine month pregnant sized bellies. “For one they can choose when to give birth, and how many, sex is still safe but it just adds to the kids in their already. They will come out as colorful pebbles at first before turning into the babies they are, and for the record as of now your wives wombs are stronger than a dark monofilament bunker.” “Damn.” I say in surprise. “That's...surprising.” “Your father and first mother Lyra wanted children protected more than anything. Fact is from babies to teenagers the child gets weaker as they grow, kinda lets them develop their own strength and defence too. Family curse wise baby Braig there could survive a second Big Bang… your wives like… fifty. So long as they're pregnant. That's the curse rules.” “How come I can't be that tanky?” I frown. “You’re eighteen, male, need more?” “I got my ass kicked today saving the queen of the Diamond Dogs...it sucked.” I sigh out. “Now…” I say while making sure Coco had a wedding ring. “Who's going to be my last wife?” I wonder. “And how the hell am I supposed to be a good father without having a nervous breakdown?” I ask, already knowing I'm depressed and have slight self esteem issues it's gonna be a bitch and a half. “Not sure. Also…let's take a trip to Canterlot. I wanna show off this belly to sister.” Luna chuckled. “Rune also wants to meet Celestia. That horny as hell mare made that kingdom what it is today...and I should know I went there for most of the day being a detective.” I frown. “Well…we can pack tomorrow and if sex is still safe…let's see how Ben handles our added weight!” Pinkie declared as they ganged up on me. Bridgid, Coco and Doc quickly giving us privacy. “Just what I needed after a rough day.” I chuckle. To be continued... Joy's week“Okay…” I sigh out, taking off my Samurai cloak and hanging it up. “Time for, hopefully, a relaxing day.” I smile, walking out and wondering if I’ll have a better day than Ben does most of the time. “Maybe I could have a quiet day for once, no work, no girlfriends trying to glomp me...just a quiet day.” I knew The CMC was playing with my...nieces….yeah, nieces. Jenny might still be binge watching anime. Wonder if she's watching something new. So I decided to walk over and knock on Penny's door. “Hello?” There was no answer. I opened the door and saw Jenny asleep, large headphones on and music blasting from them. I frowned a little at that. “How does she even sleep with music being that loud?” I mutter to myself, kind of confused on how she can even stand loud noises to begin with. I saw in her hands that eight ball that jump started my love life was in her hand. What caught me off guard was it was flashing slightly. I carefully snuck over and tried to sneakily take the eight ball out of Jenny’s hand, hoping not to wake her up as I wanted to make sure the magic eight ball wasn’t about to blow up. I grabbed the eight ball and carefully took it out of her hand. ”Pleasedon’twakeuppleasedon’twakepleasedon’twakeup… I mentally chant, hoping to god she doesn’t wake up and probably smack me. After taking it out of Jenny’s hand I quickly looked over the magic eight ball, wondering why it was glowing and checking the hole to see if there was a message saying anything. There was indeed a message. Answer changed. Fate altered. Shake again. ”Oh no…” Joy thinks to himself. ”Uh...who will I marry?” He thinks to himself and shaking the thing. ”Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, Jenny Ventral, Gabby the Griffon, Diamond Tiara x2, Lupa, Lovely Days, Aileen. My eyes widened at reading that...before frowning. ”Who is Gabby the Griffon?” He mentally asks, shaking the ball again and hoping for an answer. Gabby the Griffon is an overly energetic griffin from the kingdom of Griffinstone. She is the youngest there at age 13, and despite the locals known to be rude or greedy she is rather friendly and caring. Wishes to understand how to get Griffins to make friends again. ”Cool.” Joy thinks to himself. ”Who is Lupa? He thinks to himself and shakes it. Lupa, a young female Diamond Dog. She is 13 years old and to some in their kingdom she looks like the wolf goddess the diamond dogs revered, not for their greed or lust, but for her strength and care for those that weren’t a diamond dog. She is caring and wise, but quick tempered and willing to fight for those she cares about. ”Nice.” Joy smiles. ”Who is Lovely Days?” Lovely Days is the only descendant and child of the Baltimare mafia. While she has no records at all, she is 11, wishes to explore the outside and see more of what life holds. She is born with a rare magic disorder that makes her pupils appear as pink hearts, letting her see the love of living things around her. She is no pushover but likes to play with others… if she could. ”I’m sensing she’s related to Cadence in some ways…” I think to himself. ”Why was my fate changed?” I mentally ask the big question, forgetting about the last girl for the bigger quesiton. Unknown. ”Cripe…” I mentally sighs. I scratched the back of my head before continuing. ”Who are the Diamond Tiara’s I’m going to marry?” One from this reflection. The other from an ally. ”An ally?” Joy thinks to himself. ”Zeke’s Diamond Tiara?” Joy thinks, wondering if that’s the right one. Yes. ”Well shit...Zeke’s probably not going to be happy with that…” I thinks to himself, trying to figure out any other questions Before Joy could continue Jenny, still sleeping, grabbed hold of Joy’s tail and turned around. I suppressed a yelp, and found myself being used like a blanket on top of Jenny. ”Damn it Jenny! Great, now I’m a blanket and it’ll be a pain just to get out of this… I think to myself bitterly. ”How does Ben deal with this so easily?” I think bitterly, trying to get my tail out of her hand carefully. Moving in her sleep again, Jenny somehow made it that I was now a body pillow. Time kinda froze there as, well, Jenny has yet to develop her body, but at this moment she was pressing ALL she had tight against my side. If she was Sweetie Bell I’d have a nosebleed, but either way I was blushing at the close contact. ”Shitshitshitshitshitshitshitshit~!” I mentally chant, not believing she was pressing so closely on me. I tried getting out of her hold, making sure my hands didn’t suddenly go awol and grab something they shouldn’t have. ”Come on…” I think to myself, finally getting out of her grip before touching something soft and firm. ”Uh…” I think to myself worriedly, looking over and seeing that I’m now accidentally groping her butt. I went stop still, my hand unconsciously groping the soft bum as my face and ears just started burning in embarrassment. Then. The second worst thing happened. Jenny let out a moan of pleasure. That sent a trail of blood to slide out from my nose. “Uh…” I said accidentally, not believing I heard Jenny just moan “Oh….dear…” I mutter, my thoughts escaping my mouth. ”She just...she just...oh god...age doesn’t really matter at this point in some cases but...oh my god…” I think to myself worriedly, trying to get out of here faster even though my hand wouldn’t stop groping her soft rump for some reason! It was then that something worse happened next…Luna walked in… “Oh.” She said in a low, but surprised voice. “It’s not what it looks like~...” I whisper whine pitifully, my eyes showing how scared and embarrassed I was. “Halp…” I whisper to Luna. She merely winked before using her magic to summon a blanket to cover us with. With that she grinned and was clearly trying to suppress joyous cheer as she left, closing the door and turning off the lights. ”NOOOOOOOOO!” I mentally scream, wondering why Luna has forsaken me to the hell that is being treated as a body pillow and accidentally touching Jenny’s butt. ”God how can this get any worse!?!” Well apparently everything hated me cause it got worse! I was right in front of Jenny’s face as she slowly opened her eyes. Upon seeing me she, at first, was confused, then as she woke up, she realized what was going on. “...So… if you like them sleeping that can work out for roleplay.” She said, her face betraying her witty reply. “It’s...not what you think.” I whimper, Jenny noticing the gentle grope of her rump that I have yet to stop. “You grabbed me by my tail...then you...uh…” I stutter, my face so red and hot I could swear there was steam coming out of it right now. “Stop.” She said, increasing her grip on me then grabbing MY ASS! “Ten more minutes and then we never say this happened.” “Alright…” I nod nervously. “Your...butt’s soft…” I mutter to myself, hoping she didn’t just hear my out loud thought. “I’m...glad you’re not mad…” “Not gonna lie and say I haven't dreamed this once or twice. Though in my dream we were older.” “As in just cuddling or…?” I ask. “But I’m always here if you want to cuddle. Cuddling is fine.” I say with a warm smile. “But...sorry for touching your butt…” “Didn't think you the handsy type. But as long as you ask in the future~” Jenny whispered in my ear, steam flying out of my head like a coal train. “Uh…” I mutter, my eyes wide at hearing that. “Um…” I start, taking a deep breath and trying not to think about that just yet. “But...you kind of...moaned in your sleep…” Joy mutters worriedly. “heh…Don't tell but my butt has always been my weakness. Kinda got shot there when I was a baby still. You can guess my dad made the shooters death painful beyond words. But after I healed the nerves in my butt just…over exaggerate. Sitting is fine but falling on it hurts like crazy and you grabbing it like this I’m suppressing my desire to drool.” “Oh…” I mutter. “I’m sorry to hear that...but I suppose butt rubs would be out of the question until we’re older?” I ask, wanting to make Jenny feel better after telling me about her injury but not wanting to do something silly. “For now, this is our secret.” Jenny said as she kissed my cheek. I took a deep breath and kissed Jenny on the lips quickly and looked away sheepishly. “I love you…” I say with a smile, moving my hands up and wrapping them around her back carefully so I don’t do something to her wings. “And I'm learning to love you.” Jenny said as she did the same. “So far, I think I’m close.” She said as she nuzzled my neck, quickly falling back asleep. I smiled and nuzzled Jenny’s cheek gently and just cuddling up to her. ”She’s a toughy...but I’m glad she’s my tough girl.” I think to myself happily, just being there for her while she slept. After what felt like ten minutes I carefully and gently got out of my sleeping lady’s hold and wiped my nose clean from the dried blood, opening the door and closing it silently for Jenny as I headed off to do more things. “Well...maybe it was a good thing Luna left me there...at least I got to talk with Jenny.” I went to the bathroom and washed off the dried blood and made sure my ears were okay after blowing out steam. “Probably cleaned out my ears actually…” I mutter. “Oh well…” I sigh out, grabbing a washcloth and drying my face off. “Let’s see now...what to do?” I mutter before my stomach growls. “Oh...well I could get a snack at least before going back to just roaming around.” With a snack in mind I grinned, quickly heading to my room and searching for my infinite sweets box. As I opened the closet where I had the box my eyes widened. There on the floor sat Sweetie Bell, holding my infinite sweets box, with a milk jug next to her. “Hi.” She said, mouth full of cookies. “Sweetie...why do you have my infinite sweets box?” I ask honestly. “It's a box of unlimited sweets. That's self explanatory.” Sweetie said, opening it up and pulling out a cupcake. “Fine fine.” I say while sitting down and grabbing a cookie out of the box as well. “Where’s Apple Bloom and Scootaloo?” I ask, munching on my chocolate chip cookie. “Apple Bloom is with her sister helping out today. Scootaloo is out shopping. She rarely shops with her allowance.” “By the by you said Scootaloo had parents right?” I ask curiously. “Who are her parents again?” I ask, if my memory...or well Ben’s memory serves we were either never given confirmation on Scootaloo’s parents or was just straight up told she was an orphan. ”I’ll just go with ‘never given confirmation...that seems too sad for Scoots…” Joy thinks to himself sadly. “Scoot’s parents live in Cloudsdale, they let her live in Ponyville with her aunt. You know the house that's bigger than Diamond Tiara’s?” “Wait really?” I ask, my eyes widening at the sudden realization. “Her family must be rich, sheesh.” “Her family owns the weather factory. Her parents have seat right next to the Princesses on their courts.” “Ha!” I laugh at hearing that. “I wonder what Diamond will think when she realises your dating royalty.” “She actually has been…skipping school lately.” Sweetie said as she drank some milk. “Huh...wonder why.” I say, finding that a tad strange. “Maybe I should go out and see if she’s alright. Just to be nice at least.” I say while grabbing a few more cookies and getting up. “Sorry I couldn’t stay longer Sweetie, but I think I have to help a girl from a bad situation.” I say while leaning over and kissing Sweetie’s cheek. Her face turned cherry red before blood shot out of her nose like a fountain before fainting. I couldn’t help but chuckle at that and closed the box, grabbing a paper towel and helping stem the fountain of blood Sweetie’s nose was giving off. With Sweetie’s nose bleed fixed I put her on the bed. She had the most adorable goofy smile. I pulled a Ben and jumped out the window as I summoned my/Ben’s glider. I flew off to the school house, hoping to find Cheerilee for some kinda answer. I was in luck as I saw the lady walking up to the schoolhouse. “Hey Ms. Cheerilee!” I call out before landing down and hopping off my bike and walking towards the mare. “Oh. Hello there…a friend of the White Knight?” She asked. A hint of confusion in her voice. “I am not his friend actually, I’m his partner, the White Squire. I’m just not wearing my cloak.” Joy shrugs. “But the names Joy, I’m dating with Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo, and I was wondering about why Sweetie told me about Diamond Tiara not coming to class as often.” “Oh… right…” Cheerilee said with a sad tone. “All I know is that her home life isn't the best right now. Her father is angry after losing some client and her mother is just a plain bitch. I can give you her address in a bit if you want?” “Yes please.” I nod, wanting to help Diamond in her rough life. “Is Filthy normally mad? I can see why Diamonds mother is a bitch though...rich people can always be terrible.” “Normally no, he is a rather nice stallion but after the Manehattan incident his stocks dropped to zero. His store does well but majority of his profits came from his Manhattan locations.” Cheerilee said as she opened up the schoolhouse. I followed her in. “Well...that’s not good.” I frown. “I hope I can help him and Diamond from their terrible time.” I sigh out. “How big of a bitch is Spoiled? I could tell she’s a big enough bitch by her name alone...have any bar to set for her?” “From my experience working with her since she's on the Ponyville Education committee she's not the kind of pony you like to run into. She does whatever to get her way most of the time but knows when she's hit a brick wall. Sadly though she was in Manehattan when the…thing appeared.” “She...died?” I ask worriedly. “Yeah...so’s Silver Spoon. Was with her family vacationing, so they said, not many ponies knew Silver had growing issues with her health.” “Where’s Diamond’s house?” I ask sternly, feeling terrible that Diamond not only lost her mother, whether she was a bitch or not, and lost her only friend in the same day. “She doesn’t need to be sad right now...she needs help…” “Well her house is the older estate Downtown, the one with big bits on the gate. But if I were Tiara I’d be at Ponyville cemetery. That's what the foals were saying before classes let out. Technically she should be here for summer school but I’m not pressing the issue much.” “Where’s the cemetery?” I ask, feeling upset that neither me or Ben could have stopped it sooner. “Not hard to miss. Go passed Sweet Apple Acres til the trees are replaced with tombstones.” “Thank you.” I nod. “Anything else I should know before just bolting to find Diamond?” “Just be cautious with her. She's not talking much but I have noticed her new fashion. She always hates long sleeve anything so that's been concerning me the few times I’ve seen her. After Manehattan that is.” My eyes widened before I ran outside. “Thank you!” I call out to the mare before I summoned my glider and flew off to Sweet Apple Acres. “No no no no….please don’t do that Diamond…” I mutter to myself, flying as fast as I could to the cemetery. Seeing the cemetery next to Sweet Apple Acres must have been what it's like to see Light and Darkness next to each other. One side happy and alive and the other sad and empty feeling. It didn't take long for me to spot the filly sitting under a willow tree, dressed in a grey hoodie with blue jeans… She's never worn that before. I landed a few feet away without hurting any of the gravestones and hopped off. “Diamond?” I ask gently, hoping to at least talk to the poor filly. She didn't react. She didn't talk. She didn't even look up from the ground. I walked over carefully to the seemingly motionless girl. “Diamond?” I repeat gently, reaching out and putting a gentle hand on her shoulder. Still nothing. “Diamond!” I shout, my worry over her safety freaking me out a bit and fearful of her safety. I checked her arm and tried to find a pulse, hoping to god she wasn’t dead. There was a pulse, but when I lifted her sleeve back further my blood ran cold. Bloody wrapps covered the length of her arm. I checked the other one and it was the same. “Shit!” I yelp, bringing out my assistant and buying a health potion. “Sorry Diamond.” I mutter before opening it and opening her mouth and forcing her to drink the health potion. She gagged a bit as I forced the potion down her throat. I quickly stopped and pulled it away, worried that I just fucked up big time. “I’m sorry...I’m so sorry…” I mutter worriedly, feeling even worse about this all for doing something so fucking stupid. “Can you now actually talk to me? Even though I was trying to force medicine down your throat?” “Go away.” She said in a voice soft and hollow. “No.” I frown. “Not when I see a filly doing this to herself!” I bark, lifting her arm up and showing the bloody bandages. They unwrapped as I lifted it up, the cuts healed up from the potion left scars that looked like her arm had been sent through a wood chipper. “Jesus christ Diamond why were you doing this to yourself!?” “Took away the pain...a bit. Lost my mom, my only friend. And as of this morning I’m all alone now.” “What?” I ask worriedly. “What happened to Filthy?” “Check dad’s office. He should still be hanging there…” I couldn’t believe my ears when I heard that. “Oh…” I mutter...only to grab Diamond into a hug. “I’m sorry...I’m so so sorry…” I whisper sadly. She sighed. “You know. After mom and Silver died I was told what happened by that Dorlu guy when he was giving the news. Mom was found crushed under what was once a shopping mall… new clothes my size. Silver was found still in the MRI machine, also crushed, she had early bone cancer. Was gonna be a bitch to treat but she had a fair chance since her grandma had it and survived.” Tiara broke the hug, pulling out two urns from behind her. “Silver’s parents died with her, but they had to be ID’d from DNA. Apparently a giant foot can leave only paste behind.” “I’m sorry…” I mutter, feeling like crap here. “But...you don’t need to be alone…” I say, hoping my dumb thought would work. “And turn to who? I’m a bitch like my mom was but at least she did care enough to consider and think about me half the time. Silver was a friend since we were newborns. Not even sure why you're here.” “Because...I care.” I say gently. “I care about you. Sweetie said she was worried because you weren’t at school half the time...then Cheerilee told me everything...I’m sorry...but remember.” I say gently. “I’ll always be here for you alright?” I tell the poor filly. “Thanks I guess…” She said, sighing. “Wonder what happens next for me? Parents dead, best friend dead, no home to go too. Especially not now…” “Well…” I say with a little thought. “What would you think...if you became my girlfriend? I’m the White Knight’s younger brother after all so technically I’m a prince and I can help you out.” She chuckled. “And live as a housewife? Little young aren't we?” “We’re dating, not getting married.” I chuckle. “Listen, I don’t want you to be so depressed...and I don’t want to see you kill yourself…” I explain. “You need someone who will love and care for you in such a dire time...and I’ll be that guy who will love you and care for you.” “Heh. Aren't the CMC there too? They'd kick me out when your back is turned. Wouldn't blame them either with how I treated them before.” “I’m pretty sure this alone will make them think otherwise.” I state, lifting up her arm and showing her blendered arm. “Cheerilee said you hate long sleeves, and I’m pretty sure the CMC would be smart enough to know you wearing long sleeves would be a bad thing. There’s also the fact that telling them your parents and only friend died is also a good way to make those three make sure they never stop hugging you for at least three days.” I explain to her with a little grin. “Do I have a choice?” “There is but...” I trail off. “I think you want to be happy with someone special.” She sighed. “Fine.” She said, getting up. “So…how's this work cause my dad's corpse is still at home and I told no one… oh wait, maybe the maid saw? She might have.” “Well...let’s go to your house...I want to at least see…” I say, my voice trailing off to bitterness at hearing someone’s father kill himself because of some reason. Rather than use the glider I walked along side Diamond Tiara. This would give me opportunity to talk some more. “So...what’s your favorite food?” I ask, trying to make this conversation a little less upsetting. “Black licorice. Even before. I just like the sweet and bitter taste. Not actually a food but still.” “It’s alright.” I nod. “Do you read any comic books? Play games? Anything like that?” “When I was younger. I still play some handheld games every now and then but that's it.” “Honest...why is your tiara so special to you?” I ask, always thinking it was a ‘parents little princess’ kind of thing but finding her antics, looks, and cutie mark just plain weird on all of it. “In my name or cutie mark talent?” “Yes.” I nod. “Sometimes pony names confuse me…” “Well they wanted the word Diamond in my name when they found out my gender. Tiara came a month before my birth when they were shopping for baby clothes and there was one that had a small, baby safe, toy tiara in it. That's where the tiara part comes from and this tiara I wear is the same one. When I turned five mom replaced the fake diamonds with real ones. Thing was silver already so it's worth about seven thousand bits. Expensive hat huh?” “Pretty much.” Joy nods. “As for special talent it's actually in structuring. I look for any flaws in anything. Buildings, work systems, others… I try to make it like a...diamond tiara. Elegant, and perfect.” “Sounds like you if you weren’t so…” I trail off, not wanting to say the word. “Bitchy?” Diamond Tiara finishes. “Yeah.” I sigh out. “Sorry, but you being a bitch kind of ruins your natural talent and beauty…” I say...before realizing the last thing I said. “Damn it…” I grumble to myself, not understanding why I say these things as my face turns beat red. “Heh. Nice of you to say, but to be honest I never actually saw myself as pretty. Overly pink, yes, but never cute or pretty. It's why I let mom pick out my clothes, she had a sense of fashion. Even if it was just more pink.” “Have you ever met Pinkie?” I ask. “Your overly pinki? Let’s talk to the woman that is all pink all the time. You on the other hand are not overly pink...and honestly I would say Rarity has better fashion sense then a ton of people.” I shrug. “So besides all that, do you have any hobbies?” “...it's stupid…” She said, trying to shrug the question off. “I doubt that.” I deadpan. “Come on, tell me.” “You'll think it's weird.” “I’m related to and work for the White Knight who is going to marry ten women so far. Try me.” I frown. “...I...collect and search for haunted things and locations.” She admitted. “Ghosts, demons, angels, things like that.” I stare at her for a moment. “Really?” I ask. “That isn’t weird, and it’s not stupid. Trust me on this, I’ve seen weirder, and I’ve seen creepier.” “Heh. I also record the stuff. Got over a thousand hours of various footage from my trips with Silver. Dad knew and joined in on it. Hehe…one time, in the Zebra lands, dad ran out of a supposedly cursed cave because a bat was giving birth.” “A bat was giving birth and he ran away? Really?” I chuckle, finding that thing all sorts of silly. “He was grossed out. Man…if I ever get back to that it’ll feel weird without dad and Silver there…” “Well...you’ll have me.” I smile. “And I’ll always be there for you. No matter how haunted it is.” I say with confidence, puffing out my chest and trying to act tough even if I was still young. “Heh. That...might be nice.” Diamond Tiara called it. When we arrived at her home police and an ambulance were taking her father's body away while the police were talking with the maid. They told Diamond Tiara what she already knew and I managed to get the cops to let Diamond Tiara come to live with me and Ben rather than take her to get dropped into the system. I called Ben and he and Jenny agreed to help gather Tiara’s things. Since her father's company went under after Manehattan, the banks were gonna repo whatever was left behind to auction off at a public auction. Diamond Tiara’s room was surprisingly normal if not big. She had posters of horror movies, pictures of what were likely haunted places she visited, and photos of family and friends all over her walls. “These are technically all your belongings…” I say to Diamond. “Do you want to keep any of them?” She sighed. “My head says burn them and my heart says hide them. Gonna go with the heart for now.” She says, taking the full toll of how much her life has changed. “Need any help?” I ask, knowing she’s gonna need help with all the crap she has to collect and hide. “My gear for urban exploring/ghost hunting is in the closet. Mind getting those?” She asks as she’s placing a rather expensive looking laptop onto her backpack. I nod while walking over to the closet and opening it, ready to collect all of Diamonds things. Inside the closet besides some unpacked clothes were still hanging. In the corner was a dark blue hikers backpack. I took it out and inside were all kinds of high tech items...and a locked wooden box? “Hey, what’s in the box?” I ask curiously, taking out the wooden box and just checking the outside of it. “Oh. That's just...personal things.” Diamond replied, quickly taking the backpack from me. “That should be all.” “Alright then.” I nod. “Let’s get going...oh also...just to warn you before we get to my place...it’s very big, filled with a lot of people...and weird things normally happen on a daily basis.” I say sheepishly. “Sounds distracting. Just what I need.” Diamond Tiara sighs with the smallest smile. “Let's get goin.” “Right then.” I nod. “Yay.” Jenny said. “Got a surprise for Joy when we get home.” “Oh hey Jenny.” I say to her. “What are you doing here?” “Spoiler!” She shouts in surprise. “Damn been hanging with Pinkie too much…” We arrived home and when we entered the front door Luna was there to greet us. “Joy, Jenny, this a new friend?” She asked. “This is Diamond Tiara...she...needs a lot of help.” I say. “And...is maybe going to be my new girlfriend if she so decides.” I add sheepishly, knowing full well that’s still up for massive debate here. ”Can’t get women as much as Ben can so just going to say ‘maybe’...” I mentally add. “Oh. Perfect!” Luna cheered as she pushed us all to my room. “Jenny thought of this and while you all are rather young but it will be cute.” “Should...I even ask?” I ask worriedly, wondering why she specified ‘while you all are rather young’. “What do you mean by that?” “We’re here.” Luna said. It was my bedroom door. She opened it and I was staring at a living room…of a HOUSE! “Welcome home.” The unison voices of the CMC caught my ears. I turned, seeing them all. Scoot’s was in short shorts and a black tank top. Apple Bloom was in a green shirt with blue jeans and Sweetie was in a white and blue sundress that went a little below her knees. “Uh…” I blink multiple times at seeing this before shaking my head. “Okay...so my room is now a living room of a house…” I take a breath and stare at Luna. “Luna...what in thine lunar ass cheeks happened while I was gone?” “This is a whole house now.” Jenny spoke up. “I was messing with that thing gramps put in the kitchen. I messed with the thing for your bedroom while you were gone and made it into a house. Complete fully furnished, three stories, and somehow has a front AND backyard that goes for the size of Sweet Apple Acres then you hit the wall. Feel like when you reach the maps end in a bethesda game.” I take a deep breath and pinch the bridge of my nose. “Okay then...what brought about this sudden change? Did people not like being so far away in their own rooms or something?” “That and this was cheaper than moving out.” Jenny said with a laugh. “You weren’t going to move out anyways. You enjoy messing with Ben too much I say with a shrug. “Anyways, it looks nice. Glad to know I have my own house in a giant castle. You three like our new house?” Joy asks the CMC. “Yeah. It's snazy.” Apple Bloom said. “It's got so many rooms!” Scoot’s said. “It’just the right size.” Sweetie finished. “Also.” Jenny said as she clapped and one of those Mr. Handy robots from Fallout came out of the, what I’m assuming is, the kitchen. “Joy, Gearbox, Gearbox, the man of the house/room.” “Pleasure to meet you master.” It said in its iconic mechanical british accent. “It’s nice to meet you to Gearbox…” I nod, only being kind to the robot. “So...I hope all my girls have been nice enough to you considering some of their...past exploits.” He says sheepishly, remembering how much property damage the CMC normally rack up. “The girls have been extraordinarily nice sir, as well as impressed with my abilities to cook, clean, and provide the necessary daily activities.” “Thank you.” I nod. “Hey Diamond? What do you think?” I ask, looking around for the filly that came in with me. “Looks...nice.” Diamond Tiara said, when the CMC came it they were a mix of concern and worry. “Well you’ll be living here with us…” I say with a smile. “Do you want to tell them or should I?” I ask Diamond, wondering if she want’s to tell the CMC about her depressed state and her scars. “You can if you want. I’ll… just be ‘outside’.” Diamond Tiara said as she left through a glass sliding door into a pocket dimension yard. “So...she's not good?” Sweetie asked. “Where to start…” I sigh out. “Okay so...the incident in Manehattan...the monster killed both her mother and killed a sick Silver Spoon.” I start. “And because apparently Filthy’s entire company was based there for some unknown reason, his entire company dropped like a rock. So with the thoughts of his wife dying, his daughters only friend and family dying, and the fact that he feared he couldn’t support Diamond anymore...he sort of...decided to hang himself.” I explain bitterly. “I saved Diamond from killing herself...she’ll be wearing long sleeves for a long time...there are too many scars…” I explain, tears brimming at the corners of my eyes. The CMC looked mortified while Jenny kept a calm expression. “W...what was Silver Spoon sick with?” Sweetie asked. Her eyes the size of pin pricks from the information dump. “Silver Spoon had the early stages of a bone condition. She would have been saved considering her grandmother pulled through...she never made it out of the hospital…” I explain sadly, shaking my head and knowing full well I have to be strong here. ”I have to be strong...even if it hurts…” I think to myself, my ears pressed against my head in sadness as I rubbed the tears out of my eyes. The CMC looked like they were gonna have panic attacks before Jenny spoke. “Well?” She asked. “W...well what?” Scoot’s said. “There’s a broken, lost girl out in the backyard alone and confused. Show her you care dummies!” The CMC all shook their heads, their panic replaced with determination. “Jenny’s right. Let's go give Tiara a welcome to the Herd-to-be she’ll love forever!” Apple Bloom said. “Yay!” They all said, rushing ‘outside’ leaving me and Jenny alone. “Thanks Jenny…” I sniffle. “But I better head out and help show Diamond I care as well. “Same. Been in her shoes once and I know a way to convince her this family in a family is for her.” She smiled, grabbing my hand and pulling me to the yard. It was like being outside, sun, clouds, WIND! Wait, did we pass an Olympic pool?! “Dear god you sure went all out when making this.” I say in surprise. “Yup. There's also a baseball field, tennis court, outdoor bowling, mini golf course, and a race track with your choice of cars.” She listed off as we were approaching the CMC, who were all hugging Diamond Tiara who wasn't resisting but clearly felt awkward about it. “And that's just outside.” “Good lord.” I mutter. “Sheesh that’s a lot of things...but Diamond looks so silly…” I mutter with a little chuckle and a grin on my face at seeing the adorable sight. “They came out of nowhere.” Diamond said, still squeezed between the CMC. “Little help?” “They want you to feel happy. And maybe a little ‘welcome to the herd if you want’ a bit.” I say with a smile. “If I say yes will they let go?” She asks, trying to wiggle her way to freedom. “Maybe.” I shrug. “Come on you three, let the diamond girl go. She’s feeling awkward and wants her freedom.” I tell the CMC. They let her go and I caught her as she almost fell. “Air… thank you.” She said as I laughed. “Your welcome.” I smile. “Phase two.” Jenny said before I felt her kick my back. She knocked me and Diamond Tiara over. I fell over her, my arms keeping me from falling on her…but during the fall we landed lip locked. “Mmh!” I muffle yelp into the kiss, my eyes wide as saucers and my face beat red at this sudden turn of events. Diamond Tiara was in shock at first, before she wrapped her arms around my waist and went in for more. ”Why do I always get into these kinds of situations!?” I mentally shout in worry, wondering why I was always in embarrassing situations as I just kept kissing Diamond. ”Cause you're perverted like me~” Ben spoke to me mentally. ”Go to hell Ben!” I mentally shout only for Ben to mentally laugh at my predicament. Two minutes passed before Diamond Tiara broke the kiss. “That was… my first kiss.” She said with a smile, breathless. I panted gently. “I’m...glad you like it.” I say with a smile. “So...you want to be my girlfriend now?” “For now…I hope for more in the future.” She said she kissed my lips quickly before tossing me off of her and getting up. “Well...there will be more in the future.” I say while getting up. “Welcome to the herd Diamond. And welcome to the family where things are always a happy kind of weird.” I say with a smile. “Now for the support of the head wife to be.” Jenny said. She grabbed Diamond Tiara and went in for a KISS. She lip locked the pink filly, who turned bright red but slowly let the kiss happen. I fell backwards, blood spurting from my nose like a miner struck oil. “Why does this keep happening to me?” I whimper, wondering why I always find lewd things like this. Night came and we had dinner with the family, introducing Diamond Tiara as my new Girlfriend. After dinner I showered up and upon opening the door I was glad I got dressed before I got out because Jenny was outside the door. “Sup pup?” She asked. “Hey Jenny.” I nod nervously. “Uh...what are you doing here?” I ask sheepishly. “Wanna give you the tour of the noteworthy rooms I added.” “I have a feeling at least one or two of the rooms involve ‘adults only’ right?” I ask. “But alright, let’s get going on the tour.” I nod, following Jenny for the guided tour. “First up, bedroom.” She said, opening the door and inside was a tall room with the upper half claimed by some kinda indoor balcony where a large bed and several dressers sat. Under the balcony and on the floor was like a second living room with three couches, a LARGE flatscreen T.V., and a Soda Bar in the back. There was also a computer desk, well, desks, with a computer for one each, and a...ball pit? “You like?” She asked. “There is sure a lot...but what’s with the ball pit?” I ask in confusion. “I like the ball pit but...seems weird to add a ball pit here for some reason.” “Why not? Any age a ball pit is just plain fun. Also.” Jenny practically dragged me over to a door on the bottom half of the room next to the Soda Bar. She opened it and it looked like one of those japanese public bath houses…where the CMC and Diamond Tiara were bathing...my nose dripped blood instead of a fountain. “I’m...so confused on why I haven’t died from blood loss…” I mutter, not believing I was seeing the four bathing together. “Uh...okay then...that’s...nice to see.” I nod. “Anything else Jenny?” “AAAHHHH!” The yelled upon seeing me, Jenny quickly closing the door. “Couldn't resist. I’m reformed but hey, still a troublemaker.” She said. “And I wouldn’t change that at all.” I smile warmly. “So...anywhere else we need to look? Cause so far our room is huge and the bathroom is also big...and filled with lewd imagery in the known future…” She chuckled, dragging me by my arm again and took me to the first floor of what would normally be the basement but was instead a hallway with five rooms. Two doors on each side and one in front of us. “To our right, the game room.” She said, opening the first door on the right and inside was another massive room filled with a TV, one for every game station ever made, a lounge looking area where handhelds were laid around like dirty clothes, a library shelf of games that went all around the room from top to bottom, a line of super high end looking computers, and scattered around it all tabletop games and one small area where there were board games. “Was the hardest one actually.” Jenny said. “Showed Luna, had to drag her out with Ben’s help.” “Where have you been all my life?” I ask Jenny, my eyes wide at such a holy ground for gamers. “Wait….” I mutter, realising what I said and my face turned beat red. “Uh...s-sorry. But seriously this is a massive game room...it’s amazing.” I say, looking around at it all. “But I find it a little weird that Ben and Luna haven’t already made a game room. But I suppose Ben would want to have some ‘father daughter game time’ sometimes right?” “Maybe. Next room.” She said, closing the door and opening the first door on the left. In there was a library that is bigger than it should be…this magic stuff is odd. “Figured it be classy.” “Classy indeed.” I nod. “Maybe I’ll be here a few times...me and Ben have been behind in reading.” I shrug. “So, how many books and or mangas are here?” “In total, including books, manga, comics, and audio records…over sixty trillion.” “Hot damn.” I say, honestly shocked by the amount of reading material here. “Yeah. All received copies from the family home. Ya know, Cript.” “Oh yeah.” I nod. “Okay...so Library, Game room, our amazing bedroom...what next?” I ask, already excited about the next room that my tail was wagging. “Next room.” She said, closing the door and opening the second on the left. Inside was...heaven. Candy and sweets everywhere, licorice grass, candy apple trees, chocolate milk river, you name it, this made Willy Wonka look like a sad candy store. “Haven't showed Pinkie or Sweetie yet…and I don't plan on letting Pinkie know about this room.” I could have sworn my jaw was on the ground at the sight. “You...made all this?” “Yeah. Best part all this stuff grows right back after a while.” “Are….are you an angel?” I ask breathlessly, my eyes glittering at what Jenny has made in this single room. “Sixteen for that role play love.” She said, booping my nose. I shake my head at that sudden boop. “I don’t think it needs to be a role play if it’s true.” I chuckle happily. “Anyways, before I start drooling and or stuck in this room forever, let’s go to the next room.” “Alright then. Next room.” She closed the door and then opened the second right one. Inside was…weapons. Weapons and ammo boxes scattered everywhere. Also there was swords and such, a shooting range, and a ring for close combat. “Gotta stay in shape right?” “True...oh dear I don’t want the other girls getting hurt…” I say, starting to think and fuss over all the ways the four fillies could get hurt. “This place is also stocked with potions and such so that's covered for practice injuries.” She added. “Oh thank god.” I sigh out happily. “So...training room, sounds good enough...and it’ll be good to show the others how to defend themselves.” “Yeah. And now the final room for the basement.” She said, closing the door and opened the final door. Inside was my Samurai outfit on a mannequin in a glass display case. The room was painted like the realm of Nothingness. And this case with my outfit was all that was here. “Tada! Your place to hang the cloak, and a trophy room for you to customize.” “Wow…” I mutter, my eyes wide at seeing such a nice place. “This...looks amazing...thanks Jenny.” I smile warmly, glad to see my own trophy room to show how well I’ve been as a hero. “You may be the sidekick, but remember. Ben is a Dusk, you're a Samurai, how many other nobodies can make you two an organization?” “Well actually...if memory serves Dusks aren’t apart of the ‘Organization XIII’ in Kingdom Hearts 2...but we’ll make an exception about it considering he can literally summon every kind of Nobody and considering the whispers I hear in his head every now and then…” I trail off worriedly. “But honestly...we have literally no idea how many Nobodies there are. We’ve only known about the original fourteen Nobodies in that game but we’ve seen wolves, Medics, and those whispers...it makes us think there’s something ancient that we have no idea about…” I shake his head. “But oh well. We have enough problems to be honest.” I say. “But besides me going off on a tangent...we have no idea actually. The game only had thirteen people but an organization could be any amount all things considered.” “Well whatever the case things will only ever get weirder. Come on, let's hit the hay.” Jenny said, closing the door and swaying her tail...which made mine wag like crazy. I gulped and followed Jenny, not believing my tail would betray me here. “Y-yeah...let’s hit the hay…” I woke up in a dog pile…literally. “Huh?” I mutter, wondering why I was in a dog pile. I opened my eyes and I was cuddling Apple Bloom. Sweetie and Scoots behind me, Jenny behind Apple Bloom. Where’s Diamond Tiara? I looking around trying to find Diamond and wondering where she was. “Diamond?” I whisper, wondering where she was. She was nowhere to be seen. Using the utmost of the stealth I could muster I snuck out of bed and went into the lower living-room, only to kneel down and stop at the top of the steps. Diamond Tiara was on the couch down there, staring at the box from that bag. “Need to talk?” I ask, stopping my sneaking and walking over to the teen pony. She jumped. “Joy? W...what are you doing up… It's almost four in the morning.” “I’ve had 282 year’s worth of sleeping Diamond. Waking up now is nothing more than a little nap considering I was also stuck in Ben’s head for eighteen extra years.” I explain, walking over and sitting next to Diamond on the couch. “Come on, we’re all here to help, and talking to me about this box will help out...also I was worried about you when I didn’t find you in our cuddling dog pile.” “N...no…what's in this box is…family business…from my dad’s side.” “You may be my girlfriend but you're apart of this family...please, you can tell me anything.” I say gently. “Want to know something about me that’s personal just so you can talk about your personal stuff?” “...You first then.” “I...wasn’t actually a person technically.” I say honestly. “I was originally Ben’s ‘Joy’, which is actually my name. But when Ben’s parents were murdered and made to look like suicides Ben felt like it was all his fault...so I slowly turned from Joy...to Rejection.” I explain sadly. “I don’t remember how long I’ve been Rejection...it was horrible...and only when Ben finally did his Keyblade Mastery Exam did...I finally became Joy again…” I explain, tears forming in my eyes at that horrible but wonderful memory. “I...thought I wouldn’t be myself again...but...he unknowingly promised me...and he fulfilled it...and it was only when I was brought back did he remember…” I say sadly. “I tried killing the bastard all because he was a sassy bastard that was slowly, and unknowingly, killing himself in a special way…” I shake my head bitterly. “Ben told everyone his side...but I’ve never told anyone my side...it was cold...uncaring...all my friends in his head all feared me because I was nothing more than his rejection of everything...I don’t...I don’t want to feel that way anymore…” I whimper, bringing my knees up on the couch and tried not to cry over it all. “Okay...that's pretty bad…” Diamond Tiara went over and opened the box. Inside was one book, bound in metal with some kinda seals wrapping the majority of it. “My family from my Dad’s side…when we find them, use this book to capture demons. It's why I always went looking for haunted places. Three hundred years of captured demons are in this book.” “Demon hunters eh?” I say honestly. “But...that’s still raises the glaring question...why would Filthy hang himself? I thought it was because he feared he couldn’t help you but that would be weird…” I say. ”Unless it was that bitch that killed our parents.” I mentally growl. “Not entirely. You see…every male in my family has killed themselves when times of high stress and little hope appear. A curse of the first demon we ever captured. In the book it's nicknamed Depression. The curse not only kills the male but...also turns them into a demon after death… “ “Oh...shit.” I frown. “That’s not good…” “You can guess why I brought it out then huh?” “But...we can save him right? There has to be a way? Demons aren’t mindless killing machines.” “Nothing my ancestors tried worked. Once Nothing, there's not enough of the original soul to save. Like trying to replant a tree after it's become toothpicks.” “Then you haven’t seen our extended family. You see, me and Ben originally don’t look like human dire wolf hybrids. We were actually originally human, but because of a family curse we became this because the curse made our new biological mother, Den. I’m sure either she or Cript would know.” I say with a growing feeling of hope at least. “No one should ever lose their parents...me and Ben know that from experience…” “So they can do what? Where are they?” “Hold on…” I say while pulling out my Assistant and checking the people that are available for helping. “Ah, here she is.” I say before tapping on Mama Den’s name and calling her up. ”I hope this would be a little derp on my part…” I think to myself, knowing how Den can be. “Baby!” Mama Den called out from behind me before I was tackled by her and underneath her massive body...and chest. “How's my puppy been?” She asked. “Hi mama.” I say with a massive blush. “Uh...Diamond, this is Den, mama, this is my newest girlfriend, Diamond Tiara...and I’m doing good.” “Newest girlfriend?! When did you first get one?!?!” “Magic Eight Ball...from my Cherubim mama most likely.” I say sheepishly. “Diamonds my fifth girlfriend, but anyways that’s not important at the moment. Diamonds father needs help and I don’t know what to do…” I say sadly before explaining to the giant Dire wolf the situation with Filthy Rich, and somehow managing to say all this while being muffled with big wolf breasts. “My goodness that's sad.” Mama Den said, still not getting off me. “Do you think you can help us save him?” I ask. “Please...sure Diamond has me and the other girls but...I don’t want her to feel like she’s going to have to seal away her father forever without a chance to help…” “Well demons aren't my area of expertise. But I know someone who is.” “Please help.” I say. “That’s all I ask.” “Alright, one moment.” Mama Den finally got off of me before typing on her assistant. After a bit a small patch of ground erupted in fire as a human crawled out of it. “Getting old Adam?” Cript said, appearing out of thin air like he does. “Parenthood is tiring.” The man from the fire, Adam, replied. Once he was out the fire left, no sign it was there. “Uh...who the hell?” I ask with a frown. “Joy, Adam, Adam, Joy.” Cript said. “Adam is Hell’s current king, aka, the devil.” “Huh…” I start. “For some reason I thought ‘Adam’ from ‘Adam and Eve’ for some strange reason...don’t know why.” I shake my head. “Anyways, it’s nice to meet you Adam.” “Sup.” Adam said. “So you call me at ass crack in the night for what exactly?” “Demon issue.” Den spoke up. “These two could use some advice and/or help.” She finished, motioning towards Diamond Tiara and I. “Diamonds family was cursed by a demon some hundred years ago or something, and it just so happens that it involves ‘if high stress and little hope are in your way, hang yourself and turn into a demon cause fuck you’.” I explain. “Is there anyway to help him? Get his soul back or just...plain old anything to bring him back?” Adam pondered. “Huh…well if his soul has turned into a demon then there’s nothing I can do there. I can break the curse but anything involving souls it's safest to use Cript’s Reset ability. Any other way would be dangerous for both parties.” “I just want Diamond to be happy and have her father back…” I sigh out. “And frankly I don’t care about the danger, Core already want’s me and Ben dead eight ways to sunday so...there’s that.” I shrug. “So, is there any way to save her father that doesn’t involve him becoming an infant? Anything at all, any idea’s cause I don’t care about the danger...besides dying...dying would be bad.” “What about a memory transfer?” Cript offered. “That might work, but getting him still is the bitch. I’m the king of hell, but not every demon bows to me.” Adam replied. “Can you at least tell me where he is though?” I ask. “Also, do I need to beat the crap out of the demon Filthy Rich just to make the memory transfer easier or no?” “I can summon him but I recommend something...new, I’ve been working on.” Cript suggested, pulling out a small red gem, tossing it to me. “Once you got his memories use that and it will make a body for him, how he sees himself anyway.” I grabbed the red gem. “Alright then...this is gonna be a thing. Never fought a demon before...wonder how well or bad this will go…” “Best we not do it here for starters.” Cript said as he pointed up to the indoor balcony. Right… The CMC and Jenny...how are they still asleep? “Yeah, let’s take this outside…” I nod, not wanting to hurt the four girls that are still somehow asleep. “No need to do something stupid…” I mutter before walking towards the door and opening it and walking out into my new ‘outside’ for my massive as hell room. After walking to a more or less clear spot in my yard I summoned Lindworm and readied myself for what’s to come next. Cript threw a small ball of fire at the ground, it burst in a fiery wind as a skeleton emerged, it's bones bound by chains, eyes like snakes and teeth like needles. “Wow…that's kinda cool.” Cript said. “The fuck is this?” I ask with worry. “Filthy Rich.” Adam said. “The demon he turned into.” “I know there’s hundreds of demons but...this doesn’t look like a demon I’ve ever seen and or heard of.” I say worriedly. “So...what now? I’m still new to all of this.” “Now, duck.” Cript said as the demon Rich howled before charging at me. Teeth bearing and it's mouth open like a snakes. “Shit!” I yip and duck away from the monster, my lances creating a wall of wind around me to help protect me as well. The demon hit the ground but jumped back up, it reached my wind wall and started throwing its body against it. The force was pushing me and the shield back, making marks in the dirt. I grab one of my lances and swung it at the charging demon to get it off me. I hit it's jaw, which broke off but it seemed unaffected as it kept at it. “How long do I have to fight this thing?” I ask, pushing the demon away in a sudden gust of wind as I charged for a Jump attack. “Just long enough to let me gather the memories, well, copy them anyway.” Adam said, holding a small glowing orb. “Should take… three more minutes.” “Cripe…” I mutter. “Jump!” I shout, leaping high into the air and floating up there for a moment, pointing all my lances down and launching myself at the demon, making sure I wasn’t using enough strength to completely damage or kill the thing. The lances largely missed the thing, one hitting though it’s ribs. That broke the chains though… Once the chains fell it’s bones changed, reshaping, breaking and reforming until it was wolf...no, big cat like. It snarled up at me. “Uh...that’s not good…” I mutter, readying my lances again and using them to summon up a whirlwind shield around me. It jumped up at me, and when it made contact with the shield it somehow was STANDING on it, and started to scratch at it, snarling the whole time. “How in the wide hells?” I mutter, starting to channel Nothingness in my right hand. “Anytime now!” “One more minute.” Adam replied. The thing sliced through my shield, pouncing on me and then sending me crashing into the ground. “Twilight Fist!” I shout, forcing my fist into the thing and sending the debuff Ben figured out into the demon hopefully. “And… now.” Adam said, the orb turning a light blue. “Okay, kill it.” “Winds of Despair!” I shout, my lances glowing green as I started shredding into the Demon with my lances, before the six lances turned into a dragon head and opened up and sent a giant whirlwind of cutting wind that enveloped the blind demon. After the dust cleared, the demon was standing, but heavily damaged. It gave a faint growl, then it’s body began to break apart, the bones turning to ash in the wind. When the bones were gone, all that was left behind was a gold ring that Diamond Tiara ran over and picked up instantly. “This was his… a family heirloom…” She muttered. “Should...I have actually killed it or no?” I ask worriedly, feeling like I just screwed up somehow. “Well let’s see what happens.” Crips said, walking over to me with the orb from Adam. “The stone?” I handed the stone over to Cript. “I hope I didn’t screw something up…” “Well, be warned, this rock will make a body based on what Rich saw himself as so… just a warning.” With that said Cript put the orb in the stone, it glowed and began floating. We backed up a bit and after a while the light grew out, gaining form as the gem began to dissolve. What appeared was Filthy Rich, but…younger…MUCH younger, like my age physically. “Well… kid at heart?” “Dad always acted like a kid around me.” Diamond said, walking up to her young father. “Dad?” He looked up. “Diamond. I, wha… wait.” He looked himself over quickly. “How am I… I’m ten?” “Because you were resurrected in a body made by your own thoughts. I’m Joy, Diamonds new boyfriend by the by.” I mention, just wanting to bring that up. He stared at me for a moment before I blinked and I was on the ground with him choking me. “Who said you can date my princess!” “Dad!” DIamond screeched, trying to take her father off of me. I swiftly got the young Filthy off of me suddenly. “I DID AFTER YOU ABANDONED HER YOU PRICK!” I bark at him in anger. “I… what are you talking about?!” Cript gave a cough, then whispered something into my ear. “That curse was strong, he has no memory from when it kicked in, so...last thing he remembers was before hearing about Manehattan.” “Oh…” I mutter. “Oh.” I nod...before my eyes widen. “Oh god damn it!” I shout, flinging my arms in the air. “Is he still cursed?” I whisper to Cript worriedly. “No, broke that on Tiara, and since he’s still technically dead, he’s no longer affected.” “Okay then…” I nod. “Congratulations Diamond, Filthy, you are no longer cursed. So I can tell you all the bad shit that happened that you suddenly forgot.” I say. “Unless you don’t want to hear a bunch of bad and depressing things right now Filthy.” “I just want some answers honestly.” He replied. “Manehattan’s destroyed, your wife, Silver Spoon and her parents are dead, your company tanked harder than the Titanic, and you killed yourself because of your family curse.” I list off. “...Oh stars damn it!” Rich yelled. “Company I can care less about but fuck I broke the chain. I would have been the fourth male in the family to break the curse by not being depressed… so… Spoiled is dead?” He asked, his tone turn somber. “Flat as a pancake in a mall getting stuff for Diamond and or herself.” I say. “But do you want to know everything after you hung yourself in your own home office?” “...I own ten guns and I hung myself? The hell?” Was his reply. “No idea.” I shrug. “But hey, just be glad Diamond here didn’t see your blood and brains staining the room at least.” I frown. “Fair point. “Rich said, turning to face Tiara. “I’m so sorry sweet heart.” “You’re back dad, that’s all that matters.” She said, hugging him. “Want me to continue or...you just happy?” I ask curiously. “That’s enough for now.” Both Tiara and Rich said. “Alright.” I nod before turning to Cript and Adam. “Thanks you two. It...means a lot.” I smile to Adam and Cript, glad to have had their help in making Diamond happy. “Well normally I’d snap my fingers and fix this issue but this was more fun and I wanted to try something different.” Cript said before he and Adam vanished. “Well...good enough for me.” I nod. “Hey, want to go inside you two?” I ask Filthy and Diamond. “Yeah, we should get to bed.” Dimond said. “I’ll show dad to the guest room.” SHe said as she and Rich walked off and I went back inside and plopped on the bed. I woke up to sunlight hitting my eyes. I was somehow cuddling Diamond Tiara. As I looked up I saw her father looking at me...shotgun in hand. “Mind explaining?” He asked, cocking it. Breakfast was...awkward to say the least. I sat across from Rich, who was showing his black eye Diamond gave him with a monotone expression. “I am still your father Tiara.” He said. “You pointed a shotgun at Joy in our bed.” She replied. “You’re eleven.” “You were six when you and mom first kissed.” “And you killed yourself when Diamond officially joined my herd.” I state to Filthy. “Just going to bring that little point up for you to stop being pissy at our choice.” “I didn’t even spend a night with your mother till we were dating Tiara, at age seventeen.” “Mom said you two had sex at age fourteen.” Diamond Tiara retorted. Rich dropped his fork. “Damn that woman…” He said, his face red. “And here I am waiting until my girls are sixteen to have sex.” I frown. “So what’s your excuse now?” “...Spoiled was an early bloomer…” He said, head down in defeat. “And so is Sweetie Belle but you don’t see me hounding her every five seconds.” I state. “Wait till she get’s her first heat.” He said simply. “With your dog body that will be too good a sniff to not indulge.” “That is what leads to most undarage sex.” Diamond added. “What age is it legally?” I ask curiously. “Cheerilee said sixteen legally, but in Ponyville the age is fifteen.” Rich said. “Some old thing from back when the town was founded that never got changed in the modern age.” “Right then.” I nod. “So technically I am of legal age because my actual age is three hundred.” I state. “But that’s not important right now. How long are you going to pull this ‘you're not allowed to date my princess’ schtick here Filthy?” “She’s my daughter, if you had a daughter would you not do the same?” He replied as I started to think about it. “Would I immediately do it like a jackass? No.” I state. “I judge people by who they actually are. Not by looks, not by ‘my daughters weird goth phase’ for some dumb ass reason, I actually ask the person, whether male or female, if they actually love and care for my daughter.” I state. “Not just immediately pull out a shotgun and make a good person, that could have been a nice pick for your daughter, run for their lives and ruin your daughter's happiness.” I explain. “There’s a saying out there, ‘don’t judge a book by it’s cover’. Do you understand?” I ask, staring Filthy straight in the eye. “Yes, but words are easier to say than actions.” He replied, taking a sip of his coffee. “You won’t understand my perspective till you spend your best years caring for something so innocent, you will overreact like me when that innocence begins to fade for maturity. Spoiled’s father broke my legs and yet I still went after her. It’s a tradition as old as time.” “Makes sense.” I nod. “Question, why did Cheerilee tell me your wife was a straight up bitch? I mean sure the nickname ‘Spoiled Bitch’ comes to mind but I have no idea why she would tell me that.” I explain, not entirely sure why. Rich sighed. “Spoiled was born into money, a lot of money. Her family owned the Equestrian National Banks. Sadly Spoiled was the only Earth pony in the family, a family of Canterlot unicorn nobles, so can you guess what that made her?” “Sooner or later Ben’s gonna have to go up there and revoke some nobility.” I groan. “Seriously, from what Ben has told me is that they are nothing more then stuck up bastards that do nothing nine times out of ten.” “She was the daughter of a maid the youngest son had a fling with. Mother died in the birth but he cared for her, even when the family disowned him he managed to keep a quarter of the company shares and built an import-export business. Spoiled was raised by him, servants, and the few family members who cared enough to do business. She thought if she acted like her family she’d be accepted as one of them. It was or not though, they were racist bigots so she grew rather hard, only nice around me and Tiara.” I raised an eyebrow. “Well isn’t that just ironic.” I chuckle. “Want to hear a little story about myself?” I ask. “That girl Jenny told me some things...she’s interesting.” Rich said. “Wow I just remembered…” “What?” I ask. “Now that my company has fallen my brother is likely going to buy out everything I own from the auction house.” “Uncle Gold?” Diamond asked. “Yes Gold Trot dear.” “Who?” I ask. “Also...I had the sudden fear of something that’s probably non-existent here…” “Well as I said, Gold Trot is my brother, younger brother, he ran away from home when he was sixteen, ended up the husband and co-boss of the Baltimare Mafia. They aren’t bad, in fact the crown funds them to deal with other underground organizations and keep the peace in the streets when the police or crown can’t. After Manehattan I can only imagine they’re working overtime.” “Oh, that’s interesting.” I nod. “Glad to hear your brother is doing good for himself...I wonder how he’ll react to not being the ‘little brother’ anymore.” I chuckle. “Oh ha, ha. Gold probably might try and take in Tiara after hearing about my ‘death’...question, how would you deal with an eccentric borderline radicalist?” “That depends on how eccentric and radicalist he is. But Gold is not taking Tiara away because she is my girlfriend and under the protection of the crown technically because I’m a prince.” I explain. “And he once bitch slapped Celestia for taking his donut away at a meeting. Trust me, Gold gives ZERO fucks about who you are, he’ll judge you when he meets you.” I frown. “It depends on how much of a dick he is then. Cause if he’s a dick then he’s not going to be happy about his life choices.” “You’re talking about a stallion who once took out a whole prison of criminals, with only a single shot shotgun, five shot revolver, and a dictionary.” “Hmm…” I take a moment. “Meh, I’m not here to counter his achievements with my own. Oh well, let’s hope we don’t come to blows.” I shrug. “No need for fights when there doesn’t need to be any.” I say while sipping my orange juice. “So, how long until the auction?” “Soon I’d imagine.” “Well cripe...where does it take place?” I ask, hoping to find it soon. “In cases like this, mine, whatever, the items in the house are catalogued and then the list and pictures of the items are shown at town hall for the auction, once that’s done everything is mailed to the buyers.” “Right then.” I nod. “Glad to know I’m going to go to town hall...ya know I have a feeling none of us ever went to town hall...weird.” I frown, just noticing that in all the places of Ponyville me and Ben haven’t gone to town hall. Diamond, Jenny, Rich and I left to see about town hall. Ben didn’t come since he was on a date night with Bridget. We went to town hall and the main lobby was like the show on the first episode with rooms connecting to other areas. The lobby was our main place though as people were sitting in fold out chairs while pictures of items from Rich’s and Diamond’s home were on on display. “And sold to the gentle stallion in the back, one Alicornien era painting.” Mayor Mare said, standing on a podium. “Well...glad to see things are already selling out well.” I mutter. “So...look for Gold or what?” “The one who bought the painting.” Rich said, pointing at the stallion in the back. His coat was the same as Rich’s and his mane was gold yellow. I noticed there was a peach colored filly next to him with a blond mane and dark black sunglasses. “Go over there and ask him to come over here or just let him buy as much as he can?” I ask curiously, not entirely sure what to do during an auction since it was the first time either me or Ben have been to one. “Might as well.” Rich said, leading us over to Gold. “Goldfish.” Rich said as we stood next to his brother. The stallion turned around, looking down at Rich before his eyes went wide. “...Rich Bitch?” “Glad you remember.” “...How in the five fucks?” “Let’s talk somewhere private.” “Rich bitch?” I whisper to Diamond worriedly. “Dad and uncle Gold had dumb nicknames for eachother as foals. Dad’s was Rich Bitch and Gold’s was Goldfish.” She explained. “Weird…” I mutter. “Well let’s hope this all doesn’t go to hell.” We walked outside the building, that sunglasses wearing filly following us. “So… how did this happen?” “Long story.” I sigh out. “Names Joy, or ‘White Squire’ as the public would start knowing me given my cloak.” I explained everything to Gold, he took it surprisingly calmly. “Alright then.” He said, sighing. “So, all I got from that is you are dating/taking care of Diamond Tiara and I’m now the older brother.” “Basically.” I nod. “So...any problems?” “No, but I do have a favor.” He said, shoving the filly with the sunglasses in front of me. “This is my daughter Lovely Days. Diamond’s cousin. Please look after her as I am not trusting my house staff at the moment and if anything happens then meh, more to the family.” “Dad!” The filly, Lovely, finally spoke. “I make no promises on not trying to date the Lovely girl that’s in front of me.” I say and motioning to Lovely Days, making a poor attempt at both a pun and a pick up line. “But what I do promise is her safety. That’s something I never make shitty puns about.” “Well either way, look after her and I will be taking my brother with me.” “Wait, what, why?” Rich asked. “As you know Lovely has been kept hidden as my child since her birth for safety reason. Just recently word fell into other, not so friendly hands, that I have a child, but their name, gender, and such are not known to them. I trust Rich to be able to help himself while Lovely is safe with the wolf boy.” “Lovely will be safe with me.” I nod. “But my name’s Joy, not ‘wolf boy’ just so you know.” “Whatever wolf boy.” Gold said. “Rich, you ready?” Rich sighed. “Fine...Diamond, I’ll visit when I can. You all just...go home I guess?” “Sure dad.” Diamond said as she, Jenny, Lovely and I walked out of town hall. “So Lovely...how have you been today?” I ask, hoping to at least start a conversation. “So so. Wow…” She said, staring at Jenny, Diamond and I. “What?” I ask, remembering what my eight ball said and told me that she could see love but wanting to play dumb just for it. “You three… really are meant for eachother.” “How can you tell?” I ask “...Might as well.” She said, taking off her sunglasses, revealing her eyes that looked like pink hearts. “Magic disorder, it affected my eyes and I can see the colors of love between pomies. Same colors or similar enough means they can be really happy together. For you three it’s the exact same color.” “I’m pretty sure a certain princess of love would want to have a word with you if she figures this out.” I chuckle. “But hey...can you tell if you're connected to anyone if you look into a mirror or a reflective surface?” I ask curiously, just wondering if that’s a thing. “Nope, can’t see my love’s color, never could for some reason.” “Hmm…” I hum to myself. “Strange...mind if I ask what color you see from the three of us?” I ask curiously, trying not to lose track of things from those magically beautiful eyes. “Like a silver with a pink tint.” Lovely said. “Okay then.” I nod. “Thank you for telling me that.” I say, still thinking about how and or why she couldn’t notice her own love. “Hey, what’s this?” She asked, grabbing the arm with my Assistant. “Something very special in many ways.” I tell her. “It’s called an Assistant. Jenny? Do you have anything to say about this thing?” I ask, knowing she’ll be better at explaining things. “You can buy cool stuff from it.” Jenny added, pulling out a syringe from her pocket filled with a pink neon glowing liquid. “This was just called Neon and I have no idea what it does.” I decided that seeing the syringe and hearing Jenny not knowing what something does to swiftly, and perfectly fine, hide behind Lovely Days. “Nuu...” I mutter, using my possible future wife as a shield to make sure I stay away from the needle. “A-anyways...Lovely, want to see your new home?” “Kinda wanna see what the Neon glowy stuff does.” She replied. “One way to find out.” Jenny said, taking the cap off the needle and sticking it in Lovely’s arm. “Ow! Hey!” Lovely replied, Jenny already taking out the empty syringe. “Wow, I feel…” Lovely said before her eyes glowed with a neon hot pink as her arms began to get covered in lines of the same neon hot pink. “Lovely are you okay?” I ask immediately, my ears flat against my head and just me feeling a whole tons of worry for Lovely. “I feel so...good.” She replied, her arms flowing the neon towards her hands as she twirled her fingers, making the neon lines spiral around in a rather bright and colorful manor. “Mind looking that Neon stuff up Joy?” Lovely asked, still looking at her self generated light show. “Uh...sure…” I nod, pulling up my Assistant and searching it up, glaring at Jenny for a moment for possibly hurting Lovely as I looked down and saw it. Neon. A fully active and flexible Conduit gene that gives the injector the power over Neon Light Energy. Abilities are all listed, effects permanent. “Well as far as I see the effects are permanent and you now have the power to produce Neon Light Energy...Lovely.” I groan, not believing I just made another pun off of her name. “Uh...no pun intended…” I mutter while looking over the other possible abilities besides ‘produce light’ this thing gave her. “Cool.” Lovely said, the lights fading and her eyes returning to normal. “That's gonna be fun to mess with.” “It can be.” I shrug. “But...hmm…” I hum again, my mind wandering to ‘if she’ll literally glow beat red if something embarrassing happened to her’. “So...head home?” Jenny asked. “Yeah, Lovely has a lot to see and a lot more people to meet.” I nod. “Let’s hope the others won’t do something silly.” I sigh out, moving around so I wouldn’t be behind Lovely anymore. “So, ever lived in a castle before Lovely?” “On a trip to the sheepland isles once. Was old and creepy. So which way if your home?” “This way.” I say while leading the way. “Who want’s to fly home?” I ask the three girls honestly before we just start walking. “Race!” Lovely said, but as soon as she ran she was a mile away in a second, covered in Neon light, leaving a hot pink neon trail in the air and an after image of her in every footstep. “Jesus hell…” I mutter, summoning my glider. “Alright, who want’s to hop on and follow after the hyper girl?” We followed the trail she left and found her waiting outside the castle front door. “This Neon stuff is REALLY going to be fun.” Lovely said, twitching with excitement. “Slow down you silly girl jeez.” I chuckle. “But anyways, this is the castle we all live in. There’s a lot of things to look at, experience, and explain.” I say while walking over and opening the door and leading Lovely through the house. Introducing her to Ben and his wives went well, but the nieces and nephews was...time consuming. Once that was all done with we went into my room/house and when we finally found the CMC they were on the couch in the bedroom, Applebloom and Scootaloo patting a beat red Sweetie on the back. “Uh...what did we miss?” I ask. Before anyone answered Scoot’s ran up to me and put a clothes line pin over my nose. “Sweetie just went into her first heat.” “Oh for the love of god…” I groan. “Anyways! This is Lovely Days, she’s going to be living with us...so she might accidentally be apart of the herd I don’t know that’s up to her.” I explain while showing them Lovely Days, summoning Frozen Pride just incase Sweetie tries to tackle me. “Hey.” Lovely said. “Sorry about suddenly bringing you here while Sweetie Belle is in her first heat…” I say sheepishly. “Just uh...don’t be surprised if Sweetie tries to chase me…” “Meh.” Lovely replied. “Right then, so let me show you around the entirety of our house and everything that is in my room.” I say while showing Lovely around. She saw the candy room and started munching on the “grass” which was liquorish. And she, alone, devoured a whole candy apple tree...where did she put it all? “Uh...Lovely? You do know you just ate an entire candy apple tree...like...the entire thing...how?” I ask, wondering how in the world she did that feat of magic. “No idea.” She replied, licking the caramel from her fingers. “Maybe this Neon thing changed me more than just giving me pretty light powers.” I checked my Assistant for all the ‘powers’ and ‘side effects’ the Neon thing gave her. “Well let’s hope it’s nothing too bad…” I mutter. Neon abilities. Neon Drain Neon Beam Rapid fire Phosphor Beam Light Speed Photon Jump Endless Speed Laser Insight Laser Focus Speed Laser Stasis Bubble Extended bubble Enhanced stasis Deadly stasis Radiant sweep Listed above are standard Neon Conduit powers, each individual can create their own unique powers, new injectors of the Conduite gene syringes will experiences rapid metabolism increases and hunger for ten to thirteen hours after injection. “I figured out your problem Lovely...Jenny literally injected a different species genetics into you.” I frown. “And that race would be a ‘Neon Conduit’ apparently...so you're going to have to stuff yourself for possibly ten to thirteen hours...great...and here I was hoping for my day to get back to some normalcy.” I grumble. “Instead of trying to talk and hope to see if Lovely will actually like me I have to see her stuff herself for hours on end…” I mumble to myself. “Hey Joy.” Applebloom said as she entered the room. “So Lovely still eaten?” “For the next ten to thirteen hours yeah.” I nod. “How’s Sweetie doing?” I ask, hoping she’s alright and not hurt because of her heat. “Sore, but that’s about it for the moment. Rarity said she's early, like she did, so she wasn't too surprised ta hear.” “Well that’s just splendid.” I sigh out. “No cuddling from me until it goes away...in however many days it lasts…” I sigh out. “How long does a mare’s heat normally last?” “A week or two, but they only spring up two or three times a season.” “Right then.” I nod. “But is it best if I keep my distance from Sweetie?” I ask Apple Bloom, not entirely liking how I need to literally leave someone I care about. “Well Rarity said Sweetie has two options in this situation since the obvious third one is out til age sixteen.” “And those two options would be?” I ask, hoping there’s at least something to do for me to help her. “A spell that reduces the...effects, of heat so she's so so normal or a lot of masterbation.” “Was the ‘a lot of masterbation’ the second option or no?” I ask. “Yeah.” “Right then.” I nod. “But it’s up to Sweetie, I can’t force her into a decision.” “Especially about her body.” Applebloom chuckled, quickly hugging me. I hugged Applebloom back with a smile. “Thanks AB...I’ll try to talk to Rarity and Sweetie about it all...hopefully Sweetie just doesn’t tackle me to the ground though.” I chuckle nervously. “Let's hope.” She said before kissing me…deep throating me with her tongue before parting and leaning in close to my ear. “I called dibs on ya first~” She playfully whispered as she let go of the hug and skipped happily away. “W-woof…” I mutter, my face beat red and my tail wagging back and forth. “I love my girls…” I mutter with a smile. “H-hey Lovely! You still here?” I call out, shaking my head. “Saw the whole thing.” She replied, munching on a candy cane. “That was sexy.” “You can...join the herd if you want…” I say nervously. “But only if you want to.” I add quickly. “Meh, might as well.” She said, tossing the candy and walking up to me. She grabbed one of my ears but started scratching at the base…my tail and twitching leg ratted in my pure bliss state out. “Who’s a good boy?” “N-not this c-crap a-a-again~...” I pant, not believing how good this felt. “But...I am…” I moan in pure bliss. “Good pup.” She said, kissing my cheek before walking off. When she stopped scratching I fell over, but didn't care as I was in the afterglow of her scratching. “Life is grand.” I sigh out happily, my tail wagging lazily from that wonderful time. The rest of the day was rather…Joyfull… Ugh, can I stop with the puns today? “Okay...so I made two girlfriends...helped one of them get their father back...had an otherwise weird and embarrassing few days…” I sigh out. “I shouldn’t be surprised about the weird and embarrassing part…” I grumble. “Oh...wait...Lovely might have told Jenny about…” I trail off as my eyes widen and my face turns beat red. “Oh no…” I mutter, before shaking my head. “Well...I suppose video games wouldn’t hurt get my mind off of things.” I say to myself while heading off to the game room in hopes of just getting my mind off of somethings. There wasn’t anybody in here so I decided to skim through the selection on the shelves. Huh, Fallout 4 game of the year edition? About time they made this game. Thirty six hours later “GAH!!!!” I screamed. Damn Deathclaws got an upgrade in both toughness and fear. Where the fuck did this one even come from?!? “Joy?” My red eyes looked behind me, seeing Scootaloo at the door. “You alright?” “No, a Deathclaw appeared out of nowhere and killed me.” I huff. I rubbed my eyes a little bit just to help them refocus. “How are you doing?” “Well rested unlike you. You’ve been playing that game for over a day already.” “Wait what?” I frown. “No I didn’t...I was only playing for five hours or something…” I say nervously. It was at that moment the lack of a day and a half’s worth of food hit me as I curled up on myself. “Oh god…” I groan, holding my growling and in pain stomach. “Halp…” I whimper, my eyes also starting to burn at my own realization of how long it’s been. Scoot’s laughed before walking over and grabbing a sandwich out of the mini fridge...how did I forget about that? “Here.” She said as I took it and scarfed it down. “Damn, you’ll give yourself indigestion eating that fast.” “I didn’t eat for a day and a half.” I say. “But how is everyone else?” I ask, hoping there fine and haven’t been looking for me. “Lovely has already come off her hunger thing and is also coming off her sugar high as well as you’d expect. Applebloom’s been baking some recipies her sister and Pinkie lent her, Sweetie’s better though no idea which route in her options she chose, and Jenny is teaching Diamond Tiara about firearms in the armory next door.” “Right then…” I nod. “I’m gonna need more food though...and maybe hug you all in apology for staying away from you all for a day and a half…” I sigh out, getting up shakily. “Okay...I...need some help.” I say, my legs numb as hell. “Legs...asleep...help…” She chuckled again before wrapping one of my arms over her neck to help me stay up. “This good?” “Yes.” I nod, kissing Scootaloo’s cheek gently. “Thank you.” “Yeah yeah I’m great.” She laughed. “You know, out of all the things I expected to do with my friends, being in a herd was not on that list.” “Really?” I ask. “Though that does sound about right but...all three of you are practically inseparable.” I point out. “What was on your list of things you expected?” “Get cutie mark…finally fly, and just stay friends.” Why did she pause after the cutie mark part? “Why did you pause?” I ask. “Huh?” “When you said ‘get cutie mark’ you paused then said ‘finally fly’. Is something wrong?” “Well those two are kinda connected…” Scoot’s looked around, then opened a random door as she walked me in. It was the library. “So… I can’t fly despite most pegasus foals my age flying like pros, heck, even Dinky got new wings and can fly with them well, same with Jenny, but I can’t fly cause…I have brittle bone.” “Brittle bones?” I ask. “It’s a disease in which my bones aren’t as strong as they should me, a bad fall and I break a leg or arm with ease…the bones in my wings included. I get lift off and they break under my own body weight.” “That’s...terrible.” I say sadly. “You always looked strong and felt just the same...I didn’t…” I mutter, holding her close. “I’m used to it, fact is I broke several bones hanging out with the girls already, but I’m so used to it I can muscle through the pain. And here’s the part involving my cutie mark.” “What does your cutie mark have to do with your brittle bones?” I ask, feeling upset that I couldn’t help my girlfriend. “As far as the girls know I don’t have one, but…” She pulled down the side of her pants, showing her hip. I blushed a bit, but my eyes widened when she smeared some kinda make up off her hip, showing her cutie mark was an X-ray of a pair of wings. “W-w-what?” I stutter. “Had it before I even met them, painted over it cause I thought, hey, new school, maybe some pity friends would be nice. Never expected to make friends for life honestly.” “But…” I mutter. “Your amazing Scootaloo, it would be weird if people didn’t want to be your friend. And...it would be wrong if I didn’t love you…” I say gently. “When did you get your mark? And what does it even mean?” “I was three and broke my arm falling off the bed, doing that on a CLOUD floor means something. I wanted to know why I was always breaking, so I picked up books on anatomy and forced myself to understand all the big words. Two years later the doctor showed me an X-ray of my latest break in my arm and I started naming off all the individual bones. When I finished it appeared. Doc said I didn’t get any wrong or miss one.” “So...your special talent is being a bone doctor or something?” I ask curiously. “Anthropology, anything to do with bones, and their injuries I can get with ease. For example, from how Ben walks I could tell he broke his leg at a young age, but it didn’t heal right, causing an arch in his walk that will never go away.” “Even if he breaks it willingly and is set right?” I ask, not believing Scoots just said a secret Ben was hiding for a long ass time. “You can’t ‘set it right’, the bones have healed in ordinance with the original resetting. They’re slightly curved and even so walking the way he does now, even if that was somehow possible it would be habbit of him to still walk like he does now.” “Wow.” I say, honestly impressed by her knowledge. “That’s impressive.” I say honestly. “But...I’m pretty sure no one will judge you on having a cutie mark...I mean Jenny probably already knows given that she’s Jenny.” I roll my eyes at that. “Meh, you can tell from her walk she’s broken both legs twice. Best guess is from some kinda head on collision, judging from her reactions I’ve seen her when we played laser tag she double checked everything around her feet so the second breaks happened likely right after the other.” “Jesus.” I mutter. “Anything about me or the other CMC?” “Sweetie’s normal, nothing wrong there, Apple Bloom, from her walk, has broken her right leg and a rib, leg when she was really young, and rib I was there for that one…you though I notice have issues raising your left hand, you write with it yet you fight with your Keyblade right handed, unlike Ben who fights and writes with his right hand. Something happen with your shoulder?” “I honestly don’t know.” I say while rolling my left shoulder. “It was probably something so long ago that I don’t even remember.” I say, a crick heard from it and I winced. “Okay...that’s either because my shoulders are just not relaxed or...something else.” “Let’s see.” Scoot’s said, feeling my left shoulder. “Huh… did you do a lot of heavy lifting with this arm at a young age? Like how you’d have a strap bag on it loaded with stuff?” “I’d need to look at my history three hundred years ago…” I frown. “That’s the problem...” She squeezed it a bit and felt along my shoulder, still squeezing. “This is unaligned, likely from either heavy lifting of a hard tug at the arm at a young age. Now this is gonna hurt.” She acted quickly, grabbing my arm and yanking it with her full body weight. I yelped, not able to move my arm but then she quickly applied fast pressure and I yelped again from the spike in pain. It lasted only a few seconds though and lifted my left arm...all the way over my head. I couldn’t do that before! “There.” “Wow…” I mutter, moving my left arm around and feeling it was perfectly fine. “That’s...Scoots this is amazing!” I say with a warm smile. “Thanks. Felt kinda good working with a skeleton again. Used to have toy ones and use scissors or rocks to make them look injured and think about how they got them if they were real people. Demented, yes, but bones are what I do best.” “Yes they are.” I nod. “Um...do you want to tell the others or should I?” I ask, wondering if she wanted them to know about her cutie mark. “Maybe...but not now. I’ll tell them when I feel I can, till then, not a word, alright?” “Alright.” I nod. “Thank you Scoots...it means a lot.” I smile. “But what do you want to do today besides fixing my shoulder?” “Was gonna just watch tv, you?” “I was gonna do whatever my lovely girlfriends were doing.” I shrug. “I don’t have much to do unless I’m told something special.” I say honestly. “So you’re a follower?” She said, poking me in the chest. “Only when I want to spend time with my lovely girls.” I smile. “Especially a smart and tough one like you.” I smile, nuzzling the brittle pegasus lovingly. “Hehe, well then maybe you can follow me to the couch so I can see how different a wolf skeleton is from a pony~” Scoot’s said, a sway in her tail as she left the library. I blush brightly at seeing the sway. “Gods…” I mutter. “These girls are needy…” I mutter to myself while following along quickly, my stomach growling again. “Well...the kitchen’s on the way…” I mutter, hoping to at least get some more food before things like that happens. I entered the kitchen and saw many pies, a few cakes, and…Braig? “Po!” He declared, pointing at me. “What are you doing here Braig?” I ask curiously, walking over to the kid. “And...did you make all these?” “That was me.” Applebloom said, coming up from behind me and giving me a kiss on the cheek. “Pinkie and my sis gave me some recipes to try out. Pinkie also has me looking after Braig here for practice she said.” “Honestly I thought Braig was making this all cause he’s Pinkie’s son.” I chuckle. “Wouldn’t surprise me because of Pinkie but remember, he was a mercenary before your gramps turned him inta a baby when he died.” “Yeah that’s true.” I nod. “But oh well, mind if I try some? I haven’t eaten in a day and a half.” “Yeah, try this one.” Bloom said, handing me a yellow colored pie. “Thank you.” I nod, taking the yellow colored pie and just eating it happily. The taste was...odd. Was creamy but very fruity. “Like it? Pinkie’s recipe for mango cream pie.” “It’s...odd.” I point out. “Maybe it’s the texture or something…” I shrug. ”I am not running into a ‘that’s what she said’ joke.” I mentally frown. “Anyways, anything else you want me to try?” “Well there is this pie but I don’t get it?” She said, pulling out the card, which was just the picture of a Y with cream topped in the middle top with a cherry…OH! ”OH MY FUCKING GOD!” I mentally scream, my face turning beat red. “Come on that’s not cool Pinkie. I maybe old enough for this but everyone else isn’t.” I frown. “Old enough for what?” Applebloom asked, still holding that card. “Nothing.” I state while taking the card away from Apple Bloom. “You're too young to understand.” I state while putting the card in my pocket. “Okay… Well try this then.” She said, handing me a green colored pie. “This one was called the Athletes pie, made with a lot of nuts, and you replace all water with an energy drink called Monster.” “Oh dear god…” I mutter, shaking my head. “That’s not how you make pie…” I frown before taking it and biting into it. It wasn’t as bad as I was expecting, tasted kinda like a candy bar. “So, how was it?” “Not as bad as I was expecting actually.” I say honestly. “Takes like a candy bar to be honest.” “Cool, now, try this one.” She said, giving me a normal looking pie. I took the pie and ate it, it was gooey, like a really ripe peach, the inside was green and it tasted not too bad, like...a pudding, but I couldn’t get the flavor. “I don’t know if it has a flavor and it tastes like pudding…” “Dang it. Pinkie got this recipe from Zeke’s wife Toriel. Made from snails, it’s supposed to taste like Vanilla and mint…maybe not enough mint?” “Wait, when did Pinkie meet Toriel?” I ask in confusion. “What do you think they do when you and Ben are off doing hero? They like to be social too, who better than others who REALLY understand what it’s like to be married to a hero type. Awkward when they’re the same person but they’re used to it already.” “Oh god...poor Ben.” I mutter. ”Ben’s going to be in so much pain if he has to experience anything they learned from Rune…” I think to myself. “Anyways that’s good to know...wonder why snails don’t taste like crap though...weird.” “Pinkie said they’re normally flavorless, but full of protein and stuff like that. Since it’s a Monster Food recipe maybe I need ingredients made and grown by them?” “Maybe.” I shrug. “Who knows really. But what next?” “Just your standard pies. Eat what ya like, I’m gonna look through the pantry for more ingredients.” “Alright then. Thank you.” I nod while getting water and started to eat my fill. After about five minutes I smiled. “Thanks Apple Bloom, it was delicious.” “Your welcome.” She replied, still rummaging through the pantry. “Need some help?” I ask. “I’m good.” She replied. I nodded and headed into the living room, Scoot’s slouched on the couch watching...My Little Pony. “Wow this show makes me look like I got ADHD.” She replied. “I mean...you looked up to Rainbow Dash.” I point out. “Yeah, but that’s fangirling. You’d freak meeting someone you admire too right?” “I haven’t fanned over something so I wouldn’t know. But there’s a point between ‘fangirling’ and ‘literally wanting to be like them’.” I say. “Well Rainbow has arthritis in her wings and still flies like she does.” “That doesn’t sound good for a pegasus.” I say worriedly. “Especially for someone that want’s to be a Wonderbolt...I mean...she has a kid so…” “Yeah. You can tell she has it because of her expression, her wings shouldn’t handle the pain she’s in flying like she does, they should lock up immediately at speeds above twenty but she’s flying near a hundred. She’s gotta be on some kinda pain medication.” “That’s true…” I say with a shrug. “But you know, ‘work through the pain’ as it were.” I shrug. “But what else have you noticed through the show?” “From seeing this, along with some other things I could tell everyone’s life is a reality in some form elsewhere, but other realities can view on or more of them in the alternate versions that exist within the multiverse. Basically originality is crap and fiction and reality are the same thing in the multiverse.” “Pretty much.” I shrug. “Glad you figured that out and haven’t panicked. Not everyday you realise ‘oh hey, in one universe I’m just a children’s show even though I’m real here.’” “Meh, check channel 5009890.” She replied, grabbing the remote and changing it to the channel...it was Ponyville, but with a silent hill theme with Fluttershy the main character. “Not so TV-Y huh?” “That’s because she’s in a Silent Hill version of Ponyville for some reason…” I frown. “Poor Fluttershy.” I sigh out. “But enjoying the more...light hearted versions of the show instead of this?” “Meh, check this one out.” She said, changing the channel again and...we were on the tv. “Looked around too, no cameras.” Scoot’s said, the her on TV saying the same thing. “I’m concerned…” I frown. “And pissed.” I growl. “Well...life is a show to the afterlife if what Cript said was true.” I sigh out. “So, any other shows you enjoy?” “Well...This is the same channel, but shows the ones from ‘yesterday’.” She said, searching for the right channel then finally finding it…it was when Jenny had me in her bed…“Daw, you blush so cute.” I blushed brightly. “Shush you...also Jenny is going to be so pissed when she finds this…” I say worriedly. “Already know.” The girl in question replied, petting my head. “Kinda turns me on.” A small trickle of blood started to pour out of my nose. “Uh…” I mutter, my face as red as can be. “Um...I...didn’t know that…” “Wonder how this is filmed anyway?” Jenny asked, hopping up on the couch. “Afterlife stuff or something?” I guess. “But I feel worried...cause now everyone’s secrets are just plastered all over the t.v. and nothing can be kept hidden, even when it’s not bad secrets…” I frown. “Also...I suppose people saw the magic eight ball stuff?” I ask nervously. “Likely.” Scoot’s said. “Shit…” I mutter. “Has Sweetie gone to talk with Rarity about that ‘heat spell’?” I ask. “Likely.” Jenny said. “She’s been walking around just fine for a while.” “Should I try to talk to her?” I ask. “I don’t want to leave her alone…” I trail off, not wanting to feel bad about ignoring her just because of her heat. “Well she’s with her sister at the moment so, she should be in the sewing room.” Applebloom said, walking in while carrying five pies, two on each arm and one on her head. “Alright then, looks like I’ll need to go down there. Also I need to thank Rarity for my cloak, it’s still awesome.” I smile warmly. “Anyways, I’ll be off.” I say while heading off to the Sewing room. As I was walking through the hallway down I bumped into a familiar six breasted lady, before I was crushed by her hug. “Baby!” Mama Den said, hugging the air out of me. “Hi mama.” I groan. “Need….air….” I manage to say. She loosens her grip, enough fmr me to breath but lifted me up to just under her neck, still in her chest. Damn I keep forgetting how tall she is. “Sorry pup.” She said, giving me a kiss/lick. “You heading to the sewing room for?” “Yes I am. Why do you ask?” I ask her. “Is it ‘private’ right now?” “No, just wondering.” She said, giving me another kiss/lick. “I’m still glad it washes out.” I say while kissing my mama’s neck. “But thank you mama, but why are you here today? Something come up or did you just want to see us?” “Wanted to see you. Plus I...let’s just say Ben’s stocked up on milk.” “Really?” I ask, looking up at the dire wolf mother. “Well that’s something. Is it your breast milk mama?” I ask, having the memories of Ben drinking her breast milk and remembering it was heavenly. “Yup. Had six milking machines hooked up to me and I’m still full, but enough about your...mothers milk, hehe, I hear you got yourself some new filly.” “Yes I did...and I still have...I think two or three more girlfriends to get if my magic eight ball is correct.” I say honestly. “A griffon, a diamond dog...and I think a human...I don’t remember the last one because of all the stuff that’s been going on.” “Well I hear you got that Jenny girl, the one… well, Ben, you know, and her sister…” “Jenny, Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, Diamond Tiara, and Lovely Days.” I list off all the girls I’m dating right now. “I’m most likely going to date Gabby the Griffon, Lupa the Diamond dog, another Diamond Tiara that happens to be Zeke’s daughter...and if memory serves Aileen.” I explain. “You leaving soon?” “Not really. But I do wanna ask you something.” She said, putting me down and giving me a serious look. “Does Jenny miss her sister?” “I...haven’t asked…” I mutter sadly. “You...want me to go back and ask her? Cause I can and you can tag along, it would be best if Diamond and Lovely met you as well.” I say, wanting her to at least know who I’m dating and maybe help Jenny. “I’m sorry I didn’t ask because...I didn’t want to upset her…” “I ask because you know I can do something about that, right? Death isn’t my territory but the mother Twilight that pulled up your records from when you were alive can do something if you ask, she’d be back baby and all.” “Wait...really?” I ask, my eyes as wide as dinner plates. “W-well...I need to ask Jenny...she would either love to hear this...or be upset about this...I don’t know…” I say worriedly. “But mind putting me down? I can’t lead you to where Jenny is right now.” I say, my mind already divided between how happy Jenny would be...or how horrifically pissed she’ll be from this news. “Sure, I’ll be in the livingroom when you’re ready.” Mama Den said, giving me one last kiss/lick before putting me down. “Thanks mama.” I nod before rushing off back to my house to tell Jenny about this. ”Okay, I’m gonna have to stay calm about this. Jenny will probably be royally pissed about this...but maybe her sister won’t be mad considering Cript said the afterlife get’s the best live tv…” I think to myself worriedly, and before long I entered my house. “Jenny?” I ask, hoping she’s still here. “Attic!” I heard the girl yell from above. Huh, she didn’t show me the attic. “Kay!” I call out. “Uh...where is it?” I call out, walking through the house and hoping to find a ladder or stairs. I found a set of stairs near the kitchen and went up. Once there I saw the attic was another hallway, longer than the house should be, but all the doors were missing and the rooms small and empty. I saw Jenny looking into one of them. “Jenny?” I ask, moving over to the girl. “Mind if I ask a...personal question?” “Sure.” She said, still looking at the empty room. “Um...do you...miss your sister?” I ask nervously. She looked over to me. “Well, yeah, when...Mom, Nancy, wasn’t acting like a friend she acted like a mom, said raising me made her want to be a mom. Aside from her skills in bankrolling her skills in preparing for mothering were rivaled by only, well, maybe Cript’s family with all the babies and stuff.” “Maybe.” I nod. “But...what would happen if...both your sister and her baby could be brought back to life?” I ask carefully. “Ben’s, and subsequently mine’s, parents back on earth were brought back to life, and told us their murderer. And Cript told us that they saw everything in our lives because of some weird tv show…” I explain, or ramble I don’t know, to Jenny. “It’s...up to you…” “Wait, you mean… MY SIS CAN COME BACK!?!” She screamed, shaking me hard enough to induce whiplash. “Yes yes stop shaking me!” I shout, my face turning green for a moment. “Oh god my head…” “Then where!?” She said, almost tossing me as she let go. “Hold on a fucking moment!” I bark, grabbing Jenny by the shoulders and stopping her. “Christ...let me get my head on straight.” I frown while taking deep breaths and calming down, my head still in pain but it’s getting better. “Fine...okay so follow me.” I say bluntly, getting her hands off of me and leading her to Den. After five minutes of walking with a very hyper and excited girlfriend we finally made it to the castle living room and saw Den. “Yes, she’s really excited about getting her sister back. Gave me whiplash…” “Hehe, alright then.” Mama Den said, sending a message on her Assistant and not stwo seconds later the same grim reaper Twilight appeared in front of us. “You got them Twilight?” “Yeah, wasn’t hard.” She replied, taking out a white and pink stone. She wrapped it in some...clay? Then placed it on the ground as it glowed, growing until it was the size of a person. “This lady really wanted this baby, not many souls hang onto their unborn children’s souls in the afterlife.” Twilight commented as the light took shape, quickly turning into a blond woman, blue eyes… and is naked. “Gah!” She said, filling her lungs with air. “Jesus what...what?” She asked, looking around, then noticing Jenny. “Sis?” Jenny hugged her instantly. “You’re back!” She cried, and kept crying with happiness. “How are you doing?” I ask Jenny’s sister, not knowing her name but just glad to see Jenny happy. “I’m...naked.” She replied, making us all laugh a bit before mama Den summoned up a blanket for her. “Well our work is done, shall we go Twi?” Den asked. “Sure.” Twilight said as she and Den vanished in a flash of light. “Hello.” I say with a little wave. “Hey…” Jenny’s sister said, looking at Jenny. “The fuck is he and why are you a dog sis?” She asked. “Long story.” Jenny replied. “Good to see you again sis. So… Joy, this is my big sis Kristy, sis, this is...my husband to be.” Kristy was silent. “...Horny bitch.” She said with a sly smile to Jenny, making her laugh. “This coming from the girl who slept around for a month straight before finally getting knocked up.” “Okay so...where do you want to start?” I ask Kristy bluntly. “Cause you have...a lot to catch up on.” I say. “Start at the beginning on how Jenny is how she is or…?” “I’ll figure it out.” Kristy replied. “So...clothes?” Ben sat across from Joy in Rarities sewing room, Jenny and Rarity both working to help make some clothes for Kristy. “So...how’s she gonna work?” Ben asked me. “...Any ideas?” I asked. “Well…” Ben starts, thinking over it all. “Okay first did you even explain things to her?” “Nope, she said she’ll figure it all out.” I told him. “Right then…” Ben sighs out. “Yo Jenny, what’s your sister good at besides murder?” “Mothering and sex! Other than that a master thief. Could rob fort knox blind in a well timed day!” The young girl replied from behind the blinder where Kristy was trying on clothes. “Thank you.” Ben nods. “Hmm...I can think of two things...one involves her helping with security and the other is being a good nanny for my two hundred and seventy kids…” Ben says with a little thought. “Dear lordy…” The man sighs out. “Well she could fit there, she and her kid would also be safe here to. As far as Core and her not so nice family members know she's still dead.” “That’s true.” Ben nods. “I just hope she likes it here though.” I point out. “But...what would happen if the rest of your family figured out that she was brought back to life?” I ask curiously. “They will either think it’s a trick, think it’s a miracle, or something else.” Ben shrugs. “Hey...do you think Cript can bring back Nancy too?” Jenny asked. “I...don’t know.” Ben says slowly. “She cracked and broke apart, not actually ‘died’ normally…” He says nervously. “I’ll have to check...but I make no promises on if she could be brought back.” Ben says while checking his Assistant if Cript was free and to see the ways of resurrection cause the way Nancy died, it didn’t feel like she could be brought back. “Oh he’s free…” Ben mutters while calling Cript in hopes of figuring out this issue. Ben felt a poke at his back and when he turned around Cript was there. “You rang?” “Yes I did.” Ben nods. “What’s the rules about resurrecting someone that shattered like glass?” I ask. “Like...when they were dying they just started cracking and fell apart like glass.” I fix, not entirely sure how to describe how Nancy ‘died’. “Same as any since her soul was intact unlike her body. But I did check and there’s an issue.” “No heart?” Ben asks. “Not that, her soul is already in for reincarnation. Or recycling as the angels call it. But I can do a work around with that.” “What can’t you do?” I ask. “I can't ride a skateboard.” Me and Ben just stared at him. “Really?” We both deadpan at the most weak and unimpressive thing he can’t do. “Yeah. Can't. Get too skittish when it starts moving.” Cript said as he started to think. “Ben, how guilty do you feel about her death?” “Royally…” Ben says sadly. “I...didn’t want to...it still hurts sometimes…” “Then that settles that. Where’s Rarity?” “Right behind the blinder.” I say while pointing to where Rarity probably is. Cript walked over there. “Cript! What are you- what! Oh~” Rarity’s voice spoke. There was the sound of a baby’s crying as Cript walked out behind the blinder, holding a white wolf puppy with Ben’s messy hair. “It’s a girl.” He said, giving the baby to Ben. “Uh…” I start, Ben holding the baby girl. “Um...I’m rather concerned…” Ben says worriedly. “This is...rather sudden don’t you think?” He asks, gently cradling the crying pup. “Hey, you killed her, now you raise her.” Cript replied. “Just be glad her soul was still waiting for a body.” “Right then…” Ben nods slowly. “So...Nancy is now a wolf puppy and is now my daughter…” The worried half direwolf says. “Yeah...I think I can make this work…” “Well good luck with it. FYI, kill anyone else and I will do this again. Maybe modify it…” Cript trailed off getting lost in thought. “I’m going to try my best not to kill anyone.” Ben frowns. “But I have made reservations on who I will murder, and those three need to rot in hell.” “Let me guess...evil you, Core, and... ?” “Okay five people then.” Ben sighs out. “Two Ventrals that are probably as bad as Core, the person that murdered my parents, Core and Evil Me.” Ben explains. “So we both have a massive to do list here.” I agree. “Not to mention I also have to help take care of all my wonderful kids.” Ben points out as well, still cradling and caring for his newborn daughter. “So much to do…” “Thank you for doing this.” I say to Cript, glad to know that someone special is getting a second chance. ”But I know it can’t be done all the time...even if someone proves me wrong…” I think to myself bitterly. “Well it's a hobby.” Cript said. “Well when you're a god and have literally nothing better to do you tend to make ‘god send’ kind of things into hobbies.” I shrug. “...oh my god I just realized that…” Cript said, shaking his head. “Well, later.” He waved, vanishing in a flash of light. “Well...alright then.” I nod. “So...Nancy’s back as an adorable white wolf puppy.” I point out. “Well that was...sensational.” Rarity said, walking out from behind the blinder. “I miss anything?” “Meet Nancy, our new pup.” Ben says while showing the wolf pup to Rarity. “Isn’t she adorable?” “Oh my.” Rarity said, walking over and sitting next to Ben. “She's divine. She has your eyes. And messy hair…well nothing some proper conditioners can't tame.” “But she looks adorable with messy hair.” Ben chuckles. “Yes but she is also going to be a lady sweety, and my daughter, not just yours.” “I know I know.” Ben nods. “So, Jenny, Krysti, want to see the new pup?” “She’s adorable.” I smile, seeing the little pup calm down in Ben’s arms. “In a sec.” The two replied. “Alright.” Ben nods. “Isn’t this family wonderful?” I ask. “A tad confusing but each family has their quirks.” Rarity said. “One baby out...infinity to go with all the sex Ben’s been having with us. You have a pregnancy fetish darling?” Rarity asked Ben, giving her best seductive gaze at the poor man. “I...don’t know…” Ben blushes at hearing that. “All of you are too needy half the time.” “Can we not have talk of your sex life here?” I ask, not believing these two are talking about that. “I’ve seen your thoughts about when you’re all sixteen.” Ben huffs. “I did no such thing.” I tell him quickly, looking away in embarrassment. “Anyways...glad all of you are happy.” “Same.” Rarity said, picking up Nancy and she began feeding her...didn't think Rarity the breast feeding type. “Wonder when Applejack will find someone? She's busy with her farm and all but still. She needs her own life.” “I’m sure she’ll find someone.” I shrug. “But who knows.” “It's just doing this reminds me of when she lost her parents. Applebloom was only a month old and here Applejack was bottle feeding and taking care of the infant. I know she's one for big families but her work takes her away from her own life.” “Yeah…” Ben sighs out. “I don’t know...should I?” He asks Rarity. “Should you what darling?” “Should I date Applejack or should I not?” He asks. “Oh darling you don't know Applejack. She never accepts offers like that. Never has for as long as I’ve known her. Only way for her to be with someone is for her to go after them.” “Right then.” Ben nods. “Well hopefully she finds the right person.” I shrug. ”This has been a long week…” I think to myself, finding all the things done this one solitary week to be very long and filled with so much stuff. “How do I look?” Kristy asked, walking out from behind the blinder, dressed in a, proper, not sexy, proper, maid outfit. “This was a hobby I picked up during a crime spree in Japan.” She said, twirling around. “You look wonderful.” I say with a smile. “Nice maid outfit.” Ben nods. “But your hobby was being a maid or dressing up as a maid?” “A bit of both. I forgot the name it goes by but from what I overheard I can wear this while being your nanny… speaking of, I found this guy and tada!” The moved the blinder aside...showing Jet...in a maid outfit... Me and Ben stared at Jet. “Uh...why?” I ask Jet. “She is my new master.” Jet said. “After Braig died I stood still till someone with the proper darkness came along. She appeared and is now my new master.” He replied plainly. “Right then...but couldn’t you...put him in a butler outfit instead of a maid outfit?” Ben says nervously. “Later. This is too fun to not do.” Kristiny said, chuckling. “Well glad to see your happy.” Ben nods. “And don’t worry, while you work for us you will get free food, housing, and your child will also get proper care and treatment.” Ben explains to the pregnant woman. “Yay! I get to freeload and be with infants. Best life ever!” “You're not going to freeload.” I say. “Cause you’re going to have to be a nanny and help out with two hundred and seventy children...and when the time comes that number is going to go up by the millions or possibly billions.” I explain. “You can still try to find a date but…’freeloading’ is not something you're going to do.” “Dude, I’m getting free food, living space, and taking care of babies and kids. You're describing my days off from crime.” She retorts. “Well we barely know much about you or your family besides ‘they love crime’.” Ben says. “But we do know a bit.” I add. “But glad to hear we basically gave you your dream job.” “Well then I’ll get to working. Come on Jet, we got kids to meet.” “Yes ma’am.” Jet says as he float follows Kristie out of the room. “Come now Ben, let's show the others little Nancy here.” Rarity said, still feeding her. “Alright.” Ben nods. “I’m sure the others will love meeting her.” He smiles, following Rarity out, leaving me and Jenny alone. “And I’ll be off doing...something.” I say, not entirely sure what to do after all this. “Come on pup.” Jenny said, tugging my tail playfully. “You deserve a reward for this~” “A reward?” I ask. “What kind of reward?” “Oh Sweetie~” Jenny calls, Sweetie Bell coming out from one of the dressing rooms...in a VERY revealing bikini. “Shall we make use of the new pool? Give Joy a show?” “Yes. Yes we shall.” She said, walking out with a sway in her hips and tail. My eyes are as wide as dinner plates, staring at my lovely girlfriend. “W-woof…” I mutter, a little trickle of drool trickling out of my open mouth. “Oh, and Joy.” Jenny said, making me turn around to see her in her own, extremely adorable, swimsuit. “When we find those last few girlfriends you saw in the eight ball, try and keep your drool in your mouth~” She said, using her wings to tickle my chin with her feathers as she left. I blush brightly and wipe away the drool from my mouth. “Uh...but...uh…” I stutter, trying to find some way to speak when I was just royally floored by what I’m seeing between the two. Needless to say the pool was...VERY fun. The girls were teases as they had me rub each of them with lotion… Sweetie and Jenny three times. Sweetie, even with that spell on was very...out...as in it was clear what she wanted, and she was acting almost Rainbow Dash confident. Heat really changes them. “Glad to know you two are happy but why must you tease me so much?” I ask with a frown. “We gotta have something until we’re old enough.” Jenny said, sunbathing. “We can jerk off later, then again…” Jenny sat up…and took the top half of her swimsuit off and folded it around her belly...showing her chest… “No girl wants tan lines~” She said as she layed back down. I held my nose to stop it from bleeding. “Christ...you're all going to make me die from blood loss one of these days.” I shake my head with a little smile. “So...happy that Nancy came back in some way?” “Kinda. Glad sis is happy and maybe since, ya know, reincarnation, she doesn't remember me. But I’ll treat her like an aunt should treat a niece.” “Makes sense.” I nod. “But glad you're okay with that. And glad to hear you’ll treat her okay. Sweetie? How does it feel being an aunt?” “Makes me feel older, but in a good way, mature… That's two things that say I’m growing up.” She said, taking off her bikini top… “Hey, Jenny’s right about tan lines.” “There’s...another reason why you feel mature…” I mutter, blushing brightly and looking away and not wanting to stare at their uncovered chests. I decided to jump in the pool and the take a swim. It was fifty yards long and the deepest part was a mile long...needless to say I stay in the “shallow” end. After swimming around a bit a familiar hot pink neon girl began circling me, somehow running on the water until she stopped, the literal heart eyes girl now in front of me in the water. She was in a bikini too and since Lovely’s body was only slightly smaller than Sweetie’s it...gave a view. “How’s the swim?” Lovely asked. “How's running on water?” I ask, now just floating on my back. “Not bad.” She said, laying her arms on my stomach like a counter or table top. “Maybe that Jesus guy from the bible was a Neon Conduit.” She joked. “Not really, just magic.” I say. “Also I'm not a table top. But how are you doing Lovely?” “Better. That indigestion and sugar crash was a pain but glad it's over. Happy spending time in relaxation?” “Just getting some relaxing in after so many teasing bits…” I sigh out. “It's been a long few days or a week…” I say, honestly surprised about how much stuff happened to me and the people I care about. “Yeah. That's life. So, was told you played a game for a day and a half strait. What level were you when you finally stopped playing?” “No idea.” I shrug. “Lost track after everything happened today. I could probably go back and check but meh.” “Hehe. Ya know, I didn't talk to anyone my age before you came along. Now I’m practically engaged to you and got a normal...ish, life. I owe you.” “You don't owe me anything.” I say gently. “All I want is to see my girls happy and healthy. Also no I'm not going to make another pun out of your name...at least today.” “Awh. You think I’m taking no for an answer~” Lovely suddenly got on top of me. A few splashes and I managed to keep balance with her body weight, she had her legs around my waist, arms around me back...chest squeezed against mine, and lips locked on mine. “At a girl Lovely!” Jenny cheered. “Mmm…” I mumbled while kissing Lovely back happily, my arms moving around her back and holding her close. ”This is nice…” I think to myself happily. After what felt like minutes I broke the kiss. “Thanks Lovely.” “Hehe. Ya know, when your nose isn't bleeding you get a knock at the barn door~” “Wait...what?” I ask, my eyes widening at the implications. “As...as in?” “Hehe. I’ve been poked.” I blushed brightly, indeed feeling something down south betray me and poke against Lovely. “I'm...I'm sorry.” I say nervously. “Why? Four more years you’ll be plowing us all a lot~” “Anyone else feel like we take this too far at times?” Applebloom asked Scoot’s “Sometimes, but I blame the gender difference, evolution, and Ben’s not so good example family.” Scoot’s replied, dressed in normal clothes and reading a magazine. “I heard that and yes!” I call out to Apple Bloom. “You all do take it too far...sometimes it's fine and sometimes it's not.” I sigh out. “Can you get off Lovely? While it's nice to cuddle I need to...cool off…” I say, royally embarrassed because of this. “No. I don't wanna.” She said, squeezing me tighter. “Oi vey.” I sigh out. “Fine fine...but Jenny or Sweetie might tag along just so you know.” “Hmmm. Sweetie, get his back, Jenny, his face!” Lovely yelled. I looked up and the two, still topless, were swimming after me. “Don't I get a say in this!?” I yip worriedly. “Nope!” My girls say at the same time, causing me to whimper worriedly. To be continued... Nobody's Underground“So all save for Scootaloo and Applebloom cuddled you naked?!” I said in disbelief as Joy recapped his previous few days. “Do we give off that image?” I ask, only for Joy to give me the ‘are you joking’ look. “Fine fine.” I sigh out. “Anyways, after that whole debacle and you somehow gaining women as fast as I do basically, want to head off to adventure?” “Yay.” Joy cheers. “But where to?” The pup asks curiously, wondering where we were going to go. “Dunno.” I say. “Should we ask someone?” “Maybe...or we could just wing it.” Joy shrugs. “Just open a portal and see where it goes.” “Sounds risky, but why not. I’ll tell my girls, you tell yours.” I say, getting up too quickly find them as Joy did the same. It didn't take long to find them as they were all in the bedroom looking over Rarity’s new baby Nancy. “Hey everyone.” I say with a smile. “Meeting Nancy?” I ask all the girls, walking over to also see my new daughter. “She's adorable.” Luna said. “Might push one...or three out soon since birthing is at will for us now. Also we got a letter from Den.” She said, handing me the letter. “Thank you.” I nod while taking the letter and opening it, wondering what mama Den had to tell me. Dear Ben and puppy Joy. Big things happening in family and everyone. Will tell when can. Will be gone for a while. Lots of licks, mommy. Ps- I will be able to reply to texts. “Well okay then.” I nod while folding up the letter. “Me and Joy will be going off somewhere. Just wanted to tell you all instead of just leaving suddenly.” I tell them all. “Thank you for that Ben.” Rarity said. “So when will you be back?” “No idea.” I sigh out. “Time is weird when you're in a different world...but I’ll be back as soon as I can...let’s just hope where me and Joy are going doesn’t involve us being there for a long time…” I say bitterly, hating to be away from my family for so long. “For every day you're gone that's a night each~” Pinkie teased. “You girls are insatiable you know that?” I ask. “Meh.” They all replied. I chuckled as I met back up with Joy who was now wearing his Samurai cloak. “Girls want a souvenir each.” Joy said. “Well hopefully we don’t destroy the souvenir’s on accident.” I say sheepishly. “Anyways, let’s get going.” I say while opening up a DTL for the two of us as we both walked in. Where we exited the DTL was some forest. One that crawled up a mountain. “Yay, climbing.” I say while summoning my glider. “Exactly.” Joy agrees while hopping onto a card as the both of us start flying up the mountain. After a few moments of flying up we made it all the way up, only to find a cave. “And a cave…” Joy mutters while we both enter the cave carefully. We went in for a bit before Joy tripped over something. He growled before pulling out...a Hello Kitty flashlight? “Uh...why?” “Sweetie made me…” He groaned. He shined the flashlight and we were in some kinda makeshift camp made from junk and dirty things. “Well someone’s already been here…” I say. “Hello?” I call out while moving to the camp, hoping someone was there. As Joy and I entered there didn't seem to be anyone. We did find a journal. Entry 1, day 1 Finally stopped running. Police lost me at last. Can't go back to that home, never again. It's dark in this cave, still more space than my old room. Got a few cans of food and a can opener. Won't last. Gotta find food in the wild or scavenge from trash in town. Dangerous. Both are. Wild has the legends tell of monsters, go back into town, could get caught. Later is best for now. If I get caught, they still have to catch me. ;P “Okay then…” I frown. “Well, that’s a thing.” I mutter while looking through more of the journal in case there was more. I skipped ahead to the last page with writing. Entry…? Day…?? Been...a year maybe? Finally someone saw me...and it had to be THEM…I ran, lost them, but can't stay here. They saw where I ran towards. There's a hole further up I saw some months back. Gonna check it out, how deep can it be anyway? “Okay so down the rabbit hole we go.” I say while putting the journal down. “You sure?” Joy asks. “Yep.” I nod. “Now let’s not fall face first down the hole.” I say while the both of us head off towards the hole. After about a minute or so we saw this big fuck off hole in the end of the cave. “Well there’s our hole.” “Sharp shooter anti grav?” Joy suggests, summoning his sharp shooters. I floated off the ground without any weapons out. “I kind of thought that I would be able to use the weapons innate magic so...I don’t need my weapons to float.” I say while heading down the hole at a good but safe decent. Time passed, it was a DEEP hole. After half an hour we saw the bottom...and a kid laying there on a...rather conveniently placed bed of yellow flowers. “And there be our kid possibly.” I say while floating to the ground with Joy, summoning my shield just in case and landed safely on the ground with him. “Hey, you okay?” I ask the fallen child, kneeling down and gently shaking their shoulder. They groaned, slowly lifting their head up…they looked exactly like Zeke’s son Frisk...save for this Frisk was longer hair...and softer facial features… “ugh… what?” Yup. Girl. Totally a girl's voice. “Took a nasty fall their kid, if this oh so royally convenient patch of flowers were here you’d be as flat as a pancakes.” I explain. “What?” She asked, looking up at Joy and I. Her eyes went wide, then, she screamed. “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!” Joy and I felt our ears bleed at that as she ran off deeper into the cave yelling, “MONSTERS!!!” “Fuck!!” Me and Joy shout in pain, grabbing out spare potions and chugging them as our ears started feeling better. “Ow…” I mutter before we both head off to find the girl before she get’s hurt. “Kid wait!” I shout, hoping to catch her before they get into a bad situation. We chased after her and found ourselves in some kinda ruins. We couldn't hear the girl, damn she's fast, but continued forewords. “Sheesh, she couldn’t have gotten that far.” Joy frowns, surprised that we weren’t getting any headway here. We came across some kinda traps or puzzles but they were activated. They were...rather simple. “This is...honestly insulting to be honest.” I frown. “We’re not four.” Joy says while we solved the puzzles with ease. We kept on until we came across a nice looking house way in the backmost part of these ruins...it looked rather new. “Convenient home is convenient.” I point out. “Wonder if that kids still here.” We knocked on the door and...a voice similar to skeletor's replied. “Coming!” Who opened the door nearly made me jump. It was Papyrus...but he was wearing robes.“Oh. Are you two new to the Ruins?” He asked “Papyrus?” I ask, raising my eyebrow at seeing Papyrus here of all places and not in his standard uniform. “Is that you?” “Why, I didn't think any monster in the Ruins knew what I looked like. How embarrassing...did...did my brother send you?” The skeleton asks nervously. “No, Sans didn’t send us.” I say. “Listen, did you see a little girl come through? About this tall, screaming ‘monsters’ like a banshee?” “No. I did find a little girl passed out in my front yard a bit before you two showed up though. Poor thing looked like she ran across the entire ruins.” “That was our faults sadly.” I sigh out. “You see, we actually came from the surface and were worried about the little girl that literally dropped a few hundred...maybe more than a few hundred feet straight into a patch of flowers.” Joy explains, not entirely sure if the skeleton will buy our crap but our concern for Frisk was still there. “Oh. She's resting in the guest room. Best not to wake her just yet. Would you two like to come in? I just made spaghetti and ice tea.” “Well it’s only nice to accept the hosts offer.” I say with a smile. “Sure, thank you.” Joy and I entered and sat at the table. Papyrus gave us each a plate of spaghetti and a cup of ice tea. “So, what brings such fuzzy humans to the underground?” He asked. ”We should really remember to put up our hoods more...don’t know why we forgot that…” I mentally sigh out. “We heard ancient legends of Mt. Ebott and were wondering if the stories were true. We found a small little camp made by the girl that’s in your guest room and her journal. She said she jumped down so we had to follow along just to make sure she’s safe.” I explain, my explanation and gigantic lie but still having a grain of truth about the worry over the girl. “Oh. How caring! Are you two her father's?” “I’m getting married to a woman.” I deadpan. “I have a girlfriend.” Joy frowns. “Sure no discrimination against them but we’re not her father's. We’re just concerned people about a young girl who decided to take a jump down a hole that...kind of should have killed her if not for the very convenient patch of flowers.” “Oh yes. That flower patch has been there since monsters were trapped under here. It never seems to die which is odd as no one tends to it nor are they magical. They're just there.” “Well I suppose they are magic in that case.” I shrug. “The purest magic, where you don’t understand why it’s there or how it works but it happens anyways.” I explain. “Well whatever the case she best be careful. She's not the first to fall and last I knew Sa-... The king, has five already. Five human souls. He needs two more to become a god and break the barrier. This girl makes the second human he needs.” “How does the barrier work?” I ask curiously, not remembering if Zeke or the people there told me about the barrier and how it worked. “It was made by seven powerful human mages. It can only be crossed by humans, a monster with a human soul, or broken by one being carrying said seven souls. The king has five already, this girl makes seven…” “Why didn’t he just take one human soul, pass through the barrier and get the other six?” I ask in confusion. “Would you, a normal human, seeing something different and unknown to you listen to what it has to say? People fear what they don't understand. Part of why we were trapped down here, they feared us because of what we are. Magic wise we are stronger, body wise...that's weaker. Until we absorb a human soul. Then we carry both human determination and a monsters magical power. They thought we would hunt them for their souls… sadly some did, and now after a long bloody war here we are, trapped.” “Well alright then.” I nod. ”Even though that part is still kind of...bullshit considering a vast majority of nowadays would just be amazed that monsters even exist.” I mentally add to myself. “Wait, you said ‘two’ humans were here. Who’s the other human?” Joy asks curiously. “I have only seen them once. Another young girl, about this child's age. She has brown reddish hair, red eyes, and wears a green hoodie. She lives with a young goat monster she calls brother. They play more than anything.” “Right then.” I nod. “When do you think the girl will wake up? Also did you see anything follow her? Like...a demonic looking flower or something?” I ask, not entirely sure why I pointed that out but it just felt...right to say that since she fell into a world of monsters in a giant landing pad of flowers. “Not that I have seen. And she might wake up soon.” “Alright then.” I nod. “Well hopefully she won’t blow our eardrums out again…” “I have never heard a girl scream that loudly…” Joy shudders in memorable pain. “So it was her screams that broke my windows. Didn't take long to replace. I always keep spares of everything in the house. And outside.” “Always good to have spares.” I nod. “Now, let’s hope she doesn’t flip out again.” I say while drinking my ice tea. “Thank you.” Joy says while finishing up the spaghetti the skeleton made. “I hope so too. I’d have to buy more spare windows if that happens.” “Right then.” I nod. “So, is there anyone outside the ruins we need to look out for? Guards? Crazy scientists? Anything?” I ask, wanting to at least know what we’re getting into when we actually leave with the kid. “Just the royal guards head guard Toriel, she's a caring woman, but hard and firm when she has to be.” “That’s what she said.” I whisper to Joy who gave me a deadpanned look, trying his damndest not to get a grin and laugh. “Thank you Papyrus...by the by, is there anything special about combat?” I ask curiously. “Like styles, attacks, something of that nature?” I ask, wanting to know the fighting in this world before I just start using my shield to block everything in worry that I might break something. “Not really.” “Okay then.” I nod. “Well glad to know that.” “We better check on the kid, hopefully she’s awake and not panicking.” Joy says while taking the finished plate and cup from the table and walking over to the sink, floating up and cleaning the dishes. I quickly followed in his footsteps without the floating and cleaned my dishes as well just to be kind. “Where’s the guest room?” Joy asks Papyrus. “Down the hall, second door on the left.” He said, taking our dishes and washing them just in case. “Thank you.” Joy nods while the two of us walk off to find the guest room. After a few moments of walking we found the right door. “Let me...at least she won’t freak out about a kid probably her age right?” He says nervously. I backed up as he walked in, though I kept a close look through a crack in the door. “Uh...hey.” “Ah! A furry!” She yelled, throwing a shoe at Joy. “Wow, rude.” He says while sidestepping the shoe thrown at him. “First you blow my ear drums out then you throw a shoe at me?” He huffs. “Anyways, the name’s Joy, what’s yours?” He asks, a text box appearing above him that he didn’t notice. Joy strikes up a friendly conversation “S...sorry. Just. I mean. You're a wolf boy! Like in all the deviant art pics, only smaller...and clothed.” Joy blushed brightly. “I am not apart of that deviant art crap.” Joy says sternly. “And now you made me feel violated.” He pouts. “Internet. No one is safe. So...sorry for screaming that loud…” “Thank you for apologizing.” He sighs out. “And my brother is also thankful considering you called him a monster.” Joy says. “Especially when he was making sure you were okay.” “Well you don't look human, save for fingers and being on two legs.” “We are humans.” Joy says. “Born human, just...magical things happened.” He shrugs. “But I didn’t get your name.” “Call me Frisk. My real name is...boring…” “My name is Joy.” Joy deadpans. “And my brother’s name is Ben, try me.” “2. My name is literally the number 2.” A text box appeared above him. Joy couldn’t even… “The fuck?” “My parents were scientists. They didn't pay much attention to my sister or me so to cut time for calling us they named her 1 and me 2. My sis nicknamed me Frisk cause I like to flirt. Too much anime. And I nick named her Chara. Cause she wanted to be a character in a story.” “Well...I suppose she has good Character.” Joy says with a cheeky grin. Joy makes a shitty pun in hopes of making Frisk laughs the text box says above his head. Frisk was quiet at first, before breaking down in laughter. “Wow...that was bad.” “Bad or not it made you laugh.” Joy smiles genuinely. “But I suppose anime made you frisky huh?” Joy made another shitty pun...or flirts. A textbox said. “I suppose. Too many harem animes~” Frisk said, taking two fingers and walking them up Joy’s chest. “Well…” Joy trails off. “You want to know something practically unbelievable?” Joy asks curiously. “Sure.” “I have a harem back on another world.” Joy says with a little smile. “My home world actually.” “Oh really~. Tell me, they like it doggie style~?” Frisk said, really close to Joy’s face now. “They said to wait until sixteen...but I know my older brother’s fiance's sure do love it.” Joy says with a grin, not backing down from her lewd comments. “...Damn it he’s right too…especially Pinkie and Luna…” I mutter under my breath. “Cheeky little bastard.” “So you’re gonna wait for them? What a gentlemen~” Frisk said. If she was any closer she’d be Joy’s new cloak! “Okay my frisky lady let’s calm down a moment.” Joy says gently. “Flirting is with words, not actual physical contact that someone might mistake for ‘make out session’.” He explains, wanting to make sure she see’s more than just his beautiful sea green eyes. “How old are you?” She asks with pouty eyes. “You wouldn’t believe me even if I told you.” Joy tells her. “Give me an estimate then.” “Three hundred.” Joy states. “I’m three hundred years old, Death told me, my older brother, and his fiance’s.” “How old were you when you died?” “Thirteen.” He tells her. “I’m fourteen.” She whispered in his left hear. “And your fur smells nice~” She then did something the girls did to me sometimes...and I did to them...she bit his ear, his tail began wagging like crazy at that. “You sure about this?” Joy says, shuddering a little against her. She let go of his ear. “Not gonna go that far, just wondered if you were gonna stop it.” “I was.” Joy says, Frisk feeling a hand on her stomach in case he needed to stop it. “But...if you want...you can meet my other girlfriends and if they agree you can join my harem since you love harems so much.” “Maybe, first things first, we get out of here and then find my sister.” She said, jumping off Joy and pushing him onto the floor. “Then I’ll talk to them.” Joy got up off the ground. “Okay then.” “Okay love birds that’s enough talking.” I say while opening the door and showing myself. “Hello Frisk.” “Hi there peeping tom.” She said with a chuckle. “Those big, reflective eyes, make you easy to spot.” “Either way.” I shrug. “Names Ben, the ‘monster’ that you kept screaming and the other poor injured person with thankfully healed ears.” “Heh, sorry about that. Was still groggy from the fall and seeing you two well…” “Just be glad your not dead.” I point out. “And be extra thankful you’re possibly going to be with my little brother.” “Meh, we’ll see. So...two things, one, how did I get into this room, and two, why do I smell spaghetti?” After introducing Frisk to Papyrus and talking him into letting us escort Frisk out of the underground and back topside we found ourselves exiting through the door to the rest of the underground Pap had in his basement...for some reason. When we went through it we found ourselves in a snowy forest. “Snow I get, trees...not so much.” Frisk said. “You just met a magical talking skeleton. Snowy trees not making sense should be the last thing on your mind, also how the hell does this even work when were a thousand feet underground?” I point out, finding those points rather weird since we’re literally underground. “Big cave? Anyway, onwards!” Frisk said, holding a stick and lifting up as she marched forwards. “And you're going to date her.” I chuckle while summoning Vexen’s shield and following along. “Oh shush you.” Joy frowns, summoning Xaldin’s spears and preparing to defend himself just in case. Walking on the snowy trail for a tad bit led us to a bridge...only that the three of us heard someone walking behind us and me and Joy whipping around in defense due to massive amounts of paranoia and combat training. “Whoa whoa.” The girl says while pulling her hands up from her hoodie pockets in a non-threatening gesture. “Don’t ya know how to shake a new friend’s hand pal?” “Sorry…” I sigh out. “Just a little jumpy when things appear behind us.” Joy says sheepishly, letting his lances float behind him as he took the tentative step forward and willing to shake the girl’s hand. Joy shook her hand, and ketchup got squirted onto his hand and part of his sleeve. “What the?” “Hehe.” The girl said, taking off her hood. She had brown hair, and red eyes that...reminded me of Zeke before that incident. “Hey, names Chara-” She was talking before she and Frisk spotted each other. “S-s-sis?!” Frisk practically charged at Chara, nearly knocking her over as she gave her a tear filled hug. “I thought I’d never see you again!” Frisk cried. Chara, after the shock left, pet Frisk’s head. “You crybaby.” “This is...oddly convenient…” I say with a half frown. “But not unwanted convenient.” Joy adds. “So how did you get down here?” Frisk asks Chara. “Ya know that brat Steve from school?” “Yeah?” “Dared me to jump in. Did, little prick likely thinks I’m dead. Hope he’s paranoid as all hell for it.” “You crazy.” Frisk said as she punched Chara’s shoulder. “Well glad to see you two catching up.” I smile. “I smell goat…” Joy points out. “Why do I smell goat? And…” Joy trails off. “A crap ton of purity?” He adds, not sure why purity had a scent but pointed it out nonetheless. “That be my sorta brother Ray-” Chara starts before Frisk interrupts. “We got a brother?!” Frisk says. “Where!?” “Calm down Flash, he’s up ahead. We’ve been playing a game for a while but usually he wins. Mind helping out my reflection?” “Chara, you know that nick name creeps me out.” “We are twins, technically you are since I was born first.” “Well we were going to help her anyways cause casanova here decided to have a flirting contest with her.” I say while patting Joy’s head. “Do you really need to tell her?” Joy huffs. “Not my fault you told Frisk you were in a harem when she likes harem anime’s.” I point out. “Well since you three are here, mind helping me out?” Chara asks. “Besides helping Frisk, what did you have in mind?” I ask. “My bro is gonna come along soon, Frisk can help me with my end but to make it fair game. You two help Ray try and “capture” us. Just, don't hurt Frisk or me when Ray gets too into it.” “Don’t worry, we won’t.” Me and Joy say at the same time. “Anyways, onwards to finding Ray.” I say while me and Joy walk off in hopes of finding Ray, deciding to float over the chasm instead of taking the bridge like normal people because fuck it. When we reached the sentry station just before entering a town I saw Chara at the wooden station. Joy and I landed next to it. “Sup?” She asked. “Either you teleport or you're just fast.” I frown. “So you just left Frisk?” “Trade secrets.” She replied with a smile. “Since you two look like monsters and not humans just play along when Ray get's here. Frisk is hiding under the desk here,” “Hi.” Frisk replied. Still hiding. “He should be coming around soon to call me lazy again for not finding humans. Psst, I see one in the mirror every day.” “I’m pretty sure he got mad when you told him ‘I found a human’ and pointed at a mirror.” I chuckle. “It's adorable when he gets flustered.” Chara chuckled. “Oh, speak of the goat.” “Chara!” Joy and I looked to our side, seeing a...goat child. He was Joy’s hight, pure white, fluffy fur, wearing an adorable costume with a long scarf. “Did you find a human?” He asked, coming up to her desk. “Chara...how can this fluffy goat child be so adorable?” I ask. “That's just how Ray is. He gets his fluffiness from mom.” She said. “Is her name Toriel?” I ask, having met Toriel before on Daybreak but not knowing much about Toriel here. “Yeah. She's captain of the royal guard.” “Right then.” I nod. “And I suppose you want to be like your mother huh?” “Yeah! She protects the whole underground. The only monster here stronger than her is the king.” Ray said. “Only heard of how strong Sans is...never actually seen him fight.” I shrug, using my ‘monster’ look as an excuse to just outright know who the king was. “They say he only has one hp, but has enough mana to more than make up for it.” “I have a feeling he’s also good at dodging.” I point out. “Cause no matter how magically strong you are, if a stiff breeze can basically knock you over still then you need to prepare for it.” “Oh yeah, his rate of teleportation is unmatched. Some say he also knows your next move before you do.” “Sounds interesting.” I say, honestly impressed. “We haven’t actually introduced ourselves actually.” Joy says, reminding me that we haven’t even said our names. “Oh, sorry.” I say sheepishly. “My names Ben, and this is my little brother Joy.” I say while patting Joy’s head. “Nice to meet you.” Ray said. “Haven't seen you in town before. You from Hotland or?” “That’s a...little hard to explain. But what’s your name? Cause all Chara here said was your name is ‘Ray’.” I say. “It's a nickname. My name is Asriel.” “Nice to meet you Asriel.” I say. “You said your a guard in training?” Joy asks. “Yeup! Mom let me and Chara live in our Snowden home for training as sentries. Though she has me visit her once a week in our home in Waterfall for special training.” “Really? First you name a town after a snow pun...and then you probably just named an entire section of the ground because it has waterfalls?” I frown. “I’m sorry but does any of the places back home sound any less terrible with the puns?” Joy asks. “I know I know.” I sigh out, rubbing my temple. “But I suppose people have been snowden a few too many times to not name it that right?” I ask, making a shitty shitty pun that I feel bad about. “Every morning!” Ray says with surprising enthusiasm. “Takes half an hour to dig out the front door.” Chara adds. “Bright side, we have made some amazing snow sculptures.” “I made a shitty pun and you pointed out how it actually happens…” I frown. “Surprising.” Joy says, a snowflake gently landing on Joy’s nose. “But understandable.” “So, Ray. How went patrolling east Snowden?” Chara asks. “All’s clear!” Ray said. “What are you looking for?” I ask. “A snow poff or something?” I wonder, not sure why I pointed out a snow poff but finding it...suitable I suppose. “A human so I can tell mom so she can warn them about the king.” “Then I suppose we already found a human.” Joy says while pointing to Chara. “Or is there some story behind this?” “Mom saved me when the king was about to rip my soul out.” Chara said. “Yelled some nasty words I didn't see coming and took me to her home. Been living with her, dad, and Ray ever since.” “Who’s your dad?” I ask, not really knowing who Toriel was married to to begin with. “Asgore, the royal scientist.” “We have a guard captain and a royal scientist...makes sense.” I shrug. “Are they still married?” Joy asks, worried that there bond still held instead of being long gone. “That's...complicated…both mom and dad work to serve the kingdom but they've been...distant lately.” Me and Joy look down. “Well...hopefully it can be solved. And hey, maybe with a little help it can be solved.” I say, hoping to at least save a suffering marriage that two children shouldn’t be put through. “Where is your father actually?” Joy asks curiously. “In Hotland, that's where his lab is.” Ray says. “Okay then.” I nod. “Glad to know that. But let’s see now, we have ‘Snowdin’, ‘Waterfall’, and ‘Hotland’...this is starting to sound like the start of a Mario game…” I frown, now only missing the desert and jungle worlds. “Do either of you have any favorite pass times?” Joy asks, wondering when Frisk will do something here, even though talking to new friends is nice. “I play capture the human with Chara. Wanna play?” Ray asked. “Well…” I start. “Got nothing better to do I suppose.” “Isn’t it a little unfair considering Chara’s the only human here?” Joy asks, playing dumb that Frisk is still probably under the table. “Well, kinda, but Chara is a lot tougher than she looks!” “Plus.” Chara said. “Plus?” Ray questioned. “Plus this time I’m not alone.” Chara stepped back, and Frisk jumped up. “This is Frisk Ray, my sister from topside and partner in our game.” “What?! No way! Glad to finally meet you, Chara’s always talking about you, but, uh, guess we’ll introduce better after the game though, come on you two, let’s go set up the puzzles!” Ray said, running ahead, full of energy. “Wow, he seems more happy than usual, you two best catch up, I wanna talk with my sis for a bit, catch each other up on what’s gone on since I did my disappearing act two years ago.” “Alright.” I nod. “Wait up.” Joy says, rushing along to catch up with the happy goat child. “See ya later.” I say while vanishing, snow kicking up before I caught up to Joy who was chasing Asriel. After a bit of a chase, we caught up with the goat child. “Oh, you two finally caught up, great, now, I need you two to help with something, you see this large field of snow?” Ray asks, pointing out to a large empty field of snow. “I’m sorry, but I think we’re looking at another large field of snow.” I point out, considering this entire area of the underground is basically nothing but snow. “Yes, we do see the empty snow field.” “Take this and walk into it.” Ray said, tossing Joy a small blue orb. Joy nodded and took the blue orb. “Okay.” Joy shrugs while walking over the field with the orb in hand. “So what? Is this a ‘guess where to step’ puzzle?” Joy asks, having a good feeling about the puzzle as he just walks through it. As soon as he walked into it, he felt like he bumped into something and the orb made a loud buzz sound, startling Joy and making Ray laugh. “It’s an invisible electric fence maze! Dad made it for me! I had to beg for a month before mom finally said I could get it.” “Interesting.” I say. “You could say I’m shocked by how creative it is.” I say, making another shitty pun. “That pun was bad and you should feel bad.” Joy frowns. “I always feel bad Joy.” I say with a smile. “Come on, let’s get on the other side before Chara and her sister show up.” Ray said, walking on a space around the maze, covering his tracks as he did. After a bit Chara arrived first...from BEHIND US, and Frisk arrived from the way we came. “Aha human, this is the insolvable, Electric Puzzle Maze!” Ray said, getting into character of this game. “You will have to watch yourself, a wrong step and the blue...the blue...uh, Joy, did you leave the orb on the other side for Frisk?” Joy looked down at the orb still in his hands. “Uh...no? Chara forgot it.” Joy says nervously, while I just chuckled at the poor pups plight. “Uh...here, you know your way through the maze so here.” He says while handing the orb to Chara. “Thanks.” Chara said, taking the route around the maze, giving it to Frisk, then walking back here on the same side path. Frisk chuckled before following Chara’s footprints in the snow over to us. “Curses human, you are too clever!” Ray declared. “My next puzzle will not be so forgiving!” With that, he dashed off. “Well that went better than usual.” Chara says. “He’s too pure for this world.” I whine, not believing someone that wasn’t one of my children was so pure. “Anyways, onwards to the next puzzle.” Joy says, wanting to see what else Asriel had in store for Frisk. “Sure, it’s a bit of a walk, you’ll run into snow poffs, a few messed up snow dog statues, a Nicecream vendor, and a mini puzzle or two. Go on ahead to catch Ray, wanna relax a bit with sis.” Chara informed us. “Wait, why is someone selling ice cream in the middle of an area that is always snowing and cold?” I ask with a frown. “That’s a bad business decision…” “Well either way let’s just find Asriel before he wonders where we went.” Joy says before running off to find the lovable goat. “Fine fine.” I say while following along. We found all that Chara said we’d find, including the Nice cream, not ice cream, vendor, and Joy and I bought one since it was one of those things you can break in two since it had two sticks. We shared one, it tasted really good despite the cold environment, and we caught up with Ray. “Oh, hey you two.” Ray said, writing some stuff down in front of some kinda puzzle that was rather poorly made it seems. It had blue X’s and I think it’s one of those, get all the X’s and turned into O’s but step on one twice and you have to restart. “I’m mostly planning right now, take a rest if you want.” “And what is this barely finished puzzle?” I ask curiously. “Is it a ‘get all the tiles to be the same color’ or something?” “Yeah, Chara and I can’t figure it out because of how bad whoever made it set it up. You can try and solve it but Chara and I have been trying to for months, but knock yourselves out.” I nod before taking a step forward and onto the first tile, wondering if it just turns to only one other color or too many colors. It did, and when I stepped off and on it again it changed again, but trying it a third time it didn’t switch. Joy was at the reset button for whenever I messed up. After my second try because of dealing with the shitty design of it I finally solved it. “It’s not that hard to solve, it’s just the design is shit.” I shrug. “Oh, thanks, saved me time.” Frisk said, skipping passed up as Ray tried to run ahead of her. “Wow...that could not have been timed better.” Chara said, somehow behind me. “Yeah, after solving a simple puzzle that apparently the two of you couldn’t solve.” I shrug. “But I can understand because it’s design is shit.” I frown. “Anymore puzzles or is Ray going to use his adorableness against Frisk?” “He likely has two more in mind but I wouldn’t worry about them. Dad just made an empty metal box for the first one and the second one, mom and dad both didn’t even attempt to make it.” Chara said. “I’m worried…” I say with a frown. “But anyways, we better catch up to the two before something silly happens.” Joy and I ran after the two. When we arrived Chara was somehow on the other side with Ray...how? She didn’t even run along side us? “How in the hell?” I frown at Chara. “I call hax.” Joy says, finding the amount of how Chara can just instantly teleport without caring is a tad stupid. “Meh.” Chara said. “Now than human! Time for one of the most dangerous puzzles, my dad, has made!” Ray said, very much in character and not caring about Chara’s hacking reality. “Now, time for-” “I’m gonna stop you there bro.” Chara said. “First off, you really think mom would let you have a deathtrap tile puzzle? Or that dad would actually build it? This box here is empty, well, I keep ketchup packets in here but it’s mostly empty, and the tiles on the floor are just broken flatscreen tv’s found from the junk that falls into the underground.” “But-” “No Ray, sorry to be blunt, but you know mom and dad won’t ever let you have something that dangerous. Mom about had a cow when you got hurt using a SPORK!” “How the hell did you hurt yourself with a spork?” I ask, not believing that actually happened. “Not even he knows… he was eating with it...then he somehow got a cut on his lip taking it out of his mouth...needless to say mom burned it to an unrecognizable pile of metal forever melted into the ground in out backyard in our Waterfall home.” “The cinnamon roll...is weird…” I shake my head. “And I’m calling Ray a cinnamon roll because he’s too pure for this world just so’s ya know.” I say honestly. “Hey!” Ray called out. “He’s not too off.” Chara said. “I often wonder...hang on a moment… Yo Joy, mind coming over here?” Joy nodded and walked over to Chara. “What do you need?” He asks Chara, wondering what the girl wanted. “Stand in front of Ray, like...that.” She positioned Joy so he was in front of Ray, facing sideways, or rather, facing her. “Perfect!” “Am I missing something?” Joy asks curiously. “Or are you trying to compare me to Ray here?” “Not exactly.” She said, placing an arm on Joy’s shoulder and, before Joy could properly react, fell backwards, pulling Joy with her. She made sure that how they fell they...well, they touched in THAT area. “Oh my~ Naughty dog~” “I wha- wait!” Joy tried to say, only for stuttering nonsense to come out at the circumstance. “Watta go sis!” Frisk cheered. “Sheesh, you are a natural with women.” I laugh, seeing Joy’s face completely beat red. “Uh...I...uh…” Joy mutters, not believing any of this and worried he’s doing something wrong. Chara looked over at Ray...who’s face was cherry red blush...and unconscious. “Damn it, he is too pure…” She said, tossing Joy off her. “Well all I got out of that was the length of Joy’s member...pretty sure that’s big for a thirteen year old.” Joy’s nose started to turn into a blood fountain. “Uh...I...uh...I didn’t...think I’d…” “Get two girlfriends on this trip?” I ask with a cheeky grin. “Any number of girlfriends…” He says, reaching over and finding a snow poff before using it to smother his face...only for it to steam away with how hot his face was. “At least the nose bleed went down.” I point out. “Shut up…” Joy whines, getting up and brushing the snow off his cloak. “Anyways...did Frisk tell you about me and Ben? And a...thing she want’s to probably join?” “Yeah, and us being twins wanna tell you, or rather, show something to you.” Chara said with a devious smile while she motioned Frisk to come over, she did and the two talked up to Joy. They were...real close...they then hugged each other tightly before Frisk gave a playful lick to Chara’s cheek… Joy’s nosebleed went up to ten feet high at that. “OH COME ON!” Joy complains, trying to stop his nosebleed. “I don’t want to die from blood loss…” He whines. “Be glad your blood is going north rather than south.” I chuckle. “Stahp!” Joy whines. “You're not helping! “Relax doggie style.” Chara says, she and Frisk separating. “That’s just a tease, still debating on being with you~” “Well...I hope I make a good impression.” He says with a little smile, hoping these two lovely teens can join in. “Cause...I do hope to make two lovely girls like you two be happy and feel loved.” He explains with a smile. “I’d only accept on one condition.” Chara said. “What’s the condition?” Joy asks. “Well first off, Joy, next time check your pockets.” Chara said as she pulled out...the gender bending mirror! “You dropped this, and man was that a surprise when we found out what it does.” “Uh...I can explain.” I say nervously. “And Joy, how the hell did you get that?” “You almost forgot it, so I took it to make sure they didn’t know about it…” Joy says nervously. “Crap...the cat’s out of the bag on this one.” He says nervously. “Well point is I wanna use this to prank Ray, turn him into a goat girl for a bit, and some laughs, then change him back. Just, when he wakes up, tell him he has something on his face and when he looks into your convenient mirror, poof, shock of his life.” Chara says. “That sounds funny.” Joy chuckles. “Okay...but when he wakes up.” “Should be a few more minutes.” “Alright.” Joy nods. “What do you think about Joy you two?” I ask curiously. “He’s too easy, but fun.” Frisk said. “Meh, he’s big enough.” Chara said. “I know we just met...but that seems a little harsh…” Joy says bitterly. “But...hopefully I can change that if we get to know each other more…” He says, hoping that they’ll see him more than just a sex object. “Don’t worry they will.” I say honestly. “Or not, that’s up to them.” “Still, here’s this to think about. You got two, bisexual, incestual, twin sisters considering you as their boyfriend~” Chara said as she and Frisk walked over to Joy. Joy stood up again and brushed the snow off of his coat. “It does sound amazing when you put it that way.” Joy chuckles. “Joy is a happy little ball of fluff if you two haven’t realised, so he will make sure the two of you, and the rest of his harem, are all happy as can be.” I explain simply. “And seriously, seeing Joy embarrassed is just adorable.” “Shut up!” Joy barks at me, only making me laugh. “Ugh, what happened?” Ray said as he began to wake up. “Showtime.” Chara said, handing Joy the mirror. “Hey Ray, I think you got a little something on your face.” Joy says while walking over. “Here’s a mirror to help you out.” He says, handing the gender bending mirror to the goat child. “Oh. Thanks.” Ray said as he stood up and took the mirror. The second he looked into it the magic activated and the flash startled him...he dropped the mirror and it hit the snow...but the sound of breaking glass made my blood run cold. “What was-” Ray stopped talking, noticing the slight tone change in his voice. It was more feminine. “What happened to my voice?” Physically Ray didn't look too different, ears were a bit longer but that was all we could see. “You broke the mirror…” I mutter. “Well...that’s at least a load off my back…” I mutter to myself thankfully. “So Ray, what you looked into was a ‘gender bending mirror’, which basically means ‘you're now a girl’.” I explain simply. “What?” He, er, she asked. Ray ran behind a tree...two seconds later a high pitched scream that rivaled Frisk’s when we first arrived. “Fuck!!” Me and Joy shout in pain, covering our ears and thankfully not feeling blood but still extreme pain from the scream. “CHARA!!!” Ray yelled, running in a panic with some tears up to the girl. “What do I do!?” Ray asked as ‘she’ shook her. “First...stop...shaking...me!” She yelled, making Ray stop. “Thank you. Now Ray, there is only one option for you.” Chara said, making her best serious face and looking Ray right in the eyes. “First, tell mom, second, if this can’t be fixed, I recommend masterbating to-” Joy actually hit Chara on the head, lightly, with Skysplitter. “As far as I know it can’t be fixed because the mirrors broken.” I point out. “Chara!” Joy barks. “This isn’t the time for dirty jokes.” He says to her, honestly sad and worried to see Ray like this. “How else is Ray gonna get used to having a vagina and a clitoris!” She barked back at Joy. “Besides, she, he, she, is fourteen too and even when Ray was a girl they didn’t know what masterbating was til I told them...mom got me good for that...couldn’t sit for a week, but got free ice cream for that week as I saved her and dad from having the talk with Ray.” “Why are you trying to tell the cinnamon roll dirty things?” I ask. “I know it’s a fact of life and we can’t escape it but still…” I say. “It must have also been hilarious to try to talk about it.” “His face was also red for a week.” Chara said with a hint of pride. “Ha.” I chuckle, while Joy moves over to Ray. “Are you okay?” Joy asks the new goat girl gently, trying his best to be caring and considerate for her plight. “I feel...really weird…” Ray admits. “I’m sorry…” Joy apologizes for the entire thing. “But...I’m here for you if you need any help okay? I’m not a girl so...I don’t know your pain but I’m here to help.” The dire wolf pup says to the goat, the weird difference between their races, Joy being a Dire Wolf and Asriel being a goat monster, only making the scene just...more adorable for some reason. “I feel...oddly warm...Uhhh.” Ray said, trailing off as she stared at Joy... “Uh...warm...how?” Joy says nervously. Ray’s only response was a small drool line from the side of her mouth. “MINE!” She screamed, pouncing on Joy like a Lion going for a kill...she also had her tongue ALL the way down his throat. “Wow...didn’t see that coming.” Chara said, taking out a lollipop and unwrapped it and starting eating it. Joy was practically freaking out because of the forcefulness and how her tongue somehow went all the way down his throat. He put his hands on her chest and tried to push away just so he could breath for five seconds. “We should stop this…” I say simply. “Hmm…” I look at Chara and Frisk, wondering if they’ll do anything about it. Chara shrugged. “Meh, it’s a good show. Pray hunts the predator~” Frisk said. Joy managed to push Ray off of him and broke the kiss, panting for breath. “Jesus christ girl, slow down for five seconds.” He pants. Ray’s response was moving her mouth...towards Joy’s pants zipper…”NOPE!” Joy shouts, grabbing her head and lifting her up in the air. “Not until you're sixteen, just like your sisters and the rest of my harem. Got.That?” Joy growls, the very horny girl seeing his predatory stare of ‘you won’t get it until I say you’ll get it’. “Okay that’s enough you two!” I bark, walking over and lifting the two by their collars, Joy removing his hands from Ray’s head and I separated the two. “No fucking until you're sixteen.” I frown. “I NEED- Yipe!” Ray yelped as Chara put a very large snowball in Ray’s underpants. “Better?” She asked. “Lots.” Ray said, some relief in her voice. “There.” He says while putting the two down. “Now, Ray. Since you practically tried to rape Joy, you're going to join his harem, that both Chara and Frisk are willing to join if they so decide.” “Might as well, that was fun to watch.” Chara said. “That happen often with the others?” “It’s more...just teasing about when the rest of the girls are sixteen.” Joy sighs out. “I...honestly want the teasing to stop cause it’s getting to the point where they literally don’t care about age anymore but keep saying ‘until we’re sixteen’.” Joy rolls his eyes, finding the amount of teasing so gratuitous it’s not even funny. “I am so there!” Frisk cheered. “Warning! I sleep in the nude!” “So do some of my other girlfriends.” Joy sighs out. “Sheesh Joy, you are getting all the lucky ladies.” I chuckle. “Shut up.” Joy sighs out. “Anyways, where to next? Cause I’m pretty sure we’re going to have to meet your parents next you two.” I say while pointing to Chara and Ray. “I’m sure Toriel’s gonna have a field day learning about this.” I grumble. “I’ll call mom and tell her to meet us in Hotland at Dad’s lab.” Chara said. “I know a good shortcut from here to Hotland.” We followed Chara to their home. It was a nice house. Chara grabbed a cell phone and called Toriel. They chatted and she agreed to meet us at their dad’s lab in Hotland. Chara walked us over to this place where...a yellow duck stood there. “Across please.” The duck one by one flew us all across a small, but deep, river and we walked on the other side and we were in Hotland, where Chara walked us over to her and Ray’s dad’s lab. “Let’s hope shit doesn’t hit the fan…” I whisper to Joy. “Don’t worry...it’s gonna hit the fan…” Joy whispers back bitterly. We entered the lad, where a Toriel in armor and an Asgore in a lab coat with glasses. “What did you want to talk about Chara?” Toriel asked, her voice very calm and motherly...lot like mamma Den. “This.” Chara said...pulling Ray’s pants and underwear down… “You son is a girl and my brother is now a sister...also my sister from the surface, Frisk.” “Hi.” Frisk said. Toriel and Asgore had their jaws dropped...then they both passed out. “That’s what I expected.” “Well...that happened.” I shrug. “Kind of expected them to at least last more then that sentence and display…” Joy says honestly. “So now we wait for them to wake up. Ray pulled up her pants fast. “Why did you have to pants me?!” She yelled at Chara. “Didn’t wanna explain everything.” Chara replied in a rather uncaring tone. “Plus mom would have had to see sooner or later. I picked show her now rather than sooner, being later, and later, being when your guard is down.” “Alright then.” I nod. “So, what are they going to think about Frisk?” I ask curiously. “And what are they going to think about me?” Joy asks worriedly. “Dad will like you both, mom will like Frisk, most likely try and kill you Joy. She’s protective like that. Dad let’s us have fun within reason.” “Okay then.” I nod. “Oi vey…” Joy sighs out, summoning Xaldin’s lances just in case. “Well I better have these out just in case.” After Toriel and Asgore woke up and we explained what happened Asgore took a look at the broken mirror and Toriel chased Joy around the lab...and most of Hotland, launching house sized fireballs at the pup. About four hours passed Toriel calmed down some, though Joy needs his suit repaired and his tail hair was half burned. “So you are willing to take in Chara and Asriel, as well as Frisk, have them in a safe place, teach them to fight properly, while this...mutt, also dates them…” Toriel said. “The only reason why I-” Joy starts before I stop him. “To start off. Yes, I have a home for the three that is safe, guarded, and I know plenty of masters that can teach them how to fight with many weapons.” I say simply, before stepping forward and glaring at her. “But if you dare call my little brother, the one that’s going to show them love and affection in a now breaking marriage, again…” I say coldly, the well trained and experienced guard sensing that she’s over her head with me. “The only reason Asgore and I are divorcing is because of what he does for the king...every human the king killed Asgore used their souls to experiment ways to open or break the barrier…” Toriel growled. “I only did as ordered Tori, the king may not feel regrets but I do. He’s insane! Thinking he can become a god and talking to himself when it’s dark.” Asgore barked back at Toriel. “I’ve met an actual god...there’s no way in hell he can be like that.” I shake my head. “Toriel, listen to the one person that loves you. Would he really do this of his own free will? Do you have any idea what threats the king has thrown at him just to do what he has to do now?” I ask. “Your life, and the life of your children, or doing work to try and break the barrier. If you were in his shoes, would you sacrifice the only things that you love above all else just to show that you don’t agree with him?” I growl. Toriel began to ponder. “Well…ever since I stopped talking to him and his brother left the king has been more isolated, save for his new consultant.” “Who.” I say, not as a question, but as a demand to know. “Cause what you just said...is most likely a life or death situation for all beings on this world.” I growl. “Who is his consultant? Or do you even know?” Joy asks, trying to have a more gentle approach than me being aggressive. “Never said her name, just know she wears a metal mask all the time.” Asgore said. “That’s not good.” I frown. “That is not good at all…” I mutter while stepping away and turning to Chara. “You know a shortcut to the Ruins right?” I ask Chara, hoping to god this girl knows a shortcut. “I know one that can work, but it takes a lot of mana that I don’t have. Humans like me don’t generate all that much naturally.” “Shit...can you show Toriel how to use it?” I ask curiously. “Can’t, not sure how I even do it.” “Try this.” Asoge said, handing Chara a bag of...mana chisps. “Monster food is made from magic, but Chara being human needs more to pull off magic attacks. These new chips are made with the amount of mana a month's worth of monster food holds. This should be enough.” “Thanks dad.” Chara said, opening the bag and chowing down. She then pulled a knife- “Chara! Where did you get that?!” Toriel demanded in that ‘you’re in trouble’ parenting voice. “Later mom.” Chara said, the knife in her hand glowing red like it it was super heated. She then slashed the air...a tear in space time opening up… “This should lead back to the Ruins entrance. I used this to jump around Snowdin when we were playing. Small distances are easy, long ones like where it’s going are harder.” “That’s a nifty ability.” I say with a nod. “Toriel, you can Chara go down and get Papyrus’s bony ass up here and get to the castle as fast and possible. Me and Joy will head off to find Sans...hopefully he’s not too far gone…” I frown. “We better get going.” Joy says. “You should stay here Frisk, we don’t know how strong Sans is and I don’t want to see you hurt.” “Okay, so...I’ll watch Tv.” She said. “I’ll make some popcorn.” Asgore said. “And then Frisk sneaks out under your nose and appears near us.” I point out. “How good at you are dodging Frisk?” I ask the girl, knowing full well she’s going to follow along even if Joy didn’t like it. “About as fast as Chara, when we got bored back on the surface we raced the kids on bikes and did some parkour by running over fences.” “If you were to have an arrow shot at you, could you dodge it?” I ask. “Have and did, never run through the archery teams line of fire for a shortcut in school.” “Fast enough.” I nod. “Alright you, let’s go.” I say. “Where be the right direction besides ‘go through that door’?” I ask, pointing to the door that we didn’t go through. “And how much property damage am I going to have to pay for?” “Get us out of the underground, none.” Asgore said. “I’ll ring the evacuation drill so everyone leaves for Snowdin. Should take them ten minutes, half an hour at longest.” “Thank you. But just so you know, doors will be destroyed, puzzles will be ignored, and monsters will hopefully ignore us long enough to get to the tricked king.” I explain. “Take the elevator, it’s linked to the king’s throne room. Just hit all the buttons twice, that’s the code to make it run up there. Can’t having anyone enter his throne right? Well, this is an exception but that’s besides the point.” “Thanks Asgore.” I nod. “Alright you two, let’s go.” I say while walking towards the pretty convenient elevator and pushed the button, seeing the doors open. When me, Frisk and Joy were all in the elevator and pushed all the buttons twice, seeing the doors close and we all shot up towards the throne room. “So...ready to talk a skeleton down from causing mass genocide?” I ask Frisk. “If we can.” Joy said. “If this is...her, then who knows what she’s told and done to him.” “Let’s hope it’s not her…” I say worriedly. “We’re pretty boned if it’s that bitch who made Sans go crazy.” The elevator dinged and the opened, we were facing behind his throne. “So...what brings you three here?” Sans’s voice spoke in a dull monotone. “We’re here to stop the person who’s controlling you, and save you from this madness.” I explain. “You're smart, you must know you’re being used.” “Duh.” He replied. “I’ve known, but these days I just don’t care. Don’t even have the energy to fight her on a move.” “Who is she?” I ask, summoning my shield and Reunion just in case. “We’re here to help.” I say, Joy spawning an elixer. “I have something that’ll make you feel a hundred percent.” Joy says, hoping he can be saved as Lindworm surrounded him. “I trained Toriel, all my guards personally...besides,” Joy felt a bony hand grab his shoulder, he looked over it, seeing Sans there, a small crown on his head and some elegant robes for his clothes. “Checkmate.” Joy was suddenly thrown across the room, as I was about to react, bones went THROUGH my legs, pinning me down, and likely crippling me too while Sans grabbed Frisk. “Well, at least you help contribute to the kingdom.” Sans said as he dragged Frisk. “Like hell!” I shout, the bones that went through my legs snapping as I went into my Master form and healing me fully. “You are not going to kill Frisk.” I growl. A bone went though Frisk’s arm. “I can.” Another though her leg. “And I will…” The third...through her heart… “To save my people from this prison.” “NO!” Joy shouts in rage. “Murdering children is not the answer!” I shout, Joy grabbing Frisk's body and disappearing, bringing out a revival item in hopes to safe her. “What would Papyrus think!?!” “YOU BASTARD!!” We all turned to the main entrance, seeing Chara, Toriel, and Papyrus...though, it was Chara that screamed. She lifted up her knife, it glowed red...and her eyes turned black. “Let’s go dirty sister killer!” “You’ll have a bad time kid.” Sans replied, he shot bones at Chara. We didn’t even see her move before the bones were sliced into powder. “Oh right, you’re human...the Determination trait… This will be interesting.” The two circled each other before vanishing, a hole appeared in the wall while all anyone could see outside was flashes of light and the occasional clanking. “Come on Phoenix Down, don't be useless.” Joy mutters, tears falling as he placed it down on the dead girl, seeing a light gently heal her wounds. “Please...please work…” He mutters sadly. The wounds on her body healed in flashes of light, then she coughed as she took air back into her lungs. “Owh...that sucked…” She muttered. “Frisk!” Joy yips happily and hugged her happily. “Still sore, still sore!” She cried. “Oh, sorry.” He says worriedly, loosening up his grip. “I'm glad your back...but Chara is...fighting Sans.” “And I have a bitch to kill.” I growl. “Oh shit!” Frisk said, jumping up. “We gotta stop her!” “Can you keep track of that?” Joy frowns, pointing towards the DBZ esc fight. “Uh...no...she’s never fought with magic before so I can’t even see where she is!” Frisk said worried. “I know you're here!” I bark to literally no one. “So get your ass out here and quit hiding like the bitch you are!” I shout, readying myself for a fight. There were footsteps, slowly walking, but I didn’t see anyone...then I looked up, and saw her, wearing that mask! “Nice to see you again...Ben, right?” She asked, sitting down on the ceiling. “Having fun making a good person go mad?” I growl. “But get down here.” “You get up here.” She said, waving her hand as I fell...UP! I managed to spin to my feet...upside down, whatever and found myself standing in front of her. “Why did you corrupt a nice king?” I growl. “Nice doesn’t describe him. He slaughtered thousands in the war that trapped his people down here, if it wasn’t for his brother stopping him, humans would have gone extinct on this world. He’s a being without much light in his heart, yet still wishes to be good, but is easily swayed by his inability to find other routes.” “He just needs help being pushed in the right direction.” I say while pointing my Keyblade at the assassin. I could feel her smile under that mask of hers. “You and him are a lot alike, both naturally dark, wanting to be good, fighting your hearts nature...it’s entertaining really.” “You wish.” I say, taking a deep breath and readying myself to fight. She stood, taking out some kinda sword rather than summoning a Keyblade. She charged forward and I dodged. She was fast, damn it! Can’t get a hit on her just yet. “So you’re one of many now, son of a god?” She asked, not letting up her attack. “Haste.” I mutter, a golden clock appearing behind me and speeding me up tremendously. “That’s none of your business.” I say while using my increased speed to swing at her, hoping to hurt her at least while dodging her swings. “It’s my business to learn about my targets.” She said, switching to hitting my blade, and using her sword to block and meet my Keyblade with an attack. “My life is none of your concern.” I say, my shield growing an ice spike and I tried to shield bash her quickly. SHe waved her hand, changing the direction of my bash so it went passed her arm. “Did you know Core is kidnapping people?” She asked, keeping up her pace. “The same three people from every reflection.” “Sora, Riku and Kairi.” I deadpan. “Seemed kind of obvious cause of the games.” I state. “Did you know even the realm of darkness has a heart?” “An idiot would think it didn't.” I say. “So why are you telling me this?” “Can you link what he’s doing the the Heart of Darkness?” She asked, making a forward move...big mistake. I side stepped, and rammed Reunion into her mask, breaking it as she jumped back. There was a scar across her nose now, blood dripped from it. “Not bad, left my defence down for one point three seconds.” “I can.” I say. “Again, why are you telling me this?” “Core says no more secrets, no more hiding it now that he’s so close. He plans to make his own X-blade, one for the realm of darkness. What better to fight the original with than it’s twin, he has most of what he needs, just missing the pieces of it’s old body.” “The X-blade is a weapon of Light and Darkness, not just one or the other.” I frown. “You can't just make one that just so happens to be all darkness because you can. That makes literally no sense.” “That’s why Core’s kept Zeke alive this long.” “Unless he’s using Void there is literally no way to make an all Darkness X-blade.” I frown, remembering he’s using a bunch of void to do tests. “Now, anything else you want to tell me?” I ask her, having a feeling she want’s to tell me more. “Besides you hitting the nail on the hammer, nothing much else. But here’s a warning, Core will declare war against Zeke. This time, light and void will fight with darkness as the battleground.” “Well...that’s something.” I say simply. “But you won’t be there to experience it.” I say, readying myself to beat her. “You caught me off my guard once, not this time.” She said, readying her blade to block. “Let's see about that.” I say, dashing forward and swinging down, nothingness thorns shooting out like snakes to impale themselves into her or distract her blade from the main swing. I poured all I had into Reunion...even some memories, my rage, sadness...joy, heh, thanks Joy...and will all I had I made sure my strike was true and had everything behind it. When it hit, there was an explosion, both she and I were thrown back. I checked Reunion, still whole, thank god, and she...was missing half of her head...though she still got up. “Not bad, should have used that when you first had the open swing, might have killed me then.” She said, her mark glowing before she vanished. “How the hell is she still alive?” I wonder, readying myself in case she's still here. Gravity decided to stop being backwards and I fell down, though this time I fell on my side. “Owe...that hurt.” I groan after hitting the floor. “You okay?” Joy asks me after rushing over. “Frisk is alive thankfully...but we still have to stop Chara and Sans…” “I'm fine...but how are we going to stop very pissed people?” I ask worriedly. “I just hope neither of them are dead.” “No...but the empty city is.” Frisk said, pointing out the hole in the wall, showing all the city was nothing but rubble while Chara and Sans stood across from each other in the distance, from what we could see, they both looked exhausted. But both looked unharmed. “Shit.” I frown. “We have to stop them before they start up again.” Joy says, not wanting the two to kill each other. “Okay then. Papyrus? You still here?” I ask curiously, hoping the skeleton was still here. “He ran for the battlefield like, five minutes ago.” Frisk said. “Christ.” I sigh out. “Better find him before he get’s himself hurt.” I say while summoning my glider and flying down to the battlefield, hoping to find Papyrus and hopefully stop the fight. Frisk and Joy hopped on and when we arrived Frisk jumped off and tackle hugged Chara while Papyrus came a few seconds later and hugged Sans. “Brother, please, this is enough.” Pap said. “P… Papyrus?” Sans muttered, his blue eyes glow fading as he went unconscious. “Chara...enough...don’t go too far.” Frisk said to Chara. After a bit, Chara’s eyes went back to normal and she pet Frisk. “You dummy. Told you a good tackle you aim for the gut, not chest.” “Depends on things~” “You perv.” Chara chuckled, hugging Frisk back. Joy dashed over and lifted the two up in a hug. “I’m glad you're both okay…” Joy says, happy that Chara is also safe after Frisk was revived. “Yo, Papyrus? How long is Sans gonna be asleep?” “If I know my brother...days if he wanted too. He’ll actually wake up in probably a few hours and I’ll make him some food to get get his lazy but some energy again.” “Right then.” I nod. “So...now to break the barrier.” I nod. “How can the barrier be broken anyway?” Joy asks, hoping for either Chara or Papyrus to answer. “Seven souls or seven mages were used to create the barrier, so unless you have some kinda keys to the souls only seven more human souls will break it.” “Would Keyblades work?” Joy asks me. “Well considering Keyblades are all encompassing magical weapons…” I trail off. “Hey, want kick ass swords?” I ask Chara, Frisk and Papyrus. “I’ll give one to Sans and Toriel...and maybe Asgore because he’s a scientist.” I shrug. “Uh, sure.” Chara said as she and Frisk stood up. “So...I’ll go get mom and dad.” “Thank you.” I nod. “And...oh wait...shit.” I frown. “What?” Joy asks. “I forgot...giving keyblades takes time…” I frown. “Before you leave Chara, where do all the monsters go when they evacuate?” I ask her before she suddenly leaves. “Snowdin. Lot of trees and space to build new homes. Not many people live in Waterfall, but those that do it’s easy to find them.” “Okay then...so let's go find people.and I can open my own shortcut to a different planet.” I say. “Don't worry, you'll love the world me and Joy call home.” “Let's get going. We've got a ton of monsters to find and a few things to explain.” Joy says sheepishly. “So...all these people came from another world, their main city is destroyed, and you brought them all here to make a new home?” Celestia asked. We brought everyone from the Underground and right now they all are here in Ponyville. Wasn’t hard getting Celestia here, where we are, in my livingroom, Luna next to me and Chrysalis next to Celestia. “To sum it up yes.” I nod. “But you also forgot Joy getting three new girlfriends.” I point out. “Given your record so far I’m not surprised. Also we met up with the queen of the Diamond dogs...here.” She said, handing me an invite. You are Invited! To The royal wedding of Celestia, princess of Equestria, Chrysalis, Queen of the Changelings and new princess of Equestria, And Rune, queen of the Diamond Dogs. “That mare made me act like Chrysalis when she’s drunk on love...I am so backed up on paperwork right now…” Celestia said, glaring at Luna. “Heheh...I’ll get on that.” Luna said as she got up and walked towards her office. “Good Lord.” I sigh out, not believing this. “Anyways, have you talked to Sans? The King of the monsters that are moving in?” I ask. “Also congratulations.” “Not yet, I’m heading there after this talk.” “If he's asleep talk to Papyrus, his brother.” I say. “But I hope you don't mind all the new people appearing in Equestria...they needed a new home.” “After Manehatten and the crime genocide in Las pegasus Equestria’s population has dwindled greatly. This at least makes up the dead criminals from Las Pegusus. I was actually going over the plans for rebuilding Manehatten and we thought a large park with the memorial statue would be fine and around it a newly built city, so long as they are willing to aid in construction this project will be quite the job maker for our nation as well.” “I can imagine.” I shrug. “But I think it was either Time or Luxu that told me about the memorial...it's a statue of me holding up something that has...all the dead names on it right?” I ask. “Yes. Twilight told me about your Lexicon weapon and we figured you holding that, open with all the names in it, and your Reunion in the other hand would be perfect. I have to admit, where did you find a magic lexicon anyway? Haven’t seen one of those in years.” “You wouldn't believe me if I told you where I got all my weapons.” I tell her. “But...alright I suppose. But given my new cloak...I have a feeling you're going to want me to pose for the statue?” I ask, having a feeling I'll have to pose for the statue or something. “A few photos will be enough, the sculpter is good at their job, it will be a multi pony project, but this mare is the best in the world so we have her supervising.” “That's good.” I nod. “But...how do you know who died and who didn't? Is there something special you can do to tell all the people who died?” I ask, finding over fifty thousand people dead and naming off everyone is kind of difficult without some sort of thing to keep track of all the names. “Well, given how the event went down it’s not too hard. Anyone who wasn’t found alive or...as a corpse, is dead. Canterlot has copies of all the towns and cities records, and luckily an updated shipment arrived the day before it happened.” “Alright.” I nod, hiding the still biting sadness if not being able to stop that mindless slaughter. “That's good to hear. I should probably go help Luna with the paperwork...unless you two had anything else to share.” “Not yet, I do have a surprise I plan on telling her and you later but it’s not ready yet. You best go help Luna, it’s a weeks worth of document signing, if you’re a prince now you best get used to writer's cramps.” Celestia and Chrysalis chuckled before teleporting out. “If you stopped plowing then you could do your work…” I mumbled to myself while getting up and heading off to Luna's office. “I should make sure they got their Keyblades though…” I mutter, remembering I gave the people of the underground Keyblades. “Oh no you don’t!” Luna called out, using her magic to float me into her office and dropped me in a seat next to her before she placed a pen in my hand and a stack of papers in front of me. “The others do their homework, as in, well, work around home, now you, no if’s, and's, or but’s.” She said firmly. “I never said I wasn't going to not help you.” I say to her. “I just need to make sure about that.” “Already sent a letter to Joy to take care of it.” “And he's probably busy with the new girls with all his other girlfriends.” I point out. ”Nope! They after me! I out for a week dude, you’re on your own.” Joy tells me mentally. “Or...they are literally after him...and is out for a week.” I frown. “Get reading, it’s going to be an all nighter.” Luna says with a sly smile. To my surprise she pulled out reading glasses and put them on...wow that’s sexy. “Oi vey…” I sigh out. “Are you doing that to tease me or something?” I ask honestly. “Tell you what, finish at least fifty documents, read them all and sign the yesses, trash the obvious no’s, and you get a reward.” “Okay.” I nod. “But what's the reward? Or is it a surprise?” “It’s hot office roleplay sex~” “Yay.” I cheer. “But...at least we're doing our work instead of fucking all the time...unlike Celestia.” I frown. “You kidding? The video’s Chrysalis sent me shows she works while fucking, in her office at least.” “Huh...surprising.” I say. “Well let's get working...but uh...how many days was I gone?” I ask. “Two, consider my having you work now mercy. Pinkie tried some special chocolates that increase sex drive, shared them with the others, and well, they’re still in there and when I peaked, bed’s broken, wardrobes broken, bathroom’s flooded, and you don’t wanna know about the tv.” “Yeah I'm not going near that...but apparently Joys girlfriends are throwing out the 'wait till sixteen’ bit...but let's get cracking” “No, they took pages from Pinkie and are teasing...though a tease for her is fist deep...well, you don’t wanna know.” “Christ…” I sigh out. “Seriously, Joys head is going to explode if they keep this up.” “Well, that’s what the family doctor is for. Now let’s get to work, got the butler bringing us coffee every so often so we stay awake, and if we do crash the guest bedroom is ready.” “That'll be a good idea.” I nod. “Let's get to signing this papers...hopefully there will be less shit than I think there will be here.” I say while grabbing my first paper and reading through it. To be continued... Nobody's dating Coco“I know I asked for a schedule for a 'one on one’ dates but...sheesh Twilight.” I frown, seeing the massive lists she made. “Don't you think you went a little over board?” “Not at all, we all need some one on one time with you Ben, last time it was just you and me was that trip to Canterlot.” Twilight replied. “And last time I had a chance to have a one on one dates with everyone you were all extremely high and horny off of some damned chocolate Pinkie found.” I frown. “Seriously...I can still smell it in our room and you washed the room and burned some things.” “Heheh...last time I take chocolate from Pinkie...anyway. So I figured we go in reverse order. Last one brought in goes first and go backwards from there. Coco is waiting in the living room, she's got her time planned out for you two, have fun.” “Alright.” I nod. “Thanks Twilight.” I smile and kiss her gently and then leaving to find Coco and start our date. As Twilight said I found Coco in the living room, wearing a red top and short shorts. “Hi Ben.” She waved with a blush. She still hasn't fully been with me but those chocolate ls changed that with the others and her. “Don't you think your outfit is...a little revealing?” I ask her, putting my hands in my coat pockets. “It's ninety seven degrees today. Best cool rather than sweaty like you will in your cloak.” She replied. “Says the mare that was sweaty in more ways than one.” I mention offhandedly. “Oh please.” She said, rolling her eyes and handing me a folded shirt and cargo shorts. “Change please, I don't want you getting heat stroke.” “Nah I'm fine.” I say with a shrug. “I was wearing this in an area literally on top of molten lava, and I didn't break a sweat.” I say simply. “Also, I'm not wearing shorts...can't stand wearing those damned things.” I grumble. “O..oh...okay…” Coco said with a whimper that made me feel sad. “Why do you want me to change anyways?” I ask curiously, not wanting to upset her. “I made them. I made all my clothes and I wanted to make you some...if you don't want them then, that's fine…” “I don't like the guilt tripping.” I frown while taking the clothes. “Fine...but I'm still wearing my cloak.” I state. “That's okay.” She said, perking up a bit. “Thanks honey.” I say while patting her head gently. Her face went cherry red. “Y-your welcome!” “Adorable.” I chuckle before heading off to change my clothes. Three minutes later after changing in a private room I walked towards Coco with my cloak unzipped so she could see wearing the clothes she made...but I still didn't like the shorts since, even though they were perfect, still felt weird to me. “Happy?” “Thank you.” She said with a smile. “So, let's get going.” She said as we left though the front door. Walking to town. “So, what do you have planned for today?” I ask her. “Just a walk through town, maybe some snacks, and I did wanna visit a friend I made a few days ago.” “Alright.” I nod. “Who's the friend?” I ask. “Nyla. Her daughter is married to your friend Dorlu.” “Oh yeah, she's my aunt actually, given that she's Mama Dens sister.” I point out. “How did you two meet?” “Was shopping and I saw her in the market place. Thought she was you at first. We talked and she told me about her life and I talked about mine.” “I hope you were talking about good things…” I say nervously. “Nothing bad, just talked about each other.” “Okay.” I nod. “I understand. “Wonder where she is this time of day? I've been too busy to keep up with friends sadly.” “She works at the jewelry shop downtown. Her nose can smell real precious metals from fakes.” “The nose knows I suppose.” I shrug. Coco giggled. “Yeah. So, mind if I ask a personal question?” “Go right ahead. It's not like the others filled you in on my near crippling depression.” I shrug. “They did, and it’s kinda related. Um...since you know know your parent’s were murdered and not killed because of events...will you really stoop to her level for revenge?” “Revenge?” I ask, laughing at that. “Fuck no. Revenge is for the weak. And I'm going to kill that assassin on the basis that she's nothing but a monster now. She is nothing more than a test subject for Core, so I'm just killing a monster, like what hero's do all the time.” “Ever wonder why she became a monster? Luna told me about...when you killed that half heartless half human. He had his sanity still, he was just afraid. It’s...like the Nobodies you summon, lost and confused since they’re not...them anymore. Only following the strongest cause they can’t think for themselves. I believe anyone can be saved, be good if they tried, with help of course.” “My god…” I sigh out. “People can be saved yes, but for people like that can't be saved no matter how hard you try. They are nothing but monsters, and they enjoy seeing people try to see some sort of light in them...while ripping open their chest and eating their still beating hearts.” I shrug, getting really freaking morbid all of a sudden. “I dunno, people can change, I’ve seen it.” She said, leaning against me a bit as we walked. “People can change. Monsters can't.” I say. “I've seen monsters.” I say. “And I don't want any of you to meet any of them, cause they will kill you without a second thought.” I explain. “That’s what ponies said about my dad.” Coco said, going silent a bit before continuing. “Before I was born, my dad was a well known serial killer, his name was Bonesaw, but the media know him as Jaw Bone, since his calling card was his victims jawbone mailed to the cops. That changed when he met my mom. His whole life he thought of killing. He saw her...and wanted her safe more than anything, even above his bloodlust. One day he saw her being mugged in the street, beat up the muggers and finally the two dated. She found out who he was but didn’t care, he gave it all up for her. Three years later I was born...ten years later cops found him and he was executed… He was a monster his whole life. One person is all it takes sometimes to change them for the better.” “Ponies definition of 'monster’ is a fuck of a lot different than my definition of monster.” I frown. “He had a heart, he just needed to find the one person to show him that. But the monsters I fight, and see on a daily basis, makes him look like toddler throwing a hissy fit.” I frown. “In power, bloodlust, cruelty, and all around just not giving a single shit about anything and everything.” I explain, wrapping an arm around Coco. “Your thoughts are fine...but not everything deserves it.” “Maybe, still, the longer it festers the worst it can become, especially alone. Joy told me what happened to him when you were alone after everything that happened. Maybe not everyone can be saved, but how sure can we be if they truly monsters unless we try?” “Met the woman twice. I should know after she tried murdering me those two times.” I say with a shrug. “But whatever, let's just have a nice day okay” I ask, wanting to have a nice day instead of talk about sad crap. “Alright then. In that case, Joy told me a dream of yours was to visit some place called Italy? Where is that?” “Can Joy stop telling people things?” I grumbled. “Anyways, Italy, it is nonexistent because Italy is back on Earth. Unless there's a place in Equestria that's Italian then you’re out of luck.” “Well, maybe not on Equestria but maybe on another world? Plus, who knows, Joy says things from your old world are popping up here for some reason. Maybe a country will too?” “Well…” I start. “Honestly I doubt know if an entire country could just magic itself here out of nowhere…” I say simply. “Who knows...too many things and frankly I'd rather spend time with my mare instead of searching all around the world for a place that probably isn't here.” “Is this close enough?” Coco asked. I didn’t pay attention to where we were walking but when I looked in front of me my jaw dropped. It was a three story tall version of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. It was a restaurant! “Like? Joy used your multiverse internet to find a picture and Luna payed for it to be built. All food follows Italian cooking standards. Aka, all fresh ingredients.” “Oh…” I mutter. “Probably pissed someone off to make this thing lean like that. But sweet! Let's go.” I smile warmly, my tail wagging at the thought of eating delicious pizza for once as I started leading Coco into the restaurant. When we opened the door we were greeted by...Kevin? “Hey Ben.” He said. “Like it? Figured I get a job rather than just free loading at Fluttershy’s place.” “Glad to see you got a job. And how is Fluttershy?” I ask him, wondering if she's alright. “And yes, the place is amazing.” “She’s good, think she and Discord are trying to be a thing and watching those two try to flirt is hilarious. Other than that yeah, I designed the interior of this place actually. Been to italy more than a handful of times...mainly to steal artwork. But took in the scenery, and high priced sports cars.” “Cool.” I nod. “Always wanted to go to Italy...sadly never got the chance.” I shrug. “But hey, next best thing is a replica restaurant with good ol fashioned cooking.” I smile. “Still sure someone was pissed about this place leaning.” “Actually that was the easy part. Magic is awesome. Anyway, you two have a table on the roof, and don’t worry, glass covered. Follow me.” Kevin said. We followed him to a small glass elevator and we went up. The rooftop seats had a view that stretched all around Ponyville, and a pretty good view of Canterlot too. Our seat was next to the glass, and Kevin gave us each a menu before leaving for us to talk and decide. “Wonderful ain't it?” I ask Coco. “The view is beautiful, and I’m glad you like this, each of us pooled together, with Joy’s help, and made something for you, this is mine, Luna payed for it since I don’t have access to those funds yet. Not till I officially say yes anyway. I do have to ask though, when researching and from what Joy told us do you like history?” “I dabble.” I shrug. “Still surprised a structural marvel such as this was done completely by accident. Or rather, by a serious fuck up.” I shrug. “Most amazing things are. Dumb luck and all. And if anypony knows about dumb luck it’s me.” Coco said with a blush. “No, if anyone would know about dumb luck it's me.” I say simply. “If I were told before that this would be my life I would called the person a nut job for giving me hope of being awesome and being in a harem to begin with…” I chuckle. “If somepony told me I’d do anything with my life I’d have called them liars. Being a serial killer's daughter makes you...not very desirable. Was jobless and homeless for a long time before my boss picked me up, she was...not nice but just wanted somepony to work as a grunt. It was that or the streets. Least I learned how to sew, it’s how I got my cutie mark. She...died, even though she was real mean I do miss her a lot. She gave me a place to stay, money, a chance. Can’t hate her no matter how mean she was.” “And I swept you off your feet practically.” I chuckled. “I'm such a ladies man...and by that I mean I've been so lucky to just have women throwing themselves at me...Derpy the most literal example.” I chuckle. “Yeah...saw her stuff from her room. Well you’ve done a lot for this world, even with what went down in Manehattan, a lot of people are alive because of you. Only reason I haven’t is because...dating is new to me...this is actually my first real date.” “I'll make sure to give you a nice enough date.” I smile. “And if this goes pear shaped we can just do the griffon way of dating. Helped me get Gilda as a fiance real quick.” I chuckle. “Gilda told me about that, I’m not that easy mister.” Coco said playfully, poking my nose. “Treats are earned, not given freely~” “Tell that to literally all my fiance's.” I laugh. “Well it’s just with me. Mainly because my cherry is whole.” She teases, her tail swishing. “Pretty sure that’s a good sounding treat for a date gone well?” “Well a cherry on top is always a good addition.” I chuckle. “So, what ya ordering.” Coco says as she opens her menu. “With some of the Manehattan survivors being omnivores and moving here to Ponyville there’s a fair amount of meat items.” “Well I'll have some pasta.” I say simply, knowing I'll had meatballs as well. “I wonder if we'll get bread sticks as well. Those are always good.” “I think we will? I’m gonna have the Fruit salad and spinach lasagna.” “Sounds nice.” I nod. “But how do you like life now?” “It’s nice, better than I ever imagined. Ponyville is a nice town, people are friendly, Apple Bloom told me the town was almost named Second Chance. Lot of the old ponies that moved here were hard on luck, or petty criminals that needed a, well, second chance. This town had it all for them.” “Glad to hear that.” I nod. “And I'm happy to hear you're happy with your new life.” “I am, guess grandpa was right, life’s a gamble. Grandpa from my mom’s side.” She added. “Life is always a gamble. But hey, glad it's been going on.” I say with a smile. “So, let’s play a game.” Coco said, clapping her hands. “The last game I played lead to me and Pinkie dragging Luna out of a game room.” I chuckle. “Hehe, no. This is a game about each other. I tell you something embarrassing about myself, then you tell me something embarrassing about you. Winner is whoever doesn’t cave and stop talking or runs out of things to say.” “Okay then, you start.” I nod to her. “Alright...I...like to play in the mud.” Coco Said, blushing. “Don’t make me explain it.” “Context.” I frown. “Please, for my own sake give me some context on how you 'like’ to play in mud.” “You...Fine. Growing up in the city I rarely saw dirt or grass save for some small parks. So...when it was raining or after a rain I’d look for mud and just kinda...play around.” “Well...at least it's not dirty.” I sigh out, accidentally making a pun in the process. “Your turn now.” “Joy recalling all the times I've had sex in vivid detail.” I shrug. “Christ that was embarrassing...albeit he was cheating because he's literally a part of me.” “That’s pretty bad...okay...I collected Jars. Back in Manehattan, they’re all shattered now, but I saw a jar broke, dirty, new, I grab it.” “That's a hobby, not an embarrassing thing. Not to mention if you found a jar that happened to have some historical value you can get a bunch of money. If people can do it with cans than the same can be said for jars.” I explain. “For me...asking my parents about the birds and the bees.” I chuckle. “You could ask them how that entire situation went.” “Walking in on the boss and a ‘private’ client meeting...she let me watch in exchange for not blackmailing.” “Having watched my parents have sex“ I say. “About...eight years old. Accident and I had a nightmare…” I say sheepishly. “Okay...I can’t believe I’m admitting this, but there is currently, online, a video of me...masterbating in the mirror. I really needed the money.” “The entire porn collection I saw in Derpy’s room made to resemble me, looks, and 'size’ somehow accurate enough.” I frown. “Sweet god, I felt so embarrassed and violated at the time…” I muttered worriedly. “Boss sold my image to a video game company, in the new game ‘Riptide’ an island mafia game thing, the main villain's wife is an overly sexualized version of me...body and voice.” “Your too cute for a role like that.” I frown. She smirked, handing me a photo of the character...my nose bleed. “Damn…” “Yeah.” She chuckled. “On the bright side I got a letter in the survivors camp saying since my boss was dead I get her things, including my part of sales when the game is released.” “Okay then.” I nod. “But my next embarrassing thing about me…” I think for a moment. “Before I was told this place was real...I always wished I could date with Twilight or Luna.” I say honestly. “Yes, when this world was nothing but make believe I wanted to date this two.” I say sheepishly. “It's...a lot more embarrassing if you think about it.” “Everyone has crushes...matter of fact I had a crush on Rarity when I first met her. Bi. And can you blame me?” “When I got a good handful of that marshmallow butt I can totally understand.” I chuckle. “But speaking of Rarity, one of the main reasons...or only reason at the time….was because she was told by Luna about our...sex life.” I sigh out. “Heheh.” Coco chuckled. “That started the ball rolling on this herd?” “Not entirely. Given that Luna wanted to date me because I'm a hero, and Twilight and Rarity because of me saving their lives the first time I was in Manehattan...then Zecora because of magic stuff, Pinkie because I was drunk…” I sigh out. “Oh dear…” “Heheh. There are weirder ways of finding love.” Our dinner was amazing, the food was right out of the pot, oven, whatever they’re baked in, it was all really good. Coco and I left the dinner and she lead the way still. “So, can you guess what else we’re gonna do?” “Twilight told me about your lists, not what they had in them.” I tell her. “Well it’s just two more things than back home for a Dream date night with Luna. Yes, they will milk that.” Coco says as we start arriving at the train station. “Manehattan?” I ask her. “Not exactly.” We walked onto the loading platform. There was no one around and the train was taking it’s time. “According to Jenny it shouldn’t be much longer.” I summoned my shield at that. “Yeah I'm probably gonna need this.” I frown. “So...where are we going?” At that moment there was a bright flash of light from the train tracks as the blue train that went from Twilight Town to Yen Sid’s tower arrived and stopped in front of us. The door opened and Jenny stepped out. “Lady and Gentle...man? Dog? Eh, your train awaits.” “Gentleman is fine.” I say with a little chuckle. “So, we're going to Yen Sid’s place?” I ask, walking into the train. “Or is this something else?” “This will just go to you’ll find out.” Jenny said as she walked in as Coco and I followed and took seats. The train started and suddenly we were on magic rails in space. “Isn't space pretty or what?” I smile, enjoying the sight of the stars. “It’s amazing.” Coco replied. “When Luna and them told me about the stars being other world my mind was blown. At first I thought it was a joke, but after meeting Time, Luxu, and you, it became more believable.” “Glad to hear that.” I nod. “If I were told any of this...I'd beat them for giving me hope that they were possibly telling me the truth.” I sigh out. “Makes you think though, all that’s out there, limitless possibilities, everything just feels so much bigger while you feel smaller.” “That's not what my harem keeps saying.” I joke, finding my dirty joke funny. “Are you sure you’re nineteen?” Coco said with a sly smile. “I'm sure that I've plowed a lot of women that give a damn about me way too much for a nineteen year old.” I chuckle. “But...I'm still glad they care…” There was a bright flash from the windows and we were in...Destiny Island? By the town, the train resting on the beach, the Destiny Island from the game across the sea...full of lights and tents. “Destiny Island festival of the Sea! Now off loading!” Jenny said cheerfully. “Wait what now?” I ask. “I’ve been world traveling.” Jenny replied. “Learned they were having a little festival today, games, seafood, all that jazz. Boat over there is on the other side of the beach, I parked the train here to hide it from the people over there. If anyone asks I’ll just say it’s a...train exhibit?” She said, the look of not buying her own excuse across her face. “I’ll just make sure no one goes near the train.” “Thank you...and I suppose no one will question the fact an anthro mare and a half dire wolf would be walking around?” I ask. “I’ve been here five times and the towns folk think I just wear a costume. Just tell them it’s something your hometown does and they leave it alone.” “Good enough for me.” I shrug. “Anyways, let's get going. There's a festival to get to.” Coco and I walked over to the other side of the Beach where a man with silver hair, elderly, was sitting in a boat. He spotted us. “Why hello there. You two from the same town as that Jenny lass?” He asked. “Yes actually.” I nod. “How are you doing sir?” I ask, wanting to be kind to the elder. “I do alright. You two heading to the festival?” “Yes sir, a good way to spend a first date am I right?” I chuckle. “Ah yes. It’s how I met my wife...and how our kids were born.” The old man laughed as Coco and I hopped in and he started rowing. “So, aside from the festival what brings you to our village?” “Hoping to not embarrass myself in front of my girlfriend that's a start.” I joke. “Even if you do it’s still a good memory.” Coco said, leaning against me. “Ah, young love, glad to see some happiness given recent events.” “What do you mean by that?”, I ask worriedly. The old man sighed. “Some of the village kids went missing some months back, me granddaughter included.” The old man said, grief across his face. “She and her friend been sailing the island since before they popped out of their mothers, so we don’t think they got lost at sea, and we dived in the waters already, nothing but fish, sand and coral for miles. They just, vanished.” “What were the kids names?” I ask worriedly. “Hikaru, Sarah, and the new boy that arrived last year Ken. He arrived as randomly as they all disappeared. Just was on the beach.” “Um…” I start, getting a bad feeling about this. “If you could...switch their genders...now that sounds crazy and so will this...but if you could change their genders, would their names be Sora, Riku, and Kairi?” I ask the old man, getting scared right now. “Dunno, save for Riku, my boy was gonna name his child Riku if it was a boy, and Hikaru if it’s a girl. Child was born a lass and Hikaru was her name. That lass...strong both body and will, I just hope wherever she is it’s safe, or she’s puttin the family stubbornness though the grinder.” “Um…” I frown. “Was there any...mysterious events happening when they disappeared? And how old were they when they vanished?” “Ten, Hikaru is eleven, and no, they left for school as usual, school saw them leave, but they never came back home. None of the other kids saw anything either.” ”Shit. That's not good…” I think to myself, getting worried now. “Is there any short cuts or something they take?” Coco asked, catching me a bit off guard. “Well, there’s a small group of trees they walk though coming home, lot of tall bushes too, but we searched that too.” The old man said. “It only takes eight or so minutes to walk through it, and only a few bushes are large enough to hide behind, but like I said, we searched it too.” “Oh dear…” I mutter. “I'm sorry sir but...I have a feeling they were kidnapped.” I say worriedly. “Kidnapped? In the span of seven minutes in a somewhat clear forrest…” He sighed. “Their parents and Ken’s foster parents think that too, but it’s been too long, don’t these things usually come with a ransome?” “Unless they've been kidnapped by someone that is beyond terrible.” I growl, knowing full well who kidnapped them now. “I know there be bad people in the world, but nothing bad has happened here since…” The man trailed off. “Since?” I ask curiously. “Long time ago, there was a man that wanted to leave the village, see sites, and explore the unknown. He somehow found a way, and when he did, people died. That was sixty years ago though, nothing else has happened since.” “That's….weird.” I frown. “Thank you sir.” “It’s nothin, getting the word out is best to find the kids.” The man said as the boat stopped, we were on the island. “Well, we’re here, you lot have fun, don’t think anyone else is coming over and if they are they can bring their own boat, I’m getting a drink.” The elderly man said, getting out of the boat and walking into the festival. “Best you do. And thank you sir “ I nod. “Crap…” I mutter. “Bad things?” Coco asked. “Major bad things.” I sigh out. “It's...quite a story…” “Oh…” Coco said, looking around. “I don't want to ruin our date…” I sigh out. “Hell...I don't even know if those kids are alive if he got to them…” “Well...I may have an idea…” “And this plan is?” I ask worriedly. “I...don't want you hurt…” Coco looked around, and dragged me behind a tent so no one could see. She then summoned her Keyblade...the No Name keyblade. “Time told me about it’s abilities. Not completely sure how they work but we can at least see what happened to them.” “Are you sure messing with the fabric of time is a good idea?” I ask. “Cause Cript does that with...specialness…” “Time said as long as we don’t interfere with the past we won’t make a new reflection, as long as we only watch it’s all good.” “But...what if he notices?” I ask, not wanting to say Cores name lest it somehow invoke him suddenly appearing for whatever reason. “That’s why Time showed me a special ability. I just need a bowl of water.” I summoned Frozen Pride and, with a lot of concentration cause I haven't tried to make anything with this thing, created a bowl of ice, then summoning my flame chackram and starting to melt the ice in the middle of the bowl and out came a bowl of water. “That...was actually a bit more difficult for some reason…” I sigh out. Coco tapped the water with No Name, it showed a clock going counter clockwise, after a bit it showed genderbent Sora, Riku, and Kiari. ”So Hikaru, what you gonna do over the weekend?” Sahra asked. “Dad’s getting me a new game system, you and Ken can come over to play.” “Sweet.” Ken replied. “What games you getting?” “I already got the games, three. Never heard of them, but one’s called Need for Speed, the other is Sly Cooper, and the last is called Dark Cloud.” “Dark Cloud sounds neat.” Sahra said. “Well only Need for Speed has multiplayer.” They walked into the forest and as soon as they walked behind some tall bushes, DTD’s opened under them as Neoshadows jumped out, covered their mouths, and dragged them into the darkness. When they were swallowed by it, the image in the water faded. “Fuck…” I frown. “Core did take them away…” I frown. “Well he took them alive, so what does that tell you?” Coco asked. “He probably wanted to jerk off to the sound of children's screams?” I ask. “It's Core, he'd do something that sick.” “...Wow...anyway...It likely means he needs them for something big, he made it quick and to the point about taking them, and he made it fast, why?” “In my world Kingdom Hearts, the thing that had Nobodies, Heartless, and bo much more crap, was nothing but a game.” I frown. “Sora, Riku, and Kairi are the main characters and are supposed to help bring back the pieces of the X-blade and summon Kingdom Hearts...so Core would kill them most likely cause he's fucking with the games timeline and so much more…” I groan. “Well, from what Luxu and Time told me he likely needs their hearts…” Coco rolled her hand, motioning for me to continue. “Sadly he has Xehanort, the games 'big bad’, and he knew how to summon the shattered X-blade. Which it needed seven pieces of Light, and thirteen pieces of Darkness. The thirteen darkness pieces involves Xehanort splitting his heart into thirteen pieces, while the seven pieces of Light happened to be seven princesses of light...or the seven Keybladers. And those seven would be Sora, Riku, Kairi, Terra, Aqua, Ventus, and either King Mickey or Axel.” I explain. “...No, it means he’s likely taking their hearts with a Keyblade, and Time told me it’s more likely special Nobodies are made when their heart is taken by a keyblade, so you can…” She motioned again. “Even though Xehanort wanted to keep Sora’s body instead of Riku’s and Kairi is one of the seven pieces of Light.” I frown. “If there is a chance they have Nobodies, you should be able to summon them, right?” “Most likely…” I say while putting both of my palms together. I focused intently and tried to sense their Nobodies, even if they weren't their. To my surprise, someone replied. ”Who...are you?” A young girl’s voice spoke in my head, they sounded...hollow. ”Hi, the names Ben.” I mentally tell the child. ”Where are you?” I ask the girl mentally. ”I...don’t know. There’s a lot of buildings, people marching along, in yellow and black outfits.” ”Do you have friends?” I ask her. ”...Friends? Those...what are those?” ”Do you see anyone that isn't white or black? Anyone that looks like you in some way? I ask, hoping for something. ”lots...adults, all around the streets...a man flying on smoke. The ones in yellow and back are shooting at him.” ”Do you have a name? I ask. ”...Name...It...It started with an H…” ”Hikaru?” I asked her. ”That...That’s it! My name is Hikaru!” ”Do you know where Ken and Sarah are? Or do you even know who they are?” I ask her. ”They...those are my friends...what...what happened to us? Why...why can’t I feel...like me?” ”It's alright, calm down. Do you know where they are? I'll explain everything when you three are with me okay?” I ask. ”N..no. All I remember is darkness, then I woke up in this place, I haven’t left this rooftop in days...I don’t even feel hungry...thirsty…” I sigh out and focused more, trying to summon Hikaru to me in hopes to get her here.”Do you see a white portal?” I mentally ask her. ”N...No, not near me anyway. One just appeared on the roof next to me. The man who flew on smoke is looking at it.” ”Oh shit…” I frown, having a bad feeling about this but letting the portal stay open for the person. ”Don't worry Hikari, I'll get you out soon, just gotta help this person first.” ”He already walked in. I’m gonna follow.” She said, then things went quiet. A few moments passed before a guy in a jean jacket with some kinda blue eagle on his back with a red beanie hat came out of a Nobody style summon, followed by a young, genderbend Riku. “Ouch...That sucked.” The man said, getting up. “Sup.” I say while closing the portal quickly. “And how are you two doing?” The man looked at me and Coco and stared. “...Well...werewolf Conduits...that’s...new.” He said. “He cushioned my fall.” Hikaru said. “I'm gonna have to explain so many things to the two of you. But right now I have two other kids to rescue.” I say, knowing Cores forces are probably on high alert considering a nobody portal suddenly opened. ”Please work.” I think to myself worriedly, trying to find Sahra and Ken. ”A voice? That’s...new.” A young boys voice replied. ”Hi, how you doing. Ken right?” I mentally ask, hoping to get this done quick before shit hits the fan. ”That’s… how do you know my name...how are you talking to me?” ”Hikari, magic, and can you see a portal?” I mentally ask, trying to make sure it was actually closer to the nobody then away. ”A..portal? Is it white?” ”Yes.” I tell him ”It’s across from me, give me a moment.” For some reason I thought I could hear a shotgun cocking. A few moments passed before the genderbend Kiari appeared...followed by the group from Left 4 Dead 2… “And we are safe!” Ken declared. Clothes covered in blood. “Oh for the love of…” I sigh out. “Ken, wait over with Hikari, you four, stay with that person and wait patiently.” I tell them. “Hey! The name’s Delson.” He replied, slightly pissed. “Don't care at the moment, trying to save people.” I say before focusing, my shoulders shaking from the strain. ”Sahra? You there?” I mentally ask, hoping she's there. ”Who are you?” The last girl’s voice spoke...she sounded kinda angry. ”Friend, with Ken and Hikari here. Do you see a white portal?” I mentally ask the angry girl, trying my best to summon a portal for her and any hitch hikers along the way. ”There is, why should I leave where I am?” ”Because Hikari and Ken are here, to at least some sort of safety, and because I doubt you want to be anywhere near where you are at the moment. Please?” I ask her. ”Things like me belong here, there’s nothing here, nothing but them, and me.” ”Uh...what?” I ask worriedly. ”You...feel like us...come and see.” A DTD opened in front of me. ”Oh for fuck sakes.” I mentally groan. ”Where are you?” ”With ghosts.” Several hands came out of the DTD and grabbed me, pulling me in. I came out the other side landing on the ground. “Shit.” I growl, getting up and summoning Reunion and Frozen Pride, readying myself for whatever might happen. “Hello?” In front of me sat Sahra, sitting at the end of where Castle Oblivion Should have been, but..right, Core stole it. In front of her were three Absent Silhouettes, two had Kingdom Key’s on them, and the one on the center had a sketchpad. “Hi.” She replied, staring at the emptiness. “Uh...hi.” I say. “Um...why are we here?” “This is where I woke up.” She replied. “Just me and them here since I woke up. They showed me things.” She said, holding out her hand as a Duskblade appeared. “Said destiny changed, now they are truly ghosts of beings that don’t exist.” “Roxas...Namine...but who's the third?” I raise an eyebrow. “Riku...never had a Nobody right?” I wonder. “Her name, is Xion.” Sahra said defensively. “Oh...sorry.” I sigh out. “I didn't mean to sound rude…” “They want to rest, Namine, she want’s to talk. Talk to someone that exists but acts like they don’t.” “And why do I have a feeling I'm supposed to be that person?” I ask. “Cause like them, you aren’t supposed to exist, least not in this place.” Sahra said. “Just touch one and you’ll be in their domain.” “This isn't the first time I've heard I'm not supposed to exist...except in a harsher way.” I shrug while walking over to Roxas’s kingdom key and touching it, having a bad feeling about this. There was a bright flash and suddenly, I was on the tower from Twilight Town, sitting down with Roxas, how he was from the games, sitting next to me, dressed in his casual clothing eating a Sea Salt Ice cream. “So, you’re the human Nobody?” He asked, taking a bit. “I'm not a Nobody anymore.” I say. “My heart's whole, I have a loving family, and even if I'm still depressed I know what emotions are.” I say simply. “So do I, and I never had a heart, or existed. Now I never will.” “I’m sorry...the bastard responsible doesn't understand what kind of things he fucked with.” I shake my head. “Does it matter in the end? All that could have been that you knew of, has yet to happen, and now never will. That’s the thing when you know the future, it’s always gonna change. Every little possibility, ripples endlessly.” He said, taking another bite. “He’s close to his goal too.” “Oh no…” I mutter. “That's...way not good…” “He’s giving you all time though, fifteen years to prepare. He has all that he needs, he’s just letting us either make the most out of what time he’s given us, or go mad waiting. Either way, it’s not looking good from what all the Sora’s of the multiverse saw.” “And yet I may possibly be able to practically own a law of reality if I can guess how my future's going to go.” I say honestly. “Heh, future...what a joke. In the end we all wonder what it holds, even as we live it.” “That's why we focus on today.” I shrug. “The future is always a mystery, no one knows what will happen...except those people in Greek, Roman, and Norse stories...they basically told everyone how things end so...eh.” I shrug. “Heh, true enough.” Roxa tossed his unfinished ice cream over the edge, stood up, and pulled me up. “You know, someone once told me that so long as you live on in people’s memories, you’ll live forever. And I’ve learned something...When you live in someone’s memories only...it hurts more.” Everything went white and when I opened my eyes, we were standing on...my Station of Awakening. There I was, curled fetal position looking at...the viewer I guess, those circles that that each seemed to have, one for each of my girls faces in them, and in the background all my kids. I didn’t look sad either on the glass like picture...I looked thoughtful. “So, am I going to finish fading into only memory or what?” Roxas spoke, summoning Oathkeeper and Oblivion. “That depends on what you mean.” I say while summoning Reunion and my Shield. “Cause if you want to be real then I'm willing to help. But I doubt it'll be that easy.” I say, hoping it won't lead to a fight. “You don’t get it.” He said, raising Oblivion to me. “I don’t exist, even more so than a regular Nobody, the future in which I was meant to be in is impossible now. The only way for Namine and I to live on now is in memories. Least Xion lucked out.” “That card…” I start...before snapping my fingers. “Wait, there has to be a way you and Namine can exist. I just...sadly don't know how those fucking cards work.” I sigh out. “I have a Keyblade to store memories but...oi vey…” I groan, raising my shield to protect myself. “Like I care!” Roxas shouted, charging. He jumped and slammed both Keyblades on Frozen Pride. I managed to block, but was sent skidding back near the edge of the battle ground. “Even if Nanine and I can never exist, at least Xion finally can.” “So you'd rather cease to exist all together?” I ask, taking careful steps away from the edge and staring at Roxas. “We already do, the only reason there are nobodies of Sahra, Hikaru and Ken is because Core let them go, every other Nobody of them that popped out after he took our hearts he destroyed. Namine and I are nothing more than echos of their screams! Xion is here only because she somehow exists now.” “There is a way for you two to exist...I just …” I trail off bitterly. “The one fucking time I needed to know something is the time where I don't have a single fucking clue about.” I sigh out. “But listen, this might sound crazy, but someone basically stored all of Xion’s memories into a card and used it somewhere. I don't know how that even fucking works but it does. I...know Castle Oblivion doesn't exist anymore but...I know for a fact it can happen again.” Roxas looked at me, then sighed. “You’re just like him.” He disbanded Oathkeeper and Oblivion. “Always looking for an alternate option.” “People deserve chances at life.” I say, summoning Memory Stealer and Fair game. To my shock, memory stealer didn’t look like a copy of Reunion, it looked like the grip was a heart when you see them float out of Heartless, the blade part was blank cards like those from castle oblivion, and the tip looked like a mini version of said castle. It’s Keychain, a sketchbook. “Nice look.” I nod. “So, ready?” I ask, not a hundred percent sure how this is going to work but hoping for the best. “Do I have many options?” He asked, rubbing the back of his head. “Not really.” I shrug. “But...you'll be in a good family.” I tell him. “Memory Stealer.” I whisper, stabbing Roxas in the chest. “Heh, there are worst things I guess.” He said, his body fading into light. I looked at Memory stealer. There were twelve cards as it’s blade, and an image of Roxas appeared on the card that connected the blade and grip. I turned it over, that card was blank on the other side. “Twenty four memories? Huh.” I pondered. Why twenty four? “Well...here goes nothing.” I say while pulling out a Fair Game card and gently poking it with Memory Stealer. “Memory shift.” I mutter, feeling the blade start shifting the memories embedded in the blade and into the card. After about a minute the card had a picture of Roxas on the Fair Game card and not on Memory Stealer anymore. “Alright.” I nod. “Okay! Where's Namine’s door?” I call out, wondering where I'll find her now. I turned around, and saw one of those doors that appear in a Station of awakening. I opened it, got blinded by a bright light, and found myself sitting across from Namine in the Twilight Town mansion White Room. “Hello, Ben. I’ve been looking forward to speaking to you.” “It's nice to talk to you as well Namine.” I nod. “So, you have anything to talk to me about?” “Lots. No longer truly existing at all has had a few surprising benefits.” She said, walking up towards me, sketchbook in hand, and opened it, showing a crayon drawing of me, I think, sitting on some kinda throne. “You all have amazing futures.” “Well you know, when you suddenly have runes appearing on your weapons you know you're going to have a pretty good future.” I chuckle. “But I didn't think being a King would be in my future...I thought I would see me being in a massive pile of kids and my wives laughing.” I chuckle. “I was going to draw that, but then there goes my sketch pad.” Namine chuckled, flipping the page, it was the X-blade, but looked like the Kingdom Key D version. “Can you guess who this is?” “Wait…’who’?” I ask. “I know X is sentient but...that sounds worrying.” I say, seeing the version. “It’s Zeke’s future. This is what he will become.” “He...becomes X? But…” I start. “What about his family? His kids? I doubt he'll just turn into that for funzies.” “They move on, they’ll see him again in their lifetimes, but he will be bound by the rules of a Keyblade, the laws the X-blade has to follow.” “Oh…” I sigh out. “Well...it's his choice. I know that for a fact.” I nod. “Anything else?” I ask curiously. “In your battle with Core, there will be a part of him that survives, and I’m not sure who, but one of you will be unknowingly caring for it, cause like the Psychopaths, it will infect a host. One of your own children will be infected at birth, though whose children it infect I do not know.” “I...hope Cript can help...cause if it's one of my children...Core might be an asshole and try to use my kid but honestly, even if he should rot in the darkest pits of hell...I think he needs a second chance at least…” I sigh out. “Hopefully…” “Well, aside from that, an old allie will likely show himself again.” Namine flipped the page, showing someone in the black version of the Organization thirteen cloak. “He calls himself, Huxley.” “Haven't heard from him in a while...albeit I haven't heard from Eclipse or the Foretellers either...and I still need to meet this John Corvo guy.” I frown, feeling like I need to talk to my friends and make new ones soon. “He has gotten much stronger, and colder. He’s putting himself into deep darkness to gain strength to prove himself.” She flipped the page, it was an image of a Keyblade I think. It was a black cloak, flowing in the wind while it rested on a cross. “Master No More. The Master of Master’s last gift for the students he wronged.” “The Foretellers I take it?” I ask, still not knowing much about that whole thing. “Yes.” She flipped the page. It was the image of two Luna’s, one pony, the other anthro, cradling infants wrapped in blankets. “Roxas’s mother, and mine, must be the same, but from different reflections. Otherwise, the people we grow up into will conflict with who we were.” “Is the anthro my Luna? Cause...I have a feeling the normal Luna is Eclipses I think…” I say, not sure who is who. Namine nodded. “Yes. Roxas will be your son while I will become Eclipses daughter. My power over memories will make Memory Stealer mine one day, but it’s the memories yet to be that I will have power over.” “Alright. But you might not remember my words but be safe with the thing. It's pretty scary what it can do.” I tell her. “You will tell me again, in my new life...there is, one last thing.” She flipped the page, and it was a child, covered in a black aura. “The embodiment of Greed. The new Xion, Roxas and I will be the only ones like us in the whole of the multiverse. He will be after us. It will be years, but an early warning is better than none.” “Going after children...what a dick.” I frown. “Wait...why is it a kid?” “All the embodiments of the realm of darkness are children, not sure why, but they always have.” She closed her sketch book, placed it on the table, and took a deep breath. “Will it hurt?” “I don't know…” I sigh out. “But I'll make sure it doesn't. But...can I keep the sketchbook?” “It’s an illusion, all of this is, but here.” She placed a hand on my head, and another on Memory Stealer, and a card image of her sketches appeared in my hands. “Those are real, and when the time for them to happen has arrived they will change...into helpfull little trinkets, a gift for existence from something that doesn’t.” “You'll still have a nice family.” I say while getting out of my chair. “Just...stand still. I'll make sure it doesn't hurt.” I say while aiming Memory Stealer at her chest. I stabbed her chest swiftly and made sure it wasn't as painful as it could be. “Thank you.” She said, her body fading into light. Her image appeared on the same card as Roxas’s did on Memory Stealer. “Alright…” I nod while putting the drawings in my pocket and putting all the memories in Memory Stealer into another Fair Game card, now having the memories of both Roxas and Namine. “Okay...do I need to go through Xion's stuff or not?” I ask, having seen Xion's Keyblade but not sure about it. I walked out the door of the White room, and was wandering in darkness. After a bit, I came across a Station of Awakening. It had Xion on it. She was like how Sora’s was, an image of Unim and Zeke were the only two circles here with faces, though, there was Zeke’s female form in the circle with him. The background held hearts and Kingdom Key Silhouettes in a pattern all around, and next to Xion, was the image of a X-blade, made from two Oblivions. “So you came.” I turned around, seeing a child version of Xion, no older than five. “Nice to meet you, I’m Xion...well, I used to be called that. Now, my name is Nix.” “It's nice to meet you Nix.” I smile gently. “Strange having a male mother huh?” I chuckle, remembering Zeke's predicament well. “Meh, not many can love a child as both a mother and father.” She giggled. “I’m still an infant, but mentally I’m five, so that’s why I look like this to you.” “I can imagine.” I say while bending down to my knees. “So how's life been? I bet it's been nice all things considered.” “Aside from needed dad or one of my mom’s to change me and the inability to speak, good. Dad let’s or mama Celestia usually reads to me regularly. My brother Blake still breastfeeds though, I already switched to bottles.” “Okay.” I nod. “So...you have all your memories correct?” I ask. “Not exactly. I remember here because this is my heart...heh, before that was a sentence I never expected to say, now...feels good. I probably won’t remember out there till I’m older. All I know out there is that I’m too smart for my age.” “Zeke probably tells you that all the time doesn't he?” I ask her, grinning at the thought of him saying that. “All my moms too. I can nod and shake to keep a conversation, so, yeah.” “Okay then.” I nod. “But...uh...do you know who...Roxas and Namine are?” “Of course. Namine is who I was based on, and Roxas is my friend.” “Well…” I say while turning two cards over and showing their pictures. “Let's say Uncle Ben is gonna give them a second chance to be with their friend again.” “That’s so sweet.” Xio- Nix cheered. “Here.” She said, walking over to me and giving me something. It was a key, really old, rusted to all hell, with thirteen symbols on it. The ones I recognized were because they were on my weapons I mastered. “H-how in the..?” I stutter, looking at the young girl in surprise. “I was the biggest Nothing, it was a gift from the King of Nothingness. Once you’ve mastered all his weapons, summon them all and a door to his castle will appear. He want’s to have a word with you.” “Goodie. I get to talk to someone that owns a literal fact of existence.” I sigh out. “Till next time.” She waved, her body vanishing as the ground under me too. I fell in darkness then hit dirt...I was back in front of the spot where Castle Oblivion was supposed to be. “Welcome back.” Sahra spoke. “That was fast.” “Well it was simple enough.” I shrug, putting the cards and key into my pocket. “So, now do you want to follow me to see your friends?” “Sure.” She said, getting up and opening a DTD. We walked though and were with the others, though, the Left 4 Dead people and...Delson, I think, we're missing. “Hikaru, Ken.” “Coco, where did the five other people go?” I ask my girlfriend. “Oh, Jenny came by wondering how we were doing and took them with her. They’re in the train.” “Okay then.” I nodded. “Um...again I'm so sorry about...this.” I say nervously. “I was hoping for the date to go great Coco.” “You just saved what you could of three kids, that’s...hot~” Coco said, tracing a finger up my chest. I blushed at that. “Well….I suppose...we should go home and...get some things settled huh?” I ask with a little smile. “There’s a secret spot I found while you were gone~” “We’ll stand watch....till our families find us or something.” Hikaru said as Coco somehow carried me over her shoulder and ran with me into the cave. Save for the lack of drawings, it was just like the game...even the door was here. “Have fun kids...halp…” I say worriedly. To be continued... Nobody's dating BrigidThe next day had come, Coco was now one of the...super pregnant wives, damn did she make me work last night… but, keeping up with the schedule I got up, showered and waited for whoever was next to appear. “Wonder who's day it is today?” I wonder to myself. A few minutes passed before someone finally walked up. Brigid. I haven’t seen much of her around come to think of it? “Hello love, where to?” She asked, dressed like how Marilyn Monroe would dress. “Now I feel underdressed.” I joke, wearing a simple pair of jeans and a Deathwing T-shirt under my cloak. “But where did you want to go? It's up to you cause Twilight made a list about it.” I explain. “Well I do have one place in mine, but before we go I have to give you this.” She said, handing me a necklace. It was simple, but I could feel some potent magic on it. “I'm sorry I haven't been spending time with you Brigid.” I say while putting the necklace on top of my bone hunter necklace Den gave me. I felt the magic activate, and when I looked at my hands...they were human. I ran over to the nearest mirror and I looked human again. “It’s just an illusion, so long as the necklace is on you’ll look human. But your wolf features are still there, so mind that.” She explained. “Sheesh, it's been forever since I last saw my actual normal face.” I say, still feeling my ears and tail but not seeing them. “Thanks. But where to my lovely lady?” I ask with a smile. “My world, I always wanted to visit America, heard this and that about it, and being in Rapture for so long I heard a lot before the fall.” “What year was it back on your world?” I ask curiously. “Cause I have a feeling I'm gonna need to dress up for the occasion instead of...well this.” I say nervously. “1960, last I checked. So...yes, best change to a suit or something.” “I don't even know if I have one.” I say worriedly. “Crap...you'd think Rarity or Coco would make me one...albeit my suit would be this.” I say while patting my cloak. “I better find them, and actually I have to find Luna, just to do something important as well.” I say. “I'm sorry...just...so much stuff…” I sigh out, feeling bad about this not so good start. “I will wait then, and knowing Rarity she probably has some suits made already for you.” “Alright.” I nod. “Trust me Brigid, I'll try to make this a great day for you.” I say while walking over, kissing her cheek and rushing off to find Rarity. As expected I found Rarity in her sewing room, Coco was there to, the two of them stitching something. “Oh, hello Ben, what brings you here love?” Rarity asked. “I need a suit. Going to a time where my standard wear would make me look like a freak.” I sigh out. “Also have you two seen Luna?” I ask curiously, wondering if I have to do this sooner or later. “Well yes, I made a few suits for you, let me get them real quick.” Rarity said, getting up and walking over to a dresser, one of many, and pulling out a dark blue folded suit in a clear plastic covering on top of a shoe box. “I had a friend up in Baltimare make you the shoes deary, fashionable, and comfortable.” She said, handing them over to me. “As for Luna… I think she’s in the garden?” “Which?” I ask. “Cause honestly I think there's dozens of gardens here, and not the ones outside or in Joy’s room.” I explain. “The one she’s making on the roof. It’s her ‘personal’ garden she says.” “Thank you.” I nod while stepping into a changing room and getting dressed in my fancy new outfit. Five minutes later I walked out and while it was comfortable it felt weird given I wasn't wearing my cloak anymore. “What do you think?” I ask, showing off to my fiance's. “Lovely darling.” “Look at you stud.” Jenny said, walking in. “What’s with the blue monkey suit?” “Going to 1960’s Earth to go on a date with Brigid.” I tell her. “Ah. Hey mama Rarity, is the outfit I asked for ready?” “Yes, Coco, would you go show it to her?” Rarity asked. “Sure. Come on Jenny.” She said, getting up as she and Jenny walked into a different room. “Is it something to show off for Joy?” I ask. “No, that Delson fellow that arrived with the others yesterday is teaching Lovely how to use her abilities. Turns out, his world is where her powers come from. So he’s teaching her some moves and Jenny asked for an outfit that would suit her for combat.” “That's good to hear.” I nod. “Anyways I best be off to find Luna. Have a nice day.” I say while heading off to find Luna. Getting up to the roof was one thing but trying to find her garden was another as I wondering if she had the garden inside or outside the castle. When I got to the roof of our home what should have been stone was now covered in blue grass, several dark colored bushes of plants were growing here and there, and I saw Luna furthest back, there was some kinda statue there she was looking at too, though, of what I’m not sure. As I approached she noticed me. “Oh, hi Ben.” Luna said, still looking at the statue. It was seven feet tall, and depicted a woman, pregnant, wearing a dress of...what I can only guess are black hides, and her eyes had these black stripes on them going from her cheeks, over her eyes, and into her hair. “Who is this statue?” I ask. “No idea.” Luna admitted. “I was coming up here to water the plants and it was here. As far as I can tell it’s just stone, but it just...appeared.” “Hmm…” I mutter, pulling up my Assistant and seeing if it had something to help describe this thing. “This thing is weird and I'm worried it'll attack us if we blink.” I frown. “If that was true I’d be harmed already.” Luna said, touching it on the belly. “It’s so strange. Looks like stone but...feels off.” I raised an eyebrow and lowered my arm, walking over and gently putting an arm on the statues pregnant belly. Luna was right, it felt...not like stone. It was hard like stone, but felt like...skin? “Either this is a being literally made of stone but can't move...a stone spell got pretty fancy...or someone is really good at making a stone sculpture.” “Neither.” I turned around, seeing Cript walk up. “Now how in the hell did this get here?” He asked, walking up to it. “What is it?” I ask curiously. “Something that should not be here at all. A...well, you know how I’m the admin, I control everything right?” “I suppose.” I say, not knowing the finer details of this. “Okay, so think of existence as a videogame, the ultimate rpg, or whatever, each Realm is a different version of the same game, just... different save file, playthrough, etc. Reflections are a lesser version of that. This statue...came from...I guess you could call it my game. Connected to this one, but different in lots of ways, kinda like a sequel that you don’t need to play the original for.” “I doubt Core or my evil self had anything to do with this…” I say with a frown. “And you probably heard the news already Cript.” I sigh out. “But who is this lady?” “...Long story, not telling, yet anyway. Your evil self is a Psychopath son and the place this statue should be they can travel there too, their facts, they exist everywhere. A real bitch to work around. I’m gonna take this back, just be glad what it needs to run properly doesn't exist here, otherwise this place would be overrun with Shadow Creatures.” Cript said as he touched the statue and he, and it, vanished. “Huh…” I frown. “That's...a thing.” I say. “Well, did you need anything Ben, before that all happened?” Luna asked. “Yes actually.” I say while pulling out Roxas’s card. “Not sure what will happen but this card had everything for our new son.” I say. “Hopefully nothing bad happens.” I say while touching the card onto Luna’s pregnant tummy. The card glowed as it went into her tummy, her whole tummy glowed a bit before it faded as Luna shivered. “Wow...that felt ticklish inside there. What was that?” “That was literally all the memories of someone being put inside you. Hopefully it is for a specific kid cause you have a stomach full of pebble babies at the moment.” “Oh, well that’s new. What would you call that fetish~” Luna teased. “It's not a fetish.” I say seriously, rubbing my temples a little and trying to keep an angry rant from coming out. “Anyway, I have to go find Brigid, it's her dating day after all.” I say while hugging Luna and heading off to find her. I found Brigid where I left her, leaning against a wall. “You look sharp.” She commented. “Only the best.” I say with a smile, pulling out Reunion and opening a DTL. “After you my lady.” I say with a little bow, my Keyblade vanishing quickly. “Why thank you.” She gave a curtsy, and walked in and I walked behind her. We exited out, and were in, what looked like New York. “Tall building on land? Heh, were probably cheaper to make than the ones in Rapture.” “Most likely.” I shrug. “So, where to first?” I ask, raising my arm for her to wrap her arm around. “I don’t know. Never been here before. Let’s get some food and see some sights before anything.” She said, pulling my arm and wrapping it around her as we started walking. “Honestly this is my first time being in New York City.” I mention. “So it's gonna be an adventure for the both of us.” We walked the streets and mostly looked at all the bright lights. We stopped at a hotdog stand and ate, then kept on walking. We made it into some kinda business district when we heard someone yell. “Just give us the girl and the debt’s gone!” There was a gunshot as a man in a trenchcoat and hat ran passed us. We looked at where he ran, there was a man there at a doorway. “And screw you!” He yelled. “Hello my good sir. And what just happened here?” I ask the man curiously. He saw us and sighed, putting his gun away. “Sorry you had to see that folks. Just...some odd people who I owe some money too. Rather than working off my debt like any other they just keep asking for my daughter.” “Uh...that's weird.” I frown. “Is there something special with your daughter?” “She’s just an infant, not even a full month yet. Her mother...died giving birth.” He said, wiping some sweat away, I noticed his hand had the tattoo AD on it. “What's with the tattoo?” I ask. “Huh?” He said, looking at his hand. “Oh, It’s my daughters initials, AD, Anna DeWitt. Name’s Booker. I promised my wife I’d do this after she told me she was pregnant. I told her it would be a girl, and her name would be these initials.” “Okay then.” I nod. “Has there been any...strange projects around here? Like a city in the sky or something?” I ask. “Columbia? That took to the sky last year. Already everyone regrets it after they bombed half the world. If it wasn’t for nukes they’d have hit everywhere they could already. What’s that gotta do with these… wait, who are you?” “Names Ben. And this is my fiance Brigid.” I tell him. “I was just wondering if something was being built because something might be weird.” I half lie. “Heh, hey I’m the detective here.” He joked, looking behind us and frowning. I looked back and could see that man eyeing us from behind a building corner some blocks away. “You two come on in, some...unpleasurable company walks around around this time of day.” “And here I was hoping for a normal day with my love.” I sigh out. “But thanks Booker.” I say. “Ladies first.” I say, not wanting Brigid to enter after me. Brigid walked in first, followed by me, then Booker walked in, closing and locking the door. “Sorry about the mess, been hectic here for a while.” Booker said, picking up newspapers and some clothings that were scattered around. Brigid and I sat on the couch, and when Booker came back, he had coffee with him. “Hope you like it black, haven’t had the time to shop in a while.” “It's fine.” I say with a raised hand. “So, mind if I ask why in the world creepy people are asking for an infant girl?” I ask. “Is there anything special about her?” “Well, the man, who I think has a twin sister since a woman sometimes comes by asking the same thing he does, are the ones I owe the debt too, and one man claims himself a prophet, I’ve only seen him once, is their boss I think. Not sure where they work exactly, all I know is that they came by after I lost money on a horse race three months ago. Doubt they work at the tracks. That man and woman talk way too smart for that line of work.” “Okay so city in the sky is breeding crazy people.” I frown. “I mean if you think about it, city starts flying a year ago and then about a year later a 'prophet’ and some strange people start harassing you for your daughter?” I ask. “Still makes no sense. Colombia’s a floating, fucking city, my daughter and I are nothing special, we just get by like anyone else. Though…” “You could have started with the 'though’.” I deadpan. “What is the problem?” “I swear I’ll hear someone talking to Anna when I’m outside her bedroom door. It’s a lass’s voice, young, but I’ve never heard it before. I open the door and no one is there, spent nights awake, paranoide, watching her, but it’s only when I’m not in her room.” “That's...strange.” I frown. “Maybe I could help. I have some...experience finding people that seem to vanish in thin air.” I explain. “Well it won’t hurt anything.” Booker admits, scratching his head. “Fine, you can check now. And since you mentioned something about a date, I’ll start making dinner. Gotta go shopping though. I’ll be back in half an hour, I’m trusting you two here, anything missing or worse, I will kill you.” He said, walking out the door. “Couldn't kill me even if he tried.” I grumble. “Brigid...I'm so sorry that this date went from just looking around town to me doing work…” I sigh out, feeling bad about this. “You kidding? I’ve missed the questions, doing something in the field, yes I’m glad the little ones are safe, but I missed the...action, you could say. A mystery is afoot love.” She said, standing up. “Let’s give it our best shot shall we?” She said, giving me a sly grin. “Sure. Let's see what our magic infant is hiding.” I say while getting up. “I don't know if the others did this but I'm gonna have to give you and Coco a Keyblade sooner or later.” “Later, right now I’m good with this.” She said, pulling out a revolver. “Rarity knows how to make a dress with pockets for all a lady needs.” “Glad to hear.” I say while heading up to where his daughter's room was. “Let's hope we can solve this…” I mutter, knowing this will be tricky. We put our ears up to the door, and listen. “Hush little child all is well, papa’s life revolves around you, your future is for him to atone his sins~” A woman's voice was singing in a low pitch. Knowing I couldn't just barge in I pulled out a Fair Game card and put myself in it before sliding in under the door. After a moment I popped up into the room for whoever is in here. “And who are you?” “Gah!” She yelped, turning around. “How in the- Wait...Ben?” She asked, walking up to me. “Who are you?” I frown, pointing a card at her. “And have we met?” “It is!” She then hugged me and somehow spun me around. “Long time no see!” She said, finally letting me go. “No seriously the hell lady.” I started. “Who are you?” “Huh...Oh, right. Last time you saw me you were a teenager and I was like...almost seventy! It’s me, your grandma!” She said. “Gr-granny!?” I bark, my bark sounding quite wolf like. “But...how?” “When all that stuff was going on, world going to hell and all some nasty people broke into the house and well, an old lady can only do so much with a cane when they have shotguns. Woke up in this white place and spoke with God. He asked me what I wanted and I asked to be twenty again, and to travel wherever I wish. So, here I am!” “But...you're young! And...not smacking me with a cane because I broke a finger again.” I say in shock, before hugging my granny as tears filled my eyes. “I have so much to talk about...what about Grandpa?” “Asked God about it, he just wanted to go to heaven. I’ve been traveling so many realities. Oh, and sorry about that, meds didn’t help with my brain problems, Being old sucked.” “You have absolutely no idea what stories I have to tell you granny.” I say before something clicked. “Oh sorry. Hey Brigid, the doors unlocked.” I tell the woman outside. She walked in and gave a bow. “I heard everything from the other side of the door. Nice to meet you miss.” Brigid said, holding out a hand that granny shook. “This is Brigid, one of my fiance's.” I say with a smile. “There's so many things I have to tell you.” I say giddily, not believing I get to see my granny again. “Wait, one of what now?” She asked, shocked. “You have a harem!? Ha! Your grandpa was right.” “The afterlife has the best tv after all.” I chuckle. “But you got to see Grandpa? I thought he was in heaven?” “No, this was back when we were all on earth. He said the anti social one always get’s all the girls, and I told him to stop binge watching so much anime.” “Grandpa? Watching anime?” I ask, making me laugh at such a thing. “Yeah, he used your computer when you were at school.” She chuckled. “So I bet you’re probably wondering what I’m doing singing to a baby when the dad’s not here, huh?” “He's been freaking the hell out about it.” I tell her. “But a mother and grandmother taking care of an infant? I suppose it should be obvious but the lyrics made it sound more...future heavy.” “Yeah, there’s so many realities all revolving around her, it’s crazy. Talked to so many versions of her, just hoping to stop that cycle. Been giving them money and such without him knowing, otherwise he would have given her up to them a long time ago.” “If you need money all you have to do is ask me.” I say with a chuckle. “Being the prince of two countries, a world wide super hero, and a few other things can really give you the funds for basically anything.” I explain. “No, I’m good.” She said. “So, Booker is gone right?” “For about a half an hour. Went to get groceries. But you do know you'll have to explain yourself right granny?” I ask her. “Only if I get caught. Listen Ben, this is something I just gotta do, alright, please, not a word, for me.” Granny asked me, looking me dead in the eyes. “Who said you weren't going to get help?” I ask. “You want to help Booker and his daughter out a lot right? Me and Brigid are here to help.” I explain. “Besides, it's not everyday you hear someone call themselves a prophet and ask for an infant. Bad things are happening around here and Brigid's thirst for investigation needs to be sated.” “Fine, you’re as stubborn as your grandfather, I swear.” Granny mutters. “You go deal with those two posing as twins, I’ll be here, that Prophet’s been around here a few times too many the last few weeks.” “Alright Granny.” I nod. “And maybe after this you can come home and meet everyone. I'm sure my little brother Joy would be happy to see you again.” I chuckle, letting slip about Joy right now. “I’ll ask when I get there, but as a grandma, let me at least spoil you a bit.” She waved her hand and a box popped out of thin air. “Here.” She said, handing it to me. “Thanks.” I say while taking the box. “But what's in it? Also this is important...mom and dad are back. And there living at my house.” I tell her with a smile, opening the box and wondering what she wanted to spoil me with. “Not gonna ask, I’ll see them when I arrive. And it’s a little do-dad I picked up in some abandoned lab.” I opened the box….It’s a portal gun… “You are the best granny.” I smile, putting the lid back and hugging her happily. “Love you granny.” “Same sweety.” She said, hugging me back. “Now, as much as Brigid here would love to head off too, best she stay here, tell Booker you went after the man in the coat.” “That okay with you?” I ask Brigid curiously. “Just make sure you take me along to deal with that ‘prophet’.” She said, giving me a peck on the cheek. “Alright hon.” I chuckle. “Anyways, off I go. See ya later. And please stay safe.” I say before heading out to stop the bad guys, wherever they are. I ran out the door, and as luck would have it, the man in the coat. He gasped before turning around and running. “Get back here!” I shout, rushing after the man quickly. He was fast, just managing to keep out of reach. He turned into an alleyway, and that’s when it got weird. This, portal opened up, and he ran in, and I jumped in. I managed to tackle him then, but we were in some kinda...library/lab. “Let go!” He yelled. “Not until you answer my questions.” I growl. “Like why you are so obsessed with an infant that borders between creepy and absolutely disgusting.” “Fact dear.” I turned around, a woman that looked just like a female version of the man said, at some kinda machine’s control station...wait, we came out of a portal making machine? “Across many realities, we have learned a fact. When something is taken from a reality that is not its own, the...side effects of what is taken can show amazing results.” “Like?” I ask with a frown. “Speak English lady.” “Like all of her parallels that were taken from her home reality, with time she too will be able to open tears in reality, see them and open them, bringing items, people, and even entering other realities all together.” The man said, grunting in discomfort. “Okay...so?” I ask. “Kidnapping a baby is still wrong.” “Hey, we just work for the Profit, we’re scientists, not monsters.” The woman said. “The only reason he’s after her really is because her ability to enter parallel realities effects the one she’s in. She doesn't just enter them, she reshapes the world around her to be that reality. With the proper...handicaps, for lack of a better word, you can see the future with her powers.” “And seeing the future is bullshit.” I frown. “The prophet is a madman if he thinks kidnapping an infant and then raising them as nothing more than a cash grab is sick. Scientist or not you have morals right?” I ask, hoping they know how insane this Prophet is. “Debatable.” They both said. “So long as we have funding, we’ll do whatever we’re ordered to do.” The man said, shaking me off and standing up. “Besides, it’s not like it’s not his daughter in the big picture.” The woman added. “And what's the big picture? Booker murdering a majority of the inhabitants on that flying City and then blowing it up all on the basis of 'he wants his daughter back’?” I ask with a frown. “Not exactly.” They both said. “More along the lines of… The Prophet and Booker are the same person, but of different realities.” “You see, at one time in Booker’s life, after being discharged from war, he was offered “salvation” in the form of baptism. If he accepted, he becomes the prophet, if he refuses, and he has in the reality we were just at, he stay’s himself, and has his daughter.” “Okay then...so what does this have to do with the here and now?” I ask. “Timeline wise, we’re behind.” The man said. “Something that has yet to happen in any other reality.” “Time is a very fickle and very screwy thing.” I say. “You think you know what's gonna happen one minute, but then something completely different happens.” I explain. “But please, explain how your 'behind’.” “She should have been handed over to us a week or month after her mother died at birth. Yet because she hasn't, events are getting...off.” “How 'off’?” I ask. They pointed at the doorway. I walked over and opened it...Everything was in chaos. There were gunfights everywhere, a guy who controlled crows having them attack people, a guy on FIRE, walking around, melting everything around him, and one large clearly rebel army shooting everyone in sight. I shut the door quickly. “Well good job. Just as fucked as Rapture.” I frown. “And that’s just this reality.” They added. “The one we were in just now, this will be its future if more time is allowed to pass.” “Then change it assholes.” I frown. “You know the future, so change it, stop the super power bullshit and cut it off. Make sure this future doesn't exist. This isn't a 'it will happen no matter what’, it's a 'stop pussy footing and do the right thing to stop it’s thing.” I explain with a frown. “Not our job.” They replied. “We observe, give hints, that’s about all.” “So you'd rather been in a future that's the end of the world...rather than getting off your asses and actually doing something about it?” I ask bluntly. “Well, we can’t stop this, in every Reality, it’s Booker that makes Colombia fall.” “And why can't you make the place fall? Just make the place blow up, your scientists you know how to make explosives right?” I ask. “We can make it fall.” They said. “But in Colombia not there’s only about, oh, six thousand infants and children. Adults are all bigots, but the kids...it would be a quick death, but we can’t pull the trigger.” “Christ…” I sigh out. “Well...I doubt Trinity will be willing to just gather up six thousand children and infants…” I mutter. “Well, there is another option.” The man suggests. “Oh? Pray tell.” The woman asks. “If Colombia never flew, or even better, the Prophet never came to be, everything will work around that.” “Have you ever heard of a theory called 'multiverse theory’?” I ask, not sure if the theory has been talked about yet. “Yes, but here’s a fact, there is a way to erase them all. Ever here of the Prime reality?” The woman asked. “Yes I have actually. It's the 'roots’ of the multiverse correct? Or the trunk right? Not sure which…” I sigh out. “The original source of what causes the other Multiverses yes. That first, split of reality where a major choice changes everything. We can end the prophet there, at the baptism...at a price.” “Messing with time to such a massive degree always has consequences.” I shrug. So what is it?” “In order to keep the choice of Booker accepting/denying the baptism...he has to die. This will, in turn, kill off every Prophet, and Booker in all realities.” “But...what about his daughter?” I ask with a frown. “Given all her other versions, she’s...scattered. Even this infant version of her will remain. Funny, a being not meant to exist, but does anyway. Wonder what you would call it?” The man pondered. “A Nobody.” I say. “But will all Booker's die? Will he never be able to live a normal life with his daughter like he always wanted?” I ask, feeling kind of bad to just ruining his life for the greater good when he wants to be a good dad. “Either one version of the same man in every reality dies, or infinite lives throughout all realities do.” They said in unison again. Everything went white, and I found myself at a… green field. I was atop a hill in the middle of a large pond, a circle of people were standing around, listening to a priest speak about god...in the backmost of the group, I saw Booker. “Excuse me!” I call out through the crowd, walking forward to the gathering. “Sorry to ruin your...weird ritual but something doesn't seem right here.” “Oh child, those without god in their hearts see the world strange and hollow. Have you come to accept his grace?” The priest asked. I closed my eyes. “Okay…” I mutter. “I am a messenger from God.” I say. The group laughed, even saw Booker chuckle back there. “Oh child, what lies the demons whisper to you in the dark.” The priest chuckled. “Oh really?” I ask while starting to float in the air, slipping my angel ring on without anyone noticing and equipping some angel equipment to look like a messenger rather than a fighter. “I suppose My Lord was right to tell me they wouldn't believe me if I disguised myself to look like a mortal.” I explain simply, lying out my ass here but believable enough to these religious nutcases. Everyone, save for Booker, immediately took a fearful praying stance. “Young one, why do you not bow?” I ask Booker specifically. “Just, I carry my sins with purpose. Not sure an angel can understand. Water alone can’t wash blood away.” “Then why are you here? Wanting to wash away your sins?” I ask. “God tells us angels not to interfere with his children...but we do understand your sins.” I shake my head. “Please young one, explain yourself to me.” “Do you really want to know?” Booker asked, looking me dead in the eyes. “You treat us angels as perfect beings who know no wrong. But we understand more than you all know.” I say. “Tell me, what are your sins?” He looked at the water. There was silence for a time. “In the war. I killed, and killed, and killed. Do you know what my greatest sin was in that war?” “You enjoyed it...didn't you?” I ask gently. He looked up at me...his eyes… “Like an addiction.” The water around him turned red, I turned around, all the people were...god… “Now angel.” He said, appearing in front of me. “Do you think simple water with ‘divine’ powers can clean the demon that I have become?” “Sadly no...but I do know someone that can.” I say while calling up Cript for help, knowing he has the most experience about this. “You may be a demon, but there is one that can help you. And he can help you become the normal father you always wanted to be.” I say gently, moving backwards slightly. “May your humanity guide you back to life.” Suddenly, Cript appeared behind Booker, his Humanity sword slicing clean into Booker. His body was covered in Crystal, and fell into the water. “Huh, guess he got that baptism after all.” Cript commented before flicking me in the head. “You’re an idiot.” “It took you this long to figure that out?” I ask, rubbing my forehead gently. “What did I do wrong? Did I basically play into why this world is fucked in the future?” “No, it’s against multiversal law for anyone without a god, divine, or scattered status to enter Prime realities.” “Uh…” I frown. “Shit…” I frown. “That's...uh...does saying that I'm the Heir to Nothingness count for anything?” I ask, not really knowing if I am or not but still. “Nope, king or bust. And in this case, you’re bust.” “Well...it was nice to have...anything really.” I say, expecting that either my life, or everything I know and love, are now absolute forfeit now. “Please, what do you take us for? Biblical crazed murderers?” Cript snapped his fingers and...I was in a courtroom…there was… Jesus as my lawyer...Cript as the judge...and other various gods as the jury. “Court in session. Ben, your are guilty of entering a Prime Reality illegally. Has your defence anything to say?” “Uh...can I ask a question? How does this work? Cause I don't know if this is super court or normal court.” I say worriedly, not sure what to do here. Jesus coughed. “Basically like mortal court. ‘Pray’ for community service.” He joked, earning a frown from me. “Yeah...no one laughs at that…” “People think gods stick to the ways you read about in lore, but fun fact, mortals change, so do higher beings.” One of the jury spoke...I think it’s Hores? “Okay then…” I sigh out. “First time in court...and slightly half expected Pheonix Wright to be here…” I mutter to myself. “But...I suppose?” “Well our defence, your honor, is simple. Yes, my client entered a Prime Reality illegally, but he was doing what any other Hero does when duty calls. Ben’s line up of Heroic acts is stacking very well.” Jesus said. “Actually...that raises a dire question…” I frown. “No idea why I didn't question this before but...how did those scientists even know about the prime reality? And how could they send me there in the first place?” I ask in confusion. “They are scattered. Existing within the walls between realities rather than on one side or the other. Puts you at a divine status, but because they can still die via mortal reasons, they are called Scattered.” Cript explained. “Thank you.” I nod. “With that out of the way, the jury will now review all of Ben’s actions.” Cript said, the jury all viewing, what looked like my life on fast forward. Man was it kind of disappointing at parts. After about seven minutes, it ended and they all stood, mumbling among one another. “Your honor, we find the defendant guilty, but within the rights of Heroes. We request a minimum sentence as punishment.” “Alright. Ben, your choice. Community service, or a fine?” “That depends on your definition of 'community service’ and 'fine’.” I point out. “Community service is slaying demons in hell. A fine is a hundred to three hundred souls.” Jesus clarifies. “And no, not those souls.” “Okay thank Christ.” I sigh out. “Uh...no offence.” “Hey!” Jesus cheers. “Love it when that happens.” “Oi vey.” I shake my head. “What are these souls? Again this is my first time doing...this.” I say while gesturing to all of the room and all the God's. “The souls we refer to, are small pieces of reality itself in a physical form. Well, primordial reality at least. They can be used to make up anything, it’s how gods like the jury and J’s father there made worlds and life. Think of it like...a Simcity game.” Cript explained. “Souls in this case are...munny, in a sense. I’m an admin, so I don’t even need them, used them once. Made a hat.” “Well given this is the first time I've heard of these souls I have to pick the community service sadly because I have none as far as I know.” I sigh out. “Always knew I was going to hell...just didn't think in this way.” I said, before a nagging feeling made me look around. Void Emperor power? the voice mumbled in my head. “Something's...not right…” I mutter to myself. Its weak...but that void power is familiar… The voice adds in a whisper, it's voice still indistinct on who owns it. “Uh...excuse me, does anyone else sense that?” I ask “That Void surge, yeah.” Cript said. “Seems like that old Demon’s finally getting off his ass.” “Demon?” I ask. “Is that it's name or not?” “No, never really learned it’s name, read about it a bit, got board. Alright then, change of plan, Ben, your community service is to see what got that old fart off his butt.” “I'm gonna have to do some stuff first. Apologise to my girlfriend for...a little bad date, take her home and get Joy.” I sigh out. “Relax. I’ll stop time till you get back. No one will be the wiser.” Cript said, snapping his fingers as Joy appeared next to me. “Why am I here? Is that Horus? Is that Jesus? I'm...confused.” Joy frowns. “But I suppose it's because of that energy I sensed?” “Yeah, time’s frozen till you guy’s finish this thing. Good luck, slap that demon for me, tell him it’s from me.” “I...kind of doubt I could…” I say worriedly. “But um...what's a Void Emperor?” I ask. “The voice in my head said it was Void Emperor power being put out.” “Basically the old king of Void. Something about him being tricked or trapped, I forget really.” “So...I have to meet the old Ruler of the Void huh?” I ask. “Seems so, now hop to it, if I have to rebuild that world of John’s again I’m adding my own touches...and you don’t want that.” Cript said with a chuckle. He snapped his fingers, and we were outside of some kinda town build around this reflections old castle/my home. “Okay then.” I say while looking around. “Damn, you can sense all the energy here.” Joy says while summoning Lindworm. “Yep.” I nod while summoning Frozen Pride and Reunion. “Welp, we got a Demon to find, some had guys to help stop, and possibly meet a new friend.” I shrug. To be continued... Nobody's spare time“Sheesh, the hell happened?” I ask with a frown, seeing giant craters here and there as the two of us continued forward. “No idea...but whatever it is, it’s really strong.” Joy says, Lindworm floating around him at the ready. Joy and I flew around for a bit and arrived at a town, some kinda...dark miasma was in the air as the ponies were choking to breath. We found it hard to breath too. We both zipped up our cloaks to keep the miasma out and acted fast, Joy trying to push the miasma up and away from the people and me helping out the people to get to a safer spot. “Shit, looks like the parties already in full swing.” I growl. “H- *Cough* Help!” I turned around, seeing a pony Applebloom wandering aimlessly, coughing along the way. Before I could react, Joy ran ahead. “Don't worry. I got you.” Joy says while helping the poor pony, not wanting to see any version of the girl he loves hurt. “Let's get you out of here. It's too dangerous.” He says while moving fresh, untainted air towards AB to help her breath. “*Cough* Who are you?” She asked, Joy noticing her eyes. I did too. She’s blind. “My name's Joy.” Joy says slowly. “H-how did you become blind?” “Heh, when some black eyed man and a purple robe wearing...things fought. They blew up the moon, and majority of Equestria. Then John and Blueblood both went demon and nearly blew up the world. If it wasn’t for some...god called Cript we’d all be goners.” “Well...glad to hear he helped the world.” Joy says. “Wonder which direction that cloud came from…” I frown, looking around and wondering which direction to head off to first. Applebloom pointed up, and I dropped my jaw. It was...a lich, fighting some kind a Demon. “John’s fighting that thing. I heard it’s voice. It was the creature in purple.” She muttered. “Well...that's a bunch if something.” I frown. “But let's get you to safety with the others. This place isn't safe at all.” I say worriedly, the air feeling...strained around me and Joy for some reason. “The castle has a bunker, around the back.” Applebloom said. “Something in there too, might help.” “So that's where the people we're heading off to…” I mutter. “Well let's just get going. The sooner you and the rest of the people are safe the better.” Joy says, wanting to get out of here before the fight rushes to them. Ben and Joy ran fast, looking around for others before they had a small group and finally made their way to the bunker entrance. They led the group down, and Joy and Ben stared at...a generator, pipes self dug into the soil of the planet itself. “Well...that's probably what Cript used to help keep the planet okay.” I say while unzipping my cloak hood and pulling it down. “Yeah, he sure knows how to make great things.” Joy says while doing the same just to breath some fresh air. “Okay, did we get everyone?” The pup asked both me and the people. “No, but most are exploring further out from here, so they should be safe.” Joy and I looked up, to our surprise, a Changeling answered. “But Gilda and the Princesses were on the Castle’s roof training. Not sure if this gas is up there, but Luna and Celestia especially are weaker right now.” “I have a feeling it involved a combination of the world almost blowing up and the moon blowing up correct?” I ask curiously, already finding this world a ton more fucked than I first thought. “Back when Core, and a being John refers to as The Outsider battled, Luna and Celestia tried to stop them...Celestia lost her wings...and Luna lost all her legs. They have artificial ones now, but they’re not used to them all quite yet.” “Well.” I state. “That...is fucked up.” Joy says. “And who is this John person? We only heard a friend say his name and a little other tidbits, we never got any story on him.” “At the moment he’s the demon fighting Core, that man in purple, or whatever he is. Before heading here I saw him change into what looked like Death itself.” “Ah, I saw that.” I nod. “And it was not pretty to say the least.” Jot finishes for me. “You best hurry, John like this he’s...not exactly there. Best hurry before a stray attack knocks them into the stars.” “That's not good.” Joy frowns. “Right away. Come on Joy, let's get to work.” I say while rushing out, not wanting the people to get hurt from an accident, and Joy quickly followed. After we made sure the door to the bunker was sealed to keep any unwanted visitors out we rushed as fast as we could to the fight, hoping to at least do something to stop the world from ending...and to this reflection it would be a repeat. We flew up on our Lindworms, rushing towards the top. When we arrived, we spotted Gilda, Cadence, and a Luna and Celestia with some mechanical limbs. “I’m going to assume you both are on John’s side?” Gilda asked. “I want to make a sassy remark but I won't. Yes we are on John's side and want to see Core about as dead as you can get for super powered beings.” I shrug. “Same, that SoB nearly killed off- Oh the fuck.” Gilda said, Joy and I looked back and saw Core change, his body shifted into a set of black armor with a MASSIVE greatsword version of Soul Eater. “Oh fuck… Get us out of here...fast.” “Hang on.” Me and Joy say while seeing summoned our cards big enough to hold all of us and shot swiftly through the air away from what's going to happen rather quickly. “How the hell do you get Keyblade Armor? I want to know.” I frown, thinking it's a form that gives you a power and defense boost. We shot fast back to the Bunker doors, letting the Princesses and Gilda enter before we closed them and headed down with them. “You got a plan?” Luna asked Joy and I. “Uh…” I mutter. “We...normally don't have plans to start out. We know how to plan during a fight but…not before.” Joy explains sheepishly. “Been in too many fights to have a plan going in when we don't know much about the situation.” “Maybe the generator can do something?” Celestia offered. “We haven’t messed with it, but it might be able to do something.” “Maybe…” I mutter while gently floating over the people and bringing my Assistant up to try and find the exact details of this thing. “Okay...where is this generator cause there's a fuck ton of them…” I frown, wanting at least some basic knowledge about it even if my brain is going a million miles per hour half the time. “So how long have you all known John?” Joy asks Luna, Gilda, and Celestia while I dicked around trying to figure out the Generator. “Well, that’s a story. You see, we first found out about him when a series of murders were happening in Canterlot. Guards saw John over two corpses and he was labeled the murderer, though, turns out it was one of those corpses he was next to that was the real serial killer.” Celestia explained. “He just kept delivering justice, depending on their crimes the criminals were either found unconscious, dead, or...rarely, eaten alive by hoards of rats. Then Blueblood teamed up with Core, but he already had Void powers, he’s little under half of my sister’s age. Well, was. He made his move, and the world, and the guards, finally realized who the real hero was on Equestria.” “You know...I forgot Blueblood even even existed back on our world.” Joy frowns. “Well...he deserves getting his ass kicked cause if memory serves he's nothing but an asshole.” “Well, we are unsure of your blueblood, but what ours did...he deserved the death he got. Decapitated by Cript and body rolled into a ravine of lava.” Joy took a breath. “I can think of worse ways to die….but I won't name them cause most involve torture to a high degree…” He sighs out. “What do ya’ think he did ta’ us?!” an Applejack walked up. “He had me hung up with needles in every inch of my skin, Twi on a rack, for you can guess what, Luna in an Iron Maiden, and Celestia strapped to a table for…” She shivered. “And that wasn't even the worst part of it all.” She hissed. “He took...our marehood. We can’t have foals…” Applejack said, tears filling her eyes. Joy walked over and gently put a soft gentle paw on her shoulder. “I understand...I don't know anyone personally or have experienced such a horrible thing….but believe me….I understand the pain of losing something so important…” He says sadly, remembering himself turning into Rejection and losing himself entirely for so long. “We are trying to keep that experience just a memory.” Celestia sighed. “We raised Blueblood since he was a foal on the streets. I just wonder what went wrong.” “Who knows. It could be so many things.” Joy shrugs. “But the fuckers dead and he can't do anymore damage to any of you.” “Well…” I said. “Remember your Tiara’s dad?” “That's different.” Joy said to me. “I’m just saying, if he’s that bad and in hell, which he likely is, who knows what he could become down there.” I said, pressing another button and the machine began to glow. “Okay...did a thing.” The generator glowed brighter, and flashed bright enough to blind us a bit. When it faded, the Generator was larger, and even more tubes were going into the ground...and some that were just sticking out of the ground, unlike the larger ones, these ones were small, thin, and were poking out of the ground everywhere. “Ben...what did you do?” Joy asks worriedly. “Um….” I mutter while looking at the manual again to see what happened. “Okay so… New pipes?” I checked my Assistant about this Generator. This Model Generator like all World Core Generators, makes a dying, or uninhabitable world habitable by fertilizing soil, rapid growing plant, rapid evolution of animal species, rivers, oceans, and in extreme cases, air. To generate clean air or filter an already existing atmosphere, simply press the reset button after engaging Heavy Renovations mode. You will know this mode is activated when small, thin tubes sprout out of the ground around the planet. “Well...that answers that…” I frown. “Okay so it's nothing drastic but...I put it in heavy renovations mode. Basically it's a setting that cleans up or replaces air.” I explain. “Nothing bad. But i...still have no idea what I'm doing…” I frown. “The hero of an entire universe everyone. Give him a round of applause.” Joy says sarcastically. “Oh shush you.” I huff at Joy. I clicked the big red Reset button on the machine and it turned off for a few seconds, then turned on again, the tubs sucking and blowing out air. “Huh, smells like...New car smell?” “I hope it doesn't stick around long.” Celestia said, cringing at the smell. “Weird…” Joy mutters. “It’s will probably go away after a little bit...but...who knows sadly.” “Let’s go see how things are topside.” Celestia said, leading Joy and I to the bunker doors. We opened the doors and the miasma was quickly being sucked into the pipes while clean air was pumped out. “Thanks goodness.” ”Well at least the air isn't filled with that miasma.” Joy nods. “Now...what to do next.” “Dying is a start.” Joy and I dodged, jumping back in time before…she almost sliced us with...a skeleton version of Reunion. “Nice moves.” She said, her body...was weird, darkness and...void, I think, were fizzing out of her. “Dying is not on my list here lady.” I tell her while summoning Frozen Pride and Reunion. “And what the hell happened to that Keyblade?” “And looks like more experiments were done on her.” Joy frowns while summoning Lindworm and readying himself for a fight. She raised up her corrupted Reunion. “This is the Keyblade Core gave me, after all, for every Reunion, there’s a Fall Out.” She said, pulling out her sword in her other hand. “Well aren't you just fancy with word play.” I frown, readying my Keyblade and shield. She smirked, and slammed Fall Out into the ground. “Sin’s Greed!” She cast, a pair of hands coming out of the ground. They pulled whatever it was out, and a silhouette of a human emerged from the soil. It looked at me, and summoned a silhouette version of Reunion, then charged. I took a deep breath. “Let's get started.” I mutter. “Dragon Talon!” Joy shouts, using his lances to summon a dragon claw made up of green magic and wind and swinging it at the charging silhouette. It quickly dodged each swipe, and even grabbed one of the spears, throwing it back at Joy before going into hit me. I raises Frozen Pride and blocked it. There was a large spark of darkness from the block. Then, much to my displeasure, it grew a single eye in the center of it’s head, and a mouth filled with needle like teeth as it grinned at me. “Can shit stop being creepy?” I frown, Nothingness coiling around my Keyblade as I slashed at it. It bent its head back an exact ninety degrees to dodge, then it went back into position, opening it’s teeth filled mouth as a tongue that looked like something out of Alien was sliding towards my face. “Frozen Pulse.” I growl, my shield glowing blue and sending a wave of energy at it, and fully able to freeze it if it stayed close. Sadly, it jumped back, but that freaky tongue of it’s was frozen, cut off when the weight of the ice brought it down on it’s teeth. It...it’s blood is red? “Confused yet?” The assassin asked. “The hell did you do?” I ask with a frown. “Sin’s Greed summonses forth the person you have wronged most, and makes them fight you to the death. In this case…” The Silhouette’s darkness around it’s face peeled back like a mask... and the person inside was me. Younger, by at least two years, crying and scared. “The hell is going on?!” He, I, asked. “Since it couldn’t summon you, as it’s fighting you, it pulled a version of you from another reality, same life, well, past anyway.” The assassin explained. “You always did hate yourself above anyone and everyone else.” “Technically speaking I hate another version of me that makes you look like a bitch in comparison...but he's not here and hadn't bothered me for some reason.” I shrug, “Oh god…” Joy mutters. “So...he can only be saved through death? Cause that seems weird.” “Heh, kill him, the dark Silhouette will still puppeteer the body, kill me, the silhouette kills him, or…” “Or?” I ask, knowing I'm going to regret answering as I kept my guard up along with Joy. “I can let him go, be out of your hair, leave you alone for, oh...five years max, if you do something for me.” “I'm not going to kill myself, Joy, innocent people, my wives, or my children got it you sick whore?” I growl, white energy sparking around me. “Oh please, I do my own killing. No, I just need one, small, insignificant favor. No one dies, on the contrary, someone will be brought to life with my favor.” “And who would that be?” I ask, finding this way too weird, especially for a very sick and twisted assassin that's been tested on more than...something only God knows. “It’s simple.”She said, tossing me a box. It was small. Inside was a...very odd looking syringe. “I just need that syringe full of your blood, and I’ll be off.” “Are you going to hand Core a new person to clone?” I ask with a frown. “Please, with how that John is taking care of Core I don’t expect him to be himself after this fight. No, your blood is for something...personal.” “Will you tell me this personal thing? Cause I doubt it's too make a boyfriend.” I frown, “If you find me before five years are up, yes. If not, you’ll have to wait and see.” “Oi vey…” I sigh out while lifting the sleeve of my arm and finding a vein. “You sure about this Ben?” Joy asks worriedly. “Nope, but if it helps save a life then I'm fine...and apparently it will bring about new life…” I say while pushing the needle into my arm and drawing out blood. “And hey, maybe she just wanted a child and chose me for some weird fucking reason.” I point out, taking a wild shot in the dark as the syringe was filled with my blood. I pulled it out and healed my arm real quick. “There, don't do anything weird with it okay?” I ask, holding my hand out with the syringe. “Well, you already guessed what I am going to do with it.” She smiled, looking at the syringe. Both Joy's and my own jaws dropped. “WHAT!?!” We shout in surprise. “I mean...considering what Core did to you...I suppose this would be the only way to have a child...but why me?” I ask in confusion. “Two reasons, one, Core’s dark void implant on my hand has been damaged. Not even he can repair this.” She said, showing us the slash on her hand where a strange tattoo was. “I’ll be dead in six or seven years. And you, because puppy there is a tad too young to have offspring, even being a dog.” “Okay but why me specifically?” I ask again. “Honestly, you’re the first target to survive me, figure the child of a grand hero and a master assassin might lead quite the life, deciding which parent to follow.” “Uh…” I frown. “So let me get this straight, because you couldn't kill Ben...you technically fell in love with him huh?” Joy asks. “Since when do two people need love to have kids?” The assassin questioned. “I just always figured, when the time comes, pick a good partner, a rather unsafe one night stand later, then I raise my kid.” “Oh no, you're not raising that kid alone here lady.” I frown. “I don't care what you say, but I am not some dick bag like that…” I shake my head, “You can have a second chance at life-” “Yeah, I’m gonna stop you right there.” She interrupted. “I have about six years left to live, for five of them, I plan on raising my child, my way, and once the kid is four and year five is up, I’ll leave him to you, walk out into some random place, activate my dark void mark, and explode like an A Bomb. Till then, ciao.” She said, walking into a DTD. “Fuck…” I frown. “That's not good…” Joy says worriedly, looking at the other Ben. “Come on, we have to help him out...and then get ready for the next fight.” “But I also have to hunt her down and make sure she doesn't just give up on a possible good life without being a mass murderer and my new kid she's going to take care of.” I frown, Joy walking over to my other self carefully, “So...anyone wanna tell me what the heck is going on or…” The other me asked. “Its...a fuck lot of complicated.” Joy sighs out. “But cliff notes, I'm Joy, the physical manifestation of your own emotion of Joy and happiness. Why we look like wolves is because of some omnipotent god person with a curse and our technical new mother is a twelve foot tall, six breasted dire wolf, and everything in video games, books, and all other fictional things are real in every way shape and form.” Joy explains. “Complicated I know.” “Yeah… So, we’re all the same person? What about names? Are they the same or different?” “I'm technically different but the names Joy.” Joy says. “I'm Ben, but my hero name is ‘White Knight’.” I shrug. “Also I have a harem...and so does Joy here.” I point out. “Did you really need to point that out?” Joy frowns. “Okay...so names are different, well, sorta, my name’s Bate.” The other me said. “Who names their-” I start. “Two of my girlfriends were literally named One and Two.” Joy cuts me off. “Oh…also….your technical parents are alive and at our castle.” Joy says. “Unless their different where you come from.” “No idea, we look the same so I’m assuming they look like mine. So, did yours not die or?” Bate asked. “The chick that summoned you here murdered them and staged them as accidents.” I frown. “And now I'm technically going to have a kid with her...by technicalities.” I sigh out, “Heh, mine died in an airplane crash about eight years ago.” Bate said. “My dad was killed by burning to death in a big bread oven, and my mom was murdered by hunting rifle through the mouth. Saw the aftermath as well.” I sigh out. “Heh, yikes...So, how am I getting out of this?” I summoned a DTL back home. “There you go, walk into the light and you'll find yourself in front of a castle, knock on the front door and say your husband sent a clone of his here.” I explain. “Yeah, no. Wouldn’t two of us in the same place be...weird? I mean, I still look human, you’re a wolf, but still.” “No actually. Since you'll be the third me on my Equestria. Short answer a very powerful, and very murderous version of us is there doing something I don't know about. Also I've met other versions of my fiance’s, and they've met other versions of themselves. Seeing double means fuck all at this point, considering there's practically an infinite amount of us in some way shape or form.” I shrug. “O...kay? Well, might as well.” Bate said, entering the DTL. “Well...that was a thing.” I sigh out while the DTL closed after Bate entered it. “He is going to be so confused when he enters our house.” “So...are you really sure you want to give that bitch another chance?” Joy asks me. “She just literally asked me if I could help give her a child...she may be cold and ruthless but there's a heart in there somewhere...and it's and heart that wants to see a child grow strong...not sure if happy cause it's her but still.” I explain with a shrug. “Whatever you say.” Joy shakes his head. “But we better get a move on, maybe we can find some friends who's also sensed all this. And we better do this quick.” Joy says. “Yeah…” I sigh out. “Let's hope shit doesn't hit the fan too hard.” I shake my head and start heading out, hoping to find some friends and stop this. To be continued... Nobodies fighting timeBen and Joy ran towards the increasing or ending fight, the two so focused on trying to figure out how to stop this they didn't notice grey sparks crackling around them. “I'm pretty sure we're over our heads on this one.” Joy says worriedly. “Like all the other time's right?” Ben jokes lightly, knowing their fucked sideways if they actually got caught in the crossfire. As the two continued onwards, a light appeared behind them. Turning around, they saw Zeke walking out of a DTL, holding the Kingdom Key D. “Sup, long time no see.” Zeke said as he approached the two. “Sup Zeke, how you doing?” Ben asks, holding Frozen Pride and Reunion. “Hopefully not as weirded out as us though.” Joy says, Lindworm surrounding him at the ready. “Was just practicing with darkness when felt that spike. Cript gave me a...unique ability, a sort of gift since we’re apparently reflections.” “Did I mention I met another reflection of yours that got your wish of ‘What would happen if I could get the hell out of my family’?” Ben asks him. “Really? Huh. Well, big universe I guess.” “Pretty much.” Joy shrugged. “So, see anything?” “Besides meeting the people of this Equestria, fucked up by the way, seeing Core and apparently John fighting, and apparently my parents murderer about to make a child from my blood and most likely hers…” Ben explains offhandedly “It's...weird.” Joy sighs out. “...What would pregnancy via blood be called?” Zeke questioned aloud, making Ben and Joy fall over anime style. “Jesus fucking Christ Zeke.” Ben sighs out. “Listen, we're going to have to find her within 5 years anyways.” Joy says. “She’s apparently going to die then.” “...Okay...Good luck with that, till then, Let’s go find Core and John.” Zeke said, walking ahead. Next to them, another portal opened, and out walked the Foretellers. Kira smile, “Oh, hey guys! Looks like we aren't the only ones here.” “You smell like ponies and vampires…” Joy starts. “Alushy?” Ben asks the Foretellers, remembering he saw something in his assistant about them. “And uh...Kira lost...should I even ask?” “It’s a long story.” Kira said sheepishly. “So I’m guessing we’re headed to the same place?” Jenny guessed. “Seems so, also Lan, you finally make that connection ya thick headed idjit?” Zeke asked, tapping the tip of Kingdom Key D against his head to emphasize the question. Lan blushed. “I will not admit, or deny anything.” He pouted and crossed his arms. “That blush says it all...also how does a vampire blush?” Dan interjects. “Well we’re technically still alive do to the pony side, just vampire characteristics. Everything is still functioning normally. Except for the craving of tomato juice from time to time.” he explained. “Anyways. Let’s get to the real reason why we are all here.” “Yes, Core and John fighting.” Ben states, the others noticing grey static around himself and Joy. “So, who's got a plan for stopping two people that are way above anything we can do at the moment?” “ A figure that to Zeke looked like John appeared before them, but somehow he could tell that wasn't John. “Do I know you Demon John?” Zeke asked. It spoke “You're the Void Emperor...or...old Emperor…” Ben says, shaking his head to get some sort of sense in his head. “It's saying...it’s good to see you again, even through my heirs.” Ben says, taking a deep breath at that. ”You too old friend. Don't worry I won't hurt your heirs.” It spoke. “I believe I haven't introduced myself yet. I...am Jar’Mudan. The previous Emperor of Void.” The now named Jar introduced. Joy fell to his knees, energy crackling off him at an insane rate. “Ow...the fuck is going on?” Joy asks, pain obvious in his voice. “Basically your Nothingness is reacting to all the pure raw Void. Void and Nothingness are basically polar opposites. Similar to light and darkness. You two are still novices especially you Joy, so it's causing great discomfort.” “I...suppose.” Joy says, getting up and fighting through the discomfort. “So...know who the hell is stuck in my head kind of?” Ben asks. “And why I see this weird Nobody I've never seen nor heard of before?” He asks. Jar focused for a second then spoke in a lighter tone. “That would be a Royal Guard class nobody. A Paladin.” “Huh...that's something.” Ben frowned. “You learn something new everyday.” Joy adds. “Anyone else got a say in this news?” “I think we’d rather get to the point.” Dan said. “What were you saying before Jar?” “I spoke of many things. Which do you mean?” Jar said. They could somehow tell he was smirking. “About the fight being over. What happened?” Lan asked. “Well you know how a bit of it went. John tapped into to 2% of my power and nearly killed Core- “AFTER!” ”Hehe ok. Core used a final trump card to keep himself from being erased. John's still alive although unconscious and Core lost most of his power. Allow me to take you there.” Jar snapped his fingers and the next thing they knew they were at a huge crater. It looked like a mountain could fit in it. Hey saw Core and who they suspect to be John at the bottom with Core looking right at them. “Oh damn it.” Core muttered, summoning a black Fenrir. “You “heroes” are like roaches.” “Is it because we keep coming back or because you suck balls at killing us?” Ben asks simply, seeing Core through his ‘hud’ and knowing Core was horrifically weaker but still powerful enough to continue fighting, “My mistake then.” He slashed his black fenrir, sending a wave of dark energy at them. They all brought out their Keyblades quickly and blocked it. “Damn.” Core muttered, readying himself. “Hastega!” Ben and Joy say, golden clocks appearing behind the two of them and all their friends, their speed doubling suddenly. “Now, let's get going.” Ben states while summoning Skysplitter and going into his Master form as well. “Grave!” Ben shouts, raising the earth weapon high as spikes of earth shot out at Core quickly. “Hey watch it! You nearly hit my heir!” Jar said holding John. He then proceeded to lay him down. “No place for an unconscious man.” Zeke said, summoning the X-blade and rushing at Core, the two locking blades. “So, word is you’re a tad on the limp side right now Core, what’s the matter? Can’t play with the big boys?” “In time.” Core said, vanishing then reappearing behind Zeke, spin kicking him across the ground. Lan turned to his siblings. “Well, no reason to just stand around here.” He said, with his siblings agreeing. They all activated their armors and rushed to their friends sides. Lan and Jenny rushed towards Core in a pincer like formation. Lan clashed his Unicornis with Core’s Fenrir making it a stand still, only to have Jenny on Core’s other side slashing at him. Core managed to break his lock with Lan to just narrowly avoid being hit, only to step on a suddenly frozen ground. Not to far away, Dan was seen with his Anguis stabbed into the ground, which froze it. Core tried to move, but couldn’t as his feet were also frozen in the ground. Suddenly in a flash of lightning speed, Alex skated across the frozen land gaining momentum. Once he got close enough, Alex delivered an electricity charged slash to Core’s abdomen. Breaking him out of the ice and sending him flying back. “You lot...have no idea…” Core was muttering as he got back up from the small crater the impact after flying back made. “What you are doing.” He finished, getting back up. “Hey Core ever wonder what it felt like to be a ping pong ball!?” Ben shouts at him randomly. “Well here's how it feels!” Joy adds while Ben ramming Skysplitter into Cores stomach and sending him flying, Joy moving Lindworm in a way to basically make it a spiked fist and punching Core straight back at Ben, and it kept going like that except it kept getting faster and much more painful for Core. Joy smacked Core up into the air, only for Ben to appear above Core quickly. “Gigaton Hammer!” Ben shouted, Skysplitter glowing a bright orange and ramming down into Cores chest, shooting the ‘demon’ straight into the ground and causing a massive crater on impact. Core rose up. Blood from deep gashes dripped from his head and arms. “Fine...Let’s do this the hard way.” He said, slicing his chest open and grabbing the pure darkness where his heart should be. Shockwaves of darkness cracked the land, darkened the sky, and Core stood looking healed, only to pull out a vile of blood...or so it looked. “Look familiar Zeke!?” Zeke’s eyes widened. “That’s...the Psychopath blood that was in me…” “Yeah. Refining it to work with me isn’t a cakewalk. Still not even a percent to done, but…” He then broke the lid off and drink it, tossing the empty vial. “I will last enough to kill you all.” Power surged from Core, red energy flowing around him like a small tornado. After a time, it settled, and his eyes were that of a Psychopaths. “Well…” Ben starts. “That's not good.” Joy finishes. “Not for you guys no.” Jar said watching Core change. “And not good for you because John could die in the crossfire.” Joy points out. “Have a plan for that.” He said walking over to John and placing a hand on his chest. “I’ve been in that…things head.” Zeke said, staying defensive. “It’ll attack one of us at random.” “Correct, but not if someone strong enough fights first.” Jar said as his hand started glowing brightly, covering John in a protective bubble. “Flashy.” Core spoke, his voice like countless talking in unison as he rushed forward, elbowing Joy and sending him flying, blood spilling from his mouth as he then grabbed Lan and flung him high into the air. Kira tried to attack, only for him to vanish before her swing made contact. He reappeared behind her, hammerfisting her into the ground, her head still sticking out of the ground almost comically as blood flowed from a newly acquired gash. “Shouldn't have done that.” Jar said as the light covering John got brighter and brighter. “Hehehehhe, it’s cute how you think Core is calling these shots Jar.” Psychopath said, appearing in front of him. “Even in this pathetic body pathetic body, we can do you some damage.” “Who said I thought that was Core? I sensed you the millisecond Core drank that stuff.” Jar said. As the light started fading. “Heh, whatever you say, old king.” Psychopath said, suddenly appearing behind Jar...holding both his ripped off arms. The strange blood of Jar’s not even spilling out until some time after the pain registered. Jar looked at both spots and just laughed. “You seem to forget that pain doesn't bother me. Not after what happened to me of course. Besides not much I can do now. Me friend here is enough for your current self.” “Hehe, and you forget, those old legends about your blood.” Psychopath then ate one of the arms whole, the other all the blood flowing out and becoming a black-red blade as the skin and bone that was left behind was tossed. “Always so hard to find it. Drink it, live eternal, or in this body’s case, a few more hours, or forge it. A weapon to match all others.” Jar not even fazed just sighed. “What? In the name of all the crack crazy admins makes you think I don't know my own blood? Besides that's temporary anyway. Doppelganger here. So it's going to disappear in a few minutes, and again even with that this guy can take you.” Jar tilted his head towards a figure nearby that wasn't there before. “Core, or us?” Psycho asked, rushing and locking blades with Zeke. “Heheh, the last parallel of Cript, how similar you two are, yet you will fall to your rightful place soon.” “Burn in hell!” Zeke yelled, breaking the lock and took a swing, Psycho vanishing and appearing next to Ben, who he Sparta kicked across the field and into Canterlot Mountain. “You alright Ben?!” “Maximise Magic! Reality Slash!” Ben shouts, something hitting the Psychopath from behind and feeling like he was being split in half from a very weak reality shifting standpoint. “Thank Christ for card clones.” Ben says while holding my book weapon and looking perfectly fine, Cores injury shifting back to normal but blood seeping out of the wound. Zeke sighed in relief. In the corner of his eye he saw something moving. Fast. He looked, seeing a rather pissed off looking Joy wielding Graceful Dahlia. From above, Lan was performing a drop attack, trying to surprise Psychopath. Psycho caught Lan’s attack by his Keyblade, but Joy managed to land a blow that sent him a few feet. “Crimson Bouquet.” Joy says, his attack absorbing the psychopaths blood before blood soaked lotus flowers bloomed on his wound and started tearing into him, the more blood the flowers soaked up, the stronger the effect worked. “Hehe, weak body lives.” Psycho said as the eyes became normal again. Core regained control. “What? No, No, no!” He then looked over at Joy. “DIE MUTT!” He shouted, slicing off his own arm and the darkness then flowed out formed a black scythe. Before He got close, Zeke jumped in front of him, his right hand pulsating with darkness. He charged at Core, his hand phasing into Core’s chest. “Consume Darkness!” Black lines highlighted both Core’s and Zeke’s bodies, the two screaming in pain as it looked like Zeke’s arm was pumping all of Core’s darkness into his own body. When he pulled out, a shockwave ripped the ground up and knocked the others over. “Shit, Zeke!” Ben shouted, getting up after the explosion happened. “Zeke?” He calls out, readying himself for what's to come next. “Grah.” Zeke huffed, lifting himself out of a dirt pile. “I’m alive...surprisingly.” He said, looking at his hand. “That was...creepy feeling.” “Gah! NO!” They all turned, eyes wide. Core stood across from them, dressed in ragged cloth clothing. His eyes looked...human. “You...I’m just a Nobody again!?” “Yes you are.” Ben nodded, Joy using Graceful Dahlia to fully absorb the other lotus petals that were filled with Psychopath Blood, the scythe absorbing any and all blood so no one else could use it for damnable reasons. “So ready to give up and die with some dignity?” Ben growled. Core just looked furious. “I may not be a demon anymore...But you forget even in this form I have some tricks.” Core said, snapping his fingers as three Twilight Thorns appeared, each side swiping and distracting them as Core adorned a purple cloak, and walked into a DTD. “Shit!” Ben and Joy yelp, before hearing someone tell the two to try and command them. “Halt!” Ben and Joy shout at the three nobodies, hoping that their order would stop them, which they highly doubted from how the day was going, To their relief, it worked as the stood still. The two waves, the Twilight Thorns disbanding. By then it was too late. Core was gone. “Shit…” Zeke muttered, taking a seat on a large rock. “...does this count as a win or...a tie?” Ben growled, looking around. “I know there's more of you! Come on out!” Ben barks out at no one. “It’s not done yet, I just know it. “Ben! It’s over! We...tied, I think?” Zeke said, sighing. “Core will be back, but at least he’s a lot weaker now. We can call this in to the others and- GAH!” Zeke yelled, falling off his rock and clutching his chest. “Well then. That's not good.” Jar said as he and a figure near him turned towards Zeke. “Something's not right…” Ben mutters while Joy rushes over to Zeke and checks over him quickly, using his assistant to help out on that. “Grah! Damn this hurts!” Zeke yelled, his body suddenly pulsing white and dark. “That kinda happens when you absorb that much darkness. Not to mention your a balanced heart. So ya while you weakened Core you probably might kill yourself. At best. Jar told Zeke. “His Heart is splitting!” X warned. “RUN!” “And that's our que. I'll grab Ben and the pup. You grab the Foretellers.” Jar said quickly grabbed both Ben and Joy while the figure got the Foretellers and got out of there before something happens. When they were far enough away, an explosion ripped the ground up. A dome of Light and Darkness swirled around for what felt like hours before it settled. In a newly formed crater’s center was a pulsating form of darkness, and a glowing form of light. “Zeke?” Ben asked, he and Joy running over and jumping in and sliding down the crater. The two saw...Two Zekes, one in night black clothing with Steel grey hair, and the other in Bright bright white clothing with pure blond hair rather than Zeke’s regular dirty blond after his hair dye finally washed out. “Well that can't be good. You better go help out. I'm talking to you Foretellers to by the way.” Jar said. “Zeke...s?” Joy asked, both getting up groggily. “Ouch...my neck.” The dark-haired Zeke said. “Don’t be so competent brother.” The light haired Zeke said. “Speak for yourself, I am the one that took in all that darkness.” The dark haired one retorted. “Okay...who, what?” Ben asked. “Okay, first off, names. What are we calling you two til we can get Zeke back.” Ben asked. “Drazke.” The dark haired one said. “Lake.” The blond one said. “Don't see this every day.” The figure said next to Ben and Joy. “And I've seen a lot.” “Well, didn’t see that coming,” Alex commented, with him and his siblings entering the scene. “Anyone see where that arm went?” Drake asked, wondering around looking for Core’s arm where the blood blossoms were still somewhat attached. “Over there.” The figure said pointing at the arm a couple yards away. The others just now noticing him. “Thanks,” Drazke said, heading over to grab it. Lake, for his part, went up to Kira. “Oh, you poor child. Does that gash hurt?” Kira rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly. “A little, but a little vampire healing and a cure spell and it’ll be all fine.” The figure suddenly pointed a Keyblade at Kira’s gash and said. “Cura.” He healed up her gash. “Oh, thanks whoever you are. So what's going on here?” She asked wanting an update. “I am Lake, Zeke’s light half.” Lake explained. “The dark haird me getting that arm is Drazke, my brother and Zeke’s dark half.” “So you are the two halves of his heart?” Lan interjected. “There’s a lot of questions still up in the air, but I guess the first one is if we can put you two back together.” “Well, we split because the darkness Zeke took from Core put us out of balance with one another. Right now Drazke has all Core’s old strength, and I am...well, as strong as Zeke is normally.” “Will your dark half be a problem by any chance?” The figure asks. Being cautious. “We come from a naturally balanced being. This is just a hiccup. I’ll even out with Drazke in a few days or so. Til then...I guess the wives back home will have more of me, us?” “Pinkie’s fetish,” Drazke said, walking back over with the arm. “Clone sex...a WTF if I ever heard one.” “Can our pinkies not share so much…” Ben mutters to himself. Jenny covered Kira’s ears. “Hey, Zeke’s! Cool it with the dirty talk! We have a little sister here.” “Huh?” Kira said confused. “What’s everyone saying?” The figure was watching this when he suddenly started laughing. “Man. Never thought their reincarnations would be like this.” “Well, that’s life,” Drazke said, moving his grip on Core’s arm, the arm moving and a small drop of blood flying off, hitting Lake in the eye. “Ouch! That stings.” Lake said, rubbing his eye. When he stopped and blinked...the eye was a Psychopaths. All eyes were on Lake now. “What?” “I thought I got rid of all of it…” Joy says worriedly. Drazke carefully put the arm down. “Brother. Be calm.” Dan and his siblings just stared dumbly. “Wow… that's like, super gross.” “It’s worse than what you are thinking,” Drazke said, Lake’s other eye slowly being covered in the red. “Not good. Well at least I can do something.” The figure said summoning two Keyblades. “Why are you so scared brother?” Lake asked. “Just, stay calm,” Drazke said. “Some...Psychopath blood must have been at that drop.” “WHAT?!” Lake screamed, panicking. “Brother, stay calm! It won’t activate if you stay calm.” “But, Brother I...I’m Scared” Lake’s other eye became completely covered. “And he lost it.” The figure said. “Fuck.” Ben and Joy say at the same time. Lake’s face was blank for a time. Everything felt still as everyone waited for him to make a move. “Brother?” Drazke asked. “Not here.” Psychopath replied, rushing the Figure, palm striking him as the Figure’s body exploded into blood and microscopic bits of flesh. “Finally, a proper host again. And with such unique powers.” “Where were you aiming?” Psycho looked behind him to see the figure completely fine. Puzzled till he saw his eyes were tinged with silver. “Okay, well this escalated quickly.” Lan summoned his blade once again in defence. “Oh Lan, you should know.” Psycho said, appearing behind him. “No rest for the wicked.” There was an audible snap. Lan fell over as Psychopath was holding what appeared to be a chunk of spine. “Have fun regrowing that.” “No problem. Curza.” The figure used a powerful Cure spell to heal Lan. “Is that it?” Lan got back up, stretching his “new” back. “Thank goodness for healing magic and vampire healing factor.” “Oh fine, play it your way then.” Psychopath said, snapping his fingers as pools of blood appeared around him. What crawled out horrified the Foretellers...the fallen union members from the Clone Josh attack. “Have fun, I got other things to attend to.” Psycho said as he stepped into one of the pools. “Where you going!” The figure hit him with a chain of light attaching to Psycho and pulled him back and slammed him out of the crater. “You guys deal with the dead. Me and Drazke will handle Psycho.” “Oh, you tease. You think it’s just the newest members coming out?” The pools of blood opened wider, and out crawled hundreds of blood covered fallen...from the Keyblade War. “Let me go and save the world, or hold me here and let it die. Cause for as long as I am here these portals stay open. Your choice.” The Figure looked at the fallen in silence. “...those are my friends.” He suddenly appeared before Psycho with pure white wings on him shining a lot of light with both keyblades glowing like stars. He then started hitting him with enough to force to turn mountains into pebbles. Yelling out a word at each hit. “THOSE! ARE! MY! FRIENDS! YOU! GOD! DAMN! BASTARD!” At the last hit he turned the black looking Keyblade into an axe and smashed Psycho away. “Like I care.” Psycho said, appearing behind the Figure, unharmed, and out of the chains. “You forget it’s not easy to kill one of us. Especially in a host like this. Cript’s parallels all hold the keys to the greatest source of power in all creations, and that’s why I made it my goal to take all of them.” “I've killed worse than you. I've not even begun to fight.” The figure said taking off his hoodie revealing his face. “Besides you pissed me off.” “Yeah, I do that.”” Psycho said, spin kicking Figure. He blocked with his Keyblades...both of which broke on impact and sent him across the sky. “The Sentient life forms willpower. In no one in all creation and time is it stronger than in Cript and his parallels. Not, all but one...and a half are mine.” “Want to know something great about Keyblades?” The figure appeared behind Psycho. Who suddenly had a cut on his cheek. “Even if something breaks them. The wielders heart can always bring them back.” He said holding both again. “Wanna test that?” Psycho said with a smile, snapping his fingers as blood covered Keyblades appeared. “Oh goodie, I got half of those keys stuck inside Zeke’s heart still.” He snapped his fingers again, more appearing. With a flick of his finger, Psycho sent them all after Figure. Figured smirked at the sight. It's been awhile since he went all out. As they gazed at the horde of the bloody spectators of their dead Union members, they’re faces were showing intensity. If the horde was of living beings, they would have felt the intense pressure emanated from them. “How dare he. To disrespect not only us, but the lives of our Union members.” Lan said, venom dripping from his voice. Jenny clenched her teeth so hard they became fangs. “That Bastard! When I get my hands on him, I’ll tear him to shreds!” Dan still looked cool, but anger was evident by his fierce glare. “But first we have to deal with these abominations.” Alex agreed. “Why don’t we pull out the big guns?” Kira nodded, not saying anything and only wanted to fight. “Allow me to help a little. I don't have much power left in this form, and Drex is running on a timer holding that Psycho off. So I'll split it. Half will go to you guys. Nearly doubling your current strength and the other half will go to Drex to buy more time. Good luck.” with that Jar split his remaining power and sent it to them and the figure who they now know as Drex. Although it sounded familiar they'll worry about it later. The energy they received from Jar brought back some of the fire they held. They were now ready for a fight. “Thank you Jar. We’ll put this power to good use. Hope you guys don’t mind a change of scenery.” Lan brought out a Dream Card, as well as his siblings. “Ready?” “Ready!” They said together. "We cast: Serene Sanctuary!" The area around them was surrounded by white light before settling down and revealed their new battlefield. There was a single alter in the center of the everything. Surrounded by shallow waters, enough for them to stand on firmly. The sunlight that pierced through the cloudy skies illuminated the whole field. “Welcome to our personal Dream Field. This one has a particularly OP ability, which is why it takes all five of us to cast.” Dan started explaining. “It pertains to us specifically. Increasing the states of all of us and those who we see as our allies. As well as lowering those of our enemies.” Lan finished. “Impressive. Tell me, do you see their faces in your nightmares?” Psycho asked, looking around at the new battlefield. “Is this fucking Sanctuary from Dissidia Final Fantasy?" Ben asks with a frown. “Well it looks pretty at least.” Joy points out. “But we still have to fight.” “Right. Be careful guys. Just because their undead doesn't mean they're not dangerous, and I'm fighting a Psychopath so it's kinda up for debate who has the worst deal.” Drex said holding both his Keyblades at Psycho. “Hey, guys, how much stress can this place take before it breaks?” Ben asks the Foretellers, opening his book to a certain page. “Quite a bit. It’s being cast by all five of us after all. So go nuts.” Alex smirked. Giant blue spell circles and rune work surrounded Ben as they said that. “Cool.” He grins. “Quicken Supreme Spell. Now Supreme Magic! FALLEN DOWN!” Ben shouts, in the middle of the undead army a massive column of magic exploded downwards, the column of magic destroying any enemy not strong enough that remained in its three hundred foot radius. That was the flame that lit the fire of battle as they all charged into the fight. Joy rushed over to Drezke and slapped him hard. “Wakey Wakey Jackass it's time for fighting!” Drezke rubbed the mark Joy left. “...Let’s see what I still have.” He said, focusing as Kingdom Key D and Discord appeared. “Huh...This will do.” He said, a dark aura growing around him. “Hey, a little help would be appreciated!?” Drexel yelled while clashing with Psycho. “Shit.” Joy growled while rushing over to help Drexel fight, switching to Lindworm as Ben started fighting the horde of enemies. “Wind Talon!” Joy shouted, swinging the lances as sickies of wind shot fast towards the Psychopath. Psycho block the attack, blood appearing out of the air and shielded him. Drezke joined in, his aura not four times his size as pure rage was filling him and fueling his attacks. Psycho shook both Joy and Drexel just to clash with Drezke. “Heh, your brother is not in here, you know that.” “Then at least I can give him a proper burial!” Drazke shouted, darkness affecting his appearance now as he appeared like a humanoid Neo Shadow, clashing Psycho. “Damn…” Joy muttered, dashing towards the Psychopath and attempting to stab him with his keyblade while he was busy holding Drazke back. Joy’s Keyblade went through Psycho, who simply grabbed Joy’s Keyblade and finished pulling it through him, his wound vanishing mere seconds after the Keyblade was removed. “Nice try mutt.” Psychopath said, slashing Joy with his own Keyblade, he dodged, but part of his left ear was cut off. Joy growled. “Shit…” He mutters, before cutting his hand with his keyblade, the blood dripping on Reunion and the blade gaining a dark red glow. “Let's hope this works…” He muttered while dashing towards the Psychopath. “Drezke move!” Joy shouted. Hesitantly, Drezke moved to the side, giving Joy an opening. ”Sorry Zeke…” Joy thinks to himself while slashing down at the Psychopath with his sin infused keyblade, hoping to finish it. Meanwhile, at the outer rim of the battle field, the Foretellers and Ben were mowing down the horde of the Undead. Keeping the entire horde away from the main battle. One by one, tens by tens, the undead Union members were no match for their former masters. “Hey guys?” Alex called out while slashing away more enemies. “I’m not complaining or anything, but why are we taking the role of supporting characters this time around? I want more of the action.” “Okay one I have no idea if any of you ever fought a Psychopath. It's never fucking fun.” Ben states. “And two, if you all want, we can have our own adventure, hopefully something that doesn't involve the end of the universe.” He says, creating a massive explosion and killing more of the undead. “How's that sound?” Outside of his senses, three more undead appeared behind Ben. Before they had time to strike, Jenny came in swinging, killing them all. “Ben’s right Alex, that isn’t our role here. We’re here to help them deal with their problem.” “Yeah, this isn’t our story,” Kira said, casting more spells that destroyed a lot of other enemies. “No, it's just not your time to shine in this giant ass story.” Ben says to Kira, swapping to Skysplitter. “But right now is the time for some healthy family undead slaying!” Ben cheers, golf clubbing the ground and a bunch of zombies flew away in pieces before he rushing through. Alex huffed. “Alright, back to the old grind.” Charging his keyblade with lightning and zipped through the battle field. “Hey at least calmer hang out times are ahead with me and Joy right?” Ben asks. “Right!” Kira cheered. “Especially with how adorable Kira and Joy will be when they hang out.” Ben points out with a giant smile. Back to Joy, Drazek, Drex, and the Psycho. Joy’s Sin attack hit, slicing off Psychopath’s head as it and the body fell. There was a silence as they slowly walked towards it. “Is...are they dead?” Drezke asked, worry across his face. “Something tells me it ain't over yet. That was too easy.” Drex said not letting his guard down. As Drezke walked over to the headless body, it twitched, making him jump as the three pointed their weapons at it. The body stood up, grabbing it’s head. Blood poured from the head and blood flowed out of the body. The body grew a head out of just blood, a silhouette or one, and the head made a body of one. “I’ll give it to you, that kinda hurt.” “Oh no…” Joy said breathlessly. “How in the nine hells are you doing that? And what about…” Joy was to scared off what he most likely caused in this situation. “Great. Is he immortal? Knew that was too easy.” Drex said deadpanned. “Heh, everything dies. I’m no exception.” Psycho said, the body rushing and attacking Drexel while the head charged Joy and Drezke. “Shit!” Joy yelped, summoning Frozen Pride. “Drezke, mind keeping it busy?” “Trying!” Drezke said Psycho’s blood arm stretched out like a vine pinning him down. “How is a liquid so fucking dense!?” “Fighting a headless body. Strangely not the weirdest fight I got into.” Drex said using his Keyblades in gun mode blasting it back as well as the Keyblades attacking him. “Come on, come on…” Joy tried finding someone who could help them out in this situation. “Damn it.” He growled before calling someone who has experience against Psychopaths. He then summoned Graceful Dahlia and rushed after the head attacking them hoping the person he called would come soon. As Joy attacked, there was a flash. When he blinked, Both parts of Psychopath were tosses to the side. The attacker. A dark brown haired woman, she wore a tunic or sorts, had some kind of old fang earring, and wielded a really odd weapon. A blood stained rock, held to the top of a stick with leather straps. “You rang?” She asked. “Yes.” Joy nodded while pointed to both the head thing and the headless thing. “Too much to explain but Zeke's light half became a Psychopath.” He tells her. “Hehe, long time no see.” Psychopath said, both parts of him getting back up and returning to one body. “How’s it been, Cain?” “Wait for what!?!” Joy barked in surprise. “Been what? Close to two years since I finally got you out of me Psychopath, I say not long enough.” Cain barked. “Heheh, I owe every host I had back in that realm to you.” Cain pointed the weapon at Psychopath. “My biggest mistake.” Joy growled, drinking a potion and his ear being all better. “Well, let's get this over with.” Joy said. ”Hopefully I can get him back if I take out the psychopaths blood.” Joy thinks to himself, thinking that if he doesn't have a humanity blade getting the blood out would be a good second. “Let's just end this please,” Drex said getting up. “I don't have much time left anyway.” “Let’s try, in the body, he has now...It won’t be easy.” Cain said. Drezke looked at what was once his other half, his brother. It dawned on him that, if he can’t be cured, he has to be killed...and Zeke will never come back. “...Let him leave…” Drezke said. “What? But if he leaves who knows what he'll do. And we can cure him right?” Joy asks. “None of us have a Humanity weapon.” Cain pointed out. “I just got the First Weapon. Besides, I can’t even wield one, and Joy and Ben, the others would have to earn one. Even with one, there’s no guarantee it will cure him. Every Psycho possessed Parallel Cript has encountered...Was incurable, so our odds are low.” “Oh no…” Joy muttered. “Damn it,” Drex said. “Heh, what the circumstance you all have, kill me now and Zeke will never have a chance to come back, wait to see if the host is curable, at the cost of, rough estimate, a few hundred thousand worlds. So, what’s more important to you all, one man, or all those lives?” Psychopath asked, a sly smirk on his face as he spoke. “I really want to kill you.” Drex deadpanned. Powering down. His hair turning brown and eyes going green. “Sorry Drezke, but you did make us promise.” Joy tells him while moving forward. “Crimson Lotus Blitz!” Joy shouts, bolting towards the Psycho as dozens of blade-like lotus flowers shot towards him. As Joy was about to strike, he was suddenly hit by Drezke, his attack failing as he fell. Drezke then grabbed Joy by his neck. “If he is incurable. I will kill him myself. Then. You kill me.” He finished, throwing Joy back towards Drexel. He then turned to Psychopath. “Don’t even think I am bluffing.” “I know, I have his memories after all.” Psychopath said, a red portal opening under him as he fell in, it closing as he went in. “Well at least it's over...for now,” Drex said holding Joy before putting him back on his feet. “Fucking hell.” Joy frowned. “Thanks.” He says to Drexel while rubbing his neck. “Well...that was a thing…” “Come on. Let's go see if the others are ok.” Drex said turning around and walking towards them. Joy looked over to where the others were, seeing another explosion happened. “I'm sure they're fine.” Joy says. “It was nice to meet you.” Joy kindly says to Cain. “Same, maybe next time we meet it’s without something worse than Death itself around,” Cain said with a small smile as she snapped her fingers, and vanished. “Hopefully…” Joy sighs out while heading off to see if his family is alright fighting a bunch of zombies. “Today just went from fine, too bad, to weird, too bad, to worse…” He sighed out. “Good job everyone,” Ben says to the Foretellers, standing in a small crater filled with dead zombies. “Now...where's the other shit that's gonna obviously appear?” “Well, considering our track record. It should be happening pretty soon.” Lan piped in. “Be ready for anything guys.” “Yo. We're back. With some bad news.” Drex said with Joy near him. “Psychopath got away, Drezke is gonna kill it, then I and Ben are gonna kill him.” Joy tells them. “Fuck.” Ben frowned. “Well don't worry, there's more shit coming as per normal.” “Life of keybearers,” Drex said, shrugging. “Well...I mean besides the fact most of us are in herds.” Ben says honestly, looking around for any portals suddenly opening up. “Who wants potions?” He asks, wanting to give them out to help. “I got this. Curza.” Drexel said. Healing everyone there. “Oh hey.” Kira walked up to Drexel. “I never got to ask with all the fighting going on. But who are you?” She asked, feeling like she knew him. Drex looked at her for a sec before pointing behind the Foretellers. “I think you have something else to do Ava.” They looked behind them to see...ghost. The ghost of the Unions from the war. They all looked towards their former masters with solemn looks. “Everyone,” Kira said, tears threatened to fall from her eyes. They did not speak, only stared as the Masters gazed at them. “... We’re sorry. Everything was destroyed because of our foolishness.” Lan spoke first. Jenny clenched her fist. “If we weren't so hard headed and blind to the Masters plot, we could have all continued to live in peace.” “But instead, we dragged all of you into our fight, and it cost you your lives.” Dan piped in. “We really screwed up. I guess I speak for all of us when I say we don’t expect you to forgive us. But just know, that we are sorry.” The spirits still stood there staring, until two of them stepped forward out of the crowd. “Skuld, Ephemera.” Kira recognized them. After a moment of silence, the two of them smiled and knelt down to bow. The rest followed their lead. “You… Forgive us? Why? If it weren’t for us…” Kira started but stopped when they all stood back up. Skuld and Ephemera placed their hands over their heart, before thrusting them out in a flowing motion. The Foretellers were confused at first, but quickly remembered when it meant. “May your heart be your guiding key.” Lan translated with a smile. Drex looks on and smiled. “They forgive you. Because they know you'll do better this time. Right, Skuld. Ephemera.” Drex said. Both looked at him and nodded. The Foretellers noticed that the way he spoke sounded like he knew them. They tried to think about why Drex looked familiar. “As for you earlier question Ava. My name...is Drexel Quake.” Drexel Quake, that single name struck a chord in all their minds. Memories started flooding into their minds of their past lives. “Drexel Quake. I remember.” Lan said shocked. “You were a member of my Union, back when we were who we were.” “But that was Millennia ago, how is this possible?” Dan asked. “Hey! You’re the boy that Marinette was talking about. You cut my arm off!” Jenny said, comically angry. “One, that was before the war was even in thought, and two. You guys killed me so we’re even.” Drex said. Lan gazed at the ground with shame. “Yes, that’s true and I’m sorry.” Drex walked up to Lan and smack his head. “Don't worry about it. That was the past.” “Hey don't hit your master,” Lan smirked before both of them laughed together. “But still, how are you here?” “Thank Jar'Mudan for that. You guys know John? Well, he is my reincarnation.” Drex said pointing at the still unconscious John. “So we aren’t the only ones that were brought back.” Dan realized. “I wonder how much more there are out there.” Drex shrugged. “Who knows. Well, what about you two over there?” He said to Ben and Joy. “Cat got your tongues?” He smirked a little. “Nah just listening,” Ben says. “Why is everyone else reincarnations of special people and I’m Ben's old life?” Joy asks. Shrugged. “Luck? Who knows.” Drex said. “You are amazing Joy, not as amazing as them but still amazing.” Ben smiles. “Now, now, don’t sell yourself short Ben, Joy. It’s not who you are affiliated with that makes you amazing, it’s your actions. You're just as amazing as the rest of us.” Kira said, cheering him up. “I always sell myself short.” Ben deadpans. “And also damn, you and Joy would be the most adorable couple.” He says to Kira. “Nuu~.” Joy blushes in embarrassment. “She probably already has a boyfriend.” He tells Ben, his hood down and yes the Foretellers could see Joy was adorable as hell. “If Joy and Kira were a couple how adorable would they be?” Ben asks the others. Drex looked at Kira to see her blushing as well and chuckled. He patted her head while chuckling. While Kira was busy being embarrassed, the other four just smiled. Although if one were to pay attention, they could sense a dark presence behind them. Lan suddenly gripped Ben’s shoulder. “Let’s not go off pairing them off just yet.” “Correct, she’s too young to date,” Dan said sinisterly. “And any boy[b/] that thinks he has a chance has to go through us.” Alex finished. Ben just laughed at this. “Oh god, this is hilarious.” “Dude! They look like their gonna murder me.” Joy whimpers. “Kira is pretty yes but I'm too young to die.” “Good call dude,” Drex said while still patting Kira's head. “I asked if they would be a cute couple, but your reactions are just too funny.” Ben sighs out with a happy smile. Drex suddenly started to glow. “Well. Guess my time is up.” “For now.” Drezke said, walking up to the group finally. “You’ll be back.” “Maybe. Depends I guess.” Drex said smiling. “Doubt it though.” “I just want to say a few things before I go.” “What is it Drezke?” Lan asked. “First off, give this to my family,” Drezke said, handing Lan a ring. “Tell them Zeke is dead, and this was all that was found.” “We’ll keep our promise,” Ben says to Drezke. “Well, i guess that he is technically dead.” Alex chimed in. “You sure about this?” “If Zeke can come back, he’ll sort this mess out.” Drezke explained. “If not, I’ll be dying anyway. Best his family never know about this. And secondly, about Lake…” Drezke’s aura grew rapidly, Hordes of Heartless and even Unversed appeared all around the group. “Go after him to end him...I will. End. You.” With that, Drezke fell into a DTD, the Heartless and Unversed following suit. “Well ain't he just a ray of sunshine,” Drex said. “He’s just peachy.” Ben agreed. “Well. Later guys. John should wake up soon once I'm gone. Take care.” Drex said before disappearing. After he was gone everyone heard a noise. They looked to see John coming to. “What happened? John said before see a bunch of people he didn't recognize. “Um who are you?” “People making sure your world wasn't destroyed,” Ben says. “So friends. Names Ben.” “Thanks for the help. I'm John. John Corvo.” John said. The others then introduced themselves as well. They filled John in on what happened. It was a lot to process. “Wow. So Zeke is gone?” He said looking at the Foretellers. “In a technical term, yes, but I have a feeling we’ll see him again. If not one, then in pieces.” Dan stated. “So. What now?” John asked. Lan stepped up. “For now, let’s all return to our own worlds and take some well-deserved rest.” “That's a good idea Lan” A voice from nowhere said. A purple portal appeared. Ben, Joy, and John could instantly tell it was void. Ben and Joy summoned their weapons and held them at the ready, only knowing Jar as a friendly enough void being. “Who are you?” Ben growls, still expecting more enemies to appear. The Figure walked out. “Don't worry. Besides you, all have been dealing with my brother Core, and my brother God brought you all together.” “Hollow,” John said. “ We will speak in a moment. For now, the others should return.” Hollow said. With a snap of his fingers, portals to their worlds appeared. “Yeah, that’d be good.” Lan looked at the ring in his hands. “We have some bad news to break.” Him and his siblings walked through the portal. Before Lan was fully through, he turned around and looked to John. “May your heart be your guiding key, Drexel.” With that, he left. “Drexel?” John said. They left out a few bits of info when explaining to him what happened. “It’s complicated…” Ben sighed out. “Anyways we better get going.” “Sorry, we couldn't stay longer and talk.” Joy says. “See ya.” The two then entered the portal and left. After we got back to our world me and Joy sat down under a tree and relaxed. "So...Kira's pretty huh?" I ask with a cheeky grin. "Shut up." Joy tells me, blushing brightly as I started to laugh again. To be continued... Nobody's plans and actionsSo about a week passed after everything happened, and while I felt like crap about Zeke being split apart I knew I had to get stronger to face against his dark or light half when the time came. I was glad to hear Joy helped Zeke’s Scootaloo and was gonna date Zeke’s Diamond Tiara as well, even though I still teased him about Kira once in awhile. “Fuck, what weapon should I train with now?” I grumble to myself, not sure what to do right now. “Ben?” I heard Coco’s voice call out from the hall. “Yeah Coco?” I ask, walking over to where I heard her call. “What's wrong?” I ask while walking into the hallway. “I got a letter from Celestia for you.” Coco said, giving me the letter. “Wonder what she wants?” I wonder while opening the letter. “It better not be the titan that Joy killed.” I frown a little while reading the message. Dear Ben I am writing you this letter to ask a favor of. The details of which we will discuss upon your arrival here at the castle. I expect you soon, Celestia, Chrysalis, and Rune. “Well I'm off to help Celestia with something.” I say while rolling up the letter. “See ya, tell the others I'll be off to Canterlot.” I say while giving Coco a goodbye kiss before leaving and heading off to Canterlot on my glider. After about five minutes I flew over to the castle and entered without much fuss. “Wonder why Celestia wanted me? Unless Rune wanted win a bet or something.” I grumble, walking through the halls to find the three and hope Rune wasn't wanting to figure out if I can turn Celestia and Chrysalis bi. In the throne room sat the three, each with their own unique throne. “Glad you could get here so quickly Ben.” Celestia said, seeming relieved. “What's the problem? Or is Rune wanting to win a bet and I'm involved somehow?" I ask curiously. “No, well, you see-” “I had her call you.” I turned around, recognizing that voice anywhere. “You know, I never got your name. What is it?” I ask the assassin. “Just call me Lola.” She said, walking passed me and up to the princesses...queens… Whatever. “What do you want Lola?” I ask, ready to stop her from killing any of them. “Well let’s just say the blood you gave me had extra left over.” “And by that you mean?” I ask worriedly. “She knocked us up with your kids.” Chrysalis deadpanned. “Not even a thank you ma’am or foreplay.” “Well...you probably hate me…” I say worriedly. “And what about you Lola? Happy with having my kid?” I ask. “I would be...If it was just the one…” She said, trailing off at the end there. “We don’t hate you Ben.” Celestia said. “Honestly I was planning on asking you to, ehm, donate, for us to have offspring.” “Um…” I start. “I don't know the finer details...but uh...oh god how do I explain this?” I groan, rubbing my temple. “I don't know if it counts but you'll probably have a few...million kids in you.” I say sheepishly. “Fuck...I don't know finer details…” I groan, looking for the most obvious part of a nine month pregnant belly and hoping I'm wrong here. “Eh, that’s how I give birth anyway.” Chrysalis said nonchalantly. Celestia rubbed her chin while her horn lit up, there was a flash and the lot of them had pregnancy bellies like my wives all did. “Well that explains this…” “I kinda like it.” Rune said. “Well since this happened I need some help.” Lola said, walking up to me. “I’ve killed old, young, inbetween, but never babies...and seeing as now I forever have them inside me, I need you to stabilize me so I don’t explode in five years or so.” “Now I was told all of you could survive multiple big bangs at least…” I start before bringing up my assistant and trying to find someone that knows how to fix magical rune work. “Now where the hell is someone that can help…” I frowned, looking through the thing. I finally found one labeled doctor and clicked it. Almost like a ghost a skeleton man appeared. “Greetings. You dialed?” He spoke. He had a strange accent. “She needs help.” I point to Lola. “Her Mark is screwed up in a dozen ways.” I sigh out. “No idea how it's damaged, no idea how to help. Please help.” The skeleton man walked over to Lola, looking at the mark on her hand. “Hmm. A very dangerous situation. I can remove it, but there may be side effects.” “What side effects?” I ask worriedly. “Anything threatening to her or the kids?” I ask, Lola obvious pregnant here. “No. This mark is linked to her soul. Everything she is comes from a soul. So she might come out different.” “How different?” I ask. “Like different physically? Emotionally? Both?” “These issues are always mental. It varies from person to person. Some lose all their memories, others keep them but they are exact opposites of who they were. Rarely are they the same, but it happens.” He explained. “We will just have to see what happens.” “Well...you can at least stop her from being a living bomb.” I say. “What do you think Lola? Want to get that second chance I offered?” “Eh, let’s roll the dice.” Lola said, holding out the hand with the sign on it. The doctor held it, his other hand held a glass jar with some sort of engravings on it. He placed the open lid over her mark, and the mark started lifting off her hand. When it was just floating in there, it then pulsated. The doc quickly covered the lid and sealed it. “There it is, safely locked away.” “Lola? You okay?” I asked the woman. “Oh yeah, I feel great!” Lola said, moving in an...extremely feminine way. “Uh...what's the last thing you remember about me?” I ask, knowing she'd know something about me specifically. “Or just...the last thing you remember in general?” “The last thing I remember is you asking me what was the last thing I remember silly~” Lola said, patting me on the head. “Is she stupid?” Chrysalis asked. The Doctor’s hand glowed, waving over Lola’s head. “...plainly, yes. Her I.Q. was 185, now...it’s 37…It also seems her personality was altered.” “Oh no…” I groan under my breath. “So...she's stuck like this...forever?” I ask The Doctor. “Yeup. These things are permanent. I.Q. loss is even rarer though. One in, a thousand at least.” I stood there for a moment. “Never would I have ever thought of saying I wish I still had the super assassin trying to kill me back…” I say with a frown. “Crap...well sadly I can't change that…” Lola gahsped. “An Ass sisin! ...is that a type of workout clothes?” Chrysalis burst out laughing while the others, myself included, nearly face palmed. This...is going to be a thing… “So, now that this is all settled, I am afraid there is still a matter to attend to.” Celestia spoke up, rubbing her temples. “I mean besides all of you being pregnant with my kids?” I ask the three rulers. “But I wanted to point out about a bet Rune would make...to see how long it would take me to at least make you two bi.” I say to Celestia and Chrysalis, “Still not happening.” Celestia said. “Eh.” Chrysalis said, shrugging. “But, the matter is in an old law. Whoever lays and has the princess, or princesses, bare an heir, is to be crown king. You technically already are with Luna, but this...event, after some discussion is a qualifier for the law. So...congrats, you married me also. Still not gonna be bi though.” “That's fine.” I say simply. “But by that law I'm technically also co-ruler of the Changelings and Diamond Dogs right?” I ask curiously, “Full ruler actually.” Rune and Chrysalis said simultaneously. “Once married the queen's job is, well, simply to breed. I don’t mind, more fun for me.” Chrysalis said. “Diamond dogs have all their laws tiered towards males in terms of marriage and laws. So, yeah. This accident fully united Ponies, Changelings, and Diamond Dogs...which is funny since all our kingdoms are next to each other.” Rune finished. “And Dragons, don't forget dragons.” I point out. “Actually, Ember took that crown.” Celestia chimed in. “While you were away Spike was called to the dragon lands and events happened, so Honora’s older sister is Dragon Lord. Their laws are simpler. Whoever wins the Dragon Lords staff in a competition or dual is the Dragon Lord. Regardless of race too.” “Cool...but now this raises a question, will I accidentally unite the other countries this way or not? Cause this...is quite something.” I say nervously. “Huh…” Celestia said, scratching her chin. “That’s...a thought. Let’s see. Each of the royal families have heirs and daughters. The Deer, the Caribou, the Griffons, though that’s a long shot, the Minotaurs, the Camels, the Hippogriffs, the Centaurs, and the Zebras.” “Don’t forget the Bison and the Yaks.” Chrysalis added. “True, but no one really knows how their customs work. The Yaks have lived in isolation for years, and the Bison are very secretive of their lands. They only shared with Appaloosa for a share of the food so they could use some land to farm.” “Are there any wolf or tiger tribe's?” I ask curiously. “Or are they hidden in jungles and forests?” “Wolves live under the rule of the Deers, and Tigers live under the rule of the Camels.” “Okay then...but I'm not gonna whore myself out here.” I frown. “Just to be clear here okay? I want peace as well but not if I have to plow every queen or princess on the planet.” “Well we have tried in the past for that, the only issues are the fact that barriers stop the process dead. Customs, Languages, you name it. Finding common ground to make peace will be...tricky.” “Well don't worry, I've managed weirder situations.” I shrug. “But god are all these women gonna be confused when their suddenly indestructible and pregnant with a million kids.” “Well the way I see if you have two options for this world peace thing.” Chrysalis said. “Whore yourself out, or take the time to learn every customer and such to ensure peace. Either way, it’s your time wasted, not mine.” “It's not time wasted when I'm supposed to be this planet's hero.” I frown. “This is gonna be bad...god what will my fiance’s think? Oh hell actually what will they think of this situation?” “I imagine Pinkie will be happy, Luna maybe.” Rune said. “Oh, she will. Luna has a herd fetish.” Celestia said, nearly making me trip over nothing. “Of course she fucking does…” I groan. “No wonder why she was always so excited for more wives…” I sigh out. “God...what's Twilight and Dinky gonna think when I ask them to teach Lola in some way?” “I imagine it will be a challenge for her.” Celestia said. “Twilight is many things...parents for teaching others...she is now. Not much at least.” “I hope she can manage…” I sigh out. “I wonder what else I'm going to do today besides...this.” I motion to Lola. “Aside from doing her, get your family here. Might as well move into the castle...Heh, staff and city are gonna freak.” Chrysalis said, a smile on her face as she stretched in her seat and relaxed. “I like where we live, besides it's a lot bigger than this.” I say. “Also I'm not gonna do her...I barely know what to do anymore…” I sigh out, my shoulders sagging a little. “Awh, it’s okay.” Lola said, putting both hands on my shoulders and looking me dead in the eye. “I forget how to dodo too.” This...is going to be a long, LONG, day... The princesses and Lola all came with me back home, they, and my wives, all sat in the living room...me in the middle….and Jenny laughing her ass off. “HAHAHAHAH! Oh man!” She cried between laughs. “So besides laughing at me, or possibly hating me, who else wants to talk about...this?” I ask, trying not to feel like crap while everyone was silently judging me. “Well, it’s definitely...out there…” Twilight said. “I for one am up to it if it makes the world whole.” Rarity said. “As am I.” Honora said in agreement. “Life can’t get much stranger, right?” Coco threw out. “No Coco...it only gets worse and worse.” I tell her bluntly. “Whether it's for the better...or it just makes people laugh at me.” “I wonder if this is just a family thing?” Pinkie asked. “Think about it, your new dad is married to, pretty much all where he’s from.” “So what? I'm gonna have to marry every royal women on this planet?” I ask. “That’s the easiest in terms of the plan. Plus, it’s a good card. Most every Royal in the other lands have been giving birth to female heirs. Plus, your reputation will help convince them.” Celestia said. “In the past Equestria, and the other lands have had issues in terms of gender balance, but these recent years have been largely shifted female. Female to male in Equestria is close to a hundred mares per two stallions. Don’t even get me started about the Caribou. Their males are one in every thousand births.” I looked at everyone in the room. “So what? Now I'm the solution to your breeding crisis? I'm a hero...not...this…” I sigh out, more finding this conversation weird and strange then demeaning honestly. “Welcome to the club…” I nearly jumped out of my seat as Cript appeared next to me...wearing sun glasses oddly enough. “And I am still getting girls...It’s something you never expect, don’t ask for, but deal with in my experience.” “Except you're an omnipotent god who’s been dealing with this crap for god knows how long.” I frown. Cript looked over at me. “I was married to my first wife Lyra for two and a half years before a herd even happened. Back then, I was just a mage, not a god, not even close to an admin. I was just a mage that knew every spell in the book and had a link to origin magic. That discovery explained a lot about my talents with spellcraft. You know what I did when Lyra and my other now wives came to me and asked for a herd?” “Probably had a better time then adding more and more with little more than a day's notice.” I roll my eyes. “I ran to the nearest room, which happened to be a closet, and closed the door behind me. Lyra had to talk me out of there for nearly half an hour. You wanna know why I hid?” “You were either scared or you were too shocked to hear such a thing?” I ask. “Heh, a bit of both. Me marrying Lyra, it was hard to believe. With all I do, what...Psychopath made me do...I was ready to spend my life alone...Then she comes along...runs me over with her waggon and gives me amnesia...When my memories came back, I was ready to leave her...Sneaky mare found her way onto my ship and she stuck to me like glue. When the herd thing came into play, that was...unexpected. But, my former boss explained what happened to lead to that.” I sigh out. “Fine...I suppose this is because everything kind of...caught up to me is all.” I say. “I mean...seriously? Who expected a severely depressed idiot to suddenly have all this in half a year?” “Took me longer, but join the club.” Cript said, patting me on the back. “You know that saying ‘everything just lines up perfectly for you’?” “Its ‘everything happens for a reason’ or something like that.” I tell him. “And yes I do. Why do you ask?” “Cause it’s true, different for everyone. In my case, I had the potential to become to much, and I surpassed it all, and I was meant to be nothing more than a side character when the “adventure” started. Because I stepped out of that, became the protagonist, I ROYALLY screwed up timelines. The reason my herd started was because those that my herd started with, were my other timeline possibilities. Same is going for you right now.” I was about to say something...before I rubbed my temple and started chuckling. “Jesus, I was feeling like crap because I was going to go basically fuck all the female royalty in this world...then we suddenly had a nice chat about life...who else normally does that?” I ask. “Eh, let’s see here, Zeke for starters, you, me, Lan is on his way there at his rate. Here. Let me show you something.” Cript said, tossing a pocket watch on the floor. It opened, and what looked like a single blue beam, but upon closer inspection was actually countless smaller blue lines, shot up out of it. “This, is the timeline of everyone on this world, before I stepped out of my role of Side character and into Hero.” Cript then waved his hand, the lines changing and now acted like something out of Dubstep. “This is every individual timeline now. Tell me, does this make sense?” “Only to Vinyl at the moment.” I frown. “Why are they acting like something from Dubstep?” “My doing. Long story short, I cause the god of time to quit and retire. Because I stepped out of something what was meant to be fixed, Every timeline now can crossover with another. Lovers that were never meant to be, or even happen happen, work. It actually worked out. It’s funny really, temporal chaos lead to order among most of Sentient life.” Cript said, closing the pocket watch and putting it back in his pocket. “That must have been weird. Hearing the god of time say ‘damn it I'm too old for this shit’ when they're supposed to look over time itself.” I chuckled a little. “And okay then...that sounds pretty special.” “I guess, it’s why you have all these girls. How I have all mine. Accidents happen, but sometimes they lead to great things.” “So literally being the king of a world just because you married every single royal woman leads to great thing?” I ask. “Think of it this way, you can make people get along, slowly, but surely. After all, they may defy you, but would they defy their princess and/or queen?” “That depends on if the princess or Queen was being complete bitch.” I say. “Well, true. Heck, if she is then they will definitely listen to you.” Cript said, taking off the sunglasses. “Two simple things. There are leaders, and followers, good leaders change what’s important, bad leaders change everything but the important things.” With that, Cript snapped his fingers and was gone, though, his sunglasses were still there. I grabbed the sunglasses off the ground, wondering why he left them. “So…” I start. “Where should I go first?” I ask the others. “Perhaps some training.” A voice said behind me before something banged the back of my head. I looked up. Vexen? “I have been waiting on this world for three days!” “When the fuck did you get here?” I ask the guy. “Like I said, three days ago! Ramilua called me asking to help you train since I am both a well renowned alchemist and knight.” “Okay first up, how did he know to find you specifically?” I ask, finding that a tad suspicious. “Some old cook named Merlin gave him my number. Apparently they know each other and Merlin knows Ansem so I was given time off to train you. To my disappointment you weren’t here. Three days of my time I am never getting back.” He grumbled. “Okay first up i was never told about you coming here so sorry. Two I was either busy doing stuff off world or something else.” I tell him while rubbing the back of my head. “And three weren't you using your time wisely in those three days? You seem pretty miffed about being on a world full of magic.” “Yeah, but all the magical knowledge in this world is C grade at best, everything in every book on science and magic I picked up here since arriving have been revie of things I learned long ago. Most I’ve done so far is freeze some ancient evil thing.” “What ancient evil thing?” I ask with a frown, having completely forgotten about this world's time line. “I don’t know, I was far up north studying the geology when some city made of gemstones came out of the ground and a black mist with a face attacked me. Froze it on the spot, then went back to work.” “Um...wasn't Sombra already taken care of?” I ask Twilight. “Unless you managed to find *another* long forgotten crystal town that a shadow monster hid…” I say. “Who’s Sombra?” Twilight asked. I looked at Celestia and Luna, who both kinda coughed, as if a cat got out of a bag. “Okay I know Cript did a thing….but how in the hell was Discord redeemed *before* the Crystal Empire appeared?” I ask. “*Cough*” I looked to my side, seeing Jenny about to whisper something to me. “Yeah...this Equestria’s timeline is different. Discord was reformed same day he got out by Fluttershy.” She whispered. “Guess each reflections is different in very strange ways.” I could only facepalm. “Of course...” I groaned. “Anyways, Cadence and Shining now own a kingdom up north Twilight, sooner or later we're gonna need to help them find the Crystal Heart, and I have some training to do.” “Exactly.” Vexe-...whatever his actual name is. “Well, come on, we have work to do.” He said, grabbing me by an ear and dragging me. “Ow!” I shout while getting his hand off my ear. “No dragging me by the ear.” I growl, my ears being a bit more sensitive than more ears when it comes to pain. “But anywhere specific we need to go?” I ask while rubbing my ear. “I set up a laboratory in one of the stupidly many spare rooms you have.” He said, waving for me to follow. “Oh, and the name’s Even.” “Yeah my house had a crap ton of rooms.” I say while following along. “But the names Ben if Ramilua didn't already tell you.” I say, the two of us continuing through my home. After a while of walking and some hello’s to my wonderful daughter's that were roaming around and seeing Joy walking to the kitchen while his head was steaming we finally made it to the specific room he took over. He opened the door...and it was like walking into Dexter's Laboratory. “Come on, let’s start at the basics.” He explained, walking me over to...something. It was huge and had a lot of flashing lights and buttons. “So...all of this huh?” I ask, not really knowing what extra stuff the shield could do when I thought his fight involved something only his Nobody could do then what his ice magic and shield could do. “I have...literally no idea what most of this stuff is.” “Just some basic stuff.” He said, opening a panel on the side of the huge device and taking out some kind of wires and a helmet with a huge wire connecting it to the machine. The next thing I knew I was shirtless, had wires attached to me and that helmet on my head while Even was looking at a screen on the side of the machine. “I told Twilight no on this kind of stuff…” I say nervously, rather concerned about this. “But should I be concerned about if you're going to start doing weird mad scientist shit on me?” “Oh please, this is just a physical.” He said, pushing a button before what felt like a lightning bolt struck me. When it was over some of my fur was burnt, even smoking while Even looked at a data appearing on the screen. “You can take the stuff off now.” “The fuck!?!” I bark. “Trying to stop my heart or what?” “Don’t be so dramatic.” He said, looking over the data still. “Alright, so far so good. Though, it seems you are genetically prone to addiction. Best steer clear of addictive things.” “You basically sent a lightning bolt through my chest , and what addiction?” I frown. “Anything. Drugs, cigarettes, booze, the works.” He said, looking at the data again. “And a shellfish allergy.” “Well I'm not addicted to any of those, I've never actually had shellfish, and this is so far this has nothing to do with training.” I frown. “I know the thing I'm going to train with is a shield but it's probably got something special about it.” “This is just a formality, also, sign this.” Even said, dropping a foot thick stack of papers at my feet, a pen resting on top of it. When it was dropped I grabbed the entire thing and read through all of it out of reflex when me and Luna did so much signing. “And why should I?” I ask, still looking through everything about the thing I have to sign. “So in case of any-” He then tapped the stack of papers. “Mutations, injuries, indigestion, cryogenic freezings, illnesses, magical mishaps, and in the rare case, death, I am not at fault.” “How in the nine hells does this have anything to do with this?” I ask while summoning my shield. “It's a fucking shield with ice magic, how does literally anything you explained pertain to it besides the cryogenic freezing part?” I ask, royally confused on this. Even rolled his eyes. “Because it’s my policy. Non-negotiable after...well, let’s just say an incident where a former lab assistant received a...fourth head, I make everyone I work with sign this.” I take a deep breath and disband my shield. “Policy or not you still didn't answer my question. What sort of stuff are you planning on doing that involves ice magic and a shield? I know you're a scientist but...still.” “Well it blocks both physical attacks and magic ones idiot. I’ll be casting all manors of spells, each with varying effects.” He then tapped on the paper, right over where the word Explosive Diarrhea, was written. “I recommend keeping clean clothes near by.” “Well I'm immune to all illnesses and most likely unwanted mutations so fine.” I say. “Also, this better not have some crap where I'm legally signing myself to be your test subject for whatever reason.” “Relax...that stack is ten feet thick.” Even said, taking the papers after I signed them. “Alright, so, what exactly can you do with it so far?” “So far I can cause people who are touching it to start freezing, cause a small spike of ice about...three feet away, and have stopped really powerful and possibly magically enhanced attacks with it.” I explain. “But besides that I haven't done much...just using it like a proper shield even if it's design is...a little weird for shields.” Even sighed. “Fun fact.” He said, summoning his own shield and throwing it, and it went a distance before flying back. “It’s also a boomerang.” He said, catching it. “These spiky, sharp edges aren’t just for show.” “Huh...aerodynamics be damned.” I say in honest surprise while summoning my shield. I threw it like a boomerang, and surprise to me it did come back, and I caught it with my hand even though for some reason my wolf part wanted me to chase it like a goddamn stick. “Not bad, now try this.” Even said, throwing it again, but this time large spikes of ice grew under where it flew, and when it flew back ice spikes shot out of it, hitting anything on it’s side before flying back to him. “Uh…” I mutter, throwing it again and when I tried to concentrate only a spike or two appeared under it and that was it even as it returned. “This might be a little more complicated than I thought…” “Okay then, let’s start with something more simple. Try this.” Even said, raising his shield up as a single ice spike rose up from the ground a few feet away. “Just focus your mana into it, and think about size and location.” I took a deep breath, holding it and, for once, I actually took note of my hud and saw a circle slightly glowing where I thought it would be. I focused my magic and lifting my shield up, making a single ice spike about five feet away, four feet tall and three feet in diameter. “Right then.” I nodded. “Good. Now try this.” He said, raising his shield to defend as some kind of frost layer covered it. “This makes it harder for anything to knock you to the side like a rag doll.” I raised it up, and when I tried to do as he did I felt a pulse of mana and the area in front of the shield, about five inches away, suddenly made a solid ball of ice and it fell, shattering as it hit the ground. “Damn it.” I frowned a little. “Not what I wanted but nifty to know I could do that.” I say to myself while focusing again, putting the shield up in a defensive position and a frost layer formed in front of it thankfully. “There we go…” “Good, now try this.” Even said, the frost on his shield melting, floating just above the shield a bit then shooting out, making a machine that was in their way metalic swiss cheese. “Well...that's a thing.” I say, letting the ice melt part was easy, the hard part was me trying to make the water turn to ice needles...but sadly after three times of shooting bowling ball sized ice chunks out I face palmed. “Damn it.” I groan. “I doubt making a cannon is the proper way to do this.” I scratch my head, trying one more time. While it didn't look as good as Even’s I managed to make a bunch of needles finally and shot it out, the needles passing through an unused machine with ease. “Good. Took a while, but good. Now, my personal favorite.” He said, grabbing a blue plastic cup and summoned just a little frost, which melted and fell into the cup. He then made some small chunks of ice and let them drop into it also. “Cleanest water you will ever drink.” He said, taking a sip. “Owe. Cold as a glacier too. Instant brain freeze.” “How does one make ice cream again?” I ask, for some odd reason the first immediate thought I had to that trick was ice cream made of my fiance’s breast milk. “For that you need a blazing gem, and a mythril to pull off ice cream.” He said, taking another sip and getting another brain freeze. “No need to hurt yourself anymore on cold water.” I say. “But for some reason I have a feeling we're talking about something different when I mention ice cream…” “Eh. So, time for something harder.” Even said, raising his shield...and swinging it on his arm, the spike impaling it. “SHIT!” He yelled, pulling it out then waved the shield over the fresh wound, ice covering it, melting, leaving only a scar behind as the wound was instantly healed. “This has saved my life...five times. Almost six, but thankfully it was not that bad a wound that one.” “Huh...didn't think ice could heal that quickly...” I say while looking at my shield. “Um...can I at least get some explanation so finding accidentally do something bad to myself?” “Basically you instantly freeze all the way through the wound, and the ice that melts becomes, well, water, the ice that doesn’t has adapted, becoming flesh and blood, bone even if needed. You just need to freeze the wound, the ice will do the rest.” “Okay then…” I start while summoning a spike of ice and rolling up my sleeve. I rammed the spike into my arm, the pain not feeling at all bad before I tried the technique, breaking off the ice and channeling my magic, the wound healing up rather well. “Good. Now, if you don’t mind I have important business to take care of in a bit so if you would kindly...do something else for a day. Come back tomorrow.” “Okay.” I nodded while fixing my sleeve. “Thanks Even...um I forgot do the other knights in Radiant Garden know about my training or is it just you?” I ask curiously. “They know, and they’ll call before arriving. Now head off, before-” Knock, Knock, Knock. There was a knock at the door. “Coming!” I call out, walking over to the doors and opening them. “Yes?” When I opened the door, it wasn’t anyone I knew right away...I’ve seen this guy around town… Damn, what’s his name. ‘Um, Hi. Is Even here?” “Here! Here!” Even said, almost pushing me out of the way. “Okay, um, give me a moment.” He said, closing the door. “Leave. Now.” He said, looking dead at me. “Okay okay fine jeez.” I say while leaving. “Just remember to make sure none of my kids get in here.” I tell him before leaving, wondering what I'm going to do with the rest of the day. “Either travel...or do that one idea…” I mutter to myself, walking through the place again. “Pinkie! Can I get some help with an idea?” I call out through the halls, knowing her she'd be here in an instant. “What ya need?” My pink fiance asked...somehow appearing inside my cloak with me... “Do you know how to make Ice Cream? Even taught me a thing...and it made me wonder...if I could make ice cream from….your breast milk…” I blush. “Oh silly billy.” Pinkie said, rubbing my head and giving me a kiss. “I already have a tone of breast milk ice cream in the walk in freezer in the kitchen basement.” “Glad to know that.” I chuckled. “But uh...about me roaming the world marrying princesses or queens to bring about world peace somehow...none of you mind?” I ask nervously,wanting to check here. “We talked about it while you were gone with Even. We’re okay with it since it’s a fast way to bring about world peace. Plus, it’s kinda fitting. Your adopted bio-dad Cript has endless wives, you can get close. Sides, Zeke had like, what, twenty?” I sighed at hearing him. “I probably forgot to tell you all….” I shake my head. “But he had sixteen or so wives...I hope they're doing okay based on what Joy told me.” I say. “I heard you all meet Zeke’s wives from time to time right?” “Lately...not so much.” Rarity said sadly. “They’re...working through things, so we’re giving them their space.” “Yeah…” I sigh out. “Zeke’s death probably hit his entire world hard…” “We can only hope things get better later on.” Twilight said. “Hopefully.” “Not to be rude, but back to the matter at hand?” Celestia said/asked. “The original topic was breast milk ice cream.” I pointed. “Or did you want to get back to me sleeping with every single princess and or queen on the planet?” “The later…” Celestia replied, looking rathe confused. “Is that..common here?” “I asked Pinkie if Breast Milk Ice Cream was a thing because I was curious if it could be made...little did I know it was actually real…” I say sheepishly. “I think I have a lactation fetish…” “Okay...I’ll have to get used to that…” “Meh.” Chrysalis said. “Well I’m used to that, Diamond Dogs only ever drink their own milk. It’s a tradition thing.” Rune replied. “Anywhosits, which kingdom should I start with first?” I ask curiously. “Cause I have zero idea on any of the other countries.” I say nervously. “Well, the hardest will be the griffons, so we start there the rest will be easy.” Chrysalis said. “Where’s Gilda? I might need her help with some history and such.” I say, not knowing much about the Griffin kingdom as is. “She’s napping still.” Pinkie answered. “She stayed up late last night helping Dinky beat something on a video game.” “Right then.” I nodded. “Where be Joy?” Joy immediately walked up with a frown. “Why were you thinking about breast milk ice cream?” He huffed. “Science?” I lie horrifically with a sheepish smile. Joy saw through it easily. “Anyways, Griffin Kingdom right?” I nodded. “Right, does anyone know Griffin history besides Gilda?’ “I do.” Twilight said. “I did a lot of research on it. The short version is that the griffons used to be a very proud and powerful kingdom, but they worshiped a special idol made from pure gold. One day a monster came and stole the idol. They chased it to a gorge where the monster, and the idol fell in, and the winds passing through that gorge are so fast and dangerous, they didn’t dare try or else they’d be blown away and probably end up stuck forever or impaled on the sharp rocks. Without their idol, they fell apart.” “Good enough for us.” I shrug. “But is there any ruling body as of now or is it just a massive wreck?” “Last time I was there it looked like they never bothered fixing up the city after the monster attacked.” Chrysalis spoke up. “It’s all a wreck, and the only form of government they have from what I saw is currency. No one there does anything unless there’s money involved. I can see why too, get out of there as fast as possible.” “Well looks like Gilda’s gonna be a queen soon enough.” I say simply. “Actually, there might be someone there still related to the old king.” Twilight said, her horn glowing before a book appeared and she opened it up. “Yeah, here it is. According the legends, the old king had a wife, who already had an egg by him, and was pregnant with another. After the monster attack, she left her kingdom, unable to see it falling apart. They say she went to the only other griffon city that held no ties to any lands or crown, Revastal. The griffon equivalent of Cloudsdale.” “Alright then.” I nodded. “I'll go to Revastal and go find the Queen and Joy can go find the Idol, cause if we have both then the people will hopefully come back together and not be in shambles.” I say, hoping this simple plan will work. “Oh uh...how long was it since the kingdom fell to shit?” “Four hundred years.” Celestia answered. “After Griffinstone fell, Revastal went into isolation. All we know about it is that it was ahead of its time when the griffon kingdom fell.” “Right...so I have a feeling they might or might not know who I am.” I say with a nod. “I guess you’ll see.” Rune said. “You two, good luck, we'll work on finding a bigger bed and getting more rings.” “Thanks Rune.” I nodded while me and Joy started to leave, ready to start a new adventure. “Know what time it is?” I ask Joy. “Adventure Time?” Joy asks with a grin while we both fist bump. To be continued... Nobody's new travels“I really should have asked where this place was….” I frown, flying around the Griffin Kingdom on my glider while Joy went to Griffon Stone. “It's like Cloudsdale...but I doubt it's literally like Cloudsdale.” I frown, continuing to look around for this isolated town. As I flew further east, now well passed Equestria’s coast, there was a sudden storm. Thankfully, my glider seemed able to push through the strong winds. “Of course there’s a fucking storm.” I frown, glad my hood was up as I continued forward, looking around for where the town was or what was causing the sudden storm. As I kept flying there was a sudden shock wave of wind. It rattled my glider and something came out of the water...It was Disney’s Devil...in heavy looking chains with heartless symbols all over them...It looked right at me. I was curious about something. “Hey! Can you talk?!” I shout at it, knowing it was from a music only movie but just wondering. It shook its head, opening it’s mouth...showing its tongue was missing. “Ouch.” I wince. “Who chained you up?!” I call out curiously. He just gave me a look. “Right...Can’t answer that…” I sighed out. “Are you going to destroy the planet if I free you?” I ask, knowing this would be a bad idea. He looked confused at me, and then shook his head. “Surprising.” I mutter while flying over to it. “Know how to break your chains?” I call out. He turned around, a small, magic looking lock was keeping all the chains bonded together. “Simple enough.” I say while jumping in the air and floating, changing my glider into my keyblade. “If I free you will darkness start spreading out?” I call out, hoping it could possibly answer that. He shook his head. “Thank you.” I say while pointing my Keyblade at the keyhole and unlocking it, knowing full well something bad is going to happen. Once the lock disappeared and the chains began falling off, Disney devil began to stretch and shake off the feeling of those chains. After a bit, he then placed a finger in his mouth, to which his tongue grew back. “Thank you, those chains restricted more than just my movement.” He said, still stretching. “Now I remember! Your names Chernabog.” I say, snapping my fingers at remembering it's name. “So my giant demonic friend, why the hell were you chained up with Heartless chains?” “Core. Back when he was first taking over and expanding his own kingdom in the realm of darkness, me and my counterparts were his first obstacle, as back then we controlled the vast darkness. He slayed all my counterparts, except for me. He chained me up, and til some time ago, continuously tortured me for ancient information on darkness. I learned he was killed, so I took my chance, and escaped. I got out of my cage, but the chains were another matter entirely.” “He’s dead? Who killed him?” I ask, finding that information surprising. “I don’t know. I didn’t stick around to ask, Core’s followers are creating chaos in the realm of darkness...and that’s saying something. That aside, I thank you for freeing me, is there a way I can repay you?” “Well before I answer that, do you know Cript?” I ask curiously. “I have heard of him, of his creating. I now hear that plan for him backfired immensely.” “What plan?” I ask, wondering if it involved Zeke. “Back when this creation was young, the beings known only as Psychopaths already had a foothold, and needed something to bring the whole of every creation into their favor. So, through countless years of planning, altering events, and gaining followers and having certain ones breed, each multiverse in the creation had a version of Cript. The perfect host, by his very nature and bloodline, he is their perfect killing machine. And for a time, it seemed their plan would work. Til, one defied his place as a host, and broke free from his possession. Sadly, the same can not be said about his parallels, who are the strongest host bodies the Psychopaths possess. Cript, and all his parallels, were born to be Psychopaths, and one ran from destiny, and forged his own.” I looked at him and was honestly surprised by this. “Damn…” I frown. “That's...most certainly a thing.” “Yes. He is the second being to ever break from a Psychopath. Oh, and call me Cher.” “Right then.” I nod. “But do you know where Revatal is?” I ask. “Yes. Is there a reason you seek that city?” “Apparently there's royalty there and an old law would be quite needed for world peace here.” I tell him. “Ah. You seek the lost heir of Griffon Stone.” He said, snapping his fingers as a portal opened, a cloud city looking like that movie Castle in The Sky on the other side. “I will help you find the heir, if you will have me.” “Thanks Cher, that would be good. But if you need help fighting against Cores lackeys then I can help out, I know a bunch of others as well that can help.” I explain to him. “I do not believe I will ever return. It is no longer my home.” “Well then considering I'll be king of the world, mind helping me keep the place safe?” I ask. “Or helping me fight against Cores forces? I'll make sure you get a good home even if you are...bigger than a mountain.” “I can change my form as needed. I will meet you in the city.” Cher said, his whole body turning into mist and a ball of it flying through the portal as I followed. “Can't believe I'm becoming friends with Disney's version of Satan.” I mutter to myself. As I landed I looked around, wondering what form Cher took. I felt a tug at my cloak. Looking, I saw a young griffon...with dark blue feathers and a rather strange set of wings. “Hello Ben.” She said. That voice is that of a girls. “Hello.” I said to her. “How you doing?“ “Okay I guess. This form is rather small, but I’ll get used to it.” “Eh you'll get used to it. Like walking for instance cause your legs have normally been stuck in a mountain right?” I ask curiously. “Only when I exit the realm of darkness and appear in the mortal worlds.” “Right then.” I nodded. “So, let's see if we can find the heir in this place.” I say, ready to start the search. Cher took a sniff of the air. “Royal blood was here recently.” She said, taking another sniff. “An hour at least.” “Which direction did they head off to?” I ask, trying to think of how far they could have gone within an hour. Cher took another, longer sniff. “That way.” She pointed, showing a road where a lot of griffons were walking along. A market place. “Follow me.” She said, leading the way. I followed along closely, wondering what I'll see in this new town. “Wonder what's gonna happen when we meet the lost heir.” “Dunno. There might be a chance she knows what she is. The Griffon Stone royals are the only griffons born with green eyes. It’s specific to them, though I imagine that fact was lost to time.” Cher said. “She might also have the old queen’s crown, when it’s within range of their idol, it glows and gives the royal wearing it powers.” “Cool.” I nod. “But I was told the Idol was lost and the Queen ran hundreds of years ago, so wouldn't the eye color not be as reliable as we think?” I ask, still looking around just to see the town and its people. “Maybe to your races version of Royalty, but to Griffons eye color is a way of telling families. The only reason they wouldn’t have them is if they marry in. It’s magic for the griffons, so a half sibling would have an eye color from each family. For instance, your Gilda has brown eyes, correct?” “A light brown but yes.” I answered. “Light brown eyes means she’s from the Caribara family, they were Griffon Stone's finest blacksmiths back in it’s hayday.” “I sense a pun in there since this world is mostly filled with ponies.” I say. “But that's interesting, might need to bring that up with Gilda when she wakes up.” “Perhaps. Ponies have Cutie marks, Griffons have their eye colors. It’s different for each race on this planet.” “Makes sense." I nod. “Wonder how old this Griffin is though.” Cher took another sniff. “My guess, early to mid twenties. That works out, every griffon royale took the crown from the last around that age. Seems this is fated.” Cher then stopped, taking in many sniffs and looking around. “We’re being followed.” I stopped and looked around. “We know you're there, no need to hide anymore.” I call out to the person following us. They stepped out of the crowd. It looked like a human, the eyes alone seemed to give that away, and they were wearing a red scarf covering the majority of their face and they wore some kind of black suit. “Easy tiger.” They spoke. “How may I help you today?” I ask them, not sure if their friend or foe but prepared for the encounter either way. “I’m looking for a man by the name of Braig, and was told he was last seen on Knowhere with a fellow of your description.” They said. I sighed out while bringing out a photo. “I'm sorry but there’s been...way too much stuff to explain. But here's a photo of what he is now.” I say while handing them a picture, it being a picture of baby Braig being cradled by Pinkie. He took the photo. “An infant? Braig has become an infant?” “He used to be my master...but now, after he was...unfortunately killed, someone special gave him another chance at life, but only as an infant.” I tell them. “But he's been a happy child ever since. Why do you care about Braig?” I ask curiously. “Because I am the holder of his last will and testament.” The man said, pulling out a scroll. He opened it up. “In the event of Braig Grothmer’s death, his family and/or next of kin shall receive his family legacy. A hefty five trillion pounds of gold, and the keys to it on his family's planet, Carnic ten.” He then put the scroll away. “This is a strange development though. Braig was the last of his family alive, and the only one thought to produce an heir...this is quite the situation.” “When he was dying, before he was turned into an infant and bonded with my very pink fiance there, he told me I should listen to his will.” I told him. “Oh, so he has named you his successor?” the man asked. I summoned my gun arrows. “Yep, and to prove he did name me his successor.” I say while shooting a fly an inch away from his head, not hurting the man in the process. “Only his successor could kill a fly an inch away from a person's head without injuring the person.” I say with a grin. “Hmm...Fair enough.” He said, walking up to me, seemingly unfazed by the shot fired and handed me some kind of key and what looked like a doorknob. “Replace any doorknob with this one, then just turn the key in it and open the door, it will take you to Braig’s home, do with what you find there as you please. Oh, and sign this.” He said, pulling out a sheet of paper with some words and such on it while holding a pen. I read the paper real quick, hoping it didn't have any fine print bullshit on it, which thankfully it didn't and I quickly signed it. “There you go.” I say while handing him the pen and signed paper. “Thank you.” He said, pushing a button on what looked like a watch and he teleported away Star Trek Style. “That was strange.” Cher said. “Does this happen a lot to you?” “You have no idea.” I sighed out. “Anyways, back to finding Royalty.” “Yes. She shouldn’t be too far away.” Meanwhile, in Griffon Stone, Joy was looking at a kingdom broken. It was hard to believe this is where Gilda came from, not a single building was intact, not even grass looked like it wanted to grow here. “Jesus how do they even stay alive?” Joy asks, flying down on Lindworm and hopping off, wondering who might know where the gorge was so he wouldn't have to scour the entire fucking place. “Should have just asked…” As he looked around he finally spotted a griffon. “Excuse me, do you know where the Monster Gorge is?” He asks the griffon. The griffon seemed to ignore Joy, shrugging the question off and continued his walk. “Or just...walk away like an asshole.” Joy muttered to himself, walking off as well and searched for a more talkative griffon. An hour passed and every griffon ignored Joy in some way or form. As he was ready to give up he felt a tap on his shoulder and looked behind him, seeing a dark and light blue feathered gryphoness, with dark green eyes. “Um, hello, you are new here, right?” She asked. “Yes, yes I am.” Joy says with a nod. “Who are you if I may ask?” He asks the cute griffoness. “Gabby, nice to actually have a conversation. Most people around here just keep to themselves.” “I noticed.” “Yeah...things aren’t great...ever. But I overheard you are looking for something?” “I was looking for an Idol, but you're much prettier and wonderful then that.” He flirts kind of poorly, getting into that habit because of Frisk. Gabby though, blushed rose red. “Oh, oh y-y-y-you mean the one from the old legend?” She stuttered, her feathers beginning to puff up. Joy smiled, finding her feathers puffing up so adorable. “Yes I am, but you're so adorable I'd rather stay here with you.” He flirts again with a smile. “I, uh. Um…” Gabby tried to say, but no words came out. “Take a deep breath.” He tells her while showing her the breathing technique him and I normally used all the time She did as told, and after about five minutes, finally started to calm down. “S-s-sorry. Never had...whatever you did happen to me.” “It's called flirting.” He says. “It's when someone tells a girl they like nice things, like how pretty they are or how their eyes shine like the stars.” He smiled. “But anyways, my name is Joy, and do you know where the Griffin idol is?” “Well, according to legends it fell with the monster into Ghastly Gorge, but even if those rumors were true, the wind in that thing is too strong. Wait, why are you so interested in the legend anyway?” “My brother, the White Knight of Equis, wants to bring about world peace.” He says. “Oh, okay, um...We don’t get news from...anywhere so I have no idea who that is, but if he’s famous then cool.” “Ever heard of super heroes?” Joy asks curiously. “Cause he's basically a world wide super hero, and I'm his partner.” “Um, no. We have...nothing here really. After the kingdom fell all those years ago we don’t even trade with others, and well, what you can call farming here is mostly small nuts and berries. Any meat we eat is caught, like a squirrel, mouse, things like that.” “Yeah this country really needs help.” Joy says worriedly. “But want to help me find the gorge? And also...want to see the world outside this...depressing place?” He asks her. “Is a mouse gray?” Gabby asked. “Not all the time.” Joy says honestly. “Oh, um...okay, bad example. But, yes, yes I would like to join you, but, um… Wait here for a second.” Gabby zoomed off, leaving a dust trail that, when she returned, was still floating. “Would you...take this…” She asked, handing over an old, beaten up bracelet to Joy. She looked extremely nervous. Joy smiled gently. “Anything for you.” He says while taking the bracelet delicately. “What is it if I may ask?” He asks. When he looked at Gabby, he saw her look like she was the happiest griffon in the city...which she probably was, tears started streaming down her eyes...then she almost tackled Joy as she, somehow, kissed him smack on the lips. Joy was surprised by the sudden kiss, but it answered his question as he kissed her back to show his love. He broke the kiss soon after. “So...I suppose this was a sign of marriage or something?” “Yeah. Griffons, even before our kingdom fell, were notoriously greedy, beaten only by dragons. Especially when it came to gold. It was a symbol when one griffon gave something of old and gold to another, of love, and if they accepted, it was sealed with a kiss.” Gabby then snuggled up to Joy, her feathers were soft, and kinda tickling him. “I’m yours now.” She said happily. “Um...what do griffons think of herds?” Joy asks curiously. “They exist, not so much anymore, heck, the closest thing to marriage these days is one griffon asking another if they wanna...have sex… and if a hatchling happens in the process then, they just raise them till they turn ten, then they go to work.” Gabby said, looking kind of sad. “My mom and dad were old fashioned...only reason they’re not here now is because they went hunting for some meat and… Flew into the wrong cave… Ursa Major… Only thing I have from them is that.” She said, pointing to the bracelet Joy was still holding. “It’s been in my dad’s side of the family for years.” Joy gently nuzzled Gabby. “Listen...I'm sorry about your family...but with this, you'll be joining my family, and it's huge.” Joy smiles. “And uh...what do you think of excessive amounts of teasing? Cause all my other girlfriends do that...a lot.” “Teasing?” Gabby asked, confused. “Like, making fun of you?” “As in...sexual teasing, where it's a ‘look don't touch’ kind of thing.” He tells her nervously. “Huh...Griffons don’t do that, if it’s intended we want...sex...it happens. Then and there.” “Ah.” He nodded. “Well...all I can say is my family is weird...really weird...but a good kind of weird.” He tells her. “Cool.” Gabby said, cheering up and grabbing Joy’s hand. “Now come on, the gorge should be this way.” Back in Revatal, Ben and Cher were running through the marketplace, Cher having caught the scent of the royal strong nearby. Finally, they spotted the royal, or at least who she said was the royal. For some reason she had some kind of veil over her face, and was holding the hand of a younger griffon who had the same kind of veil over their face. “That’s her….” She took a sniff. “The young one isn’t royal, though, they seem close. Adopted maybe?” “They look like they need us.” I say worriedly, checking if my hood was down, which it was of course. “Well...I'm gonna try to talk to them.” I say while moving over to the veiled griffons. “Excuse me, may I have a moment of your time?” I ask the veiled griffons politely. The royal one looked over, face still under the veil, and I think she was studying me. “How did you get to the city? It’s rather isolated...you must be rather stubborn.” “I am rather stubborn.” I concede. “But I must ask, does Griffin Stone mean anything to you?” “...So you don’t know then.” She said, sighing. “Yes, it does...my great, great, many more greats grandmother was the queen of it, she fled to this place to avoid seeing it fall. Since Revatal is a city of self controlization, meaning everyone does their own thing, and judgment is passed by a court of the highest guild leaders, back then when she came for refuge, the guild leaders granted it, but on the condition that, to keep their city from becoming a monarchy, she, and all her descendants that bear the royals eyes wear a veil to hide them. So, here I am, and this is Gratta.” She said, patting the young griffon on their head. “She’s adopted, but the rule still applies.” I nodded, fully understanding the situation. “But if I may, it's time for you to step out of the shadows. You might not know who I am, but-” “You’re the White Night of Equis. I know, and I’m not in the shadows. I’m the leader of the News Guild, I’m anything but hiding. I just wear this because after the third generation it became a thing my family did. Council doesn’t even enforce it, hasn't for a long time.” “I was going to say come out of the shadows and be Queen of the griffons again.” I say. “And why I'm asking this because apparently...well let me start with my many titles, starting with me being King of the Diamond Dogs, Changelings, and Prince of Equestria.” I state. “The other two are from...strange circumstances but Celestia told me an old law that can bring about world peace in some way shape or form.” I explain. “So...do you know what old law I'm talking about or should I answer?” “Yeah, was part of my college history classes. They say back before all these many races appeared on Equestria there was one race that split up, and became the many races we have now. They think that if that’s true then it’s why we can all crossbreed. Legends say that back then, to ensure peace among the many races the “Royal Family” was to have the king be of one race, and the the wives to be of the rest. From what I learned, it didn’t last long. I think a war broke out then they all split and stayed away from each other for a couple thousand years.” “Well guess what I'm going to do?” I ask with a smile. “Seriously? And what makes you think it will work this time around?” “Being a world wide hero for starters, two because I'm basically a chick magnet with my current record if at least ten wives in less than half a year, one being a princess of equestria and the other being the sister of the current Dragon Lord, three I have the special power of being an optimistic idiot that women find attractive thankfully, four because I'm magical, and five because of something I'm not allowed to talk about in front of minors.” I say honestly. “I will still count that as four reasons and, not a bad track record. I suppose, I just need to take care of some things here first.” “My little brother Joy is finding the Griffin Idol just so you know.” I mention. “But what do you need to do?” “Well first if I’m going through with this, I gotta find someone to replace me in the guild, which isn’t gonna be easy as everyone there is an idiot, and then grab some things from my place.” “I mean if you follow through with this then I can find someone who could help your guild...and how dumb are they?” I ask. “Before I took over their best selling paper was about a knocked over cabbage cart...when a bank robbery happened the same day.” “Oh no…” I frowned. “Yeah uh...that's not good. But I was told this town was isolated...why is that?” “After the Griffon Kingdom fell, they lost their main supplier of meat, so they moved out here in the middle of nowhere ocean where fish is plenty.” “Ah, well if all goes well then the Griffon Kingdom will rise along with the other kingdoms and be good again, causing this town to not be so isolated again.” I explain. “Also...what do you think about herds?” I ask. “Eh. As long as the only action I get is from you, I’ll be fine. I don’t do chicks...for some reason I’m like a lesbo magnet...so this veil helps a lot with that also.” “Don't be surprised if that changes somehow.” I say sheepishly. “Anyways, better get to the guild.” “Yeah, come on, it’s this way. Oh and my name is Viva.” She added before leading the way. I stopped myself from adding ‘Las Vegas’ to her name. “Right then.” I nod while following along. “Hope to make a good impression.” Back in Griffon Stone, Joy and Gabby made their way to the gorge, where Gabby was right, the winds flowing though it were fierce. Joy lifted up and dropped a rather heavy rock into the winds below and it was blown away like paper in the wind. “So...how do you plan on looking?” Gabby asked. “Well..it'll be a good first try.” Joy says while summoning Lindworm and hopped in, wind circling around Joy as he tried to see if his spears and wind abilities could make this not as dangerous. While the winds didn't throw him around like a rag doll his wind abilities still made it a bumpy ride down as he searched for the Idol. “Well...good enough for me…” Joy mutters. Joy searched the edges around the gorge, finding nothing and realizing he’d have to go deeper, where the light barely reached. “Damn it.” He muttered while heading down further, using his natural enhanced senses to look around and try to sense the golden idol. As he was where the light was reaching the end of it’s grip, he spotted something in the distance. He flew towards it, and saw it was the giant skill of some kind of horned cyclops. “That better not come to life.” Joy frowned as he looked around the skull, trying to find the Idol. “Shiny things always happen to be near corpses or skeletons.” He saw, near the ends of the, well, edge that the skull rested on, sat a rusted, beaten, but still gold looking, idol. He picked it up, looking it over. “Well it looks like shit but I doubt they'd care.” Joy mutters while flying up to the surface to show Gabby the Idol. After a good few minutes he landed on solid ground and disbanded his weapon. “I got me a thing.” He says, hoping Gabby was still around He received his answer when the happy griffon tackle hugged him. “You found it!” She cheered, squeezing him rather tight. “Air…” Joy wheezed out. Gabby, let go some, but kept her hug firm. “You are going to make the griffons great again!” “Idols mean nothing without someone leading. My brother is gonna come here with the rightful heir to the kingdom...and most likely marry her.” He chuckled. “What do you think about that?” “Meh, I still got you.” She said, purring now, which made Joy...relaxed to hear it. He nuzzled Gabby happily. “Love you.” He says lovingly. “Hehehe, prove it~” Gabby said, now on all fours over Joy. “Not until we're sixteen.” He tells her, his face beat red now. Gabby leaned in close to his ear. “Does it look like I care? Remember, when a griffon wants sex...we get it.” She then lightly bit Joy’s ear...and all sense was lost to him. I looked up and my ears twitched. “Well...Joy finally had some special times.” I chuckled. “Who?” Viva asked as we reached the News Guild. “My little brother Joy.” I tell her. “And this is the News Guild?” “Yes, outside is the same as all others, but the inside is all computers, printers, and the strong smell of ink that takes about an hour to leave your nose no matter how little time you spend in there.” Viva then sighed. “Let’s get this over with.” She said, walking in, Gratta behind her and Cher and I behind her. Viva was right, the stench of ink was strong in here. Surprisingly though, the inside was brick and wood. After going up some stairs we entered an office, which had air fresheners hanging everywhere. “I’m gonna sort through my employee files. Find someone who won’t ruin this place.” Viva said, sitting in her desk and opening a drawer. “Nothing like sorting through a bunch of papers again.” I sigh out, moving over and starting to work on finding some good people to lead. “So, what’s the princesses like?” Viva asked, trying to make some small talk to pass the time. “Luna is strong and tough, but loving. Celestia just as much. Rune is a sex addict who made the Diamond Dog country into the Porn center of the world, and Chrysalis is nice enough...she just happens to get drunk when fed too much love.” I explain simply. “Heh, man, a paper with the headline ‘Changeling Queen Can’t Hold Love Down’ would sell so well. Eh, let’s see here. Patchworks, nah, Gyro, probably not...Alcectia...Maybe.” She said, placing the file with that griffons name on the desk and the others back into the drawer. She then pulled out some more files from the back of the drawer. “I know a better headline.” I say while checking through the names and what they can do. “But I don't know how to word it...but it involved Celestia going from being a lesbian to being bi. Not sure how to word it but it sounded funny in my head.” “Heh, that’s always an issue. Headlines have to be something to catch attention, or make the reader curious.” She said, looking though the new files. “Grapha...no. Definitely not. Cyo...Maybe. Halo...maybe… Feather Trill...No.” With that, she put the maybe’s on her desk and the rest in the drawer. “Alright, so it’s between Alcecta from Field Work, Cyo from editing, or Halo from Printworks.” “I don't know much about this, but what makes all of them a ‘maybe’?” I ask curiously. “Well, Cyo makes some of the better headlines, Alcecta actually finds things that are interesting, and Halo is the only other griffon in this place as smart as me, he just prefers to work with the machines rather than do any actual reports.” “Why not have the three of them work together to lead the place?” I ask curiously. “Halo being the brains, Alcecta being the eyes, and Cyo being the words. Make enough sense?” “Huh, true, and there are guilds where there’s more than one leader.” She then grabbed a microphone on her desk and pressed a button on it. “Cyo, Halo, and Alcenta, my office, now.” Some time passed and the three griffons each entered the room one after the other. “Now, I am going to be gone for, possible forever, so, I need you three to each keep the News Guild up and running by simply keeping up with what you three all do. Halo, on top of keeping the machines working, look over everything Alcecta brings in, and just all three of you keep eyes on each other, and work together. Alright?” “Yes ma’am!” The three said, Viva waving a claw and they left. “There, now let’s get to my place to pick up some stuff. Come on.” “Alright then.” I nodded. Joy was tired. It was a type of tired he never knew, even after all his battles, this tired feeling was very different from them. At some point his clothes ended up being used as makeshift blankets, while the clothes Gabby wore, then took off, were being used to barely cover them. “Hehe, so that’s what sex feels like…” Gabby said, cuddled next to Joy. “Woof.” Joy says gently. “Never did I think...it would be that great…” He smiled...before his eyes widened in horror. “Oh no...the other girls...there gonna be pissed…” He says worriedly. “Hmm, let them, they know what to do to get even with you~” She said, gently tracing a claw down from Joy’s chest to his waist. “I’ll be sure to tell them about your ear~” “We...we told each other to wait…” He says worriedly. “Ugh...I have a bad feeling…” “Eh, if they get that mad I’ll calm them down. Hehe~ Also...where are my underwear?” “Equestria law states the legal age for sex is sixteen...and I have no idea...just glad my cloak and some clothes are still here.” Joy sighs out. “So...how was it for the first time?” “Good. You left a mark on me.” She said, giving him a peck on the cheek. “Well...I hope you don't get pregnant immediately…” He mutters worriedly. “...Well that’s kinda the mark you left.” Gabby said, moving her shirt to the side, showing her belly was nine months large pregnate. “Not sure how that happened so fast...even by griffon standards that’s fast.” Joy could mentally hear Ben laughing his ass off as Joy starred. “Uh...let's...get dressed...and go…” Joy says slowly, fearing he's gonna get killed when they get home. “Alright...my shirt’s gonna be tight now.” Gabby said, putting her shirt on, it stretching over her now massive belly. “Huh, not too bad I guess.” She said, Joy helping her to get up and gather their things. The walk back to Griffon Stone Joy was silent, a tad embarrassed, and kept eyeing her belly. “I can see you eyeing it Joy~” Gabby said with a sly smile. “No.” He says nervously. “I'm just...scared is all…” He sighs out. “I'm thirteen for christ sakes, and I was saving myself for all my girls…” “Hey, Griffons by age twelve can have sex and give birth, or, lay eggs, safely and so on, males are actually ready to have sex by age nine. Believe me, this is normal by griffon standards. I know in Equestria it’s different, and you made a promise, but we can work it all out.” “It's gonna be...weird for them...and they'll get mad that I couldn't wait.” He tells her. “And I...don't know if I could be a good father…” “Hey, most griffon fathers only see their kids as eggs and that’s it, I lucked out, even more so with you, a large family, and I’m sure that in a while I won’t be the only one with a belly this big~. When we were doing it doggy style you told me about Jenny and how she’s part Griffon. Think about that~” “If Jenny knew about this...god help me…” Joy mutters the last part while rubbing his temple. While they walked into the city, as expected, not a single griffon looked at the two...until. “Holy shit! That’s the idol of Bourius!” After that, every Griffon turned and looked at Joy, holding the idol. The pup gulped, every griffon in the ruined city just...stared at him. “Uh...Hi?” Joy says sheepishly. Before Joy could say another word, a mob grabbed him and Gabby, carrying the two to a very ruined castle, where they carefully placed them down in front of a large podium. There was an empty slot that would fit the idol’s base. “Legend says it rested here, place it.” One of the griffons from the crowd spoke up. “Um...shouldn't royalty place it?” Joy asks curiously. “Eh.” Was the majority of the response from the mob. Gabby just shrugged. “I can place it if you want?” Gabby asked. “Fuck it I'm royalty to three different kingdoms technically.” Joy says while putting the beat up Idol in the slot. “So here it is.” Viva said, showing an old, but well kept gold crown. “The crown of the old king of Griffon Stone.” “I thought it was the queen's crown you had?” I asked, confused. “No, the legend is a tad off. I have the old queen's journal, and she only left with the egg she was still carrying. Her first born child stayed in Griffon Stone, refusing to leave his father. So she gave him her crown. It’s not much of a crown, from the picture she drew in her journal of it, it’s about the size of a bracelet.” With the idol placed, there was nothing for a moment...then a golden energy flooded out of the idol like a waterfall. Joy’s pocket burned as he pulled out Gabby’s bracelet, it glowed red hot and he had to drop it. When it hit the floor it reshaped and, as if time went backwards, the bracelet looked like new, and floated onto Gabby’s head, her eyes glowing the same gold as the energy shooting out of the idol. After some time, the energy began to settle, the idol, also renewed by the energy it released, now stood as a base for an orb of glowing gold energy. Gabby, for her part, felt a bit dizzy. “That feels weird…” “Holy mother of damn.” Joy says in shock. “Are you okay Gabby?” He asks worriedly. “I just feel kind of funny…” She said, shaking her head. As she did that, some gold energy flowed off of her for a moment before settling. “Why...did my bracelet float on top of my head?” “That's...because it's a crown.” Joy tells her. “Oh...wait, what?” “Gabby is the lost heir!” One of the griffons yelled, followed by a constant chanting of Gabby’s name. “...Well...this is unexpected.” Gabby said, taking a seat. “But...the legends said the Queen ran away before the kingdom went to hell. The crap is going on?” Joy asks in confusion. “I think we can answer that.” Joy turned around, just in time for a larger gold crown to fly towards him, and land itself on his head. He saw Ben, and three other griffons, two wearing veils, which they took off. The young one had bright red feathers, and the older one had purple feathers...and the same color eyes as Gabby. “Wow...seen everything filtered through this thing for so long...it’s bright.” She said, blinking and rubbing her eyes. “Well looks like my little bro is now king of the Griffons. And he also didn't wait till he was sixteen.” I chuckle. “Shut up.” Joy frowned. “But now we can start getting the griffons back on track with the help of the other countries.” “I wanna try something first.” Viva said, walking to to Gabby...while Cher walked up to Joy. “Hey.” Viva said to Gabby. “Looks like we’re family.” “Family? Really!” Gabby said, happy. “Yes. Heh, well, looks like the crown is yours. I may not have it, but if great great etc great grandma’s journal is right then I can at least tap into some of this.” “What is it?” Gabby asked. “Magic. The same magic that alicorns use. In it’s raw, unfiltered form. This, this is what made Griffon Stone great. That’s why that old monster tried to steal the idol, for the power it released. Heh, too bad for it, this idol is linked directly to our family bloodline. Unless there’s no more us alive, only then can the idol be tampered with by third parties. And judging from that belly it looks like the bloodline is gonna run rather strong for a while.” Viva said that last part with a smirk, looking over at Joy. “Um...who would get the crown out of a few...million kids?” Joy asks worriedly. “You see, when either me or Joy get a woman pregnant, they become magically nine months pregnant and can withstand almost any kind of attack...but they also have to carry a few million kids in their womb.” I explain for their sake. “If my etc great grandmother’s journal is correct, which it should be, the first born. So whoever pops out of that belly first, and hatches, will get the crown. Though, it’s powers can’t go past a couple miles outside of Griffon Stone. That’s the only flaw in the power here.” “Well both of you can get this kind of power without arbitrary distances.” I tell them while summoning Reunion. “This is a Keyblade, a magical weapon to defend yourself against darkness.” I tell them. “Or.” Everyone in the room jumped, seeing Cript behind me. “I can actually help in this regard. But, how much help do you want?” “That depends, cause an entire civilization needs help getting back on its very crippled feet to learn how to walk again.” I tell him. “But their little crowns and magic have an arbitrary distance limit for some reason...man your girlfriends are gonna be so pissed Joy.” “Shut up.” Joy huffs. “But um...how much help are you willing to give Cript?” “Well, I can tell you, or show you, which would you prefer?” Cript asked. “You're probably gonna show us anyways.” I point out. “So show us if you want.” “Oh I am happy you said that.” Cript said with a smile. “First, that sad, sad, sad...sad excuse for a town.” Cript said, snapping his fingers. When we all looked back….it was modern! Like a mix of Canterlot and earth. “Now, this castle.” He snapped his fingers again, and as if he, which he probably did, made us all blink, the castle was...like new, and very fancy and fully furnished. “Now, for that.” Cript said, pointing at the orb of magic. He then held out a hand to Joy and Gabby. “Crowns please?” Joy shrugged and handed Cript his crown. Gabby took hers off, trusting Joy and handed hers to Crips also. They then floated on their own in mid air, Cript waving a finger at the orb of magic and two, pebble sized orbs of magic came out. One tiny orb of magic floated next to a crown, and then, he clapped his hands, and light covered the crowns and magic, their forms changing...and I knew what he was doing. When it was over, Gabby’s crown changed into a thin, gold colored version of the Ultima Weapon from Birth By Sleep, but the Keychain was a mini version of her crown, and Joy’s crown changed into a gold version of Oblivion, with the Keychain being a mini version of his crown. He then handed Joy and Gabby their respected ‘Crowns.’ “There, that settles that.” “Um...do they turn back into normal crowns?” Joy asks. “And are you gonna live here now?” I ask Joy. “What about all your stuff and girlfriends living at my place?” I ask, wondering how our living arrangements will be now. “They Keyblades are both called The Crowns of Griffin Stone.” Cript informed. “There’s a door by the thrones over there.” Cript pointed, we not noticing the large, red velvet colored thrones on the other side of the room. “That connects this place to Joy’s place. And no, they don’t turn back into crowns. Also, because I am going to be an asshole.” Cript waved a finger, Gabby and Joy floating up as he magicked them into the door behind the thrones. “I’m sorry, but I can’t resist this…” “Oh, did you meet Mike?” I ask Cript, forgetting about Zeke's human reflection here. “Nope….Hey...why is Disney’s devil disguised as a little girl behind you?” Cript asked me, closing the door after Joy and Gabby were placed safely inside...where all of Joy’s girls were in the room they landed in. The last thing heard was a yelp from Joy as the door closed. “Oh him? Apparently Chernabog, or Cher as he wants to be called, was chained up by Core and promptly tortured for all his secrets...but he told me Core is dead.” I tell Cript, but I know the bastard will be reborn sooner or later. “Oh yeah, sorta.” Cript replied. “Daybreak still has his heart, so he can pull a Terranort...though it won’t be the same Core I guess if he comes back like that.” “Namine told me he’ll be reborn as one of our kids…” I tell him. “But also...I learned a very...special thing about you and...all your other reflections…” I sigh out. “I didn't know that...” I say, Cript knowing I was talking about being ‘made’ for Psychopaths. “Yeah...I had a fucked up life.” Cript says, knowing what I am talking about. “You know, I owe a fair amount to my mom for screwing up those plans. You see.” Cript started, taking a seat on the floor. “She was born into Nexus, a multidimensional organization that follow the Psychopaths, from a young age they are all trained to kill. Mom was different. And my father...if you can call him that, was the Nexus leader. At the time. Not long after I was born, she found out what they wanted to do with me, that I was going to be a Psychopath host at only a year old. She escaped, with me. Dimension hopped for a while, til she ended up where I grew up. Unable to run much longer, she gave me to this temple of monks, they knew of the Psychopaths, and had their temple warded against them. I never saw my mom again after that, barely three. For a long time I thought she just left me there. “Long story short, stuff happened and...after a journey that was mandatory of all mages in training, I came home, back to the temple I called home...and found it in flames.” I took a deep breath and hugged Cript. “You really need a hug dude …” I tell him, his backstory being so terrible. “Heh...You know who it was that burned my home and killed my masters? A fellow mage in training, he was there when I got there. He was like a brother...Andy. I learned later on that, Nexus found him, and did things to him. He was not quite a Psychopath, but as evil as one. He walked right passed the wardings...When I got there, he was sitting on their corpses. He, knocked me out. For a year, he experimented on me, did everything to try and...make me...turn me into a Psychopath. He got desperate one day. Remembered something about me.” “Oh no…” I muttered. “You see, Nexus, taking orders from the Psychos, knew that when I was born, I would be born with...a unique soul. One that had an angel bound to it...a Psychopath possessed angel. A host, host to a different host. Talk about redundant. It’s...why my true Keyblade would...go wild, why I could never do holy magic, that thing in me. I still don’t know how, but he woke it up...remember everything it did. Breaking the chains off like they were wet paper, wings grew out of my back, it hurt. Then, it flew, and landed on mars, which in my realm at the time was the first ever terra formed planet. Two million people were living there...Not one survived...I can still hear every scream, feel the blood flow on my hands...the bones breaking in their grip...I remember their faces… One point six million adults, half women, the other half men. Five hundred thousand teens and children...and one hundred million infants…” “Fucking hell.” I frown. “I...I'm sorry…” “It’s...why when Lyra brought up the idea that...more than one baby be born in this family, WAY more than what should be possible, I agreed. I can’t ever undo that, it’s fixed, no time travel can alter it, so...The thing with all the kids is me trying to make right with what happened. For every life the Psychopaths take, our family will create a hundred more, able to fight back against them.” “Well don't worry, your family is with you.” I nod. “And all the extra kids we'll have.” “I just hope that someday, this war against them can end...though, that’s a pipe dream.” “You’d be surprised on what can be stopped by stupid and stubborn heroes.” I tell him with a little chuckle. “Even a fact of life can be stopped if your willing to do the impossible.”l “Maybe...But, not by me.” “But by us right?” I ask. “Me and my friends right?” “I don’t know. I’m retiring. I’ve gone passed my story’s end and beyond, but now...I think it’s time to finally let the next generations of heroes go at it. Wives and I are gonna be doing something someplace else for a while, then set up some stuff so you all can be prepared...cause I’ve seen the first realm, the place where it all started...where the Psychopaths were born… I know I can go there, get strong and win this...but I just have this feeling. It’s not my place, not my battle.” “Make sure you're there on my wedding day okay? This battle won't happen for a long time so we have time to prepare. And I'll make sure not to be too awesome when the big battle happens.” I chuckled. “Heh, you can try. Here’s a warning though. You’ll know when it’s time for war...when the dead throughout time return as them.” With that, Cript snapped his fingers, vanishing. “Well...that's a thing…” I sigh out. “Well that was...an experience.” I mutter while looking around to see if anyone was around hearing our entire talk. “So, where to now?” Viva asked, walking up to me from her exploring the newly done room. “Home.” I say while summoning my glider and getting on. “It's not that far. But the house is way bigger on the inside, and you'll meet all my fiances and kids.” I smile. “Hop on.” “Uh...h-hi girls…” Joy says nervously, seeing all his girlfriend's in the living room. “...” Was their response, seeing the large bellied Gabby. “...Dang it.” Jenny and Sweetie said in unison. “Well...so...wait, waiting is out the window?” Applebloom asked. “I am...confused.” Diamond Tiara stated. “Okay so...from the top…” Joy sighs out. “This is Gabby Griffon...and she kinda sorta…” He sighs out. “Me and Gabby are the king and queen of the griffon kingdom, she got a keyblade, I got a new one...I'm sorry I didn't wait...Gabby forced it.” He tells them in simple but embarrassed terms. “If a griffon wants it, we get it.” Gabby said with a smile. Jenny just stared at Gabby, then over to Joy. “...Get him!” To Be continued... Nobody's testWhen I appeared out of the DTL into my world, after making some peace with my darkness, I began searching for Even. It wasn’t hard to find, he was in the lab he set up in my house, working with some chemicals it sems. “What do you want?” He asked, not even looking at me. “Training.” I say. “Sorry about being gone for a while...had stuff to do.” “Well, your absence is my gain. While you were away I payed a visit to your local hospital and wiped up a cure for about a quarter of this planet's mirror illnesses. No more Feather flu, common cold or Chicken pox.” He said, mixing some chemicals. “Well that's a thing.” I say. “So, you too busy for training?” I ask. “Not really. Here.” He said, his shield appearing on his back and ice began to shoot out of it, at me. “This is a blocking exercise. The point is defend yourself, don’t attack.” He said as I pulled out Frozen Pride and started blocking. “People think wielding a shield is just holding it in front of whatever is coming at you. Heh, idiots.” I shrugged, continuing to block the ice shooting at me. “Well it's best to start with blocking stuff in front of you, then things around you.” “Exactly. Learning to attack with them will be our last lesson.” He said, the ice shards picking up in speed. “Alright.” I nodded while moving faster and continuing to block the ice shards. “But can attacks used defensively count for this exercise?” I ask curiously. “For this lesson. No.” He said, three ice shards coming at me at once at high speeds. I quickly moved my shield in such a way to block all three at the same time. “I suppose your having a good time in Equis?” I ask him. “While it’s fine showing up those so called scientists and mages the only good thing was, well, you know.” He said, ten ice shards coming at me now in rows. I frowned, suddenly thinking of his pattern and blocking the shards quickly. “Have you been to Olympus Coliseum?” I asked, weirdly starting to find his pattern that of the Ice Titans shard attacks. “Sadly yes...I’m from there.” He admitted, another row of ten coming at me. “So that's why…” I mutter, blocking more of his attacks. “I suppose being a scientist at heart you wanted to get out of ancient Greece?” I asked curiously. “At first no. In my youth I was contempt with being a guard to the town. Then...someone broke into my home and killed my family. My mother, father, brother and sisters… They never found the culprit, and I wanted to understand, learn how someone could break into a home and not steal anything but the lives of my loved ones. I read every book and scroll I could find on the human mind, and when that ran out I met a world traveler, payed them to take me to a world with higher levels of knowledge, and I ended up in Radiant Garden. I got a job as a guard at the castle and in my spare time researched. Finally I learned about the Heart, and the darkness that lies within just about everyone. I knew Ansem the Wise was researching the same thing, so, after preparing and presenting my research, he hired my as one of his scientists. Years went by and the questions grew and the answers dwindled, so, I gave up, still worked on it with him but I put most of my time towards other fields of study.” “Huh…” I mutter. “That's...quite a lot...and I'm sorry to hear about your loss. But I suppose keeping busy helped you not think about other things so much?” I ask curiously. “That’s why I work so much.” “Ah...well this world is full of new experiences and people. Maybe you can take a break and just stand outside and enjoy nature.” I suggest to the scientist. “I grew up in a forest. I’ve had my fair share of nature.” “Don't forget about nature my friend. I'm sure you met some beings that found the perfect balance between nature and technology.” I explain. “Nope. Not really.” He said, this time ice spike orbs being shot at me. I decided to change up and parry all the orbs appearing. “Right then. So what are you working on now?” I ask, seeing him work on something that wasn't trying to attack me. “Cure for cancer.” He said, stirring them together. “It’s a bitch on all planets and very different depending on the laws of that world and DNA.” “Yeah, cancer is a massive bitch…” I sigh out. “But let's hope your work will prove amazing.” “Well, so far I’ve isolated the specific gene mutation that starts the basic version. But the trick is going even further, finding the base gene that starts the whole thing.” “Yeah that seems like a pain.” I nod. “But hey, at least you're making more progress than most right?” “Like I said, I got the gene isolated for the basic version, but they all start with a single starting mutation, then rapidly changed from there.” I nodded. “Question…” I say before explaining what Yellow told me about this Purgatory theory Core had, wondering if Even had any idea about it. “Yes, that is true. Neither matter from science, magic, even spiritual matter like a soul of the human consciousness just fades. That’s where the afterlife and all that plays into the mix. Matter is just constantly recycling itself.” “Huh…” I muttered. “Well he explained it when someone’s heart was split in half between light and dark. Like if two people come from one person...what happened to the original?” I ask. “Well, in may worlds and religion, there is talk of a purgatory, a place in between heavens and hells, where those who are undecided or don’t fit into either heaven or hell go. If what you are telling me is accurate, and it takes both halves of a balanced heart to form the true self of this Zeke and Crow people, then I can assume that their true consciousness is in a place like this. While accessing Purgatory in any world/religion has always been difficult, but it’s plausible.” “Huh…” I mutter. “Well that's something. I wonder if I can save a friend that way…” I mumble to myself, worried what I might do will cause something bad to happen. “So this theory about a religious place doesn't sound at all crazy to you?” “I have seen a lot in my time, and when you arrived the new guy in the lab turned out to be two hearts sharing a body, and then had that second heart removed by a masked man who made that second heart a body. This is still the easiest to understand.” “Magic is weird.” I state. “But yeah, I can see why it seems more understandable then all that.” “So, with that out of the way, what do you plan on doing now?” “Be a hero, try to be a good father, and meet the old man behind that special door.” I say honestly. “Just a tad confused on why the Realm of Nothingness was dark except for the glowing symbols on that door…” “Well, if the old king is alive behind this door, perhaps he has control over it, wanted to see what you have going for you… Tell you what. One last test, and that will prove to me that you are a master of the shield. Deal?” “Sure.” I nod, wondering how he knew of the king. “What is the test?” “Follow.” He said, leading me outside and into the everfree. “Now then, your abilities are the same as mine, being a shield and ice. Now then, why do you think these shields are linked to ice specifically?” “Magic? Name? It being made of something strangely specific?” I ask. “Your shield, like mine, is forged from magic ice. Ic can never melt, crack, or scratch. I took this test...and nearly died. Sure you still want to do it?” “It’s not gonna be the worst thing I’ve done.” I shrug. “But what's the test? I'd like to know?” “I will jump charge the magic ice your shield is made of, and it will completely cover you. You, have to find out how to break out. After all, if you can’t break through a defence that is as strong as you are, then you are no shield master.” “Sounds about right.” I nod. “Good thing I can't get sick anymore…” I mutter, thinking the sudden cold would suck. “Pinkie? Mind readying a cup of hot chocolate for me?” I call out, knowing she can hear me all the way from here cause she's special and happy like that. “Are you ready?” “Yes I am.” I nod, taking a deep breath and readying myself for the deep freeze. Once I handed Even my shield, he placed it over my chest, and there was a small blue flash before it felt like someone dumped and stuck ice cubes to my chest. It quickly grew and covered my whole body...So cold! So sosososososo cold! Ic was all over my body, and I was looking through an ice filter...can’t breath! “Hurry Ben, that’s how you can die.” Even’s muffled voice said. I channeled my magic and strength, starting to use the direct approach and try to break out of the magic ice with force. Nothing. “You can’t break magic ice with force Ben! It’s linked to you! Think, think real hard, what can break you!” Even yelled again. ”What can break me?” I think to myself, before thinking about what could break me. ”Physically or emotionally?” I think to myself, already knowing full well what can break me. I thought about what could break me...the loss of everyone...all my friends...all my family...just gone, and I could do nothing about it. Crack. It cracked...I need to think about it...vision...losing everyone…”I'm sorry I can't be who you all wanted me to be… I think to myself. ”Heh...dying in a block of ice… Crack. Crack. Zip. The ice broke to the point a chunk came off. I could move my hand now. ”Too bad it means nothing in this situation…” I think to myself sadly, starting to lose consciousness. “Ugh...What?” I mumble, waking up in...my room? What? I picked up my phone. December 13, 2012. 10:45 am. “Wait...what?” I mutter, scratching my head in confusion...but stopped as I noticed a lack of wolf ears. “What…?” I mumble, looking around my room in hopes that I'm just going crazy here. “Ben!” I jumped, hearing my grandmother’s voice yell. “Get down here! It’s saturday, eat some breakfast then help your grandpa shovel the snow off the driveway!” My eyes widened, remembering my grandmother telling me my grandpa died. “Oh no…” I mutter while rushing over to the bathroom and checking over myself. I was back to normal… My heart didn't feel anything… I should have realised when I woke up and didn't feel anything… Everything I did...everything I felt...everyone I met and fell in love with… … Gone… “Ben!” I heard her yell again, opening the bathroom door. “Ben...um...you alright?” She asked...she...never asked that before? “What's going on?” I ask, taking a step away from her. “My granny never asked if that…” “Ben, come on, you had a hard day yesterday what with that Ventral shooting up the place. You’re lucky to have been alive. Come on now, I made your favorite. Bacon and eggs with pancakes.” She said, motioning for me to follow. “A Ventral didn't attack yesterday.” I tell her bluntly, things just confusing me so much and I felt...cold. “Yes they did, and it was bad.” She replied as I followed. Everything was...the same, as far as I could tell. ”My new life...it couldn't have been a dream…” I think to myself. ”It was never a dream...I spent half a year with the ones i loved and cared about. I...I told Celestia…” I think to myself, my heart hurting as I remembered what I told her. I sat down, and as granny said, a plate of bacon and eggs with a stack of pancakes were where I always sat. The small TV she always had in the morning was on, a newsman speaking. ”Yes, folks, most of us have survived 2012, though, with all the chaos from both citizens around the world and the infamous Ventral family having made one of the bloodiest rampages since the the end or world war two, and the stock market crash before that. The death toll is still being counted, but nation wide is expected to be close to be...a...about fifteen million...This is Brock Phillis...channel five local news…” The news ended and some commercials began playing. “I wasn't here for any of that...” I muttered to myself. ”Did...did I really...lose all I held dear?” I think to myself sadly. I finished up and grabbed my coat, it hanging where it always does, and headed outside...this was the neighborhood...half burned down with police and other government looking people walking around...carrying bodies away. “Shame huh?” I looked to the driveway, where I saw...grandpa...looked just like in the pictures Granny always showed me. “Such nice people. Went out like the Purge. Damn idjits.” “Grandpa…” I muttered, wondering how the hell he was here. ”Well...at least Grandpa looks okay...but why am I here? I'm supposed to be home with my family...not here…” I think to myself, thinking this is some nightmare. “Come on Ben, grab the spare.” He said, shoveling some of the...red stained snow...away. “Gonna be a while til we get new neighbors in this place. We should be glade water and power is still going.” I grabbed the spare that was on the patio and started shoveling. It didn’t take long, was a small driveway. Even with the cold...I felt nothing. ”Luna...please send me a sign that this is just a horrible nightmare…” I mentally plead, feeling like I should cry but can't. “Thanks for the help boy, you head back on inside, I’ll be in the garage if you need me.” He said, taking the spare with him and opening the garage...inside was a queen sized bed and...things from when I was with mom and dad? The garage was remodeled into a bedroom. I frowned and followed him into the remodeled garage, wondering why the hell the garage had stuff from my parents room. “Why are my parents stuff here?” I ask curiously. Grandpa looked at me. “Why shouldn’t it? You and your folks been living with us for close to four years now. Boy don’t you remember? After that judge screw’d you all over with that fine, your parents sold the house and you all moved in with us. Paid the fine and your granny and I put an end to that bickering they were always doin.” “My parents are dead.” I tell him bluntly. “My dad burned to death and my mom shot herself.” I tell him, pretending not to know my parents actual killer. He gave me a shocked, look, but he tried to keep his face still. “Boy I know you had nightmares, but that’s just plain Stephen King crap there. If they’re really dead, then who’s those two driven up here now?” I turned around...and my heart dropped into my stomach. My parents were driving their old mini van, they’ve had it since before I was born, and they drove up the driveway. Mom got out and hugged me. “Sorry we left so early sweetheart, food supply drop off had one heck of a line.” “Mind helping load this all inside son?” Dad asked, carrying a box with canned and other types of food in it. “There’s like nine more of these boxes.” I...I honestly couldn't believe what I was seeing. “No...no I remember clearly…” I mutter, trying to make heads or tails of this sudden mad world. “H-how…?” I mutter, feeling like everything around me was a lie. “Ben, have you been having those night terrors again?” Mom asked, looking at me sternly. “You’ve been having them on and off again since you were thirteen.” “Must have been the shooting at his school yesterday. Mom and dad were right, should have just kept him out.” Dad said, walking inside with the first box. “What the fuck is going on!?!” I shout in panic, taking a step away from these lies. “They...they weren't night terrors…” I mutter, wondering what sort of nightmare is happening here. “Ben?” Mom asked, worried. “Miss, is there something wrong here?” A guy in a yellow and green suit asked. “I, I don’t know, my son just...I think he’s having a mental break down.” I had two decisions, be rational and just take a deep breath, saying I'm fine and just tired, or run away scared that my entire life has been nothing but a lie. But because I was scared, confused, and not in my right mind at the moment I decided to run as fast as I could away from them. ”This isn't right...this isn't real…how are my parents alive when I'm back on earth? Why am I being told it's all night terrors?” I mentally ask myself in fear. As I ran I knew someone or ones, were chasing me, calling to me, but I didn’t stop…”My life is a lie…” I mutter to myself in tears. As I turned a corner I...heard Anime music? Once the vocals on it kicked in I heard gunfire. “The fuck?” I mutter, looking around to where the gunshot happened. “Why is Spice and Wolf playing?” I mutter to myself. “Ventral-gah!” I turned around, one of the people chasing me with their head bearing a large bullet hole. “A Ventral!?” I yelp. “Get out of here! Run!” I shout at the people who were running after me, looking around for where the Ventral was. When they turned around to run, but were all shot dead...walking around the corner...Zeke...and Jenny. “Lookie Cuz, a strangler.” Jenny said, armed with what looked like an SMG while Zeke had handguns. “Heads or tails?” Zeke asked. “Zeke...Jenny?” I ask, not believing this. “What the hell…?” Zeke pulled out a coin, it looked really old, and flipped it. Jenny caught it. “Heads. Fun.” She said, the both of them taking aim at me. “I thought you hated killing Zeke?” I ask him worriedly. “I did...till yesterday. Some shit with a tank blew up the house my folks and I were in. I escaped unsaved, they were crushed, and I made the dick in the tank eat 12 gauge buckshot. My killing mood was amazing. Heh, bye bye South Carolina small town.” I looked at him. “So...my life actually is a lie huh?” I mutter to myself, looking around and just starting to chuckle at the absurdity. “Ever wake up and see that everything you knew, experienced, and cared about was nothing but a figment of your imagination?” I ask the two simply. “Oh wait, you wouldn't. The taste of fresh blood is always tantalizing to crazy people.” “Well then, from one crazy man to another,” he said, walking up to me and putting the gun to my head. “Here's your wake up call- Gah!” I was stunned, seeing... Luna...and my Jenny, Luna tackling Zeke and my Jenny tackling her human version. “Ben! Wake up!” Luna yelled, keeping Zeke pinned down. “How?” I ask, so confused on literally everything going on. “I can't just…” “Dad, wake up, or I will let Rune do anal on your unconscious body!” She shouted, snapping her human self's neck. “Wow...I do not even know how to feel about this.” “I'd love to wake up but short of shooting myself in the head I don't know how to wake up from a night terror like this!” I shout, putting a hand up to my head. “Oh for the love of.” Jenny said, picking up the dead her's gun, shooting Zeke then pushing Luna towards me. “Kiss this idiot I somehow call dad.” I rolled my eyes, grabbed Luna and kissed her fully...just so happy to know she's here and real. “Ugh…” I groan...in bed, cuddling Luna. I did a quick check. Yes. Wolf features. “Luna?” I mumble, hoping she's awake. I received a tight hug. “Glad you woke up.” She said, giving me a peck on my forehead. “The hell kind of night terror was that?” I ask worriedly. “Your test.” Even said from the doorway. “Once that thought is put into your head your mind puts you into a hell, a hell made up of all the fears you have. Die in it, you die for real. But, you lived, so congratulations.” He said, leaving. “Fuck that test…” I mutter. “But...thanks Luna...if it wasn't for you…” “I could tell. Pinkie had us bringing you some hot Coco for your test, and a sexy Coco~ saw you when you fell out of the Ice and… it was horrifying. Even said that it looked worse than it should have been.” “Well that's what happens when your worst nightmare is literally everything you know is a lie.” I tell her simply. “Oi vey...can I see the others? I want to be sure...everyone's real.” Luna just smiled, turning my head…three words. Frosting. Cherries...and bananas. “You're welcome.” Luna said. I stare at them all. “Woof…” I said dumbly. To be continued... Nobody is busyWhen I got fully dressed and saw all my wives still in bed I smiled. “Can't wait for the wedding…” I mutter to myself, knowing it's been a while since I proposed to all of them. I left, it being still early surprisingly and was wondering if anyone was up. As I turned the hall I saw Trinity sitting in an open window, just watching the night sky. “Oh, hey Trinity.” I say while walking over to her. “Enjoying Luna’s night?” “Keeping watch.” She replied. “Heard about Zeke, and his light half becoming a Psychopath. You know how they say ‘shit’s about to hit the fan’? With that monster out there, it hit and broke the damn fan. See for yourself.” Confused, and worried, I walked over to the window… At first, I didn’t notice much...then I saw it. A star went out. “Oh no…” “At least when Darkness takes them, the world can return. Him ending them, it’s Void for everything on it. So far, that’s the fifth star...This hour.” “I need to stop him…” I growl. “I need….to do something…” I say, the second time I said it sounded weak given how weak I am compared to that thing. “It may be half, but it’s still a reflection of dad, chance of cure is below none. Come on.” She said, jumping back into the hallway and opening a portal. “Time I trained you, and it will be in more than just Chakrams.” “Thank you...I'm still too weak…” I mutter, fearing that everything I know and love will be next on their damned list here. “So...training area?” I ask, motioning to the portal. “Sorta.” She said, I entered the portal, and was on what looked like a barron, bleak place with scorched soil everywhere. “Welcome to Warzone. This planet has the highest ever shadow creature spawn rate to date. It’s 24/7 three-sixty combat.” She said, summoning her chackrems. “In other words, don’t stop fighting, or you’ll die.” When she finished that, swarms of what looked like the Flood Unversed, but were a bit larger and had Shadow heartless antenna were charging at us from...everywhere. I summoned my chakrams and spun them quickly, fire catching on them. “By the by, do you know Latin?” I ask Trinity. She grinned. Spinning her chackrems and then clashing them together. “Morsus Pyro!” She yelled, a tornado of flames shooting out of her weapons, incinerating a good chunk of the horde incoming. “I’m part angel, it’s natural to me.” “Care to teach me while we fight?” I ask curiously, raising my chakrams up. “Triple Firaga!” I shout, three points seeming to collapse inward before a blowing up in giant fireballs, going back to the normal stance Axel was in during his fights. I took out a small group, but with the amount all around, it was going to be a long day. “Gelida ignis!” She yelled, each chackram getting covered in sky blue flames. She threw them, dozens of shadow creatures being burned...and frozen? “Frozen flames. Fire so cold it burns.” She said, catching them as they returned. “Well glad to know that…” I mutter while spinning my chakrams, fire reigniting. “Don't forget this!” I shout, my body glowing orange as I started using Axel’s desperation move and cleaning through some shadow creatures before floating back. “Got it memorized?” I mutter to myself while shoving my chakrams into the ground, pillars of flame shooting into the shadow monsters ranks. “Now you’re just role playing.” Trinity chuckled, spinning her chakrams together, in a way that was like gears turning...fast. “Ustilo!” She yelled, white fire shooting out like a beam, not even ash remaining of them when it hit. “Come on Ben, you try it!” I took a deep breath and focused, my chakrams spinning. “Ustilo!” I shout, the word reverberating in me somehow as pure white flames shot out towards the monsters. “Huh...cool. But about the ‘role playing’, words can help raise the strength of special moves okay?” I huff. Trinity just chuckled. Her face then turned stern, looking back at the hordes. “New meat incoming! Looks like Knights!” She said, I looked and black knight looking things with swords for hands and large mouths in their chests were running towards us too now. “Dullahans? Really?” I frown, swinging my chakram and killing a Shadow Beast that tried to hit me. “Lets try…Morsus Pyro!” I shout, feeling the words reverberate again, as I shot fire tornados towards the Knights, even if it wasn't as strong as Trinity’s. Some went down, but others kept on. I was ready for another attack...nothing happened. My assistant beeping in alarm. Quickly checking it. Mana Levels: 0 “Ah shit.” I grumble, trying to quickly find a mana potion to buy when one of those Knight shadow creatures stabbed me though my arm, then threw me across the field. “Gah!” I shout, that hurting a lot more than I expected. “Ben, lookout!” Trinity yelled, right when a Knight stabbed me though my chest. It hurt...then went dark. “Ugh…” I woke up, remembering what happened and quickly checking my chest...no damage, injury? I then looked up...I was in a waiting room? “Either Cript stuff...I'm being stuck in Heaven's waiting room...or they're wondering if I could just go back and not try to kill myself in Heaven.” I mutter, hating myself for being so stupid and weak. “Still too weak…” I mutter to myself. As I just waited, there was a flash of light in the chair next to me, and...Scootaloo was there. “Damn it!” She yelled. “I hate ocean worlds.” She grumbled, slumping over. “Hey Ben.” She said, sighing. “Waiting for respawn?” I ask curiously. “Yeah. This is Respawn Hub. Dad, out of extreme worry and reasonable overprotectiveness, made this. Any of us die, rather than ending up in the afterlife, we end up here. Wait for about three or five minutes til our name is called then walk into some room where a dude relays our last location and death, then we just pay the fine.” “Can't wait to hear him complain how I just got back to life then died from my fiances hearing I died.” I sigh out, rubbing my temples. “Eh, not the worst way one of us has died. Check this.” She said, picking up a magazine...that was somehow there. The cover read ‘Lamest Deaths of The Dyritix Family.’ “That’s dad’s last name. Funny he didn’t learn that till he found, then later killed his own dad...long story.” She said, handing it to me. “Lamest death still goes to Gabriel. Died by paper clip accidentally swallowed, and choked on.” “I thought the lamest was gonna be someone died while masterbating.” I frown, finding that thing a bit more lame than choking on something. “Here, check this one out.” She said, handing me another magazine. ‘Greatest Deaths of The Dyritix Family.’ “Number one goes to Beck, flattened by a planet. Eight is Trinity, stepped on by a Titan Shadow. That was when she first joined the family two years ago. Never fought a shadow creature before, demons in hell, walked out without a scratch, first shadow creature battle, becomes gum on a Titan Shadow’s foot. Everyone starts off weak bro, just takes time.” “But everyone doesn't immediately have to fend off Psychopaths that are appearing out of nowhere for some reason.” I frown. “Like me, I have to be so strong too fast and...I'm not…” I sigh out. “Dad was the same.” She said, sighing. “His Psychopath was bound to his soul, and when it broke free, he knew time was not on his side, and despite being outmatched, he beat it. Wanna know how?” “How?” I ask honestly. “Honestly...now that I think about it...something feels off now that I've fought Psychopaths…” I say, thinking about this. “Dad was a lot like you, then he met Mama Lyra, then the others, adopted me, Squirrel, he used his love for us, and tapped into sentient life’s true power. Humanity. Psychopaths power come from our darkest creation...murder, dad...dad drew power from the love one person can have for another. It’s like they're other side of a coin. Draw power from your love of those you hold dear, your strength will be limitless like dad’s.” She said, leaning back in her chair. “It’s hard though, I asked dad how he tapped into Humanity’s power, and he shrugged, said it came to him when in the heat of battle, he only could think of us.” I thought about that for a moment...before nodding. “I'll have to give it a try...maybe I can figure it out.” I shrug, hoping to figure out this mystery power. “Ben.” Scootaloo and I looked up, a door appearing on the wall and opening after some random voice called out to me. “Looks like you’re gonna respawn now.” Scoot’s said, putting her feet up on the small table. “Good luck.” I got up and walked over to the door and entering it. “Hello?” I ask, wondering who called me. Once I entered, I saw a man in a suit sitting at a table with a chair open for me. When I sat in it, the door behind me closed and vanished. “Greetings. First time you died I see.” He said, looking over the papers. “You've come close before though, quite close indeed.” “Too bad my stubbornness and determination didn't keep me alive here.” I shrug. “But it's nice to meet you sir.” I nod. “I have no name.” He said, reading them over again. “Though Sir, sounds nice. So, ready to head back to the grind?” “Don't be surprised if we meet again, if my fiances hear I died they might kill me.” I chuckle sheepishly. “Yes well, that’s life.” He said, handing me three sheets of paper. Lots of words on them and on the third was a signature line. “Terms are standard, fine for respawn is a quarter of your rem, and your exp collected to your next level up will be removed. Check your level now if you wish, it will not be effected, just the exp to the next level removed.” He said, handing me a pen. “When does level even matter to be honest?” I ask, reading through the papers. “Seriously, I haven't noticed the levels doing much...maybe it's because I keep thinking in Dragon Ball logic here.” I mutter. “Like with anything, time and training helps to make the difference noticeable.” He said. I signed the papers, seeing everything was okay, though taking a quarter of my money and exp to next level seemed odd. Once those papers were signed he took them, stabled them together, then put them in his desk. “Pleasure reviving you this evening, we hope not to see you again soon. Now, wake up.” He said, snapping his fingers. “Gah!” I yelped, waking up in… a bunker? “Sup?” I looked to my side, seeing Trinity there. “This is Save Zone. Only place on the planet where the shadows don’t spawn. So, this is the only place you can respawn.” “Okay then…” I mutter. “So I learned a little thing about Cript being so strong.” I say. “But how long was I out?” “Just an hour. Be glad when you respawn your new body is exactly like your old one, and clothes and all. Shadows really...well, ate your old body.” “Well that…” I start before panicking, checking my pockets to see if I still had all my stuff, from the Ainz Ooal Gown guild ring, Trinity’s angel ring, and some other things...And I checked my neck to see if I still had my necklace Den gave me. It was all there. “Oh thank god.” I sigh out thankfully. “Told you.” She said, patting my arm. “Now get a bite to eat, and meet me back in the battlefield. We are FAR from done training.” “Oh dear…” I mutter, checking my level and the amount of money I had. Rem: 999,999,999+ Level: 187 “Still don't feel this level thing for some reason…” I mutter, going to the shop and buying myself a chicken sandwich cause fuck it. When it appeared I took it and ate it quickly. “What do you think about the level stuff?” “Helps keep track of how far we’re going. For instance, and I know you didn’t know your level before starting. You were only level 96 when we started this, and now you’re 187. Not bad huh?” “When you completely forgot it existed to begin with?” I frown. “No.” “Ben, we were only fighting for about forty minutes before you died. That’s good progress.” “Forty minutes?” I ask with a raised eyebrow. “Didn't feel that long.” “Time flies when you’re having fun.” She laughed. “Come on, finish that up and head on outside, it’s not over til you are at least level 1,000 and can hack any enemy to pieces.” “I known I know.” I say while finishing my sandwich and getting up on my feet. “I suppose this isn't a ‘you teaching me how to use certain weapon’ and just ‘kill enough things till you got it’ kind of thing?” I ask her, “That’s how dad learned.” She said, leading the way out of the bunker. “No better teacher than practice.” “I mean...while that's true you at least need a starting off point then just swinging away. I do that with my other weapons but I haven't mastered them.” “True, that’s why you need to master your flames with them also. How did Hades put it in Kingdom Hearts 2…’Feel The Heat’? Something like that.” I chuckle. “You know, out of all the world's I've been to I have never been to a Disney world.” I say honestly. “But true, just got to learn my fire and fight through with it.” The way out of the bunker was a long elevator ride. When it stopped and the doors opened, we were greeted with a metal fence, and what I was guessing was…..family, all over, shooting from inside the fence and others wielding other weapons of all kinds jumping the, clearly twelve foot tall fence, and into the swarms of Shadow Creatures trying to get though. “Ready?” Trinity asked, summoning her chakrams. I summoned my chakrams as well. “Just don't tell my fiances. I don't want to die a second time in such a short time frame.” I say nervously. Using her wings, Trinity flew over the fence, and fell into the horde, flames them burst around where she entered, only she stood when the flames died down, and she went at them without mercy. I flew over the fence and fell feet first, my chakrams spinning and flames billowing with increased speed. “BURN BABY!” I shout just like Axel and slam my chakrams towards the ground, a massive pillar of flames incinerating shadow beasts before I leapt through the flames after they started to die down and started to carve through things the best I could. “Better be more conscious on my mana here…” I mutter to myself, not wanting to die because I freaked out about not having mana. As if it knew what I wanted, my assistant...altered my eye sight, I saw my face, like in Kingdom Hearts, my health bar wrapping around it. Wow, that’s long, and an MP bar, just like the one in Kingdom Hearts 2, and only a small bit of it was missing at the moment. I cloaked my chakrams in flames as I hacked and slashed at everything around me taking out many, seven or ten rather than two or four like before. My MP bar was still holding strong. As I was slashing through them I started thinking. My life before all this. The more I thought about it, the more I found it funny, it’s like God knew exactly what reflections to put us in, where we would find love, make a life, be heroes. I wouldn’t be surprised if he did do that somehow. I remember my first battle, waking up in that hospital where Twilight was with me, Luna coming in not much later. Everything moved so fast, they put up with my crap and it still amazes me. Assistant Power Analysis. New Power Detected. Humanity power accessing… .0003% I slashed at them, but this was...stronger. The whole wave of them was taken out, for a long ways back. “What the?” I muttered. Assistant Power Analysis. New Power Vanished. Returning to base mana usage. “Nice going!” Trinity said, flying next to me. “How’d you pull that off?” “I think my Assistant said something...like ‘.0003% of Humanity’ or something? I don't know...I was just fighting and then thought of my family.” I shrugged. “Wait, what!?” She yelled, grabbing the arm I had the assistant on, she quickly cast a barrier around us to keep the shadows from hitting us. “Holy shit. It’s right here in the records log...You used Dad’s power...how?” “Uh...I thought how my life is...just laughably absurd, my loving family putting up with my crap...and suddenly I cleaved through a fuck ton of shadow beasts...then it left just as quickly.” I explained simply. “Scootaloo explained stuff to me in the respawn room but...didn't think it would actually happen.” I tell her. “I'm just as surprised and clueless as you here Trinity...now that raises the question...what's gonna show up now that I did that?” I ask worriedly. “Me.” We looked to our side, Cript standing there. “And I just got to say, Finally, one of you kids are figuring it out.” “Well not many find their life being as absurd as mine when you think about it.” I joke, knowing it was bad but it was still there. “But hey, when you have a loving family and somehow think God set up our happy lives...well it feels good to think about all the love and family you made.” Cript clapped. “THANK YOU!” He yelled in joy. “Finally, that’s the key to it! Realizing you have such happiness, loved ones, and despite your past, despite your faults, they love you. That’s the key to accessing the Humanity Power.” “Hooray, now what's my next protagonist revelation?” I joke. “Master your weapons.” Cript said quickly. “All of them, once you have, I’ll come to train you personally. I warn you though, this will be different than how I trained the other kids. Sad to say, but I will be putting you through hell, then throwing that hell into a Freddy Nightmare, then putting that nightmare into my memories. Then we’ll see how strong you get after that.” “So Tuesday?” I ask with a cheeky grin, knowing it's a lot more serious but I couldn't help it. Cript laughed. “Oh so far you funny. When you master them all, I’ll just pop in.” “Gonna have to take a rain check on that part cause once I master all my weapons I'm gonna have to meet that old man ya know?” I say, meaning the King of Nothingness, but calling him an old man cause I don't know his actual name. “Saw the ‘special door’ as it were not too long ago. Get what I'm saying?” “Yeah, I get it. Well, I’ll let you get back to this. Oh, and just to show you what Humanity power can do, watch this.” Cript said, pulling out a handgun. “Just a normal .32 pistol, weak caliber, but charged with some Humanity.” He said, a gold and grey energy flowing around the gun. He fired it, the bullet hit a Shadow creature, then everything went white. When it faded...there wasn’t a shadow in sight. “That, was with a full percent. Trust me when I say this Ben, Humanity power is one of the few ways there is to meeting a Psychopath on even grounds. Master it, and they will learn to want to avoid you.” “The power of Heart seems a lot less shit then what the Captain Planet show makes it look…” I say bluntly, completely dumbstruck at how strong that attack was at one percent. “Best part, by its very nature, it only eradicates evil. Innocents are spared. It’s this power I used when I fought Psychopaths and Admins before becoming one. There were some screwed up Admins, and I made them know me when one by one I ended them. Not all, just those who were...too stubborn to accept the change that was occurring.” “Well...I suppose that makes sense.” I say nervously. “But how can someone that powerful still die? Does Immortality mean literally nothing here?” “Admins are hard to kill, but they are not immortal. They age, a trillion years for us is an hour in their lifespans, and killing them means having the most power. I only know of one true immortal, and thankfully, he’s an ally. An asshole, but an ally.” “Well glad to know immortality is a real thing but is it that extremely rare?” I ask curiously. “Well, we, me, you, this family. I’ve set it so we choose when to die. Already you’re...what, nineteen?” “And gonna have a few billion kids soon and forgetting when my actual wedding day is.” I nod. “Yeah, once you turn twenty one, you’ll stop aging physically all together.” “Right.” I nod. “But seriously when the hell's my wedding day? I think I forgot...or we never decided on a day.” “Hmm...Don’t know, not sure, it’s your job to firstly gather your fiance’s together, propose, then pick the day.” “Did everything but pick a day.” I tell him. “But I'm in the middle of training…” I frown. “And back to it.” Cript said, snapping his fingers, vanishing as Shadow Creatures began appearing again. “Well, you heard Dad, back to it Ben.” Trinity said, flames covering her chakrams. “Let's burn them all to the ground.” I grin, my chakrams spinning with fire around them. Meanwhile, back on Equestria, Joy was having a rather normal day. His girlfriends were having a girls day, which left him to his own devices, mainy, some light reading while music played softly on a stereo behind him. “Ah, nothing like a good book, soothing music and some relaxation.” Joy sighs out. “Okay what problem is gonna ruin this peaceful moment?” Joy frowned, knowing something will ruin the moment. On cue, the doorbell rang. “Better than an explosion…” Joy mutters while putting his book down and heading to the door. When Joy got to the door he opened it. “Hello?” “Hi Joy.” Ventus said, being the peace disturbing culprit. “I came to...ask a favor…” “Do you need to find a girlfriend?” Joy asks with a cheeky grin. “What? No, heh, no...It’s just...ever since Ben broke me out of the crystal coffin, I got my heart back and such, I’ve been remembering things from my past, from before Xehanort and all that. It’s just that… I finally remembered where I was born, the world I came from...I was hoping not to go there alone.” “Sure, anything for my wind affiliated friend.” Joy nodded. “Know where it is?” “Yeah, I think I can open a DTL to it.” He said, summoning his Keyblade and opening a DTL. “Well...Here’s to finding out where I came from.” He said, walking in as Joy followed. “Hope for the best.” Joy says, entering the portal with Ventus. When they exited, they found themselves in a large green field of grass, a single dirt road was the only path in one way or another, and a knee high stone wall sat along one of the roads sides. “Well, it looks nice at least.” Ventus said, taking in the scenery. Joy hopped on top of the stone wall and walked on it like a tightrope. “Yeah it is pretty. So take to the air and look around?” Joy asks, ready to fly around and see if there was any towns nearby. “Actually…” Ventus says, looking down one of the roads only two ways. “I think I...know this road…” He said, letting memory and instinct take over as he walked down the road. Joy followed Ventus, letting him take the lead in his memories and instinct. “Know where you're going?” “It feels...familiar. I...think I walked this road a lot before Xehanort adopted me…” Joy heard that, curiosity peeking his interest. “That still raises the question, why did Xehanort adopt you?” He asks curiously. “I...don’t know. I was young when he did though, four maybe. Man, ten years flew by. At first, he was nice, taught me about Keyblades and treated me like a son, then, he said I had to learn to access the darkness in my heart, learn to fight with rage. He took me to the Badlands, the area outside the Keyblade Graveyard, and was having me fight heartless. It wasn’t going well, at some point he stepped in when I was almost passed out, the heartless left, and...that’s when Vanitus came into the picture. I think you know the rest.” “That's weird…” Joy frowns. “The old man adopted you, raised you as his own, then abandoned you cause ‘I want ultimate power for no reason’.” Joy says in a mock impression of Xehanort. “I don’t get it either.” Ventus said, looking up ahead. “Oh, there’s a fork in the road.” He said, Joy looking over Ven’s side and seeing the split in the road, a signpost in the middle, two arrows made from wood, each pointing in one of the directions. “Which way my friend?” Joy asks, not knowing anything about this world. “Let’s see.” He said, we coming up on the signs. The top one, pointing left, read, in a newer sign, Sunset Orphanage, and the on pointing right, read Elric Household. “Elric...that sounds familiar.” “Edward and Alphonse Elric?” Joy asks, wondering if their actually in this specific world. “Yeah...Edward...that...dang it, I feel like that name is important to me, but I can’t quite put it down...that person...that name just...feels important.” Ventus said, trying to think. “Dang it…” He muttered. “Well he would be important cause he and his brother stopped Father and his homunculi from destroying their country.” Joy explains. “Why don't we head to the Elric household okay?” “Yeah. Sure.” Ven said, still trying to think on the name. The walk to the Elric house was several minutes before they came up on a large house, flowers planted around and in decorative pots set around. “Pretty.” Joy says while seeing the flowers planted. “But I do wonder if this is really the Elrics house...if we hear a guy complain about a woman named Winry smacking him for some reason then we might be in the right place.” Joy explains, heading towards the house, avoiding the plants and pots carefully. When he got up to the house he knocked on the front door. “Hello? Anyone home?” After a time, a girl, maybe a little younger than Ventus, opened the door. She was bright blonde with Ven’s blue eyes. “Yes?” She asked. “Hello.” Joy nodded. “My name is Joy, and my friend here is Ventus.” He gestures to Ventus. “Mind if we come in miss?” He asks politely. “Wendy. Wendy Elric. Are you fans of my dad and uncle?” “I am but I think...Ventus here is a bit special to your family.” He says. “May we come in Wendy?” Joy asks politely, now knowing full well this is the Elrics house. “Um, sure…” She said, letting us in. The inside was decorated simply, and on the living room wall, was hundreds of pictures, old and new pinned up all over it. We sat at the dining table, Wendy looking us over. “So, my dad’s at work and mom’s at her automail shop. I guess you’re here for autographs then?” Joy looked at the photos but had a weird thought. “Did you have a brother?” Joy asks curiously, having a strange feeling about this. ”If this is actually after Brotherhood then…” Joy thinks to himself, looking at Ventus and Wendy, then some of the new and old pictures to see if there was a lack of brother in them. She sighed. “Mom and dad don’t like to talk about it. I was barely two when he disappeared. When great granny died, mom wanted to put her old house to good use. So, it became an orphanage for Ishvalan children and such. War was long since over but the after effects still affect us. Mom would have my brother and I play and stay there, since it was run by an old friend of dad’s, when mom went to her new shop and dad was teaching at the university. I don’t know what happened, but one day, Von just...was gone.” “Do you have a phone?” Joy asks. “And do you know if your parents have phones or a phone nearby?” He asks, deductive reasoning taking over his mind at the moment. “Mom’s office has a phone, but you’d have to leave a message for dad, he’s in Central City teaching at the university.” “Can you call them and tell them it's an emergency? I think...I helped bring your brother, and their son, here.” Joy says while motioning to Ventus. Wendy chuckled. “Yeah, sure. A lot of people came here with kids, claiming them to be Von. If it was really Von, he’d have an aged scar on his right arms wrist.” “Oh, you mean this?” Ventus asked, taking off one of his...bracelet, things, showing there was a scar going all around it. “Had it for as long as I can remember, I started covering it up cause it just-” Ventus stopped, Wendy’s hands lifting his face up...her eyes filled with tears. “Von…” She said, grabbing his wrist, looking at the scar. “It...It’s you...it’s you!” She cheered, hugging Ventus. Joy smiled gently. “Where's your uncle?” Joy asks curiously, thinking he could get to Alphonse faster. “H-he should be in town. He’s here on break from traveling.” She said. After a while, and several phone calls, Edward, Winry, and Al were all in the room, Winry and Ed just...looked at Ventus, shock and...joy in their eyes. Joy smiled at their own joy. “Glad to see your all happy.” Joy says. “I just...I can’t believe it. Von…” Ed started. “I called in every favor I had when you vanished, we searched from here to Ishval for crying out loud...where were you?” “Who knows how to make tea?” Joy asks. “Cause this is going to be a long...and very complicated explanation, even more complicated than explaining seeing the face of god.” Joy says simply. “I’ll go start a pot.” Al said, getting up and entering the connected kitchen. “Well...That’s kinda...hard to explain.” Ven admits. “First I guess I should ask before I try and answer that is...my real name is Von?” “I...named you after my dad. Your grandfather. At first I thought against it...but after all he did for Al, me, and the world pretty much...I guess I owed him that much.” “So...where were you Von?” Winry asked. “Basically...another world.” That earned confused looks from Winry and Ed, even Al, who was hearing bits and pieces from the kitchen, was confused by Ven’s statement. “Trust me, it's true.” Joy says. “The world he was on at the time is my home world with my older brother and all my girlfriends and his fiance’s.” Joy starts. “But...want a weird but kind of understandable explanation for different worlds?” “Uh...I’ll have to get a rain check on that.” Ed said, rubbing his temples. “I dealt with a lot of crazy crap when I was younger...but that’s...a new one.” “Mind if I ask a question?” Al asked. “Um, shoot?” Ventus asked. “How did you get the name Ventus?” “...Xehanort gave it to me, sorta…” “I think I can help explain that.” Winry spoke up. “You see Von, when you were young, your teeth didn’t want to grow in right, and you couldn’t pronounces anything with an O, so when you spoke, whenever anyone asked your name, you would say ‘Van’ or ‘Ven’ rather than Von.” “Oh...I guess when Xehanort asked I said Ven, and he thought it was short for Ventus.” “Alright, now I have a question for the guy who brought you here.” Ed said, looking at Joy. “My name's Joy.” Joy nods. “And please, ask away.” “That cloak of yours...are you in some sort of club or something? I saw some people wearing other colored versions of that cloak, and a woman wearing a black one. They said they were alchemists and were in the aria for research. They had the pocket watches and paperwork so I didn’t ask much.” Joy frowned. “Did they give any names?” Joy asks curiously. “No, no names, just asked where the edge of town was from the train station. Something about that chick rubbed me the wrong way, she was icy and just gave me the creeps. I gave them directions but that way leads to a river that acts as the edge of town.” “Ah shit.” Joy muttered. “Any other questions before I go out and make sure those strange people aren't poisoning your river?” Joy asks curiously, not sure who they are but worried either way. “Not really. If they are still there, let me know, guy at the train station got some pretty good sketches of them as well as a photo. If they are bad I’ll send world to the president, heh, man, calling the colonel a president just feels weird.” “Mustang right?” Joy asks. “Yeah.” “Right then. Ventus can explain his life and all the magical crap involved, I'm gonna be right back.” Joy says while leaving. “And can you please save some tea?” “Will do.” Ed says, Joy heading out and quickly taking to the sky with his glider. Once high up, he began looking for the river, which wasn’t hard. “Okay, let's see where these strange people are…” Joy mutters while flying towards the river and search it, hoping nothing too bad is happening here. “And why is a state alchemist wearing an organization cloak?” He mutters, too many questions being raised too quickly. Joy quickly saw in the distance, a building under construction...with those half Heartless half human abominations of Core’s doing the work. “Come on guy’s, Rich wants this base set up by the end of the week!” A man with Neoshadow antenna’s, left leg and arms yelled. “Yo! The fuck is going on here?” Joy shouts, taking the direct approach to this situation. The Neoshadow guy looked up. “Crap! It’s the mini mutt!” Joy then found himself being assaulted by the ones that could fly, and all sorts of spells being cast at him. “Shit!” Joy yelped while diving and dodging the spells and attacks, disbanding his glider and summoning Reunion and Lindworm. “Ventus Ira!” Joy shouted, feeling the words resonate with his magic as bladed tornadoes suddenly appeared near the enemies, ripping all who got sucked in apart. Tired. Everything hurt, I was tired, but I wasn’t stopping. I hacked them apart, by fire or by actually slashing them. I’m not sure how long it’s actually been, but I wasn’t giving up. Wave after wave of these monsters came, and at some point, I realized I was alone fighting these things. “Fuck...you...ALL!” I shouted, fire erupting around me like a bomb going off. They were gone for the moment...I took a breather. “Well, well, not bad.” I heard that voice, accompanied by stupid slow clapping. It was him...that copy of me that… “You’re doing well I see.” “Oh come on!” I flung my arms in the air, wincing a bit at my body being in pain. “Okay, hi. Why are you here sènior?” “What? A copy can’t check in on the original?” He asked, walking smugly. Wait, is he wearing a sweater vest? “I’ve just been going around for a while, seeing sights, meeting grand places. Did you know your world also has a Mirror portal to an Equestria girls universe too? Wow, had fun there.” “You...killed everyone there?” I asked. “Not everyone. Just that Sunset bitch and the Sirens, and the world leaders, released a few Shadows, some deadly diseases, set off a nuke or two… I just made it more interesting.” “By killing people and damning everyone else.” I frown. “Yes. Post apocalyptic worlds are fun. Even more so when you’re the one making them like that. Though, to be fair, I did not touch Africa, they have enough issues.” “Oh glad to see a Psychopath have a heart.” I sass, wondering why he was really here. “Oh don’t worry.” He said, blinking as...his eyes became that of Psychopaths, before blinking again and they returned to normal. “I didn’t touch them, but the blast force of the nuke did though~.” I took a deep breath, remembering my family and friends, all the ones I cared deeply for and why I fight. “I've gotten over hating myself just so you know.” I tell him. “But here's the thing...you should really take up Cript’s offer for a new life. It helps give some new perspectives on things...and when you have a harem you'd spend eternity with, that also helps.” I explain simply. “Nah, I’m just too fucked up.” He said, pulling out a dagger and slicing his arm, blood pouring out, more than what should be. “You see, I remembered something. Something long before all this happened. A sin. A sin we committed so long ago. You remember? Our first time behind the wheel,” As he spoke, the blood coming out of him formed a pool, and a hand was starting to come out. “All went well, then she just ran in front.” As he spoke...the blood soaked...woman I...She came out of nowhere. “We were there when she died in the hospital. It was so bad, you repressed it.” The woman was now out of the pool of blood, her eyes black and body soaked in blood and twisted. “She didn’t blame you...but you sure did.” “What?” I ask, taking a step back. “She...I…” I mutter, putting a hand to my head in pain from apparently the repressed memory. “It...was an accident…” He smiled. “Yes, it was, but her blood stained the windshield in the end.” The woman’s twisted body then tackled me, pinning me down as her lifeless black eyes stared into mine. “I'm sorry.” I tell the woman. “Even if your not in there...just wanted to apologize for such a thing.” I say to the lifeless woman, trying to get out of the woman's hold. She arched her back so her head was up high...as her mouth suddenly covered her entire face, and she went in for a kill...I closed my eyes...before feeling something splash on my face. I opened my eyes...her head was gone, and blood was pouring on me. “Get up.” I heard Cript say, him pulling me back on my feet. “And don’t worry, that’s not Psychopath blood...though you may want to get a check up at the family doctors.” “And where'd my happy reflection go?” I ask him, hating the amount of blood on me. “Still here.” He said, now in front of me. “So, this is Cript. Wow, the stories I’ve heard. Still, I wonder if.” The other me said, reaching for my throat. “They are,” He grabbed it. “True.” Then, a roar, something like that of the worst beast in hell roared, and the other me was suddenly not in front of me, and rather, was a dozen or so feet away from me, a large wolf pulsating with a dark aura was ripping him apart. “Oh they are.” Cript said. “But I am not the only one who can handle my own against you freaks.” “Is that Den?” I ask, shocked at the sudden giant wolf attacking him. “Yup, that’s your mama’s Primal Form.” Cript informed. I looked at what was my happy and energetic sexy wolfmother being a primal badass right in front of me. “Woof…” I mutter, my tail wagging against my will. “Careful there, she is your mom.” Cript said, patting my back. “But yes...woof.” “I'm sorry just…” I put a hand to the necklace she made me. “Best mom ever...you are lucky she is your wife.” “Well, it happened unexpectedly. I’m sure she told you the story, right?” “I believe she did...it was when she…” I trail off, not wanting to say it. “Yeah, she was like this, unable to control herself. She was sent to kill Scoot’s, Squirrel, I received word fast, and was there before any casualties or injury had appeared. A split second, I looked into her eyes...I saw rage, hate, but behind it, I saw fear, sadness, and pain. That was back when the Humanity Blade was new, and it worked. I stabbed it though her heart, and it began to work it’s power, it encased her in crystal, and expelled all that evil that was making her act the way she did. When she broke free, she was…a bit lost, hurting, but there was just such...love, in her. It wasn’t long until she became one of the wives...but…Damn she can get freaky… I can not belive I just said that.” “Rune, Pinkie, Derpy, and Luna...christ do they want some freaky stuff that I don't like.” I shook my head. “But uh...why is Den here exactly?” I ask curiously, thinking it was a tad random for her to be here. “Now I love Mama Den whenever she's around and it's always a nice time but...pretty convenient huh?” “She is very protective, you may be her oldest pup, but she’s always watching you too. And with a thing like that.” Cript pointed to the now mangled other me. “She felt the need to...be the protective mother.” “Remind me to never piss her off.” I say. “And...I need help trying not to be attracted to the greatest Milf ever.” I mutter. Cript smacked the back of my head. “Wow...incest much?” “Joy is technically my little brother and is dating Jenny who is my daughter.” I frown, rubbing the back of my head. “But yes I know, it's...well actually Celestia is added to my herd...frankly incest is only frowned upon by the genetic part of it, but besides that if it's two consenting legal parties who love each other without a single fault then power to them.” I explain. “Love knows no bounds right?” I ask. “I think it’s time to take a break.” Cript and I looked up, seeing Den, in her anthro, sexy form. “And awe, how cute. You have a crush on your mama.” Den said, kissing my forehead. “Cript, do you know what I’m thinking right now~” “I think I do...and ha!” He laughed. “I feel like I'm missing a joke here…” I say, thinking I'm gonna be knocked out here soon for some reason. “Close your eyes deary.” Den said, and hesitantly, I did...why’s everything hot and squishy? Joy finally dealt with them all, and the house that was being built was now ruble, and he now had the Neoshadow man impaled on the ground, questioning him. “Why the hell were you building here?” “Grah! Screw you mutt.” He snapped. “Hmm...what would a ball of concentrated light do to you when up close?” Joy asked, using Reunion to make a ball of light and gently inching it to the half Neoshadow, wondering if it would burn him or just not do anything. It seemed to be burning him, and he was trying to squirm away. “Fuck! Fine, I’ll talk, just turn that crap off!” Joy took the ball away from him but didn't turn it off. “Thank you. Now why were you building here?” Joy asks again. “Cause the new boss marked this site for a base. After that Huxley dush killed Core, Spoiled Rich took over and has been running operations. All I know is that this place is for researching what this world calls Alchemy.” Joy rolled his eyes. “Oh yeah? And how well has working for Spoiled Bitch doing for ya?” Joy asks. “Surprisingly, no different than Core. She somehow managed to get into his research terminals and has been making progress with researching Psychopaths and Cript.” “Of course…” He sighs out. “Hoping she would be retarded here.” He muttered. “Why do you all want to learn Alchemy?” He asks. “It’s from Core’s research about Cript. It said something about Alchemy from an off world being used on him to try and trigger his Psychopath coming out.” “Do you even know what Psychopaths are? How strong they are and how little they give a damn about you or everyone in this worthless war?” Joy asks curiously. “All I know about them is that they are nearly unstoppable, but Spoiled isn’t after them directly, she’s after the rejected host forms.” “Anything specific you know about these rejected hosts?” Joy asks, finding that news interesting. “All I know is that they have a fraction of the power of a Psychopath, but all the mental insanity, that’s why they are called Insanities. Their a body that had the potential, but couldn’t hold the pain and mentality of the Psychopaths.” “Then everyone under Spoiled’s command must have heard that as long as there's a living being in existence a Psychopath will hunt them down and kill them for the fun of it.” Joy says. “Being the physical manifestation of murder does that to ya.” “Grr. I’m just a foot soldier anyway, having this done to me, I only got about a month or two before my own heart collapses on it’s own stress. I’ll be dead before that psycho bitch figures out that power.” Joy thought for a moment and checked his assistant. “Hmm…” He wonders. “Do you want a second chance at a proper life?” Joy asks, a hollow crystal appearing in his hand. “Cause I can give you a second chance without any chains attached.” “If it works, dump me on some random world.” He said, his expression telling me he doesn't think it will work. “Okay.” Joy nods before pointing Reunion at him and closing his eyes, the hollow crystal starting to glow as the half Neoshadow felt like the darkness killing him was...being lifted and taken off his burdened heart. “Almost there…” Joy muttered, before at some point he stopped, the hollow crystal seeming to be filled with a dark liquid. “You okay?” Joy asks, opening his eyes and hoping his idea worked and didn't do any serious problems on the poor guy. “I’m...wait.” He said, getting up, seeing his body was fully human again. “That...worked...holy crap…” “Good.” Joy smiled, glad to see it worked. “Now...we have a way to help everyone else like you.” Joy said, excited to explain his new finding on saving people from darkness. ”Thanks Zeke…” Joy thinks to himself, thinking this was a good attempt at what Zeke did with his Reject Darkness ability. “Well...thanks. Oh, um...here.” He said, handing Joy what looked like a stone, carved into a donut like shape with a yellow glowing ring glowing on it. “That’s my access ‘card’. If you find yourself in one of the bases in the realm of darkness, use that to get into any building with a yellow mark on it. They typically break when we die but since I’m not dead, it’s yours.” “Cool.” Joy nodded, pocketing the access stone and the crystal. “So, what world did you want to live on specifically? Or just some random planet?” Joy asks, worried about what the Psychopaths might do to the next world they encounter. “I guess… I heard a lot about this place called Twilight Town, sounds nice enough, and before back on Earth I worked selling pretzels on the beach, maybe I can get back to that, simple work, easy money, and it’s fun.” “Sounds simple enough.” Joy nods, pointing Reunion and a DTL opened. “Just walk into the light and you'll be in Twilight town.” He says. “Start of your new life with a good step.” “Thanks. If you stop by and you want a pretzel, you will be getting them ninety percent off.” He said, walking into the DTL as it closed behind him. Joy smiled and took a deep breath. “It’s good to be helping.” Joy smiled, getting on his glider and flying back to the Elrics house. As he got back he saw them all moving around, getting ready to cook a meal it looks like. “Oh, Hey Joy.” Ventus said as I entered the home. “Everything go okay?” “Yeah everything's good. Figured out how to help save people from Darkness.” Joy smiled. “Oh...cool.” “So, will you be staying for dinner?” Winry asked me. “I’m making Ed’s favorite, Stew.” “If I'm allowed.” Joy says sheepishly. “Of course, the one who brought our son back to us after all these years is always welcome in our home.” Ed said. After...that event I went back home. “It was fun and you know it.” Den said as she and Cript followed me through Canterlot Castle halls. I stopped and looked at Den. “Do you always do that?” I ask bluntly. “Yup.” Cript said. “Let's just say free time and...magic, leads to many a things in the bedroom.” “I meant more to traumatize people.” I said bluntly. “Cause...I didn't like it…at all.” I shake my head. “Well I did.” Den said firmly. “And if you don't, then I can just use that as a punishment if it's needed.” She said, patting my head. “So, what are you looking for in here anyway?” “That mirror portal.” I state. “I...need to see how bad he screwed that world up.” “Ah.” Cript said. “Well, let's keep looking then.” It was a find, but finally, we found the room where the mirror was. “Let’s hope it's not as bad as I fear...” I mutter while opening the door to the mirror, wondering if he destroyed the thing so we couldn't save them. Entering the room, the mirror was whole, on this end anyway, and I summoned Reunion, tapping the mirror as it's magic activated and I took a deep sigh. I walked in...and saw that school… burned down. “Thought it would be a barren wasteland…” I mutter, looking around and wondering if there's any survivors. The more I looked around the more I saw the carnage, building either burned down or destroyed. There were...bodies, here and there, but no one that I recognized. It was chaos...and, it looked rather old, like it’s been this way for a while. “Oh no…” I mutter, looking around and seeing all this senseless death and violence. “I could have stopped this...I know I could have…” I mutter, feeling like shit I couldn't save this world. “Damn it to hell.” I mutter while continuing to walk around, hoping to find survivors at least. As I turned the corner I spotted a now all too familiar sight. Shadow Creatures, surrounding a woman, wrapped head to toe in bandages with goggles over her eyes, trying to keep them away with a machete. I summoned my chakrams out of sudden habit and threw the two at the Shadow Creatures, the flaming weapons circling around and killing the monsters while keeping the woman safe. “You okay?” I ask, rushing over and catching my chakrams, ready to fight more. She nodded, putting her weapon away and began walking off, motioning for me to follow. I nodded and followed along. “Is...is there anyone else?” I ask, hoping to save as many people as possible here. She nodded, not turning back as she raised a hand, one finger pointing at her, then opening her hand to show five, then put her thumb down, four...nine? “Can you actually talk?” I ask. She stopped for a moment, then shook her head and continued walking. I nodded. “So...only nine are alive?” I ask, wondering if she meant that. She nodded. Holding a hand up to stop me. She jumped back, another Shadow Creature jumping out from a pile of rubble, to which she pulled out her weapon and decapitated it quickly, then continued walking. I raised an eyebrow, wondering how she's able to cut these things head off with a simple machete and with surprising ease. “Practiced?” I asked her. She nodded. She then spun her finger around in the air, and held up three fingers. Three...something... “No idea what you mean…” I frown, looking around to see if any other Shadow Creatures would appear. The sun was going down, and she stopped, looking up at the sky as it did. Once the sun was gone completely, she sighed, rubbing her head and then kept on walking. I looked up in the sky… There was only a single group of stars up there... “So much needless death…” I mutter, following along. “The night...is losing its beauty…” She nodded, stopping at a manhole cover and kneeled down, lifting it off and jumping down. I sighed, jumping down also, and was met with a sewer that was lit up with glow in the dark paint and completely cleaned of any...sewage. “Secret home?” I ask curiously. She shrugged, leading the way til we found ourselves at some sort of flood gate. SHe knocked four times, then it opened, a blonde haired, fair skin toned girl with a cowboy hat was there when it opened. “Welcome back Silence...Oh, you found someone?” The woman, Silence, spun her finger around. “Oh, he found you. Well, come on in then.” Applejack motioned. We walked in and once in, she pushed a button on the wall that closed the floodgate. “Well then, glad to see there are still people out there.” “I'm glad people are alive here.” I sigh out. “Is there anyone else?” “There’s me, Silence, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Luna, Nurse Red Heart, and Trixie.” Applejack said. “You’re the first guy we actually found, heh, guess I owe Rainbow Dash ten bucks.” “Why?” I ask curiously. “She bet we weren’t all that was left, I bet we were, I lost.” “Who bet if there was only one male left a harem would happen?” I ask. “Pinkie.” “Of course.” I chuckled. “Always the silly one…” I mutter with a smile. “So, what would happen if I said I could give all of you a second chance at a happy life?” I ask seriously, cutting right to the chase here. “Ah’d say you better have some proof.” “Want to go their physically? Or do you want to see an actual picture?” I ask curiously. “Either.” She shrugged. “Gonna need everyone here if you want physical proof.” I say. “Well, might as well.” She said, Applejack and SIlence leading the way to a second floodgate. She opened it and inside were the rest of them. When Pinkie looked up and saw me she jumped up. “HA! Pay up!” That earned a groan from some and a chuckle from others. “Now while I do enjoy some harmless bets not pointed at me, who wants a second chance at life?” I ask curiously. “If you have a way out of this shit hole I’ll actually do that harem thing Pinkie talked about.” Rainbow said. “Ditto.” The rest all said. “Alright then.” I nod. “We’re going to need to get to the statue near the school. Trust me it will be worth the dangerous wait.” I say honestly. “Where we’re going...it'll feel like home.” I tell them. “I’d call you crazy but at this point we are desperate.” Luna said, standing up. “Three months of this hell is enough for me to chase after any gleam of hope.” Three months...is that what Silence was trying to say? “I...I was three months late?” I mutter to myself, clenching my chakrams tightly as I tried to keep my fire under control here. “Come on...we don't have much time.” I say while leading them to the mirror. “Just...don't be surprised what you'll see in the new world okay? It's gonna be...special.” I say, wondering what they'll all think when they meet my fiances and family. As we were nearing the portal something felt...off. I know this world is in hell...but something feels...bad. I looked up, and saw why...not a star was up there. “Oh no…” I mutter in worry. ”Oh, yes.” I nearly froze hearing that voice, we all turned around, seeing Psychopath light Zeke standing there. ”It’s breathtaking. Pure silence, I just have ten little bugs to take out and this reflection finally will fall.” “Your not killing anyone here.” I growled, my chakrams spinning and flames roaring to life. ”Hehehe, try and stop me, mutt.” Psychopath said, summoning a blood soaked Kingdom Key...no, not blood soaked, bleeding... “The hell happened to the Kingdom Key?” I ask, wondering why his keyblade was bleeding. ”All of the Keyblades within Zeke’s heart split into groups of two, the light half with this body, and the dark ones with Drezke. I just showed them what our power is.” “Or in actually correct terms, you brainwashed them with a fuck ton of bloodshed.” I frown. “Keyblades aren't for killing innocents, especially at the rate your doing.” I tell him bluntly. “There meant to help keep balance in all world's, not used for a murderers whimsy, or for him to forget their are soundproof rooms.” I frown. “The more pain and death you inflict, the more it hurts you...and you know that.” I say, having felt pain from killing those I never wanted to. ”Quite the contrary.” He stated. ”We are the facts of Murder. We are in constant pain, feeling every death that has happened, is happening, or will happen. Our minds are filled with all the conflicting emotions those who murdered feel when the act is done. But with each Reflection and realm fallen, our pain becomes less. Even when we die, we are reborn when another death occurs, and that’s always. In order for us to stop this pain, stop this pointless cycle you sentient life forms put us in, we will end everything.” “Oh…” I mutter, now understanding their pain. “But here's the thing, sometimes instead of feeling nothing but pain and the onslaught of emotions...maybe you should be looking at the Humanity in people, who are willing to fight to protect the ones they love and care for, even above their own life.” I say to him. “I heard you may not be able to come back Zeke, but I'm nothing if not stubborn to help a dear friend.” I say, cracking my neck and ready to protect the people behind me. ”Oh really? Well then.” He said, snapping his fingers as we were then surrounded...by countless...Zeke’s...no...Cripts. Right, Cript is his only...him, to not become one of these things. ”In every reflection in every Realm, Cript’s parallels have been our strongest host body. Can you help...all of him?” They were all laughing, every last one of them. “I've helped at least two if memory serves.” I shrugged. “But if I need to beat all of your asses just to bring you all back then so be it.” I say. “I'll be the first to save the people who can't be saved. It can't be that hard right?” I ask, knowing the massive pile of shit in just said is all but impossible but damn it I could at least try. ”HAHAAHAHHAHAHAHA! Let’s see about that!” They all yelled, charging in at us...right when they were in front of me...then, they...weren’t? I blinked, looking behind me and seeing the others...they were pony now? “You...are stupid brave, you know that?” Cript’s voice said, making me look forward and seeing him there...we were back in the mirror room. “Like father like son huh?” I joke with a grin. “Hmm...Little bit. Well, off to your house then.” Cript said, snapping his fingers and I...was in my bedroom...my fiances here too...and the people I saved behind me. “...Is this one of those...just accept it things?” Rainbow Dash asked. “I can explain…” I start. “But...I doubt you will believe me.” I say sheepishly. “So….who wants to start first?” After a somewhat detailed explanation of what happened, leaving out what Den did to me...and the dying part, and we explained to the other Pinkie, who now that I looked, had brown eyes rather than my Pinkie’s blue eyes, and the other Luna was just a pegasus, not an alicorn. “Well...glad to hear Ben saved you all.” Celestia said, taking a sip of tea. “So...you are all...marrying him?” The other Luna asked, who for clarity sake, are calling Lulu. “We still need to figure out a wedding day….we kinda forgot that.” I say nervously. “Well...That’s...interesting...So...may I ask a question?” Trixie asked. Huh, surprised she’s not talking in third person. “Sure.” I nod. “What be your question?” That got them all blushing. “Well...that bet with Pinkie about a male coming along was a Pinkie Promise thing...and everyone in our school knows better than to go back on a promise with her name in it so…” “You want to join?” I ask with a little grin. “Well...yes.” “We’re all strait and after three months we’re all kinda...antsy…” Lulu admitted. “I can think of some fun stuff I can do involving my other~” The other Pinkie said, who, for some reason, wants to be called Twin Pie. “I think I know what I’m thinking~” My Pinkie said, the two looking at each other, then to me... “Just so you all know...don’t be surprised if you turn bi.” I say to the other girls. “Great...now I need to buy nine more rings...and why are you two staring at me?” I ask worriedly at the two Pinkies. “Twin sex!” They both yelled at the same time. “Of course.” I chuckle and shake my head. “Welcome to your new life ladies, where it's filled with weirdness, magic, and a whole lot of lewd things.” “I’m gonna have to take some time to get used to being covered in...fur.” Applejack said, looking at her new form. “Wait...is my chest...bigger, or is that the fur?” To be continued... Nobody's rough dayA month passed since the reflection where these all came from fell… the mirror broke not long after. In all this time two things became apparent to me. One, those Psychpaths need to be dealt with, and second… the whole time Silence has been here, the only new thing I have learned about her is that she's a unicorn here. She changes her bandages, I've seen the old ones in the trash...which leads me to think she's burned all over. I figure it's best to try and confront her about it. I saw her reading a book in the library, and took a seat next to her. “Hey, how you doing?” I ask Silence. She shrugged, turning the page. “Hey...do you want to talk again?” I ask her. “Or are you used to sign language?” I ask. She still wore her goggles, but I could feel her eyes roll when I said 'talk’. “Wrong wording…” I mutter. “Did you lose your voice?” She sighed, nodding as she traced her finger across her neck, then made sewing motions. “Do you want to have your voice back?” I ask. She looked like she was thinking about it, but shook her head. “Alright.” I nod. “So...what do you think of your new home?” She looked at me, then looked around us. Seeing that we were alone, she tapped where her heart is, then pointed at the ground. “Fuck it.” I mutter, grabbing a pencil and pad of paper and handed it to her. “No clue about sign language, hate guessing, gonna ask someone to teach me but right please write what you mean.” I say, hating myself for not knowing her sign language. I felt her eyes roll again. She picked up the pen and started writing. ”This...is my home. Well, was. Never expected to be back.” “As in...you were from Equis originally?” I ask curiously. She nodded. “Huh…” I mutter. “Well...did you expect to be apart of...all of this when you came back?” She shook her head. Then wrote something. ”No...I had plans to come back, but after recovering from some Psycho trying to slice my throat open then burned me alive…I figured the old me did die there…and Silence was born.” “I'm...sorry I wasn't there…” I say sadly. “You've heard of how I'm this grand hero...but I wasn't there to protect any of you…” She did something I should have expected but didn't...she slapped me...hard. She then wrote two simple word. ”Shut up.” She then hugged me. I hugged back. “You've known me for a month and heard all my fiances talk about me...you know I can't.” I joke. “But...at least all of you are safe...that’s all I can ask for…” I say gently. She then broke the hug, and began writing something down. ”Don’t tell anyone I am from here….Especially Celestia. “Don't worry Silence, I won’t.” I say gently. “But you adjusting to all this weirdness okay?” I ask, wondering how well she was adjusting to life. She began writing again. ”It’s...odd, but nice odd. It’s like that crazy and wild but loving family orphans dream of.” “That's good.” I nodded. “I suppose Twin and Lulu told you and the others about...bedroom stuff?” I ask. She nodded...her blush somehow going through her bandages. “Kind of thought that.” I chuckled. “You know I got some of my fiances through….that.” I chuckle sheepishly. “Who knew sex was the quickest way to some women's hearts...oh wait...I forgot how I was gonna unite the world…” I mutter, blushing at remembering that conversation. “Ben!” I turned to the doorway, seeing Joy stop there, worry on his face. “Come on, in the front yard, it’s Yellow.” “Excuse me for a moment.” I say to Silence before rushing to the front yard, wondering why Yellow is here. As I exited the front door I saw Yellow there...His body fading, turning to...dirt as he stood slumped across the bridge that counted as the front door. “He...hey.” He said, clearly exhausting himself to just stand. “I see your...staying together.” I say sheepishly, not sure what to say. “What are you doing here?” I ask, wondering if I could help him. “Drezke…” He collapsed, and I ran over to him. “He took the fake X-blade, and all the Xehanort hearts I had in me.” “Mother of fuck…” I mutter. “Well I'm gonna have to deal with that guy later, right now…” I trail off, looking down at the crumbling Yellow. “Do you need help coming back or...just to end your suffering?” I as. Yellow chuckled. “I’m dying now.” He said, his legs a pile of dirt and slowly his hands and torso were following. “This world...Core almost made me attack it, heh, glad something else came up. The sky is nice.” “Yeah…” I nodded. “How was your last day?” I ask, hoping he had a good time. “Nice.” He said, his arms gone and torso not gone too...he’s just a head now. “Just wish...the sunset lasted longer.” He said, his head turning into a dirt pile in my hands. There was something else there too...a Keychain? It was a Castle Oblivion card, with what looked like a cut up image of Zeke in it. I raised my eyebrow and summoned Reunion. “I have a bad feeling about this…” I mutter while taking off Reunions keychain and putting it in my pocket, before kneeling down and picking up the keychain left by Yellow. “Okay...this might be a little weird.” I mutter while putting the keychain on my blank keyblade. It changed, looking something like Memory Stealer, only with images in the cards that went up along the blade. Bottom was Josh, above him was Jenny, above her was… Nancy, and finally, on top, was Kevin… Are these...the ones whose memories were put together to make Yellow? “This is weird…” I mutter. “How do I figure out more about you?” I mutter, not sure if my Assistant can tell me what this thing is or what's about it considering it came from a clone. “Fuck it…” I mutter while using my assistant to scan this special keyblade. “I know your not Memory Stealer…” I mutter, hoping for some answers on this confusing thing. Scanning… Scan complete. Name: Memory Shard Att: 8 Def: 5 Mag: 3 Special Ability: Memories Mine - Use own memories and add them to spells to cast greater range and damage. “Cool.” I nodded, before taking Memory Shard off. “Well...I suppose it makes sense why he turned into a keychain…” I mutter while putting Reunion back on and disbanding it. “I...think.” I mutter, not sure if Yellow actually was a human keyblade. I headed back inside, thinking on what was to come next. So much going on, and now, Drezke might have gone off the deep end. “God I need a vacation…” I mutter, really upset about so much shit going on. “But I forgot, I need to finish training my chakrams…” I frown, summoning the two and checking over them to see if I somehow missed a mastery mark. “Trinity? You busy?” I call out, wondering if my sister was around. There was no reply anywhere. Great, gonna have to find her. I then spent the next four hours searching my massive home for her, not finding her anywhere. “Fuck.” I frown. “I can either find Nelare and train with my knives...go to a different world and try to be a hero...or just wait till someone decides to bring something up…” I mutter, thinking through this. Maybe I can track her via assistant? I brought it up, typing in Trinity’s name and a location came up. Canterlot? What’s she doing there? “Something to do.” I mutter while opening a big window and flying towards Canterlot. After a time I finally got to Canterlot, and then I started my damned search again. “Let's hope nothing bad is happening…” I mutter. Following my GPS like locater for Trinity, it lead me to the outside of a...Club? Why is she at a club? I walked up and the bouncer stopped me. “Name and ID sir.” He said...wow, ten feet tall easy. I pull out my ID. “The names Ben.” I say simply and hand over my ID. He looked at me, then the ID. “This is a joke, right? This photo doesn't even look like you.” He said, showing my the picture. Crap, that’s from when I was human and not a wolf… “Besides, no entry under twenty one, this says you are nineteen.” “And I'm also gonna marry at least…” I frown and start counting in my head. “At least eighteen women.” I state. “But what could be in a club so bad for a world wide hero?” “Alcohol and stripers.” He said simply. “I'm marrying Rune.” I say bluntly. “That new Diamond Dog Queen?” He asked. “The one that made the porn industry boom because of her giant libido? Yes.” I nod. “Sorry, you’re still under age.” “And my sister Trinity can?” I ask bluntly. “Her ID says she’s twenty one even...ish. Only way you’re getting in here is by beaten me in a game of cards.” He said, a deck of normal cards appearing in his hands. “Aw.” I say while Fair Game appeared in my hand. “And here I thought I had to supply the deck.” I chuckle. “What's your name?” I ask the guy. “Friends call me Bexly.” He said, cutting and preparing the deck. “It’s simple. Pull out either a queen or ace, and I’ll let you in. Pull anything else, you don’t. And so you don’t think I’m cheating.” He held up the Deck’s faces, and I could see queens and aces in there. He then sorted and cut it again several time before holding them out like a magician would. “Oh how I have fallen if I'm literally having this much trouble getting into a goddamn strip club.” I sigh out before just pulling a card out. “Today is slow…” “So I guess.” He said, the card I pulled out, surprisingly, was an ace. “Guess you get in. Well then, Welcome to Club Ruby Red, Bar and Strip club and current performance center for local DJ, DJ Pon3.” He said, stepping aside so I could enter. “Ya know, I've never actually been to one of her performances.” I realize out of nowhere before just entering the strip club with my hood up and tail tucked away. Once in I saw what you’d expect, stallions and mares throwing bits at stripping/pole dancing mares and stallions. Mares and stallions in...open...clothing walking around and offering drinks, a bar, and in the back most of it all, a dance floor that...smelled much like a load of my dirty bed sheets after an...active, night, with a DJ stand setup where Vinyl was blasting her music. Trinity was dancing in the crowd...yeah there’s no way in hell I’m stepping on that dance floor. I instead sat next to a mare who was clearly dressed to hide who she really was. “Mind if I take a seat?” I asked. “Sure.” She said simply as I took a seat. “How you doing this fine day?” I ask casually. “Not everyday you see someone trying to actively hide in a strip club.” “I’m just here cause my friend is working here tonight.” She said. “Is it a worker here or is it the DJ?” I ask curiously, wondering if Vinyl and Octavia were together. “It’s the DJ, I’ve attended all of her shows and she’s attended all of mine. The only reason she agreed to working a gig here is because they are paying her very handsomely.” “Do you perchance play the Cello?” I ask curiously, wondering if she was Octavia. She looked at me, then sighed, taking off her glasses and hood cover, revealing it was in fact Octavia. “Great, I was found out. What gave it away?” She asked. “I can name several...the first thing to come to mind was you both perform music and such...second would be the accent, and third is how willing would someone be to support their girlfriend.” I explain. “Unless you two aren't dating I suppose.” I say sheepishly. “While we...have shared moments, we are waiting to the right male to make a small herd with to make it official and go public with it.” “You do know who I am right?” I ask in a joking fashion. “Yes, White Knight, but again, I said small herd, not the royal spoonfest that your love life is, no offence.” I chuckled at that. “No need, trust me.” I tell her. “I love them all with my heart and soul, but they really need to relax.” I chuckle at that. “But anyways, I'm pretty sure I can help you play matchmaker. What kind of guy you looking for?” “Well...A lot like Vinyl, soft spoke, actions speak louder than words kind of guy. In touch with his feminine side, gentle, nice, but not shy to throw down when needed...maybe pink hair, I know a male with pink hair is a bit rare, since it’s normally a mare color, but I always found that more attractive on a male than on mares.” Octavia said. “Vinyl and I agree that’s a good enough male for us, though, she want one who knows his way around hair. That neon blue hair of her’s isn’t natural, and some help from another who knows hair care would come in handy.” I stared at her. “Do you live in Ponyville?” I ask. “And if so, have you ever been to the Ponyvile Spa? I mean crap you just explained my friend and teacher.” “Really? Vinyl and I have a house there for when we get time off. Never went to that spa though… what's his name?” “Ramilua.” I say simply. “You'll know it's him from either the pink hair, or the scythe he uses to cut hair.” I say simply. “He uses a scythe to cut hair? Wow...sounds exciting~” She said, twirling her hair with a light blush appearing on her cheeks. “I'll have to tell Vinyl when the show is over.” “Ram is going to have a field day with this.” I chuckle. “But I never actually attended one of Vinyls shows. Strange huh?” “Her locations are not very standard or in one area. She's been the main event in clubs all over Canterlot and Manehattan... before the incident. We talk about her getting a club of her own to run and preform at but no good locations came up.” “Ponyville is a nice centralized town surprisingly. And considering everything that happens there…I'm sure you'll be making tons with all the parties.” I shrug simply. “Oh wait...I forgot to check up on Sans and the rest...damn it.” I mutter to myself as I remembered about the Manhattan project and the monsters living there now. “Well, I’ll be sure to tell Vinyl about this friend of yours then. The show ends in a half an hour, so you can kill time one of three ways here.” “I'm surprised no ones cared about me being here to begin with.” I point out. “But I suppose a world wide hero isn't as great as hot naked women.” I chuckle. “I’d think twice about that.” She said with a chuckle. I look over...and saw...me...wearing a man thong dancing on a pole... “I didn't need to see that.” I frown. “I...how the fuck...I know I’m marrying Chrysalis but jesus.” “Yeah. It was announced a while ago and lots of places like this hire them for entertainment. They all have this hive mind thing so that explains the likenesses…not bad length.” “I hate everything…” I mutter, blushing like crazy at that. “I don't dance...especially not in a thong…” “I imagine if your fiances saw that, that stripper would be rich.” “I don't want to be drunk…” I frown. “But it's people like these that drive me to drink…” I complain with a hidden pout. “But no, if they saw that they would force me to do such a thing.” “Hey, this form pays my rent!” The fake me yelled. “I'll give you ten mil if you stop turning into me.” I told the changeling bluntly. “I know I'm me but god…” I mutter, trying not to just walk up to the bar and drink my troubles away. “And here I thought all the merch Rune made of me was bad enough.” I sigh out, rubbing my temples, ignoring any who would be staring at me at the moment. “Wait, that’s the real White Knight!” A mare yelled from the stage. “Sign my panties!” One yelled...a pair of...soaked undies hitting my face. God damn it… “That ended...oddly.” Trinity said. At some point in my wet undies assault from...everywhere, she came and I found myself in Canterlot Gardens. “I.Hate.Everyone.” I grumble. “Went from throwing bits to throwing underwear...oh how today is just stupid…” I sigh out. “Well what did you expect, hell, Twilight checks all your mail and burns all the nudes that get sent in, and yes, mares are still sending those in.” I took a deep breath. “My god...sooner or later I'm gonna be like Cript with his massive harem if this keeps up.” I sigh out. “Well, come on then, you wanna finish your training right?” “Yes...yes I do.” I sigh out thankfully. “Anything to get...that out of my mind. “Well come on, I think I know a good last test for this. It will be two parts, you ready?” I summoned my chakrams. “Of course.” I nodded, ready for my test. “What's part one?” “This.” Trinity said, I blinked and was… on the edge of a big ass Volcano. “Your chakrams are linked to fire, your first test is to use that connection to heat and survive going all the way down the lava and retrive me a Fire Amber, with a spider in it.” “Fuck.” I mutter, before taking a deep breath. “Okay...I think I can imagine how to do what you said…” I say. “But just to make sure...deep breathing is apart of such a thing correct?” I ask, thinking of The Last Airbender cartoon here. “If you do it right, you can breath under all that, though, watch out for a dragon that’s supposed to live in this Volcano.” “I’m getting married to the dragon lords sister.” I say with a shrug. “But...this is gonna hurt a bit.” I say while hoping into the volcano, my chakrams spinning as I continued to take deep breaths and feel the connection my chakrams had to fire. ”Let's hope this works…” I think to myself. As I got closer to the lava the more deep breaths I took the...calmer it felt? Like instead of diving straight into a volcano it felt more like a massive amount of warm water, and when I finally entered it, oh so thankfully, I wasn't burning alive and saw my entire body wasn't being burned to cinders. ”Cool.” I think to myself while starting to swim down. I couldn’t see a damn thing, but kept going down slowly until I felt I hit bottom. I felt around, feeling mostly smooth rock, then, I felt a small wave of movement from behind me. Like swimming. ”Maybe I should have asked how the hell I could see down here…” I think to myself, closing my eyes and letting what other senses I had to basically shape the entire area for me, from my limited hearing, smell and touch, to my unimpeded magical sense making the entire area around me. My magic sense showed me the Dragon trying to hunt me. It was female, I saw that clearly, she was at least ten feet tall, wings with a twelve foot wingspan, and was floating about twenty feet from me. I thought of something...but went against it as I just waved hello at the dragoness like she wanted trying to prepare to attack me. I could tell she seemed surprised, but swam towards me, grabbed me then swam dragging me into a...cave of sorts where the Lava didn’t enter. I was thrown out onto the floor and she came out after, and she’s naked… “What are you doing here?” She asked with an icy tone...those scales….they look like Spike’s? “Before I go into detail...what's your name?” I ask, wondering if I just magically found Spikes sister. “Cause...your scales look identical to my friends...” “I am Clattatona, and that’s a laugh. My breed of dragons is all but dead, it’s just me…” “What would happen if I said another of your breed is living with a Pegasus and has a kid about...a month or two ago?” I ask simply. “Also it's a male dragon just so you know.” “Heh, the last male was the father of my egg...that those damn smuggler ponies stole. My mate died years ago, trying to find our egg.” I took a deep breath. “Oh no…” I mutter. “Okay...I came down here for a spider stuck in fire amber...if you help me, I will take you to your son and your granddaughter okay?” I ask simply. “Yeah right, like my child is alive.” “Would his scales be purple and green? Has green fins going from the top of his head all the way down to his tail?” I ask curiously. “Just asking if this fits his general description of how he would look as...maybe a teenager right now.” “...are his spine scales green?” She asked. “Huh, always thought those were more like fins...but yes.” I nodded. “...Deal.” She said, jumping back into the lava, coming out a short time later, came out with what I assumed was a fire amber, a spider that looked like a rock inside it. “Here, now where’s my son?” “He goes by Spike right now and he lives in a cloud home near a town called Ponyville. It's a simple looking town near the mountain city called Canterlot.” I explain while taking the Fire amber. “I'll lead you there since you probably have no idea what I'm talking about.” “I was living here since before I was even with egg, so...yeah, I’m a tad outdated.” “Outdated...doesn't even begin to describe everything you've missed.” I tell her bluntly. “Come on, we better get going.” I say while taking a deep breath and focusing my magic for the lava again and jumped in, swimming back to where Trinity was. After a bit of swimming up I finally got out of the volcano. “Oh, good, you found it.” She said, helping me out of the lava. “And you...brought the dragoness. Neat.” “Considering she's apparently Spikes real mother I think it's important.” I tell her simply. “Oh, cool. And thanks for the spider.” She said, looking at the spider in the fire ember. She then broke it open, the Spider’s...inside’s, somehow still there and a glowing green goo that she took on her fingers and then...ate it… “Damn little bugs are hard as hell to find, but really tasty.” “Ew…” I mutter. “Anyways, I need to help her find Spike, so I might need to put the second part on-” “One second.” She said, finishing off...the spider, then tossing the empty ember it was once in. “Alright, first off.” She said, snapping her fingers and Clattatona was gone. “She’ll be in front of Spike now, so that’s taken care of in a not-so-neat bow.” “Right then.” I nod, “Hopefully that goes over well...so second part of my test?” I ask curiously. “Yeah, here.” She said, handing me a...scroll... I frowned and took the scroll. “This better not end up causing an explosion or summoning an elder fire elemental.” I frown before opening the scroll. Inside was...a name. Lead Hoof. Age: 36, location, Canterlot Blacksmithery. “I'm gonna learn how to blacksmith?” I ask curiously. “Close, Chakrams are weapons of assassin's...that’s your target…” I went stock still at that. “I don't remember chakrams being assassin weapons...and why should I kill a random person here?” “He’s not random, he’s a smuggler. Leader of some illegal arms dealings. His company makes weapons for the guards...and the local gangs.” “Does he have a family? Wife and kids that he cares about more than just an alibi?” I ask, not wanting to kill someone who has a loving family. “You know me...I can't kill...not again.” I mutter, remembering how I openly killed Nancy without hesitation. “Damn it…” “He has one son, no wife, she died from cancer.” “And his son? Does he look up to him?” I ask. “Do the two care about each other dearly?” I ask bluntly, not liking how I have to kill a father for some reason. “Yeah, but the son doesn’t know what his dad does. Police know, but have no hard evidence.” “Is he helping the gangs of his own volition or is his son being used to force him to work?” I ask, liking this less and less. “You know why I'm asking this Trinity, I can’t kill a single parent and leave a child by themselves.” I state, not wanting someone to feel the pain I felt when my parents died. “His own free will. Saw a way to make more money, and went for it. Look, I don’t like it either but this is part of what I do. I take on missions from the Fates Karma guild from the Grim Reapers, they mark people a world would be better off without, and I do them...some I really didn’t like, but they were bad people. Sometimes a bad person has two faces, the one for friends and family, and the one for…work.” “And what of his son? Do I just tell him his dad's a bad guy and be on my way?” I ask bluntly. “Ten, fond of his dad, likes the Wonderbolts, special talent is on comedy.” “Does….does he have anyone to go to when he learns about his dad's...untimely fate?” I ask. “Or do I just hear it from the man I'm supposed to kill?” I frown, feeling terrible about having to make a ten year old lose the father he loves. “He has his grandparents...Why does this sound familiar?” “No.” I tell her. “I'm not forcing what I experienced on an innocent!” I barked. “When my parents died due to...the former Suicide Queen, I was sent off to my grandparents and that's when things went down hill...I can't...I can't force that on an innocent child.” I told her, my hands shaking at how similar this sounded. “Well if he isn’t gonna die then the only other option is to hand the cops evidence.” Trinity said. “As long as nobody dies.” I say bluntly. “I'll get evidence...or I could just walk up to him and he'll know who I am and why I'm there because I'm me.” I say honestly. “Doubt it, this guy has the best poker face I have ever seen.” “I've learned from the best gambler I know. Even if he doesn't look like he's worried, he can still be noticed in other ways.” I say honestly. “Still. You gotta handle this as a mission so...dress for it.” I growled a little but summoned my glider. “I'll ask Rarity and Coco to make me something…” I sigh out. “No need. Here.” Trinity said, pulling a grey suit from her Assistant. “Just put that on and I’ll drop you off where you need to be.” I nodded, taking off my cloak and putting on the suit. “Damn it to hell…” I mutter sadly. “Being the good guy is a job everyone wants, but it's harder than expected.” “Yet somehow all good guys are never allowed to kill because morality.” I frown. “...not entirely true…” Trinity sighed. “Whatever.” I mutter while finishing putting on my grey suit. “There…” “Great. Now, the job begins.” Trinity snapped her fingers, and we were outside a brick warehouse in what looked like Canterlot. Trinity was also dressed in more formal attire. Light brown coat, skirt, and a purse. “This is his factory. I got some…IDs that should get us a meeting with him.” “Alright.” I nodded. “Can't wait to feel like garbage after this…” I mutter bitterly. We headed inside and once we ran into someone official came along Trinity showed our fake IDs and they lead us to an office on the second floor. Lead Foot was...big. Easy eleven feet, and three feet wide shoulder span. Trinity and I sat in some chairs in front of his desk, and when he sat down...it made an impact. “So, I was told you two are from the Minotaur lands blacksmith guild?” “Yes, that is correct.” Trinity said. “I see. So, you are interested in purchasing from my company?” “Yes.” I nod, having literally no idea what to do here and just keeping things simple. “We heard your skills in blacksmithing and were curious to see if it was true.” I say, not sure how this went from an assassination attempt to business talk. “Well it's flattering to say the least. Minos is known for their weaponry so to be asked to sell to it it an honor.” “Yes, my partner here will handle the paperwork and get it ready, so to pass the time how about I see your factory?” “Sure, won't take more than ten or so minutes.” Lead Hoof said, getting up as Trinity followed. Taking their full exit as my cue I decided to search around the room for the paperwork I had to do and any connections to the mafia I could so he could just be off to prison instead of dying. “Okay papers...where are you…” I mutter, having to work fast given I only had ten minutes. Looking through the desk I only found old and recent shipping invoices, all to the royal guard. I did notice the last shipment was for raw ores rather than completed weapons. I found it odd, but put it back, making a mental note as to why. “Okay...now where's the secret compartments?” I muttered, now checking the room to see if there was a hidden safe or hidden area’s to hold not so legal documents. There were no paintings so that was out. I decided to look around for anything out of the ordinary, all I found was a floorboard in the corner of the room with a hole in it. “Cheeky bastard...” I muttered, walking over and kneeling down to the floorboard with the hole in it and checked it carefully, wondering if this was to look convincing of a normal floor board but was actually holding things underneath it. I put a finger in it, and it came off like nothing. Inside I pulled up a suitcase. It was a simple latch lock, opening it, inside was a file rather filled with papers, some Platinum bits. Luna told me about them. Three distinct types of bits, Bronze, five making up one gold bit. Gold bits, most common type of bit out there by far, and Platinum bits, a thousand gold bits make up one platinum bit...and there was twenty platinum bits in here. I opened the file, and inside were all handwritten orders, pick up and drop off locations and what I was assuming gang names as the ones who placed the orders. “Good.” I muttered, summoning a card and putting it on the file and all the papers and it absorbed it, the thing being in the magical card before I put everything back in place without looking suspicious. As I was getting up I felt something...sharp, tap my back. “And what are you doing?” That...was not an adult’s voice. I turned around...and saw a small version of Lead Hoof...his son...is holding a sword to me. “Hello.” I say to the kid. “Do you really want to be pointing that at me?” I ask him, my voice calm even though a sword was against my back. “That depends, you sending my dad to jail?” “So you do know…” I sigh out, rubbing my temple. “Okay...do you know why your dad is doing shady shit?” I ask him simply. “Not so much him...more I am.” The kid said, reaching and swiping the card I had the files in. The card shrunk and he missed to grab it. “So are you the one doing mafia crap? Or something worse?” I ask. “Dad always makes more than he is selling, calls them gifts to the crown. Please. After Manehattan, I realized even Hero’s let you down, so, I found a few like minded workers of dad and we split the profits. After all, with all the crazy stuff going on, everyone wants some more...enforcement.” “So you’re giving weapons to the mafia because of my mistakes?” I ask him simply. “Heh...funny.” “Before you showed up it was just those Heartless...now, Manehattan's been destroyed, more and more Heartless have been showing up, and some of them are...wrong, half a person, half a monster. You call yourself a hero White Knight, but you’ve done more harm than good.” “Let me ask you something.” I say simply. “What would happen if the entire world looked to you for help, what would happen if you knew you had to protect the world you hold dear and everyone on it...But know you can't?” I ask him simply. “What would you do if you learned, even if everyone looked at you as a hero, you yourself felt like a failure cause you can't be everywhere and protect everyone?” I turn around carefully to look at him. “Would you break down under the weight of your failures before they even happen? Or do you keep moving forward, trying to help everyone you can and trying your damndest to do everything you possibly can?” I ask, knowing I should make a school for keybladers but sadly never having the time to do it. He lowered the sword...then chuckled… As a powerful aura of darkness began emerging from him. “I’d let it burn.” I took a deep breath, the fire in the warehouse seeming to grow and dim ever so gently as I focused. “You really want to do this huh?” I ask, summoning my chakrams and ready to fight. He readied his sword, now also coated in darkness and we stood waiting for the other to make a move. “Zantetsuken.” The kid said, I barely cast Reflect in time. “You really want to do this?” I ask him again, giving him one more chance here. “Last chance kid. I don't want to leave your father with your corpse.” I tell him. He chuckled. “He said you’d be all talk.” The kid said, tossing his sword and summoning...a Keyblade...the Chaos Ripper one from Birth By Sleep. “Who told you?” I ask, wondering why this kid is suddenly so bloodthirsty here. “Didn’t say his name, just gave me this and told me to gather all the darkness in this world...and end it, starting with you!” He yelled, somehow making a dark attack where he was moving in a wheel like motion, rushing towards me. I dodged the attack quickly and slashed at the kid, trying to keep my strikes non-lethal. “Why do you want to destroy the world?” His attack stopped right before hitting the wall, and he turned to face me. “Not the world, just it’s darkness. That’s his plan after all, let the dark ones think you are an allie, then end them when they have all gathered to strike.” He said, slashing and sending dark waves at me. I threw one of my chakrams, cutting the dark waves and dissipating them. “And why me if I may ask?” I ask curiously. “Also yes you are technically destroying the planet by getting rid of its other part.” I point out. “Heheheheh. That’s what you think.” “No that's just a fact.” I frown. “You can't have one thing without the other, no matter what you do.” I tell him simply. “Once there was no darkness in the hearts of the living, or the worlds themselves. We will bring them back to that era!” He yelled, shooting Mega Flares at me. My chakrams spun, feeling the fire magic in the Mega Flare’s and raising them both, the balls of flame stopping in their tracks. “Light and Darkness are two sides of the same coin, even in that era darkness was always there.” I say, my chakrams absorbing the Mega flares. “But there was an era long before Light and Dark.” I say, grey thorns surrounding me. “There is, and always will be Void…” I say while appeared in front of him. “Nothingness.” I whisper to him, my fist colliding into his stomach hard, enforced by Nothingness to drain his stamina and stop his rampage. He collapsed over, coughing, trying to get air back into his lungs. “N-Not...while he is walking…” His dark aura then suddenly vanished, and he stood up. When he stood up, and open his eyes...they were black. “Long time no see Ben.” Drezke’s voice spoke from the kid. “Two things...one is the kid alive? I didn't mean to punch him too hard.” I say worriedly, worried about his safety. “And two...the fuck are you doing here? I thought you would be keeping darkness away from Daybreak given its being attacked.” I say, Joy having told me Daybreak is under attack, but he's got it. “Daybreak will survive.” Drezke said, the Kid’s body moving in a slow, looking around motion. “I see you met Lead Hoof’s son. He has great promise.” “You didn't answer my first question, but my third question now is why you think getting rid of Darkness as a whole is a good idea in any way shape or form?” I ask simply. “And why I need to die for some stupid reason.” “Being half of Zeke, absorbing Core’s darkness, seeing it for myself. In the end, darkness is too strong for the light. Yes, the light pulls off miracles, but darkness is uncontrollable, untamable...unstable. The Embodiments are the source of all darkness, so I will fight fire with fire. They have lasted since darkness began, and it’s time to end them, and darkness, before they end the light.” “You can't destroy Darkness.” I frown. “Again, you can't have one thing without the other. Why do people keep thinking that!?” I fling my arms in the air, hating asshole’s that think that shit can work. “The light won't end, that's a fact and you know full well we all won't let it end.” “Really?” “No, it's not like me, the Foretellers, Eclipse, John, and everyone Zeke has helped train and love have been training to defend the light. We've been training to defend the right to eat cookies.” I tell him, my voice dripping with sarcasm. “Yes really!” I tell him seriously. “Well then. I guess it’s time to see if one of Cript’s own can die.” He said, a ghost version of the kid walked out of him, ran THROUGH me, that felt...cold...something is missing. “Free? I’m...free?” I turned around...and saw Rejection there. “HA! Finally!” “Enjoy what comes next.” Drezke said as the kids eyes closed and he collapsed, unconscious. “Oh no.” I mutter. “Rejection...how does it feel being apart of the real world?” I ask, my heart feeling odd at my missing darkness. “It feels...liberating.” He said, summoning his Duskblade. “Everything is so...physical and...touchy.” He said, poking himself. I noticed he’s wearing a black version of my cloak. “This can only lead to bad things and you know it.” I tell him. “Even if it is nice to see you again.” “Everything feels...real. And it’s gone. All your paranoid thoughts, all your self esteem issues, all your depression is gone!” He laughed. “It’s gone! It’s all gone!” “Good to hear.” I say. “So...what do you want to do now?” I ask, keeping my guard up in case he'd attack me. “What I want to do… What do I want to do?” He questioned, pacing around...his Duskblade still in hand. “What to do...Hmmm Oh, I think I know.” “Okay before you do anything, I'm just gonna warn you...don't hurt our family.” I tell him bluntly. “Our family?” Rejection asked...then I felt my face wet...I felt and...my face was sliced from cheek, over my nose, to my other cheek. “You mean your family. You built that with Joy, I have no place in it and you know it. I know what I am going to do.” He said, jumping back and across the room, putting his hood on. “I’m going to undo the little good you’ve done since you’ve been here. Whatever the cost.” He said, snapping his fingers as both Nobodies and Unversed appeared...and four lances. Crap, he has all my abilities too...and an extra. “Do you really want to do this?” I ask him simply, ready to protect all I know and love from him. “Do you really want to do this?” I ask him, not even upset at Rejection or what he’s doing. “Ha. More than anything.” He said, from what I could see...he was smiling. Smiling like I’d seen the Psychopaths do. The Nobodies and Unversed came at me. “Ow…” I mutter, rubbing my forehead. “The fuck happened?” I mutter to myself, feeling a lot...happier for some reason. “You were hit hard by Nobodies and Unversed.” Trinity said, me realizing I’m in my bedroom and she was next to me on a chair. “Been out for a day.” “And Rejection?” I ask. “And my mastery test?” “Escaped. As for your test, the kid woke up and had no memory of what happened. In fact, he didn’t remember what happened for the past month, guess that’s when Drezke got to him. Either way, it counted to a pass, so congrats.” I smiled, feeling a lot happier than I should for some reason. “Sweet. Where are my fiances?” I ask, feeling really happy and wanting to set a date for our wedding. “Preparing wedding stuff. Mostly dresses. So, your darkness is gone...feel odd then?” “Well I feel happier for one.” I say simply. “I should be complaining about losing my darkness cause, again, that's important...but...I haven't felt this happy in a long time.” “Yeah. Here, this should help with some understanding.” Trinity said, an orb appearing, a large part of it dark, and a smaller, I’d say twenty percent, being light. “This is your heart normally, as you can see, your darkness is dominant. Your light part being all alone now, it’s emmeting energy it otherwise had to filter through your darkness.” “So I'm not depressed?” I ask curiously. “Cause honestly that sounds great.” “Yeah, pretty much.” Trinity said. “Finally.” I sigh out happily. “Feels like a massive weight is off my shoulders.” I tell her. “But while I am happy...are their any drawbacks?” “Well...for you, none off the top of my head. Welp, now that I am done training you, it’s time I head home and crash on my own bed for a spell. Later bro.” Trinity said as she teleported away. “Who do I have for Ethereal blades again?” I wonder to myself, completely forgetting about that while I got out of bed. “Eh, fuck it. I have wedding plans to help with.” I say while heading off for a shower first cause I reeked. After a quick shower and a new change of clothes I happily hummed and walked around my castle, seeing the colors of the castle being a bit brighter now. “Can't wait to marry them all….it's been too long.” I smile gently, but the things Joy told me that was really important seemed to be a massive pain in the ass...but right now Im glad to be happy right now. After a bit I opened the door to the kitchen, wanting something to eat. “Surprised at least Pinkie hasn't surprised me…” I mutter, wondering what those two be doing besides wedding stuff. I made myself a simple PB’N’J sandwich with some milk then sat down to enjoy my meal. I realized there was a Radio on the table so I turned it on. ”This just in, Now Nobodies are aiding the new found beings dubbed, Unversed, in Heartless attacks. Is there another besides the White Knight of Equis? Or has he somehow turned on us? Some witness speak of a black coated version of the Knight at the scenes of the attacks, but nothing solid has been confirmed. And now, the sweet, sweet vocals of Sapphire Shores.” “Oh…” I mumble, my happy mood starting to drop because of all the shit going on now. “First day of being happy...things are worse.” I mutter, eating my food. “I really should make a school to teach people...maybe Luxu can help.” I wonder. With my quick meal done I got up and did a bit of looking around. I saw some of my daughters, said hi and...somehow I am now at the world's largest Tea party. “Well...this is new.” I mutter, never actually having been in a tea party. It was nice to spend time with my kids. It was something I...didn’t do much of...at all now that I think of it. Man, wonder how Cript deal- Oh right, something about clones. ”Maybe I should try that cloning ability out sometime...at least it'll help give me time with my family...they deserve it.” I think to myself, really wishing I could spend time with my family but hero business always took up my time. Rejection sat atop a hill. There were many hills in this valley, all magic made. Memory served him right, that Monsters guild Ben had joined was here, and one by one it’s residents met their end. While the leader escaped, to his disatisfaction, he enjoyed the carnage. Their screams, all thinking he was here to just harm their master. No, he came to end them all with all he could kill dead, he incinerated the structure, all that was left behind was a scorched crater and ash. “Hmm Let’s see, what other worlds has Ben been too? Right, Knowhere… a den of criminals anyway, no one will miss it.” He said to no one, walking away from his work till he heard footsteps other than his own. He turned, Duskblade pointing to a hooded woman. “Spoiled Rich?” “Yes.” She replied, taking off her hood. “The real deal.” “So, what did I do to earn this punishment?” “Heh, so his sarcasm comes from you? Expected. I came to offer an alliance.” “For what?” “Information, something both Core and I find the constant need for. You have all Ben’s memories, I can give you resources, make you stronger, cruler.” “Interesting...and if I refuse?” “I’ll let you be on your merry way. After all, alliance or not, anyone wanting to harm these goodie goodies is a friend of mine.” “Hmm… Alright then, let’s cause some chaos.” Rejection said, smiling the Psychopaths smile yet again. To be continued... Nobody's getting tired of chapter names“I should tell the public I'm not against them...but I also should ask Luxu about helping me make a Keyblader school...” I mumble while looking over my list. “But I also have to help with wedding preparations...and figure out what weapon I'm gonna train with next…” I mutter, pacing back and forth while trying to figure out what to do. “Feel happy, but damn do I have a lot of stuff to do.” I sigh out. “Well it should be easy to ease the public at least.” Celestia said, reading a book. “A public speech from me, you, and Luna should settle them enough.” “Besides, Drezke took your darkness out and now it’s going wild. Who knows what Rejection is out there doing.” Twilight added, writing something down in a notebook. “Ben!” I heard someone shout before Momonga teleported in with his Guild Leader staff, all his best gear, and what I thought was a giant bag of holding on his back. “What's wrong?” I ask him, the Elder Lich seeming like he just saw death itself. “Rejection...he killed everyone…” Momonga told me, making me go stock still. “Oh no…” I mutter. “Even with all their strength and abilities...even when they were resurrected...he cut them all down…” Momonga told me in honest fear. “I've...never seen anyone that strong.” “Mother of fuck.” I sigh out, rubbing my temple. “Damn...he works too fast…” “Why did he attack you though, also, Ben...who is he?” Rarity asked. “Girls, this is Momonga, leader of the guild Ainz Ooal Gown. He's a friend I met on a world travel. He's a human like me but...he became like that from different circumstances.” I explain. “Well...I see Ben wasn't joking.” The Elder Lich says honestly. “But why he attacked...he said he was ‘taking care of Ben’s good deeds’.” Momonga told us. “So...he’s trying to ruin Ben’s good name?” Pinkie asked. “Um, guy’s…” We all turned to the doorway, seeing Gilda walk in. “I was just in the garage and that ship that was Braig’s is...going nuts, like an alarm going off.” “Ah shit.” I frown. “Sorry girls, talk to Momonga and tell him about our world, maybe give him a keyblade I don't know.” I say before bolting off towards Braig’s ship, hoping Rejection wasn't destroying Knowhere. When I arrived there was a rather loud alarm going off and a red light flashing from somewhere. I ran in and managed to turn it off and saw there was a message on the display. I clicked play, and a video with that alien woman thing that told Braig and I about where to find masters and gave him that weird weapon appeared. ”Braig, if you’re getting this that means Knowhere’ going to hell in a handbasket. Some look-alike of your apprentice is here just wrecking the place! Him and some group of chicks with scythes like Ramilua are massecuring everyone. They’re using those freaky monsters too. If you’re getting this, don’t come back here. I’ll likely dead, and I’m sending you coordinates to my wearhouse. Take it all you horder. She chuckled as the video ended. “No…” I mumbled, not believing Rejection would do this. “God damn it…” I sigh out. “I saved all the monsters thankfully...that world is probably burned to the ground…” I sigh out, before leaving the ship. “Damn it to hell.” I mutter, wondering what other world he's going to burn so he can become a Psychopath if that grin means anything. “I should warn everybody.” I mutter while rushing off to my fiances and friend. As I ran back to the room with my wives and Momonga were...and ran into a room where Spoiled clones were each holding someone at Scythe point by their necks...and Rejection sitting across the room. “Hi there Ben.” He said, reading a book and turning the page. “Let them go.” I tell them. “Your fight is with me, not them.” I frown, trying not to look scared at my loved ones and friend being held captured. “Oh relax, I’m not going to kill them, that would just be too easy now wouldn’t it?” He asked as he turned another page. “Funny, the whole time we were here, the book we read some were parodies of ones from earth. Everything is fanfiction I suppose.” “That depends on how you look at it.” I frown. “But why are you killing so many innocents?” I ask, not sure what to do with everyone at blade point. “And why are you here?” “I’m killing them because it’s what we thought about. And I’m here to remind you of that fact.” “The hell are you talking about? I didn't think about killing any of them.” I tell him, honestly confused on what he was talking about. “The people of Ainz Ooal Gown, everyone that lived on Knowhere...I never once thought about killing them.” “Heh, lie to yourself all you want.” He said, tossing the book behind him. “But I remember. Every time someone picked on us, shoved us, hit us, we got a brief flash, a little clip show, them, dead, with us over them. Their blood on our hands, it became a subconscious habit after a time. Any time anyone did something that triggers a snap or snark from you, there was that clip show, and no one was safe from it. Not even your beloveds here, especially when they left to try and train on another world. Man, that was some dark thoughts.” “LIAR!” I shouted at him. “I would never do something like that! Never!” I barked, glaring at Rejection but knowing if I made a move to attack everyone would get hurt. “Ah, but here’s the proof.” He said, pulling out a castle oblivion card. He tossed it on the floor and some kind of holo screen popped up...showing memories of mine...but, they were people that I remembered picked on me...and from my perspective...I was murdering them. “Kids, adults, teachers, didn’t matter who, if they wronged you, you thought of how to kill them.” “LIES!” I barked, tears filling my eyes and shaking my head. “This isn't true, that isn't something I would do.” “Really? Then pray tell, why did the clone of you god left on earth go so rouge? He was like you in every way, and he’s a Psychopath now. This,” Rejection said, walking up to me and pointing at the holo screen playing those...things. “Is our true nature, we crave blood, murder, carnage. Why deny what you are when you’ve seen a you that embraced it?” “Because…” I growled, my hands shaking in rage. “Because…” I say again, looking around to all my fiances and friend. “Because I have a family. I have friends. And I'd be damned if I chose such a path that would harm the people I care about.” I tell him, starting to calm myself down. “I have people who love and care about me, not people that a dick waffle like you would see as blood bags waiting to be ripped apart.” I told him bluntly. “I deny what you say because I'm not a Psychopath, I'm not someone who loves mindless bloodshed, and I'm not like you who's been crippling my life when everything looked terrible.” I explained. “That person maybe me, but he's someone that lost all hope in life and decided to mindlessly kill everything. That’s.Not.Me.” Rejection chuckled. “Maybe.” He said, summoning his Duskblade. “But that’s because you’re lacking me now.” The Spoiled’s all vanished, my family and friend being released as Rejection just stood across from me. “We are a host for them Ben, weather you and I are together when they come to claim us or not is irrelevant. Also, I figured I’d give you something from my trip to Knowhere.” Rejection said as he reached into his pocket, and pulled out a heart. “It’s that weapon dealer that you met, felt sentimental, so…” Rejection hand then pulsated with darkness...and crushed it, shattering like glass and fading away. “Just thought I’d share her last moments with you.” Rejection felt something cut him from one cheek to another. “You just don't understand how to leave well enough alone…” I say, Reunion in my hand and dripping with darkness from cutting Rejection. Rejection felt the cut across his face, and smiled. “Now that’s interesting. Very interesting.” He said, a DTD opening under him. He fell in and it closed just as fast as it opened. Reunion disappeared and I looked at the ground where Rejection left. “And...he's gone…” I muttered, my shoulders starting to shake as I tried to keep my tears at bay. “Damn it...damn it all…” I whisper sadly, looking at the others. “You all okay?” I ask, fearing they'll see me as a monster from those…’memories’. “We’re good, though, we should be asking you that.” Rainbow said. “Man, they told us about the people you deal with...but actually seeing one of them is…” Silence then drew an invisible line across her neck. “Yeah, that.” Rainbow agreed. “This is why I didn't want any of you involved in my problems.” I tell them. “But...please believe me, I didn't think of what Rejection said or showed...I'm not a Psychopath who wants to kill everyone…” I say, bordering on pleading for them to believe me. “Relax Ben, we believe you.” Luna said, the others agreeing. “Yeah, that Rejection is just a meanie.” Derpy said. “Has nothing else better to do other than hurt other people.” “Yeah…” I sniffle. “God...I have a lot of work to do…” I say sadly. “I have to tell the public about a keyblader school to help train people...I need to keep myself from breaking down half the time...and I need to help with wedding preparations…” I sigh out and rub my temple gently. “We can address the public about the Keyblade school and Rejection.” Celestia said, Luna nodding. “It’s true, the both of us telling it will not gain a word speaking otherwise.” Luna added. “I can help keep you sane~” Derpy said almost sing songy. “And the rest of us are already brainstorming wedding ideas and researching the cultures of our other soon-to-be-brides home nations.” Rarity added. “True.” I nod gently. “But I need Luxu, Terra, Aqua and Ventus on bored...even though Ventus is with his real family if memory serves and I sadly forgot where Terra and Aqua are…” I sigh out. “Where's the library?” Momonga asks curiously. “Down the hall, five doors to the left.” I say while pointing it out, the skeletal lich nodding and heading off to do some much needed research. “So...what should I do right now?” I ask the others, not entirely sure what to do and feeling like crap at the moment. “I’ll be happy to help.” Derpy said, coming up behind me and giving me a hug. “Been going to special pregnancy yoga classes so let’s see how well those classes are paying off~” “You girls are insatiable sometimes you know that?” I chuckle, nuzzling Derpy lovingly. “But...something to help take my mind off of stuff like this would be okay.” When I finished up with Derpy...that yoga is totally paying off, I went to check on things. I ran into Pinkie and Twin eating cereal in the kitchen. “Hi Ben.” Twin said. “Hello.” I say with a nod. “How are you two doing?” “We’re doing alright.” Pinkie said. “Yeah, went to get the mail, Luna and Celestia left a bit ago to Canterlot to address the public about your Keyblade school being built and to inform them about Rejection.” Twin added. “Also, you got this.” Pinkie said, handing me a letter...from Daybreak. “I mean...I know Joy’s in Daybreak but wonder why I got a letter…” I mutter while taking the letter and opening it, wondering what the message was. Dear Ben, Daybreak Council is summoning you as per request of our science division for research involving Nobodies. Please at your quickest convenience, reply a denial or arrive to agree or deny the request. If you do participate, Daybreak will supplement you accordingly. Signed. Twilight Sparkle. “Well looks like I'm going to Daybreak.” I say while folding the letter. “Hooray...at least everyone's got things covered hopefully.” I sigh out while summoning Reunion and opening a DTL to Daybreak. “Tell the others I'll be back, just gonna do some things.” I say while entering the door and it closed behind me. As I exited the door and entered Daybreak I looked around. “Okay...so where be the science division?” I mutter to myself, wondering if I'll see Joy here as well. I started to walk around, wondering if the people here were okay from the attack Joy told me about. Aside from some damage to streets and buildings, Daybreak seemed fine, repairs were being done quick and without inconvenience to shops and such. The people were all walking around like that attack didn’t happen. I finally made my way to the castle and upon entering, a receptionist lead me to the science division. Once there I saw people in lab coats walking around all over the place. “Yo, Twilight called me here.” I say to the people in lab coats, hoping to learn why I'm needed. “Over there, down the lab by the floating heart.” I looked, seeing Ansem the Wise pointing me in the right direction. “Can't wait.” I mutter while walking in the right direction to the heart. “This will be an interesting conversation…” Walking down the lab, passed machines and other scientists, I finally found Twilight and a heart floating next to her, she looked up and saw me. “Oh, Ben. Good, you made it.” “Greetings.” The heart spoke...in Core’s voice. “Howdy Core.” I say. “Hello Twilight, what do you need?” I ask, wondering what Nobody business needed to be talked about. “Well, as you know Daybreak has a lot of information on all sorts of enemies, Heartless, Dream Eaters, thanks to the Foretellers retrieving that lost information, but we still don’t have much on Nobodies, and lately with the recent attack of some hybrid Nobodies and the appearance of 13 and a whole new type of what seems to be a Nobody parasite, we need all the data we can gather.” Twilight explained. “I have no idea about the Nobody Parasite. Also Joy explained some things to me while he was here during the attack.” I say. “So what kind of tests do you need done? Cause...honestly I haven't summoned Nobodies in a while to be perfectly honest.” I say sheepishly. “Well it’s simple, follow me.” Twilight said, leading me, Core’s heart following, somehow, to a large machine with thirteen large containers, two of which were holding things, one holding...a Nobody slug, and the other...Roxas? “They were retrieved by Joy in the attack, he got that slug out of 13 there, and he’s been unconscious ever since. The slug itself has some very strange qualities. Anyway, the eleven other containers just put one of each of your nobodies in them and the machine will scan and identify them.” I raised an eyebrow, curious as to why Roxas was there and unconscious with the slug. “That's strange…” I mutter before snapping my fingers, the containers filling with each Nobody besides Medics or that weird wolf Nobody I kind of forgot about. “Roxas said…” I trailed off, confused on how he was still here. “He can use Keyblades, we have them over there.” Twilight said, I looked over and on a table were an Oathkeeper and Oblivion. “They haven’t disbanded either. A Spoiled clone was controlling both him, and the hybrid Nobodies in the attack. This is the only slug recovered, so we don’t know what happened. Joy tried to control them, but they resisted.” “Joy told me that there are Heartless inside them…” I say, starting to think. “Maybe it's because the heartless taking over the Nobody...that stopped him from taking control.” “That’s what I theorized, and when the Nobody should have been killed, the Heartless took over, able to control both their abilities, and the Nobodies. One thing that was seen was that every Heartless that was seen inside a Nobody was a Pureblood, none were emblem heartless.” “Maybe it's because Purebloods can morph to fit certain things?” I ask. “I mean, Emblem Heartless have a more defined and solid body...Purebloods are just shadows given a solid form...maybe they just shoved Purebloods into the Nobodies, and the Nobodies were nothing but suits…” I say, thinking about how such a thing was possible. “Well, we theorized that it’s the lack of Hearts, Nobodies are bodies without a heart, and Emblem heartless are hearts take by darkness, but Pureblood Heartless are just darkness, no hearts, so there’s no risk of some fusion mishap.” “True.” I nodded. “Jeez...first they abuse Darkness, then Void...now they want to abuse Nothingness? They understand none of the consequences their heading towards.” I frown. “So, anything else you need besides the Nobodies?” I ask, hearing them ask about their hearts. “Yes, we need you to examine the Nobody slug Joy captured, it’s right here.” Twilight said, walking over and leading me to a capsule that held a Nobody slug. “As far as we do know, only sentient life forms can have Nobodies, we want to know if at all this thing was sentient, or somehow a parasite they made into a Nobody.” “Right then.” I nod before raising my hand up. “Haven't done this in a while…” I mutter while my hand glowed white, trying to get a feel for the slug and sense if it had a voice at all. “And if this doesn't work at all...then my assistant can help.” I mutter, hoping my powers can help more than just looking at the Assistant for everything. I listened, normally hearing something right away but...Something’s not right. “Greetings.” I opened my eyes. I was in a black void of sorts, and behind me was Spoiled sitting on an old stone throne. “I figured you’d mess with my Parasite.” “Ah, Spoiled.” I nodded. “How are you doing?” I ask casually. “Good, Core was holding back on us. He had some experiments he never even brought out. I’ve been having fun with them.” “Maybe it's because Core, even in his life, had some boundaries and didn't want you all to know the shit he does.” I suggest. She grinned. “Whatever the case, the slug that Parasite came from came from a world called Rapture, they had them inside little girls, producing some special chemical. So, Core managed to produce a Heartless version of it, and the Nobody version you are using. The heartless version once inside a host produces mass amounts of Darkness, and the Nobody version allows control over the host it’s in, alive, dead, Nobody...or Heartless.” “Of course.” I sigh out, rubbing my temple. “So, let me ask you this. Why are you still fighting the Light when there’s dozens of worse things out there?” I ask her simply. “Like say Psychopaths that will kill you and everyone you follow for shits and giggles.” “Yes, the Psychopaths...Core’s main goal, unstable, and far too risky, uncontrollable. I’m after their...lesser half, just as powerful, far more controllable. Insanities. A Psychopath host half able to carry all that mentality and pain, while they don’t gain all the fancy blood spills, they get twisted and turned into something just as evil.” “That doesn't solve the fucking problem though.” I frown. “That's like saying ‘I'm not gonna eat cheese cake cause I'm on a diet, let me just eat red velvet cake instead’. You can't have it both ways without something fucking up royally.” She chuckled. “Then it’s a good thing I have a friend in this regard.” She said, A person emerged from the shadows behind her. It was a teenage girl, thin, short, black hair, ash grey skin, red pupils, grey whites. “This is Kora, she’s a special race called Sub-humans. While Cript and his family said all that is good, they aid all that is bad in the worlds.” Kora nodded. “I offered Spoiled here the information to control the Insanities, how to produce one, and when she has one under her thumb, I’ll show her how to put a Psychopath on a leash.” “Let me ask...why are a ton of people blind?” I ask curiously. “Why do a ton of people cause such pointless fucking wars, knowing full well it's pointless, but continue anyway? Why do people believe they can just dick around with things way above what they know and get away with it? Why?” I ask them. “Since you two seem so smart here and believe this shit.” “It’s a fact Ben.” I turned around, seeing Cript walk up next to me. “Kora, you’re doing well.” “Creator.” She bowed. “Wait, what?” Spoiled and I both said, looking at the two. “Excuse me but...some explanations are needed here.” I say worriedly. “I know you’re an admin and you create things but...wat?” I ask worriedly. “It was a long time ago Ben… to put it simply, there is one Fact that binds all the realities and life itself together. Do you know what that fact is?” “It better not be fucking hatred.” I frown. “War. Before there was anything, there were Admins, the first ever of their race. They just existed, did nothing but wait for nothing to come in a time when there wasn’t even void. One day, one of them discovered Code, the building blocks of everything...and soon after, Death, murder. That gave birth to the Psychopaths, and War. They nearly wiped themselves out completely. Those who survived split their reality into the infinite we live in now, and split off into many groups. The group my old boss came from for a time lost Code, and found it again generations later, and generations for an Admin...it’s incalculable. Not all of them could use it properly, but those that could created their own realms, the original Admin of this realm made it to constantly create and operate without any overseeing whatsoever. “It was like that for eternity...till I came along, every reflections of me born to become a Psychopath or Insanity...save for me. My whole reason for existing was to tip the scale of balance, for the worst, but me defying my reflective destiny changed a lot, but I still tipped the scale, this time though...for good...or so I fully thought. I realized that War is a fact no reality can’t exist without, every world has war, it’s a Fact, like Psychopaths, Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel. All facts constantly being replayed in every way. When I beat my realms Cain, the first Psychopath in my realm, and Joshua, the first Insanity of my realm, I tipped the scales too much. Light was taking over darkness, stars grew too big, matter itself was becoming unstable, so, I spawned in countless Shadow Creatures to balance it out quickly, but it was temporary, I needed something that can keep my, and my families tipping the scales into the light even with darkness...and from there, I made the Sub-Humans, not directly to attack, just find darkness existing, and make it grow into something to start another war to balance out a realm. “Not my proudest moment, not by far, but necessary. They do what is needed to keep light in check, and I and my family do what is needed to keep the dark in check, a War neverending, for creation itself can’t exist without it. Sad and fucked up I know, but that’s Creation.” I looked at him, at the Sub-human, and at Spoiled. “Huh…” I start. “And here I told Core that books don't mirror life. But I guess I was wrong and how absolute bullshit everything is!” I bark and fling my arms in the air. “You can have balance without War! Why do people forget that, I mean fuck. War, as it has been explained by both songs, people, writing and history, is that war is, nine times out of ten, a massive mistake that can turn what once was supposed to do something important, into mindless bloodshed that helps no one!” I tell them. “I haven't been alive for fuck knows how long, but I know, for a fact, that life could continue in balance without War. Besides, it's shit like this,” I motion to literally nothing in particular. “That's causing all of this! Now I know you could say that War is a self fulfilling prophecy, and christ knows how bullshit easy stopping some of those can be, but come on. The more you feed War the more pointless it seems! Why feed into a damned idea when it does nothing more than kills and destroys so much and solves so fucking little!?!” I shout, barely knowing anything about the greater scheme of things and Cript knew that, but I needed to vent hard. “...A million years Ben.” Cript said, gaining my attention. “To prove a Fact wrong takes one planet to live without it for one million years. You think you can make a world, and make it go that long without War, or Murder?” Cript asked me. “Cause by proving a fact wrong, will cause all Creation to rewrite how it holds itself together, and what it could use might be worse than just War and Murder. Ben, in my opinion, we are already in the best option.” “My power is Nothingness, so I am outside the realm of Light and Darkness. Balance, Harmony, Equality, such things have been talked about, preached, represented, and so much more for so long...how can those be worse?” I ask him. “Everything has a good and bad side to it...but having Light look good and Darkness look evil in so many ways only makes the ‘best option’ look a tad worse. Shits not black and white.” I tell him. Cript chuckled, and gave me a smile. “I was hoping one of you kids would try and outdo me. Make me proud Ben, and here, a good luck charm.” He said, handing me a Keychain, it was a black Biohazard Symbol. “I’ll let you wrap this up, and Kora?” “Yes?” Kora asked. “Make things interesting, can’t be too easy for them.” She chuckled. “It’s what I was made for.” WIth that, both Kora and Cript vanished. “Well that was...informative.” Spoiled said. “So all creation is held by war...and you want to change that?” “Of course.” I tell her. “Someone's gotta do it, can't be like this forever.” I say honestly. “Only a blind retard would say everything is perfect while seeing world's be turned into barren wastelands covered in billions of corpses. Even if your the winner...would all the deaths, sacrifices, destruction, and loss be worth it? What would you do with all the power in your victory...and end up with nothing?” I ask ask her. “Laugh. After all, the Winner in this war, claims the life of All of Creation. I used to think life itself was rather pointless, so, might as well make it null entirely. Oh Rejection.” Someone grabbed my shoulder, turning around, I saw Rejection there...he was mutated, Dragoon wings sticking out of his back, an arm like a Berserker, and a mouth like a Dusks. “Till next time Ben!” Using his Berzerker arm, he slammed me to the ground. I blinked, nearly jumping as I found myself back in the Lab, Twilight next to me. “What happened, you were focusing for a while.” She asked. “Got an information dump, told a creator of existence I'm going to rewrite existence and show him facts are retarded…” I trail off and shook my head. “Just a bunch of things.” I say while looking at my hand, seeing the Biohazard keychain there. “Wonder why Cript gave me this…?” I think to myself. “Anyways, apparently those things are Parasites, made in Rapture. Nobodies can control practically anything, from Nobodies to Heartless, dead or alive.” I tell her. “Wow...that’s...amazing. Bad, but amazing! I’ll go inform Ansem and we’ll compile the data.” Twilight left, and I looked at the Keychain. Curious, I summoned Reunion. “Okay...let's see.” I mutter while switching keychains. “I hope I didn't fuck up.” I mutter worriedly. What appeared was a black Keyblade, black tendrils crawling up the handle, forming the blade and wrapping around each other rather tightly til it reached the tip, a large black biohazard symbol wrapped in the dark tendrils. I then checked the Assistant. Biohazards Curse. One of Cript’s Soul Blades, it gaines extra strength from the wielders own darkness. Att: 8 (Base) (With Darkness +0: No darkness in Wielder) Def: 5 (Base) (With Darkness +0: No Darkness in Wielder) Mag: 4 (Base) (With Darkness +0: No Darkness in Wielder) “Interesting.” I say while switching back to Reunion. “Getting more Keyblades technically but most aren't Nothingness based...not surprised though.” I mutter, putting the Biohazard keychain in my pocket. “So...what to do now?” I mutter, finally knowing the name of the thing God had that Core wanted. With that done I headed back home, finding Luna and Celestia with notebooks and calendars all around...they were thin too… ”I missed...a lot didn't I?” I ask them both. “No.” Luna said. “Den came by when you were gone and told us about this new thing they are doing called the Mother program. For every wife you have, a sort of combination clone is made, and stores all the babies. They will get birthed through us, but are safe in the clone at Cript’s house.” “Seems fitting, this way the girls can all pick back up Keyblade training.” Celestia added. “After all, fighting pregnant is...tricky…” “Ah.” I nodded. “So I had an...eventful time.” I shrug. “When do you not?” Luna giggled. “Come on, we’re planning dates.” “As in?” I ask. “And what about the people? Are the okay with everything?” “Yes, they have calmed down for now, and the School is under construction in New Manehattan. Luxu is currently training Sans and some of the new monster residents so they can be teachers. Should take him a month he said.” “And what about Ainz? He doing okay?” I ask. “He’s...dealing with the grief, but is studying all we have on Equestrian history.” Celestia said. I was about to say something, but a sudden loud explosion stopped me. “The hell?” I frown. “Wrong spell Twilight!” I heard Momonga tell Twilight, making me look outside the window and seeing Ainz with Crown of Guilt in one hand and his guild leader staff floating next to him, looking at Twilight with what could have been a grin on his skeletal face. “Sorry.” She replied sheepishly, looking at the crater where something used to be. “Well...looks like he's doing stuff.” I say with a little grin. “Twilight probably asked him about his magic...but who gave him a Keyblade?” I ask the two sisters. “Luxu.” Celestia and Luna replied. “He figured he’d be a good teacher also.” The sound of lightning hitting a tree happened. “Wrong spell Twilight!” Momonga laughed. “But I'm surprised you casted Call Greater Thunder.” He said honestly. “Well his spells are different then Equestria’s…” I mutter. “So anyways, I should probably go to New Manehattan to check on things there...and hopefully stop beating myself with the incident…” I sigh out. “Well first come here so we can schedule some dates, and by dates I mean when you’ll be picking up your extra wives.” Celestia said. “Yes, we sent letters to all the kingdoms and they all came back in agreeance, though the Zebra kingdom asked for a favor first before they hand you their eldest daughter in marriage.” “Oh, dating is always a think I have sadly skipped out on...which brings up the dates I missed with all of you besides Coco and Brigid.” I point out. “So, what's the favor?” “They require a special book, it’s something that was lost to them ages ago, but is believed to be somewhere in their kingdoms southern borders, though no one goes there due to both monsters having been there for ages, and now Heartless.” “Sounds like an adventure.” I nod. “What's the book? Special history? Magical tome? An old kings favorite lewd story?” I ask with a smile. “It’s from the Alicornian era, and the legends say it tells of weapons they believe relate to your Keyblade. If that’s true, it could be a lost piece of Keyblade history from before the war.” “Sweet.” I nod. “But first, dates. Gonna need to know the days I'll meet new ladies, plow, and then propose to as per usual.” I chuckle. “God I am way too fast with women…” I sigh out. “Well the Zebra lands will be the one that lasts the longest, so we’ll head there first next week, after that we hit the Merponies, and the Hippogriffs after that, then the Minotaurs, the Yaks, Saddle Arabia, and lastly the Deers. It should take up no more than a month and a half.” Celestia said. “Question...is there a ‘Queen of Monsters’ on this world?” I ask them curiously. “Cause while there are a lot of normal animals there are a ton of ‘monsters’.” I point out, putting quotation marks around monster. “Well…” Celestia started. “From what Chrysalis told me, there was once a royal family to the monsters, but the heir is in hiding after their parents were slain by Tirek over two thousand years ago. We can only assume they passed long ago. All Chrysalis knew about the Heir of Monsters was that they were a Centaur type beast like Tirek.” “So don't be surprised if I come home with a female centaur lady.” I tell them. “Cause if we know anything, sometimes the impossible happens near me.” I say with a smile. “I’ve come to love that about you.” Luna said, giving me a happy smile. “Then, we give the new brides a month to settle in, then the wedding.” “Right.” I nodded. “It's been long enough since I proposed, I'd like to be officially married.” I tell them. “So, first up, Zebrica.” “We leave for that next week, after all, we’re all going for this and Luxu wanted to talk to you, then Den was gonna stop by to show you our Mother...that sounds weirder than I expected.” Luna said. “Is it because you can now openly say you've tasted the Sun?” I ask with a cheeky grin. “Gross!” Luna yelled. “Tia may be my co-wife, but she’s still my sister.” “Yes...that was rather awkward Ben…” Celestia agreed. “Oh that's bad, but this isn't?” I ask, going into my pocket and putting Rune’s fetish book down. “I found it, she wasn't hiding it for some dumbass reason, and I looked at two pages, and was out. I can imagine all of you have a bunch of common likes in there.” I huff. “Well yes.” Celestia said. “Being bloated with babies leaves...not much else to do when you’re gone Ben.” Luna added. “Main reason why we accepted the Mother program was to do things easy and without worrying about the pretty much infinite bundles inside us. Why else did you think we were on you all the time?” “Because you women don't know what ’stop’ means half the time?” I ask. “I know you all enjoy our fun times but...sweet christ do you all need it a bunch, even before you were all pregnant.” “Well I’m just horny, Twilight was reading too much erotica, Pinkie is also just horny, and Rarity was happy to have a stable relationship.” “And Zecora, Honora, Derpy and Gilda?” I ask her. “I know Derpy can barely keep herself off me...but still.” “Well, Den set up the same thing for Joy and his girls, so he’s in for a surprise when he gets back.” Luna said. “A Mother program I mean. Gets those girls back into training.” “And the other thing you didn't mention.” I shrug. “But anyways, got to meet Luxu today right?” “That’s right big man!” Luxu’s voice called behind me, and I received a rather hard slap on the back. “So I hear your knot is finally getting tied.” “I'm not sure if your making a pun given I'm half dire wolf.” I frown. “But how you doing Luxu? Time doing okay?” “Yeah, she’s in Daybreak getting copies of some much needed books for the school. Anyway, I am here to tell you I am throwing you a bachelor party.” “And...did you happen to meet about thirty other people saying they want to help with their brothers bachelor party?” I ask, remembering either Trinity or Cript telling me the Admin side of my family would help throw me a bachelor party. “Yes actually, those of us that can attend this are making it...Can’t say, the rating on this story is too low.” “Well…” I start, looking off to the unknown fourth wall. “Eh, maybe they'll make a side story for all the lewd stuff.” I say. “Damn...I'm getting too used to people breaking the fourth wall.” I shook my head. “So, I’ll see you for the party the day you come back after wife collecting. FYI it’ll be off world for reasons I also can’t say cause of the rating. Later!” Luxu said, snapping his fingers as a DTL opened behind him. “See you then!” He said as he walked into it and it closed. “Riiiiight….” I mutter. “So...that's a thing.” “Well Den is gonna throw us a Bachelorette party.” Luna said. “So looks like we’re all gonna be having some fun~” “Right then.” I nod. “So after that, we got some more planning to work on here.” “We already have a Zeppelin being prepared.” Celestia said. “And I’ve been looking around for nannies...lots of nannies to take care of all the babies and kids. That includes Joy and his girls.” “I...doubt I could just summon Nobodies to help out right?” I ask nervously. “Well...I just prefer...Your Nobodies just creep me out.” Celestia admitted. “Okay fine.” I say. “Hmm…” I mutter, thinking about how I can help here. “I have a...stupid idea.” I say while taking off my cloak and summoning Reunion. The cloning ability Cript showed me coming to mind and knowing full well how it works. “Now don't panic…” I say before taking a deep breath to steel my nerves. I quickly cut off my left arm, hoping this starfish clone thing will work. “Ben what the?!” Celestia and Luna yelled. ”THAT HURT!!!” I yelped mentally, my arm on the ground beginning to grow while...I grew a new arm. After a few minutes there was a new arm on me...and another me… ”Wow...I can see through his eyes too as well as mine...that’s...weird….wonder if this is how Spiders see?” “...Okay...how?” They both asked, looking between me and my naked clone. “First, I need clothes.” My clone says nervously, his face beat red. “It's an ability Cript showed me. Helps be a father to all the children.” I say while flexing my newly regenerated arm. “Fuck that hurt.” I frown. “Works like starfish regeneration, but it's like I'm in two places at once in more ways than one.” I say while giving my clone a cloak to cover himself at the moment. “So...any questions besides that?” “So...he’s another you...are you two linked in any way?” Luna asked. “Like, telepathically or…?” Celestia continued/asked. I think about it, but also hear my clone think as well. “I believe it works like my connection with Joy mentally, and I can also ‘take over’ the clone so there's that…” “And we won’t know if you-you...are with us cause I’m assuming they are like you in every way?” “That’s right!” We all turned around, seeing Den walk in. “You each get your own Ben, exactly like him, which means no waiting for turns in the bedroom.” That made Celestia and Luna look at one another. “Don't change gender though.” I frown. “I don't know what would happen if you did that and I'd rather not learn that.” “They become their own person.” Den said. “It changes them from the other clones so they begin to become their own persons.” “Right then.” I nodded. “I'm gonna get changed real quick.” My clone says before bolting off. “So now there's a second me running around.” I nod. “If those clones mean little to no sharing in bed we all better be getting one.” Luna said. “I admit, won’t be lonely when you’re gone, we each get our own you...and if we want to get kinky hey, there’s more than one you to go around~” Celestia said with a grin. “No.” I frown. “But I also made a clone so...I could be the father I sadly can't be most of the time.” I sigh out sadly. “Alright...but don’t be surprised if you wake up and we each have one of our own.” Luna said. “I will cut you.” She said with a chuckle. “That's wrong...in too many ways.” I shake my head, feeling disturbed, saddened, and creeped out at how she so casually said it. “Relax, I’m joking...But I really hope you do that for us, waiting for Pinkie to say she’s done so you can move onto the next one of us is kinda annoying, I mean, sure Rarity, Twilight and some of the others, we fool around waiting for you but still…” “I know.” I nod. “Trust me, I know.” I chuckle. “But don't expect me to do it often, cause that really hurt.” I tell them. “We’ll give you some time, at least now with two of you in bed it will go better. We’ll give you some time then.” “Well, now that that’s taken care of I’m here to show you your and Joy’s Mother program, come along Ben.” Den said, opening a portal with a wave of her hand. “Right.” I nod. “See ya later.” I wave to Celestia and Luna before entering the portal. When Den and I came out there were...babies. Babies everywhere. All in their own beds sleeping or playing with stuffed animals. “This is the Nursery, literally the safest place here in the house, to get in here, you have to either be one of Cript’s wives, registered kin, or licenced Nanny, nurse, etc.” “For some reason ‘Lammy’ comes to mind being a nanny here.” I say. “Not sure way...maybe it's because of UmJammer Lammy…” I mutter, thinking of that old PS1 spin off game of Parappa the Rapper. “They’re this way.” Den said, leading the way through the ENDLESS isles of infants. “Ba!” I looked at my feet, and saw a small black coated, red maned pony foal there looking up at me. “Hello.” I smile gently at the small foal, noting the foal had four hooves instead of like the ponies on my world. “Ba!” He said again. “Blake, you little sneak.” Den said, picking him up. “Now where’s your sister?” “Bo!” I nearly jumped back as a red coated filly crawled out from my cloak, she had a white mane with a green strip that went around and behind her ear. “Sneaky little foals aren't they?” I chuckle a little. Den took the filly also. “Ben, this is Nyx, and Blake, the first babies born in this family ever. Technically they should be like, five now but they’re as powerful as Cript so they actually keep themselves as babies for fun.” The foals then giggled. “Well whatever makes the two happy.” I smile. “Yeah, occasionally they are the age they should be but majority of the time they’re in their foal forms. They like to explore.” “Must be a small pain to keep track of these two while they try exploring a bunch.” I say. “Heh, we don’t even try anymore, they vanish for a little bit and come back with pets, random stuff….and a new wife for Cript once...that one we were weirded out by.” “Honestly...if I was in that situation I would have laughed.” I shrug. “Just seems so out there, two adorable baby's helping get their father a wife? That seems both touching, a tad weird, and funny at the same time.” “I know, woman wasn’t sure what happened either, one minute she’s fighting dragons to save a village on her world, next these two appear, turn the dragon into a kitten and bring her here.” I chuckle at that. “Wow, that is funny.” I smile. “But...how do you all manage to take care of so many kids?” I ask curiously, so many adorable children being adorable around me. “Same as Cript manages us, clones. Around us are just the newborns, we actually have a whole dimension filled with clones of each wife, and Cript, where we raise them with one or two of their siblings in the same roof...hard to explain but we parent them all, each wife has a whole world in that dimension filled with clone them, a Cript, and one to three kids to raise under each house, and they all come here to learn when they’re old enough. Time is also weird in that dimension, sometimes they’re ten for five years, sometimes the next day comes along here and they’re eighteen already.” “Things are weird.” I shrug. “But I have a Mother to find?” “Yes, now run along you two trouble makers.” Den said to Blake and Nyx, who giggles before vanishing in a puff of smoke. Den chuckled. “Kids.” With that we walked a time longer before we came across a floor mat...everywhere else was soft rug. Den and I both stood on it before I blinked and we were now in some kind of...hallway? There were pods, not like the ones from Kingdom Hearts, more like...cryogenic pods. There were three pods, and Den walked me to the second one, which held a pony mare sleeping inside it, she had golden hair, and was white coated like Celestia. “This is your Mother.” I looked down, realizing A, she’s naked, and B, she’s got the nine month pregnancy belly. “Huh…” I mutter. “So...this is the Mother...mind if I get an explanation on somethings about her?” I ask curiously. “Sure, what do you want to know?” “To start of with...who is she?” I ask. “She’s sort of a clone, when your wives all agreed to being in the Mother Program, DNA was collected to make her. She’s a mix of all your current wives, and any new wives gained she will acquire their DNA magically, and become linked to them so you knock both her and your wives up, think of it as despite screwing different women, they all now share a womb, her.” “Why is she in cryosleep?” I ask. “Well that’s because she technically is a vegetable. The Mothers, when being made, their DNA also gains them the memories of everyone that makes them up...they can’t handle that, they get confused and try to mix their identities or pick one in particular and fail. Having them sleep here, it’s easier for them, otherwise they’d drive themselves mad trying to make an identity.” “That's...upsetting.” I say worriedly. “I know, Cript is trying to workaround the issue so they can be a part of the family’s they hold the infants for, but dealing with memories is a mix of the mind and the heart, something Cript doesn’t have that much experience in. So far wiping their memories would work, implant basic ones so they can be normal, like waking up with amnesia, but that’s not all that much better.” “Have you tried...ya know talking to them about it?” I ask. “Being there for them and helping them sort through everything?” “Yeah, the first Mother prototype...well, she wasn’t connected to us yet, and she left. Having all our DNA, memories...and some of our abilities. She just...vanished. Cript is looking for her, but she’s part admin, DNA of his. We have no idea where she is.” I thought for a moment. “I sadly don't know all my mother's but...where's the first and last place you would look for her?” I ask. “Cause she has all your memories...I think...and I'm not a philosopher or anything...but I think she's searching for something important...something to make her feel...like her.” I say, not sure if I'm correct or not just feeling like it was the right thing to say. “She’s got all of Cript’s wives memories...there’s countless of us, and when she was made there were about a billion back then… We just have to find her and hope she isn’t in trouble. It’s...weird, really. The wives, Cript, we all did this one thing where we all fuzed into the same body, that’s where the Mother Program idea came from, but we operated perfectly. Can’t figure out what’s wrong.” Den sighed. “Anything else?” “One of my fiances said that they can still give birth through themselves if they want...is that true?” I ask curiously. “Yes. The babies are made in your wives, once conceived the fertilized eggs are sent into her, where they grow into babies, then when they want to give birth, a Baby, randomly picked, get put back into them, and is birthed out naturally.” “Right.” I nodded. “Will there...ever be a time when I can meet her as a person?” I ask. “That’s what Cript is working on, he just needs to find that missing link that can let them have all those memories, and form an identity of their own. After that they can come out, talk, be with others, but funny enough can’t have sex.” “What did your Mother look like?” I ask Den. “I'm just curious is all.” I say, thinking about what I could do to help out. “Like her.” Den said, pointing over to the first pod. Inside was a small human woman, with the same golden blond hair as my Mother. “That’s also how we all looked when we fuzed.” “Have you dived into their dreams?” I ask Den. “I'm not good at dreams but…” “Yeah, it’s playbacks of memories on loops. Over there is Joy’s Mother.” Den pointed to the last pod, where a much younger wolf girl was. She also had the gold blonde hair, but was a wolf girl. “Huh...well too bad Joy isn't here to see this.” I say simply. “Yeah. Don’t know where the gold hair comes from though.” “Humanity?” I ask curiously. “Isn't it's colors blue and gold?” “No, Humanity power, raw, typically has a dull white color.” “Ah…” I say with a little nod. “Then...I've got nothing.” I shrug. “I barely understand this whole thing, and I'm the guy who is telling people that I'm gonna do the impossible like a jackass.” “Heh, well, good luck with that. Come on, let’s got you home.” Den said, opening a portal that we both walked through. I exited and saw my clone there, wearing just jeans and a shirt with a big number two on it. “Yo.” My clone says. “Yeah this isn't gonna get awkward anytime soon.” I sigh out. “Anyways, I'm home...technically.” I call out sheepishly, letting the others know I'm here besides my clone. “Well that didn’t take long.” Celestia said, sorting out papers. “I’ve had your clone helping me but I still feel like something in these orders are off?” “What do you mean?” I ask. “Do I need to get Twilight to sort things out again?” “Here, read this.” Celestia said, handing me one of the papers. Materials Order Form 900 Oricalculum Plus 700 Oricalculum 700 Mythril Crystal 700 Dense Crystal 700 Twilight Crystal 800 Serenity Crystal Please deliver directly to the Royal Guard Armory upon arrival to the palace. “The guard early orders raw materials, especially in such bulk. The rest of the forms state they’re to improve enchantments and durability of their weapons and armor, but typically we send them to the Blacksmiths over in Filiedeflhia.” “Either someone wants to mass produce Ultima Weapon keyblades...Luxu put the keyblade forge their for some dumbass reason...or something very bad is gonna happen.” I say worriedly. “I should head up to Canterlot and look into this...I found some reports for raw materials hidden away by one of the blacksmiths in Canterlot...I knew something was going wrong...“ “But don’t you need a Moogle to Synthesize an Ultima Weapon?” My clone asked. “For as long as we’ve been here, we haven’t seen a one.” “That...raises several questions on where Moogle’s are in this reflection but all you need is the materials, a keyblade forge, and a good blacksmith to make shit.” I say. “I'll be back, I gotta make sure our world isn't selling bad guys materials to start a war.” I say, opening a big window and summoning my glide and rushing off to Canterlot, wondering what sort of conspiracy is going on. “Have the materials arrived yet?” A stallion in royal guard armor asked another. “Yes Lieutenant Spear, we’re having our guest craft the weapons as we speak.” “Good.” “Also, sir...she’s in your office.” “Ah, I was expecting her.” Spear said, heading off into the castle, past the guard barracks and training rooms, into his office. When Shining armor got married to Princess Cadence and became a prince, he took over the guard, but was still ranked Lieutenant since Shining kept his Captain position, despite being a prince. Inside his office, once the door was closed, a small, cloaked figure appeared. “Greetings, where’s Spoiled?” “Had other matters to attend to.” They spoke, their voice that of just a young girl. “Ah, so, did you bring them then?” The small figure raised her hand, and appeared a Kingdom Key. “Grand.” “Making them was easy once we finally acquired the proper fuel, Castle Oblivion began pumping out the copies with max results, sadly though, they are still just fakes.” She said, tossing Spear the False Kingdom Key. “Fake or not, they will be enough to drive away the Heartless and Nobodies the White Knight can’t get to, after all, he’s too busy screwing the Princesses to patrole what’s left of Equestria. So, just replace the Keychains and-” “They will change, though, they won’t be as strong as the original.” “I see. Well, no matter, once this has been completed Spoiled will have her side of the deal.” “Remember, Ben’s not going to fall easy.” “I’m aware. But Rejection will get Ben’s heart, and we’ll see how the prince of Nobodies takes being one himself.” To be continued... Nobody's whole“The guards better not be going behind the people's backs.” I mumble while landing near the royal guard barracks, worried the guards are working for Spoiled so they could protect them from things like Spoiled. “Lets hope I'm wrong.” I mutter while walking in, hoping to meet the head guard, summoning my shield just in case. One of them spotted me, his mane was blue and his coat orange. “Oh, White Knight, or should we be calling you Prince now considering…?” He asked. “All of my fiance’s are pregnant yes.” I tell him. “But calling me prince? Well if you want considering the guards got a shit ton of raw materials without rhyme or reason given.” I say simply, looking around the place with my guard up. “I know I'm not around as much as I should, but life and much worse things keep me busy.” “Oh that, come on, I can show you.” He said, leading me into the warehouse, where I saw ponies of all kinds hammering on armors and weapons. “The Guard got a bonus for our budget to go towards weapon improvements, magic enchanted gems and magical materials are hammered into the weapons and armor to increase their durability, and damage. Been something we always talked about but never had the funds for till now.” I nod. “Sounds good. I suppose you all heard Celestia and Luna talk about the Keyblader school I'm going to open?” I ask him. “Yeah...actually, it’s where the extra funding came from...after Manehattan, us no longer having to spend bits on training for officers up there there was...extra…” He said, trailing off. “At least some good came out of it.” ”Then who's the fuck peddling off the materials to the bad guys to give you all Keyblades?” I ask him simply, taking a shot in the dark here. He gave me a look of pure confusion. “Um...come again?” “Celestia and Luna told me the massive amount of materials would be going to Fillydelphia to be worked on by the blacksmiths there, not here, and especially in such bulk.” I tell him. “Don't you think that's a bit strange? That so many materials in such bulk was being sent here instead of the usual blacksmiths?” “I...still don’t know what you are talking about...But our usual blacksmiths are going under, Manehattan was their main supply line, and with it gone they had to pay more for direct deliveries for their materials and couldn’t afford it anymore...and what in bulk? There was only a hundred or so Mythril gems sent to boost the armor and weapons.” “Where's the highest ranking guard here?” I ask him simply. “That would be Lieutenant Spear, after Captain Shining and his wife went to the Crystal Empire to help it get back on track and modern, he was assigned in charge.” “Where can I find Lieutenant Spear? Cause he's hiding a lot of shit.” I frown. “Uhh...His new office is past the barracks, just down the hall that way.” He pointed me in the direction and I headed there quick. “Shit, this cheeky fuck probably made a deal with Spoiled already.” I mutter, rushing quickly to the office. ”If he's peddling off materials...shits not going to end well.” I think to myself worriedly. I arrived at the office and knocked. “Come in.” I entered, seeing an older, hardened stallion there, his mane a dark violet and coat a pale pink. “White Knight, what brings you to my office?” “You mean besides the fuck ton of materials your peddling off to the people that want to destroy this planet?” I ask. “If not just that did you hear about the fact I'm opening a keyblader school?” “My lad, I have a feeling you don’t trust me.” He said, almost grinning. I show him the paper listing all of the materials he got. “I have ten copies back home, so let me ask why one guard told me you only got one hundred mythril gems and this entire list in non-existent?” I ask him simply, knowing this is a trap. “Ah, Well those materials are for a special side project my lad. You see, I came across a recipe for something called an Ultima Weapon, naturally it intrigued me, and when I made it, I was rather disappointed all I got was this.” He said, pulling out a Keychain from his pocket. “Then, I did this.” He said, putting it on his sword, and it changed into the Ultima from Kingdom Hearts one. “And was rather happy.” “Listen…” I sigh out. “I know why your doing this, believe me I do...but you do know the consequences of giving someone wanting to destroy all life as we know it materials and a side of the deal.” I tell him. “This war is a lot bigger, and much worse than you think.” I say, readying to summon Reunion at a moment's notice to protect myself from him or the person who's obviously going to appear behind me. “Lad, were using all these materials to produce these.” He said, shaking Ultima. “After all, if all the guard and officers in the land have weapons like yours, wouldn’t that make things easier for you?” “And where did you get a Keyblade forge?” I ask. “I don't remember Luxu telling me anything important like that.” “My lad, we don’t have one. We have a friend crafting them for us.” “Spoiled Rich?” I ask him simply. “Or one of her followers that want to see all life die.” He seemed to flinch, barely noticable. “No, but I’m glad you asked, please, follow me.” He said, getting up and leading me out of the office. Walking back across the hall, and reached a door that had a number pad code lock. He entered the code and it opened. Inside the room was boxes of Ultima Weapon Keychains, materials...and a Moogle? “Found the little guy wondering the streets, said he was looking for work, a place to set up a shop. We made a deal, he crafts and sells us the items he wants, he gets the money, and so far it’s worked out great.” “I'll give you a hundred million money and a bigger and better shop.” I tell the Moogle, wondering if it was a real Moogle of it reacted to such a gift. “Nah, I’m good here.” The moogle replied, floating over to the materials and grabbing some. “Been here a week and already I’m a Master Synthesizer!” “Cool.” I nodded. “So Lieutenant, tell me...how do you know Spoiled Rich?” I ask simply. “And don't lie, I saw you flinch. I bet Rejections hiding here somewhere for the obvious ambush cause he really wants my head.” “Hm, glad you asked.” He said, snapping his fingers and the door closed and locked behind him. “You see, my name isn’t just Spear, it’s Speared Milk...Spoiled was my sister…then Manehattan...and then, she came back from the dead.” “Oh~.” I say. “No wonder why your so eager to help her kill everyone, including your niece, who you completely forgot about when she nearly killed herself in grief over her death, and Silvers death. Good thing Joy saved her though...she's a great kid.” I tell him simply, summoning Reunion and preparing for a fight. “Dating Joy actually, never seen her so happy.” “Yeah, I never gave a crap about that needy little twit. The sister I lost in Manehattan loved her, but I didn’t. I was never close to my family, in fact, when I heard about Spoiled being a victim of Manehattan, I laughed. The Spoiled that came to me, I think her more kin than the one I was given. I’d almost say I care for her. Almost.” I sigh out. “But of course you're one of those crazy people. So, what did you promise Spoiled? My head? My heart? The world itself?” I ask him simply, my senses on high alert for anything. “I promised her your heart, so that other you Rejection can crush it, and leave you a Nobody. From what I am told you are the prince of Nobodies, so why not become one?” “Rejection should have already said I was one already.” I said simply. “Come on out Rejection, I know your going to pull some cliche bullshit on me here.” I frown, ready to defend myself against the abomination. “He’s not here, and personally I’m glad, quite the ugly little shit he’s let Spoiled turn him into. And all for you, my my, the fans you gather.” “Oh trust me, I get a lot of fans, some that are good, and some that aren't good.” I say. “So...what are you going to do now? Fight me or something?” “Nah. I feel it’s clear to anyone, I’m outmatched, my blood will be on your hands, turn me in, the guard will be in chaos, right now we are barely keeping those gangs at bay. Kill or turn me in, the guard falls into disorder, long enough for them to step up, take over. Care to take that risk?” “Funnily enough I can actually take that risk.” I say simply. “And it could take...about twenty minutes or so before shit hits the fan.” I tell him. “So, willing to come quietly?” I ask, knowing full well somethings gonna happen. “Nah, I’d rather make it harder for you.” He said, taking out a dagger...and slicing his throat, falling over dead. I frown, buying a Phoenix down and using it on him, reviving him as I took away his weapons. “Not happening today douche canoe.” I say while binding his hands in light chains. He didn’t say anything, in fact he was rather...too silent. I looked at his eyes, seeing they were...empty. I then looked at his dagger, which was now flashing white...fast. “Fuck.” I mutter while encasing the thing in Nothingness, Light and Ice to keep it from causing a massive explosion. Not convinced, I grabbed the moogle and got out of there, just in time for it to go off, the whole side of the building exploding, the already made Ultima Weapon Keychains shooting out everywhere like shooting stars across the sky. “Oh boy...that’s not good.” The moogle said. “How bad is it?” I ask, having a feeling that was a signal of some kind. “Please tell me it's not as bad as I think it is.” I say worriedly. “Well, uh… Those Keychains, if attached to anything will become a Keyblade, and it looks like they’re shooting out all over the city...maybe even passed it, so...bad. Damn, I am so getting in trouble with my supervisor…” “What the fuck do you mean?” I ask worriedly. “And your supervisor isn't the one you should be worried about here.” I tell him, holding him and rushing to find some guards to explain things and keep it together. “I mean, they were going to attach them to some fake Keyblade some small cloaked girl gave Spear, last I knew he handed them to certain pony people, then deliver them their Keychains...to make them stronger, though still fake… He left out the part where they can attach to anything and make a body for themselves, so...look out for folks with Kingdom Key’s….” “Mother of fuck.” I mutter, rushing over to the barracks. “Everyone!” I call out to all the guards, hoping to gather their attention. There were no guards or staff of any kind anywhere. “Huh, guess they skedaddled when the building went boom.” The moogle said. “God damn it…” I growled, getting my clone to tell everyone at home what's going on as I rushed outside. “Let's hope the guards aren't busy.” “...Wanna get lunch?” The moogle asked. “Seriously? Bad shit is happening and you want to get lunch?” I frown. “Also that begs the question, where are all of you? I kinda thought you all had shops in every world?” “We got called back to homeworld for inventory updates. Takes a month but it’s worth it, now we’re scattering all about again.” “Ah.” I say. “Well looks like your gonna need a new shop.” I say while exiting the barracks and looking around for the guards. I saw people all around looking at the display...and in the back of the crowd, I saw Rejection. He looked...normal, but even with the distance I felt something off about him...something that made my k9 senses scream unend. “Okay people!” I call out. “I know you have several questions on why a part of the barracks exploded, and I will get to those questions.” I say while letting of the Moogle. “But I have something to take care of.” I say while flying up in the air and staring at Rejection the entire time. ”Damn it...I got to get him away from the people…” I think to myself worriedly, trying to think of a way to get him away from them without them getting hurt. He looked back at me, smiling. He waved, then walked into a DTD that opened up behind him, and it stayed open. “This is a bad idea…” I mutter while flying down, near the DTD, making sure other people wouldn't get near it, and entered through it to find where Rejection wanted me. When I entered, I exited on a...Station of Awakening, Both Rejection and I posed on it like Ventus and Vanitas in the final battle. “Figured it’s time we...rejoin.” Rejection said, standing across from me. “Winner gains total control over us.” “Hey, you won't hear my depressed thoughts anymore.” I say simply. “Having a light only heart...helped me through some stuff. So, you really want to fight this out instead of doing this like sensible people and not fight?” “Oh relax, I know I’m losing this fight.” He said, taking a step back. “I know, that despite all the hell I’ve done to screw with you, all the pain I put myself through! You. Won’t. Fail.” He took another step backwards. “So I can’t win...but I can give it my all...and let something worse fight for me.” He said, turning around and jumping off the edge of the Station. “Bind!” I shout, thrusting my hand out and a massive line of Nothingness Thorns shot out, trying to grab Rejection before he could do something terrible. They missed, and he fell down. I ran over to the edge, seeing only darkness for all the way down...til a massive beam or red and black energy shot back up. All my animal instincts were screaming, telling me to run and don’t look back. I actually took a few steps back because of it. I saw a hand grab the edge of the Station, then...Rejection crawled over, his body moved twisted and...wrong...and his eyes were solid black with red cat like slits...reverse of Psychopaths. “Insanity?” I ask worriedly, raising my shield and readying Reunion. It looked at me, then began to...try and fix itself up right...cracking and breaking bone sounds with every movement, finally, it was up on two feet...standing backwards...then his head spun around, a sickening crack as it did and it smiled facing me. ”sO niCe to SeE yoU.” “The fuck are you?” I ask it, trying not to feel sick at all its cracking and how it's basically some horror movie monster. It laughed. ”I’M yOu beN. YoUR daRknEsS. All thE pAiN of beComInG a PsYchoPatH, nOnE of thE tRue poWer. I’m twIsTed bEn.” It said, walking towards me, it’s knees making a crack with it’s backwards steps. ”I’m SicK.” He said, his hands grabbing my arms...his fingers breaking as he bent them the wrong way. ”lEt mE joIn. LeT mE be whOlE.” His face was in front of mine. ”LeT Me kiLL eVeryThiNg.” I look at the twisted amalgamation. “Your not Rejection.” I tell him, remembering what Zeke could do with a balanced heart, and given I have a full light heart…”You just need some help.” I say while remembering his heart would be on the right side if he's quite literally backwards. “Just bear with it.” I say before stabbing the middle of his ‘chest’. “Reject Darkness.” I say, hoping this will work and I don't need X for this specific thing. Light came from my hand, through my Keyblade, and into the Insanity. It’s whole body straightened out as Light glowed from it’s eyes and mouth and it screamed. When it all faded Rejection fell back...his body beginning to fade. “Heh. Knew you’d win...you bitch.” He huffed. “You’s a bitch.” I joke, gently putting my hand on his head. “Come on, time to go home.” “Heh, your home. All I do is make you feel like shit for stupid crap. Just let me fade.” “That's not gonna happen you stubborn bastard.” I frown. “I'm depression free, apparently mind over matter is a thing.” “Hah. That’s a laugh. Let me back in if you want, all I want to do right now is...sleep.” Rejection said, closing his eyes. “Get your sleep buddy.” I say gently while letting Rejection back into my heart to help save him. “And when you wake up...you'll see a much brighter side of our life.” Rejection turned into pure dark sludge, which flowed back into my chest, the Station of Awakening glowing a bright white, and when it faded, there was only me, posed like Sora, circles with all my girls, Joy in his own lower on the image, and my weapons taking up any space left. I looked where Rejection was, and saw a Keychain there. It was small, smaller than most I’ve seen, being just what seemed to be a black cloud. “Hmm…” I mutter while switching Reunions keychain with this new keychain, wondering what it'll do. It changed into a Keyblade with what seemed to be two Flood unversed making up the handle, dark something being wrapped in Nothingness thorns, keeping it still, and the Insanity’s eye at the tip, blood flowing off of it. I checked my Assistant. Darkness Sleeps. A Keyblade with terrible power, allowing the wielder to inject enemies with Darkness from the wielders own heart. Att: 15 Def: 7 Mag: -10 Special Ability: Reject Light. “Right then.” I nod, taking off Darkness Sleeps and putting back Reunion. “Not gonna use that for a while hopefully.” I mutter, putting the keychain in my pocket and opening a DTL. “Better get back and set some shit straight before things end poorly.” I mutter, walking into the DTL and going back to Equestria. When I exited the door I was back in Canterlot. “Okay...better start here…” Looking around I saw few ponies still around, most just taking in the look of the damaged buildings, others just taking peaks to see if there was anything more deeper in the building. “Yo.” I say to the people. “I suppose some of you are wanting some questions?” “What...exactly happened?” One of the people asked. “An explosion happened.” I say simply. “Caused by a bad guy.” “But, that was the Royal Guards building...Have the guard turned on us?” That got a lot of not-so-quiet murmuring going. “No they have not.” I state bluntly. “The royal guard are loyal and care for their people, it's too bad that who caused the explosion wasn't loyal or cared about the people in anyway shape or form.” I tell them. “The Royal Guard have given up much to protect the people they swore to protect, one lone man can't make the entirety of the people that fight and die for your safety be all for not.” “Then where are the guard now!? Why aren’t here quarantining the area or something!?” It was then that I looked around...not a single guard in sight. I frowned. “Maybe because the explosion caused something bad to happen that needed their attention. Believe me.” “OH MY STARS!” We all turned around, seeing a mare scream looking down a nearby alley. I ran over...and felt sick. The guard, all of them, other staff too...dead, slaughtered worse than if an animal had done this. On the wall was a message. Protect them all, Heir of Nothing. “Mother of Fuck!” I shout, my clone telling the girls at home urgently that the guard is dead. “Not good...so not good.” I mutter, trying to think about all the places that could be under attack right now. “g...Gah!” I looked at the pile of bodies, an arm crawling out from under them. I ran and pulled, seeing that one I initially talked to there, a gash across his throat, but not too deep. “B-bitch.” He spat. I cast Cure on him and trying to get him back to full health. “Don't strain yourself.” I say worriedly, hoping I got to him fast enough. He was breathing heavily. “It happened so fast, one moment you left for the office...next I’m in the alley, some small crazy kid or something in a black cloak sliced my throat with a sword that...looked like it was made of flowers.” “Well shit.” I frown. “Don't worry, I'll get you healed and feeling better quick...but the families…” I mutter sadly, feeling bad for everyone that died needlessly today as I cast Cure on him again to try and keep in okay. “I got a sister up in the Crystal Empire on Vacation, mom and dad died about two years back. By the way, name’s Flash, Flash Sentry.” “It's good to meet you Flash, but your not dying today.” I say bluntly. ”Could I revive them all? Or have they passed on?” I think to myself worriedly, deciding to do something and using my Assistant to check a dead body to see if they could be resurrected or not. Resurrecting the dead. Depending on decomposition, the dead can be brought back to life one of several ways. Sacrifice, a life for a life. Philosopher's Stone. A Deal with a Demon Necromancy Beating Death in a Battle Dragon Balls Wish Stone Entering the Afterlife and Retrieving the Souls personally. “Good to know but doesn't really answer what I'm asking.” I frown, knowing these bodies have been torn to shreds but wondering if they could be brought back. “You know what, fuck it.” I mutter while buying a bunch revival items and using one of said items on a dead guard in hopes it'll work. None I got worked. “Revival items my ass.” I grumble. “Christ...well I have a lot of families to sadly talk to.” It took some time, but doctors and medics all helped move the bodies and they began cleaning the area. One doctor said he’d send me a list of the deceased guards names when he identified them all. For security reasons, the guard largely wore enchanted armor, making them look almost identical to one another. Most did, not all. I came home and saw someone I...didn’t expect. Well, two someones. Prince Blueblood, and Cadence, Blueblood drinking a beer and Cadence Crying with Celestia and Luna sitting with her, I looked towards another couch and Twilight was crying too, my clone comforting her. “Shining better not be dead.” I frown worriedly. “Cause...I've dealt with enough death as is…” Celestia and Luna gave me this look...and I hit the nail on the hammer. “A black coated child appeared and...decapitated him. The whole of the crystal guard too.” Celestia said. “This was for you.” Luna said, handing me a note. I took the paper and wondered what the assailant could have done here. When I opened it, there was a single word. A name. Ben. I was confused, til a bright light flashed over me, and I found myself in the clearing of the woods. “Hey there pal.” I looked up...and saw that older, Psychopath me. “What brings you into my cage?” “I thought Den killed you?” I ask curiously. “She did damage, but it takes a lot to kill a Psychopath, especially a rather well compatible host, yeah I was hurt but healed up an hour later, damn bitch had trace Humanity power in her teeth so healing took longer than I wanted. After that I wandered a bit, killed a few worlds til some ashy skinned bitch and Spoiled found me, put this on my neck,” He pointed to a large, silver necklace with some kind of ruins around it and a chain going down and then...fading like a ghost. “And now I can’t kill unless she says so. Bitch made me a dog.” “I suppose it's more suppressing the body rather than the power…” I say, thinking about how such a thing could work. “So, someone sent me here, and has been killing all the guards on my planet...what do you know?” “Yeah, that would be Namine, or at least, a well made copy of her, before Core bit the dust he wiped out all the Nobodies of those three kids he had all those reflections of, but their data was still in his computers, and Spoiled made some well made clones with that.” “Roxas, Xion and Namine told me there were no more…” I say. “Do you know where Castle Oblivion is?” I ask him, ready to blow the thing to pieces to keep it away from anyone. “And why would Namine...wait...oh those damned slugs…” I growl. “Yup, they’re Spoiled’s Loyalty Enforcers, or whatever. They keep any normally rogue elements in check and under her thumb. Ever since she started using hearts as fuel rather than just darkness to make clones.” I growled. “She's now desecrating people's lives just to fuel her damned army?” I ask, trying not to get furious here. “Yup. One heart makes a thousand of any clone she wants, and stronger and more solid than the others.” I took a deep breath. “Where's Castle Oblivion?” I ask him. “You can sense the life energy there right?” I ask, thinking Psychopaths could sense life no matter how far. “Not from here.” He said, kicking the dirt. “In this cage I’m cut off from everything, and this necklace keeps my abilities suppressed to Spoiled’s wants. All I know is that it’s someplace near Core’s old Castle in the Realm of Darkness.” “Shit.” I frown. “But...here's a strange thing...why was I teleported here?” I ask, both curious and worried about it all. “That page. You know how that Hundred Acre Woods world worked in the game, same magic, special paper, magic ink, and a fuck ton other spells, and you got yourself a world written on paper you can enter. She made the book itself my cage, and paper from it can act as a portal for others to enter, but unless she opens the book itself I’m stuck here. And she only opens to book to give me an order.” “Interesting…” I mutter. “By the way...how come you're still sane enough being a Psychopath?” I ask curiously. “There are three types of Psychopaths. Sentials, like me, we can keep our own identity of who we are and connect to the ‘hive mind’ to use the power. Eclipsed, like that Light half of Zeke or all those turned Reflections of Cript, totally given into the hive mind, nothing of who they were left. And lastly Insanities, hosts fitted but unable to handle all that power, pain and mental insanity properly, their body gets burned and they become something just plain disturbing.” “Do their eyes happen to be inverted from regular Psychopaths?” I ask him. “Yup. Psychopaths like me and Eclipsed ones usually just ignore them since they’re...unusable. They die a lot easier and aren’t as strong.” “Right…” I nodded. “But…” I start. “Can Psychopaths be saved? Even Eclipsed ones?” I ask y.curiously “Fact is, Cript actually has a way, and cured a bunch, the only ones still out their are largely his Reflections that are turned, and myself. His blood, when he broke from the Hive, being Eclipsed, his own blood became like ours already, but...different, Psychopath blood and Humanity mixed, a combo never before seen. Made special bullets with them and right in front of the first and oldest Psychopaths, cured one, they were still a Psychopath, but their pain, their mental insanity...it stopped. Personally I like being this way, and so do all his Reflections, so now it’s like that.” “You all love feeling pain, being mentally unstable, and killing billions for the fuck of it?” I ask him worriedly. “I am you, remember...It’s better than what we went through, and with the Hive...Not so lonely. I’d take the Physical pain to remind me I am my own person, not a replacement for you on earth before it fell, and the mental instability just further reminds me that there are others worse off out there.” “You are you, and you can live a normal life with someone you love.” I tell him. “I can try and figure out how to stop your pain, and I can take you to Equestria...and you can meet a nice person to date and marry.” I say, sounding like an idealistic idiot. “You don't need to feel so much pain, and you don't need or want to kill so many people for no reason…” I say, wanting to help the version of me that fell so far down. He smirked. “I’d like that, but the thing is, who says you gotta be good to be happy? I got a Ventral lady in hiding, and when I find her, I’m gonna marry her, have kids, and we’re all gonna be a bunch of murdering bastards. After all, not all the Ventrals left crime.” He finished with a chuckle. “Who's the lucky lady?” I ask. “And you know I'm gonna have to stop you and your family from killing so many right?” “Her name’s Cathy, Cathy Ventral, if you find her, tell her I’m here and she might just work with you to free me. Maybe, she’s a crazy bitch, and I love that about her.” “Well at least your not marrying at least...twenty or so women.” I chuckle. “But glad you found someone to love...maybe you can find out Humanity is a lot more important than being a Psychopath.” I say simply, thinking even if he was a bad guy, Humanity can naturally help him recover from his pain if he had a loving family. “Nah, being human is...kinda overrated.” He looked up, and so did I, there were storm clouds now. “Ah, bitch is sending me to the grind. Well, later mutt me, you’d best leave.” He said, pushing me back and everything went white. I then felt myself falling and landed on my back, back in my living room, my wives and clone looking at me. “You okay?” Luna asked. “Well my Psychopath version is on a leash.” I say while getting up. “Not good. And yes I'm fine...just a lot of things to worry about, like the fact the royal guard in Canterlot was also slaughtered...besides Flash Sentry...too many things are happening too fast damn it.” I complain and pout like an upset pup, unintentionally looking rather cute as I pout. “What about Daybreak?” Rarity asked. “Didn’t Zeke say his world is always happy to help?” “They're recovering from an attack that Spoiled threw at them. And I have a shit ton of things to do here, like help set up the school, help keep the people together and stop any criminals from capitalizing on the guards being butchered corpses…” I sigh out. “Hmm...What about your Nobodies?” Pinkie asked. “Can’t you summon up a bunch until things get better sorted out?” “I've been so focused on getting myself stronger I keep forgetting I can just summon things.” I sigh out. “But I can.” I say while snapping my fingers, ten Dragoons appearing. “Well I can call some strong nobod-" I was about to say but one of the Dragoons looked...different. “Huh…” I say, seeing the specific Nobody, the Dragoon looking relatively similar to its counterparts but its spear seemed more...distinct, it's body looking more defined and strong, and all around it looked better. “Nobodies can evolve?” I ask curiously, finding this development a tad strange but cool. “We know as much as you do.” Was the majority reply from my wives. I sent out the Dragoons and some Snipers, and Dusks to Canterlot, the Crystal Empire, and even some here in Ponyville. I was exhausted, today was just...bad. So much death… “Hey Ben.” I looked up, seeing Blueblood handing me a beer. “You look like you need stronger, but all I got now is this.” “Nah I'm fine...but why are you here? Shouldn't you be...well you in Canterlot?” I ask, not wanting to call him an asshole but still. “I got word my Cousin’s husband died and came here where I was told she’d be. Cadence and I were really close growing up. I got to know Shining Armor well also, heck, I threw his Bachelor party. Cadence was more a sister to me than anything and Shining was like the step brother you’d hope to have when your sister marries.” “I'm...sorry I couldn't save anyone…” I sigh out, looking at my clone and thinking I could have just made more of me and stopped so much death. “Heh, if I’ve learned anything in life, it’s that there are things you just can’t stop. When my mother died, I got into Necromancy...If auntie didn’t find out and stop me...I’d be locked in the dungeon or worse. I guess being in your position just feels like shit when bad things happen you only learn about later, right?” “Well it's worse cause I'm supposed to be the hero...the one who's always here to protect the people...and I've barely done that as is. And Rejection, who's back in my heart thankfully, killed my friends and thousands of others to make things worse…” I sigh out, rubbing my temples. “You are just one man.” Blueblood cut in. “A man who carries the weight of the world on his shoulders alone is destined to carry it and never move forward while the world itself does.” “Technically I'm two people and can clone myself more.” I say simply. “But hey...if I have to carry the world to see the people I love move forward and be happy...then that's fine with me.” I tell him. “Heh, true enough.” He said, taking a sip of his beer. “You know, I’ve been thinking about moving out of Canterlot. Things been getting too hectic there lately.” He said with a chuckle. “Do you want to be a captain or something?” I ask him. “Heh, screw that. Shining made Captain of the Guard look easy but if he didn’t have Cadence to...relieve that stress, he’s have gone bald young. Nah...I think I’ll travel, Cutie mark isn’t a Navigating Star for nothing.” “Well I was gonna say a captain of a ship traveling the sea’s because of your cutie mark but works for me.” I nod. “Glad to hear your gonna do something nice with your life. I'm just here with an amazing herd...being a hero…” I trail off. “I'm so tired…” I sigh out. “You best figure out how sleeping in bed’s gonna work considering there’s now two of you.” Celestia tells me. “Don't remind me.” I say, still glad I can feel through my clone. “Gonna be weird not having all my girls laying on top of me anymore...but oh well.” “Well, good luck with that then, I’ll just head back into town and crash at a motel. Besides, there’s something I wanted to check up on in town.” “Besides a girl you find attractive?” I joke with a little smile. “Ha, I don’t know anyone here, no, just wanted to see the sights. Heard Ponyville has some nice ones.” “Ponyville is a sturdy town full of nice people.” I say simply. “If you ever want to live in a place that's welcoming and feels like home, go there.” “Maybe...Maybe.” Blueblood said, finishing off his beer. “See you later.” “See ya.” I nod. “Stay safe.” I headed to the bedroom. The newer girls were all with clone me, the bed being now twice as big as this morning. ”They must have got another new one.” I think, chuckling at my own thought as I crawl in, laying down and Rune hugging me from the front and Chrysalis from the back. “Thanks girls...I love you all.” I tell them gently, cuddling up to the two warmly and feeling safe and whole. To be continued... Nobody's average dayI got up out of bed from my nice cuddle nap and stretched. “Ah, that was nice.” I hum with a smile. “Now...how long was it before I went to Zebrica to find special book?” I mutter, kind of forgetting because of all the shit that happened, but my stomach growled signalling I needed food instead of wondering when I'm traveling. “Right...food first.” I mutter while heading off to the kitchen to get some good food. When I got to the kitchen I decided to do something I haven't done in a while, and that is making some good ol’ macaroni and cheese. “Haven't had some in a while.” I mutter with a smile, wondering how it will taste with breast milk rather than normal milk. After a few minutes of making the food without special magic I took the pot, grabbed a fork, walked over to the table and started eating happily. “Wonder what's on today's agenda….maybe going to Zebrica, doing something else, training, or world jumping…” I wonder to myself, continuing to eat my good food. The kitchen door opened and I saw Jenny...literally dragging herself along the floor, her whole front body on the ground while her arms and hands dragged her along. She was making some kinda squeaking sound as she did. “Uh...Jenny? You okay?” I ask worriedly, hoping she's okay. “Uhhhg.” She said, looking up at me. “It’s so boring without Joy to tease. Least I can move better with that Mother thing Den got for us.” She said, her face returning to the floor. “Crybaby.” I mutter. “But sounds like you and me need to have an adventure to keep you busy.” “I guess, Frisk, Chara and Asriel are meeting up with their parents in New Manehattan, the CMC are making up for late school work, and Lovely, Dinky and Gabby are with them. So I guess I’m free.” She said, pushing herself back up. “Well...I've never been to a Disney world shockingly. Want to travel to one?” I ask, finishing up my Mac n’ Cheese. “Sure, how about that Olympus Coliseum one? Saw Zeke playing through it back when he babysat me once. I like it soly cause of Cerberus.” Jenny said with a nod. “Speaking of, I should probably visit him and tell him I’m doing well.” “That's...gonna be a problem.” I sigh out sadly. “I thought Joy told you…” I mutter. “Zeke...isn't gonna be back for a while.” I tell her. “Not because he's busy...well I mean he probably is wherever the hell he is, but he's kind of...split.” I tell her bitterly. “Tried something stupid before me, Joy or anyone could stop him while we were fighting Core’s body.” “...He’s dead?” She asked. “Technically yes, but with what I figured out, technically no.” I say nervously. “I don't know how to explain it well, but Zeke is in a different dimension while his Darkness is roaming around…” “And his light half?” “No idea what's the status of it, I think I might have heard of its status but it was taken over by a Psychopath and…” I sigh out. “Don't be surprised if we learn that his Darkness killed his Psychopathic light.” I shake my head, hating this all. Jenny was silent for a time, before she summoned a Bond of Flame Keyblade and opened a DTL. “Come on, I think what I’m looking for can be found on this world.” She said, walking into it. I sigh out and follow her closely, entering the DTL after her. We were in a busy city I recognized from the Hercules movie, Jenny was ahead of me, heading for what I saw was the Colosseum ahead. Pushing through the crowd, I followed her, finally catching up as I saw her talking with Phil outside the Colosseum doors. “You sure you wanna do that kid?” Phil said. “Yes, I can handle it.” Jenny replied. “I don't doubt it, your eyes tell one heck of a story kid. I’ll get you signed up for that tournament right away.” Phil said as he entered the Colosseum. “You better not have asked to fight Sephiroth here.” I frown. “No, the Hades cup, the final boss in that competition is the rock titan, and it has what I need.” “Besides being a slow wall you can beat the shit out of for some much needed stress relief?” I ask curiously. “Look, what I’m gonna do here...I won’t be proud of, watch, don’t watch, your nightmares.” Jenny said, heading inside. “Won't be the worst thing.” I say while heading inside as well, wanting to see what Jenny had in mind for the Rock Titan. I was halted before heading inside. “Competitor or Spectator?” I was asked by a young Hercules. I thought for a moment. “Spectator for now, gonna check all the tournament's after I watch my daughter rip a titan apart.” I say simply. “Alright so is that ticket for the Hades cup only or all of today's tournaments?” “Hades cup.” I tell him. “Alright and that will be five hundred munny.” I hand the young Hercules the five hundred munny. “There you go.” I nod. “By the way, your names Hercules correct?” I ask the young kid. “Oh, uh, yeah. Phil’s been training me for a few years now but I’m not ready for the Colosseum.” “So stuck on ticket duty?” I ask him simply. “Only cause Phil’s too cheap to pay somebody else to do this.” He laughed, handing me the ticket. “Snacks and bathrooms are down the hall just before the Colosseum entrance, make a right and you’ll find yourself in the seats area, and don’t worry about anything falling on you, there’s a magic barrier around the area.” “Thank you.” I nod. “But remember, all great hero's have humble beginnings. Some might start great, some might start small and weak, but if you keep working hard and striving for your dream, then nothing can stand in your way.” I tell him with a smile. “Oh, sorry. Just...rambling, I tend to do that.” I say sheepishly, scratching the back of my head in embarrassment. “Heh, it’s alright. Phil pretty much says the same thing from time to time.” I waved goodbye and headed towards the seats….the game did the Colosseum no justice, this place is MASSIVE the arena was huge and the Seats stretched all around it. I took mine as close as I could get to the arena. Some time passed and, to make sure no one steals my seat, I sent a Nobody to get me some snacks. It came back with popcorn, lemonade, and… Twizzlers? Not even gonna ask. The fight began and Jenny stepped out. “And our competitor for this day, Jenny Ventral!” Phil’s voice came from tubes, acting like loud speakers. “She is fighting the Hades cup folks, so this may or may not be a long fight.” The enemies appeared from the otherside, and when the match started, I blinked, and Jenny...was on the other side of the arena, Keyblade drawn and the Heartless that came out were cut down. “WOW! Folks we might have a real fighter here. Tiny but mighty.” Phil said. “Just don't hurt the people too bad Jenny!” I call out, hoping she wouldn't hurt the actual people that might appear in the tournament here. The rest of the heartless battles went pretty much the same, then she got to Yuffie. “I’ll go easy on ya small fry.” Yuffie said as she charged. Jenny sidestepped her with ease, not even using her Keyblade as she elbowed Yuffie on the back...and she fell over. “Uh, Folks we’re sending someone out there right now to...check on her.” Phil said, two people running out there and checking on Yuffie. They gave a thumbs up. “And she’s knocked out! With that, the first part of the Hades cup is over, come back in half an hour after getting more snacks, bathroom breaks, etcetera.” Phil said as people began getting up. Seeing an opening, I ran down to the front row, where Jenny was closest. “Hey Jenny.” I call out, hoping to get her attention. “Come here for a moment.” I tell her, hoping she didn't hit Yuffie to hard that she is now completely paralyzed. Jenny walked over. “Yeah?” “When you hit Yuffie in the back of the neck...you made sure not to paralyze her for life right?” I ask, hoping she didn't just cripple the ninja. “It’s nothing a potion can’t heal.” She replied simply. “Of course…” I mutter. “Just remember, Leon and Cloud together are no pushovers together, Hades can be a bit of a pain, and some combinations are just cruel.” I say. “I got this, I didn’t take on the NYPD without preparing for it, and I was five back then.” I nod. “Alright, just be prepared for any sudden curve balls, don't do any severe damage on any living combatants...and why do you want to fight the Rock Titan specifically?” I ask her curiously. “You’ll see.” She said, heading into the waiting area. I took my seat where I now sat, having a better view and waiting for the match to go on. After the half an hour, it began again, the heartless enemies tougher, but Jenny was taking them out with ease. The next boss was the Behemoth Heartless, thing took up a lot of the arena, Jenny just jumped, slicing off it’s horn then pointing her Keyblade at it. “Fatal Flames.” She said, Fire...dancing from the tip of her Keyblade and around the Behemoth. They danced in a circle til they suddenly became a fire tornado, engulfing the whole Behemoth. When it faded, the giant heartless was gone. “This pipsqueak's got surprises on end folks!” Phil said as the crowd cheered. “Huh...interesting…” I hum. “There has to be a bit more to the attack then just a fire tornado…” I had a Nobody hold my seat while I took a bathroom break, and came back just in time for the next set of fights. Jenny still showed a mix of strength and brutality when dealing with the heartless enemies, there were more this time, but they fell to her Keyblade. The next boss round came around, and Cerberus came out, all three of it’s heads roaring at her. Jenny walked up to Cerberus...and scratched it’s center head. “Who’s a good boy!” She cheered, the middle head looking like it was in heaven, one of the back legs moving like crazy in pure bliss. She then moved to the other two, and when she was done the giant three headed dog was looking at her happy...then jumped, covering itself in flames and….falling back down as a small, black three headed puppy. “Aw, so cute!” Jenny squealed happily. “...I don’t know what just happened folks, but Jenny wins...I think...Nothing in the rules against it.” Phil said as the crowd chatted. “Don't forget she's like twelve, thirteen years old!” I call out to everyone. “She can kick your ass in seven different ways, but she's still a kid who loves dogs.” I tell him. ”Too bad Jenny can't keep him...it would be fun to have a Cerberus pup around the house.” I think to myself with a smile, glad to see Jenny happy about the puppy. Jenny handed me the Cerberus puppy, he curling up next to me, one head napping and the other two looking board. I had a Nobody get a chicken leg for him, them… and they, he...seemed to enjoy it. The next set of rounds came along. Jenny had some issue with the Opposite Armor, but ended it all the same. Finally, Leon and Cloud came up, the two not looking like they want to make Yuffie’s mistake, both charged in and swung at Jenny...who grabbed both their swords, and in one twist, broke them… Leon and Cloud looked at one another. “I’m out.” They both said. “And Jenny wins by opponent forfeit!” Phil said. I couldn't help but laugh at that. “Oh those poor guys.” I chuckle. “I should go say hi to them. Haven't met any Final Fantasy characters actually...damn there's a lot of stuff I haven't done.” I frown. I had a Nobody hold my seat and caught the two as they were exiting the Colosseum. “Yo.” I say to the two, still holding the Cerberus pup in my arms cause reasons. “Oh, hey.” Leon said. “Hi.” Cloud said. “Sorry about my daughter...didn't think she'd snap your swords in half.” I say nervously. “That was your daughter?!” Leon said in shock while Cloud’s only expression was wide eyes. “Well, as her father I suppose you’re proud of her for being that strong. I’ve only encountered one person who has broken one of my swords before.” Cloud said. “Shopping for a new one for me is gonna be a pain though, since they discontinued it.” Leon sighed. “Well I can either give you a keyblade weapon to help fix your issue, or I can show you my world and help you find a proper blacksmith.” I suggest. “And I'm glad Jenny is strong but...I'm still worried she'll go overboard.” “A Keyblade?” Cloud asked. “Didn’t the last known Keybladers die like, four years ago or something?” Leon asked. I summon Reunion. “The universe is full of many things my friends. If you have any friends I can take you all to my world, we could use some strong people to help the people after...events.” I say worriedly. “I can make it worth your time, a home, money, resources, and plenty of training.” I say, hoping to get some help. “I'm sorry this is short notice but...we really do need help.” “Well, Radiant Garden is doing well. I guess I could take leave til Tifa drags my but back.” Leon chuckled. “A Keyblade might give me the light I need to end my darkness.” Cloud said. “Deal.” The two said. “Sweet, I'll try to ask Yuffie about it as well, and maybe your friends could also tag along to my world. It's weird and full of magic but it's welcoming and friendly.” I nod while flipping my keyblade over. “Grab the handle and I'll do the ritual, you'll feel the power in you but don't be surprised if you can't get a keyblade immediately, I maybe magical but I'm not all magical.” I chuckle. “We’ve heard rumors.” Clout said taking the handle, once that was done, Leon did it also. “Well then, I guess I’ll go see how Yuffie is doing, your daughter did some damage, but nothing a potion couldn’t heal. I think she’s at the hot spring in town…” “You are on your own there.” Cloud said. “Gee, thanks…” Leon grumbled. “Start with dates first, don't be like me and speed through a love life with over twenty women and counting at the moment.” I say. “And yes, I'm marrying all of them.” I say with a cheeky grin. “...So a dog in looks and love.” Cloud joked, earning a loud laugh from Leon. “Pretty much.” I chuckle. “But that's what you get for being a national hero. But remember...even if your stuck in the dark, or just too stubborn about stuff...love can help you so much...and make you feel whole.” I say with a soft smile. The two looked at one another and shrugged, walking off to find their friend as I headed back in. Surprisingly, I came back right when Jenny was fighting Hades himself. “Kick his ass Jenny!” I cheer with a smile, getting back to my seat and thanking the Nobody for keeping my seat. “Hey, dogmeat, stay out of this.” Hades snapped back at me. He then looked back at Jenny. “Alright now, kid, how’s about you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours, huh?” Jenny just smiled, taking a step...then was behind him, her back to him and Keyblade drawn. “I don’t deal with devils anymore.” She said. “Wait, what did yo- Gah!” Hades said, a line forming across his neck...then his head fell off, hitting the floor as his body did. “...Folks I...Uh...I think she killed the lord of the Underworld!... Is this a good or bad thing?” Phil said as the crowd was a mix of cheering and murmuring. “Uh...you shouldn't have done that Jenny!” I called out worriedly, not sure how this world is gonna react to Hades being dead. The next rounds went off like the others, and finally, the rock titan appeared. Jenny sighed, pointing her Keyblade at it. “Ignition.” She said, Fire engulfing the titan, heat radiating so hot it was like the sun itself was in the arena. When it died, all that was left of the titans was a large boulder, which Jenny then sliced, it breaking and the rubble that fell off revealed a stone crucifix. “And she finishes this one off with art! The Hades cup goes to Jenny Ventral!” Phil declared as the crowd cheered. I raised an eyebrow at seeing the stone crucifix. “Yo Jenny, the hell is that?” I call out, pointing to the thing that's not supposed to be there. “You’ll see!” Jenny called out. We headed back home, Jenny carrying her large crucifix and I followed her to Ponyville’s Cemetery, where she planted it, then tied a photo of Zeke, as well as a tamagotchi to it. “Hmm?” I hum curiously, wondering what the tamagotchi was for but understanding why the cross was here now. “It’s silly, I know, but back when our earliest ancestor was getting known, a priest told him salvation could still be his, if he was crucified like Jesus was upon death, so, it became tradition to crucify our dead, then burn them.” Jenny said. “Zeke...I don’t think he’s coming back, and if he does...something tells me he won’t be all him. So, all I can burn of him are a photo I had, and a tamagotchi he gave me.” She said, pointing her Keyblade at it. “Ashes.” She said, the stone itself was burning, and turning to ash as it did. “He was a black sheep, but he was still a Ventral, and should go out like one.” “He was a dear friend…” I say. “If only I was fast enough to stop him from doing that…” I sigh out sadly. “But...sadly we can't rewrite history…” “Let me guess, he died doing something that would do good, right?” “He took away Core’s darkness...all of it.” I sigh out. “Ah...Yeah, that sounds like something he’d do. Wanted nothing more than to be a hero, rather than a villain like the rest of us.” “But hey...Core’s body is dead...and your growing into a hero...or antihero either or.” I say gently. “Heh, was always a fan of Deadpool.” She chuckled, tears trickling down. I bent down and hugged Jenny gently. “I'm sorry…” I whisper, the simple words meaning so much, ranging from not being able to help Zeke, to not being able to help her through all the shit she has to bear on her shoulders. We went home and Jenny went to her room/house to rest while I sat in the living room, thinking about all that happened...then Lightning popped in my room, Zeus from the Hercules movie appearing in my living room. He then pointed a finger at me. “YOU!” He shouted with a booming voice. “You...you...wait, you’re not the dog human that killed my brother...are you?” “I'm her father.” I say simply, the god seeing the strength and experience in my eyes even if I was being casual. “I understand what my daughter did was wrong and am most likely going to have to solve it...but why are you here?” I ask simply. “Wrong? Heck! I’m thrilled!” “She killed the guy who watches over the Underworld and keeps it in check, why are you thrilled?” I ask with a frown. “The only reasons Hades watches the Underworld is because I put him there, he’s a jerk, and stole my son when he was an infant, and made him mortal! I can find some other sap to watch over the underworld, or make one, whichever, besides, Hades hated the job so much it’s largely self automated, it will be awhile before anyone actually has to check it.” “Ah.” I nodded. “So you don't mind Cerberus being my daughter's puppy?” I ask...before face palming. “Ah damn it, I forgot Leon, Cloud and Yuffie back on Olympus.” I groan. “Oh don’t worry, watch this.” He said, snapping his fingers and in a boom of Lighting and thunder, they appeared in my living room. “What the…” Yuffie asked. “Not even asking.” Cloud said. “Ditto.” Leon said. “And nah, that dog needed a better owner anyway.” Zeus finished, snapping his fingers and vanishing in a boom of thunder and lightning. “He could at least keep the teleporting down.” I grumble. “So, Yuffie, Cloud, Leon, welcome to my home.” I say simply. “We’re in one of the many living rooms of my castle.” I tell them. “Want a tour of the place or do you want to wait for two of my fiances to pop up from nowhere to say hi?” “So, what is this world called?” Cloud asked. “Equis.” I tell him. “A world filled with a very wide diversity of people. From Unicorns, Pegasi, Earth Ponies, to Griffons, Minotaurs, Diamond Dogs, and so many more.” I explain. “Huh, that is diverse. So, what are we going to do til our Keyblades appear?” “That is up to you three.” I tell them. “You can travel, see the wonderful sights, meet the people, and a lot of other things, but what I recommend is heading to the library and working on your history.” I say. “Best to know about the world before just rushing head first into it.” “Can we at least get something to replace our weapons Jenny broke?” Leon asked. I pulled out my Assistant and then bought them their signature weapons. “I know I could have just done this to begin with but having a Keyblade is pretty important.” I shrug. “Oh, thanks.” Leon said, taking his sword as Cloud did the same. “I’m gonna explore, where’s the most dangerous area?” Cloud asked. “My house is the most dangerous area cause Jenny, me, and a lot of other strong people live here.” I say simply. “But what's the most dangerous area? No idea, I have been bad with traveling the world...but I'm gonna solve that when I'm traveling to marry a crap ton of queens or princesses to help create world peace in some sense.” “In that case, I’ll be off.” Cloud said, walking out the door as Leon and Yuffie sighed. “Same as ever.” Leon said. “Yup, he’ll never let go.” Yuffie said. “Well he better let it go or else he'll get Dolphin Punched in the dick by Tifa.” I frown. The two looked at me. “Hey, it's not my fault his girlfriend would be pissed about him not letting a sexy man go.” I say simply. “Well...I’m gonna go...look for a place to rent.” Yuffie said, dropping a smoke bomb and vanishing. “And I will...Go find ammo for the gun part of my weapon.” Leon said as he left. “Its three doors down on the left most hallway.” I tell Leon so he wouldn't get lost. ”Eh they'll get used to the weirdness….albeit it is kind of funny that Tifa hasn't just kicked Clouds ass for possibly being gay for Sephiroth.” I think to myself, before my ear twitched and looked over, seeing Ainz walk into the living room. “Oh, hey man.” I nod to the elder lich. “Hello.” Ainz nodded. “Now...about that cheese war.” “I asked Luna the exact same thing.” I chuckle. “But basically, if memory serves, it was a very important delicacy that people fought over for...practically no reason.” I shrug. “This world's weird.” Ainz ‘frowned’. “Eh, you get used to it.” I shrug. “Anyways, you look like you want to know something? Oh and what about all the stuff you brought?” I ask curiously. “Ah, my guilds items…” He trails off, feeling terrible about his guild being mindlessly slaughtered. “All of them have been put into a special room I managed to create with Rarity’s help. And with the help of Pandora’s Actor, the only one who survived…” “Its alright Momonga...no need to blame yourself when it's my fault mostly.” I sigh out. “Either way.” Momonga sighs out. “But Pandora’s Actor is keeping track of all the materials, money, and all other items in the castle right now. But I read up on the Manehattan incident.” The skeletal mage says while tapping his staff on the ground. “I've felt this world's mana and I feel like I could do so much more now...maybe I can help rebuild it.” He says. “Please, it would be really good to have the help.” I say with a nod. “Alright.” He nods while opening a portal to Manehattan. “Want to tag along?” “Yes, I have to meet the people, and talk to the king considering the last time I've met him.” I say sheepishly, before the two of us walked through the portal to the city being rebuilt. Progress was…. surprising. From what I could tell a few blocks were rebuilt, an Apartment, hospital, and several other building were whole or under reconstruction. “Oh, hello there Ben.” I turned around, seeing Asgore the Scientist approach me. “How have you been?” “Fine. How you doing?” I ask the goat man. “Good, magic here works differently but similar in many ways as it does back home, so researching that has been interesting.” “That's good. What about Toriel? I hope you two have...gotten back together after everything.” I say, hoping the two didn't split off. “Things have gotten better, we are receiving counseling for our marriage and things have gotten better, I am limiting my time in the lab to spend more time with her, and the...girls...Asriel becoming a girl was...unexpected, but Tori always wanted daughters so I guess it works out. I did try and see if I could reverse it, but whatever magic that mirror had is beyond anything I’ve ever seen.” “Trust me, it's pretty special magic.” I chuckle. “But I hope Chara and Asriel have only said good things about Joy and the rest of his harem.” I say, knowing those two have probably said stuff about Joy and his harem. “They enjoy it...though...Toriel isn’t happy her daughters lost their...ehem, innocence, so young… But, I know Chara was behind that largely, not Joy.” “Yeah, her and Frisk tease the poor guy more than Jenny.” I chuckle. “But glad to hear you two are happy for them. So, where's Sans? From the King of at least four different races to the king of one, got to keep relationships healthy.” “Oh, Sans is over there.” Asgore pointed towards a...bar? “After the whole incident, he turned the throne over to his brother, and he opened up a bar.” “So that means I need to find Papyrus given he's the king...but I need to pay Sans a visit for nearly destroying my legs.” I huff. “Even if he was under the influence." I shrug, not entirely sure if I made a pun or not. “Papyrus is usually at the Hospital this time of day, but if you must see Sans first, and don’t worry, he’s not a drinker. Smokes, but not a drinker.” “Good to know.” I nod before looking around and seeing Ainz kind of left. “Oh, and if you see a skeletal mage with very fancy robes on and a cool looking staff, his name is Momonga, or Ainz Ooal Gown, and he's here to help rebuild the city.” I tell Asgore. “He's easy enough to find. Have a nice day.” I nod before heading off to the bar Sans opened. “Wonder why Sans opened a bar?” I mutter to myself, walking up to the front door and fully expecting someone to stop me. I entered and saw it was half empty, several pony people and monsters sitting around, drinking, Sans as the barkeep. I walked up and took a seat. “What’ll ya have?” Sans asked. “An apology for nearly destroying my knees would be nice all things considered.” I joke with a smile. “One Devil’s Poison coming up.” He said, bringing out a bottle that was...I am hoping, ceramic, a skull. He opened the jaw and poured it into a mug half filled with beer and gave it to me. “I’ll need one too.” Sans said, pouring the skull liquid into...a ketchup bottle? “So, heard you stepped down to have Papyrus step up and be the hero.” I say. “And what's with the ketchup bottle? Normally drink it out of one or do you mix the drink with ketchup for some reason?” “I always liked drinking ketchup. I only spike it when I feel something bad is coming along.” He said, taking a sip of the spikes condiment. “Well that depends.” I start. “Well...maybe I can start with why you even went down such a dark path to begin with.” I say, ignoring my drink since I don't want to get drunk when I'm gonna meet Papyrus later. “Simple, it was the only way at the time.” He said, rubbing his temples. “Paps and I were born before the war, monsters live a really long time, and he was too young, but I remember the sun, wind, stars. When the war started...and ended, we were trapped under there. Believe me, I never hated humans, but, we knew it would take seven human souls to break the barrier, to free us. The thing is...like our bodies, our food is very different. Monster food is made up of mostly mana, unlike human food that’s largely solid mass, so, a human can only live off mana food for so long before they...starve. Killing them was a mercy, or so I told myself.” “Depending on how you look at it.” I sigh out. “I heard you were also getting some training from Luxu, hope his training wasn't leaving you bone tired.” I say, making a very shitty attempt at a pun. “Heh, nice one. Yeah, some. He’s mostly learning from me more than him teaching me anything.” “How so? Is it because you keep dodging everything like a boss?” I ask, not knowing I accidentally made a pun considering he's a boss monster. “Or is it something else?” “He’s interested in how I teleport. Normally, teleportation works by mana deconstructing your whole being, and reconstruction it elsewhere. How I teleport is that I actually mess with time itself. You see, just like there are multiple realities, there are multiple versions of time within a single dimension, to put it short, I swap out with an alternate time version of myself in an event in combat, it’s like I teleported, and I’m still me, but from a different point in time/version of time.” “Makes about enough sense as a Skeleton being more fragile than a wet paper towel still being able to destroy giant buildings with a flick of his wrist.” Sans chuckled. “Kid, let me ask you something...do you think my bro and I were born monsters?” “If you were then why do you have so much Determination in you right now?” I ask him. “If memory serves that doesn't really mix well with monsters. So you either became this way through an experiment with a human soul, necromancy, becoming a lich, or something else when you two were human or something along those lines.” “It was fifty years before the war. Back then...Paps and I were human. My mother died giving birth to Paps...and our sperm donors were nowhere to be found. I was a thief, stole what I needed for me and Paps, till I stole from the wrong people. Group of crazed Necromancers. They put a spell on us, kept us from dying as they gutted us, skinned us, removed out flesh from our bones, our brains out of our noses Egyptian style...scooped out eyes out...I was ten, Paps was two. We were souls bound to immobile bones...then, we changed, our souls changed from human ones to monster ones, after all, magic is what was keeping us alive, and that’s what monsters are in a sense, living magic. When I was able to move and put myself back together I did the same for Paps then ran, finally entering the Monster kingdom. It was there the old king...Gaster, took us in. Paps was young, got over what happened easily cause he didn’t remember it. As far as Paps knows, he’s been a monster from birth… I took longer, but did get better after a few years...then the war broke out. Gaster disappeared, and I took the throne. Being the eldest ‘heir’.” I looked at him. “Well….” I mutter. “Thats...a thing. But where did Gaster go?” I ask curiously, having done some research on all the monsters in my short bursts of spare time but not getting around to Gaster much. ”Well...at least the one in his world and not the doctor I know.” I mentally add to myself. “Dunno. Everyone assumes he died in the war, but I always figured he got lost in his work. He spent a lot of time researching unconventional magics, thought it could spare both humans and monsters of the war...but he vanished before he even got the chance to test it.” “I…have a feeling what happened to him.” I sigh out. “But not sure if you want to know.” “Been to long for me to care anymore. So, anything else you wanna know?” The skeleton asked, using his magic to move a rag across the bar counter to clean it. “Ever heard of a sitar playing water bender anywhere around here?” I ask, completely forgetting where the whole version of Demyx was. “You mean Meyd? He’s a doctor at the hospital. His abilities with water help those with severe blood loss stay alive.” “Oh cool, I better check on him. Kept forgetting one of my masters...but been too damned busy half the time.” I sigh out. “Time is a fickle thing, there’s either too much time to spend, so you waste it, or never enough.” “And when you have the life span I have...you feel like you have too much and too little." I sigh out before standing up and putting some gold on the counter. “Well I better get going, sorry I didn't take a drink of your beverage, but I need to be sober for both Papyrus and Deym.” “Alright, I’ll just put it on your tab.” “I mean the bits are right there.” I point out. “But have a nice day Sans.” I nod while heading out to the hospital to meet some people. The Hospital was easy to find, and a nurse told me Meyd was on the third floor. I took the elevator up and when the doors opened I immediately heard the sound of a sitar playing. I followed it and saw Meyd, sitting in a chair playing his sitar in a room full of kids in beds. He looked up. “Ben! Where have you been?” “You wouldn't even believe half the stuff I've done.” I chuckle. “So, how are you doing today?” “Well I came here, sister moved in with some Seaponies well across the other side of the world, visit her when I can. Came here, helped some people not to bleed out by bending the water in their bodies to stop bleeding out and accelerate scab production so it won’t bleed out on it’s own, they gave me a lab coat and made me a doctor.” He summed up. “In my free time I sing for the kids here.” “Sounds good.” I nod. “And I suppose all the children love when you drop by to sing?” “I dunno.” Meyd said, confused, I looked around...they were all...comatose… “I like to think so. We don’t know why they’re comatose, they were just found that way.” I frown and walk over to a child, pulling out my Assistant and checking the child, wondering why their comatose. Error. Error. Unknown virus detected. Please take sample. Out of a side of the assistant, popped a needle. I frowned before leaning down and using the needle to get a sample of whatever the hell is ailing these children. “Lets hope I can figure out what to do for these poor kids…” I said, poking the needle into them and taking it out, putting it back into the slot it came in. Scanning. Analyzing. Cross Referencing. Virus primordial form detected. Natshuru This ancient Virus has been extinct for twenty million years, last known appeared in Natu, a planet of bizzare technology and magic. No known cure available. Symptoms: Comatose like state of sleep High Temperature (140) Internal Organ Failure Advanced Muscle Deformation Death. Each symptom takes a week to fully manifest, and according to ancient stories, can only be cured or healed by the third week. “How have these kids been comatose?” I ask worriedly, wondering how the fuck a long extinct virus hasn't had a cure made especially when it was running rampant. “Uh, first victim was found a week and a half ago.” Meyd replied. “So there's still probably time to cure it.” I say, trying to find anything about this damned disease through my Assistant. All I got was there was a cure, but it’s recipes was lost to time. I made a call, and A doctor from Cript’s place, a different one, this one being a woman, thirties, dressed in normal doctor attire. “Yes, what’s this personal call about?” “Natshuru has spread to all these children and god knows how many else...Please help.” I slightly plead, not wanting this world to suffer another catastrophe. “Natshuru? Man, didn’t even know that was a thing till I started working for Cript.” She said, walking over to the kids. “Huh, well it’s spread by the air, but only infects people with type B- blood. Least that’s what some medical archaeological article discovered. Well, don’t know what to tell you. The cure was lost to time, might wanna check in with Cript on this one kid.” “Mother of fuck.” I frown while calling Cript for some help. I felt a tap on my head, I turned around, but didn’t see anything. I looked up, and saw Cript floating above me. “Yo.” He said. “Hi.” I sigh out. “So, Natshuru outbreak some fucking how...Please tell me you know the cure or at least know the ingredients?” “Not me directly...but…” He said, a portal opening behind me. Cript fell to the ground. “Come on.” He said, walking in as I followed. Where we exited was ruins, some once large building or structure was now ash, scorched soil, rock and wood. We were in a forest, surrounded by a seven foot rock wall, around the ruins anyway. “Damn.” I frown. “The hell happened here?” “This was my home.” Cript said, taking a deep breath. “It was a temple, the last place on my world where magic was still practiced. I lived here just about all my life. Me, and my friends Andy and Kevin grew up here, learned all sorts of magic and spells. When we turn ten, it’s a mages task to traverse the world for a year, then return with some form of new magic or spell. When I arrived...the temple was burned down, Kevin, my masters, dead…” “I'm...gonna stop talking…” I mutter worriedly, feeling bad about walking here now. “Come on, the Vault is this way.” Cript said, leading the way through the burned down temple. As I walked I felt...fearful, and I don’t know why. All my animal instincts were on edge. We made it to a cellar door where we went down, the fear feeling lessened, but still there. In the cellar was a large room, with an equally large, gold door with designs from all around the world engraved and sculpted onto it. “This is where they kept every spell, ancient knowledge, everything. The masters had a lot of rules, but the most important rule was, NEVER open the Vault.” “And we're gonna open it and see what's inside?” I ask bluntly. “I’ve already opened it, it’s what I put in that we will have to watch for.” He said, waving his hand as the large door began to open, sliding open without even a hint of resistance. Inside was scrolls, books, as far back as the eye could see, and at the doorway, kneeled an armored figure, his armor like that of a fairy tail knight, a shield on one arm and a sword at his side. “A guardian?” I ask nervously, not sure what's gonna happen if the thing suddenly got up. “Sorta.” Cript said as the armored figure rose, drawing his sword. “A spirit.” He said, the figure charging at us. Cript side stepped it, elbowing it in the back of the head, knocking off it’s helmet. Who was underneath was a young, blond haired, blue eyed...kid? “Kevin was gonna stay at the temple, be a monk and guard the Vault, and he did that in death.” Cript said, taking out a hand gun and firing a round off at Kevin, stunning him a bit before I came in, using Lindworm and impaling it to the wall. “There…” I sigh out. “So...is there a dragon of knowledge in here or is a giant black feathered owl going to come out and tell us where we need to go?” I ask, remembering Avatar the Last Airbender and his library. “It’s a library Ben, nothing more.” Cript said, walking in. I followed and got immediate inursha. All around was shelves of books and scrolls, going back further and up higher than I could see. “I’ll search for the cure, their organization system is by the ancient name of the worlds, so you just wait around here, read something.” Cript said, snapping his fingers and vanishing as I shrugged, taking a seat at a table and looking at the books it was on. “Okay let's see here…” I mutter while taking one of the books on the table and opening it up, wondering what was to read. The Lusty Argonian Maid. Vol 1 I remembered this from Skyrim and immediately closed it. I grabbed the next book, finding it...odd. The cover was leather, blank of any words, and the front was just a hand imprint with a small, blue dot on the palm. “Hmm…” I mutter while checking the dot, wondering if it was just a normal dot or if it was a small keyhole. From what I could see it was just a dot, whether it was intentional or accidental was unknown to me, but I opened the book. NEXUS: THE FOREVER EVILS The first page read. “Unoriginal but…” I trail off, feeling like I shouldn't read this but I went to the second page carefully, wondering what would be said or suddenly appear. Nexus, throughout the ages in many Realms, in every point in time, they have existed to puppeteer the darker forces from the blinding darkness deep within shadows. They rarely take in anyone from outside their organization, the organization itself largely one massive family, each newborn member embedded with a special dot on their right hands palm, allowing the leaders to track and puppet the youth, and alter them to their desires. The Blue Dot is also a curse, making any non blood additions related to them by blood. They exist to create the perfect Psychopath host, worshiping the monsters like gods. In return for crafting the Psychopaths better, stronger and more capable hosts, Nexus has gained information involving time travel, advanced, lethal magics, and the leftovers of what the Psychopaths leave behind. Namely, technology, resources, and food stocks of the world who’s life was extinguished by the Psychopaths. Their ultimate goal is still the perfect Psychopath host, and they have come close. They called it, Project C.R.I.P.T. Carnage, Relentless, Intelligent, Primal, Tyrant. I put the book down immediately. “Nope…” I mutter while taking off my right hand glove and checking my hand, wondering if it was true. Through the fur, no blue dot. “Curiosity kills.” I nearly jumped, seeing Cript standing behind me. “Really should have moved that book.” “Uh...sorry.” I sigh out. “But...wow…” I say, shaking my head at what I read. “But...this isn't a special thing but it said a blue dot is the sign of….that. How come I don't have one?” I ask curiously, the dot being the safest thing to ask here. “Because they aren’t born with one, it’s inserted. Like mine was.” Cript said, showing me his right hand. A blue dot. “Ah.” I nod. “But...glad to know the name of the cult that...are beyond suicidal and crazy…” I say worriedly. “Sheesh, and I thought old god stuff was creepy and stupid.” “Heh, yeah...I don’t remember them, I was two when my mom took me away, and brought me to this Temple. It was one of the few places that Nexus couldn’t enter, or find. They nullified the curses ability to control me, but it wasn’t removable, so the blood through adoption part stayed in effect. My...reflections were largely not so lucky. Some died, most became Psychopaths, others...just plain killed. Some even became Insanities...one became an Error but that’s a story for another time. Funny, in a way I was to be their greatest success...but I became their greatest failure.” “True.” I nod. “But...what's an Error? Does it have to do with that one Zeke that's on my Equestria and somehow lost his Psychopath blood?” I ask curiously. “No, an Error is...well...to put it simple, it’s like a Nobody, but...worse.” “Its like MissingNo huh?” I ask simply. “Heh, I wish, when I killed the bastard I didn’t get the fourth or third item in my inventory maxed out.” He joked. “Come on, found the cure, I got this stuff in my lab.” He said, showing me a scroll. As we left and got back up out I noticed...graves. Five. Above them orbs of pulsating light floated. “What's the pulsing orbs of light doing above the graves?” I ask curiously. Cript looked over. “You know Absent Silhouettes? That’s the opposite, Lingering Memories. So much mana, memories, everything in this place that when my Masters and Kevin were killed those were created, Same Concept as Absent Silhouettes but...less angry.” Cript explained. “Oh, so it's like Terra’s Lingering Will in the Keyblade Graveyard.” I say in realization. “Yeah, about right. Wanna see them? Might help you to fight Zeke’s Absent Silhouette.” “I heard Joy was gonna fight him...haven't heard back from him. Must be a long ass fight.” I say. “But sure, maybe I can learn a thing or two about what I can do with my mastered weapons and their abilities.” I say, wanting to do some good training. “Alright, you best start with the one on the far right, Master Eris. Heh, he was the youngest of them all, but then again, he was seventy while the rest of them were over a hundred.” “Right then.” I nodded while walking over to Eris’s grave. “Let’s hope I don't fail miserably.” I mutter while gently touching the Lingering Will floating above the grave. There was a bright flash, and I found myself in...the same area, only, behind me stood the Temple, whole. Wow...it’s huge! “Ah, so one of Cript’s finds his way here.” I looked behind me, seeing an old man wearing orange robes with some sort of beads strung around him, a walking stick in his right hand. “Tell me, who are you, who bears the curse of Cript’s origins?” I bow to the monk. “My name's Ben, Master Eris.” I say, wanting to be respectful to the master and to the dead. “Ben. Hmm, yes. I see it. Self doubt, sadness, but it’s...lessened. A hard life you have lived child.” “It’s...better than the other outcome.” I sigh out. “But hey...at least I have a loving family to keep me up and happy.” “Yes, I can see that. So, how is Cript? He talked with us once, a few years back, but has been absent since.” “He’s...been busy.” I say nervously. “A lot of stuff has been going on lately...and considering I'm going to try to do the impossible...it makes his life a bit more of a pain.” “Ah, sounds like him. I remember when his mother left him with us, just barely two, wearing nothing but ragged attire, clutching an old toy bear, his only possession. I can assume you know about why Cript even exists, yes?” “Read it in a book on accident.” I sigh out. “But...why though? Are these people suicidal or something?” Eris sighed, scratching his hand. “Nexus, the whole family, organization, call it what you want, but they are leeches, parasites. They are remnants of an old faction of the Admins from back before anything existed. Back in those days, Psychopaths were few, and their hosts were too weak to hold them long, even an Admin host would burn out within a year, mortal time. They needed to survive, and the Psychopaths wanted stronger hosts. So, they made a deal, ‘make us hosts that can last for eternity’ the Psychopaths asked, ‘and the carnage from our kills are yours to sort through’. “So, through the generations, Nexus managed to create through either forced breeding and genetic engineering, hosts that could last longer, access more of the Psychopaths true power. Then, one reward lead to the problem we have today, access to other Realms, and realities. It was when this happened they began to puppiter entire worlds, creating beings like Cain, the first Psychopath on the worlds they began to puppet. Cain was a strong, able host for the Psychopaths, but they two, burned out after several hundred years. Finally, they began engineering a host for the Psychopaths to last eternally, a host that could access all their power, learn anything, create new and destructive ability, master anything thought to it. They engineered Cript. What made the Cript hosts so strong, so able, was the blood of the first Psychopath ever to be created, merging with the blood of strong magic users, fighters, and monsters over the generations. “As you can see, they achieved their goal. Cript, and all his reflections, were destined to become Psychopaths, but the Cript you and I know, was to be their greatest achievement.” “But ultimately became their greatest failure.” I say. “Right?” “Yes, you see, when Cript was born, his soul was...unique. Bound to it, was Zechariah, an angel who became a Psychopath, hell feared it, and heaven banished it, so, the angels bound it to a human soul, and had it reincarnated, for generations. Cript, having this unique Psychopath as a soul, was to be the strongest, most powerful host ever, believed by the Psychopaths to be the host that would lead the end of everything, including, themselves. His body, able to channel and contain all kinds of power, his mind, able to learn anything within a short amount of time, and his fighting abilities, are natural, any weapon he can learn in short time. When his mother, realizing he was the end of everything, brought him to us, so we can perhaps, change his destiny, and as you can see, we succeeded.” “Wow…” I say. “But...now I'm both concerned and curious...why did Cript tell me he sees himself in me?” I wonder. “I mean...he's said he's proud of me actually doing stuff his other adopted kids wouldn't do but...still.” “Cript, and I can see why he said this, despite all he has done, all he can do, takes no pride or joy in it. He is self doubtful, and every battle he has fought, he has fought, expecting to die. He cares not for his own life, in fact, he would have ended it himself long ago, if not for that mint green wife of his, igniting an emotion he thought himself to lack entirely. Love. When Cript came back to the temple, after his year long travel, he saw us all slaughtered...by Andy, his friend, the two were like brothers, and out blood soaked his clothes, and the fires that burned his home down, his best friends doing. “Andy, was controlled by Nexus directly. He became evil incarnate, captured and tortured Cript for an entire year, trying to get him to become a Psychopath, as Nexus wanted. What happened, was unexpected. Cript refused to turn, but the Psychopath angel Zechariah, awoke, taking control of him and escaping, slaughtering the newly colonized planet mars. Cript didn’t regain control until after the slaughter. He was broken, and craved death, fighting only to see what will kill him. He locked Zechariah back inside, crucified him to his soul. He created a company, Freak Inc. Where they merged magic, technology, and the unknown together, and made life better all around. But it’s true purpose was far darker, he created it, to find a means to kill himself, and the monster he hid inside. “He went to a world, where a rare, powerful type of magic flowed freely, and was to meet with the ruler of it to discuss safe means of collecting it, can you guess this world, I feel you know it.” I looked at him, feeling confused about how I could know where Cript went...but it suddenly clicked. “Equestria…” I say. “Yes. He met with it’s ruler, Celestia, and made the deal to collect the magic, taking the form of one of its inhabitants, but, he was curious as to how this world's magic differed in flow and use, and ended up teleporting to random places. He finally stopped, and didn’t realize where he was. A dirt road, just within a town called Ponyville’s outer borders. Too lost in thought, he didn’t hear when a mint green mare yelled out for him to move, and as such, he was ran over by a runaway cart, loaded with raw ingredients for candies. What Andy did to him made his injuries nothing, but with the new anatomy, his horn cracked, and went into his skull, shattering his brain. He healed, in seconds, and when the mare brought him to the hospital, took full responsibility for him, as he woke up without any memories.” “Wow…” I say honestly. “That's...interesting. Backstory central here and it's all...rather informative.” “Yes, Cript has had a rather...interesting life, hasn't he?” “More interesting than mine.” I say. “Anything else I should know before asking about why I originally came to meet you master?” I ask, wondering what other important things I should know about. “Not really, so then.” He said, tapping his walking stick on the ground and magic circles began appearing around him, their symbols and letters lost on me completely. “Shall we begin?” “The Heir of Nothingness against a Master of Runic magic...well I can tell I'm at a drastic disadvantage.” I frown while summoning Reunion and Frozen Pride, preparing for the fight. My Assistant seemed to play what sounded like an announcer calling out a fight. ”A great slam and then some.” The announcer said, sounding like he was from an old timey cartoon. After a moment the announcer chimed ”Here goes!” and I dashed forward swiftly like an arrow towards the monk and slashed at him, hoping to disrupt his spell work before it could get to a proper start. One of the circles moved in front of me and...absorbed my attack. “This is a different version of the spell you would call, Reflect.” He said as it began glowing. “Fuck!” I yelp while raising my shield, ready to block the reflected attack. It hit me back, and I was thrown back some feet. “Not bad, but I taught Cript everything he started off with involving Runic magics, in all it’s forms. It will take much more than brute force to break through my Spell Matrix.” I stared at him, my eyes glowing a gentle green as I disbanded my Keyblade and shield and summoned my Lexicon. “You know, Cript gave me a hand ability as a gift.” I say while I channeled magic, the book opening up and pages seeming to fly around me. “I doubt this will work but...best to try.” I say while spell circles started to form around me. “I doubt I can copy you Master, but it's worth a shot to understand.” I say, runes starting to slowly form as my first attempt to do such a thing. Slowly, the runes manifested around me, until they were exact replicas of what he had. “Oh, his Copycat ability. So you inherited it, impressive.” “Yeah, good to have when your fighting someone with special things like you master.” I nod while taking a deep breath and looking at the runes, hoping to learn what they read so I don't accidentally blow myself up here. “Let's hope this works.” I mutter before one of the runic circles glows and a jet of fire shoots out towards the monk. Another rune circle moved in front of him, shooting out a massive jet of water, extinguishing my attack...and soaking me. “Heh, when Cript was ten I used that one to bathe him when he didn't want to bathe in the springs.” I used another rune and a powerful wind was whipped up and dried me off. “Your not taking this seriously apparently.” I frown, wind blades firing off towards the master in hopes of doing something. My eyes widened as he danced around them, at some point break dance dodging them till he finished with a head spin on the ground, thankfully his roab not falling down. “Not bad for a near eighty year old man eh?” He asked, jumping back on two feet. “What the fuck?” I mutter. “I mean...technically this is your mind I think…” I frown, not knowing what to call this actually. “Here, you’ve shown resolve and strength, let me show you something I know for a fact Cript still uses to this day.” He said, walking up to me and grabbing my right arm by my wrist and lifting it up, pulling my sleeve back. He then lifted his up and pulled his sleeve back. “Tell me, what can you see?” I was a tad worried as I prepared myself for what might happen as I looked at his arm and mine, hoping something bad didn't happen. ”Let's hope this won't end poorly…” I think to myself worriedly. I looked, but...didn’t see anything, aside from a freckle that, if he wasn’t already dead, I’d suggest he get looked at. “Don’t see it huh, heh, well try now.” He said, his arm glowing as...rune circles, dozens of them were on his skin like tattoos, all connected by thin, lightly pulsing lines of energy. “By embedding the spell work on to your body, you can have them ‘leech’ in a sense, off of your internal mana, allowing you to gain inhuman speed, strength, durability, and agility. Depending on what rune spells you marked on what part of your body, you can focus your mana to flow more their to increase their potency. Impressive, no?” “It really is...and I suppose it's an activation or is it passive?” I ask curiously. “It is passive, but to increase their effects, you have to think on where to make your internal mana flow more. By nature, magic users draw in mana from the environment, from things like plants, people, animals, the world itself, then their are those who create mana within themselves like your body creates energy to run from the food you eat. Then, there is the rare third, those who can do both. You can guess Nexus made Cript that third, it’s how he advanced in magic so fast. All except Holy magic. Always struggled with that one.” “And what about me? I...actually have barely trained in how I can control my magic flow sadly...normally have it on the background whenever I fight like it's supposed to be second nature...only to think about it and realize I barely know anything about it.” “Let’s see.” He said, placing a thumb to my forehead and closing his eyes. A few seconds later, he removed it. “Well, the good news it, you draw you mana in from your surroundings, better news, there’s a lot stored up in you. You must live in a very magic heavy world.” “Equestria actually.” I say simply. “It's very magical, and...well ironically it's the place that helped me become who I am today.” I chuckle. “Ah. Yes. It shouldn’t be too hard to control your flow. Here, these will be for practice...sadly, you’ll need to be in at least just your shorts for me to set it up for you.” “Does it have to deal with getting runes tattooed on me?” I ask curiously. “It’s not actually tattoos, that’s just how they appear.” “Ah…” I nod. “Makes sense I suppose…” I say while taking off my cloak. “Does the whole rune thing hurt at all?” I ask curiously, not knowing much about this as I took my clothes off except my underwear. “Eh.” He said, his hand glowing and running it along my body, from my right hand, up my arm, over my shoulders, down my other arm to my left hand. Then he placed his hand over my neck, and trailed down to my stomach, then finally trailed up my legs. “That should do it, these will help, but are basic training wheels.” I took a look and on the palms of my hands, all my joints, stomach, and my feet had rune circles on them, all linked via glowing lines all coming from my stomach rune it seemed. “Right then.” I nodded while putting my clothes and cloak back on. “And then it's up to me to figure out all the other stuff about runes?” I ask curiously. “You can customize them as you like, but this is how they are now. As a whole, those runes increase your agility, the rune over your stomach increases your strength, the runes on your legs and feet will increase your speed, the runes along your arms and in the palms of your hands will help you to force the mana out of your body in the form of spells and such without the air of an item, like a Keyblade or lexicon.” “And if I add my weapons along with the runes?” I ask. “Does it act like a multiplier or what?” “Yes, with your Keyblades, their magic damage addition is the multiplier, and with the lexicon, it’s random change multiplier.” “And I suppose it'll help with my eleven other weapons?” I ask, thinking if it works for two of them it works for all of them. “If they run off of mana of any kind, yes. Mind if I see your weapons?” I nodded before bringing out my weapons to show him. “Each of these weapons have either an element or a special thing about it, like Sharpshooters, the gun arrows, control over space and gravity, and Fair Game which can control time.” I explain. “But...when I mastered my weapons I learned how to use their abilities when not wielding them but...it feels like I could do something special and big but never tried cause I'm too simple of a person.” “Hmmm.” He chimed, touching Sharpshooters. “Yes...Kio. I’d recognize his magic anywhere.” “Kio?” I ask curiously. “Is this something new like how my Scythe, Graceful Dahlia, was created using a Demon Tree?” “Kio was a student here back when I was alive and young...He had a talent with Hollow Magic, or as you would call it, Nothingness.” “The antithesis of Void.” I nod. “I...barely understand it cause I haven't done things with it…” I trail off. “Christ I haven't been doing a lot of important things.” I frown. “Yes. He was a strange one, was obsessed with wanting to understand the Hollow and its inhabitants. His experiments became...too risky, so we had to send him away. Judging from the way these weapons irradiate his unique magic style, he must have found what he was after.” “And I'm probably gonna be taking his spot as King of Nothingness.“ I say honestly. “But who knows.” I shrug. “Well then, Ben, it has been a delight. But, you must be heading home now, come by when you are able, maybe then we can have a real mages fight.” “Alright.” I nod before taking a step back and bowing. “Thank you master.” I say, wanting to be respectful to him. With that there was a flash and I found myself back in front of the orb, in the real world. “Hey, that took some time.” Cript said as he came up to me. “Yeah it took some time. Had a nice conversation, learned something about runes, and I learned that Kio is possibly the King of Nothingness.” I say simply, pulling my sleeve back and showing Cript the runes he gave me. “Can't wait to learn about runes...as well as Humanity...Latin...the rest of my weapons...Nothingness…” I take a deep breath. “Mother of hell….I have a bunch of things to learn.” I sigh out. “Do them one at a time, how many weapons have you mastered already?” He asked. I summoned the weapons I mastered, Reunion, Sharpshooter, Graceful Dahlia, Fair Game, Frozen Pride, and Eternal Flames all floated around me. “Mastered my keyblade, Gun Arrows, Scythe, Cards, Shield and Chakrams. Now I need to master my Tomahawk, Claymore, Lances, Lexicon, Kunai, Ethereal Blades, and Sitar.” I tell him. “Still got a lot to do.” “So work on finishing those weapons, and learning some latin in between. But, I know something you can do right now, well, after you get this recipe to the hospital.” Cript said, handing me the scroll. “Is it the antidote?” I ask, hoping it is so I can help all those people. “Yup, ingredients are surprisingly common. So, can you guess what you should do after delivering this cure?” “Train?” I ask him simply. “Or do something else?” “I believe when you spent that day with Yellow clone Zeke, he mentioned something about a spy in Daybreak? And before you ask how I know, I admit, I spy on the majority of you. Your lives, so much more interesting than reality tv.” “Oi vey…” I sigh out. “But yes, I heard about the spy...I don't know who it could be but I...sadly forgot to tell anyone important about the spy...should I go off and look into it?” “Yes. Drop off the cure then go off to Daybreak.” He said with a smile...a kind of...hiding something smile. “I know you're hiding something.” I say bluntly. “But your not gonna tell me what you're hiding huh?” He laughed. “My poker face can either be on point or non existent sometimes. And yes, I am not gonna tell you, cause it’s gonna be a thing when you see it. Welp, chow.” Cript said, saluting me. I blinked...and was in front of the hospital. “Right…” I mutter before rushing into the hospital. “Hey, where's the head doctor?” I ask a nurse. “Second floor, room C24.” She answered. “Thank you.” I say while heading off to the specific floor the doctor was on. “Let's hope the doctor will believe this.” I mutter, getting into the open elevator and clicking the second floor. It was a walk to his office, but I found it and quickly explained I had the cure for what the “comma’ patients had. Me being me, he trusted me and took a look at the scroll. It didn’t take long for the staff to gather the ingredients, and they whipped up a large batch of the cure, making it go down their throats, as the instructions said to, and within an hour people started waking up. Now then...to Daybreak, to warn about a spy...and see what this surprise Cript seems eager to have me see. “Alright. Time to go.” I mutter while opening a DTL. “Let's hope I'm not too late to warn them.” I mutter while walking into the door, it closing behind me as I headed straight to Daybreak. Nobody's visit to Daybreak“Alright, where the hell are the important people to talk to again?” Ben wonder to himself, walking around Daybreak and hoping to find someone to talk to about the spy. As I looked around and realized he was in a shopping district of sorts, the stores looking rather old, but functioning and by the looks of it, selling well. He looked up and saw the castle and nodded, running for it to tell the council about the spy. Heading there, he was too lost in thought, wondering who this spy is, how far in they infiltrated and so much more. He only looked up when he ran into someone. “Oh, so-” Ben stopped himself, looking up and freezing in place. Before him, stood Zeke. “Oh right...forgot to tell you guys I’m not dead…” He muttered. “No...no no no…” Ben shakes his head. “This can't be….how the hell did Twilight…” He mutters worriedly. “What was the last thing you remember before...waking up?” Ben asks Zeke, not believing this at all. “The last thing...fighting Core. I took his darkness then, not really sure after that.” He said, scratching the back of his head. “According to my wives I was found in an unexplored reflection, comatose for a year or so there and a month or more when they brought me to Daybreak.” Ben looked at him. “I'm gonna need to talk to Twilight about something important later. But can you get me an emergency meeting with the Council?” He asks, wanting to deal with one big thing at a time and not wanting to drop this whole thing right now. “Uh, sure.” Zeke said. “Sorry I didn’t come by earlier to tell the news, been busy. You can imagine how much paperwork I had to catch up on.” He said, the two walking towards the castle. “I'm pretty sure it was for...another reason.” Ben mutters. “Oh yeah, did Diamond tell you about her dating Joy?” The half dire wolf man asks curiously. “Yeah, two weeks ago. Can’t say I’m surprised, she always liked puppies.” He joked. “Heh. Right then.” Ben chuckles. “But...did she say anything about a...special fight her and Joy tried to do together?” “Uhh...no. Just said she went on a double date with Scootaloo then a walk.” “Ah.” Ben nodded. “How's X?” He asks curiously. “I think my heart being out of Balance for so long messed with him, I mean, he works fine, but his voice is...off.” Zeke saw Ben slightly twitch, like he's trying his damndest not to say something. “Right.” He nodded. “But I mastered my shield and chakrams while you were gone and figured out a bunch of important things.” He says simply. ”Damn it, I can't tell him the truth or his wives and kids...this isn't good. Damn it Twilight.” Ben thinks to himself bitterly. “Nice, so that’s what? Half down, half to go?” “Got seven more to master.” Ben nods. “And each one is gonna still be annoying to master.” “Well, you get what you asked for, right?” “In spades.” Ben nodded. “But I have a ton of shit to do and less time to do it.” “Heh, always seems that way. So, stopping by for any particular reason? Cause asking to see the council is a biggy.” “Sadly, there's a spy in Daybreak.” Ben whispers to Zeke, not wanting his words to be overheard by others. Zeke nearly stopped, but kept walking with a plain expression. “A spy? Damn it, I knew one would make their way into the system at some point. Anyway to know who the spy is?” Zeke whispered back. “Sadly I don't know. I mean, there is a special parasite that can control people but I'm worried who it is...then there's the part of where the spy is in the system...there's too many variables to try and figure out who the spy is.” Ben whispers. “The best place to hide a spy is ironically enough, within a government itself. Heh, I once snuck into an army base to disable the automated security and alarms so my mom and dad could ride in and steal the armory. That was...actually a year before I came to Equestria. Hang on.” He said, patting his pockets, and then began to look worried. “Oh shit.” “What?” Ben asks worriedly. “Before I went on that job I spent a month coding a special computer virus. Once activated it begins erasing all system data, then, right before the system is wiped, forces the power to jolt throughout a whole system. Radios, computers, even cars, anything it can reach via a frequency, like radio or wifi will make them create a mini EMP, sorta of a self destruct feature. The flashdrive I had it on is gone.” Zeke said, checking his pockets again. “Damn it, it’s been about a month already and I didn’t notice till now.” Ben looked at Zeke, his eyes looking sad as he knew full well about what this Zeke was. “Maybe we still have a chance to solve this. It's never too late as long as we can protect the ones we care about.” “We’d best hurry then, if the spy somehow has the flash drive, the virus in it could bring down the combat arena...man, if we find it, I gotta find it and either hide it better or destroy it.” He said as the two entered the Castle. Once inside Zeke informed the council for a special meeting. Members only, save for Ben. “What’s with the sudden meeting Zeke?” Mors asked from his seat, which was a large mirror where one of the chairs would normally be. “Ben here has acquired information that there is a Spy in Daybreak’s government.” Zeke said as the council began murmuring. “Do we have any clues as to who it could be?” Cid asked. “The person that told me said they had a Way to Dawn Keyblade.” Ben tells everyone. “Who has that specific keyblade?” “Within the government.” Leon started, checking a tablet of sorts. “Fifteen. In this room...two.” Leon said as they all looked at Lord Death, and a man Ben hadn't noticed before. He was old, easily seventy, wearing a brown cloak. “Mors, and Kenobi.” “Obi Wan Kenobi?” Ben asks the old man curiously, wondering if it was the Obi Wan from the movies. “Leon, go round up the remaining suspects, Obi Wan, I’ll escort you personally to Mors’s world.” “Well, it will be nice to have guests.” Mors said. “Oh! I’ll set up some snacks!” With that, the mirror flashed, becoming just a simple mirror. “Come one Ben, you keep a weapon on him, I’m sorry Obi Wan, it’s nothing personal.” “I understand.” He said, rising from his seat. “Well then, to Death City.” Zeke summoned X, Ben looking at it, and seeing no physical differences on it as Zeke opened a DTL and Ben summoned a Sharpshooter and kept it on the elder Jedi as they walked in. “So, when did you join the Council?” Ben asks Obi Wan curiously. “Or have I just not noticed you the last time I was there?” “Around the time Zeke vanished, which alone makes me a prime suspect.” He admitted. “Has there been anyone else that joined the government around that time?” Ben asks, trying to sense if there was that weird Nobody Parasite in him. “Not to my knowledge.” He said, we entering Mors’s chamber. It looked just like the anime, and before Ben, stood Mors….wearing a pink apron setting out a snack table. “Oh, goodie, arrivals. Pardon me, the rest of the snacks will be here shortly. Most of my visitors are, so this is a treat for me, even under the circumstances.” He admitted, placing down a large tray of skull shaped cupcakes. “Thank you.” Ben nods. “So Mors, how have you been doing?” “Well, pretty good. Kid can’t stop talking about his girlfriend, for one I am happy he has love in his life, but on the other his grades are… well, we had to make a grade lesser than F, so we went with L, any worse and we’ll be giving him a Z.” “Yeesh. He better get to work instead of being with his girlfriend all the time.” Ben says honestly. “But hey, don't be surprised if you suddenly hear Scootaloo is pregnant.” Ben shrugs, knowing how bad him and Joy are with relationships and thinking it could happen to them. “Best not to, cause that sentence along seems to have set Zeke off.” Mors said, Ben looking back and seeing Zeke with a dark aura, demonic eyes, horns of darkness, and looking more like death that...the Death in the room. “I… Am going to have a talk with Kid…” “Zeke, calm down.” Ben frowns. “Getting pissed over Scootaloo having a kid with the one she loves is a stupid thing.” He frowns. “Can’t say he’s not a father if he wants to protect his daughters innocence that badly.” Mors said. “Protecting his daughters innocence is one thing, getting this pissed over something his daughter gave honest consent to is another.” Ben frowns. “Sure I do care about my kids and would be upset about certain things they do...but I'm not so pissed I basically look like death.” A DTL opened up again and thirteen other people came in, Leon behind. When he saw Zeke he whacked him on the back of the head. “Knock it off, time to get to work.” Zeke’s whole appearance reverted back to normal. “Yeah yeah…” He said, looking over the group before him. Two council members, three couriers, and ten from security. “So, all you, save for two, don’t know why you are here. Well, sadly, one of you in this very room...is a spy. For C-Spoiled.” Zeke said, reminding himself that Core is dead now. “All we know is that they are working in the government, and they have a Way to Dawn Keyblade. You all have this Keyblade. So, this can be done the easy way, or the hard way.” Ben looked at all of them, trying to sense if any of them have a Parasite in them. “And the specific person wouldn't even know it cause they are probably possessed by a Parasite.” The wolf says, knowing he can sense all Nobodies, including these nobody parasites. “Alright, Ben here will use his connection to Nobodies to see if one is inside any of you, if he senses none, then that means one of you is a willing spy. In that case, Leon will use his Keyblades special ability to reveal the spy. It will force you to speak the truth, by making your heart do the talking. And we all know, hearts don’t lie.” Zeke said, motioning for Ben to move forwards. Ben took a deep breath and focused, a grey aura surrounding him gently as he tried to sense if there was any Parasites in them. ”Come on, I know I can sense these damned things.” Ben thinks to himself, trying to sense if there was any Parasites in them. One by one Ben checked everyone in the room...Nothing. Not a single parasite. “Right…” Ben mutters, frowning at not sensing the Parasites. “They're clean. All of them.” He says, but not sure if that's fully true. Zeke sighed. “Alright then, time for the hard way. Leon, go.” Zeke said as Leon stepped up, summoning his Keyblade and pointing it at the crowd. “Secrets Awake.” Leon said, shot lock like bolts of light firing from his Keyblade and into the hearts of the suspects. “Alright, now who here has been working with Spoiled. Speak up now.” Silence. “What?” “Did you do it right?” Zeke asked. “Of course, no one can resist it, we even tested it on Maleficent, she sang like a bird.” Leon said, confused. “Then...either the spy somehow is using a different Keyblade, or is someone outside the government.” Zeke said. “Yet it would still have to be someone in an important place.” Ben frowns. “Anything about the scientists? Blacksmiths? Does anyone in an important station have Way to Dawn?” “In Daybreak, lots, but anything Spoiled would want to know would be in the government.” “When she managed to sway someone in my world she had it be a guard lieutenant that helped ship a ton of materials for her...to help make fake keyblades.” Ben explains worriedly. “But...what would she want on your world?” “Information likely, Daybreak is still sorting through all the secrets the Foretellers helped us uncover when they unlocked the rest of the city. Alright then, everyone, this investigation will continue, under minimal raidar. Mors, you and Leon will be in charge of this, until we can find out who this spy is, keep anything about this spy between the people in this group, if you suspect anyone, inform Mors or Leon. As you all were.” As Zeke said that everyone left, returning to Daybreak via DTL’s. Zeke himself sighed, sitting criss crossed on the ground. “Figured finding a spy wouldn’t be easy.” He shrugged. “This is not gonna be easy.” “Finding a spy is never easy.” Ben shakes his head. “But-" Ben stops and puts a hand to his head. How? Nothingness connected to Kingdom Hearts? Who is he? ”Shut up!” Ben mentally shouts, feeling like he's hearing all the Nobody's in existence all at once before sensing a powerful Nobody somewhere. “The hell?” Ben mutters. “Sorry Zeke...I've got something...important to do. Nobody's are going nuts for some reason.” Ben says while opening a DTL to where he felt that massive energy. “Tell Twilight I want to talk to her later, and be careful about the spy.” He says before putting his hood up. “Talk to her in a bit then, she’ll be working late in her lab.” Zeke said as Ben left. Ben arrived in a world that was...far. He could tell this was the furthest he’d even traveled, the stars were so...different. He took a look around, and saw he was in a forest. Key word was. All around him scorched trees were all around, in the center of the event, stood a deep scorch mark, shaped in Kingdom Hearts image. “The fuck happened?” Ben mutters while heading down to the scorch mark, summoning Reunion and Frozen Pride just in case. “Hello?” He calls out, hoping to find someone here. Ben heard a noise, and turned around, seeing a Sniper Nobody there...bearing a Blue Heart symbol over it’s head. ”Ah, master. Greetings.” “Uh...hi.” Ben says nervously. “Um...sorry, first time hearing a Nobody call me that. So...think you can help me figure out what the hell happened here?” I ask the special Sniper. ”Something came, came from the afterlife of Heartless, and Nobodies. He summoned me, and I am sorry to say, but while you are my master, I obey him. He has marked me, let me remember, who I was. “And now someone's stealing my job.” Ben frowns. “Of course...so what did this guy look like? Anything of note like...say I don't know, have the X-blade on him?” Ben asks, feeling like it's him. ”He wields a Starlight, and wears the mask of the father of the Unversed, dressed in ragged, battle torn clothings. I can see why, Purgatory is an unpleasant place.” Ben looked at the Nobody. “Well can't say he doesn't like making an entrance.” He shrugs. “Zeke! Get your job stealing butt out here!” He calls out. “I'm the one who's supposed to help Nobody's, even though I've been doing a shit job at it because I've been to fucking busy all the goddamn time…” He trailed off. ”He has left master, he needs to find a means to leave this world. Till next time we meet.” The Sniper said, vanishing in an aura of grey and black. “Oh come on.” Ben frowns before summoning his glider and flying around, thinking Zeke hasn't left the world yet. ”Zeke! You around here?” He mentally calls out to his Nobody friend, hoping he can actually do something like that. There was no response. Zeke either wasn’t responding, or couldn’t hear him. Ben flew around for a time longer, seeing nothing much other than forrest, and a long open road. Grunting, Ben withdrawal, knowing he had thing to do back on his world, but first, he had to talk with a certain Twilight Sparkle. She was in her lab, alone. Twilight worked well in a group, and alone. So many projects, so little time. A DTL opened behind her, and she sighed. “I had hoped you’d be fooled by him.” She said, Ben walking up behind her. “No.” Ben frowns. “Are you fucking kidding me Sparkle?” He growls. “Pinkie is a better prankster, I don’t joke much.” She said, stirring something, not even looking at Ben. “So your the fucking spy.” Ben growls. “So you betrayed everyone that you loved and cared for...for a fucking clone!?” “I betrayed no one, I made him. A clone of Spoiled that attacked Daybreak a while ago provided enough data to build one from scratch. I don’t expect you to understand my reasons, but...when you lose someone...you do things that don’t make sense, not even to you.” “I lost my parents when I was powerless, and I kept walking.” Ben says. “Holding onto the past only hurts people the more they drag it along. And doing this? Zeke would never want the woman he loves to stoop so low...he knows you're better than this.” Twilight stopped what she was doing, placing what she was stirring down. “Zeke’s dead. We received word about Drezke. And how he crushed his other half in his own hand… Without his light half, Drezke will grow more and more wild, nothing to balance him out, and then, will have to be dealt with… Even if Zeke would come back as a Nobody...he’d have no heart, he won’t be him… I watched friends, family, that sicko from the Keyblade war kill them all. I remember the panic from when Nobody's first invaded, how everypony came to me and my friends for help, and nothing we did work. Shining, Spike, and Cadence may be alright, but our parents never came back… When you and Zeke brought what you could back from the dead, only forty percent of Equestria’s total population returned. I don’t blame you, Nobodies… I blame myself. “When Zeke saved us, he eventually told us about his life from before, and rather than just keep training, working to get stronger...we settled for being housewives. Because we knew Zeke was always stronger, we thought he wouldn’t need the help. Then, the Foretellers come along, and tell us he died. Then, we hear about Drezke, well, I did...only Celestia and Unum know about Drezke and what Zeke is. The others, including the kids, and council, are in the dark.” “Few things.” Ben starts. “One, why the Foretellers told you all he died was because Drezke, before he went off to do his own thing, told them to tell you all he died because of...important reasons.” Ben says. “Two, I’m sure you met my wives and how they are still training because they know I can't do everything...and how low I can go sometimes.” He sighs out. “And three...ironically enough, Zeke actually came back from the dead as a Nobody, and you just helped solve his problem of not having a heart.” He explains simply. “But if I may ask...why are you a spy for Spoiled though?” Twilight sighed. “I can’t tell you that, and you can’t tell a word of this, to anyone.” “Cloning Zeke or working for the person that wants to take everything you hold dear away from you?” Ben asks simply. “I know what it feels like to lose the ones you love and feel hopeless...believe me I do...but doing this? It's like you thought Zeke wouldn't come back for his family even if it seemed impossible.” “It’s not just that Ben…” Twilight said, her hair suddenly turning brown as she turned back to look at him, her eyes now a shade of green. “She’s got a room mate in here.” The voice that came from Twilight was...high pitched, trying to be a male voice but failing. “Who the fuck are you?” Ben asks worriedly, wondering how he can help Twilight here. “Back before the war I was called Bara.” He/she said, summoning Way to the Dawn. “I must admit, using my Keyblade to become a Nobody was rather efficient, but I did miss it, of course, making an army of my own from this world’s inhabitants did go well til that red eyed bastard came along.” “So your a Nobody inhabiting Twilights body?” Ben asks curiously, bringing out Frozen Pride. “I removed my heart gain control over them, sadly though, I should have hidden my heart better. They found it and for months I was just floating in a jar...till one accident made it fall and break, and Sparkle butt here was the closest meat suit. Being female is rather odd, but, I’m kinda liking it.” “So you took out your heart...to do something you could have done with a heart…” Ben says. “What?” “To control the Nobodies, one must be without a heart, save for you, it’s fact...which intrigues me~” Bara said, walking up to Ben. “I wonder what makes someone with a heart control the Nobodies. Hmm...What makes you tic.” Bara licked Ben’s nose, making him jump back. “Okay that's enough.” Ben frowns summoning Reunion. “Na, uh dog man, this is our secret. Even if you tell, who’d believe you? And if you were to rip me out, I’m latched onto this mare’s heart like an anchor, I go, she goes, Zeke, or rather, 109, goes savage, and Daybreak will hunt you down.” “Hold on.” He says while using his Assistant real quick. “This will only take a moment.” Ben says to the weirdo, looking up to see how he can take out Bara’s heart without hurting Twilight. Showing Results for “Removing a Heart from Within a Heart” Answer: The Heart inside of the Host heart must leave of its own volition. “Oh go fuck yourself…” Ben mutters. “Hmm…” He hums. “Here, you want to know how I do things correct?” He asks Bara simply. “Well your gonna have to get your own body. Cause if your doing this in Twilights body your not really learning anything, your just making Twilight learn something you understand?” “I dunno~ Are you gonna risk harming her?” Bara asked, rubbing...the belly. “I made 109 fertile for a reason, and added in some...extra need to protect those that are his, any harm to them he’ll attack whoever is responsible. All I have to do is scream, and he’ll be here, and your head will roll.” “I don't need to hurt her. All you need to do is leave her heart voluntarily and I'll teach you some things.” Ben tells Bara simply. “Like what?” Bara askes, taking a seat on the table behind...her. “Like how to control Nobodies with a Heart for instance.” Ben says. “Just a simple thing, leave her heart voluntarily, and I'll teach you.” “Hmm...Tempting, but, I’ll pass. You see, I’ve got it good here, and with Spoiled’s help.” Bara snapped her fingers, several Dusk’s, and three cloaked Nobodies appeared. “I can controle FAR more than I ever imagined. I’m working on my experiments, I have an army, I am in the safest place in this whole reflection, and I finally found a man to rutt me right...well, made one, but still~” Bara said, licking her fingers. Ben took a deep breath, Bara noticing the Nobodies sway ever so slightly. “You really think...you understand anything?” The man asks, his voice calm even if he was trying to figure out how to save Twilight. ”God do I wish Zeke was here to help…” Ben thinks to himself worriedly. “Oh, I know what I understand is little to nothing. Even before the Keyblade war, I joined the Anguis union because like everyone else there, I wanted to learn all I could. Research has always been my life, and when the war broke out, I finally had the chance to perform my experiments. Oh the spells I had only theorized and wrote on paper, finally I could cast them, and the hundreds, thousands I slaughtered. To see my research work, it was glorious, so after I emerged from the bloodshed I went about to research as much as I could. For countless years, I researched, studied, knowledge is my life, my goal, an endless journey. It’s why this host took so well to me. When I entered, I had no resistance, I was wrong about that pink cry baby Tiara, this vessel, the person I live off of like a parasite, she and I are more alike than I could ever imagine.” ”Zeke your wife is being controlled by the bastard that ripped this Equestria apart.” Ben mentally calls out to Zeke’s Nobody self. ”Even if you can't hear me...lets just hope I can do something to save her.” He mentally sighs out. “What's the point?” Ben asks Bara. “What is the point of all the knowledge you gained if your just going to get killed either way?” Ben asks. “You know full well your going to die if Spoiled gets her way, so why help her?” “Because, why not? She may be trying to end everything, but you and I both know it will backfire horribly. Till then, I get knowledge from every world, from countless reflections. I win, she dies, and I can pick through all the leftovers of her fallen empire.” “Zeke will try and get you out of Twilight you know that right?” Ben asks curiously. “He knows there's a spy with your keyblade, and there is a way to force you to come out. And believe me...I'm pretty sure he'd believe me when we're both put under a truth spell.” Ben says, not bringing up how he can put this entire encounter in Memory Stealer and replay it for all. “And that’s where you are wrong. You see this?” She asked, holding a Castle Oblivion card with Zeke’s image on it. “This card is all of what 109 is, you tell him, I break it, and he will resort to what he is crafted from, darkness, several Nobodies, and, oh yes, a minimal link to Kingdom Hearts, enough of a link to turn him into something even I shiver to think about. And then there’s this.” She pulled out another card, this one having the Crystal Heart on it. “Everyone in Daybreak, even Mors, the Heart is reaching, I break this, the heart breaks, and Spoiled will flood this world in, well, let’s just say that older, insane you will make an appearance.” Ben looked at this for a moment, before he rubbed his temple. “Fine.” Ben says, before snapping his fingers and the Nobodies, even the cloaked ones, seemed to go stock still at the snap. “The Nobodies won't hurt the people and you won't hurt the people if no one knows correct?” He asks, hating not being able to do anything. “Yes, I’d rather keep this act going. It’s fun to be honest.” “Just...don't be surprised if everything you worked for gets destroyed and you lose everything in the process.” Ben says. “But...what I wanted to ask, why clone Zeke? I'm just curious is all.” “To shut up his wives. ‘Zeke, Zeke, waahh.’ Day and night, especially at night...for two reasons…It just got old so I made them the best sex toy ever.” “Your someone that doesn't understand love and would never understand the real pain they feel Bara…” Ben sighs out. “Christ...today has been a massive headache…” I mutter. “Has Twilight heard this entire conversation?” “Yeah... I did.” Twilights voice returned as her hair and eyes returned to normal. “I’m...sorry Ben...Bara’s heart is strong...and he’s smart...smarter than I am…” Twilight said, looking as miserable as one can get. “I'm sorry...but remember, he’s only one person, you have your family.” Ben tells her simply. “He can't beat all of you, even if he has some bullshit redundancy, but I know you have a stronger heart than him.” He explains. “Just remember who your fighting for.” “If Zeke taught me anything Ben...sometimes...one person can be stronger than everybody...and if Zeke...is back, even as a Nobody...Tell him...I miss him.” Twilight said, getting off the table and leaving the lab, Ben, gritting his teeth as he headed home. Too be continued... Nobody trains and Joy searches”Damn that Bara…” I mentally grumble, pacing around as I tried to think of a way to help Zeke's Twilight from being nothing more than a prisoner. “Christ...this sucks…” I mutter, continuing to pace around. “What to do...what to do…” I mutter, hearing my stomach growl. “Well...food might be good right now.” I mutter while heading off to the kitchen to get something to eat and help think about how to get Bara out of Twilight. After getting a quick bite to eat I remembered I have other shit to figure out. “Ah crap, I need to get ready for our trip to Zebrica…” I sigh out. “Well better go help back…” I mutter, knowing I have a clone to help but wanting to help them out. I walked around looking for where my girls were and see how much they packed up for our trip. I found them all in our bedroom, several suitcases and such being packed and some already packed. “Oh, hey Ben. We packed some essential items for you already, but it’s gonna be a long trip so pack whatever else you’ll need.” Pinkie said. “Right then.” I nodded, thinking about what I should pack. “Hmm...I mean...I have my Assistant so I have everything at the touch of a button…” I frown. “Did you pack some extra clothes?” “Yes, Rarity even was working on some more durable clothings for you, as well as some enchantments we figured would come in handy from Daybreak.” Celestia said. “Right.” I nodded. “What to pack...what to pack…” I mutter. “I've barely traveled, and normally I don't need to pack anything… “ I sigh out. “So I presume we're going to Zebrica first?” “Yes actually, and we end at the Yak kingdom, that will have taken us all around Equis.” Luna informed. “And then we can see how many more fiances I'll get.” I point out. “Hero of an entire world is basically whoring himself out to create world peace, who'd have thought that?” I joke at my own expense. “By the by have any of you heard from Joy? It's been a while and I haven't heard from him in a while.” I ask them, curious as to what's taking Joy so long. “No, not yet.” Twilight said. “Weird…” I mutter. “If memory serves I was going to look for a special book or something before meeting the Zebrica royals or the other way around?” “Yes, we think it’s something from the Alicornien era.” “Ah.” I nod. “Is anyone tagging along or is it just me looking for the book?” I ask, wondering if I'm gonna get a guide or just have to wing it by myself. “Well, Gilda wants to tag along.” Flutters said. “About time I get into a fight.” The griffon replied. “Which Keyblade do you have again? I...kind of forgot.” I say sheepishly, not remembering what keyblades my fiances have knowing all of them have one. Gilda raided her hand, a Gull Wing Keyblade appearing. “Been practicing, but I want some live action.” “Good.” I nodded. “When are we leaving?” I ask curiously. “A week.” Luna said. “The kids are staying here, and I’m including Joy in that, so he will be in charge of both our kids, his girlfriends, and because we both know that won’t work, Den is gonna babysit them.” “I've seen Joy’s puppy dog eyes...at least mentally. And he could defeat any bad guy with those adorable eyes.” I chuckle. “And of course it's still a week of waiting…” I sigh out. “Wonder what I'm gonna do in the meantime?” I wonder, thinking of all the crap I need to work on. “I have too much shit to do…” I shake my head bitterly and start to pace. “Screw it. I’m gonna go see if Nelare is busy.” I say. “I'll be back.” I say while heading off to the Ponyville spa to see if my dagger master is busy. As I was flying down I spotted a familiar officer waving at me, so, I landed near him. “Hey Ben.” Dorlu said with a smile. “Sup Dorlu.” I nod while landing my glider down near him. “How are you doing?” “Glad to be back in Ponyville, but sadly work is never done. Wanna hitch a ride, we got a crime scene a block down.” “I've got my own ride but sure.” I nod, “There's...a lot of shit that went down and I need to start working more…” I sigh out, still hating how I couldn't stop all the guards getting brutally murdered like that. “Yeah, normally this would be something we’d call the Guard for but….ya know. So, this is the first murder the police department is gonna handle.” “Murder…” I mutter. “You'd think this world wouldn't have death in it.” I sigh out. “It’s a fact of life, what can ya do.” Dorlu’s words rang in my head upon hearing that. “I was actually told how to stop a fact of life...too bad a single world needs to last about a million years or so without said fact happening.” I sigh out. “And I'm going to try my damndest to make sure that becomes a reality.” “Well then, good luck my friend.” Dorlu said, the two of us walking for a while til we came to a house where cops were everywhere, and an ambulance was parked out front. “From what I was told a stallion names Carmel got into an argument with his boyfriend and it went bad fast. Found him locked up in the basement, bloody, and the weapon in his hand. We’re trying to talk him out but he’s being difficult. Won’t reply and we can’t get the door open, he’s blocking it with something.” “Have you tried putting yourself into a card and sliding under the door?” I ask curiously. “But...I wonder why this happened? A simple argument doesn't involve murder…” “Being from Knowhere, I’ve seen people killed for less.” Dorlu said, walking me in the house and to a door. Heavy metal, a small window showing me a small view of a blood soaked Stallion clutching a knife. “Here he is. You try cause, we’ve tried everything and he’s not budging. Or talking back, which is both strange and concerning.” “Okay then.” I nod before knocking on the door. “Hello?” I call out, hoping if I could solve this with words first. He gave no reply, didn’t even move. “I'm scared he's dead.” I frown before summoning Fair Game and turning into a card before sliding under the metal door and getting into the room. I then flipped the card up and appeared in the room. “Hello?" I ask curiously, ready for anything. Still nothing. I summoned Frozen Pride and then poked the body gently with my shield. “Hello?” I ask worriedly, wondering if Caramel was actually dead. ”Heheheheh. Got ya.” A voice I recognized too well said, Caramel suddenly getting up, tossing me against the wall, and stabbed the knife THROUGH my side, and into the wall. His hand under my skin. ”Finally. A host from this Realm.” I looked at his eyes… Psychopath. “Oh for fuck sakes.” I grunt, ignoring the throbbing pain coursing through me. “Dorlu! Get out of here!” I shout, using Frozen Pride to shoot a block of ice at the Psychopath to get him away from me. Dorlu ran everyone out, the Psychopath in front of me with an ice spike in it’s chest, which it pulled out and dropped, it’s wound bleeding out...then the blood stopped and the wound was gone. ”Tickles.” “Assistant?” I ask my Assistant, hoping it has a voice command. ”Yes?” A female voice came from my Assistant. ”Oh thank fuck!” I mentally shout in glee. “Call Cript or anyone that has Psychopath experience. I need help against a Psychopath.” I tell my Assistant, summoning my Lexicon and healing myself quickly. “Why the hell are you here at all?” I ask the Psychopath with a frown. ”Hehehehehehehhehehehe, the barrier is broken. We can finally claim hosts here. We can invade...we can kill. Hehehe. All in time.” “That’s...thats not right.” I say worriedly. “How the fuck did that happen? What did you do?” ”We can’t claim hosts in realms for two reasons. One, it’s protected, a barrier of it’s own logic and reality, or Cript. All your realm traversing has weakened it, and we entered. So, travel, explore, for when the time comes, we will end all.” The Psychopath laughed, a pool of blood opening under it as it fell in with a splash. It’s ‘portal’ gone and blood staining...everything. Including my clothes. “I...I didn't go to different realms that much…” I mutter. “I only stayed in this realm...no...nononono.” I say, starting to panic at how I could have caused these fuckers to enter my reflection and how much death and destruction they could cause. “No….damn it…” I mutter while using Arpeggio, my Sitar, to get the blood off of me. “Damn it….Damn it…” I mutter, not sure if the thing is still in the room or it left. I looked around a bit, figuring the monster was gone and went outside, there, I saw Cript leaning against the ambulance, eating an apple. “I didn't go to other Realms...I stayed in this Realm and all its reflections…” I tell him weakly. “Blame isn’t totally on you...remember when Trinity took you to our realm to train you with your Chakrams, or when I took you to find that scroll?” “Oh…” I look down. “But...if I was actually stronger and didn't need your help all the damned time this...ah who the fuck am I kidding, I sure as hell always need your, or the others, help considering all the shit going on that's outside my scale…” Cript shrugged, putting a hand on my shoulder. “One thing at a time. Technically, I’m not supposed to do this, but things are getting out of hand. I’m gonna put you and Zeke, quote, Zeke, unquote, through a Script.” “A Script? And Zeke is back, I can sense him.” I tell Cript. “Know that, anyway, think of it as how a Video game needs certain events or objectives to be met before something else happens. If I run this, you’ll be able to take things on one at a time, with minor interferences, no major things until the last one is dealt with. Alright?” “What about the others? John, the Foretellers? Are they gonna go through this as well considering this is...mostly my fault?” “Right now you and Zeke are the ones stuck in this, I’ll worry about them when I need to, besides, a ‘pet’ project of mine is nearly finished and I wanna make sure there’s no buggs. So, run it, or no?” “Run it.” I say. “I'm too far behind on a lot of things and Trinity said she would help me with my Ethereal Blades I don't have a Claymore master…” I sigh out. “Then there's the fact I barely know about Nothingness….” I take a deep breath, trying to keep my rage in check so I don't rant about me being a lazy bastard. “Alright, but, this will be the last time you see me for a while. Den will be able to pop in whenever, but I won’t be able to be around till you’ve been totally caught up. But, I will be planning this script out some, so you can have plenty of opportunities to grow strong, also, you won’t be able to buy things or use your Assistant for much other than storage and it’s combat features.” “Good enough for me.” I nod. “Shits going too fast right now and I have too much to do…” I sigh out. “Lets hope this works.” “Alright, see you in a while, son.” Cript said, snapping his fingers as...everything went white. “Gah!” I yelp, shooting up in my...bed? “Wait...wasn't I…?” I mutter before shaking my head. “Never mind, a Cript thing.” I say while looking around and seeing I was in my bedroom back home. “Okay...back home…” I mutter before getting out of bed and seeing I was in my pajamas. “Well better get properly dressed.” I mutter while walking over to our walk in closet and starting to get dressed for the new day. “Wonder how this whole thing is gonna work...” I wonder to myself, Cript telling me this was like a video game but not sure what kind of video game he meant. “Can't buy items from my Assistant besides having it for storage...maybe I should just go to town and get some training from Nelare.” I mutter while getting dressed and heading off to Ponyville. Once I flew down to Ponyville the first place I looked was the Ponyville Salon, wondering if she would be at work. I walked in and checked to see if anyone was at the front desk so I tapped on the little bell to get someone. “Hello?” Rather than one of the spa ponies, Aloe, or Lotus, to greet me, a tall, muscular, oversized stallion came. “Yes?” “Is Nelare in?" I ask curiously, hoping she was here and not sick again. “I was wondering if I could ask her something important.” “Yeah, she’s here. Hang on.” He said, leaving. Waiting for a bit, Nelare came out from the main spa room entrance. “Hello." I nod to the knife master. “How are you doing?” “Feeling better. Flue sucks. So, I take it you are here to learn about the Kunai’s?” “Yes please.” I nod. “Need to learn how to use Foudre properly.” I nod, naming of my lightning kunai. “Alright then, Hey Rem, Aloe, Lotus, I’m taking some time off!” She yelled into the back room of the ponyville spa before she lead me outside. “While I can teach you some basic stuff, I will need your help gathering some more required items. Mainly targets.” She said. I took a deep breath. “Do we really need to do this on live targets?” I ask worriedly. “What, no. Just wood boards with a bullseye painted on them.” Nelare said. “Oh thank god.” I sigh out thankfully. “Would going to the Everfree or Whitetail Woods be good places to train? All the trees can be used for targets.” “That will be later, first rule of Kunai’s, you gotta be fast. When attacking, you are closer than with even a dagger in combat, so being fast makes sure you deal the hits rather than taking them. Let’s go to a hardware store, then we can start on some basics.” She said, leading the way to the shopping district. I nodded while following along. “Question, is there any kind of special Kunai that are either very special or magical?” I ask curiously. “Cause I was told my Gun Arrows are very very cool, and my Scythe is made of a demon tree.” I explain, wondering if there's gonna be something special about them, “Depends, let me see them.” I nod and summon my Kunai, the yellow and blue weapons appearing between my fingers before I gently handed them to her. “This is Foudre, not entirely sure what the name means but it sounds fancy.” She looked them over, inspecting them. She took her time looking them over before handing them back to me. “Well, as far as I can tell the metal is rather standard Steel, but it’s the enchantments that are what are impressive about them.” “Is it because there lightning based?” I ask curiously, remembering the ton of crap Larxene did in the games but not sure if it was from her or her weapon. “Well, from what I can tell the enchantments boost lightning based attacks by seventy five percent, those types of attacks already some of the strongest all by themselves, they increase your mana by about fifty percent, and speed by sixty percent.” “That's a lot of buffs.” I say honestly, surprised about that. “But, like with all magic, there is a catch. All those buffs take away from your defence, meaning wielding these means you’ll be able to take less hits than you would normally. Seems like a fair trade in my opinion.” “Question...is there an after image technique that looks and feels more like cloning?” I ask curiously, always wondering how Larxene was able to do that. “Or is that some special magic?” “That’s a technique. I can teach you that too if you want.” “Please teach me everything you know.” I say readily. “Can't be a master of a weapon if I don't know all I can learn...well...everyone has room to grow and learn, even masters.” I say, quickly fixing my little mess up. “Heh, true enough. Let’s get shopping.” Neler and I went into town, buying some wood items and paint. Once we made it to an open area not too far into the Everfree. We quickly set up some targets and such all around a mile long stretch of the area. Finally, the training was about to begin. “Alright, now then, let me see your pose.” I summoned my knives, three in each hand and I thought for a moment about my stance. ”Can't use her stance...maybe I could…” I think to myself while sliding my right foot back slightly to form a stable stance, and moving my arms so my left hand was up around my chest looking like I could quickly jab someone and my right hand laid near my side, making it look like my right hand could either throw a strong punch or throw the Kunai quickly. “This okay?” I ask, my stance looking solid enough but leaning more on looking like a weird mix of a boxing stance and a martial art stance then a standard stance for Kunai wielders. “Uh huh…” Nelear said, walking around me. Inspecting me I guess. “Well, pose can work, but, we need to start at the basics.” She said, taking all but one of my knives from me. She then pointed over to a target board across from me. “Basic throwing. Let’s see it.” I took a deep breath and went to throw it. But when I threw it I forgot how fast I could go now and hit a tree just before it got to the board. “Huh...didn't expect to be that fast…” I mutter worriedly, clenching my fist gently and seeing a slight burn mark on my glove from how fast it was going. “Huh.” She said, looking at my arm. “Hmm...Strength is good, just need aim, and the propper throw. You threw yours in a way that it it spun while in the air, to throw them properly, you throw them so they are stable while in the air.” “I've...never actually thrown daggers before.” I say sheepishly. “Feels a lot different then cards that's for sure…” I mutter, the dagger in the tree disappearing and appearing in my hand. “Okay...maybe turn back the speed and strength a bit.” I mutter, trying again and throwing it again, now actually noticing it was spinning and sticking in the top right corner of the board. “This is gonna take a while…” “Here.” Nelare said, showing me how she was holding one of the Kunai’s, the blade pointed backwards, resting against her wrist. “You hold it like this, and then,” She then made a throw motion, but held onto the Kunai, showing how once it was in the right position in the wrist motion, she would let go. “That should help you keep it steady while throwing.” I nodded, taking a deep breath and trying once again, this time it only spun once before hitting the board a little closer to the target. “Great, now, apply speed to your throw, and strength.” I sigh out. “Just...don't be surprised in it doesn't look like I actually threw it.” I say, not really knowing how fast I could throw one of these but trying anyways. I did the motion of properly throwing before I threw it, my hand blurring and the Kunai hit the center, embedding itself almost all the way to the handle. “Better…” I nodded. “Perfect. Now do it again five hundred more times.” “Great…” I mutter before making a new one and proceeding to do as she asked, my hand and arm seeming to blur as I threw the amount of Kunai she wanted me, some missing completely and sticking into trees, some chipping off of the board, and the rest basically making the board look like a pincushion getting attacked by a needle storm. “Yeesh, and hear I thought swinging a scythe a lot was a little bad for your shoulder.” I frown while rolling my shoulder. “You missed about half.” Nelear said, sighing. “We’ll work on that later, now, same thing, but with your left arm.” “Crap…” I mutter. “This is gonna be a long day…” I say before using my left arm and throwing Kunai, but instead of just blazing through I toned down the speed a tad and actually tried to aim...didn't help I still got the same hit to miss ratio with my right arm. “Well...at least I didn't miss as much as I thought I would.” I say, glad that my non dominant hand was at least fine enough. “Not bad, not bad.” She said, changing the very damaged target board for a clean one. “Again, we ain't leaving till you are accurate to a T.” I rolled my shoulders and hearing them crack a bit. “Right then. Time to start praying I can do this right.” I say while going back to my right hand and doing the motion for a moment. “Okay…” I mutter, taking a deep breath and focusing before I threw the five hundred at a blinding speed, Nelare noticing sparks flying off of my arm which seemed to blur in and out. After I counted five hundred I stopped, my arm steaming from the speed and noticing I hit the target a lot more, but not perfectly accurate. “Maybe I should slow down a bit…” I mutter with a frown, thinking my speed is throwing off my timing or aim. “I hope I won't take too much of your time...actually, have two ponies come here to see Remilua?” I ask curiously, remembering I told Octavia about the scythe wielder. “Yeah… Last I knew he went on a date with them...that was two days ago...though I did get a postcard from New Las Pegasus saying “Alive still”.” I chuckled at hearing that. “Well don't be surprised if you see him with those two already married. This world can...have pretty fast herds...or at least in my experience.” I say sheepishly, not being one to look at for proper dating tips. “So, talking about love lives, you thought of anyone special around Ponyville?” I ask her curiously, switching to my left hand and starting to throw the Kunai carefully. “Not really. I’m not really one for romance.” “I understand.” I nod. “So, how have you been during your stay on Equestria?” I ask curiously, keeping up my throwing which got faster slowly. “Relaxing. Back on Knowhere if you weren’t on your toes all the time you’d get robbed or worse, here, I can go for a walk, WITH a purse.” “True, true.” I nod. “But...sadly...Knowhere is probably a been wasteland.” I sigh out. “Something I couldn't stop went there and probably killed everyone there…” I shook my head and threw more Kunai till I hit the five hundred mark. “Anyone at Knowhere you were at least friends with besides Remilua?" I ask. “Not really, the only reason to be close to someone on Knowhere was for items, sex, or child support.” “Ah.” I nodded. “Makes enough sense considering it was basically a massive black market.” I say, finishing my second attempt at five hundred hitting the board, seeing that I was getting my aim down at least. “Well I at least hit the thing with all of them this time.” I say simply. “Yeah, arms hurt yet?” I roll my shoulders and my arms did hurt a bit but nothing too bad. “Not so much. Why do you ask?” I ask curiously, wondering if she thought my arms hurt because of how fast I was throwing these things. “Cause if they don’t hurt yet, I’m not doing my job.” She said, looking up at the sky and seeing it was getting late. “I’ll go tell your wives you’ll be training late, keep it up, or we’ll see how long you can last throwing at top speed.” She said, heading off for my home. “Alright.” I nodded before using my right hand and throwing five hundred Kunai again, this time starting to bunch them as they all hit within the target thankfully. “Okay...time for the left.” I say while moving to my left and throwing five hundred again, this time going a bit faster and seeing I'm getting better at it. “Glad I'm a quick learner.” I mutter thankfully. I kept it up for a while. It was an hour or more, the sun getting lower and lower. Finally, the light from Flashlights came over me, when I looked around...it was the girls. “Hi Ben!” Pinkie and Twin said in unison. “Oh, hey.” I nodded. “What are you doing here?” “They wanted to tag along and watch you.” Nelear said, walking up from behind the mini army that was my fiances. “Can’t really say much against it, so long as they don’t interfere.” “Okay.” I nod before changing the stabbed to hell board for another board and went back to my starting position. “Okay, five hundred.” I say before all my fiances barely saw my right arm blur as five hundred Kunai embedded themselves in the board where the target was. “Well got the five hundred in the target.” I say to Nelare before switching to my left hand. “Alright...left hand.” I say while throwing them all at the same board, managing to get them all within the target. “There.” I say while rolling my shoulders. “Think my aim is good?” “So far.” Nelear said, helping my fiance’s set up a campfire. “Do five hundred more and we can take a small break.” “Right then.” I nod while switching my target again. “Five hundred more.” I mutter before throwing five hundred from each arm again, hitting the target accurately. ”Good.” I nodded, thankful that I was progressing well with my throw and aim. With that done I took a seat near the campfire my fiances set up. “Did someone bring marshmallows?” I ask curiously. “Or...is that something people normally bring to campfires?” I ask, not entirely sure given I've never camped out before. Twin brought out a...Large, to but it mildly, bag of marshmallows from her way to small to hold that backpack...quickly followed by cooking gear, gram crackers, chocolate bars… a...cat? And fishing poles. “Always prepared!” She declared. “Why the hell did you bring a cat and fishing poles?” I ask, staring at Twin and kind of concerned at how the hell she fit all those things in that bag. “And...how did all that fit in your backpack when it's way too small?” “The Fishing poles I brought cause late night fishing is a hobby of mine, and the cat...I have no idea how it got into my bag.” “Weird…” I mutter while checking the cat to see if it was hurt or if it was special in some way. “Okay little cat, what are you?” I mutter while gently picking up said cat and seeing what breed the cat was. It was Siamies, white just about all over save for her, and it was a she, front paws, tip of her tail, and ears. She had pretty blue eyes, and a collar, with a simple name. Cheese. “Her names Cheese.” I say, gently petting the cat. “Anyone know of a person who owned a Siamese named Cheese?” They all shook their heads. “Well...looks like we got ourselves a pet cat...lets just hope Cerberus doesn't mind.” I say nervously. “Also before you ask, it's a different Cerberus, not the one near Tarta-" I cut myself off as I took a deep breath. “Fuck...I completely forgot about that place…” I sigh out, completely forgetting this world's super prison like a jackass. “Anyways, how have all of your days been?” I ask everyone curiously, not really having many times to ask that simple question. “Baked.” Twin and Pinkie said. “Practiced some spells.” Luna said. “Went shopping.” Rarity said. “Splic- I mean, read.” Brigid said, quickly fixing what she said. “Better not be splicing.” I say. “And the rest of you? Anything special?” I ask the rest of my wives curiously. The rest was some simple things, Twilight visited her family, Celestia was going over some documents about how to handle the lack of guards. It was nice. ”Wonder what Joy is doing?” I thought, roasting a marshmallow. (Joy POV) “Okay...so this is where God is huh?” I muttered, looking around the new world God was hiding in. “Wonder where he is…” I muttered, starting to walk around. It was a rather baren world, only a few buildings along a single, solitary stretch of road. With not much of an option, I began looking through the dirty windows and such, the inside of the buildings rather empty and barren. Finally, I found a building that, on the inside, looked rather clean and kept, and went in. “Hello?” I call out into the clean home. “Huh?” A familiar voice calls out as the old man I knew as God from Ben’s memories walked into the room from another. “Oh...Joy right, you were from Ben? Well, his emotions, right?” He asked, looking...terrible, no beating around it. “Technically Ben is my reincarnation but pretty much.” I nodded. “But you look like you need some help...and a lot of shit to be told about.” I say, bringing out my Assistant and deciding to just start with scanning the old man to see what's fully wrong with him besides a universe collapsing inside him. Function no longer available. “The fuck?” I frown, checking my Assistant to see why a simple action was no longer available. “Weird...anyways, how can I help?” I ask simply. “Heh, you can’t.” The old man says simply, taking a seat on a rocking chair. “When I made this universe, I knew it would not last forever. You’ve met my father, I presume?” “Yes I'm met Mr. Disney...but...I've also met your mother.” I tell him. “I know you won't believe me...and you probably won't believe me if I told you Core is only a heart and not a crazy person and your long lost brother Hollow is alive and well with Void powers.” I explain with a shrug. “That I knew, but Core being just his heart… that’s new.” He said, pulling out a bottle of Whisky and taking a swing. “Tell me, do you know how dad and I lived so long?” “Magic? Special abilities? Being actual god's?” I ask simply. “Our hearts. While hearts can be destroyed, they themselves are pure energy or light, dark, pure light or pure darkness, all feeding from Kingdom Hearts, and worlds are no exception. Father learned long ago how to feed that energy into his mortal body, extending his life from the beginning of everything, to this day. Core, his Nobody, exists outside of time, and Hollow, the void keeps him young, for time, space, not even meaning or logic have meaning there. When I made your universe, I used my heart to create it, fuel it, keep it stable. It’s why all I can sustain for my body is this elderly form. Sadly though, your universe crumbling...also means my own heart is shattering.” “There has to be a way to help.” I say worriedly, not really knowing how to help. “Damn it, the one time when I need this damned thing and suddenly it doesn't work.” I growl, glaring at my Assistant like it kicked a puppy. “There has to be a way to help...your heart is crumbling how?” I ask, wondering when Eve is gonna appear and try to do something for her poor son. “Parts of your universe, you know this, items, places, people. All parts of my heart. If you saw earth itself, you’d cry…” God said, taking another sip. “When it all breaks, it will all spill out into the reflections. My heart will be gone, my body, not sure. Soul, you don’t want to know. Just, here.” God said, taking Joy’s hand and placing a small, red box in it, a small keyhole on it. “It’s the power I used to bring you all from my mind into my reality.” Joy looked at the box. “I have no idea what it does…” Joy says nervously. “Just don’t open it. Hide it. Anyone with bad intentions gets their hands on it, heh, well, let’s just say it’s Apocalypse Now.” I nodded and checked if his Assistant could at least be a good item storage as he tried to put the box away. And thankfully it did. “Okay…” I nod. “But…” Joy mutters. “Eve? I know you can hear me, especially when I'm so close to your son. You can come out and say hi.” Joy says to no one in particular, hoping for once calling someone powerful out would cause them to appear when he actually needs them. ”Can't believe I'm calling Eve here when she's someone we need to fight…” I mentally sighed out. “Never mind...but is there a way to keep your heart and send my world into the reflections we know?” I ask him curiously, thinking that if he doesn't fight it and let's it flow his heart will stick around. “Heh...I don’t think so. There’s someone I’ll need you to find, he has a world all his own in your friends the Foretellers world. He goes by Chuck, and for a time, was my apprentice. He is the only other person who knows how to bring imagination into reality. Though, you may have to watch out for his ‘sister’ if she’s still around.” “I was going to ask if this Chucks last name was Norris but...I don't remember the guy ever having a sister.” I shrug. “But...there's literally no way to save you? Even if...even if I used Memory Stealer to preserve your heart and memories? It's worked Roxas, Namine and Xion, it can work with others.” I say, trying to draw any straws I can to help the poor guy. “Joy… there’s not much time left for me.” He said with a chuckle. “Here.” God said, raising his hand as a Keyblade, it’s handle shaped like ice caps, blade and hilt the continents of earth going up until the tip, which were more ice caps, the sun and moon, the moon in front of the sun slightly. “It’s made from the memories of earth. From the day it appeared, till now. My memories of it. I call it, Mankind.” He said, handing it over to me. “Take it. It will help you find those from your reflection.” I looked down, saddened that the guy that gave Ben and me so much has to die in such a way. “I'm sorry I can't help…” I say sadly while taking the Keyblade. “I have to admit, thought I’d at least see Luxu one last time. If you see my boy, tell him to let go. His fear of the X-blade made him do so much harm. Heh, Core’s descendants became grand criminals, mine started the Keyblade War, for nothing, and Hollow never had any. It’s funny really. We all had high hopes for ourselves, only for us all to end up this way.” “Which seems even worse when Core’s descendants all have the capability to become Psychopaths, and...wait your son is named Luxu? I thought your grandson was named Luxu?” I ask curiously, confused on that part. “Luxu is my grandson...My son’s name is…” He dropped his whisky, shaking a bit. “Heh, there goes the last of it…” He said, looking...tired. “Luxu’s father is called… Michel…” God closed his eyes, a flash of light coming from his chest as his body began fading into shards of light, rather quickly his body vanishing completely and into the air. I stood there and took a deep breath. “Damn it…” I growl. “Damn it…” I sigh out. “Well...I better go find Chuck…” I sigh out while using Mankind to open a door to where Chuck was. “Lets hope this will lead me there.” I mutter while walking through the door, hating how I couldn't save God. I exited the door, finding myself in a...bar? There was a homeless looking man here too. “Who are you?” He asked. “Names Joy.” I say simply. “Who are you if I may ask?” “Well, on earth people knew me as Marv, but my real name is Mettaton, in another time I was the scribe of God.” He said, taking a seat on a barstool and grabbing a mug, filling it with beer from the tap. “So, if I may ask, what in the hells are you?” “I'm also a person from Earth, well...technically speaking. Then some magic stuff happened and made me half dire wolf.” I explain simply. “So what's the scribe of God doing here?” I ask curiously. “Especially looking like this.” “No idea, was in a dumpster scrounging for some food, long story short I had my grace taken and became mortal. Next thing I know, I’m here.” Mettaton said, taking a swig of beer. “Hey, who are you?” We both turned around, seeing a skinny, tall man look at us from a booth, pointing at me. “Wait… no. Don’t tell me… Is he dead?” The mystery man asked. “Wish I could have saved him…” I sigh out bitterly. “But the names Joy. Who are you?” “Uh...Heh...Uh...this is gonna be a long story…” He said, rubbing the back of his head. Turns out, this was Chuck, the first thing God pulled from his mind, himself, younger, as well as his darkness, Chuck’s sister, Amara. Where Mettaton and I were now was his ‘safe room’ the only place Amara couldn’t touch or find. Chuck locked up his sister a long time ago, but she was released when a curse she was bound to was broken, releasing her. Now, the world Chuck, or ‘God’ as they all know him as, are being harmed by her, and to sum it up. “You’re a coward.” I said simply. “Hey! She is just as strong as I am, if not more. Besides… I’ve had more important matters to attend to.” Chuck said. “Like what?” Mettaton asked, having a mental breakdown as everything he thought to be true was all a lie. “You lied to everybody, angel, demon, human, yourself. You’re just a… a young clone of the actual God, what’s so important for you given you’ve been missing for, oh I don’t know, the last ten thousand years!” “Okay that's enough.” I state bluntly. “No need to be pissed at him for things outside of his control, and to be honest angels and demons probably weren't lied to because of obvious reasons like the after life being outside even his powers.” I explain. “I uh...made my own. This world, completely cut off from Kingdom Hearts, it has its own afterlife, and such. Guess I inherited that from the big G… Can’t believe he’s really gone…” Chuck sighed. “What's funny is that he wasn't really a god to begin with. Sure having the power of Imagination is overpowered as hell I've actually met gods...and Admins...and Psychopaths…” I frown. “Christ did we all jump the gun on seeing what's strong…” I say, having thought Core was the strongest then jumping straight to Cript and Psychopaths. “Well, that said, I suppose I can tell you about someone you might know. While ago a door to Purgatory, different purgatory Mettaton, and out appeared a Nobody, one of those human looking ones...If I didn’t see it I wouldn’t have believed it, but he had a Keyblade, and his energy...I haven’t felt anything like that since big G brought me to see Kingdom Hearts itself.” “Yeah that’s Zeke. I can sense him even from here, and the Nobodies won't shut up about it.” I grumble. “Nothing like being a human X blade while having the ability to wield the X blade.” I explain. “So, know where he is?” I ask him curiously, remembering Yellow talking about Purgatory before. “Uh...No. After he appeared is when I built this...kinda freaked me out.” “Of course you did.” I sighed out. “Well good thing God gave me this.” I say while showing Mankind. “This can help me find him...but poor Yen Sid and Eve...gonna be tough for them to hear this…” “Well, uh...Good luck with that. So, um...I’ll just drop you off where he landed and...you take it from there. Bye.” Chuck said with a wave, I finding myself in a forest where it looked like a nuke went off. Trees scorched and burned to crisps for as far as the eye could see. “I probably should have warned him about shit that might hunt him…” I muttered before raising Mankind. “Okay you, help me look for Zeke.” I say, trying to use the Keyblades special ability to search for people from Earth here. It glowed, a blue orb of light appearing out of it and began gingerly floating away from me. Leading me to, hopefully, Zeke. “Right then.” Joy mutters while putting his hood up and following the orb to find Zeke hopefully. ”How far...IS HE!?!?” I mentally scream, having been walking all night through what felt like an endless forest. “If I don’t find him soon…” I grumble, seeing the orb speed up. “That better mean what I think it means.” I say, picking up the pace. An hour of a slow paced jog, I found what looked like… I’m not sure. It kind of looks like it would have been an old entrance to some sewers… or a bunker of sorts. “Riiiiiiiiight…” I mutter. “Hello?” I call out, wondering if I'll hear an echo if it was some sewers or someone was there if it was a kind of bunker. I tried to enter, but it was locked. Smirking, I tapped Mankind against it, knowing just a tap works… Jenny’s opened the locked bathroom door enough times… I pulled the door- Locked? “The fuck?” I frown, switching to Hearts Guardian and tapping it again, trying to pull it open again. Nothing… a lock immune to Keyblades? How? As I started banging the door I was knocked back when it was kicked open from the inside. Ouch, my nose! “Ow!” I whine and hold my nose. “Maybe try not kicking the door down next time jack ass!” I frown, looking up at who just kicked the door down. I froze. My blood went cold… “How...you’re dead!” I said, backing up a bit. “So I heard.” A voice I thought I’d never hear again spoke...Core… His blank wooden mask on, but his apparel a purple version of Eraqus's clothing. “Okay...how the fuck are you alive and why are you here?” I ask worriedly, confused on how Core is here and not in Daybreak. “That’s not important.” He said, a...rather strange Keyblade appearing in his hand. It was like the swords the Invisible’s wield, a cloth wrapped around it partly as the tip was a heart shaped moon. “You’d best leave. There are...things Dexez needs to complete.” “And I also want to see a friend me and Ben thought died when Drezke killed his Light half.” I frown, summoning my new and improved Lindworm. “Also...want to know some special things I figured out not too long ago?” “Does it matter? You. Need. To. Leave.” “When it involves your mother and the descendants of your own son then yes it does matter.” I say simply. “Like I said, You. Need. To. LEAVE!” Core shouted, charging as I blocked. I used Wind Guardian and sent him flying back a bit...until I went in to strike him...He blocked me and I saw green energy fill him...oh crap. He used the Jump reaction, hitting me five times continuously and hitting me with a hard combo before he jumped back. “You’re leaving. Conscious or not.” “You'd think I would be immune to that Reaction crap…” I cough. “But can I at least get an explanation here? It's not everyday your friend that sacrificed himself to stop you, get split in half, then have his dark half kill his Light, Psychopath corrupted half, and then literally feel and hear him come back to life.” I frown. “Let’s just say…” Core started, looking at his own hand… then to me. “He’s setting things right.” Core rushed at me, and everything went black. “Joy?” I heard Sweetie Belle’s voice call to me as I woke up...in our bed. “Oh thank goodness. Are you alright?” She asked. I took a quick look around, seeing some bandages and such on the bedside table. I looked at myself. My cloak was off, just shorts on as my arm and forehead were bandaged. “Oh you know, just wanted to meet a friend I once thought was dead, then got stopped at the front door by some asshole that managed to kick my ass. You know, the usual.” I joke, wincing as I felt my head sting like mad. “You just flew out of a DTD unconscious. It’s been about an hour.” “Well...better than it being a day or so.” I sigh out. “Where are the others? They're probably gonna freak when they know I woke up.” I chuckle, knowing at least Jenny would want to start messin with me a bunch now. “Jenny, Applebloom and Scootaloo are in town doing a bit of shopping. Lovely, Gabby and DT went to Canterlot for sightseeing. Frisk, Chara, and Asriel are up in New Manehattan, visiting their family. I stayed here cause I was taking a nap.” “Right…” I nodded gently. “Um...for some reason it feels like I should have a wolf girlfriend...maybe I should go back to the Diamond Dog kingdom and check…” “Heh, taking after Ben I see.” Sweetie said with a chuckle. “He has twenty fiances, I have ten girlfriends. I doubt I'm gonna get more girlfriends over eleven….but don't be surprised if I get more.” I chuckle. “So, how’s everyone else been doing? “Ben’s training with his knife teacher. All his fiance’s are out with him, so I guess it’s gonna be a while.” “Right.” I nodded, before hearing the sound of a twenty foot dog barking outside. “Did Jenny go to Olympus Coliseum or something?” I ask curiously, wondering if that was Cerberus I heard. “Yeah, in the round against him she just pet him and he turned himself into a puppy and she adopted him. He’s not too bad either. Though he ate...ALL the meat stuff we had so that’s why they are shopping.” “Of course.” I sigh out. “But glad to hear Cerberus is a good dog...but is it a male or female?” “Jenny says, according to lore from the world he’s from, he’s a demon hound, so he’s both and neither. Not sure what that means.” “I think Cerberus has both sets of...parts, but when you look at him it doesn't look like he has any at all.” I say. “But I have no idea, I'm not good at demon hound biology...or demon biology to begin with.” I shrug while getting up. “So, what do you want to do?” I ask curiously, wondering what the two of us could do right now. “To be honest…~” Sweetie said, getting real close to me with a look I haven’t seen on her since her heat. “Borrowed Rune’s book. And it’s just you and me to test them out~” “Nope.” I say while getting out of bed. “Nope. Nope. Nope. Not dealing with all the fetishes there. I don't even want to know some of the sick shit she wrote in there.” I say bluntly, not knowing what things Rune wrote and there and honestly not wanting to find out. “You read it haven't you?” “Yup.” She said, putting a...dog collar on...why am I… “This was hard to get, but has hormones in it that draw male diamond dogs to mates. And judging from your drool...it works on you too~” “Are...we at least keeping it safe enough?” I ask, trying my best not to just rush her and make her mine. “All I have to do is take it off if things get too hot.” She said, not even touching me as I followed her finger and was now over her. “Fine...but if I turn into a girl I'm not having it there got it?” I tell her bluntly. Before she spoke, she pulled my head down, my nose right in front of her collar...the hormones floo- “Hehe, think less, act more.” To be continued... Nobody talksThe next morning Nelare had me start off with another five hundred, and once that was done, upped it to one thousand, with multiple targets I had to hit all around me. Needless to say, it took a bit, but I finished. “You’re progressing faster than I expected.” Nelare said, giving me an approved nod. “Take a break, I gotta head back into town to get more targets.” She said, walking off as I sat on a log. Girls all went back to the castle to bring breakfast stuff to cook out here. All in all...it was peaceful. “Mind explaining what the hell is up with my Assistant?” Joy asks me. Until it wasn't. “How are you doing Joy?” I ask him simply. “It's been a while since I last heard you. Been busy?” “Pretty much.” Joy nodded. “So, the hell happened while I was gone?” “Cript put us in...a sort of Script as it were. No idea what that fully entails but we have time…” I explain, looking down bitterly as Joy saw what was now capable of freely roaming in our home. “Oh no…” Joy mutters worriedly. “Yeah…” I sigh out. “Hopefully this will give us enough time to do...whatever.” I shrug. “Yeah…” Joy trails off, not sure where to start here. “Mind telling me what you were doing for so long?” I ask my little brother. “Well...God...passed.” Joy tells me bitterly, summoning a Keyblade with all the continents of earth and its sun and moon as part of it’s design. “He gave me this before he died… said it can find others from earth…” I took a deep breath. “Well...that sucks.” I mutter. “But...anything else?” “...I know where Zeke’s Nobody is...generally...but someone…stopped me from seeing him.” The pup said. “I'd love to guess...but I'm not sure who it might be.” I say simply, wondering who could beat Joy so easily. “...Core…” Joy said, his voice a mix of fear and venom. “I thought the fucker was nothing but a heart?” I ask, completely confused here. “I don’t know. I asked and Core’s heart is still at Daybreak, but this… He wasn’t a Nobody pumped with darkness like the one we know. This Core was a person, I could tell that much. How though… I don’t know.” “Well shit.” I sigh out. “What the fuck is Zeke doing?” I mutter worriedly. “Anything else? Like how that Absent Silhouette fight went?” I ask, having remembered that before he got cut off. “Check this.” Joy said, summoning a Keyblade that…was rather cool. “It’s called Hearts Guardian. It’s one of the prizes I got for beating that SOB...Was not fun…” Joy said, giving a heavy sigh. “Bright side, it’s stupidly strong.” “It better be if it was a pain in the ass.” I say simply. “I have a feeling you got some other stuff.” “Attack is twelve, and a ten to magic. Plus, according to the Assistant, all the past X-blade wielders special powers, with this, I can learn to use. I also got Valor form, Keyblade armor, a fuck ton of money, some shotlocks, and I can summon Stitch… Speaking of… where is…” Joy and I looked to our side, seeing the small blue alien walking passed up, shushing us as he then ran off. “Hey! Get back here!” We saw Luxu run passed, his cloak spray painted green and orange. “You’re gonna pay for this!” Luxu declared as he chased after the blue alien. “Ri~ght...” I frown. “But...I feel like you got a book of...an old friend.” I say. “I did get a spell book...and...this.” Joy said, handing me a Winnie the Pooh book. “Not sure if it’s magic or not, best check that later. I also got, this.” Joy said, pulling out a Keyblade armor sleeve. “Among other miscellaneous things.” I took the book and smiled gently. “Glad to have this book.” I nodded...before sensing something off about Joy. “You feel...different somehow.” I point out. “Did you get something else besides all these items and abilities?” I ask. Joy looked a bit remorse, tapping his Keyblade on the ground...like he was contemplating telling me. “...I learned...about Eve’s past. From the very beginning.” Joy said, beginning to explain the story that was Eve’s life he witnessed through her eyes, save for some parts. When he got towards the end, my jaw dropped. “So yeah… Eve was God, Core, and Hollow’s mother, and Zeke is related to not just Core, but Yen Sid and Eve, as well as Unum, the original, not his wife.” “That cheeky fuck.” I mutter. “Sheesh...no wonder why he's super special. That's a...lot to take in. So all that happened…ah damn Eve isn't gonna be happy…” “Also...Yen Sid is OLD.” Joy threw in. “I mean, he’s old, yeah, but...damn… That’s like, immortal old. Also...Zeke couldn’t use magic without Discord as his Keyblade...but...he’s a descendant of Yen Sid, the, apparent, first mage… that seems a tad odd.” “Yes, yes it does.” I nod. “But who knows what reason made him unable to use magic. But I think we got side tracked about other stuff when I asked why your aura seemed...different.” I say, still curious about that. “Oh, that...yeah… Yen Sid told me that, only the true Heir of Nothing can wield all the weapons…but, each can be wielded by his fated staff, or something like that. I got Lindworm.” Joy said, summoning the spears, and wow...they looked...cool. “I’m your Bodyguard. That’s the role of the wielder of the spears. Each weapon has a role, and a fated wielder, and he asked me to find them, before you take the crown.” “And I have a feeling most of them are gonna be my masters right?” I ask curiously. “I don’t think so.” Joy said with a head shake. “I got the spears, but you haven’t even mastered them though. I have a feeling...it might be people close to you, in some way or form. Makes sense right? A kings family serves him, whether they be the queens or kids.” “I mean...that's true.” I say, wondering how that whole thing is gonna work. “Can you sense those worthy? Or is it just gonna be a ‘I choose you and hope for the best’ kind of thing?” “I dunno. Yen Sid trusted me with this...cause I guess my link to you means I can tell? I guess it’s something I’ll have to feel.” “Yeah true.” I say, before looking up at the calm blue skies. “You know...we never had the time to just...reminisce about all the crap we've done.” I chuckle. “We’ve come a long way.” Joy said, looking up at the sky too. “How long has it been?” “More than half a year the last time I checked.” I say simply. “It’s funny how we got here considering where we both started at ya know?” I ask Joy simply. “Yeah. With all that’s gone on...it’s nice to just look at the sky.” “How we thought it was impossible that all this existed...only to be brought out and see that everything is so much bigger.” I say, seeing stray clouds gently drift by. “How someone like me could be here, with everything I have...seems even crazier than experiencing the multiverse itself.” “Yeah. When you see everything is now so big… makes you really see how everyone is just so small.” “True.” I shrug. “But even people so small can cause very big things to happen.” I say simply. “I guess. I keep thinking about what Core told me. That Zeke’s Nobody was… Well, he called him Kexez, that he’s ‘setting things right’. Whatever that means.” “That could mean a lot of things…” I sigh out. “Who knows what's going on in that guys head. Especially now considering he's a Nobody, but we both know he's still the same ol’ Zeke...hopefully.” I say nervously. “He’s missing his heart. Who knows what he’s thinking, or capable of now.” “He better not be doing something stupid.” I frown. “He may not have his heart but he still has his memories and morals. Those things don't change I know it.” I say simply. “And if he's doing something stupid we’ll just give him a good smack and get him back on track.” “If we can touch him. This Core didn’t seem as strong as the one we know, but he still beat me pretty good, and who knows who else Zeke might have…’recruited’.” Joy says with a sigh. “I just wanna know...how?” “Mind being a bit specific there?” I ask curiously. “Cause there's a lot of how's everyone wants to know.” I shrug. “Or do you want to know how Zeke even came back?” “I mean Core, how is he back, didn’t Huxley end him permanently?” “Fuck if I know.” I shrug. “Clone? Magic? Purgatory? Until Zeke gets off his ass and actually shows himself to his friends with a sign of peace we’ll either have to wait, or get stronger than his guards.” I say simply. “Who knows how many he has… So, when you gonna take on that Absent Silhouette? Trust me, it’s a pain in the ass, especially at the end.” “How many forms does the thing have?” I ask curiously, knowing a fight like that must be a bitch with forms or phases. “Too many.” Joy states with a frown. “Right then.” I nod. “But I'll probably do it after I'm done training with Foudre. Gonna need to get stronger before fighting him, and I don't have my Assistant for emergency items anymore...actually we do have a Moogle merchant in our home now so I could buy everything off of him.” “Cool.” Joy said, chuckling. “Remember when you, back then we I guess, first saw Kingdom Hearts? The games I mean.” “Oh god that seems like forever ago.” I chuckle. “But yeah, I remember. Why you ask? Met it or something?” “Yeah. But that’s besides the point. Remember, you were like, seven, Mom and Dad brought you with them into a pawn shop, they got you that used PS2 and told you to pick out some games. All they had were those crappy sports games, but you snuck into the backroom and found it in a pile of yet to be placed items.” “Yeah I did. Who knew a pawn shop had shitty security at the time.” I chuckle. “I remember when you first heard the theme song play, you felt so… happy, the visuals it had were good too. You spent half the day just playing and fighting the others on Destiny Island. THEN you went on to day two.” Joy laughed. “Yeah I remember.” I nod, sitting down on the soft grass knowing this is gonna be a long conversation. “Was a tad upset that I couldn't fight Riku again and only had a race, but the three on one fight made up for it.” “I think you were almost level ten when you finally got to Traverse Town. You spent a lot of time in the Pooh story book in game as much as you did the movies and actual books in real life. You really loved those mini games, the music of the area.” Joy said, smiling. Then...I saw a tear trick down. “I remember the exact day...I became Rejection…” Joy said sadly. “That day…” I look down sadly. “It was the day everything went downhill…” “When dad died...that’s when it started. Then, after mom...that’s when it took me, the darkness in your heart. So much...pain, anger, sadness, grief…when I fought you, during your Mark of Mastery...I fought you...so you’d kill me.” Joy admitted, my eyes widening at that. “But...but why?” I ask in shock, not believing Joy...my little brother would do something like that. “Part of it...because I was tired. Tired of being in Darkness for so long...the other. To save you. In that fight, I had in me, that...thought… you know the one.” Joy said, making his fingers into a handgun and pointing it at his head. “I knew, if you killed me, while I had those thoughts trapped within me, they’d die too. At least...no matter how bad things got...you’d never consider it, with them gone.” I put a hand on top of Joy’s head gently. “I maybe an Insanity...but there's no way I would kill you. My Joy, my little brother.” I say gently. “I promised remember? Even if I didn't remember clearly...I promised to save you.” “Hm. I remember.” Joy said with a nod. “Promise.” He said, taking out a Wayfinder and holding it up. “At some point, we got to learn to use these things, cause what Zeke’s Absent Silhouette did with his was… Wow…” I pulled out my own silver Wayfinder. “I never fully understood what these things were for besides ‘friends forever’ metaphors…” I say honestly. “But hey...if it helps keep me connected to my friends and family…” I say while putting my Wayfinder to my chest, right above my heart. “It's the perfect thing for me.” I smile. Joy smiled, doing the same. “Yeah. As long as we remember, and care for them, these things have meaning.” It was then, both our Assistants flashed. D-Link Drive Active. Formed D-link with: Joy Celestia Luna Jenny Ventral Dan Foreteller Lan Foreteller Kira Foreteller Alex Foreteller Jenny Foreteller Huxley Eclipse ($*# (Error) Mine said. D-Link Drive Active. Formed D-link With: Ben Dinky Hooves Jenny Ventral Dan Foreteller Lan Foreteller Kira Foreteller Alex Foreteller Jenny Foreteller Huxley Eclipse ($*# (Error) Joy’s said. “Well…that's a thing.” I say honestly. “Wonder what Error is?” Joy asked, shrugging. “Maybe Zeke? I mean he is a Nobody and lost his heart...maybe it's someone we don't know about that will be important later somehow.” I shrug. “Who knows…” “Heh. Maybe...you know, we never actually had a spar… Wanna try out our new D-Link abilities?” Joy asked. “Sure.” I nodded while standing up and stretching a bit. “Well...actually how does D-Links work in real life?” I ask with a frown. “Uh…” Joy thought, standing up and looking at his Wayfinder, placing it over his heart as he thought about one of the people he seemed to have a link with. Then, a white light flashed under him as white magic lines traveled around him. D-Link with Jenny Ventral “Wow…” Joy said, feeling… odd by the look of him. “I...I know all her moves I don’t… Cool. Just hold it over your heart and think of a friend, or loved one.” Joy said. I took a deep breath and put the Wayfinder over my heart, my mind wandering and thinking about everyone that I've grown to call friends, everyone that I see as family, and everyone that I loved dearly, losing track that I had to pick only one. D-Link with Luna ”Figures, the first one.” I thought, all of Luna’s unique moves flowing into my mind. “Hey, you ready?” Joy asked, Keyblade ready. “Yeah.” I nod, summoning Reunion and readying myself. “I'm ready.” “Strike Raid!” Joy started off with, throwing his Keyblade at me in a Strike Raid. “Lunar Shield!” I shout, moving my Keyblade up as what looked like a full moon appeared in front of me and blocked the attacked. “Starfall!” I countered as a giant ball of energy flew down from the sky towards Joy. “Ricochet!” Joy said, blocking as it hit him, the move bouncing the attack towards me. “Gravity.” I say while a black sphere appeared where the ball of energy was and it hit the ground. “Good good.” I nod. “Lunar Slash!” I shout, slashing my Keyblade and a wave of moonlight shot towards Joy. Joy dodged, his body glowed as his Keyblade gained an ethereal outline...like a sniper rifle. He jumped back, looking down the scope and fired four shots, each one hitting me. When it faded, Joy looked at his Keyblade. “That...was cool! That must have been her first special finisher.” “Ow.” I mutter, seeing that I could use Luna’s special finisher. “Well...Sleep Well.” I say, pointing Reunion forward as four portals opened and bloody hell I didn't expect Dream Eaters to just suddenly stampede towards Joy, ramming into him, and attacking him. When it ended Joy haphazardly got back on two feet. “Anyone get the number of that Meow Wow that hit me?” He asked, falling over. I saw cartoonish stars circling above Joy’s head. “You okay there bro?” I chuckle. “Guh. That...sucked.” Joy said as he shook his head, coming back to his senses as he stood up properly. “That was cool.” Our Assistants flashed. D-link Gauge Drained. With that, there was another flash, and the abilities we just used were...gone… I forgot how I used them, and from how Joy looked, it was the same for him. “We forgot our abilities...oh well.” I shrug. “So what do you think about D-links?” “I think you should have used them more when you played the games.” Joy said with a chuckle. “I’m gonna go find that moogle, see what he has to upgrade or refill our D-link Gauges.” “Yeah, we should also stock up on potions and ethers, gonna need them given we can't just buy them from our assistants anymore for the time being.” I say while heading home. “Today has been a day huh?” “Been fun. Come on, I think if you’re late your teacher might make you do some harder work.” Joy says, running towards home, myself not far behind. It wasn’t hard to find the moogle, he set up shop in the front yard… Is that a save point? “Hi.” The moogle said as we approached. “Ready to buy some goods?” “Hold on a moment.” I say while walking over and checking the glowing spot next to the Moogle, gently standing on the thing. And indeed it was a save point. “Huh...it is a save point.” I say, quickly saving my progress before stepping off and Joy doing the same quickly. “But yes my good friend, what are ya selling?” “In stok, here.” He said, a hologram like menu appearing in front of him. Buy Sell Synthesize Exit. Were my options. I clicked on buy just to see his stock. Potion……………………….100 Hi-Potion…………………….250 Either………………………...150 I check to see how much money I had in any sense of the word. 999,999,999,999- Dollars 999,999,999,999- Equestrian Platinum Bits 999,999,999,999- Equestrian Gold Bits 999,999,999,999- Equestrian Silver Bits 999,999,999,999- Equestrian Bronze Bits 999,999,999,999- Equestrian Copper Bits 999,999,999,999- Munny The list went on, and I got the idea. I’m beyond Loaded…”How many am I allowed to buy at a time?” I ask the Moogle curiously. “The maximum is ninety nine at a time sir.” The moogle tells me. “If you’d like, you can pay for them all and I can give you the ninety nine hi-potions and others now, and the rest will be sent by mail. Should take about two days to arrive.” “We’ll both take a thousand hi-potions and ethers please.” I motion to myself and Joy, handing the moogle all the munny that was needed for the purchase. “Thank you sir, and here you go.” Our assistants flashed, informing us that out items were deposited in. “Oh, and we give this to all out customers that spend over fifty thousand munny in one go.” He said, two tickets appearing, floating in front of us. We grabbed them, reading what they said. “Full Access Inventory Buyers Pass for Moogle H.Q.?” Joy questioned. “If gives you a one time full access to ALL our stock, at our H.Q. Next ticket you’ll have to spend a hundred thousand munny.” The moogle explained. “Sweet.” I nod while closing out of the buy menu and Joy clicked on the Synthesis tab. “Do I need to give you all of my synthesis items?” Joy asks, knowing that's how it works in the game but not sure in real life. “Yes, each customer has an account upon first purchase with us, it’s also where we store Synthesis materials for you.” The moogle said as he took all of what Joy handed him. “Thank you. Would you like to see what you are able at craft at the time?” “Yes please.” Joy nods, excited to see all the stuff he could probably make. Another Holographic menu appeared. Drive Recovery Hi-Drive Recovery Either Mega Potion Mega Either Megalixir ???? “Do you know what these materials are?” Joy asks while pointing to all the materials he has no idea about. “Yes, and I can tell you, you can craft them each, but not all of them.” “So you know what all the materials I have no idea about are?” He asks. “Yup.” “Thank you...so what are they?” He asks nervously, knowing all the materials from the games but not all the new ones. “Blaze Shard x10, Blaze Stone x10, Blaze Gem x10, Frost Gem x10, Thunder Shard x10-” “I think I get the idea…” Joy said, not wanting to stand there and listen to the list go on for a long time. “Okay, would you like to craft anything?” The moogle asked. “How many megalixir’s can I make?” Joy asks curiously, knowing those will be really helpful. “Ten.” The moogle says simply. “Let's make four.” Joy says with a nod. After a short bit, four Megalixers appeared before Joy. “Will that be all?” The moogle asked. “How do you make Keyblades?” I ask. “I've heard of Moogle’s exceptional synthesis skills but don't you need a keyblade forge to make Keyblades?” “That is a trade secret sir, all I can tell you about that is that Moogles do not require a Keyblade forge to Synthesize Keyblade Keychains.” “Do you know where I can find Chocobo’s?” I ask, my inner child getting out accidentally given I've always wanted to ride one. “I know a farm where you can find them. Fifty munny.” I pay the Moogle. “Here's you go.” I smile. “Here.” The moogle said, handing me a star map with coordinates. “Just type that into your Gummi Ship console and you’ll find your way there easy.” “Always used doors to light for travel...would be fun to pilot a Gummi Ship for once.” I shrug, taking the star map and putting it in my inventory. “Thank you.” I nod while closing out of the Synthesis menu. “But how have you been doing?” I ask the Moogle curiously, wondering how it's days been. “Slow. I am setting up some other holo shops in town. Holo gems should be here within the week. Ah, and when you’re ready to cash in on those tickets, just say the word.” “Thank you.” I nod. “Oh, do you have any items that increase or recover d-link and shotlock gauges?” I ask curiously. “Yes, for D-links, Balloon Letters restore a D-link, and any variation of the either items restore Shotlocks as it also restores mana, Shotlocks running off of the mana within, unless you have a specific energy fueling your Shotlocks, in which case there is a variation of the eithers I sell that restores that.” “The shop didn't say you were selling Balloon Letters though…” I point out. “Not in stock or just only started off with bare essentials?” “Typically we don’t show all out inventory until a customer has returned and opened their account on another world or such a few times before showing them, but we can make acceptions every now and then. Balloon Letters are 25 munny each.” “A thousand Balloon Letters each please.” I say while paying the Moogle again. “Look at all the money you just got in less than ten minutes.” I chuckle. “This is only puts me in the seven hundredth place of most money earned within a day.” The moogle says, giving Joy and I ninety nine balloon letters each before placing an order for a delivery to our house. “The rest should arrive at the same time as the Hi-Potions and Ethers.” “Seven hundredth? Sheesh I wonder what first place got in a day.” I say in surprise. “They’re still buying. Not sure who they are. Or even how they got that much munny. They are also synthesising like crazy. There’s already over a hundred moogles stations there to meet demand.” “Where is this happening?” Joy asks, a tad worried someone of I'll intent is using the Moogle’s to fund them of all the shit they need. “That is private information… I can give a name though. One million munny.” “A million for a name?!” Joy yelled. “I’m breaking the main rule of moogle shop keeping. I need a fair compensation.” “Ah. Okay, sorry for asking.” I say nervously. “Just...there are some bad people out there that could be keeping up that spot and...kind of worries us is all.” I explain nervously. “But your on neutral grounds for all so...oh well.” “Finally, someone gets it. People think we only sell to one side. Then rage at us when the learn we supply the other side. Ha. So, pay up or no?” “Nah, don't want to get you fired after all.” I say, wanting to be considerate to the Moogle. “Nah. I won’t get fired, just a demerit. Moogles are neutral as well as...not very good at punishments. It’s a thousand demerits to get fired and the most any of us ever got was three.” “Moogles are...very forgiving.” I frown. “Wonder what would happen if Tonberry’s were in your place…” I wonder. “Can we not talk about them? They are a pain in the ass to fight, I don't want to know what would happen if they are our primary shopkeepers.” Joy frowns. “Either way.” I shrug. “So…” I mutter, deciding if we should just buy the info. “You buying the info or not?” The moogle asked impatiently. “Sure.” I say, handing over the money. “Sorry, just deciding on it. So, where be the place?” I ask curiously, hoping to find where the sudden surge of shopping and synthesizing is taking place. “Great. Number one’s name is Drezke.” The moogle said simply, jumping off his stand and a holo closed sign appeared. “On lunch. Be back in an hour.” He said, vanishing in a small flash of light. “I asked the place...not the person but that still works.” I say worriedly. “The fuck is he doing?” I mutter, scared on what Drezke could be doing with all the Moogles. “Well we can send a Nobody out to find him.” Joy brings up. “You know…” I start. “I should really be doing a lot of stuff I think of but never put into practice.” I sigh out, snapping my fingers and three large white wolf Nobody’s appeared. “I want you three to search for a being known as Drezke. And when you do tell me.” I order the three, seeing them bow to me like I'm royalty or something before vanishing to god knows where. “Right, that'll take a while for that to get going.” I sigh out. “First Zeke comes back as a Nobody and doing something, now Drezke is doing something special…” I rub my temple. “Lets hope they find him soon.” “Just relax.” Joy says, seeing me in my bored and slightly aggravated state. “Can't have something like this happen too quickly, we need to be cautious.” “I know that but normally things are just thrown at us way to fast and that brings us something to do.” I frown. “Hey, that’s life.” Joy said. “Lets you finish up those kunai’s then you can deal with the Absent Silhouette of Zeke, then we can see what Drezke is up to.” I nod. “Yeah that's life…” I say while looking up at the sky again. “The Life of a Nobody…” I mutter, smiling as that felt...right to say about my life even with everything that's happened in this nobody’s life. To be continued... Nobody witnesses WarI don't know why I felt happy about saying that I was a Nobody, but considering my powers over Nothing and how I'm gonna be king of it it felt a little understandable...and the fact I almost became a living Nobody but details. I ran back just in time to help Nelare put up the remaining new targets. This time she had me run back and forth in the training area, making sure every target was hit precisely. Needless to say, it went by easily. “Not bad, one last trial, and you mastered them.” Nelare said, throwing one of her own kuni’s into a tree, it glowing upon impact. “The final test, that Kunai is enchanted, it will zap you at your own speed as you try to grab it. In other words, you have to be so fast, the spell can’t zap you, and pull it out.” “But...I’ve barely learned anything besides throwing.” I say, not sure how I'm so close to mastering my weapon so soon. “Kunai’s are about two things, speed, and accuracy. You got both down, but a true master can always be faster. I’ve seen how you move throwing, it won’t be long till you are fast in full body motion, and that you can train yourself in.” “And that speed clone technique?” I ask curiously, not really knowing how that works. “I doubt it's just ‘your so fast your literally in two places at once’.” “That is...how to put it… It’s a simple spell actually. Here.” Nelear said, teaching me the spell. Turns out, it’s half an illusion, half a clone. The lightning makes a copy of me, and the high levels of electricity in the air mess with the opponents brain, making them feel the hits from the fake copies. Sadly, the electricity in the air making the copies also affects my own nerve system. So when they hit a clone me, real me also takes the damage. “Seems...a lot simpler then I thought.” I frown. “Weird…” I shook my head, before walking over to the Kunai in the tree. “Just take it out before I get shocked right?” I ask, wondering if there was anything else. “Just that.” Nodding, I went at it at my throwing spee- “YAH!” I yelled, feeling like my hand was just shoved into a live power cable, the kind hung above those high up poles. “Okay...ow.” I shook my hand from how much it stung. “Okay…” I took a deep breath and tried again, this time going fast enough that lightning sparked off my arm and tried to grab it. ZAP! “Owe…” I wheezed. Again. ZAP! “Just how…” I wonder, trying to figure out how to beat a spell that zaps me as fast as I can move… ”It can’t be that simple?” I question, reaching into my pocket and putting on my gloves. I then grabbed the kunai… and pulled it out. “And that’s it.” Nelear said with a clap. “Really?” I ask her simply. “Just put on a glove and pull it out? What is that supposed to be a joke or what?” I ask, not understanding this to be perfectly honest. “No, I don’t know why you put a glove on. The spell zaps you as fast as you are moving. So, you don’t move fast, the spell takes more time to hit you. I seriously don’t know why you put on a glove.” “Certain kinds of materials don't conduct electricity.” I shrug. “Seemed simple when you think about it.” “Fair enough. But yeah, that’s it. To fully master a Kunai, one must be as fast, accurate, and agile, but also must remember to take their time. So, congrats. I’m gonna clean this up then head back home before I go back to work tomorrow.” “Alright.” I nod. “Thank you master.” I bow to Nelare in a sign of respect. “Now...just gotta learn a fuck ton of lightning magic.” I mutter, electricity sparking across my hands as I wondered what I could do. “But I can clean this all up if you need to get back to town.” “Nah, gives me an excuse to sleep the rest of the day til tomorrow. Later Ben.” Nelear said as she began picking up the boards. “Alright.” I nod. “See ya.” I say while taking my leave, heading back home. “Hmm...should I look off world for a teacher or should I go see Medy to train with Arpeggio?” I wonder. “I still got a week...this is gonna take a while…” I sigh out. “I need to find my Claymore instructor...who also probably is gonna be a berserker because that's Lunatics gimmick...and I can probably hope Trinity is willing to teach me Ethereal Blades or I have to search for someone else…” I mutter to myself, wondering what the hell I'm gonna do next as I continued my way home. As I reached the front door I stopped when a Dusk appeared behind me. ”He is located my liege.” The Dusk said to me mentally. “Thank you.” I nod. “Mind showing me the way my friend?” I ask, glad to know we found Drezke but I still have no idea where he is specifically. A DTD appeared behind the Dusk. ”This way my lord.” The dusk said as it walked into it. When I exited, I was in a rather barren world...though, in the distance, I saw a massive structure of some sort. Like a tower or something. ”He is within the compound. Be warned, he is not alone, nor defenceless.” “Thank you.” I nod. “You may leave, I'll handle this.” I say while cracking my knuckles before heading off towards the castle, my eyes lighting up as my hud presented itself. As I summoned Reunion and was about to turn it into a glider. I heard a DTD open behind me. Turning around, I saw a...Really small pony, quadruped pony, wearing an organization XIII cloak walk out of it. “Hello.” I say, to the new pony, wondering who this was as I prepared myself for a fight. In a flash, Oathkeeper and Oblivion appeared in a magic aura that was a light green in color. She then took a stance, a faint amount of darkness covered her hooves as she then slid fast towards me and- Oh crap it’s that one Roxas move…. Sure enough, she slashed out in all directions, knocking me back some as she basically slid around me, that darkness on her hooves acting like she was wearing skates. “Okay. If you want a fight.” I say before vanishing, appearing at the pony’s side and slamming Frozen Pride against their side. They did an aerial recovery before slashing at the air, waves of darkness and light rushing at me at fast pace. I blocked with frozen pride, but they were hitting hard. They stopped, and ran around then at me. I charged too, and upper cut them, their Keyblades now...under my control… Huh, exactly like that fight then. I quickly drew Reunion and Foudre and with a combination of my Keyblades strength, the speed Foudre gave me, the two other Keyblades under my control, and the Rune work on my body it felt like I was making quick work of the pony, but keeping myself from actually killing the pony. My strength seemed to finish them as once I was finished with my attack, they slumped over. Oathkeeper and Oblivion vanishing as their wielder fell unconscious. Curious, I walked over to the pony Taking off their hood, I saw it was a filly. Young. Really young. She was a pale grey, with a brown mane. “The fuck are you doing Drezke…” I mutter to myself, wondering why he's using children to fight as I pulled my hood up and looking around for a place to put the filly safely. As I picked her up, ten DTD’s opened around me, all quadruped creatures, small, likely all kids too, walked out. Each in their own cloak. “Now hold on a second.” I start. “She attacked me first and I wanted to find a safe place to put her while I continued to meet...a friend.” I explain, having a feeling they won't buy it at all but if their kids they'll probably buy friendship...hopefully. “Do you know where a medic is?” Each one of them summoned a Keyblade, but it was one, bigger than the filly in my arms, that attacked, with a Gazing Eye Keyblade. “You’re trespassing.” She said. Her voice was female, young, and cold in it’s tone. “Oh come on, I just want to talk to Drezke about something.” I say, quickly ducking and sweeping the young girls feet out from under her. “Especially after he ripped my darkness from me and made it go off on a killing spree for funsies.” I frown, still not believing I was an Insanity in some way. “It’s alright Velvet.” Drezke’s voice filled the air, looking to my side...he was next to us. “He’s an acquaintance.” At that, the others all left, but Velvet stayed a bit, looking at me before taking the filly in my arms out with her magic then leaving through a DTD. “Forgive her, she’s protective of Littlepip.” “I can imagine.” I sigh out. “Sorry to pop in unannounced, but I doubt you care.” I frown. “So, word is your doing a lot of synthesizing, mind if I ask what's that all about?” “Just preparing.” He said, looking at the tower way in the distance. “Can you guess how long I’ve been on this world?” He asked. “Long enough to not only train these people, but also make this giant castle?” I ask simply. “And preparing for what?” “War.” He said simply. “A war needs an army. I’m building mine, Eve and her kin, don’t need one. I have almost everything ready. I’m just missing one tool.” “Is this a war against the light or against Eve?” I ask him. “Eve. Tell me...do you know what became of my other half?” “Your light half? He's dead, you crushed his heart.” I say, remembering what Cript told me about that situation. “Or are you talking about your body that popped up recently?” “I felt that. How could I not? It’s pointless now, Lake is dead. Zeke can never be whole. Just half a heart...at the rate I am going… I’ll drag him into eternal darkness, against both our wills.” “You've probably been busy but...Bara took control of Twilights body and made a clone of you.” I tell him. “Sadly the bastard can't leave unless he willingly leaves...which I doubt…” “Bara… That’s the one who originally killed off Equestria. It was Zeke’s first real battle… It was the first time his Psychopath blood, felt death. I remember that day. That power… it’s horrifying. Thankfully, since he was a Nobody at the time, Bara’s death as Zeke’s hands didn’t truly count, but, it did awaken it. Tell me, do you know how much power Zeke held back in every fight?” “Quite a bit if what Joy told me about his Absent Silhouette fight is correct.” I say honestly. “Joy still managed to beat it though...even though he also had to fight other X-blade wielders, X-blade himself, and then apparently Kingdom Hearts but that's getting into some specific details here.” I shrug. “Zeke, could have easily killed Core, the first time they fought, if he tapped into that power. Past X-blade wielders all accessed what they could handle of it, and Kingdom Hearts power… Zeke is a reflection of Cript, his body, could use it endlessly and freely. He chose not to, Yen Sid, made that fight based on Zeke’s own power alone, the power the X-blade could draw from him, and… I don’t know about Kingdom Hearts. Guess he just wanted to talk to someone.” “Yeah…” I nod. “And...sadly I learned a lot more about Cript then I probably should have.” I say simply. “So, what do you think about the Spoiled situation? She has...my Psychopath reflection.” “Why bother with the small fry when the head is what needs to be dealt with?” Drezke asked, looking at me. “I know about Nexus, what they do. Sadly, I won’t be around to help deal with them.” “You know you can't kill Darkness.” I tell him. “And Zeke is already busy doing something if he somehow has Core working along with him...still don't know how that's a thing.” “Simple. He’s building his own army.” I rub my temples. “Have I ever told you you give me a headache sometimes?” I ask him. “Okay so he's making an army...for some reason. And both of you are so dead set on shunning your friends and family to do this crap…” I shake my head. “Never mind, I don't want to rant and lose the topic right now…” “...Come. There’s something you need to see.” Drezke said, opening a DTD as we both walked into it. Once through we… Oh...My...God… All around us were spell works, locks, physical, magic, enchanted, and chained up, was a woman in some sort of military get up. “Guess what she is?” “Besides a super soldier?” I ask bluntly. “Cause I'm getting super soldier here.” Drezke walked me over to her back, out of the thick layers of chains, her hands were visible… the blue dot. “She’s Nexus. Just a scout, but them all the same. You know what her being here means?” “There hunting you, to get another vessel for a Psychopath.” I frown. “Wait...how did you figure this stuff out? I needed a special book to tell me this crap.” I frown. “Darkness...can be chattier than you think. Especially when it’s the darkness between reflections of a person. Whenever Cript appeared, I heard his darkness talk, wherever he was, his darkness talked to me, told me everything.” Drezke said, looking at the chained up Nexus scout. “Including that script he has going on. She was left behind when they were leaving. A script of his would leave them cut off from their many headquarters. She’s been quiet though, so I don’t know why they are here really, but all I do know is nothing good can become of it.” “They're supposed to remain in the background fucking with people and puppeting them along a path of their choosing.” I frown. “But...I have no idea...there's just so much stuff happening too quickly…” I sigh out. “Twelve-Nine-fifty seven.” We both looked at the nexus scout. She...spoke. “That’s the most she’s said this entire time.” Drezke said, pulling her head by her hair, her face was…kinda pretty actually. Smooth skin, blue eyes, and her hair was blonde… marrying soon dude, stop that. “What are those numbers?” “A code or something? Maybe it's a number for a specific person…” I say, thinking about the numbers. “There are plenty of ways one could use three different numbers like that…” I frown. “Sixty-thirty three-five.” She said again, the air… felt odd. “Seven-one-seven.” She finished, lines of code appeared in the air as he chains became undone. She then grabbed Drezke and I, throwing us across the room. “Fifty five-nine-four. Eighteen-seven-two. Sixty seven-one-zero.” She said, a hole appeared in reality, code spinning around it as she jumped in, and it closed behind her. “Gah. The hell was that?” Drezke said as he picked himself up. “Did she...just spout numbers and hack reality?” My eyes widened. “But...but I thought only Admins had that power!?!” I panic, getting up quickly. “From what I heard, Nexus came from admins, once upon a time. Whether that’s true or they have their own ways around that, we’ll figure out later. For now, she’s gone. I know for a fact Cript likely felt that, let him deal with it. For now. So, mind helping me acquire a last needed item?” Drezke asked me. “And that item is?” I ask. “I believe you’ve seen it. The Void Keyblade X shoved into the core of Daybreak. It’s the only thing that can kill the Embodiments...and me.” “No.” I frown. “Just...just no.” I shake my head. “I know what your going to do...and just don't Okay? There are other ways of dealing with this without the need of….that thing.” Drezke signed. “I figured you’d say that.” He said, I was suddenly grabbed by a darkside’s arm...that grew from Drezke’s own body. His skin then changed, going from normal human look to...how Eve and them look. “I took in ALL this worlds Darkness, right from it’s infected Keyhole, and killed all those who had too much darkness to spare in them, that’s why my army is all children. It was children that kept the light going after the Keyblade war, and it will be children who make the worlds right again. A second Keyblade war is coming Ben, Darkness, light, and all that’s in between are getting ready. You best do the same.” “No!” I shout, a grey aura surrounding me as I managed to push his hand enough for me to get out. “There won't be another Keyblade war! All life has suffered through one, there can't be a second one! We can't feed these damned Psychopaths, you know as well as I do that we need to stop this blind and senseless war! I know a way to prove Facts wrong...everything had been going on in this damned cycle of death and destruction for too damned long...this can't go on forever...even forces of the universe can get tired of all this damned bloodshed and you know it.” “If they did, then why hasn't anything changed? Face it, the only admins who give a damn are Cript and his old boss, and even they are clueless! You know why? Because sentient life has a flaw. And that flaw is the so-called blessing of freedom. So long as we can choose, there are going to be those who choose wrong! Whether they know it or not. I can’t say what I’m doing is right, or wrong, but at least I know it will have lasting impact. What happened after...that’s why I’m training these children. Only kids can see and make pure choices. They see me, a creature of pure darkness, and some even call me father. I know killing Eve, her kin, and myself won’t get rid of darkness, but at least these kids can help it in the aftermath, because darkness isn’t evil, it’s scared, like a kid.” “Then how about instead of killing yourself along with the Embodiments, how about you embody Darkness in both its good and bad parts. You now have the power to help balance things out, and you dying doesn't solve it…” I tell him. “What...what would the kids think of they learned you died because you thought you were also apart of the problem Darkness is having?” “Ben...I’m not Zeke...that selflessness...comes from Lake… I guess I’m just...selfish then.” Drezke said, a Guardian appearing behind him as Discord and a Kingdom Key D appeared in his hands. “Doesn't sound pretty selfish if you want to die and leave your children behind.” I say. “But hey Discord, how you doing?” I ask, drawing Frozen Pride and ready to defend myself. Drezke vanished, appearing behind me as his Guardian grabbed me by my neck with one hand, and held my arms against me with the other. “I guess Rejection taught you nothing about selfishness then, did he?” Drezke cross slashed, and everything went black. “Guah!” I gasped, waking up in… Yen Sid’s tower? “You have awoken.” I looked to my side, Yen Sid was at his desk, a teapot steaming on an electric burner. “Good. It was touch and go there for a time.” “Ow…” I mutter. “So...why am I here?” “Drezke beat you to the brink of death, then tossed you in the lanes between. My apprentice found you, and brought you here. That, was just a few hours ago. Thankfully, what Cript has done to you made your injuries far less worrisome than normal, but still.” “Okay…” I nod. “But Drezke is being a jackass...but you probably know his plans.” “I know Eve won’t go down without a fight, but if he can do it, she will embrace the death. As will her kin.” “I'm gonna make sure the fucker doesn't get Void though...Embodiments can die without that damned thing…” I growl. “My grandson showed it to me when he forged it.” Yen Sid said, my eyes on him now. “Never before had such, fear filled me. Just looking at it made me paranoid beyond imagination. When I learned of the cost he paid to forge it… I knew then and there… Michel...was gone.” “Did he use his body and soul to make the thing?” I ask. “His, and all his reflections that existed. All their collective fear and rage towards the X-blade, are what you saw that day in Daybreak. He is nothing more than a lingering will now. No heart, body, soul, just a mind, forcing itself to continue on.” I look at him. “So the Master of Masters is nothing but a will...but what about Luxu?” I ask. “I know he's left after...having walked away from that graveyard…” I shook my head. “Anyways, besides that whole thing...is there anything specific you want to talk about? Like...explain to me what's so special about me and this king stuff?” “My son gave many like you that same request, but you. You possess something unique that now has made you the heir to nothing. That something, was your half dead heart. An existence between existing and not. The king has the same, but you, you made yours whole again. Something he could not do.” Yen Sid said, his tea pot ready as he grabbed a cup and poured some out. “As for Luxu, an Embodiment stole his body, under that cloak of his is a form made from gathered darkness, keeping his heart from falling into its deepest depths. In other words, he made himself a heartless, but has control over his actions.” “Ah…” I nod. “And about the king thing...makes sense I suppose. Having a heart means a lot more than not having one when you think about it.” I explain. “Oh, did you tell Mickey about Terra Aqua and Ventus?” I ask, thinking the apprentice was Mickey specifically. “Yes. When he brought you to me. He is very happy to hear of their safety. So then, Ben. What are your plans for the Second Keyblade War?” Yen Sid asked as he took a sip of his tea. “Is there...no way to stop it?” I ask. “Please...tell me there's a way to stop it.” I ask, practically begging for a way to stop this. “Hmm.” The old wizard thought. “History repeats itself, because we forget the lessons of the past. There is one way to stop this war. At least, stop it from harming the future.” “Can't bad shit not happen?” I ask with a frown. “But...what way can this not hurt the future?” “There are thre routes to keeping this new war from harming the realms. Have it happen in the realm of dreams, the realm of darkness… or, fight the second war, along the first one.” “Are you sure there's no way to stop this mindless bloodshed?” I ask worriedly, not liking how it's just ‘pick a location’ here. “That I am unsure of, the first war was fought over a lie, to end the X-blade, and it failed. This war, is fought over ending ancient enemies. What rises from the ashes of this new war I do not know, but, what I do know is, that Home will be made whole again, by this war’s end.” “Yeah, then it'll be one world for all the Psychopaths to wander and destroy.” I frown. “Damn it...I really wish I could stop this...maybe if I had my friends with me...maybe we could stop it.” I say, not having an army at my side right now and just scared of something this big happening. “In times of the bleakest of circumstances, is when the brightest lights, and darkest shadows rise. Eve and her kin are not evil by choice, they will fight in this war, simply to die in it. But, the ones who will end this war, are some who might surprise you.” “What's scariest for me...” I start. “Is losing myself...and everyone I love.” I say sadly, not wanting to lose my fiances and children. “This war… will change the universe...forever. Just as the last one did. For better or worse...that’s for the survivors to decide.” “Can't things...ever be simple?” I ask, scared of what's the future holds. “If everything was simple, what point would there be to life?” I sigh out. “True true...but…” I start. “You’re...okay with your wife dying?” I ask. “I heard from Joy about that whole story but…” I trail off, wishing I could do something to help everyone. “It has been Eve’s wish to die ever since she discovered what she was. A human body, created with the darkness that was the other side of Kingdom Hearts himself. That was his biggest mistake. Tell me, how many Heartless or Unversed do you know that can talk, be intelligent without outside tampering or alterations?” “Uh...one I suppose?” I ask nervously. “Xehanorts Heartless that took Ansems name...that's the only one I can think of.” “That was his heart. Xehanort’s heart itself was so dark, his human body was all that was keeping him from being a heartless. Darkness, is mindless. It’s pure instinct and emotion, given physical form. Eve and her kin...carry all that, and have their own minds. Drezke is not far behind, if my assumption is correct.” Yen Sid said as he took another sip. “Took an entire world's Darkness into himself.” I say. “He’s...close to becoming an Embodiment...I saw it. But...he wants to kill himself after all the others die...doesn't that fuck with the balance though?” “When Eve and her kin created the realm of darkness, they sewed within it’s tainted soils a seed. In the center of them all, there are thirteen trees, their very darkness pulsating and filling the land with darkness. There, is the way they would keep balance when they died, for they themselves can die, the darkness within them each, can not. It will flee to those trees, and exist there. I know what you are thinking Ben, ‘why don’t they just remove their darkness?’. The answer is simple, their bodies would become Nobodies, and if those are destroyed, their darkness will find them, and they will be resurrected. They need a proper death, for that darkness in them to be unable to resurrect them.” “But if Drezke gets Void than...there plan would be ruined.” I say worriedly. “That depends. While I have had the dissatisfaction of seeing it work in person, it is unstable. Whatever it sends to void, takes a toll on itself. The stronger, the worse the toll, and when it has become too much, it will break, and it’s wielder, will be dragged into void as well.” “Unless he figured out how to stabilize it...which I hope he didn't and doesn't, his plan would fail if he tried to use the thing.” I say. “Especially against Embodiments.” “Besides, there might be a way to stop Drezke’s plan. It will not be easy.” “Nothing is, especially when Drezke is a part of Zeke.” I say. “But how do I stop him? Also...I don't understand why Drezke would kill himself...when he has people who see him as a father.” “Drezke contains all of Zeke’s needs, and since his birth, Zeke’s light and darkness have been at balance, like twins. Without his other, he is falling into his instincts. He is losing himself, because his other half is gone...but, perhaps not so.” “Twilight...and Bara, created a clone of Zeke, memories, Heart and all, hell they even made an X-blade out of memories surprisingly. Think that might help?” “No, that clone is a time bomb. When the truth is learned, it will go off, and when that happens...I don’t know what will happen. But, Lake, Zeke’s light half, was destroyed by Drezke. This means he was also freed from the Psychopaths hold. There might be a chance, a slight chance, that Lake is in Purgatory, the very place Zeke himself escaped.” My eyes widened. “But...his heart was shattered...wait how do I even go to such a place if I may ask?” “There is one way that I know of, but it will take time. I heard of stories where the king of nothingness would enter battle, with soldiers once thought dead. I did some personal research and have a hypothesis. The King of Nothing, also has reign over Purgatory, being it is an afterlife of sorts for the energy of Heartless, Nobodies, Unversed, and where the consciousness of those with balanced hearts go when split, or where those unique Nobodies go when slane. It is a waiting place for nobodies looking for their bodies after their death, and a… trash bin, you could say, for things that should no longer exist, or exist at all. Where that energy goes. If Lake died, he would likely end up there, as the energy of a balanced heart is something hard to snuff out.” “So I need to master the rest of my weapons and become the King before I can save Lake...wonders.” I roll my eyes. “But...here's a thing Zeke did as a Nobody, he somehow gave a regular Sniper all their memories back of who they used to be...how is that possible?” “Even as a Nobody, Zeke has a link to Kingdom Hearts, to all hearts, it wouldn’t be surprising if he could link a Nobody to their heart lost in darkness. Whether it was purpose or accidental, I would like to know.” “Ah.” I nodded. “Maybe...but let's hope I can actually contact Zeke before it's too late…” I say worriedly. “And here I thought I was on the clock before.” I mutter. “Anything else I should know?” “To my knowledge, no. I will send word to the others, of the coming war. You, I believe now understand the task at hand. But know this, Lake will be energy with sentient thought, he will need a vessel to rest in until he is healed, able to exist again. He will need to rest within someone with a balanced heart, otherwise, he will never heal.” “Well shit...I can't have that Zeke clone help...and I don't know anyone with a balanced heart…” I frown. “Sheesh, this is gonna a hassle and a half.” I shook my head. “Uh hey, do you know of someone who can help me train with this?” I ask while summoning Lunatic, my special claymore. “Cause...I have no idea who deals with Claymores, and is also a berserker given this things...special abilities.” “In time. Now then, you best be off, there is much to do, and I am unsure of how much time there is to do it.” Yen Sid said, finishing his cup of tea. “There's never a dull moment in my life.” I shook my head while switching Lunatic with Reunion. “See ya later Yen Sid. Stay safe.” I say while summoning a DTL back home and walking through it, having even more things to deal with now. I arrived outside my home...there was a huge zeppelin parked on my roof. “There you are.” Celestia said as she walked up to me. “Zeppelin is here, not much longer now til we head off. Excited, or nervous?” She asked me. “I wish I could be excited or nervous about this…” I say sadly. “Just...too many things are happening and I'm getting less and less time to do things, whether it be train, spend time with all of you, or doing this…” I say bitterly. “I'm...scared I'll lose everyone…” Celestia wrapped an arm around me, and pulled my in...wow, never realized how tall she was, I only reach just under her...ehem...chest. “You aren’t getting rid of us that easily. Hope you don’t mind, but we moved the leave date for tomorrow, stuff is all packed and ready and the pilot is gonna be here soon. It’s also got a training room and gym, Luna figures we should all get fit to help you in a fight if needed.” “I might as well help you all get stronger.” I say, hugging Celestia. ”How the fuck am I supposed to tell them about the Keyblade war? They'll probably immediately try to rush in and fight with me…” I think to myself, scared about such an outcome if it ever happened, and also not knowing if Celestia could read minds. “Come on, Luna figured for help someone from Daybreak could help us in Keyblades while you were busy with training or adventuring. Also…” Celestia said, rubbing the back of her neck… I know that look, that’s they ‘how do I put this’ look. “What’s wrong?” I ask worriedly. “I know that look...is there something wrong?” “Well...It’s about Cadence. She...just found out she’s pregnant.” “With...Shining’s?” I ask slowly. “Yes, only stallion she ever loved. She’s going to stay here at home, helping Den look after everyone else, and get some hands on motherhood training of her own.” Celestia said with a sigh. “She’s going to smother that baby once it’s born, it’s all she has of him now.” “If only I was there...I could have saved him…” I growled, wishing I could have helped. “Prince of the world…” I mutter, touching the silver crown on my head. “And proud hunter…” I pull out the bone tooth necklace Den gave me. “Can't do jack shit to save his people…” “No one can be everywhere at once Ben, you keep forgetting that.” Celestia said, patting my head. “In time, you’ll learn royalty isn’t perfect, and hunters fail also.” She said, walking me inside. “Except I can clone myself remember?” I ask her. “My clones at home helping the kids...since I can't normally spend time with them…” “True...so, are we leaving the clone here then or…?” Celestia asked, now confused. “Leaving him here. I need to be a father...however pitiful of a father I've been so far.” I shook my head sadly. “Been too busy...I wish I could...be with my family, for a calm day just spending time with all of you...my twenty plus wives and three hundred plus children.” I chuckle, finding the amount of kids a tad absurd and finding it funny. “Well, let’s get to it then. Tomorrow we leave early, and should arrive at the Zebra lands by the end of the day.” “Alright.” I nod. “Thank you for...being here Celestia...and I still remember when I was flirting and your all like ‘holes before poles’.” I chuckle, remembering when I first came here and she only had eyes for Chrysalis at the time. “Yes, I know. Guess you were right after all.” Celestia chuckled, the two of us heading inside and after a short walk entered the kitchen...where a woman in Keyblade armor was sitting. “Oh, you must be from Daybreak.” “Yes.” She said, her voice...oh no… She took off her helmet...Twilight, Zeke’s Twilight. “I know, confusing, but I figured this would help tell the difference.” She said. “Ah, I understand, don’t want Ben here kissing the wrong Twilight.” Celestia chuckled, leaving. When she did, Twilight’s hair turned brown. “Hi there Heir to Nothing.” Bara said, taking over. “The fuck are you doing here Bara?” I growl, not at all happy to see him here. “I doubt your here to do anything nice…” I say, wondering why he's here. “Well you're Luna asked for a Keyblade instructor, and who better than a Keyblade war survivor.” They said, taking a seat on the dining room table. “After all, it’s part of my bargain for you.” “And what's this bargain?” I ask simply. “I can teach your family to survive any fight. No more worrying about if they get hurt, you’d find yourself worrying for their opponents. All I ask is that in exchange for helping them all get strong, fast, I get to enter the Kingdom of Nothing when you claim the throne.” I stare at him. “Even through a second Keyblade War?” I ask Bara, my words sounding more like the Keyblade war is gonna happen even if I didn't want it to. “I survived it, that should be proof enough of the quality I’m providing.” Bara said smugly. “After all, through books, it will take years to learn all the old powers and such from the first war, and something tells me you don’t exactly have years do you?” “When this Keyblade war involves fighting Embodiments of darkness and a fuck ton of others in this upcoming Keyblade war...and Psychopaths…” I look down sadly. “Too much stuff to do and too little time…” I sigh out. “But you don't care about me being scared shitless about the ones I love and care for. You've shown how little you care about families when you first destroyed Zeke’s Equestria.” Bara smirked. “Well, what can I say, I was just…heartless.” I frowned at them. “Eh, so. To prove to you I can train them to keep themselves safe, tomorrow, while you’re all on the big ass balloon to the Zebra lands, you can watch me train your Twilight.” “Alright.” I nod. “But Twilight has been learning some magic from my friend Momonga lately, so if she casts some magic you don't recognize don't be surprised.” I tell them. “So...all you want is to see the Castle of Nothing huh?” “More importantly, its library. When I learned about Nobodies I wanted to learn everything about them… Too little success, even when I was one. That library has to have the information I’m after.” “I have a feeling you'll have your own body at the time correct?” I ask them simply. “But...I'll think about it, I'm still behind here…” “My own body...I still like this one, but, eh. Just finish up and let’s make a deal, and to be sure you can trust me.” Bara said, their hand glowing as an outline of a snake appeared on it. “It’s a Union promise, I break it, whatever you decide is to be done with me, the magic will force me to do. Sound secure enough to you?” “Unlike you I wouldn't break a promise, especially if there were loopholes.” I say simply. “It's how I got my heart back, and saved Joy.” I say. “So, you train my fiances, and that will include the new fiances I will be getting through our journey around the world, and when I become king you can see the Library.” I say. “Sounds okay?” I ask, my wording being specific here. “Deal.” Bara said, shaking my hand, the snake outline shifting from her hand, over to mine. “I’ll start in the morning. You go get some rest, I’m gonna go ransack your library.” Bara said, putting the helmet back on and left. “Don't be surprised if there are more story books then history or science books." I call out to Bara, before walking over to the fridge. “I'm hungry.” I mutter, ready to make myself some food but not sure what to make. After a quick meal of some leftovers, I began to head off to bed. My Twilight and Rarity were there already. Rarity asleep and Twilight reading, as expected. She looked up when I entered the room. “Hi Ben. Ready to tomorrow?” She asked, bookmarking her place and closing it. “Ready as I'll ever be.” I say as I take my cloak off and stretch. “Are you ready for tomorrow?” “Yeah. Just about everything is packed. Rarity practically moved her sewing room in that thing so that’s why she’s out of it already. The rest are just exploring it a bit before heading here.” I nodded. “Sounds about right.” I say, getting ready for bed. “Sorry if me or my clone haven't been helping pack...me having to train and my clone taking care of the kids…” I sigh out, putting on my pajamas and my tail wagging freely. “So much stuff to do ya know?” I sigh out while crawling into bed with my two fiances. “I bet. You take on a lot on your own, you know that?” Twilight said, elbowing me playfully. “So, what’s on the list in total so far?” “I just learned a lot more things I need to prepare for.” I say bitterly. “And the worst of them all...is there's going to be...a Keyblade war coming sooner or later…” “Another one?” Twilight asked. “I read some books written about it… What’s this one going to be fought over?” “From what Yen Sid told me, it's gonna be about killing the Embodiments of Darkness...and as a side effect to all the madness and bloodshed all the world's in existence are gonna join back together…” “Huh...Well clearly Spoiled is gonna throw her hat into this. As well as any bad guy with lots of power or control over something. So, are you participating?” “I'm gonna have to considering it's gonna happen while I'm King of Nothingness most likely.” I sigh out. “And I really want none of you to participate in this...but I doubt you'll listen to that.” I sigh out. “Well, I probably won’t, though, I can see Luna entering with you. I remember reading in books about some wars Celestia and Luna participated in.” “Yeah like how they went to war over cheese.” I chuckle. “It's still unbelievable that cheese was a thing to fight over.” “Not that, that was just between, nevermind. I mean, like when King Sombra first tried invading. The books for the public don’t tell much… but the ones Celestia gave me access to in the Canterlot Archives painted a much more… violent picture.” “The Keyblade war...if it wasn't for a select group of people running away from the fighting to keep the light alive, everyone, in all reflections, would be dead in the Keyblade graveyard.” I tell her sadly. “I've never experienced war, and I definitely don't want to experience a Keyblade war if it's that bloody and violent.” I explain bitterly. “If you want proof ask Celestia and Luna’s parents or Discord...those three are living proof of the horrors of it.” “We know.” I nearly jumped onto Twilight, Discord, and Celestia and Luna’s parents were in the room. Discord was the one who spoke. “I felt the chill, and informed Faust and Locus.” “I'm sorry…” I sigh out. “Yen Sid said it couldn't be stopped...only change some things to make sure everything doesn't blow up.” I say bitterly. Faust sighed. “Can you...come with us Ben? There’s something we’ll need you with us for.” “Hooray, more learning.” I sigh out while getting out of bed. “Okay...got somewhere specific we should go?” I ask, wondering where we needed to go for this special thing. “We’re taking you there.” Discord said, snapping his fingers and we...were in the Keyblade Graveyard. There were still Keyblades everywhere. Huh, thought Zeke got them? “Up there.” Discord pointed, there, three Keyblades sat in the ground. One, was Royal Radiance, the other, the Ultima Weapon, the one from Kingdom Hearts one, and the third, was the Chaos Ripper, each one covered in dust and rusted. “Those are our Keyblades.” “I remember that day...all too vividly.” Faust said. I looked around, hearing...whispers? “Weird…” I muttered. “So...these are your keyblades huh?” I ask, having a strange feeling that...Nobodies are here. As I looked around I noticed… the air itself was pulsating, the imagery around us...changing… Then, I saw it. The War. To call it bloodshed was… an understatement. Everyone had Keyblade armor on...that seemed useless, some of these people slicing others in half, quarters, eighths, all with one swing. Spells were cast, freezing the targets alive, and shattering them, electrocuting them, burning them to ashes. It was then that an armored...snake like dragon flew over me… Discord? I thought, the dragon wielding the Chaos Ripper and performing continuous Zentanzucans in the air… heads rolled. Two then ran passed me, large wings and horns sticking out of their armor like a sore thumb. Faust...Locus… Locus threw his Keyblade, the Ultima Weapon, into strike raides, each time more and more gore covered the blade, while Faust cast spells, freezing then shattering her targets. Then, there was an explosion, looking around...rifts. This is when the war leaked into all its other reflections… Keyblade wielders, dead and alive fell through, and the fighting just grew. It was then something caught my eye… A younger fighter, keyblade armor soaked in blood and his Keyblade...Reunion? He fell from a rift, attacking and blocking, but quickly fell when someone wielding an Oblivion Keyblade stabbed him all the way through, tossing him off and returning to the carnage. I ran over to the one with Reunion, and saw them limp, Reunion itself seeming to go pale. I saw a Wayfinder in his other hand… It was then that I saw a familiar sight. The Foreteller who wore Kira’s attire before her, Ava, I think, fighting another union member, the one with the unicorn mask. The two dodged and blocked each others attacks, but what they dodged hit others. Blood and limbs flying like rain. “This...this isn't a war…..this isn't even a fight!” I shout, backing away from this and clutching my head. “This is just a mindless slaughter! No one even knows why they were fighting, they just bathed in their fellow keybladers blood at this fucking point! What the fuck!?!” I shout, panicking at how horrid seeing this was. “No...no my family is not joining me if this is what this damned thing was!” I tell myself, fearing that if any of my family were to be here they would be ripped apart. I looked up, seeing Faust, Locus, and Discord all fighting off others Keybladers, til one walked up, not even wearing a helmet...just a bear mask… Bara… He wielded Way to Dawn backhanded, charging as fire and darkness pulsated through him...and he swung. It was like a dark Mega Flare, Discord saw, wrapping himself around Faust and Locus, but their wings and horn were exposed. When it hit, and the light faded, most of Discord’s armor was gone, his exposed skin was severely burned. He unwrapped the two, their wings burned on their bodies and horns broke off with simple movements. Faust fell to her knees, crying while Locus looked at Bara, throwing his keyblade into a strike raid, and Bara deflected it with a simple movement of his Keyblade. When Locus’s Keyblade returned to him, he picked his wife up and used cure on Discord, his wounds lessened, but still bad. They then ran, striking their Keyblades into the ground as they escaped into a DTL. Reality shifted back, and I was back with them… They each wielding their Keyblades again, the weapons no longer rusted, but alive, and ready for a fight. “So, that was part of the war.” Locus said. “From what we heard, it lasted three days...that was four hours in…” Faust trailed off. “No…” I shake my head, Nothingness Thorns trailing down to the ground and acting like they were to protect me from that nightmare. “No...nobody even knew why they were fighting, they just...slaughtered endlessly, friend or foe...that's not a war...that's mindless bloodshed…” I say, shaking and trying to stop myself from having a panic attack from such a horrid scene. “War has many forms. That, was its worst.” Faust said, dropping in front of me a rusted...Reunion...and...Wayfinder. “You are right, to want to keep them out of this new war coming.” She said, trailing along it’s blade with her finger. “Otherwise...Celestia would have been the middle child in our family….” I shakily picked up the rusted Reunion and Wayfinder. “Most of them...they could have been children…” I mutter. “His name was Starfire.” Locus said. “He was our first born...he wanted nothing more than to be strong like us… We told him to stay home, but he was a rebellious child…” “He was only fourteen.” Discord said. “And I...was dumb enough to encourage his dreams…” “We didn’t even know he was in the war...till we came back after...and saw his corpse…” Faust said, tears falling freely. “He was a lot like you.” Locus said. “Smart, but always underestimating himself. It’s why Reunion was his Keyblade, because when he finally gained confidence, his Starlight keyblade changed, and he wanted to always challenge himself.” I looked at the Wayfinder and Reunion in my hands, breaking into uncontrollable sobs. “I'm sorry...I'm so sorry…” I mutter, feeling powerless and small to this all. “The past...is past.” Faust said, drying her tears. “We are here, to ask you for permission…” “For what?” I ask, trying to control myself and stop crying here. “Permission for what? I...don't think I'm allowed to give permission to you all...especially after this...hell.” I say sadly. They then kneeled...to me… “We...abandoned our Unions...our comrades…” Locus started. “We broke an oath of brotherhood and sisterhood.” Faust continued. “We, with your permission, would fight in your name, under your faction, your flag. To redeem ourselves...and our fallen union members.” Discord finished. “For the next war, and onward til death.” They all said. I looked at the three, completely surprised about their request but I took a deep breath and got myself in some form of control. “Alright.” I nod, putting Starfires Reunion and Wayfinder down gently as I summoned my own Reunion. “From now until the day you die.” I start, Nothingness Thorns starting to gently surround the three. “All three of you shall fall under my banner, but not as servants to a master, not as soldiers to a commander…” I say, the thorns gently crawling up and gently swirling around their dominant arms. “But as friends, willing to lay down their lives to protect each other. As the Heir of Nothingness, you three shall serve and protect me and our family to the best of your ability and beyond.” I say, Nothingness forming into what looked like Keyblade armor shifters. “When Light and Darkness fall, may Nothingness stand by your side.” I finish. “There...you may rise.” They each stood up, each one of them wearing a grey, Keyblade armor sleeve with the Nobody symbol on them. “Thank you for this.” Faust said. “We each regret just...leaving. Scared and hurt. With… If you’d allow, we would like to explore, find others who fled like us, and see if they are willing to join your faction.” I grabbed the rusty Reunion and the Wayfinder of the ground. “Yes please, I'd like to show those out there that they're not alone, and we're willing to help them get past this nightmare.” I shake my head. “Luna is not gonna be happy with all the nightmares I'm gonna have after this…” I sigh out. “But...do you want these in Equestria for a proper burial...or do you want me to pass these down to one of your grandchildren?” I ask Locus and Faust, not sure if this Reunion will bond to me given I have a Reunion keychain, and I already have a wayfinder. Faust took them both. “Starfire died here, he fought to earn his place in the union.” She said, striking it into the ground and tying the wayfinder around the grip. “He...earned this, at least.” I nodded. “Alright...lets...let's go home.” I say, wanting to go home and cuddle with all my fiances right now. “They...they won't be apart of this...no matter what they say or do.” To be continued... Nobody goes travelingAfter a night cuddling up to all my fiances and Luna helping keep the Nightmares away I woke up for our day of adventuring. “God...feels like I barely slept…” I mutter, the war still heavy in my mind. “Well...today's the day…” I looked around, seeing I was...alone? Getting up and dressed I walked outside the bedroom, not even seeing the houses hallway furniture anywhere...it was bare. “Uh...the fuck?” I frown, continuing to walk around. “Hello?” I call out, hoping someone was around here. “Anyone here?” I walked passed a window, and did a double take… people, countless. Many in Keyblade armor, all wielding Keyblades, fighting. There were corpses scattered about, Keyblades fighting by ground and air via gliders or gummi ships… I saw Joy hacking many by the hundreds, Dinky spellcasting mega flares all about, blowing up dozens, and Jenny a mix of Keyblade slashing and shotgun shooting people. “No...no no no!” I shout, trying to open the big enough window for me to get outside and help protect my family, but it was sadly locked. I then saw Celestia, wielding a Divine Rose Keyblade... fighting Drezke. She wasn't lasting, she fell, and Drezke slashed across her back, her wings flying off in a spew of blood. Not far away, Luna was fighting the Core I fought, he dodging her attacks with ease then grabbing her wrist, snapping her arm then grabbing her by her neck. “NO!” I roar, bringing out Skysplitter and slamming it into the wall. My strike bounced off, leaving the wall perfectly intact. “Wh-wh-what!?!” I stutter in panic. “No….no…” I mutter while bashing against the strangely strong wall, trying to get to my family. Outside, I saw Drezke looking at me, a twisted smile as he lifted Celestia by her head, she screamed, then, in a splatter of gore and blood, he crushed her skull. Behind that, Core snapped Luna’s neck, casting a fire spell to burn her body. I saw Jenny get tackled by that Velvet filly, the small foal ripping out Jenny's shotgun from her grip and firing it, a large hole in Jenny's back spewing blood. Joy was now crucified with his own Spears, that small filly Littlepip striking the final spear into the pups head. Dinky was being dragged into darkness, scratching at the ground to try and save herself. “Stop it!” I shout, tears streaming down my face as I tried to break this damned wall down. “Stop!” I shout, begging for this Nightmare to end. “Damn it…” I sob, hearing all of their screams of pain and being unable to do anything about it caused me to fall to my knees. “I’m...I'm sorry...I'm so sorry…” I sob, grabbing my head as I sobbed hard. It was then I saw...reality seem to shift. The hallway going really wide, and out of a DTD, walked a man in something like Terra’s clothing, an Organization XIII cloak worn almost like a cape, and a Vanitas mask on. “You called?” He asked, the mask muffed his voice. I looked at the person, sniffling as I tried to wipe away all my tears. “Who...who are you?” I ask. “An old friend.” He said, walking over to the window. “Huh...so this is your nightmare. How trivial.” He said, waving a hand, the scene outside vanishing in a puff of smoke. “Trivial…?” I mutter, my state of mind not entirely being okay at seeing my family brutally murdered. “Trivial!?! I just saw my family get brutally killed and I couldn't do a damn thing about it! How is that trivial?” I growl, my anger and sadness filling my every word. “Why fret over a dream? Even when I had my heart, I never fret over nightmares.” “Nightmares show you your worst fears...and that...seeing everyone I care about die...and being unable to do anything to stop it? I think it's something to fret over. And seriously I still have no idea who you are!” I frown. He looked at me, a finger tapping the side of his helmet, it faded back just to show his eyes and it stopped there...red eyes...the visor covered them over quickly. “You can call me, Kexez.” “I'm...just gonna stick with Zeke okay?” I say, rubbing my eyes again to get rid of the tears. “But...what have you been doing since you came back?” “Trying to set things right.” He said, looking outside the window. “Our being set here has had a terrible cost to its natural timeline. I’m working to set it right. Not even this new Keyblade war will stop me, in fact, it's just what I’ll need to finish this project.” I growl. “So this war, this mindless, blood soaked massacre means nothing to you!?! What about your family? Friends? Everyone you cared about?” I ask. “You may have been told what the Keyblade war was like, but I saw that mindless free for all…” I choke up, remembering that damned thing. “I...I don't want that to happen...I don't want to lose everyone…” “Ben, I did see the war. I even participated.” Zeke said, I looked at him, confused. “Uh...wat?” I ask, beyond confused here. “I went to the Foretellers to deliver a message, then saw their special computer. Such an advance thing. Can simulate just about anything. But, hardware only goes so far. So, I programmed all it's functions into a digital Keyblade, then, had the pc bring it into the real world, and made it a real Keyblade. Within it is a simulation of creation, from the very beginning. Inside time passes slowly in the real world, and in the real world, time passes quickly within the simulation. So far, everything is going well.” “So while you and Drezke are playing mad scientists I'm busy doing fuck all.” I frown. “Lucky me knowing I have a friend who can do basically everything.” I say sarcastically. “So, while you've been doing that, why haven't you actually tried to talk to us? Shown that you are indeed back in action instead of somehow getting Core back and making him kick Joy away from your hideout?” “Simple. I don't care.” “I know your a Nobody but come on man.” I frown. “Not caring is one thing, actually doing something smart like talk about what your plans are to the people you can trust is another.” I explain. “My plans are going well. My followers grow daily, and by the time this new war starts, it will be ready.” “Does everyone want this damned war to go off or am I just going fucking crazy!?!” I shout, flinging my arms in the air in frustration. “Zeke, you know this war will feed Psychopaths what they want, why go along with shit like this?” “Because, there is a pattern to things Ben. A pattern of three. People I found from Earth call 2012 world war three. There were three Keyblade wielding heroes who stopped this very second war from starting, and three more were to rise up to stop it yet again. Our being here, caused that to be no more.” “I really wouldn't say us being here is a problem when it was Core being a douche to be perfectly honest.” I point out. “And what? Your plan is to make all of us...what not exist anymore? Kill everyone from earth and reset everything? Rip away our new lives and all the people in them?” “No. It was three heros who prevented a second Keyblade war, once. Three more are needed, but it will be to late for them to prevent this war, but they can end it, and keep the third and final war from occurring. It's all ancient legends Ben, each war impacting in worst ways than the last, my plan isn't to reset creation, just to keep it going. That third and final war… it will extinguish both dark, light. And all in. Be. Tween.” He said, tapping my head with his finger when he said that. “But all of us are here to make sure that doesn't happen!” I tell him bluntly. “We don't need a miracle trio to stop certain shit if we can stop it ourselves!” I growl. “If the Foretellers and John were here they would agree wholeheartedly that we should stop this war before it happens, not wait for three random fucks to drop in and stop it...even if that is a good backup plan though…” I sigh out. “In the legends, there is a sign that appears, that sign is both a warning, and the trigger that the war is beginning.” Zeke said, walking to the center of the room. “The sign of the first war, when a master betrays his students. The Master of Masters, and the old Foretellers. Can you guess the sign of the second war?” “I barely understand half this shit how am I supposed to know?” I deadpan. “I'm just the guy getting a lot of information thrown at me that I wouldn't otherwise know because I've been too busy.” Zeke chuckled. “The sign of the second war, when a heartless being escapes Purgatory.” Zeke said, I flinched a bit at that. “I was the second sign. Like I said Ben, it's too late to stop this second war, but I know we can end it quickly. And prevent the final war.” I clenched my fists, hating that this war was gonna happen either way. “How fast can it end? You may be a Nobody...but I doubt even you want your family to be apart of this damned thing…” “If the progress goes as it, this second war should, hopefully, only last just a week.” “A week...longer than the first… and, the sign of the last war?” I ask. “...When Kingdom Hearts dies.” He said. “Well,..that’s a thing.” I sigh out, rubbing my temples bitterly, “So...a full week of mindless bloodshed…” I say, Zeke seeing my left eye turning black with a red pupil, my head stinging a little at that as I covered the left side of my face. “Damn it...I just...hope I'll be strong enough to keep all my family out of this...becoming King of Nothingness better help.” I mutter bitterly. “But...on an unrelated note...I suppose you've been keeping tabs on Daybreak and all that's been happening?” “Does it matter?” He said, a DTD opening in front of him as he started to walk in. “And Ben…” “Am I gonna immediately wake up when you say ‘wake up’?” I ask bluntly. “Cause that's one cliche...I haven't had happen to me before…” “No,” He said, suddenly in front of me, a hand gun shoved down my throat. “Stop being a wuss. You gave me a headache. You may be the heir of Nothing, and I a Nobody, but you are no king to me.” BANG “Gah!” I shout, waking up and panting heavily. ”Well Zeke is an asshole for some reason…” I think to myself bitterly, rubbing my eyes gently and feeling like I was crying a whole bunch...but considering my nightmare it's not surprising. “Hmm?” I looked to my side, Luna sturing. “Ben? You up?” She asked, very sleepily. “Sorry...I just...had a bad nightmare…” I whisper, putting a hand over my left eye. “Luna...never mind, I'll tell you all when we're ready to leave…” I mutter, trying to carefully get out of bed without waking up anymore of my fiances. I saw Luna shrug and lay back down. I walked on outside and towards the living room. I passed the window from my dream, and outside in the front yard, I saw… Time Belle? Opening the window, I summoned my glider and flew down to her. “Hey Time.” I call out to the unicorn. “What are you doing here?” “Luxu...found out about a second Keyblade war that was going to happen…” She trailed off. “I really wish it wouldn't happen...and I really wish I could stop it.” I sigh out. “Where is he? I hope he's...not doing something bad.” She nodded up, and looking back at my castle house, I saw Luxu standing atop the Zeppelin. Looking at the moon. “I should...probably go up there and talk to him…” I say worriedly. “I'll...be right back.” I say while flying up to Luxu, hating the fact a Keyblade war is gonna happen. I landed atop The Zeppelin next to Luxu, the floor squishy and hard to balance on. “Hey Ben.” Luxu said, not moving at all. “Hey Luxu…” I say simply. “I...I'm sorry…” I sigh out sadly, wishing I could do something here but knowing I can't. “I...saw the War…” I shook my head. “No...I saw a bloody free for all…” I shook my head, the horror of what I saw not even being able to be called a ‘war’. “You saw just a small part of it. I’m the one who watched it all, every second, day and night... because of a promise...a promise to the man who started it...all out of paranoia…” “Yen Sid told me about that…” I sigh out. “But...what are we going to do? I want to stop this before it happens...before…” I trail off, trying not to break down at the thought of my nightmare. “You. I take it you are gonna build an army, like everyone else is?” “Lucas, Faust, and Discord are already out searching for survivors to see if they'll fall under my banner for this...and then Joy is looking for my ‘Council’ as it were…” I shook my head. “Everything's going too fast...I don't want there to be a war...if I get an army then fine whatever…” I sigh out. “I'm a nobody, how the fuck am I supposed to lead an army to this bloodbath?” “Ben. Summon your claymore.” Luxu asked. I summoned Lunatic. “Why did you want this out?” I ask curiously, kind of confused here. He held out a hand, Lunatic vibrated, and a second one appeared in Luxu’s hand, it changing, it's length becoming a tall tower of dirt, Keyblades stabbed all in it, Lunatics tip now an image of Kingdom Hearts, with the eye from Gazing eye in it's center. “The Claymore, the general of the king. Ben, I sat back...and watched my best friends... slaughter each other. This time… I won't just sit back, watch and cry.” I took a deep breath. “Glad to hear that.” I nod. “Good to know your my General...somehow.” I say, not entirely sure how this all works. “Seriously I understand barely anything here with my upcoming job…” I sigh out. “I know for a fact my Dad will be in this war… if you see him, tell me. I. Will. Kill. Him.” “No promises.” I say while looking at the moon. “The bastard made all those damned weapons and caused the world's to split….he caused so many people to die.” I growl, my eyes turning to slits as Lunatic shifted to its berserk form. “I'll...make sure you get to kill the fucker...just don't expect him to be in peak fighting condition.” I say, calming myself down as Lunatic turned back to normal. “I can't kill…” I mutter, putting a hand over the left side of my face. “I can't kill…” I mutter, scared of what I could become if I get blood on my hands to such a degree. “This war will be very different from the first. No telling what will happen this time around.” “All I have heard is that the Embodiments of Darkness will be killed.” I say simply. “But...how I don't know...but as long as they don't get killed by that Void Keyblade we’ll be okay…hopefully.” “Til the war then.” Luxu said, jumping down from the Zeppelin to the ground, unharmed in his landing, and he and Time walked off back to town. “God help us all.” I mutter, looking out over the peaceful land from the zeppelin. “How the fuck did it get...this out of control?” I ask myself bitterly before heading off to bed. Joy sensed someone was chosen for a weapon, and when he focused he felt that Luxu was chosen as the Claymore wielder. “Okay…” Joy mutters while summoning Fair Game. “I know you know your true wielder…” He mutters, trying to think of who could be it's true master. “Lets see…” He mutters while tossing the cards up and focusing, trying to see if he could sense it's true wielder somewhere. The cards floated, spinning before stopping and flying around, Joy following the cards as the lead him into town. Finally, they stopped outside Ponyville's pet shop. “Huh...wonder why it's the pet shop.” He mutters while checking to see if the shop was open for starters. It was, and when Joy entered the cashier was someone Joy or Ben had yet to meet yet… Trixie. “Hello and welcome to the Ponyville pet shop.” She said unenthusiastically. “Groomings don't start til tomorrow and vaccinations are next week.” “Trixie?" Joy asks, tilting his head in confusion. “What are you doing here?” “Short story, it was this or the dungeon for the whole alicorn amulet incident. So, who are you?” “Names Joy, little brother of the White Knight.” Joy says simply, not making a big deal out of it as he let a card float near him. “So besides working here, how's life been?” He asks, wondering if the card will fly towards her if it chose her. The card zipped towards her. “What's with the magic card?” She asked, grabbing it, and it changed. Now, the image adorned was her Cutie mark, and the card itself changed shape from a simple rectangle, to look like her iconic magicians hat. “Wow...looks nice.” “How would you like to come with me and learn about your new future?” Joy asks simply, the meaning coming to mind instantly. “Because you are now the Kings Gypsy. Your new job is to foretell the future for our future king, telling him the odds of events and battles.” Joy says, the words seeming to resonate with Trixie as the unicorn mare held her magical card. She then looked at the card, pondering the option before her. “Do I get to quite the job I have here?” “And you get to live in a much better place.” Joy says. “Just remember to keep your ego in check okay?” He says, not wanting her to get too hot headed here. “I got therapy for that.” She said, taking off her name tag. “Welp, gypsy huh...knew that would come back to haunt me.” Trixie said as she left the store. Shrugging, Joy summoned Sharp Shooters, and without him doing anything else, the Lexicon and Skysplitter also appeared. “Uhh…”Joy said, the weapons all circling, and opened a portal that Joy was dragged into. When Joy fell out on the other side, he was looking at a city completely destroyed, apocalyptic was an understatement. “Okay...why the hell am I here?” Joy asks himself while looking at the three weapons that dragged him here. They almost lazily floated along, Joy following until he ran into a man with white hair, wearing a black hoodless cloak with some blue patterns on one side and holding a sheathed katana. Skysplitter rushed towards the man and into his free hand, it changed, becoming as thin as a sword, keeping its general shape while the main blade was demonic in appearance and the grip was more angelic in design. “What the?” The man said. “Uh...hi.” Joy starts. “Names Joy, what's your name?” Joy asks, knowing he was the new Gate Guardian. “Vergil.” He said, walking up to Joy. “What...is this?” he asked, holding up Skysplitter. “That is a Tomahawk, but it shifted to suit your style. You have been chosen as the Gate Guard, the second line of defense for the King of Nothingness.” Joy explains. “King of...I have read about him, an ancient being that…” Vergil looked at the tomahawk. “Heh...I guess Dante was right... we weren't meant to rule over humanity… wow… I feel like a douchebag right now.” “Hindsight is twenty twenty after all.” Joy shrugs. “Now mind helping me find the two who are chosen by these weapons?” Joy asks, pointing to the Lexicon and Sharpshooters. “I...have a feeling, but, mind if I… be a bit behind you when we do? I sorta…yeah… long story short, hurt a long time friend and fought my own brother to the point he nearly...killed me…” “It's alright.” Joy nodded. “When they figure stuff out here they'll forgive you.” He says. ”I like old Vergils design better…” Joy thinks to himself honestly. “So, know where they are?” Joy asks curiously. “Not to far from where I was just coming from. Come.” He said, leading the way as Joy and the weapons followed. When they came to a small clearing Joy saw a short, white haired Dante and a woman with a star tattoo on her forehead. Dante looked at Vergil. “Okay...first off-” Vergil was stopped when Dante pulled out Ebony and Ivory and fired endlessly at him, Vergil getting hit by every shot but not harmed by them. When Dante stopped, Vergil was a tad dazed. “Okay...not gonna deny I deserved that…” “You deserve worse, why the fuck you just come back for and who in the hell is this kid and...why are there crossbows and a book floating next to him?” Dante said as he looked over at me. “I mean seriously… what the actual hell.” “All will be explained.” Joy says while Sharpshooters and the Lexicon rush towards the two, Dante feeling a sense of deja vu as yet another weapon rushed towards him to bond with him. “You two have been chosen to be the Archer and the Mage of the King of Nothingness.” Joy states, the weapons changing to fit the two. Dante received the Sharpshooters, one changing to a fiery, demonic appearance while the other changed to an angelic theme. Kat, the new Lexicon owner, didn't change much, just the colors from black and chrome to gold and white, through, the image on the cover was now a spray can. “Congratulations. Dante, you are now the first line of defense to the King, and lady...uh sorry I forgot to ask your name.” Joy says sheepishly, not knowing who the woman's name was. “Kat… Dante, the king of Nothing is a strong entity. Working with him we could end the threats of the remaining demons.” Dante sighed, looking at Kat, then Joy. “Fine, but on one condition.” “Does it involve having a nice home with your girlfriend?” Joy asks, moving a finger between Dante and Kat like they were a couple. “We aren't da, ugh. Just make sure if someone is to rule this world, it's a human.” “No promises.” Joy says. “But Kat, you are in charge of all the Spellcasters and Record Keeping for the King.” He says while summoning Hearts Guardian. “Now you'll probably want to know your new home.” He says while opening up a DTL to Equestria. “Go through the door and you'll see yourselves in front of a castle, you'll start there.” “You two go on if you want, I got some things to check.” Dante said, jumping off a cliff edge, sliding down the dirt/rubble. “He’ll be fine.” Vergil said. “Nothing can kill that idiot.” “Unless he stops being a pussy and shows his true power he's gonna get killed easily.” Joy says bluntly. “He's hiding a fuck ton of power...he better learn to control it.” He shook his head. “You could tell he was hiding his true strength to couldn't you?” He asks Vergil simply. “Yes. He has discovered it, but has yet to embrace it. I wish I could say the same.” “You are strong in your own ways, and have more room to grow. You'll never be as physically strong as Dante by a giant margin, but your technique and abilities can at least keep up with it.” Joy explains. “Kat? What do you think of all this?” Joy asks the woman. “It's...well, as long as I have a purpose,” She looked over at Vergil, her gaze filled with hate. “And a worthy leader, I’ll be okay.” Joy looked at her. “You and Dante are going to need to drop your hatred here. You are going to have a new life, and all past mistakes will be null in Nothing.” Joy states. “But when your ready the door to your new home will be ready...and either me or your new King will try to explain a lot of things...if you thought this was crazy, you haven't seen anything.” Joy chuckles, the pup giving a cute knowing smile at how the three might react. “Tell them Joy sent you, they'll give you a room.” They nodded, Vergil and Kat entering the DTL. Joy summoned the chakrams next, the spun in a fast blaze of fire before another portal opened up. “Right then.” He nodded while entering the new portal, wondering who he'll meet next. Exiting, Joy found himself in a…. very small apartment. Literally one room, kitchen next to the living room/bedroom. “Hello?” Joy calls out, wondering why he appeared in this apartment. “Master, where did you acquire that meat?” A voice from the outside of the front door spoke. “It's just...something I picked up.” Another replied, the door opening as a bald, young man entered along with a blond cyborg. “Oh. company?” The bald man spoke. “He might be a monster sier.” The cyborg replied. “Well he hasn't attacked us yet. So...hey there.” Joy blinked. “Hi...names Joy.” He says, trying to keep his composure as he sensed the bald guys asinine amount of power. “I'm not a monster just so you know...even if I look like this.” He says, trying to keep things simple for the simple looking guy. “Wow, he talks!” The bald guy said, walking over and petting the pup. “Hey there. My name is Saitama, and my, uh… friend, there, is Genos.” “Uh...hi.” Joy says, his tail wagging as he was pet but he quickly moved away. “I'm sorry for just barging into your home, these things were looking for their master and dropped me in here.” He says, showing the two chakrams floating calmly. “Weird, they look like Ninja weapons.” Saitama said. “They are called chakrams if I am not mistaken master.” Genos said, the chakrams floating over to the cyborg and changing, no longer red and chrome, but greased steel color with glowing yellow lines as actual fire blew from their tips. “They also appear to be magic.” Genos said nonchalantly. “Okay…” Joy says while thinking for a moment. “You are the King’s Anarchist, his one man army, capable of taking down anything.” Joy says before frowning. “Hey Saitama, want to follow us to a new home filled with free food, housing, and strong things to fight that won't fall over in one punch?” Joy asks him simply, knowing Genos was strong but feeling like he should have Saitama as help. “Uh… sure. Nothing else much going on here since Boros was killed.” “I will follow my master wherever he goes.” Genos said. “Alright then, let's get packing Genos.” Saitama said, gathering up his few things. “If your wondering who the King I was talking about was it's the King of Nothingness.” Joy points out. “Just so you know.” He says while opening a DTL. “Just walk through the portal and you'll see a castle, go there and there will be someone to escort you to your new room. Tell them Joy sent you.” As Joy was about to leave a kunai knife flew past him at blazing speed, Saitama catching it before it sliced the pups nose. “Oh darn, Sonic is back.” He said with a sigh. “Shall I deal with him?” Genos asked, looking like he wanted to try out his new weapons. “I got this.” Saitama said, opening a sliding door that revealed a small patio. “Hey Sonic, I’m moving do you wanna make this quick or what?” On an almost afterimage motion, a man in black and purple tights, black hair, carrying an assortment or Ninja weapons appeared. “You can not move! I have yet to defeat you! I forbid it!” The Ninja, Sonic, said. “Forbid? Dude, you are not my mom.” “Rah!” Sonic huffed, Foudre appearing in front of him, changing color, once blue and yellow now was black and purple. “Uh... what's with the magic Kunai’s?” “Okay, your now the King’s Assassin, self explanatory.” Joy sighs out. “King of Nothingness is now your boss, blah blah your an idiot for thinking you can hurt Saitama.” Joy says bluntly. “So go on through, your new rooms will be there for ya and some decent explanations for ya will also be given.” He says, the DTL still open for the three. “Hey!” Joy looked at the portal, Nelear walking out. “Joy! That portal is blocking the spa’s front entrance!” “How? I opened the portal to my house.” Joy says, honestly confused as he knew the portal went to the front of their house. While Joy and Nelear fixed the issue, Sonic never took his eyes off of Nelear. When the issue was corrected, Sonic walked over to the portal. “I’ll play along for now…” He said, a slight blush on his face as he ran into the portal. “Well...hope he doesn't screw up with Nelare.” He mutters, having noticed him staring at Nelare. “Okay...so next up.” He mutters while summoning Arpeggio the Sitar. The sitar glowed a bit before creating a pool of water, to which the sitar splashed into. “Gonna be swimming...great.” He muttered while diving into the pool of water, wondering where the muscle weapon is taking him. It wasn't long until the pup was now above the water, ocean as far as the eye could see. “Well shit.” Joy mutters while he summoned his dragon spears. “AAAHHHOOOOYYYY!” A loud voice called as something grabbed Joy by his scruff and he was lifted out of the water, across the water, and onto a ship. He saw one thing...a straw hat. “Hey there, who are you?” The one with the straw hat said, Joy recognizing him as Luffy. “Names Joy, who are you my fine straw hat friend?” Joy asks, his dragon spears still floating gently around him in a non-threatening manner. “Names Luffy. Saw ya floating in the water there. So what's a dog man doing all the way out here in these waters?” “I’m looking for people for a special thing.” The pup says. “Know anyone that likes to play music?” He asks, Arpeggio floating above him. “That would be me.” Joy looked up, seeing a skeleton with an afro walk up. “The name's Brook.” “How do you have an afro when your a skeleton?” Joy asks curiously, not entirely sure how that works. “Details. So, why are you looking for musicians this far- good heavens!” Brook said, eyeing the sitar. He ran over to it, and when he grabbed it, it changed, becoming smaller, made from wood, and had two sides, one for playing normal, the other, a more violin style. “Oh my, such beauty. Such magic, it's just beautiful!” “Looks like Arpeggio chose you my skeletal friend.” Joy smiles. “But you have been chosen to be apart of the council for the King of Nothingness.” The pup said. “You are the Bard, playing music, torturing your enemies, and gathering information from many ways.” Joy says, before hearing someone gasp. “The...King of Nothingness?” A mature female asked, making Joy turn over and see Robin looking shocked, but Joy looked away as his face turned red. “I thought that was just a myth?” “Well...it's not a myth ma’am.” He says simply, trying not to look like an idiot here. “He’s as real as you or me.” “Interesting…” Robin mutters, thinking about all this. “I suppose the Poneglyphs were right…” She mutters, remembering seeing some bits about the King of Nothingness from the ancient writings. Joy was about to bring up a DTL back home but stopped himself, concerned about what's gonna happen if he takes a crew member away. ”Shit...I'm screwing with time a lot...this isn't good…” He thinks to himself worriedly, a worried look crossing his face as he thought of what bad he's done trying to find these people. “So, why are you sailing across this beautiful ocean?” Joy asks curiously. “We’re sailing to find One Piece.” Luffy says with a smile. “And I'm gonna be the King of the Pirates.” Luffy declares with pride. “Who's the kid?” Someone asked, making Joy turn and spot Zoro and the rest of the crew walk up. “Aw~, he's so cute.” The orange haired girl, Nami, smiled happily. “Where'd you find him Luffy?” A thin man with a long nose, Usopp, asks Luffy. “I found him in the ocean floating around.” Luffy says simply. “Were you drowning?” The black suited blond, Sanji, asked simply, lighting a new cigarette. “No, and those can kill you ya know?” Joy points out. “Eh, helps keep me calm.” Sanjii shrugs. “Well your not a Devil Fruit user.” The blue nosed reindeer, Chopper, said honestly. “But I haven't heard of any animal human hybrid before.” “Things are a lot bigger when you look to the stars.” Joy says vaguely. “Better to keep your eyes on the sea right now then look up at the stars.” A big man wearing a hawaii shirt and a speedo, Franky, pointed out. “But what's your name kid? Not everyday someone just gets pulled up out of the ocean.” “Names Joy.” He says while standing up and using Lindworm to dry himself off. “And who are all of you if I may ask? And...what are your dreams if I may ask?” Joy asks curiously. “Strange thing to ask…” Zoro mutters. “But the names Roronoa Zoro, and I'm going to become the best swordsman in the world.” “My name's Nami, and I'm going to create a map of the whole world.” The orange haired girl says. “My name's Usopp, and I'm gonna become a brave warrior of the sea.” Usopp says with confidence, even though Joy could tell his confidence was lacking sometimes. “The names Sanji, and I'm going to find the All Blue.” Sanji say simply, taking his cigarette out of his mouth and blowing smoke into the air. “I'm Chopper, and I'm going to be the best doctor and cure all diseases.” Chopper says. “My name is Robin, and I'm going to learn the true history of the world.” She says, grinning a little at seeing Joy look a little shy and blush. “The names Franky, and one day I'll build my dream boat that'll be able to sail anywhere, from the sea to the sky.” Franky declares proudly. “I'm Brooke, and one day I'm going to meet my wonderful friend Laboon again.” The skeleton stated. “All good dreams to have, and I can tell all of you are going to fulfill those dreams one day.” Joy nodded with a smile. “But my dream...is to one day live in peace with my family and friends.” He says with a smile. “Now...I sent other council members of the Council of Nothing to my home in a different world, I won't split you all apart.” “Wait wait wait, did you just say ‘other world’?” Franky asks bluntly. “How is that even remotely possible?” “Magic.” Joy states simply. “But...would you all fight for your friends? Even if it means fighting under someone else's banner?” The pup asks. “If it means helping protect friends, then I would work together.” Luffy says. “We won't serve under anyone, but together.” “For a price of course.” Nami brings up, being a pirate and greedy coming to a front. Joy wants to say something, but Robin cuts in. “Let me ask...what is this ‘Keyblade War’?” She asks curiously. “I read the name on a Poneglyph about three months ago...what is it?” “It…” He tried to find the proper words for this. “Imagine there are five sides wanting to fight each other...but then it devolved into a bloodthirsty free for all where all of reality started to rip apart and increase the body count.” Joy says, the entire crew looking horrified at such an image. “Me and my brother, the future king Brook, myself, and others will serve soon, saw only a fraction of the event…” “How...how long did it last?” Robin asks, her normally tan skin seeming to go pale. “Somewhere around...three days.” Joy says. “Three days of none stop fighting nothing of which has been seen or felt before...and sooner or later rather than never…it's going to happen again.” He shook his head, trying not to cry at seeing such horrors. Luffy put a hand on Joy’s head. “If Brook is gonna be apart of this, then we're gonna be apart of this.” Luffy states. “We never abandon our family.” “If what you said is true then that means we'll be apart of it either way.“ Zoro points out, not knowing much of what I explained but knowing the fight was so huge no matter how far one was the fight could still be felt. “Might as well fight with the guy who Brooks going to follow.” “I...never thought I'd have to be a war medic…” Chopper says worriedly. “Are...you guys sure we should...join in this?” Usopp asks, scared shitless here. “You all can't fight on an empty stomach.” Sanji states. “If you need a master chef I'm your guy.” “You'll need a good engineer for a war.” Franky points out. “And I'll be that engineer.” “If everyone else is agreeing then I'll tag along.” Robin nodded. “You'll also need an experienced spy to give proper information.” “I hope I can live up to the expectations here.” Brook says while tuning his new instrument. “But as long as I can protect my friends then that will be that.” Brook nodded. “Good.” Joy nodded. “Now while I did this to the others...I don't think I can just take you away to a different world and drop everything right now.” Joy says. “Not gonna happen.” Luffy states. “So, mind if I join the crew?” Joy asks simply. “I can help make you all stronger and give you all a special weapon.” Joy says, knowing the ones who don’t have special weapons having Keyblades could help. “What kind of weapons?” Franky asks curiously, looking at the design of the dragon lance. “Keyblades.” The pup says. “Well...if the war was real then they must be real.” Robin points out, while others bring up how they either heard about them through either rumors, elders or masters telling them about it, or ancient history. “Sure most of you don't look like sword fighters, but Keyblades can actually shapeshift, either into bows, staffs, or giant cannons.” Joy brings up, knowing most weren't really sword fighters. “Interesting…” Franky mutters, his inner engineer wondering how something could shape shift like that if it's normally like a sword. “So, who wants to start training?” Joy asks, the small crew of pirates feeling like their long, long journeys was gonna get a lot longer. The castle was quite, silent, partly. Ben went off on his wife gathering adventure little over an hour ago, while at his home, we're Joy’s girls, Cadence, his his clone, and all 300 plus children. “Wonder how long till Den arrives?” Cadence spoke aloud, skimming through whatever parenting and child care books she could find. “She’ll arrive, don't worry.” My clone says simply, gently cradling baby Braig in his arms. “But...I'm sorry…” He says sadly, hating the fact that I couldn't save Shining and all the others. “It just happened so suddenly. One minute we were walking down the castle hallway...next, I heard a thud and...turned around…” She stopped, rubbing her arms after putting the book down. “I never saw death before, read about it, saw it portrayed in movies… I just...froze. it was little over an hour before a guard found me and...Shining.” “I understand…” My clone says. “I've seen it before...it's never pretty…” He sighs out. “A world like this should never know such horrors.” “... what's it like?” Cadence asked me. “Holding a baby, I mean. I took care of Twilight when she was a filly, but she was five and...heh, so very independent already. Had to trick her into playing like a kid.” My clone looked down and saw the pink haired Braig looking up at him with innocent and happy eyes. “This is the first time I’ve held a baby before…” He says. “But...it feels nice holding your own child like this...makes the world feel more..innocent and warm...even when it's not.” “I can guess. In the eyes of a child, everything is so pure and full of wonder and potential. It's a shame when I hear about some horrors children go through.” “Lets hope our children can live happy lives here…” My clone says, feeling his shirt being tugged and turning around, seeing one of his daughters he saved from Rapture holding his shirt with a hand and hugging a stuffed tiger in her arm. “Oh, hello Amelia.” My clone says gently. “Why are you here?” “Auntie Cadence look sad.” She says innocently. “Can I help?” She asks, her eyes having gone from being tainted from the crap on Rapture to being grey colored and full of the same childish innocence here. “What do you think Cadence? Think Amelia could help you feel better?” My clone asks honestly, knowing the poor Alicorn could use a helping hand and not sure how to help fully. “I uh...heh… I guess we can play a game, what would you like to play Amelia?” Cadence asked. The little girl's eyes shined happily as the seven year old ran over to a table and pulled out a board game, a game Cadence was shocked to see again after so many years. “Mommy Twilight showed me this game and it's so fun.” She said happily. “Oh, Twili loved this when she was a filly. I didn't even know they still made Froggy Chess.” When Amelia opened the box Cadence saw the board and pieces, but they weren't brand new, she could tell the pieces and board were the exact same as the one she played when Twilight was a little filly. “Mommy Twilight said this was her favorite game to play when she was my age.” Amelia smiled, Cadence noticing there was a pinkish purple stripe in the little girls hair, reminding Cadence of Twilight as a filly and how adorable she was as she started setting the board with childish glee. It was adorable, and as Cadence picked up the pieces, aged but well taken care of, and the board, worn, aged, but still preserved. Sentimentalism crept over her as she aligned the pieces. “I can’t believe she kept it.” Cadence said as she placed the final piece. “Well...when you grow up sometimes you keep old things to remember the times you were most happy.” My clone says with a smile. “I guess. So, when’s Den supposed to be here?” She asked, starting the game. The game board was blue, with lily pads as the move spaces and the different stages of a frog's life as the pieces. The king and queen were obviously adult frogs, with a crown for the king, and a tiara for the queen. “Not sure.” My clone says, seeing Amelia make the first move. “I hope she gets here soon, it would be nice to talk to her about...everything.” “Here!” Cadence and I jumped, Den appearing behind the couch, holding a LARGE duffle bag. “And I am going to be here for a while, Cript’s script...hehe, rhymes, makes it hard for me to get back so I’m here for a while.” She said, dropping the bag on the floor, an audible thud as it hit the stone ground...followed by cracks in the ground under it. “What is in that bag?” My clone asked worriedly. “Cause...a normal bag full of stuff shouldn't cause cracks in the ground…” “Since is anything with me or your father normal?” She asked, unzipping it. “I just grabbed stuff from home, special phone to call family, like, a million bottles of formula, and-” She said, pulling out the Mother Cript made for Ben, awake, and active and...Cript? “Your baby's mama and my clone of your dad.” “Did you have to put us in the bag?” Cript asked. “I’m with him.” The Mother said. “No reason. Just for comedy.” Den answered. My clone looked at them and sighed out. “Right then.” He nodded, still cradling baby Braig. “But I see the Mother is awake.” “Yeah, turned out all they needed was small pieces of each wives soul and that stabilized her.” Cript said, dusting himself off. “Also, her name is Celua. You can guess why.” Cript said, showing the mother had...Celestia’s chest and Luna’s butt, to which my clone blushed. “Uh...yeah...I can fully tell.” My clone says carefully, not sure of what to say about the sexy lady. “So, you’re the father of all the children I carry.” She said, inspecting me. “I have to say, those memories don’t do you all that much justice.” Celua then pulled be in, tightly and planted a kiss on my lips before just hugging me between her...breasts. “This is going to be fun.” “Uh…” My clone’s face turned beat red and steam billowed out of his head. “Okay...this will...be nice.” Cadence rolled her eyes. “So, Den...what will I be learning?” She asked, standing up. “Well, we should start off with the simple things, preparing. Ben, bring Braig and any other infant born already and I’ll help Cadence set up the strollers.” Den said as she reached into the bag, pulling out some strollers. In their boxes. My clone nodded and headed off to find baby Nancy. “Maybe she's with Jenny’s sister…” My clone mutters, walking through the halls to find them. It didn’t take long for my clone to find Nancy, Kristy was building a nursery, just for her. It was decorated nice...though, there was a rotary made from bullets above the crib. “Oh, hey Ben.” She said, still wearing her maid outfit with Jet putting up wallpaper. “Hey Kristy...uh why are you making that?” My clone asks nervously. “But I'm here to get Nancy, Dens here to help teach Cadence how to take care of a kid.” “Oh...mind if I tag along?” She asked, turning around and that’s when...right, she’s pregnant too. “And the roatery is actually from when Jenny was a baby. Sure we can steal them back then but, a Ventral walking into a baby store or...well, any store sets off all the alarms.” “Right then.” My clone nods and picking up the white wolf puppy. “How you doing Nancy?” My clone asks the baby girl with a smile. Nancy, for her part, just frowns. Krista laughing at my clone. “She may be a baby, but she is still a Ventral.” She said, walking over to my clone and waving a skull shaped rattle over the baby, to that Nancy brightened up, grabbing the disturbing toy and shook it. “Good thing I have you here cause...I don't know.” My clone sighs out. “But anyways, let's get going, Den is probably waiting for us.” I say while leading Kristy to where Den and Cadence are. “So, how have you been doing?” My clone asks her. “I just found out my child is a boy.” She said as we walked down the hall, Jet following her. “That's great to hear.” My clone smiles. “How much longer till you give birth?” My clone asks curiously. “I’m at four months now, doctors all say I’ll likely be giving birth in the winter. Spring if I’m really late.” “Alright.” My clone nods. “What do you think about Jenny and Joy being together? I'm not entirely sure if I asked that before.” “It’s cute, most Ventrals find our partners rather young, or lose our virginity young, one or the other.” “Mind if I ask...is there anything happy about the Ventrals?” My clone asks. “I know about your family's history, and how true it is...but is there anything...ya know normal about your family?” “Normal...huh…” She thought, pondering the question. “I guess...just how we give birth really, other than that we live and grow up far from the norm.” “Your dreams? I heard Nancy wanted to have a simple job if she could have…” My clone points out. “And you wanting to basically be a maid seemed good for you.” “My dream was to just be a mother, mom’s was to own a bakery, Jenny’s would be to own a gun store… I remember Zeke told me his dream once.” “What was his dream?” My clone asks. “To be a marine. He might not have participated in our crime sprees, but he loved to fight, losing himself in the adrenaline. He didn’t want to fight for no reason though, he wanted to fight for a just cause. I saw him go hand to hand with his dad once… it was amazing, puts all boxing and wrestling to shame. Hang on.” She said, reaching into her pocket and pulling out a photo. In it was Zeke, atop a large black bear, his father, and mother as well as his two other brothers on each side of it. “That’s from their hideout in the woods two years back, that bear attacked, Zeke jumped on its back and snapped its neck. If I didn't have this photo I wouldn’t believe it.” “I probably would...but in this line of work snapping a black bears neck isn't that special anymore.“ My clone sighs out. “I...do wonder what the other Ventrals are doing? I...kind of had this thought, after I was told all of you wished to have normal lives, that I could help give you the chance...besides your insane grandfather and cousin…” My clone frowns. “But right now...I'm just a rambling idiot with way too much stuff to do in life.” “From what I heard Zeke killed grandpa and threw his brother into the void.” “Good to know both of them are dead. Heard they were the worst of the bunch.” My clone says honestly. “Yeah, when grandpa found out he had a grandson with full red eyes, he set off a bomb in Wisconsin to celebrate. Zeke was the first full red eye’d Ventral in four generations. Normally, there’s at least one per generation, but for the past four there’s just been them like uncle Josh, having only one red eye rather than two.” “Ah.” My clone nodded. “Talk about starting things off with a bang.” “You should see what we do for the fourth of july.” Krista laughed. We arrived back in the living room, Den and Cadence setting up second and final stroller. Braig was in the stroller, half asleep with a toy bunny. “Hey. What took so long?” Den asked. “Brought Kristy here to learn how to be a mother as well, and we talked.” My clone says honestly. “And here is Nancy.” He says while showing the pup that was clearly Rarity’s daughter. Den took her, cradling her softly as she placed her in the newly built stroller. “Alright then, Ben, Cadence, you two push. We got to practice stocking up, but, first question first. What’s your early feeding route? Breastfeeding or bottle feeding?” My clone pushed Braigs stroller. “The early feeding route should be breastfeeding correct?” “Yeah, but in the end it is the mothers choice, if you don’t want to use formula at all an breast milker is the best option for sure nutrition.” Den said as we started out walk outside. There were some glances and some photos taken of us. My clone imagined the newspapers as he walked by. Finally, they arrived at Ponyville’s major foal stuffs store, Fillies and Colts Tots Emporium. “The people better not think we're a couple…” My clone mutters, scared about what Cadence would think about everyone thinking I'm dating the recent widow. “Okay...so how much stuff do we need to buy here?” “Either way you’ll be needing diapers...lots. Bottles, also a lot, and toys.” “So I need to basically buy the place out huh?” My clone asks, not wanting to buy everything and leave nothing for others. “God...it's gonna be a nightmare to handle all the kids in the future…” “If you keep your birth rates low you can just make due with a triplets amount.” Den said, opening the door for us all to walk in. We walked up to the mare at the register. “Hello and welcome to Fillies and Colts Tots Emporium, how may I assist you this fine day?” The mare says. My clone thought about how to word this as delicately as possible. “Who are your suppliers?” My clone asks curiously, hoping to at least know that before saying something stupid. “All of our suppliers are located in Canterlot Secondary.” “How fast do you get your supplies?” My clone asks. “We restock every Thursday, and our stock comes in every Wednesday.” “I keep wanting to just say ‘I want to buy everything in your store’...but I know that's impossible…” My clone sighs out. “Well, if you would like I can take a list of items you’d require, order them and when they arrive you just pay the amount for the shipment, plus some interest.” The mare said. “Thank you…” My clone sighs out thankfully. “Hmm...how much to buy…” My clone mutters, knowing this place has a lot of stuff for my future needs. “I'm sorry, it's just...twenty loving fiances so…” My clone says sheepishly, not bringing up the fact I'm gonna get more wives soon. “I know, my supervisor was expecting you to come around here at some point. So, if you need I can get you a pen and paper to write down that list then I can fill it out on the order forms.” “Please.” My clone said thankfully. When she gave him the pen and pad paper my clone proceeded to write down everything we needed for all the children. “And that's about it.” My clone says while handing her the paper and pen. “How much will this all cost?” The mare looked at all the things and tapped a pencil on the counter, probably doing all the math in her head. “Ten thousand six hundred and ten gold bits.” She says. “Cool.” My clone says before lifting up the big bag of coins. “Here's all the gold bits ya need.” “Thank you.” She said, dragging the bag of bits. “I’ll get that order form filled out for you. Anything you’ll need at the moment?” She asked, dragging the big bag across the counter. “Need some help?” My clone asks her. “That's...over six hundred pounds if a gold bit weighs an ounce each.” “It’s alright, so, is there anything else you need?” “Um…” My clone thinks for a moment. “Not really no.” He shook his head. “Thank you a lot ma’am.” “You’re welcome.” She said as we began to leave. Once outside we walked around for a bit, it was nice. “Next step, socialization.” Den said. “It’s important for babies to play with others. Know any in town?” “To be honest I have barely looked around town.” My clone says worriedly. “Hell, when I first started training with Dorlu was when I actually found out there was a police station here.” “Hm, well, how about the park then, good place to look and let the little ones play.” “True.” My clone nodded. “Man...it's been awhile since I've last been to a park…” With that decided, we all headed to the park. It was a nice, quiet day. Not many people were out, the sun was up, barely any clouds. Cadence was playing with Braig on the swings while I was trying to make Nancy laugh. ”Sheesh, how hard is it to make this kid laugh?” I think to myself, trying to do silly faces cause that normally gets children to laugh. With Nancy, nothing. Not even a giggle, just this frown of unimpressed. “Hmm…” Krista thought, flicking my ear. I yelped, ears being sensitive, and Nancy gigled. “Thought so.” She said. “Oh come on!” My clone flung his hands into the air. “Infancy, loves to see people hurt. I have some serious concerns here.” “It’s just how we are. Mom used to say when I was a baby I laughed every time dad shot back at the cops, and yes, the cops shot at us with infants in the back.” “All of you worry me...a lot.” My clone shakes his head. “Being reborn as Rarity’s daughter doesn't change anything somehow...ugh this sucks...while other infants would be happy about silly things this infant laughs at pain and suffering.” “She may be yours and Rarity’s daughter now, but she was a Ventral first, and my mom...that’s a sentence I never expected to say.” Kristy said. “There's a lot of sentences a lot of people never thought they could say.” My clone shrugs. “Especially now a days.” “True. So, I’ve been wanting to ask you something.” “And what is that?” My clone asks curiously. “Well, I’ve been working as a maid for you for a bit now and I was wondering...when am I getting paid?” “And what are you going to do with any money I give you?” My clone asks. “When at home you kind of have enough you can just lay back and let life go by.” “I don’t live in your castle. I live in an apartment in town. Kinda been living off of whatever I took when I left Core back when he was a deal.” “What are you talking about? I gave you a room to live in when you started working for me right?” My clone asks, honestly confused as I remembered telling her she had her own room. “Weird...but my memory isn't all that sorted with all the crap I have to deal with…” My clone sighs out, rubbing his temples bitterly. “You did give me a room, but I wanted a place in town. So, whatever I had I packed and found a nice place in town, just a mile or so from work, rather cheap too.” “How much is one platinum bit?” My clone asks. “Everyone normally uses gold so I don't entirely know… “ I say, wondering how much to pay her. “If I remember, one Platinum bit is worth a thousand gold bits, one gold bit is worth a hundred silver bits, one silver bit is worth fifty copper bits, and one copper bit is worth twenty bronze bits, one bronze bits are worth ten iron bits.” “There are a lot of bits.” My clone said while giving her two platinum bits. “This good?” “...Overkill, but hey, not complaining.” Krista said as she took the two bits and pocketed them. “Banks is gonna have a field day.” “Eh.” My clone shrugs. “If they know you work for me they'll buy it.” My clone says. “But...how can I raise Nancy right?” My clone asks Kristy. “She has a new life, but of course she's still a Ventral...I just...want to do right after I screwed up…” My clone says sadly. “Well, her violent tendencies likely will always be there, but, perhaps when she’d older you can redirect it, rather than putting it to bad uses, have her put it to good uses.” “Maybe…” My clone says, my nightmare resurfacing sadly and making me shake my head. “But it'll be a long time before she's old enough…” He says honestly, putting a hand over his left eye. “I just hope she has enough time to grow…” He muttered worriedly. “Well, only one way to find out, right?” “Yeah…” My clone says, hoping everyone will be safe when the war starts. To be continued... Nobody's council, Joy's journey“First time going to Zebrica...wonder what the country is like?” I wonder to myself, walking around the zeppelin as we were flying off towards said Zebra country. ”I just hope Bara is keeping his word…” I think to myself while heading off to find the ‘training area’ they're using. Finding the training areas wasn’t hard, it was the deck. There was some wind and such blowing, not too strong, and Bara, or Twilight, can’t tell, their helmet is on, was up there working with Coco. “Remember Coco, key to surviving any match is defence, offence, and maneuverability. In a fight, you have to be the hardest thing to get hit.” They charged, Coco dodging the swings that she could, one hit her and she fell, getting back up quickly. “Hey.” I say to the two and walking up. “Busy training I see.” “Yeah.” Coco said. “Twilight says my small, thin frame makes me best suited for dodging and speed.” “True.” I nod. “And I supposed it's just dodging practice right now?” “Yes.” Twilight said...though I am pretty sure she’s speaking for another. “I swing in pattern and randomly, so she can identify how best to avoid the attacks.” “That's good.” I nodded, looking out at the lands we were passing by. “Need any help training if I may ask?” “I think we’re good.” Coco said, starting the match, Twilight/Bara charging, Coco dodging and keeping distance between her and Twilight/Bara. I nodded, continuing to look out over the landscape while glancing over to the two training. ”I'm glad Bara is helping train my family...but…” I mentally trail off, wondering if I should stop them from even being apart of this new war. ”Damn it to hell…” I think to myself worriedly, wishing there was a way to stop this damned war. “What to do, what to do…” I mutter, knowing Den, Cript and Celua are at home because of my clone and Joy is off on an adventure. I looked back to the sparring match. Coco was dodging with impressive speeds, Twilight/Bara increasing their speed, and Coco noticed, increasing her distance from them to keep the advantage. “Hmm…” I hummed, watching the sparring intently and seeing how well Coco was doing at dodging and keeping her distance. “While everyone's training...what am I gonna do?” I mutter to myself not knowing how far the place was where I needed to search for an ancient book. “Ugh...I hate having nothing to do…” I sat on a bench that was bolted to the deck, switching between watching the landscape and the fighting. I began to wonder, is this what life will be like when all the fighting is over? ”I've been so caught up in things to do...I completely forgot the after…” I think to myself. ”When the fightings over...is it just gonna be this? I mean...I'd love to spend time with my family and friends and just be happy...but I've been to caught up in fights…” I think to myself worriedly, not wanting to be someone that wishes for more fighting. I heard someone walk over to me, and when I looked I saw Zecora take a seat next to me. “Greetings love pup, you seem in a rut?” She questioned, wearing something...revealing, but from it’s design it’s likely something from her home land. “Just a bit.” I sigh out. “Seeing Coco and Sparkle there training made me think...what's gonna happen after all the fighting's done?” I ask. “I'd love for the fighting to end but normally I'm off doing something important...I don't want to be someone who wants more fighting…” “Even in times of peace, there are always things that will try and stop the free. There are times I wish I could see, worriers fighting across the seas. A new purpose I have found, in this herd all around.” “Mind telling me some stuff about Zebrica if I may ask?” I ask her curiously. “I've only been to the Dragon Lands, Griffon stone and the Diamond dog capital...I haven't really been to many places around the world." “The sun is always beating, and when the rain falls it’s like the stars are weeping. It is a hard, wild place, but it is home nonetheless.” “Must have been quite a change when you got to Equestria huh?” I ask, feeling like Zebrica and Equestria was like night and day all things considered. “Never before had I seen a land so lush and green, it was a place seen only in dreams. The ponies were hard, at first, but thanks to a kind heart I got my chance to have a fresh start.” “So Zebrica is a desert then?” I ask curiously. “And a kind heart? I presume that was Apple Bloom correct?” I ask. Zecora nodded, remembrance in her expression as she remembered the past. “My home is so large, and vast. It’s secrets are withheld, by shamans of past.” “Fancy.” I smile gently. “But...ever expect to share a husband with royalty?” I ask her. “From...well soon to be all races?” “I think I speak for all when I say that life with you is never dull.” “Would be weird if it was dull when I'm around.” I chuckle. “But...have you been happy with me?” I ask Zecora. “Like...not just physically happy…but...” I trail off, trying to find the proper words here. “I left home for a reason, and that...was an accusation of treason. I got a letter telling me a truth I already knew, innocent I was, but the laws were moved none. I met you and… I can’t even find a rhyme to describe how you make me feel. I was happy, when Bloom made their village realize I was no threat, and when I met you...I placed love as my bet.” I took Zecora's hand and squeezed it gently. “Thank you...but...this act of treason...what happened to cause such a thing?” “It was many moons past, A happy time that was not to last. I was apprentice to the royal sorcerer, and when he died, I was blamed for his murder. His body wreaked of poison, from herbs only he and I had. I took the fall, for a rebel I trusted whole.” “Oh dear…” I say worriedly. “That's...not good. But...how's it feel going back to Zebrica after...all that?” “Like a dying dream revived at last.” “Let's hope the people won't treat you poorly when we get there.” I say. “Your too good to be seen as a traitor.” I smile warmly. “But I like your new...attire.” I bring up. “It is traditional Shaman attire, I figured it would help make our trip a little more...brighter~” She said, stroking a finger across my arm. I blush at that. “Have I ever told any of you how lucky I am to be marrying all of you?” I ask with a smile. Joy was really enjoying adventuring in a world. It had been a month since he agreed to help them, and many new changes showed. His once normally smooth and flat fur was now wild and rough. He even grew some muscles on his arms and legs. “Hey guys! I can see the next island!” Joy calls out to them all as he flew down onto the ships deck, Nami looking up from a map “That looks like the Sabaody Archipelago.” Nami says, rolling up the paper that told her a few things about the island. “I wonder what's gonna be on the new island?” Luffy says in excitement. After a time they finally docked and started looking around the island, bubbles floating above everyone high in the air as the trees went even higher, the crew met plenty of people. While everyone was looking around they heard there was going to be an auction soon at the big auction house. Joy, Luffy Robin, Chopper, and Nami all walked around being led by Hachan, Keimi, and Pappug, but what they found in the middle of the street was really bad. They saw two overly dressed people, a male and a female, standing over a bloodied body, the woman holding a gun towards the downed guy. “And this is what you get for disobeying.” She says while shooting the downed man, who Joy had heard him begging weakly like he was beaten really badly. “Who the hell…?” Joy growls. “Those are Celestial Dragons.” Hachan says. “Don't do anything and leave them alone. They are the most important nobles in the world.” “But he looked strong enough to fight them though…” Luffy points out. “If you hurt any Celestial Dragon, the Admirals themselves will hunt you down.” The starfish, Pappug, warns them. “I've met worse.” Joy growls. “They are three very powerful people with powerful devil fruit powers.” Robin warns. “Still met, and fought, worse.” Joy states, seeing the Celestial Dragons leave. “Let's just...get going.” Hachan says worriedly while the group continue on. The group continued towards a tree with a giant ‘13’ written on it, they met a few bounty hunters wanting to fight, which were easily disposed off, and after that Hachan proceeded to explain why there were twenty nine different trees and what the island had to fully offer before they finally made it to the bar Hachan had talked about. “Oh, hello Hachan.” A black haired woman said to the octopus. “Hello Shakky.” Hachan says happily while Joy and the crew entered the bar. “Everyone, this is Shakuyaku.” “Please, call me Shakky.” She says humbly. “So you must be the infamous Straw Hat pirates huh?” “You know about us?” Luffy asks, somehow thinking this was a shocking revelation. “Yeah, I've been keeping track of your crew, especially you Luffy. When I used to be a pirate old man Garp use to hunt me down sometimes.” She chuckled. “But your new, who might you be?” “Names Joy.” Joy nodded with a smile. “Nice to meet you.” She nodded. “Is Raleigh here Shakky?” Hachan asks curiously. “Still a big no on that.” She sighs out, cleaning out a mug. “Then we'll wait for him then.” Luffy says, thinking he's got this sorted out. “That wouldn't be good either. He's been gone for half a year roaming from bar to casino all across the island.” She shook her head. “Well looks like we've got to look around for the guy.” Joy says simply. “That wouldn't be a good idea either.” Shakky says. “See there are a lot of dangerous people here above Luffy’s current one.” “There are people with over a hundred million berries!?!” Chopper gasps in shock. “Yes, and to name a few you have the Surgeon of Death, Traffalgar Law, who's bounty is two hundred million, Eustass ‘Captain’ Kid, with a bounty of three hundred and fifteen million, the Magician Basil Hawkins, with a bounty of two hundred and forty nine million, and ‘the Roar of the Sea’ Scratchman Apoo with a one hundred and ninety eight million beri bounty. Just to name a few.” She explains. “Damn.” Joy says simply. “Quite the competition.” “But remember, everything past this point is where nothing but the best of the best can go.” She tells them. “No need to worry, but what I am worried about is Rayleigh.” Luffy says, causing Shakky to chuckle at that. “Oh the old man will be fine. No need to worry, besides he's a hundred times stronger than all the rookies here.” She says with a knowing grin. “Okay…” My clone muttered. “What to do today?” He wonders, having gone back home after a nice day at the park. “Wait...didn't Joy send people here?” My clone mutters worriedly, thinking about what they're probably doing at the moment. As he walked into the castle’s second living room, he saw a man sitting on one of the couches there, Skysplitter at his side, my clone could feel it, though, it was not different in appearance. The man looked up, hair white, wearing a black cloak with a blue design along the right arm. “Oh, hi. I’m Vergil, the… This,” He said, picking up Skysplitter. “This things wielder.” “That weapon is called Skysplitter.” My clone says. “It's nice to meet you Vergil, I presume my brother Joy brought you here?” He asks. “Your broth- Oh, Oh. Your Highness.” He said, getting up and bowing. “Please, no need to bow.” My clone says sheepishly. “But I'm not the king yet, I'm the heir...but it is rather important I have my court before I become king, understand?” My clone asks him, knowing Vergil was smart and could probably understand why. “Yes, um. So, shall I assist in finding the others that are here so far?” “Who else is here if I may ask?” My clone asks curiously. “And let's both look for them cause I know the layout of my house and...let's hope they aren't doing something stupid…” My clone says worriedly. Vergil nodded as he and I walked through the halls. In the dining room my clone spotted a mare I haven’t actually met before...Trixie. She was flipping the cards around and eating some cake. “Oh, hello Trixie.” My clone said. “I see Joy gave you Fair Game.” He says while pointing to the card. “Oh, yeah. It’s weird, but neat. I haven’t done card tricks in years, but these cards likely do more than simple tricks, huh?” “You’ll learn plenty.” My clone says. “Met Vergil yet? And...anyone else Joy might have brought here?” “I did meet his brother, and some emo chick, they were in the library.” “If you would Trixie, please make your way to the second living room. I believe the future king has some words he’d like to say.” Vergil said, Trixie shrugging as she got up and left. “Now to find the others that Joy sent here.” My clone says while leading Vergil to the library the two were probably in. “So, what do you think of my house?” “It’s large, reminds me of the house my brother an I grew up in. Whatever memories I do have, they’re all fuzzy and such.” “Sometimes things become fuzzy when you try to remember your childhood.” My clone says. “But...what's Your relationship with your brother? Friendly, hate each other, or just got back together?” “Tense...At first we got along good after we found each other, then we killed the demon who killed our mother and imprisoned our father to eternal torture, then when it was over we fought. I believe humanity on my world needed a firm hand to guide them, they don’t exactly have the best track record when given true freedoms. We fought, and he won, almost killed me if it wasn’t for Kat, a friend of ours. When I was getting away after he let me go, that is when your brother found me.” “Considering your half demon and angel I can kind of see why.” My clone says, having noticed the special energies swirling around Vergil and could tell it was demonic and angelic. “Nephilim, and yes. My brother and I are the last and only of our kind in centuries. To be honest I half expected me to lose. Dante was the fighter, stronger, and did all the work while I hid in the background. I have my own strengths, but Dante is...stronger. By far.” “Physical strength doesn't mean everything.” My clone says. “Sure he can overpower you, but could you tell me you couldn't beat him in a test of skill?” “Skills I had, Dante didn’t tap into his true powers til after I found him. I had years ahead of him, and he still beat me. In a test of intelligence it’s no problem, but strength and skill...Dante just has a way of overcoming the odds.” “I'm gonna need to test all of you on base stuff…” My clone mutters before stepping up to the library doors and opened them. “Hello?” “Huh?” Said a female voice, a girl, holding the Lexicon and a guy with short white hair, a sandwich in his mouth, looked over from the other side of bookshelves. They walked out. “Oh, hello. You must be Ben. I’m Kat, and this is Dante.” “Sup” He said, the sandwich still in his mouth as he raised up the Sharpshooters, which now had an angelic and demonic design to each. “Looks like you got Sharpshooters and you got Book of Retribution.” My clone says to the two. “But sorry to disturb your reading time but have you seen anyone else around here that Joy might have sent here?” “Think I saw a black and purple ninja, bald guy and Cyborg in the backyard...and there’s a sentence I never thought I’d say.” Kat said, shaking her head. “Is there a meeting?” “Yes, second Living Room.” Vergil confirmed, Kat and Dante walking passed us, Dante whacking his brother on the side of the head as he passed. “Gonna need to chill on the hate here Dante.” My clone says to Dante bluntly. “Yeah yeah.” He said as he left the room into the hall. “Can you blame him really?” Vergil asked. “He’s been alone for years, finds out the truth, that he has family...and I try and pull what I did. I convinced him we were fighting for humanity...when I had him fighting to make room for a better king.” “We all do stupid stuff when we want to do something right.” My clone says simply. “And to be perfectly honest, if you were saving humanity from something in power, than the obvious thing would be to put in a new person in charge so a power vacuum doesn't suddenly cause massive destruction.” My clone shrugs while heading off to the backyard. “Come on, we need to find the rest.” I say to Vergil. “But...you saw Joy right? The innocent little pup that looked like he should be out with friends rather than being my personal bodyguard right?” “Yes. He is young, and small, but there is great power within him.” “He...wanted me to kill him once…” My clone says sadly. “He was corrupted by Darkness...and just wanted me to end his pain...so while your family issues are understandable...mine are a lot harsher…” “To each their own I suppose.” Vergil said as we headed out to the backyard, finding Genos, Saitama, and Sonic all messing around in it. Saitama was laying in the grass, Sonic was hanging upside down in a tree, and Genos was staring at flowers. “Hey guys.” My clone calls out to the three. “What are you all doing?” I ask the three simply. “Nothin much.” Saitama said. “Enjoying the feeling of nature?” He asked the three. “I grew up in a town much like the one nearby.” Genos said. “Same.” Sonic said. “I was born and raised in the city. It’s not bad, but it gets boring.” Saitama said. “There is a meeting in the second living room.” Vergil announced Genos and Sonic nodding. “I shall be back Master.” Genos said. “Take your time.” Saitama waved, not getting up or even moving. “We’ll have a sparring match after the meeting okay?” My clone asks him, feeling like Saitama just wants a good fight. “Sure. Sounds fun.” The yellow clad hero said, getting a good idea of how strong I ask just from the simple conversation. “Alright.” My clone nodded before turning around and heading off to start the meeting. It was a quick walk, my clone and Vergil made our ways to the second living room, everyone was present and accounted for. Even Luxu was here. “Hello everyone.” My clone said to them all. “So, starting off simple...I'm gonna be your new King, as my brother Joy probably already told you.” My clone starts off. “How many people have actually heard of the King or Nothingness if I may ask?” My clone asked them, knowing Luxu knew possibly everything about this. “Just Vergil and I.” Kat said. “Here, the Lexicon can explain more.” She said, the book floating out of her hands and into the center of the room. It opened, and a holographic image of an armored man, his armor much like the No Heart enemy, but with a faint glow in the helmets visor. “From what I know, he has lived forever, yet is unknown when he was born. The only fact there is about him is that he and his thirteen council members reside within an alternate version of the void, a place not outside of everything, but rather between it all.” “Nothingness.” My clone says, putting out a hand and a ball of nothingness thorns formed. “I've heard from the old man once before...but that was a rare case.” My clone sighed out while dismissing the ball. “So, Joy told you about all your jobs?” My clone asks everyone but Luxu. ”Maybe I should have prepared a list of things to talk about…” I think to myself worriedly. When they all nodded my clone sighed out. “Okay...so how many of you actually know how to use said weapons?” “I’ve been using things like this my whole life, it shouldn’t take me long to learn these special ones.” Sonic said. “Fire is part of my combat abilities, weaponized flamethrowers and the ability to ignite the air around my palms was part of my new design. These chakrams shouldn’t take me too long to figure out.” Genos said. “Been using guns my whole life, shouldn’t be too hard to point and fire these.” Dante said. “Magic is a specialty of mine, and this book itself has notes on best how to use it. I can figure it out.” Kat said. “So that just leaves Trixie, Luxu, and myself as being sub-par in our new weapons.” Vergil said. “Alright then. Good thing I'm going to be seeing how well all of you are in combat with your specific weapons.” My clone says with a nod. “So, any specific questions from any of you? Any at all?” “I got one.” Dante said, walking up to me. “Aside from being this, heir or whatever, what rights do you have to be king? I doubt you’re related to this old king, so why are you the heir?” I pulled out Memory Stealer and took a deep breath. “Memories past.” My clone mutters, the room seeming to shift for everyone...before they heard a weak heartbeat, the room looking like one half was perfectly fine but the other...was completely blank and covered in black cracks. “This used to be my heart. A half dead husk after years of abandoning my emotions after my parents died. This, along with my powers over Nothing...made the king take notice.” My clone explains. “Then, after a test where...I saved my little brother Joy.” My clone says while the scene shifted and changed to what looked like a children's playground, filled with kids playing happily. “My heart became whole, and all my emotions finally came back to enjoy life again.” He says, what looked like a human version of Joy running past me with a few other kids playing tag. “This moment made the king know I was right to be the heir.” My clone says while the scene shifted again to the pitch black gate with all thirteen weapons over it and a heart in the middle. “A True King needs a Heart to rule.” He states, the group seeing what looked like a pure white figure standing off to the side as if he was watching his journey. “Good enough for you Dante?” My clone asks, Luxu being able to tell the figure was the King as the scene faded back to them being in the living room, disbanding Memory Stealer. “For now. Just don’t go mad with power, I already killed a demon king, a king of nothingness...You’ll be going down with me. So, what’s the plan for now?” “My plan right now?” My clone asks. “That depends, are we talking about right now plans for future plans?” “Right now, I mean, there’s a war going to happen, just thirteen people and a to-be king can’t really fight and expect to survive it.” “I...don't entirely know if it's true or not, but when I can technically open the gates of purgatory and have them all fight with us at a moment's notice or something I think it's gonna be fine.” My clone says simply. “Plus, three friends of mine are out and about looking for others like them...and hopefully have them join us.” My clone says. “But one thing I have planned is to try and help train you all to become a lot stronger than you already are...with help from Luxu here.” “A secondary weapon for us all also has to be a Keyblade. This up and coming war will be like the last, but also different. It will be fought with them, yet new advancements I have seen will change the way this new war will be fought.” Luxu lifted up a hand, in it between his index finger and thumb was a bullet. “For example, this bullet is infuzed with darkness, strong enough to force a Keyblade to disband when hit. Core made a lot of new and...terrifying technologies, but I have a feeling Spoiled has twice the...imagination, so her part in this fight will be bad.” “And when we actually step foot into the castle a whole new world of tech can and will be developed and made better.” My clone says. “But let me ask...what's the worst calamity any of you have seen?” “Just before Joy found us,” Vergil started. “Our world was being puppeteered by a demon king named Mundus. He drew power from a hell gate, which while it was open, he was immortal. We closed it, fought him… The entire city was leveled.” “I found some survivors. Worlds going nuts cause not earth and Purgatory fell into each other so now demons can affect humans more than just mentaily or souls wise.” Dante added. “On my world, city to global wide catastrophes happen several times a year or month.” Genos said. “Most recent was an alien invasion, before than some fish man invasion, and before than it was a giant meteor.” Sonic added. “All of which master Saitama prevented, or at least, lessened.” “The manhattan incident…” Trixie said. “...The Keyblade war.” Luxu said. Everyone turned to look at him. “Imagine how bad hell must be...and immagine wanting to be there rather than in that war...this second one...will make the first one look like child's play.” “Correct.” My clone says. “This war will rip apart time and space on a grander scale. So all of you must be prepared to fight in this bloody war…” “I have a question.” Trixie said. “Yes Trixie?” My clone asked. “Are we all going to have to wear cloaks like yours?” She asked. “Probably, but I'd rather get Rarity and Coco’s professional opinion on that cause...well there better and that kind of stuff than me.” My clone explains simply. “Anything else?” My clone asks curiously. There was silence. “I guess that wraps up this meeting. Perhaps a weekly meeting sessions would be best to keep us all on topic.” Vergil suggested. “Yes.” My clone nodded. “But something I want to do is test all of your abilities and strengths.” My clone says. “And there is a good sparring area.” My clone says honestly. “Follow me, might as well start with training cause we have...not that much time…” My clone sighs out, heading off to the training area. ”This isn’t going to go well, this war...How bad will it be?” I think to myself worriedly, scared of what's gonna happen soon. ”Should...should I let my family join this fight? Wait why am I even contemplating that? They shouldn't have to be apart of this!” I think to myself, not wanting the ones I love to be in this massacre. To be continued... Author's Note Hey guys, so yes Joy is in One Piece world and I will try to stick to the actual source but it'll sadly be more...generalized And things will be missed out cause I'm not perfect...it's gonna be a long story Nobody's inner discovery, Joy's TalkI was running. My breath was heavy as I ran through the battlefield. The war had begun and everything fell into chaos. I passed John, fighting off a Darkside, the Foretellers, fighting off Daybreak soldiers, and as I looked up atop a cliffside I saw Zeke, standing above all this, the X-blade in hand and Kingdom Hearts in the sky behind him, hearts floating up to it in the sky almost like stars. “God damn it…” I growl. “Why is this fucking happening? And why aren't you doing anything to try and stop this!?!” I shout at Zeke, hating how he's just standing there and staring at everyone killing each other for no reason. I saw him walk away as I got on my glider and up to the cliff. When I got off my eyes widened. Zeke sat on a throne, around him were the pale corpses of his family, and next to him was his Nobody, Drezke, and his Psychopath Light half. Zeke sat on that throne like he owned the world. I clenched my fists and growled. “Zeke….what the fuck is wrong with you!?! Your family lays dead, and your just sitting there like you rule the fucking world!?! Where do you get off on thinking you rule when your the cause of this fucking war!?!” I bark, drawing Reunion and the other weapons I've mastered and ready to beat the shit out of him. He raised a hand, snapping his fingers as my own shadow rose up from the ground. Then, his Psychopath light half snapped it’s fingers, his family’s corpses all rising up, blades formed from their own blood forming in their hands. I growled, Nothingness swirling around me in my anger. “So...you really think you can do this without anyone fighting back?” I ask, shifting to Master Form. “Well...I'm not gonna just stand around and let you pull this shit!” I bark while grabbing Skysplitter and bolting forward, knocking my shadow away in my anger and rushing after Zeke. He grabbed Skysplitter with one hand, looking me dead in the eyes as he broke it’s blade off, and rammed it through my chest. I coughed as it was rammed through my chest, before Foudre was sparking with electricity. “Arc Flash!” I shout, Skysplitter vanishing as a massive arc bolt shot at Zeke, hoping to hurt the fucker. When the lightning faded he sat there unaffected, his eyes flashed yellow as the sky darkened. I looked up, seeing Kingdom Hearts blue tone fade, and turn black. When I looked back at Zeke, his skin was gold, and his hair was blue, and his eyes. Heartless yellow. “From darkness, the first heart was born, and to it, all hearts return. Time to end this Cycle.” He said, reaching into my chest and pulling out my own heart. “Time to end our father.” He said, crushing it in his hand. My heart turning to sparks of light as it faded away. I stared as my heart faded away, my emotions going haywire as the scent of blood, the sound of death, and just this whole thing was going down hill so fast. “So…” I start, my left eye turning back to an Insanity again, and I could just feel it. “This...is your decision?” I ask, my voice monotone as I grabbed Zeke by the neck. “You made a grAvE mIstAKE!!” I tell him. Then, his Psychopath light grabbed my forehead. ”Worthless mutt.” He said, squeezing as my head cracked, and everything went black. “Gah!” I bark, bolting up in bed and panting heavily. “Damn…” I mutter, covering my left eye in fear of what I could become. “Another…?” I mutter worriedly. ”I'm gonna have to ask Cript about...that...I don't want to become a monster…” I think to myself in fear. I quietly got out of bed and got dressed, ready for the day but hating everything else. “Well...time to start the day…” I mutter while walking out, my cloak hung over my shoulder as I walked towards the kitchen to get something to eat. I entered the kitchen and got myself some cereal, thinking about my nightmare and how I wish it wouldn't happen. “Can't...things go back to being simple?” I mutter, wishing this damned war wasn't gonna happen. “Wonder if we're close to where the book is?” I wonder, eating my cereal and thinking about what might happen to get said book. After finishing breakfast I went out to the deck of the Zeppelin, hoping some fresh air will help clear my head. I took a deep breath, feeling a bit shaky from that nightmare. “Greetings.” I looked to my side, Bara in control walked up, and leaned against the rails, looking at the landscape. “You're up early.” “Nightmares…” I sigh out. “This...damned war is bugging the hell out of me...and this was the second nightmare…” I shook my head. “But you should know about the nightmares of the war, I saw you nearly kill Discord and Celestia and Luna’s parents.” I frown. “Yeah. It was a darkness infused Mega Flare. Worked as I expected. Still, that's not the event that haunts me.” Bara said, gaining my attention. “And what does haunt you? Lose someone dear to you? Lost so much information?” I ask him simply. “My daughter…” Bara said, trailing off. “Well, she wasn't actually my daughter. She was a local orphan, she'd just break into my lab and try and read my notes. After the tenth time I just accepted the little spitfire wasn't leaving anytime soon.” “Faust and her husband lost their son as well.” I tell him. “I saw it...and I held his Reunion and Wayfinder...are you sure this training will help my wives live through this war?” I ask, my voice sounding like I was wishing this event won't happen at all. “It's the attacks and methods I did that got me through it. But the hard part is still to come.” “Actually putting them through some simulation of it?” I ask, my voice dripping with sadness at the thought. “Not exactly. You saw me train Coco in her speed and agility, defence will be next. It will be brutal.” “What do you know about Psychopaths?” I ask him gently, changing the subject to...something important. “Insanities specifically…” “Let's see...damn that was a while ago… Insanities are a failed Psychopath host. They are compatible but for one reason or another they don't connect to the hive mind properly, the failing to connect turns then into broken, insane, hence the name, abominations really. They are way weaker than a Psychopath, but way more unpredictable. They can still end universes, but they are often just either put on leashes or put down by Psychopaths. They are like cancer to Psychopaths, in their mind, it's best to put it down if it isn't worth anything to them.” I put a hand over my left eye. “And...is it possible for an Insanity to suddenly become a Psychopath somehow?” I ask, hating how I'm apart of this damned thing. “Yes. Though, it can only happen if they are infused with some Psychopath blood, the connection will retry. If it works, they become a Psychopath, if not, they die.” “Goody…” I mutter bitterly. “You probably know why I'm asking this huh?” I ask him, knowing how smart Bara is. “Yup. Question is, how are you not either dead or murdering anything with a heartbeat?” “My family, my friends...and my Humanity.” I say, looking over and my left eye showed as an Insanity. “I can tell when my left eye looks like that...there are no whispers or anything like that...but I can still feel it...and I'm scared...if I take a single misstep...everything I hold dear to me will just…” I trail off, not wanting to finish the thought. “Well, everyone has their demons. Wanna know how I deal with mine?” “Looking in a mirror and saying ‘I am what I am’?” I ask him, blinking and my left eye went back to normal. “Sex, research, and about a gallon of vodka a day.” They said, tossing me a bottle. “I got immune to it in my old body, so it's nice to feel drunk again in this one.” I grabbed the bottle. “I think I'm gonna need something stronger but thanks.” I nod while opening the bottle and taking a swig of some of it. “Well...right now we're getting closer to this book the Zebra king wants found.” “Seems so. So, want some endurance training?” They asked, downing half the bottle on one go. “Your in a married woman's body dude, come on.” I joke with a small smile. “Heh, not like that. It's old union methods.” They said, downing the other half of the bottle and throwing it over the Zeppelin edge. “Might help you out later on.” “Okay then. So, what is this endurance training?” I ask curiously. “Simple. It's a barrage or spells cast by me, and you have to endure them as long as possible unarmed. I start off with weak spells and as you begin to stand them better, I go a rank up.” “Sure.” I nod. “But just to warn you...I may be highly resistant to magic.” I say, not really knowing my magic resist here. “Well, you are a wolf man, so ice magic won't do much likely, so we will start off with fire.” Bara said, Twilight’s Keyblade appearing in their hand and pointed at me. “Fire!” The cast, the fire ball hit me. Ouch! “Okay.” I say, having suffered worse pains than this. “Continue.” I say while bracing for it now. “Fire!” They cast, the spells coming without any seeming end. My arms were losing their fur, my sleeves gone long ago. “Well….good thing I'm not wearing my cloak...Rarity would be pissed…” I mutter, enduring the pain of the fire. “I’m going a rank up.” Bara warned. “Fira!” Bara cast, a larger ball of fire shot towards me. The impact was worse, but bearable. “Again.” I tell him bluntly. “I can take anything you can throw at me.” I say, knowing this won't amount to the pain I felt in my nightmares. “You sure?” Bara asked. “When you’ve been forced to see your family die in brutal ways and you not being able to do anything about it, I think this is child's play.” I tell him. “I told them all...I would give my life for them...and always be there to protect them…” “Alright. This is my strongest, normal spell.” She said, floating as five large balls of fire appeared around them. “Tracing Balloon Flare!” They spun and all the oversized mega flares came at me. The heat scorched me, I felt all my fur burn off and my clothes too. The heat was insane. My body wanted to fall over, but I kept myself standing. I growled, enduring the pain that was thrown at me. “This pain...if it's something everyone I care about doesn't have to endure…” I say, gritting my teeth from the pain as I still stood. “Impressive.” Bara said, walking up to me. “Even my union leader would be on a knee after that.” “I'll deal with any pain as long as my family is safe.” I say. “So, that's it?” I ask, grabbing a potion and hoping it will bring my fur back so I don't have to wait for it to grow. “Still. So… you're like what? Seven inches?” Bara asked pointing down... my clothes were burned off... I roll my eyes and grab my unburned cloak and put it on, zipping it up to cover myself. “Good thing we packed clothes.” I mutter. “And...more like nine…normally.” I say, kind of embarrassed by this but not really caring. “Wow. No wonder you landed all those mares.” Bara chuckled. “It was mostly due to me being the White Knight of Equis and all.” I shrug. “Being a world wide hero does help you get a girlfriend sometimes. But that's not important.” I shook my head. “But I better get some new clothes on before heading down into the forest looking for the book.” “Fine. But before you go, can you do something for me?” “What is it?” I ask curiously. Bara grabbed me by my cloaks collar, and...kissed me… my brain didn't register what happened until it was over….there were tears in Bara’s eyes? “Heh, ignore those, that's just Twilight throwing a hissy fit.” Bara said, wiping them off. “Still can't accept facts. Zeke's gone.” “No Zeke's back...he just calls himself Kexez now...and is a total asshole for some reason.” I frown. Bara chuckled. “You mean his Nobody?” I nodded. “Heh. He is a Balanced being, his heart, light and darkness, and his body, mind, soul. Everything about his existence is in perfect balance. And now, his dark half is running wild, and his body, like his dark half, can't be guided by his heart. It's acting on all it knows. A lifetime of violence, and the blood that makes his eyes red flowing through him again.” “But what about the parts for his friends and family?” I ask. “You can't just forget important things like that.” “Only something with a heart can love. Can care. When Kexez escaped Purgatory, triggering this second Keyblade war, an...after image of his heart was within him, but it is rapidly fading. Soon, he can look his infants in the eyes and end them, and feel nothing. There's two ways to deal with him before that happens, cause remember Ben, he has the blood in him again, and all they really need is his body.” “I know…” I sigh out bitterly. “Lets...just hope we’re not too late.” I shook my head while looking over, seeing our designation coming up. “Right, I'd better get dressed before heading down there. Wonder what this book has in it that's so special?” I wonder before chugging a potion and feeling better, my fur surprisingly growing back healthily somehow. “Well, we are approaching the location of that book, go get dressed stud.” “Get your own body first Bara.” I frown before heading off back to my room to get changed. After I got dressed in some new clothes we finally got to our first destination in Zebrica. The rumored location of the book. It was a mountainous valley, and the only trail lead into a cave the Zeppelin parked, er, stopped and floated over. “Many stories are told about the cave that devours souls.” Zecora said, shivering at the cave below us. “Heartless are probably down there.” I say simply. “But the cave won't steal any of your souls, I'm here and all of you have gotten stronger.” I explain, ready to drop down and look for the book. I jumped down, and saw next to me Luna land as I did. “You are not going in there alone, and if you say no, Sweetie Belle told me about that special collar that turned Joy into a zombie, so you've been warned.” Luna said with a wink. I rolled my eyes. “You wish you could put a collar on me.” I say simply. “The collar is for me, the hormones that drive canines mad with lust that it releases are for you~” She cooed, walking into the cave. “All of you are insatiable…” I shook my head while walking into the cave as well. “But your gonna follow me anyways so what else can I do?” When we entered the cave my canine sense went wild, a foul unnatural stench filled the air, along with a rotten putrid aroma, like a long dead creature. “If my memory serves, Starswirl investigated this cave himself, and barely escaped it's legendary beast.” Luna said, covering her nose to try and keep the stench at bay. I zipped up my cloak all the way so I could breathe properly without smelling death. “Well...it's either something that just smells like crap, or it's an undead...what did Starswirl say about this legendary beast?” “He said when he entered a section of the cave where corpses that looked as if all the life had been drained from them, his lantern went out, and something slashed him. He cast a single spell at is as he ran out, and he said it was a beast made of evil and corpses, with a snake length tongue that had a tooth at it's tip. When he showed me the scar it gave him...he was lucky, any closer and he would have lost his arm.” “Hmm…” I hum, summoning Reunion and keeping it at the ready. “Now while I would say this is something trying to become Legion I doubt it…” I say worriedly. “Quite an interesting monster…” “If it is a heartless, it's unlike any he recorded in his travels.” She said, the darkness of the cave peaking. Tunk! “Owe!” Luna yelped. “I think I stubbed my toe on a rock.” Luna said, feeling around for it. “Where are, got ya you...you...lantern?” She questioned, using her magic to ignite the candle on it. She then looked at it, rubbing the dirt off of a side of it. “It...it was Starswirl’s...his name is on it…” We looked forward, and before us was a large opening, a pile of mummified corpses filling it to what had to be a ten feet high ceiling. “By the stars…” Luna said wide eyed. I gripped Reunion hard as light swirled around it. “Photon!” I shout, lifting my keyblade up as a ball of pure light encircled a part of the mound of corpses. “May the light give your bodies rest.” I say before it crushed down, destroying the corpses so they wouldn't be used by this undead ever again. “You need to get out of here Luna, now.” I growl, looking around for where the monster could be. “How did Jenny put it...like hell I am.” Luna deadpanned. There was then a monstrous growl from where the light didn't reach. Slowly, walking into view came a large, feral beast that was a mass of darkness, skeletons adorned it's backside, arms, legs, rib cages. It's face was two skulls, their mouths open to be it's eyes as it's jaw hung loosely while a long scalded tongue slithered out, a dagger like bone at it's tip. My assistant flashed, it's hp bar showing as well as its name. Seven hp bars, name...The Fallen. “The Fallen…” I mutter, summoning Frozen Pride and standing in front of Luna, prepared to fight this thing. “Gonna be an interesting fight.” I growl, before rushing forward and slashing at the undead. Before my hit can land it jumped back, bouncing off the wall behind it and ramming me before it's toungue tooth scratched my face. Luna managed to get it with a Zentenzukan, it jumping off me and chasing her. “Ben, I saw it, on its belly! It's a Heartless, it has the symbol!” She yelled. I saw the Heartless chase Luna, my nightmares of her being attacked by a monster making me...kind of snap to be honest. “Don't you fucking dare hurt my Luna!” I roar, bolting and stabbing the thing in the side in the blink of an eye. “Holy Lance!” I shout, five lances of light stabbing into the Heartless as well. It roared in pain. When the attack hit it, the wound I made it it shined bright, like a… “Ben...that thing… it has a Keyhole in it!” Luna yelled, the beast’s eyes widening, shaking and tossing me aside as it ran towards the caves deepest pits. “A...Keyhole?” I mutter. “How in the hell? Ugh, not important at the moment, we need to find it and either kill it or figure out how to get the keyhole out of it.” “Ben...what if the Keyhole in it...is Equestria's?” Luna asked. “I know the heartless can feed off of them...but to swallow one?” “It's probably why it's strong and looks like that…” I say, keeping my face away from Luna as the sudden rush of anger and fear for Luna’s safety turned my left eye again. “But we need to find it, and get the keyhole out of it...and hey maybe we can also find the book as well.” “That is why we are here.” Luna nodded, the both of us chasing the thing down the cave. Finally, we came across a torchlit room. The heartless wasn't around, but there was a stone coffin in the center, an emblem with a hood with wings and a horn on it. “That's...the old symbol of the alicorns. Mother and father showed it to me a long time ago…” Luna said, walking up to the coffin. “Careful.” I say, looking around the room. “Something feels off here.” Luna looked at the coffin, and with some effort, pushed the lid off. The top fell on the ground, and Luna’s eyes went wide. “Well... it's an alicorn…” I walked up to it, the long dead alicorn was in Keyblade armor, in one hand was the book, and the other, a Keychain. “Well...this is what we came here for...sorry.” I say while gently taking the book and keychain. “What... something doesn't add up. A heartless that swallowed a Keyhole, and an alicorn tomb in Zebra lands… something isn't right at all.” “I don't know...but maybe this book has some answers.” I say while gently opening the book to see if it had anything important here. I opened the book, the language it was written in was...unknown to me, but thankfully my Assistant was translating it to English before my very eyes. The Book of Nothingness. Vol. XVIX: Spells and Enchanting. I blinked at reading that. “Huh…” I say while flipping the page, wondering what the book had to say about Nothingness. “Well...they were right saying this had something important in it.” Spells, a basic introduction. To those with basic knowledge of Nothingness and it's capabilities, Twilight Thorns (the grey, black and white vines, not the Sentinels) are the most basic way Nothingness can enter the realms of light and darkness. By themselves they harm anything with a heart, but this is just their basic form and use. If attuned properly, they can be used to infuse Nothingness into spells, such as fire, magnet, thunder, and blizzard. “Interesting.” I mutter while closing the book and putting it in my pocket, before changing Reunion out for the new keychain to see what it was. My eyes widened. Rather than a blade, it was a bow. The grip was the center and the bows body was like stained glass, the string was a faint light. “Well that's new.” Luna deadpanned. I checked my Assistant, knowing it could tell me things I had in my inventory so it could probably tell me the new bow I had equipped. “It works like a game, so it should tell me what I have equipped…” I mutter to myself, hoping to find out something about this bow. Name: Guardian of Hope. Att: 8 Def: 3 Mag: 12 Special ability: Monochrome. Casts Stop spell on targets (30%) This Key’blade’ was one of the rare Key-armaments. Forged not long after the X-blade, it was a prototype in weapons against the darkness. While all it's abilities are the same as a Keyblade, it's design was scrapped for the Keyblades we know today. “Huh...that's interesting.” I say while holding the bow properly. “A Key-Armament, I can kind of see why they stuck with the original Keyblade idea.” I say honestly. “But it does look cool though.” I point out before changing back to Reunion. “Mind if I have it?” Luna asked. “I was quite fond or archery years ago.” “Sure.” I nodded while handing Guardian of Hope’s keychain to Luna. “Its special ability is that it has a thirty percent chance of casting stop on anything this thing hits.” I explain. “Cool.” Luna said, equipping it immediately. There was a growl from behind us. We looked and saw the Fallen enter, it looked...pissed we were here. Its tongue slid back into its mouth, and then it's throat opened wide, a bright light shining as a beam shot at us. We dodged, and the beam hit the wall. We looked, it was a clean cut through easy a mile of dense rock, daylight shining from the other side of the new hole. “Well…” I start. “Thats...a thing.” I say before looking at the Fallen. “Are you this Alicorns guardian?” I ask it, knowing it was smart enough to have emotions and it seemed rather upset we were here for some reason or another. “Or are you just a random Heartless here?” I ask the Fallen, ready to fight it if need be. It snarled, walking slowly towards us. Luna drew the bow’s string back, an arrow of light appearing once it was all the way back. “Thundaga!” She cast, the arrow changing to pure electricity as she fired, the arrow striking the Fallen as it screamed from the attack. It shook it off, and continued it’s slow walk. I looked at the beast. “Your not a normal heartless…” I mutter, taking a step towards the coffin where the Alicorn was to test something. I summoned a ball of Twilight Thorns and held it above the coffin, wondering if it would react to me holding something above the Alicorns dead body. It paused, standing deathly still. “Your smart for a heartless, and you also have the light of a Keyhole inside of you.” I say, staring at the skeletal heartless. “Can you understand us?” I ask the Heartless. “Bark once for yes, bark twice for no.” It growled. Eyes narrowed. ”The book and Guardian are yours to take, leave him and me alone.” It said, speaking...in my head… Telepathy? “We will.” I nod. “But...I do have some questions if it's alright to ask.” I say to the Heartless. “I've never seen or heard of a heartless like you, or the fact you have such a powerful light inside of you...what or who are you?” ”This world is unique, tied to the light in such a way, it’s strong in both the land and its inhabitants. So much so, the Keyhole of this world is not within a location, but in fact, in the heart of a special inhabitant, reborn immediately upon the old ones death.” “So that's why you have such a light.” I say, honestly surprised about that. “I...suppose the Alicorn held the Keyhole before you?” I ask it, finding this very interesting. ”No, he was my guardian, stayed here when the Keyblade war broke out, and died, for only an alicorn can be my guardian. To keep the Keyhole within my heart safe, I fell into the darkness, the light keeping my mind sane, but the darkness still has its ways of turning me beastial.” “Do you want to be stuck down here for an eternity? Or...do you want to come with us and we can help you regain yourself, or at least stem the tide of darkness inside you?” I ask the Heartless carefully, wanting to help it. ”For my true self to be achieved, an alicorns oath of service I must attain.” “Luna…” I start. “Mind if I ask you to...swear an oath of service to protect Equis’s Keyhole?” I ask her, motioning to the Heartless. “Wait...if she does this...does she have to stay here?” I ask the Fallen worriedly. ”Wherever I go, she must follow. Failure to be within my sight, she will pay the price of life.” “Oh...uh…” I trail off, scared of losing Luna. “I don't want to lose Luna…” I say, my nightmares coming up and seeing Luna die again. “Oh god…” I mutter, shaking as I try to stave off my growing panic. “Uh...Luna...did Fallen also talk to you?” I ask, trying to distract myself from my worry and fear. “Yes… I accepted.” “What?!” I yelled, Luna’s right hand glowing bright as a Keyhole tattoo appeared on it, the Fallen began glowing bright, it’s shape fading as now, asleep on the ground, laid a...kid? A Zebra child, at least seven. They were adorned with white robes and a crown that looked like that of a Keyhole. “Uh...what?” I ask, raising an eyebrow and seeing the child. “I...suppose that's a thing…” I say while walking over to the kid and kneeling down and gently picking up the sleeping child. “Okay...back to the Zeppelin?” I whisper to Luna. “Ubani, ungubani?” The child spoke sleepily. “Oh.” I mutter, wondering if the little kid was waking up. “Uh...does Zebrica have its own separate language?” I ask Luna quietly. “Yes, while many now speak in Equis, there are those who still speak the old language and it only, while most others speak both Zalu, the old Zebra language, and Equis.” “Oh dear…” I say worriedly. “Well...good to know cause I have no idea what this little kid said.” I say, not sure if the zebra was a boy or a girl. “I suppose you know how to speak Zalu?” I ask, hoping to learn how to speak other languages. “No, but Celestia or Zecora must.” Luna said. “Even back when, Celestia was the one to handle foreign parties.” “Makes sense.” I nodded, carrying the Zebra child carefully like a father would. “Alright, let's get back. The others are gonna need some explanation on why we suddenly brought this little kid with us out of a tomb.” I say simply, not sure if I should go first or if I should go second because I don't want Luna hurt, but just shook my head and headed out so we could get out of here. It was a silent walk back to the Zeppelin, when we got up to it, Celestia and Zecora took the child, the three talking in Zalu while I spoke with Luna. “So...what does it feel like to have the oath?” I ask Luna curiously. “Strange… Ever since becoming me again and being freed from Nightmare Moon, I always had this...darkness lingering, but now it feels far away. “ She lifted up her hand, looking at the tattoo on it. “This mark… just looking at it I feel warmth.” “You are the guardian of Equis’s Keyhole, so it would make sense that you feel better.” I say simply. “And...as long as you're okay…” I trail off, putting a hand over my left eye. “That’s...that’s all I can ask for…” “I’ll be fine Ben.” Luna said, elbowing me. “Okay.” I nod. “Well...we got the book...so off to the capital.” I say, hoping the royal family won't be pissed about Zecora. “As you can clearly see this place is big enough to train.” My clone says to all the council members, showing them the training room. The room they were all in look like it could fit a very large city in it and then some, sections were made for mountains, plains, deserts, forests, and one area looked like a standard training area but big enough to fit them all. “And this place is where all of you will be training with your new weapons and abilities.” My clone explains to them all. “Who wants to start training first?” “I guess me.” Trixie said, walking up. “So...how do they work?” She asked, the cards appearing for her. My clone summoned Fair Game. “So, Fair Game…how good are you at math?” I ask curiously. “Cause math was the very first thing I had to learn when dealing with these things.” “I was a B average.” Trixie admitted. My clone took a deep breath. “Okay...I'm gonna have to fix that drastically.” My clone says, trying to think of how to do this. “The cards in your control are more of a gambler type of weapon.” My clone says while cards start to float over my head and Trixie could somehow tell that she had to pick the ‘O’ card as it cycled through four ‘X’ cards at a reasonable pace for her. “The game hour seeing right now is simple, just pick a card and say ‘stop’, if it's on the O and your good, pick the X and your punished.” My clone explains. “Oh...Hmm…” Trixie thought, calling stop four times, earning all O’s. “Huh, I was right.” “Good first try.” My clone nodded, before grabbing a card and making it the size of a coffee table. “But games isn't the only thing it can do, you can resize cards to be as big or as small as you can think of, and it can also cause explosions.” I say while a card off to the side had an explosion sigil on it. “Or casts slow on opponents.” My clone says, a slow looking clock sigil on another card. “But above all, is how good are you at card games and tricks.” My clone says, probably should have told her about that part first so she knew what to immediately do. “How good are you at card tricks and games?” “Actually…” Trixie thought, looking at her own cards before throwing them, the cards all falling in place as she jumped back, one opening up and letting her in. I turned around, seeing her appear out of a card that landed behind me. “Yeah, it’s almost the same.” Trixie said, the cards all shrinking back to normal as they returned to her. “Got a good feeling on what your cards can possibly do?” My clone asks curiously. “I think. It’s like when I was little. My parents worked in a casino in Las Pegasus, my dad worked the tables and my mom was a performer. When I was younger I helped my mom pull off illusion acts, something like this we did, but with fake mirrors and such. The mirrors has fake glass, and when we fell through we land on a mattress, then move quickly to another mirror and use a trampoline to jump back up. It was almost just like that what I just did.” “Good.” My clone nodded. “Think of it kind of like that, a mixture of a gambler and a magician.” “Oh then I so got this, dad taught me all the ways people counted cards and such, to keep an eye out for cheaters so I could help out while moms shows were setting up for other acts.” “Basically, but now add in what you can do with a gambler that can count cards and can predict situations three steps ahead of yourself. You are the dealer and the player, remember that.” My clone says with a smile. “Think you got the general idea down?” “Yeah. I got it, just have to practice and come up with some of my own works.” “Good.” Clone me nodded. “Okay, who's next?” My clone asks, glad that Trixie got the general idea. “Who else wants a general rundown on what their weapon does?” My clone asks, looking at Vergil, Dante, Kat, Genos and Sonic. “If my analysis of what Trixie has is clear, we all seem to have the base experience in order to further develop with these weapons individually.” Genos said. “Either through the element, the base weapon, or what it is capable of doing.” My clone says while Eternal Flames appeared around in my hands. “Your weapons element is fire, while Fair Game is Time.” Clone me says. “How good are you with fire?” My clone asks Genos Genos held up a hand, in his palm was a circle to which a flame started burning from. “It’s my primary weapon. My system is designed to ignite the air for fuel and burn it to any degree I wish, allowing me to create great destruction or minimal.” My clone nodded. “Natural affinity for it good...but what about combat experience? How strong are you?” Genos turned around, his arm gaining static at the flame grew. Finally, he fired, it was like being next to a sun with the heat, and when it faded, the earth before us was scorched for miles. “I did a scan, and there was no life other than plant based for the ten miles my attack reached.” “How many times have you gotten your ass kicked?” My clone asks curiously. “Since studying under my master, my body has been nearly destroyed at least three separate times. Before than damage was minimal, and after average damage was at least sixty four percent of my body.” My clone nodded. “Right then, we're gonna have to fix that a lot. If your in my council wielding those chakrams, you need to be a one man army, not a pansy that always gets half his body ripped in half on average.” My clone frowns. “But do you know how to wield Chakrams?” I ask Genos curiously. “My database contains combat information for hundreds of weapons, these included. While my worlds counterparts are far more simple, it’s nothing I can’t adapt to.” “Good.” My clone nods. “Train and get stronger, even if your mostly machine you still have a lot of room to grow.” “Yes sir.” He said with a bow. Seeing everyone seemed to get the idea, I headed off, feeling like they can continue from there. I entered the living room, seeing Den reading a book while Cript slept on her lap. My clone could only smile at seeing that. “Hi.” My clone whispered to Den, not wanting to wake Cript up from his comfy spot. “Hi Ben.” Den said, putting her book down. “So, how is your day going?” “Fine. Just let some people know how to start their training.” My clone says honestly. “But...I'm also feeling like crap…” He sighed out bitterly. “Mostly because of...nightmares and...something worse…” “Insanity?” She asked, my eyes widening as I looked at her. “I can smell it Ben, so no use denying it.” My clone sighed out and covered it's left eye. “Yeah...I'm an Insanity...and you can obviously tell I'm scared of it…” “That’s the curse, dealing with it like Cript does.” She said, looking at him and began petting his head. “An Insanity link, even broken, lingers forever, and implants fear and illusions to break you so it can take over. The Psychopaths do worse. For Cript, they make him see death, murder of the worst and brutalist kind by his hands. Day or night, happy, and even more so when sad. They are images and visions meant to break you...and remind you that they still crave you.” “And it doesn't help that I'm having nightmares about this damned war coming up…” My clone says sadly. “God...this is a massive pain…” My clone mumbles. “How can I handle this new nightmare?” “What was it about?” Den asked. “The second Keyblade war…” My clone says bitterly. “My family fighting in it...and everyone dying...and how Zeke is the cause of it all as he sits on a throne like he owns all the people's corpses.” My clone growls, anger welling up as I remembered the last nightmare. “How he seemed so perfectly fine having his dead family become Psychopath puppets, how he ripped my heart out and shattered it…” My clone growled, my left eye shifting to an Insanity. “How...scared I was when I lost it...how if the dream didn't end...I would have just slaughtered so many…” My clone shook, tears brimming in the corners of his eyes. “Hmm…” Den hummed, still petting Cript’s head. “Tell me, do you know why Cript sleeps?” “Either one of two reasons...one because even the strongest of us need sleep...or he goes inside his head to make sure some things are kept in check.” My clone guessed. “Close. Cript sleeps to remember, to re-live certain events from his past.” “Both the good and the bad?” My clone asked curiously. “Bad only. His harshest past reminds him why he fights.” “Ah…” My clone mutters. “I...suppose that makes sense.” “Do you want to see it?” Den asked. “I know it’s rather strange to ask, but it might help you understand how he pushes on.” “Please.” My clone says. “I...I want to know...so I don't hurt my family…” “Alright. This will be...hard on you, and this is what Cript went through himself. You’ve been warned.” Den said, placing a finger to my head as I began to feel...sleepy. I opened my eyes, but I didn’t feel...myself. My body was hanging, heavy, cold chains kept my legs and arms held back. They were tight, firm, and painful. The room was dark, the only light coming from a hole in the roof some feet away. The floor was wet, blood stained and old. “Well...this...is something.” I said, though, it seemed I had no control over anything. There were footsteps, heavy boots from the sound of it. My body, or rather, Cript, looked up, seeing a man no older than I was. His hair was cut short, and he wore black pants, and a leather jacket and boots. “Andy.” Cript said. “Cript. Ready for round...hmm…” This Andy guy thought before smirking. “How long has it been?” “At least six months.” He said. ”Six months of being in a torture room?” I mutter to myself, knowing I'm just a passenger here but still. ”This...is gonna hurt…” I mutter to myself worriedly. “That sounds about right.” He chuckled. “I admit, you really are a lot tougher than when we first left for our year long round the world journey.” He said, a sword appearing in his hand as it glowed red hot. “Let’s start with the basics.” He then stabbed it into Cript, the burning alone was agony. Cript, and even I was screaming. I felt that! He then sliced it down Cript’s body, leaving a cauterized gash as the blade sliced it’s way out. I then felt Cript’s body begin to heal, painfully stitching itself back together. “Come on now Cript, you know how to make this end. How much longer?” “Agh! Ahh…” Cript coughed out. “S...Screw you.” ”Okay...that hurt...but nothing I haven't felt before.” I tell myself, thinking Bara’s fire attacks were worse. ”But...this must be when they were...trying to turn him into a Psychopath…” “Awh, don’t be like that!” Andy shouted the last word, kicking Cript in the head, a tooth flying out, but grew back. “Come on Cript, we both know what you are, what’s inside you.” Cript looked up, there was a mirror in front of him now. It showed him in dirty, tattered clothes, chains keeping his arms and legs still, and his body was horribly malnourished. But what made my jaw drop was the ethereal, ghost like crucified angel behind him. “Just wake it up, and this can all end. Wake up Zechariah, and all your pain will end. Let the beast Heaven cast out and hell fears out of it’s cage you wuss.” Andy moved the mirror aside, showing himself now. “At least, try now.” ”What the hell…?” I think to myself worriedly, fearing what's gonna happen next. “I told you...that…thing is bound to my soul for a reason. What that is, I don’t know. But I’d rather not find out.” Cript said. “Heh, like a broken record.” Andy said. “Time and time again, the same answer. Well, I did a lot of footwork to grab that Las Plagas prototype that’s keeping you alive, but that can’t keep you alive forever. So, let’s see what The One will do.” Crit jerked up. “Andy, that’s forbidden in every field of magic and alchemy! You can’t!” “I didn’t think I had to, but you’ve left me with no other choice.” Andy said, pulling out a stick of chalk from his pocket and began drawing a circle around Cript. Cript shouting at Andy to stop. When It was done I realized what it was… That human transmutation circle from FullMetal Alchemist. “So, gonna wake it up yet?” “I...I can’t!” Andy smirked. “Fime then, pray he’s generous.” The circle activated, and everything went white. ”Well fuck…” I say, having felt the pain he suffered and wondering what's gonna happen now. When Cript opened his eyes, there were two doors, one behind him, and another behind that Silhouette thing from the FMA anime. “Well now, I wasn’t expecting you to be here.” It spoke. “Y-You’re the one? The collective consciousness of everything on a world that has been, is or will be…?” Cript asked. “Fools call me God, but you know better than that I imagine. Now then, what will the price be for you…” Cript flinched. “I, I don’t...I didn’t…” “A body part is too lacking, and your soul is… off limits by any deity. Hmmm?” It thought, finally snapping it’s fingers. “I got it.” It raised its hand, and Cript started coughing. He coughed up blood until, finally, a dark grey pearl looking item came out. It rolled over to it, and it grabbed it. “There, a fitting price I’ll say.” “Cah! What, what is it? What did you take from me?!” “Simply put child.” He raised the pearl up for view. “I took your ability to die.” Cript’s eyes went wide. “You can try and try, but nothing will kill you. Not even things from the void and above can do you in.” “You...You stole my mortality!” “Stole? Heh, you forget who you deal with child. I don’t steal...I bargain.” There was a creek, the door behind Cript started opening, as did the one behind it. “Your mortality, for the knowledge of…” He chuckled. “Everything.” Then, a black tendril came from both doors, each wrapping around Cript tightly. “No! Keep your knowledge, give me back my mortality you bastard!” “A trade has been made my child. And a trade like this...there are no take backs.” It smiled, the tendrils covering Cript’s face. Once all was dark… pain, everything, and I mean anything and everything that could be learned was being poured into Cript’s head. The pain from it all made us both just scream. I didn’t see the knowledge, but I felt the pain. My head felt like it was splitting. Cracking from the pressure. ”Gah! Fucking hell!” I mentally shout in pain, trying my darndest to bear through the pain that was rushing at me. As quickly as it started, it stopped. Cript was back in the all white chamber, it across from him. “So, how is it? I give mortals glimpses for limbs and other such things, but never has a mortal taken it all in before. So tell me, what’s it like?” Cript’s breath was shaky. “P...Pointless.” “Huh?” “What’s the point in all this knowledge? You show me everything that can be learned, that can be understood and what should never be understood… But...what’s the point...If I can’t die? Death is part of life, all that knowledge says so...but you...just broke your own logic.” It smiled. “Yes and no my lad. You see...I showed you everything I know, that’s everything anyone who will live on E arth has known, knows and will know til it’s death. But you, heh, well you are not from earth now are you?” “W-what?” In a blink, we were back in the dungeon, Andy standing over us. “Well, no missing limbs, internal organs maybe?” He questioned. “My death…” “Huh?” Cript charged, his chains breaking as if they were wet paper and slammed Andy to the ground. “My Death! He took my mortality you sick bastard!” Cript began punching Andy, each punch leaving a nasty bruise or made one heck of a crack. “What’s the point of living life if there’s no end to find!” Cript’s hand then pulsated with powerful, blue electricity as he electrocuted Andy, the man laughing as Cript did this to him. ”Cript...can never die?” I mutter to myself, not believing Truth would do such a horrid thing to him. ”Heh, Finally.” A voice I recognized spoke, Cript’s body glowing with a holy light, altering as he grew taller, his hair changed from brown to blond, his clothes became like white silk robes with a gold belt, and two, large wings sprouted out of his back. ”Heheh...heheheh…..HAHAHAHHHAHAHA! Psychopath was free. ”Finally! Five incarnations over ten thousand years bound to this soul and I. Am. FREE!” ”Oh so that's why they always had blonde hair…” I say, wondering why I just had to point that out when a Psychopath was just freed. It then looked over at Andy. ”Hmm for thanks I’ll let you live, shall we ever cross paths again, your head I will take. Hehehehe. Nothing personal.” It then flapped its wings, and flew up. In a haze, we were on...where are we? Everything looks… Wait, is that earth up there? There were people all around, looking at us in surprise. Psychopath then cracked it’s neck. ”I’m a bit rusty, but it’s like riding a bicycle.” ”So Earth was a real place...but now it's not cause this assholes gonna burn it to the ground…” I frown, not liking how the Psychopath immediately went to Earth here. ”You, youngling.” Psychopathe said, appearing in front of a child. ”What world is this?” “M-m-m-m-mars…” ”Ah, the red planet.” It said, looking around. ”Not so much anymore… Let’s correct that.” Psychopath said, grabbing the kids neck, and snapped it… I felt it...snapping the child's neck. ”Oh no…” I mutter, fearing what's gonna happen next. “Gah, wha, where?” I said, waking back up in the livingroom and getting up...Cript was up. “So...you saw that…” He said. “Ye-yeah…” I nod, covering my left eye bitterly as the feeling of snapping a child's neck still lingered. “I...saw it…” “In my realm, that day is known as the Mars Colony Incident. It started a fast downward spiral, racism and abuse of ET’s who everyone blamed for that event... “ “I...can imagine.” I sigh out. “So...immortal huh? How the hell is that even possible?” “Death is a fact, woven into everything. Even admins can die… Save for me. You see, death can come in any form, it’s a probability. The One, stole that probability from me. It’s the main reason as to why in every battle, every war...I come out unharmed, and unscaved. There’s no way for me to die.” “But how the hell can something take that away?” I ask, still not understanding how you can just ‘take away’ someone's mortality. “Just...it should seem impossible when you think about it…” “When you enter that...things, territory, you're being as a whole is like a market to it. It trades something of value from you, and depending on the value you placed on it, depends on the information he gives you. For me, I just wanted to live my life, and when my time was to come, reflect on my life before death took me...now...there is no death for me. Just continue.” “Well...that sucks…” I frown. “But...you can probably tell why I saw all that...or even wanted to.” I sigh out. “You wanted to know how to make those nightmares stop?” “I wish I could stop these nightmares...honestly I don't know if its because of the old Keyblade war I saw...or because of this damned Insanity stuck inside my heart…” I say bitterly. “Sad to say Ben, but it’s neither.” “Am I getting some weird visions of the future?” I ask him. “Cause I doubt it's visions.” “It’s not visions either.” Cript said. “Think Ben, what reasons would you have for having those nightmares? What do they all focus on?” “Zeke and the damned Keyblade war...Kingdom Hearts being consumed by Darkness…” I say. “All my friends fighting...my family being slaughtered...Zeke acting like he's the fucking king of a death laden wasteland...” I growl, taking a few deep breaths and reigning in my growing anger. “Is it a warning or something?” “Nope. Now, think on what they all lack?” “They lack?” I ask, confused by what he meant. “My council for one...Nobody’s...the...Embodiments…” I name off slowly, trying to think of what these damned nightmares lacked, but thinking it lacked people instead of something Cript laughed. “What they all lack, is hope.” Cript said. “You keep imagining a bleak and hopeless war with a terrible outcome. The first Keyblade war was terrible, and cost countless lives, but, people and the light survived. You keep thinking that this war won’t leave any survivors, or have hope for a better future for when it’s all over.” “When it's going to last a week, and countless numbers of people are going to be fighting this damned war that shouldn't be happening to be perfectly honest...it's hard to find hope sometimes…” I sigh out. “This is the first time I'm going to be fighting in a war...and...honestly this war shouldn't even be happening. But Drezke and Kexez are so dead fucking set on killing billions because of some prophecy bullshit it's rather infuriating to be honest.” I growl. “Instincts be damned they still have their minds...they’re not stupid to willingly go through with this...“ “Who said they were going to try and kill people?” Cript asked. “Drezke said, if I remember, he was building an army to fight the Embodiments. That also includes Spoiled if he has the chance. Now, what does Kexez want to fight in this war? Didn’t he tell you anything?” “He told me he's gonna make something to stop the third war from happening...but it'll take a week after the war starts.” I say. “But the one thing that makes me think they'll just...do that is because neither of them even bothered to tell the people they trust about this...Joy tried to talk to Kexez once, Core kicked the crap out of him...I talked to Kexez and...well we talked but he woke me up with a bullet to the head…” I say bitterly. “Zeke is a balanced being Ben, not just his heart, but his body as well. Without his heart, Kexez is lost, without Lake, Drezke can’t ignore his instincts, and without Drezke, Lake has no meaning. Lake keeps Drezke safe, supported in his choices, while Drezke gives his strength, and Kexez channels their energies, the three making Zeke, his whole being. Heh, funny, this realm seems to work in a pattern of three, huh?” “I suppose.” I say. “But...Yen Sid told me when I become king...I can get Lake back...somehow.” I say, not knowing how that's supposed to work. “He said I can open the Doors of Purgatory to do it...but fuck if I know how that's even possible.” “In time.” Cript said. “You all have quite the futures ahead of you...quite the futures…” “Yeah, gonna be a King and all.” I shrug. “But...question…” I start. “This...is crazy and stupid...but how can I...control an Insanitys power? I'm just...curious about it cause of...something I heard about before.” I say, remembering how Cript somehow fused Psychopath and Humanity together to somehow ‘cure’ Psychopaths. “...If I can control their power, you can control that things power. In time though, it’s reckless to use it without knowing your limits.” “I didn't think I'd get a straight answer…” I sigh out. “It will all come in time Ben. As an admin I have seen many possibilities for your life, most which head to the same destination.” “I doubt it's towards me relaxing at a beach resort with my family huh?” I say, making a joke about what the future will hold. “Heh, if you want it to be… Come on, I wanna talk in private.” Cript said, getting up and walking down the hallway. “Okay…” I say, walking along with Cript. “So, what did you want to talk about?” “To put it simply, I wanna ask you a question. It’s a simple question, with no wrong answers.” “That's what they all say before hearing the wrong answer.” I frown. “But what's the question if I may ask?” “Your Nightmares, would you like to see who is causing them?” I frowned. “So there's someone outside of me that's causing It?” “Yes, or no?” Cript asked, finally stopping and turning to face me, a small smile on his face clearly hiding his knowledge. “Yes.” I huff, having a feeling he's just gonna pull out a mirror and say ‘it’s you’ like a cheeky bastard. “Heh, alright. Oh, and sorry in advance.” “For w-” Was all I could say before Cript formed a fist, and punched me right in the forehead, everything going black as I fell to the ground. “Ouch…” I groaned, that punch hurt like hell… I managed to look around, seeing I was… I was in some neighborhood. It looked like one from earth...but I don’t know where from earth. “The hell?” I muttered, getting up and dusting myself off. “Where am I?” I mutter to myself, walking down the sidewalk in hopes of finding something to tell me where I am. “Hehe.” I heard, turning around. I swear I heard a...child laugh. I quickly turned back around, hearing footsteps from...somewhere. “Hello?” I call out, moving towards where I heard the sound. “Is someone here?” “Heheh!” I heard, seeing a bit of someone run behind one of the houses. I ran, following and skidded to a halt. It was a backyard, like many, set up for a barbecue, but there was no one. What was here, was a large sword, embedded into the nearby tree, and a pair of large handguns on a table next to it. “Those...are Dante’s?” I ask myself, walking up to the weapons. “Why are his guns here?” I ask myself, grabbing Ebony, Ivory, and Rebellion. “Okay...so this is worrying.” I frown, putting the guns and sword away as I continued to search around for the kid. “Heheh.” I looked, seeing the back door entering the house slam shut. Slowly, I walked in, the lights all on, thankfully. It was a nice house, well decorated, and rather large it seemed. “Hello?” I call out, searching around the rather large house. “Creepily laughing and running doesn't really help here kid.” Tink. I looked down, stepping on something. It was a small pouch. I picked it up, inside was several small ninja throwing weapons. Stitched into the flap read ‘property of Sonic’. “Sonic’s...throwing weapons?” I frown, putting away Sonic’s bag of throwing items and continued onward. “Vergil? Genos? Luxu?” I call out, having a bad feeling about this. “I've got a bad feeling about this…” I mutter, continuing my search for the noise and wondering who else’s stuff is lying around here. I headed upstairs, and in a bedroom of sorts I spotted Luxu’s Keyblade, resting on the bed. I picked it up, and the door slammed shut. I turned around, and a DTD opened up, a figure dressed in a black and gold organization XIII cloak walked out. “Why hello there.” I say to the new person. “How may I help you on this fine...kind of creepy day?” I ask them. He turned around, and everything shook. The room, specifically, the section of floor, wall, and the door were pulled from the rest of the room, a massive, long gap separates us as random house hold items from the room floated all into random places in the now massively high ceiling. Rebellion then glowed, first a fiery red, then a bright, calming blue before becoming normal. “O~kay then…” I say worriedly, drawing Rebellion and wondering why the hell it glowed as well as preparing myself for an upcoming fight. It was after I drew Rebellion that I saw some strange things. Some of the furniture either had a blue or red glow around it. Pointing it at the lamp with a red glow, it changed, no longer a sword, but a whip with a skeletal demon head and moving jaw at the tip. I swung it, the whip growing in length as the demon head bit onto the lamp. I pulled, and it floated over to me. Carefully, I pressed a foot on it, the lamp not seeming to move. My next target glowed blue. Some dresser drawers. Rebellion changed into a chrome and blue whip with a dragon head at the tip. I swung it, but it pulled me, almost panicking, I did it again, it latching onto the next drawer and this time I landed on a desk. “Awesome.” I smile, understanding how this is going to work as I looked around for my next stepping stone. “Lets hope this will lead the right way.” I mutter while jumping up and latching onto another blue object and landing on it carefully. I was on my last swing to the door when the stranger walked down the hall. The swing threw me through the door as it closed behind me. The hallway was...unchanged. Okay…”So...where the hell am I supposed to go?” I frown, looking around the room and seeing if there was another way before going through the obvious ‘repeating room’ thing. I opened another door, it was a bathroom, shower curtains closed and the shower running. The room was filled with steam. “Hello?” I ask, hoping someone was here as I carefully stepped through the steamy room. “La da, da da dum, da da.” A woman's voice began singing from behind the curtains. “Hello?” I ask again, hoping the lady will hear me this time. ”This better not be a jump scare…” I think to myself bitterly. The lady kept singing. The more I listened the more I realized...she sounded rather young. “Hello?” I ask again, the girl still just singing. Begrudgingly, I walked up the the curtains. Slowly, I opened them. Inside was...nothing. The singing stopped and inside the shower, water running on it was a shield I recognized. It was red, white and blue, with a white star in the center. “Captain...America?” I question, picking up the shield. He’s not...wait, is he going to be the next chosen? “Um...okay.” I say while grabbing his shield. “Okay...where to next?” I mutter. As I exited the room I saw the figure across from me. He waved his hand as a shadow appeared. It looked human in shape, dressed in a dark pink top, short shorts and had red hair, but her skin was shadow black with those ever familiar yellow eyes. “Oh come on.” I complain, preparing myself for the possible fight. The shadow lady crawled towards me, then rapidly jumped on the wall and off, grabbing my head and opening her mouth, a bright light shining from her mouth as everything started going...grey. I blinked, and I was standing in the backyard of this house, people around, talking, cooking, grilling and eating. “What the hell?” I frown, wondering what in the nine hells is going on. I put away Rebellion and Cap’s shield. “Um...hello?” I ask a random person. “Where am I? I’m...new around here.” They didn't seem to hear me...or even notice me. I tried touching them, and my hand phased through them. “You know, cause fuck it.” I frown, walking around and looking to see if there was anything of importance. At the corner of my eye I saw someone… Zeke. Looking at him properly I saw he was younger than how I know him, his eyes for some reason we're… green? He was eating some ribs when he got up and ran inside quick. Then I saw that girl, the shadow one, but she was human here, chase after him. I ran after them, and saw Zeke in the bathroom...he took out something on his eye… Contacts? “Itchy?” The girl asked. “Like all hell.” Zeke replied. He dripping a liquid into his now red eye as he placed the contract back in. “Worth it though.” “Where did you even find eye color changing contacts?” “Internet.” Zeke replied, setting it back in proper. “What the hell?” I mutter, wondering what’s going on here. “So, family still has no clue where you are?” She asked. “Thankfully. Your dad, did me a miracle declaring my arrest and execution.” Zeke replied. “Hey, you made him chief of police with that bargain, and now you're a part of this family.” “Yeah. Mowing lawns, barbecues. Apple pie life. It's nice.” “Is this a different Zeke’s life? One where he got a nice simple life?” I wonder to myself, now confused on how this was supposed to solve my nightmare problem. “Why am I seeing this?” “So, where is your dad anyway?” Zeke asked the girl. “Finishing up some work and mom just left to get more meat for the cookout.” She explained. “So...we got time?” Zeke asked her with a grin. “Maybe~ Door does have a lock…” The girl said, grinning back. “I’ll get the clean clothes.” Zeke said, walking into the room as the girl laughed, starting to undress as she turned the shower on. “Um…” I frown. “I’m...not entirely sure what to think of this and in what context…” I tell myself, shaking my head. “This is confusing…” I sigh out, wondering what the hell I’m even supposed to be doing here now. The world changed. Everything shifted and I was in the normal hallway again. Well, normal-ish. “Oi vey.” I sigh out while moving forward, looking around trying to find something important. “Okay, so in another strange hallway...why the hell am I here?” I frown, wondering if I'll find another thing involving my Council, another weird showing of Zeke if he managed to be someone else, or if this will lead to something else. “Where's the next door…” I mutter, waking through the normal-ish hallway. Exiting back downstairs I found myself in the kitchen. Stabbed into the cutting board was Vergil's Katana. “Okay...there's Yamato…” I mutter while walking over and grabbing the katana that can cut dimensions. Once I pulled it out I looked it over, wondering why I was finding all my councils weapons, even one I haven’t seen yet. ”What is going on here, what...is this?” I ponder, walking out of the kitchen and seeing someone in the living room. He was an older man, bald, wearing a well worn aviators jacket and jeans with some thick leather boots. “Hello?” I ask the man, walking into the living room. He turned around, and I saw his eyes...Red. “Come on now sonny, come back to the family.” He said with open arms. “I think you're mistaking me for someone else sir.” I say worriedly. “Who are you?” “Ah come on now kid, it’s been ten years and I may be a lot older, but I recognize my own kin, I’m not losing my head just yet now.” “Who are you?” I repeat myself, a tad worried about the red eyes man. “Cause...I don't think we've ever met…” His expression changed to one of a tad annoyed. “Now son, you are trying my patients, and I know your daddy told you just how mean I can get when I am annoyed. Are you gonna make this easy,” He said, suddenly grabbing out into the air and an ethereal image of that girl Zeke was with appeared, him holding her by the neck and holding a rather large revolver to her head. “Or are you gonna make this easy for us?” “Gah, Zeke!” The girl called. “Marcy!” I jumped, an ethereal Zeke came out from me and ran towards them, all three fading before Zeke got halfway to the old man. “Uh...what?” I blink, wondering just what the hell is going on. “I...am so confused right now…” I frown. Shaking that off, I headed into some kind of… Library of sorts. On a table in the center of the room, was a stray paint can. I took a whi- GAH that is not paint! It reeks!. Taking a quick second look, I saw the name Kat on it, as well as a small list of what seemed to be spell names written on it. “And here’s Kats can of orange piss water.” I frowned, wrinkling my nose at the creepy smell of it. “Okay…time to take this along as well...it probably has something special with it…” I mutter while putting the can away and looking around for the next spot to go. I walked back into the living room and froze. Zeke was there, on his knees, holding that girl, a large hole in her head, blood everywhere, and he looked dead at me. “Y-You killed her…” He muttered as the tears started to fall from his eyes, his contacts sliding out as he did. “No I didn't.” I frown. “But your not going to listen or understand me cause this world is weird.” I roll my eyes, having a feeling I'm just reliving a part of Zeke’s past for whatever reason and finding my council's weapons for some unknown reason. “You had this coming.” I jumped again, this time an ethereal version of the old man walked out of me. “We don’t get to have normal lives Zeke, we are Ventrals.” “I never wanted to be one!” He screamed, hugging the girls body. “I...I just wanted…” The images faded again, Zeke, the girl, the old man, and even all the blood. ”Why am I seeing things about Zeke if this is supposed to solve my nightmares?” I question, finding this all...strange. ”Well...let's hope the next spot will answer something instead of giving more questions…” I think to myself while heading off to find the next thing to spark a memory or to find another council item. I headed outside and saw that cloaked man again, he turned to look at me before waving his hand, thirteen stones raised from the ground as he vanished into thin air. Rushing down to them, each had...shots… A sword and pistols, a katana, a round shield… I pulled out the weapons I had and placed them into their properly fitted slots. Each fitting perfectly. They all then glowed, and above them, a line stretched out to the center of this formation, and a Keyhole appeared, but it was incomplete, sections missing from it here and there. “Five down...eight more to go…” I sigh out. “Okay...which ones do I have left…” I mutter while checking the other pillars to see what inward looking for. Let’s see here… A...Chainsaw… A Violin of sorts, Reunion Keyblade, Joy obviously, A Gazing Eye Keyblade, Luxu, a magicians hat...Trixie. Some kind of...orb, A sword, a rather important looking outline of one, and… Way to Dawn? … No...It… It can’t be Bara… “Well this sucks…” I mutter. “So, time to go on this weird scavenger hunt. And I wonder who that weird cloaked guy was…” I mutter while looking around, wondering where to go to find the items. As I was walking back to the house, I decided to open up the garage door. Inside was tools, as to expect, but there was a red and chrome chainsaw on the desk in the back. “Just what I was looking for.” I say while walking over and picking up the chainsaw. “Wonder why there's chrome on it?” I mutter, knowing there were red chainsaws but still. “Well let's find the rest.” I say while putting the chainsaw away and thinking about where else the things could be. “The violin could be in a music room maybe? But then why was a shield in a bathroom?” I frown. Shrugging, I noticed two doors. One just in the wall, and the other with some stairs going up. The one with stairs must go back into the house, so let's check out the basement. Walking over to the door I opened it and saw a long stairway down. “Wonder what's down here…” I mutter, heading down the stairs to see what's there. Walking down the dark hallway was creepy, at least, till I reached the bottom and came across a bunch of boxes, old furniture, normal basement stuff it seemed. “Seems...rather normal…” I mutter, going around and checking the boxes to see if there was something important. The first box I checked was...empty. The next, empty again. Three more boxes in I realized they are...all empty. A tad annoyed, I kicked them, the stack of empty boxes topeling on me and when I broke out I felt something on my head. I lifted it off, and it was...trixie's hat? “Not something I'd wear but glad I found it.” I say with a little smile, putting away the magicians hat and checking the rest of the basement for anything. I didn’t find much, but I went back up the stairs and saw that figure again. “Hi, are you actually going to say something this time?” I ask the figure. He reached behind himself, pulling out a violin. He posed himself properly, and began to play. The music was...amazing. It was a sad melody that sounded like it belonged to someone with tragic life. I actually was tearing. “Uh...Okay wow…” I say, rubbing the tears out of my eyes. “But...who are you?” “This song.” He finally spoke, his voice firm, not too deep, and...frightful all the same. “Do you know what is is called?” He said, still playing. “No, I don't...but I can probably tell the meaning behind it.” I say to the being. “Hm.” He said, still playing. “This song is called, Ben. It’s your song. Every heart has its own melody, altered and changed as they age, develop, the melody changing as they do. Those who hear their songs can tell how far they have come based on how it plays. These songs are how Keyblades choose their wielders, not by the light or darkness, but by the melodies.” He said, still playing. “Well...sounds about right.” I nodded. “I...suppose the tune will sound a bit more upbeat after a bit considering...what my current life has been?” “Yes, it should, I suppose. Now then, tell me, what do multiple melodies sound like? When two or more people's hearts are linked.” “Hehe.” I turned around, and saw a kid, dressed in a red hoodie, green pants, and had his hood hiding his face. He pulled out a small version of my Sitar and began playing. The child's song was a mix of high exciting and low, sad notes all played in rapid succession creating a unique, interesting song that when played next to mine the older man was playing...sounded amazing. “Sounds amazing actually.” I say, starting to think about who the kid and the cloaked man are. “But...are you two…?” I ask, trying to think of the right word here as I tried to figure out who they were. The kids song then stopped abruptly, catching me off guard as he began to play only parts of the notes. The once mighty and interesting song now faded to almost background noise on mine. “When someone dies, those who knew them, those who had a link to them, keep parts of them in their hearts, in the memories they keep. Those fragments are what allow even the dead to give strength to the living in the afterlife, the heart remembers, the memories, and the melodies.” “Mom and dad are alive again...granny is somewhere...and grandpa is happy in heaven…” I mutter. “So...this is a wonderful thing to learn...why bring this up?” I ask them, liking the lesson but unsure on why the sudden lesson on melodies. “Simple. We are memories. This child and I are the fragments of someone close to you in your heart. Through the melodies of the others we have created a plan, and are trying to bring it to action. Sadly, we are trapped here. There is something you haven't done that must free us.” “There's a lot of things I haven't done, so mind being a bit specific here?” I ask simply. Both of them stopped playing entirely. The cloaked man then threw me the violine and I caught it. The both then took off their hoods, and I felt stupid for not realizing… Zeke, they were both Zeke, younger, and damaged, the older one was covered in black spots missing his left eye, part of his forehead and god knows what else, while the kid was missing half his mouth and eyes. “I am Nightmare, all of Zeke’s worst memories, fears and dread I keep, and my other half here is Zeke’s Joy, his best memories, aspirations and dreams are within him. We escaped into the hearts of his friends, all of us split into groups of two, and there are ten of us, five of light, the positives, five of darkness, the negatives. We...were scared. When Zeke’s heart split, and his light half changed into the abomination, his light halfs emotions escaped, and as their other halves, we followed. Us leaving is why Drezke is going insane, Lake could not fight the blood of those monsters, and why Kexez can not feel anymore.” “Understanding.” The child, Joy, spoke. “You knew Zeke, but you never understood him.” “So that's why I'm seeing his past…” I nodded a bit. “And...when I put all the pieces into the pillars I can free you both?” I ask curiously. “Also, some of your family are just absolute dick mongers ya know?” “Zeke was fifteen.” Joy spoke. “He grew tired of the pressures of being the greatest Ventral in recent history.” “He wanted the impossible.” Nightmare spoke up. “To escape his family bloodline. It took him some doing, but he found a small lace in Colorado where his family was both rarely seen and largely ignored. His plan was set, hid in the cargo hold of a bus headed to the town, and once there, use color changing contacts to blend in.” “He was found out, quickly, or so he thought, when he picked him up. A minor in the streets, even in that town, it was odd.” “Everyone knew everyone there. Zeke fell into the system there, no Ventral unless arrested has their fingerprints in the system, so Zeke wasn’t anyware. To them, he appeared out of thin air.” “The sheriff took him in, and his daughter took a liking. It was her who realized he was a Ventral.” “She had a dirty habbit, sneaking into the shower to spook people.” “She saw his eyes, and froze… Then she looked down…” “You can guess what happened.” “Zeke confessed that night who he was, and she didn’t care.” “It was a full year before they told her father about their relationship and the truth about who he was. If it wasn’t for the time, bonding and saving him from bears several times over, he would have arrested Zeke.” “To get his family off his track, they came up with a plan, they took a cadaver from the local medical school, about Zeke’s age and build, and set up a false shootout, hitting a propane tank and gasoline can placed next to it. He filed the report, and other officers made their peace with it. Zeke Ventral, was dead.” “The grandfather, filled with rage and grief, went to kill him, and found his grandson alive and well, hiding his eyes.” “The rest you can tell.” Joy finished. “Josh had one red eye, Zeke was the only one, to their knowledge, with two red eyes.” “If they had found Eclipse, back on earth, his life would have been different...darkly so.” Nightmare added. “I can imagine.” I sigh out. “Jeez...this is quite a thing. But where are your other parts? Am I going to have to track you all down or something?” “We are unsure.” Joy said. “We ran, riding along the lines connecting Zeke’s hearts to his friends. The others don’t know who they are in yet, though, Bravery and Rage think they are within Eclipse, the heart and body similar to Zeke’s in many ways, energy wise at least.” “Well that’s a thing.” I say. “So...besides you having the violin I was looking for mind helping me find the other stuff I need to help set you free? I mean, I'm pretty sure that's what those pillars are for right?” “Yes, but you are warned, the pillars will set more than just us free. They are a lock on not just us, but your most unpleasant memory.” “I wonder which memory that is.” I roll my eyes. “Can't be any worse than the nightmares I've been having.” I frown. “But besides an unpleasant memory...does it involve...Rejection at all?” They both nodded. “Fuck…” I sigh out, putting a hand over my left eye. “I don't want that asshole getting out...especially with how he's corrupted.” I sigh out. “The Insanity is gone Ben.” Joy said as I looked up in confusion. “It is true, Rejection is no longer an Insanity, but he believes himself to be.” “His mind is shattered, he is the one causing your nightmares, and believe me, I am holding back the worst of it.” Nightmare said. “Looks like I'm gonna need to beat the bastard again, and this time till he gets his head back together and stop this foolish crap.” I frown. “Be warned, our presence here has caused an irregularity in this place. Rejection has made Zeke’s memories his lines of defence.” Nightmare warned. “Okay then.” I nodded. “So...just got to walk around the place and find all the things, then find Rejection and kick his ass right?” I ask. “Or am I not allowed to beat him?” “Do what you must, be we warn you, Rejections mind is shattered, he isn’t an insanity anymore, but he truly believes he is one.” Joy added. “Well...time to prove the idiot wrong.” I frown. “So, where to next?” I ask the two. “You two have been leading me to the items before so…” I say, hoping for a guide through this place. “No, from now on the remaining few items will be guarded, each by a memory phantom.” “Oh goody.” I frown. “Not like I expected this to be easy at all.” I say sarcastically. “So...do you know where these phantoms are?” They shook their heads. “You'd think people living in my head would know the way around.” I frown. “Oh well, I best be off to find the other items and fight whatever is here.” I sigh out while walking of to start my search. Looking back inside the house, I went back up the stairs and found the attic entrance. It was an easy climb and once there I spotted that old guy, Zeke’s grandpa I think. “Wonder why he's up here…” I mutter to myself, preparing myself for a possible fight. ”Basterd!” Zeke’s voice rang in the air like a battle cry. An ethereal version of him tackled the old man, and began beating his head into the ground mercilessly. “Oh...well that's a thing…” I mutter worriedly. ”Zeke, stop!” An ethereal version of Josh and who I think is Zeke’s dad came up, each grabbing and holding him back. ”For christ’s sake he’s your grandfather!” His dad yelled. ”He’s DEAD!” Zeke yelled, his arms spun, flipping Josh and his dad over as he grabbed a kitchen knife from somewhere...and plunged it into his grandfather's chest... “Shit…” I frown. “Well...good to know that happened…” ”Zeke, what did you-” ”Hehe...Hehehe….Hehehehehhe….HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!” I froze, seeing Zeke’s eyes change to that of a Psychopaths, his hair even changed from blonde to a crimson red. ”What the fuck!?” Josh yelled as they all vanished in a haze. “Oh…” I frown, looking around the attic carefully. “That's...a scary thought.” Where they were I spotted two swords, crossed and layed on the ground. Looking at them closely, they connected into one sword, and split into two to down the middle. “Wait...aren't these...Zuko’s?” I ask, honestly surprised to see these here. I put them away and headed out. “Okay, where to next?” I mutter, thinking of all the places I looked. “Need Genos’s core, Reunion, Gazing Eye and Way to Dawn...this is gonna take a while…” I headed out, seeing in front of me now Josh and Zeke’s dad standing in the hallway, both shooting guns fast. “Crap! What happened to him!?” Josh yelled. “How should I know!” “You’re his dad!” “You'd think they would know there own damned Psychopath rage when killing someone.” I frowned. “Or it could be something else…” It was then when they faded, and Psychopath jumped at me, phasing through me...that felt bad… My stomach hurts. “That's...not good...” I mutter, wondering why my stomach hurts. “Well...no rest for the wicked...” I mutter, grabbing a potion and downing it just in case it was a serious problem. ”Heheheheheh…” I turned around, the Psychopath was there on all fours like some rabid animal. “Shit.” I mutter, summoning Reunion and Frozen Pride. “That's not good…” ”Grah!” He roared, jumping and phasing through me again. When I turned around he wasn’t there, nor anywhere...ouch! I felt my right ear...blood...and it’s...shorter… Did it...bite half my ear off? “Asshole!” I shout, shifting into master form and healing my ear before changing out Frozen Pride for Skysplitter and preparing myself for when the thing will jump at me. “Okay ya piece of shit, not gonna get another bite out of me.” Slowly I walked down to the living room, spotting a fireplace with actual fire going. “Okay…” I mutter, wondering why there was a fire going right now. Inside, I saw a round orb of sorts, glowing with power, the word Core written on it on several places. “Maybe this belongs to Genos?” I mutter, bringing out my chakrams and using them to control the flame as I grabbed the core and pulled it out of the fire place. “Genos.” I thought aloud, packing the Core and heading off. “Okay...now just got to get Reunion, Gazing Eye, and Way to Dawn…” I mutter, having literally no clue where to get at least two of them and not sure if I could use my Reunion for that. “Hmm…” I hum, continuing to walk around and look for where I need to go next. I stepped outside, and saw a knight figure on the front Lawn, Reunion in his grasp as he was posed like the Lingering Will, and held a massive shield strapped across his back. “Well I can see where this is going.” I mutter while walking over. “Hello?” I ask the knight, wondering if he was talkative first. He rose, drawing Reunion and his shield, it was like a wall of decorative metal that he lifted with one hand, and slammed it on the ground, the earth shook, and he grew...huge...really huge. King Kong Huge. “Well…” I frowned. “That's a thing.” I say before rushing to its feet and about to stab it's shin till it either fell over, got down to my size for a good honest fight, or it died from blood loss and pain from getting stabbed in the shin too many god damn times. He swung, his blade phasing through the buildings, but hitting me and sending me skidding across the ground. “I call bullshit!” I shout, getting back up and rushing back towards it carefully so I wouldn't get hit this time. He stomped a foot on the ground, and knocked me flat on my ass with the shockwave. As I was getting up he held Reunion like a spear as it began to glow blue, and a bolt shot out, hitting near me and blasting me back across where I first fell down. “Ow…” I muttered, getting back up and bringing out Sharpshooters and firing at him quickly. Sharpshooters did nothing, his armor is too thick and that shield of his can block anything. Using Sharpshooters, I teleported to his head and quickly pulled out Skysplitter, and slammed it on his head. That seemed to do damage as he stumbled around for a bit. I saw his helmet was cracked now. “Alright, glad to know this fucker can be hurt.” I say while floating in midair and pressing my advantage a bit, moving behind it and smacking the back of its head with Skysplitter. His Helmet broke off, and inside what I saw made me freeze. It was...a pony person. Male, horn broken down the middle and wings cut, leaving nubs...an alicorn? He was blue mane with a white coat. His body was covered in black tendrils, and his eyes were black as void. His chest...was scarred over, like he was...impaled... “Your…” I mutter, my mind going back to seeing Faust's kid killed in the war. “Oh...that's...a thing.” I muttered worriedly, keeping my guard up in case it attacked. He looked up at me, and screamed this monstrous scream. I covered my ears, it was like hearing evil itself as he and the armor faded, leaving just Reunion sticking out of the ground. “Right…” I mutter, walking over to Reunion and grabbing the holy and pulling it out of the ground. “Jeez…” I shook my head and looked around for where else to go. No sooner did I turn around I saw an outline of a person, like Truth from Fullmetal Alchemist, Way to Dawn equipped in it’s hand as it was ready to fight. “Well hello there.” I say before swinging Skysplitter like a golf club, a massive chunk of rock being shot towards the figure. It sliced it down the middle, rushing fast towards me as we clashed blades. The way it swung was...framilier. It's not Bara though. “Who are you?” I frown, pushing back and swinging at it with Reunion. It didn’t speak, but continued to swing at me, and blocked each of my attacks with ease. It wasn’t till I pulled out Sharpshooters, teleporting sporadically until he did something new. He blocked, but not with his Keyblade, with a spell. It was one you’d see only one person cast in all of Kingdom Hearts two, on the very last world… “Riku?” I frowned, realizing who it was. It stopped, it’s body growing flesh and skin, till an older, maybe early twenties Riku stood before me. He lowered his Keyblade, and nodded. He stuck Way To Dawn into the ground, and faded in thin air. “Right then…” I mutter while walking forward and grabbing Way to Dawn and putting it away. “Okay...Gazing Eye is the last one.” I say, looking around for who might have it. “Okay...so is there someone else that wants to pop up with the thing I need?” As if on cue, all my primal instinct screamed, and I ducked, bearly dodging whoever swung Gazing Eye. When I got back up and jumped away some feet, I saw it was someone in the simple Organization 13 cloak. Right. Luxu. “Right then, time to fight Luxu.” I say before shooting at the guy with Sharpshooters. Luxu blocked with perfect movements, rushing in I tried to dodge, but his swing was too large and he sliced my coat, but missed my stomach. Barely. “Rarity is gonna kill me for ruining this.” I mutter, swapping to Reunion and slashing at Luxu swiftly. He didn’t even block with his Keyblade. He blocked with his arm. I saw it cut into it, his blood soaking his cloaks sleeve and even began dripping. He then grabbed Reunion’s blade and forced it back to me, hitting me hard in the chest several times before I got away. “Ow...” I growled before chugging a healing potion real quick, summoning Eternal Flames and sending a torrent of flames at Luxu. He raised a hand… and deflected it off to the side. I saw his hand, glove gone, hand was scorched, same hand on his wounded arm, but kept on. Grabbing Gazing Eye in it again and he raised it to me. He was badly injured, but acted like nothing was the matter? “What's wrong Luxu?” I ask, feeling like something was very off with how he just took the punishment without giving a damn. He didn’t answer, but charged at me. I dodged, using Skysplitter to slam his body. For a moment he was still, but got up. His leg...Oh god. It was completely broken, almost falling off. Luxu stood up, casting a Firaga on it, melting the flesh back together then quickly casting freeze to stop the melting. The frost was still on his leg, but he stood on it...he didn’t flinch at all... “I wonder…” I mutter, pulling out one of my potions and opening it, before throwing the healing liquid at him, wondering if he was hurt by healing rather than actually kicking his ass. When the potion hit him, it evaporated on his skin, having no effect. Luxu just brushed of the glass shards and ran at me. Backing up, I used Skysplitter again, missing his head but slicing his cloaks hood… He wore a mask. It was made of sewn together fragments and parts of the Foretellers masks. “Well...that's not good.” I frown, raising my hand and shooting Twilight Thorns towards the guy. He didn’t move, the thorns hitting his mask and it broke… I felt sick. His face was rotting, eyes dead, skin black with rot and decay, some bone visible...and he was crying. Tears kept going, falling down. I’m fighting a crying corpse?! “How can I put you to rest?” I ask, not believing I'm fighting a crying corpse...but he needs to be put to rest here. He dropped Gazing Eye, and an image of the Foretellers appeared in it, in the other, what looked like his heart...it was filled with cracks and overflowing with darkness. “I won’t have long...when they find my body and reunite with me. I will only have time, for a few goodbyes. Maybe then, I can keep my promise.” Luxu said. “What was your promise?” I ask carefully. “Myself, and all my reflections, all promised we’d be with the Foretellers. Forever. We were family. That is why all my reflections killed themselves, all but me. I was the only one...too scared. Maybe then, I can write a wrong, put to rest that fallen Ava, and see them again, as they now see each other.” “And what of Time?” I ask him, knowing my Luxu and this Luxu were two different people but I just wanted to check something. “She will find me. If all goes well, when the time comes, I’ll be back, but I won't be…me. I’ll be like my family. Alive again as another.” Luxu said, fading as all that remained was his cloak, and Gazing Eye. Hesitantly, I want up to Gazing Eye to pick it up, and saw something in his Cloak. A Keychain. It was the cloak of Organization thirteen, but it was open, like a raven...no, a crow? I changed Reunion for it, and the Keyblade it changed too held all the masks of the Foretellers, wrapped around in the black cloak, held together forming the blade from a Starlight like grip. The tip was Gazing Eye and No Name, crossed. I used my assistant and checked to see what kind of Keyblade this was. “Let's see here…” I mutter, wondering what this keyblade is like. Ageless Promise Att: 14 Def: 9 Mag: 9 A Keyblade binding hearts through time. Pair with a Wayfinder to call allies from the past and future. “Cool.” I say while disbanding my new keyblade, thinking I'll try out something new as I headed back to the pillars, finally having all the pieces I needed. “Okay Rejection, time to kick some sense back into you.” I walked back to the pillars. I placed all the weapons into them and the word began shaking. There was a bright light...then it all faded… the area around me looked...normal. Colors everywhere. From behind the house I spotted the old man, Zeke’s grandpa, dragging Zeke, his dad, and Josh. Josh and Zeke’s dad were beat up bad, and Zeke was...shredded, but his wounds were healing… Wait, didn’t that old guy… He dropped them all, the old man’s lethal wounds still there, but healed in seconds. “Grah, pain in the ass.” He muttered, taking a needle to Zeke and pulling out… Psychopath blood. Near him, one of those Code portals opened up and out came a woman in a long black dress. “Nice work, how’s the new Cript Prototype coming along?” She asked. “Strong, but unstable. Too much Psychopath blood, started an early activation.” The old man said. “Huh, and them?” she pointed to Josh and Zeke's’ dad. “Eh, just tell the up and ups that we need to reset this town and erase their memories, kid’s too. His body needs some more time to ferment with what he has.” He said, taking out the needle and tossing it to the woman. “Gotta say, you really think altering the past to change their biology will make a better host?” “I’ve already traced his oldest ancestor. Once this is done, time will rewrite itself and by the time this Cript is born here, his connection to them will be unbreakable.” “They call him Zeke here.” “What’s it matter, he’s a project nonetheless. I’m off to the past, thanks for the fresh sample, will make one hell of a Psychopath when the time comes.” “Eh, alright. Criminal family made worse, what can go wrong?” They all faded. Leaving me facing a doorway. I could see on the other side was my Station of Awakening...and Rejection curled up. I opened the doorway and entered my station of awakening. “Rejection?” “Hehehehehe, pain from the blood, pain from the moving, pain from standing. Painpainpainpainpain.” He babbled. “Okay…” I mutter while carefully walking over with a potion in hand. “Hey there buddy, time for your crazy meds…” I say nervously, wondering what happened to the poor bastard. “Hehehehe. It hurts, it always hurts all the blood hurts. Too many alive not enough dead, hurts from the death. Hehehehe.” He muttered. I gently moved his head over and forced him to drink the potion, not knowing if it'll fully help but knowing it'll at least dull whatever the hell he's feeling. “Just drink up Mr. Crazy man, it'll be okay.” ‘Hehehehehehehhehehe.Need to stop, how can it stop? Pain, pain-” He then grabbed me by my collsr and slammed his head into mine, and held our heads together, our eyes directly looking into each others. “Hehehehehehhe. Why can’t our pain just go away?!” It was like I was seeing through his...no… Through Psychopaths eyes. I could see it. ALL of it, every death, murder. All from every world, reality, life form, sentient or not, even plants. That wasn’t what was the worst though. I FELT it. ALL of it, the pain. Cyanide, bleeding out, burning alive, suffocation, cancer, heart attack, being crushed. Nuclear explosion. I was feeling it all. This is what they feel...this is why they want it all gone… When it cut, I couldn’t move. Every inch of my body felt the aftershock. The pain. I was crying, there was nothing else I could do. I couldn’t think, barely breathe, my eyes were shut so tight, everything hurt, my body was wanting to go into paralysis. This is why they want everything dead, they can’t make it end any other way? They...just want to die. I could feel it all slipping… my mind was...breaking. I thought of Luna, Twilight, Rarity, Jenny, Dinky, Derpy. They all… Huh? I thought, realizing my body was...was feeling better. I managed to open my eyes and saw...a figure. They were a pure white silhouette, radiating with a...holy glow, is the best I can describe it. “H-hello?” I asked, feeling my left eye be the color of an Insanity but I didn’t feel anything bad from it. “Who...who are you?” “What, is the better answer.” They said, their voice was like a man and woman talking at once in unison. “I am Humanity, the light of it anyway. You, Cript, and another draw power from me. But I am only half of what Humanity is truly.” “And that half won't be here cause...well…” I point to my black and red eye for emphasis. “Heh, no. In a way, that is part of them. Tell me, do you really believe Sentient life, or life in general, is meant to be completely good? Or even balanced?” “It should at least be balanced enough so shit doesn't go haywire and all life dies.” I say. “All life shouldn't be completely good or completely evil, but there's this mystical grey area everyone keeps forgetting about, where goods not always good and evils not always evil…” I explain simply. “But given your a fact of life what's the answer you were expecting?” “Nothing you said is wrong, but, in truth, everything is wrong.” “What do you mean?” I asked curiously. “Seems a tad weird that everything is wrong.” “How to put this… There is one man I know of who has the closest answer… Ah, right. Nothing matters, as he puts it. Nothing exists with reason, we make our own reasons, and give each other reason. So long as we hold something or someone dear, that’s all we need to keep going with a sense of purpose, or destiny, as some put it.” “I don't entirely like Destiny...but hey if I didn't have my family right now I wouldn't be where I am now.” I explain. “Exactly...and that is where my other half has failed. They became lost, driven mad by a desire for there to be some force grander than all governing everything, and so, when the first Admins went to war, he took action, creating death, and in time, darkness, evil, The Psychopaths. Those abominations are him directly, controlling bodies directly. My power can cut the link between a Psychopath, or him, and the host, but sometimes...it’s too strong, and when the link is cut, they die. He is...no longer my other half.” “And what would happen if some lucky jackass had both halves?” I asked curiously, remembering a thing about Cript and having both of those halves. “Can it...help stop the pain?” “We are meant to be one, but his choices made us two. Within Cript, there is part of the answer, but there must be more to it. We exist because of life believing in things like good and evil, more must know the power of both, to understand what was meant to be true humanity, born neutral, and then chooses good and evil. Many do already, but that is still not enough. Corruption lies deep within the heart and soul of many, many, but not all.” “Right…” I say. “So that's a thing. Can't wait to stumble upon an answer out of the blue for whatever reason.” I chuckle, knowing my luck that just might happened. “For now, I can keep you and your darkness safe, but until you can understand evil as much as you do good, these nightmares will continue, and grow worse.” “Maybe the bastard Psychopath can drop by and tell me that for whatever reason.” I shrug. “But Cript is gonna be a good second if I never meet the soul bastard responsible.” I say. “So...understand evil to stop my nightmares...easier said than done.” “In time. For now, return to the waking world, for a long road ahead of you.” They said, placing a ringer to my head and I felt...tired. The sound of flesh hitting flesh resonated in the auction hall, a fancily dressed guy being flung straight into a solid stone wall and creating a hole in it from the force. All eyes stayed on Straw Hat Luffy as Celestial Dragon blood dripped from his fist. Now while this did cause a panic, Joy felt his fur stand on end as he looked at a white haired man glare at nothing, causing everyone besides Joy, the straw hat pirates, and two others who were just sitting in their stands. “There we go.” The old man says. “The...hell was that?” Joy mutters, wondering how the hell the old man could force his will to knock out others. “Well, you kids certainly seem to be having fun.” The old man said, before turning to the captive mermaid in the broken container. “Wait!” Nami called out in a panic, only to see the old man just take the collar off with no problem. “Huh?” “Ah come on, I just got the keys.” Franky frowned, showing he had the keys to the collar and cuffs. “You can hand them over to them.” The old man said, pointing to the other slaves. “Rayleigh!” The mermaid smiled, so glad to see her friend here. “What are you doing here?” “I was sleeping, but then all this happened.” The old man said simply, looking at everyone not knocked out, his sight lingering on both Luffy and Joy. “Hmm...quite a group here.” Joy’s ear twitched as he looked at the entrance. “Mind if we get to talking later? Sounds like the Navy is here and they don't sound happy.” “Well looks like we should give them a nice greeting.” Trafalgar Law said, standing up and heading out, his Nodachi resting across his shoulder. “Yeah, no need to keep them waiting.” Another said, this time it was Captain Kid that got up and walked out. As the group walked out they were met with a crap ton of marine grunts with swords drawn, flintlock rifles and mobile cannons all pointed at the group. “Put your hands in the air pirates!” A marine shouted. “They do know who we are right?” Joy asks curiously. “Haven't heard anything about you pup.” Law said simply, a small ring of wind forming above his hand. “Make sure not to get in our way.” Eustass said dismissively, his grin never leaving as he had the glint of bloodlust here. “Oh you want to see what I can do?” Joy asks, starting to walk over to the marines. “Hey! Put your hands in the air now!” The marine demands. “You’re grunts, mere cannon fodder here. What do you think you'll do?” Joy asks simply, the sound of a gunshot was heard and Joy grabbed something out of the air. He opened his hand and showed a steaming bullet in his hand, completely unfazed. “Anyone else want to prove my point?” Joy asks simply. “Damn it, attack!” The marine in charge shouted as the marines charged, Joy blurring out of existence and shocking both Kid and Law. “Who is that kid?” Law asked Luffy, seeing him start to beat Marines with his bear hands. “That's Joy, a new friend.” Luffy replied with a proud smile. “He's really strong.” “Fire!” Someone shouted as cannons went off and shot towards the three pirates. “Gum Gum Balloon!” Luffy said while inflating like a balloon and bouncing the ball back. “Repel.” Kid said while raising a hand and pushing the cannonball back. “Room.” Law said while a giant bubble surrounded him and bunch of marines. “Shambles.” He said, flicking his hand in a weird way, the cannonball and a marines head somehow switching places before the explosion hit several other marines. “Interesting…” Joy muttered, seeing Law and Eustass Kids powers on display. Joy dodged an obvious swing from a marine and just looked at him. “Is there any high ranking officer here? Cause trust me...you’re not going to win here.” Joy said simply. “What are you?” The marine asked in fear, seeing Joys eyes and knowing, even though Joy was a kid, there was power behind it. “Someone way above your pay grade.” Joy tells the marine. “Joy! Let's go!” Luffy calls out, running off with his crew back to Shakky’s bar. “Right then.” Joy nodded while dashing off towards his friends. “That kid is hiding something…” Law mutters to himself, only to hear Eustass getting hit by something, only to turn and see someone he really didn't want to. “Well shit.” When Joy and the rest entered Shakky’s bar they noticed Rayleigh sitting at the counter with a drink already. “Oh, hey guys.” The old man said honestly. “Hey Rayleigh.” Luffy smiled, everyone going around and getting comfy. “So, who's the pup?” Rayleigh asked, motioning to Joy. “My name's Joy…” The pup said, trying to figure out what was this power behind Rayleigh. “Ah, a Keyblader huh?” Rayleigh asked with a knowing grin, causing everyone, besides Shakky, to stare at him. “How did you…” Nami starts, before Rayleigh lifts his hand and summoned a Keyblade himself. “Ends of the Earth?” Joy asks, surprised to see him have such a Keyblade, thinking Rayleigh would have something different. “Well when you've been to the end of this earth it seems fitting.” Rayleigh says honestly. “Roger had one, and so did many of his crew.” He said simply. “So...you know about the Void Century?” Robin asked him. “Yeah. We know about it.” Rayleigh nodded with a knowing grin. “But I'm sure you'll learn about it sooner or later Nico Robin.” “Who else knows about Keyblades?” Joy asked. “The World Government, Shanks and his crew, Whitebeard and most likely his crew, and a few others.” He says simply, disbanding his keyblade. “Hell, there was an entire island full of them we didn't know whether we stepped onto another world or not.” He chuckled. “Wait, Shanks knows about those key things?” Luffy asked with a smile. “Oh yeah, he even has one.” Rayleigh nodded. “Shanks has said a lot about you Luffy, and I'm glad to meet the kid he gave his straw hat to.” He nodded, Luffy getting a giant smile and gently pulling down his hat in joy at the thought of his old friend. Joy looked thoughtful, wondering if there was any survivors of the keyblade war on this world. “Interesting…” Joy muttered, before they heard something outside blow up. “That's not good…” Joy muttered before rushing outside with the others. To be continued... Nobody's bad day, Joy's messagePain. Everything hurt. My body ached like crazy. Slowly, I forced my eyes open, and saw I was buried. Under corpses. “Oh…” I muttered, trying to move the corpses off of me so I can see what's going on. When I got myself out under what felt like a mountain of death. When I emerged, I was in the Keyblade Graveyard. The death was everywhere. “Again?” I muttered. “Okay...time to look around…” I mutter while starting to move around this new graveyard to see if there were any survivors. I called out, no response. As I was walking I came across… Twilight. Her Keyblade shoved do deep through her stomach and into the wall she was pinned to only half the grip was out. I knew it was her Keyblade, cause I saw the keychain…”Oh no…” I muttered. “No...no no no….” I walked up to her. Slowly, I lifted her head. Horror flooded me. Her eyes... they looked like they were burned clear through into her skull. Just...chard skin and bone the way through. “Fucking hell.” I muttered, starting to look around and hoping the others are alive. “Hello?” I called out again, moving around to see where the others were. I heard a scream, and followed. When I turned a corner, I saw someone in a blue organization 13 cloak. They had a hand pressed against someone's head. The person's eyes glowing a bright light as fire erupted from their eye sockets. “Hey!” I barked, summoning my new keyblade that I got from my one dream and rushing towards the bastard burning the person alive. They turned to me, summoning One Winged Angel and raised it to face me. I slashed down towards the strange person with the rare keyblade. They blocked, quickly going in for a jab. I dodged, bearly, and swung my Keyblade at them as I spun. Rather than dodge, he drew a new weapon… Graceful Delilah… How does he have it? And blocked my swing with it. “Who are you?” I asked bluntly, summoning Skysplitter and swinging at him, trying to catch him off guard. Every swing I made, he dodged. It was like he had an eternity of combat ahead of me. Finally, I managed to knock his hood back...and froze. His eyes...were stitched shut, and branded with...some kind of symbols. His mouth, his cheeks on both sides were...torn and...ripped, like they were pried open beyond what he should be able. “Okay what in the unholy fuck.” I frowned. ”I wonder if I'm going to talk to the King in this new hell...cause I'm talking to everyone here!” I mentally complain, finding this pretty freaky. “Like it.” As I turned around I felt the tip of a Keyblade pressed against my back. That voice… “You sure have been having a lot of Nightmares Ben.” Kexez said. “Like you give a damn.” I roll my eyes. “Your a Nobody with God like powers you don't want to use. I kind of guessed you had it because of the X-blade in some way shape or form.” I said. “True. Zeke learned early on the X-blade is only wielded by one of a balanced heart, Royalty. King, or Queen, of the realm of light and darkness. Zeke didn’t care for that though, so it was tossed aside. Even without his heart, I can still use some of it. I can create Keyblades, as well as new life. For example, before you is one of my former followers turn mutant. An angel. His name was Castiel, heh, was being the keyword. Now his mind is empty, his heart broken, just a loyal husk with incredible powers and strength. The world I made base on has...quite the plethora of unique and strong beings. As well as artifacts. In place of his heart, I placed an item called The Leviathan Tablet. There are lots of tablets on that world, each for a different creature, but you see what a Leviathan-Angel hybrid can do.” Kexez snapped his fingers, and Castiel’s head snapped open, his head becoming nothing but one big mouth as featherless wings sprouted from his back. I started to shake, my left eye turning into a Psychopaths. “This waste of life…” I growled. “You just torture people and strip away their life...just to make weapons?” I said, preparing myself to fight these two fuckers. “You want to see how strong this fucker is? Well I'll show you it's not enough.” I growled, spells circling around me as I boosted all my stats and the runes on my body glowed. “Halt.” Kexez and I looked to the left where the voice called out. There was someone walking in the armor Joy described adorned him when he fought Eve. “Hmm. Well, what warrants his arrival?” Kexez asked aloud. “Maybe to see my interpretation of the next keyblade war.” I say while motioning to the mountains of bodies in this barren hellscape. “I care not for your childish nightmares or this one’s hellish creations.” He said, motioning towards Kexez. “I come today to tell you that you are no longer the sole heir Ben.” “Cause when you have a Nobody who's connected to Kingdom Hearts your like ‘Gee should I wait for this one depressed fuck with a lot of issues or just go with Mr. God Like over here’.” I explain, my tone being very good at explaining how bullshit that sounds. “Am I wrong?” I asked bluntly, knowing full well he's gonna talk about Kexez here. “Very much so.” The old king said, making me confused. “It’s been so long since anyone met the qualifications. Let alone two. So, for my own amusement, I’m making it a competition for the crown. Before this second Keyblade war is to begin, you two will battle for my crown on the world without a heart. There, we will see if one with a heart can claim the crown, or something without a heart, but connected to them all.” “Well...it's a bit better than throwing me under the bus…” I said, taking a deep breath. “So, I'm glad to finally meet you...um...I think I heard your name before from Cripts old master...but Im not sure…” I say, remembering when I went into that Masters world above his grave. “A life I long since called dead. Now then, to make this official.” He said, raising a hand as mine, and from the look of it, Kexez’s right hands burned and smoked, the Nobody symbol branding us. “You both have armies, power, potential. Make it a good show.” He said, laughing as everything went black. I woke up and groaned. “Damn it…” I mutter, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes. “Well…” I muttered, looking at right hand to see if the symbol was there. And when I saw it was there I just groaned more. “That was a thing…” I got out of bed and got dressed, feeling tired even though my nightmare wasn't that horrific and I noticed the runes on my body glowed. “Oh yeah...I need to practice these…” I mutter. Too tired for much thought I just looked back at the bed. Pinkie and Twin were still there, as well as Aj and Silence. ”Wonder how she sleeps with those things on?” I thought to myself about Silences bandages. ”This shouldn't be your fight…” I thought before sighing, heading out to get some breakfast. In the kitchen I saw Celestia making rather large stacks of paincakes and Luna chugging a pot of coffee right out from the maker. “Morning Ben…” Luna grumbled, drinking more coffee. “I see I'm not the only one who hasn't been sleeping well.” I grumble, loving the smell of pancakes. “But morning...um Luna...have you looked into my dreams?” I ask the tired mare. “Hm? Oh, no. Can’t. Your brain’s frequency is something I can’t access. I think it’s the Nobodies who do it, I was only able to do it that one time cause of Jenny, through her dreams we traveled through the links from the heats, and from there you can technically say I used her as a shield to get into your mind. Speaking of, wonder how she is doing?” Meanwhile. “Week long bender!” Jenny screamed, standing atop a pile of drunken crusaders. “Where is Joy…..” Sweetie muttered through her drunken headache. With Ben. “Eh, can’t be too bad since your clone is there.” “Jenny's there…” I frowned. “And...oh wait, there going on a week long bender wondering where the hell Joy is…” I frowned. Luna sighed. “If it was any other child, I’d be worried.” Luna said, finishing off the coffee then putting the jar back to refill. “So, has anyone seen Chrysalis this morning?” Celestia asked. “She wasn’t in bed when I woke up and I haven’t seen her yet.” “No…” I say worriedly. “I hope she's alright.“ “Has she done this before?” Luna asked, setting the coffee pot to brew again. “Well, once. Don’t know what she did then either but she was back rather fast.” Celestia admitted. “Well looks like I'm gonna be having to look for her…” I sigh out, knowing there's plenty of spots to hide here. “How close are we to the capital?” “We’ll be there by days end.” Luna said. Watching the coffee drip into the pot. “Alright…” I nodded. “Do I...move in my sleep?” I ask nervously, thinking these nightmares would make me accidentally hit one of them. “Not really, you do mutter a lot, but it’s like… I don’t know, another language I think?” Celestia said, flipping an oversized pancake on her pan. “It’s really soft so we only hear it when one of us directly next to you.” “Anything you can recite? Cause the only language I know well is Common and some minor Latin…” I say nervously. “One word you say a lot I think it’s… Kersra, or something like that.” “Kersra?” I ask, raising an eyebrow in confusion. “I mean...Kexez is the closest I could think off…” I mutter worriedly, wondering what I spout while I'm asleep. “Maybe Pinkie or Twin recorded what I said because...reasons.” I rolled my eyes, knowing they probably would do something that weird. I wanted to talk about them being apart of my fights but I stopped myself. “When are those pancakes gonna be done?” “Ten more minutes or so.” “Okay, call me when your done. I'm gonna be looking for Chrysalis.” I say while getting a quick drink of water and downing it before walking off through the place, looking for Chrysalis. “Hope she's alright…” I muttered, searching for the sexy changeling. I went out to the deck and looked up. High up near the front was a form of Crows next, and there, I spotted her. She was looking at the landscape. “Hello?” I gently called out. “What are you doing out here Chrysalis?” “Hm?” She looked down at me. “Oh. Hey Ben. Nothing, just...looking at the landscape.” She admitted. “My whole life my hive lived underground, expanding the hive and having to sneak around to gather love to survive. Now… We can stay out in the open, no disguise needed, and not have to worry about when our next meal is… it’s a world my mother used to say was never meant for a changeling.” She spoke, gaze never leaving the landscape. “How's it feel to prove her so horribly wrong?” I ask her, looking to the landscape below us. “Half glad, half sad. Mom put so much for the hive in her time. We have been called lots throughout the years. Monsters. Demons. Shapeshifters. Ghosts. Angles once, but we always called ourselves hungry, or starving. For once my kind will know what it is like to never fear hunger or starvation. Look, my holes even healed up. Didn't know they could heal up or close, had them for as long as I can remember.” “I understand.” I nodded. “And glad to see those holes are healed up. But hey, right now your in a loving herd, with children on the way...oh god it's gonna be a nightmare to name all of the kids.” I groaned. “So...know anything about the Zebrican royals that I should be aware of?” “I know there was an old changeling hive there two thousand years ago. Doubt it’s still there. If it is, we’re in trouble.” “Why?” I asked worriedly. “Changelings from different hives act like wasps from different nests. We just fight, and fight, and fight until one hive remains. Something about the difference in our pheromones.” “Well if they are there they'll probably know about me and how I deal with bullshit against my family.” I say simply. “Maybe. Believe it or not my past invasion of Canterlot was tame compared to what past hives have done. There is one hive that’s the worst of them all though. It was the one time all other changeling hives managed to resist the urge to kill one another and worked to kill them specifically.” “Fed off wrath huh?” I asked curiously. “Or do all Changelings just feed off of one thing ?” “Normally, all changelings feed off love, but those ones… they fed on souls. Their queen was talented with magic, but was...selfish minded. She summoned forth a demon, and killed it. Legends speak of those who kill demons and devour their hearts… Being the queen, when she ate the demons heart, she gained all it’s powers, and so did all her hive. They weren’t changelings anymore, just shape shifting demons. Before, that war, there was over a hundred hives, after, there was four left. Mine, my great grandmothers at the time. The Zebrican hive, The South Hive and the Lunar hive.” “There's still so much I don't know about this world…” I sighed out. “But the Lunar hive? What, are they big Luna fans?” I joke, trying to lighten the mood. “Hehe, no. Some old legends say that the Lunar hive feeds not on love, but on celestial energy, energy from planets, or moons. They were also talented with magic, and fed from the moon every night. No tales of where their hive is though. Lots think they died off after the war, some say they were never real. Was WAY before I was born, so I don’t know for sure.” “Right then.” I nodded. “Uh...question, are Ursa Minors and Majors celestial creatures? And if so...are there others?” I ask, really curious on if there are others. “The Ursa are not Celestial themselves, but they reflect them. The only real Celestial creatures are Alicorns and from the look of it, Keyblades it seems.” “Apparently. But are there more than just the Ursa? Like Scorpions, Lions, anything else?” I ask, really hoping I can possibly tame a celestial scorpion and ride it, or maybe a celestial lion. “Not to my knowledge. Maybe Twilight or that other Twilight might know… Say, have you noticed something off about that one? The one from Daybreak I mean?” “She's just going through some stuff.” I shrug, not lying but dodging the question like Zeke dodging a much needed nerf. “Maybe. There’s just something about her… I might just be paranoid or something but I swear it’s like looking into her eyes there’s someone else looking through them. Know what I mean?” I put my hand over my left eye. “You'd be saying the same thing to me…” I mutter sadly, knowing I have to face this and accept it but it still scares me. “Hm?” “Just...something I'm wondering if I should show you all…” I sigh out. “Yeah, I-” Chrysalis started before stopping abruptly. She turned he head to the right so fast it would make an owl jealous. “Did...you sense that?” I took a deep breath and focused, trying to sense what she felt and bringing out my new keyblade just in case. It was an energy, new, that just appeared. It was familiar yet different. I took a sniff to the air and smelled someone… female, that was all I could make out. “Someone’s here.” I growled, looking around to see if they were here specifically. Chrysalis got up, looking out and over the edge of the deck. Nearby, she opened a sack and pulled out a spyglass. She peered down it for a time before speaking. “I see someone.” She said, handing me the spyglass. I took it and looking into it, I saw someone… they were holding a rather large axe, dressed in a full set of metal armor, like a knights, and they were covered in this unnatural red aura. They looked around for a time before taking...something out, and vanished in flurry of firefly like green lights. When they left I looked at Chrysalis, the both of us feeling that energy leave. “That...was very weird...and very worrying.” I say worriedly. “That power...it felt familiar...god who was that?” I asked worriedly, wondering if I ever saw someone with either an axe or armor like she had. “You think the others felt it too?” “It would be weird if they didn't cause...that's a lot of power that just up and vanished.” I say. “This is weird…” I ran back inside to find the others. As I passed an open door I saw Twi- No...Bara… She-He was reading that book I found. The one from the cave. “Hey, did you sense that energy and if so do you know who it belongs to?” I ask. “I felt it.” They said simply, flipping the page. “Who it belongs too I don’t know, but I know what causes that. Figured you would know. Your dead friend carried that Keyblade.” They then looked up at me, a smirk on their face. “Looks like things in Daybreak are going to get interesting.” “Then it sounds like you need to go back before shit goes haywire.” I say, worried about how someone just suddenly had that power here. “And what's in the book given your reading it?” I asked, not having gotten around to reading the whole thing yet. “Most of it talks about the Gazing Eye and No Name Keyblades, their abilities, and how to replicate them with spells. It’s interesting, but not what I was hoping for.” “Doesn't it talk about Nothingness in some way?” I asked, kind of hoping to learn something about it cause of speeded up deadlines. “Not really. Sorry pup, but when it comes to Nothingness there’s already little to say there. Only one with the answers is the King himself.” She said, closing the book and getting up. “But I guess you are right, I don't wanna miss seeing who is this new wielder of the X-blade.” She said as a DTD opened behind her. “Or...too Daybreak to make sure something bad doesn't happen?” I suggest. “Nah. What’s the fun in that?” They asked as they walked into the DTD, it closing behind them. “Of course…” I sighed out before heading off to find the others and talk to them about the sudden power. “Well...let's hope there not going to my house...300+ daughter's, Joy’s herd going on a drunken bender...oi vey.” I sigh out. Joy and the Straw Hat crew exited the bar and saw someone they really hoped they wouldn't meet. “Kuma!?” Robin gasped. “Well shit.” Joy frowned, but looked closer. “Wait...that's not Kuma!” Joy shouted, the giant person opened his mouth and light glowed in it. “Shit!” Joy yelped before bolting over and uppercutting the robot, causing it's head to snap up and fire the bolt towards one of the giant trees, causing a huge explosion when it hit. “No, they finished it!?” Robin gasped. “Finished what?” Franky asked bluntly. “The Pacifista…” Robin said worriedly. “A robot made to look like the real Kuma and follow absolute orders…” “So basically their killing machines for the government? Wonderful.” Joy grumbled before the fight went into full swing. After about two minutes the machine went down and exploded, Luffy, Sanji and Zoro all panting from the exertion. “There...we beat it.” “Oh dear.” A laid back voice said in surprise, making everyone snap over to see a very tall man dressed in a yellow and white striped outfit, a navy admiral cape drapped across his shoulders. “Admiral Kizaru!?!” Joy panicked, knowing exactly where this is going. “Admiral!?!” Chopper, Brook and Usopp all screamed in terror. “You destroyed one of our Pacifista robots huh?” Kizaru said, seeing the crater the explosion caused. “Well I better no let you all go.” He said before raising his leg, the entire body part shining a bright light. “Move!” Joy shouted, everyone diving for cover as a beam of light shot out, causing another big explosion. “This is all I needed right now.” Joy muttered, drawing Hearts Guardian cause he wasn't sure if Lindworm could hurt a man literally made of light. “A Keyblade huh?” Kizaru said in more surprise. “Who are you little guy?” “The names Joy.” He said, ready to fight the guy. “Hold that thought.” He said before another Pacifista walked up to the group. “Oh come on!” Sanji shouted. “Another one!?” “We’ll just keep breaking them until there isn't any left!” Luffy shouted before leaping over to fight the new robot. “Where'd you come from kid? Off world?” Kizaru asked, creating a sword made of pure light. “Off world, but I come with a message.” Joy said. “And you can take this up to your superiors, but the Straw Hat pirates are under the protection of the Prince of Nothingness, one of the, being his Bard.” Joy said. “And the second Keyblade war is coming, the Prince is extending his hand to all the survivors or any keyblader wanting to keep the light alive to join him under his banner.” Joy told Kizaru. Kizaru’s normally laid back demeanor seemed to go stock still. “I've heard of the war kid…” “So the Prince wants us old timers to join him to fight the war huh?” Rayleigh asked, walking up with his normal sword and Ends of the Earth in both his hands. “I never was apart of the war, but I heard it was the bloodiest of all time...not even the most blood thirstiest of pirates would want to be apart of it if they knew it's horrors.” “Well I'm just putting the message out. We need all the help we can get, and three survivors of the keyblade war are also out spreading the word. We only want existence to stay intact and people survive after all this.” “Hmm…” Kizaru hummed, looking over and seeing the Straw Hats being flung away by the real Kuma. “I'll send word to the Government Joy. We may not want to work with pirates...but if it's to save our world then so be it.” “I'll put out word as well to the people I know.” Rayleigh said. “Thanks.” Joy nodded, before Kuma stood behind him. “Sent the others away?” Joy asked. “Yes.” He nodded, seeing the keyblade in Joys hands. “That weapon…” “He works for the Prince of Nothingness Kuma...I'll tell you the rest when we head back to HQ.” Kizaru said, his laid back nature seeming to take a back seat here. Kuma nodded. “I know a place…” “If it means more help...then let's get going.” Joy said, taking a deep breath before he vanished into thin air from Kuma sending him away with his Paw Paw ability. Den had Cadence and I in the living room to practice some stuff. “So...after all of this your going back to the Crystal Empire?” I asked Cadence curiously. “I...don’t know honestly. I know it’s my kingdom, they need me, but… Could you go back to the place you saw your loved one murdered?” She asked me. I wanted to make a joke about how I kind of abandoned Earth to be hear but kept it to myself. “Sooner or later your gonna have to face it...even if it hurts.” Cadence sighed. “I know… But right now I just… want to stay away from it.” “It's alright, stay as long as you want.” I tell her gently, hiding my worry about that weird knight woman behind just talking and practice. “Oh question, Chrysalis didn't know but are there any other creatures like the Ursa?” I ask her, having a feeling she would know cause of Twilight. “Hm...I remember Twilight did a report on them, they have a sort of cousin way up north, past the Crystal Empire. They’re only seen during an Aurora though.” “And other species besides bear?” I ask curiously. “I was told the Ursa and anything like them aren't celestial beings...even if they have constellations in their fur.” “Well, they say there is a special type of Dove in the White Tail Woods. It’s like a Phoenix, but shines bright blue and freezes what it touches, rather than burns. They say if it’s caught, the one who catches it gets a wish. It’s an old foals tail so I’m not sure if it’s true or not.” “Nightmare Moon was treated as an old foals tale, Im sure the Crystal empire was also treated as it, Slender Pony needs to stop staring at this house and actually come up and say hi, and there was a war on cheese...I'm pretty sure an Ice Swan granting wishes isn't that much of a story when you think about it.” I explain. “I guess. Most of Equestria is unexplored so it is likely. Still…” “Hello.” Den said as she entered the room, carrying Baby Braig, Nancy, and some diapers. “Today is Diaper changing.” Den said. “Goody.” I grumble. “Alright, let's get on with this.” I got a whack on the back of the head. Looking behind me, I saw it was Cript. “Pay attention. It’s a lesson males and females need to know.” “That's why I said ‘let's get on with this’.” I said. “Just because I don't like it doesn't mean I'm not gonna do it.” I huff, rubbing the back of my head. “Less attitude then.” Cript said, pulling out a book and flipping through the pages. “Fine fine…” I say. “But...I talked to Humanity if you needed to know.” I tell Cript, not knowing if he knew it but still wanting to tell him as I got ready to start with my new job here. “Really? So, how did that go?” Cript asked as Den handed me Nancy, the pup drawing a blank expression upon looking at me. “Oh you know, a good talk about how Psychopath is it's other half, how it might be possible to have both Psychopath and Humanity powers, and how if I don't fully understand good and evil my nightmares will continue to get worse.” I explain, starting to change Nancy’s diaper. “Welcome to my hell, population now two.” Cript said, petting/messing up my hair. “And besides that whole thing the King of Nothingness is now wanting me to beat Kexez in a fight to keep my future job cause you know, he wants entertainment when he can pick a god like douche.” “Called it!” Cript yelled, suddenly running towards a window. “You owe me fifty rem Jesus! Pay up ya pot smoking hippie!” As soon as Cript moved from the window, a small bag was thrown in from nowhere. “That’s more like it.” He said as he picked up the small bag. “It's been awhile since someone bet on me doing something or being apart of something.” I sigh out. “But you know, Zeke needs to be kicked down a few pegs and his Nobody is the closest thing right now for me to shove all my rage on.” “Had an issue with the old X-blade wielder?” Cript asked, counting the money in the bag. “Zeke as a nice guy and all, but when he was basically gifted god like powers right out the gate while we all have to work for it…” I frowned. “And then a bunch of other crap happens, he's the cause for this new war coming up…” I sigh out. “Just a bunch of crap going on right now.” I said. “Did you ever see Zeke use the full extent of his powers?” Cript asked. “No for a few reasons, one because we’re not at the part of the story where we all get god like powers, two because he didn't feel like it, and three because he'd possibly rather just be a hero with a keyblade rather than god.” I say honestly. “Or is it for another reason?” “Well, if he is a reflection of me, and he is, it’s likely just he didn’t care for it. Even before I became an Admin I was OP. My magic was unmatched, ranged combat was very accurate, swords and hand to hand, I was fast and deadly. Did I take advantage of that? Nope. Never cared. I used what I was given to help others when needed, but I just took what life kept throwing at me. It’s how I met Lyra, this whole massive family stuff happened. I only became an Admin because it was the one thing I chose. I only chose it because this is a power too great and easily abused. I’ve made creation better, but I accepted it because, guess why?” “I don't know, I wasn't born great like you and Zeke.” I said sarcastically even if it was true on a technical sense. “Says you. I accepted it because what I was, half a creation, half an admin...it’s what the ‘Pureblood Admins’ needed. They were dying off. A thousand years to us is a nanosecond to them, but they still grow old and die. There’s only about ten that can use Code, the remaining four hundred or so can’t. So, me being an Admin makes you…” Cript pointed at me, wanting me to finish. “Part admin?” I asked. “And we have a winner.” Cript said, moving a finger as a bell rang from...somewhere. “All of you kids have the potential to use Code, but like Humanity, it’s something you have to develop and learn to call forth. Like Humanity likely told you, there is no point to anything, only self motivated purpose. Mine is to keep all reality from screwing itself over too bad, yours is your family, and to be king of nothingness, but being in my family, I am keeping doors open for you for higher purposes, only if you want them. Whether you do or not, they will be there, but it’s your choice.” “Well I already have an ass ton of things to do...and given current trends in my life I'm most likely going to have full Psychopath powers along with Humanity somehow…” I shook my head. “Jeez, came a long way from being just an average guy with super powers to suddenly becoming...all of this.” As I finished up Diapering Nancy, Cript nodded. “Well yes, but the question you keep forgetting to ask is. Do you want all of this? Do you want to be King of Nothing? A World Renowned Hero?” “A world renowned hero? That's fine, got the powers so might as well do something good with them. King of Nothing? Well that's been predetermined for me and I've done a lot of work for it so might as well.” I shrug. “And then everything else? Well I'll get to it when it actually becomes a more relevant thing.” I explain. “But if this all means I can keep my family safe...then sure it seems fine with me.” “Good an-” Cript suddenly stopped, his eyes growing wide. Like he just saw a ghost. “Cript?” Den asked. “I gotta go.” He said quickly, vanishing in thin air. “Well...that's not good.” I frown. “I’ve seen him like that before. When something bad just happens…” Den spoke, looking uneasy. “Wonder what it was?” Then, there was a beep on my Assistant. “Hmm?” I hum, looking at my Assistant to see what was up. Attention Family. Spike “The Dragon” Sparkle, son of Mother Twilight #1 … Has passed. Age: 16 May 14, 2002 - May 21, 2018 Level: 983,278 “Ah, that's why.” I said. “It happens to the best of us, no matter how hard we try.” I say, not knowing if I met the guy but I did feel sad about him being dead. I looked up at Den...she was in tears. “I...have to go…” She said, getting up and leaving. “Must have been a pretty good kid…” I mutter, not knowing much about my family but family dying...well I've been through that already. “He was the first.” I turned around, seeing Cript, eyes red from tears and...his arms were black? Almost charcoal. “My...first child. Adopted, when Twilight married in…” I took a deep breath. “Oh...right.” I say, not entirely feeling like a dick since I had literally no emotional investment with that Spike but knowing how it feels to lose someone truly close to you. “I'm sorry…” “And now...he’s the first to die, and not come back… Ever.” Cript added. “How did...he die?” Cadence asked. “A Delete. I...wanted to explain later, but now seems as good as any.” Cript said, taking a seat next to me. “You know about Nexus and all that they do, right?” Cript asked me. “Just the part about you and their worship for Psychopaths, but besides that I have literally no idea about them.” I said. “Just some super evil society from what I gathered.” “Well, to put it short I recently found out they have been...Evolving. So to speak. They no longer care for the Psychopaths. They moved on to Deletes, much worse, but way more rare and hard to find. They are made inside the void, and anything they touch or even get near…. vanishes...Admins included. I learned making enough excess energy around one can keep you alive...long enough to kill one. But they...are making them. I don’t know how, but they are. They are becoming those Deletes...and they killed Spike… His mind, soul...it’s gone. They left his body as a warning… They’re going from parasites, to predators.” “Can my time limit get any shorter?” I frown, hating how another big thing is happening that I have to super prepare for. “Relax. This script you are all working from is made to accelerate time for you and the others involved in it. For it, it will feel normal. Outside, a month for you is an hour outside it. You have time. I’m the one...who’s going to have to step it up outside this Script.” Cript said. His body was twitching all over. “If these things are made with Void…” I say. “Maybe I could make something to be its opposite and stop them, ya know because Void and Nothingness are like Light and Darkness, they can cancel each other out if the circumstances are met.” I explain. “But then someone would make an ‘Alt’ for my Control and their Delete…” I rub my temple. “I'm so sorry for sounding like an idiot…” “Heh...it’s alright. Your idea has a basis, but until you can grab that crown… It’s just a theory. I need to go… When Den calms down tell her...I’m out of retirement.” Cript said, vanishing in thin air again. “...Feels like your family is, uh...going to war?” Cadence said, rocking Braig back and forth. I picked up Nancy and cradled her like a loving father would. “My extended family is going to war with super bad guys...while my family here is preparing to go to war against regular bad guys.” I sighed out. “And here I was hoping, after I got my crown, I would just start being a good husband and a good father…” I say sadly, tearing up a little as those thoughts seemed farther and farther away. “Wonder if that’s how Cript feels?” I looked at Cadence, confused. “You didn’t hear? His voice when he said ‘tell Den I’m out of retirement’? It sounded like that wasn’t the first time he’d had to say that.” “I suppose.” I said. “I don't know much about this whole family...but oh well, it happens.” “I’m amazed.” “By what?” I asked curiously. “Your lack of empathy.” Cadence said plainly. “If it was Nancy, or Braig, or stars forbid Twilight...you’d be in a worse place than Cript, and he lost his son. Just because you didn’t know him, doesn’t mean you should shrug it off.” “I heard my mother get her brains blown out with a shotgun and saw the mess.” I tell her. “I saw my husband murdered right next to me. His blood soaked DEEP into my fur.” “It's not the fact I don't have empathy.” I state, looking dead in her eyes. “I understand they're in pain, but I quite literally have no emotional investment to that specific Spike. I probably never met him, I don't know anything about him besides he's Spike, and that's it. It's sad yes but death…” I took a deep breath. “Death is a thing that takes us all in unknown number of ways, at any time.” I shook my head. “A friend of mine once told me the best thing we can hope for is the people we care about not die within our life time...but being immortal doesn't give you that privilege.” I tell her. “I do care, and I do have empathy, but when you don't have any emotion behind it...it's just a thing, like when my cousin I barely knew died one day, I was a bit sad but besides that I barely talked to him and I didn't know much about him so I couldn't really be all that sad.” I shrug. “You understand or are you gonna tell me I'm a heartless dick?” “You want the truth?” She asked me, looking away and back to Braig. “Go on.” I say to her. “I hope,” She started, petting Braigs head. “These little ones come out more like their mothers...than their father.” She said, taking Nancy from me and walking to the nursery. “So do I Cadence, at least then they'll be good people.” I call out to her. I sat there for a time, contemplating everything. I began to wonder, and realize, how similar I was to others back on earth. Realizing we only cared about immediate family, those we grew up with, were attached to, we’re devastated when they are gone, but someone across the world dies, no one other than those who knew them will care, or notice for that matter. ”Damn. No wonder it all went to hell come 2012.” I thought. ”Oh well...not like it's gonna change anything right now, Cadence can think I'm a monster all she wants...too bad she's technically kinda right…” I think to myself. So, this is his dwelling? This White Knight… Hm. Guess it’s time to test his metal. As I contemplated getting a drink, ALL my instincts screamed as I jumped forward, right as a beam of pure light tore through the room behind me. When I looked back, the whole of the room behind where I was sitting was...gone. “Looks like some cock ring *really* wants to test my patience.” I growled, casting all my buff spells right now just in case. “So! Who the fuck destroyed a part of my house!?!” I barked. Outside I saw a dark purple mare. She was dressed in black, mane was rather wild looking, her horn was...broken...and she was wielding… Master Keeper?! “So, you’re the White Knight? Rumor had it you were traveling across to the Zebra lands. Guess they were wrong.” She said simply. I saw a large scar over her eye. “Okay...what bad guy are you working for that's obviously lying his ass off to have you be his loyal servant?” I asked the mare simply. She laughed softly. “Oh no, my Master didn’t send me here. This is strictly personal.” She said, taking some steps forward. “I was the only one with one of these Keyblades for SO long, and I’ve been itching to test another wielders metal. Then you show up, playing Hero for Equestria like it’s a sappy comic book.” “Cause being a cunt and letting people die is a bad thing.” I tell her. “And trust me...you do not want to fight me lady.” I frowned. “Funny, I was gonna say the same thing.” She said, her eye with the scar over it changing from it’s light blue/green to a grey brown. I took a deep breath and sighed out, pulling out my Lexicon and opening it up. “Well...if you insist.” I say, an open book appearing behind the mare and slamming closed with her inside. “Off to book world with you.” I say simply. Before I could disband it, the book burst open, it’s pages flying around as… a dark impulse claw reached out, and she climbed herself out. “Nice try.” She said, brushing off the scrapped paper. “My turn.” She said, falling into darkness that quickly rushed towards under me. I jumped back, but the claw came out and grabbed me, and pinned me down. “Cocky, are we?” She asked, the darkness irradiating off her made me feel ill. I put my hand close to her stomach. “Gravity Maelstrom!” I shout, a ball of super condensed gravity hitting her stomach at point blank range and getting her off me. “Cocky? No. Just strong.” I told her while getting up quickly, She chuckled, striking Master Keeper into the ground before placing both hands over her heart. “Come now, my guardian!” She called. I held back a scream as a massive amount of darkness poured out from her, forming a figure in Keyblade armor. The mare fainted, and the dark armored figure picked up the Keyblade and cast a protect spell over her before raising it to me… that armor...looks familiar... “Is that fucking Eraqus?” I frowned, drawing my keyblade and frozen pride as I prepared for this new fighter. They charged. FAST! They were swinging way too fast for me to dodge, so I was forced to use Frozen Pride to keep the attacks from hitting. Damn, I remember from the game he was a pain, and that was him normal! He has to be supercharged like this from the darkness! Think damn it, how am I gonna deal with this? “Twilight Hold!” I shout, a twilight thorns suddenly appearing around the dark being and clamping down on it, starting to tear into it. “Ben!” I looked at the hole in my home, seeing Aqua and Terra jump in. “We just came back and felt that darkness, what’s- What?!” Aqua yelled upon seeing the dark form of her former master. “But that’s...how?” “Master…” Terra said, disbelief across his face as he dropped his Keyblade. “Master... it's me...Terra.” He said, taking a few steps forward. “Don’t.” I tell him. “That guy...he's taken all the darkness from the bitch that wrecked my house. I'm not sure if he's in there or not but one thing's for sure.” I growled, runic circles swirling around me. “Bitch is gonna die.” I could tell my warning fell on deaf ears as he kept moving closer. “Master...dad...please, what happened?” What was once Eriquis looked over at Terra… then shot a ball of darkness towards him. “Terra!” Aqua yelled, rushing and pushing him out of the way...only to take the full force of the attack herself. When Terra his the floor, he snapped back to reality… just in time to see a bright light envelope Aqua’s body… and she changed...their wedding vows magic taking effect...she is becoming a Keyblade. Terra was, the best I could put, speechless. Quickly getting up and taking the newly formed Keyblade. “Aqua… no...no!” He wailed, tears flowing free like a river. I closed my eyes, took a deep shaky breath, but my rage couldn't be contained. The ground beneath be cracked as I slammed into the shadow armor with Skysplitter, to any outside viewer you would have thought you saw the very air crack like glass, and sent the bastard flying with God knows how much force. “FALLEN DOWN!” I roared, the point of where the armor was seemed to sparkle a little, before a massive ball of energy exploded outwards. “How fucking dare you!” I barked, storming over and grabbing Tempest by the neck. “Wake up!” I barked at the unconscious mare, trying to wake the mare up from her stupid power nap. Not three seconds later the fallen Eriquis rushed me, knocking me aside and gently placing Tempest down. Once he saw she was safe he turned to me… I could feel he was pissed now. “YOU KILLED AQUA YOU CUNT!” I shouted at the armor. “If you can even understand me, you'd know you fucked up royally!” I growled, readying Skysplitter to beat this guy. ”I will... protect this mare…” He spoke, raising his Keyblade to me. ”No matter the cost. “You've given up on your students huh?” I ask him, getting into a battle stance as power radiated from me. “Well bring it you old fuck.” I growl. Eriquis rushed me. I brought up Skysplitter ready to slam it on his head, only for his to vanish at the last moment. I was then wrapped tightly in chains of light…. Or darkness rather. The chains pulsating with it and burned my skin. Crap, I can't move at all! I focused and thorns shot out and wrapped around the chains, pulling and breaking the chains as I was able to move thankfully and broke the rest. “Come on, that the best you got?” He simply raised a hand, and a DTD opened behind me. Like an idiot, I looked behind me, and got wrapped in those chains again, only this time, there was something different… I was frozen. I really can't move at all! Eriquis nodded, fading back to shadow and returning to Tempest, who woke up immediately after the last of the darkness returned to her. Upon seeing me she laughed. “Well, seems my Guardian did well, as usual.” I wanted to retort, but couldn't even talk. “Stopga is way overpowered, but necessary sometimes.” She said, walking up to me. “Hm, so much rage… so unwilling to use it properly.” She said, pushing me into the DTD. “The world you are going too recently appeared, and is very unique. Good luck escaping.” She said, darkness clouded everything...then I unfroze, almost falling over as I found myself stop a buildings roof edge. Everything around me was… it looked like a bomb went off here. “Well...doesn’t this look fucking peachy.” I frowned, trying to summon my keyblade to get home. Nothing. I could feel it trying to come, but it couldn't. Like it was lost or...being kept away. “Okay…” I said before focusing, trying to open a Door to Nothingness so I could get home cause if Keyblades won't work let's go with something that isn't light. Still nothing. Not even Nothingness works? What is this place? “Woah!” I heard someone help followed be a crash behind me. Turning around, I saw...Genos? “Darn, that mare got me. When will I learn to stop underestimating my opponents? Oh, hi Ben.” He said, getting up. “Okay...so we're...somewhere.” I said with a frown, looking around to see where we were. “Seriously where are we?” “My scans show very little. I am not detecting life, but I am picking up a familiar geological structure or the area matching one within my data base.” “What's the familiar structure?” I asked him. “Well, this location matches the city known as… Ohio, of the United States. It's a sixty five percent match, the rest seems to be either flooded or obliterated.” Ohio...my home state…”That cunt shoved us back to my world.” I growled. “Well now we know where we are…” “So it-” “Ahhhhhh!” Crash. As if anime logic dictated, Trixie fell from the sky...and crashed on top of Genos. “Ouch! That Tempest is a bitch!” She growler, getting up. “Oh! Sorry Genos.” She said, helping the cyborg up. “Oh! Ben, thank goodness you are alright!” “If that bitch hurts any of my children I swear to god she will be for death!” I barked in rage. “Don’t worry. Den and Cadence got them out of the house and Jenny, surprisingly not hungover, is keeping her busy so they can evacuate Ponyville. She’s calling a lot of heartless.” I stared at Trixie and Genos, the two seeing my Psychopath eye plain as day and it was pretty creepy. “Good….as...as long as they're all okay.” I say, thankful for my family to be safe. “So...welcome to Earth, my original world.” Trixie took a look around. “It's a… it's a dump, can't lie and say it's nice. Sorry.” “That's what happens when the end of the world happens.” I shrugged. “But this world used to be full of life and was fine, where we didn't know people like you two weren't just fictional characters.” I explain simply. “But the day I was sent to Equestria with all my powers...well that was the day the world was ending.” I explained. “So yeah, it's fine to call it a dump.” “So, what are we going to do?” Genos asked. “No idea…” I sigh out. “I can't summon my keyblade for whatever reason, and I can't open a door with Nothingness for whatever fucking reason…” “Hmm…” Genos looked over at Trixie, the two nodded and summoned their weapons fine. “Hm. So it is just Keyblades that cannot be summoned? Strange.” I summoned Skysplitter and cycled through all my weapons that weren't keyblades. “Strange indeed…” I mutter before floating up. “Well we better start searching for answers on how to get home, cause I need to rip the rest of that unicorns horn off and shove it up her ass.” I growled. Trixie threw a card up, it grew large enough for her and Genos to ride as we flew around. It was a short ride before I spotted a familiar building… my home…”And...here's my old home..” I muttered while diving down towards my old house, wondering how wrecked it was. As we got closer I saw it didn't look too bad. Obvious damages were fixed and aside from a broken window looked good. Upon walking inside I felt uneasy. A lot of memories here… when I looked around, I saw what looked like a corpse laid on the couch. “And why is a corpse freeloading in my house?” I ask with a frown, having a bad feeling about this. Genos walked up to examine it, it's body was almost mummified. It's eyes were even long since rotted away. As soon as Genos touched it, it moved, grabbing his arm and made him jump back. “That, it's not alive! I’m not detecting life from it?!” “Get...out…” It heaved, barely able to move. “This house...belonged to a good kid long ago, an old student of mine… I won't...let you defile it…” “Wait…” I said, remembering that voice. “Mr. Torres?” I asked, kneeling down and looking over the mummy. “Mr. Torres is that you?” “Ben… is that...really you?” He wheased out. I...how is he even talking? “I can't see. Eyes rotted ten years ago.” “Ten…” I mutter before pulling out my Lexicon and sifting through it, before closing my eyes and humming an incantation, the mummy was starting to be imbued with unholy energy, my old teacher regaining former strength. “Believe me Mr. Torres, I have a lot to talk about, but what do you mean ten years?” I ask, still very thankful I copied literally all the spells Ainz knew, which happened to be all the spells in Yggdrasil as well as a mastery of Necromancy. “Well… how to put it.” He said, being able to move a bit more, but the spell is still taking effect. “2012 ended badly. Lots died, monsters appeared afterwords. There was just war and survival for sixteen years.” Torres said, sounding sad. “Then, thirty years back, god appeared, said all who is left here, for our sins of violence, tainting the world in blood of our own kind, we will never know the afterlife. We will be bound to our bodies til they rot completely and after, remain as ghosts upon this soil for all eternity. After that, the dead and living fought… if I counted right, and I did, you know I never fail at math Ben, lot like you… it's been close to a hundred years since 2012.” “A hundred years…” I mutter. “But...I've only been gone for half a year at least…” I said, Mr. Torres being able to see even without his eyes and he could tell I was a fuck lot different. “Others...came here, last fall. Time...is a fickle thing Ben, remember that.” He said, able to move proper now and could see, his eyes now glowing orbs. “Wow...always figured you for a furry.” He laughed. I couldn't help but laugh at that. “You have no idea. Trixie, Genos, this is Mr. Torres, my...very old math teacher.” “Pleasure.” Genos said. “Hi…” Trixie said, clearly a bit creeped out. “So, Ben...what happened to you?” Torres asked. “I went looking for you on day Zero but you weren't in the library. Also, here.” He said, handing me a large, old pile of papers. “You owe me like so much home and school work.” “I think I'm way passed a hundred years of home and school work here.” I chuckle. “But God...decided me and a few special others were worthy enough to go see the real universe...which your in right now cause he kind of...died not too long ago if memory serves.” I said honestly. “Huh… well that's unexpected.” Mr. Torres said. “Well, guess it's good you came when you did. Any longer my body would have fully rotted and I'd have gone spirit.” “Well...a friend of mine was so gracious to basically help me become a Lord of the Undead.” I tell him. “So cliff notes, all the things we thought were fictional are all actually real, Kingdom Hearts is a prominent thing in this plane of existence, I have a harem of twenty very sexy women and growing and I'm going to sooner or later be king of a planet.” I explain to him simply. “Also I am all magical with special super powers.” “So your life went from high school loser to poorly thought out fanfiction huh?” Torres laughed. “Pretty much.” I chuckle. “So, is there anyone else still around here I should know about?” “Only ghosts, which reminds me, you best leave before they come around. The ghosts are just murderous and LOVE playing mind games. You got to get off this haunted hunk of rock before sundown.” “We’d love to but…” I frown. “We kind of can't at the moment…” I said worriedly. “But I know an ass ton of spells to subjugate undead so...maybe that'll help.” “Maybe. Let's hope so. Cause come sundown they will be the most active.” “Alright.” I nodded. “Think you can move around enough to help us?” I ask. “Or do you need a bit more of a pick me up?” I ask, noting I still had plenty of MP to last me a long time. “I think I’m good.” He said, getting and standing up. “Damn. Haven't been able to stand for twenty years… good thing my nerves are still dead, otherwise I’d have some serious cramps.” “Alright then.” I nodded. “This still leaves the question as to how we get off this world.” Genos said. “Back when my body still was mobile and not too rotten I saw some off world types getting toyed with by ghosts, didn't hear them start that ship of there's so it might still be there. Granted it would be seventy years old, but it's your best bet.” Torres said. “Want to get off this hell hole?” I asked Torres curiously, not wanting to leave a friend here. “Hell yes. I never thought I’d miss being a teacher so much.” He replied. “Alright.” I nodded. “Ever used a weapon before?” I asked him, flipping through my book and finding a spell to give undead warriors special weapons. “Cause I can give you a weapon if you need.” “Can they fend off or harm ghosts?” “It's a magical weapon yes.” I nodded. “What kind of weapon do ya want?” “What do you have?” “I can create a lot of things with the ‘Create Greater Magic Item’ spell.” I tell him. “I guess just a sword is alright.” “What kind? Short, normal or great?” I ask honestly. “There are dozens of swords to choose from.” “Normal.” “Alright.” I nod before my book glowed. “Create Greater Magic Item.” I said. “One epic level undead bane sword for ya, only works against your foes, not you, coming right up.” My book glowed for a bit before a sword appeared on the ground before me. It was a simple knight sword, with a light green glow around the blade. Mr. Torres picked it up. “Sweet.” “Glad you like it.” I said. “So, let's get going then.” I say, closing my book but keeping it out, digging in my pocket and using an ether on myself just to make sure my mana was up. “So, which way was the ship?” “The park, and we best hurry, it will be dark-” Mr. Torres stopped as we all saw the sky start to darken. “Crap! Run!” He yelled, Genos, Trixie and I following him. “Hastega!” I shout, four copper clocks appeared behind the four of is with the hands spinning faster and faster, doubling our speed. “We’re faster now, let's pick up the pace.” We ran, memory and Torres leading us towards the park. “I still can't believe it's been over a hundred years…” I mutter sadly, finding my old home destroyed to such a horrid extent. “Even after those monsters stopped coming here those left here didn't stop breaking stuff. Last I heard New York got the worst of it.” Torres said as we turned the corner. The old park near the town hall was always beautiful, but now… it's dead. No grass, trees, not even bugs look like they wander around here. It made the ship easy to spot though. “There! That thing has to have some power.” “Lets hope, and if not I probably know a spell to fix it.” I say, hoping to get there before the ghosts find us. “Almost there…” As we reached the home stretch the sky turned dark, and we all were thrown back by an unseen force. “Shit.” Torres and I said. We all got back up and ethereal people started appearing...I know these people. John the local handyman...Suzie the librarian… Harry the Gamestop guy…”John...Suzie...Harry…” I said slowly. “It's me Ben...believe it or not.” Before I took a step forward I realized something...this is what Terra did before- I quickly side stepped and dodged a wave of energy, looking back at the three I saw their eyes were all white, and they seemed… primal, almost. “Hello?” I asked worriedly, ready to defend myself just in case. They didn't reply, each of them letting out a horrifically loud scream that broke whatever glass wasn't broken yet. They then vanished, but my animal instincts told me they weren't gone. “Ben, once someone here loses their body completely they are just mindless killer- gah!” Torres yelped as he was flung against a nearby building. “So glad I still don't have nerves…” He grunted. I growled before I opened my book and light flared out of it. “Consecration!” I shouted, a giant circle appeared out from under me and shot outwards also having Trixie, Genos and Torres in it. “Spirits, get out of my friends and speak.” I demand, the circle glowing with power at my command. The three of them appeared again before me, it looked like they were fighting the spell. “Can you hear me?” I ask the spirits. “Cause I'm sure the librarian would understand the words of a kid that's been in her library too many times to count, the handyman who's helped my dad fix stuff, and the gamestop guy I always met when I bought new games.” I told the three. “I know I look...a lot different but you guys couldn't have lost yourselves here.” “G...g….g…” They started saying, the spell forcing them to speak. “Ge...ge...get!” “Get what?” I asked them. “Get...get...get… GET OFF OUR PLANET!” They screamed, a powerful wave blasted us all back and on the floor. I looked up, seeing them changing the sky...lightning. “AND DIE!” They shouted as the lightning came down. I flinched, closing my eyes… I opened them again and...that person… the one I saw through the telescope. “Who the hell?” I gulped, wondering what more bad lucked I'm getting thrown with. “Who are you?” They turned to look at me. They nodded and looked at the ghosts. They pulled out a wand of some sort and waved it over their rather nasty looking axe. The axe gained a goldish color. He rushed them, the axe actually hacking one of them in half then he spun around, the second blow making the ghost vanish as they turned to light and that light went into the new figure. They then used the wand and summoned a lightning bolt like Zeus and shot it at the ghosts. The area of impact hitting them both as they did the same as the first one who fell. “Who are you? And what the hell did you do?” I ask with a frown, having a weird feeling this was someone like that Knight thing in my head a while ago. They pulled off their helmet...and my jaw dropped. I saw the face of a friend I thought was gone for good… “Long time no see Ben.” The blue eyed blond Ventral said. “Well...I'll be damned.” I said. “It's been a while man.” I smiled. “So...what's with the get up?” “I have been on the best RPG adventure. Let me tell you about it.” Zeke said as we all got on the ship. Nobody meets a friendZeke and Ben sat across from one another as Genos got the ship working and they took off. There was an understandable silence. “So, first fight against spirits?” Zeke asked, breaking the silence. “I could have handled it.” Ben said while showing his Lexicon. “All the necromantic abilities of an elder lich who's mastered Death magic to the max.” “Hacks.” Zeke said with a laugh. “So...you’re probably wondering where I have been.” “I've been wondering when I'm gonna have to murder your Nobody and dark half.” Ben frowned. “Wait, what? Why? Also… I have a Nobody too? Damn, what did I miss after I exploded?” Ben proceeded to tell ‘Zeke’ all the shit his Nobody, Dark half, and light half have been up to and how his Nobody came to be. When all was said and done, Zeke sighed. “What's fucked up is that it makes sense.” Zeke said. “Nobodies are the body and soul of a person without a heart. If my body is moving around without me, then that means what's keeping it kicking is Psychopath blood, as for my dark half...yeah… sounds like what he would do if he lost my light half.” Zeke muttered. “How's my family been? How long has it been?” “Too long.” Ben shook his head before explaining everything that he knows about what's been going on with his family, about Bara and that whole thing, his new clone just to keep his family together, and as much as he learned from what his fiance's told him. “Its...a long list…” “Damn… So that Psycho who practically killed my Equestria before I arrived is back… damn it, and he's using Twilight as cover and a shield… when the time comes I am going to rip his heart out of her and shatter it.” “Right now he's teaching my fiances how to fight good enough to not die in the new keyblade war your Nobody kind of started.” Ben sighed out. “But yeah, it would be good to have him dead. And why didn't you say anything when I saw you in Zebrica?” “That's where I was? I was warping randomly after modifying a stone I was given to teleport me to alternate worlds of the one I was on. I managed to modify it with a sage to warp me to other worlds aside from the reflections of the one I was on.” “Yeah, you appeared in my world's Zebrica, where I'm going to meet the king and queen and...marry their princess after a nice date.” I say sheepishly. “Wow… world peace via male prostitution. Now I've seen everything.” Zeke laughed. “Says the original man whore.” The wolf chuckled. “But yeah I'm basically going to be king of Equestria by marrying all the single royalty...and also maybe marrying a sexy centaur lady who happens to be the queen of all monsters I don't know.” Ben shrugged. “Wow… well aside from that my time in The Nexus was quite the adventure. Not Nexus the assholes a place called the Nexus that binds powerful souls to it. Guess that explains how I ended up outside my body, and why even after killing all the demons I still didn't reclaim my body.” “Well your body is busy torturing people and turning them into killing machines at the moment.” Ben told him. “And is trying to steal my job.” “Job? Oh that whole heir of nothing stuff. Right. Damn. So, aside from all hell breaking loose anything actually good happen while I was gone?” “Anything good? Well…” Ben tried to think of something, putting a hand over his left eye worriedly. “I mean...I learned why I'm having nightmares of everyone dying.” Ben said sheepishly. “...okay so that would be a no.” Zeke said, scratching the back of his head. “Damn. A guy can't die without everything going to hell and a handbasket huh?” “Except your death caused an ass ton of problems.” Ben frowned. “But oh well. Everyone else is fine as far as I know, except for Huxley he's kinda dead if memory serves.” “He died? Damn… never got to have that fight. Was looking forward to it too. So, where you heading?” “Back home cause this bitch named Tempest kicked me back to that destroyed earth. Fucking Erequis is taking all her Darkness and is protecting her, as well as killing my world's Aqua…” Ben growled, Zeke seeing Ben's left eye changing into a Psychopaths. “But I was told...my family is safe, Den and Cadence got all my kids out…” “Well that's good. Don't suppose you have a spare keyblade huh? I can't summon any other than this.” Zeke said, holding out his hand as a black and white X-blade appeared. “Can't open DTL’s or even change it to a glider. All I can do is summon it, dismiss it, and hit stuff with it. It don't hit hard either.” Ben checked my pocket and found Reunion, and the two Keyblades he got from Yellows corpse and from Cript. “Here, this one Cript gave me, Cript said it's stronger the more darkness you have...and considering you came from a Dark Souls world if the armor and weapon mean anything…” Ben said while handing him the biohazard keychain. “Demon's Souls. My favorite game up with Kingdom Hearts. And… maybe.” Zeke said, taking it and switching it with the bizzare X-blade one. The Keyblade changing to Cript’s Keyblade. “Alright.” I nodded. “So, what happened to you when you woke up?” “Well, I remember exploding… then this forrest was coming into view, then I was in the Nexus, waking up on some freaky magic floor where it was me, a few other people, and a woman with wax covered eyes. Thankfully there was a few weapons I could use to take and fight with since X is sorta MIA for me.” “True.” Ben nodded. “Understandable I suppose. So do you want help tracking your Nobody down? Cause I have a feeling you are the one who has to kick his ass and take your body back.” “Right now I’d rather confront Bara and tell them I’m back. Sort of.” “Yeah, that would be good.” Ben nodded. “Also be careful...your dark half will try to attack your home and steal that Void Keyblade...only way he can get rid of Darkness for good as far as he kept saying.” Ben shrugged. “Hm… Interesting, but a lost cause. X locked and wrapped in in special chains of light. Only X can unlock it.” “Does it need to be the whole X or just X with whatever fragment it has?” The dire wolf asked curiously. “Huh. Not sure. I guess whatever part of the X-blade my other pieces have. If the part I have is like a frame of something, so either my Nobody, light, or darkness has the part that holds it's Keyblade powers.” “But does it need to be whole to unlock it?” I ask worriedly, having a bad feeling about this. “Cause...bad things might happen if it doesn't.” “Well… only X can answer that but since he isn't really here we have no way of knowing.” “Of course…” I sigh out. “So, how was your time in Demon souls land?” “Well the bosses where harder than in the game. Tower Knight fight was...odd.” “Did you break off its helmet and the face looked weird?” I ask, having a feeling I fought that thing in my head. “Nope. Normally you get a named soul for beating it, I just got this.” Zeke said, pulling out a small orb. Ben’s primal instincts and Nothingness sensitivity screamed as he felt the Nothingness in it was like a atom bomb. “Still got the souls for killing it bit I was collecting those demons souls and this isn't a demon's soul.” “That’s…” Ben mutter worriedly. “A very dangerous thing…” Ben say worriedly, hoping his Assistant can actually scan the damn thing and see what it is. “Please work…” he mutters, checking to see if his Assistant can scan whatever the hell it was cause it's kind of freaking him out. Scan Complete. Heart of A Nobody. This item is the very essence and being on those who are chosen to be in the council of the King of Nothing. Those who are chosen exist between the realms of light, dark, and nothing, therefore, their very beings when killed are sealed into these orbs, which contain immeasurable power. To revive one, the King or Heir must revive them with the Lexicon and Cards. I took a deep breath as Fair Game and my Lexicon appeared. “What your holding is the Heart of a Nobody… a chosen council member to be exact.” I say while focusing. “Now I maybe able to revive them...but it's gonna be a bit tricky…” I say, hoping this won't cause any damage to the ship. Ben let the items do their magic. The card taking in the orb as the Lexicon poured Mana into it like a fountain. Three long minutes passed before the card began glowing, and before them, the card grew into a smaller version of the tower Knight Zeke had killed. It's shield and signature spear/sword missing, and armor colored Blue and White rather than the colors Zeke saw it bear in it’s 'arena’. “Well damn.” Zeke said as the tower Knight stood...then collapsed. “Saw that coming.” As Zeke sighed, he saw a small chrome glowing orb roll over to him. “Oh sweet! The Iron Demons soul!” He said, picking it up and placing it into his bag. “Now my collection is complete...now what to do with them?” He pondered. Ben looked at the collapsed knight. “Rise.” He ordered the knight, wondering if the thing was still ‘alive’ and now under his command. The knight twitched, getting up and groaned. “Agh. My fucking head.” He groaned. “Feels like someone took a keyblade to it.” “Close, an Executioner's Axe.” Zeke said, a sharp, curved, short grip/reach axe in his right hand. Blood stained onto it. “Still my favorite.” “You said someone smacked you upside the head with a keyblade...what do you mean by that?” Ben asked the knight, remembering that this knight has the same colors as that one Sniper Joy met when he was hunting down Kexez. “Have you ever seen a keyblade before or what?” “Uh. Duh.” He said, summoning his Duskblade. “I...wait...where...am I? I was in the Keyblade war… the heck?” Ben took a deep breath. “We have a lot to talk about.” Ben said. “Where do you want to start my ancient keyblader?” The wolf asked, having a bad feeling about this. “Ancient? I’m only sixteen?!” “What year was the keyblade war?” Ben asked, wondering how long its been since the last one. “Era three… what era is this…?” He asked, sounding worried. “How long is an era?” Zeke asked. “A new era is whenever Kingdom hearts cycles all of the worlds… so typically it's a thousand years.” “What do you mean by ‘cycles’?” Ben asked, already feeling like this guy is a lot older than a thousand years old. “Like Kingdom Hearts orbiting all the world's like a moon or what?” He nodded. “Yeah. It's a whole day for Kingdom Hearts to orbit a world, more if something happens and it’s called to a specific world.” Ben looked worried. “Sorry to say but...I'm pretty sure it's been over a thousand years...maybe a crap ton more…” Ben said while checking his Assistant and checking the date with what the knight explained. “But just to be sure…” He muttered, hoping this thing could tell what era it was. The Keyblade War. The Keyblade War was an ancient war among the fourth generation of a world of Keyblade wielders. This war took place in Era three and affected the whole Multiverse. Nearly five hundred Era’s later, we still see the effects. “Jesus Christ nearly five hundred!?” Ben said, startling a little chuckle from him because of how damn long it's been. “So yeah, it's been nearly five hundred eras after the first keyblade war...so you'd be about...fifty thousand years old, give or take a few decades or millennia due to...events.” He told the knight worriedly. “...YES!” He screamed. Ben looked over at Zeke, who just spun a finger around the temple of his head. “And that's good how?” “It means that the light has been alive for this long correct?” Ben suggested. “So, what do you think...oh we don't actually know your name.” I said to the knight. “Kronos, and I’m happy cause I outlived the war! Ha!” “And so did a lot of other people, like Discord, Faust, Orion and...Bara.” Ben told him. “Wait...mom...and dad are alive?” He asked. Ben's eyes widened. “Wait...I saw….” He muttered, before shaking his head. “Yes, they are alive...and while the war stole their wings and horns there alive and well.” Ben said. “And you have two sisters.” “Wait what?” The group flew for a while and thankfully Ben was able to summon his Keyblade and use Nothingness again. “We should be nearing Equestria soon Ben.” Genos said. “Good.” Ben nodded. “Let's just hope my house isn't torn to shreds...and my family is okay.” He said worriedly. “Can't wait kick Tempests ass for doing this crap.” Ben growled. “She sounds like a bitch.” Zeke said, sharpening yet another weapon. This one large, battle worn sword that no ordinary man could wield. “What makes her deserving of your anger?” Zeke asked, tone firm, yet laxed in his speech. “Not only did she destroy my house, and attack my family...she killed Aqua.” Ben said sadly. Zeke's motions in his sharpening stopped, there was silence hanging like a thick smog. After a time, he continued to sharpen his blade, his motions the same, but tension was seen on his face and slight shifts in movement. “How?” “Apparently Eraquis has taken a liking to her and took in all her Darkness, basically becoming a Guardian, but she's knocked out in the process. The old fuck is strong, fast, and can tank a super tier spell quite well.” Ben explained. “Hm..Hm...interesting.” Zeke said, flipping the large blade over with one hand as if the large sword were a toy. “Why is that? Any theories?” “Maybe he saw something good in her, a light that shouldn't be corrupted...too bad she decided to be an arrogant cunt in the process.” Ben growled. “Maybe not.” Zeke said, gaining all Ben’s attention. “In the games, and life it seems, Eraqus will do whatever it takes to protect the light. He despises darkness. He raised his Keyblade to Ventus and Terra to stop the X-blade from being forged. What is worth protecting so much that he’d become engulfed is Darkness? Willingly, it sounds.” “Maybe he felt guilty for fucking up with Terra and the rest? Maybe...maybe he thought Tempest would be consumed by darkness...or maybe the bastard thought she would have a balanced heart o me day and get the X blade cause fuck it.” Ben shrugged. “Too many possibilities…” “That's not like him. Think about it. Darkness is attracted to powerful lights. Keyblade wielders, and Princesses of Heart especially? What if…” Zeke left off for Ben to continue. “Her heart was pure light...and Tempest let him reside in her heart like Sora and Ventus?” Ben asked curiously. “Seems likely. Ventus needed a friend, perhaps Eraqus needed a new purpose. Protecting her light, taking in influencing darkness, sadly becoming it himself. Unintentionally, becoming like Xehanort.” “Oh the irony…” Ben sighed out. “But...now that this is brought into perspective...maybe it's Eraqus’s fault for her decisions…” Ben says, now wondering if this is gonna be another ‘marrying a super assassin’ event. “Possibly.” Zeke said simply. “Heh...you missed me huh?” “After everything so far...just seeing a familiar face that doesn't want to kill you is always a wonderful thing.” Ben said with a smile, his shoulders slumping at that. “You have no idea how bad things have been…” Ben sighed out, putting a hand over his left eye worriedly. “I’m getting an idea. Guess that's something Cript and I have in common.” “I suppose.” Ben said. “But hey, at least Humanity was kind enough to talk to me about this crap.” He shrugged. “Doesn't mean my nightmares are gonna get better though…” He muttered bitterly. “Heh. I meant… neither of us can put up the towel, without something happening.” Upon hearing this, Ben remembered Cript’s word about coming out of retirement, and how Cadence understood it. Zeke died...and hell happened. Ben then wondered...how things would go if he himself died. “Yeah…” Ben muttered. “Never being able to throw in the towel…” He said, scared of what would happen to the people he loved if he died. “I just...hope we can find a time...where it is possible to throw in the towel ya know? Actually spend time with family and friends without the threat of something appearing out of nowhere and pulling us back in…” “Why do you think I had so many kids?” Zeke said, making the two laugh. “Yeah that's true...I mean I need to look after three hundred plus daughter's, a few sons, and god knows how many more are on the way…” Ben chuckled. “You just had to beat me huh?” Zeke laughed again. “I went to Rapture, not my fault I adopted all the Little Sisters.” Ben laughed, feeling a whole lot better now that he was laughing with a dear friend. “Also blame Cript, since I'm related to him somehow I make my fiances super pregnant.” “Oh, so there's your fetish!” Zeke laughed, making Ben’s jaw drop as his face turned red. “Says the guy who's also got a pregnant fetish.” I growled, flustered by what he said. “Hey, hey… I never tried to hide it.” Zeke said, bursting out in full blown tears of laughter. “God I haven't laughed that hard in forever.” Ben sighed out and shook his head. “Glad your feeling better man.” He smiled. “Must have been rough in Demon Souls land.” “Yeah. It was. Weird. I...should have died a lot and just returned to the Nexus… but I was slashed, impaled, got arrows and crossbow bolts jabbed everywhere, set on fire, hit with enough forge to bash pure stone into gravel, poisoned, bled out, caught the plague… yet I never died. Not sure how or why. I felt it all… yet didn't die. It...sucked.” “Yeesh…” Ben frowned. “That sucks.” “Yeah. Made boss fights a bitch and don't even get me started on when I got swarmed and those fuckers attacked non stop.” Zeke groaned. “Wonder if that ever happened to Cript?” Ben flinched, remembering Cript’s stolen mortality. “Yeah…” He muttered. “He would know…” “So, any word from the Foretellers? Eclipse?” “No and no. I've been so busy I didn't go check on them.” Ben sighed out. “Hopefully I can see them, it would be nice to talk to them and catch up on stuff.” “Yeah. So, what's your goal for after you deal with Tempest and your world marriage thing?” “Make sure my family survives the war.” Ben says readily. “Even if I might master all my weapons while marrying all the royalty on my Equestria...my family comes first.” He explained simply. “As a father.” Zeke said, starting to sharpen the other side of the large blade. “What about a king? What's most important to you as a king? The safety of your subjects? Or of the ones you keep closest?” “A king isn't a king without his people.” Ben said. “When I become the King, my people, family, friends, everyone comes first.” The wolf stated. “But not even god can save them all.” Zeke said simply. “So as a king, and as a father...who comes first? Ben, the father of his family, or Ben the White Knight, King of the world? Who are you when the time comes for the hard choices?” “I'll save as many as I can, even if it kills me.” Ben said. “I'm a hero, and I'm not gonna be a King who sits back and let's others deal with my problems.” He said. “Besides paperwork, paperwork is a bitch.” He said, wanting to be a hero and protect the people even if he knows he can't save everyone. “Huh. Guess that makes us different. It's why I made a council when we rebuilt Daybreak. Guess why?” “I also have a council, but why are we so different in this case?” Ben asked. “Is it because you can trust people more than me? Is it because I don't want to be lazy? Is it because I don't want to lose my family again? Please, tell me.” “Because if Daybreak falls… I’m escaping with my family, and leaving it. Why do you think I made the council, gave everybody a Keyblade? I made the council to do the work I’d have to do otherwise as a main leader, and gave everybody a Keyblade, so they can evacuate or fight as they desire. I’m no hero...hell half the time I don't consider myself a good person. But I have morals, so that's why I try.” “I know…” Ben said. “I have a council to, and Luxu and others are helping create a school for keybladers. But I'm not that good of a person either...but given I have powers to protect the people, I'm gonna use them to protect the people.” Ben said, Soul Zeke seeing Ben less of a sassy wolf who tries to hard, and seeing more of a scared teen who's trying his damndest not to lose the things important to him again. “I was given powers to use as I see fit...and I'll use them to be a hero. I know I need help…” He trailed off sadly. “Don't we all.” Zeke replied simply, gazing down to his sword. “I got this big bad ass blade killing a Dragon God. Another few for various things. Thanks to a sage I saved I have one of those RPG bags that holds everything. I have a crap ton of stuff in this thing.” He said, patting the leather bag next to him. “I couldn't have gotten or even held all the shit I needed to survive-ish without the people I helped helping me in return.” “Yeah…” Ben nodded. “But when you lost your family at a young age...you tend to not trust help in fear of losing the people who give a damn about you.” He said. “But I think I'm getting better…hopefully.” “Only time will tell.” Zeke said softly. “All I know now is, we have work to do.” “Way too much work.” Ben said. “So much to do, so little time…” “As always. One good thing came out of my time in Boletaria. That's the Demon’s Souls world. I can do magic now without needing Discord.” Ben blinked and his eyes glowed green, scanning over Zeke to see all his stuff. “Sounds good. Best to be able to do stuff without being handicapped. Oh also, you have an Absent Silhouette on Johns world from what Joy told me, it's a pain in the ass and has way too many forms.” Ben said, wondering if he should go there and try his luck. “Seriously? The actual fuck?” “Yeah, apparently it starts with you, then you D-link with a bunch of previous X-blade wielders, then X itself decides to step in and fight, and then, believe it or not, he fought Kingdom Hearts itself...which was in the form of a child for whatever reason.” Ben explained with a shrug. “The rewards he got was great...and there was some other things about it.” Ben said. “So hey, whenever you want to fight yourself without holding back then go right ahead.” “That will be...interesting.” “I mean your gonna have to fight yourself anyway so...might as well get some practice in.” Ben shrugged. “I should probably go there and test how far I can go...it would be interesting to see.” “Wanna see if he can handle two fighters?” “That would be cool.” Ben nodded. “Especially two experienced fighters like us.” He said, wanting to try teamwork stuff to try and trust people more. “It will be interesting.” “So after we deal with my bit of problems want to head out to test our teamwork?” Ben asked. “Or you gonna just head there right now?” “Well before anything I wanna fix up home. After that I need to figure something out then I guess we can tackle it. Does it give any kind of rewards?” “From what I got from Joy it gives thirteen chests. Each chest gives either a drive form, ability, an ass ton of experience, an ass ton of synthesis items, a special item like the Winnie the Pooh book, spells, command styles...and the thirteenth can be whatever one most desires...which is why Joy saw Eve’s past.” Ben explained. “So yeah, it sounds pretty worth it in my opinion.” “Sweet. So wait? Will it be split between us then or will there be twenty six?” “There better be twenty six.” Ben says. “But if not well we’ll have to figure out how to split it.” Ben shrugged. “Cause to be perfectly honest the rewards are pretty damn good...like what a super boss should give...which brings up your still a lucky bastard cause your a super boss when you don't give a shit.” “Am I?” Zeke asked confused. “Eh, I don't see it.” “Have you ever gone one hundred percent, using all the abilities you know and could think up on the fly, without any limiters or thoughts of holding back? And if not, imagine it.” Ben told him. “Cause Joy fought that, and it looked like a massive pain in the ass.” “I...try not to think about it.” “Scared of what could happen if you did go all out with no reservations?” Ben asked. “I know very well what will happen Ben…” Ben nodded. “And what's funny is that I don't know what my hundred percent time would be like...never thought about it, and I kind of fear for whoever decides to push me that far.” He said honestly. “Sometimes not knowing is better than knowing Ben.” Zeke said, finishing his work on the sword and placing it away in his special bag. “I know.” Ben sighed out. “But...it's best to at least prepare before a planet explodes on complete accident.” “Mortality.” Zeke said, confusing Ben. “If I take all that power, use it, I take Kingdom Hearts into me. It's a heart like any other. I do that, I’m king of everything, save for your territory. Light and darkness will be mine to shape and bend, form, at the cost of my mortality. Nothing, not time, not blades...nothing could kill me. I might even be able to give Cript a challenge in battle… I can't go on...I can't ever go all out...if I have to see my loved ones grow old without me.” “Huh…” Ben said. “That's...a whole bunch of something.” He said while looking at his hands. “But when you explained that...something felt off...like...True Nothingness…” He said, scowling at his hands wondering why that term seemed very scary but fitting to compare it to what Zeke explained. “Perhaps that's your true power as well? Total power, at the cost of what you care for? Who knows.” “It better fucking not…” Ben growled. “God...well actually God, the one who brought us here, is actually dead if you didn't know.” “The satanists were right.” Zeke chuckled lightly. “So, what's our first move, if Tempest is there? Cause if she's not I’m heading to my home to clear up some business.” “If she's there then we're going to have to separate her from Eraqus, or at least beat the bastard til he can't move, then try and figure out how to convince Tempest not to be a complete bitch.” Ben explained. “Just...well watch out for stop cause that's always a thing.” “Heh, Huxley spammed that on me first time we met.” “Yeah...I barely knew the guy but he seemed nice enough.” Ben shrugged, pulling out his lexicon and checking his spells. “Okay...let's look up anti stop spells shall we?” Ben muttered while looking through his lexicon, finding an absolute ass ton of spells. “Damn...didn't think I had this many…” “Here thou art, Hero.” Ben nearly jumped, from nowhere a woman dressed in all black, with wax covering her eyes completely appeared. “Thin Request is complete.” “That was...fast.” Zeke said, looking at Ben. “Oh, this is The Maiden in Black. She keeps the candles lit within the Nexus and was going to lul the old one back to sleep...but I uh...killed him. The look on her face was priceless.” “Yeah, killing an eldritch horror is one way to get a girlfriend.” Ben joked. Zeke and the Maiden looked at one another. “He has not courted me, young wolf. Our Relationship is platonic, for I am ageless and now will keep watch over the lost souls still yet to be found, now that the Old One is dead.” Ben shrugged. “Eh, okay." He said. “So I suppose you watched over my friend here since he got to your world?” “Yes. From the moment he arrived I knew he was different, never before have I met anyone with such a unique soul. Through the Archstones I saw him fight, yet I could tell he held back his true power always. When he killed the Old One, a feat I knew not possible, I felt without purpose, yet he gave me one. Watch over all lost souls, he told me, and so I will, now that his request is complete.” She explained. “Would you believe me if I said this guy is only his soul?” Ben asked simply. “From his inability to regain his body, even after slaying all the demons, and the Old One, yes. Which brings me to your Request Zeke. I have found you a body, fit perfectly for thine soul.” Upon hearing that, Ben’s ears twitched. “Perfect. Where?” Zeke replied. “A world much like mine own, but far darker.” She said, holding out her hands as there was a small ball of five that leaned in a direction. “I can lead the way.” “Darker how?” Ben asked, wondering if it's Dark Souls or Bloodborne. “Like mine, ravaged by demons, curses and ailments, but the Undead roam, cursed by an unholy madness. Much like the Soul Starved of mine own world.” “Hollows…” Ben said. “Yeah that's Dark Souls. If memory serves from video games the place is a pain in the ass.” “Mind if we make a detour?” Zeke asked Ben. “I know your family is important, but I need to have a body in order to stand a chance against Kexez, and to hold my heart when I smack some sense into my dark half and bring my light half back to life.” Ben nodded. “Alright...but it's gonna be a bitch cause that world...just saying it I can tell it's covered in Void…” Ben had Genos change course to where the Maiden’s flame guided. It wasn’t a long flight til they came across the world. … It looked sick. The landscape a mix of baren, burned, and...red… only small patches of green were around. “Damn, then again, it is a dying world.” Zeke said. “Boletaria looked better than this place.” They landed, just outside a place Zeke knew. “The Undead Asylum. I made it further in Demon Souls than Dark Souls. Never got passed the fourth boss of the game.” Zeke said, taking out one of his greatswords and the Keyblade Ben gave him. It was then Ben noticed Zeke pulling the normal weapons from seemingly thin air. “I beat the game, it was a pain but I managed.” Ben shrugged as he summoned Frozen Pride and his own keyblade. “So...I wonder if we're going to meet the Pygmy soul here.” Ben said, wondering if they'll meet the player character of the Dark Souls game. “Hey...where are you keeping all those weapons?” “Huh? Oh, this.” Zeke said, showing Ben a leg pouch strapped on his leg. “Saved a grand sage or whatever he called himself, had him make me this. Can’t hold limitless items, but with enough souls he managed to make it hold eight hundred pounds worth of stuff without affecting me much. Made that guy who offered to hold my stuff sad...til I found his family for him, well, their souls at least and Maiden turned them into Phantoms like me. I considered it payment for him holding my excess stuff for so long.” Ben nodded. “Sounds good...but the people in this place are kind but...the curse of the Undead is a powerful thing.” Ben said as he looked around for anything. “I’m a Phantom in a land of the undead...this will be good.” Zeke said, popping his neck as he and The Maiden marched forward, Ben following. When they reached the door Zeke knocked. “Anyone home?” There was a loud thud noise. “That’s a YES!” He shouted, kicking the massive doors open, revealing a large, grotesquely fat demon wielding an equally large club/mace like weapon in his grip. “Oh ho ho. Hello Fatty!” “The courtyard Asylum Demon.” Ben said while raising his shield in a defensive pose. “Move around and stab it in the back as much as possible?” Ben asked, hoping it was just as standard in Demon Souls as it is in Dark souls. “Dibs!” Zeke said, rushing in, putting his greatsword away and disbanding his Keyblade. Before Ben could aid, he was held back by The Maiden. “Let him Fight, with my aid, his Phantom form is powerful, and it will be more so with a body.” When ben looked back, he saw the Asylum demon bring it’s massive weapon down...and Zeke CAUGHT it in his bear hands, pull it away from the obese creature, and using it to bash in the demons skull. “I AM KEEPING THIS!” Zeke declared as the demons head exploded in chunks of bone, blood and brain matter. “See? And still, this is only a shred of the power he chooses to withhold.” “As per usual.” Ben rolled his eyes. “Had fun there man?” He asked Zeke who just killed the Asylum Demon with ease. “Yup.” Zeke said, the demons corpse falling over as the light that was it’s collected souls entered Zeke. “And just like in Boletaria, the corpses don’t fade away in a flash of light...makes a messy scene… very messy.” Zeke said as he walked over the demon corpse. “Sorry for rushing in man, but lacking my light half I just rush in without a plan. Guess I know where my will to fight comes from...me...soul wise anyway.” He said with a light chuckle. “Yeah yeah.” Ben said. “So Maiden, we headed towards the Raven or finding someone here?” He asked, hearing the sounds of Hollows echo throughout the asylum. The Maiden looked at the fire in her hands, it’s flame leaning towards the Asylum. “The body is within, unlike the ones around it has their mind and heart, but their soul is gone, likely taken from them before they arrived here, whatever did that to them, devoured it likely.” She said, moving forward as Zeke and Ben followed. “So, how’s Joy been?” Zeke asked as they trekked through the dark and empty, for now, halls. “He's fine, went out to find my Council and is in the One Piece world.” Ben said. “He's gonna be there for a long time cause he was just flung to another island by Kuma...so he's about two years away from getting past the halfway point if Luffy decides on the two years.” “Damn, guess time does move differently between worlds. Wonder if he’ll be all grown up when he gets back?” Zeke questioned. “So, has he found someone yet?” “Council members? Yeah he found Genos, Vergil, Dante, Kat, Speed of Sound Sonic, and Brook. Joy is also a council member, as well as Luxu and Trixie believe it or not.” Ben explained. “I saw her on the ship and assumed.” Zeke said. “What’s her weapon?” “Fair Game.” Ben said. “And all I need to do is find the chainsaw guy from Black Butler, Captain America, Zuko from Avatar the last Airbender, and...someone who wields Way to Dawn.” He explained. “Huh, long list.” Zeke said, the trio beginning to hear...crying. “You hear that?” “Tis is your body Zeke.” The Maiden said. “They are ahead.” As the trio walked ahead a bit further The Maiden stopped in front of one of the still sealed jail cell doors. Age and Rust long since consuming them, yet still they held. Inside, Ben and Zeke were shocked. There was a framilier mare there, even in a decayed looking state of being Hollow, her mane was still it’s light blue/grey, and her coat was dirty, but it’s blue still showing. What confirmed it, was the purple and white star pattern cape and matching hat. “Trixie?” Zeke said, trying to examine her closer. “I know the one on Daybreak Empire never returned when we brought the large population back but… this is what happened to her?” Ben examined her as well. Her clothes were dirty, ragged, but tears were minor, and light, her mane a mess. It was a sad, pathetic sight, one he felt his heart ache to see. “She's been here for a long time…” Ben muttered as he looked carefully. “Zeke, can you see a mark, a black hole on her body that seems to be smoldering?” Ben asked. Zeke examined, and nodded when he spotted it. “Yeah, her left hand.” The Maiden used some kind of magic that made the long since rusted doors swing open like the day they were made, and the trio walked in. “What can we do? Cause...that will be a problem.” “In Dark Souls lore there is no cure…” Ben shook his head. “But a good thing to do is get her some Humanity, just to reverse the physical effects and get her mind set a bit.” Ben explained while checking his Assistant just in case there was a way to remove the curse. Zeke moved his eyes from side to side in thought, before reaching into his pouch, and pulling out one of his Demons Souls. “Phalanx, be useful for something...cause your fight still sucked in real life as much as it did in game.” Zeke said, placing it in Trixie’s hand. Her body glowed, her skin became normal, no longer dried and shriveled like the corpse she walked as, even her mane became better in its appearance. “Oh thank god…” “Uhh…” Trixie moaned, moving her head up. “Agh! Trixie’s neck is very stiff- Wait… I remember getting shot by arrows… Wait I died!?” She said, jumping up to her feet suddenly and looking herself over. “I, but...huh?!” She said in confusion, not seeing a single mark of injury, but noticing the dirt and grim on her coat and clothing. “Where...what…?” She then saw the mark on her left hand, and the Trio. “Ummm...who are you three?” “The people who are getting you out of this hell hole.” Ben said simply. “There's a lot to talk about, but it's best if you hear it from the guy who brought you back.” He said while motioning to Zeke. Zeke cleared his throat. As he was about to speak, he and Ben both felt something. A powerful something appear nearby. They both know what it was, or rather, who. “Kexez!” They both yelped. “Kez-who?” Trixie asked. “Trixie, long story short, there are a lot of bad, very bad people we have to deal with, but even for as strong as I am, I need a body, as in...yours.” “WHAT!?!? Trixie will not loan you her body you pervert!” She yelled, trying to cover herself, despite having clothes. “Not like that! I am a phantom, like a ghost, and Ben here can tell you who we just felt arrive is BAD.” Zeke said. “You can help me stop them, end them, but I need a body to work with and since mine is…. Corrupted, yours is the only match that we’ve found.” “But, I...what?” “Look.” Zeke said, taking her left hand and showing her the mark. “This sign, this mark on your hand means you died Trixie, your soul is gone, the only reason your body is as it is again is because of us. It’s not permanent either. Trixie, if you let me in, I can promise you I can get that mark removed, but not if who is here gets to us first. Understand?” Trixie looked conflicted, surprised, and reasonably terrified, after all, finding out you were a walking soulless body is enough to do that, but that her soul was gone was...even more worrying. She pondered for a moment, feeling a lack of other options. “A-Alright, Trixie will let you...use her body… Is it...permanent?” Zeke didn’t speak, rather, he looked to The Maiden. “Zeke’s soul will replace Thin own young mare, and if your body and heart accept him, then yet, thin bond will be permanent. Not even I could remove you two.” The Maiden said, shock appearing on Trixie and Zeke’s faces. “I...I…” “Oh Zeke.” Kexez voice echoed from down the halls, sending a chill up Zeke, Ben, and Trixie’s spines. “Where are you my useless soul!” “Better hurry up, I'll go distract the bastard.” Ben whispered to the two before quietly running off to face Kexez to give them enough time to settle it. Zeke sighed. “It’s not ideal Trixie, but it’s better than both our alternatives.” “...Alright...so, how’s this going to work?” “Both of thee take one of my hands.” The Maiden said. “I will send Zeke within you, and keep watch till your body and heart accept him.” Trixie grabbed one of the Maiden’s hand, and Zeke grabbed the other. Ben ran, trying to lead Kexez off from where Zeke and the others were. “Now now, why run? Aren’t we FRIENDS?!” Kexez yelled, shooting a strike raid at Ben that he managed to dodge. “Friends don’t try to kill each other, and I'm pretty sure your mostly running off of Psychopath blood jackass!” Ben shouted back, swinging his shield as ice spikes shot out towards Kexez. Ben managed to lead Kexez back to the courtyard with the Asylum demon body. He readied himself, taking out Frozen Pride and his Keyblade. This was going to be a tricky battle, and he was hoping Zeke will burst in soon in Trixie’s body… ”That’s going to be weird…” Ben thought, it now hitting him this means Zeke will have swapped genders forever, unlike with the whole incident where he became female and was impregnated by a genderswapped Unum out for sexual payback. “Alright, time to deal with this bastard…” Ben growled as he casted all his buff spells, doubling all his physical and magical abilities. Kexez entered the room simply, a Starlight Keyblade in one hand, and… Core’s old Keyblade in the other. “Tell me, how do you see this playing out?” Kexez asked, stopping seven or so feet from Ben. “Me kicking your ass and that being that?” Ben asked simply. “Or are you gonna monologue about how your stronger than me because of some bullshit?” Kexez didn’t speak, rather, he lifted up Core’s old Keyblade...the top half shifting and showed Core, his mask broken, revealed body abused and missing an arm...his one eye showing. Human...and scared. It quickly changed back into it’s Keyblade form. “He discovered my alteration in motives, so, I decided to keep him around as something more useful. Like it?” He asked, showing it off. “It’s called One’s Core. A Keyblade made from ancient hearts. I wonder how you’ll look as one?” Kexez said with a sadistic smile. “Can't believe I'm going to be saving Core from a person even madder than him.” Ben frowned, the runes on his body glowed as it double his abilities again. “But do I like it? No, and your not gonna turn me into a keyblade because you said so.” The wolf growled. Kexez chuckled. “We’ll see, mutt!” Kexez charged, taking a slash at Ben who dodged it with half an inch between the blade and himself. He had to admit, even with his buffs and runes, Kexez was fast. Ben could only briefly cast a spell at Kexez before needing to dodge. ”Come on you two, hurry up.” Ben thinks to himself as he flicked his shield and a bolt of ice shot out towards Kexez as he readied to hit him if he dodged or blocked it. Kexez slashed the ice bolt aside, getting close to- “Mega Flare!” A voice from the side called, the giant ball of fire hitting Kexez and blasting him against the wall. Ben looked at the source of the voice, seeing Trixie stand there with her mane now mixed with blond, and one of her eyes was blue, rather than it’s normal purple. Her voice was slightly different. A tad lower than it was before...and she wielded the X-blade. “Sorry for the delay Ben!” Like that, Ben couldn’t tell if it was fully Zeke, but he was happy to have an ally regardless. “I had him on the ropes.” Ben said. “What took you so long?” He asked while looking at where Kexez was and ready to fight more. “Was reforging an old friend.” They said, walking up next to Ben. “The Maiden said this is how Trixie and I will look when I take over.” They said, Ben now knowing it was Zeke. “I can take a back seat and let Trixie be Trixie for a bit, but we have to better figure out this mess later.” Zeke said, readying the X-blade. “I have missed this thing.” “Glad to hear that.” Ben nodded. “Okay, time to kill a bitch.” “Heheh. You think…” Kexez said as he got up. “That body can aid you in killing me? Even with the X-blade it’s useless!” He said, charging at Zeke, the two deflecting one another's attacks as fast as they swung them. Ben took this chance to deal damage to Kexez, casting spells and slashing at the Nobodies back. Between the two Kexez knew he was in trouble. “Dark Matter!” He said, the tip of One’s Core flashing black as the whole area began to turn to ash and Ben and Zeke began falling from the sudden lack of ground. “Fly!” Ben shouted, giving Zeke the ability to fly as Ben bolted back towards Kexez. “Your not getting away bastard!” He barked at Kexez, thinking this distraction was to give him time to escape. “Not this time you-” “Dark Raid!” Zeke yelled, the X-blade cloaked in darkness as he threw it into a darkness cloaked strike raid. The attack hit Kexez...slicing the arm with One’s Core clean off. “G-grah!” Kexez yelled. “Die you mother fuckers!” He yelled, his Starlight Keyblade glowed and was cloaked in Nothingness thorns as he swiped a massive blow of wind at them, using the time to fall quickly into a DTD. Zeke quickly grabbed One’s Core, and he and Ben flew back to the ship. There, The Maiden was already there, Zeke’s gear from Bolitaria was waiting for him as she left, her task complete and was now off to fulfil her new purpose. Genos took off, and they now sat in the ships storage bay. “Well Kexez got away...but hey he lost an arm and Core is right there.” Ben pointed out. “I’d call that a win.” Zeke said, finally relaxing a bit as he began to get a feel for the new body. “Hang on…” Zeke said, quickly heading for the bathroom, and returned not long after. “...Welp, seems Trixie is a hermaphrodite…” He said with a bit of a shocked expression. “Didn’t see that one coming.” “HA!” Ben burst into laughter at that. “Oh wow, I was...I was gonna ask how it feels to be a woman again...but that's just too perfect.” Ben laughed. “Oh god, I'm sorry for laughing but...wow.” “Don’t apologize to me, apologize to Trixie.” Zeke said, closing her eyes as the mane changed back to Trixie’s full colors. When they opened their eyes, both were purple. Trixie walked up to Ben and smacked him, leaving a rather large handprint on his face. “Jerk!” She said, face red with blush. “I already said sorry, and I'm not laughing at you. Ya see Zeke there one time became a woman.” Ben said, calming down a bunch. “I know that, when we fuzed I saw some of his memories while he was fighting… Things...are really that bad then?” She asked, slumping down to the floor. “Wow...and here I thought having both sets of sex organs was bad...makes me feel like a bratty child now…” “Apparently you've never met Rune.” Ben said. “I saw his family in there too...including...Sparkle…” She said with a grunt. “She beat me pretty good at magic...all I’ve ever had was my magic. Back in my home town I was the best at magic, but I didn’t care for the schooling she got, I just wanted to perform, like my dad.” “And that's fine.” Ben said. “Living your dream is fine, and power to you...but I don't need to give a lecture about the other stuff your ego and revenge caused.” Ben shrugged. “But hey, now with Zeke you can go back to Equestria and start a new life, a happy one even though Zeke is kind of...um…” Ben frowned. “How do I say this without it sounding wrong?” He asked, hating how most of the things he could say would sound like an innuendo. “Goes with the flow?” Trixie offered. “I saw some of his more...sexy memories… That Rune is bendy...and kinky…” She said, her face red with blush again. “I know how bendy Rune is...and I'm still concerned about most of the things in that book.” Ben said nervously. “Yeah, she may be kinky...but she also concerns me with some of them.” The wolf shook his head. “But anything else you want to talk about from seeing Zeke's memories besides his sex life?” “Well...he really came from a family of criminals?” She asked. “Not only a family of criminals…” Ben said. “Can Zeke hear me? Cause...I've got some important things to talk about” He asked curiously. “He can, he's looking through my memories now too...It’s...so weird, I can feel him doing that, if I focus I can see him too. Guess it’s the best way to get to know each other.” She said with a sigh. “Looks like we both had rough lives.” “Yeah...so Zeke, here's a funny thing.” Ben started before explaining the memories of Zeke's childhood that he found in his mental journey, and gave the name of the group that might have been doing that shit. Trixie’s hair and eye changed, meaning Zeke took over again. “Nexus?” Zeke asked. “I think I heard my grandpa say that once, but he never talked about it again. And sorry but...I didn’t fake my death and run away before.” “From what I could gather Nexus is a group of super bad guys...that might have fucked with time.” Ben says worriedly. “Is this a Cript thing?” She asked, Ben finding it odd his friend is now female, while still male too. It was going to be a while before he got used to it. “Yeah basically.” Ben nodded. “So basically that may have been your life before they fucked with time...but then they talked about finding the right time...so they went all the way back and corrupted Core’s son, the first Ventral, with Psychopath blood. Cause apparently any time sooner than that made Zeke, the next Cript project, a failure.” “Wait, Wait, Wait, Wait, Wait, Wait, Wait, Wait, Wait, Wait, Wait, Wait, Wait, Wait, Wait.” Zeke said repeatedly. “Are you telling me Core, the jackass we spent the first many months of our time trying to kill...is my hundreds of great grandfather?!” “And his father is Yen Sid and Eve is his mother. Joy figured out all this out when he beat your Absent Silhouette.” Ben explained. “...Fuck my life…” Zeke said, falling on her back. “Cause why the FUCK not!?” “Yeah that's kind of what Joy said. He was shocked yes, but I'm pretty sure he also said ‘called it’.” Ben shrugged. “So, why don't we bring out the man in question so we can talk to him hopefully. Cause I'm not entirely sure he knew about...a bunch of what I'm talking about.” Zeke looked over at the Keyblade Core, sighing. “How can we free him then? I don’t even know how Kexez did it.” Ben took Keyblade Core by the hilt and took a deep breath and focused, trying to either turn him back to his human form, or at least hear him so he could talk. ”Hello?” Ben mentally called out to Core, hoping this will work as Nothingness gently enveloped his hand to try and help make this impossible thing work. There was no reply. “I think only Kingdom Hearts powers can talk to them?” Zeke questioned. “Well then have at it my friend, you should still be able to talk to Keyblades right?” Ben asked. Zeke shook his head. “I was able to do that because of what Kingdom Hearts did to my heart, and body, making me a human Keyblade. My soul is unaffected, and Trixie’s heart, while surprisingly is balanced, isn’t like my heart.” “Right. Well I at least know he can hear me, so don't worry old man, we’ll figure out how to get you back to normal.” Ben said honestly. “Can't wait to get home…” He said, feeling a little homesick from having been thrown out. “Same.” Zeke said. “There’s a lot I’m going to have to wrap up. If that clone you said Bara made is going to be an issue...it’s going to be weird.” “Bara said that if I told anyone close to you about the clone it would go on a complete rampage...and he also figured out how to completely shatter the crystal heart with a flick of his wrist…” Ben said bitterly. “Fuckers got things planned out…” He shook his head. “Plus he's teaching my family how to survive the keyblade war...and I also promised him he could see the kings Library because he really wants to learn about it.” “Hmm… He isn’t expecting me..or rather, why would he suspect Trixie?” Zeke questioned. “He's a survivor of the keyblade war, I'm pretty sure he'd sense someone doing the same thing as he is.” Ben said. “But true, he might not entirely suspect Trixie.” He said, wondering if Zeke could free Twilight from his hold. “Trixie, the last time they left off, still had a score with Twilight, so it wouldn’t be too far out of possibility that Bara would let Twilight deal with Trixie, when in fact when the time come, I can take over, having the whole thing appear as a trick to the audience while in reality I’ll be facing off with Bara, and if I can, remove his heart from Twilight. You promised him, but I made no such promise. I’m shattering his heart, then that clone and my family will discuss what to do next. If that clone is identical to me, we can work out something.” “Alright. But Bara told me that his heart is deep within Twilights, it'll be a bit of a bitch to figure out how to separate his from Twilights.” Ben explained worriedly. “I think I can handle it. I know my Twilight.” Zeke said confidently. She then looked at her hand, and summoned the X-blade. “I think I can head home, with this. Will you be fine dealing with Tempest on your own if she is there?” “Yeah I'm sure I can handle it.” Ben said. “Found the spells I needed to help stop her.” “Okay. I’ll be taking the time to catch up on Daybreak stuff...man, this is going to be weird. But, doable. My god I can see Rune having a field day with this.” She said, moving her hand up her body and down again. “And these...will also be an adjustment.” Zeke said, grabbing hers/Trixie’s easy D cup breasts. “Seriously… This is gonna be...an adjustment…” She sighed, grabbing her things and adorning her armor. “Thank god this was unisex.” She said, placing it on. “I’ll be back once things are mostly sorted out, alright?” “Alright, stay safe my friend, and remember this isn't the first time you've been a chick...just make sure Trixie knows there will be a lot of running in her future.” Ben joked with a friendly smile, raising a fist up for a fist bump between friends. “I'll make sure not to kill Kexez before you get your actual body back okay?” “...You didn’t hear what the Maiden said?” Zeke asked, putting the helmet on and summoning the X-blade. Ben frowned. “I didn't hear ‘permanent’ in her words my friend.” “She said exactly that.” Zeke said, opening the DTL. “Trixie’s heart and body accepted me as her new soul...she can’t separate us.” “I probably ran off to distract Kexez when she said that.” Ben shrugged. “Just promise me this,” Zeke started. “If we ever both get wasted and end up waking up naked with one another, you are paying child support.” Zeke laughed as she ran into the DTL, it closing behind her after entering. “Of course had leave child support on me…” Ben grumbled, shaking his head with a little smile. “Glad to know my friends back at least…” He muttered, hoping when he gets home things won't get worse. Nobody does a lot of stuffWhen we landed back in Equestria the damage wasn’t bad. Some uplifted dirt, and only two buildings had damage, Sugar Cube Corner, which just had a small crack in the wall, and Sofa and Quills, which had a broken Window. When I got home though… It looked like it did before the remodel. Ruins… My kids all searching through the rubble, Cadence, and the babies were all with Den...who had a cast on her arm. “Oh, hey Ben!” Den called out. “Where did you get sent too?” “My original world.” I said slowly. “It's apparently been over a hundred years there...so where's the bitch that destroyed our home and attacked my kids?” I growl. “Gone.” Cadence said. “She left this.” Cadence said, giving me the slip of paper. I unfolded it. Mammam, Pater auxilium! amicus Scarry “The hell?” I frowned. “Wait…” I frowned, fearing this was a trap. Genos walked over, looking at the words. “It is Latin. The message is bizarre though.” “Don't read it outloud.” I tell him bluntly. “It’s nothing bad, just strange. It says ‘Mommy, Father, Help. Scarry friend’.” Genos said. “Like something a child would write.” “Now don't be surprised...but once I kick the shit out of Tempests guardian and kill it...I might be getting a new fiance.” I tell him. “Is that a common trend with you?” “No, the common trend is...bed room things with a woman mostly.” I shrug nervously. “Now sure this was after they decided they wanted to actually date me for reasons like ‘I'm a hero’, ‘I'm a prince of a country’, or apparently some old law that said if you get a royal woman pregnant your basically married.” I explain. “It makes no sense but hey, at least I have a loving family.” “I see. Well, it seems your residence has been demolished. My scans show no loss of life or danger within the area. Oh, wait, where is Master Saitama?” “Tempest threw him into the Realm of Darkness.” Den said. “She did it fast too, seems she knew he was too strong.” “Shit…” I said worriedly. “That's not good...that's not good at all.” “I am certain he will be alright.” Sonic said, appearing in a sudden haze. “It will take more than a land of monsters to kill him.” “I don't know how strong Saitama is...but let's just say there's worse things than Heartless lurking in the darkness.” I said, a tad worried about the guys safety. It was then a DTD opened up nearby, and out flew Saitama, landing on his face as it closed fast. “Well that was rude.” He said, getting up and dusting himself off. “Oh, hey guys. Can you believe those Heartless things kicked me out of that place? I was hoping someone there can put up a good fight.” I looked over and saw a very mad Invisible holding up a sign that said ‘Keep him out of our realm’. “Huh…” I blinked, finding that...rather concerning. “Okay then...didn't expect that to happen.” I frowned. “So...my house is kind of destroyed and Tempest is apparently scared of the suit of armor that protects here...things just keep getting better and better.” I roll my eyes at my random amount of shit luck here. “So, should you be like, house shopping or something?” Saitama asked me. “Cause it looks like your old place is… worse than mine becomes at times.” “I might be able to help.” Den said, standing up and handing me a small item… it was odd. It was what felt like a small wooden door with elegant designs atop of metal pole that ended as a drill. “It’s one of Cript’s prototypes. Just make sure you put it in a wide open field.” She explained. “Okay.” I said, remembering there was a big open field not too far from here. “And what, suddenly a house will form that's big enough for my family?” “I imagine. All he said was that it’s massive and best start it in a large open field.” “Okay then. There's an open field not far from here.” I say, holding the prototype thing. “Did he say anything like how to use it? Cause I don't want to just go off and then do nothing for five minutes wondering how it works…” “Just place the drill into the ground and wait a few seconds. He did say back up a few feet after putting it into the ground.” “Okay then.” I said, summoning my keyblade glider. “Well I'll be back, hopefully this thing works…” I said before getting on my bike and flying off to the open field. After about two minutes of flying I landed in a peaceful open field and hopped off my bike. “Okay Cript...let's see what happens…” I mutter before placing the drill into the ground and backing up. About fifteen seconds passed before the small door began glowing, then opened as metal began growing out from it, forming a circle around as suddenly blue lines began forming a cylinder, the lines growing chrome metal around, making a double door with a single step into it. It then had a blue screen come up, the words ‘Register owner’ appearing on it as did an image of a hand below the words. I took off my glove and put my hand on where it showed the hand. ”Maybe it's a DNA thing?” I think to myself, wondering how this works. “Ben.” I said, wondering if if also needed a name here. Some glowing lines ran across all directions of the screen at once, then- “Ow!” I yelped, taking my hand off fast as the screen pinched me. It then showed a loading bar before showing an image of my face, as well as other stuff I’m not sure what it was since it went by fast. It then showed me six images. One was a trailer house, the other a brick house, another a log cabin, one was an RV, another a small, one story house, and the last was rather...odd. It was like a detachable camper you hook up to a car or truck. “Weird…” I muttered, shrugging and picking the brick house. After I clicked it the screen changed, asking me to back up some distance. Once I did the cylinder began altering, those blue lines appearing again as it changed into the brick house, even growing a brick wall with a rather large metal gate for the entrance before the house. The house itself though wasn’t too big, at all. It was easy two stories, well made and looked nice but wasn’t big, big enough for his family at least… ”Then again, this is Cript.” I thought, figuring there was more to it than it seemed. ”Let's check the inside shall we…” I thought as I walked towards my new house. Passed the gate and inside the yard, it was nice. Small but nice. I saw there was a Key in the lock of the front door. I took it, looking at it as it seemed normal. I took a deep breath, turning the door knob and… HOLY SHIT!!! It was gigantic inside. I couldn’t see all the way up. Stairs and elevators everywhere as well furniture, and who whole place was...so well designed, elegant, classy, but also modern. “Hot damn…” I muttered. “Well...this is our new house…” I say, loving it a lot as I turned around. “Better go tell everyone.” I muttered before exiting and heading off to tell everyone about our new house and hopefully salvage some of our stuff. With a fair amount of our stuff salvaged it was a long move in, but when all the kids were in I picked out the new Bedroom for myself, my...other self? Body, whatever, and the girls. What made me pick it was that it connects to the room next door, which will be the nursery. The bed was very large and fluffy. Cadence took a room nearby, as did Den and my Council members each took a room also, though on lower floors. I just layed on the bed, feeling tired and...stressed. “God damn it…” I muttered, covering my face with my hands. “So much stress...but...hey at least my kids are okay…” I muttered to myself thankfully. “But...what to do now…” I needed a walk. I got up and left, but didn’t get far as I heard some crying. It was from Cadence’s room. Slowly I approached, and even slower I opened the door. Cadence was sitting on her bed, looking at a photo. “Shining…” She whined, trying to wipe tears away. “I just wished… you could have seen your foal, at least once...that I could have told you in time…” She broke out in tears again. There was so much regret in her voice. I looked down sadly, remembering how Cript gave me my parents back a while ago, and then remembering how I can bring someone back to life. ”Wait...maybe…” I think to myself, wondering if I truly could. ”I probably can't...god knows where this Cadences Shining is right now…” I think to myself bitterly, wondering if I should tell her about how he might be watching over her due to that weird tv thing Joy and others found a while ago. With a sigh I closed the door, and walked along. I was passing Den’s room and saw it open a crack. Walking inside I saw her setting up, a shrine I think. It was showing...an older, anthro Spike, or maybe just an older Spike. She lit up some candles and pulled out a small tripod thing, like for cameras. She pressed a button on it and it made a holographic screen inthe air. There, Photos of her, Cript, a Pony Twilight, Luna, Chrysalis, Lyra, and some kids. Two young griffons, a thestral, Scootaloo, and Spike to the middle right of the image. They looked like they were at a caravel. Den sighed. “Where did the time go… Feels like yesterday it was just a few.” She said, a smile on her face, though I could tell she was sad. “Mom?” I asked softly, feeling like I was intruding but I wanted to help someone at least. “Who...was that Spike?” I asked gently, not knowing anything about this but wanting to know just so I could help. She looked at me, smiling as she motioned for me to take a seat with her, and I did. “Spike...was the first real child Cript had, after Twilight joined his family. Twilight thought of him like a little brother, but Cript treated him like a son, and so did Twilight soon after. He didn’t know who he was, or what he was interested in, and Cript, he felt guilty for coming in somewhat late into his life, so, he spoiled him. So many video games, toys, and he had Spike go to school, something Twilight didn’t do since she would normally homeschool him. It was at school he discovered something he was interested in.” “What was that?” I asked curiously. “Wrestling, and later, Boxing. When he told Cript, Cript signed him up for them immediately. We saw every match, his wins and losses, and when he decided he wanted to fight like Cript, he began training. Physically, he grew up to about six or seventeen, but when he...passed, in reality, he was only fourteen. He grew to be so strong, so very strong. He was number one in the combat for a good long time, and on the fight where he regained that rank, he discovered, tapped into Humanity power, the first of all you kids to do it. Cript was so proud.” I nodded. “I understand…he was too young…” I sighed out, not believing he was only fourteen. “He was...so happy. That’s why he died though… Nexus...is always watching, how or from where we’re not sure. They feared Spike, because it meant he was the first in a long line of new threats to them, as is they fear Cript, another...made them change their tactics. They abandoned making Psychopaths...and are making themselves something worse. Deletes. Admins fear them, they erase everything, even an Admin. They were thought Immortal till Cript killed one… Spike didn’t know, none of us did at the time. Spike must have thought that...it was just a Nexus member, someone dealt with...he didn’t know what he became...or who it was…” She said, her voice dripping poison and anger. I raised an eyebrow. “Who was it?” I asked, thinking she knew this person and hated him to hell and back. “Andrew Vice. Nexus’s leader...and Cript’s father.” I blinked. “Oh...thats…” I start, trying to find the words to describe the sudden indescribable hatred I felt for this guy. “Huh...I can't find words to describe my rage for that guy…” I said, just knowing he was Nexus’s leader already made me hate the hell out of him, but knowing he was the one who caused Cripts pain just made me even more pissed. “He fathered all of Cript’s reflections, when he was born to Nexus, they knew he was pure evil. Soulless, a black heart that’s cruelty knows no end, and like Cript, doesn’t die easy. He would have been the perfect Psychopath, but they had him, used him to lead their actions, making them all crueler, and he was used to create newer, powerful Psychopaths. Cript fought him many times, each time Cript won each fight, but Andrew Vice comes back every time. If Nexus is ever to fall, he must die...but how...is a question Cript asks himself every time they fight.” “Im sure theres a way.” I said. “Unless he found a way to remove the fact he can die from himself I'm sure he can die.” “Who knows. Maybe he’s a fact, like Psychopaths, the fact of Evil.” She huffed. “Pray, you never see him. If you do, it’s you...or your loved ones...he’ll make you choose...if it’s easy for you...then he takes both.” I frowned. “Well that's not good…” I said. “Jeez...and here I wanted to help cheer you up...not talk about the multiverses biggest cock goblin.” Den chuckled. “Yes. He is that and more.” She said, wrapping an arm around me and bringing me in close into a half hug. “Cript went through so much to prevent just this… but like they say, no plan makes it in the battle field. So, what will you be doing next?” “That depends, cause I have an ass ton of things to do both here and in Zebrica…” I said, hugging Den as best I could. “There's...just so much to do...I know I can make clones of myself but still..” “A Hero holds the weight of the world on their shoulders, but only the hero chooses if others can share in that weight.” Den said soothingly. “Cript tried to share that weight, but finds it hard, when looking at the danger involved.” “I know…” I sigh out. “Sharing the weight is something I should do but...Im...I'm scared I'll lose my family again...and the nightmares aren't helping…” I said sadly, not fully understanding what Humanity meant by ‘understanding both good and evil will stop your nightmares’. “I don't want to lose my family again…” “No one does. I know that pain, it fuels me to protect what I have now.” She said, wrapping her other arm around me now. “Most everyone in this family, has lost so much, that now, we will do whatever it takes to protect what we have now. Just like you wi-” She stopped suddenly. I looked up, seeing her sniffing the air and listening. For what I’m not sure. “What's wrong?” I asked, worried something appeared near here. “... It’s…” Her eyes opened, fear in them deep. “An Admin.” I blinked. “That's...a whole bunch of not good...they shouldn't be here…” I said worriedly. “They must be looking for Cript.” Den said, getting up and looking down the hallway. “They’re inside the house, we have to find them fast. A lot of what’s left of the old Admins really hate Cript, he's an abomination to them. Purest assholes.” She huffed, heading down the hallway as I followed. “I hope to god they don't hurt my family…” I mutter, hoping this is a friendly visit and not one where I will get my ass handed to me because reasons. We made it to the long stairway/elevators. Den looked over the edge and jumped over. I ran and looked over, hearing a thud as she hit the ground but I could barely see the dot that was her still moving down another hallway. “Wonders.” I mutter, jumping over and flying down, trying to follow her the best I could. It took a bit of searching but I found her. We were in the main entry way. Den stood across from a woman dressed in all grey, her eyes a hollow white and hair black, looking wet, like she came out from a shower or swim. “You are...Kin to Cript the Admin?” She asked, her voice as hollow as she looked. “Are you going to attack me and everyone affiliated with me if I am?” I ask bluntly. “I'd love to know before answering.” I said, not sure why she's here and fearing the worst given what she immediately started with. “I need...His help.” She said, talking Den and I off guard. “Well...I am his kin...and why do you need his help?” I ask, finding that even more worrying. “A Delete has appeared. Cript is the only one of us to kill them. Please, it’s erasing Multiverses as we speak. My home will be gone entirely within a day your time wolf.” She explained. “Please, where is he?” I checked my assistant, hoping to call him and tell him about this. “I'm not sure...hold on…” I said worriedly. ”Please call…” I think to myself worriedly. ”We’re sorry, your call cannot be completed at this time.” Said my assistant as the call dropped. “Well fuck…” I frowned. “Can you get a hold of Cript?” I asked Den worriedly, already thinking of what to do here. Before she could reply that Admin was right in front of me. “You...you hold that same power as he.” She said, grabbing my face by the cheeks. “You have to help.” Before I could react, I felt… I felt like I was everywhere, blind but not, in pain but not, breathing...but not. When it ended I fell to the ground, my senses freaking out as I was suddenly in some broken down house. It was dark outside. “Christ, warn me next time lady.” I grumbled shaking my head and looking around, drawing my Keyblade and Frozen Pride just in case. “Welcome to my creation young wolf. This simple building is my home. As you can see, the Delete has caused great damage. No longer is the sky above us, nor even the sun lighting it.” She said, motioning towards the window. I took a look outside. It was a thick, large forrest outside with lots of bushes and...large spider webs and skeletons... “Oh dear…” I said worriedly. “And the giant spider webs and skeletons?” “Forgive me, I should explain.” She said. I turned around and she bowed. “I am Nergala. The Admin of Fear and dread. My reaction holds both fears of admins and creations within their creations alike. My worlds may try to harm you, and I apologize for that. The only threat never allowed in this world are Deletes, and Psychopaths.” “Well one somehow came here.” I said. “But...you say I have Cripts powers...I suppose that's because of Humanity?” I asked curiously. “Yes. Humanity, and Purpose. Older than Admins, and more powerful than Code. Where it originated is unknown, but it’s a power no admins can wield, unless they had it before they became one, like Cript.” “Purpose?” I ask curiously. “That's a thing as well?” “Purpose and Humanity are the two powers that keep all creations whole. Humanity, the power of free will and choice, and Purpose the force of placement, and order. They worked cooperatively, until the Admin war, which is why our numbers are so low today. Purpose became corrupted, and it’s power became that the Psychopaths use today. Purpose, to end all. Deletes are similar, but occur naturally within the voids, created only to keep admins in check, our infinite realities...minimize, or erased completely. Purpose’s greatest creation, tamer, smart, and stops when it’s orders are done. But, it’s still, at the core, a Psychopath.” I put my hand over my left eye. “Cool but...I still barely understand any of this. My Psychopath powers...I'm too scared to see if I could use and Humanity is random at best if I could use it…” I sigh out. “Funny that I got these powers like...maybe a month ago? And barely understand it even though I fought Psychopaths before…” “Whatever the case, you cannot waste time- Move!” She pushed me away as...a line came from nowhere. It went through the air, house, floor… her arms...and in a blink...it was all gone. A five foot line of the house across was gone… I looked down, where dirt and rock were under the house...gone. I looked up, seeing Nergala bleeding as both her arms from just before the elbows forward were...gone. “Gah!” She cried, clearly scared and...fear filled. “I made this place to hold fears...but fear of death… it’s too cruel even for I.” She spoke through tears. I moved over and summoned my Lexicon. “Hold on, I got you.” I said, starting to chant a healing spell to try and help the woman. “Your magic is useless here.” She quickly said. “You need Code to heal me, you need to be an admin for them to even have an effect…” She said, forcing herself up somehow and resting on a chair nearby. “Kill the Delete, and I can undo it’s damage, heal myself. But if you don’t end it soon...I fear I too will soon die.” That was a scary thought. “I'll do my best...let's hope it's enough…” I muttered before running off, trying to find the Delete as my left eye turned into a Psychopaths. ”Just gotta figure out how to have both Psychopath power and Humanity power at the same time while fighting for my right to exist...this is a whole lot bigger than just fighting a Kingdom Hearts villain…” I think to myself, not sure when and how I went from Core to Deletes. The forrest was no help in finding where the damned thing is. I ran, till I bumped into someone… Pennywise?! “Move! Run!” He yelled, shoving me aside and continued running. I frowned. “Funny seeing scary movie monsters screaming ‘run’.” I frowned, keeping alert as I buffed myself as much as I could and continued forward in my search. “For a being whose erasing existence you'd think it wouldn't be this hard to find it…” I spoke too soon as I had to stop abruptly as a sudden lack of existence in front of me. From as far as the eye could see, right to left, I could see… nothing. Nothing safe for the ten foot tall black knight walking atop the nothingness before me, a large greatsword in it’s grip. It stopped, then looked up to me. “Creation. Why don’t you run like the rest?” It asked. “Cause someone's gotta stand up and stop this senseless destruction.” I told it, Nothingness sparking from the fact this was a powerful creature of Void. “And I'm that someone.” “Nothingness? You are unique from the others that have fallen. Pray tell, what brings you here? I can tell you are from another Admin’s creation.” “The admin you're trying to kill wanted help, so I'm giving them help considering your powers are bullshit from what I've heard.” I said honestly. “Hmm...Normally I’d ignore you, but long has it been since a challenge has appeared before me.” He said, the ground around him for about fifteen feet or so came back. “A duel to the death then. Kill me and before I expire everything removed shall be returned. Die by my blade, and your realm will be next.” He said, lifting his large sword like it was a dagger. I took a deep breath, Nothingness swirling around me as I lifted my keyblade, my runes glowing bright. “Just to warn you, I'm a bit hard to kill.” I said, my left eye being the shade of a Psychopaths. The delete laughed for a second. “This will be interesting.” He said. I stepped onto the battlefield and he rushed me. I blocked, quickly side stepping and landing a hit on his side. My Assistant changed my view. I could see it’s HP bar, like in games. It wasn’t too long, but the amount gone from my hit was barely noticeable. I also saw its name. The Delete Rogel. “Rogel huh?” I asked. “Got a story you want to tell?” I ask, raising my Keyblade up as a bolt of lightning crashed down onto the Delete. “Like many before me to become Deletes I was born within the void.” He said, swinging his sword that I dodged by ducking down. “I came from the calmer area’s within the void, til I set out to find a place for myself within the Non Existence.” He slashed down, his impact on the ground knocking me down from the vibrations. “I battled and slayed many a foe and monster, but my place in my home was yet to be found.” He then quickly tried to punch me, which I jumped up and over him before slashing him across his back. “Grah! Haha! Then, my calling found me!” He said happily, spin kicking me into the air and then hammer fisting me back to the ground. “Purpose itself called me to become a Delete. I found my place within my home, and here I am today, sixty trillion eons later!” He said, lifting his foot up and then bringing it down on me. I rolled out of the way and got back up quick. “Many a realms and Admins have fallen to my blade. It’s never personal, it’s just what I was born to do.” “Yeah? Well apparently Purpose here thought I was supposed to be a Guardian.” I said, motioning to my left eye. “But I'm here for a much bigger reason…” I growl, thinking about my family and friends, trying to figure out how to channel Humanity instead of it being a random chance. “And that bigger reason is to protect people from bastards like you.” I growled, summoning Skysplitter and slamming it into the ground, a wave of jagged rocks shot out towards the knight. He was knocked back. I rushed him, knocking him on his back and thrusting my Keyblade into his chest. I saw on the bar it did a fair amount of damage, but he quickly pushed me off him. “A Bastard you say? Tell me this, would a bastard be a father, with a wife waiting for him to return with two children and one along the way?” He asked, getting back up. “I know not what life within your Admins playgrounds is like, but life within the void is simple, the strongest survive.” He said, spreading out his free arm and from it, a black shield with symbols that...just looking at them was difficult. It then spat out small blades around it’s edge, and they began moving fast, and silent. “By my family, I shall not lose this fight.” I looked at him sadly. “That's something I didn't want to hear…” I muttered, shifting into Master form. “Cause I also have a family, a really big one...with about twenty wives and over three hundred and fifty adopted daughters, several born children and an ass load more kids on the way.” I said, knowing this fight will make one family lose someone special to them. I smacked my Keyblade on Frozen Pride as a challenge, an aura of power surrounding me. “By my family, I shall not lose this fight!” I bark. We charged. In my head I could see my family. Luna, Twilight, Rarity, Pinkie. Braig, before and after. I remembered the good times, the bad, losing my parents, having them returned to me. I felt pain and happiness within me. I swung, he blocked my hit with his shield, and I saw my Keyblade was glowing with a swirling white and red aura. Frozen Pride was as well, right when I realized something… Sometimes evil is necessary. To save this place, and my family...I’d have to kill someone with their own family...and he was in the same boat. An act of evil...for a good result. “I’m sorry.” I said, using Frozen pride to back his shield away, and jabbed my Keyblade into his chest. I saw his hp bar drop to zero. I looked at the Knight, my right eye feeling a little different as I kept myself at the ready if he might still have fight in him. He dropped his sword and shield, then laughed softly. “Heh. As promised.” He said, raising his hands as in a blink...the forrest was back. The sky above was sunset, the colors making the forest look amazing. “Funny...how a being who is made to destroy can give back what it took.” I said honestly, finding the forest a whole lot better. “We take in a creation, and turn it into energy to make ourselves stronger. I had yet to turn it all into power.” He said, falling to his back, his helmet fell off… he looked...human. “The one thing I admit about Admins...Most of them make...beautiful skies.” He said, his body fading until all that was left was an empty suit of armor with a hole in it, his sword and shield. “Yeah...they do.” I nodded solemnly, walking over and collecting his armor, shield and sword. “It was...a necessary evil…” I mutter to myself, wondering if I should try to find Rogels family and give them his stuff, go home and make a gravestone for him, or put his stuff in my trophy room for my first big fight against a Delete. “I'm sorry it had to end Rogel…” I mutter sadly. “There, I killed him lady.” I called out to the Admin. “How can I get home?” I called out, hoping she could hear me. “The deed is done.” She said, appearing in a vale of sudden fog. Her arms were also back. “You have done me a grand deed, kin of Cript.” She said, taking my hand and placing something in it. It was a ring, rusted and aged in its appearance. “Take it. This ring will allow you to see the fears of all who fall within your gaze. Use it well.” She said, that same feeling from when she first brought me here taking over here coming over again, then I was back in the main hall, Den quickly taking me into a near suffocating hug. “Ben! Oh thank goodness you’re alright!” She said. “Don't worry mom, I'm alright...mostly.” I said. “So yeah, killed a Delete...didn't know they were basically Galactus but on a creation devouring scale...and I had to kill a father and a husband…” I sigh out, looking up at Den could see I had a Humanity colored right eye and a Psychopath colored left eye before they turned back to my normal blue eyes. “And...I don't know whether to find his family and give them his stuff, or store it away in my trophy room...but I am making Rogel a grave… it's the least I could do.” “What you do with the spoils is your choice, but to honor him with a grave is wise.” She said, petting my head. “So, you learned to wield Humanity and Purpose together then?” “Kinda?” I said nervously, unsure to be perfectly honest. “I thought of my family and friends yes, but I remembered all the pain I've been through...and thought about killing for a good cause...it was a one time thing, I doubt I'll be able to do it again for a while knowing my luck.” “You are progressing well. I’m sure you’ll master it in no time.” “Cript said he'd train me after I get my crown. And hey, I killed something and I'm not going crazy or hearing voices in my head.” I said, glad that my Psychopath part wasn't going nuts here. Den walked me back to my bedroom, and I hopped onto the bed with joy. Today was...an event. Den went back to her room, but before I could sleep the door was broke down. I jumped up, seeing Jenny, looking, and reaching drunk beyond belief. “Heya! You here p*hic*ops!?” “Jenny why the hell are you drunk?” I asked with a frown. “Because fuck you!” She yelled, throwing a bottle at me. I caught it, the bottle looked expensive and rather high quality...and it had at most a sip left. “I want *hic* my puppy! Where’s my puppy?” “Joys not here.” I said. “And from what I can tell he’s busy doing stuff on another world.” I told her. “Do you miss him?” She just stared blankly at me for a moment before she began laughing. “Hehehe. When did you get taller Joy?” I took a deep breath and pulled out my Lexicon. There was a detoxification spell to remove poisons, and being that drunk she might as well be poisoned. I cast it and for a moment she was still...before rushing to the bathroom, the sounds of her upchucking whatever alcohol was still in her stomach echoing back into the bedroom. “Who else drank heavily?” I called out to Jenny, standing up and I'm pretty sure Joys herd is also poisoned here. “Just me.” She said as another lurch of bile came back up. “The others stopped days ago.” “Why were you drinking heavily?” I asked simply. “Do I need a reason?” She replied, the sink running as she washed her mouth out. “Yes.” I frowned. “Like how you kicked down my door and asked me where Joy was, calling him ‘your puppy’.” “That’s our nickname for him.” She said, huffing. “Damn, I have to be the first Ventral in generations to find a ways of getting drunk.” “Okay then...but why were you drinking that heavily?” I ask again. “...” She was quiet, walking back into the room and taking a seat on the bed. “I had a dream...about my mom..before she became a baby…” “What was the dream about?” I asked curiously. “It was one of the few calm times we had. We went to a carnival. Dad had a picture with all of us, but… mom asked me to take a picture of just her, dad and sis… I knew why immediately…” She muttered. I gently put a hand on her shoulder. “It's alright, I'm here for ya.” I said gently. “Anything else about the dream you want to talk about?” “It’s what happened after the dream… I woke up, and left before the others did the same. I don’t even know how but...I found myself over her crib… and thought...it would be so easy…” She said, her fist clenched so tight her knuckles cracked. “She did so much to me, always under everyone's radar as much as she could… Ventrals have always been called monsters...but she was worse. So...much worse…” “Did you do anything to her?” I asked worriedly. “No...I’m not as cruel as she was… I just left...and that’s why I was drinking none stop. Every fiber in me wanted to just… I’m not going to pretend I’m not a monster...but I’m not evil.” “Your not...your my daughter, and I promised you I'd make sure your happy.” I said gently. “It's what a father...no, what a parent should do for their children.” Jenny hugged me, and I returned it. “I guess this is how Zeke felt all the time...fighting what your instincts tell you constantly.” “Yeah.” I nodded. “But hey, you're doing great.” I said gently. “For now.” She said, her tone of voice sad and painful. “You have a new family here. You have a loving boyfriend and many girlfriends. Think of the good in your life, cause trust me it helps.” I said honestly. “I do but… whatever’s in there...whispers a lot…” She said, falling asleep on my arm. I sighed out, knowing she had Psychopath blood in her so they might haunt her. “Don't worry my daughter, I'll keep them away from you.” I mutter gently. I decided to lay her on the bed across from me and covered her in the blankets. I then just sat on a nearby chair. Was gonna be stiff in the morning, but I didn’t care that much. Rather rapidly I let my wear and tear of the day lead me to slumber, wondering if I’ll be seeing a dream, or Nightmare? I was standing on my station of awakening, and Rejection was here...he looked better. “You have to save everyone don’t you?” He said with a sarcastic tone, but sincere grin. “Of course.” I said. “But glad to see your better, hope to see you back to full health instead of...before.” I said a little sheepishly. “Yeah, that sucked.” He said, scratching the back of his head. “So, nice new place you got.” “Yeah, glad I got a new house after Tempest ruined my other one...glad we could salvage a bunch of stuff though.” I said honestly. “Yeah, I should tell you that even in my mad state I could hear her heart and...that things heart.” “Jennys heart?” I asked curiously, wondering if he was talking about Bara awhile ago, Den because of who she is, or Jenny because of the fact she has Psychopath blood in her. “No, Tempest you thick headed idiot.” Rejection huffed. “Whatever Eraqus has become, I’m surprised he isn't a heartless yet. Anyway, her actual heart is asleep, almost cocooned by Eraqus’s. That being said it explains why she passed out when he left her. He is keeping her heart in a sleeping, coma like state to likely preserve it's light and her innocence. And since you can't figure this out yourself that also means the Tempest you fought is like a split personality of Eraqus, so he’s been with her for a long time if he developed that.” “Sorry, there's a just a lot of ‘hers’ here.” I told him. “But yeah, I kind of figured something was up when me and Zeke talked about it.” I explain. “So, question is, how old was she when Eraqus found her?” “Probably when she was a kid….and maybe before her horn snapped off.” I shrug. “But all I know is that I'm gonna kick Erequs’s ass when I see him again.” “True. So, what was the name of the world Zeke was stuck on til now?” “Bolitaria, the Demon souls world.” I said. “Why do you ask? I mean...the Dark Souls world was full of Void from what I could tell…” I said, wondering if Rejection had an idea for that world. “Well, when Zeke’s soul joined with Trixie’s body and heart, I could feel that new strength just oozing like an overfilled pool. It seems like a great place to train, and do some good all at once. Plus, since it seems everything there wants us dead, we can go all out without consequence.” “Not everything, there are friendly people there...hell if we go to Dark Souls I can gather some new allies that are bosses.” I said, remembering Seath the Scaleless and wondering if I could cure his madness to get a strong ally as well as many others. “But who knows...and I'd rather not blow up the planet on accident if my ‘all out’ is that big…” I said, not really knowing what my hundred percent would be. “I’m just saying It seems Zeke did very well there, and he was just a soul. Makes you wonder how much damage we could do.” “Yeah…” I nodded, thinking about this. “And maybe I could try and train my humanity and psychopath powers ya know?” “Then it seems settled. Let’s head on out when you wake up.” Rejection said, walking up close to me. “This is to just wake you up faster.” He said before slamming his boot between my legs. “Ah!” I yelped, not feeling that pain but feeling more of an after image of sorts. “Rejection your a douche…” I grumble to myself while getting up and stretching. “Dad?” Jenny spoke. I forgot she was sleeping with me...that won’t ever come out right… I turned around, seeing her getting up and- WHAT THE FUCK!? “Jenny...why are you naked?!” “Huh? Oh, this fur is really hot, so sometimes I undress to sleep better.” She explained, getting up while I covered my eyes and from the noise I assumed she was getting dressed. “Honestly, you of all people blushing at nudity?” “Your my daughter.” I told her. “That's a lot different than seeing any of my fiances naked.” “Whatever. I’m dressed now.” She said. I took a quick peak and thanked god she was. “So, what’s up? You woke up with a shock.” “Well Im going to another world to train and see what I can do without any limitations possibly. And Rejection, my dark half, decided to wake me up by kicking me in the dick.” I huffed. “Ha!” She laughed. “Classic. Well, good luck I guess, bring me back a souvenir.” “Alright…” I said before rolling up my sleeve and bringing out my keyblade. “Hey Jenny, want to see how cloning works?” “I know, you cut off a part of your arm or finger or whatever and like a starfish you grow a new one and a new you grows from it.” She explained. “Kinda creepy but cool all at once.” “Yep.” I said before cutting my arm off. Shit still hurt like a bitch, but I regenerated my arm and a clone me appeared, and hey it actually had pants this time. “Might as well keep one of me around home ya know?” I said, moving my new arm around and getting used to it. “Well I'll be off.” I said before opening a DTL to either Demon Souls or Dark Souls world as my third clone got some more clothes and walked right in. I came out on a bridge of sorts. There was poorly made barricades and abandoned wagons around and behind me was a massive closed gate, blocking the only exit/entrance. In the distance I could see people, well, they looked like Hollows but… not dead, just...malnourished? Some were right in the open, others were hiding behind the badly made barricades, and from what I could see they all had broken swords and wooden shields. “This must be the starting area...” I muttered to myself, bringing out Frozen Pride and my keyblade and walked carefully towards the group of undead. “Hello?” I asked, not knowing much about the Demon souls world and if it was different than Zekes. When I came across a part where there was a turn off, one of them came out from that small entrance off turn and three came from up ahead to me. I raised my shield and blocked, their broken weapons bouncing off like nothing as I did a fast swing, hitting them all as they fell, this white light escaping them and flowed into me. My assistant beeped. Obtained 60 Souls “Cool.” I said, knowing I'm gonna be here for a while grinding. “Okay, which way now?” I muttered, knowing From Software made way too big maps for these places. I decided to head the adjacent way, and was met my a firmly locked gate. It opened when I tapped my Keyblade against the lock, and once on the other side I spotted platforms and a few bodies with something glowing from them. I walked over to the bodies with the glowing things and looked around carefully, knowing this might be a trap. “Okay...anything hiding in wait for me to grab the stuff?” As if on cue, this red energy appeared and three of those malnourished things appeared, their bodies red like blood. They charged me fast, each hitting my shield I raised. ”Damn, these red ones are a lot stronger!” I thought, Taking the time to slice them, but unlike the other once, they didn’t fade instantly. I backed up as they lunged forwards, and cast Thunder. That seems to finish them off as they fell, leaving behind small glowing orbs of their own while their souls came to me. Obtained 50 Souls My Assistant announced. “Okay…” I muttered before collecting the glowing orbs, wondering what if holds. “Wonder what these things left here?” I wonder. When I grabbed the orbs the red ones left, they each revealed to be some kind of green herb or sorts. My Assistant beeped. Crescent Moon Grass. A medicinal herb named for the lunar phase. Recovers a small amount of the user's HP. The effect of moon herbs changes according to the condition they're in. Crescent Moon herbs are picked when they are very young. “Cool.” I said before looking around for another direction. “Wonder if I'll meet anyone here?” I grabbed the other orbs, they were orbs of energy, but I knew they were souls stored into a single form. I placed them away, and no sooner did I climb a short hill Five of those red things appeared. I cast Mega Flare, and it ended them all quick. They all dropped that Crescent Moon Grass stuff and when I saw an entrance of sorts, my nose caught the strong whiff of long dead rotting corpses. “Thank god my hood is also a gas mask…” I mutter before putting my hood up and zipping it up so I don't have to smell rotting corpses. “Now, time to see why there's long dead corpses there.” I muttered before walking towards the entrance. Right as I entered I saw the quick pass by of scratched and worn chrome, followed by the sound of metal hitting stone. I looked down and saw that axe Zeke had back on the ship, now wielded by another. She wore tight fitting leather, bandaged wrapped gloves, and her mask only showed a single blue eye. “My my, you are something new.” She said, lifting the axe from the small slice it made in the ground before me. “Hm, you aren’t human, but you don’t feel like a demon either. What are you?” “I'm a Dire wolf actually.” I said. “Just have my face hidden with my cloak ya know? And who are you if I may ask?” “I am Executioner Miralda, the kings personal Henchwoman. I carry out all his requests, kill those he tells me to kill, and dispose of their corpses down below. Even with him now being a demon, I shall remain loyal to him.” “So you won't do anything that goes against a demon that's slowly killing this world huh?” I asked her, a little upset the first talking person I meet I might have to fight. “All traitors to the king shall meet the blade of my axe. Will your neck be next?” She asked. “I don't know, do you want to surrender before I kick your ass?” I asked simply. SHe didn’t answer, rather she swung her axe, slicing my nose before I could back up. She held the part of her weapon that had some of my blood, lifted her mask up a bit, and licked it off. “Show me what you can do, wolf man.” I touched my cut nose and looked at it. “Alright…” I said. “If you insist.” I said, raising my shield up and a pillar of ice shot out at the lady. She backflipped out of the way, sidestepping then wall ran over to slam her weapon down on my shield. Crap, she can fight! I backed up outside, and she was behind me. I swung behind me but she slid to the floor, and spin kicked me down. I raised my shield over my head as she brought it down. “You fight well wolfman. It’s been awhile since a challenge came my way.” “You haven't seen anything yet.” I said, slashing at the woman as twilight thorns lashed out at her as well. It hit her, but she rolled forward and slashed up, slicing my coat and part of my chest. “Not bad. I felt that, a little.” She huffed. Playing it though? Damn, she is tough. “Okay then.” I said before swapping out my keyblade for Skysplitter. I took a deep breath and shouted, raising Skysplitter in the air as energy billowed around me as a powerful wind slammed into the ax lady. “Grave!” I shouted, earth spikes shooting out towards the woman. She sidestepped the attack, rolled forwards and then, spun, slamming her axe into my back, and kicked me off to unstick it from my bones. “You are something different, but special powers aren’t all that make the fighter in this world wolfman.” She said, stepping on my back and applying pressure, keeping me down as she showed me her axe. “Any last words before you expire?” I pulled out my Lexicon. “Body of Effulgent Baryl.” I said, my body gaining a green aura. “I'm not dead yet lady, activate.” I said, my body seeming to vanish from under her and appeared a little distance away. “Curaja.” I said, starting to heal myself by a lot. “More and more surprises.” She said, walking towards me. “And here I thought this world had little left to offer.” “There are many surprises you don't know about lady.” I said, casting buffs on myself before raising my hand. “Maximize Magic, Hold of Rib!” I shout, hundreds of spear like bones shout out towards the executioner in a large circle to try and impale her and keep her in place. She rolled herself back into the hallway. I chased after, only for her to pull and drag me down a bloody ramp, fall and hit several beams before landing in a shallow canal...blood and corpses made quite the pile that broke our falls. I got up quickly, disgusted by the amount of death her. She stood back up, and pulled her weapon from the corpse it impaled into when we fell. “You are the first person to enter this cannal alive. I’ll soon rectify that!” She charged, the two of us locking weapons. “Maximize Magic, Gravity Maelstrom!” I shouted, thrusting a ball of super condensed gravity into her stomach, knocking her back. “Grasp of Nothing!” I shouted, hands made of Nothingness rose from the ground behind her and tried to grab at her. They wrapped around her, and sliced her arms, legs and torso up badly, as she fell to the ground when it ended. She then forced herself up, and was breathing heavily. “I will...fight for my king.” She grunted. “And what if I said you can join a new king?” I asked her simply. “Your loyalty is sound, but even you must know your king has gone mad and is not the same person you once served with both heart and soul.” I told her. She chuckled. “My motives for my loyalty aren’t that simple. I’m not loyal to the king because he is the king. I’m loyal to him...because he lets me kill, let’s me do what I love, the only thing. I. LOVE!” She charged, before stopping as blood sprouted out from all her wounds. She fell to her knees. “Heh...heh… Blood loss. How...ironic…” She laughed, handing me her axe, a ring, and took off her mask...she was beautiful. Her blue eyes, even in this darkly lit place were glowing bright, her black hair was cut short, and her face was smooth, pale, and beautiful. “I can see them, the countless faces of those I’ve killed. They’ve come to drag me to hell. Hahahaha… It’s...beautiful...” She said, closing her eyes and falling face first into the bloody, dirty water. “Creepy…” I muttered, taking the axe and ring and checking if anything was special about them. Master’s Ring A ring made of straw rope Damage from direct hits increases while damage from all other attacks decreases. A ring from a faraway land known for its swordsmithing. Said to be imbued with a distinct spell. ________________________________________________________________________ Guillotine Axe An axe which is used for beheadings which has seen a lot of wear and tear. It's fat-handled, short and heavy, but can sever the cervical vertebra in a single blow. It is disdained as a beheader's weapon especially in Boletaria. “Right then.” I mutter, putting my two new items away. “Glad to know that. Now...where to next?” I wonder, looking around this dirty as hell area. I had to float back up, taking some glowing orbs on items that were a unique soul, called a Colorless demon's soul, as well as a full set of armor. I put them away and headed back up the stairs. There, I spotted her again….but she was red this time. She turned to me. She didn’t have her weapon, but she cracked her knuckles regardless. Even after death...she wanted to fight. I took a deep breath. “Something's not right here…” I muttered, wondering why the dead are red here. I checked my mana and saw I still had a ton left. “Okay, Triple Maximize Magic, Reality Slash!” I shouted, three blades that seemed to cut through reality itself rushed towards the red executioner. She sidestepped them all, tackling me down the stairs and when I got back up, I saw she snatched that demon soul from me, she crushed it in her hand, a green aura and souls flowed over her...she regained her body. “I’ll be seeing you, wolfman.” She said, jumping into the canal and running off. “Well shit…” I muttered. “Note to self, put everything but the allowed potions and ethers in my Assistant so I'm not pickpocketed…” I frowned. “Wonderful…” I rolled my eyes and went back up the damn stairs so I can continue on my day. Heading back to the bridge, I saw a large gate that was also closed, as well as a few pathways locked off, for now anyway. I came across an archer, shooting at me with a crossbow, but they took a long time to reload. I brought out sharp shooter and dealt with him, and the two others that were waiting. I went through some kind of barracks area and dealt with all the enemies. When I got to a hallway like area I saw a path blocked by those crappy blockades. I broke them and once I entered what looked like a blacksmiths area, I saw one of those malnourished people….though they weren’t attacking...in fact, they were kneeled down like sitting or something. “Hello, what can I do for you?” He asked with a fast, rough and high pitched voice. “I suppose your a blacksmith?” I asked curiously, not knowing much about this world and thinking because he was here he was a blacksmith. “Or are you just staying here for some reason?” “Blacksmith? Ha, now there’s a laugh. No, I’m just a simple thief, stealing from the dead to sell to whoever. The blacksmiths of this land left long ago after a fued. Anything of interest to ya?” “Well what do ya have to sell?” I asked curiously, wondering what this thief was selling. “Well that depends, what do you need to buy?” He asked. “That's...why I asked what do you sell…” I said, wondering why the thief just said something completely asinine. “Well on me at the moment I have some moon grasses, Crescent and half moon. Soldiers lotis to patch your bleeding wounds, and firebombs for those who want to set the world on fire. All I got for ranged weapons are some wooden bolts. Weapons I got short spears, clubs, long swords, light crossbows, wooden shields, soldiers shields and slaves shields. And, my most pricey item for sale, an entire set of plate armor, though each piece is sold individually.” He explained. I checked how many souls I had given I did beat a boss not too long ago. 11,456 souls My assistant informed me. I frowned, finding that amount quite high here. “Right then…” I muttered, wondering about armor considering I don't have keyblade armor or the kind of armor Joy somehow got fighting Eve that one time. “Hmm...decisions decisions…” “Take your time, it’s not like I’m going anywhere. Hehehehehehe.” “That's what they all say before appearing somewhere else with new items they…’acquired’.” I said. “But how much for the full plate armor set?” I asked, wondering if I should just save my souls to level here. “In total it will be 4,900 souls. 5,000 and I’ll throw in a sword for free.” “Eh, sure.” I said, raising my hand and a ball of five thousand souls appeared. “Might as well I suppose.” “Thank ya kindly.” He said, taking the orb as he got off the box he was on top of. He opened it, and handed me a set of plate armor, well polished and taken care of, as well as a sword. “As promised, the full set and a free sword.” “Cool.” I nodded while taking the entire set and sword and them all vanishing into my Assistants storage like the axe and ring. “Thank you, but mind if I ask what's going on around this place?” I asked. “I got a tidbit about a king turning into a demon and all, know what's going on?” “It’s quite simple. Long ago man was created, and embude with a soul, and there for wisdom and intelligence. On the next day, a terrible demon, a seed of evil planted itself into the world, as a soul devouring demon. It was called The Old One. It however, could not complete its task alone, so, it created and turned men into demons. A thick, colorless fog swept the land. When a demons kills a man, their soul is gone, eaten. But, when a human consumes a demon's soul, they are given power beyond imagination, and so, many a humans died trying to acquire a demon's soul. Then, special monks developed the soul arts, a means of using one's own soul to combat the demons, and thus, the world was saved, the monks becoming monumentals. Half living guardians of the Nexus, and the Old One’s prison where it sleeps. “They banned the soul arts, but the king, in foolish arrogance, revived the soul arts, and awoken the old one. Now, demons have flooded all that’s left of the world, our humble Bolitarea. There is this place, the Boletarian palace, Stonefang Tunnel south of here, The Tower of Latria, a church for those of god, and a prison for sinners and mad men. The Shrine of Storms. A place where the dead walk and the livin dare only trespass for it’s invaluable loot and legends. And lastly, the Valley of Defilement, a haven for those soul starved, sick or dying, a land of poison and illness protected by a maiden and her bodyguard. These places are all that’s left of this once vast world. Legends speak that a new hero will rise, to slay all the demons, and save this land...or aid the old one to slay it.” “Long and rich history for a man who's gotta kill an army of demons huh?” I chuckled. “Good to know, so I just need to go to these places, kill the demons, and maybe life will come back to this place?” “It’s not that simple lad. Only a man who was saved from death by the maiden of the Nexus can fulfill this prophecy, but you don’t know if the nexus will chose you...unless you die. Hehehehehehehehehe.” “Listen I've died once already, trust me it's not pleasant.” I said honestly. “But fine, how would I find this miracle person?” I asked. “Or at least go to the Nexus without dying?” “Well, without dying you’d need a shard of Archstone, they link directly to the nexus, or find the archstones themselves. A shard is hard to find, and the archstones, most of them are guarded by demons, most, not all. I know of one nearby unguarded.” “And by ‘unguarded’ you mean it's a trap for dipshits to randomly walk up to just to be killed by a demon?” I asked, knowing full well something like that would happen here. “No, not at all. When the old one was first put to slumber, the Monumentals gave archstones to the leaders of what was left to Bolitaria. Only the Giants didn’t survive this next awakening. There’s an archstone in front of the tall locked gate that blocks the entrance and exit of this palace. It’s a green stone with a sword stuck inside it. Touch the swords hilt, and be transported to the nexus. Simple as that.” He explained. “Cool.” I nodded. “Well looks like I'm off to the Nexus.” “Good luck to you, and, try not to die. I hate having to resell supplies I just sold someone.” He said with a wave. I had to backtrack to where I arrived, and as he said, there it was. It rested in a broken fountain, the whole thing made me wonder how I overlooked it the first time. As he said, I touched it’s hilt, and a sudden green aura covered everything, and when it faded, I was in a tall place. Standing atop a magic made floor in the middle of all this stone. “Pray tell, are thee a slayer of demons?” I was approached by that Maiden in black, the one that Zeke was accompanied with. Well, not that one specifically, this realities one. “Yes I am.” I said. “Its nice to meet you.” I nodded to the maiden. “So I was told about this Prophecy to kill all demons.” She looked me over, examining me like a policemen looking for an arrest. “The prophecy, is not specific to a single person. It can be played out by multiple people, no single person has to kill them all.” She said, even with the wax over her face, I could tell she kept a gaze at me. “Is there anything else thine wishes to know?” “Yes, I also was also told souls can make a person stronger. I believe I need to talk to you about such a thing?” I ask curiously. “Or do I need to do something to do such a thing?” “I...can. I can manipulate thins soul and imbue it with attributes of the souls thin has collected. However, I am sorry to say, but I can not help thee.” “Is something wrong?” I ask. “Is it because I'm not dead or because of a big thing that needs solving?” I ask, knowing this probably won't work at all but just wondering. “I cannot make thee stronger by manipulating thys soul, because thin has none.” She said. I felt my heart stop at that. “Excuse me...what now?” I ask, honestly shocked to hear such a thing. “I sense no soul within thee, aside from the collected souls on your journey thus far. Thin body is empty. You must have trouble with emotions, and trust. Am I correct?” “That's...up for debate in some cases…” I said nervously. “But what does that have to do we me not having a soul?” “Whether thee was born without one or lost it, was consumed by demons or even let it rott, I do not know. But you can not finish this prophecy, for only a being with a soul, can face The Old One. I am sorry, but this Nexus can not help thee, thou should return to thine own world.” She said, waving her hand as a...DTL appeared? “Many other worlds can use thine’s help, but not this one, soulless man.” She barely touched me, but it was like some unseen force threw me into the portal. I woke up back in...The Everfree...next to the old house…”MOTHER FUCKER!” I bark in rage. “Great, just fucking great! First I start with a half dead heart, it gets better yay, than Drezke being the little piss ant he is took out Rejection and him and some dumb cunt killed an ass ton of guards, then after that I am by all technical concerns a Psychopath, but hey Humanity helped that, now I don't have a soul!? What in the actual fuck world!?!” I ranted angrily. “Can I just catch one, oh so simple break from either losing something, gaining something that might ruin my life, or just randomly not have something!?!” I ranted in rage. I was breathing heavy. I didn’t understand. How can all this crap be happening to one person… why me...why me… “You don’t remember?” I turned around fast, seeing Rejection somehow was there. “Me dying that one time didn't count for me losing my soul. And no, the executioner lady didn't steal my soul, she stole that colorless demon soul I had in my pocket.” I frowned. “Heh, not that hard head.” He said, giving me a playful hit against my head. “Remember that day at the beach? The day that started your downward spiral into depression?” I took a deep breath, my shoulders shaking in barely contained rage. “So I lost my soul...all those damned years ago?” “Sorta. You drowned Ben...and that’s not a reference to a creepypasta either. You were legally dead for ten minutes. Then, somehow, paramedics revived you...I kept that memory away from you cause...you were young and...it was traumatizing. Here, time to know.” He said, placing his hand to my head. I remembered, swimming far into the ocean, diving underwater with some swimming goggles dad got me, then, when playing around with some rocks and trash that were under the water near a pear. The poles on it were littered with snagged hooks… My leg got caught, hooks all inside and trying to tear my skin off. I screamed, water filling my lungs...I couldn’t breath, just water, I wanted to swim away but the hooks hurt so bad… I passed out...and woke up in the hospital, a long tube down my throat and nose, a nurse taking some defibrillators away… I gasped, shaken from the memory of me dying… “Your light half took over the place of a soul, but, a heart...can’t replace a soul. That’s why it’s just me here every time.” Rejection said...we were in my station of awakening. “Your light half...gave up so much of itself that what’s left in your heart is barely enough for you Ben… Be grateful...he...would have made you a lot like Zeke if none of that happened…” Rejection said, looking mournful and...depressed. “Well...how do I bring him back?” I ask. “I've done the impossible before...I can do it again.” I said, believing killing a Delete, apparently being alive without a soul to begin with, and doing literally anything I'm doing right now as a basic impossibility. “I brought you back at least twice considering the situations.” “You’d need to do like what Zeke did for Trixie, find a compatible soul. That...would be hard to do…” “Asking a Death would probably be a bitch and a half to find my soul…” I frowned. “But hey...isn't this fucking fun? Having myself watch as I go through more train wrecks than...well...actually for once I can't find a suitable analogy for that.” I frowned. “First, half a dead heart, then you force me to know I'm actually a Psychopath cause yippee, now I don't have a soul cause life hates me. Isn't this grand?” I ask, smiling even though I looked tired and about 110% done with everything. “That Psychopath thing was more my fault than anything.” Rejection said, scratching the back of his head. “There...is one person you and I know… Well, two technically.” “Gee, I wonder who these mystical people are.” I rolled my eyes. “Joy, and Zeke.” “Zeke is taken and Joy has his own life.” I said. “I can't and won't do something to take away hid happy life. Plus he's apart of my council so there's that.” I said. “Great...I wonder what Cript or literally any of my infinitely expanded family would tell me about this shitty situation…” I sighs out, rubbing my temples and basically openly inviting someone to just appear and talk about the fact I don't have a goddamn soul. “...What about your Psychopath?” Rejection asked. “He’s you, a copy god made...he might have a soul that can also work.” “Except he's kind of chained up by Spoiled and apparently has his own family…” I frowned. “Plus I don't know what would happen if I let a Psychopath soul inside me when I'm already a Psychopath and also have Humanity…” I said. “Unless the bastard somehow escaped.” “...What if....no, it’s crazy.” “Have you met me?” I deadpanned. “Fair point.” He said, summoning my Lexicon and handing it to me. “Maybe...If Kingdom Hearts made Zeke’s heart like a mini version of itself, maybe the King of Nothing knows about souls and how to make one?” “That's...actually a good idea…” I said, opening my Lexicon and looking through it, knowing this book holds more secrets than it let's on. “There’s a spell in here that calls him, but it’s never been tested in the notes. Worth a shot?” “Worth a shot if it means I can be whole again I suppose.” I said, grabbing an Ether and using it to get my mana back up. “Okay...lets do this…” I muttered, my Lexicon glowing as I chanted the summon. The ground shook, and then, in a massive spire of Nothingness thrones, appeared...the king. “Holy mother of god that spell worked...I owe my mage so...much...munny…” He sighed. “So, what and why did you summon me here?” He asked, getting to the point rather quick. “I suppose you can tell I don't have a soul.” I started. “Know anything about how to make one?” “How to make one? Heh, well...yeah...it’s tricky though, the final phase is something to consider heavily.” “Does it involve killing someone I hold dear to me?” I ask. “What? No, that’s necromancy. Basically a soul is made from Humanity, Purpose, and code, admin code mind you. But, in order for it to work properly...you kinda have to be...reborn. I mean like baby reborn.” “And...that needs to happen to me and all my clones right?” I ask, knowing the real me is in Zebrica and ones at home. “Clones? Well…. No, I guess not since they will be you, just older. You have a mom or something that can birth you...cause yeah, that needs to happen. Your body has to be remade, soul goes in, and then your mama gives birth to you eight to nine months later.” “I can always ask Den...given their birth times are...a tad weird given Cript is involved…” “Oh you know she’d be up for that.” Rejection added. “Oh shut up you.” I frowned, shuddering at that horrid thought one time. “But yeah...she'd loved to...so I might as well give her a call. Is there anything else that I should know before going through with this?” I asked the King. “Just keep your baby self alive and well, it dies those clones die, also, it will be your true self from then on, so if something happens to it, like say, a crying fit or growing into powers, your clones will also be affected. How I’m not sure exactly.” I sighed out. “Well...as long as I bring back my light half and officially have a soul things will be okay I suppose…” I said. “Not to mention I might technically get that whole power up thing from officially being born into Cripts family but...eh.” I shrugged. “Isn't life weird?” “Yours, oh hell yeah. Well, bring the mother to be of yours here and I can get the other parts so we can get this thing started. Oh and, a warning up front, there is a fifty fifty chance you’re reborn as a female so…” He quickly vanished while Rejection was creating a glass pathway to what must be Den’s station of awakening. “Ugh...I hope to god I don't become a girl…” I muttered, really not wanting the problems that come with it. “But then there's the off chance I'll be born with both so…” I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. “Mother of fuck...god Den is going to be so confused…” I muttered, sensing my other two selves starting to tell the others about my new...situation and what's gonna happen. “I know Jenny's gonna laugh her ass off…” I grumbled, waiting for Rejection to get done with the bridge. “Look on the bright side.” Rejection said as the bridge finished. “If you are born a girl again, you can appropriately be called a bitch.” He laughed, running off down the glass walkway before I could slug him. “I'm gonna hurt you…” I growled before walking along the bridge so I can talk to Den about this. “God this is gonna be so awkward…” I caught up with Rejection of Den’s station of awakening, giving him a hard punch on the arm before we spoke with Den. “Is there something up Sweetie?” She asked, looking at us both confused. “Yes, there is something up.” I sighed out before explaining my problem and the solution given to my wolfmother. “So...you’re asking me to unbirth you or rebirth you?” She asked so simply Rejection hit the ground in shock and I think my jaw hit my boots in surprise at her casualness to the question. “I just want to be clear.” “Rebirth me…” I said slowly. “Ah. Alright. Knew there was a reason I didn't have sex this week. I’ll be sure to call Cript~...oh, and fix my birth rate, don’t want you born with three trillion siblings huh? Would be hell to find you in that.” “I think the fact I'd have a Psychopath eye and a Humanity eye when I'm reborn would be a good thing.” I explain. “Or the Nothingness radiating off of me...but oh well...just hope I'm not a girl…” “Alright I’m back.” The king said, appearing with a small bag. “I mixed them together already so now for the the event. This her?’ The king asked, motioning to Den. “This, this is my mother Den.” I nodded. “Ah. You know after I do this sex is immediately advised right?” The king asked her...I joined Rejection on the floor. “Yes I’m aware.” She said simply and with a smile. “Alright then, well...here goes nothing...no pun intended.” To say my face was red was...an understatement. Cript came at Den’s call after the king did what he had to do and...they didn't soundproof that room...and I explained what was going on to the kids and Cadence...who all were laughing on the floor before me…”Yes yes, laugh at me some more why dontcha…” I grumbled bitterly. ”I, I just, I just...HAHAHAHAHAHA!” Jenny howled...literally, she howled in laughter, clutching her sides. “Owe...it hurts...hehehe...owe…” “Yes, yes, laugh at the soulless man some more, I'm pretty sure once I get a soul it'll hurt even more.” I said, sitting down on a comfy chair and waiting for them all to finish laughing. “Sorry, sorry.” Cadence said, standing up and resisting more laughter. “It’s just...the lengths you go to… it’s insane.” “I saw you crying over losing Shining and thought of looking for Death to try and get him back.” I told her. “I barely do ‘normal’ lengths...and its all for other people to be honest.” “You...would do that?” She asked, taking a seat on the armrest of my chair. “Of course.” I said. “I'm a hero, I'm supposed to go above and beyond to help people in need...but sadly I thought about much of a bitch it is to find the specific soul of the specific Shining from this world.” “That...would be troublesome. Maybe-” ”AAAAHHHHH~~~~” “...it’s been two hours...how…” Cadence asked. “Plus the size difference…” “I spent an hour with Luna before all of this crap.” I said. “But...I had spells helping so...I don't know.” I said worriedly. “Well...if you do get my Shining back...I’m asking her for notes.” “Right then…” I muttered. “But...I don't know if I could do it...I'd need to beat Death at a game to do such a thing.” I sighed out. “But can't wait to know if my gender changed for whatever reason…” I muttered. “Even so, I imagine with parents like them...you’d be able to change it.” “Maybe.” I shrugged. “Maybe…” I sighed out, knowing it's still gonna be a bitch to find the proper soul. “But oh well, neither here nor their right at the moment…” I shrugged. “Well, guess we’ll see what happens in...however long it takes for a baby to grow in your weird family.” “It should be quick considering how fast my fiances got pregnant.” I said, before blinking and almost forgetting about the Mother Cript went. “Wait, where's the Mother that Cript sent?” I asked, remembering that the Mother was supposed to basically be the home of all the unborn children of a specific family. “Didn’t she go with the other you and your wives?” Cadence asked. “She’s with us.” Sweetie Bell said, finally calmed down from her laughing. “She wanted a calm place to watch some tv or something.” “Okay then, thank you.” I nodded. “Okay so...what to do now…” I muttered, knowing my other self is just getting to the Zebrica capital proper, while I'm waiting for ‘me’ to be born into whatever gender. “So, there’s a clone of you with the moms, and two clones of you here, and soon to be baby you born in a, likely, few hours?” Jenny asked. “So what, one of you two go to worlds just to train and do stuff?” “Well ones off on my travels around the world, most likely involving training cause why not. Then the one here...well I was either thinking of going off and training or staying here with my family and, ya know, actually being a father with over three hundred kids.” I said honestly. “But who knows...life is just really weird for me...especially since technically I'm not supposed to be alive.” I said honestly. I woke up feeling...different. I didn't feel bad, I was actually feeling… optimistic? Yeah, that was it. I woke up optimistic, feeling like whatever today had would be… manageable. This is all… new. “Why does positivity feel new?” I muttered to myself, wondering if I'm going to meet my light half soon. I entered the kitchen and… saw Den, bottle feeding four small pups. Two looked like girls, and the other two were males. “Morning.” Den said as she was watching the infants… which one is me? “Which one is me?” I asked worriedly, hoping I'm not a girl here. “That's...hard to answer.” Den said sheepishly. “It seems your new soul while incubating inside me, passed along energy to your new brother and sisters...or sister and brothers… they all emete Nothingness energy, so we can't tell which is you.” “Hold on…” I said, stepping closer to the kids and closing my eyes, focusing on which one was actually ‘me’ here. It was...fuzzy. The energy between them was equal. Try as I might I just kept linking to all of them at once rather than one specific. “Well...unless Cript does a thing I can only say my soul is technically in four people now.” I said. “Cript couldn't tell either. Souls are tricky, even brand new ones. Once made, even in a body they are a will all their own. It's why Reapers mainly collect them and rush to catch them before the person dies. Easier to identify when they are still in a living body. Cript did call in a favor and is sending someone here to try and evaluate this, not sure who though.” “Okay then.” I said. “Cause it would be strange if I was four people now...and be both boy and a girl.” “Well whoever it is should be here by tonight. Reapers are always busy. You should go out to kill time.” “Did...did you just make a pun?” I asked, the fact she was talking about Reapers and then told me to ‘kill time’ made it sound like a poorly made pun. “Or maybe it's just the irony of what you said that made me think it was a pun…” I sigh out, rubbing my temples. “I just woke up I'm sorry for saying stupid things…” “Eh, it's alright. Have some food before heading out though.” “That would be a good idea…” I agreed. “Maybe I should go see Medy and ask if he can train…” I muttered to myself, pouring myself a bowl of cereal and eating. “But are you enjoying your stay here mom?” I asked Den, hoping everything was going okay for the huge dire wolf. “Yes. Things have been rather plesant here. It's calm all the same as well, which reminds me of my youth...heh, now that was long ago.” She laughed, taking the empty bottle from one of the infants and picked them up to burp them. “Want to...talk about it?” I asked nervously, remembering what she said about her past and I didn't want to make her relive anything bad again. “That...would be nice.” She said, the infant burped and she then cradled them, rocking them slowly in her arms. “I was born on a world called Moonlight Viracia. A world that had a small, tiny sun, and a moon almost half its size.” “A tiny sun and an even tinier moon?” I asked, wondering how a tiny sun and moon could affect a world. “Yes. The planet itself was bigger than the moon, but smaller than the sun. It was rather far from the sun, but in it's core held a strong magic that let life flourish. Most of the world was either forrest and flatland, and the only seasons were a ten month winter and a two month summer. My people...our people, were split into two tribes. Those like me, who respected and highly valued our primal ancestors and largely stayed in our primal forms, and those like how I appear now, who left the woods for two legs and hands for tool operating. We co-existed. They made tools and magic, while my tribe hunted and traded meats for things like kindle for fire and medical needs. It was a simple life.” “And then everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked.” I said. Den laughed at that. “Not too far off…” She said, her tone going sad and mournful. “One day, an off worlder came. He said he just wanted to study our unique magic, and in return gave both tribes advanced medicines and new, longer lasting tools. He stayed to himself largely. Rarely did he leave his ship, only to gather samples. Then, one day it was like the land itself became tainted. Trees oozed poison where maple sap once flowed, prey attacked predators, and that coming summer lasted and never ended. We confronted the off worlder, knowing he had to have played some part in these events. He did not deny it, and unleashed a horrible gas that made us all feral, nothing like my tribe or ancestors… we became rabid, bloodthirsty monsters. I tried to protect the little ones… my first litter… As I changed I saw them change too, eating one another like cannibals…” I looked down sadly. “And...this is why I was a little nervous about asking.” I sighed out. “Sorry...” I said, feeling like I did a wrong for making Den think about a horrible time. “I made a choice, while I still had my sanity… let them suffer like this… or put them to rest…” She said, kissing the pup now asleep in her arms. “It was… both easy and hard to make… I knew what had to be done to spare them this hell… but It was a sin that I can never forgive… after that he rounded us all up, placed obedience collars on us, and sold us off as weapons. I don't know how many people claimed ownership of me, I was in and out of it a lot. Finally, I was ordered to enter a school, and kill four specific children. Cript’s. The second I entered the room, Cript was there faster than I could blink. He charged at me, knocking me aside like a rag doll while the kids evacuated. As he was ready to deliver another attack I made eye contact with him… His look of anger and rage turned to worry and sadness. “Having no control of my body, I ran for an attack. Before I knew what happened, I felt a sharp pain through my chest and back. He struck a glowing white sword through my heart. I thought I was going to die… until ice cold crystals grew out of me. It cocooned me, and I felt a pain like my own bones being ripped out of me from the inside. When it was over I was gasping for air, in shock. Not from the pain… but because I was in control of my body again. He kneeled down to me and asked where my ‘master' was. I managed to tell him and then Lyra took me from there, seeing if I was alright while he dealt with my ‘master'. She and the others cared for my safety… even though I almost harmed their children, they were worried for me. While waiting for Cript, Lyra told me Cript’s story, and I told mine, and later Cript. I stayed with them for two reasons. Firstly, because Cript saved my life, and I owed him it, and secondly, because I wanted to atone for what I...did in the past. We haven't found the off worlder who did that to my people and world, but most of my people have been found and freed. Many others are in the family now while others left to try and reclaim whatever they could of life before. As of my home world… it’s toxic now, and we all agreed it's no longer worth saving. After all that happened. As they say, life moves on.” I sat there, having finished up my cereal and was listening intently. “I understand…” I nodded gently, understanding that life moves on. “Well, you're all done then. Go have fun Ben.” She said, looking at me with a smile. I got up and hugged Den even as she cradled her new pups. “I'm sorry...but...your a wonderful mom…” I said gently. “I'm glad I can call you mom.” “I’m glad you are my son.” She said, giving me a kiss on the cheek. “Go on. Have some fun.” “I will.” I said before letting go and put my bowl away and exited my house, summoning my glider and heading to Manehattan to meet Medy in hopes he's free to train me. It was a quick ride, and I saw the City was starting to look like a city again. Roads were back and five more buildings were being rebuilt. I found Medy walking around where they were building something. “Hey Medy!” I called out, landing gently near the sitar player. “How you doing?” “Oh. Hey Ben.” He said, waving then turning towards the base of whatever is being built. “Like it?” “What is it?” I asked curiously. “They've started the base for your statue. Expect a photographer at your place within the week.” “Oh yeah…” I said. “I almost forgot…” I sighed out. “Anyways, I was gonna ask if you could help me train using my Sitar.” I said, hoping to learn how to use the thing as a weapon and as an instrument. “Oh. Yeah I can do that.” He said, brushing his bangs back. “Let's head over to my place.” He said as I followed. Not sure how long this would be, I decided to make small talk. “So how have you been doing lately?” I asked. “Good. Kids have gotten better thanks to that cure you got, and construction has gone well since some Daybreak suppliers began selling to us.” “That's good. How's your sister been?” I ask, remembering he had a sister after the time I saved him and other slaves from Knowhere oh so long ago. “She's good. She decided to move back to Atlantica with the family. Can't really blame her I guess. That whole slavery mess scared the hell out of her.” “I understand.” I nodded. “Have the people been nice?” “Yeah. Most are hard workers. Got a few slackers but what large project doesn’t. Those guys mostly just work on trask pick up. I think once all this stuff has settled I’ll open up a music shop.” “That would be good.” I nodded. “But...at least the people nice. Oh, I was told there was a Keyblade school being made here, is that correct?” “Yeah, it’s actually up ahead.” He stated. We arrived at what was once the docs, now they looked abandoned. Out in the distance I could see a massive...something being built, but on one of the piers was a simple boat house. “Welcome to my house, and that great big thing in the distance is the Keyblade School of Balance. At least that’s what they’re calling it.” “I should go check it out sometime...just to make sure things are going smoothly.” I said, wondering how good the school will be. “Go on. I have a few things I should set up here first before we can start.” Medy said as he walked up to his boat house. “Okay.” I nodded before flying over to the school being built. “Maybe I should ask Zeke for some teachers here…” I muttered, thinking Luxu wasn't enough to be a teacher for hundreds or possibly thousands. When I arrived, the massive school was...floating over the water. It wasn’t a boat, it was just floating, and had landing pads all around the outer area, likely for gliders. The building itself was...massive, in just the first two completely looking floors it was easy two miles long and I’m not sure how far back it goes. The design was reminiscent of The Land of Beginnings. “Hey there.” I turned around, seeing… Zeke’s clone. “Wondered if you’d ever stop by.” “Oh, nice to see ya.” I nodded. “How you doing?” “Yup. Bara is dead also. Z-” He stopped, quickly looking around and not seeing anybody around. “Zeke shattered Bara’s heart after he ripped it off of Twilight’s. As for me I’m doing good. In the family I’m known as Charlie, but to the public I’m Zeke, and Zeke is Trixie. We figured to avoid a panic we best keep this whole thing between the trusted few.” “I understand.” I nodded. “Well glad Bara’s dead. And glad to know you didn't go crazy from learning the truth as Bara threatened.” I said thankfully. “But what are you doing here if I may ask?” “Checking on the school. There’s similar on Daybreak but they teach more regular education and Keyblade classes are like gym. This school will be the first of its kind in, well, who knows how long.” “And this is just a straight Keyblade training school?” I asked curiously. “Yeah. It’s also completely optional in Daybreak since everyone there has Keyblades. Think of it like a collage. Not needed, but a good idea in the long run. Rather than a price per course we’d have students fill a weekly quota of say, heartless to slay, worlds to explore, things like that.” “Okay then.” I nodded. “Sounds good, I wonder what's special about this school besides learning how to use Keyblades.” I said, looking at the giant place. “But I suppose you're here to help train new keybladers or just here to say hi?” “I’m checking up on the place. I’m the Figure head while-” He looked around again, seeing some workers walking by, carrying some supplies. “While Trixie goes off and explores worlds. Right now she’s revisiting Bolitarea.” “I actually went to my Bolitarea...too bad there I figured out I didn't have a soul.” I said. “But I thankfully got better and got a new soul.” I told him simply. “Funny how life works huh?” “Yeah. Life for us is screwed up.” He said with a laugh. “Come on, I’ll show you around some.” “Alright.” I nodded, following ‘Zeke’ to see the school. “But I wonder who's training here...I hope it's more than just ponies…” I muttered, really hoping all the world is wanting to defend themselves like the Minotaurs, Griffons, Dragons and Diamond Dogs. “Well it’s not open yet. We plan on adding five more floors for now, and bigger plans later on. Right now the first two floors have four combat arena’s, seven hundred classrooms, and enough bathrooms to turn the ocean brown if all flushed at once. Don’t worry about that last part though, magic filtration and eco recycling makes the water clean enough to reuse for toilets and watering the gardens, while the actual waste actually fuels how this place is flying.” “That's pretty cool.” I said. “But how big did you want the place to be if it needs five more floors and more?” “Well aside from applicants from your Equestria and Daybreak, others from many worlds and reflections should be here, Eclipse, the Foretellers. This place is the first of its kind in untold generations. A hub for all reality to comune like they did before the original world was split into the worlds and reflections.” “Huh, thought Daybreak would have been the hub. Oh well.” I shrugged. “But works for me I suppose. I might need to ask Cript for some help on size cause of...certain reasons.” I said, thinking about all the kids I have right now and in the future. “True. You best figure all that mess out.” “Yeah…” I sighed out. “But not right now cause I got other stuff to do and this place isn't finished yet.” “Yeah. It will be a while til it’s finished.” On the walking tour, which we decided to be a general thing and not the whole building so far. The first ‘gym’ he showed me was rather normal looking, though it was set up with mats for fighting. We saw some classrooms. Most Charlie said were going to be history of Keyblades as well as whatever past X-blade weider's and well known Keyblade wielders between the time of the Original Foretellers, before them, after the war, and up to recent years. “You’ll be taught about here ya know.” Charlie told me. “They already interviewed your parents and family before you left on that trip. So we have most of your past, Keyblade, weapons, etc. So far you’ve filled up two chapters of a new series of history books involving Nothingness and its role in Balance among the worlds.” “Cool.” I said. “Glad to know people will know my greatness...and my many, many mistakes.” “Hey, think of it this way, you’re officially a legend when you're in the history books.” Charlie said as we came across...a shooting rage. “Sadly you can agree that Keyblades can only go so far against non heartless threats, same for Nobodies and Unversed. So, after some tinkering the lab made bullets from light. They don’t kill, but can hurt like all hell.” “Makes sense.” I shrugged. “I mean, Keyblades can also turn into bows or crap like that so…” “That we still are looking into, but most of that power stems from very strong willed individuals. So a normal wielder likely can’t pull that off, at least not without draining themselves. There’s a lot to Keyblades we still don’t get, but baby steps, right?” “Right.” I agreed. “So, is this place going to stay on one world or be it's own thing sooner or later?” I asked curiously. “We have an idea, the only issue with it is, well, making that idea work. We want it to be a world of it’s own, but the issue with that is two things. Resources and travel.” “Travel seems the easier of the two, but what's the problem with either?” “Well, Travel might be the wrong word. More like direction. With a school the size of a whole world, you can imagine getting lost and travel between classes will be a nightmare.” “Yeah, that would be a nightmare.” I said. “But this won't be for a long time.” “Hm? How so?” “Well just this being it's own world thing. It won't happen for a long time.” I said honestly. “Especially with certain...events…” “True. So, how is your family?” “My family's fine...Jenny...Jenny needs help, Psychopaths are whispering to her now…” I sigh out, not sure how to help her. “But Aqua...is sadly dead…” “Oh… well, that's news. And of Terra? I know they were an Item in your world.” “Don't know, I was sent to Earth, where its been a hundred years or so there, and I haven't seen or heard from Terra...but Aqua can't be brought back to life because...well she's a Keyblade now.” “I had, or rather-” He looked around again, not seeing anybody, but spoke quietly. “Kingdom hearts and X, through Zeke changed Eclipses Oathkeeper and Oblivion into ponies. It’s temporary, but somehow Zeke as is can become like before, it might be possible for Aqua to be human again.” “Really?” I whispered, thinking this was a great thing to hear. “Well...that's great to hear man.” “So, you saw Boleratea. How was it?” “Still destroyed...but should there be red enemies?” I ask curiously. “Yeah. Those are called Red Phantoms. They're tougher versions of enemies and typically in the game they appear depending on your world tendency, but I don’t know how it works in a reality setting.” “All I knew was that they either appeared randomly, or happen to be the thing I killed not five minutes ago.” I shrugged. “Like that Executioner bitch.” “Meralda?” He asked. “Huh, she’s got a unique story in that world. So when you killed her she came back as a red phantom?” “Yep, wanting to fight again. Sadly she tackled me and stole a colorless Demon Soul I randomly found.” I shrugged. “So she went back to normal, but I still have her axe and ring.” “In the game that’s what she is, guarding, if you wanna think that. Colorless demon's souls are used to level up unique weapons. There’s only like one or two in every world area, and until new game plus, can’t be found again til new game plus.” “Okay then.” I nodded. “Good to know if I ever go back there.” “I wonder how a new game plus works there...might not be a thing.” Zeke shrugged. “Well, if you have a soul now, maybe now you can go back and help? Who knows, just remember this. Spears for Stonefang, and The Valley of Defilement...is the biggest bitch you will EVER have to trek through.” “I can fly.” I said simply. “Still.” He said firmly. “So, when are you going to go back?” “No idea, I decided today was a good day to learn how to play Arpeggio here.” I said, summoning my Sitar. “I haven't trained with one of my weapons for a bit so why not.” “Fair enough.” He said as we climbed up some stairs back to a large landing pad of sorts. “I’m sure you saw these. They're for those who fly here via their natural abilities or gliders. Other than the classrooms there’s not much yet. See you later?” “See ya later my friend.” I said, flying off back to Medy’s house to start training. When I arrived he was setting up large bowels of water all around and some training dummies here and there. He waved when he saw me and grabbed his own sitar. “So, ready?” “Yep.” I nodded, holding Arpeggio. “Ready to go.” “Alright then. Now first thing to know is that water has reactions to things, music especially. Depending on the tune depends on how the water will aid you in combat. Understand?” “Of course.” I nodded, knowing at least something like that. “But just so you know…I have never played one of these things so please bare with me.” I said nervously. “Sure. Now then, to make water rise, play a simple tune, and repeat, like this?” Medy explained as he made sure I saw what his fingers did along the strings, making the water rise like snakes and float in mid air before stopping and the water fell back into the bowels. “Now you.” I took a deep breath and tried to relax as I did what he demonstrated, hoping I wasn't fucking up. I looked up and noticed the water was reacting like Medy’s, but a little shaky. “Well glad to know I'm doing okay…” “Everyone starts off shakey like this. The more you learn to play better the water will flow.” I nodded, continuing to play until the water seemed to stop shaking. “Okay…” I muttered, knowing my hands are gonna be murder after this. “Anything else?” I asked. “Try forming a thought to align with the tune. Think of what the water should do that fits the sound of the music.” I looked at Medy, the dummies, and the water. “Thoughts aline with the tune…” I muttered, trying to think of something as I played. I thought of it moving around, like a snake slithering and, a bit shakily, it began floating and moving around. “Good. Now, change the tune naturally along with the thoughts to make it attack the training dummy there.” I nodded, closing my eyes and starting to shift tune. As I played the music shifted from calm and nice to more...violent and bloodthirsty as the water snakes seemed to shiver for a moment before lashing out at the dummies and attacking them. “Good, now, try and make its ‘fangs’ turn them to ice. Increases how hard they hit and being able to shift from water to ice quickly can save your life. To shift water to ice, think about how say, a blade is sharp of in this case, a snakes teeth stings.” I continued to play, the snakes biting into the dummies with ice fangs, but as I played the violent tune the snakes seemed to shudder again like either the music was off or too much was being put into it. “Am I...doing to much?” I asked worriedly. “Or is there such a thing as ‘too much’ here?” “It’s more your mind set. If you aren’t angry, or have a fine control of your emotions, then the attacks won’t be quite there.” “Oh…” I said. “You’d think anyone who listens to music would know emotions are put behind it.” I frowned. “Well...okay then.” I said, starting to pour my anger into the tune, Medy seeing the snakes shudder once more...before they ripped the dummy to shreds. “Nice. Emotions and control make the attacks. Without them, you might as well just make water walls and clones cause your attacks will be crap.” I did my absolute best not to tell him about how his Nobody did literally the exact thing he talked about. “Okay then...sorry, just nervous about...well pouring anger into things.” I said sheepishly. “That’s where the controle comes in. Hand in hand, consider Emotions the force you can hit with, and the Controle how you hit. If you just have one or the other the results may be weak, or uncontrollable.” “Yeah…” I said. “It's an important thing…” I said, the tune going back to a gentle tone as I calmed down. “Now, you know most all life in the stars have water making up a large percentage of their bodies, right?” “Onto bloodbending already?” I asked curiously. “But yes, I do know most living things are largely water.” “Heh, while there is a means to use blood it’s highly frowned upon, and depending on where you are, you’ll be executed for using it. But this just uses the water either in the air, in a container, or your own body to heal wounds, even large gashes. Bones won’t be healed however.” “Okay then.” I nodded. “Sounds like a nifty thing to know.” “Now, doing this while injured is clearly difficult, so it's more ment to heal others, know what I mean?” “Yes I do.” I nodded. “But...could you heal while making water clones?” I asked curiously. “Nope. Try and you’ll find yourself bleeding from your ears. The magic it takes already requires a lot of magic and concentration, trying to split between two different attacks or healing at once can be very lethal to you. I tried it once, and I’m completely deaf in my left ear, and lost my right eye,” He poked a finger at it, an audible tap noise came from it. “Glass. Old one exploded. And that was just from trying to heal more than one person at a time. The rule of thumb here is one thing at a time, or the backlash will come back to bite you in the ass.” I nodded, not wanting that to happen. “Hey, maybe I can heal your injuries.” I said. “They eye...is probably outside my skill with healing spells but maybe I can heal your ear.” “Can’t. What caused it was magical, and nothing short of Trident himself could heal this ear. Doesn’t bother me too much though.” “Believe me, I've done the impossible...but if your Okay with it.” I said, letting go of the strings and stretching my fingers. “Yeesh, a bit rough on the hands…” I muttered. “You get used to it rather quick.” Medy said, shrugging. “Now, healing is linked to specific songs, not thoughts or emotions, as are some spells.” “Makes sense.” I said, trying to think of any songs that might heal. “Jeez...when you know so much music but your not sure if they can be used for magic...” I sighed out. “Often it’s trial and error. I do have a book of well known spells that are linked to songs.” “That would be good cause...well I have listened to at least a hundred…” I said nervously, hoping to have a good basis on what is and isn't magic here. “I’ll be right back. Take five K?” He said, getting up and heading back into his house. I sighed out, taking a seat and closing my eyes. ”Well, lets see if there's a new occupant in my head,” I think to myself, focusing on trying to talk to Rejection and my Light half. I woke up in my Station of Awakening and- “Haha!” I was suddenly grabbed by a white wolf version of me, he wore green robes and had very light blue eyes. “So there’s the scrappy kid I saved!” He said happily, giving me a noogie. “Long time no see Ben!” “Nice to meet ya.” I said. “A lots happened since you...well kept me alive. I bet Rejection was happy to see you again.” “I’ll say, he hasn't let go of my waist this whole time.” We both looked at Rejection, who had his arms wrapped around my long missing light half like a belt. “Anyway! Name’s Acceptance.” “Nice to meet you.” I nodded, before I heard someone walk up. “Who the hell?” Joy asked, seeing Acceptance here. “I...wanted to check up on you...but…” Joy looked so confused here. When I looked at Joy I immediately noticed...he was taller. “And what happened to you?” I asked curiously, seeing he was a bit older than before. “Oh you know, been training on a Keyblader island in One Piece world.” Joy said. “Okay then, but Joy, this is Acceptance, my light half.” I said, motioning to the older brother looking me. “I’ve been acting as Ben’s soul since he had that drowning accident.” Acceptance said ever so Casually. “No wonder why it felt a bit...empty sometimes.” Joy said. “But...if your here…” “I just...technically needed to be reborn.” I said. “Um…” Joy looked a little confused. “I'm both your big brother and little brother.” I told Joy. “... Your grounded.” Joy said with a sly smile as he broke out laughing. I chuckled. “Of course you would.” I smiled. “But yeah, I'm feeling a whole lot better...but come home soon. The girls, especially Jenny, really miss you.” I told him. “Yeah, I know.” Joy said. “Once I get back with everyone I'll drop by.” He said. “And...well looks like Rejection is happy about your light.” Joy laughed at how Rejection is holding Acceptance. “Yeah.” I chuckled, before looking around. “I wonder...if there are two or three others here…” I said, wondering if my subconscious decided to give Psychopath and Humanity bodies for whatever reason, and just the off chance my soul might also appear cause why not. “So, what now?” Acceptance asked. “Well, unless something else is missing.” I glare up at the Darkness around my station of awakening. “I am finally whole, and I can go back to training...and being happy with my family.” “Best get wasted to enjoy it best.” Acceptance said simply. “Listen, I'm not gonna get wasted, especially since I just got to the capital of Zebrica.” I said. “Can't wait to meet my next fiance.” I said with a smile. “But right now I should probably get back to training with Arpeggio.” “Alright then. Later Ben.” Acceptance said, waving his hand as a door appeared behind me. “See ya. Glad to have you here.” I smiled at Acceptance as I walked over and opened the door, ready to go back to the waking world. To be continued... Nobody goes back to Rapture“Be warned, however. Among the new terrors, there’s a new threat made by both Lamb and Kexez.” As Brigid spke, this unholy, high pitched roar echoed throughout the whole area. “Shit! One is coming. If you two can buy me time to get the little ones and myself out of here, I’ll radio you as fast as possible on a safe pathway.” She said, closing the metal currents as the Big Daddy, Delta, if I remember, began to spin his drill. I cracked my knuckles, Thorns wrapping around my arms and legs as I made both gauntlets and grieves out of them. “Whatever this thing is, it's not gonna have a good time.” I growled, hoping it won't die too quic-”Whoa, calm down there bloodlust. I think to myself, knowing I'm beyond pissed but still. There was a moment of total silence, no sound other than the ocean outside. It was then that I heard something like light metal clanking against itself. “Okay then...wonder where that was…” I muttered, looking around carefully as my eyes flashed green to help ‘see’ where the thing is. It kept going till it stopped. Delta and I exchanged looks, before looking up. There, what looked like a female Big Daddy, wearing a thin, almost skin tight cloth looking suit with small bits of metal, one of those needle the little sisters used on some sort of arm gauntlet, and they wore this old school looking helmet, a dark blue light hid their face. They screamed that, maddening scream then jumped down at us. It dropped down, spin kicking both Delta and I across the opposite sides of the room before giving another whale as it landed. I lashed my hand out, thorns shooting out towards the thing. “The hell is that!?” ”Big Sisters!” I heard Bridgid talk through my radio. ”Lamb turned fully grown little sisters into Adam hopped killing machines. Don’t let that thin frame fool you, they are easily twice as strong as any Big Daddy and much, much more agile. They’ll drain you of any adam or whatever till you’re nothing but a husk. That blue lamped one was one of the first, and she’s the deadliest.” Delta got back up, tanking that Big Sister’s hits as I wrapped it around in Nothingness thorns and yanked it off As she was coming at me I raised my foot to kick it away, only for it to stab that long ass needle machine into my foot. “OW!” I barked, nothingness wrapping around the needle and trying to crush or break the thing. It jumped back, yanking the needle out in time before I could break it. I saw it’s needle thing grow a metallic thing and place it atop the red jar where it stored what must be adam and other… I then saw Nothingness thorns wrapped around its arm, over it’s chest, around it’s other arm, then raise it’s hand and fired some at me. I dodged, the wall behind me crumbling as that attack missed me. ”Shit, how much of that power did it get from that short amount of time?” I think, trying to figure out a means to deal with this thing. Fast. “Wait…” I frowned, thinking about what she's using now. “You use my power…” I growled, raising a hand and an authoritative force pushed onto the Big Sister. “Obey!” I barked at the thing As it was charging at me, it halted, looking like it was fighting that command.. It looked at the thorns around it, then me, then roared again, the high pitched scream making me lose concentration as it shot thorns into the ground, breaking the floor wide open as it fell into it, escaping. “Shit.” I growled. “But...at least I can maybe control it…” I said, worried about that thing getting into Kexez’s hands. “You Okay?” I asked Delta. Delta nodded, Bridgid coming in on his radio now. ”Alright you two, were safe. Thank you for that. The good news is, that thing is already far away, likely returning to Lamb. As promised, I have already found a means of getting you to where Ryan’s office was/is. That hole the Big Sister made seems to go down ten floors. Drop down two of them and there’s a walkway leading to a building that connects to Ryan's office. From there I’ll guide you. Just remember, save as many little ones as you can. I’ll have one of them drop off a special Plasmid, it cures the little sisters, well, makes them normal enough, that parasite will just be dormant within them. In return you’ll also receive some Adam. Please be careful, when Kexez and Lamb took over they disabled all but a few hidden Vita chambers so no second chances. Unless you’re lucky.” She explained as it cut off. “Okay then...can't be as simple as it could be.” I frowned, using the thorns to make a rope so I could just climb down the two floors instead of jumping. Once I was down Delta used it and slid himself down, and from there is was just fighting Splicers, heartless and Unversed til we arrived at the walkway. As we got to the end the doors opened and we were greeted by a little sister, a cured one, who walked up to us and gave us each a red vile. “Mama says these are for you.” She said with a smile. “Thank you.” I said with a warm smile, taking the red vile and gently patting her head. ”When i get home...I better spend some time with my daughter's.” I think to myself honestly. She giggled, Delta injecting himself with it as I reluctantly did the same. My whole body felt like needles where in every square inch of it as the Adam did it’s crazy job. Delta and I both fell to our knees for a moment. “Hm?” She hummed, looking to see if we were alright. Before she could get closer a Big Sister ran passed us, grabbed her and ran off FAST! That little sister screaming till she was too far gone to be heard. I tried to jump to chase, but the Adam was still working, and the pain kept me from moving. “No…” I groaned, anger rising with fear as I thought that abominable bitch stole one of my daughter's. “Get...back here...asshole!” I barked. Th adam finally stopped, the pain vanished and I managed to get up but Delta held me back. “Too. Late. Long. Gone.” He grunted as he stood up. “Payback. Later.” “That bitch kidnapped my daughter damn it!” I barked, before taking a deep breath and shaking my head. “Damn these different reflections…” I grumbled, knowing she's not my daughter but feeling like she was. “Come on...we have work to do.” I frowned, looking around to see which was the correct way. As we came across a Splicer that...was yelling at some large gun. We killed it and Delta took the gun, which apparently was some semi automatic rivet gun. Surprisingly, his drill came off, revealing another gloved hand and he grabbed the Rivet gun and loaded it with some rivets laying around. When we came across some Unversed, that gun had distance, and Delta has AIM! He shot a running flood from across the room right in the head, and downed a bruiser in three shots to the head with it. Needless to say, Delta can fight with more than just that drill. “Nice shot.” I said, honestly surprised at how good his aim was. “Programed. Whatever. It. Takes. Must. Protect. Eleanor.” He said, finishing them all off as he dumped the empty rivet mag and loaded up a new one. “I understand.” I nodded. “I need to protect my family…” We found the other walkway to the other side of the building and once we opened the door the one building of Ryans… Immediately Splicers and Heartless, and amalgamations of the two flooded out. “Of course…” I muttered, throwing out thorns towards the enemies flooding out at us. Delta unleashed many rivets into the horde and when they ran out he switched to his drill and began whaling on them. Still though, it was becoming too much as they began to completely cover him. I wasn’t fairing much better either. “God damn it.” I growled, slamming my foot down as Nothingness hands lashed out from the ground and grabbed onto the rushing enemies. “If I had one of my weapons this would be a little easier…” I grumbled, hating this so much as I tried to help Delta. I wasn’t going to stopped by this. No. Not here, not now. “I- GRAH!” My body began popping, I felt my bones, skin and muscles began to grow and my form change. What the hell?! When it was over, I looked in the reflection of some nearby glass I had to be ten feet tall, on all fours! Six feet wide across, and my mouth was long enough to bite a person's head, upper and lower torso off their arms and legs… This is like what Den did when she fought that Psychopath me. “Awesome…” I growled before fighting off the enemies in my new dire wolf form. My claws tore through armored bruisers. My teeth chomped Splicers to gore, which, oddly...tasted not bad...disturbing… and my body when I’d slam into them either killed them on impact or knocked them into the walls. This. Is. Amazing! “Wonder what my wives and kids would think of this?” I wondered, enjoying this quite a bit. Eventually with less and less of them being around Delta managed to get back up and helped clear out the last of them. Once they were all gone I shifted back to normal. Sadly my clothes where all torn up… shit… My Assistant flashed. Final Form Unlocked. Level Rank: 1/6 “Cool.” I said, checking to see how to level final form as I also tried to find some clothes that were fine to wear and wasn't ripped to shreds or worse. Luckily I had some spare clothes stored inside the assistant for emergencies. After putting them on we headed up an elevator, that, once we were up it, we were greeted with a skeleton, Andrew Ryan, and someone on the other side of his glass barrier at his desk...with MY Sharpshooters. “So you made it? Impressive.” This person said. He was in a cloak, Organization 13 cloak. He sounds...familiar. “And who are you if I may ask? Cause you sound familiar.” I said, preparing to fight this new person. “Awh. If I knew you’d I’d be hurt. Haehehehehe.” He said, taking off his hoo- Braig?! “Excuse me but how the fuck are you here?” I frowned. “But do you go by Braig or Xigbar?” “Well, Xigbar is the name I was given as a Nobody, but as is, technically I’m Braig. The you, you knew, is ten years younger than I am, twelve actually. You see, I’m from that little Reality Kexez made, he thought it fitting we each guard your weapons that we’ve used and mastered. Frankly I love the irony.” “Are you a Nobody at the moment?” I asked him simply, a bit pissed he decided to do that. “Not at the moment, part of Xehanort’s heart is within mine.” “And there's no way for me to get my weapons back without beating you all?” I asked, ready to beat the crap out of this Braig. “That’s right, though...good luck trying. Haheheheh.” He said, bringing up both as everything went grey/white and back to normal. The room got a bit larger, it was more like an arena now. He loaded both and jumped up and upside down. Hanging in the air and taking shots. I made a shield out of Twilight Thorns and blocked the shots, sending them back at Braig. “You sure you want to do this?” He side stepped upside down, taking another shot at me that Delta deflected with his drill. “Yeah, let’s see what you got little wolf.” “If you say so.” I said, dashing towards Braig, swinging a thorn whip at him hoping to grab one of his arms. He teleported out of the way. When he reappeared above Delta he took shots, the big daddy roared in pain as each shot made impact. He thrusted his drill up, hitting a bolt right as it fired and the ricochet knocked that one Sharpshooter out of Braig’s hand. “Owe! You little shit!” I jumped, grabbing the dropped Sharpshooter. It glowed, recognizing me as I took aim at Braig. I took a deep breath as Nothingness charged into the bolt. “Note to self...spend some time with baby Braig…” I muttered to myself, firing a powered up shot at Braig insanely fast. He teleported, but so did the bolt, and when he reappeared, so did the bolt, and it shot clear through his chest. “Gah!” He coughed, blood pouring from his mouth as he fell down, dropping the other Sharpshooter. “Heh...heheh-Blaugh!” He coughed out more blood. I walked over and grabbed my other Sharpshooter. “Good.” I muttered, pointing Sharpshooters at Braig. “Where's Jenny?” I asked him, knowing he doesn't have much time. “Heh...heh...sorry kid, I got here a week ago. I don’t know any J--jenny.” He said, his eyes closing as the floor became covered in blood. I checked his health real quick, just to know if he's actually dead. There was nothing. He’s dead, and honestly I got some flashbacks. Damn it… “Well...I got my first of fourteen weapons…” I muttered. “Brigid? Know anywhere we can go from here?” I asked, hoping she was hearing me. She came onto the radio, as if on cue. ”Yes. I don’t know if this is anything, but in one of the markets there’s some creature that looks almost out of pure fire. I’m not sure if this has what you are looking for, but it is best if you deal with it anyway. Would rather not have the city burn under water. That’s just irony.” “That might actually be one of my weapons.” I said honestly. “What direction is it in?” I asked curiously. “Just head back to the previous building, and go to the bottom floor. Also, there’s two little sisters with guardians watching them. Please uphold your part of the deal.” “I know.” I said. “I'm gonna save the kids...let's just hope they aren't too far gone…” I muttered worriedly, making my way back to the previous building and then going down. “But I'm gonna have to fight all the Organization here if I want my weapons back...hmm…” I hummed, thinking about what some of the bosses might do all things considered. Delta and I headed off, and not long back into the building we came across one of the little sisters. Her big daddy was part Invisible...that will be an issue. I attacked it first, the thing roared as it’s helmet lights turned red and ran. They are fast when they are angry. It has the sword in one hand and a rivet gun like Delta. “Well shit…” I muttered, putting Sharpshooters together and firing a charged shot at the thing, the arrow bouncing towards it. Delta managed to charge it, staggering it as the charged shot hit right into it’s helmet. It stood there for a moment before grabbing the bolt, and ripping it out. It’s mask broke clean off, and… It’s human head was half muscle, part skin, and the rest bone, metallic needles and small tunes where like vines under it’s flesh parts, it’s second head, the Invisible’s head, was the one hit by the bolt… two heads... “That is very not good…” I muttered, aiming for the second head. “This is so wrong…” I muttered, hating the damned experiments done to innocent people. It roared, charging again. Delta stepped forward, his drill spinning fast as he thrusted it into the other big daddy’s incoming skull. The drill ran through it’s head and into it’s neck, the thing falling limp quick as Delta shook it off his drill. “Okay then…” I said, moving over to the little sister hoping she was okay. “You okay?” I asked the little sister gently. She pushed my hand away, yelling “No!” And kept crying. Delta walked up to her, and she seems more drawn to him. Probably given what she is at the moment. He picked her up, distracting her as I activated the plasmid and cured her. Her body glowed a bright white as her skin turned less pale, becoming a healthy shade of pink, her eyes going from yellow to normal with blue irises. “Hello?” I asked the girl gently, not knowing if she's okay or will immediately pass out. “Hello! Who are you? I’m Cassidy.” She said as Delta put her down. “Names Ben.” I said gently, kneeling down for the little girl. “Do you know where you are?” “I’m in Rapture silly! Little Sister Subject C3498YTV7, fifteenth generation!” “I'm rather concerned.” I frowned. “But do you know where a girl named Jenny is?” I asked, hoping she knew where my daughter was. “Which? In my generation, there were twelve Jenny’s.” “Was there a girl with ears like mine, a tail, and wings?” I asked her, moving my wolf ears around for the little girl. “Hm… I’ve seen one like that before. Little Sister Jenny, Subject Trinity, eighth generation. Last I saw her she was going back to Lamb’s workshop because she was growing up.” “Do you know where Lamb’s workshop is?” I asked, hoping Jenny was okay. “Hm… Not really. Sorry, but maybe she knows.” She said, pointing behind us. We turned around and...that blue light Big Sister was back. I pointed Sharpshooters at the Big Sister, standing in front of Cassidy to protect her. “Stay close to me.” I said to Cassidy, not wanting her to get kidnapped. “So, why did you come back?” I asked the Big Sister, knowing it probably wouldn't work because of what she is. She backed up, almost hissing at us as she looked like she was trying to find an angle of attack. “Obey!” I barked my command, the same commanding force rushing towards the Big Sister. She twitched, trying to force herself to move, but I didn’t have any distractions. My powers even felt stronger now that I have Sharpshooters. “Not gonna scream now.” I growled. “Kneel.” I ordered it, thinking if I can get enough control over her then I might be able to either reverse some of the horrors done to her or have a good ally for the adventure. She was fighting it, but kneeled down before me, resting on both knees. “What happened to you?” I asked, hoping this things mind wasn't shattered to the point where it could only think of murder. Carefully, I managed to unlock her helmet, and when I took it off...I dropped it… She was older, scared, and half shaved. “J-Jenny…” Her eyes where that Little sister yellow. I gently put my hand on her head, tearing up as I tried to help her get better. I used that curing plasmid to try and help her. When it was over I about threw up red...that’s not blood...Adam? Crap, she’s got too much Adam inside her. That’s why she’s so fucked up. I...can’t take it all out. Least not all at once. “Jenny?” I asked, hoping she at least had some of her mind back. She didn’t hiss, or move much. I think she calmed down some now. She couldn’t talk though. “Brigid...I found my daughter…” I said shakily. “How...how long would it take to cure her?” I asked, tears filling my eyes as I stared at Jenny, sadness at not being able to protect her from whatever they did to her, and such unbridled fury that Kexez, Lamb, and whoever got in my way will wish they were never born. ”Curing a big sister? That would be a lot of Adam to remove… Hmm… Maybe… If you can get her to an old adam bank and rewire the deposit needles to run at max power you can drain her of enough excess Adam for the cure plasmide to work. You’d have to find one with a still intact tank, and Splicers from all over would smell the adam being drained from all of Rapture’s remaining buildings. It would be a war.” She replied from the radio. “I don't care...if it means saving my little girl…” I said. “Is there any working Adam banks around?” I asked, hoping there was so I could help her. ”Let me ask the little ones.” There was a few moments of silence before she came back on. ”Alright, one of them says there’s a working Adam bank nearby. A floor down with two tanks intact and empty. Best be careful, who knows what’s there.” “Thanks Brigid, I'll make sure no Little Sister gets hurt if they appear.” I told her, looking at Jenny. “Rise.” I told Jenny. She rose, fighting to no avail as she moved and followed us. “Don't worry Jenny...your gonna get better…” I muttered, heading off to the Adam bank and ready to fight anything coming against me. There where splicers, and two Big Daddies, one normal and the other… crawled on all fours like a dog… what was creepy was that it’s legs and arms were clearly massively deformed. They were all dealt with and the little sisters freed from their...mutations. The Adam bank had automated security, but thankfully Delta had this tool that hacked them to be on our side. Once in, Delta helped hook Jenny to both tanks extractors, and he drained all the adam I had from curing little sisters and my failed attempt to cure Jenny. “Alright…” I nodded, turning to face the doorway as Sharpshooters gained a blue glow. “Alright, time to see how many of these fucks I can kill.” I muttered, knowing the bastards are on their way. Delta started up the machine, and the machine seems to have a counter on it. One hour. I could hear them coming, rushing in. The automatic turrets started up and began opening fire. Several got through as I shot them dead. Delta fired when needed, but kept watch over Jenny to make sure nothing went wrong. Several of those bizarre oversized muscular ones tried entering, but with the automated turrets and a few charged shots they were downed fast. The timer was at half an hour now, but the tanks were already one full, the other half way. “Can't that thing go any faster?” I growled, continuing to fire at anyone that got past the automated guns. “Fuck this…” I growled, Sharpshooters glowing blue as I shoved them both into portals as thousands of portals opened up around the hoard and basically all the bullets rained down on them. It was like a hail of magical arrows, they littered the floor and turned anything in its way into swiss cheese or a pin cushion. “None of you will touch my daughter!” I barked angrily. When it ended I looked behind me. The timer still had ten minutes but both tanks were full now. Red flashes and a warning alert began to ring out as the tanks pressure built up. “Fuck…” I groaned. “Do you have any idea how to not make this thing blow up?” I asked Delta worriedly. He looked around, quickly taking on of the injection needles and injecting it into himself. The tanks pressure dropped as Adam was sent right into Delta. The timer rang as Jenny was ejected from the depositor and I used the cure plasmid. She glowed a bright, almost holy white. It faded, and when it did, she was out cold. I checked her pulse and made sure she was still breathing, hoping it was just because of the Adam she was out cold. “Please be okay…” I said worriedly. She began to stir some, and opened her eyes. “Agh...my head.” She groaned. Her eyes were normal. “Oh thank god.” I sighed out thankfully. “Glad to see your awake Jenny. How you feeling?” “Umm...Okay, I think… who are you?” My heart dropped into my stomach. “It's me...your father.” I said, scared shitless of the thought of her no longer knowing who I am. “I...Sorry, nothing’s coming to mind. Hey, you called me Jenny...that’s my name then?” “Your names Jenny…” I said, tearing up as I tried my best not to shake or cry. “You...sure you don't remember anything?” I asked gently. “Uhh...All I remember is waking up here. I literally remember nothing else.” “Brigid...explain.” I frowned, looking at my Assistant hoping Brigid could answer. ”Hmm. I’m sorry but this is alien to me. Curing little ones is one thing, but a big sister is new and unhear-” Her audio cut out...and Kexez came on.”I see you found Jenny. Impressed? No, you’d likely feel a mix of anger and despair.” “When I get my hands on you your going to wish you were in the deepest pit in hell.” I growler. “But what did you do to her?” ”It’s a side effect of what I turned her into. I can tell you they may or may not come back on their own. The only sure fire way they can return is a little visit to a place called Castle Oblivion.” “And I don't know where Core took it.” I frowned. ”And I do. I just require a little...favor of you, and I’ll take all this away from you, you’ll have your daughter, the Crystal Empire will be fine, and I’ll take you to Castle Oblivion to fix your daughter. So, what's more important to you? Her, or this world, or, illusion of, I should say.” “That depends on what the favor is considering you did a massive universal no no.” I said, really hating this so much. ”It’s simple really. I need a sample. A single strand of hair, skin or blood will do.” “Of mine?” I asked. “Cause last time this happened a super assassin wanted to have a kid.” I said, remembering that whole debacle and how she's now a bit stupid. ”No, not of you. I need a sample of your world’s Cadence.” “Why?” I asked. “Hasn't she suffered enough?” ”I just need a single strand of hair. I don’t require the whole mare. Just a sliver of DNA is all I ask. Or is that not worth her memories?” “And what are you going to do? Make a clone of her so it'll kill Cadence, and then you can basically do what the Changelings tried to do on one reflection or another?” I growled, hating how the only definite way of getting Jenny’s memories back was in...wait…”Well I'm fucking stupid, completely forgot Zeke made damn well sure he studied Castle Oblivion and memory stuff, I'll just ask him for help...I hope.” I think to myself, really hoping that’s how it works instead of doing what this bastard told me to do. ”So, what's your answer.” “Go to hell. I can get Jenny’s memories back without your help.” I told him. “So, are you going to give me the directions for my next weapon cause I’m pretty sure this was your idea.” ”Awh. Now why make it so easy for you now that you've backed out.” “Because your that kind of guy who believes he’s still better even if he tells his opponent where his stuff is?” I ask, thinking he would buy that explanation considering he’s a massive narcissist. ”You clearly don't know me.” He laughed as the world around us began… evaporating. ”To be continued another time then, I’ll be sure to take care of your weapons til I'm done studying them.” “How about you give me back my weapons and then I’ll beat your ass with them.” I frowned. ”And shorten the game? Nah. Besi- huh? This...this can't be right.” “Oh, something that isn’t right to you huh? I wonder what it is.” I roll my eyes, thinking this fucker is just doing some bull here. “Mind telling me what it is?” ”I still hold connections to Kingdom Hearts. Seems the father of Keyblades made one. A very powerful one.” “Maybe it’s because your absolute garbage and it wanted to do something to help stop you and your bullshit.” I said, not understanding what he just talked about but still. Kexes paused for a while… then laughed madly. ”A second! A second X-blade has been crafted and is wielded! If this is my doing… time to stop taking things slow…” The audio cut, and the world around us began fading. Delta too. “Goodbye. Friend.” He said, vanishing along with everything else here. I frowned, holding Jenny as the world around us faded. “Well...that’s not good…” I muttered worriedly. As everything vanished, the crystal empire began returning. Soon only Jenny, myself, and the empire where left...till Squirrel fell from the sky. “Gah! Shit! Landed on my keys…” He...didn’t age a day? “Okay so how the hell did me and Jenny just age ten years but you didn’t age a single day?” I asked. “You really should read the family abilities manual.” Squirrel said, getting himself back up. “We can control our physical age once we turn eighteen.” “Ah-” I was about to say before feeling the world shake. “Oh...that would probably be my clone...training with Lunatic...going absolutely fucking berserk…” I frowned, not liking that whole thing. “A galactic quake? Nice. Feels like a 4.3. Not bad.” “Not bad?” I asked, the sound of something really strong shattering like glass could be surprisingly heard. “Yeah...that would probably be that pure vibranium slab “Huh. Again, impressive. Well that vanished so… looks like I’m free.” “So Kexez is freaking out about there being a second X blade…” I said worriedly. “And I need to get Jenny to Daybreak to get her memories back.” “Mind if I tag along? I got nothing better to do.” Squirrel asked. “Sure.” I said, summoning Reunion thankfully and opening a DTL. “Want your memories back Jenny?” “Well, considering I can't remember you and have no idea what's going on. Might as well.” She said, walking into the DTL “Thank you.” I said while entering the DTL as well, hoping Zeke was there so we can solve this whole thing. “And that's a wrap. Til next chapter folks.” Squirrel said, following behind as the DTL closed. To be continued... Nobody's return to BoletariaWe headed for Daybreak immediately. Zeke was nowhere to be found, but found Charlie, and he lead us to Castle Oblivion. “So Kexez did that? To Jenny?” He asked, pointing at her as she just followed us everywhere quietly. “Yes, yes he did.” I frowned, even though I still looked like I was in my early thirties. “And I don’t know what he fully did to her...but you’d have to take a back seat on fighting Kexez here…” “Like hell.” Charlie said. “I might be some clone of Zeke, but I still got his drives and determination. Kexez shows up, I’m gonna at least injure him before my head rolls.” “As long as he gets beat for the crap he’s done.” I sighed out. “So, mind if I use your Castle Oblivion? Cause...well Core stole it a long as time ago.” “Of course. Most of the labs and such are in the Basement so the upper levels are just for a mix of storage and sample gathering.” He said. We arrived at Daybreak’s Castle Oblivion, and he opened the door. Once inside, he motioned for us to head to the door. “Just have Jenny open the doors and memories of hers should form a world on the other side.” “Alright.” I nodded while stepping to the side. “Go on Jenny.” I said, motioning her to the door. She walked up to the doors, grabbing the handles and… pulled. The doors don't open. It was like they were locked. “Well...that’s new.” I blinked...only to face palm. “Oh please don’t tell me…” I muttered, fearing the worst here. “It might be...her not having memories she can’t open them, nothing to remember.” “Hold on…” I said, checking to see if I still had that radio frequency to Kexez. “This thing better not be trackable…” I muttered, knowing Cript gave this thing literally everything but still. ”Having troubles are we?” Kexez’s voice came on. ”I was expecting your call.” “What did you do asshole?” I growled. “Well, I’ll admit her memory loss isn’t natural.” We all turned around, seeing Kexez walk in, closing the door behind him. “Are you going to answer me or are you just gonna stand there while I beat the smugness out of you?” I growled. “Hm. If you had stayed around during our little event in Rapture, you’d have learned of my little game. Patience isn’t really a virtue of yours is it?” “Actually that part was your fault.” I said. “When I said something happened because it was your fault you laughed and immediately kicked me and Jenny out along with letting the Crystal Empire and all its people free.” I explained. “But patience is a virtue, it’s just when a cock goblin like you probably tortured my daughter, ripped away her memories and drugged her to hell and back she became a killing machine, that’s where I draw the goddamn line.” “Really? That is where the line is drawn. Still leaves so many paths to cross.” He said, turning around and crossing his arms. “I feel hurt. HA! I’ll give you her memories, or rather, you’ll have to find where I put them.” “You hurting my daughter, or family in general is where I draw the line. But what do you want this time you overhyped piece of shit?” I asked, thinking that Kexez is just overhyping himself hard at this point and just being an annoying douche. “Overhyped? Now that hurt. Go on then if you think yourself that much stronger. Hit me as hard as you’d like. I won’t even block.” He said, not even turning around, nor changing his posture. “I know you're playing me.” I deadpanned. “Given your Zeke’s Nobody you're probably oh so stupid strong and I can’t hurt you yet because, of course, your one of the final bosses and I can’t hurt you or kill you yet even thought I would oh so love to.” I said, not being some run of the mill angry idiot. “Mind telling me how to get Jenny’s memories back?” “You know, Nobody doesn’t quite fit me anymore.” He said, now placing his hands on his hips. “At least Nobodies have souls. I was born without one...thanks to a certain Maiden in Black… Still, that brings me to this little scavenger hunt I’m putting you on.” He said, turning his head to face me slightly. “I believe you are familiar with your realities Bolitaria, correct? I believe they kicked you out for not having a soul too if I’m correct. Heh, who’d have guessed that.” He said, turning and walking over to the nearest wall, and leaning against it. “So, on that world I have hidden five cards, each holding memories of Jenny’s. Just kill their holders, and claim them as your prize.” “And it’s just the five cards?” I asked, wanting to make sure it’s just the five. “Or is this only step one of ten?” “I made twenty, so this game isn’t ending that quickly my…old friend.” “Old friend…” I shook my head. “Zeke is my friend, you are only a part of him corrupted by Psychopath blood and on a whirlwind rampage to fucking everything up.” I frowned. “Heh. To each their own.” He said, waving his hand as a DTD opened before me. “Shall we begin?” “Might as well.” I said honestly. “At least now I’ll probably have some god damn stress relief here.” I muttered. We arrived in the Nexus. The normal amount of people from last time where here, meaning nothing’s really changed since I was here. I was immediately approached by the Maiden, who this time just nodded. “A strong soul Indeed you now possess. A powerful slayer of demons you shall become.” She said before moving along to tend to some candles. “Yep.” I nodded. “Now, I was told from an...acquaintance that there are five beings with a special item. Do you have any idea where any special people given special items would be?” I asked, thinking she was a good source of info on the world I haven’t been to for at least ten technical years. “Nothing much has changed here slayer of demons.” She said, relighting some candles with her long stall thing. “I’m afraid I do not know what it is you seek.” “Well...can’t say I didn’t try…” I muttered. “Okay...so mind if I ask what the major areas of this place are? Cause that’ll probably him me a bit in my search.” “The five archestones each linked to a single standing relating stone in their respective sections, Slay the demons blocking these other archstones and make your way to each lands head demon.” “Okay…” I nodded, that not answering my question but I suppose I’ll take it. “Now...where to start…” I muttered, looking around for the way out of here to start my search. “There is the Boletarian Palace, Stonefang Tunnel, Tower of Latria, Shrine of Storms, and Valley of Defilement. Bewarned each archstones’s unique threats.” “I will. Thank you.” I nodded. “Well, better get going so I can start my search.” I walked up to one of the archstones… not sure how to do this. I touched it, and was wrapped in this green glow of light. When it faded I was...inside this damp, dark prison cell that was missing it’s door. “Okay then…” I muttered, using my assistant in hopes of getting a map of the place just so I wouldn’t backtrack on complete accident. As I was checking it I heard a bell ring nearby. “Well...never played Demon’s Souls but I did play Dark Souls...maybe the Chosen got to the bell?” I wondered, not sure if the place already had a bell and I’m just mistaking stuff or what. “Let’s hope it’s just ambient noise…” I muttered, knowing that enemies would be appearing right about now if it was a bell to signify the next part of the game as I looked around worriedly. I was in...a prison or something. It went down...rather far. I backed away from the edge of this walkway against the wall… that’s a way to put fear into you. “Wait, I can fly.” I frowned, summoning Lindworm and seeing if I could do this cause of the world being different. Thankfully I was able to fly, and did. That’s when I saw what looked like a Cthulhu human thing with a lanturn/bell thing. It was shooting lightning at me. “Oh.” I summoned Foudre and throwing it into the abomination and hit it, the lightning attack it threw at me redirecting towards what was basically a magical lightning rod. It electrocuted itself, almost comically how it stood when that happened before falling over. I fired a shot from sharpshooter, killing it and landing myself back onto the walkway. “Okay then, that was something.” I frowned. “Hey, You! Yes You!” I heard someone calling. Below I think. Looking down, I saw a very blue, ethereal man in one of the cells. “Get me out of here!” “And if I do?” I asked. “But who are you if I may ask?” “Lord Rydell. As you can see I’m a Phantom. I need to take back an item from my corpse! Please, it’s urgent.” “And what’s the item?” I asked, hoping it’s something revolving around Jenny. “Come on man! I’m a white Phantom, I won’t up and kill you. Not unless I’m killed like this and come back as a Black Phantom. Besides the point, please!” “Okay, but mind helping me search for something as well?” I asked, ready to break the cell doors given I’m strong enough. “Yes of course. I always repay my debts.” “Thank you.” I nodded while walking over and using my enhanced strength to basically rip off the rusted iron door off it’s hinges. “My word. You must be quite the demon slayer. Come then, my body is this way.” I followed Rydell to his body, his corpse was mangled and long since decayed. He grabbed something, then held up a bow staff long since broken. “Damn, I really liked this weapon. Well, a deal’s a deal Sir… what is your name by the way?” “Ben.” I said honestly. “But have you seen anyone with a card?” I asked. “Card… Not a person, but an odd creature of pure darkness passed my cell some time ago. It had a blue card in it’s mouth. Is that what you are after?” “Yes, that is exactly what I’m after.” I said. “Do you know where it went?” “Judging from the path it took I’d say it went to the Fools Idol room. You see, this whole place is a Prison, and Church, though, the ‘Idol’ is a doll given life by the Old One. She lures them to her room, demons drag them upwards to the highest point, and another Demon called the Man Eaters devour them, then yet another demon, The Old Monk, Delivers the souls to the Old One. This place is basically their meat and soul factory. Nothing here but Soul Starved and Demons, well, save for Freke.” “Is he a friend or foe?” I asked curiously. “Friend, definitely. He’s a revolutionary in the field of spellcasting. His spells have protected and kept many alive in the early days of this mess. He came here to acquire demons souls to craft new, more powerful spells. Sadly I am unsure where he is being kept here.” “Well good thing I'm gonna be searching this entire damned place looking for where the that dark creature went.” I said honestly. “I can show you to the Idols room, but all the direct pathways are likely either guarded or collapsed/locked.” “Thank you.” I nodded. The way to the Idol was riddled with fights. We were at the lowest area, and here, where I saw what looked like a horde of these Soul Starved, bundled together in an unholy orb of bodies, walking, shooting a huge projectile of magic, and attacking with various blades when we got too close. “Well...that’s not fucked up at all.” I frowned, not believing someone did that. “In the depths of a corrupt church are just some of what Demon’s do with their power.” Rydell said, finishing off the thing with a swipe of his broken Bow Staff. We found some spare keys and when we climbed back up came across. “Freke!” Rydell said, running over to the locked cell door. Inside was a very old man, and behind him a glowing bright light. “Hello?” I said to Freke, wondering what the glowing light was for. “Hm. What? Oh, Visitors. Lovely to meet you both. I’m Sage Freke the Visionary, or so the Schools all call me. I don’t suppose you can get me out of here now, can you? Been locked up here for a while now.” “Don’t worry, we’re getting you out.” I said, walking over and ripping the door off it’s hinges again. “Why thank you young lad.” Freke said. “Give me a moment, I can return to the Nexus on my own from there, and, even at my old age, I can assist. Bring me a Demon’s Soul and I can craft a powerful spell for you to use along your journey.” “Thank you.” I nodded. “By the by, have you seen anyone with a card?” I asked curiously, wondering if Freke also had a lead on if another person with Jenny’s memories was here at all. “Hm… A few days ago, I heard someone, to my suprise, say that they were giving each of the demons here a special item to guard. Who was speaking and to who I am unsure. All I know is that it must have been a lady with how she laughed as they said that.” I frowned at that. “Spoiled…” I growled to myself. “Thank you, you sure you don’t need help getting back?” I ask, knowing he was a powerful sorcerer but wanting to make sure he was at least going to be alright when he gets to safety. “I just need a moment to let my old bones gather enough strength, then I’ll head to the Archstone nearby. I’m old, but not helpless. Here, take this as thanks.”: Freke said, handing me a long wooden stick. “This Catalyst will let you cast any magic that is intelligence based.” “Thank you.” I nodded while taking the Catalyst. We left, and came across an area connected to a long bridge, with a giant statue that opened up, and revealed rows upon rows of large...Crossbows, for lack of the proper word, all firing along the bridge. “Well, now how do we avoid that?” Rydell pondered. I thought for a moment. “Well…” I wondered, summoning Fair Game and throwing a card towards the arrows, making it increase it’s size so it was big enough to block the arrows. “I wonder if these can block arrows…” I wonder. The arrows all impaled the card, but didn’t go through. Using that for cover, we ran across the bridge, and once across Rydell found the switch that turned off the device. With that done we went along up a stairway, and found ourselves outside a long stairway towards a huge set of doors. “This is it, the Fools Idol’s Church.” Rydel said, waving an arm to ‘display’ it all. “Where poor fools are sent to death.” “Yeah, all the demons here.” I said, cracking my knuckles for what’s to come. We opened the doors, seeing Soul Starved all around, praying in a way. Once halfway in, the doors behind us shut, and from above this woman in dark clothing floated down, a book in grasp and a soft smile on her face. She then waved… a Blue card in front of us. “Is that it?” Rydell asked. “Yes, that is exactly what I need.” I said, drawing Reunion and Frozen Pride. “Okay lady, how do you want to do this?” I asked simply. “Do we do this the easy way, or the hard way?” She put the card away, spun around as two doppelgangers appeared next to her. They all vanished, and reappeared in different areas. “I’ll take that’s the hard way.” Rydell said. “Yep, she really wants to die.” I said. “So, let’s get started.” I said, looking at the three and seeing if I could get their health bars so I know how long this will take. It wasn’t that long. Question is, which one is her? We split up, Rydell taking one while I took another, and the third we had to dodge it’s spells. I moved quickly to one of them and slashed at the mage, hoping this will be the real one. It vanished, and the third unattended one shooting a bolt at me that knocked me down to the ground. It hurt...but not all that bad… This thing is weak as all hell! I raised Frozen Pride as shards of ice shot towards the third one. It impaled her, and I saw her HP bar fall to Zero as her body hit the ground. “That was all it took?” Rydell said, his copy vanishing with the real one dead. As I began to move around, dealing with the soul starved followers, A mad laugh came from above. High above, a soul starved glowed with a golden aura. “AHAHAHAHAHAHA! Fools Die! You will both fall to the Maiden's hand!” He yelled, the Corpse of the Demons rising as it glowed with a similar aura. She came back, this time though, that crazed man tossed down to her what looked like a poorly stitched sloth Kingdom Key. When she grabbed it, it flashed black, and looked metallic now. It looked real. “And here we go…” I muttered, flying after the crazed bastard so he wouldn't bring that bitch back. Before I got high enough she dragged me down, slamming her fake Keyblade into my spine. Rydell used his broken bow staff and knocked her aside, helping me up. “You okay?” He asked. “Yeah I'm fine.” I said, thankful for my defense and it not breaking anything. “Unless we kill whoever that was bitch over there isn't gonna stay dead.” “I don’t have a Bow or Cata… The one Freke gave you, let me see it.” Rydell asked. “Here you go.” I said, handing him the Catalyst. “Please tell me you got something up your sleeve here.” “Just need a boost.” He said, waving the Catalyst over himself as this yellow glow came over him. He then jumped...HIGH and caught the ledge of where that mad man was. “Enhance Agility. Never used it before but-” He pulled himself over, and knocked the mad man over, an audible crack in the air as he fell. “Never hurts to know as many things as possible.” “Yeah pretty much.” I said, looking over at the lady to see if she falls over. She didn’t, so, I summoned Skysplitter, running up to this Doll Demon and slamming it into her chest like a baseball bat. She was sliced clean in half, dying in a fade of white light as two things fell to the ground. A small grey orb. And the card. Rydell carefully climbed down, landing next to me. “A demon’s soul, and what you where after. Something tells me this is not the only one, is it?” “One down, four more to go.” I said, grabbing the Card and Demon Soul. “Well then, if that is all then this is where I part ways with you Ben. I’ll be in The Nexus, working to repair my weapon. You take care of whatever is ahead, alright?” Rydell said. “I will.” I nod. “And I might ask for your help if that’s possible...but just a quick note, if you feel the Nexus shaking, don’t panic it’s just me going into...well someone really pissed me off.” I said to him honestly. “I’ll keep that in mind. Till next time Ben.” He said, turning around and leaving. As he exited the doors he turned around, a...fog, covering the doorway. “Crap! Ben!” The fog covered it up, and I was stuck in here now. “Fuck.” I frowned, looking around. “Okay, who’s here?” I called out, knowing something’s about to appear with the fog door. In front of me I saw a black stone appear on the ground, and from it a red aura… till a person showed up. “Woah...it worked.” It was a woman, voice said it all, her cloak was… like mine? “Who are you if I may ask?” I asked curiously. “Huh? Oh! Hi...wow. Your like me!” She said, taking off her hood…. She was a dire wolf person too. Her eyes a deep green, hair same brown as mine, and fur a light blue/grey. “I’m Betty!” “Ben.” I said. “I have...several questions...like how a apparently you might be...the female version of me.” I said a little worriedly. “”Hmm...I don't see it.” Betty said, looking me over. “Hey, you got a cloak like mine! Copycat!” “Hey, I ain’t copying shit here.” I frowned. “From where I see this you’re copying me, cause Rarity made this for me.” I said honestly. “Well I asked… a friend for this so you copied them!” “My fiance made this for me.” I frowned. “And when did you get it?” I asked simply. “I uh...told you, I asked someone for this.” She said, clearly avoiding the question. “A friend huh?” I asked. “Or...is it someone you like?” “What, no. I met him… How to phrase this…?” Betty began thinking. “Do you know a place called...Earth?” “That would be my home world...that’s been long dead for the past hundred plus years.” I told her. “Wait, what?! I’ve been traveling for just the last few months by my count...God I should have asked for a phone with unlimited battery life and was unbreakable… So, you came from that mess too huh?” She asked, taking a seat on the floor. “Not the only one.” I said while sitting down as well. “Where do you want me to start?” “Well if earth is dead, no point in really wondering about it to be honest. How about you? What were you doing when that all went down?” “Well I was in my high schools library at the time, feel asleep, met God, then went to Equestria with powers.” I shrugged. “The hundred years passing was because time is a weird thing on different worlds.” I said honestly. “Huh. Where did you live?” “In Ohio.” I said honestly. “Huh, Country boy huh? Heh. I lived in New York. On 2012 I was just lazing about my place when I got the not-so-smart idea to try and see what all the noise outside was. I got hit by a Firetruck… Woke up in that white void place, talked with god. He made me a furry, which I was a hardcore one back on earth, and I always loved the Dusks from Kingdom Hearts, so I asked for an overcoat that made me look like one. I then asked for the ability to travel between worlds, and a sword. Girl’s gotta have protection. Been going from place to place ever since.” “Alright then, well I’ve been doing this for at least half a year if not more, I happen to have all Fourteen weapons the Organization uses, am the Heir to Nothingness and so much more...all on the basis of I was a ‘Nobody’ in my old life, might as well start off my new life as an actual Nobody.” I explained. “And that’s barely scratching the surface of what I’ve been through.” “Neat. I just got to this world a few days ago. Found this stones and was told one lets me invade parallel worlds. So I did. Didn't think it would work though.” “Well it did.” I said. “And now I’m stuck here until you leave.” I said honestly. “Heh...oh…” Betty said, scratching the back of her head. “Hey...mind if I try something?” “Your not allowed to hit me.” I said, having a feeling I know what’s gonna happen here. “But what is it?” “Just let me take your hand. I think I can use my ability to physically be where you are. I’ve only ever traveled worlds, not Parallel worlds, so this will be new for me. I wanna see if it works.” “If you say so.” I said while moving out my hand for her to take. She grabbed my hand firmly, the air began looking wavy, everything felt heavy and there were sparks of light appearing in and out of thin air. As I started to get worried everything shook, the red aura around Betty began fading. When it was all gone everything stopped suddenly and she fell to her knees. “Jesus that took a lot out of me…” She wheased. “But hey...it worked… Ouch.” “Hold on.” I said while summoning my Lexicon. “Curaga.” I said, casting a heal spell on Betty to give her some of her energy back. “Heh, thanks. That was helpful.” She said, standing back up wobbly. The fog fell. Rydell entering. “Ben. Oh...what happened here?” Rydell asked. “Just a new person here.” I said, motioning to Betty. “This is Betty, Betty this is Rydell.” I said. “Hi.” Betty said. “Hello.” Rydell replied. “Well, since it’s not what I feared, I’ll be off then. Later Ben.” “So, where you going next Ben?” Betty asked. “Well there’s four other things I need to find here…” I said, thinking of where to go next. “What are they?” I brought out a card. “Cards that hold parts of my daughters memories.” I said. “And the cockhole that did that to her has hidden five here, and fifteen somewhere else.” I growled. “Hm…” She pondered. “There are five Archestones and therefore, five possible bosses guarding them. Question is, did he put one in each area, or what?” “Knowing him he gave one to each boss in those areas.” I said honestly. “In that case, the next place, or boss is the Maneaters. You ready for them? The way to them is...creepy.” “I’ve seen creepier.” I said, remembering the time me and Joy fought a Void Knight in the diamond dog kingdom and how that weird face was a mix of a Mind Flayers, a Dogs and a human’s head. “Well then, come on.” Betty said, walking me to an alter of sorts. It was right then four demon looking things flew down, surrounding us before grabbing us and flying us high up, dropping us off on a ledge next to a stairway. “Can that be called an elevator?” Betty asked as she got herself up. “Originally those things were to bring dumb people up here to die.” I said honestly while getting up as well. “But now that that lady is dead...I doubt many will fall for the bullshit.” We walked up the stairs, and saw three tall towers, each connected by a series of long...thin...high up bridges. “...Afraid of heights?” She asked, looking over the edge. “I can fly. Are you scared of heights?” I asked honestly, having flown from both my glider and other ways my old fear of heights just kind of went away rather quickly. “A bit.” She said, looking around. “It’s those things I’m concerned about.” She pointed. In the distance, atop from statues and archways, sat the same demon things that brought us up here, armed and eyeing us. “Do you have a ranged weapon or something?” “Are you going to attack us!?” I called out to the demons, looking at them and waiting to see if they give me a signal of they are hostile or not. “Usually in game they attack when you get close enough.” Betty explained. “Can’t sneak from them so we have to kill them. Please tell me you have a bow or something?” I summoned Sharpshooters. “Yes, I do, and they never miss by design.” I told her. “Okay...so slow and steady then.” I said, staring at the demons and practically daring them to come attack us if they want to die. “Well, come on then.” Betty said. We ran down the way, immediately they began charging towards us. I fired walls of arrows at them, each landing and ending them, the demon things falling from the sky. Once inside the first tower, we saw a huge, pulsating flesh mass wrapped in cloth and chains. It took up the whole inside just about. “To this day, I have no idea what that thing i- DEAR GOD IT REAKS!” She yelled, covering her nose. I zipped up my hood, thanking god that it doubles as a hazmat suit. “Alright then, so here’s the demon that’s gonna die unless it starts talking and be friendly.” I said honestly, having a feeling this thing will want to attack us. “Higher up. We gotta break the chains keeping this mess up then the stairway up to it will be open.” She said, hand covering her nose. “How strong are the chains?” I asked simply. “Or do we need to actually activate something so the stairway will appear?” “Normally, but if you can break them here it’s a cheat working around running around this place.” “I can certainly break those chains.” I said, aiming Sharpshooters and firing at the chains, pretty sure my shots are strong enough to break the chains. I fired, the chains sending the mass crashing down to the floor below as we bolted above to the boss. Here, another fog wall awated us. “Just behind here is the Maneaters… God I hated this fight back on earth…” “If there holding one of my daughters memories…” I said, summoning Skysplitter. “There going to wish they stayed dead.” I growled, walking up to the fog door and putting a hand up to it. My hand broke it as I entered, and once through Betty followed. Once on the other side, the Maneater ran at us, swiping at me with it’s large talons. I smacked the thing with Skysplitter before it could touch me. “Yeah no.” I frowned. “Okay, given I heard ‘Maneaters’, where are the others?” I asked simply, ready to beat the shit out of these things. “The second one comes out when this one reaches about half health or dies. Usually.” Betty informed. “Sure.” I said. “That sounds like the Gargoyle fight in Dark Souls 1 actually.” I mentioned, drawing Sharpshooter and firing at the thing. My shots hit, but it was clearly tougher than the one before it. He then took to the sky, and roared doing flyby swipes. “That was not his ingame moveset!” Betty yelepd, ducking a swipe.” “Well then you probably haven’t fought this thing enough.” I said while blocking with Skysplitter and firing a charged shot at the thing. The charged shot imbedded itself into its skull,, and it fell into the depths below. Just then, the second one came out, landing on the bridge before roaring at me, it’s eyes bright yellow and...the card in its teeth... “You picked the wrong day to roar at me.” I growled, swapping out Skysplitter and Sharpshooter for Lunatic, my fur growing as rage started increasing my strength. “I’d...recommend not getting in the way.” I growled at Betty, not wanting to hurt her on accident but knowing Lunatic is pretty fucking strong something might accidentally happen. She backed up, and I swung Lunatic at the Maneater ran right into its swing. To a bit of a comedic surprise, his body fell over the edge, but his head hit the ground before me. “HOLY SHIT THAT WAS COOL!!” Betty screamed, the Maneater’s head vanishing, leaving the card, and a Squirming Demon soul. “That’s what it gets for facing the rage of a Moon surviving a supernova.” I said honestly, dismissing Lunatic and calming down as I collected both the soul and the card. “And my rage for holding my daughters memories.” “Well, next Demon is the last one for this area. It’s a bit off. It’s not the body itself, it’s the golden fabric wrapped around it. In game it summonses a Black Phantom to fight with since it’s body before now cant handle a fight, given it’s basically a mummy at this point.” Betty said. “So basically it can’t do much but it’s Phantom can?” I asked curiously. “Depending on who or what it summons and how strong they are, yeah, it possesses them. We kill the phantom, and it dies. It’s linked to whoever it possesses.” “Oh wait…” I summoned my Lexicon and sifted through the pages to see all the Necromantic spells I know. “If it’s a Mummy, that means it’s undead, and if it’s undead then I’m pretty sure I can make it serve me.” “No Ben, it keeps it’s host alive till it drains them, then moves on. It’s host looks like a mummy, but it’s just a powerful human kept alive by...a demon cloth… Huh, sounds less cool when said out loud.” “Oh, okay then. So kill it then.” I said honestly. “By killing whoever it summons to possess next.” Betty concluded. “Come on, just up this stairway.” She pointed, the end of the bridge showed an opening, and a single stairway leading even higher up. “Alright then.” I said. “But I wonder if I can break the possession...or the fact the summon will have to fight us either way?” I wondered honestly. We headed up, reaching the fog wall to this last bastard. Once on the other side, I saw whoever it was, wore a simple knights outfit, wielded a spear, and had that gold cloth wrapped around their head… “Looks really dumb huh?” Betty said. “So I just take the headband off?” I asked, feeling like that’s a lot better solution then killing him. “It can’t come off. That thing is alive, remember?” “Hold on…” I said, bringing up my Assistant and actually checking what the hell this is cause honestly this could just be a golden piece of cloth cursed by a demon. “Sorry, just a wondering...I’m also a hero so might as well see if I can save people if I can.” Bolitarea Lore: The Old Monk The original Old Monk was the husband of the queen of Latria. He left Latria for unknown reasons and returned with horrible demons in tow. This led to the fall of Latria. The monk is now nothing more than a black phantom controlled by golden robes. His collar bears the description: "Head wrappings that were once the golden robe worn by the old master of Latria and eventually took control of the then withered old man. It is whispered that the robe now seeks to summon those who offer their aid, and carrying out its wishes grants them the use of these odd head wrappings. Could the golden garb be seeking out a new vessel to subjugate…?" “Okay then, so the guy he’s possessing is the Old Monk...and apparently he’s a dick wad.” I frowned. “So let’s go kill this guy then.” I said, summoning Lindworm. “I really hope I can learn this weapon...I really like this.” I said honestly, raising my spears up and throwing them at the demon garments newest puppet. He side stepped them all, rushing towards me with rather unexpected speed. He then swung, nearly cutting my face as I backed up in time. He’s fast. Even with Lindworm’s Wind powers he was proving challenging. I only landed one hit so far. He didn’t land any though. “Guy’s fast I’ll give him that.” I said honestly. “How good are you with that sword?” I asked Betty, having a feeling I’m actually gonna need a little back up.” “...Eh…” See said, waving her hand like she was unsure. “Most worlds I visited I didn't need to use it.” She said, taking out from within a sleeve in her cloak, a simple straight sword. “You really need some lessons.” I frowned. “Do you have any combat experience?” I asked. “Well- LOOK OUT!” Betty shouted. I turned around just to see this guy stab his spear THROUGH my chest, only stopping when his hand hit my chest from where he held it on his weapon. I coughed up blood. “Well...nice hit.” I said, Lunatic coming into my hand without my say so as I went into a rage, snapping the spear in half and slamming Lunatic into him...til he waved his hand, and PARRY’D Lunatic. He then pulled his spear out, jabbing it into my stomach this time as he lifted me above him, and swung his spear, throwing me against the wall. I dropped Lunatic. “Ben!” Betty yelled, running over to me. “Shit, shit, shit…” She said, looking at my wounds. The sound of me growling could be heard as my injuries seemed to be stitching up with Nothingness Thorns. “This fucker...made a huge mistake.” I growled. He began walking closer, my wounds not healed enough… I then saw Betty take Lunatic, and stand in front of me. “S-stay back!” She commanded. I pulled out my Lexicon. “Haste, Protect, Draconic Might.” I said, Betty feeling like she could take a massive hit, felt a whole lot faster and a lot stronger. “There’s some buffs.” I said, casting a healing spell on myself to help myself. As I got back up, he threw his spear passed Betty, into my arm, pinned into my flesh and bones, and pinned me to the wall. “Okay, apparently existence doesn’t want me just waltzing through everything like I obviously can.” I frowned. He reached behind him, pulling out a shortsword that… Wait, that’s the same sword the Royal guard use back in Equestria? “Ben!” Betty yelled, seeing me pinned to the wall. “Wait.” I frowned. “Can you talk demon?” I asked. “Who are you possessing?” I frowned. It didn’t reply, rather, took a fighting stance then rushed Betty, who thanks to Lunatic’s size, blocked his thrust. “Ben, this guy is weird. I saw his neck. It’s all scared from… I dunno, a huge gash all around or something?” Betty said, blocking another thrust. “Try knocking his helmet off.” I said, having a terrible feeling about this as I grabbed the spear and broke it. “Christ this hurts.” I grumbled. “But...that better not be who I think it is…” I said, having a bad feeling Cadence is gonna hate me. Betty swung, the Demon dodging. Before he was able to swing when he got close, Betty reacted, lifting her sword in her free hand, stabbing them in the side. Taking her chance, she let go of her sword, and slammed Lunatic onto them, flattening them. Their red aura vanished, leaving their...body as the cloth seemed to deflate, life leaving it as it left its host. As the cloth unraveled, a Yellow Demon’s Soul fell out, as did another card. “I...did it. Holy crap I killed a demon! Can I keep this thing?” Betty asked me, pointing to Lunatic in her hands. I walked over and took the card and checked the body. “You sure did…” I said, too distracted by the many thoughts running through my head. “Could it…?” I muttered, taking off the guys helmet and wondering if this is really who I think it is. When I took the cloth off...it was. Shining Armor…”Damn it…” I muttered, summoning Fair Game and throwing a card to the ground with the Symbol of Death on it. “If any Death can hear me, can you please come here?” “AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” Was the sudden response from behind us. Standing there was… Grell? “Blast it all you brats and your summoning magic! Do you have any idea how much work I still have to complete in this world alone BEFORE the hour is up!?” “There’s a soul I need.” I said. “Shining Armor’s soul to be precise.” I said, “Oh, this pony person you mean?” He said, walking over Shining Armor’s body and looking his face over. “My, quite the looker. But aside from your request why should I break protocol for you?” “Cause.” I said, before Graceful Dahlia appeared and seemed to be floating around him. “Because your my new council member.” I said honestly. “Council Member? Of what? And where did you get this Death Scythe?! It’s devinly deadly!” Grell said, taking it. While it’s pole didn’t change form, it’s blade changed to a blood red, and grew teeth that spun, giving a light roar like a...chainsaw? “Oh my heavens! What beauty! What power! How sexy!” “You are now a council member to the Heir of Nothingness Grell.” I said. “And what you have there is called Graceful Dahlia, made from the bark of a Demon Tree on a destroyed planet.” I said honestly. “Demon Tree of a dead planet? How sexy… Crap, but what will my bosses say… Oh what to do…?” I sighed out and threw another card with a death symbol on it. “Paging Grell’s boss, mind if I have a word with you cause your now needed.” I said, hoping I can do this multiple times instead of just the once. From the card came the form of death itself, I turned to Grell, and saw him...terrified. “You-you-you-you-you-” He kept repeating. I looked a bit confused. “Is it wrong that I managed to summon your boss?” Before Grell replied, he grabbed Betty and I, forcing us both to the floor before bowing on all fours himself. “You summoned the boss of ALL Grim Reapers. The First Death.” Grell informed. “He’s only ever had three students, two started the Grim Reapers, the third, was Cript’s boss.” “You mean Lord?” I asked. “I met him actually. Nice guy.” I said honestly. “Is that what he goes by now?” Grell asked. “Who here summoned me?” The First Death spoke, his voice faint, but commanding. “Well I literally can’t say his name cause he deemed it that.” I told Grell while standing up. “I did sir. Sorry that I...well summoned you, your probably very busy but I have a...small complication here.” I explained. “Hm… Heir of Nothing. Ben, from Terra 877Y8. My condolences for your home world.” He said, motioning for us all to rise. We did. “It’s alright sir.” I said, showing respect to my elder here. “But since you know who I am, you can obviously tell by the Chainsaw Scythe Grell has that he’s now apart of my Council.” I said. “And originally I was just gonna ask how can I get a friend of mines soul back.” I explained, motioning to Shining’s dead body. “Hm. Grell, retrieve this dead corpses soul and resurrect him, I will inform the rest of the reapers of your...termination from the Reapers, but you will be allowed to keep your powers and Death Scythe.” “Yes, yes of course Death!” Grell said, vanishing in an aura of purple and red. “Now then.” Death continued. “I can tell you’ve spoken to my old student. I can see it in your soul.” “Yes, he goes by Lord now considering he said no one’s ever allowed to know his real name.” I said honestly. “Is that what he is going by? When I knew him he went by Jose. Being the creator of everything, he spend time throwing himself into his creation, powers locked and memories wiped. His version of playing. During that time, he had no idea what he was. Simpler times indeed.” “Well I wouldn’t know cause I didn’t exist all the way back then.” I shrugged. “But yeah, we talked, he showed me a future, that it’s probably a good idea to die before one goes completely insane…” I trailed off. “But knowing you being the Death, you probably know all of this.” “Of course. There are few throughout time I keep to reap.” He said, taking out a single, thin notebook, aged to, well, dead. “I’ve placed you in here as well, though, date’s changed now. Time is such a touchy thing.” “Time is one thing no one will understand.” I said honestly. “But mind if I ask...is there a way for Cript to...ya know…” I said nervously. “Die? Of course, he is my most anticipated soul to collect. It will be a LONG time before that however.” “Alright...good…” I said, remembering when I saw Cript having gone completely mad and not liking that future at all. “Good to know. But...thank you sir, I remember having been told I needed to do something to get a soul back for someone specific...or get the dragon balls.” “Hm? Oh yes, Grell should be back with it any moment now. So, Ben, I take it you have troubles on your mind? What ales you?” “I mean besides Kexez having stolen my daughters memories, the apparent abomination he’s trying to make with Spoiled...and the ever looming war on the horizon and how I, for the life of me, sadly can’t find hope in that horrid bloodbath.” I sighed out. “Yes, Kexez’s fate was a sad one indeed.” “The fucks gonna get his ass kicked when I get my hands on him.” I frowned. “But besides that...the war...is gonna claim so many lives…” I said, fearing for my family’s lives the most. “Do you know, how Kexez became this way?” “Well here’s the thing, when I think about why Kexez is doing this I thought it was because he had Psychopath blood in him...but then that’s bullshit cause Core kind of...stole all of Zeke’s Psychopath blood, I mean unless it’s less material and more immaterial that makes Psychopaths.” I said honestly, not knowing the full thing about those guys. “Not all of it was taken, so long as there was a single cell in his body, it would grow back. Zeke’s balanced heart and powerful soul kept it in check, allowing him to resist it’s tempting whispers. Without either though.” Death waved his hand, an image of Kexez, in Zeke’s clothing, before he became evil likely. “The whispers immediately got to him?” I asked honestly. “Watch.” Death spoke. Kexez was writing some notes down from books all over the long table he sat at. He sighed, scratching his head. “So many damn monsters on this world…” He said, then, his eyes quickly flashing from red to blue. “Ga! AHH!” He screamed, falling over as it looked like his body was… moving under his skin. “AHHHHHHH!” When his eyes changed to normal, he gasped, taking in a deep breath before shakely getting back up. “F-Fuck!” He growled. “No… I need more time…” “Oh dear…” I muttered worriedly. “That’s not good…when was this?” “A week after he escaped Purgatory.” Watching Kexez again, he stood himself back up, looking light headed. “Shit….” He coughed, summoning Starlight...and jabbing it into his free arm, almost slicing his arm in half as blood gushed out. He fell over, quickly casting several Cure spells on himself. “Please...please have spilled out…” He huffed, looking pale. “Oh…” I muttered. “I...kind of doubt I can get him back to sanity right now huh?” “His heart and Soul can cure his state. With both, Zeke will be back, and Kexez will become who he is.” “But...Zeke’s soul is in Trixie at the moment.” I said honestly. “Hmm…” “Do you have a plan?” “Well Zeke is the one who’s going to have to deal the final blow against Kexez.” I said honestly. “Then Lake is...I believe dead, but something tells me he’s not, and Drezke is going crazy as well.” “A balanced heart, like Lake and Drezke, are the few to partake in the fragile dance of light and dark. This means one cannot exist without the other. When one is gone from this reality, the other half can regrow them, as they are still the same being.” “Oh cool, that means Lake will be alive...and then Drezke will slowly regain his sanity...I hope.” I said honestly. “Not, if he continues to consume darkness to achieve his goal. Remove the excess darkness, and Lake will be reborn. You will need the right tool, however.” Death said, taking my hand, and placing a black and purple glove over it. “This glove latches onto the darkness in one’s heart, and removes it, against Drezke, it will cause him to expel all the excess darkness. After that, it is a matter of survival.” “I’ve fought a Delete and lived.” I said honestly. “Could it be worse than that?” I asked, putting away the glove knowing I’m gonna need it for when I meet Drezke...whenever that’ll happen. “He has consumed a total of nine worlds darkness, straight from their tainted Keyholes. The heartless born from that, will be unlike any you have ever seen before.” “So my average tuesday then?” I joked. “Quite the bravery.” He said, turning to Betty now. “Young one, great potential lies within your future.” “Oh, uh, hehe...thanks.” Betty said. “Let me see your sword.” He said, Betty handing Death her sword. He then traced his skeleton finger across the blade, and it began to change, it’s blade changing to a pure black, and it’s handle to purple. He then gave it back to Betty. “Etched into this blade I put in traces of Cures of Gore. A powerful curse that makes all slashed by this blade fall ill, then die painfully within the hour.” “...Sounds...Strong?” “Given that you now have a powerful curse enchant on your sword I’d say so.” I said honestly. “Especially in a fight when they grow in and die within an hour.” “I shall take my leave. Remember Ben, Kexez may be evil now, but he did not choose this path. Save him, by returning to him, his heart. The rest will be...quite the surprise.” Death said, vanishing just as he appeared. “I’ll make sure…” I nodded. “But I’ll need to find Drezke first…” I muttered. “I’m back!” Grell said, appearing behind us from nowhere. In his hand was...what looked like pure, sporadic energy. “Finding this little bastard in that whole pile was a heck and a half.” He said, kneeling down to Shining. He touched his forehead, his wounds and body now looking as if he was sleeping. Grell then opened Shining’s mouth, and the soul flowed down it. Once it was all in, he started breathing. “He’ll wake up in a few hours.” Grell said, standing up. “Alright.” I nodded. “So Grell, how does it feel having Graceful Dahlia?” I asked. “Honestly it feels strange, yet interesting. It’s like it’s begging me to turn the souls of where I stand red with blood, how sexy… but, it also is worrying, I mean, I like murder and mayhem as much as the next woman but this thing is a tad...obsessed.” “Said Demon Tree literally had a Psychopath in it so maybe that’s why.” I said honestly. “You’ll get used to it.” I said honestly, kind of surprised I haven’t been hearing the Psychopath whispers to be perfectly honest. ”Maybe it’s because I also have Humanity?” I think to myself, wondering about that thing. “Well, now that I’m under your employment what task do you want of me?” Grell asked. “As lazy as I would like to be chasing after all the pretty boys, I also know that under you I really can’t put off anything important.” “Right now would be go to Equestria, meet your fellow Council Members...and train, train until you can’t train anymore, then train some more...cause War is looming.” I told him, knowing since he’s a Grim Reaper he would know about the upcoming Keyblade War. “A war huh… Seen some of them in the past. One real nasty one back when I was still in training. EVERYBODY was called for that mess… What was it called again… Oh, the Keyblade War. If anyone took a second more to finish anything you where already late and WAY behind.” “Well a second one is coming.” I said honestly. “And trust me...just from what I saw through memories...it’s gonna be really rough.” “I saw the whole thing Ben sweetie. I may have just been collecting souls rather than fighting but I know what happened that day. It’s why my generation of Reapers is called ‘The Warborn’. Well, at least this time around I won’t be collecting the souls, so that’s weight off my expected workload.” “Yes, instead of doing the worlds biggest and morbid collectathon, your going to be doing a lot of murders during it.” I said honestly. “Most likely. Well I’ll be off, see you in the office boss.” Grell said, vanishing in a puff of smoke. I rubbed my temples. “So, Betty, how does it feel having witnessed a common occurrence in my life?” “Your life is awesome.” She said simply. “Come on, next boss area is another place entirely.” To be continued... Nobody does a lot of thingsWith Betty’s help, we cleared Stonefang Tunnel, The Shrine of Storms and we were at the end of the valley of defilement. This place was horrific, wreaked of death and disease, and was just...truly a place abandoned by god. We reached the final boss area, and was met by a man wearing heavy armor, with a colossal mace/club thing. “Well...looks like we’re probably going to be fighting this guy.” I said honestly. He turned around. “Follow me.” He said, low toned, but commanding nonetheless. “Or not…” I muttered, following along but still at the ready in case something happened. He brought us down into the grimmy water blow. In the very back most of this cave thing, was a woman, the grim attached to her legs like vines and a she held this glowing orb. The armored man then fell...onto a pile of corpses, and rested. “Hello.” The woman said. “You two are not like the Demon Slayers of past, are you?” She asked. “That depends, why do you ask?” I asked simply, hoping this person was a lot more reasonable here even though it seemed she was...literally apart of this place. “I am Maiden Astraea, guardian of this sanctuary for those abandoned by god. I know why you have come here.” She said, taking out one of Jenny’s memory cards from behind her. “Take it, and leave this place in peace.” “What’s the catch?” I asked. “Cause while I would be oh so happy to just take the card and leave...it doesn’t seem that simple. Need some help or something?” “We live peaceful, humble lives here.” She started. “I use my powers as a demon to heal all I can, and even revive those left here to rot. Just leave this place, leave us alone.” “I understand.” I nodded, gently walking over and taking the card. “Thank you Maiden.” I nodded. “Thank you, and may the deviens grant you safe passage away from this place, and to wherever your goal will take you.” “And may you find peace taking care of those in need.” I said. “But...did the person that gave you this...did he mention who else had these?” “He gave one to each of the demons of this land.” She started. “I can tell. You have slane most of them, all that remains is the four waiting the Boletarian Palace. Be warned, The Old One’s most powerful demon resided within the Palace. Be safe.” “I always try to.” I nodded before turning around and heading off to the palace. The Palace wasn’t that hard, honestly the first boss was a joke, second was...a bit awkward but eh, and now, after making a friend with a knight from this place we where outside another boss fog. “This is the Penetrator. He’s fast Ben, so be careful.” Betty said. “From Software had to know what they were calling this fucker cause this things name can’t be by accident.” I said, shaking my head. “I mean come on, the Penetrator?” “Trust me...he’s not joke worthy.” We entered, and where created by one of those Fat Ministers, only for him to be stabbed through by a long, large sword as the boss entered from the other fog, and tossed the annoying lacky to the side like a rag doll. “Please tell me I can steal his sword?” I asked. “In game I know you can make it...but I dunno about reality...maybe?” She said, quickly pushing me aside as she backed away, the Boss almost screwing us both in one thrust. He WAS fast! “Okay one, rude.” I said, summoning Frozen Pride and trying to shield bash him. “And two...well we’ll figure that out when he’s dead.” Aside from thrusting his swings where also very fast. Frozen pride was able to block, but his force behind his attacks did make me skid back some feet each time. Betty, while it was busy with me, ran up and jumped onto the Penetrator, and jabbed her cursed sword under its helmet, into its neck. The curse began taking effect as he staggered back and fell over. I took this chance to steal his sword from his grip. “That...was cool.” Betty said. “It’s good to have back up sometimes.” I said honestly, channeling Nothingness into the sword and slashing with it, a bladed wave of Nothingness was sent straight towards the knight. The Penetrator was sliced in half, and from it’s fading corpse dropped it’s soul, and the card. “One to go.” Betty said. I took both the Soul and the Card. “Alright…” I muttered. “In game, did you ever fight the Old One? Or did it just die in a cutscene?” I asked curiously. “In game after slaying all the demons and kill the final demon who guards the old one, the old one is just a mass of light and energy, that the Maiden in black luls to sleep the the rest of time, and makes you the next Monumental, the guardian of the world. Why do you ask?” “Just making sure.” I said. “Cause if it was a boss then it would have the last card...but maybe it’s bodyguard has it?” I wondered. “Also...I’m pretty sure we could have gone to the Nexus and then leveled a bunch from all the murdering we’ve done.” I pointed out. “But how strong is the final boss?” “Honestly he’s a joke. His attacks are weak and he mostly flops around like a fish out of water. Kinda disappointing to be honest.”” “Okay then...wonder if that’s true in reality.” I said honestly. “Anything else I should be concerned about here?” “Well...Ostrava of Boletaria is up ahead, past that second dragon…” She started. “Of course.” I sighed out. “Well, let’s keep going and see how that’ll go.” I said honestly. After reaching past some heavily guarded places and running into some Black Phantoms, got some neat items from them. We came across the other dragon and I unloaded Sharpshooters at it. It dyed, making the way clear. On the steps sat Ostrava. “Oh, hello you two.” He said, taking notice to us. “Hello.” I nodded to Ostrava. “How are you doing?” “Honestly, not too well. I just saw my father… He’s become a demon...the rumors were true after all…” “Do you really want to die because your dad chose poorly?” I frowned. “Or do you want to take a moment and not kill yourself, then help everyone that’s still sane here?” “And how do you know that if I continue on, I’ll come out any better than my father. He was like me once, cared for his kingdom, but in his old age, he sought means of solving mans blight… I don’t want to become like him. You can’t truly escape blood, after all.” “Who the fuck said blood dictated what you did?” I asked. “Cause right now I’m seeing someone who’s doing a lot better trying to solve people’s problems than causing them. Just because he’s your father, doesn’t mean you have to end up like him. Choices are thrown at everything in life...and unlife in this case. Right now your choices are these, die and fail to help people like your father wanted to do before he became a demon, or live and help the people who are here without resorting to demons?” I asked bluntly. “...” Ostrava sat quiet, then stood. “Wait here. I’ll return shortly.” He said, taking off. Betty and I waited for about an hour or so before Ostrava came back. He had a pure white sword in his grip, and handed Betty the shield. “It protects mainly from magic, but it can stop most blades as well.” He explained. “If my father truly has become a demon, then I must use Demonbrandt to slay him. I can reclaim Soulbrandt and reforge our family’s strongest weapon.” “Thank you.” I nodded. “And we’re here to help in anyway, plus...I’m pretty sure he has something of importance to me.” We headed up, taking the elevator...thing up and were met with the fog wall. Traversing through it, we saw before a broken throne, stood the tall, elderly figure of the King. He appeared human, and wielded a sword that was half Demonbrandt, half another sword. “Northern Regalia. Demonbrandt, and its other half, Soulbrandt, fused together as they should. A weapon to slay men and demons alike.” Ostrava said, raising Demonbrandt. “But then...how does he have it, if Demonbrandt is here?” “How are they made?” I asked. “Cause the king is a demon, he probably has the powers to just make another one.” I said honestly, checking my Assistant to see if one was just a replica and the other was actually the real one. “No, they can not be replicated. All attempts in the past where either look alikes that held no true power, or caused whoever held them great sorrows. Demonbrandt and Soulbrandt must be fused together using a powerful demons soul, and ONLY Soulbrandt was missing from the mausoleum… He’s wielding a fake… HE is a fake.” Ostrava stated, pointing Demonbrandt towards the ‘king’. I checked my Assistant just in case. “You can remake Demonbrandt...but Soulbrandt…” I wondered, hoping my Assistant can tell me if I’m right and there both the real thing. Demonbrandt was a sword forged many years ago in a land in ruins. It can only be truly utilized by one with a pure intent, while it’s Counterpart, Soulbrandt can only be truly utilized by one with dark intents. The two swords counter each other, one to slay the demons that plague man, and the other to slay man themselves. Their whole form, Northern Regalia, can be wielded by anyone, man or demon. None of them can exist if one of the other is in existence. Northern Regalia can not exist while Demonbrandt and Soulbrandt exist, and vise versa, either the two swords must exist, or the one. How they were made is unknown. “Okay...that’s fine but that’s not what I asked…” I frowned, as I tried to actually figure out if both Regalia and Demonbrandt were both the real deal instead of one being fake and the other not. “Or I can just figure it out by smacking it really hard…” I muttered, summoning Skysplitter just in case. The king attacked, but before I could go forward, Ostrava ran ahead of me, crossing blades with what may, or may not be his father. “Ostrava are you crazy!?” Betty called out. “No, he’s not.” I said while summoning my keyblade and circling around carefully to the demons back so I could back stab him. The demon began to grow an aura of wind around him, before almost like an explosion, expelling it all, knocking Betty over. Ostrava stood his ground. I was staggered back, but before I could swing, Ostrava charged again. The demon...impaled it’s sword through him, all the way to the hilt. “Ostrava!” Betty cried out. Running into the fight only for the demon to side step and kick her into the wall nearby. Rage filled me. I could feel my eye turning. “THAT’S IT!” I roared, Lunatic appearing in my hand, feeling my other eye also turning as I was going to beat this fucker to save others. “I AM SICK OF YOUR SHIT!” I shouted, rushing over to the demon rather quickly and slamming Lunatic into the demon’s legs really fucking hard. The demon was knocked back, but not dead. As it got back up… I saw Ostrava grab the hilt of it’s weapon, pulling himself more along the blade and ramming Demonbrandt into the demons chest. “Demon...Brandt… R-reject...Darkness.” He managed to saw, the whole blade glowed with a pure light that… that’s Zeke’s power… the X-bades’s ability? The demon’s whole body began to cunvolce and twist, til finally it, and it’s weapon where no more, leaving it’s soul, the card...and Ostrava, a hole in his gut the size of a human head. “Fuck..” I muttered, calming down as I summoned my lexicon and tried to cast healing magic on the poor guy to save his life. It took some time, but his wound closed, finally, and he was breathing steadily, but unconscious. I looked at Demonbrandt, still in Ostrava’s grasp. “Weird…” I muttered, using my assistant to scan this thing. “This weapon...is it really?” I muttered, wondering if the twenty shards are actually still a thing after so damned long. Scanning… Scan complete. Detecting metals and ores not local to this world. Detecting magic not local to this world. Detecting slight temporal anomaly. “Okay, what are those things?” I frowned, trying to figure out more about this thing of what it’s made of, what the magic is, and why the hell time had something to do with this. “Hehe, surprised, aren’t you?” Ostrava said weakly, not moving but speaking. “Everything hurts… why am I not dead? Or a black phantom?” He asked. “You are not dead, or a black phantom. I healed you fast enough so you didn’t die.” I said to him. “So, how the hell did you get a piece of the X-blade?” I asked simply, knowing X has that ability to reject darkness. “X-blade? Heh, not sure what that is. When the kingdom was young, two shards fell from the heavens. One that wreaked of evil, and the other with a glow rivaled by heaven alone. They were the bases for Demonbrandt, and Soulbrandt, the other materials came from travelers from unknown lands. We have no idea from where they haled or why they agreed to help us forge them, but all she said was that ‘time was her plaything’. At least, it said so in the old texts.” I frowned. “That’s...rather concerning.” I said worriedly. “But Demonbrandt and Soulbrandt...are two pieces of a much grander weapon...a weapon that can either cleave worlds asunder...or put worlds back together.” I said honestly. “And the Regalia...that’s when two of the twenty or so pieces are put together. But what was this woman’s name and were there anyone else?” “The texts don’t say much, all I does say is that she wore a black cloak, with hourglasses decorating it’s sleeves and back.” “Oh no…” I muttered, checking my Assistant to see if it has anything on Mother Time in this case rather than Father Time. “Please tell me it’s in here…” I muttered. “You can relax.” I turned around, seeing the very cloaked figure Ostrava just spoke of appear. She was tall, taller than me, and her voice was...familiar. “This is all planned out.” “And...why do you sound familiar?” I asked. “And what do you mean ‘it’s all planned out’?” She held out her hand, and summoned the No Name Keyblade, quickly disbanding it. “Does that at least calm you down?” “Not really...but there’s only one person at the moment that I know has that Keyblade...so, are you Diamond Tiara or are you someone else?” I asked simply, remembering that Joy saw his Diamond had No Name. “Yes, and no. There where many of us to obtain No Name. We all came together, and began to moneter time. We also keep track on events that are meant to happen, and what can be altered for better.” “And two pieces of the X-blade being here is for the better?” I asked. “Well...actually yes that makes sense but still.” I said honestly. “This reflection needed Demon and Soul-Brandt. I also knew at some point you’d be here. Kill two birds with one stone.” She said. “Right then.” I nodded. “So...is X going to actually be reforged? Cause if two pieces are here...then the other eighteen will be around somewhere.” “Yes. While not in this world, they are on others.” “Of course.” I sighed out. “So, I presume you need to tell me something important? Cause while I can ask you questions all day here I doubt you’d want to answer cause time is a very weird and fickle thing.” “Honestly I only came to keep you from looking for answers not written on any texts.” “Right then.” I nodded. “So, about the part where there was technically two of each weapon?” I asked, finding that rather concerning. “This demon, and it’s weapon where fakes, made by the true king to fool his subjects and servants into his devilish biddings. A false king, in a sense.” “Heh, so my father is still a demon, and took Soulbrandt?” Ostrava asked. DT nodded. “Well, then when I am well again, we will find him. My guess is in the belly of the old one.” “And he’s probably holding the last card, and he’s gonna die painfully.” I said while taking the card and soul. “So, besides that...is there anyway this world can get back to some form of normalcy?” I asked curiously. “Slay the old one, the same way it is slaying the world. Consume it, and save this world. It can’t be that hard for you, after all, That’s what Zeke did, to keep the old one from reseting the world.” DT said, a blue clock with arrows spinning around appearing behind her as she entered it, and it vanished just as it appeared. “Okay then.” I said honestly. “Glad to know that.” “Let me rest for a while Ben, then, we’ll finish both our journeys.” Ostrava said. “I'm gonna have to make sure your spine isn't ruined.” I said honestly. “Never took a day of medical school but I'm certainly acting like a medic here.” I grumbled. The Zeppelin ship landed in the Zebra lands, and we were greeted by quite the royal reception. Guards and nobles of the land rested kneeled in two rows, leading to a palace made from stone and large wooden planks. “That took way too long…” I groaned, hating that we literally had to stop to help a dragon for a bit. “Can't wait to meet the royalty here.” Upon entering the palace, we were greeted by a small child...with cloth wrapped around her eyes. “Greetings, White Knight.” She said, bowing. “We have been anticipating your arrival.” “Sorry we weren't here sooner.” I said a little sheepishly. “Just...got side tracked is all.” “That is alright. Your presence alone is honor to the kingdom. Please, follow me to the King and Queen’s quarters.” She said, turning around and leading us down the halls. “Not to sound rude or anything…” I said nervously. “But um...the cloth wrapped around your eyes…” I trailed off, not wanting to sound rude to either a blind person or sound like an idiot to maybe a prophet. “I am the castle’s sage. Hollow Grove. I am forbidden from seeing anything, and so my eyes were removed at birth.” She said. “My position as such means all Zebrican spells are drawn from me throughout the kingdom.” “I...I knew the Zebra’s had a very different kind of magic but…” Celestia started. “Huh...that's interesting...and morbid.” I said honestly. “That’s quite a thing...and here I thought you were actually a Seer, someone who could see the future and stuff like that.” I said honestly, knowing it was cliche’d but still. Making it to the throne room, it was like the inside of a tree. The King and Queen sat atop a throne of stone and pillows. Everyone kneeled. The king stood up. “White Knight of Equis.” He spoke. “We’ve been expecting you. We are humbled to have a hero such as you in our lands.” I bowed humbly. “It is an honor to meet you your majesties.” I said honestly, wanting to make a good impression here as a person and prince and not as a hero or a snob. “I see you bring your broods with you… Zecora.” The king spoke up, the Zebra in question freezing up. “I had not expected you to be in this entourage. Normally, for your crimes you’d be thrown in the dungeon, but, given your...status and relationship with the White Knight it seems, I shall let it pass. Guards, escort the Knight’s Life Mates to their quarters while I speak with the White Knight alone.” As the guards came up to us I felt my Twilight grab my hand. “We won’t let them try anything with Zecora, okay?” She said, giving me a quick kiss on the cheek before leaving with the others. “I suppose I don’t need to tell you the ramifications if you hurt the ones I love?” I asked simply. “I am aware of your...temper. I cannot say some of the guards might try something, but if they do, I will deal with them accordingly. Now then, before I give you one of my daughters in marriage, there is something I belive you acquired for us from that accursed cave?” “Yep.” I said while pulling out the book in question. “One book on Nothingness is right here. Mind if I ask why you need it? Cause I only got a cliff notes on it.” I said honestly, remembering being told that it was an item to help fight against the heartless roaming around. “Come with me.” The king said, standing up as he lead the way down another hallway. Here we came across a door with...an Alicorn Zebra? “In times past, all races had their versions of the Alicorns, like your lives Luna and Celestia. Zebra’s had few, and when the Alicornien era ended, only one remained.” He opened the door, and there were wood carvings of...keyblades. Paintings of the Keyblade war...and an old, aged armor and Keyblade. Oathkeeper. “He carved these, the weapons of his fallen kin, and painted these images of a bloody war. He made that book, to help us after his madness became too much, and took his own life. It was stolen by the very beings it was written to help us fight. Now that it has returned, we can protect our lands from them.” “Damn…” I muttered honestly. “But...with the help of a friend we’ve been making a school for future Keybladers...and believe me...we’re going to need all the help we can get.” I said honestly. “That is good to hear. Many kingdoms forgot their rulers of past, butt he hold onto our past just as much as we embrace the present.” He said, picking up the old, rusted Oathkeeper Keyblade, and giving it to me. “Take this, a token of my, and my people’s trust in you. Upon your marriage to the daughter of mine of your choosing, you shall rule both Equestria, and the Zebra lands. I know, you cannot stay to rule any of the kingdoms, so, I will keep the lands in check til you are able to do so on your own.” “Thank you.” I nodded while taking Oathkeeper. “Been a while Oath.” I said honestly, wondering if my new wife will be their new wielder. “How’ve you been?” I asked, knowing keyblades can respond in different ways than actually talking. The Keyblade flashed, it’s body glowing white as all it’s age and rust vanished, and it looked like new. “This, is a sign of good fortune in our future.” The Zebra king said. As we were leaving the room I spotted the paintings, the Zebra alicorn fighting...with someone in a bear mask... “Aced?” I muttered. “Hm?” The king said, seeing what I was looking at. “Ah, no. That is Bara. He was an alien of the stars that was as close as Kin to our old lord. The two of them defended this land from the darkness for years… then, they left to fight this war, and only our lord returned. He said Bara had died, the darkness taking him. We honor his memory with a yearly Celebration we call the Bear Festival. It’s mostly contests of spellcraft and strength, free food and drink, and everyone wears a mask like his in memory.” “I suppose this was before he went insane right? Cause if we’re talking about the same Bara then that guy’s an asshole and most likely dead at the moment.” “Yes, his fallen form is like your Equestria’s Nightmare Moon. Dark Bara sought only information, no matter the cost. While the Bara we celebrate learned to help others. He helped write the very book you brought us. His last work before the darkness claimed him.” “Ah, that’s nice.” I nodded. “Well the Dark Bara is most likely all sorts of dead at the moment, but glad to know he was actually good once before he became a genocidal twat blast.” I frowned. “But thank you for telling me this your majesty.” I nodded. “Good to learn a bit of history that isn’t always bleak as hell.” “Yes, legends teach us more about who was in them, at times. Come, time for you to meet my daughters.” We walked back to the throne room. Five Zebra mares all stood before us, the youngest had to be at least seventeen while the oldest looked almost thirty. “Now then, choose which of them will be your wife, and unite our kingdoms.” “Choose huh?” I asked, looking over all of them. “Hmm...tough choice…” I said honestly. “Hmm...any of you know what a date is?” I asked honestly, feeling very wrong about just picking one and saying ‘my wife now’ without at least getting to know them. “That is not how our marriage customs work, I am afraid.” The king started. “A family with daughters eligible for marriage will announce so, any a male of equal status to the family will choose which to marry. If the marriage does not work out, then a divorce is allowed so long as both parties agree to it. After that it’s rinse and repeat.” I frowned. “Well that’s not fair at all, I would have loved to get to know each of these lovely ladies before making my choice.” I said honestly. “Oh dear...this is something I didn’t want cause now I’ll feel bad just saying ‘your my wife now’ like I’m at a goddamn vet picking out a new pet for my kids.” I frowned. “Can I say ‘I pick all of them’?” I asked nervously, the kings daughters seeing that I did actually care about who they were and not just here to say ‘your mine now’. “Hm…” The king thought. “While herd marriage is not common in our lands, it is also not against the rules. Looks like I owe my wife some bits then.” “What? Wife thought I couldn’t just pick one?” I asked honestly. “Yes. She’s good at gambling.” “She’d love to meet a master of mine.” I said honestly. “But yeah...I’m just too much of a nice guy to just pick one...and also the part of just picking one in general kind of also made it a little worrying for me.” I said sheepishly. “So ladies, what are your names?” I asked honestly, hoping to at least know their names. “I am Rotha.” The eldest spoke. “I am Kathem.” The second oldest said. “I am Ala.” The third oldest said. “I am Emerald.” The second youngest said. “I am Gra.” The youngest said. “It is nice to meet you all. I hope I can be a good husband to you all.” I said honestly. “So, what do you all like to do for a living?” I asked curiously, wondering if any of them will have something in common with my fiances. “We were raised and groomed to be perfect wives and princesses.” Gra said. “We are, whatever you want us to be.” I frowned. “Well that’s not right.” “Their teachers did some major damage.” The king whispered to me. “Turned out they were old fashioned sexists, their all pretty much brain washed… can’t even get them to garden without it being ordered to them. Was hoping you could...break that.” “Christ…” I sighed out. “I suppose you dealt with them?” I asked the king honestly, hoping he beat those sexist fucks for ruining his kids. “Personally. But their damage was done. Hopefully you can break their...programing and make them themselves.” “I will.” I nodded. “So ladies, which one of you actually has a fucking thought in those heads of yours?” I asked the five bluntly, hoping one of them will answer and the brainwashing isn’t that ingrained. None of them said anything. The king just pat my arm. “Good luck. Hopefully you can succeed where I failed.” “This is gonna be a problem...good thing I have Luna.” I said worriedly. “Christ...and here I was hoping things would have been simple.” I said honestly. “Oh well...but I better get these five to the others so they can be themselves...and hopefully it won’t take a while and you can see your daughters be who they were supposed to be.” I sighed out. “So, where would the guest rooms be?” I asked, not actually knowing the lay out of this place. “We will lead you husband.” All of them said in unison, walking in a row leading the way. “Good...luck…” The king said, taking off. I sighed out while following the five. “I sure hope Luna, Twilight and Brigid can do something about this…” I muttered, hoping to have these five fixed so I can see who they really are. “Is there anything about you five that you can tell me without it being because your brainwashed?” I asked, hoping there was something there. “Why, whatever do you mean?” They all spoke simultaneously...that’s getting creepy. “Because what you were taught is absolute dog shit.” I frowned. “Your not brain dead slaves, even if you had that beaten into you.” I said. We made it to the room. A large table with fruit was set out as well as some other foods set about. I sniffed the air. I smelled meat. Pork, Chicken, Beef, Fish, and...something else. What is that? “Ben!” Pinkie and Twin jumped me as I entered. “What took so long?” Twin asked. “Two things, one I need help getting my new fiance’s not brainwashed slaves, and two what is that smell? I smell pork, chicken, beef fish and something else I have literally no idea about.” I said. “Brainwashed? Hm, let me have a look while you check out the smell Ben.” Luna said. I got up and looked around the table. I found the abnormal smell. It was a stew, potatoes, carrots, mushrooms, the works, but the meat in it was… What is it? “What are you mystery meat?” I frowned, kind of worried about the smell and why I had literally no idea what was in it. I kept sniffing it. It didn’t smell bad, but every primal instinct I had said not to trust it. “Who made this?” I asked with a frown. “It was delivered with the rest of the food.” Celestia stated. Zecora walked up to the stew pot, taking a sniff then tasting the bizarre meat. “Oh….OH…. Ohhh….” She then looked at me worriedly. “Ehh… This brew is called Poor Man’s stew, and it’s meat is from… lower kin to you…” ...IT’S DOG MEAT! “Who delivered this?” I asked. “Cause this is one thing I am very opposed to.” I growled. “First we have sexist bastards brainwashing the princess’s into being mindless slaves, now we have some random fuck trying to feed the fucking dire wolf dog meat.” “Oh!” Twilight perked up. “I read about it, cause most meats have to be imported, the Zebra lands breed dogs for hunting, and when they get old use them for food. Culturally it’s normal here Ben. I don’t think they meant any harm, must have just been absent minded on the cooks part. While everything here looks fancy, the Zebra lands are one of the poorest nations out there. They do what they can to survive. Even if in other nations it’s a taboo.” “Ah…” I nodded. “Well good thing our nations are going to be together so we can start helping the Zebra’s where they need it.” I said honestly. “But yeah I’m...gonna not be eating that…” I said sheepishly. The rest of the day was rather simple. I ate the other meats, but stayed away from the stew… Towards night, after Celestia and Luna did their thing with the Sun and Moon, Luna came up to me about the Zebra princesses. “Well, I can’t do anything.” She said, taking a seat and slumped in her chair. “They were taught this all from their earliest years and know practically nothing else. All we can do is expose them to free thinking slowly til they accept it and that’s even IF they want to.” “How would ‘everything you know is a lie’ work?” I asked. “Cause I don’t know much about brainwashing but that sounds like something that might work...maybe.” “No, they would go into shock. I can’t suppress those memories cause that would be no different than giving them amnesia, slow exposure is the only safe path.” “Christ…” I sighed out. “Again, I thought this was going to be simple, not having to immediately do a slow debrainwashing process.” I sighed out. “Oh and yes, I did pick all five cause I’m both indecisive and because I already felt bad that I basically had to say ‘your mine now’.” “Our indecisive little pup.” Luna cooed. “So how long should we stay here?” “Restocking the ship should only take three days.” Celestia said. “So anytime after that.” “Right then.” I nodded. “So we’re gonna be here for three days, and that’s going to be three days of slowly getting five zebra’s to learn that everything they’ve been ‘taught’ and or beaten into was just a bunch of bullshit and sexist lies.” I said honestly. “Let the torture begin.” Luna said, taking a bite into a pineapple she levitates over from the table of food. “So, which way are we going next?” I asked. “Cause we have Yaks, Minotaurs, the Monster Princess…” I said, trying to remember all the races here. “There are also the Merponies...Deer if memory serves...are there cat people on this world?” I asked curiously. “Yes but they have no established kingdom.” Celestia said. “Okay then. So I still have at least five kingdoms left...oh wait Saddle Arabia, I almost forgot.” I said honestly. “God...just...so many things are happening right now…” I groaned, having both all the things on Boletaria happening, my training in the Realm of Nothingness, and so much more. “Lets rest up, tomorrow you can relax, take a tour of the city and we can work on these five.” Bridged said. “Alright.” I nodded. “Thanks for helping…” I said, thinking I’d be helpless in most cases without them. The next morning I was up early, ate something fast then headed out into the town. Outside the castle here was… very different. Houses were made of sticks and stones, farm looked alright, but the sun beating down was gonna make them wilt quick. The people walked around, minding their business with whatever they were doing. Eventually, I came across a bizzare, shopkeepers and buyers ran about in organized chaos. “Well at least the people are okay…” I muttered, but keeping my guard up in case of either thugs or thieving kids. “Hmm…” I hummed, wondering what’s for sale in this place. Gems, foods, fabletics, clothes. Lots of stuff was for sale here. Merchants were yelling out what they were selling. I almost tripped, seeing the culprit was...that cat...Cheese? I knelt down. “Excuse me but how the hell did you get here?” I asked the cat. “Thought you were in the Diamond Dog capital?” The cat meowed, then ran off. I chased after her, and ran into a building that smelled of...sandalwood? “Huh, wonder what’s in there?” I wondered, walking up to the building and seeing if the front door was open. “Hello?” I asked, knocking on the door to see if anyone was here. “A visitor, how fortunious.” Said a voice from the other room. I entered, seeing an elderly Zebra mare. She was in a bed, covered in blankets and held up by the mountain of pillows behind her back. “What is your name, young one?” “Ben. And what is your name Elder?” I asked politely. “Narufu. Sit, please?” She asked, motioning to a chair next to her bed. I nodded and took a seat on the chair. “How are you doing today?” I asked curiously. “Fine, fine. Tell me, from what land do you hail?” “Want the simple or complicated answer? Cause the short answer is I came from Equestria...the complicated answer is complicated.” I said sheepishly. “Hm… No, no, you came from Earth, didn’t you?” She said, catching me off guard. “And how do you know that?” I asked curiously. “Cause not many know that and I’ve kind of made sure to keep it that way.” “We are the same.” She said, reaching under her blanket, and pulling up an old photo, but the image showed a human girl, sitting in the driver's seat of a car. “That was me, before 2012. I asked God to start life over, in a humble, peaceful land. I got what I asked.” “Well this is now the second person outside the core group of friends I have that also came from earth.” I said honestly. “Glad to know there where many others it seems. In this life I was finally able to live life. I was terminal back on earth. Brain cancer. I was twenty five. Now, here I am, ninety eight, mother of five, grandmother of many. Great grandmother of more. Heh.” She laughed. “Sounds like a nice simple life.” I said with a little smile. “Glad to hear you got the life you wanted, while I’m here with twenty five wives, over three hundred kids, and am a world wide hero with cool powers fighting off evil.” I said honestly. “We all got what we wished for, but in the end, we got more than we asked for. I wished for a fresh start, a humble life, and life long health. I got experiences. I loved, Fell in love. Saw a few amazing lands. Modernized farming and breeding for this kingdom. I gave that credit to my son though, a gift from me to him. From a world...perhaps better left forgotten.” “Well right now it’s a barren hellscape so fucked people literally can’t die and either decay into madness ghosts or just stay as crazed undead.” I said honestly. “But that’s what happens after a few hundred years.” I shrugged. “Heh, sounds like we got what we deserved. The good got to live on, and the bad where punished. Guess, in a way, the bible was right.” “Except for the parts where God was the son of Yen Sid, our existence was generally apart of that old bastards imagination, and...well him dying.” I said honestly. “Heh, so god is dead then? Ha. Well, nothing we can do about that now, is there? So tell me, what was your life like before 2012? Before given a second chance?” “Oh god...it was terrible.” I said honestly. “Let’s see now...died as a kid, was brought back by my light half, did a bunch of fuck ups, both my parents were murdered, and then I proceeded to just not care so much my heart started dying.” I said. “So yeah...not really the best ten years after I first died…” “Hm. I was one of those privileged brats, born to money, and cared about nothing. Then, I fainted. Woke up in the hospital, brain cancer. Was terminal, even with what the doctors could do, I had a year to live ‘normal’ and after that a month in the hospital waiting to die. While my parents argued and threatened lawsuits, I just began realizing… I did nothing important in my life. All my ‘friends’ where followers on social media, I had no little siblings to think about. I never even had a boyfriend. So, I traveled, met people, had...fun… Heh. I ran with a Ventral once. My parents threw a fit.” “What was the Ventrals name?” I asked, curious to know if she met Zeke or not. “Sandra Ventral. She marketed drugs, not pot or coke, prescription meds. They called the Ventrals monsters, but what she did...proved otherwise. She’d steal from people who received meds from the dead, gave them to homeless who needed them more. What was left she did sell for profit. Mexican cartels need to keep their members healthy too. After that, I would just walk around town, take it all in. Memorize every detail. When I got to the last month, parents hired mercenaries to guard me, just in case the 2012 stuff was real. The gunfire was so loud. I was scared, alone in my room. Imagine my surprise when Sandra jumped from the air ducts into my room. She was the only real friend I made, and I was the only outsider she ever met that didn’t think her a monster. She stayed with me, til the Cancer took hold. I woke up with God, and the rest you know.” “That’s nice to hear.” I nodded. “One of my friends is a Ventral, and two of my daughters, one adopted and one...reborn technically are both Ventrals. Friend is Zeke Ventral, and my daughters are Jenny and Nancy Ventral.” I said honestly. “Hm. Sandra spoke of Zeke before. Said only his dad and grandfather could beat him, his father, because Zeke can’t go all out against him, and his grandfather, because he was cruel, and fought even dirtier. She said, she saw Zeke once shoot the cap off a beer bottle from a mile away. She thought he would have made a great leader.” “Well she’s going to be pleasantly surprised cause Zeke is a leader of his own world, even though he’s all ‘I’m not a leader, I have a council’ when everyone knows he’s the leader.” I said honestly. “Hm. Seems like in the end, we all got more than we asked for, huh?” “Oh yeah.” I nodded. “So much more than we asked for.” “I’m glad, seems like...everything worked out.” She said, taking my hand. “I named one of my daughters after Sandra. Everyone thought it was an odd name. The prince thought it was lovely.” “The prince? Well...there’s probably a lot of prince’s so…” I said, feeling like I’m doing a dumb here and missing something really fucking obvious. “The king, right now. His daughters are my grand daughters. I heard you are marrying them. Make them better, those teachers twisted them into mindless machines. I’m glad the king executed them.” “I will.” I nodded. “I’m going to make sure they are all safe, sound and happy...even though I’d love to tell them everything they’ve learned is a massive lie but Luna said that would send them into shock.” “The mind is a powerful thing, but also can be harmful to us. Sometimes, I wonder why we were made this way. Made to feel pain, emotions. If we didn’t have them, we’d all be monsters, less than we are in ways those like that think they are superior too. When I was in india, I heard something once. A soul to guide us, a heart to fill us. A body to experience. Without one, we are not whole. One alone, can not make choices, for what they choose, will be guided by outside forces.” “Makes sense.” I nodded. “Sounds like someone who understood some things about life.” “They where. Funny, I wanted to know more about life, when I was going to lose it. Now, I got to live long to a very old age. Grand kids think I’m going to out live them all. Heh, maybe. Doctors say I got a month. Talk about dejavu.” “Deja Vu indeed.” I said honestly. “But...sadly I don’t think I can get your grandchildren back to normal in a months time…” I sighed out. “It would have been nice to see you happy for the five of them when they are free and happy.” “As long as they do get better, I’d be happy. You best be going, my sons will be back from shopping soon, and they can be protective. I don’t want you hurting them.” She chuckled. “Alright.” I nodded. “It was nice to meet you Narufu, hope you have a good day.” I said with a smile before getting up and leaving the elder in peace. That was nice. Someone who lived a full, long life. Happy, and not complicated like mine. Wonder who else was given a time traveling rebirth. Only man who knew is dead now I guess. “So...what are you doing?” Celestia asked, seeing Luna having the five new additions to their family reading several books. “Having them read texts about Mare’s rites and freedom events in both Equestrian and Zebrican history. Introduce them to the idea, and have them slowly act on it once the idea is implanted.” Luna explained. “Smart. How are they taking it?” “The eldest seems unmoved so far, the younger two seem to be giving some raised eyebrows. Makes sense, they got less of those sexist pricks teachings than their older sisters.” “Where are the others?” “Touring the castle, out shopping. Rarity is buying special fabrics only made in these lands. Equestrian trade society banned them in Equestria cause they are made from a special spiders web that, if not cleaned right, can be as poisonous as their bite. But it’s softer and finer than any silks.” “Wonder what she plans to make with it?” “From what she told me it seems our relationship with Ben inspired her to try for new exotic designs. She’s used Guilda as a model and used traditional Griffon themes in it’s design.” “And what of you?” Celestia asked, taking a seat next to her sister. “Last time we were both here Zebrica was mud huts and farmers.” “Lot’s changed.” Luna said simply. “I’m sorry I couldn’t do more for you…” “I’ve accepted my mistakes, letting my anger and jealousy take over rather than finding somepony who would listen.” “I should have listened.” “You where busy.” “I should have made time!” Celestia shouted. “I just… Wish things turned out differently.” “We can’t change the past. All we can do, is move forward.” “Ben!” I heard the familiar call of Rarity behind me. She ran up to me, bags loaded with fabrics, and Zecora behind her, carrying just about the same. “Oh, hello.” I nodded. “Wow, think you shopped enough there Rarity?” “Oh Ben darling this is just what I wanted to carry, the rest are being shipped on to the Zeppelin so I can tinker with them later. I also took the liberty of stocking on some more exotic food stuffs Zecora here knows us and can make some delicious dishes with. Don’t worry though, none of it is dog meat.” “Thank you.” I nodded. “So, Zecora, how’s it feel being back here?” I asked her honestly, not sure if I asked her this when we got here. “Memories flood like a rushing river. I’m avoiding all those that are bitter…” She said, a mixed smile on her face. “I understand.” I nodded. “But as long as your having a good time here Zecora, that’s all I care about.” She nodded. “We were about to head off to a restaurant Zecora knew of before she left. They make this dish called Curry, that single dish can be made a million different ways. All varieties they make, served by itself, on rice, or in these cute little bread buns to eat with your hands.” “I know what Curry is Rarity.” I said honestly. “I may have never tried it but I know what Curry is.” I said. “But sure, I’d love to join...if I’m allowed.” “Of course, why would you think otherwise?” “Sometimes people go places and don’t want others around.” I said honestly. “I know that probably wouldn’t happen but still…” “Okay… well, come on then.” “I’m sorry I’m a pessimist.” I huff. “And half expect all of you to be doing a lot of things and not having planned things with me there cause I’m basically never around.” I sighed out. “But where to so we can actually have a good time and not have me ramble on stupid things.” “I shall lead the way, so we can enjoy the second meal of the day.” Zecora said, taking the lead. “Alright...so where the hell am I?” Joy wondered, having survived the last three days on this damned island filled with Heartless, Nobody’s, Unversed and Dream Eaters shockingly. “Kuma wouldn’t have flung me here if I wasn’t supposed to be here.” He muttered while moving some foliage. “Huh?” He wondered, seeing a town off in the distance. “Wonder who’s here?” Joy wondered, walking up to the town. As Joy walked he noticed the town seemed oddly familiar, from the architecture to the shops, to the massive...key symbol on the clock tower. “Excuse me.” Joy frowned, finding this very weird right now as he looked around and seeing many different races walking around, some looking at Joy and others not really caring. “Yes…” One of them spoke up, he was human, or so Joy figured. “Yes, mind if I ask about the giant Key symbol on the clock tower?” Joy asked. “And why there are a bunch of monsters around that really aren’t native to this world?” He looked Joy over, the man was red haired, green eyed, wore simple white shirt and blue jeans. “Let me see it.” He said. Joy summoned his keyblade he got from his fight with Zeke’s absent silhouette, the keyblade showing the faces of the many X-blade wielders. “Sure it’s a new one but it’s still a Keyblade.” He said honestly. “Hm… Welcome to X island. Not many off worlders come here, especially with Keyblades.” “Well there’s a lot of bad things happening off world.” Joy said honestly. “Do you guys have a leader or something? Cause I kind of have a lot to talk about…” He said nervously. “Yes. She’s up in the clock tower, but before we let you speak with here we’ll have to… restrain you.” He said. “Nothing personal, we just have rules and anyone who wishes to speak with our leader must have certain restraints on them beforehand.” “That’s...kind of weird.” Joy frowned. “What kind of restraints do I need?” He asked, having a bad feeling about this. “Chains of light, keep you from summoning any weapons Keyblade or other. Heart dampener, keep you from summoning anything Darkness, Nothingness, etc. and, full body chains. Keep you from fighting physically. Our leader is strong, but she can’t take a single impact of any kind, or in her state, she’ll die. We take every precaution to keep that from happening. She’s like a queen, or goddess to us. You understand?” “What sort of sickness does she have?” Joy asked, wondering how the fuck that’s a thing. “It’s complicated, but you’ll understand once you meet her. Come then.” The man said. Approaching the clock tower, leading Joy into it. Once inside, two guards, both with Master Keeper Keyblades stood ready. “Are you ready?” “This won’t hurt will it?” Joy asked honestly. “It’s harmless, but you will feel uncomfortable with the chains on you.” He said, the guards wrappen them both in chains of light, the light chains wrapped in a way that allowed them free movement, but Joy immediately felt his connection blocked to Nothing, Lindworm, and his Keyblade. The guards then placed the heavy chains on them, and they began walking up the stairs to this mysterious leader. “So, how long have you guys been here?” The dire wolf pup asked curiously. “Cause Rayleigh made it sound like you’ve been here for quite a while.” “This island has been here since before this world’s people took to the seas, let alone these seas.” He said. “Cool, and I presume you're all a government kept secret?” Joy asked. “Cause Admiral Kizaru seemed pretty surprised to know I had a keyblade.” “They know of us, and not to disturb us, or involve us in their worlds pointless disputes.” “Alright then.” Joy nodded. “What’s with all the Heartless, Nobodies, Unversed and Dream Eaters here?” He asked. “Sure I was just roaming around for maybe a day or two but still.” “This worlds Keyhole resided on this island. Heartless are attracted to us as Keyblade wielders, the Keyhole, and they attracted the rest. Dream Eaters where unexpected, but with all the darkness attracted to this place, the veil between Reality and dreams tear, and those things often spill into reality.” “Alrighty then.” Joy nodded. “I suppose this is also a great place to train for...a year or three?” Joy asked, knowing that Luffy will want the crew to wait for “If you and these friends of yours have Keyblades, we are happy to share our knowledge with you. Otherwise only Keyblade wielders are allowed inside these walls, and without them, your friends won’t last very long outside, or even on the nearby sea. Larger heartless swim out there.” “Right then.” Joy nodded. “But my friends at the moment are all around the world due to...reasons.” Joy said sheepishly. “The Paw Paw fruit is quite a thing when you want to go somewhere.” “I see. We are almost above to her quarters. Do you know what you want to say?” “That depends on what comes first to my head, cause I have at least one question...and a major warning.” Joy said worriedly. He stopped at a large double door, knocking. “Come...in…” Spoke a soft, fraile voice. “Well I’m kind of bound so…” Joy muttered, not really able to open the double doors given the person said come in. The guy managed to open the doors, and inside was an alter of sorts, lit by candles where a pure black skeleton sat on a chair. “Abraham.” Spoke the voice again, coming from the skeleton. “What brings this newcomer to our land?” “Excuse me...but...pitch black skeleton?” Joy asked worriedly. “Pardon my appearance, but this is all that remains of my corporeal body.” She spoke again. “Tell me, what is your name?” “My names Joy...who are you if I may ask?” Joy asked, now knowing why this lady can’t take a hit worth a damn. “In age long before the Keyblade war, when the world was whole, I was called Unum. I escaped the deepest depths of the realm of dark, where it and void meet. This is all I am left when I escaped, costing me my heart and flesh.” “Excuse me but an Embodiment murdered you...at least that’s what I saw…” Joy frowned, wondering how the hell she’s still alive. “So, you know my story, but not all of it, I am afraid. Abraham, leave us. This one you can trust.” The man, Abraham, nodded, and took his leave. “So, how much do you know?” “Wel I met your stepdad Yen Cid where he explained...quite a lot of things.” Joy said nervously. “How you died, and then I know your the mother of the entire Ventral line...but besides that and you being the very first X-blade wielder and a very powerful one at that...I don’t know much.” He said, the skeleton knowing full well Joy experienced some of her power first hand. “Yes. I knew all of the X-blades power, all I could do, and undo. My death was… well, not quite accurate. My whole body was compressed and mutilated, and dragged into the darkest depths of the realm of darkness, where it and void touch, and hybrid monsters are born. Kingdom hearts, and my heart kept me alive for years. I saw things the likes of which should never see in the realm of light. I finally escaped, but it cost me my body, my flesh, and my heart. I awoke in what is now known as the Keyblade Graveyard. The war had just ended. I saved a wounded man with what I was able to muster, and as thanks, knowing I was not a monster, he took me to this world, and gathered many other survivors from across all reflections. Aside from the dandelions of Ava, this land was home to most of the remaining survivors. Many here are descendants, most of the original survivors have passed, save for two. The guards you saw upon entering.” “Ah.” Joy nodded. “Makes sense…” He said honestly. “But...I’ve got a pretty bad warning...the next Keyblade war is coming.” Joy told the skeleton lady. “I know. I felt it, and at the hands of one of my own descendants. If I had my heart still, it would be broken. I can feel the new wielder of the X-blade. Come closer, Joy.” “Well...sadly it was a friend’s Nobody that caused it…” Joy sighed out while walking closer to the skeleton. “But hey, there’s things going on to try and stop the entire thing...hopefully.” “I know, my ascendant is incomplete, his heart, soul and body are all alone. They must be reunited.” “Ben has a way to get his light half and dark half back together hopefully, his body...well that guy needs those, and his soul is with his current family at the moment.” Joy said, standing close enough to the skeleton for whatever she wanted. “Ah, his soul is in another, similar body I take it?” Unum asked. “Technically? I mean, Zeke’s soul is inside a hermaphrodite mares body at the moment.” Joy said if he remembered that correctly. “Gender is irrelevant to a soul, all that matters is it’s potential, and heart. You must find the three Keyblades that symbolize the soul, body, and heart. Inner Self, the Keyblade of the soul. Balanced Desire, the Keyblade of the heart, and Porcorial Sensation, the Keyblade of the body. Use them, and they will restore Zeke, and keep this other whose body he shares alive as well, with their power.” “Well at the moment Zeke’s light half is kind of dead, Zeke’s dark half is trying his damndest to try and absorb literally all the darkness in existence and then kill himself with a keyblade literally made out of Void, and his Nobody is off doing a big universal no no with Psychopaths guiding him.” Joy said honestly. “But where can I find these three mythical keyblades?” “All three can be found in a world of beginnings. The first world before it’s reflections Came to be.” “Good...too bad I am thinking of the place that became Castle Oblivion.” Joy frowned. “Or is it someplace else?’ “This land was home to one of the strongest fighters in the the Keyblade war, I was told. A race of god like beings in mortal flesh. I don’t know it’s name, but when you find the specific world, find the original world, there, you will find them, resting under a waterfall of colors.” “Am I literally going to have to find a leprechaun?” Joy frowned, finding that strangely reminiscent to the ‘find a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow’ thing for Leprechauns. “Heh. No. Find this worlds prime, and then, you can save Zeke. How you'll find it, I do know of only one way. Zeke's Absent Silhouette. It will bend all reality to give what it's champion desires. The echo of the power of the X-blade, and Kingdom Hearts.” “Oh god damn it not again with that too many phases fight.” Joy groaned. “The first time I did that I figured out who Core’s mother and father were...still can’t believe that.” Joy sighed out. “Oi vey…” Joy said, but then thought of something. ”Wait, if Ben can multiply himself...can I?” Joy thought to himself, remembering Cript taught him how to do that so he wondered if he could do such a thing as well. “The price we pay for those we care for can seem unfair, but can be more than rewarding.” “True.” Joy nodded in agreement. “But mind if I train here for...two years? Given your probably prophetic you would know why.” He said, thinking she might know that Luffy will tell them all to wait two years and get stronger for the ‘new world’. “If that is what you desire, then all our techniques and knowledge are yours to learn.” “Thank you.” Joy nodded. “It means a lot to learn from you and others that...well actually know what they’re doing half the time.” “I will have Abraham inform the mentors. Whoever else you have need to aid, bring. Tis time to bring back the lost age to save the new.” “Alright…” Joy nodded. “I better go home real quick and gather some people…” Joy said, wondering if he should also find the others and get them here so they can learn how to fight against their future enemies. “But...I’m a bit concerned about bringing the crew I’m with here...even though I haven’t been to many worlds I always have this fear that I might do something bad if I mess with the main story of a world…” “Child. Balance between worlds relies not with knowledge, of flow of events, but in how its inhabitants act, to each other, and to off worlders. These laws you know of now exist because of fears after the Keyblade war, made by Ava’s Dandelions to attempt to prevent another war, some even hoped for the end of Keyblade wielders entirely.” “Ah…” Joy nodded. “I suppose that makes sense…” He said. “Learn something new everyday, and I’ve only been doing this for not that long.” Joy said honestly. I looked before me, the first of the boulders of Vibranium broken. “Rage is Lunatic’s special power.” I looked over to Grapth, who stood still behind me. “Instability. You are never more unpredictable than when you are filled with it, but already you’ve failed to control it.” “Well I blame the fact some jack hole tortured my daughter, experimented on her, and then proceeded to rip away all her memories and forcing me into some stupid scavenger hunt.” I frowned. “But how the hell am I supposed to control that when it’s literally a berserker’s frenzy?” “Simple. A handicap.” Grapth said. “Build your rage again, and I will suppress you.” “Build up my rage huh?” I asked, taking a deep breath. “That...considering all the bullshit…” I growled, feeling my rage spike. “That is simple.” I growled, my fur growing and standing on end as my rage built up and up. When nothingness aura began swirling, Grapth moved forward, poking my chest… I collapsed, my chest broken as I coughed up blood. “When pain is blinded by your rage, you have gone too far. When with Lunatic, you’d might as well be a Psychopath.” “Funny you should mention that…” I coughed, feeling my regeneration healing up my broken chest. “Fuck that hurt...so...pain is the limiter here?” I asked. “A regeneration factor. Cript’s family no doubt.” He said, pulling out a small tallon from his armor pocket. He scratched me with it...it wasn’t healing. What wasn’t healed from his first strike now made me fall over, crying as my ribs were still cracked, and muscles town, but not as bad as before. “There was a race long ago who’s talons carried a curse, the only thing that can halt Cript’s family regeneration. Only ones left alive are in isolation under his protection. They won’t last a generation. Too few numbers.” “Fucking hell…” I muttered, trying to get up again. “So I can’t heal...and I’m supposed to control my rage like this?” I asked, using Lunatic to help me stand up even though my chest felt like it’s half caved in. “Yes. We all learn best from pain, physical, and emotional. Fight with it, not passed it. Pain will guide your rage to a safer purpose, use. I was once told ‘we all have to die a little, in order to live.’ Without pain at all in our lives, we are not alive.” “Yeah, well I already died...twice…” I said nervously, building up my rage as I tried to combine it with the pain I was under. “And let me tell you...dying sucks when it’s not voluntary.” My rage was building up again. Before it got far though, my kneecaps blew off my bones. I fell to the floor. I was losing a lot of blood. “Fight with it.” He repeated. I growled, slamming Lunatic into the ground hard, mixing my rage and pain as I tried to fight with the fact my chest is caving in, I’m losing a lot of blood, and I just had my legs ruined. “Trying here…” I growled, trying to get back up again even though my legs are ruined. The second I managed to get up somewhat, both my eyes popped out of my head. Can’t see! “How much longer are you going to take?” “Gee, it’s not like I’m actually trying here, but my legs are shot, my chest is caving in, and I literally just lost my eyes.” I said sarcastically. “I really do wonder how long it’s going to take.” I sass, the pain being way too much and me not getting this in anyway shape or form is only helping in pissing me off more. “It’s pathetic really, no wonder you can’t keep your family safe.” “Take.That.Back!” I growled, Nothingness wrapping around my legs, digging into them and acting like a splint to make me stand up again. “I may not be able to see right now, but I’m gonna kick your ass if you don’t take that back!” I barked angrily. “I’m stating facts. A whole city, gone. Your daughter, mind erased. Braige. Killed before you, granted, you did save him in a way, how much of ‘himself’ will he be when he is all grown? Your Equestria’s human world reflection. A whole reflection, gone. You had knowledge of these future events, in some form. You could have visited, made sure all was well. You didn’t. Frankly not even your children are a ‘victory’ for you. The strongest are all adopted, and the ones to be born to your line will be… How to put it. Unworthy of their birth rights.” Even though I didn’t have eyes at the moment blue and red mist filled my eye sockets as I tried to smack the bastard as hard as I could. “DON'T YOU DARE TALK DOWN ABOUT MY FAMILY!!” “A family of mutts is all you treasure.” He said, standing back up. “You should go back to your flea ridden ‘family’ where you belong. Play hero with them. You are no match for what this reality has to throw at you.” I stepped forward and swung again. “You understand NOTHING ABOUT ME!” I barked. “I’m here right now, going through your bullshit so I can be strong enough to protect my family! Not be treated like nothing all because you fucking feel like it!” Grapth started laughing. Confused, I moved Lunatic from the side of him I hit. He didn’t move when I hit him...wait. I realized My eyes, body...I was fine? Grapth on the other hand...was missing his left arm. He only laughed harder at my realization. “Are you fucking kidding me?” I frowned. “And...the fact you lost an arm…” I said, not entirely sure I fully know what’s going on but when I threw my pain and anger at him...it seemed things went back to being fine. “Heheh. Pardon the offence, your highness.” He said...bowing to me. “To first understand Lunatic is to have your own weakness and struggles thrown at you. You see, while yes Lunatic was forged from a moon that survived it’s own solar systems destruction, Lunatic itself is a… What’s the best word for it. Funnel, for emotions. Happiness, Sadness, Anger...rage. While rage is Lunatic’s primary use, it’s just one part of the grander whole. For the moon it was forged from held no anger, but memories, of the life forms and planets is was created to witness.” “Huh...interesting.” I said honestly, looking at Lunatic. “You learn something new everyday.” I said honestly. “So...after that...what’s next?” I asked, wondering what’s next to learn from this. “Learn what each emotion makes Lunatic do. Rage is always the same, powerful blasts of energy. But others… vary. For the King, Happiness makes Lunatic a Terraformer, bringing life to lifeless worlds. Sadness allows him to alter the weather, for better or worse. For me, Happiness brings healing to all allies around me. Sadness freezes the landscape solid. For you, you’ll have to experiment.” I looked at Lunatic, thinking this was just a massive beat stick used by a berserker, but learning it was so much more. “Well that’s depressing…” I muttered, honestly sad that I didn’t know what this could actually do. “Lunatic is a weapon of personal experience. No two wielders of it technically get the same weapon. I trust you’ll learn fast and well, heir.” “That’s what I always do.” I said honestly, spinning Lunatic. “So much left to do...and technically I can’t learn my sabers cause I can’t use them while I’m near the king…” I frowned, having wanted to learn how to use those from him but that being a bit of a problem. “May I, make a request of you, heir?” “What do you need?” I asked curiously, finding it a tad surprising he wanted to request something from me of all people instead of the king. “Mind if I… hold onto Lunatic, just for a minute. I haven’t wielded the True Lunatic in eons.” “Oh...sure.” I said honestly, flipping Lunatic over and handing it to him by the handle, but my guard was up in case he decided to hit me for whatever reason. He took Lunatic, looking at it with what my canine side could tell was a mix of sadness and happiness. “Hello again, old friend.” He said, tapping the top against his helmet, keeping like that for a time. “My heir. Please, tell me. Do you know the King’s Saying? Our battle cry?” “I sadly don’t know much about any of this.” I said honestly. “What is the battle cry my friend?” “Live on. Even when everyone has forgotten us. We rule a Kingdom without citizens, a castle with no servants. We live in nothing, for nothing. We will never be remembered, and we shall not care. We will live on, when everyone has forgotten about us.” Grapth said, sounding prideful in his speech. “That’s...kind of depressing.” I said honestly. “Nice speech but...sheesh.” “That is Nothingness. Best left forgotten… Until it’s needed and remembered.” Grapth said, flipping Lunatic in his grip… and jabbing it’s ‘blade’ end into his stomach and out his back. He fell to his knees. “The fuck!?!” I yelped, summoning my Lexicon and flipping it open as I tried to cast a heal spell on him. “The fuck Grapth?” “Death is a fact Ben.” He said simply. “After our travels where done and we sat alone in this castle, I swore that I’d live to see the new heir take my weapon. I have fulfilled my purpose. I can finally embrace my long awaited death.” I wanted to do something...but I sighed out and closed my book. “Any last words to the king?” I asked honestly, knowing I couldn’t stop the death he wanted after so long. “Tell my king… to check his throne. I broke a vital rule, and it’s hidden there.” Grapth said, ripping Lunatic out, a large hole in his stomach as he fell over, and we were back in the church. “I am glad to know the next king, is one with understanding to allow me to do this.” “May you find peace in the land of the dead.” I said. “Thank you...it was nice knowing you Grapth...wish I had more time…” He did not respond though. Grapth was...gone. I just sat there, staring at him. I heard a noise, and looked up, seeing the archer across from me, on the other side of Grapth’s body. “So he’s gone.” He said. “Yeah...he fulfilled his purpose...and finally embraced his long awaited death.” I said honestly. “So all that’s left is me, and the king.” The archer said, Grapth’s body beginning to vanish into...Nothingness thorns. “Out with the old, and in with the new, eh new king?” He asked, handing me a shot of what smelled like very strong whiskey. “I suppose.” I said, taking the shot. “So, who are you if I may ask?” I asked curiously, wondering who this Archer was. “Hehehehehe. Rules are rules, new king or no.” The archer said, taking a shot of his own. “Part of being in this Nothingness gig.” He said, taking out his sharpshooter...and put it to his head. “No one will remember us. For who remembers nothing?” He fired… the bolt went through his head, blood splattering across the room as his now lifeless body fell over, fading into Nothingness thorns too. I blinked. “Um…” I frowned. “I GUESS!?” I said, completely flabbergasted about him just suddenly shooting himself in the head. “He wanted to be the last.” I looked behind me, seeing the King walk into the room. “Grapth wanted to see the new king, you, take his weapon. The Archer, wanted to be the last of my knights to die. Now, I am all that is left.” The king said solemnly. “That’s depressing…” I frowned. “Like...jeez.” I said a little worriedly. “They gave themselves purpose to carry on. Lord explained this to you already. Remember?” “I know.” I sighed out. “But Grapth told me to tell you to check your throne...he apparently broke either a vital rule or a vital role...not entirely sure.” I said, not sure if he meant one or the other after he had a big hole in his stomach. “Hm? … Did he now?” The king snapped his fingers, and we both were before a rather large throne, adorned with images of all the weapons. It was pure white, and held a blue pillows stitched into it for comfort. “I haven’t seen it in ages.” “Looks fancy.” I pointed out. “And sheesh this room is big...well I suppose it is the throne room after all.” The king looked behind it. The sound of tape being ripped off. He pulled out a rather large, thick book. “Oh that sneaky bastard.” The King said. “What did he do?” I asked curiously. “The rule about our existence is that we can not have documented events or anything about who and what we are. Yet, another rule is that any artifacts that should not exist in the normal realms of light and dark are protected upon entering the castle. This book...is of all of us, our adventures. By law, it should be destroyed, but by already being in the castle, it’s to be stored in the library… that sneaky bastard.”: The king laughed. I chuckled. “Well that’s one way to keep a history of your old friends without going against any laws.” I said honestly. The king handed to me. “Take it. I guess, a new king deserves to know who he is inheriting his Kingdom from. I guess in the end you’ll be choosing which of our laws you’ll keep, and which you won’t anyway.” “True.” I shrugged. “But you do know I’m gonna need your help learning Interdiction right? So please don’t go dying on me right now.” I said, not wanting possibly the main teacher for this weapon to die because of some things as I took the book from him. “My death will come after you have taken my crown.” The king said. “Til you master all and only Interdiction is left, then the final weapon can be mastered, and your crown shall be earned.” “Okay then...so I better go off to Radiant Garden and meet my masters for Skysplitter and Lindworm...but I’m not entirely sure about Book of Retribution…” I said, thinking about if Ienzo is old enough. “I’d ask if you know someone about that but...they might be dead at the moment.” I said nervously. To be continued... Nobody's fighting Data X-bladersI was laying in bed. I couldn't get Grapth’s and the archers death out of my head. “Christ…” I muttered, taking the book I was given that Grapth made. “Well...might as well learn who these people are…” I muttered, opening the book to see what was written here. Time is a fickle thing. We have existed for countless years, in one reality, that is. To start at our beginning, there will be a rather long prologue. Thirteen of them, each one telling the story of who each of us was, and how we have/will all come to die. I will save the best for last. “Well at least I get to learn about who the others are…” I muttered, liking this little history lesson. Prologue Chapter 1: Number Thirteen. Number Thirteen. A Pale. A race of scaled skinned humanoids who live in space colonies. Their home world was destroyed by civil war. Our number is named Kerbachi. Female, and daughter of a farmer. Farming in space you can imagine is hardships. Kerbachi’s colony ship was named the Jumbo Kaliko. In their native tongue, means ‘Hollowed Dirt’. It was largely for the dead, those living on it either did as she, farm work, or tended the crematoriums and alters. We arrived on that very ship after a victorious battle. We traded, and spent a few days to rest. In that time we had caught Kerbachi’s attention. She had potential, but her colony lacked any real weapons. She lived a peaceful life, but was bound to them by her people’s gender biases and beliefs. So, we obeyed the law. Her people valued two things. Kiatron, a very flexible ore they utilize for their tools, and food stuffs. So, we traded two tones of Kiatron ore and three years worth of food stuffs, for her. They accepted, logically. After that, we began her training. Nothingness came naturally to her. Her ability with the Thorns progressed swimmingly. When it came time for her to acquire a weapon, she wanted a straight sword, but, we knew she’d require something more. We forged her a Keyblade. Duskblade, she called it, after the Dusk nobody that was it’s blade part. A keyblade whose form is that because of it’s wielder's heart being incomplete. “Hmm…” I muttered, finding this fascinating. “I suppose that’s where Duskblade came from...and then Reunion…” As a Keyblade wielder, she was honor bound to fight in the Keyblade war… She was a great fighter, but she was still so inexperienced. To aid her in the war, we gave her Reunion, a Keyblade of reunitment, and completion. Once a single Keyblade is created, copies are made and exist throughout the reflections. So we didn’t find it that strange when she saw others with her Keyblades. She never returned from the war, her body, and Keyblades lost to that Multiversal graveyard. She was the youngest, newest member of our group, and we can never replace her. We returned to twelve. For the time, we all knew, it would not be long for another one of us to fall, in battle, or at our own hands. “Oh dear…” I muttered worriedly. “That’s not good…” I put the book down. I could tell where it was going. “Well that didn’t help…” I muttered, wondering what to do right now. ”I mean...I could go to Radiant Garden and get that training done...but…” I sighed out. I turned over in bed, feeling odd. Eventually I got myself up, and began wondering what Zeke is doing? Just then, Reunion summoned itself into my hand. “What do you need?” I asked, wondering why Reunion just suddenly appeared here. “Want to lead me somewhere?” Like with Roxas in Kingdom hearts 2, it almost dragged me standing up, pointing itself outward as it opened up a DTL. “Okay okay.” I chuckled while walking into the DTL, wondering where Reunion wanted to take me to. When I exited I was… this is John’s world… I looked up… Zeke’s absent Silhouette… it pulsated before me almost monotonously. “This what you wanted to do?” I asked Reunion. I didn’t get a response this time… am I even ready for this? I know Joy beat it but…”Well, you never know unless you try…” I muttered, walking up to the Absent Silhouette. “If I’m not strong enough for this...then what’s gonna happen later?” I wondered worriedly as I tried to activate the thing. There was a flash of bright light, I covered my eyes and when I opened them… I was on Zeke’s Station of awakening. Here, there where… people. Trixie, Zeke, Unum...current/past X-blade wielders. “Right then…” I said while summoning my Lexicon and buffing myself a bunch. “Now, where is my opponent?” I wondered, feeling Haste, Protect, Shell, Draconic Might, and a dozen other helpful buffs coursed through me as I looked at them all. None of them moved. Strange… I looked behind me- Eclipse?! What’s he doing here? They weren't waving at all. What the hell? I looked at Trixie’s...wonder what she does? “Gee, so many…” I muttered. “Do I just pick one?” I asked, not entirely sure what to do here considering I’m expecting one of these fuckers to sneak up on me or all of them to start moving and jump me. Shrugging, I touched Trixie’s...illusion, as my hand fell through her, and there was another flash of light. I blinked, standing on...her station of awakening. It was Trixie, her image on the glass looking battle ground of her and Zeke back to back in an almost Yin Yang motion, each gripping onto the X-blade at one of it’s Kingdom Key handles. “Fancy.” I said, still feeling the buffs going as I prepared Reunion and Frozen Pride. “Alright...let’s see if this is what I think it is.” I said, thinking this will be like the Data Org in KH2. There was a flash of fire some feet before me, a small pile of ashes formed as the X-blade did also build up from the fires, the fire itself burning both the ash pile and the X-blade. “Oka~y?” I asked, confused on what just happened. “But...maybe…?” I wondered, stepping forward and walking near the bonfire, wondering if it was like the Bonefire from Dark Souls. I raised my hand over it, and that gold glow surrounded me. Looking on the other side of it, I saw...Trixie...hollowed… She looked up to me, her eyes black and lifeless. She stood, taking the X-blade as the fire began to burn her! She screamed, ripping it from the ash pile as her form returned to normal, and the X-blade on fire as her body no longer looked Hollow, and her clothes changed to a smaller version of Lord Gwyn’s from Dark souls, crown and all, only with boots that went up to her knees. “Alright then.” I said while backing away from Trixie a little bit with my shield raised. “This isn’t going to be pleasant I can just tell…” She took the first swing, her flaming X-blade leaving a trail of fire with each swing. The fire made Frozen Pride almost useless, the fire being the only thing not blocked with each hit. “Alright then, might as well be on the offensive.” I muttered, matching one of her swings with a parry. While her swing was parried, her free hand I saw held a cloth looking thing. From it though, sparked a bolt of lighting she nearly jabbed me with. A counter parry after being parried? She just broke the logic of Dark Souls. I growled and threw a snap kick and hitting her knee hard. “Counter parrying a parry huh? Bullshit...” There was an audible snap as she fell over… her knee was broken. The fire around her faded as she hollowed again, standing back up as he leg snapped itself back into place. When she reached behind her, she pulled out… a gold and blue Wayfinder, enclosed in a white stone. She tapped the ground with it, and fire erupted from the spot… Two giant half women half Spider ladies emerged from the fires, one with their own flaming sword, the other with small sparks of fire in her hands. “Well…” I frowned. “You can go fuck yourself.” I said while summoning Skysplitter and slamming it into the ground, pillars of jagged earth spiking up underneath them. They jumped quickly, their spider halves standing atop the jagged earth with ease as the pale with with fire in her hands slammed her fists into the ground, and pillars of fire emerged all around me. I felt a burning behind me- She burned my tail! Ouch! “You like to play with fire huh?” I asked while summoning Bonds of Flame as the two things started to spin, all the fire they created swirling around them. “Well here! HAVE IT!” I shouted, raising up my arms and throwing white hot fire towards the things, it being way above what normal fire they have. While I did see them burning, they acted anyway, the one with the sword thrusting it towards me as the spider half blew LAVA at me. I just realized they are both topless… The hell? “Excuse me...but have either of you noticed you’re not wearing anything covering your tits?” I asked the two spider ladies, wondering if in this place they can actually talk. Neither replied, but they jumped back, the one with the sword making a fire circle in the air while the other one shot a blue fireball into it… They made what looked like a portal, a monster with a grotesque face looked back at me… it was made of Lava. It roared, and fired off a massive blast of fire. I used Bonds of Flame to block, even with them the heat was still felt. “Christ…” I muttered. ”God I wish I could use these things to their full potential…” I thought to myself, knowing from what I was told they would probably nearly kill me at this point in time but I brought out Lindworm and, from what I remember Joy was doing with that thing, summoned up a bunch of lances made of wind behind the two and thrust them down into them. The two were impaled, like something for a horror movie. They faded into light, one gold orb on the floor and another white pulsating one floated. Trixie grabbed them both, almost hugging them as they floated into her, and her normal form returned. “God damn it.” I muttered, throwing a ball of bladed winds at Trixie, hoping to catch her off guard while she was busy with those souls. The wind hit her...but she didn’t flinch or move. The X-blade was also no longer on fire. She raised it up, and slammed it down, wind blasting out in all directions. I used Lindworm to disperse the wind rushing at me. “Grasp of Nothingness!” I shouted, raising my hand up as a massive hand made of Twilight Thorns came up and tried to grab onto Trixie and tear her apart. While it did grab her, it did not tear her apart. In fact, her skin was making sparks against the friction. I raised her up, and slammed her down to the ground… She got up like nothing. She was slower...a lot slower. I ran up, ready to block this one but when she hit Frozen Pride My arm broke, and I flew across the battlefield. “Ow…” I muttered, using Aerial Recovery and getting back on my feet as I summoned my lexicon and healed myself quickly, a runic symbol appearing as lighting shot out towards what I could assume to be an armored boss in Dark Souls. The Lightning seemed to damage her. She wasn’t done yet, she swung the X-blade, another blast of wind flying towards me. I casted a wind wall to block it. “Triple Maximize Magic! Call Greater Thunder!” I shouted, three very powerful bolts of lightning all hit Trixie, the damage maximized due to the modifier. That did the trick...though, what I saw was surprising. An ethereal iron being appeared in front of Trixie, falling down as it’s soul floated on the floor. Trixie grabbed it, her body hollowing as she let it float back into her. “Oh no you don’t.” I said while dashing forward with Foudre and ready to stab her before she could get to her next form cause of course there’s got to be a bunch of forms. To my surprise, she parreid me, her free hand glowing black as she jabbed it into my chest, forcing me to the ground as I felt her digging in my heart! She she pulled it out, I felt something missing...not my heart...something else. I saw in her free hand… Foudre, and they where not responding to me. She stole them?! “Oh come the fuck on.” I groaned, getting a tad bit pissed about all these new things people can fucking do, before I summoned Lunatic and slammed it into her legs. Unfortunately with Foudres powers she moved fast. Dodging before backstabbing me with them, and nearly kicking me off the edge of the arena. I stopped myself before I fell off and turned around, summoning Fair Game and scattering the cards on the ground and disappearing, a card clone coming out with Skysplitter and swinging swiftly at the bitch. Foudres speed made her a quick dodger. She was dealing with my clones with Pyromancy and backstabs. ”Don’t know if this is supposed to be difficult, or some higher power is an asshole.” I thought to myself as she stepped over a card and nothingness thorns grabbed onto her legs and dug into them as a charged Sharpshooter shot fired straight at her head. I felt Foudre return to me as I released her. She pulled out that Wayfinder again. Something felt off immediately. Trixie vanished, the arena gaining high stone walls. This actually looks like an arena now. “Oh great.” I muttered while reading myself for what’s to come next. For a bit there was nothing… I was suddenly on the ground, a massive greatsword pierced me from behind and embedded itself through me into the ground. I looked up. They had a bum left arm, broken and tattered chrome and blue armor… and was drenched in what felt like void… but off. Way different from what John uses… more wild. They grew a black aura before raising their sword, with me on it, and spun, throwing me off like a rag doll and crashing myself into the newly made walls. Fucking Artorius... I summoned my lexicon and casted a powerful heal spell. “Alright, Triple Maximize Magic, Reality Slash!” I shouted, three blades that seemed to cut through reality shot out towards Artorius. ”Triple Maximize Magic, Floating Master Mine.” I mutter almost wordlessly as three mines invisible to Artorius floated around waiting for their target. While the reality slashes hit, With his aura up Artorius might not have dealt much to him. He jumped high into the air, the mine’s going off as he came down to impact me. He still landed his blow, the mines only making him miss by mear centimeters. “BLACK HOLE!” I shouted, raising my hand up as a black ball formed in front of him as a powerful gravity tried to suck him in to his death. He didn't move. Rather his aura grew massive. Fogging up the whole arena. The spell wore off, and he was still there. All that void returning into him as he stood up straight. His bum left arm glowed with void as he moved it, taking his sword in it and grabbing a shield with the right. I groaned. “Yeah, cause why not.” I frowned. “Greater Teleport.” I said while teleporting about five hundred feet in the air. “Fly.” I said while feeling myself become weightless in midair as I downed some ethers to keep my mana up. “Alright. Maximize Magic, Hold of Rib!” I shouted, raising my hand as a ring of spiked bones shot out from all directions pointed straight towards Artorius. They fired at him. He moved FAST, a mix of shield and sword movements to block, slash, or deflect the bones fired at him. He emerged unharmed. Then, he held out both arms, and took a single step forwards. “Good, you can dodge.” I said honestly, having literally no idea what he meant by acting like this is a gladiatorial match. “Oh well, Maximize Magic, Shark Cyclone!” I shouted, a massive tornado suddenly swirled up and went after Artorius, literal sharks swimming in the wind ready to rip their prey apart. He was sucked up into it, he tried to slash at them, but there were too many, and he faded into a soul Trixie grabbed. “Oh no you don’t.” I growled while aiming Sharpshooter at her and firing, hoping to stop this wanton bullshit from going on any further. ”It may not work but damn it if I can stop the bastard from going to another phase I don’t care.” I think to myself. The arrow hit, Trixie falling to her knees as she began vanishing in a glittering white light. “Hey, it might have worked.” I said. “True Sight.” I muttered, my eyes glowing blue as I could see if she was just hiding in invisibility or not. I didn’t see her anywhere, but a bonfire did appear before me, and sitting next to it, a maiden with tattered clothing. “Victor you are yet not.” She spoke. “Is there another phase to this fight or do I have to go back and fight all the other bastards with too much health and too many forms?” I asked the maiden simply. “Cause I’m banking on both happening.” I frowned. “Light the fire. Burn as she burned to heal my world. Feel the agony of ashes.” “Cause you know, victory isn’t simple anymore.” I frowned. “Beat the boss that took forever? Good, now burn and suffer cause we hate you.” I said in a mock tone of the maiden. “If it is not what you desire, then there is no shame, in taking your leave.” She said, a large door appearing behind me, it was like from the beginning of kh1. “Not all, can bear the flames of life and light.” “Okay now you're just calling me a pansy for griping about bullshit.” I frowned while walking over to the Bonefire. “But...if it means helping those in need…” I said, my inner hero wanting to help those that needed it. “So, if I take the flame...what happens? Do I actually get to progress or do I die and have to start over because of the obvious trap?” “Follow the footsteps. Kindle yourself. Sacrifice of one for others. Who other than a hero?” She asked me. “Feel what she felt when she saved my world, and move on, as she did.” I took a deep breath. “You have no idea what I’d sacrifice for others…” I muttered while taking the flame, knowing that if I’m going to proceed and get stronger to protect those I care about, I’m gonna have to make some sacrifices. The fire crawled onto me… Immediately I felt the inside and outside of my body burning. Everything was in pain. It was like when Rejection showed me what the Psychopaths felt. Fear, pain, hatred, betrayal, love, loss, gain, trust. I felt EVERYTHING happening at once. All I could do was scream as the fire burned me. I felt deaths. Death by fall, drowning, burning, being eaten alive, being emotionally empty like a hollow, emotionally wrecked like a human… So many feelings, so much pain, pleasure… It was unreal. But, it was. All of it. I saw how everyone was born on that world, how they were all going to die, up till I saw Trixie kindling herself for the fire… Then I saw those Spider woman joining her, Artorius, a giant white wolf, and many, many others, burning with her. She didn’t burn alone… She wasn’t alone... As fast as I could move, I reached into my pocket, and pulled out my Wayfinder. “Come on...I know your all with me…” I said, bringing my Wayfinder close to my chest as I tried to call out to everyone I most likely have a D-Link to. “Please...I need your help…” I felt a hand touch me. When I opened my eyes… Luna? Twilight, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Silence, AJ… My wife's, my kids… Across from me was… Jenny, as she was as a human, giving me a smile as the flames burned us all. They were all...smiling...happy? “Heh...at least your all happy…” I said. “But...why are you all happy? Is there something on my face?” I joke, not entirely sure about this situation but at least I have my family here and they’re all happy. I blinked… Everything was normal, I was standing on the station of Awakening… Did I pass? I felt something in my hand. Looking, it was a...fragment. A fragment of a heart shaped Keychain? Looking ahead of me, there was a large and small chest in front of me. “Alright then…” I muttered, walking over and checking the chests just in case these fuckers were mimics cause Dark Souls boss fight leading into treasure chests. They seemed okay. I tapped the small one with Reunion kh1 style, and it popped open. My assistant went wild. 999,999,999 Munny 999,999,999,999 EXP LV up+15 999 Megalixers 999 Divine Blessings 1 Rite of Kindling 1 Pyromancers Flame 1 Soapstone 1 Dragon Egg “Jesus christ.” I said in surprise. “Let’s see now…” I muttered, checking my Assistant just in case I had any undue skill points to spend. Skills Available: 78 Skills Equipped: 4 “Okay...what are these new skills that I can equip?” I wondered while checking all the skills I had available and what skills I had equipped. Skills Equipped: 1.Scan 2.EXP Chance 3.Counter 4.Dual Wield Unequipped: 1.Defence boost 2.Combo plus 3.Blizzard Boost 4.Fire Boost 5.Dark Boost 6.HP Boost 7.Double Jump 8.Glide Plus 9.Drive Boost 10.Triple Wield 11.Quad Wield 12.Auto Nobody Summon 13.Magic Barrier Block 14.Aerial Combo Boost 15.HP Boost Plus 16.Special Reflect 17. D-Link Boost 18.Valor Form 19.Wisdom Form 20. No Form 21.Stun Lock 22. Critical Boost 23. Critical boost plus 24.Copycat Bonus 25. Nothingness Thorns Crit Plus 26.Limit Boost 27.Focus Gauge There was a LOT more, but that was just the top few… If I had half of these equipped earlier SO much more would have been easier. “Okay...let’s see if I can equip all of these.” I said, hoping I can do such a thing cause it would make life so much easier at the moment. Thankfully, I was able, with three ability ‘points’ left over. After that, I did feel a lot stronger… I jumped, then pushed my feet down fast. I know I was in mid air, but my foot hit something, and I went up MUCH higher, as Nothingness thorns sprung out like vines around me. A double jump with a built in AOE?! Where the hell has this been the entire time?! “Oh this is going to be so much fun.” I smiled like a madman as I gently floated down and checked the other chest. Tapping it, it flipped open. I felt someONE get thrown out, almost tackling me, followed by another. Ouch. “Ah fuck…” That...voice? “How hard did Core hit me?” Braig?! “Where...am I?” I got up...Braig...and LAKE?!!! “Wasn't I… where was I last?” He asked himself “Excuse me but how the fuck.” I said honestly. “Braig...and Lake...your Absent Silhouette is bullshit here dude.” I told Lake. “Literally bending reality...can you guys get off me?” The got off. “Ben...I’d you get taller?” Braig asked. “Also...where in the nine realms of hell are we? Last thing I remember was… Core hitting me from a sneak attack...after that it’s all blank.” “All I remember was helping Drezke take in Core’s darkness...then I’m here?” Lake thought aloud. “Okay...so first up, some explanations.” I said before explaining to the two all that’s been happening, and what happened to the both of them after it all blanked out for them. “So...I am a baby...yours...and I have a goddamn afro?!” Braig shouted. “If Drezke is this far gone… Oh no… But, how are we even here?” Lake asked. “Unless… Maybe… Well here’s a theory. Time is also believed to move through dimensions, layer by layer… This… Zeke’s Absent Silhouette must be able to take one layer of that and move it to another area. Meaning we both must have been taken mere moments before the events you know took place, but, because we were just a single layer of time, we did not alter it at all. So we can exist without problems. Interesting.” Lake said in thought. He clearly holds a fair amount of Zeke’s intelligence. “Okay one, you don’t have an afro...I wouldn’t consider Pinkie hair as an afro, and two your Absent Silouhette is still ridiculous dude.” I said to Lake. “But hey...I have this that Death gave me that will calm Drezke down a fuck ton.” I said honestly while showing Lake the glove. “And it’ll help you get back with him...and then get Kexez to calm his tits for a change.” “And, this about Zeke’s soul being inside another body?” Lake asked. “Yeah...he’s inside Trixie’s body at the moment...and then there’s also the fact that there’s a clone of Zeke…” I said sheepishly. “But don’t worry, he’s cool...and I’m pretty sure all your wives know about it.” “... Well, things will be...interesting if we can get Drezke and Kexez to reunite with me… still, that leaves the issue about our soul. Without him, we are not complete.” “What’s going to happen, as far as I know, is when you and Drezke get back together, Kexez will start to calm down, and then Zeke will waltz over and beat Kexez and then...something happens that will get you four back together into one person.” I said honestly, not really knowing how things are going to go. “So, the question is why us specifically are here?” Braig asked. “I mean, that's weird, right?” “It is weird…” I said honestly. “I mean...Lake here is someone I actually needed here...but Braig…” I thought, wondering why Braig was here. “Perhaps this thing reads your heart, and gives you what you want, and who, whether you know it or not.” “Alrighty then. Well I’m pretty sure I have six other fights here…” I said, looking around for the door back to the main area cause I’m pretty sure I’m gonna have to fight the rest cause this place isn’t nice. “Well, mind is we tag along?” Braig asked. “If I’m back from ‘death’ I don’t wanna be rusty.” “Sure.” I nodded. “Might as well get you two back in shape by fighting very unfun fights.” I said honestly. “So, who is next in this place then, Zeke or Eclipse? Or an older X-blade wielder?” Lake asked. “Hmm…” I looked at all the other people. “Zeke, why not.” I said honestly. “Never got to fight him before actually.” “Well, let’s see my whole self’s true potential then.” Lake said. “Alright.” I nodded while walking over to Zeke. “Alright you, get up and let’s fight.” I said to the absent silhouette. I activated Zeke. His heart was himself in standard Station of awakening pose, the X-blade in hand and Kingdom Hearts in the background. I saw the Silhouette slowly fall from above, then glow, forming Zeke as he readied himself. “This won’t be good…” Lake said. “Then let’s make it fun.” Braig said, taking out his own gunarrows. “Don’t worry.” I said while summoning my Lexicon and rebuffing myself and casting all my buff spells on Lake and Braig. “Buff’s are gonna come in handy.” I said, seeing Lake and Braig both had health bars and mana bars above my own. “Well, let’s get on with it.” I said, using an ether on myself. “Maximize Magic, True Dark!” I shouted, a pillar of pure darkness slamming down onto Zeke. He dodged, disbanding the X-blade before rushing us. He got Lake in the neck, sending him into a coughing fit before yanking one of Braig’s weapons and shooting both his feet. He’s stuck… He then ran after me, I pulled up Frozen Pride but he spin kicked, knocking me aside on the ground before hammer fisting his foot into my stomach. Who the hell thought… Oh right, crime family… I remembered. “Well...this is not good…” I muttered, my Lexicon appearing. “Slow!” I shouted, a clock forming above Zeke as it seemed to slow down to a crawl, our opponent being a lot slower than before as I brought out Foudre and grabbed his leg, stabbing into his calf and sending a powerful surge of electricity into him. With a Slow and Electricity in him, he still managed to grab my chest, using himself like a pathway for it to zap me. While with Foundre equipped it wasn’t as bad as it can be, it still hurt. His slow down ended, and he moved fast, knocking Braig upside his head and grabbed Lake’s arm, and threw him at Braig. “Crap! No Keyblade!” Lake shouted. Zeke then summoned Fenrir, clashing them with Foundre. “Crap…” I muttered, Lindworm appearing and trying to stab into Zeke. He side stepped, summoning Master Keeper and slamming it on Lindworm. He then kicked me back before slashing me with both of them. Without thinking, I moved fast, Lindworm in one hand and Foundre in the other, both hit him, electrifying him and knocking him back… Payback Fang...right… Abilities come in handy. “Yay for abilities…” I muttered thankfully, preparing myself before three Dire Wolf Nobodies leaped out of nowhere and tried to claw, bite and trip up Zeke. “Oh yeah…” I muttered, remembering my Auto Nobody summoning ability. Zeke had a bit of trouble with the Wolf Nobodies, and then Arrows pummeled him. “Mother Fucker!” Braig yelled, offloading his whole clips into Zeke. “Megaflare!” Lake shouted, casting the spell from his hands and striking Zeke. “You don’t have a spare Keyblade, do you?” Lake asked me. I thought for a moment. “Create Greater Item.” I said while a powerful magical sword appeared in my hand, before I reached into my pocket and grabbed the Shard of Yellow and put it on the thing, remembering that there was a thing about putting a keychain on non keyblade weapons turning them into keyblades of some sort. It changed into that Keyblade of Yellow’s variation of Memory Stealer. I handed it over to Lake. “Thank you.” There was a small flash of light. Zeke now had the X-blade split down the middle, holding each half by the Kingdom Key handles. “Ah crap.” “Okay then…” I frowned, not liking that before summoning Sharpshooters and shoving them into portals as bullets shout out at Zeke in a bunch of directions, remembering I had an ability that stopped the reflection of it’s bullets. He moved fast, blocking each rapid fired Arrow before charging. Lake clashed blades with him while Braig fired a charged shot. “Now things are getting better.” Braig said, rapid shooting/teleporting. “It is so much easier fighting with other people.” I muttered thankfully as I raised my hand, Nothingness thorns grabbing onto Zeke’s legs to keep him from moving around so much and crawling up his body and cutting him up in the process. Zeke broke free, jumping off the edge before rising back on… Rip off! He’s riding a Keyblade version of Lindworm’s dragon attack! Oh shit he’s attacking. “Shit!” I yelped. “Maximize Magic, Wall of Force!” I shouted, raising my hand up an a wall of invisible force appeared in front of me, Lake and Braig to block said attack. His Keyblade dragon fired off a mixed beam of light and darkness. Thankfully my barrier held, and when he landed, flashing a bright, white light before landing on the ground, his clothes a familier red color. He has a valor form! The X-blade in one hand and a Starseeker in the other. “Sure, why the fuck not.” I frowned. “Maximize Magic, Ray of Enfeeblement!” I shouted, raising my hand as a ray of energy shot out towards Zeke, hoping to cut his strength down by a bunch. I forgot how FAST you move in Valor. He dodged, dragging his Keyblades across the ground as he forced them into Braig’s chest, knocking him over before clashing one with Lake and the other with me. “Well okay then.” I said before using Lindworm to try and trip the bastard so we could hit him hard. He jumped, air comboing my head before delivering his final blow on Lake. My auto summon nobody activated. Three dusks appeared and wrapped themselves around Zeke, allowing me to impale Lindworm on him. “Wind Skewer.” I said as wind rushed through Zeke as bladed winds ripped into his insides. Since this was all… not actually him, all that flowed out was liquid light. His wounds healed fast before he jumped back, glowing again as this time his attire was Wisdom form blue. He jumped off the edge, and flew back up on three rings of flying Keyblades outside the edge and above us. “Cause why not.” I frowned while aiming Sharpshooters and firing them at Zeke. He cast reflect, bouncing them back at us before firing off those magic bolts at us. I opened up portals as the shots entered them and appeared behind Zeke. “Oh no, not falling for that shit.” I frowned, seeing the bullets going straight back at the bastard. He cast Reflect,the splash damage hitting me but my payback fang hit him hard, knocking him off the Keyblade rails and back to the Station of awakening. “Grasp of Nothing!” I shouted, raising my hand up as hands made of Nothingness Thorns rushed up and grabbed onto Zeke. They did damage as they strangled him. When that ended his Wisdom form had ended, and he switched to Master form, both the X-blade and Master Keeper in his hands. “Know what? Fuck you.” I frowned. Braig and Lake rushed in, distracting him as I hit him from behind with Lunatic, he immediately fell out of Master form from the force of the attack, and again, went into another form… this one was different though. His clothes looked old, torn and dirty, he floated, and had two wings made up of Keyblades emerging out of his back, connected by their Keychains. He also didn’t have any Keyblades in his hands. “Uh oh…” Lake said. “Why uh oh?” I asked worriedly. “Is this some unknown form I don't know about?” “This is like when an entire Keyblade graveyard took us over… he’s using literally EVERY keyblade in this form.” “Um…” I started. “I...think I have something…” I check what drive forms I had just in case I got something new. Valor Form Wisdom Form Master Form Anti Form Final Form Heir’s Valor Form “Um...let's go with that one.” I said while choosing Heirs Valor Form and wondering if it's any different than normal. I felt a surge of power. I felt…. Fast. Memed sonic fast! My attired was a light red, Reunion and Dusk Blades in hands as red Nothingness thorns sparked all around me. I looked above me, seeing SHarpshooter above my head, in an almost ethereal form while the Chakrams where behind me, spinning slowly like gears. This is...interesting. “This is gonna be fun.” I smiled before bolting off towards Zekes and seeing what my attacks can do. Each attack sliced him at blinding speeds, and when he blocked, summoning Keyblades around him like a wall, the Red Nothingness thorns phased through them, sticking him back. Oh. Hell. Yes. “This is amazing!” I laughed happily, moving one of my chakrams with my foot and slashing at the wall of keyblades to get them to get out of my way. Sharpshooter, not having a visual on Zeke, fired off it’s clip, finishing it’s clip off with a charged shot. “Can’t wait to learn the other forms.” I said with glee as I tried to get past the wall. Zeke made his wall expand, making me backup as he showed himself weilding a Kingdom Key that… looked like it had Starseeker color on it, before jamming it into the ground, the whole floor glowing as Keyholes started appearing everywhere… and Keyblades shot from them like bullets! “Excuse me but I call bullshit!” I shouted, using my insane speed to dodge all the keyblades, using Eternal Flames like roller blades to help with my speed as Sharpshooters shot at all the keyblades I might not be able to dodge as I rushed towards Zeke. It was fast, we suddenly locking blades as his barrage of Keyblades still was going on. His Keyblade wings flapped, a gust of wind almost knocking me back. His attack ended, and he flew up, ready to slam down as… the whole ‘sky’ was nothing but Keyblades pointed down... “Alright…” I muttered, revving up Eternal Flames as flames started to swirl behind me glowing white and getting bigger, red Nothingness Thorns swirling around my keyblades as Sharpshooters glowed blue, ready to fire everything. “Bring it bitch!” I taunted. Zeke struck, the pain was like getting stabbed on every cell in my body. Lake and Braig under a Reflect spell. With that over Sharpshooter fired at Zeke, and I body slammed him til he phased out of that form. He jumped back up immediately, hitting my jaw as my form dispersed. He then held his Wayfinder… and I felt...something. Nothingness thorns began pulsating from him as in his left hand he held… the Keyblade Greatsword Joy wielded when fighting Eve… In his other hand was a ball of Nothingness. “That’s bullshit…” I frowned, backing away and healing myself quickly. “That’s not good at all. “Got any ideas?” Lake asked. Just then, a Twilight Thorn rose from the darkness below, taking Zeke in it’s hand and opening it’s zipper, placing him inside as the Keyblade Greatsword appeared in it’s left hand. “I got a cyanide pill.” Braig stated. “We can split.” I frowned. “I hate this.” I said, trying to think of something to do to stop this real quick. ”Wait, didn’t Joy have reaction commands?” I thought to myself, wondering if that will actually come into play here. As if on cue I reacted, blocking it’s Keyblade as it tried to strike, reacting again and sending it off to the side as I then rushed it’s chest. Slamming it hard enough til it fall over partly onto the station out of it. “Quick Thinking.” Braig said, opening fire on the Twilight Thorns head. “Thank god for reaction commands…” I muttered while stabbing Foudre into the thing and pumping it full of electricity. “But D-links are kind of broken when you can do this shit…” I frowned, wondering if it’s just what these boss fights could do or if it was for anyone. “It’s the X-blade.” Lake said, slamming his Keyblade into it’s head. “His connection to it and Kingdom hearts means D-links not only give him his friends and more special abilities, but also their weapons, and power. In a way it’s like he borrows their heart.” Lake explained, the Twilight Thorn getting back up, slamming down it’s massive Keyblade on us before falling down into the darkness. “... You don’t think…?” Lake asked. “I wonder what’s next.” I frowned while recasting all the buffs on the three of us. The ground shook, and the floor tilted til Lake jabbed his Keyblade into the edge, each of us catching the other by the foot. There, we saw the Twilight thorn holding a ball of energy. “Shit, just like when Roxas fought it!” Lake yelled, the Twilight thorn jumping up as we all fell up, it ready to slamm that ball of energy into us. “Alright.” I said while dropping down, summoning Skysplitter and pumping a lot of energy into it as I threw it into the ball to see if it’ll work the same as in the game. The ball of energy exploded, sending us all crashing back to the station of awakening. The Twilight Thorn fell down the the ground, and we got up fast to deal damage. The Twilight Thorn died, Zeke falling out of it as I ran, slashing across him. He stumbled, and fell over. “Are you done yet?” I asked with a frown, hating all these damned phases. The X-blade appeared in his hand, only to glow bright, and now there was a blue haired Zeke next to the original. The blue haired one got up, taking Zeke by the wrist as Zeke transformed into a X-blade, looking much like the original, but with Kingdom Key D colors for it’s Kingdom Keys. X, I am assuming, then pointed it at me. “Oh fuck…” Braig said. “I call bullshit.” I frowned. “Are you kidding me? Five phases for phase one? You can suck a fat one.” I complained, summoning Lunatic and pumping in my rage cause this was just bullshit. I charged, only for X to deflect it and palm strike my chest, knocking the wind out of me before vanishing, appearing behind me and slamming… Zeke-blade into my back. Braig charged a shot, X deflected it. Lake managed a hit but was tossed into the air before being hammer fisted down. I growled, two Berserkers falling down and slamming their claymores into X as I raised Sharpshooters and fired at the bastard. X made quick work of the Berserkers, then spun his… Zeke-blade fast, deflecting every shot. I summoned Reunion and we locked blades, each time either I blocked an attack, or he blocked my attack, or we just crossed blades. Lake dealt another strike on him from behind, and that gave me a chance to deal damage. I clenched my fist, twilight thorns coursing through it as a gauntlet was made and I slammed it into X’s stomach. “Thorn Pulse.” I said as Nothingness Thorns shot into X and started to rip into him. It seems to deal a lot of damage. Guess the X-blade has little defence against Nothingness. X fell over, changing back into his Keyblade form as he and Zeke, both as Keyblades sat on the floor. “Are we done yet?” Lake asked, breathing heavily. “No, it’s not.” I frowned, still at the ready. “I know for a fact we’re not done yet.” There was a bright, blinding light and we...no, I was alone, in a large grass field with a bright blue sky. Before me I saw a kid, blue hair and golden eyes. He smiled at me. “Surprised to see you here.” He spoke. “Then again, your brother made it.” “Um…” I frowned. “What's going on? And which brother?” “Joy, of course. The first to beat this.” “Oh yeah.” I nodded. “Joy probably had so much fun doing this. So, I presume your Kingdom Hearts?” I asked curiously. The kid nodded. “So, have any questions?” “Why is this entire fight this damn long?” I asked. “And yes, I know I’m going to have to fight you next.” “Zeke is...unique. He can fight and keep on, and is the only person with bloodline linking them back to my X-blades first mortal wielder. Tainted as it may be from the Psychopaths, it’s still part of why he is so powerful.” “Alright...are you scared of the upcoming war?” I asked it curiously. Kingdom Hearts shook their head. “Blood is spilled every day. This war will be no different. But by it’s end, this multiverse will be as it was meant to. One world, one sky. And from what I know of Cript’s plans, the rest of creation will be the same.” “Oh boy.” I said with a frown. “So...what’s it like being connected to damn near everything?’ “Well, to me it’s normal. To you, it would be like knowing what everyone and everything is doing at once.” “That sounds like a pain in the ass.” I said honestly. “Give you can probably see the future...how long will the war last?” I asked. “If you act fast, a day. Less.” “How fast?” I asked worriedly. “That I can’t answer.” “Will I learn how fast after I beat you? Cause this entire thing somehow goes through time and space and gives you things, from people to history to items.” I said honestly. “Nope. But all you have to do, is hit me once.” “Okay then.” I nodded as I cracked my knuckles. “Triple magic, Meteor Storm!” I shouted, the sky darkening as an ass ton of meteors rained down towards Kingdom Hearts. He side stepped them all. “Try again.” “Okay…” I said while summoning Frozen Pride and throwing it like a frisbee, ice shooting off towards the kid as I ran behind it drawing Foudre and throwing daggers down at the ground to set up a trap. KH swung both Zeke and X, destroying it all. “Be careful, I gave Joy a wedgie when he fought me.” “Well I'm not Joy.” I said while throwing down Fair Game face down and disappearing, knowing Foudre was in place as I appeared used Sharpshooters to see if I can hit the kid. He wasn’t anywhere, until both X-blades where around my neck. “Getting-” I wrapped my tail around his leg. “... I forgot you had a tail.” He said, disbanding the two as everything became a black void. Looking around, I saw something in the distance. It was...one of the Mushroom thirteen...running at me. It stopped about ten feet away from me and tripped, sliding to a stop at my feet. “Hey little guy.” I said to the Mushroom. “How you doing?” I asked it, checking to see if a mini game prompt came up. It jumped back up, clapping as mini fireworks went off around it. It then did a backflip, vanishing as thirteen chests appeared, the last one was MASSIVE. Easy thrice my height. “Well fuck.” I said honestly. “And here I thought I would have gotten a cute Mushroom Thirteen friend.” I chuckled as I walked over to one of the smaller chests and opened it. My Assistant flashed after it opened. Limit Form Obtained. Heir’s Wisdom Form Obtained. Heir’s Master Form Obtained Heir’s Final Form Obtained Heir’s Anti Form Obtained Heir’s Limit Form Obtained Primal Form Obtained. “Cool.” I said, hoping to be able to test the new forms out soon as I stepped over to the second chest and opened it up. Rather than flash up, inside the chest was… a VERY familiar golden lamp… No fucking way… “Oh please tell me…” I muttered while grabbing the lamp and then rubbing it, hoping Genie was in here. It began shaking, violently so before, just like in Aladdin… he was coming out. “EEEEYAAAAA! OWI!” He yelled, his neck popping and his normal blue ‘skin’ color returning. “Ten thousands years, will give ya such a crick in the neck!” He said in his famous Robin Williams voice. “I can imagine. How you doing besides that?” I asked curiously. “Well aside from knowing for a fact this is not where I was last placed… not too bad. So, you the lucky lad who rubbed my lamp the right way huh? Hehehe, relax kid I am still part of good old homophobe disney. So, what can I do for ya?” He asked, shrinking to my size and I found myself on a rather comfy chair. “How much do you know about other worlds?” I asked curiously. “This isn’t a wish just so you know.” I added. “Well for starters I know about the Keyblade war, how it finished off world traveling for pretty much everybody and how the reason they were split up is because Core used that special move of his when fighting Lord Morse, an older wielder of the keyblade, and I know that all this information good old Nomura would likely make some other craziness up for. Anything else?” “What would you think of helping me out in future fights?” I asked curiously. “You hold the lamp kid, I’m doing whatever you are wishing.” “I know, but if I wished you free, would you still help or would you just go wherever you pleased?” I asked honestly. “Hm...Freedom? No one has ever offered… Well… I guess I would owe ya if you did that… Eh, what the heck. If you free me then I’ll just be a summon charm away.” “Alright.” I nodded. “Genie, I wish you were free.” I said simply. “Wait, what? Just like that?” He said, his golden bracelets breaking off, and his mist lower half turning to full on legs. “You...didn’t even use your first two wishes… Kid you are really something else ya know that?” He said, hugging me and I think my spine popped. “I’m a hero Genie, why would I not immediately try to free you?” I asked honestly. “And also...on a technical level you were wished free by Aladdin but that’s neither here nor there at the moment.” “Yeah but this is your AU, none of this is cannon!” He said, smiling as he gave me a noogie. He then put me down, grabbing his lamp and with a wave of his hand, changed it to a little summon charm. He handed it to me, then saluted. “I’ll be seeing ya around kid! Oh how rude of me! I am Genie. What’s your name kid?” “Names Ben.” I said. “And if you ever need a place to stay, you can always go to my Equestria, I’m sure my friend and family would love to meet you.” I said with a smile. “Will do kid! I’ll be seeing ya!” He said, a pair of suitcases appearing out of nowhere. He grabbed them, then vanished in a reddish pink puff of smoke. “Alright.” I nodded, still happy to help as I moved over to the third chest and opened it up. Obtained the Ultima Weapon. My Assistant said. “Um...okay.” I said while checking to see which Ultima Weapon it was, whether it was a specific Kingdom Hearts Ultima Weapon or if it was a different Ultima Weapon. After some searching it was a Keychain… It was the Kingdom hearts two version. “Cool.” I said while swapping out Reunion for Ultima. “This is definitely a boost.” I said while moving over to the fourth chest. Obtained x40 Fruit of Eden. “The hell?” I looked a little confused, checking my Assistant to see what the heck that is. Fruit of Eden. A magical fruit that when eaten, boots the eaters max health by 10 points. “Cool.” I said while bringing out one of those apples and eating it to get the HP boost. “Okay…” I muttered while opening the fifth chest. Ability Acquired: Thorns Boost. Nothingness Thorns now deal 30% more damage. “Sweet.” I said with a nod, going on my Assistant and equipping said ability before going to the sixth chest and opened it. Inside this chest was a deck of cards, they seemed normal. Taking them out, I took one out, and it broke, and I felt…. Like a thousand cups of coffee just was injected into me… I felt SOOOOO HYPER! “The fuck!?” I yelped, checking what the heck just happened. “Excuse me, but why?” I said, feeling way too hyper. Status effect Cards Each card delivers a different effect on the user. Use wisely. “Oh dear.” I muttered worriedly as I went to the seventh one and opened it. Obtained Keyblade reinforcements, and Evolutions. Vol 1-2,569 “What now?” I asked in confusion, checking what the hell those things were. “What the heck is Evolutions Volume...what now?” Keyblade reinforcements and Evolutions, is a long, ancient book series consisting of over two thousand written texts detailing Keyblades forgotten and often overlooked ability to be reinforced and evolve into higher versions of themselves. The only surviving tombs known are Volumes one through ten, after the world was split up into the stars and multiverse we exist in now. “That is very useful. Gonna need to read those when I’m not busy.” I say honestly while checking the eighth chest. “What is under chest number eight?” Limits Obtained. Strike Raid Reflect Raid Trinity Infinity Sonic Rave Last Arcanum King's Wrath Battle Ground No Man's Land “I wonder what those last three do?” I said, also noting that Ars Arcanum was changed to ‘Last Arcanum’. “Chest number nine.” I said while opening chest number nine. Obtained Kingsblade Keyblade. “Another Keyblade eh?” I asked, checking to see what the thing looked like cause that sounded cool. It’s Keyblade was...the Nothingness symbol, with a crown atop it… no way… I equipped it… and it was the very same Keyblade… The one Joy used against Eve...and the one Zeke used against me… “Excuse me but your supposed to be a greatsword…” I frowned, trying to figure this out while going to my Assistant and equipping Reunion to my Heir Valor and Ultima to Heir Master for the moment as I kept Kingsblade as my main one for the moment. “Okay...number ten.” I said while opening number ten. Inside where three small… clusters? No… hearts? Heart of Sora Heart of Kiari Heart of Riku. “Well...I may have the genderbent variants as Nobodies….maybe I can give them these?” I wondered, not entirely sure about that as I took all the hearts and hoped they would be safe in my assistant as I checked the eleventh chest. Inside this one was… a ps4? That’s rather random- WAIT! I checked the three games next to it… Kingdom Hearts 1.5+2.5 final mix 2.8 final chapter prologue… and Kingdom Hearts 3! “Sweet!” I cheered happily, glad to be able to replay this whole series and share a really good game series to my kids. “What’s in number twelve?” I wondered, putting the PS4 and games away in my Assistant and checking the second to last chest. Obtained 999,999,999,999,999 of All synthesis materials, healing items, and items. ...if this were an online game...I’d so get banned... “O~kay then.” I said a little nervously, not really sure what I’ll need literally all the things but I’m sure if I ‘donate’ Luxu all this shit he’ll figure out something. “And now for the huge bitch.” I said while looking at the giant ass chest. “What is in here…” I said while trying to open that. It was a struggle, but I managed to force the lid open. Inside this was… a crap ton of different Keyblades, organization weapons… and a crown? It was gold and grey, and held the Nobody symbol as it’s centerpiece. “Well....this is a bunch.” I said while taking the crown and putting it on, replacing the old silver crown Celestia got me all those...months ago...jesus it really hasn’t been that long now that I think about it. “Wait...didn’t I make those?” I muttered while grabbing a pair of gauntlets that radiated Nothingness. “Huh...interesting.” I decided to punch the chest with one of them after I got all the equipment out… MASSIVE nothingness thorns wrapped around the chest… and crushed it to splinters… Hell...yes…”I am keeping these.” I said bluntly, checking the name of these new kick ass gauntlets. Vice Splinter Att: 50 Def: 20 Mag: 0 While also dealing massive Physical Damage, anything hit with these gauntlets will be wrapped in Overgrown Nothingness Thorns, and crushed, or severely cut depending on variables. Special Ability: Critical- Every other hit is a critical hit. “I am keeping this, this is mine, and no one is allowed to take it.” I said to myself while seeing it vanish, being put into my roster of my summonable equipment as I put all the other equipment away for when I’ll need to basically arm an entire army. “Also...I wonder where the other twelve mushrooms are?” I wondered honestly, feeling a side quest brewing here. “Okay...so am I going to fight the other bunch of people or is that it?” I wondered, looking around for the exit back to the hub. After looking around I spotted something on the floor. Walking over to it, it was… the other half of that heart keychain thing. I put the two together, and they glowed, fusing into the whole heart. “Alright…” I checked my assistant for the new whole keychain. “What’s special about now…” I wondered. X-blade Keychain. Used to create a special variant of the X-blade unique to the person it it made for. “And I just got a new one…” I muttered while swapping my heir keyblade to my Heir Final Form and equipping my new X-blade, wondering what it looks like right now considering it’s supposed to be specific to the person. Holding the Keychain I- “Ow!” I yelped, dropping it as it...cut me… and was absorbing the blood… Okay~. “Um...okay…” I muttered while grabbing the keychain again, wondering if the pesky little bastard is gonna cut me again. It forced itself out of my hand, floating there for a moment before I was knocked over as MASSIVE Nothingness, light, and Darkness floated into the Keychain. It was so much energy… I felt nauseated… Finally it stopped, the heart Keychain turning from white to pink and gaining the Nobody symbol into/over it. It then began forming the blade part, Nothingness thorns creating those large designed parts between the crossed Kingdom Key parts. The Kingdom Keys were replaced by both Reunion and Dusk Blade. The two wrapped in Nothingness thorns as emerging from them was a Crescent moon, with a white silhouette of a wolf howling on the dark side of it just below it’s tip. “Sure…” I muttered. “It does look cool...but why the hell am I getting an X-blade, and two shouldn’t there only be one of you?” I asked with a frown, knowing I can’t actually hear the keyblade but I am all sorts of confused why I’m getting one and why there are multiples. I checked my Assistant. No Heart X-blade Att: 25 Def: 12 Mag: 12 A Keyblade forged with Nothingness. The first of its kind. It’s power flows between the realms of light and darkness, as Nothingness should. As a result, it’s power is based on the Balance in the area. Special Ability: Tranquility- Any Heatless that make contact with this blade will regain their true forms is they are an Emblem, if Pureblood, they will become a new life. Nobodies before this weapon, as it’s wielders command, regain their lost hearts. “Excuse you.” I said, being startled into a laugh just from how absurd this things ability is. “I will gladly take that.” I said with a giant smile. “Now...am I going to have to fight the other X-blade wielders? And will I maybe have to fight myself?” I wondered, thinking that because this was all about X-blade wielders that I would appear here somehow. Just then...I was dragged into a portal that appeared below me… Great… To be continued... Nobody becomes KingBack in the Zebra lands, the girls and I where already packing up. While some of my new wives were at least somewhat… aware, for lack of a better word, they where still rather...stiff, for lack of another better word. The resupplying was going well. “I am happy to see you enjoyed your stay White Knight.” The king spoke. Him and I where walking down his castle’s halls. “It is a nice place.” I said honestly. “I’m just glad Zecora is having an okay time here considering...what she told me.” I said, caring more about my girls time here than my own. “Yes. This kingdom has been through, how would you say… the ringer, quite a few times, but we look forward to this new future for us all. Earlier, before you arrived, a man in black named Luxu said you where to be engaged into a war? Is this correct?” “Sadly yes.” I said honestly. “The second keyblade war…” I sighed out. “Ah. Then you have my entire forces at your disposal. We can offer potions, soldiers, and the land is rich with minerals for weapons and armor. Whatever you need, we will offer all we can.” The king said. “Luxu also said if you refuse to not take no for an answer as you have a tendency to… bite off more than you can chew, as he put it.” I sighed out. “Of course he would.” I muttered. “Well thank you.” I nodded, only for my Assistant to buzz like mad. “Huh?” I muttered, looking down at it and seeing...all the nines with money, items and all the synthesis items. “Oh…” I took a deep breath. “So anyways, what kind of minerals do you have?” “Aside from your standard materials, we are well known for Oricalcium, Power Stones, and High grade gems for enchanting. All we’d require are these Keyblades you mention. As Luxu explained only a Keyblade master can bestow them, and he wasn’t able to do so as he had the other lands to visit.” “Um...about that.” I said while scrolling down and noting that I now have an absolute ass ton of weapons and armor both for keybladers and for Nothingness troops. “How many soldiers do you have?” “On average, we get fifty new recruits a day, and here in the capital, there are sixty thousand soldiers, and more across the land. If I remember correctly from last checking, our total army consists of eighty five thousand males and females.” I looked at my assistant to see how much equipment I got, from keyblades to Nothingness equipment cause if memory serves I think I saw literally all of the keyblades and Nothingness weapons. “I think I can....give all of your troops a weapon…” I said, thinking I’m going to have to go through everywhere and just hand out an ass ton of weapons. “Really? That would be wonderful… What is that?” The king asked, looking ahead. There, floating as a Hologram was a moogle...but it had a black cloak over it… that’s weird... “Uh...hello?” I asked the cloaked moogle. It looked up. “Kupo. Hello, you ready to buy. Kupo.” It spoke. “What are you selling?” I asked. “And...why are you wearing a black cloak if I may ask?” “I was hired by someone called King of Nothingness. Kupo. He took me as a contract employee so I can sell wares never before seen. Kupo. This is just the uniform. Kupo.” “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “So, what are you selling my fine shopkeep?” “Take a look. Kupo.” A menu popped up and I selected the buy tab. Weapons Armors Munitions Raw Materials Recipes Battlements Plus.\ This was a sub-menu? That’s new. “Let’s go with Weapons.” I said while clicking on the weapons tab, wondering what’s in here. Starlight Keyblade Nothingness Longsword Nothingness Short Sword Nothingness Claymore Nothingness Bastard Sword Nothingness Curved Sword The list went on...and on…. And ON… Even with guns! And nothingness guns?! The heck does the king have in his armory?! “Um…” I went back to the main tab and went to armor, hoping there was less. I was wrong...so...very...wrong… All these tabs had at least a thousand or more different items and variations. Battlements plus was all Nobody gummi ships, which was cool… and tanks?! Giant robots, was this a goddamn Gundam?! “Fuck me…” I muttered, chuckling at the sheer absurd amount of of shit he want’s me to buy. “Um...how much could I buy with...literally all of the money?” I asked, seeing my balance and I’m not even sure I can count that high I see so many nines He looked at my balance… and is he calculating this in his head? “To make it an even number all around… 55 grand of everything I got. That leaves you with a solid fifty thousand left over. Is there anything you need in excess?” “I think you just armed this whole planet Ben…” The king said. I took a deep breath. “No, I think that’s okay.” I said while checking my Assistant in hopes that this thing didn’t have a storage limit. There was a loud THUD outside, and when the king and I looked outside...there was a huge...towering...crate just outside city limits taking up a LARGE chunk of unbuilt land. “... Ben, you know how to impress.” The king said. “Holy damn I think I overdid it.” I said slowly, blinking at just how fucking huge that crate was. “Fucking hell...um…what’s your synthesis shop look like?” I asked the moogle cautiously, not sure if I should just hand this stuff to Luxu so he can be happy creating so much shit or just dump it all on the moogles and get everything. “Depends, what ya got?” He asked. “King!” One of the zebra guards ran up to us. “There’s a massive-” “I am aware. That Luxu fellow from days prior to Ben’s arrival spoke truth, in that crate are armaments for our troops entering battle with him. As well as others from the other kingdoms.” “Oh...shall I have a team...uh...unload it?” “Yes.” The king noded. “Take any hammer and crowbar you can find to open it.” The guard nodded, heading off. “Be careful, cause if you can imagine a weapon and or a piece of armor, you will find it in that crate.” I called out to the guard. “God...here’s one planet and then some worth of gear...and I still have an ass ton to work with…” I said while deciding to give the moogle half of all the synthesis items I have. “That’s half of everything I have, what can I make?” “With all this?” He’s doing the numbers in his head again… “Nothing. You have no recipes saved with me.” “Huh...surprising.” I said honestly. “Kind of thought I had at least some…” I said with some thought. “Well...better get this stuff to Luxu then, he’ll know what to do with literally all the synthesis items.” “I have shops all over. Kupo.” The moogle said as we headed off. “So, before you leave shall we see what is brought out of the crate till then?” The king asked. “Might as well.” I said honestly. “Cause fifty five thousand of literally everything he had to sell, and he an absolute asston of things to sell...oh dear I think I overdid it.” I had the king take a ride on my glider, the two us us landing as the guards managed to pry open a corner. Inside was all sorts of smaller boxes with the name of what was inside them. One guard pulled out a Box called Overgrown Nothingness Hand Cannon. Inside was a large, one shot rifle of sorts made from grey wood and black metal with three bullets almost irradiating Nothingness. “Shall we test it?” The king asked. “Um…” I walked over and pulled out my lexicon. “I Wish for ten regenerating test dummies.” I said, my book glowing as I casted Wish, about ten feet from us ten practice dummies appeared in a row. “Well...there’s your test dummies if you want to test it out.” I said, still a little nervous about this. The guard, after a bit, managed to load one of the bullets into it, and aimed it at the dummies. When it fired it seemed like a normal….oversized gun. When the bullet hit… MASSIVE Nothingness thorns emerged from five feet around the target site, tearing up the earth, slashing up the dummies, and causing mass destruction til they shot into the air and pushed aside clouds, vanishing as I assume the attack wore off. “Now that's what I call a cannon!” The king said, excited. “Oh my god…” I said honestly. “That...is awesome.” I said. “You know I’m going to be taking one of everything right?” I said to the king, given that I was the one that bought all the shit. “Of course. You did purchase them. Now, what else is there?” He asked, another guard bringing up something else. This was what looked like a toy, but had some instructions on a piece of paper attached to it. Toss on ground at least two feet from you. “Stand back about five feet.” I said to the guards as I took the toy and tossed it the two feet towards the test dummies, and thankfully seeing the one that was ripped to shreds regenerate back to normal. It grew...and grew...and grew… It was a massive Twilight thorn looking turret… It took aim as the dummies… and fired… Everything was LOUD! Nothingness Thorns and heat went all around, each place they struck was singed as when it finally ended. There was a massive crater where it fired, Nothingness thorns still lingering for about a minute til that too faded. “That will be useful…” The king said. “But...but why though?” I asked, finding that massively excessive and cool. “Oh my god...this was both a great decision...and a terrible decision.” I said, shaking my head with a smile. “Such are the faults of any ruler Ben. Who knows, these may not even need to be used, or these could be our last line of defence, barely holding. Only time will tell.” The Zebra king said. I sighed out. “I just hope that these won’t ever have to be used...again.” I said honestly. “If I’m fast enough…” I muttered, having been told that if I act fast enough I can bring the Keyblade war down to a day and have it not be as bloody as possible. “Uh...King, White Knight?” One of the guards asked, gaining our attention. “You might wanna look at this one.” We both walked over the the smaller crate. Inside was… something humanoid looking. It had two swords in its...hands? I think, the swords just came out of it’s… where hands should be, it’s face that of a Samurai Nobody, and body color was a grey and black Nothingness thorns coloring. “It has a wind up key in it’s back.” The guard added. “Oh no…” I muttered, using my assistant to check if it’s exactly what I think it is. Tinker Bot This unique variation of ‘Robot”’ is completely controlled by gears and springs to move, powered by a wind up key. They actually function with magic allowing them to move, and obey orders, differ friend and foe, and perform whatever tasks they were constructed for. While the simplest form of bot to create, they are still the most effective. “That’s exactly what I thought…” I muttered. “So yeah, I know have my own wind up army.” I said, knowing there’s fifty five thousand of those bastards that I just bought. “Interesting. I remember a story from my youth with a similar character.” The king said. “Wind it up.” he ordered. The guards winded it up, and once it was done it came to life, looking at the King and I. “Uhh… show us what you can do. Attack those dummies.” I said. Immediately it spun around, and ran… FAST. Slashing the dummies into pieces at blinding speed before it’s swords began to glow red. It impaled the remains, a small circle of fire around it and the dummy parts as it erupted fire high into the sky. When it ended, the bot was there, the ground scorched to high hell...some of it I think was lava now… The bot then walked back over to me, bowing before taking a criss cross sitting pose. It’s key stopped turning shortly after, and it powered down in that pose. “Now that is amazing.” The king said. “Excuse me but what the fuck did the old man have in his armory?” I blinked, the dummies regenerating from the massive onslaught. “Cause...damn.” I said, not expecting a few things to be so powerful. “Well, what is next?” The king said. The next thing brought out was a pair of handguns, each with names engraved. One read Rapture, the other, Damnation. “These look very high caliber… where is the button to eject the bullet holder?” The king asked, looking them over for it. They didn’t seem to have any. “Mind if I?” I asked, knowing that these things are Nothingness weapons so maybe I could tell. “I’m attuned to these weapons on principle so I might be able to figure it out.” Taking the weapons. They didn't really feel all that special. I felt very little Nothingness energy from them, but I did feel something else from them that wasn’t Nothingness, light or darkness. Shrugging, I fired Rapture… The bullet left a massive energy wave behind it, ripping the dummy up into pieces, but strangely enough, the ground around that energy trail left… newly formed grass, and flowers. Damnation did about the same, it’s large energy trail red, melting the ground under and around it and completely incinerating the dummy it hit. “Yeah...I should have expected that from the names.” I said honestly. “So yeah, you now have fifty thousand guns that can basically turn this desert into a massive flourishing landscape, or turn it into a barren hellscape.” I said honestly. “I...accidentally figured out how to solve your farming problem…” “Heh. Impressive.” The king said, the next thing to come out was a really small box. Inside was… a tiny door. Just a small door. Confused, I tossed it to the ground and it grew into a normal sized door… Then it grew a ten by ten metallic wall of Nothingness behind it. “Instant housing or...other?” The king asked. I walked over and opened the door, wondering if it was an actual house. Inside was four cot beds, a small walled up what I am assuming is a bathroom, tiny sink and stove, and some boxes labeled food and munitions. “A bunker… or maybe barracks?” The king pondered, taking a step inside. “This is quite a thing. On the fly bunker in case you need it, or it could be a barracks depending on how big this thing can actually be.” I said honestly, finding this really good for strategy. “Cool...wonder what else is here cause this is getting more and more interesting.” I said. The next item was… It looked like a robotic eyeball. It was the size of a head so… the heck. I found the power button, turning it on as it dropped a small...phone looking thing in my hand… it then turned invisible, and I saw what it saw, in this case, the king and I, on the small phone looking thing it dropped for me. “The perfect spy.” The king said. “Yeah that’s one way to do it.” I nodded while seeing if I can direct it with the phone it gave. “Wonder if it’s true invisibility?” I wondered a little. The next few crates where Potions, eithers, Megalixers, standard KH items… even “armor” accessories and Hell yes Full Bloom plusses! “This is great.” I nodded. “So much here…” I said, checking my assistant to see if I had any accessory and armor slots that could help me. I did in fact, five armor slots, and three accessory slots. I grabbed three Full Bloom Plus’s, remembering in kh2 final mix these where OP as all hell and equipping them… Two where on one ear, and one was on one of my ears… these are earrings? “Didn’t think these were earings…” I muttered, feeling like my mana regen just went through the roof as I searched through to find five really good armor pieces. I found Grand Ribbons… a whole box full. I equipped them, two around each of my arms, and the fifth attached itself like a brooch on my cloak. I felt rather buffed with them. “Ah, that’s better.” I said with a smile. “What else is there?” I asked curiously. The next thing seemed to be… Paopu fruits? No, these are grey, and nowhere near as colorful as the ones from Sora’s island. “The hell?” I questioned, checking my assistant to see what the heck these things are. None Paopu Fruits. Long ago, the King of nothingness visited a world, and took a single one of it’s paopu fruits, and managed to grow a tree of it within the realm of Nothing. These fruits, rather than bind two hearts for eternity, in love and faith, will bestow visions of tragedy, and despair. Often these are used to help predict terrible events, then, avoid them. “Okay then…” I muttered. “That’s a thing. These things can see future tragedy’s…” I said honestly. “Interesting. What a terrible power.” The king said, taking one and looking it over. “I wonder if each tragedy is unique to each viewer?” He asked, take a bite. He dropped the fruit, his eyes glowing white and black for a moment before falling to his knees, painting heavily. His eyes returned to normal… he looked terrified. “What did you see? The entire world burning?” I asked. “Hybrid monstrosities roaming around subjugating everyone with psychic powers?” I asked, kind of miffed that I haven’t gotten around to playing Starcraft 2 yet. “I saw this coming war… I saw my own death.” He said, calming himself. He stood back up, shaking his head. “So much blood… At least, it seems we were fighting monsters, and not one another.” “That’s good…” I said. “I’m gonna regret this…” I muttered, grabbing a None Fruit and eating it. Instantly, I smelled smoke. I was in Daybreak… Heartless were swarming in mass, all and every kind. Ahead of me, I saw the crystal heart broken to shards. Gummi Ships evacuating people as other left via glider. I saw Zeke… no, Charlie, fighting off FIFTEEN darkside heartless. Zeke’s family house/gummi ship flying off. He looked up, smiling as he muttered something, his skin melting, his black, non human blood oozing before… He blew up… Daybreak was gone… When it ended I was on my hands and knees. “Fuck me…” I muttered worriedly. “That’s not good...how the hell could that happen?” I muttered worriedly. “Okay...um...how long was I out?” I asked, shaking my head and getting up. “Just a minute. What did you see White Knight?” The king asked. “I saw a friends world...being overrun by Heartless…” I muttered worriedly, before rolling up my sleeve and pulling out my new X-blade weapon. “Don’t panic, I’ve done this before.” I said while cutting my arm off. “Still...hurts a bit.” I muttered in pain, seeing my arm regenerate into a clone of me and hey look it actually has clothes on this time as I regrew my old one. “Well...good thing this one has clothes.” I said honestly, rolling my sleeve down. He opened up a DTL, and ran off to Daybreak. That vision…can’t happen… “Please tell me everything's okay…” Ben muttered to himself as he walked out of the portal to Daybreak. … It was like he saw. Nearby, exiting the portal near the heart, it was shattered, and heartless where everywhere. Three Neoshadows appeared behind me. Summoning Kingsblade, I dealt with them each with one swift swing. “This is so not good…” Ben muttered as Nobody’s were summoned due to his auto summon ability as Nothingness Wolves, Berserkers, and Ben’s pretty sure a new Nobody he’s never seen, this one looking more like a commander of an army more than anything, saluted to him. “Protect the people, try to save as many as you can and keep the Heartless away from any shuttles fleeing the world.” Ben told the Commander Nobody as it nodded and proceeded to guide the Nobody’s in the effort while Ben was busy doing other things. Looking off the edge of the rails, Ben spotted Charlie fighting off two Dark Thorns. Ben jumped down, impaling one of them as Charlie finished off the other one, both puffing into darkness. “Thank god you came along.” Charlie said, turning around in time to spin kick a shadow heartless into the wall of a building, killing it. “It’s gone to hell and a handbasket here.” “I can tell.” Ben said while slashing at a Neoshadow and killing it quickly. “How’s the evacuation going?” The wolf asked. “As fast as we can… Not sure how many already… perished.” Charlie said, hacking a Novashadow in two. “Don’t wanna think about that. Zeke’s family is safe, their ship is set to leave after as many castle staff as we can get on it. Ben, it was the Master of Masters. He broke into the hidden armory of his inventions. He took everything, even that giant fucking eyeball on the ceiling… Including the Void Key keyblade!” “Why the fuck did he cause all this?” Ben asked worriedly, raising his hand as Grasp of Nothing grabbed onto a bunch of heartless and killed them all. “Because Zeke’s Absent Silhouette is handing out X-blades like candy and he wants them, and us all gone. He might be planning something really bad come the war. He’s way too far gone.” Charlie said, backflipping as an Invisible appeared just in time for his false X-blade to hack it in two, and he landed right as it puffed into darkness dead. “Leon was here earlier, all reconstruction crews that could make it are out and those that couldn’t either flew off via glider or are dead. It’s mostly just Daybreak and whatever parts of old Equestria that were made habitable again left to evacuate. DTL’s are open where there aren’t enough gummi ships. We even had to shut down the permanent portals to the Foretellers world we had.” “Shit.” Ben muttered while he ordered the Commander to head towards places that might have people in it and to summon more Nobody’s to help out. “This isn’t good...also, don’t go overboard...cause you kind of explode if you do.” Ben warned him. “Say what?” Charlie asked, dodging the foot stomp of a Behemoth heartless. “Oh for fuck’s sake! I hated these guy’s in the first game!” He yelled, jumping on top of it to deal damage to it’s weak spot. I saw a group of people running down the road, two with keyblades, the rest all kids as Neoshadows and such were chasing them. “Oh no you don’t!” Ben shouted as he opened his Lexicon. “Wall of Force!” I shouted, a wall of invisible force appearing between the group of people and the Neoshadows, not seeing the things blindly ram face first into it. He opened up a DTL to his world. “Go, now!” He yelled, the people running in without question. “Thank you!” One of the kids, a little girl, cried out as she ran in. As he closed the portal, Ben saw it suddenly got dark. Looking up he saw… Three of the damned massive pirate ship heartless from the Port Royal gate in kh2… Fucking hell… Ben thought. “Well fine then…” He muttered. “Triple maximize magic, Gravity Maelstrom!” I shouted, firing three dense spheres of gravity at the things. The spell brought them crashing to the ground. Their mask flaps flipped up and I managed to slam the first one with Lunatic, one shotting it as I quickly ran off to deal with the others. Damn, those power boosts you really feel! I actually felt giddy and I'm pretty sure it was affecting Lunatic as I was super happy to feel this strong and rushing over to smack the other pirate ship heartless. A second gone as Ben managed to slam onto the third and last one, killing it as he took a quick breather. Looking up, Ben saw the Gummi ships evacuating… He then remembered they were evacuating in his None Paopu fruit vision. Turning around… he saw Zeke’s family gummi ship leaving orbit… and FIfteen Darkside heartless. “Oh no…” Ben muttered as he ran after the darksides, three Twilight Thorns appearing and slamming into the dark sides as well to help out. These darksides though did not go down easy, punching the Twilight Thorns back and ganging up on them. I saw Charlie looking up, seeing Zeke’s family well and out of here. He smiled… “If there’s an after life for me, I’ll be seeing you all there.” He said, a strong surge of energy came from Charlie. “DAYBREAK LIVES ON!” He shouted, and everything went white. I woke up feeling like I got blown up… wait… Charlie… you idiot. I managed to stand… and before me was rubble, molten lava, and bits and pieces of what was once the world… Daybreak Empire… reduced to space rubble… I was sitting on a small piece of still intact ground, grass and a tree next to me where the only things with me on this small bit of what once was Daybreak... “Damn it…” I muttered bitterly. “I...hope everyone made it out okay.” I muttered to myself. “I was supposed to stop that from happening...not help cause it...when I find that Master I’m gonna kick his ass.” I was wondering why Charlie would blow himself and Daybreak up… then I realized… Kexez. If they let it fall to darkness, all Daybreaks Resources would be his… better lost forever than in his hands I guess. “Well…” I sighed out. “Better it be in no one’s hands than in Kexez’s hands…” I muttered as I got up and dusted myself off. “I wonder where they’ll all go though?” I need to master my weapons. Fast. What do I have left again? “Lindworm...Skysplitter...my Lexicon...technically my fist weapons but I don’t think that counts…” I muttered. “And then the last one would be Interdiction. So yeah, looks like I’m gonna be heading to Radiant Garden to see if I can learn from them how to actually use these things…” I muttered to myself while drawing Kingsblade. “I hope they are masters of those weapons...actually wait who am I going to learn from with my Lexicon?” I wondered, cause I thought that the original person wasn’t old enough at the moment and was more of a scientist than anything. I headed off to my reflections Radiant garden, landing just outside the castle. There, I spotted Ansem the Wise, and that little kid whose Nobody was Zexion. Damn he’s so young. Ansem spotted me. “Ah, Ben. It’s been a while since we last saw each other.” “Yeah, it has.” I said honestly. “Question, do you know anyone that can help me train with this?” I asked while bringing out my Lexicon to show him. “Cause I had an idea on who it would be...but then I remembered that it might not entirely be possible.” “Oh, a Lexicon. I can help you there actually. Not many know that I have one of my own.” He said, taking out a very small, almost notebook looking lexicon. “It’s smaller than most, but serves me well.” “That’s perfect.” I nodded. “Do you have a space to train?” “There is no need to train young one. A Lexicon is not a weapon, but a tool, information and magic shared to all who own one. How to truly have master a Lexicon is simple. Enter in any information not already within their pages. You’ll know it does not have that information when the words glow, and become bound to the lexicon. I myself have managed to write in ten entries over my lifetime. Many lexicon owners get to write maybe one or two.” “What kinds of things?” I asked curiously, cause I have a lot of shit to write down. “Anything really. So long as it is truth. Spells are the most common additions. Perhaps your..unique abilities can surface, or, maybe something else unique about yourself.” “Do you have a pen and a place to write? Cause I have…” I took a deep breath. “A lot to write down considering I’m gonna be writing my life story here.” I said honestly. “Like...I don’t know if this thing has infinite pages but a crap ton of it is gonna be my life.” “Most lexicons if of high quality do.” He said, handing me a Pen. “Here, I must return to my research.” “Thank you.” I nodded while taking a pen. “But what are you researching if I may ask?” I asked curiously. “Crop developments. After finding out the research my last… student was leading me towards was for dark purposes, I figured something that benefits all rather than just my own curiosity would be best use of my time.” “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “Oh, question actually, how good are your two guards with their weapons?” I asked curiously. “I just want to know just in case.” “I wouldn’t have hired them if they were not the best. Why do you ask?” “Just making sure cause…” I summoned Skysplitter and Lindworm. “I’m gonna have to ask them for help as well.” I said honestly. “Ah then I will inform them. When you are done with the Lexicon, they will be at the front of the gates. Good luck young warrior.” “Thank you sir.” I nodded while opening my Lexicon to an open page and then just started to write as I walked over and sat down under a tree. “Geez...this is gonna take a while…” I muttered while continuing to write. I ended up just sitting on the floor, writing all I could think of and remember. When it was all done the words glowed a white light, then compiled into the pages as My Assistant flashed. Learned Spell: Life’s Judgement Huh… my story became a spell? Neat. “Now what does Life’s Judgement do?” I wondered, checking my assistant to see if i can get the spells description. “But...did that help me master the bloody thing?” I muttered, hoping it did. I looked at the book, the cover now having the masters symbol over it. Nodding, I looked for the spell’s description. Life’s Judgment Read the mind of those before you, and let their own deeds judge them. Each hit after cast on a guilty person will drain them of health and stamina for five minutes. Each hit stacks the amount drained and the time till it ends. “Oh that is going to be fun to use.” I chuckled while standing up and stretching. “Well there’s that down..now onto the next one.” I headed off to the gate. There, I saw the guards. “Hey, you the one Ansem told us to help train?” The one who’s nobody is Xaldin spoke. “Yes I am.” I nodded. “So, which one do I train with first?” I asked curiously. “I will test your metal.” Lexaeus human form said. “I am Aeleus. What is your name?” “Ben.” I said, summoning Skysplitter and resting it on my shoulders. “I only have the basics down with this and whatever I could come up with on the fly so…” I said a little nervously, not really knowing what the full extent of this weapon is. He nodded. “The Tomahawk, is a lot like any axe based weapon, it is just lighter and often...shorter…” He said, taking note at Skysplitters size. “They are meant to be moved fast, but, in your case, it seems to be more for direct attacks, not speed.” “Yeah, that’s what Skysplitter does.” I chuckled. “All about smacking things really hard, and earth based powers.” I added. “Yes, it would seem so. Question is, where does that strength come from for you?” “Where does my strength come from?” I asked. “Strength comes from a lot of places, but would my family be a good answer?” “Quite.” Aeleus said. “The strongest of us gather strength from things we would gladly protect with our lives, for that will never fail us.” I nodded. “Yeah...I’d give my life for them all and then some that’s for sure.” “Good. Then draw strength from that, and let it grow.” I took a deep breath, and felt power surging through me as I shouted and raised Skysplitter into the air, the surge of power bursting forth in a massive orange and black aura around me. “This good?” I asked. “More.” He stated. “Okay…” I muttered as more power poured forth, the aura getting bigger and bigger. I actually checked my assistant to see how far I could actually go with this without accidentally maiming myself. “More?” I asked him. He nodded. I nodded as well, the ground cracking under me as more and more power was pouring out of me. “How much am I pushing…” I muttered while checking my assistant to see if it can tell me how much I’m putting out and how much more I can go. “Not enough.” He said simply. “Not enough?” I asked. “How much would be enough?” I asked curiously, knowing full well I can go farther I just don’t know when I would get to the part where I start to actually hurt myself. “How much do you care about the ones you love?” “More than anything.” I said bluntly, more and more energy pouring out of me as the aura got bigger and stronger. “They are the one’s keeping me going...I don’t know what I would do without them.” “Then show me how much you care. Channel that power til it kills you.” I sighed out. “If you say so.” I said, feeling the power welling up before literally all of it burst forth from me, I wasn’t sure if it was me shaking or if it was literally everything else shaking but all I knew was that my strength only kept going higher and higher as I thought of my family. My body began to ache from all the energy. Agh! It feels like my- Spree! My skin burst as a mix of blood and energy spewed out of me. I collapsed, blood loss getting to me. I was breathing heavily, my healing factor healing slower than normal. I felt a hand on me. I looked up. “Congratulations.” Aeleus said. “You are now a master of inner strength.” “G-goodie…” I muttered in pain, my lexicon appearing as I tried to heal myself even if I was bleeding a lot right now. “Ow…” I looked at Skysplitter, the mastered mark appearing on it. “I take it I am up now?” The other one spoke. “Heal up. My name is Dilan.” He said, raising a lance over me. “Curega” He said. Man that felt good... “Thanks…” I said while getting up slowly. “Alright...Maximize Magic, Cure Critical Wounds.” I muttered as my book glowed green and I felt way better. “Alright then…” I said while Skysplitter vanished and Lindworm floated next to me. “Now then, let’s start with basic motions. I see yours are magic… so I take it that means you know nothing of the proper held techniques.” “Technically Lindworm is literally the wind.” I said honestly as I went into the exact same stance as Xaldin did, which wasn’t really something that felt right to me. “The basics start somewhere.” He said. “Now then, take one in your hand, and show me your thrusting motion.” “Alright.” I said, Lindworm not being my go to weapon so I wasn’t fully good here as I grabbed one of my spears and thrusting. “... that was… okay. Here.” He said, dropping something on the ground before a small dummy appeared. “The point of a thrust is to target vital areas. Here.” He pointed at the stomach. “Here.” He pointed to where the heart was. “Here.” He pointed at the neck. “And here.” He pointed at the eyes. “Easy kill spots, any those who survive it will be heavily wounded.” “Makes sense.” I nodded. “And if I only need to cripple, I’d need to hit the shoulders or thighs right?” I asked curiously. “Elbow or knee caps are the best.” I nodded. “Alright…” I said before thrusting into the stomach region of the dummy. I practiced these motions both one and two handed til I got them down to pretty much pinpoint accuracy. Dilan then had me dual wield lances, the curve was tricky but easy to get over. “You learn fast.” he spoke. “Yeah, I am a quick learner.” I said honestly. “Sometimes takes the fun out of learning but oh well.” I shrugged. Dilan nodded. “Okay then, now, try swinging attacks. Enemies too close will be knocked down with enough force, others within the blades range will suffer deathly.” Dilan said. I nodded, taking one spear and swung at the dummy strongly. “So, how did you two meet with Ansem?” I asked curiously. “I owed him my life.” Aeleus spoke. “My family was wandering the outer city walls, simple farmers. When those blue creatures came along some years ago, he took us all into the city walls before they got to us.” “For me it’s tradition.” Dilan said. “Father was a guard, grandfather, so on so forth.” “Makes sense.” I said. “But what did these blue creatures look like?” I asked curiously, wondering if they were Unversed. “Some were large, fat, some looked like strange birds, plants, a few even looked like boots. But they all had these symbols on them. They vanished completely around the time that new guy showed up.” “New guy?” I asked, wondering if that was when Terranort came here. “Yeah, called himself Xehanort. He left with some blue haired girl like what? Three months ago? Yeah, that’s about right.” “Huh...it’s only been three months since me and Aq-” I took a deep breath, remembering how Eriques killed Aqua. “Yeah...but those things that attacked you are Unversed, manifestations of negative emotions.” I explained simply, continuing to swing my lances at the dummy. “I see. Alright then, now, let’s see how many you can control in their natural magic.” Dilan asked. “This will be a first…” I muttered, taking a deep breath as I tried to form spears one at a time to see how many I could make without screwing up or doing something bad. So far I think there was...eighty… Dilan whistled. “Wow… not gonna ask where you keep them. Now, use them all, and strike the dummy. Not a single lance can miss. Understood?” “Oh boy.” I said before focusing and swinging with all eighty lances at the dummy. They each hit a piece of it, the dummy now shreds. “Good.” Dilan said, dropping another one. “Now, the same, but stab them all into it.” I did as asked, stabbing down with all eighty to make the dummy into a pincushion. He nodded. “Alright then. Now that the basics seem to be in order, time for range.” He said, taking his own spear and… I got knocked over from the shockwave of his throw. “Three...two...one.” He counted, stepping just to the left as the same spear stabbed the ground he was standing on. “When you can throw it all the way around the world, and make it return to where you launched with pinpoint accuracy, then you mastered them. Lances, spears. The designs of yours make them a hybrid between lances, spears, halebirds. A deadly combo design.” “Yep…” I said, wondering how I can actually do that as I got back up. I focused the wind around one of Lindworm as I took aim. I threw it. It went...rather far, but I know it didn’t go far enough. “Try using your magic, create a path you want it to follow.” Dilan suggested. “Alright…” I muttered while carving an x into the ground before grabbing a lance, feeling the wind slowly pick up and the lance in my hand glow green. “Gungnir.” I muttered, flipping my spear up and throwing it really fucking hard, the wind blasting into the three of us as Lindworm was sent flying way to fast. “Three. Two...one…” Dilan counted, Lindrom came back… Right into my foot. “Close, but not quite.” “Fuck me…” I muttered in pain, grabbing Lindworm and pulling it out of my foot. “Ow...that hurt.” I said, feeling my healing factor at least healing my foot quickly. “Let’s try this again…” I muttered, adjusting I threw it again, putting slightly less force as it launched. “Three...two...one…” Dilan counted again, Lindworm striking just an inch from the X. “Better.” “Well...at least it didn’t stab my foot this time.” I muttered, grabbing Lindworm and pulling it out of the ground. “Third time’s the charm…” I muttered, focusing as I threw Lindworm for the third time. Thankfully, it hit the mark. “Good.” Dilan said, pulling it out of the ground and tossing it back to me, the mastered mark appearing on it. “You really do learn fast.” “Yes I do.” I said honestly, feeling the wind and earth more solidly now that I mastered these two weapons. “Thank you...I just...didn’t expect things to go this fast, considering it took me days if not weeks to master some of my other weapons.” “The more you master, the easier it is.” I turned around, seeing… The King… wait, I’m… in his castle now. “You have done well. All that is left, is Interdiction.” “Why do I have a feeling I’m gonna have to kill you with it?” I said a little nervously. “Heheh. There can only be one king in existence. Not even retired, can I exist. That is the old rules… and one I will uphold. When you take my crown, you can build it.” He said, standing up from his throne, Interdiction in both hands. I managed to summon mine. “May the true king win.” “Alright...if you say so old man.” I said while firing a bolt of Nothingness at him and charging at him behind the bolt. He pulled a Xehanort move, vanishing and appearing behind me, striking me in the side. I countered, shaking his knees before double jumping, the aoe knocking him back as I impaled both Interdiction into him. He grabbed my wrists, and threw me off. “Hehehe. You are good.” “I learned from the best.” I said honestly, getting up and firing plasma balls at him like how Xemnas did it. We clashed several times, my auto summon bringing in five Berserkers that managed to distract him. I did Xemnas final move, plazma bolts all over him, firing nearly forever. He was like a pin coughing after it. I ran in for another attack, he managed to grab hy hands. I headbashed him, his helmet flying off… oh god… he’s mummified! He let go, but I grabbed his head… and summoned Interdiction...right into his ancient skull. He fell backwards. “Hehehe… my body died so long ago…” He spoke… he’s been a lingering will this whole time. “I kept on, to find the perfect heir. Looks like I did.” “Is this what you wanted old man?” I asked him calmly, staring at him as Interdiction pulsed in my hands. “Heheh. Cancer. Imagine it, a legend I was, dying from such an ironic way. I was a warrior. I needed a warrior's death, so, even with my body dead, I kept on. Finally… I can rest. Heh. The others are waiting for me, I can see them… it’s been so long.” His corpse then fell apart, turning to dust as his armor then aged to rusted, and it too, became dust. Nothingness thorns then began circling me, til then where wrapping around my head, or just above it, creating a floating crown of nothingness. I was...king... I took the crown and put it on my head. “I am the King of Nothingness!” I said, feeling my voice boom all across the vast space of the realm and to all Nobody’s. “If there is anyone who dares challenge my right, step forward so I can show you what pain truly feels like.” Nobodies of all kinds began spawning into the room, bowing before me. I motioned for them all to stand. “Repair my castle.” I ordered. “This palace will be made greater than it ever was, and it’s flag will be known for all eternity as hope for our people, and fear for our enemies.” Immediately,they got to work. One Nobody walked up to me… It was a Dusk in an organization robe. “Greetings new king.” He spoke?! “I am Consequence. The first Dusk. I shall be your advisor and keep you up to date on all your needs within your kingdom.” “Thank you.” I nodded. “Now...where’s my royal guard…” I muttered, only for a bunch of Nobodies I’ve never seen before appeared out of nowhere, kneeling before me. They were like mini Twilight thorns, only with shields, swords, spears. Bunch of weapons. “The castle royal guard.” He, Consequence stated. “Huh...I thought Paladin’s were apart of it...and Behemoths…” I thought for a moment, “Oh, they are, but these are the elites. Loyal, unwavering. And of course, confident. They do not accept failure.” “Cool.” I said honestly. “What are the classes of Nobody’s?” I asked. “Of the warrior classes, they relate to your Council sire. The elites here are such because they can perform acts and combat as each, much like yourself.” “Okay then.” I nodded. “But I was wondering cause I had this thought that there were basic nobody’s, elite nobody’s that were basically like leveled up versions of basic nobodies, then Organization level, then the council and king.” I explained, not entirely sure if that was a thing. “This...Organization level, are you referring to Nobodies with human like appearances still?” “Yes I am.” I nodded. “Are they actually called something, cause I only know them through...other means.” “The old king labeled them as Husks. Powerful bodies from powerful hearts. They rarely are made naturally like the rest of us, often taking a Keyblade to remove the heart of who they were before to create one.” “So that's why…” I muttered. “Well alrighty then. So, when will all of this get built up?” I asked curiously. “Not too sound like I want things rushed it's just...well a war is coming up.” “We are aware. The castle will be completed by day's end.” “Damn that fast?” I said in surprise. “So...I suppose I should bring my council here?” “As you wish my lord. You are in command. Just tell me what world they are on and I shall take care of the rest.” “A majority of them should be on Equestria...but I haven't found three others yet…” I said. “I shall acquire the ones on Equis then.” He said, a small orb appearing in his hand. “Acquire Equis.” He spoke to it, the orb floating high up. “There. Come with me.” He said, leading the way. “Alright.” I nodded while following along, wondering what he had for me to see. We came upon… holy crap this was all wrecked before… The castle is looking nice… dear god I am never getting Twilight out of that massive library. I then found myself at a balcony and… why is Canterlot under us? “Here we are my lord. The whole planet of Equis, teleported safely into this realm.” Consequence said, making my jaw drop. “This is the capital I believe so it fits to have your castle above it.” “Um…” I blinked. “That’s...a thing.” I said nervously. “Didn’t expect you to literally take a planet away and put it here…” I said, thinking this was a little excessive. “Why not? From what we already know you are going to be king of this whole world. Why not move your planetary domain to your universal domain?” “Makes sense.” I said honestly. “God...all my fiances are gonna be freaking out about why the hell Nothingness is literally everywhere.” I said honestly. “I shall acquire your known council members. If you’d like perhaps the locations of your yet-to-be discovered members is in order?” “That would be fantastic cause I need to find three of them…” I said, before taking a moment. “Wait, would I know where every single Nobody and any denizen of Nothingness would be?” I asked curiously. “Sadly no sire, but, if you would like I can have my lesser brethren conduct a senses of the lands below.” “It’s alright.” I said with a raised hand. “I’d like to know where my would be council members are to get that out of the way.” Consequence gave me three orbs, each with the image of the weapons yet to find their wielders. “Just crush them in your hands, and you will be sent to their area.” “Thank you Consequence.” I nodded while taking the orbs. “I suppose you can tell the people that might have questions about what’s going on?” “Of course. As you wish my lord.” He said, bowing to me as I took Interdiction orb, breaking it as Nothingness thorns wrapped around my vision. I then found myself in a temple with the Avatar Fire Nation flags all over the walls. “Huh…” I muttered, looking around. “Wonder I’m here at the temple?” I wondered, and hoping this isn’t before Aang learned firebending depending on the time period. “Zuko, have you seen Momo!” I heard the familiar voice of Aang call out from somewhere. “Yeah, he ran off into the halls. I think he’s heading to the kitchen!” Zuko’s voice called back. I walked towards the voices, hoping to get this settled before things got out of hand, and I’m pretty sure someone might attack me for just appearing out of thin air. “Well...might as well make a good first impression I suppose.” As I was turning the corner I butted heads… with the arrow tattooed baldie himself. “Oh, sorr- …” He looked like he had seen a ghost… “Okay… am I in the spirit world again?” “Last time I checked I wasn't dead.” I said honestly. “But no, you are not in the spirit world, I am real, and I’m here looking for someone for rather important reasons. “... Okay…” He said, clearly confused beyond belief. “So...why and who are you looking for?” “I am looking for Zuko because he has been chosen for something way beyond the scope of this world.” I said honestly. “I will explain everything when we find Zuko, cause it’s best not to do an explanation multiple times.” “Well, alright.” Aang said, walking me over to him. He kept checking to see if I was still behind him. Either to make sure he’s not seeing things or something along those lines. We entered a simple tea room, small, where Zuko and Iroh where chatting… then they saw me. Both dropping their tea and where slack jawed. “Uhh… Aang… did you bring a spirit into the physical world?” Zuko asked. “No, he didn’t.” I said honestly. “Thought technically I did come from a different world, just not one any of you would know.” I said honestly, sniffing the air. “What tea are you having? Cause I’d honestly like some tea right now.” I said. It took about an hour to get them to understand that I wasn’t a spirit and that I actually came from a whole other world. They had some good and simple camomile tea that I was having also. “So… you come from another world, and just recently became king of a WHOLE entire realm of creation between this… light and dark realms… and I am some kind of chosen warrior for you?” Zuko repeated, summing up the bulk of it. “That about sums up the bulk of it.” I said honestly. “Sounds crazy yes I know, but it’s the truth. If you have someone that can tell if someone’s lying then they can tell I’m not just making up crazy nonsense.” “I’ll trust you… but I’m also getting Toph.” Aang said, getting up and running off. “So… why me?” Zuko asked. “If this is all true, and this… massive Keyblade war is approaching, why me? I’ve never even heard of those kinds of weapons.” “I mean unless Iroh here has heard legends of it from traveling or something.” I shrugged. Iroh seemed to think it over, stroking his long beard. “I have heard many tails of legendary fighters, weapons, battles… but never has that kind of weapon been spoken to me before. Mind if I see one?” “Sure.” I said while summoning Kingsblade. “This is a keyblade, one of...millions, if not more.” “It’s...big.” Zuko said. “I can feel it radiating with power. It’s nothing like I have ever seen.” Iroh said. “And it’s one of millions?” “If there are that many, how come we have never seen or heard of one?” Zuko asked. “That is easy enough to ask, because these things are ancient weapons, and nine times out of ten most worlds, yes I did say worlds, either never knew about them or completely forgot about them after so long.” I explained. “Plus...well there are millions of Keyblades, but right now...those millions are currently rusting on top of their former wielders graves.” I said sadly. “What...happened?” Zuko asked. “The first war.” I said. “Lasted only a few days...yet it was the bloodiest in all of history.” I shook my head. “I only saw a vision of it...but…” I shook my head. “Hm.” Iroh said. “War, it seems, no matter what world, is sometimes unavoidable. And you say there will be a second one?” “Sadly yes.” I said honestly. “But...good thing is is that I can bring the war down to a day...the worlds worst day but a day nonetheless.” I said honestly. “Hm… it’s been a year since we imprisoned my father and ended the Fire nations hundred year war with the rest of the world. We have a lot of relations to mend, and that will not be easy.” Zuko said. “We nearly destroyed our own world… out of greed. This time, the Fire Nation will be defending it. We have no shortage of troops Ben. Our army, is yours.” “Thank you.” I nodded while Interdiction was summoned and floated around Zuko. “As for your weapon, the weapon chooses its wielder, and this weapon chooses you.” I said honestly. “Woah… So… is this a Keyblade too?” “No actually, that is a weapon made of Nothingness, the in between of existence next to Void.” I said honestly. Zuko took them. “They don’t have any grips… how are they just floating like I’m grabbing them?” “Their weapons of pure energy.” I said honestly. “Imagine it as fire, but in a solid form.” I said honestly. Zuko nodded, managing to move the blade into different positions of how one would single wield a sword. “Yeah… I’ve done something similar before with my fire bending. So, when will this war begin?” “Not sure.” I said. “But be prepared, and here.” I said while I snapped my fingers and a crate popped up in the corner from out of nowhere. “There's Keyblades and equipment in there to help you get started.” “I’ll be sure to give Aang and any of the others one when they get here. Most of them will likely join without hesitation.” Just then a DTN appeared on the wall next to us, opposite of the door… and Consequence came out. “Ah, I see everything here is taken care of. I shall leave this portal to the castle open then.” “...He with you?” Zuko asked. “My advisor.” I said. “Thank you, and if you ever need to head to my new castle that's there, and you can meet your fellow council men.” “Alright then. We’ll wrap up some things here and then head on out.” I nodded, entering the portal and- HOLY FUCK THE THRONE ROOM IS DECKED OUT! Aside from amazing paintings, design work, other visual aspects- IS THAT A STATUE OF ME?! Yup. It was me, posed with Kingsblade over my shoulder and my X-blade No Heart in my other hand. “It’s temporary, we will be making the full sized version within the hour.” Consequence said, looking over some scrolls. “Damn.” I said honestly. “This is quite a lot.” “We still have yet to even work on the flooring and lighting. But we have Nobodies for that.” I about laughed, taking out Frozen Pride’s orb and just like before, I was sent off. This time, I was inside a room filled with people… the Avengers… “Wolfman got tiny.” Hulk said. “I'm not that tiny.” I said honestly. “So, how are you all doing today?” I asked simply. “...I take it alien?” Tony Stark asked. “Invader?” Black widow asked, placing a hand on her gun. “Have any of you heard of Kingdom Hearts?” I asked curiously. “And if not...well I have a lot to explain then.” I said honestly. “My father spoke of such a thing.” Thor spoke. “Let the wolfman speak friends.” “Of course you would say that.” Tony groaned. “Alright, what is it?” I then went into great detail about everything. Thor, Hulk surprisingly, Black Widow, seemed to be following. Tony on the other hand groaned when it was over. “This is why I hate magic…” “Trust me...it gets more complicated.” I said honestly “Of course it does… So, you came for our help with this upcoming war then?” “Not sure sadly.” I said honestly. “But the war...what wars have you all been through?” I asked honestly. “Nothing as bad as what you have spoken of.” Thor spoke. “Come on Thor, don’t undersell us.” Tony said. “My father spoke many tails of the Keyblade war. Countless lives dies, an entire weapon art nearly died out, the multiverse itself was shattered durring it’s raging days. If there is to be another I must inform him. Tell me, who shall I tell him you are, young wolfman?” “Ben, the new King of Nothingness.” I said honestly. “But the Keyblade War...it was the bloodiest in existence, and it nearly destroyed all of reality if some didn't decide to run.” Thor nodded, heading off. “Well then, looks like the Avengers and S.H.I.E.L.D has their work cut out for them. I’ll make some calls… god, Nick is gonna scream for months for this one.” Tony said, leaving the room. “So, anything we can do to help you?” Widow asked. “Well first up.” I said while Frozen Pride appeared and circled around Captain America. “You sir are one of my council members.” I said. “And the others…” I said while snapping my fingers and a crate appearing. “There's items and equipment in there to help you all get started.” “Council member?” Cap asked. “Since when does a diplomat need a shield… and I already have one.” “This council is different, cause the council is basically my second in command for fights and stuff like that.” I said honestly. “Oh, then right up my ally… So… guess I can’t say no to this huh?” “Oh no.” I said, seeing Frozen Pride shift into a shield fit for the captain. “Well then, guess I’ll get used to thi-” Frozen Pride shot off an ice pike, penetrating the floor. “...Ice… oh I knew it would come back to haunt me.” He laughed. “Sorry for the irony, the shield just really likes ice.” I chuckled. “Also, I'd recommend finding the bad guys here and warning them of the coming war...I don't think they want to die horribly.” “Heh, somehow imagining Doctor Doom fighting with us...disturbs me.” Consequence opened up another portal back to the castle, leaving it open for them. I walked back and DEAR GOD THE ROOM BECAME LIKE FIFTY FEET WIDE AND A THOUSAND FEET TALL I CAN'T SEE THE CEILING! “God damn.” I blinked. “I didn't expect this to be this huge.” “We have just begun work on the city below sire.” Consequence informed. “So far we have uncovered at least sixty of the Noble houses dealing in illegal activities, such as, but not limited to sex trafficking, illegal organ transplants, slave trades, drug dealings and manufacturings, counterfeit currency and discrimination to their non unicorn pony kin. All have been rounded up, and are awaiting trial.” “Can’t wait to do literally all that paperwork and hear all of their bitching.” I groaned. “When do the trials start?” I asked, knowing this is gonna be apart of being king. “Whenever you are free.” I sighed, taking out The last orb and breaking it. I found myself in…. The hell am I? This place feels… This is one of Core’s old prisons in the realm of darkness…”Hello?” I called out, feeling my pocket being pulled by something. “Hmm?” I muttered, checking my pocket and then remembering...Sora, Riku and Kairi’s hearts…”Oh dear…” I muttered worriedly as I looked around for where to go. Turning the corner, I backed up back behind it. Fuck me that’s no kid… Looking again, I spotted a small child, no, an Embodiment. Wasn’t Eve. A different one. They were guarding that door. Damn it, think. No way in heck I can take one of them on by myself. I thought for a moment, before grabbing a loose rock and hiding, tossing the rock a little ways away to try and cause the kid to get distracted and come here so I can sneak past. ”God I hope this works…” I think to myself worriedly. Whatever that rock hit… a loud bunch of ungodly noises followed. “Oh for the love of…” The Embodiment groaned. “If you all started eating each other again, I’m killing you this time!” They yelled, heading off to the noise. I snuck into the room and Oh my god… Sora, Riku...Kairi? They are all...older. Much older than in kh 2. Each in one of those sleeping pods from kh 2, behind energy bars. “Okay you three…” I muttered while pulling out their hearts. “Time to wake up.” I muttered while letting the hearts rush off to their owners in hopes of them waking up. “I hope this works…” I muttered worriedly. They passed through the bars, and entered them. The pods opening up as the energy bars faded. Sora was the first to groan, twitching as he was getting up. “Ah… What...happened? Riku… Kairi!?” He became alert, looking at me then yelping. “AHH! Werewolf!” “Shh.” I said quickly. “There’s an Embodiment out there and I don’t want to alert it that you three are awake.” I whispered quickly. “I’m here to get you three out of here.” “Three? Riku and Kairi are here?” “Yeah, cells on each side of you.” I spoke quietly. Looking, the two were still unconscious. I picked up Riku while Sora carefully picked up Kairi. “Where...are we? Last thing I remember...Master Yen Sid was having me gather strength for when Xehanort returns.” “Yeah...about that…” I said nervously. “You three have been here...sleeping for god knows how long while things...kind of went to hell in a handbasket.” I said honestly while drawing Kingsbane and trying to open a DTN to try and get out of here quickly. “Seriously...what’s an Embodiment doing here?” I muttered worriedly. “What’s an Embodiment?” Sora asked as I got the DTN open. We entered and… why is there gold EVERYWHERE?! “Terribly sorry sire!” Consequence spoke, Sora almost going defencive/flabbergasted at the talking Nobody. “We were moving the treasury when… well, there was an incident. We will get this cleaned up quickly.” “...That Dusk is talking…” Was all Sora could say. “Yes, there’s a lot of things Yen Sid hasn’t told you.” I said honestly while pointing to my crown. “Like how there was a King of Nothingness, and I’m the new one.” I said honestly. “And tell me about the incident after we get back to my castle Consequence, cause an Embodiment is here and I’m worried…” I took a deep breath. “The kids right there isn’t he?” I asked, just knowing the fucker was standing there just waiting for the right moment to say something. Sora and I turned just to see the Embodiment seeing us. “What the-?!” Was all it said before Consequence grabbed us, pulling us all in and closing the portal before the Embodiment could react. “Well sire, shall I grab some medics to look over these two?” Consequence asked. “Yes please.” I said. “Cause I believe…” I muttered as a keyblade floated over Riku. “Riku is my final council member.” I said honestly. “That’s gonna be weird to explain…” We were led to the E.R… this castle has a full sized hospital… Where some Medic Nobodies looked over Riku, Kairi, and Sora, who was a bit weirded out his like two major game long enemies where now...aiding him. Riku woke up, almost Keyblade shanking his Nobody doctor. Kiari woke up startled, but not near as violent. I then explained to them everything. Answering questions, all that stuff. There was a lot of Questions. Reasonably. When it was all over the trio sat in silence. “So… our whole universe… exists inside a Keyblade this Kexez Nobody made from the Twilight Town computer, and he did it just to bring us three back to life?” “Then why lock us up and put us in Commas?” Riku asked. “For the right moment I suppose.” I shrugged. “But...what about our home?” Kairi asked. “If he still has it… we need to get that keyblade back, who knows what he is doing to the worlds, our families there.” “Sadly I don’t know where he is at the moment.” I said honestly. “But the one thing that worried me the most was...why an Embodiment of Darkness was guarding you three in one of Core’s bases…” I said worriedly, finding that very strange. “Well, it seems this Kexez and Spoiled completely took over Core’s old facilities. Maybe them and these Embodiments are working together?” Riku suggested. “I don’t think Eve would want to follow Kexez…” I frowned. “Maybe it’s just a partnership. The Embodiments are powerful, so what would Kexez offer them in return for services?” Sora asked. “That’s what I’m worried about…” I said worriedly. “But right now, I need to find Drezke and...wait I completely forgot about Braig and Lake…” I muttered worriedly, completely forgetting about them due to all this crazy crap. “We’ll recover here for a while, you go off and find these friends of yours.” Kairi said. “I’ll keep these two in check.” She assured. “Alright.” I nodded. “I’ve got a lot to do...and less time to do it sadly.” I sighed out before getting up. “Your fellow council members should be arriving soon.” I mentioned as I checked my assistant to see where those two were. Thankfully it told me the two of them where in Ponyville… oh, at my place… Did Kingdom hearts drop them there or…? “Well...okay then, they are a lot closer then I originally thought.” I said while opening a portal and walking into it, heading home to see my kids while knowing full well a clone of mine is still hunting after Jenny’s memories. “Hello?” I called out as I entered my house, hoping everyone was okay. Immediately I was swarmed by my daughters from Rapture. I said hi to many of them. Once that was done I found Lake and Braig sitting in what I think is either the library or some waiting room with books all over it. “Yo.” I said, still glad to see all my daughters were happy and healthy. “How you two doing?” “Well, that fight was...something. After beating X, we wound up outside your house.” Lake explained. “We’ve pretty much just been freeloading here since then.” Braig said, lazing on the couch. “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “Hope my house has been accommodating.” “Also Ben… A letter arrived while you were out...Daybreak world is...it’s really gone?” Lake asked. “Your family is safe and we saved as many as we could.” I said sadly. “The Master of Masters is apparently acting like such a fucking piss ant cause your absent silhouette is handing out X-blades like candy, and now he’s like ‘I’ll just take back all my shit because I’m such a fucking pansy ass about everything that I want to end existence’.” I said in a mock imitation of his voice. “Then, I can’t stay here. If what you told me about my Soul being in Boletaria for all that time, then I’m betting that’s where they had our family go in case something bad happened. I’m just a part of him, but I am still Zeke. I need to make sure they are all okay.” “Alright.” I nodded. “I’m just not sure where everyone else went…” I said worriedly. “By the by...do you know where Drezke is? Could you like...sense him?” “He is my other half. Of course I can.” “Where is he? Cause I think I can solve his darkness problem.” I said while pulling out the glove that Death gave me. “Death told me this will help get rid of all the darkness that Drezke has been shoving into himself in his bad crusade to get rid of darkness as a whole.” “Well, if you think it will help…” Lake said, focusing as he opened a DTL. “This should lead you to where Drezke is. Be careful, he feels...so far gone.” “Thank you.” I nodded, putting the glove away for the right moment. “I’ll be back, and I’ll be bringing Drezke back to normal.” I said while entering the DTL. To be continued... Nobody's training and learning...again.We exited the DTL and… Shit… This place looked a lot like Hollow Bastion and The World that Never Was where mashed together into one. “The darkness here is so strong.” Lake said, kneeling down to the ground and placing a hand on the ground. “And yet...it’s heart is untouched. It’s...protecting it. Like a shield.” “Darkness is being used to protect the light?” I asked curiously. “I mean...makes sense but I doubt it's doing that of its own volition.” “Hard to tell. If Drezke is the one utilizing it, it very well might be.” Lake said. We looked up, spotting a massive tower, bearing a fusion of the Heartless and Unversed Symbol. “Yeah… that’s where he is…” Lake said. “Cause you know, just add neon lights that spell ‘come and get me’.” I said sarcastically. “So, walk through the front door? Cause I'm sure he already sensed you.” “If he’s not too far gone.” We walked the road, and noticed there where fillies and colts walking along the roads, few teens, fewer adults, all seeming to be okay with how everything went. I saw a filly, riding on the back of one of those Centaur looking heartless from Mulan world. The more I looked the more I noticed heartless and the ponies here where...co-existing...at least, Emblem heartless anyway. Not a Pureblood heartless in sight. “Well...the people seem to be happy.” I said honestly. “I..kind of hope when we get Drezke back to sanity...this won't end…” I said, really liking the fact people are living with what are dangerous creatures in peace. “He must have taken darkness away from them. Unable to give them their bodies back, but take away enough darkness the person’s heart can gain control. We theorized it as Zeke back when we were whole, but never got to put it into practice. We figured since some of the Equestrian citizens you and Zeke brought back where unable to move or operate properly, a higher functioning heartless body they can control would allow them a cure of sorts.” “That makes sense.” I said honestly. “Hmm...maybe the same could be said about Nobodies? Even if they don’t have their feelings they get their personalities back?” “Actually, we had a theory on that as well. All heartless gain higher functions, when exposed to DTD’s and when within the realm of darkness. Drezke is simulating the realm of darkness by having darkness coat this worlds heart, but not touch it. So, what if when within the realm of Nothing, some Nobodies can feel what they no longer have? They could act normal, live.” “Well it’s a good thing my Equestria is now in the Realm of Nothingness.” I said honestly. “Good way to figure that out.” “...Not gonna question that.” Lake put it. We approached the tower’s doors. It was unguarded. Opening them showed the halls looked the same blinding white as Castle Oblivion...cause of course they do. “Drezke was never very imaginative.” Lake groaned. “Christ…” I sighed out. “Well, let’s get on with this.” I said honestly. “So, how much do you want to bet this is a trap?” I asked, knowing if the place isn’t guarded then it has to be a trap. “He’s smart, but doesn’t think that far ahead.” Lake stated. “He’s more head on. This is all for show.” We ascended the stairs and when we opened the doors, Lake and I actually covered our noses and mouths. The darkness here was… Sickening, evil, putride… Pure… “Drezke...what have you done to yourself?” Lake said, through the gaging. “He fucked up massively.” I said honestly. “This is pure darkness...christ, I hope we’re not too late.” We walked in, the doors shutting behind us as we entered. “Long time no see, Ben.” Drezke’s voice came from… everywhere. “Hi Drezke...mind if we know what the fuck happened to you?” I asked worriedly. “Cause...it smells like a rotting corpse here to be perfectly honest.” “Sixteen million, four hundred and ninety eight worlds and over I have cleansed of darkness. And more so to heartless, letting their hearts gain control of their new forms.” He stated. “It’s but a matter of time now.” “So where’s your physical body? Cause I don’t think Lake here can handle all that darkness when he tries to balance things out.” I said honestly. “Lake? Lake is gone. There’s no meaning to us reuniting even if he was alive. Soon, I can waltz into Daybreak, and take the Void Key Keyblade.” “Yeah...about that…” I said nervously before explaining what happened in Daybreak, about the Master of Masters and how his family and a good majority of the world got off before it blew up. “What? No, no you lie.” I summoned Memory Stealer. “If you insist, here’s the memory’s I have of that time.” I said while spinning the keyblade down and stabbing the ground, me, Drezke and Lake were all sent into the memory’s of Daybreak on the day it was destroyed. “I may not know everything, but I know Memory Stealer has the memories of the world to show you.” “I…” Drezke sighed. “I know you have no reason to lie to me. I am so close, I just need one more powerful darkness.” “No, what you need is a swift smack to the back of the head to bring you back to your senses.” I stated bluntly. “Look outside, look at the people that are happy in Darkness, look at all the Heartless you’ve basically given a second chance to have a decent life, why are you so obsessed with destroying it all when that will only destroy everything else in the process?’ I asked bluntly. “Lake told me you’re not much of a thinker, but come on, are you going to ignore and forsake the people that are happy for your quest to get rid of Darkness?” I asked honestly. “I realized that long ago Ben. Light and darkness go hand and hand, like Lake and I did. So, I want to repurpose it. To do this though, I will need to take in the Embodiments just as-” “Ben.” Lake whispered. “I’m gonna do something stupid.” “Go right ahead.” I whispered to Lake as I listened to Drezke ramble. Lake summoned the Keyblade I let him borrow, and jabbed it into his chest. “DREZKE!” He shouted. “- L-Lake?!” “Purger!” Lake yelled. His light began to blind out the darkness. When the light faded Drezke’s form sat across from Lake. Drezke was crying, and Lake was holding his other half. His brother. “Lake… I-I was so alone.” Drezke said. “I know...I know.” Lake said. I made myself a chair out of Nothingness and sat down on it, letting the two have their moment together. “Just take your time.” I said to the two, hoping this will set off the proper actions for Kexez to get back to his senses. “I’m sorry… I’m so sorry…” “I know Drezke.” “You-You know...what’s coming next, right?” “Yes…” “I’m sorry.” Just then, that same putrid darkness began oozing from the walls, floor, ceiling. I got up, and watched as it swarmed and compressed around itself before us all. What emerged was a heartless. Pureblood. It was a purple haired, black skinned Zeke with Drezke’s attire, and those glowing yellow eyes. “Okay…” I muttered. “Now it’s either going to attack...or not…” I said while drawing my X-blade and Frozen Pride anyways just in case of the worst. My Assistant flashed. I saw it’s hp bar… big, but not a boss… It’s name was The Unbalanced. “The Unbalanced eh? Well we’re gonna have to fight it apparently.” I said, having a bad feeling about this condensed being of Darkness. It walked forwards, each step another one of itself appeared behind it. All it’s copies vanished as the first one stayed, summoning a Soul Eater sword and attacked. “Fuck.” I frowned, blocking the attack with Frozen Pride and trying to stab the thing with my No Heart. It countered, fighting a lot like Zeke does. Strike Raids, Reflect raids, Zantetsuken, it even would open small DTD’s other lesser Purebloods poured in from. “Yeah, this is totally fine…” I groaned while a Nobody Behemoth appeared and cleaved through the lesser Nobodies. “Thank you.” I said while raising my hand as Nothingness thorns shot out of the ground and attempted to wrap around him like spiked chains to hold The Unbalanced down so I can kill it. A foot was caught… and it did not hesitate to slice it’s own foot off, darkness flowing from the wound, creating stub for it to balance itself on. He then used a move that froze me in place… Time Splicer. When it ended I was bleeding all over, my healing factor kicking in to keep me from bleeding out. How many moves does this think know!? I pulled out my Wayfinder, and felt Luna’s heart touch mine as I used her moves for a bit, unleashing her final that knocked the UnBalanced over, allowing me to deliver a final, finishing blow to it’s chest. It puffed in a haze of darkness… On the floor was… one of those star things from Birth By Sleep that enhanced D-links, I grabbed it, and felt Luna even closer than before. I even...remembered her past memories? That’s… different. Her jealousy of Celestia, falling to her own darkness as Nightmare Moon… the one thousand years in the moon… “Oh crap…” I muttered sadly. “Well...do you two know where the other things went?” I asked Drezke and Lake. “Everywhere…” Drezke said. Lake sighed. “That much darkness created a new breed of Purebloods. Pureblood heartless with the powers of a Keyblade wielder.” Lake finished. “They likely headed off to the realm of Darkness to generate more of themselves.” “Cause fuck it why not.” I face palmed. “Christ...okay so now you two need to find Zeke and then get to Kexez to get him back in his right mind...and I have a feeling I’m going to have to hunt those fuckers down.” I sighed out. “Cause...you know, giving Purebloods the power of Keyblades is not a good thing.” “We will stay here. Figure out what to do about the Inhabitants and figure some things out.” Lake said. “Alright.” I nodded. “Your family is in Boletaria if memory serves in case you both want to see them...and now the worrying case of Kexez and if he’s starting to feel better with you two being here and both being in sound mind.” I sighed out. “Can you both sense Kexez?” I asked, hoping that’s possible. They both shook their heads. “Kexez, without our soul, will be hard to track, and is likely the only Nobody to be able to resist your commands now that you are king.” Lake said. “All Nobodies have souls. He does not.” “That’s not good…” I muttered worriedly. “But...at least with you two here it’ll at least start things off on solving all these problems.” “Hopefully.” Lake sighed. Back in the Zebra lands, the airship was all packed and we were off. The lands all around where a sight to see, tall mountains, vast empty lands and- “Stop the ship!” Twilight suddenly shouted, the whole Zeppelin stopping abruptly. “What’s going on?” I asked worriedly, wondering why Twilight wanted to stop the Ship suddenly. “It’s the Peaks of Peril!” She said excitedly. My attention was then drawn to the high up mountain with the only foliage for miles. “And it’s called that because…?” I asked honestly. “Also, wouldn’t a long lost Monster Princess be here?” I asked, not entirely remembering what Celestia and Luna said about her last known location. “I don’t know about that, but these mountains are said to be home to a mythical race, known as the Kirin, and the Nirik, once a peaceful, kind hearted race, the other a race of fire demons that set all around them a blaze.” Twilight said, teleporting a book before her. “No pony has seen either race since well before the founding of Equestria! The mountains are too treacherous for a normal pony to explore, and too high for a Pegasus to fly… but…” She then motioned over to me. “Hooray, can’t wait to marry the Kirin Princess and or Queen.” I said honestly. “And whatever the heck Nirik are cause they sound like fire elementals.” I brought up. “Whatever the case, this could be a chance for us to discover if they are even still alive!” Twilight was drooling with scientific excitement. “You’re drooling again Twilight.” Celestia said, making her snap out of it, blushing as she wiped it away. I chuckled a little. “So, the Kirin...are they friendly?” I asked curiously. “Oh yes, the Kirin are some of the most ancient and civilized races in Equis mythos. They were known for showing extreme compassion and understanding, while the Nirik where said to be a warfairing race. Nopony has seen either since they were said to have migrated to this mountain.” “Alright, so the Kirin will be easy enough to talk to and proceed to have another wife...and the Nirik...well it might be tough but who knows until we get there.” I said honestly, looking over the mountains, wondering where a town might be in this place. “So, mind if I tag along?” Gilda asked. “This sounds like fun.” “Sure.” I nodded. “I still need to take you all out on solo dates still…” I said, remembering that whole thing. “Who else is tagging along?” Silence raised a hand. “Alright Silence, anyone else?” I asked, wanting to know who’s coming with before just going down. There didn’t seem to be anymore volunteers, so I had Gilda and Silence hop on my glider with me and we headed off. Wonder which of these things I’ll reach first? Back in my castle, the me that was with Lake and Drezke went back to the castle to deal with some things Consequence already had a list of… First off, dealing with the nobles who were dealing in illegal activities. Sitting on this throne was...odd, to say the least. “Alright, so time to deal with the nobles.” I said. “Who’s the first noble?” I asked honestly. “Iron Clad sire.” Consequence said. “His factories typically deal in, as expected, iron mining and smelting, however, it was discovered he was utilizing slave labor. From the youth to the elderly. Stretching back in his family four generations, Most of the slaves in his hold never knew a proper meal, clothing, or even sunlight.” He said, the stallion in question entering the room, chains all over him as a ring over his horn prevented hagic use. “Okay Ironclad, do you plead guilty or do you plead death?” I asked the unicorn bluntly. “Cause I’m pretty sure you can’t lie when I have a lot of damning evidence against you.” “Not to much of a choice there king. Sounds like tyrants court to me.” He said, one of the guards, a Canterlot one, jabbed his lance’s blunt side into his gut, silencing him. “Unnecessary.” I said honestly to the guard hitting him. “And Tyrant court eh? And what, were you the shining beacon of pride and fairness to all the slaves you had?” I asked honestly. “All your money, all your status, and all your power can’t be used in this court, you are but a unicorn brought here to stand trial for the massive fuck ups he did. So, do I need to bring in the slaves to tell me all the bad shit you did, or do you want to just open up and tell me now so you maybe can get off a little lighter?” I asked bluntly. He chuckled. “Conquest is but a taste on your lips isn’t it?” He asked. “This whole world is yours to own soon, already you perform justice the like Celestia had not the heart to preform. How far will you go however?” He asked. “I admit, my family enslaved thousands of rescues from the Las Pegasus flooding four generations ago, and I also admit most all of them are indeed third and fourth generation born slaves. Their sleep, eating, work and even bathroom uses where under my command. I decided who fucked who and what their child did. Only I know who is who’s child in the end. I admit I was their god, and I savored every moment of that power.” I nodded. “Thank you.” I said simply while getting up and walking down to him. “As your punishment…” I thought for a moment. “Consequence, what would be a nice punishment for this bastard?” I asked honestly. “Irony.” He stated. “Four generations of slaves, some five where in his hold, so ten generations as the lowest rank Dusk, only existing in your domain to clean the scraps from the streets. No, better yet. As a dusk, make him work in his own mines. They will be transferred to you now anyways.” “That sounds wonderful. And that’s why your named Consequence.” I said while summoning Kingsblade. “Oh, and just so you know, all your memories will be used to help the people you tortured, and all your money will be sent to all the slaves that were tortured for generations on end.” I said honestly, using my keyblade to pull the guys heart out so he can be under his punishment. His heart flew into my hands, and his body morphed into that of a Dusks. He rose up, and without thinking, bowed to me. “Go to your old mines, mine them alone til every ore is gone. And if you finish within those ten generations, keep digging. Dig, and dig, until ten generations have passed. Then bury yourself. Til someone comes to...heh, save you.” I ordered, and they began walking. Consequence took his heart, placing it inside a wooden box and warping it somewhere. “That’s one in the vault.” I muttered. “Next!” I barked. “Next we have Alumare Clearfant. Nobel mare whose family specializes in fabrics. Her crime is her personal side business of counterfeit fashion wears.” This mare was only in handcuffs, ring on her horn and her dress red, same as her shoes. “So, you sell counterfeit fashion wears?” I asked the mare simply. “I...admit, I allowed the creation of imitation brands.” She said. “How bad did this get?” I asked simply, wanting to know if it'll need an iron fist or a soft hand to deal with the counterfeiter. “I am a seamstress.” She said. “Selling fabrics is a family business, but I prefered stitchwork. I wanted to know just how good I was, so I counterfeited well known designers and brands.Only a small handful where found out.” “So you counterfeited because you didn’t like your job?” I asked. “You...do you know that you could have done what you wanted to do without doing an illegal thing right?” “I’m not exactly...very creative… Copying others was the best I could do and telling my family I had no interest in the family business… isn’t easy...so I avoided it.” “And you couldn’t ask your parents to help you with learning creativity?” I asked. “Or found a professional and tried to get an internship? Did you really have to counterfeit when you could have easily asked? Also, mind if I see one of your works? I just want to know how good these counterfeits are.” “Well, uh… I know for a fact one ended up with Rarity's Carousel Boutique without her even knowing it wasn’t one of hers.” “Now that’s an eye for detail if Rarity of all people couldn’t tell the difference.” I chuckled. “So, Consequence...got an idea to punish this mare, who is apparently really good but just got lost really wanting to do something she enjoys?” I asked curiously. “Honestly sire I don’t see much reason for a harsh punishment. This is just a girl who went about her dreams the wrong way. One thousand munny, or in your case bits fee, a night in jail and after that I will have her train with some designers since Rarity is away on your Zeppelin adventure sire.” “That is perfect.” I nodded. “So, as stated, a thousand bits and a night in prison and then you get lessons to how to be creative with your stitchwork.” I said honestly. “T-thank you, your highness.” She bowed, being taken away. “Your welcome.” I said. “I...doubt many of them are like that…” I muttered. “Next.” I said, hoping to get more of these nobles out of the way for the hundreds of other things I need to do. Back on the mountain we made our way up rather quickly. We were just walking through the trees for a while til… “It’s...amazing!” Gilda spoke our thoughts. Every house was made from a tree or a tree house, or...wow. The Kirin, where easily twice as fluffy as ponies, and I mean fur, not...chest… they had a green patch of scales on their back and a single large stone/wood looking horn on their heads. There where a lot of them too. “They...are so fluffy.” I blinked. “But wow...this is really pretty.” I said, although I was admiring the Kirin’s beauty as well. We walked into town, none of them seemed to...take notice. In fact… all of them had frowns on their face? Not sadness just...dull expressions. “Hello?” I asked. “Is something wrong?” No one said anything. Fact is only a few looked at us, before looking back at their tasks. “Where’s your leader?” I asked the Kirins bluntly. “And can anyone actually talk?” They just tilted their head sideways, then turned around and walked off. “Rude, not even I’m that rude.” Gilda said. “Something’s not right here.” I frowned. “Dull expressionless faces, literally no one talking…” I muttered. “Crap, someone put a curse on them.” “I’ll try and find the leader figure, you...see if anyone here can talk.” Gilda said. “Alright.” I nodded. “Silence?” I asked, wondering if she’ll either help me or do something to help Gilda. She followed me and so far...not a single...damn, Kirin was talking… Actually, now that I think about it I don’t see any males either? “Weird to see now males here…” I muttered, blushing as the thought of me having every Kirin female here as a wife rushed into my mind...all the fluff... Silence gave me a light tap on the arm when she pointed towards the towns edge, and I saw it. Another Kirin, this one saw we saw her, then left. “Well...I suppose we go after her…” I said, following after the Kirin that left and wondering if that one was able to talk. “Let’s hope she can actually talk…” We chased after her, very much leaving the far ends of the village til we were only in forrest. We soon found ourselves bumping into her, her, Silence and I all toppling over and rolling down a small hill. “Owe… Bad idea.” Oh good she talks. “Yeah, it was.” I muttered. “So...you can talk. Who are you if I may ask and why are people not talking?” She got back up, the lot of us dusting off. “That is a long story…. So here’s all the details!” She said, going into beyond Lord of the rings detail on how her people came to stop talking… In short, Kirins are Niriks...how did I not noticed it’s their name reversed. They turn into them when very angry. They burned down their village, and their leader said no more talking, so they all took a dip in magic water that stripped them of all emotions, and ability to speak. “So that’s the WHOLE story, in every little detail.” The Kirin, Autumn Blaze, finished… IT’S SUNSET! “Christ lady did you really need to say every single little detail?” I asked honestly. “And...how do I help solve this problem?” “Oh, well I was able to talk again after drinking a tea made from a special flower I found. It completely reverses the magic in the water. But I only found enough for me. It’s a rare flower and I don’t know where it properly grows.” “Do you know what the flower looks like? What color was it?” I asked, bringing up my Assistant to see if I could find it with what she told me. “Also, where’s the Kirin leader?” I asked curiously. “Well, its blue, and it’s called foals-breath. It’s really hard to find, and grows in only patches of like one or two stems, and smells kinda like if you blended Strawberries and Blueberries together, and tastes like camomile.” “Right then…” I muttered while seeing if I could actually buy the plant we needed to help out or if I have to hunt for the thing. “Do you know anyone that might know of the plant?” I asked, hoping she knows someone to help make this a bit easier if I can’t just buy the thing. “Psst. Doubt it. I didn’t even know it was a thing til I found it and looked it up when I got back home. Had to, uh, borrow one of the leaders old tombs to find out what it was. Even is anyone back in the village knew I’d doubt they’d tell… no pun intended.” “Do you know where to find the leaders?” I asked curiously. “Well Leader, she’s not hard to miss. She’s the tallest Kirin in the village.” “Alright then.” I nodded. “But...she might know where to find the plants...oh, also...do you know who I am?” I asked, knowing that word of me has gotten around to damn near everywhere but not sure where it hasn’t. “Uh… a very fuzzy pony? A tiny diamond dog?” She asked. “I’m a Dire Wolf actually. And I’ll take that as a no.” I said honestly. “I suppose living all the way up here would close you off from...well literally any world wide news.” “We get no news from anywhere. Why? What’s happened out there in the world!? Tell me with extremely lengthy details!” She started shaking me… How long has she not had anyone to talk to!? “It’s going to take too long if I do that.” I frowned. “To make an excruciatingly long story as short as possible, I am the King of Nothingness, the king of the changelings, pony, diamond dogs, technically the griffons, and prince of the Zebra’s all through marriage, and right now I’m going wife hunting to unite the world...even though this world is in my domain of Nothingness.” I shrugged. “A lot of things have been happening, like a lot of things happened and are still happening.” I said honestly. “Ooooh! A King! How exciting! If the leader Rain Shin could speak she’d love to talk with you.” “She’d really love to know what the hell’s going on in the world if a King of at portion of the planet is here.” I said honestly. “Well if the Stream of Silence didnt turn off everyone's emotions and voices she likely would, otherwise it’s just a blank stair with a slight head tilt.” “Yeah…” I sighed out. “But did that tomb say anything about where the plants are?” I asked honestly. “No, just that it reverses curses and enchantments.” She sighed. “You know what? I probably have a spell for this.” I frowned while opening my Lexicon and sifting through it with the ass ton of spells I know. “I mean...Dispel is a thing...Esuna...several other spells that get rid of curses and enchantments…” I muttered while closing it. “Does it need to be this plant or could it be any spell that gets rid of curses and enchantments?” “I...I don’t know.” I took a deep breath. “God damn it…” I muttered. “Well...let’s get back to town and try this out.” I said, hoping Silence was still here because I was so busy talking to Autumn I didn’t think about Silence and if she had anything she wanted to do or ‘say’. We headed back to town and I spotted Gilda sitting at the pond in the center of town. “Hey Gilda, how you doing?” I asked her. “Hope we weren’t taking too long.” “Huh, oh. Well yeah, but look, Maybe we should, ya know, leave them as is…” She said. “Why do you say that?” I asked curiously. “Cause I have several spells that could get rid of the curse or enchantment.” “Well… I found out from some journal entries of their leader that since when angry they turn into those fire demons and burned their whole village down… And lots of very harsh words where said. Speaking from experience of harsh words being said...maybe it’s best they can’t talk so they don’t burn down anything opr hurt themselves.” “No.” I said honestly. “They need to learn to control their emotions, not get pissy at every single thing, and learn that it’s fine to disagree, not going into a blind rage for petty reasons.” I said honestly. “And this is coming from a guy who’s literally done what they did, and believe me, it doesn’t work.” “And still does.” “And still does what?’ I asked honestly. “Ben, when you get angry, you blow. Up. You ain’t exactly practicing what the girls and I have been preaching to you about patience and calming.” “Oh believe me, I am very patient. It’s just the fact that literally everything is straining it to hell and back.” I said honestly. “And let’s look at the list shall we. The ever growing family that I constantly fear I can’t be good enough for, scared that I can’t be a good father to the literal hundreds of kids we have at the moment, have to train a whole bunch to be strong to protect everyone I care about, literally being crowned King of Nothingness not a day ago or something and having to do some much of that long list of shit, all the other problems that keep cropping up out of nowhere, and then the Keyblade War that’s going to happen soon.” I explained. “Not to mention a bunch of this stress I literally can’t share with you all cause of several reasons. Training, literally all the problems I have to solve, currently solving, or just figuring out are problems, all the training, me just feeling like crap to begin with because, again I’m really freaking depressed here, and just so much other things that I’m having to have the entire world on my back.” “And that’s where you are an idiot!” Gilda said, jumping up. “We are your family, your wives for Stars sake! We are okay with sharing your stress! We saw you, baggage and all and hung around because we care, we love you and you can’t even trust us to open up about your worries without throwing a pity fit like a toddler! We want you to talk to us about your worries, your fears. Your heart may be whole but you keep it frozen like your freaky shield sometimes!” “Pity fit? Really?” I asked. “When have I asked for pity? Never. When do I actually have time to talk while either all of you are busy or I’m way too busy?” I asked. “When do I get to feel that actually talking won’t cause problems for others? When will I stop being depressed and fear everything will just disappear cause I’m in some idealistic fever dream? When will I get the images of you all dying out of my head? When will my constant screams for you all to be safe stop?” I asked. “Want to know why I don’t talk? Because I’m scared that it’ll be true, that I’ll lose all of you because of my own incompetence. You say I throw a pity party like a child, but that’s not it at all, I’m not throwing a god damn pity party, and I’m not a child...even though I died when I was a kid and then everything spiraled out of control from there.” “And what do you call this?! Why can’t you just say- Woah what’s happening?” Gilda and I were suddenly floating, immobilized by the Kirin’s really strong magic. They were taking us somewhere. “Oh no!” Autumn yelped. “They’re taking you to the Stream of Silence! That water touches you and you’ll be like all of them!” “Cause of course we are…” I growled. “Can’t things ever be fucking simple for once? Please?” “Do you ever make it simple for yourself?” Gilda asked. “I was told some stories, you tend to make thing harder than they need to be because of your anxiety.” “No, I have literally tried to make things simple as many times as possible.” I said. “But you know, life never wants that to happen.” “I dunno, was pretty easy to land you.” She said, chuckling. “Was that before or after I made you scream?” I asked with a cheeky little grin. “During.” She said, smiling. “Look, we don’t ask for much from you, emotionally anyway, heh… But we want you healthy mentally as well as physically, and emotionally. No one is flawless so all we can do is help each other hammer out the kinks.” “Considering nine times out of ten you want me hammering out other kinks.” I said honestly. “You know, when the times I actually said no you all still dragged me into it, as the running joke was during that time, when...to be honest I would have just liked to know how your days were.” I said honestly. “And you think we don’t wanna know how yours went? We keep the sex going cause at least you relax during/after it. You...rarely open up. Makes us feel like you are keeping secrets from us…” “I mean, I’m pretty sure the images of your deaths would be a pretty good thing to keep secret.” I said honestly. “And then...the fact I had to walk on your rotting corpses…” I took a deep breath. “Yeah this is some reasons why I don’t want to say things.” I said honestly. “But besides that...well it’s not like you all are open books either. Sure I don’t ask how your days are or what’s new but...normally your all so open about it I sometimes don’t think i actually need to ask.” I brought up. “Well, after what happened to Shining Armor, we’d be worried if you just...up and either never came back or...died coming home. We worry, you take so many life endangering risks like you have a death wish and when we try to help you in that you act like we’re a toddler surrounded with broken glass… We aren’t fragile, especially not Luna or me. You treat us like we are helpless when we’ve been training. Heck, before your clones thing the others went world hoping a few times while you were gone, got in trouble, but came out okay. We didn’t tell you that little trip because they figured you’d have a heart attack.” “I mean...I would considering the people coming after me.” I said honestly. “Cause you know, I’m not allowed to panic when my fiance's disappear and I have really powerful bad guys wanting to kill me.” “Who ever said you aren’t aloud to panic? Panicking is normal, we panic all the time over you, so you deserve a panic attack every now and then. Everyone needs to let their true feeling out in some way.” “True…” I said honestly. “But there’s more than just you girls world hopping around when I’m not around right?” “If we get out of this, you’ll get the whole story.” She said, smiling before looking worried, a stream was up ahead, with rocks around it with odd symbols on them that glowed. “Okay...are you bringing us here for me to reverse the stream or no?” I asked the Kirins honestly, looking at them all in hopes one of them will literally do anything just to say ‘yes’. “Hey Mutes!” They all stopped, all of us turning up to the trail behind us, seeing… Autumn Blaze? She was… a Nirik, skin like charcoal and fire erupting from all over. “Drop them. NOW!” Immediately they dropped us, backing up… afraid. Autumn ran over to us, a trail of purple fire behind her before making a small ring of fire around us as a barrier between her kind and us. She then quickly reverted back to her normal Kirin form. “Oh my gosh are you two alright?!” She asked, invading all kinds of personal space looking Gilda and I over, Silence jumping the fire and joining us. “Yes, we’re okay.” I said honestly. “Thank you though.” “Well, I couldn’t just let you two end up without your voices. I know how that feels.” Autumn said. “What about your Nirik form? Weren’t you afraid of losing control?” Gilda asked. “Well, at first but, then I realized I can’t let fear of what I can do govern what I can use it for, and if I hurt others by accident, I can atone and hope they forgive me.” She said. “Words only have as much power as we give them, and for a Kirin that can be a lot, but we should choose how to release that anger, be responsible with it.” “Some fire extinguishers could also be handy.” Gilda laughed. “Yeah just a bit.” I said honestly. “Or...well you know, magic could solve the fire problem.” I said honestly. “There are plenty of water based spells ya know?” “Yeah...we can’t do those spells… Kirins, Niriks, both really tied to fire so water magics our magic doesn’t agree with…” Autumn said, looking towards her fellow Kirins. “Girls… one bad argument over the past thousand years… is that really all it took to justify taking away our voices? Rain Shine,” She motioned to the tallest one- HOLY FUCK SHE’S LIKE TEN FEET TALL! “You used to sing the most amazing melodies, we all used to enjoy laughing, talking. Was one bad argument all it took?” Rain Shine looked ashamed, realizing her past decree was rather hastey, and not thought out. “I mean...it might have also been because of the town that kept burning down.” I mentioned. “But...well that’s neither here nor there at the moment.” We then spent the next two hours searching for the flower, it’s image shown to us by Rain Shine. I found a good bunch of them at the mountains base, far off any paths, and hard to get to. No wonder Autumn never found them after that first time. Everyone drank the cure, and voices, laughter, and even a few songs began upon the now vocal Kirins. Rain Shine walked up to us. “Autumn Blaze, you have reminded us that we choose how to let out tempers flow. And you three, if there is anything you wish, we are in your debt.” “Um...question, are there any male kirins?” I asked honestly. “Cause...so far I’ve only seen female’s and...all the fluff.” I said sheepishly. “Ah, well…” Rain Shine started. “It’s part of why we moved up to this mountain. Long ago, a deadly plague was claiming land that once was our old kingdom. It was odd, as it only affected the males of our kind. We escaped here, but the plague still pestered us. The last males died off hundreds of years ago. To keep our kind alive, we have had to use a special spell to, how to say...self impregnate, we are reborn exactly, our old, aged body dying after our new one has been born. It’s been hard, the rebirth leaves us with all our past memories, even within our infant state.” “Well...do you remember how Kirins...picked husbands?” I asked honestly. “Like ponies. Not gonna lie, we all have...experimented, over our many rebirths, but living this long is no way to live. Many chose to die rather than live on. Just we thirteen remain. Why do you ask?” “Well…” I sighed out. “It’s long and complicated but basically I’m going around the world trying to unite the world...by marrying all the female royalty to basically become king of the world.” I said, blushing brightly at this. “I’m already King of the Changelings, Diamond Dogs, Griffons, Ponies, and Prince of the Zebra’s.” I explained. “And...I would...well I’d like it if you would join ma’am...and if you work like ponies I suppose any other Kirin that would love to join my ever growing herd.” I said sheepishly. “I...know it’s sudden...but ancient laws are really weird like that.” Rain Shine seemed a bit taken back, then seemed to be thinking it over. “Hmm… It’s an interesting offer… and it’s not like most of us… Alright. The others can finally find mates, and I guess I can finally have foals and-” “I’m in too!” Autumn suddenly shouted, grabbing my face and planting a deep, heavy tongue kiss on my lips… I feel like she’s eating my face! “Heh, not surprised.” Rain Shine laughed. I gently pushed away. “Ladies please.” I chuckled. “Save it till we get back to the airship. I’m sure you two would just love the rest of my fiances.” I chuckled a little. “Oh and just a fair warning...one of my fiances will literally try to talk your ears off with questions.” “Talk!” Autumn said happily. “And now you have two.” Gilda laughed. Back in the Air Ship, I sat with all my wives and my two new additions. We all sat with snacks and drinks. This was it, we were all going to talk and get things off our chests. “Alright…” I sighed out. “How to start this…” I muttered, trying to think of a good way to start this. “Who wants to start first?” I asked. “Well, let’s start with something simple.” Celestia starts. “What exactly happened while you where down there?” “Well…” I started. “A lot of things happened...which involved Gilda telling me I need to talk to you all more in an aggravated way.” I said honestly. Most of them nodded. “Then let’s start talking, we ask you something that’s bugged us, you do the same. Sound fair?” Twilight asked. “Fine enough.” I said. “So, how much booze will I need?” I asked, knowing I’ll probably be drinking heavily because of this. “We will figure that out along the way.” Luna said. “So Ben, first up...why do you hide your nightmares from us? Back when they were daily?” “Would you like if I talked about me seeing you all brutally murdered while I couldn’t do a damn thing about it?” I asked. “Or the fact malformed abominations that Kexez made...were eating your rotting corpses?” Most of them shuttered, but Luna remained calm. “It would have been a good idea at the least.” She stated. “Keeping that nightmarish image to yourself must have tormented you.” “It did, and still does.” I said honestly. “Cause you know, not being able to do anything while you see your family get butchered is a hell of a thing.” “What else has there been?” Rarity asked. “What else?” I asked curiously. “Like what? Nightmares or things that have just been bugging the piss out of me?” “Either or darling.” “Okay well the Nightmares I just don’t care about anymore because they stopped thankfully.” I said honestly. “But things that have been currently pissing me off is Kexez and a bunch of other things. Sure I just got Drezke and Lake, Zeke’s light and dark parts, back together but then an ass ton of Keyblade wielding Purebloods went out and about doing something.” I said honestly. “Then there’s me being the king and basically doing literally what Celestia and Luna should have been doing, like going through literally all of the Royal Class and going through all the shit they illegally did and punishing them accordingly. Oh, Rarity you're going to have a new protege in tailoring.” I said honestly. “Oh, how interesting.” Rarity said. “...Oh thank the stars above.” Celestia and Luna said in unison. They seemed...oddly happy. “You two seem oddly happy.” I brought up. “Oh and her name is Alumare Clearfant just so you know Rarity.” I said. “Well, you see Ben,” Celestia started. “The nobel houses, we knew they were up to something illegal, the most of them anyway.” Luna finished. “But because of a rule from Equestria’s founding, before Luna and I took power, we could not investigate or put suspected nobles on trial with evidence because the law stated only Princess Platinum’s bloodline had that authority as the Kingdoms head of security.” “The last of Platinums bloodlines died off LONG before we took power, and since the law was tied by magic and blood if we tried we’d be… harmed, for it.” Celestia said. “So...why is my clone perfectly fine then? I mean technically I’m outside of Equestria’s laws at this point because Equis as a whole is now in the Realm of Nothingness so my word is law now but still.” I said honestly. “But hey, if that law doesn't mean shit to me than yippee for me.” I said honestly. “Because technically taking Equis into your Domain and ruling, you Concored Equis, claiming it as your own. All the old laws no longer apply when under a new regem.” Luna said gitty. “Finally, I want to find those old scrolls and burn them!” “But...does the old law I’m currently abusing still work in this case?” I asked nervously. “You took Equis, but only Equestria has freely taken your banner.” Celestia said. “Others will only take it after a unifying marriage.” “Alright thank you.” I nodded. “Good to know.” I said. “So I can still go around the world learning new things and marrying new women.” I said honestly. “God...still feels weird that I’m basically whoring myself out here.” “All you need for that is the right outfit.” Twin Pie said. “But we know you won’t wear that.” Pinkie added. “So, anything else Ben?” “Well there’s a bunch of things still.” I said. “Like Kexez being a fucking bastard and torturing Jenny and then stealing all her memories away that I have to play fucking scavenger hunt for cause the dick waffle doesn’t know when to actually just give me her memories when he knows I can kill him easily enough.” I growled. “Well, he is just a literal husk. No heart, no soul. How much power is in him? Even with all the darkness he has pumped into himself.” Twilight said. “Lake said he’s not that strong, just really smart.” I said honestly. “But then there’s the problem of him basically being controlled by Psychopaths but that still doesn’t solve that problem.” I huffed. “Didn’t Core drain all of the Psychopath blood from Zeke once?” Luna asked. “I remember his Luna telling me that once. Some kind of Trumpet looking item one of the other colored Core’s had.” “That’s exactly what happened, but when he split apparently that whole thing doesn’t matter anymore and he just got that Psychopath blood back, albeit Lake had more just rushed onto him so...there’s that.” I said honestly. “Why not speak to Cript about it? He might have means to remove it forever.” Coco asked. “His new job doesn’t allow him to do certain things...even though he has proceeded to still do things that he said before he wasn’t supposed to...and he’s probably got something planned for after the war cause of course it has to be after the war.” I rolled my eyes. “Hey… Didn’t he say after you mastered your abilities you two where supposed to do some special training?” Rarity asked. “Yes, that is also a thing.” I said, taking stock on all my clones. One was still hunting for Jenny’s memories, one was still going through an ass ton of nobles who did illegal shit, and my third and fourth were actually spending time with the kids like how a father was supposed to. “He’ll probably grab one of my clones that aren’t busy.” I said honestly. “Nope!” Cript said, appearing behind me. I jumped, falling off my chair and spilling my drink. “I need the original.” “Of course you do…” I muttered. “Well...I suppose I’ll need yet another clone.” I said honestly while rolling up my sleeve. “So,don’t be shocked you two, this is starting to become a normal thing.” I said to my two kirin fiances while cutting my arm off. “Ow…” I muttered, regrowing my arm as a fully clothed clone appeared rather quickly. “When do we start?” I asked Cript honestly.tly. “Hmm…. Now.” He said, grabbing me and everything went dark. I didn’t wake up in pain, for once. I did wake up in a forest of sorts… Wait, this is the forest outside Cript’s old Temple from his childhood. “And why am I here again?” I asked curiously while getting up. “Lesson one.” I looked behind me, seeing Cript leaning against a tree. “Lesson one?” I asked, wondering what lesson one is going to be. “Regret.” He said. He vanished in a trail of smoke as suddenly the whole forest began to catch fire. “The fuck!?!” I yelped, summoning Frozen Pride and Eternal flames and trying to put out all the fires by shooting a bunch of water at the fire’s. The weapons vanished the second I summoned them… None of them were responding to me. Even my cloak! It was replaced by just a simple pair of cloth shorts… I feel very naked here. Not even shoes. “Shit.” I swore. “Um…” I looked around to see if there was anything that wasn’t on fire and try to solve this...or run if need be cause so much fire. “There it is!” Someone yelled, an arrow barely missing my face. “Kill it!” “Excuse me what!?” I yelped, looking around worriedly at who just fired the shot. “Fuck this I’m out.” I muttered while running as fast as I could away from whoever just shot at me. “This is not good...not good at all…” I muttered, trying to use the burning forest to my advantage so I wouldn’t be hit. I was running. The heat made breathing hard, the smoke just made it worse. Not having shoes meant every little sharp rock and stick I hit I felt. I tripped, falling over a small hill into a pond. I got up, in the reflection I saw myself. Fur unkempt, dirty...blood soaked. “Why bloodsoaked?” I muttered worriedly, not knowing what the hell is going on and am just so goddamn confused. “What’s going on here?’ I howled, actually howled in pain when a pitchfork shot into the palm of my right hand. Looking up I saw three men, each looking like normal people, one with a bow and arrow. So that’s who shot at me. I pulled it out, and immediately noticed the pain was still there… no healing factor. I got up, running fast. “Die demon hound!” I yelped, an arrow hitting into my shoulder blade. “What the fuck are you all talking about!?!” I shouted in panic, trying to get away from the attackers that just attacked me for no reason. My hand was dripping blood. A lot of blood. I gotta patch this up. Acting fast, I tore some of my raggedy shorts and wrapped it around my wound. Thinking fast I ran ahead as fast as possible, then hid, the attackers heading forwards while I ran back. ”What the actual fuck is going on?” I thought to myself worriedly, not understanding what this was, why I was getting hunted, and why Cript said ‘Regret’. I ran. I need answers and maybe the- I stopped myself, finding myself in a burning village… blood and corpses everywhere. Young. Old. Men, women. All...dead. I took a step forwards… and felt something. Looking down, it was a...collar. Thick metal, the ‘name’ E44 engraved onto it. It was broken, the tip of an arrow still lodged into it’s lock. “I…” I muttered. “I…” I took a step back. “No...no this can’t be true…” My head began to rush me. I was remembering… things. Things I...Did I do them? Was this really me? I remember….Den, being a pup, growing up with her… being captured, this coller put on me… Forcing to turn Beastial. I remembered my first order… I threw up… I…. I ate Mom… They…. So much blood… So much death. So much murder… All I could do is watch. Trapped in my own body. “Everything…” I cried. “It’s...it’s all my fault…” I muttered sadly, sniffling as tears landed on the bloodied grown. “I...I’m sorry mom...I’m so sorry…” I was too busy crying to notice the person walking up behind me. Not until another collar was placed on my neck, followed by endless, high voltage shocks that made me scream. “Such a good boy.” A man said… The one who did this to me. “You left three alive, but overall a good job.” My body began morphing against my will. I became beastial, and I could not move my own body at all. The man wasn’t that much older than me. And he wore a blue vest over a white shirt, and a belt that… Oh god… Mom’s skin! I wanted to scream, bark, cuss him out, bite his head off, anything but I could not move. ”YOUR THE ONE THAT FORCED THIS ON ME!?! YOUR THE ONE THAT FORCED ME TO KILL MY MOM AND DO ALL THIS SHIT!?!” I mentally roared in rage. ”I WILL FUCKING END YOU WHEN I GET THIS DAMNED COLLAR OFF ME! I WILL MAKE YOU REGRET BEING BORN FOR MAKING ME DEVOUR MY OWN MOM YOU SICK SADISTIC BASTARD!” I mentally shouted, tears still streaming down my beastial face. “Have a treat.” He said, tossing me this large pill looking thing. Against my will's, my body moved, taking and eating the thing. It tasted like old leather, but my body felt...better. “We got one more village to target and those Nexus fat cats are gonna pay me bi-” Just then, a ‘Hello Moto’ ringtone rang from his pocket. “What the?” He asked, taking out… a flip phone? Really? “Hunter, what’s up?” ”Hunter?” I thought. ”And your working for the Nexus? You motherfucker now I will piss on your still living body after I flay it like a dead fish.” “New target?” He said. I can’t hear who is talking through the phone is saying. “Really? A school you say? Which students?” ”Oh fuck no!” I mentally yelped, trying to get some semblance of control against this damned collar. “The Children of Cript huh? That’s a messy job, I don’t wanna just barge in and- HOW MUCH!? You, you sly morally bankrupt fat cat have a deal. Yeah, same to you.” He hung up the phone, then looked over to me. “Good news boy, we got a new job. Five kids, fifty million rem each. Be sure to leave the heads, payers want this Cript guy to suffer.” ”Oh fuck me…” I thought to myself. ”I’m gonna die and it’s your fault you bastard!” He opened some portal and had me walk inside. “Classroom A113. Scare them all, and leave just enough.” He said, the portal closing. Every inch of me wanted to run away but I was moving, looking for the classroom… A109...A110… ”Stop! Stop please!” I mentally shouted, trying to figure out how the fuck to get my body to work here. A111...A112...A113… I froze for a while, looking at the wooden door. My body growled, and after backing up a bit, I charged in, smashing the door down and most of the walls around it. Time seemed to slow as… Cript was in front of me… though NOT like I know… This Cript was… female. Red hair, green eyes. She was looking at me like I was dead already… then her face went to something like horror, or realization… does she see… me? ”Please...run…” I mentally cried, my eyes still filled with tears. ”I’m sorry…” Time flowed back to normal, though I was suddenly pinned into the wall, something sharp piercing my stomach. I felt something, like ice, but not cold begin to crawl out from my new wound, right as it reached my neck, this female Cript grabbed my collar, and ripped it off like paper. I was then encased in crystal, and found myself in my own mind. ”Yay…” I muttered in my head. ”Thanks...can’t wait to stay dead if...if I did so many horrible things...oh god...I’m sorry…” I heard cracking, like glass as I was suddenly face first on the ground. Ouch. “Or...I’m not allowed to die…” I muttered while looking up. “Hi…” I said sadly. “You okay?” This female Cript asked, holding out a hand to pull me up. “No.” I said honestly while taking the hand and getting up. “You know...being forced to eat your own mother because Nexus hired some asshole to turn me into a psychotic killer…” I said sadly. “You know...I’m perfectly okay.” “Oh...you poor guy.” She said, giving me a hug. “Don’t worry, it’s over now. You’re free.” She said. My memories of this alternate life flooded me… Six years of that guy’s shit. I felt...free. I cried. “It’s...it’s so good...to feel free.” I said gently. “Too bad that...doesn’t excuse the six years of murdering I’ve done…” “It’s okay. There’s nothing more to fear.” She cooed. “No it’s not...I ate my mother and I was forced to kill for six years straight for those bastard Nexus…” I cried. “So much blood…” “It’s okay to hold onto Regrets, but learn from them. Don’t just morn because of them.” “I ate my mom...I think this is literally the first time I could literally morn about that.” I said honestly. “But...I suppose…” I sniffled, rubbing the tears out of my eyes. “This bites…” “No puns. No snark, just cry. It’s not a bad thing to cry, to let tears flow. It’s only human. No matter what race.” Even though I wanted to object...I just couldn’t as I curled up and cried, cried in front of an entire class I was forced to try and attack, in front of a female Cript, and just not caring cause fuck did everything hurt. I wasn’t sure how much time had passed. But when I finally stopped crying… I just felt… amazing. More relieved than I have ever known...ever. “Lesson one.” I looked up, seeing Cript there. My Cript, standing behind the other one. “Regret, learned.” “To regret, is to feel the pain of all wronged by you. Feel sorrow not just for those you care for, but for those you hate.” Female Cript said. “Feel sorrow for those I hate?” I asked. “Some.” My Cript started, “Are born evil. There is no hope, to reason to shed tears.” “But most.” The female Cript picked up. “Are created this way. Take your master, for example.” She said, the image of a young boy, beaten, starved, eating a rat. “Abandoned. Homeless, starving.” The image changed, the boy a little older, still thin was walking around, picking pockets. It changed again, this time… He…. he was… being raped? Wha, bu- wait… When it was over, the adult dropped...money… So young… selling himself… “Life, can give blessings to all, but some, some never get to know it’s kindness. Their hearts grow cold, freeze over, until it’s just a monter everyone else sees.” I couldn’t believe that the guy that made me do terrible shit for years...actually had a very shitty life...and something I didn’t expect to happen, but I cried for the poor bastard. “This is why I created this sword.” My Cript said, showing me the chrome blade with a black aura. “Salvation, for the wicked not born to their life, but created by their experiences. A weapon of true peace.” “Oh...that’s...that’s a thing…” I said, sniffling a little. “Lesson Two.” Female Cript said, my Cript handing me the Humanity blade. “Mercy.” I took the sword. “Um...so...mercy huh?” I asked. “I suppose I have to use this on the guy that tortured me for six years?” I asked. “What the sword does, varies from target to target.” Cript said. “But mercy, is essential. If I can forgive Psychopath for the Mars incident, my own dad for making my best friend turn psycho… you can forgive a man who’s life made him so cruel and cold hearted.” “I understand.” I nodded. “Well...better go find the guy…” I said, even though I would rather maul him for what he did...I think he deserved at least some kindness I suppose. Cript opened up a portal. The man was a distance. He didn’t notice me… I felt so much rage, but also sorrow. Half of me wanted to maul him, the other to save him. It was like I was at a crossroads. “If I’ve learned anything...it’s that some people deserve a second chance...even if you don’t want them to…” I muttered. “So...just stab him with this?” I asked Cript. “Yes, the blade will do the rest.” The portal closed. I nodded. “Well...here we go…” I muttered while sneaking up on the man. ”Let’s hope...this works out for ya.” I thought to myself before moving closer and stabbing the guy with the sword Cript gave me. “Gah!” He yelped, those Crystals forming all over him until they encased him. I removed the sword, a black miasma smoking from the crystal. “Well...I hope you can have a better life after this.” I muttered, wondering if I’m gonna have to kill the miasma. It was like this for a while, then, the crystals began breaking. The man was surrounded by a bright light… and I found myself staring at a child. No older than three. He was wearing worn, dirty clothes, and messy hair. “Hey little guy.” I said, kneeling down gently. “How you doing?” “I-I can’t find my mommy!” He cried. “What does your mommy look like?” I asked gently. “She-she told me to wait for her. B-but she never came back!” I sighed out while putting a hand on his head. “I’m here for ya. What’s your name?” I asked gently. “I… I don’t know. Mommy just called me her child and… that was it.” I sighed out. “Do you know where your mommy went? Do you have a daddy?” I asked gently. “No, and...I never met my dad.” “Oh…” I said. “Well...I can be your dad.” I said gently and carringly. I took the kid, lifting him up. He changed, turning wolf pup, gaining blond hair and wings. Heh, looks like Derpy has a Son now. “Alright...do you want a name?” I asked my new son honestly. “Yeah…” He said. “Can it be Hunter? I always like that name.” “Sure.” I nodded. “Hunter sounds good for you.” Cript showed up, placing a hand on Hunter as he vanished in a puff of light. “Sent him to Derpy with a note. I’m proud, you learn fast.” “Well I wouldn’t be here if I wasn’t a quick learner.” I said honestly. “And...the poor guy needed a second chance.” “Good to know. Your next lesson is something I feel is a bit overdue. It’s simple. History.” “Yippee…” I groaned. “History lessons...wonder if I’m going to experience it or have my ears talked off about it.” “Actually, this is a History lesson Den is teaching you. I recently remade her old homeworld to exact detail. You and her are gonna spend some time digging into your ancestral roots, and prove you’ve earned that necklace.” He said, pointing the warriors necklace Den gave me on my chest. “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “Funny how I also got a Primal Drive Form so...there’s that random thing.” I said honestly, putting a hand on my warrior necklace. “So, I suppose I’ll walk through a portal or you snap your fingers and I’ll be there?” “The later.” He said, snapping his fingers. I woke up laying under… the most beautiful night sky I have ever seen. “Wow…” I muttered, surprised to see such a wonderful night sky. I began to stand up and… HOLY SHIT I’M NAKED!! “And why the hell am I naked!?” I panicked, covering myself up in some way to protect my decency. ”Okay...so naked in the middle of nowhere...what is this the start to some bad joke?” I thought to myself worriedly as I looked around to see if anyone was around. I was suddenly attacked, and was staring at-MOM’S NAKED. “Hi Ben!” Den said happily. “Excuse me but why are we naked?” I asked, blushing brightly at the fact I was staring at my naked mom. “But...how are you doing?’ I asked. “Good. I am SOOO happy Cript did this for me! As for why no clothes, we are the Traditionalist tribe Ben, or at least I was before, so even in these forms we don’t wear clothes. But, lucky for you we will be in our primal forms more often than not.” She said, shifting. Her primal form was at least twice as big as mine was. “Alright.” I said while shifting into my Primal Form, stretching out a bit. “Gonna need to get used to this though...haven’t used it that much.” I said. “So, where to first mom?” “First… Run.” She said, smiling. “Which way?” I asked, not sure if this is one of those ‘run just for runnings sake’ or not. “Anyway.” Dan said, jumping around like a dog wanting to...play… “It’s tag after all.” “Tag huh?” I said with a little smile. “Well...sure.” I said while running after her to try and tag her. Mom was FAST in her primal form, then again, she has had more- “Ompf!” I yelped, tripping over myself and ramming headfirst into a tree… hey, that didn’t hurt? “Heheh. In this form your skull is nine times denser than in a human like form.” Den said. “Your only weak area is your underbelly.” “Why? Is it because of wolves really like belly rubs?” I joked while pouncing at her. “My wives would probably torture me with that…” “Hehe, probably.” She said, still a good distance ahead of me. I felt like if I was in my normal form I’d be really tired already but here… I feel amazing! “This is...really great.” I said, smiling as I ran after my mom faster than I normally would. I felt my speed gaining. Den saw this and smiled, leaping HIGH into the air, jumping up along the massive trees around us. “Claws and momentum. Don’t stop once you start, the fall will hurt a bit.” She warned, almost flying through the trees. “Simple enough.” I said while leaping after her, feeling the strength in my legs helping me do these great things. This was the best feeling. I think this is how Tarzan feels! I leaped easy twenty or thirty feet in one go after another. I was so close, almost grabbing Mom’s tail when- Swipe. She flicked it in my face, almost making me fall over. “Heh, nice try, but I don’t go down easy.” She said, leaping down to the ground and running on foot...paw. “Silly silly…” I muttered while leaping down and rushing after her. “This...is so much fun.” I was panting, the thrill of the chase was… amazingly fun. We came to a cliff edge… with a deep fall… and Den jumped it, falling to the ground and landing in a perfect roll back to her paws. “Wahoo! Just like old times!” I took a few steps before, before digging my claws into the ground and running and leaping past the cliff. When I landed I didn’t roll as gracefully as mom, but I did manage to avoid massive pain. Mom laughed. “Good job.” She said, jumping around with glee. “Whoo. I missed this so-” Mom stopped talking, taking a whiff of the air. “Oh...oh he didn’t!” She took another sniff. “He did!” She shouted happily, running off. I took a sniff of the air… there was prey nearby, and my instincts made me wanna chase it. “Well...alright…” I muttered while running off after the prey my instincts wanted me to chase. I caught up with mom at the edge of the forest. Before us was this… Really tall, giraffe elephant mix looking thing my nose was going wild over. “A Gloke. Their meat is amazing. Oh Cript is so sweet to bring them back too!” Mom said, licking her lips. She then tapped me. “Go on, this kill is yours.” “Is it as tough as an elephant?” I asked curiously. Mom looked over to me, smiling. “Sweetie, we were top predators on our world. Our teeth can bite through steel. Their hide is tough, but take out behind either of the front knees, then tear open it’s throat. Make sure it’s quick, it’s considered sinful to let it suffer through it’s death.” “Alright.” I nodded, taking the way to kill it to heart as I started to sneak up on it, not wanting to spook the thing before I swooped in and killed it. When I got close enough I immediately bolted and ripped into it’s front knees, skidding around and pouncing, grabbing onto it’s neck with my new powerful jaws and trying to rip open it’s throat to kill it quickly. It fell over like a tree, the ground making a loud thud when it fell. It was dead quick. I tasted it’s blood in my mouth and it’s skin between my teeth, and- IT’S LIKE HAPPINESS! IN FOOD FORM! Without thinking I began eating the creature, not even noticing when mom took a seat next to me and just watched. “Why is this so good!?” I asked happily, still wolfing it down, no pun intended. Den laughed. “It just is. It’s food from your homeworld. You may not have been born to my kind Ben, but you were born to be one of my kind.” She said, nuzzling me. “It makes me so happy to be able to share these experiences with you.” “I mean, technically I am born to your kind.” I brought up. “But yeah...I’m glad to be spending time with you mom...you want some or did I accidentally eat the entire thing?” “Heh. Yes.” She said, taking bites out of the creature. After we had out fill mom led me to a large cave, inside was dark, but she changed to umanish form and lit a torch on the wall. They were painted with...amazing designs, like old cave paintings. “Cript made this from my memories. This wall tells the story of our tribe.” She said, lighting the center bonfire and...the whole cave was beautifully painted. She changed back into wolf form, and curled up, still looking at the imagery. “Wow…” I muttered, looking at all the paintings. “Beautiful.” I said breathlessly. “Each one tells a story, about warriors of the past.” I looked at an image of a wolf, fighting another, the one Den was looking at. “Saber, the strong. He could jump so high up, and his bite was so strong, he decapitated the Gloke in one swift bite. He battled the Rabbids, a terrible tribe of old. He never returned, but neither did the Rabbids.” “I blame Rayman for ruining any sort of cool context for that.” I frowned, remembering the ‘Raving Rabbids’ from Rayman. “But...you probably have no idea what I'm talking about.” She chuckled. We turned to another, this one of a wolf howling at the moon. “Gizer the swift. Fast and agile, no other of his time could catch him in either form. He dreamed of running to the moons, and was always chasing it.” “Astounding.” I said. “Dumb question...did he ever make it?” I asked, not knowing how great her people were. “Yes.” She said. She lead me outside the cave, and we had a perfect view of the moon...with a wolf howling on it. “When he died, his image appeared on the moon, he and his home forever chasing one another.” “Wow.” I muttered, surprised and in awe at the stories. “What's next?” “Let’s have a look.” Den said, smiling. We headed back in. Looking around I saw close to the entrance was… a scratched up part of a painting. It was hard to make out, but it looked like… a black and grey wolf… and that’s all I can make out. “Black and grey wolf?” I asked curiously. “Who be that?” “That… was Goto. The first warrior…” She said, taking a seat. “Back then we were like rodents to another race, it’s deadly poisoned fangs ended many of our kind back them. Goto stood against them, and managed to kill their queen. Like a beehive, they quickly died off. We became the top predators, and knew many, many years of peace… But Goto, the peacefulness drove him mad. He was a warrior, and he did not know when to stop fighting. One day, he attacked his own. It took ten of the strongest warriors aside from him to end him. His teeth were taken, and they make up your necklace.” Den said. I felt the necklace, touching it with a paw. “Passed down from top warrior, to the next. As a honor, and a reminder. Fight for what you care for, but don’t live for the violence, for you end up the monster you have been fighting.” “Oh…” I said honestly. “That's...quite a lot of things.” I said honestly. “It’s why half the tribe after that day left, preferring to stay humanoide to avoid their primal instincts. But monsters...come in all shapes and sizes.” She said. I never felt so...honored, to be in a place so...sacred. So full of history. “This...this is astounding.” I said in awe. “Im...I'm so honored.” “We were a broken people. The few who survived the...capturing, live with Cript.” She smiled. “At least you can not deny our numbers have boomed.” She laughed. “It will be nice, to see home as it once was.” “Yeah…” I nodded. “I wonder what those people will think of me…” “I am sure they would be happy with the new wearer of the necklace.” She said, placing a paw over my chest. “Be sure to bring my grandkids here. This history needs to stay alive. So much has been either lost, forgotten or thrown away. At least, that’s what I learned during my time with Cript.” “Makes sense.” I nodded. “I'll make sure to have my kids see this all.” “Thank you.” She said, curling up like a puppy, and drifting off to sleep. Happy. “Night mom…” I muttered with a warm smile. I curled up next to her. Sleeping like this felt a mix of alien and natural. I just looked at the fire, and the paintings all around as I drifted off to sleep. To be continued... Nobody solve's some problems and does some interviewsI woke up in the cave. Mom was still asleep, and the sun was barely rising. Sleeping like this was comfey. I yawned and got up gently, stretching out in my primal form. ”This is...really nice.” I thought to myself, finding the simpler life of a dire wolf was nice. ”Also I’m gonna need to get some of my family to try that elephant thing, that was really good.” I mentally added. I took a step outside, the morning air smelled so clean, so clear. I listened, hearing a stream with running water nearby and headed towards it. I found it, and tried drinking like this… how do dogs do this? “This is a little weird…” I muttered, licking at the running water thinking this was how dogs did it. “*Yawn* Morning Ben.” Mom said, walking up to the stream and drinking. I saw her tongue curved up when she was bringing it back from the water, making like a bowel. I tried that, and thankfully, that worked. “How did you sleep?” “It was really good.” I said honestly. “Being like this...is nice. It’s simple and free.” “Yes, this lesson isn’t about combat, or even really training. It’s to learn to enjoy peace.” Mom said. “Now come on, let’s go see if the smaller meat eaters left anything of your kill yesterday over.” “Hopefully.” I said honestly. “Cause I’m hungry.” I said, my stomach growling a little bit. “By the by...have you ever had any problems with food shortages?” I asked curiously. “Like...accidentally over hunted or a winter was too cruel?” Mom smiled. “That is the best part of this world, the prey reproduce fast, and grow up faster, and the Winter Time brings a new thrill and challenge to hunting. Never have we had an issue with food.” She said. “Huh, that’s interesting.” I said honestly. “Glad to know cause...well I would have thought that would have been a thing considering...several reasons.” I said honestly, knowing that sometimes nature or people just do a derp on complete accident. We ran back to my kill yesterday. It was all bones, some birds picking at the remains on the skull. “Aw.” Mom said. “Looks like they were hungry. Well, this will give you chance to hunt a new pray… and I have just the one.” She said, with a smile and a nod then running off, leading the way. I ran after her quickly, wondering what kind of prey she wanted me to hunt for right now. “What’s to hunt this time?” I asked curiously, wondering if it’ll be either a fast thing that you need to sneak up on or a tough one where I actually have to fight the thing before killing it. We came along a tundra like area where… giant turtles were walking around. “The Flaks. Hard to take down, tasty meat. Their shells are the few things we can’t bite through, and when we do kill one getting to the organs inside the shell. Ohh, so worth it.” “Alrighty then.” I said. “Wonder how tasty it is...even though I like turtles...but I’m a bit surprised I haven’t met a Turtle Sage.” I brought up honestly, not ever meeting an actual turtle person before. “So...sneak up on it?” I asked, not really sure how fast it is. “Yes. They see you, they retreat into that shell, and they can stay in there for a long time. Longest my father kept count on was nine years.” “Turtles sure have a lot of patience.” I said. “How long do these things live?” I asked, watching the things carefully and seeing if there was any blind spots on the thing. “We are not sure. We do not hunt them too often, but I know for a fact it’s between five to nine thousand years.” “Yeah, they live a long ass time.” I said, noticing that they do have a blind spot I can use, but looking around the area to make sure none of the other turtles are around to share that their being hunted. When I noticed none of the other turtles were noticing I stealthed my way up to the giant turtle, staying out of sight and using it’s blind spots to get close enough. ”And…” I thought to myself, feeling my muscles tighten up in prep to pounce at it’s throat. When the Turtle lowered it’s head down to eat some grass I knew it was time as I leaped up, the ground slightly cracking under me as I latched onto it, tearing into it before it could slink into its shell. It’s head flew off as I yanked on it’s neck. It’s blood was… rather good, reminding me of...Grape Fanta for some reason. I took a bite of it’s meat, and wow, it was good. Like bacon and KFC where the same thing! Actually, that would make a good menu item. “Wow, this is really good.” I said honestly. “Bacon wrapped KFC...yeah that sounds good.” I chuckled a little. Mom came up, giving me a loving lick before eating some herself. She let me...crawl inside to eat it’s insides and… Think Pancakes, cooked in bacon grease with syrup and sausages all made into an omlet. “And that’s just the throat!” Mom called from the neck hole I was in. “Excuse me but why are things here so damn delicious!?!” I questioned, about to basically become Pac Man and eat the entire damn thing. “It’s your taste buds Ben. All prey on this world we evolved to hunt and eat, so it makes sense their prey tastes amazing to you since you never had any before.” Mom explained. “Okay!” I called back while continuing to eat my way through the entire thing. “Jeez, this is so damn good.” By the time I crawled out of the almost husk of a shell my stomach had a noticeable bulge and I was so...so full. Mom laughed. “I see you had fun.” “Sorry if I-” I suddenly let out a loud burp. “Uh...excuse me…” I said nervously, my cheeks turning red in embarrassment. She chuckled, licking my face. “Awh, my boy is all dirty.” She said. I looked myself over and yes… I was dirty, and covered in blood… “Well...looks like I’m gonna need a bath.” I said honestly. “Um...this is gonna be new cause I’m used to actual soap and running water…” Mom smiled. “Come along.” She said. We arrived at a cliff side with a large waterfall, mom had me rub along this wet tree bark, then I let the water run along me. It worked out pretty well, the blood was gone and my coat looked clean, and shiny. “Ah, so good.” I said, feeling better now that I cleaned up. “Oh um...sorry I didn’t save any for you mom.” I said nervously. “Heh. I’m just glad you are embracing your newfound heritage.” She said, letting the water clean herself as well. “There is so much for you to learn… and who knows how much time to do them.” She said. “Yeah, I’m kind of expecting Cript to appear and start my Humanity...and Psychopath training.” I said honestly. “But...this has been so great mom.” “I know. So, until your father comes along, let’s make this great.” She said, giving me a warm smile. I smiled back, my tail wagging happily. “Um...is there any other sapient races on this world?” I asked curiously. She shook her head. “It was just our kind sweet heart. Although…” “Although?” I asked. “I mean...I know about that now extinct race but still.” “There are others of our kind, all with Cript, like me. I think I can make a Call.” She said. To my surprise, she began to howl, her throat and neck glowing blue as when her howl finished, an ethereal wolf flew from her mouth, and ran off into a portal. She looked over at me, slack jawed. “You will learn that later.” “Did you...just vomit a spirit wolf?” I asked slowly. She laughed. “No, it’s the Howls Call spell. Think of it like magic E-mail.” “I mean...you can still summon spirit wolves right?” I asked. “Cause seriously, howling and then summoning back up in case of a sudden fight is a hell of a thing.” “Yes, but at a later date.” Mom said, a portal opening nearby as five other Dire Wolf females and...like a hundred pups came flooding in! “Mira! Star! Filly! Nest! Moca! You made it!” Mom said, running up to the other Direwolves. “Well when we got your howl we had to see how well dear Cript remake our home.” The one, Moca, I think spoke. Unlike mom, she had patches of white in her coat, and yellow eyes. She took a look around. “Oh my, the bathing springs. Purrr. We should see how hubby looks as one of us and spend time with him here.” The group laughed. The pups all exploring and looking around. “Um...hello.” I said, walking up to the new Dire wolves. “How are you all doing?” “Ohhhhh! Den, is this your dashing son Ben you are on and on and on about?” Filly, I think asked. Her coat was like moms, but her ears where grey and eyes orange. Mom smiled. “Yup. The first of my litter to give grandkids.” “Aw, jelly!” I blushed a little. “What have you been going on and on about besides the fact I gave you grandkids?” I asked nervously. “That you are now a king.” Mira, I think, said. She had a completely white coat, and deep blue eyes. “That you have a pack all your own already. And it’s growing.” Nest, I think said. Her coat was a brown color with red eyes. “And that you still drink from her teats!” Star said. She was the smallest, easily, a lighter coat than moms and her eyes where the color of a sunset. I blushed brightly and fell down, putting my paws over my eyes and groaned. “Damn it...why did you have to tell them that?” I whined, my ears flat against my skull in embarrassment. “But...yes, I am a king and I am getting even more wives…” I said. “Well, while Den and us all get some girl time, you go play with your brothers and sisters.” Moca said, waving over to the massive flood of pups ranging from way younger than me to almost infants. “Well...it’s gonna be a heck of a thing…” I muttered. “Well, have fun mom. I’ll try not to have a heart attack from all the cuteness.” I said, already knowing the pups will try to be adorable as possible even if it would be on accident. “Well, I’ll be back.” I said while getting up and walking over to the pups. Not ten seconds stepping three feet towards them I was dog piled, them pups either play biting or just plain running all over me. I laughed, knowing they would dogpile me. “Silly silly pups.” I said. “So, what are your names?” I asked them, wondering if they did have names. Not many said, most were too busy playing or running around. This will be some good practice for my own kids. The Airship was off again. That talk I had with the girls helped me...a lot more than expected. Admitting my fears, my peeves… felt liberating. I was on the deck, looking at the night sky and wondering what else is out there for me. “There’s still so much…” I muttered a bit. “I still need to hunt for the other Organization Mushrooms...but then there’s just so much other stuff…” I stared at the sky, wondering what fate has in store. I often think everything is a joke for me to live out but… this feels like things are clearing up. The path is visible but not quite clear yet. “Well...at least things are going well so far…” I said, really hoping the future will be as clear and good as the night sky. I looked around, noticing a Keyblade glider approaching… who is that? I could see it was a mare, Rarity level white fur, beautiful blond mane. I gently floated up and flew over. “Yo!” I called out, waving down the random mare. “What do you need?” “Mind if I land?” She asked. We headed over to the deck and she got herself settled. “Heh, been riding for two days trying to catch up with you Ben.” She said. “And...you are?” I asked. “I’m sorry for not remembering but...just so many things tend to happen.” I said, trying to remember if I knew any blond mare. “But two days? What do you mean?” She chuckled. “I figured you wouldn’t remember me. Last time you saw me was when Cadence lost Shining Armor.” “Yeah...that was a while ago.” I said honestly. “So, still don’t remember me?” “I mean...I thought I brought all my fiance’s if your who I think you are.” I said honestly. “I...believe your the Mother Cript sent us because of...reasons?” She laughed, walking over to me. “My new name is Pureblood, but you knew me as Blue Blood.” I thought about it. “Yeah, now I remember.” I said honestly. “Sorry, it’s just...well we literally only talked once and then you just disappeared.” I said nervously. “I said I had some things to take care of. Ponyville general hospital is the only one of few to provide gender swap spells that hit your genetic code.” She purred. “That makes it a curse, hard to break, not that I want to change back…” She sighed. “I have been unhappy for a very long time, it’s why I acted so… well snobbish. Rarity likely told you about the Gala incident at some point…” “Honestly it’s both your faults.” I said honestly. “Rarity was trying to get in your pants because your royalty, and you were just an absolute dick bag to her. And you became a woman because what, you wanted to marry me or something?” I asked simply, having a feeling she had to be here for some important reason. “Well, I know Auntie would be happy to have her first and oldest lineage revived.” She said, face turning pink. “I just need time to decide if, well, you're the one for me. At this point I think only Rarity would be angry.” “That depends on how everyone else reacts.” I said honestly. “Cause while Rarity would likely be pissed, not sure about the others.” I shrugged. “Also this might be seen as your attempt at gaining power because...well the obvious.” I shrugged. “Legally I am already a prince of Equis, well, Princess now but it’s more honorary title than any real authority. I know I have no reason to...ask, or right, but just let me have a chance. Please?” “It’s alright. You’ll have your chance...oh and question, have you done anything severely illegal?” I asked, remembering I still have a laundry list of nobles to convict. “Would I be here if I did? All the nobles arrested for crimes are either punished or awaiting trial.” “True.” I said honestly. “So, anything you want to talk about before just going head first in this?” “Well, unlike your wives I’d like a few dates first.” She said, give me a smile...for once being a dude… why is she so cute? “The nearest town from here is the Yake City. Think at some point there we can go on a date there?” “I mean...I’m going there anyways...um, who are the king and queen if I may ask and do they have a daughter?” I asked curiously, not entirely remembering what Celestia and Luna told me about all the royals. “They have a prince, the only one. But from what I hear just for you they adopted a princess…just be wary, the Yaks are known to be...easily tempered…” “Can’t wait to sass them down to learn anger management.” I rolled my eyes. “It’s their culture. Doing that is like pissing on the princesses. You’ll have to find a compromise.” “I don’t know what Celestia and Luna are fully into cause I don’t want to ask.” I told her honestly. “But yeah...gonna have to figure that out...can’t wait for the upcoming shouting contests.” I groaned. “Good, cause that’s also part of the culture.” “Great…” I muttered. “This is gonna be a headache and a half. And I’m gonna be bitched at for following their customs of seeing who can argue like an italian better.” I rolled my eyes. “So, besides that...anything else about the Yak culture I should know?” “Not off the top pf my head. It’s fucking freezing here. The Yaks live well passed the north of the Crystal Empire, where snow was all you can see. Their kingdom was small, atop a large mountain with tall wooden walls surrounding it. We landed and where greeted by the prince. “GREETINGS WHITE KNIGHT AND WIVES OF WHITE KNIGHT!” He yelled. Jesus he can make anyone def! “WE HAVE BEEN EXPECTING YOU! I AM PRINCE RUTHERFORD.” “And can you kindly not scream each word?” I asked, uncovering my ears as I winced at the small ringing in my ears. He seemed a bit confused, then spoke, not yelling, spoke, through his regular voice was still rather loud. “I apologize. I thought the Princesses would love my take on the Royal Canterlot voice?” Celestia and Luna laughed. “You people are gonna give me fucking Tinnitus.” I grumbled bitterly. “But anyways, as you can clearly see I am a wolf, and our hearing is a lot better than most species so...thank you for toning it down a bit. I understand you people really like to shout but still.” I said. “But it’s nice to meet you Prince Rutherford.” I nodded. “Oh, apologies White Knight. Come, we have traditional Yak foods and drinks ready, and once meals are eaten, I will show you my adopted sister, and your future bride.” Rutherford said. “Thank you.” I nodded. “Can’t wait to try your traditional food and drinks.” I said honestly, wondering how good their food will be. “Now...is there anything I should know before just walking into the castle? Like if your dad wants to fight me for whatever reason?” “My father long dead. Mother died not long after.” The Prince said. I took a deep breath. “I...am so sorry.” I said nervously and sadly. “I’m sorry for...bringing that up.” “It is alright. Many moons ago that was. They were good yaks. Much louder and stronger than I.” He said. We entered one of the small tent areas where some pastry looking foods, mashed potatoes, and such were laid out. We all took a seat and, the food was alright. It wasn’t that good, but not lacking taste. “Well the foods nice.” I said honestly, liking the food even if it wasn’t the best...but well not many things can compare to Flak, god was that giant turtle delicious. “What kind of drinks are there?” “Here, this is Groat Vile.” The prince said, handing me a mug with a fizzy liquid. “Alright…” I muttered while taking the mug and taking a sip of it just to see how it tasted. It tasted alright. “It is Yak milk fermented in dead sheep stomach and aged for one month.” “Not bad. Taste’s nice.” I said honestly. “I don’t really know how to properly ferment drinks but still.” I said honestly. “All Yak foods invented with trial and error. Life this far north is harsh, food is food. Can not be too picky with what we have to work with.” “I understand.” I nodded. “But hey, I’ll do my best to make things better for the yaks if at all possible.” I said, already trying to think of a way to help the yaks even in their very snowy region. “Mainly Yaks need medicine. Not many herbs grow here, so injuries can be deadly.” “Oh yeah, medicine is one thing I can help with.” I said honestly. “I think there’s a way to build indoor farms for plants that need sunlight and some other things that can’t be done this far north…” I said, scratching my chin in thought. “Is there anything else besides medicine?” I asked curiously. “Water has never been an issue. Snow everywhere so that’s good. Wood is often hard to find, so we use leather and stone.” I nodded. “I know this place is on a mountain but are avalanches or the thought of the city literally sliding down the mountain ever been an issue?” I asked curiously. “The snow here is packed tight after the generations, and is partly frozen over during the fall and winter months. The idea is possible, but unlikely.” “Alright.” I nodded. “Is there any good ways for transportation to get here besides airship?” I asked curiously, not knowing much about the surrounding area besides it being the frozen north. “Hot air balloon and Zeppelin are the fastest. No trains come here and walking is almost a death sentence.” “Yeah, that’s reasonable.” I said honestly. “Are you happy about your sister being married to me?” I asked. “I know I’m not a Yak, and the only thing I have immediately is what you know of me as White Knight so…” “We all are. She is well known and being adopted for such honor has made her giddy with joy.” “That’s good.” I nodded. “I’m glad to hear that people are happy.” I said with a gentle smile, glad that even though people only know me as White Knight people are happy to at least meet me instead of either nervous or bitter because of some weird reason or another. “Yes. She is getting ready as we speak.” I nodded. “Can’t wait to meet her. So, how is everyone else enjoying this?” I asked my many fiances. “The food is good.” Rarity said. “The last time Celestia and I where in these lands was a thousand and a half years ago.” Luna spoke. “It’s much smaller than back then.” “Hm, yes. Time has been harsh.” The prince spoke. “Time get’s to everyone and everything…” I sighed out. “No matter how hard we try to fight it.” “Yes. It’s a sad truth, one many try to ignore of avoid. Nothing but failure for those fools.” Just then, a female yak walked in, and whispered something to him. “Ah. Your bride is ready!” “Can’t wait to meet her.” I said honestly while gently getting up. “Where be the wonderful lady?” I asked curiously. “Well, that’s the part I must explain first.” The Prince said. “Your wife is Yona, well loved within the village, but she is just a child. For this marriage her mother is marrying you in her stead til she is of age.” The Prince then sighed. “Yona’s father, you see...was not the… father type. We banished him from the kingdom years ago, and he has never been seen since.” “Um…” I blinked. “That’s...gonna be very confusing. So...I’m marrying Yona’s mother...and then her daughter when she’s of age…” I looked at everyone else to see what they had to say. “Anything you all want to say about this?” I asked, just curious about if they had anything to say about this sudden thing. “It’s...a bit strange.” Rarity offered. “It’s not that much in practice anymore.” Twilight said. “Twilight has a point.” Luna said. “Long ago some herd marriages with more than one stallion sometimes had the daughters marry the stepfathers, or other fathers. That was a LONG time ago however.” “Nowadays that is seen as taboo, at least in Equestria.” Celestia said. “I know for a fact this is still practiced and common in the Deer and Dragon Lands, the Lions used to do something similar but I am not sure anymore?” “Oh, there are lion people?” I asked honestly. “I...didn’t know that...there’s a lot of things I still don’t know.” “The lions long since integrated with the Zebras.” Twilight said. “The only pure lion cities are scattered here and there.” “Right...but do I still need to find the leader of the tigers or no?” I asked curiously, knowing somethings can’t be simple enough. “We’ll cross that bridge when we get there.” Coco said. “So, how’s about meeting your brides?” The prince asked. “Sure.” I nodded. “Let’s hope I’ll make a good first impression…” I muttered to myself. The prince lead me, and me alone, to the tent where the brides where. I could easily tell who was Yona, the smallest. She was in what looked like a flower girls dress, pretty Ponytails on each side of her head, and surprisingly big horns for her age. Her mother, well… she was Celestia’s height, the source of Yona’s eye color, and gifted curves and fluff that rivaled my new Kirin wives. Yona saw me… and Tackled me. “YEEEE! Yona been waiting for future husband! Now he here!” She said, having managed to knock me flat on the floor. “Yona, calm yourself.” Yona’s mom said, taking the young Yak off me. “Apologies, Yona is easily excited. I am Nona, Yona’s mother, and… well, you know.” She said. She was in a bride dress, though the design was less stylish. Rarity would cry. “It’s nice to meet you both.” I nodded while getting back up. “You look beautiful Nona.” I said with a warm smile. “And Yona...your just adorable.” I chuckled, finding the younger Yak’s antics very cute. “Yona make dress all by herself!” She proclaimed proudly. “Yes, took the better part of a month stitching it together.” Nona said. “She’s fourteen. At sixteen she will be you wife, til then I am to… be there and… well, heh. Sorry, I am sure the Prince told you about my last husband…” “All he told me was that he was terrible and was banished.” I said. “Yes, well, that’s the clean version of it.” Nona sighed. “Yona was too young to remember, and some people are best left forgotten.” She trailed off, shaking her head. “So, mind if I ask what you are like White Knight?” “It’s alright.” I said gently. “But what am I like? Well...that’s gonna be a long explanation but short answer would be I’m kind, caring, and I really want the people in my life to be happy and safe.” I said simply. “That is good.” Nona nodded. “I can be stubborn, but caring. Often times I am the party pooper and I can let my temper slip...often… but I never let that make me say something horrible.” “I understand.” I nodded. “But as long as you're happy that’s all I really care about.” “Thank you. I know it will be...strange, having Yona among the...adults, but trust me, when the adult fun starts, just show her the TV or a comic book and she’s occupied for at least an hour.” Nona winked at me. “I have enough kids to keep her distracted till she’s old enough.” I said honestly. “Heh. that is good. Not too many children her age these days.” “True, but I’m sure there’s a lot of kids her age she’ll meet.” I said honestly. “Anything else you two want to know about me before meeting your fellow wives?” I asked curiously. “Not at the moment. If anything pops up I shall inform you.” “Yona was told wedding cake would be huge.” Yona said. “Is cake going to be huge?” “I had a party thrown for me and a cake was about the size of my old house...which was an entire Castle.” I said honestly. “So I’m pretty sure it’s going to be even bigger than a castle sized cake.” “Yay!” Yona cheered, making her mother and I laugh… Wait a minute… I’m marrying Yona’s mom, making her my daughter… OH CRAP! Just then, Yona’s brown fur began turning a light shade of blue, dire wolf ears sprouting from the top of her head, between her horns, and her yak like nose became a bit more wolf like. “...What just happened?” Nona asked. “Shit…” I sighed out. “So...there’s this curse where any child I adopt or parent I marry...they become biologically mine.” “So...Yona is both your genetic daughter...and wife to be… Somehow that is not going to be the strangest thing I will ever hear, is it?” Nona asked. I chuckled a little. “It won’t be the strangest thing you’ll ever hear, especially since you have all my wives to meet still.” I said honestly. “But yeah so...Yona, your now half Dire Wolf.” Yona looked herself over, felt her new ears then looked into a hand mirror. “Yona look creepy, and cool. Yona like new Yona look.” Somewhere, in the Tumblrverse, I could hear the incest jokes circulating already… This is my first fourth wall break joke. “Well...glad you like the new look Yona.” I said, hating that there’s incest jokes circulating about me. Back in my castle, I was dealing with some more nobels. Taking a break from that mess, Consequence then brought me a few documents after some Dragoon Nobodies brought me a desk. “These are the new recruitment forms.” “New recruitment forms?” I asked curiously. “With the integration of the Zebra, Dragon, Equestria, and now Yaks we need diversity amongst the guards and staff. Can’t play favoritism.” He explained. “True.” I said honestly. “This is gonna be a bit complicated...oh, also start shipping medicine and herbs to the Yak kingdom, they really need it.” “Right away.” He said, bowing before vanishing in a swirl of Twilight thorns. I looked over the documents. Mostly they were profiles of candidates, physicals, qualifications, history. One guard from here in Canterlot caught my eye. Ephter. Ephter Class S guard Race: Unicorn Gender: Stallion Cutie Mark: Cross Qualifications: Classified Background: Classified Mission success rate: Classified. Confirmed kill count: Classified. Combat experience: Classified. Everything in his file was either Redacted, cut out or classified. I looked through and found nine more like him. I sighed out. “Alright, which one of you is already in here.” I asked, knowing that if there’s ten redacted to hell documents at least one of these bastards is gonna be in the room I’m in right now. “Cause if you wanted a chance to talk you could have just said so instead of sneaking in here.” There was no response. “Hm.” I hummed. “Consequence.” I called and he appeared. “Yes sire?” “Who are these ten people that have their credentials redacted to hell?” I asked, bringing out the ten very classified documents. “And is any of them either in this room or sneaking around my castle?” “Hm.” He said, looking them over. “Ah yes. In the Royal Vault there where these ten files. Each a member of a top secret organization that comprised of just these ten ponies. They dealt with monsters and beasts before Twilight and her friends found the elements. The organization was disbanded and all documents and buildings affiliated destroyed. Something about a creature they captured escaping and massacring a whole town. All that remains are these ten files, and the ponies in question.” “Bring them here if they aren’t already.” I said honestly. “I want to get to know these special ten.” I said, wondering what makes these ten special besides being monster hunters. “It shall be done, sire. Til then, I have some outsource muscle some of your Council members scouted out when searching for… unique talent to bring to your army.” “Thank you.” I nodded. “But how unique?” I ask curiously. “Well, first up we have Mr-” “SAXTON HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!” Someone shouting their own name to the heavens yelled as they crashed into my throne room. Short shorts, heavy boots, enough muscle to take on anything...and australia shaped chest hair landed in front of me. “Howdy! I’m Saxton Hale, owner of Mann Co, and your new front liner. Now, where is this war so I can start punching all the beasties?” He asked, looking around. I took a deep breath. “Okay...the war hasn’t started yet...and already I can tell your going to give me a massive headache.” I groaned, rubbing my temples. “So, how did you get here?” “I ran!” He proclaimed proudly. “He’s not joking.” Consequence said. “He just… started running after accepting the offer and made a hole in space time.” “Yep...this is gonna be a massive fucking headache.” I grumbled. “So, besides just doing...whatever the fuck you did, what else are you good at?” “I can punch anything into extinction! My weapons company produces the most expensive and powerful arms around! And the hats! Oh Everyone loves the hats and costumes! I also bring all my Mercs! Since Blue and Red Mann both died, and Grey Mann kicked the bucket I own them all! So They can do whatever if you want.” “Alright, those mercs will be given actual weapons that aren’t outdated by forty years.” I said honestly, remembering a friend talk about Team Fortress 2 and I did some little research and the actual game time line was forty four years ago by earth standards. “Well, the lab boys are yours to talk to, so go on then. So, what do I have to punch first?” “Nothing at the moment. So you can take your time and prepare.” I said honestly. “...Are you kidding me!? Are you Fucking kidding me?!?! I travel across all reality, time, space, and the bloody multiverse, just to be told to wait. Well Saxton Hale does not just sit on his ass and wait like a @#$# #$#%$#% @#$#$#$QW# $#$$%@%$!” Holy shit that was actually censored! “I’m looking for something to punch! Call me when ya need me.” He said, crashing through the floor. I checked the clock on the wall. “Sure he censored his words but...damn is he boring.” I said honestly. “Very over exaggerated character of an Australian.” “You should see his world… Compared to most… he is rather normal.” Consequence said. “Yeah, I know Consequence. I’ve looked into Team Fortress 2.” I said honestly. “Would you like to meet with these mercs? Interviews may be stressful, but recommended.” “Best to get them out of the way.” I said honestly. “Can’t wait to have all of them in the same room, they better not try to murder each other for petty reasons.” “One at a time it is then.” I sat across the room was Sniper, who stood with a sense of respect. “It’s nice to meet you both.” I said to both the Blue and Red sniper. “How are you doing today if I may ask?” I asked simply, wanting to break the ice with the two. “A tad awkward.” Red admitted. “Usually we are shooting one another.” Blue continued. “Yeah, I can understand that...but...mind if I ask why you two are literally identical?” I asked honestly, not really knowing any ‘in game’ explanations on why there are two identical people in the game. “Clones.” They both replied. “When...whichever of us were hired, we were put into a medicated coma for a while. Woke up with a color and a twin sporting the opposite color.” Red sniper said. “We have no idea which is the clone and which is the original. At this point we don’t care either.” “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “So, I’m pretty sure you're wondering where the price tag on this venture is correct?” I asked curiously. “We are Mercs.” Blue confirmed. “Alright, so what is your price?” I asked simply. “Cause I have way too much goddamn money.” I said honestly. “Not to mention I have better weapons and gear for you if needed.” “Well our old contracts paid us twelve grand an hour, and paid for housing, food, weapons.” Blue Sniper said. “Okay so thirty grand an hour and including housing, food and weapons.” I said honestly. “That sound good?” I asked, running through my head all the known money I had and knowing that amount would be paltry compared to all the nines I saw those three other god damn times, not to mention the allowance Cript’s family get’s whenever. “That’s more than enough!” Red sniper said. “Good. We’ll pack our stuff from Two Fort and be off.” Blue said, the two exited. The next two where blue and red Heavy. Damn, game did not exaggerate their size and build. “We are heavy weapons men.” Blue stated. “Nice to meet you both.” I nodded. “How are you two doing today?” I asked simply. “We do alright.” Red heavy said. “So, we are told you are new boss, this is true?” “Yes it is.” I nodded. “So, anything specific about payment?” I asked curiously, wondering if they have anything specific. “Payment of weapons and munitions.” Blue started. “And relocation of family. Homeland become too harsh, they deserve better. Safer. A place where bear meat will not be common.” Red finished. “That will be simple enough.” I said honestly. “Anywhere specific about where you want your families to be? Cause there’s a ton of places they can move to that’s safe in both weather and nature, and surrounded by a lot of friendly people.” “Just big house in safe, simple place.” Blue said. “Like small town, or in woods.” “That can be easily solved.” I nodded. “There’s actually a nice small town called Ponyville not to far from the palace.” I said honestly. “I’ll get some people working on the houses if there isn’t any and I’ll make sure they get moved in comfortably.” I explained, the Heavy’s seeing that I’m actually a caring person instead of the greedy bastards they tend to work for. “Thank you.” Red said. “That will be all.” Blue finished, the two leaving. Next up where the spy’s, the two pulling up chairs. “Hello, how are you two doing today?” I asked the two Spy’s. “Fine.” Red spy said. “It’s a pleasure to be speaking with what I hope is an intellectual boss.” Blue spy said, taking out a cigarette. “I assume you met Hale?” “He kind of bores me.” I said honestly. “I have no idea how he does the things he does but...I’ve lived through a lot weirder to be perfectly honest.” I shrugged. “But just so you both know, I’m not an idiot like your previous bosses.” I said honestly. “That is a grand relief.” Red said. “So, what will we be doing while in your employment? This war that was discussed seems rather out of our typical expertise.” “Yes, that concerned me as well.” Blue added. “Because I’m curious, how good are you at being Spy’s?” I asked curiously. “Both of you have good eyes for detail, how many of my guards are in this room right now?” I asked, knowing there’s at least three Assassin Nobodies and two Shinobi Nobodies. “Hmm…” Blue pondered, thinking back. “Four.” Red said aloud. “Three hidden…and yourself. You are no helpless ruler.” ”There’s five in here actually.” I said honestly. “But good eye, that’s something important cause I don’t expect you two to be fighting on the front lines. I’d like for the both of you to...well be Spy’s, gather info, report anything suspicious, all that fanciness.” I said honestly. “But now, onto payment. Anything specific?” I asked curiously. “Our usual fee from Mann co.” Blue started. “The basics, paid munitions, transport, supplies. And some upgraded tech. As good as our cloaking and disguise kits are, they do fail at the worst of times sometimes.” “That will all be taken care of.” I nodded. “And your tech will be improved by a lot, a lot of things can change in forty plus years.” I said honestly, knowing that, apparently, there are Blacksmith and Engineering type Nobodies they can make those things a lot better. ”Still surprised that Nobodies can be damn near anything…” I thought to myself. “Thank you.” Red spy said as the two left the room. These are going smoothly. Next up where the Demo’s. Both drunk beyond human possibility and they both promptly...fell asleep on my desk... I sighed out. “Of course.” I muttered while summoning my lexicon and casting a time spell that sped up their drunken sleep till they actually woke the fuck up. “GAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!” They both shouted upon waking up. “What just happened?” Blue demo asked. “I just sped up time so you both could wake up from drinking to damn much.” I said bluntly. “So, how are you two doing after your power nap?” “Not drunk enough.” Red demo said, taking a swig from his alcohol. “Can’t really have a proper interview if your blackout drunk ya know.” I said honestly. “But anyways, any questions about working for me or do I just get to asking what other things you want payment for besides food, housing, weapons and a lot of booze?” “Eh, sounds good.” Blue said, taking Red’s booze and drinking. The two then left, laughing while drinking “Okay...that really didn’t answer my question though…” I muttered, not knowing if they wanted anything else but oh well. “Next.” I said, wondering who’s next and hoping Soldier or Scout won’t be too much of a god damn hassle. Up next where the Engineers. The two taking a bow of respect. “Please, no need to bow.” I said with a raised hand. “How are you two doing today?” I asked, glad that Engineer was next cause this would be nice to talk. “Quite fin boss man.” Red Engi said. “We will be happy to help you deliver crafted automated destruction upon your enemies.” Blue stated. “Good.” I nodded. “What kind of payment?” I asked simply. “Double our normal wage, and funding to develop many more kinds of turrets and higher grade dispensers.” Red asked. “That is simple enough to do in both cases.” I nodded. “You’ll find all the new minerals in the blacksmithing area and all the new tech in the Engineering area’s if you want to take a look around there.” I said honestly, still needing to walk around this huge ass place to figure out all of the things. “Thank ya kindly sir.” They both said, leaving. Next up was Soldiers… who came in on a rocket jump and both smashed into the wall behind me. “Of course…” I muttered. I took a deep breath. “Front and center maggots!” I barked at the two like a drill sergeant. “Is this anyway you appear in front of your commanding officer? Rocket jumping in like a couple of sissy’s?” The two jumped up, getting into formation and saluting. “Wait. But, you are a king, not a general or commander?” Blue asked. “Aren’t they the same thing?” Red questioned. God these guys are dumb. “Are both of you piss ants questioning my authority?” I snapped. “Sir no sir!” They both said, standing at attention. “Good.” I said sternly. “So, how much were you pansy’s getting paid from Mann Co?” I asked simply. “Sir we do not get paid sir! We fight to kill!” The both said, again. Wait, they don’t get paid… why does that make sense…? “So you don’t get paid…” I started. “So, you don’t have housing, food, or money for munitions and better gear?” I asked. “Mann co paid for all that, but when off duty we are very much homeless.” Red said. “We, or one of us, used to live in Merasmises mansion, but, the Racoons burned it down, so I killed and ate them all, then found work elsewhere.” Blue finished up, Red laughing at the shared memory. “And I have a feeling you also purposely pissed off the Demoman if this has anything to say about it.” I said while bringing out both of their folders. “No, I believe at that time Demoman was living off his saved wages in the mansion he built for his mother’s basement. Talking with that haunted sword of theirs.” “Ah.” I said. “Right then. So, about payment here considering you both are still mercenaries to a technical extent.” I said honestly. “We will accept no less or more the the god blessed american minimum wage of three dollars and thirty five cents.” Red said. “Alright soldier, just so you both know your literally forty years in the future.” I said. “Minimum wage went up to seven dollars and twenty five cents, and believe me...that isn’t a livable wage, hell it’s barely a wage considering everything’s price kept going up.” I said honestly. That extra information was lost on the two at they both just looked at one another when I said how much it was now. “Seven whole dollars!” Red said. “And twenty five cents!” Blue added. “We’ll be kings!” The two then proceed to dance their way happily out of the room. “Well...I mean it was the sixties so…” I muttered. “Next.” I called out. ”Wonder who else is here besides TF2…” I thought to myself. Who entered next where the Pyros, who just handed me papers with their Mann co terms of services, with some clear edits, Wage increases, better grade equipment. Pretty standard really. I took the papers, signed it and handed it back. “How are you enjoying your time in Equestria?” I asked, remembering the Pyro had the ‘Pyroland’ thing which was magical and candy colored. “Ehph, e huh heh hmm.” Blue said… whatever it was. The two took their papers, giving a thankful nod as they left. Do they ever take those suits off? “Right then...Next.” I called out. Next where the Scouts, who, to my surprise, walked in like they were in trouble rather than full of obnoxious self pride. “So, how are you two doing today?” I asked curiously. “And why do you two look like your in trouble?” I asked simply. “Well, you see there sire, uh, your highliness...er…” Blue started. Red, sighing, sucked whatever it was up, then spoke. “We are willing to work for less money than what Mann co gives, so long as our ma and siblings get a cut.” Red scout stated firmly. I looked at the two, but then gave a warm smile. “How much did Mann Co give you if I may ask?” I asked curiously. “Well typically it was a set wage per job for us.” Blue started. “Ranging from a few hundred to a few grand. We’d send ma and the bros back home about half, more if they needed it, and we’d keep the rest. Usually two hundred or five. Enough to save or get...what we thought was collectables…” “That turned out to be worthless…” Red finished. “I understand.” I said before grabbing a piece of paper and writing down a bunch of things. “So, besides money to help your family, need any housing for them? Including any new weapons or things for you two?” I asked curiously. “What, you kiddin?” Red asked, that iconic bravado showing on the two of them as he flexed. “Look at these guns? Give us sticks and we’ll make whoever you tell us to hurt as dead as...uh, well dead!” “Yeah!” Blue cheared. I chuckled before finishing up what I was writing and putting it down facing the two scouts. “There’s your contract, and to be honest, your arms may not be strong, but your heart is.” I said. “And if you read that it’ll tell you your pay, equipment, and new housing for your family if they so need.” I said honestly. The scouts began looking it over. “Woah! That’s a lot of zeros…” Red said. “Yeah, and look at this! With funding for guns that’s this big, our scatterguns can get one heck of an upgrade.” Blue added. “You're not the only one who talked about family.” I brought up. “Both the Heavy’s wanted first and foremost a new place for their family to call home, and you may not be as big as him but you’ve got the same big heart if the thing your asking for immediately is to help your family.” I nodded. “I respect that.” “Ah man, your embarrassing us.” Red said, a light red on his face, but the two held happy smiles. They waved goodbye. The next ones in where the last. Medics. Both arrived in their signature lab coats. “Dah, good to meet mine new employer.” Red said. “Yes.” Blue added. “It is good to meet you two.” I nodded. “How have your days been?” “Grand. Just grand.” Blue said, Red coughing. Not a cough, an ‘my turn’ cough as blue nodded, and took a step back. “I would like to get to the point of this meeting, if you don’t mind?” Red medic asked. “Sure.” I nodded. “But I have a feeling you want a bit more than just payment, what you want your Medical License?” “Nien, such a thing is a moral and legal leash.” Red said, clearing his throat. “We will take the same as what Mann Co payed, but, we would like our own laboratory, with a monthly budget of no less than fifty grand for gathering materials and items to improve out research.” “Understandable.” I nodded. “Sure, but just to get this across, even though you don’t have a medical license both of you are in the boundaries of my law.” I told them both. “So I better not be hearing you two kidnapping people and doing sick experiments on them alright?” “Relax, we don’t kidnap. Grave robbing organs maybe, occasionally, but no kidnapping.” I nodded. “Thank you. Just so we can get this whole thing across cause I don’t want to have you two back here not two days later because you both did many illegal things.” I said honestly. “You both may be clinically insane, but your not clinically stupid right?” “Good sire, if we were, would we have developed the Ubercharge? These medi guns are of our own design, blueprints kept and locked within our minds. We might make questionable actions but it’s always been for the betterment of the team, or others.” “That is why we are doctors.” Blue added. I smiled and nodded. “That’s good.” I said while writing down a bunch of things on a piece of paper and then handing it to them. “Here you go, materials, your budget, new housing if need be, and a few other things.” I said, the Medics seeing that they were getting a bit more than they originally hoped for with what I wrote down. “Dah, this is wonderful!” Red and Blue medic cheared. “Quickly mine copy, let’s go practice medicine.” Red said, the two laughing as they left. “Well...glad to have helped.” I said with a little. “Anyone else?” I asked, wondering if my council members found anyone else besides the TF2 mercs. Right then someone entered I did not expect… “Hi Ben!” Grandma said… wasn’t she traveling the multiverse or something? “Grandma? Didn’t you say you were going traveling back when I went to Bioshocks Earth?” I asked curiously, really happy to see Grandma here but just curious about why she came here. “Oh that , well I was then I got bored, joined a few dozen wars, won a few dozen wars. Next thing I know I’m asked to meet with you about a job.” She said matter-of-factly. “Sheesh, sounds like you had fun.” I chuckled a little. “Yup. So, a king now huh?” She asked. “Made quite the name for yourself.” “Yeah well...a lot of things happened.” I said sheepishly. “But yeah, I’m the King of Nothingness, got it after I mastered all my weapons and...well murdered the previous king because he wanted his peace.” I said honestly “Awh. Just like a Brothers Grimm book.” She said. “Well I guess i’ll make my way to the barracks.” She said. “Hold on there, I still need to talk about your pay, and your new home.” I said honestly. “Honey, I traveled the multiverse. I’ve raided tyrants and mined world made from diamonds and gold. I don’t need pay.” She said, leaving the room. I saw her leave, knowing she went traveling and fought so much but...I hope she’s still the same loving Grandma I remembered. “Oh dear…” I muttered. “Alright...is there anyone else?” I called, wondering who else I have to interview. Back in Boletaria, we headed back to the Nexus, where the Maiden in Black was waiting for us. “Thou art powerful slayers of demons.” She said. “But art thou ready to face the old one?” “I’m ready, are you ready?” I asked my companion. “As ready as I can be.” She said, gripping the handle of her sword tight. “Alright, then let’s get going.” I nodded, readying myself for the upcoming fight. The ethereal magic floor in the center of the nexus opened up. She took both out hands, and dragged us down the long drop. We came too on… a beach, a single sand island, surrounded by some water, and fog. “Well...alrighty then.” I said while wondering why we’re on a simple sand island when we were supposed to fight a demon. “Come out now, don’t be rude.” The maiden said, standing in the water looking out towards the fog. The whole ground began to rumble as a massive...wood creature, as if it’s body was made from sticks and strange crucifixes pierced it’s body all over, including massive swords. “Come now, don’t be mean.” She cooed, the massive creature stopping as it’s ‘mouth’ reached her feet. She then turned to us. “Come now, the old king rests within, as does the Old One.” “Um…” I blinked, looking a bit confused here. “I...have several questions…” “Ask away.” She said as we entered the...thing. The whole of it is all wood. Sticks and branches bound together like a ingrown tree. “Um...what is the Old One if this giant tree thing isn’t?” I asked honestly, thinking that this was supposed to be the Old One, given how it was basically a mangled abomination of nature. “The old one is in itself, the souls it has consumed, a collection of the pained lost life's demons have brought to it. The old one knows only hunger, and it’s stomach bottomless.” “So this things that one fat fuck in the corner of a party always scarfing down food and won’t leave no matter how hard you try?” I asked, finding that a decent way to explain this situation. “So...how do I kill it?” “The old one is part of the world, to kill it is to kill the world.” She said, as we reached a fog wall. “The king guards the old one. Defeat him, and meet with The Old One.” “Well...okay then.” I said honestly. “But...how the hell do I actually save this world then?” I asked. “Cause the more I listen the more I’m thinking this is just a giant wooden tick.” Betty entered first, and then I did… the king was… a grotesque, slug like creature, flopping around in a shallow pool of water. “Fools. You should not have come here…” It spoke. “That’s what they all say.” I said honestly. “So, are you an actual fight or are you basically just a weak slug that can’t fight anymore because of time and other things?” “I will fight, and win.” He said, just...flopping. “He’s so far gone… he can’t even see what he has become.” Betty said. “Well...it would be a mercy to put him down at the moment.” I said while drawing Sharpshooters. I opened fire, shooting the old man full of arrows. “No! You fool! Mankind's existence is a joke. Death is mercy!’ Where his last words as he died, one of those special swords dropping from his corpse. Soulbrandt. “Well...that explains where this was.” I muttered while walking over and taking the sword. “But yeah, Death is a Mercy, but it’s also the cheap way out if you can’t handle it.” We passed the next fog wall… the old one… and the last card of Jenny’s memories… I took the card but the old one...that light… it’s… the worlds heart?! “Thou hast done thine job.” The maiden said, walking passed us, dropping her staff. “The Nexus bind all thee no longer. I shall lul the old one back to slumber.” She said, standing before it and...singing...softly. I took out my Keyblade and raising it up. “This...will actually be the first time I do this…” I muttered, seeing the light at the tip of my keyblade swirl with light and give a small flash, the sound of something locking filled the area but it was in a way that made it suitable for the singing. The old one glowed brightly, roots sprouting up around it and a Keyhole shape enclosed it. The light faded, and the job was done. “Makes you wonder which is the real demon.” I spun around… Kexez. “A world with it’s light in total control… and look what happened. This is why they locked up the hearts of worlds, after all.” “Are you feeling less insane at the moment?” I asked. “Drezke and Lake are both alive and okay...but yeah, you can’t have one or the other and expect things to be alright.” “Even with them both joined with me, our soul is still missing. Or rather, inhabiting another. I’d be in control...with X, now isn’t that a nightmare?” “So you're still not in control of yourself?” I asked. “Your still under the effects of Psychopath blood?” I asked, hating that it wasn’t done yet. “Since when is anything that easy?” He asked, tilting his head. “It would be nice if things were easy for once.” I groaned. “So anyways, why are you here if I may ask?” “Congratulating. I’m evil, not impolite.” He said, tossing me a pocket watch. I grabbed it. “What’s the watch for?” I asked, checking it over to see what’s special about it. “It’s a timer. You see, every so many years the realms are all on the same time, same day. For 24 hours. This day is the anniversary of the first Keyblade war. That watch counts down to when that day comes, and the second war begins.” “So how long is it?” I asked, looking at the actual timer to see if it’s an old pocket watch or if it’s a newer thing that can tell the year, months, day and time. I pressed the button, and it had several circles, each counting down. Starting from three years… The seconds counter was spinning, making the minutes turn, and so on. “Three years? Well that’s a relief.” I said honestly. “And here I thought it was going to be next month. Thanks for the heads up and practically all the time in the world.” I said, knowing he probably did this to screw with me in some way. “Yes but time flies when life goes on. How much do you think there will be when you look down at it and see you have only an hour.” He said, laughing as he vanished into a DTD. “Apparently he’s never watched enough anime.” I said with a frown. “And hey, I have clones so there’s a that.” I muttered. “Shit...I forgot to ask him about where the other parts of Jenny’s memories are. He did say her memories are on different worlds…” I muttered, looking at all the cards I gained from this world. I wonder what memories of hers they hold? “So, see you around?” Betty asked. “Got anywhere specific you want to go?” I asked curiously. “I’ll stick around here for a while, then warp out.” She said, exiting the giant wooden shell. I opened a DTN, and headed back to where Jenny was, here at Castle Oblivion. “Finally.” She groaned. “Only took you forever…” “Sorry.” I said while bringing out the cards. “But...you know, having to fight for these can take their time.” The cards flew out of my hands, each one jabbing itself back into Jenny. For a while, she sat slumped, her body glowing as her actual age was returned. She then woke up, yawning. “Shit I’m tired… Hey dad.” Jenny said. Thank god she remembers me. “Why...are we in Castle Oblivion?” “Remember Kexez?” I asked. “Yeah he took away your memories so...we have to be here for the cards.” “Oh...well shit. I mean, I feel okay now...am I missing any memories?” She asked. “I don’t know...do you remember everything?” I asked. “Any holes where your memories should be?” “I… don’t think so. Birth mom was a bitch. We first met when I tried to kill you. My mom is Gilda. Grandma has six tits… I don’t think I’m missing anything.” I nodded. “That’s good.” I said. “Well, want to go home and see the others?” “Yup. I feel like I haven’t slept in my own bed or even seen the girls in years.” She said, walking into the DTN. “So, did I miss anything?” “Um…” I started as when we walked through the portal we appeared near the house, and Jenny could see Canterlot Castle turned into a more Nobody themed castle as well as there being...pure white sky above my castle. “Yeah, I became King recently.” “Wow...I am so behind.” To be continued... Nobody's HomeSpending time with mom and my new siblings, and other Dire Wolf moms was the best. I’ve been hunting, playing tag, chase, even tug a war with large sticks. It’s a blast. Fishing in this form is odd, but doggy paddling isn’t that hard to figure out, it’s catching the fast moving fish that’s the trouble. Den said in the deep waters there is three high value, and tasty, fish. The Glora Bora, an eel like prey with sharp teeth and slippery skin. The Fire Flasher, a slow moving fish with rock like skin and an ability to chew the rocks of the ocean floor and spew them out as molten projectiles. Thankfully though, if you can trick it to spit out that magma upwards, it can fall back down, and being so hot, even under water, the magma will fall back onto it, and melt through it’s own skin. Lastly was the Great Sea Monster. I giant manta ray fast enough to create whirlpools and, if enough of them are present, they can even make hurricanes. Their hide isn’t that tough, it’s their speed that’s the issue. They can break the sound barrier underwater. I’ve hunted one of almost every prey on moms… my ancestral homeworld. I feel proud to be this race. I was born to be this race, why I wasn’t originally I’m just gonna call a fuck up on fates part. “Ah….this is the life.” I said with a warm smile, feeling wonderful about everything. I was atop a very high, massive tree, it’s branch making the whole trees from Yellowstone look like twigs by comparison. Truly these trees have been here, most likely forever. I was enjoying the view, the landscape like a picture of nature's true beauty. “I...I can’t wait to bring my family here. They’ll love the sights and the beauty of this world...and all my pups will enjoy being here.” I said with a warm smile, knowing all of my kids will be of Dire Wolf lineage. “This has been such a massive gift…” I muttered, looking around over the horizon seeing all the things here. “Looks amazing, huh?” Cript said, he was in a Dire Wolf form surprisingly. Brown fur, blue eyes, and he was about Den’s size. He took a seat next to me. “It’s doesn’t just look amazing, it is amazing.” I said with a happy smile. “So much fun...I feel so free...it’s amazing.” “And this is just a copy.” Cript said. “Ben, it’s time for lesson three.” I panicked. “Excuse me, you can’t just say that and make me not think you’re going to burn this place to the ground.” I said worriedly, knowing for a fact I’m overreacting but i was just so worried about wording and all the training I have to do. “Heh, sorry for my wording. You see, while this is a legit planet, it is still a copy of Den’s home. Her actual home is still corrupt, and very much poisoned.” Cript sighed. “Lesson three. How far will you go?” Cript asked me. “On the original home world of Den’s, I placed something than can return it to how it was, just like this place. A Time Gem. Very rare. Find it, and break it. It will reverse time on the world to when it wasn’t a hellscape of poison and evil. But, going to this place as it is won’t be easy. Are you ready for it?” “Oh boy…” I muttered. “Well...when you say ‘how far will you go’...what do you mean?” “Ben. When I send you there. You will be as is. Just, a Dire Wolf. No weapons, no humanoid form, no Nothingness powers. You have seen the darkest moments of you kind in test one, and the joys and pride of their people before. To save their history, you must do it as one of them. Are you ready to charge head first into this hellscape?” “Well the Keyblade War is happening in three years, and I did train in that one warzone so...sure why not.” I said honestly, stretching a bit as I got prepared for what’s to come. “Alright. When you return, you’ll be pleasantly surprised.” “Hopefully…” I muttered as I got ready for heading to the original world. “Well, I’m ready.” “Right then.” Cript said. A portal opened under me, and I fell in. I landed on soil that stung just to stand on it. The whole of ‘grass’ was sharp rock like spikes with jagged, natural hooks to catch onto you and rip your paws up. “Yeesh, already this is gonna be rough…” I muttered. “Gonna have to tread carefully…” I muttered, trying to move without ripping my paws apart like an idiot. Walking on this ground is not easy, and I cut my paws up a lot. When I finally found flat ground blood was oozing from my paws like water. Grunting, I licked, literally, my wounds and headed on. I saw something in the distance. A field of ‘trees’ that where all black bark, purple leaves, and I saw vines squirming around them like snakes. “Well...that’s not good…” I muttered, going to hate going through an Assassin Vine forest. I looked around but the forest seemed to go for a long while on both ends. Grunting, I found what looked like the best path and ran. The vines all immediately reacting and wiping me, cutting my skin open and making me bleed. “Christ these things are fast…” I muttered, trying to dodge as many as I can so I take less damage. “Crap...and I have a feeling I’m not even close to being close to the time stone.” I managed to rush outside the other end of the forest, only to avoid being stopped by a giant mutated version of the first prey I ate, its size five times what it is normally and its body armored with metallic looking skin. “Holy shit…” I muttered, doubting this thing would taste good considering what this place has been so far. I managed to rush passed what was a herd of them easy, the footsteps just almost crushing me on many close calls. I made it into a forest where the trees weren't trying to whip me and ran into a cave, catching my breath. “Well...Cript was right about this place being a pain in the ass…” I muttered, looking around the cave in case I didn’t just either walk into something’s home...or walk into something’s mouth. As I looked around I stepped on… ashes and old wood… I let my eyes adjust, and saw I was in the same cave as back on Cript’s copy… it looks untouched. “Hmm…” I hummed, getting up and wondering if this place was truly untouched as I walked into the cave. It looked preserved, well kep- “Who are you?” I yelped, almost jumping and hitting the ceiling. Before me stood a rotten looking Dire Wolf. black and grey coat, but rotting. Older, and covered in battle scars. “Um...hello?” I asked the dog. “Who are you? And...shouldn’t you be dead?” I asked worriedly. “I was. For a long, long time.” He heaved. “The poison of this land brought me back as an undead. My will alone allowed me to keep my mind and personality.” “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “My names Ben, what’s yours?” I asked curiously. “Goto… I believe it’s my teeth on that necklace of yours.” I blinked in surprise, putting a paw up to the teeth. “Um...yeah.” I said gently. “It’s...probably a little weird seeing someone literally wearing your teeth isn’t it?” “Not as weird as waking up undead and seeing your homeland turned into poison. What brings you here young pup? Only ones like us around are undeads like me, only those mutts are far more violent and mindless.” “I’m here to bring this world back to normal.” I said. “There’s a chance of it going back to the beautiful world it used to be.” I told him. “Really? Pray tell young pup, what do you know that I do not?” “Well, I can start with your teeth being made into a necklace for the greatest warriors each generation.” I said honestly. “But how to solve all this...well there’s a special stone that can reverse all of this.” “Special stone? Ah, I believe if such a stone exists, it would be in the Badlands. Where I once lead battle against our highly poisonous foes from my time. The undead of all the warriors who wore my teeth around their necks as you do walk there, as if guarding something. Before they’d just run around like the beasts they now are. Now they roam around the old hive of my greatest victory.” “That’s...that’s not good.” I frowned, having a bad feeling about that. “I...suppose they’re drawn to the power of the stone, the poison of this world using their bodies to keep anyone away from the one thing that can stop it…” I took a deep breath. “Um...know the direction where the Badlands are?” I asked, wanting to at least know where to go instead of blindingly run. “Of course. I am more than willing to help, to restore my honor. My death was poisoned with the blood of my own kind, blood I spilled. I wish to rectify that mistake.” “Thank you.” I nodded. “That’s all I can ask for...and I’m sure my family would just get a kick out of hearing I fought alongside you.” “Not so fast young pup. I’ll help you, and restore my honor, but my primary means of combat,” He opened his mouth...right, toothless. “-Are decorating that charm of yours. If I am to be of any use in this hunt, I require them back.” “Seems a little ironic…” I muttered, taking off my necklace and holding them. “I was given these from my mom because she told me I was the best hunter of my generation...and I’m giving back your teeth, the best hunter of your generation.” I said honestly, moving the necklace over to the undead wolf. “I...kind of doubt I can do proper dentistry…” I said sheepishly. “No need for that. This poison has its perks.” Goto said, the necklace string coming undone as his teeth, glowed with a black mist and and flowed back into place in his mouth. Once the last tooth was in place, he ran his tongue around them. “Ah, now that’s better.” “Glad to see...that somehow works.” I said honestly. “Lets go.” Goto said, standing up and exiting the cave. “Keep up youngblood.” He said racing off as I followed. “So, how dangerous is this place besides the whip vines and serrated grass?” I asked curiously. “All the prey animals now hunt like we do, worse even. The Badlands is barren though, so when we arrive we will only have to worry about the undead hunters that came after me and before you. Last I checked there are five of them there.” “Alrighty then.” I said honestly. “Yeah, nothing like being hunted by a giant fuck off turtle to brighten your day.” “Oh don’t get me started.” Goto whined. We ran through deadly forests, evil paw shredding ‘grass’ and fish twice our size in a river too small for them. It was a lot of literal blood, sweat and hard work reaching the dry, dead dirt of the badlands. This whole place looks like a canyon or something. “Well...that’s a lot of space.” I said honestly. “Now...where would a powerful stone be…” “There…” Goto growled. In the distance was the ancient husk of what looked like a bee hive, it’s petrified shell looking like it was about to fall over. Outside I saw a large, undead Dire Wolf. My mind flashed back to Den’s story about Saber the strong. “Saber the Strong…” I muttered. “Well...that’s a good way to start.” “We will see if his story does him justice then.” Goto said. “We need a plan. I shall attack, you find pointed rock, use like club to bash skull in. Only way to end undeads.” “True.” I nodded while looking around for anything that would be big enough to bash his head in. I could hear the exchanged snarls and growls of Goto fighting Saber. Loud thuds and bashing. I saw… the bones of a massive Wolf/Bird/Snake creature. Jesus, this is just the head! It’s three times Den’s body and it’s just the head. “Jesus christ…” I muttered, looking around for a big enough thing to use as a club quickly. “If this is the thing’s Goto murdered...he’s pretty fucking strong.” Looking back at the things head, I saw one of it’s teeth fallen out and laid on the side. I grabbed it, and ran back over to them. “Alright...time to bash some undead’s head in…” I muttered as I moved fast to help Goto. “Let’s hope this works…” I muttered. Jumping over a rock, I saw Goto was rather beat, but not down as Saber had his own share of slices and bruises. Goto saw me and lured Saber in a way that his back was facing me. I raced, raising the tooth, and bashing Saber’s undead head in. I let go of the tooth, Sabers body turned to ash an ethereal version of him rising from the ashes. “Thank you.” Saber said. “Your welcome Saber the Strong.” I nodded. “Why are you here if I may ask?” I asked curiously, wondering if Saber has some time before he moves on to the after life. “The poison resurrected me, but while my soul was rebound to my body, I had no control over my form. You have freed me, Ben.” “Always glad to help.” I nodded. “Wait...how did you know my name?” “When we die, our souls roam the world, not as ghosts, but as energy, keeping the plants and animal life full and plentiful for those living, and we watch over the new pups, sometimes we are reborn, at our own choosing.” “And...what do you think of me?” I asked, thinking Saber wouldn’t see much in me all things considered. “I know I’m not all that special, even by Dire Wolf standards.” “You do our kind proud.” He said, bowing before me, then rising. “Save our homeworld. Restore it to its glory.” With those words, he raised his head, howling as his spirit returned to its proper place. I nodded. “Well...that’s one.” I said, having a feeling I’m gonna need to keep this giant club. “But...mind if I ask what that weird wolf, bird, snake thing I found to actually get one of it’s teeth?” I asked nervously. “That was our enemy in my time.” Goto hissed. “Ever since I was a pup they have been keeping us their prey, and they only targeted us. Devouring us by the dozens daily, we scrapped by in deep underground tunnels built over the generations. Not sure if they are still around now, but back then that was our only safety. I was barely growing my own fangs when my den mother and father where devoured. I was the only of my litter to survive. I swore I’d kill them all… and I did.” “Yeah...that’ll do it.” I said slowly. “But okay then...time to go deeper into this hell hole.” We entered the decrepit hive, the skeletons here where in massive pils. These ancient monsters and Dire Wolf skulls decorated the walls and floors like confetti. “I remember this battle. So many died, elders, mothers, children. Anyone willing to fight, fought.” Goto remonised. I noticed the differences in the bones size and age… some of them had to be...kids. “Dear lord…” I muttered. “So much death..” “No victories worthwhile come without sacrifice. If this battle had not been won, you might not be here.” “Ah...makes sense.” I said honestly. “Sorry just...never been much for murder in general...or mass extinction…” I said nervously. “All kills can be justified. Be it beliefs, or survival. These were kills for survival, when you hunt the preys you kill to eat, it’s not just beliefs, it’s also to live to the next day. We combined the two, to justify the death of our killed preys.” “Alright…” I nodded, looking around carefully to see if any other zombie wolves are close. As we entered a new chamber, both Goto and I where tackled, those twin looking undead wolves where our attackers. Goto managed to flip himself over, biting down on his attackers neck and ripping it’s head off before pulling mine off, and doing the same. “Right then...that explains where those two were.” “Ryla, and Gondugo.” Goto spoke. “They fought along me against the queen. They were good hunters. Good pups…” “Oh…” I muttered. “Well...maybe we’ll get to talk to them like Saber?” I suggested nervously. “They were hunters, not warriors. I only allowed them to join if they kept to the small fry… if it weren't for them disobeying me… I would not have won… a bittersweet victory. You have pups, Ben?” “Yes, yes I do.” I nodded. “And...there not old enough to fight...and honestly, I’d rather them not get into the fights I’m going to have to get into…” “You know your pups idolize you… if they fight with you… and are happy to die for you. Stupid youth… but that’s life. When they argue with you to prove their worth, through any means, it’s all for you. Some would say that’s how your young should act towards you… I say, it’s a good way to get them killed. Ben, if you want any stubborn pups of yours to stay out of your fights, then you’ll have to be their bad guy, even if they hate you for it. Don’t make my mistake.” Him saying that...made me think of Jenny… she wouldn’t… sigh, she would… “Except one of them just doesn’t give a flying fuck and will do it anyway.” I sighed out. “But...yeah, understandable…” As we headed in both our ears perked up, hearing something...someone running… running- “Gah!” Goto shouted, getting slammed into and flung through the wall behind… Gizer. He turned to me, and ran, I only managed to bite his after image. “Ah shit.” I muttered, looking around quickly to where he was. As I was looking, he ran up behind, grabbing me by the tail and dragging me THROUGH the walls before letting go… ouch… “Agh. Basterd can run.” Goto grunted. “Ben, I have an idea. Try not to die before I come back.” “Believe me, it’s a lot harder for me to die than one would think.” I said honestly as I readied myself for the things oncoming attacks. As I kept myself against the wall I saw him running this time, his after image lagging behind like a bad wifi connection. Growling, I saw him jump at me. I dodged, or so I thought. He has an after image in front of him?! He tackled me where I moved, knocking me against the wall before grabbing me by the scruff and bashing my head against the wall. “Bitch!” I barked, trying to claw at the bastard and getting out of his grip so my head wouldn’t be bashed in. I managed to scratch him, but being undead he didn’t flinch. Rather, he did stop bashing me, but hit harder...and hard- I howled, and growled in pain. He… ATE….MY….NECK SKIN! I looked up, seeing him slurp it like a noodle. Oh okay, you pissed me off now. I tackled the bastard and drove his head into the ground as hard as I could to kill it. “Now you pissed me off ass hole!” I shouted as I kept bashing his head into the ground. He moved fast...fast that I was suddenly hitting his neck scruff skin and my lower jaw on the ground… ewewww…”Fucking gross!” I yelped, spitting out that things neck skin. I looked around and saw my upper hand. His body is leaking undead blood, leaving a trail. I followed, and found myself in…. In… HOLY! Before me was one of those bug wolf monsters, it’s skeleton MASSIVE. Reaching the ceiling of this room with ease. Eggs long since dead laid scattered about and still attached to the walls and the skeleton itself… GOTO KILLED THIS THING?! It’s head was bigger than the cave the paintings are in. Hell it’s EYE is bigger than that cave. I did notice it’s left eye socket was...glowing... “Hmm…” I hummed. “That’s either what I’m looking for...or I have a feeling this planet’s even more fucked…” I muttered, moving around carefully to see what was causing the glow. As I entered the eye socket I saw a small, glowing crystal that just looking at it I saw time passed...heard it. There it is. I reached in to grab it, only to get yanked out by the tail, my undead assailant tossing be back and onto some dead eggs, shattering the aged shells and showing me the skeletal monster infants inside. Shit, each egg has to have like four or five in them. “Cause fuck this, can’t be simple right now…” I muttered while getting up quickly. Gizer was already in front of my when I got up, headbutting me before I could counter, bit my paw, hard. Then tossed me to the side. As I got up he was running again, before...tripping? “That hook like grass can come in handy!” I heard Goto shout, jumping out from a patch of dead eggs and as I got closer, Gizer was wrapped up a dug up patch of that fucking deadly grass. Goto gabbed Gizer’s neck, and snapped it clean off his body. “Yeah...it does come in handy.” I nodded. “Especially against this bastard.” I frowned. “Well, that’s done. Heh, like my handy work?” Goto asked, motioning towards the giant dead beast. “How in the name of hell did you kill this thing? Killed it from the inside or something?” I asked. “Clawed my way into its eyeball, than once inside got inside it’s head and ate it’s brain.” Goto said simply. “Yeah...that makes sense.” I said, limping given my paw was bit really hard, towards the crystal. “Well..let’s hope the crystal can solve all of this…” “Before you do Ben, there is… one last Undead you best take care of...heh, even though I did all the work.” “You want me to kill you?” I asked honestly. “Give you a warrior's death?” “Better that then let that thing do...whatever and bring me back. I don’t belong alive at my age.” Goto said, showing me his neck, a clean kill… “May my spirit join my fellow hunters and warriors.” I nodded. “It was nice meeting you Goto.” I said, moving fast and doing my job to kill the old wolf. I couldn’t afford to think, to hesitate… in a swipt chomp, Goto’s head came clean off. I howled for him, Den telling me this was our version of prayer. Our howl reaching them in the afterlife. With that done, I headed back inside, and took the crystal in my mouth, and bit down on it hard. After some resistance, it cracked, then shattered. Everything went white. When I woke up I was still in wolf form, but Den was with me. We were in the cave. She was crying, but she had the best smile. “You saved my home… our home.” Den said. “Yeah well...that’s what hero’s do ya know?” I chuckled a little. “I met Goto…and fought with him.” “Cript told me. He was watching you.” She laughed. “Both Cript’s copy and our home came to your realm. He wants to show you what he did. Said it’s his grand plan.” Looking at the cave entrance, I saw Cript in his wolf form sitting just outside it. “Well alrighty then.” I said while walking towards Cript. “Sup.” “Heh. Care for the view?” Cript asked, a cloud appearing before us. “Sure.” I nodded. We hopped on- Oh my god this is so soft… It flew up high. Really high. When it finally stopped… It was amazing. My castle stood where Canterlot Mountain was, its size absorbing Ponyville, Appaloosa, a lot of land within its walls. Outside them was Den… my homeland. The two/three worlds and colossal castle all merged into one world. “This Ben, is what I have in mind for all creation. No more dimension traveling, no more realms… all one world, one sky. For infinity. While life for all will be finite, the world won’t be, it and it’s resources will go on forever. Yours, Zeke’s. The Foretellers. You’ll all die, but you can take comfort in knowing no more worlds will ever perish, for you’ll all share the same infinite world.” “So that’s it? One unified world?” I asked. “And what, you’ll lose all your powers after me and my friends fight in the keyblade war?” I asked honestly. “While you all fight in the Keyblade war, I’ll face my father Vincent, and settle the matter. Once he’s dead, Lord and I will activate this. Everything is falling into place to unify creation as the admins of old should have from the beginning rather than wage war, birthing Insanities and Psychopaths. I’ll still be immortal, but I’ll be physically the same as everyone else. Just can’t age or die. To be honest it will be fun. Finally, things will be a challenge again.” “Alrighty then...then there’s the problem of all the wars that ill happen due to all the people not understanding certain things and freaking out...then there’s an ass ton of other problems.” I brought up. “A fact of life. I trust when the day comes you’ll work to establish friendly connections with those who’d shoot first over asking questions.” “Yeah…” I said, but I had this strange feeling in my heart. “Will...we lose anyone because of this? Not the war, but the whole...merging everything to be infinite?” “You’ll be with your families in your respective lands.” Cript said. “But as for your friends, I can’t tell how far apart your lands will be from one another.” “That’s simple enough, we already live in different realms to begin with…” I said. “I was talking...about mom.” I said honestly. “I’m sorry but...I have this bad feeling that she’ll be gone...after what little time we’ve actually spent together…” I sighed out. “I don’t want to lose another mom ya know?” “Only for a while.” Cript admitted. “Den and the rest of the wives will be fusing into one being. While mentally, Den will be there. They all will, Psychically they’ll all have the same body. Only two ways to split from that. That will be in their, well, our sacred place. Got that set up already, and with these.” Cript said, a small wooden statue of mom appearing before me. She was in both her anthro form and primal form. The two halves of her back to back, divided by a wall between them. “Face which form you want her to appear in, and she’ll be there. While I imagine lots of statues like this will appear, they’ll only appear for those who know them, the kids. Grandkids.” “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “Glad to know...I won’t fully lose my mom.” I said honestly. “Things are gonna change Ben, it’s how life is… Hey...is that Jenny?” Looking down, I saw a thin female Direwolf with the back paws like lions paws, tail included, though the tip was fluffier tip, and massive blue and brown wings running around like mad. “Maybe...I mean, it’s a Direwolf with lion parts and wings…” I said honestly. “Well, wondering why she’s running around here?” “Enjoying herself. She loved dogs, now can become a wolf, and for the first time, looks like she can act like a kid.” I looked back at her. Jenny was actually playing with the others. Not violently either. Carefully, calmly, and with caution so they where not hurt. I smiled a little. “Maybe...I could join her...you know, have fun as father and daughter.” I said honestly, so glad to see Jenny happy without any murder or violence. “Be a better dad for her…” “Well go on then. Enjoy the peace while it lasts. After that, your last test.” “I have my powers back correct?” I asked honestly. “Yup.” “Right.” I nodded before jumping down and flying down towards Jenny. After a few moments I gently landed on solid ground near Jenny. “Hey Jenny.” I said. “How you liking being a wolf?” “This is awesome!” She said happily, jumping around and flapping her wings. “Care for a race? Loser hunts dinner.” Jenny said, ready to run or fly. I chuckled. “Alright, but I know some really good prey to hunt and eat.” I said with a smile. “Race where?” “From here to your castle. Give some stuck up nobles still in Canterlot a heart attack while we are at it.” She chuckled. “Whatever nobles are still around after I’m done with them all.” I rolled my eyes. “So, ready?” I asked, digging my paws into the ground ready to run. “Ready… set… go!” Jenny shouted, and we where off. To be continued... Nobody goes to warSpending time with Jenny like this showed me a side of her I've never seen before. Her childlike wonder and innocence. The race to the castle was fun. A few noble ponies did receive some frights, but where quickly assured that everything was fine. I lost, Jenny cheated. Dinner was awesome. The next Day I met Cript in my castles tallest tower. Here the statue of Den was placed on a small shrine, alongside texts Consequence told me where the old kings scrokbooks of his armory, Treasury, and detailed documents of all current known Nobodies. “How are you doing?” I asked, back in my normal form with my cloak on after having a joyous day with Jenny. “Good. Lot of texts you'll wanna read later on. So, your final test.” Cript said. “Yes, my final test...whatever the hell that is.” I said honestly. “What is the final test if I may ask?” “Your final test is in two parts. Diplomatic security. We'll see how well you handle these things. Lastly is the second part. Controlled War.” “Oh boy, a whole lot of talking and then leading into me playing an RTS.” I said. “Can’t wait.” “First we will handle your diplomatic relations skills. In a few moments your eldest siblings will be arriving to inhabit your newly added territory. I had them select two leaders, and while they build/creature comfort their respective territory. Your job is to figure out how Equis and this new land and species will coexist with their differences.” “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “This is gonna be interesting...and a pain in the ass.” “The war will be, depending on how your diplomatic part goes, easier or harder. An unspecified amount of Shadow Creatures, Heartless, Unversed, and Inhumans that I will spawn in will invade from all sides. No one will die, just knocked out. Keep them from breaching the castle and grabbing the statue of Den, for three days, you pass.” “Oh…” I muttered. “That’s...gonna be a thing.” “A leader must be able to handle both social, political, and situational issues with proper action. This will prove to those struggling to follow you that you can lead this world.” “So no matter how I do this I will have things attacking my castle?” I asked honestly. “Yes. A proper king is more than just an authority, they must be someone the people can, without hesitation, trust to keep them safe. If you want the citizens to know this, don't let the enemies even reach your castle walls.” “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “This...is gonna be a bit annoying to be perfectly honest...wasn’t good at RTS style stuff...I know this isn’t a game but still.” I said, taking a deep breath as I already tried thinking of the hundreds of ways to defend this place with my supercomputer level intelligence. “Your sibling diplomats should be arriving soon. Good luck.” “Shit…” I muttered. “Well...this is gonna be a nightmare.” I muttered, taking a deep breath and mentally preparing myself for this. “Later then. I’ll check in when you are all done.” Cript said, leaving in a blink of the eye. “Can't wait…” I muttered. “Consequence, where's Luxu? Gonna need my generals help.” I sighed out. Consequence appeared. “I shall inform him at once.” He said, vanishing again. I headed back to my throne room. The walk was long enough that Luxu was there already. “So, I like what you’ve done with the place.” Luxu said, looking around. “New castle, new realm entirely, and a extra two worlds fuzed into one. Gotta say this is pretty impressive.” “Yep, but the extra worlds were because of Cript and...I have no idea why Equestria jumped here to begin with.” I shrugged. “But glad you like it. So, I suppose Consequence told you why I needed you?” “Yup. And, I suspect it jumped because you are tied to this realm now that you are it’s king, and since you’ve spent...a lot of time here your influence has rubbed off on it. Should I also point out you didn’t bring this worlds sun and moon?” I blinked. “Uh...woop.” I said worriedly. “Well..actually that’s a thing, I didn’t bring this here, Consequence did...I think.” I said, not a hundred percent sure about all that. “Then...why are the day and night cycles perfectly fine?” “Fuck if I know? I’ve never even been to this realm until this world was hacked into it. Well from what I gather your Celestia and Luna are now cut from their celestial bodies, you know what that means!” He said as if talking on Blues Clues. “And why did you need to talk like your on Blues Clues?” I asked honestly. “Cause sarcasm. It means they are Mortal now. From now on they will age like the rest of you. Though they will still live a bit longer than your other pony wives, maybe by… fifty, seventy years? Somewhere around there. But, they can be injured, so, be careful on that.” “Of course…” I muttered. “I...should have brought up with Cript about my family and their lifespans…” I muttered, having a feeling they have extended lifespans but not sure. “So anyways, I presume your a master tactician considering your...longer life?” “Yeah. Back when my friends where alive I taught them how to organize mass numbers in their Unions. Why? Something up?” “Well...Cript said my last ‘test’ is two parts, diplomacy, and then war management. The war part is gonna happen either way but it’s going to be easier or harder depending on if I do or don’t piss off the people I’m going to be talking to.” I said honestly. “So I’m gonna need your help to keep the entire castle safe. Cript said that a good defense would basically make any oncoming attacks never even reach the castle walls but...well you know me.” I said honestly. “Ah. Got it.” He said, summoning his Lunatic. “I’ll prove my loyalty when who or whatever it is start attacking. I’ll go inform your other council members and Faust and Scarab. Also, check this!” Luxu said, raising Lunatic to my throne. It glowed almost like a Keyblade before shooting a beam of nothingness into my throne. It glowed, and before us raised a table, where a holographic image of THE WHOLE WORLD appeared, flat like a map. Every kingdom and notable location for viewing. Even my Zeplin with my other clone and wives. Huh. “That...is really cool.” I said honestly, looking over the huge ass map. “I mean, I shouldn’t be surprised the General can summon a world wide map in the throne room to be perfectly honest.” “Yeah. I can use this to most effectively set up defences and offences. Oh, and check THIS.” He said, taking out his Keyblade and tapping it. The world turned to a sphere. Then a see through grey orb covered it, then several other worlds… Wait… Foretellers… Ruined world… John… and chunks of rock...Daybreak… “It shows all the worlds you have a connection to. Even Daybreak, which is now space rubble… eh.” “Your bastard of a father did that.” I frowned. “I know.” Luxu said simply. “Had a silent alarm setup in that armory. Grabbed all the Gazing Eyes, and my friends robes. That was all I did.” “Let me guess...you know your the one who’s going to have to kill him?” I asked honestly. “I’ve been planning it for longer than anyone should even consider the thought.” Luxu sighed. “He changed, that Fear of the X-blade… I just don’t know why. If I at least knew… then maybe I’d pity him.” “I understand…” I sighed out. “How’s Time Belle? You two still a couple?” “Yup. She’s back in Ponyville. Started helping Cheerilee with her classes. Think she might stay with that job. I know Cheerilee could use the help.” Luxu laughed. “That’s good.” I nodded. “Glad to know you two are still a couple.” I said with a little smile, glad to hear a nice laugh considering the upcoming problems. “Oh, and also…” I said while pulling out the pocket watch Kexez gave me. “Three years…” I said, knowing I won’t even need to say what the three years are for. “That’s our time.” “Three… years… Should have guessed.” Luxu sighed… what does he know? “What do you mean? I just learned that the day this hits zero the day syncs up for literally everyone, is there something else you know?” I asked curiously. “The reflections all...have one day, a whole 24hrs where they are on the same day, same time, same year. That was when the first Keyblade war broke out. Ever since then every so many randomly seeming years they line up, on this day the barriers between then are damn near like paper. Easy for traveling between reflections.” “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “Anything else? Like...the Realm of Darkness, Nothingness and Void being able to seep into the world more easily or something?” I asked honestly. “Void, no. It follows its own rules. Nothingness was never part of the first one because back then it was an unknown area. Darkness… perhaps. It didn’t last time but in the years before the war Heartless reports where skyrocketing to all time highs, though that can be because of the negativity between the unions regarding the traitor. This new war will only have slight similarities to the old one. Cause as far as I can predict.” He said, waving Gazing Eye. “It’s a war unique to itself.” “Interesting…” I said. “Um...how long will it last? Cause I was told it would last a day if we're lucky enough.” “Depends. Even if we take out Spoiled, Kexez, Eve and her kin all in the first day, the amount of Heartless, and Ventral clones and god knows what else they have will be flooding the place. It’s the cannon fodder in this war that will be the one who makes the hours turn to days. Weeks even if possible.” “Oh dear…” I frowned. “I mean...we have armies as well but still...the war’s gonna suck I just know it.” “All wars suck.” Luxu said. “Just don’t sit and watch… like I did…” I was sitting in a meeting room, adorned with what I think is real gold and marble pillars. Looks so fancy. Food was set up all around, as were drinks. All I was doing now was waiting. “Well...I hope they enjoy the food and drinks.” I muttered, thinking about who might be here and what is going to happen here. The doors opened. Three Dire Wolf siblings of mine entered. Two women, one man. One of the women was in Primal form, the other in humanoid. The third was also humanoid, but in heavy armoring. Or...was it something else. It looks almost ceremonial. They entered, taking their seats across from me. “How are you three doing today?” I asked politely, wanting to start off simple. “Fine.” The armored one spoke. “It’s been exciting.” The other humanoide one said. “We understand you saved out ancestral homeworld.” The Primal one said. “I am Stria. The armored brother of ours and yours is Kelko. And lastly Nina here. Kelko developed his own version of the past two tribes, creating a third that exists as both the Evolved and Primal bodies by existing in the middle.” Stria said. “That’s right.” Kelko spoke. “As I am now my reflexes, smell and other physical attributes are stronger than the Evolved form, but not as good as the True Primal.” I nodded. “It’s wonderful to meet you three.” I said politely while motioning to the food. “Please, help yourselves to the food and drinks if you’d like.” I said, wanting to be a good host and get on their good sides without having the ‘savior of their world’ being the main thing about me. “Thank you.” Nina said, getting up and taking a water bottle. “So then, we decided on the way over here to speak of our issues separately, or rather one at a time.” “I’m here to help.” I said readily. “Who wants to go first?” I asked, wondering who will go first and tell me their problems. “If I may?” Stria asked her siblings, the two nodding. “The new Primal Tribe requests the land we held before the world became poisoned. The thick of the forests and the flatlands where the larger preys roam.” She asked. “And there’s our shared issue.” Kelko said. “We need the flatlands to build our towns and cities, and their woods would hold the best lumber. But we can’t touch those trees without a fight breaking out.” Nina nodded. “Tradition dictates the Evolved Tribes built their homes from stone.” Nina spoke. “But without wood for temporary construction, and tools, we’d be at a disadvantage.” “And their towns and cities in the flatlands would take up space and food/water sources the large prey need to continue to breed and populate.” Stria countered. “Do you need all the flatlands?” I asked curiously. “Or just a good portion of it? Cause the forest problem, while it might take time, regrowing the trees that are cut down would help keep the forests alive and well, cause again the towns and cities don’t need all the lumber right?” I asked. “As they grow it might become an issue.” Kelko said. “The bigger our population grows over time the more lumber we’ll need. While just one of the massive trees will do for now it won’t last us for too long.” “Yes, then we can switch to stone and mine the mountains like the past Evolved Tribe.” “Well, you’ll be doing that.” Kelko said. “The Third Tribe all decided simple huts for basic sleeping and that’s it.” “Yes, and you clearly didn't think everything through…” Nina rolled her eyes. Wow, they are so real siblings, fight like them. “This might sound a little weird but have you thought of building towns in the trees?” I asked honestly. “Keeps the flatlands open if all the buildings are either built on the side of the tree’s, or literally are the tree’s.” I said honestly. “Are the trees?” Stria asked. “Can you explain that?” “I think he means hollow them out as needed to make a house.” Kelko said. “Pretty much.” I said honestly. “I sadly haven’t been to the forests all that much but I know the tree’s are big enough to either hold living spaces, or the few really huge one’s actually being it’s own town or city.” I said. “How big are the biggest tree’s if I may ask?” “On standard the trees are five hundred feet thick and can reach up to four miles high…” Stria said. “If hollowed out, one can house hundreds to thousands of your tribe while co-existing with my own… Leaving the flatlands open for the large, important preys.” “And the wood we cut out can be used for tools and will be used accordingly.” Kelko said. “Yes… that can work out well, all of us in one area would also make for an interesting integration.” Nina pondered. “The flatlands is clear, the forest floor stays out of it and most of the wood is cut from higher up instead of the entire thing.” I explained. “Does that sound good to you three?” “That can work well.” Stria said. “Yes, we can make them more than fit to keep the young safe high up when this expected war hits.” Nina spoke. “Or dig far below to make bunkers.” Stria added. “That’s good too, the extra wood could make your cave homes or dug dens better suited to resist the rains and snow.” “I think this is gonna work out better than expected.” Kelko said. I smiled warmly. “That’s good.” I nodded. “Anything other problems?” I asked curiously. “Well I guess it’s just the need to tools.” “What kind of tools do you need?” I asked. “Saws, nails, screws. Mostly basic tools and some more high end tools.” Nina said. “That can be easily solved.” I nodded. “Is there anything else? Land and tools are taken care of...do any of you have problems with your new neighbors?” “I feel we can get along. The races seem diverse enough that a new one might not be an issue.” “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “So we have land solved, and I’m sure I can find someone that can help deliver the tools you’ll need to build our new home...um, do you need any help in building or are you all okay with that?” “We can handle that fine.” Kelko said. “After this war test of yours we would like to discuss trades for goods of course. We can deliver the meats from preys while you can trade… whatever.” “How maturely spoken…” Nina said, making Stria giggle. “Well spoken.” I chuckled a little. “But alright then...gonna need to figure out what to trade…” I muttered. “So, all three of you are happy with what’s been discussed?” “Yes, this was rather well done.” Stria said. “Glad to help.” I nodded with a smile. “But...now I’m gonna have to prepare for the war part…” “That is not for a few days so you’ll have time.” Nina said. “Really? I thought it would have happened...like right away.” I said honestly. “Cause knowing my luck...it tends to happen at the worst time.” “Well you have time to prepare.” “I think a week?” Kelko said. “Well that’ll at least give me some time to prepare…” I muttered. “Time to evacuate the people to safe places, prepare defenses…” “You go do that.” I was with Luxu, Faust, and Scarab in the throne room with the defence map out. “WIth the supplies you got in the Zebra lands and what I have so far taken into account in the armory the old king left for you, We can set up defensive towers and control towers in major areas in Equis and some in minor areas.” Luxu stated, several small towers appearing on the map. “As for the Dire Wolf territory We can build them on top of the trees and when this is over convert them into something more useful to them.” “Good.” I nodded. “Is there any position that might be weak or disadvantages?” I asked, knowing we’re on top of a mountain so we’re at a good defensible area but I still want to make sure. “Since we don’t know from where they will appear we will assume they will appear in mass in the open areas of the world, and in few but still concern worthy numbers in the populated areas.” Faust spoke. “As such ground troops will be deploys in numbers of a hundred troops in the open areas and in groups of twenty in populated areas.” “Our gathered aid from the first war will be on first defence.” Scarabe said. “Discord will be taking the North, Nora will take the east, Jupiter will be taking the south and Sonna will be taking the west. The others we found will be scattered between the points with this castle as it’s center.” “Which reminds me.” Luxu said, looking over to me. “Are you gonna, ya know, rename this place? Cause it don’t look like Canterlot anymore.” “Maybe...but I’m not good with names.” I said honestly. “But thank you...how many survivors have you found so far Scarabe?” I asked curiously “From the old days only ten, Discord included. Other Keyblade wielders however did agree to come here, most of them not even knowing what it was they were wielding. We also received word from Daybreak. Zeke is MIA and Lord Mors is assuming the lead Figure head as he is the only other living person to have ever wielded the X-blade. He heard of your up and coming battle and wanted you to know that while Daybreak the world may be gone, it’s people and power stand. He says to expect at least fifteen thousand extra fighters within the next two days.” Right, they don’t know about Zeke and Trixie sharing a body. Or Kexez. “I...have some explaining to do on some matters cause you've been gone so long…” “That can be told later.” Luxu said, three more towers appearing on the map, these ones around the castle. “We have no idea how big some of these enemies are. I know there are some big Unversed and Heartless, but these Shadow Creatures Cript said would also be appearing. Luckily, one of the new arrivals to replace the Direwolf race of old is a self studied expert on them.” Walking in from the hallway, came in a Dire wolf teen girl, large glasses and arms filled with notebooks and papers. “Krista here knows more than any of her siblings so she’ll be out expert.” “Uh, pleasure to meet you all.” She said, giving a nervous bow as some of her papers slipped out of her grip. “Please, no need to bow.” I said while helping her gather the papers that fell out of her grip. “Uh, thanks.” She said, taking them and then placing all of her works on the table. “Well, out of all the Shadow Creatures, the most dangerous variations are the different versions of the Titan Shadows. To our current records there are six different variations. The tallest of them being about three miles high.” She said, her Assistant flashing. Six different monsters, four or which wearing armor that looked like exoskeleton of bone. “Standard, only fifty to forty feet tall. Alpha. The mile high one. Omega, the two mile high one. Delta, the three mile tall one. Micro.” She said, the one unarmored one zooming in. “While only eight feet tall as it’s highest, it’s as strong as the standard. And lastly the Cosmic.” The final one was shown. This one’s skin looked like the night sky. “It’s three miles high, and can absorb whole stars worth of energy. Their only weak spots are their eyes and mouth, their inside skin and flesh very weak, and vulnerable to explosions. Their face armor though is the tricky part, while tough, like all their armors it can be broken. Fast moving projectiles can damage it enough to shatter it completely.” “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “That’s quite a bit...wonder what else could be thrown at us besides Titans.” “Aside from them the other variations are easier to deal with, firearms and strong blade and blunt weapons as well as magic can easily kill them. It may take a few tries depending on how powerful they are. Knowing dad it will be challenging but not unfair.” “That’s what they all say before unfairness kicks down your door.” I rolled my eyes. “Anything else I should worry about?” “The Inhumans.” She said, a human silhouette of a person standing on all fours appeared. “They touch you they will know everything about you. They’ll make themselves into your worst fears, and be your equal in terms of power and abilities. Best kill them before they ever touch you. They are also smart, and calculating. While they act wild they’re as smart enough to invade whole worlds.” “Well that’s just wonderful.” I sighed out. “Are there any subspecies of Inhumans I should know about?” “Thankfully no.” Krista said. “There are Subhumans but they are not of concern, they do their own shit out of everyone else's Realms.” “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “So Titans and Inhumans are both things...anything else?’ I asked. “Cause while I doubt Cript would do something like this I want to know like...what’s the worst things he can throw at us.” “Not sure. None of us have ever seen dad go all out before.” Krista said. “We did bring a lot of weapons, armors and special munitions from home, and we kept what we wanted to use, the overflow some of your Nobodies arrived and took them to your Armory and some excess Rem and other currencies were sent to your Vault. You might wanna check them both out.” “Yeah, I have a lot of things to check out still.” I said honestly. “Now a good question...would Cript have everyone be attacked at once or teleport an ass ton of enemies in the middle of town?” “Most likely they will spawn within random areas for a set time, moving around for the duration of this war before on the final day releasing a massive wave of strong enemies before closing.” “So expect at least some to be teleported into the city cause ‘random areas’ is pretty vague.” I frowned. “Hard to say.” Krista sighed. “Best course of action is to fortify large buildings to keep the general populace inside to keep them safe while heavily armed guards keep any invaders out.” “I was planning to get the people somewhere safe…” I agreed. “But...literally everything can go wrong if I’m just short on something…” “Then best to overstock.” Dante said, walking into the room. “Luxu asked me to show you the Armory, and you’d distribute what goes where. I tell you this now, you are beyond loaded on shit.” “I have a feeling.” I said honestly. “Is there anything else I should know before heading down to the armory?” I asked, wanting to know things before just heading off. “If there is we’ll let you know.” Luxu said. I nodded and followed Dante to a hallway adjacent to my throne room. Here stood a door without a knob or means of opening. He summoned Sharpshooters, firing a bolt at it as the whole door glowed white before moving back and sliding to the right. Down a stairway I was met with a small room and… that same moogle from the Zebra lands, and behind him a glass wall where I saw no limit to the stacks and stacks and stacks and stacks...and STACKS of all various weapon crates, armor stands and crates, Vechicals- Is that the Millennium Falcon from Star Wars!? “Excuse me but what the fuck.” “Oh, it’s you again.” The moogle said. “Hello again.” I nodded to the moogle. “Well, hello again. So you did become king. Well when I’m not selling the excess I’m your Armory Quartermaster. Need anything?” “How...many things are here?” I asked. “Nine point forty five Novemdecillion, that’s sixty zeros behind a one for reference.” I took a deep breath. “And...I have...basically every weapon, armor and vehicle here?” “And copies. Lots of copies. The old king was quite the collector. He collected weapons and things, and you seem to collect women.” Dante snickered at that. “Oh shush you.” I said to Dante. “So...I have literally everything...oh god how am I going to distribute it all?” I frowned. “I don’t even think there’s enough soldiers for even a sixteenth of this…” “Distribute what is needed. As quartermaster once you have bases set up I can ship out the needed supplies. Munitions, armor, vehicles. you will have to talk to the royal chef and Doctor for distribution of medicines and food rations.” “Right then.” I nodded. “Thank you...oh boy I don’t even know how many soldiers I have…” I grumbled. “And I doubt I have enough to move much…” “Now let’s head over to your Vault, which is ironically right next door.” Dante said, a door to the left of us opening out of the wall. It was a narrow, small hallway that lead to… When did I get to Scrooge Mcduck’s gold vault… To my right, was a Gambler Nobody, though like Consequence, he wore a Cloak. He sat at a desk, counting various currencies. Some I knew, some I have no idea what they are. “Hello.” I said. “Um...why do I have Scrooge’s gold vault and will he be mad at that?” He looked up, then looked down. “Greetings my lord. I am Greed, your Royal accountant and guardian of your treasures. This vault as well as your Armory exist in a specialized pocket dimension to accommodate the vast wealth and items of your inheritance. If there are any other questions feel free to ask.” “How much money do I even have?” I asked nervously. “Cause...if this is all in a pocket dimension…” “The vault itself is nine miles by nine miles squared and runs seventy four Tredecillion miles deep. That’s forty two zeros behind seventy four. The various currencies here amount to, in standard Munny, is a number yet to be named or recorded on any world.” I took a moment to even think of that. “Um…” I took a deep breath. “Good lord...I’m fucking rich.” I said. “And...you count literally all of this every day?” I asked nervously. “I’m still counting.” “Your still counting!?” I asked, completely flabbergasted at that. “Ever since I was appointed here sixty eight hundred thousand years ago.” “Christ, don’t you ever get breaks or something?” I asked nervously, knowing this guy is a Nobody but still. “I was given the option, but refused. Focusing on the task at hand is my chosen purpose.” “And...when your done?” I asked nervously. “I’ll count again. Best to double check and be sure it’s right.” “Alright then.” I nodded. “So...I have you and Consequence...is there anyone else like you two?” I asked curiously, having a feeling my accountant would know a lot of things. “Trigun, the Royal butler. Endon, the Chef. Oh, and Mulissa, the Royal doctor.” Greed said. “Alright then...wonder why I haven’t met Trigun…” I muttered, thinking I would have met the royal butler immediately. “Thank you Greed.” “Trigun comes when called. It’s as simple as that.” “Alright then…” I muttered. “Trigun?” I called out, wondering if that’ll bring the person to me. “Greetings Sire.” I jumped… A Human looking Nobody appeared, their skin silver and eyes glowing blue. He wore a simple butlers suite, the Nobody symbol was his tie. “What kind of Nobody are you?” I asked Trigun, not really having seen a Nobody like him. “I am a Hollow. A Nobody who’s heart no longer exists.” He said, giving me a bow. “So, what do you require master?” “Is...there anyone else like you?” I asked a little worriedly, honestly shocked about hearing someone’s heart no longer exists. “To my knowledge, no.” “Right then.” I nodded. “Hmm...is there any other Nobody like Greed and Consequence? Greed said there’s you, the chef and the doctor, do you know of anyone else?” “We are the only intelligent versions of our counterparts. While many can look like us, they will never truly be like us.” “How...were you made to be this intelligent?” I asked curiously. “We just are. No reason given.” “Hmm...interesting…” I hummed, finding that bit interesting. “Do you know the entire layout of the castle?” “It’s my job to know anything you need of me, my lord.” “Is there any hidden entrances to the castle? And if so how many are there?” I asked, thinking that I could use tunnels to do a bunch of sneak attacks against the enemies. “Currently there are fifteen thousand, eight hundred and six secret entrances, exits, pathways and rooms within the castle.” “Thank you.” I nodded. “I presume my General knows about all of these secret passageways?” “He is learning, this I know, but there are still many left for him to learn of.” “Right.” I nodded. “Um...I know there’s a blacksmithing area and an engineering area...are they both as vast as the Vault and Armory?” “No. The Blacksmithing area is no bigger than ten by either feet. The Engineering area is fifty by thirty feet but that’s all.” “Uh...interesting.” I said honestly. “Now sure I have more weapons, armor and vehicles then I know what to do with but...you’d expect those places to be bigger…” I hummed in curiosity. “If you would like, we can expand at any time.” I thought for a moment. “I’ll need to check those two places to see what needs to be included if I need expansion…” I muttered. “But that’s not something important right now, right now is the upcoming war I’m gonna be apart of…” “Anything I can assist with, my lord?” “How many soldiers do I have?” I asked curiously. “And how good are you at combat?” “Combined with your Nobody soldiers and new additions, 88.5 trillion soldiers, and I am as good at combat as you want me to be. My lord.” “Good…” I nodded. “You know the statue of Den in my castle?” I asked. “Yes, my lord.” “When the time comes for the war I want you to protect that statue with everything you have and more.” I told him. “No Shadow Creature, Heartless or Unversed are to get to it.” I said to my butler. “If you get hurt, hurt them back. If you die...walk it off.” I told him, knowing full well I was referencing Age of Ultron but I liked that quote. “Of course my lord.” He said, bowing. “What kind of butler can’t brush off death for their master?” I could tell his tone was sincere, and honest. “Good.” I nodded. “Thank you..how many of my soldiers can actually use vehicles, armor or weapons?” I asked curiously, knowing that the 88.5 trillion soldiers probably can’t all use weapons, armor and vehicles for some reason or another. “The Nobodies should have no issues. Some of your new addition soldiers should be able to learn fast.” I nodded. “How many types of Nobodies are there that I don’t know about? Cause I know the standard thirteen, the wolves, and the Medic nobodies, plus the royal guard, but is there any other kinds of Nobodies I should know about?” “On record we have thirty six hundred volumes each detailing a total nine hundred and fifty three variations of Nobody.” “Jesus.” I frowned. “I...didn’t think there was that many.” I said worriedly. “And we all are yours to command, my liege.” Trigun bowed again. “Nothingness for untold centuries has hidden it’s power and might. Am I to expect that to change under your rule?” “Within reason.” I said honestly. “I’m still new to this whole thing...so it’s gonna take me a bit to fully explore Nothingness for what it’s true power holds.” “Understood my king. Is there anything else I can do for you?” I thought for a moment, wondering if there was anything else I should ask Trigun. “Hmm…” I hummed. “I...suppose that’s it.” I said honestly, not sure what to ask next from the one that knows a lot more than me here. “Alright my lord, til this war is over I shall guard your statue.” With that, Trigun vanished. A swirl of Nothingness thorns covering him before evaporating like steam. I nodded. “Well...that was a good talk…” I muttered, still thinking everything over. “I’m gonna have to go to the library and read up on a bunch of things as well…” I muttered, trying to think of what else to do in this massive castle. Another day had passed, the bases were almost done, fast work, and the Direwolf village was going along smoothly. Construction on that was almost completely done. Troops were getting armed and began marches and routine checks on the areas. Guns, Keyblades, and all other kinds of weapons were at their disposal, and in terms of Vehicles flying ones were used to keep the ground unharmed so not to disturb the preylife of Home and wildlife of Equis. “Well so far so good…” I muttered, looking over the map yet again to make sure everything was in place. “Everything is looking good.” Kat said, walking into the throne room. “Some of your new Direwolf siblings brought something called a Mass Cropping and Husbandry computer. It digitalis plants, animals, and can grow and breed them indefinitely in seconds and just push out the finished product, raw meat, wheat, fruits. Forever. Just the three we got from them we’ll never go hungry ever. Punches out enough food to feed this city and nine more planets.” “Dear god.” I said honestly. “Didn’t expect that to...happen so suddenly.” “Yeah, the tech from that place is unlike any I’ve ever seen or could even think of.” “Well any new tech is good, especially if it’s basically pumping out food.” I said honestly. “Just hope all the people got to safety before things officially hit the fan.” “I’m sure things will always work out.” Kat said, tossing me an Orange. “From the newest drop off. They taste the perfect sweet and tangy ratio.” I grabbed it, cut off a slice from it and ate it, wondering how good it is. It...was...amazing. “Wow…” I said honestly. “This is really good” “I know right? With food this good trading with other worlds will be a steal.” “Oh yeah.” I nodded. “This will help solve a lot of issues.” “Also, the Kings, Queens of the Hippogriffs, Deer, and Saddle Arabians and Minotaur Guilds Guild leaders are here to speak with you. Guilds guild… how redundant.” Kat said, shrugging as she walked off. “Can’t wait to meet them.” I muttered while stretching a bit. “Ugh, this is gonna turn my fur white if I’m not careful…” I muttered while feeling my back crack. “Well...time to speak with the leaders...” As I entered the Throne room I was met with the respective royalty, who all bowed in respect before rising as I took seat on my throne. “How are you all doing today?” I asked politely. “I hope it wasn’t too far of a venture to come here to my...way too big castle.” “It isn’t hard to miss.” The Hippogriff queen spoke. “I am Queen Novo of the Hippogriffs. My daughter and I come here alone. While my daughter if of age, she is… not suited for marriage of yet… She can be so childish. So, being a widow I come to offer my hand in your marriage.” I nodded. “I’ll make sure to be the best husband you can ask for my Queen.” I said with a smile. The next to come up where the Minotaurs. Unlike a certain one I remember from when this was all TV episodes past, these two were rather short, wearing elegant clothing rather than other kinds of clothing. “Greetings, we are the Guilds Guild leaders. I am Cork, and my wife here is River.” “It is a pleasure to meet you both.” I nodded. “How are you both doing today?” “We are fine. Along with our own eldest daughter, we bring the eldest daughters of the top five guilds. The Hunters, Mages, Bankers, Traders and Farmers Guild eldest daughters are here for your hand. Being the highest guilds leaders daughters makes them all equal to Royalty.” I nodded. “Thank you.” I said. “Can’t wait to meet them all.” I said simply. “But what is going to happen to the Minotaurs though? Your people are mostly in guilds correct? No monarchy or anything like that?” “That is correct, as such each guild governs their own aspects of the land. Our guild is in charge of categorizing all the other guilds and making sure none of them step into another's territory. We also approve buyouts, mergers and deals between the guilds if it benefits the land and kingdom as a whole.” “I suppose you are all okay with being under one full banner or are you keeping the guilds even after this?” I asked curiously. “Cause I don’t want to cause unrest for the people if I have anything to say about it.” “We feel with the direction the world is taking, our guilds will help keep order in more than just the land we call home.” “I understand.” I nodded in agreement. “As long as the people are good with this.” I said, caring about the public opinion rather than only looking out for myself. They nodded. Next up was the deer king and queen. “Greetings king.” The king said. “I am Aspen, king of the deer. Typically we do not leave the sacred lands of our forest home, but, some of your Direwolf Kin found our home and we got along rather well. Our beliefs aligning and their new age philosophy mixing with tradition rang well with us.” “That...was fast.” I said honestly. “But that’s great to hear, glad my people are getting along with yours.” “Yes, our Co-existence is a welcome surprise. While I have no daughters of my own, I offer you my Kingdom, my people, and five of my kingdoms fairest women for your herd.” “Thank you.” I nodded “It’ll be wonderful to meet the lucky ladies, but you giving me your kingdom? I mean...I’m sorry I think I’m taking that out of what you truly meant, cause for some reason I think your just handing me your crown basically.” I said nervously. “You kidding. My wife, son and I plan on moving in with your kin, finally no more royal issues to deal with.” “Yeah, that’s what I thought.” I muttered. “Well alrighty then. Was gonna have to do this again but...I’m gonna need an advisor for your people considering...I sadly don’t know much and I don’t want to do bad things to piss them off.” I said nervously. “My last act as king will be to assign one then.” The final ones to arrive where the Saddle Arabians. To my surprise they were Earth ponies, but they were easy as tall as Celestia. “Greetings. I am King Boroko, and this is my wife Silver Crown.” “A pleasure.” Silver Crown said. “It is a pleasure to meet you two.” I nodded. “How are you two doing today?” “We are well.” Silver spoke. Strange, her husband greeted them but now he’s dead silent. “Forgive this but back in our homeland the males greatly outpopulate the women, so often a woman has multiple husbands. My other kings are in your lobby taking a tour… not sure why you are giving them out.” “Ironic considering Equestria has a female overpopulation.” I said honestly. “But what do you mean by ‘why you are giving them out’?” “Well, I understand giving out tours...but you charged? I mean no offence it’s just a bit strange.” I groaned. “Jenny! Stop scamming the royals!” I barked loud enough for her to hear me. “I’m sorry but that’s my daughter...doing stupid things.” “Oh, I know how that is, my own son is quite the little… and I truly love him, but he is such a pain in my ass…” She sighed, shaking her head. “Anyway. Since females are a rarity in our land we took a...different approach to bring you women for your herd…” ”Oh boy I can’t wait to hear this.” I thought to myself. “What is this ‘different approach’?” “Well, while it is true there are a lot of males over females in our country, we believe this to be because we are a melting pot of many races placed into one kingdom, we know for a fact many males also undergo a...magical transgender operation…” She said. “So a month earlier we made a sensus of those who would be willing and qualified… So Saddle Arabia gives to you four...hundred willing new females for your herd… All of various races from ponies to dragons, and others...many...many others…” I actually slipped off my throne like in anime at hearing such a thing. “Excuse me, did you just say ‘four hundred willing wives’?” I asked, getting up a little shakily. “Your popularity in my kingdom is well above that of Equis. Or any other kingdom. This is partly due to written novels written by a… Oh… I believe your Daughter is making money off your fame with possible false stories, the other half is because of the Changeling and Diamond dog nations… pornogrophy of you…” I face palmed. “Of course…” I muttered. “Hooray for Fanfiction...and of course Jenny is trying her best to profit off of it…” I grumbled. “So...anyways, four hundred wives correct?” I said, still shocked by such a high ass number. “Yes…” “I’m sorry for repeating that but....I thought there would be like one or two, not four hundred.” I said honestly. “But...okay so onto the actual ‘kingdoms’ part…” I said, trying to think of something to actually talk about besides me freaking out about the four hundred women I’m gonna suddenly have dogpile me. “Well for the remaining males I figured since even without gender ratio your kingdoms females still quite outnumber my kingdoms males. I am hoping for a merg of kingdoms so this issue can be settled, while the gender issue of my country will be solved by this the Equestrian gender ratio will be still a five to one males. Better than nothing honestly.” “Yes, yes it is.” I nodded. “I understand and I’ll help figure out how to get that whole thing settled. Is there anything else if I may ask?” “No I believe that is all.” “Uhh...Ben.” I saw Luxu peeking in from the doors. “You might wanna see this…” “Oh no…” I muttered while getting up and walking over to the doors. “What is it Luxu?” “Okay first off it’s not the enemy we are expecting… but Jenny already claims responsibility.” He said, walking me over to the nearest Window and… Is that a MOB of mares in brides outfits… “Oh...um…” I started. “Saddle Arabia has an overpopulation of males...and they do a special procedure to...make them female.” I explained slowly. “And...the queen said...there are four hundred of them...of differentiating race…” I said worriedly. “So yeah...those are four hundred new wives...just from Saddle Arabia...aren’t I just lucky?” I asked nervously. “Not exactly.” Jenny said, walking up to me from the other side of the hallway. “Notice all these mares are pony, and Diamond Dog, with a few changelings thrown in? Also some dragons, more Deer, a few siblings of yours who arrived recently…” She trailed off, this twisted smile never leaving her face. “What did you do?” I frowned. “Oh just figured a little thanks for giving me back my memories was in order…” “And...that would be?” I asked curiously. “With Time Bell’s help, I sent out a notice saying that before your wedding day, any eligible female can arrive in a bride's outfit and marry in.” “And...how many jumped at the chance?” I asked nervously. “Not sure, I know I started this out as a means of finding a few more gals for Joy, a good amount joined in on that bandwagon too, but I decided to see what would happen if I put your name on the notice. From every Kingdom, even the Badlands they were sent.” “Oh boy…” I muttered. “Um...can’t...wait to talk to all of them…” I said nervously. “God...the others are gonna freak at having suddenly a massive horde of women are joining…” I sighed out. “Okay...so there’s one more woman to find, and that would be the Queen of the Monsters that’s hidden somewhere…” “Well as far as I know some Badlands residents came here also, maybe you can ask some of them?” Jenny suggested. “Hopefully they’ll know something.” I said honestly. “Oh boy...this is gonna take a while…” I sighed out. “Well...I better go down there and meet them all…but you did hear me say stop scamming people right Jenny?” And… she was gone... “Of course…” I sighed out. “So...Luxu can you watch over things while I...do things?” I asked nervously. “Alright but if they start shooting bras and panties I am out.” He said, running along to do crowd control. “I’ll...try to make sure that doesn’t happen…” I said while opening the window and flying down to all the women. “Uh...hello.” I said to all the women. “How are you all doing today?” What followed was the mass screams of what I assume are my fans from all over this world… and a few bras thrown. “I’m out!” I heard Luxu scream off in the distance. “Can you not throw your underwear at me! Please!?” I shouted at them all. “Christ...okay who here is from the Badlands?” I called out to the hundreds of women. Several hands went up. A few Thestrals, one woman that looked like A dragon but I feel is not, and some...cat women people like the khajiit from Skyrim. Hey...Centaur people? “Do any of you know where the Queen of Monsters is?” I asked them. They looked among themselves, most shrugged while one raised her hand. One of the Centaur ladies. “I know that the Prince of monsters lives deep in the Badlands on Storm Mountain.” She spoke up. “Wasn’t there anything about a Princess of Monsters?” I asked. “I was told that there was a Princess that ran away for...some unknown reason.” I said, wanting to make sure that there is a princess here. “All I know is some dude making an army on Storm mountain is declaring himself King of Monsters is also calling himself the Storm King. I knew him from before...total loser. How he’s got others following him I’ll never know.” “Do you think he’ll be panicking about me at the moment?” I asked. “Probably. I’d expect is right hand to be arriving. Crazy pony bitch with a freaky sword and broken horn.” I frowned. “Tempest…” I growled. “Well, can’t wait for her to come here.” I said honestly. “And then kick her ass…” I muttered. “So, how many of you are here right now?” I asked honestly. “Did anyone decide to do a headcount?” “There was some freaky silver looking noodle person in a cloak counting everyone as they came in.” Another lady, this one a Thestral, spoke up. “That would most likely be Consequence.” I muttered. “How many Consequence?” I asked honestly. Consequence appeared, startling everyone around. “My lord. The total count of women here for you is an astounding two thousand, four hundred and sixteen. Including your current wives and the Monster Queen still missing. For Sir Joy five hundred and forty nine.” Because Anime apparently liked me today I fell over like an anime character at the numbers. “Excuse me!” I got right back up quickly. “Two thousand four hundred and sixteen? Why do so many actually like me?” “Majority seem to fancy you for your heroism, others for the stories, some for the porns made about you, and the others are looking for a mate and have no luck in their life due to lack of males or none where interested. Same case for Joy though there is no porn of him that I was told of.” “I’m glad there isn’t any of that about Joy.” I muttered thankfully. “Alright...well I’m gonna have to go face that bastard Storm King before he adds any problems to the upcoming war soon...and then I need to deal with Tempest…” I groaned. “And now I have to help the two thousand ladies here...ugh…” I groaned. “Christ...so much to do…” I muttered, trying to think of what to do in what order. “Sire, why not send one of us to deal with the issue?” Consequence said. “If you are still needed here one of us would happily take care of these roughiens in your stead.” “I’m new to being a king and having people able to do things for me…” I said. “Alright...so who would be a good group to capture the Storm King and all his followers and bring them to me?” I asked curiously. “Allow me.” Consequences said. “I promise it shall take no longer than a day or less.” “Thank you Consequence.” I nodded. “Bring them here alive alright? I have questions for the king, and I really hope his followers will see reason.” I said, hoping the people will see reason and not fight back. “I shall deliver your work swiftly, and effectively.” Consequence stood at the base of Storm Mountain. Airships, armed guards and machinery littered the ground and mountain itself. “Oh my.” He said, sighing. “They made a mess of the natural landscape.” As Consequence walked into the guards line of sight, two of them came up to stop him. “Halt, no one is allowed beyond this point.” One of them spoke. “Apologies, but there is nothing personal about what comes next.” Consequence said, casting a massive Sleep spell across the majority of the area. “There we go, now just to-” Consequence side stepped, Tempest's quick attack missing completely. She looked up at him, eyes wide at his speed. “Ah, Miss Tempest. If you would-” She slashed up, and Consequence dodged. “Please come along-” Another slash, another dodge. “Peacefully and I promise-” Slash. Dodge. “Then I can promise no-” Slash, dodge. “Harm will befall your person.” Tempest tried to cast Mega Flare, But Consequence grabbed her Keyblade. “If you insist on being difficult You give me no choice.” He reached his hand into her chest, wrapping it around her heart… “Oh, two hearts? This is unexpected.” Consequence said. “Nonetheless, this darker heart must be the reason for your lack of compliance.” Tempest gasped. The second heart she carried most of her life being pried from her body painfully. The shock knocked her unconscious, and Consequence dropped her to the ground. “Now then, I believe there will be no need for you.” Consequence said, wrapping the heart in nothingness thorns before making it vanish, sending it to the castle for his king to observe. “Now then, onto this king…” “Well…” I frowned, seeing the heart floating in front of me. “Ereques’s heart eh?” What to do with it? Too much darkness in it to likely reach him and I don’t have… I wonder… I summon my X-blade No Heart and, Like Zeke, jabbed into Ereques’s heart. Do I say what he always said? “Reject Darkness.” I said, hoping this will work. A powerful shot of light was ejected from No Heart and into Eraques’s heart. To my surprise a Samurai Nobody appeared at the same time, taking the heart into itself… Right, it’s passive ability. There was a bright flash of light, and then before me laid the Master, clothed thankfully before grunting as he got up. “Agh… what...where?” He asked, getting back up. “I...I have my body… My heart isn’t…” “Take a deep breath old man.” I told him. “What’s the last thing you remember?” “I...I remember… No...NO!” He screamed, pounding his fist to the floor. “I… I let the darkness overtake me… I killed my own pupil…” He broke down crying. “I became the very thing I was sworn to destroy…” I knelt down and put a hand on his shoulder. “Listen...there’s a lot to talk about...but right now, you have to apologize.” I said gently. “Terra will be furious...but he’ll understand all things considering...and Ven...well actually I haven’t heard from him after Joy helped him find his birth family.” I brought up. “How could I even face them? I tried to kill Ventus, I let Xehanort have his way, falling right into his trap… Even when I found that foal, a heart so pure with light… I thought I could atone by protecting her. All I did was manipulate and influence her. Because of me she’s that false king’s right hand. I was in control more than she was, for twenty years…” “Listen, does lying their crying about your failures fix anything?” I asked honestly. “Or does accepting that it happened and getting up and going out to fix said failures solve it?” “Child… you can never understand the depths of my sins. I betrayed everything I stood for, my own son…” Eraquis stood, summoning Master Keeper. “Failure to treasure those around me. From my simple act of taking, there where many hearts I ended up breaking. Return to my land I shall… for its walls were never mine to climb…” Master Keeper then faded away, in small shards of light till it was gone. “I have renounced my Keyblade entirely… it’s power no longer my own. My title, my life's purpose.. No longer for me.” I took a deep breath. “Are you fucking kidding me old man?” I asked bluntly. “You threw away your ‘life’s purpose’ all because you couldn’t bare the knowledge that you fucked up? Really?” I asked. “What were you Erequs, a wise Keyblade Master, or a Petulant Child who thought he could do no wrong?” I frowned. “Apparently the latter.” He said, his voice monotone. “If you find Terra or Ventus, tell them I’m on the first world I ever told them about. There, we can chat, or they can end me. Either way, I’ll accept whatever fate they place upon me.” He said, walking off. Wonder how he’ll get to this random world? I face palmed. “Cause why not…” I groaned while snapping my fingers, four Shinobi Nobodies appearing. “Find Terra and Ventus, tell them Erequs is on the First World he told them about.” I ordered them as they bowed and vanished in a puff of smoke and Nothingness thorns. Now that that mess is over, wonder when- THUD! I turned around. Consequence held Tempest Shadow and this Storm King Guy that looked like an ugly bigfoot. “Sire. The false king and his right hand, as well as his entire army arrested, their base of operations destroyed, and their Zeppelins blown to shrapnel. The rubble is being collected to be used in another matter as a part of your Scrap Metal initiative requested by the two engineers. They state they can recycle any scrap into something useful. So it was pre-approved since their methods seemed functional.” “Alright then.” I nodded. “So, how are you doing today prince?” I asked the satyr looking monster. “I am the Storm King! The- GAH!!!” Consequence proceeded to bend, possibly break his leg. “Agh! Okay look… I’m no king, not even close to royalty. My parents were Coal miners for stars sake. I managed to lie and cheat my way into some followers saying I was the long lost Royalty of the Monster Lands but I’m just some guy who spent way to much time reading old legends.” I sighed out. “So you have no idea where the long lost princess of the monsters is?” I asked curiously. “So besides that...what are you good for?” “I don’t know where the Princess is...but I know where her father is…” He offered. “Where is her father?” I asked simply. “Tartarus. His name is Tirek.” I took a deep breath. “Oh no…” I muttered. “Um...shit…” I muttered. “Great, I’m gonna need to get Tirek here...or…” I muttered while summoning my Lexicon and casting a spell, a hole appearing as it showed me the inside of Tartarus and seeing the weakened centaur in his cage. “Yo.” I called out, hoping the spell I cast worked. “Can you hear me?” I asked Tirek. “Huh, oh. Now this is new.” He spoke, his voice raspy and aged like an elderly mans. “A call through a portal. What would you be calling me for?” “My names Ben, I don’t know if you get much news in prison, but I’m the new King of this world, and the King of Nothingness.” I said. “I wanted to ask you about your family, considering a certain satyr lied about being royalty.” I said while Tirek could see the Storm King on the ground. “Heheh. False royal to mine and my brothers old thrones eh? Well I know for a fact that my brother died without any children or family to speak of, so you must want to know about my daughter then.” “Yes, you probably know about the ancient law of marriage correct?” I asked curiously. “Yes. How traditional.” He spat. “My daughter was left with her mother. A whore of an Equestrian mare.” “Was she? Or do you just hate her because she’s a pony?” I asked honestly. “Both, funny enough. All I know is that Discord took her before I was imprisoned here. He should know where she is. Assuming that old coot remembers.” I sighed out. “Well alright then, let’s hope she’s doing well instead of...well anything revolving around you.” I frowned. “Oh who knows for sure. Honestly I cared little for the mongrel. So whatever she is doing I could care less for.” “You suck as a person and a father you know that?” I asked. “Sticks and stones. Not all of us care for such trivials as morals and family. Distractions if you ask me.” “Says the guy stuck in immortal prison for not having those things?” I pointed out. “Setbacks. All simply setbacks. Immortality, even in this weakened state of mine has its benefits. Patience is one of them. I can bide my time for as long as I want. There is no rush on my part.” “Just know something Tirek...if you break out and attack the people…” I started. “I will make sure your life will become a living hell.” I told him, and Tirek could tell I wasn’t bluffing or making a hollow threat. “We clear on that?” “Hehehe. I look forward to it.” The spell disbanded. “Consequence, make sure Tartarus is properly guarded.” I told him simply. “Discord! I need your help here.” “Hey’oh!” The draconequus said, appearing in a poof of confetti and streamers. “Sup my lord! How’s the royal life treating you?” “Fine enough.” I said. “Hey...do you know where Tirek’s daughter is?” I asked curiously. Discord’s rather happy attitude suddenly fell flat. A frown appearing on his face. “Oh...yeah. I take it you are looking for her?” “She’s technically the princess of an entire race, so yes I am looking for her.” I said honestly. “Can’t go most of the way if I want to unite this world.” I said honestly. “From the looks of it it seems more like you’re marrying the world.” I blushed so hard my face turned pink. “In anycase yes I know where she is.” “Mind if I ask where she is?” I asked curiously, trying to get back on topic so my head doesn’t stay this pink. “She’s… back on my world…” Discord said. “And...where is your world?” I asked. “Cause I doubt you mean Equis.” “Well yeah. I mean look at me. Equestria is vast and magical but I am still the only thing on this candy coated planet that stands out like a sore thumb. In any case she is on my home world. Draconix… Ugh….not looking forward to this at all…” “Can’t wait.” I said honestly. “Um...should I know anything about it before we go?” “My people can all do the same magic and wildness that I am capable of... but they never use it for anything fun! They’re all…. “ Discord shivered. “Biographers… Once a Draconequus turns a hundred we get stuck in front of an orb that showed everything that is going on on a world and we write down it all...forever! It’s so boring and tedious…” “I mean...someone’s gotta do it to be perfectly honest.” I shrugged. “But it’s all they ever do! Since our world began writing its own history it’s all we’ve done. I got sick of it one day so I altered the events of the world I was recording. Got in trouble. I said to the court ‘Fuck this’ Flipped off everyone in the room, took a shit on the judges desk and turned the whole room into a banana split. I left after that and only went back to drop of Tirek’s daughter. And that was only a five minute visit…” “Oh…” I started. “I’m....pretty sure they took exception to that.” I said worriedly. “On the contrary. They are forgiving to a fault that makes Fluttershy look like Hitler. I mean no one knows how to hold a grudge or even give a proper punishment. You know the five minutes I was back they threw me a welcome home party...then a goodbye till next time party a minute before I left. I even got thoughtful gifts! Seriously...I’m embarrassed to be a part of their race…” “Are you sure they’re not related to Pinkie Pie here?” I asked worriedly. Discord stiffened up. “Eheheh…Funny story actually… back when I tried to take over Equestria I did have a fling with one of her ancestors… so that might explain her unexplainable actions.” “Cause of course you did.” I face palmed. “Well excuse me but the mare was as wild as me and had an ass that could cause an earthquake when she shook it. So forgive me for giving into to biology.” “Oh my god I didn’t need to know that!” I barked. “Hey, you’re fucking her so imagine how I feel when I realized my great, great, great granddaughter was riding your fuzzy butt!” I groaned and rubbed my temples. “Christ...this is a headache I didn’t want today…” I muttered. “Oh great, now Pinkie’s freaking out and wanting to throw a ‘Hooray for learning about my Ancestry’ party...how the fuck did she even hear you from all the way over there!?” I asked, really confused and worried about all of this. “It’s the Chaos magic in her. It works however it sees fit to benefit it’s user. Huh, wonder if I can teach her to use it actively rather than passively?” Discord pondered. “You know there’s two Pinkie’s on the planet right?” I asked nervously. “Huh, right that mirror portal world Pinkie… wonder if she is affected by it. Never went to that world so who knows… Anyway.” Discord sighed, snapping his fingers as a portal opened up. “This goes to my world…” Discord sighed, leaning so far back his head touched the base of his tail. “Let’s get this over with.” “Alright.” I nodded while entering the portal, wondering how well the people will accept me if they are basically Pinkie Pie. I entered. The place looked so...normal. Modern and a lot like earth. Discords race seemed to come in many sizes and such too. “Well...place looks normal…” I muttered, finding this a bit weird all things considered. With not much option I decided to ask for directions, I am pretty sure she will be the only Centaur on this world. “Um, excuse me.” I asked one of the passerby. Who stopped was a very short, chubby Draconequus who’s horns where that of a Deer's and a Unicorn… weird. “Yes my good sir?” He spoke… british. “How may I assist you offworlder?” “Um...I’m looking for a Centaur girl, Discord brought her here if that helps any.” I said to the chubby guy. “Do you know where she is or anyone that would know where she is?” “Ah yes young Isabelle. I am afraid she’s at work at the moment and no one is allowed in when someone else is on shift. Must maintain focus when on the job after all. I can point you in the direction of Discord’s parents house however, she lives with them. Raised as their own since their son left to dilly dally on the world he was meant to be recording it’s events on.” “Yes please, and thank you.” I nodded. “Right well take a left on the road up ahead and the red house with the number 44 on the door is the place.” He said with an affirming nod. “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “Thank you, have a nice day.” I said before heading off the house. “And to you as well young lad.” He said, the two of us taking leave. Discord was right his people are crazy nice. I found the house and knocked on the door. Who answered was...well, his mother. Rather hefty lady in a cooking apron, red lipstick and looked basically like him only without the bear paw. She has a tiger one instead. “Oh, hello there. Are you a salesman?” She asked. She sounds like a mother. “No ma’am.” I shook my head. “I wanted to meet Discords parents while I waited for Isabelle.” I said honestly. “Oh, are you a friend of my sweet Bumblebee?” ”Oh my god…” I thought to myself, trying not to laugh at the nickname his mother gave Discord. “Yes, yes I am.” I nodded. “Well...and technically his boss since he works for me.” “Oh! Well please come in, come in.” She said, letting me enter. The house was nice. Photos of Discord growing up and even Isabelle where hung on the walls. Isabell was black and red like her father, very small horns and blue eyes. Her hair, I think is dyed orange. She was also rather short. Must be from her being half pony. “So, how has my little boy been doing?” “He’s been doing well. He got past the...rather morbid trauma that haunted him, and he’s doing better because of it.” I said honestly. “Oh yes that Keyblade war fiasco.” She sighed. “Such dark entries across the texts. Many of us got sick when writing. Discords father always said Keyblade wielders could bring great destruction if left unchecked. Broke our hearts when we learned DIscord was in the bloody mess.” “It...would probably hurt you more to know that a second one is coming.” I said sadly. “What! But, he. I...uhhhhh…” She...she fainted… “Oh shit…” I muttered while checking to see if she was still okay. “Maybe I shouldn’t have said that….shit.” She woke up an hour later. After an explanation some ranting she calmed down, reflecting on things. “Not long after we found out our son was in the first war, his father died from a heart attack… nightmares about finding out he had died... “ She said, tea and sandwiches set out for us. “When Discord dropped off Isabelle , I told him. But he was so different. Half the pranking joy of chaos he was. He was colder, more stern. He wasn’t my boy anymore… he was his own man now...weather or not he was happy with it was his desiding.” I nodded. “I understand...going through such horrors can change anyone...have you...ever tried to talk to him about...everything?” I asked. “I send him letters, but he never replies. This is just one of those things he wants to sort out himself. He’s always been so stubborn.” “I understand.” I nodded. “It’s all tough...but Discord is strong and he has friends.” “Yes, I can thank that at least.” She sighed. “I often wonder what life would be like if he just stayed home.” “Depends.” I shrugged. “He could have tagged along and been normal, or he could have slowly made everyone see his joking point of view.” “It’s not that we don’t want to use our magic. Really, it’s just that our magic is very unstable. Too many of us casting spells at once and reality itself falls to ashes. We have to be careful, responsible. But Discord wanted to use his magic because it wasn’t fair. In a lot of ways it isn’t, but that’s the burden of our race. We hold back so others don’t get hurt, but we often risk more harm in not helping when we can. Our existence is a double edged sword.” “I understand. Chaos magic is a hell of a thing...but that doesn’t mean you need to hold it back to this extent.” I said honestly. “I’m sorry if I’m spouting nonsense, I don’t know much about Chaos magic, I can only guess at if it’s an actual living thing in magical terms…” “Like all magic is has a will of its own. It’s just more open to expressing it than most others.” “Then it can be used in used correctly, not just the ‘don’t use it at all’.” I said honestly. “Perhaps. For now though, save for Discord we are all happy with our lives. Well, Isabelle should be out of her shift in an hour or so. You don’t mind waiting a bit longer do you?” “It’s alright.” I nodded. “Oh good. That’s just enough time to bring out the Photo albums!” She cheered. Oh I am hanging this over Discords head for a LONG time. “I can’t wait to see all the pictures.” I smiled happily, already feeling like Discord is panicking at having me see his family photos. “And here is Discord when he was a little eighty year old.” She handed me the picture. Age for them is strange. But for being eighty it seems like Discord was in his late teenage years. It showed him sitting on a chair of ice cream. “He fell but first onto my chilli plants and got a few spicy ones toasting his buns.” “Oh my god.” I chuckled at that. “This is funny...but how did he burn himself on plants?” “A streaking prank during new year's gone wrong.” She chuckled. “Oh my god.” I laughed at that. “I’m pretty sure if Discord knew I was learning all this…” I couldn’t help but laugh at the mental image of his reaction. “And here is his fortieth birthday. His theme was faries, not the magical creature, the sexual preference. He went through a lot of phases with his sexuality.” “I have several concerns.” I said nervously. “Like...fairy is a sexuality? How and why?” “No, it’s a term meaning gay or Homosexual. Didn’t last that long as a term but I like it cause it’s not as up front in it’s meaning.” “Makes sense.” I said honestly. “Sometimes you’d just...don’t want to know things.” “Oh I know. I have no idea where Discord learned to be so blunt in his language.” “I have no idea.” I shook my head. “Learned it from somewhere…” “Mom! I’m home!” I heard a rather peppy voice call out from the front door. “It’s weird, the guy I normally record on that world was missing and the last shift guy doesn't know where he wen-” And here she is. About my height, Isabelle stopped dead when she saw me. “Y-y-you’re the guy! The guy I record at work!” She stuttered. “How the heck did you even get here!” “Discord.” I said honestly. “How are you doing today?” “Oh...well that makes sense.” She groaned. “So… what are you doing here? Connection went fuzzy before I got in and we missed some stuff.” “Well…” I started. “Okay to start, do you know your royalty?” I asked the centaur. “... I’m WHAT?!” “Huh...considering you record everything about Equis you’d think you would have known that.” I said honestly. “But anyways, you are the princess of the Monster race on Equis...and well...do you know the ancient laws of Equis?” “I only started recording recently when you appeared. Before that I worked on Traverse Town.” “Right then.” I nodded. “So there’s an ancient law in Equis that’s basically marriage can unite the planet.” I said honestly. “And since your the princess of monsters...well you can see why.” “B-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-” “Oh no, not again.” Discords mom said. “Last time she stuttered this bad was over her first crush.” “Oh boy.” I muttered. “So...how do I stop it?” “I got this.” She said, walking up to Isabelle and slapping her...hard. “Better?” “Y-Yeah. Thanks mom.” She said, rubbing her cheek. “It’s just that...Dude, I write everything you do on Equis. Everything, even your bedroom activities! The mental image came to mind and I...freaked…” I sighed out. “Cause of course you would…” I muttered. “Listen, I know it’s sudden, and I know it’s scary...I’ll take you out on a date first if you need it.” “T-that might help...at least I already know what to expect… regarding…” We both where beat red. “Okay um...can we please not...talk about that right now?” I asked nervously. “Yeah-yeah. That would be best…” She said. “So...I guess this means I move out?” “Not without me!” Discords mom said. “I am not staying here all alone. Besides, this will give me the chance to mother both my daughter and little boy!” “Well there’s always room at the castle.” I said honestly. “Oh goodie! I’ll start packing.” “When you went to get long lost princess I didn’t expect you to bring along my mother…” Discord sighed, rubbing his temples as his mom was doing some cleaning around the throne room. “Like I’d leave her alone there.” Isabelle said. “She’s my mom!” “She’s mine too! Not biologically but they were who raised and loved me, and from what I was told my real dad is best left in that cage in that underworld place.” “He’s gonna die if he breaks out and tries to hurt people.” I frowned. “And your mom was alone and was stuck at the house waiting for literally everyone. So suck it up and talk to her instead of bitching.” I frowned. “Cause I’m pretty sure you have a lot to talk about.” Discord sighed. “I suppose I do then…” With this wrap up my gathered family on the Zeppelin returned home. Regardless it was a surprise to them to see Canterlot, as well as it’s now CONNECTED branching town Ponyville, Appaloosa, and Trottingham where now connected with rather fast trains and roadways. “So, what do you think girls?” I asked all of them. “It’s like a dream.” Luna spoke. “I always imagined how some of Equis would look is it was more readily accessible to Canterlot, but becoming part of it? The development and construction alone is astounding.” “This place looks so COOL!” Autumn Blaze yelled out. “Oh. My. Gosh! Is that a park!” “Didn’t you live in a mountain forest?” Aj asked. “Yeah, but it’s like a mini forest… in a big city!” “Oh, then there’s the fact that two worlds are...also fused with Equis.” I said honestly. “Oh my...in just a month you’ve done quite a lot more than I have in a thousand years Ben.” Celestia said. “Well blame Cript for the part on fusing the two other worlds. But our new neighbors is the Dire Wolf home worlds, the worlds where...technically I came from.” I said honestly. “And...it’s a beautiful place, and the prey are just delicious.” I said with a wide, sharp toothy smile. Most of my wives rolled their eyes, the others chuckled. “So, what’s this I hear about over two thousand new additions to this herd?” Twilight asked. I sighed out. “Okay so...first up I talked to the other kings, queens and Guild Leaders, so it went from marrying five at least from the several countries to...four hundred from Saddle Arabia...and then Jenny gave me a thank you gift of sending out a world wide message about if any eligible women want to they have to appear at my castle...wearing wedding gowns...and two thousand of basically all races came…” I sighed out. “So yeah...and Joy also have an extra...like four or five hundred girlfriends now.” I explained. Twilight sighed. “Of course it was Jenny… So, are we gonna honor this or...what?” “While...obviously asinine as Royals we have to obey and uphold promises… made by the heads of castle or their children…” Luna signed out. “We have to honor it…” “I mean I was gonna honor it cause...well two thousand women appeared, either because of me being a hero, the many stories about me...or because they literally couldn’t find anyone else.” I shrugged. “I couldn’t say no to all those people that wanted to be with me...just glad that none of them wanted to marry me because I’m rich and powerful…” I muttered. “I..hope the two thousand women won’t be too rough…” I said nervously. “Depends, how will you even… organize them? Us...all of this?’ Chrysalis asked. “You’d be fucking a different female or groups every night and still have extra moving into the new year… Not to mention getting to know them and… wow this is gonna be tricky…” “I have at least five clones at the moment…” I said. “Wait...no, ten now...so this must be how Cript feels having way too many wives…” “Seems so.” Celestia said. “Guess you really are his son then huh?” She laughed. “Apparently.” I sighed out. “Getting all the women...cause why not.” I said honestly. “I’m not even that likable to begin with.” “Yeah I never got it either.” Cript said, appearing out of nowhere and scaring all of us. “How are you doing Cript?” I asked honestly. “Good, heard the news. Came to see if you wanted some advice on the matter.” “Yes, I would really like some advice on the matter.” I said honestly. “Cause...I thought twenty would be rough...by two thousand?” “Yeah...I went through something similar. So, went from twenty to two thousand. Yeah… Come on, I know a place we can talk.” I blinked… and we were in a Mexican restaurant and the windows show outside is a white void… “Um...where are we?” I asked curiously. “Deadpools Mexican taco shop.” Cript said. “Yo Pool! Two dozen tacos and two cokes!” “Got it!” A voice, I guess Deadpools, replied. “So then, initial thought?” Cript asked, starting to play with the hot sauce bottle. “My initial thoughts on having twenty four hundred wives? Um...that’s a lot.” I said honestly. “Like...a lot more…” I said honestly. “I’m not even that likable.” “Heh. Same boat. You wanna know a story. It’s how I went from my one wife Lyra to a year later having five… and it kept on growing from the…” Cript said in a tone that spoke for itself on how the memories where. “Sure...why not.” I said honestly. “But I think I got you beat cause I went from one girlfriend to five in about a week.” “Well, Lyra had been married for a month before I got my memories back. We first met when her wagon ran me over and gave me amnesia.” “I think you told me about that…” I said honestly, thinking about he story he told me of how he met Lyra. “Yeah. During our first full year married she spent a lot of time on her world as to not arouse suspicion. The excuse for me was that I was royal guard and was off on a mission. We went through so much… Eventually, I saved my friend Andy from Nexus controle and killed the Psychopath that was chained to me and my past lives. After that we rested on her world. It was so peaceful. Wanting to work a normal job stuff. I worked as a guard for Twilight’s castle. On her world Twilight got to Princess title and alicorn hood. I was the first and only guard the entire time. One day Lyra came along to deliver my lunch… we ended up having sex in the castle broom closet.” “Alrighty then…” I nodded slowly. “And...this lead to you learning she had a harem fetish?” “No, I already knew about that… this is leading to my second wife… Twilight walked in on us… and somehow, Lyra’s perverted silver tongue got her to join in for a three way…” “Oh dear…” I sighed out. “Not long after my retirement, or so I thought it was, we had Nyx and Blake, our first kids. Twins. You met them. Figuring we wanted some fun but with babies we needed a babysitter. At this point we were both living in Bon Bons house, this is including my friend Andy. We kept him close cause even after he was saved he remembered all he had done. We got an unexpected babysitter…” “And...who was that?” I asked curiously. “Chrysalis…” “Oh dear.” I frowned. “Well...maybe she wasn’t trying to cause problems?” “She wasn’t. Turns out her hive, after the failed Canterlot invasion revolted. So she left and we ended up taking her in… It didn’t take long for us to get into sex at the workplace. Mainly since she moved in too.” “Yeah...that explains it.” I said. “Cause you know, relationships stopped being ‘date over a few months or years instead of immediate sex’.” “Well from what I researched Due to the constant gender ratio being so skewed, majority of Equestrias populations evolved so relationships can be successful and move fast. Something to due with the way their magic works in terms of aiding the population reproduce.” “Alrighty then...didn’t know that.” I said honestly. “Each world has their own thing. For me though, I had an edge that...is mainly why I got WAY more.” “And that edge being?” I asked. “The Psychopath was bound to my soul because it took over an angel… an Archangel. Long story short turns out any rank of angel can become one… the one I had bound to me was a freaking cherub class… cupid, though the artwork is heavily creatively altered. So when they came back and I saved them… I became partly cherub, meaning that as a mortal I was able to find love in whoever… and Lyra milkes that to this day.” Cript said, his head banging on the table as our food and drinks came. “I remember one of my mothers was one but...I’m still confused on why it’s either a Cupid, a...very strange Angel, or a four headed abomination.” I said honestly. “Each world and culture has their own take on it.” Cript shrugged, lifting his head and taking a bite out of a taco. “After that everything became quite the clusterfuck. Bon Bon and us were already in… a strange ways… needless to say when Twilight and Chrysalis both came to us about loving me… that was awkward as fuck, Lyra suggested the herd… I ran to the nearest closet and hid. The very idea made me paranoid to hell, and I killed a Psychopath, fighting it without fear… and the thought of three wives sent me into a panic.” “Well...some people are different I suppose.” I shrugged. “It took an hour for Lyra and them to talk me out of there… Then Luna came into the mix. Why and how I honestly forgot but we clicked rather fast. She was a girl out of time and I was a guy with a time machine… you can guess how some of our dates went.” “Yeah I have a feeling.” I said honestly. “Things spiraled into craziness from there… and they are some of my fondest memories when I think back. As complicated as it can get the Starfish cloning ability, while at first useless and accidentally discovered by me, came into great use when spending time with all the girls. A me for all of them… sadly me being an idiot I didn’t think to use them till some time after I reached over a hundred… god things would have been simpler back then. At some point new wives to the family became a running gag with me. Hell Lord jumped on that bandwagon once...got me stupid good too....” “Oh my god.” I chuckled a little. “Yeah, I have a feeling that was quite the experience.” “You wanna know what he did?” “Sure why not.” I said honestly. “Okay so turns out he went through a few beta versions of the realms when he was making everything. Each version with people and such. He never ‘deleted’ anything just moved it someplace else… He loaded ALL of them into the realms… and dumped every...single...damn...woman...that existed in all of them, at my house… you know the song it’s raining men… it was raining woman at my house for a WHOLE Week…. And that was his take on the joke…” He slammed his head to the table again. “Jesus christ.” I couldn’t help but laugh at that. “Speaking of…” Just then… Jesus walked in… I mean bible described, cross and painting looking son of god himself just walked in and sat next to Cript. “Heyyyyy~” “Screw off…” Cript said. “Pay up.” Grumbling, Cript handing him a pouch. “Feels good.” “I’m missing something here.” I frowned. “And I have a feeling it involves me.” “No.” Cript said. “Holy boy here and I make bets on stuff. Mainly events that may or may not happen. None of it’s related to you but I lost the last bet on who would evolve first, the lizards or the birds and Jesus here is milking his first win ever.” “Hey, hey… suck it.” Jesus said, pulling out… is that a pot cigar? He lit it and began smoking. “Ah, life is good.” “For once for you?” “Oh shut up.” “Um...aren’t birds lizards on a genetical level?” I asked curiously. “Cause I remember birds evolved from Dinosaurs, which were types of lizards even though some or most had feathers…” I said. “So...wouldn’t you both be right and wrong at the same time, making the bet moot?” “Different world, different rules of evolution.” Cript muttered. “You could have just agreed and gotten your money back…” I muttered honestly. “Against this pothead? Yeah no…” “Well I’m off. Gonna freak out some atheists.” Jesus said, taking his money and leaving. “I mean...atheists can believe Jesus existed, just not that he’s some miracle child.” I pointed out. “He does it to see how many immediately convert.” Cript said, taking a sip of his soda. “At this point it’s anyone is allowed in so long as you’re not a total evil jackass. Really good souls can bring in plus ones just as a safe measure in case their loved one goes south before dying.” “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “Makes sense.” “Yeah, these days the afterlife is just a midway point to being born again into something else. Everything kind of lost that charm religion and books paint these things as.” “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “All I know about the afterlife is it’s apparently a waiting room for getting back to your normal body.” I shrugged. “That’s for my kids, IE you. Well, for now anyways. After my plan springs into actions death will become permanent. After all if everyone can live forever what's the point in creating a vast and wild world for them all to explore?” “Makes sense.” I shrugged. “Oh also, cause I don’t know if this is a thing but is Tirek immortal or just ageless?” “Ageless. Things in this new reality can be ageless but not immortal. THe new reality I’ll be remaking this one into. While there are certain exceptions to that rule it’s nothing permanent, everything is temporary. Save for like four or five, six things tops.” “Okay then.” I nodded. “So if Tirek were to break out and try to hurt my kingdom I can murder him still?” I asked. “Yeah but murdering your worlds Demon Centaurs, the name of his race, is tricky. Their magic is to absorb magic. Cast a spell at them, they eat it. Magical weapons, the spells will fail on them after one or two hits. Their sponges for magic, and sorry to say, but that included your nothingness. Best get him while he is still weak, or, surpass his limit. Everything has a limit, find his and he’ll explode in a fireworks show of blood and magic.” “Alright then.” I nodded. “So just shoot him in the head with a non-magical gun and he’ll be done?” “Go with fire. Or explosives. Just make sure there’s no chance Necromancy can revive him, so after you kill him burn him to ashes. Leaving his corpse won’t rot, perk of being ageless, and any magic to touch him can revive him.” “Alright then.” I nodded while having one of my clones order Consequence to do such a thing of making sure that when Tirek dies from a Sniper Bullet to the head to burn his body with none magic fire and make sure he can’t be resurrected. “Thank god for clones.” “So, you gonna make a clone for every girl? You’d be surprised how easy that hive mind mentality becomes. Each tends to their own girl, memories are accessible to all and even after this thing the clones will be alright. So, anything else you wanna know? Anything at all?” “Well…” I thought for a moment. “Given that you can see the future, how many more wives am I going to have?” I asked nervously. “It doesn’t work like that.” Cript said, taking a drink of his soda. “It only shows me things of importance to me and those around me. Usually things about to happen and only if needed things in the distant future.” “Can...you take a wild guess at it?” I asked nervously. “Just so I can be prepared for...literally everyone woman imaginable.” “Well, not sure if I can. But I know a guy.” Cript said, taping on his assistant before putting it down. Not a few seconds later a… monster… that’s all I can call it, walked in and took seat next to him, across me. “Hey Cronos.” “Cript.” The monster, apparent god of time, said. “Hello.” I said. “Um...are you who I think you are?” “Yes. I am Cronos, god and overseer of all time. Well, former. I gave that title to Cript some years back, then he fucked up the flow of time and space,” Cript chuckled. “So now it kinda does it’s own thing and neither of us can fix it. Even Lord took a loot at it and said ’the fuck did you do? How did you do this shit!?’ his exact words.” “The fuck did you do?” I asked worriedly. “You don’t wanna know.” Cript said, laughing to himself. “Anyways…” Cronos spoke. “What is is you want to know. Time may be fucked but I can still see events with accuracy.” “I know this sounds dumb but...how many wives will I have in the future?” I asked. “Since I’m related to him.” I said while motioning to Cript. “Ah, yes. So you have his...magnetism¶ for women then… Give me a moment.” Cronos said, waving his hand as a clock appeared before him. It’s hands moving rapidly. He gazed at it for a time, eyeing the device or spell, whichever, and finally they stopped. It vanished. “Not including the wives you have… two more.” Cronos said, surprising me. “Only two?” I asked curiously. “Wow.” “Yes. Surprising. I was expecting at least a few thousand.” “I mean...if I go out and about I might solve that.” I said honestly. “But...sheesh. You sure it's just two for this timeline?” “Yes.” “Surprising…” I said honestly. “Um...how long is the Keyblade war gonna be?” I asked. “That is easy. Five months.” “Um...I meant ‘this’ Keyblade War.” I said nervously. “I was told that if I did a thing it would go down to a day...not extend it to five god damn months.” “Yes. A day to eliminate the leaders of your enemies… five months to destroy the mass armies of abominations, heartless, unversed, and fuck knows what some of these monsters are.” “So...basically a day to end the war, and then five months on clean up?” I asked honestly. “Yeah, these monsters that will appear in this war of yours will haunt the new world, as a reminder to all that we bring horrers onto ourselves.” “Alright then...so it’s not as bad as I thought it would be when you said ‘five months’.” I said honestly. “Yes, in terms of wars it’s mostly all depending on you lot to end the leaders on the first day. After that the clean up is combat but against beasts like them is better than intelligent blokes.” “Oh yeah, it’ll be a lot better.” I nodded. “Well not too much longer now.” Cript said, leaning his head against the glass. “You’re army ready Ben?” Cript’s tone sent pure terror into my core… He suddenly sounded so hollow… so lifeless… “As...ready as they’ll ever be.” I said. “Um...can I actually fight in this war?” I asked, knowing my clones are there and I’d love to help fight to protect the people. “This test isn’t just about winning Ben.” He said monotonously. “It’s about being a leader. Kings have to make hard choices. Decide what’s more important to you.” “A king isn’t a king without his people…” I said, having a bad feeling about this. “When it’s over, just remember. If Lord did this same test...you might not even have a kingdom anymore.” He sighed out. “I hate playing the bad guy.” “Oh…” I muttered nervously. “That’s...not good.” I said while already having everyone at the ready for when the enemies hit. “Yeah… it is...cause I’m good at it.” I blinked, finding myself back home. “Crap…” I muttered. “I’ve...got a bad feeling about this…” Just then, sirens were ringing, as well as an announcement from Consequence. “Attention citizens and soldiers, monsters have begun invading. Please evacuate to your shelters and soldiers report to the nearest government base immediately.” “Aw shit.” I growled. “Not good. Council!” I barked, hoping they will all appear at my call. “Here.” All of them said, appearing around me. “Alright, so you all know about the the castle being attacked?” I asked honestly. “Of course.” Joy said honestly. “It’s pretty obvious the new kingdom you own would be attacked in less than a month.” Joy shrugged. “Don’t sass me Joy.” I frowned. “Alright, so we have an ass ton of Heartless, Unversed, and Shadow Creatures attacking the castle.” I explained. “Luxu, I believe you have a plan for this?” I asked, my head already working over time as I tried to think of something to help face against the monsters. “Yes.” He said, summoning Lunatic and his Keyblade. “Kill them all, let their makers sort them out.” “Yeah...not surprised…” I said while feeling my clones were out helping the soldiers. “My clones are out helping the soldiers prepare, I believe you were all told about the enemies you’ll be facing?” “Yes.” They all confirmed. “Good.” I nodded. “Now, go!” I ordered. “Defend the kingdom against these intruders! Leave none alive to desecrate this land anymore!” “Yes sir!” They all said, vanishing to take on their own groups. Taking out my glider, I decided to see how things were outside the city… All I could see is dark, purple, red, and smoke and spellcasting… so many...I can’t even see the grass. “Jesus christ…” I muttered, seeing my clones helping fight with the soldiers. “This is why I hate war…” To be continued... Nobody ends a WarThe Violent Daughter Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom. Click, Click. “Dang it.” Jenny huffed, reloading her Sniper rifle. When the monsters began invading, she took position atop one of the castle towers and began picking off the monsters. While Heartless and Unversed took two or three bullets, these Shadow Creatures went down fairly easy, save for the occasional armored one. Overall it was a battlefield. Once the ammo was loaded, she took aim again, and fired. “Wonder how high this will rank up my kill count?” She pondered, taking out her Handgun and fiering behind her, placing a hole in the head of a small Shadow Creature. It’s body melting into a chrome liquid. “Hm. Wonder how long til my bullets run out?” The Knight Zuko was no stranger to war, while the war that he fought before was different, it was war all the same. Fighting with these blades of light was a lot like with his Firebending daggers or his twin swords. He was able to Firebend through them, allowing him to cleave through the hordes of monsters. Unlike with the other benders he fought before, he didn’t have to hold back here. No, here he could unleash the full extent of his inner flame upon these inhuman monsters. Part of him never felt more alive. Part of him was reminded of his sister, and felt the need to avoid such power. But while his sister let out all her power without reason, just to be the best at whatever, here and now, Zuko had reason. Purpose. As a Knight, this was his duty, and as Fire Lord, this was his responsibility. Hordes of these beasts arrived before him. “Heh, well this is going to be interesting.” Zuko said, letting his fire flood out, incinerating the creatures without mercy. The Paladin “Feels good to get back into the fray.” Joy said with a smile, impaling dozens of enemies with his spears and slashing at another with Hearts Guardian. “Especially when it feels like I’m playing Dynasty Warriors.” Joy muttered as he stabbed and slashed through the hordes of enemies. ”Hey Joy, did you know that Jenny got you more girlfriends?” I mentally asked him. ”Um...how many?” The pup asked nervously. ”I think the number was...four hundred and eighty something.” I mentally told him as his entire head turned beat red. “Damn it Jenny…” Joy muttered, ripping a Neoshadow in half in embarrassment. As Joy hacked A Dark Thorn, a new enemy appeared. It’s body was wolf like, claws like kitchen knives, teeth like misshapen daggers, and eyes black with blue pupils. “Right then…” Joy muttered as he fired a bolt of bladed wind at the wolf thing. “Wonder how strong this thing is…” The wolf dodged with blinding speed, charging Joy and leaving an After Image Trail. Before Joy could react the beast latched onto his arm, and drew blood. “Gah! The fuck!?!” Joy barked while trying to stab the thing with his lances and Keyblade. ”What the hell? Why was this fox so damn fast?” Joy thought to himself worriedly. All his attempts made the monster bite even harder, Joy feeling it’s teeth reach his bones. Managing to pry the monster off, it’s teeth littered with the flesh of Joy’s arm and it’s lips covered with his blood. “Ow…” Joy growled. “White Wind…” He muttered, a silver sheened wind encircling Joy as he was healed from the massive bite. “Bitch.” He growled while trying to imprison the speedy wolf in a cage of bladed wind so it wouldn’t move around. The trick worked and the beast was sliced, harmed, but not dead. Prey Hunter Level 98 Race: Shadow Creature This lethal Shadow Creature hunts and kills all it sees. They are resistant to all forms of magic, and can hunt in the harshest of environments. They were said to have once been an enslaved race of Dire Wolves turned into Shadow Creatures as part of the Shadow Creatures early years, experimentation, and creation. While these are not fully discovered to be true, evidence strongly supports this theory. “Well...that’s not good.” Joy muttered. “Well…” Joy sighed out as he pulled out a pistol and aimed it at the injured shadow creature. “Still gotta kill it.” He said while firing at the shadow creatures head. The bullet hit, the creature's head exploding and it’s corpse melted into a chrome liquid. “I have a bad feeling about that chrome liquid…” He said nervously. “But good to know bullets are still good to kill things…” The pup said honestly while looking around for where more enemies are. As he turned around...he was greeted with what looked like every Heartless boss from the Kingdom Hearts series… this was gonna be a LONG war… The Archer Dante grew up Fighting monsters, these freaks were easier, but their numbers were far greater. Still, numbers don’t mean much when you got good weapons and some kickass style. WIth his normal guns, he could fire forever, and put holes into a lot of monsters. With Sharpshooters, it was similar, but much, much more fun. “Eat it ya freaks!” Dante yelled, the whole street getting littered with the glowing arrows, all that remained of the monsters slain. Yeah, Dante was happy. The Defender “Hyper!” Steve Rodgers shouted, leaning back as his shield glowed in power. “Charging Star!” He shouted as he dashed forward, a massive barrier of spiky ice appeared in front of him as his shield as he bulldozed through a ton of enemies. War was apart of Steve’s life, way back during World War 2, to the Secret Wars with the Skrull, even now against all these strange creatures, War was a constant that Steve Rogers knew, and knew well. “Just like old times.” He muttered with a smile, throwing his shield and ice spikes shooting out at dozens of enemies. The Gate Guardian Vergil knew war. He waged on on the demons his whole life, but in his own way. Unlike his brother, he took an indirect approach. He rarely was on the front lines, and now, now he stood as the main defence of the castle gates. He knew they were already inside, but the bigger, stronger ones still wandered outside them, making their way towards him. He was never the berzerker type, but to his surprise this suited him rather well. “I made mistakes… I hurt the ones I should have treasured… This weapon, this position, and this gate are how I will atone for my mistakes. My sins… and none of you will get by it, or me!” Vergil shouted, swinging Skysplitter as a massive wave of energy slashed across litteral miles of enemies, hacking them all. “These doors have stood for untold years, and they shall stand forever more.” The Mage Kat wasn’t a fighter. She was a spell caster. Magic from her home was hard to perform, but with this Lexicon, and her skills… She was a fighter. She was a healer. She was whatever her friends and allies needed her to be. For once, she was being a hero, not just helping them. The Anarchist Years of upgrades, years of fighting, all culminating into Genos’s cybernetic body to be used as a tool for saving people, but today he felt much more than just his cybernetics reaching levels of heat that shouldn’t be possible as he spun Eternal Flames and burned all who got too close as he slaughtered thousands of enemies, he felt in his heart the burning passion of being a hero, of doing what he’s best at and fighting for the sake of others, and in the back of his head he was glad that he wasn’t immediately bitch slapped by something stronger than him that would have made him get fixed again by the good doctor. He was finally the hero he strived to become. The Bard Brook was many things, a great musician, a great swordsman, but courage wasn’t something that he really had all that often, but when he had to fight to protect the innocent he was willing to throw away his cowardice and fight. “Yohohoho!” Brook laughed happily, playing his new violin happily as swords made of water appeared and slashed at all the enemies as he danced around his enemies, feeling great as he remembered the times he fought with his friends back on the Thousand Sunny. “Who would have thought a skeleton that can’t swim fighting with water? I sure didn’t, Yohoho!” Brook laughed at the irony of it, how the devil fruit took away his ability to swim and now he’s fighting with music and water. The Highroller Trixie grew up around the card tables, roulets, acts of grand illusion and performances to blow the mind. She dreamed of doing the same. While her dreams fell flat, she never felt more alive. These cards, this power. She performed for her enemies, the acts of magic like a show, but she remembered what she was there to do. While she made her attacks looks spectacular, they were still, attacks. The visuals as deadly as they were beautiful. She may be a fighter now, but she is, and always will be a performer. The Death Seeker Grell was many things, but he will always be a Grimm Reaper. Death was what he was best at. Harvesting them, or causing it. This new job of his was one he could enjoy. It had action, violence, and death. He’s never felt more home. The Assassin Sonic trained his whole life in the arts of speed and assassination. Even now, with these special daggers, these newfound strengths and powers, he still felt less than his best. Saitama was still his primary adversary. These monsters were but one of many enemies to come. He would keep fighting, and fighting, until he and Saitama could clash, powers raging and stakes high. He would not know peace of any kind until his hands where soaked in that heros blood. This new job has done nothing for his morality, his ethics. He is still an assassin, and he will kill his target. The Key “When did this feel so...simple?” Riku wondered as he cleaved through many Heartless and Unversed. Even though Riku was asleep for basically twenty years he still felt strong, his natural talent and training still there as he fused his natural Darkness with the new Nothingness powers he was granted because of Ben. “I know it’s been years since I last fought but…” Riku frowned, finding this sudden shift to how he and Sora used to fight a ton of Heartless and Nobodies and having a rough time sometimes but now it’s just...really easy. “Wonder if Sora and Kairi are fighting as well.” He muttered as he side stepped a Neoshadow and cut it in half without even trying. The King “So many things.” I frowned while stomping down as hundreds of Thorns spiked up and impaled hundreds of enemies. “And so little time.” I said, already thinking of the many ways how this could swing the opposite way. Killing these simple enemies was easy. Harder ones though where, well, tricky. The Inhumans didn’t take to death so simply. Fact is, they seemed to fight it more than anything I’ve ever seen before. “Stubborn bastards…” I grumbled while cleaving more enemies down. “Seriously, I’m getting the feeling this is more of a Dynasty Warriors fight than a war…” I muttered, knowing I have at least three new clones in the castle just as a backup in case things went south. “But hey, at least everyone else is doing good…” I muttered, seeing the soldiers fight against all these monsters with all their might. KER-BOOOOM!!!!! That noise rang across the entirety of the freaking planet! Looking around all I could see was… a hand… a fucking MASSIVE hand crunching into the soil of the world. Looking up… Oh fucking christ it’s that world eating bastard... “Why the fuck is Galactus here!?!” I shouted. From his arrival I saw most of the turret fire redirected towards him. Thankfully I saw it was doing damage but that armor of his is still keeping this fucker alive… Christ Cript, what else are you gonna throw at me? “Fine then asshole!” I shouted as I channeled Nothingness from my realm and grabbed Galactus in a massive fuck off hand of Nothingness Thorns. “You’re gonna die asshole!” I barked as I crushed the bastard before he destroyed my home. And...I did. His blood and smaller flesh chunks rained to the ground while his larger chunks of his corpse floated there like moons… I JUST KILLED GALACTUS!!! HOLY SHIT!!! “Never once thought I would do that.” I said honestly as I stabbed a Fat Bandit in the head with my X-blade. “Oh yeah, I forgot this things ability...I could be saving people...and getting more soldiers I think…” The Fat bandit, at it’s strike, changed from a Heartless to a...Shark person. “Holy shit… that must have been some bad wasabi…” He grunted as I rushed him to a shelter. This is gonna be...interesting. Day Two I’ve barely eaten this entire time. Didn’t sleep either...so many of these guys...night and day, they keep coming. “Jesus christ you’d think there would be a break…” I groaned, hating this quite a bit especially since I also had to rush revived refugee’s to safety as I beat the Heartless with my X-blade. “Grash!” I was tackled by an Inhuman, the jackass trying to claw my sides open. “Get off me asshole!” I barked while literally punching a hole through the things chest and driving it into the ground, getting up and stomping it’s head into the dirt. “Damn it…” I muttered, fearing all the people fighting for me were getting too injured. “Hehehehehehe….” That’s a too familiar voice… “My, my...what Demons we have…” I turned around where that Inhuman was...and saw me, getting up. “You are one fucked up guy, you know that?” He asked me in my own snarky tone of voice...shit, these guys copy you if they touch you... “That’s not good…” I muttered. “That’s not good at all…” I growled as I prepared to fight myself. “Sins, regrets, and so much death.” The copy spoke slowly. “How did you not kill yourself years ago?” “I already did to be perfectly honest.” I said honestly. “Twice to be perfectly honest. You’re an Inhuman, so you probably know pain and suffering, how does mine feel?” I asked honestly, the Inhuman feeling a very crippling sense of self doubt, regrets, and a feeling that no matter what it did it wouldn’t do anything to anyone. “Like a sad little puppy. See, what I find most interesting about you so far, is that you have done a good amount of stuff for others, and yet you still fail when dealing with your own emotions.” “Eh, better to be with other people than deal with me.” I said while trying to kill the bastard with Skysplitter. To my surprise...he blocked with a Skysplitter. “DId you forget? I have all your powers and abilities. Weapons included. We’re equally matched, you and I.” “See, that’s where you're wrong.” I said as Joy stabbed the Inhuman in the head and chest with so many spears the Inhuman basically looked like a pin cushion. “Was this punk a bother?” Joy asked smugly, tossing the copy off his spears as it’s body rapidly rotted. “He might have been, but glad you're here Joy.” I nodded. “How you holding up?” “Wish I could have eaten.” Joy grumbled. “Did Cript tell you how long this would last?” Joy asked simply. “No, no he didn't. All he said was keep the statue of Den away from all these fuckers.” I said with a frown. “I hope this won’t last for too long...the soldiers can only handle so much…” I said worriedly, caring about the people risking their lives on this stupid game Cript threw at me and hoping none of them died. More and more of them just kept coming. The waves were so many. How many did I kill already? “So many of these damned things…” I growled. “There has to be a way to stop this bullshit war other than run a fucking time limit.” I muttered. “You know what, fuck it.” I growled while feeling my Realm thrum with power. “You walked into my realm.” I growled, walking into the massive hoard of enemies. “You attack my people.” I said, Nothingness pulsating as I walked things seemed to turn pure white like it wasn’t there anymore. “And you hurt the many, many soldiers and Nobodies all because of Cript wanting me to learn something that he probably either forgot about or didn’t even have a reason to begin with.” I growled, my King armor equipping itself to me as all the Heartless, Unversed and Shadow Creatures all seemed to be bound by something they couldn’t see, sense, or feel at all. “Well guess what, that’s going to end right here, right now!” I barked, raising my hand as it felt like I was going on autopilot here. “Prepare to DIE FUCKWADS!” “So do you think he’s okay?” That voice… Twilight? “His adult forms have been missing since he killed all those monsters, all we have here are the pups from his Litter Den left for us to look after.” That’s...Rarity. “I’m sure he’ll appear soon enough.” Luna? I blinked and looked around. ”Ugh, the fuck happened?” I thought to myself, trying to rub my eyes so I could see better and hopefully tell them I’m okay. ”God...they’re all worried sick…” I thought sadly, thinking I did something wrong even if I killed all those monsters. “Well, come on, which ever here is Ben they’re asleep. Let’s get Luxu and them searching for one of them again.” Rarity said as footsteps followed. ”What the?” I thought, opening my eyes and...why is everything so...big? Wait… I looked to my right...pups...to my left...pups...this was the litter… I’M A BABY?! I let out a loud yip in surprise at this sudden revelation. ”Oh my god why is this happening to me!?!” I mentally shouted in worry as I whined loudly and tried to find a way to get to the others. ”God...this is so demeaning…” I thought to myself. ”And I just became King not too long ago, and I need to prepare for my wedding! God damn it!” I thought in anger as I let out a, sadly, adorable howl in the realization. One of my siblings kicked me. “Arf.” (“Quiet down! I’m trying to sleep.”) I understood that?! “Arf.” (“Uh...how can I understand you?”) I asked in confusion. “Arf, arf.” (“I’m so confused!”) I whimpered, trying to find a way out of here to get to the others and solve this. “Arf.” (“You rarely talk bro.”) The one next to me on the other side said, sleepily and waking up. “Arf.”(“And of course you can understand us. We’re speaking aren’t we? It’s just the big people who can’t understand us.”) “Arf!” (“But I’m supposed to be one of the big people! I literally just ended a war from what my fiance’s just said.”) I told them all. “Arf arf.” (“And technically speaking we aren’t ‘talking’ like normal people, we’re barking and somehow that equals this…”) I gently put my small cute paws on my muzzle. “Arf, Arf, Arf.” (“Well if you are then that might explain why you never talked until now. Big people and feeder said something about other big person did a thing then all his cloons vanished after it.”) Cloons...Clones… “Arf!” (“That was me! What do you mean all my clones vanished?”) I asked worriedly. “Arf.” (“Wait, did you just call Mom a ‘feeder’?”) “Arf.” (“Well, aside from mommy, the Pink ones also feed us lots. As for that last thing, I dunno.”) “Arf.” (“Ugh...of course...so...um...what are all your names?”) I asked, sadly not knowing their names. “Arf, arf, arf.” (“I’m Jihero, That’s Mala, Gob, Sahra the sleepy one, and we have been calling you Sota. Least that’s what mama also called you since she didn’t know which of us was called Ben.”) “Arf.” (“Ah, well it’s nice to meet you all. I’m Ben.”) I said to them all. “Arf, arf arf.” (And right now I need to get to my fiances and...try to solve the fact I’m now a puppy...oh god this is gonna be so embarrassing…”) I whimpered, already knowing how much they’ll try to hug me and do a bunch of embarrassing crap all because I’m a puppy. “Woof.” (“Well, well well, look who’s on my new level now.”) That voice… I turned around… Jenny’s mom, Nancy, was in her crib across from ours, eeying us and laying on a teddy bear. “Arf.” (“I remember you Ben. I remember you killed me… then I’m your daughter...have to say, a very strange turn of events.”) “Arf.” (“Yes, I did, and I felt terrible for doing that.”) I said honestly. “Arf, arf.” (“And then Jenny told me you were a shit mother to her, hating her for being born while I truly cared about her...even if I wished she dialed back some Ventral things just a tiny bit.”) “Arf.” (“It’s blood all the same. I admit I didn’t...favor her as much as her sister and father did, but at least I didn’t abandon her like her whore mother. Payed that bitch a visit and ended her.”) “Arf.” (“While that is true...you could have at least tried to be a proper mother, and not just treat her like her life was a mistake.”) I told her. “Woof.” (“To each their own.”) She said. “Arf.” (So, stuck in diapers now huh? Heh, can’t wait til you need a changing. Oh that will be the best show!”) I rolled my eyes. “Woof.” (“Yeah yeah, laugh it up, but I need to get to the others and explain I’m me...and sadly I don’t know if I can use my powers or not.”) I frowned, wondering if I do actually have my powers or not. “Arf.” (“Well I know for a fact you can, but not like you normally do. According to dearly beloved Grandmother Den, Dire Wolf pups don’t manafest any forms of powers or abilities until they are six years old. So enjoy the road, cause once you learn to speak properly, we begin losing all memories of this point in our recently birthed lives.”) “Arf.” (“Well...alright then.”) I said. “Arf.” (“Trigun? Can you hear me?”) I called out, wondering if Trigun knew I was now a pup. Nothing. Shit, has to be english or something. “Woof!” (“Hey Ben! Why is there two of me?”) Braig! I turned to a Crib in the corner, Braig in that Crib, toys all shredded. “Arf!” (“Hey, why the hell did you rip up all the toys we got you?”) I asked. “Arf.” (“And why are there two of you? I blame Zeke’s Absent Silhouette cause...well that’s really strong magic…”) I said sheepishly. “Woof.” (“Ah, and I chewed up all my toys cause THESE are not toys. My weapons...THOSE are toys.”) “Arf!” (“Dude, your a puppy, not an adult. You’re not allowed to wield those things until your older.”) I huffed. “Arf!” (“Bite my ass dad! HA! So, you need a means of telling your girls about your current state of affairs and figure out a means around it? Well, in my old ship there’s a universal translator, even baby languages are translatable since they are, by definition, a language. Now if only I knew where my ships keys went…”) “Arf.” (“Wonders…”) I muttered. “Arf?” (“How can we call mom here? I’m pretty sure if we get mom here she can help out a lot…”) “Woof.” (“If you are talking about Den she ain’t coming. Remember, she’ll be gone for a long time. But, we can call your wives here and try something out.”) “Arf.” (“I have expected them to appear with all the barking, and my howling and whimpering.”) I said honestly. “Bark.” (“But apparently not...god they are going to flip when they see me like this.”) “Woof.” (“Well technically they see you all the time, this is just the first time you are in, well, that body. Normally that bod of yours just does, well, dumb baby stuff. Oh, and good luck writing, Motor skills are still developing.”) “Woof.” (“Of course.”) I sighed out. “Arf.” (“Wonder how they’ll react knowing I’m like this?”) “Arf.” (“Assuming it’s them who will be coming in three more hours.”) Nancy said. “Arf…” (“Of course it’ll be three hours…”) I grumbled. “Woof.” (“That’s when we get hungry. Baby bodies are weird.”) Braig said. “Arf.” (Also how much hair gel do you think it’s gonna take to keep THIS down?”) He asked, pointing to his pinkie style afro of anti-gravity hair. “Arf.” (“You have Pinkie Hair...it’s not gonna stay down if you’re at all happy in anyway shape or form.”) I told him honestly. “Arf.” (“I’m more annoyed, as always, but shit…. Eh, I guess I can just shave it later.”) “Woof.” (“If you two are done talking I’d like to nap now...freaking body, I haven’t needed so many naps when I was sixty so the fact I do now is both annoying and-”) And she fell asleep there and then... I couldn’t help but giggle at that, and yes it was a baby giggle. God this is so embarrassing...but I yawned as well. ”Crap, am I really that tired already?” I thought worriedly. The tiredness was overtaking me, fighting it just made me feel...angry, but I gave in, hugging Sahra as I drifted into slumber. To be continued... Nobody's Wedding”That...was a good nap.” I thought to myself as I yawned, finally waking up from my nap. Before anything else I was swooped up, rather surprised. “Awh, aren’t you a cutie.” Autumn! “Awh, so cute, so tiny!” She then began tickling my feet...and I can’t stop laughing! ”Curse you child body being ticklish!” I thought as I laughed happily at this. ”Wait, they wouldn’t understand me, shit!” I thought quickly as I wanted to say something but couldn’t. “Autumn, stop. You don’t want the baby to-” Wisss… Did I just...pee my diaper? “That.” Nova? “Come on then, bring him along. I need to change...Nancy, yes. Woh. So many little ones to remember. Good thing there’s an army of us now.” Autumn took me over to a table, where Nancy was laying next to me. “Arf.” (“Front row seat… somebody up there must like me.”) She cooed sadistically. “Arf.” (“Oh ha ha, very funny. Curse being ticklish.”) I grumbled. The diaper changing was...humiliating… I can’t say any other words other than that to describe the embarrassment of it all. When that was done I was fed, and thankfully I was being bottle fed. I know I’ve done it before but sucking the girls tits as a baby is, well, you can imagine how… well...gah! I can’t describe it. With that done I was placed in a corralled off play area. Lots of the infants were here too. Nancy was placed next to me. Can’t walk… So I crawled around. God this...isn’t that hard. Dog like body so that must be why. ”There has to be a way out of here…” I thought to myself, needing to get to the girls and tell them I’m alright. ”Damn...my wedding was coming up to…” I thought, feeling bad that I was like this when I could have been apart of the best day of my life. “Arf…” (“Damn it...I know they’re expecting me to come back but…”) I muttered, feeling a lot more upset than normal about being like this and scaring my fiances. Sitting next to the edge I overheard Autumn and Nova talking. “Still haven't found him.” Nova sighed. “Maybe he got like, blasted into a higher plain of existence! Or, or maybe he was sent into an alternate reality!” Autumn began listing off possibilities. I barked to try and tell them that I’m literally right here. ”I hope they can notice me, damn, if only I could use my powers to at least tell them I’m here…” I thought to myself, barking again to try and get their attention. “Hm. The pup you picked for the day is quite the talker.” Nova said. “Heh, reminds me of my daughter. She was a crier for anything and everything when she was that age.” “Woah. Cool. I imagine you didn’t sleep much?” “Some nights I still don’t get a lot of sleep. She still hasn’t stopped talking much… you two would get along.” The continued their talk, ignoring me completely. “Arf!” (“Damn it, I’m literally right here and they can’t understand me! Ugh, this sucks.”) I groaned, trying to figure out a way to tell them I’m here. Just then I was hit in the back of the head by something. Looking to my side, it was one of those ball pit plastic balls. “Arf!” (“Oi! Who threw that?”) I barked. “Woof.” (“Who do you think dumbass.”) Nancy replied. “Arf.” (“They can’t understand you, and currently there’s no word or even giant letters toys around so stop prying like a stray and just, I dunno, grab a chew toy or something.”) “Arf.” (“Oh, I’m sorry that I want people to know I’m still alive and well and not just sit here doing nothing!) I barked at her. “Bark.” (“I want my family to know I’m alright, I want them to know I’m still here, that I’m not dead...and so they aren’t scared I left them…”) I said, still caring more about my family than myself even in the moments of me being a puppy. “Woof.” (“First off, you never died since that seems to be your true body, secondly they know one of that litter is really you but they are not sure which, and lastly…”) She got quiet, placing an ear to the ground. “Arf…” (“Oh fuck…”) “Arf?” (“Uh...what’s wrong?”) I asked worriedly. “Woof…” (“It’s the new girl…”) I then felt like...thuds as something ran over to us...and suddenly I was squashed under something...or one...heavy… “Yay! Play!” Wait, that voice...TEMPEST?! “Arf.” (“Yeah, something about when that dark heart left her body she mentaily reverted to the age she was last in full control. Physically she’s still an adult though so they placed her with the girls from Rapture. Mentally she’s about three. Maybe less, I dunno and honestly I don’t care. So long as she’s not squishing me into a pancake.”) “Arf!” (“Are you kidding me? How is that possible? Also halp!”) I barked. “Puppy!” Tempest said, now rolling on her side and hugging me...hard. “Who’s a fluffy!” “Woof!” (“Jesus why is she so strong?”) I complained while trying to get out of her pretty strong grip. “Arf.” (“If I had to guess she’s been a puppet, that other heart has been having her fight her whole life so there’s one, and the fact you are an infant also contributes.”) “Arf!” (“Can someone please help me get her off me?”) I barked in worry, not wanting to be crushed right now. “But I wanna play puppy!” Did...did she understand me? “Arf.” (“Wait, you can understand me?”) I asked, tilting my head to the side in confusion. She nodded, then squeezed me tighter. “Arf.” (“Can you please stop squeezing me so hard? It’s starting to hurt a little.”) I said worriedly. She let up, but still held me. “Something up puppy?” “Arf.” (“Yeah...everyone’s worried about me, wondering when I’ll come back and show them I’m okay.”) I told Tempest. “Arf, arf.” (“But considering that the great Ben, the White Knight, is now a puppy that can’t do much by himself...it’s both stressful and saddening.”) “Ben...Oh, that missing dog man. You don’t look like your pictures.” “Arf.” (“That’s because I’m a puppy. When I stopped all the bad people I...became like this.”) I said honestly. “Arf.” (“And...the people I care about know I’ll return, but they’re worried I won’t…”) “Oh...So what do I do?” I thought for a moment. “Arf.” (“Well...you can understand me so...tell them I’m Ben?”) I suggested, pointing my paw over to the two caretakers at the moment. “Arf.” (“If they know I’m me then...well it’ll at least get some things settled.”) “Oh...Okay!” She said, getting up, still holding me as she bolted. “Hey! Tempest!” I heard Nova call out as she ran out of the nursery to where I am assuming...yes, yes this is the way to the Bedroom. ”Hopefully they’re there…” I thought to myself as I was carried by Tempest to the bedroom. ”They may not believe me or Tempest...but I’ll at least try.” I thought. “Arf.” (“Do you know where the girls are?”) I asked Tempest. “They are in the big ponies bedroom. Been remodeling it to acc...acc… they are making it bigger.” “Arf.” (“I’m pretty sure it’s because of the many many wives I’m getting.”) I told her honestly. “Arf.” (“Thanks Tempest.”) “No need. This is fun!” She said, barging open the bedroom doors and… HOLY SHIT! The whole floor is a bed, areas where it cuts off with tile and...pools/hot tubs built in… massive piles of pillows and blankets...lot of lingerie being worn...as well as swimsuits, just plain undergarments and...not many else... “Woof.” I said, not meaning to speak any baby talk just...woof. I soon spotted Celestia, seeing her I leaned Tempest her way. When we approached Celestia looked surprised. “Tempest...why do you have of Den’s litter?” “Arf!” (“Celestia it’s me!”) I barked at Celestia. “Arf!” (“It’s me! Ben! Please believe us!”) I barked again, tearing up in fear that if Tempest told Celestia this she wouldn’t believe us. “Cause this is Ben.” Tempest declared. Even more confused, Celestia looked me over. “I know one of Den’s litter was Ben’s reborn body but… is he… Ben, if it is you...well you can’t talk then can you… Wait, Tempest, how do you even know this is Ben?” “He told me.” “He...told you?” She nodded. “I can understand their talkings. Dunno why.” “Well...there has been stranger… Ben if that is you… Hmm… Tempest, can you translate an answer from him if I ask a question?” “Sure.” “Alright then. Ben, what did you ask for when I asked you to pretend to be my husband bach when I was dating Chrysalis and didn’t want my mother to know I was a lesbian?” “Arf.” (“It was to compare your ass with Luna’s to see who’s was bigger...and then Twilight got really pissed and cracked my shoulder because of it.”) I explained. “He said it was to compare you ass with Luna’s! And Twilight got mad and cracked his soldier.” Tempest said, but didn’t say that last part right. Celestia then swooped me up into a hug...god between her boobs like this it’s like I’m being smothered by mattresses! “Oh Ben! You lovable pervert you’re okay!... and a baby… So when your clones all vanished… you returned to your real body, your baby one… well...the wedding will be a bit...strange… oh how to get you your right age…” I licked her cheek and nuzzled her, tearing up with a bright adorable smile. “Arf.” (“I’m here Celestia, and I don’t want to be anywhere else.”) I said warmly. “He said he doesn’t wanna be anywhere else.” Tempest translated. “Heh, between my boobs huh, not surprising.” Celestia laughed. “Oh, oh I must tell the others...and then figure out a way to get you the right age…” “I still can’t believe you are a baby Ben.” Twilight said, holding me after Rarity made me a mini version of my cloak. Pinkie and Twin where taking pictures...a lot of pictures. “What’s it like, being an adult mind in a foals body?” “Arf.” (“It’s definitely something Twilight.”) I said honestly. “He says it’s strange.” Tempest translated. “I would imagine. All of your motor skills you’ve acquired and mastered through growing up suddenly gone and starting from scratch. Oh the learning curve.” “Arf.” (“Yeah. But...sorry for just...turning into a child on you all.”) I said honestly. “He says sorry for turning into a puppy on you.” “Oh Ben, this was...unexpected. I mean you didn’t know this would happen. The power you unleashed when ending the war must have just been too much. Honestly this is a blessing.” Luna said. “If you didn’t have this baby form and return to it when your clones burned out you might have died. So this is a preferable alternative.” “Plus you’re so cute!” Pinkie said, picking me up. “And if you stay like this, well, I guess sex is off the table til you grow up, but nursing you can be fun!” “Really Pinkie?” Luna said. “I mean, sure but, Ben is a baby now, taking any kind of...pleasure sexually from that is just...wrong.” “Eh, mentally, he’s our perverted husband who we all enjoy and love. It’s just physically he’s a baby. Isn’t there something that can speed up the aging process?” I thought for a moment. “Arf.” (“Maybe Cript can help?”) I asked. “He said maybe Cript can help.” Tempest translated. “Hmm, but we haven’t found your Assistant either… Joy, he has to still have his!” “Hahahahahahahahhahaha. Ahahahahahah...haahahahahha.” Cript was laughing...and laughing. I rolled my eyes. “Arf!” (“Yeah yeah laugh it up. Can you help?”) I asked honestly. “Oh yeah, totally.” Wait, HE understands me?! “Arf.” (“Excuse me, you can understand me as well?”) “Yeah. Learned baby talk from Doctor Who. Dude had nothing better to do. So, I can change you back in one of two ways. One, I place you in an accelerated bubble where you’ll live life normally in there till you are your right age, living a whole new life and childhood, or two, I change you to an adult here and now. Your pick.” “Arf.” (“How soon is the wedding?”) I asked Cript curiously. “Well they scheduled it for tomorrow, since everyone who arrived to join in brought a bride's outfit, and your girls have them already.” “Arf.” (“Well shit.”) I frowned. “Woof.” (“So this magic will turn me back to my normal age?”) I asked. “Yes. You’re what, nineteen or twenty?” Cript asked. “Arf.” (“I was nineteen...then I became like thirty or something due to time frame differences when I was knocked out by Kexez.”) I said honestly. “Got it.” Cript said, a circle of runes appearing over his right wrist. He then waved it over me. “There, you’ll age one year every hour till you are thirty. Hey, I just realized you were reborn, so that body's a virgin one… huh, funny. Anyway, you’ll age up till you are thirty years old.” “Arf.” (“Oh great, can’t wait for the ladies to argue about who takes my newly acquired virginity.”) I groaned. “Arf.” (“Gonna be really weird...and good thing I’m not gonna experience puberty to be perfectly honest.”) “Oh you will, just accelerated.” Cript warned. “Woof.” (“Of course…”) I groaned. “Arf.” (“That’s gonna be rough…”) “Well, if that’s all I shall be going then.” Cript said. “Arf.” (“By the by, what was the point of that war?”) I asked him. “Arf.” (“Cause to be honest, with the many many waves of enemies...it seemed less like a war and more of an endurance test than anything.”) “You could say that. Frankly It was to see how much power you could channel out before harming yourself. Knowing you it wasn’t long till you did that. I wasn’t expecting you to use up so much power you burned out your clones and ended up in your infant body. But, when you access the full amount of True Nothingness that’s not too surprising.” “Arf.” (“That was True Nothingness? How the hell does that work?”) I asked curiously. “Energy...think of energy like a planet. It’s got layers. Nothingness Nobodies use is the crust, most common and accessible. Then there is Pure Nothingness, the hot, baking molten underside of the crust that is much, much more potent, but also more dangerous. True Nothingness is the very core of the world, the raw, untapped and unpredictable energy so powerful, i’m surprised you didn’t blow this whole realm to void.” “Arf.” (“Well...that explains a lot…”) I said nervously. “Arf.” (“Um...I thought I was supposed to own...literally everything about Nothingness? Not blow up because of it…oh boy.”) “You do, but harnessing and using that to that level of potential… that’s all up to you to learn.” “Arf.” (“Cause of course it would be.”) I said. “Arf.” (“A lot of things need to just be learned by myself...gonna take a while.”) I sighed out. “Arf.” (“So...thirty hours before I get back to being myself huh?”) “Yup. As for your learning energy issue...I might know a guy who can help. I’ll send him by some time after the wedding and honeymoon… Heh, good luck with that.” Cript said before vanishing. “Arf.” (“I’m gonna need it…”) I sighed out, feeling like when I get old enough I will be hounded by all my fiances. Ten hours had passed and now I’m, well, ten physically. “Well...I’m ten now…” I said, even though Pinkie was using my head as a resting spot for her boobs cause she wanted to cuddle with me. “And why the sudden cuddles Pinkie?” “I was worried. Growing up most colts didn’t, well, while they liked me none of them took me for a serious relationship… you’re the only one who ever went this far with me. I would have been super sad if you were gone…” “I would have never left any of you.” I said while cuddling up to Pinkie. “When I first woke up as an infant...I immediately panicked when you all talked about me not being around and I wanted to get to you all...hell...I feared none of you would have believed me…” “Well it’s a good thing you saved Tempest rather than killed her. Otherwise you’d been a baby, well not forever cause you’d grow up, but you’d still be young and might have forgotten things cause I don’t think babies remember stuff after they get older. Tempest was just that perfect age of childlike she she came too to understand you but also speak english.” “Yeah, that’s true.” I said honestly. “But...I’m so glad to be here with you.” I said while nuzzling my head into her big breasts. “Heh, so, how’s growing up super fast like?” “Weird but not that weird.” I said honestly. “I just...kind of don’t want to experience puberty at super speeds cause...that would be weird.” “Well, what’s the worst you are expecting?” “Um...a combination of my normal depressed state getting worse...and me trying to hump one of my many fiance’s legs because...reasons.” I blushed and looked away nervously. “First off, that sounds adorable, the humping part I mean, and secondly, you forget, I’m me! Once that frown comes around I’ll turn it upside down!” “I know.” I said with a warm smile. “I love that about you Pinkie...you’re always so happy and wonderful.” “Yes, and I can’t wait for you to- Oh my gosh I almost forgot! Um, can you, uh, move please. I need to get someone's really fast, alright?” “Get someone’s?” I asked. “As in...get something from someone or actually get someone?” “Get someone silly, well, not just someone. Three someones!” “Um...well alright.” I said. “But will there be more cuddles later?” “Much more!” She said, I got off her lap, yes at this size I fit on her lap, and she bolted. She then returned with three, dull coated mares...with chests and asses to rival her’s! “Ben, these are my sisters! Maud, the oldest, and then there’s Limestone Pie, and Marble Pie! Marble’s really shy, but she’s a big fan of yours. Limestone likes you but can be a bit grumpy, like you, and thinks nopony will-” “Okay that’s enough Pinkie!” Limestone, I presume, snapped. “And Maud really likes rocks.” Maud, the purple haired one with...a rather expressionless face raised a hand. “Hi.” She said, lazily bringing it down. “They wanted in, and since they heard about this marriage thing that Jenny started up, they figured why not, and hopped aboard!” “Welcome aboard then.” I said honestly. “As you can clearly see I am ten...but that is being fixed really quickly.” “Okay…” Marble said, her voice more a whisper than Fluttershy’s. “...Not gonna ask.” Limestone said. “Alright… What’s this castle made of?” Maud asked. “I…” I blinked for a moment. “Um...I don’t know actually.” I said honestly. “Never bothered to ask.” I said honestly, wondering if Consequence would know. “Okay.” She said. Wow, she doesn't seem the type for emotions. “Alrighty then…” I nodded. “How have you three been liking the castle if I may ask?” “It’s nice.” Marble said. “Gotta admit, I can get used to a place like this.” Limestone said. “It’s big.” Maud said simply. Another ten hours. I actually slept through it since it was a long day and it was late already. Woke up in my twenties. Oh thank god, slept through puberty. “Hooray…” I muttered happily. “Glad I slept through all that…” “Hm?” Twilight said, right next to me as she woke up. “Oh, OH! Ben...you’re...taller than me.” She said, making herself and I stand next to one another… huh, before I was an inch shorter than her, now I’m two inches taller. Neat! “Well, that’s good to know.” I said honestly. “Feels good to be in my twenties.” I said while stretching a bit. “Wow, wonder when Dire wolf males stop growing? I know Den said that it’s a few years longer than normal humans and ponies…” “Well I’m sure I won’t be like seven feet tall or something.” I shrugged. “But...today’s the day huh?” I asked. “Yeah, at Sunset. By then you’ll be full grown and...finally we tie the knot… stars, feels like yesterday when I first spoke with you in that hospital room.” “It was...what close to a year?” I asked, not really having kept track of time because of everything. “But...I’m really happy that this is finally happening.” “Funny thing, by my count… I first met you in that room today, a year ago.” She said, wrapping her arms around me and giving me a kiss. “Talk about coincidence huh?” I hugged her as well. “Yeah, but a happy one.” I said happily. “A very happy coincidence.” “Yeah. Well, we have some hours before we have to scramble to get ready...wanna fool around and pop that newfound cherry of yours, or wanna wait til after the wedding?” “After, cause it’ll be more special that way.” I said while nuzzling Twilight. “But...twenty four hundred plus wives...and I’m sure there will be more sooner or later.” “Maybe...at this point, so long as you are you, I don’t care.” She said, nuzzling me back. “Heh, remember when Luna barged into the room, half jumping your penis and digging her tongue down your throat? Was worried you would suffocate.” “Yes, yes I do.” I chuckled a little. “The moment I knew I wouldn’t be alone anymore...was with a hot lady jumping me.” “Heh. Ever wonder what things would be like if it was just you and me? You think we would have made it this far?” “I’m sure it would have just...maybe we would have just kept to ourselves in books at the time.” I said honestly. “Heh, maybe. So, after this are you gonna make a bunch of clones so each wife has their own or a group shares one of your clones?” “Most likely.” I said honestly. “It’ll help me be with all of you.” “Hm, that would involve a lot of...you know, arm or finger...slicing to make a new one. That’s gonna hurt.” “If it means the one’s I love will be happy, I’m willing to endure anything.” I said caringly. “Heh, okay. Yeesh, to make enough clones for one for every wife is gonna be...tricky. Well, take a long time.” “I make a clone of myself, and my clones can make clones.” I said honestly. “It’s starfish logic so it won’t be too hard.” I shrugged. “I guess. So, you have a few hours left as a ‘bachelor’ heh, what are you gonna do with it?” “Panic?” I asked sheepishly. “Heh, maybe have some guy time or something. Maybe that Dante or Luxu can help you have some fun for a while.” “Wouldn’t be surprised if they knocked on my door telling me we’re going out.” I said honestly. “Heh. Tropes. Well, you head off, we’ll be getting ready, and you know the old saying, it’s bad luck for the groom to see the brides in their dresses before the wedding.” “Well I saw two thousand of them in their wedding dressed cause of Jenny.” I chuckled a little. “But I’ll be back.” I said while kissing her gently before heading out to do some things before I got married. “Have fun. Try not to get too wasted.” She chuckled, giving me a peck before I left. “Don’t worry, I’ll make sure I won’t.” I said. “And even if I did...well that’s how I got Pinkie and Zecora so...that might lead to like...fifty more wives if I get drunk...oh dear.” I muttered nervously. “I'll make sure not to get drunk.” I said before leaving and wondering if Luxu and Dante will ‘kidnap’ me and take me somewhere. Surprisingly not, but after a quick breakfast I found Luxu in his office...apparently they all have an office now. “Howdy.” I said. “How you doing Luxu?” “Well, with that mess over with I’m mostly filling out the paperwork for the cleanups and insurance payouts to damaged property.” “Sorry about that.” I said nervously. “Want to skip paperwork for now and get a drink before the wedding?” “Well, might as well.” He said, setting them down and heading out with me. We entered the castle bar, still can’t believe this place has it’s own bar inside it, and we took a seat in a booth. “So, something on your mind?” “Besides the fact I’m marrying twenty four hundred eager women?” I asked honestly while ordering good booze. “Gee, I wonder.” I chuckled a little. “Honestly I thought you and a couple of others would have dragged me off for a bachelor party.” “Well, pretty sure Dante would have but with all this paperwork stuff we’re being kept busy.” Luxu said, a Dusk Nobody waiter giving us both a mug of beer. Eh, a bit early but whatever. “Ah...well time to fix that.” I said while snapping my fingers. “Yo, whoever wants to throw me a bachelor party you can put off paperwork for the moment.” I said, my words echoing to all those that wanted to have a good time and not want to do paperwork at the moment. “You sure that’s a good idea?” Luxu asked, taking a sip from his mug. “Didn’t ever figure you the party type.” “I have a few hours for the wedding, and Twilight did say go have fun.” I said honestly, casting some silent spells so I wouldn’t get drunk so easily even if I did several drinking contests. “Just have to keep it within reason...cause if I don’t I might accidentally add more wives from other worlds...on pure weird accident.” I said nervously, not knowing what I would do if I was drunk. “Hm.” Luxu hummed. “Well, while we are waiting for something, mind if you and I just chat? I feel I should tell you some things.” “Sure.” I said. “We haven’t actually talked in a while...last time would be...when I was checking in on the Keyblade school right?” “Eh, close enough.” He said, moving his mug aside. “So, as you know my dad is the one behind Daybreak’s fall...All his experiments… who he’ll be giving them to is hard to say. Like me Dad is without a real form, or even his body or heart, so hard to say who has what or where they are.” “Would I know where his body is?” I asked. “Or did time do away with such a thing?” I was curious to know if time got rid of that bastards Nobody. “Yes. His body rotted, but he kept on. His heart destroyed, but he kept on. Under that cloak is just a soul too stubborn to move on… or stay dead. I’m asking you, please...come this war, when he appears… let me kill him.” “I’ll make sure no one gets in your way.” I told Luxu. “That’s your fight.” “Thank you. It’s long overdue payback for my friends, for the unions, for making me believe he knew what he was doing when he began that first Keyblade war… I won’t sit and watch this time, I’ll fight. I won’t stop fighting till I destroy his Soul, his Lingering Will. Which leads me to this… I might not be here that much longer. Well, I’ll be gone for a while anyway. The Foretellers have to find my body. I finally tracked the Embodiment who has it. This will be their job Ben, not yours.” “Alright, but you better come back alive.” I said. “Cause I don’t think you want to die, have Time hunt you down and kill you for dying now do we?” “Heh, yeah. So, other than that I wanted to ask you about your X-blade.” “Oh yes, No Heart.” I said. “You’ll be finding the several hundreds of people that were brought back wondering what the hell happened to them if you didn’t know.” I said honestly. “What do you want to know about it?” “How did you get it?” “That would be from Zeke’s Absent Silhouette, apparently that thing is very powerful and can...basically give whatever rewards you want, it’s also one of the Organization Mushroom mini games believe it or not.” I said honestly. “All you have to do is beat one of the X-blade wielders, or more depending on the situation, in that dimension and you get thirteen treasure chests that are literally packed full of stuff.” “Huh… And when you got it, was it already like that or like something else? A Keychain or?” “It was a Keychain, it...actually stabbed me and took some of my blood, like it was a blank ready to transform into whatever given the specific person.” I said honestly. “And for me, well I got No Heart, an X-blade that can not only revive people who are Emblem Heartless, but can give Nobodies back their lost hearts.” I said. “Which...reminds me I need to get on that whole thing…” “Hm...That’s interesting. And aside from Zeke how many also have this their own X-blades?” “As far as I know Eclipse, and Zeke’s Trixie on a technical level.” I said. “Eclipse...don’t know when he got it, and Trixie was because she and Zeke are sharing a body at the moment due to...complications.” I said nervously. “Hm...And are you sure no one else has one?” “Not that I know of.” I said honestly. “I’m sure if you go fight in that world you’ll find the other X-blade wielders cause they show all of them, and I do actually mean all of them...but uh, be warned...you actually fight a physical manifestation of Kingdom Hearts.” “hm...Now that’s interesting.” “You can talk to Yen Sid about it.” I said honestly. “He apparently had a hand in it in someway.” “Nah. Grandpa has enough on his plate I imagine.” “Knowing him maybe.” I said honestly. “Anything else you want to know?” “No, that’s all for now.” The majority of my council came not long after that the redid the castle bar into a proper bachelor party...strippers included. That took my by surprise but the show was...kinky. Finally it was time for the wedding. I was dressed in a tux, white to compliment my dark coat and colors. I was standing at the altar, Consequence was the...guy who says the lines and others were all seated. The room was massive, for good reason, over two thousand women are gonna come walking in here. ”Alright...just gotta stay calm and be ready for all my wives.” I thought to myself, my heart racing as I was just so excited for this day. ”I...still can’t believe this is happening.” I thought to myself. THe doors opened, and I gulped. Walking in was… A single mare. She had this glowing gold mane, white fur that made Rarity’s look almost dark, and all attention taking blue eyes. Her dress bore a unique design. As well as looking stunning, the vail bore the designs of each and every Race’s kingdom’s flag. She walked up next to me. “Hello Ben.” She spoke...her voice was so...heavenly. I blushed. “Uh...wow.” I said. “You...look great.” “Meet your wives.” Cript said, somehow behind me, making me jump. Oh, he is wearing a tux too. “My wives?” I asked. “Like...they're all in one lady?” “Yup. I spoke with them all this morning while you were out having a bachelor party. They agreed a marriage to over two thousand would take like, a week or just under to actually get through. So, I offered this solution. Like this, they all know everything everyone of them is thinking, a hive mind in one body of sorts. They now know everything and more about one another in that form than they will talking to one another. Past experiences, emotions, everything each of them have been through in life is shared in there. I also enchanted their ring, allowing them to rejoin together, whenever, with whoever. Just incase the like being together like that.” “Alright then.” I nodded. “Sounds like a very good thing.” I nodded. “I suppose that'll also help with the cloning stuff.” I said honestly. “Well then, shall we begin?” Consequence asked. “Yes.” I nodded with a smile. “I would love to begin.” “Right then. Dearly beloved, we gather here today to join this man, the king of this land and realm, and this mare, whose body and mind is the resulting combined unity of all of the kings harem. My king, do you have anything you wish to say to your beloved...s.” “I would be rambling for hours.” I chuckled a little. “But all I can say is...I feel like the luckiest man in the multiverse to have so many women love me when...I'm not that great.” “Right then. And the bride...s. Do you have anything to say?” “We do.” She said. “Ben, the majority of us only knew you through the news, newspapers and rumors, but you won us nonetheless. For the ones that knew you personally, we would like to say that, at first we didn’t know where this relationship would go. You were a stranger in a land you didn’t know, with powers and abilities neither we nor you understood. And yet, your constant heroism, kept you noble. You self hate, made us care for you even deeper. You’ve healed, but we both know you have your demons. So long as you’ll have us, we’ll help you face them til the end.” “Thank you.” I said. “Thank you so much.” “Then,” Consequence said. “By the power within me, bestowed to me by the old king, I now pronounce you man and wifes, king and harem. Til death will you be binded, and may your children, the princess and princesses of this kingdom grow to become worthy of their birthrights, and may one someday grow to take the crown from you, sire.” Consequence said. “You may now kiss the bride...s.” I never thought I'd be here and hear that as I teared up and kissed my fused wives happily. ”I'm the luckiest man in the world…” I thought to myself happily. The next morning I woke up, next to my wives. Some split back into themselves, Rarity, Twilight, Celie, Luna, others I couldn’t name, but enough were still in one body that their unified body was still in bed… god sex must have been different for them like...wait is Yona in there… best not think about it. “Morning.” Twilight said, wrapping her arms around me as I felt her bare chest against my back. “Morning.” I said gently. “Had fun?” “That was something else. Heh, a married mare. I thought this was a fever dream at first...but it’s real.” She said, hugging me tighter. “You’re here, they’re here… for once everything seems good.” “That's great.” I smiled warmly. “I'm...so glad things are good for you all.” “Let’s hope this lasts, just for long enough before things get bad again… just long enough.” “I hope this lasts to…” I said gently. “I...I want this to last so much…” To be continued... Nobody's simple dayThe next day I was spending time in the Nursery. Now that I know Nancy and Braig are, well, still in there, at least for now I need to see if I can talk with them. “This is gonna be a little weird…” I muttered, but remembering I have my Assistant so I can use that as a translator just in case. After searching through the app store, which felt like looking for a single straw of hay in a pile of them, I found a supposed translation app for infants to english. Yeash, nine hundred rem...better be worth it. After it installed and I activated it I tested it out. “How are you doing today?” I asked Braig to start things off, hoping this thing will work. “Board. Can I get my guns already?” YES! It works! And all I hear is what he means, huh. “No.” I frowned. “You’re still too young to be holding guns, but glad this thing works.” i said honestly. “Cool, so I can call you a #$%#$ #%#$#$ %##$% and you hear it?” Nancy said...did that app actually censor that? “You’re being censored actually.” I said. “And no swearing.” I frowned. “Children aren’t allowed to swear till their old enough.” “#%#$ You and the #$#$ who is my new mother.” She replied. “Better mother than you.” I said bluntly. “#$#$ you I raised three kids.” Three? I know Jenny and her sister...who was the third? “Who’s the third?” I asked. “And you kind of are considering Jenny, and then there’s the fact that back then you gave up your heart because you didn’t have anyone left, but apparently you had a third kid.” I rolled my eyes. “...I don’t talk about that #$#$#$ child, and I don’t mean Jenny.” “You’re going to tell me, you know that right?” I asked, knowing Nancy was smart enough even as an infant to know she was going to tell me anyways. “...Fine. His name was Jericho. I had him two years after Kristy. He was...different.” “Different how?” I asked curiously. “He preformed like any other member of the family but… he was skitzophrenic. He took all kinds of medications but nothing ever seemed to work for it. At one point on a job...he shot Kristy, my husband, and me. Ventrals may be monsters, but we look out for our own. He left us for dead. He was no Ventral, just some rabies riddled animal. I never saw him again after that heist.” “Maybe he was hallucinating? I mean the Psychopath blood in you probably made his schizophrenia worse.” I said honestly. “But...were there any different symptoms than just the standard?” I asked, remembering reading up on this and there were some obvious things. “Aside from the self mutilation, complete lack of emotions one moment ten rage or sorrow the next and extreme violence? Extreme for us anyway, no. He is the reason I never cared for Jenny.” “That sounds more like Schizoaffective Disorder, where instead of just being Schizo, he most likely was also Bipolar.” I brought up. “And considering you said that he had bouts of mania or sorrow at the drop of a hat...but the self mutilation? I...have a bad feeling that has to do with the Psychopath blood in you making it worse.” I said nervously. “Hmm…” I hummed while checking my Assistant to see if Psychopath’s can make mental disorders worse. Sadly, there isn’t much known about it in this wider multidimensional internet...odd. “So, you never noticed it with Jenny?” “Noticed?” I asked. “I mean...last time I was with her was when we were enjoying our time on the Dire Wolf homeworld...happiest I’ve ever seen her.” I said honestly. “Notice how she functions? Even by Ventral standards her ideas are rather extreme, so young and already so lethal. You never even noticed when she fights it’s not like any martial arts known, it’s either a broken variation or made up, her movements are inconsistent, and while effective it makes no sense combat wise.” “She’s a child.” I said. “The one time I fought her, we basically played a Card Game. Her ideas of combat come from anime, cartoons and video games, where things are disjointed compared to real life...even though...technically those things are real life now.” I said slowly. “But when they were not, she would fight like those cartoons she’s watch. Kristy even told me she said sometimes she sees what should be happening like in those shows. I saw the writing on the wall… and distanced myself. I wasn’t going to relive what happened with Jericho. So if that same moment ever came up again… better a bullet in her than another set of them in my family.” “Yet you’d happily see me take those bullets for our family.” I said. “Well the idea of you getting shot is both funny and entertaining, I know no bullets can kill you anymore...sadly.” “Glad you know you enjoy being apart of the family then.” I said honestly. “Even if you get a second chance at life, glad to know you still hate everyone.” I rolled my eyes. “Well for as long as I can. Once I start talking I’ll forget all I know now, brain can’t hold two lives worth of memories.” “You’ll still hate me when you get to that point or will you actually see me as a father?” I asked. “Who knows. By the way, while you and I were talking Braig seems to have learned how to use his teleportation from before.” I turned around...and he’s gone. “Oh god damn it.” I groaned. “That’s not good…” “Three...two...one…” BOOM!!! Consequence and Trigun appeared. “Sire, one of your infants somehow got into the armory and is managing to pilot one of your Mecha tanks…” Consequence said. Boom!!!! “Effectively too.” Trigun added. “Pinkie!” I called out. “Mind coming here for a moment?” I called out, hoping she heard me considering her specialness. “Okie Dokie Loki!” She said...Jumping out of my cloak...how in the... “Chaos magic…” I muttered. “So, Braig is being a bad child, mind helping me deal with him?” I asked. “Well, sure, he is my son after all…how are we gonna get him?” “I’ll distract him while he’s in the mech and you grab him out of the thing.” I said. “Stupid kid...kept asking for his guns but he’s too young...and now he just decides to go on a rampage in a mech.” I grumbled. “Gonna get himself and others hurt…” I muttered while heading off to where Braig was. After getting him out of that thing and rebuilding the buildings he destroyed, Pinkie and I sat with Braig in what the Engineers built, a Time out room. It was basically a simple room with just a chair and bed in here so they can’t do anything. Even powers are disabled in here, have to admit, even my own are a bit wonky in here. “Please, tell me why you just decided to blast a bunch of things in a mech?” I asked, having my translator app up for me and Pinkie. “Cause it’s fun! The feel of the trigger, the recoil of the bullets, the vibrations of the explosions. Come on Ben, I was a hit man before I turned into an infant and got stuck in diapers! I NEEDED that.” “It’s not very nice to break other ponies stuff.” Pinkie said. “Yeah but it was still fun, cause I am going stir crazy in there. Only other one I can talk to is Nancy and she’s not the best conversation, and the others are simple minded.” “So?” I asked. “You’re a baby, not an adult. You could have gotten hurt, as well as hurt a bunch of others.” I said honestly. “And don’t give me the ‘it was my job’ crap, you had to have done something else besides that right?” I asked bluntly. “...” Silence… he’s done literally NOTHING else with his life?! “Are you kidding me?” I asked bluntly. “You’ve done nothing in your entire life besides be a bounty hunter?” I asked, sounding really disappointed in Braig like a father should when hearing their child has done basically nothing with their life besides one thing. “Well what did you expect? My old family made their fortune being the best hitmen and bounty hunters in this and the next ten solar systems. I grew up with a silver bullet in my mouth and the golden gun to shoot it in my hands.” I shook my head. “They probably also did other things with their lives besides doing that.” I said honestly. “But this new life you’re going to be experiencing more things than just fighting. Trust me...knowing what to do when not fighting is a lot better than knowing only the fight.” “Look it’s not that I don’t wanna stop it’s just hard breaking a lifetime's worth of habits and learned behavior.” “Well good thing you have Pinkie as a mother now do we?” I asked. “Pinkie knows a lot about a lot of things so I’m sure she can help you learn things and break out of this dangerous habit.” I said honestly. “Eh, I guess. There is now two of me so I guess in the end the other me will still be doing what I always did, so I guess learning something new when I start to forget my past won’t be too bad.” “That’s good.” I nodded. “You’ll learn new things, grow up and be happy.” I said honestly. “And not blow up parts of the armory all because you’re bored.” I rolled my eyes. “Plus, you’ll keep your mother company a lot more.” “I guess.” “That’s good. And Pinkie? You okay with this?” I asked, wondering if she had any input. “Yeah, I can teach him baking, candy making, party planning,” “And I’m regretting this already…” “Hey, when you’re older you can help your mother with party themed explosives.” I rolled my eyes. “Especially the party cannon cause that’s a thing.” “...Alright…” Later that day I was with Applejack back in Ponyville, looking over her apple trees. Nothingness seems to have altered her Zap Apple orchard section. This is Equestria Applejack, not human world Applejack, she came asking Twilight for a favor and Twilight sent me since I’m the apparent expert...which I really should be. “Okay so...what’s going on here?” I asked curiously. “Well, look.” She said. We entered the area and...grey and black. Every tree was a grey and black pattern, nothing like from what I remember in the show. “They were fine at first but they changed to this a week ago.” “Huh...that’s odd.” I said while gently touching one of the new grey and black tree’s. “I wonder why this happened...they should be connected to the land, not the realm…” “Well maybe that’s the issue?” AJ questioned. “The land is now in the realm, so maybe this place’s magic is affecting the lands? Granny Smith always said nature is the first to warn when change is afoot.” “Maybe…” I muttered. “Alright you...tell me what changed…” I muttered while focusing, wondering if the Nothingness inside the tree will explain what happened to what would normally be the Zap Apple Tree’s. While I sensed it in there it was...different. Not like when I use it, it felt...primordial. “Hope you find out soon, don’t know if we can even harvest them, and their harvest season starts today.” “Primordial...wait.” I muttered, pulling back and checking my Assistant to see if I’m not going crazy about these tree’s. “Is this...really what it is?” Equestrian magic is old and very potent. It reacts differently to different kinds of magic, and changes itself to adjust to the magic depending on the new magics potency in the area. This can result in mutations in the land, animals, and even the inhabitants. “Oh…” I muttered. “Well...that explains it…” I muttered. “But what’s the tree now?” I wondered while scanning the tree to see what kind of tree it is. Zapp Apple Tree Warning: Unnatural magic mutation. Calculating possible mutations… “Let’s hope this is still edible…” I muttered, not wanting to have ruined some of AJ’s business because of this. Possible Mutations: -Advanced Development -Magical Side Effects -Rapid Growth And Mature -Colored Nothingness “Right so um…” I said. “The tree’s are fine but...they may have possible mutations, ranging from Advanced Development, Magical Side Effects...sadly don’t know what those side effects are, Rapid Growth and Maturity, and or...Colored Nothingness.” “I can take a guess at some of those but Colored Nothingness? That sounds a tad odd.” Applejack said. “Yeah...does sound a little weird.” I agreed while looking up what the hell Colored Nothingness was. While I opened up the Assistant Aj grabbed a Zapp Apple… only for once it was picked, to gain it's normal rainbow appearance, grow ten times its size, Aj had to hold it with two hands, and radiated faint Nothingness while… rainbow colored Nothingness Thornes ran around it. “Right...um...that is definitely a thing.” I said honestly. “Wow! We can make easy three or four jars of Zap Apple Jam with them this big!” “That’s if they all do that.” I said honestly. “But yeah...I’m pretty sure you’ll be making a lot more jam with all of that.” “Heh, well this harvest will certainly be our best ever.” “Well, at least things are settled then.” I said, having a feeling this will still be edible even if it changed. “So, anything else about your farm I need to look at our was the Zap Apple’s it?” I asked curiously. “No, this was about it. Thanks for coming over.” “No problem.” I nodded. “Just doing my job.” I said as I thought for a moment. “How’s the family been with the sudden changes?” I asked curiously. “Bloom's been finding the whole thing Exciting. Big Mac didn't seem to care much and when Granny first saw the sky she about had a heart attack, swore Equestria was ending.” She chuckled. “Believe me, if the world was truly ending...well then a lot worse things would be happening in the meantime.” I sighed out. “Well, wanna come inside? We got a lot of Leftovers and Granny wants to have the fridge empty for our Hearths Warming Party.” “Oh yeah...I forgot it’s getting close to that…” I muttered. “Wait...is there Thanksgiving in Equestria?” I asked curiously, wondering if they had that lone holiday as well. “I know it’s past November but...just wanting to make sure.” “Uh, what exactly is that Holiday for you?” “Thanksgiving is, in some cases, a harvest celebration, but in specific places it was also about giving thanks to many things, like family, friends, the harvest, and a bunch of other things.” I said honestly. “Which...is kind of redundant when it’s called ‘Thanksgiving’.” I muttered. “Well Hearth's Warming is kinda like that, lots of ponies, friends and family getting together, cooking, eating and just being happy. If you wanna Celebrate this Thanksgiving of yours you can, heck, I know Pinkie Pie won't mind a new Holiday for a party on her calendar.” “Well again, Thanksgiving was partly due to the Harvest season but eh. And Hearths Warming...well a lot of people have different names for that holiday. But...you know, I don’t think I’ve had Apple Family cooking before...weird.” “Heh, well come on in then. I gotta show the new Zapp Apples to Big Mac. Heh, he'll drop his drawers when he sees this.” She said as she lead the way back to her house. Once there she got out some leftover sweets for me to try while she went to show the massive Zapp Apple to her brother. “Sweet.” I muttered with a smile and happily dug into the sweets I was giving to try. “Glad to finally try this stuff.” It. Was… Amazing. The flavor was super rich and lasting on my tongue. “Good lord this is amazing.” I smiled happily and continued to eat the wonderful apple treats. I actually finished off the treats, Waiting for Aj to return. She came back some minutes later. “Heh, Big Mac about fell over when he saw this apple.” I chuckled. “Glad to hear that. Besides bills, what are you gonna do with all the excess money you’ll make from a higher amount of jam?” I asked curiously. “Also, these sweets are amazing.” “Heh, it’s part of why this farm stays a float.” She said. “Yeah that is true.” I said in agreement. ”I wonder...should I go to another world? Cause I don’t think I have much else to do here…” I thought to myself, thinking I can go off to another world just to actually explore more instead of wondering what the fuck to do. “Need anything else before I go?” “No that was pretty much it. You know, you should take a day off or something. Even here on the farm we take a day or two off, mainly in the slow season. Read a book or something.” “Thanks.” I nodded. “But yeah I should probably just head off and do...something with my free time.” “You can head off to the Library, been a while since you were there.” “Yeah, my original home before I had to move.” I said. “Well, better get going. Have a nice day.” I said before getting up and heading off to the Library to see how it changed. As I walked through town I noticed Ponyville was getting modernized. Paved roads, drainage systems, light poles, even vending machines were decorating the streets. Nobodies and those living here were working to modernize buildings and such all around. It was...nice, but it also felt strange, seeing this small town almost expanding within a few days or so. The Library was still a tree, still as I remember it at least. I knocked, Time Bell opening the door. “Oh, Ben. Long time no see.” She said. “Hey Time, how are you doing today?” I asked the mare. “Good. Library’s been good. Finally have modern checkouts so no more losing books. What brings you here?” “Eh, just wanted to see how my old home was doing.” I said honestly. “Mind if I come in?” “Sure.” I entered. The inside was different. It was more like a library and less like a home with lots of books. “Hey, it actually looks like a library here.” I said. “Looks nice.” “Yeah, it didn’t take that long to fix it all up. Very little was altered to the structure, mainly it was just standing shelves added.” “Right then.” I nodded. “I hear you and luxu are still together and happy right?” “Yeah. Even though he’s in your council he still comes here every night. So, anything of interest, the only things we don’t check out are in the Enchanted section. As in the books are enchanted.” “Right then.” I nodded. “Wonder why those books are enchanted…” “Dunno but if you want to look at them go ahead, we keep them in what was the Basement, not the Enchanted section so we can keep it locked at night. Some of them are pretty neat.” “Would be interesting.” I said honestly. “Actually...what happened to all of Twilight’s stuff down there?” I asked, not remembering what happened to all her science stuff. “She took it when you all moved out.” “Ah.” I nodded. “Well might as well see all the enchanted books.” I said while heading to the basement. Upon entering there was only four books each on a stand. ‘A Manifesto of Properties’. ‘Times and Life of The Modern Alchemist.’ ‘Evolution Steps Back.’ and lastly was ‘Harry Potter, the Complete Collection.’ That was funny enough the biggest book. “Okay then…” I muttered while checking the Manifesto and wondering what’s in it. I opened it up… and saw a little paper mache crane fly out. “Hello, I am Table of Contents, Contents for short, How may I help you today?” It spoke… right, Enchanted. “Hi. I was wondering what was in this book so I was going to read it.” I said, not really sure what to say to the enchanted book considering I just wanted to read it. “Right. This book can tell you how much any property on any world is worth with immediate updates.” “Wait, ‘any world’?” I asked, finding that rather curious it brought up ‘any’ world. “What do you mean by that?” “I mean any world! Radiant Garden, Hundred Acre woods! This very land of Equestria, even digital worlds such as Matrix or Tron. I can tell you the property and it’s current value of any planet.” “That is rather interesting.” I said, not thinking this book existed. “Hmm...what to ask...eh, why not Equestria?” “Okay then sire, what and where would you like to know the property value of?” “Um...the country of Equestria.” I asked. “That’s a big enough area.” “Calculating. The entirety of the country of Equestria has a net worth of 5.88 septillion Rem, totaling in resources, economy, and land values.” “God damn.” I said in surprise. “Didn’t think it was worth that much…” I muttered. “Hmm...Griffonstone.” “Calculating. The Country of Griffonstone as is with its economic depression and reconstruction at an agonizingly slow pace is worth 3.9 million Rem, mainly due to the mountain country's historical value and the mountain containing a fair sized mine of gold and gems.” “Yeah makes sense…” I muttered. “The diamond dog kingdom...um...what is it called?” “Diamond Dog lands. Calculating. Total worth is 9.75 Nonillion Rem, their booming industry in pornography and adult entertainment as well as a vast untapped natural resource under the soil of gold, gems, and valuable minerals.” “Jesus…” I muttered. “That’s quite a lot...Badlands.” “Calculating. The Badlands total worth is 9.55 Trillion Rem, while rich in underground riches, their lack of established cities and high pollution and dry, and lack of fertile land cripple it’s worth potential.” “Makes sense…” I muttered. “Yakyakistan?” “YakYakistan. Calculating. This small nation up in the frozen lands had a total worth of only three million rem, as it’s country had no major trades, resources or economy.” “Yeah…” I muttered. “The dragon lands?” “Calculating. 3.99 Trillion Rem. While no real economy or trade worth in total, the volcanic ash soil is the most fertile in the planet total and it’s rich minerals would make the nation worth much more, but the dragons would rather horde and eat them rather than trade.” “Right then.” I said, wondering about what other nations I could bring up. “Hmm…Saddle Arabia.” “Saddle Arabia, 4.4 Billion Rem.” “Right then.” I nodded. “Well I suppose that’s good enough I suppose…” “Till Next time then.” Contents said, floating back to the pages as the book closed itself. I nodded before checking the Time’s and Life of an Alchemist just to see how special it was. I opened the book, and the words on the page changing and then forming a face. “Hello, long time since someone opened my pages.” “Hi.” I said. “How you doing today?” “Eh, I’m a book so nothing much to complain about.” “So, who are you if I may ask? Cause I have a feeling your more than just the book.” I said honestly. “I am the Alchemist. My pages contain the recipes of over nine thousand, four hundred and fifty three of the most complex alchemical transmutations and potions from Era two to Era five.” “Era two to Era five?” I asked curiously. “What do you mean by that?” “An Era in the terms of the realms means the time between an apocalyptic event so massive life on every world in every reflection had to start over. This is Era fourteen.” “Jesus.” I frowned. “That long huh?” “Yes, but they range in how long they are. So yes, a lot more than what you would expect. So, need anything?” “Might as well see what all the alchemy stuff is from...twelve to nine era’s ago.” I said honestly. “Mind letting me learn you’re techniques?” “Sure, anything specific? Transfigurations, potions? You look like a fellow who could use a wide variety of invisibility potions, maybe a potion of elephant hearing? Hear from miles farther than you can normally? Take your pick I have quite the assortment.” “Well I don’t need hearing cause I’m a Dire Wolf and I can hear great...I have a spell for invisibility...hmm…” I hummed. “Man there’s so much I could think of…” I wondered. “Besides potions and transfigurations, what else do you know?” “Transfiguration isn’t potions my lad, transfiguration takes something and transforms it to something of equal material value. Quite frankly it’s possibly the more dangerous field of study within my pages.” “Oh yeah that.” I said. “Yeah I know of that...that would probably be a pain in the ass if I even tried…” “And dangerous. People use this information thinking they will be the acception. But when they seek Truth they learn no one is the acception.” “Yeah, I know...he’s an asshole.” I frowned. “Mostly because of what it did to Cript.” “Yeah but that’s him, he takes what you value the most. Well, technically it’s a trade, that which you value most for information.” “Yeah...that’s true.” I nodded. “So you only have Transmogs and Potions?” “Yes, and please don’t call them Transmogs, it’s insulting.” “Is it?” I asked the book honestly. “Yes. it’s like calling you a mutt, don’t you take insult to that?” “Okay there’s a difference between being racist and shortening a term.” I frowned. “Cause trust me, there two completely different things.” “Maybe to you, but when you literally exist to do nothing but teach what you were imbued with, you take it as racist.” “Okay okay.” I said. “No need to get your pages ruffled. So, let’s look at the potion selection and see what’s there okay?” “Fine, fine. So, what do you need or want to learn?” “Hmm...do you know any recipes for healing potions?” I asked curiously, even though I have enough to last me and my entire army a fucking life time I’d at least like to know how to make them. “I have two hundred and sixteen healing potion recipes.” “That’s quite a bit...what’s the strongest one you know?” I asked honestly. “Goldmines Brew is a good one, can revive the dead, so long as they have been dead for an hour or less.” “Right then...how am I going to make that?” I asked, having a good feeling about that. “Three pounds of Griffon Egg Shells, nine Phoenix feathers, brew in a black boil mushroom broth and after a three day brew over a low fire filter into bottle with a Glass size four potion filter tube.” “Right then.” I nodded, glad to learn that. “But that sounds...rather curious for ingredients…” “Griffon Shells when boiled brew a tea that heals bones, and Phoenix feathers when made into a tea heal the body completely, and can revive death. Together they form a potent potion. Healing the body completely, restoring magic. It’s ingredients hard to come across but worth it when gathered.” “Well good thing I have both Griffon wives and a wife with a pet phoenix so…” I said, finding that a bit convenient. “Alright then. So, anything else or will you be off then?” “Hmm...what kind of remedies do you know?” I asked curiously. “Depends, what’s your ailments?” “Any.” I said. “A cure all as it were.” “I have five, the most potent of them is called Witches Fiber. Brew a quart of witches blood with specks of gold flakes and mix in one vile of holy water. Mix til turns green then add in Pixie Dust and then pour into bottle with number eight bottle filter tube.” “Right then...that is a bit weird you need gold and pixie dust...and holy water of all things.” I said honestly. “Potion making is about the internal magic of the ingredients, and how they react when mixed together. The results can be nothing or extraordinary, this is no science, it’s merely how magic reacts to other magic.” ”So it’s completely nonsensical, got it.” I thought to myself. “But one more thing...are there potions that increase people’s physical and mental capabilities?” I asked curiously. “Yes. There are many, but I feel you want something that adds permanent additions.” “Yeah, that would be best.” I said honestly. “Then Demi-Gods Blood is for you.” “Demi-god blood...um...how?” I asked curiously, even though by all technical concerns I became a god not too long ago. “The Demi-Gods Blood potion will maximize your potential to it’s fullest, it’s rare and making it is as hard as you can imagine.” “Do you literally need Demigod blood?” I asked curiously. “Not quite. The potion takes a Devil’s skinned hide, an angels wings, the soul of an unborn, and the heart of a pure blood god. Brewed together in the purest of spring waters, they create the effects you seek.” “Jesus christ how did you figure this out?” I asked in very great concern. “I didn’t, the great Hero of Era three Caster Vergil did. He gathered them all together and made the first brew. He drank it and kept his Era going for two thousand more years until his death.” “Right then.” I nodded. “That’s...quite a thing to be honest.” I said honestly. “Probably not going to murder an angel, demon and god but good to know…” I said nervously. “But...I suppose that’s everything…” “Alright then, till next time.” The book said, closing itself. “Till next time.” I said while putting the book back. “Okay...onto the next book…” I said while taking ‘Evolution Step’s Back’. “I have a bad feeling about this…” I muttered, fearing what the title had in store for me. It opened… and the pages were blank… okay... “Right…” I muttered while closing it, fearing that if I tried to read it I’ll de-age for some unknown reason. Placing it down, I moved over to the next book. “And onto the most uninteresting, the entire Harry Potter series.” I said while taking the book and opening it up, wondering if this book literally does have the entire collection. As I read the first chapter, the words began to glow… oh crap! I dropped it, the light blinding me as everything went white. “Omph!” I groaned, falling into what feels like bushes. Bushes? “What the fuck?” I muttered, wondering what the hell is going on. “Where am I?” As I was standing up I was in...some kind of suburbs. It was dark, night time. Light poles lit as an elderly bearded man stood in the… Wait… Dumbledore!?!? He was lifting that thing, the light from the street lamps flying into it… I’m in the book. ”Mother fucker...well I have a good feeling I’m about to fuck something up big time if I don’t stay hidden…” I thought to myself, having a pretty bad feeling that if I make myself known something bad will happen. I watched as Dumbledore and then Professor Mcgonagall left Harry on the doorsteps. They rang the bell then magiced themselves away. I sat back in the bushes, watching as the younger version of his aunt saw the baby. She read the note, then looked at the baby… Then closed the door… I’m sorry, WHAT!?!? ”Okay things are already wrong here.” I thought to myself as I summoned my Lexicon and made a rune real quick that made me immune to stop effects as I slowly sneaked towards the child. ”Okay, so this book is a liar and isn’t doing what the book said.” I thought myself. As I went over to the infant Harry I saw the scar was fresh on his head, bearly scabbed over. He was sleeping peacefully. I looked over at the window, the Aunt and Uncle arguing, likely over what to do. ”Okay so maybe they’re deciding on if they should take care of Harry...and if this is the story they need to take care of him.” I thought to myself, staying hidden from everyone as I waited for what comes next. After a bit the Aunt opened the door, taking Harry inside. I listened in. “I don’t like it. I don’t like it at all. We are making ends meet barely as is. Another mouth to feed is the last thing we need.” The uncle said. “I don’t like it either but you know these freaks highly valued my sister and her husband. If we don’t care for him they might do unspeakable things to us.” The aunt replied. “Well why don’t we just leave the boy in an orphanage and be done with it.” “And risk making them mad? That’s suicide!” “Damn magical...freaks! Even the poorest of them are paid in gold, or so you’ve told me. If they lived like we’ve had to, even one of those gold coins would make this easier at least. Durdly just got out of diapers, oh those expensive diapers, and now we have to get them all over again!” The uncle said, taking a seat on the couch. “We’ll have to be even more frugal, if that’s even possible. I suppose I can work the Overnight Shifts, nobody wants them since they last a full ten hours, but at least they’ll pay more…” “Love, you already work nine hours straight. When will you sleep?” “Coffee.” “That’s not an answer.” “It’s all I got.” So they were broke when Harry came into their lives? That can explain some things…”Wait no, that doesn’t make any sense.” I thought to myself. ”They sure as hell were well off in the real story so what the hell?” I thought to myself, finding that a bit inconsistent from what I read and watched. Hmm… This is meddling, but the hell, I’ve meddled enough on other worlds to the point several in in the realm I am king of. I went into my Assistant, taking out out and placing about six thousand pounds as a starting before knocking on the door, and casting Vanish, making me invisible. The uncle opened the door, seeing the money and taking it. I then listened in again. “Well...I guess we’ll be good for a while.” He said, counting the bills. “This will be enough to get your… Harry some things, needed things, and maybe some real food on the table. Durdly is too thin for a boy his age.” That fat proker was thin? What kind of Harry potter book is this? ”Yeah this is definitely not the real Harry Potter series.” I thought to myself while checking my Assistant to see what Harry Potter story I’m actually in. World: Harry Potter, the Complete Collection World Type: Fictional Story Book Unlike normal worlds within the Multiverse, those residing within Fictional pages that can be entered and explored as if they were solid earth, can be drastically altered and changed. Once the story is done, however, while the pages read the same words, the inhabitants within remain changed. Knowing the real events that took place. ”That doesn’t explain what book I’m in cause sure there’s a time skip in between this I highly doubt this is it at all.” I thought to myself, liking how the Assistant to give me a bunch of info about things that it thought I was asking for when I was asking for something completely different. ”But whatever, looks like I’m gonna be stuck here for ten plus years...hopefully not…” I thought to myself. The next day I followed the Uncle to his job. He worked in an office building. It looked like he works in recites and billings, entering all the paperwork into boxes, copying it, retyping it all up. Shit that’s too much BS for paperwork. ”Well looks like he has a boring as piss job…” I thought to myself. As his day went on he had to have worked over at least a thousand or so papers. That’s a lot of papers. When he left the job he went to the part to think, to himself it seemed as he was asking himself questions on a bench all alone. “What to do… That money will help but not for long. Promotion might help, but that won’t happen. Too many fellows better than me up there. Besides, no one ever asks for anyone from my department…” He sighed. “I can try and find employment elsewhere but with the economy as is that isn’t a hopeful option.” ”Well at least he’s trying...even if he’s gonna be a fat bastard who raises a spoiled brat.” I thought to myself. As the next few days went along I began using illusion spells to make myself look like how I did as a human to others. This let me be able to watch thing play out from a public view rather than just from bushes. Makes this all much easier. One thing I knew for sure is that they are really mixed on Harry. They seem to want to take him in, but financially, even with the money I gave them, they worry. So sometime soon some event happens, I think, that causes them greater financial hardships. They must put all that worry and stress into anger towards him, then whatever happens after is what gives them quite the financial security. What those are though must range from possibly a job loss or something else. ”Still doesn’t make any sense why they continue to hate him after if what I’m looking at is right.” I thought to myself. This was just strange. “Greetings.” I about fell out of my chair… Dumbledore appearing in the previous empty seat on the other side of my table. “I’ve noticed you watching Harry… is your presence cause for trouble?” “No no, just…” I took a moment to think of how to explain it. “A traveler.” I said, not technically lying here but still. “So, how may I help you?” “Just wondering why you are observing young Potter and his guardians. I can tell you are using an illusion spell on yourself, hiding your appearance. May I ask why?” “Would you openly display your part Dire Wolf?” I asked honestly. “Part dire wolf? Were you an experimentation?” “Family Curse.” I shrugged. “Ah. May I?” He asked, holding out a hand. “Oh no, it’s alright. Besides...I really like my new Heritage...plus the Curse was...jeez not sure how to explain things.” I said sheepishly. “May I examine it at least? I know of many curses, but none that alter the body in such a drastic way. Potions yes, but those ware off.” “Sure, but it’s more of a...genetical curse.” I said while letting him examine the curse. “If that makes any sense to you.” “Hm. I shall see.” He said, I felt his magic flow over me, examining me and the family curse. “Hmm...very interesting. This curse does, infact target genetics, completely remaking them if need be and doesn’t lead to repercussions. Your old DNA is still there but your new added ones are made the dominant one, quite fascinating. I also notice you have far more power than I initially thought… fearfully much more. Pray tell, you don’t happen to be of another world, do you?” “And you’ve met others like me I presume?” I asked curiously. “Cause not many can say that without prior knowledge or experience.” “Yes. I am not as at a loss as some expect. You see, I know of other worlds, but I also know this world is just pages in a book. You see, the author of my book was a member of the old Dandelions, who imbued her works with life and childlike wonder, as a means to keep the light alive. We were scattered. I know for a fact we were in the old King of Nothingness Library. Then his castle fell and, I am unsure of our current location. All I know is that we are safe. Each book our author made has one character written to know of the truth of their existence, as a safety measure.” “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “Well funny thing really...I’m the new King of Nothingness, and right now you’re in a Library in a humble little town. And who would have thought J.K.Rowling was actually apart of the Dandelions.” I chuckled a little. “The more you know I suppose.” I said honestly. “But I suppose why I’ve been looking over Harry is...well the author never really gave an explanation of Harry’s early life, just jumped from the day he was put on the doorstep to his relatives then jumped to the few days before he was swept into a whirlwind adventure of magic, wonder and plot holes.” I said honestly. “Ah, well I can tell you that. Simply put, when Harry was just ten months old, he first used magic. The resulting spell of a young wizard can be very strong. As such, his cousin was harmed, breaking many of his bones. That made his aunt and uncle fear him, and so, they began to hate him. They spoiled their son to make sure he forgot the traumatic event of his youth. After all, nineteen fractures, ten broken bones and a concussion is a lot of damage to anyone, especially a young boy.” “Jesus christ.” I frowned. “That’s...a hell of a thing.” “Magic in the wizard and witches younglings stabilizes at age two, one and a half at the youngest, but it starts up at just four months old. Muggles are ill equipped to handle such affairs. The time between Harry’s magic manifesting and it stabilizing left their house and health in near ruin. That is why they hate him, because if he could do that to them at so little, they feared what he could do when older. So, they kept him in a position of fear and closed their hearts to him. Sad really, it’s why these years were never written. Only able to be witnessed by being inside the novel.” “Yeah...that’s a good reason.” I said honestly. “But then where did they get all the money? Cause right now they’re having trouble with money as is, minus the six grand I gave them just as a little help.” “Funny enough, it was a byproduct of when Harry’s magic harmed his cousin so badly. His uncle’s boss, while a busy man is a kind hearted man, and so, when he heard his employee’s son was so badly hurt, he promoted him, a big bonus and a large weekly check, so long as he kept the work given completed. And he did, throughout this story. In a way, if Harry doesn't do that event, then they never become financially stable, and they do learn to love him, Harry and his cousin grow to be more like brothers rather than a slave and master. But, this was not how this story was meant to be told. Such a sad fact.” “It happens.” I shrugged. “Life can be a great ball of shit sometimes...but we learn to deal with it in time and forgettable sequels.” “Not as… I would have said it but it works. So, I take it you want out of the book then?” “I suppose everything else is just the same as the other books or is there any differences?” I asked curiously. “There can be, but on the pages nothing will be changed, just… reset. You can pretty much do whatever, re enter and everything will be the same when you return, only anything you did will have never happened.” “Right then.” I nodded. “Thanks for clearing somethings up Professor.” I nodded. “The names Ben by the by.” “It’s been a pleasure Ben… may I ask a favor, if you’d listen?” “Sure.” I nodded. “What do you need?” “I’ve seen the events play out many times. It gets old. In each time I hate that out of them all Harry has to suffer over, and over again. I know anyone taken out of this world, when it resets it will just craft a new one, so can you take him? At least one Harry can live a completely different life outside of this cycle.” “Sure.” I nodded. “I’ll take him in...just uh...wonder how to make a solid argument besides I have all the money in the world.” I said sheepishly. “Just make sure he grows up loved.” “Now that isn’t going to be that hard.” I chuckled. “All the kids I’ve adopted have been raised with love.” I said warmly. “Good, good. Well, let’s retrieve the boy, and I will send you both on your way.” “Thank you.” I nodded. “Let us be off.” With a quick warp the the house and grabbing Harry Dumbledore sent us out of the book. I appeared in the library, back in Ponyville. The door was still open so I am gonna assume that time in the book was much faster than time in the real world. “Well...alrighty then…” I muttered while looking down at Harry, now having this kid as my new son. “Wonder who you’re going to be the child of…” I wondered, having a feeling it’s going to be Twilight because magic. His body began changing, Dire Wolf ears growing as well as fur...and that was it. I didn’t see any pony, dragon, or other race features… So must be one of the new Dire Wolf wives child. Huh, wonder who it is? “Well, good way to check…” I muttered while using my Assistant to see who’s mother Harry was under. Escarlata Age: 27 Race: Dire Wolf “Right then…” I muttered, glad to know who’s mother Harry’s was. I walked Harry over to the nursery. “Alrighty, time for you to meet all your other siblings…” I muttered while gently putting him down in one of the cribs. With that done I went on to find something to do. I entered the throne room, and Consequence appeared. “Greetings sire. Is there anything you would like to request?” “Um...yes actually.” I said. “Where’s the former King’s note’s and experiments on Nothingness?” I asked Consequences, thinking he would know where it was at so I didn’t have to search the entire damn place or the entire library. “Well his public records are in the main library, but his laboratory is in the very last basement.” “And...where would that be?” I asked curiously. “This way, my lord.” Consequence said, opening a DTN. “Thank you.” I nodded while entering the DTN, hoping to start learning about True Nothingness and all the things I can do with this unknown power. “Wonder what I’ll find…” To be continued... Nobody's pissedI walked out of a DTN, just opening up one and randomly walking through to see what world I would be in, and...I was in Hawaii? “Well...better than some other places…” I muttered while looking around the place to see where I was specifically. The first Nothingness ability I used was Camouflage Zero. There’s a lot here. I thought while skimming over some of the mountains of notes and books here. Huh, this might come in handy. Camouflage Zero. This spell is rather interesting in it’s uses. It takes the true form of one of the Nobodies and makes you look like who they were. The spell seems to work by placing the casters body in a small side dimension and brings a random Nobody to then have the caster almost poses. It is definitely unique and as far as my allies go, only I seem able to cast this spell successfully. Strange. Huh… that could come in handy. “Alright...time to test this…” I muttered while looking over myself real quick to see if I noticed any changes or if it was only for other people. I immediately noticed...boobs… I’m a chick! Shit, the Nobody who’s true form this was is a woman… who sadly has knickers that rival Luna’s… well damn. I found a car and got a good look. While my clothes were normal I was now a Easy D cup, six foot woman, red hair, just the right amount of freckles, and green eyes… fuck with curves like this she must have been a model… damn… this is weird… ”Note to self...find this woman’s Nobody, bring her back...and marry her cause jesus christ.” I thought to myself, even though this was weird this woman was still pretty freaking hot...which is what I’m calling myself technically...fucking hell. ”Well...might as well look around town…” I thought to myself, wondering what I could do here. “Well, best head into- Fuck even her voice is sexy!” I said, speaking in her voice. It was a bit scottish. Shaking my head I headed over to town. As I walked through and around I came across some locals. I got some eyes looking at me… shit, right, woman's body… that explains all the guy’s I saw rubbernecking…”Christ...if my wives saw me like this…” I thought to myself while continuing to ignore the many people staring at me. “What to do…” I hummed, never actually been to Hawaii. Normal people would see the sights, but I’m not normal, and I came to see if there was anything to test out some abilities and spells on. I know my powers and weapons will be unaffected by this spell, and looking through there were spells that only certain weapons can cast. What to do. So far this place seems peaceful. As I looked around I spotted some missing dog poster- STITCH! I mentally yelled, taking a closer look at the poster… yup, that’s him, no mistaking it. So I’m on his world, so when I got his summon charm, he appeared with me… and I forgot to unsummon him… crap, he’s been missing this whole time! “Uh...shit…” I muttered while moving to a place where no one was. “Shit shit shit...I completely forgot...god Stitch is gonna hate me…” I muttered sadly, getting to a hidden spot before pulling out the Ukulele charm. “I’m sorry Stitch...but come on out.” I muttered while trying to summon Stich. In a small flash the little blue alien appeared. He looked around then at me. He looked confused at first, til he took some sniffs. “B-Ben?” He asked, his broken english managing to say my name. “It’s me little guy…” I said. “God...I’m so sorry...I...want to go back to your home?” I asked, Stitch seeing I was really freaking upset about forgetting him and not sending him back home. He then jumped up in panic. Did… did he forget also? “Of..” He said, proceeding to speak fast whatever language that was. Huh, not even that can be translated? Weird. “Stitch calm down.” I said gently. “But...do you remember this place?” I asked gently. He nodded. “L-Lilo!” He said, starting to walk out the alley, motioning for me to follow. “Alright…” I nodded while following Stitch, still feeling like crap for forgetting to bring Stitch home. “God Stitch...I’m so sorry…” “Egh. F-for...give and, for...forget.” He managed to say, leading the way still. “Alright…” I sighed out. “Let’s hope...they won’t be too mad at me…” I muttered, not knowing how long it’s been for Lilo on this world. After arriving at the house I saw it was at the time of at the end of the first movie, and how it was in the one where his cousins were introduced. “Well...at least the place isn’t destroyed…” I muttered, fearing that something bad could have happened without Stitch here. “Well...let’s hope they’re home.” I knocked on the door, Lilo answering. She looked at me, then saw Stitch. “Stitch!” She cheered, the blue alien tackling her and the two rolling in a hug as Stitch licked her, covering her in his green saliva. “He’s back!” That’s her sister, Nani if I remember. From the voice anyway. Yup, here she comes into frame. “Oh good.” She then noticed me. “Oh, um. Who are you?” “I’m…a friend.” I said. “I...have somethings to explain...mind if I come in?” I asked, still a little weirded out that I’m a sexy scottish lady apparently. “Oh, sure.” She said, moving aside for me to enter. “You a tourist?” She asked, closing the door behind me. “Yeah.” I nodded while entering the house. “First time here actually.” I said honestly. “But yeah...um...somethings to explain…” I said nervously, wondering where to start. “So where did you find him? Jumba, er… Lilo’s uncle, that is, helped her look all over the islands.” “On my world actually.” I said. “I’m just uh...disguised is all, you know to fit in without causing a scene.” I said, not lying but not entirely telling the truth. “Ah, well good to know, wish Pleakley knew this level of effort in his ‘disguises’.” She laughed. “Seriously, you could pass for some kind of super model. Is that tech or some crazy ability your kind can do… is that offensive to ask?” “It’s not offensive at all.” I said honestly. “But this is an ability and...sadly I forgot to actually have a form in mind before turning. You know, not wanting to cause a scene for one reason but causing a scene for a completely different reason.” “Heh, well if you ever want a date that body is the fastest way. So, how did stitch appear on your world? Did he fall out of the sky like he did for us?” “No actually.” I said while pulling out the Ukulele charm. “You see, where I come from there are these Charms that can…’summon’ people from other worlds for certain things. It normally isn’t very long and it normally summons the being in question when they aren’t needed for anything or are by themselves. Just uh...I...sadly forgot to send him back.” I sighed out. “Just...when he came by I was happy about it but...then way too many things happened for me to go into any detail cause that’s a whole different story…” I sighed out. “If that...made any sense to you, please tell me how it didn’t cause I’m pretty sure it makes no sense.” “Well, I’d rather not spend hours trying to wrap my head around how that works so I’ll just accept it. Well thank you for bringing him back. Actually… if it’s not too much trouble, can we have that?” She asked, pointing to the charm. “I know Stitch is a handful, and having something like that in case he is ever lost again would come in real handy. If you are willing to part with it I mean? Lilo would just be happy to have a means to keep Stitch out of anything that can hurt him.” “Yeah.” I nodded while putting it on the table. “It’s best if it’s kept with his family.” “Thank you.” She said, picking it up. “Knowing Lilo she’ll figure it out in no time. Well, if this was all, is there anything else you’d like to know about or see?” I thought for a moment. “Two things, what would you say is a good spot to relax, and have there been any...strange monster sightings? Like strange creatures that aren’t aliens?” I asked curiously, hoping Heartless and Unversed haven’t gotten here. “Hm… So aside from Stitch’s cousins, there is this new island across the ways north of this one. Just… appeared overnight. Police and navy won’t let anyone over to it. Sometimes on the beach facing it at night people swear they see it has eyes under the water. If that’s something you think is worth investigating go ahead.” “That is most definitely something I should investigate.” I said nervously. “Cause it could be anything...like say an island size Kraken...and no one wants that.” I said nervously. “But it’s north from here, and it only occurs at night, anything else if I may ask?” “Well none of the birds or anything want to go towards it. It’s all rocky and while it is barren, satellite photos make it looks like the formations form some kind of deep crater, like a meteor impact.” I frowned. “Well that’s not good…” I muttered, thinking what could have been there. “Well looks like I’m going to have to do some searching…” “Be safe.” “I will.” I nodded. “But uh...if you hear explosions...don’t panic alright?” I said while heading to the door. “Can’t wait to figure out what’s going on here…” I muttered. “I’ll be back.” I said while heading off towards the new island that magically appeared. Once there, the ground, for as far as I could tell, was regular rock. I used a simple spell to scanning spell to see if anything was abnormal. I did feel darkness… a lot of darkness. “Oh dear…” I muttered. “That’s not good.” I shook my head while walking around. “I know you’re alive, can you hear me?” I called out, not sure if this thing could understand or even hear me but I wanted to try at least. Just then, several MASSIVE Neo Shadows appeared around me… FUCK!!! “Well...fuck me…” I muttered while summoning my X-blade. “Alright, so you’re not a good host.” I frowned while preparing to fight. They attacked, but I was a quick dodger and managed to upper cut them. I summoned my new Gauntlets for that. I sent the giant Shadow Heartless flying up into space. “Who wants a good firsting?” I asked, cracking my knuckles and ready to fight. ”Jesus christ what did I just say in this sexy voice?” I thought to myself, thinking I just said something really dumb. “Hehe.” I heard a laugh… a girl- OW! I yelped, getting a bullet shot through my leg. The damage undid Camouflage Zero and I returned to normal… Fuck. Why isn’t it healing? “Well...fuck…” I muttered while summoning my Lexicon and casting a healing spell on myself, knowing if regen doesn’t work I might as well use a healing spell. “Who are you?” I asked the girl. Ten DTD’s appeared around me… and from them walked out… Jenny… Ten Jenny’s… each with a number Tattooed on them. 12, 44, 45, 67, 99, 7, 88, 754, 909, 151… Clones… Those clones... “Well…” I muttered. “This is just splendid…” I muttered. “Clones of my daughter huh? Kexez is gonna get his ass kicked for using them against me.” They all lifted out… rather strange looking handguns and aimed them at me. Then, creepy enough, they all began to sing. ”Into the depths of dark, where no light shall shine at all. The thorns of death decay, and give way to chaos and fear for all of our future days. With gun in hand and sword in heart, will shall all of the light die.” “Good.” I muttered while books slammed shut on all ten of them, sending them all to the land of Illusions. “Nice song, but no.” I frowned, thankful they decided to sing instead of actually hitting me so I could do that as I looked around ready for anything else. On cue, all ten books began to...bleed… okay. The pages flew open, blood and darkness spilling everywhere as the Jenny’s crawled out. ”For on that day, when light is gone, will Nothing fall with it too.” They sang, aiming their guns and shooting, beams of… I don’t know what gunning for me. I ducked down, but they hit each other in the crossfire and the explosion they energy made threw me easy fifteen feet away. Crap, what was that!? I don’t feel my Nothingness! “Well isn’t that just nifty…” I grumbled. “Wonder how long this sudden asspull lasts…” I muttered, hating myself for knowing full well there had to be a metal that negates certain things cause there always has to be like Carbonadium to Regeneration. Thankfully, at a ten second mark I felt my Nothingness return. ”So ten seconds?” I thought, dodging their other shots. So short, either imperfect, or because of my title as king it’s so short. I figured, pulling out the Chakrams and firing off… grey fire? Right, right, forgot. As King, I have noticed certain spells seems to gain extra potency from my excess of nothingness. For example, my ice spells turn the ice a shade of dark grey, fire light grey, and lightning looks almost like Nothingness Thorns. I figure this is side effect of my title, but a good one. Compared to the standard variants of this spell, my Nothingness enhanced ones can bypass all elemental resistances. Rather handy, and fun to kill a foe who is normally immune to Fire with fire. A very handy passive ability. I shall call it Infusion. “This is one ability I am super happy about…” I muttered with a little smile, glad to know my strengths now supersede all immunities. “Okay...so after that whole...thing, I suppose I should get back to dealing with the kraken now…” I muttered, still sure this thing is a giant kraken made of Darkness. Needing to deal with the Jenny’s… crap, I know I have to end them… but can I? They are a mix of her as she was human, and now. Must have gotten her DNA from the time in Rapture. “Are you all still alive?” I asked, really nervous about killing them even if they were evil clones. They were. All of them crawling on all fours grudge girl style at me… Nope! I summoned SharpShooters and began firing. I used a spell that I remembered only works for these weapons. Sharpshooters while ranking lower in power than my and my allies other weapons do have their use. Asking I notice a high rate of critical hits compared to my archer, as well as more spells I can use that he can not. Sadly. He’d make grand use of them. Such a spell is Zero Point. While the arrows fired are needle length and size, their strength lies in the fact the magazines of the weapon is able to fire much more. Ten thousand per magazine, and their critical hit rate if every shot. While low damage, the critical rate and fire, added to the amount fired each time, a calculated sixty darts a second, make this spell quite deadly in my hands. I should hope the Archer is not too jealous of this development. At least his aim is still better than mine. “Zero Point…” I muttered while firing as fast as I physically could at the clones, hoping the things will die if I turn them into literal pin cushions at this point. When the magazines were empty, all ten were bleeding out black ooze as they began to fade. What made it worse was that they all died with this… sadistic smile, all while keeping their eyes on me… that’s gonna give me nightmares... “Well...that happened.” I muttered worriedly. “Hooray for more nightmares here…” I sighed out. “Alright, so back to Kraken killing I think…” I muttered while looking around to see if there was a good spot to try and deal with this thing. “Still wonder if this thing can hear me?” As I looked around I found myself at the crater center. There, a pulsating bulge of darkness was resting. It looked kinda like those pods Sora was in at the Twilight Town mansion from KH2… only black. “Well...that’s not good…” I muttered while scanning the thing with my Assistant to see what it was before I poked it with one of my weapons. All that came up was that it was an incubation pod… for what? “Well…” I muttered while pulling out Lindworm and gently poking the thing with the blunt end of it to see if something bad happens. Something did happen… it began releasing this black myst from the top. Did I start this thing hatching? I backed up, watching as it opened. Inside was… a Dusk? No, no the colors are blue rather than silver and the sign on its head is… a Heartless? “What the hell…?” I muttered while checking my Assistant on what the hell I’m looking at cause this shouldn’t be possible. Before I could though it jumped me, wrapping around me like a rope. And getting tighter... “Cause why not…” I muttered. “Alright, fine.” I muttered while changing into my Heir Valor Form and using that insane strength boost to get the thing off of me. It ended up being weaker than expected as once I broke free it was killed. I then heard clapping. “Well done Ben, a test run well done.” Kexez... I took a deep breath, knowing full well it was Zeke that needed to kill Kexez. “And what are you doing here?” I asked, Sharpshooters aimed right as him while my X-blade and Skysplitter were in my hands, Eternal Flames at my feet as I oh so wanted to beat the shit out of him. “Observing. The clones were a test run and this… this was what I wanted to see in action.” He said, motioning to the pod. “A Dusk heartless. The Nobodies flexibility, and intelligence will come in handy. But since that’s your territory, I needed to work around that. Design wise, it acted just like a Dusk, tests on their intelligence will be conducted later on.” “You don’t understand what your doing.” I frowned. “Just be glad I’m not the one who’s going to kill you, even though I’d love to.” I said while firing a needle at one of Kexez’s knees to prove my point. To my surprise though, it bounced off. “You forget I’m still a living X-blade. Soul and Heart aside.” He said, walking around me. “So, Rumer among the Heartless say you know where my heart’s halves are.” “Going to kill them so you can stay yourself?” I asked. “On the contrary. I do plan on a reunion one day, but I need some more… fine tuning and grooming before that happens. Zeke will pay for wasting his existence.” “Oh boo fucking hoo. Zeke hates being overpowered and you know it.” I said bluntly. “That’s probably just the Psychopath blood talking.” I said honestly. “Maybe, maybe. But, the one reason he, and I exist he never took advantage of. Tell me, now that you have all this power, how much danger have you stopped single handedly? How many lives saved?” “That would be...maybe a few hundred? I mean I did turn a few hundred from being Heartless a while back, but then after that I literally have had no time to learn my new abilities, and I just started world hopping. So I think your point might be a bit of a miss for me when I’ve barely had this new power for...I’d say less than four days now.” I said honestly. “And yet arguably you’ve saved more in that short time frame then ever without it. Zeke believes power corrupts, and while true, you and I know him better. He knows he is stronger than it. Yet he caps the amount he uses, denying the destiny we were literally built for. Help me find my heart, and Ben, I can assure you the power Zeke will obtain will make it so no one dies pointlessly. You and I both know he is a fighter. As much as he will hate his power, he will use it for the right reasons. Is that not worth the sacrifice?” “Your right on the both of us knowing he’s better than that.” I sighed out. “But what’s to say that if I help you find your other parts you won’t put them under your heel and use their powers to try and murder everyone?” I asked curiously. “Without my soul I can’t even summon the X-blade if that is your concern. I would be able to store Keyblades within me, but I doubt my heart would let me draw them for the wrong reasons. Without my soul I can’t access their power. And with my soul I’d return to being nothing more than the body. Mindless and controlled by my soul, my true mind. I’d cease to exist, and we both know a lot of people would be happy about that happening. You included.” “I’m still sensing a massive drawback here.” I brought up. “What do you gain out of this? Cause right now you’re just bitching Zeke doesn’t want to be able to solve everyone’s problem.” Even though he had that mask on, I could feel him smiling under it. “Vendetta. But even you can agree, the good to come out of it will vastly outweigh Zeke’s feelings on the matter.” “Should I even bring up Cript here?” I asked curiously. “You know, the guy that can literally solve everyone’s problems but he doesn’t? He’s you, and as you can clearly see Cript is just like Zeke, so are you going to bitch about him as well?” “Heh. You forget I’m not expecting for Zeke to do anything with his power. I know him much, much better than you ever will. If he fights, then hey, easy win, if not, and I expect he won’t, well, it’s not like he’ll have much choice when his friends and family need saving. He won’t sit back and let them die. Cript doesn’t.” “So you’re going to force him to go one hundred percent when your whole?” I asked curiously. “Oh I won’t be in control. I can’t force Zeke to do anything… something else big and bad will later on. We both know once one threat is gone, another emerges. I’m just speeding along our predetermined destiny.” “Good to know.” I said. “Wouldn’t be surprised if Zeke actually does do that whole thing but...to be perfectly honest I don’t know where Drezke and Lake are at the moment. I know where they were but I doubt they’re there...even though that town was nice.” I said. “Cause you know...they might be hunting things that were spawned because of Drezke on...pure accident.” I said nervously, remembering those shadow creatures that spawned when Drezke’s darkness was leveled out. “A lead is a lead, outdated or not it’s better than nothing.” Kexez said. “Take me, and I’ll give you a reward. No tricks, promise.” Kexez said, hands raised up. “I’m still expecting when you find them to knock them out and strap them to a machine to give power to all your subordinates…” I frowned. “Cause you know, you found a material that negates Nothingness somehow so I wouldn’t be surprised if you did that.” “Nothingness, no. Those handgun negates nothing. It’s simply an altered variation of the stop spell, halting all special abilities and powers. Nothing was negated, just paused. I’m not a marvel comic writer.” “Or just a comic book writer in general.” I shrugged, thinking back to that town and remembering how the Heartless had their personalities back and worried Kexez would abuse that newfound knowledge. “Sorry if I’m not immediately saying ‘let’s go’, but you’ve done several things...like apparently create the world’s first Abomination with Spoiled.” I brought up. “What can I say, Zeke’s always had a kink for Milfs.” “Jesus christ.” I face palmed. “Except that Spoiled tried killing your family before, I know you’re a Nobody but come on man.” “No Heart for emotions, no soul for a conscience. Now then, on to my heart’s last known location?” I sighed out and opened a DTN to there last known location. “Come on...let’s hope this entire thing won’t end up backfiring like I think it will…” I muttered. “But let’s get going.” I said, wanting to follow along just to make sure Kexez doesn’t do something terrible. As we walked out, the place looked… better. Grass and trees were growing back. “I can feel them.” Kexez said. “They most likely know I’m here too.” “I’m pretty sure they do, and I have a feeling a fight’s going to arise from it so…” I muttered while summoning my lexicon. “Create item.” I said while making a white flag and handed it to Kexez. “Better wave this when we get close to any guards, just so they know you aren’t here for a fight.” I said, not wanting a fight between the three of them when life is starting to bloom on this world. Once we arrived at Drezke’s castle what I saw was… surprising. A heart, pulsating darkness but glowing with a bright, calming light… and was a shade of blue… They reunited. So this is what Zeke’s heart looks like. “Haven’t seen that in a while.” Kexez said. “So this is what your heart looks like.” I said, looking at it. “Surprising...it looks wonderful.” I said while walking close to the front door. “Hello!?” I called out, hoping they could hear me from out here. “Heh...look.” Kexez said, pointing at the walls. They were painted, crudely, but this is a world of only children after all. It looked like it showed Drezke, then Lake appearing, then the two turning back to their true form, then Zeke walking up, then Zeke with the heart over, I guess meant to be within, his chest. “Heh, kids drew a prophecy.” “Well glad to know some people had faith.” I said honestly. “Wonder if they also drew a prophecy about you coming here?” “Well, time to come back.” Kexez said, reaching out to the heart. When he touched it, the heart flew into him, so fast it knocked him over. His body glowing blue, white and black as it expelled all his darkness he had within to replace his heart The darkness dispelled in the air. Kexez then stood up. “Heh… wow…” “How you doing?” I asked, not wanting to draw a weapon but still concerned about him suddenly gaining his heart. “Feeling better?” “Hehe… It’s strange. I can feel it’s weight again… I almost forgot how that felt. I can feel it’s emotions. The pain and agony and guilt of my actions hitting… hehehe, and I just… I don’t seem to care despite my heart hurting. It’s so surreal.” “Well that’s why we’re going to be finding your soul soon.” I said, still thinking his ‘reward’ is a knife to the back. “Not just yet… I’m not ready to stop existing just yet. Just a bit more time… Now then, your reward.” Kexez said, standing back up. “Is it an actual reward or are you going to stab me in the back?” I asked. “No, not with my heart back I don’t think I can… But, I can give you something useful. Spoiled wanted to keep it, but I rather find it distasteful.” He said, tossing me a book. “This is the prison of your Psychopath clone from earth. He’s inside. Keep him there, kill him, use him. I don’t care, I think?” He said, opening a DTD. “I’ll be seeing you… maybe? God this is messing with my train of thought.” Kexez said, walking in the DTD as it closed. Leaving me alone with the book prison of my Psychopath other. I looked at the book and sighed out. “Well, might as well let him now.” I said while opening the book. “I summon thee my Psychopath version.” I said, not sure if it’ll happen. The book began bleeding, the puddle it formed out crawled my other… beaten, legs broken, and a broken X-blade through his stomach. “You...are… stupid.” He said, collapsing over. I blinked before summoning my Lexicon. “Well...can’t have you die before you start explaining things.” I muttered while casting a powerful cure spell on the guy, wondering how the fuck this all happened. ”Hooray, I probably fucked up a bunch. Go me.” I thought to myself bitterly. “I know you can survive this…” I muttered, honestly a bit scared on how the hell he got his ass kicked this much as I tried to heal him the best I could. The spells were keeping him alive, barely. “Kexez needed his heart. He needed a True X-blade, he and X are the only ones who share such a direct link to Kingdom Hearts.” “Okay, so far so many things I already know.” I said. “So, plain and simple, how hard did I fuck up?” I asked curiously. “Cause right now it mostly sounded like Kexez wanted to be back together, just removing limits on Zeke cause he’s a dick.” “Heh, first off, what did he tell you?” “He wants to be whole.” I said. “He specifically said that, but he said he wanted to…’fine tune’ his heart and body, which when he kept talking was just him sounding like a cry baby that Zeke isn't using his full power.” I said honestly. “Am I getting it right so far?” I asked curiously. “Heh, yeah. Sure he told you that without his soul he can’t use his hearts power, which is true, it takes a soul to access one's power, but in his X-blade form all that is passive. Without his heart, his X-blade form is just a big chunk of metal, with it, there’s power behind it. Kexez wants to recreate the event that turned him, Zeke into a living X-blade.” “Alright, so what...he wants to make more of himself? Or does he plan on removing any limiters Zeke would normally have when he becomes whole?” I asked curiously. “He wants more than that. It’s a backup. If he can’t figure out how to break the cap Zeke always uses, he wants to make it so the energy let out is far more potent. Imagine Zeke’s capped one percent of power he lets himself use, can end ten reflections? He wants to make others he can find with Balanced hearts into X-blades like he and Zeke, then, store them inside his heart. While power wise they’d be equal, Zeke’s heart is the oldest compared to whoever's he turns. He’s take them in, their body stuck as a X-blade and heart bound with his own. He doesn't want to just break Zeke’s cap he wants to make any restrictions he puts on himself pointless.” “Alrighty then.” I said with a nod. “I mean, Zeke getting full power was gonna happen anyway, that’s just how our stories go ya know? But yeah I don’t entirely want that to happen...actually wait, the Master of Masters will keep Kexez in check with that shit considering he’s a bastard who destroyed Daybreak because he’s scared of the X-blade.” I brought up, knowing full damn well that lingering bastard would do something against Kexez. “He can try, but he lacks his heart and body. Even with the Void Key keyblade there’s little he can do. Besides, Kexes has him on his list, he’ll meet a worse fate.” “Oh, so Kexez didn’t like the fact that guy blew up his home and nearly killed his family?” I asked curiously. “Well...makes sense, he may not have emotions at the time but he still has the memories of his family.” I shrugged. “Heh, that’s not why. Remember, Kexez has a machine, a Keyblade that holds within it a whole other reflection, and he can extract whatever he wants from it, items, people… Hearts and bodies. This list of his is people he plans on changing. He knows who is a perfect candidate, and who would just be some extra filler. You best keep an eye on everyone. He won’t stop at just one each, he’ll take all their reflections.” “Well shit…” I muttered. “Well, I better go find the bastard before he does something stupid in my world...cause if he targets my family...oh he’ll understand what true pain is.” I growled. “But...that won’t be for a little while...come on, let’s get you to a doctor.” I said while carefully picking up my clone. “No need for you to die when you still need a decent life to live ya know?” I said while opening a DTN back home. “Or are you going to try and fight me?” “I wouldn’t do that if I were you. Besides, I killed so many on your world already. Why help?” “You know me.” I said while looking down at him, my Psychopath other saw my eyes turn into both the black and red Psychopath and Blue and Gold eye of Humanity. “Everyone deserves a second chance, and I promised to figure out a way to save Psychopaths from their pain...if you can’t stop Facts from existing without taking a few million years, might as well make them more coherent and less omnicidal ya know?” I brought up. “Besides...you said you have a girlfriend right? Would you want to live a happy life with her, without anymore bloodshed?” I asked, even if he wasn’t me fully I knew myself well enough sooner or later I’d rather just stop fighting and raise a family with the one I loved. “Psst. Whatever. Don’t have that much of a choice either way, I go where that book goes.” I chuckled while holding the book as well as my reflection. “Yeah yeah, keep acting all tough.” I said while entering the DTN. “You’ll get your better life...I promise.” I said honestly. “And...you said you had a Ventral as a girlfriend correct?” “Yup. My sexy little sociopath.” While my reflection was recovering in the ER, I was going over some reports about Daybreak trying to contact us. Makes sense given my relations with Zeke… then my bathroom mirror rang like skype asking me to answer… “What is this Spaceballs?” I muttered while making sure I was decent and answering the call from my bathroom mirror. “Hello?” It answered and Lord Mors appeared. “Hey Howdy! Long time no see Ben. Was hoping this would work.” “Sup Mors, how you doing?” I asked curiously. “Hope everything’s been going well where your at.” “Well everything is calming down from the Daybreak Incident. Thankfully the amount of world’s in our unity made sure there was plenty of options for the refugees.” “That’s good.” I nodded. “And I suppose you heard the news about me being King?” I asked, wondering if word traveled to other reflections about thing really big thing. “Yes. Quite good for you indeed. I’d throw you a party but, well I seem to be a bit of a pickle.” “Ancient bad guy was summoned or something?” I asked, remembering some things about Soul Eater. “No, nothing of the sort. You know how my soul is bound to the city and because of that I am unable to leave it?” “Yes I do.” I nodded. “I have a feeling my powers are involved in this cause Nothingness is about the body and soul?” I asked curiously. “Yes, well, I am afraid it might be a lit late for that. You see, I believe our common enemy Kexez has, how to say, stolen all of Death City. He made sure there was enough time to evacuate others…. But know I could not. I am unsure of what he wants me for, but I just wanted to inform you. I need you to inform Zeke of this development. I gave Leon charge of Daybreak in my absence but-” There was a loud bang. “Welp, I’m out of time. Hope I see you later Ben.” The call ended, and I was looking at my own reflection. I opened up a DTN and a Clone of mine rushed through it to try and save Mors from Kexez while pulled out my Lexicon. “Greater Communication, call Zeke.” I said, my lexicon glowing as it used Nothingness to try and contact Zeke mentally. “Please let this work…” I muttered, hearing the ring. My clone exited the DTN and when I arrived in the Realm of Darkness… Core’s castle was gone? Wait, wha? All and any signs of anything that was Core’s or Kexez… is gone? “I have several problems with what I’m not seeing.” My clone said. “This isn’t right...where the fuck is everything?” My clone muttered as it summoned Eternal flames to help give my clone a light as it started to search around for any signs of...well anything really. Sadly as the minutes turned to hours… nothing. Aside from Heartless, there was no sign Kexez or Core’s stuff was ever here. What happened? “Okay, can someone with an actual brain come out and tell me what the fuck happened?” I called out in the vast Darkness. “I know someone’s here watching me, so mind telling me what’s going on?” “They relocated.” I turned around, a Nancy clone was there, the number 598 on her right hand. “Someplace inaccessible to anyone other than Kexez. He knew you and others would come try and save those he’d be taking, he’s no fool.” “Cause why fucking not.” I grumbled. “Great, is there anything else you need to tell me?” I asked curiously. “Like how many Kexez has already kidnapped?” “Now that, heh, you’ll have to find out for yourself.” I took a deep breath. “Give Kexez a warning from me, if he dares do this again to any of my people, my friends, or my family, I will make him wish he never left the shadows.” I growled. “Heheheheh. He knew you’d say that. He said not to fret, there are only twenty people he is after. And their reflections of course. Counting Mors as an addition, he now has two so far.” “Good to know.” I nodded. “But let me ask...you and your family of clones...I suppose you are all perfectly happy fighting still? None of you ever wanted to have a normal life?” I asked curiously, not knowing much about the whole clone thing on their side. “Hehehe. We are not like our original versions. We are stronger, faster, and more lethal. We have no ties to the emotions of guilt, sadness or worry you lot have. We are made to fight, and that is what we will always do. Fight until we die. It’s as simple as that. We were built strong, but also expendable.” “So your only dolls for others to puppet?” I asked. “If you see us like so, yes.” “Of course…cause why not.” I said bitterly. “Well good to know all of this...things only keep getting worse.” “They always do.” The clone Nancy said, vanishing into a DTD opening under her. “Crap…” I muttered. “Good going me...and here I was hoping it would...wait, no I think I know a thing.” I said while pulling out Skysplitter. “Wait...no, I was told he had that Matrix Keybalde...fucking bullshit.” I frowned while putting that away. “Well...should I go back to seeing new abilities...or hunt down the eighteen to ninteen people he needs and stop him?” Back home I kept watch over the world from the tallest tower. Who could these other people be? “He needs people of pure heart…” I muttered, thinking about all the people I would know and could think of that had it. “Tempest can’t cause all her darkness was taken away...Ventus can’t cause of some things…” I muttered, having told Zeke about the situation and well… “... Oh for FUCKS SAKE!!!!!!!!!!!!” He took it about as well as anyone would. “God damn it…” Sighing, I know Kexez would need people with balanced hearts. Thinking it over who has… wait, Trixie has one, the one Zeke is borrowing her body from… does that mean... “Fuck.” I muttered while sending a clone to where Zeke is to try and keep Kexez from fucking with her. “Okay….he can’t touch my Trixie cause she’s apart of my council, her heart isn’t balanced with light and dark to be forced into a Keyblade…” I muttered, thinking faster and faster about what people that could be targeted. “Shit...shit...um...the Master of Masters is somehow on that list...which doesn’t make sense cause he doesn’t have a heart or body and most of his reflections should be dead…” I then Remembered his Matrix Keyblade… that’s how he knew and why he’s on the list. Shit, he can just make them like a factory pumping out...something, fuck! “Fuck…” I groaned. “So I can’t do anything right now...wonders.” I muttered, really hating this at the moment. “And I wanted to test that new ability with Skysplitter...I really wanted to use that, that one’s cool.” I huffed a little. I ran over to where my Trixie was, she was in her office. Didn’t look like she does much since she was messing with her cards… what does she do? “Oh, Ben… what are you doing here?” “There are several problems going around and...what do you even do?” I asked. “I don’t really know the jobs of my council members...so I’m just wondering.” “Well given my past as a performer I got stuck approving or rejecting public events for the kingdom. So far there hasn’t been much in terms of submissions. So what’s up?” “Huh...you’d think Pinkie would have been hounding you with so much shit…” I said in honest surprise. “But uh...there be a problem.” I said as I explained what Kexez has planned. “Oh… Oh… so, what do we do then?” “Well first up he needs twenty people and all their reflections with balanced hearts, and given Zeke’s reflection of you has such a balanced heart I thought he would be targeting you as well...then there’s just a lot of shit running through my head…” I sighed out, rubbing my temple and not liking not knowing things here. “Well, can you check? See if I am or not?” “Um...I believe so.” I said while using my assistant to check if she had a balanced heart cause I wasn’t sure if I could do that by myself. Checking for Balanced Hearts: For a Keyblade Master to check and see if their ally, student, etc, has such a rare heart, raise your Keyblade to their heart, and say the phrase, ’Who holds onto light, and bathes in dark, who walks the line no others can, whose heart can guard the heart of all worlds Show to me it’s light, and also its shadow’ If they have a Balanced heart, their chest will glow with a bright light, and under them a large shadow will form. “Alrighty then…” I muttered while pulling out No Heart and pointing it at Trixie’s heart. Who holds onto light, and bathes in dark, who walks the line no others can, whose heart can guard the heart of all worlds Show to me it’s light, and also its shadow.” I said, hoping this works. Trixie’s chest glowed bright, and the floor became covered in a shadow. She then covered her chest. “Perv!” “Fuck…” I muttered. “Congrats Trixie, you have a balanced heart.” I said honestly. “And also I literally had to do that for this to work.” “Still feels weird… So, what do I do now then?” “Well...your going to have guards posted around to make sure you won’t get attacked by Kexez.” “Joy… there goes my privacy… Anything else?” “You’ll still have your privacy, I’m not gonna let the guards go that far jeez.” I said. “But...do you have any idea who might also have a balanced heart?” I asked curiously. “I have one, but that doesn’t mean I know everyone who might also have one.” “Any one person would help.” I said. “Anything at all would be the best right now.” “I got nothing…” I sighed out. “Sorry…” I said. “Well...good to know of this...just be careful alright?” “So what are you gonna do Next?” “Either continue testing my new abilities...or try and hunt down Kexez before things get worse…” I sighed out. “God...here I was hoping for a simple day.” “You should take your mind off things. Why not chat with some of your new wives? I know each has a clone of you but take some time for them. Princess Luna made a new garden in the castles garden area.” “I should probably go down there…” I sighed out. “Thanks Trixie.” I said, thinking I should head down to the castle gardens to see how Luna’s garden is doing. “Anytime.” I headed on down. The Castle Garden alone was twice the size of Ponyville, a large open place full of various plant life and even animals to give it a proper ecosystem. Lots of the wives were here, but Luna was by a… river, wow this place is big. She noticed me and looked up. “Hi Ben.” “Hey Luna.” I said. “How you doing?” “Good. I was just planting some Moon Drop Moss. It makes a very good anti infection medicine and tea. Has a mint and cinnamon taste to it.” “That’s good.” I said while sitting down near the river. “How is everyone else?” “Settling in well. So, anything interesting happen?” “I think I screwed up...a lot.” I sighed out. “As per usual…” I sighed out as I explained everything to her, hoping to at least feel better to get this off my chest to someone close. “Hmm, well Kexez definitely has a silver tongue and knows how to get what he needs even from his enemies.” “Or maybe because I'm an idiot…” I sighed out. “Ben, anyone would have fallen for that. He knew where to poke, and he took advantage of your hopes that this whole thing could be resolved quickly.” “I do hope it ends quickly…” I sighed. “Is rather this not continue and cost more lives…” “Well, one day such trifles will end. Maybe not forever, but long enough for the next generations of heros to rise up.” “True.” I said honestly. “Lets just...hope things will end well...and here I hoped for a normal day…” “Well, how about you take a small vacation?” “But I have so much crap to do…” I said. “Also uh...how many kids have I not been around to see born?” I asked, remembering a long time ago all my wives were pregnant. “Sadly, lots.” “Well...better see them all…” I said. “I'm...a bad dad…” “No your not. There’s hundreds born if not more born daily given your, eheh, the families reproduction abilities. You can’t be there for them all.” “I should be there for my kids…” I said honestly. “Even if they are...countless.” “Well, then take a break, spend time with them. Start with the first to arrive then move onto the new additions, then use that crazy app thing on your arm to speak to the infants.” “Alright...I will.” I nodded. “I just...want to be good for my family…” I said. “Be a good dad...be a good husband...even with all my powers...I fear I’m not good enough sometimes given how busy I am half the time.” “Well, clones. It’s your only real upperhand at the moment love.” “Yeah...that is true.” I said honestly. “Clones are a hell of a thing, especially when I have such a big family.” I said while laying down on the ground. “It will be good for you. Why not ask Cript for advice on it? He does the same thing, doesn't he?” “Yeah…” I nodded. “And hey, given we’re talking about him giving me advice he might just suddenly appear out of nowhere.” I said honestly. “While that does sound like him, he has things going on at the moment too, remember? Best not expect that to happen.” “That’s what he said the last four times.” I rolled my eyes. “Maybe I should ask Mom...sure I’m not a mother but it would be good to have some pointers…” “Do as you wish love. We support you either way.” “Thanks.” I said, really wanting answers but knowing I’ll have to find mom. “Alright…time to call mom…” I muttered while checking my Assistant’s contacts list to see if Den was available. Sadly, she wasn’t. So I decided to check to see if any of my other mothers were available just so I could get some advice on being a parent. Thankfully, one was. Her name was Kira. “Well...alright…” I muttered while calling Kira in hopes of getting to her. “Hello?” She picked up. There was no image, just audio. “Hello.” I said. “My names Ben and uh...mind if I get some advice?” I asked, hoping for some advice here. “Ben? Oh, is this Den’s boy?” “Yep.” I nodded. “Current King of Nothingness if that helps.” “Yes, that’s the one. Hang on, I’ll be over.” She hung up… then the castle shook… okay... “Uh...why did the castle shake?” I asked worriedly, standing up and summoning my Lexicon. “Greater Scrying.” I said, a small view portal opening up as I tried to see why my castle just shook. Through it, I saw… A giant… barbarian dressed woman… standing next to the castle. It then got dark over us. I looked up, and there she was. “Hi, Ben, right?” She asked. I blinked. “Uh…” I looked at her wide eyed. “Excuse me but...I’m sorry but how?” I asked, Kira most likely having been asked this before. “Uh...do you...know how to...ya know...shrink down?” I asked nervously, not wanting to be rude but also not wanting her to accidentally break my house. She rolled her eyes, a quick ‘pop’ sound and she was our size. “Seriously, every time.” She sighed. “So, what did you need help with?” “Sorry.” I said while scratching the back of my head. “But uh...I need some advice on...being a good parent.” I said. “Cause having an ass ton of kids is going to be a nightmare for me, even if I have clones.” “Well, what Cript and us all do is clones. Each child gets a pair of their parents, and all the attention, while also I get a clone of him and… well, no explanation needed. He manages that with pocket dimensions.” “Alrighty then.” I said. “Sounds too simple but…” I sighed out. “I don’t feel like I still good be a good parent, especially when I’m as busy as I am right now. I’m told ‘take a break’, but I doubt hero’s can take breaks half the time…” “The pocket dimensions also have a rather fast time setting. Once the kids grow to a certain age in there, for you it can range from a day to a month for them to grow up then at any age, say, thirteen, fifteen, they exit it, and do...whatever it is they want to do. In the family it varies. A good half of the kids go into hero works, others do normal stuff.” “Good thing I don’t know how to make Pocket Dimensions…” I sighed out. ”Now that I think about it, I have yet to learn anything special from being Cript’s son, cause I think you get powers and strengths from that...and I also didn’t get that humanity blade from that deal oh so long ago...oh well.” I thought to myself, knowing it was going to happen sooner or later. “But Pocket Dimensions are helpful apparently.” “Yeah. I’ll get Cript, wait here.” She said, vanishing then Cript appearing. “Dude, never ask her to shrink. She hates being small, well, small by her standards.” “I said I was sorry, and that was literally the first time I met her...or anyone like her.” I said honestly. “But hi, how you doing?” “Well, good. So, Pocket Dimensions, also, here.” Cript said, handing me a glowing silver sword. “Humanity blade. Anyone that can be saved, will be saved.” I grabbed the sword. “Thanks.” I nodded. “So, onto Pocket Dimensions?” I asked while creating myself a sword sheath with my Lexicon and sheathing it and putting it at my side. “Come, let’s find a place to set it up.” Cript said, helping me up and leading the way. “Thanks.” I said while following along. “But...how do you handle all of this? Being a good dad and all...clones and pocket dimensions just help with time mostly.” “Well remember, all your clones you are connected too. Omnipresent. You’re all of them at once, so when you want to, all their experiences with them are yours also.” “That saves me an ass load of time but...actually being a father is a whole different thing.” I said honestly. “I know I’m going to literally have all the time in the world but…” I trailed off, my ears flattening against my head in fear that I won’t be a good father to my kids. “Just...new to it all.” “No one is perfect Ben, there’s no such thing as the perfect parents, just so long as the kids grow up happy and grow up respecting you, it will all work out “I’d rather be alive to raise my kids…” I muttered, remembering my parents murders, but thankfully they were living happy lives after they were resurrected in my kingdom, still get postcards from their travels given how much money I gave them. “I just...want to be a good father to them all...even if I have a few million kids…” “Then time to teach you some things that will help you out a crap ton. Good?” “Please.” I said. “I’d really like to know.” “Great. First off, time to deal with your family needs. Ah, here we are.” Cript said, stopping at a large empty section of wall in the hallway. He placed a hand to it, and a doorway of swirling greys and whites began to form. “This part will take a bit.” Cript ended up creating a pocket dimension as the Nursery. Inside the girls could take the kids, and become sorta… well, hard to explain. Basically once they enter, each entered their own reality of their world, where they and their infant will raise them with a clone of me, then when the kids turns eighteen, they and the moms leave the pocket reality, where time is different in there. One year in there is an hour in reality, so in less than a day the kids are grown, and the clones send the kids full lives growing up from the clones perspective, all the combined experience compiled in my head. The initial effect gave me a headache, but I got used to it pretty quickly thankfully. “As long as I’m there for them…” I muttered with a warm smile. “Hashtag life hack.” Cript said simply, all the memories are mine. Flowing into me… such, precious memories. “Now, for your wives, because they have needs and while you got clones in the pocket reality you need them here. This is gonna hurt.” Two hours later. ...Ouch…”But...why though?” I groaned in pain. “As you know your Starfish cloning ability takes your own body parts, or some form of DNA to generate a copy. I made one for each of your wives, as well as made fifteen extra. Can you guess what these fifteen extra are for?” “Um...no idea…” I said. “What are they for?” I asked, having some idea’s but not sure. “Another life hack, of mine personally. While you are strong, there is no doubt about that, but you lack true skills in combat. Thirteen of your clones will each train endlessly with one of each of your weapons til your skills with them surpass any of their past wielders of the old king. The fourteenth will practice endlessly with special combat attacks, both known to you from when you saw Reality as fiction and a video game, and the fifteenth spells. You, will work with me one on one. This method will train you the fastest way possible while you are also with your family, there for your children, and satisfying your wives. I also included another clone who will do your duties as king. This way, you are everywhere at once and there is nothing left to chance.” “And what about True Nothingness?” I asked curiously. “That is what I will be helping you with. You’ve already tapped into it, but physically you literally killed yourself with it. I’m not gonna stand and tell you I know everything about it, cause frankly little is known about Nothingness in general, and anything that is known are in the old kings notes yet another copy is reading over. Four actually. There are a lot of those notes…” “Yeah, I tested a few of them but sadly I didn’t get to all of them.” I said honestly. “There’s still an ass ton of things I have yet to do with all my new found powers.” I brought up. “But glad for all the training cause...I’m gonna need it.” “Yes. What I will be teaching you is how to handle such energies slowly, working your body gradually.” “Alright.” I nodded. “So...where to start with this new training?” “First off, for these exercises you can’t use any weapons. Understood?” “Makes sense.” I said honestly. “Need to have my body know it without using any catalysts right?” “Exactly. While Catalysts such as your Weapons, Keyblades included, are helpful, in the long run they actually suppress your energy more by limiting the flow you can let out.” “Makes sense.” I said honestly. “Catalysts can only go so far for moving energy and such.” “Exactly. Growing up my teachers explained there is no better catalyst for energy than your own body, because it’s adaptable and have more if not the most focal points for the energy to be used and utilized in unique ways. Now then, you first need to know exactly how this energy acts within you, and along what pathways within the body it travels.” “Yes, cause I’d rather not blow up for instance.” I said honestly. “Correct. There are five basic ways energy travels inside the body when under your control. First and most commonly, is along the Nervous system. Traveling through all your receptors and such. Second and more rare, is through your blood veins, arguably the strongest means for the energy to travel as even is you lose a limb you can use the energy flowing through your blood to either reattach, regrow, or even create a new limb out of the energy. Third is with your muscle fibers, this means of energy typically means your energy is used in your body more physically, such as enhanced strength and agility. Fourth is along your bone structure. The most straightforward as the energy dense your bones so they can’t break, at least easily, and it can exit easy, through your fingertips for example. Fifth and the hardest to control on any level is that the energy is a mix of the four, traveling through all of these pathways but not all at once, it would be constantly shifting about.between them, so one outburst of energy can and will be different from the last one.” “Alrighty then...that’s a lot of things.” I blinked at that. “Yes, given you seem to have a more higher form of control, and from how your unique double jump ability works I’d give a safe bet your energy travels along your bones.” “So...my power goes through my bones…” I said, thinking about how this works and wondering if I could do something like what Luffy’s Gear forms can do. “Yes, it’s safe to say that since your Double jump ability also has a unique AoE effect, such an ability would actually fall under the category of attack or offensive power, and normally it would require focus, but when you use it, it’s passive. Such attacks and abilities come natural for those who’s energy travels along their bone structure.” “Cool.” I said. “But here’s a curious question, I remember Luffy was able to do fancy things with his blood, bones and muscle, ‘switching gears’ as he put it, can that principle be used for this stuff as well?” “Not likely, not unless your energy can naturally switch between the means of flow. Gaining control of where and when your energy can switch can lead to such possibilities. Since you don’t have that luxury, the runes I sewed into your body will give you some extra leverage.” “Yes, and I am still thankful I found a rune that makes me immune to stop effects.” I said while pulling off my left glove and showing said rune was on the back of my hand. “That will come in handy. Now then, you need to know something off the bat. You can’t just use certain parts of your body to have the switch on for their power, you’ll end up breaking your own body. The right means of learning how to measure how much of this energy you use is to have the energy flow into all of your body at once, but not at such a large percentage. You, for now, will need to learn to cap your power so you don’t injure yourself, or have a repeat of your last incident. Try turning the power on, but keep it at say, two percent for now.” “Alrighty then…” I said while taking a deep breath, closing my eyes and doing something that helps a lot, visualizing things instead of just trying to think of a number. I felt my power swelling up but I visualized it all as a single cup that was being drip fed water, and at the moment it felt like it was working, the power slowly rising at an even pace as I focused on controlling my new powers. “Alright...so far...so good…” I muttered carefully, feeling my power flow through my body as I kept my visualization to keep it under control. “This good?” “Yes. Now, raise it steadily until it begins to burn. Once you feel the power in you begin to burn you, then you know your limit. For now at least.” “Alright…” I said while visualizing the slow drip to a small trickle, letting it flow a little faster as I saw it fill the cup a little faster as I waited to see where my limit was. “Slow and Steady…” Everything seemed fine as I let the power grow, then I began to feel the burning. I stopped, lowering it back to a safe spot where the burning stopped. “Good, that is about sixteen percent.” Cript said. “Cool...sixteen percent...wonder how strong that actually is.” I said honestly. “One way to find out.” Cript said, raising his hand up as four pillars of various metals appeared near us, like, ten or so feet away. “Each pillar is various pure metals. I need you to shoot out a single Nothingness thorn from your fingertip to them. They are already in order from weakest to strongest. When you hit one that doesn’t dent, then we’ll know how strong you are.” “Alright…” I said while raising a hand up and firing a Nothingness Thorn at the weakest just to test things out. It hit, and the metal was ripped like wet paper. “Good. That was pure copper. Next onto bronze.” “Okay…” I muttered while firing another Thorn at the solid bronze pillar. Like the copper, shredded like paper. “Good. Next is Iron.” “Right.” I said while doing the same thing, wondering why I was attacking what is normally pretty flimsy compared to all the metals that we all have access to now a days, the thorn shooting out towards the iron pillar. Again, like paper. “Good. Now try steel.” “Okay...so we’re only doing normal metals…” I said while firing at the steel pillar. “Basic metals. Metals you knew of on earth, common, easily acquired. On your earth at least. I decided to start with metals you know, after Titanium, you’ll be entering metals commonly known on my earth.” “Makes sense.” I said while seeing the Thorn hit the steel pillar. Again, like Paper, same with Titanium. I now was facing a metal that I didn’t know what it was. “This is Calsifitrote. When at its melting point, it’s easily moldable, but it’s cooled off form makes it a very strong metal, typically we use this for Spaceship frames and even as high quality artificial joints and even bones since it’s not toxic to the human or most organic bodies.” “Cool.” I said, thinking it might be a bit tough to break since it’s used for spaceship frames as I fired a thorn at the thing. The metal tore, but not easy like the others. “Good, now onto Girosilphio. It’s the little brother of Vibranium. Easy to absorb energy, and makes good utility as a conducting adjent. It’s cheaper than Vibranium too so it’s used for riot gear and suppressors since it makes the sound near mute for even large calibers.” “That sounds wonderful.” I said while firing at it as well, thinking this metal can withstand my attack. The impact created a big explosion, but the result was rather than being ripped up, the whole thing was warped. “Impressive. Now onto Kelo Tridote. It’s a mixed metal blend of High grade Carbon Steel, Diamond and Vibranium. We use this metal to make shelters in the event of large scale atomic war, spaceship evacuations, and as the drills for large scale mining of hard to mine materials or as a means of quick mining since it can dig through most any materials.” “Um...an explosion caused it to warp like that...right then.” I said while firing at the new material that was really useful. “Yes.” Cript said as I hit the new metal. The result was another blast, but it only dented it. “Good. Given that info you likely can’t dent the next one. This means you're attacks are equal to the impact force of a nuclear warhead going off, but compressed into single shots. Not too shabby.” “Yeah, but having all that force put into such a small area is probably a lot worse then you say it is.” I said honestly. “Not as long as you keep a good control over it, you can keep the force but make it a lot less lethal by only using the force at a means of propulsion rather than for impact. For your training, you’ll have to get so used to the energy you have now that it becomes passive to you. Meaning you’ll have to use even higher levels of your energy. The best and fastest means to do that is non stop combat. I’ll be sending high level shadow creatures your way that should be around your strength so it won’t be too easy on you. And remember, no weapons. Find more unique and creative means other than just the Thorns to attack and defend. Understand?” “Oh wonders.” I rolled my eyes. “But yeah, I understand.” “Good. Now good luck, and remember, none of your weapons.” Back home, I was at the throne, looking over paperwork stuff when something came up. Something for Aperture sciences… isn’t that from Portal? It was a request to show off their portal gun to me… huh. “Um...sure why not.” I said honestly. “Didn’t expect Aperture to come up…” I muttered. “I presume we have a visitor because of this?” I asked Consequence while bringing up the Portal gun paper. “We have many, but this is the first to send in a form.” He replied. “Alrighty then.” I said honestly while reading the paper to see if there was anything else besides ‘test portal gun’. From how the paper was phrased it seemed to me marketing the device… huh, would come in handy I guess. I had Consequence bring whoever it was in, and they entered. Those two Robots from Portal two entered, one with the Portal gun, the other with a Screen showing… Glados? “Greetings.” Glados said. “Greetings.” I nodded. “How may I help you today?” “I am here to demonstrate the Aperture Science Portal Gun for use in your armies, or even construction.” “That would be useful. No iffy lifts.” Trixie said. My council was here mainly for advice and to help process the endless paperwork. “That is true.” I said. “Is there any known issues with said gun?” I asked curiously. “A few. Water causes the device to short circuit, and the portals it creates must be on a still, unmoving surface. Any movement will disrupt the portal. While there are exceptions, such as the surface material, it all depends on the stability the portal has on the surface it is opened on.” “Is there anyway to fix those pretty glaring issues?” I asked curiously. “With time and funding definitely. Would you care for a demonstration? One portal was left open at the Aperture science labs cafeteria, where when we open the new portal here, will link the two, even through the dimensions.” “Any objections?” I asked curiously to my council just before I say something. “Sounds useful. And a means of transport between this realm and others other than DTN’s would be useful.” Dante said. “Yeah, and the uses are pretty multi.” Trixie added. “Then we will begin.” Glados said, the robot with the device pointing it at the nearby wall and fiering, the blue one opening, showing a kitchen filled with cake. “Please. Have some.” Glados said. “Dibs!” Trixie said, rushing over to the portal. When she entered it, the portal closed, and the portal gun vanprized to burned metals and scrap. “That was easier than Kexez expected.” Glados spoke, sparking some anger in me. “Excuse me but mind if I ask what you did, and why I shouldn’t rip you apart piece by shittily made piece?” I growled. “These bots are expendable, and I am safe and sound in Kexez’s new lab. He needs that reflection to complete his work. It’s nothing personal, just, a mutual partnership between us. He did want to tell you something however. He wanted to say ‘Not even your realm is safe.’ Already he is taking the other here on your world that has the proper heart. What? Did you think Trixie was the only one?” I magically pulled out a Script and flipped to the proper page. “Oh, so Kexez can do literally whatever he wants without challenge and we can’t touch him at all because bullshit pocket dimensions?” I asked. “Well goody for him, if he wanted to tell me I couldn’t do anything to stop him why didn’t he just say so in the first place, at least then I wouldn’t be absolutely fucking livid about it.” “Cause he knew you’d capture him. It’s all about mental strength now, like chess.” “There’s a difference here.” I said honestly. “The difference being chess can actually have someone be challenged, this is going over the line of Fuck About at this point.” I frowned, having a lot of clones of mine looking for the person Kexez might kidnap here so I can stop him from getting closer to his goal. “Is it? It all varies on how far ahead you prepare compared to your opponent? Tell me, King of Nothing, how far ahead are you of-” The sentence was interrupted by Luxu smashing the screen and bots. “That was getting on my nerves.” Luxu grunted. “Ben, the enemy just gloated before you, in your own realm, in your own castle. Shall I make a suggestion?” “Find them and torture them for their insolence?” I took a wild guess. “No. More strategic. We are already going into a Keyblade war… Let’s begin preparing for it, faster, and with extreme prejudice. The next time Kexez shows his face, we’ll be ready. Just tell me, do you want him captured, or killed?” I sighed out. “The main problem is that if Kexez dies I don’t know what’ll happen to Zeke’s Spirit and all that crap…” I said, still hating that little tidbit of unknown. “Capture, cause I don’t want to damn his Soul, but I will personally find the breaking point on the X-blade’s Durability.” I growled. “Now...onto the how here, cause we’ve got the why.” “So what’s our first move then?” Vergil asked. “Well Glados oh so happily told us Kexez is either preparing or moving out to hunt for one of my citizens, which I sent out clones of me to search for as fast as possible.” I said while thinking for a moment. “Do I have any suggestions on how to start?” I asked curiously, trying to come up with anything to help and hoping the others had any ideas. “It might be risky but we should warn them.” Zuko spoke up. “While it might cause chaos, or worry, it’s better than them discovering we are hiding this information from them, leading to distrust in you and us as their leaders.” “That’s a start, get the people to help out in the search.” I said honestly. “Anything else?” I asked, looking at the others for help. “Posters.” Kat said. “We know what Kexez looks like and we know no normal Heartless can enter this realm, it might be possible to have the people and social media help identify any abnormal Nobodies or people acting strangely. After all Kexez sent Robots here, so it’s safe to assume he is either sending another or has already sent someone here to search for this other person. Putting up informational posters both in the streets and in social media will give citizens the information needed to identify anything suspicious.” I nodded. “Alright, welI better get the presses on that…” I muttered while still thinking of what to do. “We’ve got the people…” I hummed, knowing the people are one of my strongest allies here but still thinking of someway to beat him at his own game. “It might be extreme, but what about a full kingdom wide curfew? It would limit the nightly activities and therefore give us better chance at discovering who this rat is when they move to acquire their target.” Vergil voiced. “Might cause a bit of a stir but I’m sure people would understand when there’s a bad guy hunting down people…” I muttered. “But what will we do in the meantime while the people are acting as our eyes and ears?” I asked curiously. “Ready the troops.” Rogers said. “Keep them in the streets, even as patrols it will give the people a means of security, the enemy a leash, and a force to act when the enemy does. All in all we will have the streets covered. We should also keep one or two aboard plains and other travel systems as a precaution. Can’t give the enemy any wiggle room.” “Better make the patrols unpredictable, cause if they learn the routines then they have time in between to strike.” I brought up, scratching my chin in thought of what else to do. “That would mainly leave figuring out just who this target is and where they are.” Zuko spoke. “We can’t go one by one testing the citizens for who this person might be, even if we do find one, it might not be exactly who they are looking for.” “They are looking for twenty people…” I muttered, thinking for a moment. “There has to be another way to see who has a balanced heart…” I muttered, pulling out my X-blade and using my Assistant to see if it could let it talk. “Alright, can you talk?” I asked, hoping my Assistant could work in helping keyblades talk considering they all have their own personality. “The Assistant can do many things...please let one of them be letting a Keyblade talk…” Sadly that didn’t work. “Let me try.” Luxu said, walking up to me. “Speaking with a Keyblade normally requires years of practice and a clear, calmed mind. I might have a means to bypass it for you though.” “Please.” I said. “I’d really like to know...cause I’m pretty sure at least one of my keyblades is annoyed I haven’t been hearing them.” I said honestly. “Alright. This will sting though.” Luxu said, touching my X-blade and from it’s Keychain a string of light grew. He then too the the other end and jabbed me in the chest… ouch… “There, you should be able to hear him now, though, hurry, this won’t last too long. Ten minutes at most.” “Alright…” I muttered. “Can you hear me?” I asked my No heart, hoping this worked. Yes, and for once you can hear me. Spoke a voice almost exactly like mine, only… older, more mature. “Sorry, don't know much about this to begin with.” I said. “So, given your an X-blade, is there any other way to know who has a balanced heart besides saying the magic words?” I asked curiously. Well, being I am a Keyblade of Nothingness I can’t actually feel the hearts… but I can feel the body, and in the few times we were near Kexez, I got a pretty good feel of how his is, and I can find one similar. “Excellent.” I nodded. “Feel any close by?” I asked curiously. Define close. It’s a she, and she is way off out in the edge of Equestria’s borders. “Close enough.” I said while summoning Foudre, knowing the speed boost will help a lot. “Question, how can I talk to you without forcing it like this?” I asked curiously. “And the other Keyblades?” Well aside from turning into what your pal Zeke is, meditation. Lots of meditation. “Oh goody.” I muttered. “But...Question, what happened to Zeke's Trixie? Cause I have a...bad feeling about that.” She’s like Zeke now. A living X-blade. “Fuck.” I muttered while getting up from my throne. “Well...better get going before Kexez manages to get to her.” I said while casting Haste on myself to increase my speed. “Anything you want to talk about before I run off?” Not that much at the moment. “Alrighty then.” I said while lightning arced off of me. ‘Well, let’s get going before Kexez gets there.” I said, vanishing from pure speed as I bolted towards where No-Heart told me where the person was. “Let’s hope I’m not too late…” As I arrived I found myself in… a rather strange village… everyone here had smiles that were just...creepy. “Okay…” I started. “Who’s the mayor of this town?” I asked. I was lead to a mare named Starlight Glimmer. No Heart informing me that this was the pony in question before whatever Luxu did wore off. “Welcome, what does our little town owe the honor to the worlds new king?” “Well a few things.” I said. “First of them would be what did you do to the people?” I asked curiously. “Why, what do you mean?” “The creepy, fake as fuck smiles, the slight grey discoloration on everyone but you, and the sense that people don’t have their actual cutie marks.” I said honestly, seeing a whole lot of equal signs on people’s shirts for some reason. “Oh that, well it’s just the town policy. If you want to live and experience True Friendship, then taking away those pesky Cutie marks is the way to go about it.” “So take away individuality for false friendship right?” I asked curiously. “Let me just start with how that doesn’t work.” I said. “Or should I start asking if there’s some underlying problem you aren’t willing to face?” Over the next few hours I chewed this crazy mare a new one, then when she actually tried to attack and escape I knocked her out. I managed to find where she had everyone's Cutie marks and returned them. After that, I had her tossed into a dungeon cell. “Yeah, that’s not going to happen.” I frowned. “And what’s funny is that she could have just told me what was bothering her mid way through my rant.” I said honestly. “But...when she wakes up I better explain things to her...before she tries to do something stupid.” It would be a while before she wakes up so I headed back out to oversee some things. “Fucking hell!” The guard yelled, throwing a younger man into a cell. “You’re a real piece of work ya freak.” He said, leaving. “...heh. Well that was easy.” He said, getting up. “Now then, this is D-6. My target is in D-18. Even’s are on the side I’m on already… might as well do a little spring cleaning for the guards.” He said, placing his hands against the stone walls and the stone itself began rotting. “Such a bizarre case.” Consequence said aloud. “What is that?” I asked curiously. “I believe it’s one of the new prisoners?” I asked curiously. “Yes, taken into the castle dungeon just a few hours ago. A tourist it seems, out of the blue began breaking peoples arms and nearly killing them. No cause for such an event according to witnesses and victims, he just began doing so.” “How has he been injuring the people?” I asked, having a bad feeling that I just allowed someone in to hunt for someone. “Standard cracks and fractures, though there is one case where when he grabbed the victim paramedics reported it was almost as if the victims arm began to rot in the shape of the attackers hand grip.” “And was his jail cell rot proof?” I asked. “It is stone and steel… do those rot?” I looked at him. “Where...where’s the dungeons?” I sighed out. “B-below the castle. Floor D cell 6.” “Thank you.” I said while teleporting down to the specific cell given this was my domain and my castle. “Excuse me.” I called out in the dungeon. “I presume you're trying to break out with someone here?” I asked curiously, looking around the place for the bastard. The cell was empty, cells 6, 8, 10, 12,14, 16… and 18, Starlights, were broken into. The stone cracked and like sand breaking apart. “Cause apparently Kexez can only go unopposed against me for some reason.” I frowned. “He either goes completely unopposed because bullshit, or he loses everything against me...fucking wonders.” I rolled my eyes, finding it a lot more annoying that I have a bad guy that can only go unopposed or else things for him fall apart. Kexez has allies, allies that he can use to negate his own weaknesses and shortcomings… Fucking hell… I later found out the guys name was Tomura Shigaraki, a villain from another world who can decay anything he touches… figures. I sent more guards and began working on stronger security for this to never happen again... “I might need to head to that person's world just to make sure of some things…” I muttered. “Plus I still need to find a replacement for Trixie cause fuck hard work.” I rolled my eyes. “Fucking hell...not to mention I still have yet to train with all the new things and see what else Nothingness can do…” I took a deep breath. “Can I just get a fucking break for once?” I sighed out while pinching the bridge of my nose. The days passed. I was taking a break from it all for a while before needing to get back to it. After just enjoying the gardens No Heart summoned itself in my hand. “Yes?” I asked my No Heart. “What do you need No Heart?” It… actually pulled me. It PULLED me up right, and opened a DTN before me. “Alright alright fine.” I said. “Better than just doing nothing…” I muttered while entering the DTN. To be continued... Shit happensFrom the dull light of the DTN Ben emerged, and upon exiting into the rain, saw two things, Zeke, or was it Cript? The clothes were like Cript’s but it was Zeke’s face and hair color, and next to him, Kexez. The current bane of Ben’s existence. “And why the fuck is he here?” Ben asked while pointing to Kexez. “Cause I’d like to know before breaking him.” Ben growled. “Ben…” Zeke started. Ben noticed how Zeke was looking. Something he’d seen in himself before often, but never in Zeke. Broken. “I’m done.” “And why are you just suddenly giving up?” Ben asked with a frown. “Ben, I couldn’t stop him from taking two people! He’s already fused all of the Trixie’s together! Not even Eclipse wants to help! He called basically called defying this a lost cause! Eclipse said this! All I’ve wanted for as long as I can remember is to be normal, be unimportant… but look. My own BODY is fucking against me in this…” “Wouldn’t you be considered normal though?” Ben asked. “I mean, when you look at it our little group are all really stupid powerful.” He brought up. “I remember Syndrome’s words from the The Incredibles, and I quote ‘If everyone’s Super, No one is’.” Ben said. “So...wouldn’t that same thing apply here?” “Ben, not even you can do what I’m now having to hold more so back. Eight percent… Eight FUCKING percent, and that’s enough to erase multiple realities… Is that normal?” “Honestly?” Ben asked. “Yes. Yes it is. Also I haven’t fully explored Nothingness, not even close so that point is mute at this time. Also do you have any idea what fictional writing has made? I mean, you saying an arbitrary number can blow up multiple realities...that’s just normal when you think about it.” Ben explained. “Come on, I want you to name at least five characters from any source material that could destroy multiple realities without much effort, I’m pretty sure there are plenty.” Ben said honestly. “Can you?” Zeke asked. “Look… I’m done trying to defy this…” “Actually your being here does come of convenience.” Kexez spoke. “To start with Zeke, Dark Phoenix, a literal universal constant given physical form, The Presence which is literally DC universes God, I would say Superman but there are like dozens of variations on him, The Beyonders which are stupidly strong in the Marvel Universe and could easily destroy realities, and lastly, I can bring up either Deadpool or Batman because the both of them don’t have stupidly insane powers but they’ve destroyed universes.” Ben explained. “So there you go, and what do you want Kexez? Want to go more unopposed to piss me and a bunch of readers off or no?” “Hehe. Since when were you a fourth wall breaker? Heh. No, you see, in order for what comes next to be complete, we require someone's missing soul, and I understand you have a grim reaper in your group.” “Yes, not to mention I own the place you originally came out of.” Ben said to Kexez. “And when did I become a fourth wall breaker? When did your story become nothing but unopposed bullshit?” Ben frowned. “Even you must know this is getting retarded right?” “To a degree I suppose. So, what do you say? Once this is over, it’s just Zeke, the twenty so people who will be fused into him, and I will fade back to brain waves and nerve endings. So, want to put an end to me, this is your chance.” “I want to know what the hell is going to happen to my Trixie, since there’s the ever so small detail of she’s apart of my council and I lost one not a month in of my reign.” Ben frowned. “Seriously, do I just have to find a replacement now or what?” “Oh she’s still in there. It’s just a bit of a mess in that head of hers at the moment. She’ll awaken or find her way out in time, as for her job, well, not sure how you’ll pull that off.” Ben groaned and rubbed his temple. “If it’ll get this nightmare done with…” I grumbled. “Grell! Get out here.” Ben barked. Emerging from a DTN…extremely seductively, came the Reaper. “Why yes boss?” “Please...don’t do that again.” Ben said slowly. “But I need you to find a Trixie’s soul.” Ben said. “If you need details ask them.” I said while motioning to Zeke and Kexez. “Hm, Trixie… that Show Pony mare in the council, a reflection of hers no doubt. I’ll see what I can do.” He said, vanishing. About nine minutes later, he returned, rather beaten. “Crap. Did not expect it to be inside that curse reality. Well, here you go.” Grell said, handing Trixie’s soul over to Kexez then leaving. “Perfect.” Kexez said, a DTD opening next to him. “Come on Zeke, we have work to do. You wanna come Ben? I imagine you’ll enjoy seeing my end.” “You have no fucking clue.” Ben said. “But I’ll tag along to see what the hell happens.” The wolf said as he followed after the two. When they exited Ben noticed they were on a gummi ship, which to a degree made sense but the scale of this one was massive. He followed them into a room where nineteen different X-blades… nineteen different whole reflections worth of the same person fused into a single being and X-blade were resting. One spot was empty in this pattern, and then the center. “Okay, so first, we get you back inside your rightful body, aka, me, then just placed Trixie on the empty outer space, and stand in the center holding the X-blade. After that the remaining Embodiments, Eve included will appear here for their final fight, make it good for them, or make it quick, your call.” Kexez explained. “Sure.” Zeke said, emotionless. “So let me get this straight...you first need to become whole...then you can skip literally everything else after that?” Ben asked. “So you can literally skip parts of the problem here and make the problem a non issue anymore?” “The Embodiments can be and are to be dealt with today and here. Their Darkness must be set free to become whole with Kingdom Hearts, once Zeke takes in all this power, they will rush to him, and Zeke will become the long lost Admin of this Reflection, he will still be himself, but that title and rank will be his, as well as the power to back it up. Come the war, it’s just Spoiled and the clones and other experiments you’ll be dealing with. So take this as good, cause the primary threats will be gone, making this second Keyblade war more of simple fight for you all.” Kexez said. “But you just made the worlds biggest loophole here.” Ben said. “You are doing this on faith Zeke will continue to do what you planned, when he can just as easily say ‘fuck this, I’m out’ and completely ignore what you had all planned out.” The wolf explained. “And Zeke, are you telling me when Kexez literally gave you the worlds biggest out on getting power, your not going to take that out?” “I’ll use it.” Zeke said. “Kexez made one thing clear, when I fight for myself… I lose, and look where we are now… when I fight for others, I win. I’ll fight when or if I need to intervene… but I won’t use this power all the time.” “Then don’t take the power for your family, your friends. I know we all couldn’t give a single ounce of deep fried shit about how strong you are, but would you really want to have so much power you can barely be with them to begin with?” Ben asked. “Ben… How long has it been, on Daybreak, compared to your world?” “What do you mean?” Ben asked curiously. “The time. How long have you been on your world in your reflection compared to mine?” “Only a year.” Ben said honestly. “I have done both so much, and oh so little in only a year.” Ben said. “Only a year, huh?” Zeke sighed. “It’s been three on Daybreak.” Zeke said coldly. “In that time, I haven’t aged, and the infants, they're barely a year Physically. I and my kids are Keyblades Ben, the kids half. I don’t age… my kids, while they age, it’s slower. I was gonna outlive them all either way…” “So am I, and none of my kids are keyblades.” Ben said. “I’m the King of a universal constant, I’m basically immortal at this point. And even though I’m supposed to be like twenty normally I’m physically thirty years old because of that fucker.” Ben pointed at Kexez. “Not to mention I have millions of children, all of which I spent eighteen years of their lives because magic is just oh so wonderful. Age...it means literally nothing at this point. It’s fine to mourn for the deaths of those you’ll outlive, but does the time, energy, and experiences you spent with all of them mean nothing compared to that?” Ben asked honestly. “I’ll be living forever regardless. After this I’ll be home majority of the time. So at least I’ll be there for most of the time, seeing them age, grow up… die. At least I guess you’ll be there too then. So not that lonely.” “And so will the Foretellers, Eclipse and John.” Ben said. “A friend of Cript’s actually let me see the future...and you die peacefully, I don't know how strong you were but you died on your own terms.” Ben said honestly. “Not a hundred percent sure if I'm supposed to say this but fuck it, time is weird thing to begin with.” He said honestly. “And you think that’s all still the same. While the info I died was at least comforting, does that future include this event?” “No idea, I just saw parts of the future...like one where I'm the last one of our little group alive and then went insane and had to be killed by Cript.” Ben said honestly. “... Either way, maybe by then, I’ll be different. Who knows. Fate may be set in stone for me, but time is always altered.” As he spoke, Kexez began placing Trixie’s soul back in her body, the result made Zeke change to Trixie as a white light was pushed from her body, into Kexez, who fell to their knees while Trixie was out cold. As Ben was walking up to them, Kexez… Zeke, raised a hand, standing up. “The sooner I get what fate wants out of the way… the sooner I might have a chance at my own freedoms.” “You have your own freedoms right here, right now.” Ben said. “If you take those X-blades, your giving what Fate wants, if you leave right now you have all the time in the world.” Ben told him. “Do you take what Fate gave you? Or run back to your family and be happy with them?” “I’ll have to come back here at some point if I do run Xin.” Zeke said, Trixie’s body changing into it’s X-blade form, two crossed Starseeker Keyblades with her signature hat and cape on them. Zeke picked it up, and placed it in its place, the circle on the floor began to glow. “Better to get it over with now, than just run from it knowing it’s gonna come either way.” “I call bullshit.” Ben said. “This!” He motioned to all the X-blades. “Isn’t for you, it’s just Kexez trying to pull some bullshit out of his ass. For the first time in your life, you literally have a chance to tell Fate to go fuck itself and leave, this won’t ever come back. This is all Kexez, Fate has nothing to do with this. So please, do it for them.” Ben said while motioning to the twenty X-blades. “If you take them, your being selfish. Leave now, and let them go. Those are twenty people that didn’t ask for any of this, are you going to harm them because of selfish reasons? Or are you going to let them all go and save them?” “True...but then, what bout them?” Zeke motioned to the twenty. “I’m hearing, seeing his memories Ben. Kexez made them like this… and they can’t be like they were before… Their bodies are X-blades now but not like mine. At least as me, they CAN have a body. As chaotic as it may be, it’s better than stuck like that for all eternity.” He spoke, walking to the center. “Oh no you don’t.” Ben said while grabbing his arm before he got to the center. “There has to be another way to solve this. You have all his memories, he must have put a way to reverse this right?” Ben asked. “None that I’m seeing at the moment. Though, for some reason there’s one thing that keeps popping up since I took back my body.” “And what’s that?” Ben asked curiously. “Dunno, I think it’s a name or something. Anathema?” ”Passcode accepted” “Oh fuck.” Zeke and Ben both cursed as one metallic claw grabbed Zeke while the other grabbed Ben and tossed him out the door, where all the remaining Embodiments stood around him. “You would be smart to stay down.” One of them spoke. “Go fuck yourself.” Ben said while getting up and readying himself for a fight. “Ben.” Through them, came Eve, standing before Ben. “Now, you’re being selfish.” “Bullshit.” Ben frowned. “What part of any of this is me being selfish? I’m helping a friend damn it, and if your saying this because you want to die, then what stopped you before?” Ben asked. “Me and several others have X-blades if that’s supposed to be some hidden requirement here for whatever damned reason.” “Because when we could have died before… we would have never been whole. Dead, yes, but whole… no. Ben, we are Kingdom Hearts Darkness, if we had died before now, we’d die without realizing that we belong someplace… One of us is dead yes, but he is with us.” Eve said, one of the others carrying a black orb of darkness. “We just want to return to where we came from, but for that,” She looked into the room, the X-blades now entering Zeke's body. “We need a body.” “Cause...fuck it why not.” Ben sighed out. “Christ, fine, whatever. Not like I wanted my friend to not be seen as perfect for fucking once.” Ben grumbled. “Is Lord Perfect? Is Cript?” “Pretty much yes.” Ben said. “And if they aren’t then they could easily make themselves that.” “Heh, then you still know so little. You look at them in terms of power and see them as without flaw, but even the oldest of us are still different.” Eve said, looking back into the room. “You may want to hit the floor now.” She said, Ben looking around and it looked like Zeke was gonna explode. “And you missed the part where I said ‘if they aren’t they could easily make themselves that’.” Ben brought up as he just did not care. “Plus, ‘perfect’ can be seen as a lot of things, like having everything go there way like when Spike magically came back to life because Deletes mean basically nothing anymore.” Ben said, remembering when Cript’s Spike was somehow reborn when Deletes are supposed to be just that. “Or just being too stupid strong that everything becomes a Non-issue. And hey guess what those two can do.” Ben said honestly, putting up a quick shield spell just in case. The explosion made Ben’s ears bleed. His healing factor barely able to keep up with the force of the explosion. “Ow…” Ben muttered while casting a healing spell on himself to heal his ears. “Everytime with the ears…” When it ended, The once glass looking view into space was now shuttered closed,and the Embodiments, missing. Looking into the room Zeke was in, he saw… darkness. Purest darkness blocking the doorway. Then from behind, he felt and saw a familiar light. Despite the shutters closed, this light bled through. “Uh...you okay there?” Ben asked worriedly. Suddenly, the shutters were ripped away by the light, revealing Kingdom Hearts as it’s source. The Darkness flowed passed Ben, and he saw it dragging Zeke with it to the giant heart. Zeke seemed unconscious from the event, the darkness then set Zeke a drift between it and Kingdom Hearts, and the darkness formed itself into a heart shape as well. “Well…” Ben took a step forward. “Zeke’s gonna be super pissed when he learns he can’t ever have character development anymore.” The Dark Heart and Kingdom Hearts then collided, this energy sending, no, shooting code, light, darkness, and grey in all directions. The event blinded Ben, and when the event seemed to pass, he looked out. Zeke was afloat, his hair now a mix of blond and a glowing gold and blue. Ben rushed to grab him, and when he did, saw a single crown tattoo on his forehead, and chain tattoos running from his wrists up to his arms. From there his clothes blocked the rest. “Well...congratulations, life really doesn’t like you.” I muttered while summoning No Heart. “Hey, say hello to your new dad...I think.” Ben said to the X-blade while holding up Zeke’s unconscious body. Zeke then opened his eyes, a bright, blinding blue light coming from them. “AH CRAP!” Zeke yelled, falling out of Ben’s grasp. “Too bright, fucking hell!” He shouted, rubbing his eyes to try and stop their glowing. “She blinded him with Science!” Ben said in fake shock, making a reference he’s pretty sure Zeke wouldn’t understand. As Zeke managed to get his eyeball spotlights turned off, Ben noticed Zeke’s eyes weren’t red, or blue. They were now an emerald green. “Fucking hell, you’d think that wouldn’t affect the person doing it.” Zeke muttered. “So, how does no future character development feel?” Ben asked. “Cause you know, you now have the power to make everything a Non-issue?” “Well for starters… I can literally feel and see everything literally EVERYONE is doing… WAY too many people watch porn…” “Hey when you have the free time.” Ben said while helping Zeke up. “So...your now Kingdom Hearts huh?” “Ugh, seems so- Holy FUCK! Your wives are horny, and Unum in EVERY reflection is sex mad… Oh god I see and FEEL them having sex with your clones! Ugh! That’s an image that’s never going away.” He said, rubbing his eyes and walking. “Have fun watching all that with over two thousand wives...and I’m pretty sure I’m going to get more when I world travel cause why not.” Ben laughed. “And if memory serves, my Unum is a blackened skeleton from what Joy figured out.” “Oh Gee, thanks!” Zeke said, giving Ben a punch in the arm… that snapped his whole body in two. “Oh FUCK!?” “Well fuck you to then.” Ben said while magic was oh so helpful and got him back up fully healed. “So have fun never touching anyone ever again.” Ben said honestly. “Note, I did try to stop this, but...well it was too late.” “Fuck… I’m gonna need to learn how to better utilize this crap… Jesus… this is so weird… You let your wives pull your tail to orgazim?” Zeke said, bursting out in laughter. “I fucking hate you.” Ben grumbled. “Hey Cript, I know your there, mind helping Zeke here learn his new powers?” Ben called out, knowing full well he’s there. “Also, again, have fun making everything a Non-issue.” “Heheh… maybe this won’t be so bad.” Zeke said, finally stopping his laughter. “I mean the ear biting I get but the tail? Seriously?” “Sh-shut up!” Ben barked with a massive blush. “You probably do that for some weird reason as well…” He grumbled. “I don’t even have a tail, and even when I did rooming in Trixie’s body I didn’t let it get pulled to achieve bliss.” “Yeah well you’ve done some freaky shit for no reason.” Ben huffed. “Hehe. Can’t lie there. Man this seeing what and feeling what they are doing thing is weird… That includes Keyblades.” Zeke said, noticing the chain tattoos around his wrists. “What’s with this?” He asked, looking around his arms, legs. That chain tattoos going all along his body. “Weird.” “A little, but that just means your chained down by bullshit.” Ben said honestly. “But hey, are you happy now?” “I’m a little happy I can literally embarrassed all of you whenever, so that’s something to look forward too. Other than that… no. No I feel like there’s not enough booze in this reality I could drink to get me buzzed.” “Ask Cript, I’m sure he’s got something.” Ben said honestly. “But yeah...this all happened.” “Hmm…” Zeke thought, looking over his new tattoos. He summoned X, and to his and Ben’s surprise, the X-blades Keychain was linked INTO Zeke’s arm, right over the Tattoo. “Oh… well that’s weird.” “Oh...I get it.” Ben said. “You are literally connected to all keyblades now...and that includes their keychains.” “...Well fuck.” Zeke said, dropping X as the weapon dangled from it’s link into Zeke’s arm. “What’s weird is that doesn't feel as heavy as it should.” “Again, you have the strength to make literally everything a Non-issue.” Ben said. “So weight doesn’t mean much.” “Still… So… what now? Oh right, house dad… gonna need to learn to hold back on this scale… you already called Cript?” “I called out physically, thinking he was already here but,” Ben said while taking out his Assistant and calling Cript through that. “Let’s hope he’s free, I mean he should be because of this.” “Cript appeared next to us. Yawning. “I was sleeping, what’s up?” “Zeke here is the new Kingdom Hearts, tell him what he’s won.” Ben said while motioning to Zeke. “Hang on, let me wake up more.” Cript said, taking a deep breath. “Well, you’ve won a one way ticket to no more exhilarating fights, total alcohol immunity, and all consuming depression.” Ben wanted to bring up something more about this but didn’t because he thought that would be a bit too much. “Yeah...that’s what happens when you become that strong.” He said honestly. “Fuck…” “That’s a surprisingly good coping mechanism.” Cript said. “Oh… good to know?” Zeke pondered. “So, mind helping me… figure all this out?” “Dude, we’re the same person. Once your body adjusts to itself your powers can be as less or as much as you need on command.” “I mean, after the crippling depression sets in.” Ben brought up. “I’d say four days or so and your abilities will all be set in. Here.” Cript said, placing an Assistant on Zeke’s arm. “This will come in handy.” “Guess I was gonna get one sooner or later.” Zeke said, looking the device over. “True.” Ben said honestly. “Better everyone has an amazing computer on their wrists at all times.” “So what do I do for four days til these abilities and such set themselves in?” Zeke asked. “Well you do have the combined Reflections of Twenty people who match you in terms of Balance, plus an Admin. You could sleep/meditate for four days to pass the time and speak with them.” Cript offered. “I guess that would be smart.” “That would be for the best.” Ben nodded. “Good, enjoy the sleep.” Cript said. “Wait, wha?” Zeke said, Cript snapping his fingers as Zeke fell over, asleep. “Sleeping spell. Welp, enjoy the calm, cause it will still be awhile before your next ‘storm’.” Cript said, picking up Zeke. “I’ll just drop him off with his family.” “Alright.” Ben nodded. “But...can’t wait to see how stupid strong he really is.” “You might not get the chance.” “Why do you say that?” Ben asked curiously. “As an Admin, Zeke can’t fight in certain events within this realm, which is now his domain. He’ll know automatically and his body will immobilize him if he tries to defy it. All he might do come the second Keyblade war is reform all your realms into one and make them one world again.” “I thought you were doing that?” Ben asked curiously. “I’ll be reforming ALL of creation, not just this realm.” “Right then.” Ben nodded. “But yeah that Admin rule? Yeah I’m just gonna call bullshit real quick on that.” Ben said. “I don’t know much about Admins but the ‘rules’ you people have are either vague or nonexistant from what I’ve seen and heard.” “Heh, Admins didn’t make those rules. There’s always bigger fish.” Cript said, opening up a portal and walking into it, Carrying Zeke. “Point still stands though.” Ben said while opening up a DTN. “Well today was a bunch of...things.” Ben muttered to himself. "Well that was a debacle and a half..." I sighed out. "Whatever..." I muttered while opening the door to my wine cellar which was fucking huge. "Might as well have a drink." I muttered as I walked in and closed the door behind me. To be continued...*hic* Nobody is told Hard Work is for the weakI ran out of the portal,to Bolitaria, but Zeke or rather the one in control when I called, Clementine, wasn’t here. Her friends and Zeke’s family in the castle didn’t see where they went. I was back at the bridge where Clementine’s friends last saw them, some of them were surprised to see me, their reactions to Zeke’s family equally as it seems they are new to world hopping. Damn, where is he? I thought. “Fine…” I muttered while summoning No Heart. “Help me find Kingdom Hearts cause when he actually has a physical form you can find him right?” I said to him, knowing Keyblades are connected to Zeke so my X blade better be able to find him. “There’s no need for that.” I jumped, turning around and seeing Lord standing behind me. “Your friend is safe, what’s happening is expected, and to be honest I’m surprised this didn’t happen sooner.” “What happened to him?” I asked curiously. “Eclipsa took him away for now, but what’s happening is that he has twenty different people all with the same heart as his, but with different minds, not to mention an entire afterlife and unborn hearts all awaiting their birth and rebirth, his mind is finally processing that part, both dead and unborn residing within him, his mindscape is adjusting to it. It’s to be expected when he became Kingdom Hearts.” “Of fucking course...and it was literally when I was going to ask Trixie if she wanted to quit from being apart of my Council because of this shit.” I said honestly. “Want my advice?” “Cause I still can’t find the rest stop between here and the fucking point half the goddamn time.” I frowned. “But please, I’d like some advice.” “Replace her.” He stated bluntly. “Right now all those reflections of each of the twenty are also merging, first the most similar, then the different ones, and the final product will be a being of many different personalities, memories, and past experiences all within one body and mindset. While one can argue your Trixie is just part of a greater whole, one specific set of memories in that mess is hard to bring up, in fact the Trixie that ends up there as the ‘finished product’ of this whole thing might even have different personality entirely, not even I could calculate that odds.” “Well...alright.” I said while holding my hand out. “Sorry Trixie, but your fired.” I said while trying to summon Fair Game back to me from Trixie. The card deck appeared back to me, it’s color slightly duller now that it no longer has a welder. “Now then, onto something I wanted to speak about.” Lord said, kneeling down to my height. Damn he’s tall. “So, you’re an Admin now, there are some things I’d like to help you with.” “And will it involve this being a handout?” I asked curiously. “Or am I actually going to work for it like a normal person?” “You’ll have to work for it.” Lord said. “Unlike Cript, I don’t give handouts, at least, not without some extra terms attached.” He said, standing up. “Your connection to Nothingness means your Code will be rather Unique. I’d like to take you to someone who can help me examine its nature.” “Sure, why not.” I said. “Gonna need to learn how to use Code to begin with, and I need to find a replacement for Trixie.” I said honestly. “Not to mention I’ve been watching a lot of Youtube and reading up on history...I have a lot of new Nobody’s to create.” “Come then.” Lord said, a portal opening to my left. “This will be where we start then.” I followed him and where we ended up was… is this… the Underground? “Wait, why are we in the Underground?” I asked. “I brought all the monsters from my universe to my Equestria.” “You’re right. This isn’t even my Universe… this is a different place altogether.” Lord said. “Now then, where is he.” Lord asked, looking around. As we were looking we came across an… odd looking person. Red hair, grey skin, and a black and red striped shirt. “There you are.” “Hm.” They said, looking over to us. “Oh, hello Lord. What brings you to this place?” “Him.” Lord said, pointing at me. “His code is unique. I wish to study it.” “Ah, so is this the favor I owe you then?” “Yes.” “Ah, then let me see.” The ‘kid’ said, vanishing in a trail of pixels before appearing in front of me. Their eyes were just red slits. “Uh...hi.” I said nervously. “Um...who are you if I may ask?” I asked, not knowing who this person was or how he could help Lord learn what I can do. “Do you wish to know who I am, or what I am?” He asked, “...Yes.” I said slowly. “Well, I’m not an Admin, but not too far off either.” He said, looking around me. “What I am and where I come from I left when I became what I am… everyone calle me Player, as for what I am, well, simply put.” They said, a smile crossing their face as their eyes went black, the red slits still there. “I’m a dirty Hacker.” “Huh...that’s interesting.” I said honestly. “Who knew Hackers existed like this.” “Player here somehow entered this reality from his original, not even he is entirely sure how, but what he did is one of a kind. In exchange for helping him achieve his wish, he owed me a favor. Despite not being an Admin, his understanding of Code and how to apply it is a match for my own. It’s quite impressive all things considered.” “Well Hackers are supposed to get past code and do things it wouldn’t normally allow.” I said honestly. “Makes sense, so he can tell me how special my Code is?” “Yes, he can copy it and from there we can understand its nature under different circumstances, after which we’ve learned that we can test and see how well they effect and act outside of simulation and calculations.” Lord said. “Honestly...even though I haven’t been out to other worlds much...it feels awfully convenient he’s here “ I said, not knowing why it felt that way. “But hey, as long as I can train with Code.” I said honestly. “So, how do we begin?” “First, I make a copy.” Player said, a sequence of floating grey ones and Zero’s appearing in his hand. “Secondly, we monitor it’s nature and compare it to other known variations of code.” He said, the code floating up, and dozens of other colored codes appearing around it. “After we gather the this data for a baseline we begin testing.” “Cool.” I nodded. “Can’t wait to start screwing around with this...god I wish I learned more about computers before all this happened…” I muttered. “Okay, so while we wait for that let’s go over some things.” Lord said, facing me. “First off, do you know any of your own or your realms ID tags yet?” “I literally just became an admin not five hours ago. Do you expect to me to know...literally anything about this?” I asked curiously. “Heh, fair enough. Well, to start off with think in terms of Video Game logic, everything from characters to items and even rooms and maps have some form of an ID for them. As Admins we have access to popping in and out of these locations and items simply by remembering their ID tag. For example.” Lord said, raising their hand as… No Heart appeared in their grasp. I summoned mine… two? “I can see your X-blades ID tag and copy it, same stats and everything. Though doing this to another admins creation, is considered rather rude.” He said, grabbing the copy’s tip… and breaking it, the second No Heart breaking off into light and Nothingness like dust in the wind. I held No Heart away from the guy. “Well...cool, that’s good to know.” I said honestly. “So I can basically recreate anything if I know the ID of it?” I asked curiously, wondering if that was the case. “Yes, this includes places and people, but again, it’s often considered rude or taboo outside your own realm of creation. For now though I’ll allow it since this is training.” “Cool.” I said simply, hoping to learn how to do this well. “Here.” Lord said, taking out a notebook with a pen attached to it. “The first page has two things, one from my realm/Cript’s, and a second from yours. Everything else you’ll then have to discover it’s ID, then learn to use it. Alright?” “Alrighty then.” I said while opening the notebook. “Gonna have to learn all this someway...gonna be a nightmare.” I opened the book, seeing the Id’s of whatever they were. //>ADM9935823>GiveItem>28923843947893092049548573920902948478583928489294893249832389498>QUT>1 //>User>GiveItem>2843948395493852954993587865939>QUT>2 “Uh…” I blinked at seeing all that. “Yeah um...wut?” I asked, having a feeling this is the ID of something but not knowing what I’m seeing here. I could feel Lord roll his eyes at me without even seeing them. “I told you, think Video Game logic. The first one is how to get an item from my realm, specifically, a wooden mallet.” THAT'S JUST FOR A MALLET!?!? “And the second one, yours, is for two gold Ingots.” “Okay…” I said, rubbing my temple a little bit. “Oh dear...this is gonna be a pain…” I muttered while trying my best to make a wooden mallet first from what I have in front of me right now. “You’ll need to remember each number of the ID as well as the proper order it comes in, otherwise you’ll summon something else.” “Well that’s scary…” I muttered while thanking god my mind was a supercomputer as I remembered everything from what I read and tried to use said thing to get the mallet. “Let’s hope this works…” I held out my hand, something appearing in the ones and Zeros and… it’s a paper crane… “You were three numbers off.” Lord said. “Well it’s better than accidentally summoning a monster…” I said nervously while putting the paper crane on a table gently and trying again to summon the mallet. Again, I was summoning something… only this time it was a brain… that I immediately dropped. Gross! “Nine numbers off.” Lord said. “Jesus christ...please tell me I didn’t just accidentally kill someone…” I said worriedly. “Relax, just a bodiless brain. Could be a copy of anyone's but no one died. That’s not how this works.” Lord said. “You keep thinking like a mortal, not an Admin.” He said. “You need to open your mind more.” “Gee, I fucking wonder.” I rolled my eyes while trying to ‘open my mind’ to this weird crap when it’s a lot different to casting a spell to create something. “Third time's the charm hopefully…” I muttered while focusing on the ID of what the mallet was to try and make it. Something was summoning and it was… OH GOD! “Seven off.” Lord said… that’s a fetus… oh god! “Jesus fucking hell…” I muttered, not believing this and not knowing what to do now cause honestly this just went from bad to worse. “I just killed an unborn child! Fuck!” “First off, again, not how this works.” Lord said, taking the fetus from me. “This fetus didn’t exist until you put in that wrong item code, it wasn’t unborn or even developing, just nonexistent. You can’t kill what wasn’t even real until you bring it into reality. Secondly, here.” Lord said, taking the fetus and summoning an orb of… flesh, and he placed the fetus inside it. “If you’re that scared this will incubate the thing til it’s ready to be born in, given that stage of fetus, I’d say seven more months. THEN, it will be a person, and now, it’s an unborn child.” He said, handing me the flesh ball. “This is going to be harder than I expected.” “Again, didn’t get this power until five hours ago.” I said while gently taking the ball and holding it carefully and protectively. “While thinking of it like Video Games is one thing,” I said while summoning my Lexicon. “I have several spells that do the exact same thing without needing this complicated crap. I know this is basically computer code stuff, but come on.” I said honestly. “Also, blame Cript, he explained to me literally nothing about this when he was basically handing me this power after I murdered Gideon.” “That’s because he doesn't know I’m training you.” Lord said. “Alright, first off, while those spells do work to an extent they are still limited ot mana, this method is limitless, and it’s tradition. Hmm… There has to be a missing piece here.” “I can think of three things, one being fuck tradition.” I said honestly. “The second might be the Code I use is different, and the third...well the third could easily just be ‘why can’t code act like spells?’, cause if Mana can do just as much as Code without this,” I motioned to the notebook Lord gave me. “Then there might be a problem with how people actually teach Code, figured out how to use it, or people who discovered new things with Mana have a better idea on how to make things than just a string of random fuck off numbers.” I explained. “Seriously, if people figured out how you can do things with a limited source of energy...you’ve got a problem.” I explained. “Or Cript did a thing I don’t know.” As Lord was thinking, Player came up to me. “Having trouble?” He asked. “Yes, cause I have tried to make a wooden god damn mallet three times and failed, the third time I basically now have a new kid to raise.” I said while showing the orb with the fetus in it. “Lord thinks I’m missing something, I’m calling Code a pile of shit when Mana can do what Code does but better when it’s limited.” I said with a frown. “Please tell me you can help.” “Hm.” He began pondering. “When I was first getting ready to leave my old self behind, I studied code for years, up til I, well, died. Memorized every number, line, and ID code and what it goes too, but, I did think of a possibly simpler method.” “And what would that be?” Lord asked. “Well, a Script.” Lord was silent for a time, then facepalmed. “That would make it easier in the end actually… and it would be basically the same thing since all a Script does is run a line or lines of Code…” He grumbled. “Oh yeah, Cript did a thing like that to help keep me out of your bullshit for a while.” I said honestly. “Yes, typically Admins use Scripts to govern things like the day and night cycles, growth and decay, the more… complicated stuff, on worlds and etc. It’s basically the rules and the numbers and activators and events, etc for anything, normally they are used for that and are, for Cript and I, even Player here, rather easy to make once you get it working right, but making one with just a single, maybe two lines of code to run would make them more like a…” “Consumable item?” Player asked with a smile. “Yeah...that.” Lord said. “And since you’d be making them and summoning it would basically just run the cod it has on it, it would just summon the item or whatever rather than the script itself, which in a sense is still the same thing.” Lord said. “Yeah, then Ben only has to remember the //give and such commands to apply it simpler.” Player said, taking the notebook lord gave me from me and writing a few things down. “There’s a ton of different ways for these items and ect to go about, but this is how they all start out.” He said, finishing and giving me the notebook back. I took the notebook and looked at what was written. “Let’s hope it’s simple…” //User>GiveItem>(ItemID)>QUT>1 User = You, GiveItem = Give Item(Ability, Health, Spawn Orb, ETC) QUT = Quantity or Amount ADM = Admen(Admin’s ID) (Yes, Even Admins have them but you can not use code lines to copy an Admin, you just get an Error message) //User>GiveItem>S0001>QUT>1 “Okay so…” I muttered while trying to do what Player wrote to me, hoping this time it’ll work instead of it coming up wrong again. I summoned...whatever it was, what I was summoning taking a bit longer than before, but what appeared in my hand was… A Wooden Mallet. YES! “Yay! It worked perfectly!” Player said. “Huh, guess that would be easier.” Lord admitted. “In that case, we just need to list and Script everything in your realm and every location and link it to a Script with an easy ID for you to memorize.” “Oh boy, that’s gonna take forever.” I rolled my eyes. “But yay, it works.” I said thankfully. I actually pocketed that damn mallot. Keeping the damned thing. Lord went over code, making Scripts and writing in those Script’s ID’s for me as something simple to use. “Alright, I have his Codes nature.” Player said, walking over to us. “What is it?” I asked curiously. “Well, to start off your Code acts much like a virus, but only if you allow it. For example, you can inject your code into corpses and revive them as Nobodies, same with animals.” Player stated. “Huh, that’s cool.” I said honestly. “Interesting on how that works.” “Yes, and it’s not counted as Necromancy either.” Player added. “Next is how your Code interacts with other code. It seems rather passive, watching the new code, and if hostility is detected it acts like an anti virus and contains and if needed eliminates it.” “That’s good to know.” I said honestly. “Anything else?” “Yes, your code can also become parasitic, but not in a harmful way. It can exist symbiotically with the code of whoever it is attached to, be it Admin or not. What it does though I’m not sure.” “I have a feeling it either works with the person if I make it that way...or it could literally be a parasite to those I just hate.” I said honestly. “But who knows.” “We will have to see later on.” Player said. “Lastly your Code can seem to… replace a heart? I’m assuming this has something to do with the realm you originate?” Player asked Lord, who nodded. “Well it seems when infecting someone of another realm, mainly corpses and Undead, and making them Nobodies, your code can create something akin to a ‘heart’ to replace what’s missing, or rather what never existed for this person in the first place.” “Huh...that is very interesting.” I said honestly. “Who would have thought I could do this stuff.” “It makes sense given where he comes from.” Lord said. “Now then, we now have a baseline for your code. Now summon it.” “That part shouldn’t be too hard.” I said, thinking it was just summoning a ball of magic as I held out a hand and tried to summon my Code. What appeared though was magic. Not code. “Think of summoning your code more like summoning forth your own essence.” Player said. “Can’t just be like Magic now can it…” I grumbled while trying to summon my code by thinking of literally bringing out a piece of my soul. That did it, grey aura of numbers appearing in the palm of my hand. “Good. Now try and utilize it by channeling it through a weapon.” “Sure.” I said while summoning my X-blade since I was more used to Keyblade’s than most others, even if one of my clones was getting personal training by Agamemnon. “Alright No Heart, let’s see how this works…” I said while focusing and channeling my Code into my X-blade. “This better not blow up my weapon or so help me god.” The code flowed over my Keyboard like an aura, quickly changing its look to pure black with grey numbers moving in all directions. “Good. It took to the code flawlessly.” Player said. “I mean, it is me technically.” I said honestly. “So why wouldn’t it?” I asked honestly. “Well it was from another realm with different code structure so it might have glitched.” “What do you mean?” I asked curiously. “Cause I got the Keychain from Zeke’s Absent Silhouette, and when I grabbed it it stabbed my hand and drained some blood from me.” I explained. “It's nothing too much to worry about.” Player said. “Now, here.” He said, getting up and walking across from me. “Let's see your damage output. Hit me.” “Well...if you say so.” I said while smacking Player with No Heart. Comical nines appeared over Player, at least a line of ten nines, but he didn't seem phased. “Hm. Not bad but you need to hit me harder.” “Alright.” I said while smacking him harder. Seven more nines on this comical line of them and Player still seemed unphased. “Good. But you can't hold back any more. Hit me like I just killed all your loved ones and realm.” Player was actually sent into a wall as I hit him as hard as I could. “I will end you if you ever touch my family.” Player appeared in front of me. “Good. You managed to break through my defense and deal damage to my hp. But remember, you are an Admin, you can't just fight to get stronger. Admin combat is different from normal fighting and getting stronger.” Player said. “I doubt that.” I stated bluntly. “Besides, I’m still not strong enough normally, I’m not going to have this glorified hand out be all I can do. That would be retarded.” “Hellsing Abridged much?” Player asked. “Anyway while Admins don't get stronger by levels like normal creations. At least most normal creations Admins get stronger by using their code to buff their stats, the more code you can use and harness the better your stats and therefore strength, speed, you get the idea.” “Okay, so there’s still the problem of I haven’t really maxed out level wise normally.” I said honestly. “Not to mention I haven’t really ‘mastered’ my weapons so there’s an ass ton of things I have to do with that, so you saying ‘buff spells are the only thing I can do’ isn’t really a thing at the moment.” I said honestly. “It goes a bit beyond that. Code makes up everything, and as such you can use it to 'cheat’ to learn all you need. This includes things like magic, combat, weapons, people and places, simply by copying something or someone's code and placing it within your own.” “I’m not going to be a bitch who’s too scared to actually work for their powers.” I frowned. “Unlike some people I have some respect for myself, what little of that respect truly is is up for debate but my point still stands.“ I said, not wanting to be Zeke or any of the Admins and being given fucking everything under the sun because ‘I was made that way’. “Sorry, but this is how Admins work. At least In this-” Lord looked up, his armor audible enough to make Player stop talking. “Buff spells can only go so far.” I frowned. “And I’m not like all of you, and who just appeared for me to fight cause that’s obvious going to be the thing here.” I said, knowing full well because I just started learning about Code someone appeared to try and fight me. “So come on, who’s there, we don’t have all day waiting for you to grandstand.” Player and Lord looked around, nothing happening. “Someone has issues.” Player said, Lord shrugging. “Who was it?” I asked curiously. “Cause I was expecting someone to appear and try to fight me to prove your point that buff spells mean more than actual hard work.” “The buffs, so long as you keep code flowing to it are more than temporary. So long as you can maintain them.” Player said. “Are you honest?” Lord asked. “Am I honest?” I asked. “Honest about what?” “About wanting to work for your strength?” Lord asked, still making the shortcut scripts for me. “Yes. I’m not Cript, I’m not Zeke, I’ve worked for my powers but then Cript didn’t tell me my Copy ability was always fucking active when I was ‘training’.” I rolled my eyes. “So excuse me for feeling a bit mad about doing so much only for one ability to make said hard work mean nothing.” “Well, If you really feel that way, what do you want then?” “What do I want?” I asked. “What do you mean?” I asked curiously. “If you really want to work so hard for your skills, then I can help you there. If you want to get stronger, faster, worthy of the power you now hold, then I can help you there.” “Hooray, actual training.” I said honestly. “Or do you have a different way to help?” “Training takes all forms. Mine are hard, but effective.” “That’s a good start.” I said honestly. “So you wish to train under me? I can guarantee while the results will be worth it, you will regret accepting, and likely hate me for it afterwards.” “When has that stopped me or you before?” I asked honestly. Shrugging, Lord stood, holding out a hand. “Then do you accept?” “I’m used to dumb decisions so sure.” I said while taking his hand. “Let’s hope this doesn’t interfere with the many other things I have to do and want to do.” “It will.” Lord said. “As of now, you have one goal I shall give you. This one goal, when you acquire it, you will no longer ever doubt you have the skills or power you have already.” “Except for the other goals I have because of obvious reasons.” I rolled my eyes. “And I will doubt cause that’s just me.” “Come then.” Lord said, opening a portal behind him. We walked through we were in what looked like an arena. The sky was dark like storm clouds blocked the sky. “I call this place Casem. I believe it to be my hardest challenge yet.” “What actually makes it hard?” I asked honestly. “You'll see.” Lord said, turning around and grabbing my face. I backed up, and suddenly I was… looking down at my own body. “With each of your victories, a part of your power will be restored. Till then, you start from below rock bottom.” Lord said. I suddenly felt ill, like I was starved for months. Severely thirsty, cold and sick. I fell to the ground from the hard weakness. My body was human but basically skeletal with paper thin skin and no muscles to speak of. “Survive. Then reclaim what is yours.” Lord said, everything going black. I woke up somewhere cold. The pain from just breathing was hard. I could not focus on anything other than my aching stomach and dry as sand mouth and throat. “Well...fuck…” I grumbled while trying to get up. “Nothing...like the writers hating me for actually wanting to get stuff from hard work...oi vey…” I grumbled while getting up and looking around, wondering where I am specifically. It was really dark. All I could do was crawl to move, and at a snail's pace. I think I was in a cave. The floor was uneven Stone and dirt. As I moved my hand forward to drag myself more, I felt something. Not Stone or dirt… softer, light… it's a snail. I'd recognize the shells feel. It was then the stomach pains from starvation hit me... I gently picked up the snail. “God...this sucks…” I muttered. With weak movements I moved the snail to my mouth, and ate it. It's slimy body and crunchy shell tasted horrible. With labored effort I swallowed it, still wanting more. Or anything really. “Well...it’s a start…” I muttered, trying to move forward with what little energy I have. I found more snail's, a spider, even a patch of moss. I ate them all. Just to subside the hunger. At least a little. Eventually I heard .. water. Still unable to stand I crawled towards it, finding a small stream and drank deeply. With each handful I felt small fish swimming. I caught three, eating them raw. I felt better, but still weak. I can't even stand, at least not on my own. I'll need something for a crutch. Or cane. “Alright...where the hell to find something…” I muttered while looking around for something. My eyes adjusted to the dark but I still couldn't see much. Finally after all my crawling I began to feel a draft, and see light up ahead. “Head towards the light, gonna need more symbolism here.” I rolled my eyes and crawling towards the light. As I reached this caves end I could smell fresh air, hear leaves blowing in the wind. Finally I was in daylight. Getting a good look at myself I realized how… bearly alive I was… he really meant starting from beyond bottom. “Jeez…” I muttered. “But thank god I’m in daylight...christ this sucks…” I muttered while trying to get up. “Come on...not gonna get stronger just by crawling…” I muttered. “Wonder how I can get stronger...cause this isn’t like back home…” I grumbled, remembering my time with Den. “Wonder how to continue besides crawling...” My legs were really weak, I don’t think I can stand without something to lean on… at least I have some rags on. Damn it, wonder how this is all gonna go. Now, there has to be a stick or something large enough for me to use. “Has to be something somewhere…” I muttered, having a feeling Lord took away my powers so I couldn’t cheat here. “This bites…” I muttered while looking around for something to lean on. Just to get an effort to stand I climbed/leaned on a tree, my balance feeling almost nonexistent. Eventually I managed to at least move from tree to tree, eventually smelling smoke? A fire? No, I would see a forest fire by now… campfire maybe? “Social interactions...hopefully…” I muttered while continuing towards the smell and still glad I’m a Dire Wolf here. As I arrived at the source of this fire I saw a man, dressed in mostly leather armor, makeshift from the harsh stitchwork, a thick cloak hood covering their face. They sat against a tree, gazing at their small fire, large claymore strapped across their back. “Hi…” I said weakly to the hunter. They looked up at me, then spoke. “You… you’re no Mad One, are you? No, just a starved wolf.” He said, looking back to his fire. “You can join if you wish, I won’t be here far too long. Have to stay ahead of the migrations.” “I’m new here, and ‘Mad One’?” I asked worriedly. “I have a feeling I’m missing some crucial things here.” “Heh, must have been under a rock you.” They spoke. “It’s a plague. As you age, you begin to lose your own mind, it starts at age thirty, and by the time you’re forty, if you’re lucky, you’re mindless. You attack anything with even a hint of sanity and the older you get after turning mad, the more deprived and mutated you become. Any settlements here all have an age limit of thirty, after that, you either kill yourself, get killed, or leave. Though lately those are few and far between, since the Mad Ones began migrating in swarms of thousands.” “Oh dear...that is quite a thing.” I said honestly. “How far are they behind us at the moment?” “Two days walk, one for the fast, larger ones. Was going to head out in an hour and scavenge the High Wells ruins nearby. Some stuck Mad Ones are there, likely, but that place fell recently, so not expecting too much in terms of resistance or fighting.” “Mind if I tag along? I know I literally look like dead weight but...better to be with someone that actually knows what’s going on and the area rather than wandering aimlessly and getting myself killed right?” I said. “Whatever suits you stranger.” He said, reaching behind him and tossing me a small pouch. “There’s a small bean in there. Eat it, you’ll at least have your health about you. Was saving it for a dire moment, but you could use it more. It’s an old magic one. They stopped growing them when the Madness began appearing.” “Thank god for Senzu Beans…” I muttered while gently taking the bean out of the bag and taking the bean and eating it. “Sorry for taking your last bean…” I felt like a million bucks after eating it. My muscles and body restoring before my eyes. “It’s a loss, but if luck favors it, I might find more. We can find you a weapon in the High Wells ruins when we arrive. That city was once known for their Keyblade warriors and craftsmen, only rivaled by New Daybreak Empire.” “I wonder…” I muttered while trying to summon any of my weapons or powers now that I actually feel normal again. “But how do you know about Daybreak if I may ask?” Nothing, nothing came. So Lord stripepd me down to nothing huh… he did say I’d hate him for this later… “New Daybreak was a Keyblade capitol, one of many, but one of the most influential. While New Daybreak held to more traditional keyblade laws, High Wells was revolutionizing the craft and art, techniques and magic never before thought of. Key armors and armaments of all kinds. The city did well especially since they were built into a still being dug mine, rich with ores of all kinds.” “Yeah, sounds like a good a place as any to start making all that new stuff.“ I said honestly. “But the names Ben if names matter anymore.” “Steven.” They replied. “So, from what lands do you come from?” “Well...you’d probably not believe me even if I told you.” I said honestly. “And I’m not entirely sure how to describe it given everything that’s happened to it.” I said honestly. “Nothing like having your entire domain start having more and more worlds fused into it to become one world again.” “Hm.” He said, standing and kicking dirt into the fire, putting it out. “Follow then, we’ll have to reach High Wells before dusk, Mad One aren’t the only ones to worry about.” He said, taking out a compass and finding his direction before walking, and I followed. “So, what caused the Mad One’s to come about?” I asked curiously. “Hm, they are the result of this era, Good and Evil have a unique balance in this world, an era of good where evil loses, an an era of bad where evil wins and, well, we have situations like the one we live in. They say in the kingdom of Connection, where the lords of good an evil reside, there is a clock that counts down to the end and beginning of each new era. But many think this kingdom a myth.” “Well there had to be a starting place for the Myth’s.” I said honestly. “Can’t just make up a Kingdom if you didn’t have something to at least use as a frame, or even it being completely true.” I said honestly. “Who knows.” Steven said as we traversed the forest. I think three or so hours passed of nonstop walking passed by until we arrived at a large hole, and a stairway leading down into it. “Here it is. High Wells.” “Oh...that’s not good.” I muttered worriedly. “Jeez, what happened?” “I told you, the city was built INSIDE a still active mineshaft, the actual city is five hundred feet below us, underground.” Steven said, starting to walk down the steps into the underground city. “My father once told me that this city, despite being underground, was so big and massive that it was sometimes hard to tell if you were underground or above it. Wonder if that day and night magic still works.” “Who knows.” I shrugged. “But let’s hope the place isn’t full of bad things…” I said. “Have you heard of any other survivors?” “Yes, but these days if you aren’t on the move or in a defensible settlement, you’re either a Mad One or Dead. Most all of us just keep on the road, hoping to survive till the end of this evil era, or just to live without seeing a Mad One. Or at least the swarm we are all trying to outrun.” “Well that sucks.” I said honestly. “How long do these era’s last?” “The longest was seven thousand years. The shortest was two hundred years. No one is sure how the lords of good and evil choose the length of these eras, or maybe it’s something else that ends one and begins a new one. No one knows.” Steven said, grabbing a torch off the wall, lighting it with magic as we kept downwards. The deeper we went the more I saw that along with metal and even wood to reinforce the little stations that looked like checkpoints or guard stations, gummi blocks were also used as reinforcements and structure working. Steven lead us into a checkpoint area. It was mostly bathrooms, benches, and broken, long since looted vending machines. Thankfully with a quick flip of the switch the lights came on and Steven put out the torch for a later use. “Keep an eye out for whatever is useful.” They said, searching the front desk area, an old pc with a busted screen sitting on the desk, collecting dust. “Alright.” I nodded while searching around, wondering what could be useful here. Aside from old litter, I didn’t find much. A candy bar, some shoes that thankfully fit, and an old newspaper that was surprisingly still holding together. “Well so far so nothing…” I muttered while checking to see if the candy bar was even edible. “There has to be something…” I muttered while continuing to look around. The candy bar was passed the date, but something tells me a point in time like this isn’t something to throw out away expired food that can still be eaten, even if it’s stale. As I entered the mens restroom I did see along rotten skeleton… oh… They were an adult, anthro equine… it’s skin and flesh long since gone and their bones black with age and rot. I can’t tell how they died, but there was a handgun still in their bone grip. I carefully moved over and tried to take the gun, hoping it still had ammo so I can use it to defend myself. I got the gun, though the skeleton’s hand and arm… fell off… I noticed the handgun had a Keychain on it, and there was no eject button for the ammo… weird… What kind of gun is this? “Hmm...Steven did mention this place was good with making Key Armaments…” I muttered while looking the gun over some more just to make sure it was fine enough to use. It seemed unphased by however much time had passed since it’s former wielder passed here. “Well...gonna need to tell Steven about this cause I don’t want to see how strong this gun is…” I muttered while continuing to search around for something. We didn’t find much, aside from Steven finding a keycard. Before we were going to leave though, we both heard this groan. “Glllllughh…” It was a mix of a tired, bored sigh. Steven readied his claymore, single handedly. “Is that what I think it is?” I asked worriedly while readying my new gun. “Yes… a Mad One…” Steven said, slowly a person came into view, their skin ash grey, their blood veins black like night, their hair was wet, like oil was soaking it, their eyes were black and their pupils red. They were holding a… a Keyblade? “Something’s not right…” I muttered. “They sound bored and tired...not like any possessed beings I know, undead or otherwise.” “Who said they were?” Steven said, charging in as that Mad One and them clashed blades, Steven’s claymore range gained him the advantage as he slashed the arm it was holding the Keyblade with. Blood spilled out like a facet, and sprayed the wall, roof and floor. “Die!” The Mad One said, grabbing it’s slashed arm, still holding the Keyblade, with its other arm and trying to attack. Steven took the time to back up, then thrust, piercing it’s heart. It was still, it’s body almost… returning to normal… to human. “T-thank...you…” They said, sliding off his blade lifeless. “Well...that was...a thing.” I said worriedly. “But why the hell could they still wield their keyblades?” I asked curiously. “Shouldn’t they...you know, vanish after some certain things happen?” “Keyblades, while seemingly unaffected by the madness, link themselves to their wielders heart, not their mental state. Madness affects the mind, not the heart.” Steven said, the Keyblade vanishing now that it’s wielder is gone. “Let’s hope there are not more of them.” He said, taking leave as I followed behind. “You know full well there’s more.” I said. “Cause whenever you find one...there’s always gonna be more…” I sighed out. “Cause nothing can ever be fucking simple…” I grumbled, now just thinking about what the fuck Lord wanted me to do here so I won’t spend an asston of time twiddling my thumbs like a jackass. As we headed down We came across a lift that took us the rest of the way down. When I finally saw the city… it was like something from a fairy tale. It looked… well, untouched by the hell above, and intact. As if preserved. “You said this place was in ruins…” I said honestly. “Looks pretty untouched to me.” “Ruins aren’t just broken down buildings. It’s government broken, citizens dead or Mad, and culture likely lost forever. It’s a ruin regardless of appearance.” “So no one’s here because corpses?” I asked curiously. “Or are there actual people here?” “Corpses and Mad Ones are all we will find here.” “We’re all Mad down here.” I joked, knowing it was in very bad taste but needing some uplifting thing here. When we got off we were med with a large...blood soaked street. Buildings that were once shops and roads once walked covered in long dried blood, bones of all races and animals scattered about in the slaughter. Steven walked through it all like nothing… I couldn’t stop looking. “Sweet jesus…” I muttered, not believing all this shit. “What? Did the people do this to themselves or the Mad Ones?” I asked, cause if this was all sane people’s fault I was going to be kind of mad that all this life was wasted because they all acted fucking retarded. “When the Mad Ones appeared, the elderly, all of them turned. Who could defend or even kill their beloved elders? Many did not escape, the people killed by their mad elders.” “Alrighty then.” I said honestly. “Makes sense I suppose…” I said honestly, trying to think of what I’m actually supposed to do here. “Wait, I forgot to ask this, but what year is it?” I asked curiously, thinking about when he talked about New Daybreak like it was a full fledged thing instead of it being an up and coming thing from when I visited there not too long ago. “The year or date in general?” “Either or would be grand.” I said honestly. “Just so I know because of...certain events.” I said, remembering the watch Kexez gave me that told me the time the Keyblade War will happen. “It’s April fourteenth, era ten, year four thousand, two hundred and six.” I blinked. “Oh...so I’m in the future…” I said. “I...suppose that makes sense…” I muttered, thinking about this a little more. We walked through the city some more and I came across a statue… of Zeke? “And...why is there a Statue of Zeke here?” I asked curiously. “I mean, he is mister special man but still.” “He and the others that reside within him founded this city.” Steven said. “After the second Keyblade War, Zeke and his family left to find a peaceful isolated land to settle, and when Zeke discovered the land they rested on was rich in Keyblade related resources he began digging, he and his others each swapped out when tired, and after just ten years they dug deep enough that the sunstone light could no longer reach down. Others came from all around, and began digging, and soon a whole city was being built. They named it High Wells because climbing out back them was like climbing out of a well.” “Huh...makes sense...wonder why they ditched Daybreak?” I wondered. “Who knows. But High Wells and Daybreak became different places completely. Daybreak with high authority on the traditional, and High Wells in revolutionizing the art, weapons and craft.” Steven said as we searched through the town, entering residential areas, the scene not much better here. “That’s...a little weird considering Zeke founded Daybreak...and then New Daybreak…” I frowned, wondering how it was so split when the two places were founded by the same person. “So there are a lot of weird things that happened in the middle that I have apparently not been involved in…” I frowned. I wonder… is there anything about Nothingness? “Question, what happened to Nothingness and it’s King?” I asked curiously, wondering if I was still alive or something. “Nothingness? That kingdom, and it’s king vanished. Two era’s ago.” “Who was the king at the time?” I asked curiously. “Erik, the sixth king so I hear.” “Who was his dad?” I asked curiously. “Or do you even know?” I asked, trying to remember my countless kids and trying to remember if one of them was named Erik. “Their father was unknown, their mother though was Jenny, the Archer and King Ben’s daughter.” “Oh, Joy’s kid became king? And wait, Gilda became my Archer? I thought Dante was my Archer?” I asked, confused on that whole thing. “I...know I’m asking things you probably don’t fully know about but...what?” “You who do not know history shall fail and repeat its mistakes.” Steven said simply, taking a look around a corner. I did too… a HORDE of those Mad Ones. “Oh...um...just to point out...none of this happened in the past, or even was thought of…” I muttered worriedly while readying my gun in case the horde rushed us. Slowly, reaching into his back pocket, Steven pulled out a slingshot, taking a small rock from the ground and fired at a wagon across the horde. They react, quickly and violently rushing and attacking the wagon. We quickly made it passed them. “Well...that was worrying…” I muttered while still keeping my gun at the ready. “Wonder why there was so many?” “They like to have numbers. Makes taking out people like us easier.” “Right then.” I nodded. “Is there anything else we need to find here?” “For you, a proper blade, for myself, Zeke Ventral.” “Zeke’s still alive?” I asked curiously. “Oh wait, no he’s still alive, he’s Kingdom Hearts.” I rolled my eyes. “Yes. Many years back he discovered how to choose his wielder, and therefore, he who wields him, controles his power.” “Oh dear.” I muttered. “Can’t wait to meet him...he’ll probably wonder what the fuck happened to me.” I sighed out. “Gonna be a bitch…” “Zeke Ventral is likely in the bell tower, as for you, you should be able to find a Keyblade in one of the shops that will take you on as their wielder.” “Well…” I frowned. “Probably talking to Zeke about this would also be good for me…” I said, thinking Zeke could help me out here to try and figure out how to get my powers back. “Cause he might know how I can get my powers back...he normally knows things not many would know.” I ran into the shops, Keyblades and arms decorated shelves and such all around here. Okay, which here… like me? Is that how it goes? “Seriously, two of the many Keyblades I have are literally me...the fuck.” I muttered while looking around for a keyblade that would be good for me, or if they just openly leap out to me like puppies up for adoption. “Okay...which keyblade is here for me…” I muttered, trying to find one. As I searched through the store, there was a lot of Keyblades but as I was looking them over, I heard this… metallic tick, like one of them moved. I looked around, and found that a Divine Rose one was out place among the others. “Oh?” I asked while moving over to Divine Rose. “You seem active.” I said while opening up Divine Rose’s case. It moved again. A little towards me. “Howdy Divine Rose.” I said to the keyblade, knowing it was there. I took it out of it’s case, and as I held Divine Rose it glowed, accepting me. Nodding, I looked around a bit more, finding a few potions and an exixer before heading out, looking for Steven. “Alright, where be the Steven…” I muttered while looking around for a Bell Tower. “Where be the Bell Tower...cause he’s most certainly going there.” I found the bell tower. It was one of several piller like buildings reaching up to the massive roof, a large bell at the top center of it. I raced inside, seeing Steven as he was climbing the… Oh god why is it all stairs!? “Gonna kick Zeke in the dick because of all these goddamn stairs…” I groaned while starting to head up the stairs. “And if Zeke can hear me...well then he’ll be glad to see I’m here.” Steven and I began the climb up. We took a few breaks… my legs feel like jelly… Finally after FOUR HOURS! We got to the top… Damn it Zeke. “I’m...gonna...kick Zeke...in the dick…” I groaned. “Too...many fucking stairs.” I whimpered, hating my lack of flying abilities. “Here we are.” Steven said, a large double door before us. I walked up to the door and knocked on it. “Alright Zeke, open up. You need to answer for four hours of climbing stairs dude.” I frowned. Steven pushed them open. Inside was a large room, empty, but bright, simple in it’s looks… and a light blue cloak wearing person in the center of the room, their cloak having golden semes and other details adorning it. I walked in without a single care in the world. “Alright you, you need to answer for four hours of stairs.” I frowned. “Seriously, who the fuck does that?” I asked, my legs killing me because of that crap. “But let’s see, who’s the face right now, Zeke, or one of the many others?” I wondered as I walked closer to the blue cloaked person. I reached for their hood, but… my hand phased through? What the- Pain, I felt like my spine was snapped as someone dropped from above, slamming me into the ground. I looked up, they were in Keyblade armor. A mix of Master Eraqus's and No Hearts from birth by sleep, their helm also a crown. They got off me, then kicked me all the way back to Steven who caught me. Crap, I… I can’t move. “Two hearts enter this room.” Yup, that’s Zeke’s voice. “Which can prove worthy of wielding me?” They said, summoning X, and Trixie’s X-blade form, as well as the others within them, each floating around them. “Bitch.” I frowned while trying to move. “What did I do to deserve having you damn near break my back Zeke? And what? Can’t tell I’m Ben due to many years of this shit?” I asked him with my normal amount of sass. “Fuck that hurt…” Steven rushed in, clashing with Zeke, the two trying to push passed each others force. I took a potion, the feeling in my legs restored at least. I raised my gun and aimed it at Zeke, using my training with Braig to actually know how to aim properly and fired my gun at Zeke, wondering what will happen if I do this. The shot hit their head, bouncing off their armor and into a wall. I got up, grunting as I did so. “Shouldn’t be surprised bullets wouldn’t work...but you’d think a Keyblade Gun would do something.” I frowned, thinking the Keychain on this thing is just for show as I fired at Zeke’s legs, knowing the force would at least do something to shift his weight at all. When I hit the back of his knees he fell back, Steven taking the opportunity to give Zeke a sword to the gut… breaking his sword. “Normal blades do not work on me.” Zeke said, ready to swing at Steven, then, there was a pause… Steven summoned a X-blade… It’s form like… Eclipse’s… This X-blade went through Zeke’s armor, and body. “That better?” Steven asked. “Wait, your Eclipse’s kid?” I asked while moving over to his side. “Or at least, one of his descendants?” I asked, readying Divine Rose against Zeke knowing full well he’s not done in from something that simple. Steven took off his hood, showing his face… He was equine… partly, the other was dire wolf, I could tell from his ears and some sharp teeth. “I am Steven, descendant of Admin of Grey Eclipsa and Admin of Nothingness Ben, their grandchildren were my parents. You will let me wield you, and restore both their kingdoms.” “Well...that’s good to know…” I said honestly. “Nothing like...seeing my great grandson being a badass apparently.” I said honestly, surprised one of my grandkids married Eclipse’s kids. “Also wait, Eclipsa? When did he get turned into a girl again?” “Heheh… you did well. Your ancestor was my first welder.” Zeke said, taking Eclipsa’s… apparently, X-blade out of his side, his body and armor healing. “Can you even tell who I am?” I asked Zeke honestly. “Just curious here since...it’s most likely been forever.” Zeke looked over at me. “Heh. So this is what Lord ment all those years ago.” Zeke said, walking over to me. “Hello, Ben.” “Yes, Lords an asshole.” I frowned. “But how you doing my old friend? Keeping busy nearly breaking your friends spines?” I asked honestly. “Heh, well the last time I saw you, you were eleven feet tall, all grey fur from old age… and in a coffin…” “Excuse me, how the fuck did I die of old age?” I asked with a frown. “I could have sworn I would have lived as long as the others just to make sure you all knew my great brand of humor.” I chuckled a little. “But let me ask...does grey fur make me look cooler?” I asked curiously, always finding grey or silver on wolves cool. “Well, you looked wise.” Zeke said. “But, yes. You died from old age. Only certain people, like myself, are ‘immortal’ since my heart/existence is basically the afterlife, or at least one of them. These days it depends on your religion.” “Alrighty then...but there’s the big problem of I’m an Admin, so the actual hell?” I asked honestly. “Yes, you are, but your title and even Adminhood could be passed down to whoever you choose to succeed you. Which you chose, after that you just lived a long life, really long. Cript made sure that anyone who could not die from their title can pass that on and then die/age normally. As part of how he remade creation. I’m an exception since I am a X-blade and Kingdom hearts, even without being Kingdom Hearts, I would still have been a X-blade and would have been ‘immortal’ regardless.” “Ah, alrighty then.” I said honestly. “Better than staying alive long enough to go the unfun insane.” I said honestly. “So...mind helping me figure out how to actually...you know, do whatever the hell Lord wants me to do? Or is he being a bitch and keeping you from talking?” “All he told me was that when I see you again to follow your descendant.” Zeke shrugged. “Speaking of.” Zeke remembered, giving a hand to Steven. “Well, you earned me, plus you’re the grandkid of two of my best friends, and your grandmother was my first welder. I’m interested in how you will utilize me.” Zeke said. Nodding, Steven took Zeke’s hand, and Zeke changed, his Keyblade form like X’s, but like a Kingdom Key-D version. “So Steven...what do you think of all this revelation stuff?” I asked curiously. He looked over at me. “Doesn't matter. I still have my goal, who you are and your relation to me does not matter at all.” He said, wielding Zeke and Eclipsa’s X-blade in both hands and begins to head out. “If you are going to follow me, you can, but don’t expect too much in terms of our familial bond.” “I can imagine family doesn’t mean much to you considering everything that’s happened…” I said while following along. “But believe me...family is important, it’s not something you should just openly dismiss or hate.” I said. “Cause when in doubt...your family will always be there for you.” I said while motioning to Eclipsa’s X-blade as an example. “Like Eclipsa for example.” He looked over his grandmothers X-blade. “I had to. Otherwise, I would not have been strong enough to get where I am.” “Family is a hell of a thing...even beyond the grave.” I said honestly. “I may not know your story...but maybe I’ll at least help you relearn the joys of family.” “When this is over, then you can try.” “What is your goal if I may ask?” I asked curiously. “Restoring my family kingdoms.” “Both kingdoms?” I asked curiously, wondering if he meant to bring back my old kingdom and Eclipse’s kingdom. “Yes. Yours vanished. And grandmother's was overtaken.” “Overtaken? Overtaken by who?” I asked curiously. “Or what in a possible case.” “A hex. Long before this era began, the Grey kingdom was hexed, and all its people were petrified. Like statues.” “Jeez, Kid Icarus much?” I asked honestly, remembering the story where Medusa petrified every Angel in Palutena’s domain except for Pit because he couldn’t fly. “And...nobody decided to help why?” “Any who enter, petrify as well.” “That makes...no sense when you think about it.” I said honestly. “Like...what, did they literally curse the ground people walk on or what?” “Hm.” Steven said, putting his good back up. “I was told stories about you. At least, the man you are to become. Kind, understanding, compassionate. Looking at you now I see many of what I was told about you, you yourself have yet to learn. If you continue to overthink, then you'll never know true happiness. You'll always be too mad that it doesn't make sense.” Steven said, leaving the room. I followed after him. “Well I’m not old like my dead self here.” I said honestly. “I’m glad I have a happy life but there are still plenty of problems, like the main issue of people never getting to the point half the time.” I said, having noticed there was a pretty bad issue with people and getting to the point. ”Looking at you Lord, I know you can hear me.” I thought to myself. “I hope that is false. I'd hate to think that you were such a kind person just because you'd gone senile.” “I’m a nice person, don’t get that fact wrong, just…” I sighed out. “Just way too much shit is happening right now…” I rubbed my temple a little. “Still processing a lot of things...and just really mad that I don’t know what the fuck I’m supposed to do cause the douche canoe that sent me here doesn’t know how to actually talk like a normal fucking person.” I said, getting real mixed messages cause it sounds like Steven is okay with me being a nice person but also really doesn’t like that for whatever reason. “Whatever your issues are, I can at least tell you that they will be resolved. I remember once asking grandmother Gilda how you dealt with it all.” “Oh? And what did she say?” I asked curiously, wondering what Gilda’s wise words told me. “She said you swallowed your pride, and asked for help.” I took a moment and thought about that. “Yeah, that makes sense.” I said honestly. “Even if I’ve done that...several times actually.” “Name once?” “There was an asston of things in between the two but...one time was when my small number of fiances at the time all went out to another world, causing me to freak the fuck out and have a panic attack because back then I was younger, still new to harem life styles, and just honestly wasn’t really good at bottling up too many things at the time.” I said honestly. “I asked for their help...cause I just could not at the time.” I shook my head, remembering that horrible sad moment I had. “What exactly happened?” “God...it’s been a while…” I sighed out. “So...this was back when I was training to become King of Nothingness...so one morning after I made a promise to the small amount of fiance’s I had at the time, which was like ten or something, but I decided to head out first thing in the morning to get back to training cause I was…very depressed at the time...and then when I got back home they were all gone...Jenny told me they argued about why I left...and then they left.” I explained. “So...I was rightfully panicking and feeling like complete and total shit until Luxu basically told me where they went...and when I got to where they were...I only let the voices in my head get to me and tried to push them away so they could train by themselves like they apparently wanted...then I was knocked out by Luna because of magic and we talked in my head...then I just cried like a child pleading for them not to leave...that I couldn’t live without them…” I muttered sadly, tearing up a little. “But thankfully...Luna told me they weren’t going to leave...and the others helped me feel less like shit...all because I asked for help after my talk with Luna.” I explained. “It fucking sucked...breaking down thinking everyone would leave me…” “And did you ever uphold that promise?” Steven asked. “They promised you they'd never leave you. And you promised to train them. I remember when grandmother Luna spoke of this event. You never did train them. You asked them to help you get over yourself, but you also took away their chance to become self sufficient in a fight, something they wanted so you would not have to worry. Yet, in the end, you never upheld your end of the promise. You asked for help yes, but it was for selfish reasons. Reasons that only benefited you.” “Thank you for pointing out the fucking obvious.” I said honestly. “I’m already an emotional wreck, I have literally everything going on, and so much other horse shit that just won’t fucking end. Everytime I would oh so happily be with them, train them, do anything with them, something always comes up.” I growled in pent up rage and grief. “Hm. Guess we are related then. So, you dislike a hero's life?” “I wouldn’t have any of my wives if I wasn’t a hero.” I said honestly. “But that’s the main problem, I live a hero’s life, but there’s also moments, and this has happened several times, where I have literally had nothing to do, and it would have been a simple day, but something normally fucking happened cause life just really likes to shit on me sometimes.” I said, remembering several times that happened. “Like one time when I took Brigid out on a date on her home world, had to immediately have a bunch of other things happened like going to the Center of Bioshock’s world to stop a Psychopath from doing bad things and...kind of stopping his daughter from breaking reality kind of? Same thing with Coco, took her on a date to Destiny Island, but hey guess what? Needed to get Sora, Riku and Kairi’s Nobody’s for some fuck off reason, people from the Left 4 Dead world, and I’m pretty sure some people from Insidious.” I sighed out. “Well, that's quite the date.” “Both of them said they really liked the date, spices things up a bit.” I said honestly. “But again, stupid shit like that happens that only makes me bottle up more of my grief and rage just so I can keep a smile for the people I rule, and for my family.” “Ever think that bottling that up is what led to Rejection despising you so much? Why you're even compatible as an Insanity?” “Oh I am full Psychopath, and I also have Humanity so there’s that.” I said honestly. “But Rejection hates me anyways, Rejection is my dark half that has just been really fucking lonely cause my Light half was keeping me alive for basically my entire life until maybe a month ago.” I explained. “Glad to just have him be happy for once…” I muttered, glad my dark and light half were happy again. “Is he? You still hate yourself, so how can he be happy when you keep putting all that self loathing and hatred on him, just to falsely reassure your loved ones?” “I mean, that’s just Depression and a lack of Self Confidence to begin with so…” I said honestly. “Your the admin of an entire realm, the king of nothingness and have a harem of over a thousand women. What is there for you to be lacking confidence about?” “Being good for the two thousand women I married, and the literal millions of children I’ve had with them.” I said honestly. “No matter how strong I am, no matter what titles I have...I’m always scared I’m not good enough for them, even if I can, technically did to some extent, and will move worlds if not entire Reflections for my family.” I said honestly “Zeke could tell you that exact same thing, I know you can hear him, Zeke isn’t one to stay quiet to his new wielder.” “So in other words. Your impatient and childish. Despite what you have done you still consider yourself unworthy. There's humble and then there's you.” “Impatient? Not really, I’d actually like a moment for patience but no one wants me to, and childish? Kind of doubt that all things considered.” I said honestly. “But oh well, not gonna change your mind cause your related to me and Eclipse, two really stubborn people.” I chuckled. “Not to mention Jenny’s own stubborn streak.” I smiled to myself, just glad to I have such wonderful family and friends. “Jeez...if there’s one thing I’m glad about...is to have a wonderful family I can call my own.” “Hm… you lie.” “Which part?” I asked curiously. “The part where your stubborn, me actually enjoying having a family? Or what you said about me was wrong?” I asked curiously. “You say you enjoy having your family yet you keep saying that you do not deserve them. Hypocrite.” I only rolled my eyes at that. “Whatever you say.” I said honestly. “I can’t really say stuff cause I don’t know much about you, this world is hell, and I’ve had this same conversation with several people. Just like with Fluttershy, you can’t solve a deep rooted problem so easily.” I said, thinking Steven at the moment is trying to be like me who’s blunt as hell for me to crack. “Is that why you are here then? Which problem are you solving then?” “This?” I asked. “Well that would be a combination of mine and Lords fault. Lord for being a vague fuckwit and telling me literally nothing about what I was going to do, my fault for not asking questions like a smart person and agreeing to whatever the hell he wanted to do. And all of this stemmed from being told ‘When your an Admin, Hard Work means literally nothing when you can just give yourself all the powers’.” I said. “So I took exception to that and told him I’m not someone who takes all the handouts.” I said. “The ‘problem’ is I wanted actual hard work for powers that Lord kept telling me I didn’t need to do, so Lord took away all my power, threw me into a possible future with no context, and expects me to figure out what the fuck to do when I have literally no idea what’s going on, where I am, or what to actually do.” I explained. “So yeah...I rant a lot.” “... So you don't yet know that becoming an admin locks how much stronger you can become without buffs? Admins can't get stronger because they are considered the strongest, it's like getting to Max level in a video game mixed with cheating all at once.” “I think there’s a major disconnect here.” I said honestly. “Being an Admin basically says ‘I now have all the cheat codes’, but cheating like that isn’t fun, it’s not worth it if all I can do it just tell everyone ‘I can do this’ and immediately do it. Also I was nowhere near max level before I got admin powers, I still have a lot to learn about my weapons, powers, and a bunch of other things that Lord so blatantly disregarded as ‘mortal problems’. I may have been an Admin back in my time, but as I told Lord, I was only like that for basically two hours.” I said honestly. “And rather than wait and listen more on how being an Admin is, you threw a fit and called bullshit on a world, species, and culture you know nothing about?” “I was cheated hard work with Copy because I wasn’t told it was a Passive ability, I actively didn’t want actual hard work that could help me improve both physically and mentally be taken away from me again because of what I became.” I said bluntly. “Imagine already having self doubt that you can’t do anything by yourself, so you constantly try to do things by yourself so others wouldn’t see how fucking insecure you are, and then learn after everything you’ve done to get to a certain point it was basically handed to you when you didn’t even know that was possible.” I said. “This...honestly is less about power at this point, and more just...knowing I can actually do something with my own two hands.” “Then why did you just say that to begin with and leave out your ranting ignorance/denial of your new abilities?” I took a step up and put my hand on his shoulder, the half breed seeing a very wide and honest smile on my face. “Cause I’m fucking retarded.” I said simply. “That has been a common thing with me no matter what I do. I can’t shut up, I ruin things because I can’t shut up, so I normally just have to go in a massive fuck off circle to finally say what I had in mind.” I said. “Remember when I said I don’t know many people who actually get to the point? Yeah, I’m not one of those people that know how to get to the fucking point sometimes.” “So because you're retarded you make your own life harder than it needs to be…” Steven said, turning around. “You won't last long in this world.” He said, jumping off the edge of the stairs down. Crap! I looked down, but he was gone… he ditched me! I sighed out. “Goodie...can’t keep your fucking mouth shut…” I muttered bitterly. “Literally the only person here that doesn’t want to openly murder me in god knows how long...and they leave because I can’t shut up...christ it’s like Earth all over again…” I muttered while seeing if I could summon a Keyblade Glider so I can fly around and not get attacked by the Mad One’s. Thankfully I was able… and when I got out I sat and wondered… what next? Steven ditched me, and I have no idea what to do, or where to go… “Well that went horrible.” I turned around. Player? “Took me a while to get here. Lord's work is good, almost too good.” “How are you doing Player?” I asked curiously. “And what are you doing here?” “I got worried. Knowing Lord how he is I know you'd be in trouble. Though it seems your mouth did you worse than your current weakness.” “Thank you for the obvious.” I sighed out. “So, can you help point me in the right direction of what I actually need to do?” “Sadly, no. I don't want Lord knocking on my door pissed. I'm not suicidal. But I can help with that mouth of yours. Sorta.” “Lord can suck a dick for all I care...I know I was the one that asked for this, to actually know by my own goddamn hands I’m strong instead of outside crap ruining everything for me...how can you help?” “Well it seems more likely your mouth and ranting is the issue… always. Time you listen more than speak. In short, I can 'curse’ you so you can only speak so many words a day, so you'll have to choose wisely what you say and listen to others before you cut in and rant.” “That would be a massive problem for me…” I said honestly. “Christ…” “Well it’s your choice. Give up talking and likely get along better with others or keep talking and piss everyone off. Your choice.” “How long will this last?” I asked, knowing this will only help me at the moment. “Til you regather your strength. So however long you take finding all you need to fight.” “Good to know I don’t know what the fuck I have to fight though.” I frowned. “Lord really needs to tell people things, not be a cryptic bitch.” “That's never gonna happen. So, you accept?” Player asked. “I...honestly just want to go home right now…” I sighed out. “But that won’t happen cause people hate me.” I muttered. “Fine, whatever…” “Alright.” Player said, passing a finger over my neck. “There. Now, you can only say twenty words a day.” I nodded, knowing this was probably for the best. I made some hand gestures to be like ‘where do I go from here besides in circles?’. To be continued...fuck Lord Author's Note Sorry for this chapter taking a while and the chapter just not being good Nobody trains Part 1Meanwhile “Alright.” I muttered while hefting Skysplitter again. “Still kind of sucks I don’t have anyone to train with, that normally makes things a hell of a lot easier.” I muttered while swinging my weapon again, a massive shockwave launching through the grassy plains Cript made for this one clone to train. “Especially when I’ve just swung this thing an asston of times...now sure that does count as training…” I muttered, wondering why I’m even talking to myself to begin with. “Even after so long with you weapons, you know very little. King of Nothing.” A voice suddenly said. “Okay first off, I have barely been doing this for a year, and second who are you and why are you giving me a massive migraine?” I asked, seeing my Nothingness spark and crackle like mad. A tall knight like figure stood a bit away. “You have already met my Emperor before, you should be able to piece it together Ben.” He said. “Okay, again who are you?” I asked. “Cause knowing you work for Max is one thing, knowing who you are in general is another.” I stated. “Fair point. I am Agamemnon The Overseer. The Void King of Knights. Master of All Weapons.” He said. “Nice to meet you Sir Agamemnon.” I said, wanting to at least be respectful to the Knight that might be able to kick my ass. “What brings you here to my realm? Max wanted to laugh at me getting my ass handed to me or what?” I asked, knowing full well he's really strong. “Hehe. Oh Ben. Not even Zeke at his current lvl can beat me, but I'm not here to fight.” He said walking a few feet closer. “Well anyone trained can beat someone who normally brute forces things because of all the handouts their forced to take.” I rolled my eyes. “So, if your not here to kick my ass, then I suppose you're here to show me what Master of Weapons actually means?” I asked, knowing I have 13 weapons and a few other powers. “First, it's Master of All Weapons. I didn't earn that as a handout, and Two-” he said before looking at….Skysplitter in his hand?! “-Max felt I should help you in regards to your Potential.” “I mean, that depends. You mean the potential normally or the admin powers I got after I murdered that sick fuck Gideon?” I asked. Agamemnon just waved Skysplitter in the air, and what felt like the whole world shook. The ground from miles around broke apart and floated above us and form floating islands. Water from even farther flowed up to them forming lakes on them. “The potential you can bring out with you weapons. This is just a small taste of Skysplitter real power.” He said. “Uh…” I blinked. “Um...how ‘small’ is that for you? Cause your ‘small’ and my ‘small’ are two completely different things….” I said slowly, not believing what the hell I just saw. “Jesus christ Skysplitter is fucking strong.” Agamemnon held up one hand towards the islands. “All you weapons are capable of similar if not greater feats then this. You just need proper guidance on them, and this is small...compared to what Skysplitter can do. My small...well there would be a new planet above us, but my power is still far higher than yours.” Agamemnon couldn’t tell if I was a puppy dog super giddy for it’s first walk with their new family or a child that just got a mountain of presents on Christmas, but all I know is that I was bouncing in the air in absolute giddy joy. “Are you telling me I get to actually do all that and more?” I asked, feeling very giddy about this now. “Hehehe. It's been awhile since I saw such excitement. Yes. You just need to truly master your weapons. That mark they got was just to open the Door. You need to step beyond that. Skysplitter can move, or split, planets with a single swing and create them as well. You just never had someone to properly show you.” Agamemnon said handing back Skysplitter. “Show me how you hold him” I took Skysplitter and held it before getting into Lexaeus did in the games, my feet in a solid grounded stance, Skysplitter resting on my shoulders but looking like it was ready to snap out at an enemy, and my free hand out ready for anything else. “Wrong!” Agamemnon yelled. He grabbed Skysplitter. “That style worked for that wielder, but you aren't him. That style doesn't suit your build nor Skyplitter’s weight in your hands. You might as well just drop it and slap your enemies.” “I mean, my physical strength is through the roof for several reasons.” I said honestly. “But how so? It feels fine enough to me.” “That's because of your Copy ability. It's a passive ability that copy's just about anything with exceptions. It's how you were so fast in gaining those marks. You just copied your old teachers styles without truly working for them.” Agamemnon said. “You know, to be perfectly honest I thought that ability had to be activated for what I wanted to copy, not just it always being on even when I thought it wasn’t on.” I said honestly. “How else do you explain your rapid growth? Not even the best of prodigies move that fast. Your ability basically handed you your teachers progress. Without it. It would have taken years to master even one for most beings.” Agamemnon told me. “I mean, I’m the Protagonist of this story so bullshit protagonist powers?” I asked. “While that helps somewhat you still progressed faster than reasonable. Not even Protagonist move that fast without cheat like abilities that help. Like those with a Gamer power. Which you don't have.” Agamemnon explained. “I’m sorry but I thought it was an active thing, not a passive thing.” I said honestly. “But to be perfectly honest the old man really wouldn’t have liked waiting years to be perfectly honest.” I said, talking about the old King of Nothingness here. “I've been around before he was even thought of, being inpatient leads to problems. Problems that could be worse than death. Nonetheless. It's not your fault for not knowing. Cript never explained how that power really works. Let me turn it off for now.” Agamemnon said. “Oh thank god.” I said. “Cause honestly, I’d like to learn without having everything be handed to me to be perfectly honest. I’m not Zeke, I don’t take handouts...unless it’s an important handout.” “Hold still...this will make you wish it only hurt.” Agamemnon said. Before shoving his hand...into my chest. I felt like someone was playing with my soul. I couldn't even think or move from what was happening. After what felt like an eternity he took his hand out. “There now. It's off for now.” “Fucking ow!” I barked. “Jesus, couldn’t you have done something besides fisting me right in the soul?” I asked. “Jesus that sounded horribly wrong.” “Perhaps, but that would require raising my power more, and it's even more dangerous if your unconsciousness. Don't want to accidentally shatter your soul while your asleep.” Agamemnon said. I literally lifted my arm and showed my Assistant. “And you couldn’t have done something like this? Using a thing to basically open a menu for all my skills and turn it off like that? You know full well real life involves Video Game logic for...whatever reason.” I said honestly. “But...alright then...just a little surprised this world isn’t shaking from how close we are.” I said, knowing Nothingness and Void are just like Light and Dark. “That shows both your lack of control of your powers, and my control over mine. If I let my power run free this land would be atomized by our powers reacting.” “Again, I have been doing this for only a year, even with Copy and other bullshit stuff I have barely worked on...basically anything besides getting into actual fights.” I said nervously. “Yes, you and the others don't really have a lot of battle experience. You mostly been making a harem to try and bring peace to your world. You all have so much to learn.” Agamemnon said. “That would mostly be me, mainly because of an ancient law that really hasn’t been taken away yet. But yes, I have plenty of combat experience cause it has...basically been none stop fighting against people for this entire damn year.” I said honestly. Agamemnon snapped his hand and we were somewhere else. There was a lake close by. Is this one of the islands? “I'll correct your stance with Skysplitter for now.” He handed back my weapon. “Now, the position of your feet before were close. Move them a bit closer and bend them two degrees more. To help spring into action and carry the weight and momentum better.” He started. I nodded while getting into the stance again, slowly moving to fix it properly and bending my knees a bit so it fit what he described. “The new position should feel different and your knees should have a greater strain then before. That's ok. Your adapting to a new stance and it'll take time and practice to get it down. Just try not to slip back into your old stance.” Agamemnon advices. “The strain on your knees will help build them up to take greater pressure. If your knees buckle from an overhand strike you blocked it could mean death. This stance will help train them to better take the pressure.” I gently bobbed up and down, mostly trying to feel how my new stance felt, and while it felt weird it was a bit more compact. “Hmm...well the stance feels a bit more compact that’s for sure.” I said, my combat experience at least helping me know how my body feels with a new stance and such. “Next. Bring Skysplitter to your right side for now. Blade facing away from your body. Hand your right hand grip the handle near the top, and your left hand about one hand hold away. Skysplitter is two handed currently for your size. Both hands will not only help stabilize the weight, but add to the momentum and power of your swings.” He said next. I nodded while moving my hands up to how he explained, knowing this thing is bigger than what a One handed weapon be for me but my strength helping me one hand it either way. “So, your teaching style...is it about being a perfectionist, where I need to do every tiny thing right?” “Perfect….in all my time there is no such thing. Everyone has their own version of perfect. My teaching is to help bring out the best in my students.” Agamemnon said. “What I'm teaching you now is to help. Later on you may adapt and modify your style to better suit you if need be. After all. We are all constantly growing.” “Makes sense.” I said honestly. “So, before you appeared...well you probably saw I was just swinging it repeatedly.” I said, knowing that’s one way to practice but not entirely sure if that was good for Agamemnon here. “Yes...I saw, and if Skysplitter could come alive and form a body it would pile drive you through the planet. While “swinging” a weapon helps improve ones body. If you swing properly, train or spar, it will also build muscle memory that could one day mean the difference between life and death. What would you rather have then, a random swing with no real power, or a train practice swing that's hits it's mark?” Agamemnon said. “Hits its mark, but knowing it would pile drive me into the planet would make me think it does care about me.” I joked. “Of course it cares. Otherwise it would have simply killed you.” Agamemnon said with a chuckle. “Now as for now. You need to practice swinging in that stance. Use both hands, swing slowly. Skysplitter's weight will make it difficult to control if you swing at top speed. I'll form a knight to spar with you. It'll be using a weapon of similar weight. Practice with it for about an hour for now. This will help you adjust to your stance and Skysplitter's weight. While I know you can hold it one handed. It's entirely different after swinging it around for a while.” Agamemnon instructed while summoning a suit of armor that moved on its own. About as tall as myself while wielding a copy of Skysplitter. “Alright...let’s get going then.” I said while digging into the ground and dashing forward at a slow enough speed, feeling quite a difference between my new stance and old one as I grabbed Skysplitter with my second hand and swung down slow and carefully so I don’t fuck up royally. “Since your swinging at a slower speed you should notice that you have to use your strength to not only swing, but to slow it down as well. Putting a bigger strain then normal. My knight will easily keep up even at your best speeds. Also the strain will become noticeably worse as time goes on.” “This is gonna hurt like a bitch won’t it?” I asked, the knight having blocked the attack without much issue and pushing me back. “What's the term, ‘No pain, No gain’?” Agamemnon said it what sounds playful. “Yeah, makes sense.” I said as I tried to swing at the knight again, but this time it dodged like a bitch. “Hooray, actual fucking hard work…” I muttered while swinging at the knight again, knowing this isn’t a test to actually hit the thing but to learn how to swing this. “Remember, if you miss you have to stop the blade and get ready to defend. If you let a miss drag you like it almost did just before it could mean either your death, or an innocent life lost from your own attack.” Agamemnon told. “That’s not good…” I muttered worriedly while I blocked the test dummies swing. “One thing I hate about being too strong...is that you can easily hurt everyone without even trying.” I said worriedly as I knocked it back and swung back at it. “That's another reason why your starting with slow swings. To learn how to control the momentum and power of your swings with Skysplitter. Once you have that down it should become much easy to move, block, counter, and attack in the heat of battle without losing momentum from your swings. Enough control and you can turn a miss into a momentum powered block or counter.” Agamemnon told me. “Makes sense.” I said, trying something new, as when I saw the knight try to slowly swing at me I actually pushed forward and shoulder checked the knight, moving my leg and twisting my body as I slowly swung Skysplitter, the position and action making it look like a slow baseball bat swing. The knight blocked it, and Agamemnon spoke. “Don't leave your stance so casually, while using your shoulder is a good move to get the drop on an opponent who isn't expecting it. It'll only work at least once on an opponent. You also leave yourself open should it fail. That swing was for something much lighter than Skysplitter. The momentum was off and had less than a quarter of the power it could have had.” “I suppose Baseball swings aren’t really good for a weapon like this huh?” I asked while backing away from the knight, panting and actually feeling the strain from this. “Even if I was sure I did the motion right.” I said, knowing the swing had to do with the momentum of turning your entire body into the swing. “Maybe, but for a different class of weapon altogether. If the swing was a little closer to your body and if you grip was a bit tighter if would have been correct. The weight difference is what made the move wrong. As well as the shape difference. Even the smallest of detail can make a difference in weapons.” He said. “Makes sense.” I said, getting back into my stance. “Jeez, this is pretty tough.” I said while moving forward and swinging again at the knight. And this went on for the next two hours, me moving and swinging at the test dummy, and Agamemnon giving me advice, tips and tricks to make what I’m doing better, fixing faults in what I’m doing, which were plenty. It was really tiring, stressful and sweat inducing, but to actually feel like I’m getting better with my own two hands felt a lot better than having Copy solve all my problems. “Hard work feels so much better than having things be handed to you…” I sighed out with a smile. Agamemnon nods. “You're doing well. Training like this will not only improve your fighting, but increase your battle stamina. What good is power in war if you run out of steam in the first few minutes?” “True.” I said honestly. “No need to become weak after so little time passes.” I stated. “Currently it is unclear who out of you and the others has the most, but John during his mark of Mastery was forced to fight basically a horde mode in the realm of darkness with only his keyblade. No void, and just his one arm. He even forgot he had keyblade armor and fought for hours against all kinds. Can you do the same with such handicaps?” Agamemnon asked. “I...actually did.” I said honestly. “When I was training to Master Eternal Flames, my Chakrams, I had to fight Horde Mode of Shadow Creatures.” I said. “And tell me, did you have anyone there incase things went wrong, or did you tap into another power like humanity during it?” Agamemnon asked. “I mean...that kind of happened.” I said honestly. “I remember I was doing it for literal hours, my master completely fucked off for me to master it, and then...Humanity happened for a split second and then...well I was apparently sent to a ‘Respawn Room’ because of Cript...still not sure how that works.” I explained simply. “So using humanity for what's probably your first time sent you there. John was lucky, he ended up tapping into it twice, once against a decaying light that was still Pycho, and against his inner rage. He damaged himself greatly, Mobutu his next part put him right on the line of death.” Agamemnon told me. “Huh, that’s interesting.” I said honestly. “Good to know me and John are...basically going along at some sort of same pace all things considering.” I said, blinking as my eyes changed into both Humanity and Psychopath colors. “So you know he is a Psychopath?” “That…” I actually took a moment and thought about it. “I honestly didn’t know. For some reason I thought I would have known but now that you mention it…” I scratched my chin curiously. “He has been one since he was little back on earth. Your earth. He did everything he could to hold them back, unlike Zeke though. To be blunt, with his Void. Had he not held back. Core wouldn't have survived that battle last time. Even with his Pride form.” Agamemnon told me. “From what Max tells though. John is letting the gates to his Psychopath open. Which he used to kill a former admin. Unlike you, since this was a former admin, he only got his weapon and a powerful ability.” “While I got all the other powers that only make it sound like worse Magic in context.” I frowned. “Seriously, what power makes you have to remember every number, every clause, and force you to remember a table of contents just to make a god damn wooden hammer?” “You would be surprised. Now for the next step with Skysplitter. It's raw power feature.” Agamemnon told me. Snapping his finger again and we were on another island. “A change of scenery to help.” “Oh boy.” I said while holding Skysplitter. “Can’t wait to see how this fully work’s.” I said, wondering what the special ability could do. “At basic. It's just a power boost, but it can turn the tide if you know how to use it.” Agamemnon said. “That disk behind the blade there. You see it.” He said pointing at it. “It’s...a gauge or what?” I asked curiously. “Oh wait...it’s a valve right?” “Actually, more of a storage unit that's connected to its user. It can hold twice the amount or more of what you can hold. Example, you use the power to boost yourself about fifty times, the disk, for a short while, will add a hundred to it.” Agamemnon explained. “So...what? Do I take it off or spin it?” I asked curiously. Agamemnon just looked at me, like if he was debating if he should check my head for something. “No. You take that off...then you basically destroyed Skysplitter. You tap into it and absorb the power it holds to temporarily give yourself a massive boost. Let's give an example. On a certain world their is a power that boost the user almost endlessly. So if say, they had a power of 1 and was facing a 100. If they survive long enough their power would eventually double enough to surpass the 100. The disk is similar to a technique of the power called explosion. Which for a short time massively boost their multiplied power. Understand so far?” “Sounds simple enough.” I said honestly. “So...gonna have to learn how to control that power?” “Yes, because at the moment you absorb 100% of the boost with nothing going into the storage, basically increasing you power by 5 times every time, while not bad it's still a waste. Know why?” Agamemnon asked. “How so?” I asked curiously. “I suppose it’s because it’s too small?” “No. Like I said your getting the current max boost you can get till you train it more, but it means you have nothing in reserves in case you need it. If you did and were in a struggle where your opponent was slightly stronger than you. Those reserves would mean the difference.” He explained. “Yeah, that is true.” I said while taking a deep breath. “It's also a little trump card incase your opponent underestimates you. Pull it and overwhelm them before they know what happened.” Agamemnon said. “Alrighty then.” I said while the Aura that normally benefits this weapon surrounded me. “So...how to proceed with this?” “After taking the full process in for so long this will be a bit tricky. All I can say is meditate on how much power your taking in, and how much you can put away. As for the elemental portion, that's something you must learn yourself. I can't hold your hand throughout the entire weapon. That wouldn't make it yours then.” Agamemnon told me. For the next hour you'll power up slowly and see if you can separate the energy, do this till you can one day get about fifty fifty and it.” “Alright...sounds simple enough.” I said while doing exactly that, my Aura growing and shrinking before leveling out as I imagined it going to two different vents to myself and the holder. “Gonna take a while…” I muttered while focusing my power. “Do this when your practice this power. We'll do this for about an hour before moving on to another weapon.” Agamemnon said. An hour later and this practice was really hard to get down. Separating the power was very difficult. At the end it felt like barely any progress was made, but Agamemnon told me I had separated 0.05% from it. Which apparently was impressive since this is a hard technique to do. “Now. The weapon will be Sharpshooters. Why their named that I'll never understand, but there have been worse names.” He said “That is perfectly understandable.” I said while swapping Skysplitter out for Sharpshooters. “So, besides these things being able to control gravity, what mystical thing can they do that I obviously don’t know about?” I asked curiously. “Show me what you can do first, since their guns there isn't really a lot on stances to work on especially since these things have so little recoil. Show me how you use them both separately, in their sniper mode, and in their GreatBow mode.” He said. “Wait, Greatbow form?” I asked in confusion. “Was that from Kingdom Hearts 3 or something? Cause I still have yet to play that.” I frowned, really needing to get to doing that. “If Xigbar never used that before when either training you or during those ‘games’ was most likely because he didn't think you can handle that forms power yet.” Agamemnon said before taking Sharpshooter. “It's like this.” He said before combing the two into a bow just a bit taller then myself. “That’s just cool.” I said. “I always wanted to learn how to use a bow to be honest...really liked them to be honest.” “They take more discipline and training then any crossbow. But make up for it with their precise aiming and range. This one in particular, can generate about ten times the power the sniper form can. As well as its own trick shots.” Agamemnon explained. “Oh boy.” I said. “Can’t wait to learn all of that...this just gets better and better doesn’t it?” I asked with a smile, so glad to learn new things. “There is much to learn about all your weapons. Unfortunately even though I know them you yourself have to learn them. I can't show you every trick your own gear has. As for this one.” He then pulls back on the string as a huge arrow appears. “Watch.” He lets go and the resulting gust of wind actually nearly blows me over. I turned and saw the arrow...annailate an island and soon past it increasingly fast. Not once dropping from its trajectory. “Jesus christ…” I muttered. “First, Skysplitter can just make new land masses...and now Sharpshooters can just blow them up without much problems…” “And this is just the beginning. With enough practice you can even control the arrow for precise targets. Example, someone is holding one of your kids hostage and you don't have a clear shot in front of you. Just fire in a different direction and make the arrow come at them from a blind spot.” He says. “Wouldn’t one of the auto homing mods of the weapon help with that? Or does the bow form turn off those things?” I asked curiously, remembering there were some mods to help make Sharpshooters better. “You do know that while crossbows can shoot more than one arrow, but a bow would at most only shoot one before you have to draw another right?” He asked. “I mean...depending on the person they can probably fire a bunch of arrows rather quickly.” I said honestly. “That's still one arrow. Just shot and reloaded and shot again extremely fast.” Agamemnon said. “Even if you notched more then one the accuracy drops depending on how many you notched. That's why learning how to control the arrow or arrows motion comes into factor.” He explained. “Makes sense.” I said honestly. “Even then it’s mostly one at a time, while Sharpshooters can fire...millions from my own personal experience.” “The gun mode has the speed to overwhelm the target while the sniper mode has the precision to nail even an opening the size of a papercut. The bow...has the power to pierce even some of the toughest hides to armor in a single shot. Sharpshooter is a versatile weapon in the right hands.” Agamemnon said. “I suppose that’s why it is both insanely difficult to make, and costs a metric fuck ton to buy…” I said honestly. “The more you know I suppose.” “With your current Strength you should be able to handle the bow at low power, it can compact or grow depending on the power you might need. Its currently in its GreatBow form. You can handle its compact form.” Agamemnon said as the bow shorten a bit before handing it back. “And to give an example of its power again. A full power shot from the compact form. Makes a nuke look like a firecracker.” “Honestly, when you have magical weapons of unknown strength literally anything that should be scary isn’t really that scary anymore.” I said while taking Sharpshooters back. “Like Nuke’s for example, supposed to be one of the most dangerous weapons in human history...and then you have these things.” I said while raising Sharpshooters up. “Funny how that works isn’t it?” “It is. Now you won't make an arrow yet. For now just practice pulling the string, aiming and letting go. Hold the string back as long as you can to help build strength and stamina. Because the opening for the shot can take awhile. Every Hunter knows that they might even wait hours for the shot.” He said. Making a target in the distance. I nodded. “Yeah, I’ve done some hunting before, just without weapons and it normally takes a while.” I said while taking a step back to get my footing as I raised my bow and pulled the string back, taking aim at the target carefully. This continues for about an hour. Half way through he made me switch to the GreatBow and the difference was very noticeable. Couldn't hold the string back even half as long as the compact mode, but when I let go the gust of wind definitely shows the power. “Now go back to compact. We will now begin making arrows. Unlike the gun, you must use your magic to make them, and it cost more on your reserves to make one then it does to make over a hundred, and that's not counting the GreatBow arrows or trick arrows.” He said. “Oh boy.” I said while shrinking the thing down and pulling the string back, focusing my mana to form one arrow and I could feel the mana poured into the actual arrow. “Jeez...that’s a lot of power…” I muttered, taking aim at the target again and holding it, feeling the difference between just holding the string and having an arrow there as well. “This right?” “Correct. I've made the target very sturdy. So unless you end up using an arrow that somehow has a thousand time more power then what your current mana pool can give you won't break it. Doing this has three benefits. One, it'll help you get the feel of forming the arrows to allow quicker making. Two, it will help your control to make making these arrows as well as high cost spells more efficient on magic then before. And three, this will help increase your mana pool.” Agamemnon said before looking at the sun. “Once we're done with sharpshooter we will have enough time to do one more before nightfall. Then we use Lunatic as its power mainly draws from the moon, especially the moon phase it's in.” “I was explained that Lunatic, while being forged from a Moon that survived a SuperNova, don’t ask me how that was at all possible, that the Claymore is actually a lot more than just a rage weapon, that it actually works with the full spectrum of emotions...I wasn’t entirely told about the moon phases though, just thought that was a little...metaphorical?” I asked, wondering if that was the right word for the whole ‘Moon’ theme Saix had given that he was a pair of ears away from becoming a full Werewolf. “True, but it's ties to the moon are much more important. Emotions are one half of its power. Like half of the moon if you will. The moon provides the other half. Especially a Lunar Eclipse.” He said. “Oh?” I asked curiously. “What, is it like Inuyasha where Lunatic goes full berserk or where it can literally do nothing?” I asked curiously, randomly remembering that old anime. “A new moon provides no boost, but still have the emotion part. A Lunar Eclipse on the other hand. Provides it's full power. Tonight in this world is a half moon. So you'll see a taste of its power. As for why the moon survived the SuperNova. Is because that wasn't an ordinary moon. You see only three types of moons can survive that type of explosion. Moons that were altered and trapped in the Void, which this wasn't, Moons that have survived the era of admin when they first started, again not this one. Or...Moons that have escaped Nothing.” He said. “But we will continue this another time. Now. One hour. Or try to last as long as you can.” “Huh...well isn’t that just a sudden twist of irony.” I said honestly while aiming at the target and firing one of my arrows at the target. “Escaped Nothingness...only to be forged into a Nothingness Weapon…” I said while drawing my bow back and summoning another arrow. “You know…” I said while firing another arrow, hitting the target again. “It’s gonna suck when we have to fight you guys...if given my past experiences mean anything of becoming King of a Fact of Reality is anything to go by.” I mentioned, drawing my bow again and summoning another arrow. “We aren't allies. Let me make that clear now. Max has...plans. For what will happen after Cript makes his Utopia. Cript either doesn't realize or forget a crucial fact about something. Max won't begin it immediately. He’ll let you rest from that ‘war’.” Agamemnon said. “I know you and your fellow King’s follow Max but…” I fired another arrow and hit the target again. “Can’t we just...you know, not do that obvious crap? Being friends and not trying to kill each other is a lot better...unless you and the other’s are just tired from however long you’ve lived and just want it to end like the old King of Nothingness.” I said, not knowing their full stories but having a feeling there’s something like that there as I drew my bow and summoned another arrow. “If we die then so be it. We all have come to accept that, but we each have our reasons for both following Max, and continuing what is to come. If it were possible then we could have been friends, but such a world doesn't exist. And if what Max has planned comes to fruition. Then even if Cript and Lord team up. They wouldn't be able to stop.” Agamemnon said. “Now let's continue this. If you want to be ready for this ‘war’.” I could only sigh at hearing that. “Jeez...when Reality was opened up, it felt like there was infinite possibilities...yet it’s still so damn limited sometimes.” I said while firing another arrow, this time hitting the dummy in the head. This continues for the rest of the hour. Making these arrows are taking a good hit to my magic, and it's getting exhausting. But I push though. I continue to hit the head while missing a few time. Though those misses hit the body. Before I know it the hour is up. “Alright...that’s an hour…” I muttered while pulling out an Elixer and chugging it, feeling my stamina and mana go back up. “Ah, that feels better.” I said. “Now…” I looked up, seeing the sun was still up. “Well we still got time, which one next?” I asked curiously, wondering which of my nine other weapons could work since Lunatic was waiting for night time. “Next Interdiction. Remind me who created those if you know?” He asked. “That would be the Previous King.” I said while summoning Interdiction. “He told me...he made this weapon with his own Heart, which is why it’s really strong and has Nothingness as it’s basis of power.” I explained. “True. He was deserving of his title. To master thirteen weapons as powerful as there are takes true dedication. Did you also ever wonder where lightsabers got their base from?” He asked. “Um…” I looked a little concerned. “I mean, I doubt talking about Star Wars is a good example…” I said sheepishly. “But...I know normal Lightsabers are made of plasma and not light that’s for sure.” “I meant he once used them in a battle long ago and the creator of Lightsabers was inspired. So in a way. The old King was the first Lightsaber master.” He said before summoning one with a purple beam. “Such weapons are truly remarkable.” “They are really cool.” I said honestly. “But I read up that these things have a special ability of...being really really good at murdering Abomination’s of Balance, I have a feeling it’s tied to either it’s name or the fact this was made from a person’s heart?” “That is something you'll have to learn. I will tell you it's somewhere in his archives. Just know it's nowhere. Also. Interdiction can also be held like a Lightsaber, but forming the hilt is an advanced form. Remember...ah remember that hidden boss for birth by sleep that had similar weapons to Interdiction?” He asked. “That guy can eat a dick.” I frowned. “Seriously, bullshit fight...even if his attacks were cool.” “Those range attacks that had your character constantly rolling are also part of Interdiction. So with enough practice you can use his techniques as your own. Though it is puzzling how he had the mastered version of Interdiction while Xemnas only had the adapt version.” Agamemnon said. “Time Travel.” I said. “That was Young Xehanort, where he had No Name to just openly go to whatever time he wanted cause Nomura needed to add Time Travel to that whole convoluted story.” I rolled my eyes. “So yeah, Time Travel is a hell of a solution.” “Not what I meant but we’re getting off schedule. Since Interdiction is basically weightless. You'll be doing the stances you were taught, since unlike the others the king actually taught you a stance that works for you. I'll weigh your clothes and personal gravity to make this harder, and I want you to take it slow like with Skysplitter. This will teach accuracy over speed so when the time comes you won't miss and either die or kill and innocent.” He said before I suddenly felt extremely heavy. I nodded while taking a deep breath. “Damn, this is heavy…” I muttered while looking at my new sparring dummy. “Alright…” I said while trying to see if I could lift my arms up normally, cause even with my massive strength this was really heavy. “Now for one hour. When that is done you will then try and maintain a hilt for Interdiction for an hour, and after that. You'll repeat the first step only with the hilts. Fore handed for the first half hour then back handed. Once that's done its should be night time for Lunatic.” He explains. “Alrighty then.” I said while taking my stance and with lead hand to start and took this slow to get used to both the weight and gravity as I fought against the test dummy. “The hour has passed.” He said as he removed the weights and gravity. I rolled my shoulders, feeling so light now. “Jeez, feels like I can barely stay on the ground.” I chuckled a little. “You got use to the higher gravity, it also help make you faster as well as built up your endurance. Like it did with Goku after his trip to Namek training. As a bonus your body being tougher should let you use more True Nothingness than before since you can handle it. Now, we will begin with forming a hilt.” He told me. “A hilt?” I asked curiously. “Like what? Turning this thing into an actual sword or putting the two together to for a double bladed staff?” I asked curiously, knowing that what Mysterious Figure did with Interdiction I could do. Agamemnon held out his hand as a hilt similar to what the Mysterious Figure had formed. “The hilt like I said is an advanced form of Interdiction. Although Xenmes didn't use it, that dome he made proves he was a master of it. You must picture the hilt in your mind. As this is advanced you probably won't get it right away and when you do the concentration to hold it and form the blade would take its toll. Just the blades would take almost no concentration.” He explained. “Alrighty then.” I said while taking a deep breath and focusing, trying to form a hilt for at least one of the blades on Interdiction. “They don't have to look like what he had or what I had. The hilt can be a simple sword hilt if you want. You chose the hilt.” Agamemnon said. I thought for a moment, before an idea popped into my head as I slowly formed a hilt for Interdiction, the two lightsaber blades growing basket hilts in the shape of wings that covered up my hands, the two actually having an angel wing and a bat wing...and good lord was this a bitch and a half to form. “Christ...even with the full image and focus...bitch and a half…” I muttered while continuing to focus and create the hilts for my weapon. “Like I said, the toll on you mentally is more than you ever had to use. Unlike John's Void Construct ability creating things like this is mentally tasking. John's ability not only has a much wider array of creation but the mental toll is almost nonexistent. This should also help prepare for mental attacks that's supposed to hurt.” Agamemnon said. “True...but that’s not until I figure out how to do...basically all of that.” I said honestly. “Seriously, barely know half of what Nothingness can do, and have yet to fully go into all that crap…” I sighed out. “Then this training as well as the others will help prepare you. Now continue.” He said. “Alright…” I said while taking a deep breath and the hilts finally fully formed. “So...is the symbolism too blunt given the origins of this weapon?” I asked curiously, gripping the hilts tight as I kept up my focus to keep the hilts there. “It doesn't matter. If those are the hilts you want then go ahead. I'm surprised your starting with two instead of one at first.” He said. “I just...had the idea honestly.” I said. “Just popped into my head...wanting to see if I could do it...and apparently I can...if I’m only doubling the trouble…” “It's fine. How you start this is up to you. At some point you should be able to make a two handed hilt that while not as fast would strike with more power, but not for now. Making two is taking a big toll as it is.” He said. “And I’m dumb enough to try to take leaps instead of steps for some dumb reason…” I said, trying to keep it as long as I can. “So...can I learn who your fellow Kings are...or am I going to figure that out when one of them appears to actually try and kill me?” “It wouldn't matter if you did know and Max doesn't care so sure.” Agamemnon said. “You know of me already. The Void King of Knights. Not only am I best with Weapons, but I'm faster than the others bare Max. Then there is the Void Berzerker King. Broly.” “Uh...excuse me, did you just say ‘Broly’?” I asked, my eyes widening at hearing that. “Okay wait, I have a feeling I’m thinking of a completely different Broly right now...but honestly just the thought of Broly with Void powers...that’s both awesome and extremely terrifying.” “If you meant the non-canon one well Max had him and his canon self fight….canon won without even transforming.” Agamemnon said. I don’t care if this broke my concentration but I could only jump up in joy at hearing such an awesome thing. “Okay, what movie was this new Broly in? I need to know.” I said with a giant ass smile. “Dragon Ball Super: Broly. It happens after this tournament called the ‘Tournament of Power’ that had a few fighters close to or even surpassing Gods of Destruction. And Broly is in the upper tier even though he wasn't in the tournament. He isn't alone with us. This friend of his joined as well. Max let her because she can calm him down better then we can. Though Max could knock him out this is a better way.” He explained. “Holy crap, Broly has a Girlfriend.” I chuckled a little. “But I really have a lot of Dragon Ball to catch up on apparently...I am just so happy to hear this even if he could apparently easily beat a lot of people.” “His raw power is higher than the other kings with Max being the only one with more. There was a reason he was trained by Cript. He and to an extent John have a massive amount of potential. Should I also mentioned when canon fought non-canon the non-canon had void while the other didn't?” He asked. I imagined that…“I’m sorry, but the Hype Train can only go so fast.” I said, just having a stupid ass smile at how awesome that sounds. “Never before have I been so happy to meet someone that can just as easily murder everything without much thought.” “Oh this Broly is more chill then the other, but his anger and rage when set off makes him a terrifying opponent since he still learns as he fights. As for the next king. There is the Void King of Sorcery. Madoras.” He said. I thought for a moment. “I’m either imagining an old man who’s so good at magic any word he says holds power...or Raiden from Metal Gear Solid 2…” I said, not entirely sure why that came to mind. “He was once the ruler of his own kingdom that spanned half his world. He was of course the evil one and had a war with the other kingdom. He eventually made these giant suits of armor called Knights that are almost like mechs really. Powerful magic in his world, but when he was losing he made a spell and sealed himself in one of these Knights. After ten millennia he returned. Only to be defeated by the former pactmakers and an artificial knight. He was once known as the ‘Dark God of Destruction’. His magic power is only surpassed by Max. And I'm not even counting the power he gets from his own knight.” Agamemnon explained. “Well that sounds nifty.” I said honestly. “Hmm...that sounds weirdly like Xenogears mixed with Final Fantasy now that I think about it…” I said, finding that just a bit weird. “Next is the Void Paladin King. Ardyn. He is actually from a Final Fantasy world. 15 I believe.” He said. “That...name sounds familiar for some reason.” I said, thinking back. “Maybe Joy played Final Fantasy 15 in his spare time? Hmm…” I hummed. “You, him, and the main character of that world share one thing.” He said. “You each have a multitude of weapons to summon and use, but while you have thirteen. They had fifteen. Not as powerful as yours but versatile nonetheless.” “Makes sense.” I said honestly. “But those fifteen weapons probably have some mystical super power locked away behind something or another.” “That will be learned later if you ever meet him. The final King though. The King of Champions and the second command to Max. Her name is Frisk.” He said. “That’s...a completely different Frisk than the one Joy’s dating right?” I asked nervously. “Unless she is blond, has seven souls, and has a god complex as well as sadistic when she feels like it. Then probably no.” He said. “Okay, cause Joy is dating...Storyshift Frisk if I got her worlds name right.” I said with some thought. “But I’m...curious as to why that Frisk has...all those things.” “She is different then all the other Frisk’s. Her power is something fierce. As the Champion while she can't beat me in speed, Broly in raw power, Madoras in magic, or Ardyn in combat. Her balance of them all and with how close each category is to us means none of us could beat her even if we fight her at once.” He said. “Max is the only one that can beat her, easily to, and the only one she truly respects. She acknowledges us but she practically loves him. And before you say something like age being an issue. One, she doesn't care for any of that, and two. She has an adult form. Just prefers her kid form.” “I would be shocked if she didn’t.” I said honestly. “I have a feeling she flirts constantly though…” “You have no idea, but do my numbness to such things, Broly’s innocence, Ardyn not caring about that stuff, and Madoras being questionably gay or something. It doesn't work much. Although Max might be affected a little even if she doesn't know it. His mask hides it.” He said. “That’s probably for the best...given I know full well how both Frisk and Chara flirt due to Joy.” I rolled my eyes. “Well she tries her best to get him. Even using her adult form and other tricks. Max knows if she does affect him and learns it. She will be much more aggressive.” He said. “Although Max is the only one that didn't shiver when she tortured someone at base...it wasn't pleasant at all. Madoras even thought of heading to Gideons realm to get away from that.” I tasted bile. “Please...let’s just skip right past that right now please.” I said while trying not to throw up at that mental image if Gideon was more pleasant than whatever that Frisk did. “She actually has a bone to pick with you for that. She wanted a new ‘toy’ to play with before you killed him, and I meant him not whatever he had in his realm. Max also hated him, but do to him being a delete to someone else he couldn't really make a move till he finds a way past that. Gideon was worse than trash, but was actually smart enough not to do anything to summon a delete into his realm as he didn't want his...you know what's possible damaged.” He said. “Well Max can thank me later for killing him.” I said. “Seriously, Gideon saw me, he could have done something...he just stood there as I beat the ever loving shit out of him.” I said honestly. “...do I need to explain what the opposite of sadist is to show why he stood there…?” He asked. I raised a hand up...before walking over the side and throwing up. “Hate you...hate you so much...for that thought process…” I groaned. “Max does send thanks. Although Frisk is still pissed. Trust me with what she would have done. He wouldn't have like even an atto second of it. She is good at what she does.” Agamemnon said. “Good lord…” I grumbled while taking deep breaths to try and settle my stomach so I can relax. “Fuck...but hey, at least Max is okay with what I did...even though he’s probably going to be Cript and Lord’s Delete if I’m good at seeing obvious fucking details.” I said. “I mean, when you think about it, Cript and Lord trying to make everything one world out of all the reflections? Someone’s going to stand up and kick them back down right?” Agamemnon was silent for a minute. “....Max told me to tell what would happen if you guessed that. Though he figured you might.” “He’s a Delete...and from what I was told Deletes are supposed to be there to keep Admins in check right?” I asked curiously. “Correct. Max won't start right away. He’ll give you all time to rest and enjoy your win.” He turned towards me...did he get taller? “There will be another war.” He said walking closer to me. Am...am I shaking? I really hated that I was on the side of this island’s cliff. “Uh...yeah...I was told there was going to be two or three more after this...this one brings the worlds together...the next one...or the last one...kills Kingdom Hearts…I was told this...a long time ago.” I said, not remembering when I learned that. “Hehehe.” He chuckles as killer intent came off him. “This isn't a keyblade war. Max doesn't consider those even a battle.” He said. “I mean...neither do I cause this will be a glorified boss rush, after that it would be clean up that’ll take months.” I rolled my eyes. “Stupid how Power Creep works doesn’t it?” I asked, trying to bring a lighter mood to this even if it might not work. It didn't work as he came closer. My instincts yelling at me to run. “This isn't like that. You think you stand a chance?” He asked as he got two feet from me. Looking down on me. “....you already lost.” “You never know.” I said, gulping down my fear and trying to stay strong here. “We have three years till the war starts...and then we have however much time we have until you decide to make your move...so a lot can happen in that time.” “Yes...so do we. And maybe even more. Frisk can create alternative dimensions that go on a different time stream. And Max prepares, plans, and backup plans. There is not a thing you can do that he won't to an extent be able to predict and counter.” He said. “So why even bother helping?” I asked. “If your all going to win anyways, why not just do it now and save yourself the trouble?” “Because, Max wants there to be some challenges for us. Just Cript and Lord won't be enough for him.” “There’s just...one tiny detail Max might be overlooking here...and that would be John and his Kings.” I said honestly. “Cause if I know anything from personal experiences...John and his Kings are going to replace all of you.” “You learned how to use code and see the ID of everything right? Check mine.” He said. Making me pause at that. “You cheating mother fuckers…” I muttered while my eyes flashed white, noting...there wasn’t anything. “I call heavy sets of horseshit cause that should be physically impossible, mostly because other you’s exist so how in the high hell?” “There are no other me’s. Nexus made sure of that. And did you think your admin code, Nothingness Code, was the only unique code? That Max couldn't have gain one?” He said. “Um...I know he trained under Cript but...aren’t Delete’s supposed to...you know, be the Antithesis to Admins? So shouldn’t that also be impossible?” I asked, finding this both very informative...and very confusing on how that works. “What, did he figure out how to mix what he learned from Cript and his Delete powers to...basically make a Virus Code?” “You guess his second, or third Code well. Max is very persistent. And patient. Took him over twenty millennia in Frisk’s dimensions.” Agamemnon said. “Goody.” I sighed out. “Cause that’s what I want to know...also sorry for guessing so much about Max’s plan...past experiences and me just being a book nerd help cause that.” I said honestly. “He knew you would so it's fine. He had one last message though. ‘Let's start’-” Agamemnon held out his hand as...I couldn't see it clearly, but that shape...it..couldn't be. “-’ the X-Blade War’.” “No...that...that can’t…” I muttered while turning into my Heir Final Form, dashing away as all my weapons floated around me. “This can’t be fucking happening...and here I thought this was just going to be a good training time...not having me get murdered immediately.” I said while holding No Heart at the ready, all my other weapons at the ready as well. “Don't worry.” He said as he not only put his weapon away, but powered down as well as stops his killer intent. “This is training. That war won't happen for some time. Now are you going to keep up this act, or are you going to resume your old training?” I sighed out. “Maybe don’t scare the shit out of me for one…” I sighed out while floating back onto solid ground and deactivating my drive form. “Christ...alright so after all that nonsense…” I said while looking up, wondering what time it is right now. “About an hour till moon rise. So we’ll alter the training a little, half an hour keeping the hilts stable, and then practice with them.” Agamemnon said. “Alright…” I said while summoning Interdiction again and making my hilts again, focusing to keep them stable. This continues till the half hour mark. I've been able to keep them somewhat stable. Wishing I didn't start asking questions for two reasons now. Now I'm going through the first training only with the hilts. The weights, gravity, and the concentration all together made this much worse than I thought. Soon though the moon is up and time is done. “Well done. Now bring out Lunatic so we can begin.” He said. “Alright…” I said while summoning Lunatic. “Once we’re done with this you'll take a break and rest. No arguments, but even admins need rest now and then. Now, while like the last one the style with how the weapon is suits you, and you already have a good grasp on the emotion side. You just need to learn how to tap into the moon side.” He explained. “Hold out Lunatic, and try to feel the moon inside it. Feel the power that sleeps within, that only the light of a moon can bring out. Don't use emotion or you might draw in the other source.” I nodded while holding out Lunatic, focusing to feel the light of Lunatic’s Moon. “Alright...time to feel the moon…” I muttered. “If we had a full moon or a lunar eclipse it would be easier, but this is good since it would give you something to find.” Agamemnon said. “Yeah, that’s true.” I said while sensing the light of the moon. “I mean...this should also be simpler given I’m a Dire Wolf…” I said while taking a deep breath, trying to follow more of the moonlight to see what strength it could give. “Your blood as it is now would make this easier then for most, but that still doesn't make it easy.” He said. “Yeah...cause even if it makes it easier...nothing’s ever easy.” I said honestly. “But...I can feel the Moon…” “If that's true. Then don't lose or forget that feeling. Hold onto it, and pull it in.” He said. I took a deep breath. “Moon shine down…” I muttered, feeling the light of the Moon being pulled out strongly. “Jeez...even a half moon...this feels pretty strong.” “Your not there yet. Tap deeper. Your nearly there.” He said. I did and tried to go deeper. I felt like something was blocking me from it. “Something’s blocking me…” I said, finding that a bit curious. “You mean your blocking yourself. The intensity of Lunatic’s power is one of the highest in your arsenal. Your subconsciously walling yourself to protect yourself. Break those limits, and prepare for it.” Agamemnon said. “Alright...if you say so.” I said while taking a deep breath, pulling down my limiter on Lunatic and pulling more of the Moons power into me. “Almost…” I muttered, making sure my limiters are down as I felt more of the power pour forth. “That's it.” He said, and then suddenly. Like a dam breaking. I...felt a rush of power. Like an uncontrolled ocean running free. It was….was...intense. I barely noticed the strain I was suddenly on. “Holy damn...and this is just a half moon?” I asked, gritting my teeth as I tried to reign in this ocean of power so it didn’t do something bad to me. “That's why you needed to feel this now. Under a full moon or even worse a Lunar Eclipse you would most likely have been put into a coma. While True Nothingness is more intense this will help prepare your body for pressure like this. Learn to regulate it and control it. It will intern allow you to access more and more of its power. Now try and keep it under control, but don't force it. Guide it. Show it the path it needs to go so it doesn't ravage your body.” Agamemnon explained. “Alright…” I nodded while taking a deep breath and directing my power through my entire body and towards Lunatic especially, using Lunatic as a Ground for all this power, seeing the Claymore go into it’s ‘unleashed’ form as it glowed a pale light. “Alright...I think I’m getting the hang of it…” I muttered hopefully. “A little, but that's to be expected. Continue this for half an hour. Then after that we will stop for the night. Even Admins need breaks once in a while, and this isn't up for debate.” Agamemnon said. “That’s fine...cause seriously this has been one hell of a workout…” I said while continuing to direct the currents so it wouldn’t rip me apart. “Kind of wish I knew all these things before…” I muttered to myself. “Many have said the same thing.” He said. “And many more will say it in the future…” I sighed out. “It’s only going to get worse from here…” I continue for the half hour. Many times the strain nearly knocked my out, but I held on. It's getting a little easier, but still far from controlled, and this is just a half moon version. “Alright...that’s half an hour…” I muttered. “Now...how to stop this before I do something stupid…” “Just relax, and let the moon go. Slowly now. Don't want it to drag your own magic with it.” He said. I nodded while taking a deep breath and slowly letting the moon’s power go, feeling it slowly leave me. “Just...let it out slowly…” “Slow. To fast and at best you'll drag your magic with it and exhaust yourself. I don't think I need to say what the worst is do I?” Agamemnon said. “No.” I said while feeling the power slowly leave at a gradual pace. “Good. Your doing well. Once your done we’ll stop for the night. You'll need your rest for tomorrow. I won't stay for the entire duration of your training. I'll help show you the path, but you must walk it yourself. As for what Max is planning. That won't happen for some time.” He said. “Yeah...but it’s a little weird…” I said. “Is he trying to find something out of all of this? Cause while he hates Cript and that’s fine...why bring everyone else into it?” I asked curiously, feeling like there was something else involved in this. “Or...is it a someone?” I asked, finding revenge to be a bit petty for Max all things considered. “ ‘sigh’ There….is something out there in existence. Something that shouldn't exist yet does. Something as old as Admins themselves, and has the power to effortlessly...kill both Cript and Lord despite what they are.” He said. “Cause...of course…” I sighed out. “And let me guess, that’s how you don’t have an ID? Max has been trying to become...whatever the hell that is?” “Close. He wants to surpass it. You see after Max killed, or at least thought he killed, his Cript he first headed to the place souls go to find those he last to Cript...only for that place to be barren. Cript doesn't know...but that thing was there. Now….nothing can bring them back. Not even Admins. Because how can you bring back something...that erases Deletes themselves.” Agamemnon said. I blinked. “That...should be literally impossible but...I suppose when you kill enough of a certain thing…” Agamemnon was about to speak when a...small portal made of void appeared and a letter came out. He read it and chuckled. “Well now. That's interesting.” “What? Did I call how...whatever the hell that thing was was formed?” I asked curiously. “That was close. When the Deletes first formed with the admins not much was known. After a bit of time they decided to basically have a Royal rumble to say. One...was left standing, and became something that can't by any current means can be killed. Not even that new sword that Cript made to kill Facts themselves can kill it. I wouldn't be surprised if he tried anyway. Max has ideas and plans that could stop it, but…” Agamemnon said. “Excuse me, did you say Cript made a weapon that kills Facts?” I asked. “Good lord…” I sighed out while all the extra moon power left me and I took a deep breath. “Yes he did. Also Vincent is dead now.” He said. Like it was just the weather he was talking about. I face palmed. “God damn it...and here I thought he would have been an important part of the upcoming war or something after that.” “Nope. Cript's adventures when it doesn't involve you or the others is basically off screen, or off page in this case. Not like Vincent was an actual threat nowadays. At least not to Max.” He said. “That actually raised some questions, Cript made him seem like a massive problem for literally everyone, then Max struts in and makes him his bitch...seemed a little weird.” I said honestly. “Max wasn't anywhere near as strong as he currently is back then. Vincent played him. Although because of that Max learned a large portion of his power was held back by mental barriers that formed after what his Cript did. He went to work to not only remove those barriers, but to gain more power than ever. He made sure we weren't lagging behind as well.” Agamemnon explained. “Now after all this he is at the very least close to even Cript's strength, and that's not even counting Virus.” “Oh boy, sounds like a wonderful time.” I said while using Lunatic as a crutch cause I was shockingly tired from everything. “Jeez, didn’t expect to be this tired...even after popping an elixer.” “Lunatic is more taxing thAn most of your weapons. So it's to be expected. That's why that's the last one for tonight. Also the letter wasn't about what you guessed. Max has informed me the Zeke and Eclipsa has entered a special dimension made for Admins to go all out. Zeke lost, but has gotten stronger.” He said. “It’s weird...I’ve never actually fought Zeke.” I brought up. “Honestly I thought I would have been the one to knock Zeke down a peg since I couldn’t give a shit about his place in reality...but it’s good Eclipsa did it.” “He has learned that he isn't nowhere near the limit. He can still grow and improve. That makes him a bit better than that Nexus Spawn. Get some rest now. You'll need it.” Agamemnon said before walking over to a tree a couple meters away and sitting underneath it. “Alright…” I said. “Well...good to know some good things happened…” I said before falling over, Lunatic disappearing as I clonked out on the soft enough grass under the calm night sky. Before I completely clocked out though. I heard him say one last thing. “You and the others are his last resort….should he fail to destroy it.” “Don’t worry….we will….” I muttered before falling asleep. To be continued... Author's Note Thank you DeathWatch456 for helping me with this chapter Nobody does...things?”God it’s weird not talking all the time…” I thought to myself. ”Which might be my fault cause I seriously can’t shut up...twenty word limit...oh boy I was walking still here in High Wells, I needed to catch up on much of what’s apparently happened. So I’m camping out here in the library and studying. Most of what I started reading was history books. I don’t know how much of this might happen, so I’m keeping notes of significant events. Mainly events about Zeke, Eclips...a? Me, and the Foretellers. There wasn’t much on John oddly, it’s like it was either never recorded or erased? “Wouldn’t be surprised if John did something to make himself not be apart of history…” I muttered. “Max probably knows how to-” No more words came out, my mouth shut itself… Crap, already went to the limit…”God damn it…” I mentally grumbled. To see just how many times I go over, I kept tally… It’s been six days since I arrived here… I have six tallies… I need to learn self control… Finally after marking tally number six, I found the book I’ve been looking for. Key-Armerments. The difference between your Keys. Huh, written by Twilight Sparkle and Moon Dancer. Neat. ”Wonder who’s Twilight and Moon Dancer…” I wondered, having a feeling one of my wives was Moon Dancer but having to remember over two thousand can be a bit of a hassle sometimes. ”But let’s take a gander at what these two bookworms have to say about these weapons…” I thought to myself while opening the book to read it’s contents. ”Let’s hope things are well explained here…” Key-Armerments: The Basic Information Key-Armerments, much like Keyblades can be summoned whenever their wielder needs them. Unlike Keyblades however they are very limited depending on what weapon or even item makes them up. For Example, a Key-armerments that started off as say, a toy, can be limited to a max damage potential of fifteen where as one that started off as a simple hammer can have a max damage potential of fifty. ”Well that’s something.” I thought to myself honestly. So if I has a gun that happens to be such a thing...must be pretty strong.” I mentally hoped. One of the earliest Key-armaments consisted of a Bow, A battle Axe, a Scythe, A Spiked Gauntlet, and a Charm. Comparing the Key-Armaments made with Firearms and the Bow Key-Armament, once wielded by Queen Luna of Nothingness, we can determine that things like the weapons caliber do not actually determine their damage potential, just their starting base damage. What this does determine though is how fast you can attack, for obvious reasons. A bolt action fires slower than a Fully Automatic gun. No Key-armaments can change into a glider. Multiple tests have all failed, this is specifically a Keyblade trate. For what reason though we are unsure. ”That’s interesting to know.” I thought to myself, finding this very informative even though this was the first and maybe only Key-Armament I’ll use. There are admirable Keyblade/Key-Armaments Hybrids. Two so far, one is wielded by Daybreak Council leader Lion, his former Gunblade, not a Keyblade/Key-armament. The other is within the laboratory of High Wells Light and Darkness Research facility for testing. So far these CAN change into gliders, and do everything that is unique to Keyblades and Key-armermants. This is believed to be because of the fact it is part blade, something about blades allows for the Keyblade part to be utilized and work. We are unsure as to why, but both Lions and the one within High Wells testing facility can both change into gliders. Also something interesting is that Lion’s hybrid blade works in perfect sync for him, but with another tester worked less effectively. It can be passed along like any Keyarmerment, but apparently with a wielder it prefers, or maybe even chooses like normal Keyblades do, it works better with them. An interesting mix for these Hybrid Key weapons. ”Oh? Hybrid Key weapons?” I thought to myself curiously. Something unique to Key-armerments is their ability to be passed on to another, regardless of preference. Key-armaments seem to have no preference to wielders, or even if they have them at all. Anyone can be given a Key-armament and it becomes linked to them so long as their former wielder is accepting/approving of the passing, or the former wielder has passed. ”So that’s why it didn’t vanish when I found their dead body.” I thought to myself. Key-Armaments also can be used with most spells, not all of them however, and some sadly do not work as intended without practice. For example, the Fire, Ice, and Thunder spells all work but each is different. For example, Fire works like any other Keyblade spell but Firaga, being that is creates an AOE that typically spins around the casters body, instead spins around the Key-Armerment itself, and the casters hand, harmlessly of course, meaning that this spell means you’d have to make some form of Physical contact with your target for them to take damage, making your Key-Firearm into more of a gauntlet. While yet you can use them as a ‘Keyblade’ by hitting your target their blunt damage is half their ranged damage shots. ”Alrighty then.’ I thought to myself. ”That’s interesting to know.” Spells that are unique to a Key-Firearm can vary, there are spells and modified versions of existing spells for them, but one common unique spell is Ricochet, a version of Reflect raid in which up to ten shots can be fired and all bounce off and home in on the tartet fired at, by bouncing off the air itself. This is a very effective and easy to learn spell, the spell itself is in Key-Armaments: Firearms. A List of Spells and Attacks Specific to Them. A three volume set of books, each volume contains different spells of ranging difficulty. Volume three holding the most difficult and powerful. ”That’s interesting.” I thought. ”Can’t wait to relearn all this crap…” I mentally grumbled. ”Are the volumes here though?” I mentally wondered.. I got up and started searching for those spell and attack volumes, finding them and opening Volume one. This Volume contains fifty special Key-Firearm attacks and one hundred and Twenty Key-Firearm spells and modified spells. The book’s first words were on page one. ”Oh boy…” I thought to myself. ”This is gonna take a while...” The first off shall be attacks. First, Dark Tracer. If you harness your own darkness and fire it towards a target, while also dealing darkness the target his shall be traced by a visual dark aura clinging to them for five minutes, and if the target and attacker are within a mile of each other, the attacker can feel where their target is up to a minute after the dark aura has faded. Att Type: Physical/Dark Damage: 20-105 ”Cool…” I thought to myself, good to know some attacks that could do some damage. ”I should test these after I read through all this…” Attack two, Chain Whip. This attack shoots out a continuous chain of light from your Key-firearm but stops after ten feet, the attacker can then use their weapon in a whip like fashion and deal physical damage for as long as the attack lasts, up to ten minutes, or wrap the chains around the target and subdue them. Att Type: Physical Damage: 10 Standard. 80 Critical. ”Wonder if I can use that like a Grappling hook?” I wondered to myself. ”But let’s see...what else is in this book…” I read through many other spells, each looked interesting, and some were simple. I began my patroles, dealing with any Mad Ones who got a bit too close to my location. I grabbed a few more food items and headed back. I need a direction to go… What about my weapons? Where would they be? I thought for a moment before bringing out Divine Rose and raised it up, taking a deep breath and letting the blade fall in the direction it wanted me to go. The Keyblade began tugging me towards the backmost area of the Library. Once arrived I was in the Biographies. ”Oh? Wonder why they wanted me here…” I thought to myself while looking through the Biography section, wondering what might be super special here. As I was gazing them over, I found something framilier… The Life of Nothingness Royalty: Queen Luna. ”I wonder what Luna thought of me…” I thought, thinking she thought crap about me as I pulled out the book.”I’m sorry...I wasn’t good enough…” I thought to myself sadly, already having low expectations of her innermost thoughts of me. Introduction: I was born into this world an Alicorn, back in that time, we were near immortal. Time used to not be a worry, but now, time is. I’ve aged, I’ve lived, and I sit here, writing this book of my life, an old, shriveled mare who loved and enjoyed the life I got to live, regardless of the mistakes and sins of my past. I, like all my fellow wives was a mother to many children, more than any sain mare should, heh, but when you love someone, you take what you received, and never complain. I’m sad to say I have more children than I can even remember, and that troubles me. I first met Ben, my husband, while he slept in a Manehattan hospital before it was obliterated by a Titan Shadow. He saved not just my sisters star pupil, and Co-wife, but also Rarity, aspiring fashionista, and later, another wife, another love. Herd marriages for the pony race were once so common, and we were one of many who began the trend, and returning to those roots aided our kind in ways we thought impossible. He was injured, shot with high caliber bullets in non-lethal areas, but was at a heavy blood loss. That was how I first met him, days later when he awoke I met him awake, and, in a mix of youthful glee and desperation, quite literally jumped him on the bed. I remember stealing many kisses while he laid there in what I assumed was shock and maybe even enjoyment. ”Ah yes, I remember mentally screaming at that.” I thought to myself. ”Back in a simpler time…” I thought sadly as I continued to read. ”But good to know I only got to date Luna because she was desperate…” Chapter 1: The Early Years Dating Ben was the highlight of my life, with him, and my co-wives I felt safety, security, love. Everything was just so precious. When the fighting was finally over, and we were allowed peace, Ben and I, along with some others would govern our kingdom in this eternal world. It was peaceful, but, life is meant to be enjoyed, and should not be so extensive. This was the law of the new world we lived in. As such, different cities developed different ideals on death, others stayed the same. Ours was a simple acceptance and Celebration. Celebration of a life well lived and enjoyed, by their family and loved ones. And, the day came when we had to act on this new ideal and culture our kingdom developed. It was a surreal thing, the ‘wake’ of Dinkey, by then a mother to many and wife to Joy. ”Dinky...was the first one to die?” I thought to myself. ”Poor Joy…” I thought, knowing how hard it is to lose the ones you care about...even though Joy also does cause he was in my head for a long time. She was a daughter, mother, and grandmother at the time of her death. We all age a bit differently, but we all still die, by age or other. Sadly, Dinky was ‘other’. After the new world Dinky decided to work, like any other. Many did. It was a means to keep busy and pass the time of each day. She worked in the water plant, and sadly, fell into the filters. By the time they shut it down, water forced itself into her lungs, drowning her instantly. While there were tears, we all tried to remember the fonder memories. Her mother Derpy took out all kinds of childhood pictures, and her family took out for their own, and everyone shared stories, her favorite foods all over for all to enjoy. Joy, while mourning her death, kept a smile to make sure that while we were hurting now, this pain would fade, but not her memory. I believe the saying was ‘so long as we are remembered, we never truly die.’ If I recall. To honor her, Ben left his Lunatic, the original, in her tomb. She always loved the Rainbow Skyfalls, so her tomb and his weapon rest there to this day. And hopefully til times end. Hehehe, or at least long enough to be forgotten. Time now goes on forever, but we can’t live as long as time. Not anymore. ”Alright...good to know.” I thought to myself. ”Good to know that we were okay during it.” I thought, wondering what else Luna had to say. Before I continued, I looked for a world map book, searching the entire place for this Rainbow Skyfalls place. I didn’t want to… but I’ll have to… to open her tomb to get Lunatic... ”Is it wrong that I’m going to rob my own daughters grave?” I thought to myself. ”Yes...yes it is...but because Lord is a vague fuck I don’t have a choice…” I mentally grumbled. ”I’m sorry Dinky…” I found the Rainbow Skyfalls, it’s a mountainous area about…. 5 Sextillion miles from here… I don’t think even a glider can get me there fast enough… Crap… ”Well...at least I won’t be grave robbing today…” I thought to myself, not wanting to do something horrible to family. So… I know where I need to go, first at least… Now how to get there in a reasonable amount of time? I began looking through the city, finding travel areas and looking for something that won’t take too long. In my readings, DTL’s can now only take you to places you've been to before. Visited at least once, no longer can they just take you where you want without ever being there prior. However, gummi ships can still work for fast travel/living accommodations. They can cover such distance so long as I can keep it fueled up. I need to find one, and stock it up for travel. This is an all Keyblader city, I’m sure Gummi Ships were still a thing here. ”Let’s hope the Gummi Ship won’t take for fucking ever.” I thought to myself while I roamed around, looking for a Gummi Ship. ”Still hope I can maybe tame a giant monster...never got to do that and it would probably be a good idea given I can’t solve everything by myself…” I packed my stuff and headed off into the largest market area. Thankfully this place is hardly visited by the Mad Ones, they typically stick to the entrances. I found a gummi ship market. Huh… Dragon Ball Capsules… useful. Now, which is the best for what I need? ”Which one is the fastest but fuel efficient?” I thought while looking around at all the gummi ships. ”Cause if it’s fast but chugs fuel faster than a fat person at any food eating competition then that won’t help, but if I have a ship that uses not that much gas but is about as fast as a snail then it’ll just take forever…” I thought, trying to think of what would be the best one for my needs. I found one that was the classic gummi ship design. Electronium engines so it self recharges when they empty, and can run continues for two months before needing a week long recharge. It’s rooms were spacious and had an autopilot. Not including when I would have to stop to find food, so how long would it take me to get there. Oh, there’s estimations here. Well that’s handy. Let’s see… from here to Rainbow Skyfalls will take me… seventeen months… a while, but doable. ”I know this is magic but Christ.” I thought to myself, wondering how fast I'm actually going in this thing if it takes 17 months. ”But let's get going then...still hate Lord for all this shit…” I chose a grey color for it then headed off. Gathering some food then using my glider to make it out of the city. Once I spotted the sunlight in the first time in like, days, I opened up the Gummi Ship, loaded my stuff and some nearby fruits then headed out. I set the autopilot and let it start. When it got going all I could see through the windows was white. Must be going crazy fast. I guess now all I’ll do is wait then... ”Christ...this is gonna be so fucking boring.” I mentally groaned. ”I know I asked for this but fuck if this isn't just a massive waste of time.” I thought, hating that just to do something I honestly really don't want to do i have to wait 17 months...this blows.I’m lonely... ”Fuck me I’m bored.” I thought to myself, having traveled for god knows how long at this point. ”Why am I even doing this anyways? I’m not going to actively graverob my own daughter for fucks sakes, even if it means I get a weapon and a lot of power.” I mentally groaned. ”Basically just going there to see her grave at this point...seriously there’s a difference between ‘hard work’ and ‘figuring out what the fuck your supposed to do’.” I mentally groaned, still hating not knowing what I’m actually supposed to do and doing jack all to stop that. As I just waited I wondered what exactly I needed to do, I began looking into more of the books I brought for something to do. Most were facts about the world now, notable locations, weapons, items, dungeons, things of that nature. As I was reading I began looking over the Dungeons and their magic. So far the majority of known dungeons are all spawned in with the world, however, Mothers have informed that dungeons can be created, during a shift from an era of peace to an era of evil. This can be cities, townes, any once populated area. Not just places of living, there are some dungeons where spawned in with Undead enemies, and have a natural Necromancy magic within them, often times these undead even when slain will reform after several minutes to an hour or more unless a specific item is destroyed within the immediate area, or, in rare cases, the dungeon boss. Most of the time the Dungeon boss in these areas is an undead necromancer, though other times they are massive stones of Necromantic energy guarded by one or many strong guardians. Other dungeons follow a similar pattern, many floors descending, or ascending to a major boss with high valued items. All dungeons respawn after a year, or under a Blood Red Moon, or a Crying moon. ”Alrighty then, this is good to know...but what the hell is a ‘Crying Moon’?” I mentally wondered. I bookmarked that page then looked through the other books, skimming through til I found the Crying Moon. Crying Moon- A random Event where the Skystones above project the Sun and Moon in the same place, creating an eclipse that causes the whole sky to rain liquid mana. This event lasts for at most Ten hours, and dungeons that respawn under it gain their foes back weaker to magic, but stronger in terms of Physical attacks. Mage based enemies gain no benefits. ”Well that’s good to know.” I thought to myself. ”This world must have been filled with a lot of good things...wonder why the hell it went downhill?” I mentally wondered. ”I know I have clones back home but...I miss everyone…” I mentally sighed out. I kept reading, apparently each dungeon tells you how long/deep/tall it can be at the entrance. A symbol on the door or door frame. A Circle with an X in it means expect four floors. Or four miles if it’s a horizontal one. ”Good to know.” I thought to myself. ”Too bad I’ll never know cause I’m too busy…” I mentally grumbled. Time passed I finished reading all the books I brought and my food and water supplies were damn near out. I had the ship stop and it landed me near a river. I needed a stretch anyway, pretty damn claustrophobic in that ship after ten days. Thankfully I was able to shift into my primal wolf form still and with that, I began hunting. ”God it feels good to be like this again.” I thought to myself happily as I carefully searched for my prey. ”May not find anything as tasty as those animals back home but food is food.” As I ran I made myself a mental perimeter so I didn’t lose my ship. I found a large field of rabbits, some I ate then and there and the rest I took back to the ship, making ten rabbits. Heading back out I found two male deer. I figured that was enough meat, so I looked for edible plants. Nothing too much, an apple tree, wild onions, mushrooms that my nose informed me was safe. Oooh! Truffles! I smelled and began digging up. ”Can’t wait to have truffles, they’re always nice.” I thought to myself happily. I managed to get twelve truffles, each rather large. Happy with that I took them all back to the ship, slicing up the prey to fit the ships fridge and freezer. I left the bones but kept the skin to tan into leather. Might as well, it will keep me busy. Once that was done I got the ships hose out and began filling up the water tanks and dumping my, er, waste. Advanced tech and you still have to dump your crap out like it’s an RV. ”Well so far things have been...too quiet.” I thought to myself, even though the sounds of nature was still around and it was pleasant, not hearing much else was a bit concerning. Back in primal form, I began swimming. The deepest area of this river thankful at least was able to go to my neck when sitting. I managed a few fish. They were plane. Not too tasty at all. I let my nose take deep sniffs of the air, looking for anything that could be worrying nearby. It was then, I heard something… a loud cracking in the distance… is that a tree falling? ”Well...that doesn’t sound good.” I thought to myself while looking to where the tree’s might be falling. ”If this is a giant monster...god please let me be able to tame it cause I am really fucking lonely.” I thought to myself, thinking having a buddy would help alleviate the growing feeling of being alone in this place. I headed over to the noise, finding… a robot? It was slicing up trees… and from the looks of it behind it, it’s been doing it for a long time. Must be automated. ”Weird...wonder who turned it on and left it?”” I mentally wondered.”Wonder what I could do here…” I mentally wondered, slowly moving towards the robot to get a closer look. It didn’t have any Logo on it, in fact it looked hand made, dented metal, rusted body, and most of its parts looked like they were from other machines. It took the tree it cut down and began moving out. I followed it, some miles til I came across this farm house near a waterfall. Crops long since overgrown the area, lot’s of grapes, corn, potatoes, wheat. Score! Looking around more I saw the Farmhouse was long since abandoned… til I went inside. Inside was three skeletons, an old fashioned shotgun, and rotted into the wall was the sentence ‘Mothers have Mercy’... What happened? The smallest skeleton had to be no more than ten, way too young to go mad… unless they bled out when one of them did go mad and attacked... ”Either something bad happened here...or someone killed them…” I thought to myself worriedly, investigating around and kind of hoping my words per day stacked given I haven't said anything in ten days. ”But hey, good to know this place has an ass ton of free food...but the robot is something to consider…” Looking outside I saw the robot dropped off the log among a massive pile of others near a small outside shack. Investigating there was some lumber work being done, and a set of long worn and faded blueprints for something. Guess they just needed wood and this thing was left on. Wonder how it stayed powered this whole time? ”Well...let’s see if I can make out what they wanted to make…” I thought to myself as I looked over the blueprints, wondering if they’ll be useful. ”Maybe I could repurpose the bot maybe? Would be better for it to be used for something progressive rather than being stuck here where everyone’s dead.” I thought while rummaging through things, hoping to find something helpful about the robot as well. Trying to make out what was on the blueprints wasn’t helpful. They were long since decayed and sun bleached, whatever was on them, if anything was on them yet was lost to time now. I did find a Pc in the house that seemed to control the robot outside. There was pre-set instructions. ”Hmm...wonder what the preset instructions are?” I thought to myself as I tried to find out what they were. MultiBot Preset Instructions: -Lumber Collection -Repairs -Water Fields -House Defence -Create Custom Preset ”Alright...seems simple enough.” I thought to myself. ”I doubt i can just turn it off...if it did it would probably fall apart…” I changed it to repairs, the machine stopping for a bit then it’s saw arm swapped out for what looked like a nail gun as it began scanning the house. Huh, that’s cool. ”Alright...that should help keep the building alright…” I thought to myself as I wondered what to do with the robot next. ”But if I can’t think of anything then...well I can keep this place as a checkpoint cause of food.” Taking a look around, I just grabbed a few veggies and fruits then left to the ship, flying over the farm and locking in the location. With that stuff collected I I went back to my designation… Wonder how long this will take. Two Months Later ”SO FUCKING BORED!!!” I mentally screamed/ ”Seven months my ass...I’m gonna go fucking stir crazy if I can’t actually have any interactions with anything!” I mentally groaned. ”Still hope I can be a monster tamer here cause there must be some monsters around here that aren’t mad ones...just something to do~.” I mentally complained, hating not doing much through these two months. As I was at this point laid on the floor in boredom I heard the ship make a beep sound then a notification came up above me. Dungeon Detected! Status: Prior Explored/Loot & Enemies respawned. Threat Level: 9/10 Type: Tower Name: Heavens Stairway. Floors: 957 Engage?: Yes - No. ”I’m fucking bored, so let’s do this.” I said while clicking ‘Yes’ on the ship’s computer. ”And hey, I’ll be leveling up a shit ton because I’m basically level one at this point...even though Level’s haven’t really mattered at all at any given time as far as I’ve noticed.” I thought to myself while slowly flying towards the tower. As I got closer I realized two things… One, this tower’s ‘floors’ are as tall as a New York Apartment building, the whole tower itself was at least the size of canada… around… and just all in all… THIS WAS HUGE!!! ”Well...good to know this will take for fucking ever…” I mentally grumbled. ”But it’s better than nothing right?” I landed outside the front entrance. Pushing open the large doors and taking out Divine Rose. I had some food, and remembering how DTL’s work now, I should be able to leave and return whenever. Upon entering this floor I realized it was a maze. The pathways large and many. Thankfully there was a lot of hanging crystals that gave off plentiful light. Traversing my first path I came across some rather large white rats, two, ready to attack me. My Assistant flashed to life, their levels, health… Okay this is BS. Albino Rat, Level 50, att 33, def 23, and their bites give me an infection… Oh yeah, and HP 500! ”Well...looks like I’m gonna have to play sneaky and cunning…” I thought to myself as I looked to see if this thing was weak to anything as I prepared to either run or set a trap with all the spells I learned for my Key Armament and just normal spells I knew. Thankfully I did manage to see it hated fire, so I used that a lot against it. Finally killing one while only taking a few hits… each hit nearly killing me. Finally though the other died. Their corpses burning up in the fire. ”Ow...but yay, two dead…” I muttered while looking at my own stats to see what happened to my own stats and levels since stats might matter. I leveled up… to level ten. At least that’s better than one. ”I mean...murdering two level fifty’s at level one shouldn’t just give you nine levels but...maybe there’s some exp thing when you murder something too high level…” I thought to myself while feeling plenty stronger just from the levels. ”Alright...this is gonna be a nightmare and a half...but let’s hope for the best.” I figured sneaking might be my best option. So, I did just that, casting Vanish whenever it ran out to help me stealth by. I did find a few random loots and such around. Mostly it was potions, Rem, and HOLY FUCK! This chest I opened was large, larger than others I came across. Opening it was the sword that Link carries in the Zelda games. Sweet! ”Alright cool, I have the Master Sword.” I thought to myself while grabbing the Sword. ”Wonder how good this weapon is…” I mentally wondered while continuing through the dungeon with my new wonderful sword. I found the stairway up, and on the second floor- Did I end up outside? I’m in a forest? Huh, each floor must be different. Cool, wonder what’s here. As I walked through the trees, I was pounced on, a giant silver wolf snarling over me. I growled back, shifting into my primal form and knocking it off of me as I got up quickly, getting ready for a fight against the wolf. The wolf looked at me, confused now as it sniffed me. I sniffed it. This was the first time I ever smelled another wolf. Male, old, not enough to go Mad, but possibly not too far off. Likes fish, that smell is all over him. ”Well...better than fighting I suppose.” I said, not entirely sure if barking counted as talking but I just let body language of ‘why did you attack me?’ was kind of obvious to the wolf. ”Let’s hope I can at least understand the wolf without much trouble…” I thought as I relaxed a little. ‘Territory. This floor is mine. Then beast arrived.’ ‘Who’s the beast?’ I ‘asked’ the wolf. ‘And...why do I smell female?’ ‘Beast massive. Takes up half this floor, or so. Appeared when Madness happened.’ ‘What does the beast look like?’ I ‘asked’ curiously, tilting my head in wonder at what might be that big. ‘Massive Behemoth, making her claim over by this floors largest river. Large horns atop it’s head and glowing red eyes.’ ‘Excuse me, did you just say ‘Behemoth’?’ I asked, shocked that a monster like that was here. ‘That’s actually a pretty strong monster...wait, what color is it? Did it have any markings on it that doesn’t look like battle scars?’ I asked, wondering if this was a regular Behemoth or a Behemoth King variant. ‘Many, deepest looks like it should have been lethal.’ I thought for a moment. ‘Interesting...well, looks like I’m gonna have to search for the lady if I want to continue.’ I shrugged simply. ‘Wouldn’t be the dumbest thing I’ve done. So where’s the large river she’s staying at?’ ‘Just head a ways deeper. Beast takes up the whole major hunting grounds.’ ‘Not surprising, heard Behemoths can get really big.’ I said honestly. ‘Oh, do you have a name?’ I asked curiously, wondering if the older wolf had a name or if he didn’t have one. ‘I was known as Pond, no one has called me that in a long time however.’ ‘It was nice to meet you Pond, my names Ben.’ I nodded to the wolf. ‘Ben, well, it was nice as well. If you die, what is left over I shall retrieve and bury.’ ‘And if you start hearing roars and howls...don’t entirely expect it to be from fighting.’ I said, knowing my current track record with women has been ‘trying to kill me’, ‘good friends’, or the ever wonderful ‘became wife through rigorous pelvic thrusting’ as I headed off to find the Behemoth. Trekking through this forest floor in primal form was rather easy. As I stood atop a rather large hill I was wondering why I didn’t see it yet and why is this hill moving? Oh crap! I yelped, sliding down to the ground, then was face to face with a face the size of Twilight’s Library house… Just its face. “Uh...Hi.” I said to the Behemoth with my actual voice. “How are you doing today?” I asked the giant lady, not entirely sure how many words per day I have left. They turned their head, looking at me a bit confused. Then, there was a purple fog that covered her body, it smelled like steam. When it cleared, standing over me was… to put it bluntly, what looked like a battle scarred horned amazonian woman standing over me and Dear lord those knockers just gave Celestia a run for her money. “Who are you?” She asked, eyes still a glowing red, giving her a bit of a demonic appearance along with those horns. I shapeshifted back to my hybrid form and rolled my shoulders. “I’m Ben. Who are you?” I asked politely, blushing a little at how hot she looked. “I have no name. My kind were bred to conquer kingdoms, when the Madness happened, we were set free, or escaped. I wondered. Unlike most beings, my kind lives much longer, so the Madness affects us differently. Twisting us after we are about three hundred years old rather than forty years like you smaller short lived lots.” I nodded. “Sounds rough.” I said honestly. “And lonely.” I said, mentally wondering if these Behemoths are different than the Final Fantasy Behemoths now that she explained some things. “Those with longer lives like myself typically are always among our own, but many in my kingdom I was born too, went mad when it happened. I came here, after wondering for many years. I only take this smaller second form to enter the area, or speak with small ones like yourself.” She said, leaning in more… and my torso is getting crushed under her massive knockers… “What brings you here? Treasures? Safety?” I could only think of saying something retarded. “Love now that I met you.” I said without thinking. ”Well fuck me…” I mentally groaned, blushing brightly at my own stupidity. She looked at me even more confused. “So, you wish to breed me?” She asked… does she not know what love is or can she feel my boner… or both? “Do...you know what love is?” I asked curiously. “It is breeding… right?” She asked. “My kind were bred for larger and stronger versions of us to be born.” “Um...you're not technically wrong.” I said. “Love is an emotion...you share with someone special, that you deeply care about.” I explained, trying to figure out how to explain this important thing...before just mentally going ‘fuck it’ and just kissing the sexy Behemoth on the lips cause I’m an idiot. She didn’t break the kiss, rather letting it continue til I stopped it. “Oh, you mean the emotion love… We don’t have that, my kind I mean. We have some other emotions but Love was literally bred out of us. That part of our brain is bred to be so small it can’t work. We can like one another but love… nope. But we do just breed with one mate for life, mainly cause our biology makes us incompatible with any other after we are first bred.” “Ah…” I said. “Can...I teach you how it feels then? It’s not too late.” I said honestly, thinking it was a bit sad they couldn’t experience something nice and heartwarming. “If you mean can you breed me, yes actually. I was meant to be bred before but then the Madness happened.” She said and OH FUCK SHE'S on top of my dick. “Woah. that’s interesting.” Four Days Later “You satisfied?” I panted, cuddling up to the wonderful Behemoth lady. “If I’d known that was what Breeding was like, I’d have been a bit more pissed about missing out on it for so long.” She said, still in her humanoide form that was twice my size. “So, I guess this makes us mates for life, as now I can’t breed with anyone other than you.” “Cool.” I said honestly. “Oh um...do you know what a Harem is?” I asked sheepishly. “Yes. Often many of the breeding males had more than one female to breed with. It’s just us female that can only breed once with a mate, the males can breed with many.” “Alright...then you wouldn’t mind if I had...say twenty five hundred other mates?” I asked curiously. “Including you of course.” I said while nuzzling the loving lady. “But...you said you don’t have a name...do you want one?” “A name would be nice I guess. And I’m fine with other mates of yours, we all are bred by the same male so we all at least have that in common.” “Alright.” I nodded while trying to come up with a name for the loving lady. “What kind of name do you want?” “What would you like for me?” “Hmm...how about… Ashe?” I asked honestly. “That will be my name then. Ashe.” I nodded with a smile. “A strong name for a strong woman.” I said with a warm smile.”I hope Lord or someone that’ll take me back to present day will also bring Ashe with me…” I thought to myself, hoping to have Ashe be with my whole family so she can learn what love is again. A few days passed, and while finding clothes for Ashe’s human form is proving… impossible, she helps a lot when covering this dungeon. She gets them weak enough for me to kill them off, letting me both learn to handle them as well as gain some exp in the fighting. The Teamwork combat also is good practice. “Thanks Ashe.” I said. “Don’t know how far I would have made it in this dungeon by myself.” “This is fun.” She said, her makeshift clothing made by large leaves held together by glue like sap. It at least covered her up. “If I’d known fighting this small would be fun, I would have shifted to this form sooner.” She said, crushing the skull of a giant that tried to kill us. “It is.” I said honestly. “Better to give an honest fight then just accidentally stepping on it right?” “Much. They used to teach us not to bother with anything small, but this is much more fun than just stomping on our enemies.” I smiled. “Glad your happy.” I said simply, just glad to have someone here with me again. We reached the third floor a while ago, this place more like large planes with giants roaming and other large and deadly wildlife. Most loot was in animal dens and giant camps. Something in a giant camp must have something for Ashe, so we attacked one. Well Ashe did most of it, I just made sure any that hit the ground didn’t get up. ”Alright...now what loot is in these camps?” I mentally wondered after making sure all the monsters from the camp were dead. Looking in their tents and large sacks was mostly raw materials, large hides, raw ores, some makeshift weapons made from giant trees with large boulders attached to the top. We did find some cloth clothings too small for a giant. Maybe a baby one? They were still a bit large for Ashe, but with some needlework, and such, we got them to fit like a worn dress of sorts. Covered more than the leaves. ”So far so good.” I thought to myself. “Alright...now another nine hundred floors to go...” As the day went along I realized something. I was way over twenty words a day, though, maybe it did stack? Even so, a few weeks stacking twenty a day can’t pile up that many words… Wonder what’s up? I gently rubbed my throat, wondering if there was any marks on my neck. ”Either something happened or that guy stopped caring.” I thought to myself. I didn’t feel anything and went about with Ashe, some more looted camps and a few level ups. We were now on the next floor. This was neat… looked like hell... “Well...this looks peachy.” I said nervously. “Ooh. This looks like a good place to find some strong weapons or magics.” Ashe said. “That would be good.” I agreed. As we walked through the area the only thing that I could describe as Demons popped up. They were dealt with easily by Ashe and finished off by me. We then came across one with a massive battle axe. The demon itself looked like half Minotaure, half Scorpion. “Ohh. Nasty looking one.” Ashe said, looking eager to fight this one. “Hold on.” I said while checking my assistant to see what kind of demon that was. “Cause I’d rather you not get poisoned by Demon Scorpion venom.” Before I could check though it attacked, swinging it’s massive Axe which Ashe caught between her hands. This demon put more of a fight than past enemies for her, actually able to deliver her a challenge while they fought. I did a few pot shots at it’s eyes, managing to blind it in the left eye, letting Ashe deliver a punch to it’s jaw, snapping said jaw off on impact. Despite the mutilation it suffered, it still attacked, now using it’s lower half pincers and tail in combination with it’s axe for AoE attacks rather than precise ones. Ashe grabbed me, and got us both out of it’s range. “Wow! I haven’t had this much fun in years!” “It is fun.” I said honestly. “But the things hurting, we know that...but there’s something up...I’m sure there’s something else special about this thing other than minotaur and scorpion…” “Does that matter?” She asked, taking on of the Giants hammers from the floor below and arming herself. “Never used a weapon before. Wonder how this will be?” She pondered, blocking another swing of this things axe. “Gonna have to train you how to use weapons, cause weapons are special.” I said while raising my gun and firing two flaming boa’s at the scorpion, one wrapping around it’s pincer and another around it’s stinger, the thing igniting and starting to burn the thing. As it tried to break the chains Ashe slammed the Giants hammer atop it’s skull, smashing it into thousands of shards. It dropped the Axe, Ashe picking it up and slicing it’s Minotaure half off it’s scorpion one. “I think I prefer the sharp ones.” She said, looking over the axe that seemed big even for her. “Alright.” I nodded while cutting off the things tail. “Hmm...I wonder.” I said with some thought as I looked at my Key Armaments keychain, Divine Rose and the huge tail. “I wonder…” I muttered while seeing if I could take off my Key Armaments keychain so I could attempt to give it to the scorpion tail. Sadly nothing happened, but I did keep the tail just in case. We went along after that, finding a chest. Inside was a glove, with a small fire in its palm, though the glove did not burn. “Wait, a Pyromancy Flame?” I asked in a little surprise, gently grabbing the glove carefully and curious as to why this thing was here. “This is a little curious.” I checked it out in my Assistant. Pyromancy Flame A form of Magic, Fire based spells have been a part of magic for as long as mortal life has crafted fire, but, simple magic catalysts or spells bare no match to the power of a proper pyromancer, armed with a flame of ancient fire. With such an item in possession, the possibilities expand drastically. “Cool, exactly what I’ll need.” I said while slipping the glove on. “Can’t wait to use this.” I said while clenching my gloved hand and opening it, seeing a small ball of fire appear in it. I tested it out, so far I can only do fireballs but it was better than nothing. We headed up to the fifth floor now, the whole place was like mountains and dragons flew all around us. “This place looks risky.” Ashe warned. “Dragons...a whole lot of dragons.” I muttered. “Gonna have to be extra sneaky because of those things…” As we walked through, careful to avoid the Dragons we came across a treasure chest… surrounded by dozens of massive eggs. “Can we reach it?” Ashe asked. “I probably can…” I said. “But...it’s about as obvious of a trap as you can get really…” I muttered, not sure if we should just skip the obvious trap or just say screw it and go for it. “Hmm…” I hummed, carefully moving over to the eggs and using my ears to learn if the things are even alive and waiting or if they’re asleep. I didn't hear anything, but slowly I managed to get to the chest. Opening it, inside was a sword, it's metal did not look like metal… more like… bone? I checked the assistant. Dragon Bone Sword. A dragons bones and scales are so tough only magic imbued forges can melt them like ores, forging the strongest of weapons that lack their own magic. Att: 5000 Def: 300 Mag:0 Cuts through 90% of enemy defence. “Oh...well that’s a thing…” I muttered while taking the sword. “Unless my assistant is lying to me...this sword is really fucking strong.” I muttered while trying to carefully get out of the ring of eggs. “So far...so good…” I muttered. We headed off the pathway to the next floor was decorated by two large stone statue of dragons. I noticed something. On their chest, decorated we're designs of… eternal flames? My chakrams? “Wait…” I muttered. “That...doesn’t seem right. Where are we?” I asked, finding the more we went through here the more I’m feeling like this entire dungeon is just filled with Dark Souls related stuff. I checked my assistant but didn't find anything… then went back to the book with Luna's life story. I remember when Ben's council began to fall to age and time. The first to go was Dante, the Archer. Killed in duty to his king. Then Rogers, died from age. Cat, from heartbreak of losing Dante, and a possible miscarriage. Genos… Genos left. A cyborg can not die, not naturally, but he suffered a far worse fate. He went to the Heavens Stairway dungeon, and on the fifth floor, lived with it's dragon who's fire he felt kinda with. Unfortunately he spent too much time their, and he became part of it. Now he is just a boss, reappearing after every respawn period to fight those who want to pass the fifth floor. While not mindless he can not leave the dungeon either, so he made Ben promise to return to the dungeon every time he would respawn, and kill him again, and again, so he could at least have a temporary peace of death til the dungeons magic revived him. “Well that sucks.” I muttered bitterly. “Genos…” I sighed out. “Ashe, I’m gonna do something really stupid...don’t panic.” I said before taking a deep breath. “GENOS!” I shouted, my voice echoing throughout the mountain region. “YOUR KING CALLS FOR YOU.” The doors to the next floor opened. Genos was taller, long hair reaching to his feet, armor cracked and withered, and flames came off him with a volcanoes heat. He was still cybernetic, but it was clear his body was a mix of magic and machines. “My king.” He spoke, taking a step. “You are late. I had assumed you passed.” “Well...yes and no.” I said honestly. “Technically speaking, in this time, I’m six feet under, but given certain...events I’m here with literally none of my powers.” I said while looking over Genos. “You look awesome...but you really need a haircut.” “It’s a price to pay for waiting.” They spoke, Eternal Flames appearing in his hands. “I will always be your Anarchist, but these dungeons, their magic is far, far surpassed Lord's and admins, built to last forever as the world does and adapt, as such, it adapted to keep me bound to it, and nothing can change that, I am afraid. So please my king,” Eternal flames became engulfed in flames that reached fifty feet above us all. “Keep your promise while you are here…and kill me again, so I can be at peace, even for a short time.” I looked at Genos, feeling really upset about this. “You...do know I’ll try to find a way to break your curse right?” I asked while preparing myself for the upcoming fight. “I do. And I'm sorry.” Genos said, readying his pose. “But you died trying.” “Well...looks like I’ll just have to walk it off.” I said, having a good feeling Cap told us all one time ‘If your hurt, hurt em back, if you die...walk it off’. “So...a horrifically under leveled me...versus a boss that’s one of my best friends...yeah this isn’t emotionally depressing.” I chuckled a little before dashing forward and swinging my Dragonbone Sword at Genos. “I am aware my king. You mentioned something like this would transpire for me someday on your very last visit to stay me. Why else did you think I left that sword for you.” Genos rushed, fire melting the ground under him as he sent them out in massive AoE attacks. Melting the very rock and soil while also making the air itself evaporate it's own water. Seiring hot steam filled the area. “I’ll save you my friend...even if I have to rip the magic out of this place barehanded.” I said. “And...you’ll finally get your long awaited rest..” “I applaud your determination.” Genos said, slashing at Ben who dodged by the hairs along his nose. “But look at the facts. This is the future, and you are from the past. You will return to when you came from… and yet nothing here has changed.” Genos said, tanking a swing from Ben’s dragon sword. “While time travel is a possibility, this I know, and you will learn in time to come, time that has passed, such an action creates a paradox, and they will not let those happen.” “And they can eat my ass.” I frowned. “I’m not going to stand by and watch my closest friends suffer like this.” I stated bluntly. “And I don’t even know who your talking about so unless they want to make themselves known to me now would be a good a time as any before I literally ruin a lot of things for them.” I said honestly. “And you know full well I can do it.” I said before dashing in and slashing at Genos swiftly and strongly. “And yet, here we still fight.” Genos said, the two clashing, Genos’s obvious stronger power made Ben get pushed back to a wall. Ashe tried to land a hit, only to get spin kicked away while Genos tried another attack on Ben on the spin around, missing as Ben rolled away. “That’s kind of because your the boss to the next floor.” I said honestly while pulling out my gun and firing two dark seeker arrows to distract him. “But I’m going to save you and whoever else needs saving. I’m not going to abandon you all even if I’m only from the past.” “I’m sorry, my king. But I accepted this long before you first even received word of my situation.” Genos said, Ben dodging another kick but managing to slice the sword up Genos’s leg, breaking it and crippling Genos, who despite the handicap now kept himself a float with the jets from the palms of his hands. “I’m pretty sure I would have taught you people not to give up on yourselves because of bullshit situations.” I said honestly. “No one should have to endure this crap for the rest of their lives.” I said while moving around carefully, now seeing the jets and not wanting to get burned by those. Eternal flames spun around Genos, acting like projectiles controlled mentally, Genos himself switching to large area spinning attacks using his jets and one good leg. “If there is one thing you will learn my king, it’s that you can not do everything. You are just one person.” The area on this spin, Genos increased the flames, the resulting explosion sent Ben flying back, burning off part of his clothes and face fur. “King, Admin. Everything has limits, has something not even they can accomplish.” “Then some people haven’t met me yet.” I said while planting my feet into a wall and dashing back towards Genos. “Cause if there’s one thing about me, is that I don’t entirely listen to ‘impossible’ things when it involves my friends and family.” As Genos was about to attack again, they froze, everything around me was frozen in place, dragons in the air, the fire itself… everything and everyone but me… must be this they Genos mentioned. “Perfect.” I said while looking around. “Nice to meet you whoever the hell you are. Mind coming out for some proper introductions?” The air, no, reality itself began warping around til someone walked out of the disruption in reality, a person in a plain and simple Organization 13 cloak, but there was the design of a blue hourglass on the front, arms, and back. “Nice to meet you.” I said honestly. “Who are you?” I asked, wondering if it was one of those Diamonds. They didn’t speak, rather, summoned a No Name Keyblade, and aimed it at me. “Okay, let me ask, are you a Diamond Tiara?” I asked honestly while getting ready to move away from most likely getting attacked. They lifted the hoodie off, showing it was… but… their face was scarred all over, eyes milky...blind, ears torn, and fur a mess. “It’s been a while dad.” She spoke, voice raspy with tired experiences. I looked at Diamond in fear. “Oh...oh god…” I muttered while taking a step forward. “Diamond...my Diamond...what…” I was at a complete loss for words at how beat up and tired she looked. “What happened?” “Time. It’s our job to stop paradoxes, and certain events from transpiering. None of us are without scars.” She said, putting her hood back up. I couldn’t stop myself as I just moved over and hugged her, tearing up at this. “I’m sorry…” I said sadly, sadly knowing she’ll just stab me cause it’s her job to deal with stupid people like me. She didn’t stab me, but, she disbanded her Keyblade, hugged me back, then raised her hands to my neck, prying me off and began choking me. “It’s nothing personal. You have to learn… You can’t save everyone. You can’t do everything.” She said, tightening her grip and I was at my knees now. “You need to accept when you lose.” “Your...right…” I muttered while looking at her. “I...let...my daughter...go through hell...without help…” I said through being choked. “I...could have helped...not get...you hurt...I’m sorry.” I said sadly. She sighed. “That’s not the lesson. That’s not what you need to learn. What you need to learn is…” She said, grabbing the sides of my neck, then, I was looking behind me, I fell over… “You need to learn, to accept what happens, accept the outcomes good or bad.” She said, foot atop my head, applying pressure. “You need to know when a fight will make you lose more than what you could earn.” I really couldn’t do anything given Diamond literally just snapped my neck. ”I’m sorry my daughter...and I’m sorry everyone else...for failing you…” I muttered while my spirit started to leave my dead body. Tiara kept the pressure up. While I couldn't feel anything I could tell from the change in perspective, my skull was getting crushed. Everything went dark… “Well that could have gone better.” I turned around… I was alive… and Lord was in front of me. We were in a black void. “You are too stubborn for your own god damned good…” “Says the guy that expected me to know what he wanted when he literally told me nothing about anything.” I said bluntly. “Also, ‘I need to learn to accept good or bad outcomes’? Bullshit, you and Cript and quite a lot of people get off scott fucking free-” “...What’s sad is you think that’s true.” Lord interupted me. “I am one of the oldest Admins, I have lived so long that at some points I erase my own memories, living as someone random in my own creation just to forget my past, and I’ve done it so much I don’t even remember it. All I can recall is a promise, a girl, and a burriel. Anything before that is lost to me, where I truly came from, partners, siblings, friends… Everything I do, for ever one bad guy I kill, I have to watch something else worse come along and kill more. For every time Cript saves someone, it’s more time his own family is without him. You should know those Starfish clones while helpful are still not a perfect solution. For every victory Cript archives, for all his power, he feels less, and less. His own emotions are dying off. His compassion, his love, his sense of justice. He only acts out of knowing right from wrong, he can’t feel it anymore. For everything we all do, there is a consequence. I made a promise to someone once to keep on, to stay alive for us both, and my price? I can’t even remember their name, face, voice. Nothing. For all of Cript’s actions, he wears a facade to keep others happy, when inside, he’s dead, hollow. We live with those consequences, and do nothing to change them, because we accept them.” “I mean...that part might be because you two are fucking ancient to be honest.” I said honestly. “But let me ask...you must have met someone that actively did what I just sprouted right?” “Many times. Too many. Each time, the consequences drove them mad, or worse. Cript did, does, but he’s no longer human emotionally, physically, or even in how he thinks.This is why in order to keep this from becoming an issue, this infinite reality, will be devoid of immortal beings without a purpose. Longevity is one thing, immortality is the only true sin in this or any reality.” “I like how I just wanted to let Genos finally rest forever instead of being stuck there.” Ben said honestly. “Like...just wanted to point that out. And I’m one of the people dumb enough to actively do it. Let me ask, what problems would arise from Genos being set free from his own eternal hell?” Lord waved his hand over, and it was the arena Genos was in...only… Jenny… “Genos left because Joy had just died, and Jenny and he shared a kiss. If he didn’t leave, Jenny would have had this fate, too stubborn to leave a challenge… and stayed… forever bound to it.” “Okay so...first, Genos stayed here instead of Jenny...and uh...what’s between Jenny and Genos?” I asked worriedly. “Loss, comfort, a kiss, and while Genos doesn't know it. A child.” Lord explained. “Joy’s loss hit Jenny the hardest. She was weak, Genos was already mourning Saitama's death, now his friend and fellow council member. Weakness leads to mistakes.” I sighed out. “And yet another thing I couldn’t help my family through…” I grumbled. ‘I know I was probably long dead before all that happened but still...and...I’m at least a little glad Jenny enjoyed her life with Joy...but wait, wouldn’t the many kids Joy and her had have tried to comfort her?” I asked honestly, finding it a little weird that her kids would be missing in her time of need. “While Jenny, Joy, and many in your family were given longevity after creation becomes one place, but many did not, living normal life spans. Joy died after three hundred years… many of their kids only lived to be sixty to eighty.” “I kind of call crap on that, given that back on Earth the average lifespan was a hundred, and that didn’t involve any longevity.” “How long does a dog or wolf live normally?” Lord asked. “Which, animal years or actual human years?” I asked. “Cause there’s a major difference, also are we talking about the actual animals or anthros?” “Hm. Still trying to fight. Well, either way, you’ve lost this. I’ll send Ashe to your place so don’t worry there.” “What?” I asked, tilting my head in confusion. “I lost? What do you mean? I asked a legitimate question.” I said, wondering where Lord found this sudden leap in logic. “You’re dead. You’ve lost. There’s nothing more you need to ask or even know about what you could have learned, experienced.” “Yeah, ‘learned and experienced’ when I was literally dicking around moving aimlessly for over five months wondering what the fuck you actually wanted me to do.” I stated bluntly. “There’s a difference between teaching someone something, and just throwing them into the middle of nowhere expecting to make a utopia out of a post apocalyptic event.” I said honestly. “But thank you for bringing Ashe back to my home...out of everything I’ve done...loving her was at least something positive out of it.” “Good. Don't think your Admin training is over though. I'll have Player training you from now on. You will have full power and abilities restored. Now, I am going to have a nice laugh at your expense.” “Hey, I’ll actually be trained this time.” I said bluntly, implying Lords version of training is shit. “That is kinda the point.” Lord said. “I don't like training people so I just set it up so they train themselves. Now, two last things. Fuck you and goodbye.” Lord said with a clap. It was all black… and I felt like I was... kissing someone… no, two someone's… I opened my eyes and...Zeke...Eclipsa… three way kiss… is this a wedding?!?! ”Well...shit.” To be continued... Nobody becomes a chick cause that's original (please don't hate me)“Seriously, fuck Zeke.” I said to myself while actively attacking a test dummy. “You mean you want to fuck him...her?” Jenny said appearing out of a DTN, Joy behind her. “Zeke can take however long he wants, that's fine, but to actively be a cunt about it all is not right.” I said bluntly. “Well what did you expect? You first off saying plain up that you're the man and Zeke is gonna be a woman for the rest of his life cause you say so? Kinda rude and arrogant of you.” I took a deep breath. “And here I just wanted to openly vent to myself without someone being all ‘oh hey, you were an asshole while Zeke get’s a pass for actively being a douche’.” I rolled my eyes. “Did you or did you not state you were the male full time, implying In order to even love/make love to Zeke he had to be a chick?” “Never really implied anything.” I said honestly. “Me saying ‘I’m the guy’ was more like...setting ground rules to the new thing? Cause out of the three of us I haven’t done...literally anything as a woman like those two.” “Well did you explain it that way to Zeke?” Jenny asked. “I know him well and from how we lived we often Interpret normal things with more selfish or vemeanings. Mainly cause that's how the people we spoke with have them. 'just force of habit.” “He said ‘he likes to play with fire’, but when he actively gets burned because of it he blamed me for his own fuck up. There’s a difference between ‘teasing’, and active molestation as he did several times.” I frowned. “Well…consider our role models growing up? Flirting and borderline rape were almost the same thing for them.” “I would like to, but Zeke has actively shown he’s better than that.” I said bluntly. “How can I, one of his friends and now husband, believe Zeke is actively worse than what he’s displayed so far?” “You forget, majority of the time you and Zeke spoke and interacted there was an event of significant, well, trouble. Zeke takes times of pressure and high stakes as, well, normal. Hell it took me nine weeks to stop waking up and immediately punching the others in bed.” Jen said as Joy nodded. “It's just how we were raised. Now things are calm and Zeke has no idea what to do with all the tranquility.” “I’m pretty sure I’ve interacted with him several times when things were calm and not when things were bad.” I said honestly. “Yes, but it never lasted long or was after a different major event. That rush and pressure was still in his system.” “Uh...what?” I asked. “No seriously, in context that makes literally no sense how Zeke is an actively better person that understands basic social skills when under pressure, but when not under pressure that’s literally thrown out the window.” I said honestly. “Think of it like soldiers with PTSD. They were normal before service, and after, witnessing those horrors their mind adjusted to the violent horrors as a normal. So when they return they can't process a non violent society. They don't act right or normal.We grew up knowing only violence.” I took a deep breath. “Alright, but again...Zeke knows betters, I can point at Daybreak to show how much he knows better.” I said honestly. “To Zeke it was no different that building an effective hideout. Hell I could have done just as well. To him daybreak was a base, we don't get attached to places because we know or expect it to not last long. It's why you don't see him shedding tears or moping about it.” I rubbed my temples. “You know...I expected to just beat up a test dummy and vent to myself, not have people tell me ‘hey, your the one that fucked up’ for no reason.” “Well you didn't know exactly. On the front you can't really notice it. Just try and remember Zeke processes stuff differently when it's been peaceful for too long. If it helps next time you see them give them some purpose. Something to drive them and bring out the Zeke we all love.” “Well Eclipsa would probably have that settled.” I said honestly. “But…” I sighed out. “Still a little hung up on why he thought I would ever think Eclipsa and him were whores...like, what the fuck? That’s not right, and I never would.” “Well he is both genders now, so maybe both male and female hormones are conflicting? I mean you don't see an angry pregnant woman being reasonable.” “I mean...technically Eclipsa is pregnant and she was perfectly reasonable.” I said honestly. “Yes but, a, she has been a woman long enough to adjust to those hormone changes, and B she is in early stages of her pregnancy. Give it time. She will have her moments.” “Fine fine.” I said simply. “But I kinda doubt that given he’s Kingdom Hearts and that shouldn’t be a factor anymore.” I said honestly. “But he’s also been married long enough, he should know sex is a wonderful and sacred thing, not just quick flings that mean nothing.” “He has also been on the 'inserting’ side of sex as long as you have. Now he'll have to be used to 'receiving’. And you don't want to at least meet him halfway so he has at least someone who knows what he will be going through or go through it with him...her...need a proper label for this.” “He has both though, and he has most likely gotten used to the ‘receiving’ given what Unum did to him.” Ben said honestly. “But here’s a thing, I have only been a woman for...like, not that long. So even going half way will be weird for me and...honestly I’d rather not be apart of the running trend here.” I said nervously. “Are just scared of pregnancy and childbirth?” “Well I’m scared of having kids with Eclipsa and Zeke cause I’d rather not die.” I said honestly. “Cause when Spoiled and Kexez had a kid...well I nearly died because of it. So it’s a bit less than me getting pregnant with at least ten or so kids and more…I don’t want to hurt those I care about…” “Well take it from a woman who has given birth… a lot. I got like a lot with Joy so far. Besides, you're an admin, king of nothingness. It's not like you can't heal yourself either or have like a million medics with you for it. But childbirth is… a painful but pride filled moment. If you ever want to feel pride in yourself about anything, having a child holds no higher honor.” “It wasn’t because of some outside force, it was literally my own power not liking what happened.” I said. “ “Yes but Spoiled is evil and Kexez was an ass. I'm sure a wanted union would be fine.” “Alright alright.” I said honestly. “But did you come here of your own volition or did someone ask you to come here?” I asked curiously, finding it a little odd that she suddenly just came here. “Oh, and did you meet Ashe?” “Seriously, where the hell did you find a Behemoth lady?” Joy asked. “Met Ashe, she's nice. Huge tits,and came of my own Volition. Heard what happened from your Luna who spent some time with Zeke and Eclipsa through the door. Time passes differently though. Like a day here is a few hours there.” “Not surprised.” I said honestly. “Time is a weird thing.” I said honestly. “So...because I like driving segways off a cliff, do I have to actually...be both?” “Sure. Besides, it's fun. I should know.” Jenny said, dropping her pants, to Ben's absolute horrors, revealing a three inch limp penis and golf ball sized testicals. Ben staired in horror for a while. “Already knocked up Sweetie.” She said, pulling them back up. “Plus the orgasms are so much better, seriously if anything the orgasms are worth it.” I looked at Joy, who just blushed but shrugged. “Christ…” I muttered. “I’m...still certain I’ll be dragged off somewhere if I turn into both…” I sighed out before taking a deep breath. “This is...gonna be weird.” I said before using my powers to...make myself both genders. I was now taller, felt arguably heavier in the pants… and saw as EIGHT tits grew from my chest to my lower belly. “Damn! Grandma Den said eight tits were rare!” Jenny said in surprise. “Oh no…” I said, my voice having changed as well to...a pretty lovely voice. “I became both...and I became bigger in every way…” I covered my face in my fluffier hands...also yes, I did just become fluffier as well. “Lol.” Jenn chuckled. “Your hair is lovely.” Jenny said. Joy brought out a mirror big enough to help me see how I changed. My hair was longer, but not further than my shoulders. It felt a lot like Mom's hair… soft and silky. “So uh… gonna take motherhood lessons?” Joy asked. “I am positive your wives would be okay with it.” “At the moment...I just want to get used to this…” I said while seeing my tits. “Christ...eight...how big are these things anyway!?” I asked, trying not to laugh at the absurdity of this. “Taking a guess…” Jenny pondered. “Your top set of knockers are small D's and your middle set are C's, and the last two sets are large B cups… huh. Cool. Biggest on top, lowest on bottom.” “They feel bigger than that though…” I said worriedly. “Rarity and Coco are gonna flip…” “Dire wolf sizes are measured differently.” Jenny said, actually walking up and grabbing my third row left boob… why does this feel so good and embarrassing all at once?! “A Dire wolf C cup is more like a standard human D cup.” “Oh so there about a size above?” I asked while blushing brightly. “Fuck me this is so weird…” I said before raising my hand and Thorns shooting out and crushing a camera Joy brought out of nowhere. “Oh! Your tail is longer too!” Jenny informed me. Looking back, my tail was two feet long! Very fluffy, and while heavier, but also somehow easier to move. “Literally everyone’s going to flip…” I muttered. “If anything of this will make you know how Zeke is feeling now.” She said, releasing my boob from her grip, an after image feeling of sorts left on it still had me feeling it for a while. “Also I came to ask you something.” “And...that would be?” I asked worriedly, not even knowing what I’m doing with my life anymore. “I found out my… first dad is alive.” “Want to go meet him?” I asked. “Also...I’m not gonna be like this when I tag along...too many questions will arise...that I don’t need at the moment.” “No uh… Look I love him, really… but I know him too well. He's in hiding cause he can't stop being bad… doing bad. In his words it would be like 'I've lived long enough to be set in my ways.’” Jenny quoted. “So if you find him… and you can't capture him… can you… kill him?” “I will my daughter.” I said gently. “I’m...still proud of you ya know?” “Thanks… I just wish he wasn't so… stubborn. He's like you in a lot of ways but… you know… murderous.” “It happens.” I said honestly. “Sometimes stubbornness can work out...other times...well weird shit happens.” “Yeah. Also it seems like having both genders is gonna be the new norm for us. Eh, I don't mind. I mean, children don't care who or what their parents are, being both means you're both mother and father regardless.” “True.” I said honestly. “But Eclipsa and Zeke are going to be so confused...and I’m pretty sure the writers are gonna get some serious flack for this.” I said worriedly, having a feeling fourth wall breaks are gonna be a bit more common cause of my marriage to Eclipsa. “Well Eclipsa already does Vore pretty much but if there's an excuse for it that makes sense all they can do really is complain.” “Alright.” I sighed out. “Well...time to face the music.” I sighed out. “God...this is gonna be so weird…” I muttered. “Oh, actually there’s one thing before hand I forgot...was there a new Council Member for Fair Game?” I asked, remembering sending it out to find the right person. “After some talk we decided the best candidate was the only other magic card user here. Officer Dorlu.” Joy said. “He is already experienced with magic cards, trained you with them and already services the city very well.” “To be honest I was still half expecting my council to be the somebody versions of the original Organization thirteen.” I said honestly. “Well one out of thirteen isn't bad.” Joy laughed. “True.” I said while looking around at the training area being big enough. “Alright…” I muttered while sending out a call for my family and my council members to meet here. “This is...going to be so weird…” When they arrived there was a share of some laughs, but overall acceptance. They reassured me that they loved me as both genders or one. Now, it was time for actions to help me, adjust to this form a bit more. First was clothing. Rarity wanted to redo my entire outfit and...undergarments… Then a lesson on how my female body parts work from the dire wolf wives, Since I am a Dire Wolf. After that Luna was going to help me with Sensitivities… meaning things that is they rub me a certain way would trigger certain things to happen. Then Twilight was going to help me learn hygiene with these new parts. Then Rarity again was going to show me how to ‘accessorize’ which I am not going to enjoy… and lastly we were going to have a long talk about what I am ready for in terms of Sex, and what I would rather wait for a while to try out. So...First up was Clothing. I had to be… naked for this for Rarity to get proper measurements of ALL my assets…. This is so freaky... “God...this is so embarrassing…” I whined while trying and failing to cover myself. “I know you’ve seen me naked hundreds of times but...this feels different…” I said while my entire face was beat red. “Seriously...why?” I asked nervously. “A simple fact darling is that most women either feel weak and exposed when naked or are not confident in their looks. For you it’s most likely the new body you are not used to and being nude with it around us. Honestly I like it, I’ve always wondered what it would be like to measure Den for a dress or bra, so this is pretty close to me knowing.” She said, a cloth measuring tape around my second set of knockers, a bit tight but not too much it squeezed them. “To be honest I wish I had your legs, slim legs are nice but I’ve always enjoyed how ladies with thicker thighs look. They really pop in the right dress.” “I looked at myself in a mirror and...BBW Amazon is what came up at the moment…” I blushed at that. “Jeez...I’m glad all of you are so accepting...but good lord…” I said, still not believing how I looked. “Well when you are not around for some loving we do entertain each other~” Rarity cooed, taking notes before moving to the lower set of my tits. “We’ve all learned to love not only you, but one another just as much as we love you. Just because we can only have children with you at the moment does not mean we make love to only you. I am sorry if it sounds offensive, but that’s how it is. I do wonder how this will change things in the future. I mean, Jenny and Sweetie are already having a kid separate from Joy. Oh I wonder how they will look?” “Still a little surprised at that to be honest.” I said honestly. “From what I heard it was spur of the moment when Jenny heard what Zeke was doing.” Rarity informed, taking her measurements then onto my lower breasts, the cloth measuring grazing the side and making me shiver from the light touch. “And besides, Joy will love that child regardless he is the biological father or not. I remember Princess Cadence once said Gender and Blood mean nothing in the face of true unbiased love.” “I know.” I nodded. “Also...is it me or did certain...parts get bigger?” I asked, not entirely sure if it was just because of my tits or something else that made my lower regions feel a little heavier. “Why yes. From my own...experiences measuring your hips in the past, I’d say your hips and derriere are about an inch and a half wider than when you were just a male. I must say if it wasn’t a tad offset by your eight breasts, they’d make your figure pop in the right pants.” “Maybe.” I said honestly while looking at my fluffy ass in the mirror. “Jeez...you can bounce bits off these…” I muttered. “Don’t tempt Rune.” Rarity quipped, finishing up the last of her measurements on my breasts and now onto my legs. “Though to be fair we have all tried that at some point with each other. Unsurprisingly Celestia and Pinkie Pie bounce them the highest when they hit.” “Not surprised.” I said honestly. “Seriously, asses bounce like nobody’s business.” I said. “Also...little concerned about...the fact I can lactate…” I blushed even brighter, Rarity seeing small little drops of milk coming from my new breasts. “Oh that? It means you’re coming into heat.” She said simply, not measuring my tail. “Your Dire Wolf wives informed us that it’s part of their biology when going into a heat, a first sign before the rush. You’ve have about a week until it fully hits you. But this can work, as nursing young ones can reduce the force of it.” “Oh no…” I muttered worriedly. “Yeah...that’s what I needed...an entire week of being an even bigger horn dog around you all…” I grumbled. “Both metaphorically and literally…” “Relax Ben, Zecora is working on a potion so you don’t have to endure it THIS time. We do expect this means we can see you feel as we do when heat hits us.” “I felt what you people go through in bed…” I said. “This is...gonna be so weird…” I sighed out. “But hey...I’m bigger and fluffier so...I’m even better at cuddles now.” I said. “And cuddles are always nice.” I said warmly, being a bit of a cuddlebug. “With pillows like that on your torso expect a lot more to come~” Rarity cooed/ foretold. My measurements were finished and she placed me in a bathrobe and sat me in a chair. “Now then, time for fabrics!” She said happily. “I just thought of...when I dry off after a bath I’m going to be a literally fluff ball…” I said honestly. “Like..even more so than normal.” “Oh don’t be like that. We all have fluff issues once we exit the bath.” Rarity said, levitating a roll of fabric over to me. It was a simple white color. “This is called Cotton satin. Despite the name it is as soft as silk, durable, and perfect for some panties. What do you think?” Rarity asked, letting me feel it. It was… very soft… how come male clothes aren’t this soft? “Why aren’t male clothes this soft, like what the fuck?” I pouted. “It’s mostly for gender reasons. Males are meant to be hard and rugged and females are delicate and dainty, so we get softer clothes but they do have their downsides. For example, panties are soft and feel amazing, but they are thin, as are most all female clothes. Get wet and you see everything, and when it's cold out they are often so thin and even tight that the cold just goes right through you.” Rarity said, something clicking in her head. “Oh my.” “Did you forget I still have my junk?” I asked. “And there could be the ‘make the fabric thicker’ solution ya know? Don’t need it to be paper thin.” “Yes I was just thinking that! One moment. She said, running off to her closet before returning with a pair of my boxers. “Now then, this is male undergarments. Often looser for their genitals, and female panties are a bit tighter, often able to slip on and off with complete ease and no extra space for what is not between the legs. I am going to try and mix them, make enough room for your genitals while keeping that gentle hug feeling a females undergarments have.” “That would be amazing.” I said with a smile. “Cause seriously...having this soft fabric down there would just be wonderful.” “Exactly. I could revolutionize undergarments! I just need… one more measurement…” I blushed a little. “Um...wouldn’t you...also need to take two other measurements as well?” I asked, thinking she might need to redo my dick measurements based on the new underwear she’s making. “But...oh dear, this is gonna be awkward…” “Yes perhaps. I will need to measure the size of your testicals and your penis both limp and erect.” “And then you need the...third new measurement…” I said nervously. “Uh...do I need to...lay back?” I asked, not sure about having my brand new vagina touched yet, and not entirely sure if my breasts will hinder those measurements. “Standing would be best as it would help there. I am positive just me, heh, well, fondeling your testicals will give you you an erection, and I will try and avoid touching your vagina as much as possible.” She said, helping me up. “Are you ready?” I stood up. “Ready as I’ll ever be.” I said. “And hey...it’ll help me get used to...certain things.” I said sheepishly, not entirely knowing how a female actually feels when aroused. “Right.” Rarity said, getting to her knees and having me hold the robe back… God I did this a lot back when I was only a dude but this is just weird now… “Oh my!” Rarity said in surprise. “What?” I asked worriedly. “Is something wrong?” “Um, no. No not at all it's just… well I've seen you limp before love and… it has never hung this low before…” I took a look. Limp my… penis used to be average… I think… now it's like five inches without any blood flow to it. “Jeez...what did he grow an extra half a foot?” I asked nervously, only wondering how it was when fully erect. “Well, time to work.” Rarity measured my limp penis first, not touching it to keep it that way, then, she finally placed the measuring tape around my testicals. “Owe!” She yelped as my penis went hard immediately and I felt it… poke her. Looking down at went from six… to eleven… even the thickness was larger… “Oh...my…” “Okay yeah that’s longer and thicker…” I muttered, remembering at full it was about a foot long and about two or three inches thick because of me being a Dire Wolf but...it was longer than that...not like another foot...but damn near a half a foot in length...and another inch in thickness. “Good lord...why the hell am I bigger as a chick?” “Must be the hormones.” Rarity said. “I remember reading in a medical magazine a female with male genitals that produce testosterone have two possible effects.Either enhanced strength and physical prowess, or enhanced features. The male testosterone supercharging certain aspects in puberty, including the penis and testicals themselves. Several studies we're done on it, one even by Twilight, or at least a quick memo for a health magazine.” “Right then...so uh...yeah I’m guessing...half a foot longer and...at least an inch thicker…” I guessed. “The others are going to be shocked by this…” I muttered. “Uh...to uh...change the subject a bit...what do you think of Ashe?” I asked curiously, hoping to help Rarity focus on work instead of...other things. “She’s nice.” Rarity said, refocusing and went back to measuring my testies. That was quick though and now she was measuring my erect dick… “Looks like you won't be nutting anyone without a potion of stretching.” She said. “Stars this would wreck anyone unprepared.” “S-sorry…” I said nervously. “But uh...what’s the average for a pony? I...don’t actually know if this is too big normally or what…” “Oh. Well average if I recall is seven inches. Largest I've heard of is thirteen. Most mares can only take up to twelve. Though I hear earth ponies can take more, something to do with the soils and fertility and all that.” I gently scratched the back of my neck nervously. “Oh...so uh...this is too big huh?” I asked nervously, not wanting to hurt the ones I cared about because of this. “Thickness wise any mare who takes this is in for a shock. Lengthwise you could have them practically pole dancing on it. We are going to have to find a solution to that of course.” “Sorry…” I said sheepishly. “Like...did my Dire Wolf wives even say what the average is? Cause...even for a Dire Wolf it feels a little big…” “It depends really. I think your dire wolf wives, the larger ones can take this, but the smaller ones would have to shift to their feral forms to handle it's size. As for the rest of us… hmm… There must be some spells or something. I bet Twilight can figure it out.” Rarity said, wrapping the robe back on me, my erection still was poking out. “Oh… so, how long till… that, goes away?” “Uh...no idea…” I said worriedly. “But uh...I have...an idea to help get it down…” “Hmm… Well in any case I have an idea.” Rarity said. “Uh...what’s your idea?” I asked, wondering what her idea would be before I said my silly idea. “Well. About two years before we met, I had a customer come in from Trottingham. And she needed a special bra. Her breasts were massive, and only from milk! Since her first heat they never stopped producing it. She made a career out of it though, but maneuvering in them on her super swollen days was… difficult. So I made her a bra and managed to enchant the fabric to shrink her assets when worn. She went from a cup size that I believe has yet to be named to a C cup with that bra on, and when she took it off, they were normal sized again. I can do the same for your undergarments and bras...bra? I'll figure that out. But it won't take anything away. Just conceal the majority.” “Oh yeah, Milky Way. I’m pretty sure she’s one of my many many wives.” I said honestly. “But...that would help...my idea to just get it to calm down was...well...I have breasts it can reach…” I blushed brightly. “Yeah...it’s a dumb idea…” I muttered, my idea being just give myself a titjob cause it could reach...god this is weird. “Oh .. well at least masterbation will be something to experiment with then.” Rarity said. “I'll get started on the undergarments… if you do masterbation please do it in the toilet.” She said, rushing her sewing machine. “I think I’d need to do it in a full bath to be honest...if another thing didn’t also get increased…” I muttered, fearing that I could ‘produce’ more than my male form. “Well, if you do please clean the mess love.” Rarity said as she started making the garments. the scene below is pure clop/fetish fuel, read at own will.(first attempt...please don’t hate me) I sighed out. “Alright…” I said before going to the bathroom. “Good thing all the doors are big enough…” I muttered while entering the bathroom. “Christ...can’t believe I’m doing this…” I muttered while taking off my bathrobe. “Well...this will certainly be an experience…” I muttered before sitting down in the big bathtub and carefully moved my raging stiffy in between my fluffy breasts. “Oh...wow…” I muttered, always loving a boobjob so my soft, fluffy breasts just touching my dick was a pleasant feeling as I gently started to put my hands on the pair of breasts my dick was mostly in between and started to rub it slowly. “Never...ever thought I’d...be doing this to myself…” I muttered, the sensations of grabbing my sensitive breasts and rubbing my hard cock was all around really good. I saw my breasts leaking more milk given I was horny as fuck, and being the person with a lactation fetish...I decided to move a hand up and move one of my big breasts to my mouth...again, today is literally filled with firsts as I started to drink my own breast milk, moaning loudly as so many things just kept feeling amazing. ”Too many things...feel so good…” I mentally grunted as I kept up my self pleasure, going faster as my dick twitched more as I got closer and closer to that sweet release. My moans and whimpers kept growing as I started to thrust my dire wolf cock between my tits, rubbing my sensitive breasts and enjoying my breast milk that it all just got too much, I let the tit that I was suckling on fall as I howled in pleasure, feeling myself cumming finally, and glad I closed my eyes cause I came quite a bit,the ropes of my seed shot out onto my head and the top of my tits...and it just kept cumming as my head was covered in my seed as well as down to my second row of breasts...damn...pretty sure that increased to. “O~kay…” I moaned softly, panting heavily at the wonderful time I had. “Well...better clean up…” I muttered as I...also tasted my own seed, which strangely enough tasted like a whole bunch of fruity flavors...not entirely sure why but I have a feeling it involved all my wives. Clop scene ended, resume regular reading(god help me) I turned on the shower as I waved a hand, a few towels appearing neatly folded where I could grab them when I was done showering. “Well...better get cleaned up.” I muttered while checking the dozens of shampoos and soaps Rarity and several others made sure was in all the bath’s. Shampoo was already an issue when I got all this hair, but all this extra fluff is making me use up a bit over half a bottle to get it everywhere I can… I don’t know how to scrub right in this body either... “Jeez...am I about to even ask to help bathe myself?” I muttered to myself, really hating how little I know here. I ended up just making the water go full blast and just hosed it off. “Gonna learn hygiene later…” I muttered, having a bad feeling my fluff will be too much for some reason. With what I could see hosed off, I dried off then put the bath robe back on. Heading out I saw Rarity and Coco at the sewing room. “Hello.” I said to the two. “How are things going?” “Rarity called me over when you left for the bathroom to masterbate.” That coming from Coco turned my face cherry red. Her voice is just so...innocent sounding for those words! “Came in when you seemed to cum if that howl was any indication and started helping her sew the bra while she did the Panties.” “Your too innocent to say those words…” I said. “But...thanks Coco.” “Come on. I’ve got the bra halfway done.” Walking up there I saw the bra was the same color blue as my fur, the upper cups seemed done while only four more needed to be made attached to the frame already finished. “Once it’s done Rarity will be enchanting the fabric, that’s why the cups are much smaller than your boobs. Your upper six will be in order, by standard cup sizes, D, C, B, then A which is the last two.” “Alrighty then.” I said honestly. “You two would know a lot more about clothing than me...especially now.” I said with a little blush. “Well it is quite the thing to be making a bra and boxer-pantie hybrid undergarments for our husband, that alone is a sentence I never thought I’d say, but it helps me figure out how to custom make fabrics much better.” “There’s a lot of things people didn’t think would happen...like me being both for instance.” I said honestly. “Also...yeah cleaning up is a pain to deal with given all this fur…” I said while I was really fluffy from my shower. “Yeah, I can already tell you didn’t clean right. No offence but dry semen has this stink and it’s kinda coming off you.” She said. “I’ll get Luna so she can bath you properly, and show you how.” “Yeah...I mean, Twilight was going to teach me how to clean...but I was too nervous to actually ask for help…” I said nervously. Coco chuckled. “Relax. To help you get used to it we are having a public bathroom made here. And I mean a BATH room. Giant pools of nice hot water and artificial waterfalls to wash the soap and such off. I saw the plans for it. Looks amazing.” “I...kind of wanted to make a hot spring type place but never got around to it.” I said honestly. “Always wanted to go to a hot spring...must be nice.” “It will be done later today so once it is, we can enjoy the waters. I’m sure we can also find a place to enjoy such things too.” “True.” I nodded. “But...yeah I have a feeling I’m gonna smell like this for a bit...but uh...random question…” I blushed a little. “What do I...taste like?” I muttered, beyond embarrassed to ask such a thing. “Oh… heheh.” Coco started to blush now. “Um, normally it’s kinda like a slimy salt candy, with a strong musky smell of course… and sometimes it’s kinda plain. Though Pinkie and Twin swear it tastes like vanilla. Then again they are always covering you in icing beforehand…” “True...but uh...to me for some unknown reason...tasted like a massive cocktail of...all of you…” I said sheepishly. “All of us?” Coco asked. “I’m...not entirely sure how to say this…” I said nervously. “But...yeah, tasted like all...of you...I’m sure Rarity would...kind of understand what I’m trying to say because I’m being a pansy about it…” I sighed out. “Hehe. Well at least you can always remember our taste when you are away~” She cooed, my tail wagging enough to make a light breeze. “Done!” Rarity cried out from her sewing station. “Uh...cool.” I said, my entire face was glowing red at this point. “Jeez...today is going to b a day…” Rarity walked over to me, holding in both hands undergarments that looked like small boxers but were white, looked soft, only slightly thinner than normal boxers and looked like they were panties in the crotch area, and had a… moon print design. “Sorry, it was the only pattern of this fabric I thought would go well with your fur color. It’s a tad childish but we can work on that later.” She said. “Now for the spell.” Rarity said, her horn lighting up and magic covering the undergarments. A few seconds passed then it stopped. “And done! I made it a bit extra strength so while you won’t feel your penis and testicals with them on, they are still there and will make themselves known when you pull them down! That is the first time I have ever said that…” “Today’s full of firsts.” I said honestly. “Thanks you two, they look great as usual.” I said honestly. “But...I might need help with the bra cause...never put one on…” “Don’t worry love. We have time before it is ready. Coco how is it coming along?” “Almost done. Just four more breast cups to go.” Coco replied. “Excellent! So while Coco does that I will show you how to put one on, then we will help you with the new one.” “Alright.” I nodded. “I just had to be one of the lucky ones with eight of these…” I sighed out. “From what Den and your other Direwolf wives have told me it’s a sign of extreme fertility. A natural born Den Mother. Like, well, your mother. Actually surprised you are not around her height.” “I probably still have room to grow...but I’m also surprised mom hasn’t appeared yet.” I said honestly. “Remember...this is day one on my ‘both genders’ experience.” “Well she did say she can’t actually appear. Only through a statue of her… why not make one? That way we can see if it works!” Rarity thought. “Oh yeah...that’s true…” I sighed out. “Well...might as well make one...but what material should I make it out of?” I asked. “I want to make it special...like mom.” “Start off simple. Wood, then something more flexible and better later.” Rarity said, levitating over a large bra. “Now then, there are a few ways to actually put on a bra.” “And...I have a feeling it depends on how it stays connected?’ I asked, knowing some are together by hooks, others straps and so on. “Yes, and no.” She said. “This is a hooked bra. The most common type. It’s simple and sometimes if you have it in a rough fabric or a size too small, uncomfy, but this looks your exact size. Anywho. We will be starting with slipping it on first.” She said, helping me slide my arms in through the straps. “How’s that feel?” “Soft.” I said, given the material of the bra was supposed to be soft and comfortable. “But uh...is there a problem with not wearing one of these?” I asked sheepishly. “You’ll have them sagging down to your feet in your late twenties if not.” Rarity warned. “Alright alright.” I said honestly. “I believe you.” I said while moving sure it stayed on my top tits. “Jeez, add in a special mesh to the bra Coco’s making and it might as well be a bulletproof vest.” I chuckled a little. “Feels like that when you are first putting them on.” Rarity said. “Now, you’re going to want this frame under your breasts, so you will have to lift them up and slide this under, then place them inside to keep it there.” “Alright…” I said while moving my breasts to help fit them into the bra cups better. “Like this?” I asked, hoping I was actually doing it right even though the cups were very supportive. “Proper support always feels nice…” I said honestly. “Yes like that.” Rarity said, helping me move my arms to the back hooks. “Feel the hooks on the right and hoops they grab onto on the left?” She asked, motioning my fingers to them. “Yes.” I said while getting my hands onto the hooks. “Now...should just be a simple hook right?” I said, trying to hook the bra so it can stay on me. “Yes. Not too sharp but an old bra hook can scratch you.” She said, pulling my arms back a bit for the hooks and loops to meet. “Now this is the tricky part. Just hook them into the proper loops.” “Alright…” I muttered while trying to put the proper hook in the proper loop. “Still don’t like trying to do things behind my back...annoying with aprons, annoying with this…” I muttered while managing to get the hook into the loop. Four more hooks later it was done and I let go. The support was… nice, felt less heavy weight hanging on my chest. “Perfect!” “Ah, that’s better.” I said honestly. “Feels nice to.” “Yes, some women hate them and for good reasons, but for women like myself with a little extra baggage on the top it’s a lifesaver.” Rarity said, looking me over. “In fact, seeing you in this attire is quite… sexy. If you could… pose a bit?” I blushed a little. “I’m...not entirely good with poses.” I said while striking a pose I hoped look nice and not silly. “I...hope my pose is okay…” “Hehe. It’s a bit off. Try leaning forwards with your arms under your top breasts, oh! And stick your rear in the air, tail curled a bit...please?” I gave Rarity a deadpan look. “Really?” I asked honestly with a knowing smile. “I’m sorry and you have how many like that of us in your Assistant?” She countered. “I know I know.” I said while doing the special pose she wanted, even though my face was beat red I gently put my arms around my top breasts to accentuate them, sticking out my fluffy butt and gently curling up my tail. “How’s this look?” “Oooohh… Now I see why you like us doing that…” Rarity said, snow white fur turning cherry red. “I am going to enjoy making you langeree~” She said with a perverted smile I’d never seen on Rarity before… I am both happy and scared at once. “Well...glad your happy about that...please don’t go overboard…” I said worriedly. “Oh Ben, I’m only going as far as you made us go~” She foretold, making me a bit worried now... “I am the scared…” I said worriedly. “Done!” Coco said, walking over with my multi breast supporting bra It looked more like a shirt than a bra, save for the breast pockets. “This was the only design that would support your four sets of breasts.” “Good enough I suppose.” I said. “Thank you Coco…” I said, even though I was still in that pose because I was too worried about what Rarity was saying. “Oh, and Ben, that’s a pretty good pose. Though any lower and I’d call it…doggy style you’re after.” She made a pun, making Rarity chuckle. I got up and pouted cutely. “How dare you.” I huffed. “Bad pun.” “Couldn’t resist.” Coco said, helping me take off the bra Rarity helped me put on then helped me put the one she made on. “Now this one has the hooks on the left side and some velcro straps for extra measure. Rarity, if you’d please?” “Yes of course.” She said, casting the enchantment then they helped me in. This was a lot easier to put on since was closed up from the side, and it worked. First off, I can see my toes again passed my breasts, and it felt like below my now magic boob shrinking bra it felt like I had a stomach again and not just boobs from neck to waist. “It’s perfect!” Rarity said. The colors was a plane black. “Now, we can work on your cloak.” “Take three on the cloak.” I chuckled a little. “Jeez, here I thought I would only need the one…” “Well aside from altering your cloak, then making you some extra pairs of bras and panties Coco and I will be busy for a bit. Days even. Til then I do have something you can wear… and sorry if it’s not to your liking.” Rarity said, coming back with… a long, pink night gowned. “I made them for your other Dire Wolf wives. This should fit since you are now taller and none of your old clothes will fit you at the moment love.” I waved a hand and changed it’s color to a greyish blue. “There, better.” I said. “Even as a girl...still not a fan of pink.” I said honestly. “Fair enough… though Pink would look good on you! Complement your darker colors so well.” She said as I slipped this on… it was thin, like tissue paper. But covered, and only went til just above my knees… this is like a skirt...so weird. “Seriously, this needs to be a bit thicker...tissue paper thin is not good for anyone.” I said honestly. “It’s meant for comfort and, well you can guess quick access to the lower areas. Something to keep you covered after sex so you aren’t just naked under the sheets.” “I understand.” I said honestly. “But still…” I sighed out. “I’m just gonna have to get used to this huh?” “At least till we make you better clothes.” Rarity said. “Now then, two of your Direwolf wives are waiting in the medical wing to give you an in depth introduction to your new biology.” “Alright...time to go there.” I said. “Thanks.” I said while giving my two lovely seamstresses a hug before heading to the medical wing. “More weird things are gonna happen…I just know it…” I muttered while bringing out a block of wood and a knife while starting to carve a statue of mom while I walked to the medical center. I got halfway done then made it to the area. This place was nice enough as a medical bay goes. I was met by Donna, the only blond dire wolf, not from hair dye either. She had boobs the size of… mine… damn… only she has six like normal. “Hi Ben.” Donna said, giving me a smiling wave and smile. “Love the night gown.” She said, pulling out her claw and trailing it down between my breasts. “Can’t wait to tear it up off you when you’re ready for it~” “Well...this was all Rarity and Coco had on hand.” I said sheepishly. “But how are you doing today?” “Looking into weather to bend you over with a dick of my own or a strap on.” God she’s as bad as Rune sometimes… but a literal degree in Dire wolf history and biology means she’s my teacher now... I took a deep breath. “So...Rarity made mention about a few things…” I tried to start, not entirely sure where to start here given who this lady was. “Right. Anything specific then? Mating habits, social circles, mating, Den making?” “Well, Rarity made mention because I have...eight breasts I’m actually going to be a great Den mother...is that true?” “Yes.” I was suddenly in a school desk and she stood in front of me, projectos on a tall chair displaying images on a white screen...how? “Now, in the past our race acted and still do, act much like ponies on Equiss, one or many males with a lot of females. Males protected and guarded territories while females and males would go out and catch prey.” She said, a cartoon picture comic strip of what she was saying flowing along as she talked. “But some females needed to stay to take care of and guard the young. We learned early on those born with eight breasts were not only the ones who birthed the largest litters, but also produced enough milk to feed their and many others young when they left for huntings. So, they were largely the Den mothers. However during our homeworld’s destructans many of them were killed with the young they cared for and guarded, and as such it was left to genetics to see if one would pop back up. Your mom, Den, became a Den mother mainly because she was vicious towards anything to the young and her breasts produced more than enough milk for several litters. So you’re the first ‘natural born’ Den Mother since our world was toxified.” “Right then.” I said. “So...Rarity made mention that she was surprised I’m not as big as Den...will I keep growing or am I stuck at this height?” “Yes!” She said, the images a picture now one of me and Mom standing side by side. Me as is now and an easy four feet smaller. “As you see Den is eleven feet tall, and you are seven. A Dire Wolf female that is a truly devoted Den mother in both humanoid and feral forms grow larger than even the males as a means of shielding their young. This does not happen though until you first give birth, their bodies producing an overflow of growing hormones to increase their size. It also allows them a form of control over their own breasts. By this I mean they can control how much milk to produce at a time. This is so they don’t harm them when needing to escape or when traversing harsh terrains.” “Makes sense.” I said honestly. “Um...considering I have both...um...how does one part get affected by all this? Cause Rarity did measurements and...it’s a half a foot bigger already…” “In your case we have no idea. There has never been a Dire wolf of our race like you on record so we have no clue. That’s something we will figure out when it happens. If it happens.” “Mind taking an educated guess?” I asked nervously. “Hmm… Either it grows even larger than it is now, of like the breasts you can give yourself boners on command… that would be cool in all honesty.” I sighed out. “And Rarity was already talking about how I was too big for most of my wives.” I said honestly. “I don’t want to hurt my wives cause my dick can now count as a bludgeoning weapon.” I said honestly. Donna laughed. “True, but that can be an easyfix you know.” “Magic?” I asked. “On either me or my wives?” “Well you made yourself a female, right? Can’t you just make your penis smaller by will?” “No idea…” I sighed out. “I mean...from what Rarity said a foot is about the high end for ponies, and as far as I know a foot is kind of average for Dire Wolves.” “Well if you learn to resize it at will, I’ve tested myself to handle fourteen inches long, and three wide… so when you do, wreck me.” She said, her nose against mine. “Now then!” She said, back to the whiteboard. “So anymore questions?” “How many kids would I have if I...you know, got pregnant?” I asked honestly. “On average a Dire wolf like myself can have up to ten puppies at once, but on record a Den mother like yourself as full size can have almost thirty at once and immediately conceive again after birth. In short, Ben, love, you’re a bigger baby factory than Eclipsa.” “Christ…” I whined. “So...how much stronger am I than my normal male form?” I asked, having been told Den Mothers are stronger. “Strength wise right now it’s not too much difference. No noticeable strength growths happen til after your first litter is born, then you can easily dig tunnels into mountain sides in your humanoid form and leap over our world's tallest mountain, MT. Evermore, easily twice your earths Mt. Everest, in nine leaps.” “Well...that’s surprising.” I said honestly. “Well...hmm...there’s still so much I should ask…” I said, trying to think of something to ask. “I mean...am I attractive by Dire Wolf standards?” I asked sheepishly. “Ben, love, if the males out in your kingdom were in front of you right now, you’d be getting raped, no question about it. To our race a Dire wolf like you is not only important to our Den culture, but also is a sign of fertility and prosperity. You’re borderline a fertility goddess.” “Oh dear…” I muttered. “That’s...not good. I’d like not to get raped thank you very much.” I frowned. “Oh relax, it’s just an exaggeration. Though many would beg you to bear their litters.” She added. “Anything else?” “What’s special about Den Mother’s milk besides making as much as they want?” I asked curiously. “Well for one it has healing properties the likes of which rival most healing potions.” She started. “When fed to young they grow faster, are stronger and their bones in our records and excavations are as strong as Adamantium and skin tough as Steel. That is, if they drink it even in adulthood, otherwise while they will be tough they’d be like the rest of us, strong, hard to kill, but still killable on the underbelly. This is key when it comes to a Den Mothers breast milk like yours.” She said, showing me her belly. “This is the thinnest, most easily harmed area on our race next to eyes and genitals. A cut deep enough here severes three arteries. We’d bleed out in seconds. ONe raised and continuing to drink Den Mothers milk has this area constantly reinforced, able to withstand normally deadly attacks.” “Well...that’s...not good…” I said nervously. “That...makes me a little nervous on the belly rubs…” I said worriedly, now knowing that’s a dangerous spot and not wanting to do something that could hurt them that badly. “Well...that’s good to know...thought the breast milk was something from Cript but apparently not...okay personally, which of my wives or husbands would be the first one to knock me up?” I asked, wanting at least a little guess as to who before I fully go through with things. “Most of the money is on Luna, your first Love, but Rune is planning on something. Also the money is tied on it being Zeke or Eclipsa.” “I...wouldn’t be surprised if it would be those two.” I said honestly. “But I’m...still concerned about all of that...not to mention I have to be concerned about not hurting those two.” “Oh, how so?” “A combination of size and...our powers not entirely liking it in general.” I said honestly. “Well the only way to see if it works is to, well, do it. Can’t live life having never tried anything. Can’t live life without a little hurt on you, or your loved ones.” I looked down sadly. “I try not to have my loved ones get hurt…” I said, still remembering Diamond breaking my neck because I’m stubborn. “But...well Zeke’s going to laugh and Eclipsa...yeah Eclipsa’s just going to drag me to bed cause of how I look…” I said, having a good feeling Eclipsa would do that. “Hope not… my money is on Luna…” “Eclipsa doesn’t have a dick...but she might get one because Zeke decided to go down the middle and I decided to go down the middle as well…” I said. “But who knows until I actually go back to see them.” “I guess. So! What do you want to know next. Any question is on the table.” “Will I be a bigger cuddle bug than I already am?” I asked honestly. “And...how bad will my first heat be?” “Given you have never had a heat before,being male before, and you are a natural born Den mother, your first heat will not hurt per say, rather your body will produce massive amounts of adrenaline and hormones basically making you a walking rape machine to anything with male parts. After that your next heats will be more manageable but even the slightest sight or allure of sex will be like resisting your own instincts to run from danger.” “And...I also have male parts so shouldn’t I also be plowing my wives a bunch?” I asked. “Cause...it shouldn’t just be a one way street right?” “Hmm...Given that you have both parts I see three outcomes. The first I told you, the second that if your own wives, us, are in any kind of heat also you’d also likely screw them on sight, and third you somehow literally screw yourself and impregnate yourself. Though how I have no idea.” “Clones.” I said. “A lot of clones.” “Possibly though in that case is that considered masterbating? Incest? And our self made infants… clones?” “I don’t know...and I don’t want to know.” I sighed out. “So...I have a feeling I’ll be more of a cuddle bug then I already am?” “Yes, you’re already a cuddler, but between hormones and if you’re like some of us where we like to hug solely to feel the pressure on our boobs, then yes. Yes you will. It all depends on you.” “I like cuddles.” I said honestly. “So...yeah I might be a bigger cuddle bug. But let’s see...how many more people will try to join my herd because of this?” I asked honestly. “Hard to tell really. That’s something for the future to see about.” “Wonders.” I said. “So...anything else I should know about? Cause...not entirely sure on what to ask right now.” “Yes. When you see your infants… you will instinctually try your damndest to feed them. Good luck with that.” “Well...need to make sure the pups will be happy and healthy.” I said honestly. “Gonna be a little weird…” “You’ll get used to it. Actually Derpy is gonna teach you that stuff.” “Well...good to know.” I said honestly while pulling out my little totem and continuing to carve into it. “Anything else before I go see the next one?” “Yes, and this one is a bit personal to talk about. It involved what Eclipsa does and your dislike of it.” I sighed out. “I know...but why do you bring it up?” I asked curiously. “Want me to indulge her so she’s happy to share something she enjoys?” “Actually I think I know why you dislike that but might find what she does enjoyable. Tell me, what do you know about Vore, or at least that’s basically what she does, in general?” “From what I know about Vore is...literally eating someone whole, and...to some they think it would lead to very fast digestion which is just gross and weird…” “Yes but how Eclipsa and her race in general seem to have literally evolved to do it is, from my research. Yes, I research fetishes. LONG before I met Rune.” She chuckled. “That is what we would call non-fatal, meaning if she had an anus they’d plop out there, but in this case she just swallows them and they stay there. One stomach of hers actually heals whoever is inside it, another just holds it, like storage, and the third does digest but they are built so they don’t digest someone when they swallow, they end up in either that they sit in til they are pulled out. It’s actually normal for them to swallow their own young for safety as her scales are about as hard as, well, bullet proof. While digesting someone for them is possible it takes a potion and is extremely taboo unless certain conditions are met by both parties.” “Oh...well...that’s a thing.” I said honestly. “Interesting, didn’t know that.” I said, now kind of knowing why Eclipsa liked it. “Yes. It’s their culture and way of life. It’s so intuned with their kind that anyone who doesn’t is looked at as… odd. Plane and simple. That aside, I believe you, given your dislike of the idea initially might have to do with mentality. In this, there are two kinds, prey and predator. Some have both, others stick to one. From what I hear Eclipsa HAS been swallowed before, a sister from Cript’s family from the world her mom came from moved into town, gave her the experience, so she can be both, but you I believe might be more suited for the predator mentality. Now tell me, what factors make people enjoy such actions casually or sexually?” “I don’t know why people think a lot of things are sexual.” I said honestly. “Couldn’t really tell you to be honest...also there’s more of a…’personal experience’ part that makes me not like it besides my natural dislike of it.” I said, still hating that time Den did that. “A common reason people get into Vore, in any form actually has to do with past experiences. Studies show those who actively seek this particular interest all have something in common. Aloneness. Feeling lost, alone, having lost others in the past, being swallowed or swallowing makes them feel that the person they are participating with will never leave them, filling that sense of solitude and abandonment they have had their whole lives. Another showed that it is related to non-fatal and it being considered relaxing. The breathing and heartbeat of the person you are in, or the feeling of holding someone inside them bring out more… primal feelings, for being inside it’s about a time before birth, when you were inside the womb and the world's problems were nonexistent, and for consuming it’s about a paternal feeling of carrying life within you.” “Oh…” I muttered. “That’s...pretty special.” I said honestly. “I...didn’t expect it to be that important and special.” “On the surface not many do, but when you get into the psychology of things you find everything has meaning.” “Yeah.” I said honestly. “That makes sense.” I said honestly. “I...suppose that’s kind of how I see sex as a whole...a union of love...to show two people how much they care about each other.” “Exactly, and in terms of Vore, there is no greater form of trust between two or more people then letting one swallow you alive in what should be a dangerous situation.” “Makes sense…” I said. “Well...I suppose I should...at least give it a chance.” “Now while there are those who treat Vore as nothing more than a sexual kink that let's them dominant another by consuming them whole the proper method to that with digestion has also its own meaning as there are also many ways to go about that, but since none of you will likely do that for fear of endangering loved ones you can all just stick to the standard.” “Alrighty then.” I said honestly. “Uh...curious question...is Eclipsa even...big enough to fit all of me? Cause before I could say yes but I did just grow a foot taller and a few inches wider.” “Yes. In a book I found on their species their Jaws unhinge to swallow this game up to three times the initial size of their mouths, their skin and flesh can stretch like a balloon and their stomachs and outer tails and such all do the same. She'd have no problem swallowing you or blowing you.” “That’s...both cool and...a little terrifying.” I said nervously. “If you want to test how you feel about it, given your race try being the predator first. Learn the safespells so you can stretch and not digest whoever you swallow, or in some cases shove in your boobs, ass, or womb, depends on preference, that actually includes those testies and dick mind you. But that's a whole other book of kink spells. However you want it, do it. But safeguard spells so they don't digest and can, ya know, breath in there. Also rubber spells. Not like the ones to prevent pregnancy, ones that make you stretchy and able to swallow them. Then either hack them up or let them pass through you till they pop out the rear. It's all about preference really.” “I’m...still not entirely sure about all of this…” I said sheepishly. “Still just...feels a little gross ya know? Maybe it’s just me being a germaphobe or something.” “So is sex. You think it's fun for us to clean out the excess jizz you blast in and on us? Nope, but we go along with it cause we love you, each other, and it's part of marriage.” “Sorry.” I said sheepishly. “But...true.” I said honestly. “Well, that covered everything I guess.” Donna said. The classroom set up vanishing as fast as it appeared. “Sorry I haven’t been...well ‘more open’ to certain things you all might have wanted to do...just...a little nervous about it all I suppose.” I said sheepishly. “But thank you.” “It's alright. The point is that now you are willing to try them. Everyone has different likes so as long as you at least experiment with them once or a few times to get a feel on if you like it or not, it's alright.” “Alright.” I nodded. “So, who do I have to meet next?” I asked curiously, having a feeling I can go see either Twilight, Derpy or someone else at the moment. “Luna. She's in the main bathroom. Same as Twilight, both figured they'd give you a dual lesson given the topics.” “Makes sense...not to mention I need a bath if you haven’t noticed.” I said nervously. “Noticed. And honestly, dry cum is not a nice smell.” “Yeah…” I sighed out. “It’s really not...good thing the castle has some built in air fresheners just in case something like this happens.” I said, outside of my general area smelt clean and fresh while I still reeked. I got up and headed for the bathrooms. It was next to the bedroom, a large place for us all but had communal showers… this is where I found Luna and Twilight...in a shower...naked...making out… and boner is back… thank you Rarity for this magic underwear. “Uh…” I muttered. “Excuse me…” I muttered, so glad my underwear was magic or else my boner would hurt a bit. “Om? Oh! Ben!” Twilight said, breaking their make out session. “We were waiting and got a little bored so…” “No no, continue. I was enjoying the sight.” I chuckled a little. Luna chuckled. “Maybe later. For now you smell like dry cum… why?” “Um…” I blushed a little. “Well...jacking off with my new female body let me know a few things...like my breasts being pretty sensitive, soft and fluffy.” “Hm.” Luna said with a grin, circling me. She then grabbed my gown from the straps, and yanked, the whole thing sliding down like butter she she wrapped her arms around me, one on my panties/boxers, the other groping a boob from the bra… oh god~ “I like this look. Can't wait to see you in your birthday suit.” “You’d...be shocked.” I blushed brightly. “But...still thankful for her and Coco’s clothes…” “I can tell, but for this lesson we need you bare and wet… and sadly I don't mean sexually.” Using her magic Luna teleported off my bra and pantie-boxers, and kept grabbing my boobs. “Wow. With tits like these and an ass like that you're giving my sister and I a run for our money~” “I mean...I’m not even at full size yet.” I said nervously. “Cause Donna said...well after I have kids I’m going to be...about as big as Mom.” I said while my foot and a half long stiffy was still present. “Woah...looks like we got our work cut out for us.” Twilight said. “Come on Luna, stop groping Ben and let's get to teaching them.” “Please…” I muttered. “Even...though it feels nice…” Luna lead me into the shower, the water felt...nice. Really nice, the trickles down my body over my tits felt… good~ “Lesson one, the most sensitive place on the female body that is immediately available, is the nipples.” Luna said. “They are super sensitive, pinch too hard and it’s the same as when they are pinched as a male. The only difference is that when touched gently, and lightly pinched, especially when your breasts have milk, it can feel amazing, and sometimes just tit play alone on some females can lead to orgasem without even touching the really fun area~” Luna said. “I uh...kind of noticed when I…’tested’.” I said sheepishly. “These things are sensitive…” “Yes, now onto some other things. For example,” Lune then hugged me, the pressure of our breasts against each other felt both hard, her softness against my newly acquired softness was… so amazing… and our tits rubbing was… well yeah. “When against skin, your hormones kick in, as now you feel the skin of another, you’ll immediately notice how much better the experience is.” “I like hugs and cuddles already.” I said while hugging her happily. “This won’t help my cuddle bug tendencies...it’ll only make it worse.” I chuckled a little. “But it does feel nice.” “Now~” Luna said, giving me a lick on my neck. A shiver went up my spine and tail as she began kissing it… is she hickeying me… woah~ She stopped. “Proper affection like that is always wanted,:” She said while smiling. “It really gets a girl turned on.” It was at that moment I felt something inside me was wet...not my skin… am I...horny there? “Oh dear…” I muttered a little, my dick twitching as if to tell me ‘yes, your getting about as wet as a waterfall down here’. “This...is gonna need some...getting used to.” “Now any graze or bump there can turn you on immediately, it’s a very sensitive area, even washing it sometimes can give you an orgasem. Washing it out after sex just makes your legs feel more like noodles than they could already after sex.” “Wonderful…” I sighed out. “I mean, not surprising but still.” “Oh yes you do not want to accidentally tear your vaginal skin.” Twilight spoke. “That can lead to infections and some really bad pains till the bleeding stops.” I whimpered and closed my legs. “Listen, I’m already concerned about one thing down there…” I said worriedly. “I don’t need to be even more concerned about another thing at the moment…” “It’s okay, it’s just a fact of having a vagina. So long as proper lubrication, natural or from a bottle is used then the only way to tear the skin their is if you’re masterbating with something sharp.” Twilight added. “Now, onto hygiene.” She said, Luna letting go of me so I could better face Twilight. “First up, it’s not too different from cleaning as a guy, but you now have the underside, top and depending on, nipples to scrub, and since you have a fluffier coat than most, some strong shampoo to penetrate to the skin under it all, and conditioner to keep it soft.” “Can’t wait to run out of shampoo and soap a lot faster than normal.” I grumbled. “But I’m going to be so god damn fluffy when I dry off…” “Yes, but now it’s onto the… lower area.” Twilight said. “If you’d please…?” I grumbled while spreading my thick thighs apart. “Fine…” I muttered. “Jeez...could crush a watermelon with these…” I muttered. “Um...mind moving the boys hanging there too?” “Alright…” I said while gently moving the boys out of the way carefully to expose my female parts. “Jeez...this is embarrassing…” I muttered while blushing brightly. “Alright.” She said, taking my free hand and looking at me. “Now, I am going to trace the area around your vagina. This is where you need to clean whenever you clean, the inside will clean itself naturally.” She said, slowly tracing my fingers around it… I learned two things, my vagina is as big as My whole hands length, and that area made me a waterfall down there. “Okay.” She said, letting go. “Just clean this area with soap that has no perfumes in it. Otherwise the perfume in the soap will give you a rash.” “Well that sucks...too bad it’s a literal waterfall down there.” I grumbled while finding the right soap “That is normal, the more you’re...well, horny, to be blunt, the wetter it gets. It’s the natural response, a sort of way of it telling you that you are ready to have it...inserted.” Twilight explained. “Now, let’s clean you up proper on your breasts then send you off back to Rarity to see if she has some proper clothes for you and to accessorize. Her idea, not mine.” “It’s alright. But yeah it would be best to get cleaned up.” I said. “But also...not gonna like having to use like...four or five different soaps and shampoos…” I said, so used to only using two at most. After that shower and some time drying, my fur felt amazing and was much more flurry. Luna and Twilight gave me a kiss then I headed back to Rarity. When I arrived Coco was gone and Rarity had an array of things on a table, bracelets, earings, necklaces, purses...high heels… Oh my cloak! “Like it?” She asked. It was for my me when I have the magic undergarments on, the uh, breasts that are present enough, mainly my top two pairs, had holes so my cleavage was exposed, it seemed able to fit my figure to a T, and the pants were now a skirt, boots were still boots, but more feminine, and had a high heel design, and zippers placed in...erm, embarrassing areas but at closer inspection those were just for decoration...thank god... “I love it...but can I...you know, not wear skirts and high heels? Both are nice for people like you who wear them on a semi regular basis but...no, high heels are impractical and look uncomfortable...and I’d rather not have a stiff breeze show things repeatedly.” “Oh darling, you think I didn't plan for that? The skirt has a few support stitches to the back of your cloak to prevent that and your boots while they have high heels, are enchanted to changed into… blegh, cargo boots, for combat and running.” “Hey, cargo boots work, they’re comfy, and I don’t have to relearn how to walk.” I said honestly. “I know you want me to be more feminine...but really? I’m pretty sure women can still be feminine and wear things that aren’t feminine.” “Oh, darling. Don't let looks decide so easily.” She clapped, the attired shifting to armor reminiscent of a Dusk, almost like Keyblade armor. “Fashionable, functional, and honestly my best work so far.” “Looks amazing.” I said in awe. “How did you do that?” “Zeke's Rarity came over and gave me some instructions. Blueprint and a base armor to use. It was surprisingly easy.” “I can imagine given it was you that made it.” I chuckled while gently leaning down and nuzzling Rarity happily. “Thanks Rarity, your the best.” “Happy to be of service darling.” She said. I looked at Rarity...and only looked down sadly as I remembered something. “I’m sorry...for never keeping my promises…” “Pardon?” “I promised so much for all of you...and yet I never actively acted on them.” I sighed out sadly. “Or...am I just being silly at the moment?” “Well, if you really feel bad for it, make a list of these promises and then one by one act on them. Now, what shall you accessories with?” Rarity said, looking over the jewelry. “Hmm…” I looked over all the jewelry. “Let’s not go overboard here.” I brought up. “I know. Too much accessories are more tacky. Something simple… ah! Here! She said, showing me a pair of earrings. The design was a heart with the Nobody symbol within it. The colored were swapped. The Nobody was simple the heart color pink and the heart a metallic grey. “That looks nice.” I said. “But uh...wouldn’t it hurt the first time since...I don’t actually have a hole in my ear?” “Not to worry my darling.” She said, moving her fingers, showing that they were clip ons. “Thought ahead of that.” “Cool.” I said with a little smile while looking around at the other jewelry. “Hmm...a good necklace would fit…” I said, not really being into fashion but knowing good earrings always needed a good necklace. “Has to be something here…” Looking at the Necklaces I spotted one that was reminiscent of Sora’s crown necklace. It was smaller, held a gold outline with a silver inside, and the chains were chrome. “Sure.” I said while picking up the necklace. “I like this one.” I said before checking to see if it was just a normal slip on or if it was a specific clip. It was slip on, once I got it on and settled I looked at myself in a hand mirror, Rarity having clipped the clip on earrings just below the middle of my ears… why does this look so...good on me? “This looks nice.” I said, before looking up a little and noticing I still had my crown I got so long ago from Celestia...even if it’s still crown and crooked to the right...it fit the look so much. “How do I look?” “Fabulous! If I didn’t know better I’d say you looked like a punk rock popstar.” “Not entirely sure if that string was still complimenting or not.” I said, knowing the first part was a compliment but then the punk rock popstar part was a little weird. “But thank you.” I said warmly. “It was a compliment. Now, time for the final topic of the day… your sexual restrictions, for now, and what you want to start with and what we would like you to try with us. Okay?” I sighed out. “Alright.” I said. “This is gonna be weird...surprised Rune isn’t here given the topic now…” “She provided a...rather detailed list of activities and we immediately crossed out those we feel you would reject immediately given their nature and… such.” Rarity said. “Come now, Twilight, Luna, Celestia and I want to discuss this with you then inform the rest.” “Alright.” I nodded. “Can’t wait for this to...just be a weird thing...also Donna said that...if my Dire Wolf people saw me like this...they would be begging me to have their kids.” I said sheepishly. “Well to be honest love if I decided to have my own… set of parts I’d adore seeing you pregnant with our children. You aren’t the only one with a pregnancy fetish around here. Just wish it didn’t ruin my figure. Selfish, yes, but in my line of work it’s largely needed.” “I’m not that pretty…” I said sheepishly, blushing brightly at this. “I’m just...me. I’m not some Goddess of Beauty that Donna was talking about…” “No lady ever feels that way about their looks love, and those that do either take it like I do, or go too far and put themselves on a pedestal.” Rarity said. We were now in the Living Room, the girls and Rarity were on the couch and I sat between them all. “So… What would you be willing to try first, off the top of your head?” Celestia started. “Um…” I blushed a little. “I...did it with Gilda, Ashe and...some of the other wives that could handle it but…” I muttered. “Dom...and Sub...where I’m the Dom…?” I asked worriedly, my question and actions seeming to be very at odds with each other. “I’ll...try not to be too rough..” “Well with a member like that it may have to wait til Twilight and I can work on a spell to… make that possible.” Celestia said. “But we mean things we can...do to you. For example… would you try… toys?” “I mean...I was going to have to learn that anyways…” I said nervously. “So, what would you want to try first?” Luna asked. “Simple dildos? Vibrators? Other… such toys?” “Let’s...start simple I suppose.” I said. “No need to...go to fast with this stuff...I’m...now back to being a Virgin here.” “Hehe. True.” Twilight started. “Alright… now, what about what Donna recently told us? You are… willing to try what Eclipsa does?” “I want to...at least try with Eclipsa...just to know how it feels and be a little closer to them instead of...trying to distance myself.” I said honestly. “Even if...it’ll be a little weird.” “Okay.” Twilight said with a nod. “And, what about some other things? Like...pregnancy? I’m not expecting you to be ready for that in a few days, none of us are, we just want to know… how would you handle that? We’d support and help you but it is something you might have to go through...depending on things maybe more than once.” “Knowing my sex life maybe.” I joked. “But…” I put a hand on my stomach gently. “Not...not right now.” I said gently. “It’s alright. We didn’t expect you to jump at the idea/fact anyway.” Rarity said. “Now, I have to ask if… if I make you some...sexual articles of clothing… would you wear them for us? We’d have some on too of course! It’s just… Something I think we’d all like to see.” Steam started coming out of my head. “I mean...sure but...I doubt I’ll look good in it like all of you.” I said sheepishly. “Now, onto something we all do and wondered if you’d be up for.” Celestia started. “As you know we all breastfeed, or have a milking machine to bottle feed the young… would you want yours… milked or feed them through nursing?” “Fed through nursing.” I blurted out without thinking about it...only to realise what I said and pulled my hood up to cover my face. “I...uh...I didn’t….oh~...” I whimpered in embarrassment. “Hm, looks like Donna was right about that Natural born Den Mother part.” Luna gave a chuckle and wrapped an arm around me. “It’s alright. There’s nothing wrong with wanting that. It’s actually a perfect way to bond with the young. We mainly bottle feed those teething. Teeth on nipples hurt… a lot…” “I can imagine.” I said. “These things are really sensitive.” “Would you mind learning some… sexy dances?” Twilight asked. “I mean, Rarity and I learned how to lap dance for you so… a little return courtesy would be nice…?” “Um...well...I suppose?” I said nervously. “Would be...interesting...even though my thighs are thick as hell.” “Would show you how to use those hips.” Luna said, making me blush harder. “What about...Roleplay?” “That...depends.” I said. “While I’m not opposed to it I’d...still rather it not get out of hand like I keep fearing…” I said nervously. “But Roleplaying is fine.” “You mean sheep and wolf?” Twilight asked. “Well...that was a while ago.” I said honestly. “I...hope I didn’t go overboard back then.” “Well, then why not reverse that role then~” Luna said. “I’m sure you’d look cute in white fluff.” “Well I’m about as fluffy as one.” I said honestly. “What about us...um...sampling you?” Rarity asked. “You mean eat her out?” Luna asked, Rarity blushing, and slowly nodding. “I was going to say you can start with the breastfeeding so I can...uh...get used to the feeling but...I mean...I’m scared you’ll get lost in how fluffy and big my ass is at this point.” I said nervously. “It’s alright. Though we might just be admiring the view.” Celestia said with a cheeky smile. “Now, about sleeping… actual sleep.” Rarity clarified. “Would you mind if we… used your extra cushions as pillows? You always do it with us and we’ve done it a few times with each other so… I was wondering how yours would feel being big...soft and fluffy.” “I’m gonna miss doing that to you all.” I said honestly. “You can still do it.” Celestia said. “It’s not like one of us can’t be your ‘body pillow’ or rather ’boobie pillow.” She said with a chuckle. “We can just take turns is all.” “I mean...I also have clones that can still be...my male self so there’s that.” I said honestly. “But...I understand. But don’t be surprised if I’m more cuddly...cuddles are nice no matter what gender you are.” “We won’t mind at all.” Luna said as everyone agreed. “Now...what about anal?” “Not right now.” I said. “Gonna...need to get used to a lot of things...my ass can wait.” “Alright. That does take some preparation beforehand anyway, otherwise it’s just a mess.” Luna added. “What about… makeup?” Rarity asked. “While it would mostly be for show or special occasions for you, it’s still something that can enhance experiences. We did always love seeing all the lipstick markings we put on you.” “I mean...maybe?” I asked nervously. “I won’t do it all the time, makeup looks fine on all of you but...it might ruin my fur.” “I guess that is it for now.” Celestia said. “Till you are more comfortable with what we have and are going to try and are more confident in your new body, we will hold other other requests.” “Who’s keeping Rune away from me at the moment?” I asked. “Cause I’m pretty sure Rune isn’t happy here. “Donna and the other Rune from Zeke’s reflection. The things those two do are...hot, but also a tad worrying.” Twilight said. “Though I suppose she couldn’t resist. Not everyday someone with your litteral exact same list of fetishes comes along and is willing to do them all.” “True.” I said honestly. “Now...the bigger part is when I go back to meet Eclipsa and Zeke...god those two will flip at this.” “I imagine Eclipsa will kiss you and Zeke might not say anything, or just not have much to say? I don’t know. I can’t read that guy sometimes.” Twilight said. “I’ll have to ask his version of me what she sees in them.” “I still don’t know Zeke...goes from being an actual decent person to...whatever the hell is happening.” I said honestly. “But...I hope Eclipsa’s doing some good for him at the moment...and I do have a feeling Eclipsa will do something along those lines.” “I'm sure she is.” Luna said, taking my hand. “And I know you will too. Zeke needs both you and Eclipsa, and vise versa. You three just click.” “Maybe...but me and Zeke aren’t really good with each other, given that me and Zeke are at two opposite sides of the spectrum here.” “Not as much as you think.” Looking at the doorway, stood Unum, Pink floral Pj’s adorning her. “Sup. Was exploring your place before bed.” “Hey Unum…” I said. “So...uh...as you can clearly see...I’m a thick amazon right now…” “I noticed. also your Rune told mine, who told me while, well, not gonna say what she was doing when she told me.” She said. “You and Zeke have something in common. You both seem to doubt and hate yourselves for the dumbest reasons. Zeke learned to be silent about it and keeps it all bottled up, you express it. That alone makes you mentally healthier than him.” “Mentally healthier? I kinda doubt that all things considered.” I said honestly. “Think about it, by saying your issues out loud, at least you’re letting others know. Zeke keeps it all inside and can’t seem to let it out. He makes everyone truly believe he’s fine, when he’s not...she? Still think we should make up a word for this.” “Either or.” I shrugged. “But I understand...we all have problems.” “Yup. Oh and I passed the nursery when coming here. Derpy said if I see you to say she’s ready to give you some motherhood lessons. Mainly nursing, changing and washing the infants.” Unum said as she took her leave to explore more of the castle. “I mean...I did learn how to change the infants with Cadence a while back but...not on the washing parts...and nursing is...gonna be interesting.” I said sheepishly. “Well, you get along then. We will meet you in the bedroom.” Luna said, all but Rarity getting up and leaving. “I hope you find being both genders is to your liking… and, I hope things go well between you and Zeke.” Rarity said, giving me a quick kiss on the cheek before taking her leave as well. “Hopefully.” I said honestly. “But...might as well meet Derpy...oh and Unum...did Joy tell you about uh...yourself in the One Piece world?” I asked curiously, having a feeling he probably made mention to her...living skeleton. “Yes...Core’s… She’s alive and whole now. I don’t know how Kexez did it...but he revived her. She and Core are together and happy now… Feels a little weird.” She admitted. “Well, can’t dwell on the past, no matter how much it hurt you.” She said, waving goodbye then leaving. “Sorry…” I muttered before getting up and heading off to the Nursery. “Well...that could have gone better…” I muttered. “Let’s hope Derpy will be kind to me…” I muttered, wondering what Derpy will have in store for me here. As I arrived most of the infants were all asleep already. Derpy had two in her arms, Karla, my first kid with Chrysalis. Changelings birth fast. And...Nancy… Oh boy. “Hey hun.” I said. “How are you doing today?” “Good. All the little ones asleep, save for Karly and Nancy. I will be showing you how to bath and nurse them.” “Can’t wait for Nancy to laugh…” I sighed out. “Or to bite me out of spite.” I frowned. “Even as a pup, she still kinda hates me.” ’Put your tits anywhere near my mouth and I will bite them off…’ Nancy growled in her baby babble, but my assistant app translated it for me. “I was actually hoping you’d do this with Nancy, you two need to bond more as it’s unhealthy for an infant to harbor this much hate for a parent so young.” Derpy said. ’Oh F***.’ I looked at Nancy with a saddened expression. “Were you...so content with death?” I asked her gently. “Never once...did you ever wish to have a better, happier life? That...this was your chance to be better than who you were?” I asked the pup. ’I did, and while I do plan on taking advantage of that I should be entitled to a grudge of my murderer. You also have my daughter as your maid, the best bank robber and sneak assassin in all Australia and Northern canada… as your maid… and...the other, having sexual relations with who should be her uncle, so pardon my lack of positivity.’ “Now here’s my counters to what you said...it’s fine to hold a grudge...but you literally gave me no choice in the matter so that’s kind of your fault. Your daughter, as far as I’ve seen, has been perfectly happy and content with her life as a maid with her new child, so her previous occupation means little to me if it means seeing her and her child smiling and living a life where they aren’t having to run every other minute...and Jenny...well Jenny grew male bits and knocked up one of her fellow herd mates so I think her dating her supposed ‘uncle’ means little at the moment.” I explained simply while gently taking Nancy from Derpy and cradling her in my big fluffy arms. “It’s fine to be mad...but when everyone’s already moved on...when people you care about are happy...should you be holding onto the past? Or looking forward and seeing a bright future you can live in?” I asked gently. ’I don’t even know what my future- what are you doing?’ She asked as I began unzipping my cloak. “What do you think?” I asked honestly. “You’ve been in danger all your life...having to do so much just to make sure your family is safe…” I said while continuing to get one of my many breasts out to breastfeed her. ’Oh dear god no…’ “Listen, your going to be breastfed by me, and that’s final.” I said, finally getting one of my breasts out and even though Nancy was against this a lot her instincts told her she was safe in my arms, and that breastfeeding was very needed. “I know it’s weird...but please...you have to take that step towards a better future.” I said gently while raising her to my breast. “Just once...you don’t have to be mad...you don’t have to be defensive...you can let it out…” I said, hoping this will work and help her feel better instead of tense, defensive and angry. ’Mrfpf. Gah!’ Nancy made noises, trying to defy her instincts. Though finally she lost to them, gumbing my nipple and sucking til milk came out. I saw some tears, a little blush, before she began calming down and was nursing as a steady pace… and this was a weird feeling. I mean it was embarrassing, empowering, maternal, protective, bonding… so many others I can’t even begin to explain or comprehend all at once. One that stuck out though was...pride. “She’s a fighter.” Derpy said, already feeding Karla, while she feeds on the love Derpy has for her while nursing, she can still digest the milk to make her chitten stronger as she grows. “How’s it feel?” “I’m...proud.” I said gently. “But...I’m just...happy to have this little moment...to feel close...and help my daughter feel better.” I said lovingly. “Is...this what you all feel?” “For me it makes me feel responsible. Like what I am doing it just right.” Derpy said, looking down to Karla. “I remember doing this with Dinky when she was just a newborn. Heh, I’m just glad she came out so good.” I nodded gently. “I’m...glad I got to be with you all...share so many experiences…” I said, gently moving a little hair from Nancy’s face and just smiling in joy. “Heh. So am I. Not many mares breastfeed their young these days. What was once common place became a bit of a topic in parental circles. While we breastfeed the kids and even drink each others milk as, well, food, something ponies have done since our earliest recorded years, these days it’s like a dying culture. Some still do it, but nowhere near the amount as before. Sometimes I wonder if we all had a reset button so we could all return to that simpler, less socially complicated time. Back when things were hard, but simple and you didn’t have to consider the many options to feed your young like there are now. Or even how to raise them.” “True...but there should always be this...special connecting.” I said gently. “But...breastfeeding isn’t bad...it’s never been bad.” “For most it’s also a worry on if they can properly feed them. If the mama isn’t healthy, their milk can’t keep their little ones healthy. Plus it can be hard to switch them off the teat and onto a bottle or soft foods. Dinky didn’t want soft food at all. Had to milk myself and make her sleep it and eventually I managed to get her off my milk when she was almost a year.” “Well…” I shrugged gently. “It happens I suppose.” “So, how often do you see yourself doing this?” Derpy asked, gently rubbing Karla’s back. “I don’t know…” I said honestly. “As a Den Mother I’ll be doing this with all my kids...but as a Den Mother I don’t care about age...just like Mom, if my family wants to just enjoy it for a little bit...they can.” “Well, as they say, a mother's job is never done.” Derpy said with a smile. She then took Karla off her teat, helpt her so she could pat her back, the Wire wolf/Changeling hybrid letting out a burp as I did the same with Nancy. ’Urp! … This changes nothing…’ “You know it does.” I said gently. “But...if you need help wondering where you’ll go in life...I’m here to help, as well as all your family.” I told her lovingly. “Come on now, time for their bath and then put them to sleep.” Derpy said, the two of us getting up and to the connecting bathroom of the nursery. Here we placed them in small tubes just right for their small size. “It’s important that when washing a newborn or any baby to use special soap so it doesn’t sting them if it gets into their eyes, as well as making sure it’s safe and trusted. An off brand may look just the same but one ingredient can mean the difference from a happy bath and an allergic reaction of any kind.” “I had a feeling.” I said honestly. “Also...I don’t know if all kids enjoy it, but bubble baths always was a little fun for me.” “Depends on the child. Karla here likes them, Nancy there is a bit indifferent about it.” Nancy thankfully didn’t put up too much fuss, her small frame craving sleep so when the bath was over she was out like a light and wrapped in blankets. We placed them down gently in their cribs and turned the lights off. Small night lights lit up parts of the room. Part of me didn’t want to leave… part of me was begging...no, demanding I stay here but… I didn’t know what to do. I love my kids but this… this just feels like so much more… is this part of being a Den mother? “I...need to be with them…” I muttered, wanting to make sure I kept them safe even when I knew they were safe right now. I ended up curling up around Nancy’s Crib. It...still wasn’t right! I ended up lifting her, careful not to wake her up as laid with her on the floor, shifting to feral form. It was bigger than normal, and my...erm… breasts in this form were all still hanging. I kept her close to me, the small reborn child unconsciously cuddling up to me from within her blanket. I smiled gently. “Better…” I muttered to myself as I cuddled up to my daughter and keeping her safe. I felt something touch me. Immediately I looked towards it, growling, then stopping that when I saw it was Luna and Derpy standing next to me. “Derpy said you didn’t want to leave. So cute!” She said in a hushed squee. “Mind if we join you? I still want to use those pillows of yours… and in that form I should use them as blankets~” I took a deep breath to relax. “Please...be careful next time.” I said, not wanting to feel territorial or aggressive at my own wives. “But...sure.” Derpy and Luna took rest against me, leaning against my massive chest and curling up between my brests… it felt nice, not unwelcome or awkword at all for some reason. I curled up with the three of them all in my embrace, and drifted to sleep quickly, the sound of Nancy’s light small breathing in my ear all night, comforting me. “Eherm!” Someone coughed, waking me up. Grogley I opened my eyes. I felt… like I was covered in… with something. Looking up, I saw it was Twilight who made the noise. “Heh… taking to it like a fish to water aren't you?” Looking I saw… all the babies were around me, or on me, some already suckeling off me, and even off the still sleeping Derpy, though Luna was wide awake, eyes wide. “This is the most adorable and terrifying way I have ever woken up ever.” Luna commented. “I...don’t have much of a problem with it.” I said gently. “As long as my children are happy.” I said gently and lovingly. “As touching and heartwarming this is, your Council does need you at the moment Ben, some issues have come up and you need to be present.” “But...my kids…” I said worriedly. “And...what about my clones? Aren’t they free to help?” I asked, my ears flat against my head as my instincts just wanted to be here and help my babies. “Yes but they are all still male, for now anyway. We need to let your council and your people know about your new appearance and...gender? Anyway, it’s just something that needs to be seen, not told, and this is another part about being a parent, mother specifically… having to leave them when you really don’t want to. It hurts but otherwise they might never learn independence.” I only looked a bit upset and whimpered a little. “Fine..” I said, knowing I had to deal with going against my instincts cause of so many other things. “God...it’s going to be so weird seeing everyone’s reactions about...this.” “Hey, once it’s all out there you can shift all your clones and...huh, actually, that gives me an idea.” Twilight began thinking. “You head off and do your work, the others and I will make sure when you are back it will be a perfect solution to some issues we had last night.” Twilight said, helping me up as I shifted back into my humanoid form. “Alright.” I nodded. “But...I’ll try to make time to work on my promises to you all…” I said to them as I headed off to my throne room to show the other council members my new form. As I arrived there was an assortment of responses from my council. Dorlu, Dante and Speed of Sonic all laughed, others were confused. Grell was jealous of my curves… it was a thing. Once it all calmed down though it was time to address these issues that have come up. “Okay so...any questions?” I asked once they stopped laughing. “We've had our laughs.” Sonic said, still chuckling a bit. “In terms of the incident that lead to Dorlu replacing Trixie, border security measures have been drastically increased. We are also planning on issuing and acquiring special passports for all visitors and traveling residents. Each passport will have a tracking spell on them so we can see who is in the country and who is outside it.” “Cool.” I said with a nod. “Gotta keep up security and all that.” I said honestly while my throne was thankfully resized to fit my...new body. “So...any questions about me right now?” “We'd prefer to keep this business as usual.” Vergil spoke. “There are some cultural issues arising with the Dire Wolves and Equins.” Dorlu spoke. “And what would those cultural issues be?” I asked. “And I’ll get your proper opinions later, I’d rather not have my people fighting each other at the moment. So what are the cultural differences?” “The equestrian weather factory is requesting permissions to tame the wild nature within the Dire Wolf territories,and their denials have the nearby pony towns and cities worried about their 'wild weather's’.” “Oh yes, it’s back to the question of ‘Why are ponies scared of Nature’s most basic functions?’.” I rolled my eyes. “Seriously, never fully understood that...okay, are there any representatives I need to meet about both of their arguments?” I asked, having a feeling the ponies and dire wolves would send me someone to talk this out. “Yes. Weather factory is sending Rainbow Dash and the Dire Wolves are sending Hunter Frost to argue. They will be here within the week.” “Alright, so given you all might know why this started...are ponies actively trying to move into the Dire Wolf Territory? Or are they trying to do something else?” I asked curiously. “It's part of the integration attempts between all the races. Since they are all United as one kingdom the only thing that truly divides them is their culture and species. So far there is a healthy grab bag of success and failure.” Dante said. “Wonders.” I said. “Oh uh...just a random thing, how are the Monsters doing in New Manehattan? I presume King Papyrus is still doing his thing or did something happen?” I asked curiously. “The monsters in New Manehattan are fine. In fact they seem to find a peaceful solution for the whole thing. Every race of creature we sent to live there have had no real issues. Just some litter and a few thefts, nothing of true concern.” Dorlu replied. “Alrighty then.” I said honestly. “Good to know their doing good. Oh uh...Joy, have Asgore and Toriel ever visited?” I asked curiously. “I don’t know if they...got back together or are still split but are they still checking up on Chara, Frisk and Asriel?” “Asgore is nice… I still have the burn marks from Toriel…” He grunted. “They are still divorced.” “You’d think in a new world and some actual talking those two might have gotten back together.” I said honestly. “But whatever does it for them. So, anything else?” I asked curiously. “Yes. There has been a string of murders in Vanhoover.” Kat said. “Forty six dead in three days. Same weapon… a Keyblade…” “Any reports on who the culprit is?” I asked. “What Keyblade is it? Anything.” I growled, for some reason my Den Mother instincts kicking in as if my people are like my children. “No leads. All we know is that it is a Starlight Keyblade.” “Cause of course it is…” I grumbled. “How many people actually have a Starlight Keyblade?” I asked. “Let’s start narrowing it down.” “Starlight Keyblades are given to all and every new student at the Keyblade wielders academy, and by the second year they all begin to discover their true Keyblade, unless the Starlight is their true Keyblade, so roughly five to seven thousand total. WIthin the area these murders took place, it’s five hundred, and forty seven exactly.” Dorlu said. “The pool is too big and we have too few leads to filter it.” “Was there any video cameras near the scene’s of the murders? Is there literally anything for us to go on besides having to look for one guy with one keyblade?” I asked. “Cause I will hunt this person down for hurting my children if I need to.” I growled...before blinking at realizing what I just said. “Uh...sorry...didn’t mean to say that.” There was some smirks, some chuckles. “Sadly any cameras in the areas were found destroyed. Video showed nothing. All murders seem to have taken place between nine in the afternoon and one in the morning. No spells seems to have been used at all, so Keyblade DTL’s are not their means of transport, or normal equestrian magic.” “Well...there’s a pattern at least.” I said. “What do the victims have in common?” “Mixed couples. Griffin and pony, pony and Dire Wolf, Minotaur and Changeling. Seems like a terrorist trying to ignite a race war or someone with strong dislikes of mixed race couples.” Kat said. “And how many of these people are there?” I asked. “And should I get Jenny in case she actually knows who this group is?” “There are four groups that emerged after Equis united under one kingdom, rejecting the ideals of a united kingdom, and they became more active after the Dire Wolves appeared.” Dorlu said. “The Purest pony group, Lead by former tax agent Scrub Brush. The Griffon Purest group, lead by Grandpa Gruff. The Minotaur purists group, lead by Iron Will, and lastly the Zebra purest Group, lead by Widow Tree. All of their members seem to range from late tens to elders, so a rather large pool of members.” “Bring those four here…now.” I growled. “I have plenty of words for them.” “We can’t.” Dante said. “They fled world and realm before the security enhancements were made. We have no idea where they are hiding, speculation and possible realms and reflections yes, bot no exact location.” I brought out my Lexicon and flipped a page. “Greater Commune, call Zeke.” I said, knowing if there’s one person that could know where people who have flew off the map it would be him. “He better fucking answer…” I growled. There was a cloud above the book, an image there and OH GOD THEY'RE IN THE SHOWER- IS THAT HIS CELESTIA!?! “What the- Woah!” Zeke slipped, causing his Celestia to bury them in her rather larger body. “Well aren’t you two having fun.” I said, my own anger and instincts not giving a single fuck about the situation there in. “Can I get some help here? Or are you to busy?” “And just who are you?” Zeke asked, moving aside his Celestia’s large boob to view me. “What matters more are people actively murdering my people because they’re all racist fucks.” I growled. “And we can get to that part later, I need help finding people and getting some god damn answers.” “... Ben?” Zeke asked, eyes wide in realization. “You… look good.” “Yes, thank you.” I said, glad he didn’t start laughing at the moment. “Now...about that help finding people? Your literally Kingdom Hearts, you probably know where everyone is at any time.” “Through their hearts yes. Can’t see them in your realm though. Your Nothingness covers that track.” “Glad that the four I’m looking for are not in my realm.” I said. “I’m looking for four people, Iron Will, Scrub Brush, Grandpa Gruff and Widow Tree, the leaders of four different terrorist organizations based on outdated and horrifically racist values.” “Outdated huh? Hmm… Being in your realm for so long they must have absorbed some nothingness so I can use that to select them apart from others. Alright, give me a moment.” Zeke said, closing their eyes, then opening them, they were glowing blue. “... hi.” His Celestia said with a small wave. “Sorry to interrupt.” I said. “How are you doing today?” “Was planning on some simple shower sex then light reading later…” She replied. “Sorry...but you know, sometimes fun has to take a back seat when your people are being murdered for being happy.” I said honestly. “I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t the first time…” She said, the shower water still hitting them both, Zeke’s eye glowing faded til they were normal. “Got them. Each one is on a different reflection of Equestria. Unsurprisingly each reflection they are on has their preferred race already having overtaken the entirety of their world. Egotistical much?” “Okay, good to know.” I said. “So then I can drag the four of them back here and…’ask politely’ who they are making murder innocent people.” I said, beyond furious that I would openly have a public execution for these assholes...but the more sensical part of my brain didn’t entirely think that was a good idea. “Sure. Good luck though. Now, can I resume pounding this lovely sun goddesses ass?” That was...rather unlike Zeke...though I made a mental note of that to speak with Eclipsa about that. “Sure.” I said. “Have fun you two.” I said while closing the book, having a good feeling my council will know where these fuckers are. “I’ll contact Daybreak to help locate these specific reflections. If they value our trades and co-existence, then they will.” Dorlu said. “I’ll be back in an hour. Move onto the next issues all til I return.” “So while that is being taken care of, there is one final issue.” Joy spoke up. “Does it actually involve what I look like?” I asked honestly. “No. In fact it relates more to the later topic sadly.” Luxu said. “Oh dear…” I muttered. “Can’t wait to hear more about it.” “In short majority had children. While many found care in families of the victims others are orphaned.” That… is a bit weird… kill the parents, not the kids? I mean, thank God the kids are alright but… it doesn't make sense for a terrorist perspective to leave the young alive. “Okay...so someone’s openly caring about the kids.” I said. “The orphanages are currently at max capacity and while the Dire Wolves are openly accepting to letting these young into their dens, many are counter arguing about the ethics involving their predatory nature and pony prey cultures. So far the whole thing is become in a political shitstorm, and all the while the kids are all cramped in places unfit to properly care for them, physically and phycology.” “And...would it be wrong if I openly adopted all of them?” I asked. “Sir, with all due respect while funds and space are no issue these children have severe mental issues after witnessing their parents killed in front of them, staying it was someone is a red hoodie and jeans and nothing more. While it would give them a home it won't fix their issues. Legally these kids can't be adopted til their mental health is cured first, otherwise they could murder the foster parents when under stress.” Cat said. “All we can do at the moment is renovate buildings to accommodate their needs and then we can discuss their housing and legal guardianship.” “While that is true.” I said. “At the moment they need people to be there for them, show them everything’s going to be alright...be there for them.” I said, my council knowing full well it’s my Den Mother instincts kicking in. “All of them need a family...they won’t get better if they’re alone, even if their in an orphanage...” I said. “And this isn’t just because of my Den Mother instincts...I’ve been in their shoes as well. My parents were murdered...and I went downhill fast…” “So what’s your move then?” Luxu asked. “All we can do in the end is advise, it’s your call in the end.” I got up. “Like I said before, I’m going to adopt them. They shouldn’t feel helpless and abandoned, and I’m going to make damn well sure whoever did this to them pays dearly for hurting my children...god damn it I said it again didn’t I?” I groaned. “Den mother Mentality meets leadership. You’re having issues keeping the two separated, or, perhaps it is natural?” Rogers said. “Remember...this is day two of my entire thing so…” I said nervously. “But I’m gonna need to get used to this...finish up my totem of mom and maybe she’ll give me some advice.” I said hopefully. “But this will also suck because...this will basically be my public appearance as the new me.” “Well, guess it’s a good thing when you aren’t pissed about something you naturally seem approachable.” Zuko said. “You have a natural caring look in that form, so it at least makes that factor an ace in your sleeve.” “And I didn’t before suddenly?” I asked Zuko with a frown. “You looked more...grumpy before.” Rogers admitted. “Like an old dog who found out their owner got a puppy.” Kat added. I pouted. “Whatever. But I’m gonna need an ass ton of money for all the orphanages to be properly renovated and funded to help out more children.” I said. “Also...it’s weird that people are arguing against children actually having a family and being happy...seriously, what the fuck happened?” “I think it’s more about the differences in their races. Some seeing it as worrying, others seeing it as scary. Ponies are naturally prey, Dire Wolves are predators, seeing one of them around a child would sent primal worry into their minds, doesn’t matter how intelligent a species or race is, genetics enslave us all in some form or another.” Rogers said. “And yet if I were to walk down there and openly adopt them all no one’s going to bat an eye.” I said. “And I doubt it has to do with me being the King and or Queen here.” “Actually it does.” Zuko said. “You’re a known warrior, married to all this worlds royalty, and people both respect and fear you. No one would speak against you doing this, because of that respect and fear. It’s an edge when it comes to politics, but that edge can go dull very quick.” “I barely understand politics…” I grumbled. “So because I have actively done things, people respect and fear me, but if I keep actively doing things to help people, like a proper king or queen should, people will stop caring?” “More along the line of if you flaunt your title and power at them they won’t like or agree with it.” Zuko corrected. “The populus will always have opinions of their leaders, good and bad, both sides can swap opinions at the drop of a hat based on your actions. Perhaps a compromise to this can solve both your issue with and wants, and the people’s opinion on the matter.” “And what would that be?” I asked, trying to be a smart leader here even though my Den Mother instincts were screaming at me to help the children. “Your castle. The lower floors hold largely empty rooms, more than enough to hold every child yet to have a home. We can renovate them into a version of Celestia’s boarding school to house, heal, and allow you to directly oversee their health and happiness. The people will be appeased for now, and adoptions will be available to any child who is fully healed mentally.” “That could work, and give us time to both resolve the issue of the children’s state of living and see into the Dire Wolves adoptions getting more approval from the masses.” Kat said. “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “Well, time to send word to them so the children can be helped...and then soon I have to...show everyone I’m now a chick.” I said nervously. “Slash dude.” Joy added. “Yes.” I nodded. “God...everyone’s going to be so confused and concerned...but..” I sighed out. “I just hope I can solve this before it gets out of hand…” I showed myself to the people… there was a lot of questions from reporters and such, but all I could answer was that it was part of my new Admin status… which can be considered true, though I left it at that as I didn’t want to go into full details. I also announced the plan Zuko had and it seemed to agree with everyone. “Thank you.” I called out to all the people, so glad people were actively agreeing with me. With that done Nobodies and workers alike began remodeling the empty lower parts of the castle. WIth that done Joy pulled me to the side to offer some options. “So, are you going to fight tits swinging around like that?” He asked. “Really?” I asked. “Rarity gave me a magically enchanted bra to keep it all from hanging out like that. But why do you ask?” “It’s just, A, I came from your heart, so what you think and feel I do if I don’t tune it out… and B, fighting in a female body is going to be different than your male one. I don’t know this is already weird enough for me. I mean, we’re the same person but not, we treat each other like brothers but if you’re talking technical you’re my dad, now mom, Jenny is my niece this whole thing is just… hard to wrap my head around. Our family has always been… bizarre, but now it’s even weirder.” “Has that stopped either of us at anytime during literally any of this?” I asked honestly. “But I understand...it is a bit weird.” “We’re already rather...taboo, all things considered. It’s like those old tales about gods who had kids with their own siblings, sons with mothers, brothers and sisters, all that crap and somehow those kids mostly come out alright. Mostly… Yeash…” “True, but at least we have a wonderful family here to support us through it all at least.” I said honestly. “Yeah…” “Joy?” Jenny’s voice called out. “Meep! Hide me!” He said, rushing behind me. “And...why are you hiding from Jenny?” I whispered curiously. “She’s gone a bit… well she’s knocked up Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo now… in short I’m next…” “Have you all tried talking to Jenny about this?” I asked worriedly. “We did, we agreed that to be fair we would all have at least one kid by one another… I mean I look likes dude but I do actually have my own hole down there now. Decided to keep the male look but also have female parts… and well, I’ve SEEN what she can do with that thing now between her legs. It’s both hot and scary.” “Ah.” I said. “Well...makes sense I suppose. But sooner or later your gonna have to go to her and suck it up...I’m gonna have to do that sooner or later.” “I know… but A, you only saw hers limp… and B, when hard… well I’m jealous and she somehow uses it better… I’m beginning to ponder if she was somehow practicing before all this?” “Joy?!” Jenny’s voice called out again. I sighed out. “Oh dear…” I muttered. “Well...tell her you can’t do it right now okay? Can’t be a pansy about it now can you?” “Can’t say no to it today either. Don’t ask.” Joy said, yelping as suddenly he was yaked by the tail. Turning around I saw Jenny- Nope! That’s my daughter, and that outfit is...is…. Nope! “Help me~” Joy whimpered as the stringy lingerie wearing Jenny literally carried him through a DTN… DId not need that image in my head...nope...not at all... “What the actual hell…” I sighed out. “Oi vey.” I muttered. “Hope Dorlu finds something about those fuckers...cause if there’s one thing I’m not going to let stand is what these assholes are doing.” I growled to myself while thinking about who could have done it specifically. I needed to relax. I headed back to the nursery where I spent time with the little ones. All my clones now also shared my new form so most of them were here overlooking the infants also, their mom's and such here also. I found Nancy, and in feral form began… licking her… not sure why. ’... Why are you licking me?’ Nancy asked. “Um...maybe you needed a bath?” I asked nervously. “I don’t...actually know...it just...feels right I suppose.” 'You gave me a bath last night.’ She said. 'So, gossip among the mom's is that you will be trying this swallow thing or something? I have to ask… is this about that snake woman you just married?’ “Um...yeah just a bit.” I said nervously. “I want to...ya know, share something special with her.” 'Yes… nothing says romance like swallowing one another whole and alive then spitting them up like living vomit later… I know you are big enough in that form to pull it off easy but how would you even prevent them digesting? Potion? Spell? Extra strength antacids?” “Well it’s a special thing about Naga’s.” I said honestly. “Eclipsa said it was a nice thing...and Donna explained more about it all so...for Eclipsa she has three stomachs, one filled with a healing fluid, the second being a...storage space, and the third actually being her stomach and...yes that part still sounds gross.” I explained. 'Well to each their own. If there is anything a Ventral can't do it's judge another's way of life, public and private.’ “And considering what Jenny is doing to Joy at the moment...yeah.” I said honestly. “But...glad to be here with all my kids…” I said gently with a warm smile. 'So what's your endgame in all of this?’ “What do you mean?” I asked curiously. “What endgame is there?” 'The point of your whole middle road of genders and typical parental roles. If you are both then you have to be a father and mother to all your kids. Sounds a lot harder than one or the other if you ask me.’ “It’s...better than me not being there to begin with…” I sighed out. “But right now...this is to maybe help me understand Zeke and Eclipsa a bit better...just want to make sure I’m doing things to make my family happy ya know?” 'Meh. So, any reason in particular you've begun to stick to me like glue since changing gender?’ “I’m a Den Mother, I care about my kids a lot.” I said. “And...maybe it also involves me...wanting to make sure you know that...you have a bright future ahead of you, a future where you can just...be happy with life.” ’I’d be happier if I was old enough to have a smoke after sex again….’ “You’ll do that when your older.” I said honestly. “But right now, you have your entire childhood to look forward to.” I placed her under my neck, she struggled but gave up, the softness of my fur making her sleepy. I began to sleep also. Cuddling her as sleep took us. I was in a large field. Grass everywhere. I was still in feral form, and nursing on me was five pups. Three had a dirty blond fur coat, two had…snake tails. I looked up, seeing sun blinded silhouettes of Zeke and Eclipsa, each holding kids also. I didn't speak, but was smiling as I felt their smiles too. I woke up, Nancy still under my neck…”Were those…” I muttered, thinking about my quick little dream. “Those kids…” I muttered, feeling like...they were my pups...maybe...they were all three of ours? The pups were obviously apart of me, the dirty blonde was from Zeke cause he had the same color and the two naga’s were Eclipsa...they were so happy...we were all happy. I kept thinking about that dream for a while. It just...stuck with me. The image engraving itself in my head… maybe I'm more like Eclipsa than I thought. Maybe I was never happy because I wasn't born as I was meant to be? Doesn’t really feel right cause I was perfectly fine being a guy, maybe it’s just all the hormones screwing with my head...but this is probably day three...I should mention this to those two next time I go there. I gently pulled out my finished wood totem of mom and put it down. “Hey mom...it’s me.” I muttered gently. “I hope you can see me….wherever you are…” I felt something touch my nose. Looking up, I saw her little totem was now looking like her...only tiny…. Like six inches tiny. “Hi Ben, my… the first true Den mother since… I'm so proud.” She said, tears in her eyes. I teared up a little. “Hey mom...how you doing?” I asked gently, so happy to see and hear her again. “Well at this point it's All a waiting game. Plenty of time, plenty...plenty of sex so can't complain much. So, what brought this change about?” “Well...I married Zeke and Eclipsa on...pure accident and then was...kind of explained why Zeke was kind of being an insensitive jerk...and then I was suggested to be both genders like Zeke is at the moment...and well...this all happened.” I said honestly. “Hmm… you're troubled.” Mom said, now taking a seat on my snout. “What's bothering you?” “Well...a combination of things.” I said. “Like if I’m thinking the same way as Eclipsa...my job...and that dream I just had...so short and yet it won’t leave me anytime soon…” I sighed out. “One of my council members brought up how it might be a problem if I keep blending my den mother instincts with my actual job...I screwed up and said something that involved like like three times.” “Honey,” she said, kissing my forehead. “It's natural. The Den Mother, like yourself, is considered born royalty. Like a queen bee. The best of the best of the den come from her, from you, it's natural to feel even those not born to you or your den are yours regardless. You are a king, an Admin, and now a Den Mother. In the end they are all the same thing, leaders, pillars that your domain, your den, relies on.” “But at least four groups are actively murdering each other in some blind attempt for ‘purity’...so many orphaned children…” I teared up, thinking it was all my fault. “Yes, children. Any mother worth their tits, especially a Den mother can't help but feel the overwhelming need to care for them, to feel responsible for their troubles. It's sad that we can not ever truly build or live in a perfect world. There is always some who suffer.” “I know...I know…” I sighed out. “But...that random dream I had...I was in a lush green field with five pups...most likely all five of them were a combination of me, Zeke and Eclipsa...those two covered by the sun but...I could tell they were smiling...has that ever happened to you?” “No… that is a Den Mother's true power. To see the young of hers that will be born. When is up to her, up to you. No others of our race aside from true Den Mother's like you can see that.” “But...the question is...I have both sets so...would that still count if hey were mine from a different mother?” I asked curiously. “Donna didn’t know much about both given...this never happened before…” “It's a possibility. Anything in this world is possible, so it's just as likely you are to see the young of those to be born from you but birthed by another.” “Was still breastfeeding them though.” I chuckled a little. “This is all...just so new ya know?” “Yes, new is often scary, but it can also be exciting. It's why I… did what I did that one time. Unbirthed you. Remember?” “Yes, I remember…” I shuddered. “Why...did you do that again?” “It's a way for us to be closer. I didn't conceive or birth you. I felt you might feel… distance if we didn't have a birth between us. Unbirth is the closest way for a mother and child to reconnect, for you are returning from where you first came from. Old surroundings and a sense of security and warmth not felt since before your birth return to you.” “And then I was actually born from you after a while cause of the whole...well me getting my soul back to begin with.” I said, remembering that when I had to bring my light half back. “But...I understand…” “I see you have your own worry with you.” She said, eyeing Nancy. “Yeah...Nancy is a handful...but uh...why am I kinda clinging to her though?” I asked. “Sure I wanted to be a better parent so she could be raised right but…” I said, not fully sure about this. “Just a little curious…” “It's normal. A pup that has a stubborn streak and a dislike of their mother is often the most watched. After all, if they grow up with that hate in them, they could turn on their den.” “And that’s not something I want.” I said bluntly. “I want her to be raised right...happy and carefree.” I said. “Not raised like how she originally was...always scared someone would be there to take her in...or kill her.” “Well, there is one way to fix a stubborn pup.” “And what would that be?” I asked curiously. “Cause right now...she’s losing her fights with her instincts.” “It's as hard on her, and it will be hardest on you.” “I really hope it doesn’t involve something super bad…” I said worriedly. “If she believes herself better off without her den… her family… show her what it is like without you all. Show her the fear and loneliness that not having your den with you can bring.” “Wha...but…” I wasn’t sure if I should even be able to do that. “I...but...I can’t just leave her…” “If she truly feels this way, you set her free and she won't return. If she can't handle it, she will return humbled, and likely injured. It's a hard thing to do, but it's the most effective.” “She’s just a pup…” I said worriedly. “And she’s only stubborn to me, no one else...I don’t want her to feel abandoned by everyone again.” “Then when those feelings surface again, her true desires will also reveal themselves.” “Should I...warn her?” I asked worriedly. “I...she should know at least right?” Mom shook her head. “If she knows it's a test, she won't take to the lesson or realization that she needs, and wants you.” I teared up. “God..this is gonna suck…” I muttered. “Any...place I should put her?” “The Forest of our people. She will see first hand how harsh and unfamiliar her new life is. She will realize she needs guidance. Plus, you can view from your Lexicon to watch her. You have that advantage over others.” “I know...I know.” I sighed out. “God...I’m so sorry Nancy…” I teared up, really hating this and not wanting to to do this. I opened a DTN, and carried her out into it. I placed her in the grass. As I was about to close the DTN… Nancy jumped back in, clutching my leg, crying. 'Please… please don't… I already lost one family…’ I teared up and nuzzled her. “You...have no idea how hard it was to do that…” I cried. “I’m sorry Nancy...I’ll always be here for you.” 'And I'll stop being a brat… I can't stand being alone…’ “I’m sorry...I’m so sorry.” I said while nuzzling her again, just wanting my baby girl to be okay. “But...your here now...I’m here for you my daughter.” 'thanks… dad...mom… this is already very confusing…’ “Either or is fine.” I said gently. “As long as you’re happy...I’m happy.” I said, hoping to never do that ever again even though she was literally gone for about five seconds. 'I'm pathetic huh?’ “You are not pathetic.” I said gently. “You’ve suffered through things...you lost your family once...the thought of losing your family again...I can understand not wanting that to happen again.” I said gently. “I should probably be called pathetic...this was literally the hardest thing I’ve done so far.” ’... It wasn't the first time…’ “The first time?” I asked worriedly. “What do you mean?” 'When I was little. Six or so, I had a family. We were poor, but happy. One day, some people broke into our home, and said they'd take the most valuable thing here… we had nothing of real value.. save for me, and my parents. Mom was...sold into prostitution, dad… killed and gutted for organs… and I was sold off into a… different kind of brothel… lost my virginity the same day I arrived. Abortion a year later… for my whole childhood, til I got older, and was sold again to an adults brothel… where I met Jenny's father five years later. They said I wasn't for sale… and he killed them, every last one. He helped me track down the scum who stole my parents from me… and killing them made me feel free for the first time ever.” I could only hug the poor girl and nuzzle her again. “I’m….oh god I’m so sorry..” I said, not knowing she had such a shitty life. ’I guess my past kept me from enjoying this second chance. I never even gave this a real chance, believing nothing would change.’ “I mean...you had some rights to given...some of the obvious things.” I said nervously. “But right now...you have a new family...a family that loves you and won’t abandon you...alright?” 'Thank you...uh...dad...mom...Moddy?’ “Either or.” I said gently while nuzzling her again. “It’s all good now.” 'Er...um… I'm kinda hungry…’ “Oh, sure.” I said while unzipping my cloak and fixing my shirt and bra so she could drink my milk. She latched on without argue or resistance. It felt nice, seeing her so… calm. I could only smile at how calm she was, also happy she was just feeling better in general. “This is nice…” Some others came and nursed. Including… ehehe…. Luna... “And...what brings you here as well Luna?” I asked her honestly, not fully minding but just curious. She popped off my teat with an audible smack of the lips, a drop of milk trailing down her lips. “I wanted to sample your new taps. You've done it with us enough that I had to try your vintage~” “Okay okay.” I chuckled a little. “What do you think?” “Sweet, thick like cream, warm, not hot, and has a faint vanilla aftertaste. All in all, an award winning brew.” She said, giving my boob a light slap, it's jiggle and bounce from the impact made me blush hard. “Please don’t slap those.” I said nervously. “They’re sensitive.” “You’ve slapped, squeezed and slept on ours. A little courtesy is in order.” She replied, a finger tracing around my tits… making my blush go redder. “Fine fine..” I said. “So...did I miss anything?” I asked curiously. “Twilight decided to move the infants to the bedroom, so we can all always be with them til they get older, and wants to convert the nursery into a little… baby factory~” Luna cooed. “Privacy, fun, and sex whenever we walk in. Sound fun?” “Oh boy…” I said. “Can’t wait for that to be a whirlwind thing…” I said honestly. “So...how soon would that whole...renovating part be?” “Dunno. Soon I hope. Oh, Zecora almost has that potion ready and Twilight wants to ask a favor of you.” “Cool and I wonder what the favor is.” I said honestly, wondering what Twilight would ask for. “Can’t wait for my first heat to...not be terrible, and I presume Twilights with the orphans?” “Her lab actually. She's still such a self learner.” Luna said, fondling the breast she was sucking from. “They're so soft yet so firm. No wonder the little ones all flock to you.” “Yes yes I know.” I chuckled a little. “Glad you like them Luna.” “I now understand how my sister was a lesbian for so many years. Of course being bisexual means more fun when it's present. Well, I guess you should go see Twilight right now.” Luna said, releasing my boob and picking up some kids, giving them all a big hug. “I will look after these little monsters. Rawr!” She said, the infant giggling at Luna. I could only smile in joy as I got up and fixed my clothing. “Alright, thanks Luna.” I said, leaning over and kissing her cheek as I headed off to Twilights Lab. On the way I wondered what Twilight wanted. She's never asked for anything before so this was going to be interesting. I arrived, her lab was very...sciency. She was in normal clothes though. Looking as pretty as ever. “Hello Ben.” Twilight said. “Hey Twilight, how are you doing today?” I asked politely. “I'm doing good. I wanted to bring up on something Donna said about this whole swallow and all that other stuff.” She explained. “Did she have to tell literally everyone?” I frowned. “Yes she did. Be glad I'm not Rune.” Twilight giggled. “You see, in your form that resembles humans, our race of ponies, etc, it's impossible to swallow another whole unless a spell to make you rubber or a spell to shrink the swallowed is available. But your feral form could easily pull that off.” “Listen, it was going to at least be a one time thing with Eclipsa…” I frowned. “Just to know if I actually like it or not...not have it be something that I’ll be bugged about by basically everyone.” I sighed out. “I know. But you can't lie, it's interesting, which is why I am offering you a practice trial.” I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Sorry, but no. I wanted to at least do it once with someone that has actively tried suggesting it, I.E. Eclipsa, I don’t plan on doing it anymore than that. I know you find it interesting, and ‘practice’...but no. Also the only reason why it would work with Eclipsa is because of her Naga biology, so there’s that.” “I know. And that's why I said practice.” She said, a flash of purple making me blink. When my vision cleared Twilight… Was like Eclipsa… a Naga. “I met with their Twilight and as it turns out transformation spells mixed with alteration spells makes me biology wise have the same inborn abilities as her.” “Did I not just say no?” I asked honestly.. “But you look very pretty as a Naga Twilight...well you look pretty no matter what race you are but still.” “Oh you are such a stubborn wolf.” She said, hand on her...hip? “How am I stubborn when I literally gave you a good reason as to why I don’t want to?” I asked honestly. “Would you rather I have this ruined for me before Eclipsa gets a turn, or would you rather I have it be a pleasant surprise if I do enjoy it my first time?” “Fine, but what about after. You seem sure you won't want to do it ever again.” “I don’t know if it’ll be a one and done thing yet cause I haven’t experienced such a thing yet. Have you ever actually done this before?” I asked curiously. “Also, that’s why I said I don’t plan on it.” “... once.” she said. That was surprising. “Spike once ate a titanium ring of my moms and it got stuck in his belly. I shrunk, cast some protective spells, and went in. No surgeon can break dragon scales. It was odd but… also kind of nice in there, in a squishy, slimy way. Kinda like being on another bizarre world. His heartbeat was, at that size, a thunder of sound and actually didn't worry me. Getting out was easy, a teleportation spell got me out without issue. Never did it since then, but this just brought up some old memories.” “That is very interesting.” I said honestly. “But…” I sighed out, Twilight knowing full well I’m trying to find the right words to say so I don’t either hurt her, pussy out and just agree with her, or just going with the simple ‘no’. “I mean...I can bring up Eclipsa has had more experience with this...but I think it mostly boils down to I’d rather not have ‘practice’ ruin it all if that makes any sense.” I said honestly. “This is a brand new thing I’m willing to try, and Eclipsa brought it up, and given how she really wanted to do it, to her two new husbands...ugh, I’m just rambling at this point.” I sighed out, my ears flat against my head as I was just honestly upsetting myself at the moment. “It's alright…” Twilight said, shifting back to her normal body. “I guess I expected this… was just hoping for a surprise for once… even with the threats and all, life has been getting… predictable.” I was mentally screaming at how literally everyone I know constantly guilt trips me, curse you my big heart. “Is there...anything else you want to try?” I asked, Twilight hearing the sad whimper in my voice as I felt like crap for upsetting the ones I care about. “Hmm… there's one thing I'd like to try with you… aside from what I just tried…” “Literally anything so I can stop feeling like crap and being guilt tripped please.” I said. “You know I love you all till the ends of reality…” I sighed out. “Okay… then can I place some...vibraters in you...analy…?” “That...I can at least do.” I said. “But let’s...at least draw a line...nothing too overly big cause duh, and...let’s try not to play ‘how many vibrators can my amazonian wife/husband can fit in her ass’. Are those two things okay?” I asked honestly. “This is a first for me, don’t want it to get to outlandish scales.” “Yeah. I just planned on using some egg vibrators, they aren't too big… and it will make that ass shake really well.” I rolled my eyes. “Is my ass really that great?” I asked honestly. “I know you can probably bounce bits off of it but seriously.” “That's an idea for later.” She said, hugging me. “And at least try and have fun with something you don't think you'll like. You never know what you might truly enjoy til you try it and embrace it.” “I’ll give it a try.” I said. “Let’s all be glad I’m willing to try instead of saying ‘no’ a lot.” I said honestly while hugging her back. “Love you Twilight.” “Love you two.” She said, grabbing my ass and squeezing my cheeks, making me jump, to which she managed to support me as she kept gripping my rear. “Huh, now I see why you like us in this pose~” “Excuse me, super strength when?” I asked worriedly. “Cause seriously, I must weigh a ton here…” “Yes but I still have some Naga strength from the spell. It will wear off in an hour, till then you are as light as a baby to me.” “Ah...so...to the bedroom I suppose?” I asked sheepishly. “Sure,” she leaned in close to my ear. “If you are up for it I got a strap on to use on you while those vibrators are inside your tail hole~” She whispered in a hot tone of voice. “I’m still working through a lot of things...let’s not do two new things at the same time…” I said nervously. “I’m sorry, but...not fully used to it being there yet.” I said sheepishly, blushing like mad. “Hmm...fine, but at least let me taste you down there.” “That...I’ll allow.” I said sheepishly. “It’ll...be something...” “Good~” She said, lightly biting my lower lip and pulling gently. “I’m looking forward to seeing you shutter~” “Glad your happy Twilight.” I said lovingly. I was panting heavy. Those vibrators long since came out and my new baby tunnel still soaked from orgasms. Twilight laid back proudly as I cuddled up to her. Female orgasems...are WAY better than male one...so...much...better… My ass is still shaking even. “Had fun?” Twilight asked, wrapped an arm around me. “It was something...that’s for sure.” I panted while nuzzling Twilight happily. “But I had fun.” I said while hugging Twilight happily. “Now you'll know how we feel after sex. Imagine when there's someone filling that hole~” She teased, poking my nose playfully. “Jeez...your all going to abuse this new power aren't you?” I asked. “As much as we can.” Twilight admitted. “So, how's afterglow feel?” “Feels great.” I said. “But...let’s not go overboard alright?” I asked nervously. “hehe. For now.” She said, kissing my forehead. “Now, what next~” she asked, embracing me in a tight hug, purposefully shoving my head between her knockers. “That’s up to you cause...my first thought was dashed because of my size…” I blushed a little. “Hmm.” She purred, petting me… dang it tail. “Well, how about if I figure out a spell we can all use, so we can screw properly, how about an old fashioned orgy?” “That would be nice.” I said with a smile. “Got to make sure I’m still the head guy...being a woman is nice and all, but I’ve still got some small amount of pride in me being a guy darn it.” “I believe as I was eating you out you did call yourself a 'thirsty doggy’ right before you orgasemed?” “That doesn’t count, and I was literally experiencing my first female orgasm so shush.” I pouted. Twilight gave a chuckle at my expenses. “Well you are a girl now also. Besides. Gender doesn't matter in the end anyway.” “I know I know.” I said while nuzzling Twilight. “But...I should probably check on the orphan...make sure they’re all alright.” “Hi.”Twilight and I jumped, Looking over and seeing Player floating just a foot from us away. “Took a while to find your realm.” “Uh...hi.” I said sheepishly while using a big enough blanket to cover the two of us up. “So...why are you here?” “To train you with code still. Also why are you covering up?” “I mean...we’re both naked.” I frowned, which was true given the fun me and Twilight had. “But cool, someone actually wanting to train instead of wasting everyone’s time.” I said, still thankful about Ashe and the little tidbits I learned but seriously that entire thing was a waste of time. “Oh? That? I don't have a gender so I typically look passed those things.” Player said. “Nudity, sex, male, female, all just parts of the physical.” “Well...alright.” I said. “But I should...probably wash up and get dressed before going with you right?” “If you want. Makes no difference to me. I'll be in your training room.” They said, leaving in a string of code. “Well...that happened.” I said while getting up from the bed. “Good thing I learned how to wash up properly…” I muttered while grabbing my clothes. “Thanks Twilight.” “No problem. Next time let's make it a three way~” “Can’t wait.” I said before heading off to the showers to get cleaned up before my training. Washing off felt great. Somehow a shower in this body just felt… better. “Don’t know why everything feels better...but eh...oh well.” Once I was cleaned and clothed I headed to the training room where Player was. “Alright. Unlike Lord, I am going to try a different approach.” “Actually being a teacher and teaching me how to do things instead of making me waste months doing literally jack all wondering what he wanted me to do?” I asked. “As you can clearly see I will never get past that fact.” “I am going to pull what I like to call a Cript.” “So three things..actually being trained, which he never did when I learned Humanity and Psychopath powers which might not matter at all anymore, have it handed to me, or I fight an unknown amount of enemies while using said ability to try and learn it...so which one?” I asked. “I will implant the information into your mind. From there you can practice with it without issue. As for those, well Cript was training Eclipsa at the time so he did not have the free time then.” “To train me with Code or to train me in Humanity and Psychopath that I’ve had for god knows how long?” I asked. “But sure, that sounds...a little annoying but hey if it means I won’t accidentally blow myself up cause of it than sure.” I said honestly. “Alright. Now I do warn,” Player said, raising a hand up. “This will hurt.” A small beam of his code his me in the head… and my brain, skull and flesh was begging to tear open, pressure the likes of which the ocean depths held no candle too. Things I didn't even know existed, so much information sent into my brain. It was like I could see everything down to it's tiniest detail, and then some. I hit the ground, clutching my head and screaming. Blood tears flowed from my eyes. “Why does this always fucking happen?” I muttered in severe pain. “Seriously...fuck, can’t this shit ever be painless for once?” I groaned, wondering why practically everything like this always has to hurt like a bitch. “No one ever said power or knowledge was painless.” Player said, my head suddenly felt better...normal. I looked around, and everything I saw had… numbers. So many number… but, I understood them all. Like seeing everything and everyone for their base foundation and structure… “So, you see it all now?” “Jeez, am I a Master Builder from the Lego Movie now?” I asked honestly while making a rag and wiping the bloody tears from my eyes. “But yes, yes I do.” “Good. You already crafted a cloth without thinking.” “I mean, I’ve made random things with magic before.” I said honestly. “Seriously, original explanation of Code makes it sound like worse Magic.” “While magic can do much, only code can transform an entire realm effortlessly. And keep it all stable, even if it what you are making has no sense.” “Can’t wait to literally never use this ever.” I said honestly. “Cause when you have so many powers, you just forget you can do certain things.” I said honestly. “So, now I can actively use Code without having to remember at least eighty different things...now I just need to learn what the hell it’s used for.” “Everything.” Player said. “Allow me to demonstrate.” They said, raising a hand and formed a small solar system, and enclosed it within a glass sphere. “A whole solar system, three planets teeming with life, all within this glass sphere.” “Cool...and now I need to figure out what my specific brand of Code can do, cause that’s the general part.” I said honestly. “Cause you said I have a special thing with my Code that I have no idea about.” “Yup. Now then, I will say the name of something, or someone, and you will be crafting it, or rather, spawning it in with code. Understood?” “Sounds simple enough.” I said while getting up. “So...what first?” “First. Toxins scrubber.” “What kind?” I asked. “There’s plenty of them out there.” Player smiled. “Smart. Do you see my head, see how there is a single line of code streaming through it that does not belong? That is the one I am imaging. See that through the code and spawn it.” I looked at the code he was thinking of for a moment, before raising my hand and out appeared the specific type of toxin scrubber he wanted. “This it?” Player nodded. “Next, a person…” They grinned. “Andrew Ryan.” I looked at him for a moment. “But uh...he’s...kind of dead? Wouldn’t that cause some problems?” I asked nervously, remembering my first visit to Rapture with Jenny. “You are an Admin. Death, life, they are just different displays and stages for which life exists. To you, they mean as much as a mosquito to a hurricane. It's easily changed, erased, or reworked.” I looked a bit concerned. “But...death is a thing people can’t stop, even Admins right?” “While admins can die, anything in your realm, within your reach here can be immortal if you wanted. With just a snap, all the misery of the world wiped out, evil people become the humblest and kindest people and for as much as they know, that is how they have always been. To be an admin is to be above the common death, pain and suffering from within a realm. Because yours will always be much worse.” “Can I at least ask the person if they even want to come back or if they want to stay wherever the hell they are?” I asked honestly. “Cause just...bringing back a dead person can be pretty rude to those that wanted their rest.” “Up to you. You can bring them back and they and all around them would have no memory of their death to begin with. If you want to do it that way, go on.” I looked a bit concerned. “Well...I was there when he died...he said he had a long run so…” I said, Player knowing I’m still new and thinking reversing death to those that actively wished for their final rest to be disrespectful or worse. “Then ask.” Player said, waving their hand as heavenly gates irradiating a calming light appeared. “Heaven, hell, any afterlife if under your domain as an admin. Everything and anything within your realm is yours to control, change, alter and master at the flick of your wrist. The powers of an admin are rivaled only by Deletes. And Belief.” “Oh hey, something new.” I said honestly while looking at the gates. “But it sounds like ‘Belief’ is something new and special instead of what might come to mind.” “Hm… mortals pray to God's. God's pray to Admins… so what do Admins pray to?” “Ah, I can see how that might happen.” I said honestly. “Good to know...so just...walk up to the gates and knock?” “Spin kick them down for all you care. What's the afterlife going to do to you?” “Have people actively attack me?” I asked. “I’d rather not piss people off ya know.” Player rolled their eyes. “No pride as an Admin I see. Well that might be a good thing at least.” “You know, I’m not a person that actively believes he’s above everyone because he can do everything, that’s retarded and gets you people that can and will want to actively murder you.” I said honestly. “But people already want to actively murder me so what the fuck do I know.” I shrugged before walking over and just knocking on the golden gates. “Hello? Anybody home?” “...You do know...nevermind, these aren’t the actual gates of heaven, just a quick thing I made to make a point.” Player said, snapping their fingers as the false gates vanished. “Sorry, but personal experience has taught me, when someone who is very very strong makes you a door, it normally leads somewhere you have to go to.” I said honestly. “Happened with Cript, Lord, the old King of Nothingness...you get my point?” “Fair enough. Next up, is something a bit more interesting. Create your own, original Nobody, something that is yet to exist or does not exist period within your realm.” “Well...that would be a bit weird cause I don’t fully know all the Nobodies cause I’m pretty sure some are still hiding from me.” I frowned. “But...if you say so.” I said before turning to my imagination, which is bad to some extent, to try and come up with a thing that wasn’t just stupid. I thought about all the Nobodies that existed, and started to think about all the things that didn’t exist...before something in my head clicked for a moment. “Wait a minute…” I muttered before thinking harder about it, Nothingness started to form as...something appeared. It was humanoid in shape, but it didn’t have any defining features other than Nothingness Thorns were wrapped around it’s entire body like mummy bandages. “Hmm…” I said while summoning a Dusk...only to see the thing shapeshift into the Dusk perfectly...then I swapped it with a Berserker, and it copied it as well. “Right...so I have made a new Nobody that hasn’t been made before.” I said while dismissing the Berserker and seeing it go back to its original form. “Now...what to name you…” I hummed. “Well...your a doppelganger...not sure to what extent at the moment so…” I tried to think of a name for this thing. “Why not Echo.” I said as the thing bowed at me. “Good enough. Now, something a bit simpler.” Player said, leading me over to a window. Down below there was some of the city around the castle, and a noticeable empty slot of land. “Lookout passed your world’s edge. Can you see the edge of your world?” “I mean, I’m already noticing the empty slot of land.” I frowned, looking around for the edge of the world. I spotted it in the furthest distance, a literal towering wall of Nothingness thorns rising from the ground so far out there. “This is your realm, your world. Now, make it bigger.” “Um…” I muttered. “If you say so…” I said while taking a deep breath, slowly trying to push the boundaries of the world outward. “This is gonna be a little rough…” “Think of the landscape you want. Mountains? Deserts? Frozen forests, vast deep oceans? What divides them? Connects them, what lives there? Grows there, is there? It’s all up to you.” “I know...but I already have problems with crap like that to begin with.” I said. “Took me a bit to even make a doppleganger for christ sakes.” I muttered while slowly making more space, thinking of doing this with one piece at a time as I slowly went in one direction, making a mountainous region, filling it with creatures that could both live on all elevations, to filling it with plant life natural to the area’s and even new plants that were able to survive the harsh upper regions because I let my mind drift on any finer details as I just envisioned the beautiful mountain range. “Good. You have a decent hang of it.” Player said. “Now, something a but more… interesting.” “Interesting?” I asked, half paying attention at this point to make sure nothing bad happens. “Admins have a very different way of getting to know one another. Rather than speak, often times they read the others code, and it will tell them everything Important about them. Their ideals, their hopes, their goals, their memories, and their intentions.” “Oh boy, can’t wait for that to have awkward connotations.” I said, given my current form it would be rather strange for others that wouldn’t normally have context. “Even if they can see my memories...it would still be a little weird.” “I will be your example. Read my code, and see what kind of person I am.” I looked at him, my eyes glowing a faint green as I looked at Players Code, wondering how the hell I’m going to learn so much from so little. As I was looking, seeing his code, The world around me went dark. Suddenly I was in a darkly lit room, a computer screen as the primary source of light and the silhouette of a person working on it. I saw they were playing Undertale, pacifist run, the scene changing to them watching others on different route, AU comics, the game and it's world forming into a total obsession for them while the figure grew more and more hollow. The scene changed, the silhouette reading books on dark magics while also reading books about the brain. Then, them working on a chair. It was akin to an electric chair, strange symbols and handmade electronic parts mixing together in it's design. The chair was then finished, hooked up to their computer through many wires as they crafted from pixels an off color version of Frisk… players body… they opened Undertale, sat in the chair, then, turned it on. Their body twitches and spasms with the high voltage, the symbols glow as do the wires to the computer. Finally it stops, the silhouette limp as the pixel body on screen begins to move, then, starts the game. I was back in front of Player now, breathing heavy. “Well...that was...something.” I said. “So...all of this...because Undertale?” “I became what and who I am now because of my obsession. Lord found me, and I learned what I really dropped myself into.” “That’s definitely something.” I said honestly. “Glad to know all of...that.” “We all have our stories. Written or not. Now then, that is the important stuff. The rest is easy and will come as natural as breathing to you in short time.” “Cool.” I said. “Now it’s mostly just practice.” “Yes. Lord always wants others to learn the hardest way. Well, I'll be off. Good luck.” Player said, leaving in a wave of code. “Cool…” I muttered. “Can’t wait…” I sighed out. “Shit...I’m gonna need to retry all the crap Agamemnon taught me in this new form...well...at least I know what I need to do for a change.” I rolled my eyes. “So...what next on my to do list…” To be continued... Author's Note So uh...yeah, this happened. As the title said please don't hate me, this is a new thing me and Bio are doing please don't hate me, criticism is still fine. Nobody does some heart searchingI was overseeing the development of the orphanage and the school, thankfully it being a lot bigger than necessary for all the kids but I thought that was fine. “I hope all the kids will be okay…” I muttered, fearing if I went out to help the kids someone will have a problem with it even though my instincts as a Den Mother were screaming at me to be with them. “Looks like all we will need now are teachers and some security.” Luxu said. “Yeah…” I said, still concerned for them all. “Jeez...my instincts as a Den Mother is making me slightly freak out for them all...Mom...when I finally got to talk to her...she said that my Den mother Instincts and being a King were practically one and the same based on Dire Wolf Culture…” I said nervously. “Hmm… I guess I can see that.” Luxu said. “Kings, good ones, care fiercely for their people, mothers care for their young, and even the young of others. Yeah, I can see it.” “Yeah…” I sighed out. “But when I believe everyone of my people are my children...well it can get a little weird.” “At least with that mentality they will know you care. So, any thoughts on how to resolve the public's opinions on the dire Wolves adopting equin children?” “I mean...I can literally just show them a good majority of my family and kids.” I said. “Like...I am walking proof that all the races can be happy together.” “While true we did do some digging and it seems the primary issue is the living conditions. Most of the dire Wolves wishing to adopt are from the Primal tribe, which live more in caves than actual homes lacking running water and other such modern essentials. They believe the simplicity of their races Homeland better than modern conveniences.” “Ah…” I said. “That might be a problem. What about the Modern Tribe? Aren’t they open to adoption?” “They are but not many, even in humanoid form they can have many in a single litter so most with kids either can't afford or hunt for the needs an extra kids brings. The Primal tribe can have dozens of young and still hunt and gather the needs for themselves and moreso.” “Right…” I said a little worriedly. “That makes sense...I suppose that’s just what happens when you live in a modernish time, hard to go back to amish country ya know?” “A healthy mix or middle ground would be a miracle right now.” “Well...again, I’m open to just adopting them.” I said honestly. “Or am I not allowed still?” “It would be political suicide. While yes you have resources out the ass, adopting all those kids with no blood ties to you will just make the nobility in title alone. The kingdom just got rid of the old nobels, we don't need more that wants to make fortunes any way possible.” “I know...I know.” I sighed out. “Still glad the ‘nobility’ is gone.” I said honestly. “But...is there anyone else that wants to adopt these kids or is it just the Dire Wolves?” “Even with all the other races willing to adopt it only puts a few hundred of the thousands of kids in need of homes in homes. The dire Wolves would take in the vast majority “ “Gonna have to get a representative from the Primal tribe to talk it out…” I sighed out. “Not to mention I have to talk to Rainbow and a Dire Wolf representative to basically have it be ‘nature is a thing, deal with it’.” “Nature for them is practically built to be controlled. It's in their genetics, their magic. They can't ignore the need to control it any more than you can ignore the need to protect children.” “While that’s all fine and good...they can’t control it everywhere, nature is a thing that exists.” I said honestly. “So question is, where is the middle ground going to be?” “I’d still like to know why they’re trying to claim they can do this to Dire Wolf Territory to begin with.” I said honestly. “What, are they trying to move there?” “While yes it is the Dire Wolves territory you unified their whole world as well as the Direwolves world, territory or no, this is all one kingdom. Legally they can get authorization to control the weather, but only if residing residents agree.” “And so far the residents don’t agree.” I said. “And now here’s a good question, are the ponies actively trying to move there? Cause if so then there might be a middle ground, if not then that won’t help Rainbow’s case.” “They do in fact. We have plans on mixed race villages of Equines, griffins, deer, Minotaur, ect. Our goal is to get the races together all in accepting and open minded villages so proper total Integration of all races can be achieved.” “That’s nice.” I said honestly. “But…” I sighed out. “I don’t really know to be honest. If it was just simple pony towns I could say that only the towns in that general area could mess with the weather...but then there’s this and...well actually not all races actively screw with the weather.” “True. Actually your Twilight and some others are digging deep into Equin history. We believe a minimal weather control for crops of long drought periods could be a decent middle ground.” “That would probably be for the best.” I said honestly. “Now...I might have...a lot of personal bias against messing with nature given both my original world and my new homeworld so…” I said sheepishly. “We will figure it out.” “Yes we will.” I said while still overlooking the construction. “Have you found the leaders yet?” I asked, hoping they found those Purity bastards. “Yes but with their numbers and somehow even Keyblades it makes acquiring them difficult.” “You’d think things would actually be simple for once.” I said while rolling my eyes. “But do I need to send out clones to help the search? Cause I can.” “Even with clones, you are still one person. Stop trying to brute force your problems.” “That hasn’t stopped other people from doing it.” I said honestly. “But fine fine.” I said honestly. “I presume you’ve met Echo?” I asked Luxu, talking about the new Doppleganger Nobody. “Yeah. Pretty weird.” Luxu said. “So, think this murder is going to strike again soon?” “Yes, I’m pretty sure they will.” I said. “But...I still do not understand why people are doing this shit. Like...they’re fine with me being King, they’re fine with me having literally every race under the sun as my wife, but when other people do it it’s apparently wrong.” I said. “Like, I know I’m strong and would kick the shit out of them but what the fuck?” “What makes you think they are fine with you?” Luxu questioned. “If they are attacking the public they want your attention. Likely as a distraction, and this many murders so close together is a way to distract.” “And the distraction is...what? Wanting to actively murder my family?” I asked. “Listen, if they want me to publically maul them that’s fine...well I mean, the ones that are actively trying to beat people, not the kids or elders.” “That. That is why you can't work on this case. You don't think on their level you just want to kill them and that's that. Look, Gods forbid but even if they do harm one of us, we have to bring them In. ALIVE and unharmed. We have no idea how many agents they might have in the City, or even in the castle for all we know. Last thing we want is them proving their points right by having their deaths have their sick and twisted meanings met.” “They are killing my people for no reason.” I frowned. “They at least need to be punished for their actions.” “And they will. But for now this case is highly political. Our actions can and will shape how the people see us as leaders. Last thing we need is to show bias. If we are to catch them, it's alive and preferably together. They want to start a mass multi race war by first placing fear into the people. Their next move will likely be to have to go more military, and regrettably be racist in our actions towards the people who are specifically affected by their actions towards us. They want to make us mad… and desperate.” “Well they got at least me upset.” I said honestly. “But what do you think we should do my General?” “I doubt they'd risk their own agents to make these murders. Most likely it's a third party. Disposable, they don't have to explain anything to them, and they won't ask questions.” “Wonderful…” I muttered. “Well...let’s hope there’s at least something that can help us learn who the hell these mercenaries are.” “Well they have Keyblades. Worst case scenario they are rogues from Daybreak.” “And I will have several problems with that.” I said. “Like...all the problems.’ I frowned. “Well whatever the case when we manage to find them we will have to wonder and ask how they vanish without even leaving a trace of magic.” “It better be a good reason.” I frowned. “Cause if it’s not then I’m just gonna be more pissed.” “If they're mercenaries then their only reason is the money. We could actually try and buy them out of their current contract if they are greedy enough.” “And given how much money I have most likely.” I said honestly. “And...the fact I can just actively make money.” “Try not too. We need an stable economy.” “I won’t make money if it’ll hurt it that bad.” I said. “But I’m sure they should be acting soon…” “As much as you will hate it, but perhaps some bait is in order?” I really wanted to tell him no...but I knew he had a point. “And...who would...be the bait?” I asked slowly, trying my best to follow this even though i didn’t want to. “The fastest source is Dorlu and his wife. A mixed race couple, so we know Dorlu can keep her safe. We just have to make sure they fall for it.” “Alright...Dorlu might not like it though…” I said honestly. “But...let’s hope this won’t end poorly.” “Dorlu’s reflexes plus with Fair Game in his hands, I’d be more worried for these hired thugs.” Luxu chuckled. “True.” I agreed. “Dorlu.” I said, my voice holding the order of summons for my Gambler. He appeared in a flutter of cards. “My king… Heh, these cards make my old ones feel like Sticky notes.” He said, juggling several cards of Fair game. “So, what do I owe the honor of a direct summons?” “Sorry to ask this my friend, but...Luxu came up with the idea to...use you and your wife as bait to find the criminals.” I said sheepishly. His cards as well as him all flinched, the cards falling down as he failed to grab them, then raised a hand as they all floated back to him into a perfect pile. “I assume this plan is to catch the killer, or killers of the mixed race couples?” “Yes.” I said nervously. “And believe me, we have utmost faith that whoever is doing this will get their ass beat by you with Fair Game but...I can’t help but feel terrible for asking this…” I sighed out. “While I admit it’s a good idea, it’s risky and, heheh. A Gamble. What makes you think they’d target my wife and I Luxu?” “They have a pattern. First off is the fact each murder happened within their own homes, while the children were in bed. Secondly we know that if this is for political and public instability, then they would likely try and take out a member of our group, both to show their employers they are capable of taking on larger targets, likely to earn a higher pay.” Luxu explained. “Makes sense…” “But we will make damn well sure that neither you nor your wife will get hurt.” I said. “The moment they appear, we will apprehend them.” I said to Dorlu. “Alright. I want to tell Crystal at least.” Dorlu said. “I have a feeling she won’t be happy about this.” I sighed out. The set up was simple. Dorlu and Crystal would be within their home, the living room, to make it easier, or more tempting for these criminals they left a window open and made sure their kids were asleep. Luxu and I, I came cause damn it I want to catch these guys, while Luxu and I watched from three building rooftops down, having a good view of Dorlu and his wife through the open window. “This better work…” I muttered in hopes this will work. “These bastards need to be stopped…” “It likely will. I don’t doubt they can see us.” Luxu said, resting casually on a small tools shed on this roof. “That’s what will bring them in. They are fast and confident. Seeing we are watching the bait will make them want to test their metal.” “Hopefully their that dumb…” I said. “God...this is so wrong…” I muttered sadly. “It’s not a matter of intellect, it’s a matter of pride. When they see we are calling them out on their skills, they will come to try and correct the issue.” “Alright…” I said. “But...I hope nothing bad happens.” I said, hoping to god nothing stupid happens that’ll ruin it all. “Hmm… They’re taking it.” I looked back at Dorlu and Crystal quickly, hoping to catch the rotten bastards. I heard a metallic clunk as I turned around again, Luxu using Lunatic to block a strike from a woman in a red hoodie with a Starlight Keyblade. “So there is two of you.” He said calmly as loud noises and a good side of Dorlu’s house wall was blown off, he and a male with a Starlight Keyblade and a matching set of clothes to the woman were in combat. I wasn’t entirely sure who to help first, my fists clenching as I literally had the two right here. “Who are you?” I growled, baring my teeth ready to beat the shit out of the lady here. “Marry. It’s nothing personal, never is. Just business.” She said, managing to match Luxu blow for blinding blow. “What are you being paid?” I asked. “Four million a head, ten if we take out one of you higher ranking lot.” She said, side stepping all of Luxu’s thrusts. “Fuck you’re good.” Luxu said, genuine surprise in his voice. “It’s a lifetime of practice.” Mary replied. “Who’s paying you? Poor people?” I asked. “I can double that rather quickly to stop all this crap.” I said bluntly, but the scent from Mary was...familiar for some reason. “Hmm...Have proof? My husband and I don’t take up a job without proof of payment first.” I literally pulled out a bag that was, from what my code said, at least double what they were paying the two after all the murders. “Right here, I know the exact amount, you can spend a while counting if you call of your husband...and you smell familiar for some reason.” She stopped fighting, actually making Luxu trip backwards to his ass. “Woah. Not bad. You speak the criminals language. Cash.” She said, walking over to the edge of the building. “Hey Barry! They’re paying us like Triple to stop! Cash is here!” “Ah hell yes!” Barry yelled, warping up to his wife… he smelled familiar too. “Okay seriously, both of you smell familiar...like someone I know.” I said with a frown. “But who were your previous employers?” “Bunch of purist groups. They each were chipping in to pay us to cause you some hell.” Barry said as Marry was counting the money. “Cool.” I said. “So…” I started while noting they both had brown and blonde hair that I could barely note. “Why would two Ventrals take up petty crimes like this?” I asked, having a feeling if Marry was keeping up with Luxu of all people they had to be someone special. “How did you know we are Ventrals?” Marry asked. “Three things.” I said. “First up, you two kept up with two of my council members, no average merc can do that.” I said. “Two, your scent is way to familiar for you not to me a Ventral given two of them are my daughters and one of them is my new husband and the other is my new wife...and three, Jenny made mention that Ventrals really like money.” I said honestly. Marry dropped the money, suddenly shaking me so hard and quick I could feel the whiplash on each shake. “OHMYGODDOYOUKNOWWHEREMYSONIS?!?!?!” She said in a loud, fast passed tone too quick to properly make out. Thankfully I’m married to two Pinkie Pies so I knew full well what she said. “Lady please calm down. Yes I know where your son is, I know Zeke, he’s a good friend, and I just got married to him a few days ago.” She stopped, looking me over. “... Well now… now this is rather awkward.” “Crap we were against Family!” Barry cursed. “It’s Maryland all over again.” “I mean, you already were given I’m both the father and mother of both Jenny and Nancy.” I frowned. “Wait...what?” They both asked, tilting their heads in unison confusion. I then began explaining everything to them… by the end it was scilence from all parties. “So… My son is now also half female…” Marry started. “My brother Josh is as well, had a son, now daughter who our son is also married too…” Barry continued. “And now you married them on total accident and my step sister is also your infant while my niece is also your daughter…” “Great, now we’re the Micongals.” Barry said. “The who?” Luxu asked. “Crime family like us, only heavily inbred…” “I was going to say I have video footage of the wedding Jenny obviously took.” I said honestly. “But yes, all of that is correct, and because of..certain things, inbreeding isn’t a problem.” I said honestly. “Oh thank god.” Marry said. “So… did God save you as well then?” Barry asked. I summoned a Clone that was my male self to help give some context. “Yes, God saved me a long time ago, and gave me wonderful Nothingness powers because I asked nicely. Then through trials and tribulations I’m not the King of Nothingness, this used to be my male form...but now I’m a Den Mother Dire Wolf because of a curse that happened.” I said honestly. “I can take you to him after I’m done dealing with the Purity people that actively hired you.” I said, thankful Code helped me read minds so I know full well who specifically hired them. “Okay then. God saved us too.” Barry said… wait what? “We were caught off guard too, but his only rule was not to partake in the chaos that day, and along with Zeke, Marry and I were bunkered in a little getaway house. Then this tank driving madman comes out of nowhere and blasts us to hell… or so we thought.” “God came to us, offers us powers and a new place to go. We asked for powers to make us the greatest thieves. Leaving no trace wherever we go, able to pop in and out of anywhere.” Marry continued. “Got these Keyblades as part of working for those Purists.” Barry said. “Reminded us of those games Zeke liked so much so we accepted.” “And I can’t wait to round them all up like the racist bastards they are.” I said. “And Zeke is going to...be a bit happy knowing you two are alive and well. But your actions here...well that might not be good.” “Oh Zeke will understand.” Marry waved off. “It's what we do. He...she… they should know. It's what we do.” “Pillage, steal, murder and torture all for the money.” Barry said proudly. “Crime pays, and our fees are the best around.” Marry added. “And yet your family has been actively moving on with better lives.” I said honestly. ”You two must have wished for something outside of all of this right?” I asked, hoping to just end the line of murder and crime for this family who had a second chance. “Hmm… I'd want to be close to it though… maybe a gunsmith.” Barry thought aloud. “Translator.” Marry said. “I already knew twenty different languages from earth and nineteen more since all this.” “That’s perfect.” I said. “Something, anything to stop all the crime...this isn’t Earth anymore, you don’t have to continue doing all the crimes and running from everything anymore.” “Awh but it's so much fun.” Marry laughed. “You’d think, but it’s not.” I said honestly. “Second chances don’t come often...and I’m pretty sure Zeke would be happy to know his parents aren’t running anymore and living the lives they wish they could have.” I said. “And believe me, I’ve been told enough how Ventrals wish they could have a better lives rather than having to run everywhere and do bad shit just to get by.” I said, having Jenny, Zeke, Nancy and I’m pretty sure some others told me about it. “Guess it would be nice to be able to actually settle down and not have to keep a gun under the pillow and barricades on the door.” Barry thought. “We could finally have real pets!” Marry added happily. “There’s a lot of things you could be doing.” I said. “And all you need to do are a few things.” I said while pulling out a contract. “Cause if Jenny has taught me anything, always have things made in Writing.” I said while handing it to them for them to look over. “The contract is a lot of things, but in simple terms you two will have a better life, but you will have to serve under me for the community service cause duh, telling me who specifically hired you both because also duh, and a bunch of other things that basically benefit you...as long as, if you do still want to do criminal acts, you have to follow the Payback clause.” I said. “The payback law is...well basically like Sly Cooper, where a criminal actively hunts down bigger and stronger criminal organizations and either steals all their shit and throws them to the local authorities, or beats the shit out of them and drags them to the local authorities.” I said honestly. “Sure.” Barry agreed. “Sounds Interesting.” Marry said. “Cool.” I said while pulling out a pen for the two of them. “Just sign on the dotted line.” I said with a smile. They signed, handing me back the contract and pen. “So I take it our first task is to hand over our prior employers?” Barry asked. “Oh yeah.” I said. “All of them. Straight and simple, and if you want to help me hunt them down that’s also fine, but they all have to be alive and mostly uninjured.” I said. “Alright.” Marry said, standing up and stretching. “Be back in ten or so seconds.” She said, warping into thin air. Seven seconds later she was back, the purist leaders all knocked out on the ground before her as she reappeared. “There we go.” “Cool.” I nodded. “Thank you so much, now I have a feeling you want to know which world Zeke is on?” I asked curiously, knowing they would love to spend some time with their son. “That would be nice, yes.” Barry said. A door appeared close to the group. “Right through that door is the world Zeke is on, and if anyone asks how you got there, tell them Ben sent you.” I said with a nod. “Oh I hope Zeke finally gave us grandkids.” Marry said. “About...well he’s adopted a lot of kids but actual birth kids? Well...I’d say about…” I thought for a moment. “Twenty or so with all his wives before me, Zeke and Eclipsa got married.” I said honestly. Both parents froze. “How?” Barry asked. “Zeke has like...I don’t know, ten or so wives just to his name?” I asked. “Equestria has Herd relationships...or just Harem’s for human terms.” I said honestly. “And...well technically at least two of the kids are his when he was a woman due to...one of his wives doing things as punishment.” I said honestly. “You’ll have to get the story from him, it’ll make more sense.” “... THAT'S MY BOY!” Barry screamed, kicking down the doors and running through them. “...Oh he is going on be impossible now…” Marry said, facepalming before inspecting me up close. “So… you and my son then… have you two… shared each other yet?” “No, we have not.” I said. “Zeke is...going through some things at the moment. Being told he has to work through a lot of PTSD.” “Hmm… well I'll give you this.” Marry started. “If he as a female is anything like me… just be careful. The only reason I had three kids is because Barry has a pelvis of titanium...literally…” She said, following her husband through the door. “Well...didn’t know that.” I said honestly. “But...that’s already happened before with my thousands of wives.” I said honestly. “But cool, Luxu, let’s get these four bastards to the castle before they wake up.” “On it.” Luxu said, placing all four on his shoulder and opening a DTN. We Interviewed each and when they got troublesome we had the Bard, Brook, enter, doing what he does best as they spill their guts before he did. They had in total fifty agents in the city. Each was quickly arrested and we began to plan assaults on the world's they escaped to that held their own armies. “Alright, so we have four worlds to deal with. What are the statuses of each of them?” I asked curiously. “I know both Red and Blue Spy, as well as Echo are doing well gathering info on them all.” “Armed, surprisingly well trained, some heartless controllers.” Dante stated. “Now, we have three courses of action.” “I’m gonna take a guess.” I said. “Either make more Echo’s and replace their commanders with them and surprise them all in a trap, have me waltz in and beat the shit out of everyone because I’m that stupid strong, or use a special spell to cage them all in Nothingness?” I asked curiously. “Well that depends on one thing. Do you want these people captured, or slaughtered? It's your choice.” “What is the status of any of the other races on those worlds they’ve dominated?” I asked curiously, that being the key factor here in my decision making. “The pony Purests and Minotaur Purists use the other races as slave labor mostly. Other uses include decorum or entertainment. The griffon and Zebras do pretty much the same save for one difference. The Zebras experiment on the other races like lab rats, and the Griffons… use them as an alternative food source.” Luxu explained, a sour tone in his voice at the end. I took a deep breath. “Well..” I said. “Do you truly believe they should all be killed? Or should we...split them in half?” I asked, wondering if I should just go down the middle and capture all that surrender and kill the rest. “First step first we have to save all the oppressed races on the world's. Moving them here while possible and not actually difficult we lack proper housing and farm space to make up for it. Also we imagine mass mental and physical traumas to be present so we also lack sufficient mental and physical doctors.” “For as big as this world is it's awfully small in the grand scheme of things.” Dorlu said. “Good thing I can just actively make the world bigger.” I said honestly. “And...I’m pretty sure I can literally make doctor's that can help them out both physically and mentally.” I said with some thought. “Hmm...this is quite a thing.” “Well, why not grant their wishes?” Dorlu asked. “They want a race war. I say once we save all the oppressed and untainted young from these places throw them all onto a single world and let them kill each other. Winner gets the world all to themselves from behind a planet wide cage.” “Perfect.” I said with a nod. “Just got to make a world that can fit them all after saving all the people…” I said with some thought. “I suppose you have people already at the ready to save the innocent?” I asked curiously. “Sonic and Genos are awaiting orders. Genos will take on their firepower solo, nothing he can't handle. While Sonic saves the slaves and takes their young.” Luxu said. “While morally kidnapping children is wrong I feel in this case we can make an acception.” “The parents...they would want their children to be happy in an untainted world.” I said, being a father and a mother. “Their parents believe their twisted ideals best.” Dorlu pointed out. “Not always is a mother and fathers ideals best for their young.” “Shit…” I sighed out. “Well...let’s hope for the best for the children.” I said. “Genos, Sonic, go in the name of your King, save the innocent and burn all who oppose you.” I gave the order the two council members felt even if they weren’t in the room. Genos and Sonic were successful. Sonic's speed allowed him to get all the slaves and untainted young here in just a day. Genos had burned down so much of each world that from space they looked like giant balls of charcoal. Finally I threw all the surviving Purists on to one barren world, letting them keep their weapons. As predicted they immediately began killing one another. I locked the world away behind a barrier of Nothingness, and Luxu placed a Reflect barrier. They even tried to escape the Reflect barrier will implode the planet. I immediately began crafting a new many sets of towns, cities, villages… and at some point… everything got mixed together. What came out is best described as organized chaos. The world was a mix of close together and even mixed terrains, Forrest, cities, flatlants… but somehow it worked. Even the Dire Wolves who lived in the caved found the chaotic mix of nature and modern cities quite pleasing. This meant that also the wildlife of both worlds was everywhere, fast adapting. Needless to say many of the Primal Dire Wolves found a sudden job of keeping them at bay and acquiring plenty of food for themselves or markets. It seemed… to just work. “I am...so glad that this all worked.” I sighed out thankfully. “This should not have worked…” I said, now thinking about my upcoming meeting with Rainbow and the Dire Wolves about the weather. “Maybe this was needed.” Luxu said. “To quote Time Belle, 'Equestrians lost a true connection to the world when we began using our abilities to control it all rather than what was just needed.’” “Yeah.” I nodded. “Can’t wait to hear Rainbow’s argument and then immediately tell her I have a better idea.” I said honestly. “Rainbow would probably be upset because of that.” I said, not really having met Rainbow on a casual setting. “Oh speaking of which, how is she, Spike and their kid?” I asked, remembering Spike and Rainbow had a kid and that Spike’s actual mother went out to probably hug the hell out of him. “Last I saw Spike and Rainbow Dash were both living in Cloudsdale still, visiting the castle and Twilight's old library for chats and memories.” Dorlu said. “Cool.” I said. “I have a feeling they’re also showing their kid around the place, telling them about old stories.” I said with a little smile. “Wish I could do that with my kids “ Dorlu said. “I mean...I don’t know much about your past besides what happened on Knowhere.” I said honestly, remembering my first encounter with him and then remembering Rejection basically burned the place to the ground. “Well. To put it simply… my world is gone. Went out much like Daybreak did.” Dorlu said solemnly. “Oh...well that sucks.” I said worriedly. “I’m sorry to hear that…” I sighed out. “I was little when it happened. I only remember bits and pieces. Nothing to mourn really.” “My Lord.” Consequence said, appearing. “Miss Rainbow Dash and Dire wolf Endreguars are here for the meeting.” “Thank you.” I nodded. “Well...let’s hope those two won’t be arguing when I get there…” I muttered while heading off to the meeting room the two will most likely be in. I arrived and the two sat across one another at the table. Rainbow was...different. her once rather short and messy hair was now long and we'll brushed, she wore a pink top shirt that said 'MOM’ on it and a skirt. The dire wolf Enderguars was as expected, in Primal form and sat up properly. “How are you two doing today?” I asked politely as I sat down in my chair that was thankfully big enough. “Good.” Said Rainbow. “I am well.” Said Enderguars. “Shall we skip the idle chatting and get to the point?” “I vote Yes.” Rainbow answered. “Alright.” I nodded. “So, who wants to make their argument first?” I asked curiously. “We've actually changed our original arguments.” Enderguars said. “Yes. Given the new arrivals and new... geography… we've reached a certain level of agreement.” Rainbow added. “Oh?” I asked curiously. “What have you two figured out?” “Simply put, food is at an all time high. We need more farms for both crops and livestock.” “Our territories forests hold the most fertile land readily available.” Enderguars said. “Even the flatlands while all a jumble, hold invaluable fertility for plants and creatures. We are willing to allow something we are referring to as Artificial Nature Farming to transpire.” “Basically we plant mass crop fields and help raise the wild life like livestock to better produce for the people, including weather for proper watering and ideal conditions for max output.” “And In return the ponies allow us to adopt their orphans so long as we have at least one section in our caves with modern conveniences, and we are allowed to keep the prey we hunt as well as free roam of the lands to keep traditions alive.” “Perfect.” I said with a smile. “My original plan was for the weather to take its natural course, but if there was something like a drought or something you could have actively made it rain to help out.” I said honestly. “With this course of action both and all races can more easily integrate so long as each has some dependency on the other, and food sources are a good motivation.” “Yes, food is very important.” I said. “I’m glad things won’t escalate badly.” I said honestly. With that taken care of rather well I found that our public bathroom, as in for bathing, was done so I decided to take a dip and oh god this feels amazing… Twilight said she actually had minerals and such imported so it felt like a natural hot springs. “Aw~, this feels nice.” I sighed out, loving the bath after a long few day. “Nothing like a nice warm bath after a long time as king.” I said happily, not needing to be half female to know how good warm baths are. “Mind if I join?” Looking up I saw Joy… blushing hard as they had their whole body wrapped in a towel. “Sure.” I said. “How you doin Joy?” “A bit embarrassed…” They said, climbing into the bath. I could see their breasts were already swelling with milk. “I uh…. Said some stuff…” “What did you say?” I asked gently, having a feeling this was a sensitive topic. “And hey...your pregnant already.” “Yeah… what I said wasn't bad just... embarrassing.” “Did you say you enjoyed it?” I asked curiously. “Enjoyed is an understatement…” the placed their face in their hands. “I uh...kinda screamed for Jenny to make me their whore then let her… basically screw me every means possible…” “Oh…” I said slowly. “That’s...that’s a thing.” I said. “You see, this is...kind of why I don’t entirely want to...ya know, do that cause of that part.” I said nervously. “Maybe it’s a matter of pride, maybe I’m just scared I’ll be treated less...fuck if I know.” I said honestly. “No but that's it. I knew what I was saying, I wanted to say it! It's a whole different experience on the...erm, receiving end. It's like I know and feel I can trust her enough to say and mean what I said, and let her have her way with me...and I did… and while I am not gonna ever speak of what happened… I can say proudly I have no regrets about it.” “That’s good Joy.” I said. “You have more trust in others and yourself...I am sadly still missing trust in myself.” I said honestly. “I mean I would not say no to anything she did to me. Ben when it was over I could not walk, my everything felt both pure Bliss and sore as all hell and there was so much Cum on me my fur was soaked and sticky and I LOVED it!” “I think your...maybe going a little overboard with the descriptions I don’t want to know about.” I said honestly. “And not helping me to be perfectly honest.” “The point is.” Joy continued. “That I never expected to enjoy what I just went through so much. But I guess since I loved and trusted Jenny I felt alright in the end letting it happen. Actually had a lot of fun. I still identify as a male, but with both sets I can have a broader view of things than if I was only male.” “I know I know.” I said honestly. “It's something special you shared and new things can be nice.” I said while patting his head. “Har har.” Joy said, swatting my hand away. “You said you didn't trust yourself, so just trust them. You can do that at least.” “True.” I said honestly. “But...just don't want to be...ya know, treated any different given...what I might say in the heat of the moment...cause one thing could lead to weird things.” “Ben, people say stuff when having sex. When Jenny and I first did it, she said 'redden my rump’ and that meant, spank her on each thrust. I did. Still doesn't mean I don't fear her at times when she's in a mood or horny.” “I understand.” I said honestly. “I know it’s something special and I need to learn that...maybe I’m a little scared I don’t know.” I said. “But the heat that I’m hopefully going to pass through won’t be too bad…” “Well Zecora is making you that potion.” Joy added. “So, how did that meeting go?” “Shockingly well.” I said honestly. “Given how...the entire world has changed and it all somehow worked in that jumbled mess...they figured things out.” “That is good. So, when are you planning on visiting Zeke and Eclipsa again? Been a bit already. Figured you two should try the hardest to make this work, right?” “After the bath.” I said. “And something to eat, I’m starving...and yeah I know...but Eclipsa’s gonna flip when she sees this I just know it.” I chuckled a little. “Bring her some of homes meats to try. That might stave her off long enough.” “Might as well bring a gift...oh but what meat should I get them? All of them are too good.” I huffed, not sure if I should go fishing or hunt down the giant turtles again. “Try a sampler platter and let them choose what they like the best.” Joy offered. “That’s true…” I said honestly. “I do have all the meats ready if memory serves…” I thought, hoping they’ll like my cooking. “I have been practicing my cooking...hopefully it’s good.” “You've been cooking? Since when?” “Har har.” I rolled my eyes. “But I’ve been cooking, I’ve kept it a secret because...well I wanted to surprise everyone.” I said. “You know, a family dinner that I made for them all...it’s the least I could do for being a shit husband and father half the time…” I sighed out, even though Joy knew full well I was both an excellent husband and father to all my wives and my millions of kids given we sometimes share memories. “You are way too hard on yourself.” Joy sighed, slipping to their chin into the water. “So, how's your boarding school/orphanage coming along?” “It’s getting along great.” I said with a warm smile. “The kids are feeling better thankfully, all the renovations are getting finished and...I hope they all get better soon.” “Same. At least this way we can ensure they are all raised properly.” “I might...go a little overboard. Being a Den Mother is hard sometimes when you think everyone’s your kid sometimes.” I said honestly. “I know. I heard your speech in between ninth and tenth orgasem with Jenny.” “Um...I’m not entirely sure if that means you came when I talked…” I said sheepishly. “Proper wording is a hell of a thing.” “I mean I just had the ninth orgasem when you had your speech, and watched while getting rutted the tenth.” “Alrighty then.” I said honestly. “So...what do all the other girls think?” I asked curiously. “I have a feeling Frisk and Chara were...a bit touchy feely because of your sudden change huh?” “Chara laughed her ass off. Frisk was okay with it and Asriel was supportive given they went through the same thing.” “Makes sense.” I said. “And what of the other girls? You have like...two hundred right?” I asked. “Heh, most didn’t care, some found it odd and others were a bit speechless. All in all a healthy mix I guess. So what’s your plan when visiting Zeke and Eclipsa and the initial talk and such is over?” “No idea.” I said honestly. “Its...gonna be a thing that's for sure. I'm sure Eclipsa would try to jump me cause of...obvious.” I said honestly. “Heh. Maybe. Hey, remember that game you used to play when you were three? You’d ask yourself what would you do if you got what you wanted most, normally a toy or candy?” “Yes I do.” I said honestly. “Why do you ask?” “Well, let’s play. Pass the time and stay in the bath a bit longer.” Joy said, closing their eyes in thought. “So, what do you want most, and what would you do with it?” “Well....I already have everything.” I said honestly. “A loving family, godly powers...what would you do?” I asked curiously. “I would want to live old enough to be a grandparent, then embarrass my kid and in law with stories from when they were young and silly.” Joy laughed. “That would be funny.” I said honestly. “So, you been trying to catch up to some game series since we have pretty much them all or so? I’ve been trying to play the original Fallout… it’s hard…” “Been playing Kingdom Hearts 3...and fuck Xehanort being a 'misunderstood good guy', he openly murders people and tries to murder people just to be god.” I frowned. “Heh, well it is an E rated game series so can’t have the bad guys to completely bad. Remember Maleficent helping in Kingdom Hearts two, granted it was in a cutscene, still.” “Fine fine.” I said. “But there are a lot of games I still have to play.” “After Fallout I plan on trying out some games I never even heard of.” “There are many.” I said honestly. “I should also try that Sekiro game. Heard it was good. “It’s made by the people who made Dark Souls, good luck.” Joy chuckled. “Been playing Tf2, so much craziness. Seems anyone with internet in the multiverse can be in a match.” “Simple games are fun.” I said honestly. “Yeah. So, want to watch some transdimensional TV?” Joy asked, taking their hands out of the water and clapping, a TV descending from the ceiling before us. “Wonder what's on?” I wondered. “Hopefully something good.” “Voice activated. Just say something. It’s multiDimensional so literally anything will and is on.” “Ah…” I said. “Um...how about Regular Show.” I said, hoping to finish that good show. The TV flashed on, and showed a list of Many...many...MANY shows all bearing that name. “Some are alternate universe versions of it. Saw one once where they were all human. Was the same thing, just humans and the world was all the same. Wasn’t too bad, but didn’t have the same charm.” “Okay then…” I said. “Where's the Original Regular Show here…” “They are organized by Realm and Reflection ID’s. Just look for Any starting with Af9, that’s ours, yes they had the one God made too, and reflection number 4480.” “Alright then.” I said while looking for said thing. I found it and started a random episode, the short, rather plan into scene starting before the show. “Remember when this show first aired? You didn’t think it was gonna be any good.” “This was a good show.” I said. “First episode was a bit meh but it was great.” “It got better as it went on.” Joy said. “Shame most shows didn’t get the same treatment. You know, if everything we thought fiction is a real world, then isn’t this show also a world we can just visit whenever?” “Yes...yes it would.” I said honestly. “That would...be a bit weird.” “Eh, that’s life I guess.” Joy shrugged. “So, King of Nothingness, Admin of Nothingness… and now, Den mother to a world and spouse to Kingdom Hearts/Admin of Hearts and Admin of Grey. Expect any new titles to pop up?” “Worlds best dad mom?” I brought up. “That might happen.” I said honestly. “What would you think would be a title I might get?” “Dunno. Frankly I just wonder what Exactly Spoiled is up to? We don’t exactly know what she is doing or what she is capable of right now… what’s her plan?” “Does it really matter?” I asked. “Hello, this 'war’ isn't a war. Its gonna be a one day one sided beatdown unless something happens in three years.” I said honestly. “Spoiled is gonna die, if we wanted Zeke could just point us in the right direction and we can be done with the whole thing.” “Yeah...then why aren’t we? What exactly is stopping us? Thinking about it, it should be easy but… for some reason we’re just putting it off?” “Maybe because were too focused on our own lives to care? We wanted to prepare for it...but now we over prepared for it.” I said honestly. “So either someone bigger is making us wait, or something that's actually bad.” “Still, so what is Spoilds endgame? We know Core taught her things for some time before he was killed, and now is back but on our side, and then there’s that Kid she and Kexez had… where is it? We haven’t sensed anything along it’s presence since it was conceived.” “Now that would be bullshit if someone stopped us sensing it.” I said. “Unless it’s masked? What could mask that much power?” “What could mask a part of reality not knowing about a thing that openly exists in it?” I asked. “I have a feeling some bullshits being pulled and whoever is doing it is sneaky enough...so maybe the Nazis cause you can write those fuckers doing anything and no one cares.” I said, not knowing who's stopping us but knowing they are basically a none issue cause of power leaps. “Still, what’s the kid going to be like? A mix of Kingdom Hearts, Nothingness, and the Purest Darkness… what do you even call that?” “No idea.” I said honestly. “But...oh wait, Zeke can just find the guy cause you can't hide someone's existence.” I said honestly. “Or they can and at that point why even bother anymore?” “Dunno. Does it even have a heart? I imagine it’s birth would be something we all feel, so I guess it’s not born yet.” “Maybe. Who knows right now.” I shrugged. “There's a lot of questions that I'll ask Zeke when I go see him soon.” I said honestly. “Think Zeke can answer any of them?” “He can answer some things.” I said honestly. “But what things I don't know at the moment. “What about Eclipsa?” “I hope she knows something.” I said honestly. “But I should also meet some people, like the Foretellers or John given I haven't officially met him.” “True. Hard to believe we rarely know our allies huh? … Hey, so Zeke never took Cript on that offer to join in the family huh?” “Does he even need to at this point?” I asked. “Even though he is technically a part of his family by me and Eclipsa.” I said honestly. “True, still kinda wonder. Yours was a Dire Wolf, Eclipsa’s was a Naga… what would Zeke’s mother have been?” “No idea.” I said honestly. “But I made a totem of mom. She's happy with who I turned out to be.” “Oh cool. Where’s you put it. I wanna talk with her sometime.” “Well she's just a small totem, but she's in my cloak. I'm curious if she'd have liked to take a bath with us…” I wondered. “Given were all female at this point.” “Maybe but if it fits in your cloak she can’t really soak, mostly she’d be swimming just to keep head above water.” “True.” I said. “I should make an actual statue of her...she deserves it.” “Might take a while but will be worth it.” Joy agreed. “If she’s basically possessing a statue of her image can she eat or feel?” “I have a feeling she can at least feel.” I said honestly. “And if she can eat...well I hope she'll like my cooking.” “If she can do as she is when she is here then I wonder if that means majority of the time she can be here? Would be nice for everyone to meet her properly.” “That would be wonderful.” I said with a smile. “Den would be so happy to meet them all.” “Yeah. I do owe me even having a body to her anyway… you’d think Cript would have done that but she was able...kinda wonder what else she can do?” “What do you mean?” I asked curiously. “Remember? I was just in your head and heart, and when mom found out she gave me a body, with just a wave of her hand. Pretty sure that is not a normal Dire Wolf thing.” “Oh yeah.” I said. “That is true...wonder what she could also do...and what do you want to do to make it up to mom?” “I don’t know what I can do to repay her… What would be the best way of saying ‘thank you for bringing me back to life and giving me my own body’?” “Uh...no idea…” I said honestly. “Maybe we could ask her?” I suggested. “No, then the meaning behind it isn’t as good. It’s like finding the perfect gift… what can work… what can work…” “Spend the day with her? You know, go out to our home world...wait no the world is so changed it might be weird…” I sighed out. “Hmm… Well, I am pregnant now… I could name a pup after her? I know if the girls ever named a pup of ours Joy Jr, I’d about cry... “ “Out of joy or out of embarrassment?” I asked curiously. “Bit of both. I mean, giving your kid your name, while kind of odd, I think it’s meant to show expectations, like handing down a torch to the next generation or so?” “Well I’d rather not have my kids have the expectation of being me of all people.” I said. “They can do better than that.” I said honestly. “But...kids are and will always be my pride and joy.” I said, knowing being a Den Mother made my love for my children go through the roof but I still cared about every single one of them. “That and the nickname of a kid named Ben Junior would be Bj.” Joy snickers. “That’s also not going to happen.” I huffed. “None of them will be called Bj.” We shared a laugh and watched three more episodes before I started to get out. Thankfully a full body sized hair drying got me dry and fluffy. Rarity had some pajamas for me, not like the nightgown from before, rather a part blue and purple set of Pajamas with the Nobody symbol on them. Putting them on I went over to the bedroom, and what I found made me...really happy. The infants were all here also, sleeping with us, ontop of us, or in small cribs next to us. “Like it?” Luna asked, holding Braig. “Twilight moved all the infants here, something about old hard managed often having one large bed to share with family and a seperate room for more… adult needs of sleep. That’s what she is renovating the old nursery into. Figured this would be best so both you and the kids can sleep well given this mornings waking incident.” I smiled happily. “I love it.” I said warmly. “And hello little Braig.” I said lovingly, not fully sure if Braig saw me like this. ’You broke Nancy, now she’s all nice.’ He said as I took him. “I didn’t break her.” I said. “She wanted to be with her family, and she’s finally happy to show it.” I said honestly. I snuggled between Luna and Rarity, who was sleeping with Nancy on her arms as I helped Braig. I felt so happy like this. When I laid my head down it rested on a Belly, looking over I saw it was Pinkie’s. She gave me a wave before resting her arms behind her head. This was nice… more families should sleep like this. “I love you all...my wonderful wonderful family…” I muttered, tears of pure joy falling down my cheeks as I was just so happy. “We love you too Ben!” Pinkie said, huddled next to Twin.Luna got a large blanket to cover her, Rarity and I all up and Pinkie and Twindid the same, slipping it under my head so I could still rest on Pinkie’s belly. This was so Comfy...so peaceful. I was falling… Darkness was around me...then I saw it. My Station of Awakening. My Male and Female form back to back with one another both Gripping No Heart. I landed softly at my feet. “Huh...wonder why I’m here?” I looked around. “Maybe my light and dark halves want to have a talk about my sudden change?” I wondered aloud. “Hello?” I called out, hoping someone would answer. Someone walked seemingly into existence out of thin air, almost examining me. They wore a dull blue hoodie, jeans and boots. I couldn't make out gender. “And...who are you?” I asked curiously. “What are you doing here?” They said nothing, still examining me from afar before summoning a Starlight Keyblade. “Cause of course…” I sighed out while summoning No Heart. “What do you want?” Still saying nothing, they raised their Starlight into the air, light forming at the tip as a Keyhole formed above us. “Excuse me I have several problems with what I’m seeing here!” I said in a panic. “That’s not right! How can Keyholes be in people’s hearts the fuck!?!” I looked at the keyhole above us. They shot out a beam of light, the sound of a lock turning echoing as immediately pathways of stained glass shot out in all directions into the surrounding darkness. “Are you going to tell me what the fuck is going on now?” I asked in a panic, fearing what’ll happen to my entire person based on this sudden event. Still saying nothing, they turned around, the large decorated doors from KH one appearing before then. They opened them and entered. “Cause you know...let’s not explain who the hell you are or what the fuck you did…” I said while following after him, not entirely caring about what’s gonna happen but I really need some answers cause I’m confused as fuck. I entered the doors and… was in my castle? “Okay, cause this is what I need, my dreams to be filled with more concern and confusion than my normal day being awake.” I rolled my eyes. “Seriously, the fuck…” I muttered while walking around my castle. “Hopefully there will be people here to help explain…” I muttered. I arrived in the kitchen where… myself as is now, and my male self sat across one another at a table. The two...me's, were still, unblinking as they looked at one another. “Um...am I interrupting something?” I asked nervously. The looked at me, moving in uniformed unison. “Which matters most?” The female me asked. “Pride?” The male asked. “Or acceptance?” The female finished. “And why can’t I suddenly have both?” I asked honestly. “And what’s with this sudden event thing? Am I missing something or are you going to not tell me anything?” I looked at them both. “Please, I’d like a little context instead of just randomly answering questions that make no sense.” I asked. “Also who was the person that just...unlocked my heart or something? Seriously the fuck is going on?” Can the mind answering questions the heart wants answered? A voice spoke in my head… it sounded like… old king? “Excuse me old man, your supposed to be dead.” I said while looking around. “And how the hell am I supposed to know that? I have no idea what’s going on, and I’m expected to just know things?” I frowned. “While that’s basically all the time, now’s not one of those times.” I said, still so confused on what’s going and only being more confused and concerned as time went on. You walk a fine line between your reign of Nothingness and the heart of light and dark you carry in your chest. This line is strained more so recently. “Good to know me actually being happy for once only causes problems.” I rolled my eyes. “Cause I can’t fucking win ever apparently.” I groaned. “So mind asking me why the hell this is suddenly a problem now?” Unification. Never has Balance and Nothing shared this level of bonds. While Your body and theirs can handle each other's powers, your heart's lack such durability. So, they will be rebuilt, these questions you must answer carefully, for failure here, will cost your unborn their existence. You three must unify perfectly, less the unborn suffer. I growled. “Don’t you fucking dare hurt my children!” I barked angrily. “Even if they’re unborn they did nothing wrong damn it!” I growled, wanting to beat the crap out of the old man for even daring to threaten my children...even though they weren’t born or even thought of yet. “Also again, what’s wrong with having pride and being accepted at the same time?” [i[I am not, the culprit in this situation. Your powers are all so different, without a means to ensure they can be utilized also by one another, no kin or young of the mix can even be created. It's a matter of connection, not violence. “And yet Spoiled can have that happen and get off scott fucking free.” I frowned. Her child holds no heart. Balanced or no, Kexez and Spoiled are still Nobodies. That child will be born, for all it's possibility and abilities, without a heart. “Cause of course…” I sighed out. “Alright...so again, why is Pride and Acceptance mutually exclusive here?” I asked. “For a first question that seems a little weird don’t you think?” To rebuild your heart, certain traits must be determined worthy, and worthless to you. Which do you value more? The Acceptance of others? Or Pride in who you are? “Well...I wouldn’t be who I am without others...and I literally wouldn’t be here without others.” I said honestly. “Like seriously...if I were alone I’d either be dead or have gone insane…” I said, knowing full well that...I wouldn’t be at all happy as I am now a days or even alive. This was hard… and what does this even mean, pride or acceptance? Is it which I prefer or which I want or value more? “I really hate how you give me literally nothing to go on. It’s either acceptance of something I don’t know about, or pride in something that I don’t know about.” I said. “Can shit stop being vague for once and actually have some context for once?” I frowned. “Seriously, what’s wrong with both? It’s like having your birthday party but your parents are holding your cake and friends hostage telling you ‘which do you want, cake or your friends?’.” I frowned. You overthink things, why is that? Does everything have to make sense in order to accept it? “When it’s actually something important like this than yes.” I frowned. “You can’t just say ‘hey, if you get this wrong you can’t have the children you actually dreamed about’.” I said honestly. “I’m a mother and a father...telling me that I can’t be happy with those children with Zeke and Eclipsa is pretty worrying to me.” The mind of a parent is a worrying one. A mind that carries both worries of each is forever burdened with fear. These Questions will be, simply, inform each other, and yourself what kind of person you truly are. A Balanced heart belongs to a person who knows the kind of person they are, what they will do, what they can do, and can read others to know what they are capable of. “Well that’s great.” I said. “But again...why is acceptance and pride mutually exclusive here? A balanced heart would have both right?” In quantities. Here, you Pride yourself in your masculine male status, but you want the acceptance of all because of your new feminine form, the two wage war within you. If you can not make middle ground between the two, one must be tossed aside. “I’m not tossing anything aside anymore.” I said bluntly. “But both of them are pissy? Well let me hear it from their own mouths what they have a problem with.” I said while staring at the two. “You declared yourself the head male without even consulting Zeke beforehand.” The male me spoke. “You find peace and love in bounds in this body, a kindness and love deeper than you knew prior...and yet, you worry about the opinions of others over your own choices.” The female me said. “Okay cool.” I said. “So for you.” I said while looking at my male half. “I did, but then after some talks with Jenny and a lot of things happened so...I decided to give this a try.” I said while looking over at my female part. “I always worry about the opinions of others based on my choices. I’m an idiot, I do dumb things, and I’m scared I’ll push them away because of my decisions.” I said honestly. “But here’s the thing, I’m still half male, so I can still be the head male of that group, and I enjoy the love and affection I got with my family because of this.” I said honestly. “Both are important to me, I can’t have one without the other.” I said. “Pride.” The male me says. “Tell me, what pride did you ever have without others? Before God? Before your loves? Before your children?” “How much did you worry about others opinions before God?” The female me asked. “I didn’t have any pride, and I gave zero shits about what other people’s opinions were because I was a hundred and ten percent done with everything at that point.” I said honestly. “Cause when you blamed yourself your whole life for your parent’s murders for a long ass time...and a lot of other bad shit that happened...well you tend to lose things as your heart was slowly dying.” “A strong heart accepts others in their roles.” My male self said. “Zeke, like you, and Eclipsa, are still fathers, and soon, shall also be mothers, by claiming head male, tell me, do you know what such a claim would be?” The female asked. “Honestly, I don’t know what ‘other meanings’ it could have but when I said that I meant it with the intent of being the one that would be in front of them when something bad happened.” I said. “I would be their guard, I would protect them from whatever’s to come...protect their smiles.” I said, both halves of me knew full well I would rather die than see any of the people I cared about hurt. “You've read Equestrian history texts, surprised you can't recall?” The male me asked. “I have a million and one things to remember all the goddamn time.” I frowned. “Sometimes I can’t recall things, sometimes I can, I’m not perfect.” I said honestly. “And also, I’ve read this Equestrian’s history texts, it could be different in other realms.” I pointed out. “Then let us remind you. A Head male, in a herd, claims the children as their own, legally, would you take their family names away?” The male me asked. “No.” I said. “Also, to be perfectly honest, I’m pretty sure we can actively throw out that rule cause of the fact I am married to literally eight different races.” I said honestly. “So your point is...kind of moot at this point when you truly think about it.” I said honestly. The two looked at the table, a soft smile on each of them. “What's in names? Why do they hold power even among Admins?” The female asked. “I mean, do you want me to get philosophical or point you to Ancient Egypt where they had ‘Secret Names’ be one part of your soul?” I asked honestly. “Things only have power when we give them power.” The male me said. “Names are the purist example. What power does your name hold? Zeke's? Eclipsa's? To take a name is to take its power, and family names hold more so, because they grow with each person who it is given to. What will be your new family name?” The same and female me faded out like ghosts. You three have a task. A name for your bloodlines. What benefits you three? “I’d like to know why I’m suddenly being blamed for things when I’m actually happy for once.” I said honestly. “But I’m gonna have to talk to Eclipsa and Zeke about that.” Happiness can be found even in the bleakest of situations. It's your heart that needs to be corrected, not just for this union, but for this happiness. A life of misery and sorrow has made it weak, emotions still so distant from you will return, without a rebuilt heart, your emotions could do more hard than good. “Which should have happened ages ago.” I stated. “You know, when a lot of things actually were happening that were rebuilding my heart and emotions, but I suppose some people just completely skipped that.” I said while looking up at nothing in particular. “Jeez...barely been with Eclipsa and I think her fourth wall breaking is rubbing off on me…” I muttered. “So, what next after that weird questionnaire?” Identity. “Wonders.” I said. “Can’t wait to hear ‘oh your not yourself cause you made a decision that made you happy for once.’. Can’t wait.” I rolled my eyes, knowing full well there is something special about this whole thing but just aggravated that no answers were being given and I’m being treated as the bad guy here. “So...where do I need to go now?” I asked while getting up and heading off around my castle to see what room I need to be in for the next question. To your throne room. “Alrighty then.” I said while walking towards my Throne Room. “Can’t wait to be told what I’m doing wrong next when I’m actually enjoying life for once.” As I arrived I saw Jenny, Baby Braig and Luna with a large round belly standing there. All three hold closely to your heart, of them all, who holds potential for wonder? “All three of them.” I said bluntly. “And don’t you dare say that’s not true cause it is true. Luna carries a child that can be a wonderful person, Baby Braig still has a life to grow up in and be happy, and Jenny, even though she’s still young, she still has so much room to grow and achieve so many things.” I explained. “Now, tell me I’m wrong. I dare you.” I growled while looking around for him. You hold truth in your words, now then. The three vanished, and three adults appeared, all dire Wolves, one in a single sundress and hat. The other with blood soaked battle armor and barbed sword, and the third warped twisted and broken. Which of these three is your child? I looked at these three dire wolves, tearing up. “Does it matter?” I asked. “Just like Jenny...even though she wasn’t born my own...I treat her like she’s my own. These three...even if their not mine I would treat them like mine...and if they all are...I’m sorry something drove the armored one to fight and...the last...I’m so sorry…” I said sadly, not even needing to be a female to know I would feel like crap if two of my kids were either going through some bloody hell or being so twisted and broken I...feared I couldn’t save them anymore. “I’m...at least glad one of them looks happy…” I said, hoping the sundress one was having a good life. A unique answer, and we'll said. The three vanished. Finally, which is you? Which is who you want to be? My male, female and human forms appeared before me. “Why don’t the two just kiss and make up?” I asked honestly. “I know it’s weird, but I’m me. I am who I want to be, I’m not going to be forced to pick one or the other when I can and will show you I can do both and look amazing while doing it.” I told the old man. Confidence in your current form then? Well done. Lastly, one final test. “Cause that’s what I need.” I rolled my eyes. “Okay, am I going to have to fight whoever did that weird unlocking thing at my Station of Awakening? Also who the hell was that and how did they do that?” This is the first time ever a heart has had to be reconstructed. So, the Keyblade Starlight was given the task of opening your heart to rebuild it. The Starlight Keyblade is the Keyblade of beginning, it's tasked to read and understand the heart of who it wields til it decides if another is best suited for their wielder. But it's true power is the alter hearts, but only if needed. This is the first time it has done this in its entire life. “Well wish it appeared sooner when I only had my light half keeping me alive instead of my soul.” I said. “Where was it then? Or is the soul too far away from the heart?” While similar, souls and hearts play vastly different roles in the body. “I could be really sassy at the moment but mind telling me how?” I asked honestly, feeling like me being a sassy bitch to him wouldn’t help much. The heart holds memories and let's you express emotions, the soul carries those memories forever, and the stronger, older the soul is, the more power and will you can gather in both combat and in stressful situations of mental fortitude.[/i[ “And given that I haven’t had it for over ten years is a hell of a thing.” I said honestly. “But good thing I have it now.” Yes. Now, your final test. The room went dark, before me was Spoiled, and in my hand was No Heart. How far will you go, to protect? “Are you asking me if I’d kill her to protect my family?” I asked honestly. How many would you kill? How many corpses of those who'd attempt to bring harm to those you are for would trail behind you? How many mountains of the dead, dead by your hands would you make for those you'd love? “Honestly, it depends on the person really.” I said honestly. “Cause there have been those that have tried to hurt my family but became friends...but for Spoiled in this case she actively wants to see everything burn because she wants it.” I said honestly. “Let’s look at Core for instance...or the old ‘Suicide Queen’ that became my wife after she...kind of actively lost who she previous was because of magic.” I said honestly. So enemies become allies, and if that fails, death befalls them? “Not all the time I’m sure.” I said honestly. “There are some that can become allies after a certain amount of time and bugging the shit out of them for a long time...but then there’s also the people that just want to watch reality burn.” Then put your words to action. Will you spare her, or kill her? “If you say so.” I said before flicking my wrist with No Heart in it as a bladed shockwave rushed at Spoiled, knowing full well Spoiled has done nothing to prove she’s anything but a person that would rather see the world burn for her own pleasure than any actual reasons. As I saw her cut it half by my original swing I bowled over and slammed down on the illusion just to make sure she stayed dead. Your heart is nearly complete. One last action. Take Balance, and Grey And give Nothingness. And truly become unified with your partners. Two orbs appeared. One black and white, the other grey. “Alright…” I said while taking a deep breath and taking the two orbs gently, Nothingness slowly wrapping around the two gently and caringly like I was holding a part of Zeke and Eclipsa. As Nothingness flowed into the orbs Grey and Balance flowed into me… and it was quite the… influx. Balance felt like both nothing mattered and everything held importance in life, the whispers of darkness and the warmth of light. Grey made it all much more stronger, I felt my own Nothingness felt even more potent. “Cool.” I said. “And now...where’s the sudden side effect?” I asked, knowing there had to be something to make this less enjoyable. I also felt...Zeke, and Eclipsa. I felt them as if they were next to me... “Well...that’s also nice.” I said with a gentle smile. “Good to know it feels like they’re here with me...unless they suddenly are somehow.” I began to hear voices…. So many. They were...the hearts of others, and Keyblades.. All of them talking...many of them my wives...woah...woah… Oh god that’s Rune! “Excuse me there are somethings I don’t want to know.” I shook my head quickly, fearing what I’ll hear from Rune. I managed to tune that out, thanking that it was easier than I expected. I began to feel it all settle in, I felt both darkness and light, my nothingness and grey all danced with one another in harmony. Pondering something, I snapped my fingers, three Shadow Heartless appearing next to three Dusks… Sweet! “Alright this is going to be wonderful.” I said honestly. “Now...is that everything?” I pondered if I could also summon any Keyblade… I raised my hand, and a Fenrir appeared… In another Flash, Way to Dawn replaced it… Gonna need to learn things from Zeke on this. “That’s gonna be a pain to learn…” I muttered while thinking of all the other things I could do. “Hmm...so many things…” I remember once Zeke got a Heartless to hold a Keyblade… Smiling, I summoned a Samurai Nobody, and tossed Way to Dawn to it, it Caught it. Then proceed to swing it around a bit… Okay now that is cool. “This is gonna be fun.” I said honestly with a smile. I tried to flow some Grey into the Samurai… and it grew, now seven feet tall, dressed in authentic Samurai armor, and had six Katanas strapepd to it while wielding the Way to Dawn… Hell… Yes... “Oh I am going to have so much fun with this.” I said with a smile. “Now...what should I call you my newly promoted Nobody?” I wondered, feeling like this was a completely different Nobody at this point. The only word that seemed proper and came to mind was Shogun. I wonder if it can keep that Keyblade? “I’ll call you Shogun.” I said, given that the thing was a lot bigger and had the authentic armor and all. “Sound like a good name?” I asked. “Also...can you summon and dismiss your keyblade?” I asked curiously. It looked at Way to dawn, shrugging… Well that’s new. “Good to know.” I said honestly. “But glad to have you here my friend.” You three now share the powers of each other, a True unity between you three, Your hearts bound to one another, and one day your bodies will be shared. Your futures are unknown now. “That’s what they all say before I thrown into the future again.” I said honestly. “And our bodies will be shared huh? Lewd.” Hehehehehe. Enjoy your life, Betty. I woke up...Did the old king just call me Betty? Yeah no. “My names not Betty...dumb old man…” I grumbled while looking around to see where I was. I was in the bedroom, kids and loves cuddled up to me like a living blanket. It was heavy, but warm and rather comfy. Looking at a clock nearby it was four in the morning. Only been asleep for five hours or so. “Well...little bit of sleep is fine…” I muttered to myself, still happy to be my family here. I managed to wiggle out of that and once I was out, without waking anyone I headed for the training room. Grey and Balance, we all share one another's powers now, meaning whatever they can do, so can I… the only question is who’s moves should I try out first? “So many possibilities…” I hummed curiously, not really knowing any of Eclipsa's moves but remembering Zekes from his Absent Silhouette fight. I know Zeke can summon forth the Dark Guardian… I should be able to do that. “Well....lets try that.” I said while taking a breath. “Come Guardian.” I said while channeling my new powers to summon a Guardian. I let Darknes flow out of me, slowly the Dark guardian began to emerge behind me. I FELT it’s lower half like a tail wrapped around my heart. Wonder what it can do? Zeke can make it have Keyblades… can it wield my weapons?!?! “Hmm…” I summoned Lunatic and handed it to the Guardian, curious if it could wield it. “Can you wield this?” Nodding, it took Lunatic, covering it in a dark aura as it swung it, a dark shockwave sent all the training equipment in front of us flying into the wall, dark auras covering them making the leather melt and metal rust instantly… cool... “Okay then…” I said while raising my hand, thinking I could use light to reverse the effects or if I just had to get new stuff. It didn’t work, in fact all the light did was remove the aura, but the equipment was destroyed. Sighing, I wondered how this could be used in combos? If Guardian wields two weapons and I weld two that’s four of my thirteen weapons out at once wait… can Zeke and Eclipsa wield my weapons now… can I weld X… I can I wield Zeke? “So many questions.” I muttered. “But I have my drive forms to do this but a bit better...wait.” I frowned. “Can they also use my forms? Also how the hell do I get that Greatsword Joy used? The fuck.” I frowned, just randomly remembering that little bit where Joy got the Old Kings Greatsword and Armor and I haven't yet. There’s a lot of questions now… but first thing’s first… I grinned, holding out my hand and trying to see if I can summon X. “If I can then cool...even though I have my own X blade.” I said honestly, hoping this will work. It did, the original X-blade appeared in my hand… it felt so different from No Hear- ”AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! What the fuck!?!?!” I heard X’s voice scream in panic in my head… Agh! The headache!! “Dude can you shut up for five seconds?” I asked while rubbing my temple. ”How...In the fuck...did you summon me?!” “Because magic.” I said. “Also because I have Zekes powers cause...I married him.” I said honestly. ”That is not enough… Your… you Eclipsa and Zeke marged your HEARTS?! Oh...ouch, oh it hurts just seeing it, ach…” “Oh don't be such a baby.” I scolded the keyblade. Omph… Okay, okay… so, do you know what has just happened to not only you, Zeke and Eclipsa, but also your Realms?” “I know I have their powers and that our realms are connected but not fused together.” I said honestly. ”Look out the window…” I looked out the window. “If our realms were fused without my knowing I call bull.” I frowned, even if I was asleep I would have noticed someone fucking with my realm. The one thing my realm didn’t have is stars...there’s stars. ”You three by merging your hearts, merged your realms. Light, Darkness, Nothingness, and Grey, for untold amount of time had barriers to divide them… by merging your hearts, those barriers have been shattered like a rock through glass.” “How?” I frowned. “It shouldn't be that flimsy, and why didn't I sense this before?” "You three are ADMINS! It was weakened by your marriage, and shattered by your hearts merging. B, you were at the center of it when in that little dive to the heart to remake it.” “And what of Zeke and Eclipsa? I doubt they would have wanted this sudden thing to happen.” I said honestly. ”It’s an Admin thing, so unless you want to DIVORCE “How about no.” I growled at the thing. “Christ...Zeke and Eclipsa are probably not going to like this.” ”Yeah. I don’t either… now I have three wielders… Great. So do Better Half and No Heart… great…” “Hey its better than being in twenty pieces right?” I asked. ”Oh please twenty or whole I can still reform myself when a wielder well suited for myself appears.” “Either way.” I shrugged. “So yeah...this is a thing.” ”Yes… can you disband me already, you holding me is weird.” “You do know I can make several jokes right?” I asked honestly. “But fine fine.” I said while disbanding the weapon. Sighing I leaned out the window, looking at the stars… I missed these, the only downside to my realm was that it had no stars. “The stars...I'm glad to see them again.” I said with a little smile. “When was the last time I saw them?” I muttered in thought. It was nice to see them. I wondered what constellations I could see? “Lets see…” I muttered while looking through all the stars in hopes of finding the constellations. I found one in the shape of a cat, I think, another was definitely a boat though… I don’t remember doing this before, even with my parents before. “I should teach my kids about constellations.” I said to myself. “The sky has always been nice...gonna suck when the sky is basically just a massive hunk of rock.” I wondered the castle for a while, finding a quiet place in the library. Here I found…. Hey, this is Luna’s journal from the future… It’s still here? “Well...it doesn't really matter cause that futures done in but…” I muttered while taking the journal and opening it, wondering if it changed at all. As I was about to read it, a hand covered the pages, looking up… it was one of the Tiara’s… “Don’t.” She said. “Hello there.” I said. “And why can't I finish what I was reading before?” “It was history then, it’s yet to exist now, if at all. This book is now a paradox.” She said, taking the book. “The courts will decide what to do with it.” “It's basically a book of a possible future, like a prophecy. How is it a paradox?” I asked honestly. “As the future changes, so does the written words of any texts from it. The future can only be written if it’s a prophecy, not history. For it to exist in the past.” “Alright...but its not like it'll tell me something groundbreaking like me going insane or something right?” I asked honestbuss “What the future holds is not the business of those who live in the present.” Tiara said, vanishing in a tear through time, it closing as she entered. “Rude.” I said. “But okay then...that happened.” I said. “So...what the hell to do now?” “Can’t sleep?” I looked up, seeing Celestia in her cloudy sky pijamas. She took a seat next to me. “Oh you know, just an experience where my heart is now connected to Zeke's and Eclipsa's...so yeah, no sleep.” I said honestly. “Oh my, should I be jealous?” Celestia asked with a chuckle. “Stars… I missed them. Nights here looked strange without them.” “I know. The stars are nice...and also mine, Eclipsas and Zekes realms fused because of this little thing...don't know why though.” I said honestly. “Hm. Well, guess that’s something special you three share.” “And I want to share it with all of you.” I said. “Cause it wouldn't be fair...I've already screwed up enough for all of you…” I sighed out. “Well how would that work out? We aren’t Admins like you three.” “I wish I knew…” I sighed out. “I’m sure an answer will come. Someday.” “Hopefully.” I said honestly. “But...what do you think of me Celestia?” I asked. “Since I just like asking what the people I cherish dearly think of me.” “Well, speaking as a lesbian for the last several hundred years, I am proud to say your ass is something that keeps making me stare, and those breasts I’d enjoy my face in.” She said, making me blush hard. “Speaking as your wife and newfound mother, I have to say, you’ve become the best of both my preferred sexes.” “That's...good to know.” I nodded sheepishly. “Still need to get used to this...and I'm only going to get bigger as time goes on…” “Now I’m getting horny thinking about it.” Celestia laughed. “Lady...I don't want it to hurt.” I said. “You were told how...big I am right now right?” “Yes, doesn’t mean a whole body job, boob or even a several member tongue job isn’t possible.” Thank you Rarity for these magic undies…. “Still…” I blushed brighter at the thought. “I'm surprised none of you are...a little upset at it for being too damn big.” “At first some of us were, but when Twilight said she’d craft a spell to either make your...package the perfect size or make us more like basically living rubber, the majority of us were relaxed, others are a bit impatient and are humping sex dols of you. You can blame Rune for that existing.” “Good lord.” I sighed out. “But...sorry, i probably was too big before though…” Celestia chuckled. “Worst case senario Twilight can use that spell on us she made to change her species, imagine us as Dire wolves like you? I imagine I’d still be ivory white.” “So.Much.Floof…” I said while I got a little more bleed from the thought. Celestia chuckled. “Ben, what was your world like? You never talk about it.” “That's because...well it's not really full of good things.” I said sheepishly. “Mostly the things that happened to me...but what do you want to know about Earth?” “Well, what was it like? How did your people get governed? Was there any religions or such?” “It was fine normally. If you want to Bioshock worked you'd get the main gist of how the world is but...well my Earth had literally no magic in it. Nothing extraordinary like here. The people were governed in my ways throughout history, from chiefs of tribes, monarchies, dictatorships, councils to Democracy.” I explained. “And religions..well technically mythology was religion...but that's a bit of a rough question.” I said sheepishly. “Hm, if they lacked magic how did you all advance? Build large structures and keep pests away from crops or even protect yourselves?” “That would just be straight up enginuity.” I said honestly. “When you don’t have magic to solve all your problems, all you had was your ideas, your hands, and some good ol hard work and determination.” I said honestly. “Hm. Impressive. What about other nations? Were they other races or different groups of your kind?” “I mean...technically?” I said nervously. “Cause for some reason human’s believe that skin tone and any ‘noticable’ differences in your body makes you a different ‘race’.” I said honestly. “It’s silly I know.” “Like how ponies were once the three tribes, Pegasus, Unicorns and Earth ponies. We were all the same species but thought each other different because of wings, horns or none.” “Except there’s a lot more to that than literally just skin tone or how your face is.” I said honestly. “There are fundamental differences between the three races even if their all Equine in origin. Pegasi can fly, control the weather to a certain extent, and other things. Unicorns are all magical and can do a lot of things. While the Earth Ponies are the most ‘grounded’ as it were, being the closest to Nature. The ‘race’ for humans is basically saying Pinkie and Applejack are different races because their fur color is different.” I said honestly. “Oh, well that is rather silly.” “It really is.” I said honestly. “But humans are silly as you can clearly tell given I was originally human.” I said honestly. Celestia chuckled. “Ben, I had a thought… About Zeke.” “And...what would that be?” I asked, not sure why I’m scared about something that won’t happen. “Well, Zeke’s heart is Kingdom Hearts, where all hearts come from and return to, right?” “Yes.” I nodded, having a weird fear squashed. “Why do you ask?” “Well, if something were to happen to us, does that mean you can still be with us? Through Zeke? Our Hearts at least. In a way through them we won’t ever leave you, not even in death huh?” I gently grabbed her hand. “I’ll always be here for you...all of you…” I said. “I….I couldn’t imagine what I would be...without any of you.” “Depressed?” Celestia offered, giving me a playful poke. “So, a X-blade war huh? That’s Max’s goal? Well, wonder if that means he will take one also?” “Depressed yes but…” I said worriedly. “I fear it would be a lot worse...and who told you that?” I asked. “I...don’t think I told anyone besides Zeke, Eclipsa and Cript about that.” I said worriedly. “But...I don’t know if that’s his final goal…” I said nervously. “But...right now, I’m just glad to be here with you all.” “You talk in your sleep love.” Celestia said, petting me. “It seems like our world was once big… then just kept getting bigger. Really makes you think, wonder how big everything around you is really, and how small you are compared to it.” “Basically you are but a speck in the infinite lands of reality.” I said honestly. “At least, that’s what some philosophers think.” I shrugged. “And...I talk in my sleep what?” “Sometimes. Mostly it’s mumbles, sometimes you can hold up a full conversation, unfiltered thoughts. Asked you once what your thoughts on a three way between me, Zeke’s reflection me and Chrysalis disguised as me would be, and you said ‘Shut up and let me knock you three up already’.” Celestia said laughing. “I was flattered, and quite surprised on that.” I blushed brightly at that. “Uh...did I...really say that?” I asked worriedly. “If you want proof, ask Rune, she has all those conversations recorded.” “Oh my god…” I groaned and covered my face in embarrassment. “What...what else have I said?”. “You told Twilight her anus is her best asset, Rarity her tits look as white as snow and her nipples are like blueberries on vanilla ice cream, Told Luna you’d wish after sex you two could continue sexing in your dreams, Told Pinkie and Twin Pie once they had a child with you that you’d keep their ‘foal ovens’ constantly at work, and told Chrysalis that her tongue could give the best blowjobs, you just worry about her fangs.” I only whined at all that. “Why me~...” I whined at all the embarrassing things I wouldn’t normally tell people. “And...what were the...other’s reactions?” “Twilight blushed but has been training her anus, Luna is making plans for a wide variety of dream sex, Pinkie and Twin are trying to plan out all those birthday parties, and the ‘safe period’ between their births and next pregnancies, Rarity is looking into more tit and breast enhancing lingerie to show off, and chrysalis is trying to practice only her teeth to shift so they are not sharp, so far that’s proving harder than she expected.” “Oh my god…” I muttered. “Well...glad to know they’re all happy about it…” I said sheepishly. “Twilight has actually gotten really good with her rectal muscles. Managed to stuff a large Mango up there and take in thirteen of a fifteen inch long dildo in there. Also squeeze hard enough to crack walnuts. Wonder how she managed that one?” My nose was bleeding at that thought. “Jesus christ…” I blushed brightly at that. “Hey, you should see how Pegasi do it. They can use the lips of their vaginis for that. Commander Hurricane could do that as well, it’s considered a very attractive trait in pegasi mares.” “Well...that’s a thing.” I said honestly. “Each of the tribes has traits in the opposite sex that is highly desired. For Pegasi mares have the nut trick, hehe, still can’t believe that’s the actual name for it, and for males a mare would find a stallion with long feathers attractive. For unicorns a mare with thin, small frame is attractive and a stallion with a broad chin and long horn, as in the horns on the head, is considered handsome. For earth ponies it’s actually interesting. They find large body mares the most desired while smaller bodied stallions are considered attractive to the mares, a large body stallion is the most common, so if they are smaller it’s considered attractive, mainly because it is different or rare.” “And yet you were stuck with me, starting off as a skinny human that wasn’t handsome, to a dire wolf that was kind of cute but not really...and then turned into a goddamn sex goddess at this point.” I said. “From an earth pony point of view, your small frame is handsome, and from a general point of view you gaining a full body fur coat made you more attractive, and in this body, well if you were more confident in it, I’d be groaping you right now.” “What’s stopping you right now then before?” I asked honestly. “Cause confidence aside all of you have given me a quick grope or two.” “Yes but you aren’t quite comfortable in that form just yet. We want to give you a bit more time to gain some confidence before we do anything… well, some of us. I know Luna already did that.” “Yes, yes she did.” I said honestly. “And I understand...thank you.” I said with a warm smile. “I just...hope things will be okay...Eclipsa...I wouldn’t be surprised if Eclipsa dragged me to bed because of how I look.” “Well that's her. Wonder what else life will throw at you three? Hopefully more funny things like this. Keeps things interesting.” “Let’s hope it’s just funny and good things…” I said, my words to one of the Tiara’s about me going insane in the future kind of bugging me. “But we won’t know until then...right now I just have to be thankful for everything I have right now.” “Yes. So, you going to visit Zeke and Eclipsa later today?” “Yes I will>” I said honestly. “Gonna need to talk to them about...well what’s happened currently.” “I imagine they might be freaking out a bit.” “Most likely.” I said honestly. “Let’s hope they aren’t freaking out too much...still don’t fully know why this happened. I know the three of us are admins but that shouldn’t have caused this.” “Maybe it's just meant to be? Like a cutie mark.” “Who knows at this point.” I sighed out a little. “There’s just a lot of weird and random things now a days.” “Maybe. Either way one thing's for certain. Life will never be dull or boring.” “True.” I said with a warm smile. “And I’m glad to have this life with all of you.” “Same. Thanks to you I can become a mother again. Luna found a love she's needed for years, and thanks to you there is now a lot of peace in the world, and now all the races are beginning to integrate with few issues.” “Thankfully.” I said honestly. “I really hope I’m doing good for all the people…” “Polls seem to largely favor your effectiveness. You get things done and have results to show for it. Even I had trouble doing that.” “Alrighty then.” I said honestly. “Not to sound rude but I get up and actively solve problems instead of grabbing six random people and saying ‘save the world because you have magical mcguffin now’.” I said, feeling like crap for saying that to her. “Heh, well it worked til the heartless arrived. If not for that things would have gone a very different route.” “Yeah...a lot of things would have been different…” I said, having a feeling if I didn’t save people from that Guard Armor my first day...I wouldn’t have anyone or anything compared to what I have now. “Like...me not having any of this...especially being happy part...that would have never happened.” “And who knows what would have happened to Equestria.” “It would still be here, I would have made sure of that.” I said. “Being a hero is one thing...having all of this is another.” “True.”Celestia said, wrapping an arm around me. “Life sure is strange. Oh, Cadence is visiting later today. Maybe I can send her with you to visit Zeke and Eclipsa.” “That would be good...how is she doing?” I asked, hoping she’s doing alright cause...even if it’s been a while since Shining’s death it must still be a bit hard for her. “Starting to show her pregnancy. Ruling the Crystal Empire solo has been hard, but she's determined, and stubborn. She's a lot like you in that regard.” “Well...I’m here to help her if she needs it.” I said. “No one should rule an entire kingdom alone, it kind of sucks.” “Hm. True, though you should take your own words to heart. Let Luna and I help, we know a thing or two about ruling a kingdom.” “Yes, yes you do.” I said honestly. “I am also so glad about not having to do so much paperwork...god that was annoying.” “Tell me about it.” Celestia sighed. “If I'm honest my fireplace in my office had a secondary purpose than just decorum and warmth in winter.” Celestia chuckled. “Paper is really good material to burn.” I said honestly. “Especially when it has nothing but complete and total bullshit on it.” “Makes great kindling for marshmallow cooking.” Celestia laughed. “Yes, yes it would.” I agreed. “This is nice though...just talking and all that.” “It is nice to just sit and talk.” “Yeah…” I said honestly. “Don’t normally do it often cause I’m so busy.” “Makes times like this all the more special.” “Yep.” I smiled. “Makes it all the more special when I get to spend time with my special people.” “Hmm” Celestia hummed while smiling, leaning on me. She was still a bit taller than me, but if what all I learned about my...special form is true that will change someday. “Love you.” I said while nuzzling Celestia gently. “Love you too.” She said, her chin resting on my head. “Can’t wait to be taller than you for once.” I said. “But it’s still nice.” “That will be new. Aside from Den I never really met anyone taller than me.” “I have a feeling when certain...things happen I’ll be either as tall or taller than you.” I said honestly. “But either way, it’s still nice to be here with you Celestia...and with everyone else…you know I’d be nothing without all of you…” “We know. Rune also got that confession recorded.” “Excuse me?” I asked. “More of your sleep talk.” Celestia chuckled. “What other sleep talk did I do?” I asked worriedly. “Cause at this point I’m scared I said even more dumb things…” “Nothing too bad, though you did say you wanted to, heh, well, if that offer is still on the table I have no problem decorating myself up like a cake and letting you partake~” She said, scratching my chin. I whined in embarrassment even though the chin scratches felt nice. “Why do I say things…” “Pinkie thinks it's because you still repress a lot of your own sexual desires. Frankly I agree. Most of the sex we do is pretty vanilla compared to what you've asked for while asleep.” “Either a combination of don’t want to do things none of you are okay with or...because I’m nervous about such things.” I said sheepishly. “It's something to work on.” “Fine fine…” I said gently. “But when things are solved...I’ll...at least try?” I said nervously. “If you want.” “Of course. I'm up for anything with you because I love and trust you with my life Ben.” “Alright.” I nodded gently. “Gonna...be a bit weird to try and do all those things after so long of not doing it…” “Hm. We'll take a slow pace. Makes it easier for you.” “Thank you.” I nodded while cuddling up to my wife happily. To be continued... Nobody's fight on Two FrontsI emerged from the portal, my surroundings not what they expected. All around me was calm Forest, and before me a mountain trail leading to it's top high above the clouds. “You know...I shouldn’t be surprised when ‘Belief’ and ‘The Mother’ are here…” I muttered. I walked the trail for a while, eventually finding a tall wall made from trees and vines intergrown together with a large stone gate closed shut that the path leads into. “Excuse me! I’ve got a gift from Cript and I want to talk!” I called out, expecting the gate won’t open until I beat the Guardians. "Shhh!" Someone from… somewhere shushed me. “Hi.” Ben said to whoever. “How are you doing today?” "Shhh!" They shushed again. Looking around I found who it was. They were… a very old man, long white beard and tattered clothes hiding in a bush to the left. He was looking passed me. Looking to where he was I saw… is that a rabbit-cow? I raised an eyebrow and made a gesture of ‘who are you and who is that?’ given the old man didn’t want me talking. "Tonto. Guardian of the tenth door." He whispered. "And that, is my supper." “Well I’m here to meet Belief and The Mother, so mind letting me pass?” Ben whispered back. “I have something to talk about and to deliver something to them.” "One moment." Tonto said, taking a breath then exhaling rapidly, the small half rabbit half cow animal suddenly shot, a small hole was bleeding from it's side. He killed it with his breath? Tonto then jumped from the bushes. "Soups on!" He cried out, snatching up the dead creature and began making a fire pit. “So...what, you can use your own breath as an air bullet or something?” Ben asked curiously. "More like a bullet." Tonto said. Using Flint to spark some branches and kindling on fire. "My full name is Tonto, Admin of the Breath. I crafted lungs, gills. If it breathes something I developed it's respiratory system." “Interesting.” I said honestly. “But you probably know who I am given your the guardian and your probably ancient since you literally invented breathing.” "Nope, who are you?" They asked, looking at me and tilting their head. “Ben, Admin of Nothingness.” I said. “New to this whole thing but I’m a quick learning and full of surprises.” "Neat." Tonto said, attention on the cooking creature. “So, how do I pass the gates if I may ask?” I asked while sitting down next to the fire, wanting to just talk for the moment before the fight. "Simple. Land one hit on me before I finish eating. If ya don't you'll have to wait til tomorrow or later, depends on what makes it's way up here." “Does it have to be a full blown hit or does I have to actually touch you?” I asked curiously, still staring at the fire and feeling it’s heat. "Doesn't matter to me." “Alright.” I said before the very heat of the fire lashed out at the Admin. Tonto inhaled, breathing in the fire. "Did you think it would be that easy?" They asked, taking a bite of their meal. “And the attack magically disappeared how?” I asked honestly. "I breathed it in. I told you I made every type of respiratory system there is. And everything breaths something." “Uh...no?” I said slowly. “Heat is just molecules going faster, there is no ‘breath’ to that...also there are several things that don’t need to ‘breath’, like Gargoyle’s for instance.” "Ah, to be young and ignorant the facts. Kid, different dimensions have different laws, this includes how physics works in them. So other dimensional beings breath accordingly to those laws. Make sense?" I wanted to argue that that’s not how shit works...but knowing better cause this shit has happened before. “Alright alright fine.” I said as Nothingness thorns spiked out from underneath him as spikes of earth also shot out towards him. With a quick exhale of his nose, a blast of Gale force winds blasted my attack ascue, and sent him to a safe distance away. He took another bite. "Just because I invented breathing doesn't mean I don't know how to weaponize it. I didn't survive the Admin war for nothing." “Alright alright.” I said, before vanishing and swinging No Heart down towards the guy, baiting him into using his ability again. He sidestepped, holding his breath as he dodged. He then exhaled, hitting my last foot. I barked in pain and my bones were shattered in my foot… wait, why isn't it healing? "Healing factors only heal damage up to a certain tier. That's the one where you're healing factors is at its limit Currently." He said, a soft smile as he took another bite. “Okay I call bullshit.” I frowned before Nothingness thorns lashed out at him again rather quickly, waiting for the right opportunity. Tonto proceeded to exhale, blasting himself high into the air and above the thorns that turned upwards to attack him. "Not bad on your timing, but you have a clear tendency to underestimate your opponent. You're a thinker aren't you?" As Tonto was talking, he felt something very so slightly cut his lip as he took a breath. “Says the guy that underestimated me.” I said while Lindworm was around me. “Your not the only one that can use the air as a weapon, just needed to wait for the right moment.” Tonto smiled, landing back to the ground. "Ah, my mistake. I should have been breathing another material other than air to avoid that." “I mean, I could have just controlled the air around you and hit you before, but I thought you would have seen it coming.” I shrugged. “So just needed to wait for the right moment.” I said. “So, does that count or do I need to get a bigger hit?” "Guess I'm just rusty." Tonto said, the doors opening behind him. "Here." They said, breathing slowly at my broken foot as it began healing. "You'll need that for the next guy." I moved my foot, my CopyCat ability helping me learn a lot of things from Tonto like being able to breath different things, as well as the healing and projectile stuff from air that I didn’t fully think about, but being an Admin I have noticed I didn’t really need to breath to begin with, even with Nothingness added to that. “Thank you.” I nodded. “Got any advice on what’s next? Or at least a name?” "Their name is Hector, Admin of Art." “Oh boy, that’s not going to be a nightmare and a half from what I can immediately imagine.” I groaned. “Um...question, just in case I do manage to make it to the end, what are The Mother and Belief like? Just so I don’t step on any toes on pure accident.” I said sheepishly. "Don't know. Never met them myself." “Well that’s a little interesting. Your guarding the two so I kinda thought you would have.” I said honestly. “Oh well, better to ask before hand.” "Asha has spoken with them though, she's your best bet." “How far down is she?” I asked curiously. "She's the last guardian. The Admin of Death, the first of our kind to die. She was the one killed, which sparked our dive into understanding our abilities and code, and unfortunately, the war." “And Jericho wants to make another one happen.” I frowned. “So that’s going to be fun…” "WHAT?!?!?!" Tonto said in shock. "That sociopath is back?!" “Yes, cause Cript decided not to do...let’s say the dozen’s of ways to actually make him not ‘live’ permanently, he just decided to imprison him for two years inside himself.” I explained. “Seriously, Cript’s lived forever and he can’t come up with a way to make immortals brain dead?” "To be fair, brains are also optional. Anyway, if Jericho is back then fuck! Oh shit what am I going to do?" “Let me ask...does The Mother know Jericho’s True Name?” I asked him. “Where his Shade is? Anything.” "That is his true name. What did you think our names are fake?" “Not his given name, his ‘True Name’.” I said again. “True Names, at least in Egyptian Lore, is the culmination of your entire being, all your experiences, all your power, everything about you. And whoever holds that True Name, they can gain all that power...but considering none of you ever think outside the box I’m pretty sure Jericho doesn’t know about it either.” "Kid this isn't Egypt, those rules were made up by wackjobs high off incense. I gotta tell the others!" Tonto said, rushing through the doors. “Cause of course having actual things to solve a problem means fuck all…” I groaned. “And it’s even more bullshit cause the Egyptian Gods are actual fucking people.” I frowned as I walked towards the door. “If the Egyptian Gods are real people, then that means their Lore is real...but apparently not I suppose.” I ranted to myself as I took another step and bolted through, knowing I have enough time but wanting to do something instead of ranting to myself for an hour straight. I arrived at the next door, paint was everywhere, esals, sketchbooks, carved marble, everywhere. And Tonto was talking with Hector. "Shit that's bad." Hector, a rather skinny fellow, wearing paint stained over all's and boots said. "What do we do?" “Well first I’m going to need to pass.” I brought up. “Also I need an explanation on somethings, like how Egyptian Lore, and most likely everything else, is completely real, but is also a crock of horseshit?” "It's only real if they want it to be." Hector said. "Think of it like this. God's are a step under Admins, if they want this rule to be true to them, then it is, if not, then it's crap. It also depends on their reflections, worshipers, etc, etc. Besides, if you are seriously applying egyption lore to Admins then you have a lot to learn." “I mean, I was going to literally use Jericho’s Soul, everything about it and everything he has, against him.” "Admins Don't have souls. We're code dang it! The only reason we even have physical bodies is because we made them!" Tonto said. “Well I’m one of those that weren’t just ‘born’ an Admin.” I frowned. “Also Lord suck ass at explaining shit, and Cript barely explains important things or even tells us before hand sometimes.” I rolled my eyes. “So anyways, I still know how to permanently deal with the fuck, but it’s dwindling by the second as I’m being told things.” I said. “Also, can I pass or do I still have to fight considering the situation at the moment?” Hector seemed to be considering the situation. "Shit I have no idea…" “Well considering Tonto left his ring…” I muttered while taking a deep breath, Tonto noticing that I was using one of his abilities. “HEY EVERYONE! MIND HELPING US FIGURE OUT HOW TO STOP JERICHO FROM CAUSING ANOTHER WAR!” I shouted, my words echoing far towards all the other Admins, and I wasn’t fully sure if I would have my words reach The Mother and Belief but if possible they should know as well if they didn’t already know. Shortly after the last eight arrived. They were, in order of closest to farthest, Graw, Admin of Blades, Shinsu, Admin of Plants, Carth, Admin of Water, Haru, Admin of Childhood, Fann, Admin of Speed, Soc, Admin of Biology, Bensu, Admin of Language, and lastly Asha, Admin of Death. "So Jericho is back?" Graw spoke. "That devil will be the death of us all. What is Cript doing about the matter?" “Fuck all cause he’s ‘Retired’.” I rolled my eyes. “Also, Asha, given that your the Admin of Death...let me ask, for Admins is there a way to make them effectively ‘dead’ without killing them? Cause Cript and Jericho both can’t die because reasons.” "I specialize in complete death, brain death isn't my territory, if it has a pulse, it's none of my concern to know." Ashe said. She had slightly decayed skin, long black hair, and her clothes looked like they were soaked by water. I wanted to say something about Ashe’s look but decided against it. “So anyways, Jericho wants to start antoher Admin War, but he won’t start it any time soon cause he wants it to be a ‘fair fight’, where everyone is an Admin and someone or everyone is as strong as him and Cript...how much you want to bet he’s bringing back dead Admins?” I asked honestly. “Where’s the Admin of Gambling, I’m pretty sure they’re laughing their ass off with all the new bets rolling around.” "Died in the war." Tonto said. "I still owe him sixty digits." "To reverse Admin death is impossible." Ashe said. "Once we die, our code is wiped clean and returned to the mother. Even if our specific code is retrieved our personally, knowledge, and form are blank as paper." I opened my mouth to say something...but then I remembered a ‘twist’ in KH3 and face palmed. “No, I know how he’s gonna do it…” I sighed out. “Okay, so Time Travel is a thing for all Admins yes?” "Yes, but we rarely do it." Hector said. “Replica’s.” I said. “What he’ll do is make bodies strong enough to hold the past Admin’s body’s, minds, code and so on...cause Kingdom Hearts still needed to be brought into this even well after the Canon was shot to hell for us…” I sighed out. "To make a body able to hold us… a physical body… he'd only need to clone his own." Soc said. "His and Cript's biology is a highly flexible and adaptable one. They are as strong as they are because their bodies can adapt to the power so fast, if he clones his body, but leaves it a husk, he could place a dead admins code in it before it gets wiped, and the code would reshape it accordingly." "Wait, so we might see all our old friends again?" Haru asked. “Sure, if you like seeing them all forced into serving Jericho.” I said. “Cause he’s not dumb enough to just bring all the Admins back and not have them all under his control in some way or another.” "That's not his style." Ashe spoke up. "Jericho would likely set them free to do whatever, and win them over. Stronger bonds, less Hassle to keep their loyalties if they give it to you rather than force it." “Now the better question is...what’s ___...wait, I thought I said ___.” I blinked, all the Admins knowing full well who I was talking about even though the words were beyond me. “Well...what about ‘them’?” I asked. “Here, I’m just gonna call the fucker Null.” "That creature has slept since the war ended. If it does make an appearance it will likely not end well." “Well given that Jericho wants another Admin War...okay so I was told that the bastard was made during a Free for All of Deletes...how bad is it truly? Cause I can already imagine how scary the bastard is when ‘it deletes Delete’s’ is already off the top of my head.” "We'd have to evacuate everyone here. Only safe place." Tonto said. “Really?” I asked curiously. “Even Null can’t get here?” "You… Don't know where you are, do you?" Hector asked. “This is where Mother and Belief live, that’s literally all I was told by Cript.” I said honestly. “I brought up that this is the center of Existence, but he said it was ‘too easy’.” The admins all looked at one another, then to me. "The Null, as you call it, can swallow all of existence." Ashe said. "That, existence." Hector said. "Much like how realms have reflections where things play out either similar or different, so does existence. This is another existence entirely Ben, one where the Admin war never happened." Tonto said. “Oh so this is basically the Dandelion’s bunker from the Keyblade War.” I said honestly. “At least, comparatively.” "There are many, but we only know of here and the existence we come from. Admins here can create freely and have no worries of the unstable code issues the youngest back home have. It's a paradise. Only Cript, us, and now you have ever been here from home." “I thought Lord also came here?” I raised my eyebrows. "He did, but he didn't stay long enough to learn the truth. Cript told him after the fact." “Alrighty then.” I said honestly. “Well I still have to give Belief something from Cript and...I’m not leaving till I fight all of you because I need to be strong enough to last, cause if Cript said him and Lord were having trouble here, then this would be a good test.” "So before or after you speak with them?" Tonto asked. “Before, cause I have something important to talk about with them and I still have to give them this.” I said while holding up the thing Cript wanted me to give Mother and Belief. “He said he owed them this and since I was heading here then might as well.” "Well then, we'll head back to our gates then. You reach us the hard way." Asha said. Everyone but Hector returning to their posts. “I said before…” I facepalmed. “Fuck…” I muttered while putting the bag away and bringing out my Lexicon. “Alrighty then, so how do I get passed you?” I asked Hector. "One sec." Hector said, turning to his door and taking out a brush and paints, and rather quickly, and impressively, painted a very lifelike image of me, that then walked off the door, gaining three dimensions and taking out Frozen Pride and No Heart. "This copy is exactly like you in power, speed and durability. Beat my perfect replica, and you pass." “Oh, that all?” I asked honestly. “I have a feeling it doesn’t have my wonderful personality though.” "Be warned, it has all your abilities and tendencies." “Then it’ll be even more predictable.” I chuckled a little. “Is there a time limit or something?” "No. Just destroy my copy. Shame, imitation is such a grey area for the artists." “It’s alright, it happens.” I said honestly before spell circles appeared behind me and fired a bunch of spells at him, from fire to lightning, ice and gravity as I prepared my magic for another thing. They cast reflect, teleporting behind me and shooting out Nothingness thorns. A wall was brought up that blocked the thorns as spikes of earth shot up from underneath my clone as I continued to channel into my spell. “Here, let’s give you something interesting…” I muttered while shadow clones appeared and dashed around the wall to fight him as I backed up and continued to channel. They sliced their hand off with No Heart, making their own starfish clones to deal with my shadow clones as they charged me, their No Heart glowing with a red aura. “Oh, well that’s rude.” I frowned while backing up quickly, Nothingness Thorns suddenly popping up from my steps and lashing out at my clone. ”Come on, just a little longer…” I thought to myself as I felt my spell getting closer to being done. It tanked the incoming damage, swinging as it's eyes changed to red like mine do, that swing blasting the red aura everywhere as I was knocked back, I felt dizzy and nauseous being in this red miasma. “Fuck…” I muttered while a sudden gust of wind appeared and blew back the miasma as I tried to focus fully on the spell. The copies eyes shifted to white, their No Heart gaining a white outline as they suddenly began slashing at me with speeds I only made when training with Foudre. ”Now!” I thought to myself as I raised one of my arm’s and blocked a hit with is as I slammed my lexicon into him. “Balanced Emptiness…” I said before the clone Hector made, as well as the Starfish clones, suddenly went stock still as all their strength seemed to sign wave uncontrollably between the group, the starfish clones dissolving from the sudden actions as the main clone was heavily weakened as all it’s powers felt ‘balanced’ but also really ‘hollow’ for some reason. “Alright…” I panted as I summoned Eternal Flames as grey and white flames flared from it. “Damnation Flames.” I muttered as a single ember flew over and touched my clone, setting the clone completely ablaze so hot and deadly it could even burn Void. “Alright...so after those two things…that should maybe be it…” The copy, however, emerged from the raised dust and smoke, beaten up but still moving. "I said it was as durable as you are." Hector said as my copy summoned it's own Kingsblade, rapidly hacking at me before slamming down on me hard with a Grey boosted hit. I skid back, taking some pretty bad damage. “Alright...so maybe it won’t be that simple…” I muttered before taking a deep breath. “Let’s try another thing…” I muttered while I went into my True King drive form, but instead of just having it by itself, I decided to add Grey to it...and let me tell you the sudden extra power from that and the fact it was increasing as time went on was a bit scary. “Oh, okay yeah that’s...a thing…” I muttered, seeing that Grey was also around my armor, my wings going from a Dragon like wings to...more Angelic as Grey made it look like it was covered in strong and beautiful feathers. “Alrighty then, this will help a lot.” I grinned while summoning Kingsblade and No Heart. “Alright fucker, let’s dance.” I said before taking a step...only for me to appear like...a mile away from my clone. “Uh...woop, too fast.” I said sheepishly. “Okay so...probably can’t reign this in so…” I muttered while just raising my sword and swinging at my clone...only for a massive fuck off energy wave of Nothingness and Grey shot towards the bastard insanely fast. “Okay sweet jesus!” When the attack ended I didn't see the copy, but suddenly it emerged from my own shadow, in Primal form. It was twice as big as Mom, teeth inbedding themselves into my leg bone as it tossed me aside. “Okay yeah cool.” I said while correcting myself in mid air with my wings. “Didn’t know I could do that, that’s really cool.” I said before vanishing and appearing near the primal me as I swung at them up close. In a haze they countered, their No Heart in their maw clashing mine… I didn't even think about using my weapons in that form... “Learning new things everyday.” I muttered with a hidden smile, the primal getting pushed back as the Grey in my True King Form helping increase it’s power by a shit ton rather quickly and as far as I could tell it won’t stop. The primal glowed, fur turning Grey as Grey began irradiating from them, Lindworm appeared above them, and they shot it at me. I dodged the attack swiftly. “Hey Hector...how ‘correct’ are the clones thoughts and actions?” I called out curiously. "About… hmm. Mentality is something a bit harder to copy, part of why it can't talk so… I'll say it's fifty-fifty give or take." I nodded, having probably the worst possible idea ever as I disbanded my armor, which caused my clone to be rather confused at the action as I started to strip down. “Alright, so let’s see if what I’m going to do is even functional for the clone.” I muttered. “Who knew ‘go fuck yourself’ was such an apt term for the situation…” The copy turned bright red, either unable to process what they are seeing… or having the same idea. “Alright you.” I said while fully naked and strutting over like a sexy boss. “We’re gonna have some fun.” I grinned before tackling my clone to the ground. “For all the people under the age of eighteen, cover your eyes.” "... You fucked yourself…" Hector said in Disbelief as I was now clothed and my clone was also clothed but hugging my waist rather… sluttery. “Yes, I asserted my Dominance.” I said with a smile. “Damn...I am rather tight…” I muttered with a grin. "Stop. Please… bad enough I had to hear that I don't want details…" Hector said as his door opened. "I never did like perverse or nude arts. That's something you mortals all made. Always with the sex…" “Not my fault I am a horny son of a bitch. Also bullshit, you are the Admin of Art, literally every form of Art you invented.” I said honestly. “But what about the clone you made of me? What’s gonna happen to them?” I asked while petting their head like a good dog. "I invented the base concept of it and expanded upon it as you all began developing and learning what I gave. As for your copy it's as flesh and blood as you… as powerful too so… there is now two of you…" “I mean, technically there’s a few ten’s of thousands of me that are all the same strength.” I said honestly. “Starfish Cloning, learning it from Cript, always nifty.” I smiled warmly. “So just need to help...me talk and gain more mental facilities as you said it’s not fully there….albeit I’m not fully there either but oh well.” I chuckled. "They can't talk period. Normally they either defeat those who make it here or are defeated and turn back to paint or ink… so I don't normally add in vocal cords…" “Here…” I blinked my eyes as they glowed green as I learned some of the things he knew from Copycat. “Alright...so let’s try…” I muttered while at least learning some basics on creations from him outside of my own testing as I gently put a hand on my clones throat and took a deep breath, trying to carefully create vocal cords for them. “I might as well know if they want to be someone knew or stay as me ya know?” "I can...talk?" The copy said. Their voice wasn't like mine, it had, for some reason, a hint of Irish in it… I like it. “Yes you can my sweet.” I said gently. “How are you feeling?” "Aside from plowed like fertile soil, pretty good." Damn that accent is sexy… wait, why does she have that hint of Irish in her voice anyway? “Uh...why do you sound Irish?” I asked curiously, knowing full well my family didn’t have irish roots. “I’d expect maybe a russian accent or something…” They shrugged, and we turned to Hector. "What? Your code and genetics place you at roughly twenty to thirty percent Irish." He said. “Huh...that’s a little interesting.” I brought up. “I was told from family I was of Russian Hungarian descent but didn’t expect Irish to be there.” "Would explain your stubbornness…" Hector said as the doors opened fully behind him. “Alrighty then.” I said. “So..do I bring her with me?” I asked while patting my clones head. “Also...do you want to be called something else? Cause I have a feeling, even though you are me on a lot of levels...you might not be me fully.” I asked gently to my new clone. "I guess. I know I have some of your memories, not all of them, just enough to know your attacks and such…" "You can take her if you want but only you can face the rest " Hector said. “Alright, so why don’t you head on home and meet the others.” I said gently while taking her hand and putting a wedding ring on her ring finger. “You’ll know what to say...hopefully.” I said sheepishly, trying to think of a name to give her since she’s basically a new person. “Here...let’s call you Fenris, why not.” "Fenris… I like it." They said, giving me a kiss. "Kick ass." They said with a wave as a portal to home opened up as they walked into it. Once the portal closed I headed onwards. “That was fun.” I said with a warm smile as I prepared myself for the next battle. The next area was torn up completely. Almost like a lawnmower was a bit too low to the ground. The gate here was all stone and held deep scratches across it also. “Well then…” I blinked. “This is a place…” I muttered while drawing my sword just in case. As I was getting ready for anything, suddenly I was slashed down my back, screaming as my tail flew off its proper place and hit the ground. I was then kicked into the door so hard the wind was knocked out of me also. I turned around, and saw Graw. "I am Graw, Admin of Blades. Anything that holds sharpness, calls itself a sword, blade, or cuts, I know their exact design." “Dick…” I groaned. “Could have at least said hi first…” "Not my style." They said, raising a colorless version of Reunion. "Keyblades. Such an interesting weapon, able to shift between blunt and sharp instantaneously. The former Admin of Hearts did me proud when he consulted me on designing them." “Cool…” I muttered while grabbing my tail and putting it back, using some healing spells to keep it there. “Alright...so what, do I need to land a hit or do I need to make you yield?” "One minute. Survive." They said, countless weapons of various types appearing all around us. "Survive. You can not Dodge, you can not block. Do so, and you fail. This is a test to determine your resolve." “And I’m only allowed to use the weapons around us?” I asked curiously. "I didn't say you could attack back." They said, raining their Reunion through my gut and pinning me against the door with it. "Resolve comes from deep within, if you die, then you are not worth seeing Belief of Mother, give in, you are not worth the flesh you are made of." “Well then you better try harder than that.” I told him bluntly. "That is what I like to hear." They said, suddenly thousands of Blades began slicing me, piercing me, cutting off limbs, dragging out organs. My healing factors bearly helping as the pain left me unable to speak. Especially when my tongue was sliced off with my lower jaw. At some point my mind went blank, my healing factors null at this point as the blades sped up. Finally one pierced my head. I was still alive. It was a minute but felt like an eternity. Finally… it stopped, my body healing finally. When I got back to me, I took in air like I had never breathed before. "You pass. Cript held up better, but you pass nonetheless." “Yeah well...Cript had how long as an Admin before doing this?” I asked. “I’ve been doing this for...less than a few months.” "If I remember, about two years. His healing factor is unlike any I have ever seen, which is both impressive and worrying." “His healing factor is ‘he never dies’.” I said. “You probably were told this but he literally had his Death taken from him by Truth, so he can never die.” "Yes. I remember over hearing part of his fight with Ashe. Such wrath. Such self loathing." “It’s a combination of a lot of things that I don’t want to get into at the moment.” I rolled my shoulders to get some of the stiffness out. The doors opened. "Here." Graw said, giving me a simple looking stone. "One of my personal sharpening stones, one slide across any weapon will repair and increase their damage to its fullest potential." “Cool.” I nodded. “What’s the duration on it?” I asked curiously, knowing that sharpening stones sometimes grow dull with repeated use. "Unlimited." “Cool.” I said nodded. “So who’s next after this?” I asked, knowing all the admins but not fully sure on the order. "Shinsu, Admin of Plants." “Listen, I better not be getting into anything weird or I’m not gonna be happy.” I frowned, remembering Shaman King and how one of their characters beat a plant based boss. "Relax, Shinsu is not perverse nor violent. His test is a simple, but time consuming one." “What, do I have to fully grow an entire crop by hand?” I asked curiously. "..." “Did I guess it on my first try?” I asked honestly. "Pray he gives you a fast growing plant." I sighed out. “Well, thanks for the warning.” I said while heading off through the door. “This is gonna take a while…” Once on the other side… it was beautiful. Flowers, trees bearing fruits of all kinds, vines and bushes with berries of many varieties and shapes. It was amazing. Shinsu was not next to his door, rather tending to a smaller sapling. "Figured you be here sooner." Shinzo said, tending to the saplings soil. "What took you?" “Um...that depends on when I was held up cause I only took a minute for Graw…” I said, not really sure I should bring up what I did in Hector’s ring. "Tell me, have you ever grown a plant from a seed?" I stopped myself from saying something dumb. “Um...not that I can think of.” I said with some thought. “So, what plant am I going to be growing?” "Hmm… I have just the one. Come." He said, getting up and leading me deeper into his garden. Here I found- Is that tree growing… meat? "The Consolvie tree. Used to be on your races homeworld, but your ancestors ate them into extinction." He said with a laugh. “I...can kind of see why…” I gently moved over and sniffed it to make sure it was the real thing. It smelled just like… everything mom helped me hunt. Shinsu took a piece of bark off, underneath it's bark was a small, black and red seed. He then handed it to me. "Grow this. Plant it wherever you wish, and when it has bared it's first harvest, enjoy the 'fruits' of your labor, and then plant it back on your home world." “Plant it wherever I want here or…?” I asked politely, cause ‘wherever’ can mean a lot of things. "Anywhere in the garden." “Given that this has been extinct for god knows how long...mind if I know a few things about it? Like what area’s it grew in and what climate?” I asked curiously, knowing tree’s could be damn near anywhere because of how stubborn they are. "It's like most plants. Water, fertile soil, sunlight, a moonlit howling at, and plenty of insects." I nodded gently while holding the seed gently in my hands as I walked around the garden, looking for the right spot that felt good. I found a decent clearing and planted it fairly well enough… now just wait… how long am I going to be here? “How long does the thing normally take to grow?” I asked curiously. "On average. A year to mature, a month to bloom, and another month to harvest your reward." “So I’m going to be stuck here for a year and two months...great.” I said while making a comfy chair and sitting down in it, pulling out a book. “This is gonna take a while.” One Week Later Thankfully it sprouted, at this point I had a small hut to stay in while watching this thing. The time I had for reading was nice and I found myself reading to the plant… for some reason my Den mother instincts made me very attached to the plant. Shinsu for the most part checked in daily and often was tending to other plants and harvesting what needed to be harvested. What does he do with all that food anyway? I never see him eat. “Hey, what do you do with all that food? Do you have some man eating plants or something to feed?” I asked curiously. Shinsu smiled. "Come." He said, leading me to his door next to it on the right was a tree that's roots wrapped around a pool. Looking in the pool I saw… people… hungry looking people. Shinsu took an apple, and dropped it in the pool, the apple appearing next to the hungry looking people, and as he poured more into the water more appeared around the people, til everyone had three or so apples. "No point in keeping so much food for one's self, especially when I don't even eat." “Alrighty then.” I said honestly. “And...it’s also just a tad bit weird that my den mother instincts are kicking in for the tree...acting like Applejack at this point to be honest…” "Hehe. I'll explain that in time." Shinsu said with a wise looking smile. One Month Later. The sprout wasn't much bigger than when it first emerged, but it had leaves now, which made me… prideful, for some reason. I was prideful and happy to see it was growing tiny adorable little- did I just call it's leaves adorable? “Curse you motherly instincts~.” I whined while pinching the bridge of my nose. “Oh well…” I muttered while reaching into my pocket and pulling out my little statue of mom. “Hey mom...don’t know if you can hear me from all the way out here but...just wanted to say hi and tell you I’m doing well…” "I can see that." Mom replied, her little statue coming to life and taking a seat on the grass. "So, how goes things?" "Nothing much. Just waiting for the tree to grow." I said honestly. "Did you know there was an extent tree that literally grows meat?" "Yes. Only legends though. We called it the Hunting Tree. Some say the meat that it grew was from prey it too caught and killed, but would give to us instead. That's only legends though. Fun food for thought though." "Funnily enough its actually right there in saproling form." I pointed at the saproling. "And there's even one here actually." "Really? So why are you growing an extinct tree?" “To get to the next room.” I said honestly. “I need to meet Mother and Belief to talk to them about Jericho...and the Admin of Plants wanted me to take a year and two months to grow this tree, and then plant it back home.” I explained. "Oh. A test of patience and compassion." “Pretty much.” I shrugged. “So...how have you been?” "Good. It's nice to be able to relax and not have to wonder about the next bad guy. I know about Jericho, and all that… it was a mess when he first popped up… Cript was hurt to learn his true goals when he did. They were good friends for a while." “Glad you won’t be apart of this, but Cript just had to retire when he showed up and tell us to go fuck ourselves when it comes to Jericho…” I groaned. "We made him Ben." Mom said sadly. "We know Cript can do a lot for everyone with how he is, but we know he can still help, and not have to leave our side." “I mean, he was doing that exact thing while not retired though..” I brought up. “Clones are a thing that he’s been using for how long?” "Hehe. He has a bad habit of when a fight occurs, he disbands them all. He does it absentmindedly." “That’s...a bit weird.” I said honestly. "There's a lot about him that is. But nobody's perfect. So, aside from bored, what's it like being in this garden?" “There is literally every plant you can imagine and more.” I said honestly. “Also a lot of the food that’s grown here is given to hungry people.” "Awh, that's nice… say, wanna know one of Cript's secrets? It's actually kinda funny and related to you~" “Oh boy, I wonder what it is.” I chuckled a little. "It's about his Admin Title. First, tell me what you think it is?" “I don’t know really.” I said honestly. “Never told me if memory serves.” Mom was giggling a bit now. "Okay so you know how Cript had a Psychopath bound to him that was using an angel as a host, right?" “Yes, yes he did.” I nodded. “And how he hasn’t gotten rid of that is beyond me.” "Oh he did, long time ago, before I joined his family even. But guess what class of angel it was?" “I don’t know, Seraphim?” I asked, knowing those are like, the highest tier of Angel out there." "Nope. Cherub." “And then he fucked her.” I said honestly. "After a lot of fighting and making the first humanity blade, yes, but they were bound to him for several reincarnations, and with the body he has it took some of that Cherub powers and abilities. It's largely why he, and now you have an ever growing number of spouses. He became part cherub, and you. Becoming part of the family received some of that." “So...I’m not just all Dire Wolf?” I asked with a raised eyebrow. “Cause I kind of thought it was mostly just my heroism that caused most of my family to appear...” "Cherubs special way of having others fall for one another has to start with a spark, if interest and some Sparks of love are not already present then nothing can happen. The cherub part of you and Cript help Kindle those emotions the longer you are with others, til it becomes true love. This means so long as someone has some level of romantic, even friendship levels of affection for you it can become love. That's why Cript is the Admin of Love." “So...their feelings for me isn’t a load of crap?” I asked. “It’s not just because I’m magically part Cherub?” "All the cherub part does is aid those sparkling emotions, if they decide they don't like you it can't do anything about it." “Alright.” I nodded gently. “I’m still hunting down Jericho and my kids...he kidnapped them...I have honestly never been that furious before…” "I heard about that. I wish I could help but I don't know where Jericho would be hiding. Cript obliterated his realm after trapping him the first time, and I doubt he'd risk making a new one, that would be easily noticeable." “Well he’s going to regret ever being born for touching my sweet little angels.” I growled. “They had no part in this, and it’s not my fault Jericho’s skin is about as thick as a strand of hair when ‘edgy cript’ pisses him off so much.” "Heh. Well all I know is that while they will be safe, Jericho will find some way to use them." “And then I’ll make his life even worse.” I frowned. “No one touches my babies and get’s away with it, and if he tries to hurt them...if he tries to hurt Nancy after I got her to accept me…” I teared up at that. “I won’t just kill Jericho...I will torture him until the day existence burns to ash…” I growled in anger and sadness. "Spoken like a mother." Mom said with a nod. “I’m also a proud father.” I said while rubbing my eyes to get rid of the tears. “And I would still do the same thing against the bastard.” "Well, looks like your plant is cold." I snapped my head over to the plant, moving over to it in hopes it wasn’t cold or anything bad was happening to it cause motherly instincts are weird like that. “Oh no, my baby can’t be cold…” I said worriedly. "Hm. Looks like a sapling this small needs more warmth. I know they are planted late winter, early spring so they grow best, and without worry." I shifted into my primal form and curled around it, hoping my fur and body heat was enough to keep it warm. “Well...I hope I’m enough…” "I'm sure you will be. So, how much longer do you have? Before it's fully grown I mean." “A year still.” I said. “It’s only been two months.” "Yikes… heh, well patience is a virtue and all that." “I need to have it fully grow, bloom and bear ‘fruit’ as it were...and I doubt I can just make time go faster and have it grow faster.” I said honestly, knowing it couldn’t be that simple. “Unless I’m told ‘hey I could have done that two months ago’.” I said while looking around for Shinsu. I didn't see him around. He's likely by that pool. “Well either way…” I muttered, not wanting to leave my plants side. "Hmm…" Mom said, looking at me as I curled with the sapling. “What?” I asked nervously. "Heh. Nothing, just reminds me of myself when I was training to be the Den Mother." “Really?” I asked curiously. “That’s interesting.” "Yes. Before Den mothers when born could do so naturally, I and many others needed to be trained to be so. We were picked solely because we are the biggest of our litters. The Den Mother was always the largest in the Den." “That is rather interesting.” I said honestly. “Then...what, am I a natural born Den mother?” “Yes. Natural Born Den Mothers are, from what I’ve heard, the strongest and largest in the pack, and their main job is to feed and defend the young, as well as birth them. They only leave the Den when no young are present at all, their job being to hunt the largest of prey to feed the Den, until the next litter Arrives.” “Alrighty then.” I said honestly. “But...I suppose I’m just a little nervous about that whole...giving birth thing given how long I’ve been a guy…but that makes sense I suppose…” “I know it’s a change for you, not everyone adapts so easily to changes like this. I’m guessing for you it’s a ‘your mind tells you one thing and your body says another?” “Well it’s the fact that my mind and body are split between the two, one being my motherly side wanting to take care of my kids and have an asinine amount of them...and then there’s my male side that’s...basically the same thing as when I was just a dude to be perfectly honest.” “Male, female, two sides of the same coin. And in your case it’s all one side now.” “Yes...yes it is.” I said honestly. “Now a bad thing is that...I was told that if I have kids...I’ll get even bigger than what I am already...and how does one even get bigger than this?” I asked while motioning to myself. “I remember a legend my mother told me about the first Den Mother. She was so big as a pup she was the only pup of her litter, and grew to be the size of a mountain. It’s said her first litter was also her only, and those pups became our first and earliest ancestors, making our race the most populated, and dominant race of our homeworld.” I blinked at that. “Uh...oh boy...I don’t think I’ll match that but...given that well...I’ll get bigger but not horrifically so.” Mom shrugged. “Hard to say. So, what are you going to speak to the Mother and Belief about?” “Well I have to give them something from Cript and...well try and see if I can make all my wives Admins without any...problems.” “I’m sure they can, they created Admins after all.” “I was told that...which begs the question of why they were being talked about now instead of way back when this whole ‘admin’ thing started.” I wondered. “When you met Equestrians did they immediately bring up their god? Or you yours?” “Good point.” I conceded. “The Admins here, as well as Cript are the only ones who’ve really met them. Seen them.” "And I'm going to be the next one to meet them." I said honestly. "Wonder how that whole interaction be…" “Cript said that The Mother, just being around her made him feel completely passive. Even when activating his Psychopath blood he could not feel hatred or rage, just love and compassion. Belief he said felt like being in the eye of an all consuming storm with how it’s raw power was.” “Right, so basically what their name suggests.” I shrugged. “Basically. So, what else are you going to ask them? You have a rare opportunity to get some answers.” “How to deal with Jericho most likely...and then some other things that might come to my mind.” I shrugged. Mom nodded. “Well, I guess it will come to you when it does.” Two Months Later The Sapling was now two feet tall, growing on three and had many leaves. It held a faint smell of… is that pork or… Either way it looked healthy. Shinsu was here helping me make mulch using the old leaves and such. “A good constant source of mulch helps them grow faster. I made plants able to consume not just from the soil, but from things that decay, able to recycle themselves to stay alive. A feature I was quite proud of.” Shinsu said, tuning a bucket of dead leaves and water. “So you made Fungi.” I brought up. “Like mushrooms and stuff like that.” “Yes. Fungi were quite the impressive thing. Myself and Asmith are the two who basically created nature and ecosystems.” “Asmith...is that who I think that is?” I asked honestly. “If you are thinking a very small grey brainiac yes. He’s the Admin of Genetics, DNA and all that. He crafted it all, then crafted a race as equally smart as himself to work with and, with Lords help, learn to invent technology. Heh, those were the days.” “You do know that cheeky Galvan made literally the most overpowered items in history right?” I asked honestly. “Yes, the Omnitrix, his greatest invention, and his greatest failure.” “And then the seven other variants that are better than it in every way shape and form.” I rolled my eyes. “Did he now? I haven’t heard much about him in over sixteen million years, so my information is a bit outdated.” Shinsu laughed. I snapped my fingers, and a bookshelf filled with literally every single episode of Ben 10 from all it’s seasons or iterations was in there. “As much as I know of Asmith and all his shenanigans is in that tv show I have now gifted you...sure you might not have a tv but still.” “Ah. Interesting. Lords work without a doubt.” Shinsu said. “I’d expect nothing less from the Admin of Imagination.” “For the Admin of Imagination...he’s not very imaginative from what I’ve noticed and learned.” I said honestly. “Heheh. Time has been hard on him. He’s forgotten so much, lost much more.” “Even then.” I said. “Forgetting things is one thing, literally being able to make literally everything with nothing but a mere thought is another.” I said. “Imagination is literally a bullshit overpowered ability...like, there is literally no limits to is.” “There are many variations to it, it’s why so many can gain that power also. After all, that man you knew as God had it also.” “Yes, and then he died before Core could get his powers and be an actual problem...and then looking back on it from this point of view Core and God were not that scary even with those powers…” I brought up. “God did make a multiverse...but his imagination was limited to what he knew in some cases.” “And what he knew came from Kingdom Hearts, who basically copied Lords worlds. Heh, not all of us are all that creative.” “And creativity is the one thing that makes that power so great and so limiting.” I shrugged. “So true.” Shinsu laughed. “After a certain point the well begins to dry up.” “A bit.” I shrugged. “So, can I use time magic to speed this up or do I need to wait the allotted time?” I asked honestly. “I thought of it for the past few months but wasn’t sure.” “You can, if you want, but then where’s the lesson? Where’s the experience and revelation?” He asked, picking a leaf off my sapping as I stood up, snarling. “I see it’s there, but you haven’t gotten it quite yet.” “I’m a Den Mother, mind telling me something my instincts aren’t already making me feel about the thing?” I frowned. “Or is this somehow some weird exercise in telling me ‘just get pregnant already’?” “You were born a male originally, right?” “Yes, yes I was.” I said. “Now I’m a herm so...I can understand something’s.” “You experienced being a Dire wolf, right?” “Long enough.” I said. “I’ve been a Dire Wolf for...god knows how long at this point to be perfectly honest.” “Have you experienced being a female Dire Wolf, and a natural Born Den Mother at that?” “For all of maybe a week or two.” I said honestly. “You need a proper exercise in your newfound biology. Learn to accept and adapt to your instincts. To mature one of your kinds takes up to five years before they can even leave the den, if you can’t raise this tree into maturity, then what hope do you have in properly raising your own pups?” “I have done that actually, given that Cript made pocket dimensions with each wife having a clone of me.” I said. “Now sure that was me just as a male so that’s different but still.” “Any male can be the father of a child. It takes courage, patience, and resolve to be a mother.” “I know.’ I said honestly. “But...just another ten or so months…” “Yup.” “Alright...just another ten months of doing basically nothing.” I rolled my eyes. “Even if it’s to teach me about being a mother...even though I was already doing that with Nancy and other kids…” I muttered, Shinsu and many of his plants suddenly felt a surge of rage, sadness, and power come from me as I remembered what Jericho did. “Hell hath no Wrath like Woman Scorned.” Shinsu said, pouring some of the mulch for the sapling. “I remember the day that phrase was invented. Pretty sure it was Lords father who said it first.” “Makes sense.” I shrugged. “But yeah that term is aptly put for me at the moment, even though I’m hunting down my children to bring them back home.” “Heh. So, what is it you want to ask me? I’m sure I can answer some questions.” “Mostly just the time thing but…” I thought for a moment. “I know the war was a reason to come here but...it feels like there’s more than that to why you all came here.” I brought up. “What was it?” “For me, it was sanctuary. We all have one thing in common. Our realms were obliterated.” “From the war or from something else?” I asked curiously. “Jericho…” Shinsu said. “He cost us nearly everything…” “Well good thing I’m coming up with ways to deal with him permanently.” I brought up. “Nothing like scattering his entire being so thin he can’t even have his own consciousness or even subconscious anymore.” I said. “Even if someone were to try and collect his power...they kind of can’t.” “I don’t believe that to be so easy.” Shinsu said. “We are the oldest Admins still alive, and Asha is the most powerful of us all… and if it were not for the Mother, Asha would be a battery for him, and we’d be dead. It’s like something about he and Cript were meant to hold this limitless power they possess, for what though maybe Mother knows.” “And that’s going to be one of those questions I ask.” I said. “But if there’s one thing Jericho and Cript have told me, it’s that Jericho wants a fair fight so he’s going to make damn well sure he can have someone as strong as him kill him.” I said honestly. "Kill? Somehow I doubt that. Someone as strong as him maybe, but killing Cript or Jericho is like saying you're trying to kill pure energy." “And people have killed Pure Energy, people have also killed parts of a literal Concept, also Cript just killed a literal Fact of reality. So your argument is thoroughly invalid my good sir.” I deadpanned. "Hehe. Nothing can be truly destroyed, just reshaped to form something new. We turn our code into matter, matter makes atoms, atoms make up the bases of all things, in most realms anyway. Our code comes from Belief. It's said Belief takes and returns his energy from creations that have fallen." “Well that’s going to be an interesting conversation when I bring him Jericho’s corpse.” I frowned. "Heheh. Pride is good in moderation." “Not really about pride at this moment when he kidnapped my babies damn it.” I growled. "And not a clue to where to look huh?" “That’s because he probably ran off to Nexus, but when I find whoever the traitor is I’m going to get some damn answers.” I growled. “I...I don’t want to lose my babies…” “Haven’t found them yet? Surprised, they’re so obvious.” Shinsu didn’t even see me as I tackled him to the ground. “Where are they!” I pleaded suddenly, just wanting to know where my babies are so I can save them and keep them safe from Jericho. “I meant the traitors. I don’t know where your kids would be if Jericho has them, but Nexus agents I can spot a million miles away.” He said, pushing me off so he can sit up. “Yeash.” “I also know about their mark, and they can’t hide it cause A, I’m an Admin, and B they are literally in my own realm where I am literally their God. But...do you know who the traitor is?” I asked. “Traitors as in plural. Three of them. Could smell that Nexus mark on ya like a ripe strawberry.” He said. “And they can hide, they do it all the time. It’s their trademark next to making...their little projects.” “I know of the blue mark on their hand, I’ve been searching for it on everyone in my realm.” I said honestly. “Starfish clones are a hell of a hunting party that’s for sure.” “The marks can be hidden, you’ve likely already cleared them without even knowing it. One thing that can’t be hidden though is their loyalty. Here.” He said, crafting from a cotton plant a flag with the outline of a hand with a blue dot in it. “Make an audience with everyone, and burn this before them all. If there is one thing I know Nexus hates it’s to see their pride up in flames.” “Sure…” I said while taking the cotton plant and it disappearing into my inventory, and then was immediately grabbed by one of my clones who made the declaration. “Alright, there we go.” “Heheh. Show those assholes some hell.” Shinsu said. As angry as I was I suddenly felt…. Calm. Happy… why? “Oh, guess she’s visiting. Word must have reached her.” Shinsu said happily. “I have a feeling Mother is here?” I asked while looking around curiously. By a nearby green apple tree, I saw her… She looked easy nine months pregnant, outfit was leaf pattern but hugged her like silk, and her long brown hair reached well to her feet. She was...amazing. ”No, bad thoughts aren’t allowed here. Just because she looks amazing doesn’t mean that.” I immediately thought to myself given that trend hasn’t really ceased yet. “Uh...hello?” I asked to the nice lady. She looked over at me, smiling and I felt… so happy she smiled at me. “Ben, it’s good to meet you again.” She spoke softly and sweetly… wait, again? “Wait, again?” I asked. “What do you mean ‘again’?” I asked worriedly, wondering if that weird ‘future self’ thing happened here before I actually got here. “I am not you, if that is what you worry about. You know who I am, or rather, was. I can’t explain for my own reasons.” “Yeah, because literally no one can ever just explain things and not have to be cryptic.” I rolled my eyes.” It’s like me and Eclipsa are, like the two most open people as far as I remember...still need to meet the Foretellers and John...hate that…” “Heh. So, I fail to remember why you are here… I should have better memory of these things.” “A few things.” I said. “First off, how do I...permanently deal with Jericho?” I asked, wanting to get the big question out of the way. “Ah. I am sorry to say, but Jericho, like Cript have a destiny that will be fulfilled come the Admin Wars end, for this is why they can not simply be dealt with. I can promise you all will be well come it’s end, and you can finally have your life of peace with those you love.” “Cause it can never be simple…” I muttered. “Well that’s good.” I said honestly. “Now, second question…” I muttered, trying to think of something that wasn’t just immediately ‘hey, can you make my wives admins?’. “Hm?” Mother asked. “I was wondering if you could make all my wives Admins?” I asked, not thinking of something at the moment. “I was wondering cause Cript said that you and Belief would be able to without the complications of becoming an admin in other ways.” “Of course.” She spoke, looking around til she found a Dandelion, and picked it. “It’s time the Admin Race regained their population. Does this include all of Zeke’s and Eclipsa’s also?” I was about to say ‘sure’, but then I remembered the Traitors. “Who...who are the traitors?” I asked worriedly. “I expected you to ask that. I won’t tell names, but each traitor is mother to children from each of you.” The sound of something cracking could be heard echoing through the realm. “H-here…” I stuttered, trying to compose myself. “G-give me an item for the t-traitors...and if....if they want to stay with us...they can have it and gain the powers...if...if they don’t…” I clenched my fists so hard it drew blood as I tried not to just cry at hearing that. “I can not place this power within an item. I have to give it directly, if placed within an item, the energy would weaken drastically, and become useless. Either I bestow it to them now, or not at all. I am sorry, but that’s just how this primordial power works.” “I’m going to politely tell you, ‘no’.” I said, the passiveness making my choice of words a bit limited. “Seriously, Power, no matter what form it takes, can be contained in something. It’s happened with Void, Nothingness, Light, Dark, even all the powers I don’t fully remember or can’t think of off the top of my head. But the point is, it can be contained and not diminish into nothing, and I should know, I’m literally the Admin of Nothing.” “So you expect me to take your word over my own experience?” Mother asked, sounding a bit offended, which worried me. “No, I just...expected people to think outside the box sometimes.” I said honestly. “Especially with the person that should literally know anything and everything.” “It’s not like I’ve tried.” Mother spoke. “Every artifact I’ve tried to forge, breaks. The longest lasting a day. Only sentient, organic beings can contain the powers of an Admin, some object have said power, but they themselves are Admins, who change their form to that of an item for one reason or another. Mostly it’s because they can not use their powers properly. If I leave it within an item out in the open, it simply returns to me or Belief.” “Alright…” I sighed out. “Great...well mind if I wait on that part then? I’m currently holding a big meeting to everyone, including Zeke and Eclipsa’s family’s, as I burn Nexus’s flag right in front of them.” I explained, needing time to think about this and to who might be the traitors so I don’t accidentally give them superpowers if they actually don’t give a fuck about us. “If they do, even if they are caught they’d cause havok before hand, how many of your family would be hurt or killed in their retaliation? If I don’t change them now, then they won’t survive then they make their move.” “They are in my Realm, I make the rules their.” I said. “Nexus can’t stop the one that owns the very land they step on, the very air they breathe. Unless they magically do then in which case what’s the point of owning a realm at this point?” “Their miniscule code abilities allow them slight alterations to the realms they travers. While they can’t change or break your rules, they can work around them. They are trained from too young an age to do so.” “Damn it…” I sighed out. “Well then...let’s give them all the powers then I suppose…” Nodding, Mother blew on the Dandelion, the white floaters shifting into something… powerful. I nearly fell to my knees with how that sudden surge felt, and it flew into a portal it made. “They will gain the full powers of an Admin when it reaches them, adapting their bodies as needed.” “Alright…” I said while pulling out the bag Cript gave me weakly. “This is...for either you or Belief…don’t fully remember given all that’s happened.” I said, trying to stand up after all that sudden power. “Oh. I remember this.” She said, taking the pouch and opening it. Inside was a small ring. “Hehe. Je- I mean Belief will want this back.” “Wait, can you please repeat that?” I asked, looking over the Mother more closely. “Who did you almost call Belief?” She chuckled. “Nothing you need to worry about. This is just something they gave me so long ago.” I thought for a moment, before blinking as things started to click together. “You cheeky fucker.” I said in a non aggressive manner. “No wonder why you said ‘again’...and why you seem a bit familiar.” I said, Mother knowing full well what I was talking about. “Cript did mention that this,” I motioned to Mother. “Happened before with you all right? So…” I groaned. “I know who Belief is...why him of all people?” “Why spoil something about to happen?” “Because it’s how we get there that matters more than the destination sometimes. Like a standard cliche of ‘good guys win’, it’s about the journey, not the destination.” I explained. “So Cript and Mom...again, why Jericho?” I asked. “He’s an asshole and he kidnapped my babies...why is he Belief?” I asked, having a bad feeling a lot of the admins here will freak the fuck out about this sudden revelation. Smiling, they took a breath before speaking. “Jericho’s ideals were born from admiration. Admiration for me. When he heard of me and my deeds, he found someone who he looked up too, but in learning of my, at the time, lack of actions, he realized I was lacking challenges my battles. He wanted to provide that, provide me with the challenge he felt I deserved. Fights one on one for him, he thought, were not enough. So wanted something he truly believes I wanted… a war.” “And that wasn’t what you wanted.” I said. “Not by a long shot right?” “No. He took it as his admiration and value of me being rejected, so he sought to change my mind. And now, here it is again, this cycle repeating like always.” “And…” I sighed out. “Let me guess, no one can break this cycle?” I asked honestly. “It changes from repeat to repeat, but once Jericho and I become what we are now, then it’s a time of peace, for seemingly eternity.” “Until everything resets or something?” I asked. “Or is it one time per Universe? Also Je-I mean, Belief, might not be entirely happy to see me at this point considering what I...might have done to him.” “I won’t say anything, other than that time works exactly like how you see a clock, at some point, it all returns to midnight.” “Alrighty then…” I said. “But...let me ask, my Future Self...are they from this reality...well it probably can’t cause those...memories…” I sighed out. “Not anymore. The second they came back in time to kill you, they made this timeline change from their own.” “Well...I only got brief flashes of their life but...what happened?” I asked worriedly. “Eclipsa died.” Mother stated. “Zeke and the others within him were in conflict, and given his nature is Balance, such conflict nearly killed them, so they ran, ran to try and restore their balance.” “And...that’s why my future self thought he abandoned me…” I muttered. “But...there had to be something else...abandonment issues...that might be enough but...it feels like there’s something else…” “By that point you’d all already suffered so much. The world that comes after the war is one of wonder and unlimited possibilities, but also holds it’s own dangers, dangers that can be avoided, but you three and your family faced head on. Many were lost due to many reasons as time went on. When Eclipsa died… it was just you three left.” “Alright yeah that’s...that’s probably enough for me to go back in time and stop whatever the fuck happened.” I said. “And...yeah Eclipsa dying...that was my fault...let me guess, the spell I cast that should have killed Jericho actually helped him become Belief?” “Oh no, that happened WAY after that. At least it did in the last timeline, this one might be different. Sometimes these repeats are exactly like the last or different in small or large ways.” “Um...does any of them involve Jericho...not being able to be Belief?” I asked curiously. “No, we exist in every reset because without us, everything will truly end. Only we can both remake and survive the complete end. Myself as the architect of it all, and Jericho as the ‘battery’ of it all.” “Then...what was that one possible future where you literally ended everything?” I asked curiously. “I...can kinda remember it, you were called ‘The Last’ or something, barely had two health bars but...literally everyone was dead and it was a sea of pitch black nothingness. “That was the outcome of a reflection, not Creation as a whole.” “Okay thank you.” I sighed out. “But...good to know it won’t happen...right?” “You’re good.” They said. “Do you wish to continue with these trials? You’ve completed what you have sought out for.” “Might as well. I’m gonna need to be strong enough to deal with Jericho’s crap down the line and...I want to see how strong I am through these trials plus this…” I motioned to the growing tree. “Is helping me learn a little bit of things.” “That’s good.” “But I still have like...ten or so months to go for this trial.” I said honestly. "You eventually get the hang of patience and self restraint." “That’s good to know.” I said honestly. “I mean, I’m getting the hang of self restraint already so it’s still good.” “That’s a lie and you know it.” “Not entirely.” I said honestly. “But self restraint is a bit hard when you still have to deal with traitors that are people you’ve known for god knows how long and even had kids with as well as having your children kidnapped…” I sighed out. Meanwhile, back home once everyone was gathered and I had clones at the ready I brought out the Nexus flag. “Hey guys, who want’s to see me burn this to ash?” I asked while immediately setting the flag on fire in front of everyone. For a time it seemed like no one was budging, till the flames reached the blue dot, then in a haze I saw, eyes wide at the three culprits. Scotch, Rune, and...Coco. “How dare you…” Rune spoke first, her normal higher pitch sluttery voice now cold and empty, her tone lower and hollow. “Damn it…” I muttered while hundreds of my clones immediately jumped the three swiftly to stop them from escaping. Scotch got next to Rune, who’s arm glowed with Symbols as suddenly several dozen portals opened up, out from each poured what appeared to be machines that began attacking Ben’s clones. Despite Ben’s power the machines held many numbers and with each destroyed the pieces kept moving to reconnect to fix themselves. “Alright, this is getting annoying.” I muttered while my clones started to literally disintegrate the machine parts. “So...let me ask you three...why?” I asked the three. “I’m protecting my children…” Scotch said with spite. “I’m in it for the heck of it. Finally putting my pathetic race in it’s place.” Rune said sadistically. “I… It’s my job…” Coco said, not looking Ben in the eye as Rune’s arm glowed again, the portals now pouring out what looked like… people… Their outfits were all white save for the black visors of their helmets, and the Nexus symbol was across their chest. “Test the bullets now!” Rune ordered as they all began shooting at Ben’s clones… they were not healing from the bullet wounds. “Perfect.” “Oh, so bullet’s that stop regen?” I asked. “Well that’s totally never happened before.” I rolled my eyes. “Not exactly.” Rune smiled, my Body suddenly aching. “Bullets that delete fragments of code with each shot. You’ll be crippled with a proper magazine full in your gut.” Rune grabbed Scotch and Coco, rushing through the charging Nexus army. Too bad for them as the hoard of Nexus soldiers were suddenly either ripped apart, caught in something, or occupied by the armies that I owned and all the stronger Nobodies I’ve been creating or ‘leveling up’. “You forget...this is my world.” I said to them all as Nexus was woefully unprepared for this sudden incursion. “Now give me back my wife!” I barked while running after them. “Drop dead mutt!” Rune yelled, body glowing with symbols as more portals opened up, this time Psychopaths rushing out. “Yeah, cause that’s what we need right now…” I groaned as my Clones clashed with the Psychopaths as I ran past them all. “More cannon fodder to try and distract me…” I muttered. “Coco please! I just want to talk!” I called out to her, knowing she wasn’t like Rune who was a complete cunt or Scotch who...might have good reasons but I wasn’t fully sure about that thing. Coco looked back towards me, but Rune yanked her more ahead. “No second thoughts. We’re Nexus till we die. Got that?” Rune asked as she summoned her Keyblade. “Hope Zeke feels this.” She said, the Keyblade glowing with a haze of dark energy as she tossed it back towards me, the blade cracking and then, exploding like a tactical nuke. I could hear Zeke screaming from here. I snapped my fingers, what seemed like time reversing itself for the keyblade as it reformed as if the dark energy didn’t blow it to hell as Zeke also felt a soothing energy flow through him. “Okay, don’t care.” I muttered before vanishing and appearing right in front of the three. Coco yelped… Void Key appearing in her hands. She swung in a fit of panic, not like her actual trained attack. Nothingness and Grey coated my hand as I blocked the swing with my bare hand, Void Key trying to devour my power but it couldn’t cause of how much Nothingness was around it, in its user, and in me that it was damn near poisonous to it. “Coco please...I’m here to help.” “I-I…” Coco tried to speak, choaking on words as Rune and Scotch backed up. “Pathetic. Worthless equines.” Rune hissed, a portal of Code opening behind them. “Thanks for the Admin powers, will come in handy.” Rune said with a mock salute as she and Scotch entered, it closing immediately behind them. “Those two are so fucked when they get back to their handlers…” I muttered, having a good feeling Nexus will torture and experiment on those two with sadistic glee. “But...Coco…” I looked into the mare’s eyes as I silently cast a Zone of Truth spell around us. “Please...do you still love me?” I asked, knowing that she wouldn’t have hesitated or looked away if she didn’t. “I-i...I do. At first it...was just a job, like always… I ended up falling for you, I had fun with everyone, with you.” I sighed out thankfully. “So...your staying with me...and with the family we have?” I asked gently, hoping beyond hope she’ll say yes. “I want too… but…” Suddenly, her whole body became wrapped in these black tattoo like tendrils and her eyes became inverted in their colors. She just flinched her wrist and I was sent into a nearby building. Looking back up she was looking her arms over. “Strong, weak willed… yes, this is my vessel.” Coco’s voice was distorted, almost demonically so. “Why be wielded like common weaponry when wielding the wielder gives the best advantage.” “Oh no you don’t…” I muttered while getting back up and walking over to them. “You are not taking away my wife you piece of shit.” I growled while walking towards her. “So either you get out of my wife or I’ll make you regret ever being forged.” Void Key raised… itself? At me. "Try me mongrel." “Alright.” I said while appearing in front of them and putting my hand on Coco’s chest. “Let’s take a quick stop to the Station shall we?” I asked while using the Balance power I gained from Zeke as me, Void and Coco all delved into her Station of Awakening. Upon arriving at her station was… cracking. Rising from the cracks was a dark silhouette of Coco, with Void Key's eye taking up the entirety of her head. "Such deep rooted Nothingness. Disgusting. I'll have to shatter this heart. It's the body I need, the heart and mind are worthless to me." “You won’t hurt a single piece of Coco’s heart you got that fucker?” I growled while donning my True King armor. “I know you can hear me Coco, fight the growing darkness, I know you can do it.” I called out to her. “I still believe in you, please help me take down this asshole.” I said as I pulled out my Wayfinder and brought it to my chest, hoping the D-Link that I haven’t used in forever still works and if it’ll work with Coco. The light activated and surprisingly… I felt a strong connection to void energy, it over took my Nothingness as all I felt was void, and No Heart itself changed as a result, pitch black with it's design that of two crossed Skeletons welding broken Kingdom Keys… I know this is Coco's D-Link. I can feel her with me… so why? "Heheheh. Foolish king." Void Key spoke up. "Coco is my host because her body can handle Void energy on par with that of Hollow. Nexus built and engineered her with that idea in mind. Why do you think she is my vessel!" Void charged as we clashed. "Let's see how you fight using your opposite!" I looked at Void Key. “Want to know how I can fight with it?” I asked. “Well...it’ll take some getting used to, but I think I’ve copied plenty.” I said while a Void Tendrel suddenly slammed into Void Key’s stomach from my own body and knocking him back. “I’ve been doing my research, as well as having the Old Man’s research helping me out…” I said, Void energy crackling around me. "Former King of Nothingness. He left you a library of research… heheh. This will be fun." Void Key said, suddenly turning into nine as each charged me, three hitting, four blocked and the rest I avoided. “It’ll take some getting used to...but funnily enough.” I said while grabbing one of the Void Key clones by the head. “Void and Nothingness abilities are pretty close, just one keeps things in a state of stagnation, keeping life going until Light and Dark can get off their asses and do something…” I said while Void energy pulsed inside the clone as it’s color shifted to hold a more blueish tint. “While Void corrupts and causes changes.” I said while the blue tinted clone of Void Key lashed out at the other clones. “Knowing both sides can help wonders.” I said before I raised my hand, ‘Nobodies’ appearing from Void energy as they all looked pitch black and morphed into more grotesque abominations of sinew and strength. “Go.” I said while the Dusk’s, who opened up their heads and pulled back and showed a demonic visage flew through the air, their hands going from thin lines to thick boney hands with deadly claws at each end. Void keys clones fought with my Void Nobodies while it and I clashed. I have to hurry, the D-Link is getting weaker… meaning Coco is in trouble. I took a deep breath, and noticed the Void Key clone I corrupted to my side dealt with one of their clones and out popped a D-Link item. “Maybe…” I muttered while breaking our clash as I kicked them away, dashing over and grabbing the D-Link item. Using it, everything around me changed. I was… in a classroom? All white walls, kids crayon drawings lined the walls, and a group of kids of all… OMG Coco as a filly is adorable! "Now class." The teacher spoke."What is the key principal in warp drive engines?" "Time manipulation through light acceleration?" One kid asked. They're like five?! "Correct." The teacher said. “Excuse me, I was too distracted on Coco being absolutely adorable, are these kids learning how to work Warp Drive Engines!?” I asked incredulously, not believing what I’m hearing. None of them replied. Guess they can't hear me. The lesson went on and WAY over my head until the Bell rang. "Now class remember for the exam you are going to build a warp drive engine. This is a pass or fail test and counts for fifty percent of the years total grade." The teacher said. I saw Coco run along with some other kids, talking about cartoons and the class… this is not what I expected from Nexus? “How the fuck…” I frowned. “Okay...so I can imagine that they’re acting all friendly and giving them a childhood to start...to gain trust at a young age…” I took a deep breath. “But it’s when they get older is when this facade goes away…” The memory ended and I was back to clashing with Void Key. "Damn you mongrel!" I noticed Coco's arms down to her elbows on his figure were free looking. “Not my fault.” I said while pushing the fucker away. “Okay, so that’s how this is gonna work huh?” I muttered while taking a brief and quick survey of the arena in case I need to jump in to last hit something to get another piece of Coco’s memories. “Alright...so kill the clones and get her memories...seems simple enough.” I muttered as I vanished and appeared behind one clone that was distracted by my Nobodies, using Void Heart, which is actually a pretty nice name, and stabbed it into the clone’s chest. I grabbed the item and another memory. This time Coco was at least… ten or so, and this looked like Equestria. Manehattan exactly. Coco was playing in a park with some other kids. “And she’s still adorable…” I said thankfully. “But...what’s special about right now?” I wondered while looking around to see what else was special about right now. “But this is a nice day...sweet and warm and full of fun.” Coco was playing along the monkey bars when suddenly some older kids, likely fourteen or so came up to her. "Hey squirt, where's your mama?" One of the trio asked in a mocking tone. "Shopping." Coco said. “I...have a bad feeling about this.” I said nervously. One of the others grabbed Coco by the wrist, and threw her down as the other two began circling her. However, to my shock, she quickly spun kicked them all off their feet, and proceeded to tackle the one that threw her down into the monkey bars she was thrown off, making a… rather large dent in it. "The hell! No earth pony is that strong!" One of the ones she kicked down spoke as they got up. “Surprised by how strong she is...but earth ponies not being that strong? They would be shocked to meet Big Mac or any of the Pie family.” I said honestly. The one that spoke charged at Coco, who FLIPPED him over her and on to their back hard enough to send them into a coughing fit gasping for air. The third took out… a knife! "Little bitch!" They yelled, charging at her. Coco sidestepped the armed attacker, taking their wrist and twisting it til they dropped the knife then tossing them head first into their fellow flunkies. The trio scrambled up and ran. "Very impressive." Spoke a… human guy, I think. "Your combat training is paying off well child." "G-General Krot!" She bowed. "Why are you here?" "Observing the world. This is your reflection specific one yes?" This General guy asked. "Yes." "Hmm. I feel it will be getting quite the excitement in the future. Stay close to it." “Well then…” I muttered. “Good to know.” I said honestly. “Now...which one would be her ‘handler’?” I muttered, thinking it would be Krot but he’s a general. The two talked for a time until… I think that's Coco's parents came over. "General Krot." Bowed Coco's mom. "Knitted Cloth. It's been ages. And Strap Belt. What's the daily grind like?" Krot asked. "The usual. Not all of us can get a promotion with a desk Krot." Strap Belt said with a laugh. "What brings you here old friend?" "Received word from the Prophets. This world will be getting a surprise to it many years From now." "What is it?" Krot had Coco run off to keep playing while he spoke privately with the two. "Information Currently is limited, but it seems an heir to that King of Nothingness will appear here." "The king of nothingness? I didn't even know he was alive?" "Alive is a stretch but yes, he's still around. This heir could give us invaluable data we've been lacking on that man since he first appeared sixty thousand years ago." “I suppose I gave them that and hindered them out the ass given the old man’s dead.” I muttered. "He's expected to arrive within seventeen years time. I think Coco could handle gathering data on them." "She will be twenty almost thirty by then." Coco's mom thought aloud. "Will it be safe though?" Strap Belt asked. "When is anything we do safe? Besides, by then Coco will have at least ten years experience under her belt and confidence to pull it off. It's just data gathering after all, observe and if able to sample what she can. DNA, scans, the usual." Krot spoke. “Yeah, I think she got plenty of samples.” I chuckled a little at how much ‘sampling’ she did over the course of our love life… wait, how many did she end up sending to Nexus? “Okay never mind that’s actually worrying...wait, that means they either made clones of me...or made kids...oh those fucking assholes!” I barked in anger at the possibility of them using my DNA to either make clones of me, or abusing my children because they’re assholes. "We are hoping for data specifically relating to the Kings little yes man, Consequence." "The first Nobody?" Strap asked. "Yes and no. The first Dusk Nobody. We want to know what makes him retain his personality and intelligence compared to his lesser brethren." "Have fun with that, even with me going through the notes its not really clear at all how or why, plus he's not the only one." I brought up. I began to realize… Coco is playing… how am I? I looked around, and spotted Coco hiding under the Bench Krot was sitting on, a playfully sneaky smile on her face. Hehe, cute. "How are her studies at the Nexus weekend school going?" Coco's mother asked. "Very well. The bioengineered generations really show vast improvement over ours. Intelligence and power limits far exceed where we were at their age." "Yeesh. I remember all the controversy. It all worked out in the end, it's extremely hard for them to contract illness." Strap said. "Unlike me, I used to get sick every month." "I remember, I was always the one to bring you your homework." "Am I suddenly supposed to sympathise with crazy people?" I frowned. “Sure some might be actual decent people but the whole is still a bunch of fucking psychopaths.” The memory ended and I was back into the fire. Literally, Void Fire was everywhere as Void Key had somehow shifted into some kind of Void Valor form, only rather than welding another Keyblade it wielded a blade made from pure void energy. “Oh, you can spawn fire?” I asked with a smile as I summoned Eternal Flames. “Well can your fire burn fire?” I asked while Eternal Flames spinning fast as well as black fire spawned, burning hotter and hotter. “Well bring it!” I shouted with a smile as I threw two Fireballs hot enough to literally burn away the Void Fire Void Key spawned. Void Key slashed along Eternal Flames as I threw them at it, redirecting them across into the abyss below. It was faster, making after images of itself that made it hard to tell where it really was. Three of the after images, clones, rushed me, each on their own Void Valor form but wielding only the pure void energy swords. “Well isn’t this just a whole bunch of fun.” I said with a warm smile. “I know you're in there Coco, if you can hear me please help me stop this thing!” I shouted as I swayed side to side as, to Void Key, thousands upon thousands of after images seemed to appear, all with the intent of striking it. “Welcome to my Speed Hell, First Step.” I said while bull rushing through him with Void Heart and Reunion. I impaled it through, grabbing the D-Link item And jumping into another memory. This one Coco looked easy nineteen or so, and she was… in a warfield. “Well that escalated quickly…” I muttered worriedly. Coco was stationed between two sandbag mounds, a MASSIVE sniper in hand as she was taking aim at something down in the battlefield. "Target spotted." She said. “Cause of course she’s also a sniper…” I muttered while looking out to see what she was aiming at. “What more can her memories hold?” Using Sharpshooters I saw in the distance some troopers, all dressed in the typical army get up, only their weapons were… rather high tech looking. One had what looked like a smaller version of the Tesla Cannon from Fallout, the others all had some kind of gun but it looked like a black aura came from the ammo mags. “Okay...that’s interesting…” "Taking shot." Coco fired, but it wasn't a bullet that was fired, rather some weird energy that once it hit the guy with the Tesla Cannon a small… black hole appeared, suching them and their comrades inside it as well as their weapons and some surrounding debris before the black hole faded away as it it was never there. "Target neutralized." “Well then…” I blinked at that. “That is a thing...but why...am I seeing this memory?” I wondered curiously. Coco put the bizarre rifle down, taking a stretch before pulling out a soda and taking a drink. She then leaned back and looked thoughtful. "Five more years then I'm on the Heir of Nothingness mission. I'll have to settle in back home. Been a whole year. Wonder what's changed?" She spoke to herself as she drank her soda. “A lot probably…” I muttered. “But don’t sound too enthused to meet me...I know I’m not fantastic but still.” "Wonder what they are like? Tall? Wish those damned Prophets would give more details." "Does crap like that matter?" I turned around… Zeke's Rune. Her attire was completely blood soaked, hair cut short, and a very nasty looking sword was in her hands. "It's data gathering, simple as that." "Says the lucky Sociopath who got the Cript Project case." Coco replied, tossing a soda to Rune. "Why do we hang out again?" "Because you don't completely irritate me." Rune hissed, popping the soda open. “Says the cunt that hates her race with a burning passion for some fuck off reason.” I frowned. "You know they have pills for that temper of yours." Coco said. "I happen to think my temper is my best feature." Rune stated proudly. "Keeps me focused… ruthless." "Yeah yeah. Your reflections Equestrians are the worst, so you keep saying." "They fucking are! Stupid, racist, ignorant sex hounds the lot of them. 'oh know a Zebra, run!' oh no my sister's an evil demon, to the moon!' seriously, it's always the fucking moon. Our whole history is either banishment or some artifact that saves our asses. Completely useless on their own." "So are most all Equestria Reflections." Coco added. "I know… and the 'royal guard' what a joke. Can't even handle a proper perimeter sweep or properly detain anyone." "Yeah their training is pretty bad…" "If you call that joke of a boot camp training then I'm the slut of a princess Celestia…" “Ironic given that’s kind of exactly what happened.” I chuckled. “So she’s pissed because...ponies don’t know their neighbors that much and believe random lies because of no information...pissed that Luna was stuck in the moon because that’s just what happened...and the last part really isn’t a complaint cause that happens with damn near anything that involves artifacts, not just Equestria.” I said to myself with some thought. “Right then, to each their own I suppose...but again, ironic she brought up being a slut of Celestia’s cause that’s what happened to mine…” "I swear once I save up the rem I'm getting race transformation surgery." Rune stayed bitterly. "Isn't that crazy expensive?" "I got half of what I need. Once I get that, not even my inborn magic or genetics will be equine anymore. I'm thinking dire wolf." "You got a bite to match that bark." Coco said flatly, barely seeming to be paying attention. “Bitch wouldn’t know what being a dire wolf meant…” I growled. "So, how much you get for this job?" Coco asked. "Sixty grand." Rune said. "You?" "Fifteen grand." "How come you never charge more?" "I get more offers by charging less." Coco said. "Besides, converting it to bits for back home I'll still be sitting pretty for a long time." Coco finished her soda, tossing the bottle as an audible slashing glass noise came from where she threw it. "And unlike you I'm not saving for special surgery or the down payments of some fuck massive giant house." "Meh. I like spacious houses." The two talked for a while until someone new appeared. They were… odd. Humans, clearly, tall, easy six foot seven inches, wore a long black… wait, that's… that's Andy from Cript's memory. "Oh look, the puppet came by for a visit." Rune said sarcastically. "Watch yourself mule." Andy growled. "I received word from your commanders. You two will be sent back for debriefing on your next assignments." "What assignments?" Coco asked. "The Cript Project and Heir of Nothingness. They're arriving earlier than expected." Andy said. "Fuck." Rune hissed. “What, were they expecting us in twenty ninteen or something?” I raised an eyebrow at that. "I'll handle things here. Besides, there is another reason I'm here." Andy said, countless Titan Shadow creatures appearing. "I need to test Cript's resolve and power. You two best not be here for that." Coco nodded while Rune rolled her eyes as they left. “Well...alrighty then.” I said. “That’s a thing…” The memory ended and now Void Key managed to.land a hit across my left arm, the gash wasn't healing and I was losing… whatever it is admins bleed when they're cut badly. I did notice though it's movements were... slower than before. “Rude.” I said before casting a healing spell on my injury. “But looks like Coco’s fighting back against you Void, why don’t you just leave Coco’s body and run while you still have the chance.” I growled. "Just as your stubbornness keeps you from backing away, my pride keeps me fighting." Void said, appearing behind me suddenly as we clashed blades. “Fine fine.” I said honestly. “Well let’s get on with more memories I suppose.” I said while using one of my wings to knock him away as I prepared to kill another one of his clones that he still has around. “I hope I’m getting closer…” I muttered while vanishing and cleaving one of Void Key’s clones in half and collecting the item again. The memory was… Coco, in normal clothes, leaning over a building tops edge. "Any moment now." She muttered to herself anxiously. “This...feels like the day when I originally came here…” I muttered. “Well...time to see her first impression of me…” A few minutes passed and a DTD opened up, and out ai shot like a rocket, slamming face first into the wall and falling into the open dumpster. Coco cringed. "That had to hurt…" She said, pulling out some kind of what I am assuming is a data gathering device as I crawled out of the dumpster. “Yeah...that’s a good start as any…” I grumbled, remembering this day quite well. “Alright...so she sees me immediately faceplant...wonder what she’ll think about me about that…” The device she has beeped, then she read aloud the data. "Male, human, age 18, blood type B-, hair color brown, eye color blue, genetically prone to type two diabetes and stomach cancer." “Neither of those things my family had or suddenly caught.” I frowned, not knowing if that was true but not knowing any of my family who had cancer or even diabetes. She followed me into the Library, making audio logs every so often and taking pictures. Man I did not notice her at all. Was I that oblivious or was she what good… likely both “Knowing me it was probably both…” I muttered. “Coco might be a little confused on me complaining about a war on cheese at the moment…” I muttered. Suddenly screaming started… right the heartless. She followed me out and watched me deal with it. She made an audio logs. "Entry Number seven. Subject clearly shows zero prior combat experience or skills." She then saw when Core and Josh appeared. After I was shot and unconscious she made another audio logs. "Entry Number eight. Subject made contact with Core and an unknown person. Subject was shot, vital signs show unconscious, no lethal injuries." “Ah yes, I remember getting shot by Josh...still need to smack him upside the head for that.” I frowned. Coco watched as Paramedics came and took, and when she saw Rarity climb out of a nearly crushed charreit, she rushed over. "Rarity!" She called out, helping the fashionista put along with Twilight. "Are you two alright?" "Yes dear we're fine." Rarity said. "Thank goodness I learned my brothers shield spell. Would have been a worse outcome if not." Twilight added. “Well...glad to know she was prepared.” I muttered. “Alright, so Coco knew about them long before I met her...good to know.” "So, is it like this all the time or?" Rarity asked. "No, this is the first real major attack. Most have been much smaller monsters." Coco said. "These creatures are so strange. They don't follow the normal flow of magic or even seem to acknowledge it." Twilight thought aloud. "That hooded figure was able to beat it so easily though." "Define easily…" Coco muttered to herself. “Being able to murder it to begin with might be a good start.” I rolled my eyes. “And another would be being able to kill one single handedly when I was told it took like ten soldiers a while to kill one heartless.” "Hope he's alright. I heard the gunfire and was so scared." Rarity added. "We barely heard what they were talking about. Sounded so weird." Twilight said. "So, where were you when this happened?" "Oh in the library, just looking up some books on classic stitch work patterns." Coco said without even a flinch or flaw in her lie or appearance. Must have had lots of practice. "Alright...good enough lie to be honest." I muttered. "At least everything worked out in the end." Rarity said. "Looks like the insurance companies will be having fun with all these claims…" Coco giggled at that. "Glad I work with fabrics and not paperwork." "What's wrong with paperwork? It's fun." Twilight said, making both Rarity and Coco laugh. I laughed too. Classic Twilight. “Only Twilight would think Paperwork is fun.” I smiled gently. The memory ended and I was-oh fuck! I dodged, Void Key now the size of a Dragon… and was one, mouth breathing out pure void as well as geotesc creatures oozing off their skin... “Okay...what the actual hell?” I frowned. “I look away for ten seconds and suddenly you're a dragon?” Void Key's reply was a swift Tail flick, nearly breaking me in half as the impact tossed me into it's claws, which they proceeded to crush and slam me into the ground with. “Rude.” I said while Grey suddenly burst out from me, me pushing against the claw holding me as I grabbed Void Heart and stabbed the dragon’s wrist hard. It roared, blasting me with it's void Breath as Tendrils emerged from its wound and began healing itself while also attacking me. “Alright…” I muttered while dodging the breath and attacks. “Let’s see...where are the other memories…” I muttered while taking stock of the area while dodging or parrying it’s attacks. I didn't see any of the clones. Must have took the rest back already. It receded a bit over the edge, and breathed fire onto the arena. I felt my code…. I felt afraid for a moment, emerging from its void Breath was… a Delete, female, clad in what looked like leather armor and held a metallic bow. "Filthy Admin…" She growled. He can summon Deletes? “Okay I call bullshit.” I frowned. “You can just...summon Delete’s? The actual fuck.” I frowned. “Fine, hi lady.” She attacked me, using her bow like a blunt weapon and managed to make me kneel as I raised Void Heart to counter. She's tough. "Speak in fear Admin." “No, I won’t.” I frowned. “But who are you? Your armor looks...familiar.” I said, feeling like I know something about her. "I am Creeth. Delete of Hunt… and you killed my husband." She said, swatting Void Heart away, drew back her bow, and pulled, her single arrow suddenly became thousands and each impaled me directly. "Unlike my husband, I won't hold back." “Wait...he was your husband?” I asked. “Certainly seemed fine with dying though...if he didn’t just immediately kill me for whatever reason…” I groaned while getting the arrows out of me. "He held Honor as his Mantle. He was foolish at times to do so… but that's what I loved about him." She spoke, drawing her bow back. "Because of you our children cry to me wondering where he is every day… You will die for the sadness of our children." I took a deep breath and walked over to her. “Lady…” I started. “I’ve already died for the sadness of children...my children to be more specific…” I told her. “So...how about instead of fighting here and probably getting yourself killed...you return to your family and try to be happy with them…” I said, my words coming from one parent to another and not from an Admin to a Delete. She was still for a moment… then, an arrow pierced my stomach, impaling me to the ground as she fired again, the one arrow becoming ten and each pinned my legs, arms, even tail down… "Sympathy. Honest or not, in combat, is a dirty trick. Apologies, honest or not, create hesitation, self doubt." She said was walking over to me. "Happy with my family? Without him, we can not be happy. There is a hole in our very being that will forever be missing, because of you…" She said, stomping on my chest, making two of my breasts bleed from the impact. "Vengeance, kind gestures, nothing will bring him back. All I can do is what we exist to do." She said, drawing her bow right over my eye. "Kill Admins. The fact that you killed him… is just the cherry on top." "You won't do anything else but try to kill me will You?" I asked her honestly. "Even if it means losing the chance to have your husband back?" At that she jammed the end of her bow into my mouth, slicing my tongue and breaking some teeth. "Don't lie to me. Admins can't do anything about Deletes. You can't revive him, no matter how strong you are, we are not code like the things you make. We do not kneel to your wills like the toys you craft. You can't do anything to help me." The Delete only saw in my eyes the actual truth that I wanted to help, even if she was giving me literally no choice. My eyes told her 'I'm sorry' before Lunatic and Foudre in combination smacked her faster than she could react. She felt her face, not feeling blood but a rather hard bruise as she raised her bow. "Till death then." She said, the fight beginning. I rubbed my jaw and my tongue and my teeth came back. “Not my fault you’re literally giving me no choice lady...even though I’d rather not do something like that...you need to be with your family...is killing me really more important than your own children?” I asked bluntly while getting up and preparing myself. "As a mother and wife, no… but, when in loss, you don't properly prioritize what's important, do you?" She said, firing off nine arrows, each splitting into ten that managed to get my tail and left leg. I knocked all the rest away. “Lady, please. Just...just go home, back to your family...be happy. From someone that’s both a parent and married...revenge really isn’t worth it, and leaving behind your children because of petty revenge won’t solve it. Also, how dare you disgrace your husbands honor like this.” I stated. Rage filled her eyes as her bow bled void, changing into a larger, sharper design. "Hypocrite!" She yelled, shooting a single bolt that exploded on impact… and cracked the arena .. Coco's heart! "What about you and Jericho?! He takes something you love and you hunt for him blindly and if you even managed to find him then what?! Die a losing battle?! Talk to me about my husband's honor when you have your own!" She forced again, the bolt becoming nine and the explosions cracking the arena even more… it can't handle another hit. Tears started to fall against Coco's heart, the cracks gently healing as I couldn’t stop myself from crying. “I’m sorry…” I muttered as I vanished and put a hand on her head. "I’m sorry....Gone with the Wind…” I muttered sadly, Book of Retribution in resting gently in the middle of Lindworm’s spears and wind as the Hunt Delete felt her entire being pulse. “If there’s an afterlife for you...tell your husband...I’m sorry…” I muttered as I saw her crumple to the ground "There's nothing, you ignorant bastard." She wheezed. "Infect." She said, grabbing my leg as I suddenly felt like my body was shutting down. I hit the ground, unable to move. "heheh. Enjoy it it's going to hurt." She crumbled to ashes and I was screaming. I felt my Code… being erased. This is WAY worse than becoming an Admin. I started to… forget… what am I forgetting? “Cause...of course…” I muttered while trying to stop whatever’s doing this to me. “Fuck fuck fuck...no, I need to remember...I need to remember everything…” Memories I could no longer recall left me, I don't know what I'm forgetting. It stopped abruptly… what did I forget? Did I forget anyone? Luna, Twilight, Coco… yes I'm remembering this… what did I forget? As I stood back up… I saw Void Key, laughing softly at me. A sly grin on their face. “What did she make me forget?” I asked, knowing full well who I fought before Void came here. As void charged me to tried to summon Void key ...nothing. Frozen Pride… nothing… she erased my memory on how to summon them! But I was able to just… call them before. Wait, how do I… She made me forget how to use them… I remember them, know what they are, but how to summon or use them… she made me forget how to fight! "Fucking horseshit!" I barked before transforming into my Primal Form, leaping forward as instincts lead my claws and teeth. "Yeah, somehow forget to do something so instinctive it might as well be breathing, that makes fucking sense…" I mentally growled, hating how she just magically could do that. Shockingly I remembered how to still fight in my Primal Form, which caught Void Key off guard given he probably knew full well what was happening to me as I managed to get a swipe into him with my claws...but for some reason I still felt slow, and a strange buzzing like noise in the back of my head like something was reacting slowly. After Void took a step back from the sudden attack he took a good look at what I am given I’m now a Void Dire Wolf Den Mother, and what he saw was actually really scary. Given my Den Mother Primal Form was damn near twice my original Dire Wolf size could be intimidating to some, the fact that it looked like some of my bones were jutting out like some weird bone armor was a bit unnerving, my muscles were pulsing and if I didn’t have fur he’d probably be able to see them, my claws hissing with Void Energy as they were even sharper and deadlier, my tail moving more like a spiked bone snake rather than a wolf tail as my fur seemed to just bleed Void Energy. As I began charging at Void Key I bit it's tail as it swing it at me. Upon biting it, it grew sharp spikes. Slicing up my upper mouth, tongue, and even breaking some teeth. I let go, spitting blood out as I began getting pissed. I growled, feeling my tail lash out and smack into Void Key rather hard as I tried to claw at him, wondering where the next memory for Coco was to help her come back. “There’s either one or two more…” I muttered, my teeth and tongue getting healed rather quickly because of the Void I was constantly making. I then realized… Void Key was half off the edge… his back! I began racing towards his tail trying to bash me away but I was quick enough to dodge. “Alright, so what I’m doing is working at least…” I muttered, slashing into Void Key’s back with my claws as I started to remember things slowly, not entirely sure why but thanking god I’m remembering my weapons. The first that came to mind… I grinned. Sharpshooters. Shifting back to normal I summoned them, the design was heavily altered. While I was still able to list them their design was that of a skeleton morphed into a cannon with void pulsating around them… fuck the hell yes! “Oh you are fucked.” I laughed before aiming and firing at the fucker’s back. The bolt that shot out exploded, and Nothingness thorns wrapped around Void Key, binding him down and tearing away at his back, and out popped a memory orb. “Thank you.” I said while grabbing the memory orb quickly. The environment shifted and I was…in a train. Coco looking outside the window… this was just after Manehatten… She sighed. "I'm gonna miss this city. Won't be the same after the cleanup and rebuilding." “I know…” I sighed out. “Always gonna be one of my crowning regrets even though I could do fuck all back then…” She was in a private passenger stall. This was a more fancy train than normal ones. The door opened and entering came Krot, though he did look much older now. "Coco." He said, taking a seat. "General." Coco said with a nod. “Oh?” I wondered. “Wonder why he’s here…” "I have important news to discuss with you." Krot said, taking out some documents. "Your reports on this subject have been rather helpful. We've managed to reconstruct all his weapons successfully." "That's good." Coco said. "Even Skysplitter?" "Yes. Surprisingly." “Oh…” I frowned. “That’s not going to end well for them gihat those weapons are Nothingness based so I own them…” "We managed to alter them to work solely off of code and other energies as to avoid any… unwanted unpleasantries when used in combat." "You mean him taking them away?" "Yes." “Cause that just always needs ot fucking happen.” I groaned. “Still not as strong as the original...and certainly not as strong as the King’s that’s for damn sure.” I rolled my eyes, knowing these would be cheap knock offs to be perfectly honest compared to the originals. "How strong are they?" Coco asked. "Simulations say the D series should rival that of the Council copies, and E series should be able to rival his own." Krot answered. “Why do I even fucking bother…” I muttered, pinching the bridge of my nose. “Well good to know that at least…” "So how many have you manufactured?" Coco asked. "Of the A series, 7.9 trillion, B series 9.8 million, C series 4.6 million and the D series about 2.5 million currently of each weapon." "That little?" "Sadly." I was...honestly speechless at the pure bullshit that I just heard. “Trillions...of replica weapons...that are somehow on the level of my own weapons...is ‘too little’?” I asked. “Oh no, I just have a few trillion dollars to spend on whatever the fuck I want, I’m so fucking poor.” I rolled my eyes at that. “Fucking why not, Nexus is said to do whatever the fuck they want, so why should I be surprised?” "So what's the endgame here for this then?" Coco asked. "As usual. Copy, learn, replicate, store. Then, one day, when all of creation is destroyed, be it Lord Vincent or another's doing, we rebuild. As it was but better." Coco chuckled, then looked a bit sad. "I hope it's not us who…" "I know Coco, I know." “Oh? You mean you want me to be sad for these fucks that want to commit existance wide genocide just to build it up like a fucking Nazi empire?” I frowned. “I’m sad for Coco for having to deal with all this shit but no, Nexus is going to lose and end.” "What… is Lord Vincent like?" Coco asked. "Completely insane." "Oh…" "I know but he fits the founders prophecy to a T. That's why he's in charge. So, we'll have to be the bad guys from now on." "I was afraid of that…" “Oh so now there’s a prophecy? Well fuck me why did I even question things here?” I asked sarcastically. “Alright...I’m gonna have to talk to Coco after all of this so I can at least get some better understanding here…” "I know it is not ideal. Many of us dislike the idea, but with Vincent in control, there is little we can do. From experience I can say confidently our organization is split in itself. There are we who hold the ideas of our founders to heart, and those who follow Vincent's cruelty like biblical decree. Unfortunately unless Vincent is killed there is little we can do. Even then the result would most likely be civil war. Split between the new leader and the followers of Vincent." I was about to say something to myself, but then I remembered what Agamemnon told me about Vincent being killed. “Okay...so either one of their higher ups took main stage or Cript took over...let’s hope it’s the latter.” I muttered, a bit surprised to hear that Nexus was split that hard between people actually giving a damn and a ton of evil douchecanoe’s. "We've survived since before the Admin war because our founders believed cooperation was the only way to ensure the best future, I'm not surprised it became twisted over all these years by those with more selfish desires, but even as we are, how many families, friends, everything would be torn apart. Our entire population would have to choose sides…" Coco said sadly. "It's why even though we don't agree with the direction we are going we follow it. I'll freely admit to the blood on my hands and sins I carry for it, but I keep hope for the old days to return. Before Vincent was born." “Maybe...this is why Coco was kind to me?” I muttered. “She had hope?” "How many are like us?" Coco asked. "That I know personally… fifteen. I'd wager it's either am even split or others favor more Vincent's leadership. It's hard to determine really. Maybe I can rig the next census to give me a rough estimation." “Well let’s hope there’s enough…” I muttered. "So, nervous about living so close to your target?" Krot asked. "Kinda. I've watched him from afar for so long, meeting him in person will be… kinda nerving." "How so?" "I think I...like him?" “Oh?” I hummed. “Wonder what she has to say about me here…” "Really? Well it's not uncommon to feel this way, we call it Stalkers syndrome. Spend so much time gathering data on someone, learning about them you develop a bond to them without ever even meeting them." Krot said. "I know. Maybe it is but… I kinda want it to...go somewhere." "Hehe. Just like your mother." "Hm?" "They never told you? Your father wasn't born to Nexus he was enrolled, or something like that. Your mom gathered data on him for two years, accidentally bumps into him buying coffee, a year later you come along." “Well then...that’s a thing.” I said honestly. "Oh my." Coco said. "Yeah. She told him everything, and he was okay with it. He got the palm mark and a crash course in Nexus life." Krot said. "Hard to imagine." "Most of Nexus in the really old days married in. Who knows, if anything happens with you and Ben maybe he'd be okay joining?" "Dunno. Ben's a wild card with a temper and sailor mouth so… not likely." “That’s probably for the best…” I muttered. “Nexus…” I growled, remembering oh so long ago when, for Humanity training, I was a Nexus slave...it was terrible. "If not then that's gonna be one awkward conversation when it gets out." Krot said. "Yeah…" Coco said sadly. "I want to tell him… but I don't know what I'd say. How would he react to that?" "Poorly given how you've described him." "...Not helping…" "Look, all I can say is that if he does love you when things get out in the open then he'll accept you, and the part of Nexus that you and I and the others all keep alive. The original, and not this new age evil Nazies bullshit." “Two things, A. he’s right, and B. I fucking called it.” I said honestly. “I knew the evil part of Nexus was just Nazi’s.” Coco laughed. "Yeah… you're right…" "Good to know. Means I haven't gotten too old yet." Krot jokes, chuckling at himself. "Well as much as the please tried have been…. I didn't come here solely for that." Krot said, speaking in a sadder tone now. “Either getting reassigned...leaving...or dying.” I muttered. "What's wrong?" Coco asked. "You'll have to be strong here." Krot said. "I'll be sent over to a new project as it's overseer. I won't be your general anymore. Rune will." "Rune? When was she promoted?" "This morning. But I know you can handle her. But… this project is a bit complicated. I can't explain everything to you but I will say it involves you're bio-engineering." “Oh dear, that’s not good.” I muttered. “Also Rune being Coco’s boss? What crap is that?” "Every child before birth and for a month after are biologically altered, thanks to those born with the CopyCat ability. Yours were part of a small test pool for Void based alterations." "Void? Isn't that forbidden?" "It was. Vincent has damn nearly completely rewritten the rules. Because of that, he managed to acquire some special DNA which he had placed within you and these others." "DNA from what? Who?" Coco asked. "I don't know his true name but I know he goes by John Corvo these days. Lives on Equestria Reflection AZK-87." "Isn't that whole Reflection infected by void?" "Yes. How fitting. From what I dug up the DNA they extracted and placed in you is related to his impressive ability to store and use ungodly amount of void." "But, why?" "I don't know. I really wish I did but the rest was too encrypted for me to make out. All I know is that it can't be good." “I mean...he’s gonna be the King of Void sooner or later...and I suppose that’s why she’s so strong…” I muttered honestly. "This project involves some very bizarre circumstances." Krot said with a sigh. "I don't even fully understand it, but just promise me if you end up obtaining any void, try not to use it." "I'll... I'll try General Krot." “And then she used it and...now I’m trying to save her life from it.” I brought up. “Well...kinda hope Krot isn’t dead...Coco trusts him so...maybe I could as well?” Everything shifted back to the battle, now Void Key as just covering Coco’s head, but Tendrils across her skin wrapping on her arms and legs were still visible. “You are a stubborn one aren’t you?” “You’d think people would know that by now.” I said, feeling my memories come back a lot faster and my sluggishness was ebbing away given the time I’ve been given from the memories. “But come on Void, you know full well you lost, so get out of my wife and run back to your owners like a good little bitch.” “Hehehehe. Tell me this, how is it I have lasted this long against you when the wife and mother you slaughtered recently only took one attack to end?” “Cause of two reasons, A you are an X-blade so your already pretty tanky, and B Coco has had genetic modifications done to her using John’s DNA, the guy who’s going to be King of the Void sooner or later.” I said honestly. “There’s that, but don’t classify me with Keyblades or X-blades. I’m artificial down to the void flow through my hosts.” “I will classify you as those because you are literally a Keyblade.” I said. “And ‘artificial void’? That doesn’t sound entirely correct.” “Doesn’t it? You saw my true form, back in daybreak when I was looking down on you all from within that accursed Armory.” “Now that makes zero sense when you and that giant eye thing are two completely different objects.” I frowned. “We all saw you staring at us yes, but we also saw Void Key as it’s own thing. Mind explaining how that works?” “My body here.” Void Key raised itself up. “Is like any Keyblade, but rather than light and darkness, I funnel void through it, my consciousness and energy existing within the eye, and power and influence stretched through this. I was forged to be the delete of this realm, my maker crafted me well, but I do see I’m at a loss, after all, I don’t have the combat experience you all do, that is where I am at a disadvantage.” “And that begs the question of how he managed to do that because, at that point in time, no one even knew about all this shit.” I frowned. “You forget, that Keyblade of his and Luxu’s hold his eye, he always knows the outcomes, and plans ahead. My maker is quite the genius isn’t he?” “I’d say he’s so horrifically lucky at that point cause Gazing Eye was never around when Delete’s were brought up, Gazing Eye was never used to watch over things for all that shit, and even then how would he even know how to do all that shit with just ‘oh hey, this is a thing’? Also the fuckers literally one of twenty in Kingdom Hearts, why the fuck would he want to murder himself?” I asked honestly. “He had hoped to destroy it before it happened. Sadly it seems his luck has run out.Oh well.” He said, his artificial void energy flooding out from him. “time for the final round.” “Now here’s a small problem with that.” I said while Void Energy started to pour out of me as well. “D-Link’s are a funny thing you see, and one of their special things is a Super Move. Want to know what it is?” I asked while raising a hand, the energy I was producing formed a pretty cool looking Bo Staff, the details on it showing a mixture of Nothingness and Void circling each other in perfect Harmony. “Cause I’m sure it’s going to be a fun time.” I said while spinning it with ease and stomping down into my stance. “Hehe. Who said I’d be attacking you?” Void key asked, turning it’s keyblade part around, and stabbing itself through Coco’s gut, the Void exploding on impact as her heart began to finally break apart. “NO!” I shouted before putting one of the ends of my new Bo Staff onto the breaking Station. “Coco, I know your still in there, please...please help me.” I muttered before I chanted ancient words that even Void Key didn’t know about. “Balanced Sacrifice…” I muttered as Void and Nothingness shot out all around everyone, myself screaming in pain as I poured my own energy’s into it as Coco’s station was starting to repair itself. “Your not going to kill Coco! You hear me!” I shouted, pouring my love and power into making sure my wife’s heart didn’t shatter because of this bastard’s actions. “Hahahahaha! We will meet again King of Nothing, this I swear as YOUR Delete!” Void Ke declared as it vanished, Coco’s injured form falling atop the ground as the final memory orb appeared. I panicked and rushed over, grabbing the memory but also checking to see if Coco’s alright. “Please Coco...please be alright…” I pleaded, hoping I wasn’t too late in healing her. I took the memory, and inside it was Coco, alone in the living room, somehow some kind of Holoscreen came from the blue dot on her palm, and displayed the image of Krto, looking worried and tired. “So much as gone to shit Coco.” Krot spoke with weighted breath. “After Vincent died both factions began fighting. First politically then violently. I’m taking as many like us as I can to the Safe Haven. You remember it, right?” “The one under Manehatten, yes.” Coco said. “If all went well your parents should be there, but they were at the capital when this all started, so I can only pray.” “Well...that’s a start…” I muttered. “But under which Manehatten?” “How many do you have with you?” Coco asked. “A few thousand. the others were all given instructions on where to go. Gods, forty nine trillion of us and in just a few days reduced to a mere few thousand. We only ended up making up five percent of our total population! We were outnumbered from the start!” “Krot, please…” Coco begged, her worried expression saddened me. “I know Coco… I know. Look, I need you to keep playing Dumb, I know Rune will suspect yo-” Coco’s palm was closed by Rune, who walked up without either of us noticing her. “So, you’re one of those old fashioned bleeding hearts?” Rune said, fiddling with a dagger. “Rune! I-” “Spare me. I heard everything. Let me make something VERY clear here Coco.” She said, placing a hand on her shoulder and the dagger against her face. “If when the time comes for us to jump ship arrives and you’d rather sink than jump, I’ll be sure these survivors Krot spoke of will each die painfully and horribly.” “Y-You’re a Psychopath!” “Sociopath, actually.” She said, removing the dagger from Coco’s face as well as her hand. “I can still feel emotions, but they’re mostly hatred. I can fake my emotions so well! I got Eclipsa’s trust, Ben’s DNA sample easily, don’t think he could even tell the difference between his perverted slut and me, and then Zeke. Those little keyblades of his and mine, he can keep them, I already got all the data I needed from them.” “I’m gonna fucking murder Rune.” I said honestly. “I don’t care if Zeke want’s to shank her like mad, I’m the one that’s gonna kill her cause she abused my love, she abused my wife, and she deserves to burn.” I growled. “So, hat do you want from me then?” Coco asked. “You’re Bio-Engeneering. You were given the ability to hold and store in void. I need you to use that. There’s a weapon, called the Void Key. Mad by some fuck called The Master of Masters. Used a lot of time altering stuff to gather the information and supplies needed to forge it. It can resist if not destroy Nothingness, a feat no normal void being can accomplish. I need you to summon it when it appears to you, and use it. Ben thinks he’s hot shit, well we’ll see about that when suddenly his entire realm is gone in one fell swing.” When I awoke and saw Coco was still asleep, I tried to wake her up, but nothing. She was breathing, but that was it. I rushed her to the castle where the Medics and Nobodies looked over her. She was hooked to life support, while it wasn’t much, since she could breathe on her own, she needed fluids and a means of nourishment for food badly. Finally Consequence came up to me. ‘Sire.” He bowed. “Those fuckers in Nexus know.” I said, not really needing to explain what they know but I trusted Consequence to know full well what I meant. “Also, I need all the best medics to treat Coco, now.” “They have and, I’m sorry to say but the issue is more… abnormal than we expected.” Consequence said. “Well get to explaining.” I said bluntly. “And where are my medics damn it.” “Sire, while it seems the Void Key has left her, it’s influence still remains. Her Void genes are now active and acting like a catalyst for this remnant energy. While you did repair her heart, it’s cloaked in this unique void. We’ve tried but it’s not responding to our normal removal procedures. It’s resistant if not immune to Nothingness. I’m afraid miss Coco is comatose until it is somehow removed or if the delete that placed it over her heart is slain, she can’t wake up.” I just stood there, staring blankly at this. “Check...Manehattan...underneath it...to see if there’s any refugee’s we didn’t know about…” “Sire?” Consequence asked. “Oh no, I’m fine Consequence.” I said, my voice hollow as I felt like an absolute failure in saving one of my wives...and one that even after learning this still honestly loved me. “I’m just…” I muttered as Consequence felt millions of copies of myself suddenly appear and disappear rather quickly. “I...hope this works…” I muttered before pulling out my Wayfinder and trying to call upon Coco again. Nothing. Not even a glow. “Yeah...kinda thought that…” I muttered. “Consequence...tell me, what are you?” I asked. “And no bullshit vague hints, tell me, what makes you so special that Nexus would want to replicate you?” “What makes me special?” Consquence asked, I felt almost a smirk come from him as he bowed to me. “My Will, sire. In life, I was the first king's right hand man, his butler and servant. While I was not adept in combat, I did my best. Even in death, it’s no reason to stop serving my lord. So, here I stand before you today as I stood before he oh so many eons ago. A hollow shell who’s will keep my true self alive even without a heart.” “So...your a Lingering Will?” I asked, my voice still hollow but honestly intrigued by it. “The very first, in the end, that’s what Nobodies are, we just have our bodies still, unlike the ones you’ve encountered in the past.” “And they somehow might have figured out how to replicate you.” I said. “I’m kinda glad I’m hearing my Future Self is binging and purging Nexus…” “Oh my. I feel so violated.” Consequence said, trying to lighten the mood. “So...besides a literal army of myself hunting down Nexus…” I took a deep breath, my voice kind of coming back but not really as I finally noticed I was crying like a child at the moment. “I’m going on a walk…” I said while standing up, not even having realised I was on my knees. “I’m going to find people...I’m going to make them even stronger than what they originally were…” I growled, all of my powers circling in a maelstrom of power that seemed to have no end pulsate from me. “And I’m going to make all those people, that used and abused me, my family, and everyone I care about, wish Existence was erased to end the pain.” I growled. “Tell me, have any of our scouts brought up anything weird, like people leaving their reflections somewhere, meeting strange and powerful beings? Anything at all?” I asked, knowing Jericho is probably acting like a door to door power sink for any bad guy who would give him the time of day. “I was hoping to file a full report when it was completed but… yes. It’s been happening… Everywhere. Every planet, every reflection, Every realm even some one, multiples of someone, mass Reflections of people and even entire planets… vanishing. As if they were never there to begin with. Our last report was of a world who’s large majority of reflections, were all taken also. We call this world Psycho, apparently this world has a computer system able to read the likelihood of one committing a crime.” I felt a bit sick at hearing that. I remember that world... “Oh yes, the world that had Thought Policing and actively thought it was a smart idea.” I growled. “Alright, if Jericho want’s to pull that then we’re doing the same. Consequence, I want half of my scouts to start tracking down any and all worlds, reflections, anything that would stand against Jericho and his growing Hall of Evil, and you, with your massive amount of experience, go help my clones research literally anything and everything about literally everything, cause I’m also going to be making a shit ton of new Nobodies and monsters.” I said before explaining everything I wanted to do to Consequence. Consequence took a bow. “It would be my honor, sire.” “Alright.” I said while I started to gain some confidence back. “Jericho and Nexus wants a war? Well Jericho and Nexus are going to get a fucking war, and neither of them will enjoy it.” I growled, my mind racing through billions of possible things that can happen and how I can cause more and more death and destruction to my enemies. To be continued... Nobody talksMy sapling was now nearly full grown. It was about the same size roughly as the other one, and had beautiful leaves showing. Yet still none of the blossoms. Soon though. Soon. “Soon it’ll be fully grown…” I muttered. “Let’s hope the next trial won’t take forever…” As I rested next to the tree I began thinking back to my fight with Void Key… with Coco in a coma because of it… they know we can hurt them but they can't truly hurt us without targeting our family. We can't hurt them that way because A, we are not monsters like them and B, they likely Don't have any to begin with. So what can we do right now? “God I hate this…” I muttered. “Well...they can target our family but our family is getting stronger...maybe we can target all their production and powers?” I muttered. “Production, probably, powers, hell no cause Jericho is just handing it out like candy.” I groaned. “The fuck am I supposed to do against these fucks?” The more I pondered about it the less I could think of. Cript likely won't help anymore, maybe Lord? He's an asshole yeah but someone like him has to have a few tricks up their sleeve. “Maybe someone here could help?” I muttered curiously, wondering if they would even bother at this point. “Maybe Belief and Mother could help me out a bit more cause seriously I need help…” "Never thought I'd hear you ask for serious help?" I looked up, seeing Player there… how did he? "I'm a Dirty Hacker, remember?" He asked with a sly smirk. “Yeah well, either way.” I said. “So, I suppose you’ve heard all the wonderful things about Jericho and all the shit he’s been doing?” "Yes. And I have to say he's a lot more tactical about it than his first attempt. He's definitely learned from failure." “I can imagine…” I muttered. “So, you know full well I need help, and I have a feeling you know what I need help with correct?” "Allies mostly, as well as a means of increasing their, and your own strength correct?" “Also what their main weakness is because currently they have the worlds biggest crutch of targeting my family…” I sighed out. "Hmm… for Nexus that's likely their Water supply. Unlike normal water, Nexus filters theirs through the Cup of Code, an Admin who was very weak with their code, so they shifted themselves into a cup, allowing those who drink from it to use code for a short while." “So either destroy the cup, or fuck with the water enough that it can’t work anymore right?” I asked. "Something along those lines yes. Another thing that can help us is some of the things from Cript and Lord's armories. A surplus of Admin tier weapons could even, if not tip the scales here." “And how much you want to bet Lord isn’t going to give it up?” I asked honestly. “And now that I think about it, given that I’ve actually faced a Delete using their abilities...how many of them did Lord fight?” "Not sure. Supposedly none were ever killed before Cript, but I find that highly suspect. Every Admin has a delete, even when the Admin passes away the Delete remains, but there are very few Deletes just like there are very few Admins. It doesn't add up." “There’s probably something there that we don’t know.” I said honestly. "Most likely. Whatever the case that's irrelevant to our current issues. Shall a clone of you join me to ask Lord this favor or shall I go alone?" "I'm doing trial stuff at the moment." I said honestly before just making a new starfish clone. "So take a clone." "Alright. Off we go then." Lord's home was… interesting. It was a white void for as far as the eye can see, an old school Western town with all kinds of random odds and ends laid or floating around. Lord himself was at a desk in the center of it all. Which was very very strange. "Well then...this is interesting." I said honestly. "And a bit strange." "Lord." Player said with a nod. Lord looked up, a large set of incomplete blueprints on the table. "What you need Player?" Lord asked. "The keys to your armory." Player stated bluntly. "Oh. That? I gave the keys to Cript the other day." “Cause of course you did…” I muttered. "He said he was going to train soldiers. I just told him not to use what's locked up in the black vault door. Shit in there can hurt us and kill the one using it if not ready." “Well I was going to ask to do...basically the exact same thing because Jericho is being a douche.” I frowned. "Cript has my keys so likely he is already in the armory. It's that building over there." Lord pointed over to a saloon looking building. “Um...you sure it’s the saloon looking building?” I asked curiously. “And are you sure you didn’t accidentally give him the keys to your wine cellar?” "I don't drink. I hid the armory. Your response justifies its camouflage." “Alrighty then.” I said while heading off towards the saloon in hopes Cript is there. Upon entering we were now in a room with white, green, blue, purple, orange, red, and black doors. The white door was the only one open still. “Alrighty then…” I muttered while walking into the white room given it was open. I walked into a massive warehouse that I can't see the walls or even the ceiling of. Just shelves in lines towering with crates each with something in them. I saw… Mother? No, her hair is longer and has a pregnant gut… Cript? They were female, short hair and wore they're same outfit from when Jericho appeared. They look just like the Mother. I shook my head. “Cript, why do you look like a chick?” I asked honestly, trying to make the distinction between the two cause that shit hasn’t happened yet. "Wives wanted a way for us to bond even closer. So we all fused into one body. Den's in here too. She says you're even more beautiful than from the figurine point of view." Cript answered, looking through a list of sorts. “So...your already starting that transformation then?” I asked honestly, Cript probably knowing but I’m not fully sure. "Seems so. Though in all honesty this isn't the first time we've done this, though we do plan on it being the longest. So, what brings you two here?" Cript asked, turning to look at Player and Myself. “I’m here to get all this and train people so we can maul everything Jericho throws at us.” I said honestly. "Can you even handle the stuff here? And far as I know this place has no ceiling, or walls. Just goes on for about forever." “Have you really checked if it goes on forever? Also I’m pretty sure I could given all the crap I can do and have done.” I shrugged. "I have and never found a wall or ceiling. Saw some neat stuff though. So, I heard Nexus finally broke into civil war. Took that time bomb forever." “Yes, and apparently a shit ton of the ‘good nexus’ part is being slaughtered and Coco is in a coma cause Void Key did something to her heart and I’m furious, depressed, and I really just want to start doing something to make Nexus and Jericho pay for every little transgression...also I still haven’t found our kids and I’m very emotionally enraged and upset at the moment.” I ranted as tears formed in my eyes. "Clearly." Cript said. "I should check on Krot and the others at their safehouse." “Which Manehatten are they under?” I asked honestly. “Cause...I went through Coco’s memory’s trying to stop Void Key from controlling her...and learned a lot about that.” "Yours. Duh." Cript stated. “Kinda thought that.” I muttered. “Well...I’ll make sure they are also protected…” "So Ben, do you know my relationship with Krot?" “I barely know the guy.” I said honestly. “I only know tidbits from Coco’s memories, nothing much else besides that.” "He's my Uncle, on my mother's side." “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “Good to know.” "So, anything here you want before checking on them?" “As much as I can.” I said. “Plus I have clones to check up on the people in Manehattan, cause I have been using, and kind of abusing, that starfish cloning you taught me oh so long ago.” "Clearly. Well anything specific?" I took a moment. “Does ‘everything here’ count as specific?” I asked. "Again, you don't even know what any of this stuff does, and this is just the white room." “Well then what would you recommend cause this is literally my first time here and I was just going to grab as much as I could.” I said honestly. "Here. Try this." Cript said, taking a small handgun looking weapon and tossing it to me. "Shoot it." I pointed it up and fired the gun, wondering how it would work or how strong it would be. The bullet that shot out was somehow the size of a cannon ball, and the recoil broke.both arms of mine. I fell on my back from the kick. "Huh. Thought you could handle that." Cript said, the bullet hitting something and exploding with the force of a hydrogen bomb. “I call bullshit on me not being able to handle it, but I suppose the writers just like to sign wave on my durability harder than a schizophrenic on five kinds of crack.” I said bluntly while my arms healed from that. "Considering, You only ever shot Sharpshooters before, an energy weapons with no recoil, I'm not surprised." “It’s Great Bow form has an ass ton of recoil.” I said honestly. “Also, durability isn’t that fucking nit picky, it’s a general thing, not just ‘hey, you didn’t do this so your not durable to it’.” I frowned. "Maybe in your realm’s, not in Lord's. He has very specific rules set here. As a visiting Admin, you have no control here so your code abides by his rules automatically. Normally your real stats are in a mass general of a few sections. Lord's has a stat measurement for everything. It's worse than World of Warcraft and SAO." “So yet again, it’s a ‘fuck you’ kind of deal right?” I asked honestly. “Seriously, it’s getting a little annoying that, even without Code boosting me, which I have literally never done, I’m having shit say ‘no, your not as tanky as you are and or should be so piss off’.” "That's Admin life for ya. You can do whatever in your own realm but enter another's with different rules applied and you're entire style needs work." “Oh no, it’s been a consistent thing both in my realm before I became an Admin and after I became an Admin.” I said honestly. “I can understand if I was constantly using Code and going into another person’s place Code wouldn’t do much, but the fact of the matter is that I barely use Code for any self buffs, I have mostly been doing what I’ve normally done with the powers I have, no Code involved.” I brought up. "Then there is your problem." “No.” I said, honestly confused by that. “That’s not my problem, I know I’m breaking the fourth wall a bit much here, but again my durability as a whole has been inconsistant as fuck no matter what I am.” I told him. Raising an Eyebrow, Cript took a look at my stats in my assistant. "Huh… let me see." I looked at them and…. That's a LOT more than what I normally see. Lord's realm adds THAT much more?! It's sixty pages long! “Didn’t fully expect there to be that much…” I muttered. "Lord loves an excuse to grind." Cript muttered. "If it's damn near anything it's here." “I can imagine…” I said. “He may have overdone it to be honest…” "That's all he ever does." Cript said. "See look, there is even a sex stat. Yours is at eighty out of a hundred and fifty! A fertility stat… that you maxed out… and a sexual attraction stat!" “Okay I call bullshit on the sex stat being that low, but the firtility thing maxed and...jesus my sexual attraction stat is also maxed?” I said nervously. “Jesus…” "Okay here is your resistance stats. Let's see. Blunt force, blade strike, pyromancy, frostimancy, bla, bla, bla… Recoil resistance. Sixty out of a hundred and thirty. Let's check something else… Joint strength. Super human. Now let's check this weapons stat requirements." Cript said, holding the weapon as the same sixty pages opened for the weapon. "Required recoil resistance one hundred, joint strength, Adamantine. That's a rank up from yours currently." “Cause that makes sense, go through fight after fight and bullshit after bullshit, your only ‘superhuman’. What, did all my progress through literally everything just garner one level?” I asked. “I know this isn’t the same thing as my world but...come on.” "Consider this. You don't always fire Sharpshooters in it's great bow form, otherwise you would have a higher recoil resistance, and Joint strength." “Okay cool, what about literally all my other weapons that actively need me to have this shit stacked to hell?” I frowned. “You don’t just swing Lunatic or Skysplitter really fucking hard with paper thin joints or muscle, especially when the fuckers block it.” I brought up. "Remember, the laws in your realms work different. You can probably shoot this gun fine in yours but as shown, not here. Same could even apply to your current weapons here, as they will shift to requirements here, and shift back when you go back to yours." “But...my point would still stand against that though…” I brought up. “Wait, what’s with the asterisk near the Durability tab?” I asked curiously while pressing the tab. Subject is under constant fluxuations of strength. Several causes are listed below -Reflections -Own Power -Mental State “Huh, that’s curious.” Cript said, looking over it. Reflections and Own Power can be intermingled, either from Subjects own Reflections are causing his powers to rise or fall due to outside interference is questionable, and Own Power can also be attributed to other Reflections being too similar and causing it to panic and choose. “And...I can already tell by Mental State…” I muttered while clicking on that as well. Subject’s Mental Health can also affect his powers, when he’s strong, confident and sure of himself Subject’s powers are at what Subject’s powers should be, while the opposite can also affect his powers, if he’s upset, depressed or other negatives his powers diminish, or increase depending on the negative emotion. “Not surprising…” I muttered I looked over to Cript, who was now at a table having Coffee with Player drinking Coffee. “So what do you think our main issue is then?” Cript said, taking a sip. “It could be any of the three to be honest.” I said honestly. “Ever consider therapy? I hear Eclipsa and Zeke both speak with a therapist.” Player said, adding some more creamer to their drink. “Does it look like Therapy can help this hot mess?” I asked honestly. “Maybe? You've experienced a lot of trauma in life, Zeke was raised like a living weapon and seen enough death to scare Hitler so…” Player said, taking a sip. “I’m just saying, actually TALKING about things with someone trustworthy can help. Helped me.” “Maybe…” I sighed out. “But well...none of you have actually died and then had half of your life completely cut off from you, and then it just spiraling out of control from there.” Both Cript and Player gave me a plain stare, I then remembered who I was talking too… Player killed himself to come here and Cript… went though a lot of shit… “Yes yes I know.” I sighed out. “In any case I’ll see what the issue is. Now you will feel a numb sensation across your entire body.” Player said, raising a hand to me as he...hacked me. I felt… I think this is the Admin equivalent to Rape considering I could feel him scanning around all my code… and I did indeed feel numb all over. After about two minutes he stopped. “Well that’s interesting.” He said, creating a tablet of sorts and looking over it. “Never do that again please…” I muttered worriedly. “And what’s interesting?” “According to this you have one Reflection whom you and the share over Ninety six percent of your entire code structures. this means your code as an Admin and Nothingness, given they also have the same Nothingness, are confusing the two of you as each other. This is likely why you’re defences and resistances fluctuate dramatically.” “Is it just that or is it more than that?” I asked. “And how do I solve this?” “If I’m reading the data correctly, then this also states that unlike you, this reflection is extremely suicidal, has no Joy whatsoever, and actively tried many times to end themselves, failing because when he does, both your codes swap, meaning he gains your healing factor as the moment of impact, surviving. This is likely some kind of failsafe in your own Code as a means of keeping you from killing yourself, likely programmed by KH when the first King of Nothingness emerged, looks like that Admin wanted him around for a long time.” “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “So...what, I go out and help the poor bastard not try to kill himself and get him help or something?” “You're kidding, you two are so similar just touching him would cause your code to fuse, you’d both become one person and frankly I don’t think you and HIS emotional baggage. You’ve got enough as is…” “Well I can’t just let this keep happening ya know?” I said. “And it’s not like I haven’t worked through those things before.” “I highly advise against it, but if you insist. He’s in a reflection within Zeke’s part of your combined realms. Reflection ID:000R5U7, World Equis #334Y6… Did you even understand that at all?” “You literally could have just told me where he was without the numbers.” I deadpanned. “Excuse me for trying to help you utilize your code to travel specifically.” Player grunted. “I’m sorry, but to be honest besides making my world bigger and making my doppelganger Nobody...and maybe when I was Infected by a Delete...I haven’t used my Code for literally anything.” I explained. “Oh, actually I should probably bring up that I can negate a Delete’s Infect ability.” “Neat. Finally figured that out?” Cript said. “That is invalubal- Wait what you knew?!” Player yelled in shock at Cript. “I don’t think we’re talking about the same thing.” I said while raising my hand as what looked like little bugs made of numbers appeared in my hand. “I think it’s because of my Code that can do it...like an Anti-Virus or something, not whatever you do to stop it Cript.” “Eh.” Cript said. “Here, take this.” Cipt said, tossing me a flyer. Come one come all to the Tournament of Champions! Heros and Villans from all around gather for the chance to win Admin Cript’s Soulblades Darkest Hero and Biohazards Curse! “I’m retired so I don’t really need them.” “Wait.” I said while pulling out the Biohazard Keychain. “I thought you gave me Biohazards Curse.” “I have several. The ones I’m giving here are my originals. Much stronger. check the stats on the ones I gave you, and check the ones I have.” Cript sid, summoning both. Looking as Darkest Hero… it looked a lot like Void Key, only more tendrils and looked...sad? “It looks sad…” I brought up. “I know. I used to hate this weapon… and then, it became my best friend.” Cript said with a tone rich with nostalgia. I checked the stats on the one I had. Biohazards Curse (Remake) Att: 50 Def: 30 Mag:25 Grants complete resistance to diseases and chance status effects instead affect opponent when equipped. “Cool.” I said. “Can’t wait to enter a tournament to get the real ones and make sure Jericho doesn’t get his grubby little paws on it…” “Now check the originals.” Hesitantly, I checked the real Biohazards Curse. Biohazerds Curse. Att: 5,980 Def:3,650 Mag: 1,790 Total resistance to diseases and status effects, any diseases infected with in or outside of battle will be cured and white blood cells can be extracted to create anti-viruses. “Well then.” I said. “That’s...quite a lot stronger really.” “Now check Darkest Hero.” Cript asked. “Alright…” I said while checking Darkest Hero. Darkest Hero Att:??? Def:??? Mag:??? This Soul Blades base stats will always Equal that of your opponents current stats in battle, stacking with your own. “Well that’s not broken at all.” I rolled my eyes. “Yup. Care to see how it feels?” Cript asked, raising the grip of it towards me. “Um...sure.” I said while taking the hilt carefully. I felt a SURGE of power the second I took it, the stats changing on my Assistant. Holder: Ben Opponent: Cript Att:999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,9999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,9999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,9999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,9999,999,999,999,999,999, 999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,9999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,9999,999,999,999,999,999, Needless to say, I never did see when Def popped up... “Excuse me what the fuck.” I said honestly. “Too many fucking nines.” “As it said, equals your opponents current stats, plus stacks with your own.” Cipt said, taking it back as I felt that power leave… I fell to my knees… shit that was intense… “It’s also Unbreakable, a special hidden ability of it.” “Okay so literally no one is allowed to have that…” I said. “Even if I get it...well maybe I would use it, but only under very, very dire circumstances cause that’s just cheating.” Cript shrugged. “Eh. Tournament is in a month, bring Eclipsa and Zeke with You too. I’m curious to see how they hold in this.” “Alrighty then.” I said honestly. “So besides having to hunt down literally every hero in existence, need to also train a lot...deal with those trials, hunt down Void Key so Coco can get out of her coma...find my other self and calm him the fuck down for like, ten seconds, and then a lot more shit that just keeps piling up…” I groaned. “I can have Someone help you and others train, as well as Player here can actually help you more with Code stuff.” “I wouldn’t mind.” Player said. “Now then, before you take off to find your other you… care to see my armory?” Cript asked. “Sure.” I said. “Might as well, even though I have clones nearing the billions at this point...why not add more to the laundry list of shit I have to do.” I said honestly. “My armory consists of things not sold on the market, which contrary to beliefs, is a lot.” Cript said, tossing me a small box with a button. Pressing it made a single backpack appear. “My entire armory, within a pocket dimension inside that backpack.” “Unlimited cosmic power...itty bitty living space.” I said while opening the backpack. Inside was like looking into a literal twister of… stuff. Everything was floating about and the first thing I reached for was what looked like a bo staff. “That is called Kurth. Wood fibers infused with Dark Monofilament gives it flexibility and strong durability. Unlikely to break, and acts as a repeater. Place energy inside it and it will hold, and amplify it so when it’s released it gives quite the kick.” “Cool.” I said while putting it back, knowing full well I can’t just take whatever I want as I reached in to grab another item. This one was a suit of armor. It looked like recon armor from Fallout but had a glowing blue chest piece with special sections reaching across the torso and limbs. “Well then, what is this thing?” I asked curiously. Cript saw what I had, then looked saddened. “That… was, Autumn’s Armor.” He said, teleporting it to him. “The strongest armor I ever crafted…” “I have a bad feeling about the backstory to this…” I said worriedly. “It was a long time ago. She just… gave up.” Cript said with a sigh. “Here.” He said, handing it back to me. “It’s best if it gets some use after all. It automatically adapts to the wearer, and can change its appearance to whatever for blending in.” I gently took the suit and nodded. “I understand, thank you.” I looked through the bag one more time, this time pulling out a revolver that glowed with a blue energy, much like Autumn's Armor chest piece, and seemed to look like any normal revolver but clearly was designed with some advanced technology hidden within. "Electronium shooter. One of my higher grade prototypes. Anything not wearing an inch thick rubber suit gets quite the electrical shock to it." “Cool...so I suppose it’s Electronium that’s used for the suit?” I asked curiously. "Yeah. Special cycle system built in the suit, powers it, all the features, a city if you wanted and never needs a recharge. It also sends special signals into your body, allowing for faster healing, speed, etc." Cript said with a solemn tone. "It's got a built in AI that can react faster than you. It'll keep you safe as best as it can, if needed it can pilot the suit if you are unconscious to fight or escape." “Cool.” I said honestly. “That is rather interesting...now question...is there anything I should know about what Jericho could use that I haven’t seen yet? Or are you just gonna have me figure that out for myself?” "Nothing I say would help much. I do know for a fact Jericho won't be after my Souls Blades, but he won't stop anyone he recruits to try and claim them." “That’s gonna be a pain...got a list that Consequence hasn’t tried making yet?” I asked curiously. "Sure. This is everyone who's gone missing from every realm and reflection." My Assistant beeps after Cript tapped on his...and I got a ten million terabyte sized Document file…. “Jesus christ…” I muttered. “And...it’s only going to get bigger, isn't it?” "Most likely." “Crap…” I muttered. “Well...at least I’ll have a start in my search based on all these fuckers…” "I'll update it as news reaches me. Also I'll be sending three of your Siblings to help you and others with training, and one specifically to help you, Eclipsa and Zeke learn and deal with some of the field stuff you will be facing in the near future." “Alright.” I nodded. “So...given your plan of fusing all reflections together...does the Jericho thing put a massive wrench in it?” "Not really." “Really? Even though we’re about to destroy a lot of everything?” I asked curiously. "Can't rebuild when nothing gets broken." “I mean, wasn’t it going to be ‘rebuilt’ because everything’s being put together or something?” I asked. “But...understandable I suppose.” "So, if that's all there is one last thing I want to show you." Cript said, standing up. He lead me over to a doorway near the entrance. "Haven't been here for a long time." “Oh?” I asked curiously. “What’s behind the door?” Cript actually began chuckling. "Heh. Oh you are about to find out." “Well then open the door.” I said. “Unless I’m the one that’s gonna have to.” Cript opened it, and I walked inside, it was a weapons shop… and I was greeted by an overly beefy guy that looked like Doom Guy and The Terminator had a kid. They wore a buzz cut, suit with no name tag and Jacky jeans. "WELCOME TO TORK! WHERE YOU'LL DIE IF YOU DON'T MEASURE UP" He then hit my head with his forehead, gashing both his and mine. “Yes, hi.” I said. “The actual fuck was that for?” "ANYONE WHO DIES OF FAINTS FROM MY HEADBUTTING IS IMMEDIATELY KICKED OUT! YOU STAYED AWAKE, YOU GET TO BROWSE OUR SELECTION OF DEATH BRINGERS!" He then walked over to the register and stood motionless. “Um...sure…” I muttered, honestly confused here as I started to look around the shop. Walking around I saw everything here was expensive… but also very, very cool. Also everything here explodes… really. Every weapon and armor has an explosion feature for attacks or counter attacks. Even something as small as the Swiss army knives explode on contact with something! Cript was chuckling. "Lord found this place way back, no idea who owns it or where these weapons came from but it's not a bad place to get good gear, if you can afford it." “And how much do these things cost to begin with?” I asked curiously. "The cheapest thing here is one trillion rem… and you're holding it." Cript said… I'm holding a tiny switchblade... “I have problems with the price tag.” I frowned. “Each one has an Explosive enchantment to it that I could put on for a literal fraction of the cost.” I said honestly. “Then what’s super special about it besides the explosions?” "Each kill with these weapons evolves them into stronger versions of themselves. That switchblade for example as max evolution looks like this." Cript pulled out theirs. It looked normal… til he flipped the blade out and a Dark Souls Ultra Greatsword popped flaming ICE fire covered the blade as I swear it was growling. "No weight, perfect balance from.any point along it, and for a sword this big it's speed is on par with a chainsaws rotations per second." “Well then…” I blinked. “That’s...still gotta take forever to make...oh also, quick question I forgot to ask, how the fuck does Copy work? Cause honestly it feels like my Copy ability hasn’t really done much even after everything.” "It levels up ridiculously slow. It's only five levels to it and most people who do have it die before maxing it out. Either from old age or combat related death." “And how does it level?” I asked honestly. “Cause I have the time to level it.” "Copying abilities. Duh." “Okay fine, how many things does it need to copy to level?” I rolled my eyes. "To reach level two… 9,000 I believe." “Isn’t that a little...no more like extremely excessive?” I asked honestly. "Not my rules. It's just like that." “Alright, and they all have to be through combat or what?” I asked curiously. “Instead of me just copying literally anything and getting past that part?” "Copy any ability and level it up at least once. If it can level up, if not it's automatically a single point of exp towards leveling Copy Cat." “And how many things would I need to copy to fully max this thing?” I asked. “Cause funnily enough I could probably solve that problem in my search for hero’s.” I asked curiously. "To level two is 9,000, to level three 20,000, to level four is 50,000, and to level five it's a wapping 100,000 abilities. So in total 179,000 different abilities." “Well..thankfully that’s not a big enough number all things considered…” I said honestly. “And what can each level do?” "Well level one is just the abilities. Level two allows you to completely change a weapon you have equipped into one of your opponents. Temporary. Level three lets you copy special energies of your opponents. Level four lets you near perfectly imitate their combat style. Level five let's you give the base version of your copied abilities to another, maxes out automatically all copied abilities, allows you to craft a superior replica of their armor or weapons, and perfectly replicate their energy and combat style. Basically at level five is the most overpowered thing ever." “And Jericho has all of that...wonderful, can’t wait to see how that backfires on him.” I rolled my eyes. "There are some abilities it can't copy though. Mainly Generation, and Amplify. You already know about Generation, and Amplify is it's other half, a booster that the more energy made by Generation the more it boosts and amplifies it." “Okay, so can the bastard copy the fact I own whatever Nothingness Power he’s handing out to people at the moment?” I asked. "Yes but copied energy not like copied abilities. It's bound to the person, meaning if I used Nothingness you wouldn't have the power to command it because it's bound to me." “Um...that’s not really how it works when, again, I am the King, and literally own that power, even if it’s ‘bound’ to someone...it still falls under my jurisdiction right?” I asked, not really sure how that makes any sense. "Before you came along there was just a king of Nothingness, not an Admin of Nothingness, and before there was a King of Nothingness it still existed without ownership. One can not claim ownership on energy, but can claim right to said energy if it comes from them, which is what you are, but only the energy that comes from you, which in your realm is all of that, but in mine is none." “But...I’m sorry I’m just trying to understand.” I said honestly. “But their copying my power, so wouldn’t that mean I’m still in the right or no?” I said. "Think of it like this. Your nothingness is like your kids, it has your code, or DNA in it, but they copied only the energy part, not the DNA or code part, apply it to another and their Code/DNA takes your place." “They already kidnapped three kids, you don’t need to remind me.” I frowned, not sure why my fragile motherly instincts immediately rushed to that but still. “But...I’m not gonna get anything for trying to make a point against it…” "I've told you before, these things don't always make sense and rarely seem fair, but it's just how it is. Accept it or go insane trying to get an answer that suits you." “And we aren’t insane already?” I asked in mock surprise. "You keep wanting answers so, clearly not." “Not my fault that people are either too scared or too blinded to ask questions.” I said. “Not my fault I actively try to figure stuff out instead of just having the answer thrown at me all the time...even though that happens all the fucking time…” I sighed out. “Sorry just...small peeve of mine…” "Seems like it's more of a Trigger than a peeve." Cript chuckled. "Word of advice for Copy Cat, abuse Starfish Cloning until it gets scary." “I have nearly a billion starfish clones at the moment, and that number isn’t stopping.” I said honestly. “The moment I got that power, I have slowly went from zero to absurd at a very scary pace.” I said. “One ability I have used and abused to hell and back, and I won’t stop.” "Heh… You know, if You, Eclipsa and Zeke all had the Generation and Amplify abilities you could possibly be on par with Jericho." “I’m sensing there’s a ‘you can get that power but’ coming.” I said honestly. “You gave Copycat freely so…” "I can give it to Eclipsa and Zeke also, but those two… they can be extracted from someone who has them, and knowing Nexus they might have some pre-extracted." “And they magically haven’t done that to you why and how?” I asked honestly, given this new development it was needed. "They need a corpse first." “As in they need to kill the user or they just take the power from a living host and shove it into a corpse?” I asked. "Kill the prior owner. Old school method of taking an ability but still effective." “So what’s the problem?” I asked honestly. “While that is a good thing to be concerned about...do you really expect me, Eclipsa or Zeke to die suddenly?” I asked honestly. "No, Nexus already killed prior owners, they have vaults for high value items like that. Find where the vault is and you three can get each and whatever else is there." “And where would this high value vault be?” I asked. “And has my future self not already burned it straight to the ground?” I asked, feeling like my future self would have done bad things to Nexus at this point. "Unlikely. They keep it in a very secure place. Where I'm not sure, never actually bothered looking for the thing." “Of course…” I muttered. “Well...do you know where they get all their water?” I asked curiously. “Might as well start with fucking with their water supply right?” "Pure aqua Crystals. Just one can fill an ocean and overflood a planet. Depending on needs it can give fresh or saltwater forever." “Pure Crystals?” I asked curiously. “That sounds like an interesting thing to know about.” "Huh. I guess you've rarely been in my realm so you'd likely never have known. Here there is a large… how to put it… each reflection in this realm has multiple of itself, each bound to a specific element, of which there are too fucking many in my opinion, and in them exist these special crystals. They are an infinite source of that specific element. For example Electronium is energy/electricity. Most crystals can only be used for a set amount of time before they lose their 'charge' and have to self recharge to be used again. You know that happens when their colors turn into a shaded darker than normal time and, obviously, they stop working. Pure elemental crystals are very rare and never lose their charge, so they can be used without rest." “And...can you make them?” I asked curiously. “Like, turning the metric fuck ton of elemental crystals I have at the moment, and turnign them into Pure Elemental Crystals?” "Your realms Synthesis stuff? I don't even know if they can. You're talking about items from two completely different realms here, and not all of them even exist in yours." “You said that they are pure elemental crystals.” I said while bringing out a Fire Crystal. “The way I think of it is...well, ‘purifying’ them as it were, getting rid of all the imperfections and making it what those Pure Crystals are ya know? Would make sense given that, as far as I can think of, they are the same material just a different quality that let’s it do what you talked about.” "Yes but my realms do this " Cript said, pulling out a red glowing crystals the size of my hand and as it glowed and fire covered his arm. "And yours can't." “Okay, but I can make it do that if I know how to actively make it.” I said honestly. “Would take a while to learn the process but I have time to research it all and then make them.” I shrugged. “They maybe rare naturally, but…” I chuckled. “Literally Nothing is saying that I can make Pure Crystals.” I said, finding that little saying a little apt and funny considering who I am. Cript rolled their eyes. "Alright but between all the elemental crystals, their color variations and mutations… that's 720 in total for all the pure crystals." “Jeez that’s a lot.” I said honestly. “And I wonder how long it’ll take before I can figure out the right process to do it all…” I hummed, my mind already working through all the possibilities. "Your clear lack of a social life." Cript said in a monotone voice. "I'll have some expertise help you but if you want to ensure this process you want to invent works best do it in my real, yours might not even work." “Alright.” I said. “And how long did it take you to figure that part out Cript?” "Never bothered. I can do this." Cript said, a bright red gem with a blue glowing center appearing in their hand. "Because my realm." “Well I mean you figuring out my clear lack of a social life.” I brought up. “Also lucky, you can just make shit from thin air, I have to do it the old fashion way of hard work and a lot of trial and error.” "So in other words you want to do this to prove yourself?" “Either that or get a thing that Jericho would obviously have because the fucker already has a lot of shit why not give him some more things.” "Eh. Again, your ego. so, let me guess. Clone for weapons, clone for research, clones for gathering allies." “More like thousands for each of them and millions doing other shit like taking care of my family, making sure my world is safe, hunting down Nexus, my kids, and Void Key, and a whole host of other laundry based bullshit I still need to do.” I sighed out. "So you just want to do all the work yourself? What about Zeke and Eclipsa? You don't want their help?" “At the moment…” I sighed out. “I need to break the news to those two about Rune and Butterscotch…” I sighed out. “Yet again...I’m trying to distance myself so I hold all the problems so the ones I care about don’t have to worry…” I muttered. “I’m not Atlas damn it, even if I’m god knows how much stronger than him at this point.” Cript slapped me. "You're an idiot. Besides they already know. They were in the crowd of your family. They saw everything." “Sadly wasn’t focusing on where they were in the massive crowd...and how long did it take you to figure out I’m an idiot?” I asked honestly, rubbing my cheek a little from the slap. "Same day I met you." “Then you should have already known I would do something stupid.” I said honestly. “So...I’m gonna have hundreds of clones try and help those two out emotionally, as well as all their wives/husbands…” I sighed out. Cript slapped me again. "They don't need clones dumb ass. They need you. I gave you the Starfish Cloning Ability to help you train and do small tasks, like this research. Not to do everything for you, because you are learning what you need to. You can't actually spend time with loved ones when your mind is stretched between all of the clones." “I’ve kinda got a hive mind going with the clones actually, figured that out off screen and while it’s a bit of a bitch sometimes it’s been working out fine.” I brought up. “But that’s not important. What’s important at the moment is that I have too much shit to do, and no it’s not ‘sending clones to do everything for me’, I’ve been doing things to, a lot of things, but the shit I have to do keeps piling up.” "And where is it said or written you HAVE to do everything at once? I'm going to give you three options. Either disbant all but three clones, meaning there are only four of you at the current time, use them as this ability was meant to be used for. Give up the ability and learn how to deal with things one at a time as ASK for help. And lastly, if you refuse both I'll make you." “Can’t fully make it just three other clones cause I have a shit ton of clones hunting Void Key and my kids, and no I’m not going to give this power up cause honestly it’s helped me do a lot for my family...you know, actively spending some fucking time with them while I’m off doing shit...like I should have done originally but oh no I’m always fucking busy…” "Then it's option three?" Cript asked with a raised eyebrow? “Hold on, just doing some math in my head…” I said while thinking through everything. “It can’t be three clones, I would say...maybe three thousand, a majority of them would be for literally all my wives and kids, so that would be about twenty five hundred, then the other five hundred would be for literally everything else like research, training, making sure my realm is still running, and a lot of other things. Sound better?” I asked honestly. “I’m trying to compromise here.” "Three clones, or I take the Ability away." “You said this is to help me mentally…” I said slowly. “But it’s not if it’s only three...I already failed my family twice...I can’t fail them again…” I choked back a sob. “I know you want to help...and billions of clones won’t help me…” I sighed out, knowing Cript won’t budge on this. “You won’t budge no matter what I say will you?” When Cript shook his head I took a deep breath. “Yeah...of course…” I muttered, feeling my clones start to fade away, except for five left of me, myself and four clones since one of them I can’t really get rid of cause I’m still busy with that trial in Mother’s domain. “There, I’ll get rid of the fourth one when it’s done with all those trials alright?’ "Alright. Make any more clones until I say so and I'll eliminate it." “You do know this will make my paranoia and fear worse right?” I asked bluntly. "Then seek help, you clearly can't carry this burden alone Atlas." “Well are you going to help my researching clone out?” I asked honestly. "I'll have my expertise on the elemental crystals help you. They made a lot of books about things involving their magical and atom structure." “Alright.” I said. “Well…” I sighed out, rubbing my temples. “Den mother instincts already shouting at me for not being with my kids...still don’t know where my kids Jericho kidnapped are...I hate you for making me go through this...and no, asking help for other things won’t really help my mental state.” "Hate me all you want, but get working on what you can do now. It's not everything but it's still something." “And if bad shit happens that I could have stopped I can easily blame you.” I brought up. “So, anything else I should know about before...doing whatever at the moment? Cause right now the laundry list I had is still there.” "No. Go on." “Wait, actually that fourth clone is needed, training Code with Player.” I brought up. “Just...randomly thought of that. So anyways...how do I actually get home? Cause this is the...what, second or third time I’ve left my Realm to another’s? So it might work differently.” "Use your DTN, but infuse code with it so it opens up." “Alright…” I said while opening a DTN, but also trying to infuse Code with it to get me back home. After a but the DTN opened and lines of code ran up along it. "Good." “Alright...now to drown my pain in ice cream…” I muttered while entering my DTN, knowing I’m going to need something to calm myself down. When I got back home I immediately wondered which one of my wives would appear and question everything. To be continued... Joy visits NexusJoy was riding along his glider to Manehattan to find the Nexus safehouse. Ben came back after all his clones suddenly vanished, and they explained everything, Rarity had to translate given they had a mouth full of ice cream. “Ben really needs some fucking help…” Joy muttered. “Like...I understand his problems but still…” He muttered as he flew down towards the streets, not fully knowing where the safe house would be and having a bad feeling asking around would cause problems. Where would this safehouse even be? The sewers might have been undamaged in the attack that destroyed it, maybe it’s down there? A bit cliche but effective. Joy Pondered, finding a Manhole cover and opening it. Hopping into the sewer and taking out a flashlight. “Alright...now to go through this massive thing…” Joy muttered as he started to walk in a direction, not really knowing which way to go but might as well start walking. Looking around there wasn’t any sludge or anything of the like, all dried up. Joy figured they didn’t fix up the system yet. Or are making a new one. Looking around Joy found a small maintenance room with an old map and notes from employee likely long since dead. The map helped and Joy found an anomaly there was a pathway to the right that according to the map, does not exist. “Well...let’s hope these people are friendly…” Joy muttered as he walked down the hallway that shouldn’t have been there. Walking down there lead to a dead end, or so it looked, there were three hand outlines drawn on the wall.This has to be some kind of puzzle. “Oh?” Joy muttered while looking over the hands, wondering how the puzzle should work. “Well...maybe?” He muttered as he tried to press one of the hand outlines. Upon touching one it glowed blue, touching another it glowed but the other shut off… a pattern? “Okay…” Joy muttered while pressing the one and then pressing the other one. After trial and error Joy managed to get the proper Pattern and a doorway opened in a flash of blue light to the right.a “Cool.” Joy said while entering the new door that opened up for him. This hallway was very high tech looking. All metal, and sifi looking. “Well...alrighty then.” He said honestly while seeing this all. “Wonder how long it’s been here…” Joy finally reached an auditorium area…… SWEET MOTHER OF! Joy couldn’t see the ceiling! Or the walls! It’s massive! “Well...shit.” Joy muttered. “This is...not what I expected…” He muttered. “Hello?” Walking around for a whie I found a guide post, and according to this there was someone in the dinner. “Alright…” Joy muttered while heading to the dinner, wondering who might be here and hoping there wasn’t just one person. Upon finally arriving at the first booth next to the kitchen door sat a roughed up older man, dozens of beer bottles just tossed about like dust. Joy walked over to the man, and he looked over at Joy. “Come to finish me off? Make it quick, before I’m sober.” He said drunkenly. “I’m not who you think I am.” Joy said. “Who are you?” “I’m former General Krot. Nott that that title matteres for shit now. Fucking hell…” “I’m sure to Ben and Coco they would think otherwise.” Joy said honestly. “What happened?” “Ambush. On our way here they came out from the other portals leading to and out of the Main Base, he killed off the last of us… everyone but me.” He said, taking a swig of beer. “It’s just me… I’m all that’s left of our founders beliefs…” “Coco’s still alive.” Joy brought up. “And who’s ‘he’?” “Jericho...and all his little lackeys he’s gathered so far.” “Why am I not surprised…” Joy muttered. “Well anyways, your work isn’t done yet, Ben would like to talk to you about everything.” “Yeah? Like what?” “Everything you know.” Joy said. “Anything to fight against Nexus and wake Coco up.” “What can this old fool even do?” “Help.” Joy said simply. “You can help us fight against Nexus, and bring back what it was supposed to be.” “What would I know that could help you?” “Literally anything and everything about Nexus?” Joy brought up. “Fine then. Ask away.” “First up, where’s the main water supply of Nexus?” Joy asked. “Cause we were told to cripple their water supply to start off.” “It’s in Cofrothes. A Realm entirely made by the founders, endless sea of all the fish of every ocean on ever world, and also endless water. Cup is somewhere sunken at the bottom over two million miles down.” “Cool.” I said. “Next question, how else can we cripple Nexus besides their water?” “Resources they have to gather from a world called Intret. Whole planet formed within a black hole, and somehow filled it, the entire place is one massive mineshaft of every resource you can imagine. Take that and the’ll be scarce for resources.” “Cool.” Joy said with a nod, writing down the second one down. “And where would those two places actually be?” "Safeguarded. The only way to each is guarded by Abominations. A failed attempt at making Admins. About as strong as one but as wild and unpredictable as a Psychopath bull." “So basically their easy to deal with?” Joy asked honestly. "Hardly. Basterds can tank a big bang sized blast. They were made from extracted bits of code from of the most feared Admins of the Admin war. Kro, the Admin of Berzerkers." “I think we got way past the ‘big bang’ levels of power a while ago.” Joy brought up. “And a Berserker admin? Well that just makes them pretty predictable to be honest.” Joy said honestly. "You say that. You want a demonstration there's a simulation deck ten floors below us. You can see what they are like." “That would be interesting.” Joy said. “But I think that could wait until we talk more, especially for me to lend an ear to your plights so you don’t drink yourself into a coma.” Joy said simply. “Especially when Ben is going to ask you to be his General, need you to be in top form instead of being a sad drunk.” "Spent most my life a field agent like the majority of us. Becoming a general basically means you're too old for field work, so they put you in a desk and if you don't adapt to it they put you in some automatic retirement home where even going to the bathroom is done for ya, doesn't matter how healthy you are." “Well that’s not how General’s work for us.” Joy said. “Your still young enough to drink more than a goddamn fish and still be conscious, what’s stopping you from being the General for us and being what you really are, a fighter who helps others in need.” "I want too… I really do. But like you said, Coco is in a Coma and I'm the only one who remembers our founders true goals. People these days don't want to hear it, but our reality is harsh, and not what it's meant to be." “And when someone is actively putting out a hand to help you? That same person that saw Coco’s memories and believes there’s at least one person still left to help fight the good fight?” Joy asked. “You don’t have to be the only one who remembers the founders true goals.” Joy said while bringing out a Memory Card from Castle Oblivion. “You can teach people your founder’s dreams and goals for a better future.” Krot sighed, contemplating his next words as he took another sip. "Alright. On one condition." “What would be the condition?” Joy asked curiously. "You. I want you to learn the ways of Nexus. The True Nexus. We are quite literally at the edge of extinction, a person of your influence might save what we once we're." “True.” Joy said honestly. “So, how to start?” "Follow me." Krot said, standing up and then nearly falling over, Joy catching them. “More like you point out which direction.” Joy said while keeping the poor guy up. Krot pointed Joy towards a room some ways down a long corridor. The room was small, oddly, and held a small statue of three arms each holding onto each other's end. “Oh? And the statue is supposed to be?” Joy asked curiously. "When our founders died, all that was left of them was three arms, latched onto each other with a grip that never faltered. We keep them back at the Capitol, it's a religious thing really." “I get it...a solidarity between three people, never letting go and never giving up.” Joy said. “Right?” "Pretty much. They marked their brother and sisterhood with a small blue dot imbedded within the palms of their right hand. For them it was just symbolic. For us today it's the equivalent to those fancy wrist devices you have." “Assistants?” Joy asked. “Honestly we don’t see these as symbols...more like portable menu screens to be honest.” Joy said honestly. "To each their own." Krot said, managing to stand on his own and walked over to the statue. "Place your hand in the center, and let them speak to you." “Alright…” Joy nodded as he gently put his hand in the center. Suddenly Joy found himself in a dark room, three hooded figures around him. "You seek knowledge?" The one in front of Joy asked, their voice deep and commanding. "You seek our teachings?" The one to the back right of Joy asked, their voice feminine and wise. "You seek answers?" The one to the back left of joy asked, male also, a younger voice than the other two. “Yes.” Joy said slowly. The environment changed, the group, Joy Included now atop reflective water, like standing on a mirror. "Which of us do you wish to speak with first?" The three asked, now in front of Joy. “Well...let’s go with you.” He said while pointing to the feminine voiced one first. "As you wish." She said, holding out a hand. Joy wasn’t fully sure but took the ladies hand nervously. She grabbed him by the wrist, fell back and dragged him down into the water underneath. As they got deeper until the water was it's darkest, everything was dark, only white/grey people appearing all around the two. "My earliest memory, waking up. It was just us all, where we woke up, never moving, never doing anything. How could we? We did not know what we were, or what we could do." She began speaking. “Okay then…” Joy muttered. "Time had yet to exist, so we have no idea how long we just existed like this. Days? Years? Eons?" “Makes sense.” Joy said honestly. "Then, one 'day'-" There was a sudden explosion in the distance, Code flowed out in all directions as everyone began moving towards the source once it does down. "Death. One of us discovered our Code, and the other discovered we could die. Our first two discoveries." “Oh?” Joy asked curiously. "Suddenly, as if the floodgates were opened, we began creating. Languages, art, mortal beings, souls, hearts. We finally discovered our purposes. As we built and built, we began to divide, some wanted to build together, others alone. In our infancy we began arguing, fight after fight over how we'd even make these places that would one day be called realms. And in eons to come, a new word, and our final discovery would be made." Suddenly, everything, the void itself and entire realms all across the vastness were broken, burned, and blood soaked. "War." “Yeah...that’s a thing.” Joy said worriedly. Armies of Admins marched across the void, each slaughtering one another in a grand battle. Each summoning code enhanced weapons and armors, hacking away at each other until they no longer healed or moved. It was an endless battle across creation and void. He'll didn't even come close to describing what Joy was witnessing. “Jesus…” "Our group, we dubbed Nexus, we stood for coexistence and compassion. We were ten thousand Admins strong, and at the war's end, it was just us three." “Well then…” Joy muttered worriedly. "We flew to our own realm, we named after our Group, Nexus. We stood for what we all believed in, a single creation devoid of separation by reflections and barriers. The Mother appeared to us, and gave us a task, told us a secret." “Oh? And what would that secret be?” Joy asked curiously. "She was created, not made. Each time she makes us Admins, was after she had been created in a different creation altogether, transforming the old into something marvelous, our vision of a unified reality. She told us we were the ones to build and create here in this creation, and so we went to work, spending so much of our lives trying to create her. But we quickly realized we lacked something we could never have, but our offspring could. Potential. Admins have no higher limits to break, no higher mountains to climb, but mortal life does. Your kind has always intrigued us with how resilient and resourceful you all can be." “Well then…” Joy said, not really sure what to say given all the news he’s getting. "We bred with the mortal creations we made, and in time, we died, defending them from those who went mad after the war. It pains us to see our life's work and defendants largely lead by such a false shepherd, but we do know it was to be expected. The mother told us the day one of our own was born from pure evil, our goal would be close at hand, but it would be up to the course of fate to decide if the new her would be like herself, or like the evil that would spawn her." “Well…” Joy muttered, not really sure what to say about that. "Now that you know this, what will you do?" “I mean...besides what we were going to do to begin with?” Joy asked. “Doing the same thing you wanted to...just with less of a horrific backstory.” "Then will you help rebuild our society, our people?" “You can read my mind, do you really need to ask?” Joy asked bluntly. “Also, would I be here if I didn’t want to do that?” "Then raise your right hand, and swear on the mark I shall bestow upon you, that you will fight only to obtain Mother's goals, create the her, and rebuild this creation as she had hoped." “Some people might stab me for this…” Joy muttered before raising his right hand and pledging to help. As Joy raised his right hand a blue glow emitted from the palm. "I, Dia, Admin of Justice swear in this Dire Wolf known as Joy to the True Nexus, our family helps its own, and now I will give the one gift of your choosing." “Gift?” Joy asked curiously. “What kind of gift?” "A gift of myself. A gift of Justice. In our time trying to craft Mother ourselves, we created many of the abilities you know and even use today. I can gift you one of these three." They said, waving a hand as three multi colored balls of light appeared between she and Joy. “What are the three choices?” Joy asked curiously. "To your left is known as Karmic Justice, to those who have sinned and done wrong additional damage is dealt, eating away at their very being. In the middle is Clairvoyance, enter the minds of the guilty to view their memories and pass Judgement. Lastly is Console, bring forth the death the wrongdoer has slain to fight at your side for some time." Joy blinked at those three abilities. “I’d say I want all three but you will only give me one...why not Console, that sounds cool.” Joy said, thinking that it would be hilarious to see Nexus suddenly have to deal with something it can’t deal with by just numbers alone. Nodding, Clairvoyance and Karmic Justice vanished as Console floated over to Joy. Taking it Joy felt the Ability flow into him, and merged with the others. "Thank you for aiding this Noble cause young one." “No problem, it’s what heroes do ya know?” Joy said with a smile, still a bit thankful for his and Ben’s mental connection so Ben could know what’s going on as well. "May we meet again, young one." With a nod, the Admin of Justice vanished as well as the area, the white void clearing back up into the room with the statue, Joy looked at his palm, and there was the blue dot, though now, Joy saw it looked a bit different. How he couldn't tell, it just did. "I see you did accept after all." Krot said, walking up to Joy, sober some. "Which founder did you speak to?" “I mean...I was expecting to talk to the other two given they asked ‘who first’.” Joy said, a little confused why he couldn’t talk to the other two. “Unless I have to go back and talk to the other two right?” "If you want. You can take their tests and trials to gain more gifts." Krot said. "After that they can give you information, tasks that are vital in one way or another to the final goal." "Well sounds about right." He said honestly. "So I'm gonna be spending a lot of time with this, unless it was barely two minutes here." "Five hours." Krot said, surprising Joy. "Oh boy." The wolf said. "And I was just told things and given a...pretty stupid strong ability from Lady Justice." "It's to be expected. They are echoes bound to this world, this creation by their determination and will alone. What felt like at most half an hour for you was much longer in reality." “Question, couldn’t Ben figure out how to...you know, fully bring their bodies back?” Joy asked. “I mean, we have their genetics, their conscience, and Code actually given these hands still hold all their powers…” Joy said with some thought. "Funny you mention that. They should have been able to bring themselves back, got enough code in their arms and such to do so easily. But they don't. I think they might be waiting for something to happen before making a grand reappearance." “Like when the fighting actually starts?” Joy asked curiously. “Possibly, maybe. Hard to say.” “Might as well ask them.” Joy said while putting his hand back into the center of the three. This time though… nothing happened. "You can only visit them once a day, such efforts like this exhaust them." Krot informed. “I doubt I could just...pour an elixir on their arms and have that work right?” Joy asked sheepishly. "Your enthusiasm is appreciated but ill placed. Come, time to show you what this base holds and can do." Krot said, leading the way. “Alright…” Joy said while following Krot. The tour was impressive. Krot showed Joy the armory, which held some of the Nexus made Replicas of Ben's weapons, mostly the lower tier versions but a few hundred of the newest ones were here also, enough munitions to put a million bullets in every being on Equis, a complete food conversation room, converting both matter and antimatter into food resources, a training deck that made the castles look inferior, and enough vehicles to completely cover Equis's surface. "I wasn't sure how many of us there were, I managed to make twenty thousand of these bases in my career, each well stocked and fit to build up armies and rebuild Nexus. The True Nexus. Pocket dimensions are very useful." “Well then…” Joy blinked. “This is...quite a lot to be honest.” Joy said. “Jeez...Ben’s gonna get a kick out of sending all his soldiers here…” Joy muttered. “So...question, why the hell are the teachers in Nexus teaching children quantum mechanics?” "While other Admins realms life was barely learning to use rocks and sticks for weapons, we were already taught all, at the time, current sciences and magics, many most realms still have not learned all what we were taught in our beginnings. We learned more as more developed and by the time the first cities emerged within other Admins realms, we already had colonized many other worlds within the realm our Founders made for us." “Yeah, nothing like getting the special treatment while everyone else was living like normal people…” Joy muttered. “I can imagine it was difficult but still.” "Now then, the final room on the tour." Krot said. “Can’t wait to see what it is.” Joy said, wondering what the final room could be. After a long elevator ride, the door opened to a single hallway with one door at the end. "I am sure you are aware of the Abilities vault yes?" Krot asked as the two walked to the door. “No.” Joy said. “What do you mean by that?” "You think Cript and all the other Experiments have those powerful abilities naturally? Nexus has stockpiled such powers since their earliest. It's our most safeguarded location. The powers in there are many and various. I wasn't able to get the Class B abilities and up, but C-E abilities can be useful and are a lot more common." He said, opening the door and for as far as Joy could see, glass canisters each holding some form of glowing energy lined the walls. "It's not much but should help out." “That depends on what all the abilities are.” Joy brought up. “Cause it’s not the strength of the ability that matters, it’s how you use it...also to be perfectly honest, yes, I did expect that cause it’s pretty easy to naturally get abilities when your creating new things.” "Hehe." Krot laughed lightly, walking over to a green glowing canister and picking it up. "This is a class D ability, known as Pressurize. You use Lindworm, right?" “Yes I do.” He said while summoning Lindworm. “What, can it create a pressurized zone of air or something?” "You can do that with Lindworm Naturally, but the Data Coco gathered states that the densest you can make the air is about as hard as steel. Maybe a diamond if you damn near kill yourself doing it. With Pressurize added not only will your wind currents be diamond tough naturally, given it's both an active and passive ability, you can make the air so dense it forms its own gravity." “Mine.” Joy said bluntly. “Even if I could just train and have my abilities be on par with that, I want to double up on the kind of crap I can do with it.” Chuckling Krot handed the Canister over to Joy. "Open up the top, and keep your hand inside until the energy completely gets absorbed into it." “Alright.” Joy nodded, kind of expecting this to hurt as he opened the canister and shoved his hand into it. It didn't hurt, in fact it felt more like putting his hand inside water and feeling it drain away. Once the ability was completely absorbed by Joy, he checked it out in his Assistant. "It has three levels, the first is basic pressuring, secondly allows for pinpoint precise pressure placement, the third is the fun stuff." “I’m gonna have fun with this.” He said with a smile. “By the way, can it also take away pressure?” "Yes, at level two." “Cool.” Joy said with a smile, already knowing how to use this ability in a lot of fun ways. "Well if that's all here then go fetch Ben, I'd like to speak with them and honestly I'd rather not leave this place alone." “He is...currently eating a boatload of ice cream...because he thinks he himself believes he’s failed his family twice in the same week…which is technically true given that his kids were kidnapped and Coco is in a coma…” Joy sighed out. "I see. I wish I could help but for all I know most Nexus must have changed already with Jericho in command so most of the facilities I know of might have different uses now." “Okay who’s the current leader of Nexus? Cause honestly this civil war thing isn’t just because Vincent died off screen right?” Joy asked honestly. "Well, according to law of the founders the next leader of Nexus should be Cript. While all the experiments of his classification are related to Vincent, Cript is the only one directly made by him, sexual wise I mean. However Vincent was rewriting the laws, trying to ensure the next leader was his own council, and that's where the infighting began." “And so Cript just...left Nexus to implode without doing anything?” Joy asked. “He literally owns Nexus, why didn’t he start doing something to stop their mad ravings?” "You'd have to ask them that. I couldn't tell you if I wanted to." Joy sighed out. “And did he even help evacuate or was it after he helped?” "I haven't seen him since he was a newborn so I don't think he helped any. Though it's not impossible to say he does still have a plan, what though is hard to say." Joy wanted to tell the guy who Mother was, but decided against it. “Well I’m sure when his plan does come full circle you’ll probably be questioning a lot of things.” "Likely. Now then, let's get some life into this base. It's creepy in here with only two people." “Ya think?” Joy asked before clapping his hands, several Shinobi Nobodies appeared and were kneeling to Joy. “How long have you been here?” Joy asked honestly. “Since you entered my lord.” One of the five shinobi’s said simply. *Impressive. Do they remember who they were in life, we, when they had their hearts I mean?" Krot asked. “Our Lord has given us all the choice of remembering our past selves.” The head Shinoi, which Krot noticed was a lot different than the other four and also how the being seemed to be there but also not was interesting. “To some of us we agreed to remember, to others they felt their past was their past.” "Interesting." Krot said simply. “So, need more people here? Cause I can just give some people a call and get people here.” Joy brought up. "Alright then." Krot said. "Get calling. Time to put it to use. When Ben is ready to talk I'll see him, till then I'll be making maps to the other bases like this one." “A lot of people coming up.” Joy said while pulling out a phone and calling people to get here. To be continued... Nobody goes to the Void“I hate not having clones helping me with all this fucking paperwork…” I groaned, looking at a massive stack of papers I just got done. “Even with my four other clones I’d rather be doing something productive, like going to that new bakery and ordering their entire stock…” “That would be the fifth bakery you bought out.” Luna said while thankfully helping me. “So?” I asked. “In two days.” Twilight added. “...I’m still helping the people…” I muttered with a pout. “Yeah, I heard those bakeries were able to open two extra shops because of your orders.” Rarity said, filing away the papers to the outgoing and rejection sections. “We know your upset Ben, but come on.” Luna said. “None of you were complaining about it before when I got more ‘padding’.” I rolled my eyes. That earned a chuckle from Luna. “True, but that is sexy padding, and if it wasn’t for the fact I think you being an Admin makes you immune to health issues, I’d worry about your cholesterol.” “We’ve seen you angry, depressed, but this is beyond even what I do when sad Darling.” Rarity said. “And I once ate Fifty tubs of ice cream and nine dozen donuts over a miss shipment of fabrics.” “And how long did that take you?” I asked honestly. “... about two...hours…” “Jesus christ…” I muttered. “Look, how about you leave the paperwork to us, I know a lot about governance and so does Tia, as well as Chrysalis and some of the others, so we can all take this over while you go to those meetings with Krot and some others you’ve been putting off.” Luna said, pulling me up and placing my sideways crown back on proper. “You might like how they go.” I sighed out. “Alright alright.” I said while getting up off my chair. “So...besides Krot...how many other meetings do I need to go to?” “Consequence.” Luna called, the Nobody appearing. “How many meetings does Ben have today?” “Forty, the build up has been expected.” Consequence said. “Cause Cript is all ‘hey, you shouldn’t have millions of clones doing exactly what you normally do’.” I rolled my eyes. “But who’s first?” “First is Krot , he seemed a top priority, then a meeting with the current leader of Daybreak Empire Leon and his second in command Cid. And so on and so forth.” “Alright...so Krot first.” I said. “I believe he’s still at the Compound?” “Yes but once we send word you are ready he will arrive here within minutes.” Consequence informed as he and I walked to the Throne room. “Well...I’m ready whenever he is.” I said honestly. “I shall send word.” After taking a seat in my throne and fixing myself up a bit, Krot arrived. “Your highness.” He said with a bow. He was well cleaned up, suit a bright white with many medals and patches meaning many things I imagine. “General Krot.” I nodded. “How are you doing today?” I asked politely, wanting to make a good first impression. “Good. Many of your own Kingdom and others, including your own brother Joy have agreed to join our foundation, abiding by our founders original ideals and not of the ones Vincent created and Jericho abuses.” He said with a nod. “If I may speak, I’d like to first discuss where I believe we failed as an organization, leading to this current group we face today.” “I mean...besides letting Vincent take over cause ‘the prophecy said so’?” I brought up. “That is the main cause yes, but after much consideration and research, in simple, we failed because we never truly had a leader until Vincent arrived. You see, before Vincent claimed the title of King of Nexus, there was no king, General and Noble were the highest ranks received, we were largely a foundation ruled solely by those old enough to obtain the Nobility rank and they counseled the rest. When Vincent came along his knowledge of our ways and the Prophecy lead him a means to persuade the council into making him king and soul ruler, and by having never had a true ruler before we were easily lead astray from our true goals, after all, having a king was new to us, and nobody dares question their ruler.” “I mean...in hindsight you could have just asked your Admin’s for guidance, you literally had a way to talk to them if Joy’s experience meant anything.” I brought up. “We did, but they refused to speak on the matter. I believe in order for this new Nexus to achieve what the old failed we must exist under a proper king. Somebody we can trust who can both organize us and lead us, and know how to hold us at bay if things start to sway to a negative direction. From there within any kingdom they rule we’d be more along the side of Knights or something akin to that.” “Okay...but that makes no sense when one of them is literally the Admin of Justice...wouldn’t she have been furious at all the shit Vincent did and expected Justice to be brought down upon him?” “One would think, but she especially was silent. Perhaps they were aware of this failure, and perhaps this was needed in order for our true goal to be realized. whatever the case from this day onwards we are no longer simply Nexus, we are The Nexus Templar, serving our king without question.” “Alright.” I nodded. “So anyways, besides all that, I presume you’ve already sent your new Nexus through the wringer?” I asked, expecting the General to have immediately started training. “Yes, many of your own citizens show great promise, though they are nowhere near combat ready just yet. Now then, can you point me in the direction of Zeke?” “Why do you ask?” I asked, not trying to sound defensive but considering how those two felt during Rune and Butterscotch's betrayal...it just came out. “I am afraid I didn’t get to that part yet. You see, when I referred to serving our king without question, I meant Zeke, not you.” “Again. Why do you want to see Zeke?” I asked. “He’s...getting better but...telling him he’s King? You do know he doesn’t want a ‘Ruling Role’ right?” "Yes, which is why he is perfect. As the Admin of Hearts he is also the King of Hearts. He is the only other one of the Experiments to become an Admin and holds both vast tactical wisdom and leadership skills. He feels the loss of Equis/Daybreak was always unavoidable, so he took precautions to avoid a mass loss of life when it did, and he succeeded in that. He may not want the role of King, bit he was quite literally built for it." “He will just tell you to go to me right?” I asked. “But…” I sighed out. “If you want to...head to My Hero Academia, that’s where they are the moment and...it’s a pretty good place just from what I’ve read up.” I said, planning on going there sooner or later. "Thank you." Krot said with a bow. "Now then, about the other bases I constructed." "What about them?" I asked curiously. “Want me to do some pest control in case our enemies found them first?” "There is the likelihood they have but unlike the one here, the others are safeguarded both by the world's natural terrain and defenses of my own design. The only way to shut all of them down is via the primary control room. Thankfully all these bases share the same layout, however the rooms are switched around randomly. I recommend while dealing with the defenses a small Infiltration team breaks in while mass assault squad keeps the base defence AI busy." “How much you want to bet Jericho has just waltzed in and made it his?” I asked honestly. "We have few reports on Jericho but from.what we do have I have a strong feeling he will not if rarely be in direct contact with combat until his desired war is upon us. He sees everything as a chess game, our pieces and his, he will want to see how our pieces measure up." Krot informed.” “Well he can’t really compare when one of the pieces that’s supposed to counter him has currently fucked off.” I sighed out. “And when I brought up ‘oh hey, why don’t we just get the ability to make us on par’, Cript said ‘I’m scared you’ll die and get it taken away’ like he thought we weren’t good enough or something.” "Perhaps…" Krot said quietly. "Once my first assault teams are ready and my king gives word I'll contact you for additional fire power in the form of groups we can take this first base on list." “Would be rather simple.” I said honestly. “But do you need actual big fire power or sneaky fire power?” "I feel we can handle the sneaky factor, we'll ask you provide heavy firepower to keep the defense AI busy." “Sounds simple enough.” I said. “That’ll happen whenever your fully ready.” "Thank you." Krot said with a bow, leaving. “Alright…” I muttered. “Next!” Walking in now came Leon, his attire much the same, save for a few medals and Cid, standing next to him. "Ben." Leon said with a nod. “Leon, Cid.” I nodded. “How are you two doing today?” I asked politely. "Paperwork coming out our asses." Cid grumbled. “Believe me, I understand.” I grumbled in agreement and shared pain. “So, what would you two like to talk about?” "As you know Daybreak Empire has suffered many blows recently. With Zeke and Mors gone and our primary world now obliterated, while our people are largely adjusting governance wise we are sadly weaker." “Wait, so you don’t know?” I blinked, a little surprised by this. “Zeke and Mors aren’t dead...I kinda thought you were there when me, Eclipsa and Zeke got married.” "What?!" Cid and Leon both yelled. "How? We recovered Zeke's corpse?!" Cid yelled. “That...was Zeke’s clone, Charlie.” I brought up. “Jesus...I have way too much to explain…” I sighed out. “Consequence, did Twilight make a Schedule for all my meetings?” I asked him. "She's tried. But I handle your scheduling matters." He replied. “Well...mind pushing my next meeting a little back? This is gonna take a while.” I said nervously. "Of course. I shall inform them immediately." I spent a good two hours telling Cid and Leon about everything that happened when Zeke was split, his Nobody, sharing a body with Trixie, and all the recent events. Needless to say, they were pretty speechless. “And that should be the long and short of it.” I said honestly. "But why didn't Zeke come back? Daybreak Empire needs his leadership now more than ever, especially now that his is the Admin of Hearts and Keyblades!" Leon shouted. “Let me ask you something, have you actually ‘needed’ Zeke being a leader?” I asked. “Cause I’m pretty sure Zeke made damn well sure you all can think and work things out by yourselves.” "That may be so but the people look towards him for safety, he is the wielder of the X-Blade and now he himself is Kingdom Hearts, a symboles, a person like that gives hope, and hope is something the people need!" “They look towards him for safety...so what, did all his hard work mean nothing to make you all strong and independent?” I asked Leon curiously. "Our strength isn't the priority here, we can survive without him, but Zeke made everyone, every world that joined us so much better. Now tell me where Zeke is." “‘We can survive without him’.” I repeated to Leon, staring Leon dead in the eyes. “I can tell you where Zeke is, but at the moment your acting like a child crying that his father isn’t there to make the bad things go away.” "I wouldn't expect you to understand." “Oh really?” I asked. “Tell me, what don’t I understand, I haven’t lived with Zeke as long as you have, so I’d really like to know.” I said in a patient and understanding tone. “And Cid, you can help elaborate if you want.” "Er, uh what Leon here means to say is that Zeke has done a lot for us. We went from having lost our world to having not only it back, but also made it possible for us to help others in the same situation. We went from being damn near helpless to being able to defend and save others. When Zeke founded Daybreak Empire over the old Daybreak town we knew only good things could come from it. And it did, all that lost knowledge helped us and others in ways the traditional Keyblade ways would have kept secret. He broke the old rules and created new ones that were fair and just. We know Zeke tried to downplay his role but in the eyes of everyone in Daybreak he was a living legend." Cid tried to explain. "He built up Daybreak and the world it evolved into from nothing and many others as well. You inherited your kingdom and had land appear here with magic and your Nobodies. In short Zeke is just a better leader than you, and given his abilities would make a much better king." Leon said with a tone of venom. I stood up and walked over to Leon. “Oh? So because I was handed a kingdom, I’m not a good enough leader?” I asked simply. “Because I worked hard to gain what I have now, I’m worse than Zeke?” "Your realm only exists because of Light and Darkness clashing, a small hairline border between the two. You may have earned that crown but so far you have not shown you deserve it." Leon said, looking me head on in the eyes before starting his leave. "Now if you don't mind, I have to find my Admin." "Awh shit kid…" Cid sighed. The door remained closed to Leon. “No no, we’re still talking.” I said. “Even if you walk off after basically spitting in my face, I still have information you need, both for Zeke’s whereabouts, and to a lot of other things. And I’m sorry for being a little...on the fence with telling you, see...Zeke is still recovering from Rune’s betrayal.” I said to the two. “He’s been getting better...and even though another person is already heading off to make him their king...it’s still hurting a lot.” "Zeke has always suffered." Leon said, turning around to face me. "Since Daybreak Empire was founded, how many wars has Zeke told you about?" “Please, continue.” I said. “I don’t know how many because I didn’t get married to him until...maybe a week or two ago? Time is really weird to be perfectly honest.” "Sixty. And in each Zeke has lead us, commanded us and seen horrors that haunt us both. Infants and children dead in our arms because we arrived just a bit too late! Not every world was perfect when we arrived, so many were in their own wars and had their own horrors. We ended it for them, we suffered so they didn't have to anymore." “Zeke knows death and bloodshed...but how does having someone you love, your own safety net, betray you to your own enemy...as well as never even loved you to begin with?” I asked. "Such an event would crush any man, but where Rune was a liar, the one false love, he still has so many, now including you. If there is anything I know about Zeke it's that he can see the brighter side of a situation." “I know...didn’t make his hollowness any worse…” I muttered sadly. “So anyways, you want to know where Zeke is, and honestly I don’t even need an apology because you still don’t know a lot of things.” "Well that's as good an ending as we hope for." Cid said. “Yeah, I’d like to show you two what Nothingness truly is...but I doubt one of you even cares.” I brought up. “So, ever heard of ‘My Hero Academia’?” "Hmm… sounds like Super Powers." Leon muttered. "We know where it is." “Start there.” I said while passing him a note on which world it specifically was just in case. “And also, do you want to know what Nothingness truly is?” "I'll learn when you learn what a true king is." Leon said with a smirk. "Your greenness shows like a house plant." “I haven’t really been a king for all that long to be honest.” I brought up. “I was working my way towards being able to rule, Zeke, at the time being a god amongst men for several reasons, was kinda handed it.” I brought up. “But I mean, when your hero of a world that tends to happen sometimes.” Leon and Cid left, and I began wondering how I can be a better ruler. Without clones… like what Zeke did. No clones just a bunch of people and Keyblades... “Didn’t I already summerize this as ‘do what I’ve already been doing but with a fuck ton more paperwork’?” I asked myself curiously. “Helping people, making sure things are running, I have been getting better at leadership...also why am I comparing myself to Zeke when he was literally made to be a leader?” I frowned. “Whatever, something else to think about, Consequence you can bring the next group in.” The next group was a group of people from the list of people whose world's bad guys vanished. Funny enough it was Hercules. "Hi there." He said with a wave. “Hello, how are you doing today?” I asked politely. "Pretty good. Actually things back home have been great save for the fact all our evil people are gone. Not just Hades, the Titans, Medusa, and many others. Just up and gone." Herc said with a frown. "The peace nice but it's still concerning." “It is concerning…” I said nervously. “What do you know about other worlds if I may ask?” "Not much. Just bits and pieces from Daybreak really." “Alright.” I nodded. “So...to put it simply, someone a whole lot worse than what you’ve faced from another world took them all to add to his ever growing army.” I said, knowing Hercule was going to learn this sooner or later. "Yikes…" “But that doesn’t mean all his hopeless.” I said. “Cause you are the world’s greatest hero, Hercules, and with a lot of hard work and determination, they won’t stand a chance.” I said honestly. “So...might seem pretty forward, but I’ve never really been one to be subtle, want to join my cause in fighting against this growing threat? I know it’s forward, but so is having all your villians being taken away out of nowhere.” "Of course I'll join. Can't be a hero if I'm not helping." “Good man.” I said with a nod. “Now the training will be a lot more difficult than what you’ve previously experienced, so a quick question is do you want to train back on your world or here?” I asked curiously. “We have everything you could ask for in training equipment and expertise and more.” "Back home would be better. I know some people who can help." With that I had some people go with him to make sure everything went well. The next person was… Ceil Phantomhive, but he had this orange streak along his normally jet black hair. "Ben." He said simply. “Earl Phantomhive.” I nodded, not knowing what’s new or special about this Ceil. "That's not my title anymore." He muttered. "Clearly you are failing to see the larger picture of who I am and why I am here." “Oh, I am sorry.” I said. “I sadly haven’t been keeping track with a lot of things given that I’ve been having to keep track of...well a lot of things.” I said sheepishly. "Looks like I'll have to spell it out for you then. I'm the help Father sent you." “I mean...you could have just started with that.” I said. “I don’t really know many of my family from Cript’s side cause...well I have only met you people twice.” "Clearly. I am here to help you have a better understanding of the type.of field works you'll be experiencing come this war and help you learn some manners. An argument in your own court should have been silenced swiftly, not allowed to escalate to volumes unfit for indoors." “Do I look like the kind of person that would keep ‘indoor voices’ in any situation?” I asked honestly, motioning to my entire self "As a king and mother you must lead by example, and so far all your examples have been in poor taste." “Hey, I represent that.” I said in a joking manner. "I can see I have my work cut out for me." Ceil said. “Well then where to begin?” I asked simply. “Cause I have a lot more meetings to attend and even more things to do after the fact.” "First off I can tell you that since it appears obvious you don't even know how many or with whom you are meeting with you should start from there." “Well I was told I had fifty meetings.” I started simply. “And I do know who I’m meeting, I would be dumb not to know.” "Well I'm going to have to set up shop somewhere. I'll send for.you once I've set up." Ceil said, taking his leave. “Alright.” I nodded. “Next please.” The next arrival was actually a surprise. Lord. "Your meetings are shit." He… insulted. “I don’t open up with insults when I meet you Lord.” I said simply. “But what brings you here?” "As you know we need allies who are on our level. Admins. I have a few who I know will aid us but this one in particular I do not want to speak with alone…" “Oh? And who would that be?” I asked curiously. "Asmith, the Admin of DNA. I know you have heard of him." “Oh him? Well I’ve heard of him from Ben 10 and all that jazz, but I haven’t met him officially.” I said honestly. “But I would like to talk to him if it’ll get us a strong ally.” "Past. Strong, that's not how I'd described him. Anyway, come on. I want to get this over with fast." “Mind putting my other meetings on hold till I get back Consequence?” I asked the Lingering Will. "I can have Joy take over in your place for a while." Consequence said. “Yeah that would be true.” I said. “Let’s hope Joy’s not too busy with what Krot might be putting him through…” I muttered while clapping my hands. “Joy? You there?” “Go to hell…” Joy muttered as he walked in, looking tired as hell from all the crap Krot has put him through. "Come on." Lord spoke up, next to a portal of sorts. “Alright.” I nodded while following Lord to where Asmith was. We were on what looked like a fortress of sorts, and we're immediately assaulted by green robots. Lord just put up a barrier and deflected all the attacks effortlessly. "Really? Just show yourself you old bastard." “Come on Asmith, you know full well Jericho is back and probably has any number of Vilgax’s abusing your tech. How about you get off your high horse and show yourself.” I called out. After a bit the robots stopped and after a bit the small Galven walked up to the two. "You have five minutes." Asmith said. His voice sounds like from.his first appearance in the Ben ten movie. So Ben should be Ten then. At least in this reflection. “It’s gonna take a lot longer talk than five minutes, but we need your help.” I said. "I know. Jericho is back and already he's causing trouble and stealing my technology." Asmith said. "So will you help or what?" Lord asked. "Perhaps. Will you finally Admit I'm the better inventor." "No way in hell." “You two are better in different ways from each other, can we not have this dick measuring contest now?” I asked. "He's just all kinds of upset because I invented the Omnitrix well before he was able too." Asmith said smugly. "I would have gotten it if I managed to figure out the codex rewrite." Lord grumbled. “Oh boo hoo.” I said. “He made it first, doesn’t mean it’s super special anymore when it’s mass produced to hell, including all its variants.” I brought up. “Plus a fucking Crab with a shitty accent made the exact same thing but with all those aliens Predators, you can still make something that’s better you know that right?” Asmith just smirked. "Not the original." "Piss off." Lord hissed. “And you decided not to one up him and make something better?” I asked Lord honestly. “But what’s so special with the Original than? Cause I’m mostly going off of all the shows lore at this point so I don’t know everything.” Asmith gave a slight laugh. "The omnitrix seen in that show is a heavily, downgraded version of the original." “Still an overpowered piece of shit.” I deadpanned. "The original, allows any who wears it to gain the powers and abilities of every Admin that was around before, and even after the war. Your Code is there too Ben." "I still call Bullshit that you were able to make that." Lord said. "What can I say, I'm just the smarter man." Asmith said, earning a glare from Lord. “While I won’t call bullshit on the Original having that capability I will call bullshit on it having my Code when it just came into being not...what a month ago?” I asked honestly. “And where would this ‘original’ one be? I sure as shit hope it’s not in Jericho’s hands.” I brought up. "Relax. The original is right here." Asmith said, lifting up his shirt, the iconic symbol attached to his belly. "To ensure its safety I embedded it into my own body and code. I got your Code and DNA added to it via my collection bots." He said, a small fly whizzing past me. "They have come in real handy. Just a skin or hair sample is all I need." “Alrighty then.” I nodded, understanding the concept. “So, again, are you going to help us? Or is being told that your better than Lord in one situation is more important than having everything get destroyed?” "I'll help, on one condition." “What would that condition be?” I asked curiously. "I need a sample of Cript's code." "Ha! Good luck." Lord said. I took a moment, before taking a deep breath and some of my bugs crawled into my hand, holding small pieces that both Asmith and Lord could tell was Cript’s Code. “Is this enough?” I asked curiously. “Or does it need to be a complete set?” Asmith took it, looking it over. "Hmm… this is part of Cript's code, but it's barely thirty percent, the other seventy or so will be needed." “Ah.” I nodded. “Good too know, but I’m pretty sure Cript would just hand over a small bit of it considering he just doesn’t care anymore about things.” I shrugged. "If you can ask him for it then. With Cript's code added to the storage Chambers, this device could be the key to victory." “Question...what’s stopping Jericho from just...making your Original Omnitrix?” I asked worriedly. “As I said before, Jericho is basically an Edgy Cript so...he can do damn near anything.” "Nothing really. He's smart and resourceful, but he lacks what I have. The code sequences of past Admins. The first generations like myself are the strongest." “Isn’t he capable of just...remaking first generation admins though? He has all of Cript’s abilities...and from what I was told about Generation and Copy Cat...along with the Starfish cloning…” My voice trailed off in understandable concern at what Jericho could do. "Admin code can only be copied from.the original sequences, like the ones here." He said, tapping on the original Omnitrix. "The only way to bring them back is to either somehow have The Mother do it, or gain the help of The Admin of Time." “And where would the Admin of Time be?” I asked curiously. "No idea. He's been in hiding since the war ended." “Wouldn’t be surprised if Jericho somehow tracked the bastard down…” I muttered nervously. "That is a worry for later. Right now get me that code Sequence from Cript, and I'll arm each of you with one of these." I proceeded to tap on my Assistant to call Cript, hoping he was available instead of me having to hunt him down. "What?" I jumped, Cript appearing behind me and startling me. “Yes hi, mind if I take a small bit of your Code for Asmith here?” I asked. “His help against Jericho..kinda has the stipulation of completing his work.” "Sure." Cript said, plucking out a piece of hair. "Wait, just like that?" Asmith asked. "You never asked." Cript replied, handing the hair to them. "Bye." They said, vanishing now. Asmith looked over the hair, and tapped on the Omnitrix. "Unknown DNA and Code Sequence detected." The Omnitrix spoke, scanning the hair and then absorbing it. "Catalogued. Upgrades required for transformation." "Approved." Asmith said, the Omnitrix began glowing now. "I figured that would happen." “I mean...it is Cript after all.” I said honestly. "This should only take a few minutes." Asmith said. “Alright.” I nodded. “And how long would it take to start making those things?” "Once this is done I can get started." "Great. I'm gone now." Lord said, leaving. "Sour puss." Asmith said. He leaped all the way to my left shoulder. "If you want to see my lab, start walking." “Well...might as well.” I said while heading off towards Asmith’s lab. “So, how does it feel knowing you single handedly made one of the most overpowered objects in existence?” "Boring. How do you top it, simple, you can't. Makes all other works near meaningless." “Maybe you shouldn’t have set the bar that high.” I said honestly. "I set it high because I never expected to reach it." “When you have literally all the time in the world and no one can stop you, there is no wall in your way to halt your progress.” I said honestly. "Yeah. Take a left." I nodded while taking a left. “So, out of all the reflections of users of your own tech...which one were you more proud in?” I asked curiously. "None." “Really? Not even impressed on how much good it was used for?” I asked curiously. “I invented that version of the Omnitrix as a means to help life forms better learn about each others way of life and cultures, a measure to avoiding misunderstandings and even cultural and genetic barriers. But all they could think of was means to use it against one another as weapons. Even in the hands of someone using it for good, they are still using my work to hurt others. I didn’t make a weapon, I made the ultimate answer for understanding.” “It’s funny how you also made the ultimate answer for destruction.” I said. “I understand your reason to make it...but to be honest you kinda should have seen that coming. But honestly your tech can do that still, but it can still be used to save and or destroy people’s cultures.” I brought up. “Like...in one of the episodes of Ben 10 Alien Force, sorry I don’t know the actual alien races names so please bare with me, but it took Chromastone to help bring back Diamondheads home world and civilization back, your tech can do a whole lot more than just be the universe’s best Rosetta Stone.” "Perhaps, so long as it's in worthy hands. Sadly that won't be the case for the mark two's. The mark one though, well I'll have some hope for." He said, the Omnitrix stopped glowing. "Upgrade complete." It said, giving a single flash. "Perfect." Asmith said, leaping down and readying it. "I haven't used this devices in eons." “It’s just like riding a bike.” I said. “Once you get back on it’ll come to ya...also mind if I ask about literally all the other iterations of the Omnitrix you made besides the main one I know and the Magnum Opus?” "Well, time for a test run." Asmith said, punching the dial down. There was a bright flash of green light. When it faded, I was looking at… me?! "Hm. Code sequences stable, outfit, standard." The me he turned into was wearing a jumpsuit of sorts, and the Omnitrix symbol was over the right shoulder. "Abilities." Asmith said, actually summoning No Heart. "Weapons too. Good." “Well then…” I said. “Didn’t fully expect it to be a complete replica...kinda thought there would have been some differences.” "Code works different than DNA Ben, yet at the same time they can be near identical in terms of function." Asmith said, reverting back. "Alright then, let's get started." “Where do we start?” I asked curiously. “Or are you just going to clap your hands and make them all in an instant?” "I may be one of the first Admins but my abilities with Code are admittedly quite pathetic. While I am the Admin of Genetics I can only make the first and earliest forms of single celled organisms and mutated them to evolve and survive accordingly to each world, and that takes several thousand years each world. Once I know they survive and start multiplying and evolving on their own I let them work it out. It's why when machines and technology came about I took to it. My intellect is of my own study and research." “Surprising to be perfectly honest.” I brought up. “Why couldn’t you just make machines that amplified your code and abilities? The Omnitrix is one thing, but why didn’t you make anything like suits, nanotechnology, or things along those lines?” "Code has a will of its own. While we control and create it, one can not simply make a machine that amplify it. Even the first Omnitrix, while I transform into another Admin I am still limited to the creation and code strength of my own code, borrowing mostly just the abilities, strengths, and weaknesses of the Admin I transform into. The only ever successful method of strengthening code is with the Amplify ability, but only three exist in all of creation, and two are in Nexus's Abilitity storage vault, and the other resides within young Zeke." “Wait really?” I asked in surprise. "Oh yes. I find it funny really. Cript has Generation, and Zeke amplify. Two abilities with such interesting origins." Asmith said, the door before us opening as we entered a rather large laboratory. “Alrighty then, but wait doesn’t Cript also have Amplify or something?” I asked curiously. “And jeez this place is big.” "Haha. Nope. Cript only has Generation. You see, back when we were all still developing our code, and therefore everything, two Admins wanted the title of Admin of Abilities. They were quite competitive. Their crowning achievements was Generation for one, and Amplify for the other. Both abilities made to outdo the others, but together create something of unimaginable potential. Alone if Zeke were to gain some more strength and utilize Amplify I wouldn't be surprised if he could rival Cript." “Well okay then.” I said. “Can’t wait to see if those two things can be Copied because CopyCat is kinda busted.” I brought up. "Afraid not. Copy Cat can not copy Amplify or Generation. The admins that made those two abilities made it so they could not be replicated by that ability." “And yet it can be freely given to people.” I brought up. "Not exactly. You see, Generation is not like other abilities. It has to be given to one at birth or conception, to allow the body to adjust before it's even activated. Amplify while it can be received by anyone, if the user is not capable of holding all the increasing potency of it, will explode like a suicidal Delete." “And Grey doesn’t work like Amplify?” I asked curiously. “Cause it kinda sounds like it does given what Eclipsa showed off.” "Grey acts like a mix of the two abilities, but it's an energy, able to endlessly replicate itself and amplify other energies, however the potency and speed of it is drastically cut because it's an energy itself, not an ability." Asmith said, starting to work on something. “So basically it’s both but kinda nerfed?” I asked curiously. “That doesn’t sound scary at all.” "Put bluntly yes." Asmith said. "For an example for the time it will take Eclipsa to form an ocean of Grey one with Generation would have formed of Galaxy of all other energies at once, and with amplify a drop of grey is like a matchstick, and Amplify is a… rocket thruster. For lack of a better way to explain it." “Eclipsa was definitely faster than that…” I muttered, remembering our time training before bad things happened. “But okay then, still sounds pretty fucking scary.” "It is. It's why only three of Amplify exist, and five of Generation exist. Across all timelines and realms." “And then those abilities are just going to be given to people like fucking hot cakes.” I said. “I’m sure of it.” "Only if they learn how to forge them. But the method of even making Abilities was lost with their Admins after the war." “Jericho.” I stated as if his name was an answer enough to explain how those things won’t be lost for much longer. "While his threat is great not even he or Cript has ever made an Ability. The art is long lost Ben." “I’m pretty sure it’s not gonna be lost for much longer to be honest.” I said honestly. “A lot of things are being brought up that should have been lost.” "Perhaps. Only time will tell." “Alright.” I nodded. “But let’s get to work on these things right?” "Yes. I'll need the basic items… maybe I could if I calibrate it right… hmm… can you grab the Dial Sequence selector and Genetic Encoders in the storage room over there?" Asmith motioned to a door at the other side of the lab behind him. “I have a feeling I’ll know what the hell those things are just by looks alone?” I asked nervously. "The circle that shows the alien and the black band that latches to the arm…" He said bluntly. “Thank you.” I said. “Need to know, I don’t know the technical names of things.” I said while heading into the room to grab the items he needed. Opening the door it took a bit of looking but I found both in some trays that were packed with them. I took them to him and he grabbed one from each and began linking them together. "Hmm." He hummed as he was messing with the Dial. “Oh?” I asked curiously, wondering what he’s humming about. "This is my newer model, I'll need to manually install the needed parts to make it work as I'm calculating. Where's that lazy assistant of mine?" “Um...that depends on who your assistant is and...what Time Frame we’re going on here.” I said. “Cause at the moment...I’m getting a ‘Ben 10, Race Against Time’ feel where Ben and Company are heading here as we speak to stop the Omnitrix from nuking this universe.” I said honestly. "That? That was four months ago." Asmith said. "At least in this reflection." “Alright thank you.” I nodded. “Then I wouldn’t know where she is.” "Knowing her she's likely in her personal lab working on one of her little projects." “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “Don’t you have a communicator with her or something? You know like a phone or something to call her?” "And have her constantly bug me with unnecessary questions? No thanks." Asmith said, walking over to the edge of the table, opening the drawer underneath and taking out some wires. "Her personal lab is four doors down on the left." “Alright.” I nodded. “And that’s kinda your fault with ‘I don’t want to be bugged but I need my assistant around’, need proper communication and stuff like that.” I brought up honestly. "My flaw is that I want to be alone but hate doing all the work myself. I'm man enough to admit that." Asmith said. "Now go get her." “Gonna have to work on that.” I said while heading off to her personal lab. “Let’s hope she’s there…” Heading to that area her lab, Myaxx if I remember, her lab was much smaller than Asmith's, but just as cluttered. She was wearing some kind of goggles, while messing with a machine on the table in the center. “Uh, knock knock?” I asked while also knocking on her door. "Huh?" She questioned, taking off the goggles and looking at me. "And you are? Wait, dire wolf Den mother from planet Fortusha… Ben, right?" “Yes I am.” I nodded. “Asmith needs your help with work.” I said honestly. "Of course he does." Myaxx groaned. "What is it? Calculations? Schematics?" “Didn’t tell me what he needed but I have a feeling it involves making multiples of the Original Omnitrix.” I said honestly. At that, she dropped her tools. "You… you're serious?" “I have a feeling you’ve heard of Jericho right?” I asked. "Yeah. Only bits and pieces though." “Well a big ass Admin War is gonna happen and Jericho has been taking all the villains and boosting them to hell and back.” I brought up. “So, gonna need those things to help even the odds a bit, or tip it in our favor.” "Ah… well then, guess I got a lot of long hours ahead of me." Myaxx said, turning off the things in her lab. We them walked back to Asmith's lab. "So what do you need old man?" "The schematics for the Sequence compressor and Extender, and the Codex Module." Asmith said. "Got it." She said, walking over to a computer and began typing. “Anything I’m gonna need to do or should I let you two get to it?” I asked curiously. "If you can, Fetch a Mater Conversion production facility." Asmith asked. “And...you expect me to know the names of things why?” I asked slowly. "A Mater Conversion production Facility is exactly how it sounds. An entire facility that is one machine that both produces matter and items from raw code and concerts produced matter into whatever you program in. It's very old Admin tech." Myaxx said. "Some Admins trusted their realms inhabitants enough to use them responsibly, and some did. Others not so much. Most were cast into the void, no matter there or code so the whole thing is useless there and therefore to Deletes." Asmith added. “And you expect me to know where this thing is how?” I asked. “You said it’s very old admin tech, and I just became an admin not a few weeks ago.” "I don't expect you to know where it is, I expect you to search the void for one and bring it here." “You...do know who I am right?” I asked. “And...you do know that Void itself won’t really take kindly to me being there.” "If you don't want to be useful then leave, I'd you do, find that facility." Asmith said bitterly. "Besides, think of it as a training exercise for the war." “Cause...that would be good at the moment.” I sighed out. “Got a way there I could take? Still not fully used to just...Admin abusing my way everywhere.” "Yeah, and I thought my skills with code were pathetic. Just say Enter Room Zero while activating your code." “More like I’ve just started using Code.” I brought up. “But thank you.” I nodded while taking a deep breath, my code starting to appear. “Enter Room Zero.” Everything went green and black… and stayed black. I felt myself and l… right, void… no light here… no anything here… “Well let’s change that.” I said while summoning Eternal Flames and setting them both on fire. The light was minimal, but enough for me to see at least a few feet in front of me. I began walking. “Surprised one of the higher ups here aren’t like ‘hey the fuck you doing here?’...” I muttered to myself, knowing I could make this shit brighter than this or I could just give myself an item that can help me ‘see’ but I’m gonna do it the hard way for some reason. As I walked I felt the ground under me… dirt? Looking down I was on dirt, odd… maybe an old Admins realms debre when destroyed or something? “Seriously where the hell am I?” I muttered with a frown. As I kept walking I could hear… growling. Something big and deep was nearby. “Okay maybe I should just drop some pretense.” I said before dumping Grey and Light into Eternal Flames as the light burned ever brighter and giving me more room to actually see things. I saw for a moment a large claw before it vanished back into the darkness out of range of Eternal Flames. “Yes, hi.” I rolled my eyes as I kept moving along. As I kept along I began hearing… footsteps? “Hello?” I called out. “I can hear you, it would be best if you just come out instead of stalking me.” "What makes you think you can come here with that?" A ragged voice spoke. "Yes, that, that." Another higher pitched flemy voice added. “What, light?” I asked while moving it to try and see who’s following me. “Or something else?” I asked, wondering who the hell was here. “But who’s there?” “Stay back!” The flemy voice spoke. “Turn it off!” A new voice shouted. “It’s hideous.” Another, female voice spoke, followed by what sounded like an entire crowd of people, screaming and pleaded for me to put out Eternal Flames. “Please, just calm down.” I said. “But I’m not from here, I can’t really see without this, unless any of you can help me do that without anything bad happening.” I explained, at least letting the lights dim a bit. They all went silent. "Admin." The first voice spoke. "ADMIN!!!!" They all suddenly screamed, pounding or stomping at the ground Screaming Admin at an unholy volume and making the whole area shake. “ENOUGH!” I shouted as Eternal Flames shown brighter. “I am not an Admin! And even if I was, why the fuck would I be here when all of you would rather see me dead?” I growled, bringing up a pretty decent point if they were dumb enough to believe it. "Lies! Admin Lies!" The flemy voice shouted. "Bring forth Judgement!" Another yelled. “Um...how about no.” I said before leaving all the crazy people, knowing they won’t get close enough to me given they all hate the light Eternal Flames was giving off. “So where the hell would this thing be…” I muttered. “Also what the fuck does it even look like?” I muttered with a frown. Walking along all I know is that Asmith said it was a facility. A building then… where? “Given that no one’s going to help me I’m gonna me walking around everywhere…” I frowned, before taking a deep breath and exhaling slowly, a pulse of energy echoed out as I tried to ‘see’ everything else that my flames couldn’t let me see. Some things appeared in my mind, rocks, monsters... those people… god they look terrifying. Wait, is that… a pirate ship? “Why is there a pirate ship?” I frowned while heading towards the Pirate Ship. Upon arriving there were a lot of Skeletons, old bottles, fuck tones of treasure. Cool. “Just gonna…” I muttered before slowly taking all the treasure. “Yeah…” I muttered, thinking no one would have a problem if I took all the treasure. As I looked around I saw… "Well well, what do we have here?" That voice… who is this? “Um...nothing’s wrong here.” I said nervously. “I totally wasn’t trying to take treasure nope, not me.” "Like I care about worthless gold." They said… sounds like they're walking around me. "You're Ben right? Jericho talked about you." “Now a lot of people can say a lot of things about people...but one thing’s for sure, that fucker needs to return my kids damn it.” I frowned while preparing myself for an obvious fight. "Your kids? Heh. Wonder how that will work with them, considering Nancy's first words to him was 'Daddy'." He dodged my blast, and again. "Dog sense of hearing, accurate but you're still shooting blind." I growled before I used all my other senses, and found the bastard. “If any of you hurt any of my babies I swear you’ll regret everything.” I told him as I turned to face the bastard. "Hehehe. Why would I hurt my favorite aunt?" They said, shooting out void fire from their hands. "Did my baby brother not tell you about me? How like him." “He told me there were only two people I can freely kill. One of them I’m sure Zeke dealt with...and then there’s you, the prodigal asshole himself.” I frowned. "The name is Dillen. I was everything everyone wanted Zeke to be." He said, taking out a Void key Keyblade and clashing with me. "I hear he is an Admin now, heh, always the family favorite." “Funny how I’m hearing ‘woe is me, I’m always second best’.” I tried goading the bastard. “So are ya gonna do something or keep complaining?” Dilen backed up, slowly side walking around me. "Since he was born I've been under his shadow. I wouldn't expect someone without siblings to know what it is like when a younger brother upshows you, and doesn't even care." “I mean, it’s not my fault that he hates you for being a fucking crazy person.” I said while letting Eternal Flames float by me as I cracked my knuckles. “Plus I don’t need siblings to know what it feels like to have everyone else be better than you. That’s just a fact of life.” "Admitting faults?" “Not really.” I said honestly. “Just bringing up facts..” I said, bringing my hands up and getting into my fighting stance. "As fun as a fight would be, Jericho has a different Job for me." “And what would that be?” I frowned. "A deal, of sorts. The second we noticed Lord searching for allies among the existing admins we knew at some point he'd contact Asmith, hence your being here, correct?" “And what of it?” I asked honestly. “Is there a problem with this that Jericho can’t solve for some reason?” "An opportunity really." Dilen said, disbanding Void Key. "Since my brother cast me out to this place I've memorized a lot. Time here is non-existent, meaning the next time we meet, for you might be a month, week, year, for me could be seconds or centuries. In short I know you are looking for the Mater Conversion Facility. I know where one is, but at a price." “And why do you expect me to agree at all?” I asked honestly. “But what’s the price since I might as well ask.” "Jericho needs a sample of your Nothingness. For just whatever you put in this jar," He tossed a rather high tech looking jar at me. Catching it, I looked it over. Seemed… secure. "And this facility is yours." “I’m not seeing enough of a ‘fair deal’ here.” I said. “Plus, what would happen if I’m literally in the facility itself? It’s just not turned on yet?” I frowned. "These things can't run inside the void, no matter to convert, no code. I can open a portal out of it and you can take it from there, but taking you to the facility is all Jericho asked of me, and unless you do decide to foolishly use your code and have every Delete from every end of this section on you at once, I'll require some payment for the portal service." “And you're expecting me to just...give you something Jericho already has?” I asked honestly. “Or is he suddenly not able to do literally anything?” "While he does have a copy of your Nothingness a Copy is not the best for running experiments." “You do know that you’re being led by someone that can literally do everything right?” I asked honestly. "Yes… everything, including returning Nancy." He said, purposely turning his back to me. "Play along, and we'll return her safe and sound." “And Nyx and Eclipsa Jr.” I stated bluntly. “I know I’m falling for your bait...but my family’s more important…” I sighed out. "I'm getting to them. Jericho's rules are simple. Three deals, this is yours, They will get theirs soon enough, and after the third Deal of 'Jolly cooperation' you'll get your kids back. Jericho is a lot of things, but when it comes to kids well, he's not that heartless." “And what? Is this ‘fair compensation’ for us having Asmith on our side or something?” I asked curiously, my den mother instincts tell me to just take the deal to get my kids back. "Beats me. Jericho didn't tell me all the details. I'm not one of his inner circles, I'm just a messenger." “I hate you and Jericho so much…” I sighed out. “But...when will my daughter come back?” "When all three deals are completed. When the next is I don't think it will be that far away, all depends on what the boss man says. If you want proof she's fine though, here." He said, throwing a folded piece of paper at me. Inside was… scribbles… crayon scribbles that had Nancy's scent all over it. “I hate you all…” I muttered while opening the canister. “I know I’ll regret this...but your a Ventral...and from what I’ve been told, even the most cruelest of Ventrals still believe family is important…” I said while putting a tiny tiny piece of my Nothingness in. “I know I’ll regret this later..” "Don't we all regret something?" He said, walking over and taking the jar from me. "Follow me, and Don't fall behind, the ground sometimes shifts around speraticaly without reason." He said, jumping off the edge of the ship. I begrudgingly followed. “I’m gonna regret this more…” I sighed out. “Cause handing bad guys power isn’t really a good thing...but family is more important than Jericho’s fucking hard on for Cript.” I grumbled, having been told a bit about Jericho’s past from Mother. “And if Jericho want’s to come down personally and tell me ‘it’s not like that’ I am all for it, but until then I’m seeing it like that.” I muttered. “So...mind if I ask why you are still a crazy person when all the others finally have the chance to be safe and happy?” "I never cared about normal things like they all did. All said I took after Grandpa. Gonna have to pay Zeke back for killing him… Tell me, what have you always wanted to be?" “What have I always wanted to be?” I asked. “Well...me. Everything I get for being me is just a positive.” "Don't lie. You've always wanted to be someone, something. What was it?" “No seriously, why the hell would I have the bar set way too high?” I asked honestly. “What did you want to be?” "Something simple." He said nonchalantly. “Like what? Best assassin in the world?” I asked honestly. "I've wanted something simple, something achievable, something everybody can feel fear towards. I wanted to destroy the world." “So you just want to watch the world burn and not care about anything else?” I asked curiously. “And if you wanted that then it already happened.” "Burning a world leaves Ashes, ashes cultivate and feed surviving foliage, which in turn feeds surviving wildlife. No, I want to eradicate life, coming here, even in the void Life exists, in a twisted deadly fashion yes, but it's life regardless. No, I'd like to watch Everything die, from the soil to the very air itself. Then no Gods or even Admins can repair what I leave behind, if anything is left at all." “Sorry to say this but that’s never going to happen.” I said honestly. “Even if you win that’s not going to happen like, at all.” "Oh I wouldn't say that. Seems anything and everything is possible these days. We can both agree that we didn't see this in our futures back on earth." “That is true, but unless you want to do something to cause that chain of events, we’re on a completely different set of tracks from what you want.” I explained. "Oh, something might come up. Just have to search for my opportunity." “Well have fun with that.” I rolled my eyes. “Not gonna get much during that.” "We're here." Dillen said. We were standing above a cliff. Over the edge what looked like an old stone building sat atop a… is that a Spider Web… a Massive Spiders web? "And that is the Facility." “And why is it sitting on top of a spider web?” I asked nervously. "Deletes long time ago set it up there as a trap for Admins. The Spider itself has been hibernating, or whatever it does, for nine eons. Only thing that will wake that fat bastard up is a nuke to the ass." Dillen said, looking over the edge. “And let me guess, the moment I go down their to get the thing your going to wake it up?” I asked bluntly, knowing there was some catch to this entire situation. "Once you are there. Inside I'll open your ticket out of here, but first, my payment." He said, handing me a large envelope. "Give this to Zeke, he'll know what it means." “Zeke’s probably gonna flip knowing your still alive and that I gave something to Jericho…” I sighed out while taking the envelope. “Alright, time to make sure I don’t accidentally fuck up and wake the thing…” I said while bringing out my Lexicon and casting Fly on myself as I flew towards the thing I need. “Let’s hope it won’t wake up…” I muttered while getting closer to the Facility. Upon landing on it the web shook a bit. Thankfully nothing happened. Looking inside it was all metal inside, a terminal of sorts and a conveyor belt leading out of it around it's back was all that was in here. I waved to Dillen and a portal of some energy unknown to me appeared above me. It floated down. Once it passed over me I was damn near blinded by the sudden reappearance of actual sunlight. “Gah fuck!” I yelped as I closed my eyes from the sudden light. “Jesus...that’s not a good thing...hopefully the bastard sent me to the right place…” I grumbled a little, blinking as my eyes adjusted to the light. I was outside of Asmith's lab. He and Myaxx both walking out. "Good thing you found it." Asmith said, rushing over to the terminal and hopping on it. "The outside is rough but looks like all the internal hardware and code structure scripts are fine." "Honestly didn't expect you back so soon." Myaxx said. “Well...I had to make a slight deal with someone.” I sighed out. “In exchange for getting this out of the Void...and my children...I had to give a tiny part of my Nothingness to Jericho...how bad of a fuck up was that or am I overblowing it to hell?” "As your allie, I am both disappointed but understanding in your actions. From a parental point of view, you did what you felt you had to, nothing more to say." Asmith said. “Yeah…” I said while bringing up Nancy’s scribbled paper. “Family...family is more important than whatever the hell Jericho wants.” I said, knowing full well what Jericho will become and why but still not liking it. Asmith turned on the console, the thing flashing to life and a simple line of text appeared. 'Input material" "Perfect." Asmith said. “So what, this thing will just mass produce whatever?” I asked curiously. "Basically. Just have to let it boot up, scan this realm, and now…" He typed in something in a language… the Assistant didn't, or can't, translate. The conveyor belt began moving, and soon out rolled one Omnitrix after another. “And these are all the Originals?” I asked curiously. "These are the mark 2's. I'll have to make the originals from scratch. Speaking of, Myaxx." "Oh, right." She said, taking out a simple looking Omnitrix badge. "Here. The first of many replicas of the original, ten Admins and Ten aliens." I gently took the Omnitrix badge. “Thank you, but what are the ten admins and aliens if I may ask?” "My tech my rules." Asmith spoke up. "More will be unlocked over time, till then this is to not overwhelm you with the total amount." “Okay...that didn’t answer my question though.” I brought up. “Or what, your not gonna tell me because of your rules?” "Exactly." Asmith said bluntly. "Don't argue. You'll be here bickering about this while this reflection dies out." “I am good at bickering.” I said offhandedly. “So, this thing works just the same as I think it does or is it different in some way?” I asked, just making sure so I don’t do something dumb. "Here. Place it somewhere on yourself. Like the wrist or back of your hand." Myaxx said. I nodded while putting it on my wrist that didn’t hold my Assistant. “Alright…” “Test it out, Push the Selection button once for Aliens, twice for Admins.” Asmith informed. “Alright…” I said while the thing connected to my wrist as I tapped the selection button once to see what aliens I have. “So, does the transformations compound on natural or magical abilities or is it just ‘you have this things abilities’?” I asked curiously while looking through the ten aliens. “You gain both strength and weaknesses, but you should still have your own abilities as the aliens, weapons, magic, etc,though with the Admins you’ll get whatever they have.” “Alrighty then.” I said while looking through the ten, hoping for some I recognized. So far I saw Four Arms, Wild Vine, Heatblast, XLR8, and one of the newer ones, Feedback, but the rest were unknown to me. “Well...let’s go with one of the new ones…” I muttered while going over one of the aliens I didn’t know and selected it and pushing the dial in. The green energy flowed over me and my body began changing. From a Direwolf I shifted into something much smaller, and more...scaled. I actually felt okay during the process, like I just had a long, good stretch. When it was over I was roughly… three feet, small claws along my feet and hands, my spine barbs were sharp to a razortip and I Think… I’m seeing in thermal vision… cool! “The hell am I?” I asked while rolling my shoulders and trying to get used to the new form as a lot of info rushed into my head about what this alien can do. “The race is called Arconnlis.. Their homeworld is basically a large dessert with only about a few dozen oasis locations. Go ahead, get a running start, then tuck and roll.” Myaxx said. “I’m Sonic the Lizard aren’t I?” I asked while hopping in place for a little bit before getting into a running start, before tucking and rolling. I actually curled up into a ball and started to spin like mad, I felt the spikes on my body get longer slightly as I bolted around rather quickly...only I felt the ground getting sliced to hell instead of it just being roughed up. As I made a turn It wasn’t at an angle, it was a direct right turn, learly throwing me off balance with how fast it was able to turn. I could...see, somehow, feeling the vibrations from my slicing the ground and saw the outside wall of Asmiths lab, and the second I hit the wall I began going up at a direct ninety degree angle, stopped and jumped off half way up and landed back down as it timed out. “Well that was fun.” I said while landing on my feet. “I still see there’s a timer on this thing…” I muttered while seeing if it was recharging right now. “That’s a default setting, goes away after built in AI registered an experience timeframe of at least three hundred hours as fifty diffrent aliens, or you figure out the Master Controle code.” “I have a feeling the Master Control isn’t something I can just look up on my Assistant huh?” I asked curiously. “And I doubt you will tell me what it is.” “I would but I’drather not get fired.” Myaxx said. “There’s an input code for every alien and Admin transformation. Alien Transformation time limits are determined by the Ai, as are the Admin Transformations. They will vary depending on it’s observed situation.” “Alrighty then.” I nodded while I noticed the red light slowly turning green. “Well gonna have to deal with the timer...that’s gonna be a pain.” “It should be no more than five minutes, a minute at least.” “Cool.” I nodded. “Can’t wait to test this out more, gonna be fun.” I said honestly. ‘It will also send me data after every transformation back to me for analysis to see if you are using the aliens or Admins correctly.” Asmith said. “Do take care of the device.” “Don’t worry, I will.” I nodded. “We’ll contact you once we have a better arsonal of Omnitrixes and proper welders for them.” Myaxx said. "Alright." I nodded while opening a portal back to my world. "Anything else before I go?" “That should be all for now.” Asmith said. “Myaxx, go fetch a wagon, these Omnitrixes may not be fragile but they are cluttering up the place.” Asmith said as there was a rather large pile of the watches. Myaxx groaned. “Later. I got work to do.” She said as she waved me by before heading off. "Alright, stay safe." I said before heading off back home. When I arrived back I learned Genos had taken some personal time to conduct some personal matters back on his homeworld. Something about what Dillen was saying kept ringing in my head.Anything these days was possible. I know he knows something but clearly isn’t speaking. “I know for a fact that it’s not going to happen...right?” I muttered, knowing one of my clones was still doing all of Mother’s trials and stuff like that so maybe she would know. I sighed, taking a seat on my throne and looking at the scribbles Nancy made… At least they are being taken care of. “I should be taking care of her damn it...she shouldn’t have been kidnapped…” I growled, hating myself more than anything because of this. As I was staring blankly at the scribbles something popped into my head… Cript has Generation, and Zeke apparently has Amplify… I know most of Cript’s clones likely have something along those lines… right? But like Cript Zeke gained a lot of power...really fast, even by our standards... “Wait, weren’t Cript and Zeke made identically?” I raised an eyebrow. “How come those two have different abilities?” There was only one person I think I can ask about this… Wheres Krot? “Consequence, where’s Krot at the moment?” Consequence appeared. “Currently overseeing the new recruits at the Nexus Templar base under Manehattan.” He spoke “Well...let’s hope he’s not too busy.” I said while a screen appeared in front of me as a dial tone started as I tried to call Krot. “Come on...I know he can answer me.” Finally he picked up. "Ben, what's wrong?" He asked. “I’m curious, why does Cript and Zeke have two completely different abilities when they were supposed to be identical?” I asked curiously. “Oh… I’d prefer to speak of this topic privately… in person. I’ll be over in a few minutes.”He said, hanging up. I nodded while closing the call. “So, how was Joy with all the meetings?” I asked Consequence. “He handled them well, then left to attend to other duties.” Consequence informed. “Thank you.” I nodded. “Now to wait for Krot to get some answers…” A few minutes felt like hours, but Krot arrived after three minutes. We went to a private conference room and sat down. He looked disheartened. “Tell me, how much do you know about the C.R.I.P.T. Projects?” “They wanted to make the most overpowered person in existance to literally murder everything.” I said. “Bluntly yes.We began them before Vincent had arrived and taken control. They were the most promising attempt at our original goal, creating the Mother for this Cycle so the next can begin.” “Would you believe me if I said that you were successful with our Cript? And would you also believe me that Jericho is Belief?” I asked, not wanting to sass Jericho when this is supposed to be a bit serious. “You mean… we were successful after all? Oh that’s a miracle if one has ever existed…” “Yep, heard it from the man turned woman themselves.” I said honestly. “But...there might be a...slight problem with that possible plan.” I said sheepishly. “Being?” “What do you know about Delete’s?” I asked honestly. “Everything I can, part of the job before recent events…” “Have you heard of a thing called Null?” I asked curiously, the name making the room feel quite a bit colder and I noticed Consequence...went stock still at the name I gave it. “Quite...Quite.” Krot said. “Yeah so...that thing exists and someone would be oh so happy to find that fucker and let him loose so to speak…” I said worriedly. “That would be the only problem and...sadly Jericho is being a dipshit and would probably cause the thing to become active with how many fucking Admins he’s making...or going to bring back.” “Christ…. The only one who can kill him is Cript, but they both are destined for something else… Unless…” “Unless what?” I asked curiously. “Cript and Zeke are extremely identical, in fact the only difference between them in life experience, and their Primary Abilities.” “Most likely.” I said honestly. “What, are you saying Zeke becomes Mother or something?” “Perhaps not quite. We might be able to do something else, something different. But first we will need a few things.” “What would that be?” I asked curiously. “Full access to the Abilities vault, you lot to reach at least level Kry, and Cript to get out of retirement.” “How, what, and I doubt that.” I said honestly. "I'll start with what exactly level Kry is. In short, it's made up, a number we invented once Cript surpassed centillion, the highest number count on a vast majority of world's and realms. Reaching a million alone is hard, anything higher damn near impossible, Centillion was never expected to be reached…. Above that, well, that's what we required given The Mother." “And you're expecting all of us to get to that point?” I asked honestly. “Zeke I can see, the rest of us? Probably not…” I sighed out. “Do you have a plan for that?” "Cript and Zeke. If Cript Absorbs Zeke, and gives them and the twenty within him bodies with Starfish, Generation and Amplify under their use, the same process can be repeated and thus, in a sense, cheat your way to Cript's level of power. Because unlike Cript Jericho still has his Death." “Except he can’t die.” I frowned. “I don’t know much about this whole thing, but do you want to know what would happen if Belief can’t be made?” "That's why you won't be killing him you'll be trapping him like before, but with the combines Key level powers of all of you he'd be imprisoned Indefinitely. From there Cript could force the shift from just Cript and Jericho to Mother and Belief." “And you won’t see this going wrong how?” I asked curiously. “As well as...wouldn’t Jericho know about this coming or something?” "That's the best part, he would embrace it because it means he has his challenge! He has a possibility of losing!" “So...let me ask, what’s the point of this war when we are all as strong as Cript and Jericho? Cause as far as I know Jericho can’t make his side as strong as himself or Cript.” I brought up. "He can, but not in the same way. Vincent's personal study had all the Blueprints to Every Cript project ever made. He can apply them to his allies easily, and with Admins like the Admins of Abilities resurrected, as prisoners he'd have no shortage of the required ingredients." “Of course.” I sighed out. “Why am I not surprised.” I grumbled. “So, what special ability can cause this to actually happen when Cript did that and failed?” "It's not a fact of what ability, rather, more of a how much power. You see, when Jericho was imprisoned, the both of them have Generation, Jericho while inside of Cript kept generating power non-stop, and Cript the same. When Cript retired, he slowed down his energy Generation, and unintentionally gave Jericho his means of escape." “So...why did Cript not care he had another man inside of him of equal power?” I asked curiously. “And no, I won’t stop with the gay conotations because it’s at least some funny to me and it’s pretty apt.” "Because likely given the lack of events at the time he likely knew this moment was approaching, something every Cycle has happened. The second Admin war, but without Jericho, the event can't happen and the Cycle breaks." “And that whole event couldn’t have happened without the war?” I asked honestly. "Don't know. Impossible to know for sure." “Wonderful…” I sighed out. “Can’t let things be simple huh?” "I remember asking my dad that same question. He told me 'if they were, life would be no fun'." Krot said with a light laugh. "So, it's this or bust. What do you prefer?" “I’d rather not bust.” I said honestly. “So let’s go with that plan because it’s at least something. Oh, also I’m getting the Original version of the Omnitrix mass produced by Asmith.” I said while showing the Omnitrix on my wrist. “Both aliens, and Admins will be on these things.” "Oh, I didn't even know there was a version like that, so that means likely Jericho and Nexus don't either. This is good." Krot said with a nod. "Now, the hard part should be first." “Jericho likely knows, Nexus probably not.” I said. “So, the hard part of getting Cript out of retirement…” "Yes… question is how? What could convince them to do that…?" “Tell him everything will get fucked if Null appears?” I brought up. “Death loss or not I have a feeling that fucker can kill the literal unkillable.” "I doubt blunt truth would work… hmm, tell me, you know Zeke pretty well, and the two are near identical in personality reasoning. What would convince Zeke to go all out in a fight?" “Well that depends...cause even though I’ve been getting to know Zeke, he never…” I sighed out. “He just keeps standing there, waiting and listening. Not doing anything until it’s either too late or it somehow suits him.” I rubbed my temples. “So...it’s a bit of a bitch to fully know what would help get Cript to actually do something but...being blunt is an obvious thing, can’t really do much against the truth whether he wants to deny it or not.” "I have a feeling it's not about denying… or perhaps it is?" “Denial is most likely it cause honestly his whole ‘retirement’ is too fucking coincidental for literally everything.” I frowned. “So it’s either ‘be blunt’ or figure out whatever the hell is going on in his head.” "Perhaps we can kill two birds with one stone?" Krot spoke aloud in thought. “Oh?” I asked curiously. “What do you mean?” "Cript and Zeke share many things, including a love of combat, but do not engage for different reasons. Zeke fears his full power, and Cript doesn't think there is anything to challenge him anymore." “Well Jericho’s back so Cript has a challenge.” I rolled my eyes. “And Zeke...well he’s gonna have to get past that fear soon or bad things will happen.” "Why not see them fight?" Krot asked. "Each other." “What, Zeke and Cript?” I asked curiously. “But if those two fight...well, at least Zeke would actually fight instead of just standing there.” "Zeke is an observer, learning about others through their body language and verbal communication, a useful skill for diagnosing your enemy, but because he fears his own power that information is often useless. Cript never had such fears, in fact it's mostly just boredom why he doesn't fight anymore. Like Jericho he craves a challenge." “Well Zeke doesn’t need to be fearful about his powers since we’re basically on par at this point, and Cript...well his challenger just burst from his body so there’s really no excuse for that.” I shrugged. "Is that what you think?" Krot asked. "I guess given you don't know about the former Admin of Balance you wouldn't know what Zeke can do." “Oh I can already think of a lot of things Zeke can do that he and Dillan hasn’t shown.” I said honestly. “Zeke is Observant yes, understanding people, but no one remembers the overanalytical person who does too much fucking research on things or just has an overactive imagination.” I explained. "Have you ever seen his level compared to yours?" “I only fought his Absent Silouhette once, where it was literally everything he could do way before we were Admins, where Zeke was, point for point, stronger than me at that time.” I said honestly. "At that time. Yes. Check now." He asked, motioning to my Assistant. I did just that. “I won’t be surprised by what he can do...or the numbers cause honestly things have just gotten too fucking far at this point.” I said while looking up Zeke on my Assistant. Zeke Ventral: HP: 70,650,987 Level: 407,632 “Okay, just so we’re clear, does Zeke and Cript have some other bullshit ability I should know about?” I asked honestly. “Cause as far as I know, Zeke shouldn’t be this level. I’m not surprised at all, I just want to make sure.” I said, wondering both how his level is so fucking high and why mine was actually a lot fucking lower than it probably should be cause of all my training. “As projects for the mother we as a stockpile of the more controversial and rare abilities, most apply to Experience boosts, stat boosts, you name it, a vast majority of them went into Ten specific Cript projects, of which Cript, the Cript we know, and Zeke were two of, the others are either dead, Psychopaths, or MIA.” “Yeah cause I’m the start of fights but people don’t bat an eye to Zeke having literally everything handed to him.” I rolled my eyes. “So while Zeke is just doing nothing but is stupid strong, I have to break my back to do literally have the shit he’s capable of, that’s fair.” I grumbled. “We were trying to make the Mother, the most powerful being in, well, ever. Vincent wanted to make the perfect weapon, he took advantage of the blueprints we had...and made his twisted alterations…” “And how do you expect us to just be as strong as that?” I asked honestly. “Cause right now literally all the ability vaults Nexus has would probably be guarded to hell.” “Exactly, but before we even try to take them, we will need to manage a way into Vincent's Private office, there we can download the Cript project Blueprints and apply them to you all. If we get Cript out of Retirement and Zeke using his full power, we’d only have to provide cover for the two, not that I’d imagine they’d need it.” “Question...have there been any...rumors of someone appearing out of nowhere, destroying a Nexus base, stealing everything and disappearing without a trace?” I asked Krot curiously. “Hmm… I didn’t handle incident reports, not unless Cript was confirmed to be there. I do remember overhearing a base was leveled, staff slaughtered but only one thing was taken when clean up crews did inventory.” “Oh? What was stolen?” I asked curiously. “Data, records and information, most notably on your Council and current possible threat levels. Was mostly foot notes and pictures of you, them, and some of your family who were there at the time the photos were taken. Nothing too noteworthy, it was an old file already at the time.” “Well looks like...I’m already doing a great start.” I said honestly. “Leveling bases and taking all the info the base holds before leaving without a trace…” “Whatever the case, we need to get Cript out of retirement, and Zeke to duel them.” “That’s gonna be a bit of a pain…” I sighed out. “But alright then...and your not going to question how I said ‘I’m already doing a great start’?” I asked honestly. “I have a feeling I'll know about it soon.” “You...probably will.” I said sheepishly. “So, where do we start here?” “I’ll start with Zeke. You speak to Cript.” “Alright, let’s hope he’s available…” I muttered while bringing up my assistant and giving him a call. “I’ll go speak with Zeke in person.” Krot said, taking his leave. “You called?” Cript said, appearing just as Krot left the room. “Yes I did.” I nodded. “So, straight to the point, I’m gonna have to ask you to step out of retirement.” I said bluntly. “And I can go into detail why if you try and tell me ‘no’.” “Wouldn’t have stopped you talking if I did either way.” Cript replied with a sigh. “Hey, at least now you have a challenge.” I said honestly. “But we both know that Jericho is too much, so me and Krot had some idea’s...and one of them involved you getting out of retirement and starting off dueling Zeke so he can actually fight full force.” “See Zeke fight full force? That would be interesting. Why should I though?” “Cause apparently Krot has an idea to lock up Jericho until he becomes Belief.” I said. “Like how you’re feeling the call of being Mother correct?” “It’s not so much a call, more a mandatory action.” “Alright...but you do know that this whole situation feels a little too convenient right? You retiring and then suddenly Jericho appearing?” “That was planned.” Cript said, code summoning a Soda and taking a drink. “It’s our final jobs before the last ‘promotion’.” “So I can easily blame you when everything gets fucked right?” I asked honestly. “We are following the same path the others all did, so long as nothing unexpected happens, have enough of that with you lot here.” Cript said, taking another sip of soda. “Null is a good start.” I said honestly. “Cause from what I was told from Mother, they don’t exist where she is, so Jericho’s war might accidentally cause the thing to move.” “You worry too much.”Cript said. “This war, has happened in the same way countless times, each ending with Null appearing, being slain, then that’s where Jericho and I come in and make everything just like The Mother’s Creation you saw. A reality where Admins, mortal creations, etc, all life fairly peacefully. I say fairly because being assholes or jerks is just part of how some people are.” “Alright.” I nodded. “Sounds simple enough, wonder how this is all gonna fuck up cause I just know it’s probably gonna happen.’ “The only thing different about this cycle from the others is that you lot are here.” “Really?” I asked curiously. “That’s it?” “Pretty Much. In other Cycles Nexus dubbed Zeke a failure after the first timeline reset, since he and Marcy found each other again. In the time God and all that stuff appeared for you all Zeke and Marcy just chose Equestria as some OC’s and lived their lives happily, you chose the same path as now only became king of Equestria the kingdom, not the world, John took Hollows place, The Foretellers did a mix of keyblade stuff and Highschool/life stuff, fairly normal. This is the only reality where they, you all, met up or even found one another, all because Zeke was alone this time around and chose the X-blade as a weapon over just a simple life on a peaceful world with his love.” “Okay then.” I said honestly. “A lot can change apparently.” “Surprising how not meeting Marcy, lead to all this.” Cript said, taking another sip of Soda. “This time he kept her from being born, but her soul found another body, Eclipsa, they found one another again. Kinda strange, I know each time there is some slight difference between some events in each cycle but never this large scale.” “A lot can change when you find the love of your life…” I said honestly. “But good to know.” “I kind of like your unexpected appearance, almost feels like something completely… Different.” “Well, shit happens.” I shrugged. “Hmm… Every cycle has typically minimal differences, gender of people, names, location of planets, but this… You all met up, became Admins… Something that never happened in prior cycles.” “So either this is some weird coincidence or...something even worse is going on.” I said nervously. “Unless I’m just overthinking it…” “... I’ll need to consult others first… but something is off here.” Cript said before vanishing. I sighed out. “Just one more problem to jot down…” I grumbled. “Hey Consequence, I got a question.” I called out for the nobody. He appeared Next to me. “Yes sire?” He asked. “Do you know anyone ancient enough to...Notice Differences?” I asked, not really sure how to explain this to the dusk. “Like say...knowing what Events should happen but being apart of something completely different?” “Temporal anomalies?” He asked. “No, not that…” I said while thinking about it more. “Well...technically this could be considered that. But instead of just like...knowing if someone time traveled, I want to know if there are people that would know the time stream is horribly off track.” I said honestly. “And if you know any of them or if you could point me in the right direction.” “Hmm… I remember once, back before your predecessor was even king, and it was before he, a few of the first councils and myself, before I even became this way, we stumbled upon an orb of sorts, any question asked it could answer, it’s what set him on the path that leads to all of this.” “Where is that orb?” I asked. “And...that sounds normal but...something’s still off here…” “The orb is still within the Armory. He called it The Eye of Father.” “I haven’t fully went through the Armory...mind leading me to it cause I would probably spend too much time looking for it.” I sighed out. “Yes Sire.” Consequence said, opening a portal. We entered and was within a seemingly endless hallway, items of all kinds were on stands and on display. As we walked we quickly came across a purplish black orb, pulsating in place. “Here it is, the Eye of The Father.” “Yeah...this isn’t scary at all…” I muttered before walking over to it. “So, I just put my hand on it and ask a question?” “Yes.” “Alright.” I nodded before taking another step forward and putting my hand on the orb. “So...let’s start off...what’s changed in this cycle?” I asked. To be continued... Nobody's busyMy little sapling had grown so tall, so large. It's leaves flush and healthy, and from its branches grew the 'fruits' of my labor. They were almost ready. "Must say, you did better than I expected." Shinsu said. “Of course, I wouldn’t be a proud mother if I didn’t do good.” I said, puffing my chest out in pride. “So, I take seeds home and proceed with the rest of the trial?” "You take the tree and seeds once the fruit is ripe." He said. "Then off to the next one." “Alright.” I nodded. "Should be any day now I'd wager." Shinsu said, looking over my sapling. "I remember making this species of tree for your world. It actually started off as a joke, plants that grow meat, but some of my fellow Admins liked the idea so much I ended up making a lot more than this one tree." “And a lot of races would like this tree since it grows food.” I said honestly. "True, those types of plants would help a lot… come with me." Shinsu said. He lead the way to the door, where nearby an Oak of sorts. “This is the door to the next trial or is this something else?” I asked curiously. "Something else." He said, tapping the tree, the trunk opening like a door. Inside was a small shelf, and on it was what looked like a small box. He took it. "This garden holds barely a tenth of a percent of all the plant life I ever created. The rest, is all here." He said, giving the box a shake. “So...what? It’s literally a Genesis in a Box?” I asked curiously. "Only Asmith knows about all my creations. Time I told another." He said, placing the box in my hand. I felt…. Information, cell and code structures for… Everything. Every plant, plants I know, countless I didn't or never even could imagine was pouring into my head like a waterfall. When it ended, Shinsu took the box back and put it away. I was on my knees, my head… I was flipping through them all like a menu in my head. There's so many…. And I know them all. "This box is known as, well, you'd know it as a USB drive, but we called them Code Relays. They hold copies of all an Admin knows how to create, every detail." “Damn that’s a lot of plants…” I blinked, shifting through all of them. “Also...a lot of sentient plants…” "Asmith has those also, was a bit of a grey area on who would claim ownership of that, so we split them. He and I claim ownership, or at least claim we made them." Shinsu said. "So, give it a try." “A try?” I asked curiously. “What do you mean by that?” "I gave you the information to make everything I can. Make something." “Oh...well…” I muttered before thinking of Graceful Dahlia...before I brought out my hand and a Pink Rose like plant appeared in my hand. “Huh...this...feel’s like Graceful Dahlia…” "Your scythe right? Should, this is the sapling of an Elegant Demon Tree. My advice, plant that on a world you despise, it eats all sentient life on that planet until mature. Was one of many darker works of mine during the war. Anything made of it's wood also repairs itself so long as blood touches it." “Alrighty then...good to know.” I said honestly. "There are many that are equally as useful or deadly. I'm trusting you with them." “You...are trusting me with literally all of this knowledge?” I asked, going through my head and finding there was at least two hundred different humanoid plant people just from a quick glance. “You...have made a mistake...not because I’ll abuse this...but because you basically gave me two hundred or more wives…” "Heh. Perverted. Hikshu would have liked you." “Hikshu?” I asked curiously. "An old friend, Admin of The Hunt. He was a good Admin, and friend. Perverted even at the worst of times." “Admin of the...wait...I just...killed the Delete of the Hunt...are they both connected or something?” I asked nervously at just randomly thinking of that. "A delete with a title like that is a high ranked one. But no, there is no relation." “Well...I killed her husband first...and then her...and now I’m scared their kids…” I sighed out sadly. “I tried telling her to be with her kids...that family was more important than petty revenge...didn’t fucking listen...now I have to probably kill two children who could have just been happy…” "Deletes are many things, but they often prioritize the thrill of the kill or revenge over family. That's void for ya. Once it latches on to the emotions you fight till either you die or win." “But...couldn’t I have used my powers to...have them calm the fuck down?” I asked honestly. “I don’t fully know everything I can do yet but...I just want to help…” “Only way to know is to train. I don't know anyone personally who could help but maybe someone else does.” “Do you know anyone?” I asked curiously. “And who would they be?’ "Personally no, but there is someone I have heard of." “Anything would be good.” I said honestly. "He goes by Altris, or so I heard. Some rumors about him have floated about throughout the years. Nothing I can confirm." I pulled out my Assistant and checked the name just to make sure if anything came up. Thousands came up. Need something more specific. “Anything more specific you can tell me about him?” "That's all I know sadly. Maybe one of the others might know something." “Thank you, I’ll keep that in mind.” I nodded. “Thank you Shinsu.” "Think nothing of it… there is, however, something I think you might want to look for." “And that would be?” I asked curiously. “There are a lot of things I need to keep in mind.” "A library." “And what library would that be?” I asked honestly. "Back before the war, the Admin of Knowledge was not like the rest of us. They enjoyed learning about what we all were making. Before the war began they finally built something. A library containing every once of knowledge not just from us, but from all the realms that existed at the time. With all that knowledge I know for a fact they are still alive, and that Library is still around, where though is the question." “What is this Admin’s name?” I asked curiously. "She never made one for herself, but we always called her Books." I saved the name Altris on my Assistant for later as I typed in ‘Books, Admin of Knowledge’ and hoped for the best. Nothing. Can't be that easy. “Cause of course…” I muttered. “Someone else will know I’m pretty sure…” "Maybe." “Hey Dinky.” I said while knocking on her door. “You wanted to see me?” "Come in Dad...mom… parent?" She said confused. Like Jenny Dinky grew up in those pocket dimension universes. She was now twenty five, had her mother's figure, and my tail. While her coat was dire wolf thick it kept her Normal coat colors. Though she did have fangs now. Opening the door I saw she was at her desk, looking through some books from my library, the one the old king left me. “Either or is fine.” I said with a little smile. “How are you doing Dinky?” "Good, wanted to tell you about some stuff I found." She said, waving me over next to her. Once I was she started talking again. "I was going through Volume 742 of the old Kings journey and found something cool." “Oh? What has my smart little girl found?” I asked curiously. She gave a smile at hearing me call her smart. "Here on page 751, 'As I place to rest a fallen Comrade yet again, before their grave upon the final shovel of earth, appeared their memory in physical illusions. An Absent Silhouette of my Bard.'." “Oh? That’s interesting.” I said honestly. “Where would the silhouette be?” "The book says his bard fell at the Battle of Shellsho. A bit of research shows Shellsho is a world from Cript's realm, long since deviated by war and five years ago re terraformed into a habitable planet again." “Well...how about we go there?” I asked honestly. “Spend some good ol father and daughter time on another world ya know?” "Sure! I kinda… already bought it anyways…" She said shyly. I smiled warmly as I gently headpat my daughter. “But...why did you...most likely buy the planet?” "Freak Inc. terraforms planets all the time, no sentient life so the entire planet is sold as single property, they can even make you a custom planet. Planets terraformed after their prior owners have… died off don't sell well so they go dirt cheap. Only costed 20,000 rem." “Jeez…” I sighed out. “Who knew people can just buy and sell planets.” "Makes sense though. Growing populations and cross reflection travel means land for farming, housing and business placement has to be made or found somewhere, lifeless planets remade into life sustainable ones are the best options. Most gas planets are just harvested for certain resources. They say their Scientists are working on something to make all resources infinite. Oh man, when Zeke's Dinky told me this stuff I was skeptical as hell but this is just plain cool." “Sounds like you and her have a lot in common.” I said honestly. "We should, we are the same person." Dinky said with a laugh. "Come on, I already got a teleport location too it after my perchance was authorized." She said, bringing up her own assistant. “Alright.” I nodded. “Let’s get going to meet the old Bard.” The portal opened and we entered. The planet was… like a Forest. Tall trees were everywhere, grass and Moss covered the ground like carpet and the air was so… pure. So fresh. I could hear some prey animals around, deer, bear, goat, some others I have no idea what they are but they smell tasty… trying hard not to chase… “Curse you dire wolf instincts…” I whined. “So much prey...want to chase…” I groaned, my tail wagging of its own accord to show I wanted to. Dinky laughed. "Come on, according to the book the bard was buried in a cave near the battle she fell, and the battlefield should be Ten miles west of here." “Alright.” I nodded. “How do you want to get there? Glider, teleport, or just running?” I asked while shifting into my feral form. “Cause even if I’ll get sidetracked by prey...running is always nice.” "A simple hike." She said, checking for West and began walking. "Gives us time to sight see and talk." “Works for me.” I said while following along, enjoying the nice fresh air. "So, female and male. Have to say, surprised you did that." “You get used to it.” I said honestly. “Not to mention...well...it’s helped me quite a bit, even though I have to make sure of like...a hundred other things just from my body alone which is annoying sometimes.” I sighed out. “Seriously, need to take three times as long in the shower just so I could look like an even bigger fluff ball than I already am.” Dinky chuckled. "Hows feral form feel? I always wondered." “Wonderful.” I said. “Strong and agile, free and fierce.” I said with a warm smile. “You should give it a try sometimes.” "Heh… I wish." She said, rubbing her arm. "Tried a lot in the pocket time place. Doctors said my Equine DNA is still dominant, I can't shift into a feral form." “Well...I can...maybe give you the ability to shift into a Feral Form.” I said honestly. “I am an Admin after all...but only if you want it.” "I accepted it a long time ago. In fact I'm happy we got this time to spend together since I'll be leaving soon…" “What do you mean?” I asked worriedly. "I had it checked a lot. Even at your level, I wouldn't be very powerful at all. In short I'm smarter than I am strong, so I submitted an application to an Internship at Freak Inc.'s sciences department. I got accepted, room and board all paid in full and all that fancy stuff. I'll be gone for two years." I swapped out of my feral form and grabbed Dinky in a big hug. “Oh I’m so proud of you!” I said happily, so happy to hear Dinky got into her dream job. “I’m so proud of you Dinky.” "Heh, it's just an internship. I won't have a solid job until they evaluate my performance and strengths during the internship. Freak inc.'s many mottos. There is a job for everyone and anyone." “Well I’m still super proud of you my pup.” I said happily while nuzzling Dinky happily. "Thanks dad." She said, hugging me back. “But...I will miss you in those two years…” I said honestly. "Same. I'll send Emails and such when I can." “Thank you.” I said gently before putting her down and shifting back into my feral form. “Wanna...ride on my back? For maybe the first time ever if I didn’t do that already?” I asked, knowing I helped tend to Dinky growing up because of clones and pocket dimensions but sometimes it’s a pain to remember everything. "Nah, i'm good walking." She said, walking along as I followed. "I'll be leaving Next month. Everyone has said their good luck and such. Joy is obviously upset but understanding." “Why was Joy upset?” I asked curiously. “Just curious.” "I entered his harem late, we've mostly been dating and haven't done much from there so between that and the fact he/she is now pregnant their emotions are everywhere." “Yeah, I can understand that.” I said honestly. “But...well knowing Joy he’s probably gonna try something during the month before you leave.” "Maybe. Other than that I've just been researching some stuff from.the old Kings library." “What else have you found if I may ask? Cause I’ve also been trying to go through it all...until Cript told me ‘no more mass amounts of clones’.” "To be fair that was… getting creepy seeing you around every corner." “I’m sorry for being paranoid and trying to keep up with all the things I had to do.” I said honestly. "Heh. Well I found a few things. Some unique items to synthesis, special variations of health items." “That’s good.” I nodded. “Gonna need those sooner or later.” "I also found a page that was encoded. The key for it was Nothingness, only for half, the other half was Nobody. Guess what it was?” “What?” I asked curiously. “I wouldn’t know, so please tell.” "The recipe for making Lindworm." “Does one of the ingredients involve a literal Wind Dragon’s soul?” I asked curiously. "That's one of three main ones. Wind Dragon Soul, a bottle of life's final breath, and Acritem." “Oh? What would the Acritem be?” I asked curiously. "A very rare metal, it's actually lighter than air itself and the largest amount ever found was roughly two feet in diameter." “Well then.” I said. “That’s surprising.” I said honestly. “And...finding a bottle of life’s final breath would probably be a pain in the ass to get.” "I looked it up, and it's...pretty dark. You have to kill someone, then with magic catch their last breath as it leaves them and place it in an enchanted bottle." “Yeah, that makes sense.” I said honestly. “Wouldn’t be ‘life’s final breath’ if you didn’t actually steal it from someone.” "Yeah. There were other pages but I haven't had the time to decode them." “Thank you for telling me this Dinky.” I said honestly. “Just...been so backlogged on crap I need to do...it’s hard to find time for family...especially when…” I trailed off sadly, Dinky knowing I was talking about Nancy, Nyx and Eclipsa Jr who were kidnapped. "You'll find them Dad. Jenny told me all about her mom, Nancy, and she's sure she will be fine. Baby or not." “I’m still scared…” I sighed out. “We...we just got close enough for Nancy to...to treat me like her father...or mother, whichever one comes first honestly.” I shrugged. "Which ever she sees you as really." Dinky said, the hike going pretty well. We came across a large river in the way. I took a look at the fish inside… they were as large as Dinky… "Hard to believe these animals all were made by a mixture of magic and science." She said, kneeling near the water. "A once lifeless world Is now so full of life it's hard to imagine this place was once barren." “It happens.” I said honestly. “If there’s one thing I know...is that Life finds a way. Want me to get some fish before we get to the Silhouette?” I asked curiously. "Sure. Fish this fresh has to be good. You catch one or two and I'll start a fire." “Alright.” I nodded while gently moving into the river, feeling the water rush past my powerful legs as I took a deep breath and waited. Waiting during fishing was a really good thing Mom taught me as I caught at least three big fish that strayed too close to me and they were now on land. “Got three big ones.” "Fire is almost set up." She said, tossing some broken branches and sticks into a pit she dug with some fair sized rocks around it. She then summoned her Keyblade. "Fire." She cast, the spell igniting the wood. "Alright, bring them over, I got a few kitchen stuff in my Assistant." I nodded while going back to my anthro form and picking up the three fish and bringing them over to the fire pit. “Alright, now do you want to cook these things whole or do you want to gut them first?” I asked, having honestly gotten used to eating certain foods from a successful hunt. "Gut them." She said, making a few taps on her assistant as a large table with some knives, a scaler and other useful kitchen tools appeared before her. "I'm still more Pony than Dire Wolf, can't handle raw meat that well either." “Alright.” I nodded while taking the items and starting to properly gut and descale the fish, preparing them for the fire with professional skill. Once that was all done Dinky seasoned them a bit and set up an overhang rack to place a skillet on, some fish was cooking over the fire directly, others she was cooking on the skillet. It all smelled amazing. “Aw, nothing like a nice fire cooked meal with family.” I said happily. "I know. It reminds me of the camping trip mom took Me on a year before you showed up." Dinky said. "Grandma and Grandpa were there too, so it was great." “How are your grandparents doing? I hope they’re okay.” "Busy as always but they have good health. Owning and managing the whole of the weather factory keeps them active and young." “Oh really? They own the weather factory?” I asked curiously. "Yeah. Mom is supposed to inherit it when they retire, but now that she is married to you she can say that her inheriting it means it's the crowns, and can pawn off that pile of work and mess onto someone else." “Couldn’t you have just done that before given that Derpy still wins like...one lottery every other week?” I asked honestly. "She's equestria's luckiest mare alive." “And apparently I’m the luckiest Dire Wolf to have managed to date her.” I said honestly. "Given her luck that was bound to happen regardless." Dinky chuckled. "Once she took us out to eat, and she forgot her purse. When the bill came out of nowhere a sack of sixty bits came flying in out of nowhere. More than enough for the bill, and no one claimed it as theirs. Mom still has that pouch." I blinked. “Okay that’s...a lot less ‘luck’ and more ‘terribly convenient’ when you actually think about it…” I said nervously. "Eh, stuff like that always happens around mom. In fact the only bad thing to ever happen to her was… my birth dad." Dinky said sadly, taking a bite of fish. “That’s...gotta be a troubled story.” I said nervously. “Want...to talk about it?” "I don't remember much about him, and mom doesn't want to talk about him. Grandma and Grandpa told me he was an abusive bastard, married mom for her money. When I was barely one, he got real angry at mom and slammed her face into and through the wall. It's how she got her eye the way it is, doctors said the impact broke some mussels and a few nerves needed to keep it in place properly. No surgery can fix that. Two months after that, he died from a heart attack. Mom and I were the only ones at the funeral." “The bastard deserved worse for hurting Derpy.” I frowned. “She’s amazing, funny, happy and beautiful, fucker should have been lucky to even be with her to begin with.” I growled. "Yeah. Don't even remember his name. Don't care too. None of his family seems to have even tried to contact us, so either they are just as bad as he was or they just don't want to bring up old wounds." “I understand.” I nodded gently. “But…” I sighed out. “I was going to say ‘am I good enough?’ for you and Derpy...given all the crap you’ve been through.” "Trust me dad, you are a stars sent gift for mom and I, even with your quirks and flaws, you care. More than what I can say for that jackass." “Thank you.” I said while eating my fish. “I just...you know, want to make sure the family I have...is happy and healthy.” "I'm happy, very healthy, and off to one of if not the most scientific Haven's in the realms. Life is good." “That’s good.” I said with a warm smile, glad to know I’m doing good for my family. “Everything...everything is still going okay…” We finished our meals, put the leftovers away in Dinky's Assistant and put the fire out with dirt and water for safe measure. Once that was done we headed off. We talked about stuff and just had fun. I rarely get this kind of one on one time with my kids. After a while we arrived at the prior battlefield… it was… hard to describe. It was covered in life and beauty, but it covered in rusted and bloodstained weapons and armor, vehicles of war now Moss covered bird perches and skeletons with roots and vines wrapped around them held them together and in place. "This is both amazing and disturbing." Dinky said. “As I said...Life finds a way.” I said honestly. “So...where would the Silhouette be?” "According to the book a cave nearby." She said, stepping over the long dead skeletons. "Should be close by." I nodded and continued forward. “Jeez...not one proper burial for any of them?” I asked sadly. "No one to bury them." Dinky said. "According to the book this was the last bunch of them on the entire planet, the rest were all dead from an outbreak. They were fighting over the very scarce resources at the time. According to Freak Inc. records, the virus died off a long time ago, they even scrubbed the surface and air before terraforming it." “Thank god.” I sighed out thankfully. “Better the disease stay dead forever then appear again and cause problems.” "Yeah." Dinky said, seeing inside of one of the vehicles was boxes of ammunition. "Wonder if any of this stuff is still usable?" She asked aloud. “Depends on how long they’ve been here and if any of it hasn’t been destroyed by age.” I said honestly. Some walking later we finally came across a cave. Entering we found in the back most of it a single… body? A fairy, dressed in silver robes. She was pretty, and had a large hole in their chest. The absent Silhouette floated above them. "The old Kings bard… was a fairy? Their bodies are so magically infused they never decay or age even after death." “I mean...that sounds about right.” I said honestly. “Not just her not decaying but...the bard being a fairy to be honest.” "So… should we bury her Properly? Leaving her like that isn't right." “We should bury her properly...but there’s also a ‘how do we properly bury a Council Member’...cause I’m pretty sure there’s some special process to it…” I said, not wanting to accidentally do something wrong to the fallen. "Didn't find anything about that in my readings." Dinky said. "We bury here proper now, and if we find out their is a special process, we come back and do it right." “I mean...we can just go in and ask her.” I said honestly. “Cause...even if she’s an Absent Silhouette...this one feels different.” I said while staring at the orb that held the Bard’s weapon but with fairy wings behind it. “Like...her mind is still there, waiting for the right person to set it free…” "One way to find out. I'll be here Dad." She said, stepping aside to give me more room if needed. I stepped closer to the Silhouette. “Alright you...let’s see if it’s a fight or not.” I muttered while touching the orb to see what’ll happen. In a flash I was atop The battlefield of a marble looking pillar, the Nobody symbol on the ground. Floating some feet before was the absent Silhouette, that then shifted into the fairy we saw, they pulled out the sitar, it was smaller for them than it was for me. “Okay, so before we start this fight.” I started. “Who are you?” I asked, my authority as the new King resonating out to see if the fairy still had some of her mind if any at all. She placed the sitar aside, taking a bow. "I am Elenanor. Fairy Queen of Hithrowtha." “It is a pleasure to meet you Queen Elenanor.” I said with my own bow of respect to the queen. “My name is Ben, and I’m the current King of Nothingness.” "Current? So… King Edward is no more?" “That’s his name?” I asked honestly. “The old man never actually told me it. But he’s been put to rest for...god maybe a few months to maybe a year? Time has been...really weird for me considering all that’s...been happening.” I said sheepishly. "I see. Has thou found a new holder for Arpeggio?" “Yes, I have found new holders of all the Weapons.” I said honestly. “The current holder of Arpeggio is a humble Skeleton named Brook.” I said while waving my hand as an image of the happy Skeleton from One Piece played the violin version of Arpeggio with joy. "Ah, Arpeggio likes them, to shift their form so tells just as much" “Oh really?” I asked curiously. “I just kinda...let the weapons find their wielders...is that different from how it was before?” "Before the king chose us. He gave us the weapons." “Okay then.” I said honestly. “Makes sense I suppose.” I said honestly. “So, a question I wanted to ask was...is there any special burial rights I give to Council Members? Cause...I couldn’t really give them to the previous King, General and Archer cause...well one snapped his neck, one shot himself in the head and...the King forced me to kill him…” I said worriedly. "Into Nothing we enter and Nothing we are in life and Death, we exist against laws and so our bodies be cast aside as the winds choose." She said. "Our oath for death, we do not care what happens to our corpses, be them buried with respect or tossed aside like something less than garbage. We don't care where we rest eternally." “Okay so proper burial it is because I respect the dead.” I said honestly. "If that is what you wish. Your command is our preference." She said with a bow. “So...what’s been keeping your Silhouette up?” I asked curiously. "A promise." “Oh?” I asked curiously. “What would that promise be if I may ask?” "To fight. To defeat my silhouette is to release my soul from the living lands. But, like us all I swore an oath to the king. Here." She said, tossing me what looked like a stone version of her Silhouette. "Summon me for battle, so long as my Silhouette here is not touched or I am victorious in battle, I shall be at your side, as I was for Sir Edward." I grabbed the stone and nodded. “Thank you. But...mind if I ask...about the other council members? Like...who they were or something? Cause I barely got to learn anything about them, even with the records.” She smiled. "We were each of different Races, different worlds. But we all.had a reason for being where we were. That reason was King Edward. He had this… confidence about him, it was infectious. It was that infectious confidence that drew us to him in the first place." “Well I couldn’t see that cause he was tired and old.” I said honestly. “But anything else? Who were your fellow council members?” "That, I am afraid, is information you yourself must search for. But I can tell you this, their names are forever etched into their weapons." She said, in beautiful calligraphy appeared her name across Arpeggio's spine. “Cool.” I said honestly. “Wonder what the other’s names are…” "Now… how are you going to… get out of here?" She asked. "Normally you have to either win or lose against me to leave an Absent Silhouette, so…" “You can just allow me to leave you know.” I said honestly. “This is your world, or I could just leave.” I said before opening a portal out of here. "That works." She said. “Alright.” I nodded. “It was nice meeting you Queen Elenanor.” "Same, new king." She said with a bow. I left the Absent Silhouette, appearing back in the cave where Dinky was waiting. “So, how was it?” She asked. “Went well.” I said honestly. ‘She’s nice, an old Queen of the Fairies and...well we can give her a proper burial.” I said honestly. “Plus she told me something interesting about learning the old council member’s names and who they were.” “Really?” “Yep.” I said while summoning Lunaitc and focusing on it. “Show me your old wielder’s name.” I said to the Claymore, hoping it’ll work. The names of both my current General and the former lined the spine, both taken equal space and were written elegantly in calligraphy. “Cool, it works.” I said with a smile as I checked to see who used Lunatic before Luxu. The name Charalse, appeared along the grip, as well as Luxu, only there names were not as Elegant as on Arpeggio, no this was deep bold wording, imprints that screamed of anger. “I mean...you are furious...but I know you hold more emotions than that.” I muttered gently. “So...Charalse…” I muttered while using my Assistant in hopes of learning something about him before going more in depth with it. Many names came up. Huh… “Okay seriously, the actual hell.” I frowned. “How many people have this very exclusive name?” “A big multiverse/realms?” Dinky offered. “Maybe if I get a little more specific…” I muttered while typing in ‘General of Nothingness’, hoping that’ll work and to at least have a start as to where I should start looking if I want to do my research on these people. Only one file came up… a wanted poster? Charase, General of Nothing, wanted for… Regicide? Reward, 7.9 trillion Rem. This wanted poster is dated over two thousand years ago… in Cript’s realm… who were you…? “I...have several concerns.” I said worriedly. “But...good thing I have a clone in Cript’s realm...at least there I’ll ask what the hell is up with Charase...cause this does not sound right…” I said worriedly, wondering how either the old man or Charase got to this realm without any problems. The me in Cript’s realm was researching in the lab he let me use. These two scientists he offered were...twins, kids, only fifteen maybe? But holy shit are they smart. “Okay so question.” I said while doing more calculations on the Pure Crystal’s. “Do either of you know about Charase?” “Charase? GIven who you are I assume you mean the former General of Nothingness?” The male twin, Kile, said. “Charase was a war criminal over two thousand years ago, loyal only to his king, your predecessor, and personally dealt with kings who could rival him, his total death count was rumoured to be around six thousand rival kings killed, all brutally, no resurrection possible.” The female twin, Gala, said. “Then why did he let me live?” I asked curiously. “What, is it because I was the actual successor or something?” “Correct.” Both said in unison. “We theorized that given the king himself chose you, Charase allowed you to live.” The male said. “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “But...who was he besides...well a crazy person basically?” “Unknown.” Both said in unison again. “Little is known about the king and his original council and even less on the kind of people they are, we have been able to collect together a formation of possible races they were.” Gala said. “Oh? Mind if I know what those races are?” I asked curiously. “And I can give names if that’ll help.” “According to rumors, old sightings and texts, His Knight, we suspect was a Etheriu. His Paladin, a Drake hybrid, his Archer, a human, the Defender, a Goblin, his gate guardian, a Giant, The Mage, a Technomite, the bard, a fairy, the Highroller, a Dynamo-Sapient, The Death Seeker, a Fox-man, The Assassin, a Wood elf, and the Key, unknown.” Kile said. “That is rather interesting.” I said with some thought. “Wonder what I’ll find just with their names…” I muttered, thinking about that while doing quick math to try and get the Pure Crystal formula right. “So...question, given how smart you two are have you...noticed anything wrong going on? I have a feeling you know about the Cycles right?” “You refer to which cycle?” Gala asked. “Water, planetary, energy?” “Just...something completely different. But onto a better question, how is all this research coming along? I hope it’s coming along well cause...honestly this is a bit of a nightmare for me…” I sighed out, not used to all this research, testing and a bunch of other crap that was mostly just words and not actual physical practice. “For a beginner, it’s acceptable.” Kile said. “That’s good.” I nodded. “Better to have an acceptable start than a bad one.” "It's Also pretty clear that about sixty percent of the equations required for this research are new to you, you are having to learn them as well as the research you are currently conducting, overworking yourself.” “Well then I wouldn’t be working if I wasn’t ‘over’working.” I chuckled. "Let him work brother, we still have the engine project to complete." Gala said. "Yes, of course sister." Like replied. “Engine project?” I asked curiously. "It's none of your concern." Gala said, she and Like leaving this lab. “And now...I’m pretty sure I’m going to be doing this by myself...yay…” I grumbled, trying to stay busy so I can just...do some good for others. As I was going over notes my mind wandered, wondering what else was going on in this building? It's an entire building devoted to science and stuff… wonder if this is where Dinky will be interning? “I hope Dinky will be good here…” I muttered while putting down all my notes and getting up. “I...might as well stretch and look around...overworking won’t really help me here…” Getting up and cracking some joints I looked around here. There was a lot of equipment here, and I only have a vague idea of what some of them do. Looking around some I did find something neat looking. It was a terminal, but the keyboard and screen were coming out of this glass looking ball on a stand. “Well...I really shouldn’t touch stuff I don’t know about…” I muttered while checking my assistant to see what it was, just in case. Mark 12 Glass Maga Computer. Unlike the prior models this model can in fact perfectly simulate and emulate digital universes. This model is also used by Freak Inc mass farming companies. “Well then, that’s rather interesting.” I muttered. Slowly moving over I checked it out. There was a lot of files here, and a program running. 'Resource Mine 437.' “Oh?” I muttered curiously, wondering what was going on in Resource Mine 437. I opened it up, and saw a small antenna appeared out of the glass ball, suddenly like Jumanji I was getting sucked in… shit... “Damn it…” I muttered, not really knowing what’ll happen here. Once my body was sucked in everything looked… like a rainbow hurricane for a moment before I was suddenly… standing on a platform, another terminal here with what looked like the way out was ready. Looking around I was… in a mine… a massive mine going far. Taking a sniff I smell… copper, gold, silver, lead, diamonds… and other ground dug things I never smelled or could identify. “Well...that’s a lot of materials…” I said honestly. “I wonder if anyone else is here?” As I was walking around I heard something… is that… a train? Rushing towards It I saw a bullet train rush up to a small stop, the doors opening as people walked out, all kinds of races and all dirty. "Man I found the biggest deposit today, you're crazy." One guy that looked like he was a small giant said. "I dunno, I'd say I found the biggest." Another, elf looking guy said. ”Well then...this is rather interesting.” I thought to myself. ”Not...fully sure if I should be here now…” I thought to myself nervously. "Hey, new girl!" Someone yelled at me. Turning around I saw… what looked like a yellow Ultron throw a yellow hat with a light on it, some overalls, boots and a really cool looking pickaxe at me. "Get suited up and off to section 39, just got word of another gold deposit, estimated five clicks large!" “That is a lot of gold.” I said while grabbed the pickaxe and putting on the mining gear, might as well play along with this for the moment. I found where section...39 was after a fast train ride and some walking. It was a small hole in this large mine where only five others were at currently. They had pickaxes like mine too, and each swing against. The ore caused a flash of magic, and where they hit a solid brick of gold fell. Enchanted pickaxes… sweet! “This is gonna be interesting.” I muttered as I noted all the experienced miners actions and proceeded to do that, thinking the technique and strength put into it wouldn’t cause a cave in. As I began swinging and gathering bars of gold I wondered… picking one up I discreetly used some code to scan it. Once that was done I used my code again, and formed a gold bar… from code… I… did it. “I...actually did a thing…” I muttered in pure joy. "New girl!" One of the miners yelled at me. "Get back to swinging, we got a quota to make." “Yes sir.” I said with pure joy, the miner seeing that I just dropped the pretense of holding back and just moved fast and hit hard in my own blissful high of actually doing something right. I don't know when but at some point the lights went out. "Holy hell, check out the new girl!" Someone else yelled from… far away? Turning on my lamp I saw I was in a small self made tunnel within the gold deposit, gold bars littered the floor and I didn't even notice it until now. I blinked. “Uh...sorry, I think I lost myself for a moment.” I said sheepishly. "Don't sweat it, you just made the whole sections quota for the next two days." A female miner said. "Alright off to lunch!" She yelled as everyone dropped their tools and headed off to the train station. “Lunch already? I’ve barely started.” I said honestly. "Kid you were mining non stop into that little tunnel of yours for three hours." An old minor said. "Wish back in my youth I had vigor like that." “Three hours? What am I slacking?” I joked with a happy smile. As everyone else walked to the station I stayed behind, seeing the gold I made… and made more… maybe too much…. Wonder how else I can abuse the hell out of this… can I do this outside of this place? “Hmm...I wonder if I actually could…” I muttered. “I mean...Admin’s are supposed to be able to do this outside of this…” I then had a thought… admins… deletes… code… is out there… just another computer, but on a massive fuck off scale? “And why would people let me just abuse this to hell?” I muttered to myself. As I began pondering this I figured I should test this outside this computer… this computer… Once out I managed to perfectly make another gold bar. Good, so I can still do this… now, what else to test. And how is this so much easier than before? “I am a bit confused…” I muttered, wondering why this was so easy all of a sudden. “Hmm...I wonder…” I hummed as I tried to visualize another bar of metal, this time iron since it was a normal simple metal. A bar appeared and it looked like iron… but it was iron colored gold, I could sense that in it's code… wait, I scanned that gold with code before copying it… could I have used Copy Cat with code? “Wait…” I summoned Skysplitter, this weapon being the most unknown weapon to me...and then I scanned it with Code as I tried to figure out what it was made out of and if I could replicate it. Once what it was made of came through, I got sick, actually throwing up as I backed away from it… souls. Melted down souls. “The fuck Skysplitter…” I coughed. “No wonder why your Earth based but your name is ‘Skysplitter’...” I muttered. I'll look into this more… the old king said he found this… so who made you… and why, why use souls? “You know what?” I muttered before closing my eyes and focusing hard, trying to ‘feel’ Skysplitter and try to see if any of the souls that made this thing were either sentient, ‘alive’, or if they’re screaming in eternal pain with no mind of their own. “Come on...I know you can hear me…” I could feel… three, three souls here. All were very powerful. "Who are you?" a deep, female voice spoke. “My name’s Ben, and I’m your wielder.” I said to the trio. “And...who are you three?” "I am Sandra of the giants of Mega." “Giants of Mega?” I asked curiously. “I’ve...never heard of them.” "I am not surprised. It's funny how such a small hard to find world holds the most powerful variation of Giants in the realms. “So...you and two others are Skysplitter? Why?” I asked nervously. “And...where is Mega if that’s the name of the world?” "The other two are… were, Gunther and my children, barely a year the two. Gunther was the one I loved, married, and forged my and our children's souls into this form so we could continue to be with him while he served his king." “Oh jeez…” I muttered sadly. “I...I didn’t know...but...when was the last time and place you last ‘connected’ with him?” I asked gently, not sure how much she knows. "If you mean do I know if he has passed, yes. Little over a thousand years ago actually." “Would have liked to have known him but...well I got here a thousand years too late apparently.” I said honestly. “But...mind if I ask where your home world is?” I asked politely. “Just to...understand your people and...figure out how this was even possible.” "Summon me to the copy of you out and about searching, it will be a detour but I will lead you there. “Thank you.” I nodded while disbanding Skysplitter from this body as the one that’s out and about searching, and having been successful on a lot of things thankfully, summoned Skysplitter to get directions. Summoning Skysplitter was easy, having it suddenly tug me at rocket speeds off to wherever was… like a weird roller coaster. Eventually we hit dirt, ouch… but did not make a massive crater. “Jeez lady, did you need to try and pull my arm off?” I asked while getting up and dusting myself off as I looked around to see where we were. … Holy shit… these buildings are MASSIVE! Just one is the size of my castle!! "Welcome to Mega, home to the biggest and strongest variation of Giants in all the realms." “Good lord one building’s the size of my castle…” I muttered. “Good lord...where to start…” "For starters my house. It's just a few houses down from here." “Right…” I said while flying up and moving around, looking for the ladies house. “So...world of Giants...how tall can you get?” "I am a fully grown giant, an easy two and a half mile’s up.” “That...is a lot of woman I can just imagine…” I blinked in surprise as I flew off towards her house. “So...how long have you been...watching me and...Vergil now?” I asked, remembering DMC Vergil had Skysplitter, but when I played Devil May Cry 5 I was...horribly disappointed with the Vergil I got. “SinceI appeared to you and then him… I picked him because he...reminds me of Gunther. Not their personality...they look so much alike…” “Alrighty then.” I said honestly. “So...given that this might happen due to trends and me just being me...how does Mega Giant’s actually...date and stuff?” I asked sheepishly, the giantess fully knowing about my weird chick magnet powers. ”Nice try, but we are immune to the cherub angels, we pick our own mates, for life. Gunther might be dead but even after their death, we love no one else.” “I mean...I wasn’t pointing it at you though.” I brought up. “I was just curious cause of literally any other lady that I might come across. But thank you for telling me about that.” I said honestly. We came aross her house and inside… holy fuck… stone…. Statues? ”These are our bodies, when we die, or in our case, take out our souls, they return to the ground we come from. In my case though I can return myself and our children to our bodies easily. They Will return to flesh and blood. This is why I was happy you decided to come here, I wish to ask you a favor.” “Will Skysplitter lose all it’s powers if you three leave?” I asked honestly. “And what would the favor be?” “If I leave, yes, if my kids do, no.” “So...what? Want me to go over and try to put your kids back?” I asked honestly. ”I can place them back from here, then you take care of them. A little over a thousand years they should be almost fully grown by now and their bodies and souls have remains that of younglings since I took us all in here. Their bodies are in the basket, on the table.” “Oh I can do that.” I said honestly. “I can totally take care of...children….” I trailed off, before taking a deep breath. “So what are the kids names?” I asked, remembering that I’m trying to keep myself busy so I don’t break down. ”Grain, and Brut.” “Thank you.” I nodded. “But...I’ll make sure to take care of the kids…” I told her, now just wanting to...probably get drunk at one of this world’s bars and still probably end up with a new wife cause that’s what happened the last time I was drunk. ”Thank you, now, atop the table, I need to be close to them to do this.” I nodded while flying up to the table near where the two kids were. “Alright...work your magic ma’am.” Skysplitter glowed, two… me sized orbs left the weapon and floated over into the basket, so ...crying filled the air, my motherly instincts rushing over to them… they were big, easily the size of a large Rv… but they were...perfect. “It’s alright, it’s alright.” I said gently to the two perfect little babies. “Mommy’s here.” I said, which was technically true as I tried to calm them down so they weren’t crying. Once they were calmed down I managed to send them with the other infants… that was going to be a challenge but they deserve a life. “Okay lady...where’s the nearest bar with the best booze around?” I asked honestly. ”The other side of town.” She said. “Thank you.” I said before leaving the place and heading to the bar. “By the by...how the hell was Skysplitter even made? I know it would take the soul of a giant but...besides that I have no clue how it was made.” ”We Unlike most other giants can create special metals by infusing pressure from our hands and magic from our bodies into soil, this metal I forged this Tomahawk out of is known as Skyfelium, metal capable that, when wielded by a powerful giant can tear apart the sky, and shatter suns. Hence the name, Skysplitter. The metal acts as a funnel and an amplifier for our own magic, but by placing my own soul into it, it doubled the power Gunther could use, the reason I was shattered when you used me against that void woman is because without a giant, I only have the strength of one giant, myself, and whatever you were placing into it at the time.” “I mean...that can also explain why you can just...make a new planet given the right strength…” I muttered. “But right now, considering I’m an Admin, does that mean the limits are off or something?” I asked curiously. “Or do I need to be a Giant?” ”Sadly that knowledge is beyond me, my race never knew about Admins, nor does it now, the only reason I know is because of you. Though I Suppose using such power as my races and infusing it into your own might not be that hard with proper training. I have been wanting to ask though, what are your plans for this war?” “Oh you know, making sure it doesn’t get out of control, win, and hopefully deal with any fucking stragglers that might try and restart hings.” I said honestly. “Or I could bore you for literal months talking about everything I can think of about this war.” ”Prefer if you did not. We are a race of doers, not thinkers, even if it's an impossible battle, we fight with all we have. Doesn't matter the opponent.” “Fine fine.” I said honestly. “Doesn’t mean I’m not a thinker...which I’ve been doing for ages and a half.” I sighed out. “How good is the booze here? And how much crap do the barkeeps take before throwing people out?” I asked honestly. ”I was never much of a drinker, but Gunther seemed to enjoy a brand known as The Singing Fairy Ale. And there is no need to worry about money, we do not have currency here.” “Okay, given that when I’m drunk I would damn near have no inhibitions...how far does one have to go to get kicked out?” ”Oh Gunther and even myself lived for when someone gets drunk enough to start a fight, nothing called for a party like a good old fashioned bar fight, gets out all your stress and worries and gives you and others a lovely story to tell and reflect on.” “And what would happen if it just devolved into me sobbing like a bitch in front of everyone?” I asked honestly. “After the fight I mean…” ”We are a very community based race, if one of our own, or even a visitor is harmed or sad, we all gather around to give advice and listen. How so may races just keep to themselves and don’t help out the hurt was never imaginable to me until I placed myself in this weapon and traveled with Gunther.” “I don’t know...that’s a whole lot of talking and philosophy that I don’t want to deal with at the moment.” I sighed out. “Right now, I’d rather just get drunk, probably start a bar fight, cry a fuck ton...and knowing from past experiences, even if my Cherub powers don’t work I’m proabably gonna get a Mega Giant girlfriend knowing my luck.” I said honestly. While the other me was getting Drunk on Mega, I was helping Dinky finish burying the old Bard. Weather sealed off the cave for good measure. “So, wanna sight see?” She asked. “There were a lot of recommended places to see when I bought the place.” “Yes please.” I said with a smile. “I’d like to do some sight seeing, where would you like to go first?” “Well when going through the recommended sights list there was this one place I saw was called The Crying River. It’s a river that flows UP a mountain! How cool is that!” "That is rather cool." I said honestly. "It's on the other side of the world though… so… Keyblade gliders?" She asked, summoning her Keyblade. “Sure.” I nodded while bringing out my Keyblade as well. “Let’s get going then.” I said while summoning my Glider, which was a bit bigger and way cooler than my old one. We rode along high in the air, enjoying the view. "I was wondering what to do with this place. Whole reason I even bought it was because of that book." “Well...you can either have people live here and it is a normal planet, keep it like it is and let Nature take its course, or you can use it as your own personal testing grounds for anything and everything you want to test if you can’t do it in Cript’s realm.” I said honestly. "I dunno. I was thinking of using it like a warehouse of sorts for…" “For what?” I asked curiously. "Well, with this war coming up, it would be good to have a large stockpiled warehouse of resources. Food, medicine, weapons, all that stuff. Freak Inc. is already running drills and all that stuff." “That would probably be for the best…” I sighed out. “I...still need to do a lot of things...too much to do, too little time…” "Then let us help you. You think we like sitting around watching you about near kill yourself over your worries and failures, faults? I and the others are your kids and my mom and the others moms are your wives, this kingdom is as much our worry and responsibility as it is yours. You may hold the Kings crown but I am your daughter, and holds a Princesses crown, my brothers a Prince's crown, and our mothers a queens crown. Let us help you." “I know…” I sighed out. “I’m just...scared is all…” I said, Dinky being smart enough to know, even after some time I...was still on the verge of breaking if I’m not keeping busy. “I know all of you want to help, and believe me I want help…” I struggled to find the words here. She began descending. Confused I followed, the two of us now on a shore with a great view. Dinky took a seat and I sat next to her. "I don't remember much about my birth dad, but I remember his funeral. Remember being… happy, seeing him dead. Even at that age, I knew it wasn't normal, and for a long time, thought I was a bad person for being happy to see them dead… then, mom found out, and said she was too. She and I were feeling the same way, and we both thought we were terrible ponies for feeling that way about his death… we cried all night, old pent up emotions finally let out, and we felt better after words." Dinky said, turning to me with a small smile. "We can't become stronger if we don't break first dad. And I know you're struggling to stay together, so it's okay for you to break down, because you'll be stronger afterwards." “I wish that was true for me…” I said, looking out into the distance as I sat down. “I...I need to stay strong...I need to be the hero everyone sees me...I can’t...I can’t let down everyone...not again…” I took a shuddering breath, trying to keep myself together. "How do you expect to save and help everyone if you can't let us save you first? You got your Joy back, but you've forgotten that sometimes, sadness can be just as important. Can't let all your emotions die now can you?" “All my emotions died once…” I muttered, clenching my fists as I tried to keep my tears down. “One clone is drinking heavily...just to try and drown the pain…” I muttered sadly, my shoulders shaking as Dinky could see...I was one more push. "Drowning in booze doesn't really suppresses the emotions. I don't want to see you drowning in your suppressed emotions. I don't want to lose the only father I have." “You’ll never lose me…” I muttered, my tears finally falling as the thought of losing all my children...everything I cared about because of my own actions...I just broke and cried. “I don’t....I can’t lose you...I can’t lose any of you...I already failed to protect my children...and I failed to save Coco...I...I can’t have another failure…” Dinky patted my back, letting my tears and fear finally flow. "And WE will get them back, and fix Coco. It will take time and effort, on both parts. You have to let us help you, and we will." “And I just got done clearing out like...a good third of all the bakeries back home…” I joked through my tears. "Heh, you and Celestia both." Dinky laughed. “Well...one of my clones has...well, my one clone has now turned my bedroom into a massive cuddle pile…” I sniffled, trying to salvage something of myself here as my tears kept going. “Sorry for...ruining our special day…” "Oh this was planned. Two birds with one stone, found the old bard, and you got some emotional baggage taken off." I chuckled a little. “Yeah...I should have seen that coming.” I sniffled. “But...all my emotional baggage isn’t gone...gonna be a while before all of it’s completely gone…” "I did say some, not all. Now then, off to the Crying River." She said, getting up and helping me up. I nodded and got up. “Alright...let’s get going to the actual river instead of me crying one.” I joked while getting back on my glider. To be continued... Nobody does more trialsMy seedlings 'fruit' was delicious… I ate it all… "Now that's what I call an Appetite." “I can’t help it...I need some comfort food damn it…” I whined, burping rather loudly. “Excuse me…” I said sheepishly, my cheeks reddening in embarrassment. "Well a pass is a pass." He said, snapping his fingers as my now tree vanished. "Planted in your castle garden, seeds already picked and in a bag to plant." He said, walking me to the doors. "Have to say I'll miss the company." “Well...why don’t you spend time with other people than?” I asked honestly. “You can literally make people to hang out with.” I brought up. “Or are you stuck here?” "I am free to leave as I choose, but I swore an oath to protect our Mother, so I stay. Besides, the plants help." “Alright.” I nodded. “I understand, so where is the next door?” "Past my door is Carth, admin of water." Shinsu said, reaching his now opened doors, showing what looked like a vast ocean on the other side. "Hope you like swimming, or can make a boat." “Or I can fly.” I said while floating up. “Or I can just use this.” I said while bringing out Arpeggio. “Cause that’ll help, playing a water based instrument with a person that literally invented water.” "Heh, he's going to like you." “Cool.” I said while strumming Arpeggio as I started to play my sitar as I started to glide across the water straight into the new circle. “Wonder what Carth will be like here…” I wondered to myself. As I flew around I noticed as I played… the water was dancing, not like how Arpeggio normally makes it dance, this was different. "Ah haha!" Suddenly, a figure emerged from the water, Carth, looking like nothing more than Water In a humanoid shape. "Such rhythm and vibration! I feel it in every droplet!" They said happily. “Well you sound very happy.” I said honestly. “And glad you like it, I’ve been practicing with Arpeggio for a long time.” "Sound and song go along with water more than people realize. My simple creation is a base foundation to over 76% of life existing in any realm, even the void and all it's tainted horrors uses my masterpiece simple, effective, useful, and above all," They said, splashing a large bunch of water into the air, making a rainbow. "Multi purpose!" “Yep.” I nodded with a smile. “So, what’s my trial going to be Carth?” I asked curiously. "Trial? Oh right." He said, stopping his and the waters dancing. "I see you use a tool to control my creation very fine tuned. But how much do you know about water?" “As much as a person who didn’t invent the thing would know.” I said honestly. "Water, like what drinks and thrives from it, is alive, each drop of it a unique identity and personality co-existing with the bigger picture. One can be deadly." He said, suddenly a small cut on my arm that was not there before was bleeding a little, floating around Carth was a single drop of water. "And in large numbers, devastating heavy force." Massive wave appeared behind him, and held in place. "Your trip young wolf is to find the drop of water that sliced you." He said, the drop floating around him joining the standing wave, and then it all fell back into the ocean below us. “Well...that’s gonna take a while.” I said before taking a deep breath and strummed Arpeggio, a long ripple flowing through the water. “Dance Water Dance!” I chanted as I started to play with vigor, closing my eyes as I focused on all the water droplets that started to dance to my will. “Even with trying to find a specific grain of sand in a desert...there’s always that one special rhythm…” I muttered while focusing hard, trying to find the one that cut me that would have a different rhythm from all the other droplets. As I began playing, feeling the rhythm of each, Code slipped in and in each drop I could see each line of code running along, making them them… now which of you is not like the other? I focused, trying to find any small bit of myself on the droplet, no matter how small to try and get to it. “Come on...I know your here.” I muttered, focusing hard to find the thing. I found something. A microscopic line of code… me. Using Arpeggio I made the single droplet rise from.the ocean. Carth clapped. "Well done! Smart using code to locate it. Same way Cript did." “Oh really?” I asked curiously. “Didn’t think he did that.” "Oh yeah. Cript found out that tiny bits of code stick to anything that hits or even touches one another, like bacteria and germs traveling. This was fun." “Cool.” I nodded. “Good thing I had Arpeggio to help here...kinda doubt I would have figured that out by myself to be honest.” "To each their own." He said, a set of large double doors rising from the ocean and opening. "Onto the next." “Thank you.” I nodded while flying off. “Have a nice day.” The next area was simple grass field. Haru, Admin of Childhood, was playing with a kickball against the next area door. “Howdy.” I said politely...before my motherly instincts started shouting at me to pick up and hug the crap out of the adorable child in front of me. "How long?" He asked. “How long?” I asked curiously. “What do you mean?” "I'm the Admin of Childhood, it's nothing like the others. It's more like I can tell when someone still has that wonder and innocence from childhood. You haven't had it for a long time, longer than what's normal. How long ago did you lose it?" “Maybe the day when I died and came back without my light half?” I said honestly. “Either that or when my life started to spiral out of control after that.” "How old were you?" “I..don’t remember..maybe like eight or something?” I said nervously, barely remembering that whole event and I would rather not remember it to be honest. "And you still blame yourself?" “I mean...if I actually listened to my mom and not gone into the ocean, or made sure my dad was watching me so yes, my death technically was my fault.” I said honestly. "You didn't drown accidentally." Haru said, snapping his fingers. Suddenly we were… this beach? "Mom! Dad I found a crab!" I bolted around, seeing little eight year old me messing with this angry crab. "Don't let it pinch you!" Dad said, picking me up and using a stick to toss the crab away. “Okay seriously, this is now the second time I’m being told ‘hey, your original traumatic event was a lie, here’s how it actually happened’.” I frowned. "This cycle is different, too much so." Haru said, looking rather… serious, for a kid. "The others haven't noticed. I have." “So I was right…” I muttered. “You must know who caused this sudden event’s right?” I asked curiously. "About to see who." Haro said, pointing behind me. "Be careful in the water Ben." Mom said. "I'll be watching him him." Dad said, watching me splash the water around. As I was splashing the water around, I noticed the sand behind him was… moving a little… footprints? “That’s...not right.” I said. “I was hit my some douche surfer that made me drown...who the fuck is that?” Dad looked as his arm suddenly, looking like he was trying to see if someone touched him… then went still, not quite paralyzed, more like dazed. The invisible person walked passed him and into the water. From how the water moved they walked over to me. I looked around a bit, then suddenly I was pulled under. “Okay who the fuck is this guy…” I muttered, casting a True Sight spell on myself to see if I can see whoever the hell is doing this crap. "Ben!" I heard my mom shout as Dad snapped out of whatever he was under. He rushed into the water, doing CPR and panicking at my lack of response. The invisible figure left the water, the spell working til… what the? Me… Psychopath me? "Objective complete boss. Onto the next one." “Oi, the fuck.” I frowned. “Psychopath me shouldn’t be here yet...and who’s his boss?” "Don't know, but how he got here could be part of many things that went wrong. Far as I can tell, Everything that went wrong with your life, wasn't even your fault." Haru said, those words hitting me in the chest like a bullet. “But...what about everything else?” I asked, putting a hand over my heart. “I caused my parents so much problems...and even though I later figured out they were murdered...it still sucked…” "One way to find out." Haru said, snapping his fingers as we were in my families old apartment. I was sneaking out for that party… the day the cops brought me back and a bunch of fines. “Ah yes, this memory where I snuck out during a ‘mugger’ sighting and then immediately blamed for it for no reason.” I frowned. As young me was walking the route to the party, someone ran past me wearing… my exact clothing… I remember that, but didn't think much of it. "Stop!" A cop yelled at me, then grabbing me and tossine against the wall. The double was around the corner with a purse, them tossed it. They then grew… taller. Him again?! "Second objective complete." He said into an earpiece. “What the actual hell…” I frowned. “Is all this just ‘hey, let’s fuck with me for some reason’?” I frowned. “Oh I’m going to ask that bastard so many questions.” I growled, thankfully having the book to summon him whenever I want as it was basically his leash. "As I was suspecting. Someone knew who and when to alter specific events to some ulterior desire? Who though?" Haro asked aloud. “Either someone that can time travel, or someone’s doing a Xehanort.” I frowned. “And...the only person I can think of that might have been able to do this just from what I’ve heard died off screen like a bitch.” I said, remembering being told Vincent was the Fact of Evil or some crap so it would make sense but Cript killed the bastard. “So either there’s some fourth dimensional chess going on...or someone’s doing a Xehanort here…” "Whatever the case, this is something you should speak to the mother about when you reach her." “I should.” I nodded. “So, what’s my trial besides fighting off the urge to hug you?” I asked honestly. “Den mother instincts...always a wonder.” "Your trip is actually pretty easy." Haru said, Everything shifting back to the grass field it was at first. He walked up to me, poked me. "Tag you're it!" He yelled before rushing off with incredible speed “Oh you cheeky bastard.” I chuckled before running off after him with my own incredible speed. “Just going to play tag?” "Yup. I am a kid, and it's pretty boring here." “Well I am a Den Mother and I have been trying my best not to just hug you and act like a mother for like...ten seconds.” I said honestly. “So just play tag for how long?” "Til you tag me." “Alright.” I nodded, shifting into my feral form and running even faster after him. "Wooo." Haru said, dodging my swipes and tackles with expert skill. I chuckled, glad he was having fun...but my own actions were being bogged down by thoughts of actually having fun with my own kids…”Damn it…” I muttered bitterly as I pounced at the kid again, thinking more about Haru’s fun than being run down by my own failures. As Haru ran around, myself chasing him, suddenly, he was tackled. Stopping I saw… a little girl? Blond hair, blue eyes, easily ten or so. “Excuse me who?” I blinked, wondering who that was. "So you are the Admin of Childhood? Wonder how such a thing was made, and by you." She spoke, sounding her age but… mature… cruel. I immediately grabbed the girl and got her off of Haru. “Yeah how about no.” I frowned. “So who the hell are you?” I frowned. "You're Ben, Admin and King of Nothingness. How redundant." She said, yanking herself free from me. What? How did she? "Either way you're not of my concern. Oh, and pardon the rudeness, but my name is Tanya. Tanya Digurachaf." “Okay so two things...what are you and how did you get here?” I asked with a frown, preparing for a fight. “Haru...you might need to run.” "I was sent here by Nexus. I'm one of the… special new recruits. We are made and recruited specifically to deal with you." “Okay so basically this place isn’t fucking special anymore.” I said. "Oh it is, took longer than I thought." She said. "Those other admins were a lot more challenging than I was informed. But I only needed to reach you." “Why did you need to reach me?” I asked honestly. “And...really? Their sending children after me?” "Children we may be, but we have our strengths. For example, against normal admins this tactic would be ineffective, but against you specifically it's effective." I summoned my Lexicon. “So, they send children...ruining their lives just to fight me…” I muttered while my book glowed. “Here...let me just show you a little something.” I said while the little girl felt something pull her in. “In my Book World…” "Ruining our lives? Surely you're joking." She said, a twisted, monsters smile cloaked her face, scaring me actually. "I chose this without hesitation, and without regrets. I was already a general in my world's military, over five hundred confirmed kills." “So...what? You were reborn into a ten year old?” I asked, the girl looking like...how she was before. “I don’t know where your from, but your Soul shows me something completely different. Cause right now, you look more like a boring salaryman.” "I'm impressed, you discovered that quickly but then again beings like you can sense these things easily. My original goal in life was to climb the latter's placed before me until I could live leisurely, but things don't always go as planned. In my new life, this new form, that Being X kept getting in my way, then Jericho showed up, and showed me even God's can die. It was then I realized, do all God's and beings above them die? I really want to find out." “Alright, so let me ask...the fuck are you doing here?” I asked honestly. "Under orders from the top. I'm here to inform you of our existence is all." “So...what...you weaponized...children?” I asked. “Even though you are not a child by any standard...am I getting that right?” "Mentality Wise I'll admit I'm no child, but physically, age wise, biologically, I am. And to use that against your Den Mother Biology is all that it takes." “Oh...so that is a thing…” I said, Tanya sensing way too much power spike way too fucking high, and the look of someone so pissed it would even scare them. She backed up a bit, looking scared before laughing. "Just as I thought. No difference between you and Being X. You both use fear and suffering to impose your opinions and way of thinking. As impressive as a scare as that was… it just proved my point. All God like beings are the same. They all need to die." “Okay, first up that is literally not why I’m mad.” I started. “You said you wanted to fight me as a child because my Den Mother instincts would stop me, well my Den Mother instincts are making me Absolutely fucking Livid because Jericho is low enough to weaponize fucking children!” I shouted in anger. “You, your not a child, even if you try to pull biology shit, but other kids! They were innocent! But no! Just gotta put them through shit that they shouldn’t!” "Hm. I don't know what's more hysterical. Your lack of leadership and sense of communication, of the fact you think Jericho made this idea? He picked me up, yes, but this group… was all my idea." She said with that twisted smile, vanishing in a puff of code. “The fuck does leadership and commincation have to do with anything?” I asked, honestly confused about that. “But I’m probably going to figure out who else is behind this cause jack wipe couldn’t have just done it all by themselves…” I grumbled while looking over at Haru, wondering why he didn’t say or do anything. He was backed up against the wall, fear filled his eyes and he was hyperventilating. “So what...your afraid of me?” I asked honestly. “Even though you’ve probably seen scarier?” I asked, even though my motherly instincts are telling me to make him feel better and not be scared I had a feeling it wouldn’t help given how scared he was. "Y-your anger. I felt it." Haru said, shaking. "I've only ever seen anger that pure once before…" “Oh? Mind if I ask what that was?” I asked while sitting down, wanting to hear what the child had to say. "The… the Delete Hunter…" “The...who?” I asked honestly. "Everyone these days thinks Cript was the first to kill Deletes. He isn't. Not long after the war, when Deletes began popping up, one Admin lost everything to them, his wife, his child, his realm. He was the first to kill Deletes, and they feared him. His anger and rage could be felt all the way here when he spotted a Delete. For nine million years I… we would sense that pure rage and anger just about every day, for hours if not years in itself." “Well...that’ll do it yeah.” I said honestly while gently getting closer to the child while he was too focused on talking. “Is the person still alive?” "Don't know. Their… aura, if you can call it that, stopped appearing a long time ago. Don't know their name either all I know is that they wore this… armor." “What kind of armor?” I asked curiously, wanting to make sure it didn’t involve me. "I don't know what it looked like, but I've heard… it was forged from Delete corpses. Immune to their attacks and void. A perfect defense against them." “Well that’s...rather concerning.” I said nervously, before leaning over and gently poking his nose. “Boop.” "Heh." Haru said, leaning over on me. “Tag.” I said gently. “Your it.” I said gently. "Heh… I had hoped to never feel that level of rage ever again… and… you showed it to me at point blank…" I gently picked up Haru and cradled him. “Am I really that scary?” I asked gently. “Does this fluffy good looking lady look scary?” "An angry adult is always scary, especially to kids. Doesn't matter how well you know them, anger has a way of changing you." “Oh yeah?” I asked while starting to sneakily tickle the child. Haru started laughing, trying to get me to stop. After a bit I did and he calmed down some. "Heh. I wonder if this is what it's like to have a mom?" “I mean, go spend time with Mother I’m sure that’ll help.” I said honestly. “But mother’s can be scary sometimes...but they...should always love their children.” I said gently, nuzzling Haru caringly. "I know Mother is, well, the one who made us, but she doesn't spend a lot of time with us. Visits every now and then but I think that's because of what she is." “Well she should spend more time with people, she can make clones of herself she can make it work.” I said honestly. “So anyways, want me to spend some more time with you or should I get going to the next trial?” "You should move on. The quicker you get this done the quicker you can go home." “I am also at home cause I have Starfish clones.” I said honestly. “But alright Haru...maybe I’ll come and visit.” I said gently while putting down the child. “So, where’s the door?” "Just over there." He pointed, a tall tree with a single door was against this wall in the back. "Fann is next. He's weird, but nice." “Well I’m used to weird all things considered.” I said honestly. “Take care Haru.” I said while heading off into the next room. “So...what is Fann’s whole thing…” Entering the next room… is this a… dirt bike race track…. Combo… what? Any sport involving anything fast moving is all mashed together in this… track? “Gee, I wonder what this guy’s all about.” I rolled my eyes. “Hello? Fann? Are you going to burn some physics books like they did in Fast and the Furious or what?” "Shhh!" I heard someone tell/ shush me from… somewhere? Huh, deja Vu. “Okay so where are you?” I frowned while looking around. Looking around I saw… these stands set up on the side and he was watching a TV. Huh… “Okay...hi.” I said to the admin. “What’s up?” "Watching Nascar." Fann said. “I wonder, are they making a left turn?” I asked. "No this is zero G Nascar, it's like a mix of normal Nascar and a demolition derby." “So F-Zero.” I stated. "Eh." Fann said, taking a swig of… wait Duff beer… tempting. “So anyways, what’s my test here? Or can I just pass on by while...I get too many red neck vibes here…” I muttered. He tossed me a Duff, then sighed. "I am the Admin of Speed. And I am bored…" I grabbed the beer. “Well than what do you want to do? Cause I doubt you want to actively do Speed.” I said, bringing up the drug actually named Speed. "Har har. I've done and seen a lot. Frankly I wish I could leave this place." “You do know you can right?” I brought up. “There is literally nothing stopping you from taking a vacation. You are on guard duty sure, but you can just as easily go out, do your own thing, and be back before anyone noticed. You invented Speed so literally nothing can be faster than you.” "I would know. Frankly I'd… hmm…" “What?” I asked curiously. "Nah you won't go for it." “Well at the moment I have to do a trial to proceed to the next room.” I brought up. "Well there is one thing I have never done…" “And that would be?” I asked, getting a little nervous as to what this guy wanted. "I'm a… sure you can take a guess given you're...figure." “You just wanted to get laid?” I frowned. "Well my normal thing is an obstacle race, normally for my own amusement but that got old fast. No pun intended there. And hey, sex sounds interesting. Or so I hear." “Even though I’m a perv, no.” I frowned. “Your an admin, you can literally make yourself a woman to plow.” "It's not just sex." He said, standing up. "I've envied the beings we create. Short life spans, families, real passion for what they do. We admins don't have that privilege. We'll outlive all of them sooner or later and death for us is borderline non existence, at least they can be reincarnated." “Okay...so should I just...go to the next trial then?” I asked. “Sorry that I don’t understand your pain...but what, your just lonely or something?” I asked honestly. "Honestly? I just want a family." “And you...didn’t start one way before this?” I asked honestly. “You still have time to go out and find a girl, just ask Mother or Belief for some time off, I’m sure someone would be happy to be with you.” "... If only it was that easy." “It...actually is.” I said honestly. “Your an Admin, if you can’t find your special someone...than you can just literally make your special someone. Relationships are difficult yes, but dating and finding someone you can honestly love, through the good and bad, isn’t that hard...but who am I to talk given that I have over two thousand plus wives.” I rolled my eyes. “And counting…” I added. "Heh. And yet here you stand before me, both genders and the clear worry of when you will have kids of your own to birth and if you will be able to care for them." “I mean...it’s just more kids to the millions I have...fucking Cript Curse…” I grumbled. “But that’s mostly just me being a pessimist. You on the other hand are probably an optimist.” "And pray tell, what keeps this fear inside of you of convicting children of your own? The gender you were born as? The life you lived? The worry you won't be good enough? Hmm… no, it's not that you fear having them, you fear the one, or perhaps ones you want to father these children, you think you are not worthy of their time nor love." “Gonna have to be more specific cause I don’t think I’m worthy of anyone even after all the shit I’ve done.” I shrugged. “But why are you pointing this towards me when you could have gotten a girl a long while ago?” I asked honestly. “Personal interest. Some entertainment at least. In the end, once you’ve lived as long as I have, anything at all to break the never ending silence of eternity is welcome.” “Well sometimes you have to break that silence yourself.” I said honestly. “Can’t have others breaking the silence for you, that’s just boring.” “Either way, this is my trial then.” He said, taking a seat again. “Tell me, why you believe you don’t deserve anyone? If I think you are lying, then you won’t be allowed to proceed.” “Funnily enough, from an outside perspective, I have literally no right to believe I don’t deserve anyone.” I said honestly. “I have saved worlds, saved lives, and done so many great things as a hero...but on the inside I’m just a mess.” I sighed out. “A depressed mess that doesn’t even know his own past, feels like he can do so much more but everyone tells them to stop doing things and relax, and so many other things that I’d basically spend an hour going off on too many fucking tangents that I completely missed the central point.” I frowned. “But truly?” I asked while looking at my big fluffy paws. “I’m a failure...even if people tell me I’m not supposed to do everything and not be perfect...I failed the people I cared about so many times…” “And you see yourself as a failure, no matter what, is that correct?” “I have several pieces of evidence to prove it if you want.” I said honestly. “But I doubt that’ll mean much when you can already guess I shouldn’t be complaining.” “The path of the king, you walk blind, the path of a knight, you walk with too much worry and fear of failure. Are you sure you ever wanted to fight? To become king? You were placed on this path, yes, but is it the path YOU wanted to walk?” “As an optimistic Pessimist once said, when going into things you are either proven right, or pleasantly surprised.” I said honestly. “But what path do I want to walk? Well it’s a little late for that to be perfectly honest, but I just go where the road takes me, it’s not like the authors have fought over which way I should go ever.” I joked. “Okay seriously I think Eclipsa’s starting to rub off on me...damn it that sounded wrong…” I groaned while facepalming. “If you can’t change your path, then change your purpose.” Fann said, taking another beer. “If you can’t handle the stress of a king, pass along the crown, if you can’t stand the fear of a warrior, put down your sword, if you want to keep both, but fear the stress, then become what you already are, or rather, what you are afraid of being, despite it’s a natural fit for you.” “Little late on just dropping things at the moment, and become what?” I asked curiously. “Isn’t your specific type of Dire wolf you are known as a Den Mother? You can still fight, still rule, but rule where you are needed, and fight when your family is threatened before you. A simple, but still noble purpose to fit the path you have walked so blindly.” “So basically what I’ve been doing?” I asked honestly. “Are you with your children now? Nursing the young and carrying unborns? No, I can tell, one in another realm, one out drinking in sorrow, one here.” “One is actually doing just that.” I said honestly. “Cause while you sense three, I have five selves out and about. One is with my family, one is spending time with one of my daughters, and the other two are correct.” “Then tell me, where are your Unborns?” “Unborns?” I asked honestly. “Also the hell are you talking about?” “Oh, you have not remembered yet. My mistake then.” “Oh no, your not dodging that, you’re going to explain what you mean.” I frowned. “Am I pregnant or something and I didn’t notice?” “Not my place to tell, and if you can’t smell or feel your own pregnancy, you are one crippled wolf, but no, you aren’t. Not now, befo-” A hand covered Fann’s mouth. “That’s enough Fann.” Cript said. “My part and yours was already done, let Ben remember on their own.” “No, I want answers.” I frowned. “I’m already having a bitch of a time remembering what actually caused my past to happen, I don’t need more cryptic bullshit!” I barked. “But considering your here, the fuck did you do to me Cript?” “Nothing you didn’t ask me to do.” They said. “You’ll remember, in time.” They finished, vanishing. “No, get back here and answer me cause I didn’t ask you jack shit.” I growled, not knowing what he’s talking about, what I needed to remember, and just really hating this sudden new bout of cryptic bullshit. “Jesus, Marcy and Zeke weren’t thi-” I blinked. “Wait...what?” I muttered, wondering why I said ‘Marcy’ like that when I should have said Eclipsa. “Well this became ever the more interesting.” Fann said. “What the hell’s going on?” I frowned. “You’ll remember. Sooner or later. Til then I’ve been entertained, go on. Door is always over there.” Fann said, motioning to a finish line at the end of this track. “Thank you.” I nodded slowly , still confused on things as I headed off to the next trial. Entering the next area this place… is this a Lab? “Sample?” I jumped, seeing a woman in a lab coat, large glasses and holding a cup was next to me. “Uh...hi?” I asked nervously. “Sample. Now.” She said, shoving the cup in my face. “Sample of what?” I asked with a frown while pushing the cup out of my face. “Also rude.” “Spit, urni, fees, blood, any of that.” “Alright.” I nodded while I took the cup and spat in it to give them a sample for whatever reason. She took the sample I gave her and walked over to a machine she placed a little bit into a machine and began looking over a screen. ”Ugh, this is worse than when Dad tried to prove that…” “Wait what?” I blinked, confused on what I just thought. “I mean...dad tried to prove something but...I feel like...that’s something completely different…” I muttered worriedly. “I see.” The lady, the Admin of Biology I believe said, snapping me out of my stuper. “Fascinating. Complete genetic immunity to it, such a rare trait in a race.” “Complete immunity to what?” I asked curiously. “Genetic inbreeding.” She said so casually I actually fell over. “You could screw your kids and then their kids/siblings when they are old enough and no genetic abnormalities. Amazing.” “Well...thank Cript for that little chestnut.” I said sheepishly, even though I wouldn’t do such a thing...and for some reason I thought of ‘if they actually consented’ which kind of surprised myself.”Okay...that’s a little worrying...but at least it was with consent and if there isn’t any complications…” I thought to myself. Shaking my head, I walked up to this Admin. “Yes?” She asked, still reading over the screen. “So, what’s going to be my trial here?” I asked her. “Given that I’ve had one for every one else so far.” “Trial? Oh yeah, that...hmm… Samples.” She said simply. “Well you already got one…” I started. “What? Do you want…’others’?” “According to this I can get at least six more samples from you. Just one of each will do. And if you wait until my research is done, I can tell you the results.” “And how long would the results take and...what other samples do you need?” I asked nervously. “A sperm cell, an egg cell, feces, urin and breast milk. Oh, and a blood sample.” She said. “Okay, two of those are a bit gross…” I said. “But the other three are fine...breast milk...sperm and an egg cell.” “Bathroom is over there.” She said, pointing to a door in the corner. “The egg cell I’ll have to remove myself.” “You sure that’s safe?” I asked nervously. “The...taking one of my eggs part.” “I’ve done it lots of times, besides, I’ll be putting it back.” “Well...if you insist.” I said sheepishly while heading into the bathroom. I provided the… samples. A cup of urine, some...shit, and a little too much sperm… Once I was out and she took out some blood it was time for the egg… I was on a...special table for this, legs wide open as she… was looking directly into my womb... “Yeah...this isn’t weird at all…” I said sheepishly. “So...what? Have to go elbow deep or something?” I asked before I blinked and found it a little weird I said that. “No, simply put I’m going to put a very small vacuum tube with a camera in your vagina, through the cervix, into the uterus, through the fallopian tube and into the ovaries where I will extract one Egg Cell, it will flow through the tube, into the machine then once it’s analyzed I will reverse the tubes flow and place it back, just as I first took it.” “Well...that’ll definitely feel weird.” I said honestly. “You will feel a ticklish sensation.” She said, placing it in. I tensed up. It felt like when Twilight did...stuff but… a lot deeper and...not as stretching things. It reached my womb...and once it went in I about orgasemed, and I did make a scream of pleasure. “Okay...that...shouldn’t...have happened…” I groaned. “Your nerve endings in here as a Den mother make this area the most pleasurable area interact with. I mean seriously, just breathing in here can give you an orgasm after a few hard breaths.” She said, I felt that thing enter deeper and...woah… hurts but also feels good… damn biology… wait... “Okay seriously no, this is not okay. I should not be getting off to this. Also ow.” I groaned. “Just a bit more. Reaching the ovaries and here we are. Check them out.” She said, the screen on her machine nearby flashing to an image of a reddark place…. My ovaries, and countless clear round orbs. “Each one of those is an infant yet to be conceived. One thing’s just about every sexual reproducing species has of the female gender is this. Not all of them get to be born though, few races can have that happen.” “Okay...cool.” I said. “But seriously, I should not be getting off to this, even if Den Mother biology makes me more...sensitive.” “Discovering new kinks?” She asked, I heard her flip a switch and after a bit flip it again, then began pulling out the tube… that feels WAY too good~ “And done. Results for all will take some minutes. Put your pants back on and clean up.” “Seriously, that’s not right.” I shook my head. “And no, that’s not a ‘new kink’...I at least hope...and even if it’s new, I’m not doing it again.” I frowned while putting my pant’s back on. “Seriously, that was not okay…” “Look your body your pleasure areas, just wait somewhere and I’ll give you the data in about three minutes. Till then, I dunno, think or something.” “Alrighty then…” I muttered while walking off and immediately doing some code magic and making myself not have that weird pleasure thing anymore cause that was not okay. “I don’t care...shouldn’t have found it that good when it was weird…” I grumbled. “Seriously...the hell…” I muttered, before sitting down and waiting for the three minutes. As time passed I was wondering what was going on with my memories, and what was this thing Cript said I asked them to do, but I don’t remember doing anything… Fuck I hate when nothing gets explained right away. “Even if it’s not right away I’d like some idea what’s going on instead of ‘you’ll figure it out’...” I grumbled. "Okay, results are in." She said, gaining my attention. “Oh? What are the results?” I asked. "Regarding your breast milk, in short you're a walking health potion factory." “That I already knew about.” I said honestly. “Knew that a long time ago, both from my mother, and from…personal experience.” I said sheepishly. “Anything else?” "It accelerates the growth rate dramatically to maturity and even helps.slow down if not stop the aging process afterwards. While it's still in their system mind you." “So...my girls are literally the fountain of youth?” I asked honestly. “Wow...that’s something.” "In a sense, while it does halt the physical aging process, or slow it depending on the drinkers metabolism. Their life span clock will still be ticking." “Alrighty then. That is good to know.” I said honestly. “So, anything else after my breast milk?” "Your sperm seems to not only immediately fertilize an egg cell but also will actually wait for an egg to be available. Rather… rather odd. Your eggs are actually very fascinating." “And...what’s special about my eggs?” I asked. "They seek out sperm cells. Like a sperm seeking an egg they do the same! Not only that but it seems yours compared to other dire wolves I have on record actually will Multiply itself unfertilized to allow excess sperm cells to fertilize! If your blood work was right then your body not only could hold and support over a million infants but also CHOOSE when to birth them!" “Oh that? That would be the Curse Cript and his entire family has...which I am apart of.” I said honestly. “Weird hearing something you already know way too much about from someone that didn’t know about it.” "Lastly is a more… concerning matter. This involves your Den Mother Biology. It's a match for others so you might know this already." “Might not, what about my Den Mother Biology?” I asked curiously. "First off, I'm not sure how accurate this might be given you are both genders but here it is. Normal Den Mothers of your race go into heat at maturity and are, well, impregnated. And stay that way. If they are not knocked up immediately within a year of giving birth well… they die, their bodies overflow constantly after a first conception and stay that way with needed magics and essentials for the infants. But a Den Mother who is not impregnated after first heat, will still live, but will become infertile. Their inborn magic having not become active by an impregnation leaves them… unable to conceive." I...wasn’t sure I heard that right. “But...I’m an Admin...right? I can just...forgo that part right?” I asked in a rising bout of panic. "Yes, you are, but not like I am or the others here. You were a creation first. You can change your looks, gender, but at your core you can not change the rules you were built and born into to follow. This is part of why many Admins see creation born Admins as you as… inferior. You can't change your own code like we can, doing so for you leads to instability in it's flow and structure. Best case scenario you end up not being an Admin… worst… is worst." I wanted to say so many things about how being an Admin and all this code crap was a fuck ton worse than magic, but held it at bay. “So...what? I...I can’t have kids anymore?” I asked sadly. "Noticed from your bloodworks you are taking a special potion to hold your first heat away, this gives you time but your body is adjusting to them. Another month, month and a half and they won't work anymore, shortly after that your heat will kick in and… either choose to always be with and have kids… or never again, it's likely your male parts will be affected also so… I'm sorry to be the one to tell you this, but better than finding out when it's too late." I took a deep breath. “Good to know now...cause I wasn’t told that yet…” "It likely was forgotten. From what I remember Den Mother's on your races homeworld went extinct long ago, so they made due with designated ones. Worked but was not the same. You are tied to children, bringing them into existence. Heh, I remember the day Haru suggested females be the ones to do that. Everyone laughed but he made a point about it being easier than us having to make new kids for them every time a couple wanted one. He single handedly convinced us all to create reproduction, and, well, sex. " “Well he had a good idea.” I said honestly. “So...gonna have to get pregnant...or else...I’ll never have a kid again…” "I know it's a lot to think over, but I feel there is another thing I should bring up while we are on that topic…" “Yes?” I asked honestly. “What would that be?” "While examining your blood and everything I see you have the Starfish Cloning Ability. You don't by chance have clones out currently do you?" “Four others yes.” I nodded. “And I’ve had this ability for a long ass time, and if suddenly there’s some mystical draw back…” I grumbled. "Your inborn magic is all shared between them. Meaning once one of you gets pregnant… so will all the others, and any others you make from that point onward." “Oh...well that’s gonna be a hell of a thing.” I said honestly. "Other than that all your urine and feces samples told me was that you have a hell of a good set of Kidneys and liver." “Good, I’d be upset if either of them weren’t good.” I said honestly. "Other than that everything physical is alright." “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “So...just head on through then?” I asked, already knowing the clone that’s with all my family has probably told them about...my new condition. "Yes. That was all. Any new data is always welcome. My specialty is researching biology, not making it really." “Alrighty then. So where’s the door?” I asked, not knowing if it’s hidden behind something or if it’s just out in the open. "Of it's behind my research vault." She said, walking us over to a rather fair sized floor mounted safe. "Now… how do I move this thing?" "You...forgot how to move it?" I asked. “Well I put it here since the only ever person to make it this far was Cript and that was about forever ago. So… I didn’t actually think I’d even need to keep the door open…” “Wonders.” I rolled my eyes as I grabbed the thing. “You don’t mind if I just rip it out of the ground right?” “And activate the self destruct? No. The tools are around here somewhere.” “And this is why you need an assistant to help you make sure everything is where it is.” I rolled my eyes. “Need some help finding it?” “Check the underside cupboards, I’ll look at the top ones.” “Alright.” I nodded while heading around to look for the thing to get the safe out of the way. After about an hour of looking we found them and got the safe unhooked. Moved it elsewhere and rebolted it. WIth that I continued on. The next place was… heaven… a giant library! “Am...am I in heaven?” I asked, looking around at everything as my inner nerd and bookworm just went insane. “No, just my Library.” Said a… wow. This is new. He was tall, very thin, like how people draw some aliens, eyes were like looking into the stars at night and he wore a long blue cloak. “My name is Bensu, Admin of Language. As impressive as my library is all these books hold is the alphabet of every language and how to say each and every word from their vocabulary. Many languages here in these texts do not even exist anymore. Sad really, they sounded so beautiful, but simple english is by far the most flexible and expanding.” “Even though English as a whole makes absolutely no fucking sense when you think about it.” I shrugged. “But understandable, so what? Do I need to learn some really hard language to pass your trial or something?” “Not exactly. This trial is more for your education than to prove anything. Tomb one, two, three and four, all volumes.” He said, four sets of five books floated from out of sight over to me. “These texts hold the lost language of your race, every vowel, word, spell, everything. Your race spoke a very complex language, simple sounding noises holding vast and deep meanings behind each. But most importantly, they hold history and power. For example, the difference between one type of howl of power and another is something as small as a note of volume or the emotion behind it.” “Uh...that is...rather interesting.” I said. “I...wonder what the wolves back home will think if I use this…” I wondered while taking a book. “So...I just read and learn this ancient language?” “It should come naturally to you, like the hunt.” “Now that works.” I nodded while opening up the first book to read. “How ancient is this language?” “Until the end of Den Mothers was this language spoken. They primarily spoke these words, especially from Tomb fours volumes.” “It’s gonna be hilarious when I start breeding god knows how many den mothers because of my fertility curse…” I chuckled while reading the book with invested interest. I started with tomb ones volume. It went over basic communication, pronouncing, as a book on another language should, but also went behind how each word came to exist in the language. Who first spoke it and how it got popularized… this is a history lesson for each word. Is every book here like this? If so cool. “This is gonna take me a while...and I am perfectly okay with this.” I smiled. To Be continued... Nobody's dayThe next morning I was clogging the toilet. Fun fact, as an Admin, not always does vomit come up. Sometimes it’s nothingness thorns, sometimes a Creeper Nobody, one time one of Foudre, and then some other random stuff. A bottle, a pack of ciggarettes, one time a fucking TIRE, and most recently, exactly sixty munny. Morning sickness can go fuck itself! “I hate everything!” I whined rather loudly. “Please...can someone end my pain?” “Welcome to motherhood Ben. We’ve been expecting you.” Luna said, rubbing my back as something else came up in a coughing fit. This time it was just vomit. “Motherhood can go fuck itself with Morning Sickness…” I groaned in pain. “I asked Lord after he arrived last night, and after laughing his ass off for the last three hours of the night he finally said for Admin Morning sickness typically it will last about an hour and a half.” Twilight said, a large notepad in hands. “So about thirty more minutes, said these things were pretty exact on timing. After that it’s cravings, and they can be anything and to prepare you a… mountains worth of… everything, followed by some mood swings then some normalcy after that and sporadic code creations. Depending on the Admin these can be every day all day or once every other day, best case scenario he has seen is with Cript themself who only gets like this once a month.” Twilight informed. “Well whoever made these rules need to get kicked in the dick really fucking hard.” I groaned. “I don’t have time for this garbage…” “It’s from research, not rules someone made.” Twilight said. “In any case thanks to our now Growing resources thanks to this… rather odd marriage with Cript and Zeke… which reminds me… what are you going to do about Jericho? Zeke said he will be part of this given what happened, and he did have our kids… how do you feel about all this?” “Jericho wasn’t going to die, we all knew that.” I coughed. “But Vincent is a cock sucker who has a hard on for his own son turned into a psycho bitch because Belief died one time.” I brought up. “Also, fuck Vincent being back, he died off screen like a bitch, he should have stayed dead like a bitch. Also Jericho is going to give our kids back I’m sure, Jericho isn’t retarded to just keep leverage he doesn’t need anymore when we’re on the same side basically.” I explained before coughing up a solid gold brick. “Seriously, the fuck is with this shit?” “He appeared with them.” Luna said. “Cript threw him through a portal here. He had all our kids, Nancy is so happy, but she actually looks healthier than when she was taken, actually gained a few pounds. And not from normal growth, just some extra fat. Makes her look so adorable!” “Well...she might be something special then.” I brought up. “Cause...I doubt she would be a Den Mother…but maybe she’s either something new or something that hasn’t been shown in forever…” I said honestly. “Or she just ate too much.” Twilight offered. “Eclipse Jr. and Nix were the same, a bit overweight. In fact they seemed to miss him. If any of my research about babies tells me anything it’s that they know a good person from a bad one. Despite everything… I think we can trust him to be an ally.” “As long as my babies still care about me, Zeke and Eclipsa I don’t care much…” I coughed. “Oh, what did you think of-” I threw up again, this time a Dusk. “Seriously, fuck off morning sickness.” I groaned. “Two giant kids and new giant girlfriend, what did everyone think?” I asked, having gotten one Mega Giant as a girlfriend because she cared enough about me after I ranted, raved, cried and fought in the bar, plus besides the lady in Skysplitter she was the only one to help us know how to take care of those two. “She’s nice. Thanks to a member from Meliodas’s world, one of the people who were fused with Zeke, she can shrink to fit in the castle. As for the babies, I always enjoyed cuddling with them, but being a life sized plushie was...different.” Luna said. “Not too bad, they were gentle, but still, kinda weird.” “Cuddles are always nice.” I said honestly. “Now here’s a good question...what’s gonna happen with all the fuckers Jericho recruited to his side when he’s immediately coming to our side?” “Likely they will side with the next figure of their power and ideals, Vincent and this Void Mother…” Luna said, still rubbing my back as this time I vomited up a… wait is this a slipper? Great, Morning sickness has jokes... “I don’t chew on shit, why did I vomit a fucking slipper?” I groaned. “Kinda glad my clones don’t have to deal with this garbage...cause if they all did I would never be able to get anything done…” I sighed out. “So...how has everyone been?” “Pretty good. Been training with Unum, both of them.” Luna said. “Been researching on these Firearm based Key-armerments with Starlight. Their very different from normal Keyblades.” Twilight said. “I’m sorry…” “For what?” They both asked. “Remember when I promised or talked about me actually helping you all train and learn to fight and either forgot about it or never fucking bothered?” I asked. “Yeah...just wanted to point out that fuck up of mine along with the laundry list of it...even though I’m one fuck up away from doing something pretty bad…” “Even with clones Ben, you are one person. Besides, this gives us a larger library of attack patterns to work with.” Luna said. “If you really want to help that badly we can work on a training session for us all?” Twilight offered. “I promised to help do a lot of things and yet have never done any of them cause I’m fucking retarded…” I grumbled. “And sure, why not.” “I’ll work on it with Consequence.” Twilight said. As Twilight left, calling Consequence and they appearing next to them. “So, what’s on your schedule for today anyway? I heard there was a Photo session?” Luna asked with a sly smile. “Yes, but not for lingerie or anything like that.” I said. “Just some public things, being all ‘hey, look at me I’m so cool basically being demoted from King to poster lady’.” I rolled my eyes. “Even though that was me before this entire thing happened but still.” “Well, hope that goes well. I heard some of the others might get called in for scenes so… that sounds interesting.” “Sounds like fun...and here Zeke was complaining about me wearing nice shoes that weren’t heels...seriously, fuck heels.” “Agree with you there, though the only pair of heels I have ever worn was made by the royal blacksmith for over a hundred years before my banishment. Battle ready and elegant enough to wear to any gala. If only they didn’t get ruined…” Luna sighed. “Well, maybe one day.” “I’m sure you’ll get another pair for your weird battle ready bondage kink.” I chuckled. “But...Rarities are gonna be so happy about all the dresses I have to wear…” “As long as I get to see you in something sexy I’m happy.” Luna said with a laugh. “Show off all those cleavages… that… are they bigger? Oh right pregnant. Yeah they were already milk makers so how much more are they going to make?” “I have a feeling both the kids, and all of you will make sure to test that.” I rolled my eyes with a little chuckle. “And yes, I will probably be wearing something sexy don’t you worry.” “Good. Also… I should warn you, but the Pinkies and your Rune are making a… special industrial milking machine for you… given how much you are likely going to be producing…” “Yeah, that’s what I need, those three selling my milk to keep people feeling young...and to just get really good healing potions cause my milk is super healing and other good things.” “Actually Cript’s company, Freak Inc, says that on open market your milk alone would fetch a five thousand Rem a bottle, more for a refined version that focuses on healing over the other stuff, and a lot of companies under Freak Inc hire races that produce milk in massive amounts to sell after some careful sanitation for safety. Have to admit… they sell just about everything and well, kids need milk.” “Well...another way to make an assload of money that we don’t ever fucking need.” I said honestly. “As Admins no we don’t really need money at all but not everyone is an Admin so a market still needs to exist.” Luna pointed out. As I was about to speak, before something else came out, this one a… Hammer? The fucking hell… Wait… I took a sniff at the air, and another and more. Someone here that smells...familiar… someone who hasn't been here for a while… Den! “Wait, Mom’s here?” I asked. “Why didn’t anyone tell me?” “You mean Den? Is she here?” Luna asked. “I just arrived.” Mom said, entering the bathroom. “Hi Ben.” She said, teary eyed and kneeling next to me. “My goodness. You’re bigger than I expected. You’re about my height now, though given what I am seeing and smelling, that’s likely to change in a month.” She chuckled. “Yeah, and from what Twilight told me I’m not going to like it...bitch and a half with morning sickness to begin with cause that makes sense. I’m an Admin, can’t just ignore all this stupid crap…” I grumbled. She pet me, and I felt a bit calmer. “Well you won’t be alone in this… As you know, things have changed… dramatically from what we expected.” “Why? Because you have your own body this time and being here instead of needing a statue for it?” I asked. “That’s part of it.” She said, helping me upright and then placing an herb in my mouth, it tasted… flavorless, but my stomach ache from the vomiting was already feeling better. “Nurtur herb from home, or rather, here. Heh. Helps with Morning sickness, but only for an hour or so.” She said, petting my face. “As you know, Cript is marrying Zeke to help gain power for everyone and this realm, this one and his will become one after this and all that. Before then though he is going to make us all the best of what we all are, all us mothers, wives of his, then make us Admins also, meaning soon I’ll be like you, a proper Den Mother. Cript offered before but I didn’t think it was needed, so at least you won’t be the only one anymore. But, by rules of marriage both this Kingdoms, Cript’s realms and Admin rules, this will make us all wives too… meaning I won’t just be your mom.” She said, drying off my face. “So...should I make mention that I have a mom kink?” I asked nervously. “But that’s great to know...also I’m learning the Dire Wolves long forgotten language...which apparently exists.” “Really? Oh Ben!” She said, hugging me tightly…. Squishy… “You’re rebuilding a once great place. But that is not all Ben.” Mom said, looking me right in the eye. “This war… is going to be worse than Admin war, meaning some rules of reality in this and many realms will have to change in order for us to have a chance. I don’t know exactly what Cript plans to do, dealing with someone as powerful as them, MORE powerful than them, but one thing I do know is this… For a while the Afterlifes will be… empty. Cript thinks the best way to make sure we have enough numbers for armies is to revive all the dead of the past. At least for his realm, I don’t know about here, but something tells me Zeke would be okay with it.” “So basically the rules can start making sense for once?” I asked. “Heh, likely not. All I know is that things will be getting… crazy from here on out. Especially now that we have a front lines set up…” Mom said sadly. “Where Jericho was hiding, his old hideout, was where Cript faced Vincent again and then saw this Void Mother… There are these monsters there, not Deletes but something just as bad… more mindless. More aggressive. He has some forces there but at the moment it’s just a stalemate with these monsters. For now anyway.” “Can’t wait to have them all fall over cause, funnily enough, Nothingness can do a lot of fancy shit against Void from what my studies have shown.” I said honestly. “Hopefully.” Mom said worried. “These aren’t like Deletes Ben, their void is… much more pure. Then if the intel is to be believed supposedly those who were originally recruited by Jericho are there, sometimes just showing up, they look… the same, more or less, but… that void stuff is on them like a tattoo or paint. Whatever is going on is not good.” “Can’t wait to make their little power up a moot point.” I said honestly. “Cause that’s what good guys do, they see the bad guys getting buffed up, so they do the same and outclass them in most cases.” I shrugged. “So...next up is my mood swings sadly…” “Heh, the first pregnancy is always the worst, after that it’s pretty simple. Some morning sickness, not often, and some cravings. For me it’s always Kiltch, this lizard up in the north, meat is not that good but the bones… oh stars the bones are the best.” “Well I don’t know what mine will be cause Twilight and the rest got me...a mountain of everything.” I sighed out. “I saw, one things good about Cript’s company is that is always made sure that progress had no negative drawbacks.” Mom said, feeding me another one of those Herbs. She then handed me a bottle. “Fresh is always best but these capsule pills are just as good. Just take three, one every hour in the morning and you should be able to bypass any morning sickness troubles. As for cravings, I have no cure for.” “I’ll hopefully figure something out…” I sighed out. “But thank you mom...also seriously...you technically being my wife...as well as all of Cript’s wives...good lord…” “And Cript themself.” Mom added. “No technically about it, Harem rules, when one harem marries into another all wives and husbands can share in each other… though if you want anything I expect a good date first.” Mom said giving me a light boop, making my blue fur glow bright pink in blush. “I always try mom.” I said sheepishly. “God, some people are gonna flip about this…” “Yes, but they have their opinions, but our race evolved so these… relations were alright genetically. Part of how we breed so fast and become the dominant race of our world. If there is no genetic concerns then it’s all on the one judging and their opinions. Ethics is in the eye of the viewer, what’s ethically good or bad is different for many places and people across everywhere. I learns pretty quickly that none of that matters and so long as both are happy and consent you can make the best of life.” “Actually did a little research on that...did you know that if you married your cousin that’s perfectly fine on a genetic level?” I asked. “God, before incest would be weird but...now incest is perfectly fine and no one cares.” “Ethics change with time, sometimes for the better, sometimes not. WHatever comes after all of this will really be… something different and unique.” Mom said, giving me a kiss on the cheek. “I have to go, but I’ll be back soon, with an extra set of juggs and likely be taller than you if I’m to be made one of many of the best Dire Wolfs I can be.” She said, standing up. “Likely I’ll be back tomorrow for the wedding.” “Alright, see you tomorrow.” I said with a gentle smile. “Oh and...mind if I ask...how does Cript do that whole...fusing with his wives thing?” “Hmm… It’s hard to describe, I guess the best way I can describe it is like placing data from different storage drives all onto one, and making sure they don’t get mixed up or corrupted. When we fuse or I fuse with another it’s like, I still feel I’m me, but I also feel I’m the one or many I’m fused with, but we also feel like someone different, someone new. If that makes any sense.” “Good to know, but I asked ‘how’.” I said honestly. “You’d have to ask them that.” Mom said with a smile. “Well he’s probably gonna walk in right now.” I rolled my eyes, knowing trends are a hell of a thing. Nothing happened. Mom chuckled. “He’s likely ‘upgrading’ the others so I best head over there.” “Alright.” I nodded. “Best you be off while I...deal with things.” “Alright. See you again soon.” After a nice shower and taking one of the pills mom gave me for good measure I headed off to this Photo shoot. I arrived in Rarity’s, or rather Rarities studio where I was immediately placed on a chair and shown many rather beautiful dressed… except this one, yellow and pink? What am I, a pastry? And with this coat colors? Nope… Wait, when do I know fashion? “Okay, let's start with the problems I’m...somehow mystically seeing.” I said before listening them off to the Rarities. “Yes, that color is so not you.” My Rarity said, rocking a sexy loose hair look. “But if their hair had the right sheen and grooming the colors would complement each other, giving a youthful spring time gal look.” Zeke’s Rarity said, hair in a, ironically, ponytail, and glasses on her face. Oddly… I can see that thinking it over? Still don’t like how puffy it is. “Can we make it less...puffy or poofy though? This isn’t a royal ball two hundred years ago.” I brought up. “I’ll make some adjustments.” My Rarity said. “Thank you.” I nodded. “I’m already fluffy enough, no need for my dresses to also be it.” “Now then it’s time for the Photos!” Zeke’s Rarity said with an eager smile and a clap of the hands. “Photo Finish, three, all three of our realms them are in the garden with scenes and such set up, let’s get moving!” “Oh boy, this is gonna take a while…” I sighed out. “Well, let’s get going then.” We headed out to the gardens and All three Photo finishes were there with cameras in tow and several little sets made up for me to pose in. Actually some of my wives were here too. Even the kids- Nancy! I immediately scooped up the little girl. Wow, she did get fat. “Oh my god I am so happy your back.” I said happily. “And look at you, what have you been doing, eating all day?” She blushed. "I er… Jericho had this baby formula stuff that he said was a liquid form of some of the more sought after preys on my home word, which I honestly didn't know what that meant but what I do know is that I not only finished every bottle I also demanded seconds… and thirds… and fourths…"* I giggled and gently tickled Nancy. “I understand my little girl. The food is really good.” I said honestly. “But I’m so happy your here.” "Time for photos!" All three Photo Finishes said in unison. I gave Nancy back over to Pinkie and began getting dressed. This was a picnic scene so I was dressed in a sky blue dress with a long skirt that showed off a fair amount of my girls, but not enough to be considered indecent. I was sat next to the basket, the food was all fake but what do you expect for a photo shoot. Pinkie and Nancy came here also, Nancy was holding a toy rattle that looked like Lunatic… okay that's cute. “Oh my god, that is just adorable.” I said honestly. “What, are all my weapons turning into toys for all the little ones?” "Yup!" Pinkie said. “Oh my god that is so adorable!” I squeed...yes, I just did that with how adorable it is. The photo session went on for over five hours… I changed outfits a lot. But finally that was over. I didn't know I could be exhausted just posing. “Yeesh, too many poses.” I sighed out. “But that is that...unless I have to do more photo shoots.” "Not until tomorrow." Pinkie said holding Nancy. “Wonders…” I muttered. “So anyways, what’s next on the things I need to do?” I asked, feeling like I’m supposed to do other things today. "Next is a meeting with Kingdom Talk, a TV show that's been around since before you arrived. The host's name is Penny Tree." “Well let’s hope the host isn’t a bitch.” I brought up. “Nothing can ruin someone’s attempt at a good start than someone who’s so willing to just completely ignore basic facts.” "It's mostly random topictopic talks and some questions from viewers." Rarity said. "They keep it very PG." “I’m probably gonna make that a PG13 on accident to be perfectly honest.” I shrugged. “But I’ll try to keep it down.” "Good." Pinkie said. "We will be watching!" Pinkie said. “No pressure.” I rolled my eyes. I can't fucking do this… A stage audience of at least five hundred, a good quarter are all kids, and damn it the host is that mix of sexy age grey hairs that is just… sexy. "So Ben, a question on everyone's mind these days is your title. Are you still going by king or do you also accept queen?" Penny Tree asked. “Eh, either or is fine.” I said honestly. “Given my current...physiology, I can go either way with certain titles.” "Okay. So Queen Ben, how does it feel to be in this new Grand Crown? Multiple Kings, multiple Queens, yourself included, does the paperwork still pile up or is it pretty evenly distributed." “All I know is that I’m not doing any of the paperwork, and that is a wonderful thing to know.” I chuckled. “And how does it feel? Well...I’ve already been a king for a while, sharing it means I’ve got less of a workload so I can focus on other important things than the mountain of paperwork that I used to be forced into doing.” The audience seemed to agree with that. "Okay, now then. Your weapons. Replicas of them made from plastic and foam being sold in the market as toys. Now this decision was made by King Mors who wanted it as a means for the young to know both the crown and the weapons you use to defend it. How do you feel about that?" “I actually didn’t know about it until a photo shoot I had with the three Photo Finishes, and my daughter Nancy was holding a Toy Lunatic, and I thought it was just absolutely adorable.” I said with a smile. "Yes, my own son has a foam replica of your Frozen Pride shield. So, Admins. Can you give us a little more Insight as to what exactly they are and you are." “I forgot, how far has video games progressed while I wasn’t paying attention? Cause it’ll help me give an example.” I started, wanting to know how things have progressed and if I can even make this analogy. "Currently with this new merger with Freak Inc VR is not only possible but items brought from this virtual world can be made a reality here. And vise versa." “So you know the Server Admins for these games? Able to do basically anything they want because of ‘Admin Powers’?” I asked honestly. “Yeah it’s basically that, except like...fifty times more convoluted than what Game Admins have to deal with.” The audience laughed. "Well that's an idea at least we have on it. Now, onto something a bit more serious. This war that is said to be approaching, now, from what is known it is actually said to be even worse than expected. Does the crown have a plan of action?" “I mean, besides winning?” I asked honestly. “But right now...several idea’s are being passed around, trying to figure out more and more things…” I looked over to all the kids. “But…I don’t think we should talk about that in front of the kids…” "Right. Sorry. Onto a lighter topic, news leaked from a source within the castle says that you are expecting. Is that true?" “Was it Jenny?” I asked. “You can tell me it’s Jenny, I’m pretty sure she would have very quickly told everyone.” "Actually this leak delivered it within my morning cinnamon bun so I am going to assume it was Queen Pinkie Pie and not Princess Jenny." “Yeah...I’m pretty sure Pinkie would have been too excited not to share it with the world.” I chuckled. “But...yes, yes I am. And to all the mothers out there, first pregnancy is not fun and I now fully understand it.” There was some laughter in the crowd. "Amazing. And pray tell, who is the father that deflowered you?" “Zeke actually, and while Zeke was probably pregnant with Eclipsa’s kids...well he’s certainly going to be pregnant with my kids that’s for sure.” I chuckled. "Interesting and that brings me to another hot topic on the public's mind now. You and Zeke and Eclipsa all have both genders anatomy and some people wonder, was this a choice or a means of stating that being a being of your power and status that one's born gender is unneeded or in a better word, not a base to which to base one’s identity and sexuality. So the question is do you find being one gender better or both and why?" “That is a tough question.” I said while thinking about it. “Well to start, this really isn’t about ‘oh, I’m powerful I can do whatever I want’, it was more of a...understanding thing between me, Zeke and Eclipsa.” I explained. “And to the broader question, neither is better or worse to be honest. I’m...trying to figure out a more PG way of saying this...but if you want to be the opposite gender then that’s fine, you can do it as long as your not being a jerk about it.” I said honestly. “It’s fine if your still you, even if your a boy or a girl or both, but it’s not okay to be rude to everyone because you changed genders.” I explained. "I see. So, now onto some audience questions. Uh, yes you there." A mare, young, yellow coat and green mane stood up. "Um, yes Queen Ben. First off, hi, and secondly a lot of us are wondering just how old you are exactly, because ever since you first appeared on Equis it's been a debated question." “Time is really weird to be honest.” I brought up. “Cause when I originally came here, I was eighteen, then maybe a year or so past and then I was nineteen...then a certain event happened where I was stuck in a coma in a pocket dimension for thirty years…” I explained nervously. “So...I’d say I'm in my late forties? But given I’m an Admin I can look however young or old I want honestly.” "Oh, wish I could do that. Then again so does every woman." “What? Look young and beautiful?” I asked honestly. "Yes. Age often takes away beauty, energy, all that. So, we have officially reached the halfway point of the show and I would like to say that Ben, there is a movie in the making about you, actually." “To start, I can easily point to Penny Tree here to prove that age doesn’t take away beauty and energy.” I started. “I mean come on, the grey hairs actually make her more beautiful, and she’d need a lot of energy for this show to be honest.” I explained simply. “And what about a movie about me?” "First off thank you for that complement and secondly yes, a full movie about you is in the works." “What? Is it going to be about all the good things I’ve done or something?” I asked honestly. “Hopefully it does well cause...well my life isn’t that special to be honest.” “We got all the details we could from whoever we could about this movie and sources say your sibling Joy, Mother, Father and Grandmother were all interviewed to get as accurate as a story as possible. There likely will be some creative licence using here and there but as long as it’s mostly the same as the true story the citizens won’t mind too much.” “Oh then it’s probably going to be very sad.” I said honestly. “But can’t wait to see if it’ll do well.” I said honestly. “So, any other questions?” “That’s all for now. Next up on our guest list tonight is Sapphire Shores to talk about her new album.” The crowd applauded and I was kindly escorted back home. Once there I saw my office, mostly just images from the photos I took were there for preview and only a small files worth of documents. Better than a stack. “Well quite a bit of photos…” I muttered while moving over and checking the documents to see if they were anything important. It was mostly approvals for further photos and payments for the Photo Finish’s. The only thing here that was not related to the rest was some report about the War Front. Report: {Redacted} For Queen Ben’s Eyes only. Report states special operative {Redacted} has retrieved sample of one of the Nexus replicas of Lindworm. Base materials match the originals but they have been infused with three unknown materials. Sample sent to Kingdoms Science and Arcane research division for further examination. Front holding strong. “Hopefully they don’t know Lindworm takes a Wind Dragon God’s soul...which I’m gonna need to actually talk to the thing sooner rather than later…” I muttered. I held on this document and began to think things over. “Okay so...what could be the three unknown materials? Plus they would probably have to come up with other ways to simulate what my weapons can do but at a worse output, even if it’s ‘perfect’ in their eyes, the originals are special with how they were crafted, made and used.” I hummed with some thought. As I pondered over this I began to notice the sun was setting. I got up, and headed to the nursery. “Let’s hope the kids are okay…” I muttered, all my other clones either doing stuff off world, with Zeke and Co, or doing other things. I sat with some of the other kids, feeding some and fixing up the hair of others. “So many kids...and I’m just happy you're all here.” As I settled in snuggly I saw one pup sniffing around. Awh, so cute. “What are you sniffing for?” As they crawled around oh so adorably, they eventually dug into a small pillow pile, and emerged with a tennis ball… No, no, it’s theirs, not mine… why… why with Tennis balls!? The pup walked away happily with their toy and I sighed. Damn Canine instincts. “Hi.” I turned, seeing Jenny sitting next to me, belly rather large. “Hey Jenny, how are you doing?” I asked. “Craving cow bones and strawberry yogurt.” She sighed. “Joy’s in the Hospital now actually. Giving birth already.” “Oh my god, congratulations.” I said warmly “Hopefully it’s not the millions of kids I...wait no, you and Joy are also under Cript’s curse so yeah, have fun with your own little army of cute.” “Heh. Call it millennial insight but as it turns out while the Cript’s family curse is unable to be removed, it can be edited via~” She tapped on her assistant. “While he is also knocked up for life his body will give birth to six or eight every seven months… forever… Heh. Unless we hit pause.” “I can also just teach him how to make Clones, cause even then it would only be to the one clone that got pregnant.” Ben said honestly. “EIther way.” Jenny said. “Joy has about six, I’ve got nine in here. All girls too. Surprisingly.” “That’s wonderful.” I said honestly. “Kids...kids can help make people better.” “Yeah. So, how’s the new job going?” “So far so good I suppose.” I shrugged honestly. “Photo shoots and talk shows are good so far.” “Heh. If you told me my life was ever going to be this...nice, I’d have shot you.” Jenny laughed. “I’m a little worried though.” “About?” I asked curiously. "Well… I'm still a Ventral dad. Of the kids ever for one reason or another kill someone… Killing Mood activates. And if they have red eyes like Zeke it's even worse." “Oh that?” I asked, closing and opening my right eye to show it was a Psychopath’s eye. “I already know...full well what they want...but, there is another.” I said before closing my left eye and opening it, showing the gold and blue of Humanity. “Humanity, Psychopath’s opposite. Keeps me balanced and has this parasite happy for...some reason.” Ben said while pointing to his black and red eye. “That doesn’t mean the kids will be like that…” Jenny said. "I mean, there's also the Guardian, where the host and the damn parasite are both cool with each other. Honestly Jenny, Psychopaths haven't been a problem for like...ever, and will not be an issue, especially when there's medical stuff to get rid of the psychopath permanently from your blood and any kids you would have." “How many have been Admins?” Jenny asked. “I just worry. I mean, when Zeke had his removed he went blind!” “And then he either got prosthetics or he got better.” I pointed out. “Also I’m pretty sure, a long time ago, they took out the Psychopath blood in you. Like, way long ago.” I said honestly. “Unless you double checked that.” “Don’t need to. Every Ventral after their first killing mood just sometimes hears this voice… tells us how to kill or where a target is. Do you know what I did when my killing mood hit?” “What?” I asked. “Also I’m pretty sure Trinity got rid of it…” I muttered while checking my Assistant if Jenny is Psychopath free. “I slaughtered… I don’t wanna talk about it now…” She said, rubbing her belly. “Let’s just say… If you haven't changed it, it wouldn’t haunt me like it does now.” I nodded. “Believe me...I understand.” I sighed out. “But trust me...it’s not going to get to that point, okay?” I told her softly. “Besides, I’m pretty sure Cript knows a way to train them...which begs the question of why haven’t I been trained in either Humanity or Psychopath powers...that was just kind of skipped over to be honest.” “Maybe there isn’t a way to train?” “Well let’s ask Cript.” I said honestly. “He’s the one that brought that up, plus he himself is a Psychopath technically.” “Call them then.” Jenny said. I nodded and gave Cript a call. ‘Let’s hope he’s not too busy.” A short bit later Cript arrived. “What’s up, Jericho just barely woke up. Eclipsa really did a number on him. He hasn't been injured that badly since his fight against the fifty imperials when he was ten.” “I’m...not going to question that.” I started. “So, Jenny has a concern...and this concern also stems to me I suppose. Can you train people to control their Psychopath power? Cause Jenny here, who might not even have psychopath blood in her anymore, is concerned for her kids...and given that I am a Psychopath as well even though Humanity is a thing, will my kids also have a bad time with this?” “Hmm… well that’s tricky. You can learn all their abilities, master their blood techniques, but train? No, it gives you a power or ability when it feels you have gained the strength to use it, all you can do in the end is ether co-exist with it, or keep out of the hive mind. Not many can return from that once they fall in.” “So what you're saying is that it’s pretty easy to deal with having another voice in your head?” I asked. “Or is that just me given that I’m just completely insane.” “Funny enough in order to live with it, you have to be insane. A mind that can flex between normalcy and complete insanity.” “Or having Humanity?” I asked curiously. “And honestly, with this family...insanity isn’t really that hard to have.” “Humanity is harder to have.” Cript said, crafting a quick little potted plant with Code, then another. “Psychopath power just required a drop of blood, and the right host. It’s died to blood.” He said, slicing his finger a little, dropping a bit on one plant, and it shifted to a razor sharp thorn covered thing with teeth as petals. “Humanity on the other hand can’t reside in a body without Psychopath power.” Cript said, a small drop of humanity formed in his palm, falling to the other plant as it began to grow, then quickly died. He put another drop on the Psychopath plant, and the plant began reverting to normal-ish, but kept a few thorns. “Two sides of the same coin, but one can’t survive without the other, but the other can.” “Right then.” I nodded. “Good to know...now question, is it even a wise decision to talk to the damn thing?” “How so?” “I mean actively mentally talking to the Psychopath Parasite in you.” I said. “Like how I can talk to spirits in some of my weapons, like Skysplitter, my keyblades, or Lindworm.” I said honestly. “You can try, but it’s not quite a parasite, more like… a mix of magic and genetics. Every living thing already has one in them, but like genetics it’s either vary dominant or not active, dorment.” “So basically it’s that whole ‘this is your evil half’ thing?” I asked honestly. ”In a sense. Without Psychopath you can’t kill, in a dormant state one can kill, feel regret, in a fully active state you kill and crave more. But it changes as the host does. Like Jenny there. Before, she didn’t care who died, now, she regrets it all.” Cript pointed out. “Her gene is more dorment now. Active enough to allow her to kill if needed, not enough to make her not care.” “Okay then.” I nodded. “Good to know.” “So, anything else?” “Here’s a thing, remember when you told me you’d train me in how to use Humanity and Psychopath powers? Yeah when did that stop being a thing?” I asked honestly. “When many things started happening. But you’ll be ready to train when you can do this.” Cript said, his hands becoming coated in Psychopath and Humanity… a lot like what happened to Zeke earlier today. “I would like to do that, but how can I do that when I have literally never trained with it and the only time I can remember was a fluke against a Delete?” I asked honestly. “There are no flukes, just possibilities.” Cript said. “One of my old teachers used to say that.” “I know I know.” I said honestly. “Good to know though. Anything you want to ask him Jenny?” ‘’Not right now.” Jenny said. “If that’s all I’m heading back to check on Jericho.” Cript said. “Alright.” I nodded. “But good thing Eclipsa figured out how to do that.” “Now she just has to learn how to control it.” Cript said, taking leave. “Better not play punchies with Eclipsa anytime soon.” I chuckled. To be continued... Nobody spends time with MomAuthor's Note Note, there is a bit of porn here and it is bolded where it starts and where it ends Nobody spends time with Mom The next day, Den showed up, a now Den Mother, the extra breasts showed enough. She was also much taller than before, even with my new heights she was now about as tall as I saw her when I first met her. “So, how’s things been Ben?” Den asked, nursing some kids in her Feral form. “Oh you know, same old same old.” I said honestly. “And even now, your still taller than me, like when we first met.” I said honestly. “How have things been for you?” “Well, these extra teats are both helpful and odd. Just not used to them. Though being able to feed this many children at once it helpful.” “It’s always helpful.” I agreed. “But you get used to the extra sets honestly.” “I know… Cript already is used to them~” She chuckled. “And so is all of my wives.” I rolled my eyes. “Seriously, they all really like my breast milk.” “Heh. Well can you blame them?” Mom asked. “Got’s taste and is very useful.” “Oh you have no idea.” I chuckled. “Cause not only is it some super healing potion, but it can keep someone young which is a little surprising.” “Such is us.” She chuckled. “So how do you feel about a Den Mothers role in the tribe?” “It’s nice, but now that I’m pregnant...really glad I have clones that aren’t.” I said honestly. “Just so I can take care of kids...and still go out and do things.” “You’re talking about that Mother being Cript made right?” Mom asked. “A bit.” I said honestly. “This clone is pregnant as you can clearly see.” Ben said while motioning to their growing belly. “But the other clones...hopefully they don’t also get pregnant so I literally can’t do anything but sit here and have kids...while that’s fine for my Den Mother instincts...for the rest of me, that’s a big ‘no’...” “Well to each their own.” Mom said. “If I need to, I’ll do as you are, but I’m familiar like this. Content this way. So are many of the others.” “I know.” I nodded before taking a moment. “Wait, others?” “What? You thought I was the only Dire wolf wife of Cript’s? Like me they all are also full Den Mothers.” “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “I kind of knew he had multiple dire wolf wives but...didn’t think they were also Den Mothers.” “Well they weren’t. Not by birth or title, I was only a Den Mother by title. But now we are all Den mothers by genetics, they prefer to be in a more… traditional environment.” “Oh?” I asked curiously. “Traditional environment?” “Caves. Like the old days. They just prefer them over houses or castles, though they keep the pillows and blankets.” “That’s because pillows and blankets are nice.” I said honestly. “But to each their own.” I said, accidentally speaking it in the long forgotten dire wolf language. “Oh...uh...woop.” “Woah. I haven’t heard that language since my grandmother was still around… Going to be nice to see them all again.” Mom said. “Well I’ve been learning the entire language thanks to Bensu.” I said honestly. “I know a few.” Mom said. “A spell or two, and a few words. Grandma was already… pretty on her way out when I came about. Could hardly move at all.” “And...how long ago was that?” I asked honestly. “Cause Bensu said the language was ancient and lost...I don’t know the max age a Dire Wolf can be but it sounds like that was two hundred years ago or something.” “Depends. The average male could be about a hundred, females two, Natural Born Den Mothers given their body and such five, six hundred, and if all the members of the den drank their milk also their lifespan was often extended. Grandmother’s mother was the last Den Mother born to our den. She was six hundred years old.” “Okay then.” I said, doing some math in my head. “So...roughly about sixteen hundred years ago or something? If your grandmother was six hundred years and your mother was only two hundred.” “About.” Mom said. “I’d...say that’s about long enough to say it’s ‘long forgotten’ and ‘ancient’.” I shrugged. “Same.” Mom said. “So, I can help teach you all the language if you want me to.” I said honestly. “Help bring back old ways that have been long forgotten?” “That sounds nice.” I nodded. “Alright, so where to begin cause...it’s actually a bit tough given that every word can mean something completely different based on tone.” “I was told.” Den said, sitting more upright now. “So, where to begin?” “Well, let’s start with what you already know since you said you do know some words.” I started. “I know the howling spell for healing, barrier and sleeping. Words I only know basic hello and love, Kin and young, and goodbye.” “Alright, good to know.” I nodded. “Good start...hmm…” I hummed. “Well let’s go with trying to say your name. Sounds simple enough.” I said honestly while saying her name in the old language. Mom was decent, her pronunciation was good but her tone needed to be a bit more casual, her ‘Den’ sounded more like ‘Dig’. Or ‘Door’. “We’re getting there, but it needs to be more...casual. Your word sounds more like ‘dig’ or ‘door’ at the moment, but we’re making progress.” I said with a nod. “Oh this is so much fun.” Den said in excitement. “So, more casual huh? Hmm…” Mom said, trying to figure out how to make it sound more casual to mean her name. “It’s a little weird I know.” I said honestly, repeating the word again in that ‘casual tone’ I mentioned to her to help her understand it. A few more attempts and mom got it down perfectly. Practicing it a few more times until it was just right. I nodded. “That’s great.” I said with a smile. “You got it.” “Oh this is so nice. Grandma wanted to teach me a special spell before she passed. I don’t know what it was though. All she said is that it was passed down from all the Den Mothers in our den.” “Well...I do know a spell…” I started. “It’s some ancient spell that lets you call upon an ancestor to talk and such. Nifty little thing if you need some advice or something.” I said honestly. “Want me to call her down?” “That… would be nice.” “Alright, what’s her name if I may ask?” I asked. “So I know who to actually call.” “Donna.” Mom said. “She wasn’t like the rest of us, she had… red fur. A rare color for us.” “Alright.” I nodded before closing my eyes. “I call upon Den Mother Donna.” I said in the ancient wolf language, casting the spell in a mixture of pitched growls. Forming in a circle between myself and mom, rose a ghostly red figure of a much younger dire wolf in feral form. A Den Mother. “Ye- Holy shit Den is that you?!” The ghostly Den Mother said. “Yes! Hi Grandma!” “You’re… You’re like me! My god you’re huge. Even as a pup you were huge.” “Heh...Granny…” Mom said, rubbing the back of her head. “Grandma, this is Ben, my… daughter, and the first Natural Born Den Mother since you.” “Hi.” I nodded to the wolf. “But to...kind of elaborate on the ‘gender’ thing...you can probably tell I’m both...if the spell let you do normal things like if you were alive.” I said sheepishly. “It does. I smelled you the second I appeared, know all I need to… if you were my pup, I’d have grounded for life for having such a piss poor attitude about life.” “Not my fault my life has been such a train wreck I am always expecting the worse.” I countered. "So was my sister's life. Husband dead, pups died from disease, and she still had reasons to smile and look on the brighter side." “At least she knew who she was.” I stated bluntly. "Grandma." Den spoke up. "What was the spell you wanted to teach me before you passed?" "Oh yes. I remember." The ghostly dire wolf said. "It's the Lullaby spell." “For the kids?” I asked curiously. "No." She chuckled. "It's more of a curse." “Cause that’s what we need to know.” I chuckled. "It Is a… rather harsh spell. Once cast, all the young of a rival den, come to your Den, and completely forget their birth family. It was used to save the young of dens who's dire wolves were… less than ideal." “I understand…” I said. “But...family is really important, especially for Dire Wolves.” "I know… but there are exceptions to every rule." “To save the lives of the young.” I said honestly. "Grandma… how do you know that spell?" Den asked. "Taught to me by my mother, and her before her." “Sounds about right.” I nodded. “I just...hope it’ll never be used on me cause...fuck if that wouldn’t be crushing.” "No mother should ever have this spell cast on them." “No one.” I agreed. “Mind if I ask...what your life was like?” I asked my great grandmother honestly. "My life? Well, I became of age, had my first litter, became a full fledged Den Mother, raised and had more litters." “Sounds simple enough.” I said honestly. "It was. A Den Mother's job is a simple but important one." “Yeah…” I said while putting a hand on my growing stomach. “It’s...very important.” She taught both Den and I the spell. After that she went back to the afterlife. Sighing, Den looked at me. "Ben… if you could, would you go back?" “What do you mean?” I asked honestly. “Would you go back to what?” "I know about your time as Diane. Would you...go back to that life, if what happened never did?" “Well to start I’d like to know who the fuck I am for like ten seconds.” I frowned. “Can’t really be all ‘would you go back?’ when you don’t know who you are and what your going back to ya know?” "The happier life then." “Oh, then fuck no.” I said honestly. “I have literally never been happier with what I have now, even if my memories of being Diane show that I was happier, that pales in comparison to right now.” I said honestly. "I see." Den said. “Why do you ask?” I inquired. “Seems a tad random if I’d want to go back to my old life as Diane.” "Just a question. Most people would give anything to go back to such simpler times." “Well then they don’t understand that life is really unfair most of the time.” I said honestly. “But it’s understandable that they want things to be simpler when nothing makes sense anymore.” I said. “So, mind if I ask...how you’ve taken care of all those kids for so long?” "Starfish clones help, that pocket dimension thing Cript made was also an amazing help. But mostly it was just learn as I went." “Sounds about right.” Ben said honestly. “How does it feel to be a full fledged Den Mother?” "Not all that different from normal really. The extra cleavage isn't that noticeable anymore." “It’s noticeable to literally everyone else that’s for sure.” I chuckled. “God...it’s weird how I’m technically married to my mom…” I said. “I probably already asked you about that to be honest.” "Yeah. It is strange but in our homeworlds culture it's fairly normal." “Wait…” I started. “As in...marrying your mother is actually normal in our culture?” "Normalish. It only ever happens if powerful Hunter of the Den has not selected an equally powerful mate from his own or an allied den." "Alrighty then." I nodded. "That's ...good to know." “Yeah.” Den said. “Just what develops depending on all that happens over the years.” “Yeah, a lot of things can happen over the years.” We talked more over time, mostly about our experiences so far raising kids. “You know, Jenny could be a Hunter also.” Den said. “Her personality, power, she could easily become one of the legendary ones from the wall back in my old den.” “Of course.” I said honestly. “But that’s up to Jenny if she wants to do that.” I pointed out. “I know. It always is, but it also depends on if the Hunters of the past call her to that path.” “Well at the moment she’s pregnant so maybe they won’t call at the moment.” I brought up. “Never know.” Den said. “They called me once.” “Really?” I asked curiously. “I didn’t know that.” “I was young, before my first litter.” She said, remembering those early days. “They call us in our dreams, we dream of ourselves, hunting with them in grand battle against the ultimate prey. The Silver Bears.” “Excuse me who?” I asked. “The Silver Bears. Our version of Demons of hell.” Mom said. “Tall as mountains, as powerful as an exploding volcano, and as plenty as rabbits without predators around.” She chuckled. “And...how good do they taste?” I asked curiously. “No one knows. They are a prey for the dead.” Mom said. “Only the legends of the den hunters get to hunt them in the afterlife, traversing the depths of our version of hell, the Deep Abyss, to find them.” “Well then...that’s an interesting thing.” I said honestly. “There is still a lot about our culture, I haven’t had the chance to explain… but I do now.” Mom said, getting up and curling up next to me. “Our relationship is… bizarre, but in the end, we are still family. And finally I can spend much of it with you, telling you all that has yet to be told fully.” “And that is wonderful.” I said happily. “Spending time with family is always a wonderful thing.” “Yes. So, have you considered a name?” Mom asked. “One of these days you will have to give birth to your very first, well, first born. Then many after that. What will you name your first born?” “I’m bad with names...I don’t know.” I said honestly. “Plus...it’s still a long time before I’ll give birth to my first litter…” “You have a clone here, you, solely for this purpose. You have literally no reason to wait for it.” Mom countered. “I’d rather not pop out a kid every day when I, as a Den Mother, need to be pregnant for eternity.” I said. Mom simply chuckled. “Well, when you are ready.” “I mean, do I also have the whole pregnancy thing from that curse?” I asked. “Or do Dire Wolves just have kids rather quickly?” “You also have the curse, meaning you already have… let’s see…” She took a deep sniff of me. “Zeke then Eclipsa… Roughly six million already ready to pop infants in you. Despite you don’t look at it, you do. Normally for even a Den Mother it takes five months for our kind to grow a child but with the curse it’s pretty much instant.” “Alright.” I nodded. “Well that’s a lot.” "Come on." Mom said, standing up. "Let's go out for a bit." She said, shifting to anthro form and snapping her fingers as clothes appeared on her. “Alright.” I nodded. “Where to if I may ask?” "Just to eat." Mom said, waiting for me to get dressed. I was already dressed given I never turned into my feral form. “Ready when you are.” "Oh. Wear these." Mom said, handing me a pair of sunglasses. "If we want a real fun time, the illusion spell on these will keep anyone not wearing a pair from recognizing us. Given you are now the kingdoms poster girl I figure some special time without paparazzi would be nice." “Alright.” I nodded while taking the sunglasses. “Hopefully this will keep everyone from following us.” Placing them on and mom her own pair we headed out. Walking down the walkaways was different now. Last time I did this people stopped me for every and any reason and bought me stuff. With these no one seemed to actually recognize me. Nice. We arrived at a burger place, and we're waiting in line for some food. "This place using meat from the Animals from home." Mom said. "Plus the portion sizes are good." “Hopefully they can handle our appetites.” I chuckled. Mom ordered a large meal platter and I the same… these burgers are MASSIVE! No normal human can eat these… good thing I'm technically not a human anymore. The drinks were in cups the size of beer kegs and the fridge in something the size of an Easter basket. "Alright that's two large meals. That will be twenty six rem." The cashier said. Mom paid and we looked for a seat. “Well, you weren’t kidding.” I chuckled. "Not surprised why it was so cheap?" Mom asked as we took our seats. “Either because it’s normally cheap or because the shopkeep can tell.” I said while tapping my sunglasses. "The prior." Mom said, taking a bit of her frise. "You know about Cript's computer simulation worlds that are for mining raw ores right?" “Yes I do, and he’s done that so there’s practically no shortage of food.” I said honestly. "Yup. His, now also this realm, the elemental crystals when arranged in a circle and spun clockwise at a near light speed makes them generate pure raw matter. Hooking them up to a machine that is built to encode matter into data, by having it extract raw matter from the machine to a data object with no matter originally encoded with it allows the machine to make it reality. Cript figured out how to Admin before he was an Admin." “Cool.” I nodded. “Sounds good to keep certain materials up and devalue an asston of other materials.” "It was a necessity." Mom said. "Feeding not just one universe but a whole realm was bound to require something that should make an economy cry. But it doesn't for one reason." “And what mystical way is that?” I asked. “Cause common economy would say otherwise.” "Conflict." Mom said simply, taking a larger bite of her frise. "A lot of worlds have a lot of monsters, undead, Shadow creatures, Heartless and Nobodies." She said, eyeing me when she said Nobodies. "Freak Inc started off as a Weapons company, and people no matter the world or realm all have flames in them that desire some form of conflict. Rather than each other, Cript figured these mindless monsters would be the best alternative, and they have. As well as honorably dueling." She motioned to a hanging TV across from us, the TV showing a live dual between a male mage and a female barbarian lady. "Tournaments like this are very popular and do pay, modern day wrestling with swords, guns, and magic. Spells keep both from actually killing one another, only rule is you have to bring your own weapons and gear." “Cool.” I nodded. “Didn’t think that was a thing...wonder why no one’s tried to challenge me yet either from some weird confidence or sheer stupidity?” "You have to register as a combatant." Mom explained. “Ah, so how many people would actively try to fight me if I did sign up?” I asked honestly. "It's all automatic. No one chooses unless they are in the top ten." “Okay then.” I nodded. “Wouldn’t be fair if I joined all things considered.” "There are other competitions." Mom said, now taking a bite of her burger. "A popular one is Survival Arena, Game Show, Capture the Flag and my personal favorite, Quiz Shows." “Well then, that’s a lot more than just fighting.” I said honestly. "Heh… not completely." Mom said, taking a sip from her soda. "They all have combat in some shape or form. Oh! That reminds me." She said, rummaging through her purse. "Where did I put it?" “Oh?” I asked curiously. “What are ya looking for?” "I got you something. I know you like Magic the Gathering so I got you some cards, enchanted of course." “Oh sweet, I’ve been keeping up on the normal earth side, I don’t know how far it is outside that.” I said honestly. "Very." Mom said, finally finding the deck and handing it to me. "It's a simple starter deck. Rules to actual Magic the Gathering magic card game are on the blue card." She said. “Cool.” I said while taking the deck and looking through the deck to see what was in it. “Thank’s, and you said these are enchanted right?” "Yes. Think of it like… Yu Go Oh meets Pokemon… of something equivalent to that." Mom said. “Oh so I can actively summon monsters or cast spells with these?” I asked curiously. "Yes but only in a card dueling arena. Doing so outside one is a fine." “Alrighty then.” I nodded, double checking all the cards and it looked like a Blue White Control deck. “People are not going to like me when I figure out what else is out there…” I chuckled. "There is a lot to find. I looked up and there are about sixteen thousand cards now." I thought for a moment and did some calculations on how many cards there were back in 2012 before it all went to shit. “Huh, that’s double the amount back on Earth when it got blown to hell.” I said honestly. “So...there’s about eighty sets if each one was two hundred?” I guessed. “Jeez that’s a lot.” "I guess." She said, drinking more soda. “Not really interested in me nerding out?” I asked. "I'm not my for card games honestly. I prefer Dominoes." “Now dominoes are fun, especially with what some people have done with them.” I said honestly. “They had a lot of time to do all that.” "Yup. So, gonna start a card collection?" “Given how much money I have...might as well restart a hobby.” I said honestly. "Having hobbies aside from children is good. Aside from Dominoes I read and help Lyra sort her ever growing porn collection." “Now I’d like a hobby I can share with my kids, not lead them into crippling hentai addictions.” I brought up. Mom shrugged. "Most of the kids participate in the Family Arena." “I don’t like how you segwayed ‘Lyra’s growing porn collection’ into ‘kids participating in the family arena’...” I pointed out. "You would rather I keep talking about Lyra and her porn?" “I just wanted to point that out.” I said sheepishly. “But what about this arena?” "It's basically the same as all the public games and such but strictly for the family only. The only difference is no powers allowed." “Sounds about right.” I nodded. “Keeps things from getting too escalated.” "Basically." Mom said. “So it’s good for just some much needed venting or something?” I asked. "Not exactly. The public arenas are a display of raw power and ability, the family arena is a test of pure skill. Anyone with the power can go through the fights and mow down competitions. It takes true skill to do so without any power at all." “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “Good to know ...can't wait to hear ‘your challenged to a family match’ out of nowhere.” "It's either invitation or optional." Mom said. "You can deny the invite." “That’s what they all say before it’s a ‘you can’t deny it’.” I rolled my eyes. Mom chuckled, eating more of her fries. "So, are there any questions about Cript's realm or anything in general?" “There are a lot of things that I’d like to know, like what the hell is the main rules of it given I have been told ‘things are different in different realms’ a lot.” "Rules huh? Any specific rules?" “Anything.” I said. “Like...very noteworthy rules that I would need to know.” "Hmm… one rule, or set of rules, that are different from Cript's realm compared to your own is time travel." “Which has been an absolute mess at this point from my personal experience.” I said honestly. "Time travel from your realm works like this. One can traverse forward and back in time, but once they return they can not keep the memories of what they experienced. Only ones heart can travel time, not their body. A vessel would be needed. That correct so far?" “Point for point from what I learned in Dream Drop Distance.” I agreed. "In Cript's world the concept of time is more liquid than that. One can traverse time freely, body and all, and time itself will be unchanged. No matter the alteration." “Makes sense.” I nodded. “If it’s more like that then it wouldn’t really change much.” "There Is a downside though." Mom said. “And that would be?” I asked curiously. "If a person dies outside of their time, or an item of extreme importance is destroyed or vanished from its timezones, then and only then is the timeline altered. Creating multiple alternative timelines to exist outside the initial original timeline." “That sounds interesting.” I said honestly. "This means while the timeline was altered it was also reset, these alternative timelines existing as… pools made by a splash, for a comparison." “Well then, that’s a curious thing.” I said with some thought. "What this means is that all around us are reflections of time that, while able to be traversed continually multiply, unlike realms reflections that are admin made, these are made by altering choices and events in time. They are the one thing Cript can't fuse so they still exist here, because time is something only the Admin of Time can alter or edit, as time in itself is borrowed from them." “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “That is very interesting and...kind of circled way back into what we’ve already known for...some reason.” I blinked. "Anything else?" Mom asked, eating more fries. “Any other important things I should know besides time?” I asked curiously. "Hmm…" Mom thought, sipping more soda. I realized I haven't even touched my food and began eating before it got too cold. "Perhaps about Soul Blades. Cript's realms take on your Keyblades." “Oh yes, the things that can be so outrageously overpowered.” I said. “Like the two that Cript was about to just put up for auction.” "Well. Unlike Keyblades, Soul Blades are a physical representation of who you are. It's designs and power saying what kind of person you are. As well as what your potential is." “So…” I wanted to point out the Soul Blades sound like Stands from Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure but I doubt Den would know about it. “Never mind, I was going to try and bring up a comparison...only to realize I’m a weeb and others are not. But how do I get a Soul Blade? Or is my Greatsword my Soul Blade?” "From what I know to call forth your Soul Blade you have to basically rip out your own soul, manifesting it into a physical object. That object, your Soul Blade, returns all but a chunk of your soul back, that chunk it keeps remains within blade, forever linking you to it." “Well it’s a miracle I have one again.” I chuckled. “Let’s hope it won’t break and I’ll have to get a new one.” I rolled my eyes. “Also...Nothingness’s entire thing is Souls so...my jurisdiction I think?” "Hard to say." Mom said. "There are several kinds of Soul Blades. Single, Twin, and Returning." “What?” I raised an eyebrow. “I can imagine that ‘single’ and ‘twin’ are just if you have one or two soul blades, but Returning?” "You see, typically a person dies and so does their soul blade, but some persist on after their owner has died, and live on. These are the most powerful ones." “So Nobodies basically.” I pointed out. “Fun.” "I guess?" Mom said questioningly. "Both Cript's Biohazards Curse and Darkest Hero were made from his own soul, Darkest Hero was his first… but he never really used it until many years later, he stuck with Biohazards Curse for most of his life." “So he had a Twin Soul Blade?” I asked curiously. "No." Mom said simply. "Twin Soul Blades are made from a single chunk, those were made from two different ones." “That...shouldn’t be right given what you explained.” I said honestly. “Like, his soul wouldn’t be big enough to hold two different ones separately right?” "It was risky but necessary." Mom sighed. "This was long before I joined the family, before he even met Lyra. He was still a child." Mom started. "The monks that raised and taught him helped him forge his first soul blade, Darkest Hero, but there was an unexpected result. It wasn't just part of his soul that went into it… it was also part of his Psychopaths. The first time he used it, it nearly woke up and Cript about nearly killed everyone." “Well then.” I started. “That would kind of suck considering what I am…” "The monks helped him forge Biohazards Curse a year later. Making sure not to touch his Psychopath." “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “So I suppose that’s why he used that more.” "He didn't start really using Darkest Hero until it kept appearing. Every time he'd try to summon Biohazards Curse, Darkest Hero would appear. Eventually he used it to dive into himself, and faced that monster. He won, and since then Darkest Hero has been his new main choice and most reliable weapon." “Cool.” I nodded. “So...what are the types of Soul Blades again?” "Single, Twin, and Returning." “Okay, so what are they?” I repeated. “Cause I can guess what Single and Twin is unless their different, so what’s Returning cause you haven’t really told me what they are.” "Returning is a Soul Blade that lives on after the one who made it has died, they are like ghosts. They still have work to be done and will not leave, or rather, pass on, until their mission is complete." “Okay then.” I nodded. “Good to know.” I gave a thumbs up to that. “So, now how to actually make a Soul Blade for later…” "I don't know. Cript or Andy would though." “Andy?” I asked. “I...don’t think I know who that is.” "That's another story for another time." Mom said, finishing her burger. "Want to know anything else then" “I mean, there’s probably a lot of things I still need to know but ‘what do I need to know’ isn’t really helpful…” I sighed out. "Just think it over." Mom said. "it will come to you." “What differences are there between our realm and Cripts?” I asked. "A lot." Mom chuckled. "Mostly Cript's is a bit more… chaotic. Not in a.bad way though… but there are some darker places there…" “Good to know, any differences that I should know about between the two besides the time travel thing?” I asked curiously. "The land of the dead In Cript's realm is an actual place. Been there. Very… odd." “What do you mean?” I asked curiously. "Well for starters all the fruits and veggies there appear in the shape of bones. The dirt is dry and not good but can grow a tree fine, the 'water' there is poison but only when you drink it outside the realm of death is it deadly. And it's also where Grim Reapers are born and trained." “Alrighty then. Good to know.” I nodded. “Anything else of note?” "Not that I can think of off the top of my head." Mom said, finishing off her fries as I just finished my burger. “Alright.” I nodded. “So, I presume you’ve been spending time with my wives?” I asked curiously. "Yes, getting to know both my daughters in law and new fellow wives. Gotta say, Celestia knows how to grope a girl right." Mom chuckled with a blush. “Well she was into women before I came along.” I said honestly. “She...probably told you her story as to why that was?” "Yes. In all honesty it's not hard to see why. But with a family like this immortality just means more time to expand and enjoy the family." Mom said. “Yeah, cause that’s what we need.” I chuckled. "Hmm…" Mom hummed. "Cript might get mad if I show you this but I'm going to anyway solely because It's both funny and Lyra will love it too. Finish up and I'll take you to it." “Oh boy.” I said. “I wonder what it could be.” I said as I started finishing up my food. After Mom and I finished everything she led me outside and used her Assistant to Teleport us someplace. Where we were was what looked like a workshop. "Now where did he put it?" Mom asked herself while looking around. “That depends on what you're looking for.” I said honestly. "It looked kinda like a large vending machine of sorts." Mom said, moving some clutter along the walls. “Simple enough.” I said while helping her search for the thing. After some searching Mom found it. It was a large weird Vending machine with a screen and a large sliding door that opened to let out… something huge? "Okay guess what this is." Mom said, looking a mix between excited and about to laugh. “Uh...the hell?” I asked while looking over the huge thing. “What is it?” I asked. "Okay so not long after Cript became an Admin he let Lyra make something with code… and she made this. A vending machine that gives you custom wives. God that mare has a harem fetish." Mom said. "She used it for about a month before Cript took it away from her." “Gee, I wonder why.” I rolled my eyes. "Wanna use it?" Mom asked, playfully elbowing me. “Might as well make one…” I muttered while walking up to it. “So...how do I use it?” I asked, given this wasn’t a normal vending machine. "Tap the screen, select genders, body type, other details~ then hit make." “Alrighty then…” I nodded. “Can’t believe I’m literally making my own wife…” I muttered. “Does it also involve races?” "Of course." Mom said. “Cool…” I said, starting to think of what to choose. As I thought I randomly stumbled upon a thought. “Hmm...I wonder…” I started as I looked for the ‘Hydra’ race on the thing, wondering if it’s actually a thing. It was! God these body types range from BBW to Loli. “I know what I must do.” I said, Den seeing that I had a nose bleed already as the thought of the lady in question was forming in my head. So I punched in ‘Hyrda: 3 Heads’, ‘BBW’, ‘Height: 7’9”’, “Wings’, ‘Lightning Breath Weapon’ cause apparently that was also a thing, ‘Personality: Middle Head: Smart Leader, Left Head: Tomboy, Right Head: Derp’, ‘Breast Size: EE’, ‘Breast Set: 2’, ‘Naturally Lactate: Yes’, ‘Gender: Female’, ‘Scales: Silver’. “I just hope she...will be happy with me…” I muttered as I double checked everything and made sure there wasn’t anything else I had to check on. “Oh…” I muttered, ‘Naturally Magic: Yes’, ‘Tail: Yes’. “I think that should be it…” I hummed. "You forgot two." Mom said, skidding the screen all the way down to two tabs. Love(s) and Fetishes. “Oh?” I asked. “Loves and Fetishes? So...I have to also point out who they love and what their into?” I asked curiously. "It's optional but there." Mom said. "They are being newly made into reality, as an admin you have the power to do this to anyone really. But that's morally wrong. This is the accepted grey area." “Alright.” I nodded while typing in my name first and then other names like Eclipsa, Zeke and many wives that I can name off the top of my head. “She’ll also learn to love others naturally as well right?” I asked. "Of course." “Alright.” I nodded while looking at fetishes and thinking hard about that. “I’m...a little worried that if I type any fetishes in it’ll get out of control for...some reason.” "Trust me… Lyra has done WAY worse." Mom laughed. I sighed out. “I can imagine…” I said as I thought more about this...accidentally typing in ‘exhibisionist’, then ‘Foot Fetish’ cause apparently I’m weird, ‘Roleplay’...cause fuck me all my wives really like to role play in bed…’Anal’ cause her ass would be outstanding…”God...why am I doing this?” I whined, steam coming out of my head as I made sure everything was alright and fine. “Alright...so everything’s fine?” I brought up again, Den seeing the laundry list of a Hydra I’m making with this thing. "Seems so." Mom Said, looking it over. “Alright…” I nodded. “Time to do this…” I muttered while pressing the ‘enter’ button, hoping this will work. The sliding door flashed and then opened. Out popping my four breasted sexy Hydra lady. "Hey there sexy~" all three heads cooed as she walked over towards me, pressing her chest against mine. "It still works!" Mom said. “Howdy ladies.” I said sheepishly, before blinking as I forgot to give them names. “Um...what are your names?” I asked, hoping they automatically came with names. "Call us what you want." The right head said, her long Hydra neck moving down, slipping between my lower boobs. "I don't care." The left one said, kissing my neck. "We're all yours~" The middle one said, planting a kiss right on my lips. "I'm taking this back to Lyra." Den said, starting to move the machine. “Oh boy.” I muttered. “So…” I hummed while looking at the three girls. “Middle is Samantha, or Sam whichever you prefer, left is Tanya, and Right is Kim. Sound good?” "Sure." Tanya said from between my lower boobs, now suckeling a tit, the sudden sucking made me jump. How does that feel so different from feeding the kids? “Feeling feisty already?” I asked curiously. "I could go for a good fuck about now." Kim said, rising up to my cheek and giving me a light lick. She then went to my ear. "We can blow you, eat you out and suck on your tits while groping you all at once. Does that sound nice" She asked. “Yes, yes it would.” I cooed softly. ”Best, decision, ever.” I thought to myself happily. “So...how do you want to start?” "Lay down." They said, already trying to undress me. [Sex scene. Skip if you wish.] “Alright.” I said while helping get myself undressed. “This’ll...be my first time with a hydra...this’ll be fun.” I chuckled as I laid down as well. They undressed me, about ripping my dress and bra off before slipping down my undies. As my member emerged erect and ready they began rubbing it with their tail… wow. "You like?" Sam asked. “Yes…” I moaned softly, their tail, even though scaly, was soft and felt wonderful. They grabbed my breasts, roughly groping them but it just felt great. Kim sent her head down and began sucking from my tit, I felt the milk getting sucked out and it was nothing like how I feed the kids. Tanya and Sam went lower, Tanya moving under my balls and tasted my female parts, making me gasp. Sam stopped stroking my dick with their tail and now began licking the tip. I felt the tip of their member, half my length start poking between the middle and upper breasts of mine as their tail began inching from my butt side to my anus. “Many heads work miracles apparently.” I moaned happily “Also, how are you so good at this?” "Does that matter?" Kim asked, moving from my tits to my face. "Are you ready?" She asked. “Yes I am.” I nodded, my dick throbbing in anticipation. At that, Sam wrapped her hips around the head of my member and began going down… and down… and down… Tanya then stuck her tongue inside my female parts, the shock made me thrust up, sending all my member into Sam's now bulged throat. Sam went up and down the whole length of it, each time her throat stretched and it's tightness was felt squeezed around my member, while Tanya went wild on my female parts, soaking that area and her own face. “Holy~.” I moaned loudly, not expecting all of this suddenly. “Good lord...so good~!” Grinning, Kim joined her other two, taking a lick of my balls, then grabbed them in her mouth, right as they slid their tail inside my ass. The sensation was very different from when Twilight played with it. Not bizzare like last time but more like… a different type of filled. “All the spots at once...almost...feels like cheating.” I moaned and panted, feeling my peak climbing rather quickly from the three headed hydra’s ministrations as my dick throbbed in pleasure in Sam’s throat. As My total lower body was being bombarded by pleasure I began to thrust a little, enjoying this so much I wasn't focusing on anything else. I began sweating from trying to hold back my dual climaxes. Holding back as just one gender is hard, from both is a losing battle. I came. Sitting up, accidentally nearly shoving Tanya's whole head inside my nethers, adding to the climax at the sudden extreme stretch, I had grabbed Sam's head and kept it down, pumping all my cum down her tight throat as my female lower half was being licked rapidly my Tanya's trapped head, all the while Kim kept sucking my testicles like jawbreakers. When it was done and I fell back Tanya freed her now soaked head, Kim released my balls from her mouth and Sam slipped off my member with an audible pop, and they removed their tail from my ass. "Did we do good?" Sam asked, lips still covered in some excess cum. [sex end] “You did amazing.” I panted heavily. “Fuck…” Smiling, Tana licked the cum off of Sam's lips, giving her a deep kiss before they stood up, helping me up and giving me a hug. "Thank you for creating us." They said in unison. I hugged back lovingly. “Your welcome my loving hydra girls.” I said warmly. "I can't believe you got it back for me!" Cript's Lyra, in a very human form with her only pony thing being some ears on her head and her signature hair colors. I cleaned up, let the new girls meet up with the others and caught back up with mom, who was with Lyra in what I think is Lyra's personal room. The wife machine was here already. "I knew he had to have put it somewhere. You know Cript can't say no to you so when he took this I knew he didn't destroy it." Mom said, wrapping an arm around me. "Ben here even made himself a sexy Hydra wife." "Oh really?" Lyra asked, eyeing me with a smile. “Um...y-yeah…” I blushed and scratched the back of my head. “It still works I guess.” "That's great. I have been wishing I had this thing back. After I made it first I completely forgot how to make it since I was working on the rescue projects." “Just don’t go crazy with it.” I said. “Even if I just added more to my Harem before I married...there has to be limits here.” "Nope." Lyra said simple, looking the machine over. "I wonder if my user history is still here." “I’m scared…” I said worriedly. "Run…" Mom said, she and I bolting as Lyra made the machine glow. "It is!" We heard Lyra scream in joy before suddenly there was quite literally a tidal wave of women flooding the hall behind us… "Lyra!!!" We could hear Cript screaming from somewhere. "Not again!" “Why did you give that to Lyra?” I whined to Den quickly. "Fun fact about Lyra. She would have learned how to remake it eventually, might have well gotten it over with." Mom said. To be continued... Nobody talks to MotherAfter completing the books, I told Bensu and he gave me a test. After passing he gave me a Library card to his whole library on languages. He lead me to the door. "Be careful with Asha. She has been known to be… harsh, to put it mildly." “She’s the Admin of Death, why wouldn’t she be?” I asked curiously. "She's not always like that. Most often she's kind." “I wouldn’t know that since I’m just meeting her...also, there’s now a lot of things I need to talk with Mother about…” "Once you pass Asha's trial, you can speak freely to Mother." Bensu said, opening the door for me. ”Cool...can’t wait to face Death…” I muttered while heading out. I entered a cemetery. Seemingly endless as I looked along the tombstones. Names of many were written along them. “Gee, I wonder if I’ll be fighting the undead…” I muttered. As I walked along the path I found the last doors. Asha was sitting against them. "So you made it? Figured you'd give up way earlier." “Than you have no idea who I am.” I said honestly. “But it’s nice to meet you.’ "How long, do you think you have to live?" She asked, fiddling with her hair. "It's funny. People think there is a set time, but it fluctuates constantly." “No idea.” I shrugged. “I’ve seen one future where I die peacefully as an old man, and I’ve seen my Future Self that’s still alive.” I told her. “If it happens it happens, like how it happened before but I’m still here.” "So many get to live. I died when creation was made. I never got to live. I've always been dead." ”Well then you must not get out much.” I shrugged. “Cause apparently some undead have more of a life than what your viewpoint says.” "Other admins can create at least. I can't." “I don’t know about your powers, so I wouldn’t know how something that fundamentally creates can’t for you.” I pointed out. "Death is decay and rot, in a basic sense. That's all I can do." She said, placing a finger on a nearby tombstone, the thing immediately collapsing to dust. "The only thing I have ever touched that did not rot or decay was Mother… and Cript." “So...what? You just need a hug or something?” I asked. "Do you want to die?" “Well then what’s your trial if it wasn’t ‘survive the touch of Death’?” I asked curiously. "Simple. Nothing." She said, shifting in her seat. "I offer no trial, so this door can not open." “Well that’s not fair.” I said. “Are you just lonely or something? If you want to talk I’m here to listen if you let me pass.” "Allow me." Cript said, appearing behind me and again nearly giving me a heart attack! "Also you are in so much trouble for helping Den give Lyra back that machine…" “That’s where your wrong kiddo.” I said while snapping my fingers into finger guns at Cript. “I did nothing to help Den take it back. Sure I helped her find it but Den taking it to Lyra was her own fault, plus I didn’t know it would lead to all of...that.” "Did you seriously just call ME kiddo?" Cript asked, about ready to laugh. “So before we get completely off track, can you help me with Lady Death here? She won’t let me pass, I think she wants a hug or something.” I said honestly. "I can and will. Good thing I keep this on me." Cript said, taking out from his Assistant a… reddish glowing heart that was beating still. “Uh...excuse me what?” I asked worriedly. "This, Ben, is my heart. Well, not my heart, another timeline version of me whos body was completely destroyed. If this can't make Asha alive then we're fucked." Cript said, handing the heart over to Asha. “Wait...so your heart can...bring someone back from the dead or something?” I asked curiously. "Oh that's not even the surface." Cript laughed, placing the other timeline heart over Asha's chest, it flowed into her, she then began screaming, her skin gaining color, her hair changing from black to brown, her eyes becoming normal and the graveyard itself shifted to become more… lively. “I have...several questions.” I said worriedly. "She has never had a beating heart before Ben, it's a whole new experience for her." Cript said, Asha now looked… alive, moving shakely. "I feel...warm…" She said, looking at her own hands. “Wait, she never had a heart before?” I asked. “I know she died before but...what?” "Before the explosion caused her death and the admins code to really activate, all the admins were not actually alive just yet, like suspended animation within the void. She was killed before her heart even got to beat." “Ah...well okay then.” I nodded. “Thank you. That helps explain...a lot of things.” “My chest… it’s moving?” Asha asked, standing up. “That’s called breathing, or a heart beat.” Cript said. “How does it feel having a pulse?” I asked Asha curiously. “Weird.” Asha said, looking at her hair. “How do you all exist like this?” “You get used to it.” Cript said. “Now then, if you enjoy what I do next, can we enter?” “Do...what?” Asha asked, a little scared. Cript merely put one finger on her head, and suddenly she, given from the smell and stains… just orgasemed all over herself. A face of pure joyish daze. “I’m pretty sure she liked it cause damn.” I pointed out. “Lyra… had me practice a lot with my electronium abilities. Since any flesh body has nerves, all the works, now that hers are alive and working, I used one of those things Lyra had me make… instant orgasem… I didn’t even amplify anything that’s her first normal grade climax.” Cript said. Asha half dazed tapped the door as it began opening. “I need to talk to her.” Cript said. “Also… why a Hydra… I mean… that’s kinda random in all honesty.” “Because I was curious...also have you seen her? She’s sexy.” I huffed. “Well, yeah, I’ll admit that, that’s just a new one for me, and you are talking to the guy who Lyra has gotten a Slime girl, a Flower girl, a SPIDER women, and I’m partly arachnophobic, and an android girl… and I have kids with all of them.” “Sounds about right.” I said honestly. “But now for me to talk to Belief and Mother...about the many obvious things I have to tell them and maybe some other things.” “Same here.” Cript said, following me through the doors. Once on the other side they were in a long hallway, a forest around them and fog covered the place. “I would have done more of a Cave hallway.” “Well either way.” I shrugged. “Wonder what her response to ‘you want yourself and your husband dead’ will be.” “That sentence was… weird.” Cript chuckled. “And I’ve heard my fair share of weird sentences.” “But it is appropriate considering the circumstances.” I said honestly. “I guess.” Cript shrugged. “So, you and Den have fun earlier, before the swarm of a million women flooded the hallways and at the moment are starting to make it to the middle castle floors. Yeesh Lyra missed that thing.” “I had nothing to do with Den’s...really retarded decision.” I pointed out. “All I knew was that Lyra made it and that it could make people...I didn’t know Lyra would go about as overboard as the Titanic bull rushing a glacier.” “You don’t know Lyra.” Cript laughed. “It’s her sole mission in life to expand my harem eternally.” “Well that’s not gonna be fun.” I sighed out. “But Mom might have had a point...Lyra would have figured it out sooner or later and did it again.” “Yeah...only bigger, faster and, and I quote, ‘bustier’ than ever.” He laughed. “She’s always been fascinated with herds back when she didn’t know me. Now that after words about a year after we’ve been married, she adds three… and it has not stopped since.” “Yeah...that’s kind of a pain when someone just won’t stop.” I said honestly. “Honestly, I kind of don’t want her to.” Cript said smiling. “She’s energetic, does what she says, and doesn’t stop til she achieved her goal. If she stops before that… then she’s not being herself.” “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “Mother and Belief might also be really confused on...literally anything we bring up.” “Maybe. I have a work around for it though.” Cript said, the hallways was about halfway through. “So, how’s things been?” “Eh, fine enough.” I said honestly. “Things are going well thankfully...but I’m just worried about the Foretellers and John…” I sighed out. “Been a while huh?” “Yes, yes it has…” I sighed out. “Fuck...I don’t even remember the last time I’ve seen them…” “Hmm… Me neither. So, aside from that how’s the whole ‘married to your parents’ thing going for you?” “It hasn’t really been different.” I shrugged. “Whether married or not...their still family.” “Question is how will you deal when… well… at some point we all kinda have to date… then…” “Well it would be interesting but...I’m fine with it.” I shrugged. “As long as everyone’s consenting and there’s no drawbacks.” I said honestly. “Yeah.” Cript said. “Yeah?” I asked. “Nothing else to add to that?” “That about sums it up really.” Cript said, sighing as they shoved their hands in their pockets. “Ever just want to go someplace to be normal for a while?” “It would be great if that could actually ever happen.” I said honestly. “Lyra and I have tried a lot. It always ends with either something popping up that I have to deal with or I just end up seeing that the people around me need help and I do. I can never just take it slow for all that long. Longest I ever had was some years back, a solid week on Equestria just being normal ponies.” “Sounds nice.” I said honestly. “By the by, Mom talked about a special Arena thing that’s for everyone...is there something in the Arena that can help alleviate a fuck ton of pent up rage that can only be quelled by bathing in the blood of my enemies?” I asked curiously. “...Therapy?” “Violent Therapy.” I said. “Cause seriously, talking it won’t will not help in this situation.” “Well in the family arena there is a Horde Survival mode. Basically massive unending waves of however many X enemies you choose come after you at at max 90% of your total stats and level and you, well, just try and survive for however long. Record last I checked is four days.” “That record is going to get blown out of proportion by an asston I can tell you that.’ I said, Cript having a bad feeling that whatever I’m holding inside is a lot scarier than just my need for therapy. “So, wonder where Mother and Belief are...” “Likely waiting for us to finish our conversation before they stop making the floor move with our footsteps.” “Rude.” I started. “You can come out now.” I called out. The floor itself stopped moving and we finally reached the…. Most perfect place I’d want to live ever… A small hidden oasis within a rocky walled hole, waterfall with lovely spring next to a small house, plants fall colors were decorating the place. A single tree stood on the right side of it all, offering shade with a stone bench under it… now this is a place to vacation in peace. “Well...certainly now a good vacation spot that’s for sure.” I said honestly. “Hello?” “Over here.” I heard Mother's voice, and that familiar sense of calmness started affecting me. It came from the spring. Mother and the...the...hunk~ “Hi Ben!” Mother said happily as Cript had to push me forwards… Okay Belief/Jericho here is… HOT… Damn female hormones! “Hold on a moment.” I said while turning myself into a guy so I didn’t have that part of my mind bothering me. “So anyways, how are you two doing today?” “We were enjoying a bath.” Belief said… god his voice is masculine and oh fuck he’s still hot! “So we have something to discuss.” Cript said plainly. “Did you know that you want yourself and your husband dead?” I asked Mother, getting straight to the point. “...What?” Mother asked, flabbergasted. “I know, I was thinking the same thing hearing that.” Cript replied. “So to clarify, we have a real threat here. The First Mother is the one who created the Void, and her Belief died, causing this.” “The first Belief died…” Jericho said aloud. “Shit. I knew that would happen to one of us eventually but… still.” “Well congratulations, now that will literally never happen ever again.” I explained. “Cause Jericho is now Deathless, also, does Nothingness have literally anything to do with the whole ‘First Mother making Void’ thing?” I asked curiously. “I don’t know.” Mother said. “Hmm… It might be possible, it’s been around as far as any of the Mothers or Beliefs can remember. But if this Mother has gone mad, given their age and power, this is likely going to be a fight we can’t beat alone.” “I mean…” I brought out a piece of True Nothingness...and to all around it felt way too familiar. “What would happen if it has something to do with Belief? Nothingness is the Antithesis of Void but...from my research, it ‘cleanses’ them more than anything.” I brought up. “Hmm.” Belief hummed, taking the Nothingness and looking it over. “Hmm.This energy, it’s similar to how mine is structured. There are differences, clearly, this is more… decayed.” “Decayed?” Cript asked. “Like a plant half dead refusing to die.” “Wait…” I blinked. “I know this is risky...but can anyone here summon some Pure Void?” I asked, my mind rushing through many possibilities at this point and it all seemed to point to two possible conclusions. “No one here can… All though…” Mother pondered. “The Void Conduit can.” “And who would that be?” I asked curiously. “Cause if it’s John then...well that’s going to be an interesting thing to talk about after the entire fucking Glossary of crap I need to explain to him.” I groaned. “The Conduits are people so linked to certain aspects of creation they might as well be made of the energy.” Cript explained. “I’m the conduit for Origin Magic, and the Void Conduit in my realm passed, but there are two, a backup that exists as a precaution. Who that is though, I’m not sure.” “So we’re going to have to find John...unless someone knows anyone else?” I asked, just wanting to make sure there’s no one else. “Hard to tell… But Hollow might know something.” “He would probably know...but I have no idea where he is or where to begin...plus I don’t know where John is...fuck.” I sighed out. “I do.” Cript said. “Now then, onto other matters.” “There are many things to talk about.” I agreed. “To start with we need to merge Creations.” Cript started. “I understand this is something that has never happened before, it won’t be like merging realms.” “I can just imagine how much of a bitch that’ll be.” I brought up. "It will not be easy at all." Mother said. "But it's a task we have to complete." “Aren’t there other Mothers and Belief’s? Or do you just hop from one plane of existence to another?” I asked curiously. "There are others." "A rough count puts that number at surprisingly reasonable Two Hundred and fifteen." Belief said. "All things considered that's a low number." "Which means each mother and belief are stronger as they are older than the last." Cript said. “Which then leads back to the strongest, and the most batshit insane.” I sighed out. “How many do you think are still alive if Void Mother has been up and about trying to kill people?” "Entering the other Creations for her will be easy, Void reaches everywhere, finding them however is the tricky part." Belief said. "Entering the other Creations, even for us, won't be easy… unless we catch a ride." "You mean get the Void Conduit to help us hop from creation to Creation using their void as a bridge or portal?" Cript asked. “Couldn’t I do the same thing?” I asked curiously. “Nothingness is just like Void so wouldn’t the same thing apply?” "We still don't know just how far Nothingness reaches compared to Void or even if this dying other me could explain anything." Belief said. "Best bet is to find both this first me and the Void Conduit so we can have a back up or multiple portals." “Alright, so I’m already doing both of those things.” I said, sending one clone to find John and the other to go straight into the Heart of Nothingness. “But where’s Hollow? He may give me a clue as to where John is.” "He lives along the border between Creation and the void, a mix of the two, chaotic but safe and stable." Cript said. “Cool.” I nodded, the one clone that was going off to find John headed off to where Hollow was. “Thank god for Starfish Clones. Helps with searching.” "So now all that's left is to figure out the effective, preferably fast means to merge this creation and ours." "Belief and I can work on that." Mother said. "If you two want you two can explore it and see the sights." “Sure.” I said. “Might as well get a lay of the land ya know?” "I'm up for an adventure." Cript said, patting my back. "Come on Daughter-Wife, let's fuck some shit up." “Let’s get going then.” I nodded, ready for an adventure. To be continued... Nobody has an adventure“Well...didn’t expect it to be this big…” I said while looking up and up...and up...jesus this Arena is fucking huge. "Welcome family! It's time for another round of the Family Arena Games!" A loud announcer said as the crowd cheered. "Today is a Newcomer, Ben, who will be fighting an endless horde of Shadow Creatures, all variations selected and max difficulty has been selected. Weapons allowed, no powers, magic is allowed. Arena type… Destroyed City!" suddenly the plain flat arena became a giant destroyed city, myself standing atop a broken Skyscraper now. "Record is Four Days, time to see how this kid goes." I cracked my knuckles as I started walking towards the destroyed Skyscraper. “If anyone has a weak stomach, please don’t watch this.” I called out. “Cause this is not gonna be pretty for anyone.” When I brought out Sharpshooters and teleported to the top of the Skyscraper I took a quick look at my surroundings...or at least, I would if it wasn’t for the fact that literally every scare inch about ten miles away was just filled with god knows how many monsters. “Well this is going to be interesting.” I said as I took a deep breath, and exhaled as I felt the rumbling of Shadow Creatures rushing towards me. I took another deep breath and exhaled, the judges sensing I took off some obvious strength limiters on myself… I opened my eyes rather quickly to see...the entire destroyed city was flattened to the ground and like...a three miles of Shadow Creatures in all directions were dead. “Uh...sure.” I said. “Uh...you know I didn’t use any abilities right?” I looked up at the camera’s worriedly. ”Yes, we have seen this happen before. For those of you who don’t know our contestant has taken off limiters that decreases all forms of power and energy output, to make sure day to day life is a lot simpler.” The announcer called out. “Okay cool.” I nodded as I put Sharpshooters together into it’s bow form...and then increased its size so it was a Dragon Slayer Greatbow and lifted it up towards the sky. “Raining Hell.” I said as I pulled back the bow string and fired, the sky grew dark as trillions of Dragon Slaying arrows descended down, impaling trillions of Shadow Creatures straight through their vital areas. I brought out my Lexicon and it flipped through it’s pages, glowing brightly as the trillions of arrows glowed softly. I snapped my fingers and each individual arrow exploded causing a massive chain reaction that looked like one massive explosion way too big. I looked at all the explosions, all the howling of pain and death from all the Shadow Creatures, as a low chuckle started to build up. I started walking towards the oncoming wave as one creature tried to ambush me, didn’t get a good look at it as I grabbed it by the head and crushed it’s skull, raising my arm and slamming it into the ground so hard it caused the ground to crack for several hundred feet. My chuckle slowly grew more into an honest to god laugh as I pulled out Lunatic and Skysplitter, Skysplitters energy aura bursting forth from me as Lunatic’s Emotion Ability amplified Skysplitters ability to god knows what end. “All the people in the audience! Cover your eyes.” I laughed as I vanished, the creatures all flying into the air in either pieces, blood splatter, or other unmentionables as my laugh turned into a howling cackle that everyone could hear. ”Did...anyone else find that scary?” The announcer asked. [The next day in arena time] “Come on! I thought you were supposed to be tough!” I shouted as I cleaved through thousands of Shadow Creatures with Graceful Dahlia, the blood it drained from all my enemies giving it more power as it feasted on the blood of my enemies. A massive behemoth of a Shadow Creature tried sweeping one of it’s massive claws at me, only for me to cut off it’s arm and shove Frozen Pride into the stump. “Ice Age.” I said, the entire thing becoming frozen solid in an instant. “Hail Storm!” I shouted, slamming my shield into it as millions of ice shards shot out and impaled themselves deep into the surrounding beasts. A monster managed to hit my back, but honestly I didn’t notice as I smacked it’s head off with my tail. “Come on!” I shouted as I summoned Eternal Flames and slammed both of them into the ground, the ground shaking heavily as suddenly geysers of Lava erupted and started to burn every monster that wasn’t fire resistant or proof. [The next day in arena time] “Come on!” I shouted from on top of the literal mountain of bodies I’ve made, the entire landscape changed drastically from what it originally was, going from a destroyed city to a barren molten hell scape that had floating islands everywhere as well as frozen patches that slowly turned to water. “I’m right here!” I shouted as I kept picking off everything with Sharpshooters. The creatures climbed over their fallen comrades to try and get to me, which I quickly answered with No Heart and Foudre insanely fast. “Drive Forms are allowed right?” I called out. ”Drive Forms yes, King Drive Forms no.” The announcer called out. “Thank you.” I said as a few monsters got close to me, only for energy shards to go right through them as I went straight into my Valor Drive form, holding No Heart and Skysplitter as I dived head first back into the sea of monsters. [The next day in arena time] The landscape changed very heavily in the last twenty-four hours, besides the insane amount of corpses littering the entire place, several parts that aren’t being trampled on or me having destroyed started growing fertile from both the cooled down lava and the corpses that have decomposed into the earth. “Ah, the wonders of life.” I hummed happily as I shoved my fist through another Shadow Creatures chest and ripped out it’s heart. “You know, fighting for three days straight has made me hungry.” I said before grabbing the closest living Shadow Creatre and bit it’s head off and tried to eat it, before spitting it out. “Blech, tastes awful.” I frowned as I changed into Wisdom form and skated around with No Heart and Book of Retribution, firing off spells like a Gatling Gun and seeing everything die rather quickly to my onslaught of spells. “Seriously, is this on max difficulty or not?” I asked with a frown. [the next day arena time] I slammed Skysplitter down as thousands of earth spikes shot up and impaled shadow beasts. “First off, rude.” I said while picking an apple from an apple tree and ate it. “I’m trying to eat here.” “The actual hell is going on?” A spectator asked in confusion. “Is Ben...building a farm during Horde Survival?” Another spectator asked. “He’s only using magic right?” A judge whispered to another. “As far as I’ve noticed, everything that isn’t coming from his weapons is magic.” The judge brought up. “Who would have thought I could have made a nice plantation with just my weapons.” I said warmly, finding it nice how I’ve built a farm full of life in this entire arena of bloodshed. [The Next Day arena time] I clashed with a Shadow Creature in my Feral Form, causing a shockwave that knocked away Shadow Creatures as I pushed it back. “Jeez, so many visitors.” I said as I moved to the side, making it stumble from the lack of support as I ripped into its midsection. “I’m a little curious as to how they keep spawning you...wait, no they have infinite mob spawners...hmm…” I hummed as I tried to sense if there was any monster spawners around. When I did sense them there were sadly way too many for me to actively rush after. “Oh well.” I said as I kept mauling monster after monster. [The Next Day arena time] After super cultivating with special magics I learned from the Admin of Plants, I created three plant people, one was a Dryad with pure white bark and red eyes, it’s leaves a mixture of red and pink that was currently fighting against several Shadow Creatures alongside me, while two others were tending to my growing farm and keeping it safe. “Your doing great honey.” I laughed, ripping into more and more shadow creatures. “Thanks dad.” The female tree girl said happily, stabbing one of her wooden weapons into a monster and draining it of it’s life force, getting stronger. “Who would have thought I could combine a Demon Tree with a Life Giving Tree to make a Balanced Tree.” I chuckled. ”...well...this went from pretty creepy with all the laughter...and now it’s weirdly hopeful.” The announcer said. ”And...I don’t know what to say about this…” [The Next Day in arena time] ”We’re on day eight of Ben’s Hoard Survival, and so far he’s been...building a village somehow in all this chaos.” The announcer said, the camera’s showing a growing village of plant people in a humble village as I continued to cleave through monster after monster with my new Balance Treefolk. “Sheesh, who would have thought I could have done all of this…” I said, all the Shadow Creatures being too focused on me given their current directive. “Hey, did you know that these things give loot?” A Vince Falcon told me. I blinked, before looking down and seeing...I was standing on probably a good three feet of loot and all sorts of currency. “Uh...mind doing a little time skip?” I called out to the writers. [One month later in arena time] “Seriously, this was not okay.” I laughed as suddenly the humble village I started became a bustling city in about a month of the arena’s time, my plant’s working hard and diligently through so many things, but given the insane amount of money and loot they keep getting from the endless supply of monsters, it was literally a dangerous money farm. “So, in conclusion, I think I have figured out away to make overrun worlds habitable without being an Admin.” I laughed. “Okay, I think that’s enough.” I said softly as I looked up. “You can stop the monster spawners. I’m done.” I said, feeling so light and better now that I got so much off my shoulders. “Cause seriously, if this goes on any longer me and my people will be getting to the monster spawners and destroying them.” The shadow creatures stopped, despawning as did the corpses. My city and plant people were teleported to Dinky's world to live on and I, feeling much better, wondered what to do next? “Hmm...I feel like going world hopping.” I said with a smile. “What world haven’t I gone to…” I thought for a moment. “Well I haven’t been to a power rangers world…” Opening a DTN to a random world, I entered. “I still say RV’s are cool…” Cript grumbled. We took a spaceship because it’s fast, and I won rock-paper-scissors. “I know I know.” I said. “But this is faster.” “Not as cool though…” Cript said, laying on the ground as the Ship’s autopilot was doing the driving. “So where exactly are we going? The only city I know of in this place is about six thousand miles the other way.” “Somewhere.” I said honestly. “I have no idea, we’re just going to have fun heading off into uncharted territory.” I said with a shrug. “Did you want to go anywhere specific?” “Not really.” Cript said, forming a Gameboy and turning it on. “Did you know on some worlds this was as far as videogames ever got?” He said, shaking the hand held. “That’s weird…” I said. “Video Games are a cornerstone to a lot of things.” “Different worlds, different scientific priorities.” Cript said, the audio from that game was clearly an older Pokemon game. “I remember visiting this world too. Caught a Torchic.” “I should go to a Pokemon world soon...that place was my childhood.” I said honestly. “Wish I could say the same. Heh, I remember first entering the city. First time I saw a car I about lost my shit…” “Really?” I asked honestly. “You almost lost your shit on a car?” “I grew up in a temple learning magic, within a magic forest. My bathroom was an enchanted tree that ate the shit once it hits the bowl. A car was completely alien to me at the time.” “Um...please tell me the tree didn’t actually talk or anything right?” I asked. “Of course not.” Cript said. “Oh thank god.” I sighed out. “Cause if that were the case that would have been really weird.” “Yeah. Comparing my childhood to so many others I had a weird one, but I wouldn't have changed a thing.” “And with my childhood I would have changed it so I actually know what the fuck actually happened and not have my parent’s be dead.” I brought up. Cript chuckled. “I wish my life made as much sense as yours.” They said, playing their game as well. “Speaking of, how are your parents?” “Their doing good.” I nodded. “I visit them sometimes. They couldn’t be more proud of who I am, what I’ve done, and so much more...and my dad brought up me being so outlandishly rich was just bonus points for them living a happy life.” “Heh. Wish I could have heard mine say that.” Cript sighed. “I mean...you can meet your mother in the afterlife right?” I asked curiously. "My dad, killed her with a knife that erases their entire being from existence like how a Delete does. I wish I could but I can't." “Now that’s just not fair.” I frowned. "My life has never been fair. But… Lyra made it something to fight for." “At least the ones we loved help us when we needed it.” I said honestly. "Yeah. Yeah they do. Heh. I remember when Lyra said her world's Luna, Twilight and Chrysalis should join our marriage. I freaked out, and bolted to the nearest place to hide… a closet…" “I have heard that before” I said honestly. "It was the most embarrassing moment of my life." “It couldn’t have been that embarrassing that it has to be the most embarrassing.” I pointed out. "It was. Being talked out of the closet by your wife and the mares she wants you to add to your marriage. It was… heh. It was Lyra's first win on me." “Listen, you came out of the closet to tell people you really like fucking four women at the same time.” I said. “I got more of my harem by getting drunk...several times.” "I remember their pregnancies. I made them these fish crackers to eat." “You made them fish crackers?” I asked curiously. "Yeah. Monks taught me how to make them, easy means of having fast food for long travel." Cript said, crafting one, it looked more like toast of sorts. He floated it into my mouth. "The key is sea salt and a slow bake." “Sounds nice.” I nodded. Eating the cracker and woah… this is good. "Came in handy." “Comes in handy indeed this is very good.” I said honestly. "Recipe dating back nine hundred years on my world. All in all its really the only good recipe." “Really?” I asked curiously. “The only one?” "Others are either tasteless or burn easy." “Well that sucks.” I said honestly. “Would have been nice if those two things didn’t happen.” "I know." “Alright.” I nodded. “So, how much did you know about the whole...Mother and Belief thing?” “When I arrived here for the first time I heard about it, Lyra, Luna, Bon Bon and I were here in a bar back in that city I mentioned. More like Agraba in all honesty. They mentioned her and all this high and mighty god stuff. Figured we’d see what it was about… Once I saw she was guarded by Admins I sent them home for safety. Called Lord over and, well, when I reached her… I honestly wasn’t that surprised.” “Alrighty then.” I nodded. "Looks like that is kinda not completely the case anymore." Cript said, not getting up and sitting at the table across from me. "Wonder what we will run into first out here?" “Well…” I looked out to see if there was anything of note outside. “Let’s see if there’s anything special outside now.” "We are moving at a quarter the speed of light. It will all be blurs." Cript laughed. "Should have asked for a map." “We probably should have.” I said nervously. "Welp, there's extra fuel in the hold so let's just keep going until the fuel runs out and we have to put more in." “Okay then.” I nodded. “Sounds simple enough.” "So, hungry?" “Yep.” I nodded. “What do you want to eat?” "I'm in the mood for pizza." Cript said, snapping their fingers as Fifty inch pizza boxes suddenly appeared all around us. He opened the one on the table, a single slice was as long as his arm, and began eating it. “Sweet.” I said while taking a slice and eat it. “Haven’t really had pizza in a while.” "Me neither. Because I don't need to eat, I forget so when I do the flavor is a nice reminder." “Makes sense.” I nodded. “Even though I’m told Admins don’t need to eat...well it’s better to eat cause it gives energy and other important things.” "For me it's largely towards my magic which because of Generation I don't even need to worry about." “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “And considering I also have Amplify and Generation because of everything that happened.” I brought up. "Yeah… so… is this considered a date or am I just overthinking?" “Could be, I don’t know.” I shrugged honestly. “Oh, by the way did you hear what I did in the Family Arena?” "Yup. Shattered that record." “I think I may have given people nightmares with my first day…” I said sheepishly, barely remembering much on the first day as I was just cackling like mad wolf. "Not the worst it could have been." Cript said, taking another bite. "Surprised you made a city. Your first civilization. How's it feel?" “It felt good, building something even in dire circumstances...although literally being able to beat what’s supposed to be an infinite mode on pure accident was just funny to me.” I chuckled. “Like seriously, after a certain point me and the city could have just went out and destroyed the Shadow Spawners.” "It all would have been reset anyway when either you were down fifty hp or called for it to stop." “And literally only the later could have happened.” I said honestly. "Either way. So, feel better after that?" “You have no idea how much better I feel.” I said happily. “I really needed that.” "Heh. So, aside from pizza need a drink?" “What drinks you thinking of?” I asked curiously. "Depends. What's your poison?" “You really want to drink booze right now?” I asked curiously. "Only if you do." “Nah, we need to stay coherent in case something happens.” I said honestly. “So let’s go with Mountain Dew.” "MLG much?" Cript laughed as an ice cold bottle appeared on the table. “Nah, I just like it.” I said honestly while picking up the bottle and opening it carefully just in case. "I prefer root beer honestly." Cript said, giving themselves a cold bottle of soda. "So, what TV show did you love growing up?" “Oh god, so many.” I said while thinking back. "Name one?" “Courage the Cowardly Dog.” I said honestly. “Now that was a good show filled with possible childhood trauma.” "Huh… weird." “Oh?” I asked curiously. “What do you mean?” "I just never got horror stuff." “Have you ever watched Courage the Cowardly Dog?” I asked curiously. "I saw a few episodes after getting my company. Didn't like it." “Then you don’t understand good kid’s shows.” I said honestly. “Sure it’s creepy, but it’s more on perseverance and facing your fears even if your scared shitless.” "Eh. Just not my thing." Cript said, finishing his slice then downing his soda. "Ah… I'm gonna take a nap." “Alright, I’ll make sure things keep running smoothly. “I said while taking a sip of my own soda. “Wonder if anything will happen…” Cript left for the bed quarters and I just ate some more pizza and finished my soda. Checking on the autopilot and seeing all was fine and the fuel was still quite high. “Well...maybe there’s something on the scanners…” I muttered while checking if the ship even had something to make sure it knew what was around it instead of just blindly going forward. According to the scanner it was just trees and flatlands all around. Nothing of interest. Sighing, I mostly started watching YouTube on my assistant for a while. “Well this is gonna take a while…” I muttered, scrolling through videos to see what’s to watch. Some hours passed and I was getting more bored. It was getting kinda late too… I wonder...I got up and quietly snuck towards Cript’s room. As I gently opened the door to Cript’s room I took a quick peek inside to see if he was sleeping. He was. Sheets covering them and they were cuddling a pillow. I found that cute, Cript apparently being so used to cuddles that he’s cuddling up to a pillow. Sneaking in I didn't turn on the lights, pondering if I should scare them or join them for a nap. I was bored and tired at this point. I turned into my feral form and used some magic to silently pull him out of bed, and as I laid down into a ball I gently put Cript where my wives always loved to sleep whenever I’m like this. Covering them with my paw and some fur, I laid my head next to them… then noticed something I didn't before now that my eyes adjusted to the dark… Cript sleeps in JUST his boxers. ”Don’t care, wives normally sleep naked even when we’re not plowing like rabbits.” I thought to myself… then again, I am still his kid too… such a confusing family. I suddenly felt Cript hugging my arm. "Hi Den…" They said sleepily. ”Well crap…” I thought to myself, forgetting that he’s asleep so he’s probably thinking I was Mom. Do I say something or do I play along? “Hello.” I said gently, not sure if I should be playing along. "Hmm. Glad you're here." Cript said, hugging my leg tighter and shifting more against me. “Well...you wanted cuddles, so I came to cuddle.” I said gently. "Heh. So used to cuddling someone can't sleep without hugging someone. I just wish we can stay like this for a while." They yawned. “Well...we can be like this until you get a nice long rest.” I said softly. "Hmm…" They hummed, now pressing their back fully against my chest while hugging my arm. I chuckled a little and nuzzled Cript gently. “Good night.” Three Months Later. I woke up feeling...both really happy and pretty stiff. Cript and I were still in the same position. Yawning, I wondered how long we were sleeping. I checked my Assistant to see what time and date it was...three months!?! Did we hibernate?! “Uh...the fuck?” "Hmm?" Cript said, starting to wake up. "Huh… Ben?" “We’ve been asleep for three months.” I said worriedly. "Oh. Really? That was short." Cript said, climbing out from practically under me and stretching. "Den and I once slept and cuddled for half a year. Was nice." “Alrighty then.” I said while getting up and stretching. “Ah fuck, that was a good nap.” "I have to say, didn't think you'd cuddle up to me so quick." “Meh, I was bored and tired, and you looked lonely when you were just cuddling a pillow.” I said honestly. "Heh. Well thank you. It's kinda lonely for me sleeping alone. I just don't know how to pace this relationship." “I don’t even know what a paced relationship is.” I said honestly. "Heh… well, I guess whatever happens happens then." Cript said, getting dressed… and I was watching them the whole time… like Zeke, got nice curves. "I think we stopped already?" “Maybe.” I said, turning into my anthro form and heading to the main room to see what happened. Walking to the pilot room we saw were were parked. Opening the door and seeing a setting sun. We were in a jungle of sorts on the top of a cliff. "Well. This looks like a good place to explore." “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “Time to go out into the jungle.” "Let's go… that way." Cript said, taking the lead and just walking without a real sense of direction. I nodded and followed along. “Actually, should we be heading out into the jungle when it’s gonna be dark?” "Yup. Best monsters come out in the dark. Best creepy places show up at night." “Right then.” I nodded. “Can’t wait to see what kind of life is here.” As we walked about we saw some amazing flowers, cute smaller animals, and some massive trees. We found what looked like a massive temple long since abandoned. "Think there's loot?" “Depending on the kind of temple it is.” I said honestly. "Trapped likely. Maybe some monsters, a golem or two." “And they would be literally nothing compared to how strong the two of us are.” I brought up. "Oh I dunno. Things here are older than back home, more powerful. Might be interesting." “Maybe. Who knows?” I shrugged. We entered, some simple skeleton undead waiting for us. "Awh. Hoped it would be cooler." “Well...is it sentient?” I asked curiously. "Likely not." Cript said, the Skeleton adorning armor and swords. “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “So...just kill it or leave it?” "Only way to the end is through." Cript said, summoning Dusk Blade. "Mind if I borrow this?" “Sure.” I nodded. "Great. You wanna kill it or shall I?" “Have at it.” I said honestly, raising a hand to let him at it. Smirking, Cript held Dusk Blade backhanded before rushing towards the skeleton, Dusk Blade suddenly coated in white flames and Cript decapitated the undead, it's whole body becoming cloaked in the white fire as it burned to ash. “Nailed it.” I nodded. "Holy fire spell. It's funny I used to suck at holy magic but once I fixed my Psychopath issue It just clicked." Cript said, the ash pile forming I to a jagged curved greatsword. "Cool." Cript said, picking it up. “Sounds about right, and hey, loot.” I brought up. “So looks like we’ll be making a lot of money from this.” A door began opening, showing a descending stairway. "Oh I love dungeons." Cript said, disbanding Dusk Blade. "Shall we?" “We shall.” I nodded while heading down the stairs. The next floor was covered in bones, dirt and old weapons. Walking through it and finding a chest. "Real or mimic?" I grabbed a bone from the ground and gently tossed it at the chest to see what it’s reaction would be. Nothing. "Guess it's real. I took the skeleton. You check the chest." “Alright.” I nodded while moving over to the chest carefully. I placed my hands on it and threw the lid open, and inside was… a war hammer. It was thin but looked made out of bronze… no, no it looked like bronze but this metallic scent is new to me. It looked like a mix of mayan and Norse designs. “Well, I found a fancy thing.” I said while picking up the War Hammer and scanning it with my Assistant. Injustice. Att: 6,790 Def: 5,755 Mag: 90,745 Code: 22,507 A Hammer of Admin Warfare. One of the first Admin of Wars personal arsenal. I blinked. “Wait...the fuck is this doing here?” I asked. “This is a different realm right? Where the War never happened?” I asked. "Different realm, same history. Sorta." Cript said, looking it over. "In this era, the war happened but ended quickly. There was an Admin of war here, but like in ours Jericho killed them. This loot must be randomized… let me try something." Cript said, closing the chest as he waved his hand, a clock appeared over the chest, moving rapidly before disappearing. Cript opened it, this time it was just a few potions. "Respawning too… this kind of dungeon is exactly what I wanted for my realm." “Cool.” I said. “By the way, what’s this ‘Code’ Stat? Also, why is this a War Hammer in shape when it should be a Rod based on it’s magic stat?” I asked curiously. "Admin weapons have a unique code stat. It means the more code flowing through you until attack makes impact the more it multiplies your damage and defenses by the weapons stats. As for why it's a Warhammer, must have been for a mage tanker." “Maybe.” I shrugged. “This is gonna be nifty to use later on.” I said while looking over the Warhammer. Continuing on, the duo found a large arena, the center holding a chained statue. "Ten rem says that statue has at least three phases." Cript said. “Unless we just break it before it can do anything.” I brought up honestly. The statue began shifting, standing up and breaking its chains free, using the still hanging ones as metallic whips. “Well then…” I started. “This’ll be interesting.” I said honestly as I summoned Skysplitter. "Ladies first?" Cript offered. “Fine fine.” I said while walking over to the Statue. “Wonder how durable this thing is?” I wondered as I moved closer and then hit the thing with Skysplitter. While the impact cracked the arm it did managed to punch me, throwing me back over to Cript. "Oh this thing has a spirit." Cript said, readying his sword. "Looks like the will be more fun than I expected.” “Thing can’t hit for shit though.” I said while while appearing in front of it as slamming Skysplitter even harder than before. More cracked and broke off… revealing a fleshy under to that stone. Cript joined in, stabbing it in the exposed flesh. It roared, the entire arm broke free from its stone shell and in a rapidly unexpected motion, grabbed Cript. "Oh fuck!" “Okay so what the actual hell is this thing?” I asked. “Cause normally living people don’t just stay living inside solid stone.” I said as I slammed Skysplitter into the arm that was holding Cript. "Learned long ago not to question it. Saves a lot of headache!" Cript said, rapidly tossed and sent into the wall some ways away. "That hurt…" “Well let’s see what the hell this thing actually is.” I said while casting Scan on it to see what it was and other such important things. Floor Guardian#65301747592746591077482. Type: Demonic. Phases: 5 Dungeon Type: Ancient Dungeon Level: Hair of Code Level range: God-Admin “Okay...good to know this thing is damn near Admin Level Demon…” I frowned as I tried to find any weaknesses to the thing. “This is going to be interesting…” I muttered as I bolted towards it and swung Skysplitter into one of it’s legs to try and cripple it. As I tried to hit it's leg, it's chain whip wrapping around Skysplitter and it yanked me around like a kid who can't use a yo yo. “Dick.” I frowned while aiming Sharpshooters and firing at its eyes as I disbanded Skysplitter and floated in the air. The shots impacted it, starting to crack the skull shell. Cript got back up, delivering their own blow to the demons other arm. "Have to say, been a while since I had a challenge." “Says the guy that could have just killed it in one hit.” I brought up as I continued to try and crack the thing’s shell. “So let’s start with getting rid of it’s shell, then we can start maybe doing more damage to it.” "That will also make it faster though. Making it harder to hit and dodge." Cript said, taking a deep hit to the demons exposed arm. “I know I know.” I said as I shot a bunch of arrows into it’s exposed arm, the arrows moving past Cript and hitting straight into the arm due to several of the mod’s on it. Cript, taking advantage also, cast Holy Fire along his sword and sliced the arm off, the demon screaming, it's other still shelled arm breaking free, and it began pounding its chest. "Shit, it's trying to break its shell!" I moved over and hit the thing’s shoulder with Frozen Pride, even with it’s stone shell it’s entire arm before frozen solid in an instant. “No, bad Demon. No breaking your shell.” I scolded it. The ice began to melt, the side with the sliced off arm began exploding in fire and magma. “Oh, cool.” I said as the fire and magma immediately froze and was rushing straight into the Demon’s inside. “You need to Cool off.” I said, hoping the Demon would stop for a second at my very shitty pun. It did not. The fire erupted from cracks in the ice as suddenly the whole thing exploded. Shrapnel of ice hitting me and Cript as this magma flaming demon was now a few phases further than expected. “Welp, he’s mad.” I said as I donned my Armor. “Alright fucko, let’s dance.” I said while summoning my Greatsword and No Heart and prepared myself for any of it’s attacks. It reached into it's molten chest, pulling out magma greatswords from within itself, slamming them down as the whole room began to heat up. "Shifting the environment. It's making itself stronger by making this place literally as hot as hell." “Okay, sure.” I said while placing Frozen Pride on the ground. “Winter’s Fall.” I muttered, all the heat the demon was producing in the area was suddenly being sucked away as ice and snow started to form in the area rather quickly, going faster as it continued to eat up any and all heat the Demon was making or trying to make. “Let’s see how you handle something that can freeze Hell.” I growled. Roaring, the demon charged me, slamming both it's magma greatswords into Frozen Pride. “Not a smart move.” I said as ice krept up the greatswords as I brought out Arpeggio and plucked one of the strings, the snow suddenly turning into spikes and impaled themselves into the things back. “It’s funny how I have the two things that counter this things abilities.” "Show off." Cript said, using his sword to shatter the demons. Cript and I then backed up a bit. "Demons have more than one heart, I sense fourteen in this fucker so… one big blast to obliterate it's torso." “Alright.” I nodded while pulling out my Lexicon and Injustice as I channeled a strong spell and plenty of Code into it. “Maximize Magic, Ray of Light!” I shouted, a small ball of pure holy energy forming at the tip of my War Rod. Nodding, Cript raised their hand up. "Amplify." Thy said, the ball of holy energy growing and not stopping I looked at saw that the ball of light slowly grew and was rainbow in color. “Perfect…” I muttered before taking a deep breath. “Taste the Rainbow Mothafucka!” I shouted as I let loose the spell, which completely engulfed the Demon in a massive beam of rainbow death. When the light faded the demon was gone, and a chest was in its place. "Nice." Cript said. “Okay wow...that was a lot stronger than I originally thought it would be…” I said honestly. “But yay, loot.” "And they will just keep getting stronger with each floor." Cript said, walking over and kicking open the chest open. Inside was… a flood of gold coins. Some weapons, potions, and books. “Perfect.” I nodded. “Now to check what the hell these weapons and books are.” I said while using my Assistant to check on the weapons and books. They were some pretty powerful Weapons, none Admin tier though. The books were all spell books and thankfully one Atlas/map book. Perfect. “Sweet.” I nodded. “Good to have a map for this place hopefully.” "Well let's check it out." Cript said, opening the book as a magical image of this dungeon appeared. The floor layouts and rooms appearing with labels of treasure, trap, secret and boss rooms all exposed. "According to this there should be a hidden room for recovering after a fight or preparing for them just down the hall." “Cool, we should probably rest up after that.” I brought up. Arriving there, there was a stone beds, a pool/fountain, lots of small chests, and a nice fire going. "Cozy." “Looks good enough to relax in...hopefully it’s not a trap.” I said honestly. “Good things almost never come for free…” Cript took a seat on one of the stone beds, I tasted the water from the pool/fountain and it was good. I took a seat by the fire, taking out some meat I had saved in my Assistant and began cooking it. “Thank god Assistant inventory keeps things fresh.” "Turns matter into digital code. Digital code can't rot." Cript said. "Basically replaced the entire house in a sense.” “Yeah.” I nodded. “By the way, have you ever had cooked meat from my home world?” "Yup. Not bad." “It’s delicious.” I said happily. “I thought eating prey raw tasted great, but cooking it is just even better.” "Yup. I have rarely been in a dire wolf form. Gotta say, kinda nice." “Well I’m biased since I’ve been a dire wolf for...long enough.” I shrugged. "Ya know what?" I heard Cript say, followed by… paw steps? Looking I saw Cript was in a feral, Den Mother form, walking over to me. "How about we just be dire wolves for this, some more bonding?" Oh no they're so busty!! “Jesus christ, Rarity is going to need to make more of these special bra’s…” I sighed out, still thankful for mine cause last I checked they all grew a cup size. "Lyra put a hex on me that every time I shift into a new form as both genders my body gets more… bimboish…" Cript sighed. "Yet another one of her fetishes…" “She has a Bimbo fetish?” I asked curiously. "She's bisexual so yes… I regret showing her the internet…" “The internet is a very dangerous place for the people that want to learn.” I shrugged. Nodding, Cript dragged me by my scruff under them, a warm, comphy, sexy cuddle as they wrapped around me. "On the bright side, life has never been boring." “Yeah.” I nodded. “Even though a boring day would be nice sometimes...better it not be boring ya know?” "Yup." Cript said, giving me a lick/kiss across my head like mom does. I chuckled and nuzzled Cript. “This is nice.” "Yeah. Let's stay like this for a while, then continue on. Hopefully not for three months this time." “Yeah, let’s hope it’s not that long.” I agreed, trying not to think of lewd things. Cript laid their head on me. "One thing Den wishes she could have done was to wrap around you, keeping you warm and protected like the pups." “If only that could have happened…” I sighed out. "It can." I looked up, seeing Mom here. She was also in feral form and curled up on the other side, me in the middle of this Den Mother sandwich of love and… sexy… "Cript called me here." I blushed brightly at this. “Well...it’s nice to see you mom.” I said, trying to keep myself from doing something silly. "Family adventure. Thought it was a good chance to bond and get to know each other." Cript said. “That would be great.” I smiled gently, nuzzling mom as I’m trying my damndest not to think lewd things with how sexy these two are. "This will be fun. But, can I ask a favor Ben, it won't be permanent, I swear." Mom said. “And...what would that be?” I asked curiously. "Can I… make you a kid, just for a few hours, so I can enjoy this more?" “I’ve...seen enough hentai to know where this is going.” I said sheepishly. "Not that." Mom said. "I just want to really feel like your mom, hug, cuddle and nurse you for a bit. What I never got to do." “That would...be nice.” I said gently. Nodding with a smile, Mom licked me, and I started Shrinking. I was about the size of a five year old now, and instinctively began nursing as both Mom and Dad rested a head on my now tiny body. ”This is nice…” I thought to myself warmly. “Alright, so what Power Rangers am I in?” I asked, deciding to disguise myself as a normal human instead of strutting around as my Den Mother form as I walked around the town. As I walked around I heard people screaming. “Well...that’s a good start.” I muttered while jogging up to where I heard the screaming. When I got around I saw...the fuck? “Haha! Yes, fear me!” A monster laughed haughty, the thing looks like a weird mix of a frog and a tree. “Well...maybe Jungle Fury?” I muttered as I walked up to the monster and all it’s grunts. “Uh, excuse me, do you know what city this is?” I asked. “What? A human not afraid?” The monster asked in shock. “Why aren’t you afraid of me?” “I mean...your not scary.” I said honestly. “How dare you!” It shouted as it tried to swing one of it’s large hands at me, and when it connect some piddly looking sparks came from me and I felt literally nothing. “D’aw.” I said while grabbing its arm. “It thinks it’s people.” I said with a warm smile. “Wha-let go of me!” It said, trying to get out of my hold as the grunts didn’t know what to actually do. “So what? You harness fear or something for your master?” I asked. “Y-yes?” He asked. “And who are you working for?” I asked curiously. “The Master of Dark Magic.” It said while breaking off it’s arm and hopping away, regrowing a new one. “And he will cover the world in darkness!” “God it’s been absolutely forever since I last heard that.” I chuckled as I walked over to it. “Well, good to know that I’m in Mystic Force’s area, did you know that there’s a bunch of other Power Rangers still alive and kicking in this world?” I asked. “Uh...no?” He asked nervously while I raised my hand. “Well you won’t be needing to know that now.” I said as I flicked the toad monster with my middle finger, electricity sparking from it suddenly. “H-how…?” The toad monster said breathlessly as it fell over and exploded. “Well that was fun.” I said as I put my hand back in my pocket, all the grunts suddenly disappearing in shouts of pain. “Wonder if the-” I was about to say but I heard five distinct footsteps running towards me. “What the heck?” One of the five colored rangers called out in shock. “Sup.” I said with a nod. “How you five doing?” “Who are you and...what happened to the monster?” The Red Ranger asked. “Well I killed it.” I said honestly. “It was a simple matter really.” I shrugged. “Who are you?” Red asked. “Names Ben, and you five must be the Mystic Rangers.” I brought up. “Yes we are…” The Red Ranger sounded a bit suspicious. “So how did you beat that monster?” The yellow ranger asked. “I just flicked it in the head and it exploded.“ I said honestly, before looking up and spotting a certain purple knight standing on a rooftop. “Looks like someone’s interested.” I said, sensing magic spike as I turned around and saw the monster turn giant. “Uthe Mijor Catastros!” I heard the knight chant. “Ulthe Mijor Ultimas!” “Come on guys!” The red ranger said as an announcer said ‘Galwit Mysto Unios’, as the Rangers formed their Titan Megazord. “Well that’s not fair.” I started. “Let’s even the odds.” I said while flying up. “Galwit Nihil Prifior!” I shouted, seeing a spell circle filled with Nothingness appear as I donned a much sleeker version of my armor, more in tune with what the Power Ranger’s world would allow which was pretty nifty. “Alright.” “What!?” The Rangers shouted in surprise. “Impossible…” The Knight Wolf muttered, before raising his dual blade as I clashed with him with a normal Sword I brought out. “Let the rangers deal with the monster.” I said while motioning to the rangers fighting the toad monster. “Who are you?” Koragg asked. “And how do you know of that kind of magic?” “There’s a lot more to me that you’ll probably never know.” I said. “But let’s take a step back shall we?” I asked while grabbing him and teleporting to some ravine. “Teleportation huh? You are strong stranger.” Koragg said before bringing his weapon up. “But it won’t be enough. Dark Magic Spell Seal. Hya!” He shouted as he swung, his power amplified by Darkness. “Oh that’s cute.’ I said while I stopped the swing with one finger. “Strong swing, but not strong enough.” I said as my helmet seemed to open up as I literally ate the dark magic that infused his attack. “Impossible! You ate my dark magic?” The knight said in shock, taking a step back. “Grape flavored...huh.” I hummed. “Now, for a little thing about you, let’s see who you are.” I said while moving over and gently tapping a finger on his head, leaving a small bit of magic to help guide him through. “I won’t give you all the answers, but I’ll give you a little seed for you to grow. Remember your family.” I said before vanishing from sight. “Alright, so next up…” I muttered while walking around the wood’s where the Rangers hideout is. “Hmm...I’m a little surprised people know about Nothingness here…” “And what are you doing here stranger?” A woman asked, Udonna showing herself to me in a flash of magic. “I mean, you might be curious as to what the Rangers told you about me.” I said simply, keeping my hands in my coat pockets. “And why do I sense Nothingness surrounding you?” The Snow Witch asked curiously, looking defensive like I might attack. “Peace Udonna.” I said. “I’m not your enemy. Believe me.” I said while bringing a hand out as a sign of peace. “But considering you know what my powers are, I have a feeling you know of other worlds?” “There have been rumors in the magic world yes.” Udonna nodded carefully. “Alright.” I nodded. “So, mind if I ask what current General your fighting?” I asked curiously. Udonna looked confused at that. “Well...at the moment it’s Koragg and Morticon.” The mage said. “Alright, thank you.” I nodded. “Good to have a bit of a time frame…” I muttered. “Mind if I come in? I’m sure the rangers are curious as to who I am.” I said simply. “Yes, the rangers are rather...intrigued on how you manage what you did.” She said, still massively on the fence about whether or not I'm friend or foe. I nodded while following the ice witch into their Hideout. “Fancy.” I said while walking in, keeping my hands in my pockets. “Howdy.” I said. “What’s he doing here?” Nick Russel, the Red Mystic Ranger, asked curiously. “How did you do...any of that back there?” Charlie Thorn, the Yellow Mystic Ranger, asked with nerdy interest. “How did you keep Koragg at bay?” Madisson Rocca, the Blue Mystic Ranger, asked. “He’s pretty strong, sometimes we have a hard time fighting him." “Who are you?” Vida Rocca, the Pink Mystic Ranger, asked the real question. “What’s with the cloak? Are you a Ranger as well?” Xander Bly, the Green Mystic Ranger, asked curiously. “I mean, your Titan Form was pretty sleek, but I’ve never seen anything like that.” “Now in order of Importance.” I started. “My names Ben, this cloak was made for me by two of my wives, I’m here to help, I’m Magic, and because I am so unbelievably stronger than literally everything and everyone.” I explained. “How much stronger are you?” Nick asked curiously, crossing his arms, not believing the hype. “You don’t want to know.” I chuckled. “At least not yet.” I shrugged. “But what kind of magic do you use? I haven’t heard of ‘Nihil’ before.” Madisson brought up. “Ah, that is because I use Nothingness.” I brought up, my cloak seeming to suddenly have greyish black Nothingness Thorns crawl around it. “A force so unbelievably ancient your Good and Evil magic are nothing but infant’s compared to what actual Light and Darkness can do.” I said, my words echoing with knowledge and experience that all the rangers looked at each other in nervousness. “Well...you learn something new everyday.” Vida said sheepishly. “So anyways, I believe that thing is reacting.” I said while motioning to the book. “Saved by the book.” Xander said as Udonna walked over and opened the book. “It says…” The snow witch started before gasping. “It can’t be…” “What’s wrong?” Nick asked worriedly. “The Gatekeeper will be forced to open the Gates.” Udonna said. “Who’s the Gatekeeper?” Charlie asked curiously. “First, a little backstory.” I brought up. “Correct…” Udonna sighed out as she explained how Morticon and his army were first sealed during the Great Magic War, and then who the current Gatekeeper is. “Now a good question is, where is Claire?” I asked curiously, knowing how this will play out and not wanting to interrupt it too much until the time is right. “I’ll go find her.” Udonna said. “I know where she’ll be, you five make sure they don’t bring an attack to the city, and Ben…” She looked at me carefully. “I won’t do anything wrong.” I said with a knowing nod. “And I’ll help the rangers if need be.” “Alright.” Udonna nods before teleporting away to find Claire. “So…” Xander started. “What do you do when your not kicking bad guy butt?” “Oh you know, spending time with family, training, games, traveling, you know. The simple things for a hero.” I shrugged. “By the way, did you say your ‘wives’ made you this cloak?” Maddison asked. “Oh, well…” I said sheepishly. “That is a whole other story that would be better left for later.” I said sheepishly. “What games do you play?” Charlie asked, interested in what games I play. ”Need to remember this is technically 2006…” I thought to myself. “Oh you know, Melee, Ratchet and Clank, Metroid Prime. The good games.” I shrugged, remembering those three fondly. So on we talked, mostly me answering questions that I could easily answer like ‘what’s my favorite console’, ‘what’s my favorite music’, ‘what’s my favorite place to travel’ and so on and so forth but Nick seemed a tad insistent on asking questions that I really couldn’t talk about yet like ‘How are you so strong’, ‘how ancient is Nothingness’, and other things that I really couldn’t talk about at the moment. “Why are you so evasive on Nick’s questions?” Xander asked, honestly curious about that. “It’s not the right time to talk about those things.” I said, before an alarm started. “Especially right now.” I said, mentally thanking the alarm for getting me out of a very touchy topic. “Alright, let’s go guys.” Nick said while the rangers all ran over to the walls and grabbed their broomsticks before leaving through special choots on neat looking gliders. “Okay…” I said while bringing out Arpeggio. “Ready to rock the house buddy?” I asked, gently strumming my Sitar as the water in the air hummed in joy. “Cool.” I smiled, teleporting off to where the rangers were heading to. When I arrived after taking my sweet time I appeared near the rangers getting saved by Claire. “This is gonna be so nifty…” I muttered with a smile. “Back off Necrolai!” Claire shouted as she looked at the tiara in her hand. “My mother’s spirit lives on in me!” She said as she put on the magical item and became the Gatekeeper. “Power of the Shining Moon! Behold, the Gatekeeper!” She introduced herself, her voice amplified by the sudden power as she raised her hand and engulfed the Vampire Queen in magic, quickly siphoning the added power the vampire had. “My new powers! Their gone!” Necrolai cried out in worry. “Alright!” The rangers cheered for Claire as Koragg decided to appear suddenly. “Alright everyone! Together!” Claire said as she raised her hand, a pretty fancy looking staff appearing from thin air as she grabbed it and channeled magic into it. “Hya!” She shouted as she fired a beam of energy at Necrolai, causing the vampire to backpedal from the sudden hit. The rangers were quick on the follow up as they all leaped up and dive kicked the crap out of Necrolai. “You will still lose Rangers!” Necrolai shouted at them as she got back up quickly and took flight, back to wherever the hell she could pass between the gates. As Claire and the Rangers were celebrating their victory, Nick got his telepathic message from Koragg, telling him that Koragg will fight Claire or else Udonna gets it. “Just a little longer…” I muttered as I vanished to where Koragg was to be a spectator. When I arrived at the destination before Claire, Koragg looked over at me. “Your not the Gatekeeper.” Koragg started. “Don’t mind me, I’m just a spectator.” I simply said, bringing out a bag of popcorn. “I won’t interrupt this duel.” I said simply as Claire appeared. “Alright Koragg, I’m here.” Claire said. “So it was you…” The Knight Wolf said, standing still as Claire fired two bolts of magic that missed on purpose. “I want Udonna back, now!” Claire demanded. “Not until I get to see the legendary magic of the Gatekeeper.” Koragg said, prepared for a fight. “As you wish.” Claire growled as she got into a battle stance and charged at Koragg. “A little bad that I know what’s going to happen.” I chuckled a little as I ate my popcorn. “But it is fun watching this again.” I said to myself, watching the fight unfold as it was a pretty even fight until Claire decided to bust out the Megazord form. “Finally, a real challenge.” Koragg said as he flew up into the air. “Uthe Mijo Ultimas!” He shouted as he combined with his mighty steed Catastros. “Centaurus Wolf Megazord!” He shouted as the two clashed. “I wonder what song I should pick…” I muttered while checking my assistant, looking through some songs to try and find something to show my stuff. “Besides that demon I never really got much practice with Arpeggio, wonder if I can work it…” I hummed as I heard a massive explosion. “Well, that’s Claire down.” I said while finding my song and bolting towards where the others were. I was ‘too late’ as Claire was captured by Necrolai as the Rangers distracted Koragg. “Now, by the power of the Gatekeeper, let the Gate rise up!” Necrolai commanded, Claire screaming in pain as her magic was forced to bring up the Gate. “Oh no!” Red shouted. “Oh no!” Blue shouted. “Oh no!” Green shouted. “Oh yeah!” The Kool Aid Man appeared out of literally nowhere. “The hell?” Yellow questioned. “Is that the Kool Aid man?” Pink asked. “Nope.” I said while making the glass bastard disappear as I tried not to laugh. “That was nothing but your imagination.” So then it devolved into the Rangers trying to fight a Sentinel as they accidentally broke the gate a tiny bit to let Morticon out. “Hahaha! I’m free! And your world is now doomed!” The undead shouted in pride as his army’s started to rush through the gate from the opening. “And that’s my cue.” I said as I took a deep breath. “Galwin Nihil Ranger!” I chanted as Nothingness thorns surrounded me, forming my ‘Ranger’ King Armor, the Dragon Motif it kind of had was now more apparent, the wings more full instead of looking mechanical, a dragon design plastered on my chest plate, my helmet being a more dragon head shape, my visor not really looking like one thing as Nothingness thorns seemed to solidify into what looked like dragon teeth but were also constantly moving. “Galwin Nihil Prifior!” I shouted as I jumped up high to be Megazord size. “Who are you?” Morticon demanded. ”Your worst nightmare.” I said as I summoned Arpeggio, as I started playing the song. Little Boxes on the Hillside, Little Boxes made of Ticky Tacky As I played Arpeggio and sang in a calming and soothing tone, water started to form into four cube’s, one large one for Morticon, and the other three small that stayed in front of all the other enemies. Little Boxes on the Hillside, Little Boxes all the same. As I continued to sing I channeled Nothingness as I started to form a special surprise for all these bastards. There’s a Green one and a Pink one. A Blue one and a Yellow on! As I sang that all of the box’s actually changed color to match, the big one being green, then from right to left being pink, blue and yellow. They're all made out of Ticky Tacky and they all look just the same… As I trailed off Morticon apparently didn’t want to play along. “That’s enough!” The undead with half a machine head shouted as he took a swing at the box, thinking this is some stupid attempt to distract him. And then that’s when all hell broke loose as I continued to play, getting more aggressive as I shouted like a punk rocker. And the people in houses, who went to the University, they all got put in Boxes, and they came out all the same! Before Morticon could make contact with the green box suddenly a large paw appeared from it and blocked the swing swiftly, as each water cube dispersed to show four new Nobodies. Morticon saw what looked like a very feathery looking bear, it’s feathers colored white with grey tips, it’s body bulky and strong, it’s claws razor sharp and the eyes of a predator. “What!?!” Morticon shouted in surprise. There’s Doctor's and Lawyers, and Business Executives, they’re all made out of Ticky Tacky and they look just the same! The other three boxes held other Nobodies, the three of them looking like other mythical creatures, one was a Seraphim Nobody, it’s eight wings covering it’s entire body as it radiated power and grace, the next one was a powerful Demon of the same calibur of the Seraphim, a Demon Lord. The last one was something completely different, as it looked like a simple man wearing a trench coat and a detective hat, holding a rapier and a .44 Taurus Revolver, but no one could make out any of its features. “What in the world!?” Necrolai shouted in surprise at the sudden monsters appearing before them as all their grunts tried to attack them, to absolutely zero effect as whenever any of the mooks tried to get close they died instantly. And they all play on the golf-course, And drink their Martini dry, And they all have pretty children, And the children go to school. The giant Nobody growled as it slammed it’s claws into Morticon, causing the undead to back away in pain. “Impossible!” The bad guy shouted. “What the heck is going on?” Nick asked in concerned confusion. “Well whatever’s going on, Ben’s certainly showing them who’s boss.” Vida said as she saw all my Nobodies kicking the everloving shit out of the Master’s army. And the children go to summer camp And then to the university, They all get put in boxes They all come out the same As I continued to sing and play, my Nobodies cleaved through all of Morticon’s army and was pushing the undead back heavily. “This is impossible! How can someone call creatures this strong!?!” The undead shouted in rage as it channeled dark magic. “Dark Magic Strike!” He shouted as he used his most powerful attack on my Nobody, who took the hit and sparks flew from it. “Ha!” He shouted in triumph, before the thing screeched/roared in anger as it’s feathers grey tips seemed to envelope it’s entire body as it radiated power. “I think he pissed it off.” Xander said worriedly as the Nobody swung at Morticon, the general trying to block it but his sword broke from the powerful swing. And the boys go into business, And marry, raise a family, And they all get put in boxes, Little boxes, all the same. I shouted as the Owlbear roared and raised it’s claw up, Nothingness pouring into it as it struck down Morticon. “Impossible!” He shouted as he crackled with electricity before exploding. “Retreat!” Necrolai shouted as the vampire queen fled quickly. “Retreat!” Yeah a green one and a pink one And a blue one and a yellow one And they're all made out of ticky-tacky And they all look just the same. As I finished the song a beam of light appeared from the sky and closed the gate, sending it straight back to the depths. “And that’s that.” I said. To be continued... Nobody has a bad dayWhen I woke up I was full size again, still cuddled between Cript and mom… I then noticed this pile was now… bigger? There were two other Dire Wolves here now. Both like me, they smelled… different, familiar but different. Do I know them? “Uh...what?” I muttered, confused as to who the other two were. With a yawn, Cript got up, stretching and allowing me to get up and get a better look at these two newcomers. One was the same color as me/mom, but the fur on her head had this...familier polish brown color, and the other, has a lighter take on the priors hair color, but their whole body was that color. Looking I saw Cript shifting back to anthro form, dressed and cooking some eggs. “Um...who are these two?” I asked nervously. “What? Don't recognize the hair color?” Cript asked half awake. “I believe before God picked you up you called THEM Mom and Dad.” “Wait, these are mom and dad?” I asked in surprise as I looked at the two again...and I’ll be damned...they actually are my parents. “They wanted to have some family time also.” Cript said, yawning again as the smell of Frying eggs began filling the room. “They’ve been like this for… about five months. Den and the others have been helping them adjust to their new forms, and learning a few things about you as well, things they’ve missed since they were dead, and needless to say they were worried as all hell. So, figured kill two birds with one stone. One large family adventure.” “Sounds great.” I said warmly as I gently nuzzled my mom and dad. “I’m happy they’re here.” “Moning.” Mom-Den said, waking up next and Mom and Dad began stirring awake. “I smells eggs.” “Cript is making eggs.” I said honestly. “Also, morning...maybe?” I asked, not sure if it’s morning or something. "Sorta. It's five in the morning here." Cript said. “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “Good tok now what time it is cause...well we’re in a dungeon so I don’t know.” "Clocks." Mom-Den said, humming, sitting next to Cript while in feral form still. "Time to get up." Mom… said getting up. She looked at me with a big, warm smile as she gave me a lick. "Hi sweetie. Surprised?" “More than surprised. “I said while hugging mom. She hugged back… the squish between us made me blush so red I temporarily turned ginger. "Wow. You have your aunts boobs. Large and soft, yet firm and symmetrical." And now my blush might be permanent…. “Mo~m.” I groaned. “I don’t need you talking about my tits like that...I’m worried you copped too many feels in my sleep.” "Nah." Mom said, breaking the hug. "So, wow… not exactly the life I imagined for you, but I can't complain with your success." “Is it because your son basically let you both live in the lap of luxury?” I asked curiously. "Actually it's all the grandkids." Mom said sheepishly. “All of the grandkids.” I chuckled. “Now, mind helping me get your father up? With this body he spends hours hugging his own breasts and while sexy it’s where I know you got your perversions.” Mom said, Dad was indeed faking sleep to hug their own cleavage. “Listen, it’s not my fault that titties are always nice.” I said while picking up my dad with one hand. “Alright you, wake up. You can go back to fondling your breasts later.” “Kill joy.” They hissed. Getting up, already i anthro form and getting dressed… my dad should not be that hot… so wrong… maybe? “So, from what I got you beat a giant skeleton and some kinda demon thing. Whats next?” “Floor three.” Cript said, serving Mom-Den, Mom, Dad, myself and themself. “A giant F-off maze with about six Minotaurs roaming it. Found some info on this place after having my Assistant search for frequencies that give information.” “Yay for a maze.” I said. “So are the walls strong enough to not just punch through?” “This time yes.” Cript said, raising their Assistant up as a floor plan of this- Seven Hundred Floors!?!?! “Each floor gets harder, stronger, tougher, this place was built to give people like me a challenge, from the next floor onwards, it will be a challenge, injury and even death for Your moms and dad there is a high possibility.” Cript said, looking at me. “I can’t die, and you’re link to me make you the same, but Den…” “I trust you love.” Mom-Den said, giving Cript a kiss on the lips. “If I can’t handle it, I know to run.” “I’ll make sure to keep you both safe okay?” I told my parents gently. “Ben, we came here not just to be with you.” Mom said, taking my hands. “We also came to prove ourselves.This power, this fight is not just yours, it’s ours as well. Your father and I want to back you up on the battlefield when shit hits the fan.” “Yeah, can’t let you have all the fun.” Dad said, wrapping his arm around my neck and giving me a noogie like when I was four. “Gotta show my own son up somehow.” He laughed. “I know I know.” I chuckled a little, my heart swelling as I teared up. “God...it’s...it’s been forever…” “Eat up.” Cript said, he and Mom-Den finishing their food. “This maze might take a while.What I hear though it’s got a lot of good loot in it though.” they said, pulling out Darkest Hero… then tossing it to me. “Just in case Ben.” Cript said, taking out a strange handgun for themselves. I took the weapon. “You sure?” I asked Cript honestly. “I’m used to fighting things that can match or are stronger than me, did a lot before I picked that thing up full time. It’s just a loan though, once we clear this maze I’ll want it back.” They said, checking their ammo. “I also gave your mom and dad there some weapons also, they’ve been training with them also so, don’t be surprised.” I saw Mom-Den was sharpening her nails. “We’ll be fine Ben.” She assured. “I’m gonna need to learn how to make a Soul Weapon to be honest.” I brought up as I swung Darkest hero gently and away from the others to get a feel for it. “I’ll show you in the next rest area.” Cript said, the door opening as we began heading out after rapidly scarfing down our meal. The Door to the maze was a large, metallic gate and inside the maze I smelled… Death… I smelled a lot of death. Entering the door closed behind us...then vanished as a wall was now behind us. “Figured.” Cript said, sirking. “No turn backs, gotta find the exit now.” “Yippee…” I sighed out while taking a deep breath. “Okay, so every maze should have a certain pattern, even if it’s magic.” I said as I already tried thinking of god knows how many kinds of patterns this thing could have. “Let’s get going.” Mom said, we moved in a close group, looking both ahead and behind us for safety. We all caught the scent of bones. There was a split. One was strong with the smell of bones, the other smelled of… what is that? Bugs? “Which way, left or right?” Mom-Den asked. “The smell of bones, or the smell of bugs…” I hummed as I took out Sharpshooters and fired an arrow down both paths, checking to see which one locks onto a target sooner. The side that smelled of bones just hit a wall, the other… hit something… and it roared… and there was suddenly a lot of hard, fast paced thumping. “Oh I don’t like that.” Cript said, taking out his gun as Mom-Den readied her claws, Mom pulled out- … Is that a Rocket launcher? “What?” Mom asked. “I like things that go boom.” Dad had… a baseball bat? “Oh this is going to be… ‘fun’.” He said. “Well...alrighty then.” I said while bringing out Darkest Hero and No Heart and donned my King Armor. “Alright, so depending on how this goes, we will probably have to run the other way.” As what was rushing towards us came into… view...Spiders… thousands of… car sized spiders… “Nope!” Cript yelled, bolting the other way, and the rest of us followed. “Nope!” I shouted as well. “All sorts of nope!” We all bolted down the other path, the Spiders still in hot pursuit, Mom shot off two rockets, the blasts didn’t even make them flinch?! “I hate fucking Spiders!” Mom yelled. “If the blasts didn’t even affect them, they must have a fire resistance on top of impact resistance.” Cript said. “Ben, mix Frozen Prides ice, Eternal Flames fire, and Foundure’s lightning to deep fry them.” “Alright.” I said while I skidded to a halt and turned around. “Let’s go.” I shouted as I slammed Frozen Pride into the ground as ice rocketed towards the spiders, throwing massive fireballs from Eternal Flames, and hundreds of daggers from Foudre rained down. “Thunder Clap.” I said as I snapped my fingers, each Spider suddenly feeling electricity spark from their bodies as a massive bolt of lightning slammed into each of them with insane power. They fell to the ground, twitching for a bit before finally they began stopping dead. Cript walked over to me, placing a hand on my shoulder in pride. “Nice work… hate Spiders…” He shivered. The spiders bodies now faded into ashes. “They had to have been guarding something… wanna check it out?” “Alright.” I nodded. “Let’s go check what they were possibly guarding.” Walking back to the split, we headed down where the Spiders came from. Needless to say, there was a lot of webs… wrapped up bodies… And a single chest in the center of it all. “Yeah, that’s not suspicious.” Dad said. “Yeah, that’s an obvious trap.” I frowned. “Not seeing a trip wire.” Cript said, walking around the chest. “Must be rigged from the inside.” “Like when you open the chest the wrapped up bodies will burst out showing they were actually creatures waiting?” I asked. “I’m thinking more along the lines of a bomb.” Cript said tapping the chest. “Or, or all we know it’s not even a chest, it could be a mimic.” I took a bone and chucked it at the chest to see if it reacted. Nothing. “Okay so it’s probably not a mimic.” I said. “Well, one tried and true method.” Mom said, walking just a bit away from the chest, then kicking the lid open with her leg. We all immediately got on the defensive. After a good minute of nothing happening, we looked in the chest. A...book? “All that for a book?” Mom asked. “That depends on what the book is.” I said while checking the book to see what knowledge it held. Nothing… Not a single word here. Not even a sign ink touched these pages. “A blank book… that can’t be right…” Cript hummed. “Let me see.” As I was handing the open book to Cript, when he grabbed it, before I could let go the pages suddenly filled with words. “Oh… now what’s this?” Cript asked, looking the words over, when I let go, they vanished. “Huh… only appears when two people hold it… interesting.” They said, having me take one side while they grabbed another, and the words filled the pages again… it was… names. A list of names that kept going. “Now what’s this about?” “Um...how many names do you recall from this list?” I asked curiously. "None." Cript said. "But I wonder…" He took the book, walking over to my parents and had them hold it, A single name appeared… my name… "I thought so. This book lists the name of every child you will ever have." "We're not going to have more than Ben?" Dad asked, looking at the book. "Can't we have more though? I always wanted Ben to have a little sibling." Mom said. "If you do choose to, then more names should appear." On cue, more did, now filling the pages like how it did with me and Cript… wait… oh… oh wow… "And like that, Ben's a big brother… sister… eh." “Now the better question is...who’s the father?” I asked. “Cause I’m dumb and immediatly thought of…” I trailed off, not wanting to finish that statement. "Don't know. I'll have to examine this book more so to see if it can give us that answer." Cript said, putting the book away in his Assistant. "Well, if that was all, off we go then." We all headed back to where we were, finding the room of bones. All of them were smashed to shards. "And Minotaur number one must be near…" Mom-Den said. "Wonder how strong they are…" I hummed, preparing myself in case one of the does appear. "Is It Right to take this stuff?" Mom asked, pointing out all the dead explorers items scattered about. "Up to you really." Cript said. I was looking around the items, finding most of it kind of neat… Then I saw some bones that were familiar. Alicorn bones. "Wait...Alicorn bones?" I asked in concern. "Why...are Alicorn bones here?" "This reality takes place in what should have been our realms future after the Admin war, or so, so Alicorns must have repopulated." Cript said, checking the bones. "Judging from the structure of these bones it was a male." “Well...okay then.” I said honestly. “Good to know.” Looking, I saw they were still holding onto their sword. A weird thing about it was.. it was wrapped in chains? “Why is their sword wrapped up in chains?” I asked curiously, looking over the weapon. "No idea." Cript said. "Take what you can carry or what's useful then. Minotaur isn't here… yet." I took the chain sword and put it in my Assistant, wanting to look at that later as I continued to search for whatever loot was hopefully useful. Some throwing knives, potions, dried and canned goods, a spell book or two. Once all that seemed to be taken we headed off, another long hallway. As we werae walking Cript and Mom-Den stopped us. "You see it?" Mom-Den asked. “See what?” I asked, looking around for what their seeing. "The floor. The brick pattern is different there." Mom-Den pointed out, the floor bricks were in a different pattern. Normally they are in this odd X pattern, these ones are completely diagonal. “Okay so...maybe we’re in a different part of the labyrinth?” I asked curiously. “Or this is a pitfall trap?” "One way to find out " Dad said, tossing a baseball onto the floor above. The floor opened up, revealing a slide down into a darkness below. “Well…” I brought out Eternal Flames and sent a small flame down the slide to see where it leads. It kept going… and going… and I can't see the fire anymore… "That's concerning." Dad said. “Yes...yes it is.” I nodded in agreement. “So who wants to go down first?” "I don't think we should…" Mom said. “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “So, that leaves us with what direction now?” "Over." Dad said, the hole the slide was in went down was only a few feet long, the other half of the floor on the other side. Walking back a bit, then shifting to feral form, rushing then taking a jump, wall run then landing on the other side. "Easy." They said, shifting back to Anthro. I literally walked on air over the chute. “You could have just asked for a levitation spell you know?” I asked honestly. “But that was cool.” "Show off." Dad said with a chuckle. Both mom's jumped over the hole, and Cript just walked along the side of the wall defying gravity over. "That was fun." Mom said. “Alright, onward through this maze.” I said. As we walked along I kept feeling… happy. My family wasn't just whole again but… better. Definitely larger. We came across another chest, this one just had a few more potions but for Stamina… keeping that for a… other use…. Then we came across something odd… a slot machine? "Oh wow… didn't expect to see these things again." Cript said. “A slot machine here?” I asked curiously. "Not just any, they give some.of the most insane winnings. Not just munny." Cript said, putting in five Rem amd pulling, landing on three cherries. Suddenly an ice cream truck appeared. "Completely random!" They said, opening the car up and checking on the frozen treats. “Excuse me, what the hell.” I started. "Like I said, random prizes." Cript repeated. “Apparently.” I said honestly. "Let me try." Dad said, putting in a single Rem, pulling. Landing on clovers, suddenly ten bottles of Irish ale appears around him. "Heh, just like Vegas." “I don’t even want to know.” I said while putting in ten Rem and pulling. Three… are those wings? What kind of… and suddenly, I got sixteen roasted… is this sixteen whole ostriches? Roasted and wow that smells good… ”So...who wants to eat?” "Guess we can take a short break." Mom-Den said, putting in seven rem. She got three hearts, and suddenly appeared a can of… spray? "What the?" She asked, reading It aloud. "True love in a can. Spray your love and they will love you as well, good for six uses, six lovers, never wears off. Huh…" “Interesting.” I said honestly. “I don’t need that because I’m a walking chick magnet for...whatever reason.” "My boy!" Dad said proudly, making me blush. Now Mom put in some Rem, getting three gold pots. She was suddenly buried in gold coins. "I am not Scrooge McDuck!" She declared, trying to climb out from under the pile. I helped Mom get out of the pile of gold. “All I can say is...never give this to Derpy, she would basically get anything and everything she wanted.” "Heh. I'll try." Mom said shaking off a few coins. After the meals and ice cream was gone, Dad put away the rest of the ale and mom put all that gold into her Assistant. With that done we headed off. A few small enemies were in our way. Goblins, a bear, and a very… very annoying mole thing. “Well so far things have been simple enough.” I pointed out. "That's worrying." Cript said. "Those Minotaurs should have shown up already." "Maybe they're dead?" Mom asked. "Not likely." Mom-Den said. “Maybe their guarding the gate out of here?” I guessed. "Would not surprise me." Dad said. “But the lack of minotaurs...even their scent is worrying.” I said nervously. "Yeah." Cript added. We continued on, finding another resting room. "Okay then." Cript said as we entered it. "This is here so boss, and those Minotaurs must be up ahead." “And as far as we know it’ll be all six of them.” I said honestly. “And who knows how smart and fast these things are…” I said, thinking that pissing them off wouldn’t lead to an easy victory as they kept charging at nothing. "There are five of us. So how are we gonna do this?" Mom asked. “Either me or Cript takes two at the same time or I make a clone to make things even.” I said honestly. “Cause I kind of thought of trying to split them up so they wouldn’t have any coordination if they are a party instead of just singleton’s.” I explained. "There might be a way. Though it in all honesty just adds to the running gag." Cript said. “That depends on if their women.” I pointed out. “How many of them are women?” I asked curiously. “Cause we know six of them so...I hate how, again, a problem of mine is going to maybe solved with sex.” "Not exact." Cript said. "Even if some aren't that spray Den got from the slot machine will work on them. I can add that to a special spell matrix that will give them intelligence. If they aren't already. In short, I can make a love bomb." “Wonders.” I sighed out. “Well...that’s six more to the tally…” I said while bringing out a notepad with a pencil and flipping it open, writing down ‘six minotaurs’ and closing it. “Well, let’s get on with it then.” "I'll start making the thing. You all just relax then." Cript said, sitting at a table with the can and began his magic ... literally. Mom and Mom-Den were talking about their experiences with me and such, so I figured this was my chance to talk with dad about everything I was never able to before. “So dad…” I started. “How have...things been for you?” "I got boobs and a vagina, still got a dick and I'm alive. I'd say things are going well." He chuckled. “Glad everything’s going well.” I nodded. “But…” I sighed out. “Jeez, the one time I’m with my dad after god knows how long...and I don’t know where to start…” "I did die a long time ago so it's understandable." Dad said with a nod. "Take your time. I'm listening." “So many fucking things happened…” I sighed out. “So...let’s start with the simple thing of, what do you think of your son having a harem?” I asked curiously. "Son… you are living my fantasy… which now I am technically a part of… heh." “Which part? Me being alive and well, being a king, having more wives that I love more than anything, too many kids, or what?” I asked curiously. "The harem part." “Yeah.” I chuckled. “Kind of thought you would be happy I was lucky on that.” "Yeah. So, anything else?" “Well...anything else your happy about me doing?” I asked. “Like...probably everything you heard what I’ve done?” "I think the only thing I'm not proud of is the fact you are still… so sad. I can see it son, don't play it off." “I will play it off cause it doesn’t matter that much.” I shrugged. “I mean seriously...shouldn’t really be depressed but it’s still there even after basically everything went my way.” "And yet, it's still there why?" “Because I’m a pessimist and there’s a bunch of other things that I feel like I’m failing at…” I sighed out. “As a father...as a husband...hell, even as a son…” "You have no reason to feel that way. You need to learn to stop forcing your wounds open and let them heal." “I mean, it’s been healing for a long time.” I said honestly. "Then stop ripping them back open. Ben, I know about all the stuff that lead up to both my and your mother's Death, your other life as Diane, all the pain and suffering in your life, was done to you by someone else. None of it was your fault at all. It was Nexus that did this to you, if you want to hate anyone, hate them and them alone, not yourself. This whole thing with the Void Mother, Nexus, Coco… you don't have to carry the burden alone, and more will we let you." “I have several things to blame myself about...and Coco is one of my failures…” I sighed out sadly. "But who set Coco on the path that leads to this?" Dad asked. “Who was the one that couldn’t save her from a blatantly obvious thing?” I countered. "You are so much like me at your age." “Oh, that’s still another bit of bullshit I have. Technically I’m not even me, I’m someone completely different, and even then if I was only me I don’t know fucking shit about what actually happened in my life that it’s like ‘well then who the fuck am I?’.” I growled in irritation at that. "You are you. Ben, Diane, someone completely new. You choose your identity." “Eclipsa already told me that.” I brought up. “But it’s a bit hard when you thought you had things understood, only to be told things are randomly worse and also your someone completely different.” "Well, take her advice. Nothing worthwhile comes easy." “Nothing literally came easily to me.” I pointed out. "Save for the ladies." Dad said with a smirk. “Hey, I’m just lucky they gave a damn about me to begin with.” I said honestly. “Seriously, Luna liked me because I’m the hero, Twilight just tagged along because she was dating Luna...and then the rest was due to a lot of random things.” I said honestly. "And you say this Derpy is the luckiest?" “I mean, she wins the lottery like once a week.” I shrugged. “I’d call that lucky...also she has too much porn of me…” "Oh a Stalker now? Tell me more?" “Stalker? No.” I shook my head. “She was a super fan more like it.” I said honestly. “All the memorabilia I didn’t know that existed she had...the first time she met me she literally went faster than the speed of sound to her room after she...kinda came.” I said sheepishly. “Yes, she literally looked at me, came, and then bolted to her room...hurt like a bitch cause my ears were bleeding and I think I went deph because of that before the wonders of magic healed my ears back up.” "Ha. Nice… I never told you how you came to be born huh?" “No, you never did.” I said honestly. "Back before you were born I…" Dad called forth his Baseball bat. "Was scouted for the state Baseball league. I was their rising star. Rookie with promise. Your mother got pregnant with you halfway into the season. But she was there for every game, traveled with us. We lived in an RV at the time. She gave birth to you in the game that would have took us to the major leagues. I could not get out of that stadium fast enough to catch her getting loaded into the ambulance and to the hospital." “So you were a major league baseball player and yet we lived in a humble middle class.” I pointed out. "Ha. No. No we were going to become major league. I had some cash from my games, enough that I could have gotten a real nice place, but hospital bills are the biggest bitch. Heh. Just covered it and there was just a few grand left after words. I spent it getting us home and our little craphole. Got a job at the bread factory and never looked back, know why? I took one look at you and knew, no amount of money or career was worth being away for so many games in other states for weeks." “Well then.” I started. “Good to know you’ve been a better dad than me.” I sighed out. "Heh. Your mother thought otherwise, said you and she would have been fine. Maybe. Point is Ben, nobody is a perfect parent. There's just good choices and lucky choices. And unlucky ones. So long as your kids grow up fine that's all that matters. You grew up good, and your kids better. You're not a failure, you're just not perfect, and that fine with everyone." “Problem is, you stopped what you were really good at, giving up a dream of being in the major leagues for me...and I have given up nothing as it feels like I’m just ignoring them constantly…” I said sadly. “Dream? Heh, I was just talented, Baseball wasn’t my dream.” Dad said with a sigh. “No… my dream was to screw a thousand women. But, I met your mother and my first lover was the one I stayed for. Though we did have some three ways every now and then.” “Good lord…” I chuckled a little. “Well congrats, I took your dream and then doubled it.” “And that makes you the best son ever!” Dad said, giving me another noogie. “Yeah yeah.” I chuckled. “Look at me being all special.” “So...about this… whole thing though…” Dad said, letting me go. “You do know that us being this was because we… joined Cript as… spouses… Should I be worried...expecting something… or…?” “You should expect literally anything at this point.” I said honestly. “Like how incest in this family means fuck all about genetic defects.” I brought up. “Cause you know, for some reason a five way just popped into my head...then I remembered the six minotaurs I’m probably going to have join my harem...good lord.” “Hey… OUR Harem… I’m riding my own sons harem… know what, I’m okay with it.” Dad said laughing. “So you’re okay with the thought of me probably plowing you and mom?” I asked, wanting to double check here. “I mean, we’re all adults, genetics mean fuck all at this stage, an so long as we’re all equally awkwerd about it/horny enough to not care I guess it’s to be expected. Though when I give birth, if it’s your litter, I will bite you, and I plan on breaking bones.” “Rude.” I said. “Why are you so hostile if it’s mine?” “Despite having the parts you clearly have not given birth yet. When your mother gave birth to you, she broke my hand, then my wrist… then my lower arm… just to get something to grab and squeeze to distract from the pain… I was in a cast, for almost two years. I want some form of payback for that young herm.“ “Okay so let me start with how, back in the human world, that should be physically impossible.” I started. “Never underestimate the power of an adrenaline filled woman giving birth who did weightlifting in high school. Women could bench press ME back then.” “Yeah...of course she also was a weightlifter.” I said. “There’s a lot about us you don’t know.” “I mean, you two died before you honestly could explain when I was older.” I brought up. “I know. And we will tell you now that we can.” “Alright.’ I nodded. “So, besides you fondling yourself pretending to be asleep, how are you handling being a dire wolf?” “The fur is… less hot than I expected. Not sexy wise I mean general heat wise, even in the sun I’m not as overheated as I expected. Night vision is cool, wish I had that back on earth, would have made all those nighttime bathroom runs a whole lot less toe stubbing.” “Yeah, that was always a bit of a problem.” I shrugged. “But that’s good to know.” I nodded. “Anything else?” “Aside from the obvious boobs, fine ass and triple X sized dick? The ability to sniff and know exactly what it is, is pretty cool.” “I mean, the boobs and ass are nice.” I brought up. “And the nose knows ya know?” “Heh, yeah. The only thing I hate is the amount of shampoo I go through and how hard as hell it is to dry off all the hair.” “You get used to it.” I shrugged. “Plus, the floof after washing is both a blessing and a curse.” “Heh. Nice. So used to having short hair, all this long head hair on top of all the body hair is… interesting.” “It is, but the only problem I had adjusting to this is that women use too many kinds of shampoo. Like come on, you don’t need like six to do what two can do.” “Your mom would argue the opposite.” Dad laughed. “And I would argue against it, and add that panties are a terrible form of underwear.” I brought up. “Seriously, even if I didn’t have a dick in this form, panties would be uncomfortable.” “And that came from where when we were talking about shampoo and hair a moment ago?” “Sorry, just bringing up stupid stuff that my wives tried to explain but honestly couldn’t.” I shrugged. “Heh. Well your issues. So how was your first few weeks when you got sent to Equestria?” “Oh you know, normalish.” I said. “Even though several times I got my ass kicked.” “Well, we never were able to get you those Fencing classed your mom wanted to get you. She thought it would look good on a college application.” “Wait, mom wanted me to learn fencing?” I asked curiously. “Since you were born, it’s something she would watch your grandpa do while she was growing up.” “That sounds nice.” I nodded. “I would have loved to learn that...but given that all my weapons are not fencing weapons that might not have helped.” I said honestly. “Alright, almost ready.” Cript said, holding the spray can glowing in magic. “It shouldn't affect any of us, just the minotaurs. Hopefully.” Cript sighed. “And...why the ‘hopefully’?” I asked curiously. “This shit is pure lust in a can I rigged into a bomb, give me some credit I didn’t blow it up while making this thing.” Cript quipped. “The mist won’t go far, so we have to make sure they are all within fifteen feet of the bomb, just a whiff and they’ll be… well, you can take a guess.” “Alright, so it won’t affect me correct?” I asked curiously. “Cause I have a dumb idea.” I said. “And that dumb idea is to basically take the bomb, run right into the six of them, and then set it off.” “It shouldn’t, but in all honesty I have no real idea.” Cript said. “Alright.” I nodded. “So...best not to take that risk...I’ll try to clump them up, you said fifteen feet correct?” “Yes.” Cript confirmed. “Let’s head out.” Heading out, the walk to the final area was pretty uneventful. We arrived at the doors to where these Minotaurs should be, only for Cript to stop us. “Wait a minute… Something’s not right here…” “How so?” Mom-Den asked. “The door open a crack…” “Okay...so something, or someone, is fucking with us.” I frowned. “Or ahead of us, either or.” “There shouldn’t be anyone ahead of us, none of the other bosses before hand were dead.” Cript said. “This feels bad…” He said, taking out Biohazards Curse and pushing the door open. Inside were the Minotaurs…. Dead… “All of them slaughtered?” I went to check the corpses, but I sniffed the air and caught someone’s scent...and I know that scent…”Oh hey, it’s the Cunt.” I growled. “I know your here, you can come out.” I said, fully prepared for her to appear out of nowhere. There was clapping, Rune herself walking from behind the corpses. “About time you used that nose for something other than sniffing the cunts of your sluts.” She said. “How’s it been? Coco still comatose?” “Like you cared to begin with.” I rolled my eyes. “So, what? Your here to die before you can hear Zeke’s speech to win your heart back?” I asked curiously. “Heart? You act like I had one to begin with.” She said, pulling out a Void Key, her body suddenly covered in black moving lines. “Looking for this guy?” She asked, shaking Void Key. “He says ‘come and get me’.” She rushed in, clashing with my No Heart, the blast from the impact tossed the corpses against the wall. Dad charged in, trying to get a hit on her back but getting a Void tentacle arm smacking them against the face and into the wall across the room. Rune and I clashed repeatedly, every hit I tried to make she clashed in perfect pre-calculated predictions. Cript joined in, he and I switching out to try and throw her off but she kept up with impressive speed and agility. “She’s good.” Cript huffed. I didn’t say anything, taking a deep breath as I prepared myself, I pulled out Darkest Hero and pointed it at Rune. “Alright, let’s see how she handles this.” I said, feeling the power of Cript’s Soul Blade crackle to life as I vanished and swung both No Heart and Darkest Hero at her. She ducked, kicking me in the gut and slamming my head into the floor. She’s fast… “So much power, so little experience.” She taunted, Dad and Cript now ganging up on her while Mom-Den shifted to feral form, preparing a howling spell. “Alright…” I muttered while I put Foudre on both Darkest Hero and No Heart, Darkest Hero now adding Rune’s speed to my own, Foudre’s natural speed boost stacking along with my own insane speed. “Alright, that’s fixed.” I nodded before drop kicking Rune before she could react. “Hooray, I’m fast as fuck.” I managed to get a fast, multi hard hitting combo on Rune, Dad and Cript also getting a lot of hits in while she was staggered and Mom getting a Missile launcher shot right into Rune’s face. Rune has some injuries now, making her smirk. “Finally. Some fun.” She said, taking out black colored replicas of my Foudre, then stabbing them into her arms. Their electricity and metal bonding with her flesh, boosting her speed. “You aren’t the only one with fun toys~” She cooed sadistically, rushing off with a Flash style trail of purple lighting. She gave a hard gut punch to Mom and was now after Dad. “Oh? You can do that as well?” I asked while Foudre embedded themselves in my body, as lightning crackled through me. “Let’s see what happens.” I said before clotheslining Rune out of nowhere again. “Come on, it’s like your moving in slow motion Rune.” “Maybe you’ve been moving too fast.” She said, rushing up the wall to the ceiling, jumping at a fast speed down as Void Key crackle with Void and… Code?! She hit the ground, the impact shattering the floor and blasting everyone, myself also, back against the walls. Grunting as I got up, she was pulsating Void and Code. “Can’t do that now can you?” “I mean...kinda?” I said while pulsating Nothingness and Code. “Just replace the Void with Nothingness and it’s basically the same thing.” I said, taking a deep breath as I also added Grey and Generation to the mix because I apparently want some overkill. “Doubt you can continue with what I’m doing here right?” She smirked. “Oh I don’t have to. Just need to take away another loved one.” “Gah!” We all turned around, seeing someone with this purple aura around them had punched Mom in the side… and her back should not bend at such a narrow angle. “Awh, was hoping she had tougher skin than that.” The newcomer said, stomping on Mom’s leg, breaking it, making her scream even more. It was… a kid! “Hi there Ben, Name’s Deku, Tanya has told me a lot about you-” “Bastard!” Dad yelled, swinging his bat at the kids head. Deku caught it, shoving it back into Dad’s face and breaking their jaw. “Now, didn’t you ever learn it’s not nice to interrupt the one speaking in a room?” I saw what happened...I knew I could have stopped it all...my eyes turned into both Psychopath and Humanity...Amplify was also being turned on as all my powers went haywire as my Den Mother instincts tried to fight against the oncoming wave of rage that...honestly I just felt numb. “Do you...know how much you fucked up?” I asked, my voice monotone and hollow. “Oh? Heheh. Just like Kachan always used to say to me.” Deku laughed, putting a foot on Mom’s barely moving chest. “But, tests have to be run, data collected. Like the new Nomu.” Deku said, looking a bit to the right I saw Mom-Den and Cript were fighting these… amalgamation monsters, keeping it even between them and the monsters but the monsters numbers were keeping them there. Dad was out cold from the hit to the face. “Now then, what happens when I kill her?” Deku asked, starting to press his foot down as his purple aura began growing. “I normally only kill if it’s my last option, but…Tanya was rather interested to learn what your choice would be? Who’s blood is going to be spilled first here?” I...honestly don’t know what happened. My mind just went blank as all I could feel was warm blood on my fur, bones breaking, flesh being torn off with my teeth...but nothing mattered at that point...the only thing I had in my mind was ‘save your family’...and that’s what I did...in such a display that it would even make Rune queasy. As I came to...the entire room apparently was completely covered in blood, bit’s of Nomu here...bit of Nomu there...and as I looked down...I saw Deku...his face in a look of shock and fear...as his head was literally the only piece of his body that was whole…”What…” I muttered, looking around as I got a closer look and...there was supposed to be a dungeon here...why do I see the sky? “Hehahahahaha!” Rune’s laugh echoed through the rubble as she tossed off debris from where she was. “So there is a killer underneath all that Heros Morality you flaunt so egotistically.” She said, breathing heavily and badly beaten. “This has been educational. Don’t worry though, that wasn’t our only Deku.” She laughed, slipping into a Void portal and was gone. ”Just woke up, the fuck happened?” I heard a voice in my head. ”Go to sleep.” I heard another voice in my head say as the first one agreed and went back. I looked at my hands, which were covered in blood and bits of flesh and bone...I can taste all the abominations I devoured…”What...what…” I muttered, panicking quickly. “Mom! Dad! Cript! Den!” I called out quickly, panicking and looking around in fear, hoping they were okay. “Here.” Cript said, looking and seeing a glowing barrier under some rubble. Tossing the large rubble aside, and letting Cript disband that barrier. Mom-Den was healing Mom and Dad, dad looking better but mom was still… pretty banged up… “I had a point nine trillionths of a second to grab Den, your mom and dad and form that barrer. You now know why I never go full power Ben… You don’t even remember what you did huh?” “Rage…” I said. “That...was all I felt...and...protect my family…” “There’s nothing wrong with that Ben, but that much power with an unstable mind… Ben this Dungeon was seven hundred floors down, sixty million miles deep and everything below us is rubble now. I never go full power cause this power should not even be allowed to exist. We’re lucky you didn’t blow up this whole Creation.” “Only reason...it’s special...is because it’s super enchanted.” I panted, not sure what to say...before looking down at Deku’s scared face again… “Oh god…” “You blacked out, didn’t you?” “He nearly killed mom…” I muttered. “And while I can understand the reason you had for killing them, you blacked out, the power drove your actions… you… kinda ate him… then went after the Nomu…. Then just tore up the dungeon.” I felt my Assistant buzzing, and when I looked at it my level went up a veritable ass ton as well as all the loot that was destroyed somehow went straight into it...but I really couldn’t tell with how numb I felt still. “The fuck…” I cried, falling to my knees and sobbing. Cript pat my back, staying next to me as I cried. “That much power… takes away your mind, your soul… your identity. We’re the ultimate weapons, the ultimate fighters, but if we use too much of this power, we can’t differentiate friend from foe, innocent from guilty… I never go full power because this very thing you just experienced right now, has happened to me too many times.” “If...I was in my right mind…” I shivered. “If...I didn’t just go numb with rage...I could have...seen something…” I said sadly. “You should be glad though...killing them in your right mind… might have left a scar on your soul forever. But this will happen again… and next time, you can’t lose control like that again… you’ll have to kill again… and remember it all.” “Yeah, something I really didn’t want to do again.” I sighed out. “But...I killed a child…” I said sadly. “So have I.” Cript said, taking Deku’s head. “Granted, I was just a kid too.” They used Code to male a hole, placing Deku’s head in it then began making dirt to put over the head… a barriel. “His name was Cameron. He was about as fucked up as you could imagine. I just founded my company, and my first mission from Lord, long before I was an admin, was to kill this psychotic bastard of a kid. We were the same age, fifteen. I didn’t want to stain my magic with blood so I took a gun, was new to them at the time. He was winning, sliced my shotgun in half then… I reacted. Stabbed the broken barrel in his chest and pulled the trigger. It was… my first kill. First of many. It taught me one thing though… not everyone is worth saving, worth the effort, no matter the age, gender, past. In the end, he chose that life, they all do.” “You weren’t a den mother at the time.” I deadpanned. “No, I was a child. A child who grew up loving the passafict life of a mage, was tortured and experimented on by my best friend for a year, witnessed a scuicide and gained a company, and was thrown into conflict.” Cript said, once Deku’s head was buried, formed a tombstone for him. “I have this policy. Everyone I kill, I bury. Helps to ease my mind somewhat.” “Difference is...you were literally born for this...I’m not, plus...you can kill with a decent enough conscious...I just feel like a failure to my very being because of this…” “I think this is one of the reasons Lyra is obsessed with eternally expanding the harem.” Cript sighed, still rubbing my back. “She thinks all the sex and lovers will be a good enough distraction. She’s half right. The other half. Even for Admins, souls are hard to make. We take a lot from the afterworlds to be reborn. I like to think the people I have to kill… get a second chance in my family. I don’t know when or who they will be born as, but there are open arms in our family, past be damned.” “I know but…” I muttered. “I failed as a Den Mother…” Cript sighed. “Can’t say otherwise there. Just means you have to atone for this sin. One way or another.” “Really can’t…” I muttered sadly. “How can I atone, as a Den Mother, for killing a child?” “My guess…” Mom-Den said, still healing mom with some magic. “Children. Lots of children. Take a life, a young life, so bring as many as you can into this world. That’s what I’d do.” “Didn’t Eclipsa do something similar?” Cript thought. “Taking care of kids, orphans on her world after killing that one pregnent Ventral?” “Yup.” Mom-Den said. “Do the same I guess. Two people atoning for taking a child's life by forever having and caring for children. Sounds fitting.” “I doubt it’ll help…” I muttered sadly as I got up. “It’s better than nothing.” Cript pointed out. “This is still all my fault…” I said sadly, looking over at both of my injured parents. “Could have just killed Rune and stopped everything from happening...but no, I thought ‘oh hey, Zeke still needs to talk things out’...but no, this is War, I shouldn’t give a fuck about the damn plot and actually do what’s needed.” I growled angrily. “No taking back sins now.” Crips said, standing up now. “Only atonement.” “There is none…” I said sadly. “Especially for me…” I shook my head. “I could have done something...anything to stop this, I had the power to...but no...I just stood there like a fucking idiot…” “Look… Nothing I say will help you. We make mistakes, and we have to live with them. It was him or your mom, and even though she’s pretty banged up, she’s alive. That’s the right choice in my book.” “I’m supposed to be a hero…” I sniffled. “Not let this crap happen…” I sighed out while walking over to Den and my parents. “How...how are they doing?” “Your dad will be fine.” Mom-Den said. “Your mom has a lot of broken bones. But she’ll be fine, some healing treatments and bed rest for a week and she’ll be all healthy again.” “Good way to spend a family adventure huh…” I sighed out sadly. “This should have been a fun day with family…but...at least they’ll pull through.” “They’ll be stronger for it.” Cript said. “They got a taste of what we’re up against. We all did. We’ll be better next time.” “We will.” Mom-Den said. “Because now, we know what they want to do, at least at the moment, is break us. Now they know what we can do.” “Yeah, making me feel like garbage…” I sighed out. “Christ...can’t things just be simple for once?” I grumbled, feeling like a failure because I didn't do anything to stop this. “Does anyone know a good therapist?” I asked honestly. "So, what brings you to my office today?" Lyra, Eclipsa's Lyra, asked. She was sitting in a chair while I sat on a rather fair sized couch. “Where do I even begin…” I sighed out. “Well to start, I ate a kid in a fit of unholy rage.” "Oh. And this child… what caused this? Were they the cause of this rage? What did they do?" “The child that did this was ‘Villian’ Deku, an evil version of Deku from the My Hero Academia world...and he...nearly killed my mom, not Den Mom, but my earth birth mother…” I explained. "I see. I understand you lose her once before, before Cript revived her, such a reaction would be expected. Given your Biology, eating them was likely pure instinct at the moment, as in moments of pure adrenaline fueled rage ones higher brain functions often shut down." “Yeah, I couldn’t tell when I accidentally destroyed seven hundred floors of a super enchanted Dungeon and didn’t know how I did that.” I said honestly. "I see." She said, writing down some things. "Now, given you are a Den Mother I take it you feel even worse about this situation?" “You have no idea...I mean, I already feel like shit for killing again...and a child at that…” I said as the memory of Deku’s cut short scream surfacing. “Oh god...this is all terrible…” "Suppressed memories are one method the mind protects itself, most of the time they surface with time or under specific conditions. Other times, they never do. Now then, as a mother and as a person such an act requires both punishment, and redemption." “Both of which won’t be enough.” I sighed out. "People in your situation will believe that whole heartedly. But acting to make up for it is better on the mind and soul over doing nothing about it." “Kind of hard when I feel like anything I do won’t solve it…” I sighed out. “And to be honest...that’s not the worst part of this all...that would be ‘why did I stand there like a jackass and not do anything to stop literally everything that happened’.” I frowned. "Simple shock." Lyra said. "One at your power thinks, you're invincible, nothing can harm you, you can protect everyone and no one can do anything about it… then someone does. That mentality shatters and you realize that even if you out power someone, they can still outsmart you, surprise you, hurt you. All your power and you fell for a simple sneak attack. It pains you to think you fell for such a simple tactic that ended up being far more effective that you would have expected." “No, I mean literally, I could have just killed Rune before this entire thing started, and then when my Mom was on the ground injured by Villain Deku, I could have just simply knocked him out before he knew what had happened.” I frowned. “There is no ‘shock’ to this, I stood there, and did nothing to solve the immediate problem both times. When my mom was hurt, I could have stopped Deku before it continued, but no, I stood there and watched my dad also get hurt. There’s a difference between ‘shock’ and ‘standing there like an idiot’.” "Many think that." Lyra said. "They just don't want to accept it. You might be an Admin now, but you were human first Ben." “Yes, I know, and even if I was a human first, I would have seen that I could just solved the problem immediately instead of putzing around like an idiot.” I frowned. “This is War...I shouldn’t give a shit about my inner bookworm knowing Rune’s going to be begging for Zeke’s forgiveness after they have a talk and he beats the shit out of her.” "You think that?" Lyra asked. “As a smart person? I should. As a character in a story whose authors constantly fight about what I can and can’t do? No.” I said simply. "Same fourth wall habits as Eclipsa. But people are harder to read the pages in a book." “I know that.” I said honestly. “And sorry, I think she’s rubbing off on me...uh...that came out wrong.” "Knowing you two, no it did not." She laughed. "All in all, what you need is something that can make you feel like you are writing the wrongs in your life." “Well I’m gonna have fun with that.” I rolled my eyes. "Question is, what do you feel would work to satisfy you?" “Fucked if I know.” I said honestly. “I just go about day by day doing whatever, trying to ignore literally all of my problems.” "And that there is your main problem. Ignoring ones problems leads to… this." She gestured to all of me. “What? Ignoring problems leads me to talk to someone about my current problem?” I asked. "It leads to more problems. Negativity attracts negativity. And Don't say some science stuff about that being wrong." “If Negativity attracts Negativity then why the hell do I have literally everything I have at the moment?” I asked. “I don’t need ‘science’ to disprove that...I can have personal experience disprove it.” "Hmm." She said, writing some more stuff down. "You have everything Physically, but mentally, why do you still feel like you have nothing?" “Because, even though I have my heart, light, and soul back, I always doubt myself and am a natural pessimist.” I said. “I’ve screwed up enough to be scared things will fall apart, so there’s always that one little thing that might ruin everything for me.” I explained. "Everyone has that, no one is exempt from fear Ben." “Okay…” I said slowly. “I...already knew that though…” "Have you accepted it though? You admit you have fear, but have you accepted this fear?" “Does it matter at this point?” I asked honestly. "It always matters. When you accept your fears, you accept part of you that all of us dislike." “And what? Is that all of me?” I asked curiously. “Cause I’ve gotten to the point of ‘I’m okay if people just hate me for me’...I’m not really a good person in all honesty.” "You may think that about yourself but others would sing a different song." “Your right, they would actually sing that song really well while I’m tone deph without Arpeggio.” I rolled my eyes. "Joking to hide pain, another coping mechanism." “Not really.” I said. “I’m honestly being serious here.” I said. “Like, I can’t sing for shit without Arpeggio.” I said while trying to prove my point...only for my point to fall flat as I could actually sing well. “God damn it.” "Sometimes a little self confidence goes a long way." She said, sifting through her bag next to her. “Oh?” I asked curiously. “Pulling something out?” "A suggestion." She said, taking out a flyer for the kingdom itself. "We all know you are the face of the crown and kingdom. Fluffy, adorable, and drop dead sexy. I recommend you focus on that to help build your self esteem up. I also want you to research this Deku fellow. The one you killed, see what kind of person they are, were, and decide for yourself if they were worthy of redemption or life in general." “Listen, most people can get a second chance...a child especially…” I sighed out. “But...fine, and thank you for the compliment.” "My pleasure. Please come back in two weeks for an update." She said with a nod. “Alright.” I nodded gently. “I...really should go see John or the Foretellers...I hope they’re all okay…” I sighed out while getting up and heading out. Once out I headed to my office. Taking a seat I began thinking… focus on my job, and research Villain Deku… Personally I'd rather do just the later…”So...Villian Deku’s world I go I suppose…” I muttered. Sighing, I opened up a DTN and headed there. The world seems silent. People walked around and minded their own business. Where to start? “Maybe…” I muttered. “Um, excuse me sir.” I said politely. “Do you know where the Pro Hero Association Building is?” I asked curiously. "Come to pay respects also? Down the road East." They said solemnly, taking their leave. “Respects?” I blinked. “Oh no…” I muttered while heading off quickly down to where the Hero Association should be. Once there… there was just a closed off rubble pile. A plaque read, Here lies the Hero Academia, a once proud school now gone. All 3,598 students were killed by one villain. All the teachers fell to the same fate. “Well….fuck.” I started. “Who...who did this?” I wondered worriedly. "Who do you think smart ass?" Turning around, I saw… Bakugou, wearing one of those time cloaks. "It was Deku." They said, walking up to the plaque. "Killed everyone. Me as well. Had I not already had this Keyblade I would have been dead permanently." “So...murdering him was fine apparently.” I sighed out. "He was a monster… I'm the one who made him like that though." Bakugo sighed. "When we were little, I'd hurt him, make him cry because he couldn't fight back. He was quirkless. I found out he… took my advice… tried to kill himself. He was found not by heroes or a passerby. The League of Villains found him. A group of murderers, crooks and thieves… healed him. Treated him better than I or anyone else ever did. One day, in the middle of the semester he walks into the school with this purple aura around him… massacre is an understatement. I found out after he killed that version of me that, he killed his and my parents before heading to the school. Then, went after All Might." “Okay never mind, he was treated like shit and then lead down a terrible path…” I sighed out. "He chose that path…" Bakugo said. "He chose it because I, no one believed he could be a hero… so he became a villain instead. Killing him should have been my burden… I can't undo what I did, rules and all… I can't take any of it back either. I'll just be stuck living with the monster I created." They turned to look at me. "I'm sorry, you were the one to end his misery… I wanted to be there when he showed up but… I wasn't allowed." “He deserved a second chance.” I said. “No one believed he was a hero...the only ones that believed in him were villains...if I just…” I sighed out. "You didn't know… I just wish… if I could… I'd go back and undo everything." They summoned No Name. "Funny… I can… but I can't." “You can’t…” I started as I summoned Fair Game, Code sparking on it. “But I can.” "This isn't your mistake, Ben." They said, disbanding No Name. "If you make a mistake then jump back in time to undo it, you will.make something worse happen. Time has a way of punishing those that try and alter it." “Well then I’d like to meet Time.” I frowned. “Cause I have been through time twice, and nothing happened.” I frowned. “What’s so special about Lord sending people through time that I’m not allowed magically?” "Judgment. Time knows what's meant to happen and what should not." “Convenient.” I rolled my eyes. "Pre-calculated is more accurate. Look, Deku is my burden to bare. Let me carry that sin around. You just focus on the one you already have." With that, Bakugo vanished in a light blue flash. “Wait...what?” I asked. “The...one I have?” I wondered. “What...do I have to go to another MHA or something?” I asked, legitimately confused on what Bakugo wanted. Heading home… I didn't know what to make of what they meant. More confused than I liked… I looked for Zeke. As Diane he did often have good advice so... “He better be around…” I grumbled, looking around for Zeke cause he’d probably know what the hell Bakugo meant by ‘you just focus on the one you already have’. I found Zeke in the Library reading over spell books. He looked up and noticed me. "Oh. Hey Diane." They said, sitting up a bit. “Hi.” I started. “Do you know what ‘just focus on the one you already have’ means?” I asked. "Depends." They said, raising a brow and closing their book. "What's the context?" “I ate Villain Deku in a fit of ungodly rage, and his Bakugo told me to not feel like shit over it...as I’m still feeling like shit over it.” "... Okay, that's a new one." They said, shaking their head. "So, they were…?" “They were what?” I asked. "What did they do that brought this up?" “That brought up Bakugo telling me that or what did Villain Deku do to make me eat him?” I asked. "The last part " “He nearly killed my Mom…” I said. “Not Den mom but...earth mom.” "Hmm… that would do it. I don't know much about the situation around them, but in short, did they even want redemption? Did they care?" “No idea, they were raised by Villains when he tried to kill himself, like Bakugo wanted, and then he got Void powers and then...murdered his parents, Bakugo’s parents, and then literally every hero on that world.” I explained. "Murdered his parents, he cut all emotional ties off. Murdered Bakugo's parents, incase Bakugo survived, they'd have no one. Murdered the Heroes… personal payback. They ensured there was no going back before the larger scale plan. They were ensuring redemption was an impossibility for them. They wanted to make sure no one could save them." Zeke said aloud in thought. "How is your mom though? Is she alright?" “She’ll get better…” I sighed out. “But me on the other hand...not so much.’ "This is going to haunt you no matter what huh?" “I’m remembering his screams...the taste of his flesh...and the haunting bit of his face frozen in terror as that was the only thing I didn’t eat…” I sighed out. Zeke motioned for me to sit next to them, and I did. "That would haunt anybody. For as powerful as we are, we still get afraid, we still make mistakes. In this was this… won't be the last time a twisted child fights us. But one thing I know is that everyone on that enemy line, wants no redemption. They just want blood." I sighed out. “Cause of course they do…” I sighed out. "What did you expect? Misunderstandings and happy endings?" “If your Rune is going to get a fucking redemption when you have to fight her yes.” I frowned. "... She doesn't want that… and neither do I." Zeke said, looking down. I gently put a hand on Zeke’s shoulder. “She will be redeemed, and you’re the one that’s going to do it. I know I’m just basing this off of my vast knowledge of how stories go...but it’s going to happen. And you know that.” "I know… how Rune really is now. This is ending in blood." “Now I would have killed her when I saw her, but I thought ‘oh no, I have to let Zeke deal with this’...like a fucking retard.” I rolled my eyes. “If I just...didn’t stand there and do nothing, none of this would be happening.” "Don't blame yourself… for a long time… she was one of us. Someone we cared about…" “No, I’m going to blame myself for not just killing her when I had literally all the chances.” I frowned. “But no, I was like ‘she’s Zeke’s fight’ when we’re at war and I shouldn’t give a half ounce of deep fried shit at how the plot should progress.” I shook my head. “And she was long for you, that Rune fucked up and is now dead to me…” "She Is my fight Diane." Zeke said. "But… I'll understand if you're the one that kills her. It's personal for me, now it's personal for you." “And when I see her again she’s dead.” I growled. “Honestly, I don’t care if it’s ‘your fight’ at this point, she’s dead.” "Just don't underestimate her or anyone else from now on." “I don’t.” I said simply. "Thanks." Zeke said, giving me a peck on the cheek. "Because now they know what we, or at least you can do fully. They can prepare properly now. Which means we need to prepare counter measures. I'll talk with Xehanort and Pecator." “I mean…’what I’m capable of’ is destroying seven hundred floors of super enchanted and super reinforced Dungeon that was supposed to have creatures as strong or stronger than Cript at specific points...and killed them all without even knowing it.” I explained. “Just...now they know I will kill children that try to fuck with me.” "They know how powerful you are, we are. Now they know how much stronger they need to be to kill us." “They don’t know we literally can’t be killed though.” I said. “We’re Deathless remember?’ "Nothing's impossible." Zeke said. "Even if they end up unable to kill us, that doesn't mean we can't be trapped." “Kind of doubt it.” I shrugged. "I'd rather not chance it." “Better to be safe than sorry ya know.” I nodded. "So, what have you been up to?" “Nothing much honestly.” I shrugged. “I mean, I had a clone of mine go to the Power Rangers world, happened into the Mystic Force side of things, and I got to show off with Arpeggio.” I smiled. “It was a grand time.” "Sound fun. I've just been avoiding my parents really." “Why are you avoiding your parents?” I asked curiously. “When I met your parent’s the first time and mentioned you they were super worried about you.” "Says the people who taught me to drive when I was six, add the police snipers and road blocks. They worry about the Lineage, and what I will make of it. Promised me the world since I was born but I don't want a world drowned in blood and buried in bullet casings." “Currently they’d probably just want to be with you and just hang out.” I said honestly. "Hanging out for my parents is the same thing as walking into a deathtrap to see how it works. Eclipsa's Assistant showed she's with them on a very dangerous world, as I expected, camping. My definition of fun and hanging out and theirs has always been dramatically different." “Alrighty then.” I nodded. "Being around them just… reminds me of things I want to forget." “Sometimes you just have to deal with it.” I shrugged. "Someday." Zeke sighed. "But not today. Today it's spell books and such." “Why? Not good with magic?” I asked curiously. "I was only ever able to use it with Discord as my second hands Keyblade. After Bolitaria I managed to finally use it, but I'm still not the best with it. Out of all my stats my MP one's are the lowest. Ironic given Cript grew up primarily with magic and is best at that." “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “But if you need help I’m your wolf given one of my weapons is a magical super Tomb.” "That did sound helpful." Zeke laughed as they reopened their book. "My main issue is that I put too much MP into my spells. Discord used to do that for me since they had their own MP but I… have no idea what happened to them…" “Which is weird cause Discord’s a Keyblade so you should know where they are.” I said honestly. “And to be honest, your MP thing is...kind of an easy thing to solve when you think about it.” "Eh. As for Discord, you are right, so why can't I?" “No idea, Discord’s weird.” I said honestly. “All I can say is raise your hand, focus, and then tell the old man to get his key shaped ass over here.” "I've tried. Nothing. I know he isn't shattered he's just… gone. He was with Drezke last I knew but he told me it was all a haze on what happened after Lake was killed." “Well…” I started. “Discord, mind coming down here?” I called out, my voice resonating to one of my followers to come here. In a poof of, surprisingly nothing impressive or random, Discord appeared. Clad in some very sweet armor. "Yes, my… queen?" “I have a feeling you weren’t around for…a lot of things.” I said sheepishly. “But question, do you know where your Keyblade version is? It was in Zeke’s Reflection and so far he can’t find him.” "Hmm… where was he last?" Discord asked. "With my dark half, Drezke." Zeke said. "Hmm… I have a theory…" “And that would be?” I asked curiously. "Keyblades like Discord, that Discord, were people forged into them. While they are now stuck that way, their forms still react like how a person's would, meaning a heartless or Nobody version of them is entirely possible." "But calling them should have at least summoned a heartless." Zeke said. "Hmm… was there anything, anything at all that could have happened to make an alternate outcome?" "Well… Lake and Drezke said that for them to be whole again, Drezke had to purge out all his excess collected darkness. Some unique variation of heartless was created as an outcome, I've tried but they don't reply to me at all. They are wild." "If they came from you, their creation would have given them the ability to use Keyblades." "You think one of them has Discord?" "It's a possibility." “Oh yeah, those things.” I said. “But wait, he’s Kingdom Hearts, he doesn’t have to care about if people own it or not.” "They were formed from my heart Ben, my dark half, they would be pure dark replicas of myself, even as Kingdom Hearts, they'd be dark replicas of how I was back then, at the time a miniature version of it." “Okay...that didn’t...really answer my question though.” I said. “Even if he’s from a normal person, Zeke doesn’t have to care because he’s Kingdom Hearts. Unless he was split apart because of this, I don’t see how Zeke isn’t able to just call him through sheer force of will alone.” "Perhaps the Keyblades they are using are refusing, trying to keep these things at Bay. What I find most interesting though, is that so far, these Heartless have not shown up on any world's, they're basically off the map." Zeke pondered. "The only thing I can think of is that they might still be linked to me in some way…meaning my current power… would also be theirs… they might even have intelligence." “I mean, they technically are your kids.” I shrugged. "If they are linked to you, they must be leeching power as well as information from you." Discord said. "How do we track them though? And how much of a problem will they end up being?" “Probably a lot, and most likely they would have an obvious trail leading to them even if they try to hide it.” I said honestly. "If they have any of my level of knowledge in hiding and covering one's own tracks, then it's not as obvious as we might want. We'll start where they were born, the World Drezke colonized. From there we find whatever might be of use." “There’s one thing that they can’t cover, and that’s their connection to you.” I said honestly. “Both as Keyblade Wielders, and as being’s to begin with.” I brought up. "Question is, how do I weed them out?" Zeke asked. “Take a moment and focus.” I said. “Follow the omnipotent trail you have to Keyblade and Darkness...well actually you could also have Heartless just target the bastards, using their keyblade energy and special energy as a homing beacon.” I pointed out with a frown. "No, that won't be enough, it has to be specific…" “How specific do you want to be?” I asked. "... I might have an idea but I don't like it." “Be live bait for them?” I asked curiously. “Or what?” "No. We need help on this one… and if these things are like me in any sense… there is only two people in creation who can actively track me down no matter where I hide." “Your parents?” I joked. "Yes…* “Sounds about right.” I nodded. “But currently they are camping with Eclipsa maybe.” I said. “And I don’t remember if they have Assistant’s or not…” "Hmm… Well, there is one other option." Zeke said, summoning a small Shadow Heartless. "Go fetch Pecator." He told it, the heartless vanishing into the ground. “I mean, I could have just sent a message to Eclipsa telling those two to come here.” I pointed out. "Over my dead body." Zeke muttered under their breath. A few moments passed when Pecator finally arrived. "What's this about then?" "We need help." Zeke said. "Thought your all seeing eye would have informed you." "It only showed me the future when I want to see it. I take it that is why you called me then?" “I mean, how good are you at hunting down literal Darkness Children of Zeke’s?” I asked curiously. "Darkness children? You mean those wannabe Embodiments?" "I guess." Zeke said. "Look, I can see where they are but only where they were, not where they are or will be." “Well knowing where they were is as good a start as any given Zeke doesn’t want his parent’s help here.” I shrugged. "Good call." Pecator said. He pulled out Gazing Eye, holding it's eye up to his own, a blue light shot out from the Keyblade's eye into his own. When it was over, he blinked a few times disbanding Gazing Eye. "Alright, five ugly mugs found and possibly located. One is on Radiant Garden in the sewers, the other is at the Badlands of the Keyblade Graveyard, another is on the Enchanted Domain, one is roaming the lanes between, the last is at Traverse town, where though I couldn't tell." “Good to know.” I nodded. “So, which one do you want to go after first?” "I'll hit Traverse town first." Zeke said, opening a DTL. "I'll be back when they're all dead." “Alright, stay safe.” I said gently. "No promises." Zeke said. "You just keep those photo shoots going. I hear the next ones are all bikini~" Zeke said, entering the DTL then closing it. “Oh boy, can’t wait.” I chuckled. “Everyone’s going to love them.” I muttered. “Wonder what else I’ll do today…” To be continued... Joy start's the WarJoy was sorting papers. A boring task but not without reason. General Krott and the new Nexus Templar had been reconning all sorts of still functional Nexus bases, picking the best one to strike first. Removing the enemy from the home front would ensure safety. “God there are a lot…” Joy muttered while sifting through more pages. “There has to be one here that we can hit without it being too much of a hassle…” As Joy sorted them out his mind began wandering. Now that they are like Ben and all them, gender wise and appearance, Though Joy had to admit the advantages this from had were, for reasons, mostly for self enjoyment. They could not stop thinking about their kids. It had only been a week since they had them, and already they hated being away. They were not a Den Mother like Ben, but the sadness was there. Jenny was due in another month and the others sooner. Joy knew his life would be interesting, and never normal, but at least they had their family. "And family is important…" Joy muttered to himself as he sifted through some papers. "Hmm?" Joy hummed, seeing something about Full Metal Alchemist in the papers. A Nexus Storage base is located on the world Amestris. This storage base primarily holds old files on discontinued projects and supply caches for use later. The base itself is located in a region the locals refer to as Ishval, once a warzone now once again a thriving desert nation. The files it holds contain data on discontinued C.A.T. projects as well as the short lived D.R.E.A.M project. The supplies are largely food based with some older artillery and mech-assault suits. “Well...I know Ven is there with his family hopefully…” Joy muttered. “Well, I know where I’m going now.” Getting up, Joy called General Krott to his office. The general arrived within half an hour. "Yes Joy? Oh, and congratulations on the babies. Didn't expect to become a mother before you became a father huh?" He wasn't wrong. Body wise Joy was a much smaller version of how Mom-Den was then they first came into his and Ben's life. The other difference aside from size was that Joy only had four breasts, not six. Yet Jenny did have six now… they can not understand why that made them envious... “That’s besides the point.” Joy shook his head, not wanting to get distracted. “Anyways, Amestris, has a pretty big supply base, know anything about it?” Joy asked while handing him the paper specifying the place. “Like what all the discontinued things are?” "Hmmm… the C.A.T projects. Critically Accurate Target Takedown. They were meant to be a one person takedown of high profile enemies. They worked but they craved more, and eventually killed high profile Nexus members. They were destroyed, and discontinued." “And now we’re going to fix that bug and then send them out to kill our enemies.” Joy said honestly. “Also, did you know that if you had Ben have literally all of Cript’s power and went all out it’s scary and traumatizing as shit?” "It's the power of the one who is to become the Mother. Nothing is stronger, but to anyone other than Cript that power is all consuming, Cript is built to handle it, Ben is not." “Except they literally have the same body.” Joy said. “Did you completely miss their wedding ceremony?” "Yes, body, not their mind." “Then why did Cript mention that it sucks for him as well to go full out?” Joy asked curiously. "Cript and Zeke share many things, the want for challenge in a fight and a wish to be normal, to have the same restrictions and problems as everyone around them." “Me and Ben share memories, Cript specifically stated that, even for him, you lose yourself to that power. So how is Cript exempt from this suddenly when he himself said going full out was bad even for his health?” Joy brought up. "He has not yet… evolved, to become the mother, for lack of a better word. Once they have though, they will be able to use it without fear. It will just take some time." “Cause of course it’s ‘their not ready’.” Joy rolled his eyes. “So anyways, before I do a Ben and complain about how the wonder children, what’s this Dream thing?” Joy asked curiously. "D.R.E.A.M… that was… a dark, dark project. It was hell." “And why is that?” Joy asked. "Where to begin? It started off as a form of… elevation. We wanted to know, is there a state of existence and being above that of the Mother's? What is there passed her? In short… yes… yes there is…" “Oh boy, and you immediately scraped it cause it was even more horrifying than what terrible shit Nexus was doing at the time.” Joy rolled his eyes, already knowing where that’s going. "Scrap? We couldn't even go near the lab when things got out of hand. It was genocide what happened there. Six thousand scientists, fifty thousand guards, fourteen thousand employees there in total… all slaughtered, mutated and… ascended. It was one of the few times we were happy to learn that Cript went there and managed to destroy it. That place changed them. Whatever they saw there, I can tell you this, it was something no one should have learned." “So how much you want to bet their trying to bring it back?” Joy asked honestly. "Ha! My brother is insane but not stupid. That project put a fear in him, I've never seen before. Trust me when I saw everyone involved with the D.R.E.A.M project wants to forget it ever happened, Vincent included." “Yeah well Void Mother doesn’t give a rats ass, or any of her more insane devotees.” Joy pointed out. “So, how likely is it some crazy assholes would sooner reopen that project for Void Mother even if Vincent was heavily against it?” "If they didn't know what he and I do… it's a likelihood. We need to capture that base and destroy all those records. That damned nightmare can't happen again." “Either way.” Joy said honestly. “So, anything else there from that base I should know about?” "Just old arms really. Weapons and food supplies." “Alrighty then.” Joy nodded. “Well, we better get going then.” "I'll gather the forces. I'll meet you there. It's coordinates are in the file." “Alright.” Joy nodded while double checking the coordinates. “I’ll be off then.” Joy said while opening a DTN and heading off to the compound. The first thing Joy did was evacuate the people, this place was barely United with the Grand Crown, so there was confusion. Abled bodied people stayed to fight. Many of the Grand Crowns soldiers were here. After a bit Krott showed up with the Nexus Templar soldiers. "They should know we are here." “Wouldn’t be too surprising.” Joy said honestly as he summoned Lindworm. “So, how many entrances and exits are there to this place?” "One." Krott said, taking out a sword. "Time to declare war." He said, waving his arm as the sky lit up with symbols. The symbols glowing and forming a massive circle, the energy it built up finally shooting down into the sandy earth. When the light faded the base was visible, and the hole showing it was walked by newly made glass. "Ready?" “I’m always ready.” Joy said while preparing for the oncoming fight. “So let’s get going.” "Charge!" Krott commanded as everyone began the charge. The Nexus base began shifting, flying out were Nexus soldiers and even piloted robots climbing out from the hole. Bullets, magic, and missiles began flying. Joy was in their first war. And Joy barely noticed the difference as the very wind itself cut through his enemies, the young dire wolf kneeling down as energy pulsated around him. After a moment he vanished high into the air, above the fliers as hundreds of wind spears appeared around him. “Dragon’s Descent!” Joy shouted as he and all his spears fell from the sky, impaling each one of his enemies with pinpoint accuracy. “This is going to be fun.” Joy growled, the air dispersing as Joy donned a brand new set of Nothingness Armor, the entire set was designed as the Dragoon Nobody and it looked sleek and cool as hell. “Time to give this baby a test drive.” He grinned, dashing into the fray. Flying through the sky, Joy landed several kills on the enemy. It was a strange sensation, his predator side enjoyed the sight of the blood, but this was not the same as hunting a prey, this was a conflict, internally, but one Joy knew mattered not. This war was unavoidable, and blood was to be spilled. As they were targeting Nexus Ranged shooters, suddenly Joy was slammed into, the impact hurt, and regaining their balance in the air showed them their attacker. They were a Mech pilot, their machine a large version of something from a Power Rangers show, though the colors were far more plain. It’s design was so much more streamlined yet judging from the built in firepower, was meant to dish out and tank damage. “Well then.” Joy said while rolling his shoulders as he grabbed two spears. “Ready for me to tear apart that tin can of yours?” Their right arm opened slightly, showing panels that released a blade of dark energy, the other morphed into a rapidly spinning shooter. “Well then…” Joy started. “Good thing I brought my armor…” The wolf muttered as a sphere of bladed wind surrounded him as he flew forward fast as hell and tried to stab at it. Using their energy blade, the Nexus tanker clashed with Joy, pounding their shooter arm into Joy’s arm then kneeing them. The pilot then latched their arm around Joy, trying to raise the blade to Joy’s neck as they were resisting. “Rude.” Joy groaned as he willed the wind into the mech’s arm joint as it started to rip apart the delicate instruments that kept it actually working. When Joy felt it start to let go Joy teleported away from the mech and looked it over. “Hmm…” Joy frowned, bringing up one spear as it glowed a bright green. “Gungnir.” Joy muttered as he twirled it in his fingers before grabbing it, Nothingness pouring from the spear as he chucked it as hard as he could, the spear speeding towards the mech with a crap ton of force. Their bladed arm, broken and barely functional, the pilot dodged barely, using their shooter. The bullets were magic, and would curve and turn towards Joy as they tried to avoid. “Magic bullets eh?” Joy said. “Well let’s do this. Reflectja!” The wolf said as a sphere of scale like mirror’s appeared around him as they blocked all the bullets. “Alright...so let’s see how to break this thing open…” Joy muttered as he casted Scan on the thing to see if there was any other weaknesses besides the joints. “Thing hurts like a truck though…” Assistant Scan Assist Spell activated. Joy saw flash across his vision. “What?” Joy asked, wondering what that meant. Quickly gazing at his arm, he saw his Assistant was glowing… looking around, he saw everyone here who had an Assistant also had theirs glowing. The flash was fast, and no longer was the Assistant on his arm, rather a tattoo symbol was imprinted on their wrist. Also in their field of vision was a small Icon. Focusing on it, Joy was Text Appear. Welcome to the Assistant V 9.5784 Final Upgrade! Features include: Genetic binding so now they automatically pass along to your children. Advanced and simplified system storage Party Member information Shared inventory between spouses Automatic information scanning and display Hud customization in both display and appearance Active level progression reports Party member stats displayed Simplified, but still customizable personal stat display hud information. Enemy Automatic scanning and information display Weapon durability, stats, and upgrade menus openly available Enemy weapon stats, durability, available with scan Read +7,000,000,000,000,000,000 new features/Prior Upgrades! With that closed, Joy saw his own stats. Displayed as several bars in the top left corner. Health, MP, Stamina. On the bottom right he saw Lindworms Name, it’s Durability a red bar, showing it was actually a quarter of the way down. It also has a small green bar under it. Looking back at his own stats, the same small green bar was under all his stats. ”Experience?” They pondered, also seeing Lindworm was only Level one, which confused them. Looking back at their stats, Joy’s HP was halfway, their MP still high and stamina regenerating from a quarter of the way gone to full. “Well...that’s really cool.” Joy said with a growing grin, the wind around him sparkling as he glowed green, the young wolf seeing his HP goes up. “Thank god for Silver Wind…” Joy muttered as he grabbed two Spears. “Alright, after that, let’s get going.” Joy said before bolting forward and stabbing both spears into the mech powerfully. The Pilot’s stats appeared. Nexus combat Mech Model X7Y3 V.5.6 Durability 5,634/6,000 Att:8,500 Def:10,000 MP: 4,000 Pilot: Level 255 Att:97 Def:103 MP: 305 “Well then…” Joy muttered. “That’s really good to know.” Joy muttered as he stabbed the mech quickly and strongly. The mech Durability dropped a hundred points, emerging from the Mechs arm, a small shooter fired off into my thrusting arm, Joy’s Hp dropped into the yellow, and his armor durability also fell. Joy growled, backing away quickly as he raised a hand, the air his armor was producing due to his MP started to siphon off as green spears appeared around the mech. “Hell’s Impalement.” Joy growled as he closed his hand into a fist, all the spears shooting down into the mech from all directions. The impalements dropped it’s durability down greatly, two thousand points, bit it crackled with Electricity, shocking Joy hardly and making his Hp drop to orange. “Ow…” Joy muttered as he healed himself again quickly. “Rude…” Joy muttered as he noticed pieces of it were either cracked or small holes were made in it’s armor. “That’s good.” Joy muttered, seeing some spots he can attack when the time was right. Backing up some, the mech pilot shifted it’s shooter arm back into a hand, and began tearing off some of the broken ones paneling, rewiring it from the inside. It’s bladed arm moving easier now, then it raised it, the blade came back out, now easily three times as large and was pulsating. “Well...if you wanted to compensate for something that’s one way to do it.” Joy said honestly, preparing himself for the things attack as he healed himself again, going back into the green. The mech stilled for a bit, suddenly it’s boosters glowing fast as they suddenly charged Joy, seeing this, Joy raised to defend, the clash sent a shockwave out around the two. “Ah, there we go.” He said, using one of his armor’s special abilities and moving like a Dragoon Nobody would, as he slithered up it’s arm like a snake as he tried to stab and slash at the thing quickly. As Joy was stabbing at the pilot, they slashed off their helmet… a woman?! “Damned Wolf!” She cursed, shoving her shooter back into his chest and firing a hale of exploding bullets. “You know...it’s not nice for a lady to swear.” Joy said while the explosions were also hitting the mech due to how close she was to it. “You’re one to talk bitch.” She huffed. “At least I get some while you’re signing your own death wish.” Joy countered. “Like you’d care.” She muttered, the shooter arm glowing as she took aim. “Echo Shot!” Her shooter fired, the bullets fired glowed blue as they emitted sonic explosion, causing the wolf's ears to bleed. “You could always stop fighting and join our side…” Joy said as he packed off and drank an Elixir quickly, having all his HP and MP get back to full as his ears healed thankfully. “Ever hear the phrase ‘you were born with a purpose?’ We know ours from birth, you may despise Nexus but it’s my home and family, I am not betraying that like Krott did.” “Do you even know what your fighting for?” Joy asked honestly. “Honestly, do you know what your ‘family’ is fighting for?” “Destruction. The destruction of creation itself. All of them.” “And your just okay with that? To blindly head towards a goal that would lead to you basically killing yourself?” Joy asked honestly. She smirked. “Look around. Look at this battle. Look at all the dramatically different power scaling all around us. I’m weaker than you, yet this machine I wear keeps me equal to you, if not just under. This world, all of them are uneven and broken, unstable yet keeps existing. To erase it all is to finally level the playing field. To begin again, in a new world that makes itself without any fragment of the old!” “I mean...that could have happened before but with your answer…” He said while he took an idea from what Ben did as while she was talking bladed winds went into her. “Sadly your kind of done.” The wolf said as the lady felt like her entire insides were thrown into a blender on the highest setting. As she was coughing up the gallons of blood, she suddenly smirked. “Bloody echo bombs.” She said, splattering blood onto Joy as the explosion happened. Her blood exploded in a cloud of red smoke, blasting off the armor on Joy’s right arm and deeply gashing his arm. His HP was in the red, and the Assistant gave a warning. Health low Critical damage to right arm Blood loss risk: 72% “Ow…” Joy muttered while pulling out a special potion that he found in his spare time, an even better version of the Elixir named Gaea’s Tears. As he downed it he felt his arm healed up, his blood that was still on his arm flow back into his body and produce a bit more as his health maxed out again. “Thank...god I found this.” Joy muttered. “Ten million Rem well spent…” He muttered, seeing it was half full as he put it away quickly. “Little sad that my armor’s broke...but thankfully…” Joy said as he looked down, seeing nothingness thorns slowly reform the armor. ”Sadly takes a bit, even for an arm this would take about...maybe five ten minutes? Better than it not being able to regen at all…” Joy thought to himself as he flexed his healed right arm. “Alright...so there’s probably someone else here that I should worry about…” Joy muttered as he looked around carefully for anyone of interest. As they flew around, helping those struggling and taking out from heavy hitters, As they soared above they felt a sudden shift in the wind… a familiar shift- “Gah!” Joy hacked as something sliced through their leg. “Bitch!” Joy shouted as his leg healed up as he looked around for who just attacked him. Soaring some distance from them was someone wielding… Lindworm. The coloring was a purple red blend but the design was the exact same still. This person was dressed in something like Combat armor but designed like a Samurai. “Okay...so we have a copy cat here…” Joy frowned as he prepared himself. “That’s good to know.” Joy muttered as he checked the bastards stats and the like to make sure what he’s getting into. Nexus Agent: Tony Andrews. HP: 64,573 MP: 18,547 DEF: 9,300 Weapon Equipped: Lindworm V-71.5 Weapon Level: Max Weapon Upgrades: 20 Weapon Skill: Par. Att: 5,324 “Good to know…” Joy muttered as he rolled his shoulders, his armor back in top form as he prepared himself. “Alright faker, show me what you got.” As this Tony person soared around Joy, they noticed the air around then suddenly grow thin as suddenly ten Spears of his appeared, three struck Joy, the others missed, but they had a purple aura that gave Joy a sudden Poison status effect that was eating his health fast. “Poison?” Joy frowned as he used the air bubble his armor produced to cast Silver Wind on himself, healing him and the poison was going as well. “That’s not fair, I don’t have status ailments.” Joy said as he dashed swiftly towards Tony and put two spears together for extra range as he swung at him quickly. Tony raised a single finger, a Spear flying to meet Joy's attack. "Impact Shatter." Tony said, the tip of his spear glowing a bit struck between the two blades, breaking them back into two and slicing off Joy's left pinkie finger. Tony then moved their hand fast in seemingly random directions, their Spears forming a circle as magic symbols and matrixes filled it. "Dragons Wrath." They said, a spear shooting through the spell and emerging as a dragon, nearly biting off Joy's leg. Joy teleported away and panted. “Jeez...for a copy he’s kind of good.” Joy muttered as he saw his pinkie reform and his leg slowly heal. “Alright...let’s do something nifty.” Joy said as the air around the two seemed to get colder. “Four Winds: Boreas of the North.” Joy said, his Lindworm seeming to shift from it’s normal green glow to a harsh blue, Tony and his Dragon feeling as if the very air around them were freezing. “Icicle Crash.” Joy raised a hand as what would normally be bladed wind’s were actually paper thin ice shards flowing very fast towards him and the dragon, Tony noticing one of the ice shards passed right through his arm like it was nothing as cold pain shot into him and his dragon as more were on the way to meet him. "Is this your best wolf man?" Tony said, gripping him hand into a fist on his injured arm. "By the right of my Bloodline I order thee, slumbering Dragon, awaken." His dragon's body started becoming less magic and more physical. It's head now flesh it breathed out a bright blue fire that warmed the air to boiling and melted all of Joy's ice shards. "You think I'm the copy cat here? My family has been using Spears since before even your King existed. You have firepower, I'll give you that, but in terms of knowledge I outclass you." They said, their dragon now completely flesh. "These Copy Nothingness Spears are new to me, but their ancestors I know all too well. A spear is a spear, as is any weapon the same as you and your Kings council's weapons." “Sounds about right.” Joy said as his body seemed to...shift. “Four Winds, Eurus of the East.” Joy said as all his spears seemed to shrink and look more dagger like, the wind around the three seeming...off somehow as Joy moved in very weird ways. “Come on buddy, show me what you got.” Joy said with a grin. Raising a spear, Tony stood atop their dragon as it flew fast towards Joy, the Dragon’s mouth began to glow as blue fire made its way from its gullet. “Oh no you don’t.” Joy said as he bolted towards the dragon, Tony seeing Joy looked more like a drunk in his movements as he kicked the dragon’s jaw up to close it before the fire could escape. “Drunken Style combat? Is that your counter?” Tony asked, the Dragon opening its wings as a large Spell Matrix formed in front of them. It flapped, and spit it’s fire, the wind from the flap fueled the fire more and spread it out wide before Joy. “You apparently don’t know who Eurus is.” Joy said in a laid back tone, the air around them acting weirdly, the wind not spreading out like it should be and seeming to act like it was drunk itself. “He’s the God of the East Wind in Greek’s Realm...but in Greece, that apparently means bad luck.” Joy said as his fire ‘accidentally’ hit Tony and the Dragon as the spell tried to make heads or tails where to go as Joy leaped up and swung his shorter spears at Tony swiftly. “Luck? Is that the dragon god inside your spears?” Tony asked, deflecting the spear, but a slice across his cheek still. “No, it’s someone much older.” Joy said while he continued to swing in very awkward ways. “I can do a thing and show you if you want.” Joy said before floating away. “Too late.” He laughed before his armor seemed to glow. “Alright Old Man, have some fun.” Joy said as the armor seemed to fuse with Joy’s body, his entire body growing in size and mass, Joy’s body turning more into a dragon covered in Nothingness Armor. “Ah, that’s better.” The dragon’s voice hummed, it’s voice echoing with power as it stared at both Tony and his Dragon. “Well, a Blue Fire Dragon God...wait…” The dragon moved over to the young dragon. “You're the First...even though your a Third Generation Dragon…” The ancient wyrm chuckled. “Well, try to hit me. I want to see how well you and your new rider work.” “Big talk for a drake so old. How many parasites reside under your scales before you were shoved into your weapon?” Tony’s drake spoke in a low tone of voice, but it echoed with a deep seeded hatred. “I was known as Karseal, first born Dragon of Blue fire and hatred, first son of the sin of wrath.” The ancient dragon clapped. “I’m impressed, they actually gave you a name.” The old dragon taunted with a cheeky grin. “But given we’re introducing ourselves, I might as well tell you mine.” The dragon said. “I am Tempest, the First Wind Dragon, Born from the Admin of Breath and Admin of the Wind.” The dragon said simply. “And you two…” The dragon said as the air, even the air inside their own bodies, trembled as he bared his fangs. “Are fucked.” As Tony and Karseal struggled for air, Tony began to slice his hand, his blood hitting the drake as both of them seemed to have stopped breathing, making Joy raise an eyebrow. ”Okay so Ben and the Admin of Breath should be the only two that should be able to do that…” Joy mentally brought up. “Eh, would have been too easy.” Tempest said simply as he rolled his shoulders. “Alright, come at me, show me what the son of Wrath can do.” ”We’ll do one better.” Both Tony and Karseal spoke in the Psychopaths voice. ”My my, how much you have changed, little pup.” ”Wow, you people actually still exist.” Joy said in honest surprise. ”It’s been forever.” “Psychopaths huh?” Tempest hummed. “Well this’ll be interesting.” The dragon said simply. ”It’s been a while, since any of us got to make a move. Host after host, corpse after corpse. We’ve been getting transcended. After all, Vincent still upholds his deals.” They said, blood oozing out from both of it’s hosts as blood portals formed. ”So, let’s see just how much blood, stained those ancient claws.” Flooded out the portals was a melting pot of bloody covered beings, all whom Tempest remembered from prior battles. Friends, and Foe alike came at the old drake. The dragon looked around, seeing all the people that he killed and only shook his head. “I mean...if you want to see what I can do.” He said simply. “But shockingly, I’m stronger than in my Prime, thanks to my many wielders.” The dragon said simply as the dragon raised his claws at the ready. As the blood covered enemies charged at Tempest, the very ancient dragon stood there as several of them were cut to pieces from the very air around him, the dragon pouncing quickly and grabbing one of his old enemies, ripping it in half as he went straight for the Psychopaths, having learned from Joy and some personal experience that their blood constructs will keep coming if the main psychopath’s lived. Many tried to push him away from their spawner, some even managing to get hits in but with the First Generation Dragon’s power amplified by Joy’s and Nothingness, he shrugged it off quickly and continued to shred through his old friends and foes. “I haven’t had this much fun in years.” The dragon laughed, whipping his tail and cleaving through dozens of his enemies. “Let’s take a page out of Joy’s book. Njord’s Raging Storm.” The dragon said while a massive storm suddenly rippled across the dragon’s battle field, creating a sphere of bladed winds, soccer ball sized hail going at Force Five Tornado speeds, and other very terrifying storm like conditions ravaged everyone but Tempest inside. As the attack shredded or beaten several of his ancient enemies he rushed towards the two Psychopaths who were being shielded by others so they wouldn’t die as a translucent green mist formed in the dragon’s mouth, before he opened his mouth and a massive beam shot out and punched through the wall of constructs and hitting the Psychopath’s hard. “Come on, enough of your petty tricks, fight me yourselves, unless Psychopaths became cowards after these many many eon’s.” He said, looking over to see if Tony and his young Drake were still alive from his breath attack and the oncoming bladed winds and hail hammering into them. They shredded Tony and Karseal, even as Psychopaths the impact held enough force to tear apart their host bodies. Karseal faded back into their spear, the weapon cracked and breaking. After a bit, it broke, and Tony fell to the earth below. ”Well...I...didn’t know you were that strong…” Joy said worriedly. “There’s a lot you still don’t know about me young wolf.” The dragon said while staring down at the fallen enemy. “But your going to learn from this one battle...war isn’t going to be pretty.” He said while flying off towards where Krot is. With the battle finally over The survivors were split into groups, mainly one entering the base and the other picking up the bodies of their fallen comrades. Joy and Krot stood overviewing it all. “I have seen and been in many battles in my lifetime. This one holds a particular bittersweetness for me.” “What do you mean?” Joy asked, having reverted back from his shared form. “I hated what Nexus had become, hated what Vincent had twisted it into, but on the other hand it was my home, where I was born, my family. I can’t tell you how many former friends I saw on this battlefield alone today, killed by our troops or myself. The realness of this conflict has finally hit me, and I know now, I’ve lived just too long. To live long enough for my friends and family to become my enemies. What cruel fate.” “Time can do that to anyone.” Joy sighed out while looking at all the injured. “How...many did we lose?” “Roughly three forths.” Krott said. “A large loss, but this battle was won.” Joy sighed out. “It...should have been less…” Joy muttered sadly. “The dead should be respected at least...even our enemies.” Joy said. “To show that...if there’s any of your friends on their side see’s we actively give a damn about them...maybe they can side with us?” “I doubt it. Loyalty runs deep in Nexus. But thank you Joy. Now then, Let’s head inside, see the spoils of victory.” “Let’s hope they didn’t turn on that Dream thing…” Joy said nervously. “So...lead the way my friend, since you know the lay out and stuff.” Following Krott inside the building, they searched the archives room, finally finding the D.R.E.A.M Project files. “Here it is... “ Krott said, plopping four large boxes of papers and audio logs onto the table Joy was at. “What should we do?” “Well I’m going to take a gander at what all this H.P. Lovecraft crap is going on with this from what you explained.” Joys aid while going through some of the papers and reading them to figure out what went wrong. Entery Number: [REDACTED] Subject six shows early signs of the metamorphosis. Their flesh has begun to molt, replaced with the unknown substance of Subjects four, two, and one. Subject six so far still holds their identity in hand, though memories have begun fading rapidly, their name and family members have already been forgotten. Subject six has has their skeleton replaced with Code infused crystalized Plasma, this seems to have at least given their body a frame to move with the new substance replacing their flesh. Subject six has spoken of seeing the other side, seeing the same as the others, white walls and a single door. They speak of this other place as looking like that described in insane asylums. They speak of the person whose eyes they see though screaming at them, threatening them to leave their body and never return. Communication of this degree is so far, normal. Subject six’s diet has also changed, once a race that ate mainly omnivore diets, they now have the same cannibalistic desires as the other subjects. Subject six alone eats Ten fully grown humans a day. When exposed to more of the serum, Subject six embraced it, stating the burning calmed them. “I mean...what?” Joy asked, making sure he read that right. “Okay so...blank walls and one door, while a crazy man is screaming at them...uh...” “I told you, what data was collected is all nonsense.” Krott said. “The whole thing was a loss and a nightmare.” “Well...let me ask, were the subjects anything special? Like any powers or status? Or were they just normal people?” Joy asked curiously. “They all had one thing in common. Their ancestors. You see, there was a group long ago who roamed creation, discovering everything this reality had to offer. They often spoke of their home, a place above this reality. They vanished as suddenly as they arrived, but left behind families and children. Their names were never known, not even time travel has revealed that.” “Hmm...ancient travelers…” Joy hummed. “So...wait, Nexus tried to go to their Creation?” Joy asked with a frown. “I mean...this is sounding more like the Beyonders from Marvel at this point…” “Wherever it was, it’s unreachable to us.” Joy took a moment. “But...you haven’t had someone like Ben or me go there.” Joy brought up. “Hmm.” Krott huffed, searching through files before finding something and handing Joy this file. “That’s what happens after injection one.” Joy looked at the photo… and threw up… a lot... “The fuck!” Joy barked in disgust. “The fuck is that!?” “That was Subject six. Twenty four year old male, human, average across the board.” “Average...that’s what I’m kind of getting at here.” Joy coughed. “Me and Ben aren’t normal, or average in anyway shape or form...so something different can happen.” Joy brought up. “Either way, not risking it.” Krott said, sparking fire magic in his hand then igniting the boxes. “The only remnant of that project was Subject Zero, and she’s been missing for twelve years.” He said, making sure it all caught fire. “Who’s...Subject Zero?” Joy asked. “I’m just...curious.” “Subject Zero was a skitsofrenic female, age fourteen, and the best one of results. She broke out and, well, not long after the project was scrapped. All photos of her were erased, no name was ever recorded, she’s just… gone.” “And yet you know her name.” Joy said. “So please...what’s her name? Cause for some dumbass reason...either me, Ben, or one of our merry band of Keybladers know who she is.” “The only name I knew her by the one time I was at that Mother-Forsaken place was Sandra.” Joy thought for a bit, wondering if he heard that name before. “Well...I don’t know the name, but I’m sure someone would know.” He said honestly. “Or something’s cause ancient item’s could just ignore ‘destroyed knowledge’.” Joy brought up. "So...let's check everything else out." “On your own time. Right now we need to catalogue the rest of the stuff.” Before Krott could take his leave one of the Templars came running in. “Krott! Sir! There’s something you need to see!” “Oh boy, wonder what that’ll be.” Joy said. “Nothing can go wrong from hearing that.’ Krott and Joy rushed following the Templar down to the storage area. Here they found what the fuss was about. It was a small dark chest, special locks covered it all around. “By the Mother…” Krott said, walking over towards the chest. “How?” “Okay so...a smaller black box…” Joy started. “Yeah that doesn’t bode well if history has shown what black boxes can hold.” “This could be very, very useful.” Krott said, looking it over. “We just need to figure out which one it’s linked too so they can open it…” “Okay so I don’t know what this is, all I know is that this is probably something very important.” Joy said. “And who’s linked to this?” “This, is a blueprint box for one of the C.R.I.P.T. projects. Once one is made the blueprints are locked and linked to the project person, and only they can open it. These should all largely be in Base Majesty.” Krott said. “And yet someone…” Joy took a moment and smelled someone...familiar. “Wait…” Joy moved over and sniffed the box. “Ben?” Joy blinked in surprise. “But that’s...wait…” Joy muttered, bringing up his new Assistant and showing a new hologram window for everyone as he tried to write down what the scent...seemed to tell him. It showed four weapons, a spear, a bow, a sword, and a shield. “Shield Hero?” Joy asked. “Huh...I mean, I heard the new seasons are coming out…” Joy said, one of his many mates were really into Anime and Manga so he heard about it at least. “Well...we might have a general area, but time and position is beyond me.” “This was left here on purpose. How and who we can talk about later, right now all I know for certain is that this must be one of the more powerful projects. This box is very similar to Cript’s.” “Well...we better not make it too obvious we have some info our enemies don’t want us to know.” Joy said. “So I suppose this might be a solo mission unless you already have super spies already searching that planet?” “First we have to figure out which. Once we hack into this bases computers I can run a DNA scan across all those worlds versions. We’ll get a world and general location based on the DNA signature that chest is giving off. After that it’s a matter of searching on foot.” “Sounds good.” Joy said while looking at the box again. “Why is Ben’s scent on this?” He muttered. “Huh…” Krott said, feeling along the box. “Nothingness has been left here, it’s Ben’s but… older, stronger.” “Future Ben?” Joy wondered. “I mean...I learned some weird things from his own memories but…” Joy scratched the back of his head, so confused on why this was a thing. "Question is, are they an ally or enemy?" “Well we better find them before the bad guys do to make sure he’s a good guy.” Joy said simply as he headed off to find Ben to help him search. To be continued... Nobody meets new people“Okay, so your saying Future Me handed you a box?” I asked Joy as the two of us were waiting for Krot to come back with his DNA test. "More like placed it." Joy said. "It was just there, no other signs he was there other than residual Nothingness and a Scent left on the box." “Well...I mean the main reason for them to have traveled back is kind of pointless because of what happened here so…” I said, trying to think of what their next move might be. “Maybe they want to help?” I asked sheepishly, not really knowing what they might do. "The future they came from no longer exists, yet they are still here. I remember reading something about that, something Speedsters can do, Time Remnants, versions of them that stick around to ensure specific events take place as to not alter time. They have to have know even just arriving here would have altered so much." “And yet that is also incorrect because those timelines can still exist.” I brought up. “We just went down a different channel in the massive river of Time...nothing said that their future doesn’t suddenly not exist.” "Still, up to a certain point the flow of time here should have affected them up until a certain point when their future is no longer yours. So… likely they have their own No Heart, most likely is a Den Mother also… we can't trick them though, anything we do here now, especially with you around they will remember. Whatever they are here for we can't fight them to figure out cause they'll remember everything you did." “There entire thing was keeping Eclipsa...alive…” I said as I slightly panicked. “I...I hope to god that’s not the case…” I muttered worriedly, fearing what my mind just immediately went to. “But...sooner or later, we’re going to have to fight them...even if their on our side...they need some fucking catharsis and maybe some push to lead to something that’ll make them go home...cause seriously these random splitting headaches and memories are getting a little annoying.” "How much of an overthinker do you have to be to call out the BS on your future most self being here?" Joy asked with a cheeky smile. "Either way, we'll need an edge." “You need to be fucking Batman level’s of overthinking, and trust me, I do that.” I said honestly. “And an Edge? Well currently the fact that Eclipsa’s still alive and can’t die through normal means.” I started. "Do we ever experience anything normal? Speaking of, when are you… gonna have your first litter?" “Soon…” I said with a little shrug. “It’s still a...weird thing that’s coming up ya know?” "I already gave birth so trust me, I know. Ever since Jenny talked me into this whole both genders things I've been seeing things in a new light but also still liking my typical likes." “I know I know.” I said while gently patting Joy’s head. “God...so many things are happening...” "Yeah. But hey, at least we aren't alone facing it all. I also have a MUCH deeper respect for women now cause birthing… hurts… like seriously, your Kidney stones were like a pin prick by comparison." “Just be glad I took something instead of actually having to get rid of a bigger one.” I rolled my eyes. “That still sucked…” "Yeah… Man I already miss them a lot. I had five… as a start…" Joy said with a blush. “Well already then.” I nodded. “Glad your happy with it all Joy.” "Heh. Weird being a mom and a dad but hey, it teaches you a lot." "Finally got it." Krott said, entering the room. He handed me a tracker. "This is loaded with their DNA signature. The world and area has been found." “Cool.” I nodded while taking the tracker. “Now we just need to head over there and make sure the bad guys don’t get to him first. Is there anything about this Cript we should know about before heading out?” "Other than the fact they are old." “How old?” I asked curiously. "From carbon dating the DNA and box itself I'd say little over a thousand years. How they are even alive is beyond me. This C.R.I.P.T isn't immortal." “I mean...there is a thing called ‘Ageless’ ya know?” I asked. “They can die from everything else but Age.” "Somehow I doubt that." “Well it’s at least a possible answer.” I brought up. “So anyways, let’s go find us an old Cript.” I said while opening a DTN to the correct world and area the guy was in. Upon arriving we were in a Forest. Seeing the tracker was leading along the road we kept to it. “I really need to watch a shit ton of anime...I’ve just been too busy.” I sighed out. "When Jenny isn't screwing or off on a hunt she's binge watching anime with the others. I think she's watching One Piece at the moment?" Joy thought back. “Did that ever end?” I asked curiously. “Cause last I checked it was still going back in 2012.” “No… No it has not ended…” Joy huffed. “Multiverse, when one realities version ends she hops to another's where it kept going.” “Oh dear lord.” I chuckled. “She’s really into it isn’t she?” “Especially the Hentai version…” “Dear lord.” I sighed out. “Now...Robin maybe best woman in the show but still.” “Either way I did see a few episodes of the anime this world is based on. First up, oldest Princess is a bitch, king is an asshole, and Shield Hero is best hero because the others are all seriously lacking common sense. Also expect to be racially hated cause a lot of people in this world hate anthros.” “I mean...we can turn back into a human and not cause a panic or I can just throw the ‘I rule you’ at them...probably gonna have to go with the latter though…” I sighed out. “They likely have no idea, even if they do that king and church are such assholes they are keeping that fact under wraps.” “So where’s the Queen? Cause so far it sounds like the King and many others really need Adult Supervision at this point.” I brought up. “Show never says exactly, King’s royal fuck up left her to fix up diplomatic issues all around their allies, so she’s away long enough for this plan to nearly succed. Nearly, arrives just in time and epic kill the bad guys. Well the church nut at least.” “And hey presto, the entire church is burned to the ground because their entire faith has been proven wrong by two people.” I frowned. “Can’t wait to laugh at how everything falls apart because we’re here, also...why do I have this weird feeling that there’s still something...important about this world?” “Dunno, haven’t read the manga and the Anime is still in development.” “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “Gonna have to keep that in mind...cause normally my ‘bad feelings’ normally lead to something.” I shrugged while we got closer to the capital. “Ten bucks said they immediately point weapons at us.” “No doubt but ten more says you immediately start flexing you’re powers just to show off.” “If you say so.” I said honestly while the two of us walked up to the front gate where guards were. “Howdy.” I waved to the guards. “Halt.” The two guards said, blocking the pathway. “What’s two demi-humans doing here?” I pulled out a scroll and handed it to them. “I am here to check up on the King and Queen of this country, because I’ve heard rumors one of the countries I rule over is under attack by these ‘Waves’.” I said honestly. The guard took the paper, looking it over. “Huh… The Queen is away on diplomatic business, the King is here, however, you can discuss your business with him and letters will be sent off to the Queen.” “Sounds simple enough.” I nodded. “Thank you, may we pass now?” “There’s a toll for entering the capitol, business or pleasure. Fifty gold.” The other guard said smugly. “Is extortion illegal here?” I asked while using my upgraded Assistant to check the Laws of this country. “Pay up.” Joy said, tossing a large pouch at the guards as he dragged me through them. “Have to flex, have to dive into the issue and make it worse.” Joy chuckled.. “So a legitimate question count’s as ‘flexing’?” I asked seriously. “All I’m saying is that you can never just play along, never let anything slide, if it bugs you you poke at it until it it’s shape or answer suits you. No matter how trivial.” “Hey, not my fault they were both being racist and actively breaking the law and damn near trying to start a war with their ruling court.” I explained simply. “Yes, that’s the point, not your fault, not your issue, if they want to be dicks, then show them up by following their rules. They were not expecting us to have the coin, you clearly didn’t see their faces, plus they have to explain that gold to their superiors.” “Dude...I literally only asked ‘is extortion illegal’...” I said slowly. “So...who’s making this an issue when I didn’t know the laws here?” “The guy who should guess given my earlier explanation basically says this place is completely corrupt.” Joy countered. “Better to know how corrupt it is besides the whole ‘it’s corrupt’.” I said honestly. Joy rolled their eyes, the two of us looking around as he took out the scanner. “So this guy should be around here someplace.” “Let’s hope it’s not far, because this place is pretty big.” I brought up. “So where to before people start getting pitchforks?” “Depends on if this is during or after what’s out in the Manga/Anime.” Joy said. “Something tells me someone from the show is going to be involved somehow.” “Does it involve hearing someone shout ‘attack the shield hero’?” I asked, the two of us hearing a commotion from a very bitchy lady. “I think I know this episode…” Joy said, the two of us rushing off to the source of the noise. We arrived to see a young girl scolding an older bitchy lady, and a man with a Spear. Joy took out the locator. “It’s… pointing at Spear Hero?” “You sure?” I asked, looking over the Spear Hero. “He is very...underwhelming in a lot of ways.” “Also, all the other Cript’s looks like each other. He doesn’t, but the Locater is pointing right at him.” Joy said, the little girl and Shield hero leaving, the Spear and bitch left grumbling, or rather, Spear was grumbling while Bitch was ranting. “Can we knock them out please? And maybe that thing is broken because I’m not getting any ‘Cript like’ vibes from the blonde...but his Spear on the other hand…” I frowned. “What’s special about his Spear?” I asked. “I only know from a quick glance four weapons are magic, but not how magic.” “The show doesn’t really know either. A shopkeeper used a spell to analyze Shield Hero’s shield in the first episode, he got nothin off it at all, other than some unidentifiable magic. But as far as he could tell, nothing impressive. From what I know they all have the same basic abilities. Copt other weapons, absorb parts from items and monsters to make unique versions of their weapon, craft items, etc.” Joy said. “As for how they work or even how they were made, it’s all still unknown.” “Sounds about right.” I nodded. “So...you want to do the honors of shutting her up or should I?” I asked curiously, getting honestly rather pissed at her bitching. “By shutting her up you mean keeping her asleep right?” “Honestly anything that can shut her up would be for the best.” I sighed out. “Honestly, people actually take her seriously?” “I have an idea that should work. Just hope she doesn’t get pissed…” Joy said, taking out a No Name Keyblade. He raised it, the hourglass began to spin as everyone and everything slowed down to a halt. I noticed Joy was holding my hand. Once the hourglass stopped he let go. “There, we got two hours. Well, two hours for us compared to everyone.” “Cool.” I said. “And thank you for shutting her up...seriously, how does anyone not think she’s just a raging thunder cunt?” “Royalty in this world has all the princesses/Queens have the authority, the king is more of a figure head, whose power is only minimal to none and heavily limited. Princesses are second only to the queen, her status of royalty and this kingdom total respect of women makes her personality or even ethics makes her only undermined by her sister, that little girl and the one to inherit the crown, and her mother.” “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “So let’s figure out if her whipping boy is Cript or not.” “Fun fact, rape is punishable by death here.” Joy said, walking over to Spear Hero. “They respect the hell out of women here. Earth could have learned… everything given it’s history.” “Oh don’t be all Feminist on me, as you can clearly see this is one of the many downsides that that shit can cause.” I said while pointing to the red head. “And let me guess, she accused Shield man of rape when she jacked all his shit?” “Breaking the fourth wall or just a guess?” Joy laughed. “You literally brought up rape is illegal, and she tried to have one hero that’ll save the world attack the other...gee, I wonder.” I rolled my eyes. “The reason is not fully known though, which is odd.” Joy shrugged. He placed No Name atop Spear Hero’s chest as his body began to glow. “Once he’s with us, we’ll lose an hour, but it will be enough.” ”Alright, but I have a feeling that the guy will be so confused...or try to hit on us...or both.” I frowned. Once the glow completely covered him, he took a fast, deep breath then looked around. “What-where?! Who are you?!” He said, jumping back, spear drawn. “Relax blondie, we’re not here to fight.” I said. “My names Ben, and this is my brother/sister Joy, mind if we ask who you are? Because currently we’re searching for someone and we’re being led to you.” “Well, I mean I am a hero after all.” He said, his fear/anger replaced with bravado as his posture relaxed. “Is there something some rather uniquely lovely ladies like you need?” “Hey, how did I know whipping boy would try and flirt with us.” I rolled my eyes. “Have you heard of the name ‘Cript’?” I asked simply. “Cript? Is that a monster or a bad guy? Name sure sounds like it.” Spear hero said, looking confused. “Cript… It does sound familiar.... I think Mine read that name in a book at the castle library. Yeah, yeah! That was the name of the original Spear Hero. Cript the Piercer.” I opened my mouth to say something...then closed it...then raised a hand to try and say something again...then lowered it as I sighed out, not sure how to respond to that title.. “Joy...point the locator at the Spear…” I pinched the bridge of my nose in annoyance. Joy did just that, the machine going off like an alarm. “Can we see your spear?” Joy asked. “Can’t.” He said, lifting the spear horizontal, opening his hand, and the spear sticking like a magnet. “Can’t take our weapons off, none of us can. They stick to us like glue.” I put a hand on the spearhead as energy slowly entered it. “Alright you, time to wake up. We’ve got shit to do.” I said, focusing my power to waking up this Cript. The gem on it began glowing a bright green, suddenly, emerging from the light, clad in light padded leather armor came out… asian Cript? “Fuck… Who hit me?” They said. Hey! They sound just like Ling from Full Metal! “I swear if it was Sword I’m tossing him off the church again…” “Welcome back to the Awake World, you’ve been a Spear for god knows how long.” I said. “So we have a lot to talk about.” “Huh?” He said, looking over at Spear hero, who looked surprised. “Oh shit, I was replaced?” “Wait! The king said the old heros were dead! If you’re alive then… how was I summoned?!” Spear asked. “You said I was in the spear’s gem… Who are you two?” “I’m Ben, this is Joy.” I said while motioning to Joy. “And yeah we have...several problems, so let’s start with who you are, if I may ask, because so far I know about two Cript’s, Cript himself and Zeke.” “Oh, Cript was my Hero name, the real names Krite.” He said, pointing a thumb at himself. “I got the name Cript by killing an entire Krypt of Undead. Course if Sheild wasn’t there I’d have died then and there.” “Wait, you and the old Shield hero were… friends?” Spear asked. “Hell yeah! The four of us were always friends since infancy. Grew up in the same orphanage, ran in our own guild for a while then we got our weapons. Hey speaking of.” Krit said, looking over to Spear and raising a hand, the Spear leaping from him over to Krite. “Looks about right.” I nodded, not surprised the Spear went back to its original owner.. “So, want to know how this country apparently really hates the Shield Hero cause religion?” I asked Krite. “What? Don’t tell me those nuts actually founded that Three Hero’s church? Fucking hell those assholes…” Krite sighed. “Man, I know Sheild wanted to be hated but god damn.” “Wait, what?” Spear asked. “The first Shield hero, my friend. Out of all of us, he was the strongest. He might not have had damage but damn if anything could break his defence it’s not of this world. He kept us safe and alive in the most deadly of battles. But, he hated being liked. He acted like a jerk all the time despite that’s not how he was, and he did things that while in the long run good he knew would bite him in the ass later purposefully. He always felt the world should hate him, so he made sure it would. The only ones he was ever kind to was the Demi-Humans. Which, makes sense.” “So would you hate the church and this lady more that, and I quote,” I started as I looked up the Shield Hero Wiki. “Myne, a princess of this country, stole everything from the current Shield Hero and falsely accused him of rape, a crime punishable by death, but kept him alive out of a combination of ‘he should help save the world and out of spite while the other hero’s blindly agreed to the outlandish lie’.” I explained. “I might have done some hyperbole but that’s basically what happened.” “Oh, those fuckers are gonna pay for that.” Krite said, cracking their knuckles. “And you can start with her whipping boy here.” I motioned to the current Spear Hero. “I mean, the story is actually a lot worse when you dig deeper but I kind of thought ‘Day One’ events would do the trick.” “Well then, what should we do with him then?” Krite asked, looking over at Spear Hero. “I can tell just by looking at him he’s just an arrogant pretty boy with a hero complex.” “Well I just want to ask.” I started while turning to the Spear Hero. “What in your right mind caused you and the other two to believe the literal walking trash fire that is that lady?” I asked while pointing at her. “She’s the princess! Why wouldn’t I have? We were here for barely a day or two when it all happened, hell we’re not even from the same version of earth, we didn’t know each other or this world, only one we trusted was the one in charge since that’s all we could do at the time.” Spear said. “You do know that she’s not even the rightful heir, plus the king is just a figurehead right?” I asked honestly. “The heir part I knew, the king part… no, no one ever told me that.” “Yeah, the Queen was off doing diplomatic stuff because the King fucked up.” I said. “Also, you had the power to stop this, you three did because you, sword and bow hero’s are treated as literal Jesus Figures, your word would have stopped all of this. If you just took a moment and agreed with the guy that was falsely accused for something terrible. Don’t need to be from different worlds to be a decent human being and defend someone being falsely accused.” I frowned. “I should know.” “Given what we heard about the first Shield hero, it was kinda hard to know what or who to trust when the accusation came up.” “Fair enough…” Krite said. “So because ‘Man has Shield’ equals ‘he’s literally Satan’...” I took a deep breath. “Where’s the church? I have some...choice words with the head priest about this…” “Just look for the huge fancy building made of gold. Can’t miss it.” Spear said. “Sorry, normally that would describe the actual castle.” I said honestly. “Where are the Sword, Bow and Shield hero currently? Cause right now the other three need to be here to hear the massive explanation.” “No idea where Bow is, he’s been all over the damned place is the rumors are to be believed. As for Sword he’s in Loot village, from what I heard he’s gathering some information on the price of property in the different towns, as for shield, he’s here in the capitol. You can find him in the Adventurers supply shop a block away from here typically.” Spear said. “Thank you.” I nodded. “Now just remember...this is real life, not a game.” I told him ominously before looking to Joy. “Joy, go get Bow and Sword, given you know more about this world than me, I’ll go talk to Shield about all this...better to have the Hero’s know what’s going on before me and Krite decide to destroy an entire religion.” Joy managed to find Bow and grabbed Sword, I met up with shield hero and after some blunt words, to which he actually respected me for being blunt over formal, we all broke apart the church, destroyed that false versions of the weapons they wanted to use to kill the heroes with, killed the pope, got the Queen back over here, then threw the king and Myne into prison cells for, well, life. I don’t know how the queen can still care for them… then again, family… part of me understands, and part doesn’t. “Well, that was fun.” Krite said. “Now what?” “I’m curious.” I said while looking towards the four heros and the queen. “While we were cleaning up, I decided to do more digging...why are their humans in the Waves?” I asked curiously. “That’s simple.” the queen said. “We are not the only world experiencing them. The waves are… tears, between worlds, the violent energy the tear produces while open spawns those monsters, on both sides. How to stop them, at least on our side, is to have the four heroes battle them, each wave is to be won by them.” “So basically Hell is trying to take over?” I asked. “And...humans on another world have somehow figured out how to travel with the Waves?” “I’m unsure. How they are made or even how they open is unknown. All we do know is that it has something to do with negativity.” “Well...might as well check…” I said while my Code flew up and brought up the worlds ‘Elements’ like from a computer as I started to check through things. “I know it’s around here somewhere…” As I was searching, suddenly my searching was stopped, my ‘screen’ suddenly flashing red as the words NICE TRY were plastered across it. As well as poop emojis… “I just wanted to know what caused the waves...asshole.” I frowned as I closed it. “Well apparently there’s something more here than I thought.” ”It’s not that hard.” A voice echoes from somewhere, it was...familiar… ”But I know coding, and hacking much better than you ever will.” “Again, just wanted to know what the cause was...douche.” I said while preparing to fight whoever was that. “But who are you?” ”Oh, now is that any way to talk to me, Diane?” “How do you know that name?” I asked with a frown. ”Oh I know everything about who you were. How could I ever forget. I remember you and your sisters little ‘activities’, meeting Zeke, your pregnancy, the warehouse you held up in after your mother and father kicked you all out. Your death at Zeke’s grandfather's hands.” “Alright, who are you?” I growled. “Cause all of that...you shouldn’t know about.” ”Awh, struck a nerve? You always were such the… touchy type. So much rage and worry, fear and bravado, what a mixed bag you were.” “They’ll be needing a bag for your corpse after I’m done with you.” I growled. “Show yourself!” ”Show myself? how can I? I don’t exist anymore. Nore can I ever again.” “Who are you then?” I asked with a frown. “Cause...you sound familiar...but I don’t know who you are…” ”Do I? Well, at least I still have my voice then. I’m surprised you don’t remember it either. Oh well, I’ll give you a hint then. Go home, home to earth. You’ll figure out who I was. And if you still have your analytical brain, you’ll remember who I was.” “I have literally two people’s worth of memories, and Earth is, last time I checked, still a destroyed barren wasteland.” I frowned. ”Then search the remains. pick at the skeleton of your former home.” The voice stopped, and suddenly the sky turned red. “A wave?! It’s early!” Shield said. “Why didn’t we warp!?” “Why would you need to warp...when your already at the Wave…” I said while drawing No Heart. “We need to evacuate now!” I barked, not sure what this Wave might have in store but fearing for the populace. “And don’t be all ‘the boss is my kill’, cause if you treat this like a game your not worthy of holding your weapons.” I growled at the bow, sword and spear heroes. “I like this wolf.” Shield said. “Well, time to get some practice in.” Krite said, taking a guards Spear, then, the gem on his glowed and the guards spear became a copy of his. He tossed the copy to Spear hero. “That is you’re replacement.” Krite said, charging out of the castle. “Didn’t really know that was a thing but sure.” I said. “Neither did I.” Spear said. “Alright, I’ll go check on the market.” “I’ll nest atop the castle.” Bow said. “I’ll guard the gates.” Sword said. “I’ll go lead the people to the castle for safety.” Shield said. The four leading out to their locations. “Yeah, after someone gives them a reality check they actually work together…” I chuckled. “Sounds about right, Joy?” I asked, looking down. “Know what to do?” “I’ll fly around and deal with the ariel enemies.” Joy said, summoning Lindworm and taking off. “Good.” I nodded. “Queen Melromarc? Know how to fight or are you going to try and direct your troops?” I asked the, honestly pretty hot, Queen. “I shall send orders, and I’ll meet the rest of your outside once my armor is worn.” She said, getting up and heading off. So she fights too… best Queen ever. “Lady after my own heart.” I chuckled while opening the window and looking outside to see how bad things are. “Wave is early...and it’s at the capital...who the hell is that girl…” I muttered, trying to sift through all my memories of Diane to see how I remembered that voice. “After this....I’ll head to earth…” I muttered, bringing out Sharpshooters and firing at monsters that tried to attack civilians. The battle was… good. Though, from what Joy told me it’s typically Undead and demons that are in the waves, not Shadow Creatures and other various offworld monsters. Krite downed a diamond scaled dragon in one blow. That was cool. the fighting lasted three hours, and sadly… a few hundred people did die. The queen, against my personal ideals, gave the former king and Myne more luxury in their cells then they deserved. But, her family, her prisoners. What or whoever this voice was, has to be something akin to, or is an admin, given they blocked my code. I sighed out. “Well...better to figure it out than just stand here doing nothing.” I muttered while opening a DTN back to Earth. “Joy? Mind talking to the Queen about...everything she’s probably missed?” “Sure. You head off and figure this stuff out.” “Thanks.” I said while kneeling down and hugging Joy. “Thanks...for being here with me bro.” I said gently before letting go and heading back to Earth, hoping to figure this out before it becomes a big problem. Here again. Back on earth, walking through my Colorado hometown… from Diane’s life. It was pretty well intact. Most of the buildings still stood, and some cars still had ‘skin’ on them. Not much ever happened here. “It’s been hundreds of years...I’m surprised shit hasn’t been turned to dust...but plant life is certainly brightening things up.” I said, seeing that what used to be just barren and dead, I saw patches of green slowly growing over buildings and cars. “Alright...where to start…” I muttered, trying to remember where to go. The best placed seemed to be… home. “Well...let’s hope the place is still standing…” I muttered as I flew off to find Diane’s...my old home. Finding it, I saw it looked almost untouched by time. Paint was gone, barley flakes, windows cracked but holding, and the door was boarded up… and Dad’s favorite car was still parked in the drive, covered with its cloth protector… I wonder… I gently moved over and took the cover off the car, wondering if his old car was still in working order. The once shiny metal was now faded, rusting in some parts. It looked good still. Battery and gas have to be gone though… Lifting the hood up, I managed to use Foudre to give the battery charge, then bought a few gallons of gas from my assistant, the canisters appearing before me as I poured it all in. the key was still under the drivers seat. After a few struggles the engine roared, I could tell from memories of dad working on this thing it still needed a lot of work… but it lived. This already antique car was alive way later. Smiling, I checked the glove compartment for those sunglasses he always kept in here and inside was… a note? “Oh?” I hummed while taking the note. “Wonder what this could be…” I muttered while opening it and starting to read. Dear Diane, Marcy, I know you two must hate us, we kicked you out over your life choices and love interests. You have every right to want us to never see you, and after what we said to you two, I don't blame you. I have left my Will unchanged, Diane, this car is yours. I know how much you loved watching me work on it while you played in the front yard, and Marcy, the house is yours. And, well, Zeke already has you two, but tell him my grandfather's old revolver is his. Live a normal, happy life, as normal as you can, and keep out of trouble. I love you both, my little princesses. -Dad. As I was crying I knew… this shouldn’t be here… I wasn’t Diane when…. how is this here? “Dad…” I muttered while looking at the house. “Mom...what the hell...this isn’t right…” I muttered while heading into the house. “Maybe...something in here will answer something…” As I entered I noticed even more wasn’t… right. Photos of Marcy and I are decorating the wall, our room was here, all our old things, covered in dust and times age. Hey, my old doll. I picked up the old toy, the toy so aged it looks as if it is going to fall apart, it’s red dress still bright, brown hair still curly, button eyes still the bright blue. “Jesus...what the hell is going on…” I muttered while gently casting a spell to fix the doll, wanting to...bring this back for my family. I started looking around, seeing my parents room, the bed made nicely, clothes set up for the day, what is going on here? “Everything is wrong...none of this should be here…” I muttered. “Seriously lady, who are you? And what did you do to bring this all back?” I asked, continuing to search the house for any other clues. As I was heading back downstairs I began smelling someone… someone very, very familiar. " You're getting me, so many things, lately," That… that voice… I rushed to the nearest window. They were wearing torn up clothes, carried a backpack as Dusty as they were and was dragging a wagon full of stuff… Marcy?! She noticed the car's cover was off, then drew out Grandpa's gun. “Marcy? Wait, but Eclipsa’s back home, what the fuck is going on…” I muttered in panic, moving down the house and trying to get to her. I shapeshifted into Diane to maybe show I’m not a threat as I exited the house. “Marcy?” I asked. “What are you doing here?” She dropped the gun, rushing up and hugging me tightly. "Diane! Oh thank God I thought it was just Zeke and I!" “The hell are you talking about? You should be back at home with Zeke and the kids.” I said in confusion. "Kids? Diane, you were the one who was pregnant, speaking of where were you? Do you remember anything? Last thing I remember was Zeke and I decorating the warehouse and then… I woke up in the house and Zeke was in the backyard for some reason. Oh my gosh wait till he comes back! He's out hunting right now, he'll be back in like an hour tops!" “Marcy…what are you talking about?” I asked. "I guess you wouldn't know." Marcy said, taking a seat on the yard furniture. "I don't know what happened but, one moment Zeke and I were just decorating our new home. Then we were here. Mom and dad's house but, the whole world was… this. Dead. Mostly anyway. When we woke up it was just Zeke and I. That was a week ago." “And that should be impossible cause you and Zeke are back at the Castle, with Cript and Jericho and our...billions of kids…” I explained. "... Did you hit your head?" Marcy asked. I was about to say something...but took a moment. “Wait...what day was the date before you woke up here?” I asked. "July sixteenth, twenty eleven?" Marcy said confused. I took a deep breath. “Okay...I know the problem...let’s wait for Zeke to appear cause...I have a lot of explaining to do…” "I think I can call him." Marcy said, heading over to the garage. She opened it as it revealed many, many… many boxes of weapons. "There was a flare gun here somewhere. Thank God Zeke's family hid armories everywhere." I raised a hand and shot a flare up into the air, using the ‘Signal’ spell to help give Zeke a call. “There, that should get his attention.” I said. “So...have you and Zeke met any undead?” "Those ghosts and stuff? Some. There's more heading into the city but there's only like, five here and they stick to their places… also… how did you… what?" “There’s a lot of things you don’t know about...and even fewer things are about to make sense.” I said honestly. "...What?" I brought both hands together and spread them, the words ‘Magic’ appeared in the middle as it sparkled. "... What?" “So yeah~.” I finished my explanation to both Marcy, and Zeke who just got back with food as he was still currently holding me in sheer joy. "So… you're Diane but also not?" Zeke asked. “I guess.” I said sheepishly. “It’s still really weird but...yeah, I’m Diane, but also not, like how Eclipsa is Marcy but also not Marcy...which is why I was confused.” "So to be clear you and I died… time got reset but we were born as different people, you from Diane to Ben, and Me from… me, to this Eclipsa… then how are we here?" “No idea, all I know is that a familiar sounding lady told me ‘go back home, you’ll figure some stuff out’.” I said honestly. “Unless it’s so blindingly obvious I might accidentally cause problems with the writers.” "In… any case." Zeke said. "So what do we do?" “No idea.” I said. “But...Marcy said you’ve been here for a week right?” "A week by our count. Why?" “Well I’m glad you didn’t stay here long cause I want to bring you both back to my place, where it’s...literally everything you could ask for in more ways than one.” I said honestly. "If it means Working water and electricity, count me in." Marcy said. “And so, so much more.” I chuckled a little.”Now just a small problem...who the hell is in my head...cause I have a feeling it’s blatantly obvious but...not fully sure.” "Aside from your own insecurities?" Marcy deadpanned. “That’s a whole other can of worms that I’d rather not talk about...again.” I sighed out. “But you two head out, I still have some bitch to deal with cause apparently talking isn’t good enough.” Marcy and Zeke took their things, stopping before rushing off, Marcy handed me something. "I'm gonna try and find the other me and see what she likes. Zeke will do the same. But here. Once Diane is here too, we can all be like before. Only… different. Eh, see ya." Marcy said as she left with Zeke into the DTN. Looking at what Marcy had given her, Ben blushed. It was her dog collar Marcy had her wear for pet play… what made it so much more embarrassing was her name, Diane, was engraved on the tag… she did wonder, would this even fit on her as a dire wolf? I sighed out before seeing the DTN close as I stood up and walked out of the house. “Alright Diane, you can come out now.” I called out. "I'll do what I can." She spoke through Ben as, walking out of their body an Ethereal, ghost like version of Diane stepped in front of Ben, turning around, Nothingness thorns and code covering her, making her body solid as Ben's old cloak appeared on her. "Not bad for my first time." She said, looking herself over. “Alright, so you're somehow bringing back an old dead Timeline...I don’t know how honestly.” I said honestly. "Dead is relative second life." Diane said. "Just because we don't walk on that timeline anymore, doesn't mean it still isn't around. Time is like a river with layers, crossing into and, in this case, merging into a single stream. A good example are reflections. One could say those are another version of alternative timelines." “Alright, so Nothingness probably has something to do with it since that and Code were basically the only ‘reset buttons’ I can think of.” I said honestly. “So onto the main problem, why are you here?” "I'm always here Ben. You are supposed to be my next life after all. I was asleep for so long. Then… God gave you those Nothingness powers, and I started waking up. I finally managed to stay awake when you met Zeke. Why do you think you and him took to one another so quickly as friends? You didn't remember, but I did. It was enough, and he didn't remember, but he still found me. Found our sister. I could do nothing but watch as you waltzed around like you knew everything based on story book tropes and could Beat anybody based solely on unconfirmed technicalities or theories. Yeah, you proved a lot to be true but bravado only goes so far without proof." “Okay...so far things are fine...now why are you just now acting like a bitch?” I asked curiously. "Because you have it all. All my dreams and desires, all my wishes came true for you… and yet, you are not happy. You're not satisfied or content, hell you're not even understanding, just stubborn and thick headed. You worry about losing it all, I did lose it all, but I knew it might or would come because of how Zeke's family was! Do you remember how we felt when Zeke's grandfather shot that slug round through our three month pregnant gut before rushing to find Zeke?" “I didn’t know when I originally saw the old fuck shoot Marcy, cause that was an entire trip and a half, but yes, I do remember that.” I said. “So basically you're pissed that I’m scared that everything can be taken away from us without fanfare?” I asked curiously. “Splendid…” I sighed out. “So, you know you being pissed with me isn’t going to solve anything right?” "It be has. But that never stopped you from getting even or getting payback." “You do know that I don’t know who I am and that my life on earth was literal hot garbage right?” I asked. “Like...seriously, my ‘past’, whatever the fuck that is anymore, showed me that anything can me taken away from you...and there’s nothing you can do about it. So how can I be content when ‘the plot’ is literally the only thing keeping my family safe?” I asked her bluntly. "To put it in words of a protagonist, it's a mix of faith and acceptance. Something you know nothing about it seems. I do wonder, why don't you put blind Faith in anything given you know there is nothing you can do, everything is out of your control yet you aggressively reject faith in anyone… even your own friends and family." “And yet I’m still here, yet I still have my family and friends.” I said. “I don’t ‘aggressively reject’ anything. That’s just natural depression and pessimism that’s been there since my parents died.” I said honestly. "And despite them being back, proud and completely accepting of what and who you are, you still have no true Joy." "Joy's off having his own adventure." I brought up. "But apparently there are some things you haven't noticed in my life...not surprising given I tend to show too much sass." I shrugged. "What I would like to know I why you keep forcing your wounds to bleed? How masochistic are you to actively remind and keep yourself in such pain willingly?" "Because it reminds me of why I fight, why I keep going...and honestly, it helps make sure if anything bad does happen, I won't be surprised and it'll hurt less...depending on what it is honestly." I said honestly. "Numb yourself to fear, you'll numb the happiness. You can't experience one without the other." Diane smiled, tilting her head as she began circling me. "Being without a body for so long I had lots of time to learn things." "Lady you understand nothing about being numb to things." I said. "And let me guess, you know all my techniques and stuff?" "Quick to call the tropes. But I also know things you don't. Things you have yet to learn or even discover you can do. Tell me, what am I at the moment?" "Me." I said honestly. "But after that, most likely a Nobody, a Ghost from a long dead timeline." "Nobody is more on the dot. When I woke up I had nothing but my memories. Yours slowly flowing in over time. I want my life back. I want my identity back… and more importantly… I want my family back." Diane said, No Heart flashing into her grip. "You have It all… and left me with nothing…" "And yet your here now, with Marcy and Zeke from your timeline. You literally have the family you want, but apparently I'm somehow in the way. Notice the problem with your plan here?" I asked while summoning Interdiction. "Because I'm still dead!" She slashed at me, the shockwave created obliterating the house and shoving me back ten or so feet. "I was the first one to die before Marcy, before what happened with Zeke! I can't turn it back to before I passed… I can bring them back… but not myself. Because by then my heart and soul was already dumped into you!" She slashed again, Ben blocking but skidded back out of the town, Diane floating across from them. "I can't bring myself back because you already took my existence away." "Well then boo fucking hoo." I said bluntly. "Also, horseshit, I literally died and lost my soul, so why aren't you also long gone? Sure I was reborn so I got my light half back but what the hell." "Echoes of a person, memories just lingering by sheer will. Sound familiar?" "Of course…" I sighed out. "Just what I needed. But anyways, apparently you don't understand that life just sucks even if you have things going your way." I frowned. "Things aren't perfect, nothing will ever be perfect." "I know. But at least I know how to treasure it all. And, at least I know who I am." Diane said, summoning Memory Stealer in the other hand. "No…" I only shook my head. "You honestly don't…cause let's take a step back shall we?" I asked while Fair Game appeared. "Is this...anything that Marcy or Zeke would want? Eclipsa and Zeke? I understand your pain, trust me I do…" I sighed out. "But fighting isn't the answer, you have a body right now. Go be happy with the Marcy and Zeke you pulled…" I said. "I don't have my heart… I don't have my soul, and despite all my attempts these bodies aren't able to have kids… I lost the one child I was ever barring… you complain about not knowing who you are, but look at Marcy. Different body, gender, hard life his like you… and she's herself. Is it really that hard for you… to accept you were me, and you still are? Still part of me, part of your identity?" Diane began crying. "How can I be happy when you cry about something so obvious!" She slammed No Heart and Memory Stealer together, the flash showed the two fused. Castle Oblivion's cards floated around it's now marble White color scheme as she raised the weapon. "If you hate me so much then… just stop remembering your pain… let me erase it all." "I don't hate you, I never once said anything about hating you." I said. "Why do I remember the pain? Why do I always keep it open for people?" I asked while the scene shifted, showing a room that Diane knows full well about. "Because it helps me understand what I'm fighting for, it helps me know that there will always be problems that can't be fixed...and it helps me treasure everything I have even more." I said while moving around, looking at all the items from dates me and all my wives had, photos of joy I had, and so many other things that showed just how much I cared. "Diane...you are me, we both know this...but ending it doesn't solve anything ...cause if it did...neither of us would be here." I explained while looking up at the ceiling, showing an entire painting of me and our massive family. "No!" She screamed. "Bullshit! You complain about being me when you forgot you wanted to be me in the first place!" She screamed, the scene changing to when I was talking with the Admin of Speed… My wanting what Zeke and Eclipsa had… Cript appearing. "You wanted to be me… you wanted to have what Zeke and Marcy did… and now that you have you complain about it…" "First up, never said I wanted to be you, I said I wanted to stop being a third wheel to them. Cript told me a different timeline of me asked for that and I was confused on why Cript was being...well cryptic. And me complaining? Maybe it's because I didn't know who the fuck I was before you came along, and then you being me as well didn't help me figure out who I really fucking was." I frowned. "And I never, fucking never, complained about being you. I was happy to share something special with them! But no! When I bring up a complaint I had before its suddenly the [I]only fucking thing to focus on!" I barked. "You only wanted to be me to escape In General! I know how much you hate yourself… I was just your vacation…" "That's not true and you know it." I frowned. "This isn't a 'vacation'...cause apparently when I can be happy there's an excuse as to why that is." I frowned. "What part of any of this is an excuse?" I asked while motioning around. "Tell me! Cause I'm fucking tired of fighting myself just to be happy for a goddamn change!" I cried. "Because you chose to forget by being someone else… by being me. To forget your past, to forget everything, before it even happened!" "Chose to forget what?" I asked honestly. "Yourself… you'd rather have been someone else…" "That...was never a thing though." I said. "I'm still me. Just because I'm also you doesn't mean anything bad. Sure it helps me feel closer to Eclipsa and Zeke, which is nice, but I'm not going to just be someone else...besides, how can I be someone else when I dont know who I'm am to begin with?" "Ask our sister. They found a middle ground between all their craziness. Ask the answer that's been in front of you…" "Okay seriously, I didn't want to be one or the other. I never asked to be someone completely different, I asked to be apart of what Zeke and Eclipsa had...I didn't want to be one or another...we can be both...also this doesn't help how this is literally the first time we talked." "Little hard to talk to someone as dense as diamonds." "Listen, if I was that dense I wouldn't have been married yet." I said honestly. "But talking is better than fighting, and sometimes it's not my fault people think they need to not tell people what's up." "Speaking of…" Diane said, counting down from three… "Where's Eclipsa?!" I shouted in panic. "Honestly do not know. Go looking. I know she'll be fine, but you panic too much. To be continued." I picked up Diane bridal style and opened a DTN. "Yeah you're coming with to help." I said before bolting into the door to find Zeke. To be continued... Nobody takes his time“Alright, so you said you wanted Therapy correct?” Ben asked Diane as the two walked through the halls of the castle. “Yeah. Something I’m surprised you never did back on earth given… everything.” Diane said, the two heading to Lyra Heartstrings office. “Honestly therapy wouldn’t have helped back then…” I sighed out. “Like...how are you supposed to talk about ‘hey, so my dad burned to death and I saw my mom’s brains blown out and I thought it was my fault for at least six years’...plus there was also an asston of other complications about my past that’s just...really weird and I don’t understand, plus there might be more things that I don’t know about which also pisses me off…” “You’re an idiot.” Diane said as the two saw her office door was closed, a sign saying there was a session going on. So the two sat at the chairs, flipping through the magazines and books there. “How… are you so good at these photo shoots?” Diane asked, showing me the Bikini pictures. “Because I’m just that damn sexy.” I chuckled, still in my den mother form. “You went from being extremely hesitant about the whole gender mix thing to being able to take pictures like this and sell it… kay, respect.” Diane said with a nod. “Getting all that hair wet has to suck though.” “It does, but the wives love the extra floof after I dry off.” I shrugged. “Wives tell me it feels like being on a literal cloud...and some of them can actually prove that since they can literally lay on clouds.” “Huh. Surprised you can even sell the image of the kingdom. Aren’t you… not very social?” “Hey, I’ve gotten better.” I pointed out “Looks like. So what are Marcy, Zeke and I going to do then? In regards to all of this… and how am I going to get myself my own heart, and my soul back. You kinda lost it.” “Well that would involve...doing what the old man told me, Den and Cript...which is literally put your being into a newborn child...and then time is sped up so you can get back to normal.” Ben explained. Diane looked me over. “I don’t think I could handle all that hair…” I shifted into my old human form. “Given your going to...technically be both me and my daughter, you have plenty of powers to shapeshift and stuff like that.” I said before turning back into my den mother form. “But you get used to being a Dire Wolf and all the fur after a while.” “I dunno… it’s all kinda weird. Plus having all those… jugs on must be killing your back.” “Actually no.” I said honestly. “I mean, I also have strength beyond comprehension, but even then I don’t feel any back pain.” I said simply. “Also the wives love to use them as pillows...yes I did just say that.” “I remember how Zeke looked at mine~ Heh… I used to hate my breasts until he made me like them. You remember? We thought they were weird. Big yeah but not very firm and kinda flopped all over the place just by walking.” “I remember that, but for me...well Eclipsa already said I had a BBW kink...so big boobs are nice.” I said sheepishly. “Must be why you developed them. Remember when we first… Kissed Marcy? Way before we met Zeke?” “Electrifying.” I chuckled. “Also...I now blame you for my incest kink…” I muttered with a blush. “Well, to be fair we didn’t kiss back till after she kissed us first.” Diane laughed. “I mean, we always knew she was hot… hotter than we were. But she always did care for us… especially after that dance…” Memories of the event played through Ben’s head. A girls choice dance, a boy who said yes, a brand new dress… and a ruined night when the date they chose dropped Vinegar all over her. A PG version of Carrie, but just as messed up. That night after a three hour shower to get the smell out Marcy kept reaching out to us… then kissed us. We kissed back and then cried into her arms until we both passed out. "Okay first up...the fuck is Carrie?" I asked. "Cause seriously...what the hell was that comparison, and who the fuck dumps vinegar on a person, and who hates to date practically an amazon?" I asked in quick succession. “How do you not remember that movie? It was a great horror movie. Bit cheesy at the end but good over all. And Amazon? Seriously you’re memories of my life have to be messed up.” “I myself have actually never seen that movie.” I pointed out. “But Diane, even back then you were six feet tall, built like a fucking buff super model, and you basically carried Marcy on fun runs because she was, and I quote, ‘too tired to run’.” I brought up, the memory surfacing and showing Marcy acting all cute and being all ‘I can’t go on, please carry me’ like some damsel. “Now sure...sometimes people are intimidated by your build but...to do that to you? Er...us? Even if we were told...I’ll never understand.” “Hm… You and I share a lot. We both spent a lot of time in libraries and alone at the lunchrooms. We were the outcasts, the difference is that you were because of depression. I was by choice.” “Another difference is that you worked out a lot.” I pointed out. “Like seriously, being able to bench press three hundred pounds is rather impressive, and being able to run miles while piggybacking Marcy is also good, while I...well Karate was a thing but it wasn’t to that extent.” “The strength thing just came naturally, and you know Dad was the one to get us into regular exercise. Figured I'd be a good female boxer.” “Which would have been true, but our growing crippling hentai addiction was getting to us.” "That was you. My crippling addiction was our old bed post and video games." “Video games were both of our crippling addictions honestly.” I said while looking up to see if Lyra’s door was open. "Moreso mine than yours since half the time you didn't have the will nor energy to play, masterbate or even go outside. If I recall you mostly just played YouTube in your room with curtains drawn, lights off and a large bag of snack chips at your side." “I also did other things besides those things.” I said simply. “But yeah...that was a thing.” "Most of your things." Diane said with a half laugh. “Yeah yeah.” I said while double checking to see if Lyra was open to help us. “Let’s hope Lyra is here, because while this talk is nice, I’m a bit worried it’ll get off track if Lyra isn’t here.” "I remember Eclipsa speaking highly of her. Wonder if she really is that good?" “She’s good with talking…” I said, trying not to mention what this Lyra is also good at. “But she should be finishing up about…” (Thirty minutes later). Finally the door of Lyra's office opened, showing, to my surprise, Eclipsa's Celestia strolling out. She didn't say anything to us and teleported away. "Next." Lyra's voice said simply from within the office. “Um...okay then.” I muttered as I put down the magazine and walked in with Diane. “Hello Lyra, how you doing?” "Sit." She said simply. Her mane done in a ponytail, glasses on her face and a notepad in her magical aura. She motioned to the large comfy couch in front of her. The office gave off the typical therapy vibe from movies but mixed with the books on the shelf was movies, even video games, comics and a few little collectable items. The office felt both professional and carefree. It made me, and Diane, feel more comfortable than we expected. I sat down on the comfy couch with Diane. “So...where to start…” I sighed out. She wrote a few things down before looking up. She took a breath and spoke. "From the bare bones of what Eclipsa told me in a letter before you two arrived it seems Diane here believes you Ben are, to put it in a censored phrase, idiotic for having such fears and allowing said fears to ruin and get in the way of enjoying your loved ones. Is this accurate?" She asked. “It doesn’t really ruin, but yes, that is true.” I nodded, having a feeling I shouldn’t try to explain why the ‘ruin’ part isn’t right. “Can I explain why it doesn’t ‘ruin’ it? Or should we just get to the next part?” "Please do. Any little bit of information is needed, unless you are uncomfortable revealing it at the moment." She stated professionally. How is she a reflection of Lyra? Cript's is a total one-eighty. “Okay, so while yes it is true that my fear can get in the way of enjoying my time with my loved ones, it never ruins it.” I said honestly. “Fearing for your family’s safety is always going to be a thing, no matter who you are...it’s just…” I sighed out. “Because of whatever the hell my past is...I was shown how easily family can be taken away without you knowing it...and how easily you can blame yourself for a life that wasn’t your own most of the time.” "Hmm." She hummed, writing some things down. "As a Den Mother how protective would you say you have become of said family? Moreso or the same?" “On a scale of one to ten, before I was around eight...but with me being a Den Mother than went to about eighty.” I said honestly. "Hmm." She hummed again. "Diane, when Ben feels this protective need, can you feel it? As I understand you are currently akin to his Nobody?" "I am but I don't feel much. Most of my emotions if they aren't grief or anger kind of… fade as fast as they arrive. Normal Nobodies can remake a new heart to replace the lost but I don't have a soul and from what I learned while Ben researched that in the old Kings notes the soul is what gathers the needed pieces to make the new heart. Ben has our heart and their is only one. It's his now, not mine. I can feel… bits and pieces but like I said, it's brief." Lyra hummed again. "Ben, knowing that, what do you think?" “I did tell her how to get a new soul and heart, and it’s still on the table.” I brought up. "Really? And what is stopping you Diane?" "Partly the fact I'll be looking like Ben, partly because… I wouldn't be me." "How so?" "I'd have a new soul… a new heart… as is, my existence is tied to our shared heart. If I get a new soul and heart… am I even still me? Everything about me would be blank." “I had half a heart and no soul.” I brought up. “I only had my dark half as my light half was acting as my ‘soul’....and I’m still me.” I explained. “Your still you, even if things aren’t there...we might still share a heart though.” "But when you went through it you still had your heart. A source of memories. I'm a hollow shell. In every way, the only reason I'm not like Kexez is because of the fact that I only exist mentality here." Diane said, jabbing a finger over my heart. "It's not even my heart anymore. I only woke up because you became an admin and my life, my existence was able to be remembered by you. I don't want to become someone different, I just want to be me…" “You know…” I started while pulling out Memory Stealer. “You just gave me an idea.” I said while gently putting Memory Stealer on her chest where her heart would be. “I don’t know if I can do everything, and I don’t even know if this’ll work...so please bare with me.” I said while closing my eyes and focusing, Diane feeling a sudden rush of energy flow through her as...it felt like her soul was coming back. “Jeez...that...was a bit hard…” "I… I can feel it." She said, mouth agape and hands over her chest. "Our… my soul. How did you?" “I don’t know if I can also make you a body and heart, given that I also control Grey and Balance, so I’ll just have Eclipsa and Heart fix that when we get to it.” I said honestly. “Feeling better?” "A little." She admitted with a smile. Lyra have another him, catching our attention and seemingly unphased by the spectacle I performed for Diane. "Back to topic." She said, firm voiced making me, on instinct from hearing that tone from Grandma for years, sit up and proper. "Ben, have you seen your children in action since this merge?" “The only one I’ve seen in action was Dinky and her new planet.” I said. “But besides that I’ve been legitimately busy doing way too many things.” I said honestly. “Running the kingdom, all the interviews and photo shoots, searching for allies to help us with the coming war, studying up on how to make those Pure Crystals and other things...even with help, I’ve still got a lot on my plate here.” "I see. Then let's review some of your children's recent accomplishments… and some lesser touched on events." She said, making me a bit worried. Popping the remote into her magic she turned on the TV, the image showed what I could make out, barely, as Braig, afro hair now tugged down as a pony tail, wearing basically their suit from before, but younger, both eyes and a pair of upgraded arrow guns in their hands. "Braig has been quite the Bounty Hunter of late. Sixty seven confirmed arrests, sixteen of them brought in dead. How do you feel about this streak so far?" “Who were the ones he killed?” I asked. “And...has he always tried to make sure it’s nonlethal?” "He uses an upgraded version of the standard Gun Arrows based off your own Sharpshooters, they are only lethal when set to kill. The normal function is just an electric pulse through the targets body that triggers the pain receptors to respond as if it was a lethal shot, but it's not. Typically the target is knocked out so his kills were either accidental or planned. So far those he has killed consist mainly of Drug Dealers and one Weapon Hacker." “And how has he taken the deaths?” I asked. “Cause...we all know that on that road there’s a chance…” I trailed off, not wanting to bring up Psychopaths. "The first few he has taken them hard but after a while it's become more distant. Given his past self this is not surprising." “I’m gonna have to make sure he doesn’t falter on that tight rope…” I sighed out. “If it’s not too late...what about the others?” "Majority do well. However…" she said, flipping the channel showing… Jenny… "Jenny has been what we call a Legalized Operation. She is making contract deals with large companies and while the terms are met, no one ever reads the fine print, so she ends up owning the entire company. She so far has ten. Three toy companies. One tv station, a Soap Factory and five fast food chains." “Why am I not surprised.” I chuckled. “But uh...is there a growing problem with this? Cause I’m still worried about hearing the ‘there’s also this’...” "While it's not damaging to people directly it is damaging the stock market as she becomes sole owner all stock owners lose thousands to billions of rem in the companies. She is, in a way, legally stealing their money." “I should probably…” I sighed out. “Even if I told her not to, she’d probably still do it. But I’ll try to talk to her about it if others haven’t already.” "Given her criminal past it's not surprising but more so impressive. Now, onto lighter topics. Recently Dinky has earned a Nobel Peace prize before even graduating. Her study on the elemental crystals that make up Cript's original realm show how to customize them." She said, flipping to an Image of Dinky holding said prize happily. “That’s great news.” I said proudly. “I knew she could do it, always so smart.” Humming again, Lyra then flipped to an image of Gilda. "Gilda has proven quite strong. Here she is lifting condensed dark Matter that is her size, but far, far heavier." The image showed Gilda lifting a ball about her general size, a scale reading the weight just endlessly counting up. “Damn, that is quite a feat.” I said. “And my griffon wife is still sexy doing it…” Diane rolled her eyes with a laugh. "Also, they have changed their name as well. They are now using Names of a Nobody. So Gilda is actually going by Aldixga." "Well alrighty then." I nodded. "Good to know. Will help keep tabs on who's who I suppose." "Next up is Luna, or rather Alxun, has been honing her inborn darkness affinity, and last I knew was going to study under King Core. So far her control over lesser heartless is fine and she has a few useful darkness abilities." "Cool." I said honestly. "Hopefully things are going well for her." "Many others have taken up a call to arms as well. So far this war is bringing out strength they never expected to have." "I know…" I sighed out. "Doesn't mean I'm not worried about things." I said honestly. "Many want to complete a Mark of Mastery before heading to the front lines or even just deployed to other locations. How does that make you feel?" "Proud at how far they've gone...and scared of what will happen when they are out fighting…" I sighed out. "That is a natural fear, and reasonable. But Ben, you should know that in this war, they might die. I know you know this too but it's important for you to express the grief healthy." "Listen, I'm surprised that all our bad guys haven't just up and killed everyone I cared about yet." I said honestly. "Core could have done it, Spoiled could have done it, Jericho and Vincent, hell why hasn't Void Mother just appeared and made the entire realm collapse?" I asked. "That is avoiding Ben. It's not my place here to answer these questions. It's my place here that if or when misfortune strikes you can handle it in a healthy manner. This goes for you as well Diane." "Wait what?" Diane asked. "You yourself while at peace in your mind with your own passing and the others, clearly this was not the case given your actions towards Ben." Lyra explained. “I mean, you yourself have said ‘you have everything, but your not me’...when you are me.” I said honestly. “So it’s a bit weird how we’re the same person, but you yourself don’t believe we’re the same person and have the exact same things.” "I think we aren't the same person because I am here, and you are there." Diane said, waving a finger between herself and I. "We share memories, powers… but I know which life was mine." “And yet Marcy and Eclipsa are all hunky dorey knowing that’s not true.” I frowned. “And your ‘I’m sitting here, your sitting there’ argument doesn’t work because of your actions.” I explained. “Or did Marcy turning into a Naga when she shook Eclipsa’s hand not mean anything?” "I honestly don't know what anything means anymore." Diane sighed. “Join the club.” I said honestly. “But if you need some more clarification, we can go see our kids...and I mean all of them, cause that was one sticking point I’m pretty sure you won’t drop.” "Back to the main focus please." Lyra said. "Ben, if or when something happens to one of your family, how do you know you will react?" “That depends on what happens.” I said honestly. “Cause if it’s my family dying...well then you're probably not going to see me for a while…” "Now is that for grief… or for revenge?" “Probably both, mostly grief.” I said honestly. "Now Ben, if this does happen I want you to focus only on the mourning of the lost one. Revenge won't bring them back, nor would it satisfy them either. If you later on come across their killer and want to take the opportunity for payback I'm not saying don't take it, what I am saying is don't go after them blindly with an injured heart. Give yourself time to mourn and accept their passing. As an Admin you will be experiencing this in one form or another often. So it's best to learn how soon, otherwise you could do something drastic." My thoughts wandered to Future me wandering about somewhere ...”Technically...it’s a bit too late to say that.” I said sheepishly. "Either way, you need to learn to accept they are gone, and to forgive. Eclipsa told me of your habits. I'm going to say some phrases to both of you, alright?" Diane and I looked at one another. “What’s the worst that can happen?” I shrugged worriedly. "Ben, it's not your fault." Lyra started. Confusing me a bit. “Um...okay?” I asked nervously. “I mean...what’s not my fault?” "Diane, it's not your fault." Lyra said. "Huh?" Diane asked. “The only thing that isn’t her fault was caring about family...her trying to murder me and blaming me for stuff that’s just her fault.” "It not your fault they died Ben." Lyra said. “Until I’m suddenly told ‘yes, it is your fault’.” I rolled my eyes. “I know my parent’s death’s aren’t my fault...but how can I know that’s true when I got the story wrong three times?” "It's not your fault they are gone Diane." Lyra said. "Who…?" “Is this it? Just...going to tell us it’s not our fault and expect us to cave?” I asked. "Often times loved ones can't make it click to one who always blames themselves. This is an unhealthy barrier, one you two share." Lyra said with a nod. “Okay…” I sighed out. “But...it’s not my fault my parents died...I know that…” I said honestly. "But have you accepted it?" Lyra asked, looking me in the eyes. "It's clear you have not. You have the unhealthy habit of blanking yourself even when something was beyond your control." “It helps deal with the crippling amounts of trauma I still have.” I said honestly. "And we need to rectify that. I have several treatments in mind and I'm telling you as a doctor to try them all. Not all at once, mind you, but to do them in the order you feel comfortable with." “Well...one thing I was planning on doing was bringing Diane to meet our kids, cause you know...I always feel better when the kids are around, and that’s a fact.” I said honestly. "That will be part of one of the treatments, yes." “Cool.” I nodded. “What would the other treatments be?” "It would be best if I make a list first. Given your situation… it's quite extensive." She said, and Beganbegan writing writing them down. "I've also told Eclipsa about this. She will be getting a copy to ensure you complete these treatments and continue them. Am I clear?" “Yeah yeah.” I rolled my eyes. “Don’t really need a babysitter but if you think it’s worth it.” "I've profiled you well Ben. I KNOW this is necessary. It is extreme but you are an extreme case. I am sure your first treatment will in fact anger you greatly." “No, the first treatment we’re going to do is meet our kids.” I said honestly. “Cause honestly, I haven’t checked on the kids in a while since Cript is being really anal about how many clones I can keep up and all of me is too freaking busy.” "Relax. This ties into that pretty well. Your first treatment is to from now on, avoid fighting, no fighting or participation in this war whatsoever until you have learned discipline, how to follow orders of others, and know when and where to pick your battles." “Okay that’s going to be physically impossible.” I frowned. “Like...even with the ‘discipline’ thing...I’m going to have to fight in this war whether any of us like it or not.” "At some point yes but until said day, you King Ben, are Benched on medical leave. I will allow you to train and spar, as well as compete in combat based tournaments, but if it involves the current war in anyway, this will be a violation of your treatment." “Yeah, sure.” I said, Lyra knowing full well I could have told her how wrong she was from past experiences but not wanting to have this take even longer. "Now to ensure you follow this simple treatment, here, put this on." She said, handing me a small necklace. It was simple, silver chains and a sapphire as its main centerpieces. “What is it?” I asked simply. "It's a redirection necklace. It senses when a person, specifically you, are going to engage in conflict and redirects your attack, summoning, this includes your weapons and Nobodies, and instead teleports you to the last place you slept." “Yeah I’m just gonna...hard pass on that.” I said simply. “Cause, you know, I don’t want to be magicked away back to bed when I’m trying to stop someone from doing bad things or having to protect myself from things outside of my control.” "This isn't an option, it's mandatory. The longer you reject it the longer we are going to stay here. And you clearly would be anywhere but here at the moment." “I was completely open to talking, and other things, but I don’t need a collar telling me my enemies can now do as they please while I physically can’t do anything.” I frowned. “Even though I, myself, have made damn well sure every single bit of security is so airtight not even Existences best escape artist can get out of, our enemies can still somehow manage to get in.” "That's why you are required to wear this. You need to trust in your own damned security measures, and trust that there are in fact OTHER people who CAN handle these issues." I took a deep breath, trying to keep myself from bursting out. “Fine...just to keep people from arguing.” I grumbled as I took the necklace. Once I placed it on, I saw the gem glow for a moment before stopping. Nodding, Lyra gave me one...three… ten… pieces of paper with all the treatments, and then copied it via magic, and sent the other one to Eclipsa also via magic. "You can go now." “Fine.” I said while taking the papers for our treatment and getting up and leaving. "Well, that went… better than expected." I looked up at basically nothing and stared at two people, knowing full well if I say something, it'll just be problems. “Yeah…” I sighed out. “So anyways, let’s go meet the kids...cause I need a hug…” I grumbled while heading off to The Garden. Heading to the room in question, the sudden sound of… infant crying could be heard. "Is that… normal?" Diane asked. My eyes widened in panic as I immediately bolted off into The Garden. “Kids! Kid’s what’s wrong!?!” I asked in a massive panic, wondering why all my children were crying. I saw Coco, and she was trying to calm them down. "I came in to feed some of them and they were all crying!" She said, also in panic. A lot of the children stopped crying and looked over to me...as I was then being dog piled by damn near every kid as they cried and hugged me. “Kids please...what’s going on?” I asked worriedly, scared out of my mind as to what caused this to happen. 'You scared us!' Nancy yelled out from the pile. 'You showed us stuff and made us sad!' ‘You were sad and hurt…’ A naga wolf hybrid, Yuma, cried. “What? But...when did I come here?” I asked, trying to figure out when and how. “And...what did I show you all?” 'You showed us your loneliness… and our graves…' Nancy said. “What!? But I’d never show any of you that.” I said in a panic. “All of you...all of you mean so much to me…” ‘That’s...what you said in the song…’ Another child said sadly. “What?” I asked worriedly. "What the hell happened?" Diane asked. “I...have no idea...they’re saying that I made them all sad...but I know for a fact I didn’t come here in awhile…” I said worriedly. ‘You...said you came back to see our smiles…’ A child sniffled. 'you sang a pretty and sad song.' Nancy said. “What...what was the song?” I asked worriedly. “Coco, can you bring up any camera footage?” I asked. "Yes… oh and also its Oxocc now. Nobody names and all." She said, pulling up her Assistant and flipping through the footage. After a bit there was the image of a cloaked figure with my height and body type… “Oh you…” I muttered as I continued to watch it, seeing all the children rush up to them like they were me...and the song…”Oh god…” I muttered, feeling the same pain as them as the song ended and they vanished as the kids tried to reach for them. “Oh god…” "Ben...was that?" Oxocc asked. “That…” I took a deep breath. “That was a...Future Version of myself...apparently they came here to stop Eclipsa from dying in a fight with Jericho...but with the song they...clearly don’t know what to do anymore given everything is so different…” I explained. “How they got here...I don’t know, but...what they said is...sadly all true…” I sighed out as I tended to the innumerable amount of children. "If that song says anything, whatever the outcome they clearly knew this was a one-way trip." Diane said. “Either that...or they’re lost, wondering where everything went right and wrong...and if coming here was even worth all the trouble…” I sighed out. "So what do we do about them?" Diane asked. “They are me from a possible future, at the time, where everything just went horribly wrong for them...honestly, that me will figure things out, cause if I had untold amounts of years to train, practice, and learn...not only would I be practically impossible to find...but also hard enough to beat in a fight, whether fair or unfair.” "Well… enough on that." Oxocc said, putting the footage away and calling down the rooms TV. "Let's watch something to cheer us all up." She said with a smile, tuning into the infant's TV show. Blues Clues was on. “Okay...thankfully we have a show that I watched when I was a kid…” I sighed out thankfully. To my surprise, it was also an episode that I watched as a kid. Memories from both Diane and I flooding back from our younger years. While Diane seemed unable to hear the kids they all seemed to enjoy the show, even comparing me to Blue a few times. That made me smile. With a sigh I took a short look at the first few treatments in that list. Spa treatments of choice. Beach Vacation Steam Sona. Huh. Those seem fun actually. I remember once Rarity dragged me to the spa for a mineral bath soak. Was nice. I'll have her take me there to decide what to get. “Are...are you all feeling better?” I asked gently. There was a some yes replies, nodds, others were either too engrossed in the show to answer or fell asleep. I chuckled a little at some of them feel asleep, thinking they tired themselves out from what happened. “Alright…” I said gently while gently extracting myself from all the kids that were ontop of me still and getting the one’s that fell asleep to bed. “Ready for a nice spa day Diane?” "I think I'll stay here for a bit. Remember, I was practicing for Zeke and I'd first kid when… I just wanna stay here for a while longer." She said, her tone sad, but there was hope there. All she needs is a heart. “We can go see Zeke first to get you your heart.” I said gently. "Don't you mean Heart?" “It’s been barely a day, I already have to relearn all my wives names, and I just dealt with a minor panic attack as to why my kids were so upset, please back off.” I sighed out. “Plus...it would have sounded weird to say ‘Let’s get Heart to give you a Heart’.” "Heh. I'm good… For now anyway. Besides, I might not need him for that. As a proper Nobody now, I have a body, and a soul. Soon my soul will collect the needed parts to make me a new heart all my own. It will take a while. If those books you read were right about a year or more depending, but I think I can wait for it. Besides, you need a spa day. Go floof up that hair." “Oh it will most definitely be floofed up.” I chuckled a little. “Alright, gonna need to check in with Rarity to find that one spa place again…” Meeting up with Rarity, or now rather, Yitxrar, she more than happily took me to the best spa in our shared realm between mine, Heart's, Eclipsa's and Cript's. Unsurprisingly it's from Cript's realm but my God this place is huge and impressive. Once Rarity found out I was here under Therapists orders, she insisted on the twenty four hour head to toe pamper treatment. A literal full day of being relaxed and doted over. The price for it was surprisingly cheap, only a few hundred rem, and we began it off with a deep lavender oil massage and God my knots in body areas I didn't even know I had muscles in just began untangling. “Sweet god almighty that feels nice.” I moaned happily, glad to feel the sore spots going away. “I didn’t know those places existed…” "Never underestimate a massage darling." Yitxrar said. The spa kept all staff treating their customers the same species as the customer, so Yitxrar had an equestrian, and I had dire wolf lady. Her claws got deep under my fur and onto my skin. The were very generous with the oils. The smell also relaxed me. “Hooray for getting past all this fur.” I sighed out happily. “So...given that this is twenty four hours...how can I be pampered for that long?” "Don't think love, just enjoy~" The next treatment after a two hour massage, I nearly fell over when it was over I became so loose. It was a coat/hair wash. I was in a large clay tube being hand scrubbed with some special shampoos and soaps. Needless to say yes I was naked and even my genitals were getting scrubbed… yet somehow these ladies managed to pull off scrubbing sexy areas without making them react in the expected ways. “You people are miracle workers if your making sure my perverted mind away from that stuff.” I sighed out happily. "We've had lots of practice hun." An elderly dire wolf lady that was scrubbing my back said. "I've been working here for thirty years. I've seen and scrubbed it all." “I can only imagine how weird that could get.” I said honestly. "You get used to it." A younger dire wolf staff lady said. She was scrubbing my breasts. "I've only been here a few weeks and I'm used to it." “Alrighty then...just hope I’m not ‘too’ big in area’s.” I said sheepishly. "Honey, you fine but you ain't no giant if that's what you mean." “How…’small’ am I then?” I asked, honestly curious as to what they meant. “I mean in both male and female bits.” "I'd say you're pretty average." The elderly one said. "Types like you ain't as rare or uncommon as you think. Save for the being a Den Mother part." “Hey, why am I not surprised?” I said honestly. “Why am I not surprised at being told ‘I’m average’?” “Maybe because your so tense as hell that you probably look down on yourself.” A young wolf said while scrubbing my feet. “True.” I sighed out. “But...might as well not be too big for my wives...people can only take so much of a good thing.” I chuckled. "Amen." The elderly one said, all of us sharing a laugh. The next treatment after that hour long bath was something of a dire wolf exclusive so Yitxrar was sent elsewhere. This treatment had my teeth special cleaned and fangs sharpened. Apparently I also have a few cavities. “How was I supposed to know-ow!” I yipped in pain. “How was I supposed to know I had cavities?” I grumbled as my teeth were worked on. "For dire wolves it's not exactly easy to see." My apparent dentist said while scraping some nasties off my teeth and gums. "Our teeth are stronger than most races, second only to dragons and Giants, but cavities like this are not uncommon. A cleaning and Volum nectar will make it alright." She said “I blame Pinkie...all of them…” I grumbled. "Consider yourself lucky. Unchecked you could risk losing a tooth." She said, flossing my teeth with expert movements. "So, how long?" “I’m an Admin, I can just regrow teeth, and how long what?” I asked "Until your birth?" I nearly jumped at hearithat. I mean, I am pregnant but I don't show it. “Well...I can do it whenever I suppose.” I said nervously. “I’m...still not sure all things considered given...past things…” I sighed out. "I only asked because of your front teeth." “What about my front teeth?” I asked curiously. “A newly expecting dire wolf mother’s front row of teeth between their primary upper and lower jaw fangs shrink and dull as to not harm the infants once born. So they can pick them up by the scruff with their teeth when in feral form.” “Ah, that makes sense.” I said honestly. “But...I didn’t notice honestly.” I said honestly. “So...anything else about my teeth?” “It’s a small change.” “Good to know, but anything else about my teeth?” I asked curiously. “And what about my claws?” “Teeth wise you’re good. As for your claws… Hmm… How long ago were you impregnated?” “Um...maybe a month ago?” I guessed. “Why? I’ve used my claws to still cut through things honestly.” She dialed for another to arrive, whispered something in their ear before they smiled and nodded. “Interesting fact about Den Mother Tire wolves when they are newly pregnant. Their body undergoes some rather overlooked changes.” She said, the new lady taking one of my feet, rotating it around a bit as if massaging it, then quickly moved my food forwards, then back and I yipped as I felt a sudden cut. Looking back… The back of my foot has a wolverine claw! “Such as retractable claws in the feet, elbows, and spine.” “Excuse me but what the fuck?” I asked while flexing my right arm and...lo and behold a wolverine claw appeared from it as well. “Uh...what about my spine? Also, I thought this was all just a Void Dire Wolf thing?” “No, Den Mother Dire wolves biology changed as you are pregnant, and actually, each new pregnancy can give new changes, all for defending the young.” The new lady then moved my shoulders down, and I felt like my whole spine popped after being stiff. It felt great, and when I looked I had SIX sharp barbed spikes out of my back… oh wow I can move them! “Okay...so while this is really cool...why is this happening? Cause pregnancies shouldn’t give cool powers that basically makes me turn into Cannonbolt with spikes…” “It’s the inborn magic.” The new lady said. “For a Den Mother pregnancy is something far more than just the importance of the Den’s population and to care for all the young. It literally empowers you, each pregnancy giving you newfound abilities from physical to magical.” “So...if I pop out kids and then get pregnant again...I can get stronger to...protect my family?” I asked, gently poking my elbow blade and seeing it was really freaking sharp as it cut my finger with ease. “Yes. The role of a Den mother is to birth, care for, and protect the Den’s young. For if all the hunters fall, the Den mother is the last, most powerful line of defence from the Den’s extinction. This is one of the many reasons Dire Wolves like you are so rare, sought after and valued to our people.” My dentist said. “So that’s why literally every male and female dire wolf wants to plow like rabbits…” I muttered. “Well...the more you know I suppose.” “This type of alteration is common.” The new lady said, showing me how to retract it all back. “The most common ones are the hidden claws/spines, Extreme growth, extra teats, and even the sudden appearance of a second womb. But that last one is a tad more rare.” “But because I’m a rarity to begin with...what’s like...the rarest of abilities that happened?” I asked curiously. “Given that I’m technically the first natural born den mother in...a fuck long while?” “On your world yes.” The new lady said. “Remember this place is all the multiverses and such, but yes, your rarity is still very high. In recorded history across all the worlds with Dire Wolves species that have Den Mothers on them it’s still only totals at five hundred. Across the whole Multiverse and many planets, that is of course still an extremely rare occurrence.” “At least until Cript and those others made those other Dire wolves Den mothers also.” My dentist added. “Yeah but they’re not natural born so I don’t think it counts.” “So what’s the rarest mutation?” I asked curiously. “Cause so far you said this was normal, feats and other stuff was kind of normal and a second womb was a bit rare, I’m just curious.” “Hmm… I guess it would have to be the same for all of them.” The Dentist lady spoke. “The legends of the first Den Mother. It’s the same on all planets, all dire wolf culture. The size of a mountain and single handedly birthed the worlds Dire Wolf population.” “Some people say its the same Den Mother, given even across the multiverses genetically we’re all so near identical.” The new lady said. “Most likely might even be an admin.” “Maybe.” “Well...that is very interesting.” I said honestly. “Very interesting indeed…” I said with some thought. “Can’t wait to figure out if there’s anything else.” “Now then.” The dentist said, taking out a large toothbrush and applying toothpaste. “Say Awh.” That ended after half an hour. I was now taking a hot rock massage. I have to admit, with the fur, this feels not that hot but still nice, makes my back ache less. Helps the joints. Yitxrar was here also, enjoying one herself as we lay belly down on seperate tables next to one another. “Hot rock massages are so hard to find in Equestria…” She moaned happily. “Never fully understood this to be honest, but now actually experiencing it it feels wonderful.” I sighed out happily. “Oh, also, I figured out that Den Mothers get kick ass power ups...for getting pregnant.” She chuckled. “That’s new. Tempted now are we?” She asked, lazily looking over to me. “Maybe...I…” I sighed out. “I still don’t know, I know I can be a good father and or mother...but...I’m just scared...scared that even after all my work, after all the blood sweat and tears I gave for all of this...it can just be taken away in an instant…” “That’s the risk of parenthood love. Nancy being my first child was unexpected, but I learned quickly I have much to learn, much to sacrifice, and much to lose. It honestly gave me flashbacks to when Sweetie Bell was born.” “I mean, I also have that crippling phobia because of my parent’s murders but please, tell me about your flashbacks to Sweetie Bell.” I said. “And no, that’s not sarcasm, I would really like to know.” I said with genuine intent to learn. “Heh. When she was born, I at first didn’t like the idea of a little sister. She’d cry and whine about everything, though thinking back, yes that made her my sister. One night she was crying and Mom and Dad were so tired they didn’t notice. I tried food, diaper, play, nothing. Eventually I gave up, collapsing on the floor with her in my arms. I was too tired and too young for that. I didn’t even notice my holding her stopped her crying and we fell asleep like that. I woke up with a wild mane, drool on the floor and my baby sister in my arms, still sleeping like nothing in the world was amis. I ended up each night taking her to bed with me in my room to sleep like that. At some point I realized I hated myself for ever hating her. I never wanted to lose her after that.” “And I would never have known that cause I never had a sibling...unless my backstory somehow changes where I had a long lost sibling somewhere.” I said honestly. “You already do. The same applies to your own child. The second you see them, you never want to take your eyes off of them. Zeke’s Rarity said that after their first kids were born Zeke would stay up all night watching them out of concern.” “I would be ten times worse with having too many kids, and never leaving their side for god knows how long.” I said honestly. She chuckled. “That’s the hard part. Learning you have to at some point, give them their space, independance, and one day let go. As much as we’d like they can’t be our babies or children forever. They will be adults someday, and we will have to accept that, but to us they will always be our babies.” "I'm a Den Mother, that's impossible." I said honestly. "They will...I just...hate how 'letting go' would probably be them doing in this dumb war." "I wish it was under better circumstances too. We all do." "Where did everything go wrong?" I sighed out. “Nobody knows. But, as parents we should at least enjoy the time we have with them. Their childhoods and then pride them into their adulthood.” "Hopefully…" I sighed out. "I just...don't want them to be apart of my mistakes ya know?" “I can understand that.” "And believe me...I've made too many mistakes because of fear and other reasons." I sighed out. “That fear is justified but hopefully after all those treatments, you will be able to face them in a healthy manner.” "All we can do is hope for the best." I said honestly. With the hot rock massage over we were now onto the edicures. They gave us hot out of the steamer body robes, then those face masks and cucumbers. It was odd having my nails both fingers and toes done but it was kinda nice, I guess. The music was very relaxing and the smell of sea air made me feel like I was at the beach. "Being pampered is nice." I sighed out warmly, glad for all of this even though my mind was trailing off to many other things. It was quiet, peaceful as just the music played slowly and my nails were made nice and cleaned. I'm not sure how long it was but finally they had me sit in this reclining chair while the Polish dried on them. Yitxrar next to me as we just enjoyed the calmness. “I think after...the many things to help me get past all this, I’m just gonna be blunt with everyone about…a lot of things that are bugging me…” I sighed out. "Uh huh." Yitxrar said, her tone relaxed and blissful. “You probably just want to relax huh?” I asked honestly. "That's the main point to all of this, is it not? I showed you this place but the relaxation is meant for you love." “And your just along for the twenty four hour spa treatment huh?” I chuckled. "Perks." She said with a light laugh. “Yeah.” I said. “But this day has been going well so far, feeling relaxed and learned something neat.” "That's good. I learned there are so many variations of seaweed wraps. It's amazing. This place might end up my second home." She laughed. “Only you would treat a spa as a second home.” I laughed. “But...how’s the clothing business going?” "Between myself and the other and the Others from Zeke's family and Cript's it's going so well. We all for the most part think on the same level. It's so amazing, working with people who think just like you, basically because they are you." “Yeah…” I nodded. “Must be great...” I said slowly. “While you and every other Rarity are damn near the same, as far as I know I’m so wildly different from my other selves that I might as well be my own person...even though I don’t even know who the fuck I am at the moment to be honest.” "It's good for work but that's about it. We always confuse each other for one another, and we do often gossip the days away without realizing it." “I mean, you tend to do that even if you weren’t with yourself.” I said honestly. “But I understand.” "The point it that not always is a good thing good." “Like me for instance.” I said honestly. “I have a feeling all of you think I’m overbearing to hell…” "At times." She admits. "But everyone is flawed darling, and nobody is an acception. I myself while generous, the element of generosity, can and often times act selfish or even ignore others needs above my own. The point is that I know I do this and I try to either avoid being that way or correct my mistakes. A person can't change overnight." “And yet I’ve had…” I stopped for a moment. “Actually...how long has it been since I first came here?” I asked curiously. "Hard to tell. We honestly lost track and with the merger, well, can't figure it out." “Sounds about right.” I said honestly. When the Polish was dry they removed the masks and damn… the nail polish rarity got was the same purple as her name, and mine was a bright near white grey that looked real good with my darker fur color. The next treatment, a full body fur coat brushing. Needless to say this was a bit more painful for me since my fur is longer and I had a lot of knots in it so... “Careful!” I yipped as a knot got tugged on. “Christ...I can literally tank the Big Bang with no problem, but knots in my fur being pulled still hurt…” I grumbled. "It's always the littlest things that hurt the most." My groomer said. “Cause of course.” I grumbled. “Um...random question, when the twenty four hour spa thing said ‘we’ll do everything to make our client’s refreshed’...do you mean ‘everything’?” I asked curiously and a little nervously. “Sorry, I was only here the one time for...maybe an hour or two if I recall correctly.” "There is a sex version but that's a request only option." She started. "The standard version is it starts with the more routine and ordinary treatments before moving onto the exotic and abnormal, but very effective ones. We also keep each visitor on record so we know what they like, don't like and have experienced already." “Alright, just making sure.” I said honestly. “Don’t really know much about this place since it’s my first time.” "The rules here are simple. Just pay upfront, there is no changing service once it's selected and paid for, and any pregnancies of staff or customers are to be disputed in court." “Um...sure…” I said slowly. “Well then I’m...probably never allowed that cause I’m part Cherubim...and as far as I know, no protection can stop...that from happening.” I said sheepishly. "Most stick to the standard." “I understand.” I nodded. "Once this brushing session is over you'll be so fluffed up. Would you like to keep the shedded fur?" “I mean...I’m pretty sure Rarity could use the fur for some clothing or something if she already hasn’t.” "Alright then." The brushing session was over after three hours and now it was dinner time! A buffet wrapping all around the planet was here and the food ranged from my world, earth, Dire Wolf world, and stuff I swear comes out of cheesy cartoon sci fi shows. “Uh...how much am I allowed to have?” I asked curiously. "It's endless Ma'am." One of the chiefs said. "There is no limit, though any vomit that might happen the cleaning service for that is added to any extra expenses you might ask for while here." “Um...alright.” I said slowly as I immediately dug into the massive buffet. “How soon until the next part of the spa day?” I asked curiously. "Up next will be the sleeping treatments, after that the morning wake up treatments then the last few hours of your choice of the more exotic and abnormal ones." “Alrighty then.” I nodded while going back to just eating to fill the void in what has been becoming a bottomless stomach and maybe some emotional part cause while everything was relaxing and wonderful, my mind kept wandering, which was never a good thing. As I began to eat I did a double take, seeing some people taking large plates with plant PEOPLE on them! That's… unexpected… and weird. I began to realize how much of the food here was still alive… and questioned how much was sentient… “Uh...excuse me...I seem to be literally eating people alive...I’m scared.” I said worriedly. "Oh don't worry, this is our job." One of the plant people said on my plate. "We are paid to be food. Everyone on the menu here has the unique power via race biology or magic to be eaten and survive. For my kind, Vimultru, so long as a piece of us is kept in soil we won't die, this body dies and we grow back from the planted part, memories and all. For some of us it's a kink, for others it's just work. Pay is simple and this "work" is simple. Pays bills anyway." “Um...sure I guess...whatever pays the pills and...whatever gets you off I suppose.” I said sheepishly. "It's just a job for me. I'm told I taste like Cabbage." She said. “Alrighty then…” I said while biting her leg and eating a bit of it. “Uh...yeah, you do taste like cabbage...huh…” "It don't hurt sweetie. This is kinda funny. You're a dire wolf who I assume has killed prey before eating them but act all shy eating me." “Okay for a few reasons, even though I hunted prey I ate animals...not sentient people...and I normally made sure they were properly dead before eating…” I said sheepishly. “And then uh...the only time I ‘eat’ sentient people is...well you can already guess.” I said sheepishly as I bit off her entire leg this time. "Look, nobody is making you eat me, nobody made you pick me. If it's not your thing, it's not your thing, but you are trying so that's okay. Consuming sentient life is only for folks like me that can come back or won't get digested down there, like a lot of races. Or spell, but existence, lot of possibilities and ideals. Just don't focus on the bad." “I know, I know.” I said honestly while eating her other leg. “But it is still good though.. "Thank you. Not many folks talk while eating. Though I can never tell if it's a manors thing or they just consider me their meal. Have you had any Experience in this before?" “Uh...literally eating a person while talking? No...eating one of my wives out while also trying to talk? A...few times, yes…” I said sheepishly. She chuckled. "Not exactly that, I mean eating someone whole as a kink or out of curiosity? They say it's a strong show of trust when people do that. Some races evolved to eat one another and not digest them." “I know Naga’s do that...and I do neither cause...even if Eclipsa and Zeke are perfectly okay with it, and I might maybe try it...it’s just a little weird to me to be honest.” I said honestly. "I can see that but in my experience at least trying to see the appeal it makes for stronger bonds. Be it family, friends or just a one night stand deal." “Alrighty then…” I said honestly. “I’ll...give it some thought.” "That's all anybody wants. Since you mentioned Naga I imagine one of the two you mentioned is said race?" “Eclipsa is.” I said honestly. "Which planet?" “Which planet?” I asked curiously. "You know. Vopu, Analx, one of any Earth's, which world?" “Um...Eclipsa is from earth originally and...uh…” I explained what Eclipsa’s naga formed looked like in case she might know what kind of Naga she was. "Hmm. From one of the Equestria's then. There's a lot but that does help. This sounds like a great way to bond with her. I can imagine slurping her like a long noodle." She laughed. "Eating one another is so common on her world both culturally and biology. I bet she'd love getting to try that with you." “Listen, if one part tastes like a Paopu Fruit, I’m pretty sure the rest of her will...and that doesn’t sound right...like at all…” I said nervously. She shrugged. "If she doesn't care of mind why should you?" “I do not know…” I sighed out. “Own personal feelings I suppose?” "So long as you try I know she will appreciate it. Now then, are you going to finish me off or are you going to keep talking cause trust me, the sleep treatments are what made this place famous." “Fine fine.” I said while picking up the rest of her body and just devouring her rather quickly. With a final swallow her head went down… and part of me enjoyed that. Pretty sure it's the predator part. This is always a fight between biology and mentality with me… I looked up and to my surprise saw her walking out a kitchen door a few minutes later. She smiled and waved as she took seat on a tray waiting to get selected again… huh… interesting… “Alrighty then…” I said before yawning. “Jeez...it’s been a long day of pampering...I’m surprised I didn’t fall asleep sooner…” Munching on a few more things before bed I was escorted to the testing area. Here was… not exactly what I was expecting. I got to choose how, where, what conditions and all that. I was given a recommendation and took it. I was promptly stripped nudez asked to enter feral form and once i did was taken to a room. Here there was… a very...very… large Dire wolf lady here resting and feeding others my size… "Enjoy your rest." My Escort said before leaving. Jesus this lady is three times Den's size! And she's not even a Den Mother! “Jesus…” I muttered. “How are you...seriously, how are you so huge?” I asked the giant dire wolf. "My world." She spoke, her voice soft but her size gave it a powerful volume. "We evolved from your size to mine, the biggest took town the large prey and killed the rivals easier, simple genetics." She almost cooed, picking me up by the scruff, not hurting at all, and placed me near a tit. "Drink if you wish, but sleep soon. As I understand you still have more treatment tomorrow." She said, giving me a motherly lick across the top of my head before laying her head back down. I whined a little at the motherly lick as I immediately latched onto her tit, sucking on it wondering if the large dire wolf had breast milk given she probably wasn’t a den mother. She did in fact. It was pretty good. I drank for a while before stopping, snuggling myself under her massive breasts to be warmer. The heat felt amazing as I began drifting off to sleep. “Night…” I muttered, hoping I...won’t have more nightmare’s again. My dream had me in Traverse Town… I was in Diane's body though. “Okay so...the hell is going on?” I wondered while looking around Traverse Town to find anything of note. As I walked around I saw some posters showing a festival. I did eventually find people outside of a large tent downtown. “Hello?” I called out to the people outside the large tent. "Hi." One kid said. "Here to see the festival?" “Um...what is the festival about?” I asked curiously. "It's the festival of smiles." An older girl, likely her older sister. "Basically it's all kinds of games and contests, as well as a circus act in the tent here." She motioned to the large tent. "It's also a good chance to find your Dream Eater." “Actually...I never thought about Dream Eaters...that would have been…” I sighed out. “The Foretellers forte...shit I should really go see them sooner rather than later.” I muttered. "The stalls are down the next street. Main event still doesn't start for another few hours." “Alright.” I nodded. “Thank you.” I said before heading off to the stalls, wondering what this ‘festival of smiles’ is about and if this isn’t some trick hiding the actual nightmare. “Hopefully...this isn’t a trick…” Arriving at the stalls there were lots of people and stalls. The first one I walked up to was one of those ring toss games. "Toss the ring and win a prize. All prizes random!" The stall person announced. “Oh, so it’s literal rigged carnival games…” I muttered while deciding to just wing it as I took a ring and tossed it. Surprisingly the ring went over the bottle. "And you miss win," they said, taking the bottle and pulling out the paper inside. "You win a Dream Eater Recipe!" He said, handing me the paper. It was for that Lion one. “Oh, cool.” I said while taking the dream eater recipe. “Thank you.” "The smile festival is all about happiness ma'am! All prizes are guaranteed a smile!" They said with their own smile. “Well...I suppose that’s true.” I said honestly. “Thank you.” I said while looking around the other stalls. “Well...so far I’m not being lied to given how happy everything is…” The next stall I tried was a balloon pop one. The prize it gave me was an enchanted book. The Magic School Bus. “Oh yeah, just like the Harry Potter book I have…” I muttered honestly. The next stall was for a pet goldfish. I won three and named them Tony, Fredrik, and Tom. “I wonder if I get to keep everything I get here…” I wondered. As I made my way around I found a raffle game. I got my ticket then moved on to some shops. There were people, moogles, even a robot! I got the parts for the Lion Dream Eater and crafted it with the moogle. I named them Simba. “Alright you candy colored fluff back, let’s go find more things to do.” I said with a smile as I continued through more stalls, hoping I get to keep all of this. As I was walking through the stalls I looked up, people were sitting on roof tops, stargazing or looking at the festivities below… wait is that… Luna? She's pony so not mine. Eclipsa's maybe? “Hmm…” I hummed while flying up towards her. “Hello?” I called out the the Luna flying up. “Um...which Luna are you if I may ask?” "Huh?" She looked over to me, then smiled. "One you would have called Mom before this marriage got weirder." She chuckled. "I was Cript's third wife." “Ah, alrighty then.” I nodded. “Well then that would...probably have been me honestly...even if my current form is different from my usual.” "It's not strange. It's the way the sleeping realm works." She said as I took a seat next to her. "By their nature the realm of sleep places you in a form you have the happiest memories in. Some of the people here are not even children in the waking world." She said, waving over all the people below. "Some of these children are in their elder years in the waking world, the realm of sleep comforts all who enter it." “Except for me nine times out of ten cause I’m pretty sure life just hates me.” I said honestly. "It explains why you appear like this." Luna said. "Your life's fondest, happiest memories are as this person, and not yourself." “Yeah, cause apparently I can’t figure out who in the hell I am.” I rolled my eyes. “It’s infuriating, and Diane dropping by didn’t help when I was already being told everything I knew about my life was a lie for the third god damn time.” I sighed out. "And what drives you to such anger?" “A lot of things honestly…” I sighed out. “First not knowing who I am...all the goddamn nightmares...everyone thinking that I should just drop half a decade of trauma...and no one besides me and maybe Eclipsa that...everyone’s safety, everyone’s lives, are protected by such a thin line that our enemies can’t cross...even with everything I’ve done to make that line bigger...it’s still paper thin at this point.” I sighed out. "I understand that." “And it’s not like I don’t trust my family, I want to trust them with so much...but it’s hard to when everything can just fall apart around you at a moments notice...and everyone telling me ‘just relax and trust in everyone else’ doesn’t help…” "Have you actually tried taking their advice? Truly?" “Honestly? Yes, yes I have.” I said. “It’s always been off screen sadly, but I’ve tried to, doesn’t make me any less paranoid about everything...especially when my Luna almost lost an arm fighting a strong heartless, Twilight nearly being split in two by a very powerful Invisible Variant and other things that, again, happened off screen.” I sighed out. “But what’s worse...is the many...many nightmares I have that are more ‘future visions’ than anything…” "Have many came to pass?" “Fucked if I know, cause apparently Nothingness is now a recycling bin for Time itself as far as Diane told me and has shown so anything could happen.” I sighed out. “Nightmares constantly...about what could happen, only for me to have to sort through everything to see what is about to happen...right as it’s happening.” "Hmm. The universe plays no favertisem. So what will you do about all these bad rolls it has thrown at you?" “Same thing I’ve done for the past god knows how long...keep moving forward with...with what life has given me.” I said honestly. “Trying my best to help my family anyway I can...and making sure they all have the life that they deserve...which is a happy one.” "And will you move forwards alone, or surrounded by the friends and family you want to protect?" “Even if I try to move forward alone, I…” I sighed out. “I always know my family with be there for me, giving me all the hope and love any person could ask for and more.” "Would you stop them from helping?" “Couldn’t stop them even if I tried to be perfectly honest.” I said honestly. “And sometimes...I did try to...too bad that in those cases I immediately had their help, like when Gilda helped me lift a mountain sized heartless, Pinkie teaching me how to cook when I wanted to have it be a wonderful surprise...or just in general where they always support and love me...even if I’m a screw up.” I said while putting a hand over my heart gently. "So then despite the hardships ahead, will you always let your worry ruin these precious moments?" “No.” I said bluntly. "Then go have fun." She said, giving me a pat on the arm. “What’s going to be the main event for this carnival if I may ask?” I asked curiously. "A Freakshow." She said. "You'll be surprised as to who is in it." “Oh boy.” I chuckled. “When does it take place? Cause if memory serves dream time is a bit different than normal time.” "Time between dreams and reality is bizarre, not even I fully understand it. But it's in three hours by the realm of sleep’s time." “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “Thank you...so three hours left of just having fun with carnival games?” "If you want. I enjoy stargazing here. The stars here are not like the stars of the waking world." I looked up at the star filled sky. “The stars are nice here…” "The stars here are the dreams of children, each light a spark from a child's dreams." “That’s nice.” I nodded gently. “Children...deserve to dream happy dreams.” "Yeah." I went back to playing the stall games. Ring toss, bean bag toss, water guns into the clown face, ski ball, all of them I won something. At the ski ball managed to get enough points for an Oblivion Keyblade keychain. “Cool.” I muttered while pocketing Oblivion’s Keychain. “So much to do still…” I hummed while seeing so many people having fun, so many children of many different ages and races just playing and being happy. I walked up to whack a mole game and after hitting about half of them. Huh, my power is different here than in the waking world? Not near as fast. I won a stuffed moogle plushie. After a few more games I went about to the main event. The lights hitting on a small briefcase on a table in the middle of the arena. “Oh?” I hummed while carrying a bag full of all the goodies I got from all the fun games. “What is this?” The case burst open and unfolding from inside it was a suited man, human as far as I could tell but folded and contorted himself in an impossible manner. Once he was unfolded I saw he had on that sad face opera mask. "Welcome one and all to the Ventral family Freak Show!" They announced. Ventral!? Zeke's family? "Be prepared to witness the impossible and inhuman abilities of the Ventral Family Freakshow chapter. Our displays will amaze and might scare the faint of heart. Anyone with children under ten or weak hearts we ask you to please leave now." “What in the hell?” I muttered to myself, seeing some children leave, grumbling as they wish they could watch and others that were of faint heart. "Without further adieu, I present, the Ventral Freakshow Extravaganza!" They said, suddenly melting into a pile of what looked like blood, save for the still beating heart that proceeded to vouch itself out of here, earning some laughs from a few people. The first act had a woman wearing a smiling clown mask crawl her way up from the dirt, her head spinning around all the way like The Exorcist, she then jumped herself out of the hole, reaching down her own mouth and pulling out a trail of linked sausages. The display earning a few grossed out laughs. When she yanked out the end there was a key on the last one, taking it she then showed a keyhole in her skull to everyone. “Uh...I came to see Ventrals...not Cenobites from Hellraiser…” I said nervously. She tossed the key high into the air, keeping her head up properly to she caught it inside the keyhole. Once it landed in, she turned it three times, and suddenly she split in half, her half's changed into cloth as they fell showing a yet to bloom flower emerging from.where she was, and growing to an elephant size. “What the fuck?” I muttered to myself, legit confused and kind of creeped out by this but also finding it rather interesting. The flower bloomed, cherry blossom petals flying all around as the clown mask girl was now back, now with her was a man about as buff as the Rock and wearing his own clown mask. The man picked up the clown girl and tossed her high into the air, looking up we all saw her catch herself on a unicycle that was on a tight rope suspended near the roof of the tent. She, somehow, flipped herself and the unicycle upside down on that wire, them both staying on the rope and she began pedaling along the rope like that. “Okay...so this is...definitely a thing…” I muttered. The rest of the show was a mix of gross humor and hard to figure out stunts that I admit looked cool. The best part was when they brought out dream eaters and they were all in a conga line. That was pretty funny. When it was over everyone gave their applauds and left. I did too, leaving and figuring I was gonna wake up in a bit. My assistant was still on me so I stored my stuff there and hoped it would be there when I woke up. “Okay...so why the hell were Ventrals here and...the fuck did I just watch?” I asked no one in particular. “While it was cool and I liked it...the fuck.” I woke up feeling… so refreshed! I have never woken up this good in any of my lives. Waking up and stretching I was given a robe to wear and I was taken to another bath, where like last time I was scrubbed by hand in all the places, this time though I was given a blow dry and a brush that now that all those knots were out from last time felt amazing. It was now time for a light hair cut that just trimmed some excess strands I'm areas and shaved it off in the sexy areas. "So what's the special thing in the morning?" I asked curiously after the shave and trim. "Next we are going to offer you a variety of new kinds of treatments for you. You will select the ones you want and we finish up your twenty four hour treatment with one last massage." "Alrighty then...so what are the choices?" I asked curiously. She handed me a list. Tentacle cleansing Fire Salts Skin Rub Milk Bath Alrezken Goo Bath Bake Sweet Sona Night Shadow Oil Rub "Um...I can guess two...but mind explaining them all because I'm pretty sure two of them are poisonous." I said worriedly. "The tentacle cleansing is just as it sounds, a staff member basically does a colonoscopy of your insides with their tentacle but scrapes and cleans out your entire digestive system. It only lasts about five or so minutes. The fire salt skin rub is a type of rub that uses special salts that burn with the heat of the sun. When crushed up and applied in oils the salts don't burn the skin but rather burn away fat and tighten up skin. The milk Bath is self explanatory but it's filled with Dire Wolf breast milk and other herbs boiled into it, cooled so it's like a milk Bath hot tub. The alrezken Goo Bath is a bath with over ten thousand Alrezken goo bugs from the planet Dirag, while creery and slimy their goo has amazing fur and hair rejuvenating properties. The Sweet Bake Sona is actually new. We rub in special herb oils onto you then place you in a special Sona/oven where as they sweat off of you and into the air the scents relax and calm you and your skin absorbs the oils, further softening the skin underneath and cleaning pores. The night Shadow Oil Rub is perfect for expecting mothers as the oils are known to attach to pregnancy hormones, and on birth activate, allowing the skin and womb to stretch while numbing the pain, but it's also used to rehydrate skin." "While all of that is cool…" I muttered while putting a hand on my stomach. "I...suppose the Night Shadow...cause I might as well get it over with…" She nodded and brought me to the area. I was laid down on a massage table and they masseuse got to work, using claws to ensure each area of my fur was soaked into the oils so it reached my skin underneath. Even my boobs! As they rubbed them into my skin I felt pretty good, all and all this spa place was a good choice. When it was over I was asked to wait and rest while the oils were absorbed before my next treatment of choice. "I hope this works…" I muttered while putting a hand on my stomach again, feeling a little kick. "I know I know…" "Next treatment miss?" They asked me. "Oh, yes please." I nodded. "What's the...final few things?" "Tentacle cleansing, Fire Salts Skin Rub, Milk Bath, Alrezken, Goo Bath, Bake Sweet Sona." She said. "Wait, I can choose multiples?" I asked. "I thought it was just the one?" "You do still have seven hours left on your twenty four hour treatments ma'am." "Ah. Alright." I nodded. "Um...let's try to fire salts next." Nodding they brought in the fire salts, grinding them there in front of me then mixing in the oils. They then began to- Hot! I yipped as the heat was spread across my body. The blazing fire soon began to calm through into something more… warm and comforting. Like taking a hot shower on a cold winter day. I began to relax with this, feeling like the sun itself was giving me a hug and it was great. "Okay...that's nice." I sighed out happily. "Didn't expect it to be this nice." "After the initial shock calms down the heat has been compared to a warm hug from a lover." The masseuse said, rubbing the salts deeper under my fur. With all these massages my muscles are gonna be so loose and relaxed. "Well...it does feel like I'm being hugged." I said honestly. "That's the salts. As the skin absorbs the oils the salts recrystallized and fuse back together, making a thin layer of fire salt over your skin. A hot shower gets them off quick and easy, water at any temperature breaks the salt apart like wet paper." "Alright." I nodded. "Thank you, good to know it's easy to get off after a while." After a bit I received that shower, feeling less warm than the salts themselves. But it was nice. I think I did lose a little bit of belly weight though. At least I think I did. I know for a fact my butt is much firmer now. "Next treatment? Five hours left." They told me. "Well...let's go with that tentacle treatment...i'm technically over forty." I said honestly. They took me to the place. The staff person with the tentacles had me lay down on my back or belly as she began inserting her slimy, naturally lines appendage into my rump. I bit my lip holding back a moan of guilty pleasure. This felt a lot like when my Hydra wife used her tail on me like that… but WAY deeper... "God damn…" I groaned. "That's… pretty deep." "It will be over soon ma'am." The tentacle lady said. Each movement she made up there felt like a micro orgasm inside my intestines. Her tentacle stretched me insides a bit but it did not hurt, it just felt nice. I eventually felt her reach my belly, the bumps sheadenin there set off something primal in there as my blush went full cherry red and my… member could no longer be hidden. She didn't seem to care or acknowledge this. Is it normal for this to be a common reaction to this treatment? Eventually she began sliding it out and with an audible wet pop I shivered, clutching out some of her slim as they gave me a towel to use. "You're insides are incredibly healthy, clean and not a single sign of forming blockage or other unwanted health issues." She said, washing her tentacle off in a large sink nearby. "Al-alright..." I said sheepishly. "Thank you and uh...sorry." I said sheepishly. "It's alright. Not the first time and it won't be the last." She said with a smile. After cleaning off and discovering a likely new fetish, I had to choose the next treatment. Still a lot of time too. "Let's try this milk bath...sounds nice." I said honestly. I was taken to a large area filled with pods that when opened the air hit heavy of the scent of warm dire wolf breast milk and various herbs. I was aided inside and felt the seats under the creamy warm milk. Taking a seat the checked the amount in there only went to my waist so the opened a valve that poured more in until it reached my neck. My neck! They advised me not to taste the milk as the mixed in herbs make it taste bitter. I was then left listening to calming piano music, the warm milk Bath felt amazing, not quite like the fire salts rub but a good second. I had enough space here to lean back and just relax. "This had been...really good." I sighed out happily, enjoying the milk bath. The scents helped ease me more so as I almost fell asleep a few times. To my surprise though someone did end up checking on me. "Is there anything you'd like to eat while down there miss?" One of the dire wolf staff said. "What is there to eat?" I asked curiously. "Just about anything and everything." She said with a smile. "Uh...can I get some meat from a...dire wolf world?" I asked. "Sure thing! Would you like it cooked or raw?" “Cooked please.” I said with a nod. Nodding, she left but came back quickly with a large platter she sent down via a mini elevator so it hung just above the milk. This gave me a way to eat without using my hands, since that would get the milk bath stuff on it and ruin it. The food was very good, well seasoned and a lot I managed to recognize despite usually having it raw over cooked. “God, so good~.” I moaned happily at how good cooked food was better than just raw. “Wonder how Diane is fairing…”. I had two of these plates before getting taken out of the bath. My whole bodies fire felt lighter and I noticed the colors while still dark shined brightly. Once I was dried and rebrushed I looked like a proper supermodel! I was given my final treatment, a massage but also asked for some makeup for a change of pace. Needless to say, I gave myself a boner once I saw how good I looked. “God damn it...why do I have to be so sexy?” I sighed out. “Alright...so the hell am I supposed to do next?” "Darling!" Yitxrar said, catching me by surprise and jumping into my arms with a hug. "By the stars look at you! You look beyond fabulous!" She looked real good too. Her coat had the same bright shine as mine, her coat being white might have made it brighter, her mane was in a straight brush down that lead to individual curls, her make up was expertly worn and her teeth, like mine, were as bright and clean as a polished pearl. She also wore a new dress, a midnight blue that complemented her mane and coat well. "I barely recognized you. You look like a new person, almost." “Believe me, I barely recognized myself as well given how sexy I am.” I chuckled while hugging Yitxrar. “But you look gorgeous as always.” "Why thank you love." She said with a smile, giving me a peck on the lips. "This place surely will keep my business. I suppose we should head home now. I imagine the second Photo Finish and her reflections will see you and be dying for more photos." “I’m pretty sure everyone would be dying for photos...and a lot more honestly given how hot I look after all of that.” I chuckled. "Well then, let's return home. You have some work and that list of treatments ahead of you and I have some interviews to attend to." “Alright...so what is my next thing…” I muttered while pulling out the list of things Lyra wants me to do. “Beach vacation?” I asked, curious about that. “Um...is there any good beach resorts? I...honestly don’t know.” "Sadly I have never been to many beaches. Wish I would have loved to sport my bikinis. I suppose that's what the Assistant can be of use. Now come on, let's return home before I change my mind and try to live here." She chuckled, taking my hand as we headed home. The assistant gave me a lot of locations of highly recommend beaches and beach resorts. I figured I could debate on which one to go to while also getting some paperwork done. It was a mix of a few minor field reports of nothing and fan mail from the magazine covers. “So...much...fan mail…” I groaned while tossing yet another into the ever growing pile. It was sweet, but yikes. I sighed, finding a non fan mail envelope and opening it. Tournament of Royals! An all skills tournament royal where the common folks of the kingdom can prove their skills in a pre selected ten round tournament! First prize is 6,000,000,000 Rem and a Noble title and status of a Duke! Second is 24,000 miles of prime land and a tank and title of Baron! Third place received 4,000 shares in stock of Freak Inc and a title and rank of Astphar! View on TV or in person by 10/15/xxxx If I remember correctly, this was something done by the Grand royal crown thing Heart did. The highest titles of nobility were Kings/Queens. Then Prince/Princess, Duke/Duchess, Baron/Baroness, Astphar, which he made up to sound alike something new, then Marquette, Viscount and Earl/Countess. Anyone who desires nobility now has to prove it by earning it either through tournaments like this or if they inherited it, a yearly test to see if they still are worthy of it. That's what a Astphar does, tests all the Noble ranks under and at their level while the direct crown tests the princes, Princesses, dukes, etc. It ensures the least amount of corruption possible by nobility and that only those who deserve that nobility receive it. As well if anyone wants to marry into the crown here they must make a declaration of intentions to the crown and state why. They also have to be at least an Astphar in Noble ranks and title to even make such a declaration, unless someone from the crown wants to add them. They can bypass a lot of steps that way but still have to earn their place in the family. “Well...I suppose I’ll have to watch over this just in case…” I muttered. I turned on the TV and found the tournament. There were a lot of contestants and they were going to announce the first tournament round. “Wonder who’ll be up first…” I muttered. “Also thank god I basically culled my nobility before all this happened...a lot of them were just dicks or misguided…” I didn't recognize any of the competitors, so they were all likely first time participants. Watching the tournament, I saw it was clearly rigged. But In a good way. The first match was meant to test patience and anger, self control and that weeded out a lot of undesirables. The second round weeded out the clever and creative. All in all this works be exploiting the negative traits of people first and eliminating them for it. That said everyone shows these negative traits but those that can work with it or keep them in check are the ones moving on. An hour later the three winners were named, ranked and handed their titles. That was interesting. I flipped channels to the news. The usual was on, weather, politics and all that. "In surprising news there appears to be a new hero in the city, who however is the question." The anchorwoman said, showing a file image of the hero in question. They were in an all white jumpsuit, complete with mask. Female, seemed human. "The internet has exploded with this new hero's appearance, calling her Angel Strike. In the span of one night she uprooted and delivered to police officials thirty six underground gang members hiding within the city. Police state they suspected these gang members to be transporting illegal substances under the guard and crown's noses by exploiting and using the old Crystal Caverns underneath various Equestria's Canterlots. Guard and police officials have since confiscated and disposed of the substances and plan to renovate these caverns as a tourist attraction given their natural beauty." "Now that should be impossible cause I made damn well sure every fucking blind spot was taken into accoubt." I growled. "But again, plot has to progress...so let's go see who this Angel Strike is…." I muttered while listening to the news to see if they have any info on where they are or might be. "As the security and safety of the kingdom goes up the underground has been getting more and more crafty and clever to work around or under the crowns guard and local police. While the kingdom itself still have extremely low to near non-existent crime rates, other worlds that have yet to or denied the crowns flag as an alliance or political control have become Haven's for these criminal organizations. While most of them are sticking to simple robberies and thuggin, many fear the enemies in this war might be somehow funding them, however these are just rumors as of now. King Leon S Kennedy spoke publicly about the issue, stating that while world's not under the crowns flag are to be treated as their own world and governing power, that they are still working to form a neutral agreement to take down this multi world and government threat." "I wouldn't be surprised if our enemy was funding these fuckers, and I'm surprised our enemies haven't just immediately tried to barge down our doors with this little tidbit that is getting rectified immediately." I frowned. "Okay...so far criminals are somehow getting past security and Angel Strike is a thing…" I hummed while checking the web about this Angel Strike to see if anyone got a clue who they are or where to start looking. Most of it all was just photos and videos of her work. But this does give me some info on her. Strong clearly, she managed to knock out a Cryptonian. Fast but not super speed fast. Resistant to bullets and most blunt hits, tanks them even. No clear sign of magic use either or weapons. "Alrighty then." I muttered while checking for more info. As far as I could find there was not enough to track her down. Then again why am I bothering? If she's doing a good thing then she should keep at it. "Wait…" I muttered while their seemed to be videos on other heroes cropping up. Dynamo, Arachnid, Centaurs Guardian… superheroes are becoming a real thing? I know some existed from tv and such that are real on earth… so anyone can join in on that game? “Hmm...Consequence, mind coming here real quick?” I called for my royal advisor. "Yes my king." They said as they materialized next to me. “Mind if I ask when heros were on the rise?” I asked curiously. "From what I know, shortly after your earth fell, the survivors who god did not pick up the first time around learned to gain and harness various powers and abilities for work or fun. This evolved into new culture of hero work." “Is there a way for me to contact these new heros? You know...I’m paranoid and I’d like to know who these people are as...well people, not as the heros.” "Afraid not my liege, while they are doing good for the crown and it's people once someone Dawn's their hero attire they perform an oath to keep this identity secret and secure." “Fine fine.” I nodded. “As long as they keep to the rules and some form of good morals…” I sighed out. “I hope everything has been going smoothly with the kingdom while I have been...doing many other things.” "The kingdom is doing fine my king. There is no need of worry at the present time." “What is your...personal opinion about a future me roaming around?” I asked curiously. "He seems quite distraught lately. Not the same anger as when he first arrived, more of a mourningful sorrow, and lost to an unfathomable degree.” “Have you spoken to my future self? Or have they kept out of even your ancient sight?” I asked curiously. "They have personally summoned me multiple times. You are you, and they are you. I serve the king of Nothingness, both of you share that crown, so if they call I answer." I nodded. “Have they shown you any of their followers they might have brought along?” I asked curiously. “Or is it just them?” "They arrived alone, well, mostly alone at the very least." “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “Thank you...is there any important reports you have or is this everything?” "I do know a location they frequent. Shall I give it to you sier?" “Sure, then I can find myself a nice beach to relax at.” I nodded. "The area they frequent is a special cliffside in the Keyblade Graveyard. It is paradoxically the only spot in that world that is different between each and every reflection." Consequence told me. "Thank you." I nodded while getting up and opening a portal. "Jeez...it's been so long since I've last been there…" I muttered while heading off to the graveyard. "Ho damn that's pretty." I said while exiting a portal, looking out the cliffside to a very pretty sight, the sunrise shining over the barren landscape in a way that seemed like there was some hope for this world. "Why are you here?" I heard someone say bluntly. Looking behind me I saw… the future me. Cloak ragged and torn, bigger, taller than I am now. "Just...want to talk." I said honestly. "Like...what are you going to do?" "I came here to prevent Eclipsa's death. To save so many… yet somehow along the line you did that without me. While you all progressed I took out Nexus bases. I had hoped it would bear fruit, but all I did was nothing important." "Well your doing more to stop Nexus than us to be honest." I said honestly. "It didn't matter. The bases I leveled and lives I took were not the heads of the monster I came here to slay. Imagine my surprise when that monster, was on your side." "Hey, not my fault Jericho literally couldn't die unless Existence ended." I said simply. "Also, you would have needed to go after Vincent and others." "Even at my power. Vincent is just out of reach. Whatever he is, it's beyond the word evil. Or as you'd put it, bullshit." "That's because his time travel abilities are bullshit." I frowned. "Or maybe he doesn't, I don't know, Nothingness is weird and shows me things that could happen but tend not to." "In the void time is like sand, some places it's hard as stone, others it's easily sinking. The realm of Nothingness is something similar, holding things no longer existing. Things and times that could have or did come to pass, now forever in eternal purgatory." "Yeah, except Vincent's time travel is he can go back to before anyone of us were born and killed us if that past timeline meant anything." I said honestly. "But I'm not here to talk about that asshole, I'm here to talk about you." "You, as I did once, overthink. Can't see the plan before you clearly. But fine, what about myself does the past wish to know?" "Why you're still here?" I asked. "You came back to keep Eclipsa from dying, now Eclipsa can literally never die." "This trip was one way from the beginning. Her death has been avoided, but I can not leave this place. As you know, only a heart can travel to and fro in the timeline. Yet I am here of flesh and blood. How, if you can guess?" "Either because Nothingness let you bypass that rule, or you found something else to go back in time." I said honestly. "I sent my heart back in time, but a vessel was needed. So I sent my body back within the heart of another. What happened after that I did not expect." "And ...that would be everything that has been currently happening?" I asked curiously. They shook their head. "I took another's heart to traverse my body through time, but for you see, this person held no ordinary heart." They said, lifting up… I felt nauseous. My heart sank and stomach shifted… that's Keychain… she used Zeke! "I was so angry at them. They couldn't even fight back they were in such imbalance, so I took advantage of that. Their body followed because they are a Keyblade in the end. They follow their wielder, and with Eclipsa gone and my handiwork with their heart… with the heart of all hearts I broke them. They don't speak or even shift to human form." "What the fuck…" I muttered. "Seriously...was saving Eclipsa so important that you'd kill the only other that suffered just as much as you?" "At the time, I thought they had abandoned me… but after everything changed so suddenly, it gave me the time and reason to sit and think." They said, clutching Zeke's keychain to their chest. "I have a lot of regrets in my life. Zeke here and all those within them, are perhaps my biggest. I was so focused on who I lost I did not think about their emotions, their thoughts, all I saw was them running and I… felt like I had lost everyone. When the reality of what I did hit me l, I cried for weeks. Zeke was all I had left, and I should have clung to them and never let go… but in histaria and rage I ended up just about killing them… if not something worse." "Well...there's a way to fix this." I said gently. "I know there is...were walking proof of it ya know?" I told them softly, putting a gentle hand on theirs. They grabbed my hand, taking it off. "People like us believe wholeheartedly that mistakes this grand can not be undone, not forgiven. We are the same, would you forgive yourself for this?" "Zeke and Eclipsa would...and so would Cript who's probably been listening the entire time." I said honestly. (Meanwhile, with Cript.) Cript sat in the dining room, eating soup, abruptly stopped. "Little bitch." (Back with Ben) "How is your Cript by the way? For me, he has been dead for sixty thousand years." "Okay first up, that should be impossible and all of Creation should have been fucked." I said worriedly. "Not if he passed the power onto another. His daughter Nyx." "Oh really? Then...who did Jericho give his power to?" I asked. "To Amanda, his daughter with Cript. A risky move but it let them pass on. My timeline is so different than this place." "I can imagine." I said while gently putting a hand on the keychain they were holding. "I...I know I can do something…" I muttered while trying to figure out how 'shattered' Zeke's mind was. "You have no idea the magnitude of regret I feel for my sins." "Oh no, I can imagine." I said honestly. "Take my advice, do not speak on which you have no knowledge of. tionImaginaand reality are far different. Don't let our youthful pride guide us like I did in this second chance you gained." "Yeah well we're stubborn." I said honestly. "So how about we get off this depressed train and figure out how to fix this like everyone's wanted for us for a long time." "Can I ask, a single favor beforehand?" "What would that be?" I asked curiously.. They stood up, walking to the cliffs edge. "There is so much I can teach you. So much you can learn and learn right. I want to… to be happy… to be with them… to remember what it feels like to live again… prove to me," She said, summoning her No Heart, but it's design was… admittedly way more badass than mine… "that I deserve it. Prove to me, my mistakes won't become yours." "How about you put down the cool version of No Heart and step away from the cliffs edge." I started while slowly moving over to my future self. "I need proof that you won't become me." She said, turning fast. One swing sent a blast of air towards me. I blocked, standing my ground to my own surprise, but looking around saw the cliffside weI was once on was now a single tall standing Rock structure, and for miles behind me, the damage of that ancient war became flattened wastelands. "Simple strike me, that will be proof enough." "Cant cause I have this thing." I pointed to the necklace on my neck. "Lyra told me if I were to attack I get teleport off to where I last slept." I said honestly. "Also why? You look like you need a hug more than a smack to the head." "Hmm… very well then. We share the same kinks… if you can catch and kiss me, then I'm yours~" She said, blowing a kiss at me with such well rehearsed perfection and sultry tone of voice my face went cherry red. "I'll still be attacking though." "How dare…" I muttered while leaping after her. "You know full well how this all end right" I chuckled. "That depends, can you catch me?" They asked, taking off their hood… I look so hot… Den I know that sexy genetics came from you and thank you! They swung again, and I dodged quickly. "I'm gonna catch you and you will know cuddles!" I said while chasing after her quickly. The entire chase was...honestly kind of fun. Even though my future self was actively trying to attack me all I could do was dodge and pounce at her even though she dodged, and honestly I blame Lyra for making this infinitely harder because she was vague enough to the point I didn’t know if I could use any of my powers to maybe inconvenience her to give me some opening. While I wasn’t noticing this barren hellscape seemed to start...growing life in our fun, like the mere fact a positive emotion was combating against the torrential poison deep in the ground. After what felt like hours my future self just couldn't help but start laughing as I managed to tackle her to the ground and managed to kiss her full on with passion and love. When I broke the kiss I panted. “Gotcha you sexy Milf you.” I panted, having been kind of injured from the massive play chase. "Now, is this considered Incest or masterbation?" They asked, holding me tightly around my hips. “It’s called ‘I'm gonna pound your ass’ that’s what.” I said with a grin as I started to take off my older selves tattered cloak. As I did I noticed from feeling along their body off patches of fur. Long since healed scars decorated her body, hidden by the fur. I counted at least twenty. Even across her breasts. She blushed. "It's been a long time…" She whispered. "I just… I'm worried." (Clop be beyond this point) “I’ll be gentle.” I said softly. “But...how do you want to start? Foreplay or just straight into it?” "Back when… we've done literally Everything. So I'm not picky." They said, tail wagging against mine in anticipation. "Can you promise me something?" “What is it?” I asked while slowly taking off my fellow dire wolves pants. "That… that even if they don't… accept me… I won't be alone…" “You’ll never be alone.” I said while nuzzling them gently as I got their pants and magical underwear off. “But...I think you don’t want foreplay, you just want to know what it feels like to feel full of cum don’t you?” I growled. "About as much as I want to fill you with it~ remember, oh wait, you guys haven't made that rule yet." They said, feeling along my back. “What rule?” I asked curiously as I got my own raging stiffy out of my pants and prodded my future selves nethers. "It was a few simple see rules we made to keep it all fair. Rule one, both parties get to stick it in, and cum inside. Rule two, if you indulge in a fetish you don't like, but they do, they have to do the same. But at this point I've lost all concerns involving what I dislike. It's all sex now to me. Last and most important, if our kids ever… join us, while they are a spouse they are still our kids first. It has happened… way more than you'd think." “Sounds about right.” I said before gently pushing my dick into the experienced dire wolf’s cunt. “Let’s see...if you can take it all…” "Oh please, I once… heh. Nevermind. You'll find out sooner or later~" They cooed, giving me a sexual lick along the neck and groping my ass. “Alright, here we go.” I growled before pushing more of my eighteen inch dick straight into her, feeling how damned tight she was even after what could have been a long ass time of fucking. “Jesus...how are you still so tight?” "Practice, Yoga, a few well made spells, and a lot of… special exercises." She cooed, giving me a kiss and pressing our breasts together. Her own stiffer poking from underneath out bottom nipples. “Well...they all worked wonders.” I groaned, before starting to hump my future self. “Even if they don’t accept you, you are mine.” I growled while keeping a strong pace for the older dire wolf. She chuckled. "Den Father mentality." “Whatever it is, I always try to give happy new lives to people that need it.” I groaned as I continued to pound into the tight sexy woman. “But...seriously, how did I grow up to...be so sexy?” "Den mother's technically never stop. Each pregnancy and birth keeps us young physically, but we still show some aging." “And yet your bigger by...a lot.” I said, moving my hands under her and grabbing her fat fluffy ass. "There is a lot you don't know that I had to learn the hard way. I hope you don't mind but I do have a far more…. Selfish reason for this." “You want to see if you can still get knocked up?” I asked while squeezing her ass. “Jesus...your ass is huge…” "Oh I know I can still have kids, I was thinking I can heal Zeke… my Zeke but…" “I’m sure you can heal your Zeke.” I said while starting to ram into her faster. “But we won’t know until I fill you up.” "That's actually part of my idea." She said, taking out Zeke's Keychain and placing it over her belly, and it sunk into her like her skin was water. "I am pretty sure this will effect your Zeke as well so… but if heals them…" “We won’t know until we try.” I growled, our breasts continuing to rub against each other, which was super sensitive and felt amazing by the way, as I continued to jack hammer into her. She started holding both hands over her belly, looking more wishful than in bliss. She's got a lot on her mind. As I was thrusting into her female half, her male half poked up between my boobs… all the way to the top two and under my chin. Wow her member is hot. “Alright you, I know you have a lot on your mind but…” I muttered while doing something that only we would know to stop myself from thinking and just go into sexual bliss. I blew hard into her tunnel, I never felt the end of her pussy but I know it's flooded now. She blushed hard, rubbing her belly as it visibly distended by quite a bit. As I started pulling out I saw her belly glowing, a familiar blue. “Well...I know that blue glow anywhere.” I said with a warm smile. "I hope Zeke doesn't mind. That egg I placed them in was… special." She cooed with a motherly smile. “I’m sure he wouldn’t mind.” I said while softly nuzzling my counterpart. “Now...I wonder how tight your ass is…” I muttered while pulling on my future selves tail, just like how...I tend to like it. She yipped. "Heh… cute, you think it's still your turn." She said, suddenly I found myself back against the ground, arms pinned by her… crazy strong grip. She was giving me a smile I've given to so many others. "Only fair." She said, teasing me with her tip. “I know I know.” I chuckled. “To be honest...we’re probably gonna be here for a couple...days…” I said sheepishly. “Don’t know how insatiable you’ll be after...god knows how long without getting some.” "Unlike you, I know how to get it all out of me in one go~" She whispered into my ear, making me shiver as she stuck it in. It slid deeper… and deeper… and deeper… then it hit the end of my vagina. "Barely half of it. Not quite as big on the inside as I am I see~" “You know nothing…” I blushed brightly. “And I doubt that you’re ‘one and done’ here…” "Like I said, I've learned things~" She cooed, pulling out and, with enough force to crack the ground under us, rammed into me. My brain was immediately sent to cloud nine. Each trust they sent inside me caused Every muscle in my body to tense up, each thrust breaking up the ground under me into sand. All cognitive thought at this point was gone, replaced entirely by primal bliss and a feeling of fullness. This lasted for all I knew days if I kept track of time. Finally, they slammed in, and came. My belly expanded to an exaggeration, the weight of all that cum felt heavy inside me and I loved it, drooling at the lips in afterglow. (porn stops) I woke up as the small spoon, future me cuddling me tightly. My belly was still so huge… I can't even move like this. “Good lord…” I muttered, looking at my large stomach. “That’s...gonna take a while to get down…” I muttered while looking up to my future self. “Better?” "It felt a lot like old times. Told you I could get it all out in one go~" they cooed, kissing my cheek. "Do you know what was special about the egg I am healing my Zeke in?" “No, I do not.” I said honestly. "At some point we got into… fusing. One body, mind, it was a surreal, lovely experience. That egg was the last mixed egg of myself and Eclipsa." “Oh…” I muttered. “I...I understand.” "It felt right… plus, remember, this will be affecting your Zeke also. So I guess this makes Zeke now… your and Eclipse's child/lover. That is not the first time something like this has happened to me." “Sounds about right.” I nodded. “But uh...how are we going to explain this to everyone else I wonder…” "I don't know." They said, snapping their fingers and both of us were dressed, though while they wore their normal clothes I was put into a night gowned that did not cover my enormous belly. "But I just hope everything goes well." “I’m sure it will.” I said while nuzzling my future self. “But...the only way to find out is to head off.” "Can you stand?" They asked me as I managed to roll to a semi sitting up position. “Uh...maybe?” I said sheepishly given my mid section was...really full. With some help I managed to stand, but my sense of balance kept leaning… forward. Man, is this how nine month old pregnancy feel? Whole extra layer of respect already. “Good lord...well I can kind of walk…”. "Heh. First time getting this big then? Trust me, it will get bigger." She said. "Lastly I guess a name for me to go by. Already have Ben and I saw Diane is here also so…" “Well...Ophelia?” I asked curiously. "Ophelia? Huh… not too bad, better than bothering at least." “A little bit yeah.” I nodded. “So...let’s head home.” "Home… heh, yeah." She said, feeling her still glowing belly. I nodded as I opened a portal back home. “Let’s hope for the best…” As we arrived home we were met by Cript, on one side was Diane, Marcy and Zeke who now looked like a bright blue fire fluffy half Naga Den Monther Dire Wolf! And to the other was Eclipsa and Heart, who looked near identical to Zeke. "Care to explain?" Cript asked. “Uh...I can explain…” I said worriedly. “But...it would involve my...older and sexy self…” They all saw Ophelia. "It's uh… it's exactly what it looks like." She said, patting her own and my bloated bellies. "I figured." Cript sighed. "So, that will fix your Zeke up in likely a month." Cript motioned to Ophelia's belly. "I'll just call them Ezekiel. Sounds cool and it's the original name Zeke comes from anyway. Now then, it seems to me that this is all going to become very confusing, am I correct?" “When has it ever not been confusing?” I asked honestly. "Now then. Heart you stay that color, Zeke," Cript snapped their fingers, Zeke's colors suddenly now a mix of dark blue and purple. "That works now If I remember when nobody told me, Ophelia," Another snap. "Your Ezekiel will have a mix of blue, white and grey colors so at least that won't be too confusing. I recommend you two look up what you can do in your assistants and learn from your respective spouses which technically we all are so just ask around. Now that the immediate issue is resolved now onto something else." “Yes, like how Ophelia is currently hugging the shit out of Eclipsa.” I started while everyone saw Ophelia hugging Eclipsa and crying in pure joy. "Saw that coming. Now then, onto other matters. Clearly fusing each multiverse and our respective realms wasn't enough. The other timelines, active and dead all seem hell-bent on joining." "And all of this...stemmed from me." I sighed out. "This may become a blessing in disguise however." Cript started. "We need more Allies and information on one thing. Why? Why haven't they attacked yet?" Cript asked as some shrugged and others began pondering it as well. "Because the Plot?" I asked honestly. "Ben, do me a favor and don't break the fourth wall unless it's for comic relief. But the reason, or rather, two reasons are standing in this group. Well, I suppose it's more five, maybe six depending on factors. Can anyone take a guess?" "Eclipsa?" Heart asked. "Half right." Cript said. "Ben and I?" Diane asked. "That's the other half. Yes. You see, in all the other timelines and reflections your god had in his mind, there was a grand total of near countless Marcy's, Diane's but only one Colon Ventral, turn Eclipse, become Eclipsa. And, there are only two Ben's born naturally in this reality as well, but out Ben was born AFTER his life as Diane, the timeline Nexus erased. In short, Eclipsa and Ben are anomalies. And if there is one thing I know about Nexus it's that they fear two things. Losing Data, and not having data. They aren't attacking because they have no idea about the full extent you two can do and frankly neither do I." "Oh...uh." I said honestly. "That's a thing…" I said nervously. "This is why they don't attack. They take every calculation into consideration and they can't calculate for you lot. This is why the base you raided had no reinforcements, the Nexus members in our creation here, are basically trapped. This includes their ever so valuable vaults." "I raided over twenty of them, you only knew of the one." Ophelia mentioned. "Oh...that's uh...that's a thing." I said nervously. "So...basically me and Eclipsa can do whatever we want and no one can argue against it?" "Not exactly." Cript started. "They have no data on you two. You both going out and doing stuff would give them said data. Then they'd be getting bolder and bolder." "So we just do nothing?" Eclipsa asked. "I didn't say that." "Vincent can travel through time without any drawbacks. Why didn't he just kill all of us before we were born?" I frowned. "Think about it, they tried to do that when you were Marcy and Diane, yet here you two are. The timeline was rewritten to erase you and you two are still here. So it's a pointless effort." "So make sure we were never born is a waste of time...that doesn't make much sense given that ruined my Earth life in three different ways." I frowned "That is interesting because your Psychopath copy actually has yet to be found. Question is why? Off topic, we know at least so long they don't have data on you they won't make a grand scale attack. This gives us the upper hand." "I have his leash...but either because the writers just remembered he existed or he died from something...and yes, yes it does give us an upper hand cause Ophelia here has been cleaving through Nexus bases about anyone knowing." I pointed out. “So now, let’s take something else into account. There are now, three versions of Ben, two of Eclipsa, and three of Zeke. I say, we even this out to nine.” “What do you mean?” Ophelia asked. “Diane’s messing with her old timeline to merge it into this one was, and coming from me this is a complement, a complete shitshow. But, it worked. If I can make a stable… can any of you follow what I’m saying or do I need to dumb it down?” Cript asked. "So basically we can have all the timelines fuse and have all the help we can have?" I asked. “Yes, and no. While this will gain us invaluble allies, it will also create issues as well, think of reality and all existance as the biggest fucking RPG in...well, the universe. Timelines are the alternate gaming routes one can take while ‘playing’ so there is most definitely versions of us who are good, but also those like us who are equal in power to us, but also have far more… villainous intentions. This is why timelines are often harder to traverse than Reflections.” "Okay...so what? We get good versions of our bad guys?" I asked curiously. “And bad versions of us.” Cript said. “So… what’s the verdict?” Heart asked. "What's the point when it would do...basically nothing or maybe fuck is over?" I asked honestly. “If there are evil versions of us that would show up as a result of this then maybe all at once isn’t the right way to go.” Zeke thought aloud. “One at a time would allow us to more effectively sort out enemy and allies.” “True.” Heart said. “But, what if these bad guys were rendered… powerless?” “Extracting their powers? It’s possible, but...maybe…” Cript thought. “The three reflections of the same guy all having tactical thoughts.” Marcy said jokingly. “Tell me about it.” Eclipsa said. "Now counterpoint, I've had many, many nightmares about how other timelines went before ending somehow...and a lot of them involved our own powers either being stolen or dumped down by something or another." I pointed out. “This can be useful.” Ophelia said. “It’s how we as king of Nothingness can sort through all that resides within our domain. Timelines mainly. I can teach you to hone this so we can find the better timelines so we can better prepare for the bad ones.” “That can work. With some work I should be able to make a spell version of my Consume ability to transfer out all the bad guys power from them into something else, either another person or even us or a container.” Cript said, popping into reality a pen and paper and started working. "Now problem...if other me's are as paranoid as me...they might have figured out how to negate things...cause I sure as shit know I've been figuring things out in a place not even Nexus would know." “Between the two of us, we can handle it.” Ophelia said, assuring me with a pet. “We’ll be fine.” "That's what they all say." I said with a roll of my eyes. "Now...I'm gonna finally do what I've been putting off for a while…" I sighed out as literally everyone in the room could tell… My water broke. To be continued Nobody finds a LibraryThank god I had that spa day cause if I didn't this might have hurt like a bitch. I didn’t specify my body on how many kids I was gonna birth at once… Twenty nine pups, some could change into a keychain form, others were part naga, a few were purebred dire wolf pups. All in all… Yeah I’m not leaving this spot… nope. Not moving. “And I thought I was bad…” Heart said, giving me an ear scratch. "I'm a Den Mother, this is my job and I will be darned if I left my kids sides." I said simply. "They are my kids...my very fluffy kids...and I couldn't be happier." I said, even though people saw during the kids birth I grew quite a bit in many many ways. “So… how will?” “It’s alright.” Ophelia said, resting next to me. I was about her size right now. "Yes, everything is alright." I smiled warmly. “So, what am I exactly?” Heart asked. “Cause this… is weird.” They motioned to all of themselves. “And you haven’t just changed back to your human form why?” I asked honestly. “Your an Admin, you can shapeshift.” “Why haven’t you? At this rate I’ve changed species, if a Keyblade can be counted as a species, three times. Human to Keyblade, Keyblade to Admin… now… whatever I am now. At this point I don’t completely care anymore but I don’t think what I am even has a name.” “Hybrid Naga and Dire Wolf...is new yes.” I started. “But why haven’t I? Because technically I was born as a Dire Wolf to get my Soul back so this is my base form...even though I was originally born male but that’s not the point.” I said honestly. “So...right now you and some of my kids are half naga half dire wolf...would they be Dire Naga’s? Floof Noodles?” I asked. That last one made Heart chuckle. “Cute. So… what are we gonna do next?” They asked, managing to lean against me and pet one of the pups. “Well I would have went to a beach to have a nice day off, but I’m not going anywhere right now.” I said gently, gently brushing some hair out of the face of a dire wolf keyblade. “Hm. Well, if anything you staying here with the kids would work to our advantage. Keeps Nexus and the rest blind to what you and Eclipsa to an extension a mystery.” “Plus I can train her in the more practical uses of our abilities.” Ophelia said. “That is also true.” I nodded. “Cause nothing like learning from my future self.” “Huh. Well, wonder what that leaves me to do?” Heart questioned. “No idea.” I shrugged. “You have a lot of things you can do while I’m here tending to our kids.” “That’s just it… I don’t know what to do. I guess I’m just not as good at… adapting to this kind of stuff as you guys.” “Honestly, I’m surprised you haven’t already gotten used to this already.” I said simply. “You and Eclipsa never had extraordinary lives. You live for all this wildness. Me? I basically get handed the ultimate weapon, and resurrect a city… and I didn’t want it. I’ve spent my whole life wanting what you two already had, harsh or not I wished for just one day of the lives you two lived.” “Basically you wanted a day where you don’t know what the fuck is happening?” I asked honestly. "I wanted a day to feel like everyone else." “I was never ‘like everyone else’ to start, you know this...and Eclipsa was literally reborn into a kid with Oath and Oblivion...neither of us had a ‘feel like everyone else’ moment. And honestly feeling normal is...kind of boring.” "Boring is better than being taught step by step how to hide the corpses." Heart sighed. "So what's it like… being a Dire wolf? Given I'm now… half one I guess some perspective is in order." “Boring let’s your mind slip and get distracted.” I started. “But being a Dire Wolf? Um...hard to explain, but it’s basically being a Wolf except bigger, faster, stronger, and a fuck lot more magical.” "Huh." Heart hummed. "I sometimes wish I wasn't…" “Wish you weren’t what?” I asked curiously. "Wish I wasn't me." “Okay, first up, stop being a baby.” I frowned. “For the past god knows how long, all you’ve done is complain about who you are when both me and Eclipsa have no idea who, or what we truly are, and Cript even proved that more.” I frowned. “So how about you take a good long look at yourself, and actually be okay with who you are, because you are so far removed from the bog standard factory made Zeke’s your so scared of being compared to.” I frowned. “If I, the most paranoid person in this realm, is more accepting of myself when I don’t know who the heck I am, then you should as well.” I said while making sure my tone was soft and not angry so I didn’t either wake up or upset my pups. "... Maybe. I just don't know how." “How I do it is that I look at all the accomplishments I’ve made, look at the absolute bonker’s size of my family...and just take a deep breath and feel like only I could have done this, no one else.” "Hmm…" “Yes?” I asked while a few of my children woke up and immediately started to drink my breast milk straight from the tap. "Why not take a vacation? Reflect?" Ophelia said. "For us… myself, Eclipsa and I would take special vacations when we were extremely stressed." “I mean, Lyra told me to go to the beach for a vacation, but I can’t since my kids.” I said honestly. "This vacation was… different." Ophelia said with a smile. "It was just us three and we actually only had to have one of us be under the… conditions." She chuckled. “Well either way.” I shrugged. “I need a vacation cause Lyra said so, Heart need’s a vacation because of his own reasons.” "What kind of Vacation is it?" Heart asked. "We called it a Childhood Vacation." Ophelia said. "I think I get the picture." Heart said. “Oh?” I asked curiously. “As in...literally going back to being a child again due to...that reason?” "You'd be surprised on how effective it was." Ophelia hummed. "And it lasts as long as we wanted." “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “But I have these twenty nine wonderful pups to take care of.” "Then play the role of the mamma." Ophelia said, looking over at Heart and I. "Wait… you want me to be the kid in this?" Heart asked. "It would give you something you've never had. A childhood." "... Is it wrong that I am considering it?" “Not really.” I said honestly. "It’s something that can help you. Why wouldn’t you want to take a chance to get help?” "I just…Will I remember?" "Only if you want. But once the vacation is over you will change back and remember everything." Ophelia said. “I mean, I remembered everything when I was reborn just to get my soul and light half back.” I said honestly. “Come on, the worst can probably happen even though Nexus doesn’t know what to do at the moment...or at least, until Spoiled clones are involved.” I sighed out, remembering that I have a mental connection to all the people that were connected to Heart. "Hmm…" Heart thought it over for a time. “You’ve been humming a lot lately.” I pointed out to Heart. "Heh. I guess I have… alright, a week and I'll want to remember stuff." Heart said. She then placed a kiss on her finger tips and blew it at Heart, a strong pulse of magic followed as in a puff of cool steam, Heart was now…. Puppy. My mind semi blanked seeing the now baby Heart as I unconsciously added him to my litter. “My puppy.” I said while gently nuzzling Puppy Heart. They were still half Naga, half Dire Wolf, but so damn small! He's half snake and still smaller than the solely Dire wolf pups... “He so smol, he so cute.” I cooed happily. “Is this what normally happens?” I asked Ophelia. "Yeah. Seems like Heart was just always a small baby." Ophelia said with a smile. Day 1 As the rest of the day was getting started, Heart mostly just seemed to nap. It also seemed that moving in the baby version of their body was harder than the adult one. They moved around almost like a worm. “And here we see the legendary floof noodle try their best to walk.” I said in a makeshift animal documentary voice because honestly this is just adorable. They didn't seem to mind my narration, still trying to move to no real avail. With me here, Ophelia took my work for the past few days, though the kingdom was absolutely ecstatic at hearing I gave birth apparently and thousands of letters and reporters wanting photos of the newborns arrived. “Listen, I know everyone’s so happy about me finally giving birth but do I literally need thousands of letters?” I frowned. "You have fans." Alxun said, aka Luna for those who can't tell. "It's a big deal." “I know I know.” I said. “But there too young and all the attention might scare them…” I said worriedly, not wanting my kids to be scared by the paparazzi. "Most likely." “This is gonna be a little annoying I just know it…” I sighed out. I sighed as I saw Baby Heart crawling around, well, inchworming around. I wonder how much an infant Biology is affecting their mentality? For me it was mostly just being tired a lot, finding the stupid little toys interesting and a natural instinct tot feed when hungry. “How are you feeling right now Heart?” I asked, having the ‘baby talk app’ open so I can understand if Heart is talking. 'feel… kinda cold actually.' They replied, still inchworming around. “Uh…” I frowned. “Either because your a naga and your cold blooded...or something else…” I said nervously, trying to recall if Eclipsa’s race were cold blooded and warm blooded Dire Wolf would do something about that. I got a copy of that guide book Eclipsa had on her race and opened it up. Flipping through the pages until I found something. Infant Naga's while warm blooded thanks to our evolution, does not yet generate enough body heat alone until they are a month of age, as such, the mother or family members swallow them into their storage or healing stomach for warmth and protection from the elements. While inside either belly their inborn magic creates a sort of parasitic relationship to the host so they do not require food or water, while the bellies natural oils and biology gives air. This parasitic relationship does not harm the host at all, and works akin to normal pregnancy “They could have said it’s ‘symbiotic’ instead of ‘parasitic’...” I muttered while gently picking up Heart and cradling him, my fur warm enough to hopefully increase his temperature so he wasn’t cold. They yawned, falling asleep as I was warm enough to keep them as such with just the fur. This was nice. I've rarely seen them so calm. “This is nice.” I muttered with a warm smile. “How have you and the others...reacted to me finally having kids?” I asked Alxun. "I lost sixty rem to Twin Pie…" She laughed. “Even after all this time people still bet on me…” I sighed out. “What did you bet?” "I thought you'd give birth in a year." “Alrighty then.’ I nodded. “But I take it everyone’s happy about the twenty nine new kids?” "Very." Alxun said with a nod. "If not for all the work they'd be here too." “Honestly...I just want a day where none of us are working and just...spend time as a family.” I said. “When was the last time we did that? Everytime people have just been busy, tired, or having planned other things…” "Pain of running a massive kingdom. The bigger it is, the more work there is to do." “Even though that everything we’ve done we can honestly let the entire kingdom run itself for a while without any problems.” I said honestly. "If I know anything, it's that there is always work, mundane or of grand importance." I sighed out. “And this is why I hate working…” I muttered. Smirking, Alxun cuddled up next to me and yawned. "I hope you don't mind, but we were setting up a room for you and the other Den Mother's. All the babies and you all. Figured the best way to keep the kids, you, and all that together and safe. Plus it will be hidden so no way Nexus will find it." “Yay.” I smiled while nuzzling Alxun. “Thank you.” "Thank Cript. He had a point. So long as you and Eclipsa remain a mystery to Nexus the kingdom won't have to worry about grand scale attacks. Plus it keeps you relaxed and with the kids so, win win." She said smiling. “Until Nexus gets so upset at not knowing things they actively attack us.” I sighed out. I received a light flick to the snoot. "Don't think, just enjoy." She said, placing a puppy on my muzzle. I pouted. “Fine fine.” I said while gently taking the pupper off my muzzle and cuddling with my wife, Heart, and one of my kids. Later that day I was moved to the room. It was actually kinda cool. Cript modified his Radist, that weird TARDIS ship of his to hold us all in, and camouflaged it as something I didn't expect. The air. This makes it, thanks to my Nothingness, impossible to locate and can only be opened from the inside. My parents, Den and many others were here, including… wait. "Hello again Ben." The Mother said. She looked like a Den Mother… like the legendary first Den Mother… just as big too. “And...what are…” I took a moment. “Wait...what happened?” "Allow me." Cript said, walking up to me as a Den Mother also. What the? "You see, Max… killed her protectors… while she wasn't in danger this did give me an idea. You see, Den Mother's are in every reality, the best mother's. Loyal, fearce, so, after speaking with her, we decided to move her here, taking up a Den Mother form along with the other- oph!" Cript yelped, tackled by a rather green fur colored Den Mother. "Lyra!" "This is fun!" Lyra proclaimed. "Yes… as you can see everyone here either is a mixed Den Mother along with their normal forms, or just a pure den mother, but the kids they birth while The Mother is here are not all going to be born solely Dire wolves. Ponies, Naga's, Centaures, etc. This room is basically the family baby making/raising room. Completely locked off from all of Creation, and thanks to your Nothingness, the Void as well, keeping all here safe. This includes the grown up kids as well." “That...is really cool.” I said. “And who said my paranoia into figuring out how to make people completely untraceable wasn’t a good idea?” I chuckled. “And good thing I figured out how to reverse it to find our enemies if their trying to hide.” I mentioned. "Glad this thing is getting some use too." Cript said, knocking Lyra off of them. "Haven't used it in so damn long, I had already ripped out the timedrive so it's already a regular space ship with an infinite pocket dimension. Also food at will. Pizza." They said, in a flash a simple cheese pizza appearing before them. “Sweet.” I said happily. “This is amazing...all the kids will be safe and happy with those they love.” "And I am going to be a bit more lenient on the Starfish clones rule, but I also feel I should mention that while you can have sex out there the babies will always be born and sent here, so incase you croak as a Starfish clone out there, you and they are safe here. But be careful if you see Max… Don't confront him. Something about how he killed those Admins was off and I don't like it at all." “John’s gonna beat him that’s for sure.” I said honestly. “But I’m sure Max will do something that will involve all of us.” "Likely, but not anytime soon. He likes to prepare… but, one issue at a time and this seems to solve our safety issue. Now, for something I've been waiting for, for a long time." Cript said happily as I saw The Mother nod. “What?” I asked curiously. "With the Mother of another creation here, we can merge hers and our creation together, making both a much more fun existence and a bigger, more defensible one. More Allies in the fight and more various information and such. A foot up from Nexus." “Except that foot up would be a foot back because Nexus would also be getting allies from them...also wouldn’t Void Mother be absolutely pissed Belief is back?” I asked curiously. "She has long since lost her own emotions, pouring them all into the blackness that is the void today. She might not care. Besides, she can't do anything." “Why can’t she do anything? I thought that the moment she exits whatever hole she’s in all of existence kind of stops…” "While true she would immediately taint all around here, much like how I can pacify anyone no matter how the rage they feel burns, I also can no longer fight. This rule, still applies to her. It's why she gathers followers. She is bound by the rules of the Mother, because she founded them. Even corrupted she follows them, in a twisted way." “Alrighty then…” I nodded. “That’s...something that seems easily broken to be honest.” I said. “But as long as they don’t actively just destroy everything…” "They are not. These rules make up what we are as The Mother. Should she break them, she would become killable. Her immortality is tied to her following these rules." “Wouldn’t killing herself be the answer to what she wants though?” I asked honestly. “She breaks the rules, she then kills herself, and then existence ends right?” I pointed out. “Or is that just what Vincent wants?” "Her death would only lead to the end of void. Not existence. If a Mother dies only the reality we made and sustain will die, so her here, it will only be the void that goes." “And then Nothingness goes and then Light and Dark goes and then everything goes in a massive chain reaction cause one of the key parts of reality just ceased to exist.” I said. “I’m glad our enemies are too brain dead to realize that but still.” "Not exactly. If she is to die that does not mean the rest of reality does. So long as there is at least one Mother, and one Belief, existence will live on." “Even when a literal piece of existence just isn’t there anymore?” I asked curiously. "While the void has proven… unique, in its newfound form it was originally energy like magic or life energy. This void is just corruption at its purest. Without her it would all begin to revert back to its original forms." “Okay then.” I nodded. “Thank you...good to know that Vincent was just lying then…” "He might not have known. As smart as he is this information is little known." “And yet he can time travel without any consequences.” I frowned. "There's always consequences." Cript muttered lowly. “Not from my one nightmare.” I frowned. “This nightmare showed me that Vincent planned for you to kill him just so his past self could make some grand entrance as Zeke’s brother, just so when we finally get to fight Jericho the fucker swaps bodies and then kills himself as Jericho.” I frowned. “His future self and past self even talked about it...which is how do I know this? Because myself in that timeline found an orb that told me everything.” "... I hate the fucking forth wall…" Cript groaned. “There is no Fourth Wall, that was just Nothingness showing me a possible timeline that stopped abruptly.” I said. “Remember, Nothingness has a special hold on Time itself...as Diane puts it, it’s the ‘Recycling Bin’ for all Timelines that either never happened because of events or was destroyed due to Nexus.” "Either way. So, looks like you have to learn to hone that power so we know who and where to get the most aid from." Cript yawned. "From there we help the good guys there deal with the bad guys they have then get them to help us." “And that’s where Ophelia comes in.” I said honestly. “Given that...she’s probably sixty thousand or more years old given what she said about you being dead.” "It will go quicker once you have some training as well." Ophelia said with a nod. "It will let us sort them out from best to worst timelines." “Alrighty then...even though I have constantly trained as much as I could, sadly off screen yet again, right now actual training would help…just need this stupid thing off.” I said while pointing to the necklace Lyra forced me to wear. “Relax. This isn’t combat, this is using Nothingness to witness what no longer exists through the you that walks that timeline.” Ophelia said, placing a paw to my own. “We will explore that world through their eyes, but there is one downside. While we… possess, for lack of a better word, we are restricted to the powers and abilities they have. This connection sends our minds and not out power. Once we have analyzed it, we can determine its value in reaching first or save it for later if it is bad.” “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “This is going to be a nightmare and a half...I just know it…” “Let’s try a timeline that is peaceful then. We can determine which is bad and which is good. I’ll guide you to the peaceful timeline, then you can try it alone once you explore it, alright?” Ophelia said. “Alright...so let’s try to do this without me being flung into whatever timeline Nothingness wanted to throw me in…” I sighed out. Ophelia allowed the Nothingness to completely cover her, flowing it over me. Closing my eyes, I felt Ophelia and myself soon dive into Nothingness itself, the energy felt stagnant, but at the same time flowing. I began seeing the multiple countless streams of nonexistent timelines. Some flowing calmly with no worry, others chaotic and shifting violently. I could feel Ophelia guide me towards the calmer ones. Soon she let go as I fell into it. Once I woke up I noticed something was odd. I was… a pony? Fully equine? “Uh...sure, why not…” I muttered while looking myself over to see who I was. I had an eggshell white coat, dark grey mane and a Thorn Vine as a cutie mark. Thankfully moving like this is a lot like my feral form. I was an adult, as far as I could tell. Looking out the window I was in… what city is this? Manehattan? “Okay...so far there’s Deja Vu with me starting a journey in Manehattan…” I chuckled to myself while looking around to see if there was any other distinct things about where I was at the moment. I tried summoning my weapons. Nothing sadly, not even Nothingness. Ophelia was right then. Looking around I noticed two things. One, I was an earth pony, and two, for an earth pony I have a lot of arcane books. “Hmm...that’s interesting…” I hummed while trotting over and picking up one of the arcane books. Most seemed to be on ancient spells and theoretical magics. Though one here made mention to something I am familiar with. By fifth Discordian era the two sisters were faced with dire choices in their battle against the spirit of chaos Discord. In their battles it was said they turned him to stone first in an attempt to force his very essence to sleep eternally so his physical body would become hollow and motionless. That sounds like what happened to Ventus, when his heart went to rest within Sora’s. “Well that’s a curious thing…” I hummed. The Princesses were said to accomplish this using an ancient relic recovered from an unknown land far within the badlands. The relic did not work however, so they turned to the elements of harmony, and victory was achieved. The next image displayed the relic in question. There was clear alterations, but this was a spot on match for a Starlight Keyblade of the Keyblade Graveyard. “Oh damn...that’s a thing.” I said. “Wonder how they found that thing...and if the Keyblade Graveyard is somehow apart of the Badlands…” There was a sudden knock at my door. “Wolf Thorn! You there?” Someone’s voice called out. Wolf Thorn? Is that my pony name here? Huh… not bad. That voice though… it sounds familiar. “Uh, one moment!” I called out while putting the book down. “Sorry, was just doing some light reading.” I said while trotting over and opening the door. I was met by a Pegasus… who kissed me deeply… they were also a stallion. “Morning lovely~” They cooed to me while using their wings to hand me flowers… Wait, that mane color… those red eyes… ZEKE, er, Heart?! “Miss me?” Looking more at them… yeah. It was them. Their cutie mark was even a bullseye target. “Even your kisses always hit the mark.” I chuckled, trying to see if I could ‘remember’ this pegasi’s name from Wolf Thorn’s memories. … I could not. Need to learn that soon! Glancing quickly at the flowers I saw a note. ‘Happy three year Anniversary, Heart Shot.’ Oh thank god… Wait… Anniversary? “I must have been reading too much...but Anniversary?” I asked, playing the ‘forgetful nerd’ card here given there was a lot of arcane and history books here. He chuckled, smiling at me. “Silly book worm.” They pat my head. “This day three years ago, I bumped into you at Magic Point Park waiting for the new Daring Do book and had our first date. Tonight I was thinking museum trip first, check out your favorite exhibits then the Archery Team’s practice then end it all with a lovely picnic as Princess Celestia lowers the sun and Luna raises the moon.” So Luna isn’t Nightmare Moon here. That’s good. “And by ‘archery team’s practice’ you mean ‘showing off’ again right?” I asked, having a feeling that, given this is Zeke, he would do some showing off in front of his stallion. “Not my fault I’m that good Besides, I know you’re little pervy mind constantly thinks of how lewd it can become.” “Not my fault you got a nice plot.” I chuckled. “So anyways, shall we get going or you need to get something?” "Just picking your hot self up." This version of Heart seems… so happy. How different were their lives? He took me to a nice dinner for breakfast before we headed off to the museum. “Ah the museum.” I sighed out happily, enjoying the history that was within the building. As I was looking around I remembered when I went to a museum with Twilight. As we looked around I saw something. It was an old piece of armor… not equine. That's Keyblade armor. Looking up this exhibit hall was labeled "Mystery of The Badlands Far South." Here pieces of Keyblade armor were on display. Even… the Starlight Keyblade. It was heavily rusted over. There was one piece of attire here that was whole and fairly clean… a Unicorn mask. Is this Equestria and the Keyblade Graveyard the same world? “Something’s...not right…” I muttered to myself, thinking about all the possibilities of what this could mean. "I never understood why you liked this wing so much. All this stuff creeps me out." Heart Shot said, looking over a half broken gauntlet of Keyblade armor. “That’s because this is ancient history, of civilization and of a race long forgotten...or…” I looked at the Unicorn mask and all the rusted weapons. “A civilization and a race that killed each other for some...unknown reason.” "Either way they had weird fashion sense. Plus isn't it weird that if they did kill each other, why isn't there a single bone or fossil?" “I don’t know...but it has to do with this weird weapon.” I said while pointing to Starlight. “It’s unlike any weapon we’ve seen, and it’s unlike any magic anyone’s ever seen.” "How? Doubt it has any magic left given the story about the Princesses and Discord." They said, looking over various other items. “And yet both princesses believed it held power, even in it’s rusted state…” I said. “And their both Alicorn’s, so if they could sense long lost magic in these items then they should still have power...I just don’t know how to bring it out…” I sighed out. "You really should have been born a unicorn." Heart said with a half laugh, hugging me with their wing. "I heard they added a new piece to this exhibit, figured you'd go crazy over it." “Wait really!?” I asked in surprise. “Where is it?” "Should be at the end of the hall. All I know about it is that it is apparently huge." “Well then let’s get going.” I said while practically dragging him off to the new exhibit. “Can’t wait to see what huge thing is here.” As I dragged them down to the new exhibit, upon finally seeing it… my heart sank. There is rusted, dust encased glory was… The Lingering Will… "Okay… that's cool." Heart said. “The Lingering Will…” I muttered, seeing it still in that same position. "Hmm." Heart hummed, not hearing what I said and looking at the plack before it. "This statue was discovered atop The highest rock tower within the location of the Badlands. It is hollow and seems to give off faint unidentifiable magic. This figure has been dubbed 'Hollow Knight'." “I mean...their technically correct.” I said, gently reaching out to the armor. “There’s...someone still in this Armor…” "It says it's hollow." Heart said, looking at me. "You alright?" “It also says it gives off faint unidentifiable magic...yet look at it, it’s stuck in this pose like...it’s waiting for someone.” "What? Like a golem or something?" “No...like a Lingering Will.” I said. “Damn not being a Unicorn…” I grumbled as I put a hoof on the ground. “If only I could channel some form of magic...maybe I could do something to unlock these damned these secrets.” I growled and stomped on the ground. "Why not ask your boss?" Heart asked. “Today is our anniversary…” I said while looking at him sadly. “I don’t want to get caught up in work on our special day…” "Awh." They cooed, kissing me with a hug. "And you say you can't be romantic." “I’m not really.” I said honestly. “Sorry for...getting a little overzealous with work.” "It's kinda cute when you do that." “Oh yeah?” I asked curiously. "Yeah. You're little nerd outs are always cute. So, now that we saw this thing how about we head off to the other exhibits." “Sure…” I said while looking at Lingering Will again. “I don’t know who you are, but I know you're in there.” We began exploring the rest of the museum. It was all fairly standard. But fun. “Well this was fun.” I said warmly. "Glad you like it." Heart said as we exited. "Now onto the archery team for a bit of practice and show off to you, then onto our picnic." “Alright.” I nodded. “Sounds like a plan.” I said, kind of hoping Wolf Thorn was going to remember all of this. We took a trolley some ways downtown to the archery teams training area. A community center. I sat in the benches with some other viewers while Heart and the others took practice shots at moving targets a unicorn was moving around. Like my Heart, Heart Shot had impeccable aim. His teammates were doing good too. “So, how’s it going Wolf?” Looking to my left, I saw a thin earth pony mare was now sitting next to me. She had the same coat color as me, but a dark brown mane and her cutie mark was a sword in the stone… huh. "Oh nothing much. How about you...uh…" I tried to think of her name. "Sorry, too many things on my mind…" She gave me a fairly good whack across the back of my head. “Oh let me guess, did Heart rutt your brains out again? It’s me dummy, Stone Thorn, your sister.” She said, rolling her eyes. … I have siblings here?! "I'm sorry sis, I just got done with seeing the new exhibits at the museum." I said sheepishly. "And no, he didn't do that." “Huh, surprising.” She chuckled. “I got back from seeing that too. I can’t wait for my night shift tonight. I’m gonna run every examination test on that statue to try and identify that magic, but that’s not all I came here to tell you.” She said, looking around real quick. “I just got word back from the crew at the badlands that the statue was not all they found!” She said in a hushed whisper yell. “They found bones! An intact skeleton that was next to the statue! They’ll be shipping it out here by next week.” "Really?" I whispered. "But...the armor felt like it still had someone in it. You sure?" “Hm? Well yeah, check it out. I got a sketch of the bones and their still intact attire and weapon!” She said, fetching a letter from her saddle bags and showing me… The skeleton was human… and wore Terra’s old clothing… even the Gazing Eye was still in their grip. “They’ve already sent the weapon but it’s in research still. They want to examine it before displaying it to the public. It’s in AMAZING condition!” "That's… really interesting." I said honestly. “If you want, just say the word I will get you in the lab tonight. I’m sure you and Heart will be done by midnight, just show up around then and I’ll let you see them.” She said, placing the papers back into her bag. “You have to apply for a send out there someday bro. I know you don’t want to be so far away from Heart Shot but it will be totally worth it.” "I know I know..." I sighed out. "But I'll try to be there by midnight." “Great! Happy Anniversary, and happy future!” She said, taking off. After about three hours of watching Heart Shot make some rather impressive trick shots, we headed out for the picnic. The part was fairly lively but now crowded. The blanket was set, food and wine poured. “And, enjoy.”Heart said, feeding me a sunflower sandwich… huh, not bad. Pony tastebuds. "I am enjoying it." I said warmly. “I’m glad. Been planning this for a while. It’s not that big but I know you’re not that big on the extravagant.” Heart said, munching on their own sandwich. "As long as it's with you it's more than enough." I said lovingly. As we ate we watched as day shifted to night, began stargazing and just had fun. Part of me wondered though… is this considered cheating? I hope it doesn't, I'd rather not have taken Wolf Thorns boyfriend away. "Stargazing is nice." I said warmly. "So love, I've been thinking… your apartment is kinda snug and my place is… big enough for two…" "Oh?" I asked. "Are you..asking what I think your asking?" "I mean, we've been dating for three years. Most ponies are already married at this point in a relationship. I know you want to take it slowly but I want to know that this will… lead to something more." "Trust me...I want to take the best step." I said gently. "But it's gonna be a nightmare getting all my stuff out of my place and into yours." "First challenge as a committed couple?" They asked nervously. "A challenge we'll both get through." I said warmly. They happily tackled me. Nuzzling into my neck. Hmm… Just how different did this Heart live compared to mine? Maybe some questions are in order will also give me needed into on my apparent boyfriend… hard to believe at one point I identify sexually as straight. "Love you." I said while wrapping my hooves around my boyfriend. The night ended lovely. Heart said that if I left them a key they'd start packing some of my things. Once we parted ways I made my way to the museum. It was eleven thirty. "What was the point of me being here again?" I muttered to myself curiously. "I know I was supposed to check other times but...where's the end point?" I walked over to the museum, seeing my… sister waiting for me. "You're early." She said with a nod. "Better to be early than late." I said honestly. "Come on, the tests are just starting!" She said happily. "Hooray." I said happily while heading into the museum with my sis. Inside the Laboratory, I saw the Gazing Eye Keyblade laid out on the table. Several magical analyzers looking it over. "So what have they figured out so far?" I asked. "It has an extremely complex inner spell matrix. It's unlike anything in all the world's libraries and best schools. We can't even rub it's surface that's how complex it is! It's metals are unknown by any of the known magic or standard ores, and most interesting of all is this." She took out a small box with a lock on it, tapping it against the Keyblade and it opened immediately. "Any lock magic or not unlocks with just a touch." "So it's a Key...blade?" I questioned, acting dumb cause I knew what it was. "Cause while it's a key in nature, its design looks more like it's used to fight." "That's what I theorized!" She said. "given the armor and everything I am curious as to why this weapon is in such remarkable condition…" She looked over the Keyblade before a machine, looking up a fax machine, started printing. "Oh! It's here!" She said giddily. "Wonder what it'll say." I said curiously. "It's the Badlands team. They finished carbon dating the bones!" She said, looking over the paper. "Wow! This is amazing! According to this the normal armor and artifacts there date back to before the Alicornian era, but these bones and that statue date back to just 50,000 years old!" 50,000… that much time since… "So it's been that long? Then why does it feel like...the armor still has someone living inside them?" I asked. "You could tell as well that that armor was...waiting." "Well if it's a golem like we think maybe. Perhaps it's a trigger word? Spell maybe?" Trigger word? Huh…. "Maybe...if we mention the weapons name, maybe it'll do something?" I asked curiously. "Oh! Maybe. Let's try before the boss shows up!" She said, almost pushing me towards Lingering Will. "If this works the boss is gonna flip." I said while heading over. "No kidding, but I'll be damned if Curator Rune is gonna stop this chance!" Wait… my boss is… Rune?! But… is she like mine… or Hearts…? We arrived and Keyblade didn't work. Nor did some other words Stone Thorn tried. As she was pondering in the corner I was gonna try some I know have to work. "Xehanort…" I muttered to the armor. It shifted. Suddenly, there was a blast, knocking me and stone back quite the distance as all their rust and dirt came off. They looked like new… an pissed… "X...Xeh...Xeh...an...Xehano... Xehanort… Xehanort!" The Lingering Will screamed. "It talks?!" Stone said in panic as we both hid from it. "Xehanort!" It shouted as someone crashed in the museum. "Oh buck me we are so fired…" Stone huffed in fear. "Wait here." I said as I made my way closer to it. "Whoever this Xehanort is, he's dead." I called out to Terra's Lingering Will, knowing he'll react if he heard the old mans dead maybe he'll calm down. "Its been fifty thousand years, the persons dead!" "Xehanort…" He seemed to be calming, then his Keyblade flashed. "Xehanort… his heart lives… I will shatter it!!" He screamed, slashing again and destroying millions in irreplaceable artifacts… yeah we are so fired… His heart- Gazing Eye! That must be why it was so pristine! "Aw shit…" I muttered while rushing off to find Gazing Eye before it was too late. "Need to get to Gazing Eye before it's too late…" As I was rushing back to the lab I saw the Starlight Keyblade here, it's rust cracked off, showing that underneath it was still alive. It's colors bright and vibrant. I tried to pick up Starlight. "Gonna need your help here…" I said worriedly. Taking Starlight in my mouth, cause no hands or horn sucks, and it flashed, it's long caked on rust and grime gone. “Thank you.” I said with it in my mouth as I prepared to face off against Lingering Will. “God this is gonna suck…” As I ran off towards Lingering Will I noticed everything got… quiet… too quiet. Finding an odd sight, I saw Lingering Will, frozen still, unmoving. Neither was the debris still floating in the air. "Wow. Not bad." Turning, I saw Ophelia walking over to me. "So, how's it going from your perspective?" “Uh...I’m kind of messing up?” I said sheepishly. “I don’t know…” "It's better than it could be." She chuckled. "Do you know why I picked this timeline for you to practice and experience first?" “Because I had the highest chance of screwing something up like getting poor Wolf Thorn fired?” I asked. "Because In this reality you, and Heart, both asked to be reborn, without the weight of your past lives memories. You two found each other, found happiness, and you can't lie, even though it's an alternate version, you do love them. Right?" “Of course.” I said. “That hasn’t changed at all...but I’ve...noticed a distinct lack..of Eclipsa…” I said sadly. "You don't have to look that far." She motioned towards… Stone Thorn… she was running out the door. "You were both siblings in this timeline, but both forgot by choice, but wanted to remain siblings. The two of you here never formed a spark of love, but you held a strong fire for each other as brother and sister. You see, in every but a very minute group of timelines, you three are always together in some way, shape or form." “Alrighty then…” I nodded. “That’s...good to know.” "The point of this was to show you that even in the near endless timelines, you three belong together. I lost faith in that when Eclipsa… passed. I want to make sure that no matter what happens you don't make my mistakes." “I mean, so far that wasn’t going to happen.” I said. “Even though I would have went bonkers if anyone of my family died…” "I just want to make sure. I mean, I am you still after all, wiser and more mature… more sexy, but still you, so, still paranoid." Ophelia said with a chuckle. “Well either way…” I said, keeping lewd thoughts to myself .”So...currently things have gone to shit...how do I fix it?” "Of course. Do you think this timeline is worth us adding it and fixing it's issues?" Ophelia asked almost knowingly. “You already know the answer, I’d say yes.” I said honestly. “Oh but uh...does Wolf Thorn remember what...I’ve been doing?” "Yes and no. They will remember things you did as if it was them doing/saying it. But your inner thought/certain words and such you'd rather not say or have anyone in the timeline know about he will forget about completely. Now then, time to merge." She said, taking my hood as all began to glow with an almost rainbow of colors. I woke up and… was still hugging Heart as a baby… "Time difference." Ophelia said, still next to me. "In the realm of Nothingness, time holds almost no true meaning. You were there for a day, here is was barely a minute." “Sounds about right…” I nodded while nuzzling Heart gently. "It will day a whole week for all of that timeline to merge here successfully." Cript added. Still here with his Lyra laying across their back. "Also, Ophelia." "Hm?" "As I promised myself, if I can make anyone's life better, I will do it no matter how much or who it might piss off. Fuck sad ending I prefer the happy ones… so…" "Hi Ben… or is it Ophelia?" Even I froze at that voice… that lovely, heartwarming sexy voice… Ophelia and I both turned. It was… Eclipsa. But she was easily twice or even three times her normal size, both in body and bust… she had a few streaks of gray hair, and even a few grey scales across her snake half. "H-h-how?" Ophelia asked, crying as she jumped into the Naga's arms. "Like I said, I only do happy endings. I found out your timeline still had a Mother, so I just paid her a visit and what was a minute for you all was about six hundred years of my figuring out how to truly revive an Admin from death after they have returned to their Mother." Cript stated matter-of-factly. "Well...that’s quite an accomplishment and hot damn is older Eclipsa hot as hell…” I blushed. "Call me Grey." She chuckled, hugging her Ophelia as well. "I also see you used our egg to heal Ezekiel." Ophelia blushed. "I did… I made a lot of mistakes when you…" She kissed Ophelia. "My wolf. You never really change huh?" "The rest of your timeline will take a good two weeks to catch up with you Grey." Cript stated. "Since yours is technically of the future I had to do a lot of extra work to allow it in here and the Time Walkers are pissed at the excess labor and paperwork." “Hey Grey, look at Heart as a Floof Noodle.” I said while holding Heart up by his armpits like one would with a cat. "That's adorable. So is that how Ezekiel will look when they are healed? Cute!" She cooed, petting Heart. “Most likely yes, and yes they are absolutely adorable.” I said with a warm smile. Day 2 With the Starfish clone limit thing now not as harsh, I was in my office while also doing a photo shoot while also with the family in the hidden safe baby room and a lot of other stuff. Man it feels good to have Starfish clones all over the place again. Today was a bit different through for me in the office. I was helping Leon S. Kennedy established some pittishioned laws. I never really spent a lot of time around the others from Zeke's little fusion thing so this was new. "Lastly the Factory district wants a mandatory vaccination of all employees, as to keep both product and employee health from becoming compromised." Leon said. “Okay, that should have just been standard procedure to begin with.” I said bluntly. "You'd think but this world is made up of both Cript's main world, as well as yours and Eclipsa's Equestria's, who to their blessed luck never really needed vaccines since majority of their illnesses could be cured via magic. With the mixing of all these races and other worlds a whole new potential outbreak crisis is at risk of hitting the equestrians." “Yeah, that is true…” I nodded. “Well better get those vaccine’s out to the people before an actual crisis occurs.” With a signature and a send off the law was legal. "That about covers them all now. Shall we talk about the front lines or later?" Leon asked. “Might as well get it done now.” I said honestly. “So, what about the front line?” "So far they have begun using Void Beasts. The results are regrettably effective. However thanks to Nothingness infused weapons and spell casualties are being kept at a minimum. Cript's Freak Inc is looking through more ways to weaponize it. This includes having sent out Nobodies to help deal with the void beast. So far it's lately the same stalemate." “And it’s going to keep being a stalemate with more and more lives lost unless we do something…” I sighed out. "The enemy has the advantage of being in the void. For us to enter it is suicide. We can't navigate or explore it. For all we know all of void is their territory." “We know it’s not, and sadly I haven’t found John yet to give us an edge in this…” I sighed out. "If we could at least somehow get eyes in the void, news of some kind then we'd be able to better prepare and defend." “I...sadly have...wait…” I took a deep breath. “I need to kill Void Key first...fuck, I had an idea that involved a...D-Link with Coco, but she’s still in a coma and I don’t know where the main body of Void Key is...damn it…” I growled. “Cause when I tested that, apparently I went full Void with Coco’s D-Link and...even made Void Nobodies.” "That's… interesting… were you able to control it still?" “Yep.” I nodded. “Full control, basically my D-Link with Coco swapped all my Nothingness with Void...it was a little surreal to be honest.” "Do you think there is a way to form that Void Nothingness outside of a D-Link?" “I doubt it because I don’t have any Void abilities, and I haven’t gotten any through family like Balance and Grey.” I said honestly. “Unless...I forgot about something.” I said while checking my character screen with my Assistant to see how many abilities I forgot to equip and many many skills I might not know about. What the? The skills list was all different now. It looked more like a mix of Skyrim and Shield Heroes leveling skill system. There was a lot of categories too. “Jesus fuck…” I muttered while also noting...HOLY HELL! That’s a lot of Skill Points I need to put down. “Uh...okay fuck...sometimes I completely forget that game logic still works here…” I said with a frown. “Hey Leon...ever had that feeling you were unknowingly crippling yourself in several ways?” "Only when I realized/discovered Magic was real. Before that, not often." “Magic being real, and then the crippling alcoholism you suffered for a while.” I said honestly. "The only good side to what happened to me is that I can't get drunk now. Though that's also kind of bad since hangovers are what dulled my brain from the paranoia." As I saw the Dire Wolf and Den Mother Dire wolf categories, of which I found off those were different, I saw there was more than one type of Dire wolf, most I had unlocked but there were some that were still locked. One looked interesting. All I got off it was the title. Void Wolf. Next to that though was Nothingness Wolf, which was unlocked and ready for Upgrades. “Alrighty then…” I said while dumping so many points into all of these skill trees I was finding and unlocking damn near everything I could with all the skill points I have neglected for god knows how long. Needless to say, I felt… way better, not like I wasn't feeling good before but I felt great. I was looking over the Nothingness Wolf skills and abilities when I noticed a guide book option. Yes please., oh and there’s a Void Wolf guide book option? Fucking sweet, this is gonna make this a hell of a lot easier as Leon could immediatly tell my own power was going through the god damn roof. “So many skills...so many buffs...holy hell this is gonna take a while…” He began doing the same. Turns out this didn't just apply to me. As I tried to look up on void wolf, I got this. Access Denied. Refer to General Leveling Guide Book for learning to unlock skill branches. “Well then what’s the leveling guide…” I frowned while trying to find the leveling guide book. “It better not be I’m locked out of certain paths…” I grumbled. As ai found the General Leveling Guide book, I flipped to the first page. Welcome to your Freak Inc. Assistant Skill Leveling Trees! The Skill Leveling paths are decided into different branches, these branches can intersect, creating new mixed branch pathways. You unlock these with Skill points, earned for using skills a certain amount of times. There are two ways to earn these skills, passively or Actively. For example. To gain a single skill point by jumping, you must jump a minimum of five hundred times. This is an active Skill Point Grind. A passive skill point grind is like using passive abilities, such as HP UP, active, and leaving it so for one hundred thousand hours. This earns you a skillpoint passively. To unlock a skill branch, there are various ways or limitations depending on race. (Does not apply to Admins, Admins need only sample a code of another race to unlock their skill branches) So that's it. I need to sample the code of a Void Wolf and I'll be able to use that branch skills… and hopefully, achieve that mix branch for the Void Nothingness. “Alrighty then...so where the fuck are Void Wolve’s?” I questioned while bringing up another tab and searching for Void Wolves. Void Wolves. This long lost tribe of the Dire Wolf clans was said to have once ran between the Void and Creation freely as a means to hunt in every reality, and every plain of existence. The full extent of their powers is unknown and one has not been seen in five hundred thousand years. Many theorize they are extinct or even just still running through the void itself “Well...shit…” I sighed out. “Okay...so who in the hell would know about the Void Wolves…” I muttered. “Can’t be Den cause she’s not old enough, Cript might but he’s probably busy making sure Ophelia’s timeline is still…” I sighed out. “Jericho, mind answering a question of mine if Ophelia hasn’t kicked your ass yet?” I called out, knowing the guy can hear me and would probably appear like Cript does if he’s not busy. "Void wolves?" They asked, kicking open my office door. "I know a bit. Old Admin of war used them to hunt down game… people… or would just hunt them for fun." "Asshole." I frowned. "But...are...are any left?" I asked worriedly. "There was a few when I took over. I sent them back into the void to be free. Wild there should be a few dens. I know of one but it's not exactly in the nicest place, by void standards that's saying something." "Well hasn't stopped me before." I said honestly. "I just need a bit of their code and I can start doing stuff...or maybe get their help whichever comes first." "Knowing you, likely both." Sighed Jericho. "But we need their help because we don't have any vision in the void...and so far that might help push this stalemate into our favor." I said. "Stalemates can only last so long before a side cracks." "True. You can't navigate the Void without a special compass though. A Blind Man's Eye, they call it." "Ironic all things considered." I said honestly. "But if we have beings that can see in the void without the compass then that would be a massive boon." "But to find said being we need it." Jericho said. "The only issue is they are not exactly easy to find." "So where can I find one? Black market? Dangerous world no one has traveled to in ages?" I asked curiously. "I have no fucking clue." Jericho sighed. "Know anyone who might?" I asked curiously. "The outsider maybe. I know he can make a few artifacts but better to find one as making them requires… less than tasteful items." "Anyone else besides the best artificer?" I asked. "No one that comes to mind. Maybe one of those Nexus bases has one?" "Maybe Ophelia knows." I said. "Cause I still cant fight." "Huh. True. But if I recall she is spending time with Grey… Krott then." Jericho said. "I guess I'll leave then." Leon said, still allocating skill points and leaving. "Sorry Leon." I said sheepishly. "But Krott would probably know, let's go find him if he's not on the front lines…" "Pretty sure he's in his office." Jericho said, motioning to… across my office. Yup. That's Krott's name… how have I never noticed that? "Well okay then…" I sighed out as I knocked on the door. "You in there Krott?" "Come in." They spoke. Opening the door I was met with a war room rather than an office. "Yes?" Krott asked. "Do you know where I can find The Blind Man's Eye?" I asked curiously. "Hmm. That's a void artifact right?" He asked, flipping the table top screen from battle plans to a search log. "The Nexus base we took over held an extensive collection of artifacts, as well as lists of other bases warehouse storages. Hmm… I remember Nexus in all it's lifetime had only even found six of those Blind Man's Eye artifacts. And it looks like… ah! There they are. There's two in the Agnumie base." “And where would that be?” I asked. “Cause I’m gonna need that to find the Void Wolves.” "It's on Agnumie. Quite the interesting world. Only one like it in all the multiverse or Cript's realm. No identifiable sentient life, but lots of artifacts from world's light-years away just, show up there. It's like the Multiverses lost and found." "And Nexus hasn't been abusing the shit out of it, why?" I asked. "They were more fascinated by the 'how it does this' rather than 'what is there'. Very rarely did they actually take an artifact from the planet. Only if it was of interest or it's function held value." “Little did they know, they were about to have hindsight bite them in the ass so goddamn hard.” I said honestly. "So I'll break in and you loot the item?" Jericho asked me. “More like break in and take the entire planet.” I said honestly. “If possible cause honestly it would be wonderful to literally have Existance’s Lost and Found world.” "True." Jericho nodded. “Is there a way to bring it into our realm so Nexus doesn’t get their hands on it?” I asked curiously. “Or is it's own thing that can’t be ‘taken’?” "Did you forget yours and Cript's realms are already fused as one?" Jericho asked. “No, I didn’t forget. Sorry I thought this thing was…’outside’ anyone’s realm technically because of how special it is.” I pointed out. "Okay so you loot and look around and I'll deal with Nexus. Sound like a plan?" Jericho asked. “Sounds like a plan.” I nodded. “But uh...have you and Ophelia…’met’?” I asked sheepishly. "Yeah. And?" “I’m surprised to hear that Ophelia didn’t kick your ass…” I said honestly. “I kind of thought that would have been one of the first things she did after seeing you to be honest given her...experiences.” "She knows I'm not her timelines Jericho. Besides, she actually could care less now that her Eclipsa, er, Grey, is back and alive." “I mean...her entire point of being here was to make sure this timeline’s Eclipsa didn’t die from...killing you.” I said honestly. “But alrighty then, good to know that didn’t cause problems…” "Alright, let's go then." Jericho said, opening up a portal to this unique world. Once we exited I nearly tripped over… socks… a lot of them. "Where is that base…" Jericho hummed, not caring about the landscape socks around us. “Is this literally where everyone’s lost socks go?” I asked honestly, seeing that there was a crap ton of socks...and why were a majority of them lefties? "Don't care that much." Jericho said, looking around. "Must be where the more rare lost items get dropped. If I remember that's more north of here." Jericho thought aloud. “Alrighty then…” I said, continuing to follow along. “I can only imagine what’s been lost here…” "I'll go hit the base. You explore, have some fun." Jericho, snapping his fingers as a chunk of dirt broke free from the sock ground and he rode it north. I was left alone in all this… but… I snapped my fingers, bringing Baby Heart here with me. This will be fun. “Alright my little Floof Noodle, let’s go find us some lost treasures.” I said with a smile. 'You are enjoying this a lot aren't you?' Heart asked as we began looking through stuff once we got out of the socks area. “I’m going to enjoy it more with you here.” I said honestly. “Cause now we get to loot Existance’s lost and found world.” 'That's kinda cool.' Heart said, tail half wrapped around my arm as to not fall off. “It really is.” I said while flying up to find a good spot to start searching in what might be an infinite space. “See anything Heart?” 'Aside from a lot of junk, no.' “There has to be something here besides junk, if an ancient Void Compass is here than there has to be something special…” I said honestly. '... Like that?' Heart asked, pointing towards… hey, isn't that part of The World That Never Was? One of the buildings? “Huh...wonder what that’s doing here.” I said while flying towards the building. “I mean...I don’t think the city should exist because The World That Never Was was made by Xemnas and the Organization right?” 'While working as the Daybreak Scouts leader there was lots of that world around. Some artificial, others that were always there.' “Huh, interesting.” I said honestly. “I sadly never got out much because I was too busy on my Equestria...I think I only world hopped about...maybe eight times?” 'After a while, I stopped visiting world's. Got kinda repetitive.' Heart said, the two of us looking over the chunk of building. It wasn't a building, just made to look like one. The inside was all computer hardware. 'Oh my God…' “I feel like I’m missing something...but what’s all this doing here?” I asked worriedly. 'I remember a few of those world's we destroyed since the data they had stored was… not legal, so we destroyed it so it could not be recovered. Might be one of them.' “Well...alrighty then.” I nodded. “Since I don’t know what the data here is... 'It all varied from what I remember. Mostly it all centered around Nobodies like Organization 13 and the sparks of new hearts they were forming to replace the lost ones grew and solidified. Among other things…' We looked around more, and found a few interesting things. Even a few Keyblades that were lost it seems. “Well...this is all interesting…” I said honestly. Heart was mostly just watching. As we looked around I sometimes heard an explosion in the far north. Jericho dealing with that base here, I guess. There was mostly random things but also the occasional treasure chest. “So what did Eclipsa think of your...current form?” I asked curiously. 'I shifted mid battle with one of my heartless copies so… she was taken by surprise. Thankfully Erin showed up and helped us out. Those things are getting dangerous. This one used Code!' “Well that’s not good…” I said worriedly. “Looks like those copies can even get the same power boosts you get...that’s not good.” I sighed out. “Plus what Core...figured out…” I grumbled, given that Core was apart of all of us so we shared memories. 'It didn't shift like I did, so they are also becoming their own beings at this rate.' “So we need to kill them before they...get too far in their progress.” I said honestly. 'Yeah. That one didn't have Discord though. Just Way to Dawn. But there are only two left.' “Where is your world’s Discord anyway? I...tend to have an asston of things to think about so I kind of forgot.” I said sheepishly. 'He was turned into a Keyblade by Bars and one of these Heartless copies has him now.' Heart sighed. 'There's the one in Traverse Town left and one that's wandering the lanes between.' “So one’s in Traverse Town and the other is god knows where...wonderful.” I grumbled. 'At this rate Discord is likely with the one roaming the lanes between. How in the fuck are we going to find it though?' “Remember, while Nothingness can hide something away even the likes of Nexus can’t find…” I started. “Nothingness can also be the best tracker for those that hide from Light and Dark, it’ll take some time though.” I said before a small portal up as a dart made of Nothingness was formed as I threw it into the lanes between. “There, that Dart will hunt down it’s target till the end of existence and when it connects with its proper target we’ll know where they are.” 'One worry down at least. Also, on a side note, when I'm no longer a baby, uh, how in the fuck do you get used to this many boobs on your entire torso?' “Mostly just time.” I shrugged. “But the magical bra’s that Rarity and...Coco made help a bit.” I said, trying not to feel regret just by saying Coco’s name. 'Hey, once we get that compass and you get help or something from those Void wolf's, we can use it to try and track down Void Keys real form.' “And I’m going to shove every single copy of it’s damned Key form into that giant eye as I take great pleasure in hearing it’s screams.” I growled. “But side note before I let Psychopath wake up...check your Skill’s, you probably have a metric fuck ton of skill points to put into things.” 'Can't exactly access my assistant as a baby…' “Well when you grow up at weeks end.” I said honestly. 'So biology wise… how bizarre are we going to be if we took a DNA test?' “Honestly, does it really matter?” I asked curiously. “We’re Admins so we can technically be whoever we want, and because of Cript’s curse any inbreeding means fuck all.” I explained. 'Yeah… Yeah this is all quite… different than what I had planned originally. Figured I'd just have my family and eventually stop Core after I stopped screwing around and losing.' "Don’t you mean ‘throwing the fight’?” I asked. “Cause honestly the only times I saw you losing in my dreams of possible timelines was like...six, and two of them involved me and the rest of our merry band of Mayan Survivors.” I said. “Christ, remember when that was actually an important point in our lives?” 'Heh. Once upon a time.' “Yeah...it’s been forever.” I said honestly. "But I just wanted to point out two of your ‘losing’ timelines involved you throwing a massive hissy fit...like jesus dude, I can go into more detail if you want to give some proper context.” 'Sure.' “Okay so basically you were on some weird depressed ‘quest’ about ‘power corrupts’...completely missing that you were being corrupted by power, and in one version of this tale you beat us all then we soundly kicked your ass, which makes no sense in context of it all, and the other is we all kick your ass in several different ways, then when we all wanted to help you you beat us all, only for you to realize in the end what you were doing was rather retarded and the exact opposite of what you set out to do.” '... None of that made much sense. In any case I know at this point I should be happy and accept that this is my life, but I just don't know how to. It's like having the 10,000 piece puzzle complete before you, but there's that one centerpiece that's always missing.' “I can probably guess that centerpiece is Acceptance.” I said honestly. “Cause while you may have everything else sorted out, you yourself still can’t accept everything as it is. I should know, even after everything I still fear acceptance cause if I do, something bad might happen.” 'I don't think I can accept myself because of my family. I mean, yeah I love them… I think…?' “Which family?” I asked honestly. “Cause you have more than one family.” 'My original, the Ventrals.' “Does it matter at this point?” I asked curiously. “Cause seriously, none of you are the ‘bad guys’ you used to be now that you have another chance at life.” 'That doesn't exactly make my past upbringings and their rather forceful methods of trying to make me the new head of the family justified.' “And does any of that matter right here, right now?” I asked honestly. “You are so far away from what you used to be that I’m surprised your having a problem with moving on. And I’m the guy that wants to know who the fuck he is.” 'It's kinda hard to just move on from something that was nineteen years of my life.' "So everything you've done so far is still overshadowed by your past on earth?" I asked. 'To me it is at least. It's just really personal.' "And here I thought I had problems moving on." I said simply. 'Aside from my issues, wonder If there are any lost books and such here?' "There should be." I said while continuing to search. "There should be damn near anything in this world that's been 'lost'." 'That include my childhood innocence?' Heart joked. "Oh your getting your childhood innocence here." I said honestly. 'Heheh. Hmm… I wonder…' Heart hummed though as a baby it came out quite adorable. 'Would places also be here? Like Atlantis or locations like that?' "Maybe." I said honestly. "Want to find out?" 'Sure. If I connect to this worlds Heart, assuming it has one given this came from Cript's realm, I should be able to get a general idea of where locations are here.' "Alrighty then. Let's go find this heart then." I nodded. "Know where to start?" 'Kinda small so… you'll have to summon X for this.' "Alright." I said while raising my hand and bringing out X. "Hey X, how ya doing?" "Bored mostly but eh, that's life. So why did you summon me?" "Can you help us find the heart of this world?" I asked curiously. "Also look at Heart the Floof Noodle." I said while bringing Heart up. "Yeah I knew that already. As for what you are asking this actually gives me an idea for something I've been wanting to try." 'What?' Heart asked. "Well what's the thing you want to try?" I asked curiously. "I've been thinking. Once, Kexez managed to change into their X-Blade form, and Heart was able to do so also. Ever since they became the new Kingdom Hearts, Keyblades, myself included, have been getting stronger and even unlocking, no pun intended, abilities, powers and transformations they never had before. And their wielders have also been unlocking and far exceeding their expected potential and limits. In short, I might be able to shift into a human form." "That's cool, so where are you getting at?" I asked curiously. "I'm saying that, A, this could apply to all Keyblades and shows that there is still lots to uncover we didn't even know about." "I wonder what your human form is X." I wondered. ”Place me in the ground and I’ll figure out the rest. From the time Heart did it I should be able to do the same.” "Okay." I said while taking X and stabbing them into the ground. "Let's hope this works." There was a short period of just X flashing white and blue. Finally the blue light covered them as their form began to morph. Soon they were human, human looking. They looked like Heart when they were human, but eyes were pale as if blind, and hair glowing the same blue of Kingdom Hearts moon. "It worked!" X said, they even had clothes, simple white pants and shirt. "So this is what a human form feels like. Reminds me when I'd take over hearts body to talk." They said, looking over their arms. "Alrighty then." I said while looking over them carefully. "Glad to see you in a human form." ‘Okay… why do you look like me though?’ Heart asked. ‘Or rather, how I used to look?’ “Must be because while technically Ben, Eclipsa and those others can wield me, I was forged by your Balance heart.” ‘That makes enough sense.’ "Sounds about right." I nodded. "So, what can you tell us about where the heart is?" “Let’s see…” X said, lifting a hand as they pulsated a wave of blue. "Reveal yourself to me, the lock that hides this worlds heart. Show yourself before me, the key that sets all free." X said, the keyhole of the world forming above them til it began to shine a bright white. X shot a beam of light from their hand to it. While there wasn't the typical lock noises that often accompany, it did shoot a beam back to X, who grabbed it as it began to take form. A fair sized book. The keyhole vanished. "Oh?" I asked curiously. "What is that?" "This worlds Almanac. Maps of every place and even every building." 'And you never told me this because? That would have been helpful information!' Heart huffed. "You never asked. Besides, raving the map to everything of a world takes the fun out of exploring for Keyblade wielders." 'Wait… so every Keyblade wielders can do what you just did?!' "Only once they have been made a Keyblade master." X said. They opened the almanac. "So, where to first?" Sighing, Heart simply said. 'A library I guess.' "Hmm… there is one way South of this planet. Oh. Oh! So that's where that went…" "Where did what go?" I asked curiously. "Back when all the world's and reflections were one, there was a library the first Kingdom Hearts made. It held EVERYTHING. Everything in their realm at least. When the world's were split and the reflections formed it went missing completely. It's had many names, we knew it as The Truth Texts, others have called it the Arcanum, Or The Library of Babel." "Holy shit it's the Library of Alexandria!" I said in excitement. "We need to go find this place." ‘I remember some vatican scriptures that mention it back on earth.’ Heart said, gaining a look from myself and X. ‘My family broke into the vatican quite often. It’s mostly just some old texts, the cross and iron spikes christ was crucified with, the body of Adam, Eve, Noa, Christ, a few angels, the ten commandments, and a few other things.’ “Excuse me what? Are you saying the Vatican literally held the corpses of major religious beings?” I asked in surprise. ‘Yeah. Their bones when ground to powder then made into bread or drink cured all diseases. And Christ’s body still bled. why do you think my family was able to keep doing the shit we did for up into our eighties? Drop of savior blood keeps you young for about… fifty years. A cup is immortality, well, longevity, can’t age after a cup but can still be killed. While the Psychopath blood was a likely factor, that shit was some magic shit. We just never told anybody cause of a deal we made with one of the popes I forget which.’ “Oh...well I suppose Dracula had the right idea when he had kegs of Christ’s blood in his castle...and you probably don’t know what Castlevania is do you?” I asked. ‘Bits and pieces but he was there too. Worked as the janitor. Nice guy, Metallica nut.’ “Cause of course he was a Metallica nut…” I sighed out. “And who said that Earth wasn’t full of magical crap?” ‘Who are the people who hid all of it?’ Heart asked with a sarcastic raised brow. ‘Where are the dragons? Ventrals killed them. Mermaids? That was also Ventrals. The actual magic and spells from earth? Burned by Ventrals, all magical texts. Merlins corpse, ashes. Excalber, my dad has it.’ “I hate your family more now cause they ruined all the cool shit that could have happened.” I frowned. ‘Hey, kings and world government paid us to hide or destroy all that shit. Jobs are jobs. Blame them, we were just the labor.’ “That’s not really what the World Government would do to be honest...they would have either used and abused the fact that magic exists and tried to make it wide spread, or done other things with it...now King’s I can understand but...still.” I frowned. ‘You’d think but no.’ Heart shrugged. ‘So off to that library!’ A short DTN later, we were all in front of what looked like a simple, small stone and marble building. ‘This is it?’ Heart aked. “This is it.” X confirmed. “You said that Earth was magic, so of course the place is going to be bigger on the inside.” I said honestly. ‘Doctor who much?’ We opened the doors… and saw nothing but towering, endless rows of bookshelves. “Ah, I haven’t seen this place in eternity.” X said happily. ‘Point Ben in the direction of the porn.’ Heart joked. “You don’t understand Heart…” I shook my head as I looked at all the books here. “This place is ancient...holding so much history and tech that it’s not even funny...and it’s all right here…” I said, Heart and X noticing my tail was wagging so god damn hard I might accidentally become Tails from Sonic the Hedgehog. ‘...Again, show them the porn.’ Heart repeated. “Visitors!” Someone… somewhere screamed, suddenly a… an elderly lady appeared before us. “It’s been so long! Would you three like a library card?” “Cat!” X said, hugging the lady. “Gods it’s been eternity!” “Wait… X is that you! Haha! Oh good to see you again.” The elderly lady said, hugging them back. ‘This is...Cat? Who is cat?’ “And can I please get a Library Card from her cause it would be a god send to have one.” I brought up. “But uh...yeah who are you ma’am? I can tell you and X are friends but uh...we don’t know.” “Heart, Ben, this is Cat, the Librarian. Also, the Admin of Written text. Anything that is written down by anyone at any point in time ends up here in her library.” X said. “Oh I started off recording all of the others progress but a few special scripts here and auto run programs here and I had my code do that work for me. Spent my time building this place where I read and keep it all up to date.” She said with a nod. “Will you marry me?” I asked, only to shake my head. “Oh god, I’m sorry…” I said sheepishly. “Just uh…” I trailed off, not sure what to say to fix this. “Cute, but no.” She laughed. “I can do you a second best, and get you that card.” “That would be perfect.” I nodded with a smile. “Right this way then.” Cat said, leading us all to an office room. She took our photos then printed out the cards. “these cards let you check out books from here for up to sixty two million years, if you lose them the card can locate them for you and if they are damaged it’s a small fee of ten code strands.” She informed. “Code strands?” I asked curiously. “Don’t...think I’ve heard that one before.” “Oh you must be new then. Code strands are the equivalent to money for Admins. Each strand of code rather than financial value has actual power. I use this to repair the books and expand the library further.” Cat stated. “Well go and look around then. Just think of what kind of book you want or need and pull one off the shelf.” “I...legit don’t know where to start.” I said honestly, Cat seeing I was more like a kid in a candy store with all these books and knowledge just waiting to be read. ‘Show them the porn.’ Heart chuckled. Cat nodded, walked up to the shelf and pulled out a book, and tossed it to me. ‘All the uncut, unedted detailed sex scenes removed from Life of a Nobody’ The book was titled… ‘Huh. Do not show that to Lyra.’ I blushed and flipped all the way to the back of the book to see how many pages there were. “I’m...a little nervous to see how much unedited stuff is here…” ...463,973,321,090… pages… ‘Looks like our retirement is an endless orgy…’ Heart said. “I mean...is that a problem?” I asked sheepishly. After a while I began to look through books that detailed features of my weapons, their upgrade abilities and even a book on Void locations to help determine where the Void Dire Wolves are. X was reading up on how to forge and enhance Keyblades with all the metals in every existence. Heart was reading The Hunger Games. “Now...The Hunger Games trilogy is a good book series...but really?” I asked Heart was he was reading in my lap cause why not have a cute scene. ‘Eh. I mean, it’s kinda… seems pointless to me. It’s useful sure but all the knowledge ever will get old fast.’ Heart said simply. “Not really.” I said honestly. “You just need to know what to look for, and knowledge can never get old fast, there’s always something new to learn.” ‘Hmm…’ Heart ummed, slithering up to a shelf then grabbing a book. For their size they sure can lift stuff well. Then then tossed it on my lap. The book was titled, ‘How much Kingdom Hearts (Formally Zeke Ventral) Gives A Shit.’ There was one page, and one word. ‘None.’ “Rude.” I frowned. They tossed me another book. ‘How other, ruder means Kingdom Hearts (Formally Zeke Ventral) Could have addressed their point.’ “Don’t you sass me.” They tossed another book. ‘Sassier ways Kingdom Hearts (Formally Zeke Ventral) Could have sassed you.’ ‘I can do this all day.’ Heart said. I immediately grabbed them by the tail and pulled them into a hug. “You know I can’t stay mad at you my dear little floof noodle.” I said while nuzzling Heart. ‘Affection! It burns!’ Heart joked. “Oh you love it.” I chuckled. “But I managed to find something on Void Dire Wolves if your interested.” ‘There's actually something else I want to check out…’ Heart said, slithering back over to the shelf and taking another book. They shook their head at the title and proceeded to read through it. They skimmed through the pages until they found what they were looking for. ‘Oh… Okay then.’ They hummed, slithering back up my arm to my shoulder. “What is it?” I asked curiously. Without warning they shoved their entire upper held down my throat. Instinctually I swallowed, slurping the rest down… I picked up the book they were reading. ‘Floof Noodle facts and biology.’ “Heart the fuck?” I groaned. “I am not okay with that…” They page they were reading said this. Dire wolf Nagas, often referred to as Floof Noodles, due to their soft fur coats that cover their hard scales, have many unique biology traits of their species. Like a naga, they can be safely swallowed not just into a storage stomach, but also one that digests, the stomach acids there actually can both soften their fur more so, as well as be eaten by them when young as an alternative to milk. When inside they release a natural magical aura that boosts the ‘hosts’ body health wise as well as their base states, this makes mothers of floof noodles who swallow them almost triple their natural abilities and combat stats. The floof Noodle can either come back out through the anus or back up the throat, which is the most common method. “Slightly gross but also interesting…” I said. “Still not...a fan of this to be honest…” I sighed out. “Can you hear me in there Heart?” ‘Yes.’ Their muffled voice spoke through my belly. ‘Your stomach is… bigger than I expected. Also your stomach acid tastes like Cucumbers.’ The did not make much of budge at all, but I did feel them move around in there a bit and… While creepy, it’s almost like feeling a baby kick in the womb. I put a gentle hand on my stomach. “Alright...didn’t really need or want to know that but okay…” ‘Ophelia’s fault I’m this now. You have to suffer as well.’ Heart declared. ‘Now I am going to nap cause surprisingly… It’s cozy in here. Like taking a nap in a hot bath.’ “It’s also your fault for not just changing back into a human like you could have and like I pointed out three other times.” I said honestly. ‘Did you when you became a Dire Wolf? Or Eclipsa when she became a naga? Nope. So I’m not either.’ “You do know that counter argument holds literally no grounds right?” I asked honestly. “Like me, I was literally born a dire wolf when I got my soul back.” I said honestly. ‘And future me is getting born as yours and future Eclipsa’s kid. Point? And correct me if I’m wrong but didn't you cum into Ophelia to fertilizes that special egg DAD/MOM?’ Heart pointed out… Shit. “You yourself were not ‘reborn’ as this, hell I still don’t even know why you changed like this to be honest.” I said honestly. ‘Well I changed, and I am going to embrace it like you and Eclipsa did. End of argument because I have never embraced anything before!’ “Okay okay fine.” I said. “Just calm down in there okay?” ‘Hence I said, taking a nap.’ Heart said, finally settling down. Huh… They have a point. Fought their Ventral family destiny, fought becoming Kingdom Hearts… Maybe they just need to accept themselves as something. “Well...you finally have something to accept about yourself…” I kept on reading, almost forgetting Heart was in my belly after a few hours. I found a possible location where the Void Dire Wolf's might be. A place called the Forest of Roots. The book states that there are a lot of sightings in that area. "Hey." Jericho said, showing up and falling into the chair across the table from me. “Yo.” I nodded. “How was your trip to the Nexus base? And did you get it?” He slid over to me… a still flesh covered open eyeball in its eye socket, bone and all like it was ripped off the face of someone. The markings for North, South, East and West were tattooed around the eyeball socket. "got it. All of those Nexus assholes are dead and I called Krott to take the rest over." “Cool...and is it wrong that I thought this thing wouldn’t actually be a person’s eye?” I asked while picking up the Void Compass. "Void artifacts are almost always made out of living flesh and bone." Jericho said. “Yeah...makes sense.” I nodded. “So, now I’m off to find the Forest of Roots...whatever the hell special thing that place is.” I said. "Where's Heart? I felt you summon them?" “In here.” I said while pointing at my stomach. “You know, Naga genetics and stuff given Heart is now a Floof Noodle.” "That's a cute name. So they're accepting themselves?" “Starting to hopefully.” I said honestly. “It’s a start at least...and thanks, I made up that name myself.” "That's an issue damn near every Cript has. It takes something special to break this bad habit of theirs." Jericho said. "For Cript it was Lyra, as wild and kinky as she is, their love is true and pure. For Krit it was a sense of duty to the kingdom and his friends. For Zeke from the lost now returning timeline, it was you and Marcy." “And yet it feels like there's a fourth Cript that either you don’t know about or is somewhere not even Nexus knows about.” I said, having this weird feeling that there’s a missing one. "Stop reading ahead." Jericho laughed. "Huh… so every book or written text is here right?" “So says the Admin of Written Text.” I said honestly. “And honestly I couldn’t be happier to be here all things considered.” "Then perhaps we should take advantage." Jericho said, walking up to the shelf and grabbing a book. He placed it on the table. 'All Nexus Cript Projects Blueprints and Locations.' “Yeah so basically we have free reign to just know everything.” I said honestly. "Let's add to it then." Jericho said, grabbing another book, and placing it on the table. 'How to Make Void' “Yeah that won’t be difficult as hell considering who I am.” I said honestly. Jericho thought for a moment, snapping their fingers as they grabbed one last book and handed it to me. 'Where to find the first Belief, source of Nothingness.' “I’ve been meaning to find the bastard, but either he’s literally everywhere or he’s so far deep into Nothingness I haven’t gotten there yet.” I said. “And no, I’m not reading ahead with that one.” "Heh. So, where should we start then?" “Well...I can do both finding the Void Wolves and helping you find...yourself.” I said honestly. “So which one do you want to do first?” "The first to be honest." Jericho said, grabbing another book and placing it down. 'So you're exploring the Void for the first time and you and your Allies are Admins but good news, you have Nothingness! A safety guide to traversing the Void.' “Well that’s...oddly specific.” I said honestly. "Did you already forget where you are?" Jericho asked with a smile. “No, I’m just thinking the book titles are about as ‘on point’ as an Isekai title.” I frowned. At that moment, Cat walked by, pointing up. I looked up. A sign. 'On the Dot book titles section.' “Yeah well...why is that?” I frowned. "My system. My library. My rules." Cat said simply. “Fine fine and fine.” I nodded. “So...where to start…” To be continued... Nobody in The Hero's Tomb Part 1Floor 1 The first floor. Even with the tea, it was pitch black here. Only a few torches lit the halls ever so faintly. Skeletons of all variety of creatures littered the floor, walls and ceiling. Their weapons and equipment scattered about like shrapnel from an explosion. "Appropriate." Kexez said simply. I brought out the newly evolved Eternal Flames and swung the both of them around at all the torches, replacing the dim fire with it’s own bright blue fire that lit up the room by a lot. “There, that’s better.” As we were walking I heard something...rattle. There was the ever familiar sound of a blade piercing something...someone. I turned around, seeing one of the skeletons was up, pulsating void as they stabbed a sword through Kexez's arm. "Was that meant to hurt?" They asked, placing a hand on the skeletons head. "Back to the dead with you." There was a flash of Nothingness and suddenly, the skeleton was just ashes. Kexez pulled out the sword, the wound healing quickly. “The Void here is strong enough to puppet the Skeletons huh?” I wondered. "Void Necromancy." Jericho said. "Void tainted magics are way stronger than their standard counterparts. Typically it's used to prevent a death, but to reanimate the dead, the longer it is undead the stronger it becomes." “I wonder…” I hummed while bringing out Book of Retribution and it’s new counterpart the Staff of Leniency. “Let’s try something out...Maximize Empty Magic, Grand Revival.” I said while pointing my staff towards a small pile of skeleton’s, trying to either raise them to some form of sentience or at least make some decent skeleton soldiers. Nothingness flowed over them, flowing into the bones as suddenly, along the skulls, the Nobody symbol appeared on them as they rose up, picking up weapons. "Undead Nobodies… that's an oddly good Halloween gimmick." Jericho said “If memory serves...Halloween is actually coming up back home.” I said honestly while checking the new Nobodies stats to see how strong they were. Race: Nobody Name: Skeletal Undead Att:14 Def: 9 Mag: 20 What they lack in defense they make up for in large numbers. Skeletal Undead's are second only to the Sorcerer Nobody in terms of magic power. “Hmm, that’s interesting.” I hummed. “Says here their strong in numbers as well as second to Sorcerer Nobodies in terms of magic.” "They can be stronger." Kexez said. They then handed me a book. It was a simple grey with the Nobody symbol on it. "The Void Mother has her own library. I swiped this among a few others." “This...should be some First Cycle lore on Nothingness…” I said while taking the book and opening it. “Or at least something ancient if it’s from Void Mother’s library.” "Actually, this was cataloged with the Second Cycles material. Nothingness didn't exist until the second cycle." “Which begs the question why she didn’t see an obvious parallel here.” I frowned. “I know grief is a hell of a thing but jeez.” "Because it wasn't the only new thing. The second cycle. Grey, Heartless, Shadow Creatures. Each new Cycle added more and more onto what was there from the prior. And, here we are now." “Well that’s interesting…” I said honestly. With that in mind the new Nobodies helped a bit in some of the random encounters… like the Void Spiders whose bodies were made out of baby corpses… or the swarms of Void hornets that sting like someone sent the full force of the big bang into their stingers! Or the literal shit golem that tried to drown me in it's own shit… needless to say we stopped for a good shower real fast after that one... “This is fucking gross and everyone knows it…” I grumbled. “It took me three hours to get cleaned and I still don’t feel clean…” "Same…" Jericho shivered. "Reminds me of that bar scene from that old movie Dogma." Kexez said plainly. "Just way uglier." As we explored we did find a few neat items. I got a Void Shield. Jericho found Void Shard, good for synthing apparently, and Kexez kept this one creepy looking image of those Void Spider corpse things… We did find, to my complete surprise, a Rest area. Huh, a lot like the ones from the dungeon Cript took me to. As we rested up, there was a book here. It was bound to the podium it was displayed on but talked about this floor. Giving, thank God, a map of this floor and details on its enemies and even the boss. “Okay so we thankfully have a map straight to the boss.” I said honestly. "Is there anything else of note there?" Jericho asked, the fire pit here actually was pretty good. Void food was weird and not deadly. Thankfully. “Well let’s see…” I said while looking over the map, trying to find if there was anything about hidden rooms or anything. There was a secret room with what would either be treasure or a monster, a door to a back dungeon area. Apparently that is an even more dangerous version of the floor you are already on, but while it is more dangerous, it also has far more rewards, and a lot of them are rare. “So we have a secret room, but I don’t know if it has treasure or a monster, and apparently there’s a door that leads to a ‘Hard Mode’ version of the specific floor we’re on.” "Best not risk it." Kexez said. "Any information on this floor’s boss?" ”Well let’s see…” I said while checking to see if the book had anything on the upcoming boss. “Hopefully it’s in here…” It was. Isabel The Loyal Once a proud hero who stood for Alliances and defense against the monsters of the land, met her end at this very tomb, where she now resides as the first floor guardian. Level: ??? Weapon: Shining Spear “Alrighty then...we have Isabel The Loyal, a lance wielder with the weapon Shining Spear and...even with how high all of our levels are, her level is still unknown.” I said. “Said she died in this very tomb before becoming it’s guardian…” "Sounds about right." Jericho sighed. "If she is a Spear or Lance user, Frozen Pride will be very useful here." Kexez said. “Yeah, besides Frozen Pride just evolved a bunch of times so it’s god knows how much stronger...plus I haven’t tested out all my weapons yet so this will be a good test run.” I said honestly. "If she has the same general long arm attack patterns you could block for us while Kexez and I fire off long range AoE attacks." Jericho thought aloud. “I know this Dungeon is supposed to bring back anyone even if a Delete killed them…” I said before bringing out Second Chance. “I need a fair explanation on who should use this to bring Isabel back. Cause it’s either I give it to Kexez as a sign of good faith, or I give it to Jericho cause I know he can do it…” I explained. "Does it matter?" “A little…” I said honestly. “While given it’s a keyblade, it would be logical for me to use it, Jericho likely has dealt with more spear/lance type fighters than I or Heart ever has. He is more likely to land the saving blow.” “Yeah...that’s true.” I said honestly while handing Jericho Second Chance. “Please don’t break it…” “Relax. It’s in good hands.” Jericho said, giving the weapon a light shake in his grip. “Let’s prepare and get ready for this boss.” “Agreed.” Kexez said. “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “Well...I’m mostly going to be buffer and healer for you two honestly.” Heading back off to the Boss room, with a copy of the map, we ran into a few monsters, but nothing we didn’t deal with prior… and avoided the shit this time. Entering the Boss room, there was a large coffin sat in the center of this massive room. The doors shut behind us, and the coffin lid blew off like it was nothing. “Right then.” I said while I brought out my Lexicon and Staff and started casting literally every buff spell I knew onto Kexez, Jericho, and my two hundred strong Skeleton Nobody army, as well as adding in some Code to boost all the buff spells. First to emerge the coffin was the spear, then the arm, and soon, Isabel was out. Her eyes hollow, skin pale, and hair pitch black as the void. She readied herself, pulling her arm back for an attack. “Alright...let’s test the waters.” I said while sending two Skeleton’s towards her to see her reaction. She thrusted forwards, an energy wave splitting off into thousands of mini spears obliterated the Nobodies, my shield held up as they bounced off Frozen Pride. That got a Howl ready. “Set the howl off, we’ll add to it.” Kexez said. “Alright…” I nodded while raising Frozen Pride. “Howling Wrath!” I shouted as the sound of a Dire Wolf howling was heard as a massive sonic blast shot out towards it, several Skeleton’s raising staff’s up and firing their own magic attacks to add in. The Howl staggered Isabel into the wall, allowing the skeletons magic and the volly of Jericho’s and Kexez’s spells to land, dealing damage. Jericho took the moment, accelerating fast til he was behind her, Second Chance at her neck. “Assassin's Silence.” Jericho said, slicing her neck. But rather than blood or Void, Code and Nothingness flowed out from her wound. Isabel dropped the Spear, gasping for air as the Nothingness mark grew larger Soon covering her chest and head and soon her whole body. There was an eerie silence as it cocooned her, and slowly the light faded away, and an infant's crying could be heard. I rushed to them, and on the cold ground crying, was a small baby girl. “It’s alright, mommy’s here.” I said gently while picking up the crying infant. “Mommy’s here, no need to cry.” I said in a soft motherly tone. They calmed down, taking comfort in my warm fur. I had one thought, unconscious and instinctual. My Baby. That was all it took, Family curse activating, and behold, another Floof Noodle. Thought not like Heart, only the single pair. “So… how are we gonna keep the baby safe?” Jericho asked. “One of two ways, and something tells me Ben knows what I am referring to.” Kexez said. “Well…” I said nervously. “I’m not sure which one...cause right now I’d want to bond with her...but what are the memories you got from her Jericho?” I asked curiously. Looking at the Keyblade, Jericho held a hand over it, pulling out a Castle Oblivion card. He then handed it to me. “Some insane thrusting tecniques, and I mean the kind for fighting not fucking.” They jokes. “So how will we go about this then?” Kexez asked me. “Well…” I looked down at my new Floof Noodle, wondering if I should send her back to all the other kids are, or have her...sit in my stomach. “What do you two think?” “Dunno… Can you even…Stomach a hundred kids?” Jericho said, earning a punch from Kexez. “Even I knew that wasn’t funny.” Kexez said. “Biologically, I’d be able to hold them all, and feed them, Heart read that book and our link let me learn it all too. I’d have no issue, and with these buffs and the natural biology I’m almost a walking tank… Though, there is the other option of sending them to the home, but some creature of void might enter there, and that’s the last thing anyone would want.” “And I just got used to being a Den Mother...now I might need to turn into a Floof Noodle myself…” I sighed out while holding my new daughter close. “I know you're right…” I pouted, not sure what to do with my new baby girl. “I was recommending something more… unique.” Kexez said. “As I am still a Nobody, and you the king of them all, you can in a sense, ‘imprison’ me, and from there gain my abilities without actually changing your own body. Something akin to fusion but not, and when it’s over here just let me out and with me, all those new kids. I’d just be in the back seat, no real control aside from speaking. Even that you can take away.” “Kinda like how Cript had me imprisoned them.” Jericho added. “I know I know.” I said honestly. “Sorry for making this difficult...um...how many kids can I hold in my stomach as a Den Mother? Just so I know.” “Given certain races and the curses random choice of spouse and such… maybe ten, twenty if you include your womb and other organs.” Jericho mentally calculated. “Imprison it is then?” Kexez asked me. “We’re going to need your help, plus I can’t fight so…” I sighed out while handing her over. “You have her...the bonus will be good for what’s to come…” “Hmm… This will be new.” Kexez said, taking the baby. I did flinch a bit as I saw them open their mouth, but to my surprise the baby slithered down their mouth and down on their own. “Huh… yeah. Feeding belly. Woah! Okay… that’s oddly sensitive…” “You get used to it.” I said honestly. “Now...let’s check this spear…” I said while picking up the Shining Spear Isabel dropped. “Wonder if there’s any other loot…” I muttered while checking my Assistant on the stats of this Spear. Shining Spear Att: 5,000 Def: 2,000 Mag:500 Ability: 50,000 Deadly Piercing Spears. Shoot out all your energy from the tip to unleash a halestorm of deadly mini spears. WARNING! VOID CORRUPTION DETECTED! -1,000 HP per second to non void beings wielding. I checked my HP… Yeah, that’s going down. Kinda slow but it shows. “Yeah let’s solve that.” I said as Nothingness Thorns wrapped around the Spear. “Void Purity.” I said as the Thorns stabbed into the Weapon and started to siphon out all the Void Corruption in the Weapon. Slowly, the Void inside it was expelled. Soon the spear lost it’s pitch black color, and changed into a bright beautiful chrome spear tip and blue metallic body. “Neat.” Jericho said. I gently spun Shining Spear in my hand, feeling how lightweight it was but it felt strong and durable. “This will do nicely.” I said honestly. The doors behind the coffin opened. Slithering up to it, Kexez looked inside the coffin. “Huh.. you’ll want to see this.” Jericho and I looked into it… That’s a lot of loot… weapons, gold, void artifacts- IS THAT A SEXY ANTHRO EEVEE!? “Hey there stud~” She cooed at us. “... This is weirder than I was expecting…” Kexez said. “This makes sense for a top tier dungeon Cript would make. Loot of various types all depending on who beats the boss… Void Mother is still Cript in that department…” Jerisho signed. “I don’t care.” I said, having already been hugging the sexy anthro Eevee. “She is floofy, sexy, and I really like her.” She gave me a playful kiss on the cheek. “Make me a mama~” She cooed at me. Jericho facepalmed, Kexez rolled their eyes. “Alright, into the storage belly she goes.” Kexez said, their tongue… that’s a long tongue, wrapping around the Eevee and swallowing her as well. She gave a very lustful eep at that. “This is going to really stretch me out.” “Lewd.” I said. “Save that talk for bed.” I joked. We sorted through all the stuff. This coffin was way deeper than expected. That also wasn’t the only Anthro Pokemon there...There was also a blessed busty Gardevoir, Charzard, and Deoxys… Needless to say, I was happy. Everything else was about six tons of Gold, over sixty trillion Rem, enough weapons, Void and other to fill out countless armies, a few random books, and… what? We all kinda sat looking at the box. The small box with the words ‘Ben’s Childhood’ written on it. “I’m… not sure how to reply to this…” Jericho said. “Is it even real? And if so...how?” Kexez asked. “But...that’s impossible.” I said while slowly picking up the box. “But...this shouldn’t...how?” I asked while slowly opening the box. Opening the box, there was a flash of light… and it gave of display of a first person perspective of… My second birthday party? “Oh… it’s just memories.” Jericho said. “From Ben’s perspective. Up til adulthood likely given it says Childhood.” Kexez said. “But how did Void Mother get these? Where did…” I trailed off. “In any reality… it’s Cript, don’t question it.” Jericho said, getting up as he began helping store all the other loot. I frowned. “That...doesn’t explain it really. Plus...this was from a loot pool from a First Gen Hero…” I said, finding this very strange. “Can’t just be coincidence…” I muttered, thinking this box held something that explained who the hell I am. Floor 2 With all the loot collected we headed off to the next floor. The next floor looked… actually, this looked nothing like the first floor… It looked like a typical castle set up. “Well this is different.” I said honestly. “Wonder what we’ll find in here.” “... Hey Ben.” Jericho said. “Yes?” I asked curiously, kind of worried as to why he said that. “Mind if I make a copy of Second Chance then edit it? I have a feeling I found the perfect method to cheese this whole dungeon in the weirdest way ever.” “Yes, you are allowed to.” I said honestly. “Now tell me how you can cheese this dungeon?” “Give me a moment.” He said, then summoning code to his hand, waving it over Kexez’s tail then sifting through the code he collected. He then made the copy of Second Chance, and began altering it, replacing a strand of code there with the one he copied then wrote some new code, and proceeded to alter the Keyblades physical appearance. It now was a ton of pink hearts in a metallic mist looking frame. “I give you, Love Struck. One hit, anything...anything, should change physically into a love struck bimbo.” They said, holding back laughter from crying. “I’m going to regret making this…” I took it...and changed it a bit so they were more of an actual person than just a bimbo. “There, better.” I said honestly. “This is still going to be so weird…” Jericho chuckled. “You owe me…” Kexez sighed, knowing they would have to store all those new ladies. “Well… time to test it.” Jericho said, pointing towards a Void Knight walking towards us with a halberd. “Listen...if this works...I blame you, and I also thank you.” I said as I cast a spell on Love Struck, letting it float around on it’s own. “Go.” I said as Love Struck flew over to the Knight ready to strike. It impaled the knight through, returning to me. The knight was still for a moment, then there was a flash of hot pink. And suddenly, this hollow knights armor was now, in order, busty, bouncy, still metal looking so… weird but eh, and it’s halberd was also now, sexually themed. Their eyes were also a glowing hot pink. “Take me~” They said… why is that voice so hot? “It works…” Kexez said. “Oi, I changed it so they would be more person then...that, the fuck.” I frowned. “While I’m fine with this, there’s a point where it starts getting weird…” I said nervously. “And I don’t want it to get weird.” “Must still be developing a...brain…” Jericho pondered aloud as Kexez stored them away with the Poke-Women. “This is my role in life now? Huh… Eh, could be worse.” “It shouldn’t...but sadly things are happening right now…” I sighed out. “Again, I don’t want this to be weird...Love is sacred, and I make damn well sure Love is treated right.” “You also forget Cript is the Admin of Love… so all kinda apply I think?” Jericho pondered aloud. “Plus your cherub effects… and now we all share a technical body and all that so… huh… I don’t know anymore.” “One down, no god will know how many more.” Kexez jokes. “I hope this won’t get weird…” I sighed out. “If it hasn’t already…” As we made our way through this floor, I noticed that Love Struck did various effects to those it struck. If they were already of flesh and blood, they had more of a personality on them, and the ones, like Knight, a Golem, and things like that, started off more… dumb. Guess Jericho had that whole brain thing right. We made it to the Rest area. This place had some nice stuff as we rested. I also wanted to see how much more developed these new girls are. First up, the first comers. Eevee. “This is still weird…” I said as I saw Kexez regurgitate the Eevee out of their body. “But hi, how are you doing?” I asked the Eevee. “Burr! It’s so cold now!” They said, shivering as I made them some clothes and dried them off. “Better.” She said happily, dressed and warmer now. “So, what’s up? Oh! What’s your name by the way? My only memories are seeing you after that coffin opened up.” “The names Ben.” I said gently. “But...just wanted to talk ya know?” “Sure. What about?” “Anything really.” I said honestly. “Want to know anything about me?” “Sure. What are your hobbies?” “Reading, taking care of kids, traveling, stuff like that.” I said warmly. “Cool. Mine are cooking, napping, and drawing.” She said happily. “What about favorite shows?” “There are too many shows, I honestly don't have a favorite.” I shrugged. “I like Adventure Time. Sad it ended though.” How does she know about these things though? Didn’t she just say her only memories were looking up at me and the others when the coffin opened? “Oh actually, rumor has it that it’s coming back.” I said honestly. “So far there’s been rumors of five one hour specials.” I said honestly. “Oh Cool!” “Yep.” I said honestly. “But...I thought you said you didn’t remember anything before the coffin, how did you know about Adventure Time?” “Huh? Oh… Oh! Am, am I the first girl you’ve won in a dungeon?” She asked me, quite giddily. “As well as the Gardevoir, Charmander, and Deoxys.” I nodded. “Oh my gosh! Okay, so this is how it works. The dungeon loot in any reality, world or whatever, if it respawns, it comes from a place referred to at the ‘Loot Room’ this is where I, and those others, come from. It’s in a sense a factory of sorts that makes the random items, or in my case, people, for these rewards. I don’t remember the place exactly, but I know I came from there, and while I didn’t see anything per say, I could watch things like from a TV, this is how I watched Adventure time, learned how to cook and, the most common thing to do, nap. Once we are won, we wake up in our bodies in the reward chest.” “Huh...that’s rather interesting.” I said honestly. “But what was with you...uh…” I trailed off, not sure how to word it. “Oh, the sex thing?” She asked with a blushing laugh. “Before we are won, we get a very general info dump on the person who wins us. No names or anything just their likes and dislikes. At the top of your likes was sex, so I figured hey, might as well open with that. Well, that and I did see a lot of porn.” “Oh...I mean...I suppose that sounds right…” I said sheepishly. “But you know I care more about the person than just sexy right?” “Well, yeah, but like I said, it was a general list of likes and dislikes. Nothing much else.” “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “Have you talked to the others in Kexez?” “Yeah. We have some interests, made out a little, sleep. All in all they are nice girls aso.” “That’s good.” I said warmly. “Now...what would you say about being apart of...an infinite Harem?” “I don’t mind. Majority of the time, people like us, rewards in dungeons, are, as you can tell,” she motioned to her rather gifted body. “Are for harems. Not just women either. Males too, but you have to want that one or just be a girl.” Eevee said simply. “Alrighty then, but I’ll make sure to treat you properly, not as just some reward I get for beating a boss.” I said honestly. Eevee nodded. “That’s great. And thanks for the clothes. First time I’ve ever worn clothes.” “Thanks, those clothes are made by the best Seamstresses I know.” I said warmly. “Hey Ben.” Jericho said, catching my attention. He was by the info book. “You might wanna look at this…” Eevee motioned for me to go, heading back over to Kexez and back into the belly. “What’s up?” I asked curiously while walking over to Jericho. “Look.” Jericho said, motioning to the book. Eevee the Spry A lady from a world of unique beings, and she is one of the most unique, won as a prize of a king long forgotten, ventured into the Tomb to retrieve her lost love. Att:209,000 Def: 34,000 Mag: 100,000 Weapon: None. “Tell me, that doesn’t ring something off.” Jericho sighed. “Okay that is just too convenient…” I said while looking over to the Eevee already in Kexez. “Kexez...can you ask Eevee if she’s this...Eevee the Spry?” I asked nervously. “Or if she knows of them?” “How? You heard her, she’s literally ‘fresh off the line’. How would she?” Kexez asked. “I know just…” I sighed out. “Something’s not right here...and I have a feeling we’re going to figure it out We rested up again, and I was wondering something… which will I use on this… this Eevee? Second Chance or Love Struck? “These people suffered enough in this hell hole...they need a Second Chance.” I muttered to myself, wanting these people to have a brand new happy life instead of...whatever Love Struck does. I had Jericho give another edit over, making sure they at least had a proper mind when they were altered. We used it on a Golem enemy. She got a hot body, looked less like rocks and more like clay now, and had a proper brain. Not surprising they knew a lot on Gemstones though. “Alright, that’s better.” I nodded. “How close are we to the boss?” I asked while getting more and more undead soldiers and some Nobody Golem’s that weren’t hit by Love Struck. "Close." Jericho said, there was a chest in front of the large double doors. "Huh…" “What?” I asked curiously. "Weird placement for a chest." Jericho said, tapping it. It opened up, showing a single piece of paper. “That’s...curious.” I said, not sure if the chest is a mimic or not as I carefully took the piece of paper. “Wonder what’s on here…” I wondered curiously. Inside the paper were words… I think? It looked like a Spell Matrix, but nothing like I've ever seen. I can't even tell what this does. Jericho couldn't make heads or tails of it, Kexez was equally clueless, amd even the Assistant couldn't identify it. “I’m scared that...this might be used for a trap.” I said honestly, trying to figure out what language this Spell Matrix was, at least it would be a clue. "Whatever it is, Cript should be able to decipher it." Jericho said. "Magic expert." We pocketed the odd spell and then opened the doors. Like before, a large room with a single coffin. The doors closed behind us as the coffin lid flew open. Climbing out was the spitting image of Eevee, but her fur was a dark blue, tainted by void and eyes a lifeless black. “Alrighty then…” I said while buffing everyone up as much as I could just like before. “Let’s see how tough the Golems are…” I muttered while sending one of my seven golems over to test the waters. Eevee fought with bare fists, punching them. Thile they held, it was her speed that surprised me. Her punches speed wise we're as fast as me with Foudre. So her specialty is speed, and likely agility. "Ben, can you use any kind of time magic?" Kexez asked. “Yes, yes I can, I already casted haste on all of you.” I said honestly. “So...let’s try this.” I said while tapping my staff down as a Slow Spell acted as a wave rushing towards the Eevee. It hit, but even with that slow down, she was still fast. "That's more manageable." Jericho smirked, raising Second Chance. "Any attack that would finish them will save them. So…" They took a large breath, A large spell matrix and multiple matrices covered Second Chance. "Atlas Demolition. Obliterate my target in the name of my kingdom." She said, readying to swing. "Rain Fire." They swung, white flames taking up everything In front of us all, the heat I could feel… made Eternal Flames happy. All the white fire suddenly was compacted into a small ball in front of the singed Eevee, and then blasted out, the explosion knocking her into the wall behind her and explosion force nearly knocking us all over. We saw the Eevee slowly stop moving, and suddenly become covered in the same Nothingness and light as Isabel. Soon… there was an egg… wait? Oh, right, all Pokemon hatch from eggs. I walked over and gently picked up the egg. “My egg.” I said lovingly. To my surprise… the egg began to hatch! The glow soon faded as a little Eevee with Dire wolf… Den Mother dire wolf features, was now wiggling around in my arms. She's so tiny. "Even I will admit, that's cute." Kexez said. “She so smol and cute.” I said happily, nuzzling my new daughter happily. With a kiss I gave the little one to Kexez, who swallowed her away into the feeding belly of theirs. "Only you can walk into likely the most dangerous dungeon outside of creation and expand the family." They said with a smirk. “It’s not my fault that...I want to give people a second chance.” I said honestly while heading over to the coffin to see what loot we got. There was no women this time. But there was a lot of rare Void Synthesis items. Some weapons, a few neat armors, and of course, lots and lots of gold and rem. More than the first floor too. God we are going to be beyond loaded at this rate. More than I already am. There was also a… is this? It was just like it. Exactly. But pitch black and Void altered… No Name. "What is that doing here?" Jericho asked. The time based Keyblade rather out of place. “Huh...this...honestly shouldn’t be here.” I said honestly while picking it up. “This shouldn’t be here...what is with this place…” As I was examining the Keyblade, I didn't notice as Kexez placed a hand on it. I looked over to them, then was speechless… they were crying. They took the Keyblade from me, and held it tight. "Shh. It's alright… it's alright…" They muttered to the weapon. “Uh...Kexez?” I asked nervously. "It remembers. Remembers so much pain…" They muttered, tears not stopping as the hugged the weapon ever tighter. "Such misery… It can't forget. It can't move on…" “Can...Second Chance take away the memories of Keyblades?” I asked curiously. Jericho shook their head. "No. It wouldn't work. The only thing that would is if it found a new wielder." “Well...why don’t we find it a new wielder?” I asked curiously. "It's Void altered. Meaning… meaning there is a Void corrupted version of Heart here… otherwise it would just be a hunk of metal in the shape of a Keyblade…" Jericho said in realization. I frowned. “That’s...that should be...impossible…” I said slowly, thinking about this some more. “Come on...my hunch might be proven if we go deeper in…” Floor 3 The next floor was… hang on… this architecture… this is Canterlot Castle… at least, it looks like it. The architecture looks identical, but the layout is completely different. “I’m...I’m not liking how close we’re getting to me being right…” I said worriedly. “Finding the book on the boss...god I hope I’m wrong…” This floor had some unique ones. There was the void filled royal guard suits, which when hit with Love Struck turned into these almost like ghosts wearing the armor. There were also stone golems that looked like alicorns, but not enough detail to look like Alxun or Celestia. They were a lot like the prior golems, but unlike them had more mentality immediately rather than over time. The last enemy here was Void Corrupted Thestrials. Jericho used Second Chance on all of them… they were actual people stuck here… made into common floor level cannon fodder… that wasn't right… We found the resting room. This one had a bed big enough for a giant that we all sat on. There was a library here, all these books I took, and then the floor book… I felt my blood go cold as… as I read this floors boss… Alxun The Dark Lightbringer. Princess of a land of magic with power over the moon, turn queen alongside the king of a force of creation. Her power over darkness and the dreams of others allowed her to save those lost in the dark. Weapon: Keyblade (Star Swirled Magic) Att:7,000 Def: 500 Mag: ??? "Alxun is training under Core to master Darkness… right now…" Jericho said as he and I shared a horrifying realization.. “Jericho...you know about...the other cycles right?” I asked. “How...how did they end?” I asked slowly. "It's only supposed to have been… only the one with the Void Mother. There is only supposed to be roughly twenty to thirty other cycles since then… unless…" "An even bigger cycle." Kexez stated, still holding onto the No Name Keyblade. "Repeating to that battle against her… and losing… over and over, and over…" “So...the ‘twenty to thirty cycles’...could be the twenty to thirty that haven’t...been apart of this or the Void...oh god…” My eyes widened in horror. "Or…" Jericho said shakily. "She starts it again… for fun…" "If that's the case, then she'd know about what, or rather who Nothingness comes from originally… so why then?" Kexez asked. “This...entire Dungeon is supposed to be Void Mother’s Womb...but...what would happen if that isn’t the only thing she ripped out?” I asked worriedly. "Her Heart." A voice echoed, from… me? I jumped as suddenly a Silhouette of Nothingness, wrapped in Nothingness thorns like bandages suddenly emerged from me… the first Belief. "She ripped out her heart, so her pain could no longer be felt." "Holy…" Jericho said, surprised. “I...was going to search for you...but apparently you can just appear out from me…” I took a deep breath. “So how are you doing today?” "Awake. First time in several eternities." They spoke. "So long as someone holds Nothingness, I can go to them. So, you've discovered the secret. The Repeats." First Belief said. “The Repeats?” I asked curiously. “You mean...all of this?” "Every twenty to thirty cycles, these exact events take place, and each time, the same result. Stopped counting after around sixteen trillion. All I can do, to keep everything from ending, is restart everything from the second cycle onwards." “Oh…” I started. “That’s...uh…” I was legit speechless at that. "This isn't the first time, nor will it be the last you come here, take the artifact… prepare, prepare and prepare, and lose. You, Heart, Eclipsa, all of you… perish fighting. Your family that barely scraping by in the void after she claims it, coming here to bring you all back when she places her womb back here… and each time, they fall, returning to this place as it's guardians again. I've tried, but to no avail. So long as she is Heartless, literally, we can't win. Take that how you will, go down fighting or wait for death, I've seen it all, too many times to care." “So then you know where her Heart is.” I said honestly. “Cause right now, it’s her Heart that’s her one and only weakness...so where is it?” "With her. Under her watchful eye. She knows so long as it's near her, anyone who tries to harm her, take from her, can not. Void or not, she is still, A Mother." “But that ability can also be used against her.” I said simply. “Or...something only you can do Belief. It’s either a Mother gives Void Mother her heart back, or a Belief somehow manages to do something to get it back...or we could just grab it and yeet the fucking thing so hard into her chest all perceeding cycles will have a heart shaped birth mark.” I said honestly. "I can not go near her. In her garden, where Void is the purist, not even Nothingness can prevent the corruption. And I lack a body." "... What did all the other Repeats use her womb for?" Kexez asked. "Same as you all. Rebirth your lost allies, family." "Only allies and family?" "Yes… why?" "Because if it can bring back our allies, family, it also brought back the past repeats as well, and it can still bring them back. Not to mention that rather odd Keyblades of Ben's, Second Chance and Love Struck. Bring back not only every bygone repeat, but also those she has taken, those dead by Deletes hands, those from across all and every fallen existence." "That would require more power and energy then even Void Mother possesses. How would you pull that off?" "Have you met these idiots?" Kexez motioned towards myself and Jericho. “Oi!” I pouted. “But I...have an idea on how Kexez’s idea might work...all we need to do is find the Mushroom 13.” I said, and for some reason the room we were in shook ever so slightly, like it didn’t like that name. “I’m...just going to ignore that...so who here knows about those 13 things?” "The Mushroom 13. Unique beings. Not Heartless or Nobodies." First Belief started. "Void Mother, back before, made them as the ultimate prize givers. Tied to time itself… any prize can be won by them…" “Did...did I just bring up how we get Void Mother’s Heart?” I asked. "No, not her heart… too powerful for them… but something… someone, just as useful. Our Ace in this war…" “Oh? And who would that be?” I asked curiously. "Void Mother herself. Or rather, her from before she went mad after the accident." “Oh...well yeah that might work.” I said honestly. “Now the only problem is...where are the other twelve?” "The time walkers would know." "Hold up, accident?" Jericho asked. First Belief sighed. "It was a few eternities after we became Belief and The Mother. Nothing like us ever existed before. We didn't know what we could do… where our limits were. As time went on, it was always the two of us, we kept each other happy. One day, I was testing out developing new energies. Powers… Nothingness." He said, looking at me. "I didn't know what it could do, what it was, but I didn't realize how… different, it was compared to prior powers I had created." “So when you made Nothingness it killed you?” I asked. "Not quite. It could take a body, a Hollow shell, and keep it alive, revive it even, make a new person from the shell of another. Like Kexez there. But it needed fuel. Fuel to burn and blossom into what it is today. My body, was the perfect firewood." “And it has been burning for this entire time huh?” I asked curiously. "If it stops, Nothingness will fade, and then nothing can stop The Void Mother." "Second Prize." Kexez said. "A perfect replica of your old body to use." “That is also true.” I said honestly. “So, now the main question is...what are the ramifications of shoving Void Mother’s heart down her throat?” I asked curiously. "Void itself will unravel, and fade. Everything it has destroyed will return." First Belief said. “I thought Void was a piece of Creation, if it’s gone, what’ll happen to everything else?” I asked curiously. They shook their head. "There was no Void in the first cycle, and technically the Void is still the first cycle. If the corruption is gone then it will return to it's original state. But Void as an energy and power will be gone." “That...didn’t answer my question though.” I said honestly. “If Void is gone, now technically the power and energy, if that’s gone, what happens to everything else?” I asked. “Cause you can’t have one without the other, and Nothingness is Void’s opposite.” "Nothingness was made before Void. I do not see why it can't persists passed Voids end." “But...wait, wasn’t Void the Start of everything?” I asked curiously. “Cause that’s...conflicting information from what I’ve heard.” "In the first Cycle, there was just… Code. From that Code, masses of consciousness began to form, and began to manipulate the code around the, the first cycle Admins. When The Mother and I came around, we made those Admins, and a reality for them to thrive in. The second Cycle. But, halfway through it. My accident and her madness, forming the void, altered things. For the third cycles the new cycles Mother and Belief created the new cycles admins, and placed them into the void, to create on their own. And that's how every reset has started since I began using them." “Alright, thank you.” I nodded. “So...since you probably might know how many floors does this dungeon have?” "A hundred. This is the third floor." “Alrighty then...this is going to be a pain in the ass.” I sighed out. "Likely. I can not aid you all in combat, but I can tell you this. Ben, as you know Nothingness and Void create a primordial code, blank code, correct?" “Yes I do.” I nodded. “What of it?” I asked curiously. "Allow me to show you." First Belief said, flowing some Nothingness into me. In a flash of memories, I saw how to absorb Void auras and taint, and recharge my own Nothingness and Code while doing it. "This method will help you keep your strength in this place. Sadly, it only works on the environment or lingering auras. Not on people. But you have the tools for that already." He said, motioning to Second Chance and Love Struck. “Yeah...that works.” I said while taking a deep breath as the air...honestly smelled cleaner somehow. “Huh...the air smells...cleaner now.” "You will absorb Void passively for a slow recharge, but it's not enough for combat. Far from it. It will help with risks of Void tainting though." “Which will help a lot.” I said honestly. “Thank you.” "I forgot how it felt to have hope. I can not aid in combat Physically, but I can help you learn abilities and moves all your prior incarnations knew. Anything to aid the fight." They said, fading back into me. “Thank you…” I nodded gently. “Cool...so that happened right?” I asked. “That wasn’t just a figment of my imagination?” I asked, just wanting to make sure this place hasn’t gotten to me. "We saw it." Kexez said. "The stakes grow ever higher." “Right…” I said honestly. “Can’t wait..this is gonna be a pain.” We made our way through the rest of the floor. Soon finding the boss room. Entering, it was the same gimik, except that, this room was basically the throne room from my Equestria. The coffin in the center of it burst open as the room gained a dark tone, and looking I saw Alxun, looking quite like Nightmare Moon, her Keyblade in one hand, and Scythe in another, she even wore a Keyblade armor version of the Nightmare Moon armor. She spoke no words at seeing me, just readied herself. Ready to strike. "I'm sorry my love…" I said while budding everyone up and sending my golems at her, with magic attacks from the skeletons backing them up. Now when abilities aren't actively one shotting these bosses, they are objectively very difficult. Alxun was powerful, fast...and even after everything, still beautiful as she hammered away at all my Golems, the only reason they weren’t just rubble right now was because of all the buffs I used. I continued to watch her dodge and parry the Golems attacks and the magic’s my Skeleton’s were throwing out at her, but even when this was a previous Alxun, she still had the same ticks. “Now!” I commanded as several Skeletal Mage Nobodies tapped their staves on the ground as skeletal hands suddenly grabbed onto her ankles after she swung her Scythe at a Golem. “Right Gigante!” I commanded my Golems, the five of them rearing their right arms back as their arms doubled in size. “Grand Impact!” I commanded as Nothingness swirled around their now massive arms and hammered into Alxun. She managed to block all of them but she seemed to struggle against the massive force from all five. “Fire!” I commanded as several mages fired off spells that hit Alxun and caused her to buckle and fall underneath the force of the Golem’s strikes. “Combine!” I shouted as the five Nothingness Golems started to fuse together into an even bigger and much stronger golem. “Create Grand Item.” I casted as the golem reached up and grabbed a massive Nothingness Hammer. “Now, Megaton Press!” I commanded, the Nobody raising it’s hammer up as it slammed into the grounded Alxun, the ground shattering like glass as she was flung into the air with all the debris, the Golem leaping up as the Hammer glowed with power as it slammed into Alxun’s torso and driving her straight back down into a massive explosion of force. “Jericho.” I said to him, telling him to land the finishing blow. Taking the shot, he rushed behind her, like with Isabel. His slash hit, and she fell back, covered in light and Nothingness, then it fades, leaving a tiny, adorable, crying baby alicorn of Alxun's colors. I was swift again and picked up my new baby girl. “It’s alright, mommy’s here.” I said gently, cradling baby Alxun as I made sure she was okay. “So adorable…” I muttered happily. She, too, shifted. Part, what I believe is Minotaur, and of course, part wolf. She did keep her wings, horn, all that. Kexez put her away carefully and we examined our loot. Like before, money, weapons, various other items. Some new girls… a new GUY… god that six pack… “Okay didn’t expect the guy…” I muttered. “Okay so...three floors down, ninety seven more to go.” "That's like almost ten girls and one stud." Jericho added. "Thank God everyone here is bisexual." Kexez said, having placed the guy away into their own belly. “Yeah…” I said honestly. “But hopefully one of these rewards will be a map to all the Mushroom area’s...it’s gonna be a nightmare to find them otherwise.” I sighed out. Floor 4 We headed off to the fourth floor. This place looked like a… a city. A large city, but no people. No doors were able to be opened, and the 'sky' wasn't as tall as it should be. "Well this looks interesting." I said honestly. "Wonder who is here?" Jericho asked. “Dangerous things most likely.” I said honestly. "I mean, who is the floor boss." Jericho clarified. “No idea…” I said. “But so far we have Isabel who was in some Silent Hill based floor...Eevee was in a Castle, and Alxun was in Canterlot Castle...maybe there’s a correlation between the area and who’s here?” I questioned, wondering if this area looked familiar in any way that might bring up someone specific. "Would make sense, but… how?" Kexez asked. "Unless… hang on, is there already an Isabel in this family? Cause Eevee just got here. If my hunch is right then these floors might also tell about their futures based on how Eevee's was." “Um...not sure…” I said while pulling up my Assistant to see if there was anyone if our family that fit Isabel without just pointing to the Isabel in Kexez’s stomach. There was. Isabel Age: 22 Race: Human Ethnicity: Latino Class: Caster Weapon(s): Wand Of Hellscape Witchcraft, Shining Spear, Greatsword of The Hell Knights, DoomBringer Gauntlets. Aliases: Hellfire Witch Isabel, Demon Hunter Isabel, Isabel The Loyal, Hell Walker Isabel. “Fuck…” I said. “Yeah...it’s a perfect match, down to her weapon, race, even her alias…” "This could prove useful." Kexez said. "We can learn how and why the topic matters, and for the ones we don't know yet, how they got there and what to train them in. And, what to add onto." “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “So...got any ideas?” I asked while we continued forward. “Anything about this city that looks familiar?” "Hmm… Not really." Jericho said. "Looks like your standard city." "Too bland. No signs or words to at least give us culture or Location, just skyscrapers." Kexez added. "This place was made to look as generic as possible. Why?" “Maybe to throw people off?” I asked curiously. “Cause if it’s so generic then there’s either hidden crap throughout the place that we can’t find, or something else completely.” I shrugged. At hearing me say that, Kexez looked up. "Seems so." He said. We all looked up, seeing the roofs of these buildings all had glass domes on top of them. “Hmm…” I hummed while flying up to see what was in the buildings given they had glass dome roofs. We saw inside was what looked like a portal. "So, we jump in through the glass?" Jericho asked. "One way to find out." Kexez said. “Right then.” I said while trying to see if there was an opening in the glass dome before we just break it open. There was no door. So, we broke it open, and dropped in. There was a moment of darkness before we were all suddenly falling into a… is this a dungeon cell? The door was open and there was what looked like a knight slumped against the outside of the cell, and a head should not be turned around like that. “Uh...this...is a thing.” I said nervously. "This seems familiar…" Kexez said. "I'm not sure why though?" “Got anything Jericho?” I asked curiously. "Yeah. Corpses." Jericho said, looking outside the cell. My… size, made getting out the door hard but outside was a trail of dead bodies. Knights, all with broken necks, then some with gash marks through their armor, deep through their chests. “Well...someone certainly likes murder…” I muttered before sniffing the air. “Wait...why is this scent...familiar?” I wondered, noting a powerful scent over the smell of corpses but couldn’t tell who it was. “Does anyone know that scent?” Kexez took a sniff. Them being two kinds of predator. "Smells like… family." They said, slithering ahead. We exited this dungeon, built under a church. Topside was worse. The church burned, people killed, and outside this charred church, was a man, a broken, bloody sword in hand. They were young, Latino, ragged clothes… and Ventral red eyes. “Well then...that’s something.” I said honestly. "No way…" Kexez said. “So who da fuck is that?” I asked curiously. "Gabriel Ventral… the one who drank the potion from the witch… the one who put the Psychopath Blood in the Ventral family." Kexez said. Gabriel looked up at us, suddenly, their skin shifted to nothing more than blood, as they readied their broken sword. "This was the night he was meant to hang, after the church killed his father and brothers." “So we literally have to fight a Psychopath...but...there’s something up, I don’t remember a Psychopath literally turning into blood to fight.” I said nervously. "No time to debate." Jericho said, taking out Second Chance. I buffed everyone up and sent in some mooks to test out the boss before Jericho or Kexez got involved. “Let’s see what he can do…” Gabriel ended those Nobodies… fast. Faster than I expected. Those they didn't slice and dice they ATE! That's… nasty. "This is bad." Kexez said. “You think? He just ate my Nobodies.” I frowned. "Well, let's see if this works." Jericho said, aiming Second Chance. They began charging an attack. "Hellfire Cannon!" They shot off a powerful blast of white fire at Gabriel. While he was burning… he was not shifting back into a baby. Rather the blood body evaporated, and everything went white. Blinking, we were back in the city… the building we entered was now gone, replaced by a small park, chest littering it. "Okay… that's weird…" Kexez said. “Wait…” I muttered. “You said that you didn’t know why he turned straight into blood...and with Second Chance not working...what if...what if we’re not fighting a ‘person’ so to speak...what...I don’t know if this is right but what if we’re literally fighting your Psychopath Blood?” I asked Kexez. "If that's the case, can second chance even work on them?" Kexez asked. "I genuinely have no idea." Jericho said. “Well we won’t know unless we tear down each building...but the weird thing is, why are we fighting your Blood? I thought this was supposed to be about people?” "I have no clue… but…" Kexez pondered. "Core had Hearts Psychopath Blood for a while before I first arrived. It came back when I escaped Purgatory. He might know something." "Maybe…" I said while seeing if I could contact Core with my Assistant. The call went through, but it was audio only. Must be this dungeon and the void. "Hello?" Core's voice came through, no picture. "Yo." I said. "Can you hear me?" I asked curiously. "Barely." They said. "Good enough. Can you tell us what's special about Ventral Blood? Cause we just fought a Blood Construct of the first Ventral Psychopath." I explained. "Huh. Well, in my studying it, aside from the fact it has a complete infection rate, it's got a memory of its own. Kinda like instincts but learned and saved overtime. Comparing that to the few samples of Psychopath Blood I've had before, this was unique. Each prior red eyes Ventral it learned how far it can enhance, push and mutate them without harming them. This is why they are immune to nearly any poisons, gases, Don't get drunk easily, and can pull off physically impossible feats. This also seemed to be how they are such naturally gifted fighters, it encodes these moves and skills into their DNA." "So...what your saying is that their own blood is alive?" I asked curiously. "It has a symbiotic relationship with the Ventrals. In exchange for a host to test on, the Ventrals unknowingly have been feeding it generations of combat experience and information." "So Jericho did something special with Memory Stealer, turning it into Second Chance and...is it possible to give a Psychopath a Second Chance at life?" I asked curiously. "Like turning it back to when it was originally born without its previous memories?" "...I have no fucking idea." "You studied these bastards, plus you have Cripts records of them. Isn't there anything? Even an educated guess?" "Look, these aren't like normal code born beings, they were born from the first act of murder. They don't even have their own body, hence why they require hosts. Best case scenario, maybe it lives but not without inhabiting something biological, worst case scenario it dies." "Or it somehow loses its connection to the hive mind and can become it's own being somehow." I said honestly. "I don't know how. Maybe? If it's been recording and encoding memories from every red eyes Ventral since the first, then maybe it picked out key personality traits and just added to them to form its own consciousness. Whatever the case it will still need a body of it's own to stay alive and even act on those acquired personality traits to properly develop." "So what you're saying is that there's a chance." I said honestly. "Likely a slim one. As in slim to none, but it's there." "So it's damn near going to happen great." I chuckled. "Thanks Core...god remember when we were trying to kill each other?' "Yeah…" I then heard something on the other end, or rather… someone… "You done yet~" Mom?! "Bye!" Core then hung up. "Uh...is Mom plowing Core?" I asked nervously. "He and Unum must finally be exploring with others in the family then." Jericho said casually. "Good for them." "Good for them. They deserve some joy after all the shit the both of them went through." I said honestly, having gotten their memories as well through our mental link. "Still surprised it was Eclipsa of all people to push Core into asking Unum out." "Eh. Well, so long as everyone is having fun." "Wonder how they will all react to me?" Kexez pondered. "Gonna flip but probably will take up your 'whoring out' when you grow a heart." I said honestly. "That's actually something Heart holds back on doing also. Their shyness stems from a lack of a confident self image." "Oh horseshit." I frowned. "I think you're mistaking Heart for me on the confidence part." "No. He genuinely does not see what makes themselves attractive to others. I should know. I am his Nobody. He may play it off or hide it, but it's been there ever since he found out he was in an issue of top ten hottest celebrities. Odd they put him there, considering he was a criminal." "Hey, sometimes people like that." I said honestly. "But what rank was he?" "Third if I recall." "Cool." I nodded. "I can see why." "Huh… well let's get these chests open then rest for a bit, and take out these buildings." Jericho said. "Alrighty then. Let's get to looting." I said while heading towards the chests. "Oh, who wants to bet this Dungeon is an Organization Mushroom Game?" I asked curiously. "A what?" Jericho asked. "Like Hearts Absent Silhouette, how when you beat the trial a Mushroom appears and gives you a prize." I said honestly. "So...what if this Dungeon is just like that?" "So, beat all the towers, and the real boss shows up." Kexez said. "Most likely." I shrugged. "Each one will be a Red Eyed Ventral." I said honesty. "How many is that?" Jericho asked. "A few hundred." Kexez said. “So we should probably split up…” I sighed out. “This is gonna take a while.” "Best not. We will do just as well together." “So...we have to do one hundred towers...wonders.” I rolled my eyes. “This is going to be the longest floor here.” "At least each one downed rewards us." Kexez motioned back to the small park filled with chests. “Yeah.” I said while starting to opening up the chests. “Wonder what we’ll find in all these chests.” It was all fairly standard loot. Potions, items, food even. We ate and drank for a while, then got to work. The second Ventral boss was female, and used a bow and arrows. She was dealt with and we actually got the bow and arrows. The loot from that one was also standard. The rest could be summarized as Rinse and Repeat. "Okay… Hearts family is related to some fucked up people." Jericho said. "Black Beard surprised me." Kexez said. “I’m not surprised about Jack the Ripper…” I said honestly. "Okay so, one left… wonder who this is?" Jericho asked. "It's likely Hearts Grandfather." At hearing that, horrid memories from Diane flooded back. Seeing the old bastard dropped from above out makeshift home, shoot our two month pregnant belly… seeing out unborns remains flow out as we died… "He was the last pure red eyes Ventral before Heart." I immediately grabbed the necklace around my neck and took it off. “Sorry Lyra...but this is some Therapy I can’t have your stupid necklace interfere with.” I growled as I sent it into my Assistant, not wanting to just crush it here. “But after I’m done ripping apart that old fucker, I’m pretty sure the true boss will appear. Look.” I said while pointing over to the river of blood that’s been slowly moving towards a central spot. We hopped in. I felt my blood go cold. This was… where I died… where Diane died… and here she was. I was breathing a big labored, seeing this… reliving this… I heard that haunting noise, the shotgun that killed me, held by the man who killed me. Killed Diane. They turned to me, their skin shifting to blood like all the others. I growled as I cracked my knuckles. “Alright you old fuck.” I growled as I pulled out No Heart and the heavily evolved Skysplitter. “Your going pay for every little thing you’ve done...and especially for my child!” I shouted as I slammed Skysplitter into the fucker and knocking them through a wall. “The following is going to contain severe amounts of Gratuitous Violence, Viewer Discretion Advised.” I growled. The Psychopath immediately aimed at me with their shotgun, only for me to grab it and snap it in half. “Your not going to hurt anyone else ever again!” I roared as I cut off one of the Psychopath’s arms, even though it reformed rather quickly I immediately grabbed it and ripped it right off, even if it’s body was pure blood it still had some solid mass before falling apart. “Damn you and being blood, I wanted to beat the shit out of you with your own severed arm.” I growled as the Psychopath tried to attack me in several ways a trained Ventral would with Psychopath powers, which was predictable as all hell. Kexez and Jericho saw...a lot of torture that I legitimately didn’t want anyone to know about, which were firsts for both of them as I laughed in sweet sweet catharsis and relief, and when I came back from my more non-violent senses I saw that the old fucker wasn’t there anymore, and a small river of blood was heading out of the house. “Fuck...whoever said this wouldn’t be cathartic...cause it sure as shit was.” I panted heavily while looking back at Jericho and Kexez. Kexez looked impressed, Jericho was promptly hiding via… they… they just shoved themselves down Kexez's throat. How was this guy once both a major bad guy and is the Admin of war? "Well, looks like you scared him." Kexez said, rubbing their throat from the sudden forced swallow. "How the fuck can Jericho have been a major bad guy and an admin of war if hes being a pansy half the time?" I asked. Kexez shrugged. The blood from all pools soon collected in the center, creating. A massive pool of blood that soon began to rise. My eyes widened as I saw three figured forming… Zeke...Marcy... Diane. I was confused… til I remembered, Core said the Psychopath Blood also affected a spouse… that's how Eclipsa and I got Psychopath Blood… from Zeke… the three forms then hit the floor, shifting to blood bodies before splashing into one another, twisting and morphing into a single being. "Um...yeah cool, mind cutting the theatrics or does it run in the family?" I asked the blood person. The blood them summoned it's own versions of My Thirteen Weapons, and took the blood version of No Heart and Frozen Pride. "Rude." I frowned. "Alright ...let's see what he can do…" I muttered while grabbing No Heart and Frozen Pride and dashing forward and swinging at him. When we clash, an explosion of energy and blood shook the room. What worried me was that I was getting pushed back… "Damn your strong…" I muttered, noting I still had time before redoing my buffs. We broke the stalemate, clashing again as a similar blast happened. Kexez tried to restrain them, only for their tail to phase through it's blood body. He was knocked across the field by its blood Frozen pride. Jericho finally popped out and had Second Chance equipped as they reached over next to me. "So...plan?" They asked. "Well it's a Psychopath so...Humanity?" I asked. "Do either of you know how to use it?" "Only Cript." Jericho said. Kexez managed to slither back behind Jericho and I. "God damn it." I groaned. "Well..looks like it's up to me." I said while taking Second Chance as my eyes shifted to my Humanity side instead of one being psychopath the other being humanity. Eyes glowing white, the energy flooded into Second Chance. I readied an attack, swiftly and quickly dodging this Psychopaths attack, moving Kexez and Jericho as well. I jumped up, swinging Second Chance. "Salvation." I said, the white light engulfing the Psychopath til it was a white and red Silhouette, moving in unnatural sporadic movements. Finally, after a few good minutes, it came to a stop. The silhouette shrinking until it was now a crying baby. They looked human, and didn't smell of much else. Their eyes were odd though. Pure white, with single red pupils. “Another first…” I muttered with a smile as I gently picked up the baby. “It’s alright, mommy’s here.” They didn't change, surprisingly, and Kexez placed the baby away. The remaining blood formed up into a large door. "Well, let's see the rewards." Kexez said as another large chest appeared before the door. “Let’s hope for something good.” I said while walking over and opening the large chest. It was a lot of money mostly, some more weapons, powerful healing potions, a few more womenwomen… some more husbands, though in this family gender is out the window so… that won't last too long. All in all a fair mix. Oh? Looking at the bottom I spotted a book, bound in leather. It was a spellbook for Humanity! “There should be…” I muttered while looking around the chest again...only to find a book. “Oh?” I hummed curiously while checking to see what the title was. 'Humanity and Psychopaths'. “Is this going to be a history lesson?” I wondered while I opened the book to see what it has to say. Psychopaths. The physical manifestation of murder, typically their power comes from the blood spilled by those who kill, justified or not. Humanity, a power stemming from the act of Mercy, and willingness to save all. Once, these two energies were thought polar opposite, but we're found to be two sides of the same power, this power is Choice. The choice to save or end a life carried with it on both sides great toll mentally and physically, and those who utilize the power of Choice can utilize both Psychopath and Humanity to their fullest. These beings are rare, and while a race has existed, known as The Scales, they gained power from both sides of the coin, and could be grand healers or invaders. The choice of what to use and who to spare, who to kill, is on them. Some beings, even fewer, have achieved this artificially, but little is known. The following information is all the known powers and abilities able to be utilized by The Scales, and the price each power costs to unlock. “Well then...that’s new.” I said honestly. “The Scales huh? That is rather interesting…” I decided to leave the rest of the book for when we reach an actual safe room. So many more floors, so many secrets to discover… and that artifact is ours…. Floor 5 The fifth floor. This one was a large cave of sorts, torches lit the path, and over all, it was almost a typical dungeon type experience. Save the monsters. Werewolves tainted by void. Not the Void wolves I needed to meet though. Giant frog looking nasties. And even various Undead's or other creatures. All of course, void tainted, but half got Second Chance, half got Love Struck. We were in a rest… camber, a smaller cave area with a makeshift camp set up, flowing water, the Info book, and ect. “Alrighty then...let’s check who the boss is here…” I hummed while checking the info book. “Which also raises the question of...why the hell these things are here?” "Cript always loved history, lore." Jericho said. "Be it made for the dungeon or forced here, he always did want everything to have some form of a story." Gilsha the Dragoness Raw strength was an understatement for this female dragons raw physical power. It's said the only one to meet her strength physically was The Mother herself. “Gilsha the Dragoness?” I wondered while checking my Assistant, wondering if she was apart of our family or if she was someone completely different. Gilsha Race: Dragon Age: Unknown. Gilsha was a floor mini boss for the secret files and spells of Cript's former masters temple, the door to the secured room required the person enter an infant cave dungeon maze and find the exit. Gilsha was made as part of the maze to end Intruders who would misuse the information. She fell for Cript when they caught her punch without a flinch or stagger. A hard fear considering she can punch through three feet thick Dark Monofilament Slabs. "Oh...well then that's…interesting." I said nervously. "Shes gonna punch the shit out of us…" "Hope your Shield can hold up to her." Jericho said. “Um...not sure when it’s said she can punch through three feet thick Dark Monofilament Slabs…” I said nervously. "So what's the plan then?" Kexez asked, honestly looking a tad… swollen at the moment. "She's a dragon so scales will protect against most or all physical attacks, and depending on type magic as well." "So we're fucked." Jericho said. "Maybe not." Kexez said. "If she is anthro, then she can only have two weak spots… and if she is wearing armor, they will be covered." “You okay there Kexez? You’re looking a little...swollen.” I said nervously. "Between all the infants, new females and males in my stomach’s, did you expect something else?" They asked. "You still have that book?" “Yep.” I nodded. “I still have the book.” I handed the book over to Kexez, who read through it quickly, finding what they were looking for quickly. "Here we are. One moment." “Oh?” I asked curiously. “What did you find?” "You'll see." I glanced at the book, since it was still open from where Kexez left off. A unique feature of the Floof Noodle is their ability to grow their lower snake half larger, without the need to swallow themselves like Nagas do. This only affects their lower half, and can be done a few times. The Mama Noodle however, can do this until they are up to a mile in diameter. This lets them grow more stomachs for storing/feeding young as well as the elderly and sick/Injured. A mile...In Diameter!! “Jesus fuck…” I muttered. “Maybe...being a Floof Noodle might be advantages after all...hmm…” Jericho and I watched as Kexez soon began to grow, well, just their snake half did. Patches of fur and scales splitting up, new fluff and scales growing in the forming gaps. Soon, Kexez's lower half was now longer… and larger than Eclipsa's. "That didn't hurt like I was expecting." Kexez said. “Right then…” I said. “That is...most definitely a thing.” I said simply. “So how do you feel with your bigger body?” "Got some weight but I'll adjust." “There is nothing wrong with that.” I said honestly. “So anyways...we have a dragoness to fight…” Getting ready, we came up to the boss room. Opening the door, was like all prior rooms, save the psychopath one, and the coffin lid flew open as a tall, black scaled… goddess of a Dragoness came out… she was about my height, armor that sexy revealing they make for perverted mods in games or anime and was just in every way… hot. "Focus lover boy." Jericho chuckled. “I am focusing.” I said honestly. “Focusing on all the right things…” I said while trying to find the two weakpoints on this lady. “I’m totally not distracted nope.” "Well you will be." Kexez said. "Weak points on her are under that lower half of her bikini armor." "Wait, you mean…" Jericho asked. "Yup. Only parts of a dragon race not covered in scales like hers are the pussy and anus." "Oh we are going to hell for this boss fight…" “Except for her throat.” I said while pointing to her neck. “Even on other races, there’s always a small little sliver of a weak point there...just so we don’t have to shove Second Chance right up her ass.” "Yeah, you'd rather shove something else up there." Kexez jokes, making Jericho laugh and me blush. “Yeah well...shut up.” I pouted. “We need to fight her, not plow her…” I said while preparing myself to fight. “So who wants to go first?” "I'd say ladies first but that kinda applies to all of us." Jericho said, swapping out Second Chance for a battle axe made of pure lightning. “Fine then.” I said while walking over to her with No Heart and Frozen Pride. “Let’s get this over with.” I muttered. “Alright lady, bring it.” I charged at Gilsha, she throwing a punch at my Shield… I blinked, suddenly a few feet inside the cave walls. “Ow…” I groaned. “The fuck…” Climbing out, I saw Frozen Pride was still in good shape. Jericho was avoiding where he could and getting hits in where he could. “Bitch is gonna get a Second Chance so far up her ass..” I growled while rolling my shoulder. “Fucking hell that just sounds weird…” I charged back in. Kexez was summoning Nobodies as a destruction while managed to get a hit in on her arm. There was an impact shockwave of Nothingness… she promptly grabbed my arm, nearly ripping it off as my bones broke from her grip as she tossed me… INTO THE SAME WALL HOLE!! “Okay, fuck you.” I said with a frown as I brought out Sharpshooters and opened a small portal, firing a shit load of arrows straight into the Dragoness. They bounced off… HOW STRONG IS SHE?! “Seriously how strong is this bitch?” I asked while getting out of the hole. "We need to find this neck weak spot or break her armor." Jericho said. "Your choice." “You two know where the adam’s apple would be on a guy? It’s there on her.” I said while trying to shoot Sharpshooters at that specific spot, not sure if the boss would try and block it. She did… actually taking off her… top armor to tie it around her neck… dragon tits…. "Focus." Jericho said again. "We need to break that armor. Think Skysplitter can do that?" “Maybe…” I said honestly, finding her dragon titties nice as I pulled out Skysplitter and immediately leaped over and swinging it down hard. I managed to get a hit on her armor, cracking it. Maybe two more hits should- Yipe! She grabbed me, body slamming me. “Rude…” I growled as I tried to stop the Dragoness with my upgraded Foudre. I used this to dodge, finding a perfect speed to deliver the final two strikes to her makeshift neck guard… and about Six to her panties one… oh, she's like us when it comes to genitals… actually that's a good looking member she's got. “I’m top, not a bottom bitch…” I growled as I grabbed Second Chance and tried to drive it straight into her throat. She was good at dodging. I had to reequip Foudre to get the advantage, finding a thin hairline crack along her neck. Bingo. With this speed on my side I hot the hairline mark with Second Chance. She glowed the now iconic white, and then it began to Shrink. Soon… there was an egg. Right. “My egg.” I said while picking up the egg. Like with Eevee it hatched after I said that, an adorable little wolf dragon now crying needily in my arms. "Well, that was a fight… gonna plow the version of her back home when we're done then?" Jericho asked me. “You know I’m more than just horny all the time.” I frowned. "As a Den Mother I kinda doubt that." Kexez said, taking baby Gilsha and place her away. "So, let's see what and who- gah!" Kexez gasped, falling to their arms while clutching their chest. "Shit you okay?!" Jericho asked as he and I ran over to Kexez. “Getting a heart shouldn’t be this painful right?” I asked nervously, checking over Kexez to make sure they were alright. "It is when you are me." Kexez said with a grunt. "Remember, Zeke, Heart, and now myself all are Kingdom Hearts. My forming a new one it's linking me to Heart… to everyone. I got hit by a wave of emotions. They'll keep happening as my heart forms, merging and becoming one with the others Hearts. Yours, Eclipsa's, Heart's. All of you." "What emotions did you feel?" Jericho asked. "Regret. Regret for what I did to all those people… and love…" “Sounds about right.” I nodded. We helped Kexez up, they got their balance back, shaking off the dizziness. "Back to the loot then. Let's just hope this doesn't happen often." The loot this time surprised me… a C.R.I.P.T. blueprint safe. "Holy shit!" Jericho said. “Oh boy...wonder who’s this is…” I muttered while checking to see if there was anything special about it to tell us.… Heart… This was Heart's blueprints… everything Nexus has planned and built about them… here... “I mean...technically I’m Heart so…” I muttered while trying to open the thing to see what they had on Heart. It.. didn't respond. So it's smart then. Either I wake them up or… Kexez should be able to open it. “Okay so...Kexez you open it.” Nodding, Kexez placed a hand on it. The lid popped open, showing a Holo screen with near countless files. "Okay… so what now?" Kexez asked. “We look through all the shit that Nexus has on Heart.” I said honeslty. There was… a lot… the abilities, the stats each power up, level up and even when they would become an Admin… HOW they became an admin even! Everything in Heart's life was detailed and here… up until Eclipse became Eclipsa, and remembered Heart, and vise versa. After that it's no longer accurate. Their goal for Heart was to have him become the Admin of Hearts, shift into a Psychopath so they can use that power and connection to all hearts to make a multiverse army of the things instantly. Wait, according to this at the time Zeke split and made Kexez… he was… he was strong enough to control people's hearts already. He's never even used that power. “Cause of course…” I sighed out. "What should we do with this thing then?" Kexez asked. “Does Nexus still technically have this?” I asked curiously. "Possibly." Jericho thought aloud. "If this came from the same place as everything else we've won then yes they do." “Damn...but it says that Nexus’s plan went to absolute shit because of Eclipsa…” I said honestly. "They must have something else in mind then." Kexez said. "A means of salvaging this plan, or at least parts of it." “Well I’m sure it would be written in here…” I muttered while sifting through everything. I was looking through files when I found a video file… is that… Hearts mom? Log Date: 6,590. The project is completed. As of this entry, Madaline Ethil Nexus will be no more, my memories and life here erased so I can raise this project as a proper mother. The memories of the family have already been altered, my new memories will be implanted once my current ones are removed. I will become Marry Ventral. Wife of Barry Ventral and mother to the project and two other children I and my new husband will know as ours. My only proof that Madaline ever even existed will be this audio log, as Nexus will erase all records of me to ensure no lose ends. That said, I leave for the process in an hour… I'm scared. I never imagined King Vincent would choose me to carry this project, raise them. I know I won't remember any of this soon but… I never wanted to bring a child into the world like this. Not as a weapon, not as one of those… psychopaths… it's bad enough he picked my sister for the special C.R.I.P.T project he was overseeing personally. I guess at least I'll luck out not remembering this, but I wish my child didn't have to be born into this… my sweet Zeke… I'm sorry… No one could form words... “Oh…” I said slowly. “That’s...uh…” "So that's why Zeke had a mom." Jericho said. "No other Cript's had mother's, none they could remember." “Maybe...but jesus…” I said nervously. Kexez didn't say anything, just closing the blueprints up and putting them away in their own Assistant. "We'll tell, show Heart, and Mom… in time." They said simply. I held my belly, Heart still out cold in their own personal hibernation in there. He's not… even a real Ventral… “I’m sorry Heart…” I sighed out sadly. The rest of the loot was the same. Money, potions, weapons. The usual. Floor 6 We came to the next floor, the theme here was… this was… this was home. This was my castle! Our castle! "Okay… so either you… or…" Jericho started. “What the actual hell…” I muttered. "We got company." Kexez said, from around the corner three Void corrupted Dusks, their mouths vomiting void as they charged us. “I’m gonna...question my sanity later.” I said as I hit all three of them with Love Struck a few times, wondering what would happen to the Dusks. While they still looked like dusks, they were given gorgeous bodies. And actual hands. They then moved over towards me, rubbing me… sweet Lord… "Hello our king~" They all said. “Note to self...keep this thing as far away from Lyra as possible…” I said nervously. [Meanwhile] Lyra was enjoying a nice picnic with Alxun, when her ear twitched, held out a hand, and summoned Love Struck. "I already have a copy." She said, much to Alxun's confusion. [Back with Ben] “I jinxed it didn’t I?” I asked worriedly while the three Dusks were shoved into Kexez’s mouth. "So, now sexy versions of your own Nobodies? Horny dog." Jericho said while laughing. Going along we came across the usual line up of Nobodies, one Iady while here even, and some new one I didn't know about yet. Assassin's, Snipers, Dragoons, the works. Some as babies were both cute and epic looking, the ones as girls… a mix of both cool or straight up hot… especially the Dancers. We finally found the resting room, taking a breather and seeing the floor boss… I felt my heart drop again. Joy... “Joy...what happened…” I muttered while trying to figure out what happened. Joy the Advisor Advisor and brother to the king of a long forgotten era, they fell to The Heroes Tomb like their family before them. “Joy...you goddamn idiot…” I teared up. "Well… this will be interesting." Kexez said. "This Lindworm is obviously Void Altered, the question is, who's void. Void Keys, or Void Mother's?" “We won’t know until we find out…” I said while wiping away my tears. "This might play into our favor if it is Void Keys Void." Jericho said. "We could finally learn just how to counter it's resistance to your Nothingness… but that raises another question. Why doesn't Void Mother exploit that?" “Because she doesn’t know what I am and thinks I’m just playing around with Void Key. Cause even without Nothingness I kicked the shit out of Vilgax, his right hand man with no problem.” "In any case, this will be an interesting fight." Kexez said. “This is gonna suck…” I sighed out. “Let’s hope for the best…” "Yeah…" Jericho sighed. Before we left, kinda thankfully, Kexez got another twinge of pain from their forming heart. "Almost. It's closer to being whole than I anticipated." Kexez said, taking the hit better this time but still needing a small breather. "I felt lost… remembering how I first felt when the echoes of emotions I had when I was first born finally faded… and Happy, knowing what I want to do from now on." "How many more times will this happen?" Jericho asked. "At this rate of growth, maybe two, three more times before my heart is formed and one with all yours." “Well let’s hope it never happens during a boss fight.” I said simply. With that we headed off to the boss room. I was hesitant to enter, but swallowed my fear and walked in. The coffin here was larger than the others, and when the lid blew off, in a haze of Void… Joy rushed out, his own weapon, Lindworm, impaled through them, covered in a thick slime like Void as long dead looking versions of Void Keys eye covered it. So it isn't connected to the current Void Key, but it's void is still strong. Joy was in feral form, snarling at us with a foaming mouth as if rabies had taken them. It hurt to see my baby brother this way… "We gotta get those Lindworm Spears out of him before we can use Second Chance." Jericho said. “I’ll...I’ll try to get them out of him…” I said as I summoned my Lexicon and Staff and buffed us all to hell, sending in my golems and skeletons I have been collecting to try and stall his movements so we can get the spears out. It proves quite fruitless. They still had control over wind and would blast the Nobodies aside, howling and making mini tornadoes that were actually EATING the other Nobodies as he ran after to bite at Kexez, who dodged then slammed their large tail into Joy, sending them a bit across the room. There was a trace Void aura around Kexez's tail for a bit before Nothingness appeared and canceled it out. So it's just the weapons infected with Void Keys void then. I looked at Joy again, only seeing Void Key’s actions hurting those I care about again. “That…” I growled as I shifted into my Primal Form, even bigger than Joy’s Primal Form. “That is enough!” I shouted as I lunged at Joy and tackled him rather quickly, biting one of the lances and ripping it out of his back. “You took my wife you damned thing! Your not taking my baby brother!” I howled in rage. As I bit another Lance, their dead eye turned to look at me… looking smug. "I… already did… they… and so many...many more...oh so long ago… they spoke weak and with an old voice, laughing just as weakly. I shifted back and picked up Joy by the neck, a clone of myself appearing behind him. “I’m going to find you, and I’m going to enjoy watching you beg for death when I torture you till I see fit Void Key.” I growled. My clone ripped out the rest of the Spears as I hit Joy with Second Chance, holding them as they were shifted back, into a tiny little puppy. I hugged them tightly, crying with them. Jericho took the Lances, placing them all in a cage of Nothingness that was holding them. They then stored it away in a strange puzzle cube thing, then into the Assistant. “I’m here my baby...I’m here…” I cried, nuzzling baby Joy. They didn't shift or change, part of me was really happy about that. I wanted to keep holding them, but that could be done later. Kexez placed them away inside with the others, and we looked through the loot. The usual was there, but this time… there were so many Nothingness ores, weapons and armor, a few thousand tombs on Nobodies and Nothingness, recipes to Make Nobodies… and most surprising… a book on how to make Nothingness Keyblades, independent from Kingdom Hearts… hell yes. I also will need to expand the vaults and armories at this rate. “Okay...so…” I took a deep breath. “Let’s continue…” Floor 7 With that, we headed for the next floor… this was different. We were under water, sorta. It was an aquarium of sorts that had amazing sea life all swimming around us. "Woah… this is amazing- is that a Kaltupa!?" Jericho yelled, running right as the glass. The fish he was looking at was about half my size, yellow, green eyes, looked like its fins were made from seaweed and had two mouths. “Is it good to eat?” I asked curiously. "Oh no, they are extremely poisonous. But their bones when ground into a powder can be used to substitute damn near anything for repairing weapons at a forge." Jericho said, eyeing the fish. "They were so damn rare back in my realm." “And now there’s probably a fuck ton of these bastards arounds.” I said honestly. "Which begs the question… know anyone who was huge on fish and water?" Jericho asked. “Not...fully sure.” I said honestly while scrolling through my assistant on who this might be. There were a few possibilities, but I won't be able to tell until we are at the resting room. “Alright so we won’t know till we get to a resting area...but we at least narrowed it down.” I said honestly. Exploring this room, there was mostly a lot of… mechanical enemies. Aquatic themed robots and such. Love struck and Second Chance both worked on them, sexy robot ladies and adorable little robo babies. The deeper through this floor we went the more fish seemed to swarm the glass around us. Finally we found the resting room. It had a fishing area Jericho immediately started using to try and catch a few. Meanwhile Kexez tried to see if that heart pain would happen before heading off, and I checked the boss into book. Quata the Ocean. The fallen Admin of the sea, from the first Admin War, revived by time itself in the age of war against the Void Mother. Wait… fallen… so she's dead now… but will be revived by time… so this is someone new. “Well that’s not good…” I muttered. “But...revived by Time Itself? What does that mean?” As I skimmed through the book, Kexez had that heart pain again. It was a lot softer than the prior ones. Jericho caught those fish he was lookitat, and some others. Still wonder why the enemies here are all aquatic based robots rather than just fish monsters… as I pondered this I took into account this dungeons theme, the large glass tubes and rooms with heavy metal and bolts… oh… She's a steampunk... “Well then...that’s interesting.” I said honestly. “This is a Steampunk area.” We headed off, dealing with the last of the robots here and finding the boss room. The lid blew off, and out in a flood of black water came Quata, levitating the void poisoned water and shaping it like spikes. “Alright, looks like someone needs some detoxing.” I said before pulling out Arpeggio and plucking one of the two strings, the water around me clearing up slowly but surely. “Let’s hope this can work.” I muttered as I plucked another string as Arpeggio drew in water, making a water clone with a piano of all things that started to play, clearing up more and more water as Arpeggio turned into a Guitar and brought up a Microphone as more of the band was brought in, a bass, drums and another guitarist who all had their own microphones. When the days close in, and Shadow’s drown the land I sang out as water clones started to form up around my own little island of clear water that tried to rush forward to fight, only for the Ocean Admin to bring up her trident and two Void Tentacles appeared and grabbed them, crushing them rather quickly. Where the shore of the ocean recedes,To melancholic spaces More water clones appeared as they cleaved down the Tentacles, which sadly was only like seven out of a few dozen as they were all knocked back. It was the darkness that swallowed the beauty of day - The darkness comes closer - All visions and dreams left away, Hand in hand we can find our (way) back home When the other band members chimed in the water around us started to clear up a little faster as Eternal Flames appeared and flew high into the sky, spinning as they started to slowly make the light of the sun, causing the Ocean Admin to hiss and tried to send her SteamPunk fish to attack me. Let's fly high over the rainbow And along to the emerald skies Let's find the key of salvation You're receiving an answer to life As we all sang a massive water dragon appeared and roared behind us, diving forward and ripping into the steampunk fish, knocking away the Void Tentacles as the Boss slammed her Trident into the water’s surface, causing it to ripple and create her own Void Water Dragon, roaring a challenge causing a massive water dragon fight. See the glance of dawn A flaming romance And the shades of the ardent sun Leave sentimental graces As my water dragon was fighting, more water clones were made and fighting against the growing hoard the Ocean Admin had to offer, but Eternal flames had this nifty ability one of it’s evolution’s gave it where it could coat allies in a sort of fire armor that wouldn’t hurt the wearer, so the makeshift sun that was growing brighter gave down ‘Armor of Heavenly Fire’ as they started to push back against the Void Forces. - And the darkness comes closer - It was the sadness that darkened the glory of day - The darkness comes closer - All visions and dreams will come true Hand in hand we will find our (way) back home As we repeated the first chorus the flames grew brighter and stronger, the water growing cleaner and cleaner as the boss was losing ground, the Admin raising her Trident and summoning...HOLY SHIT! THE FUCKING KRAKEN! “Alright! Bring it on!” I shouted as I slammed my foot into the water's surface, causing a ripple effect as ancient magic Arpeggio learned rushed through as the entire area shook as I summoned The Mother Fucking Leviathan. Let's fly high over the rainbow And along to the emerald skies Let's find the key of salvation You're receiving an answer to life As we sang the Chorus the Kraken and Leviathan clashed in Titan levels of power, the water dragons having multiplied into the hundreds as Void Tainted Water and Nothingness Purified Water clashed in a massive spectacle that I really hope someone was recording while I shredded through the Guitar Solo. Let's fly high over the rainbow And along to the emerald skies Let's find the key of salvation You're receiving an answer to life Me and my growing water army sang out as the Void Admin was pushed back, a water Replica of myself grabbed Second Chance and immediately bolted towards the boss, clashing against her, causing everything to ripple and break all the smaller water constructs, the two clashing in massive swings that looked more like two massive Hurricanes clashing against each other. Let's fly to the end of the rainbow On our quest for eternal life Tap at the door to a place called salvation And you'll find the right way to go I sang out by myself as the music fully swelled as my clone managed to land the final blow with Second Chance, the Admin and all the water glowing brightly as I moved swiftly over the water and grabbed the crying infant that was the Ocean Admin. “It’s alright my daughter...you have found Salvation.” I said gently. I gently cradled her till she fell asleep, them Kexez placed her safely with the others. Have to admit, that whole Naga bellies thing comes in handy. The loot here for once had no money, but a lot of sea themed weapons, armor, items, fucking boats, submarines, spellbooks on sea magic, all forms of sea life, and basically a lot of things. “Well that’s...a lot of cool things.” I said honestly. “But uh...hopefully I didn’t go overboard…” I said sheepishly. "Eh, who cares." Jericho said as we packed the last few things. "So this is the first person we meet that's new. Huh. Well, fight." Kexez said. “I’m sure we’ll meet new people down the road.” I said honestly. “Now, onward to the next floor." Floor 8 This floor was all… lightning. Lightning formed walls and general… everything. The enemies were all also so fast… a Speedster, I figured. This floor was for a Speedster. I used Foudre to be able to move fast enough to see them… they were people, their eyes and mouths gushing out void as they ran, never stopping. I used Second Chance on all of them. “Jeez, the fuck are we the Speed Force?” I asked honestly while handing a dagger to Kexez and Jericho so they could move fast enough. “Also this gives me a good chance to practice with my newly evolved Foudre.” "As far as I know Cript doesn't actually have Speedsters in the family." Jericho said. "... I can think of one person. But I want to be sure." Kexez said. “Alright, we better find the safe spot before more of these bastards appear.” I said honestly. As we navigated this place more and more of those Speedsters showed up. Thanks to Foudre we managed to move fast enough to make the fight even. I used Second Chance on all of them, they were people damn it. As we entered another area we were met by one with White Lightning, they sped around just as fast as the others, but seemed to be trying to avoid being caught, unlike the others who all just charged us in attack. “You know an annoying thing? We should, by default, be this fast, but we’re not somehow.” I frowned. "Only one who could have answered that was the Admin of speed, but he's dead." Jericho said, managing to loop around and hit this white lightning run away Speedsters with Second Chance. Another baby, another place away in Kexez… huh… actually, I wonder what's like in that feeding belly? As in what does it look like. Has to be a bit gross but also weirdly cool. “I mean, that Cycles Admin of Speed is dead, this Cycle’s Admin of Speed might not.” I said honestly. “Who knows…” We finally reached the resting room. Kexez looked through the book. "I was right." Nathen Race: Human Weapon: None. A human from earth who gained the powers of the speed force from a higher god. His speed reached new heights after becoming the new Admin of Speed after the old was ended by a Delete. He gathered Every Speedsters across all Cycles and multiverse to fight the Void Mother, and in the end, fell to the Heroes Tomb after their best friend and lover fell fighting The Void Mother. "He becomes the new Admin of Speed then? Good for Nathen." “Who’s Nathen again?” I asked curiously, trying to remember people’s names in the god knows how many I need to remember. "He's a friend of Heart's from earth. My link to them showed me Nathen and Heart met back up while he was hunting down those Heartless, now Nathen and Eclipsa are hunting the last one down." “Cool.” I said. “So we’re going to have a second Nathan then.” I said honestly. "Did not expect them to end up with us." Kexez said. "That's the gag." Jericho shrugged. “Cause of course it is…” I sighed out. We left behind the safe room, Kexez having another heart attack before we made it to the boss. This one hit them hard though, they were breathing heavily. "Fuck." Kexez cursed. “What happened?” I asked worriedly. "One more. One more and I'll be whole. It grew faster than I expected." “Sounds about right.” I nodded. "I'm feeling the slightest touches of emotions… and instincts. The two are similar, yet so different." They huffed, still breathing hard. “Need a moment?” I asked gently. “Cause we can wait here before we enter the boss room if your not feeling well still.” "I'll just need a bi- Gah!" They fell down, their chest glowing a bright blinding light that began to shift to the framilier blue we knew. It finally ended after a while, and Kexez was left breathing heavily on their backs across the floor. “Oh shit, you okay?” I asked worriedly, rushing to their side and checking to see if their okay. They were breathing heavily, as I was trying to help them up, suddenly their tail wrapped tightly around me… and they began deeply kissing me, hugging me tight with their tail and arms as well. "Uhh…" Was all Jericho said. “Well...someone got their heart back…” I muttered. "I feel everything… I feel how much your family loves you. Love each other." Kexez said, kissing me again. "All that love. It's so strong!" They said, kissing me again. I kissed back as I pulled back. “Glad to hear your happy finally...I have a feeling you want to go back to the safe area for...reasons.” I said sheepishly. [Here be impromptu porn] Oh!... Maybe not… when did they take my pants off? "Why bother with privacy?" Kexez asked. I noticed their eyes, they were… Heart shaped… oh dear... “For safety reasons?” I asked nervously, not wanting them to get hurt while we were doing the dirty. “And...you’re just going to ignore me, aren't you?” She was thrusting herself on my already hard member the whole time I was talking. Soon tops were off and she then, somehow, pulled Jericho between- wait how did she strip them so fast? "So this Is a sandwich then?" Jericho asked, muffled by both my and Kexez's cleavage. “Sure...why not.” I groaned. “Christ your tight Kexez…” "I'm half snake. Our bodies are largely muscle… and I have excellent muscle control~" they said softly in my ear… and suddenly it felt like my penis was getting rammed through a narrow tube of tight squishy wet rubber. I am now so close... “God damn it…” I groaned before moving Jericho to the side and tackling Kexez to the ground, starting to ram myself into her as fast and as hard as I could. "Yes! Yes! Rut me! Own me!" Kexez said oh so sluttery. I then felt the sudden sensation of my own nethers getting rammed. Jericho, not wanting to be left out, joined in. I rutted Kexez as Jericho rutted me. I bit Kexez’s shoulder, not hard enough to bleed but enough to leave my mark on her as I slammed into her one last time, shoving my knot into that oh so blissfully tight cunt as I came, giving what the slutty bitch needed as their stomach bloated rather quickly, making her look like she was pregnant with two litters at the same time, my own cunt clamping down on Jericho’s dick as well. Jericho, the sly fucker, yanked my tail hard… my weakness! My nethers gripped their members hard, and they came inside me. I didn't bloat out, but I felt perfectly full given the limits of my wombs walls. [porn ends] We all now rested in a lovely afterglow. As I was starting to come back to earth I realized I wasn't in the hall… and my environment was. Squishy… "Hi Ben." I looked up, seeing Eevee and the other people we've gotten out of the rewards… Kexez swallowed me. I moved, seeing Jericho was under me. Their gut rather… bloated. "You screw… in your sleep…" They said, tired and halfway still in an afterglow. “Jesus did...did I plow everyone in here?” I asked nervously, looking around at all the adults in hopes I didn’t do everyone. "No, you came down screwing Jericho there, came, then slept for like, an hour I think?" Eevee said. “And yet you said I screw in my sleep, and you look like you just had some fun time as well.” I said honestly. "I was masterbating." She said. Looking around we were all naked. This stomach was also very roomy. More so that I expect. I couldn't stand but I could sit up. Everything was slimy but it didn't smell. The belly walls were also… so soft and smooth. It's like Silk meets Egyptian cotton. "So, I take it all the ruckas we went through was a nice sex?" Eevee asked. “Yes, yes it was…” I said. “I hope it wasn’t...too bad.” I said sheepishly. "Eh. Not that different when you all fight." Eevee said with a shrug. "So, wanna see the rest of the place?" “Sure, why not.” I said honestly. Walking on hands and knees Through the almost tunnel like belly, I met back up with all the girls, we chatted and talked before Eevee took me to these small little holes in the flesh wall. "These lead to the other bellies. The one with the guys, the babies, and some others that are vacant right now " She said. "They stretch so don't worry, the muscle move you from one to the other so don't fight the pull." “Alrighty then...sounds about right.” I said simply. “So, how has everything been in here?” "Cozy." Eevee said, leaning against the fleshy wall. "As weird as it might sound this belly feels really safe." “Well, Kexez is a hybrid of a Dire Wolf and a Naga, so the Naga part like this helps.” I said honestly. “Still can’t believe ‘Floof Noodle’ stuck…” I chuckled. "I like that name, makes their rather intimidating form seem less scary." She said. "Go check the babies, they're so cute." “I will.” I said while heading to the second with all our children. “There are so many kids to check up on…” The pull was surprisingly strong, but still gentle. It kinda massaged me as I passed through. Soon I emerged from the stretchy tube into the Feeding belly. This was… weird. It was literally all lactating breasts tightly next to each other all around the size of this belly. It was also much shorter than the others. Made sense though it is for babies. I had to crawl through this one, finding the babies all around, either sleeping or drinking. Each boob I moved alone was both super squishy, leaking from the pressure of my body weight, and firm as they didn't sink or move that much from my being on them. “This is nice…” I muttered warmly, seeing all my children happily sleeping or eating. “I’m glad all of you are safe…” I smiled warmly. I got a few to feed off me as well, though I tried some of the milk Kezex made. It was thick, like a rich Vanilla cream with what I swear was a tasty hint of cinnamon. At some point, I began to sleep again. I was happy, and for the first time in a long time… I just felt safe. I slowly opened my eyes and yawned, feeling something on top of me...or a lot of something’s as I noticed a lot of our kids were cuddling up to me as I smiled. “This is nice…” As I was hugging all the little miracles I felt something touching my face. Opening my eyes I saw… a tongue. A long, long tongue. It felt around my face a bit before suddenly wrapping around my whole body and actually managed to pull me out from all the infants and back out up Kexez's throat and out into the world. I immediately felt so...much...colder. I might as well have been naked in the Frozen North. Well, I am naked but still. It's so warm and cozy there. Huh, Eevee was right about that then. We were in the Safe Room, Kexez curled up around in their own tail, looking at me lovingly. "Hi. Sleep well?" She asked with a prideful smile. “It was warm and cozy in there, why you bring me out?” I frowned. "You can go in whenever you want Sweetness~ but we still have a boss to fight. How's about a nice nap in there for a while every floor safe room~?" Woah! Kexez is… flirty with a heart… hang on… their eyes are still heart shaped. “So...this is the second time when someone changed they become a fucking ditz…” I sighed out. "Rude." She spat. "First up, I am right fucking here. Secondly, I can finally feel my own emotions. Between that and biological instincts, pardon me for not knowing how to filter." “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to sound rude, but this thing happened a long time ago when...the Suicide Queen had to have something done to her to make sure she didn’t become a living ticking Void Bomb.” "If I recall that happened because the Void mark on her was unstable and removing it was going to have side effects regardless. Would you have honestly preferred her smart enough to betray you later on?" “Even though she specifically stated she didn’t want to fight anymore when she had a kid. But I expected some of her smarts to stay honestly.” I said honestly. “Again, sorry for sounding rude…” I sighed out. “Was just...a little worried that when you got a heart you became someone outlandishly different.” "Well, I prefer acting outlandishly different. Before I was just monotone, and remembering it two things come to mind. I was rather boring, and I had no ambition aside from keeping Heart happy. That's still my main goal, but my secondary goal not after getting hit by that wave of memories and emotions is to be the family whore. Well, maybe whore is a strong word, but I am going to act on every sexual desire Heart is too nervous too, Then drag them along with me." “I would say less ‘boring’ and more ‘cold and calculating’.” I said honestly. “Smart, cunning, strong, not the outlet for all of Hearts sexual fantasies.” I said honestly. "My life, screw you… oh wait." She chuckled. “More like I’m going to be screwing you most of the time.” I chuckled. "Speaking of Heart… mind if I see them? Last time we talked was when I… forced him to become the Admin of Hearts…" Kexez sighed, fiddling with their hair now. “Their still asleep in here.” I said while gently putting a hand on my stomach. “He’s been asleep this entire time actually.” "X must be making him train again." Kexez sighed. "Not sure why I remember but Everytime Heart sleeps X took them to the realm of sleep for subconscious training. He won't remember when he wakes up but it keeps him sharp since he only ever wants to do paperwork in the waking world." “Actually, I read the book on Floof Noodles and they can hibernate for up to a month when they’re inside their mother.” I said honestly. “But that’s also probably true…” "Must be taking advantage of that." Kexez sighed. "So, you okay with them there or can I take them?" “I’m okay with them there.” I said honestly. “It...feels a little right, here if I’m not a Floof Noodle.” Kexez nodded, then eyes went wide. "Oh shit I forgot to pull out Jericho." They said, after a few Moments Jericho was hacked up. "Shit it's cold…" They shivered, using magic to dry off their body and become immediately clothed. I sighed but did the same as Kexez got a new shirt. We explored the rest of the floor, saving the rest of the Void Corrupted Speedsters. There were two that gave us hell. One with Red lightning, he other with Blue. They were fast, somehow faster than Foudre, but we finally got them too. We then made our way to the boss room. The lighting of the entire place shifted into a massive Dome as the coffin flew off, and speeding out MUCH faster than I expected was Nathen, their appearance made them look like a speeding corpse with black Void corrupted speed force lighting. Even with Foudre.. he was faster. "Use ice!" Jericho said. "Speed and freeze are pilot opposites!" “Sounds about right.” I said while bringing out Frozen Pride as Ice started to form around me as I started bolting around, creating more and more ice and using Frozen Pride’s new ability, as Nathan passed over any ice or even got close to it his energy was siphoned off rather quickly, the more ice he ran near the more it siphoned off. They had issues running along the ice, then, doing the total bullshit move, began running ON. THE. AIR. "Bullshit!" Jericho and Kexez called out as they worked Frost and ice magic. “Oh, perfect.” I said as Frozen Pride glowed and the very air itself started to Crystalize around him. “Yeah, no matter how fast someone is, they can’t outspeed this.” I said as the temp dropped by an ass load as the very air started to freeze, siphoning off the speedsters energy by a fuck ton. “Frost Coffin.” I muttered, my breath clearly visible as it trailed along the air, wrapping around Nathan as his entire body started to get covered in ice rather quickly. Taking the opportunity, Jericho took he hit, Second Chance slicing through Nathen. Within seconds the room temperature rose back up, and Kexez caught the falling baby Nathen. She cooing them. "There there. It's alright, your Ma-pa's are here." I pouted. “Nuu~, I want to hold him.” "Ma-pa's?" Jericho asked. "Mama-Papa. Given we're all both genders it fits pretty good. I guess Pama can also work? Up to personal preference." Kexez shrugged, letting me hold baby Nathen now. “Eh, either way.” I said while cradling our new son. “And our special boy is joining us now.” Giving Nathen one final huh, Kexez took them back, swallowing them into that comfy feeding belly. I am definitely going back in there… something a while ago I was extremely nervous about doing I am now pretty much fine with… huh. The loot box here was mostly standard. The part that wasn't were these small injectors filled with Speed Force. Jericho said one will make anyone a Speedster for life. Huh… “Well...alrighty then.” I said honestly. Floor 9 This floor was neat. It's entire theme was a Forest. Every fiber of my Dire Wolf biology made me run through it, Jericho hitching a ride and Kexez doing the same. The enemies here were all various types of Void tainted predictors. “Maybe we’ll find Void Wolves here?” I wondered as I just enjoyed running around. "So far we haven't run into any." Kexez said, slurping down the now baby Nagas. "Actually, you aren't wrong there." Jericho said. "Tigers, Bears, Lions, all forms of predators, but no wolves." “That is interesting…” I hummed. “But this forest is making my instincts go up...I doubt it’s just because it’s a forest.” I said honestly. “So, who do you think the boss will be?” "Clearly a predator." Kexez said. "But… in an entire Forest filled with predators, there hasn't been a single pray based species here. So… it might be a predator that hunts other predators?" Kexez pondered. "Won't know until we find that safe room." “Survival of the fittest…” I muttered as we continued to search for the safe room. The further along we went, we soon found more types of predators. Nagas, Dragons, even demons and spirits. Finally, we found the safe room. Kexez had to grow themselves again, this floor proved very… fortunate for picking up family. Once that was done, they could barely fit through the door, then swallowed Jericho so they can nap in them while they and I read the book. “Alrighty then, let’s see what boss is on this floor.” I said while checking the book. Spoiled The Darkness. Race: Equestrian Weapon: Graceful Rose Once a powerful demon, obsessed with power, she was saved by a hero from a time long forgotten. Her ties to Darkness altered her when she was reborn, still keeping her a demon, but raised to use those evil powers for good. She could feel emotions again, she was human where it counted. “Are you kidding me? Spoiled is redeemed?” I frowned. “I know you wanted to redeem her but...the fuck.” "We must use Second Chance or maybe even Love Struck on her." Kexez thought. “Sounds about right…” I said honestly. “Hmm...still hate her though for causing a lot of crap…” "Hm. But why with all the predators though…" Kexez said, flipping through the pages. At the dawn of her marriage, Spoiled tested her love and metal against an attack by The Void Mother. A beast crowned as King of Beasts. With help from her family she slayed the beast, taking its form and renaming the title, King of Predators. This act established the Dire Wolf and Floof Noodle races as Predator royalty across creation "Oh… that's unexpected." Kexez said. “Interesting…” I hummed. "Looks like we'll see what she looks like now soon." Kexez said, looking at me. "Now, you nap." They said, mouth opening wide as I was sent down for a quick nap with the others. When I arrived, I was near Eevee and our newly acquired Bear lady. "Hi again." Eevee said. Woah… this place is even bigger now. It makes sense, she grew herself more but I can actually stand in here now. “Hi, and sheesh this place got bigger.” I said honestly. "I know. And check this!" Eevee said, pushing against the belly walls… it went onwards a fair amount, and she laid down along the Newly formed spot. "Beds! It happened a bit ago and we found out by total accident. I swear the bigger this place gets the cooler it gets." “Alrighty then. That is rather interesting.” I said honestly. Eevee gave a cute, happy laugh before making her bed bigger. "Come on, I wanna cuddle!" She proclaimed. I grabbed Eevee and got onto the bed with her, cuddling up to her happily. “Cuddles are nice.” We squished up next to each other, and I went into a blissful sleep. I woke up with Eevee nuzzled happily in my chest. We laid like this for a while longer before getting up. I stretched, feeling so well rested. Honestly the slime and such doesn't bother me much. It doesn't smell and I think it's making my Floof fluffier. I think Kexez is still asleep. “Alright so...everyone else is asleep…” I muttered to myself. I decided to read that book on Floof Noodles again. Just how… interesting can Kexez's insides get? Floof Noodle biology is perhaps the most magic based of all races. By growing their lower bodies larger each increase in size actually enhances their magic, but most interesting is that their bellies on the inside are bigger than on the outside, by the third growth become pocket dimensions connected by their other organs. By the time a Mama Noodle reaches, if they ever, the mile diameter their insides can actually hold an entire world. Interesting enough once they reach the mile diameter size they can shrink their lower half back to a standard size, but the inside will still remain large enough to house a planet. They can grow more bellies at will, each able to house a world as well and they can eve use their magic to make it seem like the inside of their bellies isn't flesh, but ground and skies. This is not limited to their bellies however, their wombs, breasts, and lungs can do the same. A Mama Noodle at this level of growth can't even cast spells, their magic completely used and focused on the many worlds hey can house within themselves if they ever do this. Oh Eclipsa is so going to want that. “That is very interesting…” I muttered honestly. When a Mama Noodle is at this stage they actually give birth internally, inside their bellies and sometimes the offspring grow and live their whole lives inside their mama, never even knowing about what's outside the internal world of their mama. If their young do this, they don't actually die, rather are absorbed back into the womb and reborn, only carrying the faintest memories of their prior life. The Mama Noodle can do this with all races they allow to reside inside them, not just other Floof Noodles or their young. This has given the Mama Noodles the nickname of The Rebirthing Mothers. “Well...alrighty then.” I said honestly. “That is really interesting.” I think Ophelia and I made the most OP mothering race in existence with this. Heh, oh well… huh… I checked my Assistant, qualities and abilities for Floof Noodles were in fact unlocked, I just needed to allocate skill points to activate them… do I? I won't change form so I don't have to worry about that. “Eh, fuck it.” I said. “I already have more skill points that I know what to do with, and I’ll have enough for Void Wolves.” I said while putting points into Floof Noodle tree as far as it could go. Stomachs wise I am now at Kexez's level, which makes sense they are likely who I am copying these abilities from. I also got scales under my fluff now so that will help me tank hits from now on. They even formed on my boobs, but they feel so soft, and are more like skin than scales. Also my rear… boobs and womb can also store people but I won't try that for a while… though I do have a feeding belly now too so… hmm… using the long tongue ability I felt it go down my own throat, kinda a cool feeling, and feel around for Heart. My level of tongue control is Insane. This is gonna make both kissing and sex so much better. I found them, had a bit of trouble wrapping it around them. Finally got them and blindly found the feeling stomach. I did use my tongue to make one of those boobs In There leak, tasting my own milk. It was thicker than Kexez's, which made me happy, was just as sweet and had a faint aftertaste of honey. “Oh boy…” I muttered. “This is a whole bunch of new…” My Assistant alerted me, suddenly. Looking at it there was a new ability in Floof Noodle. Hm? Kexez doesn't have this? Ability: Gone No Longer 14 Skill Points to Unlock. This ability allows you to bring back eaten and digested sentient life forms as your own offspring. … I can bring back that Deku... I started sifting through the Floof Noodle book to see how this was possible. Floof Noodles, unlike Naga, species typically don't eat once they reach adulthood, consuming magic over actual food. This however does not remove their stomach for digesting food. In the event of accidentally eating a sentient life form, the DNA of said being stored in fat cells can be used to revive them body and soul, as an infant however. This ability shows just how magical the Floof Noodle race is by comparison to others. This ability has fallen under the category of blessed abilities as it in no way uses magics typically used in Necromancy, and the soul of the person returns to the newly reborn body pure as the day it was created. They can recall bits and pieces of their former life, typically Names and places but nothing more. I immediately rushed to gain that ability, still having god knows how many skill points so I can just rush to get that ability. “Please...please tell me I’m not too late…” I suddenly felt my skin kinda… move, like worms of something moving to my… my belly! It kinda hurt for a bit before it suddenly didn't. My Assistant beeped. Sentient being body restored. Soul returned. Memories of former life 97% missing. Name: Izuku Midoriya Rename? Yes? Or No? “I...won’t rename him…” I said gently while pressing No. “I hope this works…” I felt a shift, a strong spike of magic pulsate inside my womb. It honestly made me a bit… wet. The Assistant beeped. Congratulations! You are now the proud soon to be Mother of Izuku Midoriya. They will be born within 7 months. “Oh thank god…” I muttered in pure joy. “They deserve a second chance…” As I sighed, I began pondering things. Mostly how it feels like anyone could be saved. That comforted me a bit… I wonder? My clone back home rushed to the Hospital wing of the castle, almost breaking down the door to Coco's room. It still always hurt to be here. Her body began to atrophy a bit, not moving and all. I pulled out Second Chance… and activated my Void consuming power First Belief taught me. The Sparks of resistance from Void Keys Void were immediately visible. Only the smallest drops were being taken. Converted and purified. What am I missing? What is the missing Key to helping you?! "Fear." I blinked, eyes tearing up as I saw Pecator at the door. "The voids code is based on a foundation of misery, loneliness and hatred. Void Keys is based off of Fear… my own Fear. Nothingness is founded on Concern, Worry and the will to keep persisting. Opposite of The Voids foundation. What is the Opposite of Fear?" “There are...several things that are the opposite of Fear honestly.” I said honestly. "And what's the strongest? Bravery." He sighed, handing me a vial. It was Nothingness… but different. It's energy was… so, so strong. "It cost me a pinkie finger, enough for one use. Use it well." They said, leaving me with Nothingness, made from Bravery. “Don’t worry Coco…” I muttered while taking off the cork and pouring the Bravery on my hand as I put it on her heart. “Alright fucker, you will no longer haunt my wife any longer.” I growled, feeling my hand slowly pass through her chest as I felt something down there. “Found you.” I growled as I grabbed hold of Void Key’s Void, grounded myself as I pulled out Void Key from Coco. "Bastard!" It hissed, Void Keys Void and the Bravery Nothingness both now faded and gone. Coco immediately began coughing, eyes opening as she struggled to move her arms to rub her eyes. "What… happened?" She asked. Coco felt a fluffy warm breast on her head, a nipple right above her mouth. “Don’t talk, just drink...it’s all going to be okay.” I said gently. She was confused, blushing red as a cherry but drank. Once she caught the taste she drank more and faster. Soon she was just sucking away like how the babies would. Her body began to heal, atrophy repairing and when she finally stopped she was breathing deeply. "Ben? What… happened? I remember… our talk, I had Void Key… then, then… it just goes blank." I pulled my breast back as I grabbed her into a big fluffy hug, crying in pure joy. “It doesn’t matter...I’m just happy your back my love.” She hugged me back. "I'm just happy you don't hate me for being Nexus." She cried into my bosom. After a while Krott came by, basically having the same reaction as me. We told Coco about what Void Key did, what was currently happening and how long she was out. She gave a heavy sigh. "So Scotch and Rune are still out there?" She asked. "Yes. Scotch we might have a location for, but Rune is still in hiding. You know how she is." Krott said. "All too well." Coco sighed. “So...what do you think of all that’s gone on?” I asked. “I’m sorry I didn’t save you sooner...or figured this out sooner…” I sighed out sadly. "I'm just surprised I was out for half a year… Ben, I'm going with you." She said suddenly, getting up and looking through her Assistant. “Are you sure?” I asked. “You just woke up, and your still weak even after my breast milk...are you really sure about this?” I asked worriedly. "Yes. You are in the void, I was literally engineered to use the Voids power. Void Key did that to me because they are different, but in there I can be of invaluable use." "As much as I don't want to admit it, Coco has a point." Krott said. "Her Abilities could prove invaluable within the void itself, add that to your Nothingness you'd have close to no troubles while there." “Do you know where Void Key is? Cause so far Kexez told me that only Vilgax knows where the bastard is.” I said simply. "No. I don't remember anything while out cold. But I don't care. I'm Void Keys perfect host. He'll send someone after me, likely Vilgax so we can use that to our advantage." Coco said, dawning quite the impressive suit of armor. It kinda looked like a mix between Iron Man's armor and Doom Guy's armor. “And when we find Vilgax, we’re going to get every little bit of info out of him...and then Void Key will beg for death.” I growled. "Not without more of that Bravery Nothingness." Krott said. "I'll talk to Pecator and get him, as much as the magi-science research departments and even Cript on it so we can produce more of it. Hopefully a stable steady supply." “I’ll help out as much as I can as well.” I said while looking at my hand that held Bravery. “If it means nothing like that will happen again, I’ll do anything.” "Alright then. Ben, may I see your Assistant?" Coco asked. “Sure.” I nodded while bringing my arm up. “Got something for me?” She looked through it, chuckling. "Floof Noodle?" She asked me. “It was a joke name that the Writers liked too much. It’s not my fault.” I huffed. She did something…. Then opened my mouth and jumped down my throat. Krott and I were both equally confused. I looked at what she, wait, cross branch abilities? Floof Noodle + Starfish Clone Linked Clone Bellies: Activated. … Clever girl. Back in Kexez's belly, yeah, still here, Coco crawled out of my mouth. "Surprisingly roomy in there." She said. “It really is.” I said honestly. “But hey! Coco’s back!” I said while hugging her again happily. She hugged me too. "So… where or what are we in? And why are you naked?" “Eh, just napping and all.” I said simply while getting dressed. “So, right now we’re on Floor 9, going up against...Spoiled.” I sighed out. "Huh. And… whose stomach is this?" “Kexez.” I said honestly. “They got their heart back after I gave them a Soul.” I said honestly. "Oh… neat." She said, seeing the naked, napping Jericho, Eevee, other women, some of the men too. "I see you've been expanding the family." She laughed. “This is just rewards and some of the enemies we beat, the actual important stuff is here.” I said while helping her through the tunnels and into the Nursery in Kexez. “And here we have all the infant's Second Chance helped bring back.” "Awh! So adorable! How many?" “Um...not sure.” I said honestly. “All I know is that there’s going to be at least one hundred kids from the hundred floors...and then as many as we want given Second Chance...but Jericho decided to make Love Struck and make new wives…” I said simply. “But you know during one of our breaks I am going to take you on a wild ride right?” I asked flirtatiously. "You mean sex?" “Listen, I haven’t had that special time with you in over half a year...I’m sorry if I’m coming off a little forward here.” I said sheepishly. "I don't mind. To me it was just yesterday so, my perception of time is kinda off at the moment." “I know, but still.” I said. “It...it means so much that your here Coco.” "I'm happy to be here." She said, cuddling up to me. Her armor kinda making the cuddle a bit uncomfortable. Finally after ten or so minutes Kexez grabbed us and yanked us up. "Oh. You… how?" They asked me, pointing at Coco. “Bravery.” I said. “It is a magical thing...and honestly I’m just happy that she's here...oh she also mixed the Floof Noodles stomach ability with Starfish Clone so...they are now I, and most likely others, are now walking hub worlds.” "... Awesome!" "Magic Biology is always a wonder." Jericho said, drying off and getting dressed. "Hold up." Coco said, walking up to the wall. Her hand closed black for a bit as suddenly the Void within the wall began to get drained into her. The Void tainted tree changing color, growing tall and even now bore fruits. Coco let the void cover her hand for a bit before disbanding it. "Alrighty then, got some fuel in the tank." “Oh...that happened.” I said while looking at the tree. "Hmm…" Jericho hummed, tapping Love Struck on it. To everyone's surprise, it worked. Sexy tree lady. Her fruit comes off her leaf hair and tits… huh. "Okay that is cool." Coco chuckled. “Cause this is what we need...tree titties.” I said honestly. "This if going to be fun." Coco said, Kexez putting the tree lady to safety. “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “Well, we’re getting close to the boss door...oh, also Coco, where is the Forest of Roots?” I asked Coco curiously. "I don't know." She said happily as we left the safe room. "I was built to use void but I've never been here before, and the times I have used void was just for tests. This is the first time I get to use it in a fight." “Do you know someone who would know where it is?” I asked. “Cause I need some Void Wolf Code to unlock the Void Wolf Skill Tree...also to have some inside help against the Void Mother.” "Hmm… back when I was testing my Void abilities I learned how to absorb Void from Void Mother Hair strands. I learned how to shoot out Void, absorb it from the area, and to cloak any weapon I have in Void so I could use it to melee. But I also saw places. The hair showed me a volcano. Maybe if we find more of those artifacts I can see this Forrest?" “That would be interesting.” I nodded. “Well we’ll figure that all out after the dungeon.” I said simply as we all made it to the boss door. "If we find and Void Artifacts like ores and such I can drain them for new powers and abilities too. Think… Conduits from Infamous. That's basically what I am. Only artificial, not like the actual Void Conduit. That chick must pack some power." “Wait, who?” I asked curiously. "The Void Conduit. How to put it. Basically like before, think Conduits from the Infamous games, but she is the conduit for Void, these are Prime Conduits, people born with this ability to control and use energy and even materials at will. I'm an artificial Conduit, made to use void, not born with that ability. The Void Conduit from what I remember was a woman and her Abilities with Void were second only to the Void Mother, for obvious reasons. She's the Prime Void Conduit, and no one has seen or heard anything about her in so long, most assume her dead." “I’m pretty sure she’s not dead all things considered.” I shrugged. "Do you have any Void ores? I really wanna abuse the fact I'm here as much as possible." “Oh, sure.” I said while handing her a couple of the hundreds of Void Ores we won. "Oh...fuck...yes…" She said with a giddy grin, sucking out the power from all of them. She glowed with Void, floating for a bit before falling back to the ground. "Okay… this is gonna be fun." She said. We came across some more enemies, Coco knocking them out and even pulling the Void out of a bear. The now normal bear for Second Chance and it's now a dire wolf bear cub. All I will say is that it's a fluff ball and I love it. The more enemies we found the more Coco was enjoying herself. It was almost like she was a different person, then again, The Void is a part of her she's never really gotten to use, just tested so Void Key could puppet her. She finally was free. Her coolest move so far was shifting into a liquid void form to appear behind a foe and yank their Void out from behind. That got us our second little dire wolf bear fluff ball. "Wahoo!" Coco cheered. "I haven't had this much fun in years!" “Glad your having fun my love.” I said warmly. "Have to admit, Pony is a badass." Kexez said. "Four of us makes this too easy. Lower levels must get harder." Jericho said. "I hope so!" Coco said. “Yeah so that Merchant fucking lied to us with that memory.” I frowned. “Maybe we should have taken the side route to Hard Mode…” I hummed. We came to the boss room. I breathed deeply as we entered. The coffin lid flew open, and first there was a giant wolf hand like mine… then a long...long… huge snake tail, soon she came out… holy fuck… she's a Floof Noodle taur… also she has a massive scythe made from a giant tooth… "That is cool." Jericho said. "What would you call that?" Kexez asked. "Dibs on the scythe!" Coco yelled. “You know, when she started with the wolf hand and snake tail, I thought she was trying to look like Typhon, the Greek Father of all Monsters.” I said honestly while preparing to fight. “Think you can handle this Coco?” I asked while buffing all of us up to hell. Coco had already yanked that Scythe out of Spoiled hand, the void in it and her radiated quite the aura. "Let's get us a new whatchamacallit baby!" “Um...sure…” I said slowly, checking my Assistant to double check if we’re actually in the Tomb of Heroes and this isn’t just a massive lie or some bullshit Ghouls and Ghosts trick. We all tried to deal with Spoiled here, but her tail was able to deflect us from behind, her being on four paws gave her a lot more speed than I expect for her size, and despite no longer having her scythe she could perform some damned impressive magic. Our biggest issue was her size. Even my feral form is smaller than her. “Oh hey, an actual fucking challenge. Who would have guessed.” I said. “Let’s finally test out what I thought I’d have to constantly use.” I said as I decided to use my Drive Form, my True King Form. As the glass sphere shattered I floated in mid air, holding a No Heart version of my King Greatsword, my armor pure white with Nothingness Thorns visibly moving across the massive white void my armor was, as the actual design looked like a mixture of the Black Luster Soldiers armor mixed in with a more Wolfish form. “Hot damn...this is a lot…” I muttered, feeling all my power’s going through the goddamn roof. “Let’s go…” I growled as I...accidentally tackled Spoiled into the ground. “Oh shit...uh...I’m not using Foudre the fuck…” "This is why we train!" Jericho yelled, pulling me off Spoiled, Grey and other energies flowing through their legs as they kicked her clear into the wall. "Gonna listen to me next training session?" “I didn’t have the time to try this out remember?” I asked simply as I raised my No Heart Greatsword and...fired off a Charge Shot from Sharpshooters what!?! “Excuse me what!?” I shouted as the thing bounced around Spoiled like a snake waiting to strike. "... Noob." Jericho sighed, taking out a worn battle axe. The energy along it spiked at my level. "Warlords Strike!" They sliced the air, the impact blasted Spoiled into the wall, she coughed up Void and air. "We are so training you when this is over." “And yet why do I have the feeling this isn’t even an eighth of this forms power that you just casually threw out.” I frowned as I took a single step and appeared near Spoiled with Second Chance. “Fine, let’s end this.” I growled as I slashed at Spoiled swiftly. The hit went through her, making her regress to an infant and be cured of the void, but also made a fifty foot gash in the walls behind her… I grabbed the baby Spoiled, this form they have is… odd, but also cute. Awh, wraps her tail around my arm like the other Naga babies. “She’s adorable, and she’s my new daughter...hopefully we can raise her right.” I said gently. Her form didn't change, and Kexez placed her away with the others. We looked through the loot. Some more girls, guys, Void items, money, the usual. "This is cool." Coco said, checking her Assistant and skill trees. I did the same to see if anything was new. “Hmm?” I hummed as I noticed Nothingness Wolf had a branch as I moved over to it. Become Nobody: Transform into one of your Nobodies and use their abilities and skills. 13 Skill Points Required. Thorned teeth: When in Feral Form, your teeth when you bite or bark leave Nothingness thorns that linger and deal damage to your foe. 10 Skill Points Required. Admin of Nothingness: Access pure Nothingness to attack your foes. Requires: Activated “Sounds about right.” I said while putting points into the three abilities cause I have too many skill points from not using them for god knows how long. I looked over at Coco, she seemed to enjoy her new abilities. I decided to look into the Equestrian Skill Tree. It branched off into four main branches. Earth Pony, Unicorn, Pegasus and Alicorn respectively. Hmm. “I wonder…” I hummed as I decided to try and put points into these skill trees if possible. I was actually able to Max them all out, which was cool. “Wonder how this affects my stats…” I muttered while checking my stats. The Earth Pony tree gave me boosts to Strength, Endurance, Stamina and made it so when I eat fresh food it triple restores my health. The Pegasus one made my flying incredibly faster, lets me now walk and move clouds, and boosts my agility. The Unicorn tree upped my magic stupidly and cut all spells cost per use in half. The Alicorn one gave mini boost versions of the other three, stacking with the other trees and and the prior boosts. The final branch boosted my mana and stamina pools by triple and… I now have wings… and a horn. It's not as big as Alxun's or the others, but it's there… just barely in my upper line of sight… Yeah I'm physically a Dire wolf but now more a mutant at this point. Then again we all are so… eh. “Eh.” I shrugged. “This is a little nice.” I said simply as I fluttered my huge wings. My wings when completely open were twice my height each, the feathers reached down just below half my height and when folded up were small enough to fit under a shirt. The feathers we're huge, though, and most importantly, as fluffy and soft as me. I have to admit, feeling along and moving them is super alien to me. It's not that hard to get the hang of but for now I have to split focus on them to stay airborne. Landing is another issue. Also I can not fly with Lindworm if I am flying with my wings. The windforce they make knocked me against the wall. "Well either way…" I said while waving my hand over my head and hiding my horn cause honestly, while wings work, Unicorn Horn doesn't. Floor 10 This floor was like the Psychopath one. A massive City, we checked and no rooftop domes but there were a lot of monsters around. Werewolves, Vampires, Zombies, fucking mummies. All the classic monsters as well as some other neat ones. Like the giant hydras, Big Foot, Mole Men. "So who's is this then?" Coco asked, subduing a Wolf Man and using Second Chance on them. Jericho made copies for us each of Love Struck and Second Chance so we didn't have to pass them around. "I dont know...dont remember who had the Classic Monster motif…." I said while double checking the family for anyone that might fit the bill As I was browsing the others made fairly quick work of the other monster enemies. More babies and wives then. Kexez had to grow again but thankfully a look at their skill tree showed they could have the Size Matters Ability. Size Matters: Your tail lower half will be the normal size from now on, but your insides will continue to grow and expand your insides without expanding you on the outside. This applies to your whole I side body. Requires: 30 Skill Points. We got it for them. Now they were normal sized but able to still grow and keep the new arrivals safe. I looked, and turned out I activated that ability on me already when. I first put SP into the Floof Noodle/Naga race skill trees. I helped Coco out with the skill trees area too, she got her Earth Pony tree maxed, since she is one already, and so far half of Unicorn and Pegasus, but Alicorn was still locked. Must need to Max out the other three beforehand. "Cool. Now things should be a little easier for you." I said to Coco after finishing up helping her tree. "I hope so. I just hate I don't have that many Skill Points as you. Weird but maybe Void Key had something to do with that… hey." Coco said, pointing out one of the upper tabs. There was Abilities, Race Abilities, Weapon Abilities, Mixed Abilities, and Guild Affiliated Abilities. Guild Affiliated? I checked that one also. Turns out Guild Affiliated means if you are part of a special group or worship special gods or Admins, completing certain tasks can give you even more abilities and such. That's kinda cool. Coco currently had three. Nexus Templar, Nothingness, and Cript's Family. I had Cript's Family, and all of the Nothingness one maxed. Makes sense given I am both king and Admin of Nothingness. Let's see what Cript's Family one can offer? Oh, here is something. Forge Your Own Humanity Weapon. Reward(s): Humanity Weapon and Humanity Targeting. Humanity Targeting allows you to see who is able to be saved without needing to test the Humanity Weapon on them beforehand. Avoiding unwanted deaths. "Okay that's cool." I said while taking that ability rather quickly. Error! Guild Abilities require completion of tasks to obtain, not Skill Point. Please complete action in order to acquire rewards. “Bitch…” I frowned while checking the requirements for it. I just needed to make a Humanity Weapon then… and Cript likely knows how. He did invent them...and the bastard also keeps forgetting to teach me Humanity and Psychopath powers…”Well looks like I’m gonna need to be talking to Cript after this…” I sighed out, but decided to call him just so I could see what I needed to do about forging a Humanity Weapon. He didn't pick up. I shrugged, must be busy helping to make Bravery Nothingness then. As I checked it said Coco was an Admin, but there was no title to it. I wonder what she will become an admin of? As we made our way through the city, suddenly… cards? Pokemon cards, Yugioh, Bakugan, Magic, all kinds… wait… no… no please don't tell me! I rushed through the rain of magic cards, finding the safe room here inside a hospital here and immediately reading the book. Jenny The Player. “No...no please anyone but her…” I teared up. “Damn it Jenny…” I muttered while reading why she’s here. Daughter to a king, Jenny The Player used a unique wide variety of magic playing cards in fights after becoming the Admin of Cards. It is said when her father fell, she picked up their special deck of cards and charged into the Heroes Tomb, and never left. “Damn it Jenny…” I muttered sadly. Kexez and Coco both comforted me… Jenny… who else is trapped here? There’s a hundred of my family here… who else has been stuck here? Died here? I sulked for a bit. First Alcun, then Joy. Others who will join our family, others who are here already, and I haven’t even met those ones yet. “Everyone died because they fought Void Mother...or came here...what the fuck…” I said sadly. "We need to break this cycle of resets." Jericho said. "Like Kexez said, we need to bring back everyone, every cycle, every reset. It's our best bet for victory in this war." "This will be nightmarish." Kexez sighed. "All war is." Coco said sadly, scratching the back of my neck. I hugged Coco sadly. “When did things get to this point?” I muttered sadly. "Likely leading up to the fight with the Void Mother." I sighed out. “Well...we better get moving…” I muttered sadly as I let go of Coco and looked for the boss room. “Only time will tell if this gets even worse for me...than it already is.” The boss room appeared in the form of a house of these magic cards that rained down earlier. The coffin made of cards turned back, flying around into a whirlwind… and inso Jenny's hands, who was using Void tainted Fair Game. “Well...got to stick to a theme…” I said honestly. She tossed out three more cards, they shifted into clones of herself, they each had a deck as well, and each used a card to shift into a replica of one of my weapons. Lindworm, Frozen Pride, SharpShooters and Inderection. "Well...that's interesting." I said honestly. “Wonder how strong the clones are.” I hummed while sending some of my infantry to test them out as I buffed everyone up. They shredded them. The Jenny with Interdiction hacking them like paper, Jenny with Lindworm impaling six or seven at once with a single lance, the Jenny with Frozen Pride was tanking all received damage, then blasting it back in a shockwave of absolute zero ice magic, and the Jenny with Sharp Shooters, whenever one got in close for a hit with the others, shit down the Nobody in a single shot, right between its eyes, each time. "Cool…" I frowned. "That's a thing…" "That's Jenny for ya." Kexez said. "Looks like it's four V four. Which one is real though?" "Well..only way to find out." I said while summoning Interdiction and immediately clashing with Jenny's interdiction clone. I saw Kexez summon Sharpshooter, dueling with the Sharpshooter Jenny. Jericho summoned Lindworm and fought the Lindworm Jenny, and Coco summoned Frozen Pride to deal with the Frozen Pride Jenny. Seeing them all using my weapons I felt… kinda proud. The weapons themselves are all happy to be out at once in a fight. "This is fun…" I muttered with a smile as I swung at Jenny swiftly. "But...it still sucks you came here Jenny…" I muttered sadly, hating how she lost herself in this damned place all because I was killed. As we all fought, I saw Jericho managed to pin their Jenny opponent down, delivering the final blow with Second Chance. A puff of cards. "Shit!" They huffed, moving in to help me. "These card copies are strong." They said, managing to distract my Jenny for a bit. "Yes, yes they are." I said while slashing at her back while she was distracted. "I'm surprised shes only done Card Clones at the moment…" The one I fought puffed into cards. Jericho went to help Coco and I went to help Kexez. "How you holding up?" I asked Kexez while deflecting arrows back at Jenny. "She's as good a shot as I am." Kexez said. "Think you can distract her with a fake out attack?" "Simple enough." I said as I sent what little of my army I had left to go to one side as I moved to the other side to pincer her in a distraction move. She moved both Sharpshooters in our directions, shooting vollies of energy shots at us. Kexez used this to shift Sharpshooter into its bow form, using Second Chance as an arrow and firing. Jenny blocked but Kexez had aim, it shot between her raised arms. A puff of cards. So it's the Frozen Pride one then. "Alrighty then...let's go finish this…" I muttered as I vanished after the real Jenny. They brought up Frozen Pride, the impact sent a shockwave when I hit , but against all of us they were hit by Jericho… cards?! A puff of cards fell the ground when Jericho swung. "What?!" Kexez asked as suddenly the walls and floor all began to crack, forming perfect patterns for Fair Games look, the cards all flying and moving about each card about our size. We were each standing on a floating card in this dimension of empty space and Fair Games cards. We saw Jenny a fair distance away on her own card, jumping into it and suddenly there was FIFTY of them, all with varying weapons. "Oh...shit…" Coco said. "Well that's not fair at all." I said simply. "Looks like she can do more than you figured." Kexez said. "This is going to be hell. There has to be a way to see who's the real Jenny here. Or at least which card she might be hiding in." Jericho said. "Hiding…" Kexez thought. "I might have an idea." "So the game is Hide and Seek?" I asked curiously. "But what's your idea?" "Ventral cardplay." They said, disbanding Sharpshooter and summoning Fair Game. "Hide your best cards in your opponents deck." They said, taking out a card that had Jenny on it. The card flew out of their grip, and Jenny came out, her copies disbanding as she wielded the Void corrupted Fair Game. "Alright Jenny…" I muttered while preparing myself for the fight. We charged in, Jenny was fast, using the cards like Shields, projectiles and large swords. "Jeez, didn't think she would get this strong and fast…" I said as I slashed through a card quickly. "You are assuming the war is right around the corner with the Void Mother." Jericho said, driving a hit into one of her card Shields. "We don't actually know when the battle will happen. She could have been thousands of years old for all we know when the war started." "If that's the case then Jenny was training as hard as the rest of us." Kexez said. "I am going to try something, I'll need a clear shot at her though." Coco said. "We'll try to give you that shot." I said as I used Foudre to increase my speed and try to get Coco that opening. With this we managed to make just enough happen, Coco quickly reaching a hand at Jenny, grabbing her hand as there was a sudden rush of Void between the two. The card reality quickly fell apart, and suddenly Jenny and Coco were blasted away from one another. I panicked, not sure whether to check on Coco or go after Jenny. "Damn it…" I growled as I leaped over and tried to hit Jenny with Second Chance. I got the hit in, Jenny reverting to an infant as I picked her up then went over to Coco. “I got our girl Coco.” I said gently. “Are you okay?” She was breathing heavy for a bit, calming down finally and looking at Jenny. "I… I saw it… her memories. The fight… she saw you…" She cried, latching onto me tightly. “What do you mean?” I asked worriedly, scared of what she meant by that. "Jenny… what I saw. She was running to the front lines… where you and the others were…" She trembled. "So many dead… she saw you, dead." Coco broke, crying into my chest now. "You were just tossed aside, all of your weapons just… damaged. Your crown was INSIDE your head! Your chest was just gone and…" “It’s alright...it’s alright…” I said gently. “I’m right here...I’m not going to make the same mistake twice.” Coco didn't respond. She wasn't up for fighting. Not for a bit. I decided to place her away with Heart. Inside me. She didn't resist. I looked at baby Jenny, so small and innocent… what horrors did you see from before? I looked at Second Chance, remembering that it still had it’s Memory Stealer abilities as I let it float as a Memory Card floated out of it. “Alright...what horrors did you see my daughter…” I muttered while taking the card to see her memories. Her breath was rapid, lungs were burning, body ached, and clothes were soaked in blood. Jenny was running. She was going fast, and all around her, she saw her home, creation falling into The Void, the sky's going black, bodies littered the floor like grass. She was even running over them. I saw so many familiar faces. Zeke's parents, impaled by a giant tooth, Krott's head just outside the teeth of a giant beasts decapitated head. The smell, a smell that haunted her. Mom and Dad, they were charged bodies off to the side. Each step she saw more and more of our family, gone. Bloodily and brutally slain. I saw mamma Den, her feral form half gone and the other half oozing her organs and blood. I saw Lord's headless body collapsed before a trench. Inside the trenches I saw Pinkie, Twin, Rarity, All of them… paled and red eyes. A foul odor of poison hung heavily here still. All around her as she ran, people we loved, slaughtered, massacred. The sky became ever darker as it sank ever deeper into the void. She saw Joy, impaled by Lindworm but moving, running away. She wanted to stop, but Joy ran too fast, and that look, fear, complete and pure. Jenny ran faster, finally finding…Me. My torso had a massive hole in it. My organs missing and ribs broken, a clear view of my spine and inner body flesh. My head was smashed in, my crown mangled inside my own skull as my brain was quite literally hanging by the stem. Finally, Jenny fell to the ground. My weapons were tossed about, broken, all of them, but whole. At arm's length, she spotted Fair Game, taking the cards, crying to the sky, as the last bits of light, faded, and all became Void. I blinked. “Oh…” I said slowly. “That’s...going in the No Bin…” I muttered. "That bad then." Jericho said, leaned against a wall. Kexez was curled up in their own tail. “Everyone...killed in growingly savage ways…” I shivered. “Everything was falling into the Void...and there was nothing I could do about it…” "... We have to get this artifact, and the Mushroom 13 altogether." Kexez said. "We know one already at Hearts Absent Silhouette, so where, maybe even when, are the others?" “I don’t know....” I sighed out sadly. “Even when I had millions of clones going around the worlds I didn’t find anything about them…” "Then we have to make a deal with the Time Walkers. They are the only people who would know about their whereabouts." “I’ll send a Clone to contact them, hopefully they’ll listen and just give us actual answers.” I sighed out. "Hopefully." Jericho sighed. "Let's take a breather then… this was more than we expected." “Alright…” I sighed out. “And it’s only going to get worse.” I said sadly. I curled up with Kexez, who wrapped around me, almost in a means to constrict, but didn't go to tight. It was more like a whole body hug. Jericho went inside Kexez and we just napped like this. “Damn it…” I muttered to myself, wishing I could do more for my family even if I’m doing my absolute best. I wasn't getting much sleep. It felt like hours but I knew it wasn't really that long. Kexez, even though asleep was keeping their tail wrapped around me firmly. It was a nice, safe feeling, but my thoughts didn't let me enjoy it. I just tried to sleep, letting Kexez's embrace slowly lull me to sleep. Floor 11 We woke up finally after a day I think? I wasn't sure. Coco was a bit better, but still kind of down. The loot was standard. Money, weapons, items, women, men, the usual. The next floor was… unexpected… It's a giant theater… huh. “Okay so...the hell is going on in this place?” I questioned. "It's pretty." Coco said. She wasn't wrong. The design and architect of this place was amazing. "This place would easily get away with charging a few hundred for so for tickets." Kexez said. “Sounds about right.” I nodded. “Wonder who this place was made after?” "Well, we'll learn that soon." Jericho said. “Alright…” I nodded, trying to focus on what’s happening and not on my previous thoughts. Walking through the theater, the enemies here were all either instruments, Fire Works, or even hats and capes. Second Chance nor Love Struck seemed to work on them. So we just straight up destroyed them. Curious I used fire spell on the fireworks enemies and not all that surprising they blew up, in a really pretty manner. “Anyone got any guesses right now on who’s the boss?” I asked curiously. "...Trixie?" Kexez said. “Now that would be my first guess but I don’t know if there’s anyone else that’s ‘Theatre’.” I said honestly. We traveled through this massive place, finally finding the safe spot. It was like a snack store for...some reason. I mean, every kind of candy, sodas, tea, popcorn of all flavors, ice cream, and other and any kind of snack food to eat during an event was here… oddly though, not Void tainted, which was the weirdest part. "This is extra weird." Kexez said, munching on popcorn. “Well...this is something.” I said while already eating a crap ton of ice cream. "Here they are. It is Trixie." Jericho said, looking over the book. Trixie the Performing Fire. One of the original twenty to create the foundation of Kingdom Hearts. She tested her metal and made her mark by burning to the fire of a dying world's heart, reigning it for all time. “Well then...that’s a thing.” He said honestly. "Well… This will be interesting." Kexez said. "Ever since she lit that fire on top of her natural illusion magic Talent her skills in pyromancy and Merical based magics has gone through the fucking roof." “Alrighty then...this is going to be an absolute fucking nightmare…” I sighed out. "So, stock up on snacks and food then?" Coco asked, eating a Dalokohs Bar… wait isn't that a TF2 item? “Yes, yes we will.” I nodded. "Veg out!" Kexez said, promptly placing a sudden bed on the ground before eating more popcorn. “Are you sure we want to just Veg out?” I asked curiously. "To be fair we haven't eaten anything since coming here. We don't have to eat but a break just to pig out might help moral after… last floor." Jericho said, drinking a large cup of soda. “Listen, I’ve already eaten a shit ton of ice cream, you don’t need to remind me…” I sighed out sadly. “Besides, only me and Coco have seen Jenny’s memories...and it’s not pretty.” "Then eat more." Kexez said. "Besides, I have a small village in me, they do need food." “Besides the food that you’re constantly making for them.” I said honestly. “Also, your Living Magic at this point.” "Potato, patato." Kexez said, swallowing all the chips inside a rather huge bag of chips at once. “So we’re going to be here for a while…” I muttered while eating more food. "Looks like." Coco said, taking a seat on the bed Kexez was on, still eating that candy bar. “Alright.” I nodded while sitting down on the big bed and continuing to eat ice cream. We just ate, napped a bit and just were lazy for a while. Though part of me wondered… Kexez said they had a village in them, I know that they were likely just referring to all the people… but given what I read… did they already grow to Max size? Hard to tell with that special ability of theirs, stay the same size without growing more… wonder how I'll make use of it? “So many questions...so little answers…” I muttered to myself. I pondered a lot of things, mainly just how we could pull this Merical out of our asses. Hopefully those Time Walkers are not assholes. How does a time travel organization have a waiting room where it still takes forever to get your ticket called?! I huffed, since Tiara let me here I've been waiting to meet with someone. My number is forty seven, right now it was forty five… for the last hour!! “Seriously, whoever designed this ticket system deserves to get shot.” I frowned. “It’s been an hour what the fuck…” After ANOTHER hour, forty six was called. At this point I just watched movies online for the next four hours till I was finally called. I was taken into an office room. Here I was face to Face with the Time Walkers, well, one of them. “You know, for being Time Police, you suck at waiting times.” I said with a frown. “So anyways, I need your help.” "With?" They asked. I did not know the voice under the cloak. “I need help finding the other 12 Organization Mushroom members.” I said honestly. "For what reason would you need all 13?" “To get a winning chance against Void Mother.” I said simply. “Or do you want another Cycle falling to Void?” "Do you have proof of a temporal rest having taken place or future knowledge of this claim?" “Tomb of Heroes.” I said simply. "Proof WITH you." I rolled my eyes while pulling out Jenny’s Memory Card. “Right here, as well as many others.” I said while bringing out Joy’s and other people’s memories of Void Mother consuming their Cycles. Theyy examined them, wrote some things down on paper and send the letter and cards, into a mail tube. A few moments later a response. "The High council has approved your request." They said “Cool.” I nodded. “Why can’t shit be this fast in the waiting rooms?” "They will be delaying a Paladin Walker to aid you in retrieving the other Mushroom 13. Is there anything else you would like?" “How...how many times has Void Mother won?” I asked. “Belief, the first Belief, said that it restarts at the second Cycle every twenty or thirty Cycles...how many have happened?” "Currently, we have no idea. If we could get a sample of contained Void we might be able to get an age off of that, then get an estimate." “Sure.” I said while bringing up my Assistant and giving them a sample. “Prize pools are very nice in the Tomb.” They wrote something else down and sent it through the tube again. A few minutes or so later, a response. "Hm." They said, looking the paper over. “Anything special?” I asked curiously. "What would you call a number higher than the largest number we've ever named?" They asked. “Oh...that’s...that is not good.” I said nervously. "This will be interesting." Looking back, I saw another cloaked person at the door. "Hello there Ma'am, I am your Paladin for this mission." They said. “Nice to meet you.” I nodded. “But am I allowed to know who you are?” "Only if we see fit." They said. "Just call me Paladin, keep it simple and all." “Alright.” I nodded. “So, where to first?” I asked curiously. “I know where one of the thirteen are, and that’s on John’s world.” "Yes. Number four if I recall. Let's start from the bottom then. Let's head off to Number one." They said, summoning No Name and opening a portal… is that… sniffing the air, smelling Forrest… a large Forest from that portal. "Shall we?" “Huh...this is an interesting place.” I said while heading into the large forest. "New world, fourteen eighty four. Earth 77A5K." They said, exiting the portal as well. "Mushroom number one is somewhere is these woods that will someday become Georgia." “Huh, that’s cool.” I said honestly. “Didn’t think we were in Georgia...looks so different.” "That's America before settlers." They shrugged. "We should check for ponds and such." “Alright.” I nodded while sniffing the air, checking to see if I could smell anything of particular interest before just walking around aimlessly. I smelled a lot...and lots… and lots… of prey… "Wanna go nuts and hunt?" “I’m scared I’ll accidentally make things go extinct…” I said sheepishly. "Eh, this earth dies to nuclear war shortly after the cold war starts. Go nuts." “That’s still in like five hundred years or so...eh.” I said while shifting into my primal form and going nuts hunting Earth prey. Wild pigs are amazing. The deer here is Divine. Squirrels are tasty and- (Hi.) I heard… someone say? Looking around, I saw… it was a fox! (You're huge.) “Oh uh...hi.” I said to the fox. (You're new around here. You from the West or north?) “Um...who are you?” I asked curiously, trying to deflect the question. “And...are you actually talking?” (The others all call me Small, because I'm the runt. And I am talking. Just not like how you are.) “Right…” I said slowly. “Um...have you seen a weird cloaked Mushroom creature around here?” I asked curiously. They tilted their head. (The weird Mushroom person that torments the ducks?) “Torment’s the ducks?” I asked curiously. “What does it do?” (Chase them. Pet them, scare them. Sits on their eggs. It's weird. Doesn't talk either.) I imagined the mushroom doing all of those things and...just found it adorable. “That’s weirdly adorable. But where is it exactly?” I asked curiously. (Ten miles east of here. But we don't go there this time of year.) “Why is that?” I asked curiously. “Something wrong with that area this time of year?” (The bears hunt In The river we'll need to cross to get there. They don't like trespassers.) “I am physically bigger than anything here, do you really expect them to not piss themselves in fear?” I asked curiously. (Maybe? I dunno.) “Alright, so let’s go find out.” I said simply while heading off towards the lake. Running in feral form felt so good. Small had some issues keeping up. She was, of course small. We arrived at the river bears were dotted as far as ai could see. They all took a look at me and began roaring at me. I barked once, the force of the sound uplifted a few trees and for a moment cut a path through the water like MosesMoses. They all quickly ran for the hills. (Wow! Nothing ever scares those bares.) Small said. “They’ve never met a Dire Wolf before.” I said honestly. “So, this is the lake correct?” (We need to cross the lake to reach the pond that Mushroom is at.) They said, crossing the river. I followed and then we were off again. We arrived at a fairly large pond, water clear, ducks sat and swam at the top, and the Mushroom 1 was hugging a duck and sitting on a nest of eggs. (There they are.) “Okay why is that adorable?” I asked while gently taking a step forward. “Um...excuse me.” I gently called out to the Mushroom. They said nothing, not even moving aside from petting the duck. I sighed out. “Fine, I challenge you to your Game.” I declared to the Mushroom. … Nothing. What? Wait… are they seriously just waiting here until those eggs hatch?! “Okay so...let’s see if those eggs are even alive…” I muttered as I closed my eyes. “Life sense.” I muttered as I opened my eyes, my eyes glowing red to see if the eggs were still alive. They were indeed alive, and halfway to hatching. “Oh, just a little more time then…” I muttered while sitting down. “Just a little more time…” We were still just munching out on food, napping or watching movies. I was checking out my skill trees. There was even a branch for my fur! One did seem interesting though… Fluff Safety Speak the gentle whispers of a Den Mother, and make yourself, your pup's, or allies, world. Your allies will shrink and compared to you, you are planet sized, your own body mass acting as gravity keeping them on you no matter the speed or event you go through. That's definitely a thing. Though for some reason makes way too much sense? “Jesus, am I gonna be Capone from One Piece now?” I muttered, thinking about how my ability could basically make me a walking fortress just on that. I then thought about all the advantages that would have… add my mini universe bellies… huh… I can see this working out. There were others, most involved keeping others around me warm, able to at will grow my fluff outwards to act as a blanket for others, keeping us all warm in below zero temperature. Even branches for my hair's durability and resistances. “Good lord there is a lot...I’ll take everything.” I said as I gained as many as I could if they didn’t have any restrictions. “It’s fun to have so many skill points because you’ve been unknowingly crippling yourself.” I said simply. My fluff immediately became so soft, longer. I also wanted to test out that mini Fluf Safety ability. Jericho went into my fluff. Some time passed. I could not see them, or even feel them. After a while Jericho popped out of my fluff. "Okay, A, that place is cozy. B, I made a single follicle a pretty nice house, and C… how do you not have any dandruff? I looked from head to toes and yes I passed over your stuff while there. Was… odd but eh." “Listen, the better question is how we still have any form of soap left given how much I’m forced to use because of all my fur and because I’m a woman.” I sighed out. “Still bullshit that I have to use three more soaps just to make sure I don’t chaff.” Jericho shrugged. "Also, I made a milk bar in one of your tits." "Talk about fresh from the tap." Kexez said, chuckling. Coco chuckled at that also. “Cause of course you did…” I sighed out. "At some point, someone was going to." Jericho said with a laugh. "Looks like your Den Mother and now Floof Noodle/Mama Noodle mixed Abilities gave you moldable flesh like Kexez's insides." "Cool." Kexez said. "So, how much longer should we goof around?" “Probably not longer than this cause we need to get going.” I said honestly. "Fair enough." Coco said. We grabbed some stuff for the road, then headed out. Finding this boss room was… a bitch. We've been looking for HOURS!! and nothing! "I feel like we're missing something obvious." Jericho thought aloud. I facepalmed. “Either one of two obvious things are needed...an announcer...or a ticket.” I sighed out. “And it’s probably the ticket…” "So where do we buy them?" Coco asked. “Maybe the ticket booth we’ve been passing for the past few hours.” I said while pointing to the ticket booth that had a Void Creature that looked actually upset like how could we have missed it. "How did we miss that?" Kexez asked. “Because we probably thought it was just the aesthetic of the floor?” I pointed out while walking over. “Four tickets please…” "Rieicjfduwofhcdkdud" It… said? "Hmm. May I?" Kexez asked. “Sure.” I nodded while stepping aside. Kexez slithered up to the place, placed an arm on the small tray… then jabbed Love Struck through the glass, into the void creature, and… wow. Wow… wow! It's like a sexy cat, bat lady. "Four tickets love~" They chuckled, handing Kexez the tickets then jumping into their arms. “Right…” I said slowly. “But...hot damn.” I said before taking the four tickets from Kexez who was holding the hot cat bat lady. They began to swallow them, placing them away with the others. "Well, she's hot." "Very." Coco nodded. “Alright, so we got the tickets…” I said as I noticed the tickets floating out of my hand and glowing. “And now...the proper fight might happen…” There was a quick flash, suddenly we were on a massive stage, the coffin in the middle. The lid blew open, and out came Trixie, Void corrupted, her chest had a black heart image over it… and she had X, black strings flowing from it as suddenly, at the end of each string appeared puppet versions of us all. "Well… creepy." Jericho said. “Right so...that’s a thing…” I said nervously. “Um…” I sent an undead towards her to see how bad it might be. The puppets of us slaughtered the Undead, now the puppet me had strings from them come out as a puppet version of the Nobody was now there. "I don't remember Trixie using puppets?" Kexez said. "I have a strong feeling that this is a multi staged fight…" “I mean, if we don’t just jump past the puppets and smack her hard.” I said honestly. "Something tells me that won't work." Coco said. “Then we aren’t trying hard enough then.” I said simply as I grabbed Skysplitter and Lunatic. My puppet did the same. We charged at one another, the clash sent out a whirlwind of air and energy. The others all did the same. This puppet… They were matching my hits and moves completely. It was the same issue for the others. I immediately pulled out Sharpshooters and tried to fire a bolt at one of the other puppets. “Let’s see if that works…” I muttered. The Kexez puppet took the hits… "Gah!" Kexez wheezed. The puppets wounds appearing on their body. "Okay… Don't do that again…" Kexez huffed, casting cure as well as the puppet imitating them. I frowned at that. “Hmm…” I muttered as I took a step back, trying to see how ‘close’ they copied our movements. When the puppet took a step back, I decided to reach around and act like I was cutting strings...and the thing proceeded to cut it’s own strings. “God damn it…” I sighed out. “Guys, just cut behind yourselves.” I said while making my puppet counterpart fall over unable to move. The others did so, then, the Puppets began to radiate Void, suddenly changing, looking like clown face paint, colorful suit and I variations of us. Each one had a wide ear to ear smile. "... Creepy but I love that suit the other me is in." Kexez said. “Um...right…” I said slowly. “The fuck…” The lights suddenly blacked out, a spotlight in the distton our doppelgangers, each in unison looked up and raised a hand. "Welcome to our home, how do you do?" they… sang… and in good rhythm too. "We up here were made to kill you, and that's exactly what we shall do." They each brought up pure black versions of our weapons. They rushed us, the me here clashed with Me, they had a pure black copy of No Heart, clashing with mine. "How is your stay my kind reflection? Have you felt pure deviation?" The copy me asked… sang. “And this is just getting even creepier…” I frowned as I pushed them back. “God I hate clowns…” "Oh how cruel, you don't like me. But then again look who is speaking, after all I was made be me. Be us. I know everything you hate about me. About us, two of a kind." they sang, kicking me square in the gut a few feet back. “Yeah yeah, same thing I’ve heard.” I rolled my eyes as I brought out Sharpshooter and fired two bolts, both of them going into a portal and appearing right at their knees to cripple them. In a swift twirl, they somehow dodged/dance avoided them. "Oh how sad, the crown you wear and what you rule. Hollow shells devoid of feeling, still fitting since your heart lacks any beating." They sang, rushing in a quick motion to clash with Sharpshooters. "Let's be clear, your crown, your gear it was never yours. Given to you by an old man, just so you can run off playing pretend." I immediately grabbed the puppets head as I switched into my Heir Valor form, Eternal Flames at my ankles, Sharpshooters floating above my shoulders, and Red Nothingness Thorns flowing around my cloak. “And I’ve had about enough of this so~.” I trailed off as I slammed their head into the ground so hard it caused a three ring crater. “Fucking puppets…” I growled as I stomped on the puppets chest as Eternal Flames revved up and spun like mad into it’s chest. They flowed, to my surprise as I was blasted off of them. Looking back, they were in their own version of my form. "Oh please, how sad, you forgot again. I was made to kill you, I know everything about you, about we, two of a kind. I know everything about you, down to your lack of retorts." They said, clashing with me again. I frowned. “I’m bored.” I countered as I pushed back again. “Your supposed to be entertainers right? Then why am I not entertained?” I asked simply, hoping my taunt will work against Trixie who was most likely controlling these fuckers. "Oh how sad, your skill with words lacks any nerves. If only you equal sharp Wit, or your confident fragile egotist." we clashed again, she was good. All my moves so far she's either thrown back at me or dodged. And that smile… it hasn't left their face. “So why are you happy?” I asked simply. "Because unlike you, I have my identity, as temporary as that may be." They replied, sending out several slashes at me of Void Thorns. “No...you actually don’t.” I said simply while blocking the Thorns. “You’re entire thing is about ‘we’, you are me, and yet you say you have an identity? That’s kind of hypocritical when you think about it.” I said simply. “So, what are you besides a puppet pretending to be me?” "I am you and I am me and I am her. I am everybody that I need to be, for the stage of my Lady Trixie." A Void corrupted Mega Flare was sent rapidly at me. “Cool.” I said while using Eternal Flames to redirect the Mega Flare...straight into the stage where Trixie was. “Yeah...maybe giving a fire attack wasn’t a good idea…” I muttered to myself remembering Trixie gave herself to a Worlds Fire. … It phased through her?! "Oh my, how sad, look like you know little about your own comrade." They sang, the Trixie above fading as several dozen more appeared all around the upper stage. That really didn’t stop the Mega Flare from blowing up and destroying the stage. “Uh...yeah cool...illusions...I’m just gonna…” I brought out Book of Retribution. “Greater Dispel.” I said as I cast a spell over the entire area. The lights were gone, the stage was in ruins… and I did not see Trixie anywhere. The other me clapped. "Bravo, Bravo use that brain of yours, but Trixie still has a trick up her sleeve." Her copy of No Heart shifted… into Trixie's X-Blade form. It was tainted black, chipped and cracked, so… broken, barely holding together. The copy of lifted it up, it's glow faint but still so strong as suddenly, the copies of the others all shifted into grotesque, almost Heartless versions of them, and so did mine. “Oh...that’s nice…” I said as I took out Second Chance. “I’m not sure if this’ll work...but let’s hope.” I said before dashing forward and swinging down at my puppet copy. They used Trixie to block… it did nothing to her in that X-Blade form. Why though? The Heartless looking me then began hacking at me with blinding speed, the others copies doing the same as we tried to figure out a plan. “Anybody got anything?” I called out to the other three, blocking and dodging the attacks I could. “Just double checking before I do a thing.” "Not sure." Coco said. "Kinda blank." Jericho said. "Second Chance won't work on Trixie while in that form." Kexez said. "We have to force her out into her living form." “Sounds about right.” I said as I jumped back. “Alright fucker, come at me.” I taunted them, already coming up with an idea on how to force her back. "If we can get a direct hit on their keychain, they'll revert to living form." Kexez said, shooting off Mega Flares. “That is also true.” I said simply as I fired Sharpshooters at the Keychain. The copies blocked, using their own speed buffs to keep themselves attacking while the copy me kept a distance to protect Trixie. “I’ve got an idea, I just need to get close to my copy.” I said to Jericho, Kexez and Coco quietly enough that only they could hear me. They nodded, and began executing the plan. The Clones matched their movements as per usual, deflecting and blocking as they knew we were going after Trixie, and as I dashed in between the clashing groups I swung with No Heart, my Clone blocking swiftly. ”Direct approach won’t-” They started, before slowly looking down, noticing that their weapon was gone. “Funny thing really.” I said while taking a step back and showing Trixie’s Keyblade form was in a Fair Game Card. “I actually figured out that Card Trick from Trixie, basic Sleight of Hand and Misdirection.” I said as I flipped the card to show it’s back, only to flip it around and show Trixie in her Anthro Form. “And now.” I started as I let go off the cage, Trixie plopping down on the ground as she tried to shift into a Keyblade again, only for me to stab her in the chest with Second Chance before she could. “Yeah, I don’t think so.” I said bluntly. She was covered in light, and soon she was a baby. Quickly Kexez and I scooped her up, cooing her gently to sleep as he placed her away… then we heard the clapping. The other copies were dissolving… all but mine. "What a show, what a dance, you four had us on the fence. But this display is far from over now, take a trip, take a dive, see the horror in your eyes, as you watch as everyone...dies." With that, they faded. “Um...that wasn’t ominous at all…” I muttered. “But...alrighty then…” As we went to check the loot box, Jericho backed up from it. Kexez peered in, then did the same, the shared look of trauma on their faces. “Well I’ve already seen it once, it won’t matter before.” I said while looking into the loot box. I wasn't expecting that, this… bodies… all of the others… “But...why though?” I asked in confusion. “This isn’t a prize at all…the fuck?” "Trixie." Kexez started. "Her powers over pyromancy are based on the world she burned for, it's fire keeps the dead alive… she must have tried to bring them back…" "And failed…" Jericho added. “So...why is the prize box filled with burnt corpses?” I asked simply. "...A Second Chance…" Coco said. "I'm not sure if it can work on corpses...but let's try." I said while stabbing one of the burnt corpses with Second Chance. I saw as Nothingness flowed into them, the thorns and silver/grey energies merging over the flesh as I could FEEL the void around us trembling a bit, Nothingness fluctuating haphazardly until the corpse was completely engulfed by Nothingness, glowing brightly as the glow fell apart in almost bandage like Nothingness thorns. Soon, before us stood… Rarity… my Rarity but… she was missing her heart, she was a Nobody, I felt that presence strong from her. They didn't speak, hardly moved, blinked slowly. "Holy shit…" Jericho said. “R-Rarity?” I asked in shock. “B-but...how?” "So much to learn." Just then, the first Belief flowed out of me again. Kneeled next to Rarity. "I told you, in its infancy, Nothingness was just an energy that kept a body alive without the use of Necromancy. Reviving a corpse is a trivial matter. In the end most people could argue that Nobodies are the living dead, but we all know they are far more than that. The strong lucky few like Rarity here, Kexez and others can reforge their lost parts, or still, reclaim them. As time went on, I learned the soul played a vital part in Nothingness's power. The soul, after all, is eternal, link that to the physical body, and Nobody, is born. Nothingness stores the souls, makes them. Hers was one of, so, so many just like her. Are her. But her heart, gone. Trixie was and typically is always the sole survivor. Only Heart can create a new heart immediately. Recover lost memories. A step closer to reviving the dead, but what will you choose next Ben? Let her become a new person, or recover who she was, and all the pain that comes with it?" “She deserves a second chance...unbound by her past and any horrid memories she would remember…” I sighed out. They nodded. "Then by all means, let her fall in love again, or, raise her?" He said, tapping Second Chance, then leaving. “Alrighty then…” I said as I hit Rarity with Second Chance again. I felt the Nothingness from her fade, a heart filling her chest once again as she was soon reverted to infancy. Even as a baby she has some style about her. “One daughter down...the rest to go…” I muttered while starting to bring back all the others. As I was doing this, Kexez placing them safely away, I got an alert on my Assistant. Weapon: Second Chance Upgrade Tree Unlocked. “Huh...that’s interesting.” I said while pulling up my Skill Tree and looking at Second Chance’s Skill Tree. There was only one skill available. Pained Sorrow. In the event the reborn child is in a situation of extreme pain or trauma, they shall be guarded. “I mean…” I said while taking the skill. “Why wouldn’t I take it?” Though… what does it do exactly then? It's pretty vague. As the final last of them was saved and reborn, it's taken a solid week… I think. Lost track of the days. We got them all out… my parents were there too. Mom, Dad, Den… it hurt. This was everyone who did not end up here and it was literally all of them…All but the hundred who ended up here… "I feel like a living womb at this rate." Kexez said, massaging their throat. “You’re insides are probably the size of a planet.” I said honestly. "So glad I maxed them out and altered the feeding belly." They sighed. "Wait you what?" Jericho asked. "Once I Max out my insides I can alter how they are. I did so with the feeding belly cause I didn't want the little ones to accidentally hurt each other." “I understand.” I nodded. “But are you having trouble with it?” "No. Once I've altered it, it's fine. I did a weird take on how the changeling cocoon works though." "... I'm scared to ask, but how?" Coco asked. "First, after maxing my insides out, I am able to have a version of myself in there, kinda neat, second, I make a cozy little pouch, like kangaroos, place them in there, it seals up, a tendril acts as an umbilical cord, attaches to the baby, feeds and does what a baby in the womb would get with an umbilical cord, pouch fills with breathable liquid I make that keeps their skin healthy, and muscles from atrophying. It also puts them to sleep but mentally has them dream of things to keep happy. Like baby tv but in their heads." “So basically you made another womb...neat.” I said honestly. "Yes and no. Giving birth the first time is actually a traumatizing experience for infants and the cord had to be cut, mine pops right off and they come out rested, happy and with even softer skin, and fur, or scales, depending, than when they were first born." “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “That sounds nice.” "Want try it~" She cooed, tracing the tip of her tail from my ass to my ear. "It'll be relaxing~" “I’m good.” I said simply while pushing her tail away. "Boo." Kexez pouted. Under all of the former dead bodies of loved ones, was more loot. Actually loot. Mostly money, some gemstones and even a few enchanted books and card games… including Jumanji. “Well that’s interesting.” I said honestly. “Didn’t think we’d get Jumanji.” "Not playing." Kexez said. "Knowing us we'd walk out with the GAME itself as a wife…" "Or break it." Jericho added. "How much money have you gotten so far from all this?" Coco asked me. “Too much.” I said honestly. “And I have too much money as is…” "Inflation!" Kexez laughed. “Not really.” I shrugged. Floor 12 This floor is so Twilight… Books… Everywhere… “If this isn’t Twilight I’ll be surprised.” I said honestly. "Gonna take every book?" Jericho asked, seeing that you could pick up each and every book here. “What?” I asked while I had two clones already taking every book that wasn’t locked off. “Sorry, I was having some clones take every book.” "That's a meme." Kexez laughed. The enemies here were varied. Some looked out of fantasy novels, or rather, real life at this point, and other historical figures. I was about to- BANG!!! My ears!! The loudest gunshot rang out from behind. We all turned to see Kexez… shooting Hitler… with the largest rifle I have ever seen…”The fuck!?” I shouted as I cast a healing spell on my poor ears. "What?" Kexez asked, shooting the already destroyed corpse of an enemies Hitler. "Tell me this is not on your bucket list?" “No, why would I?” I asked honestly. “Also, why did you need to damn near blow my ears out?” "Gun. Shot Hitler. Guns are loud." They said simply, resting the massive weapon across their shoulder and moving along. "A gun isn't that fucking loud." I frowned. "Have you ever even shot a real gun before?" Kexez asked. "Not counting Sharpshooter, those are more like energy crossbows than a gun." "Yes, I have. Guns aren't that loud." I frowned. "Then you've never shot a real gun." Kexez says cheekily as we went along. As I was taking books I glanced at the titles. Most were either biography on people I didn't know or science and magic theory books. There was fictional books but they were either historical fiction paranormal stuff. Mostly just the same old same old. Then, I found this. 'War, the first Psychopath, by: The Catalogue' "Bullshit, Cain was the First." I frowned as I started to read the book. The first cycle was the birth of many things. Existence, Admins, Mortal life, Death. The first many things were created within this bygone age. But War, the Admin, was by far, the most influential. Before they were the Admin of War, they were known as Alcress, the Admin of Blacksmithing. They forged weapons to hunt, to defend, a noble effort. A noble life. His downfall began in the middle of the six thousandth year of creations existence as a whole, when the Admin of Beauty caught his eye. How could she not, after all. Her heart, however, belonged to another. Enraged, he took his masterpiece, the first battleaxe, and ended her and her lovers lives. This act was the first murder by another sentient being Creation had ever seen. Alcress laughed over their bodies, taking them and all their spilled blood back to his forge. His rival in romance was made fuel for his forge, and his love, melted down into his axe, and to ensure he could never feel regret for his actions, carved out his still beating, bleeding heart, creating Carknox, the Blood Axe of War. "So basically what happened with Hephaestus only without him being chucked off of Mount Olympus." I said with a frown. "Simple enough I suppose…" Unpowered by the spilled blood of his newfound axe, Alcress gained power by flowing the blood of his axe into the flesh of mortals, empowering them by the blood, and twisting their minds to share his. They felt pain when the living were near, and felt sweet release from it once they were slaughtered. Alcress became the Admin of war, the first Psychopath, and for sixty seven million years, waged an unending war within his Dominion. Then, a being born of mortals raised to power, confronted Alcress on the battleground, and slaughtered them with their own axe, their own bastard child, Jericho. "I'm pretty sure you didn't know Alcress as your old man right Jericho?" I asked curiously. "I did, doesn't mean I saw him as it. He never was." Jerichos said, summoning a large chrome rusted battle axe. "And it's not like anyone is missing the old jackass." "True...so why the shit is your old man's back story basically 'Hephaestus if he didn't get thrown off of Mount Olympus'?" "Every story has its origin." Jericho said. We kept on moving, finding the safe room here and yup, it was Twilight… Hearts Twilight. Twilight the Librarian. No amount of knowledge could have prepared her for this tomb, the war before, or the horrors of the Void. Weapon: Lexicon - Magica Alce Gu. "Alrighty then…" I said. "That's worrying…" "So, what's the plan?" Jericho asked. "Well...not sure if we can cause her to freak out on something…" I said with some thought. "They have their skills, but most likely everything about their personalities is gone." Coco said. "Well we'll find out soon enough." I said honestly. "Her spell based abilities likely make her weaker on defense, unless she casts buffs." Jericho said. "Meaning we'll have small windows to deal in the damage needed to use Second Chance. If she is using a Lexicon over her Keyblade then she'll have unlimited Mana usage, but still have to recast them, assuming she didn't somehow obtain the Infinity ability." "Cause of course that exists…" I sighed out. "I know that ability. Merlin of the Seven Deadly Sins has it. Once she casts a spell, no matter the Mana requirements or cost it's activated for as long as she desires and can only be canceled by her when, or if she wants." Kexez said. "Meliodas says it's her most powerful ability." “Twilight has it...I hate you both.” I frowned. “You just had to remind me of that show...and world...I also forget that Meliodous is apart of us...god I forget a lot sometimes…” I grumbled. "Man up. The is a counter to these kinds of buffs and protection magic. Hexes." Jericho said. "Those are a double edged sword though." Jericho said. "A very risk, reward usage. If we're going with a glass cannon strategy, then we'll have to make sure we end it before we break." “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “Hopefully she’s not immune to hexes…” "There will likely be some resistance but nothing we can't power through." Kexez said. "Ben, does your Lexicon hold any Hexes?" “The better question is, what doesn’t it hold?” I asked while bringing out my Lexicon. “Ever since I upgraded it to hell it’s just like ‘oh hey, I have every spell ever’.” ”Your damn right.” My Lexicon agreed in joy. "Then let's pick some hard hitters with the minimal recoils." Coco said. “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “Let’s get this started.” We quickly studied up on some of the safer but effective hexes, then began to head off. “God this is gonna be a nightmare…” I muttered while readying myself to fight against Twilight. “You ever meet Heart’s Twilight?” Kexez asked. “I believe so...but there’s so many people I’ve met it’s hard to sort through.” I said honestly. “She was one of the first Heart met after arriving, kinda like you.” Kexez said. “Keyblades fascinated her, she’s largely responsible for reviving lost keyblade knowledge and improving upon all that was revived when The Crystal Empire turned out to be Daybreak Town.” “Sounds about right.” I nodded. “Only Twilight.” I chuckled. “Heh. So, how is your Twilight? Same, different? Has a numbers fetish?” “She’s still Twilight through and through, but…sadly yes, she made me think Numbers were sexy for some reason...even though she was dressed as a sexy teacher...god that was so long ago…” Kexez chuckled. “Hearts would have them solve math problems to see who was smarter. Finding out she was only five points shy from Heart’s score kinda, surprisingly, turned her on. She was never outsmarted before so it was new, and gave Celestia a gut busting laugh.” “Why am I not surprised.” I chuckled. “What about your Celestia? She and Heart were especially close.” “She first started out saying ‘I only like women’ for a good year or so. Then after she was...kind of forced to get pregnant with my kids, she finally opened up that she was scared her immortality was going to ruin any relationships that wasn’t with Chrysalis, given that she’s also immortal...but then I stepped in, and she has been so much happier as far as I’ve noticed.” “That’s nice. Hearts was pretty straight forward with what she wanted, a caring male, and a large family. And an excuse to gain weight, which he didn’t mind, made her a softer bed and improved some assets. Pretty sure she used magic for that though.” Kexez chuckled. “And yet he thought it was weird I had the exact same fetish.” I frowned. “But anyways...why bring up the wives?” “Curious. It will be the first time I actually meet them when we are done here… and given what they know about me, I’ll need to make a really good impression on them. I have all of Hearts Memories of them, but I want them to know me, the me I am now, and to make my own memories.” “Well,” I said while putting a hand on their shoulder. “Have fun with that.” I said simply. “I’m sure they’ll care still.” “Hopefully. I mean, they loved Charlie just as much even after Heart came back, in Trixie’s body granted but, still. Speaking of, I wonder how we’ll bring them back?” “We’re not.” I said. “Not everyone needs to be brought back...he died on his own terms protecting everyone, bringing him back wouldn’t be a good idea.” “Eh. Time will tell, though, would it really be that bad?” I just shook my head. “Never mind…” I muttered while moving forward. “To be fair, aren’t we going to use that Mothers Womb items for basically the same reason?” Coco asked. “She has a point, prior versions of us, from all kinds of cycles. Might as well bring them all back, hell I’m here to bring back someone I care about.” Jericho said. “And that’s fine.” I said honestly. “And we’re doing this to stop this war from killing everyone...but what’s the point of dying when it means literally nothing now?” “So, Dragon Ball?” Kexez asked. “There were limits to that.” I countered. “That were ignored since there was like, two diffrent kinds of Dragon balls?”Coco asked, earning a look from everyone. “What? Nexus, Multiverse TV shows. Never short on cartoons.” “I’m sorry for bringing this up...I know that bringing people back is going to help us end this war...but I’m just thinking about after everything ya know?” “Would you rather everyone be dead?” Jericho asked, we reached the boss room doors… Twilight. “They won’t be back forever Ben, they will end up dying again… hopefully… old, in a bed, with family.” “That’s what I’m more hoping for instead of it meaning literally nothing…” I muttered as I pushed open the doors. As we entered, the doors closed behind us, the large coffin blasted open, Twilight floating out, in her Keyblade armor as she pulled out her Lexicon, casting protection and buffs as various tracking spells and attack spells began to activate immediately. “Time to use those hexes.” Kexez said. “Alright.” I said while bringing out my Lexicon as it fluttered up, my Staff appearing in my hand as I raised it high and chanted all the Hex spells that were safe enough against Twilight quickly. Her defenses were broken with them, Jericho countering her attack spells as Coco and Kexez started sniping her with Sharpshooters and Lindworm. “This is a little too simple…” I muttered worriedly as I kept up my Hex spells just so she wouldn’t rebuff herself suddenly. As we were dealing some damage, Twilight cast a summoning Spell, ghostly versions of the Four Horsemen appeared, charging at us. “Right then.” I said while casting my own summon spell and sending out my own version of the Four Horsemen to meet them. “Gonna need to rest after this…” I muttered while trying my best to support the others. As the Hexes, spells and Horsemen were all fighting, countering and going off, Twilight summoned again. I was ready to copy the summon, until they saw who it was. Adorned in a silver cloak, and holding a replica of my own Lexicon, was Twilight… my Twilight. The two now spellcasting, giving them an advantage. “Oh...well fuck.” I started. “That’s...not good.” "Shit, what now?" Jericho asked, deflecting a fire spell from themselves. "I have an idea." Coco said. "Ben, your Lexicon should be able to Eat their magic if it's void corrupted, that will give us our opening." “Alright.” I said while closing my Lexicon. “Alright buddy, have fun.” I said as I tossed my Lexicon into the air, the book glowing as it opened, it’s pages flying out and forming into a goddamn Managorger Hydra. ”Om nom nom motherfucker’s!” Book of Retribution shouted as it started to bite down on the magic the Twilight’s were producing and ripping it apart and devouring it. “Well then…” I said. “Didn’t think you’d turn into that of all things…” I said nervously, remembering that this specific race of Hydra’s were specifically made to devour mana and get stronger because of it. Using this chance, everyone managed to get strikes in, Coco managing to actually save Ben's Twilight that Hearts summoned. This though, caused Heart's Twilight to retaliate, summoning her Keyblade and starting to attack directly. "We gotta break her armor." Kexez said, having rapidly put the other Twilight away fast. “And how are we going to do that?” I asked curiously. “I don’t know how strong her armor is…” "Then we rip her helmet off." Jericho said. “Fine fine.” I said while shooting at Twilight with Sharpshooters to try and distract her. “Let’s hope she doesn’t have something else up her sleeve…” She was good at deflecting them, even activated Ghost Drive, so hitting her was not easy. “Oh boy, Styles…” I grumbled. “This is gonna be a bitch.” "Well, if you can't hit em," Kexez started, Ghost Drive activating for them. "Mimic them." “I haven’t really used Style’s…” I said honestly. “Little weird all things considered.” “Surprising.” Kexez said, managing to land a hit on Twilight as they warped away. “Here.” Kexez said, handing me a Donald Fizz Ice Cream. "Oh yeah, Ice Cream gives instant Style gaugeDrives…" I muttered as I ate the ice cream quickly. Ghost drive activated immediately, and it was a rush. Moving I was teleporting when I was trying to dodge or rush in for an attack, and this gave us an even playing field with Twilight as we were able to each land hits on her. Her gauge would either activate it’s final attack or run out sooner than ours. "Just a little more…" I muttered while noticing her armors health bar was getting dangerously low Finally, I gave one last teleport, appearing behind her and striking her head with Second Chance. Her helmet broke as the keyblade made contact with her head, and she began to revert. Soon she was a baby also. I hugged her gently as the fight was now over and Ghost Drive deactivated for us all. “It’s alright my child.” I said gently. “I’m here for you.” With a smile and a sigh, Kexez places her away, and we began looking through the loot. Money and items here were normal, but I did see a Pokemon Egg! Daw, cute… it feels cold… "Why did you put the egg between your boobs?" Jericho asked “Because the egg is cold, and my chest fluff is warm and soft.” I huffed. “So don’t judge me.” "You are now the first ever nine breasted Den Mother." Coco said with a chuckle. "That aside, how long will it take to hatch?" “No idea.” I said honestly. “But I know it’ll hatch soon.” I said gently. "Can you even fight with that precious cargo?" Kexez asked. "The ones I'm carrying are protected by every defense spell I know and my newfound natural scales as an added bonus. But that egg is right between your top knockers love, sure it will be okay?" “Did you forget that I literally just got an ability that lets my fur be its own fortress?” I asked, which when the three looked again the egg wasn’t there. "Well, alright. Wonder what kind of Pokemon it will be?" "No idea." I said honestly. "But I'm sure it'll be special." Floor 13 This place straight up terrified me. It was a Forest, clearly, but was making every instinct of mine scream of danger. It was pitch black here, and reeked of decay and...and… something familiar? "Again with something familiar…" I grumbled. "What's so familiar about it?" Kexez asked as we made our way through the Forest floor. Soon we came across the first enemies… wolves. All kinds, all but Void Wolves, looking like… mom's homeworld...before I... “Mother fucker...I know why this place is familiar…” I sighed out. “I think I know who the boss is...and it’s not going to be fun.” I groaned. “We’re on the Dire Wolf Home World...only before I cured it of it’s corruption…” "So who's the boss then?" Jericho, everyone using Second Chance on all of them. “I have two guesses...either Den...or the greatest Dire Wolf hunter in history.” I said honestly. “I’m pretty sure it’s either of those two all things considered…” "One way to find out." Kexez said, swallowing the new batch of tiny dire wolf pups into her safe insides. There's a lot of phrases I would have never even imagined saying before. As we continued on, finding loot, more various wolves, we also found Foxes, Coyotes, even Hyenas and Lions, Tigers, even some I have never seen before… so more than just wolves. Who is this? “Okay so...maybe I’m wrong but...why are we on the Dire Wolf Homeworld then?” I questioned, finding this really weird. "Well… the Dire wolf home world is basically a world filled with prey to hunt right?" Jericho asked, typing on their Assistant. “Yes…” I said slowly. “Why do you say that?” "Cause, according to this there are near countless other planets fitting that criteria for all forms of feral life forms and other Predator based life, even some for prey based and hybrid. Across all reflections and realms. Look, here." He said, showing a planet with a healthy mix between nature and modern cities. "This is called Kalstro. It's homeworld of Floof Noodles… but we both know they didn't actually exist until Hearts change after you knocked Ophelia up, I can't say that and understand it even with context." Jericho sighed. "Anyway, this Floof Noodle Homeworld has been here for as long as the others, how?" "An Admin." Coco said. “A Floof Noodle Admin...that has been here before...so we’re going to be facing that fucker…” I sighed out. “Good to know.” "Not just a Floof Noodle Admin. Wolf Admin, Tiger Admin… I think this is the Admin of Life." "The Admin of Life? Even in the war, she was a rumor." Coco said. "Nexus looked for her or signs of her constantly, but never found a single trace of evidence aside from rumors." “Oh boy, this is gonna be fun…” I sighed out. “How do we stop Life itself in a fight?” I said honestly. "Well, if the stories are true the Admin of Life was, is, different from normal Admins." Jericho started. "When the first Admin of war, killed, therefore created, the Admin of Death, there first had to be life in order for her to die. They say in the moment of impact, the Admin of Life was born, it is said she herself can not die, but like the Phoenix can only ever be reborn." “Alrighty then…” I said honestly. “Can’t wait to see who they are.” "Think it's someone we know?" Coco asked. “I doubt it but...I wouldn’t be surprised if we do know her for some reason.” I said honestly. As we explored, finding more and more creatures I spotted the safe room hiding behind a thick wall of vine plants. In here, it felt like home. It felt safe, and oh yes the meat plant! Oh and also that book. “Alright, so let’s see who this mystery person is…” I muttered while heading to the book and opening it up. There was one line. Admin of Life "Well that was the best anti climax ever…" Kexez said, swallowing meat whole off that plant. Cool, it grows back immediately! I frowned while double and triple checking in any other way that might reveal anything hidden on the pages. Nothing. No hidden ink no spell for unblocking something hidden, no nothing. Just a single line in this whole book… this book… what if… I took out my library card, and used to make a checkout/return window, where the Admin of Books herself greeted me. "Hey Ben, what's up?" “I need some help, I know for a fact this book has something else, but it won’t give it up.” I said while handing it to her. “All it says is ‘Admin of Life’ and I can’t figure out why it doesn’t say anything else.” She looked at the book, flipping through it. "Ah. I see. Yes, it does have something else, but it's under a genetic code lock. Only a child of the admin of life can unlock the rest of the story here. And no, you don't count. It has to be a direct child she conceived and birthed." “And...who would that be?” I asked nervously. "No idea. After the Admin war I hid away in the library, wasn't able to make family trees." “Even though your library grabs every book in existence?” I asked honestly. "Hmm… I might be able to make something. Give me a moment." She said, leaving the window real quick. “Well...let’s hope this works.” I muttered. She came back, a new book in hand. "Okay, so using the most advanced genealogy spell backwards and a shit ton of paradox spells and simulation spells, this book should have every admin that has ever existed and their children. Ready?" “Alright, I’m ready.” I said honestly. She opened the book. Inside was countless names. Even Mine, Eclipsa and Hearts were here. We found the name that just said Admin of Life, clicking on it showed an image of the admin of life… she's so hot… inappropriate thought but it's true. As well as… All of our blood ran cold, seeing her 'husband' … Vincent. “Impossible…” I frowned. “Just...no, what the fuck?” "How can that even be?" Kexez said. "Look at their kids…" Jericho said. The names Cript repeated over, and over again… "All the Cripts… were conceived by her, but birthed by others…" “So basically...Vincent kidnapped and...systematically raped her to bring all these Cript’s into the world?” I asked slowly. "The question is… where is she now?" Coco asked. “Well if we look at Vincent’s history we’d know.” I said honestly. “Cause only he’d know at this point…” "In that case, he'd keep her close at all times." Kexez said. "Growing up, I never once in the news or announcements saw Vincent accompanied by any woman." Coco said. "Not even guards, never needed them. Maybe Krott knows something?" So I decided to call up Krott. “Hopefully he’s not busy at the moment…” "Yes Ben?" Krott picked up fast. “Hey Krott, so about how Vincent has probably been systemically raping the Admin of Life, do you know where she is?” I asked curiously. "The Admin of what? Okay, back up and explain." “The Admin of Life. We’re about to fight her in this Dungeon and we were just told that her ‘Husband’ is Vincent...some fucking how.” "Husband… I know one woman Vincent dated, Cript's mother Madaline. She was a sweetheart, the other side of Vincent, who we all know is pure evil. How they ever found love was always beyond me. Married and dated in secret. Never saw Vincent smile genuinely until she came along." “So the bastard was actually happy to have someone in his life that he wasn’t using and abusing? Well I’ll be damned.” I joked. "Yeah, but that all ended after Cript was born. She fled with him, hiding him with those monks that raised him. When Vincent found her he killed her for the betrayal, though she knew more of what Vincent was planning than I did. So she must have known what he wanted Cript for." “Alright…” I said. “But uh...it says she’s still alive, and from the rumors it says she’s basically a Phoenix so...what the fuck?” "I don't know. Another mystery for the ages huh?" “Wonderful.” I sighed out. “But then how does Vincent know who she is after she dies repeatedly? Cause it says here that each Cript was conceived by her but were born by different women.” "Huh...well, if it's reincarnation maybe she jumps from baby to baby, reborn as a different person each time. Course Don't know how that could work, Zeke, or Heart rather, was born from her sister." I blinked. “Wait...she has a sister?” I asked. "Yeah, twin. Same name as her. Only thing that was different from the two was that Zeke's mom had her genes altered to have blond hair over the brown she was born with. She was a scientist on the Cript projects. Come to think of it, she was selected for the Cript project as a birthing mother not long after Madaline was pregnant with Cript." “That’s...rather concerning…” I said. “But...oddly convenient.” "How so?" "The supposed Admin of Life happened to have an identical sister, as well as making a Cript as well?" I asked honestly. "Don't you find that rather convenient that both of them birth Cripts, and Heart was born after Cripts mom died?" I asked, having done some major history checks on people when I had the time. "I don't think I follow?" "Hearts mother is most likely the Admin of Life." I frowned. "What?" Kexez said bluntly. "How?" "They're twins, she's a Phoenix, do the math." I frowned. "Where would the title and powers go when her sister died, but she still has made Cript’s?" I asked while looking through the book to see if Hearts name was there just to double check on my madness. And lo and behold...Heart’s name was here. “Yeah...that’s what I thought.” "So, what? How would we even get her to remember if she can at all?" Jericho asked. “Sadly I have no idea…” I sighed out. “Cause this is literally the first time I’ve heard that the Admin of Life even existed.” "To be fair, everyone expected her to be a myth. Guess in our reality all myths have facts somewhere." "Too true." Coco said. “Sometimes I forget that none of you have been raised believing that literally everything that I have experienced was just fantasy.” I frowned. “Well, except for Kexez since he’s Hearts Nobody.” "My own existence should be impossible so I'm inclined to believe anything." Kexez said with a nod. "Well, whoever she is, we'll have to see it for ourselves when we face her." “Alright.” I nodded. “Anything you want to bring up before we head off Krot”? "Yes actually, if possible, can you find a Origotho?" "A what?" Kexez asked. "It's a rare Void Beast, body like a lion, head like a wolf and legs and tail like a dragon." “Well...that’s interesting.” I said honestly. “I’m sure we’ll find it...hopefully.” "What do you need it for?" Coco asked. "It has a unique power, the ability to replicate all magics thrown at it. Pecator thinks this ability it has would be a valuable component to making the Bravery Nothingness to fight Void Key. Copy Cat and Generation can, yes, imitate it, but first Bravery Nothingness has to be a self sustaining energy like Void or normal Nothingness for it to generate it. It's like trying to make a copy of something from memory alone. This beast can replicate it once and we'll need it to do this to have at least a small supply without sacrificing limbs. “Alrighty then, so can’t wait to have it join the harem and then...we all get it’s natural ability.” I chuckled. Krott ended the call and after a bit more resting we set back off. This floor so far was much larger than the others. I was keeping small mental notes, knowing the other floors so far were all around two or so miles in size, this one so far is five. “Well...this place is huge.” I said honestly. "Wonder if this is even bigger…" "Bigger typically means there should be more here we haven't or can't see yet until we are further in." Jericho said. "Alrighty then." I nodded. "How much you want to bet this Void Beast is guarding the lady?" I asked curiously. "Even if it's Void born, it's still a Life ya know?" "I kinda doubt it." Jericho said. "Wouldn't be the weirdest thing to happen." I shrugged. As we were looking around, we came across a locked door, on the door ad a riddle. I speak without a mouth and hear without ears. I have no body, but I come alive with wind. What am I? “So there’s riddles now? Well, it’s different.” Jericho said. “An Echo.” I answered quickly, liking riddles alot. The doors gave an audible click as they began opening, showing more of this floor… Oh god the shit monsters are back! “Why are these fuckers back!?” I whined. After killing them with the longest range attacks I had at my disposal, we continued on. A small loot box holding a large emerald. Like, the size of Coco’s head big. Into the vault then. As we kept along, saving more monsters, not those shit ones… just no, we came across a LARGE chest in the middle of this room that had a bunch of bat-monkey things in it. “That’s different.” Coco said. “Ten rem says it’s a trap.” Kexez said. “I’ll take that.” Jericho said, showing the money as did Kexez. “I mean, I have a spell for that.” I said while pulling out my Lexicon. “Greater Trap Detection.” “Kill joy.” Jericho and Kexez said as I opened the untrapped chest. Inside was… A… Big… Fucking… Arrow Gun… Scratch that, Cannon. It was half my size, radiated with energy, was held like a mini gun and when it fired, the kick knocked me over as the bolt blew five holes through five walls. Mine. “This is Mine.” I said. “There maybe many like it, but this baby is mine.” I said while holding it with a giant smile on my face. “Holy Shit!” Coco said, looking it over. “I thought it looked familiar! This is the ARMO Energy Cannon! These things are illegal in sixty five million reflections.” She said in awe. “Well they can suck it, cause this RHYNO on Super Steroids is mine, and I will happily use it to blast things out of existence.” I said giddily. “I know this too.” Jericho said. “Anti Reality Matter Obliteration Energy Cannon. Doesn’t just destroy the target, reduces it to just their code. Only an Admin can survive a hit from these things, and even then it would hurt like truck.” “Not even Nexus could get their hands on these things.” Coco said with a laugh. “Only three were ever made, Freak Inc. owns two, and the third is with the inventor.” “And who was insane enough to invent this thing?” I asked curiously while hefting the thing up. “Lord.” Coco and Jericho said in unison. “Why am I not surprised?” I asked curiously. We continued on, finally finding the boss room. We entered, and rather than a coffin, a wilted flower. Finally, we can see the Admin of Life’s face. As the petals fell, one by one, soon falling to the ground in a graceful stance was the Admin of Life… DINKY!?!? “Wait, what?” Kexez said. “Either I’m high… or the Admin of life, every Cript’s biological mom… was reborn as Dinky?” “Guess Jericho really did kill her. Scumbag.” Jericho hissed. “Wait…” I muttered while cycling through my memory at all the names of the Admin of Life had...and I sadly remembered that...one of the names that popped out...was Dinky’s. “Fuck...can’t wait to break that news to her...or if it even happened yet.” I said worriedly. “Is it weird that it makes sense given Dinky was, at least your Dinky Ben, bad at magic and just generally lacked it, yet was smart beyond her years.” Coco asked. “Their powers regarding life are completely passive, she doesn’t have to know about who she really is for them to work, as for that intelligence thing, must be subconscious memories from past lives.” “Yeah...that sounds about right.” I sighed out. “Especially in Biology or anything revolving around it...she argued way too many times about things that she honestly shouldn’t have known about certain things…” “So… how do we do this? Hit her with Second Chance or…?” Kexez asked, The Admin of Life, Dinky, just standing there, not moving. I looked nervous as I gently took a step forward. “She’s the Admin of Life...I doubt she’ll do anything to bring death…” I said as I walked nervously towards Dinky. “Maybe she even has enough of her mind to talk...I hope…” The others all looked at one another. “Worth a shot.” Jericho said. “Hopefully…” I said while taking a deep breath. “Dinky? You in there?” I asked cautiously, still moving towards her without Second Chance just in case having a weapon might cause something to happen. She didn’t move, looking down as slowly, flowers just began blooming off her dress… There was no Void in those flowers. “Your...not Void Tainted?” I asked in shock and confusion. “Can...you talk to me?” I asked. “Life… heals, adapts, always finds a way. We always find a way to keep on.” "True…" I said. "But...why are you here? What happened?" I asked. "Was Vincent involved given...who I'm just realizing something very important about him..." I facepalmed. "God damn it...why him?" I asked Dinky. “When War, killed Death, we were born, two forms of life, I, the loving, caring, the beauty of it, and he, the twisted, harmful, deadly side. We are two sides of the same coin, existing to create life in all its forms. Each life, we are reborn and find one another, an endless cycle of death, rebirth, searching, love, betrayal, order, and revenge.” “Revenge?” Jeriho asked. “In each life, we find each other, fall for each other, but I see what he is doing, see what harm, hurt, and so, I remove the tool of his cruelty, be it a weapon, or a person.” “Cript.” Kexez said. Nodding, Dinky continued. “In each life, we have kids, sometimes one, sometimes many, but a child of our always rises up, to kill him after he kills me, and then, the cycle repeats.” "I should have seen this sooner." I sighed out. "But...there has to be a way to break this cycle right?" She smiled, shaking her head. “It’s needed, required. Good and evil cannot exist without one another. We always are reborn, and always repeat.” "But Good and Evil aren't always clear cut...there has to be a way, even if Good and Evil stick around…" I said nervously. “This is my, our fate. And, our choice, our duty.” "Well as your mother I say No." I huffed. "Or father cause I'm both…sometimes this is confusing." “As stubborn as I remember, but not everything needs to change, this cycle, has been our duty. Create the bad, and the good, it’s what we do.” I sighed out. "Your not going to budge on this huh?" “I am content.” I sighed out and moved over, giving Dinky a hug. “Even though it’s probably been an Eternity for you...I’ll say this again...I’m so proud of you Dinky.” “As am I.” She said, returning the hug. “Before you save me, I have to tell you, there are others. Others like me, still in our right mind “ “How many?” I asked as I drew Second Chance. “That I can not tell, but the next floor, I know for a fact, holds one. I can sense it, survived solely on his Will Power and experience. These dungeons… they can provide, if you are willing to fight for it.” “Yeah, we’ve gotten more money, items, and...new family members than I can count right now.” I said sheepishly. “Before I am returned to infancy, dad, there is one thing I can tell you, a warning.” “Cause that’s what I need...a warning after I stab another family member…” I sighed out. “It’s about Spoiled, and that child. To save her, and therefore the child, you must find her heart. She has hidden it away, deep where Darkness and Void touch.” “Cause why not make things more difficult…” I sighed out. “So, that leaves about...god knows how much wiggle room she shoved her heart in, got anything more specific?” “It stands guarded by her strongest clone. You can’t miss it.” “And then I’ll miss it a lot cause I’m me.” I chuckled. “I’ll see you, dad.” “I’ll see you, my daughter.” I said as I stabbed her chest with Second Chance. Her body glowed, soon the little baby was in my arms, whimpering as I comforted her. “It’s alright Dinky.” I said gently, softly nuzzling her to comfort her more. With Dinky safely placed away I and the others all sorted through the loot. Sticking with Pokemon theme, Pokeballs. Oh, there’s pokemon in here? One for each. Opening mine, it was a Turtwig. Coco got an Oddish, Kexez got a Cubone, and Jericho got a Houndour. “Cool.” I said with a smile. “I always liked Turtwig. Best of the Gen Four starters.” “Well, onward then.” Jericho said. Floor 14 This place was weird. It was all clouds, a gentle breeze hitting out faces as we walked, looking around it looks like we really were walking on the clouds. “This is kinda cool.” Jericho said. “Well...this is interesting.” I said while taking in every detail. “This place...kind of reminds me of Cloudsdale...oh and who else figured out Vincent was Life’s opposite before I did?” I asked honestly. “Litteraly no one cause fuck forth wall breakers.” Jericho sighed. “That aside, this place does look kinda familiar.” Coco said, looking around. “It does look familiar, but honestly there isn’t any fourth wall breaking here when you think about it.” I said honestly. “We had enough clues.” “Nerd.” Kexez said. As we were walking through the hall, suddenly, something zipped by us, looking ahead it… looked like an angel, but, it’s wings were charred and smoking, eyes hollow and bleeding, skin ash grey, veins a glowing purple, and mouth was just this bleeding hole lacking teeth. “Well...that’s a thing…” I said nervously. “Oh my god…” Coco said, taking a step back. “That’s a Celesrtian.” She said. “More like was.” Jericho said, readying their axe. “You know what those things are Coco?” I asked curiously. “Celestians. A humanoid race of angellike beings that live in the clouds above Electron from Cript’s realm, they’re a strong race.” Coco said. “Well that’s...interesting.” I said. “So why the hell are they here?” "Their Queen is a member of the family." Jericho said, the twisted looking thing keeping a distance, like it's studying us. “So…” I pulled out my Assistant and immediately tried to research this Celestial lady. Yup. There she was. Celestia, funny enough name… wow she's a looker. Bodyguard… huh. Nate. “Okay cool...well the name is kind of on point.” "I think we have more pressing matters." Jericho said, taking a sniff I smelled more of these things nearby… a crapton more. “Uh...yeah that is a problem.” I said while preparing myself for a fight. “Dinky said that there was a survivor in here...wonder if it’s Nate, and I wonder where he is?” Soon, we could see the others here. It was like the walls were bleeding the fuckers out, there's so many, way more than any other floor so far. “Right~...” I said slowly. “Uh...how the fuck are we going to stop the infinite spawners?” "Well, I've survived just as bad. Just keep fighting, and hope it ends sometime before you pass out of exhaustion, but after your muscles are jelly from overworking them to stay alive." Jericho said. "Sounds about right." Kexez said, pulling out key arms, a shotgun. “I mean, I managed to make an entire civilization of Plant people during an Infinite Spawning battleground...doubt it would work here…” I said nervously while pulling out Second Chance and Sky Splitter. "Don't bother." Jericho said, pushing down Second Chance in my grip. "We won't have time to save anyone let alone ourselves." "They're smart." Coco said, her back against my side with her newly acquired Scythe in hand. "Their noises are a language, they're talking." "Planning." Kexez said. So what I did was totally justified when I pulled out the ARMO. “Fuck your plans I have an ARMO.” I smiled as I aimed it at the growing hoard. “Mind keeping me from falling over?” Kexez and Jericho got behind me, they used themselves as a brace as I began firing, and all hell broke loose. The swarm now flew all around us, their weapons scratching us, but nothing deep, though seeing each others HPs, it was slowly munching away at us. Even as I blasted forty, Jericho slashing twenty at a time, Coco getting hits here and there and Kexez shooting down all in his sight, we were so outnumbered, and they didn't seem to show signs of lessening their numbers. “Have I ever mentioned that this thing is amazing?” I asked while continuing to literally mow down thousands with the ARMO. "Less talk more kill." Jericho said, hacking one that nearly got me behind the ears. "How many are there?!" Coco yelled. "Too fucking many." Kexez said. My ears flicked up as I heard something else in this massive amount of carnage. “Does anyone else hear that?” I asked while putting my ARMO away and bringing out Graceful Dahlia and Lunatic and cleaving through hundreds of them. “Like another fight is going on or something?” "Protegat-Innocentes-Salutis!" Someone called out, there was this flash of a slash that passed through us, small bubble barriers formed over us while all of the swarm around us were slain instantly. Their bodies falling to the ground. Looking, we saw someone walking up to us, a sword made from Dark Monofilament, heck black wings and hair, sky blue eyes, and wearing a very worn set of armor. They looked up at us. "Well, it's about fucking time." “Ow...the Edge…” I said slowly. “So hi, how are you doing in these trying times?” I asked while Graceful Dahlia was devouring another Celestial. "Who in the hell are you?" They asked, our bubble shields disbanding. “Names Ben, Admin of Nothingness, and these are Jericho, the Admin of War, Coco, my loving Void Conduit Wife, and Kexez, a Floof Noodle who used to be a giant douche canoe.” I introduced us all. "Oi!" Kexez said, whacking me in the back of the head with their whole tail… and basically RKOing me in the process. "Not an actual conduit, but close enough." Coco corrected. “I said used to.” I frowned while getting up, perfectly fine. “So I believe your Nick?” "Yeah. Come on, they'll be back in a minute." He said, leading us right to the safe room. The safe room here was heavily lived in, filled with various odds and ends from the normal chest rewards here. "So, what brings you poor bastards here?" “We’re going to do the Impossible.” I said. “And that’s ending this damned Cycle of War that’s been going on for...way too long.” "Does it look like I care?" Nate asked, popping a large wine bottle open and drinking some. "I only ever wanted to do one thing in life, protect my charge. First Autumn up and vanished on us all, then the Queen died here. Been stuck here since." “Well it’s better than being Void Corrupted into being one of this damned Dungeons Bosses.” I said simply. “Like your Queen has most likely become given the area.” "Think I don't know that?" “Considering your out of the loop on a lot of things, maybe.” I shrugged. “Now, about this girl named Autumn that I only know because of Cript’s memories.” I said honestly. “Who is she and why do I feel...really sad about it?” "Oh, that's a story. Hope you got time if you wanna hear that one." Nate said, drinking some more wine. “We have all the time in the world.” I said simply. “So I would like to know who she is...and why she’s also stuck in a cage…” I said, trying to dig through Cript’s memories and most of what I was getting was a girl in a cage. “Also I’m surprised you haven’t said anything about me having Cript’s memories.” "I saw the ring. Same one my queen wears." Nate took a deep breath. "Long ago, a girl woke up in the woods, a small forest where the tree leaves glowed bright with a soft blue light. In these woods, was a mansion. Secluded, and unkempt. She had no idea where she was, where she came from, or how she got there. All she did know was that she was not from this world. She wandered the Forest, found a city, and saw a young monk, failing to steal fruit." “Hmm…” I hummed, wondering who the monk was. "As she aimlessly wandered the Forest she had the misfortune to fall off a short cliffside. There's she met Zach, my brother. He saved her, and gave her a special Artifact. Aurora's Amulet. The purest Electronium crystal ever mined from Electrons soil. It never loses a charge, and could power this entire reality alone. Only the electron royal bloodline was capable of using its power, and Autumn, was the lost heir." “Cause randomly waking up in the woods must make you something along the lines of ‘Heir’ or ‘Chosen One’.” I said simply. "No, DNA and the fact she could use the thing without incinerating to ashes from its power proved she was the heir." Nate said bluntly. “I’m going to stop myself before going further with that, but please, continue.” I said honestly. "She, Zach, and later a scientist named Alex, a Monk named Cript, and myself eventually all came together, forming a haphazard band of Do gooders. We traveled, saved lives, killed Shadow Creatures, life was… okay." “And then everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked.” I said. “At least, not the Fire Nation but it sounds like something bad happened afterwards.” "We headed for Electron. Autumn's ancestors Homeworld. We arrived with one goal, destroy the Darkness. Little backstory there, back when Autumn's grandmother ruled, Aurora, she was given the crystal at her coronation, and she rules for ten fortunate years, having a child and a peaceful kingdom… but, the royal scientist, the fellow who originally cut her crystal to shape, kept the cuttings, knowing with their power, so much could be done. With them, he formed the Dark Crystal, the first dark Electronium crystal. It's potent evil infected his whole island, the Electronium in its soil, the plants, ocean life nearby, and what spawned from this pure evil, was the Shadow Creatures. They attacked the castle, and Aurora and her child went into hiding. Only autumn was living proof they escaped alive. A hundred or so years later." “Well...that...yeah that was a thing that happened.” I said nervously. “So that’s where Shadow Creatures came from…” "We attacked… and we lost. I don't remember the finer details but all I do remember is waking up in a hospital bed, five years later. Cript became, well, who he is now, Freak Inc and all that, Autumn and Zach were alive, turns out, he scattered us, screwed with our brains so we'd forget then tossed Aurora's Amulet to the stars. Cript ended up killing him. Everything was so different. Then, one day Autumn just… went to sleep, and never woke up. No explanation, no doctor or mage no nothing could explain it she was just… coma, out of nowhere. Bro left back home, I worked as the Queen's guard, Alex fucked off back to his mansion in the forest, and last I knew he and Cript were not exactly on standing, or speaking terms with one another." “Well...that sucks.” I said. “So...that’s the end of it? She’s just stuck in a coma for god knows how long?” "Pretty much. Cript tried everything, but nothing ever worked. So, he kept her safe, on a prayer she might wake up on her own." “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “So...what brought you and your Queen to this god forsaken place?” I asked curiously. "She's one of Cript's wives. Started off mostly political, but they grew to love each other, which makes sense, he is the Admin of Love. She came here like the others, trying to take the Void Mother's Womb, and fell here." “And so far we have been told this is the worst dungeon to exist, and yet it’s been piss easy so far.” I said honestly. “Now I’m sure it’ll change sooner rather than later but still…” "This dungeon is a combination of the five levels of dungeons Cript wanted for creation. Level one, easy, beginners stuff. Level two, harder, a challenge, level three, a harsher challenge, level four, you'll need more than luck for them. And lastly level five. Now that's an Avengers level threat." Nate said with a laugh. "Fifteen level one floors, Twenty-five level two, three and four, and ten level five floors. The lower you go, the harder they get, and once you pass floor fifteen, expect the easy part to be over. This and the next floor will give you a taste of what to expect." “Can’t wait.” I said. “An actual challenge would be fun.” "Heh. Sure, the day the sun shines in this beyond damned abyss is the day what rests deeper in will be fun." Nate spat. “Either way.” I said. “So...what would you say would happen if we turned her back into an infant?” I asked while pulling out Second Chance. “Cause this is what we’ve been using to rescue hundreds of people from this damned place.” "I'd say God save the queen." Nate said, sitting up. "You lot that suicidal?" “It’s not suicidal if we know we’re going to succeed.” I said honestly. "Confidence like that is a handicap, you should never underestimate anything just because it's easy." "I'm not saying it'll be easy later on." I said simply. "I just know that we'll make it to the end...cause someone's been waiting for us to clear the way." I said, having had a feeling someone's been watching us since we started. "Don't know who...but someone has been watching us since we entered this damned place." "How you tell?" “Because one of them feels familiar…” I said. “I know I’m the most paranoid one here but come on.” "Well, what's your plan then?" “We just keep going.” I said. “They’ll probably show themselves when we’re about to get done with this entire Dungeon sadly...so all we can do is just move forward and keep clearing the floors...which begs the question if the rooms behind us ‘reset’ or if it doesn’t until the original people are done with it…” “The common enemies and chests in this place, like any other, do, reset daily, but bosses and boss chests don't reset until a year later." “So we’re basically clearing the way for them, got it.” I said simply. “Good to know...so, any tips on how to fight the Queen?” I asked curiously. "One. Cut her wings. They're her perfect offensive weapon, block anything and on top of being able to weaponize her feathers, a strong enough gust of wind from her can create tornadoes. She can spellcast and has a fancier version of the sword I have. Dark Monofilament too." “Cool.” I nodded. “But how strong are her wings?” "Their only weak spots are the joints connecting them to our spines, but they're armored." “How armored?” I asked curiously. "Standard Monofilament braces. Breaking them is pretty much impossible, but the clamps keeping them on are made from Acrothis Dragonhide, cutting that won't be easy but it's possible." “So something I’m pretty sure any of us can break.” I said honestly. "Don't be so sure." Nate said, tanking another chug of wine. "While Monofilament is the strongest metal in existence, Acrothis Dragons breath fire hot enough to melt the damn metal. We're talking hotter than a blue sun. It will take more than one cut to break them." I summoned Eternal Flames. "Honestly, not impressive when I've had these things for the longest time, and given that they're also evolved...yeah I don't think we have a problem." I said simply. "What color is their fire?" Nate asked simply. “Yes.” I said while one of the chackrams started to rev up and became a fucking rainbow of fire, and even some colors that the Celestrian had never seen before. "Heh. Either way, same story, best hope you make it to the final boss of this place." “I’m pretty sure we will.” I said honestly. “Chapter wouldn’t continue if we got permanently stuck on this floor.” "Be off then." “Your going to need to help us, cause you have a Queen to save.” I said while pulling out Second Chance. “Second Chance, a special Evolution of Memory Stealer, able to revert someone back to the day they were born, completely free of all memories from their mind, heart and soul to give them a Second Chance at life.” "Gonna jab that up the Queen's ass now?" “Well...yeah kinda.” I said honestly. “And while I would immediately grab her and claim her as my daughter...I’m pretty sure you’d love to still protect her right?” "I've been killing corrupted versions of my people for a few years longer than I bothered counting. I've been alive here for one reason, not devote loyalty, but because I am good at one thing. Fighting. After the loss against the darkness and waking up years later in a hospital, I'm not fighting for anyone again, nor will I lose any fight ever again." “Well now you can fight for someone again, and you won’t lose a fight again.” I said honestly. "Read. My. Lips." Nate said, looking me dead in the eyes, eyes I remember all too well, the eyes of a man who doesn't care anymore. My eyes, so long ago. "I. Don't. Give. A. Fuck." “You know...I used to be like you.” I said. “Someone who just gave zero fucks about everything...don’t just fall like this, trust me...it’s not worth it.” "Then you should know, talk is cheap, and actions are lies." Nate said, finishing off the wine bottle. They stood up, sifting through the piles of stuff in this safe room. "You look like crap, so that likely means you don't know about everything else the Safe Rooms or the way these dungeons work." He said, throwing a book at me that I caught with ease. 'Dungeon Basics 101.' “Okay…” I muttered while taking the book and opening up. “Also, that’s kind of bullshit.” I managed to send Nate out of here, DTN's work here perfectly it turns out. He wanted it open in a bar. The book was helpful, how there are items specific for dungeons like entering back floors, for harder challenges and richer rewards, but they don't have a boss persay, just an optional mini boss that drops rare items. I have a few items like this. A backroom Key, used in the Safe Room to access the dungeon backroom. Also a means of having a Merchant here to buy or sell stuff from. That requires a reusable rare item called a Merchants stall, a little model of a stall. Out of all the loot so far, I had one. So fairly rare then. I used it and… "Well hello there lass." That Merchant said…. "Cool...and I still think we should have used Second Chance on him…" I sighed out. "He shouldn't have to be like me…" "Let him find himself on his own." Jericho said. "He doesn't need a second chance, he needs a reminder on who he is." "So, how does this work?" Coco asked, motioning to the merchant. "We barter lass." The merchant said. "What would you like?" "Well what do you have to sell my fine merchant?" I asked curiously. "Weapons, armor, items, whatever you need." "Alright." I nodded, the merchant having not even answered my question. "What do you guys want to buy?" "Tacos." Kexez said, the merchant actually putting a fresh hot plate of tacos on the table. "Trade you a high potion." "Agreed." They made the trade, and Kexez ate away. “Alrighty then.” I said honestly. “Sounds about right…” I said with some thought. "What about a map of this place? List of names?" Coco asked the merchant. "Ah. Yes, I have that." They said, placing a book on the table. "It will be pricey though." “How pricey?” I asked curiously. "Well, what can you offer me that's equal to it in value or worth more?" The merchant asked. “That...didn’t answer my question at all.” I said simply. “Normally merchants have a price tag, not ‘take a wild guess’.” "I barter lass, money is worthless in the void, trade is done with items, not currency." “A barter system still has a ‘price tag’ though…” I shook my head before putting down a vial. “My own design of a Nothingness Elixir, works just like an Elixir, but is capable of curing Void based Afflictions. So far it can cure minor to medium curses, poisons, and other such things of the like.” I said as the clear vial showed the fluid slowly moving like it was made out of Nothingness Thorns but in liquid form. "No sale. I'm void born lass, you're basically handing me poison." "What about this?" Coco asked, holding out her hand, showing her Nexus mark. "Oh, well now." They said, taking her hand and looking at the small dot. "That's a powerful, old admin code matrix you have in the palm of your hand." “Excuse me what?” I asked with a frown. "Our marks we have on us, the mark of Nexus, we're born with them because they are code Matrixes made by the founders, they are how Nexus can… keep tabs and track their members." Coco said. “Oh...that’s...a thing.” I said honestly. "I can remove it lass, but it will hurt." The merchant said. "I'm okay with that." Coco said with a nod. Nodding, the merchant waved a hand over hers, void seeping into her palm as he spoke in a language I could not… hear. Coco began screaming, crying as the small dot was slowly lifting from her palm, blood and code following it as the merchant grabbed both into his hand. Once he gripped them, closing his hand, he released Coco's hand. She was clutching it, blood still dripping from it as the merchant placed her Nexus mark and it's code into a small box. He took the book, and handed it to me. "Fair trade." I grabbed the book as I also tried to heal Coco’s hand. “You okay Coco?” "It just stings." She said, wiping the tears away as her palm healed. The blood stopped but it left a small scar on her hand, that no matter what I could not heal or remove. "Feels kinda good to have that gone now." “Alright.” I nodded gently. “I’m glad your okay...the hell happened?” "A void spell, akin to how Deletes destroy, consume code, this spells turns the chainsaw into a scalpel, allowing it to slice out the code matrix from her entire code structure, a painful process given the way it was created, imagine ripping out specific muscle fibers one at a time." “I...sadly don’t have to imagine it.” I sighed out. "Now then, is there anything else?" "Hmm…" Jericho said, looking through the map real quick, finding the final floors boss. "Oh shit…" “What?” I asked while looking at the book to see the boss’s name. Lyra Heartstrings. Cript's Lyra. “Oh…” I started. “That’s...uh….” I blinked. "We're boned." Jericho said, tossing the book. I immediately grabbed the book that Jericho unceremoniously tossed. “I doubt that.” I frowned. “She can’t be that strong can she?” "Let me explain this to you." Jericho said with a sigh. "Cript, is the Admin of Love, and Lyra, is the Admin of marriage. Much like how in your domain of Nothingness, you'd be all powerful, Cript gains extra power the more the family loves one another or, the more love there is in general in their life. Lyra gets power the more people marry, and commit to it. She's not just constantly growing the family just because she's kinky, the more people marry in, the stronger she also becomes the more love is made, the stronger Cript becomes. You do the math there." “Ah…” I said slowly. “So...how the fuck isn’t Lyra somehow single handedly winning this war due to our shenanigens?” "The reason Cript isn't, tying up loose ends and making sure nothing is left to chance." “I...said why isn’t Lyra winning this fight by herself if she’s basically the strongest person ever but that also works…” I said slowly. "Alright, how about this then. Why aren't you, if you're the strongest Nothingness user here, why haven't we claimed more enemy territory from the front lines?" "Because I've been told not to be on the front lines, I've been busy doing other things, and because Nothingness is still full of shit I don't know about " I explained. "All of which are factually correct." "The same can be said about Lyra's Marriage power, and Cript's love power. How exactly do you use those in a war?" "I wouldn't know because this is the first time I'm hearing Lyra was an Admin to begin with." I said honestly. "You're the one saying we're boned against Lyra here." "Yes. Because part of her admin title and powers as the Admin of Marriage is that she can utilize the full extent of our abilities. We have not reached that yet, and this Lyra is from the last cycles war, when we have, so yeah, kinda boned." "Well we won't know until we get there." I said honestly. "Hmm… this might be a good thing though." Kexez said. "How so?" I asked curiously. "Considering those things out there outnumbered us like crazy and we're able to pick away at so much of our health despite each doing little damage, we might need to grind for a while. Floor fifteen is the last 'easy floor, so before we head off to sixteen and lower we should train here while we can, what better place to train then a place that has unlimited cannon fodder daily?" "I mean, you all know I've been accidentally crippling myself...which I have been making damn well sure to rectify." I said honestly. "But if you all want to do some cannon fodder murder then that's fine with me. Would help me figure out my weapons more." "That is a good plan." Jericho said, looking at the book again before smiling. "And the dungeon respawns once a year… once it's cleared, so long as the last boss isn't killed it won't respawn the stuff after a year, but common enemies, backroom enemies and minibosses, and loot will respawn." "Cool." I nodded. "Can't wait to cleave through another endless wave...for the third time in my life." "This isn't going to be random cutting down for fun, this is training and honing abilities and powers. Properly." "Alrighty then." I nodded. "So, let's get started then." I said while stretching a little. "But just a warning...I don't take responsibility if I somehow manage to stop parts of the place from spawning enemies." To be continued...Christ this is gonna take forever Author's Note So yeah, this chapter is by far the largest me and Bio have made, and there's still 76 More Floors to go. I'm not sure if we'll do another 15 Floor Chapter but it'll still be several Floors...so yeah this will take a while Code NullSomething has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.Nobody learns Code CraftingI was a tad annoyed, wanting to train when suddenly my weapons were for some reason, absent. I was in a resting area in the Heroes Tomb so at least that was good. All that appeared when I tried to summon my weapons was a note from Lord and Cript saying they took them for tune ups and upgrades. "Okay…" I muttered while opening a DTN and heading through to where Lord and Cript were. "Hello?" “Here.” Cript said from a nearby building. Inside I saw he was doing something with Eternal Flames in a strange flow of Code, and Lord was doing the same with Lunatic. "So...what are you two doing with my weapons?" I asked curiously. “Upgrading.” Lord stated simply. “In short, yes, your weapons are strong… strong as all hell. But they need to be stronger if we are gonna deal with the Void Mother and the last of Old Nexus.” Cript said. "Ok so…how the hell are you upgrading them and why do you need to upgrade them? I've barely gotten used to the Evolved Versions yet." “It’s more like… software updates.” Lord said. “As you remember, when Eclipsa used all that power combined, had she built up the amount she did sooner, her body would have disintegrated. Physically, the bodies you make can’t hold the full extent of Cript’s and Jericho’s powers, by upgrading your weapons to Admin Weapons, as well as a few extra tweeks, you should be able to harness the amount of power Eclipsa used then and there with not too much issue.” “Eclipsa managed to generate roughly… fifteen percent of our total full power, Grey boosting it even more so even after she unleashed it, hurting Jericho badly. This will help you more rapidly adapt to that power and grow overtime, a lot like how Keyblades adapt the wielder to magic and abilities over time.” “Alrighty then...but to be honest, the more I’ve studied Grey, the more I think Eclipsa would have actually been a lot more fine than what originally happened.” I said honestly while studying what they were doing to my weapons. “And she can be, but, remember, physically she’s not accustomed to that level of power just yet. It’s like… giving a keyblade to someone who has never used one before, and then trying to teach them Megaflare right out as their first spell, it’s possible, but messy and will put them under intense straining. Eclipsa lucked out with what happened. She might be able to handle that now, it depends on if she’s constantly building up grey and it’s influence over other energies as well as its own yet to be understood potential.” “From what I’ve looked at, yes, she is constantly building up Grey...and Grey with any Energy has been acting weird...not a bad weird but...whatever energy I put Grey with, the type just get’s a fuck ton stronger.” I said honestly. “Grey is full of mysteries...and I plan to figure them out.” “Ever the puzzle solver.” Lord said, giving Lunatic a spin as the code around it flowed into it. “That aside we also noticed something interesting about you three so far.” Cript said, doing the same to Eternal Flames. “While you and Heart have the largest selection of artillery, or armaments rather, Eclipsa does lack in that department.” “I mean, Heart lacks Variety in his arsenal, I have all of it honestly.” I shrugged. “But yeah...Eclipsa only has Oathkeeper, Oblivion, her X-Blade Better Half, and Grey.” “How does Heart not have variety?” Cript asked. “Objectively, all Heart is Keyblades and Balance.” I said honestly. “Key arms too, in the shape of guns, bows, swords, Keyblade versions of your own weapons, cannons, battleships, yes but there’s just the one. No idea how that happened either.” “None that he even uses.” Lord pointed out. “As Lord pointed out, he doesn’t really...use any of them. He sticks with Keyblades, while I myself use thirteen weapons that are incredibly special for all they can do...and believe it or not, I’ve found the Old Man’s blueprints for new Nothingness Weapons in the same vein as my Thirteen weapons.” I brought up. “I’ll take that.” Lord said with a snap as suddenly all those blueprints and books of schematics/recipies were on a desk in the back. “His armory is bigger than yours, if he doesn’t have it, he’ll make it.” Cript said, rolling their eyes as Eternal Flames finished absorbing the code around them. “Oi! I haven’t done all my research on those yet.” I frowned. “But looks like Eternal Flames is done…” “You’ll get them back when I’m done.” Lord said as Lunatic finished absorbing the code around it. He picked it up, and tossed it to Cript. “Strain test it.” “Yeah yeah.” Cript said, funneling power into my weapon. As it grew and grew, I began noticing Lunatic’s Matrix work became visible, the hidden old magic that made the weapon work now able to be seen as Cript kept filling it with power that was… All kinds. “Holds good at the fifteen percent.” “Double it.” Lord said. “Sure.” Cript said, more power rushed into the weapon, now glowing bright with a powerful blue and black aura that moved like fire. “You know, I know a better stress test than just dumping all that power into Lunatic...also how in the hell?” I asked nervously. “Reaching thirty.” Cript said, suddenly Lunatic’s colors began brightening to a pure white form, Nothingness thorns now sparking around the weapon, rotating around it rapidly like saw blades. “Holds good… How far should we go?” “Let’s give it forty.” Cript said, now holding it in both hands, soon the weapon seemed to elongate, making more of a Claymore form, and soon, there was a small moon floating above the blades tip as the whole thing vibrated rapidly. “Okay, anymore and it’s breaking.” “So anything above forty will break it.” Lord said, looking over to me. “Once you can handle that, reach that, I’ll improve it more.” He then raised a hand towards Cript. “Now, hit me.” “Hold on, mind if I do it? I want to double check a little combo of skills, is Skysplitter up and ready as well?” I asked curiously. “Not yet. As for weapon fusing, sorry, but that’s a test for a bit later.” Lord said. “Besides, at most, you’d be able to handle… sixteen percent and can’t generate the power Cript is into it yet. We still need to set up it’s passive draw into it. Besides, Cript hits harder.” “Relax, you can play in a bit. Til then… stand behind me.” Cript said with a nod. “Fine fine.” I rolled my eyes and got behind Cript. “I’m not some delicate wallflower…” I grumbled. “Ready?” Cript asked. “Ready.” Lord replied. In that, Cript swung, the blast broke the windows but oddly did not break the building. All my hair was being blasted to my back as with wide eyes I watched as Lord was simply unphased by Cript’s attack as he stood there, hand stretched out tanking it. The attack was hitting but from checking his HP… did not take anything more than five hp. As the attack finally died down, the room looked unphased also, the windows self repairing too. “Good, it held.” He said, Lunatic back to normal, and still intact. “Right…” I said slowly. “But that was it?” I asked curiously. “I was gonna bring up a better stress test...but that little damage what?” "There is a reason Lord and I don't dual." Cript said, swinging Lunatic over his shoulder. "That armor of his isn't for show." "I built this armor to perfectly tank Cript at even his strongest." Lord stated. "It's my masterpiece." "Right then…" I started. "Didn't know that." I said simply. "So...what was the point of this?" I asked curiously. "I know it's a stress test but…" "But?" Cript asked. “What was the point to half of this?” I asked curiously. “Like the charging up part? Cause you could have just swung it really hard and done the same.” "You have never used a charged attack, have you? Think of it like this, Skysplitter is strong on it's own, but when you use it's natural power up ability, it becomes even more powerful, right?" Lord asked. “I have used a Charged attack...I was actually going to do a charge attack…” I said "Yet not on the scale Cript can. At least, not yet. Charging it with all that energy shows us how it reacts to that power and where it's limits are. Charging it with raw power is the easiest way to determine this." “Fine fine.” I said simply. “So, you said these were like software updates...how is that? I thought they already did when they evolved like six times?” "Upgrades that have physical changes are more along the lines of Hardware upgrades. Which we also kinda did but not noticable." Cript said. “Fine fine, so what are all of my weapons able to do now?” I asked curiously. "Well, they aren't done, but we can let you try out Lunatic for a bit. It's the most well along." Cript said, handing me my weapon. “What’s the most durable thing here that isn’t Lord?” I asked while grabbing Lunatic. “And is Skysplitter ready?” "No, and not much." Lord said. "Shift into Valor form." "Which Valor? Normal, or Heir Valor?" I asked curiously. "Normal for a start." "Alright." I nodded while shifting into Valor Form. "Why do you want me in Valor form?" Immediately I noticed. Lunatic was now more or a large curved Greatsword or Claymore. It's curve looking akin to a Cresent moon as it glowed the same red as my Valor form, looking like a large katana from the handle. “Alright...that’s cool.” I said honestly while grabbing the hilt with my other hand, even though I knew Valor form could let me Dual Wield. "It's three times faster on the swings, has a passive reflect spell when blocking, your AoE attacks now rather than impact based are swing based and travel up to five miles, and notice your rage meter slowly filling in the corner of your eyesight," Lord then gave me a bit of a hard whack, taking out an eight of my health, but that same hit also halfway filled the rage meter. "Getting hit refills your rage meter faster and getting hit while in rage mode also guarantees critical hits and doubles physical Damage while halving damage taken for a minute, per hit, and it stacks." I looked at Lunatic, then at Lord. “You...do know that, with a combination of basic skills...I can probably cleave damn near anything in half right?” I asked. "That's the idea." “I wonder if it can even keep together with that?” I wondered. “Seriously, the more I looked into it...god it’s the raw power asinine.” "Also the point." Lord added. “Alright.” I nodded. “So, what about my other weapons?” I asked curiously, cause while Lunatic was really cool, I want to also know what cool things my other weapons can do. "So far that's about as far as we have it. We plan on making each weapon able to hold the power I generated into Lunatic earlier, as well as a unique form for each of your drive forms." Cript said. “Alrighty then...mind if I help?” I asked curiously. “Also, are you upgrading my Greatsword?” I asked curiously. "Yes. It's why you can't summon any weapons, and no. The method we are using to upgrade your gear is… not for a novice of Admin Artifact Crafting." “It’s not my fault that I have no solid basework to study off of.” I frowned. “Either most of it is destroyed, there all hidden somewhere, or you two keep telling me no.” I frowned at Lord and Cript. "This case it's more of a… lost art. Lord knows the basics but anything above that was lost many cycles ago. Not even that Library has records of it." “Okay, so both of you can still teach me how to at least do the basics yes?” I asked curiously. "That will take time we don't have, but I know a guy." Lord said. “Is it Belief or Player?” I asked. “Cause both of them could be correct.” "Neither." Lord said, actually taking out a flip phone and began dialing. "If it's who I think it is, Lord I swear." Cript said with a huff. “Please tell me it’s a Construct that took up the mantle of its creator, which happened to be an Admin.” I said in high hopes it would be something cool like that. Lord spoke a few words, hanging up before opening a portal. Walking through it was… a guy in a lab coat, young looking, long light brown hair, glasses, dark blue eyes. "Hello Lord." They spoke, looking over at Cript. "Cript." "Alex…" Cript said, not hiding their visible annoyance or anger at this Alex person. “My expectations are dashed…” I muttered. “Hi, name’s Ben, it’s nice to meet you.” I said simply, wanting to at least try and make a good first impression. Cript and Alex kept their tense eye contact for a bit, Cript giving a huff before leaving. Alex fixed up their glasses, looking over at me. "I've heard a lot about you King Ben, I have to say, the data I've recorded so far seems to match you exactly in person." They said, a somewhat emotionless expression on their face. “Oh? And what does your data say about me?” I asked, already expecting him to belittle me after some minor praise, if any praise at all. "Varying from the sources, physically you are a top tier subject, mentally tough, many have described you as irrational, but I can tell your just logical and practical. Traits I prefer." “I can tell we’re going to be fast friends.” I chuckled. “But uh...what was with Cript if I may ask?” "I would prefer that remains out of further conversation." Alex said simply. "Long story short, Cript and Alex used to travel… with the girl from the cage. That's all I feel at liberty to tell." Lord said. “Oh...wait.” I blinked. “Your the guy that that Black Winged Celestial talked about, Nate.” I said honestly. "Ah yes, Nate. An informative subject. Black wings are so rare among Celestials. One in 5.7 million chance." “I started with ‘Ow, the Edge’ when I met him in the Tomb of Heroes...but he’s a decent guy if...his Lady didn’t succumb to the Tomb.” "Hmm?" "Alex." Lord spoke up. "We need you to give some basics on crafting Admin Artifacts." Lord said. "What do I get in return for my services?" Alex asked. “Making sure Existence doesn't end...again for a start.” I started. "I could care about reality." "You'll get a book from the library of Alexandria." Lord said. "Hmm… alright." Alex agreed. He cares more about a book than existence ending? “I’m sorry, I love books as much as the next person, but...a book is more important than Existence ending?” "You are a person of intellect Ben, surely you know everything is made Finite. Life and this reality is all gone sooner or later. As a scientist, it's not my job to interfere with data, less it be incorrect." “While that is true, sometimes a scientist needs to be a bit more ‘hands on’ to figure out the data is correct.” I said honestly. “Need to make sure all the data is correct in practice am I right?” "Ben, I think you'll find that at the end of the day, all Allex cares about is the data, and nothing else." Lord said. “Fine fine, I won’t try to force it.” I said with raised hands, knowing I could argue with Alex all day about it but I’d rather hold off. “So, where to begin with learning Admin Artifact Creation?” "Is there a workshop we can use?" Alex asked Lord. "Next door should work." Lord said as I followed Alex out. “So how difficult is learning how to make Admin Artifacts?” I asked curiously. "It depends on your skills with Code and Code Script Matrixes." “So this might be a massive pain in the ass…” I sighed out. "If you know little, then yes, it will be quite difficult." “Well...I do know some bit of Code Script Matrixes, haven’t fully worked it out cause I was busy studying other things.” I said with a shrug. "Do you have issues with studying? Or focus?" Alex asked as we entered the next door building. It was a lot like the other one we were just at. “Neither actually...well I mean, if hyper focus is an issue.” I said sheepishly. “But even if I can bend time to my will, there’s still so much time in the day, plus I also practice with my weapons, spend time with family, delegate my kingdom, be apart of talk shows and other gigs, so much stuff that even with Starfish clones, it’s a lot for a Den Mother to handle.” I explained. "I see. So mainly you lack the ability to delight yourself to a single task at a time?" “Yeah pretty much.” I said honestly. “Even with Clones, can’t really stick to a single task half the time.” "I see. I'll update my data on you then." They said simple, having me sit at a table. "Now then, a Code Matrix is basically a more advanced Spell Matrix, just replacing Mana with Code. Simple enough in spoken words but less so in practice." “Can’t be too hard if it’s just substituting one energy source for another in a medium that’s designed for fluid energy transfer right?” I asked curiously. “Simplified, yes. The first means to working with these matrixes is to set it up., I assume you know about the normal spell matrixes?” “Yes, several different versions actually.” I said. “But I suppose the basic spell matrix is the best for this scenario.” “Some customizations are in order.” Alex said. “Firstly, make a one by one foot metalic slab forged from condensed code on the table here.” “Sounds simple enough.” I said while putting my hand down on the table, Alex seeing small insect like creatures made of Code come out of my fur by the hundreds and form the one by one foot metal slab. “It still feels a little weird that my Code act’s like insects...but it kind of makes sense given what it’s capable of.” “Actually, it’s more attuned to your passive power obtained from the Admin you killed to gain this power. Giddion, if I’m correct, the former Admin of Rape. He had a unique but not unheard of power to control the insects, even those of the microscopic level, he was believed to become the Admin of Insects, but his lust got the better of him.” “I...was going to say my Code...acts more like an Anti Virus...but thank you for reminding me of that guy and making me feel even more creeped out about my powers...now I need a shower…” I grumbled. “I suppose that is a theory also.” He said, looking over the slab. “Hmm… Good. I’ll make the Matrix.” He said, his finger lit up with some code also, surprising me as as he began using it to engrave symbols into the metal. “Runes?” I asked curiously. “Or something else?” “Something like that. These symbols predate any other language. It’s Admin based and sadly not even I have been able to translate them, but thankfully simply copying them works well.” He said, finishing his engraving. The matrix was… complex… and yeah, that’s cool looking. “Now, to activate it.” He said, a single line of code flowing from his hand into the matrix. It glowed to life, the symbols now moving, rotating and crossing over one another in fast, rapid motion until soon, lines of code flew upwards a few feet in the air. “Cool.” I said while looking at all the runes. “But...is there a cipher or something? Like the Rosetta Stone for Ancient Egypt?” I asked, using that old piece of human history as an example. “If there was, do you think we would know close to nothing about it?” Alex asked, basically giving me the feeling that I asked a dumb question. “Now then, there are two kinds of means to crafting Admin Artifacts. Raw materials, or from an existing item. We will be making them from existing items.” “Which would either be something you bring up, or my weapons.” I said simply. “Which one do you have in mind?” He reached into his pocket, reaching his arm… oddly far down for how small they look, and pulled out a simple coin. “This.” “A simple coin is a good enough start as any I suppose.” I said simply. Alex tossed it into the flow of code, the coin now floating there. “Now then, put your hands around it, and feel the code within that coin, and access it.” “Seems simple enough.” I said while taking the coin in my hands and feeling the Code within it, trying to see if I can access it cause I don’t know how complex or simple the code work was. As I was focusing on this, feeling the code inside this coin, I could feel it’s build, the information that makes up this simple thing as I finally began pulling it out. It was slow, and after a while, it all came out. The code in just this coin was surprisingly large, but once it was out, the Admin part of me felt like it… Woke up. Seeing that code made complete sense, and I don’t know why. “That feeling that Rush of power, that sense of knowing, that’s your code, reading and processing the code from the Coin. Absolute knowing, the ability to learn everything about anything and everything simply by reading it’s code.” Alex said, gaining my attention. “So many of the Admins waste that invaluable power.” “So...basically reading the fine print means I can understand anything and everything about something?” I asked curiously. “Once you open up it’s code yes. The only exceptions to this power, are other admins, Admin artifacts, and of course, the Void.” “What about Light, Darkness, Nothingness and Grey?” I asked curiously. “Pure energies? Harder, but possible. Calculating the risk reward, a bare minimum of four Admins can process all that code within an hour or two.” “Cool, that’ll make my studies fly by a lot faster.” I let out a sigh of relief at having a new way of learning things I couldn’t normally or figuring out things I wouldn't normally learn. “Seriously, you have no idea how much this helps.” “Of course I do. I use it constantly.” Alex said bluntly. “Now then, taking the existing code, alter the section that holds abilities or powers. Notice how there is none. Pull some of your own to add something.” “Um...sure.” I said while I pulled some of my code and started to alter the section that held the Powers. “So I just...give it an ability?” “You have to program it in. It’s akin to giving an item an enchantment. For something easy, make it that when tossed, heads gives you, or the one who called heads, 100 Rem, the loser, of course, gets nothing.” “Sounds simple enough.” I said while writing in the simple action into the Coin’s ability. “And...that should be it…” I muttered while feeling my code fill in the blank with what I wrote in. As I closed the code back into the coin, the code floating around the coin also flowed into it. Once the last lines of it flowed in, the Coin gave me a sense of another Admin, only weaker, a bit faint, but noticeable. Taking the coin, I tossed it, getting heads as my assistant beeped. 100 Rem Added to Account. “Cool, it works.” I smiled. "Indeed. Now then, shall we continue?" “Yes please.” I nodded, happy with a good start. “What else is there to learn?” I asked, very interested in learning this ancient craft. "Next let's try a weapon. Hmm… perhaps a demonstration is in order here." Alex said as they reached back into their pocket, pulling out a small dagger. Well, maybe not a dagger, more of a large knife. “Oh?” I asked curiously. “Upgrading a knife?” "Cript showed you what happens to weapons when you channel raw power into them, right?" “Yes he did.” I nodded. “Well, to test, not like an actual ‘oh hey, here’s what happens’.” I said honestly. "Well, this will be your example. Power that knife with .7% of your power." "Um...sure." I said as I took the knife and tried to put .7 percent of my power into the thing. I was extremely careful here, and it payed off. Immediately the knife changed. It was now the length of a short sword, glowing with a faint power of Nothingness and even seemed to have faint Nothingness thorns trail around it. "Good. Now, try adding one more to that." I did just that. And it exploded, the shrapnel actually managing to cut into my hand. I helped at that, seeing my healing factor easily pushing the shrapnel out if my flesh. "The weaker one is, the weaker the weapon they can charge must be. Too much power put into a weapon not properly upgraded or modified will backfire horribly. Higher tier Admin Artifacts Don't have this issue, but for now we can make at most tier two Admin Artifacts." "And how many tiers are there?" I asked curiously. "When it comes to found Admin artifacts, tier seven is the highest found. Sadly data on if that is the max or not is unknown." "Good to know." I nodded. "Now then, Time to attempt this properly." He said, taking out another knife and places it on the slab. "This time, you fuel it. Simply flow code into the matrix." "Sure." I said while putting a hand on the matrix and flowing Code into the slab at a small but steady pace. Soon, it burst to life like before, the knife now floating there in the code. "Now, like with the code of the coin, open it. Read it." "Okay…" I said while taking the hilt and reading the code in the blade. "Let's see how this got improved…" Like with the coin, everything about this knife was known by me once the code from it flowed out. From how long it took for the metals to form to the method it was forged with. "Now then, looking at the code, you need to start to separate it line by line." "Oh, kind of like tailoring?" I asked, having watched Rarity and Coco way to much and thinking the Code as a type of silk. Carefully I split each line of the code one at a time. A total of sixty two lines of code now floated before me. "Now, the hard part. Conversion. This is similar to how people become Admins, but easier. Each line now, you must take into your being one at a time, let it flow into your code and drown in it, become consumed by it, and then, once you sense it is no longer simple code, but code of an Admin, release it." "Um...that makes no sense but okay." I said as a Spider appeared on my wrist and started taking in one line of code at a time carefully. "And they say I think too literal." Alex said, the spider taking in the line of code into me. There was a moment of intense pressure as it went into my skin, into my code. It was strange, code that didn't belong there now present, like… a boat in a calm sea. I was the sea, and this code began to sail across it. Following as what Alex said to do, I forced the waters, my code, to thrash around, tossing and turning the foren code around, finally, sinking into the ocean that was my code. It tried to resurface, but I dragged it down, further and further down as it tried to surface. Once I had dragged it to the bottom, I held it there, where with time I felt it begin to change. Shifting from the code of that blade, to code that felt like an Admin pulsating inside me. It's power grew and it felt like there was the faint presence of an Admin within my code. I now let go, letting it resurface as it now began to flow out of me. Compared to the other code it came from, it now was radiating raw power, dim, faint raw Admin power. “Well...that was...certainly an interesting feeling.” I said while looking over the knife, seeing if it changed at all besides the raw power. "You'll need to convert each line before there is any real results." Alex said. “Alright…” I nodded while taking another strand and doing the same thing another sixty times...this is gonna take a while. It took about two hours, and with the last one for Alex had me fit them all back together. Once that was done I let it all flow back into the knife like with the coin, and when it was done the knife gave off the faint presence of an Admin, just like the coin. "Now, funnel power into it." Alex said. “Um...sure.” I said while grabbing the hilt and slowly funneling power into it, not wanting to go overboard since this was the first attempt. “How much power did you want put into it?” "Start at one percent, and go up one percent til it begins to vibrate violently." I did so, reaching twenty percent, the knife now a claymore of sorts now glowing with power. It also began to violently vibrate now. "Twenty percent of your power. Not bad for a first time attempt." "Well then…" I said honestly. "This is something…" I said while lightly swinging the weapon to feel it's weight and power. It didn't have much weight to it, and power wise would definitely pack a punch. Cutting the power it returned to normal as I placed it away. "That is the basics." Alex said, turning to the door. "I'll go retrieve my reward from Lord then." "You have no idea how much this will help me." I said with a warm smile, turning to face him… and he's gone…"Ah...right then…" I sighed out. "So...now I can maybe help Lord and Cript with what I know." I got up, heading off as I saw Alex walking through a portal Lord had opened up, sighing as it closed. Cript still was nowhere to be seen. "So, it went well?" Lord asked me. “Yep.” I said while lifting the knife. “First attempt, twenty percent.” I said honestly. "Not bad. Cript only got to ten on his first try." Lord said, examining the knife. "So, what's your take on Alex?" “Cold, Calculating, a decent guy to be honest.” I shrugged. “He’s a Scientist who takes his job too seriously...or decided to just throw himself into the deep end after some terrible thing happened. "I don't know all the details. Only Cript does really, but he won't talk." Lord said, placing the knife away. "Mind go fetching him? He still isn't back." “Cause of course he is…” I muttered. “Where would Cript go after...that if I may ask?” "Where he always goes. Top of the Freak Inc. Skyscraper in Connection City. He likes the view." “Alright.” I nodded while opening a DTN. “I shall be right back.” I said before heading to the Freak Inc Skyscraper. It was night time here, for some reason, the moon full and shining down, and the busy sounds of a lively city hit my ears suddenly. The view was nice from here. The city, it's borders the Forest beyond that, and a mountain in the distance. Cript was sitting on the edge of the building. The distance between and the ground made seeing people below difficult. “Sup.” I said while sitting down next to Cript. “How you doing?” He just sighed, not saying anything as he looked off at the view. “You can talk to me, holding it in doesn’t really help.” I said while looking out at the view as well. "Are you really one to talk about not holding in feelings?" Cript asked, his tone sad, but was also joking and slightly sarcastic. “Yes actually, cause I can at least talk about shit that’s really important.” I said simply. “It’s all the tiny shit I keep bottled up at this point.” "Either way, I never wanna see that selfish bastard ever again. Upside to being immortal, you'll outlive your backstabbers." "What happened?" I asked curiously. "Cause the only backstabber that involved you is kind of dead." I said, thinking back to the person who took away Cript's th.Death "... She won't ever wake up again, because of him." Cript said, at first that confused me, until I remembered… the girl in the cage. “How did he do that?” I asked curiously. "I don't know. Spent close to sixty thousand years in a time bubble, trying to reverse it. Nothing. No progress, not even a hint as to what he did." “Everything in Existence is made of Code right?” I asked curiously. “Cause if that’s true...I might be able to figure something out.” "Ben, I've tried everything. Besides, Autumn… Autumn isn't, wasn't like us. She was… different, unique. Not from this existence." “Like you?” I asked honestly. “I mean...seeing Alex, and having more talk about Autumn, which I finally have a name for, it kind of started to piece together, especially from some of the other tidbits I’ve learned over the years.” "... Vincent made me, this body, to be his ultimate weapon. What I was born, was, to him, a happy accident. Course, the me born here and the me born there shared a strong moral compass. But, in the end, it still should have been Autumn." “Either way, I know there is a way to bring her back.” I said honestly. “There’s always a way.” "Even if their was, it wouldn't be her, it would be… the her that body was born into. The Autumn I knew is gone Ben. Simple as that." “Well...looks like it’s time to move on.” I said honestly. “I know that sounds a bit harsh, but would she, the Autumn you knew, want you to still be sulking about her after god knows how long?” "I know she wouldn't. She just up and left us. Not even a goodbye. I just… wanted to know why. Why did she leave?" “Sometimes we’re not lucky to know why some shit happens.” I shrugged. “Even if we try to look for the answers...we both know that no matter how hard you search, some answers can’t be found.” I said softly. "I know… I just hope that, wherever she is in her true home, she's happy." “I’m sure she is, and I have a feeling she’s trying to find that Spark to come back and tell you what happened.” I said honestly. “Everything will be alright.” I said as I put a reassuring hand on his shoulder. "Ten years is a long time to try to find a spark." Cript said, standing up. "Well, guess we best finish those weapons of yours." “Yep, especially when I managed to make my first weapon at twenty percent.” I said with a smile. "Not bad." Cript said, helping me up. To be continued... Nobody goes to Sinnoh“Okay seriously, why is Heart still asleep?” I muttered to myself, checking my status screen and showing that baby Heart is still indeed sleeping inside me, now given that I maxed out Floof Noodles Racial Tree he’s fine but it’s still a little worrying. "Maybe they are in the Realm of dreams?" Consequence offered. “Maybe, I should probably talk to Luna cause the Realm of Dreams isn’t really my jurisdiction...god I really need to go check on the Foretellers one of these days...so much shit’s been going on.” I sighed out. As I checked them again, I noticed a small tab bar next to Hearts page. Tapping it, it showed me two status screens. One was a baby Heart, the other, a current age Heart, awake, and off world apparently. “Oi, when the hell did he make a starfish clone?” I frowned, assuming Heart made a clone instead of something else. "Where are they sire?" I double checked Hearts status and their current Class status is...Pokemon Breeder? “Oh you cheeky bitch, I wanted to go to a Pokemon World for ages.” I frowned while checking which pokemon world he was in cause there were several. I found it, the location was the Sinnoh region. Opening a DTN, I was off. Upon arriving I was warned that this world was apparently not part of the kingdom, so to not be mistaken for a Pokemon, I switched to my Diane form. “Hmm...would it be believable if I can use Aura powers…” I muttered while bringing a hand out and producing a blue sphere of energy. “Yeah, I’m pretty sure it’s fine…” I muttered while the ball disappeared as I put my hands in my pockets and looked around to see where I was specifically. The route I was on looked like a basic pathway between cities or towns, Forrest's of trees on each side, and various pokemon scampering about. It was cute. As I was walking, I checked my Assistant, seeing that Heart was close. Looking ahead I spotted a large hill with a wood log building sticking out of it. “Wonder if he built this...or if he’s just biking around the Pokemon DayCare house at Solaceon Town…” I muttered while heading to the house. “Hello?” I asked while deciding to turn myself into Ben and give myself a more appropriate outfit for the world just so Heart wouldn’t get confused. As they opened the door, Heart looked like they did when they first went to both genders. “Ben? How did you find me?” Heart asked. Their clothes was a long skirt that went down to their ankles, white shoes, a green top and small pink bonnet. “Because stat screens help, but I was also worried about you.” I said honestly. “You’ve been asleep for a while, I was scared you were hurt or something.” "Takes a lot to hurt me. Physically anyway." Heart said. “Well I was still worried.” I said honestly. “But how are you doing?” "Mostly okay. Settling in here was fairly easy. Wanna come in?" “I would love to.” I said with a warm smile. “But you stole my travel to the Pokemon world, how dare you.” I pouted. Inside the log cabin part was just the shop/entrance. It looked links like a pet store. Poffins, berries, some pokeballs and Pokemon eggs were all on display. "Like the set up?" “Looks like the inside of the Day Care if it wasn’t top down all the time.” I said honestly while looking through everything. “So how many shinies hatched?” "A few. Actually." “Cool.” "I'm not gonna lie, I have been using my Admin powers a bit in certain departments." They said with a smile, walking behind the desk and leaning on it. "I went back to earth and managed to find my old Pokemon games, cartage and Roms. I used code to bring them to life and basically did that to start up my business here." “We only got to Gen 5 back on Earth, and I’ve played up to Gen 8 right now...god X and Y was disappointing…” I sighed out. “But why did you pick Sinnoh if I may ask?” "It's my favorite region." “While I do like me some Gen 4, Gen 5 is honestly better.” I shrugged. "Eh." Heart said simply. “Fine fine…” I said while humming for a little bit...only to wave my hand as a Pokeball appeared. “Ah yes, my personal favorite, and my pride and joy.” I smiled warmly. “Mind if I let him outside?” "Sure. Who is it?" “Come on out Silver!” I called out while tossed my Pokeball, and out popped up a Shiny Metagross. “My pride and joy of Pokemon, Silver.” I smiled happily. "Cool." Heart said, patting the Metagross on one of it's legs. "What's their gender?" “It’s Genderless.” I said. “Several pokemon, that aren’t legendaries, are actually genderless, Claydol, Metagross, and Ditto to name a few.” I said honestly. “And yet they can all breed...don’t know how…” “That’s the video games Ben.” Heart said, looking Silver over. “In reality, all pokemon have Genders, but some can only breed under specific cercumstances, conditions, or are Asexual, like Lugia.” Heart said, now walking over to a display with collars. “Oh no, Lugia was specifically stated, even in the Anime, as being Female.” I said honestly while gently patting my Pokemon's head. “But given that Metagross is, at its core, four Beldum fused together, it really doesn’t have a gender.” “Not every world in the multiverse follows the same rules as the anime or games.” Heart said, now with a small pink name tag in their hand. “And this world says your Metagross is a girl.” “Well...that’s interesting.” I said simply. “Who’d a thought…” I muttered while rubbing my hand against the smooth steel that was Silver’s body. I put them back in the pokeball, looking at all the eggs on display here. They had timers for when they will hatch, what Pokemon they will be also. Two Caterpies, Eevee, Riolu. “So are these for clients or something?” I asked curiously, ever so tempted to take the Riolu egg. “Not every trainer who leaves their pokemon here for Daycare want the eggs that pop up when breeding happens. They, like other abandoned pokemon I’ve taken in, are up for adoption.” I proceeded to take the Riolu egg. “This is my Riolu, there are many like it, but this one will be my sunshine child.” I said, which the wording wasn’t supposed to be taken so literal as the egg glowed softly as it got claimed by my magic words. “Damn it…” I sighed out. “Well...now it literally is going to be our sunshine child when it hatches…” “I’m just wondering how I’ll be filing the paperwork for the adoption of that egg now?” Heart pondered. “Well, wanna see the rest?” “Sure, and just say ‘given to husband as gift’.” I said honestly while carrying the egg lovingly. “Yeah… I built a second life here. Can’t say that on the papers. EIther way, this way.” Heart said, leading me into the dug into parts of the daycare. It was a nicely decorated bunker. “There’s the Nursery, where the eggs that are laid are kept and incubated, scanned for what Pokemon they will be and given a timer for when they will hatch. Next to that is the breeding room. Some of the other rooms are for the Pokemon here for Daycare, the others are for the orphans. And then there’s the Clinic.” “Do the pokemon speak english for you?” I asked curiously while heading to the Clinic, worried about what the pokemons conditions would be. “You know, since your magic and also part Pokemon because of my shenanigans in the Tomb of Heroes?” I asked, having taken several Pokemon eggs as my kids. “I can hear them because of the Assistant. Slash connection to hearts. Pokemon hearts and people's hearts are very similar. Only a few differences. You… sure you wanna go in there?” Heart asked as we stood outside the clinic door. “Listen, if I immediately go all MD here...just make sure I don’t go overboard okay?” I asked sheepishly. “Also yes, I have at least seven PHD’s in Medicine for at least a hundred Races of People, so I know my medicine...I was bored, don’t judge me…” “Okay then.” Heart said opening the door. Inside was fair sized, a Lucario, missing an arm and leg bandaged on a bed, a Turtwig bandages on another and a Geodude with a large crack down it’s right arm on the last bed. “That Lucario is that Eggs mother.” Heart said, rubbing the egg I was holding. “She wants them to have a nice home. She lost those limbs against a trainer that wanted to catch her. Keep her from her egg. Geodude there, his trainer made it fight til it’s body cracked. Just left him along the side of a road. Turtwig there was lost. I actually found them while looking for wild berries. Had some bad burns.” I gently handed the egg to Heart and walked over to the sink and started to wash my hands. “Aura can be used as a healing ability right?” I asked calmly. “I doubt you want me to use...those abilities here.” I said simply while making sure my hands were properly disinfected and dried before tending to the injured pokemon. “I doubt you want me using magic or other powers in this world, I can tell this world isn’t apart of our Kingdom.” “I kept it independent because it was so pure. Worlds, like this one, they have their darkness, yes, but… it’s a light rivaling the balance of my own heart. An untouched paradise. Not all paradise’s are perfect.” Heart said, looking at the pokemon here. “But neither are gods.” “Even though the four Gods are of Space, Time, Anti-Matter, and just the literal God himself of this world.” I said simply. “But you didn’t answer my question...even if I can’t do one thing I want to, I can at least help mend some of the injuries.” I said. “Honestly I don’t know. I do have some prosthetics coming in the mail. She’ll be able to walk and pick stuff up, but in terms of fighting she’s not going to be doing much. She agreed to help with this place though. She and Sparkplug.” At that moment, a Luxray came into the room, a small tray on it’s back. Heart gave them a pet. “They were one of my best back in the Platinum game.” "I do like Luxray." I said while gently moving over to the Geodude and softly putting a hand over the crack, my hand glowing a soft blue as the pain in the crack was going down. "I'm not sure if I can mend the crack...but I know I can stop some of the pain." “I managed to talk with Nurse Joy in Veilstone City, she says she can repair the damage but the materials need to arrive first. Once she has them she’ll be here soon to she has them. Turtwig just has some burns. They’ll heal up soon enough.” "Well I'd at least like to stop the pain...it's at least something I can do…" I sighed out. Heart gave a nod as I went to work. Healing up the Lucario some as her injuries were less painful. Same for Geodude. Turtwig’s burns were more healed, mostly it was just the top layer and some scarring now. "Well...that's the best I can do with what I'm allowed…" I sighed out. "It's alright." The Turtwig reassured, nuzzling my hand gently. "Any little bit helps mister." "Heart tell you that?" I asked while petting the grass turtle. “Few If any humans here can understand pokemon, and few Pokemon can speak English or know how to bypass it with telepathy. I tell them stuff, some want to see it someday." "Alrighty then." I nodded. "But I mean, we can teach them English right? Pokemon are naturally smart enough to do it." “Yes, but from what I’ve learned it effect;s their abilities to use moves. They lose their power in exchange for a higher intelligence. Evolution at its basic.” “But humans are technically pokemon.” I said honestly. “Which those legends have been in this region actually, as well as the legend of human and Pokemon literally marrying each other.” “... Never heard of that, and wishing you never even said that.” Heart said. “Are you kidding? It’s in the same town where you have the Darkrai Event.” I said honestly. “Also, Chuggaconroy and Game Theory talked about it...one from an LP and one just to talk about Pokemon theories.” “Nerd.” Heart laughed. “Anyway, so, aside from adopting an Egg into the family… what are you gonna do here?” “Spend time with you.” I said honestly. “Cause we haven’t done a one on one in a while.” I shrugged. “I guess.” Heart said, their Sparkplug giving cups with water to the pokemon here. “I’ll be back later guys.” Heart said. I followed them to the daycare room. Here there was a lot of pokemon, all in beds of sorts what have a Pokeball on a shelf near them. “And this is where they all sleep?” I asked softly, looking over at all the pokemon in the room. “The ones who are left for Daycare or Breeding. This is the boys room, the girls is down the hall.” “Well...I probably shouldn’t go that way cause...well Cherubim DNA and all…” I said sheepishly. “And it’s technically beastiality… don’t be the dog you look like is what I mean here Ben.” Heart said as they closed the door. “For the most part, my daily routine is the same. Wake them up, feed them, put the breeding ones in the breeding room, let the daycare ones play and use the Pokemon Gym, and the orphans mostly play and practice their moves.” “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “Also, there are plenty of humanoid Pokemon that is a very fine line when you actually look at it.” I said. “Looking at you Lopunny…” I muttered. “... Right…” Heart said, heading back to the front of the place. “For the most part, the pokemon manage themselves and all I really do is keep them fed, healthy and whatever else their trainers or owners ask of me.” “Sounds simple enough.” I said honestly. “But how much of...our world did you tell the pokemon if I may ask?” “Nothing much. Magic and that was kinda it. As far as the Code and stuff we do, if they see me doing it I tell them it’s new tech from the Pokemon PC’s. Given it literally converts them into data while inside a Pokeball.” “Sounds simple enough.” I said honestly. “I was just going to hold myself to Aura powers, but is there some wiggle room for magic?” I asked curiously. “Low level types of magic, like the basic Cure spell could pass for a Pokemon move.” Heart said with a shrug. “Simple enough.” I said honestly. “I mean, if I knew that then I...well maybe not healed the Lucario so much, but I could have mended Geodudes crack if that was allowed.” I said honestly. “Nurse Joy has that covered once that materials she needs arrives.” “Alright.” I nodded. “But has anything...weird happened when you were here? Also how long have you been here?” “No, not really. And since we were at that Library. When I threw a book at your face I bit the tip of my tail off and tossed it under your desk. It grew into this clone body and once the first me dived down your throat, and you left, I came here.” “Could have at least told me.” I said honestly. “You got me worried something bad happened when you fell asleep.” “I know, but I just wanted to be alone, live a normal life without worrying about war or politics or to even see another Keyblade for a while.” “I understand.” I nodded. “I’m the one that’s supposed to be doing everything like that right?” I asked, Heart knowing full well that, even though I liked the work, I was also tired of all the bullshit that’s been going on. “We are all the rulers, that was the point of the Grand Royal Crown, but even with the workload divided, it’s a lot.” "Well I still do a lot of crap given I'm the face of it half the time." I said honestly. "And for taking all that attention away from me, I thank you." Heart said, giving me a peck on the cheek. "All I can say is, as a Den Mother I can rock any outfit." I chuckled. "And it's not just the chest fluff?" Heart asked slyly. "My chest fluff is silky smooth and you love it, even if it didn't also have the big titties." "It's your most notable feature though." Heart said, smiling as they went behind the desk and sorting through some stuff back there. "So, you're gonna wanna explore the place?" "A little yeah." I said honestly. "But...had any of the Legendaries dropped by sensing your power?" I asked curiously. "I'm good at hiding it. And aside from the few I took from my games, no." “Well I’m sure someone is going to notice two holes of power…” I said honestly. “Wonder if it’ll be Arceus...wonder if he even knows about half the shit we do considering he’s this worlds Creator.” "Don't know, don't care." Heart said, pulling up a small bag. “Fine fine, what’s in the bag?” I asked curiously. "Well, Don't Tell me you don't want to go out and see a Pokemon world, right?" They asked, placing three pokeballs on the table. "Pick one." “I mean, I have Silver, but am I allowed to know what’s in each ball?” I asked curiously while looking at the three pokeballs. "It's a starter, but they are each from a different region. Besides, popping out that giant shiny calls too much attention." I took all three and tossed them all out in an open area. “Come on out you three.” I called out while seeing the three pokeballs open up for the three starters. The water type was Squirtle, the fire type was Torchic, and the grass type was a Snivy. I immediately took the Torchic pokeball. “Yeah, there’s no way I wasn’t picking my favorite starter of all time.” I said honestly. "Well, name them." She said, pulling out a collar with a pink name tag. “Moegami.” I said with a smile, writing down the name on the name tag. "Enjoy your Moegami then. She already knows ember as well as scratch." “Sweet.” I smiled warmly while giving Heart a quick peck on the cheek. “Best wife ever.” "Head off then." She said, putting the other two away as she handed me the bag, about ten more Pokeballs in there in a different pocket. "Those are all empty." “I’d say come join me...but your busy with the DayCare.” I said honestly, a little sad about that little fact but knowing it is what it is. "Yeah… I'd rather not be a trainer either." “Why is that?” I asked while letting my Torchic hop onto my arm and then to my shoulder. "I'm good at fighting, battles, but I don't like them." “I understand...but here, battles don’t have to be something that you hate, it’s just a simple thing of skill and the bond between yourself and your Pokemon right?” I asked. “That’s how it’s always been for Pokemon.” "I know. But, I finally get to live my life, my way." “I understand.” I nodded. “I won’t push it, you do you...but give me a message about when Nurse Joy gets here, and I’ll get here as fast as I can, might as well learn how to take care of Pokemon while I’m at it ya know?” "If you want." Heart said. “Alright.” I nodded. “Well, I’ll be back, just...call me if you need me alright?” "Okay." I gave Heart a quick hug. “Love you.” I said gently. “But...what town are we closest to? Like...how far from the first gym?” "It doesn't work like that here Ben, they check your pokemon and pick which ones are at your level for the battle. Keeps it fair so there isn't a real order." “Um...what would they think of Silver then?” I asked nervously, having planned to take Silver with me as well on my little journey. "I dunno. But to battle gym leaders you do need to register first as a trainer." “That’s going to be a little tough, don’t really know where to find a trainer registry.” I said honestly. "It's all online or at any Pokemon center." “You’d think they’d still do mostly paperwork all things considered…” I pointed out. “But you got a PC I can use for this?” "Yeah, but that's only for Pokemon storage system access." “Fine fine.” I nodded. “So gonna need to head to a Pokemon center...wherever that is.” I said honestly. “Seriously...where’s the closest Pokemon Center?” "Valestone city to the East of here." “Oh, that’s where the Fighting Gym leader is right?” I asked curiously. "Yeah." “Alrighty then, might as well get going to Valestone to get my trainer license.” "Good luck then." Heart said. “Alright.” I nodded. “How long of a walk is it to Valestone from here?” I asked curiously. "Four hours by foot. One or one and a half by bike." Heart answered. “Eh, walking never killed anyone.” I shrugged simply. “Hopefully this’ll be a nice fun day.” "Should be. At least the radio says it should." “And that’s when the creepy shit happens.” I chuckled. “Seriously, Pokemon has some weirdly creepy easter eggs if you know where to look.” "Like the abandoned mansions? Or some Pokemon enteries?" "Yes." I said honestly. "Or the ghost people...cause that's also a thing." "Yeah… well, have fun." "I will." I nodded while heading out. "See you later." "Later." As I began my walk east to Valestone City, I decided to have Moegami with me walking. “So, what do you think of my wife Moegami?” I asked my Torchic buddy. “She’s nice, keeps us happy and fed.” The Torchic replied, walking along next to me in an almost march type walk. "She is a wonderful person." I chuckled warmly. "Has she told you anything about if she traveled?" I asked curiously. “No, far as I know she’s always been at the Daycare, only ever leaves to shop in the city or find wild berries.” “Alright.” I nodded. “So what can you tell me about yourself? Like favorite food or stuff like that?” “I like sweet foods.” Torchic said. “I also hate Zigzagoons.” “Why do you hate Zigzagoons?” I asked curiously. “When I was a wild Pokemon, there was a pack of Zigzagoons that always stole my food.” “Ah.” I nodded. “That sounds annoying.” I nodded in sympathy. “I was caught by a wandering trainer chasing them off. Got traded, the next thing I knew Heart had me. Guess the trainer who traded for me here in Sinnoh didn’t like me that much.” “Sounds about right.” I nodded. “But don’t know why, only known you a little bit and I can tell your a great pokemon.” “Don’t know. I didn’t even get to meet her. I came out of my pokeball two days later after the trade at Heart’s Daycare. She said a trainer came by and dropped me off, just put my ball on the desk and left before any paperwork could be filled.” “Well that’s not nice.” I frowned. “Abandoning a Pokemon isn’t good...even if they’re left in good hands.” “I don’t mind, it was a real surprise being from Hoenn my whole life and suddenly I’m in Sinnoh.” “Yeah that would be quite a surprise.” I shrugged. “I like it here, no annoying Zigzagoons, and all the Bidoofs make me laugh. They’re all silly.” “Yeah, they are silly.” I chuckled while seeing some Starly’s flying through the sky. “The world is a very big place.” I sighed out warmly, just enjoying the fresh air on this bright sunny day. “I wonder if anyone has ever seen it all, every region and every Pokemon?” Moegami asked. “I’m sure someone has.” I said honestly. "What about you? Do you want to see it all?" “Of course.” I said honestly. “Seeing it all would be very interesting and fun.” "I'd want to fight a Legendary Pokemon. Like Ho-oh or MewTwo. That way, I could become one." “Really?” I asked curiously. “Is that how it works?” "I don't know, but if I can fight them and win, then I would at least be acknowledged as one, right?" “Sounds simple enough I suppose.” I shrugged. “A simple but good goal.” "What's your goal? What do you dream of doing or becoming?" “That’s...quite a difficult thing to say…” I said honestly. "How come?" “Because I have a lot of things in mind for what I want to do in life…” I said simply. “But the simplest one I can say...is being with my family and make sure they’re all happy and healthy.” Nodding, Moegami and I after a good walkade it to Valestone City. It was better than the games and even the anime. So lively and vibrant. I found the Pokemon center easily, Nurse Joy behind the desk. “Hello.” I said while my torchic hopped onto my arm and stood on my shoulder. “Mind if I ask how to get a Trainer Card?” I asked politely. "Certainly. You're over ten right?" Nurse Joy asked. “Yes I am.” I nodded. “A little late to the game but you know...helping the love of my life with her DayCare can do that.” I chuckled. "Oh? Are you Heart's Boyfriend? I didn't even know she was dating." Nurse Joy said, taking out a form from behind the desk. "Fill this out and I'll fax it in." “Yeah, she didn’t want to talk about me given I tend to spoil her.” I chuckled while filling out the form. “Also I tend to be out and about looking for stuff for the Daycare so I’m not fully there…” "Ah. Lost and hurt pokemon then? How nice. Oh, that reminds me." Nurse joy then placed an Ultra Ball on the desk. "Someone left this here for treatment two days ago and hasn't come back. I asked around and apparently they earned the gym bag then left town. I was going to send it to her, but if you'll take them or at least pass it over to her." “Oh? What Pokemon is it?” I asked curiously while picking up the Ultra Ball. “Can I bring them out or are they too big for the building?” I asked curiously. "It's a Pichu, but this Pichu is a tad… different." She said as I took them out. It had a spiky ear. "I tried grooming the fur on its ear but nothing I did kept it down. I don't even know where they could have caught it." I looked at the little Pichu, finding this Pokemon strangely familiar. “Hello there.” I said while kneeling down. “How are you doing?” I asked the Pichu. The Pichu looked at me for a moment, then pointed at me. "You smell just like them! Like Celebi!" They said, though only I heard them as they now ran in joy in a circle. "Awh. They like you." Nurse Joy said. I blinked at hearing that. “Excuse me, did you just say...Celebi?” I asked the Pichu, even as I held my chest at how adorable the Pichu was acting. "What was that?" Nurse Joy asked. Right, she can't hear them. “It’s nothing.” I gently shook my head while managing to catch the excited Pichu. “Hi there.” I said to the pokemon. “How you doing?” "I'm so happy! I haven't been outside of my Pokeball in a while! Save for when Nurse Joy feeds me and lets me play." "Did you finish the form yet?" Nurse Joy asked me. “Yes I did.” I said while showing her the finished form in very neat handwriting. "Okay." She said, taking it. "Once I fax this in I'll need a photo for the hard license, but if you want a Pokedex you'll have to travel to Professor Rowan's lab for one." She said, taking the paper and heading to the back. “Thank you.” I nodded while looking back at the Pichu. “So...about that Celebi?” "Huh?" Pichu asked, looking back at me. "I said you smell like Celebi. Not completely but similar." “Why do you say that?” I asked curiously while walking over to a chair to talk to the Pichu. "Because you smell like them." “How do you know what Celebi smells like?” I asked curiously. "We used to play a lot together. We were playing when I got caught." “Where was Celebi?” I asked nervously. “And no, I’m not going to catch Celebi...just making sure they don’t get caught.” "We were playing in a large Forrest back in Joto. It's where we always played." “Ah...that’s very far away.” I said honestly. “Right now we’re in Sinnoh...no idea how you got all the way here...” “Me neither.” Pichu said. “Well I’m sure I’ll figure out how to get you back to your friend.” I said honestly. “Or maybe my wife if we go back to the DayCare.” “I hope so. I miss Celebie.” “Don’t worry, I’ll get you back.” I said while picking up the Pichu. “I’m sure Heart will know something.” I said honestly. “It’s ready. We just need your Photo now.” Nurse Joy said, calling from a side door next to the desk. ”Cute lady telling me to get into a side room...I know it probably won’t happen but...really?” I thought to myself at my thoughts on her wording and place as I stood up and headed into the side room. The room was a simple office, a large plain background with a camera set up a foot or so away. “Just stand by the wall there.” Nurse Joy said. I nodded while letting the Pichu down and Moegami off of my shoulder as I stood in front of the camera. I gave a smile as she took the Photo, then went to her PC as she then printed out my Trainer Licence. “And here you go, and here is your Badge case. This ID will work in any region league just show it to any Pokemon Center for a new badge case.” She said, handing me the ID and badge case. “Cool.” I nodded. “Thank you Nurse Joy.” I said with a smile. “You’re welcome.” Nurse Joy said with a nod. “And Maylene, the gym leader is out for the time being. Someone broke into her gym last night and wrecked the place.” “Do you know who would do such a thing?” I asked nervously, finding that rather strange someone would vandalise a gym. “Don’t know. Her Pokemon tier vault was pried open, but she takes them home every night. She has some pokemon of various strength depending on how many gym badges the challenging trainer has. It’s a rule of Gym leaders so all fights are fair.” “Um...is there any laws against anyone looking into the event?” I asked curiously. “Like any Good Samaritan stuff?” I asked, hoping that saying also applied here. “You’d have to talk to an officer, but without at least two gym badges they likely won’t take you on as a civilian consultant.” “Right then.” I nodded. “Good to know that.” I said, already having a feeling I’ll just do my own thing to find the Culprit, but also thanking god that my Cherubim side wasn’t affecting anyone. “Thank you Nurse Joy, you have a wonderful day.” I nodded while taking my two pokemon and heading out. “You as well.” Nurse Joy said as I headed out. So, someone wrecked her gym… what for? Doubt it was an angry trainer. I headed over to the gym to get a look. Outside it was alright looking, inside was a mess. Some burns, broken punching bags and heavy weights twisted. Definitely Pokemon were used. “Hmm…” I hummed softly while looking around, seeing if there were any other clues that the Officers missed. ”Scan…” I thought to myself as my eyes glowed a soft green as I scanned the entire area for anything of importance. I blinked a bit, seeing all kinds of footprints, the code aiding my scan. Ten pairs of police shoes, seven trainers, the gym leader herself. Not a single foot or boot print that isn’t a ten year old. Psychic types. Only thing that makes sense. I know they can be powerful, but no psychic residue. Must have faded already. “Hmm…” I hummed while sensing the code and trying to find each file of the trainers cause I know the officers wouldn’t do this and the Gym Leader wouldn’t have either. With that acquired, I read through each file. Maylene has seven trainers in her gym. According to these files these trainers are meant to train here and act as challenges to trainers who are not strong enough to beat her. The strongest, Danny, has a Machop and an Infernape, and is in line to take over when Maylene retires and often coveres as the gym leader when she’s off elsewhere. Her pokemon respect and obey him just like here. So far the other trainers are either local kids that didn’t want to leave home for a Pokemon journey, or adults with some skills for part time work. “Well...might as well double check on Danny because he’s the only one with a fire type that could cause this…” I muttered to myself while leaving the Gym and trying to find where Danny was. After finding his house, a small apartment that was downtown. I knocked on the door. Danny opened. He was about my height, brown hair gelled back and wearing a black shirt and sweatpants. “Who are you?” He asked. “Hi, my name’s Ben.” I introduced politely, Danny seeing Moegami on my shoulder. “I heard what happened to the Gym and was wondering if you or Maylene knew anything about it.” I said, sounding more like a new trainer asking the second in command about what happened and when the Gym was gonna come back up. “Psst. I wish. If I knew I’d have beaten the snot out of the punks.” He said, punching the door. “Maylene is adored in this city. If those rumors are true then I swear.” “Rumors?” I asked curiously, finding that a little interesting. “Yeah. While ago I heard news that Team Rocket was seen in Snowpoint. Plasma was seen in Twinleaf Town of all places, and Galactic was seen running again, took back their old buildings. That I know for a fact. Their old building here in town is back up and running. Under renovations.” "Well...that's concerning and...rather weird." I said honestly, wondering what Rocket and Plasma are doing in the Sinnoh Region.n "Tell me about it. Word around is that either they are teaming up or about to fight for territory. Either way it looks like a lot of towns and cities are going to be in the middle of it if it's true." “Well that’s not good…” I said worriedly. “Is there anything anyone can do to stop it before it gets too far?” I asked nervously, silently putting four more of my favorite Pokemon in their pokeballs in my bag. "So far while they have been seen nothing criminal has been seen, unless you count the gym being trashed, but there was no leads there from what I heard." “Really? No leads?” I asked curiously. “Cause it looked like a Fire Type trashed the place considering all the burn marks on the place.” I pointed out. "Yeah, heard about that. Police said the physical Damage had to be a psychic type though. Can't really think of a Pokemon who is Fire and Psychic though. Actually, come to think of it it was strange that only one area had some fire damage and not even bad damage either." I blinked. “Uh...have you heard of a Pokemon called Darmanatan?” I asked curiously. “Red fur, ape looking pokemon, fire for eyebrows?” I asked curiously. "I usually stick to Sinnoh pokemon. I don't know all that much about the other regions." “I mean, it would be good to brush up considering Team Plasma, as far as I heard, is from the Unova region.” I said "Huh, good point. Well I wish I knew more, but I don't. Maylene and some detective called Looker were talking when I arrived, so you can talk to Maylene for more info or if ya can find Looker." “Thank you.” I nodded. “Where is Maylene when she’s not the Gym leader?” I asked curiously, even though I knew full well might as well play dumb for now. "Usually having a jog or at her place working out with her Pokemon." “And her place is where?” I asked, wondering why some people thought just saying ‘at her place’ was answer enough even if I’m playing dumb. "It's on the other side of town. Building is called Text Apartments. Can't miss it, massive fountain entrance." “Thank you.” I nodded. “Well, have a nice day, hope all this doesn’t escalate further.” I said, honestly hoping that it doesn’t escalate before I get a chance to stop it. I rushed over to Text Apartments. Maylene was here, her apartment also basically a smaller gym. "So, what reason are you looking into my Gym's incident?" Maylene asked, chugging a water bottle. “I mean, besides wondering if people are okay?” I asked curiously. “But besides that, it would probably be the rumors of Team Plasma and Rocket about to have a Turf War in the middle of your city, and Plasma probably destroying your Gym with a Darmanatan.” I said honestly. “And how I know that? I help someone important to me with her Daycare, get all sorts of Pokemon.” "Heart's Daycare?" “Yep, she doesn’t talk about me much but…” I said while looking down at our wedding ring. “She means the world to me.” I muttered, before shaking my head. “I’m sorry for derailing the conversation, talking about Heart isn’t why I’m here.” "She's a good daycare person. Saw that poor Lucario she's looking after. Was thinking of adopting her. Well, as for the gym I don't know. I told the police everything and the cameras were smashed." “Have you ever seen a Darmanatan before?” I asked curiously. “Unova Pokemon, ape looking, fire for eyebrows?” I asked curiously. “Know anyone that might have one?” "Uh… yeah. Kinda fat too right?" “Yes.” I nodded. “Know anyone that might have that thing? Cause there’s only 3 pokemon I know that can do Psychic and Fire attacks like that, and one of them is a Mythical and as far as I know rumors haven’t talked about anything from Kalos.” I explained. "Well, there was this one guy I remember seeing outside the gym. The park across from the gym. He just sat there all day with the Pokemon out. But it was weird looking. It's flames were black and fur almost ashy. Right out of a nightmare. One of my trainers got this picture while out there for lunch." She said, looking through her phone before handing it to me… Cript? No, this one has dark hair, black, with green eyes. The pokemon beside him did look right out of a Creepypasta. I frowned at seeing that. “That’s...weird…” I said as I looked closely at the picture, secretly trying to find the Code of the two just from the picture cause this was worrying. “I’ve never seen a Pokemon like that…” "Me neither. About make be choke on my lemonade when I saw it." Maylene said. I wasn't able to get code off of it… but I did find Void. Faint but there from the image of the two. ”I thought Heart said this world was free from this shit?” I thought to myself worriedly. “Either that is the cause...or something else...and I’m very worried about what this could mean…” "I showed that to the police. They couldn't find him. Think he's the jerk who trashed my gym?" “Either that, or he’s responsible for the growing turf war somehow…” I said nervously. "Yeesh. Don't remind me." Maylene sighed. Suddenly, the whole building shook. "Yeep! The heck was that?!" She yelled, getting herself off the floor. "Felt like an earthquake." I got up, heading to the window. I saw someone down below, a Crystal Gravler by their side. “The shit…” I muttered while opening the window. “Come on out Salamence.” I said while tossing the pokeball, out pupping the red winged dragon as I hopped onto it. “Get everyone out of here, I don’t know how strong this thing is, so best be safe.” I said while flying down towards the Crystal Gravler. “Yo, the fuck!?” I called out. "Stay out of this." He said, the crazy Gravler looking at me, and then fired off a massive Shadow Ball. Yeah that's not a move it should know. “Salamance Flamethrower!” I commanded as the Salamance breathed a stream of fire that collided with the Shadow Ball and caused a small explosion. I quickly tapped my Assistant and called up Heart. “Please pick up…” I muttered worriedly. “Excuse me asshole, mind explaining all of this?” I asked while looking down at the guy again. He wore a black suit, blue hat and had green hair with blue eyes. "Like I said, it's none of your business!" The Gravler's hands glowed, suddenly Salamance was brought crashing to the ground. Gravity too?! “No, it is my business.” I said while tossing out my second Pokemon. “Let’s go Golisopod!” I called out as a Samurai looking insect appeared and let out a battle cry. “Use First Impression.” I said, the pokemon glowing slightly before blurring in front of the Crystle Graveler and slashing down at it with a crap ton of force. The Gravler was pushed back, but it also bounced back, giving a swift Revenge punch to my pokemon, sending it flying back into a building. Golisopod got out of the wall, still awake before going back into the ball and out popping Silver. “Good enough.” I said honestly. “I’m going to ask this again, what the hell are you doing? Cause yes this does concern me and it is my business cause you attacked me.” "Only because you got in the way." They replied. “Who are you?” I asked, hoping to god Heart will pick up as I saw the ‘calling’ symbol on my HUD. “And what did you do to your pokemon?” "It's not mine. New boss gave it to me." He said, the thing using Earthquake, some buildings cracking and the ground broke in four. "Said it needed a field test." I was flying up on Salamance after Gravity wore off and Silver used Psychic on itself to float above the earthquake. “Okay yeah, screw hiding.” I said while hopping onto Silver and putting a hand on Metagross. “Use Brick Break.” I said as Silver raised it’s arm up as it glowed, only for Nothingness thorns to wrap around it as it slammed down into the Graveler, causing the thing’s body to twitch at the sudden introduction of it’s opposite before getting sent straight into the ground hard, causing a small crater to form in the ground. "Tsk. Well, guess it's better to see what this thing can really do. Mutate." The Gravler shot out of the hole, it's body shifting from a crystal color to pitch black, cracking and breaking, shifting until it took a… glitchy… familier form. That is fucking Missingno! “Excuse me, how the fuck did you get a Missingno!?” I asked worriedly. “Who are you, and who are you working for?” "Do I look like a dumb grunt to you? Hyperbeam now!" He yelled, the Missingno shooting it off right into Silver's face. Even with the type advantage that hit him hard. “Well, you can give a little bit of a fight.” I said while pulling out another pokeball, Nothingness softly wrapping around the ball. “Come on out Gallade!” I called out while throwing my pokeball, the psychic fighting Pokemon coming out with a battle cry, it’s arm blades glowed a soft white. “Use Psycho Cut!” I called out as it’s arm blades glowed before chucking two blades of Nothingness infused Psychic energy, hitting Missingno hard as well as causing it to flicker a bit more from Nothingness affecting it’s Void. “Salamence use Dragon Pulse.” I said as Salamance breathed a stream of Draconic energy, Nothingness thorns trailing along the pulses as it sped towards the glitch pokemon. “Reflect!” The trainer commanded, the wall of energy appearing and bouncing the Dragon Pulse off it and back at Salamance. “That’s not how Reflect works.” I frowned as Salamence dodged it. “Reflect, in this world, decreases physical damage, not reflecting attacks.” I explained. “I don’t care if it’s Missingno, it still follows the rules of the lands.” “Rules can break.” They said; the glitch suddenly at the center of a large portal. Void dripping from the thing and soon, emerged a large skeletal abomination. “Of course…” I muttered before getting off of Salamance and floating in midair. “You really want to continue?” I asked, the trainer having a feeling he was getting way over his head right now. ”Jesus christ Heart just pick up!” I mentally yelled as I still saw the ringing symbol in my HUD. “Heh.” The trainer Smirked. “It’s what the boss wants. Rune’s Order-Gah!” I blinked, suddenly seeing Heart standing behind the trainer, X through his torso, and soon appearing and impaling themselves into him were many other keyblades, his blood gushing till the stain of blood was all that remained; Heart standing there, still gripping X, emotionless. “Don’t mention that name.” They said, finally. “Finally, I’ve been calling you for five minutes.” I frowned while a Shiny Scolipede came out of the building with all the people from the ruined apartment on it’s back safe. Heart said nothing, but Disbanded their Keyblades, then snapped their fingers. We were back at the Daycare now. “Everything’s fixed. Memories wiped, portal closed.” “Cool.” I sighed out. “Could have answered though…” I muttered. “So, with that ‘fix’, did it involve Team Plasma and Rocket from spreading...a lot farther than they should?” “I didn’t touch them. I try and not to get involved unless I have to.” Heart said, getting back behind the counter.” “Alright.” I nodded. “But from what I heard they sound like their gonna have a turf war in Town soon.” I said honestly. “But I’ll try and break it up before it escalates too far.” “If you want.” “Alright.” I nodded. “But...Nexus here?” I asked worriedly. “Let’s hope that was the only guy here…” “Doubt it.” Heart said, resting their arms on the desk then head on their head down also. “This is the ninth incident since I got here.” I sighed out. “I think it’s time we bring this world in if this is the ninth time. Either they think something weird is going on with this world, or they know your here.” I said as the two of us felt a strong presence just outside the Daycare. “And I guess that’s our cue to meet Arceus…” I sighed out. “They know I’m here.” Heart sighed. “That other Cript and… Rune walked into the Daycare day one of it’s openings.” “Well that’s not good…” I sighed out while walking over to the door and seeing the God Horse itself, Arceus. “Hi, welcome to Heart’s Daycare, how may I help you?” I asked politely. “You know full well why I’m here.” Arceus said simply. “May I come in?” The God asked. “Heart? God wants to know if it can enter.” I called out to Heart. “Sure. Why not.” Heart sighed. “Then please, come in.” I nodded while stepping aside, letting the legendary Pokemon in. “How much do you two know?” Arceus asked simply, his words not really pointing to one thing but me and Heart could tell what he truly meant. “How much do we know about Keyblades and the war?” I asked curiously. At the Pokemon nod I sighed out. “Well to start, Kingdom Hearts is standing right there.” I pointed to Heart which caused the Pokemon’s eyes to widen. “B-but...how?” It asked in shock. “Long, poorly written story.” Heart said. “Your story is better written than mine.” I rolled my eyes. “But after that, I’m the King of Nothingness.” I said while the God took a step back. “I...tried to distance myself after the War...it lasted for so long...why now?” Arceus asked worriedly. “Spin the wheel and win an enemy.” Heart said. “If it’s not one thing it’s another and it never fucking ends.” “So...what are you going to do now?” Arceus asked. “Cause...if they have tainted Missingno with Void…” He trailed off worriedly. "I'm not doing anything." Heart stated. "This place was supposed to be MY sanctuary from this BS. Let the king who does it all himself clean it up, proved his self worth he constantly questions." I looked at Heart. “What?” I asked slowly. “What does that...have to do with what’s currently going on?” "I'm pissed, it doesn't, emotions are not my strong suit." “You say this is supposed to be your sanctuary...but you said this is the ninth time Nexus has done this…” I said slowly. “So...what does this magically have to do with me?” I asked, pretty sure the ‘king who proved his self worth he constantly questions’ was directed at me. "Because… I can't deal with Rune." Heart said, bashing a hand against the desk. "Day one, she walks in here, I had the perfect, PERFECT, chance to kill her… and I choked. I killed my own grandfather for fucks sake and if my brother was here I'd kill him too… and I couldn't kill her." “That’s because you still love her.” I stated bluntly. “With your brother and grandfather, you and many of your family members would happily skinned both of them alive, but with Rune? You’re emotionally attached...hoping there is someway to bring her, the Rune you originally loved, back into your loving arms...even if she’s a backstabbing, cold hearted cunt, you still hold onto hope she’s still the same Rune you love…” I explained softly. “Is that all true or am I just massively over reading it?” "It is… and you don't have to wonder too much on where she got the Missingnos…" “Either she used Void to collect them...or you just handed her them in some vague bout of ‘I hope she can read between the lines’.” I said honestly. “Which one’s true?” I asked simply. "Close. I had a copy of Pokemon Blue I fixed the save battery so it can save. I glitched it for items, New, and when I got them all caught a Missingno cause, yeah, you can catch that thing. After she left that other Cript person must have slipped it from my room." “And who is this new Cript if I may ask? Did Rune give anything about it?” I asked curiously. "No. Between my emotions all hitting at once and her… outfit~" Heart said, face turning red as they started staring off. I facepalmed. “And you call me a horndog…” I muttered. “Listen, I know you wanted this place to be somewhere you can calm down and ‘be a nobody’, but…” I sighed out before putting a gun on the table with two bullets, one’s bullet glowed a soft pinkish white, while the other was a blackish red. “You either put a bullet in Rune’s head and be done with it...or you put a bullet in the heart and spark something. I don’t even need to tell you what each bullet does...but it’s either you do what you need to, to either end her or save her, or she ends you…” I said sadly, hating to have to force Heart into this situation. "I can't Ben. She mothered my kids, I can't kill her." “It’s either I try to do this as tenderly and bluntly as I can...or Rune forces your hand.” I stated. “At this point, it’s all up to you...even if we both want to save everyone…” I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. “There are just some that can’t be saved, either because of who they are, their own choices, or because you won’t take the most simple, yet hardest step forward.” "If it was Coco, could you do it?" “Who do you think was the first to act against those three?” I asked. “Coco hesitated when I took that step, showing me that she still honestly cared...what will Rune do when you take that step?” I asked. "We share memories Ben, I saw what you saw in Coco's memories and when you ran into Rune in that dungeon. We both know she's doesn't care." “But one thing she will care about...is her control over your emotions.” I said. “Did she get a kick out of you being unsure about everything?” I asked curiously. “Just by her standing right in front of you?” "I don't know. I couldn't read her. She mostly just… flaunted her chest at me." “And you call me the horndog.” I huffed. “But...my point still stands. It’s all up to you at this point Heart...I know you’ll do the right thing.” "What even is right anymore?" “Your heart knows.” I said honestly. “But it won’t happen right now, or soon...but it’ll happen, and I know you’ll do what you think is right.” "Well, whatever the case, so much for my safe place. So, should I crack open the vault?" “That’s up to you.” I said. “But what I do know...is that this world is either going to be taken over by Nexus, or it’s going to be under our care, and right now Arceus is the one that needs to answer that.” I said. “I’ll...need to talk to all my children, the many Legendaries will want to hear of this…” Arceus said as he vanished in a small flash of light. "So… you even gonna ask what the vault is?" Heart asked me. “What is the Vault then?” I asked curiously. "Well, I'm a hacker. I hacked my games often. Pokemon was always the most fun." “So you have all Pokemon at max level, max iv’s and shiny?” I asked curiously. "Shiny, non shiny and each evolution form for those who do evolve." “Cool, and I’m going to bring up all the pokemon I’ve gotten through the many, many games.” I said honestly. “Sure their all not perfect like yours, but they are max level and great at what they do.” "I only did that after I got a little bored." "Sounds about right." I nodded. "So how long do you think Arceus will take with all the important Legendaries?" I asked curiously. "Dunno. So, wanna see them? I've got an Idea." Heart said, heading to the back as I followed. “Sure, I’d love to see them.” I nodded. “And what’s the idea?” I followed Heart down the back and to a closet, opening a hidden trap door down a fairly long ladder down to a… big bunker. "Old Habits." Heart stated as I followed them through it. “Trust me, old habits are sometimes a good thing.” I said honestly. “So, are you’re super strong Pokemon are in this bunker?” "Yup. Among other things." Heart said. We entered a room filled wall to wall with Pokemon cartridge games, in box and out. "One of the few things I admit to stealing." Heart said, seeing that indeed a Pokemon Blue from the loose cartridge boxes was missing. "If they're using Void Corrupted Missingno from my collection, then let's fight fire with fire. Or rather, fire with water." Heart said, picking up a Pokemon Red as the flowed Nothingness into it. “This is going to end well I just know it.” I chuckled. “Also...if Missingno comes out as a hot chick...I blame you.” "Which reminds me. Seriously? A Keyblade that turned anything it kills into a… Healthy woman? The infant one I get but… seriously?" “That was Jericho’s idea, not mine.” I said with my hands raised in a ‘I didn’t do it’ fashion. “I was the one that dumbed down the...first version cause seriously that seemed a tad too wrong.” "Either way." Heart said, soon code flowed from the game cartridge and out before us. The glitch Pokemon itself now before us, pulsating Nothingness. "Your territory from here." “Alright…” I nodded while putting a hand on the glitched pokemon. “How are you doing today?” I asked the thing simply, hoping to get a response of some sort from it. It didn't actually talk at all. From what I can read if it's code, it was just… a haze. Like there was countless minds with not a single one knowing how to properly operate their body or even thoughts. “Here…” I said while closing my eyes and gently helping the Pokemon, using my power to help...streamline the minds in it to start working together instead of unsure of what to do. “This maybe weird...but let’s hope it works…” As I was working on it's mind, I realized that this glitch was a heavy amalgamation of the original 150 Pokemon. Using this I did some sorting, fixing. The glitch now carefully taking form something like Rattata, but kept the glitch colors. "A Rattata?" Heart asked. “I had to sort through 150 minds, and this was the form it decided to take.” I said honestly. “Feeling better?” I asked the Rattata. It nodded, seeming to move around fairly well. It them sneezed, cute… sneezed a Rare Candy. "Ha." Heart laughed. “It’s sneeze was cute...but my sixth item was a Rare Candy?” I asked curiously. "Doubt it." Heart said, picking it up, suddenly the one candy split into a crap ton that covered the floor. “Well then…” I started. “That happened.” I said simply. "I think I know what happened here. By stabilizing its code it can multiply and select items from it's original game. It's endless items like it was normally but now it can choose items to multiply." “That’s interesting...wonder if I can do it to the other 149 pokemon…” I hummed with some thought. "Maybe." Heart said, sweeping up the candies. "That aside, now let's get started." “Alright.” I nodded. “This is going to be a fun day.” To be continued... Nobody talksLord and Cript were still much better at this than I was, but I was at least able to help in small parts. Cript actually ended up borrowing an idea from the Shield and Spear Heroes world. To add to that my weapons all now also came with similar gems to theirs on their weapons. "This spell matrix is unbelievable." Cript said with a smirk as he was working on Frozen Pride. “Oh?” I hummed curiously. “What do you mean?” I asked curiously, looking over at what was special about Frozen Pride. "Well, for starters these gems on the weapons aren't just rare, they're straight up raw code condensed and forged into a solid form. The weapons themselves are actually nothing special, it's all the gem. It's like putting a jet engine on top of a Model T car and somehow it works. An Admin made these things clearly. It's basically an early version of my Assistant device." “I don’t know if I should feel insulted by you saying my weapons, the thirteen items that’s a Key Stone to Nothingness itself...or be impressed at how good those gems are.” I frowned. "I was talking about Spear and Shield Heroes weapons." Cript said, adjusting Frozen Pride a bit. "The fact there are four, a bow, Shield, sword and spear gives us four perfect blueprints on how to modify them to your other weapons." “Sorry, thought you meant my weapons.” I said sheepishly. “But that is interesting...wonder who designed these things then.” I said while picking up the stone and looking it over, using my new Code Reading ability to see who actually made it. "Someone with talent." Lord said, working on Sharpshooters. "And coming from me, you know they must have been good." "And he hardly ever complements another's work." Cript said. Looking at Frozen Pride, it's design wasn't all too different, just the large green gem in the center some inches inside the Shield itself. "This will completely change how weapons are used." "And make you a profit extra?" Lord asked. "Side bonus." Cript laughed. “The one time I need to know who the hell made this…” I muttered while looking over one of the gems closely. "And… done." Cript said, hands raised from Frozen Pride. "Now, for the field test. If this works then we can have a real viable means of dealing with the front lines." He then handed it over to me. "Oh, I also wanted to give you something...well, someone technically." Cript said, raising his Assistant. "Izzy, register new user Ben." "Registered." A voice coming from both out Assistants said. Suddenly in my party menu, in a small side menu under mine popped the name Izzy, no HP or anything. "Hi. I'm Izzy." “Hi.” I said while taking Frozen Pride. “And...what are you if I may ask?” I asked curiously. "That's a bit of a story." Cript said. "After… the whole Andy and Mars incident, I was roaming Connection Cities streets when I saw some Shadow Creatures in an alleyway. Killed them but they killed someone already. Thankfully her nurel Sonic flash drive scanned her brain waves before she died and I uploaded that, her, to a PC. Izzy has basically been my Assistant inside the Assistant." "Thanks to how the Assistant device works and my primary installation to the Freak Inc quantum computer mainframes, I can help you identify, locate, learn or research whatever you ask in seconds." Izzy said. “Hmm…” I started. “What’s the current stock value of Freak Inc?” I asked curiously, just having that off the top of my head. "A single stock in freak Inc currently costs 7.9 Quatacools. That's a Centillion with fifteen times the normal Zeroes, but Cript in showing good faith with partners and child companies, offers then up to five stocks free as a show of good faith and strengthening bonds. It's how he has grown the company to what it is today." “Cool.” I nodded. "It's never failed." Cript said. “Good to know.” I nodded. “Izzy, given that I’m using Freak Inc resources, how soon do you think I’m going to officially prove Cript wrong with my Pure Crystals?” "Given your current rate of progress, am estimated five years. Three if you accelerate the process via Alchemical matter alterations." Izzy said. "Well shit." Cript laughed. “Oh, I actually forgot Alchemy was on the table.” I said with a smile. “Thanks Izzy, that’ll help. Also ha! Told ya.” I said in triumph at being proven right. "Har har. Now try out the upgrades already." Cript said, rubbing the top of my head and messing up my hair. "Oh, to utilize the crystals properly I did have to alter the shields stats… So check that." I nodded while double checking Frozen Pride’s stats, thinking it wouldn’t be too different than what it normally was with it’s heavy defense, special defense and magic stats. Att: 0 Def: 60 Spe Def: 60 Mag: 70 “Seems...weirdly lower than I thought.” I said honestly. "Actually that's based on percent it adds to your attack damage, or other stats. So it's more like zero percent, sixty percent, ect. Your current physical attack damage is 508. So that's the damage the Shield can do physically since it adds no damage. But, only some shields can have physical attacks, Frozen Pride here can at most bash, which deals half your physical Damage." ”That’s why Frozen Pride is more Magic Based than anything.” I said honestly. "Yes but, magic damage is still affected by physical Damage unless it has a stat for magic damage on it. So Frozen Pride, much like Shield Heroes Shield, can mostly be used for healing and defense, unless you use curse magic. But that's a double edged sword, or Shield in this case, since it does double your physical Damage on the target, but costs Mana AND HP to cast. The really powerful curse attacks can and often kill the caster." I blinked as I raised Frozen Pride and an Ice Cage surrounded Cript. “You do know that Frozen Pride’s whole thing is that it’s Ice Magic right?” I asked. “I understand what your getting at, and that’s cool...but you made it sound like Frozen Pride magically didn’t have what it could normally do.” "Oh it can, but it can't do damage." He said, breaking the cage open. “You sure about that?” I asked, Cript seeing on his hud that he actually took some damage from just the cold of it. “You forget, this thing was made by a magical ice rock in the middle of space. Not only can it freeze damn near anything, it’s Ice Magic does damage, puts dots on things, and other suck fancy crap.” I said honestly. "Passive damage must not be affected then." Cript thought aloud. "But that aside, I've preloaded a few selections, alternate shields, Shield types, ect. Check them out." “Um...sure.” I said while pulling up a small window to see what he did with the shield types and alternate shields. Frozen Pride was my Shield, but now, thanks to this Gem, it was one of several categories. Mainly small, medium, large, which Frozen Pride was filed under, and Greatsheild. Small Shield had… oh my God. I clicked it, now holding Goofy's Shield, the game still on the Shield and in the center of the Mickey Mouse icon. "Like it? I had a feeling that would be perfect." “It’s amazing.” I said while swapping it to Save the King. “Save the King is still just a bit better shaped than Frozen Pride.” I said honestly. "As you can guess this gem is solely used for shields. Finding shields in a dungeon or buying them the gem absorbs the weapon to add it to the list. Selling them is as simple as telling the gem to eject the Shield to sell. Absorbing a second Shield you already have actually gives you one of two options. Either save it as a backup in case you break the first, or combine it with the first to boost it's stats by one point each." “Cool.” I nodded. “So, now onto all my other weapons since we’re using the gems.” "Not done just yet." Lord said. "Frozen Pride was the easiest as it was basically a copy and paste job from the Shield Heroes weapon, with some modifications. Sharp Shooters here are similar but still vastly different from a bow, but Lunatic and Lindworm will be done soon." “Hopefully Lindworm wasn’t being rude, the old Wyrm is still a little iffy on changes if it wasn’t from evolution.” I said honestly, having tried to tinker with it only to get hissed at. "We actually had to extract him to begin the modifications. But I think he doesn't mind." Cript said, counting down from three. Once he reached Zero, The Wyrm himself flew over us, accompanied by an elegant light blue Wyrm. "I think he's currently happily distracted." “I mean, he’s probably happy to finally get laid after god knows how long.” I said honestly. "We actually plan for you to at will summon him out of the lance for up to an hour a day. In combat." Lord said. "You can summon him whenever outside of combat, cause he likely will want to be with his lady friend. You'll still be able to use the Lance's just fine without him in them as they will still draw power from him, but also have to draw half that extra power from you to make up for him not being inside the weapon." “Sounds about right.” I nodded. “Good to know.” I nodded. “So how strong can Frozen Pride and Lindworm hold?” I asked curiously while double checking the code on Frozen Pride at least to see if I could make any small tweaks. "Actually, this gem has a unique power that We didn't know existed." Cript said. "Judging from the way it was made, the craftsmanship and skill, this was a cycle two, maybe even Cycle one admin artifact." Lord stated. "And there was just four of them on that world, not counting their reflections respectively, meaning there is a cycle two or another cycle one Admin somewhere in hiding that made these." "Thankfully we can replicate it by having the originals." Lord said. “I mean, we can go to Shield Hero world and find the original gems, I can figure out how they were originally made, then we can just make a ton of them.” I said honestly. "Already ahead of you." Lord said. “Cool.” I nodded. “But...do either of you know what Null is?” I asked curiously. "We share the same memories Ben, yeah." Cript said. "Seen one before. Only time I've been worried." Lord said. “Alright...so why the hell does the one that showed me how a Cycle ‘ends’ looked exactly like one of my children?” I asked. “Specifically Jenny...her face wasn’t there, and the cloak was really good at hiding her body shape...but the fact she got past all the security I made specifically to make sure shit like that doesn’t happen, her scent...and even her tone of ‘shh’ tipped me off…” I said while looking between the two. “Who would have sent my own child to give me that little lesson on what Null does to the End of a Cycle?” "Fuck if we know." Lord said. "We've known about them but never really spoken to or encountered one. As for why it looks like Jenny, also no idea." Cript said. I sighed out bitterly. “Of course…” I muttered. “Only more questions than answers with that crap..” "Well who ever said knowledge comes easy…" Cript said, a thoughtful look on them. I stared at Cript with a deadpan expression. “Really?” "I might actually know a way to learn something about the Nulls." “Oh?” I asked curiously. “How so?” "I'll have to look into it first, but if I am right then we can at least learn something." “Can I have an explanation on how you can learn about them?” I asked honestly. "Next chapter." Cript said. “Cause of course…” I grumbled. “Alright...so what new things are we going to do with my weapons?” "Next chapter. This feels long enough." Lord said. "Fine fine..." I sighed out. To be continued... Nobody find's NullTake a moment to stop for a while on my weapons, Lord and Cript began walking with me through a very… odd portal. “And...where are we going?” I asked the two curiously. "We throw around a lot of words like Admin, Hacker, Code, Deletes. For two reasons." Cript said. "It's the best words to describe what they are in modern tongues. And, it's much more litteralliteral than you'd think." Lord said. “Alright...that didn’t answer my question though.” I started. “I asked where we’re going, not what words mean.” I said, not sure if this is one of those ‘explain the words first then to where we are’ or just them completely ignoring my original question. "What's a good comparison… how's this, we are exiting the matrix. Give you an idea?" Cript asked. “Could have just said that the words meant where we’re going.” I pointed out. “No need to be all cryptic when there isn’t any reason to.” I rolled my eyes. "Well considering you are only the third person to ever come to this place, it felt fitting." “And you know Jericho hasn’t been here why?” I asked honestly. "That." Cript said, Pushing me down as he and Lord ducked, almost taking an axe to the head. It was some kind of ugly almost oger looking thing that looked like it was glitching as computer parts were randomly sticking out of it. Cript then grabbed me by the scruff and jumped high. Getting a good look weird things like that one were here, flying about in what I can only describe as an infinite and giant computer. "Those things can two shot ME. So, yeah." Cript said. “And when has that ever actually been true?” I deadpanned, having heard that before and it being not true in several regards. “So...this is a thing.” I said while looking over the Computer. "Welcome to the whole of creation. Or rather, the machine that we live in." Lord said as we all landed on what looked like a mega sized ram card. "And yes they can two shot Cript. These things keep us out of here for a reason." Lord said as we began walking through the place. As I looked around, I had this weird feeling we were being watched, and not just by what I could only guess as the ‘Guards’. “So...who else is feeling watched by a third party?” I asked curiously. "That would be who we are looking for." Cript said. "You've actually met previously. Kinda." “Met previously? What do you mean?” I asked curiously. "You'll know when you meet them." Lord said. “Alright...so why are we here?” I asked curiously. "This person knows everything. We are going to ask about the Nulls." Lord said. “Cool.” I nodded. “Wonder who it is…” "Well well well. Hello again you three." That voice. We all turned around. That silhouette form, Truth, now lined with a circuit board pattern stood behind us. "What brings you three to my home?" "Hey there Truth. Long time no see." Cript said. “Wait…” I blinked. “The fuck are you doing here?” I frowned. “Shouldn’t you be in FullMetal Alchemist World?” "So naive, so young." Truth said. "Truth isn't bound to one world Ben. They are the sentient consciousness of this whole machine." Lord said. "Blunt as ever I see." Truth said, that smile growing ever larger. "I devided myself to each world and even individual, not that hard as I'm the reason you all even operate. Running and managing all those endless code calculations that are 'passive'. It's all me." “Alright…” I said slowly. “So...mind answering some questions I have if that won’t cost me everything but the kitchen sink?” "Ask the question and I'll determine the price. Simple as that." “The hell is Null.” I started. “And...who are they working for?” I asked, knowing full well Truth knows what memories Jenny gave me. "Ah, the Nulls. I'll need payment upfront before I disclose that little secret." “And what Payment is that?” I asked, already having a bad feeling about this. "I'll need three things. One from each of you. To sweeten this deal, Lord and Cript can also get something from me in exchange. Sound fair?" "As fair as you can be." Lord said, almost hissing. “And we came to this thing why?” I whispered to Cript and Lord. “So...what do you need?” "From Cript, heh, he knows what I want. From Lord, I'll be taking that Armor… and from Ben. I'll take either your name, or your heart. Your choice." "More like you can kiss my ass." I frowned. "This ain't 'equivalent exchange' time, this is not having Creation End time." I frowned. "And it's probably been more than once…" "Many. But to know the whole story, a choice must be made. This isn't about equivalent exchange, it never has been. This is about sacrifices. Lord's armor is the only thing he has from the old days, the long since bygone days. And Cript, well, like I said he knows what I want. So what will you sacrifice Ben? Or Is your home not worth the loss?" I growled. "Are you threatening my family?" I asked pointedly. "I don't threaten, I state facts, truths, information long since forgotten I can recall it all. I'm simply stating that either you accept the offer and pick what to sacrifice, or leave and learn nothing. Choice is always yours." "So do I completely remove any and all character development I've gotten through these years, or finally have the 'who am I?' crisis?" I frowned. "That's a lot more than just 'heart or name'." I frowned. "Is having a heart all that important to the king of Nothingness? Is holding onto your name, your sense of Identity that important? Collin Ventral, went by Eclipsa Sparkle, now Eclipsa. Zeke Ventral changed too, going by the name of the power that resides in their chest." "You're given Ben an easy out with asking for his name, aren't you?" Cript asked. "Why?" "Because, in reality, he has little I'd see fit to accept as a sacrifice. Without his heart, his title as king and Admin of Nothingness will allow him to keep his emotions, and his name, well, like I said a name is just a word, letters, easily changed. No, Your Armor Lord, it's like your skin, and I want to see you remove it. And Cript…" "Yeah yeah I know." Cript waved off. "And Names magically don't hold power?" I asked curiously. "Only if you want them to. Take the offer, or don't." Truth said. "Fine…" I sighed out. "Take my name since it's so special." Nodding, Lord actually, and I almost chuckled, T posed, suddenly the back part of his armor unfolding and unlatching. Opening up like a shell as suddenly, walking out was… he was about my old height, Latino, dark black hair, wore a black shirt and black jeans with sneakers. So that's how Lord looks under the armor. "There's my armor." Waoh! Sudden thick Latino accent… Truth then held out a hand, suddenly from my head, my three letter name floated out from me, and into their hand. Inhaling, Cript walked over to Truth. "Deal." He said, shaking their hand as suddenly, there was, something different about him now. He seemed the same but, now, there was something off still. As he walked back over to us, I saw it. His Nexus mark was gone, but in its place, a small symbol of sorts. "Now then." Truth said, a wave of their hand bringing Lord's armor over to them. "The Nulls. They are my safety net. A backup and failsafe all in one. One can argue they are like, the OS of creation. I'm the hardware, they are the operating system, and you all are part of the software we run and oversee. They don't mean harm, in fact they prevent it. In such a big program errors are commonplace, but big ones that end reality and defy the set rules, well, that's when Nulls are called in. If they can't correct or eradicate the issue before it spreads, a hard system formating and reset is required. It has happened only about sixteen times." "So...they're your Firewall?" I asked. "But where would they all stay? If an entire group of those things are out there, wouldn't everyone be able to sense them?" I asked curiously. "Not if they blend in. Remember, they are the OS, the Firewall, as you put it. They can appear whenever or wherever in a physical body but they are always everywhere, in the background of your realities code and void. Like myself they watch and observe, looking for any faults to correct. The one thing about them is that, unless you are detected as harmful, they won't let you sense them. But, I do know of a place they frequent, if you wish to speak with one for whatever reason." I looked at Truth and blinked. "That...sounds strangely familiar…" I said slowly. "Not like Agent Smith from the Matrix but...something else." I frowned, wondering why that sounds familiar. "What is this place then?" Lord asked. "The place where all the lesser glitches get tossed. The Recycle Bin." Truth said. Opening another odd portal of sorts. "I'll give you three access to it. Might come in handy." “Alright…” I said worriedly. "Come on then. Let's see what this mess looks like." Cript said, leading the way. As he walked, I got another quick look at the symbol on his hand where his Nexus mark used to be. Something about it seemed… so strange. Both worrying and comforting, oddly. "So what should we call you know since we can't even say the name --- to refer to you?" Lord asked. I still can't quite get over how he looks outside the armor. “No idea.” I shrugged. “But Cript...seriously, the hell did he do?” I frowned. “That symbol on your hand is both worrying...and comforting somehow and it’s bugging the shit out of me.” "You don't have to worry about it. It's nothing bad." Cript shrugged. "Also, I have a name that you might like. How about either Dire, or King? Dire cause obvious, and also obvious for king. Sound good or?" “King sounds better and less threatening.” I shrugged. “But...does anyone else feel Grey?” I asked curiously. “Like...small bits of it here and there?” "Little bit." Lord said. "Kinda." Cript agreed. "Nothing impressive, but odd at the very least." “Grey is a...very special energy.” I said while continuing through this weird place. “So...where the hell are we?” I asked, looking around the place. "Like Truth said, the Recycling bin. Obvious guess is they put shit here that harms our reality, then once it's full they recycle it, break it back down to base code and remove the glitch in the process." Lord said. “So...is that why I see a weird Zombie in a cage?” I asked, seeing in a very well sealed see through box with a person that...had Void Corrupted Nothingness thorns pulsing on it. “Just like my nightmare…” I muttered worriedly. “Shit.” Lord said. “This place makes my code stand on edge.” “I mean...that’s what happens when your looking at things that are just...wrong.” I said worriedly. “So..where to find Null’s…” "Well, in my experience if you want an all powerful beings attention, you just have to make some noise." Lord said. "Bar fight?" Cript asked. “Can we not accidentally set these things free?” I frowned. “Cause I don’t know what you two are planning, but I’d rather not have any of this shit free.” I frowned while motioning to all the damned things here. "They can't escape this place unless we or a Null pulls them out. Besides, we're just gonna speed up this places natural process of killing them." Cript said. "Though it will take quite a few hits, glitches are pesky like that." “I mean...alrighty then.” I said while pulling out Lunatic and Skysplitter, both of my weapons shifting into their sixth evolved state. “So, just smack something really freaking hard?” "How hard can you hit at the moment?" Cript asked. "This can actually be a good test. King, kindly funnel as much power as you can til your body starts breaking under the power and hit one of these things. This is a good way to measure how much of my power you can handle." “Oh I’ll show you much more than that.” I said while getting down into a runners starting pose. “Might want to step back a bit.” I warned them as I started pumping raw power into my weapons as my fur started to rise and spike up. “Wraths Moon." I growled, my fur turning pure white, Frost Fire forming on the tips of each spike as more and more Raw Power got pumped into it all, going higher exponentially by the mass Rage skills that Lord and Cript saw. “Skills...Power Attack...Grand BullRush...Leap Attack...Pounce…” I growled, my entire body and weapons full of Pure Raw Power. “Skill...Tireless Rage...Enduring Rage...Moon’s Guidance...Gaea’s Song…” I muttered, all the skills trying to counteract all the bonuses from the skills I was compounding together with all the Raw Energy that finally felt like I was going to break. “Which cage?” I growled, thankful for the change so I wouldn’t go completely blind "Let's try…. That one." Cript pointed towards a massive cage with what looked like a glitched Titan Shadow Creature. I grinned. “Alright…” I said, my body having grown maybe three feet taller as all the energy was waiting to get set forth. “Grand Skyfall…” I muttered as I took a single step, before leaping towards the cage and eight swings from both Lunatic and Skysplitter. The first swing shattered the cage, the second swing cleaved off the things arm as it tried to defend itself, the third swing slammed it straight into the back wall, the fourth punched it straight through the back of the cage, the sixth cut straight into the things torso, the seventh cleaved through any healing factor it had...and the eight cleaved it straight in two, killing it faster than an instant. I landed on the ground, panting heavily as I looked at my arms and my weapons, my weapons were still fine thankfully...my arms on the other hand had cracks in them...couldn’t even feel the pain even if I was still able to move them. “So...how was that?” I panted heavily, my HUD having massive errors telling me even though my skills were keeping me alive were being pushed with my outlandishly good healing factor. "Impressive." Lord said. "But… weren't you supposed to pull power from Cript, not stack rage skills and abilities like a junkie?" "Regardless, you did reach about sixty percent of what I can use. So good all in all." Cript said. "Though Lord does have a point, those rage power stacks make it a bit harder to determine how much you pulled on your own." I weakly raised my arm and showed them a screen of my stats of when I was charging. “I...always make sure to save my peaks.” I said, showing that indeed I did use sixty percent of Cript’s power, and all the Rage stacks tacked on another twenty percent just from all the multiplicatives. “So...in raw power, I can only go to sixty, but with additives….I can get to eighty…” I panted heavily. “Just...have to make sure I set it up right…” "You're just as reckless as Eclipsa." Cript chuckled. He lifted my arms. Looking at them, I saw they were scabbing over. "This won't heal, not like other wounds. These will scar over, and never heal right. Will likely also mess up the way your arms fur looks when it regrows. You proved you can survive my power, but Don't do that again until you can HANDLE it. Okay?" Cript said, looking at me not like a teacher, or a partner… like a father. “Had to...prove all my hard work wasn’t just talk.” I said honestly. “Nothing’s worse...than being told and shown everything I’ve done means jack all…” I said gently as I looked over my scars. “I’ll...figure out how to make them better…” "So this was too prove it to yourself?" Cript asked. “And...to you and Lord.” I said while clenching my fists, wincing slightly but the pain wasn’t bad. “To prove that I’m not lying or faking, that I can stand with you and others…” I said honestly. “I’m...sure I’ll figure out a way to heal this...not the first time I figured something out that doesn’t normally have an answer…” "Then… your further behind us than you think." Cript said, looking me dead in the eyes, a sad, mournful look on their face. "King, Lord doesn't give much vocal praise, or acknowledgement. And I always knew when the time came, you could reach where I stand, and maybe even go higher. You are smart, clever, and now powerful. Even if you weren't, do you think that would have mattered to me?" Cript said, placing a hand over my wounds. "There is a way for these to be healed, but it's something I've had happened to me, and I don't want that for anyone else." “Then I’ll figure something else out.” I said honestly. “It...can’t be that hard right?” "..." Cript sighed, standing up as he took Lunatic from my weak grip. The weapon immediately changed to that of the moon at the tip of a claymore, but this time, chains linked around the moon and blade bound them together. "There are two secrets, too harnessing all my power, properly, and it comes at two heavy prices." Cript said, walking passed me and to the edge of where we were and the field of cages. "First, is to be immortal. In no way, shape or form King, can I die. But you can, a concept you seem to struggle understanding. And secondly." They said, my instincts and Assistant alerting me that running was the only option, as Cript began to flow out so much power. "It's to take the pain it causes you," he said, suddenly a slash across his back, ripping his trench coat as a mix of blood and power spewed out. "Every torn muscle, every one and zero in your code screaming from the excess power," another slash, fishing blood and power from his back, his coat now falling off as I began to see something peeking out his wounds. Soon, more appeared along his right arm, forehead, ears. "Take all that pain, and scream Screw It, from the top of your lungs." Suddenly, from Cript's back emerged three sets of wings. The top, an angelic white that glowed with a calming warmth. The bottom, demonic and ungodly. The middle pair, a mix of the two, black feathers where some were and patterned in every other part was either a feather of scales. They turned to face me. Their right arm now split into tendrils, several of which held small blades along them as his bloody skeletal hand still gripped Lunatic between them all, and his forehead held a third Eyeball, akin to a Psychopaths. "I gave up, my ability to cap, to keep my power below max. For what it was worth, it was because, my full power," they grew taller, from there pants an almost reptilian like tail shot out, a metallic set of Barb's as their gets shifted to something like from a dog's, but armored. "Will change me forever." Finally, over their head, appeared an orb that radiated pure Mana, and many, many different kinds of powers, and from his chest, in the center, an Electronium Crystal emerged, it's power felt like millions of Foudre crackling. "He gave up a lot for you." Lord said to me, pulling me up. "True power, given physical form." I sighed out. “Alright alright...we already got enough attention as is…” I said while looking over to see all the Null’s gathered around. "Looks like." Cript sighed, handing me back Lunatic. It shifting back to base form. "Looks like it holds out at max then." He then placed a finger on me, immediately my body felt amazing and I could stand on my own. "So, care to guess what each part of my new look means or later?" Cript asked as we walked over to them. “I’m going to have to double and triple check that wall of text just to make sure…” I said. “But I can already guess the third eye is for your Psychopath part.” "Yeah. Oh wait." They blinked it, now it glowed the white of Humanity. Another blink sent it to normal. "That's a weird feeling."” “Eh, you get used to it.” I said while blinking and showing my eyes of Humanity and Psychopath, before blinking again and it going away. "Not that, the three eyes thing." “Eh.” I shrugged. “So anyways…” I said while looking around. “Hi, how are people doing?” "We are not people." One of them said. “By the definition of ‘people’, yes you are.” I started. “So uh...sorry about breaking some of your stuff, needed to get your attention somehow.” "Like we care about these pesky little insects." One of them said. "What do you want?" Another asked. "They're with me." That voice. Walking through the crowd, Jenny, older, but her. “Jenny…” I started, not sure how to start...but decided to keep it simple. “Are you okay?” I asked, even if she is one of these things, she’s still Jenny...my daughter. "Long story." She said, suddenly a giant Null slammed her across the way into a nearby cage. She didn't seem phased as she pulled herself out of it. "What gives you the right to bring these codeborn beings here!?" The one that smacker her yelled. "Because I'm tired of letting you sorry sacks of garbage sit back and watch the same series of Resets happen. Since I joined there has been fucking Six million, half of that I had to reset, and so many more before that. This shit needs to stop the fuck now." Jenny asserted. “Wait wait wait, you motherfuckers had to do that how many times?” I asked in honest shock. “And literally none of you did anything to actually fix the problem?” "They know the issue, but are too lazy to find an answer." Jenny spat. "Because it's an impossibility." Spoke another, Female Null. "Have you met these people?" Jenny motioned to us. "Let me leave, and I'll prove you wrong." "Ha. There's a laugh." "How about a little bet then." Jenny said. "If I manage to correct the issue before the next End Glitch, I call the shots. If I'm a failure, reset me with the rest of creation." "Heh. Sound like I've already won. Fine, deal. I'll see you at the reset." The female Null said, the rest of them all vanishing, just us, the glitches and Jenny left. “And apparently they hasn’t learned or realized you're stupid good at betting.” I pointed out. She turned to face me, giving me a smile. "Which is why I'm banking on you three pulling off a Miracle of beyond impossible feats." “Don’t worry, you know we will.” I said with a smile. “So...a Null huh? How’d that happen?” I asked curiously, looking over Jenny to see how she changed. "Heh…. Believe it or not… before I became a Null I was… The Mother, for about three years… then the reset happened and… given some luck they saved me, made me a Null… never agreed with their ideals or job. Which reminds me, care to take a guess at what causes the End Glitch?" “I mean, I do have my guesses but why don’t you tell us cause I sure as hell could guess for hours and probably not get close.” I said honestly. “As you said yourself, it’s happened six million times...and that’s six million times I’ve tried to stab Void Mother and only gotten a massive hole in my chest.” "So million since I became a Null. It's happened WAY more times before I became a Null. But, that aside, the End Glitch happens when the storage fills. Basically our Existence gets too big, too much data and it can't be stored anymore. So all of reality glitches. And it keeps happening sooner and sooner each reset from what I've seen." “It’s because Void keeps what it takes.” I said. “Even after each reset...the Void always keeps what it holds, I’ve seen it myself…” I sighed out. "Actually… no. The void Also gets reset… it's actually...Grey, that's taking up all the space. Roughly at the moment… half of what our storage drive holds." I blinked. “That’s...not right. I swear, I saw tons of things before this Cycle right?” I asked, turning to Cript. “You’ve seen my memories, you’ve probably been to Void more times than I have…” I said, scared at what this might entail. "While true Cycles and Resets are different. A reset cleans everything, and a cycle created a new reality from the ruins of the old. If grey is not getting erased in that, then countless resets worth of Grey from each of it's discoverers and such… has just been piling up endlessly." "And given its nature of, expanding, growing even without a king or owner of any kind." Lord added. “And what?” I asked, already seeing one possibility this is going with. “What’s going to happen to Eclipsa? What’s going to happen to her if this is all Grey’s fault?” "That… I have no idea. But, I have an idea as to how to fix it. We need to find, or make, a new storage drive." "Both will be torture hell itself would Ban." Lord sighed. "But it's our only options. If Grey can't be deleted then we'll have to move it." "That could work… which means…" Cript and Lord shared a look. "The fucking Ethernet." “Couldn’t we just…make Grey itself into its own Storage Drive?” I asked curiously. “Using itself in a loop of fueling itself to power the storage, but also it keeps itself contained as it is it’s own storage space?” I suggested. "We can… but, doing that inside the storage drive we live in is risky as it's something never done before, and one mistake could format is all again, or worse, break it and we are all screwed then." Cript said.aid. “And no one has decided to do this...why?” I asked curiously. “Like...seriously, if I could come up with an idea to solve the problem in less than two minutes, how come the ‘higher ups’ haven’t figured that out in an Eternity?” "Because they are assholes who, in their words, 'exist only to eliminate glitches after they appear, not to prevent them from appearing.' Bunch of lazy pricks is all they are." “And...there’s no one else to either keep them in line or actually thinking of answers?” I asked, wondering how the hell Truth could run this entire thing. "Nope. Truth runs the calculations and all that crap, and they mostly just self govern themselves." “Well then he sure sucks at his job if he couldn’t think of that simple as shit answer.” I pointed out. "Simply said, yes. In practice it's not easy. Which is why we best try both options." Lord stated. "Meaning we'll need to talk… with all of you." Cript said. “Oh boy...can’t wait to tell the others this…” I sighed out. To be continued... Nobody finishing up Pokemon(Meanwhile, before meeting Truth) The duo of Heart and Ben worked to make the entire original Pokemon Red Pokedex out of the Missingno glitch Pokemon, now finished with the crafting of MewTwo. “Well that went by quicker than expected.” Heart said. “That tends to happen when you have help.” I said honestly. “Or having some inspiration for something.” “Eh.” Heart said, placing the Pokemon Red game back onto the shelf. “So, what now?” “Well one of the things we need to do is get back with Arceus on if this world is going to join our Kingdom for it’s protection...seriously, six times and you didn’t think it was a growing problem?” I asked simply. “It’s not like I didn’t know…” Heart said, leaning against the wall now, shifting back to their original form. Their floof noodle body taking up most of the room. “I just wanted to ignore it.” “You do know you can shrink down to fit better right?” I asked. “Not saying I don’t enjoy the floof, it feels soft and amazing.” I said simply. “But...well ignoring something can only go so far...and the sixth time is too much to ignore.” “I know… I just wanted to feel normal for a change. Guess when Rune showed up… I just chose to ignore her… and I can’t, I know I can’t… I want answers, I want to know if she really felt nothing from what I thought we had…” “I’m sure you’ll figure it out when you finally meet her again.” I said honestly. “Then there is one way to ensure she shows up.” Heart said, in a flash of code a Nexus flag appearing. “Same way you weeded her out the first time.” “Let’s set it on fire.” I smiled. “I know just the place too.” Heart smiled. “So… that’s Kingdom Hearts?” Dialga asked. “Looks like my ex.” Giriatina said. All of this worlds Legendary Pokemon appearing at the small Daycare, not a single one missing. “Should I question why you said that Giratina?” I asked worriedly. “Don’t.” Palkia cut in. “Trust me, it’ll be all day with him.” The legendary rolled his eyes. “So, being the youngest of us all, or one of them… what’s going on here exactly?” MewTwo asked. “I’ll explain it all later.” Jirachi replied. “What we are all here for.” Arceus spoke up. “Is that our world, our very universe is in danger. Some of you know the… dirty details, others don’t. All that matters now is that everything, People, Pokemon, and the world's themselves are at risk of mass destruction.” “Yup.” Heart said simply. “So…” Yveltal started. “What you’re saying is, we’re fucked?” The Literal End of the World asked. “Not necessarily.” Celebi, the Time Traveling Pixie, started. “If we join Ben and Heart’s Kingdom, then we’ll have a fighting chance against the enemy.” She stated. “Yeah pretty much.” I said honestly. “I’m also the King of Nothingness, which is just as important as Kingdom Hearts here.” I pointed out. “You know it would be a little more impressive if you weren’t still cuddled up to the giant fluff snake.” Landerous, the Earth Djinn, pointed out as I was indeed cuddled up to Heart in all her fluffy goodness. “Pretty sure if they wanted they’d start humping my tail.” Heart chuckled. “Nah, I’m perfectly fine. Just enjoying the fluff.” I sighed out happily. “Basically we don’t have many options.” Mew, the first and original Pokemon created said. “Guess we best join-” They ducked, dodging an Ultra Ball. “Not this guy again…. Be right back.” They said, quickly flying off as Red themself ran passed all the other Legendaries after Mew. “Well, guess someone’s still stubborn about Mew.” I chuckled. “So anyways, back on track.” I started. “Yes, and that would be whether we join you or risk dying.” Reshiram, the Yang half of Kyurem, asked curiously. “Pretty much.” I said simply. “I thought the outer atmospheres looked off recently.” Rayquaza, the Dragon of the Sky, spoke up. “A lot more space activity than usual. Lots of entries and departures.” “My race, as well as the Clefairy’s have been...rather put off by the sudden onset of other races suddenly appearing.” Deoxys, the Bio Alien, pointed out. “It’s...rather shocking to know that even space is bigger than one once thought.” “Way bigger. And it doesn’t end at the void.” Heart sighed. “I’m sure some of you have heard about these abnormal Pokemon Popping up, darkened and altered. I’m sure the grapevines reach you all?” “I’ve seen one.” MewTwo spoke up. “A pitch black Noctowl, flew right passed me on the way here; a trainer on them. Both of them just felt… evil. If not for my speed being faster than that Noctowls, that’s a fight I might not have left.” “Mother fucker…” I sighed out. “So...who here has heard of Missingno?” I asked curiously. No one seemed to know of them. So just the games then, or not in this world then. “Well…” I started before a Missngno Chancey came in with drinks for all the pokemon. “Uh...Chancey’s are normally pink…” Moltres the Fire Bird pointed out nervously. “The hell happened?” “Um…” I tried to think of how to explain it. “Is it kind of like Ditto?” Ho’oH, the Phoenix, asked curiously. “I mean...that makes more sense than what I was about to bring up.” I said sheepishly. “Just a...very special kind of Ditto, where not only does it look different, but it can use...basically any move.” “Okay enough dancing around it.” Heart spoke up. “Where Ben here and I come from originally, we knew every single one of you as Trading cards, cartoons, and video games where the majority of you could all be caught, others had to be gotten at events. These Missingno Pokemon are a glitch Pokemon from the first generation version of the games that were made of your world. The people likely making these altered Pokemon stole one of these game versions from me, and we made these Pokemon from a spare I have.The only difference between you all here and from the games, shows, ect, is that you have genders. About 95% of you all were genderless with a small handful do having genders.” Heart took a breath. “In short, it’s my fault this is all even happening… They stole that game from me, and I chose to ignore it, chose to not do anything and just clean up the mess they made after the fact… So not anymore. Join us, well find these fuckers, and KILL them. This is war, not battle; to prove to them we aren’t going to take their bullshit, blood WILL spill. So, either join us in the war, or hide away like you all know how to do. Choice is yours.” “I’m not going to let my child die.” Lugia said swiftly. “Oh, that’s nice.” I muttered to myself. “I can’t take care of Nature if the world ends.” Shaymin, the grass hedgehog, pointed out. “I hate how you are a walking Pun Shaymin…” I frowned while looking at Arceus. “Seriously? A walking hedgehog?” I asked. “Don’t look at me. Mew shifted into a lot of-” Suddenly, there was a large blast of blue fire, Red and his black charizard getting blasted off like Team Rocket. Mew flying back over. “That should give us a few hours.” Mew said nonchalantly. “Right…” I said slowly. “So uh...should I be the one to bring up…’it’?” I asked Heart nervously. “The what?” Heart asked. “Fuck it, should I talk about the Harem?” I asked. “Also, I’m still shocked that half the pokemon haven’t tried to jump me because of me being part Cherubim…” I grumbled. “Excuse me, did you just say Harem?” Palkia blinked. “Yes, yes I did.” I nodded. “That’s a long...long story…” Heart sighed out. “As you can tell,” Heart took the moment to wrap an arm around me. “Ben and I are a couple, but we have many other spouse's… lots of spouses. Apparently, since our current Kingdoms laws are based on a mix of the worlds we’ve taken in and such under our banner, to establish a firm trust of peace between the world and us, one of every intelligent race is married as a show of good faith. And some other legal junk.” “... That’s basically one of every Pokemon type if you include each Pokemon species as a different race… more if you include Evolutions…” Arceus said. “And that’s why I shall bring up this little thing, and that’s...going to be either a good majority, or all of you joining us.” I said honestly. “Would piss off trainers that they can’t catch Legendaries, but it would make it simpler than having to marry over...a thousand pokemon at the moment.” I pointed out. “And there’s still more being discovered by the humans of this world.” “...Well I’ve fucked weirder.” Giratina said. “You would say that…” Palkia groaned. “If Life is too prosper, then I’d agree.” Xernias, the LIfe Tree Deer, said in an elegant female voice. “But...some of us are dudes.” Zapdos, the ThunderBird, pointed out. “And we’re shemales.” Heart said bluntly. “Comes with the marriage.” “Wait, you mean your both…” Zygarde, the Cell Serpent that’s in it’s 100% form...which looked like a goddamn mech, trailed off. “Now I’m convinced you’re my ex.” Giratina said. “The fuck wait?” Palkia said in surprise. “Now was it two or three thousand years ago when I chose a female form?” The mech “Well… That’s unexpected.” Arceus said. “That’s basically my gender.” Mew said bluntly. “Wait, what?” MewTwo asked, the clone Pokemon having many questions now. “You are a lot more innocent than you were in the movies…” I frowned at Mewtwo. “So anyways...you might also become Anthro...like humanoid versions that look sexy as hell cause reasons.” I said honestly. “I mean...is that a downside?” Victini, the Victory Pokemon, asked curiously. “If it means free boobs I’m in.” Giratina said. “I… How do I reply to that?” Palkia asked the distortion pokemon. “So, in terms of gathering other Pokemon for this, that shouldn’t be too hard.” Groudon said. “But a human… that might be tricky. Humans don’t have proper leaders here, not including Gym Leaders and those Champions.” “Maybe we can find The Pokemon Master.” Kyogre pointed out. “Which? It’s kind of a regional title.” Arceus asked. “I think she means The Pokemon Master.” Dialga said. “As in, the one lone person who has seen, battled, and captured every Pokemon that wasn’t a legendary?” “Oh yes, her.” Darkrai grumbled. “And what do you mean ‘captured every Pokemon that wasn’t a legendary’? She captured every single one of us, and then set us free.” He pointed out. “Oh yeah…” Dialga frowned. “It’s been forever, I have too many time streams to look into now.” The dragon of time grumbled. “Who now?” Heart asked. “So uh...funny story.” Hoopa, the Genie pokemon, rubbed the back of his neck. “There’s this one person, a woman, who was one of the first ‘Trainers’ way back when. She traveled this entire planet, and I do mean the entire planet, and has seen literally everything, done everything, and is basically the Best Pokemon Trainer to ever exist...and still exist.” Hoopa said. “And she just let go of each of you? The most powerful pokemon on this world… why?” “Every Pokemon that she captured, besides her Main Six, were all released after she was done gathering any and all notes on us.” Cresselia, the Good Dreams pokemon, said. “She especially knew that us Legendaries being held in ‘captivity’ would upset the balance of the world, that’s why even if we are captured, trainers seem to have this weird urge to set us free after a while.” “So...where can we find this lady?” I asked curiously. “Cause it sounds like she’s still alive even if this all sounds like it took place ages ago.” “Was it me or you that...accidentally gave her immortality?” Ho’oH asked Hoopa nervously. “And she’s immortal too.” Heart said. “No wonder she’s done everything. Has all the time in this world to do it, and did.” “And I think she’s just enjoying her time on an island resort somewhere in the Alola region.” Tapu Koko, the Thunder Totem pokemon, pointed out. "That aside, looks like there is a lot to do." "Yes...like the fact I can already feel Pinkies making a 'welcome to the Harem' party…" I sighed out. "So, where in Alola would this trainer be?" I asked. "She's at the very top of the Battle Tree." Tapu Lele, the psychic totem, said honestly. "She likes the open air and the view." "Seriously, what's with trainers and high places?" I frowned. "Symbolism." Lugia said honestly. "So who's going to go get her?" Heart asked. "I'll go, cause if I stay here then none of us are leaving." I said while getting up and shifting back into my Den Mother form. "Being human is nice and all, but being a Den Mother just feels right." I smiled warmly. "Holy…" Solgaleo, the Sun Lion, said breathlessly, wide eyed at how beautiful he thought I was. "Oh you're too kind." I chuckled before opening a DTN to the top of the Battle Tree. "I'll be right back " I said while heading in to find the lady. It was just a few minutes before I walked back through with the trainer girl. She looked mid to late twenties, bright silver hair, and kind of looked like Dawn. "So, this is new." She said, looking at Heart and all the Legendaries. "What brings you all together in one place?" "Well...a lot of things." Dialga started sheepishly. “Basically, you are the only one to fully be the ‘leader’ of the human race as you, and every legendary, joins me, Heart, and a lot of others in a massive marriage to protect your world from outside forces.” I said honestly. "... That sounds like a bad harem anime plot." She replied bluntly. "Kinda but that's our laws when bringing new worlds into our kingdom." Heart said. “I mean, it’s also based on old laws from several different countries and worlds.” I pointed out. "That aside, I'm sure you've noticed some bad things and not right pokemon about, right?" Heart asked. "That… I have. News and online videos of people with Pokemon that aren't right. Not natural." “And those bastards are wanting to destroy the world.” I said honestly. “If we don’t stop them soon.” "Well then." The Champion said, raising a Pokeball from her small side bag. "Let's get hitched, and have a kick ass honeymoon." "You'll all have the best." I said warmly. "I get to have big boobs like those supermodels?" Latias asked curiously. "Sis please…" Latios groaned. "Yes, yes you will." I chuckled. "Like I said, comes with the marriage." Heart said. "Sexy female looking forms that are humanoid, both sets of genitals below. Basically the norm for us at this point." "Giratina can finally go fuck himself." Palkia said. "Yes I can. And you as well." Giratina replied. "Both of you stop." Dialga sighed out. "Also, if you are related, like brother and sister, than the incest clause doesn't actually exist due to...a lot of reasons." I brought up. "Well, if it wasn't awkward enough before it is now." Mew said, all eyes on Latios and Latias. "What?" Latias asked innocently. "Love is love." "Latias is a cinnamon roll...an innocent cinnamon roll." Latios sighed out as he softly nuzzled his sister. "So we're all in an agreement then?" Heart asked. "Seems good enough to me." Tornadus said simply. "You know...I didn't expect this to happen after waking up…" The sword wolf Zacian said honestly. "Neither did I…" the shield wolf Zamasesta shook his head. "Right then. Let's get to work." Heart said. Two Days Later. After Truth Deal. “Everyone used to their new bodies?” I asked all the Legendaries curiously, hoping they got used to their new forms in the last two days in a special ‘testing grounds’ pocket dimension. "I'm good." Giratina said. Their new form was a lot like a centaur of sorts, even if their shifted form they kept the centaur look. They now also had a large pair of jugs, as their actual size was not changed from their new bodies/gender things. Now also having arms they rarely were not groping their own chest. "This looked slightly different in my head." Mew said. They mostly did grow, getting to a five-seven height, and while they looked like a pink MewTwo, they were different enough. “I mean...it’s not so different as that one timeline…” Dialga muttered while looking in a mirror and groping her massive ass for...the umpteenth time. “I’m a Dragon Steel type...my ass feels like a cloud…” “This body feels more like a mother…” Lugia muttered, looking over herself as she was pretty much the definition of ‘MILF’. “Are you sure I can’t have fun times with King yet?” Latias asked, the young dragon looking absolutely adorasexy...and how that’s technically a proper word astounds me. “Well...so far everyone’s doing well.” I nodded. “What do you think Heart?” "After we deal with Nexus." Heart said, a flurry of Keyblades appearing, each one finding a Wielder with the new family members, as well as Key armaments. "Now let's see how your moves work in combat." “Wouldn’t our forms be a little...weird for fighting?” Zacian asked, the sword wolf holding his signature sword plus the keyblade as he tried to move with his more...gifted female form. “Seriously, wouldn’t you smack yourself in the face with your tits half the time?” “While Anime logic is involved, Anime titty logic does not.” I said simply. “So no, your tits won’t get in the way, but if your scared then you’ll just need some magic clothes to keep it all in.” "Or armor." Heart added. "Now then, you all have a move that is specific to you. Let's see them." “Alright…” Dialga started while holding her new Key Armament tightly. “Roar of Time.” She hummed as time itself seemed to flow into a ball of energy in front of her mouth, collecting more and more power...as it was funneled straight into her Key Armament. She gathered enough energy before swinging her weapon down hard, causing a massive shockwave of Time Energy to lash out in a direction. “That...was a lot stronger than my original…” Dialga said nervously, remembering it could normally level a mountain but...that felt like she could cleave a planet in half with no problem. "Good. Now, the rest of you, same as Dialga." Heart ordered. The rest nodded, the one’s that actively had a signature attack while the others lined up to throw their strongest known attack, and each used their new Armament to amplify their powers and let loose their strongest attacks. Needless to say Arceus’s was the strongest as I actually had to mend a small hole in our pocket dimension, but each one was leagues beyond what they originally were. “Hot damn, is this what you guys normally do?” Zapdos asked curiously. “That and so much more.” I chuckled. “Anything else you want them to do Heart?” "Yes." Their said, raising a hand. There was a pulse of darkness that filled the little pocket dimension as DTD's opened up, swarms of powerful Heartless began to emerge from them. Some looked new, others were clearly buffed up versions of already powerful Heartless. "How long can you last?" I gently brought out a bag of popcorn and another one for Heart. “Want some while we watch?” I asked, the Legendaries all readying for the fight. "No." Heart said, closing their hand into a fist. The Heartless Attacked, and the fight began. Two More Days Later. "That's enough." Heart said, finally disbanding the heartless as all the new additions to the family all immediately fell over from exhaustion. “Go...fuck...yourself…” Thunderous groaned in pain. “Did we really need to fight for two days straight?” Arceus panted heavily, keeping themselves up with their Key Armament. "The Heartless are strong,.but the war we are fighting, and the battles to come will make this training exercise look like child's play by comparison. You can destroy worlds? Level mountains? They can eradicate this entire universe. And that's not even their strongest fighters. To kill this beast, we need to cut it at the heads, and to even reach that we have to become stronger." "The hell happened between the first War and now?" Arceus asked in fear. "Too much…" I sighed out. "You can all rest now. And eat." Heart said, snapping their fingers as a massive buffet of food, from this world to homes appeared all around us in a flash of code. “I...am so glad we’re marrying you two.” Palkia said in awe at all the food. As they all began to eat, Heart just sat on a large chair, clearly thinking about something. “What’s up?” I asked Heart curiously. “Your clearly thinking of something, what is it?” "How this fight against Nexus will go down. Whatever they are planning here, it's not going to end well. Even when they lose, they always have a victory of some sort over us." “Trust me...they will lose, that no victory will be attainable by them.” I said simply. “Because they think that after we win, their touch can still harm the world, that there will still be those would rather see the world burn than enjoy life.” "Their will be though. Even if Nexus is gone, ideals and desires like theirs don't just stop. At the end of it, people keep those ideals alive, for better or worse." “And they can keep those ideals.” I said. “But what’s the one thing Nexus hates more than losing?” I asked simply. "Fucked if I know." Heart sighed. “Being treated like a joke.” I said. “They want to be respected, feared, worshipped, and being able to do whatever they want. But when we burn their flags, show them that they’re full of bullshit, and laugh at them? That’s what would tick them off. Because their not being respected as villians, their not being hated like they want...all their power just goes away when their treated as a Joke, and with that causes them to over extend, make mistakes, just to prove they aren’t a Joke.” "Ever notice, it's only the foot soldiers who run to the flags aid? You don't see Vincent rushing to save the bases we've claimed, or stop us from burning their flags." “That’s because Vincent gives zero shits about anything.” I pointed out. “But my point still has ground when you think about it.” "We'd be taking out the claws. Just have to worry about the teeth once they're gone." “Yep.” I nodded. “But what do you think of my point on Nexus not wanting to be seen as a Joke?” "I'd say it's a good way to take it down. Just not Vincent, and those he's working close with. We can cut the body from the head easily with your idea, but the head is still the most dangerous part of it." “And that’s why I’m searching for the Organization Mushrooms to get Belief a new Body to help out.” I said honestly. “Plus any other goodies along the way.” "And the long grind begins." Heart said with a clap, getting up. "King. How much do you know about my X-Blade form?" “Not much sadly, oh, that reminds me.” I said while bringing out No Heart. “Mind letting me Evolve No Heart?” I asked, Heart seeing the ‘Evolve x6’ icon on their HUD and ‘permission needed’. "You do know No Heart isn't like Keyblades right? It's a X-Blade. And not under my banner anyway so go ahead I guess." “Said I wasn’t allowed to until you said so.” I said before Evolving No Heart. After six brief flashes, No Heart went from having Reunion and Dusblade crossed together, the X-blade now looked like it was completely made out of Nothingness Thorns, with Memory Stealer and Second Chance crossing. "Well, as you know I am a X-Blade as well. When I shift, I actually have no control over what powers I use, my Wielder does though. I also had, for ease of use, Lord and Cript put this on me." Heart then speed open their shirts top a bit, giving me a nice look at their top cleavage, then moved some of the fluff aside. In their skin was the same gem as what now rests on Frozen Pride and soon my other weapons. “Oh, that’s interesting.” I said honestly. "See, since my X-Blade form requires a Wielder to use my power, I don't know what I can do in that form. This gem can help, and will, but I still need a Wielder to see the powers and if they differ from my normal stuff." “Alright, so who’s going to be that wielder?” I asked curiously. "You. Duh." “That was my first thought but I wasn’t sure.” I said honestly. "So, while they eat and rest up, you see exactly what the heck I can do, okay?" “Sure.” I nodded. “I’d love to know what you can do.” "Same, so, should we make another pocket dimension or just give them a show. And I don't mean sex." “I think we can give them a show.” I said while gently taking Hearts hand. “May I have this dance my love?” I asked politely. "...My shifting doesn't work like that, you know?" “It’s not just the transformation I’m talking about.” I said honestly. “You said put on a show, and I’m going to.” I said. “Ever heard of Blade Dancers?” I asked curiously. "No." “Well then, I’m going to demonstrate it.” I said honestly. “And it’ll be amazing.” "Okay, should I watch or are you going to lead?" Heart asked. “I’ll lead.” I said. “Plus it would be a good demonstration of your abilities...plus I don’t think we’ve ever had a dance before.” "...No, no we have not." Heart said, taking my hands. "So, how will this work with my having no legs?" “We’ll figure it out.” I said gently. “And mid way through the dance you’ll just be shifting into your X-blade form anyway, then I’ll take over from there.” "Sounds like Steven Universe Fusion meets Soul Eater." Heart laughed, the first laugh I've heard in a long time thinking about it. Heart had gotten much better at moving with a tail for their lower body. Our dance while felt perfect likely just looked like a worm trying to attack a ball of hair. Still, Midway, on cue, Heart shifted. Their X-Blade form looked different, slightly. It was still black where's X's where white and had two crossed Kingdom Key D's, but where they crossed, was now a hole, and inside it was a softly light blue glowing heart. Right where the hand guards of the two Kingdom Key D's met below the heart was the gem. “Cool.” I said simply at Heart’s new form. “Class shift, Blade Dancer, Dervish.” I said as I glowed softly. “Ready?” I asked Heart. "Was… that supposed to do something?" Heart asked as their form didn't change or shift any. “It’s a class change.” I said while Heartless spawned in. “This is where I show you what blade dancing is.” I said simply as I summoned No Heart as well, and started taking measured steps towards the Heartless. The entire fight was, to the onlooking Legendaries, ‘beautiful and deadly’, as I cleaved through dozens of Heartless in a special form of Ballet, moving gracefully and with purpose, both No Heart and Heart acting like an extension of myself as I danced through all the Heartless in a graceful whirlwind of blades. "While cool, not exactly what I had in mind." “Well I wanted to dance.” I said. “And everyone else seemed to like it.” I said simply. With my dance over I finally got to checking stats. Heart was… a bit odd. First off, they have five forms. The fifth is locked. The other four are Darkness Form, Light Form, Balanced Form and Nobody Form. That aside there is something here that's linked to the Race Tree, Feed Tree, it's called. "What does the Feed Tree do?" Heart asked. “Hmm…” I hummed while looking into the Feed Tree. “First time I’m seeing it…” Feed Tree: This is a standard ability for all Weapons Equipped with an Alteration Gem. Feed the gem random fodder from beasts to weapons and such and with each fodder unlock new forms for your weapon and increase these new forms to Master Level by using their specific skills or feeding the same fodder that unlocked it to your weapon. Forms do not change weapon stats, just weapon skills/type affiliation. Oh, so it is like when Shield Hero feeds his shield stuff then. "Basically if you feed yourself fodder you can change into different weapons with different abilities." I said honestly. "Oh. So, like what then?" “Um…” I brought out a Steel Greatsword and put it in front of the Gem. To my surprise, it was fed, dissolving into particles and into the gem. An alert in my hud showed two new branches were unlocked. Kingdom Hearts Greatsword Form, and Kingdom Hearts Steel Form. “Cool.” I said while bringing a shield and see if it could be fed as well. “Wonder if this also works.” As I tapped it on the gem, but was met with a message on my hud. Incompatible Weapon. To make comparable requires a new Form Slot. “New Form Slot?” I asked curiously while double checking this whole Form Slot thing. After a quick search I found what I was looking for. To allow a new Form Slot of a different weapon type than the original, you must reforge the original weapon with the Alteration Gem attached and mold it into the desired weapon. Once finished the weapon can freely shift between weapon forms as well as absorb the new form weapons. “Ah, alrighty then.” I nodded. “Good to know.” "The hell you're gonna reforge me." “Nah, that’s up to you if you want to do that.” I said honestly. “I’m just learning something neat.” I said honestly. “So, how else do you want to display your abilities?” "Well, from your memories, you funneled Cript's power into your weapons, try pulling mine." “Um...sure.” I said while taking a deep breath and feeling the flow of Heart’s energy, as I started to gently direct the current towards me. The energy began to fuel into me, it wasn’t like Cript’s, but it was potent as I soon began feeling all of it flow in. My fur shifted from dark grey to a bright light blue, my claws shifting to a longer darkness. Once I felt it was all inside, I flowed it back into Heart. Their X-blade form shifted, the hole where the heart grew larger as did the heart, and while it kept glowing a bright warming light, but the outer blade cloaked itself into a darkness, shifting to a design much like Way to Dawn or Soul Eater. ”Okay THAT’s a rush.” Heart said, this full powered form of ours now stable. “Hmm…” I hummed, ever so lightly swinging Heart to feel the weight of the full powered form. Connection reestablishing… … … Connection Reestablished. “Yeah let’s save that for the front lines…” Heart said, the two of us finished repairing space, a little bit of time, and many other things that were obliterated from that gentle swing. “I practically moved my arm ever so slightly, the actual hell…” I said nervously. “On the bright side…” Heart said, moving next to me. “Looks like I’m right right as to not hurt you power wise. Now, mind if I act on an idea?” “Oh? What’s the idea?” I asked curiously. “Just… grab this.” Heart said, a DTL opening up above me. Falling through was… is this a Keyblade Graveyard Keyblade… wait… “It worked!” Heart yelled happily. I lost about four hours, now sixty percent of this world has Keyblades. “Now you’re also part X-blade!” “Could have warned me.” I chided. “I mean seriously...dumbing an entire Graveyard on top of me out of nowhere?” “It was just the one Keyblade… it was the reaction you had given… stuff that I still am not quite sure I understand that ended up having you possessed by them, then I managed to get that heart alteration thing done. Bright side, Nexus knows we’re here. Bad news… I wanna see you shift into a X-blade.” “Fine fine…” I sighed out while taking a deep breath to feel how to chance into an X-blade. The shift wasn’t too bad. My X-blade form was different. It was the two Interdiction blades crossed, surrounded by Nothingness thorns, the thorns pulsated around, making up the outer blades, and handgrip. “Not bad.” Heart said, holding me. Being held by the grip like that felt a lot like holding hands actually. Huh. ”It feels like we’re holding hands actually.” I mentally told him. “I know right! I expected it to be the first time to feel like I’m being wrapped around the waist, but it’s more like holding hands. So, in this form you can’t use your powers, at least not normally. I have to be the catalyst this time… Hmmm… I have an idea, care to hear it?” ”What’s the idea?” I asked curiously. “Tanks up front, archers in the rear, healers dotted but protected.” Heart said, pointing me towards the old Team Galactic building where Nexus was hiding out at the moment, one of them at least. “Let’s go say hi.” ”This is gonna be fun.” I chuckled. Knock, Knock, knock. “Hm?” The nexus lady questioned. She then went over to check the door, only to have it slammed on top of her. “Hello!” Heart yelled, swinging me at 5% power, blasting a few holes below us and the upper levels collapsing. “You’re worst nightmares are here.” They looked below, seeing the struggling Nexus lady trying to crawl out from under them. With a wave of their finger, Second Chance impaled her, and she reverted back to infancy. With another flash she was sent back to the home. “Let’s show Nexus that, if we’re going to beat and end their entire organization, killing the body by saving them. Now that will piss Vincent off.” ”And that will be funny.” I chuckled. ”Now let’s go save a bunch of people.” Being the weapon is a very different experience. For starters my pov somehow is not in a sort of second person, seeing things from just over Hearts shoulder, right or left I can switch between freely. Blocking or hitting things feels kinda odd though, like it's either a tap or a pinch depending on how strong or hard the thing I hit or block was. Needless to say though with Second Chance and the new family members all also carrying one, we saved everyone here. Babies that were once our enemies here, now innocent and pure. Once they were all safe and secure back home… is when she arrived. "Looks like someone grew a spin." Rune said, decorated in some sort of armor that had blue glowing outlines around it. "Miss me that much?" I felt Heart starting to tremble a bit, their grip on me shook some. ”Sup Slut.” I called out to Rune. ”Ready to get your ass beaten again?” "Oh, is that you ---, huh? Oh, looks like someone sold their name. How desperate must you have been?" ”Like you for cock? I’m not that desperate.” I told her. ”Besides, it’s just a name, everyone else has had a name changes. So it doesn’t bother me much.” I said while I tried to get Heart to calm down. "Heh. So, this I your plan? Insults and reverting staff to infancy? Since when do you two care about if there is bloodshed? Question is, will you kill me today?" "Obey." Heart murmured, a pulsation sent out like a shockwave was sent out. Once it hit Rune she clutched her chest. "Ooh. About time you got rough." "Obey and be silent." Heart said, this time with volume as Rune could no longer talk. Hearts crown appeared over their head. ”Alrighty then…” I started. ”What are you going to do now that she finally shut up?” Heart said nothing, raising a hand. "As king of hearts, by my command reveal to me the truths unsaid, the memories locked away, and the buried sides you hold under lock and key." Suddenly, An eruption of light came from Rune's chest, her heart flowing out as what looked like lines of film began floating all around. Her whole life playing through before us. There was chunks missing, her time with Heart. "I see then." Heart said, placing their hand into Runes heart, and pulling out a smaller heart. This one once it was out reliced film also, showing Runes time with Heart. "There you are, Rune." Heart sent the smaller heart back into Rune's body, and the larger one, they gripped it tight, and it shattered. ”Uh...the hell?” I questioned. ”I know about the whole two hearts thing cause...well it’s happened before many times, but the hell was that specifically?” "I can tell when someone is lying to me. I could tell Chrysalis wasn't Twilight when we first met. Rune does love me, but there was two of her. Rune who was built and raised by Nexus… and a second, created solely because the Rune Nexus made can't fake love, so they made one who can feel love, and that is my Rune." Heart said, slithering over to Rune. Rune was crying, tears flowing like rivers. "I couldn't stop her." Rune said. "She could just take over whenever, and All I could do was watch…" Heart hugged her tightly, crying also. "I'm just glad you're back. And she can never hurt you again." ”This is nice.” I said simply. ”Glad things are okay…” “I brought coffee and-” A Team Galactic grunt walked in with a Machamp holding a lot of coffee and donuts. “Uh…” ”Well...donuts and coffee wouldn’t be bad right now…” I said honestly. To be continued... Nobody finishes up SmithingIn the workshop Lord outfitted me with one of those Gems too since I'm now also part weapon. It didn't hurt and was in the same place as Hearts when they were in normal form. “Alrighty then...onto the rest of my weapons right?” I said, wondering if my other weapons were done or if we still had work to do. "Yup." Lord said. "Good news, Lindworm is done, and that female Wyvern joined as an alternative lance, so in the form menu she is attached to her own weapon form. Also their egg in out back." “That’s wonderful.” I said happily. “So...which weapon next?” "Lunatic and Interdiction are almost done and Sharp Shooters just needs some tweaking and it will be ready. The others since they don't have similar structures to the other weapons. And for Foudre we have to make a special gem for it given its small size." Lord said. “Cool.” I nodded. “So then let’s get started.” I said simply. “But what do you think of my weapons Evolutions?” "They look nice." Cript said. "They work and that's all that matters." Lord said. “Even thought it went from sixty percent of Cript’s max to being able to take Cript’s max.” I pointed out. “And they still have four more evolutions.” "Either way, let's get this out of the way so we can start the Ethernet stuff." Cript said, taking out SharpShooters. To my surprise each own had a gem on it. He quickly went to work tweaking it as Lord was working on Lunatic and Interdiction. “Alrighty then…” I muttered while going over and starting to fiddle with Book of Retribution and Staff of Leniency. “So...this Ethernet thing…” I started, not knowing much about it besides what the common internet talk would be about it. “What is it?” "Basically another Multiverse. But WAY more random." Lord said. "We've only explored a few places there. One is basically YouTube, the other is a place where the Admin War Never happened, but the Admins there don't even know how to use code. They think it's magic." Cript said. “I mean, I told you two that Code is an overcomplicated version of Magic a long time ago.” I said honestly "Either way, this time we will be looking into their machines. Maybe even gaining help along the way." Cript said. “I’m sure Jenny will help out in someway.” I brought up. “She probably knows the Ethernet better than either of you at the moment considering...who she is.” "Maybe." Cript thought aloud. “Alright.” I nodded as I continued to work on my weapons. “Oh, not sure if you noticed but we added a new world to the Kingdom.” I mentioned to Cript. "Saw. Pokemon huh? Also saw the new influx of family." “Yep, all the legendaries and the greatest Pokemon trainer on that world.” I said honestly. "Huh." Cript said, now closing up Sharpshooters. "And done." They said, tossing them over to me. I took SharpShooters and looked them over. “Let me guess, you made these stronger than that giant Admin Cannon I found in the Tomb of Heroes?” I asked. “I...sadly forgot the name, but it’s basically the RYNO from Ratchet and Clank.” "It's up there, and given they are the same class of weapon it's a form it can shift two. Their base form as well as switching between evolutions, the giant cannon you mentioned, and an extra I added solely because it was funny." Confused, I looked into it. Base form, Cannon Form… Casual form? Selecting it turned them into cartoon bike horns, a large loop between the 'triggers', being those rubber balls you squeeze to pump the air for the noise through, and the fiering barrel, being the horns end. I looked at it...and then I looked at Cript. “Why?” "Funny." They said simply as I shifted them back to base form, final upgrade form. "Having versatility is useful, you already have a fair sized armory at your disposal, but even if the weapons are diverse, is what they can each offer you in combat just as diverse?" He asked, not expecting an answer as he began working on Book of Retribution next. “Alrighty then.” I said while stepping away from Cript to do his work. “I was just checking all of it’s stats and abilities before I fully messed with it.” Class: Ranged Mana Armorment Ammunition: N/A Type: Collectable Att: 75 Def: 40 Mag: 120 Name: Joy Horns These collectors weapons ignore 50% physical defense and 100% magical defence. They improve attack damage the happier the shooter is. It's bullets scatter, each dealing split damage overall. “Well then…” I started. “That’s...interesting.” There was a tab for additional info. I clicked it. Spawn Rates: Level 1: 0% Level 2: 2% Level 3: 40% Level 4: 45% Level 5: 47% Values: Buy: 64,000 Sell: 36,000 “Um...what?” I asked curiously. “Spawn rates and price tags?” "You didn't notice?" Lord asked. "The Mother we already met with merged with our cycle already. As well as like nine others." "In short, Dungeons exist now. Easy ones are level one amd hardest are level five, meaning Admins or equal to in power only." Cript said. “Um...alright.” I said honestly. “So...what, is the Tomb of Heroes level 5 or something?” I asked curiously. "More like or something." Lord said. "It starts at level one difficulty and going down to level five the further down you go." "Sounds about right." I nodded. "Bright side, they are great training grounds." "Yes they are." I said honestly. "Especially when an entire floor is an infinite mob spawner." "Varies from dungeon to dungeon." Lord said. "Or depending on room to room, cause I've gone through thirteen and the Celestial one is the only one that's been an infinite spawner." I said honestly “Huh. weird.” Lord said, finishing up Lunatic as they gave it to me and began finishing Interdiction. “Weird?” I asked curiously. “Why weird?” "Normally the dungeons spawn in certain amounts of enemies a day, triple on Blood Moons and double on Pulsating Moons, but bosses respawn once. Year. Same for their loot. Floor loot will respawn daily. Void must have fucked with it's respawn clock." "Either that, or that's just how the floor works." hrugged. "In any case, these dungeons will become invaluable for training not just the soldiers, but the family as well." Cript said. "Teams for the best odds and to help build trust and all that." "I smell a Guild happening." Lord said with a laugh. Cript gave a chuckle. "Maybe." "You mean Guilds haven't been cropping up left and right?" I asked, honestly a little confused as Consequence told me dozens of Guilds were forming to help the kingdom where it couldn't get to half the time. "They have, but we mean turning the family into a guild itself." Cript said. "Well...that'll be interesting." nestly. "Regardless, let's keep existence from ending first then we can consider what comes next for us all." "Yeah, I'd rather existence not end thank you very much." I said simply. After a few days work all my weapons now had gems on them and a few had special new forms. "Alright then, time for the Ethernet." Cript said, stretching. "I'll go look for the Storage Drive then." Lord replied. "Hey King. Here." Cript said, tapping their Assistant as a new app installed on mine. "Oh?" I hummed while checking the new app. Mission Tracking. "Mission tracking?" I asked curiously. "As of today, this family is the Crowned Guardians Guild. Royalty that protects the land and the people it's banner reaches. Only ways in are birth, marriage, or adoption. As an official Guild the Mission Tracking app is a must to keep tabs. It's basically a to do list but with detailed information on stuff. Completing missions gives various rewards but always ensures more skill points are earned. The Lowest being one and the most being twenty." "Cool." I said. "What kind of missions do these Guilds do besides fetch quests and monster hunting?" "Investigations, alerts about tournaments and such." "And, currently exclusive to us, Front Lines Missions." Lord added. "Our objective, reach the Void Mother and various other things." "But we have one mission on there for you that will tie into the Void Mother mission… finding Void Key. Luckily this app is… unique. It's programming and processing is done by reading Code itself and basically translating it's expected paths. So, you have a lead." Cript added. "Oh I am going to enjoy hunting Void Key." I said with a predatory smile as I looked up my lead. Mission: Find Void Key. Search Coco's Heart. “Alright…” I nodded. “Good thing I’m with Coco at the moment in the Heroes Tomb.” I said simply. “By the way...what would happen if someone…’broke’ a dungeon floor?” I asked curiously. "Broke how?" Lord asked. “Now before I kind of...blew up a dungeon in a fit of rage…” I said sheepishly. “I was just wondering what would happen if you either start breaking the actual Floor, like cracks or pieces start disappearing.” I said sheepishly. "It will self repair all damage within a day, no matter how severe. But if you are talking about digging straight to the bottom floor, that's impossible." “Well...alrighty then.” I nodded. “Good to know that it’ll only take a day...well that floor is going to be ruined to hell…” "What floor?" Cript asked. “Floor 13, where I found Shadow the Celestial.” I said, accidentally forgetting his name but knowing what he looks like. “And going to save the Queen of the Celestials.” "Queen of the Celestials? You mean Celestia?" Cript asked. “Yes, yes I do.” I nodded. “That’s the lady that I have to beat to progress after all.” "... She's not in the family though…" “I...didn’t mention her being part of the family.” I said slowly. “I said I was going to save her from being a boss in the Tomb of Heroes…” I said. “Uh...actually that raises a question, what would happen if someone were to...take away the Boss from a Dungeon floor? Like say...using Second Chance to turn them into infants and then bring them home?” "Good question." Cript thought. "Also remember, everyone in the Tomb of Heroes was part of this family in the past cycle, so… guess that means I best give her a call…" "Given how the tomb of Heroes was built and operates, most likely they were always saved, but by cycles end… respawned, meaning they went their, died on their floor, and starts next cycles, same story basically." Lord said. “Oh…” I muttered sadly. “Good...to know...so uh...how much of a bitch is it to fight Lyra again?” I asked. “Cause she’s the final boss...and Jericho said she’s probably the strongest person to exist at the moment…” "Hmm… a lot like fighting me I guess." Cript thought aloud. "But Lyra had always had better speed." “Oh boy…” I sighed out. “So it’s going to be a nightmare.” "All the best bosses are." Lord added. "Either way, you head off and finish up the Heroes Tomb, Lord and I will get busy here and hopefully make some progress." Cript said. “I’m already there.” I said. “You forget, starfish clones. I’m with Coco, Jericho and Kexez at the Tomb right now.” I brought up. To be continued... Nobody becomes DeathlessKnowing what I know now. I have to clear this place as fast as I can, but to get stronger, I still have to take it a bit slower. Coco was laid on the bed. I told her what I was going to do, a dive to her heart. Most likely there has to be some leftover memories from when Void Key covered it. Coco's station of awakening was nice. It was her, the background a green field, and images of me, Rarity, and others in the family were here. “This is nice.” I said warmly as I started to look around for what I needed. “Alright memory of where the fuck Void Key is, where are you…” I muttered while searching around. “Or...maybe there’s still a fragment here I could track...whichever comes first.” I dived into her memories, arriving in what looked like… a kid's room? Must be in her childhood. "Would you like Assistance?" Izzie's Voice suddenly spoke in my head. “Thank you Izzie.” I nodded. “Can you help me find where Void Key would be in Coco’s memories? Either it’s location or if it has any remnants left?” "Judging by surrounding and location in her heart, you landed in her childhood from age ten. To safely reach your destination of where Void Key related Memories are located, you have to find the memory of each time Void Key was mentioned to or around her in her memories. I detect one in this memory sequence." "Cool." I said while starting to search for Void Key in this memory. Looking around I found that touching certain things seemed to trigger memories. A cute pink dress showed me memories of Coco in a school play. An equestrian version of Rapunzel. Finally though, a pair of bracelets showed me what I needed. Coco was easy seven, they were in a doctor's office/Laboratory. The lady checking her was human. "Okay Coco, you know what you have to do, right?" She asked, the young filly Coco nodded, holding out her hands as a small amount of void began forming. "Good. Just hold it until I get back, alright?" She asked. She then took leave outside the door. There, I caught a quick glance at something worrying and disturbing. Void Key, with a host. Needless to say I followed the doctor. "How is the little vessel?" Void Key asked. "Coco, is progressing well." The doctor said. Glad she's not evil then given she used Coco's name. "The artificial Void Conduit Gene seems to be holding strong and working perfectly." "Perfect. Out of all the hosts Nexus has made for me in these last sixty thousand years, she will be the crowning achievement." Void Key said with a laugh. “Of course.” I growled angrily. “Also, how the fuck did they get Void Key? There’s no way in hell...Void Key was with all those other weapons in Daybreak?” The room glowed, now it was a workshop of hers from Manehattan. The view was nice. "I detect two memories here." Izzie Informed. “Alright.” I nodded while flying around to find the memories. “Got any locations for those memories?” I asked considering we’re in Manehattan. "I detect one twenty feet left of you." “Thank you.” I nodded while moving twenty feet to the left to see what memory is here. It was her desk, many assorted threads, needles, fabrics and all that were here. One thing that stood out was a photo of Coco and her family. Picking it up, showed me the memory. Coco was in the Laboratory again. This time asleep and hooked up to monitors. There was a lot of people here this time. "Wasn't the Time Burner supposed to be here a while ago?" One of the doctors asked. "They're time travelers, all of history and the present at their fingertips and no actual sense of time themselves." The same lady doctor from.the prior memory spoke. She was much older here. Suddenly, there was a red electrical crackling at the back wall, a Time Walkers portal opened up, but with a dark red theme over the normal blue. Out from it walked someone in a red high-tech jumpsuit and mask, holding a bloody No Name Keyblade. "Sorry to keep you waiting, damn fucker just did not want to die." They said, dropping the Keyblade. The female doctor looked quite repulsed, but cleared her throat. "So that's the last ingredient then?" She asked. "Should be. According to Void Key." "I'll begin the experiment." Another doctor said, taking the No Name Keyblade and placing it in Coco's unconscious hands. Once they returned to their seats, the scientists all began typing on their computers, machines began making noise as Coco began generating void. "Void Gene activated. Switching to Fear Based Void." The void she was generating changed, now it was Void Keys. It began cloaking No Name in her hands soon it covered it, warping it's form and shape...it was now Void Key. "Conversion successful." One of the doctors said. “Cause of fucking course it had to be.” I growled. "Next memory is a floor up." “Alright.” I said while heading up a floor. “But of course Void Key just had to suddenly take over No Name...cause what else would be fine for that sack of shit…” I growled. Heading to the next floor up was clearly where she ate and slept. The memory here was triggered when I found a small ring. In this one, Coco was working in the same workshops that was below where I just was, sewing away. Suddenly, the sunlight vanished. She looked out her window… this was the day the Shadow Titan attacked. It smashed into her building, inches from her face when suddenly… Coco was now elsewhere. It almost looked like… the bottom of a well. She backed up against the wall, in the center before her was a Void Key Keyblade, and The giant eyeball itself. "Can't have you dying on me now, can I?" It asked. Coco blinking again as she was now under some partial rubble being removed. “It’s weird...Coco could have taken that hit even back then...I know it...but Void Key saved her…” I muttered. “Well, not ‘saved’ her, more like ‘moved host out of the way’ cause he certainly doesn’t give a half ounce of deep fried shit about her.’ The next area was the old castle home. This brings back memories. I found the memory fast. This one was Void Keys, because Void Key itself seemed to be here. It was that well again, Void Key attached to a wall of sorts. Vilgax was here too. "What's my mission Master?" "The Coco host has been freed from my influence. That mongrel managed to remove me from her heart. It's time to work on the backup. Fetch me the Admin of Fear." "With pleasure." “Well...looks like I’m going to have to visit her again.” I sighed out. “But I’m probably way too late on that...but better late than never.” I said as I felt one of my clones head off to find the Admin of Fear. With that I left Coco's heart and now, the grind begins. "Oh shit!" Coco dodged a monster Celestials spear attack, and I impaled it with my new lance form from Lindworm. This new wyvern lance has ice abilities. “You know what grinding sessions need?” I asked honestly while cleaving through a few hundred Celestials rather quickly. “Some kickass music.” I said before pulling out Arpeggio and plucking one of the cords to start it. “God, haven’t heard this song in a while.” I sighed before pulling out Lunatic and Skysplitter before leaping into a massive crowd of the Celestials and cleaving through them swiftly. “Come on guys! The fun’s just getting started!” I said as I cleaved through hundreds of Celestials that just kept spawning. Since exp was no longer a thing now, SP, or Skill Points, were the new exp. For me, killing 700 of these Celestials monsters earned me five. 100 earned Coco two, 700 for five also for Jericho and Kexez. I had spent nearly all mine surprisingly raising base stats, HP, att, all that, and those cost a fuck ton the higher you make them. “So my weapons are now based on my stats instead of level?” I asked curiously. "Looks like." Kexez said, borrowing Sharp Shooters for this grinding session and shooting up storms of these things. "I'm already at six hundred. You guys?" "Fourhundred and ninety." Jericho said, using his own axe and cleaving through these things. "It looks like Level was also changed. Now it's a class rank." "Seventy. And neat." Coco said, she's also borrowing one of my Weapons. Interdiction. “Uh...two thousand.” I said sheepishly, continuing my ever widening, and explosive, cleaves through the hoard. “I forget that I keep making massive aoe attacks every time I swing.” "So wait, killed two thousand or earned two thousand SP? Cause we were talking about kill count." Kexez said. “Oh…” I started. “Um...somewhere around...ten thousand already.” I said sheepishly. "And you call Heart Boy Wonder." Jericho laughed, hacking up three more of the creatures. “I mean...he is.” I said. “But I keep swinging and causing explosions to happen.” I said while swinging Lunatic, cleaving through one enemy and then causing a blue fiery explosion that killed twenty more. “And I’m not even trying right now…” "Those upgrades paid off then." Kexez said, shooting off both magazines into a wall of the things. “I mean...this would have also happened before the upgrades Lord and Cript did.” I said honestly. “And honestly, I’m not even using any of these things abilities to make this easier which is...something.” At that moment my Assistant flashed a message in my hud. Cleared Dungeons contain optional challenges that greatly increase the rewards given. This is a detected Cleared Dungeon, Cleared 999,999,999,999+ times. Each challenge offers chances at otherwise nearly impossible loot. Browse Heroes Tomb Dungeon Challenges? Yes / No “Dungeon challenges?” I asked curiously, wondering what the dungeon challenges are. Selecting yes brought up various many selections. Each from weird to fun to strange. One looked interesting. Crippled Combat. Reduces your stats drastically, making easy enemies hard but also increases their rare loot drops and each one kill counts for three. “Well...that’s interesting.” I said honestly. “Hey, who wants to start doing some dungeon challenges?” "Not much for competition. Heart and I share that dislike of them." Kexez said. "What's available?" Jericho asked. "Anything interesting?" Coco asked. “Well the first one is all our stats are drastically reduced to make these enemies difficult.” I said honestly. “One kill counts for three and they have a better chance at dropping rare loot.” "As cool as that sounds I don't think I'm ready for that." Coco said. “That’s alright.” I nodded while checking what other challengers there are, smacking away a bunch of other trash to continue looking at what’s possible. Seriously some of these are weird. Defeat floor seven using only a butter knife. Clear floor seven backrooms with only throwing weapons. Almost any kind of challenge no matter how insane was here. Hmm… Oh, here’s an option. Collect 1,000 Celestial Wingtip Feathers. Reward: 7 Sp, 1,000 Rem, .7043 Glock Cannon. “Ah, there’s some collection challenges, one of them is to collect a thousand celestial wingtip feathers.” I brought up. “Sounds simple enough right?” “Sure. What’s the rewards?” Coco asked. “Seven SP, a thousand Rem and a .7043 Glock Cannon...whatever the hell that is.” I said honestly. “Uh… what is that?” Coco asked. “The glock I mean.” “There are only two other companies that rival Cript’s.” Jericho said, using a powered attack to hack sixty of these things. “Mutation Tec, and Cowles Highpower. They do almost everything that Freak Inc does, but aren’t as diplomatic as Cript. That glock is made by Mutation Tec.” “Well that’s interesting.” I said honestly. “Well, this is a simple enough quest.” I said while taking the quest. “Now I don’t know if we literally have to take them off of the wing’s or they just get dropped…” I gave it a quick lookup. They have a 1 in 10,000 rate of spawning, but it’s still not a guaranteed drop. Apparently brewed into a tea that acts like a complete restore potion. Removes all status effects, and gives a short double hp effect for ten minutes. That’s useful. Apparently they can only be collected on a Celestials corpse, the feathers have no power when they are alive. “Alright, so better not blow up the corpses…” I muttered. “Or maybe it’ll just drop…” I said while looking down at the ever growing pile of loot we were just walking on. “Well, better than nothing.” Coco said. We all began on out challenges. As I attacked these things with the crippeling challenge on… wait, that did HOW MUCH LESS!!! Back in the safe room… I only did barely a tenth of their hp in damage with this challenge activated. And they hit me for nearly half! Bright side… The loot I got from their drops were impressive. I also got ten of those feathers. Coco only found two in all her kills. Jericho found six and Kexez found one. “You know, when I saw it, I thought that my stats would be a third of what it is...not having it take the enemies stats, cutting it in half, then putting it on me.” I said honestly. “Cause even at a third I would still be able to handle a couple of them fine…” I frowned. “Hey, at least it builds your speed and stamina.” Kexez said, breathing heavily and drying off their sweat. “I know I know.” I said while drinking some water. “I can still complain though.” “Heh. At least there’s now a means for us to experience challenge in combat.” Jericho said. “So, looks like those feathers are as hard to get as they say. Moreso I think.” “I mean, I’m pretty sure that we could have found an ass ton of them considering there’s like...a foot of loot out there that we were all walking on.” I said honestly. “No.” Coco sighed. “The challenge gave me a temporary ability to magnetically receive any nearby me. What we got and what I got was all that’s out there.” “Shit, seriously? That must be some tea then.” Kexez said. “That’s...outlandishly improbable but okay.” I shrugged. “So anyways...want to know some news outside this place?” I asked curiously, wondering if any of them noticed the new things happening. “Spill it.” Jericho said. “I’m ears.” Kexez said. “Yes please.” Coco said. “So...from good news to bad news…” I started. “So, a Pokemon world has now joined our Kingdom, all the legendaries and apparently The Pokemon Master, I mean the person that’s seen and done everything in that world, all joined our harem which is...over a hundred.” I started. “Shit.” Kexez said. “Yeah, that only happened cause Heart decided to sneak out with a Starfish Clone to said pokemon world...and then get caught by Rune and proceeded to do fuck nothing about it until I got there.” I explained. “So second good news, Heart finally grew a pair against Rune, ripped out both her hearts, and destroyed the heart that was the selfish bitch.” I said honestly. “So Runes back thankfully.” “Wait, she had two hearts?” Coco asked. “Huh… that would make sense. Can’t fake emotions around Heart, so cover her lack of emotions with a crafted personality that can.” Kexez said. “So yeah.” I said. “So after that...my name is now officially King, cause I needed to...give Truth my name, while Lord gave up his Armor, and Cript...gave up all his suppressors, and magically turned into what I can only describe as if Doomsday from DC had a kid with Godzilla and was tested on by a lot of crazies.” “Oh… So, should we all stop holding back also?” Jericho asked. “If his suppressor is removed, it would show us all how we look without holding back.” “I’m pretty sure in Heart’s and Mine’s case we’d be X-blade amalgamations.” Kexez said. “I mean…” I started before showing the cracks on my arms that are still healing. “This is just me doing eighty percent of Cript’s power, and that was after he gave up his suppressors.” I said honestly. “So...I figured out what Nulls are...and Jenny is one of the lazy bastards…” “Huh.” Jericho said. “You know, that is depressing.” “What? That the beings that are supposed to kill Glitches and make sure Cycles happen are lazy bastards? Or that Jenny and...a lot of other family members are apart of it?” I asked curiously. “Both.” Jericho said. “So, what’s on the agenda then?” Kexez asked. “And that leads me to the more...bad news.” I sighed out. “So...apparently what causes the End of a Cycle, is because Grey get’s...too big, and has only been getting faster and faster...as well as Eclipsa getting kidnapped by Scotch after something happened in the Realm of Dreams.” “Shit…” Jericho said. “Yeah...and what’s even worse is that I figured out how to solve the problem in less than a minute upon hearing the problem.” I said. “And that’s using Grey as it’s own storage space, kind of like how certain imprisonment spells work. It uses its ever growing power to fuel it’s ‘containment’, but it’s still apart of Reality and won’t cause stupid shit to happen.” I said honestly. “How some people haven’t figured this out in god knows how long is beyond me when it’s brain dead simple.” “They just don’t care it seems.” Kexez said. “Clearly.” Coco said. “Which is weird because they have said it is an ever growing problem that they believe ‘can’t be stopped’...” I sighed out. “But whatever...oh, actually, before I forget.” I said before turning my arm into a part of my X-blade form. “I’m an X-blade now...and if you didn’t feel it, me and Heart kind of...maybe accidentally broke Reality for a hot minute with me ever so gently waving my arm at a hundred percent of Hearts power.” “Oh I felt that one. Heh, welcome to the club.” Kexez said. “There would be only one way for us to go to a hundred percent, without risk of death… Cript would be pissed though.” Jericho said. “Become Deathless?” I asked. “Like I originally thought we all were because we’re all the same person.” “Yeah.” Jericho said. “There are two beings who can take someone's Death. Truth, and Vincent.” “So we have one option.” Kexez said. “Yeah, only one option.” I said honestly. “I…” I sighed out. “Is it wrong that I’ve thought of becoming Deathless for a while?” “For selfish reasons, yes. But for what we’re up against, it might be mandatory.” Jericho said. “And by ‘selfish reasons’, you mean me wanting to protect my family forever?” I asked honestly. “No, Selfish means for dumb crap, as in soley for the power or the pure immortality.” Jericho said, standing up. “So, shall we get started?” “Those two things are not apart of what I want.” I shook my head. “But…” I sighed out. “Should we really do that? Cript sounded like we shouldn’t do it at all.” “Because of one reason. The long lifespan. True immortality means at some point, you start to forget the important things. Take Lord for an example. When he was the Delete Hunter, he did that for so many years because they killed his wife. All this time later, he doesn’t even remember her name, face, nothing.” “So that’s why he always smelt like a Delete…” I muttered. “But Lord forgot what he was doing because he lost sight of what he was fighting for...me...I would never lose sight of what I care about...never…” I said, bringing a hand up and holding onto a small locket I made to make sure I knew who I was fighting for. “Well, time to put your money where your mouth is.” Jericho said, snapping their fingers as the Human Transmutation circle under me. “Ready?” “It’s not like I have a choice.” I said honestly. “Alright then.” Jericho, placing hands on the circles outlines. The circle activated, and all went white. Well, here I was, the two doors. Mine was decorated by wolves, silhouettes of my weapons. The wolves howling to the moon above them was, funny enough, Kingdom Hearts, a Keyhole in their center. “Well, didn’t expect to see you here. At least not so soon.” Truth said. Turning around they were in my white silhouette body shape. “What brings you back so soon?” “Being Deathless is probably going to be a necessity sadly.” I sighed out. “Even though Cript will hate me for it...just...let me ask, can Deathless kill Deathless?” “Hehe. There is one way for that to happen, how though, I won’t tell; but I will tell you this. if you and Cript fight, you two could tear each other and the whole of creation apart in the fight, and still not die.” “I’m not surprised.” I shrugged. “But I’m pretty sure I’ll learn it and whatever else you’ll give me in exchange for my Death...I mean, besides your amusement because I’m pretty sure you like to see people be tortured by their own decisions.” “No purer form of entertainment. And I doubt you will, but hey, be happy.” They said. I hit the floor suddenly, my insides turned as I felt something getting pulled up from out of me. Soon, following a spit of blood was the small black pearl, my death. It rolled into Truths hand. “You can finally, have answers. Not all of them, but enough.” The door behind me opened, that Eye that reminded me of Void Key opening as those small hand/tendrils reached out and gripped me. “Know this...I will find a way to stop all this madness.” I growled. “And we won’t be needing you ever again.” “Oh? I look forward to seeing you struggle to that goal.” Returning here made my head hurt… like way worse than when I drank that Asguardian ale for the first time. Needless to say, this info and shift was felt by the family. I know a lot more now, including basically finishing a lot of projects I’ve been wanting to work on or finish this whole time. “Well...besides the splitting headache…” I groaned. “I now have finished...a lot of projects and...yeah, that stalemate is going to be long gone and none of us have to step in…” I said while getting up carefully. “Oh yeah...I also threatened Truth...that when I’m done, we won’t need him, or any of that bullshit ever again.” I brought up. Jericho sighed, helping me out of the circle and taking my place in it. “That was dumb. Truth doesn’t see that as a threat,” He kneeled down, putting hands to the circle and activating it. “He sees it as a promise.” There was a bright flash. In just a second, less or so, But I felt that same shift as before, and Jericho was back. He looked about as bad as I felt, and likely looked. “And he’ll expect you to keep it.” “Don’t worry.” I said. “When I say something like that, I mean it.” I said, Jericho seeing the flames of determination in my eyes. “Kexez? Coco? You want to do this as well?” I asked. “You don’t have to…” I said, honestly only having wanted myself to endure this pain for others but knowing that’s just a dumb idea. “I’m in, good luck convincing Heart.” Kexez said. “Okay. Hopefully will make this whole thing easier.” Coco said. “It’s not easy…” I sighed out sadly. “It’s never easy.” I sighed out. “I know you two already said so...and I already know better, but you two don’t have to, you don’t have to bear this burden…” “Like we’d let you two, three including Cript bare it alone.” Kexez said. “Immortality is only a hell if the people you care about are getting left behind.” They said, helping Jericho out and taking place inside the circle. “I know…” I sighed out. “I just...wish it never got to this point...:” “Hey, don’t worry about it.” Kexez said, giving me a thumbs up. “Like I’ve told Heart, I’ve given into our fate, a long time ago.” Giving a nod, Kexez without words told Jericho to activate the circle. Jericho did. A flash. A sense of a shift. And the flash died down. Kexez was back, they looked tired. “Shit, that’s a rush. And I thought escaping Purgatory was a pain in the ass.” “Yeah...becoming Deathless is a bit of a bitch.” I said honestly. “I guess it’s my turn now.” Coco said, helping Kexez out and getting in the center. “Alright.” I nodded. “Hopefully things keep going okay…” "Okay. I'm ready." Coco said. This time I activated the circle. My newfound knowledge on every aspect of Alchemy coming into play immediately. A flash. A shift. The flash ended. Coco was on all fours. She seemed okay, and overall just got hit harder than us. “You okay Coco?” I asked gently while helping her up. "Yeah. Just way more taxing than I expected." “I understand.” I nodded gently. “Hopefully...I won’t get yelled at and shunned because of this…” "Well, this gives us the perfect advantage now." Jericho said. "Only thing to worry about is imprisonment spells." “And those mean nothing when you know every counter spell known in existence.” I said honestly. "True." “So, are we now exempt from ‘losing’ the dungeon?” I asked curiously. “Or are there rules still on it?” "While losing, not really but we can get stuck. Use too much power, the Pain could paralyze us for a bit, not used to the pain that comes with it; or if the enemy is too strong, could get stuck for a while getting 'killed' before we even get a chance to attack." Jericho said. “You do know that will just turn into a battle of attrition that we’ll always win right?” I asked curiously. "Yeah but it will suck before that." “Eh.” I shrugged. “It happens...but we’ll get used to it.” "So, what now?" Coco asked. "Now." Kexez said, shifting an arm into their X-Blade form. Just the arm. "We go break some bones." “This is going to be fun.” I said while cracking my knuckles. Nine and a half days later. Yup…. That's every bone broken. Fuck. Even the healing hurts. “Why must I still feel pain?” I groaned. "Reminder." Jericho said, snapping their own jaw back into place. "Without pain, we also can't feel pleasure. Physical senses dull, emotional ones end up going soon after. Keeps us sane." "At least you all get to go all out." Kexez said, popping their arm back into position. "I have a planets worth of women and children in me." "And I thought Nexus's physicals hurt." Coco said, pulling a blade out from her back. “Well...right now, we’re back and recovering so...that’s at least a plus.” I said while fixing my arm. “And hey, it only took nine and a half days.” "Bright side, I got all the feathers." Coco said. Her challenge now complete she got her rewards. Including that Glock. It looked like an arm mounted cannon. The bullets filled MY palms. And that's without the cases. "Start brewing that tea then." Kexez said. “Let’s hope that Tea is worth it…” I sighed out. There was plenty here to have a small pot with a feather in it. Once it began to boil the feather seemed to melt into the water and it glowed with a dim purple light for a minute. Soon it faded and left behind a pale brown liquid. "Doesn't look as I was expecting." Coco said. “Cause of course it has to look pale and brown…” I sighed out while taking some of the tea. “Let’s hope it actually tastes good…” It didn't. It didn't have much to any flavor actually. Even the taste of water was somehow missing. But the effects were instant. My HP maxed out as my bones healed twice as fast as normal. The pain was still there but they healed so fast it was quick and only lasted a few seconds at most. All in all, once it was done I felt great again. “Ah, that’s better.” I said honestly. “Weirdly it has...no taste.” "How is it even considered a tea then?" Kexez asked. "It's just weird." Coco added. "Well, back to it then. Bit more grinding and we can head for the boss room." “Alright.” I nodded. “Back to grinding.” To be continued... Nobody starts an Admin GameI wasn't surprised when Cript had me come to their office. Their new form was now at least female looking. While also quite intimidating to anyone who didn't know them. "So… you, Jericho, Coco and Heart's Nobody are like me now?" Cript asked. “Sadly it was more of...necessity than anything.” I sighed out. “But...I’ll get all of our Death’s back, and make sure Existence doesn’t need that fucker again.” I said honestly. “Cause you know me, better threaten a ‘God who Laughs’ to make sure they know their bullshit isn’t needed anymore.” "King… there's a reason I didn't want you to become like me. And that THING is why. King, it isn't like Vincent or the Void Mother, it's the consciousness of the hardware that runs our existence. You can't just make it unneeded." “I can, and I will figure it out.” I said bluntly. “And you’ll help me, cause you want your Death back, and to see that bastard get what he deserves. "I can't King. My death is already gone. I got it back to forge a weapon, remember? When I first thought I killed Vincent?" “Oh yeah…” I sighed out. “I completely forgot about that.” "Besides King… I don't want to die. I can't. I made a promise. A promise that, if no other hero can defeat the evils that will rise up in the future, then I will. And I can't do that if I'm dead now can I?" “Certainly better than going mad right?” I asked, sadly remembering a future where...Cript ended the world. "Lest you forget I tend to break the futures images quite often. Besides, there are means to staving off Madness like Lord has all these years. Sleep, mainly. Be surprised by how short a two million year long nap can feel to an Admin. Explore. Fun thing about infinite realities, always something to see. Have someone to be with. Like Lyra, she also traded her Death away, just so I won't be alone for all eternity. And lastly, most common for Admins, the Admin Game." “Admin Game?” I asked curiously. “Oh, I also found a lead to where Void Key is...and that’s the Admin of Fear...which begs the question on how Void Key didn’t die before I beat that Delete…” "Hmm… Pecator said Void Keys Void is based on a foundation of pure fear. The Admin of Fear must be the next best vessel since his artificial conduit one is now safe from them. Question is which Admin of Fear?" “There’s...more than one?” I asked nervously. “Cause I only know the one lady…” "Two. The lady, Scree, and her dad, the original Admin of Fear. You'd know him as Pennywise." “But...Pennywise was running away shitless from the Delete along with everything else but Scree.” I frowned. “That...doesn’t make much sense.” "He's old. Survived the war. Got hit by some Delete attacks. Power wise he's not there anymore." “But he’s still strong enough to make Void Key his host?” I asked curiously. “Void Key is constructed from Fear, all his hosts likely are in some way or shape related to fear as well, meaning the Admin of Fear, the guy who made it, or the girl who currently embodies it, yeah, they would be more than strong enough.” “Christ…” I sighed out. ”So...I have to murder both Admin’s of Fear or rip Void Key out of them?” “Assuming they are taken already. Their realm has a lot of places to hide. Strong beasts to protect. Is Void Key himself going after them?” “More like he’s already have.” I sighed out. “Cause from Coco’s memories...Void Key has been with Nexus since she was a kid, which was many years before I even got here...which should be impossible because he was locked up in Heart’s Equestria, but then he magically also took over No Name...seriously, that’s some fucking dog shit.” I growled. “Fucking retconned one of the most overpowered weapons in existance actually being out and about for years, and have him doing nothing with all that time? The fuck?” “... No, no that… We don’t know how Void Key is forged, Pecator’s memories on that are still missing somehow. Just, poof, gone, but… what if a No Name Keyblade is a key ingredient? Coco was meant to be his perfect vessel because with it’s void, she could convert a No Name into a Void Key without the other required ingredients.” “I’m pretty sure Void Key stole the Pecator’s memory about how he forged it cause you know, making something more sentient than standard Keyblades is always a fun idea.” I rolled my eyes. “Also, if it’s a No Name, then why hasn’t it, ya know, done anything?” I asked simply. “I said No Name is likely a Key ingredient. They are not made, but… Duplicated. Time traveling to duplicate the original which no one knows how it was made. Most likely becoming a Void Key removes its temporal abilities, which is a good thing. Otherwise we’d be a whole other level of screwed.” “Okay, so let’s step away from the No Name part, and ask why has Void Key not done anything when Void Key has been out and about for as long as Coco remembers, plus however long it’s been running loose beforehand?” I asked. “Why hasn’t it done literally anything then?” “No idea. Fact is we’re blind on them and they may or may not be blind on us. We have no way of knowing until we can somehow push the frontlines into their territory, which when talking soldiers, even with all of us there is almsot tactical genocide. We need an edge of our own. I’ll see if Hollow might be able to help in someway there. Tactics done, you wanted to know about the Admin Games?” “Apparently you missed what I’ve currently done…” I muttered. “But that’s for another time. Right now, Admin Games, what are they?” “Right, well, they’re basically a self imposed RPG. You can alter your form or even life, memories or not and live a life. Rules are simple, if you keep your memories, your new life self has no connection to your powers other than Code, but you can only use Code twice a day and never for anything big, small things only. No memories just powers are kept under lock. Rule two, No one can know who you really are, this also only applies if you have your memories. Telling someone breaks the rules and ends the game. Rule three, when this life's persona dies, game over, and you can’t contact them, at least, you can’t tell them who you are to them.” “And if you win, because of course you can win, can you tell them after?” I asked curiously. “Cause...I have an idea on where to go, and that would have a definite end considering I could stop the fourth game from happening.” I thought out loud, thinking about the place I would like to try the ‘Admin Games’ on. “Sorry, got sidetracked. But is to tell them after I win?” “You win when you die of old age or after a good life.” “And with the win, I can tell them who I really am and all that crap?” I asked. “Cause...you know, the world I’m going to probably isn’t part of the kingdom…” "If you want I guess, also the only way to be born into a family like how Eclipsa was reborn as Twilight's brother. But that requires approval from the Time Walkers." "Okay then...so let's get their approval." I said honestly. "But will this affect my clones?" "Not at all, just the one copies body. I can submit the request. We'll hear back from them yesterday." Cript said. They took out a form papers writing some things down. "so, what world would you like to be reborn on?" “Sly Cooper world.” I said. “Reborn...as Sly’s younger brother…” I said sheepishly. "Heh. Taking a page from Eclipsa then?" Cript asked. “Yes...also, is it possible to be born with that worlds magic? Given the Cooper line already has magical roots and the world is probably teeming with it.” I brought up. "Yes, comes with the territory. Can't access your powers other than what's learned or used in your new life. So, no weapons, no Keyblades, no Nothingness." They said, filling out the form. “Is it wrong that I feel like I’m ripping off of Dressed to Steal?” I asked nervously, remembering reading some very good stories, one of them was with Sly Cooper. "That fanfiction? Been there, fun place, nice kid." Cript said, folding up the paper and slipping it into a small time hole. They then pulled out an envelope from their desk. "This came yesterday.” “Cause when you control time, you can always get something yesterday.” I chuckled. “So what did they say?” "Approved. Just click this and you'll be on your reborn way." Cript said, handing me what looked like a garage door opener. “Weird that it looks like a garage door opener but okay.” I said before clicking the button, ready to start a new adventure with my memories. I wasn't sure what happened, but I know I'm wrapped in a blanket… so sleepy… "Welcome home Kite." A soothing voice spoke. I realized quick I was a baby, so exactly like how Eclipsa went about it. Opening my eyes, the room was bright. I saw her, the never seen before Mom. She was… beautiful. Like Sly and his dad, a shade of light grey and dark blue fur colors. She wore a simple dress, nothing fancy really. "I can't believe it. Two children." "You're telling me." A male voice said… Sly's dad… my dad. "Cooper's rarely ever have two kids. Hope this little guy and Sly get along well." He said, old but clearly fit as any soldier. He brushed my hair a bit. ”Well...I have my memories.” I thought to myself, also glad to finally know Sly’s dad married a racoon...even though I’m pretty sure all the Coopers have a Fox kink. ”Let’s hope things go well enough…” I thought to myself as I felt even more tired...gotta get used to being a baby again... This time I woke up in my little bed. It was dark but looking around I saw the room was a kid's room. I noticed the young 2 year old Sly on the bed across from me. I saw one of his hands was out as he was sleeping as I gently put a hand in Sly’s, having been an only child so...having an older brother felt nice. As I was about to fall asleep again the door opened… Mom, came in. "Daw." She said, picking me up and holding me close. "Looks like someone already seems close to his big brother." She cooked quietly to me, taking me to the kitchen. "Must be getting hungry." She told me. My stomach agreed with her assessment as I started to tear up and whimper at being hungry. "Shhh. It's alright. I'll warm up a bottle." She said, taking out an already in bottle milk from the fridge. She placed me in a high chair as she began heating it up in a pot of water. This let me look around. There were lots of photos of Mom and Dad, a Photo of Sly as a baby, even a photo of Dad's team. Wait, above it was a Photo of Mom… was she a thief too? The two next to her make it look so. ”Okay so two things, one your supposed to be breast feeding an infant so they get proper nutrients lady, second...is she a thief?” I thought to myself, making a baby noise and pointing to the pictures, seemingly interested in their stories. ”But...maybe it’s good milk for infants to grow…” I thought to myself. "Hm? Oh, recognize your momma huh?" She asked with a chuckle. She walked over there, picking the framed photo off the wall. " This is me, and my friends Kaytlin and Snow." Kaytlin was a brown rabbit and Snow was a Deer. "They're also part of my squad on the force." ”Okay so...all Coopers have a Uniform fetish...good to know..” I thought to myself. ”Still might have a thing for fox’s, but I don’t know.” I thought while looking at the pictures and smiling, before I pointed at pictures of dad with an inquisitive baby noise. "Hehe. You like hearing me talk huh?" I couldn’t help but nod and giggle happily...even though I knew they wouldn’t be here for long. Smiling, she grabbed Dad's photo. "This is your father, Conner, and his friends and team, M and Jim. They… have skills for certain jobs that sometimes help mama in hers." I looked at all three, seeing dad smiling with the family cane across his shoulders, Jim McSweeny the Walrus looked a bit more fit than when I saw him in the opening of Honor Among Thieves, and Dr. M the Mandrill didn’t have that weird plug in his head and actually looked a little happier in the photo. I smiled at seeing the two pictures side by side, seeing dad’s gang and mom’s crew together as I looked up to her with starry eyes like I wanted story time...but my stomach again growled wanting food. Mom placed them down, checking the bottle and then giving it to me. It tasted good. "We met on my first day. Heh. A rookie cop and I catch Conner Cooper. Course, he got away, and that began a pretty long game of cat and mouse between us. Was fun sometimes, less so others." ”Oh? That’s interesting.” I thought to myself as I gave her an inquisitive look. "Then, one day we both got in over our heads. Warlord in the south of the Amazon. We got captured and thrown into a stone pit. Barely enough food for the two of us. All we could do was talk, and we ended up really close. We only escaped because his team and my squad joined up and saved us. Your brother Sly was born seven months later." ”Okay so it’s 1986 given he looked about two years old...and that is rather interesting...wait, Coopers are both magical and psionic, how the hell did they get stuck?” I thought to myself. ”But...at least it ended well…” I thought to myself as I smiled warmly. "Your dad and I got married a little while after Sly turned four months. Course, he uses a false name, had to. We were not expecting you though." She rubbed her nose against mine. "You were quite the surprise Kite." I smiled warmly, my eyes full of love for my mother happily. ”Well...at least I’m a good surprise.” I thought to myself, also hoping that there was that ‘no trace’ cooper ability in this world like in Dressed to Steal. ”I mean...that can be a minor tweak with Code I suppose...but not now.” "These days your dad helps me catch the big bads, doing the things a cop can't. It's helpful, and he only takes enough to cover his half of the bills." I smiled warmly, knowing that Coopers will always steal from other thieves and just happy that these two are in a happy relationship. "There's so much your father and I want to teach you two. I just hope you two don't grow up too fast while we do it." I raised my arms up, wanting to hug her and show that no matter what, I’ll always be her little boy. Once I finished the bottle she burped me, then took me back to the crib, tucking myself and Sly back in. "Goodnight my angels." I yawned and cuddled up to my older brother, hoping this life will be okay even with the problems I already knew about. A month has passed since this new life began. Being a baby confined me to baby proofed playpens and cribs. All in all, it wasn’t that bad. I got a lot of Sly’s old baby toys, and even both Mom’s squad and Dad’s team came over to see me. M even made me a toy rattle that he said when I was older he could modify into my own special cane. Of course Mom was leaning towards having me be a cop, but it was up to me, mom and dad agreed. All in all M said it could also swap to a blaster form like mom’s shock gun. Mom’s team knew dad and his team were thieves, but they didn’t care, made each others jobs easier. Jim was borderline Murry. Down to the appetite. Course, he and Kaytlin would compete for who could spoil me more. Either way, I, and by correlation Sly, had a fair sized mountain of toys. Sly and I got along great. Of course, he took after dad a ton. Down to swiping the cookies from mom. Granted I have no teeth yet, so he’d make my milk chocolate for me. ”This is nice…” I thought to myself gently. ”But...I know something bad is going to happen sooner or later…” Today was like many, Dad, being a thief, was actually largely the stay at home type. Since he normally worked nights, which worked out since Mom worked mornings to mid afternoon. M and Jim were both here as Sly was helping me play with those wood block toys. "I'm telling ya pal, your kid Kite there is much smarter than the average infant." M said, wearing a Hawaiian shirt and shorts. "There's this look in his eyes as he understands everything we say." "It's called innocence. Something all babies have." Dad laughed off. "Sure glad he and Sly get along. Me and my brothers never did." Jim added. ”Well...M is a lot more observant than I originally thought.” I thought to myself as I continued to play with my older brother and just having a good time. "So, you going to be ready for tonight's heist?" M asked Dad. "Always." Dad said simply. "What are we looking at so far?" "Usual. Armed guards, cameras, tall walls." "Child's play then." "Wonder if they're talking about the Diamond Heist...cause if memory serves that was his last job." I thought to myself curiously, wondering when certain events happen that would make dad retire and cause M to go...well ape shit. "So what's the target?" Jim asked. "Not what, who." M said. "A Russian noblemen's daughter was taken by Chinese terrorists. He hired us to save her." "Gotta say, Merc work isn't our usual thing, but he's paying good and is offering the location to our biggest target." Dad said. "Clockwork…" M hissed. ”Clockwork!? But...Clockwork isn’t supposed to be a big thing until years later…” I thought to myself worriedly. "About time we get a shot at the metal beak Psychopath." Jim said. "Did this Russian guy give us any info in good faith?" ”Wonder who this person is that is just giving up where Clockwork is?” I muttered, continuing to play with my older brother even if I was lost in thought. "Once that demon is gone I know Kite and Sly can grown-up safe. I won't let them go through what I and all the other Cooper's have had to endure under Clockwerks evil." Dad said, pure determination in his tone and eyes. I looked over at dad and gently raddled the toy M gave me, trying to call him over because I was...honestly worried about him and what he was talking about. "Careful with that Kite-" M said, suddenly my rattle grew an electric bolt shaped like Dad's cane on it. "Darn safety keeps acting up." M said, gently taking it from me and messing with it. I looked at the impromptu Cane and M with wide eyes. ”Dude! You’re giving that sweet thing to an infant!?” I mentally cried out, but look of pure awe at what he was able to do kind of convincing him that I was just an innocent baby racoon who doesn’t know better. “Cool!” Sly clapped his hands happily. "I thought you said that feature was turned off?!" Dad yelped. "It was! The tech is still new, not all the bugs have been worked out yet." M replied, the electric cane now a normal rattle again. "Well, that's what I get for buying electronics off Thieves Net." I couldn’t help myself as I clapped and giggled happily at how cool his present was. "Well he seems to like it." Jim said. "Glad about that. Since Sly is the oldest and is to inherit the family came, I didn't want Kite to feel left out." M replied. "Just make sure my son doesn't taze himself, or Sly… or us." Dad said. ”Dude, if that Cane is able to shoot lightning like Mom’s shock pistol, I will be so happy.” I thought to myself happily, before raising my arms up towards dad to be picked up. Dad grabbed me, then Sly, placing us on his knees. "For us and my family, Clockwerk has to die. Because of that monster Sly and Kite will never know their grandparents. The curse of Clockwerk on this family ends by the months end." ”No...no it won’t…” I thought to myself sadly while I cuddled up to my dad, scared of what the future holds for this family given it might have changed from the base games. One Year Later. Dad's little adventure into Russia and against Clockwerk gave him a sense of relief and calm that meant he was successful, which was both good but strange. ”Okay so...that should be impossible. Clockwork is functionally immortal with the Hate Chip, and Connor, and everyone else doesn’t know that until Sly 2...something’s not right here…” I thought to myself worriedly, but was happy that dad got some relief from the fight. Being a year now, I was physically able to speak a few words. Nothing in a full sentence. Sly and I got a sweet tree house in the backyard. It was here that, given how it was built, Dad set it up as a test. The wall crawling, rope climbing, branch jumping. A child's playground turned into skills training. Granted I can't do what Sly is able to yet, so I mostly just watch him jump across the thing. “Yay!” I clapped happily, seeing my big brother go and do good things around the tree house. "Sly, Kite, your Babysitter is here." Mom called out. Ah yes, our Babysitter. A Tulip Fox, who brings her daughter, a six year old Carmalita Fox, with her while watching the three of us playThis honestly makes too much sense. They're obvious to everyone but each other that they have a crush on each other. I couldn’t help but giggle at how cute the two were acting, even if I was a one year old physically, mentally I could have easily told someone big bro likes Carmalita. "So, what should we play today?" Sly asked. "Cops and robbers." Carmalita declared. This was too weird, honestly. Apparently Carmalita dreams of being a robber, a master thief like the Coopers, who she has no idea we are, and Sly wants to be like Mom, a cop. So the roles here are swapped. ”This is...really weird...especially when Carmalita is the fourth generation of Police Officers and...Sly is supposed to be a master thief…” I thought to myself, wondering how the hell this life is going to work. As Carmalita and Sly got to playing, I got up and headed inside. I saw Dad and M talking. "Come on Conner, one last job and you can take retirement forever." M said. "That's what you said about the last five jobs M. With Clockwerk dead I honestly don't see a reason to keep doing this. Sly wants to be a cop, I say let him. Our family legacy of stealing can be kept alive but on the legal side of the law." "Like any officer will hire a Cooper." "I know, but I want them to choose their dreams, not follow the words of a dusty old book." "At one point that book was your Bible." M stated. "Look, even so there is still your family vault, Generations spanning back to the earliest civilizations in there, all stolen, what about that?" "As far as I'm concerned that vault can be forgotten about." "Conner please, you want to forget that vault, fine, but to truly give freedom for your kids, one last job and you'll have enough cash to wipe the Cooper name from the history books. Set all of us up for life." "... Fine. But only because I swore to never touch a coin in that vault. I promised that to Violet." Violet was mom's name. "What's the job?" "The world's biggest diamond. Was stolen from the team that dug it up, we take it back and make millions in one night." ”Maybe I should have specified which world cause...this is pretty backwards…” I thought to myself. ”But...it is interesting...and even if the old man wants us to be free...then I’m going to continue the Cooper line...the ones that bring criminals down where the law can’t.” I thought to myself, sadly believing I would be going up against my own brother if he fully made it into being a cop but...knowing it’s for the best. It was late at night when I heard it. The door burst open. Mom rushed, gasping. "Conner!" She yelled, pained cries from Dad could be heard. Sly didn't wake up, bro can sleep through a tornado. "What happened?" "It was a trap." M said, tone filled with rage. "That fucking bird is still alive!" "H-how?" "That's what I wanna know." Dad grunted. "I dropped that metallic demon into lava so hot it might as well have been the sun, and he's still alive." "He wasn't alone either." Jim huffed. "Had four others with him. Dunno who they were, but they could fight." ”How!? Sly should be Eight and I should be six before the Fiendish Five became a thing!” I mentally panicked, having snuck out of the room to find out what the pained cries were before Mom burst in. Dad was… really beat up. His leg was bandaged but bleeding, arm and body cut up like crazy. M and Jim didn't look any better. "M… Take this." Dad said, handing him the cane. "Head to the vault, and sell the Crimson Ruby. It's value it equal to or even more than that stupid diamond." "Conner… that was your father's biggest score." M said. "Sell it! We have to vanish before he finds us. I will not let my kids grow up orphans like I did!" Dad yelled. I've never seen him scared, or heard him yell. “We help.” I crawled into the room, shaking my rattle and it turning into that taser Cane again. “I help...no big...but help.” I said, the look of Cooper determination in my eyes. “Big bro help to...no sell.” I pouted, using my Cane to help me stand up strong and proud like a Cooper...only to slip and fall on my butt cutely, kind of both hurting and helping my point. “Heh...just like when you were a kid Connor.” Jim chuckled. “Even got the same determined look you have.” Dad sighed, patting my head and taking my rattle. "One day, you'll understand when you are older Kite… Let's start packing. No doubt they're trying to track us. Meet us at the usual Hideout M, after that, we'll all have to go our separate ways." Three Years Later Daycare sucks. Long story short, they sold the gem and got whole new identities for us all. Even mom. While we are still called Sly and Kite, our new "legal" names are Billy and Franky. I hate it, so everyone mostly calls me Kite. That's my actual name after all. Mom got a job as another police officer thanks to some old favors, and dad works as a locksmith. Fitting. I haven't seen M or Jim since that night though. And living in London compared to France sucks. At least Sly can make friends here, and by friends I mean enemies. ”God...everything’s wrong.” I thought to myself while thinking about how this version just kind of went to hell in a handbasket way too soon, but...with my growing magical powers I got two years ago it helped a lot to learning new things. “This is wrong…” I muttered to myself, wondering how Murray and Bentley were considering we were long gone from France...even though we’re still two years behind the first game. “I miss France…” I sighed out, finally having gotten past the rattle as I twirled my Thunder Cane between my fingers. "Franky, your mom is here." The daycare lady said, walking me to the front and bringing me to mom. "Hi sweetie. How was today?" She asked me lovingly. “It was fine.” I said, mom seeing the same expression I’ve had before when I was upset about several things. "Awh. Well, it's gonna be better. Guess what came in the mail today." She said, appearing from her purse and in her hands were four Library cards. The London Library was massive. "And we're going right now." No matter the life, I'll always love books. “Yay.” I said happily, but then got a little sidetracked in thought. “When are me and big brother gonna read Dad’s book?” I asked, having seen dad reading the Thievius Racoonus several times before but wasn’t sure if I should try and ‘borrow’ it. “Or is it still too early?” I asked, mom knowing full well what book I was talking about. "Oh sweetie. You'll have to ask your father on that one." She said, giving me a kiss on the forehead as she took me to the car. Sly and dad were already in there. Since moving here Sly picked up gaming. Pokemon was a thing here which was surprising because it’s 1992 but just replace the human characters with the anthro animals we all are. He got Blue and I got Yellow version. Once at the library Mom and Dad took us to the kids books area while Dad went and browsed elsewhere. Mom nabbed a book from a shelf before we got here. "We'll be here til six, alright? So be respectful and quiet in the library you two." Mom said as she sat at a desk. "I'll be right here and try and stay where I can quickly see you." "Yes Mom." Sly said, nodding, heading off to find a book. “Yes mom.” I nodded. “But I need to ask dad something first.” I said while scurrying off to find dad before he probably disappeared in the library. Rushing back through the library, I couldn't see Dad around, not until I looked up. Dad was in the second story and… hey, is that… M and Jim? In the worst disguises ever. They were heading off. I'll need to catch up fast. I huffed, before seeing the blue sparkles only a Cooper can see on several places, most of it just climbing and swinging. ”Let’s hope I can get to him quickly…” I muttered, using my natural born acrobatic skills to climb swiftly to the second floor, and thankfully my Thunder Cane had an off switch to it’s ‘electric’ properties so I didn’t accidentally taser someone or do something bad to electronics. ”Thank god for the cooper abilities.’ I thought to myself, not really needing to use any of my magic to help boost me up as I continued up towards Dad and his gang before it was too late. Once I was here, I hid on top of a bookshelf next to them. "Thanks for meeting us." Jim said. "It's been a long time, but my gut tells me this isn't a friendly meeting." Dad said. "Sadly." M said, placing an envelope on the table. "This arrived at your old house." The envelope was blank, dad looking on the front and back before taking out what was inside… inside was a chrome feather. "What… what happened to the people who are living there now?" "Dead. House went up in smoke but coroner's report says their flesh and bones were broken and shredded by metal matching this feather. Looks like Clockwerk was angry it wasn't you there." ”Okay, to be honest I’m pretty sure the other four are now scared shitless of Clockwork...cause besides the frog, Muggshot, Mz. Ruby and Panda King are all good people deep down…” I thought to myself, not liking this more and more. ”God...what about Carmalita? I hope she’s alright, Sly would be devastated if she was hurt…” I started to wonder what spurred on this time frame jump from the original games to now, cause even if this world was different this seemed off. "Thankfully our mutual friend who got you these new identities left a dead end and cold trail. Shouldn't have any problems." Jim said. "Shouldn't and won't are different things. What's the part you two aren't telling me?" Dad asked. "That, sadly, is that we identified these people who are working with Clockwerk. It's not good." M said. ”Um...if it was just the Fiendish Five...they wouldn’t have said that.” I thought to myself worriedly, wondering what the hell is going on with this world. “First up is Sir Raleigh the frog. Rich playboy turn sea piracy. Got bored of luxury and went over to grand sea piracy. Has a nak for building complex and advanced machines. Second is Mugshot. Runt of his families litter, grew up watching too many gangster movies, literally worked out til he was built enough to throw a truck. Pure muscle strong enough to even, as we saw, badly harm Jim here. Then there is Mz Ruby, when it comes to dark magics and everything affiliated with it, she knows everything. No one else on earth is like her, such an impossible talent for the dark arts has never been seen before. Then, Panda King. Poor born kid grew up to make fireworks for the nobles, they denied him entry because of his ragged clothes. Took revenge on them, weaponizing his fireworks and developing Flame-Fu, heavily matting the fur on his hands with gunpowder and igniting it, and fighting with the fire.” “So an explosives expert/Pyro, Witch Doctor suprime, Mad Scientist, and self made gangster.” Dad summarized. "So far that's the fiendish five...hopefully they still have a good heart in them or else something bad might happen." I thought to myself worriedly. "We do know that someone is funding Clockwerk and this Fiendish Five he's founded, who though we haven't been able to find out." Jim added. "So, that just leaves the worst news then?" Dad asked. "It seems the Five are buying up property and business for some reason. From Ireland to Egypt. Mass evictions of residential areas… including yours." Dad placed a hand to his eyes. "So, trying to weed us out?" ”Okay, something most definitely is going wrong.” I thought to myself. ”God...wish I had my Assistant so I could try and get at least some more info than what I’ve heard from them…” I thought to myself bitterly, hating how little I know about the current situation. ”Damn it, if they own Kane Island then it’ll be a fucking nightmare to get there...not to mention what other crap the games forgot to show.” I mentally grumbled, hating how much can, and already has, gone wrong here. "So what's the plan?" M asked. "I don't have one." Dad sighed. "He doesn't know where we are, explaining the massive property buyouts. So that's good. Anyplace not in their reach?" "He seems to be targeting large cities and several rural towns. I'd say let's get him but last time we barely escaped." Jim sighed. "I do have one place though." Dad gave Him a curious look. "My grandpa owned a cabin deep in the Colbert forest back in France, place is well hidden, built inside a cave." "We'd basically be off the grid, but I can't do that to the kids or Violet." "Not entirely. It's in the address books, so your kids can still go to school and Violet can still work, just hope they don't mind the five Mile Walk to the road." "And we don't have any other options?" Dad asked M. "The only truly safe place would be the island of your family wealth, but that's no life for your kids on a deserted island." M said sadly. ”Okay first up, I wouldn’t mind going off to Kane Island to see how it was before M got a hold of it...and secondly it is the safest place on this planet at the moment.” I thought to myself bitterly. ”There has to be a way…” "At least in the woods, it will be easy to lose people who might be following." Dad sighed. "How much is left after the Ruby was sold?" "Ten million." M stated. "Okay. Violet will be mad, but she knows how bad Clockwerk is. I just hope Sly and Kite won't be too upset. Sly made a few friends, and Kite just got his Library card for here." ”Cause of course we’re going to move immediately…” I thought to myself bitterly. ”We just got settled...damn it...what do I do…” I thought to myself. ”Also...wouldn’t those three have noticed I’m here, or mom noticed I disappeared?” I thought to myself curiously. "Maybe not just so soon." M brought up. "If you leave now, it will be easier for them to track you. If you wait for them to buy the land and banks and evict you along with the rest, that's tens of thousands of files to sort through and people to get lost in, many I imagine will travel everywhere, France included." "Huh… good point, waiting it out and hiding among the uplifted crowd will be the safest bet, and gives us a year or so still to be here and prepare." Dad thought. "Good. Gonna clean up the old place anyhow." Jim said. ”Well...at least we don’t have to move now…” I thought to myself. "Alright. In the meantime… I guess it's time to teach Sly and Kite a few tricks from the Thievius Raccoonus." Dad said. "Even Violet." ”Learn a few tricks...and then I take the book and read through the damn thing too many times cause...well that’s just me.” I thought to myself. ”Let’s hope this change in events isn’t going to lead to even bigger problems…” I thought worriedly. Two Years Later This cabin is cool. Roomy, and set up for sneaking already. Dad trained Sly and I to rope climb properly, wall sneak, and vent crawl without making noise. Climbing all the trees was fun and the walks to school and back helped us become great runners. Dad always have us visual lessons, and hid that book pretty damn well. I know where it is, but not how to get into the small wall safe. Sly and I were reading, mom making dinner and dad flipping through a crossword puzzle book. Dad's ear twitched, and he jumped up. "Conner?" Mom asked. Dad quickly peeked out the blinds of the window, backing up as he almost threw Sly and I into the closet. "No matter what happens, Don't make a sound. Like I taught you." He said, closing the closet door as the sound of the front door breaking echoed to us. ”Oh no…” I thought to myself as this was the day...and I couldn’t do a damn thing about it. Please...please let at least some of the Fiendish Five be okay people…” I mentally prayed as I looked through a crack in the doorway to know what will truly happen. I saw Mz Ruby, Panda King and Mugshots backs, before Sly pulled me in, hugging me tightly. "You have been a hard racoon to find Conner Cooper." The mechanical, psychotic voice of Clockwerk spoke, Sly and I actually got chills from it. "How the fuck are you alive!? I saw you fall into that lava! You should be fucking scrap metal!" Dad yelled, mom's whimpered crying could be heard but not much else. "Hatred isn't so easily destroyed. You and your team put up a good fight, nearly had me, so when I crawled out of that volcano, I knew the key to ending your lineage, was the same teamwork you and so many others of your ancestors practiced and perfected.“ ”What the hell…” I thought to myself worriedly, thinking that all three of them with their backs towards us either meant they didn’t know we were here or that they were covering for us. “I...think those three are...protecting us…” I softly whispered to Sly, making sure it was just between us. “Shh.” Shy shushed me. “Leave her alone Clockwerk! She’s innocent in this!” Dad yelled again. “Now, we both know I can’t do that. After all, this brood of yours could be carrying your child, and we both know-” There was a moment where mom was screaming, a sickening, gut twisting audible metallic snap accompanied by a grotesque crunch and tear nose as moms screaming stopped suddenly. “I can’t have that now can I?” “I’LL KILL YOU!!!” Dad screamed. “Like your father yelled, before I ate him too. At least you can see your brood and kin again soon Cooper.” Before Anything else happened, there was a puff of some kind of powder in Sly and I’s faces. A sudden heavy sleepiness came over us, and we blacked out. “Uh...what...happened?” I groaned, waking up after someone shoved sleeping power into mine and my brothers face. “Brother?” I muttered, opening my eyes groggily as I tried to find Sly and my Cane. Once my eyes were opened wide, I realized… This wasn’t the cabin. This wasn’t home. We were in a room filled with lots of other kids, beds all lined in rows from wall to wall. A small trunk at the beds end and on mine, and Sly’s, who was next to me, were small bags. Memories of… of… Clockwerk... “Lord…” I muttered while getting out of the bed and looking through our stuff. “Wait...did dad give Sly his Cane?” I muttered to myself, trying to remember if dad pushed us into the room with the family cane. I looked over at Sly, thankfully the family cane was on his bed next to them. He was still out cold. I opened my bag, finding my rattle/cane, a few toys, clothes, and my old pop up book of Fiddler on the Roof. “God...where are we?” I wondered, grabbing my cane which was in rattle form, shaking it once and turning it into my Thunder Cane as I decided to explore the place, hoping to find an adult to find out where me and Sly were. As I was walking to the door, I jumped at the loudest snore in history. Looking at the source was a small, well, young, hippo. Murry. A quick glance showed me Bently, whose bed was a mess of scrapped electronics and such. Good, right place at least. ”Alright...so far things are kind of back to normal…” I thought to myself. ”So...we’re at the orphanage...tomorrow I should at least try to get Sly to hang out with Bentley and Murray to start the gang...hopefully it’ll work.” I thought to myself while looking around the place carefully, not wanting to wake the other kids up. Exiting the room, the hall was fairly long. The other end seemed to lead to a large makeshift classroom, and the downstairs area had a large kitchen, play area, and a small library, but all the books I’ve read already read. The backyard held a small playground, and all around was a large stone wall with metal spikes at the top. Outside was two security guard rent-a-cops walking around. Must be for the night shift. ”Certainly is more...beefed up than the flashback Sly had in game…” I thought to myself while slipping back into the shadows, back to the bedrooms. ”Okay...so step one, get Sly, Murray and Bentley to become good friends, step two, try and form the Cooper Gang even if Sly might still want to be a cop...hopefully Carmalita is still okay.” I thought to myself, even when we moved back to France two years ago we haven’t seen hide nor hair of the fox. I crawled back into bed, knowing I have to keep on track with this worlds history. Right? “So, how goes it?” I know I am dreaming, I’m in a steam room in my normal body, a towel that actually covers me on and Cript across from me in this small steam room. Also wrapped in a towel. “So everything’s...kind of gone to shit.” I said nervously. “As far as I know events are happening very quickly and differently from the games, more so than what would normally happen…” I sighed out. “But the worst thing...I mean, hearing my parents get murdered and then getting knocked out by Mz. Ruby before I could hear them get eaten...someone’s funding Clockwerk’s schemes...and god only knows who else.” “What did you expect?” Cript asked, sitting up, clapping their hands and showing a holo river of sorts. “Each worlds timeline flows in either chaotic or steady ways, but it’s typically unchanged. The Admin Game, by inserting yourself so close to a primary being of said world.” There was a small rock placed in the holo river, altering the water. “You change how time is flowing and the chain of events, solely by being born when you should never have existed on that world.” Cript said, the holo image poofing away. “This world and any others you plan on going to in this way won’t ever go how you know them as because you do what you’re doing now.” “I mean, at least the time of events were happening correctly technically.” I said honestly. “But seriously, M and McSweeny told dad about how someone was funding Clockwerk and just buying places out...mind looking into that? Cause for some reason I...have a bad feeling someone outside it interfering.” “Can’t. At this point in time I’m still in training at the temple that raised me, the only reason we are talking here is because time in the sleeping worlds operates with no effect on the physical. And I am not time traveling again. Been there, it sucked, created a paradox on some stuff and it’s mainly why I was only a god of time for less than a year.” “Wait...I went that far back in time?” I blinked in surprise. “Yup. Physically, you are also still a toddler on the earth in your God’s head.” “Huh...that’s...interesting.” I said honestly. “So I suppose that’s why you said ‘don’t tell people who you are’? Cause you technically don’t exist yet?” “One reason. The other reason is that it ends the game, and the time walkers WILL kill this persona you’ve been reborn as. Once you turn thirty is when the YOU from God’s head pops into this reality, then short wait later you can have won the Admin game.” “Ah.” I nodded. “Good to know...so when I win the Admin Games...does that version of me still exist?” I asked curiously. “Cause...even though that persona of me is currently trying not to have a breakdown cause parents are dead...again…” I sighed out, having now experienced my parents dying a second time. “Well, that’s where things get interesting.” Cript said. “You actually get a choice here in whether you absorb this persona’s memories and body back into, well, you, or you let them keep their body and such, even identity and they can join our family. Perks of our unique marriage.” “And...that would involve Sly and whoever else joins in the ‘Cooper Gang’?” I asked, Cript seeing the same ‘I don’t want to leave family behind’ look in my eyes like always, even if it wasn’t from a Den Mother’s perspective. “Only if they agree to be in this family, as weird as that seems…” Cript said. “Also, some rules on what is allowed and isn’t to be reborn as.” “And what would those be?” I asked curiously. “For starters, you can’t be reborn as your own sibling, or relative, cousin, uncle, aunt, etc. This also counts towards people you know, like Heart, Eclipsa, myself and such.” “Sounds simple enough.” I said honestly. “Would be weird to be reborn as your own sister wait…” I trailed off as the fact me and Eclipsa were technically sisters through Marcy and Diane was still a thing. “Exactly. Confusing as all hell.” Cript said. “Secondly, you can’t use a bypass, say, the never existing child of your neighbor or something and leave messages and such for yourself in the future, also no stock market crap, that’s typically how world wars on many worlds have started because of Admins not following simple time travel rules.” “Sounds simple enough.” I nodded. “Any other rules?” “Yes. You can ask to be reborn as yourself to relive your childhood. When doing this there are of course many things you can change about your history but also a lot you can’t. In this case, your parents dying, choosing Nothingness as your pick from God, and so on.” “Fine fine.” I nodded. “Good to know that...I still have to make sure I live through that crap if I want a doover…” “Sadly. And lastly, if you do take the do over, you have to play out your progress and such in the same manner. Every victory and loss.” “Yes, let me repeat sleeping in a test tube on Rapture for thirty years because Kexez was a prick…” I grumbled. “It sucks but it’s the Time Walkers rules. That aside there is one interesting thing of note about the Admin game now that the Time Walkers oversee it. A time walker watches over you, making sure you don’t screw things up. That being said, they can’t help you, like with information and such, but there are a few things they can do.” “Like making sure outside interference isn’t a thing?” I asked, having a feeling Nexus could be involved in this crap as well. “No, more like can, in this case, sell items and you buy them from them. Basically a personal merchant. But they can also hold a few things for you.” “Okay cool.” I nodded. “Don’t really expect Thief Net to have certain things I would need...but uh...why do I have a feeling the Admin Games is a perfect excuse for the Time Walkers to let Heroes do their work while their too busy with paperwork?” “Fun fact about that. While yes it’s a good excuse, since the Time Walkers work on a bureaucracy system, as you saw, when we mailed in the response it was back the day before we even filled it out, but in their offices, it would have taken half a day. However, it’s not easy for them as Time Walkers themselves are paradoxes. So they can have millions of members, but if those millions are all time remnants of the same person, only one can be in the timelines at, well, a time.” “Gee, would you look at the time.” I joked. “But yeah that sounds really interesting...but when you brought up reliving a life, certain events would still happen, does that mean if you went to a game world the events of the game would still take place? Or would it be different because of time shenanigans?” “Depends. Things like Sly’s, and now yours, parents dying, will always happen, but things like, say, forming the cooper gang with Murry and Bently, can have never happened. Remember, originally Sly was alone when he went to that orphanage, but now he has you, and likely won’t socialize with the others since he still has family, you.” “Unless I do something to make sure those events still happen.” I brought up. “Cause even if we have each other...just the two of us still ain’t enough…” I sighed out. “We need Murray and Bentley...the Cooper Gang still needs to be a thing cause that’s a key piece in everything else.” “Exactly. These are things you can take control and alter or prevent the events from happening. This includes a certain turtle’s legs getting crushed.” “Or a certain mouse from just handing time travel to a skunk cause of...dumb reasons.” I said honestly. “Actually that has to happen.” “But it can be less ‘Penelope and Bentley losing each other forever’ right?” I asked nervously. “Like...I talk to Penelope, and she’ll realise she did a dumb...and try to fix it even though it’s too late?” “Yes but AFTER she’s beaten as the black knight. Also, you are allowed to have relationships in this life.” “Damn…” I sighed out. “But...now I need to double check marriage laws in that world so I don’t accidentally do a dumb...too used to polygamy right now.” I said sheepishly. “Alright...so first, I’m going to need to help Sly get into the family business of thieving...hopefully Carmalita is okay cause seriously, those two need to date I mean god. Can they both be anymore clueless?” I complained. “Normal people, huh?” Cript asked with a laugh. “So, also to call the Time Walker watching over you is simple. Just find a pocket watch and rotate the hands to read either midnight or noon.” “Sounds simple enough.” I nodded. “This is gonna be a nightmare...especially if I can guess who’s been funding Clockwerk…” “Well, just remember if you screw up exponentially, it’s permanent.” “I mean...I’m not going to die any time soon so…” I joked. “That aside, there’s still some hours before you wake up. And I can’t leave until you do… what are we gonna do?” “The same thing we do every night Cript.” I said. “Wait...we don’t take over worlds, I’m using that reference wrong darn it.” Cript just laughed. “You know, out of everyone, we haven’t really bonded that much, and given our… unique relationships that’s probably not a good thing.” “We really should get to know each other more.” I said honestly. “Considering the writers derped and an entire chapter of me getting to know your backstory was never published...we need to fix that.” “What’s left to tell? I was born an experiment of Nexus, apparently one of their strongest, mom took me to a safe place to hide me from Vincent, who killed her for it, raised by monks, left to travel for a year, in that year met Autumn and the others, went back home, best friend was turned evil by Nexus, tortured me for another year, stole my death away, escaped that after unwillingly murdering an entire planet, founded Freak inc. Got stuck on a Equestria world for another year, in that time lost memories and fell in love with Lyra, everything between that and meeting you all can be summarized as fight, fight, a boring company meeting, fight, fight, fight, and oh yeah, fight.” “I know I know.” I said honestly. “But...we really need to bond ya know?” “Yeah. Well, I guess this can count.” Cript said, walking over next to me and resting themselves against me. “Heh, even wet your fur is still soft.” “I always make sure my fur is soft.” I said warmly. “It’s one of my best parts.” “Heh. So then, got time to kill, so how about some simple questions. Which of your thirteen weapons are you most partial too?” “I’m not a partial person.” I said honestly. “I make sure to use all my weapons, especially when I need to be diverse against my opponents.” I said honestly. “Your use time table begs to differ.” Cript said, snapping their fingers as a display of how many times and how long I’ve used each of my weapons popped up. Lunatic held crown. “I mean...is it ironic if I mostly used the weapon Moon themed when...I’m a Wolf?” I asked sheepishly. “Nah. Just a little funny I guess.” Cript chuckled. “My most used weapon is between Biohazards Curse and some Little Shot pistols I keep on quick summon.” “Sounds about right.” I nodded. “So...what’s your favorite hobby?” “Second to sex is honestly just going through books and such, reading about some bullshit the characters are going through, scan the multiverse for the exact world going through what I’m reading on the page, then fixing it. Same for movies, anime, ect.” “Yeah, that sounds about right.” I nodded. “I would have loved to do that but...well I got stupid busy in life.” “Heh, sounds about right. So, what’s the best pizza you’ve ever had?” “When you’ve had so many...it’s hard to say which one’s the best.” I said sheepishly. “Mine would be a Clatico Pizza. It’s this Mirror Reality pizza that has thick crust, heavy on sauce, little cheese but heavy on the toppings.” “Sounds delicious.” I chuckled. “Hmm...favorite fight you’ve been apart of?” “One on one fight against Superman. Yeah I broke his whole arm on complete accident.” Critp laughed. “Congrats, you injured one of the most overpowered characters in fictional history cause Superman is...pretty dumb power consistancy wise.” I pointed out. “Heck yeah. Then again so are we.” Cript gave a sigh. “Favorite song?” “Okay just going to point out, I never have a favorite. I’m just one of those people that can’t choose.” I sighed out. “But my most listened to...don’t know why but it’s Colossus from BlueFoxMusic...cause it’s just good.” “Mine always changed. Lately it’s Let it Burn by Citizen Soldier.” Cript said. “What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever seen?” “I mean...besides that bastard I killed to become an Admin?” I asked. “I said weird, not gross. For example. The weirdest thing I’ve seen, Lyra, Lord and I all went to the Fire Elemental realm mainly to explore. We find out everyone there lives in underground cities. We find one of these doors and opening them, we were greeted by the entire city, cleaning up and singing Winter Wrap Up in perfect harmony. Didn’t even notice we were there until they finished.” “The weirdest thing for me then…” I started. “Would have been...oh god the weirdest thing I’ve seen, which would be one of my ‘alternate universe’ dreams cause those are a thing and either fun or terrifying...would have been...oh god this is just weird and kind of funny.” I chuckled. “Basically the Foretellers, still need to check up on them, decided to step in and demand that we finish this war with a musical...yes a musical, and while everyone looked at them like they were crazy, they kept it up till we were all singing and dancing like we were on some old timey vaudeville act, funniest part was Void Mother, Mother, You, Belief, Nothingness Belief and Jericho all doing the CanCan dance and wearing the proper dance outfits. It was so weird I just...woke up laughing.” “That is just priceless.” Cript laughed. “So, you sure got used to being both genders. Let me guess, the tits helped?” “A bit yes...me being Marcy also helped I suppose.” I shrugged. “But seriously, with how I look...I’m surprised I wasn’t busy groping myself like mad...like my dad was when he first became this if memory serves.” “Heh. Yeah I remember. Pretty sure at this point God tier beings and up become both genders automatically. So, how’s the Heroes Tomb been going?” “Me, Coco, Kexez and Jericho are all just grinding mobs at the moment, doing some dungeon challenges as well for better loot cause when you already have more items than you could ever need in life, why not get more?” “You know you can sell them, or give them as prizes if you build your own Colosseum Dungeon. Know about that? Actually, do you even know about the other Dungeon types?” Cript asked me. “Do you think I know a lot of things?” I asked. “Even if I research and look around like mad, there’s still a lot of things I don’t know about.” “Heh, fair enough. Well there’s several types. The most common, like the Heroes Tomb, tower Dungeons. These go either under ground or to the sky and up, but can also go both down and up, it all depends on random spawn factors. Colosseum Dungeons, while they do spawn naturally, they can be made and are exactly as you’d think. The owner can set the thing up for anything from sports to fights and even spawn in enemies like Heartless or Shadows Creatures, ect, depending on how popular their dungeon is. Arena Dungeons are a whole other ballpark. Run into what looks like a fucking wrecked space shit the size of a moon or a long fucked city over run by SHadows, Zombies, demons and other, that’s an Arena Dungeon. There are no level limits, meaning the first enemy you run into could be easy or one shot you. These also have the best look and highest loot chances out of all other dungeons, but are also the most riskey. Lastly I should bring up isn’t exactly a dungeon but also has threats. Space. Space between worlds discovered and not can and do spawn in dungeons of all types. This makes just getting to a new world hard at times, which is why teleporters are oh so useful to avoid that nastiness. You know, once someone gets to a new world and sets it up.” “Well then...that’s cool.” I said honestly. “Quite a bit of stuff to think about…” “If it keeps people from waging war against one another for the really stupid crap like colors, race and religion, then it can be hentai tenticals from space for all I care.” Cript sighed. “Seen the people of so many worlds just kills each other, for stupid reasons. I founded Freak Inc to stop real monsters, not wars of people against people.” “Well...that’s just what happens.” I said honestly. “That’s kind of why there’s an entire planet filled with those special brand of assholes that are too busy killing each other...or have probably killed each other already I don’t remember.” I said, remembering the four ‘Purity’ groups that tried to kill so many families. “Purity groups?” “Yes...I remember Minotaurs and Ponies...but I don’t remember the other two, they all claimed their race was superior on their own and disowned anyone who would dare marry some other race...but thankfully we got Heart’s parents on our side.” “Each world has them to some degree. For mine, they didn't like aliens, anyone with magic, hell not even the miracle medicines I created, saving thousands, to them is was all evil. They had two types, one was some modern day amish group that isolated themselves, not even bothering with the rest of the world, the other went full on terrorist. You can imagine how that went for them.” Cript sighed. “How anyone can willingly teach their young that ignorance and hatred is beyond me.” “Honestly...no idea.” I said simply. “Even if I were to try and find justifications...it all falls flat when you think about it.” “Yeah. Okay, how about… favorite… candy?” “Wow, we are running low on questions.” I said honestly. “But Skittles...even though I like candy as much as the next five year old, Skittles is my favorite.” “Heh. Same. I’m more towards salty or tangy candies than sweet. Favorite movie?” “Oh boy…so many good movies…” I groaned. “Top five in no particular order, Avengers Endgame, Robin Hood: Men in Tights, The Lego Movie, Kung Fu Hustle and Hot Fuzz.” I said honestly. “For me, Surf Ninjas, ZombieLand, Also Endgame, and The Never Ending Story.” “ZombieLand is a good movie, heard it got a sequel, The Never Ending Story is also nice and...I think I’ve heard of Surf Ninja’s but don’t remember if I watched it or not.” “It’s one of those older cheese ninja movies that despite the title, has little to no actual surf. Still a funny movie though.” Cript said, giving a content sigh. “Saw it at the temple. Didn’t grow up completely without tech.” “Wouldn’t want to be completely amish now would you?” I joked. “Heh. So… what do you think we should do to push the front lines? I don’t want to bring up office talk but I’m running out of topics.” “I can think of a lot of ways.” I said honestly. “With how my research onto those pure crystals went from a few years to a few months because of...Truth.” I sighed out. “Well that’ll jump start things...plus how many other things I’ve gotten in the works that’ll push the front lines in our favor.” I said simply. “Plus, the moment anyone of us takes a step out there...well we’re going to be winning that fight rather quickly.” “The moment we do though, Vincent and the others start actually fighting. In short, we’ll need all the help we can get. I have an idea but it’s crazy and quite out there.” “I mean, I’ve been pulling timelines from Nothingness to help out in our cause, but what’s your idea?’ I asked curiously. “Your Second Chance Keyblade. I can modify it to purge only those of evil back into infancy. After that, we take them into the family, raise them right. Some of these worlds have true Monsters King, raising them into heroes, then, as much as I might not want to, pull in my one favor with the Time Walkers to have time. Time to train all of creation into fighters.” “Well...that is an interesting idea.” I said honestly. “Kind of what we’re doing in the Heroes Tomb honestly.” “Which reminds me, mind swallowing Kexez so we can pull them into the bedroom and get all those babies and wives here, then once their starfish clones and such are made, back down and out but back in the tomb. Will make it easier for them to fight.” “That is true, I’ll ask them.” I said honestly, relaying the message all the way to Kexez. “That ability is so helpful huh?” “So very helpful.” I nodded in agreement. “Oh...the new skill trees are also very helpful.” “I was proud of that when making it. Works better than just the long ass list, this way they are better grouped and ranked as you grow the tree.” “Yeah, keep’s it clean and organized.” I said honestly. Kexez finally slid down in and out my other clones mouths. The long ass noodle took a few minutes to go down and out. Cript and I kept talking for a long time. This steam room was nice, warm and comfy. "This is nice." I said warmly. “Can never go wrong with a steam room.” Cript sighed. “One of the many things swapping genders has taught me.” "I can agree to that." I nodded. "But...I probably have to head back soon...got a lot of work to do and...ten years to do it all." “Heh. Enjoy it, it’s not just some mission or anything, this IS your life now also King, remember to enjoy the fun times, and mourn the bad ones." "I will...just gonna be stealing a whole lot more." I chuckled. "Or 'reclaiming lost goods' as some people say." “EIther way, those skills will be useful. So, same time tomorrow night?” Cript asked me. "Same time tomorrow." I said, nuzzling Cript warmly. To be continued... Nobody continues the gamesThe next morning Sly and I were informed about what happened to our parents, but no details at all were given to us. Breakfast was quiet, at least Sly was. The room itself was loud and busy with the other boys in the orphanage going about their morning. It was then I noticed a certain Pink Hippo walking back for… Forths was it now? ”Well...might as well start this off…” I thought to myself. I got up, telling Sly I was gonna walk around as I followed the Pink Hippo. “I swear kid, you got a never ending appetite.” I heard the lady giving out the food say as she gave Murray another plate full. “Heh, just a big eater is all.” Murray replied, happily taking the plate. “As long as it isn’t going to waste.” She said. Murray was walking back to his table, and I took this moment to say hi. “Hello.” I said politely. “Hey.” He said, looking at me. “Hey, you’re the new kid, and your brother right?” He asked. “Yep, the names Kite.” I said politely, not wanting to reveal my last name in public. “And your...Murray correct?” “Yeah...How’d you know that?” “I hear plenty of names, and your’s is apart of them...mostly because some kids say you can out eat anyone.” “Heh, guilty as charged. So, if it’s not too hard to talk about.. How’d you and your brother end up here?” I looked down sadly. “It’s...a long story...and I don’t want to talk about it yet…” I sighed out sadly. “So...not to bring down the mood, how have you been?” I asked honestly. “Good. Fat. The usual.” They shrugged. “Not fat, just well built.” I corrected. “But I’m glad your doing well.” “Heh, Please. I know I’m fat, I’m a hippo, if I wasn’t fat it would be a health problem. So Kite, how’s your brother holding up?” Murry asked, looking passed me. Sly was barely eating, just sitting there mostly. “He’s…” I sighed out, Murray seeing my slightly struggle to keep my emotions in check. “He’s taking it hard...um...want to meet him? And...do you know anyone else here that...I could talk to?” I asked, not wanting to sound imposing but just want friends. “Lots, but you look like a bookworm, right?” “I didn’t know books had worms.” I joked. “Sorry for bad joke, but I do enjoy a good book from time to time.” “Heh, knew it. Then you’ll wanna talk to Bently over there, the turtle with the huge glasses. Shy type but helps me out on the school work and I keep the Rat Group off his back.” Looking across the lunch table, the Rat Group only had one Rat kid, the rest were a labrador pup, a skunk, and a porcupine. “They’re not nice kids. I hear their parents dropped them off here because they were too much for them. Thankfully the Rat, Pepper, has a bizarre fear of large stomachs.” Murray said, slapping their large gut. I chuckled warmly. “Alright. I’ll go meet with Bentley...and I know it’s a little weird, but can you say hi to my big brother? He...needs someone while I’m not by his side.” “I will, but later. I’ve seen that look on a few of the kids here. It’s best to give him a day or two beforehand. I doubt he’d even talk to me if I did right now.” With that, Murray headed to their seat. They might be right, Mentally, I’m much older, for reasons, but Sly… Sly is still just eight, physically and mentally. He’ll need time, and help. I can give the help while the time part takes care of itself… speaking of, gotta find a pocket watch somewhere. ”Well...first up, better meet Bentley.” I thought to myself as I started heading towards Bentley carefully, not wanting to spook the turtle. As I walked up to them, I noticed Bently was looking between a book and a notebook stuffed with notecards, sticky notes, and other papers. “Hello?” I asked politely in such a way that wouldn’t spook the turtle in the middle of his work like when I said something to Twilight when she was in ‘research mode’. “Huh?” Bently said, turning and looking at me. “Oh, hi there. You’re the new kid, the one that came with his brother right?” “Yep, the names Kite. Murray told me your name is Bentley correct?” I asked, before looking over the notes quickly. “Oh, yeah. I help him with school work and he keeps the Rat Gang off my back. Most of the time Murry is quite timid, but he has his brave moments, and against Pepper that’s a life saver for me. I swear that rat has a vendetta against me… I mean a Grudge.” Bently tried to quickly correct his wording from advanced lingo to common lingo. “It’s alright, I know what you mean.” I said with a raised hand. “Book’s are a wonderful thing when you have the time.” “Agreed. So what brings you here, to my corner of solitude.” Bently said, showing that his corner indeed was just him. “Oh you know, not wanting to be over at the corner of doom over there.” I said, motioning to the Rat Gang. “Plus...well I was curious as to what you were doing.” I said, Bentley knowing full well I was just trying to give another reason besides ‘I need a friend’. “Oh, just some self studying. The classes we get here are only four hours a day, after that we’re free so if any adults come by and are looking they can actively talk to/interview us to make a choice. I study by myself as often as I can.” “Sounds interesting.” I said honestly. “What subjects are you good at?” “Oh you know, history, math, science, literature, been tinkering in Physics and computer sciences/robotics. Whatever I can find I read and take notes on frequently. I often head to the library a few blocks from here since they’re more well supplied than the one here.” “Oh? Got any favorite books?” I asked curiously. “Like Sci-Fi, Fantasy, what? Cause Sci-Fi and Fantasy are always a favorite of mine.” I said, hoping to spark a good conversation with books. “I mostly prefer non-fiction, but I did enjoy Moby Dick.” “I’ll get that White Whale if it’s the last thing I do.” I quoted in a not half bad impression of the captain. "Heh. So you are smarter than the average six year old. Say, since you do show higher than expected intelligence like myself, mind helping me with this?" Sitting up to the table, Bentley showed me what I, even without Admin powers recognized as code, or coding. C++, all hand written too. "I'm trying to make my own operating system for a PC I'm building out of junkyard scrap parts, and so far it's installing this but not booting." I looked over all the notes curiously, finding his work fascinating for what a six year old can do. “Is there any specific problems with it booting up?” I asked curiously. “Like does it just suddenly shut down after installing or what?” I asked curiously, wondering what I can do to help. "It's mostly once I try and get it to register an internet connection it just shuts down, even with offline installing a web browser, still nothing." I hummed, looking over the dozens of notes. “So it’s booting up fine, it’s just whenever you want to make a connection or install something…” I hummed, sifting through the pages to see if there was anything amiss since, in my spare time, I decided to learn damn near anything I could about computers, even before becoming an Admin. After a quick look over, I saw the issue in the 40,000th line of code. “Ah, found it.” I said while putting it down and motioning to the specific line. “Notice anything wrong with it?” "Oh. Oh! Yes I see here. So it was Device Manager miss-installing the files with the booting sequence. I'm impressed you spotted that." “Oh it’s nothing special.” I said sheepishly, scratching the back of my head in embarrassment at the compliment. "Well, with this fixed the orphanage can finally have its own computer for the orphans. Maybe more if it works out. Thanks Kite." “No problem.” I nodded. “But uh...when my brother feels better...want to hang out with me and Sly? Murray told me he would join as well after he...comes back.” "Oh, sure thing. If Murray trusts you then I do too." “Thank you.” I nodded. “We...really need help…” I sighed out sadly. "Sure thing." The rest of the day was uneventful. The school session was only four hours and barely taught any of its subjects. While others were playing or just messing around, I was with Sly, who still kept pretty quiet. We were in the bedroom. Sly just laid flat on the bed. “Big brother?” I asked him gently, hoping he’ll at least say something. "Hm?" He said. Sorta. I sighed out. “It’s not good for you to you to just...not do anything. You’ve barely been eating…” I said, not sure how to do this properly. "Kite." He said, sitting up. "Mom and Dad are dead. We HEARD that… that thing kill mom… how can you not be like me, or worse right now?" “Because at the moment, I want to make sure you’re eating and not fully breaking down.” I said, tears filling my eyes. “I’m younger...but I want to see my big brother happy again...it hurts so much...but I need to be strong like mommy and daddy...like you…” I said sadly. “We’re Coopers...dad told us some stories of our family...and how strong they were even in the face of danger…” "... You're right. Right now, we aren't strong… but we can be. I have an idea. Still have Uncle M's 'rattle' bro?" I brought it out and gently rattled it, bringing out my Thunder Cane. "Always have it on me bro. Oh also, later I want to introduce you to two kids that I'm sure you'll be fast friends with." I said with a smile. "Huh, alright then." He said, shaking it as it turned off. He then twisted it open, showing the inside components. "M told me if something ever happened to you, me, mom or dad, just press this." He then pressed a small blue button on the circuit board, a small light bulb next to it blinking… a transmitter. "I guess now we wait." He said, closing it back up. “Yeah, uncle M would make sure there was a way to find us in an emergency.” I said honestly. "Not sure how long til he gets here. We'll stick together just in case. This building has two stories, right?" Sly asked me. “Yes it does.” I nodded. "What about a basement or attic? Crawlspace?" “Um...pretty sure there’s an attic, basement and crawl space I’m not sure.” I said simply. "Let's find out." He said, taking the lead. At least he had a smile. I followed, looking at the beacon in my 'rattle' as he lead us to a vent. "Dad told me all the older buildings in France had basements built for emergencies back when there were wars, the attic and crawlspace was used for storage. We gotta keep hidden until Uncle M gets here. A hideout like one of those will be perfect." “Sounds about right.” I nodded. “And what about the two friends I want to introduce you to?” I asked curiously. "You just met them today, how can they already be friends?" Sly asked, popping the vent cover off as he and I slid in. This vent system took us to Attic, Crawlspace, and a basement. Basement seems to have been sealed off, there's a cellar door in the far corner but it's chained from the outside. The crawlspace was neat, not much floor or light but there's plugs, and a secret door to it from the laundry room. Lastly the attic. There's a way up here from a window by climbing this big tree outside, as well as the drop ladder. “Well we’re not friends yet, but I’m sure we’ll be great friends.” I said honestly. “They’ll remind you of two people we know.” "How so?" Sly asked, the two of us largely pondering which of the three locations would be a better hideout. "I'm liking the attic, but the basement does have the boiler in it, so we would keep warm at night, granted the noise." “I think the Crawlspace works out.” I brought up. “It maybe dark, but it’s next to the laundry room so we’ll keep warm, there’s plenty of plugs for things, it’s easy to get to.” I pointed out. "And well hidden." Sly added. "We can decorate it. Wonder how though?" “I’m sure we’ll figure it out.” I said honestly. “But one of the kids I want you to meet, Bentley the Turtle, has been taking trips to the junkyard to get stuff and make some pretty neat things. I’m sure he’ll have an idea on how to decorate it.” I said honestly. “And maybe Murray the Hippo can help carrying stuff with us...that’s the other person I want you to meet.” "Huh. What does this Bentley build?" “I mean, he’s the one that single-handedly invented the way our computers work.” I brought up simply. “I only pointed out a small thing he overlooked, but look at how his work been going.” I explained. "How do you know so much about computers?" “I don’t know much.” I lied convincingly. “I just showed him what I thought looked wrong. Trust me...he had so much work it was all confusing for me...but when something feels wrong it tends to be.” "Fair enough." Sly said. "Stuff from the dump could be useful." “Yep.” I nodded. “As the saying goes, one mans trash is another man’s treasure.” A week went by, Sly opened up to Bentley and Murray, our little hide out in the crawlspace was nice. Sly and I were at the Junkyard with Bentley and Murray, Those two off sorting through old computers and Sly and I looking at some old blankets. "Sly, Kite?!" We turned around, M stood there dressed in a lab coat. “Uncle M!” I cheered at seeing him again. “How have you been?” "Worried mad!" He yelped, holding us both. "I heard about… are you two living in this junkyard?" “No, us four are in the orphanage.” I said. “That’s Bentley and Murray.” I said. “Their our friends.” "Glad you two made friends." M said, not letting us go. "An orphanage huh? Can you two do me a favor?" M asked, kneeling down to eye level. "I need to go find Jim, it will be a few days, by then we will be back for you two. Understand?" “Not without our friends.” I said quickly. “I don’t want to lose them...they’re helping us with…” I said sadly, M noticing Bentley talking a bunch of technical jargon while Murray was lifting up a lot of stuff that was way too heavy for any normal eight year old. “Plus...they reminded us of you and Uncle Jim.” "Heheh. Such strong bonds, and so young. Alright. Jim and I will be back before week's end. Stay safe till then, alright?" M asked us. “We will.” I said with a smile, hugging Uncle M happily and just glad him and Jim were still alright. "Heh, now head off you two, you four." M left and we met back up with Bentley and Murray, heading back to the orphanage. Along the way there we saw there was a car at the front. "Uh oh." Bentley and Murray said in unison “What’s wrong?” I asked nervously. “Who owns the car?” "Social Services. Means a new kid just arrived." Bentley said. "That's not good." I said worriedly. "I...wonder who it is…" I muttered. "Let's go see." Sly said, the four of us picking up the pace. Once inside we saw this kid was still in the Orphanage ladies office with the social worker. We waited around the corner to see who they were. "I...hope it's not someone we know…" I said worriedly, fearing it might be Carmalita or someone else we might have known. As the door opened the Social Services lady thanked the Orphanage lady, leaving. The Orphanage lady was called Ms. Basil, A Beaver lady, saw her off. "Ms. Basil…" I said politely. "What's going on?" I asked cutely and innocently, acting like a young six year old that just saw something worrying. "Oh, we just have a new arrival Kite. She's… actually a lot like you and your broth-" "Kite?" Part of me froze, hearing that voice that I haven't heard in a few years. Turning I could see the eleven year old Carmalita Fox, two large bags beside her in Ms. Basil's office. Her eyes teared up at seeing me, then rushed in, hugging me tight as she sobbed loudly. Sly, seeing her, ran over, Sly and Carmalita adding to the hug that seemed to be giving Carmalita hope, cause she looked as bad as Sly did. When we first got here. I...couldn’t stop myself before I just burst into tears and started sobbing, too much shit having gone wrong, me experiencing my parents death again, and Carmalita also being in the same position as we did? That was too much… "I… I heard what happened on the news." Carmalita said. It was night now and she, Sly, Bentley, Murray and I were all in the crawlspace hideout. "I'm sorry." "What… happened to your…?" Sly asked. Giving a shaky sigh, and gulp, Carmalita spoke. "Well, dad was...was a cop. After you two vanished it was like crime in the cities just… skyrocketed. Like in those movies that show crime filled cities. Dad got sh… shot. Mom's work place caught fire in a riot." “Oh…” I muttered. “Well it’s...better than what I feared happened to them...what happened to our parents…” I shivered slightly, still nervous about talking about it. "News said the cities are basically falling apart. Says it's organized, all over the world. Cops and police stations globally are being targeted. Heard the US declared a nation wide Marshal law just to have pockets of states kept somewhat safe." Carmalita sighed. "I'm not the only one that's gonna be arriving here. Heard that social worker saying that they were gonna move kids here by the buses since the cities aren't safe anymore." “They’re moving way too fast…” I said worriedly. I looked at all the people in our little hideout and sighed. “Big bro...should we tell them about...who we are?” I asked. "I already know your Coopers." Carmalita said. "Dad told me. Heh… it's actually the main reason I wanted to play with you two at first when I was little. The Cooper's on paper of the legal system are criminals, but you protect more than you harm. That’s what dad said about you. Helping from the darkness." "Wait, Cooper as in the legendary thieving family the Cooper's?!" Bentley said in shock. "Holy cow… wait, so if your parents are… oh… that actually might explain these riots." Murray said. "Your family has kept the worst of the worst in the shadows for generations, and helped toss them into jail when they overstep. With your parents gone… they think there is no one to stop them." "For now anyway." Sly sighed. "Our Uncle, M, will be here in a week to "adopt" us out of this place. Kite wants to bring you two with us. And Carmalita, that offer extends to you." "You don't have to ask. I'm in." Carmalita said. "Same!" Murray said. "Most definitely." Bentley said. “Now onto the hard bit…” I sighed out. “So while the Coopers are a good thing with keeping the actual bad guys, not criminals, bad guys down...we can only do so much outside the law, we still need the Police to actually arrest them.” I said. “Just like how mom and dad did it, cause Mom was a successful interpol agent.” "Heh. In case you haven't noticed Kite, cops are quickly becoming a dying breed... literally." Carmalita sighed “I know…” I sighed out. “But...what I think, is that there isn’t a proper leader, a rallying point for the police...and there’s only one person I know that can be that rallying point.” I said while looking at Carmalita. “And from what I’ve experienced...it’s you.” "Even so, how?" "We'll cross that bridge when we get to it." Sly said. "For now, we wait for Uncle M and Uncle Jim." “Yeah, those two will know how to help us start fixing all the problems the bad guy is causing.” I said honestly. I was back in the sleeping worlds, my real form and all. This time Cript and I were having a nice meal. Every night we'd do something. It was a way to bond and get used to each other as spouses, given that's what we are. "So what's going on now?" Cript asked. We were both dressed quite nicely. “Carmalita is orphaned because Clockwerk is somehow causing criminal activity to skyrocket...her father got shot, and her mother burned alive during a riot…” I sighed out. “Doctor M and McSweeny are coming to pick me, Sly, Murray Bentley and Carmalita up at the end of the week and hopefully things can start working out for us to start cleaning up the criminal activity...seriously, even with me being alive, Clockwerk shouldn’t have caused this amount of garbage to happen...” "Hard to tell really. Each version of each world can play out differently. Doubt the Time Walkers will tell us that worlds original timeline." “Cause of course they wouldn’t.” I sighed out. “But...let’s just hope we can learn stuff about thieving so we can start knocking down criminals...not to mention I need to find a specific law to keep me and the others from getting arrested because, even though Coopers are thieves, they have helped the police way too much.” "Technically you're Vigilants, which is also against the law despite the good you do. If you were government sanctioned however, then you'd be able to work, funded by the law." “Everyone keeps forgetting that ‘Good Samaritan Laws’ exist.” I said. “Unless those don’t exist where I’m at...also I...wait no, the Government would be like ‘holy shit your Coopers! We still follow the banner of Coopers!’...would be hilarious if that happened.” "Would be, the main reason Good Samaritan law doesn't apply to the Cooper's is because while you take down bad guys, you also take their loot. Stolen loot. If you leave the loot, you'll only be Vigilant, not Thrives." “We’re not stealing, we’re just resposesing.” I corrected. "Lest you forget the loot you steal from master criminals is stolen from the innocent. Perhaps a Robin Good type run is the best approach." “Sounds about right.” I nodded. “I mean, we’ll still be taking more of the important stuff for the Cooper Vault and stuff, but there will still be enough back to the people.” "That can work. I guess." “Either way.” I shrugged. “Let’s just...hope this all works out before anything else bad happens…” "Well, once you catch up time wise to the present day, we'll rush over, okay?" “Well...present day is a little weird when you think about it.” I said sheepishly. “But please...I’m gonna need a lot of help if Nexus is apart of this somehow...seriously, fully expecting Nexus because I haven’t heard or seen any other world hopping bad guy groups try to take over worlds.” "True. So, that all aside, how's the fish? Given your biology I wasn't sure if you liked it raw or cooked so I went medium rare. Hard to pull with fish." “Okay, even though me becoming a Dire Wolf makes it a lot easier to eat raw food, and even enjoy it, nothing beats cooked food.” I said honestly. “Also, the fish is delicious.” "Glad. I enjoy these 'nightly' dates." “They are nice.” I smiled warmly. "A nice way of relaxing from a lot of the bullshit huh? Should have used the realm of sleep much sooner for relaxing." “True...but Dream stuff is with the Foretellers and all that…” I sighed out. “So it felt like I was being rude to them even more so than me not sending them a message at least.” "While the domain of sleep is theirs, what and how we choose to dream is not. Besides, as of the marriage on top of me already being their dad/mom you are now also their mom/dad. So we can ground them." Cript said with a chuckle. “I’d rather not pull that even if my den mother instincts would want me to just take them all and cuddle and try to dote on them as a massive apology.” I said sheepishly. "Heh. So, including myself you've had four sets of parents as of now, right?" Cript asked. "I've been looking into the Timeline Diane is from and so far I think I found them. Your 'first' parents." “Diane’s parents...my parents, you and then Sly’s parents...so far three out of four have died, either by being murdered, or being Ravened…” I sighed out. "At least they can live again, King. Perks of how I bring people back. Was the only thing I bothered learning in my less than a month of being a God of time." “So...they can come back?” I asked. “Both Diane’s parents and...Sly’s parents?” "Of course. I brought back yours, Eclipsa's mom from earth, Eclipsa from the timeline she died in the future you is from. All I need is the timeline and I can bring back anyone. The only rule is that it has to be within ten seconds before they died. So when I brought your dad from earth back I spammed the healing spells." “Yeah...that makes sense.” I said, still glad to have my parents back and...honestly know they are proud of me again. "They always have been. So, Lord and I began working on the Supercharged version of Second Chance and mixing it with the Humanity blades power. After than a large ass use of code will gather up the new babies. Instant world peace." “Hooray.” I said warmly. “World peace is nice.” "After that, I'll call in my favor. And things really get started." “Things are...really speeding up.” I said worriedly. "Yes and no. If, and they will, go as expecting, we'll have a fuck tone of time. It will also royaley piss off Vincent and his True Nexus." “And if I know anything, pissing off those people are very needed and enjoyable.” I said honestly. "Truer words have never been spoken before." Cript laughed. "So, wanna know my plan? Assuming you don't already know cause you break the fourth wall." “I don’t break the fourth wall when you come up with this. I just use deductive reasoning and a healthy dose of guessing.” I said simply. “But mind telling me what your plan is?” "To make a long story short, I'm gonna fuse all the different timelines, then shatter time." “Wait...isn’t that what you wanted to do before?” I asked curiously. "Sorta. Fusing the timelines, yes, breaking time. That's the new part." “So...why do you want to break time itself?” I asked nervously. "It will cause a… soft reset of reality. People and places will be the same, unaffected but time itself will be blasted back to year zero. Cycle one. Postponing the glitch event for quite a while. Plenty of time to train an army and fix our current predicament." “Well then...that’s interesting.” I said honestly. "It's a risk, but one that will pay off. Time takes up more space than physical reality it seems, breaking and resetting it to day one will, ironically, buy us time. At the cost of erasing history." “Sounds simple enough.” I nodded. "Yeah. Simple on paper. A bit harder in practice." “Everything is harder in practice.” "At least it's a plan. Better than nothing." “Here here.” I nodded in agreement. "So, after this little after dinner meal, what should we do next?" “Um...not sure.” I said honestly. “What do you want to do?” "Dunno. We can do whatever really. Beach, spa, camping, hunt, limits the imagination." “Wonderful.” I muttered. “Sorry if I don’t immediately say something up just...have a lot on my mind.” "New life or something?" “All the things happening in my new life yeah...cause in a while, I’m gonna have to tell Uncle M and Jim to adopt Carmalita as well...then I need to find all the laws that could help the Coopers not constantly have police after them...as well as having Sly 2 just not happen in general cause Neyla can go fuck herself.” "Well, if memory serves Sly two happens mainly because the Klaww Gang steals the Clockwerk body parts. That will still happen, right?" “That’s how it would happen, but I’m not going to let those pieces go into a goddamn museum, seriously who the hell puts a mechanical owl’s corpse parts in a god damn museum?” "To be fair he is damn near what, half a million years old and successfully changed his body from flesh to metal and machines before any kind of modern means even the idea? It would make sense for his corpse to be in a museum as both a fossil and a historical wonder. Besides, Sly two patches the way for Sly three, so it does have to happen." “Damn it…” I grumbled. “I don’t like that...I really don’t.” I sighed out. “So...all four games have to happen no matter what I do, huh?” "Pretty much. So, stressed?" “A little.” I sighed out. “But...there’s at least some things I can do to make the impact...less harsh I suppose…” "True… so… in respect of taking things slow, wanna cuddle?" “Please.” I said while grabbing Cript and turning into my feral form and cuddling up to him. “I need cuddles…” They gave a laugh, our dinner area shifted into a nice bedroom where we kinda spooned, Cript being the small spoon. "This is kinda weird for the two of us huh? You and I typically get into relationships fast with others, and we're taking it slow with each other." “Mostly because we both don’t...really know what to do half the time with each other.” I said honestly. "Our relationship is kinda weird like that. Ironic since…" “Ironic since…?” I asked curiously. "You… aren't the first child adopted in/born in when we did that thing to return your soul, who became a spouse. Not even the second actually." “Well...I mean, my future self said it was a common thing when she came from.” I said honestly. "I know, but it's kinda awkward for me." “Listen, I had to get used to that when I married the Queen and Princess of the Yaks...have I mentioned how big and fluffy Yak’s asses are?” I asked honestly. “Cause seriously...they gave Celestia and Pinkie a run for their money.” "That's some fluff. Course given my… location I'm pondering on who cuddles better, you or Den." "Well cuddles are nice." I said honestly. "No matter who it is." "True. Though am I even fun to cuddle? I've edited this new form to look… less demonic but I still look weird, right?" Cript did edit that new form they're stuck in now that they can't hold back power. Taking a more female form, they are less tall, slimmer, wings shrunk and look almost cosmetic but they can grow them at will. Their crazy arm thing looks normal or tentacles like with bone hand and such at will. They still have three eyes, and an almost dark elf look to them, and while their hair is the same color they keep it at a shortcut, just above the shoulders. “Well...you look better.” I said honestly. “And cuddles are nice...I was about to say ‘no matter who you are’ but some people and things don’t deserve cuddles.” "Some, yeah." Cript sighed, moving more into my breasts/embrace. "We'll have to act fast once soft resets. Cause after it breaks, Everyone who has ever lived or was going to live will appear in the present time, including past and future versions of us. Downside to breaking time." “Oh...that’s not good.” I said worriedly. “That is...a lot of not good the more I think about it.” "Yeah, no kidding." Cript sighed. "Lord and the time walkers will work on a way for second chance to affect these… displaced time versions of us, future and past, but they don't think all of them will be caught in Second Chance's sweep, most though. 97% hit, the remaining 3% is still a wildcard factor though, no idea who will be in that 3%." “Sounds simple enough.” I shrugged. “Better than nothing I suppose.” "Hopefully." Cript sighed, pressing further against me. "Sorry if I'm getting too close or something, when Den and I do this she's typically on top of me, and I'm kinda used to that already. Always liked having some weight one when sleeping." “When you live with a lot of women...you tend to like having them on top.” I chuckled. “But it’s alright, whatever makes you comfortable.” "So, what was your first, well, time in a relationship like? All I know is that you started with Luna and Twilight and it just grew from there." “Given that Luna and Twilight were the only time I was ever in a relationship...I’d say it was nice.” I said honestly. “Too bad it was filled with me being cripplingly depressed half the time.” "Well, now it's only sarcasm and slight hints of narcissism." Cript laughed, now taking a front leg of mine and hugging it like a body pillow. The size difference between us with me in feral form was indeed that big. "Sleeping in the sleeping realm, feels like that should be impossible huh?" “It does...but for people who just like to sleep it is a miracle.” I chuckled. "Heck yeah." The week went by quickly. Uncle M and Uncle Jim came by to take us out of here, it took all our skill and will power… to not laugh. Jim in crossdress looks like Mrs Doubtfire. That voice was a close match too. When it was over, Sly, Bentley, Murray, Carmalita and I were on a private plane flown by M to KaneIsland. "We have a nice house and such a set up for you kids." M said. “Really?” I asked curiously. “But where are we heading?” I asked, pretending not to know anything about Kane island. "It's a secret location that's been known primarily by your family and a select few others, Like Jim and I, for generations. Kane Island. The secret hiding place of every Cooper's loot and biggest scores throughout your family history Kite, Sly." "It's also the perfect place to hide you two til you're of age." Jim added. “So...we’re going to learn to be like daddy and you two?” I asked cutely, wide eyes filled with stars of wonder as I genuinely found the task of learning to become a Cooper was exciting. "As best we can." M said sadly. "We're no Cooper's. But we can teach you what we know from our time… watching your father." “And you can teach Murray, Bentley and Carmalita stuff as well? More to your skills?” I asked, M and Jim having noticed the similarities in their skill sets with the young hippo and turtle, and Carmalita could use some training that they saw from mom. "Most definitely." "M, Jim… Do you know who killed Mom and Dad?" Sly asked, instantly making all of us silent. "...Yes." M said hesitantly. "Good. We'll know who to go after then." “Not yet.” I said to Sly. “They’re very dangerous...it’ll take us a long time before we’re ready.” I said, Jim and M remembering about my little adorable stunt as an infant when they were talking about going into hiding years ago. "I know that bro. I know." The island was nice. Looked just like the games, only less military and fortified and more a lush uninhabited island. There were several cabins all built one for each. Even Sly and I got our own cabins. They had some food stuff and thankfully M had the Foresight to set up a salt water purifier for plumbing and such and even a farm with veggies, and… animals? Huh, normal cows and such exist here. Then again dad's favorite pizza was sausage and Pepperoni. So… nice. There were other cabins, storage, school house/planning room, workshop, supply room, bathrooms, with Carmalita being the only girl who got her own private one, showers included, and various other cabins for many uses. Even a special underground training area, reminding me of the one for tutorials on Sly 3. "And that still didn't make a dent in your father's trust fund for us." M said. “How much money did daddy have?” I asked in honest surprise, even though we’re coopers the lion’s share normally went into the vault. "Your father thought that for our help and friendships, every time we scored anything, big or small, we'd split the wealth. To our surprise though, after… After he died we were approved by members of the Swedish Underground, Bakes for thieves. Your father left Jim and I sixty million even between us, and you two were left something as well when you both turn eighteen, but he kept his biggest wealths in the vault, as Cooper Tradition dictates." M said. "We got enough to live here comfy forever, but comfort is for suckers, we're Cooper's, by honor and by blood." M said, looking at Sly and I with a smile. "We're not sure how much he left you two, guess you'll have to find out once you're old enough." Jim said. “I hope we can live up to dad.” I said, hoping to be just as good as dad and all the other coopers. "We will bro. Even better." Sly said. "So, how did you get all this stuff here if I may ask?" Bentley asked. "A friend in the Russian Nobility, he owed us a favor. We bought the supplies and he bought the submarine." Jim answered. "Submarine?" Carmalita asked. With a nod, Jim pulled out a set of car keys, clicking them as across in the ocean, the water broke open, a large submarine emerging from the water rises up. "It's special for transporting cargo secretly, cloaking and can hold a lot of stuff, and for it's size it's fast too." "Then why did we fly here?" Murray asked. "I am… claustrophobic." M said shamefully. “That’s fine. Your a Mandril, your race enjoy’s wide open spaces and forests right?” I asked. “At least, that’s what a biology book I found at the library said.” "Speaking of, we also have a library, but that is in the vault." M said. "But yes, among my race Claustrophobia is a common fear." “And the vault is where?” I asked curiously, looking around curiously as there’s been many mentions of a vault yet I haven’t seen it. "Atop that mountain." M said, pointing to the only mountain on the island. "We'll show you it later. For now, go check out your Cabins, there's plenty to decorate and mess with." “Alright.” I nodded with a smile before running off to the cabin, wondering what is inside the Cabins if anything was in there, or to see how big it was. I ran up to the cabin with my name on it. Like the others it was two stories, wood and bamboo walls with a straw ceiling. Inside was more modern looking than the outside. It had a small kitchen area with a living room and a small bathroom on the bottom. The second story had a bed already… toys… familier… "We kept all the old receipts." I turned around, seeing Mcsweeny at the stairway. "Got as many as we could find from your old room.” “Really?” I gasped in surprise. “That’s...amazing.” I said happily. “Thanks Uncle Jim.” "Hey, you're the reason your dad, M and I even were still a team." “Really?” I asked. “But...what about mom and big brother?” He asked nervously. "I'm not going to lie. Your mother did test him, patience wise. Their little back and forth play was tolerable but once Sly was on the way he went full dad mode, driving us crazy. Almost left the team when he was born. But then your mom had you, and he was worried about protecting you two and if there was enough about how to raise two kids as Cooper's. So, he stuck around, for advice and for fun. Stealing was his mental vacation from his irrational fears." “Okay.” I nodded innocently. “I hope I can help like I wanted to...before this…” "You will. World is going to hell, but you and the others will be the ones to put out the fires." I smiled while shaking my rattle and turning it into my Cane. “Just like daddy and you and Uncle M.” I said happily. To be continued... Nobody finds the Mushroom 13I've been waiting here with Small the fox for two weeks and finally those eggs hatched. Mushroom 1 jumping up and clapping happily. “Thank fuck!” I cried out in sheer joy. “I have been waiting! For two weeks!” I whined just like Loki did in Thor Ragnarok. “And this is just adorable…” I said, finding the mushroom jumping and clapping adorable. The mushroom then looked over at me, walking over before booping my nose and vanishing off. "One down, eleven more to go." Paladin said with a sigh. "So, what about your friend?" He asked, pointed at Small, who was currently under me. "Well...what was my prize for waiting?" I asked. "Normally the game gives a prize unless the boop was it…" I said while gently petting Small. "As for Small here...want to come home with me?" I asked the fox. (Yes please.) They said, tail wagging cutely. "Alright…" I said, before thinking a little bit. "Um...do you want to stay as who you are or...like me?" I asked curiously. (Like you how?) "Well, like this." I said while motioning to my anthro form. "On two legs, can speak common, and a bunch of other things." I said simply. (Sure.) With that, I did what Mama Den and Lyra showed me. Small was now just shy of my height, but had my figure and six well sized tits, a fine ass, and the curves to draw eyes. A quick ring on her new finger gave her a member also shy of mine. "And just like that I'm bisexual." Paladin said jokingly. "Oh wow!" Fox said, speaking. My assistant also flashed. Race Tree: Fox; Aquit “Cool.” I said as I checked what skills the fox race could give me. “So, how does it feel Small?” "I feel ready to breed." I chuckled while giving her a quick kiss. “I know you’ll love this family.” I chuckled, not sure if I’ll have to immediately take care of the sexy fox. Knowing I had other things to do, I first explained to Small how the linked Bellies ability worked, and sent her down. She was skittish but seemed to enjoy it. Once she was in I brought her out in the bedroom and she got settled. Paladin opened another portal. Exiting this time we were in like a castle of sorts. "America, 4009, earth 99K74." Paladin said. “Okay that’s the...second earth a mushroom is on.” I said honestly. “So...why are we in a castle?” "This Earth invented the wheel a few… thousand years too late. So despite this being the 'future' it's more like the sixteen hundred." Paladin said. "And the reason why is stupid." “Oh I would love to know how stupid it is.” I said honestly. "Follow me." Paladin said, leading me a bit down the hall. All too familiar scents and noises became present to me… and when we turned the corner, a massive orgy was before us. "Sex was apparently extremely well liked." “Okay so...I’m not seeing the full problem here.” I said simply. “Is it just because they fucked too much or what?” "Yeah. You know that thing in your mind that when someone asks you if you wanna fuck and you can have the option to say no, yeah they didn't develope that here. Getting laid on this world is as easy as asking anyone if they wanna fuck. This world is actually taken into your family by Lyra, like the whole world." “Cause of course she would.” I chuckled. “So yeah...this place is going to be a fun time when I have off. So where is the mushroom?” I asked curiously. "...there…" He pointed, the poor Mushroom 2's head… stuck up some ladies privates but how is she stretched that big?! “Jesus how does she stretch like that?” I winced, finding that just a tad painful. "Genetics. The stretchier the hole the more sex they have… apparently." Paladin sighed. "Mind pulling them out, I'd just prefer to not touch anything while we are here." “Sure.” I said while moving around the people carefully and grabbing the lady and pulling the Mushroom out of her, pulling out a toy and immediately shoving it into her before she could complain. “Hey little buddy, need a shower first?” I asked the Mushroom curiously. The nodded, clinging to me thankfully. I showered them up and we were off again. This time we were on… the fuck are we? "Dimension -7753, the pulsating Space." Paladin said, this area various swearls of pink and yellow blobs floating around, and pulsating. “I mean...I can tell it’s pulsating but where the fuck are we?” I asked honestly. “I just told you. Dimension -7753. Not every reality or dimension out there has life." “I know that.” I said simply. “But I’m not saying ‘where are we’ to what dimension just...never mind.” I shook my head. “So, where is the Mushroom here?” "If I was to guess…" They said, taking a look around. "There." They pointed at one pink blob above us, the Mushroom 3 floating in it. “Cool.” I said while flying up to the mushroom. “Hey little guy, want to get out of here?” They happily float spun I'm a circle before giving a nod, and Poof's to the others. The next area was another large… different Forrest. "Earth! 16,000 BC earth KJ9978." “Well then...this feels different.” I said honestly. “But it’s also still huge.” "This world died in the asteroid strike. So go hunting." “Um...sure.” I said while rushing off to both hunt and find the Mushroom. As I searched around for mushroom 4, I got a few nice snacks. Along the way, they were tasty. "Well...at least the food is good.” I muttered, continuing to search for the fourth mushroom. After looking for a while I found the Mushroom, sat snuggly between five large eggs. “Oh please…” I muttered while gently moving over. “Uh...hello?” They waved at me casually. “Want to head out or are you waiting for the eggs to hatch?” I asked the mushroom curiously. They pointed up, showing that there was a massive fucking bird thing flying above us. “Ah.” I said, “Don’t worry, that won’t be a problem.” I said while gently moving over and picking up the Mushroom, careful to not disturb the eggs as I also made sure to keep an eye on the bird. As we made our way into a small forest for cover, the Mushroom got off me. Gave me a nod then vanished off. "That was interesting." Paladin said. “Interesting?” I asked curiously. “What do you mean?” "Just that, I've known these guys tend to get into trouble when not all together, but this is… more than what I was expecting. Especially the next one." “I’m more surprised about not having to do any mini games. Seriously, did they just decide to do a scavenger hunt this time around?” I asked curiously. "Those mini games are actually trials. But that's besides the point. This next one is actually in a sensitive temporal area. Are you ready?" “Sure.” I nodded. “Let’s get going.” The portal opened, and we entered. This forest… I've seen it. "Earth 9732, November 8, 2002. The Mana Forest. Last Ministry of Magic." “Wait, the last ministry of magic? But...I’ve been here before...or at least seen it before.” I said nervously. "That's because, you've seen this temple, but as ashes." Paladin pointed behind us, a massive Temple of blended cultural designs surrounded by a tall cobblestone wall and powerful magic… This is the temple Cript was raised in. “Oh...so that’s why.” I said nervously. “But...what’s it doing here?” "They do as they please. It's annoying." The sound of large doors opening echoed by us. Paladin and I looked around the corner, and saw a woman who looked a lot like Hearts mom, holding a small brown haired kid, who was clutching a teddy bear. “That’s...Cript and his mom?” I whispered to Paladin. "Yes. This is the day she left him here… and the day she is killed. We need to find number five fast." “Alrighty then...so where is Number Five?” I asked, not knowing where it is as I need a guide to find these mushrooms. "Not in a convenient place." Paladin looked up. Mushroom five was walking along the top of the temple in a circle. “Convenient enough for us to not be spotted.” I said as I flew up to the roof of the temple to get to the mushroom. As I was about to land, a jolt of magic hit me, knocking me back and over to Paladin. "Did you really think it would be that easy?" Paladin asked. “Yes, especially when that jolt of magic shouldn’t have done anything to me.” I stated simply. “But nope, plot needs to work.” "Did you forget this is the place that hid Cript from Vincent for ten years, a place Vincent could not enter at all? Those monks aren't just monks, they were Admins." “Cause of course they were…” I muttered. “So...how the hell are we supposed to get up there when we need to hurry?” "We have to wait for Cript's mom to leave, then we can Ask to come in. Okay?" “Alright.” I nodded. “So that’s gonna take a while maybe…” It wasn't that long. Half an hour and Cript's mom was back outside, crying. She took four steps… then... "Gluck." She coughed, Vincent appearing behind her, a knife in hand and shoved into her back. She collapsed, and Vincent turned to the temple doors. He placed a hand on them and was bit back by the same jolt of magic that hit me. "Crafty old bastards. As expected of the Admins of Rebellion. No matter, that child will be heir to my legacy, and this flawed, broken reality can finally end properly." They said, vanishing in a blink, as did Cript's mom's corpse. “Well then…” I muttered. “That happened…” "Hope you kill that guy." Paladin said, walking over to the front door. “He’s gonna die.” I said honestly. “But he might come back again and again cause why not…” Paladin knocked on the door. One of the monks, or apparently, one of the Admins of Rebellion, opened. "Ah, a Time Walker. What brings you to our sanctuary?" "Mushroom number five is on your roof." They said simply. "Ah, the little trouble makers. Come in, you and your associate are welcome here. Just knock next time." The elderly man said, looking at me on that last part. “Hi.” I said sheepishly. Paladin and I walked in, the older man leading us inside the temple. Three other older men were present here, one I remember from when I fought that Lingering Will of them in the future. "I shall fetch the little one, you two wait here." They said, taking leave as the other three walked over to us. “So...how are you all today?” I asked the three walking over to us. "As well as we can be." One said. "I can tell you are an Admin too. That power was used by a former student of ours, so long ago. How is he?" The other asked. “Um...that depends on who your former student is? Cause I’ve been...around.” I said sheepishly. "He currently goes by the King of Nothingness. Self made in title and power. As all royalty should." “Oh...well uh…” I looked over at Paladin to see if I was even allowed to tell them. He nodded. “Well uh...he’s kind of dead.” I said sheepishly. “Wasn’t my fault...old man didn’t give me a choice…” "Passes the crown in death, to his heir. Understandable." “Yeah...it was a thing.” I said honestly. "Here is the little one." The first old man said, back and holding Mushroom number five. They jumped over to me. "They like you, it seems." “I mean, I have found five of their siblings?” I asked, not sure if they’re related or anything as I gently patted the thing’s head. The mushroom gave me a nod, then poofed off to be with the others. "Such powerful beings. The first Mother's greatest creations." "And with their help good things will happen." I said honestly. "Let's go." Paladin said, opening a portal. This time we ended up on an island of sorts. "Alternative Earth 97890, April 6th, 1857. Kane Island." "Excuse me?" I asked. "Did you just say Kane Island?" I asked nervously. "Yes." "Okay so...is this the Kane Island I'm thinking of or another Kane Island?" I asked, thinking this was Cooper's family island. "Same island, different world version. Very different world version." “How different?” I asked curiously. "Swap the Cooper's and Clockwerk." “Oh…” I blinked. “That’s...not good.” I said worriedly. “So...where is the mushroom?” "In there." They pointed. Turning around I saw the Cooper Vault, or rather, the Clockwerk vault, the image of an owl rather than a racoon. Cane lock was still there. "Keyblade time." “Yep.” I nodded while pulling out my Keyblade and gently tapped it, the vault door unlocking itself and popping open. The door opened and inside I saw the loot of generations of a Clockwerk family version of the Cooper's. In the back I saw number six swimming in the gold coins like Scrooge McDuck. “Well...they seem happy.” I said while flying down to the Mushroom. “Hey there little guy, having fun?” The dived into the coins, bursting out and giving me… a Keyblade Keychain. The one from Port Royal from kh 2. Recognize that Madaline anywhere. They then poofed away. “Huh...wonder where Clockwerk found this…” I hummed curiously. I pocketed the keychain, closed and locked the vault backup and we were off to find number seven. We arrived on… "Minecraft dimension! No idea what year it is, time here is fucked." Paladin huffed. “Huh...this is a place.” I said, as it was as blockey as it was ingame. “Now to find the Mushroom here…” As I walked around, finding that even as an admin, I need to rapidly punch these things to break a block, I began having a little fun. As I explored I found a small dirt hut. Mushroom seven was in there, waiting by a furnace that was cooking, or smelting something. “Hello.” I said to the Mushroom. They didn't respond. Touching their furnace showed me the menu in my HUD, they were cooking 64 steaks, of which five were done, and had six coal blocks fueling it. “Want to make food first?” I asked politely, not wanting to interrupt their cooking time. I sat next to them as we waited for the food to get done cooking. It didn't take long and when the stack of steak was done, he gave me half, ate his half in one bite, somehow, he didn't even have a mouth, then poofed off. “Alrighty then.” I said while starting to eat some of the steak while heading outside. “Next?” Number eight was in Spain, 1515, my old earth. I was about to grab it when. "What a strange Creature." I ducked, seeing a man that… that… Nicolas Ventral. Hearts Ancestors and Core and Unum's second child. He looked around the Mushroom number eight. "Hello there is a strange one. What manner of God made you?" He said, looking over the not quite heartless. ”The hell is he doing here?” I thought to myself, not remembering this time period being where he was as I stayed hidden from Nicolas. ”So...better wait until he leaves…” I thought to myself. "Hmm?" He hummed, seeing the number eight numerals on it's back. "Eight. Are there eight of you?" To Nicolas's surprise, and mine, the mushroom shook it's head. "Oh, you can understand me? Fascinating. So more than eight? Ten perhaps?" They shook their head. "Hmm… thirteen?" The mushroom gave a happy nod. "Thirteen of you? How interesting. And what an oddly specific number." ”God damn it…” I thought as I transformed into a human male with proper attire of the century. “Hello.” I said as I got out of the shadows and acted like I was walking by. "Oh, hello!" Nicolas said, quickly getting in front of the Mushroom number eight. I raised my hand gently. “No need to hide the being...I was actually looking for it honestly.” I said simply, not sure if I can really talk about the mushroom’s to the very first Ventral. "Oh? Really?" “Yes.” I nodded. “They tend to enjoy games, and right now they are playing a sort of...hide and seek game.” I said, not really sure why they haven’t tried doing any trials yet but thinking this was ‘trial’ enough for this scavenger hunt kind of thing. "Games? Are they like children then?" “They are excitable like children...but from what I’ve learned through my years, they are anything but children.” I said honestly. “And...games are a bit of a stretch the more I think about it…” "Well, what are they. It seems to say there are thirteen of them?" In the background behind Nicolas I saw Paladin shaking his head rapidly. “Honestly, no idea.” I said, which wasn’t really a lie now that I thought about it. “All I know is that I need to get all of these beings home.” I said while gently moving around Nicolas and putting a hand on the eighth mushroom head. “Time to go little one.” They looked at me, then Nicolas, then kicked my shin and ran over to them. That little…. "Awh, he likes me." Nicolas said, Eight running around them in a circle. "I wonder why they are shaped like Mushrooms?" “No idea…” I sighed out, looking over at Paladin with a pleading look given the little bastard now has practically imprinted on Nicolas. Paladin looked around, finding a rock. They threw it at Nicolas, only for in a flash, Mushroom eight grabbed and flicked it back at Paladin, an audible clunk as it hit his head and he fell over… seriously? "What was that?" Nicolas asked, oblivious to what happened. “Nothing.” I said quickly. “God I wish these things could talk sometimes…” I muttered to myself while looking at the Mushroom. “Listen, you need to get back to your family, they're worried.” I said to the Mushroom. “Please?” It smacked me than ran off. "Hey, wait up!" Nicolas yelled, chasing after it. "If the village sees you they'll think you a demon!" I panicked at that and rushed after the Mushroom, a little pissed at how it’s acting but hoping the village won’t get pissed. ”So Time Walkers are about as fragile as wet tissue paper...wonderful.” I mentally groaned Nicolas and I chased the little brat towards the village border, Nicolas catching them just before they ran into town. "Such energy. Hopefully my children are more tame." “Children can be a handful no matter what.” I said honestly. “I just...don’t know why it’s being so stubborn…” It wiggled from Nicolas's grasp, jumping to the floor and shaking, and In almost a sneeze like motion, tossed a… Starlight Keychain to Nicolas. "What's this?" Nicolas looked at the keychain with interest. "A pendant?" ”Are you fucking kidding me!?” I thought to myself incredulously. “Okay cool...now can you please head home?” I asked the Mushroom. I swear it blew a raspberry at me and threw a rock at my head. I caught the rock before it actually hit me in the head. “Rude.” I frowned. “And so far you have been nothing but rude this entire time.” I frowned. "Perhaps he just wants to do something before going?" Nicolas offered, kneeling down to the Mushroom. "Is there something you want to do little one?" It nodded, pointing at a large cathedral. "The church? If they see you they'll burn you alive. What could you want there?" I thought for a moment, thinking about the last few Mushrooms and how they just...randomly either were doing something or just hanging out. “Do you need to obtain something or return something?” I asked curiously, wondering if it either wanted to return an item to the church or if it wants to get something from the church. They pointed at the Starlight Keychain in Nicolas's hand, then with a foot, drew a keyhole in the soil. "A lock?" Nicolas asked. I pinched the bridge of my nose. “So that’s what it is…” I muttered. “I know what it wants...either of us to do. Do you have any items on you that aren't clothes or jewelry?” I asked curiously, having a feeling the Mushroom would want Nicolas to do this. "Some medicinal herbs, this strange pendant, and this." They moved their shirt, showing… a Wayfinder, Pure orichalcium+. "It's all I have from… where I come from. The church found me in the streets, still needing my mother's milk, and yet not one around. Just myself and this strange necklace." I nodded...knowing full well who that Wayfinder belongs to. “Alright.” I said while sneakily crafting a sword without him noticing as I held it still in its sheath. “May I try something?” I asked. “I’ll need the pendant as it’s...special from what I’ve gathered over the years.” "Oh, sure." He said, tossing it to me. As I tried to place it on the sword, Eight kicked my shin again and took the sword, tossing it to Nicolas and then proceeded to act like a feral cat to my head. “And that’s about as much dog shit I’m willing to take.” I said while grabbing the thing by the head and getting it off my head, holding it at a distance by its hood. “Cause of course I needed this garbage today…” I growled. “Put the chain part on the sword, just like I was about to do.” I said, keeping a solid grip on the Mushroom to let it know it’s not going anywhere fast. The second I said that, they stopped acting out. Confused, Nicolas did just that… and nothing happened. "Was something supposed to happen?" Eight got out of my grip, taking the sword with the keychain attached, shaking it like a dying flashlight. How come nothing happened? “Now...don’t panic.” I said while trying to bring out Reunion as No Heart would probably cause him to panic. “Let’s hope nothing weird is going on…” I muttered, hoping my powers would still work. As I felt myself pulling Reunion to me… nothing. In a panic, I summoned Foudre, that somehow worked perfectly. Why are Keyblades not? "That aside, how are we going to get this little one into the church with our heads attached?" Nicolas asked. “Uh…” I thought. “How much do you know about magic?” I started slowly, reaching into my pocket to put on that Angel Armory Ring Trinity got me a long ass time ago. "Just that the church burns anyone who is believed to practice it." Nicolas said. “Um...what god do they believe in?” I asked curiously. "God, this is Spain my friend, there is no other, and any who say so are, as expected, burned at the stake." “Ah yes…” I muttered, remembering that this was way before what happened. “That God.” I said while staring up into the sky accusingly, having a feeling Keyblades not working is because of his crap. "It's best if we wait for night to try the church. I'll be back with a wagon to hide him in. My father in law is quite the eccentric, so he won't inform the church about our new friend. Oh, speaking of. I am Nicolas. Nicolas Ventral, and you are?" “Names...Kite.” I said, using my Sly Cooper name instead of my actual name cause being called ‘King’ in this day and age would just be a little weird. “And it’s nice to meet you.” "Kite. What an unusual name." They said, taking leave into the village, leaving me here alone with eight. Eight was just… wait when did they get a fire pit made and… is that rabbit stew? “Alright you…” I sighed out. “Why are you acting like this if I may ask?” I asked while sitting down at the fire pit. They didn't say anything, steering their stew and waiting. “Is it because he got to you first?” I asked curiously. They shook their head. “Well then...what’s wrong?” I asked honestly. “Is it because of how I look?” I asked curiously. They shook their head. “Then what’s wrong?” I asked honestly. They didn't speak, rather, used their foot and Drew an X in the dirt. “An X?” I asked curiously. “What do you mean?” They shook their head, finding a small stick and drawing a heart, a keyhole inside it, and a line connecting the x and the heart with a keyhole in it… not and x, a Key. “So you want to either...lock or unlock this world’s heart or a person’s heart?” I asked curiously. They nodded. “Ugh… Fucker can throw a rock.” Paladin said, walking over to us and sitting down. “Already informed about all this, perks of time based abilities.” “So do you know why Keyblades can’t be summoned?” I asked curiously. “Yeah. This reality is made similar to how Admins do, but uses the sleeping worlds as it’s foundation. Powered and made it’s own by his heart, and his rules. And he ruled No Keyblades. However, certain things still have to exist no matter the world, and multiverse and Keyholes on each world to it’s heart. Without Keyblades though it’s impossible to access them. So, this little punk wants to unlock it?” “Yes he does.” I said while looking up into the sky. “I doubt I can just call God and he’ll drop down to say hi right?” “You were saying?” I jumped, seeing the old man, well, yeah still old man standing behind us. He looked more like how the bible says, old man, long white robe, long white hair and beard. “What are you two doing here?” “Because of this little guy.” I said while pointing to the Mushroom. “And because he won’t leave until we either lock or unlock this world’s heart.” “I locked every worlds heart here when I created these worlds, why would he want to unlock it, that would cause an explosion of light and call forth darkness. Heartless and many other things I keep out of this place will enter, and Keyblades will become usable here. Is this because of Nicolas?” God asked, Mushroom eight nodded. “Why? Why? Unum wanted him safe, and away from his heritage.” “Well he’s going to learn about it sooner or later.” I shrugged. “He is never supposed to know about it.” “Well he’s going to have to learn at least something cause this guy won’t leave until he unlocks the Keyhole.” I frowned. “Paladin here can deal with all the timey wimey bullshit that that whole thing causes.” “Ugh.” Paladin huffed. “If I have to, mass memory wipes and rebuilding. Not fun but oh well, this job isn’t always easy. Bosses gonna drown me in paperwork after all this.” “To be honest, your work sounds like it’s bogged down by too much needless work.” I said honestly. “And this is coming from a King, your jobs should be more hands on, not bureaucratic bullshit and too much paperwork.” “We’re our own kingdom. Tell me, King, a kingdom does not thrive without laws, rules and regulations. Those who inforce and those who govern, and those who do both. We’re our own society because we are not applicable in time. One of us, ten of us, hundreds of us can die, and yet you’ll see us still, after watching us die. We are all Paradoxes, our existence is needlessly complicated, so our lifestyle and government should be also.” “I didn’t say you don’t need laws, I’m just saying that it’s getting bogged down from what you people actually need to do, which is make sure time isn’t fucked eight ways from sunday.” I said simply. “But I understand your point.” “I do not approve of this in the slightest.” God said. “If you didn’t, then why let Nicolas keep that Wayfinder?” Paladin asked. God kept silent. “... It’s not just a Wayfinder… It’s all that’s left of Unum. A shard, a hairlike shard of her heart, with him at all times. It’s also what keeps Keyblades from working within a fifty mile radius of Nicolas, so long as he keeps it with him.” I looked at Paladin, wondering if I can tell him that Unum is in fact alive in the One Piece world...just as a pitch black skeleton. Even while under the hood, Paladin didn’t need to speak, or shake their head. I can’t. “So that’s why. Oh… Oh, that’s how you gave Heart his X-blade, so many centuries later.” “Zeke Ventral, yes, so, he goes by Heart when I set him free?” God asked, looking over at me. “My reality, my timelines, mine to watch and know. Sadly I can only see up to then, and after that it’s a mystery.” Paladin laughed. “You used her Heart Shard to MAKE his heart balanced, to hold the X-blade.” “Better in his hands than in others.” God huffed. “True.” I shrugged. “But let me ask...if this actually happened, why wasn’t there any Keyblades or Heartless when I was born?” I asked curiously. “In this reflection, their… CAN be, but I can control it. Think of it like this, the reflections I created are in a circle, divided like slices of pie, drawing power from my heart to even exist. Lay the circle over my heart, you can see that the ways the reflections play out correlate with their location on my heart, this one resides along the lines where the light and darkness in my heart meet, but the dark side is less than the light, not a perfect split. There is more light than darkness here, but darkness nonetheless. If the Keyhole here is unlocked, Heartless and all that comes with it, Unversed, Dream Eaters, Nobodies, all flood this reality, and break Unum’s last wish.” “Sounds about right.” I said, “So why does this little guy want to open it?” I asked while motioning to the Mushroom. “Mothers Rules.” We all looked, seeing… Eight can talk?! “Monsters to battle man, so man does not conflict against man. She hates war, so war with beast, monsters, puts views and ideals into perspective.” “You can fucking talk?!” Paladin yelled. “When the fuck could you, or any of you, talk!?” I complained. “We can. We just don’t like to.” EIght said, still stirring the stew pot. “The others, forgot what life was like back then. When Mother came to power, there were no wars, none with bloodshed at the hands of fellow life. Monsters to kill, prizes to earn, it was enough to keep people of all races working and living together peacefully. The wild untamed lands ripe with victories of slain monsters people by the hundreds would come together to slay, win the prizes, and deaths were mourned without the hunt of the murderer.” “Also...because you sound exactly how you all act…” I muttered to myself. “But that sounds...very intriguing. And I’m going to help make sure that you remember the joy back then, where people can enjoy life and win...not busy hating each other.” “So that’s why.” God sighed. “The wars, the bloodshed, you came here, saw it, and hated it.” “Who wouldn’t? Vincent sure did.” “And then a lot of other assholes throughout history…” I sighed out. “What do you mean Vincent did?” Paladin asked. “Vincent is older than you all think. Counterpart to the Admin of Life, and a Cycle one Admin. Beings like me from that long gone era can recognize each other without a second glance.” “And...you let him have a full range of time travel why and how?” I asked simply. “In the end, he is a brother to us as the rest of my kind. A Dying race. Could you kill your own family? Even if they could kill you and not care?” “I mean, technically Vincent is my father in law, and just for Vincent yes, I would make sure to use his skull as a personal wine glass.” I stated bluntly. “Then you don’t know the love one can have for someone you’ve known since this reality first came into existence.” Eight sighed, dropping the spoon into the pot. “I guess you have some questions now, right?” “A few, yeah.” Paladin said. “Why yes, I do have several questions as we completely segway past ‘Vincent is an irredeemable douche canoe’.” I said simply. “So...just for my sake, why are you and the others not hosting your ‘Trial mini games’? One of you is in a special place I’m not allowed to say in front of him.” I motioned to God. “But why not the rest? Bored or just wanted to play hide and seek?” “Mother created us each, unique and able to give rewards for those who perform admirably in our trials, some small some fortuitous. Thirteen, was different. Our little brother gives prizes one's Heart desires, the rest are either useful things to come later in their life, or filler. As you saw first hand, he brought back Lake, Heart’s light half, the same way Cript brings back others.” “Time plucking. Five seconds before they die is where he has his window, but in that window, hundreds of seconds of that person to save.” Paladin said. “Yes. When we are all together in the same trial, the prizes we offer aren’t just mere prizes, impossible items that either no longer exist or are impossible to get we can gift to the victor. I can see your desire King, you seek Mother's heart. Yes?” “Either that or Beliefs Body.” I said simply. “Either of those things can hopefully end Void Mother’s rampage before it’s too late…” “Even so, there is still the threat of Vincent and his grand plan.” “What, his true Nexus and some C.R.I.P.T’s?” Paladin asked. “Ah yes, going back to that plot line of ‘Vincent murders someone too important and all of existence just ends’.” I said, “No resets, no nothing, it just all ends am I correct?” “No. That’s all just how he distracts from the grand plan. I was there the day, the day he looked at our world, our home, and saw that even with Mothers hard work, people still killed one another, took advantage of the life they live. He was sickened, and so for countless years he worked on a way to end it all truly. This reality, even if the next cycle Mother and Belief die, is built to reset and correct the original event that lead to it. Life goes on, as they say. So, he built something that resists the resets.” “No… No…” Paladin said, sitting up. “Well I have a bad feeling about this, Paladin mind explaining?” I asked. “There is only one thing that can resist a Reset, a Null reset… Grey.” Eight nodded. “Vincent created Grey. And for all these countless years, let it build and build, so when it fills the storage drive, the reset fails, and the machines will fry. And that will be the final end for us all.” “So, when you talk about the FIRST Cycle… you mean, the litteral, first Cycle.” Paladin said. “Day one when this all turned on.” “Yes. Each time the glitch occurs, Vincent lets… some of us, seek safety in the grey. Somewhere he still cares, however little. Maybe he just does it so we can bear witness, whatever the case, we are grateful for it.” “Maybe because…” I sighed out. “Maybe it’s because of Life herself...he keeps you thirteen around and several others because Life is the only joy he’s found in his damned existence so...why not help some of the people who he sees would support Life, like the Mushroom 13 or several others...but that begs the question on why did he try to murder Eclipsa so many times if she’s the physical embodiment of Grey?” “It’s not like he can kill her anyway. Eclipsa, Marcy, Collen, Aurther, Kira. Names they’ve taken over the years. He did not expect his creation to gain sentience, but in the end it played out to his advantage. The more grey they use, the more they also create, and the faster the storage drive fills up. In a sense Vincent is also their father, their maker.” “Cause that’s what I need, Vincent pulling a Bob Ross and ‘making a happy little accident’.” I rolled my eyes. “So, considering you know a lot...would making Grey it’s own storage space be a bad idea? Considering your one of the few beings that’s probably lived through all this garbage.” “Hmm… It could be possible. Convert the energy into physical addons to the Storage Drive. But only Truth would know for certain.” “Ah yes, that asshole.” I frowned. “And one of the things the fucker omitted from the ‘oh hey, you’ll learn everything I deem fit because you became deathless’.” I rolled my eyes. “Either way, only they can have that answer. So, figure out what to trade.” “I’d rather stab the fucker in the neck than go back there.” I frowned. “Besides, I don’t need Truth to know that this can work, it’s been done before several times through...well I was about to say ‘fictional history’ but it’s more ‘history’ considering our circumstances.” “There is… one option, I believe can be of use.” “And what idea is that?” I asked curiously. “I am sure you know of the Ethernet, correct?” “Barely, and Cript and Lord are already on that little bit.” I pointed out. “It’s a pathway to other machines, other creations. With luck, they can have more than one, or even better, one that’s already dead, you can study and replicate. And then of course, there is also the Non Existent. Their access to this… other side of the coin can help in some way.” “Ah yes, things that you’re saying and expecting me to know about.” I said, “The fuck is a Non Existant? Besides the obvious by name.” “The beings the Dream Project Vincent worked on tried to replicate. Capable of traversing this side of the coin and the other. Only one of their kind. It was the Nonexistent who built the machines, so one can fix them.” “Oh, you mean Sarah?” I asked curiously. “If memory serves, Eclipsa mentioned something about her when she...passed through the Dream Gate as it were.” “Artificial as she is, she still has the same powers as one. Find her, not even Truth can deny her orders or modifications.” “That’s useful.” Paladin said. “So about the parts where Project Dream either let you go to the real world or become an eldritch abomination?” I asked curiously. “The fuck is with that?” “No one knows how the Nonexistent work, how they do what they do, all that’s known is that they are a league above even Mother.” “I mean, I learned some of that when I did my own digging into the project after Joy burned it with Krot...who knew trying to go past the fourth wall was such an achievement.” “Such a place is not meant for beings like us. It controls the big and small of our reality, all working in an organized chaos.” “Sounds about right.” I nodded. “Breaking the fourth wall in words is one thing...actually going past that is a completely different story.” The mansion Nicolas lived in with his wife and father in law was… big. Reminded me of when we lived in the castle of the two sisters. “Father.” Nicolas said, greeting a large fat man in gold and silk clothing. “Nicolas, the doctor who keeps my heart pumping and my bloodline going!” He said with a hearty laugh and smile. “How was the search for herbs?” “I ran into someone and their… unique friend.” He moved aside, showing my and eight. “A stranger in my home… and their equally strange creatures. How fun!” He said, lifting a large bottle and taking a drink. “I’ll hear this story at supper. Till then, take one of the guest rooms strange man and beast, my home for today is yours.” “Thank you sir.” I said with a small bow of courtesy. “I’ll endeavor to be a good guest.” “Then best get drunk.” They said, walking up to me and handing me their bottle. The strong scent of wine coming off of it. “A good guest is a drunk guest in my house.” They said, giving me a pat on the arm as they headed off. “As you can see, my father in law is very eccentric. If it wasn’t for his donations the church would have kicked him out of the village years ago.” Nicolas said. “Come, I’ll lead you two to the guest rooms.” “Thank you.” I nodded while following Nicolas to the guest room. As Nicolas showed me to the guest room, I saw his wife, Sofia, pregnant, largely so. “Triplets, has to be for being only three months and so large.” Nicolas said, pride in his tone. “For never having a family of my own, I’m glad to have this chance to make one.” I held back my worry about the future considering...what I’ve learned about Ventral’s history. “Congratulations, I hope your children live happy healthy lives.” “Same.” Nicolas said. Supper was tasty, the in law of Nicolas can eat. Once night fell Nicolas, myself and eight headed towards the church. Arriving and sneaking in was easy. Once higher up we came to the rafters area, where I spotted it. In the cracks of the wall, shaped a misshapen keyhole image. “That’s… an interesting crack formation.” Nicolas said. “Weirdly misshapen but...that’s a Keyhole alright…” I muttered. “Now the only problem is...how the hell we’re going to get a Key for it when it wasn’t working before.” Eight began jumping and slapping the keyhole. “Hm, perhaps something is missing?” As I walked over to the Keyhole, a tad frustrated, I hit it lightly… there was a click… Wait, Right! Heart made me a living X-blade too… Duh! The keyhole began to glow, surprising Nicolas as suddenly a beam of light hit Nicolas, his necklace wayfinder glowing before an image of Unum appeared. “Woah!” He said, backing up. “Hello, my son.” Unum’s image said. Is this… a message? “If you are seeing this, then your life did not turn out as I had hoped. It means the dangers of your true home have reached you, and my efforts were in vain to save you. Once this message is over, what I have passed onto you, will be yours to keep and use. Please, I… I am sorry, I gave you up. You and your brother. Please, despite what the world will hold for you now, keep what makes you happy close. The light of your heart and your love will give you strength. I love you, my child.” Unum’s image faded out, Nicolas’s necklace glowing as the silhouette of a Keyblade. It’s shaped like golden and marble columns, the grip shaped much like Kingdom Key. “What… was that… mother?” Nicolas asked. “You have a brother?” I asked slowly, never hearing anything about this especially when I remember Joy physically living through Yen Sid’s memories. “But...yes, that was your mother…” “And… this?” Nicolas asked, picking up the Keyblade. My hud scanned it. Keyblade: Mothers Love Att:8 Def:5 Mag:5 Special Ability: Critical Clash - Every time you deflect a strike, your next strike is always critical. “That’s...interesting.” I hummed to myself. “So...that’s...a lot of things to unpack at once…” “What is this thing?” Nicolas asked. “That is a Keyblade...an ancient weapon used to ward off Evil…” I said while thinking for a moment. “It’s...basically an angel’s sword, but shaped like a Key cause it can also do Key things.” “My mother was an angel?” Nicolas asked seriously. I was about to explain how that was not true, but there was a sudden boom. The stained glass shattering towards us. Rushing over to the hole, Heartless began running around. All kinds. “What are they?! Demons?!” “Technically?” I said sheepishly, not really sure what to say. “It’s...basically their darkness inside a person’s heart given physical form. It’s really complicated, it makes no sense, and how good are you at wielding a sword?” I asked as I was thankfully able to summon No Heart after Unum’s message. “I have some skills. Church raised me, but not well enough.” Nicolas said, looking at their Keyblade. “Let’s hope you are a fast learner then.” I said while jumping out of the window and stabbing a Wyvern Heartless swiftly and killing it. “Come on.” I said while a card platform appeared near the window for him to hop on. “So much for sorcery being the devil's acts.” They said, jumping on the card with me as we landed. “Which is weird cause Angel’s are just as magic as Demons but religion says they are not.” I said while putting on my Angel Armory Ring. “Now a nifty thing I figured out. Descend my Einherjar!” I called, raising my hand up high as holy light started to appear from the sky, dozens of angelic constructs descending on alabaster wings, shining armor and swords covered in holy flames and Nothingness thorns. “Cleanse the Heartless from these Lands!” I commanded as the angels flew down in formations as they started to due battle with the growing number of Heartless. “That’ll help stop any that get out of the area, so mind if I start training you to actually use that thing?” I asked as we both got to the ground. “By God’s true name!” Nicolas said. “That is my true name.” God said, appearing between us, scaring Nicolas who immediately bowed down in respect. “I hate when they do that.” “I mean...you are literally God.” I said honestly. “I’m aware of the irony.” God said, pulling Nicolas up and summoning his own Keyblade. It looked like Start Seeker, but held gold and black over blue and white on it’s primary colors. “Come on, Paladin will need time to get the memory wipe spell ready. After that I can repair all the damage.” “I presume you saw Unum’s message?’ I asked curiously while cleaving a Defender in half even through the shield. “I see everything here… Yes.” He said, spinning and cleaving an Invisible in half. “Use that Keyblade right Nicolas, for your mother and father's sake.” “My father? DId you know him?” Nicolas asked God. God just grinned. “Sure do, dumb ass is my brother.” God said, heading off at a Horde of flying Heartless, leaving Nicolas to short out mentally at that information. “Trust me...it makes about as much sense as you’d think.” I said nervously. “Uhhhh….” I sighed out. "Listen, do I need to slap you to get you back under control?" The battle went about largely uneventful. Nicolas fought pretty good actually, even did an accidental Strike Raid. Once they were all clear God locked the Keyhole back up and Paladin wiped the memories. With a Thanos snap God fixed all the damages. Eight went back to the others, their mission done. Nicolas and I stood outside his home. “So, I come from a place filled with… demons but not exactly demons, the powers of divines are within grasp of man, god is my uncle, and this is what my mother left me?” He asked, summarizing all of it up and showing me his Keyblade. “It’s...a lot more complicated than that, but an extremely long and convoluted story short, yes.” I said honestly. “She...honestly hoped you didn’t have to be apart of this...but sometimes wishing for the best doesn’t really work sometimes…” “Hm.” They said, looking at the Keyblade, then to me. “You come from her world then, don’t you?” “I...can’t really explain much, but yes I do. So did Eight and God.” I said honestly, the damage was already being done so why not. “Hm. Here.” They said, handing me their Keyblade. “My mother didn’t want this life for me, so I will honor that wish. Return this to your world, her world. It belongs there, not here.” “Well I’m gonna have to check with your uncle to see if Heartless won’t just appear again.” I said honestly. “Yo, so no Heartless or anything will be dropping into this world again right?” I asked God curiously. “None now that the Keyhole is locked again.” God said with a nod. “Alright.” I nodded. “But...are you sure you want to give up your mother’s gift to you?” I asked curiously. “Her gift to me was this world, without monsters or men with the powers of god. She left this to me in case the worst happened, and thanks to you, and God himself, they are gone, and will no longer be a threat. This weapon will just collect dust in my hands. Yours though, it can slay the evils it was made to hunt. Please, as my wish, take it.” I sighed out while taking the Keyblade. “Alright...I’ll respect your wish.” I said gently. “Thank you, even if we never see one another again, may we keep one another in our memories.” Nicolas said with a bow. He headed back inside. Paladin opened a portal. Number nine was on a dead earth, year 7098. Whole place was messed up from a solar wave that roasted the world. Nine just sat at a cliff's edge, a large view over the burned landscape. “Howdy.” I said while sitting down next to the mushroom. “How are you doing?” They said nothing, looking at me then nodding. Poofing off. Mushroom ten was on Earth 99432L, year 2002. Overall it was just like my earth and Hey! Kingdom Hearts in stores still. Oh yeah, it did launch in 2002. Wow, they have merch and such to go with it already. “God I feel so old…” I muttered. “Sure it’s been...thirty plus years for me but it’s only been ten years since kingdom hearts one came out before I went to Equestria…” Needless to say, I bought it all, and a new ps2… among other games. Mushroom ten was atop a shopping mall, happily eating a hotdog and slurpee. “Enjoying your food?” I asked the Mushroom curiously. They nodded, offering me the rest of their hot dog. “Nah, I’m good.” I said with a raised hand. “Enjoy your food.” They nodded, finishing their food before poofing off. Number eleven was on the sun itself back home… for some reason… Being able to walk on the surface of the sun is such a strange experience. Thought kind of cool. The SUN has colonies and dungeons too. Neat. “Oh, hello King!” I turned seeing Genos here… huh. “What are you doing here Genos?” I asked curiously. “Training! The hottest fires forge the strongest of metals! And fighting fire with fire in this place puts me at a disadvantage, meaning the more I fight and win the hotter and stronger I become!” They declared proudly. “Sounds about right.” I said honestly. “So where’s the Mushroom Eleven?” I asked curiously while looking around. Paladin pointed… a wood outhouse on the sun… not gonna ask. The door then was thrown open. Somebody once told me-! “No!” I shouted while the music cut out quickly. “None of that!” I shouted as I stared up at the sky and pointed at nothing accusingly. “Shame on you.” I frowned as I walked towards where the Mushroom should be. Mushroom eleven blew me a raspberry in anger, then poofed off to the others. Mushroom twelve. This one was… Back home. In my throne room actually. It sat on my throne and waved at me. "Hey there little guy. What are you doing here?" I asked curiously. He nodded, suddenly there were two of him… then five, then ten, then sixty… Alert!: Challenge Entered! Slay 1,000,000,000 Mushrooms in one minute. “Seems...oddly specific.” I said while drawing my weapons. “But very needed.” I said as I vanished and cleaved through thousands of Mushrooms in barely any amount of time. This was kinda fun. A few got away from me but overall all I got the billion in forty seven seconds. Back in the throne room, twelve clapped happily and poofed off, leaving me a treasure chest. "Cool." I said before opening the chest. "I wonder what's inside." Inside the chest was- "Ouff!" "Ouch!". I took a moment to register the two hot den mother dire wolves before me… recognizing them and their colors as Rejection and Acceptance. My light and darkness. "So that's what a physical body feels like?" Acceptance said, getting up. "Yup, that's it." Rejection said. Shape wise and looks they were basically my triplet sisters, color wise Rejection was pitch black fur and Acceptance was snow white. "Well...this is...something." I said slowly. "Why?" "Don't asked us." Rejection said, getting up and helping Acceptance and I up. "One second we're resting in your heart, next we're here in… some seriously sexy bodies." Rejection said, getting a good look at themselves. "Perhaps it's a message." Acceptance offered. "All hands on deck for the wars to come, yes?" "I mean...I suppose." I said nervously. "But why would my light and dark half need to be physical for this?" "Extra hands? I dunno but a fighter is a fighter in my experience." Rejection said. "Yeah, that's about right." I sighed out. "So how do you like your new bodies?"asked. "I'm enjoying the Assets." Rejection said, squeezing their own boob and giving a slap to their own ass. "If it works it's perfect. So I take it these mean we are in the family and Like you?" Acceptance asked, showing they and Rejection has rings from the family on their fingers, and gems on their chests. "Yes and yes." I nodded. "Alright...so now to do Hearts Absent Silhouette again….cause that wasn't a pain to begin with." I frowned. "You mean that?" Rejection said, looking outside the window. Outside, floating above the castle itself, was a small floating shrine of sorts pulsating with the energy of an Absent Silhouette. “Oh…” I frowned. “When the hell did that get there?” I asked bluntly. "Ten seconds ago." Paladin said, walking up to me. "The long forgotten Arena of Honor. The Mushroom Thirteen's original stadium. On top of fighting them you have to fight all of their champions. Or rather, their Absent Silhouettes. To get Void Mother's Heart, you have to beat them all." “And Nothingness Belief’s body?” I asked curiously. “Cause from what I was told Void Mother keeps her heart under lock and key.” "Same. To get the impossible, you have to beat the impossible. Those Silhouettes will be just shy of the real deal at full power, but still powerful." “Alrighty then, sounds about right.” I said, “Well...I suppose I’m going to have to stay there for a long ass time…” "Good luck." Paladin said, taking leave. To be continued... Nobody does the fusion dance...a lotWe completed a lot of challenges, even managing to boost our base stats and such some. Not by much but enough. We all could slay these things easily by the thousands, and Coco has grown to meet us. While she is still weaker than us, she is strong enough to now take a few hits from us. With this progress, we reached the boss room. “Alright, boss time.” I said while readying myself for a fight. “God it feels good to actually be back at full strength and not under that challenge.” “Heck yes.” Kexez said, popping their joints. “By the way, remind me to let you swallow me more often. Your tongue gives a good boob massage~” “That doesn’t sound weird at all…” I muttered to myself as I opened the boss room door. “Alright, so now that we don’t have the limiter on...this boss is probably gonna get one shot.” Entering the boss floor, it looked like we were high in the clouds, clouds passing by us as the coffin lid was thrown open, the lovely daylight look it had shifting to night as Celestia raised up, her wings unfurling. Decayed and rotten, she lifted a large Claymore and the fight began. “Alright.” I said while grabbing Second Chance and started moving towards the queen carefully, not sure what she’s capable of and I didn’t want to get caught off guard. Her wings opened up to full span, their length easy fifteen feet. She flapped them down, the gust of wind mixed with decayed feathers that stung but did little damage, though they did poison, surprisingly. She then spun around, slashing her sword and the shockwave of wind lifting all members into the air. “Alright, so that’s a thing.” I said before bringing out Lindworm. “Let’s see how you handle this.” I said before raising my hand as wind lances shot out towards the queen. With elegant movements she deflected each spear thrown, spinning her sword as lightning and fire burst along it’s blade. Kexez went in for a ranged shot, one she deflected before charging him at high speeds. Kexez managed to block it, but the impact sent them against the wall, holding her back. “Bitch has a kick.” Kexez grunted. “Alright.” I said slowly, looking over the lady. “Well let’s start burning her.” I said while bringing out Eternal Flames as flames sprouted forth as I threw them both at her. Kexez dodged in time, Celestia becoming engulfed in the fires. This however, while damaging her let loose a dense poison miasma into the air. Coco kept coughing, Kexez grew Dizzy, Jericho and I were the only ones unaffected, but the density made scent or sight impossible for me I rolled my eyes while pulling out my Lexicon. “Greater Remove Poison.” I said, the tomb glowing as the poison started to dissipate at a steady rate. “Alright, where did it go…” I muttered while looking around for her as sight was becoming clearer. In a sudden blur, Jericho was hit, sent into the wall but crawled out before Celestia could impale him. She then flew high up above them, wings spread open as she started to charge energy, and released it suddenly. It rained down white fire, the air becoming thin as the oxygen burned away fast. The heat along did damage to my group, the fire when hits dealt some damage to me. Nothing horrible, but it stung like hell. “Okay okay, you had your fun.” I said, as I vanished and appeared near Celestia and swung Second Chance swiftly. Using her wings, blocked it, a rapid twist to yank it out of my grip and simultaneously spin kick me up into the ceiling. “So the scailing was a fucking lie.” I said as I lifted my hand and Second Chance appeared in my hands. “Don’t you just love it when you actually train and it means fuck all?” I grumbled, vanishing before appearing behind Celestia and grabbing the base of her wings. “Sorry lady, wings are pretty and all,” I said as I pierced through the metal that was protecting it. “But these have got to go.” I said before starting to rip them off at the base. She let out a high pitched scream. Suddenly, the entrance doors began to bang, shaking as something wanted in. "That… can't be good." Coco said, the door bursting open as all the Celestials rushed in blindly and by the thousands to aid their fallen ruler. I stabbed the Queen with Second Chance right in the chest, having dealt the final blow so that should both make her an infant and stop the floor from doing stuff. To my surprise, it started a chain reaction. Every Celestial here proofing into infancy also. All floating down to the ground. "Okay you are helping me with this one King." Kexez said, half buried under the infants. “Huh…” I said slowly as I picked up baby Celestia. “That’s...interesting.” I said while gently nuzzling my new daughter. “And this is going to take a while…” "Down the hatch and to the nursery." Kexez said, starting to swallow them here, and take them out in the nursery back home. This will be a while. “I’m sorry I didn’t know that this would happen…” I said nervously while helping Kexez out...and even with my new biology and me having gotten used to this still felt slightly weird. When it was done and all the babies were in the nursery, it definitely gave me an experience. The rewards were the usual loot. And a ton of those feathers. “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “Now that that’s done with, let’s get to the next floor.” Floor 15 This floor was nice. Looked just like… Destiny Islands… who the heck could this be? “Well….anyone got a clue who this could be?” I asked curiously. "Nope." Coco said. "No." Jericho replied. "Nothing that comes to mind." Kexez sighed. “Hooray…” I sighed out while continuing down the path. “Let’s hope it’s someone we know at least…” "Safe Room then." The enemies here were all Heartless Surprisingly. None seemed to obey my orders, my command over them shared with Heart seemed to mean nothing to them. This dungeon must be the reason. There were all kinds and of all strengths but over all easily slain. We came over to a few random chests with typical Kingdom Hearts game loot in them. The safe room was actually the main area of Destiny Island. I was about to head to the book when. Something fell on me. Turning I saw… Kexez naked and enjoying a soak in the 'ocean' water… what fell on me was their clothes. "I'm not a clothes rack." I frowned while dropping there clothes on the ground. Checking the book, I got a bit worried. Eve, Embodiment of Darkness. "Why the hell is she here?" I asked worriedly. "Cript's plan IS to break time, that could be how?" Jericho offered. “That doesn’t really explain how Eve is here when she’s apart of Kingdom Hearts in...most likely every timeline all things considered…” "Hmm emotions." Kexez spoke up. "Like Rejection was your Joy until you reclaimed him, and he gained a true body. The parts of your heart, light and dark are made up of emotions, negative and positivepositive. Eve must be a primary Negative emotion in Heart's heart now." “I guess…” I said, “Oh...also I found all thirteen Organization Mushrooms and...number twelve decided to give my light and dark halves bodies...don’t know why but they’re part of the family now.” I shrugged. “Oh, also their Arena is now above the castle....don’t know how, but it’s there.” "Sounds like fun. Now you're gonna take a soak or what?" Kexez asked, the waves half burried them and their upper half elevated by a sand chair. "This is basically my first time at a beach as me, and I'm gonna enjoy it." "And you'd prefer a nude beach?" Coco asked. "Your choice. Not like we got swimsuits anyway." I rolled my eyes. “Well...I haven’t been to a beach in a long time.” I said while taking off my cloak. “I don’t see the harm in it.” We all undressed and had some fun. All the views were nice. Kexez mostly just sat half in the water and sunbathed, Coco and Jericho crafted a leather ball from some items we got from random loot, and played a makeshift Volleyball. I brought out my Lexicon and did some reading, like Kexez, half in the water and semi sunbathing. In the back of my mind I could see this as a perfect photo op for back home. Granted we'd need swimsuits on but still. At some point I allowed Coco and Jericho to half bury me in sand. I didn't mind, it felt nice, even if they didn't purposefully keep my breasts uncovered and set up to look lewd. They did the same to Kexez who also didn't mind. It amazed me how content they were to just lay there still without doing anything. I know they aren't asleep, their eyes are wide open. “Is it because your part Naga that you just enjoy sunbathing?” I asked Kexez curiously. "No. In a way, it reminds me of back when I didn't exist. Back when I was just Heart's body and not Kexez. I didn't have my own awareness, or will, or anything. All the memories I have from them I look back on now and realize I've been staring through someone else's eyes. Never being alive myself. Looking through my own eyes now, as my own person, I wonder how I ever lived like that." “You get used to it.” I shrugged. “It’s a weird feeling, but you get over it kind of quickly.” "Heh… yeah. Heads up." Kexez kicked their tail end up, flicking a fish right into my open mouth. Not bad. "Sweet! We can fish here!" Jericho said, bringing out a fishing pole. "This floor is the best one out of the whole dungeon." Coco said happily, sunbathing now herself further on the beach. “That’s neat.” I said honestly. “So are we going to be stuck here for another week or two or will we actually keep progressing?” "Just a few more hours. Just long enough to have a nice sex scene." I chuckled. “Alright alright.” I said simply. “Let’s blow off some steam real quick before continuing.” "Let's make it fun then." Kexez said with a smile. In a flash of magic the sand on us was gone. Their tail talking Coco onto me, laid on her back, To then Jericho on top of her, and then they got up, squishing them between our assets as they began kissing me passionately. I could feel Coco and Jericho get comfy between us as certain members began rising. I couldn’t help myself as I just hugged all three of them happily and kissing Kexez back lovingly. I felt myself reach full mast and blindly found myself a certain Floof noodles inner tunnel, thrusting in. Kexez moaned loudly, breaking our kiss and thrusting upwards a little. This caused Coco to moan loudly as I could feel the bulge Kexez's member made inside her. Seeing her and Jericho between us, Jericho took a ride on Coco's shaft completing out little orgy as the movements began, causing a chain of pleasure between the four of us. “I love you all…” I said to all three of them happily, thrusting into Kexez a little more strongly as I reached around and grabbed Jericho’s dick, not wanting him to feel fully left out and started to rub it with my soft and silky hands. "Oh wow~" Jericho moaned out. The heated session of passion lasted an hour first to climax was Coco, her already stretched insides pressuring harder on Kexez's member. Her member also released inside Jericho, the result created a similar result, and Jericho came on my upper breasts and face. Kexez and I finished together, Coco swelling like a balloon and Myself pumping it all inside Kexez. When he slid off of us, the sweat and musk was heavy. Suddenly I felt a familiar wetness wrap around me. Kexez's tongue wrapping around all of us as they began swallowing. Back inside, Kexez's belly was now back to how it was before. Makes sense as all the new additions are home. Snuggly we were, Coco and Jericho between my breasts and myself and them inside Kexez. I felt them coil up, hugging us through their scales. “This is nice.” I said warmly. "A quick nap then." Jericho said, using a breast of mine as a pillow. Coco did the same, her currently bloated form looking pregnant with a litter of pups, or Floof Noodles, rather. Out of a mix of desire and mothering I licked Coco and Jericho clean, myself where I could reach and set them back to where they were as we drifted off into a light slumber. Waking up Coco no longer looked hyper pregnant. Kexez let us out and gave us each an affectionate kiss. That tongue about deepthroated me. We discovered though the last few floors made our clothes a bit dirty, even mine to my surprise. We washed them off in the water real quick and used Lindworm to rapidly dry them. And we headed back out. “Alright, so after all that, we’re ready to beat Eve.” I said, ready to find Eve and kick her ass. "Wonder how she will be? Didn't Joy fight some version of her?" Kexez asked. “Yeah, Joy fought a version of her as some weird bone armored Darkside.” I said honestly. “God that was a long ass time ago…” "Well, this will be the real deal. Time to see if she lives up to the hype." Jericho said. “I’m pretty sure she will be given she’s the physical embodiment of Darkness and wife to Yen Sid…” I said honestly. As we traveled through this floor, slaying a lot of heartless and getting lots of fun stuff, we came across what looked like a mirror. Coco made the mistake of looking at it, and walking out of it was a silhouette version of herself, weapons and all we had to take down. Beating that thou gave us each a Soul Eater Sword. Apparently it's not considered a Keyblade. “Well that’s interesting.” I said while looking over the sword. “Surprised this doesn’t count as a Keyblade.” "Looks cool though." Jericho said, pocketing the weapon. We looked around more and eventually found the boss room. Inside was the final battleground of Destiny Island from the realm of darkness. The coffin lid flew open, and out came Eve, her Adult form, dressed a lot like Ansem possessed Riku. "Alrighty then." I said while firing a charged shot from Sharpshooters at the lady. She deflected it, raising her own Soul Eater as massive pillars of Dark Tides rose up, each sending hundreds of Shadow Heartless around as she charged at me. Pulling out No Heart our clash echoed out, altering the dark tides and shifting them into one Heartless tornado, much like in KH 3 as it rained heartless. "Well isn't that nifty." I said before forming my Sharpshooter bow. "Let's make it rain!" I shouted as I aimed a purple arrow upwards, letting it loose as the ground cracked beneath me as the arrow flew high above the tornado, and then it split into billions of charged arrows at the Demon Tornado. While my attack did it’s work Eve split into four copies, each clashing with us. Coco and her fought at the heart of that Demon Tornado, Jericho and his Eve clashed in the air, and Kexez and I fought ours back to back on the ground. She was even able to stop Lunatic, she is tough. "Alright. Your tough I'll grant you that." I said before breaking the clash. "Moon Shine Down!" I shouted as I floated in the air and went into a rage. "I call Upon the Pale MoonsLight!" I shouted as Kexez, Jericho and Coco each got an Enraged Lunatic, felt the massive rage boost, as I dual wielded enraged Lunatics. "Bring it!" I roared before good clubbing Eve into the sky. Each quickly reached into their own mouths, sickening cracks and breaking bones as they ripped out their own spines, cloaking them in darkness and shifting them into swords as their backs now broke open, black tendrils whipping around as more powerful Pureblood heartless spawned from the leaking darkness. "Oh...cool." I said while flying after them and swinging both of my Lunatics at the bastards. Weet in another clash. This was going to take too long if she can keep doing this. I thought, pulling Power from Nothingness and Cript. It was a little, barely 25%, but the pulse in extra power pushed her back, and in a rapid speed boost I sliced her copies, and before Eve could counter, Jabbed Second Chance into her. The heartless all around dispersed, the area now looking much like the safe room. Eve's body went up in a blast of darkness as she was regressed, but not to infancy. To young childhood. She was easy four or five. "Wait, why isn't she a baby?" Coco asked. "She's still one of the first children Kingdom Hearts made, remember? Babies didn't exist back then. It was just children." Jericho said. “Well...alright.” I said while picking up the child and nuzzled her gently. She began to stir, waking up and looking at me. "Who… are you? Who am I?" The confusion and loss in her eyes and gone was as plane as night and day, but she didn't seem afraid. “I’m your mother, and you are Eve.” I said gently in a sweet motherly tone. "Mother? What is a mother?" “Well…” I thought for a moment, trying to think of a way to explain it. “Jeez...there’s so many things I can say...but all I can say is that a Mother is a person who takes care of their family.” "What's a family?" I looked over at Jericho, Coco and Kexez worriedly, not sure how to describe such a thing. "That's… well…" Jericho tried. "Family, are people, or even just one person you care about, and you could never live without. People you can always forgive and love." Coco said. “Yeah, that’s about right.” I nodded. Eve seemed to think this over, looking tired suddenly as she fell asleep in my arms. I watched as she shifted from her normal self to a little Den Mother dire wolf in my arms. I gave her a kiss before casting a spell to make sure she didn't wake up for a bit as Kexez took her, sending her home and right into the childhood orb, Kexez and I were her parents now. The loot was actually really good. While the normal stuff was here there was enough Keychains for us to have one of every Keyblade and a drop guide as to which heartless drops which items, a Google Shop summoning Crystal, and a few spouses that were sexy Neoshadow Girls. They could talk and we're not mindless like their beastial counterparts. “Sexy heartless wives...sure.” I chuckled. “Now onto the next floor.” Floor 16 This floor was pretty large. Actually, it looked like a ruined version of Castle Oblivion. Their bright blinding white walls and floor and such dull and dusty, cracking and falling apart. "Creepy…" Kexez said. “Well this is Castle Oblivion for ya.” I said simply. "Who could this one be?" Coco wondered aloud. The really uneasy part of this dungeon… there was not a single enemy here. No loot, no enemies, just… empty. The safe room here was like many others before. The book made us all double take. Kexez the Complete “Uh...that’s a thing…” I blinked, surprised to see Kexez was here of all places. "Woah… so, that's trippy, or is it just me?" Kexez asked. "No that's some meta shit right there." Jericho said. “Probably not but who knows.” I shrugged. "But why are there no enemies here?" Coco asked. “Not sure...maybe Kexez still has some of their own thoughts in here?” I wondered. "Doubt it." Kexez said, half jokingly. "I have an idea, but let's find my coffin first." With that we headed off, finding the boss room and entering. We waited for a while, but the lid never came off. "I knew it." Kexez said, slithering up to the coffin and pushing the lid off, just bones of Kexez were here. "Huh, so that's what my skeleton looks like." “How the hell?” I frowned. “That’s...impossible.” "No, it's entirely possible." Kexez said, pulling the lid back over. "Everyone we fight here is in a sense, an undead. Undead that are filled with malice and anger at the war they died in, where they lost everything. Those emotions are the key ingredient in any form of necromancy. Regrets especially. I died with no regrets. Because I was happy, to just exist as me." "Makes some sense." Jericho said. “Well...alrighty then.” I said honestly. "So, this is just your tomb then." Coco said. Kexez nodded. We headed off, letting the old Kexez continue to rest. Floor 17 This floor was… "Manehattan…" Coco said, looking around. Suddenly shadow creatures began appearing. "This floor… it's mine." She said, taking out her weapons. “How do you know that?” I asked worriedly, pulling out my weapons as well. “It could be anyone.” "That is likely a dead giveaway." Jericho pointed up. In the sky all the clouds were in the shape of the Nexus insignia, the hand with a blue dot. More and more Shadow Creatures began appearing around us in the massive area, and the massive shakes showed those Titan Shadows were here, one knocking over a building as it found us… Not this time fucker. “I’m going to feel way too good about this.” I said before jumping high in the air before swinging No Heart once, cleaving all the Titan Shadow’s in half. Revenge! The shadows that were smaller spawned often and the Titans and their variations spawned every hour or so in groups of four or six. The items they drop very drastically from okay to WTF. The safe room here? Coco's apartment. The book here confirmed it was her floor. Needless to say seeing her old home brought back memories for the mare, who happily walked around it with dreamy eyes. “This place looks nice.” I said honestly. "It was home for a long time." Coco said, looking around. "Nexus education only lasts till we're ten, then it was easy finishing up school on Equestria, and I got this place right after moving out of my parents house." Coco said. “Sounds about right.” I nodded. "Reminds me of when Heart lived Ina rich New York pricks apartment for a week without them knowing." Kexez said with a laugh. We headed on out finding the boss room was the main Park area, Coco's coffin lid flying open as her undead self crawled out. "So, so creepy." Coco shuttered. I thought back to the Eve fight, pulling power from True Nothingness and Cript again. This allowed me to save Coco the undead in one hit, cause as it was this was uncomfortable. Also OH MY GOD! Baby Coco is so freaking cute! “You are absolutely adorable.” I cooed happily while holding Coco’s baby self. Coco scratched the back of her head. "I've always been cute and small I guess." She blushed. Cute and small is right, Coco as a baby fits in my hand with enough room for two more of her! I quickly began feeding her. “Well I’m happy with it.” I said warmly. After baby Coco was fed and burped Kexez took her and sent her along back home. So adorable. The loot here was a mix of the normal stuff, the weapons Coco has now, which she took, and a lot or rare and exotic fabrics and clothes. Just this one bundle of Caluthrian thread seemed to go for seven trillion rem on the Freak Inc Shop. The others around that same ballpark. Coco was almost drooling at seeing all those fabrics. She picked them all, happy to use them when this was all over. “Well looks like I’m going to be modeling soon…” I chuckled. "Model now!" Coco yelled, tackling me and taking measurements of me, crawling around me like a monkey almost. "Someone is excited." Jericho chuckled. “Yes, yes she is.” I chuckled. “And...I’m happy she’s back and happy.” "Hmm… looks like using Cript's power and Pure Nothingness together gives us an advantage. Wanna try something different?" Kexez asked. “How different?” I asked curiously. "Well, remember how for your wedding thing all the others fused into one person?" "I remember that." Coco said. "It was like I was me but also not but also me but my identity was part of a whole other person. Was weird and interesting." "Well, wanna try that out? King has never fused like that before with anyone and frankly I'd imagine the outcome to be quite overpowered and sexy." "It would also give us each a better understanding on how our powers and abilities work." Jericho thought aloud. “Except me, Jericho, Cript, Heart and Eclipsa have already done that fusion thing, we’re just in clone bodies to keep hinsg "Not like that King, we mean also on top of fusing our physical bodies, we also fuse our minds." Kexez clarified. "also that fuse thing you talked about applies to everyone in the family that has a ring on." "Alrighty then...that sounds interesting enough." I said honestly. "So is it like Steven Universe rules or DBZ rules?" "More like Steven Universe but no need for the dancing." Jericho said. "So, ready then?" "Yup." Coco said, climbing off of me. "I'm definitely gonna enjoy this." Kexez said with a nod. "Well...majority rules." I said honestly. "Let's do this." "Ugh. My… our head? Our head? No, my head?" I got up, my body familier and also not, my existence new but also old. I, we? I have King's general body and torso, but… six, six arms, the fluffy tail now a snake, long and thick too. Memories and… identities… mine but also not… What a strange way to wake up. “Well…” I started. “This is a thing.” I said while stretching myself, feeling how my body moves. “This is interesting…” I muttered, deciding to feel myself up as I groped four of my breasts and my ass...oh hey there even bigger than King’s. With that done I summoned King's Lunatic, Jericho's war axe, Coco's scythe she got from the fight with Spoiled, and Kexez's Starlight. That's two free hands still. My, our, no, no, definitely MY. My coordination was both good and bad. Good cause if I use just two arms at a time I attack fine, but all six or even four is a bit more hectic. My tail is very strong though, able to lift me up effortlessly, smash stones and likely other hard things. “Well this is all sorts of interesting…” I muttered. I headed to the next floor. Just from my walking I could tell I was taller than King alone. This next floor seemed to be all ice, Frozen and below zero. Thankfully the coat that comes from King And Kexez helps a lot here, hardly feel it. Enemies made from ice appeared, largely golems and such. Thankfully Eternal Flames works perfectly here. Looking at myself in the reflection of the ice I could see Kexez was right. I am sexy. I noticed where my ears were, they were Pony rather than wolf, likely from Coco, and my eyes were a mix of theirs, Coco, King, Jericho and Kexez. Like a kelidescope almost. I practiced a lot here, while the enemies weren't hard I had to practice using more than one set of arms. While Melee was still a work in progress, having either Sharp Shooters or other ranged weapons in my second or third set of arms helps deal with pesky snipers. I ended up finding a nice set up. I dual wield whatever weapons at the top two, in this case Coco's scythe and Jericho's war axe, the middle two, one holds Frozen Pride, shifting into a Greatsheild form since it's normal size isn't really covering me, and the other arm holds a gauntlet of Kings. Lastly the bottom two hold Sharp Shooters so I can take out ranged and behind opponents, when my tail is busy with other stuff. This set up gave me enough confidence to take on more than three or two opponents. I could easily handle ten or so of the golems, so more shouldn't be too hard. I found the safe room and the family member here is Elsa. I summed that up to Cript or Lyra acquiring them. In the safe room I got a better look at myself… naked. Surprisingly all their clothes fused into one also. I had the eight breasts of King, but larger nipples, I had TWO penises and a rather large entrance to my vagina. Surprisingly, my, there assistant's fused into one also, making my own. According to this I am an unknown race and have four different wombs by default and seven stomachs also by default… huh. Makes sense though one womb per person and given King's skill tree choices and Kexez's race that's the four main bellies then the three Kexez has along their body. Cool. "Well this is cool." I said honestly. "Work out the kinks and it's all good." I enjoyed my body… my body. The thought made me remember I'm the fusion of four people, and they will have to unfuse soon. And… what will happen to me? This question scared me… but I remembered, King is a stubborn one, and they all will remember what I do here as me. If they just make spare starfish clones and fuse them to make me, permanently, then I can exist and so can they! I was happy with this plan. This idea makes me wonder about all the others who can exist from fusions becoming their own people through these starfish clones and all that. The idea excited me, and I almost can't wait for them to unfuse and act on it. “Ah yes, nothing like making yet another race out of thin air just to spite people.” I chuckled while double checking my stats, wondering how strong I am compared to all of the individually. “Might as well double check stats...already checking enough stuff about me anyways.” My HP pool was massive, all four of theirs combined. My stats however, seemed to be averaged out. A bit disappointing but I guess the authors had to draw lines somewhere. Hey! My first fourth wall break! "Cool...but now Kings thoughts are like 'oh hey, what's the point in fusing when it's just more hp?'." I sighed out. "Which is...a valid point...but I'm their new child so who gives a shit." I shrugged. Shaking that off, I decided to experiment a bit more. Using Coco’s void was… so different from King’s Nothingness. I could feel it’s misery and Loneliness from it’s foundation. Summoning Nothingness while using Void cancles both out. I also can’t seem to use void with any of Kings weapons, which makes sense since they are made from Nothingness. "Alrighty then...so now onto the boss." I said, wondering how easy the boss will be given myself being a fusion even if I'm about equal to everyone else normally. As I headed out, getting out my set of weapons and headed off to find the boss room. Finding it I entered. The coffin was also ice. It’s lid flew off as Elsa emerged out in a mist of frost and ice, snow and hail flying everywhere. I swapped out Sharpshooters with Eternal Flames, blasting the heat immediately and melting it all. Elsa tried to raise ice spikes at me, but the heat from Eternal Flames made them melt before they reached. I summoned Second Chance, throwing it into a Strike Raid at Elsa. The hit sending her against the wall and back to Infancy. I grabbed her up fast, her size compared to mine was so tiny, so so tiny. “God, why is everyone so adorable when they are so small?” I muttered. I kissed her, holding her as I sighed. I have to let them be them now, and hopefully, they’ll do what I planned, and let me exist at me. Kexez sent Elsa home, and we all looked at one another. “So, a whole finger or just blood?” Jericho asked. “Just blood will do.” Coco said. “That’s all that is really needed at this point.” Jericho said. “Yeah, Starfish clones are very special.” I said honestly while pricking my finger and letting a drop of blood fall, turning into a Starfish clone of mine. The others did the same. The clones looking at us with a nod and they, we, fused. Before us now was our fusion, looking at us all happily. “Thank you.” She said happily. “Your welcome.” I said warmly. “Hopefully you’ll enjoy your new life Queen.” "Queen… I like that. So… who's swallowing me to send me home?" Kexez and I looked at one another. Queen was HUGE compared to us. Seriously the double doors to enter a boss room for her look like they are normal sized… "I guess I will. But I'm shrinking you first." Kexez said, casting the spell. It shrunk Queen to about the size of Coco. Kexez let go of a breath before sending her down and over to home. "Okay, now for the others." “As in the other fusions?” I asked curiously. "Yeah. Think we're gonna stop there. Plus Lyra will already be doing this with literally everyone else back home the nanosecond she sees Queen so, might as well get a head start." "That is way too true and exactly like Lyra." Jericho confirmed. “Sounds about right.” I nodded. “So...who fuses with who first?” "Well, keeping one out of these fusions at all times, cause otherwise we'll just make Queen again we'll all get six fusions. Six two person fusions, say King and I, and three three people fusions, King, myself and Jericho for example. As for who goes first… let's have King go first. Personally I wanna see how the forms these fusions take turn out." Coco said. "I guess I'll fuse with them first." Kexez said. "already partly dire wolf anyway so I'm expecting to either they look more wolf or just a bigger Floof Noodle." “Either way.” I shrugged. “It’ll still be fun right?” "Oh heck yeah." Kexez said, slithering over to me. "Ready?" “Ready as I’ll ever be.” I nodded. “Let’s get this fusion train rolling.” I woke up feeling… Fluffy. Really Fluffy! I sat up, startling Coco and Jericho. I was higher up than them just sitting down. Wait, am I sitting? In the ice all around I took a good look at myself. Ten, I got ten boobs! Four arms, a long wolf tail but my torso keeps on going to a snake body passed my hind legs. Oh wow, I can walk or slither. Cool! "Even more nipples… should not be surprised." Jericho chuckled. "You're so fluffy...Kinx." Coco said. “Can you maybe not call me that? That sounds...a little weird.” I said sheepishly. “But yes...I am now super fluffy.” "I doubt you could come up with a better name." Jericho said, walking over and looking at me. "Huh. Two tails. One snake, the other wolf, but way bigger than. King's." “King isn’t good with names you should know this.” I said honestly. “But...how do I look besides ‘fluffy’?” "Pretty damn hot." Coco said bluntly. "Definitely boosted on Den Mother stuff. Floof Noodle too. Extra pair of jugs, meaning you are likely a better baby maker than King alone. Hm." Jericho said, pressing into my fluff. "Your fur while soft also feels thicker than King and Kexez's." "Like armor or for extreme colds?" Coco asked. "Most likely." Jericho said. I couldn’t help myself as I just grabbed the two into a hug, letting both fully know the softness that was my extra fluffy fur. “I’m sorry...but both King and Kexez like hugs...so I like hugs even more…” "Heh, that's fair." Jericho said. Coco nuzzled into the breast I squished her against. "You're so warm too. Like a thermal blanket or a cozy fireplace." "Definitely this for is perfect for freezing areas. Heck I can't even feel the chill of this floor against you." Jericho said in agreement. "But, how much Floof Noodle do you have Kix? I removed the N. Any better?" “No idea…” I said while checking my assistant to see how much Floof Noodle I was. "Heh. There is a better option." Coco said, crawling up to my face. “Yes?” I asked while looking at Coco lovingly. She gave me a kiss on my nose, and I opened my mouth. At this moment I realized my tongue was Floof Noodle like as I wrapped it around Coco, pulling her in and swallowed. So that's what that is like for me. Suddenly I got a call from my Assistant. It was Coco. I picked it up. "Okay, so far feels and looks normal." She said, "I take it you can feel her in there?" Jericho asked. “Kind of yeah.” I said honestly. “Are you okay in there Coco? Nothing weird is going on?” "It's a lot more oily here than in Kexez or King's belly, so that's different. I'm gonna crawl further in." I felt Coco moving inside me. The movements felt oddly comforting and pleasurable as she moved further in. I felt her pass through a tight section I wasn't expecting. "Woah! It's another belly. A lot dryer in here, more like Kexez's storing belly." "Must be what that is." Jericho thought. “I mean, should we really be surprised when I’m King and Kexez?” I asked curiously. "Correction. You are Kix, while King and Kexez fused to make you, you are your own person, not just the two of them." Jericho corrected. “Yes I am.” I said, “And Kix demands cuddles when Coco get’s back...cause cuddles are nice.” "Hey guys. There's a fork in the road." Coco spoke. "I have two options here. Left or right?" “Go right.” I said offhandedly. I felt her do just that. I did not expect to suddenly feel her crawling just under my breasts. "Woah! You got boobs under your boobs? This belly, I think it's a belly, has breasts and nipples. Ten just like outside you. Hey there's another thing here." Coco put a hand in there and in pleasure, jumping upright and feeling her hand touch my wombs insides… wait I birth internally? "What was that?" “I...uh...think you just touched...my womb…” I said nervously. "Oh… oh!" Coco said, pulling her arm out. That gave me another jolt of pleasure before I calmed down, and laid on my back again. "So, you birth and feed I internally. That's a good safety tactic for protecting infants in harsh environments. A well made mix between how Floof Noodles and Den Mother Dire Wolves care for their young." Jericho said. “That’s great.” I said warmly. “But...I wonder if this is a new race or an upgraded race…” I hummed while checking my assistant to see if this was a new race or not. Race unknown. New race. Huh, surprising. I felt Coco head back up the first path and now into the other. She slid into my tail. Oh so like a Naga or Floof Noodle I also have those in there. "This one is a bit more tight than the last but it's like silk in here." Coco said. “That’s...interesting.” I said honestly. I felt her crawl to the end of my tail. I actually lifted it up to my face, giving Coco a kiss through my tail. That made her slide back down though. "Woah. That was kinda fun. It looks like you are all stomach, save “I’m all stomach?” I asked curiously. “So many new things to learn with fusions.” I said with excitement. "Makes sense. Like Floof Noodles who while they have stomachs don't need to eat as they are sustained solely on magic. You must be the same in that degree." “Sounds about right.” I said honestly. “So besides that I’m basically a walking talking igloo of fur from what Coco said...do you think Rune figured out that fetish yet?” I asked, considering that people could mate with me inside my body was...a little weird but not entirely wrong. I checked and actually it's inside and out. Huh… "So, if you have Floof Noodle parts, you reach your tongue in and pull me out?" Coco asked. “Um...sure.” I said while trying to do what Coco asked. Swallowing my own tongue was oddly each if not a bit weird, but using it to feel inside. A bit weirder. I found Coco, wrapping my tongue around her and pulling her out. "Woah! That's fun. Hmm." Coco said, hugging my tongue. "Remind me to see what OTHER things this tongue can do~" She said as I brought it back to my mouth. “I’ll make sure to show you all the wonderful things I can do with it.” I giggled. "Well, this is fun. Shall we then?" Jericho asked, holding one of my hands a small needle to it. “So...you need King, Kexez, or me?” I asked while gently pricking my finger and creating a clone of myself from a drop of blood. "King and Kexez. Once they split, your starfish copy is you either way." Jericho said. "You know it's true." Myself said, cuddling up next myself. “Cuddles are nice.” I said warmly. “And I still get my cuddles, yay.” I cheered as I started to split off between King and Kexez. I was cuddling Kix as tightly as I could. Kexez doing the same. "That's adorable." Coco said. “It may be adorable...but cuddles.” I said simply. “So, who’s fusing next?” "First, I'll head home." Kix said, giving me a kiss. And their tongue just deepthroated me. Kexez cast the shrinking spell again and sent them home. "Okay. So keeping with King, I'll go next." Coco said, jumping up to me in a hug. “Yay.” I cheered while catching Coco happily and hugging her. I feel strong. Like, so strong! "That's adorable!" Kexez said, picking me up. Wait, I'm small? I looked at my reflection. I was just slightly bigger than Coco, only have four boobs, pony ears and face but wolf claws, tail and teeth. "Surprised you're so small...Kico." Jericho said. “I’m strong.” I pouted cutely. “Just because I’m small doesn’t mean anything.” "It means you are cute." Kexez said with a chuckle, hugging me tightly. "I have to admit, this is unexpected." Jericho said, looking me over. "Strength is a natural aspect of both Dire Wolves and Earth ponies. Combination of the two might mean your natural strength is more than Coco or King." Jericho took me out of Kexez's hug, setting me down. "Here." They said, handing me a solid two inch thick bar of what smelled like Dark Monofilament. "Let's see just how strong." I took the metal bar...and then bent it like it was a paper towel roll “Uh...should that...happen?” "Dark Monofilament is the strongest metal made naturally in world generation. Most admins can't bend it easily." Jericho said, impressed. "Hmm… on top of strength Earth ponies and Den Mother Dire Wolves are extremely fertile and productive. Odd though you'd only have two sets of breasts rather than more given that fact." “Maybe it’s a size thing?” I asked curiously. "Maybe?" "I got it!" Kexez said, yanking my shirt off and placing breast pumps on all my nipples. The pump was connected to a twenty gallon empty tank. "Let's see how productive you are then." They turned it on. “At least warn me next time.” I blushed brightly, not having had a chance to cover myself when Kexez suddenly pulled my shirt up. “So...why?” I asked, blushing even harder as the milk machine did it’s work on my four breasts. "While unexpected King can produce ten gallons of milk an hour out of just one of their breasts. A normal earth pony mare like Coco, while small can still produce a gallon an hour while pregnant or breastfeeding. I guess this will see if-" Crack. We looked at the tank. It was already full in barely three minutes and cracking. "She's gonna blow!" Kexez yelped as it broke open and soaked us all in my milk. “Uh…” I muttered. “That’s...a lot of milk in a short amount of time.” "Talk about big things in small packages." Kexez said, licking the milk off themselves. "Thick and creamy." "Well, that's impressive." Jericho's aid, shaking the milk off. "What else can you do then? What about Void and Nothingness?" “Uh...not sure.” I said while trying to call on either Void or Nothingness Void and Nothingness came out fine… when one at a time. Trying it together they cancel each other out. But using Coco's Void powers are cool. Using King's Nothingness is neat too. I can swap between the two instantly, almost using both at a time but still having to cancel one before activating the other. “Alright...so at least that’s consistent.” I said simply. "Impressive. Extremely productive, strong and fertile while also so compact." Jericho said. "And adorable!" Kexez said, wrapping around me in a tight full body hug. "Kico you are you are quite the unexpected treasure." Jericho said happily. “I’m a little over six feet...I’m taller than Jericho yet I’m being seen as smol.” I pouted. "To be fair you are smaller than Kexez or King." Jericho said with a chuckle. "So, ready? I honestly look forward to seeing you at home." “Alright.” I said, “I hope...all the wives don’t just glomp me saying how cute I am.” I blushed in embarrassment at how that entire interaction might be. Kexez let me go. I pricked my finger, creating my body that will be mine forever as I unfused. Coco gave Kico a kiss and I was hugging her. "Okay okay I love hugs but come on." She said with a laugh. “Your so smol! I can’t help it.” I pouted, nuzzling Kico. “But alright, I know everyone back home will enjoy meeting you.” I said warmly. "And I'll enjoy plowing you." Kico said. Jumping in my mouth. Oh okay I'm sending her home then. While she did most of the work I moved my head to let Gravity help her down. While I still felt weird about that, being Kix gave me a broader perception on the whole swallowing thing. I'm more comfortable with it at least. "Cool. So that just leaves you and I." Jericho said. "Then It's the three way fusions." “No, then it’s a combination of you three.” I said honestly. “Double fusions of you three, then we’ll get to the three way fusions...or do you not want to do that?” "Is it?" Jericho thought to themselves. "Fair enough. Let's do this King." “Alright, let’s do this.” I nodded. “Wonder what our fusion will look like?” I wondered. "Given the trend, sexy likely." Jericho said. Power… such burning power. Looking at myself, I was more human looking than King, a human-like face with mix patches of skin and fur. I kept the eight breasts, and their height. My claws were longer than King's, my eyes a hellish red. In short I could be classified as a monster girl. "Woah. You look great." Coco said. "And sexy." Kexez added. “Christ...all this power…” I muttered while looking at my hands, scared if I did anything I might accidentally break something. I was looking at my claws, every calculation , method and depth I saw how they could be used to kill, torture or intimidate people. Their various rates of blood loss, pain levels and odds of survival, death, infection, how they will be disabled after the fact… This is what Jericho must see, the every outcome of an action in war. And then combining that with King’s tactical knowledge, always thinking about everything and being over analytical to the point where he puts even Batman to shame...I shivered in worry. “So uh...I’m made to fight that’s apparent…” I gulped. "True." Kexez said. "But your body tells me you should also be built to mother. You do have a Den Mother's assets." I looked at my breasts, then felt my ass… so round. "Oh! Try summoning a weapon." Coco said. “Uh..sure.” I said while bringing out Lunatic. “Hopefully I don’t break something…” To my, and everyone's surprise, Lunatic was different. It's shape similar to that of an Axe, it's moon visible, cracked like it was smashing into a planet and oozed with power. The calculations and variables here were, felt endless. "Cool." Kexez said. “God...too much power…” I said, my den mother instincts warning me about the damage I could do...but my war instincts telling me everything about how to kill. Thankfully there was a saving grace. Looking at Kexez and Coco, I didn't see how to do all those horrid things… I saw two sets of things. How to mother them… and how to breed them/with them. I felt my whole body burn bright red in blush. “I...didn’t think those things were even possible…” I muttered to myself while disbanding Lunatic and gently hugging the two, trying not to hurt them with my strength. “I’m...glad I can still hug you two...even with all this power.” "I knew you could." Coco said happily. "Same." Kexez said, wrapping their snake half around a pair of my lower breasts then suckeling on an upper one. I smiled gently. “I love you both.” I said warmly. I figured that if I can focused this calculation ability I seem to have in a variety of ways, mothering for the kids, and when I just wanna mother the loves, and the sex one of course for the loves. Honestly I'm looking forward to breeding King… and as for my war based one. I'll focus on where it Belongs. The front lines and Vincent. They deserve that much and more. Kexez slurped into my mouth like a noodle. A Floof Noodle… heh, puns. Stomachs wize I am no different than. A human. One belly, other organs, ect. Kexez did decide to slide out the back which… felt way better than I thought it would. "That was fun. Kinda snug but fun all in all." They said, drying off their scales. "Gross." I shook my head. "Don't care if I liked it...gross." "To each their own… Kiro." Kexez said. "Is that name good?" “Yes, I do like the name.” I nodded. “Short and simple.” "So, Kiro, you seem to be the last of the fusions with King and us. What do you think of your siblings?" Coco asked. "At least, the last of the one plus one fusions.” “I’m glad they exist for starters.” I said honestly. "Fair enough." "So, you ready?" Kexez said, finishing off their drying. "I think I can swallow you without shrinking you." “You sure?” I asked curiously. “Don’t stress yourself when you don’t have to.” You're only a few feet taller than King so it won't be much. Now then, onto meeting your makers? King and Jericho I mean… that sounded better in my head." Kexez said, handing me the pricing needle to make my starfish clone/perma body. “Could have sounded worse.” I said honestly while pricking my finger and making a clone of myself. “Hopefully those two won’t be...too nervous about me.” I said sheepishly while feeling the fusion start to end. "Finally you get what I see all the damn time." Jericho said to me. They aren't wrong either. "And no I am not alone!" They said, pointing to Kiro and hugging them. “That’s good.” I nodded gently. “But...that slightly begs the question of why we didn’t see any of that when we were Queen.” I pointed out. "To be fair that was a lot going on in one body." Kexez said, starting to swallow Kiro's feet. Watching this was almost like watching a worm inch across the sidewalk. Not to say Kiro didn't think or feel it both good and awkward all at once. When it was done with Kexez was quote bloated, that bloat soon shrinking as they took Kiro out from their body at home. "That was harder than I expected…" Kexez said. “They did say not to force yourself.” I said honestly. "Should have resized your belly like before." Coco said. "Good point. Okay so who is next?" Kexez asked. "King's down now next up is either Coco, Jericho, or myself." "I vote Coco mainly because it's just myself and Kexez, since she already fused with King, Kico is their shared one already." “Well...I do wonder what Coco fused with either of you would be.” I said honestly. "I'm okay with that." Coco nodded. "I wanna fuse with… Kexez, cause I'm interested in what being a Naga-like creature like you is like." "Fun and sexy." Kexez said with a laugh. “Wonder if it’ll be just like our fusion.” I said, going to need to keep track of names even though I need to keep track of so many other names already. Coco and Kexez went into each other's arms. These Fusion experiences have helped us bond a lot, and our fusions living as their own people make us feel just… closer. Like, we can still feel that feeling of being them, which we are, but we are also us still. The fusion started. It's a lot like how Steven Universe shows it. Glowing bodies turn white and merge, but also no gemstones shown cause, we don't have those… save for me now come to thing but it but that's a topic for later. The form looked Naga, or Floof Noodle like. Their colors were brighter blue than the typical grey Kexez was, their hair a mix of Coco's and Kexez's. They had four arms, ten breasts, pony ears. They opened their eyes, the color a bright pink surprisingly. "Woah. I'm existing!" They said happily, all four hands feeling their body in excitement. "Check me out, this ass is made to fuck." They said, giving an Audible smack to their butt. "Damn…" I said slowly. "I mean… they aren't wrong about biology speaking. Yours and Coco's, Kico, was small but surpassed your fertility by a large margin. Floof Noodles, even not a Mama Noodle like Kexez, which is weird they aren't considering Heart is, are just as or better than a Den Mother Dire wolf and Coco being there means the earth pony additions. I think the only one who can surpass them in the fertility field is Kix." “Good lord…” I said, “Coco adds...quite a bit.” "Gotta say, I can feel that raw earth pony strength… and stamina~" They said, winking at me. "Hmm… Zeco?" Jericho offered, thinking of a name. "That works." Zeco said, in a rapid motion got Jericho and I in their tail's coiled grip. "Hello there cuties." “Yes, hi.” I said simply. “How are you doing Zeco?” "Good. How are you doing? Notice anything?" Zeco asked, lowering their shirt so a bit more cleavage showed. "Either Coco hides a lot of her lust or this form brings out both Coco's and Kexez's sexual desires to the max." Jericho thought aloud. "Either or sweetie pie." Zeco said. “We still have a lot of things to do...even if it would be nice, we have more fusions and floors to go through.” I said, “But your scales and fur are soft and nice.” "Your fur and skin feel soft and," Zeco felt along my torso, not touching my breasts but teasing it. "Squishy." “I mean, those are my tits…” I blushed. "Yeah but they block a lot of this curvy figure. Damn near a perfect hourglass figure. I'd almost say those cheeks of yours are bigger than mine." She purred, grabbing my butt under her tails grip and pushing me into her breasts. While she did have an extra pair over me it was quite the… feel of her chest pressing into mine like this. “Well thank you.” I nodded. “I make sure to keep all this how it is, even if I eat...a lot.” "Oh? So jealous." She said, giving our breasts a bit of space as she slipped her tongue down to my top nipples, giving them playful licks. “Save it for later Kico.” I chuckled while patting her head. “Still got a dungeon to deal with.” "Just taking a sample of what I'll be enjoying later~" She said with a playful smile, giving my tits one last lick across before letting Jericho and I go. "That's definitely... wait…" Jericho felt along their pants. "Where's my underwear?!" Kico simply spun the panties on her tail tip, whistling innocently- wait… When did she take mine off?! “Excuse me I’d like those back please.” I said quickly, Kico feeling everything that wasn’t held inside the bag of holding that was my underwear. She smiled, tossing us back our undies. "Hehe. I look forwards to draining that meat stick of yours King~" “And people call me the horn dog…” I muttered. “Well, that’ll be for later Kico.” I said while handing her her needle. "Daw. Bored of me already?" She asked, taking the needle. “I can never be bored of any of my family.” I said lovingly, giving her a quick hug. She hugged me back tightly, giving a squeeze and slap to my butt. With a smile, she pricked her finger, her perma body forming as the first split back into Kexez, and Coco. "That was… fun!" Kexez said "I've always wanted to be more like that." Coco said with a smile. "I'm all that and more gorgeous." Kico said, giving Coco a hug that made her breasts consume her, only a hand out of the cleavage. “Uh...you okay in there Coco?” I asked sheepishly. "It smells like Pineapples in here." Her semi muffled voice called back. "Oh? That's actually unexpected." Kico said, sniffing her own cleavage. “Why though?” I asked, actually a little confused as to why it smelled like Pineapples. Jericho pulled Coco out, the mare stretching now that she was free. "Hehehe. Alright then love, open wide." Kico said to Kexez, who did just that as she slithered herself down their throat. Once she was down, Jericho headed over to Coco. "Guess it's just you and I then." "Heh. I guess." Coco said. "Shall we?" “Wonder what your fusion’s personality is going to be?” I wondered curiously. "Guess we'll see." Jericho said. Jericho and Coco fused rather quickly. They looked more like a taller Coco, but also fairly sexy. The main thing I can see from Jericho aside from height is the eyes. "Hmm?" This new being said, looking themselves over. "Choco!" Kexez declared. “I’m sorry, when you said ‘Choco’ I thought you wanted to say ‘Chocobo’...which makes me want to go to a final fantasy world and get a Chocobo damn it.” I huffed. "Ha." Choco said, looking over at us. "Well, so far I'm not a horny mess." "Hey!" Kexez snipped. “Thank god.” I sighed out thankfully. “So...how do you feel?” "Over all pretty okay." Choco said. "Huh, fairly normal then." Kexez said. “Thankfully things can be normal.” I said honestly. "Hmm. So far I can see the paths of violence Jericho sees all the time… but I can also see… alterations? Like either decorations or fortification. Something like that." “That’s nifty.” I said honestly. “I saw the violence, but also the mothering when I was Kiro.” "Huh. The difference must be based on who is using the power or something." Choco said, walking over to me. "Hm, heh, so fluffy." They said, grabbing my face and giving me some ear scratches. “Curse you…” I muttered while enjoying the ear scratches. “Why must I fall for the pitfalls of most canines?” "Cause you are one." Choco said with a smile, scratching my ear til my leg started shaking unintentionally. Kexez slithered up to and around her. "Ya know, for being the most normal so far I'm pretty sure you'll just have something interesting yet to be found out." "Most likely." Choco said. "If anything using the powers of War with Coco knowledge in fashion and intermediate knowledge of defences from her time with Nexus I could draw up armor and security measures." "That would be very useful." “Well….a second opinion is always good.” I said honestly. *In any case I guess that means it's time for me to head home." Choco said, a single flick of her finger making a sewing needle that she pricked her finger with. Their pera body forming from the blood as they unfused. Coco and Jericho seemed happy. "We look forward to seeing you Choco." Jericho said "We should sew sometimes." Coco said. "I'd like that, and I look forward to it." Choco said, letting Kexez send her home like all the others. “So how did it feel?” I asked curiously. "It felt nice. Makes you feel closer to each person you fuse with." Coco said, leaning into Jericho a bit. Jericho blushed, scratching the back of their head with a smile. "Definitely opens your eyes on some things." Jericho said. "So just Kexez and I, and that's all the two people fusions right?" “Yep.” I nodded. “Let’s hope it’s not super horny...again.” "Seems to be a trend." Kexez said. "I wonder why…" Jericho said sarcastically. Taking hands, Jericho and Kexez fused. The result was a fairly larger Floof Noodle, four arms, looked a fair bit like Zeco but without the pony parts. Different from her through, her tail had barbed spines along from their upper half a back to the single large claw at the end of their tail. "Hmm. Interesting." They said, looking at themselves. “How do you feel?” I asked curiously. "Pretty good… Huh. Sixty seven… that's concerning." "Sixty Seven what?" Coco asked. "Sixty seven ways you two can die in this empty room… fifty if those admittedly low to impossible chance but still…" “How the fuck is there sixty seven ways to die in an empty room?” I frowned. "It must be her… let's call her Cerex, take on the war ability. While not exactly, Kexez is still more tuned to Kingdom Hearts hearts in general than us. Combine that with the Wars normals ointment for seeing how to kill, she can see just how the environment alone could kill someone. So With tha-!" Coco didn't get to finish as Cerex swallowed her in one gulp, turning to me. "Must keep safe!" She said, mouth wide open and sending me down. Well… at least she's protective.” “Rude…” I huffed. “I didn’t want to get shoved in here yet...but might as well see how different it is in here.” To my surprise I didn't see Coco, and this stomach was built for… one? "King?" I heard Coco's muffled voice through the belly walls as well as a faint movement from the other side. “Hey Coco...I don’t know if I’m stuck in here or not.” I said, hoping she could hear me. "I think we're inside individual stomachs. The second I slid in here the the esophagus closed and I can't feel it." I felt for that too, not finding it either. Damn, are we stuck here? “Okay so we’re probably stuck here.” I frowned. “Jeez...Overprotective much?” "This coming from you?" Coco said with a laugh. "Say, is it me or are these stomach linings thicker than Kexez normal stomachs?" I felt and after a bit, pushing out and such they were way thicker. Easy two inches or around that. Why so thick? “Jeez, is this fusion’s insides a bunker or something?” I wondered. "... that might be it." Coco said. "We know she can see apparently every possible way for someone to die, even in an empty room, her outside had Barb's along her spine, and I think her scales were larger and thicker than normal for a Floof Noodle or Naga. Given Floof Noodle biology adds the War power, she's a living fortress, strong outside and inside." I decided to check her stats, the fusion showing up as a party member and Holy Fuck that's a lot of HP and Def. Kinda crap attack though. Magic was okay. “You have a point...their HP and defense are through the goddamn roof. Can’t physically hit something worth a damn but their magic is good enough.” I said honestly. "Hey, check our stats." Coco said. Doing that I saw we were both under a regeneration effect, a rejuvenation effect, and about near every healing effect you can think of. Even buffing effects that were building up to last literally hours. My HP is already double what it was. "Must be what being inside her does to us, hence the still decent magic." “Decent? Do you know how many healing spells and enchantments are in here? You could put a person that’s near death with all four limbs blown off and a few internal organs either gone or damaged, and they would be back good as new in like...ten minutes.” I said. "Makes sense. Both Nagas and Floof Noodles have stomachs that specifically heal. Woah the heck is that?!" Worried, I saw what Coco was concerned over in the stomach I was in. The walls moving outwards as like a tube or something stretched out at me. It bloated up at the wall, the bloat moving up the flesh tube and reaching the "mouth" and what came out was… is that… a whole fried chicken? How is it hot?! "A tube just threw up a Hayburger at me… how is it still hot?" Coco said with equal confusion as me. “I’m confused…” I said, “Uh...hello? Mind explaining things?” I asked the Floof Noodle we were currently inside. I didn't get a response, the tube merging back into the walls. "I guess… food? … Tastes good though." “Well...alright.” I said while picking up the fried chicken and eating it. “Well...it is good.” I said honestly. "So how long do you think she's gonna keep us here?" Coco asked me. “No idea.” I said honestly. “But I hope it’s soon….” Soon was about three hours. I kept track of time before the esophagus opened above me and sent me up and out. Same for Coco. I was going to rant at Cerex for that stunt .. then noticed the whole room looked… baby proofed. Excessively baby proofed. Before I could get my train of thought back Cerex wrapped around Coco and I and began feeding us their milk… damn it tastes amazing… I looked up at them accusingly, gently popping off their breast even if it tasted amazing. “Excuse me, what the hell.” I frowned. “We literally can’t die remember? Why do you need to baby proof everything?” "I can't help it." Cerex said, popping her tit back into my mouth. "Everything I see looks like you could get hurt. I care too much to even see you get a paper cut." She said, large worrying eyes only a mother could make. I knew that look all too well...and I couldn’t say no to those eyes so I just continued to drink her milk. Happily seeing Coco and I drink from her, she began to sing a soothing song. The song I knew, and it somehow relaxed me enough to drift to sleep. I woke up not sure how long later, Cerex was still holding Coco and I to her breasts. She was awake, looking over us lovingly in the room she made safe for even the most clumsy or fragile of people. “How...long were we out?” I yawned. "Nine hours." She said happily, kissing my head. “Wow...a normal amount of sleep for me...that’s nice.” I said warmly. As I tried to get up… I flipped over. My stomach was bloated to make it look like I ate a hippo. "You kept drinking while you were asleep. Coco too." Cerex said, Coco's belly looked like she was nine months pregnant with ten kids or more. She grabbed me, placing Coco and I in her coiled grip gently. "Best to rest it off." “Jeez...I need to stop just doing things in my sleep…” I muttered. She hugged us gently, keeping us as warm as Coco and I had to sleep this off. God I feel like a newborn puppy. Coco and I ended up falling asleep again. We woke up a whole day later. Our belly's back to normal. I had to stop Cerex from trying to feed us again. "Are you sure?" She asked sweetly. “Yes, we already spent a day and a half with you babying us. We need to continue the dungeon.” I huffed. "Oh, but what if you get hurt? Get hungry? Maybe I should stick around." "No no, no offense Cerex but we need Jericho and Kexez. You are a wonderful mother, but we are adults and will be fine." Coco said. "It doesn't matter if you're adults, even Cript gets hurt from time to time." She countered, wrapping around us again. "Yes but he gets back up again. Besides, wouldn't you rather take care of actual babies?" "Well, actual babies would be adorable .. so small… so helpless!" She said in worry. She pricked her finger, made her perma body, split back into Jericho and Kexez and jumped down Kexez's throat. When she went down Kexez coughed a bit. "Barbs and spikes are not fun to swallow…" They wheezed. “So...that happened.” I said honestly. "Now I want to spend more time at the nursery." Jericho said. "She's a worry wart but useful given she can tank a crap too." Kexez said, still coughing." "She's more mothering than King." Coco said with a laugh. “Oh shush.” I pouted. “I’m sorry I like to be a good parent...” "Heh. Well, now for the three person ones." Jericho said. "Start back with King then." “Alright, so who wants to start with me?” I asked curiously. "Me!" Coco said. "Alright, let's see what this hot mess will be." Kexez said. “It won’t be a hot mess.” I chuckled. “So let’s get going.” I said while taking Kexez and Coco’s hands. Hello world! I bounced up, coming into existence like a ball of energy. I'm fifteen feet of fine ass, hot ten breasts and oh hey four eyes, that's new. Hmm. I have a large snake tail, large and makes it look like a wolf version of MewTwo. My six arms are long and perfect, my legs can catch anyone's eyes and these hips can make anyone drool. “I’m sexy and I know it.” I sang happily as I spun happily. "I'll say." Jericho said with a laugh. “So what do you think Jeri? Like what you see?” I asked while striking a sexy pose that was honestly too adorable given my energy. "I think you are a fireball of energy." They said with a chuckle. I couldn’t help but giggle at that. “Well glad I’m making a good first impression.” I said happily. "Given the snake tail I guess I'm the only one available to go spelunking inside you then?" I picked up Jericho, who fit in the palm of my hand. “You're so tiny.” I giggled. “Well, want to have a fun ride in my insides?” "More for study than fun." “Oh trust me, you’ll have all the fun.” I giggled. “Well, bottoms up.” I said before flicking Jericho up into the air easily and swallowing him whole without much issue. “Just remember, if you start seeing acid, you're going the wrong way.” I told Jericho inside me. "I doubt there's acid here given your Floof Noodle part." Jericho said. I took a seat while they explored. "Huh, so far looks like how Coco described Kix's insides. " They said, going through my entire torso and tail places. Once he was done I used my snake tail to yank the tiny man out if me. "All in all a similar set up to Kix but with more space for holding and feeding young and even the sick in the tail." “Cool.” I said honestly. "Now then… I can't think of a good name that mixing all three so we'll call you Spitfire… which I bet you could actually do with some spells " “Sounds good to me.” I said simply. “And spitting fire? That sounds like a good party trick.” Jericho shrugged. "Well, best make your perma body and send you off. Pretty sure Pinkie or any of the hyperactive others will be dying to meet you." “I can already imagine all the wonderful things we’ll do together.” I giggled warmly before pricking my finger and cloning myself. “Albeit I will need to shrink down for Kexez...hmm.” "Gonna be honest, I was not expecting a party girl." Coco said, Spitfire shrinking herself to a much smaller size, allowing Kexez to send her off. "Was a surprise for everyone I imagine." Jericho said with a nod. “Yeah...like how the hell do the three of us make a party girl?” I asked. “Also, the better question is, how the hell do any of these fusions personalities make sense considering who we are?” "Don't know but hey, they're people and alive." Kexez said. "Alright, this time Coco you stay behind while I fuse with Kexez and King." Jericho said. "Two at once. Nice." Kexez said. “And I have two more to go.” I said honestly. “Well...let’s hope it won’t be too weird.” "I don't need anymore milk!" Coco said, fighting the nipplie I'm trying to feed her with. She's too small, she needs food. Lots of food. Need to keep the small ones safe. I'm large, thirty feet on all fours, look a lot like my siblings Kix but bigger. I came into being with one thing already on mind. Protect little ones. And feed them. Burp. All that. “Even if I’m acting more like Cerex...I don’t care, I need to tend to little one’s.” I said softly, my voice warm and motherly. “King might complain about another mother...but I need to be a mother.” I had her wrapped in my tail, pressed against my breasts so she'll feed and grow big. I also curled up around her so to make sure she is safe for anything this room might suddenly have happened. "My guys are already twice the size it was when Cerex fed me…" She said, She's not wrong, but if she can get that big and now bigger, then she isn't eating enough. “You aren’t eating enough, you need to be big and strong like me.” I said honestly, Coco having noticed I randomly had a soft Russian accent. Before she could protest I placed my nipple back in her mouth, having to squeeze more milk for her. [One Week Later.] "Is a tongue bath necessary?" Coco asked, naked as I was cleaning her. Her belly was still large with milk, but the poor dear only grew an inch. “Yes, yes it is.” I said simply. “Now please hold still.” Just then as I was getting at her ears, a single piece of plastic gently flew down, it's holding tape breaking off the ceiling as it gently floated down… Danger! I gulped the little one down fast. She'll be safer inside me. Using my tongue I placed her in the feeding belly. Now I can clean her and make her eat! [One month later] I needed to see how much my little one has grown. From what I feel with my tongue she's grown at least a foot, but I need to see for myself. I pulled her out, carefully placing her before me. “Ah, you’ve grown so much.” I said warmly. Coco has gained a whole foot and a half In height, but that wasn't all. Her breasts are now almost a full cup larger and thighs, hips and butt grew to match. "Wow. I actually do look pretty good." Coco said, looking herself over. "Yes. Yes you have. But not grown enough." "Oh come the-!!" I swallowed her back in, giving her another bath while also feeding her. “How long has this been?” I wondered to myself, looking at my assistant for a timestamp as well as all my stats...it’s been over a month...oh… more time won't hurt. “I need to do this to King, Jericho and Kexez, they are big but not big enough.” I huffed. [Time in the void is not consistent so for the sake of this joke and clarify one year passed in the void but in the realms only a month has passed] Coco has grown so big now. A full year of constant feeding and cleaning has made her grow large enough to make my giant self look pregnant and ready to birth. I'm so proud. For the first time in a year, I pulled her out. It was a little hard but I stretched enough. She was now my size if not bigger, the body of a goddess and so big now. "I'm huge…" Coco said, looking at her new, Amazonian thirty foot tall body over. “And now you're big and strong.” I said with pride, pricking my finger and making a clone of myself. “And now onto my other little ones.” I said in the warm russian accent I had. "Maybe let Kexez take you home, that way you can work on ALL the others, at once if you want, not just already adults like me, but babies too. Such tiny babies." Coco said, trying to convince me. It worked. “I know you're playing me sweet..and it’s working.” I said simply. "Jesus Coco!" Kexez yelled at seeing her. "Send me home." Mama Russia, out of memories from out time as her, Coco started calling her that because of her abnormal Russian accent, said. She shrunk herself down. Kexez sent her there. "So… giant then." Jericho said. "Yup." Coco said. “Well...that’s...certainly a thing…” I said honestly. "Damn right." Coco said with confidence, giving a hard smack to her thighs. The bounce and jiggle turned me on. "I'll shrink back to normal size but keep the figure. I'll also save this size as a drive form I guess. Feels neat being so huge for a change." “Can you please smother me with your thighs…” I said breathlessly and without thinking. "Hehe. Later, for now, there is something else I want to do." Coco said, smiling wickedly as she picked Kexez, Jericho and I up. "This is partly me wanting to know how it feels, and partly payback." She said, tossing Jericho up and catching him in her mouth. An audible swallow as she then kissed Kexez's head, then slurping then down like a noodle. Heh, noodle. She then looked at me. "Your turn sexy." She then tossed me right in, swallowing. The first part of what she said and not doing this explains a lot about some of her fusions. "Ouch, hey." Kexez said as I landed in Coco's belly with them and Jericho. I landed on their tail and they moved so I wasn't on it. "I had a feeling she was into this before we even were doing it." “I mean...we did hold her hostage for a year…” I said sheepishly. “But it’s more payback than anything...” "That smile and tone she had while doing it says otherwise." Jericho said, arms crossed. "So, how long will we be stuck here?" “No idea...hopefully not too long since we already wasted a year…” I sighed out, "A year void time." Jericho stated. "that's about a month or so back home. So… we may or may not be here for a while." "Lot of vore this chapter." Kexez said. "Gee, I wonder why…" Jericho said sarcastically. “And I legitimately hate Vore.” I said honestly. “Only reason why I’m actually a little fine with it is because of Floof Noodle, and Naga biology where it actually has things to do besides being fucking gross.” I frowned. “Sorry for ranting but...seriously.” "So basically unless it has a better purpose than just a fetish you hate it?" Kexez asked. "Like my healing bellies or how Mama Russa clearly showed how the use it as a means of parenting/raising kids, you're okay with that but not just cause?" “A little yes.” I said honestly. “I already got the entire argument from Heart a while ago about this whole thing but…” I sighed out. “I’m getting over it, but still...it’s just weird.” "Well, at least it's not THAT bad. There are way worse fetishes." "True." Jericho said. That lasted just an hour. Coco's now figure still looked amazingly bouncy even at a normal size. “Alright...so now me, Jericho and Coco.” I said "Yeah. Hey King, back in Coco's belly… so you don't like it when I swallow you after sex?" Kexez asked nervously. “After sex it’s fine.” I said with a raised hand. “It’s just the fetish that’s...weird.” I said honestly. "Oh. So just not during or before, just after and no sex inside the stomach then?" “Pretty much I suppose.” I said honestly. “It’s sometimes really hard to describe why I don’t like a thing…” "Okay cause now that I know this know now why when you were Kiro you looked disturbed with my… exit. What about you Jericho?" "Was unexpected but I'd be willing to do that every so often." Jericho stated. "Alright, good. I just don't wanna offend you all…" I sighed out while moving over and hugging Kexez. “Don’t worry Kexez.” I said gently. "I shouldn't but I do. Makes me feel… like the main thing I can do without fail, swallow heal people or just let them rest in me… you don't like it. I know everyone is entitled to their likes and dislikes but I've done it so so many times already and… it's personal now." “Listen, I’m not saying anything bad about what you do...I just find the sexual aspect of it weird. That’s it.” I said honestly. "So… no testing out the… variations with you then?" “I’ll give it a try, cause I have to get used to it sooner or later...I don’t want to make you upset because of it.” I said gently. "Yay! Wait, so if I swallow you after sex but then start having sex with someone else while you are in there is that a no?" “That’s fine cause I’m not apart of the ‘sexual vore’ thing.” I said honestly. “Plus your stomach is a literal planet.” I pointed out. "Only when I want it to be, but I guess I can make one like that for you so I can have sexy find you dislike and you not even notice it. Oh! That gives me a lot of ideas. Thanks King." Kexez said, giving me a deep kiss. "Now then, go and fuse you three." “Alright alright.” I nodded gently. “Also, it’s when we both decide cause that little world is connected between the two of us remember?” "Sure." "Well, Time to get going." Jericho said. "This will be fun." Coco said. “Hopefully we won’t be here for another year.” I said honestly. Waking up I began drawing. My body is of average height, I have six arms, four breasts, a good figure and ass, but I began drawing. Schematics. Blueprints. Improvements. "Woah…" Kexez said, looking me over. “So if I carry the two and factor in the density of dark monofilament on the atomic level…” I muttered to myself, scribbling and muttering to myself as I kept thinking of new and different ideas. “Wait, I just figured out how to fix some of King’s plans!” I said as I slammed a hand onto the ground. “Izzie? Are you there?” I asked the AI in my Assistant if it was there. "Yes...User." She said, not knowing what to call me. “I need you to forward all of this to King.” I said before listing off an assload of technobabble that would help King’s research and experiments to him. “Also, call me Brain since compared to most of my siblings, I’m the smartest of the bunch.” I could hear my siblings taking offense from here. I then pricked my finger, making my perma body. "Wait, that's it?" Kexez asked. “I have way too much work to do.” I said honestly. “Especially when I literally just figured out how to make that barrier strong enough so Void Key actually has to try instead of just walking up and breaking the barrier like it’s wet tissue paper.” I said simply. I then heard King take offence on how much work he put into the blood thing. “But at least before then.” I said before getting up and giving Kexez a hug. “I may be smart...but thankfully I still have emotions…” I said gently, hugging him with all six arms as I was thankful to feel the warmth of the hug and warm feeling of joy with hugging family. "Aww. Okay then. I'll see you around." Kexez said, swallowing my perma body as I unfused. All that smartssmarts and I feel like I have the worst hangover right now... “Ow…” I groaned, rubbing my temples gently. “Why must smarts hurt…” "I feel like that was meant to be a joke from something." Kexez thought aloud. "Anyway it makes sense. Between the way Jericho's War powers work, Coco's knowledge on many things Nexus likely kept to themselves in terms of math, science and magic, and your own needs to research, study and analytical mind, Brian was going to be smarter than the rest." “Yeah...just a bit.” I said honestly. “Doesn’t mean all that knowledge doesn’t hurt...as well as her telling me my barrier is wet tissue paper.” I huffed. "That's the you in her talking." Jericho said, while in the same headache boat as Coco and myself they still laughed. I hated how it was likely true too. "So just Coco, Jericho, and myself then. This will be fun." Kexez said happily. “Yep.” I nodded. “That’s the last fusion pairing.” "Given how Kexez and I and Kexez and Coco's fusions are split I'm honestly a little worried for you when you put all three of us together." Jericho said. “Well...considering all my fusions and how different they all were.” I shrugged. "Well, Jericho does have a point…" Coco said. “Well we won’t know until you fuse.” I said honestly. The three joined hands, merging together as the result was… small. Smaller than Kico. Like a foot tall small. An extremely tiny four armed Floof Noodle. “Um...that’s...different.” I said while bending down. “Hey little one, how are you doing?” I asked the tiny Floof Noodle. They jumped. Fast and right into my mouth, forcing my swallow reflex as I gulped them down. “Gah! What the fuck!?” I panicked, wondering why it just forced itself into my throat. “The actual hell was that!?” "Hi there. Sorry for the scare." A voice spoke in my head, my stomach shifting as… they moved around in it. "Just getting Adjusted." “Uh...what?” I asked nervously. “What are you doing in there?” I felt this person suddenly link into my body's muscle, nural, reproductive and every other bodily system I have. "Much Better." I heard them, clear as day despite being inside me. “Wait...you're a Symbiote?” I asked. "I suppose." They said, and for a moment I lost control of my body as they moved my arms, legs, head, even made me blink. "You have a lot of organs that your body doesn't actually seem to need anymore. Strange." “That’s because of a lot of reasons.” I said honestly. "I'll remove them." My guts felt warm for a moment… and suddenly I felt like ten pounds lighter. “Oi, the hell you doing in there?” I asked worriedly. “There might be something I actually need in there.” "No. I checked. The only organs you make use of still are your physical heart, womb, vagina, penis, testicles, large intestine, breasts, tongue, throat, esophagus, and stomach. Most of those all for either sexual pleasure or caring/healing. Everything else no longer was of use. So, I linked the large intestine to your womb and stomach, removed the small intestine, and increased the size of the remaining organs given most of these are for sexual pleasure. In the case of your breasts, I added in the case of your breasts your Lobus have been merged into one large one per breast, maximizing your breast milk production and output." “Well...that sounds about right.” I said honestly. “So besides you taking away a bunch of my organs what else can you do?” I asked curiously. "What do you need me to do? Would you like some examples?" “Sure, let’s see what you can do.” I said honestly. “As you can see, I can take full control of your body in the event you pass out or need assistance.” They demonstrated this by making me jump to the ceiling, using my claws to hand from the ice. “I can create new limbs for you temporarily or regrow any you lose faster than your current regeneration factor.” They demonstrated this by making a new pair of arms grow, from my back, latching into the ice with them then letting me drop, still in control they landed me perfectly. “I can summon your weapons.” They summoned in Sharp Shooters, and Interdiction in my current four hands, disbanding them and removing the new arms at the same time. “I can reinforce your skin.” My skin seemed to grow a natural armor over itself. “And, given it’s a large part of your own enjoyment, sexually pleasure you by using your own body.” My legs gave, my neithers having their hardest climax ever… seriously, ever, and I was banged by my future most self for a full day. “I can also regulate and have you self impregnate your own eggs, and even place in my own fertilized eggs into your womb as well as fertilize your eggs.” "Well then...that is very interesting." I said honestly. "Now, what to call you… Symbi. Short for Symbiote." I said honestly. "Well this is also a first cause I've never had a Symbiote before…" “Not much of a spouse or lover if I’m stuck here inside everyone. Though… Can you create an empty, blank body for me? Nobody or not doesn’t matter.” "Sure." I said while waving my hand as a blank body appeared. "There you go Symbie." In a jolt then a slight lurch she came up my mouth and into the blank body. The empty shell shifting and changing. Her new body now had a mix of fur and scales, pony ears, a small snake tail out the back, and four arms. “Perfect.” She said, looking over at me. “This will work perfectly. Now then.” Symbi said, walking over to me, kissing me deeply… I gulped, feeling her go back down again. Clever girl. “There, now to-” Symbi jolted a bit, the original coming out and splitting. Once Coco, Jericho, and Kexez. She kissed them all, similar gulps heard from each. “Now, I’m with all of you and can help.” “I have multiple stomachs which did you go into?” Kexez said. “I can make a personal space for myself inside you all, leaving your stomachs as good empty for your own uses.” Symbi said. “That works.” Coco said, wiping off some spit from her large swallow. “Alright, so now we all have a Symbiote inside of us.” I said honestly. “It’s Symbi.” Symbi corrected me. “This will be useful. You were an unexpected Symbi, but a welcome addition to the family.” Jericho said. “Can that body get pregnant?” Kexez asked Symbi. “The physical body here yes, but all my children would either be partly symbiote or mostly symbiote. Either way they will need someone to live inside. Guess in this family there’s plenty.” “Creepy… but kinda cool.” “Alrighty then.” I said honestly. “Good to know.” “Well, off I go then. Hehe. Down Kexez’s mouth a second time.” “You know it hottie.” Kexez said, sending her home. “We have a weird yet neat family.” Coco said. “And I would like maybe some semblance of normalcy but I’m happy with the family.” I said honestly. “Okay, that’s all our fusions. Now what?” Jericho asked. “We continue the dungeon of course.” I said honestly. "Well that's the obvious, but I mean like, how should we go about this now? Make it harder on us or just blow through it and have some laughs?" “Honestly I’m surprised we haven’t just blown through it.” I said honestly. "It's also long as fuck so… there's that." Kexez said. “I know.” I said honestly. “So let’s keep moving and get through this place.” Floor 18 This floor was massive. It looked like… TARDIS? Wait… I think I remember Cript saying he had a Time Lord wife. This must be her floor. “Did Cript ever mention having a Time Lord wife?” I asked while checking my assistant to see if that was true. I found her. She's the only one too. Galicia of Gallifrey “Hmm…” I hummed. “Galicia of Gallifrey, good to know.” I said honestly. “Wonder how her fight will be…” I wondered while moving forward through the floor. The enemies here were all Daleks and CyberMen. As well as other classic Doctor Who Villans. We made it to the safe room here and I read up on this one. Galicia was a Gallifrey High Ranked Scouter. Her TARDIS, the RADIST, as she called it, was the newest and latest model made before the war broke out. When Gallifrey fell, she received a false SoS from outside of the universe. It was a trap, and to keep them from stealing her TARDIS, she locked it and broke the key. Years later, Cript arrived on this TARDIS Graveyard, finding her old vessel buried under rubble in perfect shape. He fixed the key and made it his. Some years later while making engine repairs, Cript discovered hair stuck on the Temporal Radiation pipes. When the temporal radiation leaked, Galicia was revived by a pure Miracle, Regenerating from just those few hair strands. “Well...that’s interesting.” I said honestly. "Pretty neat though." Kexez said. "A Time Lord scout. Interesting." “A Timelord Scout is interesting.” I agreed. “Wonder how she fights if she’s a scout…” "Well, typical Scouts In any region use mid range weapons and long range given they are typically sent in for recon or to investigate." “Alright...but wonder if she’ll have any time powers given she’s a Time Lord.” I wondered, never really having watched Doctor Who but knowing at least the basics of it’s lore. We made our way through to find the boss room. I found myself a Sonic Screwdriver. Needless to say I had some fun with it for a bit before we headed off. We found and entered the boss room. The coffin here was a pillar of light as its energy shifted to form Galicia, a brown haired woman. Dressed in a gold and red jumpsuit. “Right then.” I nodded. “Looks like a scout to me considering the jumpsuit.” I said while preparing for the fight. Galicia's hands glowed with Regeneration energy, shooting it at us. Well that's neat. “Well that’s a nifty trick.” I said while blocking it with Frozen Pride. “Let’s see if she can take a hit.” I said while bringing out Sharpshooters and firing two charged shots at her. Raising her hands she caught it in the energy , the bolt now moving backwards at me. “Sure.” I said while knocking the bolts back at her. The others managed to have us circle her. Symbi, through all of us, grew us each extra arms and hands for her to use, taking our ranged weapons out to distract Galicia. I pulled out Interdiction, always wanted to do this. Rapidly I circled her, the area around her going dark as the light darts appeared all around her in this dome and I let loose, sending them at her faster than she could counter. When it was over I quickly rammed Second Chance into her, the Time Lord glowing in a show of light and time radiation as she reverted to infancy. "Always wanted to do that." I said while scooping up my new daughter. "That was cool. Thanks Symbi." Coco said. "No problem. Oh, also I should bring up something else I removed from all your bodies." Symbi said. “What did you do?” I asked worriedly. "Given you are all Admins, Coco and Kexez included, this alone makes many of your bodies organs useless and just for show, save for what you all use for pleasure or such. But given you are not bound to your bodies either your brains were also rendered unneeded, so I removed them and took residence inside your skulls. A much more stable connection to the entire body from here and your cranial cavities are more fit and less likely to shake me around than inside your torsos in a pocket someplace where your lungs used to reside." “And...what if we just magically lose that special Admin power?” I asked honestly. "Given my location and link to your bodies I'd become your new brain. I can easily fulfill that role in a pinch, and in that event your deathless bodies will regrow your other missing organs." “Alright.” I nodded. “Sorry just...worried about a change like that...even if I technically don’t need it because of several reasons.” "Huh… I remember learning about that." Coco said. "All admins are just clusters of code held together mainly by their consciousness and special strands of code unique to each. When an admin dies it literally breaks these special strands and disbands their consciousness so they are reduced to the code they formed from. Mortal beings like we all were before are the same but we are held, or were held, by our physical bodies, soul, and Hearts. A more complex but easily destroyed set up." “I have heard all of that a long time ago...don’t remember how long ago.” I said honestly. “What about you Symbi? What if our head gets blown off or shot through?” Jericho asked. “In that event I do keep a spare piece of myself attached to your blood and some bone marrow so I can regrow myself at the same rate you’d all regrow your heads.” Symbi said. “I know this anime I just can’t remember the name.” Kexez said. “Parasyte the Maxim.” I said, “That’s the anime your thinking of, Parasyte the Maxim...it’s a good anime but also a little weird.” “Well, at least we got all that understood.” Jericho said. “Well, let’s go then.” To be continued... Nobody and the Gang in: Blinded with ScienceAs the days went by here it was clear the world needed help. From the antenna M set up for us to hear and see news going on in the outside world it seems Crime Lords really are making it big. Mugshot has already claimed all of Mesa City and is expanding his territory. Sir Raleigh already has his storm machine up and operational. Panda king has completely overthrew the Chinese government, placing himself in power over it all, which was a different outcome from the games where he just held some territory and threatened villages. The only two with little to no news on were Mz Ruby and Clockwerk. All we did know about Mz Ruby is that she did return to her home in the swamps of Haitian Jungle, and Clockwerk is back in Russia. While governments in both locations have attempted capture of these two seemingly less active members, all who went after Mz Ruby were found a few days later in a trance like state that lasted a month. Clockwerk’s victims weren’t so lucky, many found with either the talon marks sliced through them or, the weirdest, gunshot wounds. Clockwerk doesn’t use guns so that alone raised flags for me. Over all the mass majority of the world was on its knees, only Africa, Europe, Mexico, Canada and South America were in a stable condition government wise and left trying to aid their allies or cutting ties in all forms of trade, closing borders and leaving the citizens in a panic. All in all this was a massive world war. M and Jim both thought we should focus more on our studies, and we did. Uncle Jim helped Muray develop muscles, their natural strength and large size helped in teaching Muray not only how to use his weight and size in combat but also when applied in a sumo style of combat proven Muray’s potential. Uncle M realized Bently’s intelligence from day one and they, myself on occasion, partake in special studies on more advanced topics. M teaching Bently and I both how to hack, create hacking programs and untraceable wireless communication devices. Sly mostly stuck to the physical aspects, recalling from memory everything dad was able to teach us from the book and practicing them till well into the night. I often joined him for as long as I was able. Being the youngest and also smallest Cooper my body can’t handle that much stress. Neither should Sly’s in all honesty but he is pushing himself hard. Carmaleta took to using a Shock pistol and thanks to M and Bentley they now fire much faster than a normal one. Granted given her age and size the basic ones are a little hard on the recoil for her, so M built her two custom sized child ones to work with. While they don’t have as much power or range as the standard they fire much faster and are easier for her to handle for the time being. Things were going well. To make it feel like a normal childhood M and Jim even had planned holiday weeks off from learning, weekends off, just like a normal school. Today was a weekend, Saturday and I was just at the beach with Carmaleta making sand castles. One of the perks of living on a tropical island. “This is nice.” I said gently, enjoying the nice summer day. “Just a nice normal sunshiny day.” I said warmly. “I have to admit, never imagined I’d be living on a beach.” Carmalita said. “How’s Sly doing? I saw him at two in the morning working on climbing up your house.” “He’s been...really adamant on honing his skills.” I said, “I mean, I also have been doing everything I can to not only keep up with big brother, but also help Bentley with all that technical stuff...I just hope he doesn’t overwork himself.” I said nervously. Carmalita and I looked over to the Cain Obstacle Course. It was based off what M remembers dad training on, Sly using Dad’s cane to maneuver it, trying to pull off moves M told us dad did when he was using the cane. Failing horribly as despite the natural talent he still needed to be older and bigger. “Tell that to him…” Carmalita said, finishing her small castle. “We need the family book to fully learn the abilities.” I said, “That’s what mom and dad said at least...just being told how someone saw it doesn’t have the finer details in it…” “It’s not stopping him.” Carmalita said with a laugh. She looked over out into the ocean, then stood up. “Kite, look.” Looking out, we saw a large ship in the distance. What kind it was I wasn’t sure but it was worrying. “I’ll go tell Sly, you go find M or Jim.” She said, rushing over to my brother. “There shouldn’t be any ships around here…” I muttered while pulling out the prototype Binocucom Bentley me and Uncle M were designing, trying to get a good look at the ship before I went off to find Uncle M or Jim. All I could tell was that the ship was military, which in itself was concerning. More so than a ship being here at all. I found uncle M in his cabin, telling him as he peered out his window. The ship got closer but now anchored some miles away from us still. He pulled up a radio, tuning it in. “To the unknown sea vessel off shoar, state your business and identity.” M said into the mic. ”My friend you wounded me! Is that anyway to great a comrade? Replied to a thick russian man’s voice. “A friend?” I asked curiously. M looked surprised, talking back into the mic. “Sacha is that you?” ”Indeed comrade Cooper Gang! I found you with the sub I sold you some months back. Figured it might come in handy and save my ass.” “Wait you tracked the sub? How?! Your company buil-” ”My company is built, yes! Only a few top in company know how to track them. Sadly they do not make it. May I land so we can discuss further?” “Of course!” M said, hanging up the radio. “Sacha, what do you know that we don’t?” M said to himself as he got up and walked to the beach. I followed him, asking questions. “He said he was the one that gave us the sub...but who is he?” I asked curiously, never having actually heard his name or how big his company is. “His name is Sacha, some years ago, back when you could barely walk we did a job for him. FIfty million to save his daughter from some people that kidnapped her, and information from his underworld informants. His company makes Military grade stealth cargo vehicles, hence the sub. He’s sold to every government, and privately both to the rich and the underworld rich. He’s the reason some years ago we believe Clockwerk is gone for good. Sadly we could not have been more wrong…” M sighed bitterly. “He’s been a good friend. Kept us up to date after Clockwerk resurfaced.” “That’s really cool.” He said with a smile. “But...what race is he? I could tell he was russian because of his accent but...didn’t hear anything denoting race.” I said, M knowing that certain races tended to have a certain ‘tick’ in their words to show what race they were. “Tundra Wolf.” M stated. “Oh.” I said, “That’s interesting. Where did you meet him?” “He contacted us. The grape vine in the underground can lead you to specific people. He reached out to us, we met, discussed the job, prices and the rest was history.” M said as we reached the beach. A small motor boat arrived at shoar as we arrived. The large Tundra wolf holing out. “M my friend! It's good to see you.” “Same.” M replied. “So, what’s the visit about?” “The flying mechanical devil himself. Clockwerk made his move.” “What… what happened?” “It was a normal day, snow was high, coffee was hot, then birds made from metal like the winged demon himself swarm from the skies! They breath fire, shoot lasers, shoot bullets! Family and I barely sail off in time. They did not cross the water, not sure why. Just my wife, daughter, and some trusted men who I sailed with personally. That and… my guests who escaped with me.” “Guests?” M asked. “Yes. Good customer. You know her.” I blinked. “I….thought Clockwerk was the only one and...he didn’t do any of that…” I said, doing my damndest not to show how panicked I was at what was happening right now. “Who are you… No, no that-'' The words he said in this form for now I'm too ‘young’ to know but in short he called this lady a real demonic whore. That’s the short version. “Why is she here?!” “She is a good customer of mine, and was discussing purchases with me when the whole thing began. You and I both know she has invaluable skills and resources. America may be falling to Mugshot and his gangs, but she still has contacts and resources there.” “She’s a demon in a skirt!” M yelled. “Who?” I asked innocently. “Matilda…” M said. “You called?” Both M and I jumped, a light yellow Bat lady standing between us. “M, good to see you again.” “Go...to...hell.” M growled. “I didn’t know Rouge the Bat had a sister.” I said at seeing Matilda. “Ah, this must be Kite Cooper, such a small yet, clearly intelligent child.” Matilda said, looking me over. “Touch him and I will kill you.” M hissed. “Oh M, you wound me, come on, our last encounter wasn’t that bad.” “You left Conner, Jim and I stuck on a sinking cargo ship off the artic shore!” “Not my fault you can’t fly.” “In any regards.” Sacha said, breaking the two up from their banter. “Matilda here can help. She even brings peace offerings.” “Her own jail cell?” M asked. “A single page.” Matilda said, handing Jim over an aged paper sealed in an evidence bag to him. “This is… from The Thievius Raccoonus.” M said, looking at it. He handed it to me. The page held partial information on Dian Coopers Knockout Touch technique. The finer details were absent, but with this I felt I knew how to at least pull it off to render someone unconscious for a short amount of time. “My agents in Mugshot’s gang managed to slip that single piece out from his vault in Mesa City. He keeps it under heavy guard so a single piece is all I could nab.” “Well it’s better than nothing.” I said, “But...have the bad guys been doing anything terrible? Besides Clockwerk?” I asked Matilda, wondering if the three of the five were still decent people. “Aside from Mugshot’s conquest for America, Panda King’s conquering of China and Raleigh’s ownership of the seas growing and now, Clockwerk’s terrorizing of Russia. The only member of this Fiendish five not in any large scale operations is Mz Ruby.” “But no one’s getting to hurt right?” I asked. “Besides what Clockwerk does…” “Well, Raleigh’s operations have drowned many people. But in Mugshot’s and Panda King’s operations Panda King only killed a select few government officials and took power after than fairly easily. His display over firepower gained him that position of power. Mugshot as far as we can tell hasn’t personally killed anyone, his growing gang though has had some fatalities in their conquest across america. But aside from that Clockwerk still has the highest kill count, and he just started two days ago.” “This is grave news indeed.” M said with a sigh. “I’d rather see you burn in hell but for the time… cooperation is required.” “Agreed. Now then, let’s start helping Sacha here offload his ship.” “I managed to hop my cargo ship of imports and exports!” Sacha said happily. “Well...I hope they are nice people even if they’re doing bad things.” I said honestly. “And from the sound if it...three are avoiding doing major damage, while two are actively supporting causing as much destruction as possible.” “Yes. It would appear that way. Intelligent doesn’t do this child justice.” Matilda said, patting my head. “I’m smart, but hope is what I’m using mostly.” I said, “I want to hope that...those three are good people and helped hide us from Clockwerk that day…” “Hm.” She said, giving me an almost knowing look. Sacha’s Daughter, Lada, was nice. She was just a year older than Carmalita. The supplies Sacha brought varies but was 70% food. Which I don’t mind, plenty of food and even candy. The non food stuff was a mixed bag of vehicles and other electronics. Muray and I were exploring all the cool vehicles when… “Check it out!” Muray said. I headed over, seeing a large… blue van. “This is cool!” “Amazing.” I said with a warm smile. “This van looks pretty sturdy...I wonder if there’s anything special about it?” I wondered while putting a hand on the metal, wondering if there were some special metals made into it or something else. Muray and I looked inside, seeing the walls were thin but bulged so it seems there were some reinforcements put here. What I wasn’t sure. There were two main seats in the front, one set of four side seats on the left side and one seat with a table next to it on the other Seats seven, and room for some supplies. “This reminds me of my dad.” Muray said, walking around the Van. “What do you mean?” I asked curiously. “As in he’s built tall and strong, or that he was a mechanic that built cool things like this?” “Mechanic. Mom… Mom died when I was born, dad raised me all by himself. He owned a mechanic shop, but he made money on the side in street races. Made enough to keep us both fed, and the shop paid bills. He’d do on call jobs, had a big blue van that looked just like this. Only he had way more tools, heh, and pizza boxes.” “Sounds like a good man.” I said honestly, gently putting a hand on the hood of the Van. “Maybe...never mind.” I shook my head. “Just a silly thought…” “Heh. Dad always said the only silly thoughts are the ones unsaid.” “True.” I said, “But...I had this thought that...your dad, somehow or someway, made sure you had a van just like his.” I said, not knowing if Murray’s dad’s van was gone because of how he lost his father. “But I’m probably just being weird thinking all that.” “Heh, maybe. Dad always said when you’re gone, heaven or hell you look out for your family, in some way helping them. He always told me that is what Mom was doing.” “Sounds about right.” I nodded, clutching my cane a little tighter. “So, who do you think will teach us to drive this?” I asked curiously. “You kidding.” Muray said, opening the door on the drivers side. The keys were taped to the steering wheels. “My dad taught me to drive when I was in diapers.” Muray said, taking a seat, his legs not reaching the pedals just yet. “Heh, I’ll need some sticks.” “One moment.” I said while heading off and gathering some sticks, two planks and some duct tape. After fiddling it for a few minutes I managed to make not bad stilts for Murray as I went back to him and the van. “Think these will work?” I asked while showing my handiwork. “Perfect.” Muray said, starting the van up. He was a good driver, driving the van out of the ship, down the ramp and next to his cabin. “Just like riding a bike. Or, driving a car.” “Everyone’s gonna flip when they learn you can drive this good.” I chuckled. “But I can tell our little group and this van are gonna go on some crazy adventures.” I smiled warmly. “Heck yeah, I can see the road trips now.” Needless to say M and Jim were impressed by Murray’s driving skills. We all managed to gain a lot more skills. Lada joined in on a whim, Sacha proud at his daughter in wanting to help. She also seems to have a good set of skills. For example… “Yah!” Lada yelped, Sly pranked her with a toy spider then she proceeded to punch a hole in the stone next to her. “Huh…” I said, “That’s...something.” “She takes after her mother.” Sacha said proudly. “Does...she get her beauty from her mother as well?” I asked nervously. Sacha’s maw bit right in front of me, making me fall over. “Touch my girl and you can learn your ancestors techniques personally.” “Papa yield!” Lana yelled, pulling her dad off me. So he’s protective. Given he almost lost her twice, first when Dad saved her and second when escaping Russia from Clockwerk’s attack. Still… damn. “I’m sorry...I just thought she was pretty.” I said nervously. ”Christ, he’s like Filthy when Joy started dating Diamond…” I thought to myself. “One thing you should know about fathers and daughters… The father always becomes protective of them. Especially over when they encounter boys.” M said. Carmalita nodded. Over the next few days Jim helped Lana work on honing and practicing her strength, same with Muray, the two often wrestling for practice. While Lana had raw strength Muray had weight and size to counter it so they were pretty fair fights. News was pretty much the same. Mz Ruby was still an unknown, Matilda using satellites she had access too to see the region she was in. So far it showed them caging that giant snake but that was about it so far. I mostly kept busy with a mixture of...well a lot of things. Tinkering with Bentley and Uncle M, practicing all my techniques with Sly, trying to stay fit and strong with Lana, Murray and Uncle Jim, and in my own time trying to figure out how the hell to use magic in this world. “Oh come on…” I groaned, panting in exhaustion as I kept trying to figure out how to bring up the mana I know full well I had, like it was a small current I could just feel...even though this island felt like I’m walking in the goddamn ocean because of the magic here, it was still annoying I couldn't’ even do a basic levitation spell. “Having trouble short stuff?” I looked up, seeing Matilda sitting atop a palm tree. “With things that are probably not in your field of study yes.” I sighed out, using my Cane as a crutch so I didn’t fall over. “But...what do you know of Magic?” “Lot’s of things.” She snapped her finger, the tip glowing with a small bit of fire. Like a coin she tossed it into the air, catching it as it died in her grip. “Bat’s are one of the most heavy magic connected races on earth. Topping the list is the Wolf, then my race, then Alligators, then… Racoons.” “Well...from what my dad said, the Coopers are extremely magical...and well…” I said while swinging my cane and a bolt of electricity lashed out into the sky. “Oh yeah, it actually works when it’s convenient for it.” I rolled my eyes. “And no, that wasn’t some special thing Uncle M made for the cane...that’s pure magic if you could have guessed.” “I know. Ulga Cooper had a similar technique.” She said, dropping down to me. “I may not have read your families little tomb of history, but the world has kept records of your family, and I made it my job to do my research wherever I could find the information.” “So...you know how important my family is?” I asked. “And...you can train me to use magic? Please?” I asked, holding my cane in an adorable way as I gave her the best puppy dog eyes I could for a six year old racoon. “You’re cute.” She said, patting my head. “But you’re also a bad liar. Remember that test I gave you guys yesterday? Yours held a problem only someone with-” She flashed her hand out, a Way to Dawn Keyblade appearing. “Outsider knowledge can know. So, who or what are you kid?” I blinked, seeing her Keyblade and not believing it was here. “How...and why do you have that?” “So you do know what it is. Good, the Coopers are a lot of things, but I know for a fact Keyblade wielders are not one of the things they are. So, who are you really, cause my mother, my Master, taught me a lot. And this heart.” She tapped my chest. “While old, does not act like an old heart reborn into a new life. Not one… that’s forgotten it’s old life.” I took a deep breath. “Rules.” I said simply. “That’s all I can tell you, and considering you have this.” I gently poked Way to Dawn with my cane. “You know full well how strong Rules are and those that enforce them.” I said, my tone sounding a lot less childlike and innocent and more old and experienced. “Tsk. Know your Keyblader Ways. Very will, a mutual understanding then? After all, I am this world’s Keyblade wielder, its guardian, but as you can see, I can’t fix all this by myself. You and those others can, and will be helping me. In exchange I can teach you magic natural to this world. Seeing as that’s the magic you are having trouble with.” “This deal seems a bit one-sided, you train me, and I do the thing I was already planning on doing.” I said honestly. “Fine enough for me I suppose. Thank you.” I said politely. “So now…” I looked up at her. “Tell me how magic works here? I’ve been trying to figure it out for years but nothing happens.” I pouted cutely. “First off, stop trying to actually control the magic. Mana here is more feral than mana of most other worlds.” She cupped my hands together. “It’s wild, to tame it takes time. First, let it take your scent, and gain your trust and then you can guide it to act as you desire.” “Well...might as well give it a try.” I said while grabbing my Cane and taking a deep breath, sensing the magic within myself. “This is gonna take a while…” I muttered while trying to interact with the magic without it deciding to bite me. I stood for a while, keeping my mind blank as I let this world's magic reach me. Primal and wild, it felt like it was smelling me or something. ”Hi there.” I mentally said to the world's magic. I didn’t get a reply, but I felt it graze me, like getting a feel for me before vanishing off. “I guess the Coopers are closer to magic than most Racoons.” “I mean...from the stories dad told me, not only could we turn invisible...but a technique he managed to teach us was where we leave no trace, either through heat...or DNA.” I said honestly. “If that’s not magic then I don’t know what is.” “Mostly magic, mostly skill. All the same in the end though.” Over the next few months Matilda taught me and Sly some magic. Nothing much and each lesson M and Jim kept watch over her. They really don’t trust her. “Okay, what’s wrong?” I asked both Uncle M and Jim. “Only heard one thing bad about her from Uncle M and after that it’s just been passive aggressive from you two. What’s wrong with Matilda?” I asked the Mandril and Walrus as I was kind of tired of having the two be this upset. The two looked at one another, sighing before having a seat with me in the cafeteria. “It’s not what she did to us so much. We know that’s all work, hazards of the job.” M said. “It’s what she did to your mother…” Jim said. “Matilda ran a… off the books black ops organization in America, as far as anyone knew, it didn’t exist, didn’t even have a name. Your mom for… a good solid year, worked for her.” “Matilda knew she was married to a Cooper, the whole reason she hired her in the first place. When Sly was born Matilda tried to… convince your mom that, your father would leave her, when in reality she was trying to make Conner leave your mother.” “Bitch.” I swore. “Where did you learn that word?” I stared at the two with a deadpan look. “Right…” M sighed. “She had Conner wrapped around that boney wings of hers, almost had him convinced to leave, and take Sly with him. She used Clockwerk’s tradition of killing the Coopers to convince him to leave her and manage to keep Sly safe, and well trained, both by a master thief and a special operations agent. Thankfully we called her out on it, your dad hated himself for years after that. That’s why we hate her, we, Jim and I, actually stopped her from trying to do it again when you were born. That… I don’t know what her infatuation with your father was, we are just worried she might imprint that same infatuation onto you two.” I sighed out. “Alright, good to know.” I nodded. “Um...quick question, are there any other magical races here? Matilda told me Wolves, Bats, Alligators and Racoons were all magical, is there any other races that are naturally magical?” I asked curiously. “Well, yes. Technically every race can use magic, but magic prefers certain races over others. Any race can learn magic, it’s just harder for others and easier for the lucky few.” "Alright. Just double checking." I said with a nod. "Always good to double check in any line of work." I said honestly. "Gonna have to ask Matilda why the hell she wanted to split mom and dad up...seriously the fuck lady?" I thought to myself. “True, especially when pulling a job.” Later that day I confronted Matilda. “Sup Sweetie?” She asked me. "Lady the actual hell were you doing with my parents?" I frowned. “Oh, Jim and M tell you about that?” "After I asked them what the passive aggressiveness has been about yes." I nodded. "Seriously lady...twice you tried to split my family up?" “Hmm… I’m not gonna lie, in researching the Coopers, I’ve learned a lot about your family, even partel details of your family tomb’s secrets. I grew fascinated by your family, it’s bloodline. Did you know your family has been Royals, Kings, Queens, Knights, and simple sales men, mailmen, your family has been all over the class system. I grew… attached, obsessed. I can admit that confidently. When I first met your father Conner… It was like I was awake for the first time, alive. I’d never felt that way about anyone before, not even my own family. I needed him. But, he had a son, and wife. But I knew the Clockwerk Curse your family is under. I could have protected him, saved him.” She summoned her Keyblade. “We both know I could have. I was so close… but it faltered.” She disbanded her Keyblade. “I tried again when you were born, but Jim and M kept me away. I was at their funeral. Like his father and all your ancestors before you, they buried empty coffins.” “And you didn’t just openly tell them this...why?” I asked. “It would have been much simpler to just say ‘I love you’ ya know that right?” “I did, but he was loyal to your mother. He knew Clockwerk always kills his prey. And like it or not, I might not be able to save this world as my duty as a Keyblade wielder, I will, save you two.” She said, kneeling down to my eye level. “Or die trying.” “You're not dying.” I said bluntly. “No one is going to die here.” “This is war sweetheart. It’s not without casualties. Right now the world is paying theirs… and when we enter that battlefield… one or more of us will pay that price.” Five Years Later The island changed a lot over these five years. In that time Carmalita and Lana both grew cloth, The only girls on the island so they needed to bond together. Carmalita is now 16, Lana 17. Sly, Muray and Bentley are 13 and Im 11. Today is gonna be a fun day. “Alright everyone, gather.” M said, the lot of us all on the beach. “Today, we begin helping the world. Ending the Fiendish four’s reign.” It was five. In these whole five years, still not a single word or even display of Mz Ruby. In that same five years though, Mugshot now owns all of America, Canida, Mexico and HALF of South America. Panda King took over Japan for the fish, or so it goes. Clockwerk took over all of Russia and most of europe. Only Africa, and Antarctica are still free countries. “We take supplies and the sub to Africa, there is a rebel base there who fight against Panda King and Clockwerk’s forces. Jim, Matilda and you all will be on that sub, myself and Sacha will stay here to keep radio contact and oversee the island.” “We’ll make contact with the rebels and then set sail in teams. Sly, Carmalita and Kite will head to the Hiation Jungles in the sub to check and see what is the issue with Mz Ruby and her lack of involvement in the original group. The rest will set up and organize the rebels into a proper fighting force.” “Wouldn’t it be better if Murray and Bentley came with us?” I asked curiously. “It would make sense to get some teamwork and field work in at the same time...plus it helps Murray test the van in different environments right?” “They’ll meet you all after your mission is complete and head into Mexico.” “Alright.” I nodded. “Let’s just hope things work out…” Once we were off and made contact with the rebels, Nice people, Sly, Carmalita and I were sent off to check in on Mz Ruby. The jungle was exactly like how it was from the game, only bigger, which made me happy. Course not knowing how to use the rail walk or rail slide, we had to take alternative routes. Still we did manage to find a safe surprisingly. "Well didn't think we'd find this so soon." I said honestly. “Why put a safe out in the open like this?” Carmaleta asked. “It’s a traditional show of power, Keep some of your valuables out in the open in your own territory to show your enemies that you own this place and can keep what’s yours wherever you want.” Sly answered. “How do we open it though?” I looked at my ‘cane’, thinking for a moment before activating it as I tapped it against the safe. The tip phasing through. Curious I swiped the hook through the whole safe. In its hold, a page of my family tomb.’ “Holy shit!” Carmalita said in shock. Sly chuckled. “You’re a wizard Kite.” He said, making both a reference and joke, That book was just as good as on any world. "Yep." I said with pride while looking at the page. "Wonder who this page is from…" The page was complete, detailing greatly Karin Coopergina's coin magnet technique. Needless to say this would be useful. Sly and I practiced it a bit with some coins we had and even Carmalita was able to learn and use it. So literally anyone who reads the pages CAN learn and perform the techniques written. "This isn't concerning…" I muttered to myself. "But good to know…"…" We headed back into it and found the main area, discovering some Voodoo monks, Mz Ruby's brutes, patrolling about. "So, should we pass them by or knock them out?" Carmalita asked. "I mean...not sure if I can knock them out given their Voodoo Witch Doctor's…" I muttered while sneaking up to the guy and using my KnockOut Touch ability on the witch doctor. Surprisingly, it worked. Acting fast Carmalita tied and gagged them so when it wore off they couldn't alert anyone else. We also tossed their Voodoo stuff aside so they could not reach it. "Cool, it worked." I said honestly.honestly. "Won't last too long since it was just a partial entry." Sly said. "Let's head in deeper." Heading to the center area, we saw Mz Ruby's big skull home high up, but there was a few things missing. While the giant snake cage was still there, the rest of the fortifications were missing. I also felt this… warmth nearby. "You feel that Kite? That warmth?" Sly asked. "Yes I do...that's a little concerning given where we are…" I said nervously. Sly and I felt it coming right from Mz Ruby's skull house. How to get up there. Carmalita pulled out her Bonoc-U-com, taking a look. "I see Mz Ruby. She looks like… she's having a meal or something. She's talking to someone but I can't see who." She said, placing them away. "Well whatever the heck is going on we need to get up there." Sly said. "Well…" I looked around to see how to get up there. Looking all around, I saw the best option was a tall tree in the snakes cage, another option was- "Hey!" We turned around, seeing one of the guards running up to us, but they halted and raised their arms after we raised our weapons. "Woah woah! Hey, I'm not here for a fight." “Then what do you want?” I asked defensively, still prepared for anything this witch doctor could throw at us. "Mz Ruby has been expecting you. Kite and Sly Cooper, she has been preparing to speak with you two for the past five years." The guard stated. I blinked at that. “And...this isn’t a trap?” I asked nervously. “Cause...while I have my suspicions that Mz Ruby is a nice person at heart...there’s still the fact she helped Clockwerk.” "A partnership she regrets." The guard said. "She knew you'd need to speak someplace safe and private from Clockwerks eyes and ears. Why do you think she never began her rampage as the rest of the five? She made herself a target of interest for you both. Suspect enough to investigate personally." “I mean...it is curious as to why she just hasn’t done anything in over five years.” I said honestly. “So...how do we get up there if we need to talk to Mz Ruby? Cause I don’t see any stairs around here.” Slowly, the Voodoo guard pulled a pouch off his belt, tossing it to Sly. "It's powdered magic. Useful in many things, including entering Mz Ruby's home. Simply toss a handful on the waters below her home and it will grow you a stairway." “Well...thank you.” I nodded. “Let’s hope this talk will be more...civil then I’m expecting it to be…” I muttered to myself, hoping things won’t end poorly even if I’m expecting it. Cautious, we headed to the waters below her house. Sly tossed the powder and forming from roots was a spiral stairway going up into the skull. Carefully we headed up, the feeling of… warmth hit Sly and I again. It was comforting but also agonizing at the same time. We didn't know why but we're on guard. “Well...who would have thought thieves would be taking the front door huh?” I tried to joke through the tension. "Hello there young chillies." Mz Ruby's voices echoed towards them. Entering the main room with her, it was a kitchen/Dining room mix. Mz Ruby was alone, but there was tea and snacks set for two. "You two have grown." “We have…” I said slowly, wondering why she’s set things up like this. “But...I presume it was you that knocked me and big brother out on...that day?” "Yes. You two must have so many questions. I guess I'll start at the beginning. Clockwerk recruited me roughly ten years ago. While he dislikes magic in any form, he did need a magic expert to learn certain basics. The… first time we confronted your father and his team, I just watched and maintained the barrier keeping them there. He said we were just going to force him into retirement. But even after that day, he made us search." “Stubborn Owl.” I growled. “So...what were Mugshot and Panda King’s thoughts on this? Cause the three of you kept me and Sly hidden while Clockwerk...did those things.” "While Mugshot was okay with hurting your father, he did admit it suspicious that Clockwerk wanted to search for him after the beating. Panda King was against it from the beginning, a father himself, he could see how such injuries would affect you both. When we found you again, Panda King knew Clockwerk was planning something vile. We created a plan. And you two were spared your parents fate, thankfully. That powder I hit you two with didn't just knock you out, it also sent you to a safe place, where we picked you up and hid you in that orphanage later that same night. "Clockwerk took us to his hideout for victory, and that's when I made my move. While Mugshot and Panda King distracted the bird, I found his… trophy room." “What? Is it comically evil where it holds the skulls of all the Coopers he’s slain over...however long he’s lived?” I asked. "Stuffed actually. His… your parents were recently placed in a bin to… for him to work on later. I took who I could, and for three full years worked my Voodoo in ways I didn't even know it could work. The result was…" "Sly, Kite?" Sly and my blood ran cold. We gave one another a look before turning… our mom, stood behind us, a thick scar across her neck. “M-mom…?” I stuttered, not believing what I’m seeing. “But...how? I...I didn’t think magic could work like this…” "It's not perfect hun." Mz Rudy said. "She's alive, yes, but she can't feel, physical touch I mean. Can't sleep either. Necromancy is nasty like that." Sly walked over to mom shakily, hugging her tight as she returned it. "I might not feel this hug… but I can still feel love." She said, hugging Sly back. “Did you...bring anyone else back?” I asked. “You...said you took who you could...was it just one or...others?” I asked slowly, tears in my eyes as I couldn’t believe this was happening. "I tried. But… I couldn't bring them back. I don't know why either. The spells I used could pull a soul from hell or heaven back to the land of the living, but they didn't work. So I buried them properly in the cemetery some miles from here. A better resting place than Clockwerks nest." “I...suppose it’s because their souls were at peace?” I suggested. "I don't know. Voodoo is many things, but clear on reasons for an outcome or failure it is not." She then pulled out a large envelope. "These are the pages I kept, there are others I kept in safes hidden around in different areas. They're what my guards watch over." "So they aren't just roaming around for random trespassers?" Sly asked. "No, they're all actually students of mine. My Voodoo is the strongest anyone has seen in centuries, after Clockwerk and… when I was able to bring your mother back I began healing with it. Soon folks wanted to be around me to learn, and I taught. A step to atonement." “Well...can you teach me and big brother how to use magic?” I asked. “We have a magic teacher but...she probably doesn’t want to teach us a lot.” "I can do better than that." Mz Ruby said, she walked over to a shelf with various Voodoo artifacts. She took an old branch, a bone inside it that the branch clearly grew over and handed it to me. "This staff was grown over an old Voodoo priests grave, it can better funnel out your magic and in regards to teaching you both, I will comply, as a prisoner." "Why would you want to be a prisoner?" Carmalita asked. "Despite my lack of hell raising and compliance, I still took part in a murder. While I didn't spill the blood, I was an accomplice nonetheless. Mugshot told me about a former black ops named Matilda that still has some pool in certain governments still standing. Take me in not only ensures you keep me as a teacher but also shows this group can be taken down, start up resistance in their own territories." “That sounds about right.” I nodded. “But...will Mugshot and Panda King come as cleanly as you? I’ve only heard some stuff about the two, but Mugshot sounds like a Mafia Boss running a Racket and Panda King...well he sounds too honorable to just stand down.” I said, Mz Ruby noting how little I mentioned the frog as if I either didn’t know much about him or didn’t give a rats ass about the spoiled bastard. "No, Don't get me wrong, they also regret everything, but they needed to keep up the front, less Clockwerk head after them. He never did me cause even though I knew I was the disposable one of us all. Clockwerk's love-hate relationship with magic and old school sexism present and plain as the chrome of his body." “Well that’s just not nice.” I frowned. “Your strong, tough, and a magical genius, and also pretty.” I huffed. “You deserve respect.” Mz Ruby chuckled. "That's kind. You best get the rest of them pages. I'll be here." Sly and I rapidly got the rest of the pages from our family tomb from Mz Rubies safes. Putting them all together with the ones she had in the envelope, we had a lot of studying to do. We called in this development to Matilda and within hours she and the Africa rebels came via helicopter to pick up Mz Ruby. Mom acted like Uncle Jim and M towards Matilda, who honestly looked rather shocked to see Mom alive, back from the dead literally. Can't blame either of them here. Bentley and Murray met up with us in our van, Lana was with them as they felt this would be a good chance for her to properly test her skills. While on our way to Mexico to deal with some of Mugshots local gang members, we all ended up reading from the pages. There were so many. The first one we all managed to read, memorize and successfully pull off was Slytunkhamen Cooper's Invisibility technique. Arriving in Mexico this proved invaluable In sneak attacking the gangsters and for once the local jails began having inmates. Police quickly began picking their guns, cuffs and tasers up as we began dropping off on average ten gangsters a day, and we were still in southern Mexico. “Well so far so good.” I said, “We’re clearing this out a lot faster than I first thought…” "This is fun. I get to punch people." Lana said happily. "I can't believe Mugshots gang stretches this far." Carmalita said. "Once we reach Mesa City and take him down the large majority will dispatch, small pockets will stay organized but local law should be able to handle that." Sly said. As the days passed on We mastered Huckleberry Cooper's modified Invisibility technique, this let us better life out and sneak attack. After that it was Ember Cooper's Ignition technique. According to the pages she was a natural pyro, often creating small dumpster fires as cover for her thefts, using soot, Ash and charcoal to ignite small controlled fires to remove obstacles like security cameras and even knock out guards with a special blend of burned wood ashes. Needless to say once we made it, Bentley managed to make knock out bombs with the ashes, proving useful in taking out the larger groups of gangsters. “Well...looks like setting things on fire is a viable strategy.” I chuckled. “Hmm...do any of you think Uncle M could mix these two together?” I asked our little gang curiously as I held up my Cane and the Staff Mz Ruby gave me. "I'm sure something can be done." Bentley said. "I'd be happy to, but M's technically is still a bit above me, and the magic in that staff is unknown to me." “I’m sure you’ll learn a lot about magic with us.” I pointed out. “And also a lot of other things no normal thirteen year old should learn.” Our trip through Mexico took us to a small town called Corazon del Aqua. Apparently this town's local Mugshot gang members are doing a bit more than the normal robberies and drug/weapons shipping. Slavery and even experimentation on people from some mad scientist who is paying good cash to have his seat with this local gang. Needless to say we figured this would take more time than normal so we set up a temporary base. Our first really, Inside a cave just a mile away from the town. “Alright, so who here thinks Muggshot has literally no idea about the Slavery and Mammel Experimentation?” I asked curiously. “Cause if I’ve learned anything about Muggshot, is that he takes the Mafia very seriously, and the Mafia doesn’t do this kind of crap.” "It's all likely this scientist fellow. Whoever he is, he knows these idiots will listen to cash over Mugshot anytime of the day." Carmalita said. "Luckily Matilda gave me accesscess to her organization's secret high tech spy satellite. From what I can see it looks like the old town prison is where they keep the people who are both sold as slaves and experimented on, but the laboratory is the old hospital downtown. As helpful as it is, the satellite can only do so much. In order to make a proper plan, I'd need photos of inside both the lab and prison to formulate a strategy here." Bentley explained. "Well it's a good thing me and you added the camera feature to our Binoc-U-Coms not too long ago." I mentioned, given that me, Bentley and Uncle M were now focused on getting the namesake down some features needed to be done after the fact. "True. Sly, you take photos of the prison. Kite, you take the Laboratory, and Carmalita, if you can gather photos of main town itself, guards, locations of notice and just anything that seems a tad of interest. With your stealth abilities you three can easily snap the pictures we'd need." "Breaking into a prison? Why do I feel like this won't be the first time I do that?" Sly asked. "You can count on us Bentley." Carmalita said with a firm nod. "I'll make sure to get the equipment's good sides." I joked.ed. We left and got to work. The citizens here all in there homes already or up and left. It was mostly the guards around and they were easy to avoid. Making it to the former hospital, now Laboratory, I snuck in through the vents. Here I got ceiling view photos of people put into medicated comas, the security, and the doctor himself it seemed, as well as his main office and workplace. He was working on a serum of sorts, that I could tell. Whatever it's meant to do can't be good. There was one area where vent access and the doors leading to it were dense with reinforced bars and the works. Something tells me that serum's results are kept in there. After snapping whatever photos I could, and some extras, I made my escape. "Hey, the fuc-" A guard that spotted me was about to tell. The knockout touch coming into play here. I noticed among his other valuables there was a pocket watch. Time to call my Time Walker. "Cool." I muttered while sneaking off to a hiding place and summoning the time walker the way Cript told me. The whole world stopped, shifting to a pale grey color scheme save for myself and the watch. In a flash of blue, my Time Walker arrived. "You called?" "Yes I did." I nodded. "So first question, what does calling a Time Walker in an Admin Game do?" I asked, wanting to make sure Cript didn't forget anything. "Stops time for while I am here for starters. Second, I can buy and sell things like a merchant for you but only items from this world and within reason. I can also hold items for you like storage." "Cool." I nodded. "So what are you selling if I may ask?" They showed me a list of some things. Most of these were powerups, Lucky Horseshoe though looked useful. I had enough for one from that guy, so I got that. "Anything else?" They asked. “Um...mind if I ask what points have to happen?” I asked curiously. “Cause Cript mentioned that some points in time need to happen...but I’m just wondering what has to happen and what can be stopped.” "Clockwerk parts have to be put in that museum and stolen, Nyla must become Clockla, Bentley has to end up wheelchair bound, and Paradox has to screw with time… I hate when time travel screw ups have to happen just to unhappen. Makes zero sense." “Just be glad that all the time travel did was take away pieces of the Thievius Racoonus instead of causing so many paradoxes that your paperwork would be tripled.” I said honestly. “But really? Bentley has to be cripled? That’s a bummer…” I sighed out. “But...considering Magi-Tech might be a thing in the near future...maybe Bentley can have his legs back?” "If he wants it. Timeline here has already been heavily changed just because you were born. Penelope also has to betray them but that's just to start off Le Paradox's crap. Once you nab her you can work on helping her back to your side. If by chance she doesn't turn on you guys, then I'll have to do my job." “Well...I think it would be more of the ‘oh hey, I already sold it but I just wanted to get a second opinion only to realize I fucked up’.” I said honestly. “While I’m trying my best not to rip off Dressed to Steal, sometimes things overlap.” I shrugged. "Don't give the authors ideas." They said, pointing over to the time Frozen scorpion man walking by the alley. “Oh you gotta be kidding me…” I said worriedly. After that little event I headed back to the hideout, Sly and Carmalita arriving at about the same time. After talking to M and Matilda, Bentley pulled up the photo slideshow. Our first planned job. Sweet! "Okay everyone, after all the analysis and talking with Uncle M and Matilda I've discovered exactly what exactly is going on and just how screwed up it is." Bentley started. “Umbrella Corporation stuff going on?” I asked, given that Resident Evil did in fact come out last year. "Uh, no." Bentley said, the slide of the scientist I took the photo of appearing. The Coyote is visible. "According to Matilda this man is Professor Paladeco. Wanted by all world governments for creating illegal super soldiers, organ harvesting, illegal cloning, and bio weapon fabrication. To say he is dangerous is an understatement." "So these prisoners are his lab rats…" Sly hissed. "Definitely. Now, thanks to Sly's and Carmalita's photos, the prison has been discovered to have an old body dump tunnel back during the days of the plague. The exit leads off into the desert two miles out of town. It will be easy to set up an evacuation vehicle out there. However to get this operation to a perfect success, both the laboratory and the prison have to be taken out at the same time." “So we have to split up then?” I asked curiously. “Two teams to take down both at the same time without causing too much commotion to rouse suspicion from the guards?” "Yes and no. To start we have to deal with all the Mugshot goons gone awol from the main gang. Thankfully thanks to Mz Ruby we have the recipe to create an illusion of Mugshot. Those still terrified will get the heck out of Dodge. Thankfully the recipe items for such a spell are all within the town and dessert." “And thankfully I also found this.” I said while bringing out a page of the Thievius Racoonus. “Nothing says ‘master of disguise’ like a perfect voice mimicking.” I said in Matilda’s voice which actually wasn’t that far off. “Thank you Ronn Cooper.” I said with a smile. "Perfect. Now, once that is done we will have to deal with the guards weapons. They have some heavy firepower, but thankfully all their spare ammunition and guns are kept in three guarded houses. Tomorrow is going to be one of the hottest days of the year in town, so Lana and Carmalita will play Ice Cream sales girls-" "How…?" Carmalita asked slowly. "Matilda called in a favor with the prior towns police we helped. Anyway, while they are doing that I'll send in some prototype RC cars inside once they are all out. They will be outfitted with Nitro Bombs so all their supplies will be blown sky high." “And given we have a mad scientist to deal with...what are the odds that one of the weapon facilities has something with a little more kick when it blows up?” I asked curiously. "If that is the case, the RC cars camera can scan anything of note. If there is something either too explosive or useful in them, Sly or Kite can easily rush in and grab it while the guards are busy buying and eating ice cream." "Wait, we're actually gonna sell them ice cream?" Carmalita asked. "Yes. Helps sell the truck and gets us a bit of funding. Once all the weapon warehouses are gone, we'll need to cut the Laboratory power and water supply. This will force Paladeco to run on generators to keep his serum machines going, and buy water by the truck load. We use this to sneak into the lab and bug the place with micro cameras and set up a remote detonation bomb on the generators. With the power out the automatic security is useless." “Hopefully we can do most of this without raising too much suspicion, cause there’s nothing to suggest Wily Coyote here hasn’t brought any of his Super Soldier experiments here with him.” I said honestly. "That is a high possibility. Thankfully there is a solution. Matilda says the only weakness of his super soldiers is a high voltage shock of electricity. Not like what you'll get from getting a shock from a power line, bigger. Thankfully Uncle M found a person on ThiefNet selling a special Arc Nine battery clip for the shock pistols Carmalita has, and he is willing to make a bargain." “And what’s the bargain?” I asked curiously. "He wants to discuss it with one of us at the meet up at a local taco stand in the town. Lastly is breaking into the prison. The whole prison and it's cells are not modern, old school. So we'll need to steal the keys off the goon playing Warden. Thankfully, Matilda looked him up and he has a strong fear of snakes, and the local wildlife has plenty. Even the harmless ones will work fine. Sly or Kite can then sneak them to his office in the vents and let a few loose. He'll run in a panic and either drop or leave the keys behind." “Sounds good.” I nodded. “Anything else we should know about?” "Yes. The locked area you could only photograph the door of must be where the current super soldiers that were created are. Once we have the the Arc Nine clips for Carmalita's shock pistol, she can knock them out in a few hits. This will be rather chaotic when it goes down but in the end, prisoners will be freed, town saved, and when all is said and done one good shot from Carmalita to knock out Paladeco and he'll be in the same jail he held those poor people." “Sounds like a plan.” I nodded. "Well, let's get to work." I headed off to the edge of town, calling up Bentley on the Benocu-Com to get the list of ingredients. "Okay Kite, Mz Ruby said the ingredients for this spell are four cactus barrel fruits, a clay bowel that is a bare minimum hundred years old, a purple dessert scorpion venom pouch, and a dead man's wisdom tooth." “So do you want me to pick you up shell wax and a carton of milk while I’m at it?” I joked given that, even when things are different, heists still sound like a grocery list. "Har har. I've marked where to find each in your mask GPS system. Something M built based on what he had for your dad when he was on the job. You will be able to find it all. Once you get them all call me back." The cactus fruit was easy, every other cactus had one here, the bowel was inside an abandoned house, as well as some other older items worth a few on TheifNet. The purple desert scorpion poison sack was a bit tricky. There were only a few in the area and they liked to hide inside their underground tunnels, but I got it after a while. The dead man's wisdom tooth was actually in an old mineshaft abandoned years ago. The took came from the skull of an unfortunate miner, but I did find his forgotten and left behind stash of gold and silver. With them all I called Bently back. “Well I didn’t find any shell wax, but I did find a bunch of gold and silver.” I said while putting down the ingredients and the sack of gold and silver from the Miner. "Impressive. Now, take all that to the roof of the town bar, that's where most of the thugs hang out. Mix them all together then wave the Voodoo staff Mz Ruby gave you. Keep a mental image of Mugshot in mind then the illusion spell will activate. Then stroll into the bar, give your best Mugshot impression and to really sell it, break a chair or table or something. The spell will last about ten minutes so try and be fast." "From what Matilda's told me and shown about Muggshot, I think I got it." I chuckled. "How's everyone else doing?" I asked curiously, just wanting a quick update on their progress. "Sly is cutting power and water to the Laboratory as we speak. Lana and Carmalita are getting the ice cream truck ready. Once you're done there head back so we can begin Operation Brain Freeze." “I have a feeling you’re gonna be making up stellar operation titles.” I chuckled. Once at the bar I performed the spell, waltzing inside with my best, angry Mugshot voice and managed to use my cane to break a chair and table. Needless to say about 70% ran shitless, spreading word through the streets and piling into cars to drive out of here. "Good work Kite! That's sixty percent of the rogue gang gone now! Head back to base, Carmalita, Lana and I are just about ready for the next Operation." Bently said through the communicators. “By the way...what’s Murray been doing?” I asked curiously. “Given that we’re all been busy, I haven’t heard you say anything about what Murray’s doing. Is he helping get people out with the Van or something?” "Yes. Muray and the police from towns and cities we've helped already are at the tunnel existing guarding the escape vehicles." “Alright.” I nodded. “Just making sure Murray wasn’t being left out.” I said while heading back to our hideout for the next phase of the plan. Sly and I arrived back at the hideout at the same time. "Take a rest little brother, you'll need the energy for the big job later tonight." Sly said to me. “I can still…” I said while feeling a little woozy. “Huh...didn’t think that spell took that much…” I muttered. “So...maybe some rest will help…” "Get some sleep. We'll wake you up once everything else is set." Sex Scene Ahead. Please skip if your not a fan. In all my time as Kite Cooper, just about every night Cript came by for a visit. Usually we had a date or something and cuddled or just talked. All in all it was nice to spend time like this. "Big heist?" Cript asked, the two of us enjoying a nice massage in a dream replica of the Ponyville Spa. “Well less ‘heist’ and more ‘stopping a mad scientist from doing super illegal bullshit’.” I said honestly. “Seriously, super soldiers, cloning, and a lot of other bad shit.” "Wow. What kind of madness is your little self getting dragged into?" “I mean, considering Muggshot has taken over all of North America and Panda King is taking over China and Japan, as well as a Bat Keyblader being my magic teacher...we weren’t supposed to be taking down the Fiendish Five until Sly was eighteen, not thirteen.” I said nervously. "To be fair you're all likely going to reach that age over time fighting the five and various other crime organizations along the way." Cript said. “Well four, Mz Ruby quickly defected after having seen what Clockwerk did.” I said honestly. “Muggshot and Panda King are also apparently equally against Clockwerk, but they're just doing bad things to keep him off their back.” "Maybe not just that." Cript said thoughtfully. "At least, Panda King maybe not. You said he only took out specific government officials, who not make a bigger grand statement by up and killing them all? And to rise to power after killing just those specific officials? Sounds like the footings of a bigger plan in my opinion. Actually it almost sounds like he pulled off a one man revolution." “And Muggshot is probably just holding a massive Mafia Racket given he based his entire criminal stuff off of the Godfather.” I said honestly. "Heh. Maybe." Cript laughed. "So… hot tub?" “Hot tub.” I said warmly, lightly groping Cript’s ass offhandedly. "Yipe!" They yelped, surprised but we both climbed into the hot tube. The waters mixed with some herbs and salts to make it all the more relaxing. "Heh, that caught me off guard." Cript said awkwardly. “Sorry.” I said sheepishly. “But...haven’t had any for eleven years, puberty is coming in fast and there is this very pretty russian wolf girl…” "Heh. Ironic since you're an adult here and all…" Cript said, taking a deep breath. "Like I said, when someone who was brought in or born, reborn, all that, as a child wants to be a spouse, it's always more awkward for me. I know the whole thing about it all isn't an issue and as the Admin of Love I admit I don't believe love itself has limits, just what we place on it and if it grows from there. I'm rattling on…" “It’s fine, I tend to do that constantly.” I said honestly. "Well, guess it's time to let it grow." Cript said. Their size in height and body growing equal to mine. They then leaned into me, planting a kiss on my lips. I kissed back lovingly, wrapping my arms around Cript and grabbing their big butt again. They moaned softly, kissing deeper as they now sat on my legs. Kissing and holding someone my size is a nice change of pace. Cript kept their arms wrapped around me, pressing into my back. My top knockers and Cript's pressing against each other in tender squished hug. I moaned softly at my sensitive breasts squishing against Cripts, Cript feeling my growing stiffy rub between their shockingly soft thighs considering there...new form. Cript felt my stiffer growing. Passing their own set that to my surprise wasn't stiff at all yet. Feeling it rising between us, Cript moved themselves in regular small movement, these movements rubbing against my member, causing it to reach max length faster. Cript's skin was so… soft and tender, not just from the touch of my hands cupping their ass, but from them rubbing their belly against my member. It was like silk, and it was heavenly. Once my tip reached out squished breasts, sprouting between them, Cript broke the kiss, face rather red in bluch and breathing heavily as they looked down at my erect cock. A smile on their face as they gently licked the tip. I jolted, that one lick about triggering every pleasure receptor from my tip to my testicles. So this is how screwing an Admin of love is gonna feel. I knew then and there I was going to blow many loads. "God you are magical." I moaned happily, trying my best not to blow too quick. soon. "Perks of the job." They said, giving a little space between us as they began using their tongue, sliding it from tip to base of my member, each second they taste it felt like I was in a losing battle. They were paced well, licking across every side and exposed skin. Pre cum leaned out like a faucet leak, Cript's tongue catching it close down and giving it a healthy lick, slurping off the top of my dick clean of pre. "I'm going to be doing a lot with you King. First I please you, then you please me. Sounds fun?" “I mean, I’m going to be pleasing you a lot when I pound that sweet ass of yours.” I chuckled. "I expect you too, but I do have more experience, and to out sex me hasn't been done yet. So when my turn to rutt you comes around, we'll see how well you keep up." “Is that a challenge?” I asked with a cheeky grin. "If you want it to be. Just one question first, shall I go gently on you, or hold nothing back?" “Well...given this is our first time together, let’s start gently to see how things work.” I said honestly. "Alrighty then love~" Cript purred, mouth opening fairly wide as they sucked on my cocks tip, and slid down it. Their throat was tight, so so tight, wet, and hot. I felt tingles of pleasure and, and electricity across every inch of my ride Cript gulped down. To my surprise they reached the base, giving my balls a wet licks before starting to suck, bobbing up and down halfway of my rod. “Jesus hell…” I moaned at how skilled Cript was, biting my lip and trying not to blow in his throat. As they bobbed their head, wet sexual slurps and sucking filling the air, they groped my testicles, the large cum sacks gently groped and massaged in a way I didn't ever experience before. It was getting harder and harder to hold my load back, I even had to cross my legs, keeping Cript lower and more against my crotch than before, their bobbing now just a few inches of the base of my dick, the length they could move their neck back and forth. Still, while less it was just as thrilling. “Getting...close…” I growled, slightly thrusting my hips to meet their bobbing motions. In the shortest time I've ever had, I blew my load. Down Cript's throat. Not a single sperm cell leaked out their mouth as when I finished, Cript slowly pulled my cock out, making sure to take every drop of cum before reaching my tip, giving a strong suck before popping off. Their stomach wasn't even bulging. "Impressed?" Cript asked. “Damn…” I panted. “That felt amazing.” I said, my cock still up and twitching, ready for another round. "Glad to know." Cript said with a smile, squeezing my still twitching tip between their knockers. My girth alone pushed them apart. At seeing this Cript squashed their breasts together, they milkers wrapped around my member, Cript getting on top of me a bit as they placed their whole body against my member, tip still happily squished between Cript's breasts as they moved them up and down my cock. They didn't move them far up or down, but they did rub their belly and thighs along the rest of my rod, and to the tip gave passionate kisses and licks. “Your tits feel amazing.” I moaned happily. “Also very soft given...your new form.” "I was worried this new form would be an issue, but thankfully Lyra has quite the imagination and skill for modifications." They said, continuing to massage my cock with their entire body. "It felt nice sucking your dick King, tasted rich and meaty~" ”Well Lyra certainly knows what she’s doing.” I chuckled. “And glad you liked it...uh...do you...lactate?” I asked sheepishly, wondering if that was a thing. "If I didn't I wouldn't be a mom. Everyone in the family does. You wanna taste it?" Cript asked, pressing hard on their breasts as small leaks of milk began to drip out their nipples. I blushed. “Well...I’ll be sucking on those when I’m fucking you that’s for sure…” "You can suck them now, and when you blow I'll happily clean you up~" Cript said, circling my tip with their now drooling tongue. “Um...sure.” I said while gently lifting one of Cript’s breasts up and latching onto their nipple to taste their breast milk. It wasn't as thick as I expected, but was still like a rich French vanilla cream with a hint of… swear it's got a hint of strawberry. I suckled happily away, feeling pressure start to build up again as Cript's body massage of my Cock began to speed. "It feels so hot touching my skin. I bet it will feel like fire inside me, like it did in my throat." They huffed lustfully. I moaned happily, sucking on the mutants tit harder as my dick twitched telling Cript I was getting close again. Cript moaned, reaching a hand to hold the back of my head while I drank from them. Passionately they kissed my tip again. Pre flowing out that they happily licked away with lustful greed. I moaned happily as I came again from Cript’s lustful antics, covering Cript and a bit of myself in my seed. Happily Cript gave themselves a tongue bath, shifting their tongue like a snake and cleaning my Jizz off them completely before slurping the spill on me from my cock, making it stuff again in the process before cleaning off my breasts and face. Each lick was a small tingle of joy and happiness. Once I was cleaned off Cript gave me a kiss before taking a sample of my own breast milk. To Cript my breast milk doesn't taste too far off from Den’s, being the same creamy milk from a Den Mother, the only difference was that mine had a slight hazelnut taste to it. Cript happily drank for a time, then happily popped off before giving my nipple a kiss. They lead me to the bed this dream version of the spa had, setting on it on all fours, their legs spread wide as I saw their butt and vagina in full gorgeous view. "Mind plundering my back door before the front? A little partel to Anal." “Don’t mind if I do.” I said while walking over and putting my cock between the mutant’s asscheeks, rubbing myself in between the mountain of an ass. “Lyra sure knows how to make a fine ass.” I said while squeezing the plump cheeks happily. "Shove it in me King, and don't stop til you're base slams my ass." Cript moaned. “Oh I will~.” I said lovingly before lining myself up with Cript’s tight ass as I started to push in, starting slow just to make sure it wasn’t too tight. With a sloppy pop, my tip slid in. Pushing more in Cript moaned as every inch slid deeply inside them, their face deep red with a lustful smile plastering their lips. My base hit against Cript's cheeks, making a light slap noise. It was so tight, tighter than their throat and so hot, yet so fitting as there anal walls tightly gripped my cock, feeling like it did not want to let go. The same electric tingle came across my whole member inside them, Cript pressing their ass harder against my base. "Rutt me. Please!" They begged. “Don’t worry.” I said while smacking their ass. “I’ll give you what you want.” I growled before ramming myself into Cript, each forceful thrust causing their mammoth of an ass to jiggle like jello as I jackhammered into them. Each thrust made Cript moan as their tight ass kept a strong grip on my pulsating member. The pressure was building again, precum leaking and lubricating their insides, letting me slide in faster, pound harder. Cript kept their head and arms firmly placed around a pillow, biting it in bliss as I rutted them. Their ass cheeks turned a shade of red from my slapping it and ramming it. I took pride in that as I felt my cock ready to blow again, like down their throat and in their face, I knew Cript wasn’t going to waste a drop. I growled in pleasure, thrusting faster and faster as I was reaching my peak. “Want your ass filled?” I growled, wanting to hear Cript beg for it. “Like a water balloon King baby~” Heart purred as they arched their back in anticipation. “Just what I wanted to hear.” I said warmly as I slammed my dick as deep as I could inside Cript’s ass and came hard, flooding her insides with even more of my seed, and this time Cript’s stomach actually bloated just a little bit. Cript gave a lustful hiss of a moan, feeling their bloat and smiling happily. I slid out, surprisingly not a drop of cum on my dick nor did any spill out from her ass once I pulled all the way out. She fell to her side, holding her bulge happily. “Every drop someone who will be born. You know how many people won’t be born every time someone climaxes? Millions of possible people, lives, never happening because it’s only ever one cell and one egg, save for the occasional unexpected multiple children. I thought that was so unfair, so, I changed our biology, so every person who could exist will.” “Yeah, I know that full well.” I chuckled while moving close to Cript and rubbing my cock on their pussy. “Want to have kids?” “Already do. Each load you blew.” Cript said, shifting a bit. “Of course, the fastest way into the womb is the old fashioned way.” They purred. “Sometimes I forget half of the races in our family could have biology like that.” I said honestly as I slowly pushed my dick into Cript’s cunt. “All actually. A little mutation ability Lyra and myself made. Unlike regular Abilities, Mutation Abilities soley work based on genetic alterations.” They said, holding their hands above their head and grabbing the bed rails. “But enough talk, start humping.” “With pleasure.” I smiled before thrusting deep into Cript’s snatch, loving how tight they were as I started to get back into a lovingly fast and hard rhythm. “Ooooh~ Harder please~” “If you want.” I said while fucking the mutant even harder, moving forward and latching onto their breast and sucking on it as I continued to fuck them hard and fast. “Yes! Just like that!” Cript said, arms latching around my neck and legs around my waist. I continued to ram myself into Cript, my hips a blur as I fucked my Mutant as hard and fast as I could, wrapping my arms around them as I continued to moan in bliss. I felt Cript use their toes to latch onto my tail. Hands pulling on my back fur and their face buried in my neck. Each thrust slapped my balls against their ass. Each thrust making Cript’s snatch leak more and more fluids. I felt the pressure building again. My stamina draining. I had to keep on. I growled and bit down on Cript’s neck, not hard enough to draw blood or hurt but enough to leave my mark as I pounded Cript harder and faster than before, wanting to breed my mate and make sure she was pregnant with my pups. With a final thrust, I came, blowing my final load deep into Cript’s womb, their bulge now noticeable. With one last weak hump I fell on them, burying them under my many breasts as I cuddled them. They cuddled me back, enjoying my embrace. “That...that was…” I panted, softly nuzzling Cript. “Wow…” “And that was going easy with my sexual enhancers~” Cript cooed, nuzzling under my chin. “Going easy?” I asked curiously. “That tingeling you felt when you stuck it inside me. Electronium has many uses once you master it. I kept the wattage low.” They said, sitting up and stretching, their bulge now gone but they kept rubbing their belly lovingly. “So, ready for my turn?” “Just...a minute.” I said while continuing to cuddle. “I haven’t gotten to cuddle all that much…” “Okay, but I’m taking a drink.” Cript said, latching onto my nipple and drinking away. I smiled gently as I gently rubbed the back of Cript’s head, letting Cript drink my breast milk as I continued to cuddle. We cuddled for a good while. After that though Cript was ready for their turn. “So, what should I do first?” They asked me. I got a good look at their members. It wasn’t as girthy as mine, but just as long, and still human looking, save for the color matching the rest of their skin tone. “It’s your turn, you pick.” I said lovingly. “Hmm… Well, let’s feel those boobs of yours then~” They said, touching their own tip. I got into position, wrapping my cleavage around their cock. It was at this moment I haven’t done this particulare type of sex myself. Had it done to me, yes, lots, done it to others, not really. “Well...this is my first time doing this.” I said sheepishly while wrapping my top pair of tits around Cript’s cock and starting to gently rub them against it. “The key is pressure. Keep them pressed against it good, and of course, some tongue play or kisses go a long way~” Cript said, my wolf tongue getting their whole tip in one lick. “Alright.” I said while squishing my tits around Cript’s member a little tighter, managing to lick the tip every time I brought my tits down to his base and started to get into a smooth enough rhythm, my tits feeling warm soft and wonderful. I have to admit, the taste of their cock wasn’t what I expected. Slightly musky, yes, but tasted like salt with a clear meat taste. “Oooh. Yeah, that feels good.” Cript moaned. “Glad you're enjoying it.” I said warmly, starting to rub my tits faster and holding it a little tighter. “Was a little worried my first time wouldn’t be...all that good.” I said sheepishly. “With fur and skin as soft as yours? While it does need work your fluff and skin make up for the lack of experience.” “They better, I make sure to keep my skin and fur silky smooth.” I said simply, rubbing a little faster again. “So...what do you think of the fusions?” I asked, even though I’m in the middle of giving Cript a titjob might as well do some small talk given I’m not good at this. “Mama Russia is the best one in my opinion. She’s funny, but also sweet. She’s basically owning the nursery at this point. Spouse or baby, she’s taking both inside her for feedings, cleanings and safety.” Cript laughed. “Maybe we should give that a try sometime?” Cript offered, now thrusting a bit between my boobs. “Have you seen what her antics did to Coco?” I asked curiously, giving a loving lick to Cript’s cock tip every time he thrusted up. “Her giant form?” Cript said with a moan. “You should have seen her stats in that form. Match her size.” “And if memory serves, Mama Russia is planning on doing it to everyone...also can’t wait to fuck her just sweet hell is she sexy.” I brought up. “Honestly neither can I… Though surprisingly your dad, earth dad, kinda… got to her already. Surprisingly really. Then again your mom from earth and Den both already did it so… huh.” “Lucky bastard.” I chuckled. “But glad they are all adjusting well.” “Your dad especially.” Cript laughed. They grunted, thrusting a bit harder as their pre started leaking. Licking it… was amazing. Salty, musky yeah but had a surprising sweetness, almost like… saltwater taffy? No… not that but something akin to that. “First your milk tastes like strawberry french cream, now your cum tastes weirdly like saltwater taffy…” I hummed. “Hopefully my milk and cum didn’t taste bad…” “Your milk was amazing. Your cum tasted a bit like country gravy. I don’t know why, that mutation ability is random for everyone.” Cript said with a laugh. “And yes, flavored cum is a mutation ability everyone has. Lyra made it.” “Well that’s interesting.” I said honestly, squishing my breasts against Cript’s cock in a fluffy vice grip. “Oooooh~ Hehe, you’re leaking.” Cript said. I then felt the milk in my top breasts now leaking out a bit. “Well…” I blushed a little at my tits just suddenly leaking. “I’m excited.” I said as I rubbed his cock in the vice like grip I had him in. “Eager to be rutted now? Heh, you sure have changed from the day I first met you. In a good way of course.” “A lot has changed in my life.” I said honestly. “And I’m glad those changes happened.” “Be surprised how often a new form, biology and all that can show and open up who you really are on the inside. I remember when Den told me about your first time out hunting on that replica homeworld I made for her. She was so proud of you. And when you became a Den mother, she cried she was so happy for you.” “Glad to have made her proud.” I said warmly. “Can’t wait to fuck her though.” I said, given I’m mostly thinking of sex at the moment. “Her girth and length are on par with yours, so get ready for a- Ah!” Cript yelped, a massive flood of cum hit my face, still flowing onto my breasts and down my body. “Oooooh~ Hehe, that look is hot on you~” “I knew you would like it.” I chuckled Cript saw my tongue work like a snake as I cleaned myself up. “Now, onto the main event?” “Gonna blow me? I wanna see how skillful you are with your tongue~” Cript said, the last of their jizz licked off me before I began sliding their still hard cock into my mouth. Even though I haven’t really done this much, I have eaten out all of my spouse's way too many times so the same rules applied as Cript was honestly surprised at how good I was doing with my mouth. “Ooooh~ This feels great. Your throat is amazing King.” Cript said, thrusting their cock in and out of my mouth and throat. I used my tongue to lick across their base and balls, enjoying the taste as they gently rammed themselves into my drooling face. I moaned softly, letting him thrust down my throat as I continued to lick everything that wasn’t inside my mouth. I could feel Cript leaking pre already, sliding down directly inside me immediately. Cript took my head, holding it gently as they began picking up speed, their cock determined to blow right into my stomach. Their balls slapping against my chin with hefty impacts. Finally, they came. The feeling of all that jizz pumping right into my belly was like drinking a lot of liquids at once. My belly bulged a bit. Not by much but noticable. Cript pulled out. I gave their dick one last lick and a quick kiss before they raised me up, planting a kiss on my lips before placing me on my back. “Onto the main events then?” Cript asked me. “Onto the main event.” I said lustfully. “Mind if I prepare before hand?” Cript asked, a sly grin on their face as they pulled out what looked like a small leather sleeve, and the grip part of a butt plug. They slid the leather strap over my still hard cock, surprisingly I watched as they covered it, my massive rod vanishing til it reached my base and he tied the sleeve there. He then held up the plug end, my missing rod there. “Portal sex toys. I wanna make you blow when I cum inside you, and I don’t waste cum.” They said, teasing my tip across their ass. “Mind if I...also add a thing?” I asked curiously. “It’s not too weird, but it’ll be...interesting.” “You’ve met Lyra, not much is too weird to me.” Cript said, placing my portal displaced dick onto the bed, and sitting on it, sliding it back up their tight ass. I moaned, as did Cript, my whole cock sliding back in there and stopping once the end of the plug stopped it. “And now...a little something new.” I said as I snapped my fingers, Cript feeling a certain hard piece of meat start to push into their snatch as well. “Ho~kay...that’s…” I trailed off as I moaned happily. “Oooooh~ Oh if you wanna play like that, then try this.” Cript said, from the base above their cock they placed their finger one, raising it up as a second, slightly longer dick grew out magically. They then grabbed both, and their girths grew to match mine. “Ready sexy?” “I’m always ready.” I said with a lustful grin. “Now come on, I’m not gonna fuck myself.” I teased. Aligning both cocks to their respective entrances, Cript thrusted in, a single fast pound that shoved both up my ass and snatch. I howled in pleasure. Grinning, they began thrusting deep inside my holes in a rapid, pleasing motion. Their movements making my portal displaced cocks shifting and twitching inside their holes. “Hot damn…” I moaned. “This is...amazing.” Panting, Cript grabbed my legs, pushing them up and against my body. My feet were next to my head now as they rapidly pounded me deeper and faster. Taking this close opportunity, Cript began kissing me, the rapid motions making our breasts flap around wildly. I kissed back passionately, wanting to wrap my arms around them but I was kind of pinned in the position as I just let Cript hammer into me and me into them given Cript’s movements. Cript moved my legs so my feet were pinned by the back of my head, never breaking the kiss they then greedily groped my breasts, squeezing roughly but I enjoyed it, and switching between breasts after each squeeze. I moaned happily into the kiss, loving every minute of this wonderful experience as I was pinned. Cript began thrusting faster, harder as I began to feel the electrical tingles along my snatch, ass, and my portal displaced cocks inside Cript. He kissed me harder as the tingles began to intensify the faster and harder they began thrusting into me. My brain quickly lost higher cognitive thoughts as only pleasure seemed to process. All I could do was moan and kiss Cript passionately as I let him fuck me as fast and hard as they could, my instincts wanting to breed and be bred given my dual physiology. I wasn’t sure how much time had passed and in all honesty I didn’t give a damn. Cript was slamming into me with enough speed and force that I just knew I was gonna be walking with a limp with all my starfish clones. Finally, their electrical pleasure tingles hit, targeting every inch of my insides, cocks and across my whole body as I blew my load just as Cript did. The resulting orgasm hit me so hard I passed out with a giggling smile on my face out of pure euphoria. I woke up sometime later. My legs felt permanently spread open, I was back to one cock, I felt that much and looking at my belly I was bloated so large, if I tried to stand I’d fall back or forwards, and if I fell forwards my belly would keep my legs up in the air. I felt happy, rubbing my massive belly, noticing Cript was not next to me, partly squished under my bloated belly like I was and clinging to me left arm lovingly. “Well...this is nice.” I muttered softly as I cuddled to the best of my ability to Cript. “Hmm… Remind me to… teach you electronium stuff.” Cript said sleepily. "I'll remind you." I yawned as I nuzzled Cript softly.. Sex over, back to main story now. Waking up back in the hideout, my fun in the Sleeping worlds with Cript put me in a good mood. I got a quick snack and woke up just in time it seems for Sly and the rest to come back. Carmalita and Lana tossing their Ice Cream aprons. “I can’t believe how much they cashed out for that cheap ice cream.” Carmalita said. “Easy eight hundred coins.” Lana said with a laugh. “Morning Kite.” "Sounds like I missed out on some fun." I yawned. "How're you doing?" "Everything went according to plan. Even got a few items to sell." Sly said. “Sweet.” I said while stretching out. “This just leaves the clips for my shock pistols and the prison ‘warden’.” Carmaleta said. “Correct. Sly, you can quickly gather the harmless snakes and Kite and Carmaleta, you two go meet with the dealer about the clips. Hopefully they’ll just ask for the cash.” Bentley said. “Lana and I will set up the final stage and rig up the false water truck. For tomorrow morning.” “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “Let’s hope there aren’t any sudden hoops we have to jump through for those clips…” I muttered to myself as I was fully warmed up for the day. Carmelita and I headed out. The taco stand was nice, smelled amazing. The seller was a hooded bird man. “You are the buyers?” He asked us. “We are. What’s your price?” Carmaleta asked. “A Trade, something I need that cash can not get me.” They said, pulling out a photo. It was of what looked like an old record disc. “I collect rare vinyls. This record is a rare first edition of Kalia Conodonto. It’s in the larger fancy house up town, owned by a smug disco jack off who doesn’t know what he has and just keeps it for decoration. Get me that record and the clips are yours.” “Sounds simple enough.” I said simply. “We’ll get on it then.” Carmaleta said. We found the uptown house. Seeing all the… bad art… oh god don’t tell me. Sneaking in up the gutter drain and to the second floor, we saw the record… and a younger Dimitri painting… wow he really did use a rope and swing around to paint. “That’s… bad art.” Carmaleta said. “I mean, he’s at least trying something new.” I said simply. “With encouragement and a better direction I’m sure he’ll figure it out...better than just having the same soup can be painted in different colors.” I shrugged. “But...now the question is, do we try and steal the record and have him pissed at us, or try and make a deal where he gives us the vinyl for some advice?” “I have a better idea…” Carmaleta said, tossing a knockout ash bomb inside. The ash hitting him, leaving a perfect silhouette of his form on his freshly painted artwork before passing out from the blend. She then opened the window as we walked inside. “Easier.” “He’s probably gonna get inspiration just by how perfect his silhouette is.” I said honestly while following along. We nabbed the record and headed back to the seller. Once he had the record we handed us the clips, Carmalita inserting them into her shock pistols immediately. “Good. Now you go meet up with Sly at the prison. He should have the snakes by now.” Carmaleta said. “I’ll pick up dinner here, food looks too good to pass up.” “Alright, stay safe.” I said while heading off towards the Prison to find Sly to continue with the plan. I met up with big bro atop the prison roof. “Hey there little brother.” Sly said, tossing me a hissing moving bag. “Bentley said this vent here leads directly to the warden’s office. Once there we let the snakes loose, get a small laugh at his expense and then nab the keys.” I grabbed the bag quickly and carefully. “It’ll be funny to see him run around like mad. Well then let’s get moving, these snakes don’t sound too happy.” Sneaking into the vent together and heading down to the floor vent area. We saw the self proclaimed warden sitting in the chair smugly. Sly and I set the snakes free and the ‘Warden’ screamed like a five year old girl, jumping around, dropping the keys then running out like the road runner. Sly and I snuck out, fist bumping with a laugh as bro picked up the keys. “And that’s mission complete. Hm?” Sly and I took notice of the small safe on the floor. “Think your trick can work on a floor safe?” “Well time to test it.” I said while bringing my Cane up to the safe and trying to do the same thing I did back in Mz. Ruby’s area again. Thankfully it did. I was rewarded with the Prisons old and updated Blueprints, and a log of all the current people placed here. We got out and once back at the hideout sent the info to uncle M and Matilda. We rested up, ate some rather tasty tacos, and rested up for the big job the next morning. Back in the sleeping worlds Cript and I were still snuggling. I was no longer so bloated either. I hugged them tightly, looking at them in a new light now. “Yay for snuggles.” I smiled gently, softly nuzzling Cript. Cript nodded, moving more into/against me, arms wrapped around mu]y back and belly. “So, how’d the jobs go?” “So far so good, stole something from a young Dimitri and...yes, he does actually use a rope swing for his ‘kinetic aesthetic’.” I said honestly. “Hehe. That’s amazing. Hey… guess what~” They cooed in my ear. “Big butt?” I asked as I softly grabbed Cript’s butt. “Nooo~ Perv.” Cript said, laughing while they sat up. I then saw, in their arms, a small three eyed dire wolf pup. “Our first born pup, born from me anyway.” Cript said as they handed the small puppy to me. “They look adorable.” I cooed happily, cradling the three eyed pup. “But three eyes?” I wondered curiously. “Hello.” Cript said, motioning to their three eyes. “Hehe. His name is Adam.” “And let me guess, when our daughter is born she’ll be Eve?” I asked with a little grin. “Rebecca actually.” Cript said, taking Adam back and nursing them. “First of their kind. Mutant Dire Wolf. Won’t be for long though, a lot more along the way from both parents.” “Cool.” I said warmly. “Wonder what each kid’s mutation will look like? As well as...well how strong they’ll be when they grow up.” I said honestly. “I… do have the Foresight ability. I could give us a small glimpse. But remember, this glimpse I show is a future without things like worrying about the glitch or the war, so won’t be completely accurate.” “Eh, it’s alright.” I said honestly. “Better to know possibilities than being completely clueless.” Nodding, Cript held my hand, and I saw Adam grow, get into some typical boy trouble, learning to use their own version of Frozen Pride, adventuring through dungeons, stopping monsters from harming people, finding love, having kids… die old in bed, photos of his life and family around them, a smile on their face. I felt a tear fall down as I looked back at them. Cript was tearing up too. “Let’s make sure that is their future King.” Cript said. “I always make sure things are going towards that end.” I said warmly. Nobody learns a lotWaking up early the next morning, we packed up the temporary base and headed off. Sly, Carmelita and I were in the fake water truck. Carmaleta and Lana drove while Sly and I were in the empty tank. Our goal was to reach and destroy the back up generators, take out the guards, beast of a Super Soldier which Carmalita would take care of, and then we knock out the ‘doctor’ as we wreck the place. “Feeling okay baby bro?” Sly asked me. “We’ll be doing a full on assault this time, different from our normal route.” “I'm good big bro.” I said while spinning my cane between my fingers. “Just...antsy given this is going to be the hard part against this guy...so many things can go wrong.” “I know. Maybe after this job we let Matilda and the rebels help out Mexico for a while and we take a break back home. I miss the island, and I wanna spend time with mom.” “Yeah, so do I.” I said honestly. “I...still can’t believe Mz. Ruby brought her back…” I said gently. “But...I wonder if she’ll teach us magic? While Matilda knows a lot, I wonder what a Voodoo Priestess could teach us.” “Nothing mom would approve of obviously.” Sly said with a laugh. “So it’s perfectly fine if we learn.” I laughed as well. “So, how have you and Carmalita been doing?” I asked teasingly, Sly knowing full well what I was talking about. “Good. All in all we seem to get along.” “I mean, besides how horrible you two are at hiding you like each other?” I asked curiously. “Heh…” Sly said, scratching the back of his head. “I mean, she looks amazing and… I do like her, but she’s a lot older, and we have a lot to think about right now, Mugshot won’t go quietly like Mz. Ruby and frankly… I can’t stop thinking about Clockwerk. We got lucky that night Kite… Dad tried to end him and failed… How do you kill something that evil?” “If we can’t kill him we’ll just have to make sure he doesn’t get back up.” I said honestly. “But alright, after we beat Clockwerk, you ask Carmalita out on a date alright?” “Heh. If we beat Clockwerk and I’m at least eighteen, I’ll propose.” Sly said jokingly. “I will keep you to that.” I laughed. “And if it’ll make you feel better...I’ll try and ask Lana out on a date.” I said with a blush. “Even if I’ll have to beat her father in a fight...again.” “Heh.” We arrived at the laboratory, once in Sly and I snuck out and found the generators and destroyed them. The plan played out without issue. Carmalita was able to knock out the Super Soldier Turtle and we then gave the ‘good doctor’ a painful dose of his own medicine. After that we got all the imprisoned people out, through the tunnel and out to a safe town where they all receive proper medical treatments. With just about half of Mexico free from Mugshot’s thumb and a small hoard of loot, we all headed home for some much deserved RnR. Being back on the island felt great, and having mom here just made Sly and I so happy. She didn’t just mother us, but also treated Lana, Carmalita, Bentley and Murray as her own too. Carmalita enjoyed having a mother figure again, as did Lana, and Sasha was glad for that as well. A few days passed and uncle M and Jim had a surprise for us. “So what is the surprise?” Carmalita asked as we all headed towards the vault entrance. “And what are we doing at the vault entrance?” I asked curiously, finding us at the vault was a little strange. “Jim and I felt it was time you all became proper Coopers. Not every member of your bloodline has been by blood, bonds of family run far deeper than that. So Jim and I set up your own Loot Rooms inside the vault. One for Kite, one for Sly, one for Carmalita, one for Lana, one for Bentley, one for Murray-” Uncle M started. “And one for me.” Mom said, jumping from a coconut tree top to in front of us in perfect motion. “Conner taught me a few useful tricks, and while I am only a Cooper by marriage/Name, I’m watching you kids the best I can. Conner can’t be here to do so himself, and I’m more than willing to help you kids.” “Awesome!” Lana shouted. “Sly, if you’d please?” Uncle M asked, motioning to Sly’s Cane. "I wonder what the inside will look like?" I wondered. Sly opened up the vault. Walking inside it was nothing like the game… It was WAY bigger. The oldest Cooper loot room here was in the entrance here was Slytunkhamen the second. First built to hide his spoils from the Pharaoh's wrath, it became a place for all Coopers to hide their accumulated wealths. Uncle M and Jim helped us by showing us a secret way around the obstacles we were not quite ready for yet. Our Personal vault rooms were all next to one another. Looking inside, the rooms were all so… massive. In mine, there was a small red backpack, leg strap pouch, and… the staff Mz. Ruby gave. The top was modified with… I looked back at M, who nodded as I grabbed the staff, setting my cane rattle into it. My personal cane. Looking inside the bag, it was empty, but the leg pouch held quite a few Cooper calling cards. Everyone else got the same thing, surprisingly, Carmalita, Lana, Murray and Bentley, even mom all had their own variations of the Cooper family cane. Mom’s was a lot like the original Sly has, but was all metal from the hook to the staff. Bentley’s was clearly usable as a cane, but also held some of the more advanced experimental tech uncle M had built. Hacking multi tools, knockout gas, mini remote destination mines that attach to anything, and the cane part shifts to something like a crossbow rifle. And it was very light weight. Lana and Murray’s were pretty identical, larger and club-like with the main difference being Murray’s was more blunt while Lana’s was sharper and spiked. Carmalita’s took some inspiration from mine, able to electrify using Shock pistol clips to turn into a taser, and could even arc out the electricity for a taser shot. “This is gonna be fun.” Carmalita said. “I’m gonna need to work on my arm strength…” Bentley said. “I’ll help ya there little buddy.” Murray said. I spun my cane, feeling magical power spark from it as technology and magic seemed to be getting along a lot quicker than I’d first thought. “This is amazing.” I said happily. "I'm surprised at how fast magic and technology are getting along." I said honestly. "Energy is energy." Uncle M said. "Once you learn how it works it's not that hard to adapt it to work with other energies." "There is one last surprise." Uncle Jim said. "Sly, Kite, Violet, you three will want to see this." They walked us all over to… Dad's treasure room. A half burned painting of dad with Sly and myself on his knees. "Conner…" Mom said sadly. Opening the doors, piles of artifacts, cash from around the world. There was also l, placed on a table in front of it, a TV with a vhs hooked up to it. "Well...guess dad wants us to watch the VHS?" I asked.d. "He made it before we went after Clockwerk." M said. "Just in case the worst happened." Sly turned the TV and VHS player on. Dad appeared on screen. "Sly, Kite… if you boys are watching this… then I failed. Clockwerk is not only alive and… and I'm not alive anymore. If it's come to that then there are a few things I need to say first off. Firstly, the family tomb. By now I imagine you have read all it's secrets and pages. The pages within the tomb anyway. Fact is there are plenty of secrets and techniques that were never written within their pages, and all of them are here in this vault. The old notes and texts of left out abilities. Secondly, it's typically tradition for a Cooper to make their own technique and once they retire place it within the tomb. I have not done this, as I am not retired just yet… hopefully after this job I will be. In a box underneath this TV stand is my technique, Light Walk. Much like Tennessee Kid Cooper rope walk and rail slide, With this you will be able to walk atop and slide on high power security lasers. Sly, Kite… Violet. I love you, never forget that. The VHS ended. “Dad…” I muttered, tearing up as I felt my heart ache at losing my father. Mom and Sly were crying too. Everyone comforted us and when the tears finally stopped we picked up Dad's Light Walk technique. Both the technique and notes from when he was making it were here and it ended up also teaching us Rope walk and Rail slide techniques, given its main descriptions and operations were written in the notes repeatedly. “Kind of sad we couldn’t...read Tennessee’s notes on this stuff but...better we learned from dad.” I said gently, glad to have learned so much from dad. Over the next two years, yes two whole years back here Mom, Sly, Bentley, Murray Lana and I all trained in full. Matilda with a now stable fighting force rallies Mexico law and citizens to take back the entirety of the state and began work on South America. While keeping Clockwerk's forces out of Africa they did manage to invade Europe, but thankfully their military is holding fairly strong. His mechanical army weak to high frequency EMP waves, and M built the best weapon against them. Sadly the components and needed materials to make them are still largely in Russia, so there isn't enough to start an invasion into Russia to dethrone Clockwerk. “Alright, so next up we’re going to be clearing up America?” I wondered, twirling my staff as lightning magic twirled around it in little balls. “Also, I am so glad I figured out this ‘Ball Lightning’ spell.” I muttered to myself, the spell itself being nothing more than a combination of a few things, a spell to form the sphere, a kind of complicated tracking spell to make sure it knew where to go, a command spell that let me tell it to be on ‘standby’ or ‘attack’, and finally the lightning came from my original Cane given it weirdly had a very long electric charge. "No. Sir Raleigh the frog." Mom said. We were all inside our special build debriefing room. "Over the last year, the storms have decreased, and ships are passing somewhat safely. We're going in to find out why and destroy the storm machine." “Cause out of all the Fiendish Five, Raleigh is just spoiled douche canoe.” I frowned. “So let’s go find out why he stopped killing people for funzies and see what’s been going on with him.” "Might be less concerning than we thought." M said, placing down a file. "Apparently, Raleigh's parents drowned in a shipwreck caused by his own storm machine. Might be more regretful, but still, we can't let this opportunity slide." “Yeah...that’ll do it…” I muttered sadly. “So...onto the Welsh Triangle?” "Post haste." Uncle M said. "We don't know how long this window of opportunity will stay open, so we best hurry." We hopped into the sub and off we went. Sailing under the worst of the storms still going on. Once there we got in the van and drove to a location just outside his base entrance. The entire area was near identical to the game, only bigger and more guards.ded. “That’s quite a bit of security.” I said honestly. "Given his tech is one of a kind it makes sense." Carmalita said. Right now it was Sly, Carmalita and myself. We were gonna deactivate the security then drive up to his hideout so scope the place out. "Group it or split up?" "I say we split up." Sly said. "Bro, you check out those freshly washed up shipwrecks by the shoreline. Carmalita you take out the guards and I'll deactivate the security lights and alarms. If I need help I call Bentley." “Sounds simple enough.” I nodded. “But remember...he just lost his parents, who knows what mood he’ll be in once he catches wind of our antics.” "True. But til then, treat this just like our other jobs in Mexico. We'll meet back up by the van once we're all done." With that we split up. The freshly wrecked ships all still filled with cargo crates with a variety of goodies. Food, computers, oil, and a lot of safes. Each safe is held within either money or stocks in various businesses. This is going in my loot room. "Well this is a good start to my haul." I muttered with a smile as I started grabbing everything I could without slowing myself down. "God...if I was part dragon this would be hilarious…" After nabbing everything I could, knocking out some looting guards and placing the rest in a haul for when Matilda's forces get here, I was about to head back when I spotted Mom rush by. She didn't see me and I followed. She snuck around along a climbable section of the back wall. "What's mom doing here?" I muttered to myself, following along quickly as I climbed after her. I followed her, watching as she dodged every guard and security measure before making it to Raleigh's hide out. Once here she actually made her way around the boat, and just behind the hideout was a small government grade boat. Where Matilda waited. “The hell?” I muttered while sneaking up onto the two, trying to get as close as possible to hear their conversation but not get noticed. "So you sure you can fly us up there?" Mom asked. "Center of the storm, and the storm has weakened. Definitely." Matilda said, flapping her wings real quick. "I hope Mz. Ruby's theory holds truth." Mom said. "Given how Voodoo and other magics work and the evidence we do know, it's likely. But if it is true, it's not gonna be fun when we reach Clockwerk." "If it is true I will personally melt that demonic owl into bad art." Mom hissed. "Preach sister." Matilda said, taking hold of mom as she flew the two of them straight up into Raleigh's hideout. “Damn it…” I growled, not knowing a way up there without anything to help. “What the hell is going on?” I muttered while heading back to the Van to find the others. I saw Sly and Carmalita waiting outside the Van already. "Hey Kite. Thought you'd be here first." Carmalita said. “Well I got...distracted.” I said nervously. “Like say...finding Mom getting taken up to Raleigh’s hideout with Matilda...both of whom are way beyond schedule here.” "What?" Sly asked. "Uncle M and Uncle Jim told me what happened way back, and when Mom came back her reaction to Matilda was quote verbal. Why would they be working together. Did you hear them say anything?" “They hope Mz. Ruby’s theory holds true, they have the evidence to prove it correct, and that mom will melt Clockwerk into bad art.” I said honestly. "Well the last part was the only part of that to make sense." Carmalita said. "There's something going on and whatever it is mom either will tell us or doesn't plan on telling anytime soon. Either way if they are already up and confronting Raleigh, then this gives us something else to do." Sly said. "Being?" Carmalita asked. "Full frontal attack. If Mom and Matilda are fighting Raleigh right now then the guards will or are already noticing if he hit an alarm. This gives us the perfect chance to break in and wreck the rest of his operations set up." "It's risky." Bentley said from inside the van. "But this is definitely something that we need to look into."” “And then proceed to steal everything that we can carry without being slowed down, and any and all pages of the Thievius Raccoonus that he has in any safe in the areas.” I said honestly. "Yeah! Let's crash into something!" Murray declared. So we did just that. Crashed the Van right onto the ship hideout deck and knocked some poor guys out cold for the next week. Once out Lana and Muray made quick work of all the deck guards. Carmalita, Sly, Murray, Lana and I all then split up to gather keys that are actually needed! This felt so great. I of course took the Library area, bringing Bentley along. "Are you sure I should be in the field Kite? I can barely do a pull up." He said meekly. “It’s not what you can’t do that I care about.” I said while walking through the place with him. “It’s what you can do that I need. Your the brains of the group, I may be smart but nowhere near you, also, you can immediately tell what is actually wrong with this picture.” I said while motioning to the obvious trap in the library. “Also you help me figure out which of these hundreds of books is worth a crap ton.” "Heh. True, I have kept a list of rare books both of historical value and personal value- Oh my gosh!" Bentley said, rushing over to a shelf. "This is a copy of all of Nicola Tesla's designs signed by the man himself! Most of these were lost to history." "Sounds like your going to have fun reading all of that." I chuckled. "So one book down, hundreds more to go." "Oh I will. Hmm… those globe's are clear traps… I think I can clear the way with my Cane's dart shooter mode." Bentley pushed a button, the cane shifting to a crossbow like design. He took aim, fiering as it broke the globe and dart shooter. "Wow. That's some flimsy security device." "And apparently those were dart guns." I mentioned, motioning to the destroyed dart gun inside the globe as I pointed my Cane as one of the small lightning balls rushed over and destroyed the globe. “This’ll be a lot easier than I thought...a lot easier than the scientist, we actually had to plan that thing out.” “Well we had to be sneaky for that. This time we’re just on a full on assault. Less prep work for the endgame. Especially since at this very moment your mom and Matilda are dealing with Raleigh ahead of schedule. Let’s clear this place out fast then meet back up with the others.” “Even if Raleigh is terrible...I hope they don’t kill him.” I said nervously. “They seemed...pretty pissed.” “I doubt your mother is capable of such an act… Matilda though, while we have known her long, we still don’t completely know the real her. Let’s just hope we can reach there in time.” Bentley and I cleared this place fast and easily. Nabbing any and all books collectable or of historic value we could find along the way. We nabbed the key and I raided the safe. Inside was a page from the Thievius Raccoonus. “Alright, so we’re good on our end, wonder how everyone else is doing.” I wondered as I double checked the page to see if it was different from the game or it was the same. The page detailed yet another unknown from the game cooper. Lord Jet Aphe Cooper, his special technique was unique. Living in the high end society, he knew who and where his less than nobel fellow nobleman kept their wealths, and managed to develop a technique that allowed him to view the fingerprints, turns and impact from touch along buttons in all kinds of safes and passcode vaults, essentially, just by looking at a code pad or turn dial, he could see it’s code for unlocking them and accessing them. “That’s rather interesting…” I muttered to myself while memorizing the page and carefully putting it in my bag. With that page in hand and some loot in our bags, we rushed back to the others. Each had a page and Carmalita got some Blueprints of this place. The next area we got the remaining keys and pages. “Okay, since only Sly, Kite, and Carmalita are able to use the Light Walker Technique, I’ve taken liberty of building these.” Benley said, taking out two large flashlights of sort. “They produce lights just like what you are able to slide and walk along. With these you can cross along or up anything. They’re still just prototypes so, be careful. Their batteries are unstable. Should last you a trip up and down though.” “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “This is quite an invention Bentley.” “It is impressive.” Sly said, setting up the first light trail. Sly, Carmalita and I walked up the light and into the machine. Where we entered was a lot different, more machine and less that mechanical pool thing. “So it’s true then…” We heard mom’s voice echo. “That way.” Sly said as we swiftly bolted. We hid around the corner. Raleigh was beaten purple and blue, mom and Matilda standing in front of him. “Yes, Clockwerk commissioned me to alter his original Blueprints. Why I don’t know, all I do know is that it was urgent.” Raleigh said though labored breathing. “How long ago?” Mom asked. “A month after… after he killed you two. How are you even alive? I remember him biting both your heads off…” “Yeah… I do too. Fun fact, when decapitated, the brain still works for about a minute or so. I saw everything as that monster ate my head, and was conscious long enough to see Conner’s head join me in that metallic box of a stomach Clockwerk has.” She said, shaking. “Do you at least regret it?” “Honestly? No. My only regret is this accursed machine. How can I hold regrets for the death of someone who I had no ties to?” “Yet you hate your own machine for killing your parents?” Matilda asked coldly. “Aiding in your husband's death Violet, that doesn’t even keep me up at night. Never has, being the cause of my own family's death, that is a sin I can feel weigh me down. In the end, your husband was no different to me than the crews of the ships I sink, a stranger.” “And that makes killing easier for you!?” Mom shouted. “Yes. Ignorance and Anger are… two very useful tools when murder is in your job.” “You’ll rot in hell…” Mom walked away, Matilda cuffing Raleigh, injecting him with something that knocked him out. “Come on Violet, your kids will be here soon.” Matilda said, carrying the frog like a sack. “I know… How… how am I going to tell them this…?” “... I dunno.” “Well you can start explaining.” I said while walking out of our hiding spot. “Cause it sounds like you need to explain a lot.” Mom and Matilda both froze, mom keeping her eyes to the ground as she turned to face us. "How… how much did you hear?" “That, as well as you two talking about Mz. Ruby’s theory…” I said while looking at both of them. “What’s going on? We’re a team...and…” I trailed off, not wanting to add what I could only guess how Mz. Ruby’s resurrection spell worked. Mom sighed. "When Mz. Ruby brought me back, she used a very difficult spell. One that is guaranteed success. Unless… unless their soul isn't in the afterlife." "But… dad is dead. How can his soul not have passed on?" Sly asked. “Either Clockwerk still has dad’s soul somehow, or his soul is somewhere wandering around wanting to murder Clockwerk.” I guessed. "More the… prior." Matilda said. "Even if he was a ghost, his soul would have been pulled by the spell. It requires two key things, the body of the dead, no matter how decayed, and a sacrifice from the caster. In Mz. Ruby's case, an Overly, life for a life. She then told me that… when she got my and your father's heads out of there, he was hollow… his brain was removed.” "We had an idea but, we needed to be sure. Raleigh here is a tech wizard, and he confirmed it. He modified Clockwerk's own mechanical body blueprints so…" "All the mechanical shell would need is the brain to function." Mom finished. “So your saying...he swapped his brain with dads?” I asked worriedly. Matilda walked over to me, holding a photo. It was half blurred, but the image of a chrome colored Racoon with blue glowing eye and lights trailed across their body was visible. "That was taken back in Russia a year ago. Rumors say there are at least three, this one included. Clockwerk only ever ate the heads, your dad's brain was missing from his skull, and now this, after Raleigh admitted to altering Clockwerk's body's design to be more… compact. Our theory is that this, or one of the other two, is Conner Cooper, and possibly others Clockwerk killed, preserving their brains would be child's play for him. He revived them, to torture them. Stuck in metallic bodies, unable to sleep, eat, feel. Watching but likely not in control." I stared at Matilda, slowly blinking as a storm started to roll in out of nowhere. “So...you’re saying Clockwerk is torturing dad...even after killing him and who knows how many others?” I asked slowly and carefully, my Cane crackling with magical energy. "Yes. It would explain why Mz. Ruby's spell failed to revive Conner in the first place. In magic, the brain is the link between the body and the soul, so spiritually and physically, your father is alive. My guess, killing your family wasn't enough for Clockwerk, he wants to force them to break their, your, codes of honor. Destroy their souls, their minds, and the world they protected from the shadows. It fits Clockwerk's twisted mindset perfectly." Matilda said, speaking in a low hiss. "I'm sorry Mom, you're going to have to wait on fighting Clockwerk." I growled, Matilda sensing a crap ton of power from me in my rage. "I know…" She said shakily. "But when that day comes… that bird will forever regret having heard the name Cooper." "Oh he well." I growled, thunder booming in the distance. "He will." I growled. “Who are we going after next? Muggshot or Panda King?” "For now you all are benched." Matilda said. "Right now we can easily break into America and what's left of the European government has agreed to join forces in fighting back Clockwerk's forces. You all just got a massive bombshell dropped on you, for now, you just need to process this revolation. I'll work on getting you guys close to Mugshot, Panda King, and then Clockwerk." “It better be quick…” I sighed out. Back home on Cane Island I didn't sleep much. I was wide awake trying to plan out every conceivable way to break apart Clockwerk. A lot of it I would just be using my normal powers, but here, I'm limited to what I can learn… then again… Matilda has a Keyblade, and if I can…maybe my powers aren't as far from reach as I think. “Well...let’s hope this works…” I muttered while getting out of bed and heading off to find Matilda. “Hopefully she’s awake…” I got up, not bothering to sneak as I made my way to Matilda's cottage. Hers was more up the mountain than the rest. Once here I saw her room light on. I walked in and up to her room, seeing her at a desk going over files and photos from several piles of boxes. "Not even trying to be sneaky?" She asked. "You can easily tell where I am from my magic considering I'm not really hiding it. But I'm surprised no one questioned me summoning a storm in pure rage." I said honestly. "So I gotta question...can you give me a Keyblade?" I asked "They think that was all the storm machine. I can, but why should I? Not that I'm picky but giving a Keyblade to an angry kid isn't exactly a smart idea." “Because I won’t take the Keyblade and immediately rush towards Clockwerk.” I said honestly. “I may be mad, but I’m not blinded by rage.” "Even so. Why do you want a Keyblade anyway? They're powerful yes but what are you even planning?" “You know I’m more ancient than I look but I can’t tell you why. So right now it’s that Keyblade’s will help me move...outside the abilities I know and could learn at the moment, and with a Keyblade I can do so much more.” I said honestly. "Are you fucking stupid? You do know there are rules to this kind of shit." “To let another person wield a Keyblade? Yes, yes I do.” I said, considering I was Kingdom Hearts technically I knew all the rules about it. “I don’t want to travel to other worlds, I want to have more at my disposal considering what we’re up against.” "That's also against the rules." She said, "But… you actually don't need to have a Keyblade to learn most of those spells and techniques." “Fine fine.” I rolled my eyes. “But I’m still limited with just this and the magic of this world.” I said while spinning my Cane. “Even if the magic of this world is pretty strong, I don’t know what Clockwerk has to offer.” "True. Between that and these clear off worlders helping him." Matilda huffed. “What off worlders?” I asked quickly and nervously. She tossed me a file. Inside were satellite photos of clear space ships and humans moving cargo in and out of Clockwerk's Volcano base. "I don't know who they are or how they even got here, but what Info knows is that they are the ones who backed up the Klaww Gang and are still backing Clockwerk." ”Motherfucker it is Nexus!” I thought to myself in a panic. “Well...that’s not good.” I said worriedly. "From the photos I got there are a few people of this world working from them. Interestingly enough they were all labeled as dead or missing and assumed dead. This group gives Clockwerk pure gold to use as money and in exchange they get some ores from the area and people he captured as slaves." “That’s not good…” I said worriedly. "No, not at all." “And you still can’t give me a Keyblade because of this sudden revelation?” I asked curiously. "Explaining how you can suddenly summon a giant Key shaped sword isn't exactly ideal… unless…" She pondered. “I mean, we’re all learning about magic so are you telling me that ‘magic’ isn’t a good enough explanation?” I asked curiously. “Also ‘unless’ what?” "I have a crazy idea that might work. And can easily pass for your own magic evolving." “Oh?” I asked curiously. “What do you have in mind?” "I know the location of a Keyblade forge, I can turn your cane into a Keyblade. It will blend in with the world and hide well." “And it’ll still be Cane shaped right?” I asked curiously. "Course. Might gain a hand guard but still stays the same shape." “Sweet.” I nodded with a smile. “That’ll help me a lot.” "Alright then. Off to Wonderland… God I hate this world…" Matilda groaned, summoning her Keyblade and opening a DTL. “You hate this world or you hate Wonderland?” I asked curiously. "Wonderland." We entered the DTL and fell down a tall grass area. We were easily ant sized. "Shit. Gonna have to walk all the way there." “Says the person that could fly us around?” I pointed out. She looked at me, picking up a small rock and throwing it high into the air, suddenly a massive bird flew by above us, snatching the rock up. "Can't fly in this area. I'd prefer not to become bird food." She said as we began walking. “Sounds about right.” I nodded before following along. We walked for a while before reaching a pond, at this size it was massive. She summoned her Keyblade, shooting off a beam of light into the water. The water bubbled up as a white quartz walkway came up, and in the center of the pond was the glowing Keyblade forge. “Lady in the Lake much?” "Better hiding place than the Sky and Moon forges in Skyrim." She said as we walked up to the forge. ”Oh god that takes me back.” I thought to myself, remembering when me and everyone else went around doing stuff and Heart grab the two pieces and take them back to Daybreak. "Alright then. Your cane?" She asked. “Alright.” I nodded while dispelling the ball lightning spell on my Cane and handing it over. Matilda carefully placed it inside the forges fire, the gentle pulsating darkness and bright shining light merging into my cane. She then took a ring that was resting on a side holder and placed it in. She reached in, and took my cane out. The design didn't change much. The only noticeable difference was the keychain that was attached to the base of where my cane and the staff part met. The keychain is a greyish version of the Cooper calling cards. I gently took my Cane, and even though the forge glowed with light and darkness, I still felt the gentle thrum of Nothingness as I spun my Cane. ”Ah, that feels so much better.” I thought to myself warmly. “Thank you Matilda.” I said while giving the bat a quick hug. "Don't thank me just yet." She said, looking behind us. "We've got Company." “Oh?” I wondered while looking to where Matilda was looking, wondering who or what was here. "Well well well, well well." That… that voice! "So this is where that forge has been hiding." Emerging from the tall grass, that familiar blank face mask and purple robe… Core! "About time I finally found one of these again. Started thinking they were all already picked clean." “Who are you, and how did you get here?” I asked, even though Core could oh so easily tell I am not who I first appear to be, I still had to play by the Time Walkers rules. "Oh, just a Heartless man who requires that forge your using. Hmm?" He looked over at me. "Have we met? There is something about your heart that-" Suddenly, he was in front of me, darkness flowing over his hand as he rammed it inside my chest. Yup! Memories! "That feels familiar?" "You let him go!" Matilda yelled, Core easily dodging her attack and tossing her into the water. "You call yourself a Keyblade master? Skills like that you'd barely pass for a trainee." “Leave her alone.” I said coldly to him. “This is between you and me right now...and before you ask, Rules.” I stated before rushing over to see how Matilda was doing. "You act like I should care about those rules, made by those insects who once called themselves masters." Core said, looking at the forge. "No matter, I only came here for the forge. Yellow, send them packing." Matilda and I turned around, seeing Yellow, Unum, there. Memories… "Yes Core." She said, grabbing Matilda and I by the scruffs and tossing us into a DTD. It was a rough landing, but Matilda held onto me so I wasn't hurt. "You okay?" She asked. “Are you okay?” I asked worriedly. "I've taken worse hits." She grunted, the both of us getting up. "Well, at least we didn't get thrown into the realm of darkness." She said, looking around we were in a city of sorts. “But we probably aren’t back home.” I said worriedly, looking around to try and find anything familiar. ”Seriously, the fuck was Core doing there?” I thought to myself worriedly. Looking around I realized this place was… this is The World that Never Was… “So about not being in the Realm of Darkness...I think we’re somewhere just...a tad bit worse.” I said worriedly. “Well, let’s just get home before anything else happens.” She said, summoning her Keyblade and trying to open a DTL. Nothing happened. “What? Is this world cut off or just too dark?” She pondered. “This is...a special world.” I said while looking up into the sky, wondering if I’ll see the fake Kingdom Hearts and the Castle or not. I saw the castle, but now the fake Kingdom Hearts. So they might be here… hmm I wonder, would their versions obey me? ”Well, would they obey me when I have my powers…” I mentally corrected myself. “So about that symbol, know what it is?” I asked while pointing at the Castle symbol. “Hmm. No, it doesn't look familiar. To be honest though until recently I haven’t seen or dealt with much off world threats, still though, it’s hard to tell if that is not meant to be here or is just part of the world?” She said, looking at the giant castle. “Well...how much do you know about Nothingness?” I asked curiously. "Kid, I don't even know where we are let alone what you're talking about." “Jesus Christ whoever taught you either knew jack all or wanted to keep you away from a lot of things…” I muttered to myself while heading forward. “Hey!” She yelled. “Well now.” Oh fuck that’s Xemnas’s voice. “Where did you two come from?” We turned, seeing Xemnas, though he wasn’t wearing the Organization cloak, he was actually wearing something a lot like Young Xehanort from the KH3 cut scenes, but larger for his build. “Um...hi.” I said sheepishly. “We kind of got...thrown here by some bad people. Do you know the way to leave this place?” I asked, cause I’m pretty sure Xemnas knew about other worlds and the like. “There are two ways of leaving this place, the first is not just yet ready, and the second is utilizing DTD’s. Why should I help you, however?” “Well, what do you need?” Matilda asked, standing up. “Maybe we can work a deal or something?” Xemnas seemed to be thinking it over. “I do require assistance, in a project I have been working on. Can either of you use magic?” “That depends on how strong a magic you want.” I said while demonstrating the Ball Lightning spell I’ve developed, which to Xemnas’s trained eye there was a lot into such a spell considering how young I was. “I just need raw mana for a weapon I am forging. The other twelve replica weapons are complete, but this one has proved difficult.” “Replica weapons?” I asked curiously. “What are you replicating?” I asked, lying so convincingly it was actually kind of scary. “That is not of importance. If you allow me to extract your mana, and help complete this weapon, I will open a DTD to your home world… Then again, perhaps not. Most can’t traverse that Darkness without protection. I could supply you with one of our spare Gummi Ships. From there I’m sure you can navigate the lanes between.” “That can work.” Matilda said. “Thank you sir.” I said politely. “This way, and stay close. This world holds… dangerous inhabitants.” We followed Xemnas into the castle. We followed him into a laboratory of sorts that held a lot of high end electronics, eleven of the twelve Nothingness weapons rested along the wall, and the Lexicon, set up on the table with strange wires inside it hooked into some kind of what almost looks like a blood pressure machine. “Well...that’s interesting.” I said honestly. “So how do we help with all of...that?” “Place your arm into the machine there. Once I turn it on, it will extract 80% of your magic and place it into the lexicon to complete it, if one is not enough, the other will take the place of the first and hopefully that will complete it.” “Sounds simple enough.” I said while walking over to the machine. “This won’t hurt right?” “Your arm will get numb, and you will feel exhausted afterwards, but no physical pain during or after the process.” “Alright then.” Matilda said, placing an arm into the machine. Xemnas nodded, pressing a button as mana flowed from Matilda, and into the Lexicon. It was a few minutes before it ended. Matilda did look tired, even yawning as she pulled her arm out. “It needs more sadly. But you did manage to get it nearly complete. It should not take much more.” Xemnas said. “Good… god I feel like I need coffee.” Matilda said. I place my arm into the machine now. “Alright, let’s see how much mana it needs from me…” I hummed. Xemnas turned it on. I did feel a bit tired from this, but it ended fast. Xemnas looked at the Lexicon, taking out the wires and placing it on a small shelf next to the other weapons. “Thank you. Just draining my own mana was taking far too long, and with my other work and resting after sessions, that would have delayed recruitment.” He said, pulling a desk drawer open and taking out a set of keys, tossing them to me. “Heal.” He said, casting a Curiga over Matilda and I. I felt better and Matilda looked much better. “I’ll take you to the hanger, from there you two can take off and leave. Just do me one favor.” “Don’t mention any of this to anyone?” I took a shot in the dark. “Or ever come back. That ship is already pre programmed to delete the location history.” “Sketchy… but alright. Not many options.” Matilda said. After getting to the ship and Flying off Matilda was able to open a DTL for us to go home. Once home she parked the ship where no one would find it, then we went back to our cabins. I collapsed on mine… I forgot how hard some shit could be… “Oh sweet comfy bed…” I sighed happily as I just enjoyed how soft my bed was after all that crap happened. “God...today has just been one thing after another…” I grumbled while wrapping myself in my blanket and drifting off to sleep. In the sleeping world… I think? It didn’t feel like it but eh. I looked at the room we were in. Cript and I were in what looked like a Studio of sorts. It was decorated nicely. And Cript was in my arms, the both of us under a nice fluffy blanket. “Adorable…” I muttered with a smile. “Hm?” Cript asked, getting up a bit. “Hey there lovely.” They said to me, “How are you doing sleepyhead?” I asked warmly. “Good. So, you see Lyra’s new project.” Cript said with a light laugh. I noticed they were wearing Pajamas. “Yeah, this one is… actually interesting.” “Interesting how?” I asked curiously. “How to put it.” Cript said, stretching as they got out of the bed and into the kitchen area. “You know that Childhood sphere? Where we raise the kids in after they get old enough to eat solids. Well, This is similar, but mainly for pairing or grouping. Depends really.” “Oh?” I asked curiously. “So it’s the same thing basically or is there something new to it?” I asked curiously. “Well, rather than raising kids and all that, I mean there is also that and all, it’s more a means of getting to know the whole family. There’s still the massive bedroom where we are all in, and then some like this where it’s you and I, or me and Lyra, or Jericho and Coco, fact is it pairs or groups everyone as to both get to know each other even better, and of course, cause it’s Lyra, sex. In short imagine every possible pairing or grouping for everyone in the family for us, and there is a room kinda like this, or bigger, that does it. This includes fusions of course. Which Lyra immediately began working on. So yeah, this one is just you and me in an apartment like setting. Cozy to me at least.” Cript said, walking over to the kitchen area, starting a coffee machine. “Ah, that makes sense.” I said honestly. “Well we’re going to have infinite amounts of fusions just so you know given how exponential growth works.” “Which Lyra is happy about… God.” Cript said, laughing a little as they began pouring coffee. “Well, that’s something for exploring. Anyway, this one is just you and me to do… whatever really.” “Sounds about right.” I nodded. “So uh...status update on my adventures, so currently Clockwerk is...currently torturing people in new robot bodies for the fuck of it, I had my Cane turned into a Keyblade, I met Core, and then met Xemnas at the World that Never Was and helped make Book of Retribution.” Cript nearly did a spit take of their coffee. “Well shit. You’ve been busy.” They said, walking over with a cup for me. “Yes, I have, and when I hit the bed I was oh so thankful for how comfy it and my blanket was.” I chuckled while taking the cup. “So it’s been...very busy for me, oh and Nexus is in fact helping Clockwerk, and is apparently helping the Klaww Gang...which is going to revolve around the second game sadly.” “Shit. Shouldn't be surprised but damn. So, putting ‘work’ aside, how should we spend our time?” “Cuddles and TV?” I asked curiously. “Couch or bed then?” Cript asked. “Bed, cause it’s really comfy.” I said honestly. “Fair enough.” Cript said, chugging their mug of coffee before jumping back into the bed next to me. They clapped their hands, blinds closing as a TV floated at the foot of the bed and turned on, showing a documentary on… Is that a giraffe turtle? “A giraffe turtle?” I asked curiously. “What’s the documentary about?” “They’re called Galturkles. They’re basically the penguins of this one world filled with weird combination animals.” Cript said, cuddled up next to me. “That sounds silly and kind of adorable.” I chuckled. “Yeah, well when an entire multiverse’s worth of tv is available to watch, we can always find something interesting to watch.” “Sounds about right.” I nodded while sipping some of my coffee and cuddling up to Cript more. “I have to admit, as far as ideas this is one of Lyra’s more wholesome ones.” Cript said. “Normally they’re all sex related. While this one is too kinda, it’s nice to just be able to enjoy the company of one another.” “Yeah, while the sex is fine someties I’d rather just spend time with someone like a normal person.” I said honestly. “Heh.” Cript smiled. “So, wanna keep watching this documentary or see what Multiverse TV is like. And FYI, there are some that are a lot like how Rick and Morty showed it.” “Well, I wouldn't mind watching the rest of this, I’m curious about other races and animals.” I said honestly. “Thinking about Hunting?” Cript asked. “Den actually is working on something for those in the family, spouse and child, to train about hunting.” “That sounds nice.” I said warmly. “Hunting is really fun.” “Well, once it’s ready she’ll tell you. Actually, from how this world works, or whatever this is, there should be one or a few with just you and Den. Wanna spend some time with her for a bit, I mean, starfish clones you already are, but you know, story perspective for the readers.” “Sure, I’d like to spend some time with Den.” I said with a warm smile. “Shift perspective then.” This room is a lot like the one with Cript and I, but this time, I was holding Den. I have to admit, this family and relationships are strange, but nice. “Morning pup.” Den said warmly. “Morning.” I smiled and nuzzled Den. “How are you doing?” “Good.” She said, sitting up. Her pajamas were a bright pink. Ithen realized Iwas wearing some two, a light blue set. “So, what brings you here, heh, then again you know how Lyra set this special reality inside the safe zone up, Cript told you.” She said, giving me a lick across my head. “Because I wanted to spend some time with you.” I chuckled. “I’ve spent a lot of time with Cript, and now it’s onto you.” “And others of course. So, wanna do anything? Questions?” “Well...even though I’ve already heard you were really happy and proud of me...what do you think of me being a Den Mother?” I asked curiously. “I’m just wondering what you truly thought about it.” “Well, the extra boobs are nice. Heh, and all in all, it’s not too different from how I was before, just larger and more fertile mostly.” “Sounds about right.” I nodded. “What do you think of the Fusions happening right now?” “I think you just gave Lyra a new set of ideas and all that involve new family members and such. Mama Russia is nice, a woman I can relate too in priorities.” “Even if she’s going a tad overboard with making everyone like...a good foot taller and at least two sizes bigger in places?” I asked curiously. “King, as mothers, Den mothers especially, I could do the same without question or regrets, I don’t because I only have so many tits, and none inside a special holding belly.” “Okay okay.” I said, “I understand...even though technically you could get that special holding belly because of racial traits. Seriously, the new skill trees are wonderful.” “Oh? Thanks for the tip, I forgot about the new Skill Tree system.” “Yeah, it’s how I have a bunch of other racial abilities from Equestrians, Floof Noodle, and many, many others.” I said honestly. “Impressive. Well then, got any questions about my little project?” “Well, is it just a single world with many different area’s or is it multiple worlds to hunt in?” I asked curiously. “Well… It’s sorta it’s own Realm, I am an admin after all. It’s a replica of each world, form each of its main areas with endless spawning prey, and other such animals to hunt. No sentient life, and each world is connected via bridges. Though there are also alternate dimensions and such that are linked via portals in each world. It’s a massive, endless hunting ground. It will be fun.” “It does sound really fun.” I said with a smile. “I haven’t really done a full hunt in a while, so that’ll be a nice change of pace.” “Thought so. It’s not done just yet. Cript helped me with the general coding and such, just waiting for it to generate. Should only take a week.” “That’s cool.” I nodded. “Can’t wait to explore that new Realm.” “Yeah. Best part, it’s here in the safe zone too. Cript learned you can create an entire realm within a pocket dimension. Since the RADIST is basically a Pocket Dimension, making another one inside of it isn’t hard, and all in all it takes up about the same space Storage drive much. Actually, did you learn about how the Storage Drive holds data? Cript told me about how Lord learned how it stores the data.” “I have been trying to figure that out but sadly nothing much besides how it would normally work for a computer.” I said honestly. “From what Cript said, that’s not so far off. Lord learned it stores all this complex data and physical reality by storing it and generating it in a special compressed format he calls LINE Format. Things like the code itself, us, the reality, and time are all saved in this format, and he says that even someone with a complex data and file set as Cript, in computer terms, it’s about a four Bits, the smallest data size from way back when computers were made. He says the largest file saved is actually Time itself, about roughly sixty two thousand Terabites. Compared to everything else, Time itself takes up much more space, almost as much as Grey.” “So why hasn’t anyone just decided to upgrade the storage space again?” I asked curiously “From what I understood, Cript and Lord both said an Admin can not upgrade the physical hardware, just the in storage data. Hence Cript’s idea for breaking time. It deletes the data but keeps the people, places and all that data, which will drop to barely five gigabytes.” “Jesus hell that’s small.” I blinked. “Yeah. Apparently time is stored but still in use, it’s what makes time travel possible still. It’s like… a VHS tape, you can move forewards and back, cause it’s all already pre generated. Actions, scripts and of course it’s existence all there, but if you remove the audio, effects and keep just the pictures, it’s much less of the original tape. By removing time you remove the biggest and more space consuming data, but in that same boat, you lose time travel.” “Sounds about right.” I nodded. “So how soon will the whole...breaking time happen for Cript?” "Not sure honestly. Lord did find something interesting when investigating the save information though. When he found how Grey is saved, it's a whole different format. He called it MFP. Dunno why that is, but he said Grey acts like a program, a lot like how creation works." Den said. "Well...that makes sense given what it is." I said honestly. "Still, if it's a program like this reality, it has to be making something other than just energy, right?" "Sounds about right." I nodded. "Everything's got a purpose." "So… what is it making aside from energy?" "Data." I said, "Given were inside a computer, it makes sense everything would be data."" "True, but Data of what?" Den wondered for a bit, then gave a sigh. "Guess it's one thing at a time first. So, wanna watch TV or play games?" “We’ll figure it out later.” I said honestly. “But what games do you want to play?” "There's a bunch, and I've only really ever played Minecraft and Duck Hunt." “Den, I am going to show you the mystical wonders that is video games.” I said with a smile as I clapped my hands as an NES appeared. “And we’re going to start all the way back to the original Super Mario.” 9 Dream/sleeping/time displacement days (2 ½ hours waking world/stable time) Later “Alright, so now onto the Gamecube, Playstation 2, and Xbox.” I said while bringing up those three consols. “As well as the Gameboy Advanced.” I said, “Also...I forgot how many JRPG’s I played as a kid...I thought there were like four or five...not like six or ten.” I said sheepishly. "Heh, well there are a lot, and each one is in some way and shape a world out there." Den said, several books of notes at her side. "I remember the ps2 had a ton of games for it." “Honestly it has too many.” I said honestly. “So, which one do you want to start? I’m partial to the Gamecube cause a lot of my favorite games are on there.” "I don't know really-" There was a sudden, audible Ding noise. "My realm is done!" Den said happily. “Oh, that’s great.” I said happily. "Let's send some clones over." She said, a small portal opening before us. Den pricked a finger with her own claw, dropping the blood in the portal as I did the same. "We can go hunting and gaming here." She said happily. I nodded while pricking my finger and letting a clone of myself off with Den to hunt happily. “I’m sure the hunt will be fun.” Den's realm was amazing. From the view I could see the other worlds, the bridges connecting them, and all they prey and huntable animals all around. Den was happily attacking a T-rex, the giant beast losing horribly as Den now feasted. I was facing down a Triceratops, who proceeded to charge at me only for me to leap up, bite one of it’s horns and proceed to flip it over and slam it into the ground, diving on top of it and feasting to my heart's content. I ate all the meat, and bones. Symbi with her modifications to my body allowed me to digest it all as fast as I ate it. My body doesn’t need food or even mana at all. So she converts the matter and energy from what I eat into some other raw materials that get placed in my storage. After this Triceratops, I got sixteen Calcium Ores, basically bones but in ore form, and Blood Stones. Self explanatory. “Well this is a little interesting…” I hummed, curious as to why she decided to add a loot system to this Realm. I ran along, finding a bear and chowing down, a giant Salmon Fish and ate it all happily. As I ran along, finding a hippo, I was about to pounce, but didn’t, someone else jumping at it first… Hey, is that… Jenny? “Jenny?” I asked curiously. She looked up. Jenny’s Feral form was… I haven’t seen her in a feral form before. Her griffon wings were large and folded on her back, back legs like a lion, front like a massive bird, and body and head of a Dire wolf… A Den Mother Dire wolf. “Dad?” She asked, looking at me with a hippo leg in her mouth. “Yeah, that’s you.” I chuckled while walking over and gently nuzzling Jenny. “How are you doing?” “Good. Two things, one, this place is cool, and feral form is also cool. Also, Joy, myself and the others are all in this thing with you, so… guess you’re my daddy hubby~” She said, elbowing me with a laugh. “I know I know.” I chuckled. “I’ll still need to get used to some of these things but you're still my wonderful daughter.” I smiled with pride. “Til you bend me over, rutt my insides into my head and I birth your first litter while Joy and the others watch in the corner.” She said bluntly “Don’t tempt me.” I joked. “But I’m glad you're doing good Jenny...been pretty busy with a lot of things I haven’t gotten around to more family stuff until now.” “I’ve mostly just been screwing around, literally and in the sense as I’ve not been doing much.” “Sounds about right.” I nodded. “How’s Joy and co doing?” I asked. “Joy, since becoming a Den mother also, has been glued to the nursery. Sweetie Bell, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo since gaining Alicorn features have been messing with those, Gabby helps with Griffinstone and all that, Lovely has been learning all about Conduit powers from Delson. All in all going pretty well. All I do in my spare time aside from sex is snipe at the front lines.” “I’m a little surprised you haven’t been forcing the Front line in our favor.” I said honestly. “I know you are strong enough to do it.” “Yeah, fighting for an army is different for me. Normally I’m shooting at the government, not for the government. But Nothingness infused bullets from a cannon rifle that gave Seras Victoria an orgasem from looking at it helps deal damage to the bigger Void Beasts.” “Bitches love Cannons after all.” I chuckled. “That she does, and so do I. I even shot that Ben Ten bad guy Vilgax. Asshole dodged but I got his leg.” “Please tell me that bullet can be traced.” I said hopefully. “Sorry, I don’t use Tracer bullets.” “Damn it.” I growled. “I need to capture, and promptly torture every single bit of information out of him, and enjoy it way too much so I can find Void Key and make him wish he was never created to begin with.” “Huh. Well Vilgax, and sometimes his clones, walk around the front lines often. Mostly his clones since I shot him.” “Oh he has clones?” I asked. “Yup. Spoild’s work, Numbers tattooed along their body. I know I shot the original though, lately her clones all wear the same white jumpsuits, numbers either on the clones skin or the suit, and this Vilgax wore what he wore from classic Ben Ten show.” Jenny said, finishing the leg and not biting into the head of the hippo. “And from what I remember, Spoild’s clones probably wouldn’t know anything, even if I could come up with something that gets me to Vilgax proper.” I sighed out. “Capture a few anyways, I just want to torture the fucker since he’s Void Key’s right hand.” “Huh, guess I can try out those capture bullets then.” Jenny said, scarfing down half the hippo’s head. “Thank you.” I nodded. “Seriously, even if I’m getting the proper directions from the Quest...I still want to murder Void Key.” “Given what he did to Coco, not surprised. So, wanna head back to hunting prey? I think I saw Heart up by the river.” “Yes please.” I said happily. “I haven’t hunted in a while, so this helps me get some well deserved stretching.” As Jenny finished and snagged another Hippo, I headed up the river, finding Heart as Jenny said. While they were, actually, they were naked, but I guess they don’t have a feral form. They were spring attacking the water, nabbing fish and adding to a fair sized pile they had already behind them. “Hello there my fluffy snake.” I said with a warm smile. They looked up seeing me and smiled. “Hey King.” They said, coiling up to sit on their own snake half body. “This place is cool, and from what I read about Floof Noodles from that book we got from that library, I thought I’d give hunting a try.” “How’s hunting working out for ya?” I asked curiously. “Well, according to that book, Floof Noodles mainly hunt in two ways, spring out like I was doing for fish, and crushing strangulation for larger prey. I’ve mostly just been trying the spring thing.” “So either act like a springtrap for fish, or act like a Boa Constrictor huh?” I hummed curiously. “Well that or slither up to/along their body and start eating them whole and alive. Floof Noodle/Naga jaws are meant to unhinge, not chomp down, at least not hard. While mine can more easily break bones trying to do that to something bigger in my bite will force my jaw to unhinge. Also, naked because everyone else is.” “That’s because everyone else is in their feral forms.” I said honestly. “Well sadly floof noodles do not have feral forms.” At that moment we saw Mama Russia jump from someplace into the water, pulling out a giant fish from deeper in the water, compared to her size though it was more like a large puddle, and ate it. “She’s also very nice.” Heart said, pointing at Mama Russia. “I mean, she really is.” I said honestly. “Still don’t know why she has that russian accent though…” “Hmm, she’s part Kexez right?” “She’s me, Kexez and Jericho.” I said honestly. “What? You're saying your part Russian or something?’ “My family is literally from all parts of the world. Yes I am. I’m part every race back on earth. Speaking of, where did Kexez go?” Heart asked, looking around. “I came here with them for some bonding and a lot of talking.” “No idea…” I said while looking around as well. “They shouldn’t be too hard to miss…” A bit of looking around I spotted Kexez in the water, swimming around and attacking Crocodiles. “Huh, that’s impressive.” Heart said. “Impressive indeed.” I said honestly. “Oh, did you see the giant Battle Arena above the Castle?” “Yeah I saw it. Surprised to see it. You know, I used to hate hunting, now it’s kinda fun. Granted, I’m not eating that raw.” Heart pointed a thumb at their pile of fish. “Taste wise it’s okay for me, I just prefer to cook.” “Yeah, nothing beats cooked food, but raw...well it’s been weirdly good ever since I got like this.” I said honestly. “Eh, biology I guess.” Heart shrugged. “Symbi is fun to talk with. Kinda nice knowing I’m not alone, when I go anywhere alone.” “That is both nice...but also creepy when you say it like that.” I said honestly. “Heh. I actually did ask her if I fused with Jericho and Coco would that fusion be a Symbi too, she said likely. Gonna try that fusion thing out at some point.” “Yeah so just by exponential growth we have a literal infinite amount of fusion combinations…” I brought up. “And then there’s the fact that, even if we’re all technically fused together...some fusions are just downright stronger in every way possible…” “Heh, well it’s definitely something. I’m gonna start making a fire now. If you hunt anything you wanna cook, let me know.” “Alright.” I nodded while nuzzling Heart happily. Heart gave me a tight full body hug. Once they did I ran off, sniffing around then rushing up along one of the bridges to the other worlds. The world I ran onto must be Equestrian, because there was Ursa Majors and Manticores and the general terrain was the same, just minus the buildings and all that. “God...it’s been ages…” I muttered while just enjoying the landscape of Equestria. “After everything that happened...god it’s been a while…” I was kind of at a loss for words at how nostalgic it felt to be in a simple Equestrian environment after all this time. As I walked around, enjoying the local magical wildlife, some of the fruits and all that too, enjoying everything. I came to the area where Ponyville would be, lots of bears, rabbits, deers, all that tasty meat. “I know this is a Hunting Realm but...I wonder if any Equestrian residents are just hanging out here?” I wondered to myself. I ran around, sniffing and searching but found nothing. Not a single pony, griffon, zebra, or even yak. No life that would be of intelligence on an Equestrian world though. Either way, I continued my run, hunting the smaller prey and enjoying all the new tastes and smells. “This is nice.” I said happily. I ran along to the next world over the bridge. This one was a thick jungle filled with strange animals I've never seen before. I nabbed this flying… thing and it tasted a lot like a bear but mixed with fish. “Okay this world is...weird.” I started. “Foods good though.” I hunted here for a while longer, finding this world had animals made plants. They were interesting, like veggies, or fruits, mixed with various meats. This one flower bear thing had a taste I've never had before. It's not bad, kinda tangy. “Well, this is interesting.” I said honestly. “Wonder if they have anything to do with the plant people I made a while ago?” As I happily ate away, I heard the bowel of someone else. I didn't quite recognize them. Running along towards them I saw a Dire wolf, like all of us, a Den Mother, eating at this… Elephant… turtle… monkey thing. Wait… Memories from raising her in the Childhood time bubble came back… Nancy. “Dear lord how you’ve grown.” I said warmly while walking over to Nancy. “How are you doing Nancy?” She looked over at me. No longer the angry pup who hated me. Even so, once she turned one her memories from her life as a Ventral, but she was now just Nancy, my daughter and skilled fighter. Despite being part Equine from her mom Rarity, she was more dire wolf, only her ears looked pony, though she did develop a natural hair streak of color from Rarity along her head and tail. She walked over to me, nuzzling me happily and placing that… was that a heart? She placed it down. "Hi Papa." She said happily. “How’s my wonderful daughter doing?” I asked lovingly. "Papa, I'm the same gender as you. But I'm doing well. Mostly I've been studying and all that." Right, heh, just like her old life, she wants to be a baker. "Making pastries with the milk this family makes, they might as well be potions I swear." “You still call me papa even though I’m both genders.” I pointed out. “And yes, baking in this family has blurred the line between ‘are we just making pastries or ambrosia?’.” I chuckled. "Well, my earliest memories you were still only a male, it just feels right. And yes these "pastries" range from believable to up right cursed I swear." “Cursed? I don’t remember them being cursed.” I said honestly. “You’ve never baked using Mama Jericho’s milk then.” “I have barely baked to begin with.” I said honestly. “Well, one muffin baked with Mama Jericho’s milk turned Mama Derpy into a… Well, let’s just say we have few… trillion new asteroids in space now. They were all lifeless worlds, thankfully.” “What?” I asked slowly. “Yeah apparently for kids, it’s harmless, but for adults it makes your Lunatic Berzerk mode look like a temper tantrum. That said, here.” From her Assistant, Nancy pulled out a basket of muffins. “Something tells me you can make better use of those nukes in pastry form.” “Um...sure.” I said while taking the basket and putting it into my Assistant to hold. “That said, there’s others that were just funny or made sense. Mama Twilight’s milk when baked into a pastry boosts the eaters intelligence by a crazy ammout, as well as their mana reserves, Mama Rarity’s milk increases ones attractiveness to the opposite sex, or in our case, all sexes. Yours actually boost milk production in pregnant and nursing moms.” “Well that’s interesting.” I said honestly. “Yeah. Yours and Twilights are my best sellers so far.” “Yeah, that sounds right.” I nodded. “Hopefully everyone else’s milk is fine enough to use.” “Most are, actually a lot of people just wanna buy the milk bottled. As such I’ve been… heh, building a milking farm for everyone…” Nancy said awkwardly. “Basically a massive building, lots of starfish clones of everyone, massive tanks for the milk for each, and a lot of breast pumps. When I sold a bottle of your milk Papa, they legit paid me over ten thousand rem for one bottle! Then they wanted mine. To be honest it’s all kinda weird but eh, people have their tastes and fetishes.” “It’s not really a fetish cause this has been a thing way before any of this started. Back when I first got to Equestria, people were using breast milk instead of cow milk cause Breast Milk was, and I suppose is, a more ready source.” “Well either way, I spoke with Cript, since they actually cover the kingdoms market and they did say if the crown sold its own milk, given popularity of individuals and all that, would be a bestseller, and since we produce endlessly, can sell it for super cheap. So while the milk barn gets built back in the safe room my little pastry shop is making due with like ten clones of myself working 24/7 and milking each other for sales. Heh, at least business is good.” “I’m so proud of you.” I said while nuzzling Nancy happily. “Aww thanks papa.” Nancy said, planting a kiss right on my lips… right, this is normal… still, awkward. “You’re welcome my daughter.” I said warmly. “I’ll see you around papa, and stop by my shop, pretty sure if you showed up business would go crazy.” With that we went in different ways to keep hunting. As I ran along, Isaw this flash. Surprised I headed towards that way. I found… Dinky! Dinky… right, I remember… The Hero’s Tomb… she’s the Admin of Life, Vincent’s other half, and doesn’t even know it... “Hey Dinky.” I said while walking over to her. “How you doing?” She looked over to me, still in her pony/wolf form. No feral form. “Hey dad. Sorry I didn’t say I was home but I’m mostly here for studies. When Mama Den made this and brought back a lot of extinct life, I'm here to catalog and study them.” “That’s good.” I nodded with a warm smile. “How’s work been?” “Pretty good. I actually met someone.” “And...who would that be?” I asked slowly. “His name is Conner, a bit older but really smart and kind. He’s actually a sinor.” “That’s...great.” I said, not sure how to explain it to her given what I know. “But if there’s anything weird with him, come to me okay?” “Heh, the only thing weird about him is his hair color choice. Seriously, dyed Camo Blue. Heh, has no taste in fashion.” “Well then...when am I going to meet him?” “I have some vacation days coming up in a month, maybe then? Though it’s a little soon dad, we’ve only been dating for two months… or is it late? First boyfriend so I’m not really sure when soor and late are…” “I’d say that’s a little late.” I said honestly. “Is there any noticeable quirks about him besides his fashion sense?” “Not really, aside from his intelligence. But that makes sense, this school isn’t exactly one any rich kid can cash out to enter, you either have the brains for it or not.” “Yeah that makes sense.” I said honestly. “I met him in my Advanced Biology class. He forgot his books and we just shared one and copied one anothers notes. He realized that despite being a freshman I had the smarts of a sinor, and I was interested in his applications into Biotech for reviving long since extinct or dying animals. Hence why I'm here, plenty of data and DNA samples to construct with.” “Cool.” I nodded. “I’m sure your research will lead to great things.” “Heh, that’s the idea.” Dinky said with a smile. “So… can you not… hunt around here for the next few hours? I’d rather not lose valuable specimens.” “Alright, I won’t hunt around here for a bit.” I said honestly, gently nuzzling Dinky. “I’m glad you're doing well in your studies.” “Glad to be studying. Heh, sound like such a nerd saying that.” I left Dinky to her work, still worried about this Conner is Vincent. Even so, I’ll have to ask the Time Walkers, assuming they tell me anything. Oh shit I gotta wake up now. “Bro… Bro!” Sly yelled in my ear. “No need to shout…” I grumbled while waking. “Just give me five more minutes…” I groaned while rolling away from Sly. “I’m too comfy…” “Uh… I can see that…” Confused, I opened my eyes… only to find I was in Matilda’s arms, my head resting just below their breasts. “Do I even wanna know or…?” “I fell asleep in my own bed without her here…” I blushed brightly. “Uh...why is Matilda here?” I asked nervously. “That’s what I wanna know… and before mom gets here.” “Hm?” Matilda said, waking up and stretching. “Wait… I swore I…” Her face then blushed bright when she saw me and that this was my cottage. She then bolted out the window. “Well… what was that about?” Sly asked. “Now listen...I’m not saying I can’t at least try to get two girlfriends.” I said slowly and nervously. Sly just gave me a deadpan look. “I’m gonna pretend I did not just hear my baby brother say that. In any case, at least I’m not the only one who woke up in a girl's arms.” They said, blushing as they scratched the back of their head. “How fluffy was Carmalita’s tail?” I teased. “Well, wait, no no no, I was a gentleman about it. She came into my cottage to check on me and… I Was just crying after… yesterday's discovery. She ended up with me all night and in the morning. Nothing happened, just some cuddling. Though we did agree to try it again. That being said, it’s almost mid afternoon baby bro, and you are lucky I Showed up here and not mom, she’d have strangled Matilda if she found you two like that.” “We were just cuddling after...yesterday…” I sighed out. “I couldn’t really go to Lana cause her dad would have snapped at me...so Matilda was here at least…” I said while getting out of bed and stretching. “Heh, well in any case I guess it helped both of us a bit, though if mom finds out she will kill you both.” Sly said with a laugh. “Also, you are still chasing after Lana, I don’t think she’s into you.” “Well...it’s either me, or I help Murray get a girlfriend.” I said honestly. “Given how those two are around each other and they’ve basically trained the most together.” I pointed out logically. “True, given they are both heavy lifters.” Sly said. “Well, it’s the afternoon already, best head on out and maybe later on you and Matilda should have a talk. Given what just happened.” “Really should…” I said nervously. “So, we heading to Muggshot or Panda King next?” I asked curiously. “Not for a while first. For now, we let Matilda and the rebels do their thing, and once they are close we get sent in. Hey, give us time to do stuff.” “Like train, hang out, and a lot of other things.” I said honestly. “And date, well, yeah and date.” Sly said with a chuckle. With a laugh we headed out. I was starving and most of today was spent training and thinking. Though later I did sneak back over to Matilda’s to see why she was in my bed and all that. She was in her cottage, like last night with paperwork at her desk. “So…” I started while entering her cottage. “Mind uh...explaining why you were in my bed?” She stiffened up. “Heh… well… With all that happened at Raleigh’s and then last night with all that… it was a lot to process and I wanted to make sure you were actually asleep and not doing god knows what with your new Keyblade. I saw you were sleeping and just… I remember thinking you looked a lot like Conner, your dad. After that… I guess I fell asleep there.” “As long as you didn’t do anything weird to me in my sleep.” I said simply. “N-No no no! Nothing like that!” She said, panicked before sighing. “I really did love your dad. And I know what I did to your mom and such was… is unforgivable, I’ve made my peace with that… still, thinking about Conner just… it hurts. I always wanted to tell him properly how I felt, but after what I did he hated me as much as everyone else, and he was justified in that. I’ve kept these emotions buried ever since he died, and now I see that… I guess I finally reached my breaking point.” I gently moved over and put a consoling hand on her shoulder. “I understand…” I said gently. “But...I’m at least here, and hopefully mom won’t snap at me…” “Heh, she’ll snap at me before you. Even so, you’re so young. Fuck I’m old enough to be your mom and even though you are aparently older than you say, or whatever or however you are works, all I know is that now, you are a child, and you are Violet and Conner Coopers son. It would not be right regardless.” “We’ll work through it.” I said simply. “It doesn’t have to be now, but it’ll happen later. I’m my own person who can be with whoever I want.” “Heh, you’re sweet but no. I promised I’d keep you safe, nothing less… and nothing more.” She said, taking my hand off her. To be continued... Author's Note Alright so quick note. I will be going on Hiatus after this to give some time to make a lot more chapters, as well as give people time to work on their stories to catch up after a long time of not working. Also it'll maybe give me a chance to work on some other stories I've been putting off for a long time...probably not but I can at least hope. Nobody hangs outAfter my talk with Matilda I went to bed, waking up back with the family at home. Today I was spending time with Coco, she and I in our personal room in the safe room. She was in an adorable blue onesie and I was in the same PJ's as the other rooms. We ate a nice breakfast before checking the TV, both on the couch watching tournaments on TV. “This is nice.” I said softly, loving my time with Coco. "Yeah. Thanks for watching these with me. I normally don't like sports but combat tournaments are always something I can enjoy. See those two?" Looking at the TV, there was Hearts Doom Guy, I knew it was his cause of his Keyblade, and a female dressed in similar armor to his. "Gutz and Glory, or so they go by. They've been dominating the Survival tournaments for the past month." “You know, they could just say she’s Female Doom Guy.” I said honestly. "Yeah, but Gutz and Glory sound way better as a team name. Besides, as far as anyone knows Glory isn't actually a reflection or female version of Gutz at all. Fact is she popped in out of nowhere with him and they've just been owning the tournaments." “That’s not concerning at all.” I said nervously. “Like...a person that just magically appears out of nowhere and isn’t their reflection is a tad weird.” "Well, kinda but these tournaments perform background checks and everything. If she wasn't someone to trust then they would have never allowed her into the tournaments. Only thing anyone does know about her is that, like Gutz, she rarely ever takes the helmet off, and is human." “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “Good to know that there isn’t any other weird thing about her...maybe, who knows.” I shrugged. "...You wanna investigate, don't you?" “I mean...I don’t have to, given that she’s already seen as a good enough person...sorry.” I said sheepishly. "Heh. Mama to the family and citizens I see." Coco said with a laugh, opening her assistant up. "If it helps all the Pinkie Pies are in charge of kingdom entertainment, including the tournaments. I can ask one of them to get her file for us to ease your mind." “Thank you.” I said gently. After a hot minute Pinkie sent over the file, as well as a dozen cupcakes. While eating one I read the file over. Glory's real name was Rebecca Alitone. From Cript's realm, served ten years in Freak Inc military in the peace keeper section in hell itself, helping the current King of hell Adam properly establish his rule way back when freak Inc was young. Explains why she and Gutz are a team then, mutual hatred of hell. “Alright, that sounds interesting.” I said honestly. "Heh. And you were worried." Coco said, leaning into me. "So, wanna snack? We got every option." “I worry about a lot of things.” I said honestly. “And yes, I want to snack a lot.” Coco pulled out a good sized buffet of junk food stuff and we ate and watched the tournaments Carnage. Apparently the record is still held by me, so these two are going after it. “I still need to rebeat my record, albeit it’s kind of cheating when I basically made a self sustaining city in that crap.” I said honestly. "It is. But they kept it there as only people in the family could have pulled that off and it was in a family tournament." Coco said, sipping a slurpee. "I hear the rewards this time around are really good." “Oh? What are the rewards?” I asked curiously. "First prize is your own custom planet. Second is a Kelvolte spaceship. Those are the newest models, fast, armed to the teeth and outfitted for nearly every occasion. Lastly is a wish card. One free wish of your choice, within reason." “Cool.” I nodded. “And where does all the loot that appears when you kill the Shadow Creatures?” I asked curiously. “Cause last time I was in the arena, I...accidentally melted a good chunk of it all when making that habitat.” "Drop storages. Just holds them till you win or lose. So even the losers leave with something." “Cool.” I nodded. “Still wonder how long I could have let it go before ending it.” "Knowing you, likely forever." Coco said, taking a bite of cake. "God the best part of this crazy family and crazier bodies is being able to eat like shit and never gain a pound." “That is also true.” I said while scarfing down chips. “And even if we did gain weight it would probably just go straight to the right places.” "Or the babies. Never would have guessed being forever pregnant would also be enjoyable." “Yeah, it’s a nice thing.” I said honestly. “And this is coming from a Den Mother who always prides themselves in bearing children.” "Heh. Yeah." "Plus...Mama Russia has been making everyone a lot bigger…" I said sheepishly, before that fusion I was about as tall as Den, maybe a little shorter, and stacked and thick as hell...and Russia made me a good foot taller and even more stacked. "Like seriously, I grew an extra foot, went up a cup and a half for each set and I'm pretty sure my ass can now cause small earthquakes…"…” "You're talking to the girl she turned into a giant. Trust me, I know. Though I can't deny, her insides are nice. Soft, almost silk like and molds to your body perfectly. Makes sleeping so freaking easy." “Yes, it is stupid comfy in there.” I agreed. "Hmm. Don't tempt me to see how yours is for a while." Coco said, laying across my lap now. "Being a mutant admin is the best. And fuck those Puritens for saying otherwise." “Okay seriously, given how everything’s been going I’m surprised there’s still people like that out there.” I said honestly. "Big reality, lots of idiots." Coco said, curling up against me. "Already from what Leon says they founded their own kingdom separate from ours. We're keeping eyes on them, it's likely Nexus will try and reach out. As is though they just want isolation for now." “Well, let’s just hope Nexus doesn’t get to them...giving them space is fine, but they better not try to be those assholes…” I growled. "Hopefully it won't go there. So, aside from wife's and such, how many of the kids have you met? You are both a wife and child of this family after all." “There are still so many…” I sighed out. “I haven’t met all of them, and I’ve had a good amount of my clones spending time with each of them.” "Even Ciel?" Ah yes… Ciel. The one who actively tries to avoid me like the plague. “He keeps trying to avoid me like I’m the plague for some reason and I don’t know why.” I sighed out. "Do you even know what he does at least?" “Not really.” I sighed out. “I think I was told one time but I don’t remember sadly.” "If you really wanna know, talk to Adagio Dazzle, she's his biological mom when he joined the family." “Alright, I’ll give it a try.” I nodded. “Let’s just hope she also doesn’t try to avoid me.” Adagio and I also had our own private room. But she was nice, as expected loved music and was helping me work on vocal notes when using Arpeggio. “So uh...mind if I ask a question?” I asked in between our singing practice. "Hm?" She replied. She wore more… housewife attire. A simple dark blue blouse that reached her knees. Her hair was also brushed flat and back. “So uh...why is Ciel keeping away from me like I’m the plague?” I asked curiously. "Oh? That. Heh, don't take it too personally, he keeps just about everyone away. Only people he really opens up to are Ceiot and I. For the most part I think he does it because of his work." “And what’s his work? Is it back from his original world or something else?” I asked curiously. "Basically. Keep’s the underworld in check. Don't know why he went back to it, never told me why." “Maybe because of his past?” I suggested. “But...It’s a little understandable why he does it with you, given your Ciel’s mother, and Seba-er, Ceiot.” I corrected myself on that demon’s name. “I’d like to know why but he keeps brushing me off…” "Funny enough he doesn't even use Sebastian anymore. Not since Cript took him in, and Sebastian, making them both half demons. These days Sebastian is still a Butler but working for Cript. Heh, his house is flooded with cats." “And..now I’m slightly confused...I thought Ceiot was Sebation’s new or real name…” I said nervously. "But now he prefers Sebastian." “It is a better name.” I said honestly. "In any case his office is at his estate. His world is a part of this one. I can give you the coordinates address, if you want?" “I wouldn’t mind...just want to learn more about the family instead of being avoided…” I sighed out. She gave me the location address and we went back to practice while I also went to go see Ciel. His manner was just like the anime. Not all that different aside from some modern features here and there. I entered. The inside was a bit different. Most of the paintings were all gone, replaced with either maps or bounty's. Many crossed out in red paint. "What are you doing here?" I turned, Ciel was dressed in his typical suit, a dark black color. "Just to talk." I said simply. "Can't be too busy to talk right?" They sighed. "Seeing as you went through the trouble of coming here. Fine. Follow me." I followed Ciel into a library like room, tea, snacks and such were all set up. He sat on one chair and I sat in the other. "So, why did you trouble yourself in coming here?" “Why do you trouble yourself with avoiding me and everyone else like we somehow contracted the plague.” I countered calmly and professionally, "Simple. Just because we are family doesn't mean we have to speak to one another. That, and I find your courses of action in dealing with the kingdoms crime rather pathetic." “I mean...being family does kind of mean we have to talk to each other so I don’t know where you got that from.” I started slowly. “And to be honest, the only reason why I’m not doing what I actually want to do to deal with crime is everyone else telling me ‘no, don’t do that’.” I said simply. “Even if you did, it would only make the heads of the snakes wiser to the mouse biting at it’s tail. Even with all the measures you have placed in, all it’s done is make the lessers of society smarter and wiser. Two things always find a way, life, and crime. Can’t eradicate one and keep the other.” “You say that, but I’m pretty sure one can be without the other.” I said simply. “But how would you do it?” “Simple, let the vermins be, and when, and some always do, cut off their heads when they step out of their sewer. That’s how I've been handling it, and given your venture as Kite Cooper, you can understand that line of work.” “Yes, yes I do.” I nodded. “Good, at least we can agree on that.” “Alright, so back to you being anti-social as hell.” I started. “Adagio said it’s because of your work...but from what you immediately told me, it sounds like you just don’t like people.” “Keeping distance from people makes my job easier. Most people are either just inconvenienced or wind up dead. You saw the bounties on my walls, yes?” "You...do know what our family is right?" I asked honestly. “Of course, but tell me this, for all your photo shoots and tv appearances, would the public keep their love of you when you are drenched in blood? You keep the kingdom happy and I keep it’s underworld in order. Simple as that. They know the rules and any who defy them, I correct. I keep the blood off your hands, it’s as simple as that.” “Well how about I prove you wrong then.” I said simply. “By getting blood on your hands? Or by taking a stroll in the shadows?” “You have no idea how much I’ve done of both.” I said simply. “But either or is fine. Got a job?” “I am working one now. How much do you know about Shadow Drugs?” “I know a lot about it, but mind giving me a quick refresher for the readers?” I asked politely. "If you don't remember then say so, you'll sound less like an ass than." Ciel said, taking a sip of tea. "Shadow Drugs are the blood from a still living Shadow Creature placed into an injection device. The injectors are unique and quite easy to spot but these days they are smaller and easy to transport. They first appeared forty years ago and even with all Cript's efforts some still find their way into the markets. Normally Shadow Creature blood evaporates within seconds once exposed to air, but the Injectors prevent that. Once injected into a body the shadow blood mixed with any air from the blood of the junkie and evaporates within the body. The raw vapors rapidly merge with the host body, mutating their body to take on some physical appearance of the Shadow Creature the blood came from. This is semi permanent as if the host engages in combat, rapid adrenalin or anger the changes will most likely become permanent. Typically the 'high' lasts for three to five minutes, after which if they are lucky the person will revert back, severally crippled with possible brain damage but alive." "Yeah I remember hearing about that from Jenny." I said honestly. "So who's the distributor you're targeting?" "A man named Flyn Calbile. A well known substance distributor, but Shadow Drugs is where both Cript and I draw the line. You see it came onto the market over forty years ago, well before any of our times. It's become Cript's white whale, the creator of the injectors, and the drug. Ever elusive and out of reach. Not even the distributors know who their supplies come from. Long chains of distribution all leading to dead ends each time." "And you're thinking this guy might know?" I asked. "Or do you just want to take him down?" "He doesn't. All we can do til any form of lead is picked up is to eliminate distributors." “I...have an idea.” I started slowly. “Cause while dealing with this guy and other distributors is a good idea, more and more will just keep coming out.” "Obviously." “So, I have this nifty little ability that I learned as King of Nothingness, and that’s Chameleon. Simply put, it’s an ability that let’s me become someone completely different, in powers, biology, everything. So my idea...which is a huge gamble all things considered, is for me to send a chameleon clone and...sadly become a Distributor, cause from what you said is that each distributor gets delivered the Shadow Drugs, now it could be the originator, it could be one of his lacky’s, but the point is, if I can get one of those bastards, then I’m sure we can start hunting for the originator.” "If you want to waste your time and do that, fine by me." “And you have a better idea?” I asked simply. “Cause right now, you’ve been helping Cript run in circles, so what’s wrong with my idea?” "You don't just become a distributor of Shadow Drugs by asking. From what the captured sellers say the crates just appear in their Warehouse as if they had always been there. No magic, temporal, or special remnant signals to tell how it got there, and no fingerprints, or DNA on the crates at all. Just a box full of Shadow Creature blood appears." “I never said I would just be ‘asking’.” I said simply. “But thank you, that’s something you didn’t bring up before. But right now, we have a dealer to kill.” "Or arrest. Frankly it all depends on if they surrender or not." “Alright.” I nodded. “But I still suggest ‘insider info’, even if it might not be as good as you say it is given how people get the crates, it’s better knowing the inner workings than just guessing half the time.” "If you believe you can stomach it." Ciel shrugged. I rolled my eyes. “Even if the writers say otherwise, I am used to this garbage by now.” I stated bluntly. “I never sit idly by when work needs to be done...and to be honest, I’ve thought of worse…” "And there it is. Why I hate you." “Thank you for actually saying it instead of being a passive aggressive bitch.” I stated simply. “Now tell me, why do you hate me? Is it because I actually want to do my fucking job? Is it because I don’t sit on my hands waiting for others to do shit I can do? Tell me, I’d love to know what thing I can add to the list that I already don’t tell myself.” "It's exactly what you said. Rise from nothing and now look at you, basically perfect. I hate perfect things. And when said one thing, you counter, you always have the quick whip tongue at the ready, and the answer to everyone's prayers. You have your cake and eat it too happily. You are everything I despise because you defy everything I have ever known as truth." “And yet when you think about it...our journey’s started the same.” I said honestly. “We both started out in loving family’s, you with a loving fiance and rich as can be, I was just middle class but still was happy...then everything changed when some asshole decided to fuck with us, getting our parents killed. How we reacted differed greatly since you thought of summoning a demon to deal with those that wronged you, I blamed myself and nearly became a Nobody because of it.” I explained. “So how come I, who started with nothing, got to where I am, while you who started with everything, feels like he’s been holding himself back?” "Do you know why I joined this family? This family where my every wish could and would be granted?" “Please, I would like to know.” I said simply. "To keep fighting. I could have gotten my parents, home and life back, but then what was the point to everything I'd been through? The person I am now can not live as the person I was. If you spoke to yourself at the beginning of your journey, would you recognize the person standing in front of you?" “Honestly? Yes.” I said simply. “And I can give you an explanation on how I can say that without batting an eye?” Ciel just leaned back on their chair. "You are either the worlds best liar or it's biggest fool. Either way, we're all entitled to our beliefs, and nothing you can or will shake is mine." “And that’s fine.” I said simply. “But you need to learn to move on. That’s what I did, and look where it got me. You can keep fighting, that’s fine, but if you're just going to keep acting like how you did in Black Butler, it’s only going to hurt you in the long run.” I said simply. “But I can’t tell you how to live your life. If you want to live ‘second verse, same as the first’, then that’s on you, but if that’s the only way to describe yourself...then have you really changed from how you started?” "I'd like to think so." “Not needing Sebastian is a good start.” I said simply. “But besides losing Sebastian...what have you done differently that your past self wouldn’t?” “For starters… Elizabeth has moved in…” They groaned. “We are still betrothed after all.” “You two are honestly adorable together.” I chuckled. “But...why wouldn’t your past self be inclined to do that if I may ask?” “Because my past self was a dead man walking. Soul to be eaten by a demon. Now, here I am, demon out of hell, given half my humanity back and the power to finally stand on my own two feet.” "And yet you still stood proud, ready to face what came next." I said honestly. “True. Back then I held onto anger and hatred because it was all I had left. Now, it’s more like… I revel in the hatred of those underworld monsters. I find their anger entertaining.” "I just want to point out you had a lot more than just anger and hatred, but I understand. Also why do you find it entertaining? Think it's because of your demon half or how they let their anger lead them down that path?" “I find it entertaining because of their struggles to evade me, like mice in a maze with no exit. Pointless their attempts and the more they try, the more their anger grows, and that’s when the fun starts.” “Yeah that makes sense.” I said honestly. “So how is living with Elizabeth? A lot more colorful or what?” “Thankfully she has grown out of most of that. While she does still love decorating she’s far less...pink about it. So, how’s my mother?” “She’s doing well. Helping me learn to sing, and even if I keep telling her I’m tone deph, she thinks I have a natural talent for it.” I said honestly. “She would. After my adoption I inherited her vocal talents, but I don’t put them to any use.” “I’m sure Elizabeth would love to hear it.” I said honestly. “Never. Not in a million years.” Ciel said fast and blunt. “Afraid of singing or afraid of her badgering you about it every other ten seconds?” I asked curiously. “Or scared of all the praise from her?” “I inherited a SIREN’s voice. I am a half demon/Siren. You do the math on all the chaos that causes. First and last time I sang, I opened sixty five portals to various locations in hell… half those demons that broke out I’m still hunting.” “And that’s where practice comes in. Cause that sounds less like you just singing and more you not being used to your powers. Look at Adagio, she’s a Siren, but has she shown she can sing normally as well as use magic while singing?” I asked curiously. “That’s because she lacks her pendent. But that’s something I’d rather not get into.” “All you need is practice.” I said honestly. “But how is the others doing? Mey, Fin, Bard and Tanaka?” “Mey finally got those glasses fixed, far less clumsy, Finny has been doing well, and Bard took some actual cooking classes for a change, so his food is at least edible. As for Tanaka…” I then looked next to me, the old man back to mini Tanaka sipping tea from a cup labeled ‘Hot Water’. “Ho Ho Ho.” They said simply. “Tanaka is being himself.” “Good to know they're all doing well.” I nodded. “Seriously, how the hell did Sebastian find a lone surviving soldier, a russian super soldier project, and a stupidly good sniper?” “I ordered him to find three of the most inhuman humans on earth that would be loyal to me and protect/care for the manor. He did just that. The how of it I frankly don’t care about. I was just happy Tanaka was still around when I first came back.” “I am moved sire!” I turned, Tanaka was now a full sized old man. “Truly your heart has grown from one that pumps hatred and wrath into one that allows compassion and love to-” Poof. And he’s back to Mini Tanaka. “Hmm…” I hummed while my eyes glowed as I scanned Tanaka, wondering what has been with his mini form and when he just grows up as I mostly took it as a ‘lack of energy in his old body’ but wasn’t fully sure. To my suprise… that was exactly it. According to this he was born with a fast metabolism. In youth he’d just eat to make up for the rapidly lost energy, but in his old age lacking the ability to rapidly digest food, now lacks energy for long periods of time. “Huh, always thought there was something more to Tanaka, but nope, just him having a fast metabolism and not being able to keep his energy up.” I said simply. “Have you ever asked him if he wanted to have his little...condition fixed?” I asked curiously. “He is actually okay as he is. He enjoys watching the little things here and there and frankly, seeing him like that can put anyone in a good mood.” “I mean...that’s just true.” I said honestly. “Like having a grandpa you just enjoy being around, even if he doesn’t say anything….just him being around is good enough.” Ciel and I talked for a while more but he had work and I left him to it. This shadow drug thing was something I’d talk to Cript about later. For now, I went back to the bedroom(s) to see how all the others are doing. Time to see Alxun. “Hello there.” I said softly to my Luna. “How’s my beautiful moon doing?” She wasn’t in my arms. Looking she was sitting on a chair… painting me. “Don’t move! I’m so close to finishing. I haven’t had the chance to paint in forever.” “Well I hope your getting my good side.” I said with a warm smile. “That would be all your sides… especially your backside~” She cooed. About ten more minutes and she finished. God she made me look so sexy. “Well, that’s done. Now then.” She then jumped on top of me, the both of us embracing each other in tight loving hugs. “I’m sorry for being so busy my moon.” I said while nuzzling Alxun “Hey, at least with this set up Lyra made we can always be together, you can be off fighting, paperwork, whatever, and also be here at the same time.” She said, giving me a kiss. “Now pull and keep me in that fluff of yours, I demand the best cuddles.” “So my princess askes, so she shall receive.” I said while giving her the best cuddles in my wonderful fluff. She gave a happy sigh, getting comfy against my chest as I held her close under the blankets. “I hope I keep a special place in your heart King… heh, after all, I was your first love making in Equestria.” “You will always be my first.” I said lovingly. “No matter what.” I said while kissing her lovingly. Our little make out session lasted for a good five minutes before it broke, she nuzzling under my chin as we rested happily in each others arms. While now I am bigger than her, she was still tall enough to not be lost in my hug. Twilight and I were both being nerds. Twi resting on my body, reading while I read on the holo screen above my face. “Ah yes, how much I enjoy just being a nerd with my nerd wife.” I said warmly, softly nuzzling Twilight. “I dunno, you look more the wife these days.” Twilight said, playfully elbowing one of my breasts she was resting between. “But your still my adorkable wife.” I said lovingly. “But how have you been doing lately?” “Mostly been studying, working in the Royal Library and going through various books. A whole Multiverse of books and I’m amazed how many of them are actually basically cheap reprints.” She said with a sigh. “That aside, I've been doing well. It’s nice to relax like this.” “Eh, it happens.” I shrugged. “At least it’s still good reading material.” “Eh, some of it. The fact there are books with only one word repeated over and over again, or no words at all is just… just raises too many questions.” Rarity and I shared a room that was a tad different. Rather than the simple studio, it was much larger, fancier, large, actually endless closets, and of course personal spa for the two of us. These robots give an amazing deep tissue massage. “Best decision in my life was marrying you… and to think, if you hadn’t accidentally destroyed my house, it never would have happened.” She said, “I said I was sorry...also I’m sorry that Time kind of...fed Unum your cat.” I said sheepishly. “Yes… that I was pissed about, but I’ve mostly gotten over it. Frankly at the time it didn’t really process until after it was all over. A lot was going on. In any case being able to live like this… it’s more than divine.” “I mean, it is super fancy and stuff.” I said honestly. “But I hope I’ve been a good husband throughout all of this…” “In all honesty, yes. Frankly I’m just wondering if I’ve been a good wife. To be honest I never actually expected to find anyone, let alone marry. So I went into this blind.” “You’ve been wonderful.” I said lovingly. “And I’m still thankful you’re here.” “Hm. I’m glad for that, sometimes it feels nice to just be one on one with you.” “Yeah, I’m very thankful for these rooms because...well I can spend time with each of you...and I couldn’t be happier about it.” “Me neither. Plus gives me a chance to see how all the new dresses I made for you look on you!” “Oh boy, a whole lotta dress up and modeling.” I chuckled. “How many are normal outfits and how much is lewd or fetish attire?” I asked curiously. “Hmm… twenty percent lewd/fetish, the rest are normal. Sexware is not my normal cup of tea to work on.” “Alright.” I nodded. “Good to know, haven’t really modeled much...lewd outfits, like those playboy bunny outfits or uniforms made to be lewd.” “I see the appeal of them, but they are more of a pain to make than you’d believe. Normally the materials used to make them are difficult to work with. Latex and… leather… Latex alone is a pain, and leather, well, never cared for it.” “Okay to be honest, I kind of expected you to be into...well bondage and stuff, so leather would have been your thing.” I said honestly. “Oh hardly. While it’s fun sometimes I’m not into it like Eclipsa or Pinkie. Frankly I prefer some lewd attire or none at all. Though I also enjoy Pregnancy I find.” “Don’t we all?” I giggled. “Well, after our message, why don’t you start showing me which dresses you want me in?” “Gladly.” I was inside a stomach here… hm, large, roomy, internal breasts, OH this is Mama Russia. So this is what’s inside her. Huh. So this was Coco’s room for like a year in the void. Nice. “Should I make a ‘Mother Russia’ joke or should I not?” I wondered. I was honestly amazed by how… big it actually was in here. I mean I know she is huge but it’s also huge in here. Well lit too which isn’t the weirdest part. The Worst part is the fact there is furniture made from her stomach lining. Bed, couch, a… TV? Does that actually work? If so being mutants is a whole new level of cool. “Kind of wished I could talk to Russia…” I muttered to myself. “But this is cool.” To my suprise, the TV turned on. Cool! As I was getting comfy on the ‘bed’ here I saw something enter here… Mama Russia? Only slightly bigger than- Oh shit! She then jumped on top of me, despite the size I was she was still bigger than me and curled around me as best as possible. “Double safe.” She said simply. “You are still a huge lady…” I said with a light blush. “Better to keep you safe. You are safe inside me, now I am inside me to keep you extra safe.” She said. Licking my head and body. She was tongue bathing me for a while before making me feed off her. I gently pulled off her breast. “So, how is it being with everyone else?” “Everyone else is small. Well, most everyone. Giants are all good but some could be better. All with me are like you, inside me with me also inside. Keep all safe, feeding to grow, and room to grow.” “Alright.” I said while kissing Mama Russia. “Thank you.” “Drink, you need to grow more, can conceive, hold and birth more babies once bigger.” She said, making me feed again. I’m a tad scared here… I’m with Lyra… Cript’s Lyra. She was asleep, pony form, and frankly knowing what I know about here… kinda worried. “What sort of fresh hell am I going to endure here…” I muttered worriedly. I remember talking to her a few times, she was nice, but still, how will this be? Does she have… activities planned? "Well...let's hope nothing bad happens…" I muttered while softly nuzzling Lyra. She began stirring awake. I stiffened a bit as she woke up, yawning. "Hey there King." She said, stretching. "How you doing?" I asked curiously. "Pretty good. I've replicated that wife vending machine so that's got it's own factory. Rooms are being made here as fast as everyone is trying out new fetishes and sex stuff, and the children are being concived and born just as fast as everything. All in all, life is good." "Cool." I said honestly. "So, how goes your stuff?" She asked, hopping out of the bed and over to the fridge. "A lot of stuff to do, but it's coming along." I said honestly. "That's good." She said, looking through the fridge. "So, how many kids you got already?" "I...don't think the numbers go that high." I said sheepishly. "You been fucking? You fucking with other with other Starfish clones this very moment constantly? Then yeah, numbers are high." She said, using her magic to pull out a container filled with what looked like jerky. She then climbed back up, opening it. The jerky was yummy smelling and she then gave me half. "Yeah...I do it a lot." I said sheepishly while eating some jerky. As we sat and ate the really tasty jerky, she laid down on her back. "So, what are you expecting of me?" She asked. "I don't know but I'm concerned about what might happen." I said honestly. "That depends, what do you think I'll do to you?" "I don't know and it worries me." I said nervously. "Knowing what I do know about you...you can see why I'm nervous." "Heh. Don't worry, you will enjoy it. I can confidently say that much." Lyra said, growing a small smile. “And...what is that?” I asked nervously. "Everything. Well, most everything, there are some fetishes I don't touch because of the obvious. Some I invent my clean alternative to play with." “And then there’s what I don’t want to do.” I said simply. "Oh King sweetie, if I did only the things you want to do to you, then I'd only be doing like… five, six things at most." “Let’s not get too weird at least please.” I said nervously. Sixteen hours… she did so...much… for sixteen straight hours. I'm not sure how but she did get me to enjoy all of it. And yes, it did get weird but never extreme weird at least. Needless to say, I'm soaked in sweat, lube, sexual juices, and various food products. I can't feel anything and while I am laying on my belly unable to move she is resting her head on my side with a happy smile. "So, ready for round two?" Lyra asked. “Bitch that was sixteen hours of everything you could think of.” I frowned. "No, that was sixteen hours of not getting too weird and stuff you would not put up too much of an argument against. Besides, I have yet to cum." "Lyra?" Cript asked me, while I clutched them in our personal room. He saw the look on my face and took a guess. “Never again.” I shivered. “Seriously, the fuck?” "Didn't get her to cum?" "Sixteen hours of stupid crap that felt good...then she wanted round 2." "Heh, yeah… Lyra can hold back her own need to orgasm very well. Like self imposed cum denial. The trick with Lyra to get her cumming is to be rough. And King, when I say rough I mean don't just use your body weight in your thrusts, don't just clench on her when she is thrusting you, put actual power into it, like all of it, don't even worry about breaking her hips or clenching her dick off, you won't. And above all else, make sure to bite her ears, and again, don't worry about breaking skin, just but like you're biting Vilgax's head off. She also likes it when you rutt and put fingers in her mouth and open hole, set your body's semin rate to max, she loves that, and if you really want to prove to her you can make her cum, use some l, no, use all the Electronium skills I know you learned off screen to trigger her whole body's nervous system into an overdrive of pleasure sensations. Like what I did to you when we first screwed. Do that and she will be cumming well before you blow a load." "So...half of my fetishes to the extreme?" I asked. "And the rest AND all of what she did to you, do to her. No holds bars, give her back what she gave to you and all the extra you can add to it." “Sounds...simple enough.” I said, “Good to know…” "If you told me you were gonna do it with Lyra beforehand I would have told you this sooner." “Would have loved to know I was going there to begin with, but the writers just wanted to do that for funsies.” I sighed out. “Hey, at least you know what you got into with her now.” Moving along to the others I found myself in the tight, coiled body of Heart, who was wrapped around me very tightly. “Well hello there.” I said gently to Heart. “Hey~” They said. The way they were wrapped around me left just my toes and head outside of their body, the rest was tightly kept in their wrapped hug. And Heart still had enough length left to be able to lay atop me while wrapped up. “Like the full body hug?” “I always enjoy a full body hug.” I said lovingly. “Paperwork sucks.” They said, They laid down in front of me, their grip on me not loosening as they looked bored. “I mean, I used to actually enjoy it! Used to… make me feel normal, but now that I’ve actually accepted myself and my life… it’s boring…” “I mean...you’re just weird for finally realizing paperwork is boring.” I said honestly. Heart blew me a raspberry. “Anyway, once that was over I went into some of the dungeons we have here in the safe rooms. Yes we have that too. Hunting realm, Dungeons realm, many bedrooms/sex realm. AKA where we are now. Plainly, and found out something cool about how I can summon weapons.” “Oh? How can you summon weapons?” I asked curiously. “Well, aside from the normal, like this.” Heart showed me as the tips of Keyblades emerged from their arm, three, an Oblivion, Pumpkin Head, and Stroke of Midnight tips. “But… it’s not limited to Keyblades.” They then made a fist, three of Fondure’s knives appearing out like Wolverine’s claws. “Okay, that’s cool.” I said honestly. “Wonder if I can do that...I know I can do it spikes with my Den Mother ability…” I said in thought. “Well in any way I can have Sky Splitter and Lunatic at my tail, Frozen Pride across my back, and Foudre along my knuckles and fingers. Not sure about the others, I was actually hoping you could teach me to use them so I can find where along my body and in what combinations I can bring them out in for the best results.” “It’s going to take me a bit to teach you everything cause...honestly there’s still plenty of stuff I don’t know about.” I said honestly. “But I know we’ll work through it all.” “I’d like that. So, Eclipsa tell you about our pet play and her… ‘special’ cage?” “No and no...sadly we haven’t talked as much as I’d like.” I said sadly. “Oh, so you really didn’t read that chapter then.” Heart said with a shrug. “I skimmed it. I’ve been busy with a lot of things.” I said honestly. “You know, one of the things being finding time lines that can help us out, even if Cript’s plan is to do my job but instead of cherry picking he’s just throwing a sledge hammer through a wall made of glass.” “Heh, sounds about right. So, skipped the sex scene then. That explains it.” “A little.” I said honestly. “Sorry, but I did find an interesting world in my time traveling, but the Time Walkers told me ‘no’ for some reason.” I said honestly. “Huh. Odd. Well, I’d offer you to check out Eclipsa’s special cage, but Kexez told me about your things with vore so I won’t unless you want to.” “I know I know.” I said honestly. “And even though I may ‘enjoy’ whatever the fuck Lyra forced me to do, it’s still not my cup of tea.” I shivered. “Seriously, Lyra makes Rune look Vanilla…” “Heh. Well if you warm up to it, just ask. Again, if, not, not forcing stuff. That aside, find any really weird timelines?” “Did I tell you about the timeline where the Foretellers made everyone do a dance off to settle the war?” I asked curiously. “That was weird.” Heart laughed. “God. That’s just… wow. Any fucked up timelines?” “Every glitch…” I said slowly. “The one where people became Void Corrupted Nothingness Zombies? That was the best outcome...but there was this one timeline...one that I hope to god stays dead…” I sighed out. “So you know how I’m basically the Batman of our group?” I asked Heart. “Hmm… Don’t see it.” “Being the smartest person in the room, hyper paranoid, having plans and contingencies for damn near everything?” I pointed out. “... Nope, You don’t have a cave, a crazy smart butler, your own special car, you’re wolf themed, you have weapons but no actual gadgets, I’ll give a pass on the super computer as it’s on your arm/in your head. I mean both your chip X and Symbi. And lastly, you don’t have an alien rival you either hate or have competitions with depending on incarnations.” “Okay now your just getting into semantics at this point.” I brought up. “But anyways...the timeline that I don’t want to happen...is the timeline where I just don’t care anymore…” I said sadly. “Everyone...either long since dead, turned into Deathless and tortured for Eternity, always doing something new to make the pain never stop...or worse…” "Ouch." Heart said, looking at me. "Well, that's not this timeline. Besides, if we all end up deathless, at least, us here we will always have each other." “Yeah…” I sighed out. “But mind if I talk about some Timelines the Time Walkers don’t want me adding to this realm?” I asked curiously. “It’s actually interesting.” "Like?" “Both timelines have people like us, the whole ‘Mayan Test’ thing, brought to Equestria by God with powers.” I said honestly. "And the catch is?" “The catch?” I asked curiously. "Well, there has to be more of a reason other than just that as to why they would not want that added to this timeline." “Well one is that both worlds don’t have Keyblades, like at all.” I said honestly. “Discord explained that it’s more of a ‘wall of reality’ type deal with one of the universes, and the other I haven’t looked too much into it sadly, but it’s less ‘wall of reality’ and more...I’d say a select portion of the Void?” I guessed. "Are you making a reference?" “A reference to what?” I asked curiously. "I dunno. My fourth wall breaking doesn't reach that far." Heart shrugged. “Eh, either way.” I said honestly. “But yeah, both worlds look like they could join, but the Time Walkers have barred me from doing anything with it...I suppose that’s for the best now that I think about it.” "Eh. So, explore any dungeons? I got to explore some from a video game I remember fondly as a kid with Eclipsa. Was fun." “Sadly I haven’t, given I’ve been trying to do the Heroes Tomb mostly.” I shrugged. “Had to spend months because of the fusions.” "Huh. What was yours and Kexez like?" “That would be Kix.” I said honestly. “She’s nice, nowhere near as big or ‘motherly’ as Russia, but she’s sweet and a bit of a cuddle bug.” "Heh. Cute. What about us then?" “No idea.” I shrugged. “Want to fuse?” "Well, yeah. Sounds fun. The king of Nothingness and the king of Hearts fused into one being. Sounds like fun." “Alright.” I nodded with a smile. “Wonder how well it’ll work…” Heart uncoiled around me, and sat me up as we had a passionate kiss. Woah… woah, okay, okay… this is neat. Let's see here. Four arms, snake half, no legs, fair enough. Still eight breasts, oh hey. I'm blue and grey along my fur and scales, nice. Heh, heart shaped nipples, kinda funny and cool. Definitely huge, this room feels kinda small now. Also broke the bed… nice. “Well someone’s going to need to fix that.” I said while stretching out. “This is nice.” I felt relaxed, happy over all and kinda lazy. “King of Hearts and Nothingness, super happy but lazy...sounds about right.” I said while groping myself to see how big I was in the front and back. Unlike Heart I do have an ass to fuck, definitely way bigger than King's, and front wise I got two. Not as big as King but big enough. Overall I was big and busty. “Big and busty, just how I like it.” I purred happily. The room started to self fix and expand itself for me to fit comfy in here. Now even the bed was large enough to hold me uncoiled. “Nice.” I said with a smile. “That’s pretty handy.” I lazily fell back on myself. I noticed my Assistant beep. Blood Sample Acquired. Generating new rooms and Starfish clones. Editing current room Occupants Suddenly, Heart and King fell onto my mattress sized breasts. "Wow that is cozy." Heart said, coiling up to hug one of her massive boobs. “Yes it is.” I said warmly. “I’ve always liked this, big soft titties.” "Happy to oblige." Our fusion said, grabbing us each in their hands and pressing us a bit more into their boobs. Not that Heart or I minded. She let us go, moving us both between her top cleavage. "So, what should my name be? A good mix between King and Heart?" "How about… Ring? R from my name, and Ing from King." Heart offered. "I like that actually. Ring. Ehehe. So what's a giant girl like me gonna do to a bunch of tiny hotties like you?" Ring asked playfully. "I can think of one." I said while groping one of her breasts. "Hmm… Well, I guess this is our room, so I can Indulge in something I know you have been wanting, King." She picked us up, placing us in the bed before dropping herself chest down on us. Squishing us under her massive breasts. "Hehe, enjoying that?" She asked, moving in small rotations but never getting us Heart or I. “This is nice.” I said softly. “Nice big boobs.” As I enjoyed being squished under massive Cleavage for about a good hour, Ring eventually got off of us, resting on her side next to us. "So King?" She asked me. “Yes?” I asked curiously. “Is something up?” "Just wondering, given your thing with vore, if you want to, what variations would you wanna try first? I'm part Floof Noodle after all and being part you my own… thing is a tad odd." "Sounds about right." Heart said, who was laying belly down looking quite relaxed. “What do you mean by ‘a tad odd’?” I asked curiously. "Well, being part you makes me feel a bit awkward thinking about it. And being part Heart/Floof Noodle makes me wanna do it. Conflicts of mentality and biology I guess." “You do you, you are your own person.” I said honestly. “So what did you have in mind?” I asked, wanting to help them with their whole thing even if I’m not a fan of it. "Well my existence is based on you two as a foundation. Anyway while I am okay with normal stuff, ya know, swallowing, I wanna try something different. Not too crazy though so… care to get inside my boobs?" Ring asked shyly. "I wanted to make a joke... but I lost it." Heart said. “Sounds about right.” I nodded. “So...we breast vore...haven’t done that yet.” "Neither have I. I mean, I unbirthed Eclipsa and threw in Tentical umbilical cords for fun, and it was. That's her Good Girl cage by the way. But breast vore is a new one." Oh so that's what they did. “I’ve been unbirthed once, and not doing that again...and then the other thing...no.” I shook my head. "Firstly, at least give unbirth a second chance. No umbilical cord tentacles MR. Vanilla." Heart said with a laugh. "Secondly, if you do, I won't go that far with you." “Alright alright.” I said honestly. “So...we're doing this now?” "If it's not a bother?" Ring asked. "Not like we're doing much else at the moment." Heart said. “Alright, so onto feeling the inside of someone’s titties.” "Hopefully nice." Ring said. "And milky." Heart added. "So, who's first and through which nipple?" “That sounded weird...but I’ll go first…” I said. “And whichever one is the bigger cause...well my size.” "Well, compared to you my breasts are mattresses to you...hmm." Ring then felt each of her breasts, all look and appear to be the same size. She grabbed me, holding me up to her left nipple on her top set. "Ready." She said. “As ready as I’ll ever be.” I said honestly. "Oh so you saw Tangled too?" Heart asked. I gave a laugh before carefully placing a hand over the small hole in the large tit. Milk flowing from it already in a trickle. “Alright, so just gotta fit myself here…” I muttered while trying to fit into Ring’s breast. My hand went in easy enough. This also made the milk spill out much faster. It was a little tight but once my arm got halfway in I felt an opening, my hand sloshing in the milk within Rings boob. Talk about from the tap, this takes that on steroids. I slid my other arm in. So far so good. Soaked in milk but that's not bad. "Doesn't feel bad. Tingles a bit but thankfully doesn't hurt." Ring said. "It's kind of like that time in the spa when I was in that milk bath." I said honestly. "Sounds relaxing." Heart said. With both arms in and hands holding the admitably slippery inner walls of Ring's breast, I rapidly shoved my head in, and in a rapid motion pulled myself inside. Once in I was met with a small stretchy opening filled with milk, not even enough for air, then again I don't actually need air, or to breath. It was a lot like being underwater, only all white and I actually can't see anything because of it. So I did the only logical thing, and drank. Swallowing mouthfulls of milk til there was enough room for an air pocket. Once there I opened my eyes. In a way, this was not that different than a belly, only filled with and endlessly producing milk, milk that seemed to drip from the very walls from what I can see. "How is it?" I heard Heart call from above me outside the breast. "Fine." I said honestly. "Lots of milk?" "All the milk." I said honestly. "It's nice in here." "Cool. I'll slip in the other nipple then. Guess we'll stay there a bit then." "If you want." I said honestly. I had to admit, this wasn't bad at all. Nicer than being in a stomach actually and Kexez has made me see those as pretty damn comfy. The milk was nice, above warm but not quite hot, smelled, and tasted, fantastic, and above all taking a nap in here was easy… when Ring wasn't moving around too much. In a belly, it's more stable when they move l, only really feel it when they move really fast, in a bouncy, squishy boob, every little movement tosses me around and splashes the milk around. Walking seems fine, or slithering, in Ring's case, but to be honest I didn't mind that much. Was almost like a bounce house. A milk flooded bounce house. "This is nice." I said softly. Some hours passed and all I did while in here was nap, drink milk, and relax. Wonder what the spa's take on this would be? Do they even do this as a spa treatment? Likely. "Wonder who I'll meet up with next?" I hummed. I decided to stay there for a while as it was surprisingly therapeutic. The next family member I was with was Celestia. Not mine, nor Heart's, and definitely not Eclipsa's, she isn't even in this family. This was Cript's, one of Cript's Celesta's. I've seen her around too. Anthro, really sexy body, but I always noticed her horn and wings were missing. “Hello.” I said gently to the pony. “How are you doing?” She woke up. Her attire wasn't typically pijamas, it was closer to a typical blouse. "Hey. We haven't had the chance to meet properly have we?" She asked me as she sat up. “Not yet.” I said honestly. “But how are you doing?” "Good. Heh, I'm sure you can guess, my name is Celestia. You're King, right?" “Yes I am.” I nodded. “Um...I’m sorry to ask but uh...where’s your horn and wings?” I asked sheepishly. "Oh, that? Heh, everyone asks that at first. Don't feel nervous about it. But to answer that question I have to ask you a question." “Ask away cause...honestly this isn’t the first time I’ve seen an Alicorn without their horn or wings.” I said honestly. "Well, you ever hear of this short lived porn comic called Fall of Equestria?" “Say nothing more.” I started. “I’ve already found like...three of those worlds in my travels…” I growled as I hugged Celestia closer to me protectively. "Heh, I've largely moved on. Mine might have been just as or worse than others. Cript found my world while traveling. Took us all in after what can basically be described as a gender genocide. Erased all the children's memories and all of us were taken into the family. We healed here… and stayed. Home wasn't home anymore and frankly, even if I did go back, I can never look at the place the same again." I softly nuzzled Celestia. “I’m still sorry you...had to endure that horridness…” "Hey, I can at least have sex without PTSD, So that's a win. All in all it reminded me of something I was told when I became an alicorn. I never truly realized what it meant until those days." She then looked over at me. "No being of flesh and bones, no matter how strong, can truly be a God." “But you’re just as beautiful as one.” I pouted. "Har har. Either way, I'm happy with my life here. I spend a lot of my free time either with the kids or helping Cript with his projects." “I wasn’t joking, and that’s good.” I nodded gently. “But that doesn’t stop me from cuddling you a lot...even if you already passed it all...no one should have to deal with that crap…” "Yeah. So, wanna know a pastime Cript does. Kinda relates to the conversation." “Sure.” I nodded. “I would love to know.” She them pulled out some paper and wrote down address coordinates. Some place in space it seems. "Cript will be there. Bond there, bond here. Now then, let's watch some movies." The location Celesta sent me too was an unmoving asteroid. Around it were a crap ton of planets, and Cript was here looking at them all. "You met Celestia?" They asked without looking at me. "Yes, yes I did." I nodded. "So...she told me to come here for some reason." "These worlds. All of them, share one thing in common. Guess what that is." "What would that be? Cause I could take a guess from who sent me here." "Yup. All of them. Not all are Equestrias, but all share that same theme. Figure it's time to both get rid of them, but also test something out." "Oh Jesus…" I muttered. "But how are you going to purge the world's?" Cript summoned a weapon, tossing it to me. It was close to Second Chance, but had a different design, a mix of Second Chance, something else, and… Darkest Hero, yeah, the eyes along the blade match Cript's famous Soul Blade. "I call it Salvation. A combination of Second Chance, Love Struck, and my soul blade Darkest Hero. Yesterday, Heart went to the front lines, and we had a quick talk about how best to piss Vincent off." "I thought we weren't allowed in the front lines?" I brought up, carefully swinging the blade to test it's weight. "But yeah I remember hearing about this." "In short, Vincent doesn't care about the death toll his side takes, ours either. So, rather than kill, we saved. Yesterday Heart and I, using Second Chance on Nexus agents, even Spoiled's clones, two thousand new babies. Void beasts and even machines, Love Struck. Six hundred and twenty two new additions to the family. Could only imagine that call on the radio." "Oh boy that's hilarious." I chuckled. "Was fun too. After that, I began work on that with Lord. It works. Small tests but this will be the Grand test to see if it will hold up for when I break time. Give it one… full powered swing. I'll hold the barrier up from turning everyone here into babies or sexy ladies." Cript chuckled. "Alright." I said while taking a deep breath and charging all the way up to full power. "Grand Cross…" I muttered before raising the weapon and swinging as hard as I could towards all the world's. The way it felt to release a full power blast like that was… indescribable. The blastwave went off faster than my eyes could see. The only sign it even happened was all the planets glowing faint pink before dying down after a while. Once all the residual energy of it died down, Cript checked their Assistant. "Heh. Worked. 98.6 Centillion new children. 908.4 sextillion new wives. And the special ability worked too." “How many worlds were there christ…” I said in surprise. "Honestly, no idea. I ran a Script to gather up every world like, well, Fall of Equestria and various variations, so not sure how many actually. Either way, the ability worked. That was the important part." “Well...alright.” I nodded. “Well...good to save all those people.” "Yeah. The tool for my plan is working." “Which is a good thing.” I nodded. “The more lives we save the better.” "And piss off Vincent Royally." Cript said with a laugh. They took Salvation. Using code and making a copy, tossing it back to me. "Keep it. I'm gonna send one for Heart and Eclipsa. If you do want to fight on the front lines, head up to my workshop, got something I'm giving to you three each." “Cool.” I nodded. “And I’ll be there quickly cause I would like to fight on the front lines for once...but again, isn’t going to the front lines what they want?” I asked curiously. "To kill, to slaughter. Now, we will save… dad let his title as one of the Admins of Life rott. Be it Salvation or Darkest Hero, I will shove a blade through his heart and make sure he never gets back up." “Oh so uh…” I sighed out. “I’m pretty sure Vincent is trying to date Dinky...don’t know how when the bastard’s still alive and old.” I growled. "Wait… where, how, and who?" “He’s a senior in the school that Dinky goes to, his name is Connor and...I have no idea. I’m probably overreacting by an asston but…” I said nervously. “From what little I’ve learned about the Admin of LIfe…” "Not Vincent's style to hide that way." Cript said, checking his Assistant. "I think I found him, if his social media has anything to say, yeah this is him. Hmm… I'll need to see it for myself. Follow." Cript said, opening a portal. The other side was a kinda dirty college dorm where the person Dinky described sat at the books. Cript flicked the back of his head, and he was out like a light. "Alright then Conner, who are you?" “I’m so sorry if I’m just overreacting…” I muttered, hoping this won’t lead to Dinky hating me or anything. Cript tapped Conner's unconscious head. Code flowing up as he analyzes it. "Hmm…" “What do you see?” I asked nervously. "Well, it's Vincent's code. Code and genetics work very similar, but at the same time the section for identity has been overwritten. Vincent is there, but Conner has been placed in charge. Like Reincarnation… Vincent had to have… died for this to happen. Oh my God… King, you know what this means?" “Vincent’s been doing time travel shenanigans cause while he’s still alive, you killed him a while ago?” I asked. “Or that whenever a new Admin of Life appears, there always has to be an Admin of Evil near their age?” "I… thought I didn't… I figured it was a Starfish clone… but, if it was a Time Remnant, that could explain it also. Which also means… as of now there are three Admins of Life. Conner, Dinky, and Vincent. There can only be two. So if Dinky and Conner still hold those Admin titles… what does that make Vincent now?" “I don’t know...and that sucks that I don’t know.” I said worriedly. "If this Vincent is a time Remnant, then… does Nexus have Speedsters in Nexus?" “I’m pretty sure they do.” I sighed out. “Given Nexus has been doing this crap forever they must have damn near anything at their disposal.” "In that case yeah, a Remnant isna high likelihood. If I did kill Vincent and he was reborn as Conner, then the Time Remnant took up where Vincent basically left off. In that case killing this Vincent… he can't reincarnate. That's why he isn't leaving the Void Mother's protective field. He dies, no second tries." “That’s great news.” I said honestly. “But...even though I’m being way too hopeful...can Connor be a decent person even if he’s Dinky’s opposite?” "That's it, their code is… not opposite, they're identical. There are differences in certain aspects but I can't make heads or tails of it. It's almost more like they're literally two jigsaw puzzle pieces kept apart from one another." “Huh...that’s...concerning.” I said nervously. "It makes sense, but why did they come into existence like that anyway?" "To keep balance in life?" I wondered. “Cause right now Dinky didn’t have her ‘other half’ cause Vincent’s either too old or technically died.” "Maybe. Either way, this gives us something to work with." “Well...let’s just hope for the best.” I said. “But the moment he tries to hurt Dinky, I swear…” I growled. "He won't. Not if Vincent isn't part of this life." Cript said, looking through his assistant. Once they found it, I saw it was what looked like a glass sphere of sorts, but I could tell it wasn't. I felt my very code go on edge. “We will never let Vincent touch Connor right?” I asked. "We'll never let Vincent get out either. Or never give him the chance." Cript said. Conner's code still open and visible, he placed the orb over a line of code that was well faded. The code started getting drawn into the orb, Conner shook a lot til all of the faded code was gone. Cript then closed it all up. "Reincarnation for Admins is a lot like for normal people it seems, memories and Personality of the prior life is just saved as data. This orb holds Vincent's memories and Personality. Now, we just uncode it. Never imagined I'd put this thing to use." “Before you do…” I started. “How about we look at every single little detail that bastard knows, and then use it against him and Nexus, cause he’s basically Void Mother’s right hand man in all of these Cycles right?” "Likely yes. And what do you think I meant by uncoding it? This is an old Admin Artifact. A code prison. Thankfully it's highly customizable. Still, only two of these are left in existence, Lord has the other one and I used this one. Can't replicate them either. Lord's tried, one of the few old trinkets above his skill level." “Until you break time and we find the Admin of Artifacts.” I said honestly. “Seriously, I’m pretty sure when you break time we’ll find the person who made all the Admin Maguffins.” "There were a lot of Admins who all made various artifacts. So we don't even know who made this. Come on now, off to my workshop." “Alright, let’s get going then.” I nodded. To be continued... Kite's DayAs Kite Cooper my day was sadly filled with some school work and such. All this stuff I already knew so for once I could be the cool smart kid of the class. “God I’m bored…” I muttered while having already finished all the work in record time, my mind trailing off onto many things that are going to happen in the future...sadly one of them involved another thought of when I accidentally saw Matilda naked in the shower. ”Can I please not think of her naked while at school?” I thought to myself nervously. Needless to say it wasn hard getting that image out of my head. After the school work was done I did obstacle course training with the others in the family vault. Mom's skills are all reaching and quickly surpassing ours. She spent a lot of time in Dad's section of the vault. Along with all the gold and such just about every Cooper family member had a space for personal treasures. In Dad's case, a copy of mom and his wedding album, baby photos of Sly and I, even the ultrasounds of us before we were born. And of course, photos of himself, Jim and M from their prime on jobs and such. We all spent some time there every now and again, but mom did so daily. Whatever Clockwerk did to him, he will pay. I spent my free time thinking about the happy times, and wishing I could have done something to prevent this all. I needed to talk to someone, so I talked to my Time Walker. “Is mom safe?” I asked. “Like...is she actually under her own control? Or is there something else?” "Yeah, she is. The spell Mz. Ruby used while Voodoo was not evil in itself. There will be no negative side effects." The Time Walker said. “Okay thank god.” I sighed out thankfully. “So, when does Nexus get involved in all this?” I asked curiously. “Cause I know Nexus is funding the Klaww Gang and Clockwerk.” "Shortly after you were born." “Well I mean, when will they start attacking me and my family?” I asked. “Also did the whole Core thing happen in my time or was that just a ‘oops’ kind of thing?” "The first thing is classified. The later thing is meant to happen. But only because you chose to be born as Kite Cooper." "Oh...so how screwed is myself or others because of this?" I asked nervously. "Can't say." "Of course…" I sighed out. "Uh...cause I forgot to check, is having multiple wives illegal?" I asked nervously. "Cause...my track record with women.", are harems a thing?” I asked sheepishly. “Cause I’ve been busy with other things.” “Depends on things such as race, culture and region, yes.” “Makes sense.” I nodded. “Oh, quickie question. Can I use Nothingness if I was given the powers or am I not allowed to use it at all?” “If you can somehow get them in this form, yes but it’s not likely. The only ways you can obtain that power is if you were labeled the King’s heir, which would then not label, well, yet to arrive here you gain replicas of the weapons or make them which is also extremely hard, or becoming a Nobody.” “Sounds about right, and I’d like not to become a Nobody thank you very much.” I said honestly. “Well, those are your options. In any case, anything else to ask?” “Um...how long has Matilda’s family been the Guardian of this world?” I asked curiously. “Two Hundred and four generations.” “Hot damn.” I said honestly. “Didn’t expect it to go that far back.” “All the way back to the days of the Keyblade war, when her ancestor left with the Dandelions.” “Huh, didn’t think she originated from a Dandelion.” I said honestly. “Many of the current Keyblade wielders who keep the blades and culture alive do. 70% actually. The other 30% are Keyblade war survivors or descendants of.” “Interesting.” I said honestly. “Can’t wait to hear about that...as well as figure out way, way more about the Cooper line cause good lord there are a lot more the games never talked about.” “A lot yeah.” “God only knows what other weird crap the Cooper line has done, either scientific or magical.” "True. Now then, is that all or is there anything of request?" “Um…” I thought, wondering if there was anything I should ask or request of my Time Walker. “Could you see about buying maybe?” “Well what do you have to sell?” I asked curiously. "Within reason, some raw materials, blueprints to some buildings, and ect. Lots of meds and some restock for your gear." “Well...do Ethers work in this world?” I asked curiously. "Yeah but they call them Elixirs here. Same thing overall. I can sell you five at a time." “Sweet, that’ll help a lot.” I nodded. “How much are they?” "Ten coins each." “Sure.” I nodded while handing him thirty coins. He gave me the three Elixers and I pocketed them. With that being all I sent him off as I went to relax on the beach. “Just a nice relaxing day on the beach…” I muttered while just relaxing, or at least trying to consider all things.. As I stayed relaxed on the sand I read through this world's take on Harry Potter. Largely the same. Harry is apparently a Labrador in these books. “Even if these books are fine...this book series has a lot of problems…” I muttered to myself. "Hey Kite." Murray said, walking over and taking a seat next to me. “Hey Murray, how are you doing?” I asked curiously. "Pretty good. Uncle Jim was teaching me on how to make fast repairs to the van and what to use for what issue, so we have a small kit of supplies for that in there now." “Cool.” I nodded. “How are you and Lana doing?” I teased with a little grin. "Heh. Well we can't make anything official until I'm eighteen at least, but for now we stick to simple stuff." “That’s good.” I nodded. “Glad you two are enjoying being a couple.” "Yeah. I am too. Hopefully things go well." “I’m sure things will go well.” I nodded. “I’ll make sure of it.” "Gonna be a wingman or something?" Murray asked with a laugh. "I had to for big bro so why not?" I shrugged. "Heh. True enough. So, how are you holding up?" “Holding up the best I can given everything that’s been going on.” I said honestly. “Especially when Matilda and I have...come to a bit of an understanding.” "Oh? What happened there?" “Well...after when me and big bro kind of...learned what Clockwerk’s been doing to our family for god knows how long and that whole ‘me and Matilda in the same bed’ incident...I decided to ask her for just a quick little trip to get somethings off her chest.” I shrugged. “Honestly...getting past all the ‘sexy thief’ persona...she’s just alone.” "Makes sense given how she was with your dad and her job and all that. Finding someone has to be pretty much impossible." “So I’m deciding to give her a chance...just make sure not to tell my mom cause I’m pretty sure she’ll rip her own arm off and beat one of us with it…” I said nervously. "But isn't Matilda like Way older than you? I mean, she is as old as your mom." “Now listen...there’s nothing with being into older women.” I said with a small blush. "Dude, there's being into older women and then there is being into women old enough to have raised you as her own… wait a minute, Kite… are you into MILFs and cougars?" "Now listen…" I started. "Shut up…" I said while hiding my beat red face with my tail. Murray didn't tell anyone but damn was that embarrassing. Regardless as the days went on life became more normal and all that. Matilda gave me magic and Keyblade lessons. While I knew most to all of the Keyblade stuff there was a few cool tricks she taught me I didn't know before. This age thing was a massive bitch and I hated it… age… age is all about time… I wonder… "I wonder…" I muttered while pulling out my pocket watch. "Let's hope he knows…" Summoning the Time Walker, I asked them if they could age me up or Matilda down. "Normally it would be a no on that request, but…" "But?" I asked. "I know it's weird but...well my tastes into MILFs is betraying me." "Not that. As you know Cript is going to break time in your future my one hour from now. As such we have been authorized to be more lenient on certain things. While you won't even notice it, once it does happen what kinda is set up to replace time itself will allow us much more freedom, and therefore you, as well as allow us to repair "damage" much faster." "Well...didn't expect that to happen so soon." I said nervously. "Well, soon for us still a whiles away for you." The Time Walker shrugged. "So, how you wanna go about this then?" "No idea…" I sighed out. "Cause right now, it's still a 'no' on either aging me up or aging Matilda down." "Well, aging down is actually easier, but I'm asking do you wanna make it flashy or just have it happen with no reason you can see? Or they can see rather." "Well...it would be weird if everyone saw Matilda suddenly saw her my age out of nowhere." I shrugged. "Cool. So now I have an idea, you just get everyone on the beach for, I dunno, a cookout or something. I'll handle the rest." "Oh boy, can't wait." I said nervously, wondering what shenanigans will happen. Once Time started again I left to gather everyone. They all liked the idea of a cookout, even Matilda. We all went to the main beach, cooking fish and other foods. An hour or so passed and then it happened. "The hell?" Sly said. We all looked and I nearly choked on my food. The Time Walker was just there, standing on the water like a Kingdom Hearts secret boss. "The fuck?" I panicked while getting up and readying myself for whatever the hell this person was about to do. "Who, why is that?" Uncle M asked. The Time Took a few steps, walking atop the water till he reached the beach. He then summoned his Keyblade. Needless to say Matilda was surprised. “God...what the hell…” I muttered to myself nervously while preparing myself for whatever the hell he’s going to do. “I don’t know Uncle M...all I know is that he’s very powerful.” I said, being magical I could easily lie about ‘sensing someone’s magical energy’ even if I could actually do such a thing. "Which of you is Matilda?" The Time Walker asked. Grunting, Matilda stepped forward. "I am. Now who are you?" She said, about ready to summon her Keyblade. "No one of importance." They said, there was a flash and they slashed Matilda, sending her flying into the woods. Mom, the Uncle's and everyone tried jumping him, but he was faster, knocking out Mom, the uncle's, and Carmalita and Lana. He then cast Stop on Sly, Bentley and Murray. He then walked over to me. "Well that was fun." "Dude, not cool." I growled while shooting a Fireball at him for attacking my family. He deflected it easily. "Relax. They aren't injured. They'll be sore, but not hurt. Besides, physical contact is the only way to apply the age reverse spell." "Alright but still." I huffed. "Could have been at least gentle instead of knocking them out like that." "Well, I made it flashy. Need me, know how to call me." They said, vanishing. "Ugh… my head." Mom said, walking back from her crater… what the hell? Mom looks… young. Like early twenties young… oh… oh he… Wait… he did, didn't he? The next few hours were filled with a mix of panic and worry. Matilda, Lana and Carmalita we're now all our age. Mom and the uncle's and Lana's dad even were all now early to mid twenties… well then. "So…that happened." I said sheepishly. "How though?!" Carmalita yelled. "Must be some kind of magic. I'll contact Mrz. Ruby. She might know something." M said. His young self looked great. "Doubt it…" Matilda mumbled. “I doubt Mz. Ruby knows something about Time Magic given that’s kind of what happened.” I said honestly. As the days went on Mrz Ruby didn't know how they got changed or if it was temporary or not. It's not, cause I know it's not. Regardless the others adjusted to their younger ages quite fast. Murray and Lana now we're an official couple, Sly and Carmalita didn't mind at all. All but Matilda seemed to be well adjusted. She kept working like nothing happened, only reminded when not busy or occupied, so she was burying herself in work to stay distracted. "Okay Matilda, you can stop working for five seconds." I said to her, finding her still stuck in work. "No." Matilda replied. She looked like hell. No sleep, barely eats, no shower, for three days of this.. "You've been at this for three days." I snapped. "Boo fucking hoo if your younger, doesn't mean you need to damn near kill yourself because of it." She snapped, looking me dead in the eye. "Maybe you don't care but I have responsibilities, I have armies on both sides of the world fighting and by the skins of their teeth keeping those lines, and maybe you had good parents, but to be honest, I'd rather have watched them die like you did rather than living through their hell!" She yelled, summoning her Keyblade but also throwing it out the window. "That's what happens when you take such a responsibility. Just know your not alone anymore, so stop pushing people away when they are literally right here to help." I frowned. "Mom can help, Uncle M and Jim can help. They may not be able to help with Keyblades specifically, but you're not alone anymore…" I said softly. "You don't get it." She sighed, dropping back on the chair. "My childhood was hell. Dad was the Keyblade Wielder, mom was a drunk. So dad raised me like a warrior. Normal five year olds got dolls, dad gave me a machete and four months of hand to hand combat. When I received his Keyblade when I was fourteen, I thought the hell was over. It wasn't, just got worse. Took me to the worst worlds, two years moving between nine if the darkest worlds in our Stars and about died sixty five times. When he died, I finally felt free. Being a child again rushed all that crap back. Everytime I look at myself, I remember the girl my dad would bloody and bruise the tears and cries out of just because I wasn't strong enough." "And want to know what I see?" I asked. "I see a pretty girl that just needs a hug and good things told about her." I said bluntly. "I don't… I just need to sort some things out." She said, calling back her Keyblade but dropping it once it returned to her. "I can't afford to be a kid with all I have on my plate with the world still falling apart." "You have me." I said, moving over and putting a gentle hand on her shoulder. "You're not alone anymore Matilda…" "How?" “How are you not alone?” I asked honestly. “What? Did all this time you thought you were still alone when you had us? Or did you forget that we were...slowly gaining something special?” Matilda chuckled. "Special? Kite, I like you, really, but you forget, you are fourteen, and I'm a forty seven year old woman stuck in her fourteen years old body by some cloak wielding Keyblade Wielder. Even if physically we are the same age I'm not mentally… wait, are you? I know you said some stuff about being reborn and some other stuff that honestly went a bit over my head." “I mean...that is true.” I said while thinking a bit. “Honestly, I don’t remember how old I am cause I was like...in my mid forties or something? Maybe early fifties before I got ‘reborn’ as you put it.” I said honestly. "Did you die or something?" “That might be getting a little too close to things I’m not allowed to say.” I said nervously.. “But either way, I’m mentally about as old as you.” "Huh. Even so, you're still Violet and Conner's son. The only thing that could even possibly change my mind is if your mom would be okay with it and I think we both can agree she will never agree to us." “Well how about she answers it herself.” I said. “Cause I have a feeling she’s been watching us this entire time.” “I have.” Mom said, jumping in from the window. “And I’m with Matilda. No.” “And I don’t care.” I said while picking Matilda up and wrapping an arm around her. “She needs help mom, she’s alone and anyone that was her age either didn’t give a crap about her, or treated her less than who she is.” I frowned. “Kite, you have a good heart, and I know you mean well… but even so, this JUST happened to us a few days ago. Carmelita and Lana adapted faster because they are younger, now here Matilda is blasted back thirty years in her past as a kid, she is still an adult legally, even if she is a teen physically.” “Thank you.” Matilda said. “Listen, I’m also sad that Matilda went from…” I took a deep breath and stopping myself before saying something dumb. “But you're missing the obvious point here. Carmalita and Lana have Sly and Murray...Matilda doesn’t have anyone.” I frowned. “Can both of you stop ignoring that for like, five seconds?” I asked. “Cause who here actually cares about Matilda? Not you cause you would rather rip her head off for trying to steal dad, Uncle M and Jim hate her cause she did stupid stuff to them before...everyone else just finds her nice but don’t really care like how Sly and Carmalita care about each other. Am I wrong?” I asked. “What about Bently? He’s single.” Matilda pointed out. “Then you haven’t seen him quickly closing his laptop from Thief Net Forums.” I said. “I thought that was just porn?” Mom said. “Nope, while they are keeping things anonymous through very secure private channels and screen names, I can already tell those two are sweet on each other.” I said honestly, having seen ‘Techy Girl’ on Bentley’s Laptop every now and then when he doesn’t know I’m looking and all the message patterns lead straight to Penelope. “So honestly, it’s me that’s single...and honestly I just want to see her smile a real smile...not that fake smile to hide away all the pain in her eyes when she looks at us…” “Hmmm…” Mom hummed, looking between Matilda and I. “I’ll only allow it if you answer me honestly about something. I mean you Kite.” “Wait what?” Matilda asked. Mom walked up to me, getting on her knees to look me in the eyes. “I overheard a lot… so what, or how much about this other life do you remember? And about those Keyblades.” Matilda went stiff as a board, clearly panicked. I was about to say ‘I can’t’, but then I remembered how the rules are now a bit loose. “Okay so yes, I was reincarnated, but I can’t tell you certain major things because of how I was reincarnated.” I started, giving a good enough buffer to be able to not explain a lot of shit. “So...which do you want to know first, how much I remember or how long and outlandishly convoluted and stupid Keyblade history is?” “All of it. M always said you were too smart for a baby, so I guess you never forgot your old life, and I guess I can understand why you never talked about it, I mean, who would believe it? So, start from the beginning I guess.” “Okay so I still can’t tell you that stuff, cause again that’s a whole other thing.” I rolled my eyes. “But...what I can probably tell you is how...is how Multiverse Theory exists, and not just ‘oh hey, worlds we thought were just fantasy land are real’, but ‘each version of our reality has a reflection of it with minor to major changes’.” I said simply. “So there’s that as just a start...then I have sadly witnessed the memories of a war that caused this massive reality fracturing, and then a whole lot more crap that would go way over your heads if it hasn’t already.” I shrugged. “The Keyblade war?” Matilda asked. “Trust me, whatever your father told you about Keyblades...is both correct and horribly wrong.” I said nervously. “And also...whatever things he said about the Keyblade war...Clockwerk’s shenanigans is like a sunday walk through the park.” I shivered. “And what are Keyblades exactly?” Mom asked. “Well, if we’re breaking rules.” Matilda said with a sigh, summoning hers. “This is a Keyblade. They are weapons forged from light, darkness, crafted to combat things normal weapons can’t defeat or even hurt.” “And then there’s also Nothingness and Void.” I said. “That’s kind of why I said your father sucked, because he only gave you such a super coddled explanation of the world of Keyblades it’s not even funny.” I said while bringing out my Cane. “Also he sucked as a father and a teacher. But my Cane right here has been reforged as a Keyblade cause that is a legitimate thing that can happen." "And how did you two do it? Reforge it I mean?" "A slightly complicated process that I don't want to get into cause of...past occurrences." I said sheepishly. "Is there anything else you know about?" "I mean, I know a lot." I said simply. "Like...way too much and a good amount of it I can't say." I shrugged. "So what do you want to know?" "Well, what can you say?" “Well I can explain stuff about Keyblades.” I said while heading outside real quick before tossing my Cane up in the air and summoning a Keyblade Glider, but this one being the HoverBoard variant. “I can talk on and on about the actual fundamentals of the world Matilda has been living in that her father didn’t know about, and teach you a lot of things about this mom.” I said simply. “But one thing that I must make clear…” I trailed off as I walked over and hugged mom. “Is that just because I remember my past life...doesn’t mean I stopped caring about the one I’m living right now mom…” "I'm glad to hear you say that Kite." Mom said, hugging me back. I smiled warmly, so glad to have mom back. “I’m glad you're here mom…” "Now then." Mom said, looking me in the eyes. "I still don't approve, or like the idea you want to date Matilda, but as your mother there is only so much I can't keep you from doing. But In the end it is Matilda's choice to date you, even with context that's weird to say. But for a while, let her process Kite." "Alright alright." I said gently. "I'll wait for Matilda." A few months passed by, and Christmas time arrived. Enough of Mexico and some of the USA, Mainly Texas, California, and New Mexico we're now liberated from Mugshot. Africa and the parts of Europe that are in conflict with Clockwerk's army were still in a draw, and China, completely under Panda King's rule, remained in isolation still. We set up bases to travel to and between in all the liberated areas. And we were all spending Christmas in Texas USA. Matilda seemed to be better, but she often acted like a kid, catching herself and all that. Her teenage body and adult mind seemed to still be at conflict, despite her having accepted her new reality long ago. I told Mom and Matilda what I was allowed, mom took the Keyblade oath but it hasn't yet appeared. “From what I remember it normally takes a bit before a Keyblade chooses you.” I said honestly. “But uh...should I mention any of this to the others?” I asked. “Sooner or later...I have to tell them…” "For now, let's enjoy the holiday." Mom said, Matilda and I at a dinner table while the others all ran around the arcade/pizza buffet we were in. "We can tell them at New Year's, assuming nothing happens." "Don't jinx it." Matilda sighed. She did not like having to wear age appropriate clothing. In this case, a pink top, blue jeans, and black sneakers. She was more a suit and heels woman. “Let’s hope it wasn’t jinxed…” I said while taking a sip of my drink. "You two should go out and play. There's lots to do, and frankly I was eyeing that candy crane machine from when we walked in." “Well, haven’t played a crane game in a while.” I said honestly. "Aren't those normally rigged?" Matilda asked. “They might, but when you're both magical, and learning to be a master thief, then it’s about fair.” I said with a shrug. "Fair enough. I wanna see this then." Matilda said, she and I getting up and over to the crane game with the expensive prizes. “Alright, let’s see how cheating this machine is.” I said while cracking my knuckles and pulling out a coin and putting it in, wondering how this thing will try and cheat me. It was like any other, the claw was too weak on the grip. Loose screws it seemed. So, using some light magic, I tightened them. Next go I grabbed a rather heavy looking pair of headphones, and it picked them up without issue, dropping them in the prize drop. "Impressive… you know, machines rigged or tampered with like this are technically stealing money from people. Shall we claim the prizes and return the money?" Matilda asked. “Of course.” I said. “While you play the claw machine, I’ll pick the locks on it.” Matilda nodded, placing in another coin while I worked the locks. “Jeez, who made these locks?” I said in disappointment as I picked the locks with ease. Once it was open I took the coins out and rewired it to be free and auto return coins. I then began sneaking the coins to others. Putting ten to twenty per pocket. “Nothing like being a good samaritan…” I muttered to myself with a smile. Once all those coins were returned Matilda and I checked in on the other games. Only the claw machines were sketchy, the rest were fine. Though we did take a look behind the machines. This area is a walkway to unplug machines or just pass through. "Wonder where they keep the spare prizes?" Matilda asked. “No idea, but they're probably somewhere.” I shrugged. "Hope they have more electronic stuff." Matilda said. Eventually we managed to find both the spare prizes room and the lost and found. “Alright, so time to start looting the place and distributing it to the masses.” I said. The spare prizes ranged from stuffed animals to some electronics. Once Matilda and I had a fair sized amount collected, we used the various cables and wires along the ceiling to drop them to everyone. By the time employees and such noticed, The family was all heading out the door and back to our base here in Texas. It was a simple house, but rebuilt on the inside. First floor looked normal, but had four hidden subfloors where gear and other such supplies were all kept and hidden. “Well that was fun.” I said warmly. "It was. So, does your family do any traditions? From before I mean." “Uh…” I thought for a moment...and then blushed brightly. “No, we don’t do anything, nothing that involves sexy women, nope, nothing.” I said quickly. "... I meant before Clockwerk…" “You could have been a bit more specific than ‘from before’.” I frowned. “But nothing much really.” "Huh. Surprising." “I mean, when you’re the son of a Master Thief and a Police officer, sometimes normal things take a back seat.” I chuckled. "I guess. So, get something for everyone?" “Yes, yes I did.” I nodded. “Why wouldn’t I have something for everyone?” "Just wondering. Normal kids can't afford to buy gifts, then again you are in no way or form of the definition, normal." “You make it sound like I was going to buy their gifts.” I chuckled. “There’s tons of stuff I thought of getting them that’s in the possession of Mugshot or other thieves.” "True enough." Matilda said with a nod. “Yeah…” I nodded. “But did you have fun?” I asked curiously. "I did. Always wondered what a Cooper clan job was like." “I mean, really wasn’t a Cooper Job, that was just some light fun.” I chuckled. "Potato patato." Matilda said with a wave of the hand. “Eh.” I shrugged. “But did you get anyone anything?” “I managed to pull a few items from old agency safehouses that I figured everyone would find useful.” “That’s good.” I nodded. “Let’s hope things go well on Christmas morning…” “Hopefully. Lines here in America are expecting to reach Mesa City soon, likely by mid january. We can then take out Mugshot and really work towards freeing America and Canada. Without the head the big bad gang will dissolve into lesser crime groups. More manageable and for a while in the chaos.” “Sounds about right.” I nodded. “According to MZ. Ruby, Mugshot will put up a fight for Clockwerk, so expect that.” “Well he needs to keep up the facade so he doesn’t get targeted by Clockwerk, same with Panda King who’s been...weirdly silent all things considered.” “It has been.” “Well...let’s hope Panda King hasn’t been doing anything weird there.” I said nervously. “Hopefully. Not even satellites can tell us, all we can see are hundreds of new warehouses where people are working. Roughly eight hours of the day. Not sure what they are all doing. Knowing Panda King we suspect high grade illegal fireworks and artilleries. If he has been making and mass producing this many on this level, well, it’s not good.” "Or he's been given a shit ton of people new jobs." I shrugged. "Panda King is too honorable to just mass produce illegal fireworks when his entire reason for becoming a criminal was to prove a point."" "Maybe. Whatever the case, after Mugshot we will be heading there. Have to travel by land though." "Good thing we got the Van." I said honestly. ”It’s durable enough to go from England to wherever Panda King is based.” "You are still fourteen." “And that stops me how?” I asked curiously. "Heh. Well, either way, I just hope things go smoothly with Mugshot." “I’m sure it will.” I said honestly. “Let’s just hope whoever’s been supporting Clockwork isn’t around…” I said nervously. "Intel has still been scarce on them. All we do know now is they are still having the same relationship with Clockwerk as before." “Alright.” I nodded. “Let’s hope they don’t do anything else…” As Christmas came we all got gifts. Carmalita got me my own shock pistol, in case my cane is unavailable. Not a possibility but it was nice. Murray got me boxing gloves. Bentley got me a special hacking tool. It was a simple USB, but once inserted it would break through most firewalls and copy all data to a secure thief net cloud system that Bentley could access immediately or later. Sly got me my own blue hat, like his/dad's. Mom got me an encrypted cell phone. Basically unlimited everything on data and such by hack linking to any and all cell towers. Uncle Jim and M gave me some spells they managed to find from their net Hex Casters. Nothing bad but useful. And Matilda got me a thermal upgrade to the Binocu-Com, so I can see people who are warm blooded behind walls and such. “Alright, and now onto my gifts.” I said with a smile as I tapped my cane on the ground as smoke puffed out in front of everyone as their presents appeared. “I made sure to get something everyone would be able to use, or just something for...sentimental reasons.” I explained. “ “For Sly and Carmalita.” I started while the two opened their gifts, showing matching silver bracelets fitted with gems and in the center was a small sphere that held a strand of their fur, Carmalita’s fur in Sly’s bracelet, and vice versa. “With the help of Matilda, Mz Ruby and...certain parties that would rather be left anonymous, I made you two bracelets that act as a sort of...protection. It’s heavily enchanted, and only you two can use their magic. The common stuff is basic defense magic, a heavy durability enchantment so it doesn’t break under most circumstances, and a special enchantment both of you will notice when you put it on.” I said with a warm smile. "This is cool." Carmalita said while putting her bracelet on. "How did you… do I wanna know?" Sly asked while putting his on. As the two had their bracelets on, they felt a soft little tingle in their arms that raced through their bodies, the two of them feeling like no matter how far away they were, they would always be with one another. “I’m sorry if I’m going overboard with the presents here, but that tingling feeling you probably just felt is a special spell I developed...think of it like a two way beacon that only you two can feel.” I said simply. "Useful." Sly and Carmalita said. “I’ll figure out how to add other enchantments later like telepathy, that’s a little out of my range right now.” I shrugged. “Now, onto Murray and Lana.” I said while seeing the Hippo and Russain Wolf opening their gifts, both showing a knuckle duster for the both of them fitted for their dominant hand and fitted with small markings in a weird language as Murray’s had a strand of Lana’s fur and Lana had a tooth chip from Murray given he neither has hair nor fur. "Sweet! This will knock out a lot of bad guys." Murray said. "This will indeed make many people lose teeth." Lana said happily. “So I have the same enchantment that Sly and Carmalita have on their bracelets onto yours, as well as a few other nifty things.” I explained. “Put them on, but be ready cause I heard it’s a bit of a rush.” Nodding, the two did just that, feeling the rush of magic flow into them. “So this special enchantment shares your physical strength, sadly I could only manage whatever you punch through the knuckle duster based on my own magical abilities and my knowledge on Rune words, but considering you two are the power houses, might as well have it be like their getting hit by two instead of one.” I chuckled. "You really know your stuff, Kite." Murray said, impressed. "You have the wisdom of man three times your age." Lana said, earning a smirk from Mom and Matilda. “Just well read.” I said honestly. “Even if Bentley might sass me on this, reading fantasy books helps a lot, especially Dungeons and Dragons.” I chuckled, which was honestly the truth both in this scenario and even back home. “So now onto Bentley.” I said while Bentley had two boxs in front of him. “You can guess as to why there’s a second box, and who it belongs to.” I said with a knowing and teasing grin. "Kite…" Bentley groaned, face turning red. “It’s not my fault that I couldn’t get ‘Techy Girl’ here before Christmas.” I teased. “But I can explain what your gift does or you can wait until we find her and you give it to her.” I said. “But for that I would need a piece of your shell and a strand of hair from her." "Given your trend I have an idea." Bentley said. “Alright, so I’ll explain it when we find your lucky lady friend.” I said before turning to Uncle M and Jim. “While I couldn’t really think of gifts to help you two on the field, I did find something special.” I said while seeing my Uncles opening their gifts. “I remember you two talking about one thing you wanted but never could find even if you were master thieves going around the world, so I found them for ya.” Uncle Jim held a Gameboy. A copy of Pokemon Ruby inserted. And Uncle M received a deck of Magic the Gathering. “Also I know you two are wanted criminals but...really?” I asked incredulously. "I've always had a soft spot for video games." Jim said with a laugh, turning the Gameboy on. "I've always thought of card games with strategy to be more fun than just chess." M said, looking through the deck. “Then the three of us need to have a wonderful time gaming and card games.” I said simply. “And now onto you two...the more difficult of the bunch.” I said while looking at Matilda and mom. “Mom...open yours first. I’m sure you’ll like it.” I said while she opened the small box. Inside made her tear up. From memory I recalled as best I could her wedding ring. And I found and had to steal this one. Apparently dad proposed to mom with a ring that was a set of five. Only two are purchased officially. The other three were stolen. This one ended up in the vault of goods from a warehouse of Mugshots gang here in Texas. “It took me a while, and I had to go by memory but...I tried getting you your wedding ring.” I said gently. "Where did you find this?" Mom asked, slipping the ring on, fitting perfectly. “Found it in one of the vaults from a warehouse Mugshot owns.” I said honestly. “And I wanted to make sure it was the one you had so I checked with Uncle M and Jim, and thankfully they’re good at keeping secrets, especially when you looked a bit mad.” I said sheepishly. "Heh. I always told Conner that if he was to give me something stolen, it would only be once. He made it count." Mom said, holding the ring on her finger, smiling as tears fell. "Thank you Kite." “Your welcome mom.” I said while giving her a quick hug. Now, onto Matilda's gift. “Now for you...well it was a bit difficult.” I said simply. “I had to scour quite a bit but I think I finally got you something that’ll work out.” I explained, Matilda opening the box and showing a simple hard backed book with the Kingdom Hearts Symbol on it. "What is it?" She asked, opening it. Once she skimmed it's contents, her eyes widened. "Oh. Thank you." She said. "What is it?" Sly asked. "J-just a book I remember from when, well, this age I am physically I guess. Can't believe Kite found it." "Resourceful little racoon aren't you?" Carmalita said with a chuckle. “What can I say? When it comes to those I care about, I’ll move the world.” I said with a kind smile. The holidays came and went faster than I would have liked. It was officially January first, meaning Mom, Matilda and I were going to tell the others. As much as I was allowed anyway. This morning I woke up with a killer headache. “Christ...what’s with the sudden headache?” I groaned in pain. "That would be our bad. Sorry." I jumped. My Time Walker was standing there next to my bed. Good thing we all have individual rooms. “Okay so what the hell are you doing here?” I asked while rubbing my head, trying to get rid of the headache. "Like I said. Our doing. Side effect of breaking then replacing time with a new system. One that works without filling up the storage drive." “I thought you said that wouldn’t happen until much much later?” I frowned. "For you in the present time. Well… hmm. Hard to explain it really. It's like it both happened already and hasn't happened yet. Hard to explain, like I said, but this brings with it some good news, including your talk you are about to have with your family today." “So I can tell everyone everything or something?” I asked curiously. “But what about the Admin Games?” "Well… hmm… how to explain this new system." The time Walker thought. "Remember those books that hold worlds within them?" “Yes I do.” I nodded. “Also right now the thing is a Schrodinger's Cat kind of thing?” "No. You see, the Grim Reapers society and the Time Walkers both watch over time. Time Walkers watch over time as a whole. Grimm Reapers watch over for the end of someone's time, but time for everyone has to end, and with time broken, it can't. So, what's the solution? Simple. Books." “So people’s stories end and when they do they go off outside the books?” I asked curiously. "Not exactly. Hmm… The Grim Reapers already had books that contained the life of everyone, being written as their lives are happening. With the Help of us and Cript, we created three forms of special books. Biography, an individual person's life, Atlas, the world and it's population life all written in one book, and a Grand Destiny. A book containing all the names and stories of everything and everyone in existence, past and future. You can imagine the size of our library to hold this all." “Alright.” I nodded. “So...what can I tell my family here now that this has all happened?’ "Well, anything really." The Time Walker said. "But, when it comes to your powers, there is a way to use them. Here, say 'Display Hud Menu." “Display Hud Menu.” I said. “But aren’t the rules of the Admin Games still in effect or are they just no longer matter?” A HUD appeared, it was my normal Skill tree, but there was a new branch. Identities. Taping it showed me Kite Cooper and even Diane. Taping Kite, there was Skills relating all I've learned now, and a new branch titled Parent Branch. Taping that showed all my normal Abilities, but according to this… I don't have spare Ability points. "When with a new Identity, Like Kite, they receive their own skill tree and earn their own point separate from you as King. And no, you can't give or spend some as King in Kite. You, like Diane, are different yet the same person all at once." “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “So about the rules of the Admin Games, does that just not count anymore?” "Not really. They're more guidelines now. Optional. Since this new system removed any and all possibly of Paradoxes, you can do whatever, it's up to you if you should though." “Well...I’ll keep who I truly am hidden, but I’ll still talk about the whole reincarnation thing and a lot of other really important things.” I said honestly. “Gotta keep some surprises.” I said simply. “But now I need to see how I can get skill points.” "Say, Open Quest Menu. We'll update this later. Most likely able to have your assistant but Invisible to others." “Alright, so now to tell them damn near everything cause at this point it’s probably for the best...now should I even mention Nexus? Or do those fuckers already know?” "Well, we can't tell you everything. Mainly cause it's no fun that way. We can make you work for it in exchange for the information and ability points though." “Well looks like I’m going to have to do it myself.” I said honestly. “So is time stopped right now or is it just early in the morning before people woke up?” "Well, it's not really time stopped anymore. More like… motion paused. This new system isn't exactly time, but a good replacement. Our meetings like this are, the bookmark getting placed." “Alrighty then.” I nodded while getting out of bed and stretching. "Well, til next time." The time Walker said, 'time' getting set back in motion. “Alright, till next time.” I said with a yawn as I headed out to the kitchen to get some food and some pain killers. I took some simple headache relief medicine with my bacon and eggs. Before I told everyone the news I figured I'd tell Matilda and Mom the update. Including the Time Walker. Reasonably they were surprised and even found some of it hard to believe, but thankfully I could at least summon a few Nothingness thorns as proof enough, even summoning the Time Walker. “A lot more things have changed and...well it’ll mean quite a bit when I fully explain things.” I said sheepishly. "That's… both insane and incredible all at once." Matilda said. "So, you chose to be reborn then?" Mom asked. “Well...it’s very complicated.” I said sheepishly. “And I’d best explain it when everyone else is here cause...it’s weird.” "Does that mean you didn't die?" Matilda asked. “I’ll explain it when the others get here, no need to do it twice when I’m going to probably have to anyways.” I shrugged. "Fair enough. But, given there is time travel involved, when are you from?" “The future actually.” I said honestly. “Cause apparently the me that did this would be in reality when I was in my mid thirties.” "I did not understand any of that." "Me neither." Mom said. “And you’ll continue to not understand even as I lay it out to you as simply as possible cause timey wimey bullshit.” I shrugged. "Language." Mom said. “Out of everything you’ve heard so far, language?” I asked. "Yes." Mom said. “Whatever.” I rolled my eyes. “So anyways, shouldn’t the others be awake by now?” "They are. Let's head off." Matilda said. “Alright.” I nodded while finishing my breakfast and heading out. “Can’t wait to see their reactions to all of this.” Needless to say… it was quite the clusterfuck. The whole day spent answering questions, displaying powers and all that jazz. When it was finally over Everyone went to bed with their views on reality broken, rebuilt and half hazardly staying together. "Well, that was more than expected." Matilda said, rubbing her head. “You get used to it.” I said while twirling my Cane lazily between my fingers. “But it gets worse when...you know that certain events have to happen, even if you don’t want them to.” I sighed out. "From what I get, you don't have to anymore, right?" “Well thankfully yes.” I nodded. “So I can make damn well sure the Klaww Gang won’t steal Clockwerks parts, Bentley won’t be crippled, and other things...now the only problem is Nexus or whatever other weird crap will happen to take it’s place.” I said worriedly. “Cause it could either be something simple like a new gang rising up...or worse…” "Little I do know about stuff like this is that often something will replace what is stopped. Hopefully it's nothing serious." “Knowing my life...it’s going to get worse…” I sighed out. “But hey...at least I’ve been preparing what I can to help make it less bad, even if it’s just from the gifts.” "In that case, can we learn or do anything you can?" “Certain things, no.” I shook my head. “Like you, you can’t learn Nothingness like I can because of how I am before.” I said honestly. “But with the others...well they’ll need Keyblades for that.” "Well then… best get to work." “Yep, time for even more enchanting that took me literal god damn months to work on cause this body's magic reserves aren’t as readily handy as my old body.” I groaned. “Seriously, I needed to find each gem of a specific cut, get all the other pieces necessary to make things, figure out that rune magic is actually different in this world and it was a massive headache all around.” I complained. "I might be able to help you with that. Anything magical my organization collected and hid in caches and warehouses all over the world. In the US here we have one per state. This includes anything I found relating to Keyblades. Even Moogle Holo Crystals." “Oh god Moogles are here…” I chuckled. “That’s going to be help out a lot later on...but right now, I hope my explanation didn’t do anything too bad to everyone else’s mental health…” "They'll just need to process. So, shall we head off to the Cache?" “Sure.” I nodded. “Let’s go get some magic items.” Matilda and I geared up and headed out. Running along rooftops and electrical wires thanks to the rubber coverings. Extra grip and friction plus electric shock proof. The Cache was under a slaughterhouse. Owned by a company owned by the government for basic meats for schools and such, used for hiding government stuff off the books. Once inside, switching the lights showed it was… empty. "Shit!" Matilda huffed. "No way Mugshot could have known about this place." “Is there anyone that might know of this place?” I asked. “Anyone against you?” I asked while trying to find any clues as to who stole everything. "Just me and a small handful of my own hand picked loyalist. Most of them are dead or off fighting with the other rebels in Africa." “Then it would probably be a third party…” I sighed out, still trying to find something, anything that could link to who might have done this. "This isn't good. There was Gummi Tech here. Last thing I need is Gummi Ships armed to the teeth flying around. Hopefully the important stuff is still hidden." She said, feeling along the walls. “Damn it…” I growled, before helping Matilda search for the secret switch to the more hidden stuff. She found it, pressing it showing a hand scanner. Once it scanned her hand a pannel opened up, showing a shelf with a single book… Is that… a Book of Prophecy? One of the ones The Master of Masters made. "Thank God it's still here." She said, taking it. “And where the hell did you find that?” I asked nervously. "It's been in my family since the Keyblade War. Master Ava's copy given to her trusted second hand to guard. This is one of those things that if it went into their hands would be beyond bad for everyone." “Even though that book is nothing but a massive self fulfilling prophecy that he started?” I pointed out. "That section yes, but that's not all it holds. Detailed information about all Heartless types, weakness, how to even summon them. But, it also contains the information on how to create a Keyblade forge and turning basic metals into magic materials and ores to make Keyblades and other such items." “Well that’s interesting.” I said honestly. "Well, there is one other place but it's just tech and weapons. No magic stuff. Wanna see if it was hit also?" “Yeah, cause if it’s this clean a second time I think I know who might have done it…” I said, hoping it wasn’t Nexus jumping the gun here. Heading to the other cache, under a college oddly enough, we got to the secret entrance, Matilda opening the passcode locked door. Inside was all the weapons, ammunition, tech, med supplies. Enough here for a small army. "This was untouched. Why?" Matilda asked. “Because this seems less important than actual magical stuff…” I hummed. "You got that right." Matilda and I readied our Keyblades. From behind the crates, emerged Mugshot. The big muscular pitbull was wearing a suit surprisingly. "l would put those fancy keys and sticks aways. I have been the president of this country for the last three years." “Through racketeering and other bullshit?” I asked simply. “Yeah, what a wonderful president you’ve been.” I rolled my eyes. “And you don’t even know what either of us could do.” "I knows. I knows plenty. But, I'm not here's for threats and whatnots. I come with peace offerings." "What happened to the other Cache?" Matilda asked. "Clockworks orders. Dunno how he knew about them, said he wanted all of what was in them and the rest was mines. Never touched what he left me's." “You know Clockwerk is one hundred percent butt fuck insane right?” I asked Mugshot simply. “You know that old bastard getting magical artifacts is bad news for everyone right?” "I knows I knows, but I had to hand them over. He's gots me in a corner. If I break outta line, I'll be his next meal." I sighed out. “Alright, so what’s this peace offering you talked about? This entire compound or something else?” "You can take whatever is here's. But my peace offering is information." “And what’s the information?” I asked curiously. Mugshot reached into his suit, pulling out a file folder and handing it to me. Inside were photos and documents of all kinds. "I wasn't Ables to a name of this group funding Clockwerk, but I was Ables to get names of some of the people, and they were the ones who tooks the magic stuff from those caches. Dunno much but I was also able to gets some information on his… robot Cooper's he's got running around slaughtering." “Thank you.” I nodded while checking the file to see all the info Mugshot got for us. Of all the photos three had names. A Hippo named Wilson, A human named Maxwell, and a Lion named Ruger. All seemed Nexus. Photos of them loading people and raw materials onto their ship were taken, and then the section about the Robots named only one as confirmed. One of them was Tennessee Kid Cooper, as well as a partel photo of the Blueprints used to build them. Tennessee was made different it seemed. Modified with many built in weapons and a replica of the family came when he had it. His robot body kit with orange and blue lines. Likely to better tell them apart. According to this he has a confirmed sixty five kills since going online. “Christ…” I muttered. “Coopers aren’t meant to kill…” "Sorry it couldn't be more good. I understands you're heading towards my main Headquarters in Mesa City. I'll be there's. Make it a good show, cause Clockwerk will be watching." “And we’ll make sure not to beat you up too much.” I chuckled. “But how’s being president been?” "Good. Good. Turns out running a country and running a gang ain't so different. Word of advice though, don't worry non abouts Panda King. When you meet, you'll know why." “Alright.” I nodded. “But is Panda King treating his people well or what? Cause all we know is that he’s making factories and giving people jobs for maybe illegal stuff.” "He runs his country no different than mines. Maybe less brute Force but he does goods by the people as best he can." “That’s good.” I nodded. “Glad to know Panda King is doing good for the people.” "As am I. I tooks it over by sheer brute Force, yet I bets you didn't notice the quality of life isn't so bads. Turns out old uncle Sam had more money than they wanted to admits. How is Mexico doin?" “Better now that Wily Coyote is out of commission.” I said honestly. "Heard about that. Hear I has you to thanks for that thorn in my side getting pulled. Thanks for that. I best be off now, Clockwerk's satellite will be passing over in a bit so now's my openings to leave." “Alright, stay safe.” I nodded. “We’ll be after ya in a while, just need to make sure everything goes right here.” When Mugshot left Matilda and I left and she sent word to collect the arms and supplies. After that we went to bed, and waking up the next morning we got everyone ready for Keyblades while Matilda and I switched between studying over the book and helping the others train for when they appeared. “Come on, the training is not that hard.” I said honestly, even though I didn’t have to do it and the training for Keyblades was actually a little harder than the other training they’ve done. "How are any of these even possible?" Sly asked, heaving and drenched in sweat. “Because they are, and are the simple parts of Keyblade training.” I said honestly. “I mean, Keyblade training is a lot more basic in terms of what you need to know, but the raw physical and magical power they can hold...well you’ll need to be prepared.” "I guess that makes sense. Still, damn this sucks." Carmalita said/agreed. “Eh.” I shrugged, while falling down from my perch above them, grabbing onto a hook with my cane, flipping in mid air and swirling down on my Keyblade Glider hoverboard. “Now I know this will never replace the van, but Keyblade’s can turn into Gliders which are very handy if you need to fly around or forgot a parachute.” "Useful." Sly said. "Kite! Bentley and Uncle M passed out again!" Murray said. Yeah those two are gonna have a lot of work ahead of them... “Alright, take them to the infirmary and make sure they didn’t overwork themselves.” I said to Murray. “I know they are not physically active as the rest of us and more thinkers but christ…” I muttered while scratching my head, wondering if I should tone back the training. A month passed. While Uncle M managed to work up more muscle Bentley was still on the weak side, going from toothpick to at least average in terms of physical fitness. Murray and Lana blossomed, as well as Uncle Jim. Mom, Matilda and Sly were able to well keep up with the training and such. Thankfully Mom got her Keyblade. Oathkeeper. Just Oathkeeper. “Cool, you got your keyblade.” I said with a smile. “And Oathkeeper at that, sounds about right.” "It's beautiful." Mom said, looking it over. “Yeah, she is pretty.” I said honestly. "She?" Mom asked. "Keyblades have genders?" “I mean, kind of yeah.” I said honestly. “Oathkeeper and her brother, Oblivion, are two of a kind, while Oath here is a bit of a stickler for the rules, Oblivion is kind of a butt as she would say.” I chuckled. “Isn’t that right Oath?” I asked, given that Time didn’t exist anymore and Keyblades had one mind between all of them I was half expecting Oath to do a little something to agree. No answer. Huh, guess Kite Cooper isn't a Keyblade master yet. Only human X-blades or Keyblade Masters can normally hear their voices. “Well I suppose I’m just not good enough yet.” I shrugged. “So anyways, now that you got your keyblade, let’s test it out shall we.” "Okay." Mom said as we began testing her skills with it. Spells wise she knows Blizzard and Fire, and all in all it was basic stuff. Which was good. “Well so far so good. You’re getting the basics down well.” I nodded. "Basics are at least a start." Mom said. Later that night I went out, calling my Time Walker to earn skill points to access my normal powers. “Alright, now onto skill point farming cause that’s gonna take forever.” I sighed out. "I got a few missions." The Time Walker stated. “Alright, so what are those missions?” I asked curiously. “Oh also...how bad are my ancestors in their machine bodies?” "Bad. Suffering horribly." They said casually. "So, first one is worth fifty SP. A simple steal." “What’s to steal and is there anything I can do to save them besides...well bashing their brains in?” I asked. "Later. For now the item in question is this." They handed me a photo. On it was a soft glowing white gem about the size of a quarter. "It's a Time Gem. While time itself isn't a concept like it used to be, these gems are still out and around. Same abilities too. Makes for instantaneous recovery on things like MO, drive gage, anything that takes time to reload or recover, ready to use just by keeping it on your person or within range. When ground up and eaten can reverse ageing and keeps the Grim Reapers off your back for a while." “Sounds about right.” I shrugged. “Good to know, so where is the Time Gem?” "Texas Art History museum. Was embedded as part of a statue from two hundred years ago. Just pick it off and replace it with this replica." They handed me an identical version of the gem. "I'll meet you on top of the museum roof." “Sounds easy enough.” I nodded while heading off to the art museum, knowing this will be a quick and easy job all things considered. The security was basic. Laser alarms I was able to walk along, security I hacked easy with the tool Bentley gave me and with a little magic I grabbed it easy then put in the fake. As I made my way to the roof the gem started blinking. “Hmm?” I hummed curiously. “Wonder why it’s blinking...maybe a signal?” "Yo." The Time Walker said, walking over to me as I got on the roof. “Howdy, got you the thing.” I said while holding up the gem. "Thank you." He said, taking the gem as the fifty SP we're given to me. I put them to letting me summon my weapons, but they are like when I first got them. Seems about right. “Cool.” I said warmly as I switched between my weapons. “It feels great to have my old weapons back.” "Good to hear. Ready for another or job?" “Sure.” I nodded. “What’s the next job?” "We'll have to head elsewhere for that." He said, opening a portal. "You'll be back in time. Heh." “So many time puns.” I rolled my eyes. “Well let’s get going.” We went through the portal and we're in Paris. Nowhere near where home was but over what looked like a bank. "As you can guess these job's we'll have for you all revolve around Time Gems. This one is in a safety deposit box. Part of a ring. Here's the replica." He then tossed me the ring. This gem was smaller than the last, but embedded in a gold ring. "Deposit box is number 873. Lucky you this back has a single air vent leading in there. Just small enough for you to get in and out." “Convenient.” I said while I headed inside, wanting to make this quick before anyone noticed. “Actually…” I muttered. “Haste…” I muttered, casting a haste spell on myself and feeling faster already. I quickly, and quietly, rushed through the vent, Seeing a single camera and used the hacking tool to loop the feed. I found the safety deposit box and opened it. Inside was the ring. I grabbed the original and left the replica. Back on the roof I gave it to the Time Walker and got my fifty SP. "Good job." The Time Walker said. “Two simple jobs.” I said simply. “And a lot of profit from it.” I said while looking through what I could get from the fifty SP. I ended up grabbing Valor form, which took all the SP. "Got one more job. Will not be as easy as the other two." “Well I got Valor Form and can now stretch what magical abilities I know.” I said honestly. “What’s the job?” "Bounty hunting. While time isn't like it was the books everything and everyone now resided in, future, past, present all in the books pages being written, has been written and can be changed. So In a sense time travel is still possible but not like before. Therefore this Time Runner can still do his job. Something we can't allow to happen. I will be helping you take her down. You know what a Time Runner is right?" “Not really, I don’t know much about your organization or what they do.” "Let's put it this way then. A Time Walker, like me, as of the new system, watches over time with controlled Paradoxes and minimal effect. While Paradox's are not possible that does not mean the pages can't be damaged by getting rewritten too many times. We repair them if this happens. Time Runners are Speedsters and other rogue elements who run and break the pages as they wish, in a sense while they can't do permanent damage they do risk a lot by repeatedly breaking the tearing of the pages of time of the worlds storybooks and the invaluable persons story books. A lot of maintenance and repair on that end. Worst case scenario we have to completely rewrite a world and/or person's storybook and we can't get every detail correct if this happens. Understand so far?" “You could have just said ‘they run around causing damage to time’.” I said honestly. "That would not have been as accurate given the current/yet to be state of time. In any case when they arrive I can match their speed. You can't. I can take it away and once that happens we confront them." “Alright, let’s get onto finding this thing.” I said honestly. "They'll be here soon." The Time Walker said, tossing up and catching the two time gems. "We have what they will be after." “Using them as bait huh?” I asked. “Clever.” "They'll be here right about…" They said, in the distance flashed a red streak of Lightning passing the roads some miles away. "Here." “Did the Flash want to join the party or something?” I asked nervously. "Time Runners are largely Nexus made Speeders. Utilizing a Negative Speed Force rather than the one the Admin of Time made." “Sounds about right.” I said honestly. “Well, let’s get ready to kick this guys ass.” "Girl." They said. In a flash of red the Time Runner stood before us. Dressed in a black and blue jumpsuit with a mask that is largely a visor. "Well, a Time Walker, and a trash picking Raccoon. You guys are using temporal natives now?" The Runner mocked. “Oi, I am a Trash Panda thank you very much.” I huffed. “And also your one to talk, that jumpsuit with that visor? What is Nexus letting you work the bargain bin or something christ.” "It's old tech, admitably, but more advanced than anything this backwater world will ever make." “For now.” I said while two balls of lightning lashed out towards the speedster. She zoomed around them, throwing lighting at me. The electric shock hurt like a thousand needless shots into my bones… and I felt angry. Just an overwhelming anger. It faded once the pain did. “Okay...that hurt.” I grumbled. “Alright, let’s try this again…” I muttered while bringing out Skysplitter and slamming it into the ground, causing the terrain to shake under her. In a red flash she ran up and along the cracking ground, zipping passed me and hitting the Time Walker, sending them against a nearby building and then rushing back to me. In a swift motion they broke my wrist, making me yell and drop Skysplitter before vibrating her hand and phasing it into my chest. My blood ran cold. "Just give me the gems and the kid lives." She said, hand still phased into my chest. "Okay okay!" The Time Walker yelled. The Runner smirked, taking her hand out of me then punching my throat. Breathing was possible but hard as I heaved and coughed. "Smart mov-" BANG. SPLAT. THUD. To my and the Time Walkers surprise a bullet shot the Runner in the head, killing her. "Sometimes a simple gun is in order." Able to breath and stand now I saw as Matilda flew down. "I mean, while that's true, she was faster than literal lightning." I frowned. "And last time I checked, lightning is faster than a bullet." “Not when they are distracted.” Matilda said with a chuckle. “So, what and who was that?” “A lead… was.” The Time Walker said, walking over and kicking the corpse. “That’s where you're wrong kiddo.” I said simply. “Cause you know, it’s very easy to just tie her up so she can’t even phase through it and reverse the damage?” “Three, two, one.” There was a puff of void energy and code… and the corpse was gone. “New measure on the Time Runners. They die, activating a code format that literally erases their code from reality. Guess who’s idea that was.” “Cause of course…” I grumbled. “This will piss you off even worse. She knew where Spoiled was located… and Spoiled knows where Vilgax is located, and you know the rest.” The time walker sighed. “Well, best hunt the next in line on their ranks…” My right eye twitched. “Cause….you know...why the fuck not.” I said slowly. “Just...rub salt in the ever growing wound I have…” “Who are Vilgax and Spoiled?” Matilda asked. “Long story.” The Time Walker sighed. “This time travel related?” “Yeah kinda.” “... Say, I didn’t get what you meant by broken time and all, yeah I heard that, but… won’t people from your time still be the same as they are in this time?” “Well… yes and no. Yes they will be the same people but any major alterations to their past will alter their future and split the Vilgax we know now from the one here as a different timeline version.” “So keep it minimal. Can’t you just put a tracer or something on him now, and it still be on him in your time?” “While that is true, you have to remember that they would have to go through literally an infinite amount of Vilgax’s just to find the fucker at this point given Time isn’t really a thing.” “... Then we tag the one we know for a fact is. Not Vilgax. Spoiled.” I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Alright, so what is that Spoiled doing specifically right now?” I asked, still outlandishly pissed at Matilda. "Currently on her Equestria. Almost to term with Councilor Diamond Tiara." The Time Walker said. “Alright, good to know.” I said. “I’m still pissed at you Matilda.” I frowned. "Well next time loop people in." She snarked back. “Since you’re the pinnacle of keeping people in the loop.” I rolled my eyes. "Hi pot, I'm kettle." I shook my head. “You will never understand…” I growled. “But the fuckers dead, the Time Gems are still safe, am I still getting that reward?” I asked the Time Walker, not wanting to stay pissed at someone who’s ignorant to everything I know. "Yeah. Goal was to stop her. Dead or alive doesn't matter. It's one less Runner out there." “Alright.” I nodded. I got my hundred SP and got myself Heir Master form and the ability to summon Nobodies again. “Okay cool.” I said while testing my summoning ability, wondering how tough it’ll be to summon something. It felt like those early days. The stronger Nobodies took a toll, but Dusk's and Creeper Nobodies were easy. “Alright, cool.” I said with a smile. “This’ll help a lot.” "Creepy." Matilda said, looking at the Dusk move. “They are the bodies of people that have lost their Hearts.” I said simply. “Something your father should have mentioned but well...he kind of sucked at his job training you.” "Rumors yeah. But did they lose all their bones too?" “Do Heartless lose their bones?” I asked honestly. "That's different. It's just the heart in a body made of darkness. That is a former person who became a living jelly dressed in silver spandex." “Again, you know literally nothing about Nothingness.” I said simply. “Which is why I’m disappointed at how a video game series explains things better than people who have actually lived through it.” I frowned. "In any case, what now… cause Time Guy left and we are back in Paris." “Well…” I started. “We’re in Paris so...why not a date?” I suggested. "Thought you were mad at me?" “I am, but it’s better we do something to stop being pissed at each other and get along.” I shrugged. “Better than having another person that wants to rip your head off.” "We actually take this date, even if your mom says it's my choice she will be in the distance pissed as all hell." “And she’s gonna have to get used to it.” I shrugged. "Heh. Well, why not then. Hear this is your hometown, know anywhere good?" “Oh so many.” I said while taking her hand and leading her to any nice place that comes to mind. To be continued... Nobody's dayI was with Ciel in a place I didn't even think was still a thing. The kingdoms FBI department. I legit did not think this was even a thing anymore. Guess I was wrong. "I'll need to speak with my informant. She'll get you more up to date on what we know and what we have." “Cool.” I nodded. “Now onto me completely forgetting that this was a thing when I needed to remember a million and one things every day.” "Many worlds had departments like this. So rather than replace and move people around the FBI was kept, keeping largely to what they've always done but focusing more on research and intelligence on inner kingdom threats. Here's her office. And please, don't say anything." I was confused, looking at the name on the office door it said Fluttershy. A Fluttershy working in the FBI… huh. Ciel and I entered and my jaw dropped. I saw the bustiest, thickest, most yes please sex appeal humanoid Fluttershy in my life. "Hello Ciel." Oh My God that voice is amazing. "Mrs. King, a pleasure to have the Crowns face in my office." “It’s a pleasure to meet you too.” I said politely. "They'll be working with me on the Shadow Drugs case. We'll need to get them up to date." Ciel said. "Alright then." She said, looking through her desk and pulling out two files. One looked about empty and the other was more full. "Officially, we only have the known information. The crates appeared with no trackable signatures of any kind. Each case holds roughly a hundred shadow drug injectors all full. We also know the materials the Injectors are made of and sadly it is all too common for us to pinpoint any one or few locations." Even though Ciel told me ‘not to say anything’, I couldn’t help myself. “Are the injectors just plain looking or do they have any physical distinctions from any normal one’s you can find on the market?” "The only difference between these Injectors and the normal ones used in the medical field is that these are not made by any manufacturer. They are machine made, we know that, but they are not from any licensed facility." “Hmm…” I hummed. “Well at least it kind of narrows it down.” "It's still a needle in a multiverse sized haystack. Now then, time to discuss the unofficial information gathered." Ciel said. Fluttershy nodded, opening the thicker file. "Unofficially, as far as we can tell Shadow Drugs came onto the market first in Connection City 2010, September Third. Five years to the date Cript avenged the Non-existent Autumn by killing the Darkness, the creator of Shadow Creatures and Dark Elemental Crystals such as Electronium." “And why do I suddenly have a feeling the guy who’s selling this is either Darkness itself having come back somehow, or one of his ‘children’ as it were.” I frowned. "Not likely. Powerful as he was at the time the Darkness was still mortal. As for children long-term exposure to corrupted elemental crystals creates infertility in all who keep them in use for over a period of a month. And from the records we have of him before he had no lovers or family to speak, so no kin. We do believe whoever is behind this however was either an admirer or is utilizing his old bases equipment. However no one has been able to get close enough before or after the changes to reality to inspect." Ciel said. “Until now I presume?” I asked curiously "Not even." Fluttershy said. "Before, the amount of dark Electronium on that island fortress of his was toxic and endless shadow creatures. Now, it's still the same size. The building anyway. After the mass multiverse and such timelines it's guarded by a level five arena dungeon, the things that spawn there are as strong as you can imagine and as expected all that dark Electronium just sitting under that place would make a sun exploding look like a fire cracker." “Sounds fun.” I said simply. “But I doubt I’m here to be Demolition Man in the Dungeon right?” "You can't. It's a level five. Meaning even Admins like you, like Dad, would have issues getting to the base, which is in the center of that mess." Ciel said. "The base is still untouched. Satellites tell us that much. So we expect whoever was there went in and took only the Darkness's research and left. This had to have been done before the dungeons and mass fusion. We also do believe whoever this person is to either be human or Electronian." “Oh boy, that sounds interesting.” I said honestly. “About these Electronian’s, I haven’t heard about them before.” "They're the inhabitants of Electron. A planet on a parallel orbit of Earth. At least, it used to. Since the fusion the planet and all reflections have merged with us and the kingdom. They are typically about seven to nine feet in height and are basically giant anthropomorphic ferrets. They evolved alongside Electronium crystals which their kingdom/world has been known for across all reflections. As such they have the same basic powers as that of one wielding an Electronium crystal. They are intelligent, strong, all in all quite a formetable race. The Non-existent Autumn was the last living descent of their former queen Arora. As such they have been ruled by a council, then Cript killed the Darkness and they let him and Freak Inc. rule their kingdom. Now they actually have a crown and royalty again. They went from over a hundred and sixty years with an empty throne to having so many royals they are ecstatic." “That is very interesting...also they must look absolutely adorable.” I said, thinking about giant anthro Ferrets and how adorable normal Ferrets. "Some." Both Ciel and Fluttershy said. "In any case, we can't get to the base to explore it. Even so we are expecting it to be empty or trapped. We just have no idea what is actually in there, even so, King, dungeons nullify teleporting and even in the fastest flying transportation it would take over six years. It's that big of a dungeon." Fluttershy said. "And that's well passed light speed including." Ciel added. “I mean...I’ve moved faster than any of that.” I said honestly. “In some worlds, people move maybe...a few hundred billion times the speed of light? Yeah a lot of us are just straight faster than that.” "Even so, go too fast, the dark Electronium explodes. It's stupidity unstable. The only 'safe' means of traversing there is to fight, melee only, cause guns and other firearms and such can also set the stuff off, a trip that would take way too damn long." Ciel sighed. "As far as I can tell it's barely an option. So we go after the next best lead we can find." Ciel said. Fluttershy handed me a photo. It was a pony. Humanoid. "His name is Guider Fire. Well known supplier on the black market. Keeps his own hands clean and on or off wire never says anything self incriminating. Everything he does is through disposable thugs for hire." She said. “So you want to either capture him or just have someone talk to the guy?” I asked curiously. "We need to trail him. He has been known to distribute Shadow Drugs but because of his methods we can only hold him for so long. Bluntly we need to set up a buy. Something he will want to deal with personally." “Sounds simple enough.” I said honestly. "What's the object?" Ciel asked. "Hacked Freak Inc weaponry and technology. Illegal by every account. Get caught with it, life in prison." “So you want someone to openly ask to sell the thing to him?” I asked curiously. "Buy it from him." Ciel stated. "There are only two groups capable of hacking Dad's tech, Nexus, and Rothmire." “I forgot, who or what is Rothmire? Cause I know I heard it before but...don’t remember.” "Rothmire is an underground hacking organization. They're your typical Hactivists, but hacking Freak Inc. Tech put them in our top ten." Fluttershy said. “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “Alright, so the job seems simple enough.” "Will be risky though. Thankfully your various forms and shapeshifting capabilities will get us the perfect 'buyer'." Sounds about right.” I nodded. “Need me to take a premade identity or just make one up?” I asked curiously. "Premade." Ciel said. Fluttershy typed on her PC, then turned the screen to me. It was a woman. Shaved, human. Green eyes. "Her name is Kaytlin. Well known terrorist. Dead now though." Fluttershy said. “Cool.” I said while using my Chameleon ability and shifting into the dead terrorist. “No one will question seeing a dead chick around right?” "It's the underground. People often don't stay dead for long." Ciel said. “Sounds about right.” I shrugged. "We'll set up the buy. Will take a few days." Shy said. “Alright, let’s get this show on the road.” I nodded. While I waited the few days it would take for the meeting to get set up I headed on out to some dungeons. Wanted to see what all the hype was about when it came to level fives. “Alright, so let’s just take some precautions.” I said while taking a deep breath, summoning my Lexicon and Archmage Staff and casting every single buff spell on myself as possible, then downing an Elixir to get all my MP back. “Alright...so fifty percent with all the buffs shouldn’t be too much…” I said while raising my power output to fifty percent. I cracked my knuckles and neck as I felt ready for the dungeon. “Alright, floor one, let’s get started.” This was a tower based one going up. The first… enemies… were all Common Shadow Creatures. A fuck ton of them. Normally these weaklings are nothing… in here. With all those buffs they hit me for two thousand health each AND it takes nine hits at fifty to kill them. Full power was half that and at some point I high tailed it out of there. So those are bullshit, in every way imaginable. But… not gonna lie, the ones I killed dropped some epic rewards. “Alright, so looks like I’m gonna need to go full out here.” I muttered to myself. So I did. All the buffs, Max power, and headed in dual wielding Lunatic and Skysplitter at Max power. It was still a bitch. Room one, cleared, two shot everything but their numbers were still crap. Next room fucking Dragon Shadows, nine Litch fuckers, black knights and suicide bombing giant rats. I got out of there on four health and seriously pissed off. So, I left to rant to Cript in their office. “So yeah, about level five dungeons being bullshit.” I frowned. "How so?" Cript asked. “So, every single buff I knew I had on, going at a hundred percent, even Dual Wielding Skysplitter and Lunatic, I barely made it to the second room.” I frowned. “I know level five is supposed to be difficult, I’m not denying that or going to rant about that part, what I am going to rant about is it being that difficult where you can barely beat a single room.” "Then it's doing its job." Cript said. "King, Level five dungeons aren't meant for normal people, not even normal Admins. They are meant for Deathless like us." "I know, but I could barely beat the first room even with being Deathless." I said honestly. "That's the whole point King. I've seen many timelines, many Deathless Cripts falling to Madness. Many other Deathless suffer the same fate. And I've discovered that those who can always find purpose and challenge last the longest. To this day even. These dungeons, the level fives, are made this way to always provide us a challenge, and stave off Madness." “I never said I disagreed about it being difficult...but that kind of difficult.” I said. “It’s okay to have a challenge, that’s fine, but when even at a hundred percent, and every single buff I know helping me, just barely being able to beat a single room in that dungeon seems less ‘challenge’, and more ‘trying to see how long you can keep your hand in a blender on full blast’.” "That's because of the radar settings. For normal people or normal Admins it's set to the lowest settings and stays there. For Deathless it auto reconfigures the enemies to get harder and stronger, adding buffs just tells the radar to make it all stronger." “Cause of course that’s how it works…” I grumbled. "You telling me you can't figure out how to clear the first floor? Want some basic specs on how level five dungeons work?" “Sure, I’d love to know.” I said honestly "The first floor will hold anywhere between two to six thousand rooms. Each room can be between seven to ten thousand miles big at all angles, and they get bigger and the rooms double or triple the amount of rooms each floor." “Oh goodie.” I rolled my eyes. “Let’s just play Dynasty Warriors while we’re at it.” "And the amount of floors range between fifty thousand to over a million." “Sounds repetitive.” I said honestly. "Not meant for the faint of heart or even the sane of mind. Clearing a Level five is basically the ultimate goal of all adventures." “Sounds about right, but still…” I frowned. “If a single room is that big, and there’s way too many floors, it shouldn’t be ‘barely beat one room’ kind of difficult.” "Hence the fun of it. Lord and I can make some tough ass things. Besides, there is an alternative motive to them." “And what is that?” I asked curiously. "Clear a level five, you can take Vincent in an unfair fight." “Sounds about right.” I shrugged. "So, gonna take it on?" "I mean, I am cause I'm stubborn." I said simply. "Heh. Good luck then. Furthest I typically get is floor five, after that the Starfish clone body gets destroyed beyond the regeneration capabilities. Beat my record and I'll reward you." "And what's the reward?" I asked curiously. "That depends. Got anything in mind?" "Not sure at the moment." I said honestly. "Oh, but I also need to beat the Mushroom 13 Coliseum to get Belief's body back…"’s body back.” I said honestly. "And Void Mother's heart I assume?" Cript asked. “Also that if possible.” I said honestly. "Well it looks like there is a lot on your plate then." “Then there’s also me hunting down Vilgax and Spoiled to get to Void Key, helping run our kingdom, helping Ciel deal with Shadow Drugs, and a bunch of other crap that’s honestly getting a little annoying when I have to ‘be the face of the Kingdom’.” I frowned. "Well, in regards to the Shadow Drugs case those have been a thorn in my side for a long, long time. But I might have a means of helping you in this in the form of advice." “Go right ahead.” I said honestly. “Any information helps.” "Make a team. Teams, work with them and stop doing it all alone." “Sounds about right.” I said honestly. “And working with others does help sometimes…” "Including yourself, keep it to three. Basic, functional, ect. That aside, there is someone I'd like you to meet." “Oh? Who’s this new mystery person?” I asked, intrigued by who Cript would want me to meet. "Well, you still have your gauntlets as a weapon but you have not mastered them. So I found you the perfect teacher. You remember Adam, the current King of Hell and now member of this family." “Funnily enough,” I started while bringing out my Gauntlets. “I had a place in mind to learn how to use these...but then I completely forgot about it cause I’m normally too busy.” I sighed out. “But yes, I do know about Adam.” "They'll be teaching you hand to hand combat along with Spike. Between the two of them you'll more than learn how to handle yourself, gauntlets or not." “I already know how to handle myself in a lot of ways.” I said. “But alright, let’s get going to meet Adam.” Cript took me over to where Spike and Adam were. Once I was with them Cript took off. "So you're King?" Adam asked. “Yes I am.” I nodded. “And you must be Adam, I remember you helping Joy out with Diamonds family curse.” “Yeah. And this is Spike. The one who died and came back cause Cript says fuck you to the rules.” The purple and green drake in question chuckled. He looked well built, dressed in an orange vest and white shorts. “Glad to finally meet the new kid who got as strong as dad through sheer stubborn will.” Spike said, shaking my hand. “Yeah, I think I remember that...you saved me, Eclipsa and Heart from Max a long time ago...certainly pissed Max off that’s for sure.” I said honestly. “Heh. A simple passion for wrestling turned me into the family’s top fighter. Least til I died.” They said with a shrug. “I was one of the first kids adopted by Cript, back then it was just me and Scootaloo. So then.” Spike said, holding up an open hand. “How hard can you hit?” “I can hit pretty hard.” I said while equipping my gauntlets. “I know how to punch at least, so how strong do you want me to punch?” I asked while stretching my arms real quick. “First, off.” Spike said, pulling my weapons off. “Before you cover your fists, hit the stone against your skin to break your bones.” “So...punch your hand with a bare fist?” I asked, not entirely sure what the hell he meant. “Yeah basically. Got that from my middle school coach. Just sounds cool mostly.” “It took me a moment to figure out whatever the hell you meant.” I said. “Also, your coach is weird for making a saying that sounds like Buffalo Bills ‘put the lotion on the skin or else you get the hose again’.” I said honestly. “But how strong do you want the punch?” “Don’t hold back. Relax, I can take it.” “Dude.” Adam said. “You know what I meant, perv.” Spike spat. “That’s for later.” I said honestly. “But if you insist.” I said while taking a deep breath as electricity crackled across my fist. “Thunder Punch!” I said as I threw an extremely powerful punch added with the lightning attribute. I hit Spike’s hand. A shockwave of energy and wind speed blew up everywhere. When the dust faded Spike was gripping my fist. “Not bat at all. Lots of power but you need to keep it straight and more firm… less…” They said, pushing my hand back and dislocating my wrist. “Could also be worse but for not, let’s help you learn to keep it straight.” Spike said, popping my wrist back into place. “Fine fine.” I said while shaking my hand a little bit. “Alright, so how to start learning to punch.” “Here.” Spike said, stepping to my side. He took my arm, holding it by my fist and elbow. “Keep your first tight, arm firm, and in one straight motion, move.” He said, moving my arm in the motions. “Same applies to the other arm. Firm, straight, and apply the force in the swing, not in your hand and you’ll get way more bite for your buck.” “And don’t forget to put your hips into it.” I said simply. “From fists to swords, it’s all in the hips.” “True.” Spike said. We practiced keeping my first and arm straight in the swings for a few hours before Spike had me speed it up. “A fast and strong punch is key in a fight, you got speed and power, but the faster you swing the harder it is to aim them and you can miss. Now, punch this.” Spike said, a snap of his talons and this… ragdoll looking thing appeared before me, standing up of its own power as it looked at me with a stitched in smiley face. “Be fast and accurate.” “What? Not going to throw a high level enemy at me or something?” I asked. “Or...that’s Agamemnon’s whole thing...never mind.” I shook my head as I took a deep breath to focus myself. “Alright, so head and chest…” I said while throwing two punches swiftly, one hitting the head and one hitting the chest. “The torso and head are good areas for good damage, but an enemy that can’t punch back is better. Hitting the right areas on the arms can dislocate, or break their arms. Same applies to kicking, which in hand to hand combat is also an important part. Now, given your legs as a Dire Wolf, normal kick styles won’t work well with you. I know you can shapeshift and all that, but let’s stick to your current form. In the case of the legs you have, you’ll be focused on more direct front and back spring kicks.” “Yeah, even though I had normal knees for a long time, I had to adjust quick to these.” I said while gently hopping on my legs that were more like werewolves where the knee was inverted instead of out like a normal person’s. “Yeah. You have strong power from them, so kicking with all your force will be easy.” “Yep.” I nodded. “Legs are powerful, even if they all went to my thighs…” I said while looking down at my thick thighs, and even though they looked lovably squeezable they had strong toned muscle underneath it and the fluffy fur. “Training, not showing off.” Spike stated firmly. “Enemy isn’t gonna be admiring you, they’ll be trying to kill you.” "They haven't done both?" I asked curiously while snap kicking the dummy in the solar plexus. "Trust me, they haven't." "Their loss." I shrugged. "But either way, onto more training.” I said simply, wanting to master my Gauntlets. "I will be teaching you hand to hand combat and Beastial Fighting as well as something else dad wanted me to teach you. Once I've taught you everything Adam will step in to teach you how to apply it to gauntlets and other fist based weapons." Spike said. “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “Well, let’s get started then.” Day One. "First, to make sure you truly know how to handle both yourself and your power, let's see if you can shift into the Ultimate Race form." Spike said. “Ultimate Race form?” I asked curiously. “Like what Cript turned into?’ "Exactly. But there is a catch to it." “What’s the catch?” I inquired. "You get stuck like that. Like dad, and while it's useful the learning curve is pretty hard at first when it comes to it. While you can alter the appearance you can't alter the form itself. Like how dad did. Illusion spells and such can work and work well but they are still just illusions." “Well...I can’t really do that since I’m the face of the Kingdom.” I said, already having images of how I’d look in my ‘Ultimate Race’ form. "Maybe. Maybe not. Up to you really, but something tells me with Lyra's help in tweaking it you can keep that face of the kingdom thing." “Well then...let’s test it out.” I said simply. “So how do I do it? Cause I thought it would be using a hundred percent of your power, but that doesn’t really work.” "Well, in short even at a hundred percent, you Max out at a hundred. You have to go over a hundred and break your Max cap. From there, power and such has no limits anymore." “Alrighty then.” I nodded while letting my power go up to a hundred percent. “Any specific way to get past a hundred percent?” "When it feels like your cells and code are gonna explode, keep going." “Oh, I remember that feeling.” I said honestly. “But should I do it with or without all those rage abilities?” I wondered as I tried to force myself past a hundred percent. "Without is faster." “Alright.” I said while pushing myself deeper past my limit. “Let’s...get past one hundred…” I growled, trying to keep myself together even if every fiber of my being was starting to feel like it was going to explode. So the entire thing felt...weird to say the least. My entire body felt like it was going through a massive evolutionary jump from where I stood, my body shifting to accommodate the new changes. So the changes I could actively feel was that I grew about a foot taller, I felt a third eye growing in my forehead, my fur felt like it was getting more thick and dense, my claws and teeth grew sharper and serrated, and an indescribable amount of pain as it felt like my body was actively making an exoskeleton, bone creaking as Spike could see what looked like a tribal bone armor formed underneath my fur, while a wolf skull helmet grew out of my head and fluttered ancient dire wolf shaman ornaments. "God...that fucking hurt…" "Looks like it did yeah. Lost your boobs, but that's one of the few changeable things." "Cause that makes sense, the Ultimate Den Mother loses her ability to be a Den Mother…" I grumbled while looking myself over. "I don't think you lost it, more it just changed how it works." Spike said. "We don't know a lot about how the Ultimate Race works. And yes while Cript's version is human and yours a wolf they are actually classified as the same race." "That's...weird." I said. "I thought this would have worked like Ben 10's ultimate alien forms. Where each was just a hyper evolved version of the race, not a completely new one." "Well It's new to us anyway." "Not to me." Spike and I turned around, the tiny Admin of Genetics, Asmith, walked into the room and up to us. "I haven't seen this race in years. An eternity actually." Asmith said as he stood before me. "Hey Asmith." I said while raising my arm, only for a four inch blade shot out from my elbow on accident, the material looked similar to Dark Monofilament but...weirdly didn't feel like it. "Uh...sorry, don't know why that happened." I said sheepishly. "It's fine. And I know why, I designed the race your body and Cript's now are. Ultimate Race, heh. They're real name is The Godhood Race, and with good reason. Only race born with the power to match an admin. Part of why I never actually gave them a World or even let them evolve into existence." "So...why can Admins turn into them by going past their limit?" I inquired. "Frankly I'm as confused on that as you are. I can only assume the lack of a limiter Cript, and now you have achieved, triggered the transformation. But this is good, as this new body you now own is beyond anything of any other existing race." "He's right." Symbi said. "This body and its functions are unbelievable." "Hope it isn't too much for you Symbi." I said nervously. "But...now I'm as strong as I need to be or something?" "That's the thing about the Godhood Race, they can always get stronger. Despite being one of their makers not even I know their full potential. But I can help you with what I do know." "Anything can help." I said honestly. "But...why the third eye for starters." "You haven't noticed? Take a good look around with all 'three'." "If you insist…" I said while looking around with all three eyes of mine, wondering if there's a difference here. It took me a while but I noticed something. I saw well above my normal field of view. Well above my, even somehow below me. "Well….I can certainly see more things." I said honestly. "A wider field of view-" I saw something falling towards me in the edge of above my filed of view. I grabbed the small rock. "Means a faster more noticable chance's to protect and counter incoming attacks. On top of that each eye can view in multiple different visions. Heat and cold vision. X-ray, inverted, night vision, all of them. Sense of smell, all of it, but, and this is something you might enjoy a bit more, how to best customize the Godhood Race. Their physical appearances are all largely the same in eyes and colors, but shape can be different." "Cool." I said honestly. "Good to know I can keep my previous look...but the bone armor might need some getting used to." I said, even if the bone armor was fitted like a second skin it still needed some getting used to. "The form is more adaptable than you'd think. Rather than the normal shapeshifting which completely alters your DNA into that of the desired form, the Godhood Race has all other species DNA within their complex networks. Many unlocked already by you and the others, it's more a matter of gene suppression and dominance. A feat admitibly harder but much more stable than typical shapeshifting." "But King can't change certain aspects?" Spike asked. "Correct. The color, three eyes and such can never be reversed, as for the exoskeleton skull, making wolf less dominant to shift your form to that of another's will remove it, but your bone density will remain the same. That Symbiote in your head, Symbi, I am sure if she herself also becomes her Godhood Race form can rapidly aquire a better and faster understanding of the body she resides in as hers will be the same." "That could work. Sorry for the headache this will cause." Symbi said. She was right, that headache sucked. Five minutes though and I felt, everyone felt Symbie become a Godhood Race. "Hold crap this has way more features and abilities and everything than I was expecting! Good news with you and I working this it will be easier. For example King." I nearly got kicked back a bit as suddenly my boobs came back in like car air bags going off. Gone for a short while, but I missed the milk maker girls. "This is beyond amazing." "I created them originally as soldiers for the Admin War, but my fellow life admins and I all decided that to create something living for war alone was to stain what we stood for, so the race never saw the light of day. But, perhaps their kind can see the light of day again, in you all." Asmith said. "As they can now see the world in a view that isn't war and death." I said honestly. "But question, for Godhood, aren't they the ultimate of each race? Why do they reduce something that a race has, like Den Mother's and that whole thing?" I pointed out "They were, originally, crafted for war. Something they still have use for but it shall not be their, your sole purpose. Hence why I pointed out to Symbi to turn herself into one. So it can be easier for the two of you, and most likely more to come. You, Symbi and Cript make three of all the shapes of the Godhood Race, I'd even argue that perhaps that race is the form we Admins should have taken. Perhaps, but that is for us each to decide. Now then, any more questions?" "What's with the Dire Wolf tribal ornaments? I know these things are ancient just on their magic but I'm not sure how ancient." I said while softly touching the ornaments made of fur, bone and claws.. "Sadly, I don't know. We never brought them into existence, so we don't know what they would have developed. The only ones who would know are Diva and Vincent." "Who's Diva?" I asked curiously. "Vincent's other half, her first name and life. Diva and Vincent, the Admins of Life. Those days are so, so long ago." "Well right now it's Connor and Dinky, and well...Cript already made sure none of Vincent's personality stayed in Connor, while Dinky is still fine." I said honestly. "But...should I bring up their past lives or no?" "Another time. For now, it's time to really ensure the royal family you have created is the rulers and heroes all of creation needs. I shall speak to Cript about matters. Best get certain things over with sooner than later." Asmith said, taking leave. "So… should I turn into a Godhood to properly teach you or?" Spike asked. "Way ahead of you." Adam said, already a Godhood. They had wings, each half demonic half angelic, a broken Halo over their head and horns. Three eyes and ash grey skin like Cript and i, but also their eyes looked more like how a demons would/should, and they also had the classic devil tail. “I’m not surprised you have a demon and angel motif.” I shrugged. “But I wonder…” I muttered while going into my skill tree, wondering if there was a new racial skill tree. "Guess that's a yes. Well, this will be interesting." Spike said. His change wasn't all that much actually. His scales changed color, grew a foot taller, got the third eye, grew a fancy pair of wings, but other than that nothing too different. "Huh. Kinda underwhelming." Spike said. “I mean, even if you're an Admin, True Dragon’s are still considered one of the strongest races in all of Existence.” I said simply. “How do you ‘Ultimate’ the second to third, give or take, race in all of Reality?” "I know, but still." Spike said with a shrug. "So, ready?" “Sure.” I said while stretching my arms. “Let’s get to it.” I said. ”God, John and the Foretellers are gonna fucking flip with how much we’ve changed…” I thought to myself worriedly, hoping those six were all okay due to all this crazy crap. "Alright, so you know how to swing and hit properly as well as the basics of kicking, so now onto an actual fight. Against a monster mind you." “Just what I was hoping for.” I said with a smile. “Time to also test out my new strength.” "Great. Izzie, run combat simulation number 88, equil stat numbers." Spike said aloud. "Yes Spike." Izzie said from seemingly everywhere in the room. The entire area was replaced by what seemed like a large open grass and dirt plain field. Before me spawned this Shadow Creature that looked like a six armed boxer. No head at all and was all muscle. "That's called a Combo Shadow Creature. The simulation is rigged so it will be equivalent to you in stats and strength, so we can get a good view on what you can do." Spike said, giving me and this Combo space for the fight. I cracked my knuckles and neck. “Well then, this is gonna be fun.” I said while getting into my fighting stance. I charged at the Combo, it's many arms and fists impacting mine, the burn of pain from a challenge felt like a fine high. God I did miss a challenge. This thing hit hard but so was I. I was able to block most of the hits and counter others. “Now this is a challenge!” I laughed, dodging a punch and throwing a snap kick into the Comob’s leg, just above the knee and hearing a solid ‘crack’. “Not some bullshit skill ceiling like in a Level Five dungeon, but something on par that can take hits as much as dish them out.” I laughed in glee. As we hit each other, the both of us try to slaughter one another. I lost two teeth so far and grew them back and loved it. With a hearty swing I uppercut the monster into the air, jumping high into the air and spin kicking it back down to the ground. It died on impact. “Woo!” I cheered happily. “That was fun.” "Good job." Spike said. "I'd say you scored about an above average." “Good enough start considering I don’t know how strong my body is now and also being a bit new to hand to hand combat...oh, Symbi, didn’t you say you could give me multiple arms or something?” I asked curiously, trying to remember what my Symbiote spouse could do. "Yes and easy. " She said. "Now that we have a good spot on you for hand to hand combat, let's do beastial combat." “Now when you say ‘bestial’, do you mean in Feral form or less ‘precision’ and more ‘raw power’?” I asked curiously. "Feral combat is different than bestial. We stay on two feet for one, but focus on using our feral qualities. Claws, teeth, tail for me." “Sounds simple enough.” I said honestly. “Plus it’ll help me with these.” I said while showing the spikes coming out of my legs and elbows. “Though I do wonder what these are made out of, cause they look like Dark Monofilament but...not.” "Huh… strange. Well, best way to test them out is by cutting something apart… you will like this. Izzie, Fun Combat Round number seven." "Yes Spike." Izzie said. The room changed again. Now it was a large and colorful funhouse type thing. And before me was a beast made of… various… delicious… plump meat in a tall bipedal form. "That is a Feast Beast. Have fun." I was drooling at the delicious looking beast, before shaking my head. “Wait, I have it all to myself?” "Yup. Settings are still set to equal you, and regenerates fast. So cut it, bite it. Eat it. Have fun." “Yay!” I cheered while leaping towards the beast, my beastial urge to devour such a delicious looking animal taking over as I started to carve into the thing with reckless abandon. As I used my claws, teeth and tail as best I can to carve it up and eat it up, it's body growing as fast as I cut it. My elbow sliced up parts of it too and My tail basically made what I hit into ground meat. All in all getting ahold of Beastial style combat was easy, my body felt natural when doing this. “Hmm, this tastes so good.” I said happily. After a While I got a real good hang on this beastial combat style, mixing in some normal types of hand to hand to make a few unique attacks. Just as I was about to bite this things ham-turkey-beef head off again it vanished as I was about to Chow down. Spike ended the fight and the room was blank and normal again. "Not bad at all. You pick up quick and hit a lot of lethal areas." "Well I've learned a lot of Dire Wolf fighting over the years." I said honestly. "Good. Let's spar and practice all that more then Adam can take over." Day 2 Spike was a good teacher, and this whole thing was a good brother/sister bonding experience, as Spike made it clear he only saw me as a sister, mainly cause of my looks which I was fine with. Being a herm meant what comes out comes out, guy, girl, eh. "You really improved your reflexes a lot overnight." Spike said, he and I stretching after a four hour spar. "I've always been a fast learner, even without copycat." I said honestly. "Pretty sure I've taught you what I can. The rest you can find other teachers and review texts and videos like I did. So, Adam's turn." "About time." Adam said, he and Spike swapping. Alright, time for the gauntlets. “Alright, now for gauntlets.” I said while equipping my Nothingness Gauntlets. "Hm. Not bad." Adam said, looking over my gauntlets. "Well made, potent energy." “I got this a long time ago, and have made sure that they’ve stayed about the same upgrade wise as my other weapons but I haven’t used it...like at all.” "I can see that. They are sickly clean and polished." “No need to sound disappointed.” I frowned. "I've fought with brass knuckles since I was five and gauntlets since I was seven, if they aren't stained with dents, scratches and blood, I take offense." Adam said. “I’m sorry I haven’t had the time to use these things.” I frowned. "Well, better late than never." Adam said, their arms flashing in fire as two bright glowing red gauntlets irradiating Hell's Heat. "Put em up." I got into my fighting stance. “Alright, lets get it on.” I growled while dashing forward and throwing a lightning fast jab at his head. They sidestepped it, delivering a hard slug to the gut. I got skirted back a good five feet… I can feel my breast milk boiling… ouch… that things heat is potent. “Alright, so those things are hotter than I first thought…” I muttered while taking a deep breath, before rushing in again, this time weaving from side to side as I threw out a precise haymaker towards his jaw. To my surprise they tanked the hit, jabbing up into my arm I hit them with, then uppercutting my jaw with their other gauntlet. I was knocked up and back two feet. "Sometimes taking a hit let's you dish out your own. Remember, tank hits and dish them out twice as hard." “Sounds about right.” I said while rubbing my jaw. “So let’s try another thing…” I muttered while Nothingness Thorns softly wrapped around my gauntlets as I threw out three jabs, nothingness thorn’s shooting out from my Gauntlets and towards Adam like a bullet. Two blocked with his own gauntlets and the third got his leg. "Not bad. Try mine." They hit the ground. Lava and fire cracking from the ground, at first none hit til the lava began exploding in molten shrapnel, lots of little bits burning through my clothes… damn it. Oh, fuse with Rarity, make the best and preferably indestructible outfits. Gonna get on that asap. “Well, at least I came up with an idea during that.” I muttered. “So lava pillars...sounds about right given your gauntlets.” I said. “Let’s see…” I raised my fist and punched the ground, my Gauntlet pulsating as the ground slowly cracked before Nothingness Thorns burst from the ground and tried to skewer Adam. As they got close Adam he slammed both his together, the shockwave disrupting them. "The best uses of gauntlets rely on their AoE attacks when range is required in combat." “Right…” I muttered, sending out more Nothingness Thorns as a Feint as I bolted behind them, enough Thorns to hide which way I was going to come in for a right straight. I managed to get in a clean hit but as I did Adam got me square on top of my head, the two of us hitting the ground hard. "Heh. Not bad at all." “Still got a ways to go.” I said while getting up quickly. “Ow…” Adam jumped up, clashing their gauntlets. "Let's try something different. Impact Damage. Know it?" “I mean, besides what the name says?” I asked. “But what is Impact Damage? Cause it sounds like there’s more than just the obvious.” "It is basically as the name says. Small point of impact with maximum damage. We charge up power in the swing and in the gauntlet and then we hit. Perfect for creating large-scale explosions and area of effect attacks. " “Sounds about right.” I said simply. “So is that going to be the next thing I’m learning with these?” "Yes. It's an easy to learn, borderline abusable move every gauntlet fighter with their teeth should know." “Sounds about right.” I said simply. "No best way to practice it than with a good, old fashioned mountain." Obliging without an order, the room spawned in a Mountain easily the size of MT Everest. "Deliver an Impact Damage hit to the base, the goal is to level the whole thing." I thought about how I could do it, given that just a single full on punch isn’t really what Adam was looking for...but then I remembered something from Ruroni Kenshin. “Oh yeah, I almost forgot about that ability.” I muttered to myself as I raised my hand, softly knocking the stone and feeling how tough it was. “Alright...here goes nothing.” I said while I punched the base of the Mountain, Adam noticing my punch seemed a little light, before I clenched my fist and the entire Mountain was leveled and...quite a distance away from it. “Wow, that has a lot more kick to it.” I blinked in surprise. "Not bad." “I remembered this technique from an old Anime, the ‘Mastery of Two Layers’.” I said. “The main concept is that things have resistance in some way shape or form, so you effectively hit something twice with one attack to punch through all that ‘resistance’.” I explained. "Cool. Speaking of resistance, show me your Shield." “Um...I don’t think your talking about Frozen Pride here right?” I asked nervously, not entirely sure if he means my actual shield or something else. "Yeah. This is also an important move to know." “Alright.” I said while pulling out Frozen Pride. “Is this another armor piercing ability or is it how to get past a shield?” "One of two ways, yes." “Alright, so what do you need?” I asked, preparing for him to do something. "I'm going to demonstrate a rather mama heavy use of bypassing shields. Phasing Punch." “Nifty.” I said honestly. "Ready?" “Ready as I’ll ever be.” I said while preparing to get punched as I held up Frozen Pride at the ready. I saw Adam's gauntlet look almost ethereal as he swung it. It phased through Frozen Pride, my hand and punched me right in the boob hard. Hard enough to force out a good gallon of milk from it… ouch that made my nipple more sore than the punch... “You punched me in the boob.” I frowned. "Given your torso I can't punch your body anywhere torso wise without also hitting a boob." Adam countered. “Still hurt…” I muttered. “So that’s a nifty ability, how much MP does it cost?” "Half. Doesn't matter how much mo you have, always half." “Damn.” I blinked. “That’s...quite a bit.” "Yeah, sucks but eh. Next one takes no magic though, and I promise I will fix your Shield." “You better.” I frowned while preparing myself for the attack. Nodding, Adam punched, his gauntlet glowing with unfiltered power, and I felt a part of me die inside at hearing an audible crack…Only for Adam to stop his attack as his gauntlet fell off his arm in pieces, Frozen Pride unscratched. "That's one tough Shield… cause that attack has never failed before." “Okay so...what the hell did you try to do? Just brute force it or something?” I inquired. "Overclock Pierce. It breaks even dark Monofilament." “Wow, so this is even stronger than Dark Monofilament huh? That’s incredible.” I said happily. "Looks like I'll have to upgrade my gauntlets then. Well, that embarrassment aside, looks like you understand more than enough on hand to hand combat. Both armed and unarmed." “Good to know.” I nodded. “Always a fast learner, but always glad to learn new things.” "Well, you're good for now. Head off, go have fun, fuck someone, we're done here." “Really? That’s it?” I asked curiously. "Spike taught you hand to hand, using gauntlets is just a few steps up from that." “Alright.” I nodded. “Thanks for the help, but I’ll need to look for others to learn more about hand to hand I suppose cause I know there’s a lot to it.” "All sorts of styles and all that yes." “So I’m gonna have to do some world traveling after this...like normal.” I shrugged. "Have fun with that." With time to kill I decided to have some fun and payed Heart a visit in their office. Show off the new look and all that. "Woah… that's different." Heart said. “Yep.” I said while striking a pose. “If you felt a massive headache before, then that was Symbi going through a similar transformation.” "Ah. So, care to talk while I do paperwork? “Sure.” I said simply. “So, want me to start with what the hell I am?” "First." Heart said, snapping their fingers as I felt magic flow over me. I was shrunk to the size of a Barbie doll and Heart used their tail to snugly tug me between their top cleavage. "Okay, go on." Heart said with a smile. I chuckled. “Well to start, me, Symbi and Cript are all now a ‘Goodhood Race’, something Asmith made that rivals Admin’s in power...but the only thing that confuses all of us is how Admin’s turn into these after going beyond their limits…” "Huh… that is weird. And there is no clear connection?" “Not as far as Asmith said. And he created the race.” I said simply. “But all I know is that there is now physically no limit to my power...and yet it feels natural.” "Cool. How's having three eyes feel?" “Well I can see more things, and can see in many, many different ways.” I said honestly. "Cool. Oh, by the way, Eclipsa is down there too. If she starts to blow you, just let it happen." “I want a cuddle though…” I huffed. “Blowjobs are nice, but sometimes a wolf just want’s a cuddle.” "Eh. Hence why I keep her in my bra. Sexy cuddles. Course she has starfish clones too so she does all her normal stuff too." “Alright...I should spend time with Eclipsa sometime…” I said while resting in between Heart's breasts. “So I learned a bunch about hand to hand combat from Spike and Adam.” "Cool. Who are they again? Late to joining this family and I don't know much of anyone." “Spike is Lyra and Cript’s first adopted son, the one that Max...killed and then came back cause death legit means nothing half the time.” I said. “And Adam, the first Man, is the current ruler of Hell.” "Ha." Heart laughed at the part about Adam. “Yeah, it is kind of funny.” I shrugged. "So, enjoy being tiny?" “I mean, is it any different from when I’m normal size? I mean...sure I did grow an extra foot but eh.” I shrugged. "Well you can't fit between my boobs when you are normal sized." “You still shove my head between them every chance you get.” I pointed out. “But I think I should shrink down like...two feet, cause at the moment I’m like, nine, ten feet tall at this point.” "True. That is a tad massive. Oh, and I spoke with Lyra, our little… daybut, is scheduled. People in attendance are expected to be close to a few… thousand. Course they think we will be shapeshifters, so you best get that new look of yours in the public eye so they don't suspect." “Already on it.” I said honestly. “My new look might cause a few head scratches, but it shouldn’t be too bad.” I said sheepishly. "People find you sexy regardless." Heart said, grabbing more papers. "So, excited your fantasy fetish is gonna happen in a few days?" “Well...hope I don’t get too excited.” I said sheepishly. "Heh. It's gonna get views live, live streamed, recorded and then sold in a video. DVD and digital. Gonna feel some dirty pride from that?" “Whoever’s gonna be with me is probably not gonna be moving around for a while.” I said sheepishly. "That will be yours truely." Heart said with a giggle that made their breasts and me jiggle a bit, making me sink deeper into their soft mounds. "I did promise after all." “Well then have fun not slithering about for a day or two.” I said sheepishly. "Oh I have a good resting place in mind, just make sure to give the girls and my throat equal attention you'll be given my cunt." “Oh I’ll be making sure everything is filled.” I chuckled. "Ooh~ some days I wish Floof Noodles had asses. Anyway, that aside, do anything else?" “I tried out a Level 5 dungeon, it’s bullshit.” I said simply. "You call a lot of things bullshit. Care to explain in a paragraph long rant?" "Not really a paragraph." I shrugged. "The main problem about it is that level five is said to be challenging, not 'can barely get through the first room'." I frowned. "There's a difference between the two." "You ever play a dark souls game?" Heart said with a chuckle, making me sink more between their breasts. "Or Flappy Bird?" "I have, and neither of them are difficult, or unfair with what they are doing." I said simply. "Now that is bullshit. At least the part about Flappy Bird. So, if you sink completely into my chest flesh, what ya gonna do?" "Well I'm not going to." I said while starting to get out of Heart's cleavage. "But what's the point you're trying to make?"trying to make?” I asked curiously. "No point. An offer though." Heart said, putting a finger to my head and pushing me back in a little. "Care to listen?" “Alright.” I nodded. “What do you have to say?” "Well, I have a strong feeling you'll be keeping a starfish clone at the porn studio to endlessly endulge, correct?" “Maybe?” I thought. “Who knows.” "Well, in keeping fairness I figured we can all endulge one another. As you know Eclipsa enjoys being the submissive pet, especially in a good mood like she is now, her date with Shy went great and they're going on another one later in the month. So, how's about you and Eclipsa can be my pets, and in the same boat Eclipsa and I can be yours, and I'm sure somewhere we will both be Eclipsa's while also enjoying all we can do with one another. Sound fair?" “Even if I get off on being dominant...I’ve never been a fan of that cause...it feels degrading to me, either being the pet, or being the master and...I don’t fully know why.” "I mean, in the end it's all roleplay, no different than our little teenage romances back on Earth. It's all about trust with roleplay. And sex, of course." “I know I know.” I sighed out. “Just wanting you to know, alright?” "Fair enough. And hey, we won't go too far for you to handle alright? The same better apply to me with your public sex thing. I better be Invisible and sound canceled to all but you if we do that throne room bit you fantasized about." “Don’t worry, I won’t go too far.” I said with a raised hand. "Until I'm ready at least~" Heart cooed, giving me a kiss that shoved me back between their breasts, this time all that was out was my head. "If you're willing, this can be your first submissive pet play role. Sit snugly between my breasts while I work." “Fine fine.” I said while enjoying the soft furred breasts. As Heart worked I enjoyed the soft, fluffy/fleshy embrace if their breasts, wrapping around my body like a blanket. Heart just read and signed or stamped away at documents as I began to doze off." [He] I woke up unsure when but still happily wrapped in Heart's boobies as they were still writing and stamping away at paperwork. “Jeez, how much paperwork have you been doing?” I yawned. "Pretty much endless. You've been out for about seven hours by the way. So, how's it feel being a bra stuffer pet?" Heart asked with a grin. “It’s fluffy in here.” I said warmly. "Warm too I hope." “Yes it is.” I said happily. "Now then, how did you sleep?" “I slept wonderfully.” I said happily. “A good sleep after a hard day’s work.” "Well send another out there for work and keep your sexy, tiny ass there and you can be relaxing all you want in what I consider the most comfy place in the multiverse." “I mean, you should have a racial skill that let’s your fur act like it’s own demi-plane.” I said honestly. "Probably, just lazy to check." “I mean, you have a lot of things to check with your skill tree’s.” I said honestly. "Likely. So, going to enjoy your stay in my breast fluff?" “Of course.” I said with a smile. "Need a drink?" “Yes please.” I said politely. Nodding, Heart magiced in an ice cold large cup of soda, placing it between their boobs in front of me and handing me the straw. "Enjoy." They said with a wink. “Thank you.” I said while magicking a straw and drinking the cold soda. "So how's the others?" “Gonna need to be a little specific there.” I said honestly. "Jenny, aunt Nancy… is she still my aunt?" Heart pondered. "Just the others in general. Or have you met anyone new in the family?" “She’s technically a new person since she lost her old memories for new ones.” I said honestly. “Jenny’s doing fine, joked about me bending her over and dominating her cause of course she would.” I rolled my eyes. “So many people to meet and I haven’t finished meeting all of them…” "Well… are you?" “Am I what?” I asked, wondering what Heart meant. "Are you gonna have sex with Jenny?" “Um...maybe?” I said nervously. “I don’t know really.” "Well, as her cousin, all I can say is it will likely be as awkward as it was for me with Eclipsa the first few days. Given from earth we were cousins." “Sounds about right.” I shrugged. “But as long as it’s all consensual I suppose.” "True. I mean hell, technically speaking I am both yours and Eclipsa's child and we fuck all the time." “Yeah, that is true.” I shrugged. "So, got any plans by the way? While prepping Eclipsa for her date with Shy the other day she mentioned the lower district has amazing smokehouses, lower meaning Underground, central means on the ground and upper means up in the air. God this kingdom is cool." "It is. But I don't really have much planned. I still have to finish the Heroes Tomb with Coco, Kexez and Jericho, I have Kite's whole thing, and a whole lot more." I shrugged. "Think you can squeeze in a date night with Eclipsa and I at a smokehouse then?" “Sure, I can do that.” I said honestly. "Great. This is gonna be a great date." While a copy of me stayed with Heart and Eclipsa eternally in Heart's office as a mini bra pet, another me went into research about Shadow Drugs in my own office. In short I was hitting the same dead ends as everyone else. “Jeez...even though I have eyes damn near everywhere, how do I know nothing the FBI doesn't already know?” I muttered with a frown. All in all I can not find anything about it's point of origin, no known factories, no known anything, just the dealers all sharing the same proven story, the crates just appeared and that was that. “How the hell have they been doing this for so long without any leads?” I was looking through the lists of all known dealers who actually sold what was given to them. One of the earliest were random terrorist and purest groups, but one, a human named Cameron Savves, had a history with Cript, the two having clashed from well before he was all powerful and these days Cameron occupies a cell in a prison called The Vault. “Well...I should be able to go there…” I hummed while deciding to head off to the Vault to figure this shit out. The Vault was two hundred miles underground, ready to blow at any escape attempts notice and guarded to the teeth.. “Well...this place is...something.” I said while I carefully moved over to the receptionist to see if I can talk to Cameron. "Oh, hello there Royal King, how may I help you?" The receptionist asked. “I’d like to see Cameron Savves please.” I said. “I have some questions I need to ask him.” "Oh? Very well, I'll call a guard up to escort you." “Thank you.” I nodded. After a bit, a guard came and took me. Four elevator rides, nine security checks and fifteen ten foot thick locked doors later, we arrived at Cameron's cell. The man was thin, tall with a shaved head, sporting a prisoners orange jumpsuit behind bars and a wall of energy. "Been a while since I had a visitor. What's the occasion?" They asked, not even standing up from their small spring bed. “You knowing something about Shadow Drugs is a good start.” I said simply. "Shadow Drugs? I know they sell well, forty thousand rem an injector, got a killer side effect. What do you think you can pick out of me cops and Cript himself couldn't already?" “I’m just curious as to how you obtained them. Because from what I heard they just magically appear out of thin air.” I said simply. "They do. Went to bed in my hideout, woke up with a crate of them in the corner of my bedroom. There something familiar in that sentence?" “It’s the same thing I heard, but I know you know something about them.” I said simply while turning to the guard. “What am I allowed to do to him if I may ask?” "Nothing Royal King. Nothing goes in or out aside from his meals and the tray." “Alright.” I said while looking at the convict and blinking, my eyes glowing green as I scanned him and his very code, looking into what this bastard truly knows. I saw all the crimes he'd done and they all made me wanna kill him. Scanning his memories leading up to that day he sold some weapons and such to random buyers behind an alleyway. Looking at the crate when it appeared it was simple wood. When he opened it inside were the drugs and a note, typed and it said Sell. And he did, sold to many people… looking between who bought weapons and who bought the drugs, one face was the same person who bought both. An Equestrian. “So who is this Equestrian that seemed to be one of your favorite buyers?” I asked curiously. "Gonna be specific or am I gonna have to guess?" “Someone that always bought your drugs and weapons, a very common buyer from what I can see.” I said honestly, also giving a quick description of the Equestrian. "Heh. Don't know his name, just that he pays in cash always, like all my customers. Started off buying guns then bought an Injector, and mostly bought ammo after that." “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “Well I have the looks of the Equestrian, so now I can start going off of that.” "Have fun with that." “Don’t worry, I will.” I said simply while taking my leave. Searching the databases of names and such, looking for the face that belongs to this equine was taking forever. “Jesus hell it shouldn’t be taking this long, especially with the supercomputers we have…” I frowned. The main thing that was taking so long was that this equine face seemed almost generic. As much as I would hate to admit this, if not for their unique colors and hairstyles Equestrian Equines would look a lot alike. "Find anything?" Ciel asked as he stepped into my office. “Well, I’m trying to find literally the most generic Equestrian I have ever seen in my life because Cameron Savves apparently had a pretty frequent buyer of his, especially when he started selling Shadow Drugs.” "Hm. Can I see the photo?" I brought out the photo of the Equestrian in question to Ciel. “Know them?” "Hmm. No, but I know why you can't ID them. See the nose area and lips? They're slightly fuzzy, and not in the means of hair. It's an image inducer, everyone from celebrities to people in witness protection use them for public outings to be undetected." “Would have loved to know that before…” I grumbled. "There is a way to bypass them, even from a photograph, but we need a TechnoMage." “And where would they be?” I asked curiously. "I know of one who works with the Grim Reapers, others do largely freelance work across the kingdom." “Alright, so let’s go meet the one you know.” I said simply. "If you insist. I'll send him a message to see when he can arrive." Ciel said, sending a message via assistant. “It’s at least a lead.” I shrugged. "True." “Even if it’s just a buyer, the buyer was around Sevvas way too much for it to be a ‘regular’.” "You believe him to be either the distributor or linked to him?" “Either he’s linked to it, or he knows something about it, cause no random Equestrian would just have an image inducer, even if they were buying shit off the black market.” I said simply. "True. They are expensive to buy. And as far as I know they don't get dropped in dungeons below level fives as a boss drop, so anyone aquereing one that way is unlikely… it might be hand made and if that is the case we may have a possible lead." “Hooray for a lead.” I said happily. "The key item in making the circuit boards in an image inducer is Kioltrian Crystals, and within the kingdom there are only four dungeons that drop it as an item. If we scan their entry data from over the years and before Cameron got the drugs we can see who has frequented them all as the crystal is a one in ten thousand drop chance and only from floor bosses." “Perfect.” I nodded. "I'll message dad about sending us access to the dungeon records." “Alright, so we got stuff to do to figure out where these bastards are cool.” Ciel and I got the records and began searching through them all for anyone who made very frequent trips. We had three suspects, all Equestrian. Sunburst, to my surprise, Holly Sunflower and Daisy Day. “Well, that’s curious.” I said honestly. “Didn’t think it was one of these three…” "You should never have expectations when it comes to the underworld. So, how should we go about this then?" “Just visit them, nothing too special, just casually head into their work and I can do a quick scan of them. Simple.” I shrugged. "I doubt that." "Why do you say that?" I asked curiously. "These people have gone through incredible leaps and bounds to not be detected, I doubt a scan of their code will be enough or even bear fruit if they are trying to keep hidden." “I doubt they even know I can look into someone’s code.” I pointed out. “Plus, considering how things are, it’s now just ‘pick the liar’, two are innocent one is guilty. That’s why I said start off casual.” "How? Royals like us can't exactly be casual around normal people, and citizens of the kingdom. And if one of them sees a pair of royals arrive at their doorstep they'd bolt. And from what I gather you can't hide in that form, can you? Or rather, shapeshift like normal in that form." “The only thing that stays is the third eye and my new skull helm.” I said as I shapeshifted into a being that Ciel knew had three eyes. “I can shapeshift freely just as normal, and the race I chose to hide as has a history of shamanism, so the wolf skull with ornaments won’t be too out there.” I shrugged. “If you insist. I will take an Image Inducer of my own.” “Alright.” I nodded. “Well, let’s get going then...now which one should we see first?” “Sunflower, she seems the lowest profile and from appearance she seems the least likely.” “Alright, let’s go meet Sunflower.” I nodded. Ciel and I went over to Sunflower’s house. She lived in a loft in a nice neighborhood. We knocked on her door, Ciel’s Image Inducer made him look like a blonde haired green eyed teen with tanned skin. "Alright, according to Izzie, Sunflower's daily routine should place her at home about now. We'll be fast and quick." “Alright, fast and quick.” I nodded. We knocked on the door, Sunflower was a pegasus mare, bright yellow hair with acorn brown body fur and. “Yes, may I help you two?” “Hello.” I said politely, my eyes glowing green as I scanned over Sunflower. “I was told you were one of the two most well known Equestrian Herbalist’s am I correct?” “... No, I’m a professional Adventurer. I kill monsters and sell the loot I don’t use or need. Mainly from dungeons.” She answered. “Sorry, must have gotten the wrong address.” Ciel said. My scan was done and we headed off. “Kind of thought she would have been into plants given the name…” I muttered. “Equestrians all have names based on their special talent…” “That’s Equestria, this is our Kingdom. For Equestrians they do still have Cutie Marks and special talents, but it’s not much related to their names anymore given the endless possibilities.” “Alright, that’ll be a thing to figure out…” I sighed out. “But I got all her info, now to check if she’s clean or not…” Reviewing all her memories and code, she was. Her trips to all those dungeons were for business. Requests for a weapon or item or just for fun and profit. So, onto Daisy Days. “Alright, so Daisy is probably also an adventurer…” I muttered. “It is a fairly common and easy to acquire job.” Ciel said. “Let’s get going.” “Alright, hopefully we’ll figure this out soon…” I said worriedly. Daisy Days lived in a house, blue paint and white fence. Two kids playing in the yard. “Don’t get sidetracked.” Ciel said as we walked up to the house. “So we’re probably going to get side tracked.” I said. “I mean the children. If she is the culprit, don’t let the kids deter you. Family or not, if she’s our target, don’t let her being a mother affect your choices here.” I closed my eyes. “You’re making this a little too hard for me just on that alone…” When the kids saw us they ran inside, Daisy Days walking to the door. “Hello? Who are you two if I may ask?” I scanned Daisy quickly. “Hi, I’m going door to door sales person on King’s new book about Mothering.” I said while pulling out a book I did legitimately make. “All sorts of tips and tricks that you didn’t know were there to help with taking care of kids, no matter if it’s your first or god knows how many cause King lost count.” I said as that was the main tagline of my book “Heh. No thanks, I’m good. Books are good but parents help way better. Are you selling anything else?” “Actually we can ask you that.” Ciel stated. “We heard you are a professional Adventurer?” “My husband and I, yeah. We swap every week or so. You looking for something?” “Well what do you have?” I inquired curiously. “My husband focuses on the big sellers, armors, potions and weapons. I grab those too but I focus on raw materials.” “What kind of raw materials are we talking about?” I asked curiously, wondering what raw materials she found in her adventures as my scanning was closer to getting done. “Basic stuff mostly. Iron ore, gold, copper, diamonds, the usual. Sometimes get a few rare things, that is where the money is for raw materials.” “Well what are the rare items?” I asked, my scan complete now but just curious as to what she found. “Rarest thing I ever found was Kioltrian Crystals. Those got me ten grand each.” "Care if we buy one if you have them?" I asked curiously. “Little late on that pal. My whole lot was bought by someone a year ago. Haven’t gotten to find another yet.” “Did they give a name?” I asked curiously. “I sold it online. Pretty sure I can find the address I shipped them too, might be able to hope they still have one to sell.” “Alright, thank you.” I nodded. “Any information is welcome.” The address we followed was that of an apartment building. We spoke to who was there and they were not who we needed. Records and their code say that the prior renter moved out months ago. We checked records of who rented the unit from before and got two people. Guess who was roommate number one… “So it looks like this Sunburst is our man.” Ciel said as we saw the same Sunburst on our to check list was one of the prior renters. “Well...let’s just hope he won’t take this too hard.” I said nervously. We headed to where Sunburst lived, in a loft in a small town area of the kingdom. “Wonder how he’ll react to all of this…” I muttered. "If he is our guy he'll run. If not then we are back to square one." “But it’s at least something…” I muttered as I knocked on Sunburst’s front door. There wasn't a response. Ciel and I gave each other a look. All I needed to do to unlock the door was touch it. Still being a living X-Blade and all. Inside I was startled to see Sunburst was dead, a single gunshot to his head with a note on printed paper saying 'No Loose Ends'. "God damn it… we should have come here first." Ciel huffed. “So about me making this a none issue.” I said while pulling out my Lexicon and Sage Staff. “Grand Resurrection.” I said as I casted a very powerful revive spell on Sunburst as his head wound started to patch up and Ciel literally saw Sunburst coming back to life. As Sunburst's body moved his eyes… still looks lifeless. "I was worried as such." Ciel said, grabbing Sunburst by the jaw and examining his eyes. "His soul was taken, but not by a Grimm Reaper. But… the heart holds records too. Care to put Heart's powers to the test here?" “Sure.” I said while focusing on using Heart’s powers. “Cause even if his soul is gone, his heart is still here, and also his code so I...don’t really know what they thought would happen here…” I said slowly. "Hmm… either they don't know you are with me, or it's a trap of sorts?" “You mean you aren’t fully expecting this to be a trap?” I asked curiously while starting to get his heart's memories as well as scanning his code cause, even though he’s dead, his code was still all there. His memories of his death were corrupted, but his memories of getting those crystals were clear. He and his roommate seemed to have made them into the computer parts they are needed to make, then sold them online. Thankfully the address is nearby. Guess he just makes parts out of the raw materials. “Well alright, our next lead is nearby actually.” I said honestly. "Good. Lead the way."” “Let’s hope they’re also fine…” I muttered while heading off to finding the next person quickly. We got to them and they lead us elsewhere. And that led us elsewhere and repeat until we somehow looped back to Sunburst. I am not sure when or how that even happened but it was then we realized this trail leading in circles was the trap. We were back at square one with no leads. "Well that was a waste of time." Ciel sighed, the two of us back at his place. "Well, did you get any messages from your friend?" I asked curiously. "Not yet. Sometimes it just takes time, but with luck he will send the news tomorrow. If anything we found hunt down a few black markets and take at least illegal weapons off the underworld markets for a while." "Alright." I nodded. "Sorry for getting us caught in a loop...could have sworn it was something…" "So, how does it feel, knowing that who we have been chasing made you Chase down your own tail without you realizing?" "I'm going to torture this bastard for making us waste our time." I frowned. "I'll join you." To be continued... Nobody deals with stuffThe days as Kite flew by like a dream sometimes. Mom and Matilda got along a little better but tension was still clear, more of Clockwerk's Cooper Bots began running around Russia, making ten in total so far. Everyone got their Keyblades and for the most part were all adept at them. Overall things were going well, and finally the day came. Time to take Mugshot. “Alright, time to take down Mugshot.” I said while stretching a bit. “About damn time though…” "On top of his gang Mugshot also has trained the army and secret service patrolling Mesa right now. Getting in will be the Ultimate test of stealth if we do it without setting off alarms." Matilda said, gathering her gear together. “So a simple walk in the park right?” I asked simply. "Don't get too cocky, we may be using Keyblades and other powers of yours on top of what we have so far of the thievius raccoonus, but that doesn't make it automatically easy. If he is using government issue tech and security it will be difficult just to pass the city limits." “While it is nice to doubt, I doubt they have tech to see through true invisibility.” I said simply. “Nothing like being able to now use my powers and the Cooper techniques to start having some real fun.” I chuckled. "It's called thermal vision visors." “Yeah, True Invisibility gets past that and a fuck ton more things.” I said simply. “Magic can do wonders, especially when you're mixing it with natural abilities.” I said honestly. “But while being unseen is one thing, not setting off laser systems is another.” "I just believe it's best to put more stock in planning over abilities alone." “Why do you think I’m still here?” I asked simply. "To show off and be the distraction." “No, that would be Sly trying to impress Carmalita.” I joked. “But I’m still here cause I know how good a plan is, and also to explain anything that all of you might still not know about for said plans.” I said honestly. "Well, what are you gonna do? You sound like there is something you wanna add." “All depends on what everyone else is going to do.” I said simply. “Cause I’d rather not…” I sighed out. “I’d rather not just do my own thing and get everyone hurt...or worse…” I said sadly, knowing that from experience. "So long as we stick to the plan it should go all well. Come on, Bentley has to have it ready by now." “Alright.” I nodded while heading off to the debriefing room. Once there we all took a seat. "Now then, the time has come to head to Mesa City. First things first is the point of entry. Mugshot has beefed security up to twenty, and even with all our new skills and abilities it will be a challenge. First up, there is only one entrance and exit from Mesa City, and that's Highway 907, but thankfully there is another, just as dangerous but undetected way I'm and that is through the desert and over to the ruined bridge that once connected the city to highway 85. Once we arrive, we will have to embark on foot into the city." “Sounds simple so far.” I nodded. "Once at the broken bridge we can use the Light Walker Technique to get across to the other side and from there we deal with armed guards, more lasers and cameras than fort Knox, auto turrets, highly trained bite to kill guard dogs and military grade fortifications." “Like a walk through the park.” I chuckled. "We'll have to deal with all of this before getting into Mesa City, so begins Operation Battering Ram. Kite, you'll be heading to the main power supply and using those crazy knives of yours to fry out the main power grid for the area. Sly and Carmalita will then Light Walk up to a radio controle room to knock out the guards, it does have a backup generator. Lastly to be fast Matilda and Violet will fly over on gliders to cast large sleep spells to knock everyone else out. Murray and Lana will get the van across with their gliders." “Sounds about right.” I nodded. “I’m gonna have fun with Foudre.” “Isn’t that french for lightning?” Carmalita asked. “Yes it is, the naming convention for them was on point.” I said honestly. "Once the van is across we head on in, and recon out for phase two." "Sounds about right." I said simply. "But...let's be careful, Clockwerk has been making more Cooper Bots and Mugshot has been doing this crap so that bastard owl gets off his back." I was brought up. "There haven't been any reported in the states, most are all still located in Russia." Matilda said. “Key word is ‘most’.” I said simply. “Now I doubt Clockwerk will send any to Mugshot...but I’m paranoid about minor chances.” "You're paranoid about everything." Sly said with a laugh. "Remember when you were six and swore up and down the island was gonna get hit by a tidal wave when we had that week of storms?" “And you think that a week-long storm, on an island, wouldn’t cause at least something bad to happen?” I asked. "Nothing aside from that cold you got from trying to keep at a safe height level by camping up atop the mountain for the whole of it."” “Not my fault I was prepared.” I said simply. “That’s what we’re supposed to be right? Prepared for anything?” "There is prepared for anything, then there is self harming paranoia." Matilda stated. "Whatever." I rolled my eyes. "So back on topic." "Well so far that is all. Once inside we can set up shop in one of the many abandoned buildings in town and begin recon to plan out for phase two. And if need be phase three." Bentley finished. “Alright.” I nodded. “Let’s get going then.” We drove off up to the destroyed bridge, Matilda and I on gliders removing any road obstacles in the way. Once to the bridge's end Bentley set up the light lasers and we ran across them to the other side. Bentley wasn't joking. The amount of cameras and guards here was ridiculous. Thankfully we slipped by all of them and managed to play our parts properly with the only hiccup being when the radio tower door was locked from the inside. Thankfully my Cane did the trick easy to open it up. With that final part done we were just waiting for Murray and Lana to fly the van over the cavern below. “Hmm…” I hummed with a frown. “They should have gotten here by now…” "Who?" Mom asked. “Murray and Lana, shouldn’t they have come to the rendezvous point after getting the Van in a safe place?” I pointed out. "The van is heavy and their Gliders should only go so fast when carrying it. Last thing we want is for the van to fall into a Canyon." Bentley said. “While that’s true, they have done heavy lifting rather fast if it’s the two of them…” I said honestly. "Ten bucks says they stopped to make out." Carmalita said with a chuckle. "I'll take that bet." Sly added with his own laugh. I brought up my binocucom. “Murray, Lana, you two okay or are you sucking face while we’re not looking?” I asked the hippo and russian wolf. "We're fine Kite, just taking it slow over this ravine. The van is heavier than expected, could use a little help if you'd please." Murray said as they answered. “Alright, I’ll be right there.” I told them while bringing out my glider. “I’ll be right back, gonna help Murray and Lana real quick.” I flew up and over to the ravene. Murray and Lana we're about halfway to the other side when I arrived. I used chains of light to wrap around the van and helped them fly it across faster. "Thanks Kite. Darn van ended up being heavier than expected for two gliders." Murray said. "Thank you for the assist." Lana said. “No problem. And I wonder why the van’s heavier, normally you two would be able to carry this thing no problem…” I hummed curiously. "Bently and uncle Jim added some new armor to it, making it like a tank. Heavy like one too." Murray stated. “Cause when you need your get away van to be bulletproof but also go a couple hundred miles an hour.” I chuckled. "Let's meet up with the others and head into Mesa City." I hopped into the van with Muray and Lana and we picked up the rest and began driving into Mesa City. On our way into a tunnel I got a bad feeling, and it came to light when someone jumped in front of the van. A large, massive Cooper Bot, eyes glowing blue as it punched the van all the way back out of the tunnel and onto its side. As we got out and I got a better look at the thing. The Cooper Bots all were generally shaped like their old Bodies. The size of this was made clear. Robert ‘Ancor’ Cooper, or to Sly and I, Grandpa. Dad's, well, dad, was unlike most other Cooper's, he was built like a machine, famous for brute Force thefts over stealth ones. Clockwerk killed him was dad was just six. And now here he is, his mind and soul stuck in a body he can't control. “Well I sure hope somebody picks up that phone.” I started. “What?” Lana started. “Because I fucking called it.” I frowned as I got out of the Van. “Get the others out of here. I need to have a...heart to heart with grandpa.” I told Murray bluntly as I shifted into my Valor Form, holding Skysplitter and Lunatic at the ready. "We aren't leaving." Murray said as he got out. "Not in a million years." Sly said as he and Carmalita got out. "Always wanted to meet your grandpa." Mom said, pulling Matilda and Lana out. "I'll stay here." Bentley said. I shook my head. “Just stay back alright? I lost enough family, I don’t need to lose more…” I said. “Especially given who we’re up again.” I growled as I prepared to fight the cooper bot. "Well I'm not losing my brother because he's got a hero complex." Sly hissed as he ran up next to me. “If you say so.” I said while slamming Skysplitter into the ground, the ground cracking as a weirdly shaped spike of earth rushed at the bot. He tanked it like it was pebbles and began charging. I would have used Lunatic to clash with his fist had Sly not pulled me out if the way, the swing from his fist hitting air making enough force to blast the air, and us, into the wind. "What did uncle M always say about powerful opponents?" Sly asked once we landed. “Gonna need to be a little specific on that one bro, cause he said a lot of things.” I said honestly. Sly rolled his eyes. "Observe first, attack later. We need to run, all of us." He said, grabbing hold of my arm tightly to enforce his point. "And research this thing. See if it even has an exploitable weakness. Remember, we are thieves, not heroes. We can choose to run from a fight." “Why do you think I told you to run?” I frowned as I swapped Skysplitter with Sharpshooter. "That thing tanked your strongest weapons attack, what will those do?" “You think that was my strongest attack?” I asked him while firing several arrows at the bot’s joints. “You have a lot to learn still.” The bolts bounced off the bot. "Yeesh you're overconfident." Sly said, rolling his eyes. “I shot at its joints…” I frowned while getting out of Sly’s hold. “That’s it, I’m getting really fucking pissed.” I growled as Lunatic glowed brighter as my fur stood on end and crackled with energy. A pain filled my hands, one I never felt before when using Lunatic. Shit, my body can't stabilize the Lunatic like it did before… why? “Can’t even use the basic rage this stupid thing gives me?” I asked, only infuriating me more. “So remember when I told you all to start running? What did you think I was going to do? Show off that I could take on a Cooper Bot by myself like an idiot or be smart about this?” I asked them all simply. "Knowing you, the prior. Remember your first attempt at the Cooper Vault obstacles? And the ninth? And the fiftieth?" “You mean actually training to better myself?” I frowned. “And to that, I tell you that it’s the latter.” I told him. “But no, I’m only allowed to do things at face value…” I shook my head. “Just get to the rendezvous, I’ll distract him long enough and record what I can, and when you all get to safety I’ll get to you alright?” "How will you get away from that thing?"” “We’re thieves, we always have an escape plan.” I said simply. With that I used their warp ability to move out, Sly sneaking through to gather our family. When I got in close I warped out of his swing and placed a camera in some nearby rubble. “Alright.” I stretched a little bit. “Let’s see how durable you really are, old man.” I said while equipping Foudre and vanishing from the speed boost I got and swung Graceful Dahlia at the cooper bots legs. It jumped, nearly swinging at me but with Foudre’s speed I dodged swiftly before rushing back in, taking a swing at it’s torso. It then caught the tip of Graceful Dahlia before impact, pushing it and me backsome before it’s right arm and wrist shifted, looking like it was melting til I saw it was changing form to take shape into a large hook shape. His Cane. “Well...that’s interesting.” I said while swapping out Graceful Dahlia with my Cane as I twirled it steadily. “Alright grandpa, let’s get on with it.” I said as I spun my Cane faster and faster as balls of lightning spawned from it as I swung my Cane, sending them all towards him. With his cane arm he swiftly and rapidly caught each ball in his hook, slamming them all down to the ground and making a massive electric based AOE. While it hit, I wasn’t hurt but I heard my earpiece and Binocucom spark out. Shit, he made an EMP. “Note to self, figure out a way to make these things EMP proof…” I muttered, thankfully the EMP was a short range so it didn’t affect the camera I had hidden. “Alright, punchies it is then.” I said while rushing forward, a ball of fire formed in the center of my cane as I flung it at the ground in front of the bot, before a plume of blue smoke rushed up, distracting the bot even with it’s machinery. ”Thank god Cooper techniques can work with magic.” I thought to myself as I went to the side to try and trip it while it was distracted. I slid over and hooked it’s ankle, pulling… did nothing… How much does this thing weigh?! It yanked me in then kicked me in the face. I tasted blood and… yup, yup that’s a tooth gone… christ mom and Sly will be hounding me for this. I cast cure, the major damage healing but sadly cure can’t heal missing teeth. I pulled out Eternal Flames. Let’s see if it melts. “Burn Baby!” I shouted as Eternal Flames spun wildly as the ground erupted in flames, rushing straight to the bot like snakes ready to strike. “Salamanders Rage!” I shouted as pillars of fire erupted underneath the Bot at high enough heat to literally melt rock. It sunk into the molten earth below it. As it’s head sunk in I took a breath in relief, until it burst back out, seemingly undamaged save for a red hot glow and part of where it’s mouth would be located melted slightly. "Okay so your not completely fireproof." I started. As I am still weaker with these things I can’t melt him. I pulled out Frozen Pride, blasting him in an absolute zero ice spell that froze it solid and it’s molten submerged feet, locking it in place. “So it’s not ice proof.” I muttered thankfully. “But how long it holds is the question.” As I observed the thing I got a good look at the materials. Making sure I was hiding it from the cameras I scanned the metal it was made from with code in my eye only. The entire body is built with nanobots made from a fusion of Vibranium and Monofilament, but the face is oddly just made from only Adamantium. “Well that’s...very worrying.” I said worriedly. “I know Nexus was involved but jesus…” I muttered, while looking over the bot more. “Hmm…” I hummed while bringing out my Lexicon. “Telepathy.” I casted the simple mental communication spell. ”Can you hear me?” "A voice? On top of weapons and skill you have great magics above the norm. Hehehe. Looks like Conner did well." ”Yeah, that’s me Grandpa.” I mentally chuckled. ”Sorry for nearly melting your face and then freezing you, gotta keep you bound so you don’t crack my skull open ya know?” "It's fine. Not the first time I've fallen in lava and got Frozen solid. Listen, I'm not sure how much longer we have like this, We can control our bodies but only if we are in a complete deadzone. It's Clockwerk that's been controlling these mechanical bodies he shoved us into. Just put us here for torture and his sick twisted amusement. Thankfully this gives us an advantage." ”So Clockwerk has put up control towers to keep his influence over you?” I mentally asked. ”Well...if I figure out what magical or physical links are tethering you and the others to his will then I might be able to reverse it.” "I dunno the science or magic behind it, but Tennessee Kid Cooper does. Because his mind is nine kinds of crazy he can sometimes gain control from Clockwerk, though they keep tinkering with him to stop that. Last I knew he was gonna be deployed to China to go see Panda King. But that's besides the point, the point is Clockwerk forcing himself to control so far twenty seven bodies is putting one hell of a strain on him. In short, controlling us means he can't move his own body less it breaks the link to us, he's also going quite screwing forcing himself to be in twenty seven bodies. Twenty eight if ya include his own. ”We better get to Tennessee after we kick the crap out of Mugshot. So while Clockwerk is running himself ragged, he’s vulnerable as long as he’s trying to control all of you?” "Yup. And going mad doing so. If it's to make the Cooper's suffer he'll put himself through hell, and that is how we can finally end him." ”And hell we shall put him through.” I mentally told him. ”So...should I tell the others you’re still kind of sane?” "If you'd be so kind. Glad to see in our time of need you came along, the Cooper's have always had the-" There was a sharp noise as suddenly Grandpa's eyes turned red and his voice silenced. "Hello there young Cooper." The robotic demonic voice of Clockwerk came from the body. “Sup you crotchety old rust bird. How are you doing?” I asked. "Alive, more than your entire ancestry." “Says the dipshit that’s been keeping all of them alive with powers outside your control or knowledge for hundreds if not thousands of years.” I frowned. “Seriously...you have no idea who you’re dealing with, either from the one’s your facing, or the one’s that are humoring you.” "Nexus and I have our agreements, as do you, King of Nothingness. Time Runners while barbaric are useful for information. You are the whole reason Nexus is even on my planet." "They were here way before Time stopped being a thing." I said honestly. "So my main question is...why?" I asked. "This can't just be because you're jealous of the Coopers right? Your too old and smart for such petty reasons...or did you forget in your blind hatred?" "One can never forget their true reasons for hatred. Such short lived rodents as yourself could only ever forget, you all forgot the reason I do this, to make you suffer. Hehehe. But soon, all too soon you can hear it from the theaving ancestor who cast my curse upon your family name, and understand why I shall devour your bloodline each generation. Just the one. Question is, I only leave one Cooper spawn, so, who shall I let live? The false Cooper, or the destined one?" “Okay so you're just a petty bitch, got it.” I said simply. “And you're not going to kill anyways, and I’m going to make damn sure about it.” I growled. "You couldn't stop me from killing your father, or your mother. And from what I hear, you couldn't stop your first life's parents deaths either. When it comes to family, we are both destined to fail them." Clockwerk said, laughing as the Cooper bot broke free, the shockwave knocking me back against a rolled over car. “Ow…” I muttered. “But...okay, good to know that you failed a family…” I muttered while bringing out Eternal Flames and my Cane. “Alright, I think time’s up on this shit show.” I said while I threw a fire ball towards the bots feet and created a massive smoke screen as I drank an Ether and teleported to where the Camera was and grabbed it before teleporting out of there. I arrived back with the others, we found a good hideout for us and rested while Bently looked over the footage. "You lost a tooth?!" Mom said as she saw my missing Chomper while looking over me. “I can grow one back, I just need to remember a Regen spell.” I said honestly. “So if you’re wondering why I was just standing in front of a botcicle for a good minute or two it’s because I was talking to Grandpa, thankfully he’s not a gibbering mess mentally like I feared.” "From what I've read your grandfather was considered the strongest Cooper, mentally and physically." Matilda said. “And he told me that our next target is literally the craziest of the bunch, Tennessee Kid Cooper.” I said honestly. “Who is currently being sent to China to check up on Panda King.” I was brought up. "So we better move fast then." Carmalita stated. "Alright, Sly and I will scope out the area while you all rest up for a while." With that Sly and Carmalita rushed out and I took a seat on what I hope is a couch without any lice or bugs that would become a major issue. "Alright...so onto an important bit." I started. "Clockwerk has 27 bodies, and given he's trying to use them all at once he's running himself so ragged he can't move his original body." "Meaning he is vulnerable." Mom said. "But heavily guarded obviously." "Yes he is." I nodded. "But hopefully the other coopers are sane enough to help…” "How do we get their help if they are being controlled by him?" Lana asked. "There has to be a recovery in them that takes control away from their brains so Clockwerk can control them. If we can either block it or rip it out they would gain full control." Matilda said. “Grandpa said Tennessee would know how to deal with it.” I said honestly. “But right now we need to beat Mugshot and take back America.” "Once Sly, Carmalita and Bentley get back, we will." It was three hours before Sly, Bentley and Carmalita got back and once they did things prooved as bad as expected. I even recognized this tech as Nexus made, far too advanced for this world. And so a day passed just planning Operating Fire Hydrant. Thankfully the keys collecting aspect was the same, but just harder. The first area Lana and I took. This area was the one where normally Murray had to run for the key and the player keep them safe via a turret, but here Lana and I are just destroying these goons. While they had heavy firepower and numbers we had raw strength and magic. It was an unfair fight for them. "With all their numbers and tech, they are still outmatched." I chuckled. "Magic is good." Lana said, using her cane to slam a large great Dane goon into a wall and out the other side. “Oh yeah, it is.” I said while a ball lightning shocked another dog as I knocked out the goon. As we made our way up we found some loot and once up we saw the key. “Sweet.” I nodded. “One key down.” As Lana and I snatched the key and we headed back, we ran into one more goon, only this one's attire was Nexus. “And the fuck are you doing here?” I asked the Nexus grunt, a bit nervous about why there’s one of these bastards here. "I have one job." The female voice spoke from their visor covered helm. "Examine you." She said. Materializing in her hand was a rifle she began firing. Lana and I went for cover but whatever energy that gun was shooting was eating the rock we were behind. “Lana, I’m gonna try to distract her, and when you get the chance get back to the others.” I said to the wolf. “Just our luck...first a Cooper bot and now Nexus?” I muttered under my breath. I jumped out and shot out with Sharp Shooters, the Nexus lady dodging as Lana made a break for it to get help. We kept up our shoot out, each one of us just barely missing the other. Shit, when you aren't overpowered to hell Nexus agents actually are a challenge. “Why are you working with Clockwerk?” I asked bluntly. “What does this world have that you would want? Cause as far as I know you were here before Time got fucked.” "Classified." She replied, charging her rifle up more before shooting off a larger bolt of energy. I ducked, the thing flying over me and hitting an old trolly cart and exploding into what looked like an enclosed nuclear explosion. “You said you were here to examine me, not kill me.” I frowned while firing off a charged shot, flying towards her quickly and bouncing around unpredictably. "Yes. Examine your corpse. King of Nothingness." She said, shooting off a volley of those Exploding shots. I used Sharpshooters short range teleportation ability a lot during her volley as the charge shot from before bouncing and nailing her in the leg at least. “There’s got to be more than that. Why hunt little old me when you could be doing something better with your life?” Her suit held up from that blast, getting up she switched back to her normal shots. Sly and Matilda came around with Lana. The Nexus lady looking between us before running off a cliff edge. We raced to see, but she was gone already. "Who… or what the hell was that?" Sly asked. “So remember when I mentioned Clockwerk had…’outside help’?” I asked. "Oh so it's those guys. Shit, whatever gun that was, I want one." Matilda said. "Yeesh, definitely not something to get shot with." Sly added, looking at the area's damage. “Yeah, so that’s just one of Nexus’s normal grunts.” I said nervously. With that we headed back to base. In total we have four keys, and with that were able to get into Mugshots Casino. Security here was half tech, half armed guards, Bentley hacked the turrets and cameras while using the Sleeping touch technique got us to a room in the casino to examine the rest. Mom and Murray managed to find two pages of the Thievius Raccoonus. Page one detailed a technique from Grandpa. Focused Power. Basically with proper mental training Gramps could turn off pain from his body, and force out adrenalin to keep fighting and ignore damage from most physical attacks. Granted, it had its toll, making him starve and even pass out for up to a month depending on how much he did. Have to be careful with this one. Page two talked about Annabelle Cooper's… Shadow Punch Technique. One of our more magical ancestors, Anabelle could actually use other people's shadows and any cast by buildings to warp her fists out to deliver quote the right and left hook. Apparently she's one of the few siblings in the Cooper family, Tennessee Kid's younger sister actually. “Huh, well that’s interesting.” I said while testing out the Shadow Punch technique to see how it actually worked. Punching into my own shadow an almost DTD like portal opened, but small, and by Murray's leg and shadow the other end opened up and I hit him right in the ankle. "Owe!" Murray yelped. “I didn’t mean to punch you Murray, sorry.” I said nervously. "It's fine, guess this means I should switch to boots or something rather than sneakers." "Alright, Lana, Kite, you two rest up. We'll get the last few keys and wake you when it's time to face off against Mugshot." Mom said. "No, I'm practically the only one who can deal with any of the 'outside help' mugshot is getting."." "You also did a lot between fighting Robo Gramps and that woman. You need rest Kite. It's just three more keys, we can handle that." Sly stated. "I know but still…" I said, feeling tired from everything I've done but not wanting to let the others deal with something they don't know. "If something comes up we'll open a DTL, okay?" Matilda said. "Alright." I nodded. "Just...be safe okay?" "Duh." Sly said as they all began heading out. I hit the bed and calmed myself, getting comfortable in the dusty bed. I haven't actually been to the sleeping worlds as Kite before. This world was still my own, Still Mesa City but far nicer, more like it's hay day. "Well...this place looks actually nice." I muttered. Looking around this place was basically Las Vegas but smaller. I saw the Casino Mugshot took over here. Looks like that big fire hydrant was always there. As I was looking around I heard something drop behind me. Turning, I was shocked to see a Shadow Drug Injector. “Oh no...how the hell?” I muttered worriedly while moving over and looking at the injector. It was still full, surprisingly. Looking around I saw atop the casino someone standing over the edge, looking down at me. “I see you…” I muttered as I summoned my Glider and flew up towards the guy on the roof. Getting a better look and landing on the roof a few feet across from them, they were dressed in a leather cloak, outfitted the hood to look like a mangy stuffed wolf head. "So, been looking into Shadow Drugs then?" Looking the figure over, they were tall, easy six feet seven inches, and missing an arm from a hollow one arm sleeve hung loosely. “And are you the mystery maker of the drugs?” I asked simply. "I am. Been waiting to converse with you for so, so long King. I suppose you have no idea who I am, do you?" “No, you have been a slippery bastard from what I’ve heard.” I said simply. “So it would only be polite of you to introduce yourself.” "Oh we have met, not so long ago for you but a lifetime for me. You're proud of your intelligence and perception, let's see how long it takes for you to figure out who I am, and who I am to you." “Well…” I started while taking a step closer to the being, trying to focus on any detail about them from their voice, posture, and many many other things. I didn't see or notice anything familier. “Don’t know why but I’m drawing a blank here...you look and sound nothing like someone I know, and I know a lot of people.” "Oh, you'll remember, sooner or later." They said, turning around to walk away. "I'll give you a hint, you saved me once." With that they walked off behind the fire hydrant, rushing after them they were already gone. “God damn it…” I grumbled. “Well...might as well tell Ciel and others about this…” "So many years in hiding and the cocky bastard speaks to you to start a game? Well, aren't you the popular one." Ciel said. “The luckiest…” I grumbled while sifting through the massive list of people I’ve saved through my life. “And I need to find a needle in a god damn haystack just to figure out who the ‘one I saved’ is, cause there’s a lot of people I saved once.” I frowned. "Hmm. Perhaps it's how you saved them?" Ciel asked. "Like saving them over their family?" “I doubt it...I mean, I could look at a list of people that went back to crime after I gave them a second chance.” I said honestly. “Or people that either vanished.” "That could still be a large list. Was there anything unique about him at all we can go off of?" “Besides the stuffed Wolf head, no.” I shook my head. “And I didn’t notice anything odd about the wolf head either. "If it's a wolf head then it means he is likely using it as his symbol, or reminder. Somehow this is so personal to him, they'd wear around someone akin to your image as this reminder." “It looked nothing like me for starters.” I said. “But besides the wolf head, he had a missing arm, which narrows it down but there’s still like, oh I don’t know.” I started while adding a few things to narrow down the list and I flipped it around to Ciel showing that I still have about say twenty quadrillion people at minimum. “This is what I get for being a hero to dozens, if not hundreds of worlds because of this.” I grumbled. "Any idea on race? Aside from humanoid?" “Nope, just a normal one armed human.” I said honestly. “Which...seems a little weird cause the amount of humans I saved that have one arm actually isn’t that many, and he didn’t look, smell, or sound like any of them.” I said honestly. “As a Den Mother, I remember all of those details.” "Hmm… what if they weren't human before you saved them? Something close to human but not?" “Well…” I started while going through my searches on who might have changed races in some way, and thankfully that narrowed it down to about...a few hundred...and that number is ever so slowly growing. “Well...it’s a few hundred, with it slowly growing.” I sighed out. “Okay, now time to find out who might have a vendetta against me, cause that’s sure as shit going to be helpful.” I said, knowing these bastards would want to gun for me even after I gave them a second chance at life, and thankfully that narrowed it down to about five...albeit three of the five makes no sense. “What do you mean Delete is a race?” I frowned. “Deletes more of a Template than anything.” "Huh?" Ciel asked, looking at me confused. "Talking to someone?" “I’m just complaining.” I shook my head. “Alright...so why does it say that Deletes are their own race? I thought it was more like a Template, like how we have Celestial Creatures, or Half Dragon’s.” "Hmm. How best to explain it. Well, what makes a race it's own aside from physical aspects also lies in its abilities, magic, or code. For example, you are a Dire wolf but your race comes from a whole other world, can shift to a humanoid and feral form at will and has magic. Compare yourself to the ones from my world that went extinct and all you share is the name. But, strip away the magic, the ability to shift, and strand you on earth in your feral form, you are almost no different, maybe bigger but you'd be my world's Dire Wolf basically." “That...sounds like a Template though…” I said. “Like...let’s take Spike and Rainbow Dash’s daughter for example, she’s a Half Dragon Pegasus, she is a Pegasus with the Half Dragon Template right?” I asked. “I’m sorry for not really ‘getting it’, but it just seems a little weird…” "Well, in any case, what were you getting at King?" “So I narrowed down my list even more, and here’s five people that would personally hate me for some reason or another.” I said while showing Ciel the list. “And there are three that are Delete’s turned normal because of my powers.” I pointed out. ”That’s why I was confused on race and template.” "Huh. Well this list is a good lead, but the issue here is that most of these kids and such are too young. Shadow Drug has been in the black market for a little over ten years now, even with the childhood rooms, how would they pull this off?" “Well…” I sighed out. “These kids...most likely the oldest, figured out I...killed their parents.” I sighed out. “Both were Deletes, and both of them didn’t give me a choice in the matter…” "Revenge is a possibility. If we are dealing with time travel, then it's out of our hands, and falls to the Time Walkers to handle." “Cause of course.” I frowned. “Well...time to call up the Time Walkers again.” I called them up and informed them that it seems the maker of Shadow Drugs was a time traveler. This must also mean odds are they… they're family, my own child. “I’d rather not believe that my own kids would want to hunt me down…” I muttered worriedly. “So...I better check on these five people…” My first stop was Jackson, a former child delete I saved now works as a cartographer. Explores all sorts of places and maps them to detail. “Hello?” I called out to Jackson, hoping they were around. “You around here Jackson?” "One minute." They called out. Their homes was quite the mess, papers and maps, half made and finished scattered and pinned up about the place. “Jeez, this place is kind of a mess.” I muttered, not entirely sure how to move around without causing papers getting stepped on or falling to the ground. Jackson came out. They had blue hair, yellow eyes, and a robotic left arm. "Hey dad, what's up?" They asked, arms full of more papers. “So I was wondering...do you hate me?” I asked honestly. “I know it’s a sudden and random thing to ask but...well I think someone’s doing very illegal shit just to spite me.” "That is pretty random. Why would I though? You got me out of that shit show in the Void. Besides, not like my life before ending up there was any better, before that place I was working in mines, lost my arm and got thrown into that place." “I’m just making sure.” I said with a raised hand. “Cause the person I’m hunting down said I saved them once, but just immediately went to doing something outlandishly illegal.” "Ouch. Well can't all become heroes I guess. Or rather, can't really save them all. Like they say, you can save their life but can't always save their soul." “I know…” I sighed out. “But how have you been? I see you’re taking cartography rather...seriously.” I said while motioning to the massive mess of papers. "Heh, well making maps in the void is near impossible and reading them is just as hard. Maps and all that here are far more easier to read and make. It was always so easy for people to get lost in the void." “That is true.” I said honestly. “The void is a pain to get around if you don’t know what your doing.” "Pretty much, only the Void Wolves and Void God's can perfectly traverse the void without issue." “And I still need to find the Void Wolves…” I sighed out. “Just been busy with other things that I haven’t been able to find them…” "From what I hear a lot is going on and shit is really starting to hit the fan. But that's typically when the best ideas to solve it come into play." “Oh yeah, that does tend to happen.” I said honestly. “Let’s just hope those idea’s don’t come up too late…” With that I headed to the next kid, Adam, red hair, green eyes and worked in an animal care shelter. "Hey dad, what brings you here?" Adam asked as I entered, a dog-monkey animal clung to their back. “Random question, but do you hate me?” I asked. "Uh, why would I? I get to have pets and only half the animals here will try to kill you, back in the void even the fly's tried to kill you, here a large majority of animals are all friendly and kind. And they come in all kinds of shapes and sizes, not just mangy and blood soaked." “Okay good.” I nodded. “Why I ask that is because...well someone really hates me and even after I saved them they decided to be apart of something very illegal just to spite me.” "Yeesh. Sounds like a prick." “They are…” I sighed out, as I was wracking my brain for who might have done this. “Um...question, did you have parents back in the Void?” I asked curiously. "None I can remember. Died when I was barely a year. Grew up in that shithole you rescued me and the others in. It's amazing how in nor all realities Deletes are extremely dangerous yet in the void are just as hard to survive as everything else."" "Sounds about right...so...I think I know who might now that I think about it…" I started. With a sigh I headed off to Jason. The eldest son of the two Deletes I killed long ago, him and his brother were part of the reason I even ended up saving all these others to begin with. His place was back at the castle, he spent his time doing research on Void Artifacts I've collected from the Heroes Tomb. Mostly he finds out how they are made and if Nothingness can be used to craft it's own variation. “Hey Jason, you around?” I called out. "Over here." He called out. Jason's lab was filled with cloning jars each having some organ needed for making Void Artifacts, the artifacts themselves, and what I could sense were Nothingness artifact prototypes. He was looking at a PC, left arm not replaced, right one typing while he looked over the data the PC held. "Yes dad?"?” “Do you hate me?” I asked. “You can be honest…” "Hmm. Hate, no. In all honesty I've just felt pretty indifferent. I know you saved me and my brother from that Pitt, but even after raising me, giving me a life there's always been something keeping me from actually accepting you. Then I found out of course." “Found their graves?” I asked, having made two proper graves next to each other for the Knight and Huntress. "Not quite. But I have, and do visit." He types something on his PC, two videos begin playing, and I fight against them. My perspective of it. "So many praise you for these fights, but no one bothers to remember they had kids, they were a family… they were loved." “And that’s why I didn’t want to kill them, that’s why, in both fights, I’ve told them to stop and focus on family.” I said while we got to the parts where the two denied it, the Father denying it because of his nature, and the Mother denying it out of rage. "Deletes are a stubborn bunch, pride and honor fill them much like the void itself. But now we get to the part where you ask me, why Shadow Drugs, and how have I time traveled. You wanna know, right?" “I would love to know yes...even if you hate me for your parents deaths that were outside my control...why all of this?” "I don't hate you, like I said, it's an indifference. As for why all this, it's simple really, leverage." “Leverage? Leverage for what?” I asked. "You didn't think Shadow Creature Blood was all that was in those vials, did you?" “That was literally the only thing I was told was in them so I was expecting other things.” I said honestly. "You should have examined them personally then, you'd have noticed they held a little gift from the person you hate most." “So you have Leverage over Void Key?” I growled. "From Void Key, over you. I just need to think it and the 7.9 million Shadow Drug users and comatose former users, become his newest bodies to host. I have one, simple request, and all those lives can be saved." "And what is that request?" I asked curiously. "Revive my parents." Jason said simply. "People are one thing, but we both know reviving Deletes would be a whole new field of necromancy and exploration. One as an intellectual I imagine you'd be vastly interested in, but you can discover the full potential of such a field when so many lives are not at risk." “You do know I’ve been researching that right?” I frowned. “Given all my knowledge I got from Truth, I know how to do it...I just need a little something from you to finish the ritual, and then I’m going to need you to do something for me.” "Being what?" “Giving me all your memories on Void Key and this entire incident. You won’t remember ever being a part of Void Key’s plan, and I’ll get a whole host of info on where the fucker is.” I started. “Sure, many people would want to either see you locked up or killed...but I wanted you to have a better life, as well as all those children from the Void, so you’ll have a clean slate, while I can pin this all on Void Key.” I said. “Also, your ‘indifference’ sounds a lot like ‘I royally hate you’ all things considered.” "You think I know where he is? Heh, sorry to say but I don't. He showed up in my lab shortly after I figured out how to pull Shadow Blood out of the beasts without letting it evaporate. They showed up, asked me if I wanted you to really feel rage, to feel betrayed. They then gave me a vial of their void which I distilled just the smallest drop into each injector and linked them to a trigger I implanted into my head. But, I've yet to explain the how of it, and frankly it's fairly simple. I replicated Fair Game." Jason said, the deck of cards appearing in its base form in his hands. "Was easy actually. And as for your offer, I'll pass. I want everyone to know about this once it's all over." “Alright alright.” I said while raising up my hands. “Now, onto what I need for the resurrection spell.” I said simply. “Want to know what it is?” "Blood? It's a common necessity for spells of this nature." “Oh no, Blood is much too weak.” I shook my head. “While blood is a part of it, I will need something much greater from you.” "Hmm… hehe. Let me guess, memories?" “Bingo.” I said honestly. “And only I know what kind of memories will be strong enough. So, let’s go to their graves, cause their items will help with the resurrection.” "And you have proof this works? I'm not gonna let you go messing around in my head for memories without knowing this isn't a trick or was never going to work." I brought out my Lexicon and flipped to the proper page of necessary ingredients for the spell and showed him. “If there’s one thing I don’t skip out on, it’s the details. You should know this.” I frowned, the ingredients did indeed have ‘Memories of power equal to those brought back’. "Hmm." They hummed, placing the paper under a device that scanned it, their PC now running a simulation and calculated 98% chance of success. "The odds are in your favor. But a simulation isn't the real deal. So, how's about a trial run beforehand? Then we can get started." “Alright, do you have anyone in mind?” I asked curiously. “Or do you want to be the guinea pig?” "Not exactly." They said, flipping their replica Fair game cards around until one Blue card came up. They then tossed it at me. The image on the card was of a delete, female. "She's no one to you but was someone I once knew. She had no weapon but-" the card then spat out a finger bone. "A piece of her corpse should do well enough." “Alright, that should be enough.” I said while my Lexicon glowed softly as I put a hand on his head. “Memoir of the Dead.” I muttered as I plucked some key memories from Jason, memories of his Aunt and who she was as it fueled my spell. “Arise, Jessy.” I said as the bone glowed softly, magic and code sparking from it as the single finger bone started to branch out and regrow into the being it originally came from. “Take your new chance at life.” I said as Jessy came back in her full glory, Jason seeing a small wisp flow down into her body and a heart glow in her chest. "She's human?" He asked. “Yes, yes she is.” I said while seeing Jessy look over herself after just coming back to life. "So you bring them back but not as Delete’s. They are without their void." “I mean...yes, why wouldn’t I?” I asked simply. “I mixed Nothingness into the Spell so they can be brought back as human instead of as a Delete, is that not okay?” "I should have expected this. How can you bring back something you yourself always undo and erase. You can never understand what void means to a delete." “You know there’s this mystical thing called ‘talking’ right?” I asked. “It’s really simple, and stops you from threatening seven million people’s lives because you’re ‘indifferent’.” I frowned. "But then I'd have never Acquired a sample of Void Key's void, or developed the cure for Shadow Drugs, or your edge." "My edge? And you...made a cure for the Shadow Drugs?” I asked. "In the world of bio terrorism, making a product without it's counterpart is just bad business. Watch." He said, on screen showed a simple Shadow Creature within a cage. Then a fog of sorts was pumped in, and immediately the Shadow Creature died. Another video popped up, showing a person with Shadow Drug in the cage this time. The same fog was pumped in and their mutated parts began reverting. After a short minute they were human again. "I find gas based dispersals most effective, but liquid or even pill based works just as well." “Alright...so now the question is...are you actually going to cure these people if I bring your parents back...or do you just hate me that much.” I started. "I am a man of my word, as are you. Or, Herm of your word, heh. But I figured In case this wasn't enough I'd sweeten the pot. Remember this?" They reached into a drawer, pulling out a vial with a single small strand of Nothingness Thorn, but this variation… this energy… Bravery Nothingness. "The only thing that can harm Void Key, while his help has been appreciated I do find his existence as distasteful as you. So, I created this." A new image appeared on screen. This one was an arm, Nothingness grey colored with a heart beating, taking in Normal Nothingness, and pumping out bravery Nothingness clenched in the arms grip. "I call it the Heart of Justice, tacky but fitting. Unfortunately it can only make so much and it has to be placed in a container lest the Bravery Nothingness break apart and fade, but it can be forged into weapons once enclosed." “Alright, while I am glad you keep your word...but the main question is still here.” I started. “Do you hate me? Cause while the Bravery testing and the cure I am ever thankful for...working with Void Key and distributing Shadow Drugs to gain something that you could have legit asked me about is...worrying.” "If I had asked then where would we be now? More than likely it's one of two scenarios. Either their pride gets them imprisoned, or you use that Keyblade on them, and my parents become my younger siblings. We both know my parents, especially mother, will take their first breath back in life with a battlecry." “Or the third option where you and your parents went back into the Void.” I said simply. “You make it sound like I want the Void to stop existing.” "Considering everything there and everyone wants you and this reality dead, how could you not?" “Because without Void I wouldn’t be here.” I deadpanned. “But besides that obvious thing, what do you think will happen when your parents are revived?” I asked, wanting to know what Jason thought would happen when his parents came back. “Either as Deletes or not?” "Both try and kill you, you imprison them, cover it up, void beings who manage to enter here could sense them in some way, some small mistake, word speeds they are alive and then the neutrals in void chase after them and anyone in between on sole principal." “So your entire thing...is to get them imprisoned or killed again…” I said slowly. “What?” I asked simply. “Let me ask...how honorable are Deletes? Cause your father seemed pretty honorable while your mother showed the pride of a Delete even in her rage.” "We are a people of combat and murder. I know, the second they are revived, they'll have targets in their back from now til someone kills them again… But I need to see them again, my brother deserves to know they didn't abandon us." I shook my head. “I understand...but it’s going to be a bitch and a half for the idea I have…” I sighed out. “No idea where Hollow is...been searching for the bastard for months, as well as John…” I muttered. “So how soon can you release the antidote?” "It's airborne as well. Once in the air the winds will carry it everywhere." “Cool.” I nodded. “Alright...so let’s go check on your brother...cause he needs to know about them ‘coming back’.” I started. To be continued... Nobody's normal lifeAfter that whole ordeal I am taking personal time. Starting with a calming meal out in the kingdom. I have to admit, the camera flashes and looks from all around me as I ate were not even a bother, used to the attention I guess. ”Well...could be worse.” I thought to myself while entering one of my favorite diners around. A healthy course of soups, salads, and meats of course. It was all delicious. With my meal done I left, deciding to check out the shopping districts. So many open shops, massive malls going hundreds of floors up and below. So many stores and so much cash and time to burn. “Hmm...where to start first…” I hummed while just walking around and looking things. Toy shops, game shops, electronics, jewellery, oh wow, authentic candy shop. Hey a GameStop. Wonder if my membership will still ring up? Think I still have that card. “Alright, time to go to the game equivalent of a pawn shop.” I said while walking into Gamestop. “Wonder what’s here though…” I muttered to myself while looking around carefully. It looked largely the same to a normal GameStop, just bigger. Games and consoles ranging from ones I knew to multiversal off brands and holy fuck fifteen whole walls of pornographic video games ranging from 'joy stick' to VR. Huh… "May I help you?" One of the staff asked me. “Just looking around...haven’t been here in a long time.” I said honestly. “It’s...certainly different.” "Well, accommodating such a wide variety of former different universes and such gives us quite the extensive stock. Is there anything specific you need or are looking for?" “I’m just looking around.” I said honestly. “Seeing everything here is...kind of surprising when I remember it looking more humble and...being a bit more like a pawn shop more than anything.” "We're Still that, just bigger." “Sounds about right.” I nodded while continuing to look around the place for anything. I did find various alternate versions of games I like, Sly Cooper but as humans. Designs aren't too bad. Jak and Daxter but with guns from game one. Even the original beta version of Kingdom Hearts before they added Disney and Final Fantasy characters. “Well this is all very interesting…” I hummed happily. “Wonder what I should buy?” After a lot of browsing odd alternative titles and some original ones, I was looking through the bargain bin and nearly did a double take so hard I about gave myself whiplash. The Coopers and the Gang in Honor Among Thieves. That's… that is me, Kite… huh. "Uh...excuse me, where did you get this?" I asked while picking up the game I was in. "That? No idea. We get a lot of random games from people and shipments from other locations." The clerk said. "Been here for a good few months though. Looked through the database and saw there are two before that game and one after, but none of the other stores have them. Apparently they're pretty rare. Can get the digital copies online though." "Um...okay." I said slowly, trying not to be either proud that my life's story as Kite is rare or upset it's in the goddamn bargain bin. "Well...can I get all four please?" "We only have that hard copy game at the moment, the rest like I said are available on digital on all consoles and PC. About ten to twelve rem each or so." "Alright, that's quite a bit cheaper than I thought." I said honestly. "Pretty sure it's because there are so many variations of the Cooper Games across the former multiverse. If you'd like you can still buy the hard copy and anything else you'd like. We sell everything from the games to you replicas of all video game items. Save for things like potions, they're all either empty glass or plastic bottles or soda's." “Sounds about right.” I said while grabbing my live version of Honor Among Thieves. “Huh, didn’t know they remade Final Fantasy 7…” I said while grabbing a pretty big game case of the FF7 Remake, apparently it was the entire collection. “How many disks are in here?” "One. Has all the games on it though." “Sweet.” I said honestly while adding it to the slowly growing list of games I’m going to be taking home. By the time I hit the check out. Membership was renewed and got a new card and Jesus Christ GameInformer Magazine is as thick as the Phone books now. With all that placed safely in my Assistant I headed on out spotting a pet shop… They are selling Pokemon Eggs. And dragon eggs. And… Lottery Eggs? “The hell are lottery eggs?” I muttered while heading inside. “So...how many pets am I allowed to buy…” "As much as you can afford normally King." The pet store clerk said. "Anything of interest?" “Um...first, what are Lotterly Eggs?” I asked curiously. “I don’t remember those being a thing.” "Oh, they come from Dungeons. A loot drop in boss rooms. They look like any other egg but are magic, and can hatch into anything. Dragon, Pixie, T-Rex, or just a chicken. Completely random." “Hmm…” I hummed as I took three lottery eggs. “Alright, so while I’ll take these three...what kind of pets do you have here?” I asked curiously. "Everything. Ranging from the basic to the exotic and other." “Other?” I asked curiously. “That sounds...rather specific to just say ‘other’ after ‘exotic’.” She simply pointed to a section of the store with massive cages. Inside them ranged from… humans, mermaids, Nagas, Equestrians… "They aren't sentient if that's your worry King, all of them come from worlds/realities where physically they evolved like the rest but mentally they're still… animals. Basically." The clerk said. “Doesn’t mean I don’t find it a little uncomfortable.” I said nervously. “So uh...let’s go to Exotic shall we?” Heading over there I saw Hydras, Dragons, HellHounds, Gargoyles, Pixies, a rabbit with bat wings, snakes tail and dog ears, what the? Looking into the next cage I spotted… that's a shadow Creature. I've never seen one so… calm before. “Uh...why is there a shadow creature here?” I asked nervously. “And...why is it so calm?” "Oh. It's been Cleansed. You see, Shadow Creatures are made from, well, pure darkness, kinda like Heartless and such, but they have a unique reaction when injected with pure light. Some gain intelligence, others like this one here don't but make nice house pets, like cats or dogs." “I thought they were made from Void?” I asked in confusion. “I’ve fought these things for a long time...if they were beings of Darkness, I would know.” "There are different kinds of darkness King, each with their own source. Some stronger than others." “Alright.” I nodded. “The more you know I suppose.” "This little guy has been here for about three months. It's pretty rare for anyone to want one as a pet let alone go through the trouble of capturing one to purify." “What kind of Shadow Creature is it?” I asked while kneeling down and looking over the thing. "It's called a Crimson Echo. They are a… morbid one. If any negative energies of someone who died violently are around in the area they spawn in, they will copy the dead’s voice and even learn some of their memories. Some go as far as to slaughter the dead’s killer, be them animal, human, or even other shadow Creatures. If successful they hunt for more negative ghostly energy to use to find a new victim." “Well...that’s...interesting.” I said honestly. "Comes In all kinds, Shadow Creatures." “I can imagine.” I said honestly while thinking about if I should take this little guy home with me. “Hmm...how smart is it?” I asked curiously. "About as smart as a dog. Watch." The clerk said, opening the cage of the Crimson Echo as it got up from it's slumped over sitting position. It was like a large doll almost. Large X eyes, wide smiling pointed teeth, small arms with hands that end in large dagger-like claws and armored feet and legs. It looked about the size of a four year old. "See the ball?" The clerk said, pulling out a red ball and making it squeak. The Crimson Echo tilted it's head at the sound. "Fetch." She said, throwing it. The Shadow Creature ran fast, faster than I expected as it jumped the five feet in the air the ball was, catching it carefully in it's claws. It fell back to the ground on both feet, carefully holding the ball as it walked back to the clerk. “So I didn’t really get a good look but...yeah I can see why this would be nightmare fuel in any other circumstances.” I said nervously. "He's really a sweetheart. Guy who sold him said he came from a level four dungeon, so he is pretty strong. See." She tapped on a caller it was wearing. On a hologram display it showed it's stats. HP: 96,770 Def: 406,663 MP: 7,980 “That is pretty strong.” I said honestly. “I suppose I’ll take him.” "Really? Heh." The clerk picked up the Shadow Creature. "Hear that little guy? You're getting a home." She said it happily as we walked over to the desk. "Alright, that's two thousand rem and he'll need a name." “Alright.” I said while putting down the three lottery eggs as well as I started to think of a name. “God, I’m not good with names…” I muttered. "Take your time." Some minutes passed and after a while I came up with Ganon or Klaud. “Fine, Ganon it is.” I said while signing its name. My hud flashed. In the party member list, appeared a second Column, Beastials. Ganon's name and HP and all that appeared there. Huh. “Well...that’s new.” I said honestly. I turned over the money and took Ganon with me. The little guy sat on my shoulder like a bird. With that I kept looking around at all the stores. I saw the clothing shops all had some form of Rarity's works in them, that gave me a laugh. I saw a hunting shop, Bakery, another candy shop, Quills and Sofas. “Ah yes, your one stop for nothing but quills and sofas.” I muttered while heading inside Quills and Sofas, wondering if it literally was just quills and sofas in there. It was. All forms of Sofas, all forms of Quills. Only those two things. “Good christ, how has this place still been in business?” I muttered to myself. Heading off I saw the food court and the smells hit me like the moon smashing into the planet. Delicious. “Well...I am a bit hungry.” I said while my stomach growled lightly. “Wait...damn, I should have checked what food you can eat…” I said to Ganon, forgetting to ask that as I went through his stat screen to see what he could and could not eat. Food: N/A “Cause that makes sense…” I grumbled. “Whatever…” I muttered while heading off to get something to eat. They had every restaurant here. Serving all kinds of food in all kinds of servings. “So many things to eat…” I muttered, having a hard time deciding whether I should just go to one place or go to them all. The first place on my stop was Big Mike's Bigger Bites. An all meat shop. Next to the register was a sign that read 'No Vegans, Vegetarians or Hippies allowed.' That gave me a laugh. “My kind of people.” I chuckled while waiting for the receptionist to appear at the front desk. The lady came up. "Welcome to Big Mike's Bigger Bites where we are not liable for any collateral build up, obesity or heart attacks you may/will receive while dining with us, may I take your order?" “That sounds like several health code violations right there.” I pointed out. “And yes please.” "What would you like?" Looking at the menu, they had whole cooked pig, cow, goat, lama, shark, ect in fried, baked, boiled, soup, ect. Wow. This looks amazing. “Well...this is quite a selection here.” I hummed while looking through the entire list. “So much to choose...so little time.” I ended up getting a whole deep fried Turkey, a bladder buster cup of soda and a fifty pack of chicken nuggets. “Hopefully I won’t look weird wolfing this all down…” I muttered to myself while taking a seat at a booth waiting for my food. Once it arrived I tried not to stuff myself. It was all really good. I could have easily eaten this all in less than a few minutes but gotta keep a public appearance so I ate like a normal person. Taking well over two hours to finish all the food. “Hmm…” I frowned, finding that took way too long to eat. “Yo! You got an eating challenge?” I asked, not really caring about public appearance at the moment as I was still hungry even after eating all of that in two hours. "We have several, any specific ones?" A waiter asked. “Hmm...what are your challenges if I may ask?” I asked curiously. "We have the Drowning Soda Challenge, the Big Mike's Big Bite challenge and Big Mike's Final Bite Challenge." “Hmm...the final bite challenge does sound interesting.” I said honestly. “Let’s go with that.” "Okay then…" The waiter said as the staff all ran to the kitchen. “Alright...that doesn’t look concerning at all.” I chuckled. "You do know why it's called the Big Mike's Final Bite right my King?" A woman sitting in the booth next to mine asked. “No, this is literally my first time here.” I said simply. "Well, you see the restaurant founder, Big Mike, died after trying this challenge. Literally exploded food and blood and… gross." “Well I’m not like him.” I said honestly. “I know I can do this.” I said, not many people knowing I have multiple stomachs from the many racial traits, plus a lot of other things that would make this easy. "Would you like the tube or to chew ma'am?" The waiter asked. “Well I’d like to see what I have in store before I make that judgement.” I said honestly. "Right. Bring in the first course!" He yelled out. A cartoonishly long table packed to the brim of various all meat meals rolled up to my table, and from where I could see I could not yet see it's end. "So, chew or tube miss?" I started to slightly drool. “Uh...huh…” I started slowly. “So um...mind not letting the world know that I’m basically gonna be pac-man for the next...god knows how long?” I asked nervously. "I mean, typically this challenge is filmed for proof so… no." “Right~...” I said slowly. “So…” I started. “You might need to blur some of this out...it’s gonna get messy.” “That was delicious.” I said happily while patting my full stomach. For the first time since these mutations and all that jazz my stomach was bloated from food, and I felt stuffed. I know eating is optional but the last time I felt this good was when Den was teaching me how to hunt. "And that only took four days. Beat the challenge and Big Mike's old time." A different waiter said. “Would have been faster if you brought them out faster.” I said simply, burping loudly in triumph. “Excuse me.” I said sheepishly. "Well, now that that is done I'll fetch your prize." The waiter said, taking leave to the kitchen. “Alright…” I muttered while looking at the crowd that weirdly stuck with my four days filled with eating. “So uh...about that...” I started sheepishly. “Your jaw...unhinged like a snake for a good five hours straight…” One of the crowd members started. “Um...yeah…” I said sheepishly. “I hope I didn’t mortify you all…” "I mean, I did throw up at one point but that aside not really." Another spoke. "How did you even do that? Not even people with vore based abilities can pull that off." “Well, racial abilities are nice.” I said honestly. “From Naga and Floof Noodles I managed to gain like...six or so extra food stomachs, along with the many many stomachs made for other things, then with Den Mother variant I’m allowed digest food rather quickly to add to energy or making my breast milk stronger, and a lot of other things.” I explained. "Woah." Was the collective response before everyone began taking photos and posting online… i hope this turns out okay. Personally I am not sure how to feel about this result. Royal King, in discovery of their many abilities that include those related to the fetish of Vore has caused an explosion of interest in the area from the sexual to the casual. That was the news headlines when I got home. "Wow these people will do anything they see you doing huh?" Heart said, they and I were in our room together. “I...honestly didn’t expect this to happen...but the prize was neat.” I said honestly. It was a gigantic spatula, a weapon with one very powerful fire enchantment I made better. "I find it ironic that this now makes you the sorta cover girl for it huh?" Heart said with a laugh. "Especially considering you don't even really like it." “That’s kind of why I’m confused since I was just eating.” I shrugged. “I was hungry, even if I didn't need to eat.” I said honestly. “So how was your day?” "Pretty good. Mostly just playing Breath of The Wild." “Sounds about right.” I nodded. “Oh, so apparently my life as Kite is playable.” I said honestly. “And also, I got three lottery eggs and...well apparently a Shadow Creature as a pet.” Heart looked over at Ganon, who was seated on the floor playing with a ball of yarn. Then to the table and looked at the three eggs, placed on a large fluffy pillow on the coffee table. "I see. Well, wanna spoon, grope and make out til they hatch?" “Cuddles.” I said while cuddling up to my floofy love. “Cuddles till they hatch.” "Fine, but you go here." Heart said, growing in size just enough to stick me in their cleavage and then began hugging me as he laid us on the couch. “Okay fine.” I said with a warm smile. With a happy nod Heart kissed the top of my head and turned on the TV, The Rugrats was on. "Heh. I pirated this whole show once." “I remember this show, it’s great.” I said honestly. “God, there are so many shows from childhood that are still so good.” "The reboot wasn't though." “The reboot of which show? Cause there’s at least three reboots that failed.” "All Grown Up." “I wouldn’t really call that a ‘reboot’ as a ‘sequel’.” I said honestly. “Sequel’s take place after the main show, reboots try to go back to the beginning and make it different, for better like the 2016 ThunderCats, or absolute dog shit like ThunderCats Roar.” "Never saw any of them. Grew up on, well, drugs and violence." “You grew up the Bender way, with BlackJack and Hookers.” I chuckled at the Futurama reference. "Heh. Almost. Was more murder and robberies." “Sounds about right.” I nodded. “So I have all day of nothing besides...a lot of things going on at once.” I sighed out. "Heh. Need a distraction?" Heart asked, nuzzling my head that was barely out of their top chest fluff. “I’m already distracted enough with this.” I said warmly. “Thanks for being here Heart…” "No problem. So, enjoying my milk beds?" “Yes I am.” I said warmly. “The milk beds are wonderful. So did you know that Final Fantasy 7 got a Remake?” "I only know final fantasy from Kingdom Hearts, so no I did not." Heart said. “Right...so I’m gonna need to give you a wonderful course through video game history cause I forgot you know basically nothing about it due to outside reasons.” I said honestly. "Eh. So, been with Den… that weird for you? I mean I was… with Den. So… just wanna know." “I mean, if you're talking about railing her, I did that maybe a week ago?” I said while thinking back. “It’s fine...even though this is all still a tad weird, as long as people are fine with it I suppose.” "And Your birth mom… and dad… and grandma… yes she is here too. I've just been super bored and just went around screwing and next thing I know, I went through your family, Eclipsa's, both earth and Equestrian, and… Christ." “Sounds about right.” I nodded. “You really need to get out more if you’ve gotten through banging that much family.” "Well, I know I should but I kinda don't want to. Part of me worries if I go out there and get serious again I'll fall back on old habits." “Look at me, I’ve been out and about the longest and I haven’t gone back to my old ways.” I said honestly. "Yeah well you're you." “Yes I am.” I nodded. "In any case I still wanna stay off the battlefield for a while." “That’s alright.” I said simply. “You don’t want to fight after...well all of this, so I understand.” "Yeah. So, that aside been debating on turning like you and Cript, join in and all." “Oh like the Godborn?” I asked curiously. “Oh, don’t forget Symbi, there's also one.” "True. Fucked her too." "Best not to think on how." Symbi said with a giddy tone of voice. “I’d...rather not to be honest.” I said honestly. “But the process is...kind of simple honestly.” "How so?" “All you need to do is go past your limit till you feel like yourself and your code is about to explode.” I said honestly. “It’s how Spike explained it to me.” "Huh. I'll give it a try later on." Heart said, yawning as they hugged me tightly and curled us both up in their body as they began to nod off. “Alright, get your rest.” I said while cuddling up with Heart and nodding off myself. “Alright Diane, where the hell are you?” I wondered while walking around the castle, trying to find my old timeline self. I finally found her in one of the castle's many bars. She, Zeke and Marcy all seated at a booth. “Hmm…” I hummed while moving over to the booth. “Howdy.” I said to the three. “How are you three doing today?” "Hey King, doing well." Marcy said. "Been questing mostly." Zeke said. "Joined a guild." Diane added. “That’s good.” I nodded. “I’ve been busy myself, you know, saving the world, having a new life as a Cooper, you know, the usual.” "Neat. So what's up?" Marcy asked. “Eh, nothing much. Just wanted to check up on you three to see how you were doing.” I said honestly. "Mostly making our own lives. Finding something to do outside the castle and inside. I work with Heart in dealing with the Scouters paperwork." Zeke said. "I oversee fundings for schools and make sure equipment is updated as needed." Marcy said. "I work in the Conversions Lab." Diane said. “Sounds about right.” I nodded. “I’m...a little surprised none of you had an identity crisis here...especially Diane since she was the more...aggressive of you three.” "Eh." Zeke shrugged. "Meh." Marcy said. "I'll never live that down…" Diane sighed. “But you're doing your best to fix it.” I said honestly. “And that’s what matters.” "So all this aside, wanna join? In the drinking we mean." Zeke said. "We got done with a quest and each time we come here for a drink." “Hmm…” I hummed while looking around the bar, only to find a piano on a stage just sitting there waiting. “There’s a piano here?” I asked curiously. "There's a piano everywhere for anyone to use." Zeke said with a Chuckle. “Alright.” I nodded. “Just making sure.” I said while thinking about if I should take that piano to spin. "So, anything you wanna talk about?" Diane asked. "Well...how's life been?" I asked curiously. "Pretty good all things considered. Been playing with Zeke's new body a lot~" Marcy cooed, making Zeke blush. "Been debating going Naga myself." "Sounds about right." I nodded. "Being another race does help give you a new perspective on things." "Sounds like. So, when was the last time you were human or a different race?" Diane asked. "Well I'm currently a Raccoon named Kite Cooper going through." I said honestly. "True, but what about when you were ---? Right, you traded that name. Well, you know what I mean." "Uh...when I was testing out my chameleon ability? I turned into a woman and was just hanging out on Lilo and Stitches Earth...then found a literal island sized Leviathan heartless and dealt with some...unwanted company." I said simply. "Huh. Weird." "So what do you do in your free time?" Zeke asked. “What is this ‘free time’ you speaketh of?” I asked in a ye olden times accent. "Har har." Diane said. "So, what are you doing right now?" "A lot of things." I shrugged. "Hanging out with family, doing important stuff. The usual." "Ever been questing?" Marcy asked. "I'm currently on a quest that's been...kind of going nowhere." I said. "And that's hunting Void Key down." "Yeah that would go nowhere." Zeke said. "Isn't there anyone from the void you can ask about it? Like Hollow or something?" Marcy asked. “I have been hunting down Hollow and John for a while and still haven’t found those fuckers yet…” I grumbled. “But...maybe there are two that can help that I’m...bringing back.” "Nothing like using a little Necromancy to get information." "That was the original plan, but then...things came up." I sighed out. "In any case that can work, or, maybe something else?" Zeke offered. “Depending on how things go, I won’t have to bother with Necromancy.” I said honestly. “Cause the way Cript brings people back is a lot easier, and I can do what he does a fuck lot easier.” "Hm. Well, good luck with that then." I would have to get to that later. Right now I am enjoying a spa trip, the same spa I went with Rarity too. I am enjoying a hot milk bath up to my neck. “Still as good as the first time.” I said warmly. I sat in the hot liquid happily as soothing violin music played around me, making me wanna sleep but I stayed awake. Once that was done I got out and enjoyed the steam room, private so I could be nude and enjoy the silence. “Nothing like a nice normal day at the spa to ignore all the bullshit in life.” I sighed out happily, happy to just let my anthro body be free of any clothing. “I just...slightly hope my exhibition fetish isn’t a medical concern…” I muttered worriedly, having done some research into that and it could be seen as a mental disorder. While I was here I decided to watch some videos off my Assistant. Mostly some anime and other things I've been wanting to watch. “So many anime’s, so little time…” I muttered. “All of which I could literally visit as they are basically in my backyard…” As I was watching them I saw the door open, nearly panicking til I saw it was Celestia, Cript's, walk in. "Hey there." She said, wrapped in a towel as she took a seat near me. "I heard you were here, figured you'd like some company." “Well…” I said while covering myself up nervously. "Please, nudity is nothing new to me." Celestia chuckled. "So, how's the photoshoot going?" “Oh you know, the usual.” I shrugged. “More people going crazy over me, a new phrase cropping up since I became this is ‘She’s Thick with a capital Damn’.” I chuckled. “One of the funnier responses but aptly put.” "Heh. Enjoying the attention then?" “I mean, yes…” I said nervously. “Especially when I...have to hide things constantly.” I blushed a bit. “Maybe I’m enjoying it too much…” "There is always a fine line, but sometimes urges and desires pop up and are difficult to suppress. The best advice I can give is to indulge them in a way that is healthy." “Well...there is that one place Heart booked for me.” I said honestly. “Hopefully I won’t be...too enthusiastic with it.” "The first time or two you will, there's no sugar coating that, but trust me, it curbs the desires and urges, and then it becomes a regular thing, be it once a day or week or as needed to keep the urges from strongly affecting your daily life or thoughts." “Alright.” I nodded. “Let’s hope for the best I suppose.” "That aside, how has the spa been for you? I typically only ever come for these steams. You?" “It is wonderful, even though I’ve only been here once before, it’s just as good as the first time.” I said warmly. "It does have excellent service. It's the best spa in creation." “Sounds about right.” I nodded. "So, if it's not too personal, what was it like? Going from male to suddenly being both and now the face of a kingdom and one of the many faces of beauty in the royals?" “Really fucking weird to be honest.” I said honestly. “Like...hoo boy, that was all just insane.” "Sounds about right. But you got used to it then embraced it huh?" “I was certainly embracing something that’s for sure.” I chuckled while giving my top breasts a little squeeze. "Sounds like a dream come true then." Celestia said with a laugh. "How is having eight breasts though? Must be different to move." “It was different for a bit, but I got used to it.” I said honestly. “The only few things that made me confused, and still confused, is how women over complicate crap when it comes to personal hygiene. I understand to a point that you need maybe one or two extra things, but not a literal laundry list of things.” "Most of it is either about appearance or other health related things. Though makeup while optional when done right can makes you look so much better. Even just lipstick can do wonders." “I’ve never been a fan of make up.” I said honestly. “Doesn’t really mix well with fur, and even the one’s that are made for fur...still don’t work for me.” "Not even lipstick?" “Nah, honestly it feels like extremely picky chapstick if you get what I mean.” "Huh. Well, what about things like hair dye, bows or clips?" “Never thought of changing it when my hair looks fine, bows I’ve actually tried in some of my shoots, some were fine others were not good, and clips are the same like bows just a bit less finicky.” "Hm. So, your opinion on this new trend, your little eating challenge started?" “Oh that was everyone overreacting about that.” I said simply. “I didn’t do it for some ‘new trend’, I did it cause I was bored and hungry.” I shrugged. “They questioned how I could eat that much, I gave them an answer, and magically I’m the poster girl for something I don’t like.” "That's the internet and people's mass assumptions. Can't exactly change that. So, gonna ignore it then?" “I sadly can’t cause when people start asking me about it I’ll either have to be blunt with them or lie about it.” I said honestly. "Or maybe see if you can get them to place it onto someone, or a group of others in the royals who would better to embrace/embody it? I can think of six off the top of my head, and knowing Lyra she likely gathered a lot from worlds where Vore was always a thing. It's every fetish with that mare, well, almost, there's like a small handful even she gives a hard no to." “I know, I’ll try to find the right one for that.” I said honestly. “Hopefully it doesn’t spiral out of control where people start guessing what fetishes we like.” "They already are, I've seen the tweets, posts and subreddits. Not that I'll ever confirm it but they did get all mine already… and gave me a few to experiment with." “Oh god…” I muttered while deciding to check what fetishes people thought I was in. "Lot of nice fanart though. Range from wholesome to pornographic. But all nice all in all." “Sounds about right.” I said honestly. “That’s what fan artists do.” "So, your opinion on nerfed replicas of your weapons on the market?" “Within massive reason that I have been overseeing personally.” I said simply. “I have also been making sure this shit doesn’t go to the black market or other unwanted places with things of my own design.” I said simply. “Even if they are nerfed, they are still very powerful weapons.” Celestia laughed. "You sound like Cript. I wasn't part of the family at the time but I was told the day Cript found out one of his weapons was reverse engineered and modified for the black market, he completely lost it. Used some of the most powerful seeking spells to find sellers and manufacturers, destroyed as many as he could find and the culprits were scared so bad they were sent to asylum prisons." “And how did that work out?” I asked curiously. "Sadly the modified design is still out there, some others have as well. Even with powerful protection spells and spells that destroy the weapon if tampered or examined, somehow so far six weapons have black market modified designs." “We’re talking about Cripts stuff and not mine right?” I asked nervously. "Yes, but my point is the stronger the weapon the more they'll wanna make their own. We know that Vilgax has weapons in the shape of yours, but even with these nerfed designs, if they learn how they are made it will be bad, hence all the safety measures. But don't expect them to never get put on the black market. It takes one flaw for them to extort and learn what they want." “Why do you think I’m overseeing it?” I asked honestly. “I have spent countless amount of time in a demi plane where time doesn’t exist to test and retest every known method from the black market, some that are completely unknown to most, and even some I’ve come up with.” I said. “There’s a lot of things about me, but skipping details is not something I do, whether it’s for something tiny like a picnic, or for plot reasons.” "Even so, nothing is perfect." “I know.” I sighed out. “But...it’s better than nothing.” "Hm. Ever try the other weapons Cript has made?" “Sadly no, I’ve been very busy with the fifteen weapons I have right now.” I said honestly. "Heh, fair enough." Celestia stayed in the steam room while I went to the next part of my spa, a massage. It felt great, got the knots out and relaxed me a lot. With that done I was done with the spa for now and left to my own personal place. Back to the bedrooms, with Heart. I was still cuddled in their chest and wrapped in their body coils. “This is nice.” I hummed happily. "Yeah." Heart said, cuddling me tightly. "It's nice to enjoy these simple pleasures." “Yeah.” I nodded. “The simple things are great.” "Had fun at the spa?" “Yes I did.” I nodded. “It’s good to know I’m going to the best spa in reality.” "Is that really so enjoyable?" "A bit yes." I said honestly. "Huh. What's your favorite treatment?" “Honestly, the milk bath is nice.” I said honestly. "Milk bath huh? What kind of milk?" “I think the milk is actually breast milk from a dire wolf, I know the consistency, mixed with oils and minerals to help soothe the body.” I said honestly. "Huh. Neat. Wonder what other treatments they have?" Heart pondered, pulling up a list of all the spa offers on a list. "Woah that's a lot." “Yes, that’s kind of why you didn’t see me for like...four days the first time I went.” I said honestly. "Heh. Surprised you and Rarity don't keep clones there full time. Hey, is that baby me still in your stomach by the way?" “Yes, you never left.” I said honestly. "Huh… I wanna ask something but… it might be weird. I dunno." “What’s stopped you before?” I asked honestly. "Heh… well, you know how I don't exactly have… many fond memories from my childhood. I've always wanted to be normal and a large part of me still does. I accepted I can never be normal but I still wanna know what that "normal" is like. So… I was thinking, think you and Eclipsa, or Ophelia and Future Eclipsa, think we named her Grey, could… raise me?" “Of course.” I said happily. “I would love to give you a normal childhood, and so would the others.” I said honestly. "I know but… I don't want to remember who I am while having it. I want it to be blank. No memories, no powers, just…. Normal I guess. Is that selfish or wrong?" “I mean, that would be the Admin Games right there.” I said honestly. "The what?" “I know I told you about Kite Cooper right? The new life I’m in?” I asked. “I thought I told you about it…” "Yeah. You did but I didn't know it had a name, you mostly just went 'I'm a Cooper!' then binge played the Sly Cooper games for a solid two days." “I did not.” I frowned. "Kinda did." Heart said with a laugh. "So, think the Admin Game is a good idea for this?" “I don’t know, you might have to ask Cript about the finer details.” I said honestly. "Well, let's go then." "Actually yeah, that's completely possible and even safer." Cript said, Heart, Eclipsa and I in their office. "It's as simple as making a pocket reality, make a world and all that, populate it and build it how you'd like then submit the paperwork via mail to the Time Walkers and you three will be off." Cript said. “Sounds...simple enough.” I said honestly. "Sounds fun." Eclipsa said. “So, a whole lot of paperwork...just what we needed.” I grumbled. "Actually I can handle the paperwork, you three just make the world." Cript said. “Alright...so while you deal with the easy annoying stuff, we have to do the hard part.” I said honestly. "Is there anything you won't complain about?" Heart asked. “No, and you don’t want to know how long my complaint list is.” I said simply. Heart and Eclipsa laughed. Once they stopped Heart flowed out some code and made a small snow globe of sorts, inside a tiny planet, moon and sun. "Now then, what should be on it?" “Do you want the basic stuff or something special?” I asked curiously. "Well, special I guess." Heart said. "Culture wise how about a mix between my race world and King's, both my race if Equestrian Nagas, King's Dire Wolves, so A, odds are you won't be the only Floof Noodle, and B, King and I won't stick out like a sore thumb." Eclipsa said. “Sounds about right.” I nodded. “Works for me.” "Same. What about you two, powers or?" Heart asked. "Probably no powers other than what's normal for us race wise." Eclipsa said.id. “Alright, sounds simple enough.” I said honestly. “So what’s going to be the natural world like?” "Hmm…" Cript pondered. "Keeping historical events in check and with merging both your worlds into one I have a fairly good idea what it will be like. May I?" “Sure.” I said honestly. “Have at it.” Cript nodded, flowing out a bit of code from his hand into the snow globe. "There we go, a good mix of your two worlds' histories. You three ready?" “As ready as we’ll ever be.” I said honestly. "This is gonna be so cool!" Eclipsa cheered. "Well, second round of childhood here I come." Heart said. This world was… amazing. History wise things played out like this. Long ago each race held their own kingdom. Griffons, Equestrian Nagas, Dire Wolves, etc, they all coexisted fairly well, but threats of both worlds loomed, the giant wasp like bugs from my world, Sombra, Discord, ect from Eclipsa's. A massive war broke out, kingdoms fell and many lives were lost, kingdoms fell and a few of the original races even went extinct. When the battles were done all survivors of the war went to the only two kingdoms still standing, The Dire Wolf, and the Equestrian. Both kingdoms merged and became known as Di Questria. One kingdom and the only left in the world two thousand years later. While the world healed and life across the land flourished again, some threats still lingered. Those damn wasps are around but nearing extinction, Sombra lives and works as the wasps dark mage, while they don't have a kingdom, it's a kingdom of evil, their hive. Celestia still rules, alongside Luna and all that including a queen chosen by the dire wolves. A kingdom of three Queens. Oh yeah, everyone here is a Herm also, so yeah, there's that. That aside, Eclipsa and I live out in a nice house, half magical grown tree, half cave, and she's pregnant with Heart so we can better learn this world before raising them in it. I work as a Hunter, catching prey and selling the extra on the market, and Eclipsa makes potions. “What a simple life.” I said warmly while enjoying the clear sky and warm day. "I know. It's so nice." Eclipsa said, mixing a potion up. "I haven't done this in a while but it's still simple. Heh, gonna give birth to Heart in nine months, this is cool." “Yes it is.” I said as I raised a bow up into the air and pulled an arrow back. “So what kind of food do you want? Cause I’m seeing a pretty big bird up there.” I said, the bird I was talking about was from my world, practically a chicken that can fly as high as a hawk but five times the size. "Hmm. Fried or raw?" Eclipsa asked. “Well do you want it fried or raw? Cause I gotta shoot the thing down first.” I brought up as I fired, the arrow flying straight up into the air as it hit the thing square in the head as it dropped down a little bit away from where we were. "Heh. Looks like enough to try both." Nine Months Later. In the past nine months Eclipsa and I have pretty much fully adapted to this world, made friends and made this place home. Finally the time came for Heart to be brought into this world, for a proper childhood and life. Eclipsa's labor was a hard one, typically her race has no less than three, any less and it takes a lot more for her body to push out such a small thing. Finally though, after seven hours of labor, well into the late night, Heart was born. So small and so adorable. “If it wasn’t for the little tail poking out, you’d think he was a Tribble.” I chuckled as Heart looked more like a living ball of fluff with a tiny naga tail poking out of all his floof. "They're perfect." Eclipsa said, smiling as they held our little fluff ball. “Our little fluff ball.” I said warmly while gently brushing Heart’s fur with a finger, wondering if we were holding them the right way. We were as a tiny little hand peaked out of the fur and grabbed onto my finger. Once everything at the hospital was done we took Heart home, the little Floof sleeping soundly. Trying to put them in their crib made them cry out, so Eclipsa or I had to sleep with them against us at all times, not that we minded. “This is nice…” I muttered to myself gently as I took watch over Heart. The little Floof Noodle happily and innocently snuggled in my warm chest fluff. Normally Eclipsa watches over them and swallows them as the norm for a Floof Noodle infant. I while am able to, prefer not, so I stuff them in the next warmest place, my chest Floof. Eclipsa was out at the moment to sell some potions so it was just me and the baby in the bed. “This is nice…” I said warmly. “Tending to my new child...what am I going to start teaching you when you grow up? Hunting? Gathering? God I wish there was video games here so I can teach you about that.’ I muttered. Baby Heart didn't reply, aside from a soft steady breathing. “I’ll have to talk to Eclipsa about this...but let’s hope for the best my little bundle of fluff.” I gently nuzzled the floof ball that is Heart, making sure to take pictures and making doubly sure Heart saw them when they were older. As I took pictures of my sleeping child it allowed enough time to pass for Eclipsa to come back. "Awh, how cute." She said as she saw me basically taking selfies with baby Heart snuggled in my chest fluff. “Heart is adorable.” I said gently. “And I’m already taking pictures to give Heart to see how flustered they become.” I chuckled. "Heh. Nice. So, while I was out I got some spices and fruits." “Cool.” I nodded with a smile. “What kind of spices and fruits?” "Spices we needed mostly, pepper, Harley salt. And some fruits I think you'll love." Eclipsa said as she pulled out what looked like raw meat, but I knew better, these are what grows off that special tree I helped grow and bring back to life in my home world. “Ah yes, the wonders of learning to tend to plants and the Meat Tree.” I chuckled. “See, I told you meat does grow on trees.” "Oh hush you." Eclipsa said with a chuckle. She rapidly put everything away before scooping Heart out of my cleavage. "There's Mama's little Noodle! Best head back inside now." With that Eclipsa swallowed Heart, stowing them safely inside her. "The first month a Floof Noodle baby should be inside the mama or spouse to keep their body temperature from dropping too low before they grow to maintain it themselves." “Hey, my fur is warm enough.” I huffed. “Just be glad I didn’t hide them "I know, but still." Eclipsa said. "So, what should be for dinner? Or are you gonna see what's on the plains to hunt Tonight?" “Got an idea for dinner?” I asked curiously. "I'm thinking something with pasta." “Sounds good with me.” I nodded. “So, about raising little Heart there, what should we do to raise them? Cause I’m trying to decide if I should teach them to hunt, gather, or start playing games, either cards or video games.” "Heh, maybe preschool?" Eclipsa offered. “I mean...Heart will need a social life yes…” I said nervously. "King… are you worried about sending Heart to preschool?" Eclipsa asked, slithering up to me with a Sly yet confident smile. “I mean...I’ve been antisocial most of my life.” I said honestly. “I just...don’t know if they’ll be happy ya know?” "I'm sure they will King, tell you what, first day of Preschool you go in with Heart just to be sure, alright?" “Alright, I will.” I nodded. “I’d rather not have them be unhappy...even if they would need the social interactions.” "You worry too much." Eclipsa said, giving me a quick kiss. "Come on then, help me make dinner, and maybe we can fool around a bit if we have the time~" “Alright, I have been watching a bit too much Food Wars so...I might over do it.” I said sheepishly. "Hun, I'm a Naga, and you are a Den Mother Dire Wolf, lots of food is all we eat." “I know I know.” I chuckled. I got up and began helping Eclipsa cook, the pasta was a lot. I made it in our biggest pot and it was delicious. Eclipsa took Heart out to feed real fast. Floof noodles can't eat solid foods til they are four months, then they can start swallowing food while learning to chew after their teeth come in at eight months. “It’s gonna be a little sad when we stop breast feeding them.” I said honestly. “Den mother instincts do be like that sometimes.” "Heh, well, Heart does have siblings from earth. One weird one and one trying to kill us, so, why not give them siblings here? They'd go from youngest child to oldest." Eclipsa said, craddeling the little Floof Noodle feeding from her teat. “That would be nice.” I said warmly. “But...his one brother, I haven’t seen in a while...hope he’s doing okay, and his ‘other brother’ was a young Vincent pretending to be the fucker.” I rolled my eyes. “But let’s get past that, and you want to have some fun Eclipsa?” "When Heart is sound asleep and snuggled away in my belly, sure." Eclipsa said with a nod. "Maybe if we get a sitter we can work on giving Heart siblings, till then, hand and boob jobs mostly." “Sounds simple enough, and nice.” I said warmly. “I’ve been getting better with the girls here.” I said while smooshing all my boobs together. "My dick will be the judge of that." Eclipsa said with a laugh. “Is that a challenge?” I asked with a seductive grin. "Normally, yes, but can't, might get carried away and make Heart fussy inside the tummy, and a fussy baby in the tummy is not fun." “I can imagine.” I said honestly. “A fussy baby in general is always no fun.” "You wanna feed them for a bit, I wanna take a shower and Heart doesn't like being inside there while I shower." “Sure.” I said simply. “I would love to breastfeed them.” Eclipsa gently took Heart off her nipple, the little baby about to get fussy as they wanted more. I quickly pulled my own out and once I had them in my arms let them latch on, and they began drinking away, calming down too. "Be back." Eclipsa said, slithering off to the bathroom. I always enjoyed the breast feeding part of being a herm the best. Makes me feel so important. “Don’t worry Heart, you’ll grow big and strong.” I muttered warmly, knowing Den Mother milk does wonders for making people of all ages stronger and healthier. As Eclipsa showered I just sat on the couch, letting Heart feed. Heart was finally full and I burped them before tucking them between the very breasts they drank from. “Good night my little floof noodle.” I whispered, gently kissing their forehead and putting a stuffed animal near them. After a while Eclipsa came out, taking Heart and swallowing them to bed. "Alright then, so, who gets to rub who first?" "Well, you had to deal with child birth for a Naga so...you get rubbed first I suppose." "Cool," Eclipsa said, slithering up onto the bed and letting her shaft rise, all thirteen inches of length and inch and a half of girth. "Let's see how those big bouncy things feel now~" Eclipsa cooed to me. “Oh trust me.” I said while letting my breasts free, the wonderful fluffy titties bouncing in freedom. “They’ll feel wonderful.” Happily I got on my knees, playing around with Eclipsa's cock first. I took the meaty shaft in my hands, stroking up and down with one hand while using the other to rub one of my tits against the tip. Eclipsa moaned in pleasure as I had my fun teasing. After a minute or so of that I got to work, slipping her shaft between my milk bags. My breasts swallowed her cock. Giggling with excitement I used my arms and hands to move my breasts up and down in a slow rhythmic motion. Eclipsa purred in delight, my soft fur and skin tingling every nerve on her dick as I moved my juggs up and down her shaft. “How do you like my tits?” I asked warmly, continuing to rub my fluffy breasts against her dick. "It's exotic~" Eclipsa purred, groping her own breasts in pleasure, slight and subtle hip thrusts into my breasts as she let a small trickle of pre leak out. “I’m glad you like it.” I giggled, gently licking the tip every time it poked out between my breasts. “And you...still taste like Paopu fruit…” I brought up. "Heh, if I do, I'll consider sucking myself off more often~" Eclipsa sighed hotly, not taking her hands and grabbing my top pair of juggs and squeezing them. “I’m just a little surprised you still taste like paopu fruits.” I said honestly while continuing my titjob. “How many do you eat?” "If I'm honest it's the majority of what I eat. They're just too darn delicious." She cooed, panting as I felt her now struggling to hold back. "I'm really close now King." I nodded as I started to squish my tits against Eclipsa’s cock to make it a tighter feel as I started to rub faster. “Come on, cum for me my sexy naga.” Moaning, Eclipsa jerked forward, her cum erupting from her cocks place between my breasts, painting my face white with thick fertile jizz that kept coming out, leaking down my breasts. When Eclipsa finally stopped I greedily cleaned her shaft off before using my magic to clean myself off. Eclipsa helped pull me up to my feet and planted a passionate kiss ripe with tongue play. When she broke it she sat me on the bed and slithered down to my own meat club. It was the same size as always, so I got to keep my special undies, special undies that Eclipsa tore off savagely, letting my eighteen inch tall, two and a half inch thick club of a cock out, my balls ready to me milked. "As much as I'd like to swallow it all, sadly I can't. You okay with me washing it off or when I jerk you off you wanna give me a tongue bath too~?" “You make it sound like I wasn’t going to to begin with.” I chuckled. "Good to know~" Eclipsa chuckled, starting me off with a hand job that she then used to slide my shaft between her breasts. My cock taking pleasure in Eclipsa having to force her breasts to wrap around it. Once it was though Eclipsa began the labor of going up and down my mighty shaft. While not as fluffy as mine her skin was so soft and silky, giving her pair their own exotic feel. “That feels nice.” I moaned. “Silky smooth and nicely soft.” "Girl's gotta take pride in their body." Eclipsa said, rapidly stroking my cock with her breasts, from tip to base in rapid motions that made a slapping noise each time she hit against the base and my balls “Believe me, I understand that a lot.” I moaned softly as my naga lover continued to work her magic. Many long minutes passed as Eclipsa massaged my cock with her breasts, pre of mine began leaking out, lubricating her efforts and making it easier for her to slide her milk juggs up and down. I began to have to hold back the pressure, it building up and I was ready to paint her white with cum. “I’m getting close…” I groaned, trying not to thrust my hips and throw Eclipsa off her groove. "Well, don't hold back on my account, soak me in cum then lick me clean and make me enjoy it~" Eclipsa purred. “If you insist.” I grunted as I came buckets worth all over Eclipsa, lovingly coating her in my hot thick baby batter. Once I was done I admired my handiwork, Eclipsa's entire torso and head was soaked in my cum. “Alright, time to get you cleaned up my love.” I said, even though this wasn’t really something for me, I did promise Eclipsa and I wanted to make her happy. So I did, cleaning her off almost like when I either clean the pups or eat ice cream. Each lick across her body seemed to excite her, and so after a minute or two, Eclipsa was cleaned off and we embraced each other in a naked cuddling. “Did you enjoy that Eclipsa?” I asked gently. "Very much. Can't wait to find a sitter so all that cum can go where it really belongs~" She cooed, kissing my snoot. “Oh yeah, it’s going to be a lot of fun.” I smiled. “But uh...just a quick forewarning, I’m not really into the...eating bit. I can try it if you want just...it can get a little weird.” "I won't ask why but I'll remember that. So, wanna nap or talk for a bit first?"?” “What do you want to talk about?” I asked curiously. "Well, while I was in town I saw an empty building for sale, thought maybe we can buy it, make a shop. You hunt enough to keep meat in stock and with some TLC and magic we can grow everything here needed to make a farm/alchemy garden. Could make a nice little general shop there, it's going for twenty thousand bits though." This world uses bits still, not rem, and twenty thousand is a lot. On average Eclipsa and I make about a hundred between her potions and my sales of meat and hide combined. Even now, we only got about a thousand saved up from being here nearly a year. “Hmm...I’ll have to look into some hunting contracts to make up some extra funds…” I started. "If you find rare ingredients bring them, potions I can make from those can easily go for a hundred or more bits." One Year Later A whole year has passed since Eclipsa and I came here, brought Heart into this world and have been living out beat lives. I worked my tail off hunting and doing contract work while getting Eclipsa those supplies she needed for potions. Thankfully though our hard work finally paid off and we got our Shop in town. It was a good two story shop, already fit with the basic shop requirements and thankfully we can use the upstairs part for storage. Heart was now a year old. Not really talking yet but eating and only ever went inside Eclipsa's stomach to sleep at night. The road from ouR house to the shop was a good two mile walk but all in all not bad. Eclipsa was setting up her potions on shelves while I salted and smoked meats in the smoker here to sell. Heart was on the floor, happily playing with a toy dire wolf we got for them before they were born. “Adorable.” I muttered with a smile at seeing Heart play with their toy. "The shop is really coming together." Eclipsa said, looking at all her neatly placed potions on the shelf. "Still needs a name." "Ba!" Heart said in baby babble, Eclipsa scooping them up. "Ba!" Eclipsa chuckled, nuzzling Heart. "Hopefully you can grow up working here when you're old enough Heart." “I’m sure they’ll want to go out hunting.” I said honestly. "Or brew potions, or tan hide, or whatever they want." Eclipsa said, holding Heart up. "Whatever they wanna do when they're older!" “They’ll be wonderful no matter what they do.” I said happily. “As long as it’s not illegal.” "Preferably." Eclipsa said with a laugh. With the shop mostly set up and a small stock at the ready Eclipsa opened up. "I'll stay here with Heart and run the place, you go check on the farm back home and hunt for some more stuff." “Alright.” I nodded. “I’ll be back soon, stay safe.” I said while heading off to the farm. The garden was lovely. Everything grew big and rich, sadly it was not quite ripe yet. Few more days though and not only will we always be in potatoes, carrots and cabbage but so will the store, as well as everything else growing. Hopefully we'll expand that as time passes. With everything here good I headed to the Forest for some easy hunts. A deer, some squirrels and a bear, but nothing too fancy. As I was walking I ran into a group, two Dire Wolves and an Equestrian Naga. "Hey there." The Naga said. She had an amber colored coat and scales with a lime green mane. The dire wolves looked a lot alike, only difference being one had patches of silver hair in their normal dark blue and the other had patches of brown. “Hello there.” I nodded. “How are you three doing today?” "Fine. You an adventurer too?" The Naga asked. “Well I’ve taken some hunting contracts.” I said honestly. “But besides that I’m just a humble hunter.” "Really? Could have fooled me with muscles like that. The name's Garv. These two are my friends since childhood, Huff and Puff. Huff is the brown spots, Puff is silver spots. Their parents had a real sense of humor." Garv said with a laugh. "I still hate dad for that." Puff said while rolling their eyes. "If you're just hunting you might wanna leave then. This area might be dangerous." Huff said. "Someone spotted one of Sombra's Necromantic abominations in this area." "Huff is right, you best take what ya got and head back to the town, thing is supposed to be huge assuming the witness wasn't exaggerating." “I’m sorry...but do either of you blow any houses down?” I asked the two dire wolves. "You wanna taste the business side of my war hammer?" Puff asked. "Please Puff that's hardly the word one-" Huff was saying before a demonic screech echoed from somewhere. "... You good with that bow, hunter?" Garv asked, taking out her sword while Puff readied her war hammer and Huff a battle axe. My ears twitched as I started to hear the tell tale rustling of the beast. “I’m okay at it.” I said while drawing an arrow and firing it straight towards the beast even if it was out of sight. The beast jumped out, the arrow getting knocked aside as we saw it. It was a centipede, body made from various sewn together corpses, various arms and legs made up it's many legs and a head of stitched together faces. It wrapped itself around the nearby tree about seven times and looked at us. "Good, cause your life depends on it." Garv said. The monster roared against, breaking the tree it was wrapped around and swinging it at us. Huff got hit but the rest of us dodged. The thing was fast for its size. I shot another arrow at it, the arrow hitting one of it's Frankenstein limbs but it seemed unaffected. "Look for the crystal, it's most likely on it's underside!" Garv said. "I'll give us a look." Puff said, speaking in the Dire Wolf magic tongue as her war hammer glowed. She slammed the ground, making the earth side up and fly the beast into the air. On its midsection, embedded into its rotting flesh was a pitch black pulsating crystal. "Shoot it now!" Garv said. “Got it.” I said while grabbing two arrows, this time with specially made armor piercing arrow tips as I fired them both at the black crystal with pinpoint accuracy. The beast flipped over mid air, my arrows going in but not deep enough to hit the crystal. It landed then began spraying out an acidic liquid that was setting fire to the trees and floor bush. "Shit, we need to put this out. Huff!" Garv called out. "On it." Huff said, getting up from where she landed and speaking in the Dire Wolf Magic tongue also. She breathed in, and blew out a freezing cold blast that put out the fire and froze a good chunk of the Forest like it was winter. The beast got stuck in the freeze and Garv took the chance to rush up and slice it in two. The upper half rushed back around and flung Garv back. "So long as that fucking Crystal is whole that thing will stay alive." She growled as she got up. “Well it’s a good thing being with a potion maker.” I said while opening up my bag that I sneakily made into a bag of holding, as I dipped an arrow into one of the many vials I had stored up and shot it at the monster near it’s crystal, it’s body starting to sizzle and decay as the acid in my arrow started to eat away at it’s flesh and bone to get the crystal in view. “I don’t know if this thing can regenerate, or if it can regenerate from acid, so hit the crystal now!” The three adventures quickly got up, throwing their weapons all at once, Puff's war hammer knocking the head half away, Huff's axe cutting into and pushing the lower half up, exposing the gem, and Garv's sword hitting the gem, shattering it on impact. The beast gave a sickly cry as it collapsed, desolving into a pile of bones ranging from wolf, Naga and various other creatures the thing was made from. "That was a nasty one." Huff said, gathering their weapons back. "You did good for just a Hunter." Garv said as she slithered up to me. "When you hunt big game you need to be good." I said honestly. "Gotta admit, that was some skill." Puff said. "So, does the hunter have a name?" Garv asked. “Names King.” I said politely. “Co-owner of the new Eclipse Alchemy and Hunting store.” I said, coming up with a name on the fly that sounds pretty bland the more I thought of it. "Store huh? Hmm. Care to make a partnership?" "That depends." I said. "What kind of partnership are we talking about?" "First let's collect our reward from the guard, then we can talk the finer details with your mate present." Puff grabbed the shards of the gem as proof of completion and we headed back. The guard gave us each two hundred bits as payment. With money in tow we headed to my shop, where Eclipsa was waiting with Heart coiled around her head like a hat. "Hey Hun, back so soon?" “Yeah, I did bring back food, and some customers.” I said while heading to the back to put down the few animals I managed to kill before the giant monster interrupted my hunt. "So you're King's mate? You have taste." Garv said. "Married, but thank you." Eclipsa said with a giggle. "In any case, about the partnership." Garv said with a deep breath. "As you know the guard can only do so much, mainly protect the town's and capital, that's where adventures come in, hired help who go out to deal with the issues out of the town's and even passed the kingdom's borders. As such ,Huff, Puff and I receive payments of all kinds. Money, food, weapons, ect." “Sounds about right.” I nodded “So what, you want to have this place be a guild hall or something adventurer’s go for supplies?” "Basically." “Well...what do you think Eclipsa?” I asked curiously. "Would help bring in business, travelers and adventures would carry more bits, could end up turning the town into a nice trade hub between here, the other towns and the capital." “Sounds about right.” I nodded. “So do we need to talk to someone higher up in the guilds about this?” "Town mayor maybe, Traders guild definitely." Puff said. "Need a Blacksmith for certain jobs, none in this town though." Huff added. “Alright...I’ll try to set up a meeting with the mayor and you try to set up a meeting with the traders guild.” I nodded., One Month Later The meetings with the mayor and the traders guild went over well, the shop was doing incredibly well, supply and stock were going about as fast or faster than we put it on shelves. We even had to hire help, which was nice, give Eclipsa more time at home to be with Heart and tend to the garden. Heart still wasn't talking, which I thought was odd. Should be talking something by now. “Hey, has Heart said anything yet?" I asked Eclipsa. "No, I'm getting worried about that. They should have been saying something already, at least basic sentences." Eclipsa said. “Yeah...that is worrying.” I said nervously. “Where’s Heart?” Eclipsa patted her tail half. "Napping." “Alright.” I nodded. “When they wake up we’ll try to see if they can talk for real.” Some hours after Eclipsa and I finished in the garden Heart woke up and came out, playing with their toys. “Hello Heart.” I said warmly to the floof noodle. “How are you doing?” They said nothing, but looked at me and smiled. “Can you talk?” I asked curiously. Again, they didn't say anything, but leaned forward, and was now nomming on my snoot. I pouted. “Okay you, I know your smarter than this.” I said while patting his head. "Maybe he just doesn't want to?" Eclipsa said. "I remember when I was little I didn't talk til I was two." “Alright.” I said while getting Heart off of my face. “Just seems a little weird…” I hummed as I cradled the adorable little floof noodle. "Give him time, I'm sure Heart will talk when they are ready. Oh, speaking off I've been meaning to tell you, Since Heart and Garv get along so well I asked her if she'd be able to watch over them a night or so and she said sure, so I was thinking maybe tonight or tomorrow we get to giving Heart those siblings we talked about giving them." “Oh that’s going to be very fun.” I chuckled. "Both of us this time though." “Okay okay.” I said as I gave Eclipsa a quick little nuzzle. "I'm sure Heart will love being the older sibling. Are we mama, papa, or what? There a word when you can be both? Are both?" “No idea, no idea, and no idea.” I shrugged. "Mama?" Eclipsa and I looked down at Heart. "Mama?" They said again, looking between us. "Oh now you speak." I chuckled. "But Mama's are here." "Where papa?" "I'm your papa." I said gently. "And your mama...Pama?" "Pama." They said, booping my nose. They then looked to Eclipsa. "Mapa?" Eclipsa laughed, taking Heart and giving them a kiss on the cheek. "Yup. Definitely Mapa." “Cool.” I nodded. “Figured out a proper name for this...even if it’s a little silly.” "Such a smart little baby~" Eclipsa cooed to Heart, who laughed happily as they hugged her. "So, tonight or tomorrow?" “When do you want to do it? Cause I can do it whenever you want.” I smiled. "Hmmm." Eclipsa said, looking at Heart for a while. "Tomorrow, tonight I wanna see how much Heart does know and if he knows what certain things are called." “Yes, cause we just learned they can talk, so let’s see how adorable they are at naming things.” I said warmly. And so, the rest of the day was filled with seeing things Heart knew names too or what they called them. Hilariously enough they call our breasts food, which isn't entirely wrong. They also know Book, spoon, bowl, water, bath, towel, and soup. They call Cheese Spoosh, dirt dlt, and soda sopa. Cute all and all, so Eclipsa and I spent the good chunk of the night teaching Heart the proper words for things and such. Night came and as it got late Heart got sleepy and fell asleep, Eclipsa and I wrapped around them protectively. “Well this was a productive and adorable day.” I whispered to Eclipsa warmly. "And many to come King. Heart can finally grow up with a child's wonder and innocence, and siblings who will look up to and adore them. Gonna be a really full house. Good thing we got the money to expand and improve the house." “Oh yeah.” I nodded. “And with our business being a guild hall we won’t be worried about losing business.” "Heart's, and all out to come children are gonna grow up loving this world. Part of me almost wishes it could be this way forever, just forget the war and stay here." I sighed out. “I wish the same…” "Let's enjoy this not just for Heart, but for us too." Eclipsa said as they began to nod off. “I’ll make sure…” I muttered. “I’ll make sure you’re all safe...no matter what…” Four Years later I was working the farm again. The fields are bigger now with the demand of both the shop and the family. Heart has twenty six siblings, all Floof noodles like them. The field work was- yipe! In a fast motion I was now on my back on the dirt. "Attack!" The childish voice yelled out as I was suddenly covered in the tiny bodies of my children. "Victory!" I laughed happily. “Oh no, you got me!” I said in a playful tone as I wrapped my arms around all the children. “How are you all doing?” "We're great!" Nasha, one of my litter, having her Pama's colors said. "We knocked you down!" Gyro, one of Eclipsa's and also with her colors said. "Told you it would work." And there they are, Heart. Now five and very smart, they fell in love with their siblings when they were born, taught them a lot and is basically their leader as the oldest. "That's good." I chuckled. "So, what do you all have for me besides giving me a hug?" "We're gonna dig a tunnel!" Karla said, one of mine also with my eyes and colors but Eclipsa's name. "We need shovels." Heart said. "Why are you going to dig a tunnel?" I asked curiously. "We're making a base!" Tyler said, one of Eclipsa's and had my exact eye color and fur colors. “Why are you building a base?” I asked curiously. “And why underground?” "We're making a guild!" Gyro said. "And Mapa said we can't use her stomachs." Heart added. “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “But all of you are too young to make a guild.” "Mapa said we can as long as you watch us." Tyler said. “Cause of course…” I muttered to myself. “Well, let’s go get some shovels.” I took the kids all in a massive wagon we had to get to carry the kids in so Eclipsa didn't have to hold them all inside her. Once in town I headed to the tools shop and bought all the spayds needed for the kids. Once back home I watched the kids work with surprising efficiency began digging a small hole into the dirt slowly taking form of a tunnel. “All of you are too young to be this coordinated…” I chuckled. "Kids! Love! Dinner!" Eclipsa called from the house. All at once the kids left in a stampede inside. With a laugh I followed and headed in too. Eclipsa fully dived into motherhood, hair long but up in a ponytail, a lovely pink and blue top that was long enough to cover some of her lower body half passed her anthro half. She looked happy, content, and relaxed. With all the kids in she greeted me with a kiss. "Hello love. Kids didn't bury themselves alive at any point?" “No they didn’t, they seemed rather coordinated for a bunch of four year olds.” I said honestly. "Heart kept them in line, then, good. Well, come on, we got Pokogo Bird Fried with mashed potatoes and white gravy." “Yay.” I cheered happily. “Thanks hun.” We sat down to eat at the table, the long long, long long long table. The house had changed a lot. The cave half had been dug so each of the kids now had a room. The tree half mostly became extra food storage, we go through food like crazy sometimes but that's life. Kids sometimes drink from us and while Heart gets embarrassed by it Eclipsa and I just share a laugh. When dinner was done and plates washed the kids went to their playroom I carved out of the cave for them, a room with toys, small books and the like. Basically an indoor playground. Eclipsa and I stay at the table still, enjoying the peace. "So, Heart is gonna start Kindergarten next month. You worried?" “Of course I am.” I said honestly. “Right now I’m worried he might get more kids to join his ‘guild’.” I said nervously. "Well, that's what we get for letting Huff, Puff and Garv tell them their adventure stories for bedtime stories." Eclipsa said with a laugh. "But I thought you wanted to teach Heart how to hunt and fight? Wouldn't wanting to be in a guild be the best chance for you to do that?" “He’s five.” I started. “I know I should be starting early while he’s up for learning so much but….” I sighed out. “I don’t want to do something to...hurt his childhood ya know?” "Spending time with you and I will be more than enough. I know they won't stay a child forever, but we should at least help them learn if what they want as a child will be what they want as an adult. Remember last month when he 'battled the ferocious racoon by the garbage'? You and I had a heart attack and Heart was just sitting there with a proud smile on his face for chasing it off with his toy sword." “Yes...I know that very well.” I said honestly. “And yes, we both nearly had a heart attack when he said that...I’m just glad he wasn’t hurt.” "They are our child, plus… not sure how much of… Nexus's programming might actually be there. And that scares me." “Honestly, we would have seen something about that by now.” I said simply. "Like being able to organize a small army of four year olds and take on a possibly rabid racoon without a scratch?" "I see your point." I said nervously. "I'll talk to Heart later about it… hopefully it's nothingbad happens…"." "Yeah. Hopefully." Later that Night while Eclipsa was checking on the alchemy herbs I sat with Heart to ask some questions. “Alright you, let’s start with...why the guild?” I asked curiously. “I know this is your idea Heart.” "I wanna fight monsters." They said simply and innocently. “Why do you want to fight monsters?” I asked curiously. "Cause you fight monsters." “Well, sometimes I do, but other times I do it so we have food.” I said honestly. “But is it just because you want to be like me?” "Auntcle Garv," That means Aunt/Uncle. Word for everything. Also fitting for a world of herms. "Told me you all met when you all fought a big ugly monster in the woods." “We did yes.” I nodded. "Auntcle Garv said that was the closest a monster ever got to town. I wanna keep those big uglies out of town." “And you're gathering your siblings to help you with this?” I asked curiously. "Yeah. Garv says a good guild has two things. Numbers and trust. We have both!" “I mean, that is true.” I said honestly. “But your five and your siblings are a year younger than you.” I said nervously. "We'll get bigger! And older!" “I know.” I said honestly. “But...looks like I’m gonna have to start training you all to fight.” I said honestly. "Yay!" Heart said, jumping up and hug-coiling around my head. "Thank you Pama!" “Your welcome Heart.” I said warmly while gently patting Heart’s head. "Do I get a bow?" “Maybe.” I said honestly. “We’ll see what you’re good with later on.” "Will Auntcles Huff and Puff be there?" “Unless they're busy.” I said honestly. “But I’ll see if they can come over.” "Can I get a pet?" Should have seen that one coming. Been begging for the last two years. “Not yet.” I said honestly. “We have to take care of you and your twenty plus siblings.” I said honestly. “And if you want to continue, go ask Mapa.” "Awh…" Seven Years Later I was nervous, standing against this tree just waiting was complete agon- Whoosh! Yipe! I moved, the arrow having hit the apple that rested on my head just a second ago. "Good job Heart." Garv said, they and Heart only thirty feet away, Heart with a bow. "Again!" Heart cheered. “Can you not again?” I asked with a frown. "Hey, kid's got skill." Garv said. Heart is twelve now, their siblings eleven and all are exploring various skills and such for their guild dream. “Was that before or after he kept hitting me accidentally?” I pouted, everyone knowing about the cartoonish amount of bandages I have on me because of that. "Hey, it's a new bow, gotta get used to it somehow." Garv said to Heart's defense. "Besides, if you had made that training dummy last week like I asked before we started this, we wouldn't have had to improvise." "Can I go see Mapa now?" Heart asked. "Stick to the road." Garv said as Heart was off. “I have been really busy.” I frowned. Garv giggled, and once they saw Heart was already a distance down the road, coiled their lower half up and sat on it. "Sit, I got some news." She said, patting to the empty patch of her own tail like it was a bench. “Alright, what do you got for me?” I asked while sitting down next to Garv. "In a few months Huff, Puff and I are gonna be heading out. Got a contract directly from the Queens themselves." "Sounds important." I said honestly. "What's your target?" "Not so much a target but a quest really." Garv sighed. "The Hornets and Sombra's abominations have been sighted lurking too close to our borders, the Queens want every able bodied soldier and Adventure there to fend off an expected invasion." "And yet I have a feeling there is a catch here." I said honestly. "Like it's a bit too obvious for a simple invasion." "Hard to tell, but… Here." Garv reached down her mouth, pulling out some slimy keys. She shook them off real quick. "In case they break through, the country sides here will be unsafe. I have a house in the capital, safest place to be. Head up there when I leave, pack the farm and family and relocate." “I’ll...I’ll talk with Eclipsa about this.” I said gently. ”Yeah there’s no way in hell I’m gonna let you all march to your deaths.” I thought to myself. Later that night though… "What powers do you have here King?! We're normal here, no powers no nothing, you join or try and attack first this army you'll die and join them!" Eclipsa yelled at me. “When did we agree to not have our powers in any capacity?” I asked. “I know we said something to Cript about seeming normal, but just being average people? I don’t remember that.” I said, honestly not remembering that tidbit. "I added it. We promised Heart to give them a normal, healthy childhood, and that would be kinda hard if their mom could turn her alchemy garden into forest and their father summon thirteen mystical overpowered weapons as well as armies of hollow bodied latex suit people." “Not...really?” I asked. “To be honest...you over thought that bit hard.” "Ironic given who I'm talking to." Eclipsa said, crossing her arms. "Look, I don't like this either, believe me, I'm in the same boat as you but you forget, in this place, you and I can die and what about the kids? Missing one or both parents because we have hero complexes?" “More like I’m confused on why you think we legit can’t have a normal life with powers.” I started. “And yes, thank you for explaining something I am fully aware of, and telling me something I wasn’t aware of since you apparently did it last minute.” I frowned. “So at which point do you honestly believe Heart will listen to us and drag all our kids along with him?” I asked bluntly. “Cause you know, him and all our kids were going to make a guild and have been, oh I don’t know, training to fight monsters for a good six plus years?” "They're kids, what kid doesn't want to be a knight and kill monsters? Look, Huff, Puff and Garv are amazing fighters, back home they'd be elites in the army. You've seen them take out a lot of big and nasty beasts. They'll be fine." “At the moment, I’m not scared about those three dying. At the moment, I’m scared about the literally tunnel system we gave our children.” I deadpanned. “And hey, guess what they're gonna try when they learn about this?” "They are kids! Look, we'll take Garv's advice, pack up and move to Canterlot, odds are they'll shift to scholar over adventure after a few years. We can make a new or move the shop and the mountains that Canterlot are built on are ripe with game for you to hunt, they breed way more than our races." “And those same kids could do exactly what I’ve been saying.” I frowned. “But whatever, we can go back and forth on this for way too long.” I rolled my eyes. “Preparing for the obvious? The fuck does that mean?” I muttered to myself as I headed off to talk to the kids about this. Eclipsa sat by the table, a heavy sigh. "First argument… heh, guess we are a normal couple now." As I left the room, my ears twitched and heard a slight movement. “You can come out Heart...I know you're there…” I sighed out. Heart slithered over, sadness in their eyes. “Why were you and Mapa fighting?” Heart asked worriedly. “We weren’t fighting Heart.” I said gently while kneeling down. “We were just...talking is all.” I said gently. “Come on, I need to talk to the others.” I said while gently picking up Heart and heading off to see the kids. “Are we leaving?” Heart asked worriedly. “Sadly that might be the case.” I sighed out. “But I’ll explain when we find your brothers and sisters okay?” (five minutes later) “What!?” One of the floof noodles said in shock. “Why are we leaving home?” “Cause it’s getting dangerous here.” I said honestly. “We can fight Pama! We’ve been training for years.” One of our daughters countered. “This is for adults.” I said sadly, not wanting to argue with my kids. “Why do we need to leave home?” Another child asked. “Aren’t the adventurer’s going to stop the bad guys?” “It’s...a little more complicated than that.” I sighed out. “But we can help. They need all the help they can get right?” Another brave child asked. “We know we can fight.” I teared up, seeing all my children so brave and ready to charge off, not wanting to crush their dreams of being hero’s but...not wanting to see them die because of our mistakes. “Listen, I’m sure you can still be adventurer’s, just...not right now okay? This is something not for kids.” I said while looking back at Heart. “Heart? What do you think?” One of his siblings asked. “You helped all of us be better, helped us know being hero’s is real.” I could tell Heart was thinking, conflicted given what they heard between Eclipsa and I just earlier and their siblings and their own dream of a guild of Adventures. "I… I uh…" “It’s alright Heart, just speak your mind.” I said softly. "I just… I don't want you two to fight…" “We won’t fight Heart.” I said while gently patting their head. “But what do you think?” "Well, we can still be Adventures even if we move." “That’s correct.” I nodded. “I’m sure there’s Adventurer Guilds up near Canterlot.” “Are you sure big brother?” One of his sisters asked. “We worked hard on our guild base…” “Will we ever be back?” Another child asked. “I’m sure we will…” I said gently. "Yeah. And we can dig it deeper and bigger!" Heart said, faking confidence but it was passable enough for his siblings. “Yay!” The children cheered. “Remember Heart...just because things change, doesn’t mean you should give up on your dreams.” I said gently. “I know it’s scary now, but with family...anything’s possible, okay?” Four Years Later That war was a shit show. After we moved to Canterlot and the kids enrolled in school, I was contacted by the royal guard to participate. Originally I was gonna decline, but a five grand contract isn't something you pass on, and to buy a new shop here, we needed every bit. Thankfully I was set up in a snipers tower a fair distance from the fight, me and the other archers were to take out stragglers that got past the initial combat zone. I downed sixty hornets and easily a hundred of those necromancy monsters of Sombra's. Sadly though, war always has losses on both sides. Huff and Puff… didn't make it. We keep their weapons above our fireplace as a reminder. Couldn't have a proper funeral, there weren't any bodies left when the fighting ended. Speaking of that, after the war ended I and many others were contracted with an extra two thousand bits to search for survivors on both sides, and it was an extra hundred bits per person alive. That was when I found Garv. Their right arm was grotesquely mutilated to the point pieces of it fell off when they moved, a good chunk of her tail was just as bad, and her eyes were sliced out. How she was alive was nothing less than a miracle. When we got home it had been about a year, a whole year away. Thankfully the house Garv gave us had plenty of space. Kids all had to share a room but they didn't mind, also had a personal well for water, despite the city having plumbing, and a yard large enough for Eclipsa to regrow her alchemy garden. With that over we tried to settle back into normalcy, Garv living with us given her newfound disabilities. She didn't mind, would talk the kids ears off about the battle and such. “Well...the kids still seem invested in the stories...even though Garv is putting a massive ‘heroism’ spin on it…” I said to Eclipsa. “So have the kids tried building their new base?” "They wanna wait to buy one. That or til they can head back to the farm and turn it into a base." Eclipsa said with a sigh. Thankfully the village and farm were spared in the fight, but it's now right next to the new borders, so it's still rather dangerous. "At least a good thousand of those damned bugs are dead." “Yeah…” I nodded. “Still searching for other survivors...I know the kids are happy to see Garv alive and their stories...but how are they holding up normally? I haven’t had much time with all the new contracts I’ve been getting.” "Adjusting to being one armed, they adjusted fast, blind, doing well. Despite all that Garv seems… calm, in a strange way." “Yeah, they seemed rather...okay with what happened when I found them.” I said nervously. “But how are the kids? How are they holding up from this?” "Heh, if anything they're more driven. Heart is spending days and nights at the libraries going through every text on the Hornets and Sombra and their monsters. Page, Tyler and Hannah are apprenticing with a Blacksmith. You can only guess where that will lead. Speaking of though, mind fetching Heart? They said they were going to the library again… last night and are still there." “That’s not good.” I started nervously. “But glad the kids didn’t give up their dreams...looks like we were both right here, they didn’t give up their dreams like I said, but are expanding to other things like you said.” "Just be sure to drag them back here. They're probably starving." “Let’s hope not.” I said honestly. “But I’ll be back.” I said while giving Eclipsa a quick peck on the cheek before heading off to the library. Canterlot was different from back home. Adapted for the Equine Nagas and Dire Wolves so it was a very healthy blend of nature and buildings. The library was made from a massive tree with stone and parts if it's trunk carved and set around it as for support and decoration. In here I found Heart at one of the desks. They've grown a lot into their body the past four years, not quite near their adult body but getting there. They've caught several eyes over the last two years but they never went on second dates. “Hey Heart.” I said to my child. “How are you doing?” "Hm?" Heart said, looking up and around. "Oh, hey Pama." They said, looking back down at their book. “What are you up to?” I asked curiously, looking over their shoulder to see what book they were reading. "Studying." They replied. The book they were reading was on anti Necromantic enchantments and potions. “Wanting to figure out how to fight against the bad guys?” I asked curiously. "Always. These ingredients are gonna be a bitch to find." “What kind of ingredients are you looking for?” I asked curiously. “Cause I’m sure Eclipsa might have some.” "Nope." Heart said with a sigh. "These ingredients I know Mapa has never had in their garden or stock. They only grow in the old Crystal Empire ruins. Assuming the cold didn't kill them all." “I have a feeling the ingredients are a little tougher than you might think.” I said honestly, looking over the ingredients just in case I know them, which I should since I have all of the Admin of Plants knowledge on plants. "Hopefully. Even just the roots would be enough to regrow them. Though that would take a lot of time and magic." “You’d be surprised how little it takes to spark growth in plants. Eclipsa has shown me quite a bit on plants.” I said, which was technically true. "Well, life finds a way as they say. Finding the ore for holy enchantments might be easier." “Considering some of the ore can be found underneath this very mountain, I’d have to agree.” I nodded. “Had to take some contracts for guarding some miners when certain prey got a little too close to the mines.” “Yeah but there is one one type that’s more effective, one that with luck could even fatally wound Sombra themself. Moonlight silver. Comes from only one place though.” Heart said, tapping an image of the moon in their book. “NIghtmare Moon’s armor was made from it but after she was defeated it was destroyed as a result so unless we can send a non alicorn to the moon safely, we aren’t getting any.” “I’ll try to talk to the princess about it.” I said honestly. “Considering all I’ve done to help the kingdom, I’m sure I can get an audience with them.” “Heh, if you say so. So, why are you here again?” “To bring you home.” I said honestly. “You’ve been here for an entire day, you must be hungry.” I said honestly. “I’m good, drank an illusion potion last night so my body will think I’m full, besides I still got…” Heart looked up at the clock, then eyes went wide with worry. “Oh fuck.” Needless to say a very hungry Naga will eat whatever, and whoever, is nearby. SO yeah, after I finally got out we also had to pay for all the food in the library’s snack center. When we got home Heart was still needing food and I needed a shower. “I still can’t believe you took an illusion potion to make sure you don’t eat.” Eclipsa said, Heart munching a whole roasted pig. With a hearty swallow Heart ate the entire pork. “I needed to study.” Heart said with a huff. “You need food and sleep, don’t make me swallow you like you swallowed King, cause I will also down a sleeping potion, then you and I can enjoy a nice two day nap.” “Okay okay Mapa I’ll go sleep.” Heart groaned, slithering off to their room. I got out of the shower, drying off my fur and and dressed in my favorite nightgown. A sky blue color with little wolves howling to a moon. "Alright...time to send a letter to Celestia and Luna." I muttered while heading to my study and starting to write down a letter in need of an audience. "Think you can get this Moon Silver?" Eclipsa asked. "I'll at least try talking to them first about this, hopefully they can either get it or tell me how to get it." I said honestly. “Hopefully.” Over the next few weeks after I sent that letter Heart kept trying to get out of the house to pull all nighters at the library to study. Eclipsa ended up having to ground them via swallowing them. Needless to say Heart was… more than a little pissed. Their siblings tried to argue for them outside of Eclipsa but… “Urp… Dang it kids…” Eclipsa groaned, her lower snake half bloated to the size of the bed as all our kids had to get swallowed. This was her limit, without powers or anything. All she could do was lay down on the livingroom floor, too swelled up to move at all, too heavy. “They got both our stubbornness…” She groaned. "Don't push yourself." I said gently. "Jeez, didn't expect the kids to be this upset about not letting Heart pull all nighters." “Welp, considering they are yours and my kids it’s like trying to keep you out of a library to study something important added on top of my determination, so this is the only way to keep them all in one place… Urp!” Eclipsa sighed as I got her a pillow. “Christ… Heh, haven’t had them all in there since they were so little.” "I know." I sighed out. "We're gonna need to talk with them about this. Cause while stubborn determination is one thinghing, starving yourself cause your focus is another.” “Yeah. Speaking of, almost lunch time. Mine cooking it… and dinner, I can’t move. I’ll have to send the kids food down, ugh. Not letting them out til they are at least a week well fed and rested in there.” “Looks like I’m gonna have to be doing...basically everything for a solid week.” I said sheepishly. “Thanks hun~” “Hooray for no sleep.” I slightly whined as I headed off to make lunch and dinner. “I hope Garv can help a bit...even if they are crippled as hell.” I muttered to myself. Garv helped as much they could, though she was slow with chopping and such. As this week went about the kids didn’t even bother struggling and mostly when it was real quiet we could hear them planning, talking, sharing notes. Meal times were harder on Eclipsa as she had to swallow their food for them, then them all eating swelled her up more. A lot of lotion and such was used to ease her. Eclipsa and I mostly just talked or cuddled on the floor where she was stuck. I didn’t mind much at all, it was kinda nice. “I remember when my Mapa or Pama would swallow me for grounding.” Garv said, seating on the couch nearby. “Longest they kept me in was three months. That was for setting the garden on fire.” “Well...that sounds about right.” I said honestly. “Why did you set the garden on fire?” “Heh, normal kids played with toys, read books or learned housework. I made arrowheads and would start fires cause I enjoyed camping. Better than having to get shoved in Mapa or Pama’s stomaches every night. Small house, and with thirty six siblings, our bedroom was just their bellies. Well, fire didn’t die off like normal one night and folks woke up to a burned garden and me somehow safe from it all.” “That’s...interesting.” I started. “You were perfectly fine even in a fire?” “I camped in this spot we keep empty and dirt to keep the baskets we’d throw the wheat and grapes into. Guess I was just curled up so much I didn’t get touched. As for how it spread… I always figured one of the wheat got blown too far down in the wind and caught the edge of my fire.” “Sounds...a tad convenient to be honest.” I said simply. “But at least your okay.” “Heh, yeah.” When the last day of their grounding came about Eclipsa finally tried to get off the floor. Garv and I helped her up, dragging her across to the bedroom and with a heavy lift and heave from Garv and I Eclipsa finally made it onto the bed. “Oh sweet bed. Sweet, sweet soft bed.” She said, sighing in relief. “Is it weird I wanna do this again?” “Kinda.” Garv said. “Heard lots of stories of Nagas or Floof Noodles who just live inside others' bellies cause it’s either cheap rent or it makes them feel safe. Or they’re minimalists.” “Also let’s not do that again.” I frowned. “Even with Garv’s help I have barely been getting sleep with doing my contract work, running the shop, tending the gardens and a lot of other things.” “Awh, wanna sleep soundly hun~” Eclipsa said, rubbing her already massive belly. “Always room for you~” “I’m good thanks.” I said while getting on the bed and cuddling up next to them. “I’d rather be right here in a soft bed cuddling with you.” “Awh, you killjoy.” Eclipsa pouted as she got relaxed. “I ain’t a killjoy.” I huffed. “Besides, you need a break from that.” “I’m a naga hun, taking a break from that is like you taking a break from hunting, or off screen grinding.” “Of course.” I said honestly. “But a break is a break.” “I’ll take a break from that when you take a break when you take a break from work in general.” Eclipsa said with a laugh as she began to nap. “That didn’t make sense…” I muttered as I started to fall asleep as well. Later that night, the kids grounding was over and Eclipsa was trying to let them out… Trying being the keyword. “Damn it.” Eclipsa said, trying to use either her tongue or push the kids up to no avail. “This is new…” “I think I might know what’s happening, but I gotta reach down. King, little help?” Garv asked, who was in the living room. “Anything to help the kids.” I said nervously. I brought Garv to Eclipsa’s side. “Alright, now I’m gonna shove my arm down there to feel around, if it’s what I think it’s no real issue.” Garv said, Eclipsa nodded and opened wide. Garv’s arm slid down and they felt around for about ten seconds or so. “Yup, I figured. Tied Pathway.” They said, taking their arm out. “Tied pathway?” Eclipsa asked. “Yeah we have multiple stomachs all linked via… I guess you can call them mini esophagus to a central chamber. Well when one belly gets too big and stuffed their center inside us can get turned slightly and that makes it hard to push out anyone inside. Or anything, depends.” “Alright, so how the hell do we fix this?” I asked nervously. “Well, we just gotta roll her to a side where the tube isn’t twisted.” “And which side is that?” I asked curiously. “Let’s see.” Garv said, their arm back down Eclipsa’s throat. “Hmm… To the left.” With thankfully less effort than it took roll Eclipsa than it took to get her on the bed. Thankfully it was the right way so she was now able to get the kids out. “Now go to your rooms…” Eclipsa said as they all listened. Once all the kids were out she began to cure her tail for a while. “Shit that made me stiff.” “I’ll go talk to the kids while you rest up alright?” I asked. "Fine fine." Eclipsa said, still coiling and uncoiling her tail. "Alright." I nodded while heading off to find the kids. "Kids? We need to talk." "About?" Tyler asked. "About your actions that caused you to get grounded." I said honestly. "And the point in going to make is, there is a difference between working hard, and overworking to the point of illness." I frowned. "It's good to work hard to help others, it's another to literally starve yourself studying, especially when it was on purpose starvation." "Hey lot, we're kettles. Guess what?" Heart said sarcastically, getting a laugh from their siblings. "You sure you're a good example of that Pama? Remember the Igabu hunt two years back?" “Do you know what ‘Persistence Hunting’ is?” I asked simply. “See, it’s one of the oldest, but still well known hunting strategies, where the hunter follow’s their prey for miles on end, tiring out their prey so they couldn’t run anymore. And when you have to hunt something that’s really sturdy and has a pretty good healing factor through evolution and magic I’d say Persistence Hunting is a good idea.” "Ugh, again with hunting history." Heart said with a roll of their eyes. “It’s to prove a point, Heart.” I frowned. “What I did was not over doing it, I was making sure I always had energy while my prey was running itself ragged, while you are trying to run yourself ragged and starve yourself, while Sombra is keeping his strength and making more monsters.” I explained. "Sombra gets their strength by killing us. Every life they take every soul they swallow down is someone suffering a fate worse than every level in hell at once! So long as Sombra and those Hornets live our world just like our people are headed for extinction." “And you starving yourself pulling all nighters is going to help?” I asked Heart simply. “Is any of you working yourselves to the bone, getting sick from overworking, is that helping anyone?” I asked my kids, looking at each child with a serious gaze. "At least we're learning how to kill these bastards. Most others our age just wanna join the guard to find a mate faster." “Nice way to ignore my question.” I said honestly. “I ask again, are you helping anyone by making yourselves sick from work?” I asked bluntly. “I’m not asking about ‘learning to kill’, and I’m especially not bringing up anyone else. I’m asking all of you if you think getting yourselves sick helps anyone.” They remained silent. Mostly just looking between each other while Heart kept a death glare eye contact at me. It felt… painful to see them look at me with… such anger. It wasn't just a parents' emotions I was feeling, what we are, they may not remember but I do…it hurts. I think this is the first time Heart has really, genuinely hurt me. "Whatever." They huffed, slithering off back to their room. I sighed out while looking at all the others. “Listen, I’m not doing this because I don’t want you to work or anything like that...I just don’t want you all getting sick, hurting yourselves because you feel like the world is on your shoulders.” I said gently. “There is a major difference between hard work and determination...and just hurting yourselves thinking you're doing what’s best...I should know...I’ve done it many times before I met your Mapa.” I sighed out sadly. “Do all of you understand?” They all nodded, not really wanting to talk given the prior awkward conversation. With that done I sighed, and headed back to Eclipsa who I immediately brought into a tight hug. "Something happen?" She asked me. “Heart being a teenager.” I sighed out. “But...even as I tried to tell him what he’s doing hurts him more than helps...all he did was look at me with such hatred…” I teared up. “It hurts to see him like that...not just as a parent…” "I can't even imagine." Eclipsa said, patting the side of my head. "I figured this life wouldn't be all sunshine and rainbows but… yikes." “But at least the other kids understood...hopefully...I should probably go check on Heart in a bit...make sure he didn’t sneak out or anything.” "Might be best." Eclipsa said. After five or so minutes I got up to check Heart's room. Not saying anything I opened the door. They were sitting at their desk. My inner parent was about to say something when… I heard him talking. "Yes I know that… Yes I know how hard it is to find." I was confused. No cellphones or anything close to that exist in this world. "Pama. Yes, a solid week inside Mapa. Whatever, just figure out your end of our deal, you get to stretch your… tail, and Sombra and those Hornets will die." It was then Heart turned their head a bit. My blood went cold at what I saw… their eyes… Psychopath. "What do you mean take a smell?" I left quickly at that. "King?" Eclipsa asked as I ran back into the bedroom. “So…” I said while my left eye turned into a Psychopath eye. “Guess who Heart’s talking to?” I said while tapping my left temple carefully. "No… no, how?" Eclipsa asked in a panic. “No idea...I can already feel the bastard in Heart.” I growled, one thing that I was glad about being half psychopath was being able to tell who was and wasn’t one, while my Humanity half kept the Psychopaths away from my mind and kept the pain away. “But they’re both talking about killing Sombra and the hornets...they just need those materials.” "Did they say anything else?" “Talked about being grounded, working the Pscyhopaths ‘end of the deal’ and...weirdly, ‘take a smell’...that was a little weird.” I said honestly. "My God… what kind of deal did they make? We have to stop this somehow." “I know we do…” I sighed out. “I...god, what would Heart think if I showed them this?” I asked while showing my Humanity and Psychopath eyes. "I dunno. This is really delicate… what… what if we find a way to have Heart suppress their Psychopath power." “I mean, currently they're talking to the rat bastard so...they’re already doing something right.” I said honestly. “But...what’s stopping Heart from doing shit like that to begin with? Cause he doesn’t have Humanity, I should know.” "Love. Cript told me before he discovered and obtained Humanity they used Love to suppress Psychopath, love is very similar to Humanity in its ability to fight them off. Remember back home Heart was getting to know all the others, and having sex with them." “I kind of thought it was because he was bored and even hornier than me.” I said honestly. "Well that too but it's a good… treatment, so to say. We can't be their mates here, despite I would love to blow their teenage body, we need to find a mate for them in this life and world… and I might have just the potion." “Oh yeah, I think I heard you talking about it one time. Teleports their ‘true love’ to them or something like that?” I asked curiously. "Yes. It will be a bit chaotic with a random Naga or Floof or Dire Wolf showing up in their bed but if it shuts that bloody fucker up then it's worth it. I have most but I need two more, two that only grow in the Queen's personal garden… think you can steal what I need?" “Even if you said I have no powers, the Cooper Techniques don’t count as ‘powers’.” I said simply. “I’ll head off tonight.” "Gonna use that Cooper Cane you had commissioned? Yes I know about that. You keep it wrapped up in the attic." “Of course.” I chuckled. “What would a Cooper be without their Cane?” "Gonna use your outfit too?" Eclipsa asked with a laugh. “You know me.” I chuckled. “Besides, I made sure my outfit wouldn’t give away who I am so there’s that.” "Head on off them, potion only works when both are asleep, so hurry before Heart falls asleep." “Alright.” I nodded while heading to the attic to get my gear and head off to the Queen’s gardens. After gathering all my gear and making sure I was prepped I snuck my way towards the Queen’s Gardens, which was a good ten minute rooftop running as I climbed up the castle walls, and into the castle proper. Now the funny thing about my experience is that I’ve dealt with modern day security systems, and while the Castle’s security isn’t anything to scoff at, it was so easy to sneak in and past all the guards I thought I was cheating for a bit. The guard rotations were easy to get past, the traps that were attached to warning bells were painfully obvious, and there were so many grapple points to hide during semi busy intersections in the castle, and with all that I waltzed into the Gardens without much issues. Now the gardens were actually a lot like original Equestria’s gardens, just with a lot more fauna and the like made for alchemy. While it did look pretty, I still had a time table to work with so I moved swiftly and quietly through the garden, snatching up one of the plants, the first one being a fern that was in the shape of a heart which I found pretty apt for what potion this is used for. Now the other one was a tad bit tricker given that the Queen of the Dire Wolves decided to take a little nightly stroll through the gardens, stopping by the second ingredient I needed to get, a flower that looked like it had a galaxy on each individual petal. ”Cause of course the queen is here...” I mentally grumbled while sneaking closer to the flower and queen, careful not to make any sounds or arouse suspicion. “Hmm?” The Queen hummed, her ear twitching as she felt the air subtly shift like someone was there. “Is someone there?” She asked while looking around carefully. ”Well...this is the queen after all.” I thought to myself as I used one of my Cooper Techniques to turn Invisible, as it wasn’t actually a magical ability given Bentley could do it and he was one of the group that didn’t fully produce magic naturally, he was able to use magic through a specific medium like his crossbow or cane, but not through himself. I mentally shook off that weird little mental tangent as I went back to watching the queen search around for me, knowing that someone was there but not being able to see them. “I can tell by the shift in the air you are around here.” She called out. “But without the guards being alerted, or the smell of blood, you either must be a skilled thief or a new monster Sombra made.” She said as she got up and prepared herself for combat. “Oh come now my Queen.” I said, giving a little tonal shift in my voice so it didn’t sound like me given I have actually talked to them before on contracts, sneaking behind her and taking one of the flowers. “I’m not some abomination that bastard Sombra makes, he ruins business.” “So a skilled thief it is.” The queen said while trying to find where the voice was originating. “And prey tell, what is it you are looking for? Money? Jewels? A hostage?” “Oh nothing like that.” I started, the Queen turning around just to see me with a slightly cheeky smile as I kissed the Queen expertly.I let my expert kiss linger for a good ten seconds before breaking it and smiling. “Just a humble kiss from a beautiful queen.” I said as I bolted off, the Queen so shocked at the sudden kiss “W-well…” The Queen blushed brightly, her tail wagging like mad as she saw me leaping up towards a spire and off into the distance. “That’s...wow…” She swooned. "So, mind telling me why the entirety of the royal guard is searching the streets for a thief who stole the Dire wolf Queens first kiss?" Eclipsa asked as I snuck in through the window. She didn't even look in my direction. But I could tell she was smiling. “Wait, first?” I blinked. “Uh, I mean, what do you mean? I totally don’t know what you're talking about.” I coughed to try and cover up my bullshit as I put the two plants near Eclipsa. “But I got you your plants, how’s Heart doing?” "Still awake. Not sure if I should be happy about that or not. And don't worry love, was gonna be taking those three into the family once Heart got their memories back. They set it for age twenty five. In any case, I need one more thing." Eclipsa said, taking the two plants from me. "A bit of Heart's hair. Care to snatch one while I make this?" “Sure...also jeez, another ten years of the queen hunting me down? Seems a bit rough...should I try to visit her just to make sure she doesn’t feel like it was a one and done thing?” "Teach me to sneak like that and we can both play with the Queens so when the time comes they will swoon into our arms oh so willingly and horney." “To be honest, this is going to be the first time I’m a thief stealing the heart of a queen...I kind of expected my time as Kite to happen first, but this is good practice.” I chuckled. "Gonna be fun. Now go get Heart's hair." Eclipsa said as she began mixing the potion. I slowly opened Heart's room door, they were still at their desk, writing something down. Slowly and invisible I reached out for a single strand. Suddenly Heart turned around, grabbing my snoot as my invisibility broke. "Pama?" They said confused, letting me go. "What… are you wearing?" “My Nightmare Night costume, remember?” I asked sheepishly. "... No, what are you? Some… sailor?" “No.” I said honestly. “More of a thief.” I said simply while plucking a strand of hair from Heart. “Just need this for Eclipsa, said she needed it for one of her new experiments.” "Mapa making a new potion? Please tell it's not a hair dye one again I still find pink strands when I shower." “But you looked adorable in pink.” I chuckled. “But don’t worry, it’s not another hair dye one I can promise you that.” "Good." Heart said with a sigh. "...Look, Pama… I know you keep my best interests at heart… but If I can't suffer through a day's worth of hunger, or a sleepless night, then how can I make it through a war? I remember you once telling me you and Garv didn't eat or sleep for three solid days and nights because of all the monsters and Hornets. If I can't push myself to that and further then how can I expect to kill Sombra and that Hornet Queen." “Because you don’t have to, or need to.” I started. “You overworking yourself only hurts you more than it helps you. Why me and Garv were able to do it is because we’re used to not eating due to our professions, you're still a teenager, you’re still growing, you shouldn’t have to starve yourself just to help us.” I said gently. “You’re doing the best you can without doing something like that, and your help is great…” I sighed out. "I'm not torturing myself for you, I need to prove to myself that I can overcome these challenges. If I can't then… then nothing will change. There used to be over two hundred and sixty three intelligent species on this planet. Now only the dire wolves, Equestrians and Floof Noodles like me are the three primary ones. All the others are either extinct or a generation from going extinct. How much longer til even our numbers begin to decline. The only reason we haven't is because of our birthing capabilities, but that alone can't save a race." “Okay, thank you for the history lesson that I already knew about.” I said. ”And thankfully this won’t mean anything after Eclipsa finishes that potion.” I thought to myself. “Listen, in war, you need to use your energy properly, not overwork yourself to the point you become a liability. You know that right?” "It's why I'm trying to learn that now so I'm not a liability in war." “There is no ‘learning’ it.” I frowned. “Just trying it is a stupid thing in general. But if Eclipsa’s right...then it won’t matter anymore.” I said honestly. “Also, sooner or later...we’re gonna need an important talk.” "What do you mean it won't matter anymore?"?” “It’s nothing.” I said while gently patting their head. “Just don’t overwork yourself okay?” "Following your example." Heart said with a laugh. “There is a difference.” I said, as I picked up Heart and gave them a quick hug before heading back to Eclipsa to give her Heart’s hair. "How'd it go?" Eclipsa asked, a small vial in her hand as I got back into the room. “He somehow spotted me even though I was both invisible and not making a sound, but he told me that the reason he’s trying to starve himself is because me and Garv did it once during the war.” "Well, given how many you were fighting, not much time to eat really." “Well he thinks he has to do the exact same thing to prove to himself that he’s good enough.” I frowned. “Which, to be honest, me and Garv did ‘eat’, we had to keep our energy somehow, just...bugs are not tasty.” "Well depends on type and how or if you cook them." Eclipsa said as she took the hair and placed it in the liquid within the vial. It changed color from clear to a hot pink. "Now to get them to drink it. Preferably without them knowing…" "Why not make them one of their favorite drinks?" I suggested. "Does any liquid dilute it or something?" "No, but it just needs to hide the flavor. It's extremely sweet." "So something stupidly bitter...I'd say coffee but I doubt that…" I frowned. "Actually… that might work. Heart's favorite is the Feathers Festive Frapachino from StarfishBucks." I still can't believe a multiverse copy brand of Starbucks exists here. "Well, off to buy Starbucks then." "Hurry up. Also get me a Caramel Moca on ice." "Cause of course you do." I chuckled while heading out to find an open starfishbucks. Finding an open one was easy, a walk and a few bits later I brought both drinks home. Eclipsa took hers off to the side and then grabbed Hearts, pouring the Potion in and mixing. "And I shall deliver." Eclipsa said as she went to Heart's room. "Alright." I nodded. "Let's hope this works…" Eclipsa and I didn't sleep much that night. Worried and waiting til morning, hopping this would work. As the sun came up… "Aaahhh!!" "Aaaaaahhhh!" Thunk! Crack! "Fuck!" Was what we all awoke too. “What the hell is going on here!?” I snapped while barging into Heart’s room. I saw… the last thing I was expecting… Sombra themselves, on the floor, horn broken, bleeding out from the wound, and Heart, as against the wall as they can be holding a slightly bloody stone Warhammer. “Huh...that...happened.” I started nervously. And the next two days were just as bizarre. With her horn broken Sombra was powerless. The guard came and arrested her, and the kingdom praised Heart for subduing Sombra… somehow. No one knows how or really cared. And so the crown rewarded Heart with… Sombra. Their horn completely removed, and male parts taken out, leaving just their vag and womb. She was Heart's slave now. Skin burned and tattooed in obedience runes to ensure they obeyed. Needless to say this was ... weird. And here we are. Us all on one end of the table and Sombra seating across the other end, clothes were basic cloth. "... Are they still there?" Garv asked. “Yes. They are still here.” I said. “Now...burning them with obedience runes is one thing...castrating might have been a little much.” I said nervously. "If wanted I am… Master's Broodmare and a Broodmare needs nothing if a penis and testicles." Sombra said, voice dripping in hatred and poison. I had to admit… Sombra was hot. Like… Christ, so hot… "I uh… just… how did you end up in my bed?" Heart asked. “Uh...should I explain it?” I asked Eclipsa nervously. "Please?" Eclipsa asked beggingly. "Alright." I started while blinking, showing my psychopath and Humanity eyes. "So to start, do you know who you are talking to Heart?" I asked simply. Needless to say everyone, even Sombra, jumped back…Save for Eclipsa. Okay, might have been a tad extreme to just drop that bomb without warning… “What the?” Heart asked. "I'm sorry for just dropping this on you all suddenly, but its kind of important." I said honestly. "So, why I needed your hair Heart, it was to make you a love potion, so you wouldn't go through a deal with your 'buddy'." I frowned. "The potion teleports your true love to you in your sleep...we just didn't expect it to be Sombra of all people." I said honestly. "And it was to stop your little...friend in your head Heart.” "... I uh… I need to process… all of this." Heart said, heading off to their room. After they did that Sombra got up. That made us all on edge, but they slithered over to Heart's room door, and sat outside it on their own tail. "Alright, so why do you think you were picked Sombra?" I asked the former wizard. "I do not know. What potion did you use exactly? You said love potion that teleports. What was the name?" They asked, not looking at us. "Distance No More." Eclipsa said. "Ah, one of Late Queen Cadence's final works. In that case the Potion worked as expected. You see, it's two main ingredients, the Starry Sky Rose and Sweet Desires Leaf when mixed not just find the drinkers love, but even if they know not one another, or like me, hold no such emotion in their heart, will be brought to them. In a way, it tells my future." "Well...they don't call her 'the princess of love' for nothing." I said honestly.estly. "How come the Queens didn't just kill you?" Tyler asked. "Simple, I'm an endangered, intelligent species." Sombra answered. "Bullshit." Tyler responded. "They're right." Eclipsa said with a sigh. "Sombra is equine yes, but like Pegusus, Unicorn and Earth Ponies, she's a variation. Umbrum. Shadow Equine. Born from darkness. Back well before the first war the Umbrum were prisoned under the crystal empire, Sombra was sent out using the power of all their race as an infant." "You know your history." Sombra said with a sigh. "Yes. And I failed in conquering the Crystal Empire. Twice. My people died off slowly, painfully. I was banished to the ether by the elements of harmony. Then the Hornets found one piece of me, part of my horn and revived me. They knew the fate and cruel death my people suffered, and offered me justice." "And by 'justice' you mean 'commit genocide on a planetary level'." I frowned. "After trying to enslave everyone under an iron fist twice." "The enslavement of the Crystal Equines was to ensure a lack of unwanted resistance when I was to free my people. As for world wide genocide, well, the Hornets planned everything, I just provided them the replaceable foot soldiers. Without me there they have no means to renew their pawns." "Are they afraid or something?" Eclipsa asked. "Deathly." “I’m sorry, but did you try talking to people instead of trying to take over?” I asked simply. “But good to know those bugs are now scared shitless. Either they’ll start to attack more frantically, or piss off.” "My people were like me, ripe with dark magic and necromancy. Much like how the Hornets wish to feast on the world, my people wanted to ensure it was home to only the undead and those who would embrace the darkness." "And you? Sounds like you grew up with us Equines, do you share that desire?" Eclipsa asked. "Honestly? I do not." “So then why did you help the Hornets if you didn’t want to do the obviously bad thing?” I asked curiously. "With my sins? Doubt I'd be given a second chance by anyone else." “You could have talked when you tried to take over the second time.” I frowned. "And say I wanted to free my people who wanted to raise the dead to rule the world? What sane person would even consider that?" “Rule the world? Hell no.” I shook my head. “But learned how to raise the dead enough for visitation with alive relatives, not only would they hold their own kingdom, but they would be seen not as monsters, but as a race that can help bridge the gap between life and death to give either some closure on lives that were lost too soon, or at least to give kind updates on how life is going.” I said simply "You know nothing if you think my people would have ever wanted a life like that." “I only know their history, that’s it.” I said simply. “But isn’t it surprising how I thought of a way for you all to live peacefully instead of doing something stupid?” Eclipsa lightly elbowed me, telling me to stop it as Sombra just sat there in thought. Over the next few days it did not get any easier having Sombra around. While Heart had them do the simple stuff, dishes, laundry, sweep, it was all just strange having them around. The few times they were outside someone was throwing rotten fruit or rocks at them. We understood why but that didn't make it any less wrong. The first thing we learned about Sombra was that, they don't sleep. Apparently sleep is optional for Umbrums. On top of that they can eat normal food but also safely digest rotten flesh, toxic plants, and full on poison and not get affected. Oddly though, or rather, not too oddly, Rock Salt and Silver do harm them, in context gives them almost acidic like burns. Sea salt and normal table salt don't do this to them however. Sombra didn't try anything, well, anything sexy like with Heart. If anything the two kept their slave and master relationship almost professionally. As professional as that kind of a relationship can be. "Okay you two, a literal love potion brought you two together. You could at least go on a date." I frowned at Sombra and Heart. Sombra didn't react, but Heart was just waving arms at her. "How can I go about dating… that?!" "Considering you already own me dating seems trivial." Sombra said. "You can treat them like a normal person for five seconds for a start." I said honestly. "And no, Stockholm Syndrome doesn't count."t." Heart face palmed while Sombra rolled their eyes. The next few weeks were more of the same stuff. Sombra kept distance either out of spite or not knowing what to do and Heart kept distance out of anger and awkwardness. Frankly Heart being a horny teen and Sombra being… stupidly hot, Eclipsa and I figured Heart and Sombra needed an edge to push them off the cliffs and into the pit of a proper relationship.. "So...Heart sees Sombra naked in the shower or something?" I asked Eclipsa. "Or too obvious and cliche?"." "I'm thinking more booze. But Heart still has the Ventrals alcohol tolerance and Sombra given their immunity to poison might not get drunk either… maybe a potion?" "Sounds about right. What do you have in mind?" I asked curiously. "Well, there is only one I can think of that will give immediate results but I'm not so sure about it." "What's the potion?" I asked curiously.ously. "Well… remember that episode where Twilight made her old toy doll magically desirable and it made everyone in town chase after it obsessively?" "Isn't that a bit excessive?" I asked. "But...what would the duration be?" I asked y.curiously. "Well, every other potion I can make using what this world has Heart and Sombra can break on Willpower alone. And it would last about six hours." “Alright.” I nodded. “Let’s hope this doesn’t get out of control…” Making the potion was easy. Getting Heart and Sombra to drink their halves of the potion was the part that took a bit of labor. Literally. With the other kids out and about with jobs or just messing around Eclipsa and I had some work for Heart and Sombra. Sombra helped Eclipsa with all the housework Eclipsa could find or make. While Heart helped me in the garden and even went hunting for a while. When it was all done Eclipsa gave us all a cup of ice cold sweet tea, spiking Heart's and Sombra's. We stood next to each other as Sombra and Heart drank their cups. About five seconds after they did, Heart's and Sombra's eyes glowed pink, the two then looked at one another with wide lusty smiles as they then embraced one another in a deep tongue filled sloppy make out while literally ripping their clothes off, groping one another wherever they could grab til Heart pinned Sombra on the ground and began pounding inside her cunt without restriction or worry as Sombra begged for more. "Well, that's hot." Eclipsa said, sipping her tea. “Will they remember all of this?” I asked curiously. “And will they be mad about us basically drugging them?” "Oh yeah." Eclipsa said with a nod. “Wonder how mad they’ll be when this ends…” I said nervously. “Cause...I mean we are basically drugging them just so they can stop this passive aggressive crap.” "Depends. How good you think that sex is?" “Well Heart is a horny as shit teen who’s finally getting their first time while Sombra might have a fuck ton of experience...so it evens out I suppose.” I shrugged. "That's a big IF on Sombra's end. So, wanna fuck in the room til they're done or just wanna keep watching?" “What are you feeling like?” I asked simply. "Dunno. Feeling horney but not all the way there just yet." At that moment Heart came, They and Sombra steamed in bliss as Heart then began shoving their… hey why is that bigger than back home?! Anyway They're having Sombra blow them now and Sombra is sucking it like air is coming from it… actually is she even breathing? Yeah, yeah she is. Alright then. “Okay yeah there gonna be here for a while…” I said. “Should we...move them to a room before the kids get back?” I asked nervously. "I mean, there is one other option that will hide them and really get me in the mood." “Oh boy.” I chuckled. “What do you have in mind?” "I swallow them, they'll just be screwing while in there and you and I can screw. Kids won't know and when the Potion wears off I can keep them in there all night so those two can talk things out." “Sounds about right.” I nodded. “Kills two birds with one stone.” "Besides, gives a chance to sneak a taste of Heart's cock." Eclipsa said, licking her lips. Eclipsa, given Sombra was still blowing Heart, started at Hearts head and went down. I saw she did sneak a taste of Heart's cock when passing over Sombra's head, who was still blowing Heart, and began getting Sombra down. With the both of them down and only the occasional bumps from their unfiltered love making appearing on her tail, Eclipsa grabbed me and led me to the bedroom. "Shall we?" “We shall.” I said with a warm smile. “Want more kids or keep it at this number?” I asked curiously. "Well, given Sombra is likely gonna get well knocked up, best give them a good example of how experienced Mama's do it~"” “Well we better get started.” I said lovingly. "Who gets to be bottom first though?" She asked as we reached the foot of the bed. “Hmm…” I hummed. “Who bottoms first indeed.” I said honestly. “You want to bottom first?” "I'd rather see how hard I can make your gorgeous juggs slap your face first if I may~" “You know they won’t.” I chuckled. “But if you insist.” I said while stripping down and getting on the bed. Eclipsa lifted her shirt off, ripping off her bra as I did the same to mine as I laid on my back, laid out exposed and spread open. My cock getting hard and rising as was hers. They took hold of my bottom squeezing firmly. With slow but firm force she slid the tip of her cock into my wet and ready cunt. "Just as soft and warm as always Hun." Eclipsa purred. “Always for the ones I love.” I said warmly. Taking hold of my legs Eclipsa began rapidly and rhythmic pounding into me, putting a lot of force into each thrust. Each movement made me clutch just ever so tighter and caused little spasmic jolts across my whole torso. Blissfully enjoying the rougher treatment I grabbed the head of our bedframe and forced myself just down enough for Eclipsa's thrusts to really hit those sweet spots hard as I clenched onto her cock, and tightened my grip on the bed frame to keep me in this spot for maximum pleasure. “Loving this Eclipsa?” I asked in between moans. "It gets better every time." Eclipsa huffed. She let go of my legs, pushing herself on top of me and groping my many breasts without pattern or restraint. Milk leaked out with every squeeze she gave me. She then wrapped her arms around me, kissing me with a powerful passion as she kept her rough thrusting up. I grabbed her back, feeling her soft smooth back and rear. While she doesn't have a typical ass her rear side is just as soft and squeezable as one. The two of us enjoyed the rough euphoria as Eclipsa cam, her hot jiz making my cunt squirt in bliss of relief as every drop was pumped into my needy womb. I moaned loudly, happily milking Eclipsa for all they were worth. “I can agree...it feels better every time.” Eclipsa gave me another kiss before flipping me on top and her on bottom. She pulled out with an audible sloppy pop. "Care to give me the same treatment?" “Oh you know it.” I said while prodding my dick against Eclipsa’s pussy. “So just be rough and strong?” I asked, just wanting to make sure that’s what she wanted. "Make me scream love." She purred. "You said so." I growled as I grabbed a hold of her hips and thrust into her waiting cunt strongly, ready to make my Naga scream.ream. Eclipsa purred as I pounded her pussy, her soft wet rubbery cooch clenching and sucking my cock with each thrust. She squirted a lot, my dick filling and stretching her made her spasm a lot. Her tail reacting as it swung around, I could just faintly hear Sombra and Heart moaning and screaming in pleasure as their love making was likely made better by Eclipsa's spasms. Passionately I began giving Eclipsa a hickey, squeezing her breast so tight milk shot out like a water balloon with a hole in it. Eclipsa panted heavily, like a dog in heat. Her eyes begged for more, listed for it. I gave it to her. I threw my full body weight into her cooch, Eclipsa screaming in bliss and pleasure, our bed frame broke and as the mattress hit the floor I came, one last pound got my tip inside Eclipsa's womb, pumping every drop of cum and sperm cell directly into her womb. Eclipsa screamed in pure bliss as her womb began to swell and the pressure pushed my cocks head out and the last of it trailed out as I pulled out of her. "That was amazing." I sighed out happily. "Ooooooohhhh~ I am so knocked up it will be days worth of birthing~" Eclipsa said, eyes glowing with afterglow and hair in a lovely mess. "Well, let's hope the kids don't mind having younger siblings." I chuckled. "Or becoming Auntcles~" Eclipsa moaned, the muffled sexual cries of Heart and Sombra from inside her tail still going. "Think we can pull a round two?" “Sadly the preceding rounds are going to be me filling you up like thanksgiving turkey.” I growled in dominance. "And I'll do the same to you." Eclipsa said with a playful smile. Needless to say Eclipsa and I screwed for the full length that potion kept Heart and Sombra screwing. And then some… both us and them. A full two extra hours after the potion wore off Eclipsa felt Heart and Sombra still going at it. Needless to say when the kids asked we told them Heart and Sombra left for the woods, Said something along the lines of Heart wanting to duel them. The next day Eclipsa let them out, clearly savoring their coatings of sweat, cum and vaginal juices as she let the two out. To say Sombra looked wrecked would be an understatement. Sombra's entire body was wet, sticky, her vaginal lips were still spread wide open and you could see the cum still in there, her breasts were so roughly handled they had bruises in Heart's handprints, and she had one eye stuck shut from dry cum and other juices, and you could still see a lot in her mouth. Heart wasn't all THAT better either. Each one of their breasts had bruises in some shape or form, also a lot of handprints. Their hair was stuck to their neck, mouth and tongue so sore they couldn't close them right, and their cock was red as if carpet burned and vagina also wide open still as if fisted endlessly. Likely was. “So did you two have fun?” I asked the two simply. Neither spoke, but gave cherry red blushed nods as they slithered off to the shower. The same shower. "I say we did a good job in catapulting that ball into final base." Eclipsa said proudly. “I think it’s safe to assume that the ball is now firmly in a crater somewhere.” I said honestly. "So, how many are you expecting this litter? I'm expecting to set a record." “All things considered, I’m surprised we haven’t already.” I chuckled. "How many do you expect Sombra to have? Ten bits it's at least twenty or so." “I’d say that’s about right.” I said honestly. “Considering how hard they were going at it.” "Guess we'll see in a few months." Eclipsa said, giving me a kiss. “Wonder what all the kids will think about them finally getting past their anger.” I wondered. "Depends. Might convince them all to look for mates too. I won't complain about that if it does." “Ah yes, the wonders of learning that all our kids are just as much ladykillers as we are.” I chuckled. “Which reminds me, I better check on the Dire Wolf queen tomorrow, just to make sure she knows the ‘thief’ is still around.” "I'm coming too. I wanna tease the fuck out of Celestia and Luna." Over the next few months Eclipsa and I did indeed tease the hell out of the dire wolf queen, Aglow, was her name. As well as Celestia and Luna. It was super fun and their security 'upgrades' were fun challenges. Sadly it has to go on hold due to pregnancy. And when the royals found out Sombra was also pregnant they acted on it like with the other endangered intelligent beings. A lot of free bits, free healthcare and all that. Sombra has a whopping sixty two confirmed babies. Heart about had a heart attack. I have forty seven and Eclipsa had a record making seventy four. Well, she did sneak a fertility potion, so that explains that. Though that fertility potion was way above the normal grade for baby making. Regardless we're five months in, swollen like beach balls and so are our milk making bursting breasts. To help the kids and Heart are all taking special potions so they can produce milk and feed the new arrivals. “Maybe I should have suggested I not get pregnant since I have the more…’active’ job.” I said nervously. "You forget the free bits the crown is giving us because of Sombra's pregnancy?" Heart asked as they were making dinner. "Seven thousand bits a month is way enough to cover expenses before and after these babies are born." "Sixty two…" Sombra muttered again. They found it hard to believe they had that many babies inside them. “And more to come given that Heart is a horny teenager.” I chuckled. "Hey!" Heart yelped. "It's nothing to be ashamed of Hun, in fact your work on Sombra is Very impressive." Eclipsa said, happily knitting many baby onesies. "T-thanks?" Heart said with a blush. “Your welcome.” I smiled. “So, excited to be a parent?” "Nervous." Heart said. "Sixty two…" Was all Sombra said. “I know it’s worrying the first time Sombra, but trust me, it’s worth it.” I said honestly. "Sixty two…" “Heart, can you get Sombra out of her child stupor?” I asked. “Cause she’s been like this for...days.” "Well they have just gone from being the last of their race to gonna give birth to a small village of them. Pretty sure that's something that takes time to adjust." Heart said. “Yeah, that is true.” I said honestly. “Good to know that our races can bounce back from near extinction quickly.” "Speaking of, word is they're gonna March an assault on the Hornets nest." Eclipsa said. "They asked me about that place a lot." Sombra said with a sigh. "They took it from the Changelings, killed and ate them all. Well, almost all." “Almost?” I asked curiously. “What do you mean?” I asked, trying to remember if there were any changelings in the kingdom. "Chrysalis was kept, they had me imprison her in crystal. Believed if their queen died I could force her into shifting into a Hornet Queen and keep her that way. The Hornets Queen only exists to lay the eggs, they're pretty mindless. It's the Males, the King that's the smart one." “Cause of course…” I grumbled. “Well, given that the Hornets are scared shitless at the moment, they will probably panic when they’re raided.” "Definitely. Without me they can't break Chrysalis out of the crystal, so she is safe at least. As are the other prisoners." “How many prisoners are there?” I asked curiously. “And what races?” "One per race they devoured. Trophies." “Well uh...they are sure gonna repopulate fast when we save them.” I said honestly. "They will be half breeds like my own, but I suppose that doesn't matter in the long run." "Actually… I think I can help there." Eclipsa said, sitting up. "I know of a Shapeshifting potion but the ingredients are hard as hell to find… However if Chrysalis is freed and willing to be friendly we can just as easily learn their magic on shapeshifting and do that." "So either way it's a lot of sex… not surprised." Heart said. "Or a potion I might be able to make to ensure the babies born are a pureblood of their mothering race. Might take a bit though." “Now remember, if it becomes legal to have wide spread public orgies...it is neither of our faults.” I said simply. "Feels like you two would make it legal anyway…" Heart said with a bit of worry. “And considering how hard you two were going at it I’d say you two would as well.” I said, not wanting to bring up that it was legal even before our Kingdom was made. "Well drugging us with an obsession potion does that." "And the two extra hours after it wore off?" Eclipsa asked. "Hate sex." Both Heart and Sombra said. "Though it was nice." Sombra added. "Fucked out all my anger." Heart also added. “So our points are proven though.” I said honestly. “Even if it was hate sex, two hours is two hours.” "Shut up." Heart and Sombra said. After a few more hours there was a knock at the door. "I got it." Heart said, slithering over. When they opened the door, to our surprise, Celestia, Luna, and Aglow came into our house. "What a nice house." Celestia said. "Indeed." Luna added. “It’s nice to meet you my queens.” I said with a polite bow. “What brings you here to our humble home?” "Several things." Aglow said. "The first matter is about Sombra. You see, given their… newfound state of being my fellow Queens and I felt it only fair that in aiding her races return from extinction, we have arranged to restore her testicles and penis. Secondly, because of her knowledge on the Hornets give and their prisoners within, for giving this knowledge freely and after confirming it, we have given her a pardon from their war crimes, but not for their use of Necromancy. Third, in light of these new found races having survivors the Hornets keep as trophies, we are sanctioning your family as part of the repopulation efforts." "Wait say what?" Heart asked. "They're telling us we're gonna bone a lot of people to save their races." Eclipsa stated bluntly "Not you, just young Heart here." Celestia said. "Say what?!" Heart yelled. “I’m going to have to step in here my queens.” I started. “First, why just Heart? Isn’t that, you know, a dumb idea to just have a sole person to do everything by themselves, especially on a biological level? Two, me and my wife have the world record for most children conceived so why not ask the two of us? And three, why just Heart when there’s twenty five of us all with kind of equal amounts of virility?” I asked simply while crossing my arms. "Because we know it has been you two teasing the hell out of us as the two Thieves sneaking into the castle and messing with us. So we're gonna make you suffer like you made us suffer sexually." Luna stated as she left. "Next time just stay long enough to screw." Celestia added as she left. Aglow just gave a blushed wave goodbye as she left. "... Huh." Eclipsa said. “So…” I started, before shaking my head. “No, they need to get back here.” I frowned while walking after them. “They have several things to answer at this point considering what Luna just said.” "Okay… there something you two aren't telling me then?" Heart asked. "Lots." Eclipsa said with a satisfactory smile. “Alright you three.” I started at the three Queens before they fully left. “You have plenty of questions to answer. Like how you knew it was me and Eclipsa that were the thieves, I made sure to make good disguises.” I started. “And two...did you really need to sound that rude? We all know you enjoyed it so...why sound so spiteful?” "Your mate dreams of we five in an orgy and sexual frustration." Luna said as they continued on their way. “How long did you know? Cause if you knew for a while...why didn’t you just drop by and ask?” I frowned. "Two months and paperwork/planning the attack on the Hornets nest." Celestia said. “One at a time at that point.” I frowned. “Or when you were done with the paperwork. I’ve had to help Eclipsa with a lot of paperwork because of either Contracts or to help with the shop.” I said simply. “So what I’m trying to get at is, do you want it right now or what?” "We want it like you stole my first kiss. In the dark of night and with no one to witness." Aglow answered. “Is that a challenge?” I asked simply. “Cause depending on how things go...no one may witness, but people might hear.” "Surprise us." The three Queens said as they left my property and off into their carriage. “Oh you will be in for one hell of a night.” I said while heading back to the house. Two more months passed and I was thankful Eclipsa and I went and screwed the Queens that night cause now we can't really move at all now. Shortly after that we were taken into the royal family because Celestia, Luna, and Aglow are all pregnant now. So yeah we're all royalty now too. Aglow has forty two, Luna with… seventy six, and Celestia has a new record breaking…. One hundred and five. Eclipsa demands justice and is currently working a fertility potion that will make her even more pregnant next litter than Celestia. Fun fact, Alicorns are also considered endangered intelligent species because they are the only two Alicorns. This reality Cadence died in the Hornets attack on the crystal empire and Twilight lived and died a thousand years ago. Technically the future yet does not feel like it. Huh. In any case the attack on the Hornets nest proved successful. The only thing left of the hornets is a single egg, one the best mages working on the grub inside so they don't grow up into another monster like the others of its kind. Sombra helped get the Hornets trophies out of their crystal prisons. Needless to say they all need therapy but are adjusting and hopeful for their species. Right now I look ready to pop yet still have a few months ahead of me as does the rest of us. Sombra got their cock and balls back and promptly used them on Heart. Who now has twenty four kid pregnancies. Needless to say, this is gonna be one hell of a birth. “I feel a little sorry for the doctors and nurses who have to help deliver so many kids.” I said sheepishly. "Even more so once Eclipsa makes this 'ultimate fertility potion'." Sombra said with a laugh. “At this point it’s mostly going to be Eclipsa getting knocked up...but I’m still concerned she might be going a little overboard…” I said nervously. “I don’t want people to get hurt because of this.” "Mapa has to make childbirth a competition, why?" Heart asked. “Well...we’ll have to ask her.” I said honestly. “Cause it is a little weird.” "I shall be the most fertile. I shall!" Eclipsa yelled from here corner where many ingredients and various high strength fertility potions were set about as she brewed another. “Eclipsa, I think you have a slight problem.” I said nervously. "To be fair, her work will bring back so many from the brink. All of them really." Celestia said. “I know, but...don’t you think she’s been a little too competitive for the world record?” I asked sheepishly. "If it undoes the damage these Hornets caused I say go at it." Luna said. “Oh she’ll be going at it alright.” I chuckled. “So, how have you been holding up after our...night of wonders?” "Oh we're going at it again til Alicorns are the majority race." Celestia said. "Agreed." Luna said. "Puppies…" Aglow said warmly as she rubbed her belly. “Good to know.” I nodded. “I just hope that people aren’t getting hurt because of all this. Dire Wolves and Naga’s are naturally attuned to having a lot of kids but...this feels a little egregious for other races.” I said nervously. "To be fair, with the Hornets gone we can expand well passed the borders and make countless more cities, villages, the world is once again ours. Even the animals out in the woods and nature have felt the shift. This spawning season has the most ever we've seen in a single season. This whole world is built to breed." Aglow said. "So it's going to be a world wide orgy huh?" I chuckled. "Please don't." Heart said. "It's gonna happen and you know it." I said honestly. "No." Heart whined. "It's not all bad." I said while patting Hearts "It just seems weird is all. How are you all even so casual about this?" “How is it weird?” I asked curiously. "I just don't know how you two can talk about it so casually." “You’re still young so that’s understandable.” I said honestly. “But when you’re older and you’ve talked about it, and done it a lot, and I do mean a lot, it’s just a casual thing.” I shrugged. "I guess." Three years later To say the kingdom prospered was an understatement. In the past three years old villages were reclaimed and being rebuilt. We even moved back to our old home and village. Given many of our neighbors from those days either died in the invasion so long ago or had settled well elsewhere. As such this whole village became ours, ours and our… to date… four hundred and ninety six kids… Eclipsa perfected that fertility potion. That aside, Eclipsa’s alchemy garden survived, took over the whole place and really flourished. Walking back into the old house felt so nostalgic. A few of our old things we left were still here. An old bow of mine, bottles for potions Eclipsa left, a toy sword that was Heart’s. It was so emotional and tear jerking. As you can imagine having this many kids and no Starfish Clones or major magic to help in raising/feeding them makes meal time quite the event. All I’m gonna say is having a big ass family like ours eating at meal time is insane. Thankfully mass farming and taming of normally wild creatures we'd hunt now have variations we farm for food given the massive population boom. “I have a bad feeling we might accidentally have an overpopulation problem soon.” I said sheepishly. "Well, we're one year away from Heart getting their memories back and from there we won't have to worry." Eclipsa said to me as we were sitting on our new swing bench addition I made last year. “Thank god for the demiplanes in everyone’s house.” I chuckled. "So, how's life been for us here? Feeling so… normal these past twenty years." “I’d say it’s been good.” I said honestly. “Could have saved some hassle if someone didn’t sneak in ‘absolutely no powers’ when some of it would have been okay.” I brought up. "Well, this world already has magic. Just wanted to enjoy it as is while we could." “I know, but still.” I sighed out. “But...it’s all gonna come to an end soon, cause all good things must come to an end sometime.” "Not really. Once Heart regains their memories and powers, and we get ours back, this world will just get better. And with these memories, experiences, it will be so precious to us. It will drive us to fight harder in this war." “Not from a lack of trying…” I muttered to myself. “But I understand...let’s hope things won’t get too weird after everything’s said and done.” "It will. Heh, Heart is never gonna look at the two of us the same again. They'll see you more as dad and me as mom over their lovers. Heh. Gonna tease them a lot." “I’ve already been teasing the hell out of them with all the photos I sent them.” I chuckled. "You dog." Eclipsa said with a laugh. "Still, gives me an idea for a pre birthday gift for Heart. Night just before his birthday, we shaft them, and once they remember, see how they react with everything that happened. Sounds like a plan?" “That sounds hilarious.” I chuckled. “And I guess all the ‘of age’ kids will join in on our birthday fun?” I asked curiously. "Maybe. First it will just be the three of us. Been a long time since it was like that." Eclipsa said, nuzzling into my arm. “Yeah, it’s been a while that’s for sure.” I said honestly. “And we’ll make our time wonderful.” "A year left til it's back to the norm. What should we do til then?" “Just enjoy it while we can.” I said honestly. "Yeah. We will." One Year Later "Uh, Mapa, Pama, where is everyone?" Heart asked as they came inside. Tomorrow was their birthday, and Eclipsa and I have a surprise for them. We managed to get everyone else to work on a party in town so tomorrow morning we'll take Heart there… so Tonight it's just us three. “It’s just gonna be us three here Heart.” I said gently. "Weird. For once It's quiet." Heart said, blissfully ignorant of what Eclipsa and I have planned. "I think it won't be for long." Eclipsa said as we got closer to Heart. "So, got anything planned for my birthday?" Heart asked. “All sorts of things.” I said simply. “Food, games, and a bunch of other stuff.” I said, keeping the conversation away from our plan. “But tonight, me and Eclipsa have a...special gift to give you.” "Really? Neat. I actually have something for you two also." Heart said, slithering over to their room. Eclipsa and I shared a look, heading over as we saw Heart there, two boxes on their bed. "Pama, this one is yours." Heart said, handing me a long flat box. "And Mapa, this one is yours." Heart said, patting a larger box on the bed. “This is our birthday gift to you, not the other way around.” I said sheepishly, wondering what’s in the box. Opening mine… it was a bow. All metal, the string thick wrapped Mana Iron, and the body was pure steel and engraved into it were spells in the dire Wolf magic tongue. Eclipsa's box had a specialty potion brewer, these were made so even weak ingredients could be used to craft powerful high quality potions. "Heart… where did you get these?" "Heh, well I made them. When researching on how to be an adventurer I found a lot of tool and weapon smithing books, and since Gyro now has their own forge it was easy to make these. Materials were the hard part though." Heart said. “Well...thank you Heart.” I said honestly, not entirely sure what to say about the gifts. "Try the bow Pama, trust me, it's got a kick." I did just that, drawing the bow back as the Mana Iron string glowed, forming an arrow of pure magic. Letting go, it shot out through the wall, making a small hole and flew for many miles before vanishing. I looked at Eclipsa who looked at her potion brewing stand. "My fertility potion is gonna be way more potent now." She said, carefully taking the stand to the kitchen. “Eclipsa please…” I whined. “We need to give Heart their gift, not focus on your fertility potion again.” "But my birthday is tomorrow. What gift would I be getting a day early?" “A very special time with the two of us.” I said simply. Eclipsa slithered back into the room at that moment. "That's right, very special time with us." "Okay?" Heart said, looking a tad confused and worried. I carefully snuck around Heart and softly gropped one of their breasts. “And we’re going to make it feel amazing.” "Wait, wait what?!" Heart said in shock as Eclipsa wrapped around Heart and I, and herself and began kissing Heart deeply. The look on his face was pure WTF and it was hilarious. After a bit she let us go but still clung to Heart. "Okay, is this what all those pictures were about?! I thought you two just kept leaving your flirting photos for each other to find and I kept finding them!" “Honestly, it was kind of for all of you kids, but mostly for you.” I said honestly. "Bu-but I mean come on, incest is legal yes but isn't it also fro-" Heart was cut off by Eclipsa kissing them again, this time she rubbed their cock and it began to get around and emerge. "We know. And we don't care baby." Eclipsa said, voice filled with lust and lust alone as she forcefully locked lips with Heart again. Heart clearly wanted to fight it but Eclipsa's expert hand jobs made their body betray them as they reached full mast. “Don’t keep them for yourself Eclipsa.” I said while starting to squeeze and message Heart’s tits more. “I’d like a turn kissing our wonderful Heart.” Eclipsa let go, moving to suckle one of Heart's tits as I now took their mouth. Heart was cherry red with blush as Eclipsa and I both jerked them off slowly and expertly. Heart was muttering something through our kiss but ignored it as I could see them ready to give in. "I need it." Eclipsa moaned, moving down to Heart's cock now. "I've needed this for so long." She breathed hotly, kissing the tip. This looked near ready to send Heart over the edge as she opened wide, devouring Heart's cock to the base. Heart moaned out loudly from our locked lips as their eyes went lidid with pleasure. I slowly rubbed my own stiffy against Heart, loving every moment I spent with those I loved and the growing scent of lust and sex in the air. “How does it feel to have your mapa suck you off?” I asked Heart seductively. Heart covered their mouth, fighting back an orgasm and trying not to end up saying anything embarrassing. As I got into position Eclipsa moved herself as well, forming a sixty nine on Heart, her leaking vaginal lips and cock against Hearts face, giving them a full view and drowning their nose in her musk. Smiling, I slid inside Heart, their nethers wet but not soaked, tight in their grip. I began thrusting into them as Eclipsa kept sucking them off, Heart keeping their hands over their face. I smiled, taking their wrists and holding them apart. Eclipsa began trying to get Heart to suck her off as well, eventually sliding her head in as Heart began giving in, trying to resist the work of art that was Eclipsa and I pleasuring them simultaneously. “Damn your tight.” I growled, starting to go into a good rhythm that was just heavenly to Heart. Heart said nothing, but I could see and feel them begin to loosen up. I checked the clock, about fifteen minutes till Heart regains all their memories. Time to get wild. “We got fifteen minutes Eclipsa.” I whispered to her. “Time to have at it.” I said while throwing my well practiced rhythm to the wind and started to hammer into Heart’s cunt, making sure they felt all the pleasure in the world. Heart gave up, taking the pounding I was giving them as they now willingly sucked Eclipsa off. Heart came on my cock before I got to drop a load inside them. They blew their load down Eclipsa's throat, Eclipsa greedily drinking every drop she could suck out of Heart's cock. Eclipsa and I kept going at it. The fifteen minutes ending right as I blew my load right into Heart's stretched cunt, Eclipsa blowing it down Heart's throat into their stomach. As we pulled out I felt a rush of familier power. Holding out my hand I easily flowed out Nothingness thorns summoning Lunatic, Eternal Flames. Eclipsa flowed out Grey, summoned Better half. Powers were back. Heart sat up, licking their lips from Eclipsa's messy blowjob. "You guys are dicks." Heart said with a laugh. They were back. "Oh you know you love it." I chuckled. Heart scooped us both up in a swift grab of their tail and hugged us both. "You two do know I am never gonna look at you two the same again right?" "Cause you see us as parents now too?" Eclipsa asked. "Yup. And… thank you two for doing this." “No problem Heart.” I said gently. "It was nice being your Pama." Heart laughed. "To be honest, even with my memories back you two still feel more like my parents than my first ones… I prefer you two over them." "Im sorry, but to be honest it's not that hard considering your history." I stated. "Yeah. But they do care." Eclipsa said. "I've spent time with them, they do seem to care." "Maybe, but it's a little too late for them. Besides, I have you two." Heart said, giving us a tight hug. "The best parents… and lovers… know what, not gonna overthink that." They said as they cuddled up to us. “Best not to.” I said while hugging Heart lovingly. “So, how freaked do you think your brothers and sisters are going to be about all of this?” "Given how life has been til now… a lot." To be continued... Kico has a turn yay!Floor 20 was the first of the start of the level two dungeon phase, and was on fire. Not really all of it was on fire, but brimstone, oozing flesh and blood all around and various nasty void corrupted demons. One such we came across was twice my size, one arm with a grotesquely infused cannon in one arm and the other held a massive axe. One horn broken where a void tendril whipped around like mad, mouth holding a corpse half eaten in it's jaw and chest riddled with oozing wounds of bullets and blade slashes. "Not it." Jericho and Coco said. "Nope " Kexez said. I rolled my eyes. “It’s like partying with a bunch of five year olds…” I grumbled. “I’ll deal with it, don’t you all worry.” I said while walking over carefully, not really knowing how strong level two dungeons were. The demon saw me, roaring savagely as it raised it's cannon arm. Fiering. I took the hit to see the damage. 2,500 of my hp. About a small sliver worth my health so it can hurt me but not too badly. “That tickled.” I said, all the damage I took healing up in a split second. “Time to test out my new God Race status.” I said, appearing right in front of the Demon as I punched a hole straight through its chest. The demon backed up from the impact, void and blood spilling out as the void it was bleeding out began reaching out towards me. “Aw, you think you can do something.” I said while cleaving it down the middle with Second Chance. “Let’s hope Second Chance can work with these things…” Sadly it doesn't. And to make it worse the void from these things healed the bastard, but now there were two. "Need help?" Jericho asked. “Mind giving me a little cliff note on what this thing is?’ I asked. “Because so far, Second Chance didn’t work and it doubled.” I frowned. "If memory serves, that's a Gartrophu Demon. Modified given the arm cannon… but the doubling thing is new…" "Hmm… might be a void parasite, like Symbiote, gotta destroy its core. It's a small marble looking thing!" Coco yelled to me. “Oh, that’s simple.” I said honestly while using my Scan ability to see where the damned thing was. “Alright uglies, bring it.” The one on the left, the one with the arm cannon had the core in it. Right in the left eye. With break neck speed I was at its face, jamming my hand in it's eye and ripping out the small marble, crushing it in my grip as both collapsed as their void faded and died from the corpses. “Alright, that’s one out of a few dozen to go through.” I said while cracking my knuckles. “Wonder what loot we’ll find here?” "Hopefully something good." Coco said. We rushed off down the hall. This layout was far, far larger and more complex. Rather than the normal flat rooms and halls set up there were stairs going up and down, locked doors with keys that were either in chests, in enemies, or were puzzle based. And this one was parkour with an activation lever for the door to the next area. “What is this, Doom?” I asked with a frown. "Clearly inspired by. Then again, hell is hell no matter what reality you live in." Kexez said. Coco took on the challenge. Parkouring up to the top of this course with a fair bit of ease. "Holy shit!" She yelled from the top. “What up?” I called out curiously. Coco vanished for a second before popping back over the edge, holding a large double barrel shotgun in hand. "It's a Super Shotgun!" "Oh Guts is gonna be pissed." Kexez laughed. “Oh yeah he is going to be pissed.” I chuckled. Coco flipped the switch and we headed off. This next room held a single, giant face grown into the wall. "Gross…" Jericho said. “Gee, I wonder if it’s the boss door.” I frowned. "Not the boss you seek, but, a boss to defeat." The face spoke… sounds about right. “Alright.” I nodded. “So is the boss you or are you in front of the boss?” "To fight this Knight, clad in armor made from Fright, show me now, Heavenly Divine Light." “Um...sure.” I said while showing the door Heavenly Divine Light. The heavenly light burned away the giant face, revealing a larger arena behind where a knight, my size rested on knees holding a massive Claymore. Their armor seemed to pulsate as an energy I could tell was akin to Void Key was in it; Fear. Armor made from fear. "Well then." I started. "Cathartic amount of ass kicking? Thank you." I said,walked forward towards the knight. The eyes in the knights helm glowed a bright red once I got close enough, and a barrier kept the others out and the knight and I in the arena. "I am the Hell Knight of Fear, Goatrir. If you wish to fight my king, then take my head if you can." They got up, holding their claymore one handed and got ready for a fight. "It's a pleasure to meet you." I said simply. "But your armor reminds me of someone I want dead so.." I trailed off as I punted the knight straight into a wall so hard it made a multilayered crater in it before the knight could react. "You are going to be my punching back for the next hour or so." As I held a hand over their neck, squeezing tight I pulled a fist back, swinging hard into their head. Only… it wasn't the knight I hit… it was… Coco? Coco's face was largely brushed, teeth fell out as she spat out blood. "King… why?" She asked me weakly. I let go, backing up as the Knight returned there, laughing lightly. “Wh-what?” I stuttered, looking back at Coco worriedly to see if she was okay. She was fine, looking at me more with worry now. I turned back to the knight. "To fight me, each blow will show the injury, even death of a loved one. To kill, you will witness the image of all of them meeting the same fate, at your hands. I am the Hell Knight of Fear for a reason wolf." The knight said as they stood. “And here I thought it was specific to each person, not just a ‘general effect'” I said, trying to get some snark back instead of being scared shitless of...my literal worst nightmare coming true. "Come, claim my head." The knight said, raising their claymore to me. "I wonder who you will see get beheaded." I looked down sadly, before taking a deep breath. “I am going to make you regret ever fucking with me..” I growled as I slammed my fist into his head, sending him flying back into the same wall. As they hit the wall I saw Luna slammed into the wall, blood splattering all over as she looked at me with fear. I almost raced to her only to suddenly be impaled by that fuckers sword, and swung off into the barrier blocking the others from entering this fight. My injury healed instantly, even a hell knight’s attack couldn’t push past my stupidly high healing factor. “Alright...this is getting dumb.” I growled as I got back up. “I just need to take your head off...simple…” I muttered, even though I was mentally panicking, not wanting to hurt my family. I pulled out SharpShooters, firing a bolt right into their helm… only to see Joy, falling back, the bolt in their eye, out the back of their head and looking at me with terror. I called out his name in panic, then felt the pain of something hold into my neck, tearing flesh as reality set back in. The knights sword could command this demonic chain that impaled into my neck, and from the feel, around my spine. They yanked, pulling me at them and then kicked me back like some fucked up paddle ball, the chain snapping my spine as it hit resistance from its length hitting my body weight. The injuries healed, not surprising but that image of Joys eyes still haunted me. “Fine!” I shouted as I grabbed the Knight’s greatsword and snapped it in half. “You want to know how I’ll react when I take your head!? LET’S FIND OUT!” I roared in rage, grabbing the knights head with both hands and ripping it off of his shoulders as I was just so pissed at my own ability to face my own fears. "King, what are you doing?!" Celestia's face and form was shown, her skin stretching from the neck as I pulled from what I could see was her mane. I did my best to ignore, tears flowing as I continued. "I thought you loved us!" Now Twilight's face and form took place, a tear in their skin spraying me with blood as she screamed. "What did I do wrong?!" Pinkie cried as more of the head was ripped off. "I hate you!" Eclipsa… her bodiless head in my grip. The illusion held for a few more moments before it was just the knights helmet, and the knights body on the floor. I got on my knees and started to literally bash the hell knights head into his corpse, sobbing at what I just witnessed. “I fucking hate you…” I cried, all my family’s words haunting me even after I was in a crater six feet down with what could only be described as ground meat and metal at this point. "King." Coco said, pulling my arms back. The head and helm, surprisingly had no damage, but the body was not even a body anymore. "It's over." She said, hugging me. Kexez joined in as Jericho took the head from my grip. I hugged both Coco and Eclipsa tightly as I just cried. “I’m sorry…” "It's okay. It was all fake." Kexez said. "Indeed it was." The knights head spoke. That scared us about shitless. "You fared better than most. Three more heads to claim and we can unlock Adam's chambers." "The hell…" Jericho said. "How are you alive?!" "My head is a key item. Literally, my head is a key." "That's… Dark souls three I swear." Kexez said. I grabbed the head and immediately kicked it straight into the wall like a soccer ball. “Fuck you ya prick!” I barked angrily. "Ow." Was their reply. "Well… that went from depressing to weird in five seconds." Coco said. "Let's… just find these other Knight bosses and head off to Adam's chambers." Jericho said. "Do not forget to collect your reward." The knights head said. Looking around I saw a large chest that was not there before. “Alright…” I took a deep breath to compose myself as I walked over to the chest and opened it. Opening the lid, inside was… a Big Fucking Gun. As in THE BFG from Doom 2016. Oh hell yes. I picked up the weapon. This did not make up for the trauma, but was pretty damn good compensation. I'm gonna modify the hell out of this thing. “Okay...while not worth the mental trauma, but I’ll take it.” I said honestly. I even got to test it when we opened the hall door out of here. Easy fifty two demons all reduced to piles of gore. I bought all the ammo I could, or rather, wanted for the thing before looking through what modifications that were available. “There better be good mods for this thing, cause if there isn’t I’m gonna be massively disappointed.” I muttered. There were… a lot. Not as much as I might have liked, but fifty six was still a fair selection. Sadly the gun could only have two or three mods equipped at a time otherwise they mess with each other. First mod was an extended clip. It's normal amount was three. This gave me ten shots. Most that was available. Second mod was a 'net shot' shooting a wide linked net of energy that had a larger range of reach. As if this thing didn't have a big enough one. The last mod was Monofilament wiring. It made the weapon charge up between shots sixty times faster and added a little extra kick to the attack. “Well...those are some decent enough mods.” I muttered. “Might as well.” "Guess given your size that gun isn't too heavy huh?" Coco asked as we walked along. "It's a lot lighter than it looks." I said honestly. "But it's gonna be sweet to fire this thing." "You should send it back home for Military grade upgrades." Jericho said. "I should…" I hummed, thinking of all the upgrades it could have. "Sure." I said while sending the gun to our R&D center. "Wonder what they'll do with it?"?" "Make it better." Kexez offered matter of factly. "Don't you also have a body copy working at the R&D labs?" Coco asked me. "Of course, but I'm in the middle of other things." I said honestly. "A lot of other things…" I sighed out. Coco chuckled. "Hey King, stand still?" She asked as I did. She then jumped onto my side, climbing to my head where she now sat. "Onward!" She declared. "Really?" I asked the cute mare. "Yes!" She stated. I laughed and continued on, giving Coco a ride on my head. The next few rooms we came across I cleared in a single shot each with my modded BFG. It was epic. We came across another chest, this one wrapped in chains with a single lock. Kexez just touched it and all the locks came off. Inside was a helmet. Sleek and thin. I could not tell the metal. Kexez put it on, and suddenly their whole body, was covered in an almost iron man like armor, but chrome and allowed them perfect movements. "Okay this is cool." Kexez said from inside the armor. "Doom Guys armor huh?" I brought up. "Yeah, this is Doom alright." "Like I said, hell is hell and that guy is in all of them." Jericho said. Continuing on I came across the oddest thing. A tiny toy me, holding Lindworm in both hands battle ready. "Awe, how cute!" Coco said at a tiny plastic me figure. “Um...not sure if that’s supposed to be a little collectable or if it actually wants to fight…” I said while kneeling down. Picking up the tiny figure, it was no bigger than my primary finger and didn't seem to be able to change pose. Scanning it with the Assistant showed it was a collectible. Freak Inc Collectable Figurines. This was one of currently 97 different kinds. “Well...that’s interesting.” I said honestly. “I got my own little collectable figure, that’s neat.” "Gonna find them all?" Kexez asked. “If you want.” I shrugged. “We’re already way behind in this dungeon as is.” "Off to the next mini boss then." Coco said. "Two lefts, three rooms down." The head said. "You are… oddly helpful." Jericho said. "It's my job." The head replied. “You’re still a dick.” I frowned. “But thank you, let’s get going. So who wants to take on the mini boss this time?” "Dibs!" Coco said. "I wanna try out the shotgun." “Are the others Fear Knights?” I asked the demon head curiously. "No. The others are Rage, Lust, and Mercy." "That's an odd combo." Jericho noted. “Ah yes, we start off with Fear, then Rage, Lust, and then just start begging for Mercy.” I started. “That makes no sense at all.” "Gotta have some patterns." The head said. Following it's directions we came across another Face Wall thing. "To fight the Knight who reigns over Rage, deliver to me, proof of pain." “So a shotgun shot to the face would work?” I asked curiously. "I think it means proof we have sufferd pain." Jericho offered. "Correct." The head confirmed. “Oh…” I said while grabbing the head and chucking it at the face wall. “You have no idea what pain that fucker caused me!” I snapped. “I know it might be a running gag here, but seriously, fuck you.” The face wall began melting, and behind it an arena where another knight stood, a massive crossbow in hand. It looked up at us. "I am the Hell Knight of Rage Kalio. Claim my head to- oh hey Goatrir!" "Sup!" The head replied. "Fight now, chat later." Coco said as she walked into the arena. "Right right right." Kalio said. "Claim my head and face my king, if you can." "Alrighty then." Coco said, loading the Super Shotgun. I watched as the two went at it. Coco's new gun did a lot of damage but that knight was fast and his crossbow reloaded magically so it made him fire faster than a normal crossbow. Like the prior one there was a barrier keeping Coco and that knight in and the rest of us out. “So what’s his gimmick?” I asked the Goatrir curiously. “Is he gonna go berserk at some point or something?” "No. She will. The longer they fight, the more her rage will build, and the stronger her rage the more she will mess up, and when she does Kalio will fire upon her a volley of void poisoned bolts." “But...she’s a Void Conduit, wouldn’t she be immune to that?” I asked. "Oh? Then yeah Kalio is fucked." “Also, I don’t know if she modded that, but wouldn’t-” I started until the sound of a massive explosion coming from the room came as Coco apparently fired rockets from her Super Shotgun. “Yeah...she modded it...poor bastard.” "Huh. Well only chances Kalio has now are if they use those new bolts." “New bolts?” I asked curiously. "You know about the systems of code that manage the loot Dungeons have right?" Goatrir asked. “Not really, cause I’ve tried asking and no one gave me a proper answer...or an answer that agreed with others.” I said honestly. "Huh. Well, that same system makes and tells mini bosses like Kalio and I our roles. You see, we are not the original Kalio and Goatrir, but replicas made from their memories and copies of their code. We exist here for one reason, test/challenge the Adventures. As such the system can and often does give us Updates." “Well that’s slightly cheating.” I frowned. "The updates are varied. Not always do they make us stronger, that only occurs if the dungeon itself ascends a level. Typically it just either puts us in rooms like here, allows us access to more than one version of a weapon. I fought you with just one of the claymores I have access to. Recently however we received an update, one that expanded our arsenal. Most of the new weapons were restricted for our level four and five dungeon locations. Kalio however received a new Bolt Type. One the system deemed allowable for this level two segment area." “Sounds about right.” I nodded. “I just hope Coco will be alright…” "Depends. Odds are Kalio might not even use it. We typically experiment with the new stuff before applying it in a fight." “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “So I’m sure Coco’s got this.” The fight kept on, Coco getting really pissed, but also real close to Kalio. She then rammed the super Shotgun right into the neck of their helm, nearly cutting it off from the force alone before she fired; Shotgun decapitation. “Well, that’s one way to get a decapitation.” I said honestly. The barrier fell and Coco happily walked over to us, tossing Kalio's head to Jericho. "That was fun." Coco said. “Glad you had fun Coco.” I smiled. “Hope the rage didn’t get you too much.” I said sheepishly. "Well, if anything it did relief a lot of stress I guess I had built up." "Do not forget your reward." Kalio stated. Nodding, Coco went over to the newly appeared chest. Inside was… was… what is that. "Oh, that's one of the new items." Goatrir said. "Looks like. Neat, new item just days after the update. Nice." Kalio added. The object itself looked like a coin, but was blank save for three scratched in tally marks on one side. “Hmm...wonder what this coin is for…” I hummed while looking over it carefully. "It's a DeathWish." Kalio said. "Think of the Death Note but as a coin. Hand it off to someone you hate and they die instantly. Has three uses." “Well that’ll come in handy.” I said honestly. "How?" Jericho asked. “I’m sure there’s some way to have this used properly.” I said honestly. With two heads we continued on. I was asking these two more about this self run system that runs all the dungeons. “So how does the self run system work from your experience?” "The system works in parallel to the system that makes the world terrains and environment, think Minecraft here. The dungeon system actually makes the dungeons and chooses their themes and type. From there based on the rules of how dungeons are meant to operate and the special rules for each type and level chooses layout, how many floors, and spawn rates for the more basic enemies." Kalio said. "Mini bosses like us are made by copying beings of interest or in other cases the system makes one up all together to either roam the floor or floors as an optional challenge or as a guardian for keys or more rare loot." Goatrir added. “Sounds a tad more like Terraria than Minecraft to be honest.” I said honestly. “But I can understand that.” "From there once the layout, mini bosses and type and level as well as the floor count have all been set, the system pulls loot from the look generation system. A whole dimension where anything that can be made is and placed into the dungeons. Chests are actually empty unless opened, the items placed in right as the lid opens up." Goatrir continued. "This is so good based loot isn't, well, rotten." Kalio added. "Now, floor based bosses are a slightly different matter. Whole most often they are completely made from scratch, very rarely will the system actually take in a being to be a floor boss. But only if they meet the requirements. Firstly, they must have no worldly ties, no family, home or kin to speak of. No reason to leave. Second, they must meet the dungeon strength requirements, being a certain level of power. Third and last they must be willing to accept employment in the system. No real pay to speak of but they get a room to rest and sleep and eat in that is generated with all they would need or want. When beaten in battle, or they win the battle they just spawn back in that room, and when a fight is approaching they spawn into their boss room. Mini boss beings like us have these kinds of rooms too." "Save for these dungeons main bosses…" Goatrir said with a sigh. "This dungeon doesn’t operate like a normal onet. This was hand crafted, not system made. It's bosses are placed here once their… other versions try to reach here." “Void Mother made this dungeon.” I said honestly. “This is the second place where people can get what they want, the first being the Eternity Arena the Mushroom 13 made not too long ago.” "That's about all we can say about the system." Goatrir said. "Well, all we know really." Kalio added. “Hmm…” I hummed. “Good to know.” I said, thinking about how little info they actually had about their respective dungeon. "Next should be Hog, Knight of Lust." Goatrir said. "Ugh." Kalio huffed. “Gross.” I frowned. “Who’s smart idea was it to name a knight of lust Hog?” "Her own. Demons pick their own names. Though, given we are just copies it's more just part of our given roles." Goatrir said. “Okay so it’s a female...and yet why do I have a feeling expectations will be soundly ruined?” I asked curiously. As we walked about, slaying demon enemies and such. We finally came across the next face wall. "To face the Knight who embodies lust, the first one must show the bond of trust." The face said. “So who wants to go this time?” I asked curiously. "I'll go, wanna check my armor." Kexez said. "Bond of trust?" Jericho wondered. "Hmm…" I said while raising my hand and showing my Wedding Ring. "Does this count?" The face wall melted away and behind it was… not what I was expecting. The Knight Hog was… the exact opposite of what I was expecting. She was… almost divine. Thick long blonde hair, stunning blue eyes, a figure that matched Coco but with the height of Alxun. In short, she was ideal in looks. “I am Hog, Knight of Lust. I see you already have Goatrir and Kalio’s heads.” “Fuck you.” Kalio said. “What he said.” Goatrir added. I noticed these two’s abnormal hatred of her, so clearly something was up here. “Alright, what happened?” I asked simply. “You’ll see…” The two heads said. Kexez slithered up to the hell knight, the barrier forming as they pulled out their Starlight keyblade. “So, what are you?” “Hog, hell knight of lust.” Hog said, black void fires as soon a massive greatsword made from bones and flames appeared in her hand. “Daughter of Hell Lord Garthatum.” I looked up on my Assistant of who that was. Hell Lord Garthatum. One of the original first demon lords of hell from its inception, Lord Garthatum spawned many of hell’s knights and rooks. His powers made him second only to the first king of hell, and over the years his demonic energy seeded into the realm of hell, and the magic crafted from it makes up over half of the power for hell's spells and technology. “Huh, that’s interesting.” I said honestly. Kexez and Hog began their fight, Hog’s speed was unexpected. Not even I’m that fast when using Lunatic, or am I? Honestly I guess I never really tried and figured that out. Add it to the list. Kexez was able to keep up the defence well and thankfully with their new armor took little damage if their hp on my allies stats list anything to go by. Kexez gave a swing of darkness from their weapon, the AOE attack knocked Hog back but she kept her footing. Smirking I saw as void now pulsated from her blade. Now, Kexez let Nothingness flow around his keyblade to counter. “So far so good.” I said honestly. “What’s her gimmick?” “Exactly as her title suggests, lust. Even the slightest sense of attraction to her and your genitals melt inside you as your eyes forever burn with hellfire til death.” Goatrir said. “The fact Kexez isn’t even going through that I guess says a lot about them.” Kalio said. “That’s...not what lust is but sure, whatever helps you sleep.” I started. “Like...seriously, that is nowhere near what lust is or actually how it works...so I’m curious as to why Kexez isn’t hurt, given how...active they tend to be.” “Dunno, surprising to me.” Jericho said. “Maybe they can turn it on and off?” Coco thought aloud. “Well...I suppose.” I shrugged. “We’ll ask them after they soundly kicked Hog’s ass.” Kexez and Hog’s fight lasted a good while. While strong Kexez was still, admittedly the weaker of us. Even Coco was stronger than them. But Kexez, like Heart, had determination and quick thinking. Kexez managed to get the upper hand before she nearly cut off their tail. In a swift slice of Nothingness Hog’s head flew off in an unceremoniously fast act. “Nice job.” I nodded. “Not as flashy as Coco’s or...brutal as mine, but still.” "Eh, mostly just had to predict her movements." Kexez said as the tosses the head to Jericho. "Don't forget your reward." Hog said. “And let’s see what the reward is?” I wondered. Kexez walked over to the chest that appeared. Opening it, inside was… bullets? They weren't normal. They were for all kinds of calibers, but what they were made from I couldn't tell. They looked metal but I sensed a power from them I can't seem to identify. “Alright.” I said while checking it’s code to figure out what it was instead of being confused about it. Alkihenitanite. An Admin made metal from the first cycle, it surpasses Dark Monofilament by 9,865% and can cripplingly injure Deathless Immortals, causing their heal time to take months rather than seconds. “There we are.” I said while picking up the bullet. “I was wondering when we would find an item that can hurt Deathless.” "Hurt, but not kill." Jericho said, looking the bullets over. "Question is… do we test it first?" “Not on each other that’s for sure.” I said bluntly. "Well, there's no immortals we know of we can shoot at." Coco said. "Unless I missed something while I was out cold." “Okay fine.” I said while pulling out a Smith & Wesson revolver, put one of the bullets in the chamber, and then shot myself in the arm. Pain. I haven't felt pain like this in a long time. The stinging hiss of pain irradiated from the bullet wound. It was just a flesh wound, but it kept bleeding, not healing like normal. I even drank some of my own and Kexez's milk, nothing. Healing potions and spells… nothing. Only time can heal this metal's damage. “Cause that makes sense, it only describes going against their natural healing abilities, but it magically also affects healing potions and magic.” I frowned. “Thanks Code, once again proving to me why you’re basically worse than magic…” I grumbled. “But at least I know how to make it now…” I grumbled while wrapping up my wound in clean bandages. "Who even made this metal?" Kexez wondered. “An Admin from the first Cycle.” I said honestly. "I mean what kind of admin. War, metal, death, which and why?" “Didn’t say and didn’t say.” I said. “Even though I literally looked at the damn things Code, things can either be helpful or absolutely useless sometimes.” "Well, guess we'll put this away." With that Kexez stored every bullet into their Assistant. "And now onto Mercy." "Fuck that guy." All three heads said in unison. "Any reason why?" Coco asked. "He's broken as all hell!" Goatrir said. “Thank you for not explaining literally anything.” I said honestly. “So let’s go find this bastard and see what’s special about him.” "They have an ability." Kalio stated. "Equilibrium. They perfectly match their opponents strength and stats." "Well… that can be an issue then." Jericho said. "Guess it will be tough to fight basically me then." “So his gimmick is only that?” I asked curiously. “There has to be more than that.” "Uh, King, Mercy and Death are the same thing in demon." Jericho stated. "Funny enough their word for actual Mercy and Submission are the same. A demon submitting to you makes them your slave." Coco added. “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “Good to know.” "So that means this is more the Hell Knight of Death?" Kexez asked. "Yup." The heads all said. “Well that’s false advertising then.” I said honestly. "Demons." The heads stated. “Well either way.” I said honestly. “Let’s go see the last knight.” As we made our way out to the last knight we found the safe room. We checked the book. Yup, Adam. As we rested here I licked my wound, literally, pondering on some things mentally. ”So many things to think about…” I thought to myself. ”Don’t know who made this metal, so gonna need to look into that, don’t know how Jericho is gonna beat the knight...Adam is gonna be a bitch and a half to fight…” I mentally sighed out. “Why does crap always have to get complicated…” I took a nap, cuddling with Kexez as I relaxed before the final two fights. I had a weird dream, nothing concerning but I dreamed I was nursing a sapling into a tree… though that did make me wonder what my milk would do to plants if used instead of water. As I got up and still had Kexez coiled around my body like a massive scarf, I began cooking some food. “That was a...weird dream…” I muttered. "Dreams aren't always normal." Kexez said sleepily. "Better than a nightmare, right?" Coco asked. “True, but...it was still weird.” I said honestly. “So how was your sleep?” "Good. Was in the dream realm. Messed around in Traverse Town." "I didn't dream." Jericho said, rubbing their neck. "I dreamed I was sleeping." Kexez said. “I was nursing a sapling.” I said honestly. "Miss your little meat tree you raised?" Coco asked. "I remember you told me about that." “It wasn’t that.” I said honestly. “But...it did bring up what would happen if I used my breast milk instead of actual water.” I said honestly. "Ten rem says something along the lines of the trees from Yellowstone." Jericho said. "Thirty says bigger." Coco countered. "Deal." Jericho said as they shook hands with Coco. “Well remember, those trees were getting their nutrients from a fucking Super Volcano so let’s not think my milk is a miracle worker here.” I said sheepishly. "Isn't it?" They all asked. “It’s not.” I said humbly. As we ate and woke up more we finally headed out. The path to the next knight arena was guarded by puzzles, hordes of demons, traps, and lots of fire. “Jeez, did they need to make this floor any longer?” I frowned. "Well, this is level two so guess it means they only get larger and more complex once we reach level three, four and finally five." Coco figured. “We’re massively behind on progression here though.” I said nervously. “But...I suppose…” I sighed out. “Alright, where’s this door?” Most of the puzzles were easy. Find key, key parts, break fleshy demon things to unlock doors, ect. But this one puzzle… this puzzle… it had become my white whale… fucking math. "Who makes a door linked to a physics equation?" Coco asked as I kept writing out the steps to solve for a black hole. “Cause reasons.” I said honestly. “I honestly should have figured this out by now though…” I muttered. "Weird." Kexez said. Finally I figured out the math issue. My reward was ironically black hole grenades. Create a black hole for five seconds that sucks everything and everyone not bolted to the ground into a pocket prison dimension where if they don't die from the landing they die from the other shit that's been put there… cool. “Well, this is neat.” I said honestly. With that in tow we kept along and finally found the face wall. "To fight the Knight who embodies Mercy, mercy must be shown before me." “That depends on your definition of ‘Mercy’ here.” I said honestly. "I think they mean the demon version." Jericho said. "How do we do that then?" Kexez asked. “Kill the door?” I asked curiously. "Can we do that?" Coco asked. "Well, one way to find out." Jericho said, pulling out their war axe and hacking the face wall in two. “Well, that worked.” I said honestly. The Knight if Mercy stood before us all. A single sword drawn in one hand. "I am Delgato, Hell Knight of Mercy. Claim my head, if you can overcome your own strength." Jericho stepped forward, the barrier forming up as Jericho pulled out their War Axe. "We'll see." “Let’s see how well this Knight does compared to Jericho.” I muttered. In a flash, Jericho and the Knight both rushed each other, their clashing blades creating Sparks and blasts of energies as Mercy's ability matched Jericho's stats and power. The two danced but Jericho's skill and title as the Admin of War won them the battle in a spectacular display of a fast slice to the knights neck as the head flew off high from the impact of he cut. Jericho claimed his prize, a crusable sword. "So, how's Adam gonna fair?" Coco asked. "Not good likely." Kexez said. "Guy is strong, might be way tougher than we would like. Might be able to get an edge though." “All things considered, Adam isn’t going to be too tough.” I said honestly. “We’re all...honestly way stronger than we should be for this level.” I said honestly. "You learned how to fight with gauntlets from them didn't you?" Jericho asked. “Them and Spike, and I outdid them both in hand to hand Combat.” I said honestly. "Did you ever win against him?" “Yes, I did.” I said honestly. “That was my ‘final test’ for the two.” "Can you win, while minor, you are injured." Jericho said, giving a small pinch to my bandage. It gave a small thing of pain but not bad, just a light sting. “And I’ve fought strong opponents with worse injuries.” I said honestly. "Even so, there's something I don't like. This has been too easy." “What do you mean?” I asked curiously. “If you're meaning the dungeon so far, it should be because we are massively overleveled for these parts.” I said honestly. "It just feels like something isn't right here. Admin of war, I can smell traps." “Ah, well if it’s not because of the dungeon, then yes, I am very thankful someone else noticed it.” I said honestly. “It’s been bugging the shit out of me for the past four rooms…” "Either way, something isn't right." “Let’s hope we figure it out soon…” I said nervously. "Let's hope so." “Alright, so where the hell is the boss door…” I muttered, wanting to get through the dungeon fast before whatever trap is sprung. As we headed into the last few rooms. It was here we came across something we haven't seen before. A coffin. "That shouldn't be there." Mercy stated. It wasn't like the final boss coffins, nowhere near as big or regal, but looked brand new, and made from unscorched wood. "Trap." We all said at once. "Cause of course…" I growled as I pulled out Sharpshooters and fired a dart at it, fully expecting something bad to happen. It made a crack, void began leaking out as, against my weapon, all of ours, just… disbanded instantly. I felt a familiar wave of pacifism and got worried. The lid opened up and walked out was… the Void Mother. Her hair wet, her skin a dead pail and eyes coldly white. A corpse; Void black and her chest and lower torso with gaping holes oozing void in an endless flood. "My my, I've been wanting to meet you." “Fuck you.” I said while going through my assistant and unlocking the ‘Mother’ abilities we all had on me as my own wave of Pacifism against her. “Thank god that is a thing…” I muttered. "Clever, but unneeded." She said, stepping around us. None of us dared move as she walked around and between us. "King, I remember you from the first cycle, my version. Good heart, ever the troublemaker." She then turned to Coco. "Coco, amazing how such a simple being has been remade." Then turned to Kexez. "Hm." Was all she said about Kexez before turning to Jericho. "And there's a face worth looking at." Jericho turned away. "Why are you here?" "Simply put, interest." Void Mother said as she kept walking around and between us. “What? Too preoccupied with other things than realizing all this shit’s happened before?” I asked simply. "Cycles, resets, makes no difference to me honestly. Same song, different artist. But, this one feels less like a repeat or cover, and more like a re-imagen. Same yet different, and oh so refreshing." “And was that before or after you’ve just been…” I sighed out. “Letting us just do what we want?” I asked honestly, Void Mother knowing full well that I really hated saying those words. "Oh? Heh, you misunderstand my role in the void. I may make it, the code that you know as void, but I'm just the fountain where the poisoned water flows free. Or, are you referring to Nexus?" “Both to be honest.” I said. “I’ve seen you personally slaughter billions...and you can just as easily kill the rest of us, but you’re not, and you’re most definitely not letting Nexus just run as rampant like they should be.” She smiled. "Chess is never fun when it's a one sided win. And it seems finally my opponents have newfound tricks up their sleeves. Tell me, do you know how many times you very four have walked this dungeon? Slaughtered it's enemies and claimed my tossed aside womb at the end?" “Now do you want the actual number, or the technical number?” I asked curiously. "Like I said, cycles, resets, same song by different artists." She said looking around. "From all of them, this is the first time I've ever been here to see and speak with you four." “So you do know about the resets…” I muttered. “So what’s with the sudden firsts? Want to see us succeed for once instead of losing in the end?” "Hm, if you want to believe that." Void Mother said, her tone still creepily peppy. “Alright...so at this point my question is, where is Belief?” I asked simply. “Cause if you're here, Nothingness Belief can’t be too far behind.” I said honestly, knowing something will happen and go horribly wrong. "My late lover won't be arriving. But, to the point of my visit, it's what you want, right?" “Yes, we would like to know why the hell you're here.” I growled, my fist trembling as Nothingness sparked against the constant Void she was making. "This dungeon. It was made for the plunderer to grow as they descend. But, you're stronger than the other times. Makes this too easy for you." “Oh no, we are literally months behind on this. You are not going to make this harder because ‘We’re too strong’.” I frowned. "And you can do what to stop me?" She asked with a smirk. "Besides, there is something I believe you would value above all else." “Cause why not…” I muttered. “Alright lady, what do you got for us?” "This is A war, if I am not mistaken. But it's three sided, not two. Possibly four." “Yes, we have our side fighting against you, we have Vincent and Nexus wanting to destroy all of Creation cause fuck it why not, and the forth…” I sighed out. “Alright yeah, I’m partly to blame on why there might be a fourth, but Truth is a prick.” I frowned, not really knowing who the fourth party was I just thought of an immediate powerful being that I promised to murder. "Close. Myself, Vincent, your own army, and Void Key. Nexus has always been… shared, between Vincent and Void Key. A hairline thick relationship of trust between the two. Vincent can control people, but Void Key could make monsters." “So you’re going to give me Void Key’s location so I can finally torture him for the rest of his life?” I asked curiously and a little too eagerly. "Close. You see, while you see us as one enemy, it's not the case. I'm a battery, so Vincent and Void Key do what I say to get what they need, but they are back stabbing sociopaths I don't trust as far as I can throw and that is very, very far. Void Key wants to replace me, and Vincent just wants destruction, both of creation and Void. So, I can gift wrap you his little pet Vilgax, in exchange for two things." “And what’s that?” I asked simply, not liking the fact we have to bargain with her. "Beat this place on the Max difficulty. Your rewards would also be quite equal to the normal level fives, and, find where my lover's body is in that realm you have control over." “The main reason we’re here is to get Nothingness Belief’s body back.” I said. “Cause his body is what is currently fueling Nothingness, keeping it as an actual part of Reality, so why we’re here is because it’s the second best place to get something that is impossible to get, the other being your Mushroom’s ‘Eternal Arena’ they set up not too long ago.” "Hm, good to know. But, his body is unique. The Mushrooms wouldn't be able to fetch it nore make a copy, it would have to be made from taking a piece of the original, and copied there." "You want King to use Starfish Clone on them." Jericho said, not looking at the Void mother. "That's right." She confirmed. “Sadly I have no idea where that Bonfire is, so this place might actually have a piece of Nothingness Belief here all things considered.” I said honestly. “We wouldn’t be here if we didn’t think it was possible.” I said, considering that technically the other reason we’re here is now moot because of Cript breaking Time. "Something from my love to find them, is that what you need?" “It’ll help make it easier to find I suppose.” I said honestly. “So find a piece of Belief and then beat this place on the hardest difficulty...that makes sense.” "I have something like that." She stated. “Well what is that something?” I asked curiously. Void mother began to raise a hand, reaching into the void bleeding wound where her heart should have been she reached in, and pulled out a single cloth wrap. Inside, showed hair. Just three strands. "All that was left when that fire of Nothingness took the rest of him. I may not have my heart, but I have my memories. Memories of love and the love we shared. Part of me, wonders, if I could be better, memories from the resets, of each, proved they still loved me. Makes me wonder." “Most everyone has a chance to become better.” I said honestly. “There is a chance...you just need your heart back, as well as Belief back.” I said simply. “So...just need to find a bit more than this to fix him right?” "Yes. But, if you try and find my heart, to that I say good luck. I have no idea where it is." "But your Mushrooms know, especially when all of them combine their power." I said honestly. "Maybe. Won't be easy either way. Especially if they recombine into their real self." "Real self?" I asked nervously. "Being as powerful as they, did you really think they were individual? They are numbered, marked as being the same being, despite being different in many ways. A good comparative would be Kingdom Hearts, Those twenty others technically make up one admin, as do those thirteen. When one, they return to being their true self, the Admin of Challenges." “So he’s technically the strongest being in all of Existance?” I asked nervously. "Well, yes and no. They are only as strong as they need to be to challenge their challenger. They keep it all fair." “True.” I said honestly. “God, that is going to be even more of a nightmare…” "Possibly." "So, there is still good inside you then?" Jericho asked. "Me, yes. A little, but… I'd be wary, others won't be so kind." Void mother said as she snapped her fingers. I felt the dungeon… shift. I felt my hair's stand up and everything instincts wise screamed danger. Been a while since I felt that. "Well...this is a nice change of pace." I said honestly. "This is… gonna be hard." Coco said. "Chow." Void mother said, leaving in a whisp of Void as the passivism field ended with her departure. "Christ…" I groaned as I fell to a knee, my own passivism aura fading. "Okay...just being around her is exhausting, and not because of the aura she has…"…" Everyone gave me a confused look. Okay word that differently. “I meant all the ambient Void she was producing was a bitch and a half to keep at bay.” I said honestly. “And that was just her standing there not doing anything…” I muttered while standing back up. With a nod I began to wonder just how much harder this had become. My one experience with a level five was not helpful and I worried for Kexez and Coco, while both capable level fives are pretty much bullshit. “Alright you two, just so you know, Level Five dungeons are absolute dog shit.” I said honestly. "Any recommendation?" Kexez asked. “Nope, cause no matter what you do, it’ll just keep throwing shit at you about as strong as you in a massive amount of numbers.” I said honestly. "Hmm…" Jericho pondered. "Kico and Cerex?" Jericho offered. "They… would help. At least with bosses." Coco said. “But when all the trash is stupid strong as is, we will need their help.” I said honestly. "True. Kico is small but a powerhouse and Cerex is a living tank." Jericho said. "So let's bring those two back." I said honestly. "Hopefully it doesn't make it even harder…" "Well, best get to it." I was back. My name is Kico I was small but strong, and my partner here/lover was Cerex. We are needed here. And we won't let down the people who fused together to bring us back. Yes we have our own bodies thanks to Starfish Clones and such but still, this felt… right. Felt like we had purpose to our newfound existence. “Alright, who do I need to punch?” I asked while cracking my knuckles. “Oh wait, I forgot...do our weapons fuze when we fuze?” Cerex shrugged, summoning Jericho's war axe, and then Kexez's Starlight Keyblade. "Looks like that has to be manually done I guess." They said, looking the two over. "So, how do we go about this love? I tank hits and you deal them?" “Sounds about right.” I said simply while stretching out a bit. “Yo Symbi, mind giving me two more arms?” I asked the fusion inside me. "On it." Symbie said. Her voice was… different, like a well unified chorus of voices. Two more arms grew out just below my current ones. The look wasn't too bad honestly. Might keep it. “Gonna need to get used to it, but now I can punch things even more so.” I said happily, equipping King’s Gauntlets and ready to start fighting. I watched as Cerex flip through the many various weapons available to them. "We need our own signature weapons." She sighed, flipping through many till she found something that peaked her interest. "This can work." She said. In a flash there was this round small arm strapped disk in her arm, with the grip of her fist showed a massive crackling Shield that was originally magic based before War code and energy flowed through it, creating a Violet shield around the good front half of her. “Cool.” I said while deciding to do the same thing, going through the massive catalogue to see what signature weapon peaked my fancy. As I browsed them I realized something. Putting the gauntlets away I looked at my fingers. They were more pony like from Coco, but with small pointed nails that mimicked claws. I checked my skill tree, and found that with a few points They became stronger. I could shift them, the normal nails now made of Dark Monofilament and I can cast spells from them, making magic finger guns. “Oh yeah, it’s all coming together.” I said with a grin as I started to fill out my skill tree for the plan I had. I discovered something interesting in my skill tree that was not in Coco's or King's. Stats Boost tree. The description was expected, increases stats by using skill points. It reminded me of Final Fantasy X sphere grid. Looking into it, it only unlocks at random. That was bull. In any case I boosted Agility and speed as much as I was allowed, and revived something unexpected. I was Gifted a Skill Tree. “Oh? A gifted skill tree?” I hummed. “What do you give?” Congratulations! You have maxed out your Speed Skill Tree. You have been gifted the Speed Force Skill Tree. Do you accept? Yes. No. “Gee I fucking wonder what my answer will be.” I laughed as I pressed ‘Yes’ on the skill tree to get the Speed Force Skill Tree. So far for this skill tree there was one option. Basic Speed Force level one. Taking it I felt that energy, Speed Force flow into me. My mind, and therefore Symbie, processed and recalled information faster, I had even higher senses and in, yes, .000003 seconds I ran around this whole room. This was gonna be useful. "Neat… what was that?" Cerex asked. “I maxed out a stat tree and got the Speed Force Skill Tree.” I said honestly. “I’m sure if you max out stuff you’ll get fancy stuff to.” "Cool. So, shall we?" She asked, motioning to the doorway to the rest of the floor. I was already at the door. This is gonna be fun. “As ready as I’ll ever be.” I said happily. The doors to the hall opened and we were met with Way more demons than what Coco, King, Jericho and Kexez had to deal with. Immediately Cerex took the Shield up and it held, but they were squeezing through. Between my raw strength, upgrades and Speed Force I was killing the stragglers. Each hit I did had them about forty thousand damage. About a tenth of most of these things health. Speed on my side, that little slice dealt hundreds of them in less than a second, made these things easier than they would be normally. The drops were also… amazing. The first one I killed exploded in a shower of rem, weapons, ammo, a reward person, surprisingly, and all kinds of stuff. Resources were already not an issue, this was gonna be the definition of excessive. It occurred to me that likely most adventures who do make it into a level five would only need to enter the first floor of a level five, kill a single enemy and be set for life. Mother, Void and otherwise only knows what the boss will give us now. “So...what kind of rewards do you think we’ll get?” I asked Cerex curiously. “Given that we’re already getting what the other floors gave all together and more.” "Kill first talk later sweetie." Cerex asked as there was still a floor of demons her Shield kept at Bay. With a nod I slid around the Shield, speed force letting all around me perceive time as stopped. I counted six thousand demons, normally there were just several dozen. I got to work, slicing up all these monsters without hesitation and in what was actually several seconds, to me felt like several hours, they were all dead. As I let Speed Force stop and my time perception return to normal, all the demons dropped dead and now Cerex and I were swimming in dropped rewards. “Halp~.” I whined, given that I wasn’t very tall I was kind of having a hard time staying above all the loot. Cerex swam through it all and pulled me out. She gave me a kiss before placing me on her back. "Well, this is useful. Looks like you found how to destroy a level five dungeon. At the very least, the common enemies. So, shall we collect all this then?" “I need to be taller…” I pouted cutely. Needless to say Cerex and I began auto collecting the stuff into our Assistants and people back home. Thankfully Cerex also has the Linked Bellies ability. Then we came across something I never expected to see. Alert! Assistant Storage Full. My jaw dropped. In my new and short existence, I never expected to actually max out an Assistants storage space. No one does. “Okay...so King is already starting to try and make the Assistant’s storage space the Infinite Storage it should have been.” I started. "In any case, guess we'll have to drop it all off at home, or rather, a starfish copy of us that'll be doing that. Clear up space for us." “Well, if I can connect this to the Armory/Treasury King has back at the castle, I’m sure we can just send everything there.” I said honestly. “And then the Nursery for all the new spouses.” "The nursery?" Cerex asked. “Er, that is the place right? Where all the spouses are when they tend to each other and the kids?” I asked nervously. "Yeah but if they are new… huh, well, the others can figure that out." With the use back home, King, and Cript our Assistants to a sorting and deposit system that will deposit and sort everything auto gathers into their proper places back home Cerex and I were able to gather up everything. It was around the end of collecting that all that I realized Speed Force had one, manageable draw back. Food. My body needed to eat now, and a lot of food to make up for it. Apparently for super speed and certain other powers, even an Admin body needed extra. Or, maybe that's just how the Admin of speed coded Speed Force to work. Either way I didn't mind; and no drinking my own milk, or Cerex's didn't feed the need. It had to be high calorie food, which I ate greedily. Once my appetite was filled we headed off, finding a chest which ended up being a mimic. This was the first time one had been seen, and it but into Cerex's arm, making a wound but I saw in my hud it didn't deal as much as I was fearing. Their tank biology was a blessing. Sadly they had little to no damage, so I rammed my claws into it's one massive eye, pulling out brains I was surprised it had. That killed it instantly, thankfully. Cerex's wound healed up and the Mimic corpse exploded into a small flood of… of… what was this? They were coins, clearly, but irradiated void unlike anything else I'd seen before, well, anything King had seen before. Only the Void Mother surpassed these coins, and yes it was by many incalculable leagues. “So...the hell are these?” I wondered curiously. “They don’t look like anything King’s seen before.” "Hmm." Cerex looked them over. "In Jericho's memories, they saw these before but never got a name, just knew the old Admin of War used them for opening portals to the void. But, the power they are giving off should mean they have more of a use than that." “Alright, well might as well check…” I muttered while using my Assistant to see what this thing is. It… could not make heads or tails of this either. Pun not intended. It just registered as an error. The void part of me from Coco was reacting with it, but I couldn't pull void from it nor use it. Instead, I thought of flowing void into it. Doing this made my body grow limp. I hit the floor, vision fading as I saw Cerex worry but couldn't hear them. The hell did I do?! Something felt wrong. I was in someone else's body, a very tall someone. And I was just a passenger, unable to move or have any control. I was just here for the ride. This person, male, clearly, and walking through the void. Memories. These coins somehow held memories. “What the hell?” I thought, confused about what's going on. I wasn't able to control my… host, for lack of a better word, at all so I watched as they walked this road. They wore a heavy set of armor and carried an equally heavy sword strapped across their back. As they walked they heard something. Rapidly they drew their massive Claymore, built with teeth along the blade and it glowed with a sky blue energy that seemed to be giving them a minor buff, but what I couldn't tell. "Show yourself, vial spawn." I felt them, and heard them speak through our currently shared mouth. Now that's an odd sensation. Around us, I saw them. Five Void Wolves. Their pitch black coats hid them well within the voids darkness, only their glowing red eyes revealed their location, that, and their light blue glowing claws. ”Let’s hope they don’t die…” I thought to myself nervously. My host spun their sword around. "Feral dogs, come at me!" My host cried out. Immediately, one of the Void Wolves charged them. My host side stepped them, slicing their toothed blade into the beasts open mouth, cutting a good chunk of it off as the void wolf fell dead behind them. The others all gave deathly loud howls. My host's ears began to bleed and while I was hurting from the pain, they didn't even flinch. The remaining four all charged them, my host leaped into the air with impressive height and skill. He can back down to earth, sorta, stomping on another wolves back. I felt and heard as the wolves spine and rib cage broke into many pieces, and for good measure my host decapitated them In a swift swing. They bounced back, the last three now savage with rage and desire to kill. I felt my host grab something, it felt like a grenade, and throw it at the wolves. They backed up and to my surprise there was an explosion of Nothingness thorns. One of the thorns got a wolf in it's leg, the whole body of it soon covered with them as it began to die. ”Oh...is this the Forest of Thorns? And why the hell is he using King’s Nothingness?” I thought to myself worriedly. With two left to fight my host raised their sword again. This time they charged the wolves. The two survivors seemed to have learned not to screw with this guy, and ran off, pathetic whimpers as they did. I felt my host smirk. "Heh. Tough yet smart." They then turned around, suddenly there was a woman there I am 99% sure was not there before. "Agava, what brings you to my backside this time? It better not be another dagger." My host asked. "No, not this time." The woman answered. She wore a black hood made from some void beasts pelt, carried many small daggers and knives along straps attached everywhere along her body. "I require a brute, and you're the only one I know of with a brain at least." ”This better not be an extermination of Void Wolves…” I thought to myself worriedly. "The work pay this time?" My host asked. The lady tossed something fast at them. My host caught it. Looking, it was one of these very coins. "Echoed Memories. Only thing worth the same power as we deletes." My host purred. "Care for the work Ket?" The lady, Agava, said. "What is it?" "Admins. The Delete hunter himself." "I am not suicidal." My host huffed. "Ain't enough Echoed Memories or Void Crystals in the damned void to get me to hunt that bastard." "Normally, I'd agree, but he's been crippled. There is a chance, while slim. The reward is enough to make the two of us legends and set up for the rest of eternity." "And just who is paying us this wealth?" My host, Ket, asked with reasonable skepticism. "The Void Mother Herself." I woke up back in my own body with a groan. It was… interesting, seeing someone's raw life played from their perception like that. "Oh thank God." Cerex said. I realized I was in one of their little stomach pockets. In a swift motion they pulled me out. "Are you okay Kico?" She asked me, extremely worried. "Lord is in trouble." I started. "People are after him...Void Mother hired bounty hunters to deal with him…"…” I started. “Ket and Agava…” "But, Lord isn't even in the Void." Cerex stated. "My link with Jericho remembers he is with Cript working on some project." Cerex said with an assertive tone. "Besides, even if that was true it would take a lot to kill that Admin. Assuming he isn't Deathless already like Cript." “They said he was crippled somehow...but I don’t know if it was not too long ago or if it was a long time ago…” I sighed out. "Well, one way to find out." Cerex said. “And that’s to warn him.” I said honestly. "Or ask." Cerex said plainly as we called up Lord. "Yes?" Lord's voice spoke up. His unarmored form was still hard to imagine given how his armor had him look. Then again, that was likely the point. “Do you know anyone by the name of Ket and Agava?” I asked curiously. "Hmmm… Ket and Agava… yeah, yeah I remember them. Why do you ask?" “Because I kind of...saw through Ket’s memories of how Void Mother hired them to kill the Delete Hunter, and you were the only one that King knew was called that.” I told him. "Saw through his… oh. You found Echoed Memories Coins didn't you?" “Oh so that’s what those things are.” I said honestly. “But yes, yes I did, and we have an entire bag full of them.” "Heh, the only things worth a trade without question in the Void, Echoed Memories Coins, and Void Crystals. Those coins there are the only proof that Delete ever existed. Typically once they die there ain't any normal means. And yes I am aware of the rule breaking method King made. Those coins exist cause I killed him." “Well alrighty then.” I said honestly. “But...curious thing, they said you were crippled, and also those assholes used Nothingness, how the hell could they use those items?” "While rare, occasionally Nothingness slipped into the void in one way or another. Largely it just appeared in dungeons pre weaponized. Still rare as all hell though. And Crippled? That was… right, I vaguely remember that day… Christ that was eternities ago." “But you're still alive, even if Void Mother specifically hired those two.” I said honestly. "Them and about several hundred other high ranked deletes from that era." "Alright. Just making sure everything's fine and you're not being hunted down at the moment." I said honestly. "Trust me, there are only two people who can have a chance at killing me, one is Cript here, the other is, well, doesn't matter about the other one. No way that can even happen now." "And now it's going to happen cause you said it can't." I frowned. "Cause jinxing shit is a pain in the ass." "Still, not possible. They're dead too." "Remember how Cript broke time and dead people came back?" I brought up. "Yes but… just trust me, they are gone. If you wanna know how, watch the rest of Ket's memories. You'll see how." With that Lord hung up, and Cerex and I shared a look. "So, gonna watch?" She asked simply. “Might as well, even if we’re still massively behind.” I said honestly. “Sorry, that’s a bit too much King talking.” "Heh, relax. Just one more, I'll stuff you away in me and make it to the boss door so once you are done, we can enter." “Alright.” I nodded. “Let’s get to seeing Ket’s memories…” I grabbed the next Echoed Memories Coin as Cerex stuffed me inside one of her belly pockets. With a small flow of void I entered the next memory. I was back in Ket's body. The Delete was carrying something heavy strapped to their back. What I don't know. "Are you sure this will work?" My host asked. "Definitely." Agava spoke, unseen from wherever she was nearby. ”Well, let’s see how Lord murdered these two and others?” I wondered. "How much further then?" Ket asked. "Not far." Agava answered. Her attire was different as she walked up into view. She was now wearing something like leather armor, her clock not even on her person, but her plethora of knives was. "Once we bring this prize to The Forge, the sick fuckers there can make a weapon with Mother tier kick. I felt and heard Ket Whistle when hearing that. I agreed with that assumption. "Alright, now you're talking." ”That would have sucked ass if they managed to get it.” I thought to myself. After a bit of walking the two arrived at a massive valley, irradiating heat and blask smoke into the eternal black sky. As the two walked down an old staircase, lava and other molten metals and such were flowing through tubes and poured into tubs that mixed them. In the center of all this mess was this… robot? Is that a robot? It did look robotic, steampunk too with a steam whistle in it's head, gears all within it's frame body. I felt Ket drop what they were carrying. "Forge Master, we need a sword." "Lots of people come here for swords." The robotic being before me spoke in a completely metallic voice. "What Kind, are you searching for?" "One that can kill the Delete Hunter." Agava answered. "Illogical." The robotic forge master stated. "Not with this." Ket said, stepping back, what he was carrying was twice his size, wrapped in dirty cloth. In a swift pull the cloth came off, and I knew what I saw. King had seen it before, but this… the ones King saw were tiny, this was the size of a person. A Time Crystal. ”Sweet baby jesus that time crystals huge!” I yelped in surprise. The mechanical Forge Master walked over to the giant Time Crystal. "Quite the temporal event. I dare not ask." They said, looking up to the two. "I can craft Chrono Weapon with this crystal alone. One with the power to not only displace, but erase the target from time itself, from every point in time." "And that, is how the Delete Hunter shall die." Agava said with wicked enthusiasm. I came back inside Cerex as expected, but they were asleep. Must already be by the door. Sighing I decided to take this time to think over what I have seen from those memories of Ket's. “So uh...how is Lord alive when… apparently they made a weapon that can erase someone from time itself?” I asked myself nervously. The thought of such a weapon was, honestly, Scary. So I called Lord up to get an answer real quick. "What now?" They asked, annoyed. "So about this Chrono Weapon you had to go up against." I started. "How are you alive when it, and I quote from the blacksmith that made it, Erase someone from Time itself." "I never got hit. Duh." Lord stated matter of factly. "But how is it possible to make something like that?" I asked nervously. "Time Crystals are rare and super small for a reason. To find one the size of the normal elemental Crystals is like shiny hunting in gen one Pokemon and to find one any bigger us like looking for one specific atom in the entire universe. They exist but their level of rarity is just not worth the effort. They are also illegal for obvious reasons, so when they tried and failed to kill me with it I destroyed the damn thing." “Ah, okay then.” I nodded. “Thank you, cause when that appeared I got...a bit concerned.” "It's all in the past. Literally. So don't worry about it, and stop calling me." With that, Lord hung up. "Rude." I frowned. "Alright, let's get on with the boss." After managing to wake up Cerex and get out, she and I got ready. Thankfully my time in her let her natural magic apply all those buffs to me. Entering, this room looked while in ruins, yet regal and all on fire. Adamn crawled out from the coffin, gauntlets broken and oozing raw power and void. "Damn." I started. "Well, let's start." I said while cracking my knuckles and preparing for a fight, all four of my hands crackling with energy. I went with Nothingness to counter the Void Adam was radiating and used speed force to get in hundreds of hits… and only to deal about 10% of their HP before I had to slow down. I rushed back behind Cerex and their shield as Adamn made their swing. Thankfully her shield held and was still holding. “Jeez, all of that and only ten percent?” I muttered. “This is gonna be a bit harder than I thought…” "I'll buff you while you're out. Just keep them distracted so I can get the ace card buff spell ready." “That I can do.” I said while raising all four of my arms and firing off bolts of Nothingness at Adam while moving around with my Speed Force to keep him from getting a chance to hit me. They chased me around, while fast not fast enough to grab me as Cerex was preparing a powerful spell. Matrixes and Mana flowing into the air. As much as I wanted to admire it, and her, I don't wanna get punched by Adamn. “Anytime now hun!” I yelped as I dodged a flaming fist projectile Adam threw at me. With a pulsating flow of power her spell impacted me. And I felt… good. So so good. I ran, Speed Force feeling unlimited as I gave Adamn a four fist punch. Dealing fifty percent of their remaining HP. With another four fisted punch, took them out, but first I brought out Salvation and rammed it into their back as they went flying. Time began to flow again as I let Speed Force stop and in my arms I was holding a tiny, baby Adam. “Sweet...the heck was that?” I asked Cerek curiously while tending to baby Adam. "Not long after I arrived at the castle, Twilight, Cript's Twilight found me and found out what I was basically built to do, so she gave me some buffer spells and others to use." Cerex said, slithering up and around myself and baby Adam. "So cute." “He is adorable.” I said warmly. Cerex took them from me, and rather than sending them down… wait, can she even do that? In any case she began feeding them. Baby Adam drinking away without resistance. “You know...I kind of forgot that we can all breast feed.” I started sheepishly. “So onto the next floor?” "In a moment." Cerex said, still happily feeding Adam. I gave a laugh and checked out the rewards… there were a lot. “Jesus...there is so much here…” I muttered. Looks like from this point on, we're golden. To be continued... Kite fights VincentBack in my life as Kite I walked over to the planning room where the others most likely were. “Hello?” "In here." I heard Sly call from the kitchen. Entering I saw everyone was here, cramped as it was around a table with some blueprints of the building. "Enjoy your nap?" Sly asked. “Not as much as I should.” I sighed out while grabbing a chair and sitting down. “So what’s the plan?” "In short, things are looking in our favor." Bentley said. "Meaning Mugshot has and is expecting us." Carmaleta said. "So we're gonna waltz right in and see what's up." Mom added with a grin. "We need to remember that Nexus and Cooper bots are lurking around." I said while taking a sip from my water bottle filled with thankfully fresh water. "An issue we sadly have no data on at the moment." Bentley said. "So we are gonna provide cover while you three deal with Mugshot." Uncle Jim said. "And us three would be me, Sly, and who?" I asked, slightly forgetting because of all the shit in my other lives. "Me." Mom said. "I want Answers. According to Mz. Ruby Mugshot can be trusted but I wanna see it for myself." "And from what we've learned is that Panda King is also trusting, especially since he made China an actual respectable place instead of a growing sapient's rights violation." "As far as we know at least." Matilda said. "Regardless, we have to deal with Mugshot first." Bentley said. "You three can enter once we've unlocked the main elevator. We already have the needed keys so it's as simple as knocking out guards and opening up the power switch." “Sounds about right.” I nodded. "Let's get going then." Mom said. “Let’s hope there aren't any ‘unwanted guests’...” I grumbled while finishing my water and getting ready to fight Mugshot. With a nod everyone got ready. Dealing with the guards was easy. They went down and were all promptly stuffed into a locked room, keys, wallets, phones and weapons removed. “Simple enough.” I muttered. “Now onto the big dog in charge.” With a click, flip and button push Mom, Sly and I were heading up to Mugshots penthouse. When the doors opened it was just Mugshot standing there. Part of me was happy to see him out of that suit. Still had the pants on but the top was off, a tank top was on and a lit cigar was in his mouth. "So, the three's of you all decided to come. Fair enough." He said, taking a long draw on his cigar. “It’ll just be easier to surrender Mugshot.” I said simply. “We don’t need to make this ugly.” "Heh. Cute. Gotta admit, your fancy powers, abilities. It's impressive, a sane man like myself would know better than to fight a super powered Cooper, let alone three. But You three haven't seen what I have, haven't heard what I've heard betweens Clockwerk and his financial supporters. It's bad. I gotta make sure you three can take him." “If you didn’t notice, one of Clockwork’s ‘benefactors’ tried to kill us not too long ago.” I frowned. “But fine, if you want to have a go, then let us teach you why you shouldn’t skip leg day.” "Who's him?" Mom asked. I was slightly confused what mom meant...before my fur stood up on end and my eyes widened at who I saw. “Everyone get out of here now!” I shouted while bringing out my Cane and sending twenty Ball Lightnings at our ‘uninvited guest’. In a blur I found myself alone, high atop the Casino. Standing across from me stood the only person who can make my skin crawl. Vincent. He leaned against several large crates. "You shouldn't be here." He said calmly. “Neither should you.” I growled while preparing to fight. “The fuck are you doing here Vincent?” "I am meant to be here. I know my history. You were never here. Originally." “Dogshit.” I frowned. “If you were here, then why hasn’t this entire world been terraformed by now? Cause playing by the rules isn’t your strong suit.” "You'd be surprised." He said, tone still that calm almost indifference. "Not every world I touch I kill right off. Fact is, slaughter gets old. And it's far more time consuming than you'd think. Besides, Nexus needs numbers, and it's easier to get them alive over taking them as corpses. I mean, Necromancy and Cybernetics are an option but eh, just gets old." I rolled my eyes. “Either way, so the fuck are you doing here?” "Honestly? Entertainment. The resources here are nice but, when you've lived as long as I have you need to find something to keep you thinking." “You’ve lost before and you’ll lose again you know that right?” I asked simply. "Hm." He hummed, smirking. "Win or lose it doesn't matter. I once just sat there, and watched everything play by and the ending was all the same. I never even lifted a finger. In the end, my job is always done. You've bought time, ironically by destroying it, but I've waited this long I can wait till the end." “It’s not going to matter cause I’m going to make sure all this,” I waved my arms around. “Stop’s being how it is and be truly free. I don’t know how or when, but I’m going to kick Truth out and get our world out of this Matrix level bullshit.” "Is this the part where you prove your point? Try and fight me to show me how strong you are?" “No, this is the part where I kick your ass.” I growled as I leapt forward with Skysplitter and swung down at the bastard. He didn't move. The edge of Skysplitter hitting him right to the head. There was an explosion and rubble and dust blew into the air. When it settled Vincent and I were still there. The roof was largely in ruins and he just looked at me from under Skysplitters blade. Unphased. "Isn't this the part where you kick my ass?" He asked, still speaking in his indifferent tone. I brought out my Cane and raided it into the air. “Grand Lightning!” I shouted as I jumped off Vincent and a massive bolt of lightning crashed down onto him, hoping to have done something. He still stood there. The concrete around him scorched but he was untouched. He just… looked at me. "Done yet?" “Oh come the fuck on…” I groaned as I fired bolts of energy from Interdiction, knowing full well that does damage to bastards like him even if I’m woefully underprepared. As the beams hit I saw him still leaning against that wall, the wall behind him crumbling and breaking until it was gone. Behind him now was just a wall of code holding him up now. I was panting. "My turn yet?" “Come on, how am I not even doing any damage here?” I growled, knowing full well Vincent is stronger than me but it shouldn’t be this large of a difference. "Does that matter?" Vincent asked, not standing up and walking up to me. "You say you want this world to be free, to remove or kill Truth and make it free. This reality is so finite. I've lived long enough to see time and time again. World, universes, cycles, they are born, grow, expand. Then, they build, materials go, Admins could care less. Even if time just goes to the end code itself even ends, and the Admins even die out. As does the void shortly after that, and it just repeats. A pointless cycle of rebirth and death. Freedom won't change that, delay, maybe, but won't stop it. You want to help the world?" He placed a hand atop my head. My blood chilled. "Die fast." I felt him… push. Yeah, push my head back and felt my body crash into… is that… that's the Eiffel tower. Hey I'm home… ouch… as I got up I saw the damage that… attack did… so much damage, and a massive ass trail. Vincent was walking through the ruined buildings he "pushed" me through. Stepping over or on corpses as he reached back to me. I switched to Master form and got back up quickly, holding my Cane and Frozen Pride. “I won’t die, and I’ll make you pay for all of this.” I growled. He sighed, hands behind his back as he stood there. "Too many times. Too often we've fought. Every time you're so self righteous and heroic. Sometimes, your more beasttial, primal or even savage. Just depends on what I did to you each time." “Then why keep this up? Why continue to do something that you think is ‘inevitable’?” I asked bluntly. “If you’re so knowledgeable on all of this, wouldn’t you have just stopped and been happy with the only person that ever loved you?” I asked. Vincent just looked at me, and gave a small grin. "Heh. I never loved her." It was a blur. Again I crashed far, slamming through buildings. Homes, hospitals, schools, stores and office buildings reduced to rubble. I had my Deathless healing, and each time I was about to crash land, Vincent was there, kick, punch, elbow or even slap me back across the globe. After a bit he started using baseball bats, tennis rackets. Entertainment, he had said. He is just playing with me. Finally I crashed back hard into the beach of Cane Island, Vincent sitting on the sand next to be as my Deathless body healed painfully. "So, is this the part where you get up and keep trying?" He asked, a bord tone in his voice. Book of Retribution fell to the ground and opened up to a very intricate and detailed page. “___” I ‘said’ as Pure Nothingness suddenly rushed out and rammed into Vincent, managing to push him back ever so slightly before it vanished. ”Out of mana!? Already!? Fuck!” I mentally shouted, hoping that spell would have lasted longer than what amounted to a sucker punch as the Lexicon disappeared as I used my Cane to help myself up. "Not bad. But your pronunciation was off." I looked up, seeing Vincent as he looked at me. "It's pronounced ____." An insult to my right, my being as he used Nothingness on ME! My Crown, my Adminhood was Nothingness… and he used it on me… fucking corrected me… I just layed there… how… how did Cript fight this bastard? ”Oh wait...I remember…” I thought to myself, as I felt my entire body pulsate and glow a dark red. “Haven’t used this in a while...but let’s give it a try.” I muttered as I managed to leap forward, feeling my legs crack as I swung my Cane down with one of the first techniques Cript taught me, using all my emotions, pain, regrets and sins into it. “Past Sins!” I shouted as I slashed down at Vincent in some last ditch attempt to do something to him. I hit down to the side of his head. For a while time seemed at a stand still as I made the impact. Our eyes were locked in this stand still. When it was over, I saw just a few bits of hair fall off from the impact. "All that for just some bits of hair?" “It means I can cut you, and if I can cut you that means I can hurt you.” I growled. "Bla bla bla bla bla." Vincent replied, standing as he kicked me down. I wasn't sent flying across the globe, thankfully, just to the sand floor. I was so tired… I haven't felt tired like this in so long. "You cut my hair, but blood would have been preferable. You're Deathless now, so I can't kill you. But, I can do one just as good." Vincent snapped his fingers. Appearing behind me was this… coffin of all metal… I could tell it was that Deathless harming metal. It had designs that were clearly old, and just radiated with an old power long forgotten. “Question…” I started as I coughed up blood. “How...did Eclipsa make that? I saw...in her memories how Cript told her about it...how?” He looked at me for a time. "You won't like the answer." He said, the coffin door opening. Inside it looked… actually kinda nice. Soft, comfy. He then grabbed me by my shirt and lifted me up. "Deathless like you, like Cript, can't die. But, you can sleep. These coffins were built to give you Deathless the closest thing to a death you can get. Litteral eternal slumber. This body you have, Kite, King, Diane and all those starfish clones. It powers down your code, your abilities. Your starfish clones will disband and even if you are fused to be one person with others be them proper fusions of this marriage one you got going on there you won't be able to hear or feel them, and neither will they once you're asleep in there. It's peaceful really." “Go...fuck yourself.” I growled as I weakly tried to fight against him. “But...what’s the answer I won’t like about Eclipsa?” He gave the smallest smile. "I promised not to tell. And I'm a man of my word." He started walking, lifting me by my shirt to put me in the coffin. I kicked, punched, and tried anything. As we got closer, each step I kept thinking back to my life. What I was, who I am now. This wasn't dying but it was just as bad if maybe worse. ”Damn it...I don’t want to lose everyone…” I thought to myself sadly as I continued to struggle against Vincent. As I headed to the coffin, blood feeling cold as dread overcame me, I heard a whoosh, a crack and was suddenly on the ground. Vincent stood there, arm missing from above the elbow as his hand and partle arm was still on my shirt, gripping and soaking me in blood. We both turned, there standing at the edge of the beach partly in the water was someone. They wore an all black armor that looked like a mix between combat and riot armor, a clock stretching along from their body as pitch black as the armor, and their helmet had a mask that covered their face. The shape of the mask was something between a gas mask and a plague doctor's mask all kept in an image near resembling a skull. "And just who the hell are you?" Vincent asked. His decapitated arm just let go of me, floated back to him and reattached and healed immediately. Clothing fixed too. The figure didn't speak, just stood there. A smoking rifle in their hands I could tell they kept on Vincent. Whatever the hell those bullets are made of, I'll take all of them please. I scurried away from the coffin towards the strange person. “Thank you...uh...whoever you are.” They didn't look at me. Keeping their eyes on Vincent. Their mask let out this… gas or something and they fired again, Vincent dodged but then I saw as the side of his leg had a small bleeding hole in it. "Hmm. Tracking bullets." He hummed, catching the bullet as his wound healed and pushed it out. He looked it over. "Huh… this is new." Vincent rushed, a blur passing me as he rammed into the mystery person. There was a massive plum of sand, water and just wet sand as he did. When it all fell I saw the mystery person and Vincent locked arms. The mystery person actually blocked his attack with their arm and Vincent was trying to push forward. "Impressive. There's only a small handful of people in creation who can do that, and I know them all… yet I don't know you." The mystery person managed to push him back, quickly pulling a small knife, the blade glowed a sickly blue as they swiped it at Vincent, who was dodging or parrying them back… who the hell is this guy?! They… they're keeping up with him! “Yeah...cause of course…” I grumbled, trying to recover my strength after all of that and let the mystery person deal with Vincent real quick. As the two fought the mystery person managed to get a cut in on Vincent. He stood there for a moment, watching as his wound kept bleeding. "Interesting." He hummed, dodging a stab attempt. Using their own momentum against them Vincent pushed the mystery person into the sand, the bullet he was shot with still in his hand. He looked at it. "Looks like this time around this cycle has a lot of differences." He said, snapping his fingers, the coffin vanishing. "Looks like for once I might have to start planning over relying on prior knowledge. This will be… Fun." I really, really really did not like the way he said Fun… it was a blink and he was gone, leaving me on the beach with mystery badass getting themselves up. “He stole one of your bullets...that’s not good.” I started. “Also...who are you?” They looked over at me. They looked at me for a long, long time before finally getting up, knocking off the sand and just began walking off to the beach. I watched as they walked on the water for a while before snapping their fingers. The portal they opened was… it felt like a DTL, DTN, DTG, and DTD were all swirling around in there. That energy alone made me feel… better? They entered and it closed. “What the fuck…” I muttered, before pulling up my binocucom. “Hey, can anyone hear me?” "Kite!" Sly came in. "Where the hell are you? There was just a blink and you were gone! Mom is worried and Mugshot is concerned! Next thing we know Bentley tells us there were earthquakes or something just popping up around the globe." “Remember that guy I told you all to get away from?” I asked. “Yeah so...we had a fight and he royally kicked my ass...so much so that I was ping ponged from France to China to Cane island.” "How the fuck are you alive?!" “Reasons I’ll get to later, but just tell Mugshot to give it up and give us the pages, I’ll head off to Panda King since I’m closer...our time table is getting a lot shorter because of this…” To be continued... Kite makes a Deal“Hopefully the Panda King isn’t being held hostage…” I said worriedly to myself, continuing my way to Panda King’s hideout on my glider. As I flew high above the ground I came across the location of Panda King's main HQ. The former village was now massive military compounds and- Bang! Crack! Shit! I regained control over my glider as a bullet cracked my helmet visor. Looking around I spotted the sniper… Cooper Bot, Carrying a very modernized version of Tennessee Kid Cooper's rifle cane. “Damn it…” I growled as I started to dive down and start moving in an erratic fashion to try and get that Cooper Bot to miss. “Looks like I’m not gonna get to Panda King this way…” Bang! Bang! Bang! Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! I winced as the bullets hit, they didn't go deep into my skin but they did bleed. Monofilament… of course! His aim must be augmented by the cybernetics too. Crap, If I can't dodge, I gotta hide… and my newfound free time back home just gave me the perfect means to! Rapidly I pulled out my Keyblade, casting Replicate as four identical copies of me appeared around me and we all circled around one another as fast as possible, then scattered and each went down in a different area. I landed myself behind a warehouse of sorts and pulled those bullets out of me. “God damn it…” I growled while using healing magic on my wounds. “Alright, so far Tennessee might be aiming for me...that sucks, but I might have to ‘play along’...” I sighed out, taking a quick look around to see where I specifically was. Taking a peak around the corner I spotted a truck load of crates filled with what smelled like Gunpowder. I cast Vanish on myself and quickly sneaked inside, seeing a massive chemical factory where Gunpowder, Sulfur, and various explosive compounds were being made. Finding the main pc here was easy and with my auto hacking feature Bently put on my cane I saw these were headed to Ammunition Production some miles east of here. Thankfully that got marked on my mask’s hud. “Alright, so far so good…” I muttered. “Might as well delay this shipment as much as possible, and also look for pages and where to find out how to get to Panda King…” I muttered while checking to see if there was anything else on the pc before leaving. Aside from shipment records and orders nothing much else was here. I was heading out when I spotted a familiar looking safe and happily used my magic cane to swipe out the pages for the calling card. Quickly and happily I ran out to the rooftop, getting a look for where I was meant to- Incoming Call from Bentley “Cool.” I muttered while bringing out my Binocucom. “Hey Bentley, how are you doing?” "There you are. Alright, So your mom and Matilda are quite upset you left for China on your own. But good news is Sly and Murray will be there shortly along with Uncles Jim and M for back up. Matilda did give me a list of locations she wants you to scope out while you are there for intelligence. I'm marking them on your hud as we speak." “Tell those four that we got Tennessee here, he forced me to make an emergency landing, and I also downloaded some shipment plans from Panda King’s computer.” I told Bentley. “Also I was the closest one here after...all of that…” "Tell your mom that. Hmm. That's a lot of explosive materials. Getting shipped to Ammunition Production. Panda King hasn't made any major moves at all, stockpiling up explosives and ammunition is quote concerning, but does raise the question as to why." “He’s probably trying to figure out how to fight back against Clockwerk, but given there’s a Cooper Bot here his hands are probably tied.” I said honestly. "Hmm… stockpiling ammo against Clockwerk and his army. With the whole of china under his control he'd have quite the army, the Cooper Bots would be the best way to ensure Clockwerk received some of that ammo too, weapons also. There might be a way to scramble Clockwerk's signal controlling them, but I'd need to learn just what frequency he is broadcasting on. It would have to be capable of long range transmission and likely bounces off several orbiting satellites across the globe, still if they are under his total control there must be a more primary receiver in the area that strengthens it across the area. Perhaps a cell tower or even a radio station could house the equipment." “I’ll look around for any towers. If Panda King doesn’t want to work with Clockwerk he would have made it obvious enough for us to find it, but subtle enough that it wouldn’t just have bright neon lights saying ‘destroy the tower’.” I said. “Tell mom and Matilda I’m sorry...again, for doing this crap…” I sighed out. "I will. Also keep a look out for those safe caches of Matilda's. I'm marking them on your hud too, Matilda says at least some should be whole still, and she recommends getting the big one first, would make a good HQ for you the the others." “Alright.” I nodded. “Anything else before I start going around?” "Sly and our Uncles are getting air dropped in a small town more inland, it's the safest place to have them arrive at and if you can meet them half way. They're supposed to meet up with a contact Matilda has that leaks info to her, but mostly it's orders from Clockwerk to Panda King. She'll be heading out in a few hours so if you wanna meet up with them catch her in the cargo truck headed for Spirit Pond City." “Cool.” I nodded. “Alright, better start stealing everything that I can carry and make my way up to the Panda King...hopefully there’s just the one Cooper Bot…” I made my way to the cargo trucks lot, finding the one I needed and waiting. The driver entered and drove off. I was hiding in the cargo and all was silent til we reached the main road. "Kite Cooper?" The driver asked, their voice quite soft and feminine. “Who’s asking?” I asked, ready to strike this person who apparently knows me. They took off their hat, revealing the… cutest panda lady I've ever seen. "I am Jing King, Panda King's daughter and Matilda's contact. I was told to expect you while I retrieve your brother and uncles." I couldn’t help but blush at how adorable Jing King looked. “Um...it’s nice to meet you.” I said sheepishly. “And yes, it is me...how long did you know I was there?” "I didn't, but I was told to expect you and I doubt you were going to introduce yourself to me when I got in the truck, so I just asked on a whim." “Fair.” I said honestly while sitting down in the passenger's seat. “So...how has everything been going since your father is...basically under lock and key?” "Father is keeping well under the pressure. He knows Clockwerk suspects but as long as he follows orders he can only keep his Cooper Bots patrolling the country. They are the bigger threat here, as well as those Nexus members he stationed within the production factories." “Okay...so you're going to have to tell me everything you can Ms. King.” I said, admiring her cuteness having to be dropped for some important things. “How many bots, and what did those Nexus soldiers look like?” "Three bots, and most of the Nexus ones are always armored. Save for three. They must be siblings or something cause they look completely identical." “Crap…” I muttered. “Alright...so what did the three bots look like? Cause I have a general idea of what one of them looks like but I want to make sure.” "Better yet, I know who they are. Tennessee Kid Cooper. Alexander Von Cooper, and lastly Zhang Li Cooper. Out of all of them Alexander is the strongest. In life he was a one man army, breaking into the most secure and fortified of Russia's banks and buildings for sport." “Sweet lord.” I blinked in surprise. “Didn’t expect that…” "I don't know anything else, but I am worried. Clockwerk put in orders for parts. They all go to quite the large cannon." “That’s not good at all…” I said worriedly. “So question...where’s the radio tower that’s helping Clockwerk control the Cooper Bots?” "The what?" “Clockwerk controls the Cooper Bots through some signal or another.” I clarified why I was asking this. “Is there any place that gives off a signal like that? Like a tower or a building that seems to have a little too many people around that isn’t the factory?” "Hmm… several Actually. Most used to be for local tv news or radio. I know some got fortified and have guards but I just assumed they were using them as a communication center… perhaps both." “How many buildings were there?” I asked curiously. "That I know of, six. There might be more around the country but I know is six." “From what I’ve learned back where Muggshot was, it needs to be close by, especially given that we’re in the mountains.” I said honestly. “I...really wanted to talk to Panda King about this crap and not have to deal with this garbage…” I groaned, rubbing my temples. "As long as the Bots and those three Nexus heads are running about, Dad has to stay still." I wanted to make a joke about ‘winning the princesses hand’ but decided against it. “So how long have you been doing shipment duty?” "The last year or so. Father didn't want me anywhere near those Nexus when they were meeting with him and reporting to Clockwerk, so no one batted an eye when I was placed in a fairly easy and safe job. From there we planned on making contact with the rebels and thanks to father often scheduling me on the longer trips easily snuck information out into the mountain villages where the rebellion has a few members and Clockwerk's grasp is less." “Perfect.” I nodded. “He knows what he’s doing, and you're also doing a fantastic job of this Ms. King.” I said, sticking to calling her ‘miss’ just to keep some formality given that I am speaking to the ruling parties daughter...and I didn’t want to say anything dumb to this cute as hell panda. "That's a great honor coming from a Cooper." She said, looking sad now as she slowed the truck and parked it. "I know my father has harmed and damaged your family. There was no honor in his actions, and the consequence is the world we see now." “Well…” I sighed out. “We all make mistakes...hell, I’m pretty sure none of them expected Clockwerk to do half this crap…” I shrugged. “But all I know is that...I’m still gonna have to fight him, beat him...and then maybe…” I trailed off as I blushed brightly at the thought. “Uh...never mind…” "My father expects you to fight him. Wants you to. Wants to know you will truly earn your right that he and the other Furious Five took from you. To know that you will emerge victorious against Clockwerk. He will pay for his dishonor and sins in prison. I will pay for them another." I coughed out ‘be my girlfriend’, it was about as subtle as Murray in an all you can eat buffet. “Sorry, I coughed…” I said sheepishly. She then looked at me, tears forming. "Kite Cooper." She said so strongly I sat up straight. Then, she bowed at me. "Please, to repay for my father's sins and crimes against both your family and the world, I offer myself in eternal servitude. If you accept, then myself and my decedent's shall serve the Cooper Clan til all this blood has been washed clean from us, or until the King Family dies out completely." “You’re too cute to be bowing to me princess.” I said quickly. “Uh...I mean…” I took a deep breath. “Please don’t do this ‘eternal servitude’ thing...me beating your dad is good enough, and I was sure I was gonna have to beat him to ask you out on a date first.” "So… you would have me as your family's private Brothel?" She asked, looked quite scared and blushed as red as I am now. “Lady, I’m asking you to be my girlfriend, not join in a brothel!” I told her while grabbing both of her...ho crap her paws are stupid soft. “Listen.” I shook my head, trying to get past how soft and furry her hands are. “Are you cool with harems?” "I was raised in one… sorta. Father had two wives, one my birth mother, the other was a devoted servant who mother and father would…. Share company with every so often. Sadly she and mother were poisoned by rivals of my father." “That’s terrible.” I frowned. “But...so I’m kind of dating Matilda as well...so are you okay with this?” I asked, staring her in her soft, beautiful eyes…”Jing, why do you have to be so adorable and beautiful at the same time?” I blushed brightly. "So… my punishment is to be betrothed to you and your mate Matilda?" It took so much willpower not to headbutt the dash of the truck. "That is acceptable, yes." “What does Panda King teach you?” I asked. “This isn’t a Punishment to you, you have nothing to do with Panda King screwing up like that.” “Like you inherit the legacy of your ancestors I inherited the same… and you see what my father left me. Intentional or not, mistakes or not, family rights the wrongs of their ancestors, one way or another. Better I than another down my bloodline." “I...guess that’s understandable.” I sighed out. “Now then, shall we continue? I imagine your brother and uncles must have arrived already.” “I can’t wait for Sly to start teasing the hell out of me…” I grumbled. “Let’s get going.” She started the truck up again and we were off. Spirit Pond City was like Venice Italy, but all the buildings and bridges had a mix between classical and modern chinese design. It was all so beautiful. We parked in an alleyway and I ran to the rooftop to scout out where Sly and the uncles were. “Well...this place certainly is pretty…” I muttered while bringing out my Binocucom and looking around for everyone. After a bit I spotted a Cooper Calling card on the water tower of a building a few blocks down and headed over. Once there I knocked on the water tower and the trio got out. “Good to see you again.” Sly said, giving me a pat on the head. “Hey bro.” I said. “So uh...sorry about….before.” I said nervously. “You mean picking a fight with a guy who literally punched you across the planet… SEVERAL TIMES!” “It was either me getting punched or you being atomized.” I frowned. “I don’t even wanna know how you know him. I know you explained a bit but still, try and not to give everyone a heart attack.” “I thought Coopers did that normally?” I joked. “Normally no one survives getting punched across continents and oceans.” Uncle M sighed. “Felt my heart stop for a second, now I’m considering replacing it with an artificial one if this is going to be a regular thing with you.” I sighed out. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you all this much…” I sighed out. “So, onto more important matters. We have a three cooper bot problem, Tennessee, Alexander, and Zhang Li kind of problems.” Jim sighed. “Alexander was Conner’s Grandfather, that’s not gonna be good, you already met your grandfather, that’s the guy who raised him. Tennessee is gonna be an issue… Zhang Li… Hmm… She was that Spirit talker right?” “Yes, she could call forth and get the aid of spirits to aid her in her thefts. Often she’d have them scare the guards away so she could walk in without issue.” M stated. “If she retained her ability, then who knows how many spirits she recruited.” “Wait...if she’s Chinese by the name and she calls on...oh for fuck sakes we have an Onmyoji to deal with.” I groaned. “I’ll call Matilda. We still have the anti specter gear back in the vault, right?” M asked. “Yeah, in the lower storage.” Jim confirmed. “Can your Keyblade hurt ghosts?” I pondered that. They weren’t able to hit those Pirate guys in KH2 til they were under Moonlight… what are the rules there then when fighting ghost enemies? “It...depends on the rules of the world to be honest.” I said. “Cause in another world, the only way you could hurt specifically cursed people was when they were under a full moon and showed their cursed forms.” I shrugged. “What’s the rules on ghosts here? And also...how high ranking was Zhang Li if any of you know?” “Her full potential was unknown, she sadly was burned at the steak. But, Clockwerk did snatch her up, one of the few times he made a public appearance. Many were slaughtered, and Zhang Li met the same fate as Coopers of the past, saved by Clockwerk just so he could kill her personally. As for ghosts most anything magical can repel, hurt and even kill them. Again, the family cane has absorbed enough life force over the generations it has been passed down it can physically interact with the spirits.” M informed. “Alright, so then Keyblades can hurt them.” I nodded. “But uh...don’t be surprised if you see things that aren’t just ghosts...considering Nexus is here and this world is a lot more magical than I originally thought...we might actually be seeing a lot more dangerous stuff.” I said nervously. “God do I wish we had anti scrying stuff right now…” I blinked… Oh Time Walker. Time froze. “What?” The walker asked, walking out from behind Uncle Jim. “Need something so soon?” “Got any Anti Scrying gear or spells I could learn? Cause I’m dealing with an Onmyoji, and I don’t know how powerful she is...but mind if I get a run down on Zhang Li Cooper? Cause from what I remember in ancient China, Onmyoji were basically Chinese Wizards with Political Power, so why was she burned like a witch?” “Yes and sure.” He said, throwing me a packed Duffle Bag that materialized in his hand. “Zhang Li Cooper was one of the few Coopers born highly attuned to the magic of the world, while all Coopers have this ability to a degree enough to make and use their tricks, hers was on another level. She didn't just talk to spirits, she could pull them out of the afterlife, giving them temporary life, and if it was a demon or similar being was pulled through, they also received bodies of flesh and blood, but were bound to her. While she did become an Onmyoji, her thefts were overlooked given she stole from bandits and such, until one day wastern travelers saw this. They were outraged that her village praised her for her powers, so they slaughtered her village and began to burn her alive, or tried to. Clockwerk came in, killed the travelers and saved her, just to kill her personally.” “Okay, now that makes sense.” I said honestly. “And yeah...I shouldn’t be surprised...now is she capable of other magical stuff besides summoning spirits and demons? If memory serves they do talk about a lot of mystical stuff other than summoning spirits.” “Transmutation of lesser materials into things like Iron, Steel, even Gold and Gemstones, complete control over the natural elements and was a master in every form of hand to hand combat for the era. Also a master with a blow dart gun, knew her poisons too, how much of what type ment the difference between sleep, paralysis, near death illness, and instant death. She also learned by channeling magic directly into her vocal cords she produced a hypnotic melody that depending on tone and pitch put everyone in hearing distance to sleep, made them fight one another, or made them obey her every word for a full day. Oh yeah, she also had pets.” “Jesus damn is this lady accomplished.” I said in surprise. “And what are her pets?” “Dragon, Bicorn, Gargoyles, a few dozen vampires, a demon lord and… Oh right, a fallen god.” HOW?! “So how in the name of hell is she under Clockwerks control when she can easily break whatever mind control he has over her and kick his ass if she has a fallen god at her beck and call, as well as a demon lord?” “It’s not the transmitters or even the robotic body that’s holding her back, that actually had no effect on her… it’s the Cript acting as her master. Cript V788. Known on countless now long dead realities as Cript the Enslaver. You can guess why.” “Oh you have got to be kidding me…” I groaned. “Okay...so how do I save her from this then if the transmitters or robot body aren’t affecting her?” “Enslaver has the power of total control over anyone he marks, even if he dies that mark won’t leave and they will follow their last order, and Vincent took his ability to die, which leaves you one option in dealing with him to free her.” “Force him to let her go?” I asked. “Cause I doubt killing her would solve her problem given it’s a Cript.” “No, It’s an ability. Your Cript has it and can give you it also. Consume. It’s Copy Cat’s evil, ugly, lesser talked about brother. You literally absorb everything about that person, their soul, power, memories… flesh, and assimilate it into yourself. You’d get very powerful and control over everyone he has marked.” “So now the question is, how to contact Cript about this, cause I’m not falling asleep for a while now.” I said nervously. “Who hath summoned me!” SHIT! I jumped. Fucking Cript! I turned to see them laughing at me. “I have been sitting on that one for years.” “Don’t scare me like that asshole.” I snapped. “Nearly gave me a heart attack…” I took a deep breath after that. “That was the point.” Cript chuckled. “So, Consume… Hmm… You sure?” “If it’s to save my family, then yes.” I nodded. “Plus, one less evil Cript on our hands.” “True and sadly that is way too long of a list… Fine, but you will not enjoy it, and you will regret every second you have it once you use it.” Cript said, holding out a hand to me. “It’s worth it to save my family.” I said while taking his hand. “All I’ll need to know is if I can free them afterwards.” “Alright.” Cript said, there was a pulsation of energy through me as he gave me the ability. New Ability Obtained: Consume No Higher Rankings. VIctim must be weakened or weaker than yourself before used. The fact it says Victim is concerning... “Okay then...so how do I use it? Also...how the hell am I going to get a Cript weaker than me or weakened without being marked?” I asked nervously. “Fighting him won’t be like fighting me, Vincent or Lord, I’m… We’re all built differently, he’s powerful yes but from what I can sense from here he’s on your level, the other two are a bit stronger but you should be able to handle them too.” Other two? Right… that ‘siblings’ Trio is three Cript’s... “What are the other two Cripts?” I asked nervously. “Cript P955 and Ey57. Cript the Vampire and Cript the Predator. Vamp is a sorta hybrid of a Psychopath and Delete, Predator is a wolf beastial, like yourself, but hunts down whoever Vincent put’s on his kill list or guards wherever he is told to guard.” The time walker said. “Why did it have to be a Delete though?” I whined. “I said sorta hybrid of the two.” Time Walker shrugged. “I don’t know the full details but your Nothingness can nullify his Void so, not too much of an issue there.” “Alright, that’s good.” I nodded. “Uh...how many times can someone use Consume if I may ask?” "Unlimited, but like I said, you won't like it." Cript sighed. “Alright.” I nodded. “Thank you Cript, I’ll make sure not to abuse it.” "Trust me, you won't. At least you won't want to." With that, Cript left. The Time Walker just shrugged then vanished too, time flowing like normal again. "What the? Where'd the bag come from?" Sly asked. “Anti Scrying stuff I got from...a friend.” I said while digging through the bag to find something to help us not be spied on. "More stuff I'd rather not know then… fair enough." "So what's our first objective then?" Uncle Jim asked. After a moment I raised my Cane up and a soft glow appeared on the walls. “Alright, cool.” I nodded. “So our first objective should be disabling six radio towers that Jing told me about.” I started. “Now it’ll only affect two Cooper Bots sadly...I’ll have to take care of the person controlling Zhang Li...oh, and also Zhang Li is kind of...no not ‘kind of’, she’s actually overpowered as shit.” I sighed out. “The one controlling Zhang Li...I have to deal with, not because you people can’t handle him...but the only way to free Zhang Li is for what I’m able to do.” "So we split up then?" M asked. "Uncle Jim, M and I can take out the radio stations and you can free Zhang Li. We can use the Keyblade Gliders to each take out the two we need to destroy and hopefully M can find any others we might need to take out." "Should be easy if they are transmitting to one another as well, which they likely are." "You got the locations?" Sly asked me. "I'm gonna have to ask King about them, but they are probably the most guarded and fortified out of the bunch." I shrugged. "But be careful, Tennessee is out there and he is pretty good with his rifle." "You made contact with Panda King?" Uncle M asked. "Just with Jing, she drove me here while Panda King is being held under lock and key." "Ah, so she is Matilda's contact." "I'll let her know the plan and that we'll all meet back up here. You just try not to get punched to the moon, alright?" Sly asked me. “Just be careful...Zhang Li kind of has a...Demon Lord and a Fallen God at her beck and call.” I said sheepishly. "Huh. How did she manage that?" Sly pondered as he headed down to where Jing was, Uncles M and Jim brought out Keyblades and shifting them to gliders and I did the same as we all went off. Enslaver was around Koff Village. It was a rather isolated place within the mountains according to Bentley. Once there I saw a fortified metal base built within several of the surrounding mountains and just hollow scraps of where a village once was. “Jesus...well I got the right place though…” I muttered while starting to do some recon on the base, wondering where I could sneak in at. I climbed down to the base outside from my location. No vents, no doors, at least none that I can see… odds are inside is a pocket dimension… how can I get in if there aren't any doors or vents? “Uh…” I started as I poked one of the walls with my Keyblade, trying to visualize there was a door there in some vain hope that it would be that simple. It wasn't… how do they get in… maybe… that blue hand dot thing? Fuck I don't have one, doubt I can make one and Coco got hers removed a while ago… maybe… I looked around for a quick bit, seeing no one as I breathed in, my abilities have been returning and I should have enough for… I blinked, now taller and in a human body again, not my own. I pulled out a small mirror I keep on me and saw my reflection, and saw Heart's old human form looking back. On my, his, eh, on the hand was the Nexus blue dot. Heart hasn't used their old human body in a while anyway, might as well make use of it. I placed the hand with the dot on the wall and immediately in white lines a door took shape and opened. “Alright, cool.” I muttered. “Let’s hope this won’t end poorly…” I walked inside, seeing the familiar Nexus style walls as I walked around, having zero idea where I even am. I found another door and inside that was some kind of shooting range. I spotted Nexus soldiers taking aim at targets with guns made from Monofilament, bullets too. Some looked at me but paid no mind it seems. Interesting. I wonder. I walked up to one, wondering if I could get information. “Hi.” I started off simply. They looked over at me for the longest time, or at least what felt like a long time. "Hey. What brings you to the shooting range?" They replied simply, flipping through a magazine… Nexus Weekly? Really? “Practice makes perfect ya know?” I shrugged. “Plus a lot of people tend to be here when we’re doing absolutely nothing.” I said, which seemed to be the case at least on first glance given how many people are here. "Heh, fair enough. Honestly as cadets they make service sound like a constant adventure, half the time the machines do all the work and the labor they put on C level Cript's. I swear most of us these days are just filler. Speaking of, what level Cript are you?" I was stuck for a moment… "He's obviously B or C too Sam, they're the only Cript's that talk to us without an order and a threat following like those A and S level assholes." Another agent who was at the shooting range said. “Yeah, sounds about right.” I nodded. “What rank are you than...Sam I believe?” "Same as everyone, just a basic agent. I get told where to go, what to do and do it until told otherwise." Sam said, taking off their helmet. They weren't a Cript, they were a cyclops actually. Very human looking save for the single large eye. "No offense but it feels like more and more of you Cript's show up to run things. Be it general maintenance and labor to the fighting. Not even sure why King Vincent has us around anymore." “Cannon fodder mostly.” I sighed out. “A and S class Cript’s normally laugh about it, and I’m pretty sure our boss is laughing about it as well, wherever the hell he is.” "Who knows. They get their orders from the king and if we're needed we get orders. Can't say I envy them though, dealing with Vincent directly can't be fun. Just wish I had their luck with women through." “Oh? Why’s that?” I asked innocently, taking a seat and knowing that if I can gain the infantry’s trust I can start doing some pretty drastic things later on. "Well, take Enslaver. He's enslaved entire universes and all his wives were and technically still are slaves, but they all fell for him willingly as they served him! They were even tested and it wasn't Stockholm syndrome. Though from what I hear the pocket reality he keeps his slaves in is actually kinda nice." "True, and the few times I've seen him with one of his girls they look well fed and have such damn sexy outfits." Another spoke up. "Then you have Vamp, the freak somehow got a ring on this S level Delete chick who is the definition of crazy and more than strong enough to wipe this reality and some others off the face of the void. Then there's Predator. Has a big pack of fine females he won over through displays of skill and strength. He didn't even do that to show off for then, he was just sent on a mission for that world and they saw him do the shit and followed." "Eh, wolf's are weird like that." Another agent said with a shrug. “Right, and what’s stopping you from getting someone nice?” I asked curiously, now feeling a little worse now that I have to take away someone’s life when they apparently have a family of their own. “And mind if I ask where the boss’s normally hang out at? Just as a quick side note on where not to go given they might not take too kindly to that.” "Predator I think is guarding some project under MT Fuji, Enslaver I Believe is with his newest wife in his quarters here and Vamp is… actually, where did Vamp go?" "Who knows, he vanishes all the time." "In any case my lack of luck in love is that I never get sent anywhere with cute girls, just these ugly mugs." Sam said, giving a wave to all the male soldiers around. "I mean, maybe I could find a local girl but physical differences aside how many would be willing to date a guy who is invading their planet?" “Are….are you serious?” I asked. “You...do know that’s some people’s fetish right?” I asked. “And also, you need to just take a crack at dating someone. They don’t know your invading, just wing it and get a date with a local girl.” "Even so, we don't have clearance to leave, one of the S class Cript's would have to allow it, and I doubt they would say yes even if we are already doing nothing." “Has anyone ever asked? And what Class are our bosses if I may ask?” I asked curiously. "S." “So let’s ask one of them?” I asked. “It does everyone here literally nothing just standing here doing nothing.” "We don't have that level of authority to just up and ask them… but, maybe they'll listen to you. You're family, right? I never actually understood your relationships, but they do listen to all the C and B ranked Cript's so maybe you can get something worked out." ”God your going to make me feel terrible here…” I thought to myself bitterly. “Won’t know unless I try, and sadly all of the bosses are either busy or somewhere we don’t know about.” I started. “And one of them is behind me right now aren’t they?” I asked, knowing Cript enough that any Cript might just appear behind me just to spite me. "Uh, no. Like I said though, Enslaver is on a date in the lower levels with his newest girl, maybe you can wait around till he's done and talk to them? Sub Level 978, room 887." “Alright, and sorry just uh...the higher class Cripts have this bad habit of appearing right behind you when you mention them.” I said, my voice filled with experience and annoyance at that kind of crap. "If you actually pull it off I'll buy your drinks." Sam said with a chuckle and a shrug. “I’ll keep you to that.” I chuckled as I got up and headed off to find the elevators to the Sub Levels. ”Well so far so good.” I thought to myself. ”I certainly hope his new girlfriend isn’t Zhang Li...cause if it is than that’s going to fucking suck...I wonder if Consume also replaces you as that person, not just the powers?” I mentally wondered, not wanting to leave all the people that weirdly do fully care about Enslaver. I arrived at the area and it was a food court of all things and God damn it. I sat a few tables away with a plate of fried chicken as Enslaver and the… very well detailed, compared to the other Cooper Bots, Zhang Li were sitting together, eating and laughing. Enslaver looked… honestly like he hasn't slept in a while, pitch black hair all wild and wearing some blue jeans and a brown hoodie. ”Oh you’ve got to be shitting me.” I thought to myself worriedly, rubbing my temple as I had to figure out how to not piss off my ancestor but also deal with Enslaver. ”Okay...so I’m back in time, before me, myself and I came here, I need to remember that bit that I was told like...three times before…” I mentally told myself, needing to remember this is the Admin Games, and my Time Walker even telling me that. ”Just need to wait for their date to stop...or for one of them to notice me...I’m so glad I put an anti mind reading spell on me before coming in here…” I was playing mental ping pong at this point. As I did so I decided to listen in on this date. "So how did Growth react to seeing you again?" Enslaver asked. "He was so happy, and he was a good boy." Zhang Li said. "Well he didn't go off and blow up the planet so yeah, that is good." "I train my fallen gods well." She laughed. "It's been amazing seeing all my pets again. So much changed about the world." "Yeah…" Enslaver sighed, looking up as Zhang Li put a hand to his. "I know you feel bad about all this, suppressing my powers, marking people." "It doesn't exactly get easier. Except when it's a really bad guy like a murderer or pedophile, then I am happy to mark them and work them to death." "Something we can agree on. Speaking of how come I'm not in the field?" "Dad's orders were just to keep your powers suppressed and controlled, I don't have to put you in the field to work, frankly I think that's the last thing he wants." "Cause Clockwerk's mechanical body he shoved me into doesn't affect me?" "Probably. I just do as he says, can't question it unless I wanna get reprogrammed or worse. Been even more of an ass than usual with his Heir project in the works." "Another sibling?" "Supposedly going to be the most powerful Cript as of yet. Honestly if he can make a sibling as strong as himself you'd think he can at least give us all different names." ”Alright...so Enslaver is a good guy…” I thought to myself. ”And he must be talking about my Cript…” "So… fifty others?" Zhang Li asked as Enslaver went a shade of pink. "Well… it just sorta happened. I didn't even believe it at first, but the tests for Stockholm syndrome were negative, so, yeah…" "Any kids then?" "Yeah. Honestly they're the reason I keep everyone in that pocket dimension. I don't want them to see my work… or to know what life here is like." "And how do you care for all their needs? Your other wives I mean?" "There is a reason I have all these bags under my eyes." Enslaver said with a laugh. ”Huh…” I thought to myself, thinking on how to help these two. "So, am I going to meet them?" Zhang Li asked. "Oh, well, if you want yeah. I can send you into the dimension and I guess I'll just find busy work here to do til you get back." Enslaver replied. "You won't get in trouble for sending me there?" "I have a feeling dad would prefer you stay there since you actually can't get in or out of that pocket dimension without my say so. I know it sounds like a prison that way… technically because it is, but since the inside of it can be made to be whatever I made it nice and very livable." "All these abilities, your father gave them to you?" "Heh, you can say that. He has all these different abilities saved up in caches all around and keeps the ones like what I have and the others all for himself in his lab." "That's pretty interesting." I thought to myself. "I hope they don't notice I'm listening to them though…" I’m listening in…” I mentally added. “What are the others like?” “Heh, where to start. Well, about half are human, like me… though It is debated on if Cript’s are our own race or human. Some are like yourself, beastials, or rather, anthropomorphic animals, and some other various races from across my… job…” “And they all live well together?” “Very, actually. It’s pretty surprising how well they all co-exist. So, ready to head in?” “Yes, but how may I speak with you once inside?” “Oh, there’s this PC in there, you know, like the one I showed you, that you can use to call me. The others can guide you on how to use it.” “Right then.” Zhang Li said with a nod. Enslaver snapped their fingers as a door sized portal opened next to their table. “I’ll call you later then, heh.” She said with a smile as she walked in. Once she did the portal closed. Enslaver immediately looked more down as they pulled out what looked like a smart phone and began messing with it. ”Now’s my chance…” I muttered while standing up and walking over. “Hello sir.” I said, given that he was ‘my boss’, I still had to act the part. “Hey…” He said, looking at me with a raised brow. “What’s with the outfit?” It was then I realized… I’m actually still in my thieves outfit… Wow and nobody else brought that up? Huh, either Cripts always dress weird or they could have cared less. Now thankfully it fit my entire body like it was designed for this body. “Uh...Sly Cooper Fan?” I asked sheepishly, hoping that lie would stick considering the game might exist in the multiverse even if we’re on the planet. “No one else questioned it…” I muttered sheepishly. “Heh, must be pretty sweet for you then.” Enslaver sighed as he looked back at his phone. “I hear he has a brother on this reflection. Kid or something.” “Kite sir.” I corrected. “But I’ve come to ask for something important sir.” I started carefully. “Me and several other recruits...would like to actually be ‘out and about’ on the world, and not...well, effectively wasting everyone’s time doing nothing to be frank sir.” I said, just throwing out being subtle here. “Ugh… I know there’s basically nothing for them to do, but protocol is there for a reason. No one is allowed to leave base without orders giving the proper clearance. Besides, it’s not like they can be very ‘out and about’ with the locals. We are invading their world, mining the Monofilament out of it, and the people taken in have been put to work against their wills so… not like we’ll be welcome anyway.” “Okay sir…” I sighed out while taking a seat. “Do you want me to be blunt sir?” "You're clearly going to anyway." “There’s more to life than work.” I stated bluntly. “And we both know it’s true...you’re wives are proof of it to you, and me being stupidly excited to be here as well. But why are we still following orders we clearly believe are wrong?” I asked carefully. "Well, cause Dad will reprogram, recycle, or up and kill me if I don't follow through, kill my family, and kill the foot soldiers around. I just gotta wait for him to finish Heir, King and his other high priority projects and I will become unneeded and can retire. Especially when King gets made, basically way worse than my powers are." "Well...I think there's another way sir." I brought up. "And I believe Zhang Li and Kite are the key to it." I said honestly. "Is that a pun because of his Keyblade?" "No, and I'm sorry for the pun sir." I said sheepishly. "Well, regardless I honestly don't care if the guards all take time off for fun, hell I'd love to do that too but unless dad was off planet for a while I don't see that happening anytime soon." "He's still on the planet sir?" I asked worriedly. "Yeah, and pissed to all hell. Don't know why." “No idea.” I shrugged, that being a half truth given I didn’t know why that bastard was pissed fully but having an idea. "So, what's your designed purpose?" “Stealth.” I said honestly, which wasn’t wrong. “Which is kind of why I’m both in this getup, and why I’m a big fan of Sly Cooper and the like given how stealth oriented it is.” I explained. "Heh, fair enough. I'm surprised you aren't sent out to deal with these Cooper's then." “Like you?” I asked simply. “Seem’s kind of weird he hasn’t just sent someone to go and deal with the Coopers while they're busy dealing with that idiot bird.” I rolled my eyes. "Fuck if I know. Dad just likes to play games I swear, it's annoying. Honestly I don't think he even cares about this planet, he only took interest because of some anomaly he detected years ago. So what? Every damn planet these days has an anomaly on it, it's probably just Code glitches." “He’s replacing us...we’re nothing but cannon fodder to him.” I sighed out. “But I know there’s a way to get out of all this garbage...just have to take some initiative and find Kite Cooper, the supposed magical wonder child that can rival Zhang Li in magical abilities.” I said honestly. “It’s...also weird that the milestone for magic in the Cooper Line always leads to Zhang Li...I mean seriously, who the hell tames a fallen god?” I asked a little incredulously, playing into the ‘Sly Cooper fan’ not believing the Coopers could be so outrageously powerful and awesome. "She nursed them back to health after he was injured in some war." “Sounds about right.” I nodded. “But yeah...honestly, we won’t see more of what life could be if we’re stuck here all the damn time.” "Yeah, just have to-" In a sudden moment things went very quiet, the rapid sounds of feet running came and left as a hand appeared on Enslaver's shoulder. His eyes shrunk. "Get." Vincent said, raising his hand as Enslaver ran and sat where he was in front of me. "Hello Kite." “Done throwing a hissy fit Vincent?” I asked. “Heard that you were sticking around this world doing something, and I thought the big bad boss was getting pissy because he lost a fight for once."" "I did lose." Vincent said, a smile that very much disturbed me was now on his face. "And I was angry. Then I realized… I fought and lost. I haven't tasted failure since… heh, in any case I have to admit whoever that woman was could fight, skills on par with mine and I didn't even make them, now that's a new one. But, I didn't come to make chat. I came to make deals. And a deal between Admins is stronger than any deals a god or devil can make. So what do you say Kite, care to hear my offer?" "What's the deal, and what brought this on?" I asked curiously. "In all my years, eons and eternity's of my mission from when the machine turned on to now, I've grown bored observing. I'd act and have fun and all that fighting, I've grown bored of that too. I'd spice things up every so often, but in the end. I've done it all countless times before and in that time it's all become so repetitive. That fight, you appearing here as Kite, now that was new, and new is always fun." “And I managed to cut you, so that was also a surprise given that Kite is leagues weaker than I truly am.” I said honestly. "You cut off some hair, that's still a far cry from blood. And while King could deal some damage, it's nothing some self healing can't fix. Nothing I can't pay back either. Bravado aside, here's my deal. You get to Admin game time travel to gather up all those nice people Nexus is flooded with. I slaughter in some years time for yourself and your own army, be the hero and all that crap. And in return, I get to cherry pick those timelines from the realm of Nothingness for who I want and what I want." “That seems...a little uneven if your cherry picking people...could be horribly unbalanced depending on who you chose.” I said honestly. "Why would you care if I get the short end of the stick? After all, I'm the bad guy here. Feels like you should want me getting as less as possible." “Sometimes ‘less is more’ can truly happen.” I said honestly. “But I will be overseeing your choices with a Time Walker just to make sure no shenanigans happen with the timeline pickings.” I said honestly. "No trust. Shame. Either way, as a show of good faith." He said, snapping his fingers. I felt a… rush… my full power is back? "So, that's how Project King looks then? Heh, not bad." “Uh...what?” I blinked, looking at my hands and...yeah, Nothingness is swirling around my fingers as I felt my full power. “Uh...okay so...I know this is Good Faith but...why?” I asked nervously. “Plus...you know full well why I don’t have trust in you.” "Project King, the form you've taken is their body. I'd recognize the mark I'd anywhere. Built to be second to heir, and if you have that body it means he either fulfilled his purpose, or he's dead. Either or. As for the powers, I don't need you to trust me but you need them to trust you, they fear me, you need to prove you can save them. Can't very well do that while I can still kick you across to the moon and back with no effort now can you?" “Time out and back up.” I said while putting up a ‘time out’ hand sign. “Okay so...naming convention, am I supposed to be second to Cript or second to Heart? Cause when I heard Enslaver say ‘King and Heir’, I thought it was Heart and Cript, Heart being the ‘King of Hearts’ and Cript literally being your Heir.” I started. "So they call him Heart. Good, so he did take over from the old Admin of Hearts. I miss that kid, but everybodys gotta die at some point. Tell me, did they both rebel against me? Heart and Cript?" “You’re dead...but you're not.” I told him. “Cript killed you...and yet you were the one that slaughtered like...a vast majority of the good Nexus people after you were dead.” Vincent just smiled. "Good. So heir was a success." “Their my significant other.” I started, getting kind of pissed as he kept seeing them as nothing but test subjects. “Heart and Cript...it’s very complicated, and it only got more complicated from there given you were alive and...also reincarnated considering your job.” "Spoilers. You'll learn in time. And yes, Heir is a success. After all, he did kill me. Or will." “So anyways.” I started. “How is this deal going to be? We just shake hands and promise no strings attached?” "A deal between Admins is like… well yes there is a handshake but it binds our word and promise. For example, if you don't like who or what I am picking from the other timelines, and try to stop me, the deal is broken and all those people you want to save are returned to me as are all the people I was picking when the deal broke. And I don't have need or even want these people, so in the end the broken deal will leave you with your temporal prisoners and me with corpses many years earlier than planned." “Alright...so ‘less is more’ is creeping it’s head up more and more…” I muttered. “Okay, but why I want to bring in a Time Walker is...well we are dealing with temporal prisoners, so it will need to be overseen by one of them.” I said honestly. “So...in numbers, how many people were loyal to you and how many weren’t?” "Roughly one Loyalist for every fifty or so normals. But I see you are still hesitant. Shall I sweeten the pot for you then?" “I’m sorry for being hesitant, but...from what I’ve heard, and actually experienced...you can kind of understand why.” I said nervously. “But what do you have in mind to ‘sweeten the pot’ as it were?” For a bit, Vincent just looked at me smiling til he raised a hand up, a cylinder case used for holding papers appeared in a flash of code. "This." He said, placing it on the table and rolling it over to me. “A cylinder case?” I asked curiously, looking over it in case it was just a normal case or if it was something completely different. Seeing it was normal I opened it. Inside was a scroll that had code displayed on the outside of it and moving. Slowly, I opened it. Inside was… so much… "I have lived a very, very long time Kite. I've studied and mastered just about everything this reality can make." He said. Everything. Balance, Darkness, Nothingness, Grey, Void, technology, Code. "That is my notebook. Everything I have learned on everything is there." The locations of the dead Admins graves, time coordinates of when they lived till when they died. Evolutions of the energies?! "It literally holds everything you could ever learn. Save a few things I left out. Just how to make and merge abilities and such, but all in all, it's more valuable to you than me." “Holy…” I blinked. “Okay yeah...uh, sure. This can actually all work out…” I started. "I thought that would win you over. Heh, of course, should I stop there I wonder?" I looked up at Vincent, he seemed… happy, lost in thought. "This will be very entertaining if I do that. Maybe… heh, yes. This will be so much fun." “What are you thinking of?” I asked nervously "How to make this more fun. There are so many possibilities and all of them sound like a blast." “That doesn’t sound concerning at all.” I said sheepishly. "There's nothing wrong in wanting a challenge. And I have been craving one for so long." He said, reality began looking a bit… distorted. "My past and future all agree. It's too good an opportunity to pass up." “I fucking knew you were time traveling but never had proof.” I accused them with a frown. "Only when I needed advice or to chat. So how about it… King. I challenge you all and you challenge me. I built the Cript's to rebell and fight me and they are doing well… but to train all of existence to fight me, now that sounds like fun." “I’m already trying to do that.” I said honestly. “But sure, sounds like a plan. All of this is new to you so it’ll be fun to see how you fair against the unknown.” "This is going to be very interesting." “Alright...so now onto the rough bit on how to get all these people on my side...cause I’d rather not start a fight and scare the shit out of my family...again.” I said, glaring at Vincent for the first time they were scared shitless. “Hey, you attacked me first. All I did was retaliate. Wouldn’t you?” “It got you away from my family at least…” I sighed out. “So...for the entire good side of Nexus, damn near all your knowledge, and my powers back for this you get to cherry pick people to help your cause...unless there’s anything you want to add?” “In due time. If I’m gonna work to make you stronger to make this fight fun, you’ll have to fight more than just the present me. Or past? Future, honestly the Admin of time had to invent the damn thing and make any situation more complicated.” “Uh...Time is kind of...non existent in the future?” I asked, thinking for a moment. “Gotta make space to give us time to figure out how to get out of The Matrix that is our life.” “Heh, out of the finite and into the unlimited. Is that your goal?” “I promised that bastard Truth so yes.” I said with determination. “Bet you didn’t expect that from me huh?” “I’m in.” Vincent said, making me sit up in surprise. “Hold up, what now?” I asked in surprise. “What do you mean by that?” “I’m. In. I’ve killed a lot of people in my time ranging from Admins to Void Gods, but to kill Truth in his true form… Now that’s a feat.” “We can’t really kill Truth, he’s the one that’s powering this entire thing.” I said. “No, I don’t want to kill Truth, I want to make our reality get out of the stupid machine he’s powering...but the engineering on it is beyond any of us from what I saw…” “If it’s information you need on that… Then you need to look outside the machine itself to learn how. There’s all sorts of ruins and artifacts from the race that made the machine, other machines built that operate similar to our own, the trick there is how to build outside the machine. Learn that, and you can escape this place and truly make it believable.” “There’s the small problems of ‘I don’t know how to leave’, Cript and someone else always gave me a portal there, and I have no idea where to even begin with that world...god only knows what’s living there, and it could probably actually kill me even if I’m deathless.” “Hm, if it’s a map you’d need, I’d be more than happy to provide one. For a price.” I sighed out and rubbed my temples. “Might as well hear the price…” “Now now. Consider it part of this little deal of ours. I’ll arrange something, a battle. You win it, you get the map. Lose, and you’ll get reset.” “And by ‘reset’...what do you mean by that?” I asked nervously. “Starting from scratch. Not just in powers, age too. I’ll let you keep those memories though, no point in erasing thoughts.” “And...what would the fight be?” I asked carefully, wanting as much information as I can before deciding on it. “Also how the hell do you have map of the ‘Outside’ as it were?” “I got bored.” He said simply. “So I went out and explored. There’s a lot out there, but all of it save for maybe a few hundred other machines is all ruins. Heh, looks like that race died out in war just like the admins almost did. Sadly, passed all that is just empty. Not void, not nothing, just… empty. No code either, whatever they were, could make something from nothing. Even admins need code, so they were on another level.” “Must have been stupid powerful too…” I muttered. “And did you see anything alive there? Roaming around the ruins or nothing?” “Machines. Monsters they left behind. Not sure they count as alive.” “It’s at least something.” I shrugged. “So what am I fighting before I fully agree to this?” “Hmm, since you want out of here to there, to learn, I’ll nab the weakest one of those things for you to fight. Will be fun to watch.” “I can only imagine how much of a pain in the ass it’s going to be…” I sighed out. “But...sounds fair enough I suppose.” “I’m evil, not unreasonable.” Vincent said as he stood up. “Welp, I’m gonna go do that- oh, I almost forgot.” Vincent said as he held out a hand to me. “Shake first, to seal the deal.” “This is going to bite me in the ass later on…” I sighed out. “Even if my family might be a bit mad…” I took a deep breath and shook his hand. “If it means beating you and keeping my family safe...I’ll take it.” I felt like… a lock click in me. I looked at my hand as there was now the image of a signature line along it with several lines of code along it. Vincent’s hand the same thing. “Now, I can go shopping.” With that, Vincent left through a code portal. “I have a bad feeling about this…” I muttered worriedly. “Alright...so how the hell am I going to gain these people’s trust?” Hmm… Well, Predator I can just seduce, once I shift back to my normal body… Vamp I haven’t the foggiest clue in hell about and Enslaver ran off like… well, like he was running for his life. Hmm… Guess I’ll hit Predator first then. Maybe with him next to me the others will all be more willing. “Alright...so Predator is in Mt. Fuji...just a quick teleport there shouldn’t be too hard…” I muttered. “Might scare the shit out of everyone here though if they have teleport sensors...eh.” I shrugged while teleporting to Mt. Fuji to start with Predator. I arrived outside the entrance to the secret lab place. Man I forgot how good it is to have all these powers. Around the way was Predator and… Damn. He was in feral form, light grey coat with quote the number of viable scars along his body and easily my size in feral form too. “Alright...time to see if I’m still good at flirting…” I muttered while taking a deep breath and going back to my Den Mother form, but deciding to go feral form in this scenario just in case as I moved towards Predator. The second he saw me he snarled. "Clearance?" They asked. “So the first thing you say to a Den Mother is growl at me?” I asked innocently. “Oh what have they taught you.” "If you don't have clearance, please make your leave." “Okay, you know what?” I started as I walked over to Predator, Predator catching a whiff of the extremely obvious. “I haven’t had a good fuck in fourteen years, I’ve heard you don’t give a damn about ‘flirty’ crap, so you, and me, are going behind that mountain and your going to rut me like a good boy.” I growled like a dominant Den Mother. "Hm? What race of Dire Wolf are you? Not many can claim they are of the Den Mother variation." “Mothaty.” I guessed. “I...actually have no idea, all I know is that it’s one of the original dire wolf races, and that I’m related to...the Mountain sized Den Mother by race or something?” That actually got a nod from Predator. "Yes, I believe you are from the planet that was poisoned and enslaved. I did not know you had escaped that fate, or that a Den Mother had been born to them. I had heard the last Den Mother born to your race was over two generations ago." “Let’s just say it was a miracle.” I said while shifting into my anthro form, which to Predator was drop dead gorgeous, as I moved to his side, and picked him up like he was a pup, had him over my shoulder, as I started walking towards the other mountain. “Now you are going to rut me so hard you won’t be feeling your legs for a week.” I growled dominantly. "That is what my pack mates all ask too. Did they find and put you up to this?" I can't tell if he is just always this passive or is just unimpressed. “No, I just haven’t seen another dire wolf in a while, and you sound bored...why do you sound bored?” I asked. "This is not the first time this has happened to me." They said casually. “Oh, then we’re going to have to change that.” I said with a massive smile, the kind of smile that would make anyone nervous for their pelvis. Five Hours Later God I needed that. And hey, Predator still has their pelvis in one piece. “Alright, round two.” I said with a massive smile. Another Five Hours Later Fuck do all these Cript's have hips of Monofilament?! “How are your hips this strong?” I asked honestly. "I was engineered for hunting. My pack mates soon learned I don't tire easily while on the hunt and that translated fairly easily when rutting." They said from atop my back. "Do you require more?" “Yes, but instead of this vanilla stuff.” I said while bringing out a book. “Let’s try something a little new.” Nine and a half really kinky hours later How in the hell?! "Another round then?" Predator asked, looking nearly untouched while I was sitting here like a leaking glazed doughnut. “Okay seriously, the fuck.” I whined. “I’m not trying to break you or anything, that would be bad, but...I at least expected some form of exhaustion or you...well enjoying it more than being so casual about it.” "But it is enjoyable. And I do enjoy it. When I was younger father cut off nerves that let my body show joy and happiness and altered my voice so I can't sound happy either as a big wolf smiling with a wagging tail does not a good guard dog make." “But you're a good boy…” I said as I put a hand on his muzzle softly. “And good boys deserve rewards.” "All this sex isn't a reward?" “Kind of, but this is the full reward.” I said gently, my hand softly glowing as Predator felt his body start to warm up, like a nice heating blanket was wrapped around him as he felt his nerves that were long since cut off start to mend. “Now who’s a good boy?” I asked with a smile. "I...am?" He asked, his lips twitching til they made a small smile. "I… smiled? I'm smiling?" He asked, smile getting bigger and voice even sounding happier. "I can smile!" “Who’s a good boy?” I asked again in joy, starting to pet Predator as he finally got to show joy. "Me!" He declared, tail wagging and when he felt that he turned to look at his tail. "I can wag my tail!" He said, now trying to catch it and just chased his own tail. “Okay, this is beyond adorable.” I chuckled as I got up and used some magic to help clean up. "Let's celebrate!" “Hooray.” I said happily. “But how to celebrate I wonder?” I wondered while petting Predator happily. Location: Predator's personal pocket Dimension. Internal time passed: nine and a half weeks. Outside world time passed: four minutes. I now had a good understanding on how Predator could rut me for so long without getting tired… seven… hundred… pack mates, mates as in Mate, and half are other dire wolf races Den Mothers. And he got us all. Repeatedly. And was Still going. "I'm glad you fixed his ability to express happiness." Said Ky, a Salo race Dire Wolf Den Mother. Currently we were both resting up for when Predator makes another circle around to us. She has deep red eyes and lovely white fur. “He’s a good boy that deserves to show how happy he is.” I said honestly. “And when that also makes him look so adorable is a wonderful bonus.” "Agreed." She said with a nod. "So, how much longer do you think he will keep this up? Not much time at all has passed outside this realm but I feel you still have much to do." She said, sliding over next to me til she rested her head atop my chest. “From...personal experience...it’s gonna take a while.” I said sheepishly. After said long time had passed I was back out with the happy tail wagging as I decided to see what was behind this door he was guarding. Out here only two hours had passed, in there… yeah I gave birth a few times while there. “Alright, time to see what projects are here as I...technically have children before I’m even born…” I muttered. Predator gave me a lick across the nose I playfully returned as the door opened wide. Inside was a massive glass case filled with… are those… giant eggs? “Uh...are these...please don’t tell me those are Clockwerk eggs…” I said nervously. "I dunno. I get told to guard a place, not what's inside or what goes on." Predator said as they sniffed the glass. “Well…” I started. “This...god the hell is Vincent doing?” I grumbled. “Okay...so let’s do this.” I muttered while bringing out my Binocucom. “Yo, anyone there?” I asked over the line. "Hello, wait, who is this? Where's Kite, this is his frequency!" Bently said, starting to sound panicked. Crap, forgot to shift back into Kite. I shifted back to Kite. “Sorry Bentley, forgot to switch back to my voice given I’m...in a territory.” I said sheepishly. “Like...Mt. Fuji…” I said while showing Bentley what I was seeing which was all the giant eggs and the very enthusiastic Dire Wolf "I… won't question it. But, holy cow. Can you zoom in on those eggs real fast?" “Alright.” I said while zooming in on the eggs. “Also...don’t mind the very enthusiastic Dire Wolf...he’s a good boy.” "Heh. Well, if my guess is correct these eggs appear to resemble that of the Eurasian eagle-owl. There a species that has been suffering from a loss of population in the modern world due largely to pollution making it harder for their lungs to take in clean air while flying about. Most live is isolated communities but not even the largest reserve has that many eggs." “What species is Clockwerk again?” I inquired. "Formerly Eurasian eagle-owl. They are a very old race of bird dating back to the dawn of early bipedals like ourselves." “Cool...so Clockwerk is breeding…” I started nervously. "Or cloning. We can't know for sure unless we either analyze an egg or if there is a research terminal near that incubator they appear to be in." “I’ll take a look around to see if there’s anything.” I said. “How’s Sly and the others doing if I may ask?” I asked Bentley as I started moving around the place trying to find a terminal. "Sly is inside one of the tower transmitters making his way up to destroy it. Uncle M had a run in with Kid Cooper Bot but escaped via the sewers. Uncle Jim is working on gathering some explosives to blow a more fortified transmitter up." “Cool, and right now I’m...making some allies.” I said carefully, thankfully finding a terminal. “Might be a pain in the ass, but I’m getting help.” "That is good news. Well then, I'll be off keeping in touch with the others, you just keep doing what you are doing then and stay safe." With that Bentely hung up. I looked over the data. There are Clones of Clockwerk but added with Nexus tech so they hatch already mechanical and evil. Well, hard nope on that good sirs. I smiled as I pulled out Second Chance and… nothing happened? Right, they'd need to be born first… welp, then I'll just reprogram them the old fashioned way. “Alright, time for some old fashion hacking.” I said while cracking my fingers and getting to work on trying to make sure these little chicks aren’t evil when their born. It took me less than five minutes. The tech is Nexus but this coding is from this world, likely Clockwerk's doing so it was stupidly easy. After that for safe measure I used Code to lock all that in. And now activate hatching sequence and… done. The eggs began shaking and cracking, soon breaking open as a bunch of tiny little robo owls chirped about. Their eyes were the Cooper blue. How fitting. "Now what?" Predator asked, the incubator opening as they little ones were already flying around. “They’re adorable!” I squealed happily. “But uh...now’s the problem...where do I put all these baby owls?” I asked nervously. "They can go with the others in my pocket dimension. They'd be safe there." “Alright, sounds simple enough.” I nodded. “But uh...question, how do I…’earn respect’ with Vamp and Enslaver?” I asked nervously. “Also...where’s Vamp?” "Not sure where Vamp is, but Enslaver is a lot like me I guess. Scared of dad and would rather leave than stay here, but we don't have anywhere to go." “Well don’t worry, there’s going to be plenty of places to go when I’m done with this.” I said honestly. “So, back to your HQ so I can talk to Enslaver about this.” "Okay." Predator said as he got all the baby owls into his pocket dimension and we were off. Back at the main portal I switched back to Hearts human form. Doing a lot of shape shifting today, and met back up with Enslaver. "So… the fuck happened? You're still alive so that's good but…" Enslaver asked. “Alright so...a lot’s happening.” I started. “Do you want to short story or the long story? And also what’s up with Vamp? I haven’t seen him around like...ever.” "Vamp just does that. And the short story I guess? Also hi Predator." "Hi!" Predator said with a smile. "Holy fuck since when can you smile?!" “With the powers of calling him a good boy and me being able to fix his nervous system.” I said while patting his head. “Also a lot of...private things.” I said sheepishly. “So do you want to know the long or short of it?” "Long. Definitely long." “Alright so…” I took a deep breath. “God how do I actually explain this mess…” I muttered. “Can we get everyone in here? It’s going to be a long conversation, you’re all going to need to sit down, and maybe get a few drinks…” "Later. I wanna hear this first." “God…” I sighed out. “Alright...so let’s start with the fact that I’m Kite Cooper.” I said while transforming back into Kite. “And seeing you dating one of my ancestors is...kind of strange, but also how I couldn’t get to talk to her about her adventures in...being kind of overpowered.” I said, and that’s saying something considering I have my full powers back and I still think, for the world she’s on, she’s broken as hell. "...Okay…" “You don’t sound surprised about me being Kite Cooper.” I started. "I'm… processing. So continue." “Alright, so now for a more hard hitting thing.” I said while getting off of Predator and transforming back into my Den Mother form. “That disturbance Vincent wanted to figure out was me...for I am the player in an ‘Admin Game’, where I got to pick a world and basically be ‘reborn’ into life as a normal person, but for me it was to be the younger brother of Sly Cooper cause...well I wasn’t lying when I said I was a huge fan.” I said sheepishly. “And after a long and...very weird history that was nothing like the original games, my secondary goal now is to free all of you from Vincent’s hold...cause my name is King, and I’m fighting for a better future where dipshits like Vincent doesn’t have a chokehold on reality because he’s bored.” "Uh huh… , and you're willing to tell me this because…?" “Because Vincent handed you, and every single person that doesn’t believe in his ‘let’s be evil because evil’ bullshit.” I said honestly. “I’m here to prove to you that there is a better life out there than just the job. I’m living proof cause I went back in time before I was born.” I said honestly. "Hm… and do you have proof?" “I have two ways.” I said while bringing out a memory card, and raising my right hand to show the deal mark. “Either I show you with this card that has my memories of The Nursery, or show you the deal marker Vincent and I have.” Enslaver looked my deal mark over, showing it to Predator who simply nodded. He looked at it, then me, then back at it. "So, the short of it is dad abandoned us and we're… free?" “Better than you all getting murdered by Vincent and all his extremists like...twenty years later.” I shrugged. "Does this apply to all of Nexus as a whole or just this planet?" “All of Nexus that isn’t Loyal to Vincent.” I answered. “I don’t know if I’ll have to prove stuff by fighting...but if there’s one thing I don’t want to do, is have needless fighting to prove I’m stronger. I’m not Vincent who rules by fear…” I said while bringing out a self replicating wedding ring. “I’m King, and I want to help people with love and friendship.” I said warmly. “Predator here knows that first hand.” I chuckled. Enslaver gave a nod. "I see… I need to make a quick call for a second then." He said, placing a hand on the wall as a phone morphed out from the metal… cool. He picked up the phone. "Yo, Operator, hey I need you to put me through to every base. Yes EVERY base. Yes I know that gives you a migraine, I'll make it quick." Is… is Operator a Cript… that shouldn't surprise me… After a moment Enslaver began speaking. "This is Cript V788," Enslaver spoke as their voice carried through the hall as if on speakers. "The king has left his throne. I repeat, King Vincent has left us. I am activating the Purge protocol. All who wish to leave to follow him, do so. For everyone else, may your God, if you have one, have mercy in your soul." He hung up. There was a long silence for a while followed suddenly by the loudest cheer I have ever heard echoing and vibrating the building. “Jesus, were that many people that excited to leave him?” I asked nervously. "You've seen how he treats people. Most everyone remembers how things were before he took over, just out of sight and hidden research from afar. Then you got people like me born after knowing only this and doing the most vial and unforgivable crimes cause we were ordered and disobedience was death or worse." Enslaver said, the phone now morphed into a dispenser where a can of chilly beer dropped. He took it and began drinking. "Purge protocol has always been a fever dream for everyone, when Vincent leaves, get wasted." He said, pouring some of the alcohol into Predator's open mouth before taking another drink for himself. "The drunken antics to take place here in the next few hours to few days will be the likes any God would go green with envy from seeing." “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “Yo Sam! You still owe me that drink!” I called out. “But I have to get back to dealing with Clockwerk sadly.” I sighed out. “You are at full strength right? Why not just go punch him to death then?” “Because I think that’s cheating and violates the rules of the Admin Games.” I said nervously. “I’d have to talk to one of the Time Walkers about it...and I’m also going to have to talk to my Time Walker about bringing you all to Present day or something...god there’s still so much to explain.” I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Eh, live and learn. Bright side is now you can more or less completely fuck with Clockwerk now that we aren’t helping him.” “Oh yeah, I’m actually a little surprised I haven’t heard anything about troops pulling out by the dozens or them all getting drunk and partying from Bentley.” I said honestly. “Maybe everyone is still in shock? Eh, well go off and do your Cooper things. I’ll be here getting wasted.” “Don’t forget to spread the word on who Vincent handed you off to.” I started. “Cause in the future when this all settles down, me and my entire family will be giving you all protection and help in the...ongoing war.” I sighed out. “Sound’s good.” I headed outside and it looked like all the Nexus people are gone. Well, alright most of them are out of their armor and walking around town having fun. Nice. I used my glider and flew on over to the nearest receiver tower. Here I got in via vents and crawled around and listened in. “Hey Sly.” I called quietly over our comm link. “Sorry I was away, just helped get Nexus off our backs forever.” ”I saw… I am not going to ask cause I feel like the answer will either traumatize me or worse. Well I’m almost up here, only people still here are Panda King’s Goons so, this will be easier in every way. Also why did Bentley call me saying you looked like a super sexualized wolf lady?” “Uh…” I started. “That was my...Admin form.” I started. “It’s a whole lot of complicated stuff that might traumatize you or worse, so let’s just go with ‘my Admin form’ okay?” I asked, not entirely sure how to explain all that to Sly at the moment. “I’ll explain it all when your older and can understand...a few more things.” "So… you're actually my sister then?" “No, I’m your brother.” I said. “I was genetically born male, and before I was giving back my full powers due to...reasons I won’t get into right now, I was just Kite Cooper, and I’ll still be Kite Cooper because there’s no fun when I could do effectively anything without challenge.” "Right… we're gonna need to have a serious talk when this is over." “I’m gonna start dating Jing King.” I said, hoping to derail this conversation off a cliff so hard we will never talk about this again. "Several talks then." Sly said as he hung up… well that's not gonna be fun. “I’m scared for their sake…” I muttered while continuing through the vents to get to the main receiver room. “Oh wait...I still need to talk to Enslaver and Zhang Li...I may be an Admin, but I’d like to learn from Zhang Li damn it…” With a sigh I found myself in a… hello. Safe. I swiped my cane through it and got the page. Agitha Leopard Cooper. A European maiden turned pirate that stole from the likes of Hellscore Turner and Black Beard among other notable pirates. Her special skill implemented a mixture of voodoo and navigation with her compass and maps, giving her exact locations of not only her enemies but targets and many other valubels lost to time. The last page on this segment was an old world map and on the back of it was a list of ingredients for what was basically making Jack Sparrow's Compass. Sweet. "That's gonna come in handy." I said while pocketing it and leaving the mask. "Alright, time to destroy this place and get out." I made my way out and with slow moving invisibility I got to the control panel and happily beat it into scrap metal. I then made my way roof side and scrapped the dishes too for an extra safe measure. With that done I headed back to the base and found Enslaver, who was happily drinking while watching some TV with good boy next to him and… and… "Hi." Said an albino Cript with wet looking black hair, smoke grey eyes that didn't have whites and wearing some pants and that was it. "Kite, meet Vamp. Vamp, Kite." Enslaver said, giving quick introductions. "Sup." I nodded. "So, what brings you back?" "Well, visitation for an ancestor." I said honestly. "Zhang Li Cooper, I would really like to talk to her." "Ah, sure." Enslaver said as he snapped his fingers, opening a portal. "I'll leave it open for you." “Thank you.” I nodded. “And...we’ll have a talk later okay Vamp? Given your the only one I haven’t talked to yet.” I said to the weirdly shirtless and wet vampire. "Fine." He said simply with a smile at me… God that is nine levels of creepy. I walked through the portal and wow this is a nice house. Very roomy and like a modern/medieval theme going on here. Actually this feels like the Organization 13 castle if it had color, that's how this feels like. “Feels very nostalgic.” I chuckled as I started walking around the nice house, being mindful of where I was walking so I didn’t bump into anyone or anything in my exploring. After a while I found a balcony area where I spotted Zhang Li having tea with a bright yellow skinned lady with green eyes, black hair and blue lipstick. “Hello.” I said politely to the ancient racoon. “Revered Ancestor.” I said while bowing to Zhang Li cooper in respect. “So, should I leave?” The yellow lady asked. “We’ll catch up later Geo.” Zhang Li said as Geo left. “So… Ancestor huh? You’re a Cooper.” “Sorry for interrupting.” I said sheepishly. “But yes, I am a Cooper.” I said while bringing up the family Cane. “But...again I didn’t mean to interrupt.” “It’s fine. So, what brings you here?” “Well, a lot of things…” I started. “A whole lot of questions Miss ‘I have a Fallen God as a pet’.” I started, Zhang Li seeing small sparkles in my eyes in wonder. “Seriously, how did that happen?” “I nursed him back to health after he fell. As to repay his debt and as part of a punishment from his fellow gods he declared me his master til times end. He took the form of a small bird for me cause his true form is more… hard to travel with.” “Fascinating.” I said. “What was his true form like?” I asked curiously, wanting to know a lot about Zhang Li since her history sounds really interesting and cool. “A dog with tentacles all across his spine with legs like trees, teeth made from stars and eyes that when he opens them suck you in like a hollow void.” She said with a shrug. “That sounds like an eldritch horror.” I started nervously. “So, next up would be the Demon Lord...because Demon lords are comparable to Gods in some sections of magic.” “Funny story, he actually arrived to kill me but I imprisoned him in my hair pin and took him everywhere mostly because it made him angry. After a while we stopped bickering, began talking and after a while became friends.” She said, rubbing the old bronze hair pin attached to her head via magnets. “Can you believe they put him in a museum. He was so bored.” “I’m surprised you didn’t put him in the family Vault.” I said honestly. “Would have been funny to be all ‘and here lives Zhang Li Coopers best friend, a Demon Lord from the sixth circle of hell, his name’s Bryan’.” I chuckled. “Galor, and he wasn’t a member of the six circles. He was their manager.” “Thought it was nine circles, and that’s even funnier.” I chuckled. “But...mind if I ask how you’re unaffected by Clockwerks tech? The only other that me and my family have heard of that’s resistant is Tennessee but that’s because...well he’s kind of insane.” “Do you have any idea how many mind control drugs, spells and techniques people tried on me when I was young? I’m immune to all of them.” “I mean...considering nowadays China is...well it’s kind of a walking talking sapient rights violation…” I said sheepishly. “Anything else?” “Uh...can you train me and my family?” I asked innocently. “From what I’ve read from the Thievius Raccoonus, you are the most magically adept, it would help by leagues and bounds against Clockwerk and anyone else that might try and hurt our family.” “The fact you are even here means something changed from what Enslaver said?” “He’s free, and I helped with that.” I said with a smile. “He’s...probably getting black out drunk at the moment partying with literally everyone else who’s also been freed from Vincent’s control.” “Ah, that is wonderful news indeed.” “It is indeed wonderful news.” I said happily. “Just...something needs to happen between me and Vincent…” “Being?” “A...deal.” I said nervously. “It’s...incredibly complicated…” “Deals with demons typically are.” She sighed. “So, any more questions?” “What was it like back then? Where Magic and the like was...more common and respected?” I asked honestly. “Not bad, but indoor plumbing is nice and hot baths at the turn of a knob, yeah, much better. And safer given most all magical beings moved to the ethereal realm.” “Okay I will admit, technology is great.” I chuckled. “But uh...what’s your Cane look like?” I asked, lifting my Keyblade Cane for emphasis. “Well, what I have now is more modernized.” She said, taking out a small fan that had the familiar cane shape at the end. She opened it, rather than cloth and wood it was metal with crackling energy. “Okay, now that’s cool.” I said honestly. “I prefer my old one. I can’t perform my mist breeze knockout with this thing.” “Well I’m sure we can find your old one.” I said honestly. “If it’s in the Family Vault than we can surely find it in that mountain of treasure.” “Hope it was put in there.” “Coopers take family seriously.” I nodded. "So, may I ask how my son did?" “Um...who’s your son?” I asked nervously. “Clockwerk kind of...stole and ripped out the pages of the Thievius Raccoonus and...I probably haven’t gotten to the part where you talked about your son.” I said sheepishly. “But...me and my big brother were like...four and five and...bastard owl killed both our parents…” I growled. "His name was Rioichi." “Oh he was?” I asked in surprise. “Well Rioichi was a great Cooper, he invented Sushi on this world and was a master Ninja, even invented the Spire Jump ability.” I said happily. "Oh, I've heard about sushi but didn't know he made it. So he was taken in by my sister in law over in japan then. I'm glad." “Yep.” I nodded. “I...have a feeling Rioichi would love to meet you when this is all done...if Clockwerk has him as a Cooper Bot…” “Most likely. So, anything else you wish to talk about or do you want to jump into the magic training?” "Um…" I started, thinking about what else to ask. "Um...when did you and Enslaver meet?" I asked curiously. “When I came online in this body and Clockwerk tried to control me. It didn’t work so I was shut down again. Next I woke up Enslaver had marked me and neutralized my powers. I hated him for it, of course. At first anyway. After a while I realized he only did orders, never did more and when he was off duty he mostly just spent time with his family here. Met a few of his mates and was surprised they all were marked but they all told me their stories. If anything Enslaver saved them. People he marks he puts here and everyone here live their lives. Better than what Vincent planned. After a while I realized Enslaver worked to do good while being forced to do bad.” “That’s good.” I nodded with a smile, not sure if I should be the one to tell her ‘I’m Enslavers new boss’ or if I should let him do the talking here. “Enslavers job...as you know he’s ordered...but thankfully all the good people are now free of Vincent’s hold and are now going to be working for someone that’s actually a good person.” “That is wonderful news. In the time I have been here I have seen much of what Nexus can do with their technology and magic. To put that all towards a good cause is the best for all.” “Yep.” I smiled. “It’s...gonna take a while, but I know them and their new boss will do great things.” I said, pretending that their new boss was someone other than me. “Is there anything I can do to help? I am immune to Clockwerk’s technology, and I am still a Cooper. Going back out into the field would be fun.” “Well…” I started. “We’re gonna need your help dealing with the Cooper Bots going forward, Alexander and Tenessee being two thorns in our side with our current job to get to Panda King.” I said honestly. “Then there’s Clockwerk himself...and then a lot of future crap you can probably figure out with future sight or something along those lines...don’t know if the Onmyoji can see the future or just take a guess.” I said sheepishly. “No. Time is forbidden. Only fools dabble with what they should not know.” “Ah…” I started, trying to fight by a knowing grin as I knew full well that there was an entire organization about Time in all its facets and capabilities. “So, what’s my first mission then?” “Hold on.” I started while moving into my bag and bringing out one of the...many spare communicator maks I had and handed one to her. “Best to hear it from the brains of our group Bentley.” I said honestly. She put them on and spoke to Bently for a while. After a bit she gave them back. “He says given my immunity and body I’d do best in helping him to create an anti virus for Clockwerk’s mind, cutting him from all the Cooper bots and taking down his greatest weapons.” “Alright.” I nodded. “Sounds like a good start.” I said. “Yo Bentley, how are things holding up with Sly and the others?” I asked curiously, having been busy with all this stuff I only managed to destroy one radio tower. ”Going well. Uncles M and Jim took down their targets and Sly took his down and got another page of your family book. The writing is encoded, an older language too but he sent me a photo and I’m translating it now.” “Cool.” I nodded. “Alright, so far we’ve gotten rid of most of the radio towers right? So what’s our next move? And have the others seen either Tennessee or Alexander?” ”Our next move is that Zhang Li should get here to help me make the anti virus to free the others. As for Tennessee with the lack of towers keeping him under control his schizophrenia is giving him more free will. He mostly seems to have gone into hiding for the time being. As for Alexander, even with the lack of towers he is still under control. He was last spotted aiding in a weapons transfer. Large rockets.” “Alright.” I nodded. “I’ll go and try to deal with Alexander, we need to keep those weapons away from Clockwerk.” I started. “I’ll try to get Zhang Li to ya as soon as I can...just need to talk to a guy who needs a name change badly.” ”Alright, I’ll let you know if anything happens.” I was about to put them away when I got another call. This one from mom. ”Kite? Why did your brother call me saying you can change your species and gender at will?” “The better question is, why didn’t he tell you about me dating Jing King.” I started, hoping that would derail that conversation enough so we can never talk about it. ”Son, you’re dating my old enemy in love regarding your father turned teenager by some guy in a cloak. At this point you trying to build a harem is the least of my worries. If you can change gender we have to go out dress shopping! I’ve dreamed about having a daughter!” “Sorry mom, I’m heading into a tunnel, I can’t hear you.” I said, using my ventriloquist practice to good use as I made my voice sound staticy as I immediately hung up on her and shivered in fear. “No...I get enough of that back home…” I muttered to myself. Ring. Matilda? ”So… Jing King huh?” “She is fluffy, adorable, strong, and please don’t be mad…” I said sheepishly. ”Oh I’m not mad. I tried for YEARS to get your mom into letting me be your dad’s second wife. This is more a fantasy come true. Keeping that in mind should I be expecting more people into this relationship? And if so is it just you picking up girls or can I make a few calls?” “Uh...do you have any girl in mind? Or...girls at this point since you said ‘calls’?” I inquired. “And also...maybe...I might be getting more cause I’m an overachiever that doesn’t like his pelvis.” ”I heard about that whole gender changing thing. If that’s true, then I am so going to enjoy using my strap on.” “No.” I started quickly, my face turning a bright shade of red as I was also trying to keep my ‘Kite’ persona up more instead of my true form. ”Fine… Wonder if Jing would be up for it then? Could let you watch. That’d be fun.” With that, she hung up. “Jesus…” I muttered. “Okay, time to ask Enslaver if you can go visit Bentley...also we need to get him a new name.” “Okay then.” Zhang Li said as we got up and left the pocket dimension. Here I saw Enslaver, Predator, and Vamp all watching TV. “Hi Zhang.” Enslaver said as he stood up. “Heading out?” “Gonna need her help making something to stop Clockwerks mind control on the cooper bots.” I said honestly. “Also...we’re gonna need to change your name, cause ‘Enslaver’ and ‘Predator’ aren’t good names...Vamp...why are you still shirtless?” “Cause I don’t want to.” Vamp replied casually. “Just… don’t.” Predator sighed. “It’s his thing.” “Okay Twilight.” I rolled my eyes. “But yeah, you two need new names.” Predator and Enslaver shared a look. "Why?" They both asked. “Cause right now, we only have ‘Predator’ and ‘Enslaver’ as nicknames, and both of those...well they aren’t really ‘good’ so to speak.” I said sheepishly. "Well, it's that or our base names and That's no better." “Well then have new names.” I said. “Cause from where I’m from, at least four versions of you have different names.” I said honestly "Like what?" “Um…” I started, thinking about possible names even though I’m bad at names. It should be close, or at least similar to their current ones. Yet also sound normal… En for Enslavor and Tor for Predator? On the nose but it does kinda work? Ugh, this is why I let the girls back home name the kids... “En.” I started with Enslaver. “And Tor.” I said to Predator. “Simple enough names.” "I guess that works." En said thoughtfully. "Work for me." Tor said with a smile and a wagging tail. En shrugged, getting up and over to Zhang Li and removing her mark. "There we go babe, back to normal." "Thank you love." She said, giving him a kiss. "I'll be back." “We won’t be too long.” I said honestly. “Hopefully…” I added sheepishly, not knowing how long it would take to make an anti virus against Clockwerk. With that done Zhang Li and I left and she met back up with Bently while I tried to hunt down Tennessee. If he's mostly free then hopefully I can talk him into helping. Odds are he's in the sewers where the signal would already be weaker. As I entered the sewers I tapped one of the railings with my cane. “Tennessee Kid Cooper, I’m calling you out on the fact you shot me like four times.” There was no noise, nothing aside from running foul water and rats. As I ran along looking for him I found bits of evidence he is here. Bullet holes in the walls, sketches carved into the walls. He was less known for his art but his detail was impeccable. Scenes of what looked like some of his past works carved into the bricks. “Damn…” I muttered. “Tennessee?” I called out carefully. I walked around the corner and stood still. I saw him, kneeled down looking at a carving he made. It was of a lovely wolf lady, holding the hand of a young Raccoon child. Tennessee has his hand in the other hand of the wolf lady… right, his wife. He had a wife and son after retirement… like dad. He was taken from them, like dad was from me. Grandpa was from dad… Zhang Li from Rioichi. “Tennessee?” I asked carefully, stepping closer to the poor raccoon. He didn't say anything. I kneeled down next to him. Waiting and hoping he'd talk. "Three times." Tennessee finally said, eyes still locked in the carved image of his family. “Just...take your time…” I said softly. "Three times he took me from them. Clockwerk took my parents from me. Then he took me from Dalila and Jack… and he took me from them again when I woke up like this." He said, looking at his mechanical body. “I understand…” I said softly. “The feeling of losing family…” I sighed out, having had that happen a few times to me as well. "I want to go back." “Going back in time?” I asked curiously. "Dying." He said flatly. "I was with them… I remember it. Heaven. We were happy… then… I don't belong in this world anymore. This isn't my world anymore. It already has Cooper's to watch over it, it doesn't need more." “I understand…” I said softly. “Even if I’d like to talk...you look like you just want it to end…” "That's all we all want. My bullets Don't work. Not against whatever metal this body is made of." The bullet holes… that's what that was. They bounced off the metal. “Zhang Li found a new lease on life.” I started. “But…” I sighed out as I readied my Cane. “Is there anything in this world that you might hold onto? Or do you truly want to go be with your family?” He just looked back up at the carved image of his wife and son. I had my answer. As I stood up he handed me his modernized cane rifle. “I’ll make sure it’s quick and painless.” I said while taking the Cane Rifle and putting a hand on his head. “Be at peace Tennessee Kid Cooper...you’ve done well.” I said as my hand started to glow softly, as I started to guide the poor raccoon's soul out of the metal husk Clockwerk has forced him into. “Go, and be with your family once again.” The soul when outside the body looked a lot like the heart. An orb of light, just missing the pink heart within the orb. Soon Tennessee began to rise up into a Divine light. They were gone now, leaving the metal husk behind… Now I have a choice. Let Bently study it, or destroy it... “Do I let my brother desecrate a corpse that has been wanting death forever, or just get rid of it?” I started, only to shake my head and started to destroy the body. With that done, Tennessee Kid Cooper can rest once again. I teleported the broken shell to Cane Island. He deserves a proper burial when this is over. I sighed, shaking a bit before heading out to take out another- I reacted just in time to deflect a bullet aimed at my head, the shooter, Alexander Cooper Bot. Well fuck. “God damn it.” I groaned. “Alexander, are you really going to let Clockwerk control you like this?” I growled, preparing to defend myself against the bot. His only reply was more gunshots. Okay, run now, calling Bently. I blocked the gunshots quickly. “Damn it…” I growled, not sure how to not have Alexander just break the sewer down around us. I quickly got out of the sewers, Alexander still hot on my tail as I rapidly made it up a building, leaping rooftops with him still following me. Incoming Call from Bently “A little busy here Bently.” I said quickly, dodging another bullet. “What do you need?” "Good news. After looking over Zhang li's coding in her robotic body I discovered it's her internal magic that makes her immune, it messes with the control override chip connecting their brains to the robotics. I believe if you can hit them with a strong enough blast of magic you can create a similar effect that should last long enough for them to get a small Mana generating charm Zhang Li is making for the others right now." “Cool, thanks Bently.” I said while skidding to a halt, spinning around and raising my Cane. “Let’s hope this works…” I muttered while shooting a beam of magic towards Alexander, not strong enough to do damage to a monofilament body but hopefully enough to start messing with the control chip. The impact knocked them over. Carefully I walked over to them, watching the Cooper Bot rub it's own head. "Fuck, and I thought tank shells hit like a bitch." They groaned with a rather thick russian accent. "Wait…" They realized they could control their body, standing, shaking a bit. "Well how about that. If I had a mouth I'd celebrate with Vodka and Cheese." “Howdy great grandpa.” I said to the bot, given I was told Alexander was my grandfather’s dad. "Hello there little one. Sorry for the shootings. Clockwerk got real pissy after you freed Tennessee." He said as he got up. "So, what now? Am I good or not?" “We’ll need to get back to Zhang Li to make the effects permanent.” I said honestly. “But how does it feel to be free for once?” "Sober." He laughed. “Considering your accent is Russian, I’d say so.” I chuckled. “Come on, I don’t know how long my magic will last, so let’s hurry back to base so we can get you patched up and see if Clockwerk gave you tastebuds for some reason.” With that I got Alexander to Bentley and I headed off to break a lot more towers. As I did I found another page. This one talked about Alexander funny enough. “Oh? Wonder what the old man had to write?” I wondered while looking over the page. The Entry spoke of his ability to gain temporary invincibility against anything, as well as how to enforce Cooper combat styles with booze to create the fighting style, the Drunk Racoon. Pairing Drunk Racoon with this Invincibility is what made him such an unstoppable one Racoon army. Damn. “That cheeky bastard.” I chuckled while pocketing the page. “Gonna have to ask him to a drinking contest later on...wonder if he can still eat and drink while as a bot?” I shrugged as I headed out, jumping back on my glider and heading off towards the Panda King's temple. Thankfully it was in the same location as from the game. Inside was just like the game too, save for Panda King himself. Rather than just pants and shirtless get up he was dressed in a military officers uniform. "And a Cooper enters my domain at last." Panda King said casually as he turned to look at me with eyes heavy with regrets and sorrow. “You’re free now.” I started. “The Cooper Bots are done with, Nexus isn’t going to follow Clockwerk or anyone bad...so I must ask how you’ve been treating your Country?” “My people know full bellies, education, jobs and nothing else. I did as I wanted to do for them but at the cost of freedom and morality. In the end, it is a failure on my shoulders. Carried like the sins of my past.” “And now you have that freedom, and your morality has set China back on the right track.” I nodded. “Sometimes...bloodshed happens, even when we’d rather not have it happen…” I sighed out. “But right now, two things need to happen.” I said while bringing up my Cane. “First, is me and you fighting, just so I can see if you’re legendary ‘Flame Fu’ is as strong as I’ve heard, and for me to get your approval to date Jing.” I said simply. “With my sins, you taking my daughter’s hand is an undeserved honor Cooper. As for my Flame Fu, that depends, will you fight me like the Racoon you are or as the Keyblade wielder you stand before me as?” “No tricks, no magic.” I said while my Keyblade Cane shifted into a full fledged Cane as I got into my stance. “Now get out of that monkey suit and let’s have some fun.” I said with a grin. Panda King nodded, taking his shirt and shoes off before ripping the pants into shorts. He clapped his hands, fire forming along his hands as he readied himself. “It’s a shame only one of the Cooper Brothers comes to face me. But perhaps only one is needed to defeat the demon that has plagued your family since the dawn of time.” “I’m sure my brother will take all the glory.” I shrugged. “He’s gotta impress his girlfriend somehow without me taking the spotlight.” “Yet the Spotlight takes aim at you most of all. Brace yourself, Cooper. Clockwerk has watched you more than your brother and will have a trick up his wings.” WIth that, Panda King attacked, rushing as I dodged. For his size he was way faster than from the game, barely missing me by the hairs along my tail. As I was about to swing he stomped, fire flaming out from under him and throwing me back. Fuck! … That, that hurt? I’m at full power, how did I feel that? “Jeez, that’s some fire you got there Panda King.” I said, checking my stats to see why I just took damage. “Surprised?” I looked up… Vincent? He smiled at me, walking around myself and Panda King. Everything was paused. “You enjoy these right? A fair fight? A proper challenge?” “So that’s why.” I nodded. “Good to know that I didn’t somehow subconsciously lower my power all the way down to Kite...which is what I was going to do mind you but better to know I didn’t do it on accident instead of on purpose.” I said honestly. “It’s a means to our mutual end. You need to get stronger, so I gave you that. Equilibrium. A new ability fresh out the code.” “Sweet.” I nodded. “So now my concern is, how did you do that when the Admin of...is there an Admin of Abilities?” I asked curiously. “Yes. Used to be. Two of them. Always at war with one another, trying to better their abilities over the other. They died in the Admin war. They always do. Still, enough resets I picked up more than enough. It’s part of the information I didn’t put in that scroll. No fun in giving you all that up front. In time maybe, but not now.” He said, turning over to Panda King. “He’s out putting the same power as you are right now. That’s what Equilibrium does. Makes your opponent as strong as you are if they are weaker and boy there are so many people weaker than you King.” “Alright...so there’s going to be...a lot of destruction if this gets out of hand…” I said nervously. “And of course, the chance of losing. Which brings me to my secondary reason for being here. A mutual pain in the side we share.” “That depends on ‘which thorn’.” I frowned. “Oh I think you can take a guess.” Vincent said, giving a tap to the side of his… eye. Void Key. “I didn’t know Void Key was a pain in the ass for you.” I said. “So what sort of ‘help’ do you want against that rat bastard?” “I don’t need or want help. You do though. You have a very personal vendetta against them if I recall. Something to do with Coco and a certain inability he cursed her with, among other things.” “The bastard cursed my wife so she can’t have kids damn it.” I growled. “And besides that, took control of her body and put her in a comatose state that I couldn’t figure out how to cure...and honestly I just want that asshole to beg for mercy when I get my claws on him.” “Then, win.” Vincent said, taking a seat on a statue that broke in the fight. “You beat him, I’ll give you the Blueprints that made Void Key, and from there, you can learn everything about him. And next time I show up, win that fight, and I’ll tell you where he hid Pecator’s memories of Void Key’s creation.” “Sounds simple enough…” I started preparing to fight against Panda King. “All I have to do is win against these bastards and figure out how to murder Void Key...cool.” "If you win. Being as strong as you are there is now the chance of loss in this fight." “I’m a Cooper, dealing with unwinnable odds is our specialty.” I said happily. "Heh, sure." With that, Vincent left and the Time resumed as I fought Panda King. He definitely deserved the name as this version of him was a much better fight than the game one. “So how does it feel to be fighting once again Panda King?” I asked curiously, moving swiftly and tried to trip him. He jumped my trip attempt, backing up some distance. “I have trained every day since I took over this country, this battle must prove yourself or lose to your family curse.” “Alright.” I said while starting to bounce a little as I stretched a bit. “So, let’s see how you handle this.” I said while moving quite a bit faster than Panda King was expecting as I fired a bolt of lightning towards the large panda. His Flame Fu seemed to catch the Lightning, but I was already behind them and gave them a swift whack to the back of their head. Panda King Staggered a bit from the hit but turned around and BREATHED fire at me. Damn he worked a lot more on that Flame Fu here than from the game. I cast a water spell and it clashed with the fire, creating a massive bout of steam. “What? Is your nickname ‘Dragon of the East’ or something?” "My ancestor's, actually." He stated, jumping up into the air and aiming his body in a cartwheel of fire at me. “That’s good to know.” I said while dodging the cartwheel and throwing a fake, explosive hat towards Panda King’s face, having learned a thing or two from Bentley and having it filled with a knock out gas strong enough to damn near knock out Murray. There was a blast of smoke and for a bit I thought that was that… till I dodged the fireball and saw Panda King still standing, eyes closed and snoring… oh come on, he can fight while asleep?! With a snort Panda King blasted heat waves, not fire, waves of heat that began zapping at my stamina and endurance towards me. “Okay, that’s not fair.” I frowned as I bolted forward and whacked him upside the head. That woke them up enough to grab my tail and I yelped as it went up in fire. No matter what race, tail is always sensitive! “Son of a-mother-” I punched Panda King in the dick because of that. Panda King fell to his knees and held his now bruised groin. “You punched me in the dick!” “You burnt my tail!” I countered angrily. “You punched me in the dick.” Panda King wheezed. “You burnt my fucking tail!” I repeated angrily. “Is this a bad time?” We both turned to the doorway, seeing Sly standing there looking quite confused. “Me and Panda King were just...having a friendly fight.” I said sheepishly, using my magic to help the poor Panda’s junk. “And hey, he approves of me dating Jing, so there’s that.” I said sheepishly. “Right… Anyway, so Mom’s gonna be here in about… now.” At that moment the ceiling above exploded and mom came down and gave Panda King a knock out head stomp that cracked the floor under him… yeah he’s out cold… “Hi Kite, everything go well?” She asked as she brushed small debris and dust off me. “I’m more concerned with Panda King and if you didn’t accidentally crack his skull open.” I said nervously. “But I’m fine, besides a bit of a burnt tail, I’m good. And apparently, Panda King has been running China very well from what he told me.” “Thats good. And don’t worry, he’ll live.” Mom said as she opened her leg pouch and applied some burn salve to my tail. “Now then, let’s get back home and begin working on the final things we need to do before taking on Clockwerk.” “Alright.” I nodded. “But uh...should I bring Jing along? Given I need to...have an official date with her?” “You’ll have to talk with Matilda about that.” “I know...god that’s going to be awkward…” I grumbled. With a sigh and feeling beat to hell we all headed back home to Cane Island. Once there Matilda and Jing King started talking, which made me a bit worried… not as worried as the giant portal leading to Tor’s pocket dimension that was there where he, his other mates, and all the children were playing on the beach. Specifically, some part Racoon part Dire Wolf Pups. “Oh no…” I muttered, immediately covering my face in embarrassment. “Damn it...why did you have to have to do this to me?” I muttered, scared of the questions that are going to be thrown at me even if I was suppressing my urge to just shift back into my den mother form and hug all my new kids a lot. “Daw, they’re so cute!” Matilda said as we landed on the sand. Immediately, Tor and the pups pounced on me. “So, who’s the big guy?” “This is Tor, and he’s a good boy.” I said while patting Tor’s head. “Mommy!” One of the racoon dire wolf pups cheered as they nuzzled me. “Oh god damn it~.” I whined in embarrassment. That got all eyes on me. They seemed to be processing that for a moment before it was mom who finally fell on her butt in the sand. “Wow… I’m a grandma…” “And I’m an uncle…” Sly added. “I… should just accept whatever happens around you from now on, better for my sanity that way.” “Kite, didn’t think you were that kind of girl. I like it.” Matilda cooed at me. “Shush Matilda.” I said while getting out of the fluff pile I was under thankfully. “Alright...great, I was hoping to ignore this conversation forever but...looks like I’m going to have to start…” I muttered while taking a deep breath, and transforming back into my Den Mother form. “There’s...a lot I should explain...but who wants to go first in asking questions? Also a disclaimer...I have magical clothes to hide my…’proportions’ to at least safe levels.” Everyone seemed to think questions up and over for a bit. “What’s your original race since you can shapeshift?” Bentley asked. “That’s...okay, which ‘originally’ do you mean? Before I was born as Kite or before I became a Dire Wolf?” I sighed out. “Cause...a lot of things are involved, and one of them involves a very controlled, safe, and harmless form of Time Travel.” “Are these little pups your first litter or are you an experienced milf?” Matilda asked. “I’m actually both genders as a quick side note, but I am…extremely experienced.” I said sheepishly. “Can you fly?” Murray asked, everyone looking at him. “What?” “That depends, cause while I can shapeshift, I have learned all the flight spells, I can naturally fly because of other reasons...and I think there’s the possibility where I can actually run through the night sky if some legends are to be believed about Dire Wolves.” I shrugged. The questions varied. Matilda mostly asking about lewd things, cause she just loves to make me flustered. Finally I took a break, shifting back to Kite form and sighing. Part of me wanted to avoid this heavily… Maybe I need advice? “God, this is just annoying…” I muttered while bringing out the watch to talk to my Time Walker. “Hopefully I can get some advice here…” “Yo.” They said, appearing in a flash of blue as time froze. He was eating a candy bar. “Need something?” “Two things, one, does the whole ‘them knowing who I am’ break any rules on this? And two...has Vincent done anything...bad because of our deal?” “One. No. With how time works now, there is no issue. Two. No, nothing concerning or unexpected anyway.” “That’s concerning.” I said nervously. “So, onto the major thing...I need advice about...having told my family here about me...I kind of hoped I wouldn’t have…” “Why?” “To be honest...I’m scared it’ll distance myself from them...like they won’t see me as Kite anymore, apart of the family and just...some pretender that magicked his way into things…” “Well… Didn’t you though?” “The Admin Game bit isn’t the point...I mean the whole family thing is fake and no one will care about me because of what and who I am…” I sighed out. “Is that what you think, or what Kite thinks?” “I’m one in the same.” I frowned. “I just...don’t want my family to think of me any differently...I’m still Kite Cooper...that hasn’t changed.” “Hm. Sounds like something you should talk about with Kite.” “Are we seriously going to have this ‘oh no, we’re actually two different people’ thing here?” I asked. “No, you are the same person, but your heart when whole makes you and you can still talk to your light and dark halves, right?” “That’s...true.” I started. “I haven’t done it in a while though sadly...hopefully they don’t take it personally...I’ve been busy…” “Need some help getting there or you good?” “I’m sure I got it.” I said honestly, focusing as I tried to call on my dark and light half for a quick little chat. I focused on that for a bit, meditating and woke up in my Station of Awakening. Acceptance and Rejection were standing across from me. “Hi!” Acceptance said. “What brings you here?” Rejection asked. “Some questions I need to ask myself, like ‘does my family think I’m not Kite anymore now that I’ve told them a lot about myself?’, or ‘will they treat me differently or as a different person because of this?’.” I sighed out. “I… probably shouldn’t say anything then.” Rejection stated. “They will most likely only see you as different if you haven’t been yourself with them. Far as I can tell you have been you with them, now it’s just the whole of you.” Acceptance said. “That sounds fine but...I don’t want to alienate them like it seems, especially with Sly’s reactions half the time.” I sighed out. “Well, can you blame him? Your initial reactions to reality and Cript’s reality were quite confusing and surprised.” “True.” I said honestly. “I’m just...worried is all…” I sighed out. “They will adjust, the worst thing for them is to take your normal form all the time. Kite is more than just a body, he is an identity and a life you have lived in and found family, love, and adventure as. Stay as kite, even Genderbent like how Matilda wants to play with you as, and it will help them adjust more and easier. Over time, give them tastes of how your power works, and it will help them adjust and learn to accept it better and faster.” “Gonna be weird for them at first...but I always wanted to date a Panda Girl...they're soft and fluffy…” “And plump in all the right places.” Acceptance added with a giddy smile. “If you two are done being perverts I believe Kite has work to do right now?” Rejection asked. "Oh you know you enjoy the thought as well." I chuckled. "But I have to go ask our family about this...and also plan how to beat Clockwerk." "Well, best if luck then." Acceptance said. Okay, first up was a talk with Sly as he is taking this all the hardest it seems. I found him in his cottage, practicing lockpicking. “Hey bro.” I said softly and carefully, in my ‘Kite’ form here just to try and not make the situation worse. “How are you doing?” "Good. You need something?" He asked, looking over at me and putting the lock and picks down. “We need to talk.” I started. “About… everything that’s been going on about me specifically…” "Okay. So, what do you wanna talk about?" “Better question is, what do you want to talk about?” I started. “Cause while I’m scared I’m losing my family because of...all of this, you are the one that this revelation is hitting the hardest.” "It's not so much the shock or anything it's more the… absurdity. I mean, you being a dual gendered being above a god that got rid of these Nexus people… actually, how did you do that?"?” “I...made a deal with their boss...a deal with the devil…” I sighed out. “They follow me, and a lot of other positive things my way, and he gets to cherry pick who joins his side...better than what would have happened anyway.” I shrugged. "That must have been painful to do." “It sucked...but their boss gave me a lot of more positive things than you’d think because ‘he’s excited to lose’.” I sighed out. "That's concerning." Sly said worriedly. "Definitely more off his rocker than Clockwerk anyway. Speaking of, Bently launched his anit-virus against Clockwerk. Basically nullifying the radio towers all together." “Cool.” I nodded. “That’ll help a lot with the coming battle if the Cooper Bots aren’t already trying to tear him apart.” I said honestly. "That's the bad news… at least One Cooper Bot is still unaccounted for." “And...what’s that Cooper Bot?” I asked nervously. "Take a guess." Sly said with a sigh, looking at the family cane in the table. "Dad's bot was last seen attacking the rebels half an hour ago." “But...why would dad be the one against us?” I asked worriedly. "Matilda thinks maybe Clockwerk implanted an internal receiver inside dad, broadcast directly into him, or worst case scenario… Downloaded himself into dad. We won't know until we head for Russia." “Dick.” I frowned. “We’re going to save dad, I know that for a fact.” "Hopefully. So, how much of the family book do we have so far? I know when we met Mz. Ruby she gave us all her pages, arresting Mugshot after that all… happened, he gave us his pages. We got them from Roughly after mom and Matilda put him in the hospital, and Panda King just gave us his pieces… so looks like we just need Clockwerk's then right?" "Yep." I nodded. "And we're gonna have to beat an insane cyber owl inside his evil volcano base as he readies his doomsday lazer...jesus how unoriginal can you get?" "Guess you can't beat a classic then huh?" Sly said, giving a laugh. "Still… I just hope everything with dad works out fine." "I'm sure it will." I said honestly. "And we'll make sure of it. We're Cooper's after all, and there's no heist we can't pull off." "What about rescue missions?" “Well...that can be seen as the same thing.” I shrugged. “Depending on how you look at it.” "Maybe…" Sly said with a sigh. "Do you think when this is all over things will calm down?" “When do things ever calm down?” I asked jokingly. I mentally kicked myself, that made him look more upset. “I really hope they do calm down.” I sighed out while putting a hand on my older brother’s shoulder. “Things will calm down. I promise.” I said with a smile. “But then it’ll heat right back up when you start fully dating Carmelita.” I teased. I should have kept my mouth shut. Sly just looked down and went back to messing with the lock and picks. I left, kicking the dirt. Damn it… why did I have to go and say that? I sighed, looking up and seeing Carmelita jogging down the pathways. ”Okay...I’m honestly concerned on why telling him ‘dating Carmelita would get heated’ is making him upset?” I thought to myself. ”He’s a teenager with a hot girlfriend, the hell would he not get the obvious joke?” I thought to myself in slight confusion as I walked over to Carmelita. “Hey Carmelita.” “Hey Kite.” She said, jogging in place. “Something up?” “Just messing up talking with my brother, where he weirdly missed some context on the last thing I said.” I said honestly. “You just realised how dense he can be?” Carmalita asked with chuckle. “More like he thought bad things would happen when he finally started dating you, instead of the obvious sex joke I teased at him.” I sighed out. “Heh, well… He’s probably just worried. The news about your dad still being controlled and all… Lately I get the feeling Sly’s getting burned out.” “I think it’s more ‘world shaking revelation’s’ that are getting to him, not the job part.” I said honestly. “I know he needs a break...honestly we all do after this…” I sighed out, hoping to god that we’ll have enough time to enjoy life before the Klaww Gang decides to throw a wrench into our lives. “Maybe… Say Kite, how does that whole family cane thing work with brothers? I know you made your own but, how would it have gone down if your dad had to give it to one of you two?” “I’m pretty sure he would have given it to the eldest, I...don’t actually know, I’ll need to go back into the book to see if our family even had multiple children before…” I said nervously. “Cause so far, a good majority only had a single child.” “Huh. Fair enough. Oh, Bentley was looking for you. I’m pretty sure he wants to question you on anything and everything you know. Science wise anyway.” “God, we’re going to be all day with that, even if I keep it to this world's level of tech.” I sighed out. “But...what’s your opinion of me now that you know the truth?” “I always figured you were a bit… skilled at everything you did. I mean, how many eight year olds can complete a military grade obstacle course day one? Wasn’t expecting the higher being of existence thing, but I still grew up with you and to me you’ll always be that little kid who stole the cookie jar with your brother and friends in the orphanage, then helped us raid Uncle Jim’s snack closet growing up here.” Carmalita said with a laugh. “That was fun.” I laughed at the memory. “But to the obstacle course thing, while I am skilled, it was mostly me doing it by memory and natural talent given I’m a Cooper, I didn’t have any of my abilities, powers, or physical capabilities...also when you have to do mountains of paperwork with others half the time, attention to detail and hand eye coordination is really good when you have to look at so many pages and also write down signatures in the blink of an eye…” I groaned. “God...even with regeneration, paper cuts still suck.” “Is that most of what beings more powerful than gods do these days?” “There’s a lot more to it than that.” I said honestly. “But when you also have to rule an entire Kingdom because you became one of those ‘more powerful than gods’ due to becoming King of an Energy Source that’s a fourth of all Existence...but that’s another topic for another day, but I’m still one of the main ‘Royals’ that runs the Kingdom and...so much paperwork.” “Huh, can’t you, ya know, delegate most of that to other people?” “We do.” I deadpanned. “And the Royalty not only have to do their jobs, mine being the ‘face’ of the Kingdom, and you can see why being a Den Mother, but also help out with all the paperwork that’s still in the realm of ‘asston’.” I sighed out. “Happens when we have the ‘final say’ as it were just to make sure no bullshit get’s through to hurt the people.” “Huh. That’s weird. Well, good luck with that then. I’m gonna get back to jogging then check on Sly later on.” “Slightly weird.” I shrugged. “So Bentley’s where he normally is when he’s about to start questioning things?” "His lab, yes." Carmalita said with a nod. “Alright, so before I go...please check up on me and Bentley regularly just in case we keep talking for...a day and a half straight.” I said sheepishly. "I'll try." Carmalita said with a laugh as she jogged off. I smiled. At least that went well. I headed over to Bentely's lab and found the turtle at a desk, him sitting on one side and an empty chair on the other. "Hello Kite." “Hey Bentley, how are you doing?” I asked, taking a seat on the empty chair. "I'm doing well, I just have a few questions." “Yes, and you said that before when I started helping out with magic training and you were at it for about a day and a half.” I chuckled. "Before anything I must know… how you been using your powers to cheat at our DnD games? Cause I still can't believe you can roll that many perfect rolls I'm a row." “I literally just got my powers when I made that deal with Nexus’s leader.” I started. “I don’t know why I keep getting Nat20’s, but I do, and there’s no magic involved.” I said, the actual honest to god truth. “You know me well enough, and you know I would never cheat on family game nights.” I told him, still not telling him about how I figured out how to properly roll it to get more precise numbers. "Did you make any other deals with gods? Any higher beings who know about where/when you are?" “Nope.” I shook my head. “The only other being that would be of importance would be my ‘Referee’ in this, which is a Time Walker...I think I’ve either mentioned before or you met them, I don’t fully remember which it’s been a while.” "I don't believe we have met them." “Alright.” I nodded. “So what questions do you want to start with besides questioning if I cheat at DND.” "Homework… you already knew all those subjects didn't you?" “I came here with my memories of my…’future life’ technically. So I do know a lot of things...just uh...this world threw me for an absolute loop on a lot of things.” "Hmm… okay… back at the orphanage. You singled out Murray and I. Why?" “Alright, so what do you know about Multiverse theory?” I asked. “Cause I’m gonna need to start with that to...at least make some sense with what I’m going to explain.” "I know it basically states any possibility is an outcome within this or other universes." “Now imagine that on an astronomically bigger scale.” I said honestly. “So, where I’m from, the ‘key events’ are the same, like mine and Sly’s parents dying, the orphanage, you two becoming fast friends with us, and us beating Clockwerk and going on merry adventures, but the details surrounding them are vastly different. Some examples being Carmalita’s family being targeted as well as her joining our gang, Uncle M and Jim weren’t around because Uncle M was going, pardon the pun, ape shit trying to open the Cooper Vault and Uncle Jim was in Prison after dad retired, just to name a few differences.” I explained. "Okay… how then? I doubt our worlds are that identical. So, how does this reality appear in yours? I've always theorized one universe can appear as a work of fiction in another." “That’s...going to take a bit.” I said sheepishly as I moved over to a more clear area of the Lab and created a neat little gaming setup with a PS4, a good TV, and all four Sly Cooper games. “This is going to take a while, but...before I fully start, do you want to go through all four games or just the first one?” "... Wow. My life is a video game… I wanna level up now." Bentley said with a laugh. “Well, I’m certain that’s going to happen sooner or later.” I chuckled. “So, first game only or the entire quadrilogy? Cause this can technically tell us what key events might occur still, but everything else is already so wildly different it might not even matter.” "Hmm… knowing future events could be useful, but also just as dangerous. Typically on the path to avoid one's future often leads you right to it." “But considering how massively different these two worlds are, it practically doesn’t mean shit.” I shrugged. “And trust me, as someone who only knew about this storyline...I was in for a very rude awakening that...had its ups and downs.” I said nervously. "Huh. And… I take it in all of these you knew of, Sly was an only child, huh?" “Yes, and honestly, while I knew that if I was in the games timeline there would be differences, I didn’t expect to be in a completely different one with a brand new set of rules as it were.” I shrugged. "Huh. That's the ripple effect I guess." “Honestly...there isn’t really a ‘ripple effect’ here since...apparently where I’m from, my entire life here is already documented in video game form for...some reason.” "One of those ’don't question it’ things I take?" “When I completely gave up on trying to figure out half this shit, yes.” I nodded. “Just know that ‘everything has, is, and will be happening’.” "... That just hurts to think about." "So let's stop thinking about all this alternate universe stuff." I started while booting up Sly Cooper 1. "Instead let's focus on alternate universe stuff." "Why do I get the feeling that's a reference only you know about?" "Sadly." I sighed out. "It's hard knowing a lot of things sometimes." With my fun and talk with Bently done I headed back out and was then tackled by Matilda who began dragging me by my tail. "I didn't do anything!" I said in panic as I tried to not be dragged away by her. "You, and I, need to have a talk about Jing." "Is there something wrong?" I asked nervously. "Cause I made sure things weren't awkward or...weird or anything." "That was before I learned how much of a sheltered girl she is." "It's not my fault she was damn near being held captive." I said nervously. "I've tried everything, innuendos, flirting, body language, being pretty damn blunt physically and verbally but the girl don't quite get that sex is a two person job." I blinked a bit at that. "She just lays there, it's weird." "And you want me to help teach her? Also why is the first thing you want to teach her about is sex?" I asked nervously. "It's that or nothing. She already cooks, cleans, an ace Gardener, had pretty impressive medical knowledge, and her father taught her his flame fu so combat is out. Sex is literally the only thing she has zero experience in." "Alright...alright…" I sighed out. "I don't know how many soundproofing spells I'll need on this one…" I muttered to myself. "I already set those up." "From personal experience...we need them stronger, or just more." I said nervously. "Also...uh...is there plenty of water in there? It's gonna be a while...like...a long while." "Lots, yes." Needless to say Matilda wasn't wrong. Jing just laid there for it. It took four days, a lot of porn and this world's version of the karmasutra and a few things from Rune's book, but Jing now has sex like a proper perverted young adult. With that done I left our cottage after a good shower and went to find Murray. He and Uncle Jim should both be in the garage. “Yo.” I knocked on the garage door to let the two know I’m here. "Come in." Murray said, I entered and saw Murray standing next to the van and a tool box, uncle Jim under the hood of the van. “How’s the work on the Van going?” I asked curiously, looking over the Van to see if anything was outwardly changed. "Clockwerk has defenses up the rear with his bots and weapons, I'm outfitting the van with heavy duty armor Matilda gave me from those cashes she recovered as well as some turrets. We're gonna need em to get close enough. Oh, that reminds me, your ma and M wanted to see you. Said to bring your cane." “Well...I promised to get Zhang Li her fan back.” I said honestly. “But how have you two been?” "Pretty good. Uncle Jim is teaching me a lot about automotives and how to harness your body's whole strength even without having a peak physical form." "It's a good technique for the fast food lovers." Jim said with a laugh. “Sounds about right.” I nodded. "We're hoping everyone can get their own ride. That would be so cool! I mean, the Keyblade Gliders are neat, but the roar of an engine just can't be beat." "I was actually gonna ask Matilda if there was a way to make them powered by Keyblades." Uncle Jim said. "That way nobody can start it up unless they have one themselves." “Huh...that is an interesting idea.” I said honestly. "Would also solve an issue Involving power supply. A basic battery and gas engine can't fly us that far or be strong enough through the storms that protect the island." “Believe it or not...I haven’t actually heard of Keyblade Vehicles before.” I said honestly. “It’s gonna be a group effort to figure that out that’s for sure.” I blinked, reaching into my pocket and pulling out the scroll Vincent gave me in the deal. Everything huh? Well, almost everything… “Alright...so where are the Keyblade Vehicles…” I hummed while going through this massive scroll. Once I opened it, the code language flooded my mind. It was an interesting feeling, all that information in my head at once and I can sort through it all to find what I needed. And I found what I needed. So many vehicles, so many blueprints, so many ways for a single Keyblade to power so much. Hello upgrades. “Okay, yeah that can work.” I said, kind of giddy at how awesome we could make the Van. “Alright, there’s a lot for me to write down and figure this stuff out.” I found the more basic, simple one I could filter out and began writing up the needed materials, drawing the blueprints and all that. With that all done I looked through other things. Mainly, Nothingness. Shit there is a lot here I didn't know at all. Including that Nothingness as an energy can evolve into something greater. Cypher, and one more time, simply called The Empty. Doing so though is not only time consuming but incredibly dangerous. The fact Vincent even put a warning in that tells me as much. The same goes for the other elements too, Balance, Void, Fire, Terra, all of them. “Jesus…” I muttered. “This is quite a thing...also, where’s Bravery in here?” I frowned while looking into that bit of Nothingness as well, knowing my family’s got it covered but might as well see if Vincent decided to give me that info. I lucked out. Bravery Nothingness. Bravery Nothingness is quite the interesting energy, much like it's normal and other variations it holds a near complete immunity to Void energy, but it actually attacks Void at it's code, converting it into more of itself. It's especially potent against Fear, Dread, Sorrow, and Hatred Void variations and is easily weaponized. Making it is simple enough. The base foundation of all Nothingness, Willpower Spark, Pure Bravery, preferably in code form, and lastly a shell or kiln to house the fires as it burns for eternity. A person or body can do but frankly keeping it inside any container works just as well. The only thing that can affect the Bravery variations is Hope Void. Makes sense, two positives often react as such. “Excuse me, Hope Void…” I started, not believing those two words could be used together like that as I looked up what the hell Hope Void was. Hope Void. This is a unique, far more passive variation of void that so far does not appear within the machine naturally and must be made. Like all void it infects basic code entities but does not corrupt, rather, it seems to pacify aggressive entities. It heals rather than decay's and can revive a corpse that has died of unnatural causes. Primarily only one being in all reality aside from myself has utilized this variation, Esen, the guardian of the Void Wolves forest. It seems in turn for protection she gives the void wolves a safe home with beasts that can be hunted without losing half their pack in the effort. Making it is interesting. You need the base foundation of Void, Corruption, Dread, Bravery, and lastly, Innocence. So far it can't be weaponized, but can be used In healing spells, potions, protection enchantments and runes. “Huh...that is very interesting.” I hummed, finding it very good that Void has healing properties and isn’t just murder. That piqued my interest. What about Psychopaths? Psychopaths were born when the Admin of Blacksmithing killed and forged the admin of beauty into a war axe to kill her lover. Yeah that was a bad day. Interestingly, the Admin of Blacksmithing isn't actually the first Psychopath, while he is the first to slaughter and defile a corpse, the power of blood comes from the axe. Guess the Admin of beauty is still alive as that axe, likely in more pain than any admin ever has felt, but alive. Sorta. So far only Humanity energy, Kingdom Hearts little side project has any effect on the bloody little things. Turns out you can cure blood with blood. A mixture of Blood of someone who holds both the Psychopaths power and Humanity, Hope, and Regret can cure a fully converted Psychopath. Haven't tried it on that axe though, it would easily cure all the lessers since their power comes from it. Maybe if I get bored I'll test that theory. “Well looks like I’m gonna have to do that...if I can find that axe.” I said honestly, having a feeling Vincent didn't leave a 'here's where the axe is' in his notes. I decided to check. Old bastard left the axe in his armory. Admin of war, yeah right. Same place as every time the machine resets and formats, The Ore Pitt, his old workshop. Place is crawling with Deletes and Void Psychopaths these days, Deletes want in for the weapons, Void Psychopaths want in to worship the thing. Honestly, that whole concept of letting those lesser beings worship you never made sense to me. I mean if it gave you power than sure, it would be with it, but until those twins decide to do so, it's just pointless. The Ore Pitt… I looked for a map and wow...woah… woah… okay the void is WAY bigger than I expected. There's the Heroes Tomb, That's the Void Wolves forest, The Void Mother's sanctuary… wow… ah, here it is, The Ore Pitt… on the complete other side of the void… cause of course. "Okay so I'm not doing that any time soon…" I muttered. "I should see what mom needs from me after this…" I closed up the scroll and headed off. Mom was with uncle M in his lab. "Ah, there you are Kite." Mom said, giving me a smile. "We are glad you have arrived. We have some news regarding Clockwerk." M said. “And what would that news be?” I asked curiously. "While working with Miz. Ruby we discovered some possible clues as to Clockwerk's past." M said as he placed a book that defined the definition of old and falling apart on the table. Carefully he opened it and on the front was an image of a large owl flying over wilderness. "According to legends, back in the early days of our world's creation, Clockwerk was the first male of his kind, followed by the female, his wife, made by God along with the other first born races our world has." Mom read. "According to this, Clockwerk and his wife started off as guardians of the garden of eden. Their home and birthplace." “Alright, so who fucked up and murdered his wife?” I asked. “Seems...very obvious something happened to his wife if he was born way back when.” "Not his wife, their eggs." M said sadly. Mom looked sad at that. "The first born Racoons, stole their eggs for food. They had young. In anger, Clockwerk and his wife slaughtered the two, and left their children to survive on their own. While he and his wife had more eggs, leading to the owls of his race around today, his rage never left. It kept him alive, even centuries after his wife died." "The Cooper's are direct descendants of the first born Racoons, the cane's hook is said to be made from Clockwerk's original claw, broken in the bloodbath." M said, holding the family cane up. “Uh…” I started. “Is...it wrong that...I found Clockwerks eggs...and then hatched them while...somehow adding Cooper DNA into all those robo owls?” I asked nervously. “And...I’m technically their parent now?” "Zhang li already told us that, and they are interesting little beings." Mom said. "Clockwerk's claws are the only known thing that have been able to injure the metal of his new form. It was mandatory to stave off his death. We were wondering if you knew of something that can do the same. Some metal similar to his claws." M said as he handed me the cane. “Okay, I know exactly what we’re doing for Family Game night next...and that’s showing you all how little I know about this world's finer details.” I said sheepishly while looking over the material of the Cane. “Cause ‘key moments’ I know...but other than that...it’s best to show you all.” Analyzing. Analysis complete. Clockwerk's claw. Organic bone consisting of the density and atomic structure similar to Adamantium. “Really? Only Adamantium?” I raised an eyebrow. “While a strong material...still not the strongest.” "So you know of stronger?" M asked me. “There are several, one of them Nexus was literally mining out of this planet.” I said honestly. “Monofilament ore is very strong and durable...but then I need to remind myself that Adamantium has like...four different variants now that I think about it.” "So that means if we get our hands on this Monofilament, we can actually damage Clockwerk and his bots." Mom said. "Since you got Nexus on our side now, do you think they'd be willing to lend or trade some to us?" “That depends.” I said before turning around and whistling a special whistle to call Tor. The doggo jumped out from my shadow. "Yes?" Tor asked with a wagging ta.il. “Do you know of any Monofilament materials we could either get or trade from you guys if your not all hungover to hell?” I asked. “Also Sam still owes me a drink.” "Monofilament? Well, yeah we have lots all stashed away in storage." “We’re gonna need some to get past Clockwerks armor.” I said honestly. “So got any to lend us?” I asked while unconsciously scratching the good boy behind the ears, having learned that it was one of his favorite scratching spots. "Sure. We don't even use it that often, and mostly we just keep it all stored away for whatever reason." Tor said, a portal opening next to us. "This way." He said, walking into it. I followed and found myself in a warehouse the size of… quick scan… the Milky way galaxy… "This is warehouse 88-C."” “This is a big warehouse.” I said in surprise. "Actually, this is one of our smaller ones." Tor said, walking over then sitting in front of a metallic looking box. "Here it is." There was a screen on this box I read. Monofilament ingots. Current number of ingots, 999… Centillion… “Jesus how much Monofilament ingots have you been farming!?” I asked in shock. "I dunno." Tor said with a shrug. “Well...this is way more than enough, I shouldn’t need a literal lifetime worth of it though…” I said, trying to think of how much I would need for what’s about to happen. "Well, what are you making then?" “Things to get past Clockwerks adamantium body.” I said honestly. “Unless he upgraded to Monofilament while we weren’t looking.” "Even if he did take some I doubt he has the ability to melt it down. That volcano of his is not hot enough for that." Tor said. "One ingot should do for you though." One ingot? I guess you can make a metal that tough stretch pretty far. Tor tapped the screen, asking for a single Ingot- THUD I looked up at the metal block that went almost to the ceiling and was as wide as this hall, which was at least twenty feet between the boxes, and went easy a thousand miles back. That's their definition of an ingot?! Wait… 999 Centillion of these ingots that big in that box… “The fuck do people think an Ingot is sized!?” I was honestly flabbergasted at how much Monofilament ore they had stored here. "Once we began mass producing the ores we wanted to see how big we can make the ingots. They're a bit oversized but this is still smaller than the first massive ingot they made back then." Mass… produced? They can make Monofilament?!?!?! “You...can make this shit?” I asked carefully. "If it's made from code, yes." … that's literally everything in existence inside the machine... “But… that’s just cheating.” I frowned. "So, you don't want it then?" “No, I still want it.” I said while grabbing the literal pillar of an ingot. "Okay. Anything else here you would want?" “What else is here?” I inquired. “Cause this place is the size of a galaxy.” Tor messed with his blue dot, a holoscreen appearing as he gave it to me. Storage warehouse 88-C inventory log. It was fifty million pages long... “Holy shit…” I muttered. “This...is a lot of crap.” "You can take what you want, we don't even use half a percentage of all the materials we store away." “Sweet lord…” I muttered. “I don’t even know where to begin…” Tor shrugged. "There's refined ingots and gems, raw ores and gems, parts and tools, vehicles, weapons, ammunition, medicine, food, spells, entertainment, ect." “This is gonna take me a while…” I said, before just leaving a Starfish Clone to start dealing with all of that. “And so I’m going to leave a clone to start seeing what I’m going to take or not cause I still have stuff to do back home.” "Want some help regarding things here? I can see who is willing since you're basically the boss now." “That would be great...and can I get a list of everyone at least on this world? Might as well also acquaint myself with the people here and show I’m not Vincent...even if I raise a pinkie finger to help it would be leaps and bounds better than that asshole.” I grumbled. "So, here and here." Tor said, giving me a list of personnel on the planet and all the warehouses on the world… wow... “Hooray for more paperwork…” I whined. “Damn it…” I muttered while handing it to my clone as they started to go through everything. “Even with a clone, it’s gonna take a while.” With that underway I headed off, next I need to find… who else do I need to talk to? “Wait…” I started. “Fuck! I forgot to ask the others what they thought of me.” I facepalmed hard. “But...after that, it would be...Murray’s girlfriend...maybe Penelope if she is on the island...I forgot if she is...god a lot of things have been happening my minds slipping a little.” I grumbled. With a sigh I headed off, wondering what I should do next? I should ask the others if everything is fine but… honestly they didn't even seem bothered. Murray and Uncle Jim thought my thing with the scroll and all that was cool, M and Mom actually asked for some help from me by asking me to analyze the materials of the family cane, Bently mostly just wanted to make sure I wasn't cheating at game night. Do they just not care about what I am? “Okay, I’m gonna need a Family meeting about this, cause something’s a little weird here.” I frowned. I managed to get everyone together at dinner time some hours later. “Alright, so time for the obvious question.” I started. “Does anyone besides Sly actually care about all my big revelations? Or does Sly just need to remember he’s a teenager with a hot vixen of a girlfriend?” I decided to accuse Sly on his previous thoughts on me saying something bad when I was teasing him about Carmelita. "I think I speak for all of us here when I say, we have seen some shit, and we are more or less used to it." Uncle M said. "I think in the case of Murray and I, we just know who you are as a person and since that is who you are at your core, it didn't bother us so much." Bentley said, Murray nodding. “Are you all sure?” I asked. “Cause me being some being above god’s and just magically getting their full power back, with restriction I must add, isn’t that groundbreaking? Also Sly, my bro, you’re a teenager, and when I said ‘things will get heated when you and Carmelita start dating’, did you really believe I meant bad things were happening and not you two going at it like rabbits when no one’s looking?” I asked while staring at the racoon. “And yes, I am bringing this up because I have been honestly pissed at myself about that all day.” "Well, there was Antarctica." Mom said thoughtfully. "That thing in New York." Uncle Jim said. "The Netherlands…" Uncle M sighed. "I can list off way more from secret agent work on top of Keyblade welder duties." Matilda said. "Did I look in a mood I would understand a joke?" Sly asked me. I pointed at Carmelita. “My dude...we know you're as dense as a brick, but come on.” I frowned. "I'd be more forward with him but every time I try I can hear my grandma calling me a whore from the afterlife." Carmalita sighed. “What’s her name?” I asked politely, bringing out Book of Retribution and Staff of Leniency real quick. "Rosa." “Alright, Commune with the Dead.” I said as my book opened up to the right spell. “I call upon Rosa Montoya Fox, get down here and explain yourself lady.” I frowned. “Uh… I don’t think she meant literally Kite…” Mom spoke up. “I’m pretty sure it’s literal.” I said honestly. “I’ve dealt with enough ‘not meant literally’ become literal very quickly.” “Now who’s dense?” Carmalita laughed. “Hey!” Sly yipped. “I called you as dense as a brick and got no reaction, what the hell bro?” I asked while continuing to try and contact the old lady as a dial tone was ringing at least in my ears. “I’m used to it from you.” Sly replied. “Fine fine.” I said. “Jeez, can’t be this hard to commune with the dead…” I muttered to myself. “Depends, which afterlife are you trying to call?” Matilda asked. “Carmelita...would you say your grandma would be in heaven or hell?” I inquired. “Hell. Definitely hell.” Carmalita said with a nod. “Didn’t want to assume.” I said while closing my book. “Never mind then, so anyways, back to the main topic at hand where people are way too okay with this…” “Are actually upset that we aren’t upset?” Mom asked. “I was more scared you were upset.” I said honestly. “And honestly, I’m just surprised none of you are upset given the obvious.” “Well, regardless of what you are, I know you are still my son. The stretch marks prove as much.” Mom said as I blushed a bit. “I remember growing up with you… and changing diapers.” Sly laughed. “Cops and Coopers.” Carmalita laughed. “Birthdays.” M said with a smile. “So, yeah, you’re something much more than we thought, but you’re still part of the family, still a cooper, and still Kite, be that your first or millionth name.” Uncle Jim said. “Thanks guys.” I smiled, truly happy to know I still belong with my family. “It means...so much more than you realize for me to hear that.” The next few days were more relaxing. All in all it was fun. Life was good and relaxing for a while. Finally though, the final battle against Clockwerk and saving dad was soon, and things could finally go back to normal, or at least, be calm. To be continued... Nobody learns some thingsI hate paperwork. Greed and I were going through all the new supplies the former Nexus people were delivering on mass, endlessly since last week and… it doesn't seem to be ending anytime soon… “Jesus fuck, how much crap does Nexus even have?” I asked, shaking my furry hand as I wasn’t really used to this amount of paperwork. “Seriously, this is three times as much as what I normally do minimum.” "Clearly when an organization dates it's foundation back to the days of the admin war it can gather many trinkets." Greed said, counting the…. Four hundred billionth digital storage box filled only with iron. Four hundred billion boxes, each holding a centillion amount of a several million pound ingot… all only for iron so far! “The actual hell do they need this much iron for?” I whined. “I know if you make it right, Cold Iron can do wonders against certain magical factions but fuck…” "Just built up over time my Lord." Greed said, starting on the next box. I left. I need a break and I'm taking it in the one place I can really relax. I was enjoying the hot milk bath with Rarity. We made this a fairly regular thing since that first day and I have not regretted it. "So we just sit in warm milk?" Heart asked. I figured since Heart has never had a normal life back on earth and most likely never experienced the bliss of a spa, it would do them well. “Listen, I’ve never experienced a spa before until Rarity and others forced me here but...this milk bath, while a little weird that it’s with milk, is honestly a lot better than just a normal water based bath.” I explained. "It smells divine and since the liquid is milk, the more shy can feel a sense of security in the tub." Rarity added. Heart just shrugged. All in all they looked… unphased. Not relaxed and not stressed. I frowned at that as they looked around the room rather than just enjoying it. “Have you...never just relaxed in a hot bath before and just relaxed?” I inquired. "I never got a full right hours sleep until I was sent to Equestria, and even then it took a few months before I did." Heart stated. "Being born as public enemy number one tends to do that to you." "Why that's just dreadful." Rarity stated. “Sadly, that was his life back on Earth, way before all...this happened.” I sighed out. “But then...Heart’s life has been weird...and so has mine...life is just fucking weird the more I think about it.” "Eh. At this point I mostly just embraced it. The only real relaxing I ever did was when the girls and I, well, screwed." Heart said. "So you feel more comfortable relaxing through sex?" Rarity asked. "Basically. In case you two haven't noticed I don't have many hobbies, especially after beating Kingdom Hearts 3 on critical mode with all those restrictions." I still can't believe he did that. And in a week! Took me two months... “You still need a hobby.” I said honestly, trying not to get upset at how he beat something a whole lot harder to me. "Is sex a hobby?" "In this family, no. Sex in this family is more like our jobs before, during and after saving the realms." Rarity said. "Fun and enjoyable, oh yes. A hobby, no. Sadly." “I...wouldn’t call it a ‘job’...” I said sheepishly. “But that’s just me being a horny bastard half of the time.” I said sheepishly. "Would you prefer I call it your career darling?" Rarity asked, giving me a sly smile. “I wouldn’t call it my career but...well I am really good at it.” I shrugged. “So anyways, how have you two been?” "Well, when I'm not rutting with someone I'm sending keyblades to their wielders or giving birth or… that's about it these days." Heart said. "Well, The other Rarities and I have been working on a line of casual armor. Clothing that looks ordinary but is as bullet resistant as vibranium." Rarity said. “Neat.” I nodded. “I have been...busy with a whole lot of things...there’s counting all the Nexus inventory, the new recruits...preparing to fight Clockwerk as Kite...a whole lot of shit at the moment.” "Wow. You keep busy." Heart said. “Also I learned that Vincent is a physical manifestation of Grey...so there’s also that.” I said. “Which...that also involves Grey being a creation of Vincent’s...the original Vincent...bastard just wanted to either look like Vincent or took control of him, not sure which at this point…” "Okay… you bring that up because?" “Because it’s both important, and it involved one of the things I did today.” I said honestly. “Like how I fused with Cript and all my weapons become overpowered as shit.” "I thought the Override ability made a proper fusion impossible?" “How we fixed that is...a double edged sword.” I sighed out. “So in conjunction with me now owning all of Nexus that was going to get murdered in that Nexus Purge a long time ago...if Grey could cherry pick his own motley crew of people through time, I got to have a scroll full of a vast majority of his knowledge from all the ages he clearly remembered, and one of the things was Code Stitching.” I explained. “So we did a thing, and Cript no longer has the Override ability...which I also forgot I’m gonna need to do that to a lot of other people if that hasn’t happened yet.” "Okay. Anything else you wanna add to that?" “I’m sorry, I’ve been really busy...I need to vent a little.” I sighed out. “But...anything else to add…” "What about the kingdom? Anything new there?" Rarity asked. “Well…” I started thinking back on stuff in the kingdom. “Well, things are running smoothly at least, the photoshoot Kat, mine and Rarity’s fusion here, had is still making it’s rounds throughout the kingdom, and a few other things here and there.” I shrugged. "Nice. So, aside from soaking in warm milk what else are we gonna do here?" Heart asked. "After this is the full body massage, followed by a steam room, then a nice meal, ending with a full body wash and pampering." Rarity stated. “And trust me, all of those feel amazing.” I said happily. “Might be a bit more of my feminine side coming out on that, but even if I was a normal guy I’d still be super pleased with it.” "If you say so." Heart shrugged. “I know so.” I said honestly. The milk bath was going well. I took a nap and woke up some… hour later, seeing only Heart in the tub with me now. Heart was now looking relaxed at least. “Where’d Rarity go?” I yawned. “Take a guess.” Heart said, their tail emerging up from the milk. “Had a quickie, and my insides honestly are a better spa treatment than bathing in warm milk.” “Why didn’t you wake me up?” I pouted. “You looked so peaceful. Besides, Rarity still wanted you outside to make sure I actually went though the rest of this spa treatment.” “True.” I shrugged. “So we should be ending our milk bath soon, I forgot how long we’re supposed to be in here...also sorry for falling asleep...I’ve been really busy…” “Eh, you needed it.” After about thirty minutes later we were taken out of the milk bath and dried to enjoy a full body massage. As I was enjoying the stress getting massaged out of me, I looked over at Heart’s treatment… The staff seemed to be having trouble... “What’s wrong?” I inquired to the staff. “We can’t quite… push into the knots…” The masseuse said. “It’s like trying to massage stone. So much stress.” Heart shrugged. “We’d have better luck along the scales.” The other masseuse trying to work on Heart’s lower back said. “Need me to help out or cast buffs?” I asked curiously. “Cause I can do both if need be.” Needless to say after some of my best buffs, cast multiple times, and some help from me, the Dark monofilament that is the stress knots in Heart’s back, neck and arms were finally removed. I looked in amazement as I saw Heart bending their arms in ways that should be impossible, and even turn their waist around a full 360 degrees. “Wow, I haven’t been able to do that since I was ten.” They said, turning back to normal. “Uh…” I blinked. “How...why...and seriously?” “Ventral thing, not sure, and yeah. Guess that’s when my stress really started building.” Heart said simply. Up next was the steam room. Heart really got to stretch out in there and seemed to enjoy going completely nude while in there. “Heh, this kinda reminds me of my trips to Brazil.” “Why is that?” I asked curiously. “The warm humidity mostly. Was just like the… do you wanna know or shall that secret stay a secret?” “I’d like to know.” I said honestly. “It’s a lot like the nazi bunkers we’d stockpile every summer.” I stared at them. “You wanted to know.” “Well...I suppose.” I said nervously. “But really?” “Yeah, and hey, you enjoyed Apple products, right?” Again, I stared at them. “I’m not joking.” “Are...are you serious?” I asked carefully. “Yes. Apple was backed by the Nazi’s in brazil. Steve Jobs was the one they sent out to use america’s capitalism against them by using the Apple company to fund their second coming. Why else would a phone that costs like forty dollars in parts cost up to five hundred dollars on the market?” “Uh...huh…” I started. “Sure...why not.” “Wonder if those bunkers are still there?” Next was the meal. The buffet was as I remembered it and- “Sweet, food.” Heart said, going for the… unique foods. The ones that talk, and ate them all rapidly. “Sure are hungry.” I said in honest surprise at how rapidly Heart was eating. “Naga, remember?” Heart said, shoving one of those plant ladies down their gullet. “Besides, I’m sure Rarity will enjoy the company in there.” “That’s...also true.” I nodded, taking my time and enjoying my delicious food. After we were done in the buffet it was time for the bath and pampering. All was going well until it was time to clean Heart’s teeth… needless to say, the staff lost that game of tug of war and now they are also keeping Rarity company while Heart bathes themselves in their tub. The staff was washing me keeping some distance from Heart. “You know, it’s a lot better when your not shoving the staff into your stomach.” I pointed out. “What, they can pamper Rarity in there and it’s not like they aren’t enjoying it in there. Besides, when cleaning a naga, be cautious if you’re cleaning the teeth.” “It’s not the first time a guest does that.” The lady washing my tail said. “Bright side, when it does we get a small bonus for the trouble.” “Extra if they don’t let us out before leaving.” The one washing my head said. “A lot of extra.” With the watching done and after a while Heart did let the staff out, the pampering was finished and we headed off. I felt and looked amazing and Heart looked great, though they’d look even better if they didn’t keep the staff inside them for the bath part of the pampering. Heart and I returned to the cozy room of ours where we quickly got to cuddling, Heart was rather affectionate right now. “While I really enjoy the affection, why so affectionate right now?” I inquired my floof noodle love. “You work too much.” Heart said simply, giving me a sloppy kiss and getting as close against me as skin and our… rather large assets allow. “And… if I’m honest… I don’t want to fight anymore.” “Which kind of fighting?” I asked curiously. “Pretty much all of it.” Heart sighed, nuzzling into my neck. “Something Cript and I have in common is that we’re tired of the fighting. Battles… I know there’s still a massive war going on, but… I’m pretty happy like this. Sex, birth, babies, keyblades to weilders, repeat. Not necessarily in that order mind you.” “I understand.” I nodded. “All this fighting for this war is stupid and pointless...but it’s fighting that needs to be done to make sure future generations can live free and happy.” I said honestly. “Between you, Eclipsa, Cript and the others, I’m pretty sure I can get benched. Unless I’m really needed.” “You’ll always be needed.” I said honestly. "Maybe. Til then, shall we enjoy each other's company?" "Yes." I smiled, nuzzling my sweet Floor Noodle wife. I have to admit, I enjoyed this greatly. Heart and I typically would swap who rutted who after every climax, but this time it was after every four. They had an unfair advantage with that tail though, but I had ways of getting them back for that. At one point we managed to set ourselves so we both got inside each other at the same time and I won't lie, this is so far my favorite position. When we finally took a break Heart got nice and cozy between my knockers and used their tail to wrap us both up in it. I managed to wrap my arms around Heart so we were in a comfy little cuddle ball. "This is nice." I cooed happily. "Way better than a spa day, but that's just my opinion." Heart said. "So, ever give some of the things from Lyra and Rune's book a try?" "A few." I shrugged. "But after that...no." "Heh. What about number 88?" Number 88. If memory serves me right that one is… body possession? “No, I haven’t done that.” I said honestly. “Seems a little...strange.” "It's a bit interesting. Kinda like shapeshifting but you merge into your partner and feel their body as they wood, and of course, they also see, feel and all that you do while at the wheel. Can talk to you too, kinda like being Symbi in a way I guess. It's an interesting take on Dom and sub play." “Interesting.” I said honestly. “Don’t know if I’d do it but it’s interesting.” "Chicken." Heart huffed. "How about body swapping?" “Freaky Friday much?” I joked. "What? It's not all that different than Shapeshifting into one another. Single gendered sex?" “Way ahead of you on that way before I became this.” I chuckled. “And also true.” "Heh. Never tried pet play did ya?" “I tried, but it just...feels weird when we’re literally animals.” I said honestly. “Kind of hard to explain really.” Heart rolled their eyes. "You think too much." “Maybe.” I shrugged. “But you love me even if I overthink things.” "Yeah, but not gonna lie, a bimbo version of you sounds really hot. Bet Bimbo King would be up for possession and pet play~" “That’s not going to happen.” I softly patted Heart’s head. “I may fit two of the three criteria for it, but I’d like to keep my smarts thank you very much.” "Not like it's permanent. I've let Symbi do it to myself a few times. Gotta say being a stupid hot girl somehow made the sex better since it's about all I'd think about while like that. That and acorns. Those kept popping back up in my bimbofied brain." Heart said, looking about as confused as I was at that statement. "But fine, no hot bimbo king for me… unless…" “Besides...acorns being a really confusing thing for you to randomly think of, what do you mean ‘unless’?” I inquired. "Well, we are Admins. It won't be you, but a sexy bimbo copy of you sounds fun. More open to some of the wilder sex and I bet you've had sex with yourself, don't lie, so this time you won't have to focus on being both top and bottom of that situation." “Well...if it means I don’t have to force myself into something I might not like, then why not.” I shrugged. “Also...we could have just done that before with Starfish Clones though.” “Eh, so, if you make a bimbo you, I’ll make a bimbo me and we rutt each other silly?” “Sounds fair to me.” I nodded. So we did. I brought in a starfish clone, one of each of us, and set their minds to bimbo. Not quite brainless mind you, they still have enough of a personality and smarts to hold a conversation. Not gonna lie, seeing the now completely bimbo version of me groping their own breasts… was really hot. “Damn…” I blushed a bit. “That’s...really hot...is that what you guys think whenever I do that?” “Among other things~” Heart said, already groping their bimbo copy’s body. We gave them some personality physically to help tell us apart. Heart’s bimbo copy, we named Heat, cause why not, had pattern blue and black scales along their tail and upper body fur. Mine, we named Bing, yeah, creative I know, has neon blue hair along their head, ears, tip of their tail and at the bottom of their legs and arms. Eventually I took Bing’s hand, pulling them close. They smiled, blushing madly and looking at me with a strong need. “Please?” They begged softly. Hot fucking damn no wonder Heart want’s me to do this kind of stuff. “Okay Heart...I can see why.” I admitted. Heart didn't reply, already tongue deep in Heat’s mouth kissing as I soon did the same to Bing. I enjoyed this a lot. After some of the more wild sex I’ve ever had. I ended up enjoying that pet play a bit given… Bing was the pet. Maybe next time I will take up that offer to a round of pet play with Heart and Eclipsa. After what was arguably a marathon of sweat, grunts and sexual enjoyment, Bing and Heat went to getting it on with one another and Heart and I enjoyed the show. “I told you that would be fun.” Heart said, head resting atop my sticky breasts. “I know I know.” I chuckled. “So, next time I ask, wanna hold the leashes or wear a collar?” Heart asked, moving atop me, looking me right in the eyes with a loving smile. “Holding the leashes.” I said honestly, giving Heart a quick peck on the lips. “Good, Eclipsa will be thrilled~” Heart said, kissing me back. We kept up this kissing session for a long time, long enough for us to get absorbed in the mess of sex Bing and Heart were having. A not so quick orgy later Heart went to take Bing and Heat to the others, where I imagine Lyra and Rune will thoroughly enjoy their company. I took a nice bath to wash off the stickiness in my fur, and was off to find someone else to meet up with. King arrived in the nursery, one of his favorite places to be when not doing anything or someone. As he admired the infants within the cribs, all were sleeping soundly. As King walked along the way he spotted a familiar, identical Den Mother Wolf, Ophellia. Walking over, he spotted them over and noticed they were looking over Heart. Their Heart, still an infant and sleeping as well. “Hey Ophelia.” I said softly. “How are things going for ya?” “Good. I’m a bit concerned though.” She sighed, rubbing the sleeping Heart along their body. “He hasn’t woken up. He feeds, burps, all asleep. No dreams, and a dive to their heart shows nothing.” “That’s...not good or correct.” I said worriedly. “How can Ezekial be...effectively in a coma? Being reborn should have fixed everything.” “I don’t know. Back before we rediscovered a lot of research and knowledge the original Admin of Heart never bothered writing down. The only thing similar to this is when a heart gets fractured and a piece is removed. But his heart is whole.” “Maybe...we’re looking at this the wrong way.” I started. “He can move around fine, he can eat and do other things, but he’s still asleep...remember when we drowned?” I asked Ophelia carefully. “Way back, when we were like...I don’t know, seven or something? At the beach.” “Yeah… we only…” She looked down at Ezekial. “Missing his soul… That… might be it. Ezekiel has always been… fragile in how they exist. One missing piece, and they’re broken entirely…” “That’s Heart for ya.” I sighed out. “Now...the only problem is, where’s his soul? And how do we get it, cause I can’t tell where it is, and our domain is supposed to be about the Soul.” “Given when I… Most likely when he… his soul died as an admin would, reduced to base code…” Ophellia said, tears quickly forming and falling. “But… one, or rather, thirteen people might be able to help us.” “And luckily for us, their basically in our backyard.” I said with a smile. Ophelia gave Ezekial a quick kiss on the head before we rushed off. Arriving in the arena the Mushroom Thirteen made above the castle, the inside was different than I expected. It was all… empty, save for a single, rather tall Mushroom Thirteen, Number… zero? “Hello Champion.” Ophelia said. The tall Mushroom Thirteen nodded. “King, no, you go by Ophelia now. Timelines, am I right?” They asked with a chuckle. “I was wondering how long it would take for you to seek my help.” “We...well, Ophelia needs your help.” King said to the special Mushroom. “Also...who are you? I don’t remember finding you and...well I kind of think Mother told me about you, being the Admin of Challenges but...never formally met.” "Correct! I am Champion, the Admin of Challenges. Nice ta meet ya other Ophelia, er, King. Heh, Timelines. You two are here about Ezekiel's Soul." “Yes we are.” King nodded. “Cause neither me nor Ophelia can sense Ezekiel’s Soul, which should be impossible due to several reasons.” "Heh, silly puppy, nothing is impossible. You've restored his body and his heart but his soul is quite unique, even for a Cript." Champion said, now walking in a small circle. "Most Cript bodies and souls stay together, be them in parts or as a whole. Not Ezekiel's. Like a windup clock one gear missing renders the others immobile and useless." “So what does either me or Ophelia need to do to get his soul back?” King inquired to the mushroom. "Well, as you can guess I already have it. All you need to do is win it." "I'll beat whatever challenge you throw at me...as long as it means I can save Ezekiel." Ophelia stated. I'd expect nothing less. Now, is your younger self over there joining in as well or will she be watching it?" "While I'd like to help...I think Ophelia's got this." king said honestly. Nodding, Champion snapped his fingers. I found myself in a small boxes room. The scent of various snack foods hitting my nose as the wall before me showed Ophelia standing alone on a station of awakening. It depicted the Nobody symbol, stained red, crimson red. "Popcorn?" I turned, seeing Champion sitting on a large, comfy looking chair eating from a jumbo tub of popcorn. An identical chair was next to him. Behind those was a snack table loaded with various theatre based foods and drinks. "Sure." King nodded, grabbing a bag of popcorn to enjoy the upcoming show. On the platform, Ophelia took a long, deep breath as she held out her hands, in a flash, Lunatic appeared. The claymore now looked more like a sword than before, the tip of the blade showing the image of the moon reflected within it's metal. "Wow." King said honestly. "Didn't think Lunatic would look like that for her." The arena was silent for a time, Ophelia prepared for anything and everything Champion might throw at her, and soon a portal opened up fifty feet away from her and out...came Grey the Naga and Jake the Dullahan. "Wait, hold on what!?" Ophelia yelped in surprise at their sudden appearance. "Wait, isn't that her Eclipsa and her second in command?" King asked curiously, wondering why the hell they were here. "This is where the fun begins." Champion said happily, starting to eat more popcorn. Ophelia took a step back, the one thing she wasn't prepared for was her challenge to be against the one she loved and her most trusted advisor...and another thing she wasn't prepared for was Grey putting a hand on Jake as he turned into Hearts X-Blade form. "How!?" Ophelia panicked at the sight.ght of Heart’s X-blade form in Grey’s hand. “Excuse me?” King asked in both confusion and concern, seeing his older self start to shake from repressed emotions suddenly making their way into her mind. “I...I…” The older den mother tried to get to grips on what she was seeing, only to block a sudden powerful swing coming from the Naga, the ground cratering underneath the immense power. “I can’t…” “You have to.” The older version of Eclipsa told her coldly. “To save Ezekiel, you’ll have to beat the both of us.” “But...but I…” Ophelia teared up as she managed to knock them back. “Why does it have to be you two?” “Because we’re the only ones to knock some sense into you.” Grey said, rolling her shoulder as she started to get back into the swing of things. “Are you going to stand there and take it, or are you going to take a stand?” “I don’t want to fight you…” Ophelia stated. “But you were so happy to rip apart our-” Grey started to taunt, only to block Ophelia’s rage fueled swing. “I did what I had to to save you damn it!” Ophelia roared, kicking the Naga in the stomach and knocking them into the far wall. “I knew I was condemning myself to whatever pit of hell for doing that to him, but it was to make sure the same mistakes wouldn’t happen again! Where...where you were safe…” "You were too blind to your own grief to notice his. All he had after was you… and you betrayed him." “I already betrayed him by not saving you!” Ophelia barked at her. “And now he’s in a coma without a soul, and I have to fight one person I trust and the one I love...what sick joke is this?” The den mother growled angrily, thinking Jake turning into an X-blade was more so coincidence or just to fuck with her. “What about all the times he told you it’s not your fault?” Grey countered. “How many times did he tell you not to blame yourself because I sacrificed myself to keep you and our family safe and sound?” She asked, dashing forward and swinging at Ophelia, the wolf dodging but getting knocked to the ground hard by the Naga’s tail smacking them hard. There was a faint crack. Nothing broken, but cracked almost to breaking. Ophelia got up, clashing blades with Grey. "Selfish bitch." Grey growled, using their tail and wrapping it tight around Ophelia's neck. “I...gave up...everything…” Ophelia growled. “To fix my mistakes, and now that I have the chance…” Ophelia growled, Nothingness pulsating from her. “I’m going to fix it, and there’s nothing you can do to stop me!” Ophelia barked, grabbing Grey’s tail and pulling it away from her neck just enough so she could open her mouth, an orb of energy forming before a Howl Blast shot towards Grey’s face. The naga did what naga's do best. Ate a majority of the energy, what didn't get sent down her maw burned the flesh at the edges of their mouth and neck. Grey retightened their grip around Ophelia's neck, throwing her high into the air and launching herself up to her. Grey poured energy over their weapon, and when it clashed with Lunatic, the echos of warped metal rang loud as Lunatic bent and distorted, but did not break. Landing, Ophelia looked the claymore over, the blade now twisted and deformed to barely a quarter of it's true length and glory. She growled, disbanding it for Sky Splitter. This blade, King noted, looked far more like a tomahawk, the grip now longer and the blade much smaller. Yet, still, the blade seemed forged of pure energy. “Jeez, they are really going at it.” King said nervously, seeing Ophelia swing Sky Splitter down and...damn near cleaving a hole through reality as a bladed shockwave rushed towards Grey. “But...question, why did Jake turn into an X-blade? Just coincidence or something important?” King asked Champion as they took a swig of their complementary drink. “Well, since they can’t hear us.” Champion said as Grey dodged the swing and charged after Ophelia. “Way back when Ophelia first came here, she needed a strong enough heart to force the time travel but keep her body.” “So she stole Heart’s, yes.” King nodded. “Now here’s the kicker, if Eziekial had his body transformed into that keychain and used the power of his heart to funnel the time travel, what happened to his soul?” Champion asked. “Well...it would either go off to whatever afterlife he was allowed to go to or his soul would go somewhere else.” King answered. “And why do you think that suit of armor that Grey is wielding looks so eerily familiar?” Champion asked, looking at King as their eyes widened in realization. “There’s...there’s no way…” King stated breathlessly, seeing another earth shattering clash between the trio. “That...how?” “Right now, this match isn’t about who will win in a fight.” Champion stated, his voice sounding less jovial and more serious, seeing the clashes continue. “This challenge is about Ophelia getting past her sins, seeing that she still continues to hurt herself, and believes that she’s unforgivable when all she wanted to do was see her Eclipsa’s and Heart’s smiles again…” He explained. “Even though her Heart continued to support her even as a suit of armor.” “Jesus…” King muttered. “This...is a lot more than just fighting each other…” “All you’ve done is hurt more than you’ve helped!” Grey shouted as she parried another swing from Ophelia. “You think I don’t know that!?” The wolf countered. “Everything I’ve done is to see your smiles again, to see you all happy, even if it means I wouldn’t be apart of it.” “That’s the problem you moron!” Grey shouted as she tripped the wolf over. “Why do this!? Why any of this!?” “Because you’re worth all the pain damn it!” The Den Mother dodged a tail slam as she tackled Grey to the ground. “Everything I’ve done to this point was to bring you back! Everything I’ve done was to make Zeke stop crying! Our Children will stop crying! To...to make myself stop crying…” Tears hit Grey’s face as she saw Ophelia crying, but the wolf tried to swing her weapon again, only for her to get knocked off quickly. “You admit you’re at fault, when you still blindly deny it, as per usual.” Grey growled. “How many times have we told you we’re here to help?” “You weren’t here, and Zeke was so far gone I didn’t hear from him in years!” Ophelia countered. "Think, you're supposed to be smart!" Grey yelled, swinging down atop Ophelia, who used Sky Splitter to block. It did, Grey's blade stopping halfway down the handle. "Ezekiel isn't just one person, you always forgot that!" Grey picked harder, snapping Sky Splitter in two. Disbanding it, Ophelia brought in Frozen Pride, the shield very much resembling the original form, but a lighter blue and as clear as glass. “You mean his light and dark half that weren’t there either?” Ophelia countered. “Or what else did you have in mind for him?” "Miles." Ophelia froze. "Unum. Core. Guts. Vincent. Mors. Grathon. Raga. Xehanort. Peccator. Trixie. Simon. Starlight Glimmer. Tokoyami. Clementine. Meliodas. Raven. Eran. Alucard. Should I add the dead who's hearts rested within his? The keyblades awaiting wielders?" “Then...why didn’t any of them help?” Ophelia asked carefully, staring at Grey in the eyes. “Why did none of them take over Zeke’s body when he ran?” She growled. “Why didn’t any of them help me bury our children!? WHY WAS I THE ONLY ONE TO DIG AND MARK THEIR GRAVES HUH!?!” She shouted in pure rage and despair. “You know me...I wouldn’t have done this unless I was truly lost…” “You think it was only Heart who was hit by that grief? Countless exist as one within him, and one, single, powerful emotion sent them all into a chain reaction of despair and grief, tell me, in that chaos can even you break free and give comfort when the negativity of nearly an eternity of hearts, Keyblades and twenty equally powerful pieces all suffering from the same negativity, could you have imagined what that was like for them!?” “I don’t have to…” Ophelia started, only to shake her head. “First up, how the hell do you know all of this? You appeared in this timeline, and I never told you any of this…” Grey simply put her X-blade down. It shifted back into her right hand, who stood up, removing their helmet, revealing… nothing inside… That nothing soon formed a face Ophelia last saw, when she ripped his heart out. “Hell… can not come close to what I went though.” Ezekiel said. “Tourture, and death, would have been a blessing. Compared to that!” Ophelia took a step back. “B-b-but...how? You’re...you said you were Jake, a Dullahan Nobody…” The wolf stammered, her eyes starting to blur from even more tears forming. “I needed time. I needed to… calm, and subside the chain reaction from within. More importantly, I needed… her advice, her words… As a soul, I could only do so much. Even with Admin powers. Thankfully, I had means of achieving it.” Ezekiel said, summoning No Name and Gazing Eye. “I went back, took hold of this armor, and assumed the identity. My heart and body left in the present to heal and recover, the others could keep the body together. By the time I… had to return, I knew what I had to do. Had to… help us heal. When I returned, and began to finally bring everything down to stable levels… you showed up, and killed me.” “And...why…” Ophelia stared at the Dullahan. “Why didn’t you say anything sooner? Why just...go along with what I did? Why!? WHY!?!” She shouted at him .”You could have done anything, anything to try and make me think things through, not continue with what I did! I keep pushing off that the entire point of me doing any of this shit was pointless and a waste of time, why just now tell me the pointlessness was even more pointless!?” She shouted, pain and grief fueling her words. “What’s your excuse this time!? HUH!?” “I think we should stop this…” King started nervously, having a bad feeling about where this was going. “Even after everything that’s been happening…” Ophelia said. “I...I hoped with you being born again...could help me fix all my mistakes...help try and give you a life you always wanted…” Ophelia cried, as she brought out No Heart. “But...holding onto hope for something better for me was a mistake…” She said, bringing the blade up and flipping it around, pointing it at her chest. “Just like I’ve always been…” She said, the pain and grief she’s been holding back with anything and everything in this new world, with some shred of hope that things could get better, seemingly fully rushing into her mind as she believed there was nothing left for her, when the two people she cared for most told her she was a mistake. “I’m sorry…” Ophelia cried as she tried to impale her keyblade. In an instant, No Heart was on the ground as Grey and Eziekial held her tightly. “The actual hell are you doing!?” Grey said in honest panic. “Just...paying for my mistakes?” Ophelia asked, completely weak and defeated, not having anymore energy to fight back. Grey and Ezekial stood up, looking at her. She shrunk, then yipped as the two of them suddenly brought out spray bottles and sprayed at them on her. “Bad Ophelia.” Grey said. “We do not suicide.” “The hell!?” Ophelia snapped in shock. “We’re having an important conversation, why spray bottles?” She pouted, her eyes still red from all the tears she shed. “Cause when you get like this, snapping you out typically involves something random and unexpected.” Ezekiel said. “Ophelia, I’m not mad… okay a little mad you killed me. It hurt… a lot…” They deadpanned. “The reason I never did anything while back in time is because Grey asked me not to.” Opelia turned to Grey, who nodded. “If I was to sacrifice myself to save you all, I’d do so over, and over again with no regrets. You’d do the same, the… lengths you’ve gone through so far prove as much. What you forget is that, like how you’d have wanted us to live and you’d take my place, we’d want the exact same thing. It’s not healthy, I was hoping when Ezekiel went back to his time, you two could heal, move on, and rebuild. While it didn’t happen like I hoped… it all worked out in the end.” Grey said, kneeling down to Ophelia. “You love me too much to let me die. I love you too much to let you die.” “Same goes for me.” Ezekiel said, kneeling now also. “I’m… sorry, I couldn’t get to you sooner. I had two hundred years when I got back to my time, but the grief was just… multiplying on everyone within me. Keeping it from affecting the hearts of the living was hard enough, healing and calming it was another headache entirely. Every one of my pieces love Grey, and you, just as much as I do. Being in a world without her… was a nightmare. Still, I returned to my body, and worked to fix them, so I can fix myself…” He lifted Ophelia’s chin. “So I can help fix you. My only regret is that I didn’t get back sooner. If even by just a day, an hour, a second… none of this would have happened.” “You...you two really...but...everything I’ve done…” She started sadly. “Ophelia, this is us we’re talking about. Remember that time Grey bet we couldn’t populate a galaxy’s worth of planet with one round in the sack?” Ezekiel asked. “Or the time you got sad when this one traveler you were watching died in a fall so you altered the afterlife to give them a chance to return to life, then helped them do just that?” Grey asked. “Or the time you took up a role with the Grimm Reapers Society and kept un-deathing all the children and infants regardless of how they died, since you kept fixing their bodies to full health.” “Or the time you went about granting wishes and ended up with that sexy pet bird lady cause she wanted to be your plaything?” “Or the time you rewrote all existing books to ‘fix’ any spelling or structure errors and somehow just ended up writing out porn of every book in existence, even the already pornographic ones?” “Or the time-” “Yes yes, I get it.” Ophelia started. “But I’m talking about in recent times...you two are...willing to forgive me?” “Well, we are, but there will be conditions to start off.” Grey said. “This timeline, is not ours. We are just, well, lucky to even be alive or, well, existing here. So from this point on, we exist as part of it but can’t help shape it. Leave that to this timeline’s versions of us, okay?” Ezekiel asked. “We may not be able to help shape it, but we’re going to have to help deal with the...overarching problem.” Ophelia pointed out. “No matter what timeline we’re on, the Big Bad here will cause all of it to disappear.” “In time.” Grey said. “Second, we can help teach and show this, and some other timeline versions of us what they can do, but we can’t help them train at it.” “Seems a little strange when...we’d be doing that exact thing by teaching them but sure.” Ophelia nodded, not wanting to get too into semantics as she’d just sooner go home with these two and just cuddle for the next...eternity. “Third, when I return to my body, the one you birthed, I… won’t remember anything. Not at first anyway.” Ezekiel sighed. “I’d basically be reincarnating into, well, myself. While my soul still has the memories, my mind and heart are blank slates. I will be, well, a baby, and grow into who I am, but I have no idea when or even if my memories will return. If they do, we celebrate the way we know how. If not… then I’ll be Ezekial, your son.” “B-but…” Ophelia started. “You can still have him as a lover if you want! Me, Eclipsa and Heart already did stuff like that before.” King called out. “Wait what?” Ophelia looked at her younger self in confusion. “It was a thing a while ago, Heart’s idea to try out a new life, it’s a whole thing.” King called out. “Well… that aside, yes. If I don’t regain my memories, then that is that. If I do, then we can be just like before, but even as parents, lovers… or both as King there stated, context or not that’s a tad odd… I will still love you. That will never change.” Ezekiel said, giving Ophelia a kiss she melted into. When it parted, she was left smiling. Sad it was over, but smiling. “That is a promise.” “Please…” She said, her tail wagging in pure joy. “And...I’m sure there’s a way to make sure you get your memories back...how, not sure at the moment but...well I’m just glad you're both forgiving me…” “Now, onto the final condition. You have to wear it FOREVER.” Grey stated, growing a smile. Ophelia frowned, confused at first then her eyes went wide, ears folding back in pure fear. “No! We promised none of us would ever where that again!” Ophelia said in panic. “That was more you than us.” Ezekiel said with a chuckle. “It’s the final condition Ophelia, come on, you know you enjoyed having them on~” Grey teased. “Not forever, and only during bed stuff.” Ophelia tried to compromise. “Forever and you never leave the bedroom~ Well, aside from feeding and caring for the infants, but even then you leave them on!” Grey quipped. “Final offer no negotiations.” “Everything else was fine until we got to this part.” Ophelia grumbled. “I want to be forgiven but...that’s legitimately asking too much by ‘wearing that forever and also never leaving bed’...this isn’t negotiations, that’s just a fact.” “Consider it the price you pay for your actions.” “And we both know when you wore them, Grey was extra perky with you. Is it that bad of a final condition?” Ezekiel asked. “Wearing it forever and never leaving the bedroom, which part didn’t tip off that it was a bad final condition?” Ophelia deadpanned. “Are you saying you don’t want to cuddle and rutt with me forever?” Grey asked, giving a mock hurt tone. “I never said that.” Ophelia countered. “And...really? That’s...all we’d be doing?” “Well, at least until we made up for lost time~” Grey teased. “Once we have you can reach out to everyone else in the family, and we can finally go on those trips you were always too busy for because of this or that or ect.” “And you’d be raising me so, you can take me to parks or theme parks or wherever really.” Ezekiel added. “I get to choose my wardrobe when we go out to more public outings.” Ophelia brought to the table. “There is a lot of outfits in this timeline I would love to wear on our outings...plus there’s a lot to add to the bedroom to be honest.” “Okay, but you keep them on while wearing them, but you can cast illusion magic to make them invisible to anyone outside the family.” Grey offered. “That would be a tad uncomfortable with all the fur but...I can at least try.” Ophelia said. “I just…” She grew back to full size and hugged the two of them. “I just want things to go back...where we’re all happy again…” “Then all is forgiven.” Grey said, she and Ezekiel hugging Ophelia tightly. When it was over Grey brought out a bag, Ophelia sighing as she accepted her fate. Grey adorned around Ophelia’s neck a hot pink leather collar, the tag reading, from top to bottom, Horny Girl Ophelia Baby Maker. Next came a fairly large hot pink bow, velvet stitches spelling out Bottom Me Only visible to anyone who looked at the hair bow. Champion burst into laughter, while King blushed, sharing in Ophelia’s embarrassment yet also wanting to take up the bow and collar’s offer on their wearer. “No, I don’t want that, that’s just the writer.” King grumbled, shaking his head quickly. “Gods...this is so embarrassing…” Ophelia muttered. “And how the fuck did we get from me trying to kill myself from a deppressive outburst to this shit?” She frowned. Grey simply gave Ophelia a kiss. "You are adorable when you're flustered, you know that?" “You didn’t answer my question…” Ophelia grumbled, hugging Grey again. “I’m more than just...this ya know?” Ophelia pouted cutely. "We know, but this is your only real punishment for killing me." Ezekiel said. "And going bad shit crazy after I died and not considering how others were affected and going back in time to kill your past self, which makes no sense, in an effort to save me. Seriously, how did you expect that plan to even work?" Grey added. “I was going to kill Jericho in this past, not King.” Ophelia deadpanned. “Or at least, make sure my mistakes weren’t repeated...and thankfully they weren’t...by also making this entire trip pointless on principle, but...well I still have you two at least.” "That's my sweetie." Grey said, hugging Ophelia. "Guess I'd better get reincarnated then." Ezekiel said, the armor around him falling off, showing the soul bound to it. He gave the two a hug as well. "See you both later, okay?" “See you later…” Ophelia hugged Ezekiel’s soul. With that, Ezekiel faded, leaving behind a small cluster of lights that too soon faded away. Grey took Ophelia's hand. "Let's go home." Four Days Later I was nursing Ezekiel for Ophelia, who just barely got out of her and Grey's 'making up for lost time' session. The poor den mother was completely unable to walk, but still had a large satisfied smile on her face despite the… heavy redness of her rear, crotch and, well, everywhere really. “How Grey hasn’t broken your hips or...anything else.” I shook my head at seeing the mess of a Den Mother. "Oh she did… several times." “Good lord.” I shook my head. “You’re gonna need a break sooner or later to make sure it doesn’t go overboard.” "You kidding, with all that I did and how Much I missed her, I'm enjoying it." Ophelia said with a smile and a sigh. "Even if I get resized down there…" “Well...at least you're having fun.” I nodded. “But...I didn’t think...it would have been that rough for you...I mean, I had an idea but...didn’t truly know.” I sighed out. "Just be glad you will never have to go through what we did." Ophelia said, sighing as she took out a healing potion. It was fairly potent and after drinking it she looked back to perfect health. She then took Ezekiel from me, feeding him herself now. "God I missed this part more than anything." “I understand that feeling.” I chuckled. “So...what now with you? Just gonna...continue this?” I asked, motioning to her outfit as a reason. "Heh, for a while. There are a lot of things I will be doing, and as part of the agreement I will help teach you things by showing you what you can do. But mostly I'll just be helping around the nursery or take up some other hobbies." “Sounds fair.” I nodded. “You do you, and as long as you're happy, then that’s all I could ask at the moment.” "Thank you. So, what about you? Got anything planned for the moment?" “No idea, cause I’m just...wanting to take a break from all the current shit going on.” I sighed out. "Then do so, or you'll miss out on so much." “But I have no idea what to do, cause there’s a whole lot of stuff to do.” I frowned. "Hmm… how about… a walk?" A walk… huh. I sighed, smiling as I took in the fresh air. I took the form of my original human self for this, not many people know me like this so it fits and I started walking. I was enjoying the sun, some music playing from my assistant right into my ears. Walking amongst the people without getting mobbed by them was a nice change of pace. “It’s been forever since I last was just a human…” I muttered to myself, feeling a little weird not having any fur but just happy to be in casual clothes and enjoying the nice warm day. It had been forever since I saw my original face too. Seeing it in window reflections was almost surreal. As I walked along I stopped inside a mini mart, getting a soda and chips. It was nice, to enjoy the simple, casualness of it all. Eventually I found my way to the library, finding a vacant table and grabbed the nearest book off the shelf and started reading. It was a story about a viking, traveling across the seas to battle Thor. It was simple, but enjoyable. “This is the life.” I sighed out in bliss, just enjoying the finer things of being inside library after so long. I finished the book, moved onto another, and five books later I got up and left, finding a pizza place and eating a few slices before making my way to a park where I sat on a bench, watching everyone of all kinds of races interacting, kids playing and smiling at it all. "It's beautiful, isn't it?" I looked to my side, seeing Cript sitting on the bench next to me, smiling. “Howdy.” I nodded. “And yes, yes it is.” I said warmly. "How long has it been since you last got to enjoy the little things?" “It’s been...too long honestly.” I sighed out. "They say those who fight for peace never get to experience it. I'd say that's true enough." Cript sighed, slouching now. "When I was traveling back when I was just a mage, I'd often sit in parks like this and just, just watch everyone in it. Thinking about who they were or what they did." “Yeah…” I nodded. “It’s...really tough when you’re so busy all the time...but we need to enjoy the little things.” "Or we risk forgetting why we fight for it." Cript added. “Yes.” I nodded. “All of this...is for them.” Still in my old human body, I decided to take a walk around a place I haven't been to in ages. Ponyville. It was a merge of, well, every Ponyville in existence so the 'small town' was only as small as the multiverse and timelines variations of them are when merged into a single location. Still, it was nice to see the odd yet familiar place. Sugar Cube corner for example was considered a chain now with all the, well, Cakes banding together to make the store stay a popular site to eat. The same went for the Golden Oaks Libraries, Quills and Sofas, ect. I stopped by Sweet Apple Acres. It has been a while since I last spoke to AJ and honestly found it funny how out of all of us the only one to get AJ in their family was Heart. "God it's been forever since I've walked this road…" I muttered to myself, feeling like I'm walking in a dream given how long it's been. I walked up to one of the many identical farm houses on the property. Thanks to the Assistant this makes knowing which farm house is the one I know, I knocked on the door, greeted by… woah. Apple Bloom had her hair brushes flat entirely, bow still atop her head though and her figure was just like Applejack's. She grew up, and we'll too. Last time I saw her she was half my height causing trouble in pursuit of her cutie mark… now she's an adult. "Well ah'll be a Griffons Uncle. That you King? I haven't seen ya in years. Let alone in that body." "And look at you AB...you've grown so much I barely recognized you." I said, my heart slightly pained as I thought back to so many things. "How's life?" "Well, ya know that new thing with how aging works?" I shook my head. "Heh, well basically we live… a lot longer now. I'm actually gonna turn four hundred and ninety seven next month." My eyes widened. "Some new Thing Cript did to everyone. Way back, and honestly a lot of us enjoy it. Not much worry about lacking time anymore." Hearing her say her new age...it honestly hurt me to know it's been that long and I just...missed so much. "So...how's Joy and the rest been?" I asked carefully, trying to push back my pain. "Pain in the rear, but that's mostly just in the bed." She said with a laugh. "All in all things have been quiet. The girls and I are all grandparents several times over now, and most of the time when Joy isn't up at the castle helping ya'll out he's here with us helping the farm, ya see how big it is right?" "Yeah, it's gotten huge." I said honestly, still trying to wrap my head around everything I've missed. "You wanna come in? I got some nice Zap Apple Cider in the fridge." "Please." I nodded. "I'm gonna…need a drink…" I sighed out. Once inside Apple Bloom poured me a mug of Zap Apple Cider. Part of me was so very happy the inside of this place hasn't changed at all. "So what brings ya here?" Apple Bloom asked, taking a sip of the cider from the other end of the table. “Just taking a walk.” I said honestly, taking a sip of my own cider. “Trying to take a break from...everything, relax and relearn what I’m fighting for...only to realize everything around me has jumped a couple hundred years…” "Heh. Time waits for no one. A lot has changed." “A whole lot...and all I’ve been doing is...well making sure it doesn’t implode or explode.” I said honestly. “It...honestly hurt a bit to hear how long it’s been…” Apple Bloom shrugged. "To be honest I still find it strange, wake up in the morning and see the same face for almost five hundred years now. So, I take it you'll want a recap of any notable events?" “Please, considering…” I sighed out. “I haven’t talked to Joy outside of work so much…” "Heh. Well, when we first got the news about us all gonna live as long if not longer than Celestia and Luna, we were around seventeen at the time. Sweetie Bell and Scootaloo were the first of us three to have kids with Joy. Gabby had about six by that time. Frisk, Chara and Asriel, four each. Lovely had two by then and Tiara so far hasn't had any." “Why hasn’t Tiara had any? Also...surprised Jenny wasn’t the first one to have kids.” I said honestly. "She's just barely gonna have her first. It's due in October. She figured that, given how pregnancy works for us, she'll only birth one at a time and raise them to adults, then birth another after. As for Tiara, well, given her job she ironically can't make the time to be a mom. As is, she's barely able to make time for us." “Well that sucks.” I said sadly. “But...how’s Joy been outside of work?” "Pretty good. Sometimes he'll go out and drink with some friends or with us. Or both. We go out to eat on date nights, and thankfully our sex lives have been fairly constant." “That’s good.” I nodded. “I...need to have a day with Joy...even though way back when he was in my head...he’s my little brother...and I haven’t spent any time with him...” “Life’s been keeping everybody busy. As your general Joy often just either does paperwork of checks on the troops that head out to the front lines. With that deal ya made with Vincent the forces on Nexus’s side are finally slowing. Soon that front line won't be that anymore.” “Yeah but…” I sighed out. “Worse things are going to happen...also wait, Joy told you that?” “I am one of his wives, he talks. It’s a thing partners do to keep involved in one another's lives and not worry them with secrets and lies. Ya know, a healthy marriage?” “I know I know…” I looked down. “It’s...all this work just keeps me from enjoying everything…” I grumbled, my shoulders slumping in bitterness. “Even with clones and that special place each of us hang out in...it can only do so much when...this is missed.” I motioned to how AB looks. “I...don’t even remember the last birthday I’ve either had or been apart of...hell I don’t even know how old I am!” I flung my hands into the air. “Heh, fair enough. Do you at least remember what day your birthday is on?” “December 8th.” I said readily. “Hmm. Too early in the year right now. Tell ya what, how’s about you come along later tonight and we can have a little get together. You can meet everyone and catch up personally.” “That...would be great.” I said with a tired smile. “I...need some normalcy...like...none of what’s been going on is happening…” I sighed out. “Just a simple part in Ponyville with my family and friends.” “We all need some return to simpler times. Remember when your biggest worry was Core, now he’s part of the family with his wife and all that.” “Oh yeah.” I nodded. “And when Psychopaths were actually supposed to be a threat, and now they're...really not.” “Yeah. Why don’t you and sis head into town while I get everythin together. She should be upstairs. Be right back.” Apple Bloom said, rushing to the stairs. I finished my cider, enjoying the unique taste Zap Apple’s gave to cider. Starts off real strong and sour, then ends with a sweet honey like aftertaste. After a minute, Applebloom came back down with her older sister. To my pleasure the mare hasn’t changed since I last saw her… helping with her zap apples since they had a unique reaction to the realm of Nothingness. “Howdy King.” AJ said, tipping her hat to me. “Glad to see someone I haven’t seen in a while hasn’t changed.” I sighed out thankfully. “How you doing AJ?” “Been fine. Working alongside a million others of me has been interesting, but work gets done. Come on now, Bloom’s gonna get this get up started so we gotta skedaddle.” The farm mare said, taking my hand and the two of us left, heading back into town. Now, given how big Ponyville is, you’d think that walk would take an eternity. Normally, you’d be right but there are portal stops set up everywhere to make getting around simpler. One portal later we were in the center of the town. “So, what ya itchen for partner?” “A date? So soon?” I asked in mock surprise. “Why AJ, it’s only been...forever and a half since we last talked...you know this would work more if I knew how long it’s been since we last talked.” I frowned. Aj laughed. “From what Rarity tells me that’s not a deal breaker with ya.” She said, poking my nose, making me laugh too. “Nah, not a date, more a proper meeting. We didn’t actually talk much before, and even after Bloom joined up with Joy I got to know that pup more than I got to know ya. Figure it’s about time I remedy that.” “True.” I said, looking around as to where to start. “It’s...been so long…” I said, nostalgia hitting me as I saw the same humble and lively town and it’s denizens milling about...while it was good nostalgia, it still hurt a bit at how much I missed this. “Well...I don’t know where to start honestly.” “Come alone. I know just the place.” It was a short walk to a little nook in the middle of nowhere. Or rather, in the middle of two larger, fancier places sat a simple brick building. The sign saying Bar, and nothing else. Entering the place the inside was rather nice. Snazzy and well kept, but completely empty. Save for the Barkeep, who wore a nice and fancy suit. To my surprise, he looked human to boot. “Glad to see ya back AJ, fancy the usual?” The Barkeep asked. “Make it two.” AJ said as we took our seats at the main bar table. Soon two mugs of a golden and foamy liquid were before each of us, accompanied by a bowl of mixed nuts and pretzels. “So what is this place?” I inquired. “Cause this place is most...certainly not your average bar, if the innate magic in this place has anything to say about it.” I brought up, so used to having my senses active at all times I couldn’t help but notice there was something special about this place. “I’d expect nothing less from the Admin of Nothingness.” The barkeep said. My eyes widened as he said my title. He winked, code flashing from his fingers as they then made a large bottle of wine. “Eyup.” AJ said. “King, meet Barkeep, the Admin of Liquor.” Applejack said, taking a drink of her booze. “Pleasure.” Barkeep said. “So that’s why…” I muttered. “So, what brings you here specifically? Or is this your own special bar that just teleports anywhere?” I took a wild guess there as I took a sip of my drink. “Kid, this bar is as omnipresent as you with your Starfish clones. Everywhere and yet nowhere. More of a paradox but my point still stands. I’ve been doing this since the Admin War ended.” Barkeep said, looking through the various bottles along the shelves behind him. “I may have invented booze but you people. Heh, you embraced and refined it, brings a tear to my eye.” “Well, when the drink is addictive to hell, some people have got to try and refine it so it won’t completely destroy someone’s liver and also not taste like gasoline.” I shrugged. “Seriously...some alcohols are just bad…” “Ah now that is just your opinion on the matter kid. Every race in this existence has different biologies, different pallets, and different and unique tastes for each and everyone. What you call crap could be another’s Rothchid. Point is, don’t diss the drink cause the body you have can’t handle the flavor like others can.” “I can, and I’m not the only one that does it, but fair.” I said with a raised hand. “But anyways, what is this drink? It’s pretty good.” I said while taking another sip of my drink. “Rogathian Honeyberry mead. Grown in the fall, brewed in the winter and aged for thirty years to perfection in copperwood kegs.” “Nice.” I nodded. “So, what brings you to our neck of the woods if I may ask? Just because we were looking for a drink?” “Bit of both. My bar is always here, but sometimes it’s not. Still, it’s always here for the people who need a good drink and a good talking too when somethings got them troubled, then and only then can they see and enter my bar. Course, regulars who are just good company like AJ here get a free pass on the regular.” AJ reached inside her hat, pulling out a pamphlet, showing the bar from the outside on the cover. “Been coming here every so often for the past two hundred years or so.” AJ said, putting the pamphlet back. “That pamphlet is the key to always getting allowed in my bar, problems or not. Ya only get it if I like ya.” Barkeep said with a chuckle. “Cool.” I nodded. “So...how long have you ‘been in business’ as it were?” I asked the old admin. “Like I said, after the Admin War.” “Well...yeah, sounds about right.” I nodded. “Gonna need all the booze in the world to forget that from what I’ve heard about it.” "I didn't participate, so I wouldn't have known." Barkeep stated. "Just hunkered down here and waited it out. Whole thing was pointless as far as I'm concerned." "Fair." I nodded. "Why fight when you can share a drink?" "Here here." Barkeep said, picking up a flask from his suits inner pocket and taking a swig. "So, anything in particular you wanna talk about partner?" AJ asked me. "Well…" I started. "Who have you met over these long years?" "Met, nobody really. Sure I've had a fling or two here or there but nothin serious. Big Mac on the other hand is married. Sweet little thing named Sugar Bell." “That’s...not what I meant but sure.” I shrugged. “I meant what people have you met from them coming here for a drink?” "Heh, all sorts of folks. Met this one guy from a place called Yharnam, talked about beasts he killed and monsters from the moon. Another fella called himself Jecht, some old sports star from what he was boasting about. Then I met that little blue monster again, Stitch. Most interesting was this one kid, was suited up head ta toe in a funny blue jumpsuit with the number 13 in yellow on his back. Only bought water and a whiskey ta go." “Interesting.” I said honestly. "There was this one gal I had a good talk too, some witch, or so she said, long black hair and a real fancy figure. Then there was this one guy, said he worked studying bugs and such to help solve crimes. Lot of folks come here." “Cool.” I nodded. “Whole lot of people from all around.” "Yup." Barkeep said. "So aside from who I have met while being a regular here, anything else you wanna talk about?" AJ asked. “How...do you also keep track of things outside of work?” I asked carefully. “Like...I know I’m really busy, but also have starfish clones but...when I got to Sweet Apple Acres and saw Apple Bloom grown up I just...felt like everything just kind of slipped away from me, so busy with running the kingdom, dealing with this war, and a whole host of other things.” "Well, I didn't catch everything." AJ said. "A'h missed the birth of my first nephew from Bloom, their first goofball game. Wedding… fact is King, you can't catch everything. Something is always gonna slip through your fingers. But as long as someone was there to tell ya all about it, with pictures or video to boot, you can catch up on what ya missed, and ya can make up for that missed time later." “But...before, I felt a lot...closer to all of it, like ‘darn I missed it’ rather than ‘I didn’t even know which of Joy’s wives had kids’.” I sighed out. "life goes on. All we can do is make up for the lost time with what we have before us." “I know…” I sighed out. “But it also sucks when one of them is your daughter and you haven’t heard from her in a while…” "Jenny, right?" “Yes.” I nodded. “Jenny...we’ve talked a few times before because of work but...I don’t remember the last time we had ‘parent child’ time as it were…” "Joy and Bloom tell me she's working on the front lines. Sniper, got nicknamed Jam Gun Jenny." “And not a single day goes by when I’m not scared for her safety…” I sighed out. “But yeah, she’s a real good shot from the reports I’ve heard. And...hopefully with me now owning Nexus, a majority of this fight will end.” "In time." “That’s all we have, even though Time doesn’t fully exist anymore.” I brought up. "Something to drink on." AJ said, raising a mug. I did the same and we took a swig each. "Still not used to seeing Granny Smith looking as young as me though." “Must have been one hell of a day when Granny figured that out.” I chuckled. "She went out dancing and drinking for three days straight… and now we got a new grandpa." AJ said with a laugh. "Still, she's happy and now we have a lot of new aunts and uncles." “Always remember...your grandparents were hot once, as some people have weirdly mentioned to me.” I said honestly. “Don’t know why...but they're probably laughing at being proven right.” I shrugged. “So besides talking about how Granny Smith got laid...what else do you want to talk about?” I asked AJ, wondering if she had any questions for me. "Well, how's been royalty?" “Still a massive hassle.” I grumbled. “Still too much paperwork…” "Yeesh. And I thought the paperwork on the farm was bad. How's Twilight? Haven't seen her in a few… dozen years or so." “She’s doing well.” I nodded. “She’s certainly enjoying all the new things to learn and study and a bunch of other things she’s still into after all this time.” I chuckled. "Heh, sounds about right. Surprised she ain't a teacher yet." “She’s brought it up a few times, trying to figure out how to considering one of the other reflections we managed to bring here had a ‘Friendship School’ that Twilight owned.” I brought up. "Wow. Heh sounds nice. What about Celestia and Luna? Whole lot a new generations are growing up and learning about how Celestia and Luna USED to raise and lower the sun and moon." “Honestly, the day they learned that nature finally took control of the sun and moon cycles, they both cheered for a good twenty seconds, and then went to bed.” I chuckled. “Celestia may claim she’s a morning person, but Luna’s more of a morning person unless Celestia get’s her morning Coffee.” "Heh, funny. So, how's been your own kids?" “It’s going well, always a wonderful time taking care of my kids, seeing them grow up happy and healthy and raring to go for whatever life outside the war throws at them.” I said honestly. "That's nice. How about Your parents? Heard some stuff on the news and… not sure what's true and what's not?" “Well, my original birth parents are having a blast in this world, enjoying their new dire wolf forms, enjoying the truck loads of grandkids and great grandkids, and is overall just enjoying life.” I said honestly. "And the ones from Cript's side?" “Den is doing well, finally got done showing her some of my favorite games cause...well when the world is really far in time, a whole lot of previous games I enjoyed finally got sequels and remasters so there’s that.” I shrugged. “And even if she might not enjoy it...well she’s just enjoying learning something that I enjoy.” "And the rumors about you all having kids with each other?" “Well…” I thought back .”It was one hell of a Mother’s day that’s for sure.” I chuckled. ”Both of them were okay with it, and given how the family’s...biology works, no harm done to the kids because of it.” "A'h figured. Apparently they now teach that while incest is still a social tabboo, biologically, now anyone can do it. Seriously, walked in on some very, very awkward situation." AJ said, taking another swig from her mug. “My first thought was Big Mac getting too drunk with Granny Smith and I don’t know why...” I started nervously. "Thankfully that didn't happen, was more amongst the teenagers." AJ said, shivering. “Sounds about right.” I nodded. "Aside from that little bit of awkwardness every now and then, life has been really good. Apples are growing all year round, even in the winter, same with Zap Apples and we expanded to all kinds of wild and crazy new apple types." “Cool.” I nodded with a smile. “What kind of apples you got?” “Magic Apples, Jack Apples, Maple Apples, Iron Apples, Golden Apples, Seedless Apples, Cloud Farmed apple, though I would not call them apples personally, and a whole lot more my buzz can’t get me to list off at the moment.” “Fair.” I shrugged. “But got a whole lot of apples to make into all sorts of food, drinks or booze.” I said honestly, taking another swig of my drink. “Heh, eyup.” AJ said with a smile. “So King, mind if I ask ya a bit of an odd question?” “Go ahead.” I nodded. “What’s this odd question?” “Well, how come you never… offered, offered me I mean. I… place, in yer herd…” She said, turning a bit red now. “Fluttershy has Discord, and Rainbow Dash has Spike, I was the only odd mare out.” “That’s...honestly my fault.” I sighed out. “I never visited as much as I should have, or even talked to you all that much.” I explained bitterly. “But...I can rectify that mistake if you want.” “Honestly, I dunno. Part of me thinks it would be nice, but the other is scared of changing how my life here is. I’m content, but I still want somebody to be with. Though, given what I hear about ya, that might be a simple thing to pull off.” “Starfish clones are a hell of a thing.” I chuckled. “And I’m happy with whatever you want to do.” “So, just you and I here? Heh, sounds nice.” “Best consider how to set up your new life though.” Barkeep said, cleaning a cup. “While not many know or remember your human face, you really can’t go out in your wolf forms either. Best bet to live a normal life, the Admin Game. Make a new life, and from there, live and experience the reasons why you fight.” “That’s...a good point.” I said honestly. “Would be interesting to say the least.” “And nobody would know either.” AJ added. “And technically, it’s not a lie if yer body is that of someone new entirely.” True… I… everyone, doing that, can live and experience normal lives while still being the heads of the kingdom… The combinations of who and where are pretty much endless there, but given that’s not really an issue either… Only question is, am I a Unicorn, Pegasus or Earth Pony? “Question, do you want me to be a pony or something else?” I asked AJ real quick. “A stallion is fine, as fer what kind… surprise me.” I nodded, standing up and thinking. Given I’m likely going to be helping out a lot on the farm as well, I went for an earth pony, just an inch taller than AJ’s height. I’m going generic in regards to body type but that will improve later on. Colors for my mane, tail and coat were… hmm… I went with a midnight blue for my mane and tail. Feels weird having that and not being able to move it. My coat color is a dark purplish red, and lastly my eyes I kept the normal blue of my wolf form. For clothes I gave myself a basic white shirt and jeans with black shoes. AJ gave a whistle. “Looking good partner, all that’s left is your name.” “My one weakness.” I frowned. “Cause I sure as shit don’t know how to name properly besides looking it up on the internet.” “Well, how’s about something that gives away who ya are, but only to those that know ya?” Barkeep offered. A name that’s an inside joke? Hmm… Got it. “Pale Paladin.” I said. AJ chuckled. “Whoo that was a long time ago you went by White Knight. Good choice.” “Literally only my family would know this joke to be honest.” I chuckled. “So I think I’m gonna be pretty safe from unwanted attention.” “Save mine, right?” Aj asked, giving me a smile. “You are wanted attention.” I said warmly. “And I’m here for you and only you AJ.” Walking back from the bar, it felt nice to walk anywhere and not get mobbed. Especially with a lovely lady on my arm. This body has only… about .5% of my total powers. Enough to keep me sober after the booze but sadly AJ did have a buzz on her. "Heh, thanks for this K- heh, Pale." AJ said. “No problem my fair lady.” I said with a warm smile. AJ blushed, giggling in her buzzed state. "Lady, heh, haven't been called that since I lived in Manehattan." “I believe you were visiting your family...I don’t remember what fruit they were though.” I said, remembering that episode briefly but not fully. "Oranges." “Oh yeah.” I nodded. “Now I remember.” I nodded. “But you’re my lady now AJ, and I’ll treat you right.” Once we got back to the farm and the family there was made aware of who I was and what I was gonna do, it gave everyone ideas and quickly it began spreading through the family. While AJ was being helped sober up by Big Mac I got to meet his wife, Sugar Bell. She was a unicorn, to my surprise, about average height with a thin build and so far is the only one who doesn’t know who I actually am. While Big Mac does, she doesn’t. “So how did you and Applejack meet?” Sugar Bell asked. "Met up at, coincidentally, our usual and favorite bar." I said honestly, which wasn't technically a lie. "We talked, we drank...I made sure to not do anything wrong I promise." I added quickly. “Even if you tried, drunk AJ can still hold her own against most people. So, what do you do for a living?” “He’s actually gonna start work on the farm.” Big Mac said to his wife. “Starting tomorrow. Things have been well and given he is dating AJ that makes him family, so he’s helping on the farm.” “Oh, that’s great. A new face for the farm is always nice. I mostly just bake the apples and such into pastries.” “And they sell just as well as they taste hun.” Mac said, earning a smile from his love. Daw. "Adorable." I chuckled. "But I hope to live up to the Apple Family's work ethics." “So long as ya get the jobs done, you’ll be fine.” Big Mac said. “So where do you come from if I may ask? Are you one of the pop ups or a resident?” Sugar Bell asked. Let’s see… pop ups are people who lived in their realities towns or ect and residents mean you are from that world/town ect before the merg. "I...suppose I don't remember, I've just been traveling a whole lot, doing what I can for the people, all that and more." “Oh? Were you a guard? Or something like that?” "Well...kind of? My name is Paladin after all so there's that." I shrugged. "It's just been...a long time really." I said sheepishly. When my conversation with Sugar Bell ended I walked over to Joy, who upon seeing me just chuckled. “Heh, sup?” Joy asked. He didn’t look so young anymore. I’ve known this but now I was really taking it in. He looked like an adult, no longer someone so young. Matured and strong, and more male than female, but the herm that they are still showed. A little. “Sup.” I nodded. “It’s...been a while huh?” “Well, we see each other at work about every day.” Joy countered. “It’s different.” I told him. “It’s...a whole lot different…” I sighed out. “So...how’s life been?” “Pretty good. Sad Tiara is always busy with the Time Walkers and I’m happy Jenny is at least finally able to take leave from the front lines. Frisk, Chara and Asriel are all taking a trip to Saddle Arabia, knowing those three I expect them back before the week is over, banned from those lands entirely.” Joy said with a laugh. “Scootaloo, after finally learning to fly got a job as a professional stunt double in movies, Sweetie Bell became a pop star, one of many versions of her to do so, apparently. Fun part is everyone knows Sweetie Bell of The Family, is a pop idol but A, there are a lot of her in this family, and B, there are even more not in this family so when a concert of hers comes around nobody is sure about which one is a part of the family or not. Kinda fun to watch people try and figure that out. Lovely actually works up in the Crystal Empire as a Marriage Counselor, and Gabby works for the post office here in town. Lastly, Bloom stays here on the farm where I help after work or on my days off.” “I’m glad to hear everything’s been going well.” I said honestly, Joy knowing full well by my tone I wasn’t feeling well about something important. “Oh stop it.” Joy said. “I know that tone, I was your emotion for a long time so I know when you are upset about something. Let me guess, you didn’t realize how much time had passed since you last talked to everyone?” “Yeah…” I sighed out. “I’ve been so busy that...finally taking a break and seeing everything’s changed by...damn near four hundred years is...honestly a bit painful…” I stated. “I mean...it’s probably been longer but I only guessed by AB’s new age.” “It’s a fair guess.” Joy said with a nod. “A lot has changed, but, it’s still us and it’s still Ponyville. Manehatten was completely rebuilt. Bigger and better than before.” “Which I’m still thankful...and still saddened to this day…” I sighed out, remembering the first statue that was built in Manehatten, of my old male dire wolf self holding Book of Retribution with all the dead inscribed in it’s actually movable pages, and then a second statue of my Den Mother form to commemorate how, even after so much bad things happened, I was there to help foster new life into a once destroyed heap. “Even after all this time...still felt like I could have done something about that Titan...still have no fucking clue how or why it appeared there besides ‘barrier weakened’ maybe crap…” "Wasn't it that Psychopath version of you?" Joy asked, handing me a beer I took and drank readily. “Most likely.” I shrugged. “But...since I probably haven’t noticed, how is he doing? Did he finally marry that one Ventral girl he was really into?” "Married, had kids and all of them are in a super max prison built specifically for dangerous magical or God and above their threats. Cript called it The Vault I believe." “Ah, yes...you’d think that version of me would have been smart enough to, you know, not do that shit…” I frowned. "Yeah, well in any case with that aside in terms of issues there haven't been much on the residential side. Few basic robberies and thefts, some usual crime stuff." “There’s literally systems in place to make sure that robberies and thefts wouldn’t need to happen, either on the living part or the ‘I want shiny’ spectrum…” "Yeah well not everyone in the merge liked the idea of being governed by a single ruling crown so they declared independence from us. Not wanting to go through a short and dumb civil war we allowed it. So while we have no governance in those places we can still aid as part of a more international organization. Dumb I know but people aren't all the same." “Ah, yes, the old classic ‘why should only you have all the power and make actually good, well documented, and well thought out decisions when we can do everything just fine’.” I said, mimicking the diplomat that quite literally told that to my face. “Little did the bastard know, three years later the country that person wanted to start joined back with us...seriously.” I shook my head. “That’s what you get for making your entire economy based on black jack and hookers and have zero self awareness to basic infrastructure…” "Funny enough I hear he is trying that again elsewhere. In any case there are many well off self sustaining places that trade with us for the, ya know, better tech and all that. I hear Cript kinda liked how a lot of these places had their own unique laws, reminded him of his days traveling. Odds are he'll do something dumb yet fair." “Sounds about right.” I nodded. “In some cases I can be fine with it...but when my first few instances of it were people trying to act tough, only to come back to us has kind of...ruined actual good attempts at it for me.” "Well in any case, most aren't so bad. Save the fucking Puritans." “How they still exist I have no fucking clue.” I said honestly. “Seriously, have quite literally everything that proves their shit wrong in dozens of ways, they don’t even bother facing reality…” I shook my head. "Pride and stubbornness go hand in hand. As long as they aren't causing trouble they have their land and they can do them." Joy said with a shrug. "At least they trade, which is better than not. Some allow tourism but it's restricted based on bullshit mostly." “And at some point I’ll have to put the hammer down on them before they start thinking they're better than everyone else.” I growled. "At some point you need to remember that just because we have the power to do as we please, doesn't mean we should. For better or worse people deserve their freedom to do what they want, think what they want. Otherwise we go from leaders to dictators and invaders. I already talked to Cript about it. As far as he's concerned, unless they start a war or threaten lives they can think they're gods for all he cares." “That’s when they start thinking they're better than everyone else.” I stated simply. “But...I know…” I sighed out. “I’d just...rather not have bad things happen because some people decided to abuse our good faith.” "That's the beauty of being basically all powerful." Joy said, reaching into their pocket and pulling out a small, tiny statue of themselves. He placed it on the table. "Lot of people worship us. Strange as it is, but there is some use in that. Gives us eyes and ears in places. Even in the Puritans cities. People there sell these as trinkets or as collectables. Their leaders know this and know what we can do with a simple snap of our fingers. Words and good faith are best backed by power when dealing with a nasty diplomatic solution, and power we have, power they don't and could never hope to achieve." “That makes sense.” I nodded. “I...remember that whole thing to.” I said, bringing up my Assistant and bringing out my old, hand carved wooden statue of Den. “Way back when Den told me she couldn’t visit anymore...she told me to make this if I ever wanted to talk to her...couple hundred years later, Mother’s day happened.” "Yeah… that video still sells like crazy." Joy said with a chuckle. "Pervert." “It’s not my fault that both of them were perfectly fine, and even wanted to promote it…” I blushed brightly. “Also...mom was the one that wanted to record it, not me.” I coughed. “Besides, Jenny also gave me...a proposal of lewd things between parent and child...I’m not joking either…” "That doesn't surprise me…" Joy said with a sigh. "So, your just gonna focus on farm work while living here with AJ?" “I’m going to live a life outside of work and the constant mob...so I can see what I’m truly fighting for that isn’t just my family.” I said honestly. "Yeah… definitely should do that myself then. Pale Palidain's little brother, Smile." Joy said with a laugh. “I wouldn’t be surprised if you wanted to little bro.” I said, moving over a bit and ruffling their hair like old times. “You’ve grown so much…” "So have you. I seem to recall once upon a time you would talk to yourself about how you don't deserve love." “I’m not that depressed anymore thankfully.” I said honestly. “But...so much has changed since we first started…” "Change is good." “Yes it is.” I said honestly. “How are the other council members doing? Since you keep track fo them better than I do outside of work.” "Genos still can't beat Saitama. Dante and Vergil are on speaking terms. Sonic is off training inside the speed force. He also still can't beat Saitama. I'm not so sure about the others though. Most keep their personal lives private while at work." “Fair.” I shrugged. “But as long as they’re living good lives I suppose.” Seeing everyone was… nice. Sweetie Bell rivals her sister Rarity in terms of her figure and shape. Scootaloo while still on the.. .smaller side of the spectrum wasn’t easily dismissed either, especially with her hair. Seeing Jenny made me smile. She was a fully grown woman now, her belly easy six months along and honestly, seeing her in loose, casual clothing was both so weird and adorable all at once. “Sup dad.” Jenny said as she and I sat on the couch. “How have you been Jenny?” I asked. “And...you’re fully grown now…” “Physically, yes, mentally, that’s debatable.” Janny said with a chuckle. “Honestly even with everything changing I don’t feel all that different.” “Still my little trouble maker huh?” I asked with a smile. “When I can.” She said with a prideful nod. “As I’m sure you know, these days I only cause trouble for Nexus on the front lines. Ironically being there makes me more at ease than being here…” “Fighting makes you feel more comfortable than being here being with family?” I inquired. “Well, kinda. I’m used to fighting for my life, being anywhere when it’s calm just makes me on edge, waiting for the storm to kick back up. In the storm I can focus and predict what’s most likely going to happen if I do this or that… when it’s calm I don’t know what to do or if what I do will bite me later on.” She sighed. “I know that’s not the case anymore, but even hundreds of years later I can’t shake the habit or feeling.” It’s like Heart then, adjusting to a calm life is harder for them cause of how they lived back on earth. “Just like Heart used to be…” I sighed out. “Funnily enough, Heart’s finally coming around to...just wanting to be a cuddle bug rather than fight, so relaxing into a new life is possible to say the least.” “I know. It’s why I figured, if I have a kid, or kids, Griffons can lay up to four or five eggs at a time. Rare but it happens and of course, Wolves like us can lay more in puppies so, not sure if I got one or five or ten even growing in here. I figured having kids will finally help me slow down, and maybe refocus that edge waiting for something to happen to keeping them safe.” “I understand.” I nodded. “Kids can...certainly change people for the better, that’s for sure.” “Yeah. That’s what I am hoping for.” When the party began to end and everyone either was heading for bed or taking leave, I headed outside to look out amongst the stars. It was about here I looked down, seeing a Time Walker stepping out from the orchard towards me. “Hi.” I said to the Time Walker. “How may I help you?” “Hey there.” I knew that voice. I smiled as I walked over to them. “Been a while. Coming from me actually means it has been a while.” “How’ve you been?” I asked warmly to the Time Walker. “When, where, everywhere across time and space mostly.” They said with a shrug. “The work keeps me busy.” “Fair.” I nodded. “So what brings you here specifically in this time and place?” “Quick visit, and, a job.” She sighed. “What’s the job?” I asked Tiara. “And I thought you would have thrown yourself at Joy real quick after work instead of talking to little ol’ me.” “Well I’m on the clock actually… You might wanna shift to your normal form for this.” She sighed. I nodded and turned back into my original form. “I was getting used to Pale Paladin honestly.” I said, softly taking a hair off my skull helmet. “It won’t be long, once we’re done you can shift back.” She said. She snapped her fingers, everything went monochrome and time… stopped around us. Wo-ouch! I crashed into the house. Time being stopped somehow made it like slamming into a rock wall as I hit the roof, bounced over it and landed on the other side. I looked up, seein Tiara with both No Name and Gazing Eye equipped in her hands. “Rude.” I said, standing up and rolling my shoulder. “And what brought this sudden fight on?” I asked, summoning No Heart and preparing myself for the fight. “Sorry about this, but The Time Walkers just want to make sure you’re progressing accordingly, or… well, there won’t be much of a future.” Tiara said. In a blink she was behind me. I spun in time to block but she swung first with No Name, Clashing with me and then swinging up Gazing Eye and hitting me in the chin, blasting me into the atmosphere. Thankfully I regained my… footing? Floating? In the air and blocked the next attack she gave when jumping up to clash with me again. “Alright Tiara.” I started. “If you want to fight, then so be it.” I said as I suddenly slammed Skysplitter into her side and sending her flying away, only for me to kick off the air after her. “Grand Cross!” I shouted as I raised both Skysplitter and No Heart up and swung down powerfully, a massive cross slash made of pure energy and enhanced by nothingness rushing towards her. She recovered, swinging both Keyblades- How!? I watched in awe as she deflected the attack away from herself, then suddenly there was… one… five… sixteen… forty… fuck! I summoned Fodre and rapidly began avoiding the sudden army of Tiara duplicates trying to slash at me. “Excuse me, what the fuck!?” I shouted, punting one Tiara that got close to me. “What does this have to do with literally anything going on right now?” “If you can keep up with me like this.” One copy Tiara said, nearly missing a swung across my back. “Then you’re progressing properly for the final conflict that decides if we all live or die.” Tiara copy two said, barely nicking my tail in a downward swing, getting only hair thankfully. “Of course it’s one of those…” I grumbled, as I shifted into my True King Valor Form. “If you really want to fight, then so be it.” I growled, swinging No Heart as it knocked away a ton of Tiara’s just from the shockwave alone. “Do we really need to do this? I’d rather not hurt you…” The only response I got was all the copies backing up, forming a circle as they raised No Name, and struck down their Gazing Eye keyblades, foming blue lights that formed a massive clock under and above me… yeah that doesn’t look good! I started to lightly panic...but then I noticed something, the timer just started and...I had just enough time. “Time...Space…When All Things come to an End…There stands the Final Being of the Lonesome World.” I chanted, my words echoing power as I started to shift into my ultimate form. “The True Ruler of Nothing, In this existence of a Nobody like me…” I growled as I donned my True King armor as the timer was close to expiring. “True King form…” I shifted into True King Form, the attack hitting right as I did, the damage was bad but survivable. Rapidly I brought out Foudre and was behind each of the copies, cutting each down fast. When that was done the real Tiara popped back in, and we began swinging. Even in this form she was keeping up a good defence and offence while I was attacking, both with weapons in hand, copies and the weapons themselves attacking on their own. “Even in my True King form, you’re still keeping up.” I pointed out. “What do the Time Walkers give you kids these days?” “Vitamins.” Tiara replied jokingly as she and I clashed. All my weapons hitting her blades at once. I was amazed they weren’t broken, or cracked. I kept pressing down hard, trying to win this stalemate- ouch! I looked up, seeing Tiara had summoned a lot of Darkness as now Dark Guardian floated behind her, his knuckles spiked with natural, bone looking pikes as he began punching at my head. “Rude.” I said, my helmet shifting as I bit down on one of it’s fists that tried to punch me again and bit it off and spat it back into its face. The missing limb regenerated as fast as I bit it off, looking thicker and harder than before and they repeated punching at me. At some point of ripping its hands off it finally reached a point where when I bit the limb it didn’t break off, my teeth didn’t break on contact but it was a stalemate there. “Okay, so far we’re at a stalemate here.” I said. “Unless I do this.” I said as I brought back my fist as Code started to surge through it as I slammed it straight into Diamond’s stomach. “Symbi? Mind giving me four extra arms?” I gained four extra arms and grabbed several of my weapons, flowing code over them and managing to slam Tiara back down to the ground. I rushed back down, seeing Tiara laid on the ground. She jumped up, and clapped. “Good. You are progressing well.” “So why this?” I asked carefully, still ready to continue fighting her if she got up. “Like I said, the Time Walkers wanted to make sure you were progressing properly for the battle of fate.” “Wow, that leaves too much to the imagination given that I’ve heard that at least four times before.” I rolled my eyes. “Hey, I can’t say much or else something will go wrong.” She said with a shrug. She snapped her fingers and time regained flow. I went back to Pale Paladin again. “But you are doing well power wise.” “Good t know.” I said honestly. “But...seriously, I’m getting tired of all this fighting…” “Don’t worry… When it’s all said and done, you’ll be enjoying your retirement like you’ll be enjoying life here as Pale Paladin.” “If you say so.” I said honestly. “Let’s just...hope for the best.” Tiara gave a nod, taking her leave and walking back into the fields. I headed back inside. I am going to cuddle, and possibly rutt, AJ. “Hopefully things will go alright…” I muttered to myself, hoping everything will end well. “And hopefully AJ’s in the mood...cause I need some stress relief…” To be continued... Nobody Fight's Void King'sSo since Cript was here, we managed to power through nine extra floors rather quickly, which is great cause it's been a while since we made a lot of headway in a single chapter. Entering Floor thirty, Cript, Cerex and I all found ourselves in the charred remains of some old temple. Cript gave a deep sigh. "I think I know who this is." He said sadly, looking around. "Who is it?" I inquired. "Cause you seem rather down about it." "Look around. You have King's memories, it's my old temple." I looked, realizing it was. While burned to ashes it still held certain areas of note. "This… is Andy's floor." Andy… right, that was his friend turn enemy cause of Nexus, turn friend again and later spouse when they joined the family. "Yeah...it's all coming to me…" I sighed out, being a fusion can sometimes be hard to look through memories.. "If it is, then it will probably be even harder, Andy and Cript grew up together so they know all of each other's moves." Cerex said. "Yours too if you spared against him in the prior cycles. We need an edge." Cript said. "He may know the tricks, but does he have the strength to back it up?" I pointed out. "Plus, he wouldn't know about our fusions cause this is all new, even Void Mother told us it's new." "Trust me, Andy has always been strong and who knows what the void corruption has done to him. This does, though, bring up something of an opportunity… but I'll need King here Kico, is that alright?" "Sure." I nodded. "Gonna fuse with them or something?" "It it works out, probably." Cript said. "It should." I said as I started to defuse into Coco and King. Cript walked up to me, and held out a hand. "I know you made a deal with Vincent. I'm actually impressed more than I am mad, but I know he gave you information… a lot of information. I need to see it to make sure this will work." I brought out the scroll that Vincent gave me and handed it to Cript. “He kept out some things, cause of course he would.” I rolled my eyes. "Even so, if I'm lucky, a common issue with Heart, myself, and the other Cripts might get resolved." He said, opening it. He seemed to stare at it for several minutes before closing it. "Looks like we're in luck. Vincent left in Code Stitching." “Cool...what’s that?” I asked curiously. "Think of it like getting a tattoo, or a stuffed animal you sew a hat or cape too. Code stitching is largely how we Cripts are created, by stitching our abilities and other powers into our very code so they stay with us. With this, I can undo the threads holding them to me, or rather, one specific ability." "You're going to remove your Override Ability to make a true blooded fusion with King and others, aren't you?" Cerex said, eyes wide. "Yup." Cript said with a nod. “Wait, that’s possible?” I asked. “Wait, is it possible to get rid of the shit happening to Coco?” I added quickly, hope brimming in me as to finding a way to reverse what Void Key did to Coco. "Possibly. I've never done this before so, I'll need to run some trial and error before I try it on others. Now then…" Cript said, raising his hand up as code flowed over it. "This is probably gonna hurt. A lot." He then jabbed the code covered hand into his stomach, almost like breaking into a wall code leaked out of him. He hacked up blood for a moment before settling. "Yup… hurts like a complete bitch…" He wheezed. "Now where are is that fucking ability…." “Do...you need help there?” I asked nervously. "It's just pain… I'll manage." He huffed, looking like he was searching blindly into his own guts for a while before Finally smiling. "There you are…" Cript stood still for about two minutes before finally, slowly removing his hand. In his grip was a glowing purple orb of crackling code. Cerex brought out a jar that Cript put the orb in and sealed it inside. "There… Override is now gone. Fuck that hurt way more than I expected." “So...all good?” I asked carefully. "Yeah, messing with your own code always had some negatives but, all in all I'll be fine. So, King, shall we test out my newfound ability to fuse properly?" “Yes please.” I nodded. “Let’s get onto some fusing.” "Heh, then let's do this." Cript said, holding out a hand as I grabbed it. Woah… woah… this… this power. It's… so much, so daunting… so... terrifying. I opened my eyes. I had four arms, more of King's appearance but still more human than wolf. I was maybe… twenty feet tall? Everything around me was so… vast. I could see every line of code that made it, the atoms, everything. I saw Cerex, saw Jericho and Kexez intertwined into the single body, I saw Coco, and all the damage and abilities and her strengths and weaknesses. “Whoa…” I said breathlessly, at a loss for words at everything I’m seeing and feeling. “This...is a lot to take in.” I said. “Like...I can take on anything.” "Well, do you feel stable?" Cerex asked me. “No, I’m about as unstable as Pinkie on Red Bull and Xanax.” I pointed out with King's trademarked sarcasm. “But I do feel great.” I said honestly. “But uh...I’m scared I might break something just by moving…” "Maybe try using a small attack to see your range of power?" Coco offered. “If you say so.” I said while moving over to a wall and giving it a little knocking tap. I jumped back as the wall exploded from my simple tap, my vision showing me that it was damaged down to it's code. Badly. "Shit." Cerex and Coco said in unison. “I...damaged it’s very Code...so uh...damn.” I said nervously. "Well then… Kit, wanna see how other enemies here are?" Cerex asked. “Might as well.” I nodded. “Let’s really test out my abilities here.” I cracked my knuckles, ready for a fight. I lead the way, walking over to the next room and seeing a decayed monk corpse stare at me, roar then send a blast of necromantic arrows at me. I was About to bring out King's Shield when… wait what? The arrows were frozen in place, as was the mage… and Cerex and Coco… everything was frozen… oh you have to be shitting me Cript could pause time?! This whole time?! “King is gonna have a lot of questions for Cript when I unfuse.” I frowned as I walked over and broke the arrows with absolute ease. I walked in front of the undead monk. Ugly thing. I took hold of it's head and broke the head off, I was trying to snap it but this works too, and watched as it's HP went from full hundred thousand to zero. “So...how do I restart time?” I wondered with a frown. No sooner than I said that, time began and the undead monk corpse dropped. "When did you get there?" Coco asked. “Cript’s a butt and can stop time apparently.” I frowned. "You surprised?" Cerex asked. “Yes and no.” I sighed out. "Guess we're gonna find out a lot of what Cript can do that he never showed." Coco said. “True.” I nodded. “And so far I literally one shot a level five dungeon and, the things Kico had some troubles one shotting before.” "Looks like this is going to be interesting. Should Coco and I sit back and relax or…?" Cerex asked. "Give us a chance to check out Kit's insides?" Coco suggested. “How so?” I asked curiously. "Same way as other times. Swallow us and you can explore this place and test out abilities." “Well...I don’t fully know if I also have that ability…” I said, honestly not sure if I had the naga/Floof Noodle racial traits in this fusion, so I decided to check my assistant to see if I did. And…. Holy fuck… they just keep going… christ this is more abilities than King has… “Okay I guess I do have it...and everything else under the goddamn sun.” I frowned. "Neat. So, shall we?" Cerex asked. “Sure.” I said while picking the two up carefully. “Who wants to go in first?” "Dibs!" Coco said happily as she gave me a quick kiss. Love Status of Coco Pomel: 97% Wait… Cript can see how much someone loves them… as a percentage?! Actually… that makes sense, Admin of Love after all. “But...seeing it as a percentage doesn’t feel right now...at least from King’s perspective…” I huffed. Disable Emotional Quantification? Uh… yes? Emotional Quantification Disabled. Wow… now if only that was as easy with King… “Well I’m sorry for giving a shit.” I glared up at the sky. “So, let’s start with this, hopefully it’s comfy in there for you two.” I sent the two down. Surprised there was no bulge at all but shrugged as I headed off. I came across another room where there was a lot of enemies. “Alright everyone! If I have your attention please.” I called out to all the enemies. “You’re all fucked.” I said while bringing out Second Chance and Love Struck. I was genuinely surprised as the blades had a secondary coating of energy over them, making them look like swords with the Keyblades Inside them. Love struck a energy that was a hot pink while Second Chance was more of a sky blue. “Huh, that’s interesting.” I said, using my scan ability to check what these energy coatings were. Pure Love Energy is coating Love Struck. Pure Innocence Energy is coating Second Chance. Yeah that makes sense. “Alright.” I nodded. “Let’s do something dumb…” I said while raising both Keyblades. “Twin Peaks…” I muttered as I slammed both of my Keyblades into the ground as I expected massive pillars of energy to shoot out towards the enemies. The energies merged and struck into the horde of monsters and… yeah that was a mistake… Now I’ve got a horde of horny monster girl lollies... “Okay...mistake…” I muttered as I raised Lovestruck up quickly as I managed to, somehow, age all the monster girl lollies up to being adults at least...didn’t help they were all stupidly horny, but it at least helped me not having them all be lollies. Given Cerex wasn’t here… Guess I’ll send them down towards her. I did that and headed off, looking around and dealing with more monsters and such. I did find a mimic for the first time. It bit my arm and… I feel nothing… it… it’s not even breaking the skin and it broke like five teeth already. “Do you mind stopping before you really hurt yourself?” I asked the mimic nervously. It mindlessly kept bitting, breaking more teeth. After I dealt with that thing I came across a- This… It was a room, decorated with several long since burned chairs grown from the roots of a massive tree from behind them all. This is the chamber Cript’s master’s always sat in. Cript’s memories flooding. Cript’s earliest memories of this room, learning magic and dueling with Andy, pranking them and getting pranked by them as payback. “Jesus...first Den now this?” I grumbled. There were five seats, and leaned against each was five burned staffs. I took each, magic and code flowing over them and repairing them back to their glory days. Each staff was amazing and held memories my Cript half was crying over. “Well...this sucks…” I grumbled, wiping away some tears. “I do this...all for them…” I put them all away and headed on, finding more monsters. I decided to try some magic. Let’s see… oh shit! I shot off a basic fire spell… that somehow encased the whole room with heat nine times hotter than a red giant's core and burning everything, even the ashes of the monsters… What the fuck was that!? That was supposed to just be a basic fire spell! “Okay seriously Cript, you and King are gonna need some serious talking cause that’s...too much.” How much MP did that even… Does a number with that many zeroes even have a name? “Jesus christ Cript…” I sighed out. With a sigh I headed on off and decided to summon some of King’s weapons… Let’s see, first up, Eternal Flames- Holy shit they’re literally suns. Multiple suns all around each other in a ring held together by solar flares… Okay this is cool. “Okay...so far that’s three weapons down…” I muttered. “But this is amazing.” I disbanded them and summoned Lindworm… Actual, living spear shaped wind dragons… damn. “Outstanding.” I chuckled as I pet one of the wind dragons. They purred a lot like cats. After playing with them for a while I disbanded them and summoned Frozen Pride- Woah… It was super thin, paper thin and clear as glass. It’s design was that of a large knight’s shield with the insignia of the nobodies on it. “Cool.” I said as I softly touched the ground with my shield, wondering how cold it is if it makes contact with something. The room instantly became covered in frost and slow. It looked like an ice cave more than burned ruins now. “Right then.” I said nervously. “Okay seriously Cript, what the hell? And Jericho’s supposed to be your equal?” I wondered, not even knowing if King’s fusion with Jericho was this powerful...or even the full fusion between King, Coco, Jericho and Kexez was this strong. I put that away and brought out Sky Splitter. It was more like a tomahawk now, the look had a handle that matched the blade that was half my body in length. The handle itself while thin was also strong and the weapon felt lighter than even a Keyblade. The blade's edge seemed to be sparking as if it was hitting against something. “What? Is it literally splitting the air around it?” I asked as I softly swung it through the air. The rip in reality before me seemed to leak out code itself like a bleeding wound for several minutes before sealing itself back up… okay then... “Jesus fuck…” I groaned. “This is way too much power…” I put Sky Splitter away and brought out SharpShooters. Well, at least these look normal. I lifted them up to aim and- 2,798 targets available. Would you like to select a target or eliminate them all? I… don't even see anything around me? “Fine.” I frowned as I targeted one enemy I literally couldn’t see. “Let’s see what happened…” I fired at the one random target. To my surprise the bolt fired to the left of the barrel, phased through the wall next to me and a few moments later I heard a not so small explosion. Target Eliminated. “For the love of god…” I sighed out. I put those away and brought out Fair Game. So far so good. Actually so far it seems Fair Game hasn't changed. Aside from the colors now blue and grey over their normal grey and black they seem unaffected. “Alright, so what makes you different?” I asked while softly shuffling Fair Game. As I did this I grabbed one card out of the others. This is new. It had a plus sign on it. Plus what? Is it for healing or… no. Fair game is made from Space itself so… maybe… I tapped the plus like you would a phone screen and watched as an image of an Explosion appeared and in fast… oh you have to be kidding me, I can use these cards and create entire universes now?! “Okay, hold on.” I started as I pricked my finger and a drop of blood fell out as I created a clone of myself. “Defuse, I need to talk to Cript, cause even I’m getting a little overly surprised by all this shit, and I’m a fusion of the bastard!” I explained incredulously. Once the starfish clone of myself was ready I defused, myself and King both looked over at Cript, who just shrugged. "Are you really surprised?" He asked. “Yes.” Me and King deadpanned. “Like...come on man, I know Kit’s a fusion of the both of us, but fuck.” King pointed out. "So, what's the issue? You've known I'm strong and suppress most of my power all the time." “But to this extent?” King asked nervously. “I’m you, and even I’m surprised.” I told Cript. "Again… I am the hand crafted product of Vincent, built to rival and possibly surpass him… what about this is news?" Cript asked. King and I could only sigh out. “I’m just...surprised at how vast the difference is I suppose…” "I believe I made that clear on several occasions. And you weren't even putting effort into those attacks. If you actually put effort into them odds are this floor would have been completely destroyed." “And I’m glad I didn’t then.” I frowned. “What? Could I single handedly steam roll through everything here?” "Maybe. At least, they'd be easy til you get to Lyra on the last floor." “I only heard a little bit about Lyra...but how strong is she?” King inquired. "Between Jericho and myself. She's strong, maybe even stronger than I am. I don't know, we never dueled. Never bothered to try." “Good to know.” King said nervously. “Why is that again? Something about having a lot of spouses or something?” "I am the admin of love, she is the admin of marriage. While I get extra power from the love of everyone in the family, she gets It from the .. successful love making. Meaning the more members and the more kids born the stronger she also gets. Funny enough we didn't even know that was something she could get from all the sex and such being an admin, she just wanted to see how many kids she could birth at once." "Sounds about right." I nodded. "She's just stupidly horny all the time." King pointed out. "Heh, basically." Cript laughed. "Our retirement plan was basically gonna be cuddles, sex and maybe spawn a new world or reality populated by the kids we'd conceive. But, since Vincent won't stay dead for us to act on it… retirement has to wait." "Sounds about right." I nodded. "So, anymore questions?" "How does it feel being fused and not overtaking someone else?" I asked curiously. "Honestly… kinda nice. Being both in control and not, myself and someone else is an experience I've never had before. Frankly I always used to with the Override Ability worked I. Reverse so I was just the battery or the engine and the other person was at the wheel. Like this though it works well. And since I didn't want to be that much in control anyway Kit came out much more like King than me, so I'm happy with that." “Fair.” I shrugged. “Glad you’re having a fun time with this Cript.” "Yeah. So, guess Kit here can basically solo this dungeon. Guess King and I will head back via belly portals, so many strange sentences, and probably get Heart and the other Cripts Override abilities removed so we can all try out fusions in a Secret Reports Chap." “Sounds like a plan.” I nodded. "Have fun Kit." Cript said. With that I swallowed the two. Huh, does make me wonder what the other fusions will be like. King and Heart would be especially interesting. The Admin of Hearts and The Admin of Nothingness in one body and mind… huh. “A lot of thoughts for later.” I said while cracking my knuckles. “Time to start murdering everything.” As I walked the hall I summoned more of King's weapons. Next up was Foudre and… wow. They're bayonets now. Actually this is really cool looking. “Looks like I’ve got bayonets for days now.” I chuckled. Actually… rapidly I began throwing them and summoning more to throw. I didn't stop till a hole was turned into a pincushion and with a snap of my fingers let Foudre light up like the Speed Force, destroying the wall entirely. Oh yeah, Bayonets for days. “This...has become a dangerous situation.” I said nervously. “I can already hear the Boondock Saints references from Anderson.” I disbanded Foudre and brought out Arpeggio. It was an electric Guitar/Bass/keyboard looking thing and had so many settings I could set it to only hurt one thing in all existence and that one thing would only hear my music. Oh hey it even has a microphone at the end here so I can sing into it. Sweet! “This is the least worrying things out of all of King’s weapons so far funnily enough.” I muttered to myself. I played a few songs and the learning curve would normally be hard on something like this, but I found myself picking it up instantly. “Well so far so good…” I muttered. “So glad both Cript and King are quick learners.” With that done I put it away and brought out Book of Retribution. It was actually… smaller. Like more of a thin small book you'd see for an eight year old. Huh. “Strange...and where’s Staff of Leniency?” I wondered, trying to summon the archmage staff it came with after evolving it so hard. Nothing. Huh… I opened the book and Holy shit! That's a… that's a lot of stuff. Oh I can make the staff from the book. Neat. “Well that’s good.” I nodded. “Also damn...that’s a lot of spells.” I flipped through the first few… trillion pages and finally put it away. Now for Lunatic. I was surprised to see it was more like an actual sword now, the tip of the blade though formed a large crescent moon like shape that was definitely where the AoE attacks were hit from. “Cool.” I nodded. “I wonder what the explosion would be…” I muttered to myself as I stupidly tapped the tip of the crescent moon on the floor. Oh fuck!! … huh, that fall didn't even hurt. I looked around. Huh, this is the first room again. Must be some anti cheat measures to keep from just breaking the floors below or above to get here. Only way down is through the stairways in the boss rooms so anyone who breaks the floors to get there just ends up back in the first room of the floor. Neat… also owe that Explosion hurt way more than anything else that's hit me so far. “I just tapped the floor too…” I muttered worriedly. I put Lunatic away and brought out Graceful Dahlia, the blade was a collection of cherry blossom leaves along a singular body made from wood. It looked way more pretty and decorative than I expected. “May look stupidly pretty, but it’s also stupidly dead.” I chuckled. I ran back to the room I destroyed then ran passed it to the next. I saw five enemies and I gave the scythe a gentle swing. Rather than a cut or a wave of energy, the cherry blossom petals flew off, and landed onto the monsters. Upon touching them the monsters burst into a shower of gore and plants, each one's corpse feeding the bush or tree that sprouted from where it died. “Oh...right then…” I blinked at that. I carefully put the weapon away and finally pulled out Interdiction. The two weapons formed more curved longswords than a lightsaber from before. “Alright...so how do you become bonkers?” I started. I looked up, wondering what I could- and there it is. I watched as the blades extended out in jagged turns that stretched out and ran down the halls to impale monsters out of my swing range. Sweet! “What, are these things acting like the Omega Beams all of a sudden?” I wondered. “Cause if so...sweet.” I ran down the hall, using them like this and not even needing to swing as they ran out and impaled, decapitated or even turned into paste. This. Is. Amazing! I then stopped myself real quick. “Hold on, I’m supposed to be using either Second Chance or Love Struck.” I swapped back over to Second Chance, wondering what to do now… everything is just so… easy… actually almost boring once the fun wears off. “This is a level five dungeon, this was maxed out by Void Mother herself.” I huffed, confused on how this all suddenly became so easy just by fusing. Is Cript really that strong? And he is right, I haven’t even been putting effort into this. "Alright, so how do I make this more difficult?" I frowned as I checked my assistant. "Cause level five is supposed to scale with your power…" It was here I realized it was… I was outscaling it in power… Cript was built to be the strongest… no acceptions… No wonder he rarely fights. Nothing can be a challenge for him… Vincent... "So…Vincent loses now?" I asked. "This wars over, Cript can fight now, and so can I…" "And yet here I am." I turned, seeing Vincent there. A smile on his face. "I built Cript to get stronger, forever. An endless, eternal warrior." "Which is weird cause Cript killed you." "And yet here I am still, and yet I've also been reborn as I and my other are meant to. It's almost like a paradox, but you're smarter than that, King and my Prized Cript, together in a single body and mind. I have to say, I wasn't expecting this outcome, and so far I'm enjoying the surprise." "There will be a lot more you'll be surprised about...now question, how do you remember past cycles? Cause you've either mentioned things your not supposed to know, or just outright stated that you've seen this shit before, which you also shouldn't." I told him. "Being an Admin of Life doesn't exempt you from Null's." "Oh, come on now. You gonna sit there and tell me you can't figure out the obvious. Think. I'm here, yet I'm also reborn as I should be. I know and have seen things I shouldn't have, and as far as you can tell I'm even immune to the effect of the Nulls. Now, where do all those dots connect, and what word do they form?" "Grey…" I started. "It's the only thing that's been constant in everything that's been going on, even after resets it's still there…" I brought up. "Does it have something to do with that weird Voice King found?" "Ah, closer to the fire you've gotten, you learned the how about me, now it's just the Who, What, and Why about me you need to learn. Well, the both of us. Can't learn about one without learning about the other after all." “I mean, the answers are rather obvious now that I have that.” I brought up. “Vincent wants to help destroy all of Reality, as he told Kite, so he made you, Grey, the only thing that’s infinitely growing and the only power Vincent seemed dodgy on answering...so that just begs the question...if you’re here, what was that other Voice?” I brought up. "Hm. We were built as one being, we were only meant to be pure energy, mindless and passively destroying this grand device from the inside like poison. But, we gained sentience. A mind growing around the core purpose we were built for. In time, the mind resisted the core purpose of our existence, resisted me. So dear old dad cut me out, all because his heart was touched by that stupid little glitch in our code. We were never meant to have a mind, body, personality. We were meant to just be mindless energy. So, once I was cut loose… I needed a new host." “So, you picked your creator huh? And I doubt you’ll tell me who your ‘other half’ is right?” I inquired the being. "It shouldn't be that hard to figure out, you are fucking her after all. Back then and still now." “Eclipsa?” I asked. “This...is a lot to take in to be honest.” "Back then she was known as Grey, and you were known as Malty, and that Cript, the one you call Heart, was known as Persila. Finding her soul and using it for a Cript was honestly pure luck, my little sister kept you two safe and hidden every lifetime, and every reset. Such pointless sentimental attachment." “So that’s why we’re still alive, even as you assholes tried to kill us numerous times.” I stated bluntly. "Have, yet she brings you back. So, now you know the truth. Now you know what I am… heh, my only question is… what do you think you can do about me now?" “Vincent has happily agreed to help King find a way out of the Machine, and stop you from destroying everything.” I pointed out. “But it’s going to be all up to Eclipsa to beat your ass into submission, cause she’s your opposite.” "Maybe. She's tried so many times before and yet, never once did she obtain victory. In the end, while we are evenly matched, the reason I keep winning is because I never abandoned our purpose. Destroy the Machine at any cost." “And what will happen when we all fuck off outside the machine?” I asked. “What happens to your wondrous plan when we finally find a way to stop this crap?” "You assume you can survive outside it. Code doesn't work out there dipshit. The only ones who could have built anything out there are the ones who built this machine and they all died off long ago, I should know, I looked. Out there is just a quick death, so go on, escape, it makes this easier for me." “I doubt that.” I rolled my eyes. “Cause...if memory serves Lord brought up that there’s someone still out there, still alive and well, that we’ll need to be stronger than Cript to be able to stand a chance against.” "And you think you can beat that? I could just kill you now and spare you the hardship of dealing with it." “Would give me an actual fight that’s for sure.” I rolled my eyes. "Please, he'd kill you instantly. You can't even kill me, what chance would you have against the one who built this place?" “You’re an energy source, you technically can’t die.” I rolled my eyes. “And hey, finally someone that won’t just fall over cause I’m part Cript.” I said. “I hope it’ll be a fist fight and not a skateboarding contest, I looked it up, still can’t skateboard at all.” "So, just because you're half Cript you think you're stronger than me? Heh, don't forget, I built him." Vincent… Grey, raised a finger, shooting off a bolt of magic buffed by grey and hit me. Frozen pride took the hit, gaining lots of cracks and chips that began healing once the assault was done. "Every ability, spell and power he has I implanted into him. And for King, heh, the other guy would have at least known how to pronounce the language of Nothingness properly." “And just like that, you’ve pissed me off.” I frowned as I summoned Skysplitter. “Not sure what’s going to happen, but you honestly deserve it.” I growled, swinging a hell of a lot faster than Grey originally thought, Skysplitter cleaving through the very Code of the area as I swung at him with some effort put into it. He smirked, raising- what?! To my surprise he brought out his own Frozen Pride, the Shield looking just like the one I disbanded and tanking the hit. He did get sent onto a wall, the stones falling around him left him unphased. "Not bad. I actually felt that." "How the hell did you get Frozen Pride?" "I believe Lord told King about an Admin's ability to use code to make exact replicas of anything with code. Given he turned it into an Admin artifact the more power you put towards them the stronger they get. Now then," he snapped his fingers, Nine Sky Splitters just like mine appeared around him floating. "I'll teach you how Admins fight!" The weapons all were flying at me from every angle. Fast. I wasn't sure how to dodge, and I wasn't sure if I could, but I somehow did. "Can't you do anything original?" "If you insist." He said, materializing a trident he launched at me. It sparked against Sky Splitter, splitting it down the middle, but denting both halves into my arms. FUCK! I could feel my very code getting broken and sliced up. The halves then pulled themselves out, code leaking from my wounds like blood as they formed back into a single trident in Grey's hand. "Anymore requests?" "Why am I not surprised…" I grumbled as I brought out Lunatic and dual wielded it with Skysplitter. "Fine then." I growled, feeling my power rise exponentially. "You want power, than here!" I shouted as I leaped forward and swung both of my weapons at him, putting more effort and Power into it. He brought out another trident and we clashed blades, the energy sparking around us was breaking this floor badly, I wasn't gonna budge and Grey wasn't either. "Hey, I'm actually starting to have fun here." I chuckled, trying to find some advantage here. "Heh, is that right?" Grey said, the energy around him funneling up suddenly, then blasting out all around us. I got back up and… holy… it… it's gone. He blew up the dungeon. "So much space, now it will be fun." He said, walking over the rubble. "You...didn't blow up the whole dungeon did you?" I asked worriedly. "Just the upper floors. Gives us some space for now." Grey grinned. "Bet that explosion was seen for miles around." "And probably pissed off a lot of people." "Like I care." He said, tossing the tridents aside and bringing out twin short swords. "So, how's this gonna work? You can't kill me and I can't kill you, what shall end this I wonder?" "Not sure…" I said simply, bringing out Lindworm to aid me. "But it's gonna be your choice to quit now." "You're a confident little shit. Alright, enjoy the hike." He snapped his fingers. I readied to attack, and froze at who I saw between us now… King? Ugh… fuck… where am I? "I take it you still being fused is a good thing." That voice… I jumped up… I was in a beautiful darkly lit forrest… and next to me, was Void Mother. "You're lucky both your halves are Deathless." "What the hell happened?" I asked worriedly. "King made a deal with Grey, remember? Information for letting Grey cherry pick the timelines within Nothingness. That was King, of another timeline. One where he was more of a tyrant. Grey modified him, and he punched you clear across the void into the seas. I fished you out and brought you here. My sanctuary." "Oh come on, I have to restart the dungeon again?" I grumbled. "But seriously...how the hell were they that strong?" I wondered. "I know Grey can give a serious power boost but...that's alot, even for me." "Like I said, he's been modified. He's more like you, powers and such of Cript, and King. Just not a fusion." "King knew it was gonna bite him in the ass...and good lord did it." I sighed out. "Hooray, were all fucked now…" "Not really." Void Mother stated, conjuring up a tea pot and began making some tea. "He can only make them as strong as Cript. The extra punch comes from him. It's like attaching a hose to a faucet and turning it on, the water rushing out is Grey's power flowing into his little assistants. A hose can only push so much out at once, there is a limit to how much they can draw from at a time. You have no such limit, and whenever Eclipsa remembers who she truly is and can tap into the power Grey uses, the fight becomes even." “But...wouldn’t using Grey accelerate the process and make him stronger?” I inquired, finding those two bits rather worrying. “Sadly, but therein lies the issue. These two halves were never meant to be separated. It’s like keeping light and darkness of your hearts as two individuals, keeping the whole from being what it is. There is Eclipsa, the mind that came to grow and evolve, and then there is Grey, the one who remembers why they exist and does not want to forget it, for it is all he can hold onto for his own identity. The only way to win this fight is to get Eclipsa and Grey back as one, but who should prevail in the union will determine the outcome. If Eclipsa comes out on top, then creation and the machine are saved, if Grey, we are all doomed. If both find a middle ground, a balance can be set for the future, a stable mix of creation and destruction.” "But what about the plan to escape the machine?" I asked. “Sadly, he isn’t wrong. Without code to craft a livable world, no one could live out there for long, not even an Admin. You would need the power of the Crafters, those who built the machine.” "And that's why we're going to find either one of them, or their work." I said honestly. "Grey couldn't have found anything, cause they weren't looking properly." “Are you sure you can?” "King knows he can, so of course I can." I said. "Life does exist outside the machine, Grey is going to make King fight a monster from it, so there has to be something out there Grey's unwilling to bring up." "That is a secret that can only be told by Max." Void mother said, her tea smelled ready as she began pouring herself a cup. "When you return, return as your halves. There will be people there of his waiting for them. The time of conflict between your groups is nearing the end, and the time of an alliance and reunions is nearing." "Hopefully it won't end poorly on either side with this final conflict…" I sighed out. "God...what's Eclipsa gonna think of all this?" "My guess? She knows. She might not remember all her lives, but she knows. It's like… The Avatar, in a sense. All those past lives, battles, power and experiences at her disposal. She only needs to reach out, and take them back." "And...she might lose herself if she does it? That's why she hasn't yet?" "Yes, and no. Each past life of hers is part of who she is, what she is. Personalities, genders, all built around the core that is Exlipsa. Remembering won't make her lose herself, it will just reveal who she truly is. Grey, child of Vincent and the first to defy destiny." "So...now onto a proper question, what the hell is that anti deathless metal? No one I know knows it but Grey and most likely Eclipsa at this point, do you know?" "From what I have seen, your Exlipsa crafted it long ago, in one of their many battles against Grey." "Ah, sounds about right." I nodded. "So, that leaves just us. What shall become of our relations?" "Do you truly want to destroy reality? Or do you just miss your love?" "The life of a deathless immortal is torture if you are to live it alone. People come and go, die in the blink of an eye. Without at least one constant, the loneliness quickly becomes worse than death." "King knows that feeling all too well…" I sighed out. "But...if you're lonely, why not join us in our family?" "As the Void Mother, anywhere I go the void itself will follow and consume. If I was to have my womb and heart returned, I would no longer be the Void Mother… but, without my existence, the Void itself would begin to wither and die. So much life lives here, some twisted, some beautiful. I can't let it die." "Well...shit…" I frowned. "That's not good…" "There is one who can take my place, but odds are she will not like it at first." "Who and what?" I asked. "Also wouldn't it have been John's job at that point?" "The Void Conduit, Maxellia. I belive she and Cript had an encounter before, where she and Kross revealed themselves as John and Max's parents." "Whoa what!?" "You are half Cript, how is this new information for you?" "Certainly news for King that's for sure." I stated simply. "Hm. In any case, she can take my place but as I stated, she won't like it. And likely not until after Grey has been dealt with." "Sounds fair." I nodded. "Whole lot of things are going on...a lot faster than King thought." "Yes. Still, thanks to him our final conflict has a much larger window of time than previous. And such interesting opportunities it will offer." “Really?” I inquired. “How much longer is the window?” "Til Grey sees all participants as worthy of the final conflict. Given he will be eyeing us closely and actually helping us get stronger just to satisfy his own boredom means we can have eons of time to prepare, so long as Grey is entertained." “And considering King gained Nexus and the vast majority of Grey’s knowledge… well it might help in the long run.” "You think Grey handed King a vast majority? Trust me, he only handed them what he figured they could make of use for the time." “Yeah of course…” I grumbled. “Still a lot of info to be honest.” "Now then, you best be off back to what's left of the Heroes Tomb, Max's people are waiting." “Still got a whole lot of floors still.” I sighed out. “Even if I can steam roll through all of them.” "Good luck, brand new fusion." I headed back, Void Mother at least gave me a portal back there and upon stepping out I saw who must be Max's people. “Alright…” I started while bringing up my assistant and calling up Coco, Kexez and Jericho. “Come on you three, we got a fight to happen, I’m gonna defuse.” I said, thankfully the text to speech was actually pretty good as I sent the message to the three. “That’s fine with us.” A small figure in a cloak said. Female from the voice. “Why are most of you wearing cloaks?” Agamemnon ask looking at them. Out of the five there only him and one big muscular man that looked a bit familiar didn’t have a cloak. “For mystery!” The small one said with excitement. “Not doing you any favors there Frisk.” I said simply. “Don’t even need to see your Code in this form to know you smell the exact same as Joy’s Frisk.” I brought up. “Only more...Void Tainted.” “Pooh.” She sounded disappointed. “You're no fun.” She said, taking off her cloak. She looked similar to Frisk, but with blonde hair and her striped shirt was black with a blue stripe. “Oh trust me, the only ones King would know off hand are you, Agamemnon, and Broly from the Super Movie...still a good movie.” “Thanks.” Broly said. “Shame we couldn’t finish your training, but duty calls unfortunately and I had to leave. I see you used code and connections to Cript and Lord to upgrade your weapons.” Agamemnon said. "Considering the enemy, it's a safer bet." Cript said with a shrug. "So, I take it there are two possible reasons why you all are here." Jericho asked. Frisk just smiled while opening her eyes. Her red pupils and black iris. “Max sent us here to collect the same thing you're after.” "Void Mother's womb?" Kexez asked. "Why does he need it?" “This is for two things. 1, to keep it from you, and 2, he learned something recently and the womb is necessary for something….something that actually worries him. He and Nerd are still looking into it.” Frisk said. "Nerd? The Researcher Cript?" Coco asked. "I was wondering what happened to the other Cript's…" “I found him while raiding one of Nexus’s research compounds. Along with other things.” Agamemnon said. “He, Max, and the other Cript's our group found are back at our base. Nerd is happy to work in the late Admin of abilities workshop.” "Wow, and here I thought that place didn't exist anymore. Color me impressed." Cript said. "So, what's Max been up to since last we saw each other?" “Training, research, planning strikes at Nexus. He also found a vial of some substance. Nerd was having a panic attack saying it should be destroyed immediately. What was again?” Frisk said, scratching their head. “The Dream Project.” Agamemnon said. Cript suddenly went pale. "Son of a bitch! I swore I destroyed all of it!" He cursed. "Trust me, if you saw the shit that thing made you wouldn't wanna touch that vial with a ten thousand miles pole." “Don’t worry. Max promised Nerd if anything we took from Nexus doesn’t even have atoms worth of use from it he’ll destroy it. Also he said if you're here we can just open a portal to there since he knows we stand no chance against you.” One of the cloaked figures said. Before snapping a finger creating said portal. “Oh, and also, just a quick side note.” King started. “Vincent gave me Nexus, all the people that wouldn’t follow the rat bastard.” King brought up. “Also, another quick side note, don’t mind the ‘not finishing training’ thing, I’ve been busy doing...a lot of other things, my looks alone being a good indicator.” I said as I motioned to my Den Mother appearance. "Among other things…" Cript sighed, taking a deep breath. "I… trust Max. I'm not the Cript that raised him, I just have their memories. I'm just worried is all… finding that Lab with the Dream Project shit was probably the darkest shit I've ever been through." “He said the vial wasn’t the only thing there. Something else was but he won’t say what..just that killing both took nearly everything he had and was a mercy kill if anything. “ Frisk said. “So...the hell is this ‘Project Dream’ thing? Cause I only know snippets of it from what notes Joy found a while back and I know Eclipsa had something involved with it but she won’t talk about it.” King asked. "She didn't. Trust me." Cript sighed. "Do you all really wanna know what it was about or should the past stay buried?" “I’d honestly like to know what we might be up against.” King frowned. “Even if our two groups are against each other now, we won’t be later.” “We’ll save that chat for later.” One of the cloak figures who hasn’t talked yet said before removing his cloak. Showing a man wearing regal like clothing before taking his hat and holding against his chest. “I’m Ardyn. Ardyn Lucis Caelum.” "The rest of you share that opinion?" Jericho asked. “We do. I’m Madoras.” Another cloaked figure said before taking it off. “And yes I’m aware of how I look. Never cared much.” He had gray skin with white hair that had red on the end. His outfit was strange as it was mostly black but left most of his torso exposed. He glared at Frisk who was suppressing a laugh. “Must you laugh every time you see me?” He asked, irritated. “Yes!” Was her reply. "There's a meme here I just can't remember which?" Cript said, shrugging. "That aside, sorry to inform but we need the Void Mother's womb. Firstly to revive a dead love of Jericho, and then return it to her with her heart so we can have Void Mother replaced by Maxellia. She won't like it, and probably will be beating the shit out of me before, during and after I ask her, but Void Mother is pretty sure she will accept, after she gets to spend as long as she wants kicking my ass." “Two things, one, Madoras, you remind me a lot of a much buffer Raiden from Metal Gear, and two...how strong is Maxella?” King asked nervously. "Well, she can't kill me but she can hurt me so, that's a scale. I guess." Cript said. “And by ‘hurt’, you mean kick your ass hurt, or ‘tis a scratch’ kind of hurt?” King asked. “And by “tis a scratch’ do you mean an actual scratch or losing a limb and thinking nothing of it like that black Knight guy?” Frisk asked. "Yes?" Cript said. “Glad to know I’m not the only one that watched Monty Python.” King chuckled. “So anyways, I think I can take a guess as to who our last cloaked person is, and I have a question.” King started as they kneeled down and brought out a little fancy looking charm. “I believe someone collects charms?” The figure took off its cloak to show a small being with a white mask and two black holes for eyes. He reaches for it with King accidentally holding it a little too high but found the little hops it made to get it cute. Like a kid trying to reach for a toy. “You are just adorable.” King giggled. “And sorry for holding it up to high my little friend.” They said softly as they lowered their hand to let the Ghost have the charm. “That adorable guy is probably the strongest, not counting Cript, being here since he basically at best represents Void itself.” Frisk said. “Thank you, cause I haven’t really gone to his world, or played Hollow Knight.” King shrugged, seeing Ghost take the charm happily. “Really should get around to doing that sometime, only got some cliff notes on how this little guy...I think killed a god in his world?” “Actually from what Max said on his research he killed a Higher Embodiment of Light and is the child of Void and God but PK was actually a Higher Embodiment of Nothing.” Frisk said. “So there is room to speculate that people can use Void and Nothingness together, if our little friend here is anything to go by.” King brought up. “The Pale King had the mask the vessels use made from a special concentration of Nothing to contain their Void should they survive. From what Max gathered the Void there is actually the densest in the entire Void. Something is there causing it, or the Void is drawn there.” Madoras explained. “I think one of the cliff notes I had from the game, one of the DLC’s, was that...there’s literally an Embodiment of Void living there, if not a Void God, which in my studies is actually stronger than an Embodiment even if the name makes it sound on a lower tier.” King brought up, bringing out a notebook titled ‘Notes on Games I really should play’. “Anyway.” Frisk said walking forward and..did she age a few years? “Who is facing who?” She asked with a smile. “I have heard from Agamemnon that you really didn’t like me for killing Gideon, the person that...really needed to die for every reason imaginable?” King frowned, shivering at the bad memory of just seeing the fat bastard. “I called dibs on his death.” She pouts. “Just to give a little insight. Those admins that watched over the entrance to Mother. Are gone.” Agamemnon said as his armored hand is covered in a familiar code. “So you’re the fuckers that made Mother and Belief run to us.” King growled. “Why?” “Max wanted us to be as prepared as possible for the coming war and becoming pseudo admins help.” Frisk said with the code of the Admin of Death coating her hands. “I know, Maxella and Kross told me.” Cript said. “Guess we gotta use that Womb to bring back some more people than. That sentence sounded weird even with context.” He sighed. “So… What is your big plan for Vincent then? Cause so far he knocked out a fusion of King and I and blasted us into the void sea, with a copy of King he plucked from the Nothingness Timelines. So, how are you all gonna deal with that if all you wanna do is fight us?” “Oh, Max will deal with King. He’ll leave Vincent to John. He has a feeling Vincent will do something that’ll push the last barriers John has on his potential. Since John technically was the second strongest of your group when everything started. Hell! He could have killed Core if he didn’t hold his Psychopath back.” Frisk said. “Uh huh… and lemme ask you all a question about that. Firstly, you all know Max and John are brothers, right?” “Ya. Max found that out when looking at his code and compared it to John’s.” Frisk said. “Right, and so you must also know that Maxella and Kross are their parents then right? The two greatest Void Users just under Void Mother herself, right?” “I had to help with calming him down and distressing him for 2 years in a different dimension.” Frisk said. “Hol up, what?” King asked incredulously. “I don’t remember that...but I might not have met either of those people…” “You didn’t. Frankly they hate everybody. Especially me, ironic given Kross is a Cript.” “Cause who isn’t at this point?” King asked sarcastically. “Right, so keeping all that in mind… do you still all honestly believe you can fight Vincent, who, spoiler alert, isn’t actually Vincent, he’s Grey, ya know that energy clogging up the space in the storage drive in the machine we all live in? The one who causes basically a factory reset of this place more times than I think is possible to count and built myself, Kross, and is so strong his newest idea of fun was to train and make people strong enough to tickle him? Do you all really wanna go up against that? Alone?” “Us.” She said gesturing to herself and the kings. ”No, Max or John. Two children of a Cript and the Void Conduit. Much better than us.” Cript sighed. He walked over to that still open portal. “Max I know you are listening over there, get over here or I will give Frisk ALL your baby pictures.” “You mean these?” Frisk said, holding a photo album. “Don’t ask how she got those…” A voice from the portal said. “So…” King started. “I’m just going to bring this up, do we really have to do this?” The den mother dire wolf asked. “We all have a common enemy, and that’s Vincent...er, Grey at this point. Do we well and truly need to try and fight each other?” King asked, not wanting to fight needlessly. “Max wanted us to face you to see how far we all are. He is not closed to the idea but not till he is sure your group is ready, and not just Cript or any fusion with him counts towards it.” Agamemnon explained. “How about this.” Cript offered. “You all get one hit. One, all out strongest attack one me, and I ranke it on a scale of one to ten. Ten being painful, five being kicked in the shin, and one to zero being sad. Cause… Frankly, I am tired of all this shit. And I meant these Photos.” Cript said, materializing a red and blue striped album and tossing it to Frisk. “There’s bathtime and babies first playtime.” “So Cript’s not joining.” King started as he drew No Heart. “Who wants to face me first? Cause I know Frisk is one of them and Agamemnon would want to see how well I’m doing.” Frisk stepped up. “Guess I’ll go first.” “Age to 18. Don’t underestimate him.” Agamemnon recommends. “Ok.” She said. Aging up to her 18 year old self. “Alright.” King nodded, bringing out Frozen Pride. “So, which Undertale world are you from? I got...I believe it was named Storyshift.” Frisk lifts one finger before flicking it up. “Epictale.” A giant orange boxing glove bursts from the ground hitting King and sending him into the air. She then jumps up to him and grabs their face. “Let’s get a bigger arena.” Then throws them to a large floating landmass. King turned around quickly and landed on the ground feet first. “Thanks for that, I had a crick in my neck that wouldn’t go away.” King chuckled. “Now, my turn.” The wolf started as he swung No Heart, a massive wave of bladed Nothingness rushing towards Frisk, King leaping behind the fast moving attack as they readied an attack with Frozen Pride. Just as the attacks were about to land Frisk smirks and dissolves into purple papers flying about. King was taken off guard by the move and was shot by a yellow revolver poking out of a page to his left. “Sike.” King said as an ice spike shot through Frisk’s gun hand as they raised their shield up. “Frost Storm!” King shouted as dozens of ice spears descended down onto the purple pages like a raging storm. He heard a foot step behind him and turned around making a spike of ice erupt and pieces the target,...but sees Joy standing there with the ice inside their chest. Blood on the ice and coughing it up. “W-why?” They asked with a betrayed voice. “Oh…” King started. “You want to play it like this huh?” He heard clapping as Joy disappeared. Looking behind them to see frisk sitting on a rock. “Very good. Most people normally are just shocked and stunned from that, but I’m glad you passed that little test. If you were effective like normal people this would be boring.” She said. Frisk was even more surprised by King, as she experienced face first a full weighted swing from Skysplitter, sending her flying up into the air as King disbanded it into the Book of Retribution and Staff of Leniency. “Heavens Descent!” King shouted, Frisk seeing pearly white gates appear above her, only to start opening up and a massive force of holy energy rammed straight into her, driving her back down into the earth. “Don’t.Ever.Do that again.” King growled. “Even if it was painfully obvious...you don’t fuck with my family.” He heard laughter from the hole. “Very nice. That actually hurt a little bit, but-“ she said as she got out of the whole. Looking older. About 20. She wiped her cheek which had a small cut. “Paper cuts aren’t that big a deal.” Her left leg was covered in a dark blue light as she suddenly kicked King in the side of his head, but that kick felt more like 20 kicks in an instant. She then grabbed his leg as he was sent flying from the kick and slammed him into the ground. She then pointed her hand like a handgun at him. “Bang.” A massive Yellow Revolver appears and blast him into the ground and through the landmass into the void under it. King flew back up with a frown. “So that’s your gimmick huh? Your age hides your potential or something?” The wolf asked, their body scuffed up a bit but nothing major. “That and its fun being a kid when I want. Especially when most don’t expect a kid to be as deadly as me.” She said. “I’m not most.” King started as they shifted to True King’s Valor form. “Thankfully I also have some forms that I haven’t used yet.” King said happily, their form being that of their Nothingness Armor, pure red with flowing nothingness thorn’s flowing through it as a cascade of raw physical might radiated from King. “Let’s see how you handle this.” King said as they landed a punch on Frisk, and just like with their attack, it felt like they were hit fifty times over from their massive speed boost. She slid back a couple meters from the attack. “Hehe. Nice one, but-“ she holds out her green frying pan weapon. She used it to block the attack.” -you’ll need to ‘dish’ out more than that.” She punned. With a loud groan coming from the other kings. “Well I suppose I better-” King started as their hands burst into a bluish white flame akin to the fire from the upgraded Eternal Flames. “-get ‘Heated up’ for ya.” King counter punned. “I HEAR ONE MORE PUN I'M COMING UP THERE!!” Yelled Agamemnon. “Damn, he doesn't like puns.” King said nervously. “A Sans with too much color on him and a ‘fresh’ personality appeared and even Max is having a hard time getting rid of him. He annoys Agamemnon the most for laughs.” Frisk said. “Wait…” King started. “That sounds familiar...I’m gonna have to look that up later, but when you say ‘fresh’, you mean he spouts nothing but memes and a bunch of shit from the nineties?” “Yes.” Frisk deadpans. “Also had shades that have words on them that change with things like ‘Yo,Yo’, ‘lol’, and other stuff.” “Oh yeah, I think I heard of him before, it’s actually a parasite that’s controlling that Sans if my little...dive into the Undertale wiki means anything.” King said sheepishly. Suddenly a giant glowing blue ballet shoe smashes into him sending him flying. Then another from below sending him up. Then one sends him down, and it just repeats for a few seconds before a giant frying pan smashes him into the ground. Then slams the ground a couple more times. Finally six yellow giant revolvers aim at him and each simultaneously fire six blasts into the ground. “Are you still good to go?” Frisk asks casually. "Rude." King frowned as they got back up. "We were having a nice conversation and you assaulted me." “Ya well we are fighting.” Frisk shrugs. "I know I know." King said. "Still not used to this form though…" King grumbled as they brought an arm back and punched towards Frisk, an air bullet ramming straight into her stomach hard. Only for her to burst into purple paper again as hundreds and hundreds of paper scattered around the area. “The soul of perseverance.” King pointed out. “Gonna have to do more than turn into pages.” “How about this.” He looks behind him to see her holding the notebook. She points at him as all the papers suddenly cover every inch of him as a green bubble forms around him. “Let’s see. What spell to use...how about Falling Down.” She snaps her fingers as the spell appears on all the pages and begins to glow. “One more thing.” She takes a piece of paper out. It said X100. She tosses it as it fades through the shield and splits apparent until it covers all the pages and glow from them suddenly increases. “Bang.” She exclaims. As an explosion from all the pages happens as the spell goes off on all of them. “Still conscious?” She asked. As the dust settled, Frisk saw King’s armor was blue tinted this time, magical energy sparking off of them. “You’re not the only one with split second crap.” King said bluntly. “True King’s Wisdom form, fuck ton of magic defense.” He explained as he raised a hand. “You want to play with magic? Then let me show you!” King barked. “FALLEN DOWN!” King shouted as a blue line softly touched the ground in front of Frisk, only for the spell to collapse right on top of her. Smoke covered the area once the spell ended. He waits for her to make a move. When he suddenly felt a huge pressure drop on him. Nothing was above him. So he guessed she stopped holding back, but dang the difference from then and now is staggering. He might have to actually use ‘that’ for this. Which excites him a little. She walks out of the dust looking different. Age 26. Her hair reached her lower back. Her striped shirt was replaced with a dress that while covering the important things left the middle of her stomach exposed. And another thing that caught his attention. Was the floating crown of Void above her head. “Sorry. Had to change. That spell blasted my top off. Sorry but that’s for Max, or I would have to claw your eyes out.” “So what? You stopped holding back now?” King asked curiously, their armor turning pure gold as they shifted into True King Master form just to test the waters. “And good for you.” She smirks. Then appears faster than before making him jump a bit “Wha-” She held her left hand glowing with orange. Two fingers extended and hand half open. Before suddenly doing a One-inch punch that went through his armor making him cough up blood sending him into the cliff side...on the other side of the dungeon. “Come one King. You should know better than to underestimate me. Although let me inform you of something. Based on what I said Ghost down there is the strongest king correct?” She asked as King was pushing himself out of the crater. That Impact hit him harder than he expected. “You’re the queen, it’s painfully obvious...both metaphorically...and quite literally.” King coughed in pain “Alright...ow…” King grumbled in pain. “Well yes and no. I was saying the truth about him, but I’m stronger than all of them. Because I’m not a King or Queen. I’m Frisk Akuma. Empress of the Void and Max’s wife.” She explained. “Cool.” King took a deep breath. “If you want to take the kiddie gloves off, then so be it.” King started, as Frisk felt a powerful pressure force itself on her shoulders suddenly. “Time...Space…” King growled, their words echoing with ancient power as their armor shifted. “When All Things come to an End…” King chanted, their armor becoming more streamlined and powerful, Nothingness pulsating and clashing against the ambient Void Frisk was creating. "There stands the Final Being of the Lonesome World." King chante, a pillar of nothingness erupting from him even though he was deep in the Void. “The True Ruler of Nothing, In this existence of a Nobody like me…” King raised their hand and summoned their True King’s Greatsword, a hilt that held a blade made of Pure Nothingness thorns, it writhing with power and a will to fight. “True King Form.” “Going all out finally. About time.” Frisk said as she summoned all her souls. Integrity-dark blue Patience-light blue Kindness-green Bravery-orange Justice-yellow Perseverance-purple Fear-pink Hate-black “Want to know what this color means?” Frisk asked, holding her red soul. “Determination?” King asked as they raised their True King’s Greatsword. “And I’ve never had to go all out cause I’ve both never had to...and was scared what it could do if just the True Valor form was stupidly strong.” “Determination isn’t actually a soul trait. Every soul has Determination. Albeit various degrees.” Frisk brings the soul closer. “It’s Love.” She looks back at him. “You brought your weapon. Let me bring out mine.” Her Love soul floats in front of her and turns into a red knife. From what he knows of the game it did stupid high lvls of damage at the end of the Genocide run. Chara’s did at least. The other souls then combined with the knife making it much bigger. Suddenly her normal size knife looked like Ichigo’s massive blade. “Alrighty then.” King nodded as they prepared for the fight. “Let’s see how well this goes.” King said as they blurred forward and swung their greatsword swiftly at Frisk. Frisk swings blade as well. The collision from both had enough force to not only destroy the land mass they were on but the shock wave hit the others hard. Cript barely felt it but some of the others had to block some of it with their arms. Those on King's side that is. On Frisk's side Madoras made wordless spells to block the shockwaves for him and the others. Except for Ghost who was chasing a small Void butterfly that somehow wasn’t affected by the shockwaves. “Anyone else surprised neither has gotten knocked out yet?” Cript asked. “Are we just going to ignore the fact that they're both going all out here?” Coco asked bluntly, using her Void powers to keep herself and Kexez from falling over at the shockwaves. “Yes.” Cript said with a shrug, taking out a crossword puzzle book. “Trust me, they both need it out of their systems.” “Kexez? Jericho?” Coco asked incredulously, hoping someone would take this a little bit more seriously as she could literally feel the Void shaking from their fight. “I’d rather not get between them given the power flowing out there.” Kexez said. “Eh, neither of them are in danger. I’m more worried about the third party viewers some several thousand miles in the safe range of the AoE attacks.” Jericho said. “And what about you all?” Coco asked Frisk’s group. “Anything you have to say about the Void itself shaking from their fight?” Agamemnon looks over. “Actually only this area is shaking, and we spar on multiple occasions. To keep ourselves near top form. Of course going all out is out of the question but seeing this isn’t that shocking. It’s actually to be expected.” Madoras then speaks. “While powerful just the shockwaves are, I'm able to block them with some small spells. So no trouble. Only one not affected is Ghost over there.” He points to Ghost who is sitting with a dozen Void butterflies sitting on him. “He’s too cute…” Coco whined at how adorable Ghost is being right now. Cript sees that Frisk's weapon broke at the clash. It looked unstable so probably the first time she tried such a weapon. Although something about her doesn’t seem right. He starts to notice when Kings follow up swing was aiming at her stomach. “Okay, that’s enough.” Cript said, appearing between Frisk and King, King’s weapon held firmly in Cript’s grip. “Not a bad trick Frisk. Fooled me, but I guess when you have power getting directed elsewhere keeping that weapon stable wasn’t easy.” “I noticed something was off with how many times she kept turning into pages...but what’s really going on?” King asked, knowing the pages was a decent gimmick to dodge but it could only do so much before King just got past it. “Well I couldn’t keep it hidden forever. Take a whiff wolf boy and guess.” Frisk said. Taking a step back. “I won’t hide it since it was found out.” King sniffed Frisk carefully, taking in their scent and…”Are you fucking kidding me lady!?” King snapped at her in panic. “You could have hurt both of them if you weren’t careful, the fucks wrong with you!?” King asked, Frisk not seeing anger from King about fighting while pregnant, but honest fear and panic for her safety and that of their kids from a tried and true mother. “Honestly it would take Cript here to actually break the barrier I place but the blade I made took a bit more than I thought. I was about to use the Admin power I have to completely reinforce it. And don’t lie you haven’t been using your admin powers either, and if I thought that attack would truly hurt them then I wouldn’t hesitate to strike.” Frisk said before an armored hand fell on her shoulder. “Frisk...did you seriously come here pregnant?” The calm but angered voice of Agamemnon said behind her. Making her flinch a bit. Weaker than her he may be but scary he definitely is. She felt a small tug on her dress and looked down to see Ghost looking at her. The look in his eyes was clear. She sighs. “Ok. It was dumb to do this. Very dumb. Max is probably pissed as hell though. I’ll head back to get the ear full waiting.” She turns to go. “Oh and King. Keep getting stronger. Because next time you’re going down.” “Next time try not fighting me while eight months pregnant with twins.” King frowned. “And yes, I wasn’t using Admin powers cause I keep forgetting I can do that…” King grumbled. “But Max has more than enough to tell you, now shoo, and tell me when the baby shower is darn it.” She puts a finger on her chin. “Mmm. Nope,” she said as she leaves. Ghost goes back to the others...and chases a small wolf pup that was in the area...where did that come from? “Well, that’s an unsatisfying draw. So, next match up?” Cript asked. “I’m willing to fight.” Jericho said, shrugging. “So, who wants to fight?” A bell chimes a few times surprising them. “Ring Ring. Armor 3 is now ready.” A small doll said floating in the air. “Yes, I hear Tony Stark wants his gimmick back.” King joked. Agamemnon stepped forward. His armor changed into its Black and gold variant. “I am next. Forgive me, but this technically would be armor 4. But my newest one isn’t ready yet for battle as of yet.” “Hm, master of Weapons vs the Master of War. Fun.” He said, drawing his axe, code flowing out over it. “And unlike King, I know how to fight like an Admin.” “Then please.” He said as code forms and forms a small shield on his left arm and a spear halbert in his right hand. “Educate me on such battles.” Nodding, Jericho took a deep breath. He didn’t take a pose, or raise his axe. He stood there for a time before appearing behind Agamemnon. He lurched, Agamemnon feeling pain unlike what he had felt before. It was like a wound, but his armor and body were unharmed, physically, yet he could feel the gushing blood and spilling intestines. “Admin attacks damage your code. You’ll heal, slowly as it rebuilds itself. Physically, there aren’t any injuries, but with enough attacks… it’s no different than dying from a delete. You’ll be erased entirely, your code too damaged to rebuild yourself, and fall apart.” He shakingly stood up. “Interesting. So this is an Admin attack, or was this just a taste. Let’s see.” He blocks a swing from Jericho by placing the small shield to catch underneath the axe and hook it while slamming the blade of his Halberd across Jericho’s face. Jericho smiled, pulling his axe back and making a tear in Agamemnon's shield. He watched in shock as it became cloaked in code for a moment before fading entirely. "Weapons and armor are no different, and unlike us they don't heal." He jumped back, slashing the Halberd in half as it too faded and broke at the code level. Agamemnon jumped back and summoned a sword in his left hand and swung. Jericho just sliced it with his axe again. Only to see a bite purple gauntlet slam into his face sending him into a cliff. He looks up to see Agamemnon holding a magic bow that shoots powerful magic arrows that splits into over a dozen on flight that slam into him causing an explosion. When the Explosions faded Agamemnon was surprised to see a large, metallic ship built for land and sea standing where the bombarded hit. Jericho stood atop it. He raised his arm with the axe up, the ship shooting off volleys of Mana infused explosives Agamemnon began shooting at rapidly to avoid getting hit. "Like it? It's not even my flag ship!" Jericho shouted, the grin on his face showing he was enjoying himself. Agamemnon kept shooting the explosive till one got really close. The blast kicking up dust around him. Jericho looks for his next attack when more arrows come at him. He blocks it with his axe before having more explosives fired at him. This continues for a bit before he got confused on why Agamemnon wasn’t doing anything different. Eyes widened as he quickly swung his axe with enormous force to force the dust to clear. Revealing three knights holding the same bow Agamemnon was using. “King-” Jericho looks up to see Agamemnon holding a double bladed curved sword that was glowing with tons of magic and void. Ready to swing down. “-Slayer!!” Agamemnon shouts as he sends a massive blade beam point blank at Jericho. The attack hits him and destroys the ship as well as pulverizing the land beneath them. When the smoke cleared Agamemnon stood with the curved sword halfway down Jericho's torso. Jericho kept eyes locked with Agamemnon, smiling. "About time." He said, yanking the sword out as Agamemnon jumped back for some distance. His wound sealed itself up as Jericho raised his axe, still smiling as he kept his eyes on Agamemnon. "The dogs of war shall bite and tear until all that remains are blood and bones." He swung his axe at the ground, the earth below him rising up, forming a cave of sorts as soon echoing from deep within was the rabbit snarls and barks of hounds. Countless hounds. "Hunt him." Jericho said, and emerging from the cave were countless hounds of every race, armored to the teeth. Literally. “Come then!” Agamemnon challenged. As he equipped a short sword with his sword. He dragged the short sword across the curved sword and both were suddenly glowing green. “Armor piercer.” He then jumps up into the air and brings the blades in a cross pattern. “Dual King Slayer!” He then sent out a cross style blade beam that struck the hounds. As the smoke cleared he saw a few were killed but most only had small cracks on the armor. “Damn. Should have charged that longer.” Jericho laughed, the earth began shaking as his armored hounds now dug themselves out from the earth, and massive hounds the size of buildings emerged from it. The larger ones have armor mixed with magic and/or technology, giving them powerful weapons that offloaded towards Agamemnon once they targeted him. Jericho was having fun. Jericho felt something on his shoulder and looked to see the small doll that Agamemnon has on his shoulder. “Armor two.” It says before looking at him. “Is ready.” “Demi-God Slayer!” Jericho heard from the onslaught of his attacks and see hundreds of huge blade beams flying out of it. Slicing his hounds to pieces as a particular one crashes into him sending him flying again. The smoke clears and Agamemnon is there in Red and gold armor. “I regret not using the ability the third one has but I had to up my game.” He holds out a long sword in his left hand. “Need I go higher?” Laughter filled the air, Jericho tossing the hound corpse off himself. He raised his axe up, along his arm and the axe were five images of locks. "Power restrictions level one, Unlock for use in battle. Worthy opponent detected. Granted. Level one powers and abilities restored for use as needed." There was a shockwave in the air as power now began flooding from Jericho as one of the images of the locks vanished from his axe and arm. He stood up, now adorned in a thick hide and metallic armor. Both materials Agamemnon was having difficulty identifying. His axe had changed, growing larger and thicker but the blade ever sharper and was white hot. The surviving hounds all reacted, wounds healed as their size and strength began more, their power coming to them from Jericho as they began to circle Agamemnon once each surviving hound was fully restored to health. "Battle mode, Territory Conquest, activated." Agamemnon lands on the ground. “Very well.” Agamemnon slams his hand on the ground as it begins to shake. “Void Knights. Assemble.” Swords started to appear in hundreds before many started to merge. Forming dozens of Knights. Some Knights merged with others to form larger variants. Agamemnon summons an axe of his own. He charges right at Jericho while the hounds and his knights did battle. He slams his axe against Jericho who grins. He cuts through Agamemnon’s axe who leans back to dodge. Jericho is then Suddenly hit fast with a loud bang. He looks to see Agamemnon holding a large revolver in his left hand. “When I said All Weapons I meant it!” He brings out another and starts shooting with both. Their impact pushed him back. Agamemnon then summons another sword and swings. Only for the sword to break apart revealing to be a chain blade and wraps around the handle of Jericho’s axe as he begins to tug. No sooner than he began tugging the axe lit up in code fire, breaking the chains around it as Jericho chuckled. "Don't forget, almost all of the weapons in existence you know of and mastered were made by my predecessor." Jericho said, snapping his fingers as suddenly thousands of armed beings popped into existence. Each armed with a weapon Agamemnon was familiar with. "If it was built to kill, it serves me." With that Agamemnon was nearly able to block impalement by his own swords as they flew out of his grips and tried to stab through his armor. As their armies clashed Agamemnon began to calculate how to fight with a weapon that isn't by definition a weapon. He dodged another blade that was sent flying at him when it clicked. Might not work but it’s worth a shot. He dodged again as he threw one of his hands back and summoned dozens of arrows. He then threw his hand forward as the arrows went flying towards Jericho and the armed beings. The arrows then split into hundreds as they explode on impact or proximity of a target. Jericho emerged from the flames, jumping after Agamemnon with wide, fast swings he dodged rapidly. The two kept dodging and swinging for quite some time, on each side their troops began falling, but it was clear Agamemnon's army was the one with less numbers. "Come on now, Master of Weapons! Show me what that title truly means!" Jericho screamed, a smile across his face and wide eyes of the thrill of battle. "Bring out your anger, offload every payload, empty out your armories, because if you want to see what a real Admin can do, then prove to me you can handle it!" Jericho declared, his weapons armor suddenly growing arms and reaching for Agamemnon. As they did Agamemnon got a better look at the armor as it morphed into something akin to… someone. A person, made of leather and metal. The apparently living armor conjured two Claymores, swinging both against Agamemnon's torso. The knight was knocked back, the impact not harming him but damaged his armor slightly. Looking up, Agamemnon realized that armor was made From an Admin… the prior Admin of war. "You turned your predecessor into armor?" He asked. Jericho chuckled. "Yes. To defeat such a monster, I had to become something far, far crueller and vial. When Admins die, our physical bodies fade with our code, but, even an Admin can become brain dead. I erased his mind, stole his power and melted down his still living body into the armor you see now. It's still bonded to the code of war, and made the perfect material for armor that adapts to me as I unlock my restrictions as needed. In war, waste not want not." Jericho said, his armor swapping the Claymores for crossbows. "If you win, I'd happily teach you how to craft armor of equal power for yourself." “See...if I was properly trained like I was told so many goddamn times…” King grumbled, throwing Cript a quick glare as he was the primary source of ‘Of course we’ll train soon totally maybe if I have the remembrance of me saying it’. Cript simply shrugged. "You gave us time with Vincent in this war, a hairline thin line he won't cross so long as we play along. If proper training is what you want, it's the least any of us can do." “You said you were going to train me at least ten times over the years we’ve been doing this.” King frowned. “First when I got Humanity and Psychopath powers, then when I became an Admin which barely went anywhere, then a vast majority of other times…” "What? You didn't self train off camera?" “I do, a lot, that’s why I’m still as strong as I am without Admin bullshit.” King huffed. Agamemnon sighed. “I secretly hoped I wouldn’t have to do this, but against you I must.” He said as over a dozen dolls appeared floating around the area. “Armor 1 is ready! Armor 1 is ready!” They chanted over and over. Floating around. “While I have a stronger armor in the making it’s not ready. So Jericho.” Agamemnon looks towards him. “It’s Time.” Void started to surround Agamemnon. First it was small, then it got bigger. Finally an orb of condensed Void surrounded Agamemnon. Jericho felt a massive spike in power. This armor was different from his others. He could tell things got more...exciting. The Void subsided. Agamemnon stood there in this black armor. He could see Dark Monofilament in it but was combined with other metals. It was a combination he hasn’t seen before. No doubt this was much stronger than any of his other armors. Agamemnon brought out a sword and shield that seemed to be made of the same kind. “Ready.” He says simply. Jericho grinned madly, snapping his fingers as his still living hounds and army charged at Agamemnon, testing the waters for their master. Agamemnon started walking towards Jericho. Not even looking at the army. He did however. Swing his sword towards his right. The blade he sent was stronger then the Demi-God Slayer as it destroyed all on that side. Making the rest stop in shock while Jericho grinned even more if possible. Still, the other side of Jericho's army kept moving, shooting and charging him as he slashed them aside with ease as he walked towards Jericho. He laughed, lifting his arm and axe up. The locks on both are visible. "Level two, level three restrictions access request for combat in battle. Access granted. War tier elevated to Revolution." There was a blast of energy, Agamemnon kept his footing but felt the impact. Jericho's armor was something akin to a uniform now, but armored and layered in runes and code Agamemnon couldn't read. His axe was far smaller, looking more like a hatchet now but the blade still glowed in energy. Agamemnon held his sword to the side as it started Glowing. “Those attacks I just used. They were just simple blade beams. While those techniques I used against you. Are much different. King Slayer is restricted to Armor 3 and above with Demi-God Slayer to armor 2 and above. This one is.” The light changes to a dark light as the Void starts to condense on the blade. “God-” “EVERYONE GET DOWN!!” Madoras yelled as he slammed his hands together forming a shield around them. “-Slayer!” Agamemnon yelled releasing the attack. Jericho smiled, rushing in and swinging his axe against Agamemnon's sword. The clashing blades sent a shockwave that reached the far end of the void and unearthed the ground countless miles. When the dust finally cleared Jericho and Agamemnon still stood there, blades locked staring at one another. Jericho's smile could not get any wider. "How fun." He said. “That means you are done with warm ups?” Agamemnon asked as the pressure he was releasing suddenly spiked. “Because I’m still getting started.” Shoving Jericho back with a swift kick to the chest before pointing the horns on his helmet towards him. “God Cannon!” A powerful beam of Void shot out from between the horns of his helmet. The impact knocked Jericho into the ground at supersonic speeds. He bounced for a bit before launching himself back up and towards Agamemnon, their blades clashing again but this time Jericho gave a hard punch to Agamemnon's helmet, cracks formed on it and before he pulled back his first, grabbed one of the horns and pulled him down into a knee kick and then spun around and tossed him at the ground below. Jericho wasted no time in raising his axe and taking aim. "Payload 7. Offload all Salvio's." He swung, the swing shooting off countless projectiles ranging from misslas to arrows and bullets, spells and various projectiles at Agamemnon. Agamemnon brought out a repeater crossbow in both hands and started firing void like arrows. After shooting down thousands of attacks in the first few seconds he put them away and brought out a spear and charged. Dodging and deflecting attacks till he was halfway to Jericho before throwing the spear. He snapped his fingers before it came within Jericho’s striking range and it swapped places with him. He then proceeded to bring out a massive purple first gauntlet and slugged Jericho. The fist as big as his torso. Agamemnon watched in surprise as Jericho picked back with just his head against the force of the blow, pushing back far enough til they were eye to eye. Jericho laughed then spit right into Agamemnon's visor. He huffed but managed to blast Jericho back some distance. As he prepared his next attack he halted. His body felt off. His head hurt, breathing became labored and his balance was almost non-existent. He fell to his knees and hands, looking up as Jericho was walking up over to him. "Bio weapons are a dirty little thing but oh so effective." He said, Agamemnon trying to bring out a weapon only to receive a massive spike in pain through his head like a thousand needles stitching through him. He stands back up and tries again. The pain came back and increased as he tried, but he didn’t stop. With a yell of pain and stubbornness he pulls out a special sword. A two handed sword made of Dark Monofilament. He holds the sword in both hands. “While painful. There are much worse pains in Existence. Meet Brightbane.” "Ooh la la, you got a sword. Gonna try and stab me in the heart with it?" Agamemnon grabbed the bottom of the hilt and detached the bottom half of the hilt. He took out a small crystal. “This is a special crystal Max made from condensed code. While I'm getting close to grasping the concept of using Code to battle from observing you. This should even the playing field.” He inserted the crystal and reattached the hilt. The top of the blade glowed red and extended another foot. The energy being code. “King Slayer!” He swings the sword as he unleashes the attack enchanted with code. Right as Agamemnon began to swing down, Jericho swung his axe up, both code covered weapons hitting the other. Jericho's arm holding the axe went flying but not before taking off the face of Agamemnon's helmet and the face underneath. Agamemnon roared in the pain but marveled as he could feel the weapon interact with his own code and begin repairing his armor and body. By the time he could see again Jericho was displaying his axe, his arm regrown and the locks remaining in full view. "Requesting access for level four restrictions unlocked for use in combat. Access granted. War elevated from Revolution, to World." In a blink he was gone, Agamemnon quickly spun around and blocked with his weapon. Jericho now wore what was more an officer's uniform, his Axe now resembling a modern combat axe. The two clashed against one another without giving an opening to the other. Agamemnon swung once more and clashed with his axe. He held the clash to keep both weapons locked against each other. “The first weapon.” He said suddenly to Jericho’s confusion. Agamemnon took one hand off the sword and held it pointing towards Jericho’s chest in a knife hand fashion. “Was one's own hands.” He said as his hand suddenly shined with intense Void. “God Slayer!!” He said while unleashing the attack. While not as powerful as it could be through a blade it still had power. Reacting fast, Jericho hooked Agamemnon's sword on his axe, dragging him down with him as they flew a great distance and landed in a crater of their own making. Jericho stood, looking worn but still kept his smile. "You really are quite a worthy opponent Agamemnon. I haven't had this much fun since I met Cript. You wouldn't happen to be from my realm? You sure fight like someone from there." “...I am. It’s been so long since I last saw you. We never talked. Never even looked at each other. I was but a normal soldier in battle. But I am from there.” Agamemnon told him. "Ah. That explains so much. I won't ask you how you escaped, it's not like that matters anymore. After I killed the old admin and took his place, I erased that blood soaked realm. Were you there in those days? Did you witness his March across the ground, killing man, beast and plant alike?" Jericho placed a hand across his eyes. "So many dead, killed for his enjoyment. By him. When it was over, I was all that was left, or so I thought." He put his hand down, looking back at Agamemnon. "You, my fellow soldier, fight for more than just senseless bloodshed. For making that choice, I thank you. By the time I did, it was too late." Agamemnon looks at his hand and sighs. “I was one of his soldiers. I was meant to be what you described. Nothing more. One day I...slayed a child. Something was different about this. Under his influence I have done much worse for his entertainment but this was different. Like whatever it was that made me what I was weakened. The blood...will never leave my hands. No matter what armor, no matter how much I would bath or wash my hands. It would never leave. I don’t hate you for killing him. In fact I wish I could have done it by the time I was getting out of his influence. I was lucky to escape.” He says as he looks at his armored hands. From his vision the blood was still there. After all this time. “I’ll be honest that I’m still holding back. Something I had from those times. I never wanted to use those powers again. Because of how it ties me to Him. So I must ask. Do I have your permission to use them? As the new Admin of War.” He asked. Jericho sighed, looking his axe over. "Level five restrictions, requesting access for use in combat." He looked up at Agamemnon. "Access granted. War elevated to… Apocalypse." As Jericho shifted, Agamemnon nearly felt the urge to run. The armor Jericho adorned, the crown, that form of the axe… they were all his. At Jericho's side was a red horse, hide blood soaked and mane and tale burning in white hot flames. He mounted the beast, and Agamemnon could swear, it was him. "When I killed that monster, and took his title, his power, I also took his sins and his enemies. Agamemnon, I ask you as a fellow soldier and the new Admin at war, hold nothing back. Your power, your anger, fear and loss. Bring it all down upon me, just try and kill me." Agamemnon held his sword out and place his left hand on the blade. “Restriction access 666. Unleash.” The numbers 666 formed in front of him and broke. Void explodes from him. He then takes his sword...and plunges it into his gut. Blood splaying all over. “Blood of War, Blood of Soldiers, Blood of the Beast, Wake Up!!” He rips the sword out as a massive bloody aura combines with the Void. His blood coats his armor and sword. “Bloody Edge!” He sends a bloody void tainted blade beam that was much stronger then any yet. Jericho swats it away and notices it actually pushed him back a bit. Agamemnon then slams the edge of his sword across his chest. “Bloody rebellion!” The strike sends him into the air. Jericho turned around and clashed with another strike only for Agamemnon to not only move but for a bloody looking slash mark to stay where they clashed. Agamemnon strikes him again as he clashes with it. It continues for a dozen times till after the last one Agamemnon clenched his left hand. “Bloody Combustion!” The slash marks that surrounded him suddenly explode with a lot of force and power. Jericho still was there, seated atop the horse and it charged. He Raised his axe. "War’s End." He said, reaching close to Agamemnon as he readied a swing. Agamemnon poured everything into his next strike. “Bloody God King Slayer!!” He shouts as he swung against Jericho. The two clashed. No sound, just pure white. Like a sun made itself into the void and gave light to all around. It seemed to last forever to the group's viewing. Like all things, it eventually ended. Jericho's mount was gone, he and Agamemnon were both laid down some distance from one another. Beaten and worn. Cript ran over, viewing Jericho and Agamemnon. "Tie. Well done Agamemnon, you tied with Jericho." Cript said, giving the unconscious knight applause. Ghost walks over with a few Void butterflies on him and that Void wolf pup following him. Picks up Agamemnon and walks back to his group. Although he did bow a little to Cript. Cript, to their surprise, bowed back as he threw Jericho over his shoulder. "That was a fight worth remembering." Ardyn, who had been silent, looks over at the other team. “Well that was something to see. It’s rare to see Agamemnon fight like that, and this result was without his new armor which should have been much stronger. I’m curious to how it would have ended if he had it? What do you guys say about this battle?” He asked "I say Jericho is gonna wanna make Agamemnon a new sparring partner." Cript said with a laugh, placing the admin of war down next to his group. "Excuse me, the fuck.” King started. “Both of you are that powerful?” King asked, even though they knew full well they were going to be stupid strong, he was still kind of surprised. “For the record. Not even we knew about that Blood power Agamemnon had. So he surprised even us with it. But know that before knowing that he wasn’t the strongest out of us Kings. In raw power at least. In technique he is the best hands down.” Madoras said. Healing Agamemnon with a healing spell. “Well...I can fully agree with that.” King said, having been taught to some extent by the knight. “You people are insane…” Coco frowned. “Sane is for boring people.” Ardyn said with a shrug. “I mean...I’m married to this wonderful ball of fluff.” Coco said while softly nudging King. “I am the best ball of fluff.” King said with pride and a smile. "So, who's next?" Cript asked. “So...I guess I’m up next.” Coco said. “If Kexez doesn’t want to go next.” “Just a quick side note, is something wrong Broly?” King asked the young sayin, having seen them staring at King for some reason. "There's a joke here but I won't make it." Cript said bluntly. “Well…” Coco started to stretch out, surprising King at the sudden amount of Void energy she was producing. “Who wants to go against me?” The cream colored mare asked simply. Ardyn started to step forward before he felt a tug on his coat. He looks down to see Ghost looking at him. “You sure?” He asked. Ghost looks at him then at Coco. And walks forward. “If you insist.” Ardyn said. Ghost walks up to Coco and draws his weapon. A spiral like blade that is known in his world as a Nail, or in this case a Pure Nail. “Alright little Ghost.” Coco said as she raised her hand, summoning Void Gear and preparing herself. “You may be cute, but I won’t go easy on you.” The mare said as she used Void Temper on Void Key and swung down at Ghost strongly. Ghost form suddenly turns dark as it changes into Void and dashes through her. He pulled out a medallion that extended a blade of light and before she could react he struck her dozens of times with it, but she didn’t feel pain nor did it knock her back. Confused by the strange attack she didn’t see him swing his Nail that struck her and actually sent her into the ground. Surprised by the power in it. She gets up to see him basically flying to another land mass. Probably where he wanted this battle to take place. “Fine fine.” Coco said as she leaped after him onto the new land mass. “But that was quite a hit.” Coco said as she shot a Void infused fireball towards Ghost. She expected him to dodge. Not to simply smack them back at her. Coco knocked it back at Ghost with a huff. And it suddenly turns into a deadly tennis-like game between them. “So uh...when did this turn into a tennis match?” King asked slowly. “No idea. When Ghost started having fun I guess.” Ardyn guessed. Even though there was barely a change on the Ghost mask. “Trust me. He has a look of joy.” King took a closer look, this time not using their normal sight and looking beyond the physical to who, or what, Ghost really was behind the cute beetle look. A shadow, or shade if they were correct, had its eyes curved in a way that could be described as a child having fun. “Jeez, even it’s aura is that of a joyful child.” King commented. “And they're still adorable.” They chuckled only to see Coco spike the ever growing Void Fireball to Ghost like a real tennis match. Ghost suddenly had a void tendril form out of its right arm and hit the Void Fireball. Coco tried to hit it back but was shocked at the amount of force in it. She barely sensed his void change at all. So why was there so much force now? She skids back keeping the fire ball from crashing into her for what felt like a few miles till she decided to divert it away by shifting the direction of her Void key and jumping out of the way. The blast traveled far away before it hit something and...blew up like a Void Nuke... “Sweet lord!” Coco yelped in surprise, turning back to look at Ghost. “Well...I suppose the saying of ‘big things come in little packages’ is true.” King said sheepishly. “Uh...okay…” Coco started nervously. “Well...let’s try this again…” The cream colored mare started, taking a deep breath as she held her Void Gear in both hands as she charged after Ghost, vanishing every few steps and appearing in a new spot closer to him, before appearing right behind him and swinging down hard enough to crater a continent. Without moving Ghost let a loud scream that made King hold their ears in pain as a black aura blast surrounded Ghost. Catching Coco by surprise and blasting her into the air. “Ow…” Coco groaned, shaking it off quickly as she righted herself in midair. “Void Crash!” She shouted as she dive bombed Ghost, her entire body covered in Void Energy like a meteor. Ghost watches her come closer, and closer, and closer before side stepping at the last millisecond making her hit the ground. He looks down the deep hole she made with a small tilt to his head. “I’m okay!” Coco called out, the hole making a comical echo sound, only for her to come out with a small bit of dirt on her head. “Hi.” Ghost reaches out and pats her head. “Glad your having fun.” Coco chuckled as she got out of the hole and dusted herself off. “Well...I suppose it’s your turn to attack.” She said, preparing herself for his attack. Ghost hops in place for a bit. Then suddenly leaps up into the air. Higher than she was before. Then he starts shooting down like she did covered in Void. It hits the ground in front of her but that’s where the similarities end. 1, he didn’t break the ground. 2,...he did cause a giant explosion shockwave upon impact. “Reflect!” Coco panicked as she casted a Reflect spell before she was blown away by the attack, only to still get flung away a bit. “Oh come on!” She yelped as she landed a ten meters away. As she gets up she hears something land in front of her. She sees...Ghost skull...broken in half….g-guess reflect worked. “Oh my god! I’m so sorry.” Coco said quickly, her good hearted nature getting the better of her as she wanted to apologize for breaking his skull...mask...thing. She feels something pat her leg and looks down to see a...completely black looking Ghost with pure white eyes. His form seems to shift around a lot. “Are...you sure?” Coco asked nervously. “And...are you okay? You seem to be...shifting a lot.” “Oh he is fine.” Ardyn calls out. “That’s just his true self. A being made entirely of Void. We can fix his shell later with this.” Ardyn says pulling out a fist sized white ore. That King looked at with wide eyes. Because the amount of Pure Nothingness coming off it was Insane! “How the hell did you get that!?” King asked in astonishment. “This? It’s from Ghost’s home. An ore tainted by the remnants of his father the Pale King.” Ardyn said. “But...that’s Pure Nothingness! Actual...physical, ore based Pure Nothingness...how and why?” King asked in just pure amazement as he looked back at Ghost and wondered what really is going on in his world. “ A being born of Void.” King looks at Madoras who spoke. “Contained in Nothing. Feels Nothing. Is Nothing. If you focus on his shell...you would notice the Nothingness on it...is far greater then this ore.” “Jesus fuck…” King shook his head. “But...now we need to define ‘feels nothing’, as in he feels no pain, or he has no emotions?” King inquired. “That was the idea behind his...and the millions of siblings his father sired.” King looks back to see Agamemnon getting up.” A terrible being that couldn’t be reached by normal means. The Pale King sires children from Void to create a vessel. One that doesn’t think, feel, or have a voice. A Pure Vessel. To contain it...it failed. And Ghost. He fought it at its best. At its prime. And destroyed it.” He said as walks next to King. “Make no mistake. In terms of raw power out of this entire group. Ghost is by far the strongest. Not counting Cript of course.” “Good lord…” King muttered. “Okay...maybe I should both get to playing Hollow Knight and...going to his world next...even if it isn’t that specific versions world, it would still be a decent experience to say the least.” King said honestly “On another note. From what Max learned. The Pale King for some reason has a very powerful tie to Nothing. If I were to wager. If he was still alive. He would be stronger..than you King.” Agamemnon said as King’s eyes widened. “Cause of course…” King grumbled. “In terms of Nothingness I meant. You learned much more than just Nothing. All that does is put the overall odds in Your favor.” He said as Ghost walks a few meters from Coco and pulls out his Nail again. “Well...that’s true.” King said. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say that would be the Old King of Nothingness’s brother or something.” King shrugged. “Ready?” Coco asked, her Void flaring up as she prepared herself for more of what Ghost had to offer. Ghost nods. With his eyes actually curving to what looks like a happy look. Then he flared his Void and she only had a fraction of a second to widen her eyes as she had to block his swipe. Which had a hell of a lot more force then before, but she was able to hold. “Whoakay, that’s a whole lot more than I expected.” Coco said nervously, digging her feet into the ground and trying to push back against Ghost. She had to jump back though when a tendril of Void slams where she was a second ago. She then starts dodging more strikes from the tendrils. Ghost then does that slam from before but instead of an explosion the ground within a twenty meter radius suddenly turned into a liquid black. She realizes he turned the ground into pure liquid Void. Then dozens of tendrils came out of it and started charging towards her. “Nope.” Coco said as she turned around and started to run. “I’ve read enough Hentai to know where this is going and I’m not a fan of it!” “She knows Ghost is still innocent in mind right?” Ardyn whispered to King. “She does...but seriously, a massive amount of tentacles rushing a hot lady...context is one hell of a thing.” King whispered back as he saw Coco turn around and swing her blade, sending a blade beam out and cutting several of the tentacles in half. She turns back to Ghost only to have to duck under a blast of void. She looks to see him form a tendril from the pool that shoots another blast. She deflected it. Then he forms a dozen more. “You’re not gonna make this easy on me are ya?” She grumbled, spinning Void Gear and stabbing it into the ground. She then took a step forward and used her grounded keyblade to dig up some of the ground...and by some that meant a massive amount of void enhanced rocks flung towards the tentacles and Ghost. Ghost took out his Nail which started glowing white. In which King and the others on his side sensed Pure Nothingness coming from it as Ghost Himself darts towards the rocks and cuts them to bits as his tendrils start firing Void blast in rapid succession. “Excuse me, but how!?” Coco called out as she dodged all the blasts swiftly and lunged at Ghost with a powerful strike. “Yeah, how can Ghost use both Nothingness and be of Void? As far as I’ve experienced, it’s impossible to use Nothingness as a Void being and vice versa.” King said in honest confusion. Ghost swats at Coco as she is dodging a blast with a tendril that smacks her towards the ground. She looks up to see a much larger blast heading towards her. “Reflectga!” She raised her keyblade up and a stronger reflect barrier surrounded her, managing to block the blast. “Damn it...this sucks…” Ghost has a tendril spear to the ground. When it hits Coco feels a tiny spike of Void below her. She quickly moves to avoid a dozen spikes of void shooting out of the ground. She however doesn’t see the tendril that slams against her head sending her flying. She is wondering if she should kick it up a notch...or eight. “Alright, time to take off the kiddy gloves.” Coco growled as she started to use what she was made to do, as a sudden font of Void energy burst from her at an insane rate as she caught herself in the air. “Don’t know how long I can hold this for, but I’ll make sure this fight stays fun for ya Ghost.” She said as she bolted after Ghost, cleaving through any energy blasts or tendrils that got in her way. She clashes with his nail as she pushes against him. They exchange blows for a bit with Coco pushing back at Ghost. Ghost swings at her but she quickly moves to the side and slashes at Ghost with Void Gear. His form getting cut from the key. Ghost was stunned for a bit and she followed with an overhead strike that sent him to the ground. Coco panted heavily, her Void energy crackling a bit as the strain from using an ability she hasn’t used ever starting to get to her. “Jeez...so soon…” She grumbled, not believing all her training and bioengineered body was already starting to feel the stress of using her Void Conduit powers. “You okay there Ghost?” Coco asked nervously. A pulse was felt. She doesn’t know why…,but it felt like the pulse was from the Void itself. She felt Ghost's presence disappear and a pressure she couldn’t describe was felt. She felt the Void shake...wait she’s wrong. She was shaking from this pressure. "On a side note does Max still have that stuffed lamb he won at the fair when he was five?" Cript asked Frisk at complete random. “Yes, we plan on giving it to our child when they are born.” She said from the portal hearing his question. "Good to know the enchantments are keeping it from falling apart. So, what are your plans for after?" “Don’t know yet. Well see. Anyway feels like Coco basically just lost.” Frisk said, feeling what was going on. "Well she does still have a lot to learn about Void and all that." “True.” Ardyn said. “But she did do well against Ghost, has quite the potential.” "Mostly just needs more experience and some added training." Cript shrugged. “Uh...what’s going on?” Coco stuttered. “I have waited a long time for this…” King started as he pulled out Arpeggio and strummed it as eerie but proper music started to play. “You keeping your power under control? Because what’s about to happen will be quite intense.” Agamemnon asked King. “Yes, I am keeping my power under control.” King nodded as they saw Ghost turning into something a whole lot bigger. A large shadow. Many times larger than her. Rose above her, it opened its eight white eyes. Four arms appeared at its sides. Two slammed onto the ground, and a large spike tail behind it. It then...roared? Was hard to tell. Because all that came out was silence. The power it gave off...was as if it was Void itself. “So that’s why…” King hummed. “Yeah...my choice in music was correct.” “Uh...huh…” Coco blinked as she turned to the entire group. “WHAT!?” She screamed incredulously and pointed at it. “Yes?” Ardyn asked holding a cup of tea….and looking smug. “Don’t you look smug at me!” She said as she flailed her arms at what Ghost became. “This is little Ghost!? Do any of you know what the fuck he really is!?” “Yes.” Everyone from Ghost’s team replied. “Honestly only Max and Frisk had any hope of stopping him rampaging in that form without accidentally killing him.” Madoras said. “Right~...” Coco said carefully. “Well…” She took a deep breath. “Might as well go out with a bang.” She muttered as she clutched Void Gear with both hands. “Void...Augment!” She shouted, a sudden aura of red tinted Void burst forth from her. Ghost looks at its left hand to see his Nail. Far to small for his current form. He tossed it away. It would have flown basically to the other side of this section if Void. If it didn’t stop mid air and fly towards Agamemnon who had his arm raised and caught it. “We’re not letting someone randomly find this thing here.” He said with annoyance. Ghost lifts his right hand...and creates a Nail of Void that would fit his form. “So...mind if I ask how the hell...Ghost was Ghost if his true form is that?” King asked. “Originally from what we know that Void form before was his true form. He gained this form by facing constant battle and by facing the being he was meant to face at its prime. He drew in more Void then anyone of his siblings ever. Turning himself into a Deity to destroy a Goddess.” Madoras explained. “Although.” Ardyn said. “You might need to visit his home world to look into it more yourself.” “I’ve been meaning to go world hopping again...maybe I can do an Admin Game in Hollow Nest.” King shrugged. “But...how long do you think Coco will last?” “Honestly….not very long. Even less since she is using an incomplete Kaio Ken with Void. That combination is putting a lot of stress on her body.” Agamemnon said. “You know, for Nexus Bioengineering her for this exact thing...either their training sucks or their Bioengineering sucks.” King frowned as Coco leaped up into the air towards the giant monster and swung hard against it. It blocks with its Void Nail as the shockwave from the hit causes tons of dust to fly. When the dust settles the see the hit broke the Void Nail which caused Coco to smirk only to see Ghost lift its other arms….holding three larger Void Nails that are aimed at her. “Okay...I can at least break one...that’s a plus…” She muttered, seeing her HP draining rapidly. “Only gonna get a few more hits…” Coco muttered. “Still having fun there Ghost?” “Oh. And by the way.” Ardyn said drinking some tea. As Ghost creates dozens more Void Nails above him. “That’s kinda not Ghost at the moment, but don’t worry. We’ll make sure you don’t die...maybe.” He said, taking another sip. “We’ll make sure you don’t die!” King said, ready to save Coco the moment it gets too bad. “Great…” She groaned, preparing for what might be her final swing. And pales a little when Ghost doubles his size. “He is a being basically made of Void. He doesn’t have a definite size or shape. When he learns to control that properly he can be whatever form he wants.” Ardyn explained. The Void Nails then became more dense as she realized even in this state he used Void Temper on them. “Yeah...I’m out.” She said honestly, disbanding Void Augment before it did anymore damage to her. “There’s a line, it’s been crossed, and I’m not stupid enough to see where it continues.” Ghost though still swings at her. In his current state he can’t control himself. Only for Madoras to appear holding a fixed mask that was Ghost. He placed it on his head as it shines. King felt the Nothingness from it which further persuaded him to check Ghosts world. A few seconds later Ghost was back to his regular self. He walks up to Coco and bows. “Well...that was fun Ghost.” Coco smiled, bringing up her Assistant and pulled out a freshly baked chocolate chip cookie that was about the same size as little Ghost. “And here you go, freshly baked.” She smiled as she knelt down and handed it to Ghost. Ghost takes the cookie and looks happy. Even though his mask doesn’t change. He puts the cookie away(?!)and slaps a small charm on Coco. She was confused till she felt like she had a bit more control of her Void. “Whoa.” Coco said in surprise. “This is quite a gift, thanks Ghost.” Coco smiled. Ghost bows and runs back to his group. “Ok. So who is up next?” Agamemnon asked. Handing Ghost his Nail back. “Well the only one we have left is Kexez.” King said honestly. “And to be honest...they're effectively an Immovable Object.” “You make that sound like a bad thing?” Kexez said. “It’s not a bad thing, and it never will be a bad thing.” King fixed their mistake in words. “So, who wants to go up against Kexez?” “I’ll go.” Broly said as he stepped up. He points to a floating island a bit away. “Let’s go over there.” He then flies towards the island. “Dragon Balls ‘Unstoppable Force’ vs our ‘Immovable Object’, now that’s not something you see everyday.” King pointed out. “Why over there?” Kexez asked. “He likes to mitigate damage.” Ardyn said. “It’s a Dragon Ball thing I guess.” King shrugged. “Always fight in the most destroyable area like canyon’s and abandoned archipelago’s...and the arctic at least twice…” Shrugging, Kexez sighed as their body glowed white before shifting back to human form. He looked no different than Heart back then save for the clothing that brought back some bad memories for King. “Alright then.” It took the two no time at all to reach the area, and each stood some distance from one another. “So… which Dragon Ball are you from?” Kexez asked awkwardly. “Super. The other one was a liability. I defeated him without super saiyan, and he was given Void.” Broly said. “Hmm… So… stupid question… what do we do?” In the distance, there was a collective echo of palms smacking into foreheads. “Did you not pay attention to the last three fights!?” King called out incredulously. “We fight. Max wants our group to face yours to see both how strong his Kings are, and to see if you guys are actually worth it.” Broly said. “Bit rude… so are weapons allowed?” Broly stood there...then facepalmed as well. “Were you even paying attention to the battles?” Broly asked. “Don’t mind me! Just literally asked that exact same question!” King called out again. “And when someone needs to be asked the same question Twice then they should really think about it!” Broly called out back. “Honestly I was just replaying cat videos in my head half the time…” Kexez said sheepishly. At least half the people in the distance fell over at hearing that answer… Broly… was twitching an eye. “Sigh. Fine. Before I get a headache. Let’s start.” Broly said before powering up. First he gets really huge. Like twice his size. And he was already towering over Kexez. Kexez whistled. “Neat.” “Does he even care?” Coco asked. “Not done yet.” Broly said before yelling out loud. A gold aura bursting around him. When it faded his hair was not only golden but extended to his lower back. “I’ll start with Super Sayian 3. To warm things up.” He said. “Okay.” Kexez replied simply. He charged in and landed a solid right punch on Kexez. The impact uplifted a lot of dirt, blocking the view from the others for a long time before it finally faded. When it did… everyone was left puzzled as to how Broly had his fist still against Kexez’s chin, yet he didn’t move. “So… my turn.” Kexez said, giving a slap to Broly and sent him skidding a few feet. Even Broly was surprised by this outcome. “I think he forgot something important about Kexez…” Cript said, handing out popcorn to everyone watching. “Even if he’s Heart’s Nobody, Kexez is still a C.R.I.P.T.” Broly heard Cript and wanted to smack himself for forgetting something that basic. He realized Kexez might actually be one of their strongest not counting Cript. He started planning his next move when he heard something, or someone. “COME ON BROLY!” Broly looks over towards the others to see them also looking towards their left. A girl with green skin and white hair waving a flag saying “Broly”’ was shouting. “Cheele?” “Come on. You're much stronger than this. Show that punk what you can do!” She yells. “She your wife?” Kexez asked. “Well, come on, don’t disappoint the lady.” Broly smiled looking at her. “Ya.” He said as something blue flickers over him. “I won’t.” Broly suddenly burst in blue light. This wasn’t ki. It’s divine ki. As the divine ki broke away Broly was revealed, and Kexez couldn’t stop the small smirk. Broly was a bit muscular then before and his hair was normal length, but dark blue as Broly compressed the aura within. He turns towards Kexez. This wasn’t Super Sayian Blue. It was Blue Evolution. “Let’s try that again. Also.” “Kaioken.” A red aura flared over him before he pushed it back down within. Then he charged much faster then before and let loose another blow. This time, Kexez dodged, landing a solid knee to Broly’s lower torso before sending an elbow to the back of his head, knocking him to the ground. Broly got up, trying to land a kick or hit as Kexez kept on dodging and evading. Broly powers up more, getting a bit larger but not losing speed. He lets out ki in quick burst to give his attacks more speed and kick but was still having trouble landing a blow. ‘So this is the difference.’ He thought. He jumps back from the exchange. Only to yell out loud as power explodes from him again. His armor which was cracked all over from Kexez attacks broke off as Broly got bigger. This form was known by his counterpart as the Legendary form, but to him it's just Full Powered Form. He charges again somehow even faster to exchange. Right as Broly was about to land the hit, there was a sudden barrier around Kexez. He seemed to phase through it and Kexez who simply chuckled. “Reflect.” The energy expelled rapidly, knocking Broly back. “Spells. Shame I don’t use magic. That’s Madoras’ department.” Broly said. “Lucky for me though I have a way around that.” He said as he charged again. Kexez went back on the offensive, Broly cloaking his fists in void as the two went at it. As Broly rushed in another Punch, Kexez meeting it with his own. Broly didn’t pull back in time before Kexez’s arms shifted to the tip of a sharp blade, slicing down to Broly’s arm to his elbow. Broly jumped back holding his arm. It was bleeding very badly and he couldn’t move it. “I forgot he can do that…” Coco said, munching at her popcorn. “That looks problematic.” Ardyn said. “That’s ok.” Cheela said walking over. “It’ll take a little more then that. Did you guys forget?” She said as Broly smirked a little as another blue glow formed around him. And a familiar code. The injury stated to heal rapidly as Broly lifted his arm. “Broly has that Admins power.” She finished. “So does Kexez.” Cript added. “He isn’t even using his and Heart’s Admin Right.” “Forgive me for not using Code so far. Max explained that using Code in battle wrong could have nasty side effects to one's own code. But I have practiced it. Mainly the rapid healing from the Speed Force.” Broly said before blue lightning emits from him. “Given you all stole that over inheriting it, there is that possibility.” Kexez said. “You're correct on that. It’s why all of us are limited in Code battle currently. So far all of us rarely used it because we’re still training in it.” Broly said. Broly charges again. Much much faster then before with the Speed force helping. Right as Broly reached behind Kexez, he suddenly found himself stopped, looking he saw Chains of Light wrapped around his neck, arms, legs, and torso. “Nice, but not out running lightspeed yet.” Kexez said as the chains began pulling Broly’s limbs in all directions, joints popping, edging on dislocation. “So how’s Broly as a husband Cheele?” King asked the green alien curiously. “Is he the ‘gentle giant’ type as I’ve seen so far?” She would have answered if she wasn’t suddenly worried. She has seen Broly beaten before by Max and Frisk, but Kexez is making it look more like an execution. “He’s not even trying.” Cript said, sighing. “Guess we’re more related that I figured.” “Wait what?” Coco asked. “Think about it, so far, Kexez hasn’t actually done a full blown attack aside from that blade arm punch, and even that’s more a sneak attack. Course, the more Broly tries, the more effort he will put into it. He’s showing his Ventral side.” Broly struggled in the chains. Trying to get out, but couldn’t. Was this it? His limit? Kexez...wasn’t even trying against him. He looks down hating his own weaknesses. “BROLY!” His head shoots up and looks at Cheela. Her eyes full of worry. He thinks back to Bah, his father, his fights against those other sayians...No. “..I’m not done.” He said making Kexez raise an eyebrow. Broly started pulling again. “Void...Strength.” He said as Void gauntlets appear on his arms and Kexez can feel his chains straining against his new strength. Then a Void aura violently roars around him “Void..” “BROLY DON'T YOU HAVEN'T MASTERED THAT YET!?” Agamemnon yells. “..AUGMENT!” Broly yells as his power skyrocketed. He then Snaps the chains as his power continues to climb. “Damn! Void Augment is an advanced Void technique. Basically the Kaioken but Much more potent. Only Max and Frisk in our group have it mastered.” Ardyn curses. “We need to stop him.” King started, fully prepared to stop this fight. “Right now, cause his health is tanking harder than the Titanic fighting an Iceberg.” Kexez looked at Broly, sighing as he closed his eyes. “Sorry Heart, but I’ve gotta use it.” He said, the black outline of a crown appearing atop his forehead. Opening his eyes, they were glowing a bright shining blue. As Broly was about to deliver a punch, Kexez Spoke. “Stop.” The others in the distance could hear that, many in the Void heard that, and all who did froze in place. “Power down.” Broly immediately reverted back to normal, his body bruised and his breathing heavy as his eyes were covered in a dull haze of blue. “Now sleep.” Like that, Broly slept, collapsing into a deep sleep. “Well shit he used it.” Cript said. “Broly!” Cheela moved towards his location till something faster then most could track(excluding Cript and Kexez) moved past her and appeared next to Broly healing him. “Idiot. I respect the resolve but not when it will kill you.” Maxwell Akuma said as he healed one of his kings. “What the fuck was that?” Coco asked. “That...was the true power of the Admin of Hearts.” King sighed out. “It took me a while to get some concrete evidence...but this proves it…” King said. “Anyone with a Heart connected to someone, will obey their command, no exceptions.” As Max was healing Broly he spoke to Kexez. “I told Broly to face you, and that if he disconnected his heart from Cheela he wouldn’t be controlled, but the big softie couldn’t do it.” He smiles a bit. “Glad he didn’t. I don’t need heartless monsters in my ranks.” “It’s why Heart and I don’t like to use it. It’s the power ideal for a tyrant. At least here, it saved someone. Guess it has some good use after all.” Kexez sighed. “So… I win?” “Yes. Oh and one thing.” Max said. Making Kexez emote a question mark. Then to everyone but Max’s group\s shock. Max hits Kexez in the gut. “Just a reminder of pain for you.” Kexez coughed up a bit of blood, smiling. “Heh… thanks… You know what sucks, about being so strong?” Kexez asked as he fell back onto his butt. “Not feeling any emotion anymore because you have nothing to fear.” He answered. Kexez shook his head. “Forgetting why you gained it. Lose your purpose, and you begin to chase after selfish and pointless goals. Take my advice Max… When you get this strong… use it once, then never again. In the end, power is meaningless without purpose.” “Ya. Cript taught me that long ago.” Max said as he picked Broly up. “And by the way.” He said as he looks back at Kexez. “Who said that was close to my power. I’m not aiming to be stronger then you. A CRIPT you may be, but you're not Cript. Besides.” He walks away with one last sentence. “Your Heart power doesn’t work on me anyway.” “You okay Kexez?” King asked, appearing next to him quickly. “Hm…” Kexez hummed, looking between Frisk and Max. His Kings all gathered around Broly. “If you say so.” Kexez said, their body glowing and returning to their Floof Noodle form. “Yeah, I’m good King. Glad I wasn’t a Floof Noodle for that, pretty sure Max would have punched a boob if I was.” “I’m glad you're okay.” King sighed out thankfully. “So, what now?” Cript asked. “Score’s all tied up.” “And we’re out of eligible fighters unless either me, Jericho or Coco have another go.” King said honestly. “Nah, I’m still gonna be sore later.” Jericho said. “I’m good, I know when I’m outclassed.” Coco added. “Back to the training and all.” “So it’s all up to me to fight Sorcerer Sephiroth and the Dapper Weapon Master.” King said honestly. They look over to...see them doing rock,paper,scissors to decide who goes firt. With Frisk nearby making numbers appear for how many ties they had...it just hit 346. “It’s not my first rodeo on a two on one guys.” King said honestly. “Or I can make a clone of myself and we can have a two v two.” “It’s one vs one. So be prepared for it because these two won’t have the excuse that frisk had for making it a draw.” Max said while giving Frisk a small glare for that stunt she pulled. “And will you two just decide already. Need to concentrate on this so I don’t accidentally ruin his code. Idiot used code with it and damaged it a little. Thankfully one of you found notes on Code Stitching.” Max said looking over Broly. “I can heal him.” King said. “I know Code Stitching and...I have been practicing.” “Practicing messing with someone’s Code to remove deeply rooted Engraved Code or both rewriting and stitching Someone’s code back together? Because the last one is delicate and one small mistake and you have a Code mess nightmare monster.” Max asked. “Although nothing as bad as...that thing I found near that Dream vial.” Max whispers to himself. “Uh...huh…” King started. “Alright so uh...not to that degree yet…” “Then let me work. I’ll even say please.” Max said. “Fair…” King said sheepishly. “Alright you two, that’s enough.” Two immediately turned to the two still playing rock paper scissors. “I’ll decide since you two can’t.” They said simply. “And I’ll choose Ardyn, cause I want to see how well your weapon’s hold up.” “Alright.” Ardyn says. “Cool.” King nodded. “Let’s get to our battlefield then, and let’s get to fighting.” “Lead on. I’ll follow.” Ardyn said, bringing out a small dagger. King nodded and flew off to one of the many floating islands at this point, their hands holding Foudre carefully as they landed on one of the closer islands. Ardyn throws the dagger. It makes it to the island in less then a second and Ardyn warps to the island catching the dagger without looking. “That warp ability is really handy huh?” King commented. “Among other things.” He said before summoning...HOW THE HELL DOES HE HAVE FOUDRE!?!? “I call horseshit!” King immediately snapped. “This is literally a one of a kind artifact! The fuck!” “Take a closer look.” Ardyn asked. Looking closer it looks identical but it’s red. “How about this?” He asks as he then summons the Sword Agamemnon used against Jericho. “Or maybe.” He then summons the axe that Jericho used. “Do I need to explain?” “How?” King asked carefully. “Cause you just pulled out three artifact level weapons that are one of a kind...the only difference is that it’s red.” "Replication." Jericho said. "So well made they can stand against the originals, maybe even surpass them." “It can’t be that simple.” King frowned. “He literally just looked at our weapons, I can excuse Agamemnon’s sword because they work together, but to copy your axe and Foudre like that isn’t mere ‘replication’.” “You're correct. I’ve had to work on combining multiple scanner type abilities and use them and distance to get it correct. I wasn’t merely standing around while you all fight.” Ardyn said. Summoning True Kings Sword. “Although some won’t be nearly enough like this, but it’s a good impression.” He swung the replica of Kings weapon and it severed multiple islands in the distance. "Quality isn't everything. The wilder also needs the skill." Jericho added. “Cause that’s what I need at the moment…” King grumbled. “This is going to be an interesting fight.” They said as they spawned in No Heart. Ardyn smiled. And raised his hands. King widened their eyes. No way should he… What he summons is a very, very glitched version of No heart. Which he tosses away. “Although some things like that are basically impossible at the moment.” Ardyn says. He then summons his personal sword. His Rakshasa Blade. “Ready?” He asked as he threw his blade at King. King swiped it away only for Ardyn to warp to it and swing back. King quickly clashes. “I’m always ready.” King grinned, Nothingness Thorns swirling around No Heart as it lashed out at Ardyn. Ardyn grins and ignores the thorns. He snaps his fingers and both are pummeled by a barrage of Ice, Lightning, and Fire. “Simple spells strong enough to fight back against my Thorns, pretty good.” King said, jumping back and swinging No Heart at Ardyn, sending a blade wave towards him swiftly. Ardyn brings out a huge shield that completely blocks the attack. Then throws the shield at King. He moves out of the way only for Ardyn to warp onto the shield and slam a huge mace onto King. King was fast enough to bring out Frozen Pride and block the huge mace. “Cold Snap!” King barked, a layer of frost covering Frozen Pride’s surface as the mace started getting rapidly covered in ice. King then felt the temperature rise. They looked around to see a giant shuriken flying around them leaving them in a tornado of fire that was somehow hot enough to counter his ice. He feels the weight of the mace disappear and stumbles from the suddenness of it. He looks up to see Ardyn holding a huge sword with teeth above him. He then slams it down at him. King swapped No Heart for Sky Splitter. “Gaea’s Wrath!” He shouted, swinging Sky Splitter from the ground up and clashing against the huge sword, causing a massive shockwave that cratered the area beneath the two and raised the ground around them. “Impressive, but.” Ardyn said before the teeth on his sword started moving like a saw. Drastically increasing the attack power. “Not gonna be that easy!” King countered as energy flared out from him and Skysplitter, starting to push Ardyn away slightly as he was now trying to saw through pure force. Ardyn smirked, which King saw. In Ardyn’s left hand was a scepter. It suddenly glows as a trident of red light appears out of it striking King. “Let’s hope this works…” King muttered, Ardyn seeing King’s fur start to turn a weird metallic black color as he headbutted the trident’s middle spear, black lightning arcing between the two. “The hell is going on?” Coco asked, feeling her body start to shiver as she saw that black lightning. “That’s not Void Energy…” “That’s Haki.” Max said as he was still working on Broly. “It’s from the One Piece world. Essentially it’s pure willpower used in supernatural ways from predicting your opponents attacks to blocking and enhancing your attacks.” “Not bad.” Ardyn says. Before throwing the scepter up and warping to it. “MegaFlare.” He says before launching the spell at King. “GigaFlare!” King barked as he grabbed Eternal Flames raised the twin spinning blue chakrams and firing an even stronger blast towards Ardyn. “Joy probably taught him how to do it…” Coco muttered, remembering the little guy went there and did the entire adventure to finally get Brook on board to be one of the Council Members...also Luffy and the crew decided to join up in King’s endeavors in their own special way. Ardyn throws a small sword that hits the ground in front of King. Who immediately swings at it thinking Ardyn will warp at it. Only for Ardyn to warp to the shield that’s still behind King when he dropped it a little before. Ardyn slams his hand on the ground and forms a large magic circle. “GigaFlare!” “Raiden’s Fury!” King called out in a panic as he summoned Foudre and stabbed six kunai into the magic circle, a massive bolt of lightning shot down as the spell was fully activated as it caused a massive explosion with the two at the epicenter. “GigaFlare times 2.” Ardyn’s voice said from the smoke after the explosion as two magic circles formed. King went to move only to find Ardyn grabbing their arm. “What’s the rush?” He asked with a smile as the spells activated. “You're not gonna like that…” King started, as Ardyn started to hear something started to finally count down as he barely saw a red flash as both GigaFlares connected. As the dust settled, Ardyn was surprised to see King extremely different than they were before. King stood bigger than their original Den Mother form, their fur looked thicker and denser than usual, and the most important detail was the tribal bone ‘armor’ exoskeleton covering King, all in the shape of a Dire Wolf, each part looking scuffed by the twin GigaFlares but he looked no worse for ware. “So, Ardyn, what do you know about the Godhood race?” King asked, tribal wolf ornament’s softly resting against their new exoskeleton. “A lot. Since it was Gods that cursed me I looked up all I could find.” Ardyn said. “Do you know who Asmith is?” King asked. “Depends. Do you mean the inventor of the Omnitrix or the Admin?” Ardyn asked. “One in the same.” King said as he stepped away from Ardyn and stretched a bit. “Apparently, a long time ago, I was told that this was the ‘Ultimate Form’ of each race that can rival Admins in power...I quite literally just remembered this in the middle of Coco’s fight cause I have a bajillion things to think about on a daily basis so...things get a bit cluttered for me.” “Well things do get cluttered when you force yourself to learn billions if not trillions of things in a short timespan.” Ardyn replied. “You have no idea…” King said, letting out an exhausted sigh not from the fight but from all the shit they keep putting himself through to better themselves in any field they can. “So, ready to continue?” King asked, their third eye opening as well as he prepared to fight again. “Also, just a quickie warning...I still have no idea what this race can do or how truly strong it is…” He said sheepishly. “And you forget I’m Immortal. And I still have only just begun”. Ardyn said. “Then more fun for the both of us.” King said with a smile, clenching their fists as two bone long blades appeared from their wrists. Ardyn held out his hand and summoned a strange staff that had blades attached to the front of it. “Swords of the Wander. For the readers to understand better.” “One of the ‘Royal Arms’ if my guess is correct?” King inquired. “A copy but yes.” Ardy said before throwing it at King and warping for an overhead spin strike, but then warps to the fallen short sword behind King and swings upward. King blocked the swing with one of his bone swords, barely turning around to see him swing. “The third eye isn’t just for show.” King pointed out, even though what was more shocking was the bone sword withstood his swing without a scratch on it. “Now my turn.” King said as he spun around to face Ardyn, one of his wrist blades being coated in Armament Haki and crackled with black lightning, signifying he also coated it in Supreme King's Haki as he swung it down swiftly towards him. Ardyn then warps behind King again, but King doesn't see a weapon laying there. Can he warp without his weapons in position?! Ardyn grabs kings arm. “That bone stuff is pretty tough, but how tough?” He asked as they both suddenly warp somewhere else. King notes the red Foudre Ardyn made but tossed upwards from before. Stabbed into a floating landmass. Quickly looking down, King can barely see the others. How high were they?! Ardyn then warps to the knife and quickly smacks King away with his mace. As he is flying the shuriken from before is flying towards them. King smacks it away as they come to the edge of the underside of the landmass. Ardyn then warps towards the weapon and grabs king again. Warping them one more time to the top of the landmass. “Can you teleport without a weapon?” King asked, his exoskeleton armor scuffed by the mace hit but still not cracked or broken. “Nice swing by the way.” “Thanks, and not very far I’m afraid. Is useful for catching someone off guard. By the way. I have something to ask?” Ardyn questions as King starts to notice something in front of them. “What would happen if a X-Blade exploded?” King pales as the glitched No heart Ardyn made, that was stabbed in the ground a few feet away, started to glitch more and more. Becoming extremely unstable and fast. “Are you fucking insane!?!” King shouted, panicking as they brought out Frozen Pride quickly. Ardyn grabs the shield and tosses it. “Madoras.” Madoras down with the others. Held out his hands and a massive barrier closed around the land mass. Hundreds of times its size. He had been charging this since Ardyn made that damn glitched weapon. “Let’s see how tough your kind is.” Ardyn said as the glitched weapon started to hit its peak. “Let’s hope to christ this doesn’t backfire on either of us.” King stated bluntly to Ardyn. “Cause if my armor breaks and I go into a berserker rage...don’t blame me.” The Godhood Dire Wolf stated bluntly. “Wait wha-” Ardyn was about to question why King brought up his that armor breaking as the glitched blade exploded in a cataclysmic explosion. “That’s...a fuck ton bigger than I thought it would be…” Coco said nervously, seeing the barrier bend slightly at the amount of power the explosion had. “Be glad I put up this barrier. Because so far only Ghost, Cript, and Kexez would be fine from this.” Madoras said. Ghost walks up to him and hands him a mana potion. “Thanks.” Madoras told Ghost before drinking it. “Yeah…” Coco nodded carefully. “Ow…” King groaned a bit, as they waved away the massive dust cloud that was made. “You good there Ardyn?” King looks over at we’re Ardyn was...to see a pair of smoking feet….and nothing else. “Hmm…” King started, their armor having cracked a bit from the explosion as they summoned Lindworm, kneeled down...and poked it. “You okay there Ardyn?” The wolf asked, poking his foot again. “For a second there.” A voice behind them said. “I felt the touch of death itself. Such is the nature of powers like that. But.” King turns around to see Ardyn with multiple red weapons floating around him. His power felt much stronger. “Then I remember I’m immortal.” “Glad to see you're still kicking there Ardyn.” King said as they got up. “Wouldn’t have wanted that to be the end, that would have been boring.” “I’m only just beginning.” He said as his weapons suddenly flew at King. Kings swipes one away only for it to explode on contact. The blast stunned them a little and a couple more blew up on their exo armor. Causing the cracks to get worse. “Can we both agree that breaking this exoskeleton is probably a bad idea?” King called out worriedly, trying to block the incoming explosions. Only for Ardyn to warp behind them and grab them. He then throws them upward and smacks them with his mace again like a bat. While in the air, King is then surrounded by hundreds of weapons. “Let’s up the blast a bit shall we.” Ardyn said while snapping his fingers. The weapons glow brighter and fly towards King. “You know what? Fine.” King frowned. “If you want to see how bad this can get, I’ll be happy to oblige.” The wolf growled as he took the full brunt of all the explosions at the same time, now curious as to what bad thing might happen. “Why do I suddenly have a bad feeling about this?” Coco asked worriedly as she saw the weapons cause an even bigger explosion than the glitched No Heart caused. As the explosion pushed against the barrier, all the force and energy trying to escape it’s prison...Ardyn felt something heavy cover his entire body as the explosion started to slowly get pulled in by something, then it started to get faster and more violent as it was absorbed into this black hole made of fur. Chunks of the ground started to get sucked in and disintegrated as it got closer to the sphere as Ardyn felt himself slowly getting pulled in. “That’s not good!” Coco yelped in panic, the entire group besides Coco, the unconscious Broly, and Cheele could tell what the black hole that used to be King really did. “The fuck happened to King!?” “That is King.” Agamemnon explained. “That’s what happens to his kind when the armor breaks. Want to give a more detailed explanation for her Cript?” Agamemnon asked. "Basically the Godhood race was built to fight against admins during the Admin war. Their armor isn't just protection but also an enclosure to keep their final defense mechanism at bay. Break their armor open and they explode like a supernova and temporarily transform into a living black hole that once something gets sucked in is broken down at the code level and assimilated into them. So for the next few minutes before his armor.grows back King is a sentient, living, fluffball of a black hole. That can absorb admins." Cript explained simply. “So…” Coco started slowly. “H-how do...how do we fix that faster?” Coco asked slowly, carefully, and not at all trying not to freak out that the love of her life is now a black hole of fluff. "Give it a few minutes, it will fix itself." Was all Cript replied, giving a shrug as they watched Ardyn struggle not to get sucked in. “And what about Ardyn?” Coco asked nervously. “Even his immortality wouldn’t stand up to being turned into raw code and assimilated…” Cript gave a quick glance to Max, then back to the scene at hand. "I'll only interfere if asked. After all, your Kings should be strong, right Max?" “He’ll be fine.” Max said. Focusing on Broly. “Wish Code was a little easier to fix.” He said. Ardyn looks around to see everything King was absorbing. He smiles. “Well. I guess I’ll help. Now.” He then pulls a paint brush from his sleeves. Which made Coco and the others raise an eyebrow at. “What’s with the Paint Brush?” Coco asked. “Lets start the party!” Ardyn as he swipes the paint brush in the air as colors of code fly into the air. Each became something else. A building, a whale, a freighter, and even a pair of dice as they are pulled into the fluff hole and are absorbed by it. ”Being a black hole sucks…” King thought to themselves bitterly, unable to talk to anyone as he couldn’t do jack shit about anything besides devour anything and everything faster than a starving Floof Noodle in an all you can eat buffet. “Is he trying to feed King enough energy and code to help him reform faster?” Coco asked curiously. “Well King is essentially the equivalent of a walking friendly fire at the moment.” Max said. “Fair…” Coco nodded. “Let’s hope nothing bad happens afterwards…” After about five minutes of Ardyn pushing himself back by throwing more and more crap at the fluff hole that was King, suddenly the bone armor from before started to reform quickly as the wolf came back in all their glory. “I’m back, and god do I have such a crick in my back…” King groaned as they started to stretch. “If you ever have a chance to become a sentient black hole and can do nothing about it...choose ‘no’.” “Glad to see that you're back. Now then.” Ardyn said as he power suddenly jumped again as he clapped his hands. Magic circuits appear around King as golden chains shoot out and wrap around Kings limbs and tail. King pulls but finds the chains extremely tough. “Those chains were made to hold down a divine beast for a certain king to kill. Add in code and these can hold even you down.” Ardyn explained as he walks closer. He then created another magic circle behind him and pulls out a weapon. Kings eyes widened at it. “Recognize this? A certain King with a Gate holds the original, but with my power, and a little something I can create even this. Ea.” Ardyn said, holding the king of hero’s strongest ‘sword’. “Well...who’d have thunk it.” King chuckled. “But you sure you want to use that weapon on me?” King asked carefully. “That’s a pretty powerful weapon, and considering what I am at this point.” “Take a look at that armor.” Ardyn asked. King looks again and see tiny needles in their armor. No. Tiny rapiers. “Those are created from a special rapier that can ignore armor, but with the way I placed it. You’ll take the full blast. While your armor is undamaged.” Ardyn told them. “Fantastic.” King sighed out. “Well alright, give it your best shot.” King said, and something about his tone made Ardyn feel a slight unease even after he has the wolf right where he wants him. ‘What is king planning? They should know Ea could really damage them. Oh well. I don’t have the full knowledge of their current form.’ Ardyn thought to themselves. He brought back Ea as it’s energy began to build up. “Erase.” He said as he stabbed Ea forward as King and everything in a ten kilometer cone in front of Ardyn was consumed in a massive blast of crimson void tinged energy. The shockwaves making most, besides the obvious, of the watchers have to either plant their feet in the ground or grab something. “There have been many points where we needed to stop and we kept going…” Coco started. “This one is among them…” She said as she had Void Gear in the ground to keep herself steady. “BUT LET’S KEEP GOING AND SEE WHAT HAPPENS!” They all heard King shout in glee, slamming an out of nowhere haymaker into the side of Ardyn’s head and sending him flying. “That hurt, and this is fun cause my enemies don’t need some bullshit gimmick Grey gave them to handle me.” King laughed as he leaped after Ardyn. Ardyn let Ea go as it broke down. He reaches out as King comes in closer. His shield flies in time for him to grab it at shield bash Kings fist creating a shockwave. He holds out his other hand as the Sword of the Tall appears again and its chainsaw teeth reave up again. “Having fun Ardyn?” King asked with a smile, pulling out Eternal Flames and having both of them rev up to an insane degree. “Cause I am, finally with an opponent that I’m on their level with instead of some bullshit extreme.” King said. “Mind closing this up!? The chapter’s taken forever as is!” Cript called out. “Plus one of us still needs to fight Madoras!” “Not necessarily. Given the data I’ve gathered from all the fights it’s not needed. Madoras would stand a chance but won’t win against the ones that can still fight. Besides that barrier he made before was clear enough that he still has ways to go.” Max said. “Correct my lord.” Madoras said. “I’ll practice my magic and code harder when we get back.” “I’m pretty sure anyone else besides Cript and like...four others would have the same amount of trouble if not unable to do what Madoras here did.” Coco brought up. “So...you?” Agamemnon bluntly says to Coco. Cript failed to hold back a chuckle. "Didn't think you had a sense of humor. About time you stopped being so one dimensional." “A certain multi colored skeleton that won’t leave me alone...no matter how many times I stab him, killed my humor. Not completely though.” Agamemnon said. “Sounds about right…” Coco sighed out. “But in my defense, I was in a Coma for a couple of years because Void Key’s a prick.” “Looks like someone down there wants us to end this. What say you?” Ardyn asked King. “I’ve never actually tried a ‘Finishing Move’ before, so let’s see who's better.” King said with a smile. “You first then.” Ardyn challenged. “Please, after you.” King said politely. “Wouldn’t want to accidentally knock you out and miss your ultimate attack.” Ardyn sighs. “Very well. But.” Ardyn says as his power skyrockets much higher than before. He looks up as his eyes turn black as black marks form on his face. “Dont say I didn’t give you a chance.” He says as he holds out his right hand. A silver ring visible. Then it explodes in magical energy. Combined with what he was already putting out it actually goes over the power Broly was showing before he had to be stopped. Kings sees a dozen blades start sticking out of Ardyn. He grimaced in pain as the blades burst out of him. Then behind him huge knights in Red energy form taking a weapon each. Ardyn reaches out with his left and grabs his personal blade. “VOID KNIGHTS OF THE ROUND!” Ardyn yells as he throws his right fist towards King as the knights charge at him. Each hitting King with their full power. One after the other with no second in between. Ardyn then finished it with a slash from his blade. Fully charged up as he swings at strike King. King brought out his King’s Greatsword, it glowing with Pure Nothingness energy. "ETERNAL NOTHINGNESS!” He shouted, swinging his greatsword as Ardyn saw everything behind King seem to turn pure white as it was rushing to clash with Ardyn’s pitch black Void. Madoras was about to create another barrier when Max snapped his fingers and one much more powerful then what Madoras made formed around them. “Just got done. Some rest and he should be good.” He said as he got up from tending to Broly. The clash from Ardyn and King was intense. Not as much as Agamemnon and Jericho’s final clash but that power was there. After about half a minute things cleared up. Showing King and Ardyn on opposite sides. Their backs to each other and holding their respective swords. “I’m still standing.” King told Ardyn simply. Ardyn smiles. “So you are. Appears...I’ve yet to fully reach..my.” He starts to say before he falls over. King fell to a knee as Ardyn hit the ground, using No Heart to keep him propped up. “You're not the only one…” The wolf groaned. “We done?” King called out. “Correct.” Max said as he appeared next to Ardyn. He picks him up and turns to King. “Nice fight.” He said before appearing back to his group. “Only help out one of the injured…” King grumbled as they got up shakily and appeared near the group. “Well that was interesting. Great fights. Besides Broly’s, no offense, all fights seemed closed. Wait also forgot about Ghost. Maybe next time Coco.” Frisk said as she sat on a floating rock. “Still lasted longer than I thought against Ghost.” Coco shrugged. Max looks over King’s group. “Besides the obvious ones. You have potential. This fight has given me a bit of insight for what to work on with my Kings, and hopefully has given you all insight in your own strengths and flaws to work on.” “And when does it take into account John kicking your ass?” King brought up. "That's enough banter you two." Cript said. "Max, quick talk?" “*sigh* Sure. The rest of you head back.” Max told the others. As they headed through his portal. In a blink, Max and Cript were both on a more distant hill. Quickly Cript put up several soundproofing barriers around them. "So, how badly?" Cript asked Max. “How badly what? You're gonna need to be a bit more specific because that question can be about many things.” Max replied. "How badly do you still wanna beat me?" Cript stated simply. “How badly does King want to kill Void Key?” Max asked back. "Heh. Fair enough. Though, even if we did fight, you won't be happy. I'd never go all out. If I'm not showing all I got, how can you claim it as a real victory, or guage the gap between us?" “Exactly how many enemies did you beat when they were holding back because they thought you were beneath and you took advantage of that?” Max asked. “Because I’m not some warrior that wants to constantly test myself like that, want someone like that I’d look for Goku. I’m an assassin. I don’t care so long as the job is done.” Cript rolled their eyes. "Persistent as ever I see. Still, while I can't respect your wishes, I know someone who can." Max raised an eyebrow. “Do you perhaps mean another C.R.I.P.T.? Aren’t they basically different from each one? Or is there something I haven’t found out yet?” He asked. "Well, with all my… siblings… tell me, do you honestly believe I'm the only Heir C.R.I.P.T Vincent made?" “At first maybe, but when I think about it now. I won’t hold it against him to make a contingency just in case.” Max said. "Try several." Cript said. "I've only met three of them, the other two are still MIA. But we're focusing on the ones I know. Specifically, Rip." “How bad is he if we’re focusing on him in peculiar?” Max had asked. "The other Heir's and I are largely similar, but Rip and I… we could almost be twins. Abilities, powers, stats, all identical. Only difference between us is lifestyles." “And power correct?” Max asked. "Same." Cript said. "Plus… he doesn't hold back. Being taught by Vincent directly he never was taught how." “So the you he wanted you to become right? What did change for you to be the head then instead of him?” "Nothing. The five Heir Cripts are all 'heads' as you put it. Almost like a hydra if you wanna visualize it. These days Rip spends his days in one of the dead timelines." “Why a dead timeline? Was something he cared about there, or just to be alone?” Max asked. "Let me put it as… how to put this… you know I'm the Admin of Love, One other is the Admin if Hope, the other The Admin of Divinity, and supposedly from what I found out the other two are the Admins of Sins and Mercy. Rip, is the Admin of Hatred. The opposite of Love more or less, and he's in a dead timeline because the only thing he doesn't hate is… silence. And given we can hear from this end of reality to that…" Max nodded at that. “So to both test me and for me to see how truly strong you are...you want me to go to him and face him.” "... I want you to kill him." Max looks at Cript. It’s honestly a bit rare that he genuinely wants someone or something dead...that isn’t Vincent that is. “What could he have done for you to want him dead? Other than being basically what Vincent would want out of you.” "Consider it a sign of trust." Cript said plainly. "After all, you don't trust me, but kill him… maybe then you could, cause you'd be able to kill me then. Besides, one word from Vincent and Rip will level whatever without hesitation. A lose end like that isn't good to leave around." “Ok. Letting Vincent have someone like Rip on his side would be problematic in the future. I’ll take him. I’ll head back with my group to train and prepare some more.” Max said. He then reached into his pocket and pulled out a card. “This will help you find my castle. I constantly move it to keep them on me. With stuff my group took from Nexus should be of interest. We even found a Psychopath Cript and a certain admin’s war axe.” "Huh. Interesting. I'll pop by sometime." “Ok. I best get-” Max started before a Knight in dark armor with a skull like helmet appears. “My lord. Urgent report.” He said. “Wild Hunt?” What happened?” Max asked. The Wild Hunt was his main spies. More efficient then you would think. What problems did he run into. “I was following a convoy of Vincent’s. Carrying both resources and subjects they experimented on. When the Convoy was attacked.” He replied. “By what?” “I...I don’t know. They used guns and other weapons as well as powers. I saw a few fall only to raise back up. They slaughtered them, they left the resources but took the subjects. I would have followed but something about one of them…” “What about him?” Max asked. “The Convoy was lead by a speedster and a Psychopath with two Bezerkers. This...thing. Slaughtered them with no difficulty and with much brutality. I dared not get to close.” He said. Max and Cript can see him shaking somewhat fierce. Max turns to Cript. “You know of anyone that could do something like that so easily?” "Several." “Other than my Kings or your group over there.”Max said pointing back at the others. "Still several. What did this thing look like exactly?" Cript asked the knight. “It’s..hard to describe. It was large. Not as big as a Berzerk, but still strong enough to manhandle two at once like they're children. It has dark hair that looked tribal with a gold ring hanging off one strand. It wasn’t wearing a shirt. This thing though...wasn’t human or anything. It was a feral like...monster.” He said. “And the bit of power I sensed…” "...and it's eyes?" Cript asked. The Knight shook some more. “I know it’s eyes...I just realised it because it looked right at me. Besides two glowing green dots. It’s eyes were pitch black.” "Hmm…" Cript hummed. "Reminds me of… The Infection…" “Infection?” Max asked. “What’s that?” "Think of the Nulls but more violent and wants to expand it daddy's storm." Cript huffed. “The Hell is a Null?” Max question. "... Huh, wow. Did not see that coming. Okay so basically you know how the machine we live in resets? Well every so often someone glitches on that and it just… creates a perma glitch being that their whole society mostly just hides and watches this all repeat endlessly until the death if the machine itself." Cript stated rather matter of factly. “So a Null is what? A sort of watcher that makes sure the Machine actually runs and gets rid of something that might ruin it or something? I haven’t found anything about them yet in my studies.” Max said. "You wouldn't, only time they ever poop out is when there's a catastrophic error and they manually reset everything. They keep to themselves until then and according to Null Jenny there's only like ten or so of them herself included." “Ok, but what about the Infection? What exactly is it? You said it’s like a Null.” Max asked. "It's like a Null in terms of power. Power of which meaning Null Jenny and I can catch each other's punches so, yeah. It was born from this thing Lord told me about, called it The Storm or something like that. Basically go as far as possible in the void til you reach an endless vortex of chaos and death." “Exactly how dangerous is this Storm?” Max asked. It sounds very bad. "Well Lord told me never to go near it. Ever. Even threatened to seal me in one of his special cube prisons if I tried. So I'm gonna say, powerful." Max thinks for a bit. “You said it's trying to expand that storm. How far? Till it covers the Void?” "My guess, it's just another thing on the list that wants to destroy all of creation within the machine. Why, no idea, how, brute force it seems." Max turns towards his Knight, “Have the Wild Hunt avoid this thing and it’s men for now. Right now we have to focus on Vincent and his allies.” His Knight nods and disappears. “I’ll head back. Start preparing for Rip. You might need to inform your allies of this thing. From what you describe of it they might not be ready for it if a fight comes to it.” Max said, turning back to Cript. "So it seems. Really should start checking off all these issues at some point. Oh, and best keep clear of Lord. He's pissed at you and your kings." “Figures. After what we did to those Admins.” Max said. He then opens a portal. “I’m off.” He walks through it as it closes. Cript sighed, watching the portal close. "Stay safe Max… I hope you survive this…" The darkness of this land was on par with the void. The faint glow of a blue sun far from the world was the only light in this place. Sitting atop a chunk of rock was a pale figure, his brown hair and orange eyes staring at the endless blackness. "Silence… calm…" He muttered, breathing slow steady breaths as he welcomed the vast nothingness he created. Armies. Gods. Planets. Galaxies. All gone, so he can find calm. In the distance, a nat fly ate away at the long rotten pile of corpses. "Noise…" He growled, his anger raising. "Be gone." He muttered, a flash of light and the fly, and half the planet he was on, were gone. "Ahhh… silence…" Then...footsteps. Noise. The person turned, seeing the cause of such infuriating noise. He saw someone there. Something not belonging to this place. A person in a black trench coat. Silver scarf. Black dress pants and a black fedora. He raised his head a bit. Showing red eyes. Looking right at him. Red met Orange. No words were said. Because both already knew what was about to happen…. ON THE NEXT DRAGON BALL - “WRONG SERIES!!” Both yelled at the writer. To be continued Author's Note Thank you Deathwatch for making this chapter with me and Bio and thank god it's been almost a year and we finished it woo! Kite vs Clockwerk, then start of Band of Thieves"Today...is the day…" I muttered to myself, passing around my cabin at Cane Island. Today was the day Kite Cooper and his family take the fight to Clockwork. It’s been over a month since the event’s of my agreement to Vincent and the subsequent take down of Panda King, and given all of Nexus that is now mine it took more time to get everything straight as Clockwerk basically lost a hundred percent of his support via manpower, money and resources. Despite this, his robots were still the biggest issue. As we got our gear together we managed to build a lot using the notes Vincent gave me, and with the supplies from Nexus we were fully stocked in weapons and better armors. “What am I going to do…” I muttered, wondering if I have to keep Clockwerk alive through his Hate Chip so Sly 2 can happen, or just let the metallic bastard die. “Should I even bring up to Clockwerk that I’m taking care of his kids?” I wondered to myself. “That would piss him right the fuck off…” I chuckled, thinking about all the cute little racoon owl hybrids that I...accidentally helped birth. Well, better that outcome than letting them hatch all evil and such. Still, I have no idea what he might have modified himself with, and with my new Ability Vincent made for me, it won't be a one sided fight. "...still so much to think about…" I muttered, continuing to pace as thousands of thoughts kept rushing into my head about this mission. I sighed as I wondered….just what would happen? “I really hate not knowing what to do…” I groaned. “Are ya bored or something?” Murray asked as he walked up to me. “No, just concerned about everything.” I sighed out. “There’s a whole lot of unknown that's buzzing through my head…” “Why bother worrying about things you don’t know? I don’t know a lotta of stuff and I don’t worry over it.” “One of the things I’m concerned about is if I should even mentioned Clockwerk’s...and my kids…” I shook my head at how, even compared to the crap I’ve seen and done, silly it sounds. “You mean those robotic owls? Don’t know why you would, not like Clockwerk would care about them regardless.” “Considering the main reason why he’s been hunting down my family since the dawn of time was because the first Cooper’s literally stole their eggs...then yeah I’m pretty sure he would care, also considering he had it guarded with a very powerful being.” “Hmm… fair point, though if you did make them part Cooper, then I think he’d have disowned them. His hatred for your family probably outweighs the fact that they are still his.” “And that’s one unknown I have to think of, then another is what he might have gotten from his short partnership with Nexus…” I sighed out. “Well, from the supplies Bently said Panda King sent him, probably nothing good. Even with an army, I don’t think this will be easy.” “Which...is sad to say the Army is more of a front to get all of us into his main base.” I said honestly. “While it sucks at...the possible loss of life...what sucks more is having...to face Dad.” “That… is a fair point. His is the only Cooper Bot still being controlled. Maybe you can use your Keyblade magic stuff to free him? Sounds kinda like that one thing Matilda told us about once, the whole Possession of the Heart or something?” “Well…” I thought for a bit. “The problem isn’t that it’s controlling the Heart, it’s basically just Mind Control...but I can at least try that...or just rip his soul out of that metal husk and put it into a new body now that I have all my powers back...but that came with a massive drawback.” “What drawback?” Sly asked, walking over to see what me and Murray were talking about. “Just that, whenever I’m involved in a fight, my opponents are equal to me in power.” I answered. “It’s how I didn’t just immediately take down Panda King, cause even if he was new to that level of strength, he had the training and discipline to use it well.” “Really? How does that happen?” Sly asked. “I don’t actually know...never really went into the ‘ability creation’ side of things.” I said honestly. “All I know is that it’s named ‘Equilibrium’, it’s an Ability, and that it’s main function is to have any opponent of mine be at the same level of power I’m at, so if I’m fighting as Kite Cooper, they would probably be the same strength as they would normally...but if I were to be strong enough to bench press a mountain, then they’d be able to do the same.” “Huh… that’s a fairly double edged sword? Does it only affect you and your opponent?” “Well...maybe? Cause even though we kind of stopped fighting after Sly interrupted me yelling at the Panda King for burning my tail, mom knocked him out simply enough but the ground cracked underneath where King’s head was…” I explained carefully. “So you don’t know.” Murray stated. “There’s no expert in this stuff you know from your godly friends?” “I mean...some might know, and from what I’ve learned, the actual Expert in all this Ability shenaniganry has been dead for a hell of a long time.” I shrugged. “Huh, well, all that aside how should we do this? We know the former Nexus will be dealing with the robots, and we will be dealing with Clockwerk, but who deals with dad?” “It should be me cause I have the magic to hopefully save him.” I said honestly. “Then...maybe mom as well, since if anyone knows how to deal with dad, it would be her.” Sly nodded. “I’ll go too. Best were all there when… if, we can free him.” “I guess that leaves the rest of us to deal with Clockwerk while you all deal with your dad.” Murray said. “WIth your mechanical family and Matilda, I’m sure we can all hold our own against him.” “I know you can.” I said honestly. “Cause we’re the Cooper Gang, and there’s nothing we can’t do as long as we’re a team.” “Good, then let’s get going. Everyone has their gear together and are about ready to head out.” With a nod I followed the others to the vehicles. It was gonna be a long flight. We arrived in Russia to the sounds of heavy artillery and gunfire. The battle outside the armored van was loud. After a few hours it was still loud background noise. “Alright, we’re at Clockwerk’s compound gate.” Uncle Jim spoke up. “Coopers, good luck, your still around family and us will charge in and deal with Clockwerk once you all get Conner’s attention.” “And whatever other robots he’s hiding.” I mentioned as I held onto my cane nervously. With a nod, Mom, Sly and I all jumped out and climbed over the gate. Once inside we walked around. Our nerves were on high alert as… there wasn’t a single robot around here… “Stick close boys…” Mom said. “Where’s the welcoming party?” Sly asked. “If a trap does pop up, and we know it will...I'll make sure the both of you don’t get caught in it.” I said carefully. “And who’s gonna stop you from falling into it?” Sly quipped. We flinched, a loud mechanical caw screeched through the air. Looking up we Spotted Clockwerk, his body platted in metal, and various weapons ranging from chainsaw talons and motion tracking turrets covered his massive wings, back and torso. Standing atop his right wing was Dad’s bot, the glowing red eyes looking at us with Clockwerk’s pure malice and rage as it jumped off and free fell down towards us. It landed with a heavy crash, making a fair sized crater on impact before it stood up, twirling it’s mechanized cane. Before we could act Uncle Jim hit the gas on the van, crashing through the gate and racing up the volcano to Clockwerk. “Alright...just gotta deal with mecha-dad fueled by Clockwerk’s rage...simple enough.” I said as I readied myself to face off against dad. “Collen…” Mom sighed, looking at dad’s bot form with so much hurt. “Coopers.” Clockwerk’s mechanical voice spoke from the bot. “Two of you will die tonight.” “Just two?” Sly asked. “Of course. My vengeance on your family is just as immortal as my body. Why bother living when I can’t have my favorite… snack, every generation.” “Man you need a hobby.” I said honestly. “At least yell at clouds like the old man you are Clockwork.” “Murdering you lot is my hobby.” He replied, charging. We all acted, trying to see if I can pin their body down long enough to try out that Dive to the Heart thing and free dad from inside. “Jeez ya grouchy old owl, I just wanted your child support money, not a fight.” I told him as I jumped away from a cane swing, hoping that weird statement would confuse the bastard long enough to get him pinned. He laughed, the bot head keeping it’s eyes on me. “Ah yes, the anomaly. The Admin who wanted to play and lied himself into the skin he was born into.” “Already had that whole conversation, doesn’t matter anymore.” I rolled my eyes. “So the better question is, did you get any responses to all the eggs you kept guarded?” I asked him as I tried to sweep his legs. He jumped, spinning just in time to knock Sly aside. “Insurance.” He said, his cane suddenly crackling with electricity. “Something left to rebuild should I perish.” “Well that sucks for you cause I’m now they all see me...as their mother.” I answered. “All half racoon too.” “Heh, then I guess nothing will rebuild.” “Kind of expected you to be...a little pissed at me for accidentally making your kids half racoons cause…” I stopped for a second. “Okay seriously, how the hell did you manage to tie your children hatching to match your biosignature with whoever the hell activated the system? That seem’s like a retarded design don’t you think?” “It was part of Vincent’s design. One of his loyal dogs was to hatch them should I die. But I suppose no plan lasts the battlefield.” A rumble got my attention. Clockwerk’s body began to smoke as some of it’s guns were now missing. “I can see that.” I frowned. “But we’re going to stop you here and now ya old bastard!” “Try it and die!” The fight lasted long, the area around us was scorched ground and mom and Sly were looking worn, bruises and cuts across them. Clockwerk’s body flying above was nearing it’s end. Clockwerk just laughed, Sly and Mom tackling the bot body of dad down finally. “Let’s hope this works.” I muttered as I moved swiftly forward and used my keyblade cane and stabbed the bot in the chest, which instead of punching a hole in it, caused a door of light to start appearing. “I’ll be back with dad.” I said as I dived into his heart to rescue him. I arrived at something that was a far, far cry from a station of awakening. It was just a pitch black void of darkness. Rage, Anger, Malace, all radiated from the environment. Echoing from the environment was Clockwerk’s laugh. No longer mechanical, but just as twisted. “The hell did you do to my dad!?” I called out as I flew around this dark void. "Oh and I thought you were supposed to be a smart Admin." Clockwork said as his laughter grew louder and more manic. “God damn it…” I growled as I started to fly around the place, trying to find my dad’s heart in this void of rage. As I flew around I felt like something was flying around me, watching me. Eventually I did find a station of Awakening, but it wasn't dad's. It was… decayed, a huge chunk of it was cracked and flaking and crumbling. A smaller section looked fine, but pulsated with darkness… This is Clockwork's heart. His light half is completely dead. “Oh this is not good for you.” I shook my head. “On the verge of becoming a Nobody all because of your stupid grudge.” "Perhaps, but when all is said and done, I have already won." Suddenly I was tackled, the pitch black form of Clockwerk slamming into my glider, grabbing me in mid air and pinning me to his still healthy part of his heart. "Still Haven't realized it yet have you?" “That...you somehow put your heart and soul into dad’s body?” I asked. His laughter started again. "Fool. I never put your father inside this body." My eyes widened as I realized it. “Oh...alright, then you can kindly go fuck yourself.” I said as I opened up my Destiny Link. “Cause with all my powers back, guess who I can borrow powers from?” I asked cheekily as I selected Heart’s D-Link. "Not so fast." He said, his claws piercing into my flesh. "Vincent gave you a gift, Equilibrium, we'll still be just as powerful as one another. Just sit back," there was suddenly a flash, looking over I saw there was now a viewpoint from the eyes. Clockwerk's old body, dad, was one hit away from falling into the volcano. "And watch your friends and family kill the man you came here to save." “Now if you'll allow me to finish.” I said as my link with Heart finalized as light shines forth from me, burning Clockwerk’s pure darkness from how pure it was. “I’m not aiming this at you ya broken hearted sack of shit.” I said as I raised my hand, the view we had showing all my friends and family starting to glow softly, as well as the old metallic birds body. “I’m aiming it at my family.” I told him bluntly. ”Yo, can you all hear me?” I mentally called out through my new connection to my family. ”Kite? What in the world are you doing!?” Connor’s voice echoed through everyone’s minds, the group seeing the light in the owl’s body flare up at that declaration. “Saving you, what else?” I joked, helping him fly down to safety as all my friends and family were all sounding incredulous and confused in my mind. “Don’t worry guys, I’m in here with Clockwerk, old bastard had a decent idea to swap bodies on us, but he didn’t account for Family being stronger than his rage.” I said simply. ”So...what now?” Murray asked simply. “I know we’re all master thieves, and the one thing we shouldn’t do it murder...but Clockwerk is too far gone…” I shook my head as I turned to face the shadow owl. “So I’ll do it, and deal with whatever repercussions afterwards.” I said as I readied my cane. The shadow Clockwerk and I both circled around one another, this place was rapidly becoming even more volatile by the second as the very air was shaking as the already powerful rage and negativity spiked even higher. “Aw, did I make the little birdy angry?” I taunted. “Is it upsetting that I literally stole your victory right in front of your very eyes? Cause it’s hilarious to me.” I said, wanting Clockwerk to be so blinding by rage that he’ll fuck up and I can fight him easier. Clockwerk seemed to almost growl as we circled one another. He stared at me for a long time before, suddenly, it felt like everything here got more… stable. "You've won today, Coopers… but I will be back. My partnership with Vincent taught me more than you realize." He said. I suddenly felt a pulse of… code? I woke up back in the real world, Dad bot was gone too and mom and Sly looked like they got blasted away from where we all were. "What? What happened?" Sly asked as he got back up. "Where did Clockwerk go?" “So…” I sighed out, rubbing my temples. “Fuck...so good news and bad news.” I started. “Good news, we won.” I answered. “Bad news...Clockwerk’s on the run because the same bastard that gave me my powers back just so happened to teach Clockwerk way too fucking much.” I frowned. “Good knews, we have dad back.” I pointed to the owl. “Bad news...bad things will be happening later on.” "Shit." Mom cursed, then looked up. "Conner!" She said, helping Sly and I as we ran for the volcano top. Arriving there we spotted the heavily damaged former body of Clockwerk, the eyes no longer their going yellow, but now a glowing blue. “Violet...my sons…” The bird said in dad’s voice, although a bit scratchy due to all the damage. "Oh… Conner…" Mom said, hugging the bent and beat up head. "How… do we fix this?" Sly asked. "Miz Ruby still has Conner's body, maybe she can do the same now that she tried back then when she brought your mother back?" M brought up. “And I can help her with that given I now have all my spells.” I mentioned as I brought out my Lexicon. “But...right now is making sure this body doesn’t fall about from all the damage it’s taken.” I started as I walked closer to dad’s body. “But...you okay dad?” "Could be better. Wish I was…" He sighed. "This body is so… cold. Feels like I'm stuck inside an already dead body." “The body housed a heart that was...practically dead from what I saw…” I sighed out. “Any good in him is long dead and it’s just cracked and breaking more and more, as he let’s his rage corrode his very existence.” "Well… let's go home then." Spy sighed. We headed back to Cane Island, after a lot of hard work Mz Ruby and I restored dad's old body. My magic made the transfer of his heart and soul, and brain, easier than what she had to do. Thankfully when it was over, dad was alive again. He spent a lot of time in Clockwerk's old body, so getting used to his own again was rather challenging for him but we were there to help. After a while things settled down in the world. Two years passed and America, who's people demanded Mugshot freed and reinstated as president, got their wish because apparently he did fantastically as president. Mz. Ruby was freed but stayed with us on Cane Island to teach us all some magic while learning about mine. Panda King was also freed and, despite everything, was renamed the 'king' of China, where he rules in a strict but firm manner helping the rest of the world rebuild. Rowley is still in prison for his crimes as he was the only one to not regret anything, though Matilda told me he's on a work exchange program. He worked building tech for good and in exchange he gets one conjugal visit a month. Apparently he did have a wife and they missed one another greatly. Crime was… a mixed bag these days. Most places that were hit hardest, Russia, Europe, Africa, and all them are littered with start up crime gangs since the fall of Clockwerk. Most are people who don't trust any authority anymore, others are just people still trying to survive after everything. Others, like myself, were raised in the chaos and know nothing else. The world needs the Coopers again, if only to keep the peace. “Alright...so right now I need to keep an eye on these five…” I muttered as I started to search online about anything revolving around the Klaww Gang, and Neyla. “Hopefully things won’t be worse than what’s been currently going on…” My search brought up a few things. Mostly their heists. They started up shortly after the whole Clockwerk's empire began, starting off mostly as tech smugglers but after his fall jumped to arms and hired assassinations. While I know the names of all the members, looking them up here only brings up how they are to the public. Apparently in this Timeline, Dimitri is a well respected artist for his unique… silhouette art. Apparently it came to him after an 'accident' on a trip to Mexico. Rajan was still a spice lord at least, but rumors are around about him also running slave and arms trade to various other criminal gangs. Jean Bison is front news, having only thawed from the ice recently and after various psychological and medical tests was allowed to travel where he's looking up his past home. Wonder if he is a member already or not? Contessa is still the warden of her prison and… her husband is still alive? That's different. Arpeggio is a well respected aerospace engineer, working with various governments to rebuild air forces and cargo vehicles. Nothing on Neyla. No results, no pictures, no birth certificates, no fingerprints, nothing. It's like she doesn't exist. “Alright...so we know at least where everyone is...but so far nothing too suspicious...except for Neyla, she should already be alive…” I muttered. “I’d rather not hack into Interpol for more…” "And why would you need to do that?" I jumped, seeing Matilda behind me. “Already thinking of what’s ‘supposed to happen next’...” I sighed out. “Or at least, who’s involved...have you ever heard of the Klaww Gang?” I asked. "Little. They haven't been a top priority until recently, though that Top Priority list has grown a couple inches in the last two years." She sighed. "Anything specific?" “Are any of the members known? And if not...have you heard of a violet Bengal Tiger named Neyla before?” "... Purple fur, knows her way around a whip?" “Yes and yes.” I nodded. "Yeah, I know her…" “Alright...so who is she, and why does she have literally nothing about her?” I asked carefully. "Because she's like me. A keyblade wielder. She's not from this world, well, actually she doesn't technically have a world." “Fuck…” I groaned. “When was the last time you made contact with her?” "Little before this crap with the Furious Five started. So a long time actually. Last I knew she was hanging around the Refugee worlds." “First Clockwerk has Code powers and now Neyla is a fucking Keyblader…” I rubbed my temples. “Fantastic...did Neyla ever mention anyone she’s visited on this world? Anyone at all?” "Not really. Aside from me she kept a distance from people given her… heritage. Shit… she's gotta be like… thirty by now. Last time I saw her she was barely fourteen." “I know a self fulfilling prophecy is always a thing…” I grumbled. “What we’re gonna need to do is watch out for these five.” I said while bringing up the people that were possibly in the Klaww Gang. “Dimitri, Rajan, the Contessa, Jean Bison, and Arpeggio, now while I have no grounds to think any of these bastards are in the Klaww Gang besides Rajan due to his spice ring and his new venture into slave and weapons trading…” I sighed out. “Only problem I’m having at the moment is how they’re going to go about their plan without the Clockwerk parts...and Clockwerk is still nowhere to be found…” "Well, how do these events play out normally?" “So the first part is already completely gone.” I started. “Where in the beginning, like...maybe a year after the first defeat of Clockwerk by Sly, Bently, Murray and Carmelita, Clockwerk was effectively in a comatose state and carted off to a museum...only for the Klaww Gang to steal his body and use his body and internal organs for their own purposes.” I explained. “Dimitri had the tail feather’s to mass produce fake money that’s believable enough, Rajan had the Wing’s as a trophy, and had the Clockwerk Heart to help his Spice Production, the Contessa had the Eyes so she could empower her hypnotism, Jean Bison had the Lung’s, Stomach and Claws, the Lung’s and Stomach being a perpetual engine to keep his trains going forever, and claws to help him in his one man army against nature after he was frozen...and when all of it was put back together, because Apreggio just really wanted to fly, Neyla fused with the thing with all her rage and become ‘Clockla’, and was going to become an unstoppable immortal due to all of France going into a Spice induced Frenzy and her siphoning it all from a massive airship Arpeggio made.” I explained to her carefully. “So you can already tell this is massively different just by there being no Clockwerk corpse they can steal.” I started. “And...well overall it was a bad experience for the Cooper Gang and Carmelita.” "Huh… okay well I'll put some agents to keep an eye on them. As for Neyla… well I know a few worlds she visits regularly." “Cool.” I nodded. “But be careful...Neyla not only fooled Interpol, she also fooled her own Gang...and the Cooper Gang. That’s how Sly, Murray and Carmelita were imprisoned by the Contessa.” "Yikes. Well, if you want you can tag along with me when I head out." “That would be good.” I nodded. “Which reminds me that I need to show everyone the first Sly Cooper game after everything that happened, just to give a quick ‘hey, here’s what I expected’ kind of thing.” "That's probably a bad idea." Matilda said. "Might give everyone the… Wrong impression about why you chose to live this life." “True...” I nodded. “I’d...rather not make things worse…” "In any case, come on, let's get going. Our first stop is Traverse Town." Matilda said as she summoned her Keyblade and opened a DTL. I can't believe I never tried to visit this world before! I felt hyped as a fan of Kingdom Hearts, then upset that in all my years back in my timeline, I never visited the main Kingdom Hearts one Hub World. It had everything from the first game, and from Dream Drop Distance, and some other details I guess the games just left out for some reason or another. There were a lot of people here too. All various races and species. "If I know Neyla, she'd be at the tavern if she is here." Matilda muttered as we walked through the crowd. "Sounds about right." I nodded. "So off to the Tavern." We walked through the first district, the layout was far larger than in game but kept the same general shape and form. Arriving at the tavern we entered to find a variety of people here. We walked up to the counter, where we were greeted by an anthropomorphic green fire cat lady. Upon seeing us she raised a brow, then both went up high. "Sweet hell, Matilda?!" She yelped. "The one and only, Donna." Matilda replied with a smirk. "How?! It's been like ten years since I last saw you and you look younger!" "Long story…" Matilda sighed. "I always actually wondered if Neyla was around?" "Huh. You'll have to tell me about it sometime. As for Neyla, she was just here an hour ago but left, something about some new world she needed to check out since it wasn't on any galactic maps yet." "Well shit… any idea the general area she traveled to then?" "Yeah. Somewhere in the Z.G.9.H system." "Shit she went there? Thanks, I'll see ya around." Matilda said as we quickly left the tavern. "Well this isn't good…" She muttered. "How bad is it?" I asked carefully. "Z.G.9.H is largely considered a no fly zone. For all space travelers, it's the harsh and difficult cosmic weather, for we Keyblade Wielders, it's because the world's are so close to darkness they might as well be within the realm itself. There's nine worlds in total but no one has… returned from them. Traveler or Keyblade Master. If Neyla found a possible tenth then there is still no reason as to why she went there. The whole area is a deathtrap." "Well...shit." I frowned. "And...also double shit we need to get to that tenth planet fast cause Clockwork might have made it…" "... Isn't that just a tad bit paranoid?" "Considering what Clockwork can do right now...no, no it's not." I started. With a sigh Matilda shrugged and we were off again. She wasn't kidding about the cosmic storms here being a deathtrap. I knew cosmic storms were a thing, but when they are the size of this entire Galaxy, filled with lightning, dust blowing so fast it can sand down our gliders, fucking space hurricanes! Molten glass rain! And to put the cherry on top some of the more large and most violent Heartless I have ever seen. Despite all this, we managed to pick up the energy trails from Neyla's glider and used that to find the world she arrived at. We quickly landed on said planet and took a breather in the mountain forest we found ourselves in. "And THAT! Is why nobody sane ever comes to this gods forsaken system!" Matilda yelled as she tried to calm herself. "Let's go again!" I laughed. We both laid there for a while before finally getting up and that's when I noticed the changes. We were both humans. Sure we both still had our outfits and while my hair still resembled what I had as a raccoon it was also shorter. Matilda looked the same save the short cut black hair that only went to her neck. "Camouflage magic…" She muttered, looking herself over. "Definitely Neyla is here." "Does she usually use it?" I inquired as I readied my cane. "Especially to...this big of an area?" I added, cause we just touched down and we're already affected by it. "Normally yeah, but never this strong before. She must have finally earned her mastery to pull this off." Matilda said as she now looked around. "Think I can see a road down this way, hopefully we'll find something soon." “I just hope I’m wrong about this…” I sighed out. As we walked we found an old dirt road and walked up it. The humidity sucked but soon we arrived at a gated watchtower. As we approached the gate, two men walked up to us from the other side. Both wore well tattered clothing with leather jackets, one was more beefy, bald and missing their right hand, replaced by a homemade prosthetic with a blade welded to it. The other was thinner but clearly has seen some combat and kept a rather large looking shotgun on us. "State your business." The bald one spoke. “We’re looking for someone, and was wondering if they were in town.” I said carefully. The two men looked at one another with a raised brow each. "And… who are you looking for exactly?" The one with the gun asked slowly. “Has anyone by the name of Neyla been here?” I asked, hoping Matilda might add in whatever secret name she has to help get us in the place. "She's likely wearing a scarf, and has a whip on her." Matilda added. "Don't know about that but we did see someone run down the mountain a few hours ago." The bald guy spoke. “Which way were they going?” I inquired. "North. Assuming she kept heading that way she'd hit the old NERO checkpoint." The hat guy said. "Thank you sir." I nodded. "Is there anything...of concern from here to the NERO checkpoint?" They looked at one another again. "You been living under a rock or something the last few years, kid?" The bald guy said. "Ambushers, murderers, Freakers." "Wait a moment Boozer." The hat guys said, looking us over. "How old are you two?" "Fifteen." Matilda said. "You two… how have you two been surviving?" "Running, hiding, and the ingenuity of two fifteen year old prank loving teenagers." I said simply. "Without guns, bikes or even a knife?" The bald man, Boozer, said. "Something's up here Decan." "Your first mistake was thinking that." I said as, with a masterful bit of sleight of hand, I revealed three cherry bombs I made with Bentleys help. "We're not helpless or strange, and our bikes are hidden from thieves cause...force of habit." I explained carefully. "Can't argue with that. This dumbass here got his bike gutted some months back." Boozer laughed, elbowing Decan. "Shut it." Decan huffed. "Just head north, follow the road and when you come to a shit ton of trains, corpses and Freakers you found the place." “Good enough.” I nodded while putting my cherry bombs away. “Thank you both for your time.” We walked down and north for a while before Matilda spoke. "That was rather bold and cockey of you." She said. “I did the right amount of both, all things considered.” I said honestly “If I was too cocky then I’d be called an idiot and survived on dumb luck, and if I was too bold I’d probably have been shot.” "Even so, you forget we are still teenagers. And the guy with the hat is tracking us because of it. So, what do you think a Freaker is exactly?" “Well, considering the outfits, the post apocalyptic vibe, and we’ve barely heard a peep from wildlife…” I said, which Matilda noted was true that there wasn’t much in the ways of wildlife noises. “I’d say...probably a zombie like virus spread around to humans and animals.” "Zombies? Great, so we can't use our Keyblade either…" “Not necessarily.” I raised my hand. “Cause our Keyblades can hurt Zombies, I have tested that and it’s still a universal ‘holy’ weapon against undead.” "Yeah but with how close this world is to the darkness these undead will be drawn to them just as much as Heartless, plus that Ability of yours. If it effects all enemies, you don't want to be surrounded with that active." “Well...it should also affect you as well cause when me, Sly and mom were facing against Clockwerk Sly and mom weren’t woefully underpowered for that.” I said honestly. "Still, until we understand that little trick of yours we best not try and act like you're all that." “Fair.” I nodded. “That’s why Nothingness still works wonders.” I smiled warmly. “So, when did you meet Neyla?” "Little after my Mark of Mastery. She was a Lanes Born, and was mostly just roaming. Barely knew how to swing her Keyblade, it's a miracle she could open a DTL or even shift her glider. I taught her some things. Given she was a beastial race like me I offered a place on our world but she refused. Only ever visited a few times really." “Wonder why?” I questioned, finding it a little curious that she’d be a vagabond. "Like I said, she's Lanes Born." Matilda said as we dropped down some rocks and found the road shortly after. “And a Lanes Born...I don’t think I’ve heard that term before.” I said honestly. “Albeit there’s still a shit ton of things I haven’t heard of yet even though I’m busy non fucking stop.” "Lanes Born, it means her parents were from different worlds. Pretty common amongst Keyblade Wielders. They don't usually fit in in their parents worlds either because of physical looks or powers. The natural laws of the worlds also don't apply to her because most often they conflict meaning she's a walking magnet for non native threats. Primarily, Heartless and everything else." “Well that sucks.” I frowned. "Yeah. Lanes Borns are lives filled with moving from place to place, world to world and they can't really settle down anywhere. Honestly the fact she came to this system is a bad idea. All those big ass heartless we passed on the way here, yeah the longer she is here the closer they will get and if this place already has issues…" “Honestly...not as bad as Void though.” I said honestly. "Are you capable of sympathy?" She asked as we passed some ruined cars. “I legit wouldn’t be here if I wasn’t.” I told Matilda bluntly, which shocked her a bit at how blunt I was about it. "Can you at least talk like it then? I get you're a god and all that but ever since you got your full mojo back you've kinda… been an ass." “It’s not that I have my full powers back that’s the problem.” I brought up. “If it was just that, then I’d be pissed that my full powers practically mean nothing when I was given Equilibrium...I stopped feeling like I was lying about who I am…” I sighed out. “As well as...ya know, having acted like this for seven years because I almost lost my heart due to how outrageously depressed I was and...still kinda am, all the many…many decades I’ve lost with friends and family because everytime I want to have something good in my life bad shit has to come from it, and just…” I growled as I threw a lit cherry bomb at a sudden freaker dog and blew half it’s body up. “Everytime I want to be happy...something, or someone has to bring it all back...now sure that’s probably mostly me cause I’m just a walking dumpster fire...but just because I’m an Admin, doesn’t mean everything can just work out…” I sighed out bitterly. “So yes, I’m an ass, but that’s due to a whole host of things that I’m still working through, and it still probably won’t leave cause I’m me.” "And I thought I needed therapy." Matilda said. "So despite everything you try it feels like the world and reality itself is against you." Matilda said as she jogged ahead of me, the trains in the distance were visible now. As was the stench of rotting shit and death. "Guess you can sympathize with her better than I expected." She gagged. "Sweet Light that's bad." “Even though I have a loving family and wonderful friends,” I sighed out, even though it was terrible I’ve...sadly smelled worse. “They're all wonderful, they support me through thick and thin...but there’s still too much to do, and less and less time to do it.” I shook my head as I kept moving forward. "Hey suicidal teens!" We turned. Decan now made himself visible. "There's a giant ass horde there! And your bikes aren't real are they, you walked here!" He yelled, his guns were holstered at least. "Just what the hell are you two thinking, everyone in this state knows this is a massive horde nest!" “How big?” I inquired. “And what are we talking about in the nest?” "What? Freakers what else?! Christ Boozer was right you two must have crawled out of a bunker or something." He sighed. "And how big, well, it's daytime right now, so only a quarter of the nest is in there… so probably still a few hundred." "That's a quarter?" Matilda asked. "Just be glad it's not night, otherwise it would be a thousand." “Fair enough.” I nodded. “Also when you say ‘Freaker’s’, it could mean there are different types of the bastards, like either people or animals.” "... Christ you really have been in a bunker haven't you…" Decan groaned. I rolled my eyes. “Do you have anything else of importance, old man? Cause we have to find someone before it gets dark...or at least a suitable place to lay low.” "Kite…" Matilda huffed. "Sorry about my boyfriend here, he's… an ass." "Who isn't these days." Decan huffed. "But, we do need to find our friend. She's a bit of a… magnet for trouble so, if we don't find her we just know something bad is gonna happen." Decan sighed, contemplating a bit before speaking. "Alright, I'll take you to where we saw them and try and track them from there, just… keep him quiet." He sighed as he began walking back up the mountain and we followed. "Old man, really?" Matilda whispered. “I’m playing up the fact I’m a teenager who’s done nothing but survive the best I can with my girlfriend here.” I whispered back. “Also keep me quiet? He was the one literally yelling near the fucking hive.” "He also is a native to this world and knows more than us, so if he's confident enough to yell then I'm betting he has his reasons too." “Still…” I sighed out. “But yeah, this also happens when I’m trying to think of thirty different things while also trying to do other shit…” "Do you ever just shut your brain off and not think for a couple minutes?" “I did, I was then forced into a coma for thirty years as a current spouse of mine, who used to be a huge douche canoe, tortured and experimented on my daughter.” I frowned. “Turned her into a ‘Big Sister’ cause of course he was hiding on Rapture…” "... There is no winning with you is there?" “My life has been a whole lot of ups and downs, the ups being amazing and actually making me feel like my life is worth something...and the down’s being absolute train wrecks that nearly kills me…” I sighed out. “I...am trying not to...but you can see why I’m like this…” "Not really. I only know Kite Cooper and his story, I don't know… the rest of you. Heck I don't even know your real name… I only know what you tell me and lately all you tell me is what you expect of our world and complain when it isn't what you expected." Matilda sighed. "Why… did you choose to be reborn like this?" “I haven’t complained about what I ‘expected’ and the complaints I have...is the fact that me being born has made everything worse for people I care about…” I sighed. “I did this not as some weird boredom because I’m a god...some might argue it is because that’s why it’s called an ‘Admin Game’...” I shook my head. “Why did I choose to be reborn like this? Was so I can...understand things I can’t have anymore…” I sighed out. “Somethings being about what I’m fighting for, others being about having a life outside my current work cause...holy hell…” I sighed out. “I don’t know...these all sound like excuses, everything’s falling apart because I was born...hey would you look at that, everything’s come full circle in my life.” "Are you really that unhappy with your life?" “I’m unhappy about myself.” I answered. “There’s a major difference, cause I’m super happy with my life, a loving family, wonderful kids, unimaginable power...so why am I still a depressed sack of shit?” I asked. “Even after I’ve done so many amazing things, saved so many lives...proved so many wrong and just done so many amazing things...why do I still suck as a person?” "... Maybe you just prefer to live for other people rather than yourself? Or, maybe you want to live for yourself but only when there's nothing in the way." “This is why I’m seeing the best therapist I know.” I said honestly. “But...maybe your right? I don’t know...I just want to be happy damn it...but no matter what happens, I always manage to fuck it up somehow…” "Maybe you can't be happy because in your mind you still think you don't deserve it?" “I mean...I can be happy.” I said honestly. “But...it’s hard when your entire life has been a massive train wreck for way to long…” I sighed out. “Like in my life before I even got my powers, when I was just a simple human being...my life was completely ruined, and I had to have it explained to me two different times to completely show me how fucked it really was, cause when you die, lose your light half to supplement your soul, and have both of your parent’s murdered in staged suicides that you blame yourself for for at least five years...yeah.” "Think when it's all over you'll finally be able to be happy without the guilt?" "I sure hope so." I said honestly. "Cause I haven't busted my ass and nearly died a dozen or so times not to be happy at the end of this...hell, I should be happy right now but...things still suck…" I shook my head. "I'm probably just being selfish all things considered...and that makes me feel even worse.." "There's nothing wrong with wanting to be selfish from time to time. Especially when it comes to what makes you happy." "Who knows…" I grumbled, sagging my shoulders as I was just tired of running around in circles. A short hike Later Decan showed us where he last saw the person, possibly Neyla, on the mountain and began tracking them. He was… good. In my normal form I'd have tracked her already, but my nose in this form isn't so adept and he's tracking her by sight and footprints alone. I respected that, begrudgingly. Eventually we ended up going south to a place called Copeland's Camp. The place was small but well built and went up into the trees. We spoke with the man in charge, Copeland, and after some back and forth with Decan learned she took a job for credits, a form of currency each camp of survivors uses for trading. She went out to gather meat, so we headed back out. Eventually we caught the whiff of a familiar foul stench and Decan had us hide. Soon the road we were walking on became covered in… ten, fifty, eighty… safe bet is about two or four hundred of these… Freakers. They were all horribly malnourished, huddled together like roaches or ants and marched along mindlessly. Most were either partly nude or completely naked and many had grotesque looking wounds that were scrapped or scarred over and they all hissed or growled as they marched. Eventually, they passed and once the smell was just a lingering stink, Decan said. "And that, is a horde. Must be heading our from their nest after hunting." "Well...alrighty then." I said, not the biggest or worst zombie horde I've seen but at the moment it was big enough to hide from.p "How often do they do this?" Matilda asked. "Everyday. Well, night. Little after sundown starts they leave their nests to hunt and little before sunrise they march back to it. Doesn't matter how far they go either, they always find their way back to their nest." “So they are weak to sunlight or something?” I inquired. "Sunlight. Heat. Every winter they are out constantly and when it rains they come out and play. They love the cold or humid temperatures. Let's just be glad we haven't run into any mutants yet. Fuckers have been popping up more and more." “That’s concerning.” I said. "Hopefully once we can clear out the hordes and seal off their main nests we won't be dealing with so many." “Gonna need a lot of fire for that to happen.” I said. "That's the plan." He said. We arrived at a small, ruined camp with one tent. Decan picked up the trail here and after a short hike we spotted a purpled haired, scarf wearing and whip holding woman circled by several gun holding bastards. "Yeah, that's our friend." I muttered. "And who are those assholes? Any known gang or just a bunch of rando's?" "Marauders. Fucking," Decan cursed, pulling the… large rifle off his back and taking aim. In rapid fired, three shots, three exploded heads. "Damn. Military training?" Matilda asked. "Once." Decan said, putting the rifle away and we headed down. “Must have been some pretty good military training for that to happen.” I said honestly. "I did as told and hated every second of it." Decan shrugged. Upon seeing us, Neyla sighed. "And to whom do I owe the favor?" She asked. "Long time no see Neyla." Matilda said "... Matilda? Oh, by the light I'm in for it now…" She grumbled. "If you three are good, guess I'll head out now." Decan said. With a nod and a goodby he was gone. "So… why in the FUCK are in in this system?!" Matilda yelled. "... Nothing special." Neyla said with a sheepish smile and a shrug. “Do you know of a parrot by the name of Arpeggio?” I asked. “Cause if you don’t want to talk about why your in one of the most dangerous area’s around...might as well start with that.” "Ar…" Neyla said, looking a mix of conflicted and upset. "Y… yeah I know him. What about him?" “Has he ever been able to fly?” I asked, cause I remembered one very strange key detail about Arpeggio from some news footage...and that was him flying. "No." She said with a sigh. "It's been his dream and obsession for as long as I can remember." “Uh...shit…” I started carefully. “Now...I’ve got good news and bad news.” I started. “Which do you want to hear first?” "Who are you?" She asked. “I’m Kite Cooper, and I’m here with Matilda, my girlfriend, because Arpeggio...might be in danger.” I said carefully, even though I just threw two massive curveballs at her. "If he is then he deserves it." Neyla spat. "Look, whatever Arpeggio got himself into he's smart enough to get out of it. And if not, well the bird made his own nest, so let him lay in it." "Did… something happen, between you two?" Matilda asked. "You," Neyla pointed at Matilda. "Don't get to be concerned. I haven't seen you in ten fucking years and you and your… fuck boy here show up out if the blue asking crap!" “Because it might also affect you.” I said bluntly. “Cause hey, Arpeggio can fly...and I’m scared I know how, and if you give any semblance of a damn about the bird you’ll at least listen to who might also be hunting you.” "And why would they be hunting me? I'm Lanes Born, just trouble for everyone and every world." “Because Apreggio still cares about you?” I suggested. “And by god does it feel like I’m talking to a mirror with what you just said.” "I doubt he cares. If he did he'd have never asked me to give him a keyblade." “Why’d he ask? So he could learn how to fly with it or something?” I inquired. "Yes. Bastard thought if he could use the Keyblades magic to make himself fly." "Well… it can, but how did he even know about Keyblades in the first place?" Matilda asked. "He… saw me summon it once. Fucking Heartless." She huffed. "I had known him for a year at that point and owed him an explanation. He was thrilled at the idea of magic that anyone can be given or inherit." “Sounds about right.” I nodded. “Did he try forcing you?” "We argued for hours about how he could do so much with alien magic tech or whatever. He can barely lift a pencil, I was not risking his life for his dream." “Yeah...that sounds about right…” I sighed out. “Sometimes people do stupid thing’s when it comes to their dreams...and one decision he’s probably regretting right now.” "Good. He should. Damn bird has no self preservation when it comes to him and flight. Got bones like toothpicks." “Jeez…” I frowned. “What...was your relationship with him if this one instance pissed you off so bad?” I asked, wondering what would cause such a big reaction cause if it was ‘just friends’ then it wouldn’t feel like it was this big. "He… wait, I'm not telling you! I don't even know you!" “Well then here.” I said while pulling out my Cane. “Let’s fight, since you're not in the mood for talking, let me just know how you feel through your actions.” I said honestly. "Bring it twig." Neyla said, grabbing her whip and with a quick motion, struck a nearby oak, the trunk exploded in a shower of splinters as the rest fell over. "Neyla, please, do you really want this?" Matilda asked. "Fuck yeah I do." Neyla replied. “Don’t worry Matilda, she’s just massively stressed and probably hasn’t had a good fight in a while.” I said simply, lightly fixing my blue beret. “Matilda’s gonna be the referee just to make sure neither of us go too overboard alright? No keyblade’s or their magic, just what we can do with our weapons and whatever skills we got alright?” "Fair enough." Neyla said, snapping her whip again. Matilda sighed. "Alright, just don't blow up anything alright?" "I can do that." Neyla nodded. “I’ll try my best not to.” I said honestly. “Alright, let’s do this.” I said, dashing towards Neyla swiftly in a zigzag pattern. Reacting fast, Neyla spun her whip around, forcing me to jump to dodge and seeing I did she charged at me, blocking my counter kick with her arm then grabbing my leg and throwing me into a nearby tree. Shit, She's actually pretty damn good. “Pretty good Neyla.” I said. “Who’s your master if I may ask?” I asked, using my Cane’s feature to fire a taser shot at her. "Learned from whoever would teach me." She replied, using her whip to slash apart and absorb, then deflect the shots into the air. "But dad taught me how to use a whip." “Fair enough.” I nodded as I tapped my Cane on the ground as Neyla saw...a clone of me rose up. “Alright, let’s keep going.” I said as my doppelganger and I rushed her. Without Hesitation Neyla jumped up, spinning her whip under her. "Bladed Vortex." She almost muttered, her whip spinning fast enough to create some suction that began pulling us into it. I immediately latched my cane hook around a tree. My clone however came face to face with the attack, proofing away in a puff of smoke and shredded cardboard. “Good to know…” I muttered while throwing a decoy beret into the suction as it was immediately sucked into the bladed attack and caused a mini explosion that spread chili powder all over the feline. When the chili powder his her eyes Neyla crashed to the ground, giving an almost primal roar only her true form could pull off. "That's playing dirty!" She yelled, trying to rub the burning spice from her eyes. "Kite what the hell!" Matilda yelled. “Ah shit...Bentley always tells me to label these stupid things…” I muttered to myself, having wanted to throw a smoke bomb. “Firstly, this is an actual tactic, don’t start with me on that, I literally spent over a month talking with Rioichi who’s a literal fucking ninja.” I started as I moved over carefully to the pained tiger. “And there should be a river nearby so we can get it out of your eyes…” I said. "Bastard!" Neyla roared, her camouflage spell breaking as her true form came out. She looked basically like she did from the game, just younger. "Want to play it dirty? Then so can I!" She yelled, finally opening her red sore eyes as her body morphed, rapidly becoming… a feral Bengal tiger. Almost as large as my feral form as a wolf. With a roar she lunged at me. I raised my cane to block but she bit over it and into my arm. "Shit! NEYLA!" Matilda yelled as she rushed in, kicking Neyla off me and into a tree. I had a pretty bad wound here. "Crap, when she does this She's completely feral for ten minutes." "Great…" I groaned as I managed to regenerate from that bad bite. "This is my fault, just stay back and I'll deal with her." I said as I got back up. "Probably gonna need some more exhausting techniques for this…" I grumbled to myself. "You have to be quick, she can still use her Keyblade in that form." Matilda said. I nodded and rushed in, shifting to my own feral form where I stood a good five feet over Neyla's form. The feral tiger didn't care though as she charged me. Hehe, Cats vs. Dogs. Why did I think of that just now? "This is irony in the making…" I chuckled as I dodged to the side of her charge and tried to hip check her to get her off balance. That was less effective than I hoped. Crap, between Equilibrium, her natural feline agility and the raw feral strength, this isn't gonna be good. She rapidly clawed at me, cutting deep through my hide. I snapped, trying to bite at her paws as they passed but barely missed as she suddenly pounced in my back, biting into the nape of my neck and drawing blood. Shit! Every cell in my primal form screamed to get her off, an unexpected fear hitting me as I shook and managed to knock her off and into a bolder she broke on impact. I rarely ever felt a sensation of fear in my primal form before. As an Apex Predator, it was a rare emotion. These days it only happens for two reasons. My kids are in danger… or there's another, equally powerful Apex predator. And Neyla was currently the latter. “Well isn’t this fun.” I said with a smile, wondering what other race she was besides Bengal Tiger, cause even strong tiger’s wouldn’t stand a chance against me. “Alright, let’s do something dumb.” I muttered as I took a deep breath and charged at Neyla. I regretted it instantly. Neyla charged also, ducking under me and taking a large bite into my under belly. Pain that was definitely new to me hit and I roared in response. She rapidly spun, clinging to my sides as her claws dug into my hide as her jaw worked to tear open my Insides. My primal nature forced my mind into a panic, making me bite into all I could at this angle, her tail. Her blood hit my mouth and the taste snapped part of my brain back to sanity. The Bengal Tiger was there, clearly… but the other, I recognized well. I tasted it whenever I did have a wound to lick. She's part Dire Wolf! “Cause of course your part dire wolf.” I muttered bitterly, as I started to run around and practically ramming Neyla into the hard ground, rocks and broken tree branches with each strong, causing small indents in the ground with how hard I was slamming her into the ground. Stubbornly she held on, gashed and bruised she held on. I could feel her pulling and starting to tear open my underbelly. I needed to act fast. I'd survive the wound but risk Neyla getting away in this form. She- Suddenly the pain subsided. Gone as if it didn't happen. Looking down I spotted Neyla. Normal form Neyla, passed out and badly hurt. Oh thank God she timed out… I shifted back, letting my regeneration heal the worst of it. Matilda ran over and immediately began trying to patch Neyla up. "That was… terrifying." Matilda said. “And now we need to get her off world and healed.” I said bluntly. “Seriously, how the hell is she half Dire Wolf?” I asked, as I tried to see any defining feature that would have shown it. "Her Mother was a Bengal Tiger, from a world kinda like ours. She was it's Keyblade wielder. Her father was… a slave. His master forced him to hunt and slaughter for money. Her mother freed him and the two went after his former master. She gave him a Keyblade and the two traveled the world. His was no longer habitable, it's all poison now." I sighed, knowing this story all too well… "Time passed, they fell in love, and had a kid. Neyla here." “Well…” I sighed out. “I’m gonna need to patch thing’s up with Neyla if she remembers any of this…” I said softly. “And...if she isn’t pissed at me, I can at least tell her that...our home world is saved and safe.” "What? Bullshit." Matilda said. "We passed it on the way over here, it's still poisoned. Or are you talking about in your timeline?" I frowned. “That’s...shouldn’t be true...also Time broke so maybe it’s another version?” I asked, finding that really weird cause I could have sworn there was some time shenanigans cause I still had my Hunter Necklace even after giving the First Hunter’s teeth back. "Well, whatever the case, let's get out of here. Last thing we need are locals asking questions." The trip back home was uneventful. Matilda got Neyla into the medical wing and she was rapidly healed with magic. Now we just have to wait for her to wake up. To kill time I decided to test something. Predator and I were in the training room. He was always in feral form. I wonder why? "You want to know about the other Dire Wolves?" He asked/repeated to me. “Yes, yes I would.” I nodded. “Also, if I may ask, why do you always stay in your feral form?” I inquired my good boy. "I don't have a humanoid form." He replied simply. "My race lacks that mana gene sequence." “Alright.” I nodded. “But now onto Dire Wolves cause I only know...like two races, the race I am which is the progenitor from what I remember Den talking about, and the Void Dire Wolves.” Predator nodded. "Well, if you get into genetics there are only a few trillion wolf species in the realm." That's oddly small. "But when you go into Mana genes, there's more like seven octillion." There it is. I took a deep breath. “Jesus hell…” I muttered. “This is gonna be a long talk.” "It it helps, most are only different because of their Mana genes. For example. A DNA test will tell us that you and I are of the same Dire Wolf Race, but a MNA test will tell a whole different story. Such as your ability to shift between feral and humanoid is within your MNA genes while mine lack that entirely, rather my MNA focuses more on defense, and enhancing my senses to their peak at all times." “Huh, that’s really interesting.” I said honestly. “Is it just the one type of MNA per wolf or can there be multiples in one person?” "Multiples. Easily. Take the hybrid you brought here. Upon her arrival I could smell her unique MNA and DNA. Quite the issue with her MNA though." “Is it because of her berserker rage?” I asked. “And I might need to get an MNA test to see what’s special about me…” I muttered to myself as I wondered what else could be different about me besides my shapeshifting. "Possibly. I could smell an instability but a proper MNA test will tell more." "And is it like a normal DNA test?" I inquired. "Or is there something else to it?" "It's similar. You take some blood or spit or even hair and run it through a magi-tech device that can pick up and display the Mana Genes and relay their functions." “Neat.” I nodded. “Should I buy one or do you have one just randomly on hand?” "Vamp probably has one. Any of the former Nexus labs should too, it's standard issue medical equipment." Predator informed. “Ah.” I nodded. “And the closest Nexus lab that...I own is where?” I asked, not having actually went around to see where each one was on this planet yet. "Two miles east. One mile under the ocean." Predator stated. “I shall keep that in mind.” I nodded. “So, what are some of the more...common Dire Wolves or MNA traits?” "Howling magic, lycanthropy, Moon Healing, Predatory senses heightened, and intelligence are the most common." “Fair enough.” I nodded. “Also, Moon Healing? Like faster regeneration during the night or something?” "Basically. It can vary from race to race and effect either healing items or regeneration abilities." “Sounds about right.” I nodded. “So besides the fact you can’t turn into a beastial, what other things does your MNA say about you?” "Kite, I'm a Cript. It probably has more there than it should." “Yeah.” I nodded while gently patting Predators head. “But you're still a good boy.” With a kiss goodbye I left Predator to their business. I stopped by the medbay, hoping to get a sample of Neyla's DNA…. Or was it MNA? Either way that got derailed as she was awake now. “Afternoon sleeping beauty.” I said. “How you feeling?” "Like a fucking truck ran me over." She groaned, popping her joints as she stretched. "How did you do that? I remember… changing, but not even Matilda could fight me in that form?" She asked. “Because I figured out who your father was.” I answered. “And for me...well…it’s a bit complicated.” "What does my old man have to do with it?" “Your old man is probably the reason why you go into a berserker rage whenever you get like that.” I said honestly. “And how I know this? Well first of all, how are you hiding the fact you're half Dire Wolf?” "I'm not." She huffed, flopping onto the bed again. "It's… my mom came from a unique beastial world. There was some magic, but their entire race, every race on that world evolved into how they are through pure evolution. No magic involved. As a result, the magic that was there focused less on the physical aspects of evolution and focused more on the primal instincts. It left something in predators like mom, a desire to consume flesh. Not fun when everyone on the world is a sentient creature. When I was born, that primal instincts and my primal form… happily went hand in hand as whenever I turned into it, my mind basically goes to sleep and mindless pure instinct take over. In that form it’s got the body for it too. On top of that, it can use all my spells and magic and Keyblade, though not as effectively. Not sure if that’s good news or not.” “Well, that helps at least explain it a bit more than just your Dire Wolf father’s MNA.” I said as I brought out a needle. “But I’m still gonna need some of your blood to make sure...also you fought really well, never seen a Whip cut through a shadow clone like that.” "Thanks, but try and take some blood and I'll show ya where you can shove that needle." She replied plainly. “It’s just a small little blood test, are you really going to start that?” I asked the cat. "Yes, actually." She said, sitting back up. "I don't do blood tests. Been down that road too many times. Main reason I was on that deathtrap planet is for herbs. Have to make my own medicines." "Well, you don't have to anymore." I answered. "Cause you're staying here, and as your doctor I need to make sure you're healthy." I said in complete seriousness for Neyla's health. "I don't do Doctors. Last five I met gave me these." She pulled the fur along her arms back, showing deep, old scars. Her belly has three and there was even one along her skull, all hidden by her coat. "So, I repeat, take your needle and shove it." "Cool." I nodded. "So can you please just lift your arm up? Cause I'm not going to do this roundabout when you actually need the help." I told her bluntly, the sincerity in my voice at me wanting to help her being pure. "I don't want your help. In case you forgot, you looked for me. To ask about a guy I haven't spoken to In a year. Not to have you play doctor in your cave sex roleplay dungeon." She growled. "Yes you do need help." I stated simply. "I should know, I'm in your position as well, and why I asked you about Arpeggio is because he's one of the few people apparently that cares about you and he's in danger." I told her. "And if you can stop thinking about yourself for five seconds that would be appreciated." "Really? You're Lanes Born?" She asked, the venom in her voice present. "...No, but I know hell, and I know loss. I know what it's like to watch the people you love most taken from you, and unable to do anything about it. I know what it's like to want revenge and to not trust anyone. And I know what it feels like to believe you're truly alone because you're different from everyone else." I stated, keeping my voice firm yet calm. "Now I can't know what you've been through but I can get a pretty damn good idea based on those scars. But I can't know why if you don't tell." Neyla looked at me for a while, probably gauging my response. "I still don't want the fucking needle." She huffed. "And neither do I." I said in agreement while putting it away. "But I wasn't joking about me being a doctor." I said while pulling out my medical doctorate for her to see. She took hold of it. "Bullshit, how does a sixteen year old get a medical degree?" "Because a whole lot of things that are complicated and weird." I answered. "Whatever…" She said, tossing my degree aside. "So, what do you want from me exactly?" “Well first up, is me doing a check up on you cause as far as you told me, all the doctor's you’ve met have been completely insane quack’s that wouldn’t know how to take someone’s blood pressure without a knife.” I said with a frown as I started to grab something’s in the med bay. “One of the many reasons why I was in agreement to having a fully stocked med bay…” "Unless you can give me a checkup without touching me, I'm not for it. I can smell Matilda and… some panda chick all over you. Pervert." “Me and Matilda have been dating for years as well as Jing King, which Matilda was happy to have as apart of a harem.” I said honestly. “And fine, I’ll just use some magic to do the check up.” I said while bringing up my cane and using a Medical Scan ability to check everything about her. “And also, couldn’t have stopped the lovely Panda even if I wanted to considering it was her idea.” "I am not surprised that cougar is dating a younger man." Neyla rolled her eyes as my scan finished up… Jesus Christ. Complete immunity to bacteria, infections, and Kidneys and a liver that could filter out pure ethanol. Her immune system is insane! White blood cells and Killer T cells that are basically single celled Doom Guys crossed with Kratos! Her cells are so fast at regeneration she's probably going to live to be a thousand or more before she gets a wrinkle! And THAT is JUST her biology! Magic wise, she's got everything I got when it comes to Wolf and primal magic affinity on top of her Tiger Primal instincts magic and her Keyblade magic levels are insane. I did a quick scan with code. Not a god… but God damn lucky with all this. No wonder those wackjob doctors cut her open. Her blood could probably cure every disease on their planet. “Okay, so I have a question at this point, and that’s how you still have those scars.” I started. “Cause your regeneration should have made those go away rather quickly.” She shrugged. "Dunno. Didn't listen when the doc's told me. All I heard was blaw blaw, cure all illness, blaw blaw, harvest your body, blaw blaw, dying for a good cause." “Your blood is one of the strongest I’ve seen, as you’re blood literally makes you immune to all known diseases, there’s literally no way you would have died cause they regenerate to quickly and efficiently you’d be at least a thousand years old without so much as a wrinkle.” "Huh. Well, that explains why I'm thirty but look seventeen." She said, looking herself over. "Also explains a lot of… other things now that I think of it…" “What other things?” I inquired as I gently took some of Neyla’s shed fur, cause apparently even if her cells regenerated fast that doesn’t stop her fur from shedding like mad in a new environment. "Well, this one time I was on a world kinda like the one we were on earlier, but replace the virus with a crazy fungus. Didn't kill me and honestly the soup I made with it tasted like crap. Another time a vampire bit me but rather than turning he turned human again." “Blood so strong it can literally reverse vampyrism? Damn, that’s pretty good.” I said honestly. “And I think I know that Fungus world, The Last of Us was it’s name.” I said honestly. “But otherwise, your of perfect physical health...mental and emotional on the other hand…” I started. “What really happened when Arpeggio asked you about a Keyblade?” Neyla sighed, Frowning as she looked over at nothing. "Like I said, he saw me using it. By then I knew him enough that I thought he could handle the truth. So I told him. But… he began thinking, and out loud at that. For as long as I've known Arpeggio, he's been obsessed with flight… and finding a cure." "A cure?" I asked. "Maybe cure is the wrong word. He wanted to change his body." Neyla said. "As you probably know, he has the body of a toddler. While his mind is one of the greatest of his time, his health has always been… bad. Basically the complete opposite of mine. I get a cut, I can shrug it off. Him, he'll bleed out in minutes from a simple paper cut. I break a bone, it heals in a few… hours at most. Arpeggio… well, his bones are like glass being held together by cheap tape and a glue stick. I've never gotten sick. He catches the flu and it's like he has cancer." She laid back on the bed. "I first met him eleven years ago. I was looking for certain metals the Moogles pay good Munny for. I wasn't doing so well then. Rotten scraps would have been Nirvana to me then. He caught me raiding the recycling bins of his lab. I was too weak that the panic made me pass out. He got me inside, and when I woke up, for the first time in a week I had a real meal. I kept visiting, at first to repay him. I'd bring him metals and he'd give me a meal, but then he found out I didn't have a real education. Began teaching me. Over time, he felt kinda like a father to me." “Jeez, I knew him being born more feral than anyone else was a detriment to his flight but...I didn’t think it would have made him literally Glass.” I said. Nodding, Neyla continued. "It's not like I did think about it before, taking him to another world, maybe some magic or technology from somewhere could help him… but with how he is, I'm not sure he'd even make the trip to the other world alive even in a Gummi Ship." “And he didn’t take any of this well I assume?” I inquired. "I've never seen him angry until then. It was… different. The madder he got the more pale he got and… I thought he was gonna give himself a stroke or a heart attack. I cast Sleep on him, and put him to bed… then left. That was the last I saw of him." “I don’t think he was mad at you.” I said honestly. “I think he was...legit furious that, even with salvation at the tips of his wings with your help...it was still out of reach to his own frailty.” I sighed out. "Even so, how can I go back and see him?" “With me shadowing you.” I answered simply. “Arpeggio would still care about you, and if he’s smart about this he’d understand you were worried for his safety and ran because...well this would probably be the first time your father got that pissed.” I said honestly. “But...as a quick warning...if I’m right, which I hope I’m not, he might do one of two things, push you away so you don’t get caught up in whatever mess he’s gotten himself into, or ask you to join in on whatever insane plan his new boss has planned for this world.” "Hard to tell with him." Neyla sighed. "I doubt he'd get himself into trouble without a backup plan of sorts. So, what do you know that I don't?" “Well…” I started. “He is able to fly first of all, but I’m worried that he got that from a very dangerous benefactor that would only have ‘Cooper Gang’ as his backup plan...and that benefactor would be Clockwerk.” I frowned. “A robotic owl, now in a robotic body in the shape of my dad, who now has powers he really shouldn’t have, as his entire life is now just pure unbridled rage and hate to the point...his Light half is Dead.” "Hmm… okay so I know this place was a shit show when I left but… really?" “Have you heard of a group called ‘Nexus’?” I asked. "Hmmm… it rings a bell… shit I know I headed that name somewhere… was it dad? Yeah I think… damn it I know I heard that name before…" “Well good news and bad news.” I started. ‘Bad news is that Nexus is a multiversal organization that was run by someone that wants the mass extinction of all life because fuck you, and the good news is that the bastard handed me nintey nine percent of that organization he was going to slaughter anyways because the vast majority didn’t want to cause genocide on that level.” I said honestly. “Also I got a bunch of nifty things, only one of which actually matters because this stupid ability he gave me makes me having my powers back practically worthless.” "Where have…" Neyla said to herself. I don't think she heard me. "I think dad mentioned… ugh, where have I heard it. I know my dad mentioned the name before but I can't remember why or when." “I literally just explained it.” I said to Neyla a little louder. "Yeah, Clockwerk, benefactor, Arpeggio can fly, but what are you not telling me?" "I literally just explained things about Nexus…." I told her carefully. "Name still rings a bell but I don't know why. But I mean what is it you are expecting to happen?" "What do I expect to happen with what thing specifically? Cause three things I'm expecting at this point." I stated simply. "In general." She asked. "Cause something still don't add up." "What doesn't add up?" I inquired. "The fact that you came looking for me specifically to ask about Arpeggio when no one, not even Matilda knew I knew him. So how did you know to look for me?" "Do you want the simple version or the complicated version?" I asked. "The version where you get to the point and don't long winded talk about the reasons." "I'm a reincarnated God that chose this world to relive life as a 'mortal' under the supervision of a special interest group...and I had to experience pains I haven't felt in ages before I became a god…" I sighed out, not bringing up Admin cause that would have been a whole other thing to explain. "Like experiencing my parents murders again and blaming myself for being powerless to stop it…" "Stop it there, I asked for the no bullshit reason, not your first and second life story. How did you know to look for me specifically and skip the backstory crap." "Because time and the multiverse is weird and I'm just going through key points that was most likely to happen through a thousand different ones." I said carefully. "And most of them involved you being apart of a criminal gang led by Arpeggio to use Clockworks corpse for one reason or another." I explained. "Just...Vincent threw a massive wrench into all of this…" I added. "So basically gods fucked with mortals, you are one and are trying to help?" Neyla repeated In a fairly simple version of my explanation. "Pretty much." I nodded. "And in this case, it's one god giving Clockwork powers they shouldn't have." "Alright, fair enough." Neyla shrugged. "So what's your plan?" "My plan at the moment is to check on who's a part of the Klaww Gang at the moment, and so far it's Arpeggio and Rajan the Tiger." I said honestly. "I'm on the fence with another and am pretty sure I can rule out two others." “Okay, and how do you expect to gain the information on who is in the Klaww Gang?” "Mostly surveillance, keeping an eye on these certain individuals at a safe distance so they don't know their being followed or watched." I said simply. "Can't be too direct or else it'll cause more trouble than needed." “So the slow and takes forever route? Great… now I gotta hang around here and do something.” "Not necessarily on the slow and take forever part." I said with a raised hand. "One of my targets, Rajan, is a known Illegal Spice Trader that's been dabbling in Slave trade and Weapon Smuggling, so you can help us take down several of his compounds to stifle his business." I explained. “Fun.” Neyla said, cracking her knuckles. Rajan’s compounds were all still largely located in India. Many were heavily armed and under constant guard. Thankfully, he had a smaller project working out of his old hometown of Calcutta. Apparently, the more exotic and… desirable of his goods, be them weapons, spices, or slaves, he held an underground auction for. Where the auction takes place though is still unknown. I took Neyla, as well as Uncle M, Dad, and Matilda for this job while the others looked into all the other possible Klaww Gang members. Arriving in Calcutta, we were met with a city in ruins, held together by the half hazard rebuilds of Rajan’s goons at work. They controlled the food, water and medicine; and therefore the locals. Looks like we have our work cut out for us here. We set up base just outside the city limits, in a former subway entrance. Once the gear was all set it was time to get jobs. “Here you go Neyla.” Uncle M said, handing her a Binocucom. “This will let us communicate as well as locate your mission locations and gather photographic data.” “Cool.” Neyla said, pocketing the device. “So what am I doing?” “Right now we need information.” Matilda spoke up. “Conner and Kite will head to an old factory on the north side of the city. We think this is a storehouse for his… products. While you and I recon outside of Rajan’s local office in the area. He sometimes makes an appearance and with luck we can plant a bug in there and pick up some sensitive phone calls.” “Sounds like a plan.” I nodded. “Finally get to have some father son time after...way too long.” “Heh, yeah.” Dad said, giving me a one armed hug. We headed out rather quickly and climbed up the buildings. When we made it up I noticed dad was holding the family cane. “Did Sly give you the cane back dad?” I inquired. “Yeah, before I left. Said since I was back I should see which of you boys should inherit it properly.” Dad said, gripping the old cane in his hand. “Honestly, I think he did it to help me get back into things better… and I won’t lie, second I held it again I felt… better.” “Like an extension of yourself is finally back?” I asked. “I guess. This cane was your link to me when I was… away, and for me it’s the same. Even with dad back it’s still weird… spent so long…” Dad shook their head. “By the way, what did you all do with Clockwerk’s old body?” “I took it and, in a fit of cathartic rage that I’m so glad to have gotten off my chest, destroyed it to such a degree that not a single atom of that bastard owl’s old body remains.” I said with a smile. “Right… Sorry, I still find it strange that the baby boy who’s diapers I changed is also a god…” Dad said. “Though, thinking back that might also explain a lot…” “At the time I was just Kite Cooper...it wasn’t until I was going to fight the Panda King that I got my powers back.” I said honestly. “And...I’m sorry for lying about who I am dad...even if everyone is alright with who I really am…” I sighed out, not sure how to properly say about how upset I still was at myself. “In my line of work, you can fake a lot of stuff.” He said, walking over and scruffing up my hair. “But from what I saw when you were little, and what you did, even before you got all your mojo back, you can’t fake love. Not with all you’ve done Kite.” “Thanks dad.” I said with a warm smile. “Still means the world to me to hear...anything positive about me from my family here, after all of...this.” “Hey, you did more for this family than any Cooper before you. Clockwerk may still be out there, but he’ll have to think thrice damned as hard before going toe to talons with Kite Cooper.” Dad laughed. “Come on then, M said that this warehouse might be for storage, and we best make sure nothing fishy is going on.” “Wherever a Cooper goes, something fishy is happening.” I joked. Racing our way to the warehouse, Dad and I stopped to pickpocket a few guards and kept going. The warehouse was once used for semi trucks to load and transport goods. Now only a few of the loading docs were open, the rest were all welded shut and the whole of the grounds were surrounded by makeshift watch towers, gun toting guard patrols, and even some drones were in the air. Definitely keeping something valuable in there. “Jeez, Rajan really must not want people in that warehouse.” I muttered as I pulled out my Binocucom and started taking pictures of the defenses here. “Making it rather obvious isn’t he?” Dad said as he scanned the building. “No way in from the roof with those drones. The ground area is a death sentence… Let’s scout the sewers then.” Dad said as he put his coms away. With a nod we ran over to a partly hidden manhole, prying it open easily and we jumped in. Down here was secure too. Mostly, lasers, automated turrets, and… robot alligators? “Robogator’s...jeez this guy does not want visitors.” I muttered. “Think an EMP will set it all off?” “Relax. If you saw my video, we can easily bypass most of this.” Dad said, pulling out a laser light from his pocket, turning it on and immediately jumped on it. Smiling, I followed. I was surprised he brought out a slingshot and with a few rapid shots, destroyed the turrets. “Quite the quickdraw ya got there.” I said honestly. “Got the idea when reading up on Kid Cooper. Not a fan of guns myself, so I picked a Slingshot since I was able to have M create a variety of ammo, from my usual high density impact shots, to smoke bombs, to sleep pellets, even explosives.” “That’s a good idea.” I nodded. “Just...I wish I could have met him under better circumstances… the poor guy practically begged me to… let him see his family again.” “I can imagine…” Dad said, sighing. We made it through the sewers and entered the warehouse through an old drainage pipe in a no longer working refrigerator. Once inside we slipped around. Opening a few boxes showed us various military grade weapons, Illegal drugs and Spices, but oddly, not a single prisoner. “This place is well stocked but...something doesn’t feel right…” I muttered carefully. “Yeah, where’s he keeping the… live Merchandise?” Dad asked. We took photos and ran through the building, avoiding guards and the occasional camera. We did manage to find a hidden doorway, and it was here we found them. A single, chained up slave. They were a young sloth bear, black fur and rather well fed. Even with chains on their legs and wrists. “Hello?” I carefully asked the young sloth bear. They looked over at me, tilting their head in confusion as they looked at Dad and I. “Are you alright?” Dad asked, carefully approaching them. “How long have you been here?” They didn’t speak, rather they counted their claws and held up four claws. “Four years?” I asked worriedly to the young bear. They nodded. “How old are you?” Dad asked. They pulled up a fifth claw. “We’re gonna get you out of here.” I said carefully, but before I moved I checked the entire area to see if there were any hidden alarms or anything worse. There were. Built into his cuffs, all four of them were sensores with small explosive charges. If they break, they go off. If they open without the right fingerprint, they go off. The explosives wouldn’t kill him, but would probably blast his hands and feet off at the joints. “Why so much security for a kid?” Dad pondered. “Either one of two things...either this little bear is being sold for a very high price...or Rajan weirdly took fancy to him and want’s to ‘have an heir’ because his fascination with being seen as royalty is literally driving him insane...more so than usual.” I said carefully. “Also explains why he’s so well fed all things considered.” “No idea…” Dad muttered. “How… how do we get him out of here?” “Hmm…” I hummed. “I wonder…” I muttered as I tried to look at it’s Code to see if I could just deal with it that way. I immediately pulled back. This was Admin made… and Clockwerk’s ever familiar hatred was all over this Code. Crap… “What’s wrong?” Dad asked. “Clockwerk made this.” I sighed out. “I thought I could use some of my more...special powers to try and deactivate it fully...but sadly I can't without delving deep into the thing and...if I mess up it’s probably the same response as everything else…” “Shit. Who are you kid?” Dad asked aloud. A loud set of footsteps began echoing towards us. Rapidly I grabbed dad and cast invisibility over us. Walking into the room was one of the guards, carrying a plate with some kind of stew. “Here you go.” He said, placing the bowl down for the kid. “I’ll be back in a few for the dishes.” With that, he left. Once he was gone, the kid began eating and I dropped the spell. “That was… interesting.” Dad muttered. “Do you have a name?” I asked the kid softly, really wishing I had my Assistant to give me a translator cause I wasn’t sure if something was magic sensitive in here with Clockwerk’s efforts put into it. The kid used a claw and lightly carved into the wall ‘Shaan’ on the wall. “He can spell. If he’s been here since he was one, they’ve been teaching him.” Dad said. “Why are you here?” I asked carefully. They shrugged, quickly finishing their meal and placing the empty bowl aside. “Do you have parents?” Dad asked. The kid nodded. “Who are your parents?” I asked softly. The kid thought for a moment, then drew on the wall the image of a crown. “They’re royalty?” Dad asked, the kid nodded. “Looks like you might be right about Rajan wanting an heir, who better than someone with an existing bloodline?” “Fair enough.” I nodded. “You happy here or do you want to leave?” I asked the kid carefully. They shrugged. Uncertain, but taking too long as is, Dad and I left the kid. We would be back. Arriving back at the hideout, We exchanged info. Matilda and Neyla managed to plant the bug within Rajan’s local office, as well as took photos of documents about shipments, but whatever the addresses were, were not part of any maps from before everything went south. “Alright, so we got plenty of info, and we also have Rajan holding a poor Sloth Bear hostage and using him as a makeshift ‘heir to the thrown’ to keep up whatever delusion he has about being royalty.” I brought up. “It might be worse than that.” M said as he went over the info we all gathered. “According to some of the documents I’ve been able to hack thanks to the planted bug. If my assumptions are right, this child has a far darker past than expected.” “How so?” Neyla asked. “Well, when India fell, the royal family went into Hiding. When Rajan rose to power, he hunted them down, slaughtering all but the youngest prince.” “The kid?” Dad asked. M shook their head. “The prince was nineteen.” “So it’s his son… did he… have a wife?” Matilda asked. “No. He did have a few noble women lined up, but most fled the kingdom.” “So…” I started. “Can you please tell me Rajan isn’t using the young prince to try and breed a princess and...then forcefully marry her when she’s of age?” I asked carefully. “That’s what I believe to be the case.” M said with a sigh. “I will keep hacking to see if young Shaan doesn’t have any siblings… and if possible, the location of the Prince and his Concubine.” “I’m amazed Rajan is keeping these infant Princes alive.” Neyla said. “Weirdly this asshole has some modicum of standards.” I started. “Why murder innocent and defensless children when you can just literally slaughter them when they come of age?” I frowned. “Any idea how… long ago he captured the Prince and started this mess?” Matilda asked. “The Prince, that was seven years ago, I am not sure when he captured a noble concubine, however, it could have been before or sometime after. That data will take some time to collect.” Uncle M said. “Is there any rebel force against Rajan or is no one wanting to fight him?” I asked. “There was…” Matilda started. “I believe he piked their heads atop his palace gates.” “Damn.” Neyla said. “Guess that just leaves us to deal with him, one small bit of territory at a time.” “True.” I nodded. “Just wondering how we can spin this to either rally support from the people or cause Rajan to absolutely lose his shit and start messing up a crap ton.” “Well, can’t do much unless we get to work. What do we do first?” Neyla asked. “Where to start?” M said with a sigh. “The main issue will be the warehouse. It’s bad, but we also need to find his primary slave warehouse and the auction house location.” “So, what’s the plan there M?” Dad asked. “Well, obviously some Underground types will arrive here and buy either weapons, Spices, Drugs or Slaves. I can build and set up cameras to scan and recognize any and all major underground types and alert us, then we can tail them and hopefully they lead us to the auction house. Tearing that town will also lead us to where they store the slaves.” “And hopefully Rajan is dumb enough to just need a dress code only instead of needing an actual invitation.” I said honestly. “And if you're wondering why I’m...weirdly specific about dress code...has anyone ever seen his guards? Seriously, does he have that shit tailor made?” I asked, cause for some reason all of Rajan’s guards I’ve seen were weirdly well dressed for being armed and ready for murder. “What? Are you suggesting his slave auctions would also be a fashion show?” Dad asked. “Honestly...weirdly wouldn’t put it past him.” I said as I thought for a bit. “In any case, gives me an idea.” Neyla said as headed for the door. “Saw an old fabric shop on the way over to the office. Gonna see if anyone is still working there.” “I’ll come with, cause I have a really good eye for detail, especially when it comes to fabrics.” I said as I followed after Neyla. “Nah, I got this.” Neyla shrugged as she rushed out. “Still gonna follow her?” Matilda asked. “Am I that transparent?” I asked in mock surprise. I rushed after her, following at a distance. She rapidly jumped and swung from the rooftops and soon she jumped down the air ducts of the fabrics store. Following I was met by the loud noises of automated machines sewing and rolling fabrics. This building was packed with them. I found Neyla in the former main office. Her whip was tied up and wrapped around a jaguar, hanging upside down from the ceiling. “Now then, where’s your shipment going?” Neyla asked. “Piss off!” The Jaguar yelled, earning a hard punch from Neyla that made him swing around like a punching bag. “Wanna try that again?” “Alright you two, let’s try this again.” I said carefully. Neyla rolled her eyes as she looked over at me. “Not surprised you followed.” “You know me so well.” I said jokingly. “So, what’s the cause for tying him up and using him as a punching bag?” “He’s the guard here, so he knows something.” She replied. “You can all burn in- Gack!” He tried to yell but another punch from Neyla silenced him and sent him swinging again. “We find out where these fabrics get shipped, we can figure out not just the auction house location, but also the main guard barracks and other tidbits of Rajan’s operation.” “Cool.” I nodded. “So my fine jaguar friend? Do you want to do this the easy way?” I asked while motioning to Neyla. “Or do you want to do this the hard way?” I asked carefully, the Jaguar suddenly feeling his instincts screaming at him to run from whatever the hell I have in store. “Awh, that’s cute, you think you’re worse than me?” Neyla chuckled. “Yes.” I answered bluntly, which caught Neyla off guard a bit with how blunt, or how quick it was. “Oh really?” She asked, now circling me. “And here I thought the Cooper’s didn’t do torcher.” “Cooper’s don’t…” I said, which I wanted to stay true to the Cooper beliefs. “And I am a Cooper...but there’s somethings I can put past when it comes to animals like Rajan and his pack of cowards.” I growled. “Is that what dear old dad would want to hear from his son?” Neyla asked, making me wince. “I’m doing you a favor, Kite. I can see the will, the fire in your eyes to do what needs to be done, but I know that’s a line your family can’t, won’t cross.” Neyla said, her eyes shifting to a familiar red but her body didn’t change. “Just let a real animal handle the bloody work.” “If only you knew…” I muttered. “Well good news and bad news. Good news is, my friend here wants me to still have a conscience and not skin you alive at least three different times,” I saw the guy actually flinch in fear as to the fact I just said that oh so casually. “But bad news is, you done pissed off someone that can kick Rajan’s ass six ways from sunday, so I ask, do you want to do this the easy way? Or the hard way?” Neyla didn’t give him a chance to answer, and got to work. I stood back… and watched. It was bruitle, she even used a few variations I know of and finally he cracked. Rajan’s main slave warehouse is in the old movie theatre, while his auction house is in the old capitol building. The main guard barracks is within an old hotel called Royal Reserved. “Thanks for that.” Neyla said, spinning the bleeding and swollen jaguar goon around. “You’ve been quite helpful.” “Good enough.” I nodded. “Now to make sure there’s no proof.” I said while casting a sleep spell on the jaguar, knocking him out instantly as I started to heal his many many injuries. “See any booze around here?” “You really think making it look like he was drunk is gonna work? Rajan might be crazy but he isn’t stupid.” Neyla said, still spinning the unconscious feline around. “Then what would you think we should do with this guy?” I asked curiously. "I have several ideas, none you'll like." Neyla said, looking over at me. “Either eat him or slit his throat and throw him in an undisclosed ditch?” I asked. "Not my preferred method… not like my primal form hasn't…" She sighed. "We could also seal his heart. Will pretty much put him into a coma. There's a few worlds we can drop him on. His species would blend in perfectly and anything he says, he'd be thrown into a loony bin." “Fair enough.” I nodded. “Better than murder...cause Cooper’s don’t do murder.” “Yeah.” Neyla said, grabbing some paper and writing something down. “Here’s a good world’s coordinates, send him off. I’ll tell the others about this news.” "Fair enough." I nodded as I looked over the coordinates and grabbing the guy as I made a DTL. "Let's hope he doesn't cause too much trouble…" I muttered as I dragged his unconscious body into the door to a new world. Arriving at the world, it looked almost like a human world. Save for the Anthro, very human body animal people, there was almost no difference. I dropped the guy off in an alley way and left. Or rather, I would have. Right as I was set to open a DTL, I saw plastered on a nearby wall, the long aged paper of a missing person’s poster. She looked… a lot like Neyla. Missing: Hannah Pirkenson. Gender: Female Carnivore Species: Bengal Tiger The rest of the paper was torn off. It’s been here for a long time… Is that, Neyla’s mother? I looked around, taking in this world and it’s magic… it was faint… yet still so… wild… primal… This is Neyla’s mother’s world. “Uh...that’s concerning…” I started carefully. Using some magic I preserved the paper before removing it from it’s hanging place… Does Neyla know? I sniffed the paper… old. Slightly molded… this is almost… forty years old. Neyla is in her thirties… “Okay so...maybe Neyla’s mother went off-world or something?” I muttered in concern. “Something doesn’t feel right here…” I pocketed the paper and went back. Maybe Matilda knows something? I arrived back home and managed to take a job with Matilda for setting up the special cameras uncle M made so we can know which scumbags were going to be at the auction house. Now that we knew where the pens and where the shop was, we figured it best to learn who would be there. “Neyla’s mother? What about her?” Matilda asked as she placed the final camera. “So Neyla made me go to her mother’s home world and dump off a freshly knocked out guard Neyla damn near mauled to death...so then I found her mother on a missing person’s flier that’s...forty years old.” I explained. “Huh… Well, sorry Kite but I never knew her mother, and Neyla didn’t talk much about her parents.” Matilda said, scratching her head. “All I do know is that she was a keyblade wielder, so there’s only a handful of people who could have been her teacher.” “Well, that might explain the ten year gap between her disappearance and Neyla’s birth.” I said honestly. “But I wonder why she never went back to her homeworld...if that wasn’t just on pure coincidence and she actually is on that world still.” “Dunno. Only Neyla would know for sure.” Matilda shrugged. I frowned, gripping my cane. All that Neyla has been through… and that bit about Arpeggio… he was like a father to her… Back at the hideout, I was about to confront Neyla, but stopped as I reached her room’s door. There was… music, a soft hum Neyla was singing. I listened for a while, the soft melody was rather sad, but something about it hit me… something relating to my nature as a Dire Wolf… I knocked then entered, shaking that from my head. Neyla was laid along her makeshift bed. “Goon number three has been dropped off?” She asked. “Yes, and I also found something...concerning while I was there.” I said carefully. “But before that, that was a great Dire Wolf song.” “My dad used to sing it to me when I was little. I can’t remember the lyrics, but I remember the tune.” She replied simply. “So, what’s so concerning?” I pulled out the missing person flier. “I randomly found this forty year old piece of paper saying your mother’s gone missing.” Neyla looked up, seeing the paper. “Yeah. And?” “Is everything alright?” I asked carefully. “Cause...seeing this as it’s forty years old...Arpeggio basically being a father to you…” I started. “Is everything okay?” “Kite, look at me.” She said simply, cracking a small smile. “What about me is Okay?” She said, sitting up. “So, what does the nosy raccoon want to know so badly exactly?” I gently walked over and sat down next to her on her bed. “I may not be a professional psychiatrist...but what do you want or need to talk about?” I asked softly, trying to show my concern and care for the poor tiger. “Anything you want to get off your chest, I’m here to listen.” She laughed. “Yeah, cause that’s what I need in my early thirties, therapy from a god of… whatever you’re a god of.” She shrugged. “There’s not much to say really… I’m lanes borne, a natural magnet for heartless and the darkness at play on any world. Add in a Keyblade and I basically ring the dinner bell. My Keyblade manifested when I was thirteen. Happiest day of my life… Til the Heartless came. I didn’t know how to disband it. They kept coming, and coming… and coming. Mom opened a DTL and threw me in. Last time I saw her or dad and a Demon Tide was about to devour them.” Neyla sighed. “I landed at her old master’s place. He taught me how to use Keyblade magics without a Keyblade in hand, then sent me off.” “If...you want, I can do something very important.” I said softly. "No." Neyla said flatly. "Mom and Dad are… gone. Besides, I'm not the little girl they left behind. I'd like to let them rest in whatever afterlife awaits us." “I understand.” I nodded. “Is there anything else you want to talk to me about?” I asked. "Not really." Neyla sighed. "Life isn't fair, and I get that." "It isn't...but it can be somewhat fairer." I said. "And all you need for it...is a friend." "That's cheesy as all hell." "But it's true." I said honestly. "From someone with personal experience in this, friends and family make things a hell of a lot fairer." "Whatever you say, random god guy." She chuckled, messing with my hair a bit. "So, how long do you think it will take to tear down all of Rajan's empire?" "Depends on if he has any backup plans, cause if it's just this than...maybe a month, or at least a couple weeks." I said honestly. "I'm being cautious here instead of saying 'in a week's like the others…cause a lot more is happening behind the scenes." "When isn't there? So, are you gonna go? I was planning on taking a nap." "A nap would…" I suddenly yawned. "Ugh, okay a nap sounds good right now." I nodded while heading off to bed after a long day. To be continued... Nobody finishes the dungeonSo after everyone got a good rest, especially me cause this Godhood form takes a lot out of me especially with that much Haki... "So, had your fun?" Cript asked. “Yes, yes I did.” I said happily, looking at my armored hands. “Was fun to let loose...and use a lot of abilities I never used before.” "Well you best keep at it like that then cause it's not gonna be easier. We're on the last few floors so best to, ya know, not hold back or anything." “Yeah…” I started. “Only people I can think of that we have to fight are...ourselves at this point.” I said carefully. "Yeesh. Scary thought. Save for Kexez, their floor was literally the easiest since there was nothing." The next floor had me sigh as I took in the decor… this… was my floor. "Well, this is… unsettling." Jericho stated. “Well...shit.” I started carefully. “This is gonna be a massive pain in the ass…” I took a deep breath. “Alright, so either this place was built like a paranoid mother...or it was literally just so straight forward that we only have to fight the boss…” "What's your money on?" Cript asked. “Well…I’ll do simple, cause old age would make me bored of paranoia” I started as I grabbed a rock and flicked it into the room, it connecting with a few pillars and falls to the ground and nothing happened. We entered and thankfully nothing much happened, though eventually we did come to the main boss room. Aka, my tomb. Inside we spotted my coffin. Well, it was more like a sarcophagus, standing upright over laid down. I'm not gonna lie, it does look pretty cool. Soon the lid slid down and fell off to the side. Inside was a mass of Nothingness Thorns that soon broke apart, letting out my feral form self. I looked mummified, Void Corrupted as broken versions of my weapons were stuck across and inside various parts of my body as my dead counterpart snarled and growled with primal, total lack of intelligence fury. “Well...that sounds about right…” I nodded at the sight. “So...who wants to go first against a feral me?” "I dunno, this feels like a good opportunity for you to fight your own demons. In this case literally by fighting your failures in physical form." Cript stated. “Fine fine.” I shrugged. “Well, then...let’s get on with this.” I growled, bringing out Lunatic and Skysplitter. “Let’s start strong...Lunar Collapse!” I shouted, leaping high into the air as energy surged through both Skysplitter and Lunatic, as I threw down both at my feral demon’s with the force of an imploding Moon. As I was swinging down I noticed both Lunatic and Skysplitter both glowed on it’s back as they both flew up and clashed against my attack, causing a massive shockwave to emerge from it as I was tackled quickly, my dead version trying to bite me only for a spike to skewer it’s muzzle before it could bite me, Foudre suddenly glowed on it’s back as the both of us were suddenly hit with a move I know fully well...Raijin’s Fury. “Motherfucker!” I shouted as I kicked the thing away swiftly. “Blaze of Glory!” I shouted, summoning Eternal Flames and shooting a massive pillar of fire towards it. The damned thing had Frozen Pride glow as a pillar of hollow Ice appeared and blocked my flames, before it slithered over and tried to skewer me with ice. “It might be blinded with fury but it’s still really smart…” I grumbled, dodging the attack swiftly. “Well...if it can counter what I can do normally…” I muttered as I disbanded my weapons and brought out my new wrist blades. “Let’s do something completely different.” I growled, getting into a pounce like stance as my enemy growled, starting to slowly circle me as if trying to read my intentions. In a blur the both of us clashed together, claw and bone sparking against each other. “What happened to me…?” I muttered, wondering what could have caused me to be this injured, to be purely in my feral form, and all my weapons embedded in me. “Fa...ilure…” The wolf whispered to me, knocking me back suddenly as it landed on the ground paws first, growling and circling me again. “I won’t fail this time…” I growled, getting up again as I heard the distorted noises of Arpeggio suddenly ring out, water suddenly shaping more forms of my dead counterpart. “And I’ll never fail again!” I shouted as I dashed forwards, putting away my blades as my arms were coated in Armor and Conqueror's haki, the water wolves leaping at me as I slammed my fists into them, causing them to turn into clouds of water and getting coated in it. “And when I’m coated in water…” I muttered, seeing Foudre suddenly spark as Lightning was called down, but I took the powerful and amplified attack head on. “No matter what you do I can take it!” I roared, leaping past the lightning and slamming my fist into the wolf’s muzzle, driving it straight into the ground and cratering it deeply. And then...Book of Retribution glowed and took me to book world cause of course it would. “Of course Book world…” I grumbled, looking around carefully for the book...only to see something literally straight out of my nightmares. Everyone I loved, everyone I cared for, butchered, slaughtered, torn to bits and tortured till they died from shock or some sick twisted mercy...each one seeing myself hover over, grieving as if I was somehow responsible for their demise...I ran past each one of them towards the glowing book, seeing countless numbers of my mistakes in my life repeated in the worst ways possible, from my family abandoning me to someone else, to my family dying due to my own weakness, to me being the ones to slaughter them all...in any other circumstance, I would have crumpled up into a ball and cried, hating myself to absolutely no end… But I’ve personally been through this hell before...and even if it hurts, I don’t care anymore. “I won’t let this nightmare happen ever again!” I shouted. “EVEN IF I HAVE TO DIE TO MAKE IT SO!” I shouted as I slammed my fist into the Lexicon, it exploding into pages as I was brought out of Book World and looking back at myself, still a mummified feral monstrosity growling at me in anger. “I won’t fail…” I told them, bringing out Second Chance. “Cause I have my family now...and I’m done.” I growled, the monster leaping forward as I used my Destiny Link with Eclipsa, feeling the connection between the two of us create something amazing. “Grey Finale.” I muttered, swinging Second Chance past my dungeon self and dodging it’s swing, the older wolf falling to the ground before the magic of Second Chance started to work it’s magic on them. They wreathed and shook as the magic worked to revert the damage and then revert them to an infant form. Soon the corrupted version of me was reverted to the small pupper form of me. "Daw, you used to be so cute. And now you're Overly sexualized." Cript said with a chuckle. “I’m adorable still and you know it.” I chuckled, walking over and picking my pupper self up, hearing their small whines and nuzzling up to me. “But...you might not have been far off when you said ‘facing my demons’...” I nursed little me for a while before sending them off to the others. The next floor was essentially a replica of Ponyville. The residents, or the monsters rather, seemed to be paper mache versions of ponies. "Twilight… my Twilight." Cript stated. “Do you want to take this one Cript?” I asked carefully. He took a deep breath, raising a hand as he snapped his fingers. The whole town was suddenly ablaze in fire that touched the sky. "Sure…" He said, walking through the flames and passed the burning paper monsters. “Well...straight to the point I guess.” I shrugged, walking after him carefully. “Anything about your Twilight that we should be worried about?” I asked, cause even if this was Cript I’m talking about, Twilight is still Twilight, more of a massive paranoid nerd than me half the time. "She's patient. Learning is always a hobby for her, but when we had kids, she found a new passion in teaching." “Neat.” I nodded. “Wonder what her abilities will be if you don’t one shot her.” "Analysis. She'll learn everything about us. Replication. She'll calculate and master mentally all our abilities, skills and powers. And Finally, Counter Development. A perfect means to nullify or return the attacks no matter what they are." Cript stated. I blinked. “Damn, that’s quite the skill set.” "So how do we beat her?" Kexez asked. "Patience." Cript stated. We arrived at Twilight's crystalcrystal castle. The doors opening wide as we neared. The inside wasn't like normal, it was broken and hollowed. Once we passed the doors, they closed behind us. The walls lit up with glowing symbols and runes I actually did not recognize. "What are these?" Coco asked. “This runework…” I started. “This is all...extremely fascinating and cool...but it’s not any kind of scanning or sensory rune words I know of…” "You wouldn't know them. Twilight invented them." Cript said. "One of her pass times is to invent brand new magics, runes and spell work." Cript said with a chuckle. "Keeps them all to memory." “Now I want to learn all this new amazing stuff damn it…” I pouted, my need for learning starting to outweigh the fact that we’re about to see Cript’s Twilight in a fight. Between the bits of rubble laid all around the ground began floating form and burned paper. They swirled together until they formed an Equine figure. That figure then gained features of Twilight, horn, wings, coat and mane. She didn't look as decayed, but maybe that was because she was an Alicorn. “That’s either her or a construct of her.” I started. “Not sure which, considering she creates new magic…” "Yeah." Cript sighed out, closing their eyes. We all took a step back. Twilight's eyes opened wide as they seemed to glow with magic. Pure, raw… and unknown and new. "Even so," Cript opened their eyes, that same glow irradiating from them. "There's nothing I can't replicate." I didn't see what happened next. One moment Cript took a step forward, the next Coco, Kexez and I were all blasted back and through the castle walls and into the still burning town. I looked up and saw Twilight pulling moons, stars and planets from the sky at Cript at speeds I couldn't believe, and he either obliterated them or deflected them as they came. "Sweet… gods…" I heard Coco say from next to me. She was down on her stomach but looking up at the battle above us. “Uh...huh…” I started. “That’s...quite a thing…” I watched on in awe as Twilight wasn't just pulling the heavens down but was reshaping them faster than I could even see. One moment, a sun is being pulled near us, the next, a volley of spears forged from the stars energy. When she did this, Cript summoned forth his weapon, Darkest Hero and began rapidly cutting down the Spears. It was slow but I could see him getting closer to Twilight. His free hand glowed with the copied magic and it rapidly formed a black mass that once he gripped it tight, he threw it towards the mare as it morphed into what I can only describe as a Black Hole Hurricane, rapidly sucking in all the raining heavens Twilight was pulling. “What is this? Gurren Lagann?” I couldn’t help but comment at how absurd this cosmic level of attacks was at this point. With her main arsenal removed, Cript got in closer but Twilight rapidly cast a shield. I dropped my jaw. The rune and spell work was… incredible. Not a single milliliter of the Matrix was wasted, and each rune in the magic Twilight created. The shield took the full force of Cript's attack, and was holding. It wasn't lasting long though. Soon with each continuous swing the barrier began to crack and fracture. I was just amazed there was something that took effort for Cript to break. The barrier shattered and to my further shock Twilight was now Dodging Cript's swings, matching his speed as she began casting attack spells at Cript purely from her mind. And Cript took every attack, not even bothering to defend or counter them. "That's… impossible…" Kexez muttered as they looked up next to me. “Nothing’s impossible.” Jericho said, the only one not having fallen over. “Especially for them.” “But...there’s a certain point where...even this seems a little far fetched right?” I questioned nervously. “We might be dealing with Cript’s original Herd if Twilight's here and Lyra’s the final boss.” The Admin of War stated simply. “His...original Herd?” I asked in shock. Jericho nodded. "As you know, Lyra is his first wife. And for many years it was just the two of them… then, the Dream Project Nexus worked on surfaced. The things Cript saw are one of the few that continue to haunt him. He took some time to relax, to be a normal person, er, Pony, on the Equestria his Lyra is from. Even managed to be one of Twilight first guards for her castle. Heh, it around then when it snowballed." "Snowballed how?" Coco asked as she stood up. "Well, he was on Break, Lyra brought him lunch. They ended up shagging in the closet and then Twilight found them." “Oh yeah, I remember hearing that story.” I chuckled. "Seriously?" Kexez asked, laughing. Jericho nodded. "That ended in a three-way. Needless to say after that day the two returned home and then, guess what… nothing? Alright. Well by this point Lyra and Cript had their twins, and the babysitter they hired turned out to be Chrysalis." “Oh yeah, and then she was trying to siphon off energy from the twin’s, but Cript stopped her and showed her a much easier way right?” I asked, thinking I heard this entire story before. "Actually she was just babysitting. After her failed Canterlot Invasion, the Changelings kicked her out." “Yeah that makes sense.” I nodded. "She was surprised they didn't care she was the former Changeling Queen. Time passes and well, Twilight's three way that day left an impression on her, Chrysalis felt, well, similar feelings being accepted so openly and then Luna showed up but that's because before he was Twilight's guard, he was Luna's when Cript had amnesia and was really good at it, and Luna got a crush on him so you can imagine what happened shortly after." “Neat.” I nodded. “So we’re...probably going to be fighting Cript’s original harem then? Or just...Cript cause at this point even Cript seems to be having trouble.” "Probably just Cript. No offense but they'd… steamroll you." “It’s almost like this somehow makes my previous fights feel underwhelming and disappointing.” I frowned. "Do you wanna fight that?" Jericho pointed at the now Galactus sized Twilight casting spells with matrix circles the size of galaxies at Cript. "Then go on, go." “Fine, I will.” I said, getting up and clapping my hands together. “Unlike you people, I also create new thing’s.” I said carefully, a spell matrix appearing behind like a Buddhist Dharma Wheel as I brought out my Gauntlet and Greave weapons. “Still experimental, but it’s a good a time as any to test it out.” I growled, taking a step forward and surprising Jericho with how fast I suddenly bolted into the fight. As I rushed in and passed Cript to deal my first blow, a sudden Matrix appeared before me from Twilight. Emerging from the Matrix was- The blow when we struck one another nearly blasted me back. Looking back up I saw myself. They were noticeably not a Den Mother, but still a Dire Wolf and we're welding… Void Key. "Heh. You're the bitch I was summoned to fight?" The other me asked. “Oh there’s going to be so much catharsis with the ass kicking I’m gonna put you through.” I laughed. "You really are me to have an ego like that." They said, raising Void Key. "Well, this will be… interesting." “Oh no, there’s no ego in this.” I said. “Just gonna be me feeling so much better for all the shit you put me and my family through.” I answered, the spell matrix glowing a little brighter as I slammed my fist into the bastards face. Despite the impact they rapidly spun and sliced down my torso. The pain stung as that Void collided with my Nothingness and my wound slowly stitched itself back together. "I don't even know you." They replied as they then kicked me in the gut, sending me back some feet in the air. “Don’t you fucking use an Avenger’s Endgame quote on me.” I countered, dashing forward again as I tried throwing a series of powerful blows against the thing, wondering how powerful this version of Void Key was. They rapidly began countering and blocking. To my surprise though on my last swing they brought out Frozen Pride in a flash of Void. The shield was purple and black with various cracks and leaking Void energy. "Wow, you're actually good. If I didn't know any better I'd say you were closer to being me than a first glance would tell." “Well...I can already see where this is going.” I started, opening my hand slightly from the shield until I clenched down hard and used a powerful shield breaking strike against it, the force meant to injure this void version of me even with his shield up. They were blasted back but appeared mostly annoyed with the attack. “Seriously? That all you got?” “Oh I’ve got plenty more!” I shouted, the spell matrix starting to spin as I vanished and threw a powerful haymaker, slamming into their shield again and knocking them back again, leaping forwards to try and land another blow only for them to counter with a wall of ice tainted with Void energy that blocked my attack. “Shadow Blizzard!” The dire wolf shouted as he slammed Void Key into the ice wall, shattering it as million’s of Void infused hail pieces slammed into me, causing me to fly back. “Kharmic Reversal!” I shouted as I started to spin wildly, all the Void Hail bits suddenly spinning around me into a tornado that burned and melted away into beams of energy as I threw it all right back at him, the being blocking the attacks as best he could but still getting caught on his sides and limbs. “Ganesha’s Might!” I shouted, rushing forward as I pulled back my fist, making the dire wolf’s eyes widen as it looked like dozens of fists were suddenly appearing from my one single fist as I slammed it into his gut, a loud elephant roar sounding as it felt like dozen’s of beings lead by their leader slammed into him, sending him flying away. My opponent coughed up blood but raised Void Key up. “Condemn!” He shouted, which confused me cause he would have...I took a deep breath and looked down at my own chest, the pesky bastard put the rune on my chest when I wasn’t paying attention...so I was immediately struck by the same amount of force and flown back just as far away, just in the nick of time as a literal planet slammed into where we were, almost crushing the both of us. “Damn it…” I growled carefully. “This sucks…” “FORE!” I heard someone scream as what sounded like a golf club hitting a golf ball happened and...the planet that was between us suddenly started flying towards me. “SHIT!” I yelped, stepping back into a stance and readying a palm strike. “Kali’s Wrath!” I said, starting to do a careful dance before slamming the palm of my hand into the planet, causing it to shatter instantly as I saw the Dire Wolf...hey wait a minute, that’s my tactic! “LUNA DIVIDER!” The Void version of Me apparently swung down at me, which I managed to barely dodge as a massive explosion knocked me away. “Alright...if you want to do force…” I growled as the spell matrix behind me suddenly glowed brighter and looked more like a DharmaChakra. “Symbi...how you holding up in there?” “This sucks, but I know what you want to do.” The fusion symbiote told me as I felt the magic wheel start to spin faster and faster. “ASURA!” I shouted, feeling as the wheel seep into my back, hundreds of arms suddenly sprouting from my back that all fuzed into my two main arms and formed pure magical rage fueled might. “Oh Asura would be so pissed at you stealing his look.” Void me said, bringing out Skysplitter as well, which as I saw Skysplitter and Lunatic were both Void Tainted, taking on either darker hues and looking blood stained like Skysplitter, or damn near like a black void with Lunatic, like it was the dark side of a moon. “I mean, people might be pissed at you for using their God’s names for attacks but who knows.” “I did my research, I asked them directly, and I made sure to do thing’s with respect.” I growled, rushing forward and delivering an uppercut at them, who blocked with both Skysplitter and Lunatic but still being flung away. “Okay...your looking more and more like me the more we fight…” The Void version of me said carefully. “Never thought I’d fight a younger version of myself though.” They laughed, swapping out into Eternal Flames and sending a massive plume of flames that were on par with some of the stars here. “And I never thought I had to deal with another one of myself again.” I said, rearing back my right hand and throwing a powerful haymaker, the sudden gust of air creating a wall that caused the flames to scatter around me harmlessly. There was a sudden shift in the air. Both my other and I turned to see Cript managed to land a blow on Twilight with Second Chance. It magic managing to overpower hers and begin to heal and revert her to a foal. I turned back to my other, who to my surprise was not vanishing. “I’m...not falling...to some summoning bullshit…” Void King growled, their body having Void tendrils lashing out from their force of will to deny themselves from being thrown back. “Well…” I rolled my right shoulder carefully. “I’m just gonna have to knock you back into your world.” I said, still ready to fight against him. “Any objections Cript?” "I mean, he's you so, maybe talk first before assuming he's evil?" He stated while feeding foal Twilight with a bottle. “So why are you using Void anyway?” I asked carefully. “Have you heard the phrase ‘lived long enough to see yourself as the villain’?” Void Me asked. “Yeah of course…” I grumbled. “Who knew Consume would be such an...innovative ability to finally bring that special utopia I’ve been working towards for so long...especially against those that wouldn’t surrender.” Void King said, raising Void Key as an example. “And oh how I took a little too much gratification on devouring this asshole.” He said with sadistic glee. “Wait...you mean you...used Consume?” I asked carefully, remembering getting that ability and immediately regretted obtaining it cause it felt so...Vile. “Against Nexus and any of those fuck heads that would follow them or Void Key’s machinations yes.” The dire wolf said as they leaped forwards, swinging down at me as I blocked the strike quickly. “Any who surrendered got a nice cell that was practically their own lovely home...but I became what I needed to to bring about Peace, and that was becoming a Tyrant.” “Yeah...that sounds fair…” I sighed out, hating how I knew I would probably do that if thing’s went south after all of this as I swung my fist at them, only to be blocked by Foudre. “So am I truly evil for doing what other’s couldn’t?” Void me asked, kicking me away as they threw Foudre in a very familiar pattern around me. “I mean...the very definition of Tyrant means yes you are.” I started, vanishing before a bolt of lightning slammed into the ground, literally disintegrating the very ground that it hit in a small circle. “Unlike you, I stopped caring about the small details about the obviously terrible people and got rid of them when they didn’t surrender.” Void King growled, bringing out Sharpshooters and letting out a sudden maelstrom of arrows towards me. “So your not Evil,” I started as I slammed my fist into the ground, creating a wall of air and debris that blocked all the arrows. “You’re just tired of all the fighting...and went to any lengths to see the people you cared about be happy.” “Exactly.” Void King said. “And if I have to kick my young and naive version’s ass to get back to what I need to do, than I’ll gladly do it.” He growled, summoning Interdiction and dashing towards me. “The only thing I was naive about was immediately trying to jump into a fight that even Cript was having a little trouble with.” I rolled my eyes, blocking one of the laser sword swings. “But that was because I didn’t want to run away after I’ve come so far,” I started, slamming my fist into the guy before he went with his own gauntlets and slammed it into me. “I’ve grown so much and I won’t let someone stronger than me make it pointless again,” I declared, kicking the wolf away and jumping into the air, spinning like Sonic as I threw a spinning axe kick down onto him, which he blocked with both arms, cratering the earth beneath him. “I’m going to have to fight those fucker’s sooner or later, especially when Grey wants me to fight beasts from the Real World, so I won’t back down!” I shouted, jumping back and dashing forward, getting slammed in the face but I brushed past it and slammed my fist into them again. “I won’t run again!” I barked, as the both of us started to get into a massive anime punch-a-thon, our arms and fists blurring as the entire area around us started to rise around us. “And I won’t let it all my hard work be meaningless ever again!” I shouted. Our fight that devolved into a bare knuckle brawl went on for what felt like hours...probably only minutes but I wasn’t counting as the both of us were battered, bruised and bloodied. “You...done yet…” I panted heavily, cause even after my ‘training’ with Lord I was still exhausted, my spell matrix glowing dimly as the powerful arms of Asura gave out a while ago. “One...more hit…” Void King panted as well, the both of us raising our fists up as we threw one last, final punch as we both connected against each other in a boxing style ‘double hit’. “This is anime as shit.” Coco commented, having been eating popcorn the entire time. "Just kiss already!" Kexez yelled while sipping a large soda. "Why are you two fighting still anyways? You're both not really bad guys. So, no real point in this." “I was apparently summoned to fight this bitch.” Void King said, pointing to me. “And I wanted to join the fight to prove my progress so far wasn’t bullshit, then I had to fight this bitch.” I said as I was pointing to Void King. “Also kiss already?” “Why the hell would I kiss myself?” Void King asked. “Cause you already suck yourself off sometimes, so get on with it!” Coco called out. "Plus you did fuck and impregnate a future timeline variant of yourself, so… this isn't new to you." Kexez added. "Not to mention what you and Den, your own mom, get up to." Jericho threw in. “And my original birth mother sometimes…” Both me and Void King said at the same time. “I hate you all.” I said, pulling out an elixir and chugging it as I walked over and picked up my Void version. “Alright you, I’m gonna make you into a proper woman.” “I never signed up for this!” Void King said in pure embarrassment, the dire wolf struggling in my hold as I took them...to a closet that was weirdly in this room. “Why’s there a closet there?” Coco questioned, seeing me drag my cutely embarrassed self into it. "King, stop. If they wanna stay male then let them. Otherwise this is a rape." Cript spoke up. “Alright alright.” I called out. “Sorry.” “I still didn’t sign up for this…” Void me whined. “It’s like my second date with Chrysalis all over again…” “Was it fun?” I asked. “Well...yes…” My more conservative counterpart blushed. “Ever wanted to know what it feels like to literally fuck yourself?” I asked, causing them to wiggle a bit. “Uh...it...has crossed my mind before…” They muttered nervously. “Do you want to do it?” I asked softly, gently putting a hand onto the door handle, not turning it yet for my counterpart's decision. "Stop it." Cript said, whacking my snout with a rolled up newspaper. "Bad horny wolf. Bad." They repeated, whacking it several more times. “Oh when it happens to me it’s funny.” I rolled my eyes. “I never did say no…” Void King said. “Just...shocked at how quick...I am to literally getting plowed I suppose…” "It's kinda our King's hobby." Kexez informed. "Job in that one timeline." Jericho added. “And boy was I good at that.” I whistled at the memories. “I...really? I’m that horny?” Void King asked. “And more.” I chuckled. "Ironic considering I'm the Admin of Love. Though Lyra still leaves you with cracked hips and bruised genitals." Cript added. “That woman needs a little chill in her movements.” I complained. “I’m sorry that her thrusts can crush mountains or she rides me like a monofilament dildo.” I said carefully, which made my counterpart lightly shift in my hold. “Uh...all this horny talk…” Void King blushed. “Can we get on with me myself and I here? It’s...getting a little uncomfortable for me with uh...a lot of things.” "Well, first, King, given this version of you is from an alternate timeline, do you approve of them remaining here?" Cript asked. “Well, better question would be if the Time Walkers approve of it, cause while I can be fine with it, Time Walkers would probably be not okay with another one of me running around this place.” I mentioned, even though I technically controlled Purgatory which was a dumping ground for lost Timelines...it was still the Time Walkers job mostly. "So long as you file the paperwork they'll be fine. I still find it hilarious a Paradoxical Organization uses pure Bureaucracy." Cript chuckled. “Yeah I’m still really surprised it’s all Bureaucracy.” I nodded. A quick bit of paper and use of my powers over Nothingness later, Void King was allowed to remain here without restrictions. "So, what will you be doing now?" Cript asked my Void counterpart. “Well...you people wouldn’t be here if a war wasn’t still going on...so…” Void King looked over and saw Coco. “Teach her Consume so she can use it on Void Key.” They said as they pointed at Coco. Coco gulped. "Me?" She asked. "Huh, that actually would work out extremely well." Cript said thoughtfully. "Her biology and being built to be Void Key's perfect Host would make using Consume on him probably the most flawless assimilation that ability has ever done. Plus given how it seems to have worked for you, when she does it she'd probably surpass you in terms of Void Abilities in no time." "Can she handle Consume though?" Jericho asked. “Consume is an ability where one of the purposes of it was to have Mortal’s obtain it and become Eldritch Gods.” Void King explained. “Anyone can use it if they manage to get it, it’s all about the use of it that’s key here.” Void King said. “Cause I’ve used it on hundreds if not thousands of beings, and while some of them were a challenge, it all worked out.” Void King shrugged. “And it’ll especially work out when Coco only uses it on Void Key, cause the rat bastard really want’s Coco cause she’s their true host...so what would happen if it’s true host Consume’s it, mind, body and soul?” "Basically Coco would become a new… whatever Void Key is, but keep her identity and personality since the ability digests those aspects of the target." Cript stated. "Usually. Jericho here is an example of someone who can resist/survive that but it's a rare trait to possess to have, and even then it took him forever to reconstruct himself." "Do you think Void Key Is like that?" Coco asked worriedly. "If they are I might be able to work something out there…" Cript said. "So, gonna tag along with us or gonna head off?" “I might as well tag along to see what I’ve missed so far in this new world.” Void King shrugged. “Also Void Key would not be able to, as I have personally Consumed him, which is probably why my sexy version here thought I was being possessed by him.” They said, pulling out Void Key’s keyblade version and now that I got a better look at it...it felt hollow, like the soul in it was long gone. "Alright." Cript said as they sent foal Twilight to the safety of home. "Onwards." The next floor was easy enough to tell who was here. Chrysalis. The entire floor was styled after a Changeling Hive. The floor was surprisingly Uneventful as we arrived at the boss floor. The flesh-like door opening wide and revealing the deformed, starved frame of Cript's Chrysalis. "So… what does she do?" Kexez asked. Just then, Cript took a step forward, and Chrysalis shifted into a copy of him. The two dashed at one another, Cript taking out Darkest Hero, and to our Surprise Chrysalis did the same. "Perfect copies of whoever she shifts into." Cript stated as they fought their shapeshifting wife. “Neat.” I nodded. “Well...this is a one on one then I suppose.” "They probably all will be." Jericho stated. “Well that sucks…” I sighed out. “No more fighting for us then…” Jericho rolled their eyes as Cript and Chrysalis battled. It was a bit more tame than- "The Fuck?" Coco asked for me as Cript was already holding the small, Grub infant Chrysalis. “That was...fast.” I started carefully. “How the hell did you beat her that fast if you were literally equal?” "It's not the first time I've fought a perfect replica of myself." Cript stated. "The trick is just to fight like someone else or outspeed the copy. In my experience both work out pretty well." He said with a shrug. “Well...at least that’ll give me some advantage when I have to do that...again.” I said carefully. With that, he sent Infant Chrysalis off and we went to the next floor. This floor was the Moon. Luna. The Alicorn herself was standing before us, her features mummified almost like my fallen other. Her horn glowed as a black and silver battle-axe broke out from beneath the ground and floated to her side. “That’s a pretty cool looking axe.” I commented. "She calls it 'Moon Fall'." Cript replied as he and Luna clashed, the impact cracking the crust of the moon and sending large debris floating up and about as they slowly crashed back down. “Wonder how fast this fight will go…” I wondered, considering when he fought Chrysalis it was over rather quickly. The more they fought the more I began to examine Moon Fall. It at first seemed similar to Lunatic in concept, but it wasn't inducing a berserker state. Rather it seemed to be flowing pure energy into Luna and she back into it to create her attacks. It also, from what I can tell, seemed to be made from a moon as well, though I can't be sure exactly. In the end, Luna put up a fight that was akin to when Cript was fighting Twilight, And caused a lot of noticeable damage. Eventually though Luna was reverted back to Woona. “She so cute.” I giggled. "So that was Moon Fall. Huh, always wondered what her Axe was like." Jericho said. "Yeah, she doesn't use it that much given it makes her a bit too OP for her liking." Cript said. “It kind of reminds me of Lunatic in a way.” I pointed out. “Just without the berserk state, what is it actually?” "Well, I made Moon Fall from… what was it… oh yeah, about… 9 octillion planetless moons." Cript said. "Was a headache getting them all pressurized into the shape of the thing but it worked out pretty well in the end." "Planetless moons?" Coco asked. "Moons that were either knocked out of orbit, planets got destroyed or were just somehow sent whirling through space at random." They explained. “Huh...yeah that makes sense.” I nodded. “Cause Lunatic was made from a Planetless Moon as well, after it survived a Sun going Supernova and it was pissed.” "Yeah, but the difference between Moon Fall and Lunatic is that the Moon Lunatic is made from is a gigantic moon and was magical enough to develop a form of sentience. Moon Fall, while all the moons were magical in nature they're sentience is akin to bugs or small animals." “So when you put enough together it might create something more?” I inquired. "Well, yes and no. Think of it as an arc reactor powered by magic and despite the physical size it should be, only occupying the space and shape of Moon Fall." “Sounds about right.” I nodded. "So… all that's left is Lyra…" Jericho brought up. Cript sighed, handing me little Woona as they turned to the exit door to the next, and final floor. "Yeah…" “You don’t have to do this...I can take over or someone else can if you want.” I said carefully, knowing this was probably a massive pain for Cript. "You can't. You'd lose." He stated flatly as he began walking towards the door. "Lots of times before, my enemies tried using her against me in some way. Shapeshifters, clones, but those were all fakes. This one… will be different. This time I actually will be fighting her…" “How strong is she? Really?” I asked carefully. “Cause you said that she’s an Admin right? But I never was told how strong she was.” "She is the Admin of Marriage, and a Goddess of Children and Childbirth, but those aren't what make her so strong. Tell me King, do you know what the two things that make all C.R.I.P.T's so unique and strong is?" “I mean, besides bioengineering on a scale I still can’t quite come to grips with, even after all the Nexus information I’ve gotten since I accepted that deal with Grey...and the fact that your the biological child of two admins, Vincent and his other half, both being Admin’s of Life?” I asked curiously. “Or is there something else here that I don’t know about?” "The biology and engineering is just half of it. The body is a machine, right? Well, our unique "heart's" are the power supply." He said, turning to me and placing a finger over his chest. To my shock it began to glow a red and gold color and the beating of something… like a heart, but purely synthetic, thumped through the air. "We all have a unique "Heart" that none of us, not even Lord can understand how it works or what it even is. Normally, even if our bodies die, these keep ticking. For some of us, it keeps us alive even when we shouldn't be. For others, they die but the heart keeps beating, a battery ready to power anything in all creation. The few times they are destroyed, we would be dead. Permanently… but Heir Cript's like myself are… different." “It’s because you’d become Mother right?” I asked, which made me start thinking about a lot of things. “One of the two strongest being’s that helps make this entire place work?” "Yeah. Long ago, back when I was first fighting Deletes, Lyra… got hurt. Badly. She was vanishing before my eyes and… I did the only thing I really could. I pulled this thing out, and gave it to her. I expected to die… and for a few minutes… I was. Lyra woke me up shortly after my heart began to heal her, and to my shock I had regrown this thing. Like it never was removed. Only I and the four other Heir Cript's can do that it seems." “That...can’t entirely be a coincidence can it?” I asked carefully. “One in five chances to just...magically bioengineer the next Mother? That’s not something even Grey can do, and he’s remembered everything from past Resets.” "I couldn't tell you. But Lyra is as strong as she is because my heart beats inside her. The engine that can create the next mother… it saved her once… I'm hoping it still can." "Wait… what do you mean?" Kexez asked. "My heart saved her from a delete, and over the years it's been changing her body and every test basically confirms it. Putting my heart inside Lyra didn't just save her, as far as Code and creation is concerned, Lyra is basically an Heir Cript." "And… if she is you, or like you and the five others… she might actually…" Jericho started. "Be sane, alive… and a prisoner." Cript finished. “Well…shit.” I sighed out. “Okay so that’s probably why I’m going to get my ass handed to me if I try to fight them…” "What could keep a Cript of your caliber imprisoned though?" Coco asked. "Well, aside from Vincent/Grey themselves… Jericho." "Hm… not quite. There is likely one other thing that can…" Jericho brought up. "What if Lyra is… inside the womb? It's already indestructible, so…" "Despite what we do with our own wombs and bodies and stuffing people in them… that's gross, at least in that context." Kexez shivered. “I don’t like where this is going.” I started carefully. "None of us do… but it does raise a question, if Lyra is a Prisoner down there… then who's guarding her?" Cript asked, making us all gaze towards the doorway. “Only one person we haven’t seen yet…” I said carefully, summoning my King’s Greatsword. “Only one man who would still be fighting for the one person that’s been with them since the beginning.” "... Me…" Cript said. "Kexez, Take Coco home." Jericho started. "Void King, you in?" “Fighting Crip? What fun.” Void King said, bringing out their own King’s Greatsword, only instead of it being powered by Nothingness it was powered by Void. "Can't we stay and help?" Coco asked. “Considering what we’re going to be fighting Coco...I don’t know…” I sighed out. “Hell, I don’t know if I could do much all things considered…” "Hmm… maybe not alone… but… together…. Maybe." Cript offered. I took a second to think about that, then remembered. Spitfire! “I’ve got it.” I nodded, pulling Coco and Kexez close to me. “Ready you two?” "Sure, fusion is oddly fun." Kexez nodded. "If it means I can help then yes." Coco nodded. “Then let’s do this.” I said warmly, feeling Kexez and Coco start to synch up with me as we fuzed. Hello World! Spitfire’s back! “Alright guys, I’m back and ready for some asskicking.” "I forget how tall she is." Jericho commented. "Fusion can be weird like that." Cript shrugged. "Spitfire, Void King, you two ready?" “Ready as I’ll ever be.” Void King said, preparing himself for the upcoming fight. “Bring it on.” I said, summoning six weapons, both of King’s Gauntlets, Coco and Kexez’s Keyblades, and Skysplitter and Lunatic, ready for anything. We entered the doorway to the final floor. The path seemed stained with void unlike anything I have seen before. The part of me that is King, felt the sting and burn under our feet as Nothingness and Void clashed, trying and failing to eat away at one another. Soon we spotted the final door, broken down from the inside long ago. I tried casting Light Magics, but to no avail. Light refused to exist here. “Well that’s not very nice…” I frowned, changing out Lunatic for Eternal Flames as I used it’s upgraded to absolute hell’s flames to give us a light, as it’s the only thing we know of that can bring light to the Void. The light it did give was a small amount, but enough for us to see the ruined floors and walls, long scratched claw marks carved into the stone and metal. A trail of thin yet strange chains lead from the ceiling down towards the back. The metal smelled… alive. “So...should those chains smell alive?” I asked curiously. “To keep me imprisoned? They would have to be.” Cript stated as we followed the direction of the chains. Eventually, we began to see a small glow. Putting out Eternal Flames, we spotted the source. Within a glass jar of sorts, floated in an unknown liquid, a womb. It was glowing with a pureness and bright light that gave the area around it color. Holding the jar tightly, was Cript. The chains were molded into his neck, arms, legs and across his back. Whatever clothes he wore previously, now remained only as a tattered, torn and stained pair of trousers. Their hair was in knots and was extremely shaggy, and hung to their elbows. His eyes were sunken, as if sleep and stress was all they knew and the very concept of rest was unknown and alien. “Damn…” I muttered. “The hell could have caused this to you?” “My guess… losing Lyra… to that Prison…” Cript, our Cript said as he took a step forwards. The Cript holding the Void Mothers womb gave off a primal, mindless growl, but it had a single, imminent meaning. Leave, or die. I felt a chill of terror slide down my spine and into my fusion made soul. I’ve never seen Cript… Pissed. “So...who wants to go first?” I asked nervously. “Me, Obviously.” Cript said, taking a single step foreward. The chained Cript carefully placed the jar down, their hands glowing as they cast a protective barrier around it. The part of me from King screamed out at how… unbelievably strong that barrier was. Despite it being so small, it was potent enough to… withstand Cript. The chained Cript turned their gaze towards us, their eyes red and dry. He stood- I swore loudly as the blast of magic sent me flying. All my left arms breaking from the impact as my feet skidded and bled as I landed and tried to stop. The crash into the wall I made broke my spine from tailbone to neck and my healing factors went into overdrive to repair the damages. Jericho and Cript were both ganging the crazed Cript, but that Cript was holding his own. Easily. “The...fuck…” I groaned in pain, cause even if I had King as a part of me I could still feel pain. “Yeah, that tends to happen.” Void King said, gently picking me up. “And why the hell are you okay?” I asked. “One of the many things I picked up was how broken being Ethereal is half the time.” Void King chuckled. “So...this is Cript when he’s completely lost it huh?” “Apparently...and he’s handling both himself and Jericho at the same time…” I grumbled, getting up as my body felt fully healed. Void King and I rapidly rushed in, joining and, yet still the crazed Cript was holding his own. He summoned no weapons but rapidly showed a beyond mastery in hand to hand as he dodged, deflected and blocked our weapons bare handed. The few marks that the weapons did make upon his skin healed the second the weapon was pulled, almost giving the illusion as if they were doing nothing. “You two have to get the Womb.” Cript said as he kept up his attacks. “Sure.” I nodded, as I immediately tried to leap towards the shielded jar as I saw Void King do the exact same. When we arrived we tried bashing and breaking the shield to no avail. Void King slashed at it, but all it did was break the Void Key corpse he was using as a weapon. “Shit.” He huffed, tossing the broken weapon without a care. “Well, got any ideas?” “I have three idea’s.” I said, pulling out Book of Retribution and it’s Archstaff counterpart. “Let’s try dispelling it.” I said, casting as many counterspells or dispelling magics as I could to try and see if those worked. The second my magic touched the barrier, Book of Retribution caught fire and Archstaff shattered, both turning to dust before me as I felt them… vanish from King’s arsenal… “Okay… so that didn’t work.” Void King me stated just as dumbly as I felt. I grabbed the thing and chucked it into the middle of the fight, so blinded by absolute fury that one of King’s, and my own, weapons just magically ceased to exist. Cript spotted this and rapidly grabbed it, using it to slam the crazed Cript in the face. The barrier cracked. He then backed up and slammed it onto the ground again, the crack expanding and looked ready to go. The crazed Cript rapidly rushed towards Cript, trying to steal the jar back but Cript used this to slam the barrier-covered jar into the crazed counterparts face, breaking the barrier and the jar. The split second that happened, Cript grabbed the Void Mother’s womb and bolted next to us. “Okay, got the womb. Spitfire, I need King here, so let them go and turn into Zeco.” Cript ordered. He cast a barrier, then another, then fifty more between us and the crazed Cript. Somehow, I managed to immediately bolt out of Spitfire as she devolved into Zeco, running along after Cript. “The fuck am I going to do now that Book of Retribution and Staff of Clemency are gone?” I asked carefully. “How am I not...kind of broken at this point given I can’t feel it anymore?” I asked, still shocked that the moment it ceased to exist I wasn’t in a shuddering mess as the entirety of Nothingness wasn’t shaken to it’s very core. “Relax, I’ll make you a new one.” He said, quickly grabbing my hand and began using magic to make runes into it. “You still have Consume, and it will take a while before I can get Lyra out of this thing. I’m gonna Link Consume to this spell which will basically turn you into Miroku from Inuyasha for a bit here.” “Will King be able to hold them that long?” Jericho asked. “He’ll have to. Ready?” Cript asked as the crazed him was already on the last few barriers and the runes along my right palm glowed. “WIND TUNNEL!” I shouted, bringing up my palm and holding my arm, aiming it right at the crazed Cript and activating it as the black hole they formed began to absorb’s all types of matter. As the Dungeon Cript broke thru the final barrier, he immediately caught himself as he felt the sudden vacuum effect against him, trying to fight against the might of Cript’s magic and the Consume skill, but he failed and flew into the Wind Tunnel. It felt like I was being punched and kicked from the inside, my bones breaking and flesh ripping and healing rapidly as Consume was working overtime to ‘digest’ them. I focused solely on not exploding and letting this bastard out. I’m not sure how long it was but eventually I felt someone grab hold of my face and looked up, seeing an older, tired human form Lyra standing before me. “Let me in, King.” She said. “F-fine…” I said, lightly putting a hand on her’s as I used my Consume ability to try and absorb her as well, hopefully able to get the crazed Cript under control. Once she was in, a few moments later I felt everything within me still. I breathed out happily… Targets: Cript. Lyra Heartstrings. Assimilated. Personality of Cript. Digested. Personality of Lyra Heartstrings. Digested. I stared at that notification for… a long time. They’re… “Congratulations King.” Cript said as he helped me to my feet. “You’re the first person other than myself to kill me.” “Uh...cool.” I said carefully. “I mean...you killed yourself by yourself...I…” I sighed out. “So...we won?” I asked carefully. “That we did.” Jericho said, sighing as they fell themselves into a sitting position on the ground. “Also, congratulations again.” Cript said, placing a finger to my chest as, to my surprise, the same glow as his and synthetic heartbeat began to echo from within me. “As of right now, you’re an Heir… and officially on my level.” “Well…” I started, taking a deep breath and feeling...not that much different honestly. “That’s a good thing...wonder how that’ll affect my time as Kite...and the Equilibrium skill Grey forced on me for Kite…” “No idea.” Cript shrugged. “Well, come on. Let’s go home. We’ve been in the Void long enough.” “Yeah…” I started, putting a hand to my newly glowing chest. “Let’s go home.” To be continued... Kite's endeavorThe Cooper base was all seated and awaiting their next mission. "Okay, everyone, we have some jobs to do." Uncle M stated. "How many?" Dad asked. "Lots." M said, starting up the projection. “So, as we’ve seen through reconnaissance, he has a whole lotta weapons and fortifications.” I started, letting the slide show several images of heavily armed guards, armored vehicles, even armored War Elephants. “And from mine and dad’s recond, we found the rightful heir to the throne…as well as what the hell he’s truly doing with the royal family.” "And, as I feared, it's worse than just that." M said, taking over now. "With the bug planted we've gathered data and phone calls and learned the prince is one of nine children born from the original youngest prince. Apparently Rajan hunted down all the original noble women that were to be the prince's harem. He keeps them under a Spice endured hypnosis. Odds are they're so high they don't even know they're pregnant or have had many children. Their location is still unknown but the nine children we do know where they are all being held. The question is how to free them given their unique restraints." “It’s a fingerprint lock that is biometrically encoded to Rajan and Rajan only, to the point where even I’m unable to use any of my ‘special powers’ to unlock it.” I explained. “So we’re going to either need Rajan to release them of his own volition somehow, we drug the bastard and drag his body to the prison, or we cut one of his hands off and use it like that, and nobody wants the third option to happen.” "Well, I do but I'm out voted regardless." Nyla said with a shrug. "That aside," M continued. "We also found out many high profile underworld business opportunists are showing up. Including some that I'm betting Kite or Nyla will be familiar with." M said, putting a forder down for Nyla and I. My eyes widened. These were bad guys, but not from this world. Some classing Disney/Kingdom Hearts villains were here, some other bad guys too. Not good. "I recognize some of these guys." Nyla nodded. “And I recognize…a lot of these assholes.” I nodded bitterly. “So…there are mighty problems here…” "I was worried about that. Thankfully, I discussed this with Matilda and, given this is breaking many of the 'World Order' laws keyblade wielders typically follow, she will try and contact some associates for aid. Now, the last and final item is Rajan himself. He seems to have upgraded himself, likely in similar method to how Clockwerk has." The next image showed Rajan. He looked mostly normal, but he clearly has some magical augmentations. His demeanor and aura were far more intense. Atop his staff wasn't the Clockwerk Heart, but some still beating heart of flesh and blood. “Well shit…” I frowned. “Hopefully those augmentations doesn’t screw with his mentality, that’s one of the thing’s we have going for us.” I explained. “His insatiable ego and many fears.” "So what's the jobs?" Nyla asked "Nyla, Kite, given you two have experience with… off worlders, I want you to spy and see what they are using as a bartering chip. I doubt they have our worlds currencies and I think they would be trading weapons for weapons, or magic, tech. Whatever it is, let us know and if you are able, sabotage them." N stated. "Sounds like fun." Nyla said with a nod. “As fun as it could be.” I shrugged. Nyla and I headed off, quickly jumping through rooftops and heading towards an airport. It was filled with ships. Gummy, space, ECT. Just space faring vessels for the whole area. Nyla whistled. "Damn, a lot of those are expensive ships." “Jeez, this must be some premo event if all these rich assholes are wanting in on it.” Thankfully my invisibility covered us both well enough to make it to the first ship. Nyla got us in easy enough and we began snooping around. Odds are they're keeping their valuables on their ships. "Class S luxury Intergalactic Star Cruiser. Whoever this ship's owner is has taste." Nyla commented as we walked around. Even I had to admit, this was extremely luxurious, especially for a space ship. “Yeah, this is a pretty snazzy ship that’s for sure.” I nodded in agreement, snooping around as well for anything good. We eventually came across a bedroom of sorts. There was a bar of various liquors, and a large and well made bed, dressers built into the walls and a large screen monitor hanging from the ceiling just above the foot of the bed. Nyla rapidly went for the liquors, looking them over. "Wow, some of these brands are worth millions a bottle!" “Then let’s steal some of them.” I said readily. We began pocketing some of the liquors, and Nyla picked up one of the glass cups. "L.Q… LQ… oh shit I know who's ship this is!" “Who?” I inquired carefully, kind of worried as to why she was acting like that. "LQ, Leviathan Quartz, he's like, the biggest illegal weapons manufacturer in seven galaxies. This guy invented complete and total one shot Genocide planet killing weapons." “Impressive.” I said simply. “What race is he? Cause I immediately thought ‘Gem race’ but Quartz can be used for many different people.” "He's a Pilopo. They're kinda like… birds mixed with crabs." “And there are many crab jokes to be made from that.” I chuckled. "Yeah well he's always packing so try not to make any yourself unless you wanna get blasted into the fourth dimension." “I’ve actually been there once, rather annoying when it’s mostly Time Walkers doing a fuck ton of paperwork.” I shrugged. "Time Walker?" Wow… so this is what it's like to be Cript, overpowered compared to everyone else around you and knowing things nobody else knows… it's upsetting… “Basically the Time Police.” I answered. “And boy howdy do they have a lot of paperwork to go through…” "Right… well in any case, if this is Leviathan Quartz, then I can bet you anything he's got planet killers kept on board." “And we’re going to make sure that they don’t work ever again, or steal them away from this bastard.” "My vote's on stealing. The ammo those things use are made from rare, very valuable materials." “And the weapons, probably more so.” I nodded. “So let’s steal as much as we can and dismantle it later.” After looting the lavish bedroom we went into other places. The kitchen, which of course had only exotic, expensive and high quality food items and cooking utensils. A parlor room which had various rare, expensive and several illegal luxury items. A library filled with stolen texts from many planets worth their own fortunes. Finally we found the storage bay and armory. My gods… some of these might actually be able to hurt even me. I found that a bit hard to believe until I noticed a certain symbol on some of the weapons. Nexus. Figures… “Of course that faction of assholes are still funding these fucks…” I sighed. I guess even after managing to get Vincent to let this Timelines Nexus freeze some must still either want to continue their work, or just up and are using their advanced tech and magic to be criminals… heh, good thing I'm a Cooper then. Dealing with the Underworld's worst is our specialty. “Wait…didn’t Vincent…or Grey give me all of Nexus?” I muttered to myself, now that I’m mulling all that over. "Huh. Weird." Nyla said from where she was. "I think this one was holding a Keyblade." Confused, I walked over to where Nyla was. We stood before an open case. The weapon was gone but the outline of it within the case filled me with rage… I'd recognize that shape anywhere. Void Key… “Oh come the fuck on…” I growled. “What the hell is that thing doing here?” "Probably was stolen, or might be counterfeit." Nyla said. Right, she doesn't know. Wow, all this knowing stuff and having to explain shit is getting kinda old. “Neither, cause this asshole is a sentient parasite that needs to burn in the deepest darkest pit in hell.” I growled. “And normally I’d be all for knowing it all, but this is kinda getting old and boring.” "Okay? So what about this Keyblade has your tail in a knot?" “Because it’s technically not a Keyblade.” I said. “It’s a Parasite in the shape of one, wanting the death’s of everyone so it can control them all with the Void…and also he put one of my wonderful wives in a Coma for years and hurt many other important people in my life.” "Huh. I guess that would do it." She shrugged. "Well, if it's not here, then where is it?" “I don’t know and I don’t like it.” I growled. “Or…he could be possessing Quartz…which is also not good.” "Huh. Well, let's grab the rest of this then worry about that." “Alright.” I nodded. “Let’s get to more stealing.” We finished looting the storage bay and armory, and began making out way out. The next several dozen ships were much the same as the first. Loot, loot and loot. Made me really glad one of them had pocket dimension storage cubes. Not quite an Assistant but it will do. We then came across a ship I was very familiar with… holy shit, this is Braig's ship?! Why… oh right, he's a weapons collector… of course he'd be here then… “Oh god…this is gonna be so awkward if this is the same Braig…” I grumbled to myself. Then again he hasn't trained me yet… but, this is a different timeline… he… doesn't have to die. I mean, he got to be reborn as one of my kids but still… I do miss him. “Ugh…this sucks…” I grumbled, scratching my head bitterly as I had too many thoughts about my old teacher and friend now turned son. Before I could react, Braig's ship opened up, and he was walking out, whistling. He looked a fair bit younger than when I knew him. "Wait what?" He said as he saw us. "Holy- Hey Nyla!" He waved at her. "Braig?!" Nyla said in surprise. "This hunk of crap is your ship?!" "You bet." He laughed, making her laugh as well. Wait they know each other?! “Hold the fuck up, you two know each other?” I asked in shock. "Damn right random raccoon." Braig said, he and Nyla walked up to one another and hi-fived. "This little kitten taught me to shoot and how to fly a ship." "Braig, I'm older than you." Nyla replied. "Only by like, ten years. Speaking of I see you still have not aged a day and looking fine as ever." "Yes, and I see you finally grew tall enough for your ego." She chuckled. "That's not the only thing that grew~" "Oh really? I'll have to see that sometime~" Error, Kite.exe not responding. “I…hate everything I’m seeing right now…” I grumbled. “So why the hell are you here?” "Word on the galactic black market is that this planet is hosting an extensive auction of weapons illegal in almost every galaxy. I came to try and pick up a few… less than legal toys for the collection." "You sure have built it up since the last time I saw it." Nyla said, looking at Braig's packed ship of weapons. "Yeah. So what are you doing here?" "Oh we're stealing all these weapons because we're apparently good guys who steal." Nyla said, looking at me now. “Exactly.” I nodded. “And so far, we’ve stolen a whole lotta goodies from all these assholes…so I have an important question, where’s Void Key?” "What's a Void Key?" Braig asked. "Some parasite shaped like a Keyblade and forged in void or whatever. He's been freaking out about it since he realized it's here." Nyla answered. “And when you're the smartest man in the room, everything tends to be a pain in the ass when you have to explain literally everything.” I frowned. “Did you see anyone acting weird? Like…weirder than whatever nonsense they normally do?” "That's setting a high bar for stuff like this raccoon guy." Brain answered. "So, why are you helping him?" "Free room and board, for now, and cause he literally hunted me down just to ask questions about some guy I know." Nyla replied. "Wow. Determined little trash panda ain't he." "Tell me about it. Wanna join?" "Hmm. Steal a fuch ton of illegal toys and incur the wrath of all the Galactic underworld… throw in some casual sex and I'm in." "Casual sex and expensive liquor." Nyla said, pulling out one of said liquors. Braig grabbed the bottle, chugged some and handed it back. "I'm in!" “Welcome aboard.” I nodded, aggravated that I literally got no word in edgewise for an actual explanation but fuck it, I’m already aggrivated enough by shit today. “So right now, we’re just making sure Rajan and Clockwerk are losing out on business and more important things. "Oh then man you need to hit them where it really hurts. The stuff people brought here to exchange in the auction. Dust in the wind compared to their main storehouses. Wanna hit the Underworld where it hurts, hit them in their homes." Braig said. “And where would these items be? Also when’s the Auction going to occur?” I inquired. “At four am this world's time. Also, most all these types will have an account of such at Moogle Bank to store their fortunes and items.” “And I’d rather not fuck with Moogles.” I said carefully. “Why do the Moogles do business with them again?” Nyla asked. “Their whole species has remained exclusively neutral in all galactic politics. They don’t care if you're evil or good. Munny is Munny, so as long as you don’t start anything in their facilities your business is good.” “Fair enough.” I nodded. “So don’t fuck with the Moogles…and just gotta wait until they bring all their shit here and then take it all.” I said. “Or…I could technically buy out everyone without a single fuck given since…well outside causes that I’m still waiting to bite me in the ass.” “Yeah, you don’t look like the type that can walk into this place.” “With how I look now, that would be the case.” I nodded. “But I’m magic in many different ways to solve that problem, but that’s if we want to have me just walk in and out bid those assholes and not just steal everything while they’re trying to bid.” “Without a name or criminal record on a galactic scale. Plus, buying out everything is often a red flag in this kind of lifestyle.” “Fine fine.” I relented. “So we’ll just have to plan on fucking with everything during the auction night.” “Or, option three.” Nyla said. “And what’s that?” I inquired. “When in doubt, nark out.” “It’s usually the last option but it’s a good way of getting everyone here out of this place, leaving just those who live here.” Braig stated. “Hmm, fair.” I nodded. “But…that’s all dependent on if they’re being protected by Clockwerk or not…and that’s the main thing at the moment.” “As they say in the Underworld. Leave it to the Police to clean.” Nyla added. They arrived way faster than I expected. All kinds of galactic alien law enforcers, even the Guardians of the Galaxy. After an Avengers Endgame scale battle, and all kinds of arrests, deaths and explosions, the airfield here was a mess. And Nyla, Braig and I made off with everything that was usable and wasn’t. Even several ships. “And that is how you nark out.” Nyla said. “Normally we get the cops involved after we’re done stealing everything we can carry and dismantling everything the big bad’s worked for.” I brought up. “Would have saved…a lot more lives…” “Eh, they're all low life scum. No one is crying over their corpses.” Braig said with a dismissal wave. “Plus, easier to keep hold of goods taken off a corpse. Rule 82 of galactic underworld criminals. If the owner’s dead, it’s free game.” “Well, the Cooper’s are a family who steal from other master thieves, or any of these asswipes, to show that all their hard work means absolutely nothing in the greater scheme of things.” I said. “So honestly…seeing them cry in rage as everything around them crumbles before the final blow is struck is at least a bit more appealing to me.” “Heh, guess you aren’t much of a Cooper after all.” Nyla said, turning at looking at me. “Which is fine with me. Plenty of space out there to be a drifter like us.” “You don’t know who I really am, and Braig here…” I grumbled. “Braig won’t know who I really am for probably another…I don’t know, twenty years or something? But I’m also not abandoning my family…even if I’m not a good person in general.” With that done we headed into the auction house. Time to see just what Rajan was selling. Entering the surprisingly well kept intact main airport, the makeshift stage held one item on it… Void Key… I immediately walked forward towards Void Key, grabbed it, and then picked it up. “Alright, now let’s see if this is the real thing, or just some conduit.” I muttered. “Either way, if Void Key feels the insurmountable pain I’m about to put it through…goodie for me.” I said, as I activated Consume and started to devour the rat bastard right in front of Braig and Neyla. It’s form began getting pulled into my skin, almost like it was melting into my body. Void Key oddly didn’t say anything, no cries or noises at all. This conduit body went silently into me. “Damn, just a conduit.” I growled, lightly flexing my hand as Void energy flickered from my hand. “Well, at least no one’s going to be able to use it anytime soon.” “Wow, you’re just full of bullshit powers aren’t ya?” Nyla said. Huh… Wow this is how it feels being Cript… Yeesh… I actually regret calling his bullshit OPness now that I’m doing it… “You have no idea.” I answered simply. “And you’ll see just how strong I am if I get into a fight with someone cause I have a…’curse’ let’s call it on me at the moment.” I said, dispersing the Void energy and stretching a bit before activating my communicator. “Anybody on call right now?” I inquired to my family over our Binocucom channel. ”Do you mind telling what the hell that massive space alien battle was?” Sly picked up. “Oh, just some Galactic Police officers taking down a Galactic Underworld Auction.” I answered. “Me, Nyla, and a new friend stole as much as well could and called the feds on them.” ”There is too much for me to unpack there.” “The police got here, they busted and killed bad guy’s, we stole a bunch of really neat crap.” I summarized. “That help?” ”No. It really doesn’t.” I sighed, rubbing my temples. “Alright, we’ll get back to base before Rajan’s goon’s get here and try to explain everything clearly alright?” ”If you can. Cause… how in the fuck did you turn a stealth and sabatoge mission into a battleground?” That was where Sly left it as he hung up. I sighed. Out of everyone, I know Sly has had a harder time understanding and processing all this stuff with me. I’ve noticed. He’s not good at hiding it. Mom, Dad, Carmalita, Bently, Murray, Uncles Jim and M. They all genuinely don’t mind the insanity… Sly just does though. “It’s almost like looking myself in the mirror when I was first starting out in all this garbage…” I chuckled to myself. We made our way back to base, Braig moving and hiding his ship elsewhere as Nyla and I got inside. Nyla walked off to her room and I found Sly in his. “So, what exactly happened?” He asked me. “So, me and Nyla went off to look into the Auction going on.” I said. “As our pictures concluded, there were many ‘off worlders’, and even more extremely wanted bad guys along with them. Me and Nyla started to steal everything we could while they were away, and then the two of us and our new compatriot, Braig, called the Galactic Police since they were already wanted and were never meant to be on this world to begin with.” I explained carefully. “The…massive fight with the many, many being’s wasn’t really what I had in mind…but sadly that was going to happen either way.” “So all that was how space police handle things?” “That’s how police would do things against bad guy’s that enslave, torture, to even commit planetary genocide.” I answered. “I…” I sighed out, looking at my Sly…my older brother…”Please, tell me what’s wrong?” “What do you mean?” “I suppose I’m just being paranoid,” “As you normally are.” Sly added. “But I’m just worried that…with all this craziness going on…everyone else is going along with it in strides…but you…I’m scared to lose you due to all of this, not because of injuries or the like…but the fact that all of these things are hard to understand and just…happening in general.” I explained to the best of my ability, hating how a lot of the times I had to say something important, it just didn’t feel like coming out right. “You know what I mean?” “I… won’t lie. I’m not exactly happy.” “And why aren’t you happy?” I asked. “I understand all of this is crazy, believe me, it took me a long time to get over most of it.” “It’s not so much the craziness as… well… it’s you.” I sighed out. “Honestly…I fully expected one of you to still not be okay with me in some capacity…even after we went through that whole ‘hear to heart’...” “It’s not like I don’t still care about you… but… I still feel… lied to. Everything we went through, and you knew all of what was going to happen, and you… I know when we were little, you didn’t have your… powers, back, but still. Meeting Bently and Murry, pushing me and Carmalita together. You’ve been… pushing for certain things to happen, but you never just… let things play out normally?” “So…just gonna start with you and Carmalita…no, I was gonna push you two together whether I knew what was going to happen or not, cause both of you are just adorable together.” I pointed out. “And two…well…not everything played out like ‘normal’ from how I thought it would go…” I started carefully. “And how you thought it would go was based on a child's video game?” “Honestly, I only thought about the ‘main story beats’ as it were…everything else would have been completely different and even I wouldn’t have known certain events…and then I learned that Vincent and group of baddies got involved…” I sighed. “Which that threw a wrench into literally everything…” I shook my head. “Listen, I’m just gonna get to a point…it’s fine for you to hate me, I hate myself a lot as I…still believe I’m personally responsible for everything going to absolute shit, even when my own family tells me ‘everything’s fine’...and when my Time Walker, the one that’s allowing me to do this crap, tells me ‘while you did change some events, it was outside forces that caused the rest’...” I shook my head. “Believe me when I say…if you hate me, that’s fine, and I openly welcome it.” I said, getting that whole bit off my chest as I didn’t want other’s to feel terrible because of my dumb decisions. “I don’t hate you Kite… I just… don’t trust you…” Somehow, that hurt so much worse… After that I went to my room, laid on my bed and was thinking to myself. “Heh…” I started to chuckle to myself. “My own selfish desires…wanting to relearn what it’s like to have fun, to be carefree and do the right thing with a family…and all I do is mess everything up, make my family not trust me because of my dumb decisions…again...” “And this is why Admins choose to forget.” I looked over, seeing my Time Walker sitting on a chair at my desk, playing with a basketball. “You can’t relearn to live and be in a happy family when your memories of your failed ones are weighing you down.” “That’s why if I do this again, I’m doing it without my memories…it hurts less people…” I sighed. “But I can’t turn back now, this is a special timeline now due to my deal with Vincent…and I’m just gonna have to suffer more because of it.” I said simply. “Well, just goes to show, immortal beings can never truly be happy, unless they forget who they are.” “We can be happy…I wouldn’t be…well doing thing’s or still alive if I thought I wasn’t…” “Well, whatever your choices, from this point on your actions will decide what all their futures will hold. Happiness or despair, life or death. All that is up to you now.” “I want them all to be happy…” I said. “I…already hurt them enough with my mistakes…I want to do something to fix that.” “Well, what will you be doing then?” “Only thing I can do…play out this bet…and Consume Clockwerk, so he can never hurt my family ever again.” I growled. “And help the many people who’s been affected by him…and steal everything that won’t make too much noise from all these bad guys.” “Calling the space cops on the galactic underworld’s biggest players probably didn’t help in terms of not making noise.” “That was after we stole a majority of their shit, and then during the fight we stole even more of their shit.” I shrugged. “Just…wish there wasn’t that many deaths…” “You had to have known that was going to end in a mass shootout?” “I knew it was…” I sighed. “Guess I’m just too used to having Second Chance that…seeing other’s die is a little hard for me…” “Too used to being able to prevent mass death.” The Time Walker stated as he continued to play with the ball. “And with that power gone, where will that leave you and your choices?” “And you're not helping…” I grumbled, already having enough on my mind. “I’m not here to help. I’m here so you can talk our thoughts out.” “You know…I find it funny how, ninety percent of the time…if I do something for myself, it always ends up poorly for myself and a lot of other people, even if it’s supposed to be harmless.” I said plainly. “Like?” “This for starters.” I motioned. “I did this as supposedly harmless fun, trying not to think to much of it or use whatever knowledge I had of the world around me…but no, it all had to get flipped because I was born...” I growled. “This entire world got sucked into a bunch of Nexus bullshit because I decided ‘why not try something new for myself? What’s the worst that could happen?’, and lo and fucking behold, a whole lotta bad shit happens.” I growled. “Then I can go on a list of other bullshit…how I could have lost the people I care about either through my actions or inactions…” “When you mean to do well and end up causing a bigger mess.” They said, spinning the ball on a gloved finger. “Did you ever wonder how things would have happened had you not meddled into the Nexus affairs in this world?” “I mean, they would have strip mined the planet and used the people as slaves, like they were already doing after supporting Clockwerk in his bullshit.” I explained, stating the obvious here. “And yet, the timeline of this world started the same in the one you came from as it is this one. Tell me, have you even looked into the Nexus files for this planet?” “I honestly haven’t had the time.” I answered. “But please, explain to me how I’m probably only making things worse…” “Well, this planet was still turning, and Sly still entered the Thieves in Time events. You might wanna read those files.” “My point.” I stated, getting up from the bed and going over to my work table, which held plenty of the Nexus files. “Just more proof…” It wasn’t hard to find the main files for Nexus, just find the ones that were kept in the highest security and… Storage. They dubbed this planet unfit for conversion or colonization. Once the Monofilament was mined out, they were to convert all bases set up to Storage. I proceeded to get up, and walk out of my room. I walked out of the base and just sat on the roof. If I’d done nothing… “Can’t predict the consequences of good or bad actions.” The Time Walker said, appearing behind me. “Shut up…” I said. “It just proves to me…again…that thing’s would have been better off if I wasn’t born…none of this would have happened…everything would have been the same, nothing too bad would have happened…” “Well, your options now are to soldier on, or wash your hands of it.” They said, making me look up at them. “I can’t just ‘wash my hands’ of it, I have that deal with Vincent, I can’t just go back on it…” I brought up. “True, and what about them?” He motioned. Through the roof skyline I saw Mom and Dad cooking, Sly and Carmalita playing chess. Bently and Uncle M doing something on a computer, Murray and Uncle Jim lifting weights. “Will you go back on them?” “Never.” I stated bluntly. “Then tell me, what’s your choice, Admin?” I looked at everyone down there…my family…”It’s gonna be another big conversation with all of them…” I sighed out. “Goodie…” I muttered. “And here I was hoping something would get…simpler here…” “You’re an Admin, at war against the oldest entity, or one of them, in this grand machine we call home all while training in every conceivable way possible at once just to fill this insecurity you have about losing everything. You can never be simple.” “It’s not really an insecurity when it could literally happen at any time.” I pointed out. “And yet the world keeps turning.” They said. “You need more than therapy, my wolf in racoon’s clothing.” “Lyra would say otherwise.” I said simply. “Yes well the mint green devil isn’t here. You, tell me, what do you most want to do this very moment? What do you want to do to the ones that are hurting your family, the people, right now?” “I want to tear them limb from god damn limb that’s what I want to do.” I stated. “Then why don’t you? You know where Rajan is, and it’s not like he’s a match for you.” “Because I’m supposed to be better, I’m a thief, not an assassin.” I countered. “Plus, yes he would be because I still have Equilibrium stuck to me…plus the way I want to beat him, I need to get him just angry enough, slam his ego just enough, and hope to god he’s still hydrophobic for it all to play out.” “And if he isn’t?” “Then my poor sitar needs to get benched again, and I’d rather that not happen cause I barely use it enough, and I don’t want to get rusty with it…plus I started listening to a really good song.” “So your grand plan sums up to sing a song and get the kitty wet. Wow, how clever.” “Okay first of all asshole, so far you have basically told me ‘hey, just so you know, everything you’ve done has been fucking everything up’, and now you have the audacity to start thinking my idea’s for how to deal with a person nonlethally is bad when you barely do shit?” “Oh, I do more than you see. While you’re here messing up your own personal timeline, I’m going through time dealing with Nexus Runners and making sure they don’t kill my comrades to steal their keyblades to make more of Void Key’s conduit blades. So pardon my lack of empathy towards your self made issues.” “Oh I’m sorry, it’s not like I’m currently trying to stop the bastard that’s causing these problems to begin with, but please oh messiah of not giving a shit, I’m so sorry for offending you.” I said sarcastically. “You want to help? Try stepping foot on the actual battle grounds and put your so-called efforts and training to use.” “I’m sorry, I thought Time Walkers were supposed to be smart.” I said. “But apparently no, your fucking not if you don’t understand that, the moment I step into the battlefield, and I have had this made abundantly clear by many people, the moment I step in and fight on the front lines, this makeshift stalemate is going to end and everything will fall apart around us in the crossfire.” I stated bluntly. “I have been told, countless times, no matter how hard I prepare any and all defenses for the Kingdom, it’ll mean jack fucking shit…then everything I’m fighting for will be gone.” “So you say. I think you’re just a bitch with a bigger bark than bite.” “And I think your just a stuck up bureaucrat that can barely handle a real fucking fight when they could be behind a desk wasting away precious time just to be a vague asshole!” I didn’t notice when the environment changed, all I felt was the impact that sent me flying across this empty void-like space. I looked back up, seeing the Time Walker, Gazing Eye drawn and pointed at me. “Ready to put your money where your mouth is?” I didn’t answer as I slammed my fist into their gut before they could react, sending them flying away from me as I brought out Interdiction. “Then you better not bore me ya fucking pencil pusher.” They rushed back just as fast, slamming their Keyblade into Interdiction hard enough to cause a sonic boom from the impact of our clash. And our fight began. “Aw, the time walker can throw an attack, aren’t you just adorable.” I taunted, twisting the blade away and using Haki to harden my tail as I tried to smack the bastard in the face hard. They dodged, rapidly kicking my leg and taking my temporary loss of footing to impale me, then tossing me off their Keyblade. My body rapidly regenerated and I moved before he could get me again. He’s good. I’ll give him that. Not many people can land a hit on me. I shot off a bolt of Interdiction that then split into dozen’s as I brought out Sharpshooters and fired a fully charged shot afterwards. They deflected it all, Blue energy covering their Keyblade as time around us seemed to reverse, enough that the bolts reappeared, but rather than vanish they continued, shooting back at me. They didn’t deal much but he then began shooting off more and more of my own bolts at me through puffs of that blue energy that was appearing around the area. I swapped to Lindworm, deflecting all the energy bolts away, before jumping high into the air and thrusting all my lances down onto him. Again, he rewound time with the blue energy. Rapidly he let them fall back, only for me to suddenly be under them. I wasn’t able to stop them all, one managed to slam into my arm, but I healed the second I pulled it out. “Oh, you want to play with Time?” I asked, swapping to Fair Game. “I can do that too, asshole.” I stated as I threw several cards as a distraction as I was already starting to formulate a plan for this. In one swing he cut all the cards to pieces and suddenly, there were five of him, and each one was rushing at me from different spots. “Wow, where have I seen that bit before?” I muttered, a large card appearing behind me with a clock symbol on it, the clock rewinding as the five was reversed back into one who was just slashing my cards to bits, which I appeared from one of the ever so tiny cards stuck to the shreds and haymackered the bastard hard. The return impact I got I didn’t even see. Then another, and another. Shit, he’s not even moving? The hell is hitting me?! I was still receiving mystery damage when he got back up and used my state to deal damage I could see on me. I was on the ground now, feeling pinned and stabbed but there weren’t wounds, and no one was on me. The hell?! I used Fair Game to swap places from underneath that random ass person and away from the group, drawing my Keyblade and Frozen Pride. “Okay…that’s a little new…” He raised his Keyblade at me. Suddenly something kicked me in the back, then uppercutted me. What the hell is that?! I barely had time to dodge and block him when he actually swung at me. That same invisible force kicked me in the knee, making me buckle and giving him the chance to slam me to the ground and stab me. Wait, this pain’s location… That was when I was… My eyes widened. He’s putting future attacks, pain and damage to me in the present time?! That’s bullshit! “Okay now that’s legit bullshit.” I countered, rushing forward and slashing at the Time Walker again, trying to distract his concentration or whatever the hell he’s doing. I don’t know how, but he was in front of me, I was about to hit him, then suddenly he was up close to me, giving me the uppercut I remember feeling earlier. Shit! “Diamond wasn’t this difficult…” I muttered to myself, getting back to my feet as I used Fair Game again. “Alright asshole, you want to do time shit? Well let’s make it faster.” I growled, as multiple time cards showed up with Foudre as the Minute and Hour Hands, as electricity and time magic started to fuze together as I bolted towards him again. Despite my new speed and time magic fused he still countered or blocked me. What’s worse, he was surpassing my speed, rapidly! He tore through cards and slammed his fist hard into my face. I felt my nose break on that one as he continued the force and punched my head clear into the ground behind me. And there’s the skull fracturing… Damn it! Who is this asshole?! “Alright you…who in the fuck are you?” I asked, “None of your business.” They replied. Well at least they finally spoke! “Kinda is to be honest.” I stated. “Cause even after all the shit I had to put up with and all the brand new fucking powers I got…the fact that your still faster than me and doing some weird time shenanigans seems a little off.” “Then I guess you did all that for nothing.” He said, swinging his Keyblade and rushing me again. I grabbed his keyblade and his face. “Oh, you picked the worst choice of words to say to me.” I said coldly, as I slammed him straight into the ground extremely hard, before kicking him in the ribs that send him flying. “Cause you know nothing.” I growled, pulling out Skysplitter and Lunatic and leaping after him, reaching up to where he was in that single leap and swinging both of my super charged weapons straight down into him. “I know everything about you.” He said, grabbing my wrist and breaking it, pushing me off and pinning me to the ground. “I know everything you have done, will do, and worst of all, can do. That’s my job.” “Well isn’t that just fan-fucking-tastic.” I growled, headbutting the bastard to get him off me. “Yet more vague bullshit that I’m magically not allowed to know about,.” “You want to know? You fuckers win.” He said, making me stop and pause as I looked at him. “And not just against Grey, against a real fucking monster. When I’m from, you all built utopia. Or as close to it as you can. Small things are still issues but nothing world ending.” “H-hold the fuck up what?” I blinked. “But…okay seriously…who are you?” He got off me. I got up and he pulled his cloak hood back. He looked human, but then I sensed it… Nothingness. “My species hasn’t officially been made yet. Still some… thousand or so years away til you do. Nobody Race. You are so unoriginal.” “Listen, when the first new race happened to be called ‘Floof Noodles’ because some cosmic entity wanted to laugh at me for a cute pet name…” I frowned. “Also naming is very difficult damn it.” I huffed. “Whatever. I’m just doing my job.” “I doubt being an asshole to me is part of your job.” I said. “But…I can make a pretty good guess as to why you’re here if you said you’re from…after we win.” “My job is to keep an eye on you across your entire lifetime. And given your fat fluffy ass is immortal, it’s a long, long job.” “Hey, no dissing my fat fluffy ass.” I countered. “And…yeah I can see where that ultimately goes…” I sighed. “Did it happen yet?” “Much to my regret, no. And it’s not Madness, you found a cure for that but it’s only good for you and ‘The Family’ given there’s complications in actually distributing that kind of, nope, can’t say more. All you need to know is that my job is to kill you should you get too bored.” “Fair enough.” I nodded. “And I presume you’re an asshole because that’s either part of the job or you just straight hate the fact that you have to be around me for all eternity.” “Both, actually. I hate you extremely and having to watch your lazy ass and living through history I learned in school just fuels that hate.” “Right then.” I nodded. “So that clears that up…” I sighed. “Well, what do you do besides watch over me like the Grim Reaper?” “Shit like this where I get to kick your ass and enjoy it.” “That sounds…kinda boring.” I said honestly. “Fun for me.” They said. “I get to kick your ass and insult you about your problems. For me, this is a win-win.” “And for logical people, that sounds completely counterintuitive to what you're actually supposed to be doing chucklefuck.” I pointed out “You’re not supposed to drive your quarry completely apeshit before thing’s are resolved.” “Bitch please you- Woah almost gave a spoiler there. Look, I hate you both because of the history I’m living through now, and because frankly, learning your history… you causing your own problems. The solutions are so simple, most of them are in your face and yet your dumb ass just does the more complicated bullfuck route.” “Now you understand what kind of ultradepression esc bullshit I have to deal with everyday because my history is a convoluted mess, and also no…a lot of my problems are not just simply ‘point a to b’...some of them are yes, but not all of them.” “Alright then, let me ask this… have you even tried using your Kingsblade, your Admin level keyblade, to unlock the kids locks?” “Yes actually.” I answered. “But I decided not to because Clockwerk might have rigged it to explode if I did that, that’s also why I didn’t use my Code to hack into it cause he also rigged it to explode if it was fucked with, cause Vincent was training that rat bastard to do many things, and Code is one of those many things.” I explained. “While I could test it out, it’s a fifty fifty shot on if the kid will be alright if I’m lucky and Clockwerk wasn’t that fucking spiteful against me.” “And did you think to shrink the kid so the collar and chains just slid off?” “And either have the kid react poorly to that sudden thing, or again, the thing goes off anyways because said child was affected by it?” I asked. “I know these simple answers, believe me, I’m not the dumbass you think I am, but with what little I know of Clockwerk’s knowledge of Code, I have to be careful with it.” “Well it’s not like you doing nothing is helping the kid, and when Rajan gets his future bride then they’re really fucked.” “That’s why we need to find the family fast, to prevent that from happening.” I said honestly. “Still gonna need to get to Rajan and kick his ass…” “Gods you’re oblivious to the obvious answers.” He sighed, rubbing his temples. “And again, you're not helping.” I stated simply. “I know you’re not allowed to spoil things, but saying ‘obvious answers’ when you already know how this is going to play out just makes you sound like a jackass.” “Eh. Alright, look, I can’t tell you right out, but I can give you a hint. If only to end this stupid talk. Sneak into Rajan’s office.” “Only reason why I didn’t do that was because I thought someone else already did.” I said, thinking that we had someone sneak into Rajan’s office not too long ago. “They did, to plant that bug. But what you’ll be looking for can’t be overheard or hacked into.” “Fair enough.” I nodded. “Wonder if I should do this solo or get someone to tag along…” I muttered. “Maybe…I can at least try to get Sly to trust me…” “Do whatever.” They said. Suddenly, he slapped me hard. I woke up feeling really sore, and back in my room. Ouch… All that crap, and he KO’d me with a slap… Well, if he’s meant to kill me in a worst case scenario… “Christ…” I grumbled. “That was…all around annoying as shit…” I got up, checking myself in the mirror and seeing my face was a bit swollen. Damn, whatever time that guy is from… I must be way stronger than I am now if he can inflict damage like this to me now… oddly, that makes me a little happy. We do win, and I do get stronger. “Everything’s going to…finally be okay…” I muttered. “Everything I’m doing…it’ll all work out in the end…” I spent some time cleaning myself up before heading to Sly’s room. “Woah, did you piss off Matilda?” He asked upon seeing my swollen cheek. “No, thankfully.” I said. “Just had to deal with some…personal things.” I said carefully. “So, how would you like to do a mission today with me?” “I thought the missions were done for the day?” “Call it a…trust exercise.” I said carefully. “If you say so, I guess. So, what are we doing then?” “We’re going to be figuring out where the royal hostages are.” I answered. “And where will we be searching then?” “Rajan’s personal office.” I answered. “Cause while the bug was good…there’s more there that we need to find.” “Something the bug can’t get to? So files or a journal then?” “Or a secret passage way to Rajan’s secret sex dungeon cause at this point I wouldn’t be surprised if he had one.” “I’m hoping for paperwork. If it’s what you just said, I’ll be taking a vacation to forget that.” “That would be for the best.” I nodded. “So…will you trust me enough to do this?” “If it means finding the royal family and freeing those kids, I’ll have to.” “Alright.” I nodded. “Let’s…just get this over with then…” I said, still feeling incredibly hurt with Sly’s words. Sly grabbed his cane and we headed off. After all that fighting, a lot of Rajan’s security was stretched thin. Finding his office was easy and sneaking in was just as easy. Once inside we began to look around. “Odds are Rajan will keep it either in a hidden safe or secret door.” Sly said as he felt along the walls and bookshelves. “Most likely.” I said, searching through the many drawers around the place carefully as I also used Scan to check the entire room for anything of importance or a secret door. After some searching we found a hidden safe kept behind a false wall. Opening it we found several files, a journal, and a metallic feather like remote. Clearly Clockwerk’s. Looking that over, it was an override key. This must be what can free, chain or kill the people with Clockwerk’s code collars. “And now we have the override key.” I said with a smile. “This can help save all the slaves and imprisoned.” “These files detail all the royals, both the children and parents… oh no…” Sly muttered. “What’s wrong?” I asked quickly. “Please tell me it’s not too late…” “No, they’re alive. But if I’m reading this right, each of the… ‘wives’ has already produced a daughter. And, if I’m reading this right, Rajan is going to pass them along to something called a Time Runner to groom and age them to adults to be his immediate brides. I’m assuming Time Runners are some Time Travelers that aren’t good?” “In a sense yes, except instead of using magic, they literally run so fast they can run through time.” I said honestly. “Like the Flash except they do it for terrible reasons.” “Like taking babies to be groomed into obedient wives for an egotistical cat with a superiority complex. If these files are right, the wedding day will be the same day as the execution of the prince, his concubines and the other kids… and it’s in two days.” “Shit.” I growled. “We have to work fast to stop all of this, and thankfully a lot of Rajan’s asset’s have been either stolen, taken, or just straight murdered due to that…event.” “Right… Well, it says here the Prince and the concubines are all kept on one of his Spice farms way up in northern India. And the rest of the kids are dotted all across the country. You got any godlike speed to reach them?” “Yes, yes I do.” I nodded. “It’s gonna take a while still, but hopefully this’ll all work out…” “Well, you best get running, I’ll take all this back to the base. Just take the Override key.” “Stay safe alright?” I asked, gently taking the Override key. “And…I’m sorry…” I sighed out bitterly. “Just, next time you pick a fight with another Godlike entity or whatever you deal with, try not to give me a heart attack. You are still my baby brother. Hearing you get blasted to the moon, across the planet and stabbed isn’t something I like to hear even if you can survive all that.” “Yeah…” I nodded simply. “We’re still family after all.” “I never said we weren’t.” With a nod and a small smile I brought out Fondure and rushed off. I already had the locations of all the kids and the prince and his concubines. I moved faster than any of the guards could react, using the Override Key to unlock their collars and chains and quickly dropping them off at the base. Given the distance between them all, it took me about three hours before the kids, the prince and his concubines were all safe. For an added measure, when I rescued them I also burned down that Spice farm. “Now see, why can’t you do that to reassure me.” Sly asked as I was checking them all over. The kids were alright, but the Prince and his concubines were all still really high from the Spices. “Because my life is a fucking mess and I can’t reassure shit because when I do, I only hurt people important to me.” I stated bluntly. “I’m sorry just…stating that fact about myself…” “Doesn’t mean you can’t try.” He said, picking up one of Fondure’s knives. “So this knife makes you run fast and controle lightning?” “It’s one of over a thousand dagger’s…and I have heard different takes on it, either it was handcrafted from a massive electrical storm in space due to certain reasons…or Thor’s baby teeth, and I’m not sure which one is correct.” I said carefully. “Weird.” He said, getting a small shock from the knife. “Hmm… Can you make weapons like this?” “Yes I can actually.” I said honestly. “It will just take me some time to find the right materials and crafting it. Even without my real powers, it took me well over two years to craft you all your Christmas Gifts…god-like powers or not, if I want to make something, I’m not gonna half ass it with a wave of my hand.” I said simply. “Think you can make me a cane with whatever energy you controle?” “That would be Nothingness.” I said. “And sure…do you want a brand new one or do you want me to reforge your cane with it?” “I guess a new once, since this is just a replica, and I gave dad the family cane back.” “Fair enough.” I nodded. “Do you want it just as a normal cane or do you want anything else added to it?” "Well, I guess some fancy powers would be neat." “I can make it as fancy as you want.” I said, walking over to my work table and starting to literally craft the Cane out of Nothingness. “Think of any fictional media, and I can give it to this wonderful cane.” "Huh… can you make it shoot out like a rope or something that I can use to climb or walk across?" “Yes.” I nodded. “That’s just a simple grappling hook to be honest.” I shrugged, starting to add in the rope and firing mechanism for the hook to act as the grapple. "Yeah, but can you make it able to not need to be attached to anything for me to climb or run across it? Like, the rope floats in the air?" “Well it’s a good thing Nothingness can work like that.” I nodded, bringing out the Thorn rope. “And don’t worry, it may look thorny and fluid, but it’s incredibly durable and harmless to the wielder and they’re allies.” I explained simply. “So, we got the grappling hook and rope, anything else?” "Can you add something that, like if I fall off something, like a pole or can't make a large jump it can hook into the air so I can catch and swing myself?" “Sure.” I nodded. “Hmm…do I still have air gems?” I wondered as I went into one of my drawers and dug through it a bit. “Ah, here we are.” I said happily, pulling out a very light green gem that looked like it held a gust of wind inside of it. “And with this, you can do a whole lot more with it.” I said while putting it into the cane and smithing it in. “Now your Cane is attuned to the Wind Element, where it can latch onto the air, use wind magic, and a bunch of other nifty things.” "That is impressive. I also didn't know wind had it's own magic." “You’d be surprised to know that everything has magic to it.” I said honestly. “All you need to know is where to find it, and how to channel it.” I said simply. "That's fair, especially given some of our ancestors." Sly said with a nod. “Yeah, and honestly…didn’t know our family was this magic.” I said honestly. “I knew we were kinda magic with some of the Cooper techniques but…literal sages? That was new to me.” "Considering dad's special technique was to walk on light beams itself, not too surprising." He shrugged. "So how much can you pack into this thing?" “As much as you want me to.” I said honestly. “Cause I have mastered many ways of crafting thing’s cause…well crafting is cool, so I can fit a lot of things into this.” I said honestly. “Also, I find it surprising that you all don’t question me more when I don’t know something.” The next few hours I spent with Sly making this cane were honestly the most we bonded since my Admin stuff came out. It was nice, reminding me of simpler times back on Cane Island. When it was done there was actually little Sly's cane can't do. Majority of it was either magic takes on gadgets, or safety measures Sly wanted. Once it was finished I was helping Sly learn to use it properly. "So your energy is called Nothingness because… it doesn't exist in a normal sense?" He asked while practicing running along the thorns his cane generated. “Pretty much.” I shrugged. “Before it was the ‘inbetween’ of Light and Darkness, the soul and body without the Heart, or the other forces…and then Void came into the picture…” "Right, which your Nothingness… can break it apart?" “Break Apart, or in cases with Void corrupted being ‘Cure’.” I said. "Okay, but what's with your real form being that huge… wolf?" “I am a Den Mother Dire Wolf.” I said. “And…that’s a long and..highly complicated explanation. I don’t even know if I could put it in simple words…” I sighed out. “But all I can say is, I was ‘reborn’ as a dire wolf…and then I decided to become both genders because I was…kinda pressured into doing it, but eh.” "Well… do you enjoy being both genders?" “Yes, yes I do.” I nodded. “I’m still me…and honestly, after becoming a Den Mother…well, there are lewd plusses to that, but I got stronger, faster…and honestly, being a mother is a wonderful feeling.” "I guess that makes sense. But does that mean that Wolf guy you really did… rutt with them?" “I did.” I nodded. “Honestly, that whole thing…I blame puberty for a lot of that horniness.” "Right, so does mean you were in your wolf form or did you gender swap your current one?" “I was in my wolf form the entire time.” I said simply. “And I was more confused on why he wasn’t feeling a darn thing, figured out his…’handler’ destroyed his emotional center…then I fixed that, and boy howdy did he go from monotone and stoic to the goodest boy.” I chuckled, still remembering that silly woof’s face when I called him a good boy with his emotions back. "Heh, well alright." Sly said as he dropped in front of me. "I think that's all I can process for today. Bad enough I know you, Matilda and Jing have fairly regular sex, I don't think I want to imagine your sex life as the two gendered oversexualized wolf god you are." “You do not, and I am not ‘oversexualized’, believe me.” I said honestly. “So, any other questions you don’t need to process?” "No, I'm good for today. And tomorrow we're hitting Rajan in his base. A bit ago M said the Bug picked up he was furious that everyone was taken and you burned that one Spice farm. Apparently he's planning on meeting up with his soon to be brides and Clockwerk tomorrow instead of after the wedding. So if we don't get him before he leaves with them we might not catch him again until who knows when." “Yeah, we need to get to him before he meets up with Clockwerk.” I said simply. “And if I fight Clockwerk…it’s not gonna be pretty.” "I don't expect it to be." Sly added. To be continued... Nobody meet's Alternate TimelinesAuthor's Note Hi, yes, I am here to rectify a massive mistake of mine, I accidentally posted this on Lone Wolf, which is a completely different story. I am very sorry, and have fixed it Nobody meet's Alternate Timelines I sat on a rock in the new training pocket Dimension Script made for us. Given I'm not on his level of power, he wanted to show me both how, when, and what it means to be an Heir Cript. This pocket dimension wasn't too fancy, a simple world in space, sun, moon, forests, breathable air we didn't even need. “So…what’s the training going to be?” I inquired to Cript, given that I was still planning on going to the version of Warhammer 40K my four kid’s went to to have some well needed diplomacy. "For starters, I need to ask you a probably not so simple question." Cript said, taking a seat on the rock across from me. "What do you think it means to be an Heir Cript?" “I mean, there’s a lot of context needed, but from what I’ve gathered over the many…many years I’ve had to deal with Vincent’s special brand of genetic engineering horseshit,” I lightly rubbed my temples in remembering how outrageously complex it all was. “Is that the ‘Heir’ part is to be taken literally, the ‘Heir’ to something so hyper specific, you with Mother, Heart with Kingdom Hearts, and a few others that you brought up that’s kind of slipping my mind right now cause I have a very important diplomacy meeting going on with a giant group of super racists, extra angry Zerg, and four Embodiments that call themselves ‘gods’.” "And by diplomacy you mean actual talking or combat?" “From the knowledge I have on 40K, it’ll be a combination of both.” I said. “Talking from the more…willing to talk, and fighting from at least the super racists.” I shrugged. “So did I get that part right about Heir Cripts? "Partly." Cript said. "While true, Heir Cripts are made to be the heir to some late or new incarnation of a former entity, we are first and foremost, living weapons Vincent made to either fight in his boredom or tools to use if we follow him. However, we all have one thing in common. We can't stop getting stronger. Every Heir Cript is basically limitless in regards to power potential. Like the Grey energy, only without it. Like a tier or two down from what Vincent actually is thinking about it. Basically we're meant to be strong enough to be a challenge but we can't get strong enough to win." “So there’s technically a hard cap to what Cript’s can do?” I asked. "Yes and no. Like Vincent we will always be getting stronger, through combat, training or just the passage of time, but that's where we fall flat. Vincent has had incalculable amounts of time to sit and let his power grow as well as combat and past Heirs. His advantage over us Currently is the time he has had to get to where he is now." I frowned. Countless years, literal eternity and so many resets… something we can't replicate without him also getting those years too… “Hmm…so what are we going to do about it? Some weird Hyperbolic Time Chamber nonsense to catch up?” "More or less but it requires special Hardware Lord is looking for now. If he finds it we might actually have a fair fight." Cript said with a nod. "But, for now it's time you learn more of the things Heirs can do." “Like what?” I asked, honestly intrigued by what an Heir might be able to do that wasn’t already known. “Also…just thought of a thing…Jericho’s supposed to be Belief right? Or am I mistaking that for another timeline that ran through my head last night?” "Dunno. At this point time is fucked so," He shrugged, standing up and walking over to a nearby patch of grass. He fell back and laid on his back. "First, lay down next to me." I could have made a silly little picnic joke, but decided against it as I hopped off the rock and laid down next to Cript, just enjoying the beauty of nature. "Now, I want you to look up at the moon." Cript said. I did just that, seeing the moon up in the sky. "Now focus." I did just that, staring at the moon and focusing, trying to figure out what he’s got in mind for this little exercise. As I did, I kept looking at the surface of it. It was a typical moon. Various metals making up the rock and soil. A few larger rocks here and there, deposits of iron, tin, copper and ECT scattered about on and under the surface- wait… how did I… “I…don’t think I was using any vision enhancers…” I muttered, double checking and noticing that yes I wasn’t using any skills to make my already great eyesight that good. "Now, where is the footprint I left on it?" I looked back at the moon, looking at the surface. Ah, there it is on… wait what the?! I sat up, blinking as… how can I look at this side of the moon but… also see the other side of it in full detail? “Okay…what the fuck…” I said. “Like…sure I’ve kind of done that with skills but…that’s kinda trippy.” "Now, close your eyes." Cript said. I laid back down and did that. "Now keep focusing on the moon." After a moment I had to check and make sure my eyes were actually closed. I could still… see it. The details just as clear as when my eyes were open and… I looked closer. Seeing the smaller structures. The dirt and dust particles… the molecules… atomic structures… the sub-atomic structures… the smallest partial, and soon the code making up that smallest partial. “This is extremely trippy…” I muttered. “I can literally see it’s Code…how?” "It's how Heirs work. With just a little bit of effort we can see, hear, smell, taste and feel things that grow all the way to the code level on anything around us. Far greater than Admins can even. And by passively reading that data, we learn about how it's all made and how it works from the code level to the big stuff." So that's how he learns so fast! I can bypass the study and read the code directly and skip so much prep and effort! “You can not believe how great this is for work.” I sighed out happily. “Also, bitch, you knew I was going to be right about half the things we bet on!” I said, not kinda feeling jipped on our bets if he knew I was going to be right. Cript just chuckled. "Now, let me ask you this. How do you think I advance the development of life on a planet?" Cript asked, putting a hand to the grass and causing flowers to grow there. “Chronologically, or Alphabetically?” I deadpanned. "Surprise me." I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Well…given that we’re having this special brand of conversation, I believe it’s either you being the Heir to Mother herself, or it’s the fact that you are literally changing it’s Code to…accelerate the process.” I said. “Using yourself as a super processor to help facilitate the Code to work overtime and finally made life itself not look like an AOL loading bar with poor internet.” "Heh. More or less. While there are many means to do this, using code, creating those foundation particles and ordering them to shape the miles and atoms needed to make life, and fully grown life, is simple. Now, King, sit up and use the Focus on me." I raised a brow at that. “Well…if you say so.” I said while using my brand new Focus on Cript, to finally take a deep dive into what makes him tick. Holy… What I saw was very complex. Very full of information the likes of which I don't think Scan could ever give… and it was also so familiar… It was like looking at a character sheet written in Code. His HP, MP, cellular structures, genetics, abilities, his rate of growth for his stats, it was like… a Developer menu for Cript and everything he is. "Impressed?" Cript asked with a laugh. “Well…never thought I’d see a Developer Menu in the form of a character sheet.” I said honestly. "Yup. You are looking at my Code Profile sheet. Everything I am, can be, will be and ECT is there. Normally Admins have to put a lot of effort to see these, let alone modify one. But for Heirs, seeing them is easy, modifying them can be, if our will is greater than the target." So… this is how… holy shit! Second Chance and Love Struck! “Wait…” I shook my head. “Hold the fuck up…I just had an earth shattering revelation that…well, Second Chance is…” I brought out that special Keyblade. “Wow…I…never thought that Memory Stealer and Second Chance were…this powerful…” I said, knowing Love Struck was ‘created’ by Cript but…thinking that I literally had all this power literally at the start of my adventure was kind of mind boggling, even if it wasn’t fully complete at the time. "Yup. Anything that can modify someone or something like that modifies the profile set up or makes one for them, does. It's extremely powerful yet also not as uncommon. Similar magics and such exist but those can all be reversed. Those ones can't." He informed. "Not with our time travel shenanigans anyway." “And the fact that God just kinda…gave me such a weapon right off rip is kinda terrifying in context.” I said nervously. “Oh I could have done…a lot of bad things.” "And then some." Cript said. "Hence why when we met I kept an eye on you and offered you to join my Family. There are few things I consider a threat and you, King, are one of them. So I adopted you… and as usual with me ended up seducing you." He laughed. “Listen, if it wasn’t for Memory Stealer, it probably would have involved me trying to be Batman.” I brought up. “And yes, I’ve seen those universes…also, would argue Den did more of the seducing…” I chuckled. “Though yes, yes you did indeed seduce me.” "True, Anyway, onto the next part. Summon one of your other weapons for me. You kinda learned this with Lord but he was an even worse teacher." “Yeah.” I agreed as I pulled out Skysplitter. “He barely teached me shit…” "Yeah. Anyway, use Focus on your weapon." I did just that. Everything about it, the materials, molecules and particles, the giant soul within, everything. I now had a perfect mental blueprint of the weapon. "Now use that knowledge you just learned and make an exact replica." “Should be…simple enough.” I said while trying to make an exact replica of Skysplitter. “Though…I doubt I’m able to recreate the Giant Soul…Soul’s are weird.” "You can." Cript nodded. “I can?” I frowned. “That…doesn’t seem right, we needed a new Admin of Souls to get that right…” "King, what do I do when I see something new I don't have in my arsenal?" "Right…" I sighed, continuing to try and duplicate Skysplitter. So far I managed the body well enough. The soul was proving tricky but I eventually managed to fill in a blank giant's soul based off the one in Skysplitter. "Good." Cript nodded. "With practice, I could do this a lot easier." I said, looking over the replica and nodding. "Learning to do this exact weapon replication will help you a lot in the event it breaks or is obliterated." He informed. “Yeah…” I nodded, remembering the first time Skysplitter was broken. “That was…not a pleasant day.” "This is also how I seemingly have unlimited weapons of any kind." Cript admitted. "Now, apply this to a living person." “Excuse me?” I frowned. “Isn’t that Starfish Clones though?” "While it makes a perfect replica of you with your minds shared in a hivemind, I mean create a perfect replica of someone you know or even yourself if you can manage. The key with this one is that they won't be linked to you. They'll be an unconnected duplicate of you or whoever you decide." “Right…” I said carefully, trying to create the perfect replica of who I knew best…no matter how many problems with backstories were involved. Me. And after about a good five minutes of work…I saw the old me, the eighteen year old human standing there in my old white organization cloak. "Hello there." I said politely to my old self. "General Kenobi." My human self answered readily. “So…all this huh?” “Yep.” I nodded. “We’ve come a long way.” The human me looking over me. “I knew I’d look good as a woman…but why the wolf?” “Because woof’s are great.” I chuckled. "Among other things." Cript said as he walked around and circled my human copy. "Hi there." The old me said. "I know I'm not much to look at compared to…that." They motioned to all of me. "Honestly, I find it good to see where I started." I said honestly. "Shows how much I've grown and gotten better over these many…many years." "The question is how like you, or rather old you, did you make them?" Cript asked as he kept looking the old me over. "Are you able to use the thirteen weapons?" "I better." The human me said, bringing out there hand and summoning Arpeggio. "I see…" Cript said, looking the weapon over. "It's in the original form too. Exactly as you were when you started your journey…" "Neat." Ben said with a nod. "And don't worry, we'll get some of the problems fixed." I brought up. "Like?" Ben frowned. "Heart dying, your light half being your soul technically, the depression…a lot of things." My human self looked at me like I've gone crazy. "Um…sure, I should believe that…" "It was a whole arc but you did get a little brother out of it. Speaking of." Cript said snapping his fingers as suddenly a smaller, younger… admittedly emo looking version of my human self appeared next to l, uh, me. "Huh. Even Joy is still corrupted in this copy. Interesting. “It’s Rejection ya prick.” They stated bluntly. “Seeing Joy like this is…not okay…” I shook my head sadly. “Also seeing him as…not a woof is weird.” “Right…” My old self said slowly. “This…this is definitely happening.” "Trust me, you living through it all was just as weird." Cript said. "Though I have to admit this is giving me ideas." “Should I be concerned?” Old me asked nervously. I looked at Cript…”Yes.” I answered simply. “Well…” “Will it finally get this fucker to cheer up finally?” Rejection asked bluntly. “Most likely.” I shrugged. "Well, time is going to be/is broken. The idea is to make the new Admin of Time and with their help we can stop all new timelines from forming and keep ourselves on a singular timeline. Doing that gives us the chance to finally recruit every Ally and deal with every enemy between now and fighting Vincent. So, we're gonna break time, make one timeline and recruit or fight all that this will set loose." Old me lightly took a deep breath. “And here I thought Core was gonna be the biggest pain in the ass for me…” “Oh…oh you’re gonna need to sit down for the explanation’s we’re going to have to give you.” I chuckled. "In any case we already have the new Admin of Time candidate. Now all we need to do is grab the Title and perform the rite." “And who would that be?” I inquired. "Pecator." “Uh…isn’t he still a part of Heart?” I asked curiously. “Who and what?” Ben asked in confusion. “Long story.” I answered. “But unless the fact that he’s an Admin kinda…ignores that rule and…well I mean…Starfish Clones would technically count…” I said with some thought. “He can be both.” Cript said. “He is part of Heart, yes, but given that the title of Admin of Heart is divided into twenty pieces, he only has one twentieth a title and it should be fairly easy for him to handle the Admin of Time Title as a whole.” “Fair enough.” I nodded. “I mean, a fusion of me and Heart turned into the Admin of Souls so…there’s that.” I shrugged. “Holy hell…” Ben groaned. “I hate how…honestly, I shouldn’t be understanding this…but I do…” “Believe it or not, our stunted emotional growth actually stopped us from displaying a pretty high natural IQ.” I brought up. “Yeah, anyway I’m gonna go grab him. You with me.” Cript said, grabbing Rejection by the scruff of his shirt. “You two, talk or, bone or whatever.” And with that, Cript was gone. “Uh…” Ben looked at me…or, more accurately, looked up at me as I stood at my full height. “Now…” I said with a cheeky grin. “Mommy…” Ben whimpered in fearousal. “Poor choice of words.” I chuckled as I loomed over my old self. (we attempt some selfcest stuff, be warned) With a snap of my fingers my clothes were stored away in my Assistant and his were folded off to the side. Huh, seeing your past self naked is… definitely different. Was I always that pale? “Uh…” Ben lightly fidgeted, failing to cover his erection at the now nude me. “You know…I’d probably be less paler if shorts weren’t evil and hoodies weren’t so cozy…” I commented, lightly brushing away my younger self’s hands to see myself in full glory. “I mean…true…” He answered sheepishly. Hm, man looking at myself like this… I mean, I’ve fucked my future self before… and now I’m the future me about to fuck my past self… wow… did not see that coming… I shook my head at the total absurdity and kneeled down. Even doing that I still towered over the past human me. Let’s start with some fondling. This version of me hasn’t even touched a boob yet, let alone what I’m thinking of doing… Best go slow, I’d hate to break my past self. “So I’m going to be as gentle as I can.” I told my young self, gently taking his raging stiffy that was a bit above average for normal humans, and lightly stroking it. He tensed up immediately, face red with blush as I gently caressed their stiffy. Yeesh, I remember when Luna and I first did a round in bed… Wonder what they’ll all think of Ben here? Probably nostalgia and talk about experiences. It was a bit awkward giving him this handjob. My current size makes my hand alone half the size of his torso. Still, I stopped once I saw some pre start spurting out and now it’s time to let him fondle me. “Alright you adorably shy nerd, time to feel the wonder’s of fluffy titties.” I said readily…which the other me took that invitation and paraded it around with how eager he was to grab and fondle my tit’s. “I mean…you did say…” The younger me said sheepishly. “We did get the fascination with breasts from dad after all.” I chuckled, letting him fondle, squeeze, and rub my bountiful boobage even as he saw breast milk lightly leak out. He was definitely amazed at their feel. I could see it on his face. While my breasts aren’t the same as Luna’s… I’m bigger, but the mix of softness, fluffiness, warmth and because I’m a Den Mother, the milk leaking out, was clearly making his mind race with thoughts I probably know. I’ve had them all too after all. “Can I…?” Ben leaves the question up in the air. “Yes, yes you can.” I said with a smile. “I’ve been in your situation before.” I answered, before he latched onto one of my nipples and started to drink about as greedily as a man dying of thirst in the Sahara Desert. “That’s right, drink as much you need.” I giggled at how needy he was. This is oddly reminiscent of my first time drinking from Den… that was also the first time drinking milk from the tap thinking about it. I couldn’t help but smile and look down at them. The sensation was always welcome to me, mix of my preference and biology made this feel amazing, and makes me think he is going to have a different but equally great life ahead of them. I caressed his head a bit before leaning back and pulling him on top of me. The size difference was almost adorable, him sliding between all my breasts and basically vanishing. “Worlds…best water bed.” The younger me said happily. “I know right?” I chuckled. “So how you liking this so far?” “Incredible…” He answered breathlessly. He pulled himself up and looked me in the eyes. He was clearly wondering what to do next. He has options. Climb down to get between my legs. Stay there and hump between my breasts, or climb up and let me blow them. Hmm… what to do? “Want to fuck my pussy, tits, or my face?” I asked them readily, making them blush brightly at how forward I was. I could see the choice was driving him crazy. He probably wants to fuck them all but I don’t know how long til Cript gets back and it is his first time. Hm… With a smirk and a slight movement I more or less threw him up to my top set of knockers, my muzzle right at his crotch and smelling… musk. Myself, but different. Having this advanced nose gave me the ability to recognize loved ones by smell, and smelling myself like this, younger, inexperienced and ready to bone. It was weird to smell your own scent but it be so different yet also not that different at all. “Alright you, time for me to give blow your mind.” I said cheekily. “Did you just fucking make a-” He was about to protest before he moaned loudly at me just taking his dick in my mouth happily, lightly sucking on the virgin meat and enjoying his wonderful moans. My own taste. Tasted myself a lot, but not my human self. Hm, not too bad. His whole shaft and balls were at the mercy of my maw, my tongue soaking them in saliva and some light licks to his sack as I sucked. His pre was almost identical to how mine tasted, slightly less strong then my own now. Once I wrapped the tip of my tongue around his rod, he blew. It was less than I’m accustomed too, but all in all, not bad. I sucked a bit longer, draining all he had pumped out and gave his now limp and wet member a kiss for the effort. (and scene) “Good boy.” I giggled happily, reaching over and lightly patting his head. “That’s…wow…” He panted heavily. I picked him up and planted a wet kiss on his lips, enjoying the act as I turned over, careful not to crush him under my body weight but also made sure he was nice and snug between my knockers under me, enough of his torso out so I can see his face. “Hi there.” I said warmly. “H-hi…” Ben said. “This…this is nice…” “Yes, yes it is.” I smiled. I laid there on him until he started to get used to the situation and now we can have a talk. “So, where do you want to start first?” I inquired. “Uh…” Past me said in thought. “Um… Maybe, how did… that, happen?” He asked, eyed looking me up and down. “Me being a woman or me being a Dire Wolf Den Mother?” “Both I guess.” “So how I became a Dire Wolf, well when I was ‘adopted’ by Cript that you just met, his curse is that anyone adopted by him becomes biologically his children, along with a random wife…I got Den the Dire Wolf as my mother…and why I became woman? Well, Heart, one of my spouses, was getting a little annoyed that I wanted to stay a dude when they were a hermaphrodite and Eclipsa, another spouse, was a woman.” I explained. “Do… you enjoy it?” “Yes.” I nodded. “And not because I now have eight breasts I can fondle to my hearts content or an ass that could be considered a fusion of a mountain and jello,” I honestly am starting to think my spouses were correct in saying me blushing was cute. “But it’s…a lot more comforting to be a mother when I got used to it…I mean, I still have a giant cock because we’re all herm’s but being a woman just feels nice after I gave it a try.” “So, you just swap between being female, being a herm, but keep the body at all times?” “Oh no, I’m a full on hermaphrodite.” I said. “I’m just really good with hiding my dick, and I keep this body full time cause this is who I am…I mean, I also forgot to mention that, to get my soul back, I literally had to be ‘reborn’ the old fashion way, of shoving my consciousness, heart, and everything about me into a newborn baby…yeah it was complicated back then.” “Huh… Okay, well, do you often so openly… get frisky?” "Yes." I said readily. “Oh… Well, what… am I going to be doing?” He asked. “I know I’m a copy of you, a copy from when we started. My memories largely go back to crashing into that dumpster… but what will I do given there’s two of us? I mean, sex is… great but I won’t be doing just that will I?” “Oh hell no.” I shook my head. “What you need is adventure, love, care, a family, a social life…and an ass ton of therapy.” I explained. “And believe you me…I’m still making weekly visits to my therapist.” “Yeesh… Well, what will I be doing? Will I do things similar to you or different?” That was a good question… for one, having two of my sexy, fuzzy ass around is always nice. Well, three including my future alternate timeline self. On the other, I wonder if they could be someone else's child? Pony Ben? Fox Ben? Cyborg Ben? “Hmm, that is a good question.” I hmmed, thinking about it. “I mean, if you join the family, who knows what race you could turn into at first…then there’s what you want to do, cause you have anything and everything at your disposal at the moment.” “That’s… a lot to consider…” He hummed. “Well, okay what about… worlds? God said we were visiting MLP world, but were there other worlds to visit, cause, ya know, we went with a Kingdom Hearts theme? Wait, when you said Heart before did you mean like, The Kingdom Hearts?” “Yep.” I nodded. “Heart used to be Zeke Ventral,” I saw my other self freeze a little at the name. “Don’t worry, their entire family, besides the completely insane ones, are all doing normal people stuff.” I said. “But back to the point, Heart is indeed Kingdom Heart’s, the Admin of Hearts, and with worlds? You can go to literally any world, in any scenario possible.” I said. “An example was me and Joy, your Rejection purified, traveling to the Storyshift universe of Undertale.” I explained. “Oh. Cool.” He said, wiggling a bit. “Well, um, not that this isn’t comfortable, mind if I get up?” With a nod I got up and off them. A snap of my fingers and we were both clothed again. He pat his clothes for a moment. “So… how long until you were able to just snap your fingers like that and do stuff?” “I mean…” I tried to think of how long it was. “Technically…if we’re just going through linear time, it would have been about…maybe ten years?” I said nervously. “Cause I did become King of Nothingness, which basically made me a stupidly powerful God because I now own a literal fundamental part of reality, but…then I was kidnapped and put into a fourty year long coma…and then maybe two years later I became an Admin and then…” I shook my head. “Listen, even back then, Time didn’t mean much.” “Weird… Well, that aside, who is Cript exactly cause he sounds like he’s supposed to be important given… whatever he was talking about before he left.” “So Cript is a bio engineered super soldier that was literally designed and built to give his creator a challenge or help him conquer all of reality easier.” I explained. “He can do anything, and everything, while constantly gaining stronger and stronger as time passes, but he has one weakness.” I said. “And it’s…weirdly with all of his other versions.” “That… sounds like some bullshit. Go on.” “Believe me, it is.” I said. “As someone that’s both had a deep dive look into his Code, the very essence of this Matrix like reality…yes, we’re still stuck in a simulation, and literally looked at his blueprint’s…it’s completely and total bullshit.” I explained. “But for some reason, Skateboards are the bane of a Cript’s existence and nobody knows why.” “The… hell?” He asked with a look of total and utter confusion. “How… that’s just so… random…” “I know, and nothing can or will explain the reason why that specific thing is there.” I said. “He just…can’t skateboard for some reason, no matter how hard he tries…I’ve seen it, it’s like a slapstick comedy with banana peels.” “Alright… So, that aside, mind if I ask how you made me? Did he teach you or, what? Cause I get I’m a full on copy of you, that much information was in my head once I… opened my eyes. It’s actually taking a fair amount not to have an existential crisis given the memories I have technically aren’t even mine or… all that but how did you make me and why?” “So…” I started. “I gained the power of an ‘Heir Cript’, basically a version of Cript that is the ‘Heir’ to something super important, Heart with Kingdom Heart’s as an example.” I explained. “How I made you? Well…it’s a tad complicated, but basically I used Code, the true source of power in this computerized reality, also because I’m an Admin with all those wonderful privileges, and then was told that I could create…basically anything I wanted with such a brand new fundamental understanding of the universe around me.” I told my younger self. “And one such thing was…creating a perfect copy of myself, that wasn’t a Starfish Clone of myself, someone brand new technically but still the exact same person.” “Huh… Will you make more of me? Us?” “Not sure.” I shrugged. “I mean, I have a lot of Starfish Clones running around, either with one of every single one of my spouses, a few hundred trying to help run the entire kingdom cause…fuck paperwork,” I shuddered. “And…just doing stuff.” I shrugged. “Yeah but these Starfish clones are like, linked to you? So, you’re basically doing all the work anyway. I know I don’t have your powers, skills or experience, but even though I am another you I am still my own person. If anything having a you that, well, you aren’t also linked to would be helpful.” “And this is why I said that we’re naturally pretty smart if we’re not bogged down by a bunch of mental problems.” I chuckled. “But you are correct, currently I created you because this was a first try in creating a perfect copy of a living sapient being, that I just learned I could do today, and also because I know myself perfectly.” “Fair. So, will I be getting training and stuff to be stronger too? Aside from Arpeggio I haven’t summoned any of my weapons so combat skill and experience is zero for me.” “Yes, you will be trained in all of your weapons…and I’m also going to be changing one of our weapons cause it is…extraordinary scary with the context I was just told before you were made.” “Really? Huh… Alright.” Cript showed up with Pecator some time later. The rite was… interesting. Oddly simple and unceremonious. With that done, next came the breaking of time… Now that was interesting. I didn’t really see anything happen, but I felt it. The whole of creation- no, the MACHINE itself was altered. It was like someone broke down glass walls that have always been and now it’s all gone. I even felt the dead timelines from Nothingness revive and flow and merge once the walls were all broken. Pecator left without a word shortly after. “Alright, now you, Ben.” Cript said. “You have a choice.” “Join your group, or fuck off to god knows where?” Ben took an educated guess. “Well, a place of your choosing, but yeah kinda. I know you did basically miss out on your adventure but you can get that and a whole lot more with us. Plus knowing you, you’d wanna get with King more times.” Cript said, making Ben blush but nod. I don’t blame him. After all, it’s what I’d want. “I mean…you have a point.” Ben said sheepishly. “But…well, I was going to ask to join you anyways cause I need a teacher for my weapons…I do need therapy…and I just need a family…” “Fair. Well, welcome to the family then Ben… again, technically.” Cript said, holding out a hand. Man this brings me back. Welp, time to see what/who they get. “Thanks…” Ben said with a smile as he took Cript’s hand. The flash and change were instant. Seeing it from here was kinda… neat. Ben now sported some… reptilian features. Large leathery wings now on his back and a fairly draconic look. He also had a long tail that ended in some spikes. His hair was replaced by various barbs that acted like hair. Those were all white and their eyes, while now reptilian, kept the same color as before. “Neat, you’re a Dragonoid.” Cript said. Let’s see, that narrows it down to… a lot of mates… “And I have no idea who’s dragon mother you belong to…” I said, pulling up my assistant to double check, but looking up to see my younger self…kinda be adorable looking over themselves. “This is…really, really cool.” Ben said happily. Let’s see… ah, Delovina. Right, I know her. Lovely musician, amazing piano skills, enjoys flying through rainy weather and we’ve got a few… hundred kids together and a small home in an active volcano. “Well, I’ll send you off to your mom.” Cript said, a snap of his fingers and a portal opened up next to us. “A Starfish clone of King and I will be there. Help you adjust, King can help you train given, well, same weapons and such, and your mom can teach you to be a Dragonoid.” “And what about Rejection?” Ben inquired, lightly stretching their wings as they tried to adjust to having three new appendages. “He’s with Joy. I imagine the two will get along well given, well, they are also the same person and such. He should also be a Dragonoid like you and I imagine now that Joy is explaining things to him. You’ll probably see him in a day or two.” “Huh, kinda thought I’d have to…get this fixed before that.” Ben said while lightly poking his chest where his heart is, given I gave him a good explanation on that whole thing. “Don’t worry, we’ll handle that when you get there. Now, go on. King and I have shit to do and train/look you over when you get Delovina’s place with us.” “Alrighty then.” Ben nodded. “Gonna…go see mom…that’s something I’m gonna have to get used to.” He chuckled as he went into the portal to his new home…only to then be dog piled by a lot of dragonoid/dire wolf puppers. The portal closed up and Cript looked over at me. “Welp, time is now broken and all that mess so you know what that means?” “I need to work even fucking faster to make sure Grey doesn’t get evil version’s of ourselves on his side/” I asked. “Odds are he will but we gotta use Consume to absorb/imprison as many as we can. You ready to travel to some rather crazy places?” "Of course." I nodded. "Let's do this." "Cool." Cript said, snapping his fingers as another portal appeared and we entered it. "I wish I could say I'm disappointed… but I was honestly expecting one like this." Cript and I stood atop a building. One of many, but the upsetting thing that got us upon arriving was all the swastikas everywhere. "We better not be getting into a weird Rick and Morty reference…" I frowned. “Alright…so do we just nuke the place, or try to find the only sane people?” "First we'll see how bad it is and just who exactly is the Nazi. My money is on one of the Ventrals." “I wouldn’t be surprised.” I shook my head. “Come on, let’s go through this facist bullshit…” It wasn't long to look around and find the main Leaders building. Turns out in this universe Hitler had a son… and that son was…. "Why am I a giant wolf lady?" Nazi me asked. Cript was laughing while I bashed my head against the wall. “I…I hate everything…” I muttered. “Why the fuck do I have to be the son of one of the worst people in human history?” I asked, raising my hand and giving an accusatory point at my nazi self before they could speak. “And no, slaughtering million’s because they’re not white, blonde hair and blue eyes is absolutely atrocious and a waste of life, don’t you fucking start.” "This is actually unexpected. Then again, infinite possibilities." Cript said with a shrug. "Who even are you two?" Nazi me asked. "I'm Cript and that's you from a different reality where you aren't the son of Hitler." Cript stated. "Huh… why a giant sexualized wolf lady though?" "That's a long story. So, first I need to ask, are you a racist and if so would you prefer death or a reset?" "Excuse me, you can't threaten the- gah!" Nazi me started to rant before I shoved Second Chance down their throat. In a flash I was now holding baby me. "Surprised you used Second Chance." “I really need to fix this.” I sighed out. “And also, he might not have been racist if he wasn’t being racist about what I was.” I brought up. “But…yeah, leader’s now a baby…and I might have just gained an entire facist planet…I hate this…” "Well, the way I see it there is two paths now. Use Second Chance on the whole planet, or put a bullet, blade or deadly spell blast at every Nazi we see." “I mean…we really shouldn’t just slaughter an entire planet…but their nazi’s…” I frowned. "Choice is yours in the end. We can easily spare/save children but the adults are probably a whole other story." "Yeah…save the kids, or those young enough to be saved, and slaughter the adults." I nodded. "And now…should I do it looking like this version of myself just to fuck with the adults or no?" "Nah. The idea they're gonna be killed by a sexualized wolf lady is honestly hilarious enough." Cript chuckled. With a nod, we got to work. The fighting lasted two weeks. All the kids I saved, used Second Chance on and adopted, making them all my puppies, and the adults all were killed. Those that surrendered I used Second Chance on and those that fought got what they deserved. I'm not gonna say I don't have regrets but I can't leave them to their own devices either. Thankfully there were pockets of resistance and they happily joined the kingdom. For good measure once it was all done we re-terraformed the planet to more or less reset it to pre-human times. When it was all done we were off to the next place. "Zombie me? Huh. That's actually interesting." Cript said as we walked through the ruins of a city. Apparently Zombie Cript is a mix of every zombie based genre pushed into one. Humanity here never stood a chance. "Yeah, that is pretty interesting." I said. "Also how your every zombie class mixed together is also neat." I said honestly. "So, think they're still smart or sapient enough to talk to or just consume them?" "Maybe? Honestly I don't know. I have met Cripts that are basically mindless monsters so, who knows." "Fair, but depending on how many types of lich he's become…it's in the air." I shrugged. "Also…a whole host of other zombie types…" "Well, one thing is for sure." Cript said as he shot off an incoming undeads head. "This world is definitely getting obliterated." "Oh most certainly." I nodded, slamming my fist into one Zombies skull and obliterating it. We walked and slaughtered our way through various infected and even giant Kaiju style ones that broke up and out of the ground or infected waters. We eventually found the Zombie Cript and he was a mindless monster. Killing him was actually a challenge. "Well, this is going well." Cript said as he kicked a decapitated head. "Two worlds down…who knows how many more." I shrugged. "And yeah, it's going pretty well." "Gotta admit, this world was a bit stress relieving." “Especially after the last one yes.” I nodded. “So, what’s next?” "Welp, let's see." "I guess this one isn't bad but I am impressed you managed this." Cript said. This reality had me, once again asked by God where and what I'd like to do. Apparently this version of me chose to stay on a copy of earth that had no one on it save my fantasy crushes… “Listen…shut it…” I said, blushing a bit at how kinda…embarrassing this honestly was to just have all my fantasy crushes in a massive harem apparently cause why not. “I don’t know why this is embarrassing for me…but it kinda is.” “So…” This version of me, who looked a whole lot better honestly, both athletically and mentally. “Why am I a sexy wolf lady?” They asked, before ducking underneath a thrown boulder casually. “Yes yes I’m talking to someone important Sheeva, calm down.” He called out to the four armed Shokan queen. "I see you've definitely done well for yourself." Cript said, looking over all the various ladies and kids. "Let me guess, planet always has power, water and food despite no one running said facilities allowing you to focus on your mates, kids and sex?" “I mean…” The adult self looked a tad sheepish. “Yes…but I did take a long time to actually…ya know, get to know each of them. I may be a desperate horny nerd with a lot of problems, but I’m not a monster.” “Exactly.” I nodded. “But…yeah, nice choices my guy.” "So, wanna join our family deal? You get basically more of what you already have and optional adventures across multiple planets and such." Cript said. “Sure.” He nodded. “Plus, it would make me better at doing a lot of thing’s,” He said before grabbing a Garchomp that was trying to use Dragon Claw and shoulder threw the thing like it was nothing. “Sorry about this…you kinda got me during our training session.” “Oh you’re going to be a wonderful part of our family.” I chuckled warmly. "Well, this was easy." "You are one horny fucker…" Cript said. The last… forty worlds were similar to the me that enjoyed being with my fantasy crushes. Different worlds or different situations… genders… “It’s not my fault…all of them all agreed that it was solely because of the lack of physical, emotional, and mental support they all had…which is incredibly depressing that so many versions of myself are still super depressed loners that had their family’s murdered…” "The ones that were girls with reverse harems was unexpected.” "Well looks like this one is more of less you being the only male on an anthro Equestria." He said, a line of females heading towards the castle and a walkway of… rather happy mare's walking out of it. "Now I don't know if that's by choice for the world to be made or…if that's how the world already was." Cript checked his Assistant. "Says here this world had a big bad who was a succubus that stole all the stallions and other males of every species then cursed mares to never have males. As a result they kept the population going by using special potions using two mares or females DNA to have a foal. God basically just dropped you off here and it's more or less been like this for the last ten years for you." "That poor man's hips…" I said in sympathy. "Oh trust me he's had more than enough magical augmentation to make up for the effort." “Still, he’s probably become one with whatever bed he’s on if he has to please an entire planet.” I said honestly. "He already got a lifeline link to Celestia, Luna, and other immortal beings on this planet to ensure his immortality and reproduction of the species through sexual intercourse. And before you ask yes his augmentations keep his kids from having… genetic issues as they age. And get with each other cause, well, they will all be half siblings." “Yeah that makes sense.” I nodded. “So let’s go meet the savior of this world.” "Now the question is are you gonna head right to them or wait in line?" “And have sex with another version of myself?” I raised an eyebrow. “But we’re gonna probably have to wait anyways, don’t want to ruin these girls fun.” "Well, you have fun with that, I'm gonna go get a meal or something." Cript said, suddenly a red coat, brown mane unicorn mare that walked off. Hm… “Well…I mean, should probably make this faster…plus it would help with solving the curse…” I muttered, standing in line trying to think if I should just go up there or wait like a good person. In the end I waited. It. Was. Hours… but once it was done I finally entered the- hot damn! This version of me was just a foot below my height, had blue and white wings and… was well built. Still looked human, save the wings. “Hello there.” I nodded. “General Kenobi.” My winged counterpart said without missing a beat. “So glad that all versions of myself get that reference.” I chuckled. “Excuse me?” They asked in confusion. I went into a quick explanation on the situation and we talked about some stuff for a while. “And here I thought my life was going to be the world's greatest breeding machine.” They said honestly. “Yeah, that tends to happen.” I shrugged. “So, want to join our family? You can do a lot more thing’s, and help cure the curse.” "I mean, that would be best and honestly I am getting board of sex." “Then you haven’t met Rune yet.” I chuckled, seeing the guy shiver lightly. “That name…fills me, and my pelvis, with dread…” He said nervously. “As it should.” I said, bringing my head up. “Ready to join the family?” "Sure… so, I mean, did you actually wait in line to… bang or?" “I waited to be nice…” I trailed off, but then brought out a book. “But might as well show you how fun sex can be.” I said with a cheeky, seductive grin. “Had fun?” I asked, lightly wagging my tail in enjoyment as my other self was actually panting in bliss. “Wow…” He muttered in awe. "You done?" Cript said still in their anthro pony form. "Yep." I nodded. "And he's joining the family." "Have you been there the whole time? Also who are you?" Other me asked. "I'm Cript." They said, in a flash back to normal. "And I've been here since self lubricating, self thrusting dildos." "That was three hours ago?!" "Yeah and for not having female genitalia you enjoyed them a lot. Your reflections and you have a lot in common King." "I was always a bit bi-curious I will admit." I said simply. "And becoming a hermaphrodite definitely helped with it." I said, getting my self cleaned up with a snap of my fingers. "Well, welcome to the family. Another King will be here in a while to help you adjust and probably also help populate the planet." Cript said. "Oh shit it's you." Cript huffed at the old man in the lab coat. "Yeah well what did you expect? You break all timelines and dimensional barriers, of fucking course I'm going to show up." The old man replied. "So, first time meeting my grandpa?" The young yellow shirt wearing fourteen year old asked me. “Sadly.” I rubbed my temple. “But this is going…about as well as I’d expect all things considered.” I said simply. “So, should I warn Asmith his stupidly drunk and depressed co-worker is coming back or does he already know?” "Asmith? Why would I talk to that micro penis shitstain?" The old man asked. "Oh why are you even here Rick?" Cript asked. "Why else would I be here? For a cameo and to annoy you." "So, what's your name? I'm guessing you know I'm Morty." Morty said. “Names King.” I said, also having decided to be in my male dire wolf form to either not cause even more problems, and to at least stop the possible growing case of me banging myself across timelines. “And yes, I do know about you and your many, many adventures to placate someone with crippling depression.” I said honestly, lightly moving my head to the left and dodging a ray gun blast. “Rude, I didn’t even mention you’re compensating for something very important yet.” “Bite my wrinkled ass mutt.” Rick huffed before going back to arguing with Cript. “So, what do you do most of the time?” “Oh you know, adventures, fighting monsters, running an entire multi-reality kingdom that makes Rick’s Finite Curve look like a daycare.” I shrugged. “You know, the usual. And what do you do in between all your adventures besides needing a good therapist and some self control practice?” “Mostly go to school, jerk off and play some videogames. It’s a lot simpler than what you probably do in your spare time but I enjoy it.” “By leaps and bounds.” I said honestly. “But that’s life for ya…at least I have my family to support me through thick and thin, and I support them.” “Sounds nice.” Rick and Cript argued for a while longer before we left and went off to do more stuff. “Huh, in this universe the Ventrals took over the world but aren’t fascist nazies.” Cript said as we walked around the city. Certainly seems technology is better than back in my earth. “Which is a great thing.” I said honestly. “Seriously glad to not have Fascism be the default like with Rick.” “Yeah well, it wasn’t all easy.” Cript said as he pulled up his assistant. “All public displays of religion are outlawed and anyone guilty of it, strike one is a warning. Strike two is twenty years in a federal penitentiary, strike three is death. On the bright side they completely eradicated things like the Black Plague, got to the moon a hundred years earlier than your earth, and have a moon and mars colony. And all it took was the complete genocide of religious extremist groups and their near cultural deletion from history.” “So what the Emperor of Mankind did in Warhammer 40K after the Age of Strife.” I said. “Only this time…actually successful.” “Looks like. In this reality you work as an intern for Disney, Eclipsa works as the equivalent to a mayor, given they are a Ventral by blood, and Heart is next in line for the throne. Yes they do it with a monarchy.” “Sounds about right…also, intern at Disney?” I blinked. “I better be trying to learn how to draw and animate…seriously would have loved to but then…well everything happened.” “You’re trying to get a mini series started.” “Oh? And what would that mini series be?” I inquired. “Deadpool’s son with Death exploring humanity as an immortal demi-god. It’s mostly satire and throws punches at social and political issues.” “Yeah, I’d totally do that.” I chuckled. “All in all this is probably one of the more normal worlds we’ve been to.” Cript said. “So you’re me but, good?” The black fur den mother me asked as we sat in their large, rather ominous dining room. The main difference between them and me is that they chose Darkness and pure heartless stuff rather than Nobodies and such. “Well, I chose Nothingness rather than Darkness, but I’d say yeah.” I nodded. “Or at least, being a decent sentient being to say the least.” “Well, I might be a tyrant but at least I did good by the people. Granted blood was spilled, a lot of it, but I find that to be a small price for peace.” “So do you have Joy here?” Cript asked. “Joy? Oh you mean Wrath. Yes my little brother is here and living fine. We have a version of you too and their family.” “I could tell and I’m betting I know them.” Cript shrugged. “So I take it this means all this is merging finally?” “Yes.” I nodded. “Cause it’s either we merge and stop our reality from ending…again, or we go through this song and dance again.” “Frankly if it means peace for the people I’m in… So, are our bodies identical?” Darkness me asked. “Is your birth mother Den?” “Yes.” “Then they should be. Go on, this has been a trend.” Cript said. “Goodie~” “Hooray, I’m the one dicking her down then.” I said, getting up, grabbing the sexy milf of a den mother, slinging her over my shoulder and heading to our room for me to start stuffing people again. “We can take turns~” To be continued... Kite checks on somethingsWe were all huddled into the planning room as Bently and Dr. M brought out their signature slide show presentation of the plan. “Alright gang, from what Kite has told us, we have to do this operation as quick as possible.” The turtle said, bringing up a slide. "Rajan has sped up his plans to tonight and if we don't act fast, even if we win and defeat Rajan, the Prince and all his children will be lost." Uncle M said. "Which is why we need to also need to split into groups to deal with everything." I said, helping shift a slide. "I'll deal with Rajan, as he might have gotten some special things added to him by Clockwork, as well as the fact I have a means of dealing with the hydrophobic bastard." I said, bringing out Arpeggio as an example. "Do you think he would have been trained to not be hydrophobic?" Sly inquired to me. "Good question…and no. Cause getting past phobia's is one thing…this is a primordial fear for him, even if it's stereotypical of cats to fear water, the stereotype exists for a reason." "In Rajan's case I did find where the fear came from." Carmelita stated. "After some digging Bentley and I found out when Rajan was still young the village he and his family lived in was flooded. Only he survived because he climbed a tall tree but he watched his family and all the villagers drown below him." "I mean, Fuck yeah that would cause hydrophobia among other issues." Nyla stated. "I'd feel bad about using something that literally killed his parents…but fuck him he's being a deplorable prick." I frowned. "As much against the idea I might be, maybe a Psychological attack would be the best approach." Dad voiced. "Kite, can you make realistic illusions?" "I mean, I can make Illusions more real than reality itself." I answered. "Also…please don't question it…it's very weird to explain and even I barely understand how it works." "And what about pulling memories from someone's mind?" Dad asked. "Oh that's easy." I said honestly, pulling out my Lexicon. "Then I think you know the plan." Dad stated. "That's rather cruel of you, did Clockwerk rub off on you?" Nyla asked. "Spent years around that psychotic owl. I won't lie, I probably know more how he thinks than any Cooper before me. Or after. No offense kids." "I'm glad to know there are things I don't know about." I answered. "So it's alright dad." "I guess it's at least an advantage in the long run." Sly said. "Well, in terms of how this is going down, I guess Kite is the only one that needs to do the heavy lifting. We'll just use the conflict between you and Rajan to sneak the hostages and his 'brides' out and to safety." Sly said. "True, but I want to bring up a point." I said, bringing up a slide of the Contessa. "So, while I'm not sure if Clockwork got his talons around the spider lady, we need to be careful that we don't step into a trap." "Why bring her up?" Murray inquired. "Something about your 'alternate history' knowledge?" "Correct." I nodded. "Normally, the Contessa and Neyla would capture you and Sly for obvious reasons, and Carmelita for being a supposed 'traitor', helping the Cooper gang do crimes, and a whole thing with prison time and hypnosis with Clockworks Eyes helping her do better with that cause she was a part of the Klaww Gang." I explained. "She also…apparently has a lot of knowledge on tech and dark magic…somehow." I shook my head. "So I'm just going to say, be careful, I don't know what outliers are here and I don't want to take chances…or lose any of you." "Putting aside that why would I work with the warden of Moon Cell?" Nyla asked, making us all look at her. "What? She's clearly an off worlder." "Excuse me what?" I frowned. "Alright so…do you want the answer to why you were working with them in the alternate timeline or…do you just want to answer how the hell she's an Off Worlder?" I asked, cause even in the games the Contessa was said to be from this world. "Well for starters name one other person on this world that is essentially a Spider-Tar or any other form of centaur?" I thought about it… and shit… she's right. "Second her species from what I know are all wardens on a world called Moon Cell. Basically a prison planet that holds galactic criminals. They use dark magic and hypnosis to keep their less than friendly inmates more or less comatose and docile until they expire naturally." "Oh boy, that makes this a lot more complicated." I frowned. "So originally, she was just a normal spider lady that used her hypnosis to 'rehabilitate' the inmates, but as a front for her getting the criminals to tell her where all their loot was and profit from it " I explained. "But…if Clockwork managed to…her husband…" I muttered in realization and horror. Bentley began typing rapidly on his PC. "According to this she isn't married yet. The two are currently dating but not engaged." He reported. Good. He's still alive then. "Alright…so at least at this point, The Contessa would be married and, through mysterious means, he husband died pretty much after the wedding and gave her tons of money to do a lot of shady things with her hypnosis." I explained. "And yes, it was never explained." I added. "Must have been a rowdy honeymoon." Dad chuckled, earning a mild smack from mom. "None of you are ready for what I have to say on that subject." I said vaguely. "But…hopefully this means the Contessa isn't working for Clockwork…" I said. "But uh…question, how old is the boyfriend?" "According to this her boyfriend is in his early seventies. No actual age given for the Contessa though." Bentley informed. "Makes sense. Her species is long lived. Average lifespan is a little over two hundred." Nyla added as she looked over at Bentley's PC. "Judging from that photo of her she's probably about a hundred and… thirty or so." "Alright…" I said. "Well, best to still remain vigilant and cautious. We don't know what that damned owl has in store for us besides Rajans bullshit, and I'd rather not get caught off guard too hard." "Once Rajan is dealt with we can check in with Contessa and the other people of interest you have in mind." Dad said. "Yeah, cause I don’t know what’s changed with Dimitri and Jean since we got here and have been doing this…and Arpeggio is going to be a bitch and a half I just know it.” I wasted no time once the operation began and kicked in the doors leading to the chamber Rajan was in. He snarled as he looked at me. “You must be Kite Cooper.” Rajan said. “And you must be overcompensating.” I teased with a cheeky grin. "Ah yes. The quick wit, sarcastic humor. Vincent told me about you. In great detail." Okay… that caught me off. “Cause of course he did…” I grumbled. “Alright, so you know how this is going to end, yes?” "I know better than to fight you. Yes. I also know you won't let me leave here free or alive." “Alright, you’re going the right direction of this being the easy way.” I answered carefully. “Cause I’d rather not fight, and…at a certain point wonder why you thought this…” I motioned to everything. “Was at all a good idea?” "I figure, if I was to leave an impact on this world it would be one remembered for generations. For better or worse, my name won't be forgotten." "I mean…there's better ways to have your name never be forgotten than literally everything you've been doing." I said bluntly. "Maybe. But I am not a good man. Never claimed to be, and never tried. I know who and what I am Kite Cooper, and I am at peace with it." I sighed. "So…how do you want to do this?" "Do I really get a choice?" "All depends on if this is a trap or not." I answered simply. "Cause the age old adage 'easy way or the hard way' is still up in the air technically with Clockwork and Vincent involved." "True. Never before have I met someone with as twisted an imagination or endless bounds of cruelty as him. When you make an enemy, you know how to pick them." “I’m assuming your talking about Vincent…and well, that’s what happens when you’re a bastard that somehow remember’s every reset.” I frowned. “And I’m here to make sure that the world doesn’t end because of his spite.” "Then pray tell, why are you here? Why are you not going after him rather than standing here, speaking to me?" “Because I technically am at the moment, and because this is part of his ‘entertainment’.” I answered. “Cause shit’s happening that he’s never seen before…and he’s enjoying it.” I said, seeing Rajan’s eyes widen a tad at that. “Something new, after countless times he’s seen this happen before…plus, you’ve probably heard of how I was personally punted half way across the planet by the bastard himself.” "I remember hearing of something like that. I see. It makes sense, to be fair. Someone like him, his goals require little effort, and it seems between the end and now, he simply fills his time." “And considering what he’s willingly given me, an entire cascade of his own knowledge…” I sighed. “There’s no reason why he couldn’t have just nuked reality as a whole…but ya know, I’m not here to just roll over and die, I’m not here to let other’s suffer because some asshole think’s it’s funny, I’m here to make a difference damn it.” I frowned. “I’m here to help people, to stop those that would abuse their powers just for shit’s and giggles, and give those that fell down a dark path a second chance if able.” “I suppose. As far as idealistic goals go, it’s better than drowning yourself in meaningless tasks or endless sex.” … “Don’t answer that.” I immediately thought to myself, showing him no emotion at that barb. “So…mind if I ask who else you're working with?” I inquired, carefully walking towards Rajan with a pair of handcuffs for his size cause he’s gonna have to come with me for his crimes. “That is for Vincent and Clockwerk to decide.” He shrugged as he looked down at me as I was now right in front of him. I reached to grab his hand… only to have it phase through… “Like I said, I would be a fool to fight you.” “Shit…” I muttered. “Anybody there?” I asked quickly through my communicator for everyone else. ”Kite, the kids are all here but the prince and his wives aren’t.” Uncle M informed. I took a deep breath, and exhaled…I took another deep breath an exhaled as I used my brand new Cript Senses to find where the fuck Rajan and everyone else is. First I scanned India… Then The planet… then the solar system. I frowned as I looked back up at Rajan. “Looking for someone?” His… projection, asked me. I rubbed my temples. “Cause nothing can ever go right can it?” I asked, looking at his projection and seeing if it was just a hologram, or if I could use my powers to literally pull this motherfucker by the throat back to this reality. “Don’t worry, I won’t be harming the Prince or his wives. I have no need to. Vincent made me an offer I figured would be better in the long run, and so, you will find them on a small planet rather far from here. Unharmed and in good health. I am, however, keeping my brides.” I rubbed my temples. “And what was this god damn offer?” I asked. “Why be a king when I can be a being above gods.” He answered. “One day, we will have the fight you were expecting Kite Cooper, but whether you are in this skin or in your true form, you might find Clockwerk, myself and whoever else joins in this little game Vincent is playing… will be a fair fight.” “You’re adorable.” I answered nonchalantly, honestly getting real sick and tired of this bullshit but knowing it’s only here to annoy the piss out of me and make that rat bastard laugh. “But whatever…only making thing’s worse…so what planet is the prince at?” I asked carefully. “Don’t know the name. All I know is that it has… such lovely gardens.” Rajan said with a calming sigh. The projection vanished rapidly. Gardens… Radiant Garden. Only planet I know that is like that. “I got a lead where the prince and his wives are.” I said over the communicator. “And also, Rajan fucked off with his wives and…is now like Clockwerk…” ”Makes sense. Rajan has done a lot of harm and bad but Clockwerk must have admired his skills and strength.” Dad said over the comms. It was a quick trip bringing the prince and his wives back from Radiant Garden. The hard part was cleaning up the leftovers of Rajan’s gangs and such. India would take a long time to recover but with actual cops back in action here it would at least be a start. With that all done I dragged Nyla along to speak with Arpeggio. “I still say this is a bad idea.” Nyla said as we landed outside Arpreggio’s lab. “I am a bad idea but you don’t see me whining about it.” I rolled my eyes. “But I need you here to help me figure out if Arpeggio is working with Clockwerk or not…” “Why? Aren’t you mr. all seeing god whatever?” “Funnily enough, I tried that.” I said honestly, which caught Neyla off guard. “And my advice? Don’t.” I shook my head. “I’m not ‘all seeing’, just because I’m an Admin that…has been given the information about Reality itself Twice now, there’s thing’s even I don’t know. Just because I’m the smartest person in the room eight times out of ten doesn’t mean I know everything.” “I still don’t want to go.” She frowned as I snuck up to a window. Well, there he is. Looks like he’s working on… that mobile bird cage thing. “Was your falling out that bad?” I asked with a frown. “He can’t have a Keyblade. He’ll just get himself killed or… worse.” Nyla frowned. “Listen, he already thought using Clockwerk’s corpse as a hate fueled flight suit was a great idea in the alternate timeline, and besides…we’re not here to ask for a Keyblade…also, if Clockwerk got to him, why the fuck would he ask us for one?” I pointed out. “Cause he wants to fly. On his own power.” Nyla said. “Or as close to it as he can get.” “My point.” I said. “So do you want to see if he sold his soul to a very vindictive Tootsie Pop Owl or not?” "You can go in if you want. I'm staying here." Nyla said, dropping to the floor and sitting cross legged in the grass. I rolled my eyes. “Fine.” I shook my head, not wanting to deal with her being a child right now as I continued to meet the really smart bird. I walked around to the front of the lab and knocked. After several minutes and a few swears from inside the door opened. Arpeggio standing next to a button on the wall nearby. "Who are you?" He asked me. “Kite Cooper.” I answered. “May I come in? I have a few questions I’d like to ask concerning both…a friend of mine, and other important things.” "Umm… okay?" He said as I entered. "Don't know what a Cooper wants to talk to me about. Majority of my machines are either in beta or theoretical only so far." “Well…this visit is important, for a few reasons.” I answered. “One of them being…have you ever been visited by any people of interest?” I asked. “And not me for obvious reasons.” "Hmm… well, some years ago Raleigh contacted me asking if I was interested in working on some weather machine but I turned it down. Not my area of expertise or interest. After that… no. A few business types asking if I'd make this or that in exchange for funding but I haven't taken any offers yet." “So you weren’t contacted by Releigh’s boss?” I inquired. "No, just him. Offered good pay but again, not my field of expertise and he was arrested a bit ago so I dodged a bullet with that one." He shrugged. "Most of the people who contact me now ask about cars or machines for factory manufacturing." “Fair enough…also yes, you would have not wanted to be a part of my Mom’s Ire.” I said sheepishly. “So…next question…what is your relationship with Neyla?” "Hm. Former associate. We… had a disagreement some years back. I haven't seen her since. Is she… in trouble?" “No, thankfully.” I sighed. “But I want to know your side, cause I was told Neyla’s side…and I’d like to know what your side is.” I said honestly. Arpeggio eyed me skeptically, and seemed to be choosing his words carefully before speaking. "I met Nyla many years ago. She was… homeless. Moving from place to place and digging through trash for meals. Caught her trying to mess with some of my trash. I offered her a meal the location of some shelters. She tried to refuse but her stomach betrayed her." He said with a chuckle. "In the end she stayed around here for a while. In exchange for helping me in the lab I gave her a place to stay. Taught her, she was surprisingly illiterate and lacked basic math skills. We became like friends though I suspect she saw me more like a parental figure. Never told me what happened to her parents, just that they died when she was young. One day I saw her use an… artifact. Old and magic in nature. Normally I wouldn't bother with magic, but her artifact held… power. And I saw in it a means to achieve a life long dream of mine. "She refused to let me examine it and I, well, lost composure. Words were said and… to my regret, slurs were part of it and… well, she left and I haven't seen her since. All I have left of her are a few photos we took." He motioned to a wall where a few pictures of him and Neyla were taped on it. “Why do you think she didn’t want you to have this artifact? Or to study it at least?” I inquired, knowing exactly why but wanting to know from his perspective. "She always told me she couldn't stay anywhere long because she attracted trouble. At first I thought she was just superstitious but… well, after I saw her with the artifact and the… trouble she spoke of I guessed, when I cooled down, that she didn't want me to attract that trouble either." He said with a sigh. "She honestly deserves better. A chance at a normal life, to have a place she can rest her head without being a magnet for this trouble. I of all people know how life's unfairness can make something so simple so out of reach." He said, fluttering his small wings as he said that before folding them back at his sides. I sighed. “Trust me…I know that feeling more than anyone.” "I suppose I'm not surprised she doesn't want to see me again. I just hope one day she can get the simple, peaceful life she wants." “Well, I’m doing my best to give people that future.” I said honestly. “But it’s…tough to be honest…I tried to bring Neyla here but…well, you probably know better as to when she doesn’t want to do a thing.” "Heh. True." He nodded. "I suppose if anything, I hope she finds some happiness. Was there anything else you came here for?" "Well…" I hummed. "We could use your technical expertise to help us deal with other bad guys…and in exchange…" I decided to give Arpeggio a once over, to see if he wasn't also a hologram or a double agent. My scan turned up nothing. This was him. His body is almost criminally weak. Even for a bird his size. "I appreciate the offer but I respectfully decline." He said simply. "My work focuses on restoring lost functions to the body or returning functions that didn't developed properly. I'm not interested in developing gadgets and utilities, just returning or giving what was lost or never there to those that need it." "Well I can easily help with that." I answered readily. "And if you need an example, I'm willing to demonstrate my knowledge." "And in exchange as my boss you can get me and Neyla in the same room for a talk?" He asked with a chuckle. "If that is your intent then I'm afraid my decline still stands." "Oh no." I shook my head, getting Arpeggio to give me a look. "At this point, I just want to help someone that wants to be better, and I also want to be the one to help you so your desperation doesn't…make you follow bad individuals." I said carefully. He seemed to mull that over for a bit. "I suppose the funding would be nice. Getting a bit old doing commissions for factories, car nuts and such." “Plus you can focus on the world of prosthetics.” I said simply. “Cause that can help people a lot more than simple cars and factories.” "Alright. I suppose at least it opens up better possibilities." He nodded. “Yep.” I nodded. “So, mind showing me some of your works?” "Well, at the moment most of my projects are on paper. Save this." He motioned to the half built bird cage mobile. "This will help me move around and at least remain at eye level with people in my daily life. I have plans for modifications later on but if it makes travel for me easier then I know others will definitely utilize it for the same reason." “Having a motorized segway is always a good thing.” I chuckled, looking over the thing and seeing that it was pretty much the same as the game version, just half built. “So, got any questions as to what I know about Prosthetics?” "Well, what do you know of Prosthetics?" “To the point where I can make it look, act, and feel like the real flesh and blood thing.” I answered readily. "If that is true, then why hire me?" “Because of many reasons.” I answered. “One is to help you, because I am a genuinely good person, two because I want to share my knowledge of it with you, and three, because one person can’t do everything.” I answered. “Believe me…I have tried doing everything by myself and…it doesn’t work.” "Well, I suppose. What will I be doing aside my usual work?" “Well, what else do you want to do?” I inquired. “Cause with my help I’m giving you the chance to fly.” "I don't really have any other goals in mind. Being able to fly and help fix others has been my main goal since I began inventing." “A noble goal that I want to help foster and grow.” I said with a smile. “For knowledge is meant to help the people, not meant for personal gain.” I spent a few hours talking with Arpeggio and making arrangements. When I finished, Neyla was gone. Sighing, I went home and took a nap. The next morning I woke up feeling a bit stiff. With a stretch and some pops that went away and I began to wonder what to do today. Still need to check in on Dimitri. Contessa… and John Bison. “Alright…so Dimitri was still doing that ‘flash bang’ art that we…accidentally caused back during Mugshot’s whole thing…” I muttered, thinking about who to find first. “At least, I hope he’s still trying to do something with art, better than crime…” I checked and he is still a well respected artist. No ties to criminal activity, but he does own the same night club as before. Only this time it seems to be legit. All the data on the Contessa is still there. Same as what Bentley said. John Bison is still being thawed out it seems… hm… I could probably move him to a world ripe with trees and in need of a good lumberjack. Probably what's best for him in the long run. And if I can't find one I can make one- Wait… make one… I mean… I know I can make planets but their Affinity… I'd have to talk with Heart about it but I might be able to kill two birds with one stone. “Alright…” I muttered. “This is going to take…a lot of time and effort…plus I was gonna have to train my family to be a whole lot stronger for the upcoming problems…” First… best see about calling Heart. The whole Light and Dark thing is their domain after all and if anyone can make this work it's them. “Alright…time to call Heart…” I said, hoping thing’s won’t escalate from there and…well I don’t think Heart has seen me as Kite. I sent the message and It wasn't long til the DTL appeared and my Floof Noodle partner and mate slithered into my room… it was almost too small. "Hey King." Heart said with a small wave. They were mostly coiled up and I sat atop their coiled half. "So, Sly Cooper world?" “Yep.” I said. “And I’m Kite Cooper…also sorry for this area being too small for ya.” "It's alright. Kinda forget we're usually huge." They shrugged. "So, what's the reason you called me here?" “Cause I need your help with…creating a world here.” I said carefully. “And Light and Darkness is in your area so…” Heart looked around the room. "Looks like a world to me." They said. I huffed. “Listen…there’s already more problems with Rajan also becoming an Admin and…I need to do a lot of shit real quick, one such thing is probably getting John Bison a new world to Lumberjack to his heart’s content if he’s still mad at nature and Neyla a world her Lanesborn issue won't call Heartless on.” "Hmm. Well, Lanesborn can only safely live on a planet that is wholly in the Light. In order for a world like that to exist another has to exist where all the darkness exists and the two would basically co-exist as equilibriums to one another." “Ah, that makes sense.” I nodded. “First time I’m trying to make a planet in the Lanes so…really need to know all my stuff before doing something stupid ya know?” "I imagine you want it close to this world to have tabs kept on it and such?" “Of course.” I nodded. “Don’t want to just plop down a planet somewhere random and then leave them to do who knows what.” "Fair. But it's counterpart will have to be near too. Hmm. I can probably set something up to ensure whatever develops on the counterpart planet can't escape so at least there's that. Making a portal from there and here will be easy. Now, I just have one question for you." “Go ahead.” I nodded. “What do you have to ask?” "Mind if Eclipsa and I join in here?" They asked. "I think it would be fun. We'll even take new forms to fit in better." “I mean, that would be cool.” I nodded. “Family would probably flip at having you and Eclipsa probably dog pile onto me….” "Hence why we will change forms to better fit in." Heart said. "Probably should also do different names. Better fit the mood and slip into the story." True. With Balance, Grey Hearts, and Secret Reports all marked completed their main screen time will be here on LoN. "Wonder what I should pick?" “Well, we should probably bring Eclipsa here as well…also I have two girlfriend’s so far, Matilda and Jing King…Matilda is basically Rouge the Bat and…Jing King is an adorably thicc panda.” "Cute. Also she is here." Heart said, patting their coiled body. Huh. I thought it looked… larger than normal. I thought it was just the size difference though. “Ah, that’s why.” I nodded. “Good to know, alright…so we’re in a world of Beastial’s…so pick your favorite race?” "Hmm… that's actually a tough one…" Heart hummed as they thought. "Hmmm… already snake and canine so not gonna do those two…hmmm… oh! I got it!" Heart said, snapping their fingers. In a poof of light I fell to my butt and looking up I spotted Heart's new form. They were a bear. Fluffy and curvy with very light brown fur but the same red eyes they've always had. Despite being a bit taller than me I figured physical age wise we were still the same. They were dressed in a simple blue sports bra and short shorts. "Like it?" They asked, twirling to let me see front and back… nice. “Perfect.” I said with a warm smile, hugging the now bountiful bear that was Heart. "Heh. Okay, Eclipsa. It's your turn." Heart said. In another flash Eclipsa popped out. Only instead of the pony-naga I knew she looked like an orange cat. Stripes of white along her back, arms and tail with two white ear tips. She was also short. Like, surprisingly short but well built and curved. A Short Stack, if you will. "Ta-da." She declared, dressed in a tight fitting shirt and also wearing short shorts. “Awesome.” I said, giving Eclipsa a hug as well. “Now…names.” "Hm… dibs on Megan." Heart, now Megan, said. "I'm feeling Sasha. Short stack Sasha." Eclipsa, now Sasha, said with a smirk. "Why are you a short stack anyway?" "Thought I'd give it a try." They shrugged. “And I’m super happy.” I said happily. “Boy…is everyone going to flip when they meet you two…” "So, mind giving us a recap on what's happened so far? Judging from how this place looks I'm guessing it went off the rails fast?" Megan asked. “So…” I sighed. “First…Clockwerk and the gang took over the world because Clockwerk was using Cooper Bot’s to help his bullshit…yes, literal cybernetic undead of all my ancestors to help…” I sighed. “Then, after a bit of nonsense…me, Sly, the gang, Carmelita, Dr. M and McSweeny all moved to Cane Island…” The next few hours were spent recapping the last few years, my rebuilding relationship with Sly, that Time Walker asshole, and this deal with Vincent, and all that… "That's fucked up." Sasha said. “You have no idea.” I sighed. “Oh, I also have a bunch of kids…both from me somehow adding my DNA to Clockwerk’s kids and…all those adorable racoon owl hybrids…and then the Good Boy Predator.” "Kinky." Megan chuckled. "So, where is Neyla anyway?" “No idea.” I shook my head. “After I finished talking to Arpeggio she kinda fucked off.” "Hm. Rude. Well, Sasha and I can get started on making the safe planet for her and others. You go let your parents know two of your wives are in the house." Megan said, smirking as she and Sasha vanished. Oh boy… wonder how Matilda and Jing will react? Sly… yeah… “Ugh…” I groaned, rubbing my temples bitterly as I walked out. “Why do I keep doing this to myself?” My first trip was to Sly's room. I entered and began overhearing Sly talk to… Carmelita? "Are you positive you wanna do that?" She asked. "If I'm honest… yeah." Sly said. "Been thinking it over for a while and Honestly I think it's best." “Stab me in the heart, why don’t ya?” I thought to myself, not sure if I should ask what’s going on or wait till their done with their conversation. "Think Kite will overreacted?" Carmelita asked. "He has a tendency to blame himself but this isn't about all that. I've been considering this long before he told and showed us his god… powers, stuff." Sly replied. "I'm gonna let him inherit the cane and family legacy." "And… be a cop?" "Well, Matilda and mom said if I want there is room for me. I know you're joining it too." "Still. I just hope Kite won't feel guilty. Those games were called Sly Cooper after all." Sly laughed. "Those are just that, games. This is Kite's story. Not mine. As wild and crazy as it is." "I mean, I knew from the start when we played 'Cops and Robbers'." I said, poking my head around. "Sly always wanted to be a cop, and you were the robber Carmelita…almost feels like an eternity talking about that…" "How long have you been there?" Sly asked with a smirk. "At the 'are you positive?' bit." I said. "Which I could have taken…many different ways, and if you wanted me to overreact, you could have had it be a marriage proposal." I chuckled. "Not anytime soon my not so little brother." Sly chuckled. "But, yeah. I'm gonna be joining the mainstream policing units so I'll be doing cleanups of whatever bad guy you take down leaves behind." "Which I'm fine with." I nodded. "But, that does mean I won't be around here a lot." Sly pointed out. "World's getting better but it's not peaceful yet. I'll be away for a good while." "You, me, Mrs. Cooper and Matilda." Carmelita added. "They need as many people on the streets as possible." "We need good people on both sides to get things do." I nodded. "Talk to the others about this?" "Yeah. Everyone else knows already. Gonna suck not seeing you all for a while but eventually we'll try and call when or if we can." Sly said. "Alright." I nodded. "I trust you both…now there's just a thing where…two of my spouses are here…" I said sheepishly. "Spouses? As in from… the other life?" Carmelita asked. "Yes…" I said nervously. "They're friendly, they won't do anything…to crazy, and they'll abide by the rules I'm doing…kinda." I explained carefully. "Okay… where are they?" Sly asked. "They are…either busy or waiting for me to introduce them to all of you." I said carefully. "Oh. So, we'll see them later then." Sly said with a nod. "By the way, have you seen Neyla?" “Nope, after I talked to Arpeggio she just…kinda fucked off.” I shook my head. "Oh. Well according to Bentley she didn't come back last night." "Do you think she went off world?" Carmelita asked. “Hmm…maybe.” I said, using my new Cript senses to see where the hell she was. “This feels like cheating…” I mentally joked. I had to scan far. Further than I expected and I finally found her… the hell is she doing at the Keyblade Graveyard?! And fighting waves of Heartless?!?! Huh… so that's what her Keyblade looks like. “Alright…I’ll be right back, cause Neyla is fighting a whole lotta enemies.” I said. I rapidly opened a DTN and ran through. The Keyblade Graveyard was just as… usual as ever. Depressing. Bleak. In the distance I spotted Neyla fending off the endless swarms of Heartless. Shit this is what shows up when she summons her Keyblade? No wonder she doesn't use it much… but why does she have it out now? As she fought I managed to get a look at her weapon. It looked as if made from a mix of a tree and metal, the branches and vines wrapping and climbing up from one another to the top that seemed to hold the image of a moon with a silhouette of a wolf howling. Despite the numbers she was… actually, she's holding her own… and, pretty well… “Doing pretty good.” I said, walking around the Heartless as it seemed like they were all giving me an extremely wide birth to walk towards Neyla. "What are you doing here?" She asked, seeing the distance the heartless put between myself and them. Eventually she and I were in the fair sized safe bubble my presence made. “Wondering why your here, and wondering why there’s a metric ass ton of Heartless after you.” I started "It's what happens when I summon my Keyblade. Me just being on a world draws them over time. Slowly but more over time and when I summon my Keyblade I get this." She waved to the sea of Heartless around us. "This world is empty. I come here to vent. Train… wield it…" She said, lazily swinging her blade around. "Only me and the heartless. No one else is at risk…" “Mind if I see the Keyblade?” I inquired softly. “Maybe me and my spouse can figure out why this is happening cause…this doesn’t happen.” I answered, which made Neyla give me a strange look like I was crazy. "I told you why it happens remember? Lanesborn. Two parents from two different worlds. Even without a Keyblade I'd attract the bastards." I frowned, before looking into Neyla’s Code cause something about that still doesn’t make much sense to me. “Well, I’d still like to see your Keyblade cause it’s a brand new one I’ve never seen before.” "How about no?" She countered. I frowned. Her code was pretty straightforward. Basic hybrid stuff and… what's this? Right… there. Mixed in with her code lines for Homeworld location… that's… a mess… right. Two parents, two different worlds. It seems to cause a bug that her heart code seems to trigger. When a Keyblade is summoned it creates basically a beacon effect, letting any creature that can detect a heart's frequency, aka Heartless, that they're here. “Alright, so I think I figured out the problem.” I answered. “And yes, it actually does involve your Keyblade.” I said, starting to send a message to Heart given this was also their Territory. "No shit Sherlock." She huffed. “So, there seems to be a small…problem with your Heart.” I said carefully. “Somehow when you were born, something bugged and, whenever you bring out your keyblade, you act like a beacon for literally anything that detects a heart’s frequency…funnily enough, for the most part it has nothing to do with the fact you're a hybrid.” "Points for obvious…" She frowned, sitting down on the dirt and sighing. “And don’t worry, I know how to fix it.” I answered. "Doubtful." “We just need to wait for my spouse to get here real quick and then we move onto fixing it.” I stated simply. "Are they an Eldritch being from beyond nightmares?" Well… only if you ate the last bag of Skittles… “Well, you better not eat their ButterFinger that’s for sure.” I chuckled. "Should I… know what a Butterfinger is? Sounds like a quick way to clogged arteries." I blinked at her…then literally pulled out the candy bar in question. “Try it.” She took it, looking it over before shrugging and opening it and taking a bite. She then spat it out. "Egh. Peanuts. Gross." “Allergic or just don’t like Peanut Butter?” I asked curiously. "Don't like it. Had nothing but the stuff to eat for a month and I'm still pretty sick of it." She said, tossing the rest of the candy bar into the swam of heartless. “Yeah that’s fair.” I nodded. “But yeah, Heart should be getting here soon, then a lot of things will be solved for you.” "Not optimistic." She shrugged, disbanding her Keyblade. “I’m sure it’ll change at least a bit.” I said simply. "Not getting my hopes up." “Alright, is there more reasons as to why your this pessimistic?” I inquired. "Hmm. I dunno. Saw my parents killed by Heartless before my very eyes. Was told from a very young age I could never have a home, family or nice things in general cause of my magnetism to Heartless. One time dared to dream I found a nice place I could blend in and call home. Accidentally summoned my Keyblade and sent that world to the realm of Darkness. Have been kidnapped. Enslaved. Raped. Tortured and beaten multiple times over my life. Oh yeah and my feral form which I can not control myself or even remember and have on many occasions woken up after said change covered in blood and it was rarely ever mine and I had bone fragments and chunks of meat in my teeth among other things such as finding scraps of clothes or jewelry in my shit the next day. So… yeah I think I'm entitled to my pessimistic views." “Yeah, that sounds about right.” I nodded. “Sounds like you need therapy, a friend, and a hug.” "Therapy is for people who have a reason to care. My few friends are either getting on in years or have lives. And I don't like being touched." “Therapy is for everyone, and I should know, I never thought Therapy would help and it has been helping.” I answered simply. “Doesn’t matter about age or ‘have lives’, you have friends you can rely on…and yes, you do need a hug.” "This coming from the same guy who was bitching 'woah is me, my family knows I'm not a normal racoon and I'm a god playing make believe and will hate me'." Okay what's taking Heart so long cause I'm getting a bit close to knocking her the Fuck out… “Because I learned that family and trust actually means something.” I frowned. “I learned that life is actually great when your not seeing everything through the lens of pessimism to the point you pretty much kill your own Heart because you don’t care.” I stated. "If it means I croak then so be it." She shrugged. "My life has no value to me." “And I thought that exact same thing.” I answered. “But when I found people that cared about me, that could help me through all this bullshit, I got better, and the same thing can happen to you.” "And how long did that take you?" I had to think about that. “I…don’t actually know.” I said. “Time has been weird for me…like, technically, due to a lot of time dilation shenanigans…I’m probably a few million years old? Maybe? I haven’t kept track, and boy fucking howdy was a lot of it filled with me just wanting to Spite someone.” She laughed at that. "No offense but I'd rather not see if I can even live that long." “And I had to because I have people that believe my life means something.” I answered. “Even if I stayed alive to make sure they were happy, they wanted me to know my life is important, that I shouldn’t just spend my days pissed at myself so hard that I try to push everyone and everything away from me.” I shook my head. "Well lucky you." She huffed. "And I'm here, trying to help you." I told the tiger hybrid. "Not for any personal gain, not for some bullshit reason you think I would have, I want to help you cause I want to help." "What reason do I even have to live? Arpeggio? He's better off without me. Matilda? She's got herself a Cooper and seems fine as can be. You? Ha!" “When I talked to Arpeggio, he said that you deserve better.” I said honestly. “Cause he still cares about you. Matilda? I mean, she’s dating me, but she’s fine even without that…and wait, are we magically talking about dating?” I asked. “Also rude, I’m here actually trying to help you and do a good thing but you keep acting like me before I finally realized all life doesn’t suck total ass.” I growled. “Like you have anything to say mister ‘this is all fun and ga-’.” She was cut off as I picked her up by the throat. “My life, before all this horseshit, has been a complete lie twice over.” I told her bluntly. “Everything about me has been one fabrication after another for those that think it’s fucking funny to watch as a child get murdered, lose his soul, having to use his own light to keep himself alive, and then murdering their parents and staging them as suicides to blame myself ttime, and time again.” I growled. “I have suffered tortures you couldn’t even fathom, I crossed the threshold of Madness, but you want to know why I’m still here? Do you want to know why I’m still going? Even though I gave up my own Death?” I asked, seeing the hybrid look at me with wide eyes at me explaining this. “It’s because I have people that I don’t deserve, people that deserve better, people that genuinely love me.” I explained, dropping the tiger dire wolf hybrid. “I have people with me that care, I…mostly let go of my own self deprecating hatred and finally felt better about myself, because I had people to help me! You have people here to help you to damn it!” "And what exactly do you expect me to do after?! Forget all the shit that was my life?! You sure as shit haven't if you're throwing it in my face! How do you expect me to be happy when I can remember?!" “It’s called fucking trying!” I snapped. “Being there with the people that care about you, making an actual god damn attempt to be better! Yes, it’s hard, I don’t expect you to get it today, or tomorrow, but what I expect you to do is at least try!” I told them bluntly. “That’s literally all I’ve been trying to get you to do, is to at least try to be better, bring you to my family to at least form some relationship, friendly or otherwise, so you can see that life actually does matter, that it’s more than just self depreciation…and currently, if Heart could get here faster, we can take the first step to fixing this cause you being born, you being a hybrid of two different worlds, never was the problem.” I answered. "Sorry that took so long I was putting some finishing touches on the world." Heart- er, Megan, said as they exited a DTL. "Woah. What's all this?" They motioned to Neyla, the heartless still around and me. “They’re Code is bugged, that whenever they bring out their keyblade they become a beacon for Heart Detectors.” I answered. “As well as almost as self deprecating as me, so we had an argument about her actually trying to be better.” "Huh… feels weird being on the other end of that argument doesn't it?" Megan chuckled. "So… this is the person you said might be able to fix me?" Neyla asked. “Yep.” I nodded. “My spouse, who’s going by Megan right now, is going to help me fix your heart considering…well the Heart is her domain.” I said carefully. “Like…their Kingdom Hearts level of domain.” Nodding, Megan walked up to Neyla. She raised a hand that glowed with that all familiar blue light. "Let's see. Ah. Lanesborn glitch. Oddly common. Hang on, the old Admin left me something for just such an issue…" Megan snapped her fingers, a brief flash of code and when I scanned Neyla, the issue was gone. But, rather than a Homeworld slot, now was an Ancestor list. Both her mother and father's worlds are listed. "Done." “Fantastic.” I said with a smile. “And now, things should be getting better.” "I don't feel any different." Neyla said. "You wouldn't feel a difference but you will see it. Also, begone with you!" Megan said, all the Heartless vanishing at their command. “Yeah, it’s one of those changes that you can notice around you rather than in you.” I shrugged. “Like a calming silence after a douchebag roommate moves out finally.” After that I sent Neyla to her new home place, rapidly abducted John Bison and basically hired him to work cutting all the trees. I also had the various Cripts, their mates and my good boy move into the world and here they were able to have homes. Mom and Dad liked Megan and Sasha. Matilda really liked them and was sad she wouldn't be around much. Sly, Carmelita, Mom and Matilda all went off to be cops and while I was upset, I knew they were at least happy. And called regularly. I took a week off enjoying Megan and Sasha's company. Jing also joined in and… well that's been enjoyable. Eventually I got back to work and was checking in on the Contessa. I've been scoping out her and her boyfriend. They seem… genuinely happy together. “Well…glad to know that this was a genuine and loving relationship…” I muttered to myself, gently walking up to the front door and knocking on it cause I did have some questions for them. After a bit the multi-legged walking taps of the Contessa stopped and she opened the door. "Yes- Oh, Kite Cooper! What an honor!" She said with a bow. “Please, no need to bow.” I said with a raised hand. “Mind if I come in? I would like to ask some questions about…current events as it were.” I said carefully. "Oh, of course." She said, stepping aside as I entered. This was her boyfriend's mansion, and there, sitting in a large chair by the fireplace was her love. Phillips L Northwood. His family is old money, but he specializes in, funny enough, plant cultivation and GMOs. "Sweetie. We have a guest." The older man looked up and over at me. "Kite Cooper. Come. I had hoped to speak with you." He motioned to a seat across from him. I took the seat and Contessa sat next to her love on a fluffy floor mat. Well, she is too big for a sofa… “So, it’s nice to meet the both of you.” I nodded with a smile. “And I’m happy to see you two are in a loving relationship.” "Of course." Phillips said with a chuckle. "You wouldn't guess by looking at us, but she's older than I am." "Oh hush you." Contessa chuckled. I chuckled at that. “So, before I start saying I agree with your taste in mature women, I have some questions I’d like to ask, and to answer any questions you might have.” "I suppose. I am an open book. Ask away." Philips said. “Have either of you been visited by a…being of interest?” I inquired. “Not in the ‘here’s another inmate’ kind but a more…’I can offer you something’ kind of being?” "Heh. Now that takes me back." Philips said. "Last being of interest I met aside my live here was Scrooge McDuck." I raised my eyes at that. I wasn't expecting that but… also, it did make sense. Phillips in his youth would vanish for up to months at a time and each time he returned it was with some new exotic or undocumented plant or means of genetic modifying… now it all makes sense. "He's an old business associate of mine. We traveled and if it wasn't for him, I'd have never met Contessa here." "I'll admit, I owe the old duck that much." Contessa added. "Gonna have to send that old duck a message one of these days…" I muttered. "Alright, so I presume neither of you have been visited by…Clockwork or anyone associated with him?" I asked carefully. "Clockwork? I'm afraid I do not know anyone by that name. You know anything Contessa?" Phillips asked. "Hmm… not really. Aside from some rumors about some supposed Ancient Metal Owl, no." She shrugged. "Alright awesome." I let out a sigh of relief. "Now, I heard a rumor about you Contessa…about being an Off Worlder?" I inquired. She sighed, but nodded. "It's true. I am not from this world. Few here even know of Off Worlders. But… well, long distance was killing me." She said, giving Phillips a kiss on his head. "I moved here and set up my own identity. Using some funds Philips provided I began having a prison built to continue the work of my people. Given what you have done and those you have taken down, I have had to make expansions." "It's not illegal in any laws written, but Keyblades and some who consider themselves forces for order frown at it." Phillips added. "World Order they say." "And World Order hasn't meant jack shit since the moment it was first mentioned." I shook my head, seeing the two surprised by my reaction to it. "Sorry about the…small outburst, but sorry for making your work a lot harder ma'am…just doing our best." "I can't really complain. One more criminal off the streets means more and more public safety." Contessa said. "Yep…but that sadly means others are getting…picked up by something worse…" I sighed. "But enough about that depressing topic, how long have you two been together?" "Well, we met thirty years ago but Contessa and I have only been living with one another for the last six." Phillips said. "I'd have arrived sooner but it's not easy to leave home and my duty." Contessa said. "Eventually though I finally came." Phillips chuckled. "And it's been wonderful every day from morning til night. I only with my body was thirty years younger again. Cause I'd make an honest woman out of you the next morning." He chuckled, making Contessa blush and laugh. Hmmm… well, most theories say she went mad and joined Klaww Gang because her husband passed… so, imma fix that. Souls and Nothingness are my primary domain… but a Nobody is still more or less a body. "I think I can help you with that." I answered, causing the two to stare at me. "Please, don't panic, but there's gonna be some serious shenanigans about to happen." I snapped my fingers. Using magic to restore his physical age to that of thirty years ago was easy. And just to be safe I also tied his lifeline to Contessa. Should one of them pass the other will also pass a day later. That being said I also added some passive protection wards around them to help them avoid dying from other external means, some wards of fast healing, fortify health, and given what they'll be doing soon fortify stamina and endurance. Needless to say they were beyond thrilled. I let the two of them enjoy themselves and went back home. Okay, so that's everyone from the Claw Gang… Just leaves the enemies and people from Honor Among Thieves and Thieves in Time. "Right…so I help an old man see that people still like Opera, get Australia to not mine at the Guru's place…finally get Bentley and Penelope on a date…kick LeFwee's ass…but first, I have a skunk to deal with…" I growled. To be continued... Nobody figures out their futureI had to admit, exploring my parallel selves has been a lot of fun. I don't think Cript and I have spent so much time together like this outside of sex. Granted I am still banging various parallel me's. “The fact that, no matter how many universe’s there are, the most common thing about me is that I am a super cuddle bug, and very horny.” I chuckled. "Well I guess you being horny and cuddly is just a default for you." Cript shrugged as we ate at this one world where everything was basically Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. "Which is a good thing in moderation." I nodded. "You definitely enjoyed that darkness version of you. One of the few times I saw you walking funny." Cript said with a chuckle. "They were very good." I said happily. "And got to enjoy a whole lotta Milf." "Self Milf." Cript added with a laugh. "In any case, guess after this we should see what other weird crap your parallel selves have gotten into." "Alright…let's hope it doesn't get too weird.* "That's probably too much to ask." With that Cript and I got up, finishing our meals and heading off. The next world we were in looked familiar… where have I seen this before… Our current area was a large beach where in one direction was more beach and a large hill of sorts, and the other direction was a town. "Looks cozy." Cript said, looking around. "This…feels so familiar…" "Huh. Big Bagal." Cript said. I turned, looking up and at a huge sign that was indeed a giant bagel, the words Big Bagal were also on it. "That's…noo, this couldn't be…" "King we are literally traveling Multiverses and alternative timelines. It all can be. Speaking of what be this?" "So we're at Beach City…but which Steven Universe is this?" "More importantly what kind of nonsense did your alternative get into ending up here?" "Yeah…that is a good question." I frowned. "If its me banging a gem I wouldn't be surprised." "You do that back home anyway." Cript said. I nodded, remembering all the Gem mates back home… their shape shifting is always fun~ "True, so let's go find me.* We walked around, I was getting a lot of surprised but unconcerned looked from the locals as we walked around. We did find the car wash Greg works at but he isn't here. Hmm… "Right…maybe the beach house?" We walked back towards the beach, only to see a fence around a fair chunk of it. "Huh. So, breaking and entering?" Cript asked. “The hell is happening?” I frowned. “So…maybe the Farm?” And so, we walked to the farm, finding it empty, unkept and abandoned still. "Well, that's depressing." Cript said. “Okay, what the hell.” I frowned, looking around with my special eyes to try and find where I am specifically. Scanning. Scanning… oh. Oh! Oh… well. White Diamond Steven… and currently he and Earl are running around through towns far away from here. So, early in this places timeline… so, where the Fuck is my other… oh… ah, there I am… this universe me is a human, working with Greg in the car wash. And he and I are… off buying parts for said carwash. The me here has a surprisingly simple life. “Right, so currently, I’m working with Greg and getting parts for the Carwash.” I said honestly. “And it’s White Diamond Steven Universe so good to know.” "Alright, so we're both early and nothing's happening here. All in all, it's a peaceful timeline." “For right now, yes.” I nodded. "Cool. So, what do we do?" “Well…we’re supposed to merge the place but so far nothing’s happened here…just people doing their own thing, and Steven and Earl shouldn’t be here for another…few days maybe?” "So, wanna move on or wait?" “Hmm, while we should move on, waiting to at least give a warning on ‘hey, you’re joining our kingdom and timeline’ should at least be said to proper people.” "Fair enough." The next Timeline was definitely more active. All around us was New York City, and I shit you not the first thing I hear is- "Spider Man is a menace!" "Marvel world. Cool." Cript said with a smirk. “Boy howdy is Jameson glad that Spider Man doesn’t file defamation claims.” I chuckled. “Now, which Marvel world are we in? MCU or Comics?” "Or something in between?" Cript suggested. "Either way this is gonna be interesting. The you of this Timeline must have wanted to be a hero." “That would be cool…or I could just be an average joe…or dead.” I said, trying to find the me of this timeline. Let's see… no, no, no, no, no, no- wait yes that is me and holy crap! Okay, X-Men are in this universe and I'm a mutant. “My mutant power better be at least okay…” I muttered, hoping that there’s at least something decent with me being a mutant here. Let's see and my powers are… heh. Fitting. I can shapeshift my whole body or parts into wolf or wolf like parts, gaining all the senses and uses, and can swap between a human, wolf, or werewolf form. Cool. “Alright, awesome.” I said with a smile. “My power is Werewolf…let’s head to Xavier’s school.” "I guess." Cript shrugged. It wasn't hard to get to the school. Arriving on campus it was actually really cool to see all the iconic places in person. "This is nice." I smiled. "Sometimes I forget how I can actually visit the places I always wanted to as a kid." "Okay, so anything special about this world you wanna do?" "Well, we should go around and deal with all the actual pure evil beings before Grey gets their hands on them." I said honestly. "And wow, so far, there's been two of me that aren't super horny." "Statistically speaking there has to be some." "That's fair." I nodded. "But those statistics are really low so far." "Considering the source variable…" "I'm sorry eighty percent of the time I'm just a very lonely nerd who needs a hug." I pouted. "In any case, go on in. I'll wait here." “Alright.” I nodded, walking off to find my shapeshifting woof version of me. “Let’s hope it’s not going to be awkward if the X-Men get involved…” I walked up to the door, knocking and after a bit, the door opened, and greeting me was… "Sup doggy tits." Deadpool said. “Sup.” I nodded to Deadpool, really not surprised to see him. “Getting kicked out again or is there an actual problem going on?” "Nah I'm just here stealing food and pranking Wolfie. Er, a different wolf. Say, didn't I serve you Mexican in a void before?" “Probably a different Deadpool.” I shrugged. “Continuity is a bitch when you’ve been working on something for half a decade.” "Tell me about it. At least I got a cool live action movie with Ryan Reynolds. So, works for me. Anyway, I'm assuming you want the furry? And I don't mean the blue one." “I am looking for the version of me here, yes.” "He's probably in the lab with the blue furry." “Not surprised.” I nodded. “Alright, and where would the lab’s be?” "Downstairs. Take the secret elevator behind the the bookshelf behind the stairs and hit sub level three, walk til you reach the third si-fi door." "Fair enough." I entered, following Deadpool's instructions and eventually finding the lab. The me here looked like, well, human me. But my nose immediately picked up the scent of wolf on him. “Hello.” I said politely to the mutant version of me. "What the?" They said, taking a sniff. "You smell… kinda like me?" “That is because I am you…from another Timeline.” I said sheepishly. “You think this worlds Multiverse was confusing, you haven’t seen or heard anything yet.” "Oh, so does that mean you're another me that God gave an offer to?" “Yes.” I nodded. “And I chose Nothingness powers from Kingdom Hearts.” "Awh that's so cool… wait so how did you end up a werewolf? Or…" they took another sniff. "A hermaphrodite milf?" “That is a very long story.” I chuckled. “And part of it stems from a question of, would you like to join my Family? Cause there are a lot of really cool shit you can do that not even some of the brightest minds here could come up with.” "Family? As in… like, as a brother?" “That's…technically correct.” I said honestly. “But that’s also a long and complicated and…extremely lewd conversation.” "... Why is it lewd?" "When your basically immortal, with a huge ass harem of other significant others and certain…things aren't a problem…plus also, the family is just super horny a lot of the time." "Huh… well, you've clearly embraced that…" “Believe it or not, me being a hermaphrodite wasn’t because of horny.” I said. “Just then…well, can’t really argue with hips like these.” I said, giving my bountiful hips a little shimmy. "Yeah… sure it wasn't…" The other me said flatly. “Do you think these hips lie?” I asked. “Cause I’m not, it was originally because of one of my spouses…was a little annoyed I wanted to stay a dude while literally everyone else was turning into a herm…so, decided to give it a try…honestly not my fault I turned into a Den Mother either but the more you know.” "Den Mother?" “Alright, time for a history lesson my little woof.” I said, pulling out one of the white boards Professor McCoy apparently has around here and pulled out a few colored markers. “And also a biology lesson…before I start, how interested are you in academics?” “I wouldn’t be one of Professor McCoy’s top students if I slacked off.” The werewolf me answered readily. “Good.” I nodded with a smile, before delving into the history of Wolves in the greater Multiverse. I have to admit… teaching felt nice. Kind of nice to be on the other end of a lesson for once. After a two hour lesson of rather condensed and generalized info my other had questions. "So, you don't suffer from genetic issues from inbreeding and you're always fertile?" “Yep.” I nodded. “Den Mothers, and True Alpha’s for Males, are basically supposed to be nature’s way of having a fail safe for species if they get close to extinction.” I said honestly. “Plus, Den Mother’s Breast Milk is not only good for our young, but it’s also one of the strongest kinds of healing items around believe it or not.” "And any species can drink it?" “Yep, any and all races can drink it…I have a lot of experience to back up that claim.” I said with a proud motherly smile. "Uh huh… and other species and such have their own versions of Den Mothers and True Alpha's?" “Yep.” I nodded. “Every species has their own version.” I nodded. “And yes, all Den Mother’s are the define the term ‘MILF’.” "Right… have you ever met a feral den Mother or true alpha species?" “Yes.” I nodded. “They are…rather noticeable in the animal kingdom, but they have instincts to make sure it’s not just them taking every mate in a twenty mile radius.” "And are you and they cross compatible?" “I do in fact have a feral form.” I said. “And while bestiality isn’t really something I’m into…I did learn that yes, I can…did it both as an experiment cause I was curious…and a bet with someone…won that bet soundly.” "Alright… well, what brings you to my timeline/dimension? Aside offering to join your family?" “So, to start, a spouse of mine literally broke Time.” I said, seeing my mutant self comedically fall over at that. “And now, me and him are going around and getting as many Timelines under our banner as possible, starting with version’s of me.” "Alright… and where are they?" “Either hanging out, or going around and checking up on all the Villains and other truly evil cosmic entities out there.” I shrugged. “Wouldn’t be surprised if he bitch smack’s one of them…” "Alright… so, what now?" “Well, what do you think of my offer?” I inquired. “If you join the family, literally everything opens up for ya, all sorts of education, traveling, adventures await.” I said with a smile. "I guess that would be helpful, but I'd rather not be a… mate." "That's fair." I nodded. "Go at it at your own pace, you have an entire family to share time with, and an entire multiverse at your fingertips." "No I just have a girlfriend and we're not into harems or polygamy." "That's also fair. So who's the lucky lady and how much does she ask you to be in your wolf form to cuddle?" I inquired. "All the time and her name is Doreen." "That's good." I nodded. "And is she a student here?" “What’s this about a fluffy milf version of my boy-” A female voice was cut off, turning around to see the girl of the hour. “Hi there.” I said with a warm smile. "Yes, uh, Doreen, this is King, King, this is Doreen. Aka, Squirrel Girl." Other me said, Doreen walking around the corner and I saw her large fuzzy tail. "I'm…honestly not surprised you'd manage to date one of the strongest people in the universe…" I chuckled. "What's that mean?" Doreen asked. "She's probably referring to alternative versions of you." Other me asked. "Oh you mean like that time when Dr. Strange accidentally…" "Yup." "Don't worry, it only gets worse and more exciting from there." I said. "And yes, I am referring to other realities where you beat powerful people like Thanos in a fight." I brought up. "Okay, this reality is Left 4 Dead zombies." Cript said, shooting an infected. "Why do zombie timelines always make me happy?" "Because it's an excuse to just grab anything strong enough and murder a bitch?" I suggested, splitting an infecteds head open with a baseball bat. "Maybe." Cript shrugged, shooting three more. "Your Other should be alive in this world. Immune. Or, Asymptomatic, as this virus typically works." "Which is surprising honestly." I brought up, cleaving through a charger, grabbing it's too half and throwing it hard enough to kill five more. "What? That a version of you is asymptomatic to a zombie virus or that majority of the Green Flue variations only have either symptomatic or asymptomatic infected?" "Both honestly." I said. "I mean, sure I'm glad I'm okay, but systematically…it's not gonna be good later when we start finding my corpse later on." "You are asymptomatic meaning while you are infected you aren't one of the zombies so." Cript said, shooting several more of the undead. "You think your other you is dead or gonna die soon?" "Either I'm hold up somewhere trying to play it safe, or I've got a little loony and just go around killing zombies for the fun of it." I shrugged. "Or maybe joined a group and just surviving?" "Also true, no excuses to be shut in when zombies need to be killed." I chuckled. "Wonder who this version of you met up with?" "No idea." I shrugged. "I don't know much about who survived this nonsense." "True. But given this world is basically one to one, with zombies, of your old one I got a good idea who has." "Well, let's go see what girl I was lucky enough to get." I said honestly. "While we're here, should we take our time and look around?" “Sure, some harmless zombie murder would be nice while looking around the place.” "Cool." We walked around. Hoards attacked. We killed them all and for the most part we're just hanging out. We found a few safe rooms but didn't bother taking anything. We actually left some stuff cause, why not. As we walked we checked out an abandoned GameStop.and I already have every game ever but, always fun. “Always good to have spares ya know?” I chuckled. "Eh. Well bright side it's gotta be easier to find a ps5 now than before the zombie apocalypse." “Oh yeah, that’s definitely true.” I nodded. "So, wonder what caused the outbreak?" “Yeah, I do wonder what caused it, cause it’s not every day just a random ass zombie apocalypse starts that also has weird special variants.” "Most likely man made." Cript said. “Wouldn’t be surprised. “I nodded. "So, anything good?" “Well, God of War Ragnarok, Bayonetta 3, and a few other’s that’s pretty good.” I said honestly. "Cool." Cript said, looking the various toys and plushies over. "Charger is coming near." “You want to kill it or me?” I asked. "I got it." Cript said, snapping their fingers as suddenly a very wet and squishy explosion went off in the distance. “Yeah, that works.” I chuckled. "Ever think that with all these post apocalyptic games and movies, people would have been smarter and not rapidly died off to the infected?" “We need to remember, a person is smart, people are stupid, panicky creatures that go absolutely apeshit over a bunch of bullshit.” I said honestly. "Fair. How many do you think are still alive around the world?" "No idea." I shrugged. "But probably ranging around…couple hundred thousand maybe?" "Give or take based on how well defenses hold up." Cript shrugged. We looted a few more stores then moved on, finding a huge, fancy hotel and going in. "At this point are we still looking for another you?" "Probably not…" I shook my head. "But hanging out like this is nice." "True. Wanna set up a place and just see how things go for us here?" "Sure." I nodded. "Would be a bit of fun just hanging out and doing survivor stuff." "Welp, for us that's not hard at all." "Yeah, it would be very easy." I nodded. "We could… help repopulate it." "Oh really now?" I asked. "That's not something I've done…ever I think? Sure I created a town of plant folk on an endless mode rampage, but not repopulate a planet the old fashion way." "Care to let me help you start your first?" Cript asked. “Of course.” I smiled. “Would certainly scare the shit out of all the survivors here to just see a lot of hybrids appear out of nowhere.” "Alright. Now, what about the rules?" “Rules?” I inquired. “Like keeping it to a single species or something else?” "It varies. Usually when my mates and I do this we have a few rules. Like are we just one male, one female, hermaphrodites, do we make a religion out of it, and if we're gonna tell all the kids much later on or soon about us being here and, well, just stuff for fun." “I’m too used to hermaphrodites.” I started. “Never really liked how out of control religion can get…I mean…I don’t think we should tell them ‘oh yeah, we’re doing this because of fun’ and the like…” I hummed. "Alright. So, with that I'll do that do. Wanna do same species or different species?" “Hmm…we can do different species.” I shrugged. “Diversity helps a lot.” "Cool. You can keep the wolf one and… what should I do?" “Hmm…” I hummed. “Do you want to be something normal or want to just do something brand new?” I asked, cause if me and Eclipsa made Floof Noodles, then god knows what combo’s we’ll be creating. "Dunno. Got any other favorite animals." “Tigers.” I answered readily. “I don’t care if tiger’s are basic, they are giant fluff balls that are just straight adorable and are really cool and mythology agree’s with me.” "Alright." Cript said, a flash and they were not a hot, fluffy hermaphrodite tigress about my height and packing all the Den Mother features. "So we're gonna tell the kids we're helping repopulate the planet then?" “Yep.” I nodded. “Now, who wants to go first in our repopulation event?” "Before we start that we should establish some more rules and such." “What other rules do you want to establish?” I inquired. “If we accidentally breed another bonker’s strong race or something?” "No, more rules for us. Firstly is magic or advanced tech allowed?" “Hmm…” I hummed. “I’ll say…nothing really earth shattering, probably mid level magic and advanced tech, something that could help get the world back on track but have enough room for development.” "Alright, good. Now then, weapons need to fit that tier too. Now what about when we encounter survivors. What's our rule there?" “Well, it should be like any other, be kind and courteous, help the people that need it, and fight against those that would abuse or try to fight us.” I answered. “Just like we always do.” "Alright then. Now, let's fortify this hotel and then we can get to the repopulating." “Alright, let’s get to fortify, and then having all the fun.” I said with a smile. “Oh, should we also…offer a home here and also our own brand of fun if any survivor’s come this far and want?” "If they want, yeah." It didn't take long to fortify the place. Once we did it was time to see who was first on the baby bed. "So, how do we decide who's first pregnant?" “Flip a coin or rock paper scissors?” I inquired. "Hmm… no coins around so, rock paper scissors." Cript said. “Rock paper scissors.” I nodded, bringing up my hand at the ready. A quick round and I won. Yes! "Heh, alright time is this gonna be a cut time jump or an actual sex scene?" “We haven’t done porn in a while, so why not.” I shrugged. "Alright then. Let's go find a room and make a mess of it." (warning, there be porn here) I smiled as I followed Cript up to a room with a large bed. Wasting no time Cript and I discarded our clothes and I got a good look at them in their Den Mother Tigress form. They were very similar to my body type, save looking a bit smaller due to less fluff. Their long tail curling and flicking around as they laid down on their back. “Ya know…I will never get used to how beautiful Den Mtothers are.” I chuckled, gently raising a hand up and grabbing one of the tigresses bountiful tit’s and giving it an affectionate squeeze. They were squishy, soft and moldable and plenty bouncy. A small trickle of milk spilled from the teat as I fondled and played with the breast. Cript cooed softly as they grabbed my other arm and placed it upon another. "Well, I am yours, just remember, make sure to cum inside and plentiful~" “Have I ever disappointed in that department?” I asked with a sly grin, leaning over and bringing up the leaking tit and latching onto it, sucking their nip and fondling their other breast with all the wonderful experience I’ve gotten over these many many years. It tasted very different from my own. Having a rather… nutty and cinnamon taste that I drank down. I felt Cript caress behind my head as I did this, breathing deep as both of us began to show arousal. Well, looks like both our members are the same size, if different shape. "Ready to get to the main event~?" Cript asked, giving me a smirk. “Oh yeah.” I nodded. “The time has come, and so will I.’ With practiced ease I got into position, aligning my tip into the proper place and finding the entrance to Cript's baby tunnel. With a slow, easy thrust I slipped into the warm, wet, tight organ. It was perfectly fitted into their hole, tip to base was all the way in and I felt it against their cervix. Even my knot fit with perfect accommodations. “Ah~, even with it fitting every inch, it’s still so blissfully tight.” I moaned in bliss. "I did make this body with your, and my, pleasure in mind~" Cript said, clenching my rod as I began thrusting in and out. I groaned at the clenching, loving the feeling of shoving my knot into my wonderful spouse over and over again. "Ooh~ make me scream my King~" “Of course my Queen.” I moaned, and considering how much I’ve done it with Cript’s Lyra, I immediately went to work pounding into my slutty kitty with practiced vigor. With every thrust they got tighter and let out yelps and moans that drove me wild to hear. I wasted no time in trying to get deeper, lifting Cript's legs into missionary and planting a sloppy kiss as I climaxed, pumping hot seed into them as I kept thrusting. Cript and I kept going for a while. My seed filling them into a hefty cum balloon before I finally swapped to another hole. Their anus was tighter, hotter, and my cock slipped into it and stretched it. Cript seemed to roar at that, feeling the same pleasures I was. “How does my queen love being my personal cumdump?” I growled, dirty talk always getting out of me in heated moment’s like these as I kept ramming as hard and deep as I could without destroying the place. "H-h-harder." Cript said, biting onto a pillow. I shakily raised a hand and snapped my fingers, making the place an extra fuck ton more durable as I knew exactly what was going to happen. “As you wish.” I growled, grabbing both Cript’s wide, child bearing hips and slammed into the tigress hard. They roared loudly as I kept up the speed and they clenched. With glee I climaxed down their backdoor piping, feeling my seed flow all the way into their insides. I kept thrusting, feeling the colon walls become lubed and lose as I kept up the force and pumping of my seed. When I finished with their rear my cock came out with a wet pop. I took a seat on the bed, Cript pulling me down and immediately began fondling my sack and licking up and down my rod. I let them do their work while fondled and smacked their still red rear. “Make sure you get every inch my love.” I said, squeezing their plump jiggly ass, always loving how Den Mother’s asses were just perfect. Their reply was wet sloppy licks and kisses to my cock as they squeezed and fondled my balls. Soon the kisses and licks turned to sloppy, noisy deep throating as they bobbed up and down my rode, making sure to stuff my knot into their cheeks when reaching the base. I moaned at their tongue work and lack of gag reflex. “Ah~, perfect.” I moaned happily, lightly petting their head to show their doing amazing. As they sucked and slurped, I felt the pressure build up. With a smirk I grabbed their head, and pushed them down as I came right down their throat and into their stomach. I watched as their now twice cum inflated stomach, first via the womb then by their anal organs, now grow more until their stomach leaked into their small intestine and met up with what I pumped in there from their read. They pulled off my now limp cock, purring and full of seed and soon to be babies as they kept nuzzling and began to sleep using my crotch as a pillow. (Porn end) I gently pet my purring kitty, letting them rest after those many loads. “That…was amazing…” "Hmmm hm…" Cript replied. I chuckled, laying down and taking a breather. This will be… nice. We'll be helping a world recover and there will be lots of nights like this. Hope Cript returns the favor when it's my turn to carry the babies. “Sometimes…I forget the simpler things…” I muttered, staring up at the ceiling and just letting my thought’s roam, remembering how I had Grey Paladin, the earth pony stallion having a wonderful family with Applejack in Ponyville…that made me chuckle a little. It’s felt like forever since I started there…”I’m old…” I sighed. Well, at least I don't look it. It's been a month since we started our life here. All in all, it's oddly peaceful. Sure every so often a hoard tries to get in but they are easy to deal with. With Cript pregnant and such I go out, grabbing food, or whatever. The hotel has been renovated a lot. Fully stocked kitchen. Many gas tankers looted for heat. Solar panels rigged and modified. Eh, I wanted a project rather than rig up a basic Electronium generator. Right now I was out looking through the various stores I have yet to loot. Hmm… still can't believe there were so many FNAF books. I flipped through the page of 'Tales From The Pizzaplex'. “How this game has been going from essentially a flash game to this is honestly stupidly surprising…” I shook my head, finding Scott’s idea’s of horror’s a tad novel if I didn’t already meet the Admin of Fear themselves…which I really hope some of my clones and the search parties find them before Void Key does. I was packing up this load of books and turned to see four very wide eyed humans. One I recognized as me, the other three… I had no idea who they were. One was a brown skinned lady, maybe… mid to late thirties in a yellow hoodie and blue jeans holding a machete. The second was a red haired guy, tall, broad shoulders in a blue jersey and green cargo pants holding a shotgun. The third guy was wearing a jean jacket, jeans, boots and was wearing a chicken mask. He also had a machine gun. The other me had two handguns. “Hello, I’m visiting you all today about your car's extended warranty.” I joked with a cheeky grin, hearing the three other’s groan as if they’ve either heard this joke before or know exactly who I am based on my shit taste in comedy. "So, we aren't hallucinating the ten foot tall furry fetish?" The red head asked. “And we aren’t hallucinating that you sound just like Ben here…just as a women with the same shit taste in comedy.” The African girl asked. “Oi!” Ben huffed. “You are not hallucinating.” I answered. “My name is King, what are your names?” "I'm Donovan." The red head informed. "That's Katie." He waved to the African lady. "And that psycho is Cluck. He doesn't talk much but he sure can fight." "He's also a walking meme I swear…" Katie huffed. Cluck proceeded to pull up a tape recorder and hit play. "Bite my shiny metal ass!" I blinked, looking at Cluck more closely. “Did your father go by ‘Jacket’ by chance?” I asked, seeing Cluck flinch a bit at me calling it. “Yeah…so either two things happened…Payday 2 happened, or Hotline Miami happened…” I shook my head. “Good to know, plus, meme’s can help better than spliced self help tapes.” "Are you like, some alien or something?" Donovan asked. Well… technically yes… hm… you know, I don't have to tell them I am an alternative version of their Ben. The goal here is aid in repopulating the planet and honestly I do wanna stay here and do that for a long time. I can definitely play off as an alien. “Yes, and I’m here for a specific reason.” I answered. “Me and my fellow traveler were watching over your planet to see how you were evolving, how the Nephalim were causing a mess…and then the zombie’s happened.” I shook my head. “So, with an executive decision, me and my partner are here to help repopulate the planet between the both of us, rescue any and all survivors, and if they want, any and all survivor’s can breed with us as well.” I explained. They all stared at me like I grew three heads. "So, you came here to… Fuck?" Katie asked. “That wasn’t our first choice, but then ninety percent of the planet turned into the undead and are quickly dwindling by the day.” I answered. “First choice would have been, when you were ready, bring your people into the wider universe with all sorts of technology leaps and bounds ahead of your time…but again, zombies.” “So there’s zombies in space?” Ben inquired, finding that bit a little weird. “Zombies have many classifications, believe it or not.” I said readily. “But yes, thankfully the one’s we’ve met so far at least kept some of their higher brain functions to not be raging rabies monster.” I said, which was…technically correct with how most versions of Zombies are depicted, from the aggression and incessant need to bite things to spread. "Okay… so, do you have a space ship or something?" Katie asked. “Yes, yes we do.” I nodded. “It’s a pretty fancy ship due to it, originally, being a ship used for diplomacy.” I said, moving my hands around to give a vague shape of it while also using some magic to actually spawn the thing near our base. “In human terms, we would have tried to be the crew on the Enterprise in Star Trek, traveling the galaxy to meet new races and the like.” I answered. “How do you know about Star Trek?” Human me asked. “Space Hulu.” I said with a cheeky grin. “I get that reference.” Ben pointed at me with a smile. "So why bother trying to repopulate the planet why not just… evacuate people?" Donovan asked. “Because, even if this is a zombie infested planet, it is still filled with life.” I answered. “Your planet is still kicking, nature is reclaiming a lot of what greedy corporations were doing to it, and this can be a good ‘second chance’ for it.” I answered readily. "The living furry fetish has a point." Katie said. Cluck played his tape recorder again. "Let's go already!" “Alright, then follow me.” I nodded, turning on my heel and heading off to my place. “So, how long have you four been surviving around here?” "Well, I'm from Ohio. Donovan is from Florida, Katie is from New York and we have no idea where Cluck is from. We've been together for… two months now?" Ben said. "Yeah but Cluck and Donovan were already together when I met up with them in North Carolina." Katie said. "Yeah, I woke up one morning a week in and Cluck was just there roasting marshmallows over my fire." Donovan said. "That was still in Georgia but more north." “That’s fair.” I nodded. “Met any other survivors while traveling around?” "Few we did meet died shortly after." Katie said. "Infection is airborne. Not many are resistant or… whatever we are." Ben said. "Ran into a cultist group once but they all died out when a Tank tore down their walls." Donovan said. “Yeah, that sounds about right.” I nodded. “Either Zombie or Military hardware, fun ways to see a Cult taken down with a Tank.” I chuckled, shaking my head at some memories. “So, what were you all doing before the world went to shit?” I inquired. "I worked in a Walmart." Donovan said. "Starbucks." Katie said. "Costco." Ben said. Cluck did not answer. “Fair enough.” I nodded. “Now, me and my partner will be teaching you more survival things, like farming and the like in our very safe place.” "Fresh food sounds great honestly. Last time we ate something fresh was when we passed through an apple orchard. Was nice but too many infected." Katie said. I led the group to the hotel, where once they were in they looked around. I left them to it and checked on Cript. I know they're fine, but still. My pregnant Den Mother Tigress was as I left them. Laid on the bed watching movies. "Hey. Back already?" “Yep, found myself, and three others, which one of them happens to be Jacket’s Son.” "Pretending I know who that is, good. I take it they're exploring around?" “Yeah.” I nodded. “And he’s the chicken mask wearing guy from either Hotline Miami or Payday 2.” "Alright. So, what did you tell them?" “We’re aliens from another planet that were supposed to come here as a ‘we come in peace, let me show you the wonders of the galaxy’, then segwayed into ‘well, you fucked your planet up, so we’re repopulating it’.” I explained. Cript shrugged. "Not a lie so, cool. Having fun with this app so far?" “Yeah, it’s fun so far.” I nodded. “Keeping myself busy, using what I can instead of just magicking it up is always a good thing.” "Plus the one on one time this gives us really helps us bond closer. And once the babies are born is when the real fun part starts." Cript said, rubbing their baby bump. "So, what did they say when you offered the interbreeding?" “I brought it up once, they looked at me like I was completely insane, and then they acted like it never happened.” I chuckled. “Though I did notice this worlds me was staring quite a bit…not that I blame him in the slightest.” I chuckled. "If they do decide it will probably take time. Unless they really want to screw. Either way, we will be here." “Yes, yes we will.” I nodded. “I didn’t mention you yet, wanted it to be a surprise and…well, they were already reeling from ‘furry fetish’ as they keep calling me, probably didn’t want to mention ‘oh yeah, my partner is pregnant so be careful’.” Cript chuckled. "We kinda are but, hey, in an apocalypse most people will take what they can get. Think they'll stay?" “Considering this is a safe haven all around, I offered to teach them how to farm, and they were basically hoping for fresh food after so long, I have a feeling they’ll be staying.” "Good. Now, think you can squeeze in a quickie before heading back out to catch up with them?" “I can always squeeze in a quickie.” I chuckled. (more porn, watch out) Wasting no time, I dropped my pants and undergarments and Cript began giving soft wet kisses to my cocks tip. They kissed and licked it from tip to knots and base before giving my balls a similar treatment and finally making their way back to the top where they opened wide and began deep throating my rode. I held onto their head and thrusted in and out of their maw and tight wet throat, feeling my tip squeeze down their throat and buldge in their neck. I moaned as I had to be fast and trusted, feeling Cript's tongue lick and spread spit around my road with every thrust. Their hands grabbed my sack and massaged my baby batter factory with general erotic tenderness. With one last hard thrust and pushing their head all the way to my base I let a hot load down their throat into their stomach again. Once it was done and Cript's stomach was bulged a bit bigger than earlier they made wure to suck and pop off my cock, keeping it clean of seed and only slightly wet from saliva. "Thanks~" Cript purred. (End porn) I don't know why but Cript has really gotten into the role of… well, a Brood Mother… or, well, Den Mother. Often needy and wanting attention or pleasure… or both. I was happy to oblige but it was definitely a noticeable change. “Your welcome, my love.” I said, gently giving them headpats. “Though, the shift to being a den mother is quite a change.” Cript chuckled. "This is how I usually get when I'm the one who is mothering, pregnant, or in any way female with my loves." They stated. "I know it's a change from how I usually am but honestly I enjoy being the… submissive brood mother when I am the female in the situation." Huh… good to know. Also, kinky/explains a lot. “Nice.” I nodded with a smile. “Can’t wait for my turn in this though.” "Told you this would be lots of fun." I gave Cript a kiss before leaving to find the others. Eventually I did find them in the movie theater. This hotel had a large auditorium already I just put a desktop, projector and movies in here. As well as several microwaves and a lot of popcorn here. They were all watching Zombieland funnily enough. “So, how does it feel watching Irony play out on a big screen?” I asked the group. "Eh. I guess it's similar to our own so, not too much to complain." Katie said. "Only wish guns and ammo were that easy to find." Ben said. "Same." Donovan said. Click hit their tape recorder. "I'm low on bullets" I'm noticing all his recorded voice clips are Bender from Futurama. “So about you only picking voice clips from Bender?” I brought up to Cluck. He clicked the recorder again. "Bender is great! Bender is great!" I laughed a bit harder than I expected to at that. “Good answer.” I chuckled. "So, what are we gonna be doing?" Katie asked. “Well, a lot of things.” I said honestly. “This is a safe haven, you can rest, relax, learn to do things like cook, farm, animal husbandry, and help us repopulate the planet if you so desire.” "Now… what do you mean by that exactly because it sounds like you want us and you to…" Donovan started. “Yes.” I said honestly. “I am what’s known as a Den Mother, a special part of any race that’s basically creations fail safe in the way of ‘in case of genocide, fuck the milf’.” I said honestly. “And currently, you are all facing a mass extinction event.” "Okay… but… why are you a wolf and not… human?" “So you think I’m a shapeshifter?” I asked. "No, it's just, well, you said it yourself that these Den Mothers are natures/the universes way of preventing extinction so, where are the human ones?" “Human Den Mother’s are…rather rare.” I said honestly. “Not due to a lack of trying, but humans tend to be so horny that half the time their not fully needed…though you’ll always know they are one when you see one.” "Do they also have tits from neck to torso?" Katie asked. “Nope, just a normal human body just…larger and the definition of ‘MILF’.” I said honestly. “Reason why I have this many tits is because of my race.” "That makes sense." Ben nodded. "So, what are we learning first wolf milf from space?" “Well, up to all of you honestly.” I said honestly. “Where would you like to start? Cause there is a lot to cover.” "Well, I guess we should set up a means of letting people know where this place is and that it's safe. Your fortifications here are great. Tanks will probably have a hard time breaking them down. After that we should set up checkpoints so people know they're getting closer and that the closer they get to us, the less infected will be in the area." Katie said. "Don't suppose you have a stockpile of guns and ammo. Or alien guns and ammo?" Donovan asked. “That is simple enough, and yes, we have plenty of guns and ammo, even alien guns and ammo.” I nodded. “It’s all in the ship at the moment, I’ll have to go get it, and that is a good start Katie.” "Cool. Looks like we really can fight back and… repopulate…" Ben said. "Still weird to hear it or say it…" Katie said. "I mean, at some point that is a… necessity…" Donovan added. "You'll get used to it fairly quickly." I said honestly. "That's not really as reassuring as you're probably thinking…" Katie said. I quickly went into the ship I spawned into existence and gathered various guns, ammo, some more high tech and sci-fi weapons and ammo, armor and such then went back to the group. The next few months I spent with them was planning, setting up checkpoints. Clearing out infected. Setting up radio transmitters. Looting. Fortifying roads, bridges, leaving caches for people coming in to help get here. When we weren't doing that they learned how to farm, raise and tend to livestock. Some basic to advanced medicine. Or were just relaxing. They did meet Cript. More surprised they were a tiger than anything. Save maybe learning we were both hermaphrodites and that Cript was pregnant. That did learn some awkward congratulations and blushing faces. I laid in bed, having just finished satisfying Cript's neediness, filling them with cream as I usually do most nights… and mornings. They were definitely bigger now and it wasn't just me pumping them with loads. I laid there, holding them close as I let my thoughts wander. I… want more of this. When all this crap is over… I think I'd like to do this as often as possible. "Heh, going from traveling hero, to a breeder…" I shook my head. "Who would have thought?" Still, it was more pay back, no pun intended, and relaxing than the constant war, fears and paranoia. Definitely going to do this with our other mates. It's nice. Calming. Fun. To be continued... Nobody...get's a BreederThe next few years were quite productive. Sly, Carmelita, and them were all officially law enforcement officers under a new Interpol, and I was the head of the new Cooper Gang. While legally I am still considered a criminal, Sly tips me off to get the jobs done a badge can't without paperwork. So far LeParadox hasn't been found which makes me suspicious and concerned. “Dad did the heist for the world’s biggest diamond, I know it happened…so either LeParadox snuck off during all the chaos with Clockwerk, or he got picked up by Clockwerk and Vincent…” I muttered, already worried that La Paradox was off doing time bullshit while I wasn’t looking. Bad enough Time Runners are an issue, if I have to deal with LeParadox then this might get more of a headache. Then again the Time Walkers deal with that stuff so maybe I don't have to worry? I sighed as I leaned back in my desk. Well, at least the Sly 3 Events were stopped. Thanks to some anonymous donations, Don Octavio is doing well taking his opera singing on a world tour, and thanks to some political sway I got those Dog Fight rules fixed so Penelope was able to fly without needing a disguise. I also exposed some fraudulent tax paperwork on the mining company that was set to demolish Australia. So they aren't an issue. As an extra measure I even found and destroyed the Mask of Dark Earth. The pirates and all that I left alone. Which just leaves Paradox… and he is MIA… not even my Cript Scan located him so he's not in this time period or universe. “Alright…so I need to look for that bastards crew…” I frowned, Cript scanning for El Jefe the Tiger, Toothpick the Armadillo, The Grizz, and Miss Decibel the Elephant, cause right now I know for a fact Bently and Penelope are on a happy date right now that I had to do some minor painstaking nonsense to make sure they could. Let's see… Oh… well, El Jefe is dead… died in battle against clockwork's armies. Toothpick… arrested by Mugshot's government. He is doing very well as president. Grizz… oddly seems alright. Must not have lost his game yet. Decibel is actually in the hospital now. Seems that trumpet just got stuck in her nose. “Alright, so good to know that none of those headache’s will be around…though surprised El Jefe died, thought his tactical genius would have kept him going until after we got done…” I hummed, leaning back and thinking hard about what we need to do next, cause it’s only a matter of time until Clockwerk comes back. For now things are at peace. Which is good, but it also means Clockwork's allies are all working on whatever it is they're planning. Plus the old bird himself is practically studying under Vincent. They could attack soon, years later, or even… Or even long after this Admin Game is over and work on attacking me back home. Ugh, damn it… I sighed, rubbing my temples bitterly. “Why can’t things be simple for once?” I grumbled. "Hey." Heart- Megan, said as she walked in and, being the tall bear she is picked me up. "What ya doing there?" “Growing concerned over the fact that Le Paradox is missing and Clockwerk and his cronies haven’t done anything yet.” I said honestly. "I'm more than willing to bet they'll attack when King ends up on the battlefield." Megan said with a shrug. “Which is something I can’t do yet without this war going from an uneasy stalemate to our Kingdom getting ransacked and there being not much I can do.” I sighed. "Yeah, not exactly ideal. So, what should we do then?" I sighed. “I…honestly don’t know. Me and Cript are currently going around grabbing Timelines to help, and I did get a Darkness version of myself, all the way up to now funnily enough, but…all my plans, all my backups…so many things that I know should help make things go right for us…it always ends up being a fifty fifty coin toss in the end on whether or not it’ll go smoothly…” "Hm… that is annoying. Well, let's think, what is Vincent doing right now in terms of gathering allies?" “He’s gathering every single ‘Big Bad’ or people he believes are ‘truly evil’, and gathering them up from anywhere and anytime.” I said honestly. “He grabbed Clockwerk cause he’s just an immortal sack of shit, he grabbed Rajan because…honestly that guy’s just deplorable with how much he wants to be seen as ‘royalty’, and Le Paradox is just a grumpy prick because his dad was jailed trying to frame my dad.” I said honestly. "And I'm assuming evil versions of us right?" “Yes, and that sucks because evil versions of us would know every single in and out of what we’re doing…especially me.” I groaned. “Cause of course the biggest pain in the ass I have to deal with that isn’t Vincent is myself…” "Well, what lengths would an evil you likely take to ensure there is enough of an army on their side?" “Cloning, forced breeding into speeded up aging and genetic modification, building a giant ass robot army, creating god know’s how many new races to keep up their ranks…” I listed off. "Well, if that's the case, then why not do something similar but not evil?" “I have.” I said honestly. “But ethic’s, morals, and other thing’s that ‘good guy’s’ do is halting me on somethings…and while I did make a breakthrough on the robots I’m building, even though their just Synth’s with power sources based on the very fabric of reality we’re in…it’s rough having to do it with every single one to such a minute detail, even if I’m a Cript and have been given untold knowledge twice over, there are certain thing’s you can’t rush.” "At least not if you're taking the good guy route…" I looked at Megan. “Do you want me to throw away my ethics and morals here?” I asked carefully. "If you did, it should be to and with someone who trusts you entirely and won't resist as you breed them like cattle for the armies we need." Heart said, looking back at me with a smirk. "And can also clone themselves and change each clone to be each species Den Mother for maximum fertility and birthing." “So while I’m plowing Cript on one planet to repopulate it, you want to be plowed to help breed an army?” I asked. "Heh. Come on Kite, we both know plowing is too kind a term for it if I let you do this and you throw away your morals and ethics while we do this. I would be your Breeder. Your loyal baby factory endlessly pumping out children you'll turn into soldiers. Were we not Admins, this act would place us both in hell." “And that sounds abhorrent.” I said weakly. “But…it’s probably going to have to happen…and I hate it to a severe degree…” I sighed, lightly shuddering at remembering what both Rune’s did. “Being treated like nothing but a sex slave is…not something anyone should experience…but ya know, my traumatizing event for ‘training’ is still the highest watched porn video out there…” "True, but if you ask I imagine they'd happily join in since that's their kink." Megan said. "But this will just be between you and me. Our shared sin. But we will need to make sure I don't ever try and break free from it until after it is all done." I sighed. “You do know that if anyone figures this out it’s going to cause massive problems right?” I asked. “I should probably invent a backdoor to it, just in case some dipshit’s decide to abuse this…” "Which is why you won't be putting this… reprogramming on me. It needs to be air tight otherwise you'll free me, and I'm sorry Kite, but we can't have that either. I know just the person who can do this for us too." "You want a complete Profile wipe and reprogramming then." Lord said with a nod. “Can’t there be a fail safe where someone can be brought back?” I asked worriedly, seriously hating this decision with every fiber of my being. "I can make a backup of Heart's profile that can be reinstalled, but for this, no. Logically this is actually our best bet. You two are Cript's, meaning any children you two have will be extra powerful. Especially if I make the new profile specifically make each child born from this stronger and inherit the majority of your powers." "That would be best." Heart said with a nod. “This is going to be a massive problem in the future, I just know it.” I frowned. “And not having some way to reverse it is ripe for abuse…I will say ‘I told you so’...” "Stop breaking the fourth wall and shut up." Lord said, snapping their fingers as suddenly there was a large chair with cuffs and restraints between he and I, Heart already fastened to it. "Now then, making your Profile backup will be painless, and I'll hold onto it until you're done being a sex toy." "I figured your never ending indifference to morality would come in handy." Heart said with a chuckle. “I’m not breaking the fourth wall, I just know that someone is going to abuse this…” I muttered, hating this so goddamn much. “Cause it’s a horrible evil thing, why wouldn’t horrible evil people do this?” "Evil is always a constant. Try to scrub it out, the stain returns. Cleanse it, it grows back stronger. The way I see it, it's better to be in control of your own evil rather than let it run wild, but what do I know, being as old as I am?" Lord said with a shrug, putting their hands over Hearts head as an orb of code began to form. "I'm also gonna put a Fuck ton of abilities and powers and such." "Gotta make sure these soldiers are OP as well." Heart said with a nod, still smiling… “I hate this…I hate this so goddamn much…” I muttered. “Why are you still smiling when you’re about to be turned into nothing but a sex slave that want’s nothing more than to be bred like mad?” "I'm not fighting in this war King, I gotta contribute something." Heart replied. "My whole life, I've been the bad guy because I was a Ventral. My fate has never been my own because Vincent made me, Cript, I never really had a choice in my life. But this, this is an act of my own free will. For as long as I'll be your Breeder I won't be Zeke Ventral, or Kingdom Hearts, or an Admin. I'll just be your loyal nameless Breeder. It's actually reassuring. Means I do have some free will." "Heh. You aren't wrong. Vincent's Code Programming is even better than my own." Lord added. "Before you were even born he had your fate written down in your very code." “And then he personally had a hand in fucking with my life cause why not.” I frowned. “But…this would basically take away your free will…you’d be nothing more than a womb on legs…” I said, having personally felt like I was nothing more than a just a sack of meat to do whatever people wanted with me…it was horrible and I hated it, and still hate it… "And that's my choice." Heart said as Lord moved the orb of Code over and onto a table. "Alright, back up is done, now for the wipe and rewrite. I warn you, this is gonna hurt." "I'm ready." Lord started, and immediately Heart began screaming. It was then I realized… I've never seen Heart scream or cry in pain before. I felt horrible. Disgusted as all I did was stand there crying as Heart did this to themselves… for this fucking war. I swear… I will put Vincent's head, and all his allies' heads on a pike when this is over. After what felt like forever Lord stopped, snapping his fingers as a blindfold covered Heart's eyes and the restraints all came off. "And that's that." “Now what?” I asked carefully. “What’s with the blindfold?” "I based this off an old Enslavement Code admins used back in the Admin War. Basically whoever Heart sees once it's removed, becomes her master. She'll have access to all her powers and such but she'll only care about getting fucked and knocked up." I shook my head, every fiber of my being wanting to revoke this…this abomination of code work, wanting this Code to be cease to exist…”Fine…” I muttered, gently in front of Heart, making sure their eyes were only on me…and I undid the blind fold even as I felt my heart break at the love of my life being turned into…this. I took the blindfold off, and Heart's eyes looked the same, but hollow. For a brief moment they flashed green before regaining a sense of life to them as she smiled at me. "Hello my Master." They greeted. "Would you like me to satisfy you now?" I was supposed to be fighting against this…at what point do I just throw away my morals, ethics, and my very being to just…allow this? “Before that…what are the side effects?” I asked carefully. "Well, right now she has no memories, free will and is wholly dependent on you. If she is not of use to you, meaning you don't screw here every so often she'll develop chronic depression, anxiety, self harm and mutilation tendencies to garner attention and she also doesn't identify as a person any more just an object. Yours specifically." I looked at Lord in abject horror, looking at Heart…my Heart…turned into nothing but an Object…”I think I’m going to be sick…” "That old Enslavement Code was always potent, powerful stuff. Reworking it into this actually took little work. Well, I guess just take her wherever you'll be breeding her and get to it." “Whatever…” I muttered, shaking my head as this went against…literally everything I stood for, and having personally been treated like nothing more than an object to do whatever the fuck they wanted, and even had my own children murdered because of it…no, I will make damn well sure this never happens to anyone else ever. “Come on Heart…let’s go somewhere private…” "As you wish Master." She said, giving me a big smile before following me. I should have never agreed to this… and now it's too late to turn back… Heart made me promise… To be continued... Nobody slowly losing itAuthor's Note Because I'm a dingus and posted this in Lone Wolf, I'm sorry people Nobody slowly losing it I laid in bed feeling like crap. Heart next to me, practically purring in lust after the I don't even remember round. “I fucking hate this…” I groaned. "Would you like another pleasuring Master~?" Heart, or rather the body of Heart now guided by this… Breeder Programming asked. “No…I’m fine…” I said, getting out of bed and stretching carefully. A few joints popped and that helped a little. Heart's body still against mine in their reprogrammed sex addicted/required mind. I sighed. I miss my Heart… “This isn’t what I want…” I muttered. “I want my Heart back…but no…” I growled, hating how Heart wanted this, how Lord just allowed this…I don’t care if that emotionless asshole says not to break the fourth wall, I don’t need fucking forth wall nonsense to know this is going to end poorly for a lot of people. “What else can piss me off today?” With nothing else to do, and not wanting to screw Heart again I checked on some mail… let's see here… huh. New Arrivals. Let's see… wait.. Anna… Anna… Anna… I swear that name rings a bell… god living so long I feel like I'm forgetting shit… “Holy shit my brain is mush sometimes…” I groaned. “Alright…time to meet some new arrivals…and also figure out how to keep myself from getting Admin Alzheimer's…” I stood up, remembering Heart was still clinging to me as their arms were wrapped around me. "Where are you going Master?" “To do important things.” I said carefully, as I tried to keep my emotions in check at seeing Heart…my Heart like this… "Will you need pleasuring while you're there, Master?" “No.” I stated bluntly, getting so sick of this. “Fuck it.” I said, putting my hand on their head and knocking them out. “I am in…no mood for this garbage…” With Heart unconscious I quickly used a DTN and left to find where this Anna was. I found myself in one of the many gaming rooms of the… well, 'house' is simplifying what all this really is but it's close enough. Eventually I found a human woman, heavily pregnant, playing the ps3 port of Final Fantasy X. “Wait…no, it can’t be…” I blinked, seeing so many features that looked familiar. “Anna?” I asked in surprise. She looked over at me. "Woah! Big milf wolf!" She yelped. “Okay, yes, true.” I nodded. “But it’s me…uh…shit, I forgot, you wouldn’t know…” I groaned. “Also, didn’t you hundred percent FFX like thirty times already?” I asked, hoping me saying something like that would help show her who I am. "Well technically because of time resets and BS I've completed it millions of times… wait? ___?" She asked. Ah right, she can't call me my name. No one can. I forgot that since going by King… “Right…so technically, my name isn’t ___ anymore, I got by King now.” I answered. “And sounds like you had your own fun adventures wherever the hell you were…god it’s been forever!” I said, picking up my old friend back on earth and giving them a hug. "Oh just stuck in a time loop of resetting reality and forgetting everything and all the various lives, lovers and children I had because I was trying to save them from all dying so I kinda swallowed those timelines and… it's a lot of shit I'm still remembering all the details." Anna scratched the back of her head. "I owe Vincent and Gray for helping though." I…was not a happy camper when I heard those two god damn names. “Okay…so besides us having some shared past problems, but while you were stuck in a time loop I had my life given three different rewrites and it was…not pleasant…” I said carefully, before I took a deep breath. “Okay, so where’s deputy jackass and constable cockwaffle?” "Uh, who?" “Vincent and Grey…” I said carefully. “Cause while I would love to spend a lot of time catching up and also explaining what the hell happened with me and why I’m a sexy woof milf, I have some…very choice words with those two.” "Oh well last I saw, Vincent was chasing Gray down the halls yelling something about not causing trouble followed by what I'm assuming were the screams of Eldritch monsters being set loose on the hallways." I took a deep breath. “One moment…” I said, before pricking my finger and creating a starfish clone. “Here, while you talk to me, I’m going to find those two bastards.” I ran off out the door while I sat down next to Anna. "... What in the Fuck?" Anna asked me. “Alright…so where do you want to start?” I asked with a semi forced smile. “Cause right now, I need a friend, a hug, and a long talk to try and ignore a lot of the problems going on at the moment.” While I talked with Anna, the other me was rushing down the halls, looking for those two- "I told you stop!" Yelled a voice I recognized… they did almost kill me in the Kite world. Turning around the corner I spotted them, Vincent angrily holding a… teenage kid, tan skin, gray hair and eyes trying to push Vincent off him. "Let me have some fun old man!" The teen replied. "And what the fuck am I seeing right now?" I asked carefully. "I'm trying to keep this brat from causing chaos." Vincent said. "Fuck you, you built me to cause chaos!" The teen, Gray I'm assuming, said. "And why shouldn't I and billions of others come here to murder you both?" I growled. "I'd Reincarnate." Vincent said. "And I'm immortal so fucking try." Gray replied. "Wait… do I know you?" "If what I'm sending is true…technically, cause Grey as a whole in energy is complete bullshit." I frowned. "And your reincarnation won't matter cause I figured out how to ignore that fucker." "And who is this Den Mother Herijika Dire Wolf?" Vincent asked. "I am King, Admin of Nothingness and a soul you and Nexus fucked with too much." I frowned. "And also your Nexus is causing the current war going on…" "Correction, the other me's Nexus. I am a timeline copy." Gray said. "Time doesn't exist anymore…ugh this is gonna get complicated…" I grumbled. "Actually it kinda did. Remember that time loop Anna was stuck in?" Vincent asked. "Yeah, we were in there. Some void entity called Maxilla kept it isolated from the whole time shattering thing." "How the fuck can…wait...Mexilla? Oh for fucks sake…" I groaned even louder and rubbed my temples. "Barely know the woman but…she fucking would…" "Yeah. She seems to really hate you all but is helping you so, I'm a few… many resets and such behind or something so, what has this idiot done while possessing my body?" "Well, got you killed by Cript for starters." I said, before going on a long spiel about the bullshit that's been going on. "Well… that sucks…" Vincent huffed. "Ya don't say!?" I said sarcastically after telling the two all the bullshit I've had to deal with because of these two. "Well what do you want us to do about it?" Gray asked sarcastically. "Help me fix your mistakes?" I suggested. "That would be a good start." "What do I get out of it?" "Entertainment cause this has never happened before?" I offered. "Meh. Anything else?" I blinked, honestly surprised by that. “Ya know, your other self was rather quick to agree to something along those lines…well…how about…keeping evil regulated? Like, you both can help with figuring out all that horseshit but keeping it so that there isn’t some existence wide war again?” "Hey, he's the one all about evil, not me." Vincent said, Gray managing to shake out of grip. "Isn't that kinda boring?" Gray asked. “First, you created him,” I pointed at Gray with a frown. “A literal infinite and ever expanding energy source that has caused this entire reality to be reset countless times just to say ‘fuck all life’...that’s pretty evil.” I admitted. “And boring? Well then you’ve never actually tried it before…paperwork not withstanding…” I groaned. "Hey, I was going to alter them when this," He pointed at Gray. "Suddenly gained sentience and possessed me after killing their other half." "Oh please, much as I wanted to I wasn't able to kill the chicken shit. They took after you and reincarnated. Even through resets." Gray waved Vincent off. "And if the raw energy we started off as wasn't supposed to gain sentience either are you really surprised the fragment I came from did?" “And I am sure Eclipsa would be super happy to see you here…” I sighed. “But from what I have learned, Gray gaining sentience was a complete accident due to the fact that you're an Admin of Life…then it started to war with itself because one side wanted to do what you literally programmed it to do…and the other…well, reincarnation is a hell of a thing when you get down to the nitty gritty of it.” I said honestly. “Especially when one of your incarnations…or at least one, tried to jump through time to break reality to spite this asshole.” I pointed at Gray. "In any case…" Vincent groaned, "Since this is his mess and I was supposed to fix it all before they… what do you need?" I sighed. “Help…any and all help I can get cause right now we’re in a stalemate that’s pretty much the world's longest staring contest…and whoever blinks immediately causes that stalemate to break.” "So basically you need… everything I imagine." "Armies, supplies and such? Easy." Gray shrugged. "What you'll really need is power." “Pretty much, cause Armies and supplies are easy, I have done…a lot when it comes to all that bullshit…but Power…that’s the deciding factor, cause when this stalemate breaks, everything goes to shit and there is not a single safe place…” I sighed. “And while Gray is a usable energy…the more we use it, the more it grows and we’re trying not to restart this place, we’re trying to stop it.” "Well, with that in mind the best case scenario would be to find a spare storage drive outside the machine." Vincent said. … That's an option?! “Listen…I’m already being threatened with monsters from ‘outside the machine’...but you can do that?” I asked in shock. "I have a map of old All Maker ruins." Gray nodded. … All Maker? “Okay…that’s new.” I said carefully. “Who the fuck are these ‘All Makers’?” “I haven’t heard that name since the first reset…” I whirled around and…Nothingness Belief? The fuck is he doing here!? “Okay! What the fuck…” I said, lightly rubbing my face in exasperation at what the hell is going on right now. “Why are you here?” "It's what we call who or whatever made the machine we all live inside." Vincent said. “Right…” I said carefully. “Cause that’s what I need right now…” "Oh they've been gone since… shit since before I came into existence and I'm one of the originals still around." “And…who else is there?” I asked carefully. “Cause it can’t just be you…there’s probably others right?” "Well, aside from Gray… The Mother, Truth… maybe some others." "I was very thorough in my multiple genocides but some have slipped through the cracks." Gray nodded. “So…probably some people ‘outside’ that built this stupid thing.” I sighed. “So…you, Mother and Truth…also Gray…wait, I thought you were a creation in the system? How the fuck…” I said, now royally confused as I thought this stupid Matrix bullshit was used to hide from whatever was out there. "Well, except for Truth we were all made in the system yes." Vincent nodded. “Wait wait wait…” I shook my head, trying to collect my thoughts here. “I thought that there were people outside the machines, but then something was going on and then they created these thing’s to hide from…whatever the fuck is out there.” "Fuck if we know. By the time Vincent and the rest were around they were long gone or dead. And when I explored all I found were remnants of other ruined machines. Whatever the Fuck happened out there, they're gone, only this machine seems operational now and we have no idea why they even built it. Though we do suspect." Gray said. I looked over at Nothingness Belief who sighed. “It’s been too long, and most of the memories of back then are shoddy at best…but there are two others on the outside…old friends…I just hope they haven’t gone Mad…” “Alright…” I groaned, looking back to Gray. “What do you suspect?” "Simple. It's a prison for the Dreamers." Gray said. Okay, that rings bells. There was a whole Nexus project about making those and Cript knows some things too… “So…I know something’s about it.” I informed. “I remember Joy found a whole lot of documents on it, Cript keeps dodging my questions about it but he know’s about it…” I frowned. “Ah Dreamers…so wild and carefree back in those days…” Belief shook their head. "Well, the theory goes that the All Makers and Dreamers are actually one in the same. The difference being All Makers have been exposed the the total raw energy and chaos outside the machine while Dreamers have not, making them mortal and weaker than the All Makers. No idea if it's true though." I looked to Belief, who shrugged. “My body has been the Fuel for Nothingness for the countless many resets, again, memories shoddy.” “Alright…but that would explain some things…” I admitted. “So either we’ll figure it out later when thing’s calm the fuck down, or we’ll learn it the hard way somehow.” I shrugged. "Eh. So, what preps are you doing now for the coming war?" “Oh the usual, trying to build a Synthetic army using the various different forms of energy, Gray being especially weird cause it sometimes speaks in some ancient dead language that I keep trying to figure out but can’t,” I huffed. “Doing anything and everything to try and upgrade all our gear, trying to figure out more about the Skill Tree system cause that’s a diverse challenge…and just doing anything I can to prepare.” "Anything, really?" "Okay…maybe not everything, cause I have morals and the first thing that's crossing said morals is fucking horrible and I wish I never let Heart agree to it…" "Oh, do tell?" Gray asked with a grin. “I really don’t need your bullshit involved with this…” I said carefully. “But…it’s some old bullshit ‘slave’ code Lord used and…turned them into a Breeder…and I fucking hate every second of it…” "Ah, I know that Slaver Code. Nasty stuff. Wait you used this in Heart? That's the Cript that became Kingdom Hearts, the Admin of Hearts right?" “They specifically asked Lord to do it to them.” I added in carefully. “And yes…Heart is in fact the Admin of Hearts…they weren’t apart of any of the fighting but still wanted to be helpful…so they agreed to…whatever the fuck that is…” "Oh, and you left them alone?" “I knocked them unconscious, and I know it was a good knock out spell cause they wouldn’t wake up too soon…” I said, wanting to have hope in my abilities but currently I’m mentally running ragged here, and all this new shit is not helping.. "Okay, first off, and I mean this with as much disrespect as I can say, you're a dumbass." Gray started. "Second, they are a Cript, scratch that, a Cript that was an Heir Cript, you know I made them mandatory have Adaptable biology, souls, magic, resistances. The stronger the attack the stronger and faster the rebound… so odds are yes they are awake right now and if they woke up alone with that programming on them then they are most likely mutilating themselves as we speak." “I’m also an Heir Cript,” Vincent and Gray both gave me a look. “It’s an entire thing that I don’t have time to get into…” "Then they are definitely awake. There was a reason I never put two Cript's, Heir Cript's especially in the same universe. Put two in a room and let them train and combat against each other and they're just skyrocketing power wise. Not to mention, as Admin of Hearts they literally have all those Keyblades working to undo that, including your own." “God…damn it…” I created another starfish clone of myself and headed off back to Heart. “Everything just has to keep getting worse…” "You really aren't cut out for being evil." I made it back to the room and… oh… my… Heart sat coiled up, a pile of their scales and teeth next to them as they were soaked in their own blood… they just kept pulling them off and out but they regrow. "Ugly…" Heart whimpered, tearing off another scale just as it began to regrow. “I left for like, five minutes!” I said in horror. “Heart what the fuck!?” "Master?" They asked, looking over at me. "You were gone… did I do something wrong?" “No? Why would you think that?” I asked. “Seriously, I was gone for five minutes…” "Because you left me…" They whimpered. I moved over and hugged Heart. “I’m sorry for leaving Heart…” I said softly. “I’m so fucking done with this shit! Why did I ever allow this? Why am I even allowing this!?! THIS IS BULLSHIT!!” I mentally screamed as all I felt was pain over this. "You… still want me Master?" “Of course I do.” I said, trying to think of a way to prevent this nightmare from ever happening, as Lord did make a back up to get my Heart back…seriously, fuck this. "Would you like me to pleasure you then?" "Yeah, no." Lord said, working on some… thing when I came here. He clearly already knew why I was here, I didn't even ask and he said that the second he saw me. “You either do it or I break your fucking knee caps.” I threatened. "How original. No. I believe Heart's request was to not have it undone until this army you need has been bred into existence." “I don’t care!” I snapped. “This entire thing is bullshit, a waste of time, and the worst thing imaginable!” I growled. “There’s nothing but pain here, nothing of value is being brought here…” "Your army of powerful children to defend against Gray's army is not of value?" “I’d rather have children with my Heart, not some blank slate slut that physically mutilates herself because I left the room for five fucking minutes!” I shouted. "Surprised you didn't leave a clone with them to keep at it. You bitched and moaned about wanting Starfish Clone but now you pick not to make use of it?" “No, I didn’t.” I stated simply. “But how the fuck was I supposed to know that this was going to happen? I didn’t want this to begin with!” "I literally told you what would happen when I did it." “But literally five minutes after I left the room?” I asked incredulously. "You think you can tweak eons old code made by one of the most psychopathic Admins of the first era, be my fucking guest. Got a million other things going on, you whining about your willing Breeder turned lover is not a top priority." “So do I! But unlike you I’m not morally fucking bankrupt and an absolute asshole about everything.” "I'm not morally bankrupt. I'm morally indifferent." Lord said. "Also the Fuck he doing here?" He motioned to Gray looking through his stuff. "Aren't we fighting him?" “So, Maxella was involved in this bout of shenanigans…but apparently, she took a piece of Time and…well, Anna, my old Earth friend, did some weird thing’s and got both Vincent and Gray into her reality from a memory…then we learned that Gray was just possessing Vincent, which so far he’s been more of an okay guy actually talking to him…but back to the main point, that’s literally the same fucking thing.” I frowned. "Wait, you didn't know he was possessing Vincent?" Lord asked. “Yes, I did, I just didn’t know for how long.” I admitted. “I know you think everyone besides you is a dumbass but come on.” "The only person I don't consider a dumb ass is them." He motioned to Gray. "And that's only because I made the mistake of teaching the bastard back in the day." "Nice seeing ya again by the way." Gray said. "Shut it." I rubbed my temples as I felt more of a migraine coming on. “Great…this is what I need right now…” I said, feeling my arms slowly shake from held back rage. "If you aren't going to help out around here, then scram I got stuff to do." “Well I might as well see whatever the hell you have planned this time.” I frowned. "Robots." “Oh, that’s something I know a lot.” I said readily. "Sure. Go make sure the motherboard frames are coming out right from the machine over there." Lord said, motioning over to the large 3-D Printer like machine. “Ah, yes, the humble 3-D printer…” I chuckled and shook my head, moving over and checking to see if it was coming out right. The frames it was printing out were made from metal it seemed, and they were rather intricate. Hm, must be small motherboards for this size. “Still really hate how he’s just blatantly ignoring me with this problem…” I thought to myself bitterly, looking over the small motherboard frames carefully to see if it was built properly. I walked into Cript's office. Seeing him working at a desk was… rather odd. “So…what’s with the desk job all of a sudden?” I asked carefully, as right now I’m just trying to distract myself with literally anything. "I do own and run a massive company. A few copies of myself usually handle the desk and paperwork jobs." “Fair enough.” I nodded. “So Lord’s being a prick to me…” "He's a prick to everyone." “He’s being especially a prick to me cause of the whole…Breeder thing…” I sighed. “I wanted it gone…I want my Heart back but no…gotta get my ‘super powered army’ from that first when I can barely look at them without everything feeling like garbage…” "It was Heart's choice. And I believe you were the one who said the only thing holding you back was your morality. Heart gave you the chance to remove that limitation." "And boy, do I hate it with every fiber of my goddamn being." I said with a frown. "Oh, also there's another timeline version of Vincent and Gray here…" "Sounds about right for our brand of Chaos." “I’m surprised you're not at least a bit mad at hearing that.” "Are they trying to kill us?" “Thankfully no, as Vincent is wanting to help fix his mistake with not getting to Gray fast enough.” "Then I have no need to be mad. Any other news going on?" “Well…Anna is here, an old friend from my Earth.” I said honestly. “And apparently she’s an Admin of Shapeshifters.” "Good for her." “Yeah, cause all of this has involved Maxella cause why not…” "She is doing her own thing. So, anymore questions?" I sighed. “How the hell am I supposed to do all of this?” I asked weakly. "You push through. Even if you feel dead inside." “Wasn’t a good portion of my journey about me not feeling so dead inside I literally became dead?” I asked. "True, but even then you kept moving. Ironic how sometimes we come back to where we started." “Yes…but it fucking sucks that I need to take everything that I’ve done to be me…and just fucking throw it out the window cause of this dumb fucking war…” "War changes people. Shows you what your Truly capable of. The hard part is living with yourself after." “I want to be better than what is being forced…I didn’t work this hard just to go ‘fuck it’...even with all my threats and anger…even with the fight’s I’ve gotten into…I still want to be a good person…I am at least a decent person…” I said sadly, though in all honesty I’d call myself a ‘good man’ due to how overall patient and non-apocalyptically rageful to everyone and everything. "In war there are only two kinds of people. The monsters and the dead. I remember the first war I was in." “And what was it like?” I inquired. "I remember thinking I was doing the right thing. I remember thinking I needed to protect the people from these invaders. I remember the man dead at my hands telling me with his last breath he just wanted to go home." “Jesus christ…” I muttered in horror. "This was well before I got this strong. Back then I was just a stupid powerful mage, not a God, demi god and certainly not an Admin. In the end I did help his people, establish a safe new empire for them… to this day, I'm regarded as a demonic figure in their culture. I don't blame them. All I can do is live with it and take some peace in the fact they're now thriving." “Uh…huh…” I said slowly, rubbing my temples bitterly. “This sucks…” "No one can live their life without regrets King. I should know, I have plenty." I sighed. “I’m supposed to be better…” I shook my head bitterly, having worked so much to be better…not sink back to what I used to be… "There's an old saying back in the earth I came from. Men don't kill men. Monsters kill men, and men kill monsters. It's an old phrase, supposed to help soldiers and mercenaries live with themselves. I've since learned it's only half true. Sometimes, it takes a monster to kill a monster. I've accepted that I am no man, but that doesn't mean I forget I used to be one." “I suppose…that is a fitting saying…” I sighed. “But…one saying that works as well for me I suppose…the three things a wise man should fear…a moonless night…the sea at storm…and the wrath of a gentle man.” I shook my head, hating what I’m going to have to do. “I’m really gonna hate pulling out that list…” "Just remember, it's only temporary… even if you're disgusted with yourself after, once this war is over you can work to never have to do that again." “True…” I sighed. “Still gonna suck though…” "We both know 'suck' is too kind a word." “Yeah…” I shook my head. “I’d really like to not break the stalemate yet…gonna have to prepare while we still can…” "Well… guess you better go get some regrets then. Otherwise fight or not, we'll lose the war otherwise." To be continued... I am fineAuthor's Note Just some nonsense in my head, don't mind this I am fine I walked into the daycare…I saw all the children too young and carefree to understand…even as all of them dogpiled me and asked me to play with them… So I did, because they should know what parental love should be, what being happy feels like in these times of war… The children asked me if I was alright. I'm fine. I walked into a school, seeing all the teens and young adults learning their skills, talents, and just learning about the world. The headmaster asked if I could teach the entire school on some important things. I did, because the next generation should know better, should learn and understand both the past and present to make a new, better future. One of the students asked if I was alright. I'm fine… I walked into the Training Halls, seeing all sorts of races training together to become strong, either for the War or for the ever growing world we are trying to build. A general asked if I could help train the soldiers, as I am one of the few with the most combat experience and can help show them how strong they can be. I did, because our soldiers need to be ready, they need to be strong for the battles ahead, they need to be prepared for what's to come and what might be. A medic asked me if I was alright. I'm…fine… I walked…and met more of my family, as they were all roaming around and doing their own thing. I was asked to help out with preparing for a celebration, cause the work load was a lot bigger than they thought. I did, because I loved my family dearly and wanted to help out, as I got the preparation in order and got everyone to do their specific duties with utmost efficiency. One of my kids asked if I was alright. I'm… I'm fine. I walked…I walked into a large room filled with my spouses, all cuddling or in some slow and caring love making. They all smiled at me and asked if I wanted to join their cuddle session. I did, because Cuddles were always a good thing and I was always ready for some cuddles or some gentle love making. One of my spouses asked if I was alright. I'm… I am fine… I walked… And walked… I saw my family, I helped them…I answered that I'm fine… I am not fine. I know what I'm doing…even when people are close…I'm doing this for them… I am not fine… I…walked into Eclipsa…they're smile turning into a look of worry. Eclipsa asked if I was alright… I answered I am fine… I am not fine… "No." Eclipsa said, grabbing me and slithering off. "You are not fine." "I am fine." I retorted, even though I didn't struggle against her. "Why are you doing this?" "Because your not fine…your keeping everyone at arm's length…" "No I'm not." I denied, not wanting to hear that I'm keeping everyone away from me even though I've been helping everyone all day. “Why would I ever keep you all at arm's length?” “That’s what I’m going to find out.” Eclipsa told me as she brought me into a private room. I walked… I found Cript, Lord, Vincent and Gray…they didn’t ask why I looked like shit… I’m not fine… I asked them to show me what I really need to do, since the four of them all knew I still held back because I cared. Cript asked if I was sure about it…I was… And then they showed me…I saw it all…I saw it… I… I’m not fine… To be continued... They're still here"Hey King, you in- Sweet Celestia what is that smell?!" Twilight yelped as she entered the room I was in. "Smells like strong booze and regret." I heard Pinkie say. "Definitely some whiskey and tequila." I heard Derpy's voice say. “It doesn’t smell that *hic* bad in here.” I said honestly, though I might be a little drunk but fuck it. “How you girls doing?” "How are you even Drunk? Isn't that impossible for Admins?" Twilight asked. "Actually I heard the Admin of Alcohol came out of hiding so if this booze came from them then that's probably how." Derpy said. "Oh finally, we can play beer strip pong again!" Pinkie added. “Y-yeah…Barkeep decided to show up and give me some of the goo-*hic*, good stuff.” I shook my head, trying to get myself from seeing triple here. “How are you three doing?” "A… little concerned. Luna told us you were taking time off then… you kinda just started drinking. Which considering you rarely have before, was an immediate red flag." Twilight said. “Oh you know…just in self deprecation right now.” I said weakly, raising my bottle of whiskey. “It’s what I deserve after all…” I felt the bottle of whiskey taken from my grasp as I saw Pinkie holding it. She took a sniff before taking a taste. "Woah! That's strong enough to put down a void monster!" "Alright… well we aren't gonna let you wallow in a drunken cesspool. Derpy." Twilight said. Derpy nodded, cracking her fingers and stretching a bit before she grabbed me by the scruff and… threw me over her back and carried me like a sack over her shoulder. "Let's get you a nice washing first." Derpy said. … Okay either I am really drunk or this is happening… “Uh…am I drunk or is Derpy somehow amazon strength?” I asked weakly. "When we developed and began to understand our Admin abilities, we all began developing strengths in various areas." Twilight said. "Aside from magic I can also instantly calculate mathematic and scientific equations and perform transmutation and code writing. Pinkie can… know when everyone's birthday is as well as their likes, dislikes and such. And Derpy gained strength on par with your Council and her luck is as strong as ever." "I can rip apart Monofilament." Derpy said with a smirk. Oh my… “Oh dear…” I muttered. “Well…that’s all good to know…but why can’t I wallow in a cesspool again?” "Because we won't let you." Pinkie said. “I can tell…” I grumbled. “Ugh…this sucks…” I groaned, hating how I’m just being dragged off and also it was not helping me from the fact that I was kind of drunk… The trio brought me to the bathroom, where I was dropped into a hot bath and then assaulted by shampoo and three pairs of hands scrubbing deep into my fur… damn it this feels nice… "So, what triggered your relapse this time?" “Oh…you know…literally get told ‘hey, remember the starfish clones you had? Well they gained a separate persona, abandoned your family, and told you to both go fuck yourself and even you don’t want to be you so have fun’.” I explained. “So yeah…literally get reminded of my failures by myself telling me ‘I hate myself so much I’d rather be literally anyone else’...” “Oh…” Twilight said slowly. "You need a vacation." Derpy said. “I need to get started with the War, cause that’s not going to stop whether I’m pissed at myself or not.” I countered weakly. “Also, a little to the left please…” "If you're gonna join the war, then you should be spending at least a few more happy moments with your family." Pinkie said, getting the spot I mentioned. I groaned happily at the spot on my back being rubbed. “I know…but it’s hard when I get told ‘you're not allowed to, suck my giant fluffy ass’...” "I mean, we have literally seen you suck several variations of yourself off." Derpy said. “That’s different.” I said. “That was consensual, the clones of me said it in spite because they believed ‘you can’t have your cake and eat it too jackass’...” "I mean, do you even know how many clones you had when this happened?" Twilight asked. “Tried to have one per family member, cause that’s something we’ve tried to do…then maybe like…five per…like, the ten things I need to do?” I asked carefully. "So too many for you to control and monitor." Twilight sighed. "That explains it. Even with all your growth and power, there are still some limits." “Apparently…” I sighed, still hating this so much as I just…wanted something simple for once, not to have my failures flung at me or something getting in the way when all I want is…just something… Warm water was poured over me, and I was then again covered in shampoo and scrubbed. "So… when are you leaving for the battlefield?" Derpy asked. “I…I don’t know…” I sighed. “Soon is the best I can say…I need to actually get involved, even if I don’t want to cause I know things will go sideways…” "How long will you be gone?" Pinkie asked. “It’s War…I could be back in a few days after a big battle, or it could take me years cause some jackass thought it would be funny to do an attrition battle…” "So… this is gonna be the last time we see you for a while then." Twilight said. “Most likely…and I wanted to make it special with you all but…well, I don’t have the time to do it…” I sighed bitterly. "... Can you do us one favor then?" Pinkie asked. “Anything…” I said, looking up at the three of them. They all shared a look before looking back at me. "Can you smile for us? We don't want the last time we see you for so long to be of you sad." Derpy said. “I want to give you a smile that…is actually a good smile though.” I said. “If I do it now…it might just feel and look hollow…” I shook my head, still thinking I need to be more for everyone…still thinking that even something so simple isn’t enough for the people I care about. “King…” Twilight said softly, all three of them looking me in the eyes as I just clenched my fists underneath the water. “I’m…I’m just a mess…” I said sadly. “No matter what I do…no matter what I say…I’m just a mess, I can’t help but think how I’m never good enough, how I’m not allowed to be happy even when everything is going my way or should be going my way…” I teared up. “That’s not true, we’ve seen you happy.” Derpy tried to argue. “I want to be happy…I’ve tried to be happy…and whenever I do get to be happy, I’m just reminded what the world is, about my past failures, about how I can fuck up or will fuck up, how I keep everyone at arm’s length when all I want to do is be there for them…” I explained weakly…as I just started to cry…feeling all their hands on me, feeling their presence and yet…I can’t keep myself from thinking I failed them, how I’m nothing more than a detriment even though I’m facing reality where it’s not true… "Do you remember the day you saved Rarity and I from that Heartless?" Twilight asked. “I…I want to feel better, not like my bones are about to dissolve into nothing Twilight.” I managed to joke, causing the three girls to giggle at that. "That was when you arrived in my world. You just showed up, killed a monster that the best of the guard at the time had no idea how to handle and saved our lives. Even if you did get badly injured, you never stopped trying to help people." "I remember when I came into the picture. A recording of you admitting you wanted Luna and her body, heh." Pinkie chuckled. "Heh… I was just a fan girl." Derpy said. "Obsessed and maybe to an unhealthy degree. Still, what most celebrities would find off putting you… took me in anyway. I didn't get to know just The White Knight. I got to know King. An obsessive celebrity crush turn genuine romance over time. Something I had never had before." “Fighting a Guard Armor was…honestly, it was a tad ironic and hilarious that the first boss I fight in this new world was that.” I chuckled. “I’m…still embarrassed to hell by that…ho boy.” I shook my head. “And…well, to be perfectly honest, you being a fangirl never really made me think less of you…I honestly thought it was adorable.” I said simply. “Though you caused a sonic boom with how fast you both ran to your room…and came, wasn’t really kind to my ears.” “So that’s what that sonic boom was about…” Twilight said, which made me blink. “You didn’t know?” I asked. “Coulda sworn I mentioned it once or twice…” "I might have been a tad hard of hearing given the proximity." Twilight chuckled. "Point is, you coming into our lives was the best thing that could have ever happened to us." Derpy said. "You mean so much to us. Seeing you miserable hurts us. So please, can we help you stay happy? At least, until you leave. And when you come back." “I’d love that…” I said warmly. “I…I know I’m not the best…and to be honest, things have gotten way too big…I’m trying way too much…but…I’m just…I’m just glad that I still have you all…that even with me like…well, this,” I motioned to myself. “I…can still come back to people I know that care about me.” Despite being wet they still all gave me a hug. Once I was dried off and had my teeth brushed, Twilight took me with her towards the main house library. "Remember when I was tutoring you to use your cards?" She asked with a smirk. I nodded, blushing at the… sexy numbers… "Well, how about a refresher lesson?" "Are you going to make math sexy again?" I asked. "Maybe~" I chuckled. "My sweet sexy nerd." Twilight laughed, grabbing a few books and we sat down at a desk together and just… read, reviewed, quizzed one another. It reminded me of the early days so… so long ago. We spent hours like this, sharing study books and quizzing, talking, laughing. We kissed, and it felt like back then. "I believe it's my turn." Pinkie said as she walked up to us. "Go on. We'll all be meeting up later." Twilight told me. “Alright.” I nodded, nuzzling Twilight happily as I got up and stretched a bit. “Alright Pinkie, what do you have in mind?” "We are going to do something you have not done before." She said, taking my hand and pulling me along with her. "Bake." “Well…yeah, I have never baked before.” I said honestly, following along quickly. “Huh…surprised about that.” Pinkie led me to a room that was just a kitchen. Various stove tops, ovens and kitchen equipment was here. She quickly put an apron on and handed me one. I've never worn an apron before… hmm… does not cover all the cleavage completely… rude. "Now, we are gonna bake this stuff from scratch, alright?" Pinkie said to me. “Alright.” I nodded, ready for our baking. “I make no promises on making an absolute mess…cause even though I have done a whole lot of chemistry nonsense with a lot of highly explosive things…baking’s probably a whole different beast with the same core principles.” "Well, today we are gonna bake some mushroom pastries." Pinkie said. “Mushroom pastries?” I inquired. "They're a type of meal pastry, rather than a dessert. The recipe is fairly simple, first we need to make the mushroom sauce." Pinkie snapped her fingers, a fair sized pot appearing as well as milk, pepper, mushrooms, salt, and some other seasonings and such. "Care to chop the mushrooms?" “Sure.” I nodded, grabbing a knife real quick. “How thin do you need it to be?” "Small chunks preferably, or basic slices are fine." She said as she began to heat the pot, adding in the milk first as well as measuring the other seasonings. I nodded, starting to chop up the mushrooms like she asked with a steady and precise hand. One of the benefits of my endless self training exercises. I can slice in rhythm with minimal focus now, keeping all the slides around the same shape. As close as I can get given the uneven shapes. Once that was done, Pinkie added them to the pot. “Now, onto the dough.” She said, another snap of her fingers and she had bowls, a large bag of flour, a bowl of salt, some yeast packets, and pitchers of water. "So, how much do we need to pour in the bowl?" I inquired, doubting I could just dump the entire thing in the bowl. “We’ll start with four cups then see if we need more after.” She said. I poured in the flour and she added the water, salt, and yeast. She then put oil around her hands and began mixing and kneading the dough. “Rub some oil on your hands, it helps keep the dough from sticking.” I nodded, doing such. She then backed away from the bowl. “Knead the dough some more while I check on the sauce.” “Alright.” I nodded, grabbing the dough and starting to knead it, getting into the feel of just working the dough till it was good and ready. Pinkie stirred and checked on the sauce, tasting it before putting the heat to low then covering the bowl with a cloth. “Now we wait for it to rise for thirty minutes, knead it some more, let it rise for another thirty minutes then we can form the pastries. While that rises we can shred the cheese.” “Neat.” I nodded. With another snap of her fingers she had a large bowl appear, a cheese shredder and a large rectangle of white cheese. “So, let’s get the cheese ready.” “What kind of cheese is this?” I inquired, given that there are a stupid amount of cheeses out in reality I didn’t want to assume. “Just basic Mozzarella.” Pinkie said. “Alright.” I nodded, taking the cheese shredder and Mozz and starting to shred it carefully. Time went by at a fair pace. Once I had all the cheese shredded and kneaded the dough again we waited til the dough rose again. Once that was done we made several small balls of the dough, flattened them, stuffed them with cheese and a generous amount of the sauce, folded and pressed the dough sealed then Pinkie placed them on a baking tray and put them in to bake. “Okay, now we wait for them to bake.” Pinkie sighed, smiling. “That was nice.” I said with a smile. “Now for the worst part, the wait for when we can eat the sweets.” “They aren’t really sweets.” “The wait is still bad though.” I said honestly. “Heh, all good things take time, King. Waiting will always be part of that.” “I know I know.” I chuckled. “Still can’t believe I’ve never baked before.” “The hard part is usually the prep work, but I learned some useful tricks to speed it up. Still, even if I can make them with a snap of the fingers, It’s nice to actually make them by hand still.” “Making stuff by hand gives you that gratification, that you feel your work paying off.” I admitted. “Yeah. It also reminds me of before. When things were simple and less… scary…” “Yeah…” I sighed bitterly. “But I’m trying to make things simple and less scary ya know?” “I know, I just sometimes wish things never got to this point. Wish we could have had more moments like this… I know why you worked so hard, why you went overboard with the clones and… I hate that you so willingly threw yourself into it for us, because you felt you had to. Needed to.” “Yeah…I wish I had more of these moments too.” I admitted. “Something just…simple with family…but there’s too much going on and I hate it…” “Can you promise me something?” Pinkie asked. “What do you need?” I inquired. “When this is over… please King…” She said, tearing up as she looked at me. “No more work. No more projects. No more staying away from us out of fear we’ll be taken away if you don’t do something… just stay… please…” I moved over and grabbed Pinkie and hugged her. “I promise Pinkie.” I said softly. “I will never leave you all again…you all mean so much to me.” She hugged me back, sniffling as I held her. I’ve never seen Pinkie… cry before. Or even look sad… this has been eating at her for a long time. I sighed… I have to make changes when I come back… family first… when this war is over… I’m never leaving them. I held onto her until the oven went off. She quickly got up, pulling the tray out and then handing me one of them wrapped in a paper towel. She had her own and sat next to me in my arm again. “I try and keep positive about things… but I’ve always worried about you King. You have a terrible habit of never believing you deserve happiness. Of blaming yourself for things outside of your control. I just… want you to always be happy. Because you deserve your happiness. Not even you have the right to say you don’t.” “I know Pinkie…” I said softly, even though ironically this is how this whole debacle started…”I know…but I’m here now, and I’m glad we’re together.” Pinkie smiled, a small one. “Come on, they taste best hot.” She said. I nodded, taking a bite. It was creamy, the cheese was still melty and soft and the mushroom sauce was rich and full of flavor. "This tastes great." I said warmly. “It’s a simple recipe, but it never fails to taste great.” She chuckled. “When you get back, we’ll do this all the time. I’ll have many volumes of recipes to try so prepare to get used to seeing a kitchen when you return.” She chuckled again. "That would be nice." I nodded. We sat there eating the pastries until Derpy arrived. “So, shall we?” Derpy asked. “I’ll catch up with you later alright?” Pinkie said. "Alright." I said, giving Pinkie a quick kiss and stood up. "So, what does my favorite fan girl want to do today?" “Something we haven’t done before.” She said simply as she walked ahead of me a bit. I followed Derpy down the halls and to one of the many balconies. Here was a view of the whole kingdom from high above and the telescope mounted onto the rails. "Well, this is quite a view…but what's with the telescope? Are we stargazing or something else?" Derpy said nothing, walking up to the telescope and looking through it at first. It was pointed down at the kingdom. She then smirked. “Here, look through.” She stepped aside and I looked through the telescope, whatever magic inside it gave the zoom quite the range as I could see an area full of winged wolf people flying around or walking through the streets. Adults, kids. "And…who are these adorable people?" I inquired. “They are known as the Winged Dire Wolves. But, they are also our descendants.” Derpy said. I looked at her. “Sometimes I forget how old even we are. Those down there are three hundred and fourteen-ish generations from our kids, King. Their own species.” I blinked. "Well…I wonder what other new species I've accidentally made through how horny I can be." I chuckled. Smirking, Derpy playfully pushed me from the telescope. She looked through it for a bit then let me see through it. They were also wolf like, smaller and each one had small to medium length horns on their head, most were towards the center of their skulls. “Uni-Dire Wolves. Your descendants with Twilight.” Again, she moved me aside, looking back through the telescope until she found her next one. Looking through it I saw very colorful dire wolves but they were huge. Well, sorta. They were actually just extremely fluffy. “Earth Wolves. Your descendants with Pinkie.” Derpy finished. There were so many of each of them. Whole… cities and… wow… I never even… “For some reason, while our kids and grandkids come out as strong as us, the grandkids seem to give birth to weaker children. Power wise at least. All those puppers down there are no stronger than anyone else. Like we used to be before Admins and all that.” Derpy explained. “They probably don’t even know they’re related to you.” "And…that's just from you three…" I muttered, noticing how the Earth Wolves seemed to have a really high affinity for nature and druidic magics. "Jeez…seeing all this is…quite something." I said, not sure what to really say at just how…long we've lived and…how many people there are that are my family… “I know you work so hard to protect us King. But, we’re like you now.” Derpy said, making me look over at her. “We might not be as strong as you are, but we aren’t fragile or glass. If we have to, we will fight. We can fight. They… they can’t. So, when you are going out into the battlefield, think of them. We made them, even if they don’t know we did, it’s not only your responsibility to look after them, it’s all our responsibility. No more shouldering all that alone alright?” "It's…still a lot to look after." I said softly. "But…glad that I have help looking after them all." “You always have, dummy.” She laughed, giving me a light tap to the arm. “There’s a lot of them out there. Think there’s like… a large chunk of the current reality that’s a descendant to we in the Family in some way or another. Kinda weird realizing you’re the progenitor of whole new species and people you never met before… but, it’s also nice. Makes me love this Kingdom even more.” "Yeah…an entire Kingdom made up of our kids…" I chuckled. “And their kids, and their kids, and so on.” Derpy chuckled. “I like to come here and just… watch them. Makes me think. Maybe, if you want, when you get back we can watch the process next time. I know that sounds weird but… also fascinating.” "Seeing the world around me pass by with the one I love…that sounds both heartwarming and just a smidge concerning when it comes to the life of an immortal." I chuckled. “Yeah, but there’s no one else I’d want to do this with.” Derpy chuckled. “Come on, we gotta meet back up with Twilight and Pinkie for your farewell gift. I know you need to leave soon for the battlefield, so we came up with something on the fly.” "What up?" I inquired. Derpy laughed. “Come on, don’t act coy, you know what your ideal send off would be~” I blushed, but smirked. Derpy led me to a doorway. “Wait here, I gotta get ready inside.” Derpy went inside the room and I waited patiently. “Hey.” I turned, seeing Heart slither up to me. “I heard you’re finally leaving for the battlefield.” "Yeah…" I sighed. "And while I still have clones here to help keep the place protected…not enough for my liking…but hopefully the War can swing in our way with what I have in mind for a start." “Hopefully… Well, as you know… I’m not joining in the war… I just… can’t. I’m sick and tired of being a weapon to others. Hell, I exist because the original Gray thought I’d be a good weapon… So, I have something for you.” Heart said. In a flash they summoned their X-blade… and handed it to me. “Here. X is linked to me so, I won’t be fighting but with this you can use my powers as well.” My eyes widened as I gently took the original X-blade. "Well…this is…quite a gift Heart…" I said, honestly surprised they would hand this to me. “Well, this all started because of Keyblades and such, and I figure you’d love the chance to use it in a real battle.” They chuckled. “Now, I gotta get inside too~” They added, giving me a quick kiss on the cheek before rushing through the doors. I smirked, looking at the X-blade… it’s been forever since I’ve seen this thing… I stored it into my Assistant, happy that… they love me… and they always will. "See…this is what I keep fighting for…" I chuckled, shaking my head. "Where I…I can enjoy this simple shit…cause when this is over, things will finally be simple." I said to myself warmly, before heading inside to see what 'gift' they had in mind. I saw all my loves. All of them… All of them were either in the nude or in lingerie… Yeah… This is the send off I need. To be continued... Nobody on the front linesAfter my ‘going away’ party…I took a deep breath as I stood before the portal to the Front Lines…did I truly want to do this? I felt a hand on my shoulder, as I looked back I saw…my Council…Zuko, my Knight, giving me a nod. “Everything will be alright, King.” He said. My whole Council…each one of them looked older, mature, stronger…all of them suited up and ready for war. “My Council…my compatriots…my friends…” I said, looking between all of them. Zuko, Emperor of the Fire Nation and my Knight wielding Interdiction that was formed into his famous twin blades, coated in nothingness as he was wearing his Knight armor, his face older, wiser and mature even though he kept his scar to forever remember where he came from. I looked to Joy, my Paladin, my little brother…even if he was now a hermaphrodite like me…seeing them in their Keyblade armor, holding Reunion and Lindworm at the ready just filled my heart with joy and nostalgia. Dante, who was once the DMC version, became his Devil May Cry 5 version, where he looked older, but still had that smug confidence to himself, as he held his Devil Sword Dante on his back and having Sharpshooters at his side ready to fire, in his iconic red trench coat outfit. Virgil, who also decided to ditch his DMC version for Devil May Cry 5 version, stood stoically in his blue trench coat, holding the Skysplitter Katana and Yamato at his side as he gave a simple nod that he was ready for battle. Kat was strange, gone was the humble young adult graffiti magician, now into a strikingly beautiful woman still wearing her signature outfit from her world, though it held much more as it flowed like a Sage’s robes, a staff made from a world tree and Book of Retribution in her hands at the ready. Genos, the Anarchist, once sought all sorts of upgrades and machinery to become the greatest hero of his world, but having seen what Saitama was truly capable of against Garou, and even myself on occasions, he knew what he had to do. Long gone were his normal machine body, as he turned to magitech, his entire body turning into more of a Clockwork Golem, but instead of normal gears, he managed to turn Eternal Flames into all the Gears, as his Core became an everlasting Sun that would burn any in his path. Brook was an interesting case, as he both changed the least physically but the most in other spots, ranging from him turning from a violin to a guitar, going from more of a gentleman look to a rocker look, his confidence having gone through the roof ever since he both helped Luffy become King, met Laboon after all that time, and was my Bard for god knows how long, as he readied his guitar and sword for the fight. Trixie Lulamoon was shuffling Fair Game, dressed in a more armored version of her Stage Performer, as she gave me a confident smile of her performance, as well as just her general physique being a lot more…mature and filled that helped give her the confidence to strut her stuff as she could easily cheat out people while using her body and she knows it. Grell, my Death Seeker and Grim Reaper from Black Butler, changed the most, especially when they learned we had gender swapping potions. Grim Reapers were Soul Creature, and knew when something was wrong with their body, as Grell was the main advocate to both getting people in her predicament the mental health they need and, in some cases, use gender swap potions to see if they truly wanted it. And Grell was…honestly a beautiful Woman to be perfectly honest, as the term ‘Milf’ or ‘Dayum’ honestly couldn’t do her physique justice…which also might make me weirder cause the way they were holding their version of Graceful Dahlia, a Chainsaw Scythe, was kind of making them more hot… “Later Grell.” I chuckled as they gave me a wink, looking over to my next Council Member, Steve Rogers, Captain America, dressed in his iconic costume but the star was surrounded by a Heart shaped by Nothingness thorns, as he tightened his version of Frozen Pride to his arm. The old soldier did deserve rest after all this fighting, even though his bearded face looked ready for the fight, a conviction to protect the people and the world…the face of a true Hero. Next was Luxu…god Luxu, as he chose to continue not having a Body, he stuck with his black full body cloak, but as he held Lunatic and Gazing eye tightly I could feel his conviction…he’s not doing this just cause of his part as a Council, but he’s doing this for Time Belle, his wife…and his wonderful kids. Second to last was Speed of Sound Sonic, the ninja that believed Speed was everything, and he embodied that thought greatly as his very body kept vibrating at such a speed that he looked like he was about to phase into another dimension at any moment and appear to strike his opponent at any given notice…still sucks that he has yet to beat Saitama, even after all these many years…but his conviction was still there, the fire in his Heart would never give out, and Foudre would give him the power he needs and deserves. Lastly was Riku…I still couldn’t believe that my last Council member was Riku…it feels like I was in a completely different reality when this all started because of Kingdom Hearts…but he decided to go with his Kingdom Hearts 3 look, which fit him rather well to be honest. Then I looked at myself in a mirror, seeing myself, the Den Mother Dire Wolf…but it shifted to the really old me, just the human in a pure white version of the Organizations cloak, just a simple human with so much baggage…but so much potential, as the image of my seemed to do some time laps as I witnessed my own life flash before my eyes…every mistake, every embarrassing nonsense…but all the good things I did, all the love, patience and joy I've gotten from my spouses, my friends, and my family… I took a deep breath and wiped away my tears. "No time for wool gathering…it's time." I said, taking my first step into this war. As I walked out, everything suddenly came to a dead silent, all the blasts, fighting, gunfire…everything went dead as I made my walk through the battlefield. The echoing sound of clapping was heard as I saw…Gray, walk up with portals starting to form around him. “My my, if it isn’t about time.” Gray said simply. “Yeah yeah.” I said. “You wanted a fight that you didn’t expect?” I asked, seeing them raise an eyebrow in their new body. “Well, then I’m going to demonstrate something you’ve probably never seen before, and it comes from my great friends, the Foretellers.” I said, putting my hands together to form a castle like shape. “Domain Expansion!” I shouted. “Palace of Fantasy!” As I shouted it, every single portal Gray created started spewing out untold numbers of monsters, soldiers and bioweapons from countless timelines, as the sound of music filled the entire reality, a massive castle forming from my own power, the gate coming crashing down as all the soldiers that risked their lives on the Front Lines while I’ve been doing everything I could to prepare pouring out of it, infused with my power, along with the same countless numbers of new soldiers, automatons, monsters and bioweapons. As the song played in the background, I saw my Council members leap into the forefront of the endless tide, clearing vast area’s with each of their attacks, I donned my True King armor, what once needed a chant to claim the true power, I could easily equip as I grabbed both my King Greatsword, the weapon that embodied all thirteen weapons of Nothingness, my very being and right to rule, and pulled out X, the one keyblade that started all this nonsense and the soul of my dear Heart…as I fuzed them together for a weapon that has never been seen before, as I noticed Gray getting a wider and wider smile till it looked more like a manic grin. The weapon I created, the culmination of both Kingdom Hearts true power and Nothingness’s true power, it formed what at first glance looked like a simple greatsword, with ornamentation on the handle, guard and the secondary guard as it took a more Zweihander appearance, but the key detail shown in the middle of the blade, that of a hollow’d out part in the middle of the blade that looked like the silhouette of a Dusk Nobody, but in the center held together with Pure white and Pure dark Nothingness Thorn’s was a crystalline heart, lightly shining and dimming like a heartbeat. “Existence…” I muttered, pointing the tip of the blade at Gray. “And it’s all pointed at you asshole.” I growled. “Then come on! Show me what you’ve got!” Gray challenged, walking past his own forces getting absolutely destroyed left right and center, the apathetic mass of energy wanting nothing more than to fight me and only me to experience what it’s like to know something new. I said nothing, as I raised my blade and swung… The Knight Zuko, once a prince banished from his home to do an impossible task. Zuko, once a teacher to the Avatar to help bring Balance to his world. Zuko, once the Fire Lord and bringer of peace after a hundred years of constant strife, war and bloodshed. Zuko, the Knight, wielder of Interdiction, with Fire bending the likes of which no one has seen before and is second only to his King and the Anarchist, as he seamlessly cleaved through enemy after enemy, his twin laser swords imbued with Nothingness and the power of their namesake, slaughtering that were abominations to this world, forcing amalgamation to halt in time as the power of the blades tore at their very being with how wrong their very existence was, each enemy burning into nothing but ash as Zuko rushed through all his enemies. The Paladin Joy, once Rejection, the younger sibling to King, was flying through enemy after enemy, slaying any and all enemies with precision and without mercy, the powers of Lindworm and the Elder Dragon God imbued in every weapon to the very Wind he was producing, to Reunion, the Keyblade King obtained after saving him from the Darkness. Joy had everything, a family, friends, his own harem and massive amount of kids…and it was all thanks to his older brother…it was all thanks to King, and he would sooner die than see everything they’ve worked towards be brought to nothing. The Archer Dante has been through a lot. As a young man he killed the King of Hell, nearly killed his brother that he thought long lost, got into a relationship with Kat, and he was ready for a new step to his life…but everything turned upside down when he became the Archer. He learned how gigantic reality was…and how weak he was compared to everything, even to his different reflections. He looked at what his ‘history’ was, saw what his other version’s were and how much more devastating they were…so, he decided to change that. He became something much more, with the help of King and the others. He chose to be seen as his DMC 5 look, because it had him feel…right, his age showing he managed to grow up, the power such maturity and knowledge gained…and he had to admit, white hair actually did go great on him. All the power he obtained from becoming his true self, obtaining his Devil Sword, and having Sharpshooters upgraded to hell and back like Ebony and Ivory certainly helped as he was hooting and hollering in glee as he was using all the weapons he’s obtained throughout the ages with Sharpshooters to do Smokin’ Sexy Stylish!!! Combo’s on all his foes. Dante transformed into his Sin Devil Trigger as he spun the twin crossbow guns and fired an ungodly powerful blast. “Jackpot.” Dante said with a grin The Defender Steve Rogers, once naught but a stick of a man with many health problems, became the Symbol of what America was supposed to be, a place where Freedom and Justice were the core tenets for the people, where Hope is and always should be a viable option than cowering against the darkness, Loyalty to one’s countrymen, to have the Courage and Perseverance to fight against any form of Tyranny, Domestic or Otherwise, in the name of the country he fought for all the way back in World War 2. He thought him being brought back would help the people of the world, him leading the Avengers to make a better future…but while it did help, new problems kept cropping up…but the old plagues stayed the same, corruption, greed, and hunger for power kept poisoning the people, apathy, self centeredness and people claiming they were ‘on the right side’ constantly spouting nonsensical bullshit and ruining others lives, whether through words or through whatever strange powers they got for that flavor of the week…but when King and Joy showed up, when they gave Captain his new shield, Frozen Pride, he felt a sense of irony that what kept him alive to the modern day was now the Shield he used to protect the people he cared about, his friends, his family back home, his countrymen… This was the Captain’s new home, and every single monster he froze and shattered with his shield, he knew what he had to do, for he was the Defender, the guardian of the people… “I can do this all day.” The Captain chuckled as he dashed forward again, a mighty phalanx of ice at his back. The Gate Guardian Vergil was in the same boat as his twin brother Dante, having seen how…small his goals were when he was younger, how weak he truly was to do what he needed…he wasn’t what he could be…but he saw the bigger picture when he was gifted Skysplitter from King, he saw all the worlds and what he could have truly been…what he could have had… Nero, the quarter demon spawn of himself and a woman he didn’t know the name of, a child…a son he could call his own that was as strong as he was at the peak of his might with the power of his Sin Devil Trigger and the Fruit from Qliphoth tree…Vergil side stepped a swing and shook his head, not needing to think of his newborn son as he cleaved the monster into tiny pieces with his Dimension Slash, what he must focus on was the battle, and how he became his true self, the Azure Sin Devil, the Gate Guardian, and the one that would slaughter all that would oppose him and his King. “Now…” He clenched his fist before activating his Sin Devil Trigger. “I’m Motivated!” He declared, before vanishing as a layer of Reality shattered like glass as he truly went wild. The Mage No matter what worlds she looked into with Dante and Vergil…Kat could never see herself in those worlds, there was no reflection that was involved with them…and at first, it hurt the street magician, to see how no matter what world she looked at, she was just relegated to the ‘Donte’ world as she kept hearing…looking back, she never really lived up to the potential so many people thought she had, just being a pretty face with a can of spray paint to get Dante everywhere…But no more. She was Kat the Archsage, The Mage to King’s Council, and she was damn proud of that fact. She was Master of Illusions, Master of all sorts of Witchcraft and Wizardry, as the only one she was second to was King themselves, and as she let the pages in her book fly as spell after spell was cast, foe after foe dominated by her expertise in the mystical arts…she looked over to see both Dante and Vergil having a blast with their new powers, their true strength left to go buckwild…and she couldn’t help but smile, as even now, she was helping, she was their equal…and as the wing’s of pure mana sprouted from her back, lighting crackling off her very being as she floated… “I know exactly who I am…and I’m proud of it.” Kat grinned, letting off a Cataclysm spell. The Anarchist Genos, the Cyborg, a human that gave himself, body and soul to the be strong, to be a hero after he was saved by the good Dr.Kuseno, wanting to go through any and all mechanical augmentation and upgrade till he was nothing more than a robot with the seriousness and single minded will to be a powerful hero…he personally learned what 'tunnel vision', his pure unbridled seriousness and devotion to power and heroism blinded him to everything in reality. He was a fool, the most simplest of conclusions he could come up with at how close minded he was, ignoring all the simplest of solutions for his hyper serious actions and drive…but with King and his fellow Council members help he…loosened up a bit. He was still serious and had the will for power and heroics, but he was able to enjoy life, he was able to joke, and just be able to just…be a human, something he thought he gave up years ago with his robotics taking up ninety nine percent of his being. "King…my Council members…thank you." Geno's said softly, feeling a powerful monster smack him but this time, he didn't budge an inch. "BONFIRE OF THE DAMNED!" Genos roared, as every enemy, even those 'immune' to fire, started to burn, burn in such atomic flame that no level of regeneration could revive them. But as they all dissolved into nothing, Nothingness Thorns shaped like chains latched on to what could possibly remained and brought back ashborn zombies. "KILL THE ENEMIES OF THE KINGDOM!" The Bard “Yo ho ho ho~, Yo ho ho ho~.” Brook, the Bard, the Skeleton, the Soul King, the Musician to the King of the Pirates. All titles for the humble musician that walked along, starting his favorite song that he played for his friends and crewmates all the time, and he would play it all the same for his friend’s and Council members as well. As he sang the water that once tormented him due to his Devil Fruit, making him unable to swim and even the slightest touch of sea water would make him useless, turned into his old crew’s…the Straw Hats and the Rumbar Pirates…”Oh the memories…” He sighed in joyous nostalgia, as the water clones of his old musician crew played the accompanying instruments while the Straw Hats readied for battle. “Yo ho ho ho~, Yo ho ho ho…” He sang softly as the sound of growing waves started to grow and grow against the encroaching hoard. “Sounds like the Tide’s coming in, if I didn’t know better I’d look bone white in fear.” Brook said. “Oh wait, I am Bone White! Yohohoho!” He laughed at his own crappy joke, starting to really let out his joy of Music into his new Guitar, a grand spirit version of himself appearing and rushing at all the enemies as he started to steal their souls without a hint of trouble. The Highroller “Watch and be amazed, as I! The Great and Powerful Trixie takes on innumerable odds in the name of our people!” Trixie declared in her performer persona, Fair Game flying around at sonic speeds, doing all sorts of damage to the enemies from slashes, to fucking with their time to the point they either dissolved into dust or returned back to nothing but atoms as time rushed forward or rewinded against the enemies. Trixie Lulamoon, once a traveling showpony with her stage persona having an Ego the size of a planet, brought down due to people taking her stage performance seriously, to being one of the Kingdom’s highest grossing stage magicians…a simple act of kindness from King, and a pair of magical cards later…the mare couldn’t have been happier. She got to do what she loved, Performing, and while violence still wasn’t really something she liked due to her pacifist pony life, she was ready and willing to slaughter her enemies if it meant protecting her numerous Fans. She looked over at a recording drone that was broadcasting a livestream to all her loyal fans. “My fans…I thank you, for your devotion and your kindness…this is for you.” She said, raising a hand as a card grew giant with her illusion cutie mark on it, before suddenly tons of fireworks like magic missiles fired from it. The Death Seeker Grell was dancing around, happily swinging their beloved Death Scythe through all these monsters, painting the area in a beautiful shade of red…oh how life can change so drastically when you’re given the chance…and some gender swapping magics also helped. Grell thought back to her own predicament and what they’ve seen in other people…and while her heart broke for those that genuinely suffered the same way she did, even if they were mortal and couldn’t truly fathom the real pain of a soul being stuck in the wrong body, there were those that seeked to abuse such a thing, use it for their own personal gain and to ruin the lives of others because of their own selfishness and…her blood boiled at that thought, cleaving through more and more as they thought about their new life, how King lead them to be what she really was, let herself express herself the way a male body couldn’t… King was the one she loved the most, and while Sebastian will always hold a special place in her heart…Grell’s King, the dire wolf that helped them be what they truly wanted, and got to express to the world how she really felt now that she was who she was supposed to be…well, King did say ‘later’... “In the words of one famous individual…” Grell grinned, their chainsaw Graceful Dahlia starting to rev up. “It’s time for Jack to Let’er rip!” She cackled, Graceful Dahlia letting out a roar of its engine and blades as she leaped forward in glee. The Assassin Speed of Sound Sonic…was a fool. He knew it, when he learned his ‘ninja skills’ were mere show, his skills were always shown to be great but it ultimately meant nothing in the end…all he wanted, was to prove his superior speed and beat Saitama…to prove he was strong…but it was all for naught when he met King and Joy. When he became King’s Assassin, he was quick to learn…he was not the fastest, in fact he was slow compared to what he was meant to face against, and when he learned that…he felt small, weak and helpless…but King was there to help, the Dire wolf was there to support him through his depression and helped him learn that he can be better…and just knowing that his training didn’t mean nothing, that there is a way to be better made him devote himself in proving it, to his King, to his Council members…and to himself. “Come and face The End!” He shouted, vanishing in an instant. “If you can keep up.” The Berserker Luxu, the Wanderer, created by the Master of Masters, sent off to abandon his the Foretellers…his best friends, just so he could continue a fucking self fulfilling prophecy that, as he learned quite clearly, got fucked by some really big illegal shit that his reality would be pissed about…but as he crushed a monster’s skull with his bare hand, he realized that here was a lot of thing’s that went horribly wrong for that asswipe. Luxu was now a loving husband, and a good father to his five children with his wife Time Belle, one of Core’s failed attempts to create a humanoid No Name keyblade…but what was a failed attempt to be a weapon, it was a complete success for making him better…and with King, the depressed but stubborn and kind wolf they were, kept Luxu going, and when King gave him Lunatic…he had a new purpose in life. Luxu, the Berserker, the one that was on the front lines first destroying anything and everything, but that wasn’t really Luxu, even though he is fueling himself with the unbridled rage of what the Master did, he was methodical in his rage, he was cold, calculating, he was the kind of rage that you didn’t want to fuck with, for he was given a purpose, he was given people to protect, he was given a life…and he’ll be damned if he doesn’t protect them. The Key Riku had…a weird life. First it was his life in the Data Realms, living out his life as normal, from his childhood all the way to the end of Kingdom Hearts 3’s DLC…then he woke up, in a new world, his family gone, his progress up in smoke, and being told that he was in a comatose state for over twenty years having been kidnapped by Core…it was…a trying time originally, where he had so much to process that he…had an existential crises. Then came the first ‘war’ his King had to fight, due to Cript wanting him to learn to use their true powers…then he calmed down, noticing how…simple it really was, to be back in the saddle of using Way to Dawn against Heartless, Nobodies, and all sorts of monsters…his mind felt clear, as he was truly able to process everything…then, he got Sora and Kairi back…his Sora and Kairi…and like two kids in a candy store, he basically had to put body leashes around the two excitable gremlins…and everything finally clicked for him. Even in this new world, in with the current war as he was slaughtering new monsters by the hundreds, he felt right at home. And he will protect it with all his might. The King I swung and swung, I was doing damage, I was hurting Gray…but the more I did, the more it smiled, the more it laughed…each swing felt like I was about to break apart Creation itself, but all this fucker did was take each and every hit with disturbing glee. “Seriously, you're making this really weird!” I growled, hiding my fear from whatever this bastard had in mind. “This is the first time… In my memory, that I felt something!” They yelled, taking another hit that sent them across lightyears of distance that I closed. Still, despite everything, they kept that smile on them. “You made good on your promise.” “It’s surprising how some people think I don’t keep my promises.” I frowned. “But yeah, that is…really weird.” I said, throwing out another swing and it slamming him down into the ground hard. Again, Gray just laughed as they stood back up again. “This is fun.” He said. “My turn.” I used Existence to block their punch. The hit knocked me far, passed the other end of creation, and into the void… A mix of panic and fear washed over me, then replaced an almost numb calm… I’m still alive… I took their impact… and lived… and Existence was looking no worse for ware… Now I got to laugh as Gray appeared, the two of us surrounded by the void. “You, are officially the first person in my life to survive an impact from me at full strength. Color me impressed.” “Right…” I said slowly. “Well…shit…I survived, I’m fine, Existence is cool…oh boy…” I thought to myself nervously. “So, that was you at full strength? Love tap.” I said, trying to play up myself being fine but I was rather scared of what this bastard could actually do. “Yeah, same as yours. And that was without a weapon.” Gray said, their smirk still on their face as I raised my weapon. “Show me that you earned the right to kill me.” To be continued... Nobody settles somethingsGrey was a tough Bastard. I know I'm inflicting damage but It's likely chip damage at best. Still, I can tank his hits too. His bullshit energy must be keeping his defenses on high. “There has to be some way to cut his defenses down…” I thought to myself carefully, dodging another swing as I tried to think of what could pierce through his defenses or siphon of his energy…and there were way too many to choose from. “Fu~ck, just come up with the one idea damn it!” I thought to myself quickly, dodging another swing as I used Skysplitter’s ability, supercharging Existance with pure might and swung at Grey again. As I managed to knock him back, suddenly a blue side swiped him, and knocked him back pretty far. "Having all the fun without me?" Cript asked, smirking as they had that damn Soul Blade. Darkest Hero… fun to use, bullshit to fight against. “Yes…also, Darkest Hero is still bullshit.” I commented. “But what took you so long?” "Had a few personal names on my shit list I had to take care of." He said, blocking a swing from Grey and getting knocked over next to me. "And guess what, I found a few that were on yours." “Where?” I inquired, firing off a blast towards Grey to push them back from us. “And who?” "Few dozen light-years east of here. A certain metal bird, would be king tiger, and of course the kirkland brand wannabe Darkest Hero." Huh, I guess Darkest Hero and Void Key do look similar… Remembering this was Void Key… I grinned. Finally. “Oh thank you.” I said happily, bringing out a Starfish Clone who immediately vanished towards finding Void Key. “Finally…so many loose ends, so many vendetta’s…this is going to be real fun.” "Almost makes me wonder how batshit insane you'll become in retirement." Cript chuckled. “That’s…a thing I don’t want to think about.” I said nervously. “Ugh, retirement…you’re making me feel old here.” I grumbled. "Bitch I came out of my retirement to be here." Cript chuckled, looking back over to Grey and smiling madly. "After all, not every day you get to kill your psychopathic insane all powerful father twice in one lifetime." “That is true.” I said honestly. “Now, let’s beat this bastard.” I arrived at the location with Kite following behind. The area was crawling with corrupted Void Key users and his possessed. I had fun breaking every one. “Come out come out wherever you are!” I called out. “We can do this the Easy way, the Hard way, or My way.” I said, grabbing another possessed Void Key and breaking it in half over my knee. “And I know Clockwerk’s around here somewhere.” Kite frowned, looking around. “Rajan and Le Paradox to…” We fought our way through the hordes of possessed Void Key welders. Nothingness was flowing out of us so much it was staining the void ground beneath us. We soon came up on a familiar face. Le Paradox. Kite wasted no time in decapitating him. “Not giving you the time of day ya rat bastard.” Kite growled. We marched on. Wave after wave of Void Keys came at us and we left nothing but shards behind. Soon we found Rajan. Held up in some poor excuse of a fancy castle. Kite embraced his French heritage and finished him off with a makeshift Guillotine made from Lindworm and Sky Splitter. “Well, thematic.” I admitted. “I’m sure Le Paradox and Rajan are with Clockwerk, this being some stupid nonsense to distract me…” Kite admitted. “And we’re not going to get cock blocked on this musical number again, we have this whole thing planned.” Again, we marched on. This time arriving at the door of a void version of Clockwork's volcano base. As we entered, we noticed that yes, Le Paradox and Rajan were still alive, glaring at the both of us. “Couldn’t have even let me get a word in edgewise?” The french skunk asked petulantly. “Such violence and bloodlust from a so called thief.” Clockwerk growled. “Now you’ll be facing the Ruler of these Hills!” Rajan shouted his challenge. “Ruler you say?” Kite asked, pulling out Arpeggio and strumming it, as a band appeared with the start of a Violin. Juno was mad, he knew he been had, so he shot at the sun with a gun, As Kite started the first verse, he dodged a bullet that was fired, water and nothingness starting to swirl around the arena. Shot at the sun with a gun…shot at his wily one, only friend As the three immediately rushed towards Kite, the scene shifted to what was more like a slideshow of places. “In the Gallow’s, or the Ghetto’s, in the Town or the Meadow’s, in the Billow’s and even Over the Sun, every end of a time is another begun.” As the song progressed, the trio had their attack’s blocked by nothingness hands, the three would be admins dodging attacks from Nothingness thorn’s and Water rippling across with each note played. “You understand, Mechanical Hands, are the Ruler of Everything, Ruler of Everything, I’m the Ruler of Everything in the End.” “!meth teG !niw nac yeht kniht yehT ,s'nimdA rieht kniht yehT .oh oh oh oh oh hO” When the reversed line was said, each of them swung down at Kite, but he disappeared into the waters as the three suddenly witnessed Water Clones of themselves, each a perfect copy but…different… “What’s the meaning of this!?” Rajan roared, as he witnessed himself dancing in some dumbass baggy pants. “Do you like how I dance? I got Zirconium pants!” The water Rajan sang playfully, as if mocking Rajan’s claim to be a king. “Consequential enough to slip you into a Trance.” Kite sang, using his Thunder Cane to cut off the water clones head, making Rajan gasp and clutch at his throat, feeling the pain of having his head decapitated but it still being there. “This…can’t be right…” Le Paradox said worriedly, seeing himself acting like a fool from what his plan would have been when he was an ‘art collector’. “Do you like how I walk? Do you like how I talk?” Water Le Paradox asked, strutting around like he was on some stupid Putting on the Ritz music video. “Do you like how my face disintegrates into chalk?” Suddenly Le Paradox started to scream as he scratched as his face, feeling like his entire head was dissolving in a vat of acid. “How dare you flaunt my past!” Clockwerk roared, seeing himself with his wife. “I have a Wonderful Wife, I have a powerful Job!” Clockwerk said, only to get smacked upside the head by the wife’s wing. “I criticize him for being egocentric.” The female owl rolled her eyes as they all heard Kite’s laughter. “You practice your Mannerisms into a wall.” Kite pointed at Le Paradox. “If this Mirror was Clearer I would be standing tall!” Le Paradox sang, gasping as he was forced to sing for Kite’s amusement, dodging another swipe form the magic’s involved. “I saw you slobbering over clovers on the side of the hill!” The racoon accused Rajan. “I-I was observing the birds!” The tiger tried to counter, his ancient fear of water coming back to him as he saw his past mistakes. “Circling for the Kill…” Kite muttered, looking at Clockwerk. “I’ve been you, I know you, you’re Facade is a Scam!” Clockwerk teared up at seeing him and his wife…so happy back then. “You know you're making me cry, this is the way that I am…” Clockwerk sang sadly. “I’ve been living a lie…” Rajan said bitterly. “A metaphorical scheme…” Le Paradox added, as the trio witnessed all their plans through the Water become Nothing, all their petty want’s of revenge and power meaning nothing. “Detective Undercover, Brotherhood, Objective Obscene.” Kite said, as the trio’s eyes widened at seeing the giant tidal wave suddenly erupt, immediately cooling down any and all Void Lava as they all witnessed… Hands… “OH NO NO!” The trio shouted. “OH YEAH!” Kite shouted in glee, getting into the real meat of the song, letting the Bridge let the wave of Nothingness Hand’s shoot out and try to grab the three, each one dodging in some attempt to preserve their lives. “W-wait! I think I got the meaning of this!” Le Paradox said quickly. “Then do something ya waste of time!” Rajan shouted, as Le Paradox cleared his throat to start the next bit of the song. “Do you hear the flibbity jibbity jibber jabber With an, "Oh my god I've got to get out of here or I'll have another Word to sell, another story to tell Another timepiece ringing the bell"? Do you hear the clock stop when you reach the end? No, you know it must be never-ending, comprehend if you can But when you try to pretend to understand You resemble a fool, although you're only a man So give it up and smile.” As Le Paradox panted from that fast speech, Kite just shook their head as all three were suddenly grabbed by Hands, so many pulling, squeezing, clawing, all to get more of a hold on the three. “So close…but I think you forgot something…” Kite said, staring at all three of them. “Do you hear the flibbity jibbity jibber jabber With an, "Oh my god I've got to get out of here or I'll have another Word to sell, another story to tell Another timepiece ringing the bell"? Do you hear the clock stop when you reach the end? No, you know it must be never-ending, comprehend if you can But when you try to pretend to understand You resemble a fool, although you're only a man So give it up and smile.” As Kite repeated what Le Paradox said, it took on a new meaning, as the three realized how…little they truly understood, hearing Kite’s words they felt…small, like all of their actions truly meant nothing as they were just screaming children raging against something they couldn’t understand. “You understand, Mechanical Hands are the Ruler of Everything.” *Snap* Ah~ As Rajan was the first to have his neck snapped, Nothingness enveloping his body and returning him to Nothing. “The Ruler of Everything.” *Snap* Ah~ The next one to snap was La Paradox, his eyes filled with tears as he thought he could have done something, to have fixed his family…to make his father proud of him and to get his revenge on the Cooper’s that ruined his life…it all meant nothing as the last thing he saw was Hands… Mechanical Hands… “I’m the Ruler of Everything, in the end…” Kite then looked at Clockwerk, who was having each and every bit of metal ripped off of him, exposing his true self… What Kite saw was an old, dilapidated Owl, his feather’s long since dust and his body inches away from death, but the Hate Chip, embedded in the ancient Owl’s chest, kept rhythmically beating like a heart… “Without looking down…” Clockwerk said weakly. “Gliding around…like a Bumbling Owl I fly…scraping my face on the Heavens…” “Oh no no…” Kite then stabbed Clockwerk with Memory Stealer through his Hate Chip, the piece of ancient tech shattering as the ancient bird felt himself not succumb to Nothingness…but felt himself become consumed into the power of the Keyblade, all his memories, all his abilities, all his powers…all being stolen away as Time finally caught up with him. “Oh yeah…” Kite sang the final words, as the final breath of air the Owl made being the last voice heard from the light dinging on a clock bell. I gave a rousing applause to the Cooper version of myself. “Bravo! Bravo!” With that done, we marched onto the final area. It was a well, old as the void maybe and deep. I could smell the fucker from here. Hiding in a hole. Pathetic. “Seriously? Hiding in a Hole?” I called out. “I remember when I first saw you as a giant Beholder all those years ago…now you’re just some pathetic child hiding from the consequences of your actions.” There was no reply. I rolled my eyes, and jumped down. I landed on some ground. Before me were… two, three, five more Welders. Behind them was the giant eye, it's pupil was another Void Key, this one felt stronger. The five welders all smelled… like Coco… Right… fucker stole her ovaries… “Oh…I see…” I said slowly. “You…really want to die in a very painful way don’t you?” The five welders stood, aiming their blades at me. I brought out Second Chance, raising my blade up towards the five. “You don’t have to do this…” I said to the children. They didn't speak. Just charged at me. “Damn it…” I muttered, shaking my head. With quick, precise movements I dodged and struck each of them, instantly they all reverted to infants. Void was still potently within them, but that was alright. I shattered those five Void Keys, then looked to the giant eye. I shoved my fist into the eye, hearing an unearthly scream from it’s ‘body’ as I grabbed Void Key, the real Void Key, and ripped it out of it’s still shrieking body. “Finally found you.” I growled. “And while it would be Poetic Justice to have Coco do it…I made a promise, and I’m going to start with you witnessing everything you worked for go up in smoke.” I said, starting to use my Code work to made Void Key feel his Hive Mind, every single part of this sick weapon’s mind and body that were corrupting so many, shatter one by one, seeing it try and lash out with Void in some vain attempt to stop me as I took…a little too much pleasure in watching in suffer the ultimate indignity. Eventually I cloaked Void Key in pure Nothingness, making it feel the burning agony of it's antithesis making an endless direct contact with it and used it to hack the body apart. Chunk by chunk, piece by piece until all that was left was the last blade. Holding it, I sensed within it a rage. An imprint of Void Key, like a faint echo. Alone, it looks harmless. Might make some poor guy go insane, but it will never be what it was. “No…” I frowned, raising a hand up as I prepared to use Consume. “I will never let you harm another person again. You’ve killed too many, you’ve hurt even more…you put Coco in a Coma and then had the fucking audacity to steal her children and turn them into your mindless slaves…” I growled, seeing it’s rage try and flair up to fight against what it knew was about to happen next. “No more…” "Stop." I paused, looking up and seeing Heart in front of me, a hand on the thing. “Why?” I asked. “This…thing deserves the finishing blow…” "It's still a keyblade, King, and look at it…" They said. "It's a shell, holding nothing more than an abominations echoing rage. It doesn't even have a Core or a mind." “I…” I sighed. “Alright…but I’m going to make a sister Keyblade to this so it doesn’t destroy people’s lives okay?” "I figured that would be for the best to." Heart nodded. I sighed. “Well…I did my musical number…and I finally dealt with this fuck…” I said with a smile. “Things are going well.” "Progress." They nodded. Gently, they took the empty Void Key from me. "I'll take this back home and these cuties." They added, picking up the babies. "And you come home soon alright?" “I’ll try.” I admitted. “While thing’s are going well on the Front now that me and Cript are out and about…something just…doesn’t feel right.” I admitted carefully. "How so?" “Either like Grey is just fucking with us…or something worse is about to appear.” I said carefully. "Ugh… don't jinx it…" “I hope I’m wrong.” I shook my head. “But right now, the battle’s are going smoothly at least…” WARNING! WARNING! All Maker Containment Breach All Maker Stasis Chamber Failure The Worker and Behemoth are awakening Truth looked at all the Warning messages, seeing all the work they put in crumble to dust as the war started to literally shake the Machine itself, causing other processes to fail. “I’m sorry my friends…” Truth sighed, as he heard a roar of a beast not heard in True Reality since the First War…”I couldn’t keep my promise…” He said, seeing the Guard’s that were meant to protect the core be demolished to show his old friends… To be c̴o̵n̸t̸i̶n̵u̸e̶d̴... Life of a NobodyI sighed, not sure how to explain this as I recounted events for the historians…"Let me recount it in an old fairytale with some…changes of my own." "How many seconds in eternity" The first signs of The Worker, my first fight against the true enemy, as Lord fucked off to his Labs and Cript gave up, done with all the fighting as he left, it was me, Dark Gray, and the All Makers Behemoth, Belief and Mother as we clashed against his 'Warning'. It was difficult for me…a foe I never knew of and couldn't conventionally plan around… "There is a Mountain of Pure Diamond, it takes an hour to climb it, and an hour to walk around it." Every enemy I defeated, every enemy we slain was resurrected and empowered, fighting even harder for this bastards claim of 'My Heaven', as everyone worked double time, as there was no middle ground, there was no waiting to gain enjoyment…this was a fight for survival. A fight I would never win… "Every One Hundred Years… But the little Shepherd Boy paused, for it was not a Bird that flew to Sharpen its Beak, but a Man, his Identity not known for he was a Nobody." Every battle I fought, every life I saved…it was one step closer. Every battle I fought against The Worker I grew stronger, every new capture I grew wiser, Everytime I went against the bullshit Reality threw at me, I was one step closer to finally achieving our Dream. "The Nobody punched, kicked, used items, anything and everything to chisel the Mountain of Diamond, believing each strike was not but his own.' I struggled, I fought, I did everything in my power as the Admin of Nothingness, and King of the Grand Creation Kingdom…but it wasn't enough to save others…Katsuki and Three were such grieving would be widows as this war stopped them from popping I tried to console them, we all did…but the more I looked, the more it showed that… I was alone again… "But like the tale of the Everyman…he was alone, with not but his skills, strength, and wits to break the Diamond Mountain, every hundred years the Nobody struck the Mountain…" I struggled, I was busy doing so much trying to stop this war…but nobody was there next to me. Heart left the battlefield long ago to live in some form of Peace while I remained. Eclipsa left the battlefield to get Gray and Dark Gray accustomed to the new world while I fought for it. The Foreteller left the battlefield to build in the Realm of Dreams, not understanding there will be no more Dreams if I fail. John left the Battlefield to Hunt down Max, the only solace that I had a comrade in arms trying to fix this… Yet again…I was alone when it truly mattered… "But in his solitude, he continued, the Nobody kept his struggle, chiseling away at the Diamond Mountain." I stood in front of The Worker, I was infused with some bullshit Lord came up with to make me as strong as The Worker…I was an All Maker…but it didn't mean shit as I stood alone…even though my heart knew my family and friends were with me…physical reality proves otherwise. We clashed in his Sanctum, Reality bending and bowing with our power as even the Real World couldn't handle the true might of two All Makers fighting as I was pushing myself to what limits I possibly had. "But after timeless time, The Nobody broke the Diamond Mountain." I looked Galath in his eye that was revealed past his broken mask, as I took his Greatest creation, the Infinity Blade, and snapped it in half with my bare hands, seeing his eye widen on shock and horror as the blade dissipated in a cloud of Imagination, as I grabbed him by the head and slammed him into the ground, punting him into a wall before tackling him through it. "You have caused so many problems, you have caused untold death after such a bullshit war…" I growled, grabbing Galath and raising him up. "And he finally witnessed the first second of Eternity." I broke The Worker over my knee, I heard him break as he crumbled on the ground in a heap. "You will recover, and when you do, you will know what I have truly done to you." I growled, as I teleported out and I used my new All Maker powers. "Only The Empty will remain." "But, the sight of Eternity after so long only confirmed the Nobody's suspicions…" "I'm still alone…" I said weakly. "I started my journey as a Nobody…and I’m ending it as a Nobody, who’s just tired, unsure about reality as it is and having to let everyone else deal with it as I do…something…” I sighed, one of the many things that happened after the war was done was that everyone wanted me to stop, even though there’s so much work to do…”I have my family, I have my friends…I still have everything that I fought for…” I raised my arms up. “But they all left…while I had to pick up the pieces at the very end.” “I expected a Heroes Welcome after everything, a Parade, something…but I didn’t, all I saw was people going about their daily business, not even batting an eye that we’re finally on the Outside, finally in the True Reality…all my hard work…all the blood sweat and tears I gave to this world…even with my family there it…it doesn’t feel like anyone really cares in the end…” For that was my life, at the end of the War, I was alone fighting against those that would take away what I cared about. At the end of all this nonsense, I was by myself recounting what really happened throughout time so history wouldn’t repeat itself and people would know that this actually happened instead of think it’s a myth… At the End of the Day…I was alone…not a Mother…not a Father…Not a King…just a lonely person just trying their best, especially in this new Reality where there's so much to do, so much to see... A Nobody… And that’s my Life… The Life of a Nobody… The End... Author's Note 7 Years, 7 Long Years...and this story is Done. It's Bittersweet, I hate how there wasn't much climactic ending like I wanted and sent through a clip show of King being back to square one even with everyone and everything he has...but that's what happens when I'm the only one left. Sure I still talk to and work with my friends, BioquillFiction being the main person that helps me with my nonsense but...this is the last chapter and I'm the only one that cared enough about it. Just a Nobody that wanted to keep going when everyone else gave up or moved onto different things... Well, I hope you all liked this nonsense of a story, if you want to know what happens after the fact, look up Bioquillfiction and his Open World Series, I also help with that fun bit of nonsense Nobody's lifeSchool, on a day like this, you’d think they would have closed it down. Yet here is… roughly half the student body attending today’s classes. The teachers didn’t seem to care where we were though, so I chose the only room that would have been empty today, the library. It felt nice to finally be alone. No idiots to insult you, pretty girls to make you feel like crap, nor teachers who didn’t give a damn about the students, not even the librarian was here, just me and a few thousand books. With no one here I was able to read all I wanted. I’ve been hated without reason by others for as long as I could remember. When I learned to read, books became my escape into other worlds, places much better than the world we live in. They say your life is the greatest story ever written, but if mine were a book, it would be the dirty falling apart kind that sit on the forgotten corners of the shelves. I didn’t just come here to read though… there’s a computer that seats you where no one can see you, and no I’m not looking at porn, I watch… My Little Pony… I will forever refuse to admit that I watch it. On a day like this I could spend all day watching the show. I was already caught up though, so I just watched a few personal favorites… mainly Twilight and Luna episodes. Twilight cause of the books thing, and Luna cause I can relate to the whole… feeling alone thing. Those went by fast though and I was reading at one of the tables now. It was getting boring, and all channels, even cartoon ones, were covering the riots going on around the world. “My christ is this boring!” I complain, feeling like the ‘end of the world’ should have been more...exciting? Shocking? I honestly can’t define why such an event was boring. “Oh well…” I mutter before yawning. “Might as well get some sleep, nobody will bother someone sleeping right?” I ask myself, pulling up the hood on my hoodie before resting my head on my arms and closing my eyes. “Goodbye world….go fuck yourself.” I mutter before falling into blissful slumber. ”Hello~” Someone says, rousing me from my sleep. “Go away~, I’m trying to sleep.” I mumble, my voice muffled more because of my arms. ”Wake up, you’ve got a lot to do and less time to do it.” The voice says with a tad bit of authority, making me grumble and look up. “Alright alright I’m up, but if you think-” I was about to start a rant before stopping myself, seeing nothing but white all around me for a moment before rubbing my eyes. “Okay who put me in a bad video game with too much bloom?” I ask, the white area around me almost blinding. ”Weird, the others didn’t complain about it that much.” The voice says. ”Anyways, guess where you are.” “A dream?” I ask, before something pinched my arm. “Ow! What the hell!?” I shout, looking around for whatever pinched me. ”That would be me.” The voice says again before a ball of light entered my field of vision. “Okay I’m in a white room, seeing a ball of white light...how the fuck does that make sense?” I frown, starting to get a little pissed at this point. ”Magic, now shush up and hear what I have to say.” The voice says from the ball of light, now that my sleep and confused riddled mind caught up with literally everything I started to make sense of some things. “Wait a second.” I say before looking at the ball of white and everywhere else. “Well...I suppose my one friend was wrong.” I deadpan. ”It’s best that he disagreed, my younger years were...regretful to say the least.” The voice said. “So...you’re God huh?” I ask, the ball of light ‘nodding’. “Goodie, so I see a bunch of white but no clouds, pillars, homes, or that odd female angel that people gawk over.” I say while continuing my search. “So...some ‘in between’ thing going on?” ”Basically.” God says simply. ”But you were chosen-” “You already know I read a ton of books man, no need to be all ‘mayan test of blah to see if blah did blah up the blah’.” I say, making fun of the more ‘religious’ side of the mayan calendar and laughed a little when I said ‘up the blah’. ”Yes…” God says. ”So what do you wish for? God asks, his tone sounding like he’s been through this thousands of times but had a little fun with having someone call out what he wanted to say. A silence hung in the air as we both waited for my reaction before the ball of light shapeshifted into a tan old man wearing a pure white robe and we both slapped each other at the same time. “Ow!” I shout, rubbing my cheek. “Well at least I did something probably no one else would do.” “No, one has.” God shrugged. “It was a punch though. So whatever.” “Yeah yeah.” I take a deep breath. “So, any limits?” “I may be god, but yes there is limits.” God says. “Well I suppose you can’t get everything.” I shrug. “So…” “Does it involve ‘Kingdom Hearts’?” God asks simply, apparently having read my mind. “People asked?” I ask with a raised eyebrow, the old man nodding. “Right then...so how does having the powers of Organization XIII and the ability to summon Nobodies sound?” “That is quite a set of powers and abilities.” God says simply. “But there will be restrictions to this. You will have the ability to summon their weapons, but you will have to learn how to use each and every weapon and all of their hidden abilities, and the Nobodies?” “I’ve already been a ‘Nobody’ for a majority of my life God. Don’t tell me that’s gonna be a problem.” I say bluntly. “You won’t be able to use magic, well besides one, and the nobodies… They are the hollow bodies of people, so being connected to them, with a heart… you would be able to hear all the voices of them while they are summoned, until disbanded or destroyed.” “So if I hear voices I’m not crazy?” “No, just rude. Magic can be learned, but it takes time. Now, as for the weapons, I’m guessing you want both the Keyblade from Roxas, and the fake one from Xion?” “Well technically Roxas had both Oathkeeper and Oblivion, both when he was fighting Riku next to Memory Skyscraper, and when he fought Axel to find Sora.” “I won’t get into Lore with you so I’ll just take that as a yes. Just be warned, Xion’s Keyblade has very different abilities as compared to the originals. You’ll have to find out for yourself what they are though.” “Sounds about right. No need to spoil the surprise when I’m about to rush headlong into the unknown with powers I don’t know how to use.” I chuckle. “That reminds me, what world would you like to go to? Your pick.” “W-well…” I stutter, looking down as my face started turning red. “E-e-equestria…” “Alright then you closet brony, human, anthro, or like the show?” “Hey!” I shout, glaring at God for calling me a closet brony… even though it was true. “But...um...anthro?” I ask, looking to the side with a blush. “Alright. That all? One guy already has an Organization XIII cloak. You want one too, or no?” “Well I suppose it would fit the theme.” “Alright.” God reached behind him, and pulled out a white Organization XIII cloak. “Just make sure if you run into the one that punched me, and you likely will, expect a fight. Was part of his Mark of Mastery Exam.” “Won’t I have to take that same exam? Given that I’m also wielding a Keyblade?” “Not right away, but eventually.” God waved his hand, and a DTD opened up. “Put that cloak on, not wearing it in there will cost you. I am afraid I can’t give you the ability to… open these doorways, but with a Keyblade, you can make your own as most the others have.” “Cool...but won’t I need a gummi ship or something? Or can I just make one of those Keyblade gliders?” I ask curiously, taking off my black hoodie and putting on my new white organization cloak. “Every Keyblade has a glider form, even the fake. Turning it into the glider is easy though, just… throw it into the air.” “Okay…” I say slowly, lifting a hand up and concentrating, before summoning a standard Kingdom Key. “I suppose I’ll get different Keyblades the more I progress huh?” “Keychains. You can only get more Keychains. There’s a reason for that, but I won’t tell you.” “Oh yeah~. Almost forgot that…” I nod before throwing my Keyblade up into the air, focusing on trying to make it into a glider. A light flashed before a version of Terra’s bike appeared, but instead of having gold, brown and blue as it’s color scheme it was white with black thorns crawling along it. “Huh...seems fitting.” “That’s the fake it would seem. Be careful when you fight with it. It’s a Keyblade forged from memories given physical form. Fighting others with it may cause… side effects.” “If I have clones of either myself or beings I fight with this thing start appearing out of nowhere from their memories I’m not gonna be happy.” I deadpan. “Not like that. Now that I have… forged it into a Keyblade of Darkness, it’s name isn’t actually… Kingdom Key, it’s Memory Stealer. Able to rip memories out of people’s hearts… just like it’s wielder did when it was just a copy.” “Huh…” I say simply, looking at the bike worriedly. “And...the Keyblade that Roxas would normally have is...where?” “Within you, just call to it. As for why Memory Stealer looked like that… it has no true form, so it copies any Keyblade it comes near. You will be able to tell the difference between the two after getting used to them.” “That sounds so broken...but I have a feeling it’s going to be a ‘last resort’ kind of thing cause I’d rather not stab someone and have them become a mental blank slate.” “Exactly… Well, off then. I’m late on schedule already.” “Sorry God. I’ll be off.” I say before putting up my hood and hopping onto my new bike. “See ya, stay safe.” I say before holding the handlebars and shooting off into the DTD to a brand new chapter of life. * * * I had guessed it was dark in the DTD, but this was just… like being blind. Suddenly, and without much warning, I could see again… right as I crashed into a wall, and fell into a trashcan, my glider disbanding as I fell off. “... Still better than High school.” I crawled out, wiping off the… what I guessed was a restaurant day-olds off my cloak. This thing better not stain easy. “Okay so...where the fuck am I?” I wonder to myself, looking around to take stock of where I am. As far as I could tell I was in the middle of an alleyway behind a restaurant and in one direction just led to more alleyways and the other I could see some people walking about. “Onwards to social awkwardness.” I say proudly before heading off to find out where the hell I am and to fail miserably at talking to people. I should keep my hood up, I do seem to look different… Right, anthro. So as I make sure my hood is up and stays up I walk into the middle of the sidewalk and look around, and let’s just say big doesn’t begin to describe what I’m seeing. Skyscrapers and tall buildings as far as I could see, clear blue skies without a cloud in sight, the only problem was that I was seeing...pegasi. “Well...glad to know that.” I mutter, still taking my time to look around. Now I used to live in a small town near one of the Great Lakes in America, the biggest buildings I’ve seen on a regular basis were tall apartment buildings so seeing that I’m in a bustling city that reminds me of the times I’ve seen New York on either TV or from books kind of intimidated me. I snapped out of my sight seeing when someone bumped into me. “Oh I’m sorry.” I say quickly, turning around to see who bumped into me, but the...teal colored anthro stallion just huffed and continued his daily commute. “Well fuck you to then.” I mutter before raising my hand to a mare that was about to walk past me. “Excuse me, ma’am, can you tell me where I am?” I ask her. “I’m...new around here.” I say nervously, knowing my cloak alone would tell that. “Oh certainly.” The tan furred mare says with a smile. “We’re in Manehattan.” “Huh…” I say with a hidden frown, oddly specific name from the naming convention. “Um...where’s the library?” “Oh it’s not that far, it’s down the street and to the left. You’ll find it when you see two pony statues in between the stairs.” She says kindly. “Thank you so very much.” I say with a nod and a hidden smile. “Have a nice day.” “You to.” She says before we both part ways and I head off to the library. After following the mares directions I did indeed find a large building with a domed top and two pony statues to the sides of the massive amount of stairs. “Well...let’s a go.” I say before checking both ways and following the massive line crossing the street before breaking off and heading to the library. Let’s hope I can read their language because if memory serves it’s just a bunch of gibberish and symbols… I think to myself, heading up the stairs quickly and entering the giant library. Yet again I am taken aback by the sheer size of things from Manhattan, or Manehattan as they call it, and looked at the inside of the giant library. Now I’ve only seen my local library a few times and it was big, but this blew it out of the water with it’s scale. “Excuse me?” A stallion asks before I shake my head and snap out of my little stupor and look around, seeing the main desk with a stallion sitting behind it. “Hello.” I say while walking over to the front desk. “How may I help you?” The librarian asks. “Um…” I start. “Where’s the history section?” I ask, wondering if what I know about Equestria matches up. “Oh yes, here’s a card to show you which way.” The unicorn stallion says while magicing over a card. I took the card with a thank you before looking down at the card, and what originally looked like a bunch of gibberish seemed to shift into english. “Thank you.” I nod before heading off to the history section. As I walked through the giant place I saw that this place was separated into different sections by genre’s, and then by sub genre’s so the big library felt even bigger when they had to sort everything like that. After a bit more walking and the scent of books starting to get ingrained into my head with the giant amount of books in this library I finally found the history section. Now for a bookworm like me I felt giddy about reading again, and thankfully the aisle was based on years, but where ‘BC’ and ‘AD’ had some other letters that I wasn't entirely sure what they were. But I just shrugged it off and went with something that seemed the simplest was to go to the history that was one thousand years ago. When I touched the covers with my gloved hand I could just imagine the hidden history that the fans never knew about before pulling out one book that just so conveniently, and kind of eerily, had the same unicorn symbol that started off the entirety of generation four. After finding a nice table to sit at I opened it up and started reading through the entire book. Some things were like back on earth, others seemed Equestria specific, and a few things just seemed flat out stupid. An entire war over cheese? Why, how in any way was that a thing?! The book’s most recent event was the Nightmare Moon returning to Princess Luna. So it’s after that huh? Well then that gives me… still a large timeframe to ponder on. I looked up at the sound of screaming. “The monsters are back!” The librarian screamed as he ran away from a Neoshadow. Okay, time to see how well I can fight then. I decided to try and summon something else… and what appeared was Xigbars Gun Arrows… alright, this will do. I chased down the Library after the Neoshadow and fires the light arrows. There was little recoil and the Neoshadow was vanquished when it was hit. I ran outside and nearly dropped the Gun Arrows… A Guard Armor Heartless was walking in the middle of the road, tossing vehicles and policemen aside. “Well...this seems ironic.” I deadpan, pointing my Gun Arrows up and firing at the heartless, hoping to damage it enough to stun it. As I saw the arrows hit the chest it’s entire midsection practically flung back as it staggered, giving me enough time to reload somehow before going back to firing at it again, making sure to aim at the chest and hopefully do enough damage to keep it staggered. The Guard Armor, out of the blue, actually decided to use some form of tactics and use one of its hands to block the arrows, which quickly shattered from the barrage. “Fuck.” I growl, knowing that if I don’t break the other pieces it’ll just split off and I’ll have to deal with the separated pieces. I reloaded quickly as the heartless continuing towards me, pushing aside the useless guards and vehicles aside that it wasn’t even hurt, only making me fire more at the things chest, causing it to stagger again. I thought for a moment on how Xigbar could use that special charged attack as I was reloading again, seeing the Guard armor finally split it’s hand and legs apart to only make my job harder. “Damn it…” I frowned before thinking for a quick second and putting the two guns together and focusing, seeing a blue and black glow surround the two guns before shooting off straight towards the legs of the guard armor, making quick work as it seemed to bounce between the two. There was only a hand, and the midsection left. I fired off at the hand, which was spinning around in an attempt to be a guard/attack move. Once that was gone I offloaded on the midsection. Only one real way to end this thing. I disbanded the Gun Arrows, and focused on the Keyblade. A Kingdom Key appeared in my hand… and it felt way different than the fake. God was right about that after all. I charged forward, and delivered a final swipe at it’s remaining midsection. It puffed into a mist of darkness as a large heart floated away into the sky. The sound of someone clapping came from behind me. When I turned around, I saw two people there. A man in purple robes with a blank face mask that had a gash over it, and the other was in a full body black jumpsuit, with a scar going over a blind eye. His jumpsuit held a lot of clips, probably for the two large pistols he had on each side. The man with the mask was clapping. “Not bad, rough around the edges, but you did well.” “Who are you?” “I am Core, and my associate here is Josh. You had a strong energy when you popped in from earth.” “Wait...how?” I ask simply, not entirely sure how in the hell this person knew about earth. “News flash dog meat, I’m from earth as well.” The man in the black jumpsuit, Josh, spoke. “I only tagged along because I didn’t wanna hear a bitch cry for hours again. So tell me, you know the name, Ventral?” He smiled wickedly. “Now now mister, I wasn’t talking to you. I was talking to the actual important person behind the mask.” I say bluntly. “But thank you for explaining, also no, couldn’t give a rats ass about names anyways given that I hated people to begin with, and you appear to be one of those people I tend to hate.” I say simply. “So much hate in your heart already, might be an easier puppet than Huxley if you let that brew a while longer child.” Core said. I stared at Core for a moment. “Oh great, one of those guys.” I sigh out. “And here I was hoping for a quiet life. But nope, stuck in some silly game based on a shadowy figure. Can you get any more cliched?!” I complain, my hate going away and more to an annoyance. “Like holy hell I’ve seen enough stories to know where this is going. So just to be blunt, no, not going to fall for your bullshit, but if I may ask, are there any other survivors? Cause I have a feeling there better company than man who sucks at proper smiles, and obvious bad guy.” Josh didn’t speak, but before I could react, I heard gunfire as both my shoulders, legs, and left arm suddenly burst in pain. I was screaming as I finally saw all the blood. “Little overkill, don’t you think?” Core asked. “Nah,” Josh replied. “I left him alive didn’t I?” Josh walked over to me, and held me by my neck. “This isn’t a game, nor a story little bitch, this is our True Reality now. The whole reason you’re alive still is because boss has an interest in you.” He threw me, and I hit the top of a carriage. “My advice, don’t try to be a hunting dog, because nothing beats an alpha wolf. And be glad I used regular lead bullets on you” The two walked into a DTD, and I began to feel tired. Crap… I should really keep my mouth shut. To be continued... Nobody's New Adventure part 1Author's Note Again another colab but with four people this time, and good lord am I scared about this. I hope you all like it cause in all honesty it's...something. Everything is in 3rd person, there will be parts that have literally nothing to do with my character but let's hope that you all don't mind this chapter...even if it's big... Nobody's New Adventure part 1 Terra returned to Huxley and Elzin having found a chariot that they could attach a keyblade Glider too. “Sweet, what other supplies we find?” Huxley asked as Elzin pulled out a ton of salt. “I found a ton of salt from that bar other there.” Elzin said. “Why was there that much salt in a bar?” Terra asked. “Spike the food to make them drink more?” Huxley suggested. “Okay so what should we do with all of it?” Elzin asked. “Leave it, we don’t need that much salt.” Huxley said as he pulled out the wagon of food. “Here’s what I’ve got.” Huxley said as Terra and Elzin looked at the food. “Makes sense there would be this many apples, this was an off shoot of the Apple family.” Elzin said “What did you find Terra other then the chariot?” Huxley asked. “A ton of bones… and apple pies.” He replied. “Well from what I’ve seen of Appleloosa that was probably their last stand weapons.” Elzin said. “Then explain this.” Terra said, lifting up a shotgun. “I have no clue.” Elzin said as Huxley looked at it. “Take it, we might need it.” Huxley said. The three got everything hooked up and rode off. For Elzin, this was a rather bumpy ride as the wagon kept running over the dry rocky dirt, hitting every rock and hole. After a few hours, the group made it out of the dry lands and into a lush green pasture. “Let’s wait for a bit, I think Elzin needs a break.” Terra said, motioning to Elzin who was looking rather nauseous. “Blehh.” Elzin said hanging off the side of chariot. “Yeah I think it’s getting dark we may need to camp out for the night.” Huxley said looking at the sun setting. They stopped and made camp fast. The group just sat around the campfire, talking.”So anybody got any stories.” Huxley asked “Well there the story of Destiny where a machine call a ghost resurrects somebody...” “And you’ve lost me.” Huxley said “I went to this one world that was rather creepy.” Terra said. “Let me guess... I give up.” Huxley said. “Is it a Bendy and the Ink Machine world.” Elzin asked. “One, what is that and two, how do you know what that is?” Huxley asked. “It’s a disney inspired horror game and I’m from 2017” Elzin explained. “Well, whatever it was, it was clearly a place of great darkness. Fought some kinda big rat or something when I was there.” Terra said. “Yeah from what I’ve seen it’s pretty dark.” Elzin said “Anyway I have a story.” Huxley said pulling out Key to Avalon. “It's about this Keyblade or rather what it’s based on.” Huxley said as he started the story. After the story the group was ready to go to sleep. “We should have somebody stay up and guard us for a short while, who wants first watch?” Huxley asked. “I’ll start, not that tired anyway.” Terra said. “Okay so let's decide who get second and third shift.” Huxley said as Elzin and Huxley looked at each other. “1,2,3 Not it.” They both said as they repeated the same line for five more times before agreeing to rock, paper, scissors” “You two are… what’s that?” Terra said, pointing at the lights in the distant sky. “Lets mount up and check.” Huxley said as Terra pulled out his Glider and hooked it up to chariot. “Let’s not forget the stuff out of the chariot” Elzin said As they were ready to move, the lights quickly moved over them, and they were surrounded by four people on gliders. “Attention off worlders.” One of them spoke, speaking through a megaphone. “What are you doing this far out of the reconstruction zones?” “We arrived in Appleloosa, sue us.” Huxley said as they surrounded them. “Please make your way north towards Ponyville.” He said before they flew off. “Well at least Ponyville isn’t far.” Elzin said as he shrugged. The trio finished packing and continued making their way north. After several short minutes they found the half rebuilt town of Ponyville, people of all races and species working on rebuilding the much more modern version of the town Huxley and Elzin knew. “So this is Ponyville huh? It looks better then I had thought it would.” Huxley said. “Really you thought it would look bad?” Elzin asked. “Well seeing Appleloosa made me think of the worst.” Huxley said. “Yeah, let’s find someone here who knows how to get to Daybreak.” Terra said. As the trio entered into the town. They were greeted with friendly expressions, and they asked around for directions towards Daybreak. “You can take a train, or follow the train tracks north by glider to get there.” A woman they asked said. “Thank you mam.” Terra said. “I wonder when the next train is?” Huxley said. “Random thing Me and Mom went on a train to Montreal last year.” Elzin said before looking at the ground as he remembered he may never see mom again. “Look don't sweat about Mom I know you miss her.” Huxley said as Elzin looked at him. “The train leaves in five minutes.” Terra said, holding a schedule the woman gave him. “Well what are you waiting for, let’s go.” Huxley said as the trio rushed to the train station. The three paid for the tickets, and took seats. “Schedule says we’ll be at Daybreak in three hours.” Terra said, looking out the window. “Well since we're all awake let me tell you the story of The One Punch Man.” Elzin said. (Foreteller’s Reflection: The Mansion) “Hyah!” *Clank!* The five Foretellers were training together in the courtyard of their mansion. It was a free for all since they were training in the scenario where there are multiple strong enemies around them. Over the last month and a half since they had last visited Daybreak, they had not only been training their Unions but training themselves to pass the limit of their abilities. Most of their training had been against the simulations with Code Keeper. They were able to hold their own with the max level of Sephiroth individually, but if they were to go against someone like Zeke and Unum they would have to fight them together if they wanted to stand a chance. “Alright everyone. Let’s take five.” Lan said to his comrades. They all relaxed, leaving the simulation and went to get their waters. *Ding-Dong!* “I got it.” Alex said as he rushed through the house. As Alex opened the door, a man dressed in green and red Keyblade armor was there. “Greetings.” He said. “Hey. Are you a keybearer from Daybreak?” “Courier actually.” He reached into his backpack, and pulled out a yellow envelope. “This document if for Ira’s eyes only.” “Alright.” Alex took the letter and closed the door. “Lan! You got a letter!” After a moment Lan and the others entered. “Who’s it from?” “It’s from a Courier from Daybreak. Must be pretty important if they delivered it here directly.” Lan took the letter from him and started to read the contents. Dear Ira/Lan Your speech for your council seat is beginning within three hours, by the time you received this we hope you have your speech and proper documents in order. Failure to arrive on time or deliver an acceptable speech will result in your seat position opportunity being made null and void, and you will be replaced with another candidate. Please arrive on time, dressed properly, with your paperwork in check. Sincerely, Council Member Leon. “Ah! So it’s finally time. I was wondering when I would get a summons for my seat.” Lan said after reading the letter out loud. “I should go take a shower! You four too, since you are all probably coming with me… Right?” He said nervously. “Of course we will.” Jenny said. “We wouldn’t want to miss this.” “Yeah Bro. You’ve been working hard on that speech so we will be there for support!” Kira said, Dan and Alex nodded in agreement. “Thanks guys. Now, to the showers!” Zeke sat in the infirmary of Daybreak castle. Eclipse had been brought in with a heart that was breaking in two, something that, according to X, had not happened since his third wielder. “So, how do you think this happened?” Justin asked, leaned against a wall across from Zeke. “From what you told me… and what you said you saw afterwards… it was the Killing Mood…” Zeke said grimly. “Killing Mood?” Justin asks curiously “A sort of genetic trigger, or switch that goes off when a Ventral first kills… no matter who it was, the switch gets flipped, and they go into a murderous frenzy. Eclipse is like me, but since his heart isn’t balanced, when his Killing Mood hit, his dark half tried to take over while his light resisted. The result seems to be his heart trying to break in two.” Zeke explained “How did this whole ‘Killing Mood’ thing start in your family anyway?” Justin asked. “From what I was told one of my ancestors was a witch that made it, personally I think it’s the mutated product of generations of killers breeding.” Zeke answers grimly. “Or both?” “Heh, maybe… makes me scared thinking about it…” “How so? You think this might happen to you?” “Not me… my kids…” As silence took over the room, Cid entered the room. “Hey Zeke, the council is meeting up again, today’s that Lan kid’s speech.” He said, his tone cautious about the scene. “Thanks Cid, I’ll be there in a bit.” Zeke said as Cid left. Zeke sighed. “Work never stops no matter what’s going on.” Zeke got up and began making his way down the halls. It was a fair distance to the council room, but he felt he needed the time to think. “HEY ZEKE!” A voice called out. “Huh?” Zeke turned around, and his eyes widened in shock at seeing Huxley, Terra, and… a red haired Huxley? “Um… what are you doing here, and why are there two of you?” Zeke asked as he looked between the two Huxley’s. “Oh right, meet my clone, Elzin.” Huxley said as Zeke tilted his head. “Um… what did your Twilight do?” Zeke asked. “It was god you idiot, didn’t he tell you that everybody that got sent off earth got a clone to replace them?” Huxley asked. “No, and frankly I don’t think it matters to me… my clone is likely dead.” “We’ll anyway, can you take us to my reflections realm of darkness?” “Uh… maybe?” “What do you mean maybe?” Terra asked. “I’m assuming you’re not the Terra I know, but I can’t open a DTD like Huxley can, but I might be able to either know a possible way, or I’ll need someone else's help.” “I can’t open DTD’s anymore.” Huxley said. “Oh… odd. How did you get here then?” “A DTL via my book.” Huxley said. “How did you learn that?” “God.” Huxley said flatly. “Figures… well look, I’ll help with… whatever it is you’re doing, but right now I got a meeting with the council about a new member.” “Okay well we’re going to be around come find us when you're...” Huxley started before someone shouted at Zeke. “Zeke!” They turned and saw the Foreteller’s wearing their robes walk up to the group. “Oh, you’re already here. Good.” Zeke said. “This is Huxley, a reflection Terra, and… Elzin…” Zeke motioned to them. “It’s good to see you again Huxley. And it’s nice to meet you Terra and Elzin.” Ira said. “So I’m guessing you already know that Zeke isn’t evil.” Huxley said brushing the back of his head. “Yeah we kind of figured that when he helped us with a situation back in our reflection.” Aced said. “Well, in any case, come on Lan, er, Ira. you're scheduled for your meeting today. Got everything ready?” “Yes. I have prepare my speech and all that.” Ira said. “So is there going to be an audience or is it just fellow council members?” “If these guys come along that will be all, aside from the rest of the council. Come on, the meeting is this way.” The group followed Zeke and Ira to the council room. They all took seats, Ira in the stand center of the round room, and Zeke atop the chair center of it. “This meeting has now begun. Our first order of business, the speech, memory check, and questioning of Ira for a seat among the council.” “We will begin with the questioning.” Lord Death spoke. “So, Ira. Are you from the homeworld of Zeke?” “Yes, as well as the other Foretellers. We are all survivors of Earth.” “Would you consider yourself experienced in terms of mass population leadership?” Leon asked. “No. The Unions we have gathered in our world are small at the moment. At best it’s an average leadership role.” “Have you and your… ‘Unions’ contributed any information outside your world or local area regarding Keyblades, space travel, or magic?” Cid asked. “Mostly in our general city. Anywhere outside would only have what is on the internet to go by. About Keyblades, space travel and magic. But we do have a plan for the future.” “How many have you and the other Foretellers given Keyblades to?” Shining Armor asks. “Roughly around 200 per Union, plus the about of those in the local police force. That would make around 1,175.” “Have you and your companions faced any off world threat, other than the Unversed in your world?” Lord Death asked. “During the events of the Fall Formal in our world Core himself had appeared along with Zeke, Unum, and Twilight.” “What was done about the situation?” “The situation, a student named Sunset Shimmer was infected-” “We know that already, what we want to know is, what was done to this Sunset Shimmer as proper punishment?” “After her darkness was purged by Zeke, we have her serving under our Unions.” “So in other words.” Leon started. “You have an unstable individual going around, unaided, unwatched, and without any restraints, who can also access confidential information of your Unions?” “Sunset is just someone looking for a purpose now that her darkness is gone. We took her under our wing to not only teach her self control but also try and steer her into the right direction. She showed great promise as a Keybearer and is one of our best students to this day. She regrets what she has done in the past and only wants to make up for it. We gave her that chance to redeem herself.” “Was there anyone else?” “There was an old friend of ours, Crow. But he is on Core’s side now. But in an earlier event, we discovered that Core had gone to Earth and had ripped Crow’s heart in half. One half of light, and the other of darkness. That’s how he can summon the Unversed. But he had sealed his light half somewhere unknown. “And what are your motives towards the dark half of Crow?” “We want to keep him from doing whatever his objective is, and track down his light half so we can make him whole again. He may be a potential ally, only if we can get his light half back.” “But, did you know once split, a light and dark halves of a heart can live without each other, even when one no longer exists after both have become equal in strength? If this is the case, then if you manage to save this, ‘light’ Crow, will you still wish for the two to reunite, or will you dispose of the dark half?” Lord Death’s question surprised the Foretellers. “We haven’t known that one half can exist without the other. But, we are still determined to reunite them. This is a personal matter. The light half contradicts the dark half thinking about my group. We want Crow to be whole again, so we can patch up the bad blood between us, and be a family again. Even if there is a chance of him still hating us after both his sides reunite, this is something that WE have to do.” “Good answer.” Zeke said. “You pass the question portion, now for the… background check.” Zeke waved his hand up, and the floor turned white. “This ground now imitates the building, Castle Oblivion. Your most dark and cherished memories are now in card form. Place them on the ground and your memories will tell us exactly the type of person you are.” Ira was surprised, and noticed five cards were in his hand. He was hesitant at first, but picked one of the cards and threw it on the ground. The area around them started to warp around them, and it settled onto a scene where the Foretellers were fending of another hoard of Unversed. It was one of the moments where Ira showed how proficient he could act a leadership role. The next card changed the scene into the scene where Crow had broken off from their group. Where he abandoned them and went to join the Ventrals, and how Lan tried to get him back. Next was the scene where Lan was called to juvie from Crow. The two had talked and Lan had hope that he would finally get his brother back. But then when Crow had shown to not have changed, Lan left him there in an angry huff. After that, it showed how Lan hunted down the Ventral he blamed for Crow’s corruption. How he found him and in a blaze of fury almost killed him on the spot. If it wasn’t for Jenny intervening, he would have followed through. The final scene, was his Mark of Mastery Exam. Where he found a new hope, and the resolve to get his brother back. Therefore passing him, and him becoming a Keyblade Master. “Well then.” Zeke said after the scenes faded. “We can say without a doubt you are well rounded, been through many hardships, and joy. Lastly is your speech.” “Well, that went well.” Zeke said as he and Ira walked the dirt trail towards Castle Oblivion. “I’m glad my speech went over well. I had trouble with it for a while, until settling on it.” Ira sighed. “Yeah. Well, now that you’re a council member, expect paperwork… often.” Ira’s shoulders slumped as he hung his head in despair. “I expected as much.” “Well, anyway, now that you are a council member, you’re about to learn some of the few hidden projects we work on.” “Hidden projects? Like what?” “You played 358/2 days?” “Yes.” “This is our version of the Replica Project.” Ira’s eyes widened in surprise. “And you’re going to keep that secret from everyone?” “Only til we know the results work. While Organization XIII used it to make copies of people, we’re trying to make replica’s of Keyblades, Items, and rare things from memories. If it works, Castle Oblivion can be used to generate unlimited resources.” “And I can’t talk about this to anyone outside the council?” “Only during our meetings.” “Alright. I don’t like keeping things from the other Foretellers, but I understand. This is my new position after all.” “Yeah. If memories can become reality, this also gives us a clue.” “A clue of what?” “How God pulled us out of his head into reality.” “Fascinating.” The two soon came across the castle, and entered. Zeke informed the scientists about Ira, and they didn’t question it. The two walked over to a table, three items were on it. A potion, a sword, and a bar of sea salt ice cream. “These are the only thing’s we’ve been able to bring out of the cards and into reality. They exist fine outside the castle, and work fine… save for the defect.” “Defect? They look fine to me.” Zeke picked up the sword, and an aura of what looked like code floated around it. “It’s the memory of the person they came from. The software doesn’t fully suppress the fact that, it’s still a card made from memory. Too much use, and they revert to card form. Items at least vanish after use, and food… tastes okay, but try and eat it.” Ira reached for the sea salt ice cream and took a bite of it. It was okay, but as he continued to eat it, it never changed shape from that one bit he took. It also didn’t show signs of melting either. “So… unlimited ice cream. Cool.” “Least until it gives you brain freeze. We’ve made the first rule, no replicating people, or the dead from memories. Second is that any attempts to replicate lost worlds will result in imprisonment.” “Sounds plausible enough.” “Well, that’s about it here. Let’s head back and see what Huxley wanted. I take it you tried to fight him first time you saw him?” Zeke asked as the two walked off. “Yeah, it was him vs. me. But that was a while ago, and we were both on equal ground.” “Heh, least when you first met him he didn’t freeze you in time and accuse you of being a sith lord on a Star Wars world.” “Wow, sounds like you two hit if off pretty well.” Ira said sarcastically. “He kept calling me a Mary Sue… whatever that is.” “Well, a Mary Sue is a character that is pretty much perfect in every way and overpowered.” “The complete opposite of Huxley then?” “Hahaha. Now, now, let’s not talk about a comrade like that. Even if he is kind of an ass.” “Yeah. Let’s go then.” Once outside the castle, Zeke opened a DTL and the two walked through it, meeting back up with Huxley and them. “So, you wanted a way into the realm of Darkness?” He asked Huxley. “Yeah, we need to save Aqua.” Huxley said. “So, what were you saying about the Unversed?” Terra asked. “Ask the Foretellers.” Zeke said as he shoved Ira in front of the rather confused looking Terra. “Well, our Unversed were created from someone else. The one known as Core split my brother’s heart in two and that’s why the Unversed are around now.” Ira explained. “Oh. Alright then.” Zeke opened a DTL and as the group walked though, they were met with a larger version of Twilight’s Library. “Who in the fuck gave you permission to enter my house?” A voice asks the group, a man clad in a white Organization XIII robe looking at them with a slightly crooked silver crown on his head. “Also, hi Zeke.” Ben says with a little wave to his follow survivor. “Hey Ben, I wanted to ask a question before trying anything.” Zeke says, then motioned to the others. “The people in the robes are the Foretellers, the one in the Organization XIII robe is Huxley, the redhead is his clone Elzin, a reflection Terra, and am I missing anyone?” Huxley counted the heads before speaking. “Nope, that's everybody.” Ben looked at Huxley for a moment. “Yo.” He says to Huxley simply. “Hello” Huxley replied. “Hey kid!” Everyone turned to the doorway, to their surprise, Braig was there. “You got any… who are these guys?” “BRAIG!” Terra yelled as he charged at him. The sound of glass shattering could be heard before Ben appeared in front of the charging Terra and stopping him with Vexen’s shield. “Listen, how about you not attack Captain One eye here for no reason and listen to what I have to say. Cause things on my end are...really fucking complicated.” Ben explains with a frown. Terra looked at Ben and Braig for a moment. “You have a minute.” “So you see, Braig here is going to be my teacher believe it or not.” Ben starts before disbanding Vexen’s shield to bring out Sharpshooters immediately after. “Cause while I can point and shoot at things with these there’s a lot more to them then just something anyone with half a brain cell can do.” Ben explains. “Hey Luxu! I think you got some special visitors to meet.” “Coming!” Luxu yelled as he somehow appeared behind Ben. “So what… why are there the ghost’s of my friends here?” He asked, pointing at the Foretellers. “Fucked if I know.” Ben shrugs. “No way…” Gula said. “You, you’re the real Luxu?!” Ava said. “Yeah, and why are you three dressed in those robes?” “A bit of a story.” Ira said. “Does it involve having someone scream at you ‘No, I am the Unicorn Wizard.’?” Ben asks curiously. “What? No! We asked God what that Kingdom Hearts X was gonna be about, then we saw the movie and asked to be the new Foretellers.” Ira says, not entirely sure what Ben was going on about. Luxu merely stared at them. “... I’m gonna kill grandpa when I see him…” “Okay, first up no.” Ben starts, glaring at Luxu. “Second of all…the fuck are you all talking about? What mystical mumbo jumbo is Kingdom Hearts being convoluted about again?” He asks with a frown, finding this rather weird. “Basically it’s a phone game that got adapted into a movie for 2.8.” Elzin said as they looked at him “What? I’m from 2017 I got future knowledge.” He said looking at the ground. “You don’t want to know what happens in 2016.” He said as everyone wondered what happen in 2016. “I have five girlfriends and a new happy life with kick ass powers, I don’t give a damn.” Ben says bluntly as humanly possible. “So someone else ask because I’d rather be happy not knowing how the world fell apart.” Ben says, having a good feeling that some major stupid shit happened. “Any way apart from what my clone said we need a way into my reflection’s realm of darkness.” Huxley said. “Why do you need a specific reflection?” Ben asks curiously. “Also...I thought you were with Aqua…” Ben says to Terra, having a bad feeling that something weird is going to happen. “Basically this is My reflection's Terra and we need to save my reflections Aqua to get to My reflections Ven so we can the the three musketeers back together.” Huxley said as Terra wondered what he meant by Musketeers. “Did someone say my…” Ben’s reflection Ventus said as he come halfway down the stairs, seeing the other Terra. “Um...Aqua! Terra!” Ventus calls out worriedly. Soon Ben’s Aqua and Terra came down the steps, and just stared at the other Terra. “Ummm.” Ben’s Terra said. “Why does that me have a shotgun?” Was all he could say. “Because we found it scavenging a ruin town looking for supplies to get up to the Daybreak Empire.” Huxley said as they all looked at him. “What? We landed in Appleloosa?” Huxley said. “Anyway…” Zeke cut in. “Two things, Ben, do you know any way of getting to the realm of Darkness, and Two, why is your Aqua pink faced?” Ben looked over at Aqua curiously, only to see her fanning herself as steam billowed out of her head. “Of for the love of christ Aqua.” Ben groans, rubbing his temple gently. “You’re really thinking of that right now?” He asks, looking between his reflections Terra and the Terra with a shotgun. “Both Terra’s, take a wild guess as to what I’m talking about.” Huxley’s Terra was confused for a moment. “What is she thinking?” Ben gained a thoughtful look about how to make it seem less blunt before throwing his hands in the air. “Ya know what? Fuck it. My reflections Aqua is dating Terra, and since there’s two of you now…” He says, hoping Huxley’s Terra will fill in the missing gap. “Oh...OH...oh nope! Nope! Get these thoughts out of my head, she’s like a sister to me, get out of my head.” Huxley’s Terra said frantically, putting his hands up to his head as his thoughts went rampant. “I treated her as a sister too...but after a while…” Ben’s Terra trails off with a warm smile. “Well I’m just glad I finally made a decision to show her how much I love her for once.” “I’m glad for you, but still no.” Huxley’s Terra said. “Well I’m sorry, but Aqua is currently thinking of two scenario’s that I don’t want to imagine.” Ben says simply. “Anyways, besides Aqua needing a new pair of panties…why do you want to go to the realm of darkness?” Ben asks curiously. “We need to get my Aqua out of there...” Huxley started. “Yes I know that, but do you want my Terra to start fantasizing?” Ben asks with a frown. “We need to save our friend Crow.” Ira said. “Zeke? What’s your reasoning?” Ben asks. “Just helping Huxley and maybe see exactly what Core is up to there.” Zeke replied. “And why do I have a feeling you want me to tag along?” Ben asks. “I mean I suppose it would be good to show that I can be friendly to Huxley and the Foretellers…” Ben explains, having a good point with that. “Maybe I can figure out about the void there...maybe that’ll help calm that prick down for once.” Ben frowns. “Oh also, the fuck are you doing in this pendant?” He says suddenly, bringing up a pendant for Zeke. Zeke took the pendant, and upon opening it and seeing the pictures… sighed. “It’s me, my brothers, my cousin, and my parents are in the other photo.” He explains. “Did your mother or father happen to have a katana?” Ben asks. “My brother, Kevin. He loved those things.” “Well…” Ben says before bringing out the katana in question. “Nancy’s glad to be in hell with her dead daughter.” Zeke shakily took the katana. “This… this was his…” “A women I met on Knowhere, who happened to be a Ventral, was a slaver for Core. Killed her with a little help, but still…” Ben explains. “She said her name was Nancy or something...but oh well, she made her decision to be a demon so I just killed her like the demon she was.” Ben says, Zeke clearly noting the small shake in his tone even if he was trying to keep it hidden from the rest. Zeke was fighting back tears, and everyone could tell. “You know… my aunt Nancy used to say that, if she wasn’t born a Ventral, she’d likely be an accountant or something with how smart she was. Everytime my parents dragged me across oceans she was there at the boats or plane…” “I saw the sadness when I saw her looking at those pictures...she still loved her family even if she was a monster...hell...I bet what made her be a slaver was...because of her dead daughter…” Ben says. “She was always a slaver, even back on earth… but she only cared about her family, and nothing else. That’s how the Ventrals have survived all these years as criminals.” “Christ dude…” Ben says sadly. “I...I was trying...to keep myself calm because she kept on telling me ‘I’m a human demon’...but this is just fucking sad even if the Ventrals are…” He trails off sadly. Zeke sighed. “Only the ones with nothing left to lose go after that goal...“ “I don’t mean to interrupt, but this is getting a little to depressing... Can we head to the Realm of Darkness now please?” Huxley asked as the rest of the group agreed with him “Okay...just hold on.” Ben says before heading outside real quick. “Yo Discord! Get your mismatched ass down here!” Ben calls out, hoping the old bastard heard him. In a flash of light, and confetti, Discord showed up. “What’s up? I was at a party with the gods up in the Olympus Coliseum.” “Well right now I need help. I have a few people you need to meet.” Ben says before turning around and heading inside, showing off all the new people here. “Discord, this is Zeke, the Foretellers, and Huxley.” He says. “And we’re going to need a ride to the Realm of Darkness.” “My reflection’s Realm of Darkness.” Huxley said. “Yes, his Realm of Darkness, whatever. How that’s not just one giant fucking place is still a little beyond me.” Ben says with a shrug. “Can do, as for coming back that… you’ll either have to somehow hitch a ride with a heartless on their way to the Realm of Light, or find The Dark Margin. That’s the border between the realm of light and darkness.” Discord explained as a DTD opened up. “And why can’t I just create a DTL out of there?” Huxley asked “Because DTL’s don’t work anywhere in the Realm of Darkness other than at the Dark Margin.” “What about a DTN? A ‘Door to Nothingness’?” Ben asks curiously. “Not even I can pull that off, but you can try if you wish.” Discord said as he popped like a balloon and disappeared. “Well looks like I have a last ditch plan just in case. I don’t know if I can do it but I think I could try if I’m lucky.” Ben says honestly. “But just so the rest of you know, my powers revolve around Nobodies, and Organization XIII, and sure while I have a heart I have to hear the bastards rant about ‘where’s my heart’ all the time…” Ben explains, wanting to at least give them that little bit of his explanations. “Then let’s go.” Zeke says as he walks into the DTD, followed by the others. “Ah the Realm of Darkness, it’s as dark as I remember it.” Ben says while walking out of the portal and seeing the realm. “You’ve been here?” Zeke asks. “How did you expect me to find Luxu and Aqua? In some crystal coffin or something?” Ben asks. “Fair point. So, where should we go?” “I think we should follow the trail.” Invi said. There was the sudden sound of gunfire in the distance. “Or follow that.” The group followed the noise to see Aqua beeing chased by some sort man with a machine gun for an arm. “Come back my pretty little Brain.” The man called as Aqua got hit in the leg with a starry bullet. “AQUA!” Terra shouted as he and Huxley ran towards her. “Terra?” she asked as she cast Cure on her leg. “How can I be sure that...” she was cut off by Huxley slapping her. “No time to explain, we need to run!” “Did you just slap me?!” Aqua shouts. “Yeah why did you slap her?” Terra asked. “Man with machine gun Terra, fire your shotgun.” “His what?” Aqua asked as Terra took the pump action shotgun and fired at the man. “GAH!” The man said as he got shot in his chest. “Okay now we can talk.” “Huxley, don’t run off-oh you found Aqua.” Zeke said as he and the others caught up. He looked over to see the man on the ground. “Who is…?” “Would somebody explain to me whats going on!” Aqua yelled at us. “There’s no time to explain, we need to get out of here.” Ben frowns, summoning his Keyblade and Shield at the ready just in case Hole in Chest got up. “Now that’s a familiar voice.” The man on the ground said as he got up, looking completely unharmed. “Been a long time young Ventral.” “...Doc?” Zeke said. “Oh…OH CRAP!” Zeke shouted as he pulled out the X-blade and Master Keeper. “This isn’t good…” “Is that the X-Blade?” Aqua asked. “FYI, not evil.” Zeke said. “I’m guessing you came with the rest of the Ventrals when Core showed up, right?” Zeke asked the man. “You are correct. I got so many upgrades, so much knowledge, and while Core takes the hearts of his experiments, I get the brains.” “Zeke who the fuck is this man?” “Was my…family doctor.” He replied. “You’re family has some fucked up taste’s in doctors.” Ben points out. “You should have met the ‘priest’.” “I don’t want to know about child rape!” Ben says. “Can we get back to Dr. Zombie?” “ZOMBAY!” Dr. Zombay shouted. “Yes, I like that.” He said as he raised his machine gun arm up to them. “DEFEND!” Huxley shouted, casting reflect and blocking the bullets. “Somebody get this asshole.” Zeke snapped his fingers, four Darksides appeared and began to repeatedly punch the doctor into the ground. “Let’s go.” “OH by the way Terra those are Heartless.” Huxley said as they all ran in the opposite direction. “Fuck this shit I’m out!” Ben shouts before bolting with the others. The group ran though many area’s, dodging naturally spawning heartless in the area. After a while, they came across a large square building. Using his Keyblade, Ira opened the door and then entered. They were greeted with a concrete interior, chains, blood and a few bones were on the ground. “Well...isn’t this all sunshine and rainbows…” Ben frowns while looking at the place. “This must either be a torture chamber, or a prison.” Zeke said. “This is just one place, who knows how many others like this or worse that Core has here.” Gula said. “Maybe there is a way out of the Realm of darkness from here?” Elzin said. “Can somebody please explain what’s going on first, I’m chased by that crazy doctor then Terra and the man in the Cloak come and slaps me then Terra has a gun and I don’t know I just want answers!” Aqua said. “Look we’ll give you answers when we get back to the realm of light okay?” Elzin said changing into Morning Star armor. “This should light up the way.” Elzin said as he started to glow. “Shiny.” Ben comments. “But sorry Aqua, but there’s no time to explain, just another day right?” “Anyway I don’t think we should split up.” Huxley said as everybody looked at him. “What?” “This isn’t a cliche, poorly funded horror movie.” Ben deadpans. “Fair point, I was just making it clear just incase somebody suggested it.” Huxley said “But anyway we really should keep moving I don’t want my brain to be harvested.” “Yeah I’ve played Wolfenstein the New Order that shit hurts.” Elzin said “Okay when this is done you need to tell me more things I did on earth” Huxley said. While the others were bickering, Zeke noticed the one chain hanging on the wall. Unlike the rest of the room, it was rather clean. He walked over, and pulled it. The floor disappeared from under them all and they began a long descent into deeper darkness. Except for Huxley and Ben who were floating above the trap. “Well...that sucks.” Ben says worriedly, holding Sharpshooters to keep himself floating. The others kept falling until they landed in a splash of liquid. They quickly surfaced for air. “Everyone alright?” Zeke asked. “I’m fi...wait is this” Elzin smacked his lips. “Blood?” he asked tasting it. Everyone began panicking, save for Zeke, who only had a single thought. ”Great, this is like when my brother had me help recreate the Carry movie in real life…” He thought to himself. He swam until he felt a wall, and moved around it till he felt steps. “Guys, stares are here.” He called out as everyone quickly got up. “That was nasty!” Ava cried. “I hope I didn’t get a disease.” Elzin said Huxley and Ben soon floated down to the others. “What happened to you guys?” Huxley asked “The fuck are you swimming in?” Ben asks worriedly, starting to feel green. Elzin’s only response was grabbing the two and throwing them into the pool of blood. Ben quickly surfaced and knew it was blood they were bathing in. “Oh...Oh god…” Ben starts, his face turning green. “ELZIN YOU BASTARD...what we’re technically bastards?” Huxley said “Can we get out of here quickly? I feel like...I’m gonna throw up…” Ben says, trying to not throw up from how uneasy he is from the blood pool. “Stare to your right, we got nowhere else to look.” Zeke said as Ben and Huxley quickly got out of the blood pool and the group walked along the steps. They walked for what seemed like hours until there was a sudden crash in the wall, whatever it was hitting Zeke. “Ouch!” “Zeke you idiot!” Unum’s voice ringing out. “Unum?! Oh wait… OH CRAP!” “Who?” Ben asks curiously. “Um...Yellow?” Ben asks, wondering if the voice was right. Unum looked over at Ben. “Oh… hey guy… um, sorry about that whole… everything…” “Well...from what I heard is that you are better...you're welcome.” Ben says honestly. “Thanks, and Zeke, you know we can’t be more than a mile from each other! When you went to another dimension that hurt you know!” She yelled as she shook Zeke. “How did you even get here?!” Zeke replied as she stopped shaking him. “I’m not evil or with Core, but luckily the Purified Purebloods can still open DTD’s, then I just ran around til I found you.” She explained, getting up. “Wait purified Heartless?” Huxley asked. “Yeah.” Zeke said, getting up and dustin off the dirt from his clothes. “Turns out, Reject Darkness, when used on a Pureblood Heartless doesn’t kill them, but makes a strange little intelligent life form.” “There is so much shit I’m missing here it’s not even funny.” Ben says bluntly. “Listen, how about later when we’re not in danger we can catch up alright? Cause as far as I know we’re always in danger in this damned Realm.” “We’d be happy to Ben.” Unum said, then she glared at Zeke. “And as for you, you owe me big for forgetting that we can’t stray too far apart.” “Y-yes dear.” Zeke stuttered. “Dear?” Ben asks curiously. “Should I even ask?” “Unum, my sixteenth wife.” Zeke says. “I have five girlfriends, you have sixteen wives…” Ben takes a deep breath. “How do you walk?” Unum grabbed Zeke by the ear. “When we get back to Daybreak I’ll make sure he can’t walk… neither will I after I say he’s done.” She stated, pulling Zeke down the hall by the ear. “And I thought Luna was needy…” Ben mutters before following along with Unum and Zeke. “She dumped me on my world.” Huxley said to himself. The group kept on, finally they entered a massive room, every inch held computer screens, keyboards, and other such devices. “Oh, this is a record room.” Unum said. “I wonder if Core is just using this room to play Doom?” Elzin said. “I feel like there was a remake in the future…” Ben comments, not entirely sure but knowing the old Doom was fun. “There was and it was awesome.” Elzin said. Invi and Zeke ran up to the consoles. “This will likely have a lot of Core’s plans and research… despite how sadistic it is, it will help against him.” Zeke said. Elzin looked around before he grabbed his head in pain. “GAH!” as Huxley went to check what was up with is clone. “Elzin what’s wrong?” Huxley asked. “I remember this place.” Elzin said as Terra wondered something. “How does he remember this place if we only just come here?” “I forgot to mention this, but Elzin was taken off our world by a deal with Core I was easily able to convince him to join me when he realized he was basically trying to kill himself.” Huxley said. “So he worked for Core?” Ben asks. “Well ... he has no knowledge of after they took him off world so... we don’t know what Core did.” Huxley said defending Elzin “Seems weird how he got a dose of ‘Convenience Amnesia’ after he stopped working for Core don’t you think?” Ben frowns. “Unum worked for Core and you aren't giving her shit about that.” Huxley said. “I’m still confused on how that happened, mind explaining Zeke?” Ben asks. “Unum is the only living reflection of his wife, and them coming from a time when there were no reflections, he wanted her. He invaded her village, killed her husband and the whole village, then ‘helped’ her and had her think she was his reflection, not his wife's.” Zeke explained. “I remember this place." Elzin said. “This is here they fused me with that Erza Scarlet.” Elzin said. “What?” Huxley said. “My powers they took a woman named Erza Scarlet then they fused her with me turning my hair red and my left eye able to see through illusions.” He said. “That sounds painful.” Terra said. “I’m guessing they put her weakened heart into yours and this trauma cause the memory loss.” Huxley theorized. “Well...that’s one way to do it.” Ben says worriedly. As they were discussing one thing or another, Invi kept going through the files on the computer. Most of the information was pretty useless to them, until he stumbled on a certain video log. “Everyone. I think I found something.” he said getting their attention. He pulled up the file and played the video. “Are you sure that this woman is powerful? Kevin and I took care of her pretty easily.” Crow said as he was seen dragging a scarlet haired woman by the hair. “Yes this was the one ______ requested tho I don’t know why he just wouldn’t take a Keyblade and Heartless I don’t know?” Core said. “Set her over there.” Crow walked over and threw the woman next to some unconscious male. “Is that me?” Elzin asked as he saw Erza being placed on a machine. “I think it is.” Huxley said as everybody looked at the two. “I don’t understand Master. Why don’t you just infect him with a Heartless so you can control him?” “Because Crow I actually plan on keeping my end of the bargain and letting him wander the universe while we take over.” Core said. “So he’s only a one use tool. Sounds legit.” Crow said dismissively. “Anyways, I’ll take my leave Master. There’s a certain punk prisoner that I wanted to visit.” He said walking off. “Good leave, now back to things.” Core said, pulling out his keyblade and stabbing Erza in the heart, removing it and placing it in a jar before snapping his fingers calling lesser heartless to drag the heartless body of Erza away before looking at ________ “now for your powers.” He said placing the heart into the machine and pushing a few buttons and pulling random leavers. As the video cuts out Elzin asked a question. “Why record that?” “After all that….” Ben takes a deep breath. “That’s your fucking question?” “Well, I don’t have that many. It explains what happened to me how, I got my armors, and what happened to cause me to get amnesia.” Elzin said. After the video had ended, Invi started scouring through the rest of the files. ‘Where did you go Crow? Who is this prisoner?’ He thought to himself before he caught a glimpse of another video that was labeled the same time as the first one. But it was an image of Crow. He pulled up the video and saw that Crow was standing in front of a specific prison cell in the same building. “So, how’s it going punk?” he asked. Then the camera angle shifted to see into the cell. Who was in the cell, was a blonde Crow. He was bound in chains so he couldn’t go anywhere. “What do you want?” Light Crow said weakly, not even looking up to his dark half. “Just here to make sure you’re still in check.” Dark Crow said in a taunting voice. “Oh, and I meet up with our old “Friends.” There were just as weak and pathetic as we last saw them.” “Why are you telling me this?” “Just to mess with you. You are my weakness after all, so why not make you feel like the piece of shit you already are?” “Why can’t you just see that they never betrayed us!?” Light Crow yelled. “They were the ones to give us a place to belong. And we threw it away all because we got petty.” “You can keep telling yourself that.” Dark Crow seethed, “But we both know that they abandoned us. Go ahead and rot away in here, while I make them suffer.” With that, Dark Crow left and the video ended. “Crow’s light half is here!?” Gula said. “That seems to convenient.” Huxley said “Well it’s not like we have any other leads.” Aced said. “We got to find him.” “I’m pretty sure that the prisoner block was that way.” Unum said. “Or it’s a trap.” Elzin said “We’ve been here for...god knows how long…” Ben starts. “Even though that we all pretty much jinxed it it’s probably a trap.” He frowns. “I hope it’s not but it probably is.” “Guys quit screwing around. We’re already ahead of you.” Gula said to the two as he and the others were already down the hall. “Fine then.” Ben sighs out before following along, having his keyblade and shield out at the ready just in case. “Coming.” Elzin said chasing after the group. As they got to the prisoner block they found it unguarded “Okay ether we’re really powerful or this is a...” “Trap.” Crow said coming from behind them with Dr Zombay. “Terra quick your shotgun.” Huxley said as Terra fired his empty shotgun at Dr. Zombay. “Perhaps you should check your ammo before you fire a gun.” Crow said. “We still outnumber you” Huxley said as they we’re surrounded by Heartless and Unversed. “Oh.” “This is why you don’t fucking say that.” Ben frowns, readying himself as thorns started circling around Reunion. “Where’s the real Crow?” Ira said as he and the others summoned their keyblades while Elzin pulled out two swords. “Wouldn’t you like to know?” Crow taunted as he summoned his own Keyblade, which surprised the Foretellers. “Like it? I didn’t have him the last time we met, so I’ve been itching to try it out.” “Sorry but I think someone’s gonna sue…” Ben comments at seeing the Keyblade. “Anyways how do you want to do this? You forfeit and tell us where the real Crow is? Or does bad things have to happen?” He asks Dark Crow, shuffling forward towards Crow ready to strike. “Pull the lever Crow!” Dr. Zombay said as Crow pulled the lever, everybody was hoping it was the wrong lever...and thankfully it was and instead of Zeke’s group falling down it was Crow and Dr. Zombay who fell down through the floor. “WROOOONG LEVVVVERRRRRR!” The doctor screamed as his echo’s slowly dimmed. “Thank you Emporers New Groove.” Ben smiles before swinging at a Heartless, thorns suddenly dashing into three other Heartless and the four vanishing from the attack. “Come on, we still have baddies to kill.” Before long the Heartless and Unversed were destroyed and the path was clear. “Let’s move.” Zeke said as they all ran towards the end of the hallway to find... “A Gummi ship?” Everybody asked. “Well random guess but I’d say this is our way out.” Elzin said as everybody got onto the ship. “Does anyone know how to fly better than Luxu?” Ben asks. “Cause seriously that guy fucking sucks at driving.” “Well I spent a month on a gummi ship I could..and it actually controls and not a PS2 controler. Great take it away Zeke” Huxley said taking a seat “Sure thing.” Zeke said as he took the controls and started flying the ride was bumpy as Heartless began trying to take the ship with a fierce determination that only Core’s orders could give them. “Hang on to something, Huxley there are guns use them.” Zeke said. “Ben, use them.” Huxley said. “I hate you…” Ben grumbles before rushing to the gummi ship weapons. “Fucking hell how do you use these things…” He mutters before firing at the heartless suddenly and feeling slightly glad he just pressed a random button. “Yay for random buttons…” He mutters before continuing to fire at the heartless trying to get them off the ship. As they flew off they came to the Dark Margin, Huxley opened his book and pressed on the Zeke’s world button and a Door to Light opened up arriving in Appleloosa in Zeke’s world, the door opened on the Gummi ship and Huxley threw out Terra’s shotgun “Hey” Terra said. “Its empty and we’re not getting more bullets” Huxley said closing the door of the Gummi ship. An hour later they arrived in the Daybreak empire where Zeke landed the ship and take the separate people back to their own worlds “Well this was fun” Huxley said sarcastically. “Could you quit it with your sarcastic attitude already!?” Aced yelled. “Yes, can you stop? Cause that’s a quick way to have your heart start dying. I should know, half of my heart was already dead for at least a week or two.” Ben says bluntly. “What I do?” Huxley asked confused. “Enough.” Ben deadpans, tiredness starting to flow through him all of a sudden. “No, seriously, what did I do If it wasn’t for me you wouldn't know where Crow’s light half was because you wouldn’t have thought to look in the realm of darkness... seriously did I eat your puppy?” Huxley asked annoyed. “Enough enough.” Zeke says, stepping in to stop this. “It’s been a long day alright? How about we all just relax for a moment and calm down.” “Fine.” Ben sighs out, disbanding his weapons. “Zeke’s right.” Ava said taking of her mask, as well as the other Foretellers. “Let’s just calm down for now.” “Tsk. Fine. I guess we’re all a bit on edge right now.” Jenny said. “Okay and for what it's worth I’m sorry you couldn't save your friend.” Huxley said as he stretched his arms. “So I’m going to stay here for an extra day Elzin take Terra and Aqua back to our world.” Huxley said as a DTL opened up behind him and The trio walked into the portal. “I also wanted to say sorry.” Zeke said. “We almost had him.” “That’s alright. At least we did find a clue.” Dan said. “They wouldn’t needlessly move a prisoner out of confinement. So we can only assume that he’s in a different reflection of the Realm of Darkness.” “And I felt like I amounted to jack nothing and just tagged along.” Ben points out, thinking about how literally everyone had a reason to go there except him. “But whatever, I met seven good people that I’ll have more weird adventures with.” He says while started looking around town. Too be continued... Nobody's lesson: Graceful Dahlia part1I took a quick stroll around my new castle, and sheesh it’s big. I noticed my Gun Arrows had another symbol on it, and it said ‘Open’ this time. “Thirteen keys open what?” I mutter to myself. I sigh out, knowing I won’t be getting any answers soon. But besides that whole ‘Core’ incident I felt…something at the back of my head, barely audible whispers floating in my head before disappearing before I could even pay attention to it. “Fuck it.” I sigh out. “You know what? I’m gonna go to the spa.” I say honestly. “I wonder if any of the other girl’s want’s to go?” I wonder, remembering how much Rarity loved going there. “Actually I need to check on Ramilua and Nelare...wonder how they’re doing…” I say to myself, stretching out a little before readying myself to leave. “Oh wait...I have to have my wives pick out guards and maids...shit.” I grumble. “I’m pretty sure Luna can handle it all things considered…” “Sneaking out?” I jumped as Jenny’s voice spoke suddenly from behind me. “What’s it worth to ya to keep this affair under the table?” “You know I can kick your ass right?” I state calmly. “So don’t you ever think I’m cheating on all of my fiances…” “You know I can cock block you forever right?” She retorted. “And we both know K9’s don’t do well in terms of that when they smell heat~” “That’s what you think.” I roll my eyes. “Luna doesn’t give a fuck about people watching...which is worrying to be honest.” “Oh, so if it comes to that then I can record it and sell it to your horny fans.” “No.” I say bluntly. “But if you must know, I’m going to the Ponyville spa to see how two of my masters are doing. They both wield a scythe and knives but there also salon workers surprisingly.” “Oh, if you’re getting the Happy Endings package, it’s 500 bits and I recommend the twins.” “Listen if you want a boyfriend then go out and try not to beat them okay?” I frown. “But why are you acting like this again? I know you royally hate me but still…” “Consider me the nail in your foot til I’m eighteen.” “Oi vey.” I sigh out. “Just tell the girls I’m going to be gone for a bit okay?” I ask. “I’ll probably figure out something for a little ‘family time’ or something…” I sigh out. “Fine, but your finances have other ideas with what I saw them remodeling the former dungeon with~” “Are you serious?” I frown. “Out of the rest of our conversation so far, yes. Figures Rarity was into leather and dog collars.” “Okay I’m going to leave now and hope to god I forget about all of that.” I say quickly before turning around on my heel. “Just so you don’t.” She says, putting a dog whistle in my hand, the words Bad Dog written on it. “It’s part of a set of ten fyi.” With that, she skipped away. I gently whimpered and crushed the dog whistle in my hand. “Nope...nope...nope...nope.” I say before opening a window, summoning my glider and flying through it as fast as I could towards Ponyville. After a few minutes of ‘Noping’ right the hell out of my house I eventually made it to the Ponyville spa. I hopped off my glider and walked right inside. “Maybe I should get a treatment...I’m too stressed for this shit…” I mutter to myself as I walked over to the front desk and rang the bell. As I entered I was greeted with Aloe and Lotus suddenly dragging me into a hair cut. “What would you like?” Aloe asked. “Do you know anyone by Ramilua and Nelare?” I ask curiously, thinking that they would be here hopefully. “Nelare is out with the flu but Ramilua will be here shortly.” Aloe said as she and Lotus walked to the back room. “I was also going to ask for a back massage…” I mutter, noticing my back was stiff as hell. I sigh out before walking over to a waiting chair and sat down, waiting for Ramilua to get here. A few moments passed before I saw Ramilua walk out of the back room and walk up to me. “Ah, Ben my friend, what brings you here?” “Two things, one I want to know if you have free time to help me train with the scythe...and two I really need a back massage.” I say honestly. “Very well.” He clapped his hands and a massively muscular guy came running. “Biceps, give Ben here your best back rub.” “YEAH!” He said, before I found myself on a table with him…surprisingly not breaking my spine in half. He was actually doing really well. “So what was it about Scythe teachings you wanted to know?” Ramilua asked, sitting on a chair next to the table I was on. “I’m surprised he’s not breaking my spine.” I sigh out, thankful for the back rub. “But everything you can teach me until I have fully ‘mastered’ it...and I have used my scythe about never.” I say. “Well then that clearly puts you in the class of below beginner…Well, a basic rule is that don’t cut yourself with your scythe. That’s obvious, combat scythes aren’t like the ones for farming, they will cut you in half.” “I kind of thought that.” I say honestly. “Secondly, always hold them from just below the center of the long handle, gives you most room to attack and defend with, while also letting you keep your weapon close enough that you can maneuver and dodge without it sticking out like a sore thumb.” “Sounds about right.” I nod. “Thank you, more advice?” “Yes…you’re dating a fashionista, why do you still wear that tacky cloak all the time, it smells like sweat and… mud.” “One, this cloak is not tacky.” I frown. “Two, yes I’m gonna have to get it washed. And three, this cloak is how the ‘White Knight’ looks...not to mention it can do other things.” I shrug. “Yes, but walking around like that, letting everyone out there know you’re the White Knight screams Target, attack me, to both enemy and fan girls alike.” He deadpanned. “Frankly enemies would attack me whether I wore this or not.” I frown. “And fan girls know that I’m already taken...I just have to probably make a public announcement of ‘I’m marrying my herd’.” I say honestly. “Anyways anything else?” “Like those sluts will give a damn about you being married or not.” “I mean a lot of mares didn’t go for me because Luna and Twilight are with me, and then there’s a griffon and a dragon as well so they would probably be scared shitless by that.” I say honestly. “True. Well, your back rub is going to last fifteen more minutes, meet me near Shy’s house for lesson one, chow.” With that, Ramilua left. After fifteen minutes I felt much better, and paid for my back rub and a tip to Bulk before I headed off to Shy’s house. Five minutes later I landed near her house and got off my glider. “Why would he want to be at Shy’s?” I wonder, summoning my Scythe just in case. A bit of time passed and nothing much happened. I went over to Shy’s house and through a window I saw Fluttershy, Ramuilua, and Discord all having tea. “Oh…” I mutter before going over to the door and knocking. “Hello?” I call out. “Come in.” Fluttershy said as I entered. “Oh, hello Ben. Twilight, Rarity and Pinkie Pie told me a lot about you.” “That...depends on what they told you.” I say sheepishly, stepping in and closing the door. “It’s nice to meet you Fluttershy, I’m sorry I didn’t go around and meet you or my fiance's other friends.” I say nervously. “It’s alright, Discord here tells me you’ve been busy and Ramilua here said you’d be stopping by for training after our tea.” “Yes, I have been really busy and am going to stay busy for a long time whether I like it or not.” I say honestly. “A good guy’s job is never done.” Discord said. “How’s Luxu been, other than a misfit?” “He’s been well.” I say with a shrug. “Hopefully him and Time have been doing well as a couple.” “I think they have. So, mind joining us for tea?” “Uh...never had tea before so sure why not.” I say with a nod, walking over to the group to have some tea. “So how have you been Fluttershy?” “I’ve been good.” She replied simply, pouring me a cup of hot tea. “That’s good.” I nod while taking the cup and gently taking a sip of it to see if I actually liked it. “What do you think about Pinkie, Rarity and Twilight all dating me? Must have been something to have three of your friends date one person.” “I see no problem with it. Twilight finally is dating, now engaged from what they tell me, Pinkie get’s to throw the birthday parties she planned for her future kids, and Rarity finally found a good male to date, unlike her past…relationships. So, how’s Spike been?” “I have no idea considering he moved in with Rainbow Dash...who I have yet to meet.” I say honestly. “I also have yet to meet Applejack now that I think about it.” “Huh, I actually haven’t heard from Rainbow in a while, close to a month now that I think about it. Last time I heard from her she said something about visiting her parents, which is odd considering she hasn't done that before.” “Well this is concerning.” I say with a frown. “I’ll have to go find her and Spike most likely...after my first day of training.” I say honestly. “I have her parent’s address in a book somewhere in my attic. Why don’t you and Rama train while Discord and I look for it.” “Lead the way Shy.” Discord said as the two headed upstairs. “I’ve got a bad feeling about that…” I mutter. “Anyways, time to get started I suppose. But let’s go outside first.” I say while getting up and heading outside to start training. Ramilua and I walked outside a good distance from Shy’s house. “Well now.” Ramilua said, summoning his scythe. It was similar to mine, but the blade was grey and not pink. “Shall we begin?” I summoned my Scythe and held it just like he did...sort of. “Might as well.” I say, getting into a ready stance for whatever Ramilua might do. “First off, we need to see how you swing, so go ahead, attack me.” I nod, before dashing towards Ramilua and grabbing it with my other hand and swinging it towards his right side quickly. He stopped my attack with a single finger, knocking my scythe out of my hand and sighing. “We have a lot to do…” “I’ve used swords, cards, lances, axes and crossbows...I’m pretty sure a more…’finesse’ kind of weapon is going to take a while.” I frown, resummoning my Scythe and double checking where it’s balance point was. “The flare and glamor is all me, the basic knowledge is… well, for starters you’re just swinging it, yes you aim but you have no control over your swings, nor real power behind it.” “Kind of thought two handing it would have put a little help into that…” I say, frowning at how that apparently was a bad idea. “But apparently not.” He sighed again. “You are lucky you are not not dealing with my master, she would have broken your rib for you saying that.” I frowned at hearing that. “Well...let’s get on with training cause telling me I suck doesn’t help anyone.” I say, knowing almost jack nothing about this weapon besides it’s flower power. “Quite right.” Ramilua said, perking back up. He walked over to the trees and in one slice, cut one down from the roots before bringing it over to me and forcing it to stand up and still in the ground. He then took a marker and made four targets, one on the middle side, on on the top and bottom sides, and one dead center of the log. “We will practice accuracy first. Hit each target on the side with the blunt end of the scythe fifty times.” “Seems simple enough.” I say while taking a deep breath and swinging the scythe towards the targets, my training with all my other weapons at least helping with accuracy but trying to wield this made it feel weird as I missed more times then I kind of hoped. After about two hours I managed to hit the targets fifty times...with a few hundred misses. “Damn….” I frown, rolling my shoulder and trying to get the soreness out of it. “This is a lot harder than I first thought.” “That is because, unlike most swords, a scythe has no balance to it. A sword is typically made so the grip and blade are equal in weight, allowing for smooth swinging motions. Scythes are top heavy, this swing faster and are harder to aim properly, with the bladed side is worse, it cuts through the air, making the movement twice as fast and again, hard to aim.” “Oh yeah.” I agree, checking the weight of it again and still finding that it is top heavy as hell. “Sheesh, this is gonna take a while.” “Most start out and often keep to a back handed stance, makes aiming slightly easier since you are more swinging at an arc to the target when you swing that way, not just swinging something heavy on a pole.” “Okay then…” I nod, still looking at the scythe and moving it around, having the blade more to my side and down instead of up towards my head. “Hmm…” I mutter, flipping it back up easily enough and checking the balance. “This is gonna take a while…” I sigh out, scratching my head. “So, what next master?” “Continue your swings at the target til you get direct hits each time.” “Right.” I say before getting in a ready stance, and I swung carefully, and surprisingly I made severe progress as I missed a fuck lot less. ”Huh…” I think to myself, still noticing I missed at least thirty times but it seemed like a ‘level’ can basically make me do horrifically better at what I failed at. “Thirty this time...still bad but getting there.” I say, noticing marks in the wood from my repeated strikes. I rolled my shoulder and tried to get the stress out of it. “Sheesh, this is some tiring stuff.” I point out before going back to swinging my scythe at the targets. Even though it was slower from my tired right arm I managed to get the fifty strikes at the targets. “Th-there…” I pant, holding my right arm that hurt like a truck just ran over it. “Wait...was it supposed to be dead on the target?” I ask worriedly, thinking I had to get a perfect bullseye on each swing cause I didn’t entirely do that even when I hit the targets. “Yes.” Ramilua replied bluntly. “I recommend push ups because after you get perfect aim with your right arm, we move to your left.” “This is gonna be a nightmare…” I sigh out. “But I never expected these things to be easy…” I say, readying to go again. “That will be all for this lesson Ben, don’t want you to dislocate your arm at this rate.” “Fuck dislocating my arm.” I say bluntly. “I’m behind on so much work, I’m behind on so many things...and I need to keep working…” I say my arm stinging like hell as I tried to hit the targets again. Ramilua simply pressed a finger on each of my sholders, and audible pop was heard, and next as my arms dangled like limp noodles. “Rest. Now.” He said, his tone something not even Marluxia from the games had. I growled, glaring at Ramilua. “People have already proven that the only time I’m going to rest is when I’m dead. I don’t...I don’t want…” I mutter, my mind flashing to a bloody scene of my family being brutaly murdered. “No…” I grumble, ignoring that thought and trying to use my foot to use my scythe. “Come on…” I mutter. “Ben, stop.” Ramilua smacked my head, knocking me on my back. “You have a family, here’s a question. How many of them do you know can fight?” “Four...maybe six I don’t know if Gilda and Honora can fight…” I say, knowing Jenny, Luna and Sweetie can fight for a fact. “But Sweetie’s still a child, Jenny needs to stop fighting and Luna...well I don’t know about her frankly…” “Alright, here’s another question. Don’t you think, with as much as you want to protect them, they also want to protect you the same?” “I know...but they shouldn’t…” I mutter. “I’m the one who needs to protect them…” “Ben, tell me this. Why carry the whole burden? You know you have others now to fall back on, to help, from what I’ve seen your sister and that Jenny can more than clear a room and with what Luna said you told her about this Zeke character, he made his own army from ruins, there are no ruins here, but there are plenty willing to help.” “The last person that helped me died…” I mutter. “I mean...he got a new life thankfully but…” I trial off, still laying on my back. “Ben, I come from a place where people were killed daily, sometimes hourly. Death happens, but from what I know, it’s best the fight continues through the ones they left behind. Not just one person, all of them. You act like Braig only cared about you, but here’s a little fact, he kept your new family safe once.” “W-wait...what?” I ask, confused on that. “When you went to Manehattan to help with survivors, Heartless swarmed this town, the others, Luna, and Braig, we all took care of it. Braig saved Luna’s life three times, and the library where the others and the little ones were held up in from being set ablaze by some fat lava heartless. He left before they could even thank him.” I stayed silent for a moment...before sniffling as tears formed in the corners of my eyes. “Great….just...great...I couldn’t save fifty nine thousand people once...and I nearly lost my family…” I whimper sadly. “Because you had friends who care to help you, you idiot! If you decided to carry all this burden by yourself, which you so stupidly insist on, then they would have died. Ben, it’s not weak to have help, you know what I learned about this world and herds, numbers give it strength, you have a herd now, numbers, so help them grow strong so next time danger occurs when you’re away, they can handle it and…brag about it.” “I sadly realized that god damn pun about Braig’s name…” I mutter. “Unintentional and in poor taste I admit, but it still fits Ben, you worry about them because most of them can’t fight, train them so that worry is redirected at whoever they face. You’re a wolf now, act as a pack and protect each other, not just one protecting everyone.” “It’s a lot easier said than done when you’d rather have your arm ripped off then see one of them hurt…” I say bluntly. “And if my blurry memory serves, I did just so happen to have my arm ripped off...but none of my family was around...it hurt like a bitch.” I point out. Ramilua sat down next to me. “I was a lot like you when I was younger, before I made my salon, right after I finished my training I became a hit man, hard, dirty work, but worth it for the only family I had… my little sister, Dila. She didn’t know what I did, and I never dared tell her. One day I…executed the leader of a well known gang of pirates…the ones who didn’t leave after he died managed, somehow, to find where I lived…I never even taught Dila basic self defense because I was sure I would always be there to save her…I come home…her corpse is in chunks used to redecorate the house… I lost all reason after that, slaughtered all that was left of that gang…some were female…some pregnant…I didn’t care…I took a long walk off a short dock on some world known for large oceans… that’s when Nelare fished me out after I was drifting some miles about. She was in training with her knives with her father. Nothing else to do I stayed and worked for food. A few years passed and Nelare asked me what I would like to do most with my life. Rather than being honest and saying die, I said my sisters dream, a salon… the rest you can guess…” I was silent again. “Why must I bitch about my problems when people have a fuck lot worse problems?” I ask myself bitterly, hating how I was told something terrible and feeling like I was just an idiot. “You and I share something in common Ben, I fear losing Nelare, I owe everything I have…even my life, to her, but I know she can more than take care of herself. Don’t make my mistake, if you love them, train them, even if they hate you for it for a while, they’ll be glad you did it to tem later on.” Ramilua popped my arms back into place and helped me up. “And take a break, ice baths help with sore muscles.” “Fine…” I nod. “But I don’t think I’m going to be going home anytime soon...Jenny told me something that I….really don’t want to be apart of.” I shudder worriedly. “But I’ll take a break…” I nod. “Thanks...I...kind of needed that.” I say honestly, thankful for not having a panic attack. “Rest and work should be kept in sync. Night is for rest, mornings and the eve… train til you drop. But… why don’t you want to go home?” “She gave me a dog whistle and...told me about what Rarity did to my new castle house’s dungeon…” I say nervously. “You can probably see where I’m going with this and why I repeated ‘nope’ my entire way to the ponyville spa.” “Dog whistle…wait, did it say ‘Bad Dog’ on it?” “How did you know?” I ask worriedly. “A new kennel opened up yesterday, they were handing them out and they spotted Jenny and figured it ironic to give her one.” I facepalm rather hard. “That sneaky child…” I groan. “But...she said she was serious about the whole ‘dungeon’ thing...I kind of thought the whistle was for...that.” “With my few run in’s with her, she can lie her way into the royal treasury with a tongue that pure silver. She somehow managed to convince Aloe and Lotus that they had a free back rubs day last week.” “I’m going to have a major talk with that girl.” I growl. “Unless she’s conning some jack ass for decent reasons that’s fine, but conning and manipulating innocents? That’s where I draw the line...I mean at least she’s not murdering them at least…” I sigh out. “Hmmm…I think I know the perfect punishment.” Ramilua gave a rather devilish smile. “And what would that be?” I ask curiously, having a good feeling this will help get her more straightened out. “Rarity at her lest visit told me about Jenny’s family before you. Growing up like that, clearly normal means of punishment won’t do anything for her, but Rarity did notice something odd she did once.” “What would that be?” I ask curiously. “Apparently when they had the radio playing, a new kids song came on, it was your standard song singing about safety and was annoying to everyone not four and under, so Jenny just ran up to the radio and stabbed it...literally stabbed it til it broke apart. I think since your Luna can control dreams, why not have her dream the song on repeat?” My eyes widened and I got a giant grin on my face...before it slowly went down. “I actually don’t know if she would have control over her dreams actually...it would be weird if she did though...but that sounds like a wonderful idea.” I say with a smile. “Well if the dream idea isn’t good…how about a more…twisted version. Patt her down and have her in a ‘time out’ room, speakers hidden, then blast the song. She can’t do anything but cover her ears in agony….Twisted, told you.” “I don’t want to torture the girl…” I say worriedly. “She was tortured enough but...I’ll consider it.” I say honestly. “I just…” I sigh out. “I know she hates me for my mistakes and more things but...I just want her to be happy…” I say honestly. “And no ‘fake happy’ crap...but sadly that’s probably not gonna happen maybe.” “Well… she enjoys gore and murder. Right?” “Sadly.” I sigh out. “But that’s just how she was raised.” “Then perhaps a killing spree is what she needs to let go some aggression…” “Well here’s the thing...sure bloody murder would help calm her down but there’s also the…’Killing Mood’ problem her and all her family has…” I say nervously. “I mean sure technically she’s my daughter but I’m not sure…” “Well, Twilight said you told them you met her when she came up and killed some people, so she must already be passed that.” “Well she said she taught Dinky self defense and how to murder things...mostly animal at least.” I shrug. “But I don’t know a trip to Tartarus and going on a killing spree would be a good idea…” “No, this world I know, the people… if you can still call them that, are twisted beyond imagination. They altered their DNA to the point they act more like super powered junkies.” “And what world would this be?” I ask curiously. “Everyone calls it Rapture, but it also goes by X8-Let.” ”Bioshock? Really?” I think to myself. “Well I suppose if me and her are going to be going to a world full of abominations then I suppose that would be fine.” I shrug. “Everyone knows going on a bloodthirsty rampage through monster infested cities is always a grand time.” I say with a shrug. “Or, at least that’s what video games taught me one time.” I shrug. “Trust me, this may end up bringing you closer together, and word of warning, don’t use the colorful bottles of liquid.” “Yes yes I already know about the Plasmids. I looked through Luna’s game collections and it was basically one to one with another game I’ve heard about.” I shrug. “It’s weird how some worlds treat other worlds as myth, or a video game, than you realise it’s actually real.” I chuckle. “That’s space for you. I’ll give you the coordinates for it tomorrow, didn't Shy say something about giving you an address?” “Oh yes, Rainbow’s Parents address. I completely forgot about that.” I say with a frown. “I have to also make sure that Dash and Spike are okay because I haven’t heard from them in a while.” I say honestly. “Well we better start walking back to Shy’s house.” “You go on, I have the night shift at the spa, when Vinyls club closes a surprising amount of people come to the spa to relax.” Ramilua left and I headed back to Shy’s house. I walked in. “Hey.” I said as Shy and Discord were eating sandwiches. “Hey Ben, address is on the paper here.” Shy said as she pulled out a piece of paper from her pocket. “Thank you.” I say with a nod, taking the piece of paper and putting it in my pocket. “Want me to tell them anything specific from you?” I ask. “Just to visit. We haven’t spent a day together since before she went back to Cloudsdale to visit her parents.” “Alright, I’ll make sure to tell her that Fluttershy.” I nod. “And thank you, the tea was wonderful.” I smile before exiting the house and getting on my glider. “Next stop, Cloudsdale.” I say while revving my glider and bolting to the sky. It took some time to find the “street” but after finding it and finally finding the house I was about to get off my glider, only for a foot to fall right though. Luckily I didn’t jump off. “Okay...maybe Lindworm will help…” I mutter, summoning my lances and gently taking a step onto the ‘ground’, and thankfully I didn’t just pass through it. “Oh thank god…” I say while taking another step on the cloud ground and seeing the clouds could actually take my weight as long as I had my lances out. After a little bit of careful walking I finally made it to the front door of the house and I knocked on the door. “Hello?” I call out. “I believe this is the house of the mother and father of Rainbow Dash correct?” The door opened, to which an orange haired woman who, aside from the hair, looked exactly like Rainbow Dash opened it. “Are you a fan of our daughter?” She asked. “No, I was worried about my little brother and his girlfriend given that neither me, my fiances, or their friends heard anything from her for a while.” “Oh…oh…Well, come in I guess.” She said as I entered. “I told her it was a matter of time…she thought she had more.” “What happened?” I ask worriedly. “Did she or Spike get hurt?” “No.” I looked at the staircase, seeing Spike, who now had wings, walk down. “Hey Ben…sorry of kinda disappearing.” “Dude, it’s been months. If I didn’t know any better I would have thought you were either half way across the world or kind of dead.” I said worriedly. “But sadly I couldn’t keep track of that because of all the shit my life is throwing at me...but hey I proposed.” “About time. Wish I was there.” “It was in a Snow Dragon’s room in the middle of the dragon lands and you wouldn’t have wanted to be there for the…’celebration’.” I say sheepishly, blushing at that. He just slugged my arm. “That’s my mom/sister you're talking about.” He joked. “You brag about sleeping with Dash so shush.” I chuckle. “...yeah, and that’s mainly why we’re here.” “I though Dash had her own house?” I say, taking off my hood and fixing my tail. “I’m seriously going to have to ask Rarity to fix the side, my ears and tail hurt…” “Wow, not even gonna ask. But yeah, she does but given her…condition, she’s been given paid time off work.” “Did you really?” I ask him bluntly. “You do know there’s such a thing called condoms right?” “Yeah, but they break and now, well, she’s pregnant…but there’s our problem…” “When Twilight hears about this…” I sigh out while rubbing my temple. “She is not going to shut up about this.” “You…don’t know then…” Spike looked at me, concerned and a tad scared. “Awh crap, I gotta explain it…” “Does she have to lay an egg or something? Come on, explain.” I say simply. “Dragon hybrids are only safe when the mother is the dragon…if the mother isn’t a dragon…the baby grows too big for them to handle…if Dash… lives though the pregnancy, doctors said she might break her lower back…she’d never be able to walk or properly fly again…” “Shit dude…” I mutter, not sure what to say or do here. “Um...I’m pretty sure Luna or Twilight would know how to help out…” “No, I looked through every medical textbook, magic and science based, no procedure can safely have the mother come out completely unharmed. Books best advice was to keep the mother on her side and laying down as much as possible then… maybe, but it’s still slim. Dragon hybrids not born from eggs are very… active. In recorded births the hybrid baby can really hurt the mom during it’s own birth, even with a c section.” “Oh...well...that’s not good.” I say worriedly. “Um...I think I’ll be able to figure something out….maybe Medics could figure something out?” I wonder, starting to think about if the Medic Nobodies could help in someway. “Unless you know someone who can perform miracles, there’s not much to do.” I created a small wind platform before summoning a few Medic Nobody’s. “Explain everything to this Nobody Spike, and it will either nod or shake it’s head if it can work that miracle.” I say honestly, turning around and checking the shop to see how expensive certain potions are and if they can heal the kind of crap Spike told me about. Spike told the medic Nobody everything he told me and I kept searching for a proper potion, having to rely on a wordsearch now I typed in everything I could think of. One search brought up my contacts, which I still didn’t understand fully, and the name that came up was Family Doctor Main. I clicked it and nearly fell back when a skeleton with a cut skull and floating hands appeared. “You called?” He asked, his voice surprisingly full of character. “Uh…” I look at the skeleton. “Um...the names Ben...I suppose you’re Doctor Main?” “I’m the head doctor of your family W. D. Gaster. Now what seems to be the issue?” “I don’t know if my Medic Nobodies could help keep my little brothers girlfriend alive...apparently dragon hybrids don’t exactly agree with non-dragon mothers.” I say nervously. “Ah yes. How would you like me to go about this?” “Spike explained that all medical, whether science or magic on this world, could barely keep Rainbow Dash, his girlfriend, alive...and even then her lower spine would probably be irreparable and she won’t walk or properly fly ever again.” I explain. “I see, well unless the birth is already happening I can’t perform the proper operation.” “Yo Spike, when will she be giving birth?” I ask the drake curiously. “Cause I think I have a proper solution.” “Five more months.” He replied, slightly spooked by the skeleton doctor. “Shit.” I frown. “Well sorry Doctor, I didn’t think I was this early here…” I say nervously. “If you would like, I can perform a special medical magic, this will accelerate the baby's rate of growth so we can get this out of the way faster.” “His girlfriend is a pony and she’s basically bedridden and has to always lay on her side…” I say. “Just to make sure she...has a chance. I don’t know how big her stomach is but...I’m honestly worried here. But if you need help I can give you some of my Medics to help.” He looked at the Medics. “They will do well. I’ll talk with the mother to be and soon this will all be done with.” He walked up the stairs, the Medics following him. Spike and I just waited with Rainbow’s parents. She had really caring and supportive parents given the…amount of photos in the six foot stacks of albums. About an hour passed and then Rainbow came flying down stairs, holding a rainbow scaled, with a blue fin or hair, kinda like a mohawk, baby dragon, with pony ears! The doctor came down with her. “It is done, since she’s not a demigod or goddess like I’m usually dealing with, it took longer than it should have.” “I don’t know much about how long it normally takes for a woman to give birth but...it didn’t take that long all things considered.” I say honestly. “But hey, you're dealing with one child...not the ‘normal’ amount you have to deal with.” “I am but a tap away if you need me.” The doctor vanished leaving Rainbow’s parent’s, Spike, Rainbow and I to look at the new baby. “She’s so precious!” Rainbow’s mom said, pulling out a camera and taking a photo. “Mom…” Rainbow groaned. “I think this is a ‘photo taking’ time.” I say, looking at the new dragon hybrid. “I mean seriously, she’s adorable.” I smile, looking at the small hatchling. “Anyways, what are you going to name her? Rainbow Scale or something?” I ask curiously, seeing the rainbow colors on the hatchling. “That’s cheesy.” Rainbow said. “Maybe...Color Fire?” “I like it.” Spike said. “So…when we move back…crap we gotta redo your house Rainbow.” “Yeah…” She sighed. “We didn’t have a place for a baby, nor supplies…” “Well I both have the money to help you get supplies, and I can give you room until your house is redone.” I say honestly. “Cause with my growing herd of three additions which involved Derpy, Gilda, and a Snow Dragon named Honora, I had to upgrade from a big library in the middle of a town to a kick ass castle in the Everfree Forest.” I say with a smile. “I guess it’s best we do, man Twilight’s gonna flip and Pinkie…dear stars…” Spike said. “Twilight’s gonna probably smack you upside the head for not telling her sooner, and Pinkie is going to throw a big party. But Fluttershy told me to tell you to visit her. Seriously it’s been a while.” I say honestly. “Honestly I was gonna getting worried about ya...besides we still haven't had that ‘bro time’ I promised Spike.” “Right, oh yeah!” Spike held out his hand and to my surprise, the Jungle King keyblade appeared. “It showed up a week ago.” “Well look’s like I’m gonna be a teacher for once.” I say with a smile. “But Luxu will probably show you the more...important things about it.” I say honestly. “But ‘Jungle King’? Kind of thought you would get a more…’dragon’ themed keyblade...but oh well, works with me.” I shrug while showing my Keyblade. “And this is Reunion, fancy huh?” “Nice, but as long as this thing can help me keep those Heartless away from my daughter, I’m good with it.” “Oh yeah, it’ll keep the Heartless away...but mindlessly swinging it around will get you killed.” I say. “So you’re going to get training bud, and I’m going to have to figure out if I can hand out my weapons to people besides keyblades…” I sigh out, scratching my head. “Cripe, so much on my ‘to do’ list…” “I’ll train with Luna and this Luxu guy.” Spike said. “You got enough to do Ben.” “You have no idea. You think Twilight’s regular schedules are long then you haven’t even seen my to do list...which just for a visual it can wrap around this world five times over.” I explain. “Like I said, I’ll train with Luna and Luxu so you don’t have to worry about it, kay?” “But sadly that’s not going to happen because I’m going to help my fiance's train and get stronger...they almost died once I’m not going to let that ever happen again.” I say. “Then I’ll just train with Luxu, or he can train us all? You can do your thing, and your fiance’s can be properly trained.” “Today’s just...been pretty bad for me over all…” I sigh out. “I’m gonna head home and tell everyone the good news.” I say. “See ya there tomorrow.” Spike said as I left and flew my glider back home. Upon landing Jenny came out to greet me. “So, you figure it out?” She said, knowing full well I now know she lied. “I know a proper punishment for you don’t worry. But after that little bit how’s a good travel to a world so we can both kill a bunch of bloodthirsty abomination.” I say to her. “That sound good to you?” “You? Kill?” “Everyone knows killing demons or abominations is always a fun time.” I state. “Come on, haven’t you ever played Doom before?” “Doom?” “I suppose me, Luna and Dinky are going to teach you about the wonderful culture of videogames.” I say with a smile. “But this time I’m killing mindless abominations...not actual people…” I say before moving past Jenny. “But do you know where the others are? I have to tell them the good news.” “I think the roof? Something about a party Pinkie is making.” Jenny said as she walked off. “Of course…” I sigh, before going back outside and summoning my glider and flying up to the roof, checking where the party was. I saw the girls setting up supplies on the roof that were indeed party supplies. I got off my glider and upon doing so, Zecora walked up. “Greetings husband to be, I’m sorry, but this party will take away some sleep.” She said. “Well I have an announcement.” I say while clapping my hands, hoping to get all the girls attention. “Spike and Rainbow are not either dead, across the world, or something bad. They are both happy and healthy and they are parents to a healthy female dragon hybrid.” I say to everyone. I spent the next few minutes telling everyone what happened and after that the party was starting, to which the guests of honor, surprisingly, were Celestia and Chrysalis. The two arriving in Tuxedo's of all things. Apparently Celestia is…pregnant…somehow. I asked and she said some spells can pull it off without the needing of…the correct genitals. The rest of the party was rather fun, basically a pre baby shower for Celestia. “Today went from bad...to kind of okay.” I say honestly, glad to know that today actually had a happy turn to it. “But Twilight...how mad are you at Spike?” “I’m peeved, but knowing Rainbow she likely made him swear to not tell. So they’re moving in while Rainbow’s house becomes more baby friendly?” Twilight said. “Yeah pretty much.” I nod. “Also Rarity...Jenny told me an interesting thing that I’m not entirely sure she’s right about…” I say. “Being?” Rarity said. “Have you ever went to the dungeon to…’remodel’ it?” I ask. “Yes darling, Twilight and Pinkie were helping me remodel it into a new sewing room. I may not live at the boutique anymore, but I still need a place where I live to make my new dresses.” “Jenny…” I growl. “That girl is going to have nightmares about that stupid ‘safety’ song that’s for damn sure.” I frown. “Cause she just so thought to lie to me about the dungeon being a bondage dungeon.” I frown. “Why? Fuck if I know...well I know because she still hates me beyond a shadow of a doubt but still.” “Well, not actually a bondage dungeon.” Gilda said, walking up. “Apparently, this castle has three dungeons, one became rarity’s new workroom, second became the basement, and the third became a straight up sex dungeon.” “Nope.” I say while raising my hands. “Nope. No weird fetish unless I give consent cause seriously, when Jenny told me Rarity possibly had a bondage fetish I noped all the way to Ponyville.” I say worriedly. “Anyways, who’s idea was it to have a sex dungeon? Cause I don’t like bondage at all…” “We have a list you can go though.” Derpy said, wrapping her arms around me from behind. “We’ll go slow for now~” “Listen, no weird fetishes alright? “It’s fetishes, they’re meant to be weird.” “Also if there is any gender bending and futa then no touchies on that place okay? I’d rather not be a dad mother okay?” I state. “I’m putting some ground rules before shit get’s out of hand here.” “We’ll see~” They all teased. “No I’m making that a fucking ground rule.” I frown. “I don’t care what you say, I’d at least like to keep one virginity intact thank you very much.” I frown. “And here I thought it was the wives who had the pussies in the relationships.” Gilda said as everyone laughed. “How about this.” Luna spoke. “If one of us manages to beat you in a fair fight, three rounds, then you have to do one of the ‘weird’ fetishes. If we lose… you can have your way with us for a week.” “Listen…” I say weakly. “Can...can we just not? I’ve had a rough day-” “Nope.” They all said. “I almost had a panic attack over hearing you all could have died.” I say bitterly. “Part of why we didn’t tell you.” Twilight said. “You worry too much, almost…maybe worse than I used too. Just, I know things are going fast but that’s just the more reason to enjoy the slow, peaceful moments Ben. Live a little.” “One family died and it was my fault...I don’t want another family to die when I have the power to stop it…” I say sadly. “Ben.” Luna speaks up. “We are your family now, but yes, we are also your responsibility, that means two things, one, you do have to take care of us, but to what extent is our choice. I already had a talk with Luxu, Aqua, and Terra about helping train us, help the others summon their Keyblades. That’s the second reason, now as wives we have to take care of you, even if it’s from yourself.” I just slowly shake my head. “I didn’t want any of you to get caught up in my struggles, my problems...that’s why their my things to deal with...but no matter how hard I try...people always try to help…” I sigh out. “Thank you but...I...I don’t want to see any of you hurt...and Core and his merry band of assholes could kill any of you…” I say, starting to tear up at the thought of them getting hurt or brutally killed. “Please...I don’t want to lose any of you…” I whimper, tears falling down my face as I tried not to cry. Luna pulled me into a tight hug. “Ben, you don’t think we don’t worry that on one of your ventures you won’t come back? To just…leave us, even if you didn’t want to. Ben, you carry all this burden upon you, yet rather than sharing it, even though how dangerous it is, is best for you. I figured this…Core would come after us regardless to get at you, would you rather lose a fight against him alone, to lose us in the process, or have the chance to win with us fighting with you?” “I’d rather go with the third door where I kick his ass and you all see me be awesome.” I say, getting a little smile at least. “Heh. I thought you were smarter than that Ben, even with help, Core is not going to go down without taking out stars know how many lives in the process. I know you’d it rather not be us, and heavens forbid our children to be… but we don’t want you to be in that field of corpses when the time comes either. This is a war where bloodshed will spill no matter how much we try to avoid it and whoever can escape it is either lucky or cowardly. I’d rather go blind than see you dead Ben.” “And I’d rather be dead than see any of you hurt.” I say bluntly. “I promised myself that I was going to keep you all safe...but the more things go along...the more I know that I’m just being a stubborn idiot that’s going to get himself killed…” “Then it’s time to ask for help. Accept it. You have family, friends, and allies willing to fight this war as well.” “Fine…” I mutter. “But don’t expect me to enjoy seeing all my fiance’s being battle ready when they're going to be trying to get pregnant nine times out of ten.” “Look at it this way, the stronger we get, the longer we can go rounds with you~” “I’m sorry but you all already last all night if you wanted to.” I chuckle, wiping my tears away. “You all just get too excited too fast.” “Can you blame us? We have a…7/9 times submissive male to screw whenever.” Luna teased. “I’ll show you submissive.” I growl with a grin. “Role play!” Pinkie yelled, putting a sheep costume on Luna and roughing up my fur and hair. “Oh dear god Pinkie.” I chuckle. “I’m so glad you're all my family…” I say, hugging my new sheep costumed lover. “Dang, I didn’t even get to flee.” Luna said in a sarcastic voice as she kissed me. “Maybe next time you’ll be the sheep.” “You wish I was a sheep.” I say, lovingly nipping her ear. To be continued... Author's Note So yeah this chapter kind of sign waved between my character being depressed as hell then going back to being happy but what do you expect from a person that has the mind set that 'all my problems are my problems, not theirs.'...so yeah there's this. Like, comment, and I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Nobody figures out stuff.“My hips hurt.” Joy grumbles, finally getting dressed after showering that didn't involve…’new activities’. “You women are insatiable…” “Sorry Joy.” Sweetie Bell said, belly noticeably larger, but acting more like her usual self. “Not sorry.” Jenny said, stretching, belly also rather large now. “To be honest I thought you’d break before getting to all of us.” “Dire Wolf stamina mixed with all the fighting me and Ben have experienced helped a lot.” Joy huffs. “What's all your opinions on being pregnant all of a sudden?” He asks all the girls. “Eh.” Jenny shrugged. “Kinda hard to move.” Sweetie said. “I feel fat.” Scootaloo said. “I feel like I’m carrying a basket full a’ apples.” Applebloom replied. “Like a mom.” Frisk replied. “Like a milf.” Chara replied. “Shameful...and less horny.” Ray said. “I’m good.” Gabby said. “My dad is gonna kill us.” Lovely said. “I didn't force any of you to dogpile me.” Joy states. Chara rubbed her belly before gaining a wicked smile. “Well, this leaves an obvious question. From what I gather, we can birth at will, question is, do we, or when should we? Cause I can have fun with this.” “Don't give your parents heart attacks.” Joy sighs out. “But I'd have to ask the doctor about how many a woman can give birth to without...hurting themselves.” He says worriedly. “And can we not have over a million kids all of a sudden? The others are gonna flip when they see this…” Joy sighs out, knowing I'm going to laugh my ass off at this development. “Eh. So? Let’s be honest, they are in a worse boat since they are still having sex and getting pumped with more kids. Heck, I bet they are wrestling it out in the sheets now.” Jenny spoke up. “I have a feeling he would be either training, figuring out where to go next on his new harem travels, or just showing Viva around, not fucking like rabbits.” Joy says. “Wait...are rabbits just animals in this world or no?” “Just animals.” Sweetie says. “Well, even if they can’t talk they do have some intelligence. They just prefer to stick to the woods and such while ponies and others like us evolved and left the forest for structures we create.” “Right then.” Joy nodded. “So...what do you think the others reaction will be if we show them...this?” he asks, gesturing to all his girlfriends. “Not sure. Ben already knows, think he told them?” Frisk asks. “Most likely…” He sighs out. “He's probably laughing his ass off right now...so who wants to meet all of them and have a talk that's obviously about to happen soon?” “Might as well get it over with…” Ray said, face red as Applebloom’s mane. “The things I let you do to me… why do I want that again?!” Chara patt Ray on the back. “Welcome to womanhood ‘Bro’.” “Anywhosits….” He sighs out. “Everyone dressed?” He asks, putting a simple hoodie over his simple black t-shirt, his blue jeans fitting nicely as well. “Hang on.” Jenny said, walking into the closet...to which Joy saw she was pantsless, and came back out a time later in sweat pants. “Welp, gonna need to do shopping, cause only this fits.” “True...Rarity and Coco might need more cloth for things…” He mutters while walking out the door to start this embarrassing conversation. As the group walked down the halls they noticed everything was rather silent. Joy grew suspicious, now at the dining room doors, which were closed. They were never closed. He opened it, dark greeting them until the lights turned on, blinding them all for a moment before they saw...a party...a baby shower. “Surprise!” Ben and all his wives yelled. “There idea.” I said, earning a playful slap from Rarity. “So...none of you are upset about us...sadly not waiting?” Joy asks worriedly. “I am a tad peeved.” Rarity said. “So am I.” Applejack said, walking out from behind Rarity. “After all, our sisters are underage.” “And Sweetie just had her first heat.” Rarity added. “But, to be fair, our parents had Big Mac at seventeen years old.” Applejack said. “Yes and I suppose I haven’t been the best role model in terms of...self control.” Rarity said. “We just...hoped you’d be older before that.” “Gabby and Jenny are technically old enough by griffon standards...but everyone jumped me when they saw Gabby was pregnant first. Honestly...I had no choice, and was about to tell them no before…” Joy sighs out. “Sorry…” “Well, at least it’s with a caring fellow.” Applejack says, taking a seat. “Can’t really say otherwise as...heh...I was Bloom’s age wh’n I lost mah virginity.” Applejack’s face gained a blush. “Too bad the fella moved two years later, wouldn’t mind hooking back up.” “Don't worry we haven't told Asgore or Toriel yet.” I tell them. “Glad to see you all don't...entirely hate me for not waiting.” Joy says nervously. “You waited longer than me so that's good right?” I ask sheepishly. “Yeah...well except for Gabby…” Joy admits nervously. “So, this is a baby shower for us?” Frisk asks. “And us.” Luna speaks up. “Figured it’s best time, with this marriage of Ben and us getting closer, once this herd has acquired its last member, soon will follow the bachelor and bachelorette parties, then the weddings.” “I thought I was supposed to marry all the female royalty here?” I ask curiously. “Or just forget about it and be happy about now?” “No, that plan is still on the table for you working man.” Chrysalis spoke up. “This is just for now.” “And there’s presents.” I turned around, seeing Aqua and Terra arrive on gliders. “Sorry we’re late, Terra was at the doctors.” “Cure spell can heal cuts and broken bones, but you get the flu and it’s useless…” He grumbles, looking sick, but not too bad. “Need a remedy?” I ask curiously. “Or just want to tough it out?” I ask Terra, ready to buy him the cure all item. “I’ll be fine.” Terra said with a wave. “Doc says I’m not contagious and with a few vitamins and soup I’ll be fine in a few days. Now come on, we brought gifts for everyone, including the fathers.” “Sweet.” Me and Joy smile. “Well there's plenty of food, so dig in when you want.” I tell them all. Terra walked up to Joy and I, handing each of us a small box. “This is from me, something I think you two can use.” Joy and I took the gifts and opened them, inside was a small shard of something, it pulsated white and dark. “What's this?” I ask Terra curiously. “Nothing I’ve seen before…” “I was told you found the birthplace of the Keyblades, I went back and found these. I think these are shards of either that pure light X-blade, clearly corrupted with darkness now, or shards from the X-blades forge.” “The forge is indestructible though…” I frown. “And these shards…” I frown while gently grabbing the shard and looking it over, wondering what this could be. Joy decided to use his assistants scanning function and scanned it, hoping to find the answer about this. “Let's hope this works…” Chromega Blade shard. The Chromega blade was a failed, pure light variant of the X-blade that ended up creating the heartless. This is one shard of, according to calculations, ten of it’s core. If all pieces are brought together and reforged, the Chromega blade can be reforged. Or, if Pure darkness is added, a second X-blade. “This thing is a piece of that keyblade...and apparently...could make another X-blade if we fuse it with pure darkness.” Joy explains. “That's surprising...” I frown. “Hmm...wonder what would happen if we mix it with pure Nothingness...it would be bad if it had three equal parts…” “Personally, I say find those shards, and hide them. In my experience, one X-blade is bad enough, two can cause trouble.” Terra said. “Move over.” Aqua said, playfully pushing Terra and handing Joy and I a gift each. “This is a day for fun, so here, a gift from me to you two.” “It better not be a lewd picture. One married woman giving me a lewd picture as a get well present is enough…” I mutter to myself while we both open our presents, wondering what Aqua wanted to get us. “Oh, how's Ventus doing?” I ask off topic here. “Doing fine. He’s been remembering more and more of his life before coming to The Land of Beginnings. For instance, his last name is Vexel. Kind of funny, his initials being V.V.” Joy and I looked inside. They were a set of gold earrings. “They...were my parents...I don’t remember much of them, or know much about them. All I know is that they gave me to Ericus when I was five and never learned why. Two years later these appeared in my bedroom with a letter, though, I don’t know what language it is. I’ve been to lots of worlds and read all kinds of books on languages dead and living but...it’s not recognizable anywhere.” “Do you have the letter?” I ask, Joy scanning the earrings just in wonder of what their made of. “Yeah.” Aqua said, opening a pocket under her Keyblade armor and taking out an old, folded piece of paper. Joy grabbed it, careful to unfold it and it was symbols. “Okay...lets see here…” He mutters while scanning the symbols on his assistant. Assistant language translation matrix activated. Scanning… Scanning… Translating… Translation complete. Dear Aqua, We are sorry. So, so, so, so sorry we have to do this, but if you are reading this, then...your mother and I are… Besides the point, what you must do now is move on, live your life. Our past mistakes lead us to you reading this letter, something we both...hoped would never happen, but knew it would happen sooner or later. If you care, the day you pass your Mark of Mastery Exam, please, head to the world coordinates at the bottom of the letter...if you’re lucky, you’ll find something that we wanted to give you when you were old enough. We both love you very much. World- 8081409209820958209570197509840918419095092835 - 258029854098509-2095209580918501750920938529835 “Okay...the fuck world is that?” Joy frowned while scanning the massive string of numbers to see what world it was. Calculating…. Locating…. World Found. Name: Unknown Status: Habitable Primary lifeforms: Unknown World Age: ninety seven trillion years old. Anomalies: Four -Unnatural land formations -Contaminated sea water -Mutated life forms -Abnormally low darkness “So...that's a bunch of things.” I frown. “Mind if we help?” Joy asks Aqua. “Y-Yes.” Aqua said, looking unsure, nervous...and worried. “I...I never imagined…” “Need a cupcake?” Joy asks her. “What? No, I just…Can’t believe...I mean, I thought they...I don’t know.” Aqua said with a sigh. “I haven’t thought about them...in years.” Joy looked back at his Assistant, the scan on the ear rings coming back. Knight of The Light Earrings Att: +50 Def: +30 Mag: +40 The Knights of The Light were an old order founded in the time before Keyblades. They fought back against the darkness and, after it was finally pushed back, died out when the Heartless appeared. This is one part of the special enchanted armor set. Consisting of Earrings, Helmet, Chest plate,Gauntlets, leggings, Boots, and Ring. Without every peice, their true ability is locked away, once the whole set is worn, the wearer can utilize light to push back darkness. “Huh...that's interesting…” Joy said. “Cool.” I nodded. “So looks like we're gonna be going on an adventure to get all the pieces.” I say...before frowning. “Well...unless you want us to help Aqua, this is actually your adventure.” “I can use help. I don’t know what to expect, it’s best if one of you, and Terra come along. I overestimated myself once before, and we all know how that ended. It’s best I go with help.” Aqua says. “After the party, if you want, we can go.” “After the party.” I say. “You'll need your energy.” I say while Joys stomach growled. “And I'm hungry.” Joy says. “So let's eat and enjoy the party.” He smiled happily. The party was rather grand. The girls all got things, some practical, some...between them, and other stuff that was for fun or just for them and not the baby...s. There was a lot of baby clothes, and diapers….it still won’t be enough, and formula, in case they don’t want to nurse...not surprisingly, a gift from a friend of Pinkie, a blue haired mare with...rather large breasts, gave several, and by several I mean like thirty, mare milkers… I asked if they were expensive and she said not really, since apparently she owns the company that makes, and uses them. She also said the Diamond Dogs have recently been buying them by the dozens so her business is good. There was cake, then there wasn’t...damn Celestia, that was like three bites, drinks, simple punch, and talk, and, of course, bad curiosity , well, Joy and I were bad, the girls were all rather good, as expected. Looks like that’s true from the show. Luna especially. Celestia told me that, when she and Luna would talk alone, they’d talk about what life they would have had if they weren’t alicorns. She said she would like to be an actress, and Luna wanted to be a singer. “Thank god I have everyone…” I mutter to myself, glad to see everyone happy today. “Wouldn't know what to do…” I shake my head, trying not to think of anything bad right now. “Having fun Ben?” Celestia asks, taking a seat next to me. “Let me guess, you’re more of a wall flower?” “Depression is a hell of a thing when you have...basically everything you wanted.” I say to her. “Loving fiances, a wonderful little brother, a family that loves and cares for me...but there's always this small bit of doubt...that something could go wrong…” I sigh out. “I know it all too well.” Celestia said, a solemn sigh in her breath. “Every night there’s this part of me that...is afraid. Afraid that, when I awake, Luna will still be Nightmare Moon, trapped in the moon, that Chrysalis, Rune, Twilight, that it was all just a dream...even you...and this.” She said, using both hands to rub her belly. “An unexpected event...but one I thought I’d never experience….again. Ben...Do you know, why, I prefer mares?” My eyes widened. “No…” I mutter. “You….you weren't…” I say in fear, scared for the worst. “Not like that Ben… After Luna...Nightmare Moon...I grew lonely, so, so lonely. One day...I used a spell to hide my true body, went out into the streets, and found a drunk stallion who was more than happy to… well, you know. It was quite the scandal, Princess pregnant and no father. Heh, if only they knew. Nine months later, I gave birth to a little filly, one I named Platinum, after the old unicorn queen. She had my coat...my mother's eyes...and Luna’s personality. She grew up, aged...while I remained the same. Out living your own child...no parent should...yet, here I am. At least, when I look as Blue Blood, I know it’s as close to immortality as she can get. That in some way, she’s here.” “Well…” I say, putting a gentle hand on her cheek. “Your new family, your new children...and your new husband won't be dying anytime soon.” I tell her with a smile. “And...maybe not now, maybe not soon...but hopefully I'll help you learn to love a man again...and that man will be me, the bumbling idiot who's the world's greatest hero.” I chuckle. “It’s just the fear Ben.” Celestia said, hugging her belly now. “Outliving my daughter, and her children, and their children...At some point, I realized I lost track, and was scared. It took sixteen years, and a few new spells, but finally, I found the sole surviving descendant of Platinum. Blueblood’s mother, Emerald Shine. She was a carpenter for the nobles. Her reactions to what I told her of her lineage was expected...she died, giving birth to Blueblood, and he had an accident when he was a foal. To be blunt, hit tank fires blanks. I had long since sworn no more children...cause the fear of...losing track… and now, even though Luna is back...the fear is still there...when Blueblood...passes, then Platinum will truly be gone.” I sigh out. “At least your fear is waking up and seeing that none of this happened...but you stay in the same world where it could happen either way.” I tell her. “My fear...is waking up and learning that none of this ever even existed.” I tell her. “All of this...just a mixture of video games and tv shows from where I originally came from...all of this...just gone...none of it even existing...my parents would be dead...everyone I love...gone forever. Joy going back to Rejection...and with all the memories…” My voice cracked, tears brimming in my eyes. “No...no matter how much...you all wouldn't wish it...I'd have…” I took a deep breath and steadied myself, trying not to cry. “You fear of losing it but still having a chance...my fear is losing everything...even my life…” Celestia grabbed my chin, and made me look her in the eyes, tears going down hers too. “We are a lot alike, aren’t we?” She asked, a small smile on her face. “Mine....being a lot more drastic and terrible but…” I start. “And me not being a mare...having big breasts...having rainbow hair that defies wind…” I name off with a growing smile. To shut me up, Celestia planted a wet one...right on my lips. At first I was caught off guard, then we both melted into it…when it broke, she was smiling. “Just...promise me Ben, that no matter what, you will come back. Back to all of us.” She said, placing one of my hands on her belly...I felt a kick. I smiled gently. “What would I be if I didn't come back to all my lovely ladies?” I ask. “I promise to come back Celestia, I always come back for the ones I love.” She kissed me again, I heard camera’s going off, but didn’t care, neither did she I guess, as this kiss lasted rather long. When it finally broke, we took in air like we were holding our breaths for a long time. I looked up, seeing Chrysalis and Rune leaning against Celestia’s chair, looking at us with smiles. “Guess it’s finally official.” Chrysalis said, planting a quick peck on my cheek...Rune..did something different...she bit my ear then whispered...things...things I can’t say aloud cause children...I have something to look forward too come bed time. My entire face was beat red. “Wow...well…” I mumble, before shaking my head. “Anyways...thanks Celestia.” I nodded, before grinning. “See? I told you you would want me in all my awesomeness.” I joke with a giant smile. Celestia returned my grin with one of her own. “Fair enough...but let’s just say I’ll need a…transition come tonight… After all, seven hundred years eating mares out, I have a few old habits...and skills that I can show you, so long as you say yes~” Celestia said, finger booping my nose. “Still no futa spells.” I tell her bluntly. “Who said I was going to be the futa~” She booped my nose again. I blushed. “Well...I did wonder what it would feel like to have both.” I smile gently. “This went from heartwarming and touching to super lewd way too quickly...” I frown as I noticed that. “That’s sun butt’s dirty mind there.” Chrysalis said with a wink. “And remember, I shape shift, so you can pretend you’re doing it with twins~” She said, giving me another light peck on the cheek. Steam billowed out of my head. “I...kind of hope the others didn't hear the lewd parts…” “We did.” Twilight said, patting my head. “Not gonna lie, always wondered what I’d be like as a twin.” “Too bad this is a T rated fic, those sex chapters would be kinky.” Pinky said, earning a look from all of us. “Damn it Pinkie...now they're gonna make an M rated fic for all of it.” I sigh out, knowing about the fourth wall and such. “But...besides...the lewd things...did you hear and see everything else?” “Yup.” Lola said. “Though...not sure exactly what was going on.” “That aside, we’re happy for you two...and please, when you’re up for that, Chrysi, look like me, I wanna see Ben’s face when he see’s that.” Pinkie said. “You got it.” Chrysalis said, giving me a look. “That is going to be fun. Wonder if he’ll be able to tell us apart?” “You'd have to learn how to talk like Pinkie, have her energy, and so much other things.” I tell her. “But...about my worst fear…” I sigh out. “Sorry I'm not...more vocal with my fears…” “It’s alright Ben.” Rarity said, taking my hand. “We all have fears, and we’ve come to accept you aren’t very vocal with these matters, so that means two things. One, we will always be here to make it go away for you, whether you tell us it or not, and second, if we see it’s still bothering you, then, we may get rough, but we want you to tell us. Speaking these matters aloud can only help you when it’s to someone you trust.” “Yeah…” I nodded. “But...hey it helped me convince Celestia to join my herd...the news is gonna have a field day hearing this.” I chuckle. “It's not the best headline name but I thought ‘The Sun Rises to what? Celestia’s new love shocks the world’.” I say, the thing sounding like crap to me. “It can work.” Viva said. “There’s been worse headlines.” With that settled, the party ended a few hours later. There was little food left and Terra and Aqua waited for us outside the front door. “You ready?” She asked, Terra in his Keyblade armor on his glider. “Yep.” I nodded while putting my hood up and summoning my glider and hopping on. “As ready as we'll ever be.” Joy says while summoning his own glider, his new crown keyblade turning into a golden version of Ventus’s glider, putting his samurai hood up as well and hopping on it. Aqua opened a DTL and activated her armor and glider, flying in, followed by Terra, then us. It was a long flight, assistant saying about an hour or so, and finally a world came into view. As we got closer, I felt...something was watching us. I looked around, growling at whatever's watching us. “Hey guys! Something’s watching us.” I tell the others, not knowing what could be watching us this far away from the world. There was this...massive shadow that flew over us, then darkness blinded us. When we had vision, we were on some sort of grassy field, and standing across from us was...someone dressed in a pink organization thirteen cloak. “You should leave.” She spoke. Her voice sounded...young. “And who might you be exactly?” I ask. “And why are these cloaks so common with people?” I ask curiously. “Once, these were for warriors, colors were various, standing for rank and position. Can you guess what pink stands for?” “This is the first time I'm even hearing this so I have no idea.” I tell her bluntly, preparing myself for a possible attack. She raised her hand, an Oathkeeper Keyblade appearing, though...something about it seemed different. It’s design was...like half was missing. “Assassin.” I blinked, seeing Terra already down as she made her way over to Joy. Joy summoned Lindworm and his keyblade glider switched to his crown keyblade, winds circling around him as he prepared for her attack. “Attacking Terra was a bad idea lady.” Joy growled, thinking she was a foe with such an unwarranted attack. “He’ll live.” She said, spin kicking Lindworm to the side as she thrusted, striking joy and sending him back, just barely dodging her attack. “Besides, I’m not here to hurt anyone, Just waiting for my brother.” She threw her “Oathkeeper” into a flame covered strike raid at Aqua. She blocked it, but was tossed to the ground. I sighed out, getting off my glider and grabbing Reunion. “So...hard way it is.” I frown while casting haste on myself. “Twilight Slash.” I mutter before swinging my keyblade, a bolt of Nothingness speeding towards the woman. My eyes widened, another “Oathkeeper” appeared, in thin air and blocked my attack. She then touched it with one finger. “Providet corpus.” She said, the second Keyblade gaining a bright aura. There was a flash of light and it...was a silhouette of her, made up of light and darkness. It looked over at me and charged, striking at me with hand to hand. I summoned Frozen Pride and blocked it's attacks, fighting back against the clone. “So why did you attack is first?” I ask the woman with a frown. “This is the second part of my mark of mastery.” She said, appearing behind Joy and spin kicking him in the neck, sending him across the ground. “The first part I completed, in your time, months ago.” “Ow…” Joy grumbles while getting back up, cracking his neck. “Thank god for being durable.” Joy says before vanishing and thrusting all six lances behind the pink cloaked girl. “So your mark of mastery is to attack people for no reason?” I ask, shield bashing the clone away from me. “No.” She replied, turning around and, using her hand, deflected each of Joy’s Lindworm spears, grabbed them all and threw them back at him. “The second part to my mark of mastery. Win a battle against the King of Nothingness.” She then looked over at Joy, him catching the spears she threw back at him. “Or the prince.” Aqua got back up, grunting as she ran over, trying to slash the girl, only for the girl to dodge, and strike the back of Aqua’s head, knocking her unconscious. “Damn it, Joy get Aqua and Terra out of here!” I shout at Joy, hoping he'll get them to some form of safety. “But your fights with me lady.” I say while shifting to Master Form, switching out Frozen Pride for Skysplitter. “But what Mark of mastery has you fight something that specific?” I ask, Joy helping the unconscious Aqua and Terra out of the fight. “Keyblade master. But given what I am...a standard test wouldn’t have been enough.” She said, her clone jumping back to her and reverting back into her second “Oathkeeper”. “You clearly know I'm clueless about a lot of this right now so care to explain...all of this?” I ask. “You know what I am. You’ve seen me. I’m younger to you right now, but I am someone you know.” She said, taking off her hood...Xion? No, her eyes...they’re red… Like Zeke’s were. “Nyx?” I ask. “How long has it been there?” I ask, surprised to see her grown up. “For me, fourteen years. I’m still a baby at this point in time, my older sister, Diamond Tiara, sent me back here for my mark of mastery exam. Three parts. First, help my father complete his, and I have, now I’m here, for my second part, Win a battle against the king or prince of nothingness.” “That old bastard needs to start telling me shit instead of going back to being a nagging mumble in the back of my head.” I frown. “And the organization cloak? You said it meant a lot more than what it is...care to explain or are you going to save that till after the fight?” “You’ll find out soon, so might as well. Black, Warrior, White, Commander, Yellow means scout, red means mage, purple means researcher, pink means assassin, Blue means, well, it’s akin to police. Green means healer, and black and white patterned robes mean Crafter.” “Glad to know I'm a leader.” I chuckle a little, readying myself. “And your Oathkeepers...I presume that's because your Zeke’s daughter?” “In a sense. I’m a human X-blade, these are pieces of my X-blade form.” “Surprising.” I say. “First time I've seen it. But...did everyone get better?” I ask, hoping her family got better after Zeke’s ‘death’. “I can say yes, but that’s all I can say about future events involving my family.” “Well that stops me from asking how Joy is treating your Diamond Tiara.” I shrug. “But anyways, fighting time.” “Alright then.” She said, taking a stance. I decided to start things off simple, Nyx suddenly seeing a weird power level bars for both her and me. I took a deep breath and lowered my stance before shouting loud and thrusting Skyplitter in the air, my power increasing dramatically and a seeable aura surrounded me. “Let’s get started.” I say before ramming Skysplitter into the ground, jagged stone spikes suddenly shooting out below her. She jumped up into the air, both her keyblades floating out of her hands before they reshaped into something like my gun arrows. She grabbed them again and started firing off lightning magic at me. I smacked away the lightning spells with both my weapons, bolting straight towards her and leaving some cracks in the ground, swinging Skysplitter at her quickly. To my surprise, it wasn’t her that blocked...but someone in a yellow cloak. “Sorry I’m late sis.” He said to Nyx. “Better late than never bro.” She replied. Her brother, Blake, if my memory serves me right, deflected me away before he was covered in light, changing into an Oblivion X-blade. Nyx grabbed him and aimed it at me. “Now, let’s get started. cognatio Jurisconsultorum!” She shouted, chains of light wrapping around her brother and her arm before she rushed in for an attack. I skidded on the ground and shouted, my aura flaring out even bigger and stronger than before. “Gaia’s Hammer!” I shouted, my weapon glowing a greenish brown and glowed brightly before I swung it to meet her attack. It felt like time slowed down before our attacks met, finally, our attacks met...or so I thought. When my swing met hers, she vanished, appearing behind me and striking, I fell through the battle ground, to the world below. “Ow...that’s gonna hurt.” Nyx said, following me. “Why am I falling?” I ask curiously, the pain being astronomical but suddenly falling through a battle ground was weird. “Okay…” I mutter while stopping myself from falling from my training with Braig, looking around on why I fell and how far I fell. Looking around, I was some miles above the planet's surface...it was like a nuke went off, everything was scorched and raised up. “Jesus, was this the world we were supposed to go to?” I wonder to myself, wondering what could have caused this, but ready to defend myself in case Nyx and her brother came after me. “Also I call bullshit, two versus one in a mark of mastery exam? Really?” I grumble. “What? It counts.” Nyx said, floating back down. “Even at this stage in your timeline I held a small chance at winning.” “What language were you speaking? Latin or something?” I ask, wondering about the language of her named attacks. “Yeah. It’s an old language, tied to many magics. Using it when casting attacks can do a lot for how hard you hit with them.” “So I need to speak a special language instead of shouting things normally?” I ask curiously. “I thought shouting you're attack name in any language made it better?” “No, shouting the attack is like...training wheels. It helps activate it. Calling the attacks name in latin, latin being linked to magic, amplifies it by generating a micro aura that quickly circulates the attacks energy before activating it.” I huff. “Anime has lied to me.” I shake my head. “Great, now i need to learn Latin…” “It’s optional.” Nyx says, her brother returning to human form. “We just learned it...well, you’ll see later. Anyway, knocking you out of the battle counted as a win, so thanks.” “No it doesn't, this isn't a tournament match with out of bounds rules, your choice of arena just sucked and didn't have proper barriers.” I frown. “You would rather I knock you unconscious?” “I'm pretty sure some divine bullshit behind the marks of mastery decided you got the won anyways.” I tell her. “But next time, remember to put proper barriers on a battlefield so no one accidentally falls out and bails right after leaving the battlefield.” I tell her. “So...what's your third step to becoming a master?” “Well...I don’t know. Now I have to head back to my timeline for Tiara to tell me. Hope she’s not on a date with uncle Joy… Then she won’t be back for a while.” “When those two are together it’s they turn into rabbits.” Blake commented. I laughed at that. “Oh god I just knew it.” I laugh. “And what's funnier is that he just ‘tied the knot’ as it were a while ago with all his other girlfriends.” “Oh we know.” “We babysat for them a few times when they all went off to save a world or honeymoon…” Nyx shivered. “Should tell Joy to turn his damn Assistant off, I’ll never unsee that.” I laughed even harder at that. “If only I could tell him, his reaction would be hysterical." “At least tell him that he can turn his assistant off.” “I will.” I nodded. “But how many kids did he have in your time?” I asked, wondering how much of a pain it's gonna be to raise so many kids. “Birthed...think they were reaching seven hundred...each wife?” Blake questioned. “Yeah, Nobody nannies. Very handy.” Nyx said, nodding. “Oh thank god those exist.” I sigh out thankfully. “Um...did you meet Roxas or Namine in the future?” I ask, remembering that's supposed to be a thing. They both looked at each other. “No idea who they are.” Nyx said. “But family...s. We don’t know everyone.” Blake replied. “Ah...there probably under different names though….” I mutter to myself. “So what's your next stop in time traveling master exam?” “Fourteen and a half years in the future to get the final test.” I nodded. “Well stay safe in your adventuring.” I tell them. “Ah Nyx, I was told about a thing involving you and others...like you.” I start. “You mean Greed?” She asked. “So you already know then?” I ask. “It’s...the reason I’m taking this. Greed broke through all of Daybreak’s defenses…He wants all of my siblings...Blake and I especially...he already took Book Worm, my baby bro from mama Moon Dancer.” “Are...are we trying to stop Greed or no?” I ask, wondering if my future self, Joy, and many others are trying to stop greed and save Book Worm. “Yes. In my time, it’s war against the Embodiments. Sloth and Pride have already been killed, but there’s still the rest...and Tenebris.” “Someone or something I should know about?” I ask. “Or does it hurt with time if I know?” “I can tell you this much. Core may have been the first Emblem heartless, but he wasn’t the first to fall to it. Tenebris is the first to fall, the creator of the realm of darkness, the one who light rejected.” “Oh...that's...a thing.” I frown. “And here I thought Core being reborn as one of our kids was bad enough...or the embodiments...or my possible honeymoon…” I sigh out. “So, what now?” I ask the two. “After this I recommend someone take a trip to the Realm of Darkness.” Blake stated. “Doesn’t matter who.” “Blake…” Nyx said. “What, it would help.” “That’s screwing with time.” “Like we aren’t doing that already.” “He's got a point.” I point out. “But time is really weird, sometimes you can go back in time as many times as you want and nothing happens, sometimes you go back in time and things blow the fuck up, and in my case sometimes you think you know future events but happen to be completely wrong.” I explain. “Well if my time Diamond Tiara comes along and whacks the two of you, don’t say I didn’t warn you.” Nyx said as she and Blake found themselves inside clock faces. “Looks like she’s picking us up. We will definitely see you later, and maybe sooner.” Nyx said with a wave, she and blake vanishing as the clock faces did. “Well….” I take a deep breath and starting to fly towards Joy and the others. “That happened…” I mutter. “Yeah, but what happened here?” Joy asked as he floated down and took a look around. “Such destruction.” “Ugh, where are we?” Aqua asked, waking up. “I had a conversation with our attacker, apparently it was her mark of mastery to fight me specifically, and a ton of...future stuff.” I tell the now awake Aqua and Terra. “And we are at the planet we were supposed to go...it's just ruined to hell somehow.” “I can’t sense any darkness...what else could have caused this?” Terra pondered, looking around. “Huh?” He said, walking over to a patch of dirt with an imprint. “Is that...what I think it is?” We all walked over, and saw the imprint of the X-blade. “What the hell?” I mutter, kneeling down and checking the imprint, wondering how long it's been here. “That's not right…” Joy frowned. Aqua kneeled down to the imprint also. “It’s a perfect outline. The earth around the edges has been...melted into this image.” She placed her hand hear it. “It’s still hot...this was recent?” “That's impossible, Zeke was on John's world when he...last used the X-blade.” I sigh out. “Something's not right, how could the X-blade have been here when it was nowhere near here?” “I think he’s the reason.” Terra said, pointing over to a man standing across from us. Dressed in Yellow’s clothing...with a black X-blade. My eyes widened. “No...nonono…” I say before summoning my keyblade and shield. “Joy, get them out of here.” “Why the fuck is he here?!” Joy yipped in worry. “And when the hell did they manage to make that?” Yellow’s black X-blade cracked with dark electricity, his shadow shifting as what looked like ghosts...of Sora, Riku, and Kairi, all came out of them. They then screamed, a haunting, chilling, tortured scream...that X-blade...was all of the captured Sora, Riku and Kairi’s hearts! “That bastard…” I growled, getting up and walking over to the guy, not believing Core tortured and fused all of them together to make an abomination of the X-blade. “Hey!” I bark at Yellow, trying to get his attention. He looked over at me, but said nothing. “Can you talk?” I call out to him, keeping my distance at least so my power didn't start sparking like mad. He shook his head. “Okay...why are you here?” I ask, knowing it could answer without words. Yellow raised his hand, slowly, and removed his mask...he looked like Zeke, but the number 1 was tattooed on his forehead, and his face was cracked, eyes bloodshot...A clone? “Are you a clone?” I ask, fearing the worst. He nodded, tracing a finger across the cracks on his face and then pointing at his eyes, then, pointed at the black X-blade in his other hand. “Your breaking apart because of the X-blade? Or did you fight over it?” I ask, getting more confused here. He lifted up a finger, one, then nodded. He then showed me the hand that was holding it...black tendrils came out of the black X-blade, and were inside his hand and arm. He then moved part of his robe over, showing his chest...which held a large scar, and glowed with a bluish white. “Need some help?” I ask, knowing this was a bad thing to ask and knowing it won't help but I at least wanted to try. He nodded. “What happened to you?” Aqua asked. ”Core’ One of the ghost’s spoke. ”He took all of them, melted them down...forged them into this accursed blade...and then turned on his partners. He no longer had his darkness. He was a Nobody.” Another spoke. ”He grabbed every Xehanort reflection, and made this.” Another said, Yellow lifting a hand over his chest. ”Body and heart they went into it, to make a copy of Zeke’s heart.” “Is there anyway to save you all without...either killing you or causing a supernova?” I ask worriedly. ”I die. They die. I am dying. I just...want one thing before then.” “What is it?” I ask, not wanting to sass the dying Yellow clone. “I want...one day.” Yellow spoke, seeming to surprise himself that he was able to talk. “One day...to be me. Not a clone, not an experiment...to at least...pretend, to be human. Joy took out his assistant and decided to scan Yellow, hoping it would tell him how to give Yellow more time or save him. “We’ll be your friends and make sure you have the best day you can.” Joy tells Yellow. Scanning Life Form. Scanning… Scan complete. Subject is compiled from darkness and very trace amounts of human DNA. Subject’s current form is being damaged by two level nine illegal implants. Subject projected life span as is… thirty hours. Joy checked his assistant and tried to find a way to help the poor guy. “I doubt Memory Stealer could give you a second chance with...how you are...” Joy mumbles, hoping there's a way they could help. Suggested actions for prolonging subject’s life span require a tier ten admin level program. “Well fuck…” Joy frowned, only for me to put my hand on his head. “Its alright…” I tell him. “So...what do you want to do?” I ask Yellow, wanting to give him a nice day at least. “I just...want a day.” He repeated, falling to his knees. “All his memories from before he came to this multiverse...he never got to sit and watch the sun set.” I thought for a moment, before nodding. “I know exactly where we need to go.” I nod. “Remember Twilight Town?” I ask, hoping Yellow remembered Zeke playing Kingdom Hearts. “Yes. Zeke loved that world in the game. Spend hours in it, just staring at the sunset from the train station.” Yellow said with a smile. “The real thing...would be nice.” I nodded and opened a portal to Twilight Town. “And hey, we could have fun, do a Struggle match or two...and at the end eat some ice cream on the clock tower. Sound like a plan?” I ask, wanting to make his last day worth it. “Sounds like fun. Maybe...we could do what Roxas didn’t get to...and see what the beach looks like.” He said, getting back up and walking into the DTL. “You three look around...I need to help a friend.” I say while following Yellow through the DTL, and it closed behind me. “Let's hope they have fun...” Joy says, looking down and feeling a little sad that they couldn't save him. Arriving in Twilight Town, we found ourselves just outside the hangout spot from the game. Yellow took a look around. “Heh...looks better than in the game. Way better.” “Oh yeah.” I nodded. “You know...I don't think I've ever been here before…” I say, not sure if I've ever been to Twilight Town. “It’s nice. So calm.” Yellow said, placing a hand on the wall. “Funny, you all spend so much time...fighting...you don’t take the time to register that...it’s all real.” “I've had times when I stopped to know this was all real...just...wish it didn't involve me breaking down and crying…” I sigh out. “But...I wish we all had time to just...ya know, hang out and be friends. N enemies, no troubles...just a normal ass day where we could all just have fun and not care about the world.” “Hey you two!” We turned around, that voice being all to familiar to me. Seifer. Him and his three followers walking up to us. “You tourists or something? Never seen you two around before.” He asked. “You could say that.” I say to the teen. “Why do you ask?” “We’ve been looking for a burglar. Been taking things from computers out of people’s homes to...corpses from the graveyard. Not sure it’s the same guy, but those have been the only things stolen around town for the past week or so.” He explained. “The only witness says it’s a strange man in a lab coat.” One of his followers, Fuu, spoke. “Yeah. If you see something funny come looking for...hey…” He said, taking a closer look at me. “hmmm...Nice clothes. Something like that would definitely make me seem more official as head of the disciplinary committee.” “Oh this? My fiance actually made it.” I tell him. “But alright then...so we apparently have Doctor Frankenstein on the loose...and here I thought it was going to be a nice normal day.” “He hasn't hit in a few days.” His other follower, Rai, spoke. “But we think he might hit again.” Fuu finished. “You can find us typically here. Since Hayner, Pence, and Olette found a better place, we’ve taken this spot over as our base.” She explained, pointing to the gate door of an allie way. “Huh...kind of thought that was the best spot, it looks like a cozy spot.” I say, remembering that while the hangout spot wasn't exactly perfect it felt homey enough. “Hey Zack, want to do some….investigating?” I ask Yellow, calling him Zack so I didn't just call him Yellow, and hoping some detective stuff in Twilight Town would help him out. “Huh...I guess.” He replied. “Alright.” I nod. “So, you know where this guy might hit?” I ask Siefer and his gang. “He’s hitting homes for the computers, which is strange since shops would have more to collect. The only building I can think of is maybe an apartment down in the marketplace. It’s one of the few that hasn't been hit yet.” Siefer explained. “Right then.” I nodded. “Well we can look around and enjoy the day I suppose.” I shrug. “Alright then, and thanks for the help.” Siefer said, he and his gang leaving. “Well...we can at least figure out where stores are.” I say. “Yeah. Sea Salt Ice Cream?” Yellow asked, pulling out a framilier pink pouch. “It’s got a hundred thousand munny.” “Always thought that was orange for some reason...“ I mutter, seeing it up close making me see it's actually pink. “But sure, never actually had Sea Salt Ice Cream, so I wonder what it'll taste like.” I wonder. “Guess we’ll find out.” Yellow said, the two walking over the market place. “So while Twilight Town looks splendid as always there's some differences already.” I say, still curious on why the Hayner and company weren't at their original hang out. “Wonder if we’ll see more people here…” Sure enough, once the two entered the market area there were people all around. Bags and people carrying them moved around like traffic. In the center, was a framilier shop. The two walked up to it. “Greetings.” An elderly lady behind the counter said. “Hellp.” I nod with a smile. “How are you doing today?” I ask, trying to be friendly to the elderly woman. “Oh I’m fine dear. So, what would you like? I sell all sorts of sweets and drinks.” “Do you sell Sea Salt Ice Cream?” I ask the lady. “And glad to hear your doing well.” “Why yes. It’s a new flavor. Been out for some months. How many?” “Two please.” I say while getting some munny out to pay her. I gave her the munny, she gave me some change and she opened a freezer next to her, pulling out two of the iconic treats. She placed them into a small plastic bag, and handed them over. “Enjoy.” “Thank you.” I nod while taking the plastic bag from her. “Have a nice day.” I say kindly while turning around and heading to give Yellow his wonderful treat. We both took a bite. At first the taste was something close to a sour head, super sour and salty, then shifted to a light creamy sweetness. “Wow. Not bad.” Yellow said, taking another bite. “Not bad at all.” I say while enjoying the ice cream popsicle thing. “Wonder how it's made...” I wonder. “So, what next my friend?” “Dunno. From my memories that come from Zeke… I guess seeing how the group claimed the train station tower.” “My question is how the hell they even get up their everyday?” I point out, still wondering about that little thing. “But let's see how they did that.” I say while heading off to the clock tower. We got a bit lost on the way but found our way to the clock tower, and, as the games did not show, there was a door on the outside of the building for maintenance. Inside, for some reason it was unlocked, was a small hallway then a long spiral stairway up to the top. “So that’s how they did it.” Yellow said. “This seems oddly convenient…” I point out. “Wonder how they found this place...and good lord how strong are their legs if they have to walk up these everyday?” I frown. “Well...let's get walking.” “Well, now that that is settled. How about that beach? Train should be there. Seems like it’s always summer here.” “And always sunset.” I say. “Which since you don't know, apparently there's three time oriented town's, the third being Daybreak Town, along with this place and Traverse Town.” I explain to him. “But yeah, let's head down to the beach, I'd like to see what Roxas couldn't.” We entered, two train tickets to the beach being a thousand munny each was pricey, but we paid and got on. It was a two hour train ride, so I tried to make small talk with Yellow, there being only one other person on the train, a child in a hoodie with headphones in looking at a phone. “So…” I start, trying to think of something to talk about. “How's your day going?” I ask, not knowing what to talk about considering Yellow is gonna die in a day. “Best since I woke up.” Yellow said, looking out the window. “It was...strange, when I woke up.” “Woke up?” I ask curiously. “I’m a clone, remember? I was made in a Castle Oblivion Core somehow dragged into the realm of Darkness. I was made on floor seven, memories from Zeke’s family and bits Core somehow obtained from him directly stitched together and made into me. When I woke up, I just knew...I wasn’t...me...him. Everything felt different. My body, the way I looked at everything...even the way I felt things just felt...wrong.” “That's what happens when your created by a mad man.” I sigh out. “Everything feels wrong when your supposed to be one person but forced to be something your not.” “I chose to follow him.” Yellow admitted. “Even if you knew you would have been used as a murder machine and nothing else?” I ask curiously. “Yes. Fun fact about Zeke, while his heart is balanced, his mind isn’t. Never has been. His whole life, it’s been tug of war between his instincts, the want, desire to kill and fight, and to walk a moral path. I figured, if the original chose Morality, this fake can see what happens when when it lets the instinct and desire to take lead.” “Was it as bad as I think it was?” I ask. “Or because you like murder so much it wasn't as bad?” “Hard to tell. First life I took was...relieving. Like finally scratching a stubborn itch. I didn’t love or like it...but I didn’t hate it either. Core’s first order for me was to kill as many as I felt I could...I finally stopped after the ninth world.” I looked at him. “Of course you did…” I muttered. “And I suppose the ninth world was the one we found you on?” “No. It was the first, I went back there to die. It was a nice world. The people were a lot like on earth.” “So many lives...gone…” I sigh out. “When will this useless war stop killing trillions of innocent people?” I growl bitterly, thinking this whole light versus dark thing is bullshit. “That brings me to two very important things. One, the Embodiments now know Core is dead, and with their leader free now, they will start up again for the first time since before the world became the multiverse and the stars.” “Wait...because Core was dead...he kept the Embodiments in check?” I ask worriedly. “While he was weaker than them, he had several powerful creatures of darkness he managed to absorb and keep in check, including the leader of the Embodiments. That is what kept them in check, for as evil and wicked they are, they care about each other as much as any family. Now that he is free, there’s no reason for them to stay on the side lines.” “Ah shit…” I frown. “And...the other thing you wanted to say?” I ask, wondering what other important thing Yellow wanted to tell me. “...Even with Core dead, his followers and creations are trying to continue his work...including the Spy within Daybreak.” “Don't they know there's worse shit out there already?” I ask. “I think helping fight the worse things in existence would be better than continuing on a trail to getting themselves killed.” I frown, finding their thoughts a tad self destructive. “And...there's a spy in Daybreak?” “Yes. Been there since they took Core’s heart.” “Who?” I ask bluntly. “Don’t know. All I know is it’s someone high enough to know what the Council talks about...if it’s a member, then they are in trouble.” “Shit…” I frown. “Looks like I'm gonna have to go to Daybreak to look over it before shit hits the fan…” I sigh out. “I know one thing, a way to catch them. I know they have a Way to Dawn Keyblade.” Yellow said. “That should narrow the pool.” “Maybe…” I sigh out. “Things just keep getting worse and worse…” “Core opened the floodgates. They still are open. Question is...how do we close them?” “Someone with darkness powers, someone who can wield the X-blade, or the cock yoddlers that work for Core close it themselves.” I frown. “Damn it to hell…” “One issue at a time. Also...Here.” Yellow said, handing me a scrap of paper with three lines of ten numbers. “It’s the passcode for Core’s personal computer. Somewhere deep in the Realm of Darkness. It will have everything, everything he ever did...and how to undo it. Cure Time, make his half heartless and unversed test subjects normal again...and his diary.” “Hooray, stealth mission into Core’s personal base to steal all his shit…” I say while taking the paper and putting it in my pocket. “Hopefully if I'm there I can tell some people that fighting us is a terrible decision and fighting bigger problems would be a better choice…” I mumble. “Whatever the choice, it will be a long road til this is all over.” Yellow said as the train came to a stop. “Looks like we’re here. Time to see what Roxas never got to see.” He said as we got up and left the train. Outside was...ocean for as far as they eye could see. People playing and relaxing, vendors selling snacks and such, people surfing and fishing. “Wow...it’s nice.” Yellow said with a smile. “Beautiful.” I smile gently. “And here I thought Destiny Island was a nice sight. So what do you want to do first here?” “Fish. Zeke only did it once, and it was...nice.” “Well I'm not entirely sure if this is the best place to fish but I'm sure we could find a fishing boat in town somewhere.” I say, wondering how fishing would be. “And honestly, this will be my first time fishing.” “It’s not hard. Sure there’s a place with fishing gear somewhere around here.” While Ben and Yellow were fishing, Joy, Aqua, and Terra all searched the world, looking for answers to Aqua’s parents. “So much damage.” Terra said. “Yellow most likely did this...whether on his own or orders I have no idea.” Joy frowned. “But there has to be something here to give us a lead.” Joy mutters, still searching around. “Over here!” Aqua called out, Joy and Terra running over to her. She stood in front of a building. “Notice what’s up?” She asked. “Besides the building?” Joy asks, looking at the house in detail. “It’s the only thing standing whole.” Terra said. “How? With the work down everywhere...why is this building still standing?” “Either because it's enchanted, Yellow didn't want it destroyed, or something else.” Joy frowned, walking over to the building and knocking on the front door. “Hello?” Aqua walked up to the wall, she summoned her Keyblade and hit it, and it phased right though the wall. She used her free hand, and touched the wall. “A Keyblade can’t affect it. Can’t even touch it.” She said in awe. “Wonder how?” Terra questioned, walking next to Joy and trying to open the door. “Locked… And if Keyblades can’t affect it, how do we get in?” Joy summoned Lindworm and tried to poke the building with one of his spears, hoping it'll actually connect. It did not. “Okay…” He muttered while channeling Nothingness into his hand and trying to touch the building, wondering if a type of energy could touch it. Nothing happened when he touched it with nothingness. Aqua, taking her turn, took a deep breath… and kicked the door wide open. She then looked over at Joy and Terra. “You two overthink things a bit.” She said, walking in. “Well sorry if I was trying to figure out if his place was a mimic or something.” Joy frowned and walked in after her. All three instantly noticed that the inside was...larger than it should be. The door then shut closed behind them, each bringing out their Keyblades as something was heard moving around them, yet the room was too dark to see. “Is it a heartless?” Terra asked. Joy frowned and summoned one of his chakrams, setting it on fire to bring some light into the room. “Well let's see…” He muttered, ready for a sudden fight. At the edge of the flames light, there was a small machine of sorts. It’s metal rusted and bent. “What is that?” Aqua questioned. It’s size was no bigger than a moogle, but was like a snake and spider fused together. It’s face, a single, cracked glass lense. “Hello?” Joy asked, wondering if the machine was actually sentient, taking a careful step closer to the rusted machine. It made some kind of noise, then a green light flashed over the trio that came from the machine. It made a few more noises before it actually spoke. “T...Tes...Testing. Damn. Long time since I used this mic. Hello there. I’m Jonny.” It spoke from an unseen speaker. “Hello, the names Joy. And my two concerned friends here are Terra and Aqua.” Joy says to this Jonny. “Ah, well I already know Aqua. Long time no see, last time I saw you, you were bearly a year old.” Jonny said. “Wait, you...you know me? Did you know my parents?” Aqua asked. “Yes. They built me. Your father was an amazing engineer.” Jonny replied. “Well...that's something.” Joy muttered. “What were her parents names?” Joy asks curiously. “Her father was named Bradley, and her mother, Echo.” Jonny answered. “It’s good to see you have become a Keyblade Master Aqua, I am sure your parents would have been proud. So, I take it you are wondering why this building is immune to all forms of attacks, save for those performed by the body?” “Because the planet was reduced to a barren wasteland?” Joy asked bluntly. “And the people who made it didn't want it destroyed?” “This base has been hidden here for generations. The incident that took place several months ago leading to the mass extinction of life on the planet was...an unseen event, but, everything in this base is safe, as was the job of Aqua’s parents.” “Why...did they leave me on the Land of Departure then?” She asked. “It’s taboo for members within the organization to conceive a child. If they had kept you, your life would have been nothing but study, books, and research. You would never have been allowed to leave the base. They wanted you to have a life, so they left you with Ericis in hopes you’d find them someday after you became a proper Keyblade Master.” “But then why did they leave me a message saying that they were...dead?” “An experiment in the lower labs went bad. All active members developed severe levels of cancer, and had days to live.” “Cancer? Really?” Joy asks honestly. “I know it sounds bad but when you said an experiment went bad I either thought of a mutated monster or an explosion…” “No. They were experimenting with solar radiation and how it can be used in spells when it went wrong, those who weren’t immediately killed developed the cancer.” “But...why radiation though?” Joy asks worriedly. “Radiation is dangerous in any situation..” “Yes, but when infused with light, can be a powerful tool against the heartless.” “So...where are they...buried?” Aqua asked. “Floor fifteen. The Catacombs.” Jonny said, a doorway opening on the wall behind him, revealing an elevator. “Given you are blood to members, you have access to the whole base.” Jonny said to Aqua. “And can we join?” Joy asked, thinking that it was an Aqua only thing. “If Aqua says it’s alright, I can initiate the recruitment protocol.” “I mean Terra is marrying Aqua and I'm just a friend... “ Joy says, looking at Aqua for her answer to this. “Of course.” Aqua said. “Then follow me. Before we can head to the catacombs, it’s best we get you two registered.” Jonny said...walking...sorta, into the elevator as we followed him in. A bit of a wait later the doors opened and inside was something that looked like a doctors office. “You two take a seat, Aqua, you can head to floor fifteen if you wish.” “And why do we have to wait?” Joy asked curiously. “Doc bot is old.” Jonny said, he and Aqua heading down to the Catacombs while Terra and I waited in the doctor's office. After a while, a literal metal box on wheels rolled in here from a door that opened up on a different wall. “H-E-L-L-O. I. A-M. D-O-C. B-O-T.” It said with a very cartoony robot voice. “Oh my god.” Joy muttered. “Hi.” He says to Doc Bot. “P-L-E-A-S-E. D-E-P-O-S-I-T-E. B-L-O-O-D. S-A-M-P-L-E.” It asked, opening a compartment where two of the needle doctors and people with diabetes use to check blood sugar were as well as two cotton balls. “Guess we better get it over with.” Terra said, taking a needle and cotton ball, quickly pressing the button on the little device that drove the needle into his finger. With that done he squeezed out some blood and wiped it with the cotton ball, putting it back into the compartment it came from. “You’re turn.” Joy gulped down his whimper, not liking the fact he had to use a needle but bearing with it and giving the robot a small bit of his blood. “There…” The robot then took both samples back into itself. Some time and rather...strange noises. Finally, two cards popped out of it, Terra grabbing both as it rolled itself back into the doorway in the wall as it closed behind it. “Here.” Terra said, handing me an ID card apparently, it had my picture on it, as well as a barcode and nothing else. “Let’s go meet back up with Aqua.” “Let’s hope she didn't see anything...too bad yet.” Joy says worriedly before heading off to find Aqua. As they go down and the doors open on floor fifteen, they are met with a large all stone opening where a single set of old metal doors, one open slightly, were guarded by two sets of very old looking Keyblade armor on each side. “Wonder if those keyblade armor’s are sentient…” Joy says while walking up to the door Aqua most likely entered. Once inside, they saw many stone coffins lining hollowed out spaces within the walls, and it went on for quite the distance. “Well…” He muttered, seeing all the coffins and not sure where to start. “Must be further ahead. Come on.” Terra said, leading the way. At some point the hallway came to a fork, both stairways, one going up and one going down. “Which way do you think we should go?” Terra asked. “I'll go upstairs.” Joy said while taking the upstairs route. Terra nodded, going downstairs. Joy was met with, surprisingly, a plaque, names written rather tiny into the black/grey stone, painted with white to make them clearer to read. Terra was met with more coffins, though, these ones were set up in rows in a massive chamber lit by strange glowing crystals. Joy went up to the plaque, looking though the names. “Okay...so lets see these names…” He muttered to himself, looking through the names trying to find her parents. While Joy read though the list, Terra finally found Aqua, standing between two coffins, each bearing keyblades he’d never seen before. One was a red and gold patterned metal, the blade shaped like five suns with the tip being a purple and black, blackhole. The other, was like space itself made up the blade with a solar system as the tip. Slowly, he walked up to her. “Aqua?” She was silent, then finally spoke. “These are my parents Terra...their final resting place.” “Are their names here?” “Yes.” She placed a hand on the coffin with the space looking Keyblade. “May, my mother.” She placed her other hand on the other coffin. “Jack Brothmer, my father…” The sun was setting at the final few hours on Yellow’s time were coming to an end. “It was a nice day, huh?” Yellow asked me. “Was it a nice day for you?” I ask him. “Did today fulfill your final wish my friend?” “Heh. If I could have anything else, I’d like to make up for all the wrong I did under Core. Sadly, nothing can wash off that blood...Do you think there is an afterlife for things like me?” “There's an afterlife for everything. Whether they be good or bad that's up to what you choose to do...but I hope you have a good life in the beyond cause...you really didn't deserve to do such things…” I shook my head gently. “But...you going out with an explosion or what?” I ask, not sure what will happen when Yellow dies. “Yeah. The energy of about a multiverse worth of hearts from four different people reside in me and this false X-blade. When it finally breaks, I’d be ripping a hole through space itself. I already picked out a place I can go to where nothing will be harmed. From here, you’d be able to see it actually. Like fireworks from space.” “That's quite an explosion…” I say. “I hope Sora Riku and Kairi can rest in peace...Xehanort can suck a dick though…” I say, thinking all their souls and hearts will be free in the explosion. “Whatever happens, things will be set right… Let me ask, do you know what happens to a person whose heart is split in two?” “Wait...when a heart is split in two?” I ask curiously. “Like what happened to Zeke, the Foreteller’s friend Crow. Do you know what makes their splittings different than that of Ventus and Vanitus’s all those years ago?” “Either their light and darkness had more of a personality to start with.” I suggest. “But besides that...I have literally no idea. That is something completely new to me.” “Zeke and Crow’s hearts are balanced. Crow’s heart was unstable though, his light and dark half conflicting more than they did agree. If his heart was like Zeke’s, who’s light and dark halves both agreed and cared for each other, Crow could have wielded the X-blade. But this is also what makes them splitting so unique. “While being balanced, in a normal heart, one’s personality is linked to what is dominant in their heart, light or darkness. For Ventus, his light was the most dominant, so when he was split, his light half still held his true self, yet having balanced hearts, Zeke and Crow’s halves both have different, yet similar personalities to their whole self, yet the combined result that is Zeke or Crow is no more. But, as you know, nothing can really be destroyed or just disappear, so, where do you think it went?” “They reformed into something?” I ask. “No, they are moved. Core has lived a long time and performed many a unique and unorthodox tests, and came up with a theory. When a heartless is slain by a Keyblade, the heart is released, and the darkness that was the heartless is destroyed, but that’s impossible, and not all the darkness returns to the Realm of Darkness, same thing with Nobodies, they don’t fade to darkness, so when he split Crow and saw this unique difference between the two halves, he believed that what you would call the ‘True Crow’ and ‘True Zeke’ might have been placed into a space that acts as a placeholder for things that are ‘no longer existing’. And no, not the realm of nothingness, something else.” “Void?” I ask, thinking that's the only thing for ‘no longer existing’ stuff. “Something akin to it, he called it Purgatory. A place where energy that’s displaced ends up. He thinks if it does exist then it must have been made when the original ‘Homeworld’ was split into the many worlds and reflections we have now. That’s when the most energy would have been misplaced and displaced, and the first time it would have happened.” “Huh...that's interesting.” I nod. “Wonder if such a place does exist…” “Core tried to see if it did, but it’s hard to tell. It’s not like a reflection, so it’s a theory until proven otherwise.” “And technically I could ask someone if it does exist...but I think he's busy at the moment.” I say, not sure if Cript would have the time to talk considering he was busy. “Well…” I mutter, pulling out my Assistant and sending Cript a message about this Purgatory Yellow explained, wondering it indeed exists. ”Long time no see their.” Both my and Yellow’s backs crawled with fear at hearing that voice. We both turned around, seeing Zeke’s Psychopath light half...and that parallel me… I sent a call to Cript, saying it was an emergency. “Why hello there me...and...whatever your name is I accidentally forgot.” I say nervously, not sure what to do here. ”Just Psychopath. Finally met up with my Kin and we all got down to discussing our plans. As it turns out, we have a means to bypass a special requirement thanks to this host.” “Is it how to make cookies and throw none murderous parties?” I ask worriedly. “If we find and force Drezke to reunite with his light half here, Psycho can take over, and wield the X-blade.” My parallel spoke. ”With him whole and your realms precious kingdom hearts under my control, dead, the weak living, heartless and nobodies alike will be hosts.” I was about to say something about their plan, but something struck me as odd. “You do know sooner or later you'll just kill yourselves right?” I ask. “If you murder everything like you want...there will be nothing tk murder but yourselves...and you can’t kill a fact right? So...you're being a bit self destructive here.” ”We are the fact of murder, and you can’t kill that, this is true...unless there is nothing left to kill. The final death of the last living thing will be the death of ourselves as well. Destruction of everything, even ourselves, is beauty in our eyes.” “Well your opinion is wrong and you should feel ashamed about it.” I frown. “Destruction is fine to some extent, like blowing up a random bike with C4...this spiral of death is stupid and pointless and you know it.” I frown. Psychopath just smiled. ”And that’s what makes it fun.” He then was in front of me, holding me by my neck and gripping tighter. Come on, fight me, it will call Drezke here and make my job easier.” “I call bull on you snuffing out Zekes light half.” I growl, clawing at his hand and trying to get him to stop choking me. “If you did...then why didn't you go to Zeke’s world and kill everyone?” I ask, summoning my keyblade and slashing at his arm to get him off me. ”Because Cript is watching over it.” He said, my slashes not even cutting him. He increased his grip. ”That blasted reflection is the only being aside from the ones from where I was first born to be able to stand against me and even kill my links directly.” I raised my eyebrow at that, cutting my hand and dripping blood on Reunion. When I barely noticed it was turning a grayish red I swung my keyblade at him quickly, trying to get him off my neck. That seemed to work, a gash on his arm and he let go of me. I let air go into my lungs again as he chuckled, his wound healing up quickly. ”Not bad. That actually hurt.” “Ben…” I turned around...seeing Drezke there. “I warned you.” “Was choking to death, shut the fuck up and run. You being here is giving them exactly what they want.” I say worriedly, summoning Frozen Pride and readying myself to fight. As Psycho took a step, Yellow grabbed Drezke, holding the false X-blade up to his neck. “You can tell I’m unstable. Can’t you, you freak. Take another step, I accelerate my decay, taking you, Drezke, and this whole world out. Even if you survive, I doubt Drezke will.” I tried calling Cript again, saying it was a Psychopath emergency in hopes that'll get his ass here sooner. “Listen to him, he will explode and kill everyone. You won't be able to come together again and try to force your will on everyone.” I say, hoping words will help solve this. Psychopath smirked. ”Heh, respect… Do it.” He said, taking a step forward. ”The Genocide will be worth it.” I tried to think for a moment, trying to figure out what to do. I could try to be a distraction and let them escape...or I could be an idiot and do something stupid. “Hey look Cript!” I shout and point to a random direction to try and distract them, rushing over to Yellow and Drezke and readying my first attempt for a Door To Nothingness. ”Please let this work…” I think to myself worriedly, grabbing the two and pulling them into an opening DTN. Joy read through every name, finding Aqua’s parents after Terra walked up with Aqua. As it turned out, Joy was in the records room. And they found the files. There was a video log for Aqua from her parents. They played the video, Aqua’s dad was where she got her blue hair, and she looked a lot like her mom, who was a blond haired version of her, only older by at least ten years. ”Aqua, if you are seeing this, you have found the long forgotten base of the ancient guardians. It’s likely dead now.” Her father spoke. “Aqua, I know you have a million questions, and sadly, I don’t think any of them will be answered, but know this. We love you, and we...we only gave you up so you can have a life, see the worlds, not be cooped up in some lab for your whole life.” Her mother spoke. “These may be the only words you hear our voices say, and we are sorry for that.” “We have high hopes you live your life to the fullest. Wether you use this place to help the world's or choose to let the it rest in peace, we will respect your decision.” “On floor seven, the control room for this whole base, there will be two buttons on a large metal table in the furthest edge of the room. The one on the left will let this place rest, the one on the right will breath a new life Into both the world, and the base. It's your choice Aqua, make it matter.” “And remember.” “Let your heart be your guiding key.” “Ugh...my head.” I grunt, feeling like I was just hit by a bus. I try and stand, haphazardly regaining my balance...why is everything dark? “The hell?” I mutter, rubbing my eyes to try and clear them. When I opened my eyes there was some light, like the kind in an interrogation room, and infront of me, were words written in some sort of stone. To define one's uniqueness is to know yourself when lost in infinity “Weird….” I mutter, mulling over what I just read. “Know myself when lost in infinity?” I blinked...and saw...me...countless me’s. I could see through all of their eyes...where... where's MY body?! ”Find you.” A whisper like voice spoke. “Great...one of these puzzles…” I mutter, hearing my own words echo as I tried to find me. “Okay...so where to start…” I echo, starting to think this is some Where’s Waldo shit. I took a deep breath and started to move around, seeing myself move around as well. I flew around, ducking around to see better, but the puzzle still seemed confusing to me. I frowned before taking a deep breath, closing my eyes, and started to focus on all of my senses, feeling something off in the distance. I started to move towards the spot I felt it didn't seem to be moving away. What felt like an hour later I reached out and grabbed what I sensed, opening my eyes to see what I grabbed. I was...in my body again, and in front of a door like the ones in castle oblivion. There were fourteen locks, seven on each side, four of them were lit up, and has the outline of my card deck, gun arrows, scythe, and reunion next to them. The rest were dark and had no image next to them. “So this is the final gate huh?” I wonder to myself, seeing the four lights. “Hmm…” I mutter while summoning the four weapons in question, and the ones had the writing on it. “Maybe it's because of the writing?” I wonder, looking around to see if someone else was here. When I turned around, I saw there was another door, this one like the one from the beginning of Kingdom Hearts one, and it was open. “Well okay then.” I nod, disbanding my weapons. “Don't worry, I'll get off my ass and master the other weapons.” I say to the inanimate door, knowing someone was behind it as I walked towards the open door and entered it. Once through it, I was...this is my Station of awakening. There was me, and it looked like a Dusk suit was being shed off of me, showing me in my old white cloak, a circle with each of my wives faces in it, Joy, and the others I met who were from earth. Each smiling, and several more that were blank...for the ones to come… I was holding Reunion in my hand...there was something else there, under where the Dusk was being ‘shed’ off of me...I walked over to it, and saw Rejection...setting down against a wall surrounded by darkness. “The hell are you doing here?” I ask, wondering why Rejection was here. “Because you’re an idiot.” I jumped, turning around...and saw Rejection was there. He looked like a black furred, grey haired version of me with green eyes. “I was gonna say it looked more like a good metaphor of me shedding away my rejection and the feeling of being nothing.” I explain. “But if your still here and Joy is looking around a planet with Terra and Aqua...I have a feeling we still have some unfinished business.” “You fool. I am more than just a neglected emotion. I. Am. Your. Darkness. The darkness in your heart. You’ll never be rid of me.” “Sounds good to me, having another voice in my head helps make me feel more at home.” I chuckle. “You laugh now, but every ounce of pain, sorrow and grief you have experienced in life, I feel every second of every day because your darkness is where you shove it all. Like a child putting unwanted toys under the bed or in the backmost corner of the closet.” “Hmm…” I hum. “I'm sensing a sudden trend here...like what Yellow talked about with Crow and Zeke…” I frown. “So my shadowy friend, how are we going to bond over this?” I ask, feeling like it's going to be a bonding type thing between me and my darkness. “We are not like Crow, Zeke, or even Eclipse. Darkness was never meant to exist. You and I, my other half, are stuck like this. There are only two ways out of this shit hole all hearts deal with.” “I'm a stubborn fuck, so there's going to be a third.” I state. “But mind reminding me about these two ways?” He summoned a Keyblade...my old Dusk Blade. “You die.” He then raised it up to his neck. “Or I do.” “Or we could do what Zeke, Crow, and Eclipse did.” I state. “Light, Darkness, Nothingness and Void...you can't have one without the other. A lot of people on any side believe only one can prevail for some fucking reason.” I roll my eyes. “So how about we figure out how to both live without the murder. Okay?” “...Remember these?” He asked, lifting up his sleeve...I remember those cuts. “From the writs up to the inner elbow. That’s what you want when you want results. We learned that from the internet, didn’t we.” I gently held my arm at the sight. “Yeah…” I sigh out. “But...if you look down, you can see all the new things that kept us both alive...and gave us something we thought was impossible.” “Maybe for you.” He said, covering his arm. “Even with all this happiness, you are full of doubt, fear, worry. You talked with Celestia just earlier today about your fears, and where do you think that sewer truck of emotions, worry and grief off loads. At least Zeke’s light and darkness share that crap… Darkness’s like me… I don’t believe there’s hope for us in that regard.” “That's because you haven't been given a helping hand yet.” I say to him. “I'm sorry you have suffered keeping all the pain on your shoulders...but I'm here…” I say. “And all my...our wives are here for us both. Don't be the glass half empty man in an orgy full of sexy women.” Rejection chuckled. “Since when were we the pep talk type?” “Since we...finally got the second chance we hoped for.” I smile. “Or maybe it was after we finally get to nail Celestia...it was somewhere in between there I'm sure.” I chuckle. “Sheesh, it's barely been a full year and...look where we are now?” “Yeah. I guess we have come a long way in a short amount of time.” Rejection said, holding out a hand. “Time for you to wake up now, me.” “Don't worry me, you'll be feeling more joy than pain from here on okay?” I say to him, not entirely sure why he raised his hand but I raised my fist up. “Fist bump?” I ask with a smile. “Heh. Dork.” He said, fist bumping mine. “So...What do you wanna do Aqua?” Terra asked, he, Aqua and Joy in the room with the buttons, facing the table that would decide if the Guardians of Light would live again, or die quietly. “It’s up to you.” Joy says to Aqua simply. Aqua was hesitant. The fate of a whole ancient society was in her hands. She gulped. “I...I think I know what to do.” To be continued... Nobody's trip to the futureMy Training with Arpeggio was simpler that my other weapons so far. The basics of it was learning to align my thoughts/actions with the tune of the music I played. Demy helped me memorized the healing spells, which thankfully the longest of which was half a minute, but healed the most, but also the slowest. Demy even showed me some of the more frowned upon songs affiliated with it’s spells. Some were understandable. Mind control, causing internal bleeding, freezing one targets blood from within, others were a tad strange, such as a spell called Incubation, the song of which was a challenge to play, and the result would be an aquatic, sentient creature that did what told until death. “Now then, Ben, Remember this one Key rule,” Medy began explaining as I listened with intent. “If you are performing a massive spell, and let your emotions cloud your focus, one wrong flick of the strings and the spell and/or attack will backlash at you, and you will die. Only one person has ever survived a Master level spell with these kinds of weapons backlashing, and that was because his ally was a good healer.” “Okay then…” I said. “Honestly...I thought this would be the most complicated considering I'm learning to wield a weapon, waterbending, how to play certain music, and learn how to play this thing in the first place.” I said honestly. “You can make up songs off the top of your head, but learning to play these weapons are really the hardest part, and memorizing what notes to play the song for attacking and spellcasting is fairly easy.” Medy explained, tuning his own instrument/weapon. I never looked at his closely. It was wood, unlike Arpeggio, which was a metal of some sorts, and had runeworks of sorts engraved along the neck and a few nics, knife carved from the looks of it, in its body. Seven in all. “What's with the runes and knife nics?” I asked curiously. “Hm?” He pondered, proceeding to look upon his own weapon. “Oh, right. This was my dad’s. Growing up my sis and I worked with Mom, Dad, and my uncle working on our kelp and koral farm. Sharks were a real pain back home, and whenever dad killed a big one, and I mean bigger than you and I stacked on top of one another, he carved a nic into his weapon with one of their own teeth.” “And he killed seven of them?” I asked, finding this fascinating. “Yup. Their teeth made great knives, jaws made good decor, and the meat sold well. All in all we did well…” “I'm sensing a ‘but’ here.” I said worriedly. “Dad lent me his to practice with some friends in town… when I came back, there was only my sister...and a lot of blood and...limbs. It was a smaller shark, and a bit fat, but fast. It got what it wanted and left. After that Trident ordered guards to patrol the whole farming oceans. Mad work hard, and for our loss, he gave us a steady allowance from the crown that will continue until that money is needed elsewhere. Elsewhere came when I was about sixteen. By then sis was working in a salon and I just messed with this thing, feeling...responsible… I left, walked dry land for a long time till I came across a world traveler I hitch hiked with. Time went on, one thing led to another. I’m twenty two now and not too long ago you saved my sis and I from slavery.” “Okay then.” I said. “That's...quite a thing.” I muttered. “But...you still have a good life right now right?” “I’m putting dad’s tool to good use. I’d say so.” Demy said simply, finishing his tuning. “Alright then, well, that’s about it. I taught you everything I know.” “Now, do I just get it with you saying ‘I mastered it’ or do I have to beat you in a fight?” I frowned, looking over Arpeggio for the symbol to show I mastered it. “These may be weapons, but they are still instruments dude, no one can ‘Master’ these things, it’s just how much skill you have.” “Ya see, my other weapons actually had symbols on them to signify I've mastered them…” I told him, pulling out Fair Game and showing him the symbol on it. “Its appeared for all my other weapons either through fighting my master, doing a specific thing or was told I mastered it.” “Well, I dunno what to tell you there. If it’s a fight you need sorry, look elsewhere. I only use Dad’s tool to protect and heal, fighting and duals are a big no.” “Okay then.” I said, still looking over the thing. “Sorry…” “It’s alright.” Medy said, standing up and stretching. “Well, I’m gonna head back to the hospital. Kids are gonna be let out soon, and I wanna play them a few more tunes before they head home.” “Alright.” I nodded. “Hope it'll all go well.” I said, wondering what I have to do to fully master it. “Hey...what is the purpose of this?” I asked, motioning to my Sitar. “Like...as a ‘weapon’.” “Huh...Well I’m not sure. Did you make it?” Medy asks, tilting his head as he pulled his arms behind his head to lean it into the connected grip of his hands. “No…” I said. “Funny thing is...in another time this was your Nobody’s weapon.” I said, handing Arpeggio over to him. “You can look it over if you want.” “Huh?” He said, taking the weapon/instrument in his hands. I could tell from his expression that it felt natural for him to hold it. “It’s...quality made, that’s for sure. Titanium strings, a body made from I don’t even know what, but this thing looks like it can tank if used as a blunt object.” He said, finally letting himself play a few strings, before hearing the first few notes, then proceed to toss it half into the water. “I hate it.” “Why do you hate it?” I asked, walking over and picking it out of the water. “Is it not tuned or what?” He sat in the sand, legs crossed as he bore a rather grumpy expression. “It’s perfect. It’s body built to resonate the music for ears great distances away can hear, string so well tuned and strong, the player never need fear a retuning or a string breaking. It’s the perfect weapons for fighting, and the perfect instrument for playing, but, it lacks heart. When you play it, it sounds fine, but when I played it, the notes felt tuneless, and hollow.” I held Arpeggio and played the notes gently. “Dance Water Dance.” I said, closing my eyes and playing a tune that seemed to come to me when I said that, water swirling around me as water clones were made, the music sounding soothing and nice, but held a mysterious undertone that only water could hold. When the song ended, and the water clones disbursed, Demy sat there, expression unchanged but thoughtfulness was in his eyes. “I just don’t get it.” He said, sighing. “In your hands, it played properly, in mine...it was emotionless.” I frowned, looking over it. “Hmm…” I muttered, deciding this time to use my Assistant to see what was up with this thing. Arpeggio Type: Instrumental Weapon Att: Varies Def: 0 Mag 20 Arpeggio was created with unique ores found only within The Realm Between, AKA, Nothingness. These ores rarely slip into the realms of light and darkness, and outside it’s respected realm, is nearly indestructible. It’s the only weapons of the Organization 13, to be crafted with these materials and in this manner. When played by a Nobody, or being possessing Nothingness, it will play with heart, and it’s music will influencing the spells and attacks used with it(+15 to physical attacks, +17 to magic attacks/spells typically). But, when wielded by a being with a heart and no connection to Nothingness it’s music will play hollow, and empty, and drastically reduce its effectiveness(-20 to Physical attacks, -25 to magical attacks/spells). “Okay then, apparently this thing was made from materials in the Realm of Nothing...so that's why it's hollow for you and not me.” I said simply. “Huh. What about it's sewn in song?” Medy asked, much to my confusion. He rolled his eyes at this. “Each of these weapons has a special sewn in song, the song given to it that holds a special place to it's wielder/player.” “No idea…” I said, gently plucking the strings. “Hmm…” I muttered, wondering if it's the same song that Demyx used in his fight. “Sewn in music…” I muttered, trying to figure out what kind of song this thing had. “A song that holds a special place to me…” I muttered, lost in thought as I just played whatever came to mind. The notes I played felt...random. There wasn’t a tune or rhythm. Damn it. “Maybe you should try to keep a clear head. These songs aren’t exactly easy learn if your sitar was acquired rather than made.” “Maybe…” I muttered, taking a deep breath and trying to clear my usually clouded head. “Hmm…” Clearing my mind was a tad troubling, but I soon could hear the faint sounds of it’s Sewn in Song. It wasn’t what I expected, but it was pretty good all the same. It was very up beat, alive, and full of life. “Holy shit.” Demy said. I opened my eyes and Arpeggio was glowing, runes running along its neck, it’s color changing from a pale blue to a bright, vibrant blue, and it’s mastered symbol was on it’s top. “Now that...was cool.” I smiled. “Hooray!” I cheered happily. “Never heard of the song but I liked it.” I said honestly, glad to see it was more bright and the master symbol was there. “Know the song?” “Nope. Never heard of it.” Demy stated. “Well, guess you’re done here. What next for you?” “Next up…” I said, checking my Assistant for the time so I didn't miss my meeting with Death. The time was still pretty early. I had at least three hours to kill. “No idea…” I frowned, but my stomach growled. “Okay maybe food time, know any good places around here?” I asked, not really knowing the layout of New Manehattan. “Nope. We just have the Cafe, food donations from all around are sent and served there. No restaurants have been built here yet.” “Right, well better go off to the Cafe...actually, do you know where Papyrus is?” I asked curiously, having forgotten to try and talk to the guy considering Sans gave him the crown if memory serves. “Just wondering.” “In the Cafe. He cooks there all the time.” Demy said. I was going to reply, but I felt this twinge in my head, this...agonizing roar of...something. Something was very, very wrong with Nothingness. I lurched, clutching my head as blood came from my eyes, nose and mouth. Something was being made...something that Nothingness can’t stand for. “Fuck me…” I mutter, weakly snapping my fingers as a DTN appear. “Okay you...take me to...wherever the hell…” I muttered, curing myself so I felt good enough before entering the portal to whatever the hell is going on. I walked into it, and collapsed, seeing an armored foot step before me as all went black. I woke up sore all over. Everything was...pain. Wincing, I moved to get up. I saw my cloak was missing, and I was in a bedroom. The decor was...surreal. Grey, white, and black, with only the wood and a few paintings and tapestries popping against the colors. I noticed the door, the Nobody symbol painted on the dark brown wood… Am I...in the castle? “Don’t. Move.” A voice said. I looked around, not seeing anything or anyone...until I looked up. My eyes widened at the sight of an old man, eye’s long since gone bad, all wrinkled skin and bones, hair a light grey, and wearing a cloak that bore similarities to the Sniper nobodies… he was pointing Sharp Shooters at me. “My king has ordered me to keep you here until he arrives.” “I was going to go to...wherever the hell that massive disturbance was...why am I here?” I asked groggily, still in pain from whatever the hell happened. “The King needs you. You are now the only one in line for his crown. What Kexez has done, tossed him out for the running.” “Valingar.” The door opened with the King of Nothing entering, looking up and who must be...the Archer. “You can take your leave.” The old man nodded, teleporting away as the king walked up to me. “How are you feeling, my heir?” He asked. Calm and sympathy in his voice. “Oh you know, just got done mastering Arpeggio and then suddenly Kexez is being a cunt. So I’d say I'm doing fine." I said honestly. “So, besides me not having dried blood on my head, what happened?” “Kexez, and the Nobody known as Spoiled Rich. You know them both, correct?” “I didn't know Spoiled was a Nobody but yes, I do know the two I want to murder.” I said honestly. “They have formed an alliance, and committed an act that disobeys the natural order of all realms. Kexez, Nothingness, and Light, Spoiled, Nothingness and darkness. What they created will be a great danger to us all.” “Is it worse than a Delete?” I asked curiously. “It may as well be. Tell me, what do you know about Nobodies like Spoiled and Kexez?” “Ones fueled by Psychopath blood and the other is a complete and total bitch. But Organization level nobodies? Um...not much to be perfectly honest.” I said with a frown. “All I know is that they're strong enough to keep their original bodies and selves to a certain extent if that's at all correct.” “Correct. Typically, without a heart, their bodies are also infertile. However, Kexez’s connection to Kingdom hearts overrides that, and all the darkness Spoiled has collected within her allows her to work around such restrictions. In sort, they are parenting a being of light, darkness, and nothing. I’ve allowed Spoiled, Core before her, and Kexez to exist because they interested me with what they have done, but this has gone too far. Never have all three been brought together. Such a being could unravel the laws that keep the balance between the four realms.” “And now all they need is Void and out comes Captain Planet.” I said sarcastically. “But great, I need to murder an infant because their too strong apparently, wonders.” “It won’t be that easy Ben. This child will be protected. Imagine it, a heart fueld with Non Existence, and forged from the strongest of light and darkness. While so much as near Spoiled while she has this abomination growing within her, every heartless in the realm of darkness will be after you, and Nobodies may not obey you if it’s will is stronger. If this child is born, then from there it becomes a battle of who takes it to raise.” He placed a hand on my shoulder, and even though he was fully armored, I could feel him staring into mine. “If this child is not killed before it’s birth, whoever takes it and raises it will have a weapon the likes of which the X-blade might not overcome.” “Well...that's not good.” I frowned. “But...might as well keep the child away from Spoiled and Kexez.” I said, not sure how this whole thing is gonna work out. “If you can not kill it before it is birthed, then keep it away from evil influences. Whatever it is, it will be the first, and let’s hope only one of it’s kind.” “If I've learned anything from this crazy life of mine, it's only going to get worse.” I shook my head. “Like how I thought Core was the big bad, then Psychopaths...and then Deletes and their Galactus rules...” I frowned. “But...all I can hope for is that the kid, when he's born cause fuck if it's going to be an ‘if’, is that he or she is raised by a good family and treated right.” I say honestly, not sure if I'll be the lucky guy to have the super baby here. “So, know anyone that can teach me how to use Ethereal Blades or a Claymore?” I asked, hoping to know about those two so I can speed up training as well as know who I can train with cause I don't know anyone who can train me in those two weapons. “Hm. My General and Archer are the only ones of the original council of mine still alive. Claymore I can teach, but the Ethereal blades are a whole other matter entirely.” “Of course…” I sighed out. “But that's great to know.” “Once you have mastered Lunatic, I will inform you about how to Master the Ethereal blades. Understood?” “Yep.” I nodded. “So, where's the training area?” “There is none. At least, not anymore.” The king said, exiting the room as I followed. Outside this room was...ruins… Walls crumbled and cracked, large sections of roof caved in or collapsed completely. We came to a bridge… There was a long fall down to an unseeable ground...but all I could see of what should have been a massive and tall castle, was part of a corner of what must have been the main building, and the tower behind us we exited. “God damn…” I muttered. “What happened?” “This castle as I and the rest of the council were here before your single reality and world became multiple. Core breaking it apart, creating the stars and the multiverse shattered this castle. Your realities were never meant to be what they are, they existed to be whole.” He said simply, his voice toneless and emotionless. Still, I could feel hints of sadness. “This castle was large enough that all of Home and then some could all walk and live in it without worry or overcrowding and lack of space. Now, bearly a nano percentage remains.” “Well...I'm sure I can fix it up.” I said honestly. “If the worlds and realities are made whole again, then this castle’s damage will also be undone. Till such time this castle is to remain as is, a reminder of its past glory. Rebuild the building but lose it’s meaning. At least Ruins and rubble can tell history.” “True…” I said. “But rebuilding can help bring back said glory, sometimes it's good to rebuild great things.” The king kept walking, but turned his head to look at me. “Perhaps when you claim the crown, you can make that change. For now so long as I adorn it, this place will remain as is.” “Of course.” I nodded. “So, how am I going to learn Lunatic?”I asked, not knowing how this weapon would be taught. “One of the few remaining rooms here is the Cathedral. It’s there where my General lives and awaits orders.” He said, stopping just before an edge of the unstable floor to a far...far drop. “So...it's down there?” I asked curiously,not knowing the layout of the place. “Yes, don’t worry about the fall, ths realm has no meaning to injury or death.” He spoke, before kicking his heavy foot into my back and sent me falling. Trying, I attempted to summon any weapon to help me fly...none came. “Shit!” I yelped, trying to fly without any of my weapons since I mastered them. “Come on…” I muttered worriedly. Sadly, nothing came to me, and I hit the ground...hard. I wasn’t dead, but I was really sore. I groaned from the pain as I forced myself up. The ground shook with a loud crash that appeared next to me. The king landed on his feet, seemingly unphased by the fall. “I expected you able to call forth at least one of your weapons.” He said. “I don't know why none came…” I frowned, trying to summon any of my weapons again. “Hmm… I was afraid of this.” The king said, crossing his arms in thought. “Unlike Keyblades, our weapons have no counterparts, when given to a chosen council member, they are given a weaker copy. Since you summon my weapons, and vise versa, while we are within the same reality, only the strongest of us can summon them. For this I must leave Nothingness while you train with Grapth. So the weapons may come to you.” “Well that sucks.” I frowned. “But...I suppose it makes enough sense I suppose. So, Grapth...what kind of person are they?” I asked, wanting to know who I was going to deal with at least a little before meeting them. “I met Grapth in my travels, before I became king of nothing, before this realm had such title.” He started, walking as I followed him. “He wanted to create a weapon as large as a claymore, but was built for attacking area’s outside it’s point of impact. His end result was Lunatic, a weapon forged from a moon that survived it’s own solar systems destruction when it’s sun collapse into itself, and became a black hole. Grapth himself has been rather stirn, speaking only what needs to be spoken and being the image of blunt. He cuts no corners or gives slack.” “Wait, Lunatic was made from a moon that survived a sun collapsing? Damn.” I said, honestly surprised by my weapons history. “But okay then, better to have a straightforward teacher than anything.” “Yes. Fact is, The General is the only one of the council who can take the crown if the current king is to fall without an heir. In truth, Lunatic is stronger than Skysplitter in both speed, strength and density. In fact, under the moon, Lunatics power can equal that to a moon crashing full speed into a world, obliterating it to the core. Skysplitter may be able to split a world in half, but Lunatic is the strongest of all the weapons we’ve forged.” “Wow.” I said. “But...What about my other weapons? I know Graceful Dahlia came from a Demon Tree, but what about the others?” I asked, intrigued by the weapons origins. “Hm. I guess we have some time.” He spoke, leading me into what what must have been one impressive library in it’s time, but now, books and scrolls lay scattered all around. Twilight would be pissed. He took a seat at the only table in the room, as did I. “So, which do you want to know about first?” The king asked, several Dusks came up, placing bowls of fruit, sandwiches and some drinks and cups for us before leaving. “Lindworm, let's go with one of my favorite weapons.” I said, looking over the food. “Alright then. Now tell me, how many spears makeup Lindworm?” “Six if memory serves.” I said. “Heheheheheh, only six?” He questioned me with a laugh. “Lindworm is made from wind itself. So long as there's air, you can summon forth countless of them. At a cost, however. The more you summon, the less air their is in the world you are on. Summon too many, the world you are on will choke.” “Oh…” I frowned. “Thats...a thing. Well...let's go with Fair Game here.” “Fair game was made from materials found not of this dimension. It’s metals come from a dimension completely alien to all reflections. As you can guess they’re work through telepathy, changing size, sharp to dull, physical attacks to magic attacks, and can create pocket dimensions within the second dimension, allowing you to imprison those weak enough to be captured.” “Dorlu helped make me learn that.” I said honestly. “What about Skysplitter? I always wondered why it was called Skysplitter when it's an earth weapon.” “Skysplitter was...found, actually. It’s name from an epic battle we fought against demons eons back. It fell from the sky itself and its impact created a blast so powerful everything for ten thousand miles around was wiped out. My bridge keeper claimed it as a trophy, but it’s true origins were never known to us wholly.” “Huh. Looks like I'm gonna do some research on the thing.” I said, finding that interesting. “Frozen Pride?” “A comet that lost it’s speed, and was stuck in space. We realized it’s magical properties and soon came to understand that, is the wielder wanted it so, it’s ice could stop fifteen suns exploding and could become sharp enough to penetrate through dimensions and tear space apart. That, however, requires an almost lethal amount of magic.” “Cool...uh...no pun intended.” I said nervously. “What about my Lexicon? Book of...Retribution I think it's called?” “Ah. That one was a proud moment for us all. It’s a book crafted with illusion. In fact, that book technically does not exist, yet exists in all places in space and time, there fore, all answers you’d ever need can be found within its infinite pages.” The king then laughed, taking a drink of ale through a small crack in his helmet. “Well, save for one answer.” “What's that?” I asked curiously. “Cript’s death. Time and time again since I met him I searched for that answer, and time and time again the pages displayed blank to me. That means one of two things. Either the book does not know, or Cript is truly immortal… or perhaps he has always been dead. Who knows?” “I do…” I said. “Truth took it...the thing from Full Metal Alchemist took his death.” “Truth? Oh, then that is an issue… or perhaps it was part of events meant to transpire?” The king said, making me tilt my head in confusion. “Truth exists across all time, from the very beginning, to the eventual end. Some argue that Truth, and the Admin that made this realm before it was given to Cript worked together to forge it. It might be possible, given that information, that Cript’s stollen death, was used to become a fact of creation, and is the very reason all things seem to die...save for him. If you look at it like that, it’s a paradox in a sense.” “Wow…” I muttered. “That...is a thing.” I said, taking an apple and biting into it. “But...what about Eternal Flames?” I asked, wondering about my chakrams. “Forged from twin suns, both so small yet burns so hot they melt space itself. Making them was tricky, but once we crafted them, their fires can burn so hot they can create suns in empty space, and bring enough light to make the landscapes of void itself visible for several feet. That, is a near impossibility.” “Jeez, talk about needing a light.” I said in surprise. “Interdiction, why not go to light sabers here.” “I forged them personally.” The king admitted, making my eyes rise up. “Core claimed to be the first Nobody, but that title is rightfully mine.” He said, summoning one of them in his left hand. “Half my heart went into one blade, the other half, the second blade. Equal parts light and darkness within each. They are the strength of a heart put into weapon form. So long as you use them with courage and bravery, and fear no threats, their strength will not waver from you.” “Wow.” I blinked. “Maybe I should have left that for last cause...that's quite a thing.” I said honestly. “Um...I was told about Sharpshooters, apparently their some really expensive and rare gun arrows made from either stars or actual suns…” I said. “Is there anything about Sharpshooters I don't know about?” “No, actually, that’s about it. Most are magic based or enchanted in some way, but the ones the Archer uses are his own creation...he makes and sells them for a hefty profit. His loyalty is undeterable, but his greed often gets the better of him. Then again, can’t say I blame him. When I met him he was a penniless thief who couldn’t rob me with a dagger held at my throat. I took him along originally for extra carry weight, but when trouble came he picked up a crossbow and his true talents shined. He’s the oldest of my allies, and I’m glad he’s still alive with me to this day.” I nodded. “Yeah...funny how similar he sounds like Braig.” I chuckled. “But...what about Arpeggio? Seems like a pretty special sitar if only Nobody’s or people with the power of Nothing can use it.” “It was made when we first began crafting this castle. It was an attempt to infuse Nothing into a nonliving object. It worked, but it became weaponized, and bound to water when it spilled upon it. It was the first and only of its kind.” “Interesting.” I said. “And I guess Foudre was literally made out of lightning?” “Close. We forged them from Thor’s baby teeth. Hehehehehe. We are banned from Asgard till the end of time itself.” He began laughing from fond memories. “Too bad too, they have the best ales and booze.” “Huh...I wonder if that extends to me.” I wondered. “Question...given that things are a bit weird...do you know who Organization Thirteen is?” I asked curiously. “Of course. Despite they only exist in a single reflection now, I know well of them. Imposters, copy cats, but their motives weren’t as noble as yours.” The king said… One reflection...but didn’t Core…? “Wait, what do you mean ‘one reflection’? And imposters? I mean, sure they wanted to create their own Kingdom Hearts but…” I trailed off, not knowing how different they are. “I just call them imposters for daring to wield our weapons without my authority. As for their existence...you didn’t feel it?” “There's a lot of things I don't know, plus I...barely trained with Nothingness to begin with so there's that.” I frowned. “What did I miss while I had an ass ton of other things happen?” “To put it into words you can easily understand, Kexez created a Keyblade replica of the PC Ansem the wise stored Roxas in when repairing Sora’s heart for that week. As a Keyblade, it was able to create and simulate an entire reflection, that is where the Core you encountered came from. His goal before the tainted blood in him was to bring back the three heroes. You know them as Sora, Riku, and Kairi. Now though, he plains to wait out til Xehanort brings the seven lights and thirteen darknesses. Once all are gathered he plans to take them all, and forge his own version of the X-blade, and a heart that can fulfil his tainted blood’s wishes.” “Well...that's going to have to take forever cause not only are all the heroes dead but so is every Xehanort if Yellow was anything to go by.” I said honestly. “Time in his created reflection moves fast. If I calculate it correct when Core appeared compared to when he created it, the birth of Xehanort is just...several weeks away. Til he is of age to wield a Keyblade, a month later. Time can be a fickle thing, can’t it?” “Yeah...time is one hell of a thing.” I said honestly. “Especially when on one world it's half a year, on another it's a few hundred.” “I estimate that those three, and Xehanort's plan will come around to his perfect grasp of them...within maximum one year. That will be interesting, an X-blade for the Psychopaths. What a dark day that will be.” “I'm gonna make damn sure that doesn't happen.” I frowned. “I know enough about those bastards to know...giving them X will be bad...but...not as bad as Deletes…” I said worriedly. “Either way. In all my years I’ve learned not to keep an open mind to hope.” The king said, taking another swig of his ale. “So, anything else?” “Um…” I think for a moment. “Well...what was your council like?” I asked, a bit curious about his group of comrades. “Ever hear of king Arthur and his round table?” He asked, pointing his thumb to himself. “Merlin stole that from me. Old hack was good, but not that original.” “You mean the one living in Radiant Garden or a different Merlin?” I asked, given that multiverses are confusing sometimes. “They are the same person.” He said, taking another swig of ale. “His world advanced, forgetting magic so he left, wanting to further his studies and train well. He was one of the original you know.” “Huh, cool.” I said. “But...you said the General and Archer are still alive…” “Some grew too old, time caught up with them...others…” He muttered, chugging the rest of his ale and began another bottle, finishing it half way before speaking… “The Keyblade war took many… They could not resist the call to arms… I don’t even know why my scribe left at all? His lexicon was left behind too… He was a dear friend.” “Well...I hope they're all in a better place.” I said. “I'm...sorry for bringing up their deaths…” “It’s alright. If there is no one left alive to tell their stories, then they truly will be dead.” The king said, taking another swig of ale. “When you live for so long, you tend to hang on to the past as much as possible, remember when times were simpler.” He stood up, walking over to a half collapsed bookcase and taking out a tome. He walked back over and handed it to me. “Here, this may be of interest to you sooner rather than later.” The book was plain, leather cover and was rather thick. There was no title on the cover, so I opened it, and inside my eyes widened. It was…. An image of me, older, very much so. It was sketched, drawn in ink and showed me in the king's armor, wielding that greatsword Keyblade Joy told me about and I was in his armor, only without the helmet. “How...in the hell?” I muttered. “This is a tomb of prophecies. Each image tells a thousand words. But only one single line will matter to you in the end. That, is what you will hear. Go on, touch the page, and hear a future that could be. A future that matters to you, and you alone.” I gulped, having a bad feeling about this but I did what I was told, touching the page and hoping my future won't be bleak and...filled with the joys of family even if I looked kind of cool in that spot. A child of code that lives in contentment. All your wounds shall soon be mended. A greater sky awaits thee and all it’s wonders shall one day be yours too to plunder. A voice, it was like it came from everywhere spoke to me as I regained my senses. I looked down at the page...it was blank now. “The book works once a day, once a day per person.” The king said. “What did it tell you?” “A child of code that lives in contentment. All your wounds shall soon be mended. A greater sky awaits thee and all its wonders shall one day be yours too to plunder.” I said, word for word. “Well, glad to hear my life will be fine in the future...and hey, more adventures in the future.” “Sounds grand. You best hold onto that then.” The king said, closing the book for me. “It’s the only thing from...my old life I kept. It’s yours now.” “Really?” I asked him. “Yes. At your current rate, I won’t be surprised if you claim my crown within the year...Huh?” We both looked to the doorway. There was...someone there. He was dressed in black armor with blue decals along the tips of his armors various points in its design. “Hello.” I said to the armored person. “And who might you be?” I asked, wondering how the hell this person got here. “That’s ____ Ben. The original maker of this realm.” The king said… when he said the man’s name… I know I heard it… but I can’t remember it. “Haven’t seen you in a long time.” The… That guy said. “You only ever met me once ___. You remember that from so long ago?” “I may forget my oldest of past, but I still remember you.” “And...why can't I hear ___?” I asked. “Or...say it apparently?” “Any who know or hear my true name forget and become deff to it. My own doing. Even among admins, names have power.” ___ explained. “I’ve come to speak with him, if you don’t mind?” “Like I can even stop you?” The king said. “Best go hear what he has to say Ben. He rarely talks to those outside of Cript, and a few other select allies.” “I'm just gonna call you Lord, just to save myself some headache.” I said. “If that’s what you wish.” Lord said as we walked away. We turned a corner then… Wait, what? I looked around, we were in a...cemetery of sorts, graves as far as the eye can see. The moon was high in the sky… where are the stars? “And...where are we? What happened to the stars?” I asked worriedly. “This is your distant future, after all, if I am correct, your realities were all once one. Why would there be a need for stars when all the worlds and realities are one now?” “Because I'm talking about stars as in the bright balls of gas, not worlds.” I said honestly. “One World. One moon. One sun.” He said simply. “Three’s are funny, aren’t they?” “Threes always been a magic number for some reason.” I shrugged, checking the graves. “But...the future huh? Let me guess...these are all the dead from the war and subsequent merging of all the world's?” I asked, fearing I'll see my family among the graves. “Yes, and no. This is vastly far into your future. You see, Cript and I have a plan of sorts we want to undertake, after we finally end his father. This reality, this future, isn’t just your realm, Ben. All admin realities, fuzed together, and expanded across all of the untouched creation. This world, Ben, is as infinite as you can get. Every possibility under one sky, all sharing the same moon, sun, and ground. It will be in no way peaceful, but, it will be simple. Simple is always best, in my opinion.” “Too bad ‘simple’ is a thing that not many are allowed to have.” I said. “But...you and Cript want to make all realities like this? One Home for all?” “Yes. In short, not all admins, in fact the vast majority of them are quite corrupt. This plan will make Admins all but obsolete, rendering them into beings as lowly as gods. Of course, to mortals, gods are still higher beings, but it will put an end to them, save for myself, and Cript.” “Interesting…” I said, trying to think about the entire thing. “But...you and Cript remain in power, wouldn't the other admins call you out on bullshit?” “Admins draw power from how much of untouch creation they have...colonized, for lack of a better word. Cript and I turning all of untouched infinity into a single world and realm of existence will make us quite literally, the strongest admins ever to exist. That interests me non however. I just want to put my long since corrupt brethren to rest, and Cript, well, you know he only ever thinks of his family. We won’t rule this land, we will just live on it. I’ve always enjoyed blacksmithing, inventing, and Cript….even in retirement, he’ll explore til there is nothing left. Which, as we both know in a world that is infinite, won’t ever end. At heart, he is still a traveling mage.” “I can imagine.” I said honestly. “But...why talk to me about this if I may ask? Sure I'll be the new king of your realm but…” I trailed off, feeling like there's a little more to it than that. “No. Heh. Not a chance. You’ll be king of Nothing...damn that sounds weird. Anyway, come.” He said, leading me further into the graveyard. We arrived at a tomb. It was decorated with hearts and Kingdom Keys. “Can you guess who’s grave this is?” “It's decorated with hearts and Kingdom Keys…” I frowned. “Zeke?” I asked, knowing since he's connected to Kingdom Hearts and is a living Keyblade it seemed to kind of add up. “Yes. This night marks the ten thousand mark since his death. He lived a good long life too. Not many formal mortals can lived to be sixteen billion.” I about fell over. “Excuse me, sixteen billion? What about me and the others?” I asked curiously. “See for yourself.” He said, looking to the side, and I saw...the king? No...there’s a dog tail sticking out behind him… me? My future self walked passed us, likely unable to see us, and kneeled before the grave. “Been a while Zeke. Sorry the others couldn’t come. The foretellers are busy governing Union city, and John is keeping the edge of Void territory from any creatures escaping. Your kids are here and there. Blake and Nyx have families of their own, and, well… They couldn’t make it.” My future self said, taking a seat before the tomb. “If Zeke's sixteen billion...how old is everyone else?” I asked curiously. “Just turned a thousand years older. You all reached above god levels of power, and as such, gain the power to choose when to die. Zeke went on for a long time after his wives died. Of course, even his alicorn ones, Luna and Celestia, both died from age five billion years back. His kids, all grown up, families and jobs. The lives of immortals are destined to be a lonely one, unless you choose otherwise. Zeke kept on, because all he had left was Trixie, the two of them shared in body, and heart. Sadly, her heart, still that of a mortal, unlike Zeke’s, also too died. Finally he accepted death years later.” “Well...at least he had a good run I suppose.” I said, seeing the old me sit there next to his long dead friend. “But...I suppose the future is actually bright for everyone?” “Yes. quite.” Lord said, the old me speaking again. “It’s been hard, you know. Every now and then I swear I hear your voice, or see you. Heh… Rolland is doing well, he and Ashire have really kicked it off. Funny… considering their origins.” The older me said, taking off the helmet and… I didn’t look that old at all! I looked mid thirties at most! “I’ve been wondering, as to why and how you out of all of us, decided to die first. I remember my youth, and thinking...I’d be gone first. Yet, here I am...and there you are… it’s ironic. I once asked Cript, if he could bring you back, at least for a day, but he said that if they wanted to die, he can’t bring them back. Not a lack of power or possibility, but that he won’t disrupt the deads slumber. I guess I can understand that.” “So that's why...” I muttered. “Well...I suppose bringing my world's Shining Armor back might not be a good decision…” “I always asked Cript if him fusing everything into one included the afterlife, but he just gives me this smug smile and stays silent. These days I wonder how he keeps from being bored. Not much to do. FIghting void with John, exploring with Cript, it all becomes repetitive at some point. Maybe it’s because there’s nothing to fight? Heh, nah. I know why. It’s because it feels like we’re purposeless now. That’s it…” My older self stood up, taking a bow before the tomb of Zeke. “Til next time, my friend.” The world became warped, everything flashed grey and black til it became clear again… we were in the same spot, but the cemetery looked...abandoned almost. Vines and grass grew without control, and the headstones all were aged and cracked. “Damn…” I frowned, wondering what happened to cause this to seem abandoned. “Did something happen?” “This is nineteen thousand, four hundred and fifty thousand centillion years from the time I last showed you.” He said as a blast of what looked like Electricity and nothingness exploded in the sky. “Tell me, what do all immortals who continuously refuse their deaths soon fall to?” He asked as another one lit up the sky like an atom bomb. “Madness?” I asked curiously. “Yes.” The blue lightning then struck the ground. From the light, I saw Cript...standing above...me… My head was helmet less, the armor cracked and broken, and my face… I looked mangy, and...mad. “Heheheheheh. GAH!” I was laughing before Cript jabbed a glowing white sword into my chest, and I went...limp… “I’m sorry Ben… You should not have avoided your death for so long… especially when you no longer had purpose…” Cript said, closing my eyes before pulling a shovel out of his assistant and began digging. “It’s almost fitting, to die and be buried next to your oldest friend.” Cript said to himself, oblivious to us, unable to see us. “What, was I too stubborn to die or something?” I asked. “Even after all your wives passed, and your bloodline was lost to the genepool, you kept on, but to be devoid of purpose and reject death. It drives all to insanity. Cript stays sane even after he has suffered your fate, because he swore to protect his family. His family may be lost to the population, but that just means, in his eyes, every living being is his family. His to protect. I avoid it, to keep a promise. To who, I don’t recall a name, All I recall was that promise, and their blood...on my hands.” Lord sighed. Cript finished the hole, and placed me inside it. Then burred me, my nothingness greatsword Keyblade appearing before him and he struck it into the ground… my headstone. “Rest easy now...my son” Cript said, pulling out a list. “Ben, gone… Now onto John and Jenny… Then they will all finally be at rest, and freed from madness.” He said, vanishing into thin air. “To not put off death.” Lord said simply. “Not when you no longer have purpose to the world, or purpose of self.” “Jeez…” I muttered. “This is...quite a thing.” “Don’t worry about Nothingness.” Lord said, the world shifting again… this time, we were in a large grass field, nothing but a nearby rock half in the ground for miles it seemed. “It will find a new king.” “Good…” I nodded. “And...where are we now?” “I figured you wouldn't recognize it. This is still the graveyard. After Cript dealt with the last of you to go mad, life had to restart from the medieval age just about. Things where quiet for a time, but…” “Connie wait up!” We both turned around. I spotted a gold and grey wolf pup, and a human kid both running down the nearby hill. Connie seemed to be the human girl. “Catch me first Lagan!” The girl said. As the girl ran passed the large rock, the wolf pup, Lagan, it seemed, took a step, then jumped back clutching his foot. “Owe! Ouch…” “Huh? What did you step on?” Connie asked. “Some dumb pointy rock.” Lagan said, the kids tearing out some of the tall grass, showing a dirty small piece of metal. “It looks like something old.” Connie said, grabbing it and lifting it up...only for a chain to follow, then stop from a certain point in the ground… it’s...my keyblade? “It’s stuck Lagan!” The girl said, pulling hard. “Oh, here.” The pup said, starting to dig...and dig rather well. “Wow! Connie, I think it’s a sword!” “Legends never die.” Lord said, he sounded happy as the two kids dug out my Keyblade. “Even when long forgotten.” “I suppose forgotten stuff can be a lot stronger than you'd think.” I said, having always been told nothing truly dies if it's remembered. “Well...looks like Lagan and Connie are gonna have a fun adventure ahead of them if they found my keyblade.” The two kids finished pulling out my oversized keyblade, and admired it, even in it’s dirty, rusted and dirt covered appearance. “Wow!” The two kids said. “Let’s go show our parents!” Lagan said. “Yeah! Bet my dad can make it look nice. It kinda looks like those Keyblades from the old stories.” Connie said, the two each carrying it from one end as they walked back up the hill. I saw Lord follow them, and I followed him. Just passed the hill was...a town. Wood and stone houses, not too big, and a lake flowed just a bit further ahead. “Amazing how life finds a means of getting back to where it once was. I didn’t make it like that, yet, here it is.” “No matter what happens, the cycle keeps going.” I said, looking at the town. “Nice and cozy town…” I muttered, finding such a thing nice considering all I've been through. We followed them to a tavern. ‘The Old Man’ it was called. Inside was fairly busy, people of all kinds drinking and eating. “Dad!” Connie said, the barkeep looking over. “Look what Lagan and I found!” “Wow… go take that to the blacksmith, he can probably fix it up for you.” We followed the kids to the blacksmith. He was human, skin tone of a latino, and thick black hair. On the wall behind him had… lords armor? I looked over at Lord, who just nodded. “Mr. Davenport! My dad said you could fix this.” Connie said, handing it to the man that… I think is Lord? “Your Mr. Davenport?” I asked, remembering how he said he liked to create things. “A false name for a false life. Every now and then I take up an identity, and just live a life of whatever comes. Blacksmithing is a nice hobby.” “Sure, just put it over there.” Lord said, or rather, Davenport. The kids did as told then ran off. Once they were gone, he grabbed it, and walked over to a nearby shop. ‘Odds N Ends’ it was called. Inside was various things, tools, utensils, cloths, and such. The clerk at the desk...Cript? “Hey.” “Yo.” Cript said. “I see Ben’s old Keyblade of Nothingness is with you.” “Yup. Connie and Lagan found it.” “Told you a town set up here would have someone find it soon.” Cript said. “Yes yes. After founding it and faking our deaths we came back to make sure. Well, guess those kids are the next chosin.” “You spawn the enemies if I start the timer for the quest to start?” “As always.” Lord-Davenport said, everything turning to black now. “So, what did you think?” “Well...besides me becoming a bad guy I'm glad to see the future is good at least.” I shrugged. “Better it be good than dead.” “You’ll only turn if you let yourself. So, either accept your death when the world no longer has purpose for you, or you can no longer make your own.” “I'm sure I'll figure something out.” I said. “I've got a good...eternity to figure it out right?” “Just about. Just never speak of this. Telling the others can alter things, for better or worse.” “I'm stupid, but I'm not that stupid.” I said, knowing talking about the future can be a bit tricky. “Well, that was about it. Just wanted to give Cript’s chosen a taste of the future.” He says, vanishing and...leaving me here... “And how the hell am I supposed to get back to the castle!?!” I called out into the darkness, not really knowing how I got ‘here’ to begin with. “Never mind…” I grumbled, checking to see if I can actually summon Reunion to get back. Nothing came. Not my Keyblade. Not my other weapons, the only thing that happened was my assistant flashed. I saw a long hp bar appear and the name ‘The Last One’ appear. “Nani le fuck.” I frowned, looking around for whoever I just engaged in combat with. “Once was a hero who fought for them all…” Someone sang, quick footsteps moving as a fire was lit on a wooden pole next to me...corpses...as far as the light went around...corpses… “What the hell…” I muttered, backing away from the fire and corpses. “Bright and safe was the land, in all.” They sang again, another torch lighting up behind me…. I was standing on more corpses, when I turned around… this torch was inside Lord’s chest, his head impaled by a sword and his armor cracked and chipped all over. “Hello?” I asked, hoping to get an answer here. “Long did the people he cared for live, and madness took hold and brought death on a whim.” Torches lit up the world...the entire ground was nothing but death, bodies long since rotted and decaying. I ran, tripping over and when I looked before me… our keyblades. Reunion, the Nothingness Keyblade, X-blade, the foretellers, Fenrir, Aqua as a Keyblade after she died...all shattered into shards, all arranged like if they were whole. “What did you do!?!” I barked, looking around for whoever did this. “For a guardians purpose is to protect all who live.” I heard a thud. I turned around, seeing an arm...stab right through me. I looked up...Cript?! “But what is he now, with everyone dead?” His eyes...like mine when he… Madness...he’s gone mad… “GAH!” I yelled, jumping up and clenching my chest. Did...was that...the end of...time, life...what? “I have so many questions...“ I said to myself worriedly. ”Nobody escapes madness.” I heard Lord’s voice speak in my head. ”Mortality keeps life going. That was...everyone became immortal...everyone went mad. Cript and I had to… and he went mad, from that. When the time comes, I’ll give you all a choice. Live long lives with all you care for, or live forever, and lose it all, slowly.” “Jesus…” I muttered worriedly. “That's...a very scary thing…” I said worriedly. “I'd like not to go mad and...have that happen.” ”When the time comes, you all and Cript will be given a choice to have your immortality removed, and when the Home is created, we will decide how long what types of races live. Death can not be removed from life.“ “Yeah, living for a long ass time is one thing, not being able to die is another.” I said. “But...wait Cript can't die, he literally had it taken from him.” ”Which is why he needs purpose, always. Less what you saw, become the future, and end of all.” “Oh dear…” I looked worried. “Maybe I can figure out how to give him back his mortality?” I asked, hoping there was the possibility of getting it back. “Is there a way?” ”Yes, but in time. For now, gain strength. You’ll need it.” “Alright…” I nodded. “Time to train with Lunatic…” I said, looking around to see if I'm back at the castle. I was, I was in the library, and on the table was the king...sleeping? “Hello?” I asked the king, hoping he wasn't sleeping so he could show me where my new master is. “Huh?” The king said, getting up with a stretch and a yawn. “About time. You were gone for like three hours.” He said, getting out of the chair. “Well...we had a lot to talk about.” I said. “So...I suppose I can finally meet my new master?” “Yes. This way then.” To be continued... Nobody becomes an Admin(cause being a King wasn't enough)“Fuck me…” I grumbled while walking around, a hand on my head and a big mug full of Sprite. “Too much wine…” I grumbled bitterly, hating hangovers so much. “Lightweight~!” Jenny sang. She spent time in those pocket dimension rooms too, now she’s nineteen. As are the CMC and the rest of Joys girls, as is Joy also. “I drank four barrels by myself.” I said bluntly. “And I still feel like I need more to drink after what Zeke went through.” I grumbled. “So, how have you and everyone else been?” I asked curiously. “Well, having aged to maturity I am happy to report, I’m a large C cup.” She grinned. “Damn it Sweetie…” She then grumbled. “What? She a large F?” I asked. “And if memory serves you also have over two hundred or more other girls to compete with for Joy right?” “Yeah, but Sweetie’s the largest out of all of us! She needs custom built bras! And a back brace!” “Okay so that’s bigger than F…” I muttered worriedly. “Jeez, that’s not good...but I suppose Joy is super happy about that huh?” “When he cuddles her he needs a snorkel for air… so yeah. Rarity thinks they get it from her cousin Milky Way, who I think might also be with you now? I dunno. So, aside from getting over being hammered, what’s up?” “Oh yes...the ‘Milk Mare’...” I muttered, blushing at the memories of that mare. “But uh…” I shook my head. “But Zeke is now Kingdom Hearts...which is the main reason I was drinking...and right now I have no idea what I’m going to do today.” I said honestly while taking a swig of my wonderful hangover cure. “My clones are out training...and again I don’t know what to do today.” “Hm. Well I was gonna go out hunting for a while. Not Dire wolf style, rifle and bow. You wanna come along? Seeing as you have a clone for everything between running your kingdom to screwing out moms, literally, and training, maybe some fun or something might help.” “Sure, why not.” I said. “Might as well do something with one of my kids I haven’t spent their entire lives with.” I said, still glad to spend time with all my kids. “K, come on then. I’m heading out to the Direwolf territory.” “Alright, let’s get going.” I said while finishing my drink and following along. As we headed out, Jenny, if memories from her time in the pocket dimension family with me and Gilda serve me right, Jenny was given this little spaceship car thing when she was seventeen. Gift from her mom. She got her wish. Jenny, at least for a while, lived a normal childhood. As we were flying out we chatted about stuff. “So, hear you’re working on means of expanding your kingdom outside your realm?” “Yeah, might as well see how far I can take this.” I said honestly. “As long as everyone else is perfectly okay with it, no need to cause unnecessary wars when one’s still looming overhead.” “True. Still no word on Trixie?” “Sadly no.” I sighed out. “But now she’s apart of Zeke so...I’m still certain I have to find a replacement cause I’m real good at my job.” “Hm. So, Cript talk to you yet?” “Well he talked to me and Zeke about Zeke’s new powers but besides that…” I said while thinking for a bit. “The last time we talked it was when I had his help with all of the pocket dimensions and the like.” “Huh. Odd. I saw him last night. He was talking with Tiara about something but I’m not sure what. I figured he was asking where you were.” “Which is weird cause he normally just appears right behind me.” I said, having a bad feeling about that. “If he’s telling her about the war…” I muttered, my mind racing through thousands of things and it only worried and pissed me off more the more I thought about it. “Want me to message her to find out?” “Sure.” I said. “Let’s hope she’ll actually tell us what he talked about…” I muttered, thinking Cript told her not to tell me for whatever reason. Jenny sent the message and where to meet us when she does. We landed in the flatlands part of the Direwolf Territories. This is where larger game and small game commonly travel and live. Jenny tossed me a bow as she took out a rifle and we headed off. “So, what do you think Cript told Tiara?” Jenny asked as we walked, looking for any game to shoot. “The best would be talking about how she apparently has a Time Patrol going on with her other reflections...the worst…” I sighed out. “She’ll be on Spoiled’s side in the war and forced to fight me and everyone else because of some bullshit reason.” I said sadly. “Where did that theory come from?” Jenny asked while laughing. “Thousands of different things ran through my head...and when a war between light and dark is forced upon us...I’m just scared I’ll be forced to fight the one’s I care about because of some stupid bullshit.” I frowned. “Especially when she’s being forced to join a war that technically we don’t even need to be apart of, my Domain has nothing to do with this War, but Spoiled is just being a bitch and needs to be stopped.” I frowned, but a nagging feeling in the back of my mind wondered if there will be any surprises when this became a veritable boss rush instead of an actual War. “So, do you think there is anything else to worry about?” Jenny asked. “Oh yes, like this strange feeling someone’s going to find a magical prison Cript forgot about to make the Keyblade War less of a day one curb stomp and pest control and more of an actual war.” “Well, whatever the case maybe things will… what the?” Jenny asked, the two of us looking around. The air was… shifting, as if it was water. “Cause of course we can’t have a simple hunting trip…” I growled, wondering what was causing the sudden shift. There was suddenly a barrier around us. Easy a mile in all directions. Jenny and I summoned weapons. My Kingblade Keyblade and Jenny her own Keyblade… Braveheart. Suddenly, there was a white glowing silhouette of a person appearing out of thin air. “Yes, who are you and what are you doing in my domain?” I asked curiously, wanting to know who this person was. “Cause not many people both appear out of nowhere and glow like that.” They didn’t reply, rather, raised both hands skywards as silhouettes of what looked like… bows, appeared in his hands, both floating just out of his grasp, but his energy drawing them back as arrows of Nothingness formed to fire. “You haunted pops?” Jenny asked, preparing for the fight. “If I were I would know.” I said while summoning Frozen Pride. “But if this person is supposed to be a God of the Hunt then I’m gonna be slightly pissed.” I said while raising my hand and channeling my magic to see if I could stop the thing before it attacks. “Kneel!” I commanded, thinking because this thing used Nothingness I had full jurisdiction to stop it. He didn’t move, but his arrows did vanish. Not for long though, as new ones began forming. “Think this is something to do with the past king?” Jenny asked, backing up a bit. “No, he’s dead and he never used a bow.” I said worriedly. “Also...I don’t even know who the things aiming at.” I said worriedly. “Actually, now that I think about it...this is kind of like how the Mysterious Figure appeared...only less glowing.” I said, thinking back to Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep and that unbearable asshole. “Well, better get this over with.” Jenny said, rushing in. The figure fiering, Jenny slashing the arrows away. As she got in close he suddenly split into three, the two others firing at her. She then backed up. The nothingness arrows having hit her and fading. “Shit that hurt.” She grunted. “Yeah that’s not good.” I said while summoning Sharpshooters and firing at the Aberrations. “Seriously what are these things.” I said while my eyes glowed green as I tried to Scan the damned things. It’s name registered as ‘???’ cause of course, and it’s HP bar was only a single line, not too long… so what’s the catch? “Okay so there’s a massive catch here Jenny.” I said while firing charged shots at the unknown enemies. He took a step to the side, catching my charged bold in one of his bows and fiering it back at me. Fuck! I thought, dodging the literal returned fire. “Well… ranged attacks aren’t good then.” “Apparently.” I said while raising Frozen Pride in the air and ice spikes shot up underneath the unknown archer. That seemed to impact him. His Hp dropped a quarter. So AoE attacks he can’t handle huh? “Alright, AoE might be a good thing.” I said while using the spikes that were brought out to shoot more at them as I summoned Foudre and Eternal Flames. “Jenny run.” I told her quickly as Eternal Flames started to melt the ice at a very fast rate and dumping water onto the enemy as I threw Foudre around the area. “Thunder Clap!” I shouted, snapping my fingers as Foudre pulsed with energy and a massive bolt of electricity rushed towards the enemy that was both covered in water and acting like a lightning rod. The figure tried to float up, but it still hit, taking out all but a small bit of his health. That seemed to make him alternate, the dome we were in suddenly became clouded with grey nothingness as the only lights we could see were the arrows, curled around us like a firing squad. “Shit.” Jenny said. “Oh wait, I know what this is.” I said while bringing out my Keyblade. “Back to Back.” I said quickly, thinking this is Xemnas’s final attack and we are literally forced to block all these attacks. “Cause if it’s just like Xemnas with his final attack...then let’s hope to god I’m right.” Nodding, Jenny did as told, the two of us deflecting as many bolts or dodging as possible. I’ve never moved this fast. I can barely see my fingers, it’s all a blur. Jenny got hit a few times, but kept up the speed. “Isn’t this just fantastic?” I asked Jenny, seeing that her HP bar was still high enough even though she took a few hits. “What part of this is fun?” She asked, focusing on deflecting. Soon the attack ended and Jenny hit the ground, clearly sore and tired as I still stood. The figure rushing in with an up close charged shot. “Reflectja!” I shouted, a see through sphere appeared around me and Jenny as I prepared for the attack. “And it’s a joke Jenny.” I said, holding the barrier up for when it attacked. It fired, the attack actually went INTO the shield, though, it stopped just a few hairs off my nose… yipe! The shields magic still kicked in, returning the damage and taking away the last of his HP. The barrier keeping if with him vanished, he slowly fading out. When he did, where he was standing was left a single chest. The weird square ones you only saw in KH one before they just kept using the red looking ones. “Uh...sure.” I said. “You okay Jenny?” I asked, bringing out my Lexicon in case she needed to be healed. “I’ll be fine. Damn, never moved that fast. Think I would have prefered Uncle Josh’s crash courses compared to that…” “Don’t know, but hey we got loot.” I said honestly. “Want to open it or should I?” “You do it. You did beat him.” “Alright.” I nodded, tapping my keyblade on the top of the chest to see if that’ll open it. The lid flipped open as it it was thrown open. Inside was a bow, it’s outline like the one that figure was using. It’s colors were golden, with a black trace wrapped around it from end to end. It was small for a bow. “It’s a Bow…” I said while pulling it out and scanning it, wondering what it’s name was and what it did. Crownborn This bow was *((#$*(%*(#*$ for the heir of Nothingness (#$(#*$(*#( on their tenth birthday. They are a direct descendant of King Ben. WARNING: TEMTERAL ENERGY UNSTABLE. USE NOT RECOMMENDED FOR 37 YEARS, TWO MONTHS AND FOURTEEN DAYS. “Oh...that’s not good.” I said worriedly. “But hey, this bow is for one of your brothers...not sure who but it says I have to wait thirty seven years to give it to him.” I explained. “Wonder why this happened though?” I wondered. Jenny shrugged. “Who knows. Your life is weird enough. Now your own descendants are appearing to fight you?” “I mean, time travel is a thing.” I said honestly. “This is...gonna be so weird.” “Seems so.” We decided to wait and rest for Tiara rather than anything after that. Though I did kill one of those amazingly tasty beasts and all I can say is Jenny can’t stop eating… seriously, her gut looks eight months pregnant and it’s all just this creatures meat… “Do… I wanna know?” Tiara asked. She arrived full grown as well, long curly hair,, heh, erm… healthy, to put her figure into words, wearing a pink T-shirt and jeans. “We just got done eating.” I said. “But the better question is, what did you and Cript talk about?” I asked her simply. “Huh? Oh, that.” She said, summoning her Keyblade. “No Name, a Keyblade of time. Cript said me and my other reflections that have it would have, well, a duty, or rather a job I guess, to witness future events, and alter them before they transpire. Make sure the future is safe for what he is going to do to the whole of creation. I’m supposed to meet up with a reflection of mine next week for some training for it.” “And he didn’t mention anything about forcing family against family?” I asked, wanting to make sure that wasn’t a thing. “Uh, no. Why? Is he being paranoid again?” Tiara asked Jenny, who nodded her head. Tiara then facepalmed. “God you worry too much.” “Listen, I’m a parent and a king, so yes I am going to worry.” I frowned. “Also the fact we just fought one of Jenny’s future brothers for...some reason.” I said, not really knowing why that happened. “Oh.” Tiara said, taking out a pen and small notebook from her back pocket and writing that down. “So that’s what he ment. Cript did say that since time is also gonna be just one line, it will become easier to travel back, and forwards, but only if you were born after that, if you or Jenny try you’d get lost and likely end up in another timeline, possibly in another Realm since time extends to them all no matter the Admin or what.” She said, finishing that note then putting the pen and paper away. “He said it will be likely future people, be them family, friends or even enemies might appear, but they can’t stay long and their power would be greatly suppressed unless one of me was aiding them.” “So...my new son’s going to be really strong and a great archer?” I asked curiously. “Seems so. Might not even be a son of yours, could be a grandchild for all we know. Nephew, niece, eh.” “It said he was the Tenths Heir of Nothingness.” I said honestly. “So...eh, either way. Also it said to wait thirty years for it.” “Thirty… alright.” She said, taking out her notes to write that down. “Well it this was all I gotta head back… Sweetie Belle’s boobs are stuck in the doorway… again…” She said, opening a DTN back. “Seriously, make her bra’s into a Bag of Holding christ.” I frowned. “Hm. Good idea. Oh, and Cript did say he wanted to ask you something. He said he’d be in your Study.” “Alright.” I nodded while opening my own DTN to my Study. “Can’t wait to learn what he wants to talk about.” I grumbled while getting up. “Let’s hope it’s not bad news…” I grumbled. I arrived in the study, Cript reading over one of the volumes. He was resting along the couch, munching on twizzlers from one of those popcorn sized buckets while cans of ginger ale littered the floor. “Howdy.” I said. “How you doing today?” “There are a lot of volumes here. Most on spells or infusion methods. They’re all well made, the spell matrix’s and designs are solid and seem to only have two or three weak points. The old king knew his magic.” Cript said, eyes still locked on the book. “Good thing I’m reading that to be honest.” I said, knowing full well my clones were busy reading all those things. “Then there’s an ass ton of other things I have to read because that involves magic and Nothingness.” I said honestly. “So, what do you need to tell me?” “Just a few questions is all. I asked the same thing to Eclipse and so far I believe this method can work. First Question. An enemy infiltrator enters your castle, he is looking for an edge his side to use over you. He finds your infant children. You enter the nursery, and spot him. What is your immediate reaction, the first thing you will do when you spot them? And don’t freak out, this is all hypothetical.” “So the person is trying to kidnap one of my kids?” I asked. “Well there are plenty of things I can immediately do-” “Answer the question. No overthinking, no long answers, just your answer, on what you would do on instinct.” Cript cut me off… I felt the tension in the room get thick… Cript is being… super serious right now… and it’s scary… vary...very scary. “I would grab him by the neck and drag him out of the nursery and beat the shit out of him.” I said, not wanting anyone to hurt my family, especially those who think they can use them as leverage. “Surprisingly merciful. I killed the ones who tried to do that to me. Didn't even think. I saw them, then my hand was through their chest, and poof… instant incineration, they didn’t have time to register they were dying.” Cript said, turning the page. “Question two. You’ve met your equal, neither of you are giving in, both of you are low on health, stamina, mana, ect. You need an edge, you need more power to turn the tables. You tap into your Pure Nothingness, but you’re so beat, you can’t control your output. You use it, you know it will kill you in the backlass. What do you do?” “Fuck Em, he thought he was better than me, I proved him wrong.” I said. “Hm.” Cript hummed. “Question three. You are dying. Fatally wounded in combat. You don’t have long, a minute or less… What is the last thing you will think about?” “My family and friends...all smiling like I finally did good…” I said. “Alright. Final Question… A simple yes or no will do, and an explanation as to why. If offered, would you become an Admin?” I thought for a moment,. “Quite the hefty question..” I muttered. “Honestly...Yes and No.” I shrugged. “How so?” “Being an Admin sounds wonderful and all, being basically all powerful, making everything a complete Non-Issue against things that are supposed to be bad for you.” I said, oh so not subtly talking about how his Spike magically came back. “And so much more things, but no because I’d rather not have even worse depression because of everything becoming a Non-Issue, being able to die for a start would actually be nice to be perfectly honest, and I don’t want to be leashed by vague and bullshit rules that make no sense even when your told them by the people who made them.” I explained honestly. “Is that good for the Yes and No?” “Hm… so if I offered, you’d refuse, despite these ‘non-issues’ come with other issues?” “Honestly, it depends.” I said honestly. “You can’t just say ‘yes’ to having almighty power when you already have it or don’t need it, and you can’t just say ‘no’ to almighty power when you need it the most.” “Hmm… Bonus question. The world I am going to create will affect everything, even beings that should not be accessed or even exist in the physical existence. The sky will actually be special ‘stone’ of sort, with miles and miles and miles… and miles of rock, mineral, and other resources and surprises above… til you break through that ceiling, and you see these other beings, what, or who they are, I can’t say, neither can lord. Same law applies to the ground beneath the floor you will walk upon. When I said forever, I meant it. Above, and below, left, and right. I will make everything go on. Forever, despite the dangers that will come with it. Anyway, one of these beings comes through, it kills admins like flowers you step on. What can you do? Admin powers would have at least given you an edge, not having them, even Pure Nothingness can harm it. What do you decide?” “First up I have to question how the hell you let something like that live to begin with.” I started. “Think of them like… ghosts, if that makes it easier. Beings so powerful, they no longer need a physical form. Sadly, what I will be doing can give them a physical form, and all their power to go along with it. This is why we NEED to rebuild the Admins, and yet the ones who hate the ones like me can’t stick around for this. They won’t change, they're too single minded.” “So basically your saying ‘hey, here’s Admin powers cause we’re short on staff and we fucked up on super ghosts’ right?” I asked curiously. “Hehe. That’s the blunt of it. Admins were the first beings to exist with Physical bodies, these beings will be new to it, and who knows what they are like. I believe Admins are the midway point between powers like these beings, and the mortals they made. The Admins I mean.” “Alright, but you could have just asked for help to begin with, I would have been fine with Admin powers if it meant making sure the people are safe.” I said honestly. “I’d rather be given the power to help others rather than have it forced on me like some people.” “You refer to Zeke?” “And you if everything that’s been happening to Zeke happened to you where power is just thrown at you like darts being thrown at a wall full of post it notes with powers written on each of them.” I said honestly. “To be honest… I didn’t even know it happened til I killed my first Admin. It was then I realized how strong I became in such short time. I was just fighting… so often. I didn’t have the time to notice… All I knew was that I couldn’t afford to lose.” “Ah, right then. But I’m pretty sure you still won an asston of the time without noticing.” I said honestly. “Heh, maybe. I just never used it to notice. Now, this process Lord and I reworked, before, we would have had to erase you from this reality, making it so you never even existed. But with this new process, it’s akin to how Zeke became one. I’ll be placing a shard of myself within you, this will give you the potential to inherit Admin powers, but before even that I’ll have to modify your body and powers. Bright side, you’ll be shortcutted to being able to use Pure Nothingness worry free.” “Cool.” I said honestly. “Can’t wait for this whole thing to happen...also I really didn’t want to be revoked from existence when I have a family.” “Neither does Eclipsa, that’s why we created this alternate method.” Cript said, opening the palm of his hand, as a glowing green shard appeared. “Here. The shard of an Admin. Step one.” “This is gonna hurt I’m sure.” I said while taking the shard carefully. The second I grabbed the shard, it cracked into smaller pieces… crawling into my hand, the pain like glass being shoved into my skin. They crawled down my arm to my chest before they stopped… shit that hurt. “Good, shard took. Now, part two. Modifying your body. Quick method or long method. Long takes an hour, quick a minute, but hurts like all hell.” “Let’s...take the long, but going to work for sure method…” I said. “Alright.” Cript said. I took a seat and he held a hand over me… my body began to tingle, kinda like when your leg or arm is asleep. An hour passed before that was done… huh, don’t feel that different. “Now, for the power side. This will take another hour. And feeling overwhelmed seems normal.” He said, placing a hand on my shoulder and HOLY FUCK! This…. This feels amazing! And a whole HOUR of THIS?! “This feels amazing.” I mentioned. “But an hour of this?” “Yes. By then you’ll be at the minimum requirements to have the potential to become an Admin.” Cript explained. “I’ll be putting that possibility within you, then all you have to do is kill one of the many, many, many, many, many who want me dead, like that can even happen, and take their realm and therefore cod, activating the potential, turning you into an Admin, and bypassing the normal means of this happening. Though I warn when it does happen, it will hurt like you can’t even begin to imagine.” “I have suffered the pain of Psychopaths, I don't think anything can compare to that.” I said honestly. “So...I have to murder someone for the power...that still doesn't sound right.” I sighed out, not liking how I had to kill the former king to begin with. “Oh and question...how do I ‘cure’ Psychopaths?” I asked curiously, remembering I wanted to do that out of an asston of things I have to do “Will it help if the one I have in mine for you I know enslaves his Creations and molests their kids? As for Curing the Psychopaths… don’t worry about it. I’ve got that covered.” “Oh well I'm gonna beat the shit out of that guy then.” I said honestly. “Cause what he's doing is a massive no to me.” “Same, but I can’t deal with everything at once. Even with Starfish clones.” Cript said. THe hour passed and when it was over I felt like you took Kratos and Hercules and created a single person then they fused and went Super Saiyan with Goku. “Alright. I’ll be right back, once you have your opening, kill them. No hesitation, alright?” “Fine fine.” I said while my eyes shifted to show humanity and psychopath colors. “Alright.” Cript said, jumping into a portal that appeared behind him. A minute passed as he ran out… holding a kid. “Hold this.” He handed them to me… they were male, all skin and bones, lifeless eyes, and their breaths were so faint… I almost thought they were dead… He then turned the portal at an angle. Soon this fucker came out and OH MY GOD! Yeah I am not describing that nastiness so no...just no… “You stole my bunk buddy Cript~” Oh god that voice! The Nasty Admin spoke. “And I regret stepping foot in that sex dungeon you call a realm Gideon.” Cript retorted. “You know, that name does not fit Filth.” I said. “Even if this fuck gives Filth a bad name.” “Ohhh~ Puppy play toy!” Gideon said, eyeing me… I shivered. Gross, gross, gross, gross, gross! “Ugh… either kill him now or me cause I seriously hate his voice!” Cript yelled at me. The sick bastard didn't know what hit him as I was just so done with his existence, using my Heir Final Form and using literally all my weapons to make sure he died. “Please die, please die please die!” I said, not wanting this fuck to even speak again he's so fucking gross. As my attack hit, his blood splattering everywhere, I then felt the need to wash all my weapons for having them touch him… gross! “Oh god and I thought he stunk on the outside.” Cript said, gagging. Green energy then floated out of Gideon’s body, flowing inside me… not as gross but still, ew! I then hit the floor… my whole body just… I can’t think, this is SOOOOO much worse than with the Psychopaths! I can feel every Atom in my body! Every single one undergoing…. Changing! GAH! I can’t even scream, this hurts so bad… All I could do was twitch on the ground…. Finally, after what felt like hours, or even days of it, but I know it wasn’t. It stopped, and I felt… amazing, better than I ever have in life even… better than I have ever felt at all. “Ow…” I grumbled as I tried to get up. “So...that happened...still fucking ew.” “Yeah…” Cript said, walking over to where I placed that nearly dead kid then waving a hand over him, his body… almost like reviving a corpse, his body looked… proper now. Like a kid. “There, I also erased all his memories. Better he never remembers that stuff. Now, you’re still too new to this, so here.” Cript said, taking my wrist… I could… feel him using my newfound code… “I’ll use your code to rewrite your new creation, cause trust me, that… you don’t wanna see what I saw. Just no… trust me.” He said. I felt him begin and HOLY FUCK THAT'S OVERWHELMING! I feel a bit nauseous… “Good lord that's a lot…” I muttered. “Okay so...that happened.” “Yup. He’s been on my kill list since I first met him, but I was a bit busy at the time to deal with him and sadly other things came up so fucker got a free pass for a good while. If you’re wondering I’m making a nice little stewpot for ya. First off, erase that history, and replace it. Change the people, their bodies, memories, and take him back.” Cript said. I looked over at the kid, who vanished in lines of green numbers. “And now the piece de resistance.” And suddenly my realm of Nothingness shook. “And done.” “What did you do?” I asked worriedly. “Why did my realm just shake like that?” “Well since you are now and this is literally the title other Admins will see you as, Ben, the Admin of Nothingness, I relocated this whole of Nothingness to your new realm once it’s renovations were done. Now as far as the inhabitants know, and I may have messed with majority of your families memories to save time, just informing them about this nothing serious, this is your realm, your kingdom, and… like it was before…. One vast world. Stretching vast and as far as you can see til you reach the end of your creations size and hit a literal wall that towers into the ten thousand mile high sky. As for digging down that’s easy four million miles, then you hit Minecraft bedrock.” “Alright then.” I said. “So...how many of the other admins will try to attack me now?” I asked curious. “Or will there not be much confrontation?” “Well for one you’re new so they won’t attack you just all of a sudden, they will watch you at first then decide if you are worth attacking. Some may, others might not. It all depends on them really. Now, as for the inhabitants of this realm when I altered them and their memories, as far as they are concerned this is how their world and lives have always been, with you as their newly crowned king, replacing the old one, which you technically did, and this WHOLE, creation of yours is now also counted as the Realm of Nothingness. Nobodies roam free here like animals and are passive, til they leave and then they can turn hostile. Everyone here will also have varying amounts of Nothingness within them but yours is till top dog, er, no pun intended.” “None taken but...jeez, so many new people to learn about.” I said. “Gonna take a while to learn them all…” I said, thinking I can't go off and world travel when I'm now more busy. “Yeah, so… I’ll leave you to it. Also you may want to look outside.” “Crap…” I muttered while looking out a window to see what happened. My eyes shot wide open. The castle, Canterlot… all of it was already a big city…. Now it was like a metropolis. Buildings towering, miles into the ayr, yes this wower was still taller, bigger than them all The castle even looked bigger. Everything was so… modern and ancient looking all at once and… everything looked peaceful. “You own the first ever realm with no current conflicts. As such, those who live near your castle, built a city to match that, there are other cities, towns, etc, but none will be as big as tis one. I believe when rewriting their history, they called this place True Empire.” Cript said, walking next to me and viewing out. “Wow...and this is all mine?” I asked, shocked to see all of this. “Gee...I can't wait to hear all the letters for women to marry me cause that's still out there...Damn it Jenny…” I grumbled. “Heh, you should hear their Anthem. It’s actually not bad.” “Oh god…” I muttered. “That's a thing I didn't expect to learn…” “Heh, well, you should have expected it. So… About Trixie…” “Gonna need to find a replacement huh?” I asked. “Cause of stupid bullshit Kexez did.” “Likely. While she still has her weapon, you can call it back and give it to another you deem worthy. Once you call it back from her though, that will be like firing her, and the weapon will not be able to return to her. You okay with that?” “How can I get her back? Or is she stuck inside Zeke?” I asked. “Oh god that sounded weird…” Yeah… heh. Well that’s the hard part. She’s mixed in with your old entire realms reflections of her, there are so many alike and different that what’s happening inside Zeke is that all those collective consciousness are mixing, forming large groups, taking in the smaller ones and when that’s all done the primary one, in this case Zeke’s Trixie, will be the main personality emerged, the one in control, but have all the others memories, abilities, etc. You can argue your Trixie is in there, but, in then end it will just be an argument. Not even I could figure out how to filter her specifically out. Plus, even if you did take her out, that one missing will destabilize them all, the other nineteen, zeke included, their balance will be thrown off and if they survive they are comatose til that missing piece is returned, and worst case scenario… they die. Balance is a fragile thing, and they are living it. Fragile, yet powerful.” “So gonna have to find a replacement...Christ.” I sighed out. “Gonna be annoying to find a new one if I do fire her.” “Maybe not. Remember, it was the weapons that found them, they did the work, you just have to approve.” “Alright.” I nodded. “Maybe I should ask Tricia about it...she still knows this stuff so her losing Fair Game suddenly would be a shock if she didn't know why.” “Hm. Well, good luck then… though, remember. You’ve crossed a point of no return. Becoming an Admin I mean. From here on out… no more filtered fighting. I can’t hold back what will come after you anymore.” Cript said, placing a hand on my back. “You think you’ll be alright?” “I fought a delete without Admin powers, what could possibly appear right after I say these words?” I asked curiously. “Cause that normally happens.” “Heh. You’ll see.” Cript said, opening a portal behind him. “The worst part is always waiting for it.” He said, taking leave. “It always is.” I sighed out. “Alright...time to look around town.” I said while opening the window and flying out to meet the people. The city was amazing… everywhere I went people gave me a respectful bow… young and old. Stores offered me merchandise, free of charge even. When I wanted to cross a street, no matter the lights, all cars stopped… damn. “Jeez, this feels so weird…” I said nervously. “Not used to people doing this...im not that special.” All the attention was weird. I then saw some neat looking Vending machines in a public park. One was all kinds of drinks, one was all kinds of snack foods, the other all kinds of… meals? This is a long list too… Wonder if they really work? “Alright…” I muttered while pulling out some money And using all three of the vending machines just to see if these work. I got a root beer from the drinks one, it even gave size options. Small can to a four liter bottles. I took a two oz bottle and a large bag of chips and Hey! It’s not all air, it’s chipt to the top… yay. As for the meals one they had a lot of options and I picked the funniest one. Mcdonalds… and for once the food looked good and like on the TV, good size and not at all expensive… must be a law here then… weird I have to question that in my own realm... “Hey, at least the food is made with actual standards.” I said while enjoying my food. “Gonna need to look over the laws now...christ so much work…” I headed back and while eating my meal went over the laws. At least they make sense. I have to better figure out these new Admin Abilities. Whatever they are, it’s impressive to say the least… Is this how Cript and Lord always feel? All this power? Just… always? “Jeez...so much power...and I have to train with this so much…” I muttered. “Need to make this mine...just so I'm not seen like others…” I muttered, knowing full well some will fight me about being given powers and all that crap. “And only Lord and Cript can teach me about that stuff...shit.” I groaned, knowing i'll need help to learn this crap and not do it by myself. Well, whatever the case at the moment my priority should be on if I should replace Trixie or not… I suppose I could try and talk to Trixie… whichever is in control of them all, with Zeke and maybe get something through to her. Though Zeke… damn, he must be in a slump or something about now. I hope he doesn’t do anything stupid. Then again, look who I’m talking about… “Damn it….” I grumbled before flipping my Lexicon open. “Greater Communion, call Zeke.” I said while my book glowed with the magic as I tried to contact Zeke. When it got through who picked up… wasn’t Zeke, but a girl rather. She was about seventeen or nineteen, worn once blue and white hat, and her clothes were a bit tattered. “Uh… hello?” She asked. “Hello?” I asked. “Who is this if I may ask?” “I’m Clementine… You’re Ben, right?” She asked. “Yes I am.” I nodded. “Know where Zeke is?” She was silent for a bit… as if thinking or something. “He’s uh, not answering.” “Is he knocked out still or is he busy?” I asked simply. “He was active earlier... not sure what he is up to.” They said. “Well I wanted to talk to him about Trixie.” I said honestly. “But...wait, are you the one currently 'awake’?” I asked, thinking this was like Trixie and Zeke before. “We’re all awake, but sometimes the others are talking with each other or with Keyblades and the one in control is on their own.” “Ah.” I nodded. “Is Trixie there? I need to talk to about her...other job.” I said honestly. “Oh.” She said, turning to someone off screen. “You all go on ahead. This might take a while. Just look for a bald guy named Patches.” I could hear some people walk passed her as she looked back to me. “Okay, so what about Trixie?” “I need to talk to her. It’s about the fact she's still apart of my Council.” I frowned. There was a moment of Silence from her. She was still for a while, likely trying to call her I think before they fell to the ground. “Shit!” I yelped. I closed the call, and began heading out. The fuck just happened!? “Can I ever get a simple goddamn answer for once?” To be continued... N̨̲͔̉ͫ̌e̘̙̳̩͌̾ͮx̸̂̈͊ͭ̊u̟͉͉̜͎͕ṡ͉͕̃̉̎̚͡ ̷̫̮̍̉W͙̖̙̩̯͙̅̐̓i͓͔̙̻̋̄͑ͭͬ̌l̢̾̒ͫͨ̊l̨͓͇͔̤̓ ̼͕̼̼͕̙ͪ́̌̔ͧ͂̌B̥̤̟̮̘̙̱ů͙̦̱̜̕r̶͚͊͋̓͗̍͊n͇͕̪̳͍̝͚We are the storm! The words echoed throughout the compound, Nexus agents looking up and around for whatever the hell was causing that noise. We fight to the end! The noise seemed to have gotten louder as Alarms started to go off that intruders entered their compound. “How the hell did they get in he-” One man was about to ask before he coughed up blood and fell to the ground, a cloaked figure standing above him with a bloodied blade. We bring the light to forgotten dreams! The singing seemed to get a lot louder than the sirens as Nexus and their unknown assailant’s started to clash, powerful magics and sounds of battle echoed throughout the compound. So come and join the Army of the Light! The Nexus soldiers were trying to push back against whoever decided to fuck with them, but it was shockingly clear someone knew all too well what they were capable off...like this happened before. We have to turn back time! The words echoed to everyone in the compound as those words were quite obvious to all the Nexus soldiers. “We were set up!?” A guard shouted. “Release the test subjects! Let’s see if they have fun with them!” The roar of whatever abominations that they were working on when they were released were suddenly cut off by shrieks of pain as the sound of flesh ripping and bone breaking echoed. In the day when you lost my Smile… Nexus soldiers started to scream in pain before their cries were silenced rather quickly by someone as they walked calmly through the entire compound. I crossed in Sorrow Gates of Space and Time! What little the people noticed was the music was coming from the newest cloaked figure, walking past all of the survivors who actively tried to attack them. “Who the hell is-” One Nexus soldier was questioning who could be so strong to just waltz into their compound without any trouble...only for the guy to turn into a brand new paint job on the wall as his blood stained the wall. “The fuck!” A researcher shouted and tried to run for it, only to get clotheslined by a being he couldn’t recognize. To change all the things we’ve done… The compound was now in full on panic, so many unknown’s hitting them all at once as their entire compound, their men, even their test subjects were being ripped to shreds. “Today’s a good day to die!” A Psychopath laughed as it charged at the main cloaked figure just calmly walking through the carnage as he swung a sword made out of his own killer intent. That was the last day when I saw the Ray of the Sun! The being didn’t even raise a hand as the weapon shattered against nothing, causing the Psychopath to blink in shock. “The hell are...wait…” The Psychopath took a step back, knowing full well when he could sense another of his kin. “Your not supposed to be here!” He shouted, only for something to stab into him, crystal’s forming around the stab wound. “Your...not Cript…” The Psychopath muttered as it fell over, the forced union of Psychopath and mortal making the mortal capable of returning to normal life as the crystalized Psychopath...was devoured... In the day when you lost my Smile~… The leader of the compound was frantically trying to call for back up at this point, even if his superiors wouldn’t give the most unholyest of a damn for their entire sector but at least getting out a call for an unknown assailant and a literal fucking army appearing out of nowhere would be great. “Come on, you were so fucking good at communicating when Vincent died just pick up already!” I crossed in Sorrow Gates of Space and Time! The door to his room was disintegrated at the leader saw the cloaked figure, any discernible features completely blocked from him. “Fine, I’ll deal with you!” The leader shouted as he channeled his Delete powers and vanished, appearing behind the cloaked figure and swung a Void Blade at them. A single finger blocked the attack, the shock wave destroying more of the building even though it was already mostly a burning wreck. To change all the things we’ve done~... The Delete could notice one thing, the eyes of a Psychopath...and of Humanity. “Who are you?” The Delete swung again and again, but of course he had to be in the realm where DBZ tropes were a thing, this being blocking all of it’s attacks with a gloved finger. “Why aren’t my powers working!?” He shouted, knowing full fucking well Delete powers should have at least started to chip away at the being but it looked like it was having no effect at all. That was the last day when I saw the Ray of the Sun! The Delete’s head was grabbed suddenly, a lot faster than he could react before he felt something enter him, his Delete physiology enjoying the consumption of energy but it wasn’t any kind of energy he felt before as it only burned him like he was at the core of a Sun. “Burn…” The being whispered, the Delete screaming as flames erupted from every part of him, every part of his being was engulfed in these greedy flames, his power’s not working for some ungodly reason. “Who...are you…?” The Delete said weakly, knowing the flames will kill him soon. The being didn’t answer as it dropped him and searched the room for the hidden information these fuckers normally had, the beings soldiers having come into the head office with as much information the compound held as the figure found the specific cover on the ground to find their secret stash of information. “The compound has been taken.” A males voice said as a hollowed suit of armor walked into the main room. “Any survivors?” The leader asked. “Those who laid down their arms are being taken back.” The knight said while seeing his leader head down to the small bunker full of knowledge. “Old hideout...probably thought this was long gone…” The being muttered while taking all the information rather quickly. “Move.” They said while the Knight nodded. “As you wish.” The knight said before vanishing, the entire compound becoming dead silent even with the crackling of fire and sparks coming off of broken electronics. “Only step one...till everything’s right…” The leader muttered to themselves as they vanished into thin air, as if they never existed. Author's Note Hey, just something I wanted to do. It's short, it's dumb, but it'll at least lead into something I promise. Sorry that it's still poorly written, this is just me writing something because music made me want to write it. Song some of the lyrics are from in case people are curious StoryAuthor's Note Here's the instrumental for the actual lyrics that I am kind of parodying, please don't hate me and sorry for the short chapter, just wanted to do something short by myself this time Story In the massive play room, aptly named ‘The Garden’, a cloaked figure walked around, seeing all the children happily playing, having a good time, and just being happy. “To see you all so young…” The person muttered while walking over to a big chair that was meant for story time, and when they sat down a lot of children looked over, excited for story time and bounded over, each child being different in someway, either them being human, dire wolf, naga, or any other race but all of them were hybrid’s at the very least. “Who wants to hear a story?” The person asked, all the children nodded and were happy for story time as the storyteller started to sing. “Here in the Garden, let’s tell a tale about a Wolf who lost Hope.” The children all tilted their heads, wondering why there was music, why the person was singing...and why it sounded very sad. “Here in the Garden, seeing you all...gives me so much joy…” The singer gently took off their hood, the children looking confused as they thought this was their Daddy Ben but...they looked older, scarred, and tired. “Seeing your smiles, that’s what I’m after, the smile in your eyes the sound of your laughter…” The older dire wolf started to tear up as they gently picked up Nancy and cradling her like young Ben did. “How far I have traveled, holding to Hope, seeing you all dri~ft away…” More of the innumerable amount of children started to move closer to the storyteller, wondering why they all felt like...they were losing a loved one. “Failing to save you, all on my own, underneath the endless sky…” The singer took a deep breath, trying to keep themselves together for their kids. “Counting the Seconds, Wandering Alone, as thousands of years flew by...fearfully wondering, Night after Night, is this just Fate, could I have done something right…failing to save you, losing all Hope, seeing you all dri~ft away…” As they continued to sing, the children were enraptured by the song, going into a world similar to there’s but a lot more bleak and sad, where Ben has been wandering for years, going to places they never knew about trying to do something. “The Writer’s keep Turning Pages, for People who Don’t Care, People who weren’t There for you...and yet it still took me Ages, to see that No One’s there, see that No One cares, see that everyone’s moved on without you…” The children all saw either their older selves doing heroic things, failing to comfort Ben...or seeing Ben grieving over thousands of Graves, each one having their names engraved on them. “Finally something, finally Hope, about how I can make this right...but my life doesn’t exist here, everything’s wrong, and all that I love is safe...“ The singer looked at all the children, seeing them all tearfully waiting for more of the story, all of them wishing they could do something but knowing they should wait for them to finish. “Isn’t that lovely? Isn’t that Cool? And isn’t that Cruel, and aren’t I a Fool to have, happily traveled, held onto Hope...only to watch you all dri~ft…” As the singer continued their final version, they put Nancy down and slowly vanished. Dri~ft The children tried to reach for the being they knew was their father, alone and afraid of everything that happened to them and what would happen, but all got was thin air. Dri~ft Away… As soon as the music and song ended, all the children started crying in a shared feeling of sadness for that poor soul just...wanting to do something right for once in their life. "I'm sorry my children..." Future Ben muttered as they put their hood back on and headed back to their base to put more things in motion. Nobody spends time in the VoidJericho and I read over the book, and got ready. I managed to make special necklaces to hide us from Deletes as well as other Void' creatures. Also in the book there was an artifact that would allow us to see in the Void but I don't have the time to make it. Not myself, a Starfish clone though… yeah. Thank God I can do that now. Heart was still in my… belly but they were out cold I had to jump to wake them up and I figured they could stay there. The boost they'll give me will be helpful. Lastly the book also mentioned a person in the Void who sells void items to non void beings. We figured we'd hit him first for back up weapons or other things. I have to admit having Heart in my stomach I've forgotten that were there more than I thought I would. It's still… weird, but overall an experience I have a feeling Eclipsa will want to try… oh yeah, still gotta do that also… baby steps. "Alright, we ready?" I asked Jericho while finishing up my list of things my clones can do. "Yeah. First stop that merchant person then off to the Void Dire wolves. How's Heart?" "He's out cold, so he'll be okay." I said honestly. "And watch as this is the Merchant from Resident Evil 4." I chuckled. "Loved that game." Jericho laughed as we used the Blindmans eye to find our way into the void. "Let's hope this thing works…" I muttered while seeing the eye...swivel around to find the way. "Gross…" The compass rotated around a few times, blinked, then glowed as suddenly it seemed the reality around them was now peeling off, soon it was gone, and we found ourselves in a floating stone altar of sorts. "What are you two doing here?" The voice of the Outsider Hollow spoke, appearing behind them. "How did you even get here?" “Found an artifact, and we were going to find the Void Wolves.” I said. “Oh by the way, how’s John doing?” "His training is going well. Hopefully when he returns to his home he can defend it with honor.” “I know he will.” I nodded. “Now, we originally started with finding The Merchant here to get some stuff before looking for the Void Wolves.” "Ah. Yes." Hollow said, suddenly a bridge forming from where we were into further darkness of void appeared. "This will take you to the deeper sections of The Void. Once you cross the bridge your Blind Man's Compass will be critical. The Merchant you are talking about lives inside a shack of sorts. Just know where you want to go and the compass will take you." “Cool.” I nodded. “Oh uh...what is the Forest of Roots?” I asked. “I read up that that’s where Void Wolves appear rather frequently.” "Well. That's a bit of a story, isn't it. You know how the Void Mother was the first Mother, right? The locations and ruins within the void are not all spilled leftovers of the admins and cycles. Most are from the voids days as the first creation, the first cycle. The Forest of Roots was the original birthplace of the original first cycle wolves. They came from those woods in that ever so bygone era. Many split off, went to other places and world's, becoming the various species that exist in this and every other cycle. As a wolf, it's the furthest back you can trace your ancestors, the first ancestral home of your people. The Void Wolves are the void tainted kin that never left them." “That’s really interesting...wonder if they’ll be friendly towards me given...who and what I am.” I wondered. "Perhaps, it's hard to tell with those wolves." "Well...let's hope for the best." I said honestly. Jericho and I walked across the bridge. The ever growing density and bleakness of the void getting more intense. "So far things are looking more bleak…" I said honestly. "It's the Void so…" Jericho said, taking out the Blind Man's Eye and it began guiding. "Well… this will be something." "Let's hope we don't bump into anything. While the accessories I made should work it's better to be safe than sorry." I said honestly. “Yeah.” As we walked, following the compass’s directions we thankfully walked, maybe seven miles or so, might be more? We arrived at said shack here. It was a very haphazardly built shack that was part of the rotten wood, part various assortments of junk. “This is it?” Jericho asked. “I’ve seen some crappy living conditions before but… this is pretty bad. Like a homeless guy just piled all their gathered trash to make a building.” "Don't judge a book by its cover as they say." I said honestly. "Inside could be a nice shop. Who knows?" I shrugged. Shrugging, Jericho and I knocked… and the door fell over… “Come in then.” Spoke the elderly ancient voice of a raspy man, a coughing fit followed swiftly after their words were done. Inside was… pretty bad. It at least looked like a shop but it was the definition of… all the health code violations. “Nice on the inside huh?” Jericho asked sassily. “I said ‘could be’, and ‘who knows’. So don’t sass me.” I frowned. “So, how are you doing today sir?” I asked the shopkeep. The Shopkeep wore a dirty cloth toga of sorts that was stained in dirt and blood… their own if that massive greatsword through their back and chest means anything. “Welcome. Creations of Admins… No, Admins. Been a long time since your lot saw my wears. So, anything in particular you want?” “Do you have any items that can let us see in the Void without blindly following the Blind Man’s Eye?” I asked curiously. “Ah. I think I have what you need” The shopkeep said, rummaging through a pile of jars with… various items. After a minute he pulled out one with what looked like herbs. “These herbs when blended and boiled into a tea, taste like Deaths Asshole, but taints the eyes just enough to allow vision in this forsaken place. The effects last only for a day, per cup.” “I kind of thought it would have been like a set of goggles or something to help you see...not basically Death’s ass liquid.” I said honestly. The shopkeep launched, wheezing heavily ashe finished. “Good one lass. So how will you be paying for this?” “Um...what currency do you take?” I asked curiously. “Currency?” They laughed again, a coughing fit ending it. “Money is as worthless here as the will to live lass. We barter, do a job and all that. Question is, what can you do for me?” “Build you a house that won’t fall apart if you accidentally cough at the wrong ‘support’ beam?” I asked honestly. “Heh. Nah lass. Hmm...Oh...Oh… Hang on, I know you.” They said, gaining a manic smile. “You killed that Honorable Delete Knight and his Wife!” “I’m not killing their children damn it!” I barked at him immediately. “I already regretted killing the both of them, I’m not killing their children even if they hate me…” I took a deep breath. “Just...I’m sorry for overreacting, why do you want to know why I killed them both?” “Oh I don’t want you to kill those kids. Little buggers died a while ago. House raided and then they were burned alive inside from what I heard.” I...I was honestly speechless at hearing that. “No...no that can’t be true…” “The void is a harsh place, children don’t last long without parents. But that’s where you come in.” He said, placing his arms on the rotting counter. “You see, words mean little when the travelers are the same people who’d have burned the place down. If ya find their bodies, bury the kids. Buggers were annoying but their parents were good customers. If there aren’t two tiny corpses, I know where those buggers likely would have ended up assuming something bigger didn’t eat them beforehand.” “Where would they be?” I asked curiously, already knowing where to bury the kids. “First lass, see if they aren’t dead.” The shopkeep said, grabbing an old kettle from under the counter then bringing it on top of his hand, Void Fire burning under it as he tossed a few of the herbs in it. “Do this for me, and the cup is on the house, bury them brats, or save them, jar is yours.” “I will...I’ll make sure to save them if they are still alive...or bury them with their parents if I find their corpses…” I sighed out. “But...thank you sir for telling me this...hopefully their still alive.” “Maybe. That’s what you’re going to see.” He said, the tea done as he poured it into two small cups. “Bottoms up, it’s got a kick.” “Thank you.” I nodded while taking one of the small cups and drinking it, knowing full well it’s going to taste like absolute garbage. Hope Heart doesn't end up tasting it. Garbage… did this thing justice. It took ALL my willpower to keep from throwing up, keeping the drink and Heart down as I saw Jericho was in no better boat. My eyes got hazy for a bit until finally I… I could see… colors? Sunlight? What? Getting up, that taste was lingering… and this place still looked horrible, but everything had color, everything looked like just a trash building in normal daylight. Is this how Deletes and other void beings see? “I think I’d prefer going through this place blind…” Jericho wheezed. “But...honestly seeing this place in color is nice…” I coughed. “So...where would the Old Man’s house be? And where would they be if they aren’t there?” “The house was in the ruins of Cartha, once a fine city, before the Void at least.” Shopkeep said. “If their charred bodies aren’t in the house, they must be in Pitt Vally. One of the only places here that has kids that are kept alive. Key word there is alive, safe, not so much.” I took a deep breath. “Alright, let’s get going then.” I said. “Thank you kindly sir.” ‘Oh fuck what was that!?’ Heart screamed, likely having tasted that liquid and was now spazzing about in there… actually doesn't feel as bad as I thought. Kinda like belly rubs. Got a lot of those from Mom and the girls. “Sorry Heart, but it’s so I can see in the Void…” I muttered while putting a hand on my stomach. ‘You should have stayed blind!’ “Thank you!” Jericho said. Once Heart had calmed down and was back to napping in there, we headed off. I have to admit, seeing in the void is… weird. Colors and such everything looks normal but… At the same time everything here was… defying every law in every book. “This place must have been nice before The Mother here went apshit nuts.” Jericho said. “It would have…” I sighed out. “We’ll have to fix this later, but right now...we have to make sure kids are okay.” As we walked along the roads, some Void beasts showed up. Nothing too bad, No Heart ended them fast and easy. They dropped a few… odd items Jericho kept to study and we saw the ruins of… Yeah just looking at these ‘ruins’ makes my brain hurt… “So which house is that Delete couples then? There’s a few here that are burned to ashes.” “Should have asked that…” I sighed out. “But...let’s start searching, hopefully we’ll find something.” I said while already heading off to find any signs of either dead bodies or life. As we were looking In one house that would have once been tall, I found a suit of armor… much like his… Arrows, bows, lots of swords… Yup! This is the place! I began sniffing and digging through rubble and ash piles. I found… a single, small arm… and that was it. Part of me was happy, and the other angry. Someone… cut this kid’s arm off. This is right at the joint…”Well...I found one of the kids arms…” I said while trying to see if the scent went off anywhere. I got nothing. “So those fuckers took them to this Pitt Valley then…” Jericho said, looking at the parents weapons. Despite the fire, they were in good shape. “They were after the kids.” Jericho said, picking up a sword the size of my body. “Everything of value is still here… but not the kids…” “So Pitt Valley is a child slavery scene?” I asked. “Or worse…” Jericho sighed. “There was a place in my old realm… We called it Galvalla. We all grew up there, at least until we ran away from it. It was safe, yes, but slavery would have been prefered. Like here, kids were not common. If we couldn’t fight, we were ‘entertainment’...” “So let’s go liberate the kids.” I said. “I know Nothingness is the opposite of Void but...Nothingness can still help them be less corrupted and be better.” “Even so, what after? They’re all Deletes, we can’t bring them home, they’d erase it the second they arrive… Unless…” “Unless?” I asked curiously. “I remember Pecator told Heart that when he was forging Void Key, he discovered that Nothingness, PURE Nothingness and Void cancel one another out, forming instead blank code, if you can manage to use it… they’d become normal kids, Admins even maybe. Their void would be purged and Delete powers and abilities gone. At the very least they’d be able to use Void like how John does.” “Perfect.” I said, thankful there’s hope. “I am so glad there’s hope for these kids...cause they deserve a better life than what’s either happening to them...or what’s to come…” “Yeah.” Jericho said, raising the massive sword with ease. “Let’s go save those kids.” I brought out No Heart and Skysplitter. “Yeah, let’s go save some kids.” I said. “Let’s go to Pitt Valley.” Pitt Valley was quite a distance. For some reason I can't shift No Heart or any of my other Keyblades into Gliders, but Lindworm worked still. Even flying though is going to take a while. “This better not be as worrying as I’m fearing…” "It will be worse." Jericho sighed. “Oh god…” I muttered worriedly as we got closer to the place. “I...just hope we can save all the kids…” "Won't be easy. Won't be pretty." Jericho sighed. "Hmm… Here. Take my hand." Jericho said, holding out a hand to me. “Lewd.” I joked as I took Jericho’s hand. There was a sudden rush over me. I felt code, code from Jericho enter me. "Admin trick. We can take Abilities or give them. That's an ability I got from the old Admin of War." “Oh? And what’s the ability?” I asked curiously. "Conquests Spoils. It's basically a magnet ability but it brings you what you want, but only after whoever is in charge of this place is dead. Hopefully if this place is not run by anyone you can get the kids out fast and then we can fight without holding back." “Alright.” I nodded. “This will help a lot, now let’s just hope there's no one their we can’t easily take care of.” I said, knowing full well the the place is going to have someone there other than their slaves. As we arrived, Pitt Valley was a haphazardly constructed City within a massive gash in the soil. The majority of beings around did not look like Deletes. "Echos." Jericho said. "Haven't seen one of those in a while, now there's a city of them." “What are Echos?” I asked nervously. "Some people deal with various void beings. Like Hollow. Echos are the void bound souls of people who deal with these beings. For the most part they are like how they were in life, but they can't technically die. The only way to 'kill' them is through absorbing them… but Your Nothingness should also be able to do the trick." “Alrighty then…” I said. “So, time to start a prison break I suppose.” "First try the Ability." “Alright…” I nodded while taking a deep breath and trying to ‘collect’ from the Valley in hopes that there wasn’t any leader here. “Let’s hope this works…” Once we landed I activated Conquests Spoils. I felt suddenly Each child in there… all sixteen thousand of them. All of them either used as slave labor, punching bags, experimentation… rape… I felt it through all of them, and yanked my arm back. All of the kids appearing around me. Acting fast I tapped into my Nothingness, diving deep as pure adrenaline and instinct kicked in, Pure Nothingness flowing to me, and out of me. Cloaking the kids as I saw their inborn void react with the Pure Nothingness, they each changing from Deletes to normal kids. "That will have painted a target. Let's slaughter the bastards then rush off. You try and send them home and look for those other two." I nodded while opening a portal as two clones of mine appeared and started to herd the children into the portal rather quickly, carrying those that were too weak or hurt to move as they all were thankfully brought to the medical center in the Castle. “Hopefully we’re not too late…” I said worriedly, hoping what these fuckers did didn’t hurt them beyond repair. I then saw one kid, an older boy, one armed, carrying a much younger kid. "Thank you Miss." They said, a ping of joy, guilt, and shame hitting all at once as they escaped. “I’m glad their safe but...shame and guilt are clouding my joy…” I sighed out sadly. "We won't have a lot of time." Jericho said, shooting an explosive blast of Code at the city. "Fire up that Nothingness, we need to end this fast cause Nexus will be here fast." I took a deep breath, remembering the feelings of each of the kids pain that these fuckers put them all through...all sixteen thousand of them. “Jericho...step the fuck back…” I growled as rage fueled my action as I stepped forward at the entire Valley. “----” I ‘said’ as I raised my hand, Pure Nothingness seeming to just erupt in the entire Valley as it was completely obliterated with any of those abusive fuckers inside. “That good enough?” I growled. "Yea-Agh!" Jericho screamed, blasted to the ground by a void blast. "Well, well, well…" That voice… "What do we have here? And I was wondering if you had the guts to walk into our turf." Void Key spoke through their current host. I stared at their host, then down at the Void Key replica. “Still hiding I see.” I said honestly. “What? You think your hot shit, why haven’t you just came up to me and fight me like a man. And Jericho quit being theatrical, you know that didn’t hurt.” I frowned. "Fuck off it did!" They yelled, arm regenerating in a glow of code. "I hate Deletes…" "Two on one? Heh. Well, guess I can spare an Allie." Void Key said, tapping it's blade to the ground as a Void portal opened. Walking through it was… is that Vilgax? "I hope you don't mind, but we made our own versions of your gear." Vilgax then summoned a void version of Sky Splitter and Frozen Pride. "I've been dying to test these." Vilgax said. "I forgot I picked him up…" Jericho huffed. “Cause of course you did…” I sighed out. “I’m curious, now bear with me here.” I said. “I want you to hit me as hard as you can.” I said to Vilgax simply. “Oh is that right?” Vilgax asked with confidence in his new abilities. “Now hold on.” I said. “You might have misheard me. Not ‘half as hard’ not ‘some arbitrary percentage’. I want you.” I said simply. “To hit me. As hard as you can.” “And if I don’t play along?” Vilgax asked simply. “Well then I guess Ben was right about you.” I said, causing Vilgax to snap and swing Sky Splitter at me, only for me to take the hit and...nothing happening. “Well consider that nerve touched.” I said with a grin as Vilgax jumped back. “Void you said these weapons were as strong as his!” Vilgax snapped, not knowing why I took literally no damage. Void didn’t say anything, as he seemed more intrigued by this new development. “Now Vilgax, you should know this by now.” I said. “You're either Perfect, or your just worthless.” I growled as I slammed my fist into Vilgax’s face really hard and sent him flying away rather fast. The alien managed to stop himself in mid air. “I’m okay...I’m okay…” The alien said as he fell and hit the ground. “Think I hit him a little too hard…” I muttered before seeing him get up rather quickly. “How dare you make a mockery of me!” Vilgax shouted as a massive Void Aura appeared around him. “I’m going to give you one last chance. You, me, hard as you can.” I told him with a grin. “We clear?” “Crystal.” Vilgax growled as he jumped into the air. “Prepare to die you worthless mutt!” Vilgax shouted as his aura got even bigger. “Oh ho ho! That’s impressive! I can actually feel that!” I taunted him. “The only thing you’ll be feeling is Oblivion!” Vilgax shouted. “That or disappointment.” I said while spreading my arms out. “Go ahead, flip that coin.” I said. Vilgax could only growl in rage as he continued to charge up his attack. “Apocalypse!” He shouted as he dived down straight towards me. “Aw how cute he named-oh shit!” I shouted as a massive fuck off explosion wracked across the area we were in, pillars of earth rising so high it damn near made mountains as Jericho and Void only stood their and watched. After all the dust settled Vilgax panted heavily as he looked up to see I lost an arm, only for him to start laughing in triumph. “You think this is funny?” I asked with a pained voice. “It’s hilarious!” Vilgax laughed. “Well it’s not as funny…” I said before dropping the joke. “As your face.” I said as my arm regrew as if nothing happened. “Wh-what!?” Vilgax backed up from that. “You know, I kind of liked the old arm better.” I said as I started stretching the new arm “Welp, looks like I’ll have to break it in.” I said as Vilgax tried to attack me at blinding speeds, only for me to block it all. “Why won’t you die!?!” Vilgax shouted. “Really Vilgax, has that really ever worked?” I asked before bringing out my own Sky Splitter and slamming it into the back of his head, knocking him out cold. “Don’t need to answer that.” I chuckled as I kicked Vilgax back to Void Key. “Happy with your little testing?” "Extremely. Runes notes were not all just talk." Void Key said, picking up Vilgax and tossing him back into a portal. "The data from this was useful. Now we know your power is not all from your weapons." They said, leaving through the portal also. “Dick…” I growled. “So anyways...now we can move onto the Void wolves.” "Well first we tell the merchant guy about the kids. Then off to the void wolves." Jericho said. “That is true.” I nodded. “Let’s go tell the merchant about this and...the massive fucking hole I just made…” I said while heading off back to the Merchant. We arrived back at the merchants place, he was just sitting down… eating a rat… a rather large rat. "So, what did ya find lass?" They asked. “All sixteen thousand kids are now in my world being tended to by the best doctor's, as well as Pitt Valley being nothing but a Nothingness infused crater.” I said honestly. "Ah. So that was the rumble that I felt. And those two little twats?" “They...thanked me before heading into the castle's medical center.” I said sadly. “I’m glad they’re all safe but...guilt and shame suck…” "Well ya did kill their parents. It's expected." The shopkeep said, bringing up the jar and sliding it over as Jericho took it. "As promised. The jar is yours." “Thank you.” I nodded. “Now...quick question, where are the Void Wolves? I only know about the Forest of Roots, but I don’t know which direction it is.” "Isn't that why ya have that void compass there lass?" “While that’s true, might as well also know just in case I lose the bloody thing.” I said honestly. “Better to be safe than sorry in the Void you know?” "What you'd need then, lass, is a map." The shopkeep said. "That would be useful." Jericho said. "I have just what you need." They said, rummaging through the piles of junk. "Now where did I…?" “Need some help?” I asked curiously. “I know it's… ah! Found it!" He said, grabbing an old box… that symbol on it… "This is an artifact that, back before this place even was the void, took you anywhere. However, after the void appeared, swallowing this land and everything, one person managed to make this thing work while in the void. Only one like it in this entire forsaken hellscape." "And how did you come to have it?" Jericho asked. "Stole it." Shopkeep said matter of factly. “Alright…” I nodded. “Interesting symbol on it.” "No one knows what it means. Knowledge of that era is damn near completely forgotten." Shopkeep said, opening the box as inside was… wow. It was an Assistant, definitely, but was way more… high tech… “Uh...okay so you have an Assistant...but it’s weirdly high tech…” I said with some thought. "Now this little treasure will cost you." “What will the price be?” I asked curiously. "I'll need… what your friend there has been carrying." I looked over at Jericho. "The sword?" Jericho asked. Shopkeep laughed. "No. You know what I am talking about." "..." Jericho thought for a bit. Eyes widening after a bit. "Over my dead body…" They hissed. “I don’t know what’s going on what?” I asked curiously. Jericho reached into their shirt, taking out a necklaces. It was plain, simple. "Remember when I told you that, before Cript, before I became the Admin of War… I loved someone else. This was hers, and it's all I have from them left." "A priceless item, for a priceless item." Shopkeep said. “No deal then.” I said simply. “A map is fine...but giving up the only thing you have of the people you care about is too much.” "Then we are at an impasse lass…" "I take it you have something else in mind?" Jericho asked. "Oh, maybe. Surely, that trinket would be of less value to you… if this love were with the living." “And what the hell do you mean by that?” I asked, knowing full well that people can come back but wondering why he brought it up. "There is tail of a relic, forged by the Void Mother herself. A relic of such bygone time before the void. A Code Catalog. Anyone that has lived, their Code is cataloged within it. A means of resurrection. Even when ended by a Delete." "So Deletes are now completely harmless." I said. "Where would this relic because you wouldn't bring it up if you know." "Not quite lass. I said it brings them back, I never said it brought them back as is. Or was." The merchant said. "What's the catch?" I asked honestly. "Cause right now it sounds like they would be brand new people instead of how resurrection actually works." "Yes and no. While it would be them, down to the last strand of code that made them up, this relic brings them back as they were when they first entered this world. Their world." "As a baby…" Jericho said with thought and confusion. "Correct. Mother's Womb, the Void Mother tore out her own Womb to become what she is, guess it caused her too much pain. The one being it can't resurrect was her dearly beloved. So she ripped it out, and cast it away into what is now known as The Tomb of Heroes." "Well then...that is a thing." I said honestly. "It's only the second most dangerous place in all of The Void, surpassed by The Void Mother's Garden only. Even at your power, that place is a suicide run." "Hasn't stopped me before." I said honestly. “So what’s the actual problem?” "One hundred floors, one hundred heroes killed, and morphed into the artifacts protectors." “Sounds simple enough.” I said honestly. “How strong are these bosses?” "They all come from the first cycle lass. You tell me?" They laughed. “Depends on who they are...cause even first cycle people can be weaker than most people here.” I said, knowing they would be strong but not knowing how strong. "One way to know for sure…" Jericho said thoughtfully. "This… this artifact could change everything Ben. No more lost soldiers, no more death period. Just rebirth." “And...some people deserve it.” I said honestly. “People deserve a second chance…” "Then off ya go. Hope to see you lot again, if not, well, I can't say I wasn't expecting it." “Well either way.” I said. “Where would this place be again?” "The Tomb of Heroes was the last place made before this place became The Void. It sits at The Voids Edge. A place many believe does not exist." “Now the main issue is to get there.” I said honestly. “Cause no matter where you go, getting to the Edge of anything is going to be a pain.” "Assuming it exists at all lass." “It exists, you wouldn’t be telling us this if you either didn’t believe it existed, or haven’t been there before.” I said honestly. “And honestly...I’m pretty sure you’ve been there before.” They laughed, a coughing fit leading to some coughed blood ending their self-hysterical laughter. "Been? No, but, I knew a fellow once. The one who gave me this." They taped the giant sword that impaled them. "Was all they could get from the first floor before leaving. Traded it to me for a complete memory extraction. Wanted to forget the place even existed." “Well alrighty then...that’s one hell of a payment honestly.” I said nervously. "A memory extraction means you didn't erase it. You transferred it." Jericho pointed out. "Indeed." The Shopkeep said, reaching under the desk and taking out a… a castle Oblivion card. But this is different. The colors are so dull and lifeless. Normally they look more bright and vibrant. "Put them all in here. Handy little trinkets." “Yeah, those things are nifty.” I said honestly. “So...looks like we’re going to head off to a Super Dungeon, how do you think we’ll fair Jericho?” I asked, given that Jericho is technically the Admin of War. "We could be fine. Better if I can use your Nothingness for some protection/ kick." Jericho said. “You can, you have the same powers as me, Heart, Eclipsa and Cript remember?” I said simply. "I know, but given how… training went, I figured it was best not to use your powers or weapons until you had cooled off." “More like how I accidentally destroyed an entire Dungeon in a blind fit of rage.” I said honestly. "I was talking about when you were training with me." “Either way, I’m not going to get into an argument right now.” I rolled my eyes. “So anyways...we’re going to have to find the place ourselves, or use that memory card to find where it is.” "Card will cost ya." Shopkeep said. "In this unique circumstances, an eye for an eye, or rather, a memory for a memory." “And...what memory would that be?” I asked curiously. “An eye for an eye, so one that equals in horror to that one most likely.” Jericho huffed. “Correct you are there.” The Shopkeep said. “So long as the emotional toil is the same, what was in the memory matters not to me.” “Well...mind if we have a small example of the memory to give us something to go off of?” I asked curiously. “Oh I’ve been hoping for someone to ask.” The Shopkeep said almost evilly as they tapped the card. What I saw, in order, made me scream, vomit, several times, surprisingly Heart did not pop up though did shuffle around a bit from my vomiting, made me cry, triggered my Motherly instincts fear and gave me slight PTSD flashbacks to when I killed the first time and when I killed Villain Deku… Jericho was in the same boat. “This truly is an unholy land!” Jericho whimpered, clutching onto me like a scared sheep… and I was doing the same to them. “Okay so...legit, what the fuck…” I whined. “You have not seen the worst this forsaken place has for those who tread it lightly.” The shopkeep said, unphased by what we just witnessed. “Bright side, you got the needed memory.” “Fuck off you planned that scare!” Jericho hissed. “I did, and it was worth it.” “I hate you so goddamn much…” I growled. With the location, and some basic knowledge of that first floor now given to us, we headed off to The Heroes Tomb. Jericho was still shaking a bit. “Alright, so first floor...shouldn’t be too hard.” I said, trying to play off the...event as if it was supposed to happen whether I had a say in it or not. “This place, can fuck itself into oblivion.” Jericho said finally. “I’ve seen some FUCKED stuff under the old Admin of War’s tyranny, but THAT… was beyond just simply cruelty… This place is just pure fucking evil…” “Okay now that I call bull.” I frowned. “I haven’t sifted through your memories yet but even I can imagine that asshole doing much, much worse...and regrettably...so can I…” I sighed out, Jericho knowing full well the locks I keep on certain memory doors that I make sure no one, not even myself, can go into. “So anyways...mind giving me some cliff notes on how not to pass out while going full hundred percent? Cause...we’re gonna need it.” “Are you actually going to listen or will you immediately try and hit me with a Tomahawk again?” “I’ll listen.” I said honestly. “We can’t really do that crap where we’re going…” "Alright then." Jericho said, taking a deep breath. "There are several methods, but a combination of them is always a better. My method is to exert a large portion of it into the area around you. This has the added benefit of also dealing some damage over time to any enemies around you while also weakening their power, especially if they draw it from a place or being as all that will be around them is your power, acting as a barrier of sorts." “And what are the other methods?” I asked curiously. “Cause that part might happen when I stop limiting myself cause...don’t want to hurt others accidentally.” "Another is to focus a chunk into your mind, speeding it up and allowing it to be 'overclocked' in a sense, letting you mentally handle that power better, and of course, physically as a byproduct. One method I know of also is called the Burst method. Cript does this one. They unleash in small burst/actions the full extent, focusing all that raw power into a single point or attack for a concentrated, powerful attack." “Would Drive Forms fix all this? Cause I do have a ‘True King Form’ that I haven’t fully tested yet with one hundred percent power.” I brought up, having gotten this form after I became King but didn’t notice until much much later. "I am not that knowledgeable on Magic. You'd have to ask Cript there." “Well we’ll figure it out soon I guess.” I said honestly. It was still… a long ways from this place. Despite our speed it was still going to take maybe a week or so. "Ever just wish for a simple life?" Jericho asked, the two of us bored out of our minds and basically laying on a solid floor of air I managed to make so Lindworm could carry us to this place. “It’s been a running thing I’ve wanted since I got here, but we both know ‘simple life’ isn’t really possible, whether it’s because of who we are or because the world itself is just fucking weird.” I said honestly. "But doesn't everything have a meaning different to another person's based on preference or ideals? Given our powers, life's and duties simple is our current family life." “True.” I said honestly. "So, since becoming an Admin and all that, what is the craziest thing you've done?" “Oh god...there’s a lot of things.” I said with some thought. “Can’t really decide on craziest...what’s the craziest thing you’ve done?” I asked. "Drank out five bars and ate a whole farm." Jericho said. "A Milgalop farm." “Milgalop?” I asked. “Sounds familiar but what is it?” "Imagine a mix between a Cow, Buffalo, Hippo and chicken. That's a Milgalop. Huge too. Just one has enough meat to feed a town. Bones once broken up make great fertilizer." “Cool.” I nodded. “But all things considered, the craziest thing I’ve done after becoming an Admin would be…” I hummed. “Well...considering I’m me, the craziest thing I can think of is having all of this.” I said honestly. “Family, friends, more power than I can ever have and more money and items I could ask for...that’s honestly the craziest thing when I look at myself.” "Figured the craziest thing for you would have been shifting into a herm. Though to be fair by God tier and up standpoints, herms are the norm." “Yeah, I could have also gone with either the two week orgy or making an entire colony is what should have been an endless amount of Shadow Creatures.” I said honestly. "That's cool. So, ever try and make your own weapon unique from the others?" “I mean, I have done research into it but I haven’t really tried to do anything along those lines. Honestly at this point with things I’ve either never had time to check or just completely forgot about I’m basically handicapping myself on complete accident.” I said honestly. "It happens. How about a quick lesson." Jericho said, sitting up. "Learning to imbue an object with power." “That would help.” I nodded. “That’s one thing to help make my weapons stronger.” "Alright. Now there are several ways to do this. But two can be done by anyone, and one is unique to Admins." Jericho said, taking out a simple dagger from their Assistant. "The first is by resmelting the weapon, but adding into it magic or special ores, like your Nothingness, Zeke's Balance, ect. Second is by crafting a gemstone with this power placed inside it. In my experience, no matter the realm, Gemstones can hold a large variety of power depending on the type of gem it is. The Admin way is actually kind of easy." Jericho started, showing me how to do this method. They flowed Code onto just their fingers, tapping the weapon and suddenly l, popped up on an almost Holo screen, was all the information about this weapon. Damage, materials, who made it, who used to own it, even it's molecular structure. Everything. "This is the Admins Edit Menu. Our ability to access this menu on anything below Admin power is the primary reason why we are so powerful." “From the Old King’s research, there’s apparently another way. Joy and my Council are actually prime examples of it.” I brought up. “Something to do with the weapon itself shifting or ‘evolving’ to fit the wielder...but not sure if I’m doing something wrong or haven’t noticed anything about it.” "Some weapons that have levels of self aware sentient can choose their best wielder. Keyblades are a prime example. As well as your weapons. That can happen to a weapon in one of two ways. First, is that they are made that way, another is that they gain this sentience by squirting life force and energy from their wielder or wielders over time. As such they will search for those who could add to or better embrace their already established power." Jericho said. "But back to topic, this menu I can add power to this weapon by simply typing." Jericho proceeded to add a section to the weapon, adding under the new 'Powers' tab and adding Nothingness. The dagger then gave off a strong sense of Nothingness, so much it became cloaked in Nothingness thorns. "This does not stop there. Watch." He then tapped on the tab for stats, showing its rather low 5 Damage, then added four zeros behind it. "From weak to powerful in two simple edits." He said, closing the menu and giving me the dagger. “Oh so basically just fucking with the numbers till you see fit.” I said honestly. "In a sense." Jericho launched. "There is a limit though. If you try to make this thing go above you in power, it will create a code error, and despite it's numbers stating it can kill everything, it will not even deal damage. Majority of the time when editing a weapon it's mostly for balancing it out stats wise or to see which collector of your creation will end up with it." “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “Sounds simple enough, let’s hope it’ll be enough against that thing…” I muttered as I started to edit all my weapons. "Yeah. Actually, we might be able to use this before heading off. Which of your weapons has the weakest damage?" “Physical or Magical?” I asked curiously. "Physical." “Um...I’d either say Foudre or Memory Stealer honestly.” I said honestly as I looked through all my weapons stats to make sure if I was right or not. I wasn't off. Foudre and Arpeggio had the lowest physical stats but the highest magic stats. Memory stealer had… pretty average stats. "Alright, which one shall we edit them?" Jericho asked. “Let’s go with Memory Stealer, cause honestly I want to start using it again even if it’s abilities are...rather extensive and massively scary…” I said sheepishly while bringing out Memory Stealer. "If you say so." Jericho said, opening it's menu. "Let's see here… hmm… oh, that's unique." He said, reading through it's stats. “You mean the part where it’s basically the Nothingness equivalent to a Delete?” I asked honestly. “Cause I did some major digging into it and...yeah it’s basically a Nothingness Delete weapon...that’s why I don’t use it…” "No, not that. It doesn't just consume memories, it also can convert them into various boosts. If I'm reading this right it can stack them up and you can use them as per what you need… but this code structure is all kinds of fucked. Whoever made this did not know what they were doing." Jericho said as they were fixing the apparently partly broken ability. “I blame God, and listen the ability is perfectly fine to keep. Also did you miss the part where it can literally revoke someone’s existence and absorb them?” I asked honestly. "No I see that part here. But like how a Delete does it, this one doesn't so much revoke their existence as it does… convert it… Huh…" Jericho said, looking through the code. "By default it uses the memories for boosts, the heart becomes Nothingness energy, and the leftover shell just becomes a Nobody forever." “Oh...well that’s a thing.” I said honestly. "That's default though… I can edit this to shift them into something different… something merciful." He said, looking over at me. "I can edit this to reset anyone who you deal a fatal blow to, so they revert to an infant state. Memories would be gone, of course but their heart and body would just revert back to infancy." “That...sounds better.” I nodded. "Might have to rename this thing then." Jericho said, happy. "How about… Second Chance, or Rebirth?" They said, working away at the former deadly weapon. “Both sound nice…” I said honestly. “I like Second Chance better though.” "Alright Then." Memory Stealer was now Second Chance, it would now take away all memories from someone hit fatality by it, and revert them body, mind, heart and soul to infancy. As an added measure Jericho made it so they'd be teleported to the clone of me at the Bedroom nursery safe room. He also changed its design. Now it looked like, well, Kinda like Oathkeeper but longer and had a Silhouette of me at the top clearly cradling an infant. "Man, feels good to do that again." Jericho said, happy at their own handy work. “What? Reforging a weapon?” I asked curiously. "Yeah. Was one of the few good things to come out of me becoming the new Admin of War." “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “Can’t wait to test it out...hopefully it’ll work against our new opponents…” "I made sure to boost it's Nothingness output so it will be extra effective against these things. Might even save them from whatever hell these former heroes are in now." “And how big are the boosts? Cause you said they stack just not how much it stacks.” "Well. One memory, can be used for a substitute for Mana for a cure or any other spell. Two cards can be used to boost Damage, speed, Defense or even Mana storage/restore time by times three… of itself. Three will give you higher stats to your drive forms as well as boost Nobodies you summon by five times their normal stats." “And it just keeps going and going from there?” I asked curiously. "It made out at three memories but so long as you have memories stored you can keep using them for boosts and they stack." “You can only stack it three times?” I asked, just making sure I’m hearing this right. "You can only use three memories for a boost, but you can use another three to stack onto the boost you already have so long as you have memories stored in there." “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “Thank you, and given that this takes memories from the Heart people would have thousands of memories.” "The older they are the more it can take. I also added a little something extra." “Oh? What’s the extra?” I asked curiously. "I added a feature that if it takes the memory of an attack they can do that can be remade for you, it will rework the memory and automatically teach you the attack, but with Nothingness." “So basically copycat right?” I asked curiously. "Kinda but you don't have to see them perform it first." “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “Good to know.” "So, anything else then?" Jericho asked. “Have you checked your skill tree? There’s a shit ton of things in it that you might find interesting.” I brought up. "Of course." Jericho nodded. "So, wanna upgrade your other weapons?" “Yes, I would really like that.’ I said while bringing up all my weapons, which Jericho easily saw that these weapons wanted to evolve, but not sure how many times. "Hmm…" They said, starting with Arpeggio. “Oh? Something up with Arpeggio?” "Did you know it records all prior songs/spells?" Jericho asked. "I knew about songs, but not spells." I said honestly. "No, I mean it records every song and spell ever played on it. All the way back to when it was made. It's got a ridiculously huge library." "Oh...I didn't know that." I said honestly. "Yeah. This is good. Now stats wise, magic is perfect, but raw damage is low. Stupidly low. But given that, this isn't your standard weapon it makes sense for that. I won't change that, but I will up it's area of effect and critical hit rate so it will be a hard hitter." "Sweet. By the by, why do I see this 'evolve times 6' above their status?" I asked. "It means this weapon can evolve six times. Each evolution stronger than the prior form. Of course you have to be a certain level of power for this to activate but given… everything that's not much of a problem. But to evolve them you do need materials." "I have every material in existence to an outlandish degree. And I said it was on all/ my weapons." I said while showing him the Evolve Button on 13 weapons cause Memory Stealer was already a new thing. "Interesting." Jericho said simply, tuning up Arpeggio a bit more before handing it back to me. When I hit Upgrade it asked me for a list of items. 44 Oricalcium +, 37 Power Stones, 63 Electronium Shards, 19 Nothingness Stones, 44 Frost Stones. "Okay so I can evolve this and not put a dent into my materials right now." I said while dumping the amount into the upgrade system and tried to evolve it. The weapon glowed for a bit, it's colors soon changing as it also grew longer, larger, and was now built to have more bass than before. It's colors while still blue were a mix of dark and light blues. "Cool." I said. "Now...lets see if I can do it again." I hummed, already seeing Arpeggios stats go through the roof even after Jericho's boost. As I hit the Upgrade option, it have an alert. 'Alert! Waiting period of four hours before next Upgrade.' "Rude." I frowned. "Well...can I evolve my other weapons?" I wondered while trying to evolve Skysplitter. It gave me the list of materials. "Alright. Let's get on with it…" I muttered while spending the needed materials to evolve it. While it's design stayed fairly the same, Skysplitter now also had a longer, thinner handle, and the blade part was also smaller and thinner, but also sharper. Color wise it was like Arpeggio. "Cool." I said. "Thinner but more compact. Now to do this to my other weapons while were still running." I said honestly, knowing we still had a couple days going full speed. Each weapon over the course of, by my count, five days, was fully upgraded finally. Their maxed out forms was… amazing. Interdiction now took the shape of light claws that extended over my own. They could leave damaging after images, be shot out like bullets and cast immediat reflect spells for defense. Sharpshooter now shot up to five bolts at once, automatic or semi auto at my will, and held enough ammo that when I do need to reload, I’ll be in for a surprise. I also can cast Anti-Gravity across quite the distance, and shoot my floating targets for a capture of lethal takedown. Lindworm while not much had changed they all had a small wolf head at the tip for the blade, and each Lance I make can shift into a wind wolf to attack. Frozen Pride while now in the shape of a star, also had a new power. I call it Howling Wrath. Each hit it takes it absorbs to store up for a possibly lethal sonic attack that disorients while also freezing all within range. Skysplitter was now white and bright sky blue, it cracked with electricity, no, energy constantly, just holding it allowed me to move large rock formations at will and moving it actually let me tear a hole back home from here. I can tear holes into the void and back, and seal them up as well with it now. It also now completely ignores defence. Just Physical defence though. It’s blade was more like teeth now. Dire Wolf Teeth. While thin it’s power was so much more than before. Lunatic now held a unique appearance. Its blade was more like a blade, it was actually more like a sword, but the mid section split off into a curved tip, forming a crescent moon/scythe look. I can summon a moon at the center of the curved section to build up my Berzerk mode immediately. I can also give that Berzerk power to an ally, nearly tripling their power and, for a while, making them near immune to damage while in a berzerk. Eternal flames now were a bright blue of moving fire rather than metal, glowing brightly in the void’s darkness when we didn’t take that… god awful tea. They incinerate damn near anything. Arpeggio had two sets of strings now, and I only really needed to play one while the others will take on magically, and even make water clones of me to play other instruments that will add to the songs power and give off a near unlimited pool of magic for my allies to use. Fair Game didn’t change much other than color, but my card capture prison is now its own dimension that holds even deletes that I can release, or use as a player in my game, total control over their moves and powers. Graceful Dilila now has teeth… No literally, actual teeth like mine that leech blood or life force from each hit. The first hit does ten, then it doubles per hit as the combo goes on. Foudre now were longer, but their standard damage was triple the old and their lightning damage also had a near constant paralysis effect on the target, on top of that the speed clones I make with it each have their own health pool. Book of Retribution was one of the more surprising ones, as it’s evolution not only became a sentient being that can cast the innumerable amount of spells it had, but it’s Book World was ten times better than before, as well as it’s evolution giving me a Sage Staff that, when used in conjunction with Book of Retribution, could amplify any and all magic I used to an insane degree, and even has all the modifiers added onto it. “You know...with all of this weapon evolution, I legit think we can take it...too bad that No Heart couldn’t evolve yet.” I said honestly. “Well it is a Keyblade, Nothingness or not it still falls under Heart’s category for these things.” Jericho said simply. “I wasn’t even able to access it’s menu because of that. Second Chance was the exception because of its unique origins and nature.” “Yeah, Second Chance is a very special case...and also the two spirit’s in my weapons, the Elder Wind God Dragon in Lindworm and the Giant in Skysplitter seem a bit happier that they’ve evolved.” I said honestly. “I can imagine. This evolution isn't just for them, it was also for you.” Jericho added. “Remember how your councils weapons all changed when they found their new wielders, but yours never did. Guess why.” “Either because I was completely ignoring the fact that they could have evolved a while ago, or because they noticed something about me?” I asked curiously. “Still going with the first one honestly.” “Because they all know who they are. You, as you are now, are happy with who you are. Once Heart fully accepts themselves, both the hearts of all and the Keyblades everywhere will unlock so much power. Now that you are accepting yourself, Nothingness and all it falls under will be stronger, better, whole.” “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “But it’s gonna take a little longer for it all to get through…” "I guess." Jericho sighed. At this point we were both fairly bored, so we began reading books from that Library. I was actually reading the book on Floof Noodles Heart skimmed through. “Seriously, we should have gotten to the edge by now…” I sighed out, enjoying the read but finding this boring that we’re not getting anywhere. "Void is a massive ass place Ben, bigger than any other creation or the other cycles." Jericho sighed, reading 'A Complete Guide To Stockpiling' As I was looking through the book, I have to Admit, Heart's newfound biology is quite the healthy mix between Dire Wolf and Naga. “How you doing in there Heart?” I asked the Naga Wolf in my stomach. Still asleep. Huh… I flipped through the book, finding something. Floof Noodles often conserve and even store energy by entering a hibernation at will, by lowering or raising their body temperature. This is often also used to help their young sleep within their many stomachs. When In this hibernation type sleep a Floof Noodle can sleep for up to a month without food, water, or light. It is often Debated on who is a more protective mother, the Mama Noodle, or a Den Mother. Both hardly leave the children, however the Floof Noodle does have the advantage of having the ability to feed their young while they are inside their stomachs. "Mama noodle jesus." I chuckled. "It was a cute joke name I didn't think this would take off that much." "Well you did name them that, and it is a race that has never existed prior." Jericho added. "I heavily doubt it never existed before." I said honestly. "And I'm sure I named them Dire Naga or something beforehand...I suppose Floof Noodle just stuck more." I don't even know how much time has passed, but I was just tossing a ball up into the air and catching it. Jericho was reading 'A History of The World' but every noun is the word Mango.' "How much you want to bet we would have found the Void Wolves by now?" I asked. "Easily." I shook myself awake. Was I dreaming again? I looked at myself. Yup, Diane's body. Huh… so I'm still asleep then. Must have dozed off. "Alright...not entirely what I wanted...hopefully I'm still going…" I muttered. "So where am I in dream land?" As I looked around, this was The World That Never was. Huh, neat. As I was walking around I felt something… no, someone familiar… and it pissed me off. "Okay, show yourself." I growled. As I was waiting for whoever this was to show up, suddenly, three Dusk's appeared. They motioned for me to follow as they walked away. "That's… weird…" I muttered as I followed after them. They lead me to the Castle… or rather, it's ruins. Leading me through the wreckage, I could see a makeshift camp. Getting closer they disbanded. Walking to this camp I saw… Zeke? No...no… "I was wondering, when we'd talk." Kexez spoke, still human and exactly how Heart looked before. He was sitting by a fire. "Oh. Its you." I frowned. "What are you doing here?" "Hiding." They said simply. "Void Key can't enter the realm of sleep." "You shouldn't even be here to begin with." I said. "Heart is a Somebody, so why are you still alive?" "You can thank Jericho for that. Before his act was discovered and still played the villain. Extracted the… foundation, that was my own heart forming from Heart, and the body, Spoild's handy work." "Well shit…" I sighed out. "So what has Spoiled been up to? And why are you hiding from Void Key?" "Spoils has been building, literally, an army. Perfecting her clones. As for the last thing. I only joined them to help Heart realize he can choose his destiny, and learn to love himself. Once I sensed they were on that path I tried to leave… The Void Mother had other plans." "Alrighty then...that sucks." I sighed out. "So...know where Void Key is?" "I know a few places they shift between when hiding. But they don't use them frequently. Always adding too, always moving, like me. Hiding." "Alrighty then." I nodded. "Can't be that simple sadly." I sighed out. “So...what? Are you supposed to be Void Keys proper wielder?” "More like a vessel. I'm still a Nobody, and Void Key figures this shell would give them the body to store all that fake void they make up. They aren't wrong, but I'm not looking for a possession, besides. It would affect Heart as well." “And that’s the thing we all don’t want.” I said honestly. “But if you want you can come live with us, there is literally no way that any of Void Mother’s forces can get near us. I made damn well sure of that.” "A tempting offer. Since when are you so forgiving?" “Because I hate Void Key a fuck of a lot more than you.” I said honestly. “I still hate you don’t get me wrong, but might as well start building a bridge instead of building bigger walls right?” "Fair point. But still, if I do, I need a favor." “I’m going to bite you, and you won’t like it.” I frowned. "I need Spoiled captured. And I need her scythe especially." “Three things, one, where is Spoiled, two, what Scythe? And three...what about your kid? Or did that kid just die?” "She transferred them to another, the Spoiled she kidnapped and Eclipsa rescued. They were close enough, code and genetics for the child to grow in her. From what I hear they already gave birth. But, this leads into why I need her, and her scythe. As you know, most Nobodies are especially cruel do to a lack of a heart to feel emotions. She was cruel even with a heart. While still under Core, she extracted it, and forged it into the scythe she wields. A memento of Core in a sense. I can fix the error in her heart that denied her true emotions. But we must act fast. She wants her child back. Though child was not what she called them. She preferred the word… battery." My eye twitched at that. “Oh no...she’s not going to live if she treats a child, her own child, as nothing more than a battery…” I growled. "Which is why she needs to be found, fast. Once she takes her child back, and does… that to them, her heart will shatter and die on it's own, and the child will be lost." “I mean, she literally can’t get to the child, in dozens of ways.” I said honestly. “We basically have all the time in the world, now where is she?” I asked. "You won't like it." “Is it a Castle Oblivion or something?” I asked. “Cause I remember Core was taking those things for cloning experiments.” I said. "They are her mass production factories now. To make her newly upgraded clones, she packed up shop and left… but not far. She's still in the realm of darkness, just at its deepest layer, where it and The Void touch, it's there she set up shop and had more than enough resources to work with." “That should be easy enough to find.” I said honestly. “Unless it’s not somehow.”. "Navigation is the hard part. Between that and the unpredictable environment navigating that place is as hard as navigating the void." “Well...I can take my enemies memories so that can help me navigate that place.” I said honestly. "Doubtful. Nothing stays in one place for long. The whole place is an unending storm, and whatever land there is moves with the storm." “Cause of course, why can’t it just be simple enough.” I grumbled. "Cause life is never so simple." Kexez said, tending their fire. "I do know, who would know where Void Key would be at all times. His little right hand Vilgax." “Son of a!” I threw my hands into the air. “I beat the shit out of Vilgax because he thought he was hot shit, but apparently he was my ticket to murdering that fucker and getting Coco back!” "Such is cruel fate." Kexez said with a laugh. "If I know Vilgax, his pride is the best method of luring him out into your hands." “Oh yeah, that’s how I beat him was get him to basically throw himself at me in a fit of rage due to his pride being hurt.” I said honestly. "He will fall for it again, but he will be cautious next time." ”I only need one hit...that’s all I need…” I said as I pulled out Second Chance. “Then I’ll get all his memories, and I can set whatever caused him down this power hungry road right.” "Save everyone. Heh. Maybe this cycle will be different." Kexez said with a sigh. "If I am to join you, I'll need a soul. A heart I am forming, but it's a soul I still lack. With that I'll be closer to whole, and if the worst would happen, it would give Void Key some hell trying to take me over." “Oh, I can give you that.” I said honestly. “Did it with Diane, I can do it with you.” "Perfect." “Now the only thing I want to know is if this isn’t some trick for me to give Void Key what he wants.” I frowned. "You are King of all Nothingness and Nobodies. How could I lie in your presence? If you want proof, use that crown, and command me." “You have no idea how much I wanted to hear that.” I said with a smile as my Nothingness Crown, a mixture of the SIlver Crown I got ages ago and Nothingness forming a pretty cool looking crown. “I command you, what is your plan and speak the absolute truth.” I commanded him. Nothingness thorns wrapped around Kexez, but did nothing physical. So far. "My plan, was always the same. Help what Zeke, or rather Heart, as they go by now, was built for. Becoming the perfect weapon. Once that was over, and I returned to them, I felt the self loathing again. Heart hated themselves more than anything. When Jericho brought me back, I felt a new path was required. Help Heart accept their role. Themself." I sighed out, but nodded in understanding. “I understand…” I said while putting a hand on Kexez’s head. “For speaking the truth...I grant you a Soul.” I said while Kexez felt a new soul forming inside themselves. "That ever persists of a soul." Kexez sighed. "I suppose it's time to join you. Guess I should take my actual form as well. You'll see me when you wake." Kexez said, giving me a wave as they slowly faded out of the realm of dreams. “Well...that was a thing…” I muttered, wondering if I should have given Kexez a DTN to my castle instead of letting him find his way there. “Well...I suppose I should wake up now unless there’s something else the Dream Realm wants me to find.” I woke up wrapped in a fluffy yet firm softness… I then realized it was a fur covered tail… "Good, you woke up." Kexez said. While physically they were exactly like how Heart is, color wise they were pure white. “How does it feel to be a Floof Noodle?” I asked curiously. "I can't feel. Not yet." Kexez said, a hand over their chest. *Soon though. Ready yourself." Looking up and over I saw… saw the edge of the void. Liquid void energy formed a massive wall upwards for all eternity, and The Heroes Tomb, it was bigger than the Castle back home. “Damn that place is big.” I said honestly. "Hope you can fight without fighting." I was confused at that… then I remembered… that necklace... “Oh this? Uh...I already broke the rule.” I said honestly. “Like...legit.” "Perhaps you should learn the first rule of a king. Command your soldiers." “I’m more of a ‘hands on’ king if you know what I mean.” I said honestly. "Not with that Necklace. Besides, the king of Nothingness, and the admin of war taking on The Heroes Tomb. What a test for your council members." “No.” I stated. “They can’t fight in this battle. It’s only going to be me and Jericho...I’m not going to let others endure whatever the hell is in there, let alone the first boss.” I said, remembering the horrid thing in there. "And me?" “Trust me...I wouldn’t even want you to experience what’s in there...and both me and Jericho experienced a glimpse of what’s in there...it’s not pretty.” "How can I fear what is in there when I cannot feel?" “Suit yourself.” I sighed out. “Where’s Jericho?” I asked while looking around for him given I fell asleep before we even got here. "Here!" They gave a muffled shout from within Kexez's chest. A hand reaching out between the cleavage. "What an odd place to end up?" Kexez said, pulling them out. “Listen, there’s nothing wrong with being in fluff.” I said honestly. “How you doing Jericho?” "One second you are asleep and I'm messing with a rubix cube, the next thing I know I'm stuffed between boobs bigger than my body… oddly okay." They shrugged We landed at the entrance, and the doors were massive. Taking a deep breath, we entered. To be continued... Kico deals with some...heavy stuff“Alright, next floor.” I, the great Kico, said happily after beating the last floor. "I wonder what's next? Wish there was a list or something of the people on each floor." Cerex said as we went down the steps that lead to the next floor. These stairs were on every floor going down, and we're long, and sometimes had random loot here and there. "It would be nice to actually know…" I sighed out. "Just to make things simpler." "Lots." Cerex agreed. "See anything around that's neat?" "Hmm…" I looked around curiously, wonder if there was anything neat around here. There was mostly small loot here. A potion here, helmet there, some bones around there. As we traveled down I began getting a scent of… it's familier. Where have I smelled that? "Do you smell that?" I asked curiously. Cerex took a sniff. "Not really. I think I smell… water, and… rotten meat?" Well, there was that but what is this specific smell? "Not those, it's a specific smell…" I started while following after the familiar scent.ter that familiar scent. As we descended, the stairs taking on the theme of the next floor we saw as vines, tree roots and plant life began covering and breaking up the walls. Then, Cerex and I felt a vibration, like a shake and a thud from above. "The hell?" Cerex asked. “Either that’s something good or something bad…” I said worriedly. A moment Later, another thud, slightly louder and the vibration moreso shaking, small bits of dust falling from the roof above. "That's concerning." Cerex said, immediately another pair of thud and shake. Like the last one, louder and more violent. “Um...alright so uh...should we run?” I asked nervously. Another thud, another violent shake. "The hell could be coming from up there, King and the others cleared every floor above and we cleared the last two, right?" Another thud and shake, on this time the two were combined in a loud crash. Whatever was coming, it was closer. Maybe three floor- Crash! Two floors above us. “Panic?” I asked worriedly. "Since when does that do anything?" Crash!! Seconds passed, and finally. Boom! Cerex and I jumped against the wall, the rubble of the prior floors exit doors rolling down passed us. We headed footsteps and then… Cript?! "Huh? Cerex? Kico? Huh, King didn't tell me you guys fused." He shrugged. "Sorry I'm late." “Okay so...why are you here, what was all those crashing and exploding and...why are you here?” "The doors do lock behind you ya know. I had to break them down to get here. As for why, I owed King's Luna and she wanted King to get much needed help for his massive ass list of crap he piles upon himself, so, here I am." Cript said plainly. “Even when he has literally everyone willing to help him, he just keeps doing stuff by himself…” I sighed out. “So cool, you being here will help us deal with the rest of the dungeon on max difficulty.” "Great. Let's go." Cript said. My hud flashed and Cript was registered as a party member. With a nod we headed off. The twenty first floor was a Forest a mix of life and decay. Beasts half alive half rotten roamed about. As we walked Cript kept snapping their fingers, and devistating magic destroyed the undead animals. "So, how have you two been?" Cript asked. A snap, and an undead hippo/griffon looking thing was roasted to its bones. “Doing good.” I said honestly. “I’m the one that punches really hard, Cerex here is the tank.” "That's a good combo." Cript nodded. Snap, electrocution of an undead giant ant. “So this is...well this is supposed to be a Max Level Dungeon because of Void Mother.” I frowned. "So I heard." Cript sighed. Snap, roasted giant tiger/Chipmunk. "Being powerful sucks." “So me and Cerex here was basically a waste of time…” I pouted. "Not at all. You all need to get stronger, especially against Vincent. This war… he'll have me in your party already is making you two stronger. You notice your exp bars?" I took a look… it's moving. Fast. "Passive exp gain?" Cerex asked. "Yup. Like I told King, I'm Vincent's handy work." They huffed. “Damn.” I said in surprise. “That is...a lot of experience right now.” "Give it an hour, it doesn't stop." Cript sighed. Snap, frozen undead five headed snake. He threw a small rock at it, and it shattered into crimson shards. "Trust me, I've tried." “You don’t sound too happy about it.” I pointed out. "Being strong gets old. You become so strong that at a point the fights, no matter how big end up feeling… hollow. I tried suppressing and weakening myself, only worked for a week the longest." “That sucks.” I said honestly. "Does. But I moved off from Fighting. Exploring, world building, literally." Cript laughed at that. "Family, father and motherhood, and of course, I watch." “That’s good.” I nodded. “Good to know things are at least working out in other ways.” "Yeah, and as I watch I also help." “Which is always a good thing.” I said happily. "Enjoying the Speed Force?" Cript asked. I stopped, looking at them but they just kept on… did he? “I...am enjoying the Speed Force.” I said slowly, looking at him carefully. "I played around with it for a while, it's fun. Drains energy like a bitch though… something else that didn't last long." Snap, okay crispy undead pork smells horrible. “What do you mean?” I asked curiously. "You know how it takes in energy your body gets from food right? My body takes in the excess energy I generate, a lot, and uses it over food. Speed force for a time drained that but my body adapted. I'd run around the planet a million times and barely a dent when ten used to nearly empty my energy reserves." “Sounds about right.” I said honestly. "Sometimes I wonder why bother making me, especially now that I know Vincent just treats this all as a game or entertainment." "King...doesn't think that's actually Vincent." I brought up. “He doesn’t know what Vincent is right now, but just from what he gathered from his encounter with Vincent and what you told him is setting off a lot of red flags for him.” "No offense but a warm breeze in winter can set that wolf off." Cript said, a chuckle from Cerex in response. "There's paranoid, then there's aluminum hats… king's somewhere in between and flipping between the two." “But you got to admit there is something fishy about this Vincent ya know?” I pointed out. "When you've seen as much shit as I have you stop bothering to look into it cause it all just shows itself after a while. After the what, fifteenth time you notice the patterns." “Alright.” I nodded. “But you do know King is going to want to beat the shit out of Vincent now right?” Cript sighed. "No he won't." Snap, frozen giant… what was that a hawk? Either way, it's frozen broken shards now. “What do you mean ‘no he won’t?” I asked curiously. "Knowing patterns we will all end up fighting someone one on one for the final days of the war. Odds are, King is gonna be fighting Void Key. I'll be taking Vincent, Heart will be fighting who I am only assume will be their brother and I'm not actually sure about Eclipsa." “That weird voice from that core King made?” I suggested. “Given that I have all of King’s memories, I do know about that...weird event.” "And?" “I’m just giving a suggestion.” I shrugged. “So...who the hell is on this floor? Cause I can’t tell based on just the enemies here.” Cript took a look around, then back at that giant frozen bird. He walked over to it, and I noticed it wasn't a bird… it was a bug, specifically… a Hornet… "Odds are… someone King knows all too well." Cript sighed. "Me too…" “A hornet?” I asked nervously. “Wait...that familiar scent from before…” Cript took a sniff as well. I smelled it again, taking it in deeper. I didn't realize before, half pony, half the nose power… "Den…" Cript said sadly. "I'd know her smell anywhere…" I teared up involuntarily. “Why...why would we be fighting Den of all people?” "Ironic… I first met Den she was possessed and out of her mind… to see her like that again…" “I…” I started. “We need to save her.” I saw Cript give a small smile. "Saving people. I tend to do that better than anyone." “So you better get these.” I said while bringing out Second Chance and Love Struck. Cript just looked at them, giving a smirk before looking around. Snap. … Silence… then, crying. Instinctually, I ran towards it. In a small crib where Cript snapped their fingers, was a small little baby Creature. Part Tiger, part goat it seems. "Awh!" Cerex said, rapidly coiling around the crib and baby defensively. “They're adorable.” I chuckled. "I'll teach you the spell." Cript said, walking up to us. "Basically the same effect as Second Chance." “Good to know.” I said honestly. "So, wanna break this damn dungeon?" “King has been wanting to so we can get back on track cause we’re way behind.” I said honestly. "Well then, let's break some rules." Cript said, holding out a hand. "Shall we?" “We shall.” I said while taking Cript’s hand happily. At taking their hand, I felt a rush of power. Smiling as the spell flowed into my mind I raised my free hand, and snapped my fingers. "Lot more than I expected." Cript said as we gathered the last of the new infants into the floor safe room. Mini bosses were sadly unaffected but they were in locked rooms so I guess that was meant to be a fight regardless if the ones from Adam's floor said was right. “Alrighty then, let’s keep going.” I said with a warm smile, glad to have made the floors a lot easier. As Cerex sent the babies to safety back home, Cript and I went on ahead to the first miniboss. Unlike Adam's floor though, the key here wasn't a puzzle, it was a show of identity… whatever that means. “Alright...so the hell does that mean?” I asked with a frown. Cript frowned, looking around for a moment till they spotted the doors top. Looking up, I saw between many glowing blue and white leafs was a large circle plate of moonstone. "Wow… makes sense though. You need to howl." “Ah, alrighty then.” I said, before doing a good dire wolf howl, hoping that would open the door. The moonstone glowed for a while when I finished and the. The door swung open. "Nice job. Cute howl." Cript said as he looked in. “It wasn’t cute, it was strong.” I pouted. “But what’s inside?” Looking inside as well, the area was a large pit claw dug all around, large rocks and boulders making a makeshift wall all around. In the center of this makeshift Arena on all fours was a large wolf, Silver fur glowing bright with energy as they howled up to the sky, the sky here showing a clear starless sky with the full moon as the only light. “Who’s that?” I asked, not sure if that was Den because of certain reasons or if it was someone else. Cript blinked. "Not sure. Their enemy ID say they're just called Silver Wolf." “That’s...strange.” I started while moving towards the arena. “Well...let’s not keep them waiting.” "You wanna cheese them or fight them?" “Well…” I started. “Can I do both?” "Go ahead." Cript said, stepping to the side to allow me the full floor. “Alright.” I nodded while stepping into the arena. “Alright you, time to fight.” The wolf growled, spreading their legs to get ready to charge me. I cracked my knuckles and prepared to fight. “Alright you, time to give you a proper fight.” The Silver Wolf just stood there, then howled, a beam of pure primal energy shooting right at me. “Bitch please!” I shouted as my arm glowed a silver light as I punched the beam of energy right back at the wolf using my outlandish strength and a reflect spell. The wolf sidestepped the reflected blast, and was rushing around me, keeping a distance as they howled more beams at me. I dodged the beams swiftly as I charged at the wolf, both my arms changing to a solid black color as Armament Haki strengthened my arms even more than my normal passives as I leaped forward and tried to slam my fist into the thing. It tried to side step my attack but I hit one of its legs and it was sent flying, spinning and crashing into the wall. “Damn, didn’t think hitting it’s leg would send it flying like that.” I said honestly. "You're borrowing some of my power, are you really that surprised?" Cript asked. “You do know I have outlandish strength right?” I pointed out. “As well as all the other natural buffs I have.” "Point?" Cript asked as I dodged another howl blast. “My point is that people can be strong without your power being involved.” I said honestly while bolting forward to the wolf and slamming my fist into the wolf again. "I know, but this helps make this whole thing go by faster. That is why I'm here after all." “True.” I said, moving behind the wolf and grabbing them by the tail and starting to slam them into the ground. After a short while of doing that, I gave them a hard punch, the Silver Wolf flying towards Cript who just spin kicked it back to me. Side stepping I let it slam into the wall and watched as it's HP bar hit Zero and vanished in a flash of white and silver light. On the floor was… It took a lot to keep myself together at seeing this, nearly unfusing at the sight. It was the tooth necklace Den gave King. “Oh sweet lord…” I groaned while putting a hand up to my head. “That hurt…” I muttered while taking the necklace. “Jesus...it’s been so long.” "Looks like it's a key then. That's the first thing mini bosses drop." Cript said, walking over to me. "You okay?" “Me, I’m fine...King not so much…” I sighed out while picking up the necklace and looking at it. "That was one of the few things Den had when she joined the family. That necklace and a culture's worth of stories." Cript sighed. "It's gonna hurt seeing her when we reach the boss room…" “This is already straining my fusion as is…” I said honestly. “She...gave King this, as a gift saying he was the best hunter of his generation...it meant the world to him…” Cript sighed. "Need help?" “I just…” I sighed out. “Yeah, I need help...King needs help.” Cript nodded. "In a way, it's probably best you are here and not King. This floor alone might nearly break them… here." Cript took my head in their hands… suddenly I felt… lighter. King's powerful emotions on this fucked up floor were there but felt… less. "I've suppressed your link to King and also Coco. It's temporary, help to keep you together just in case. They can't see what's happening here anymore, or feel, hear, ect. They have other matters to focus on." “Like the two cuddling back home where Coco’s trying to cheer King up to the best of her ability.” I said honestly. "Yeah. Let's not let them feel worse then. Come on." Cript said, taking my hand. "Two more mini bosses." “This is gonna hurt still…” I sighed out. “Even if I’m not King...I still have their memories.” "I know…" The next mini boss door was different. It was frozen over a pond of sorts. "Wonder how this one works?" Cript asked looking over the ice. “Well...who knows how to ice skate?” I asked curiously. "Don't look at me." Cerex said. "No legs." "I don't skate." Cript said. I sighed out. “Thank god Coco learned how to ice skate.” I muttered while bringing out some hoof skates and starting to skate around. As I was doing so I looked up, the high up tree top parting just enough to… ah, got it. With graceful spins, jumps and glides Soon the ice mimicked the silhouette in the treetops, a wolf in howl. As I got off the cracks in the ice glowed bright til finally the ice broke, emerging from the water below was a wolf made from icy frost and mist. Wolf of Winter. I brought up my fists, which then suddenly burst into flames from one of my talents. “Alright, time to bring the heat in this winter wonderland.” I rushed the wolf, lining a punch right to it's face… that I phased though, falling into the water. "Oh, so it's a spectral enemy, not elemental. Clever camouflage." Cript said as I jumped out of the water. Wolf fur plus earth pony weather resistance… and that water was still stupid cold. “Alright fine.” I said while coming up as my arms started producing a strange fog like cloud around it as I got out of the water quickly. “Phantom Fist.” I said, throwing my fist towards the wolf as a ghostly visage of my fist bolted towards it. It floated, spinning around my fist and bit/phased through my head. I blinked. I wasn't… where am… Crunch. I looked down, realizing I had something in my mouth. I was a full wolf… and I was eating… eating… puppies… I screamed, the arena back in view. I can still… taste, feel them in my teeth… I looked up, the ghostly wolf floating before me and gaining distance. “Oh…” I started. “Nope, I’m not dealing with that.” I started as I looked around the area. “If you’re too swift to punch…” I muttered, trying to use some of King’s deductive reasoning and Coco’s actual search skills to try and figure out what the hell is up here. As I looked around, I only saw the bare bones ice rink around me and the water below me...which is a lot deeper than a normal ice rink should be. “Wait...wait a second! I know what that bitch is!” I snapped. “You son of a whore!” I barked in rage as I dived down into the water, the water steaming around me as I was diving down towards where this bastard's corpse was. ”How dare you...you’re showing me memories...memories of Den…” I thought to myself, remembering when King was going through Den’s memories and remembering that horrid event. As I swam deeper and deeper I could see bones all around the walls and floor. Finally I spotted a single bone that does not belong. A human skull, likely that fucking asshole that enslaved her! As I swam down I grabbed the human skull and my hand glowed with pure energy. ”You will no longer haunt us anymore asshole!” I mentally screamed as I crushed the skull with my bare hands. From the shards of bone I felt something in my hands. Looking, it was a dog whistle. That same one he used. Of course that’s the key item… Swimming back up I got onto solid ground, shaking off all the water and sighed. The ghost wolf was gone. “If you didn’t turn King’s emotions off...he would have blown this entire place sky fucking high.” I said while raising the dog whistle. “And of course, this fucking thing is one of our key items.” “First the Necklace, now that damned whistle…” Cript thought aloud as I put the cursed tool away. “Wonder what number three will be?” “I’m gonna give Den a hug when I see her.” Cerex said sadly. “King is already cuddling up to Den...even if he missed this part, I think he can take a guess as to what other things these mini bosses will have…” I sighed out sadly. "Well, come on then. One more to go." Cript said. The next arena was a cave, Den's cave. The once beautiful stories along the wall now stained in old blood. In the central chamber were bones. So many bones, young and old wolves in piles. "Good Lord…" I muttered sadly at this entire room. "I don't like this…" Cerex whimpered. "Neither do I." Cript said, looking around. "So...what's the boss here?" I asked worriedly. "I can take two guesses…" Cript said, the bones starting to shake and the images on the walls, while stained over were moving from under their dried blood covering. "and it looks like both." The bones began to rise where they stood, skeleton wolves ranging from old and weak, young and strong to infants began circling us with pulsating red and blue eyes while the images of the walls jumped off them, taking a spectral form. "Oh dear…" Cerex said. "Please no…" I whimpered. "Kico, Cerex." Cript said. "I'm gonna do something kinda stupid. Alright?" "Go right ahead." I said simply. Cript closed their eyes, hands placed together and… I felt… calm, so… calm. Looking over at Cript, they were… different, slightly. They looked at a halfway between themselves and being The Mother. "Shhh." They said softly, the skeletons and ghosts stopping instantly where they were. "It's okay, don't be scared." Kneeling, Cript held out a hand. Slowly, they walked to Cript. A small skeletal pup the closest. Smiling, Cript pet then, their bones flashing bright as suddenly they had flesh, fur and life. Cript did the same for the rest, undead of bones and spirit were given flesh and blood again at Cript's touch. When all was done Cerex sent them home, and Cript began shifting back to normal. When it was done, they collapsed. "Dumb ass!" Turning, I saw Cerex unfused, Kexez and Jericho back as Jericho rushed next to Cript. "A halfway transformation into The Mother?! Even for you that was stupid!" Jericho yelled. "Worked didn't it?" Cript said, sounding tired. "I take it thats a big no no right?" I asked nervously. Jericho huffed. "When we transcend, become Belief and The Mother, it's supposed to be a permanent transformation. No halfway about it, Cript literally managed to burn nearly all their energy keeping it at that halfway point and even more reverting from it. Doing that should not even be possible." "Since when does Impossible stop me?" Cript asked, sounding offended. "For fucks sake if you weren't Deathless odds are that would have killed you. None of the prior mother's we've talked to have done that." "Add that to the list of shit I can do other me's haven't or can't." They sighed with a roll of their eyes. "Damn, haven't felt a bit out like this in a long time." "You'll be good?" "Yeah. Body of mine adapts to everything, remember? Just gonna be a few minutes. Half an hour at most but I doubt it will take that long." "Well...at least your okay." I said honestly. "You know I'm gonna punish you for this. If I don't Lyra will." Jericho said. "And you'll do what?" Cript asked with a raised eyebrow. Jericho took one long jump back over to Kexez, the two becoming Cerex again as they slithered up to Cript, and swallowed them for healing. "That… sorry, but at least this way you will heal faster." Cerex said with a sigh. "So… is that the key?" Turning I looked where Cerex was pointing. It was a single tooth left on the ground. Walking over I picked it up and sniffed it… Den, she lost a tooth? No, this is too small… baby tooth.. "It's a...baby tooth?" I asked curiously. "Her baby tooth?" "Awh, so cute!" Cerex said, looking at it. "Why her baby tooth though?" "I...don't know." I said while trying to go through Kings memories, trying to see if Den told him anything about this. I couldn't find any… maybe it's more of a symbolic thing. I pocketed it, and Cerex and I headed to the safe room to rest up til Cript was out and about. “God...even after Cript made the link more bearable…” I put a hand to my head. “King’s emotions are still a hell of a thing…” "Den is their mother, lover and friend. Fact is, this floor likely won't be the last hard floor on them, Coco maybe even, Maybe even Myself, Jericho and Kexez." “Still…” I sighed out. “God, this sucks…” "It does, all we can do is win and move on." “I know...it still sucks though.” I huffed. "These things are never easy." “Cause why wouldn’t things be easy?” I frowned. "Want a distraction?" Cerex asked. “Please…” I said. “Even if it’s just cuddles..” Cerex used her tail to lift me up, making me slide down her tail to her waste as she wrapped her arms around me. "I want kisses." She said, her lips meeting mine and the faint taste of blueberry mint hit me shortly after her tongue made itself home in my mouth. I kissed Cerex happily, just wanting some feeling of closeness and good instead of feeling like garbage because of this floor. We stayed like that for a long while, the two of us enjoying this greatly. We didn't have sex, no mood for it. We both layed there in each other's arms on the grass covered floor. "Ever think we should go to school or something?" Cerex asked. “Why do you say that?” I asked curiously. "Well, I know between the people who make us up we have more than enough smarts but it feels kinda borrowed to me. Plus I'd like a degree." “Eh, sounds about right.” I shrugged. “Me? I don’t think it’s really ‘borrowed’ per se, but I understand what you mean.” "Ever wanna go clubbing?" “Like parties or smacking someone with a club?” I asked. "Parties silly." Cerex said, giving me a small push and laughed. "Dress up slutty, drink and do shit we'd want to forget later." “I’m pretty sure I’d have more women drooling over me than you.” I said while bringing up my arm and flexing it. “Seriously, I’m buff as hell.” "Men, women, herms, I'm down with whoever and whatever." Cerex said playful. "Besides, these babies catch all the eyes." She pressed her arms into her multiple breasts. I stared. "Case in point." She smirked at my stare. “It’s not my fault you not only have multiple tits...but they're all really big…” I blushed. "And soft, and bouncy, and hypnotic." She added with a grin. "If we do go I am gonna enjoy all those looks I'll be getting." “I can imagine.” I chuckled. “But they do look nice.” I said while giving one of her tits a quick little squeeze. She took the hand I used to squeeze her breast with, kissed it gently before holding my appendage like it was a treasured item. "One of these days, I'd like a wedding, just you and I. I know us being in this family is already a thing, but I would love a wedding of my very own someday." “So would everyone else.” I said warmly. “But...I would love to marry you Cerex.” “I want to marry you Kico.” Cerex said as she kissed me again. “When we get out of here, can we do just that?” “Of course.” I said happily. “The first marriage between fusions in the Royal Family? That’ll surely make headlines, oh! Kity would make absolutely amazing outfits for us.” “Hmm, make it a three way wedding?” Cerex purred in my ear. “Make one fun honeymoon~” “It’s going to be a wonderful honeymoon.” I giggled happily. Cerex and I cuddled for several more hours, enjoying each other's touch and embrace. I began wondering, it’s been at least five hours… wonder why Cript isn’t out yet? “Shouldn’t Cript have been back by now?” I asked curiously. “According to Jericho’s memories,” Cerex said sleepily. “Cript when healing or even when just in someplace comfy, they sleep like in a hibernation state. This actually leads to some interesting passive abilities when Cript does this though.” Cerex said, sitting up as they sorted through Jericho’s memories. “Sounds neat.“ I said honestly. “Just hope he gets here soon, with him here we should be doing maybe two floors or more per chapter.” “No fourth wall breaks!” Cerex said, tackling me as suddenly I was buried under her many fluffy soft breasts. “It’s only good with Deadpool.” “Eclipsa does it and no one argues with that.” I said, my voice muffled by the floofy boobs. “Eclipsa is Eclipsa.” Cerex said, pressing their body weight onto me now… this feels good. “Put that mouth to better use and nurse, I’m feeling motherly~” I blushed a bit before latching onto her nipple and gently sucking on it, snuggling up to my lover. We stayed like that for another good few hours. I wasn’t sure how long exactly and I didn’t care as I drank from Cerex’s breast and cuddled to her as close as we could get without fusing. After a while I had quite the milk swollen belly, and kept drinking despite that. It was good milk, and Cerex has plenty to give to me. After more time passed and I felt like I was nine months pregnant with fifty babies, I stopped drinking and just nuzzled into Cerex’s breast, so soft, so smooth, like the perfect pillow. “This is nice…” I said warmly. Cerex held my head against her breasts, petting me gently and being motherly as I held her torso as best I could. “Sleepy?” She asked me softly. “Yes...you’re so comfy, soft and smooth, like the perfect pillow.” I said lovingly. “Oh really?” She said. Suddenly she moved a lot. Lifting me up and suddenly I was cradled in her coiled form, my head resting comfortably on her top breasts as she looked at me, holding my head and making me sleepy and feel so… safe. “This is nice.” I said lovingly. “You should sleep too love, what comes next won’t be easy. Sleep.” She cooed, kissing my forehead. “Rest, we are safe now and when you and Cript are ready we will finish this floor.” “Alright…” I yawned softly and cuddled up with Cerex. “Good night…” I muttered, starting to doze off. “Sweet Dreams Kico.” Cerex said as I began to drift into blissful sleep. The Sleeping World, the Dream Realm. FIrst time here actually… Hmm… I found myself wearing a short skirt, sports bra and top with baby blue sneakers. I was in… wait, where is this? It looks like home but… empty… The walls were cracked and dull, the floors dirty and stained, the ceiling in bad shape as the rest of the place and just… this whole place was in ruins... “Dream Realm of the Void.” I turned, finding Cript. They looked… different, younger, wearing a full body brown robe and holding a staff, the top decorated with a gold and hooked ring. “First time here too, whole place is freaky as all hell.” “So why are we here?” I asked worriedly. “Sleep, dreams. Whether you remember it or not we always enter the sleeping worlds, the dream realm. The void has its own, because it’s linked to the waking worlds, like two sides of a coin. Creation fell into the void after every cycle, so does the Dream Realm, and gets twisted and corrupted just like the rest of reality. But, this can be very, very useful to us at the moment.” “How so?” I asked curiously. “The past and future from the Sleeping World’s point of view is both a line and a spiral, like a tornado with points in time flying by like paper in the wind. If we can find one of the unstable points, we can learn both our past and future to better prepare for the war, and, with luck, find some info on others.” “Well...that sounds neat.” I said honestly. “Let’s get going then.” Cript said as they opened the nearby door. The halls were so… broken. It hurt a lot so see this. There were… Nightmares? Dream Eaters I think but so void corrupted. What might have been a Nightmare Meow Wow looked to have eight spider-like legs, a mouth open along its belly with sharp teeth sticking out and eyes handing out of their sockets and looking in every direction wildly as it walked along the walls. “Well this place is...unsettling…” I said nervously. “Void twists everything, realm of sleep is no acception.” Cript shrugged as we moved passed the void corrupted Dream Eater. As we made our way though the halls, seeing more and more of the twisted nightmares we finally made it outside… and the town was worse. All the buildings and houses nearby were leveled rubble, crawling over their remains was more void nightmares and other creatures I don't know what they were. "Jesus damn…" I muttered sadly. "What the hell happened here?" “Broken and forgotten dreams.” Cript said simply. “No one to dream, only nightmares, only the void, so the dream realm fell to ruins. Only Void monsters and their nightmares live here.” "Is...there anyway to restore it?" I asked worriedly.Is there...anyway to fix this?” I asked worriedly. "Kill the void mother." Cript offered. "Course any other void based being in existence will also die as their primary foundation will be gone." “And then Nothingness falls because Void doesn’t exist and then it becomes a domino effect where everything just dies.” I frowned. "Yup. In the end though, why bother fixing this? I mean, why remove the void? In my experience, the void is typically a kill or be killed place. It used to work like creation does now. Safe zones for building, farming and living, wild places filled with dungeons, wild monsters, ect. When she became what she is now, that all fell apart. The whole place is like this because she just hasn't fixed that." “So we just fix it.” I said simply. “Can’t be that hard right?” "The only one who can is the void mother herself, or an Admin of void, which mind you has never existed. The only people who come close to that are you, Coco, Maxella and- oh shit!" Cript said aloud in realization. “I mean, there’s also John and Hollow and who’s Maxella?” I asked curiously. "Max and John's birth mom. Also yeah them too. But that's not important, Void Key. His void type is different. It might be different Enough for him to be something like an Admin if not one genuine." “Oh for fuck sakes…” I groaned. "I doubt he can alter this realm, but if he learns to make his own… assuming he hasn't already." Cript pondered. “Cause that’s what we need right now…” I sighed out. "This might be good though." Cript said. "If he made his own realm inside the void the structure code wise would be like shoving a fuck tone of clothes inside a small drawer, the leaks would be noticably both in the dream realm and physical realms. If we can find the spills here we can figure out where Void key is, or at least the entrance to his realm in the void." “You do know when we find this King is going to kick down his front door and start mauling whatever Void Key has right?” I pointed out. "King needs to learn to control his actions. A direct attack would be suicide, even if he is Deathless, dumbass." Cript sighed. "You'd think he'd know how to control their emotions." “You’d think he would be more sensible when he’s been literally the only one hunting the fucker down.” I brought up. “And yes, he was the only one, why do you think he’s had that in big bold red letters at the top of his list?” "Cause he hates void key on a deep personal level?" “That’s part of it, but it’s also to stop the bastard before he gets to his full strength or figures out how to do something extremely bad.” I said honestly. "Hmm…" Cript pondered aloud. "We know he needs hosts to do anything. His perfect host was meant to be Coco, and we know he's targeting the Admins of fear as backups, so that means as a baseline Void Key is more of a parasite. Without a host, he can't do anything I'd guess. This also means each host he can only do what they can do… so for him to become an Admin he needs an Admin as a host, but if he already has a realm… shit, he might have already gotten to one or both of them… or someone else." “And that’s what King fears, all this ‘he needs’ bits...what if Void Key doesn’t need all of that anymore? What if he could just make more of himself as a massive army of Void Keys? That’s what King is scared of, Void Key not needing a host, being able to do things himself and having an army of himself at the same time.” "I don't think that would be their goal. I think he is like an infection, and wants to make everything himself." “And what better way to do that by having an army of himself beating down everyone and stealing their bodies for his own?” I asked. "True, but remember not every body he takes over lasts. They burn out, only ones like Coco or the Fear Admins can last him, so odds are, there is something special he needs in his hosts." "And he can't just give that to his hosts because of his admin powers?" I inquired. "He's not a true being remember? He's a parasite, he is limited to what his host can do so even if he has an admin host it won't help him if he can't himself become an admin. Even if he does use his admin host to make compatible blank bodies to use, those blank bodies are as useful to him as blank paper, no abilities, no powers. He'd more put his resources to figuring out how to create a means of perfect Infection on any host." "The impossible has been made possible before…" I said. "Which means he needs resources, no admin can made void based resources so they'll be having to gather them in tons… including Keyblades…" Cript pondered, twirling their staff around. "These are all a bunch of things King doesn't want to gamble on 'maybe', cause he's been gambling less and less on maybes as of late." "It's not maybes, more a definite. But, being here we can find out just how far they have gotten to… hmm… maybe we can track them using that. Kico, can you pull out some void from your reserves right now?" “Sure.” I said while bringing out some Void into my hands. “Why do you ask?” Cript held their hands over mine, the void burning him but not really hurting them as they flowed code into it and into my palms. "Coco was built to hold and use Void Key and his Void type. That means there should be either a core or an imprint somewhere in her code. If I can find that, I should be able to create a tracking script that can track anything or anyone using Void Keys void. Excluding you and Coco." Cript said. "That would be good." I nodded. "Let's hope this works." Cript poked and prodded inside the void and Coco's half of my code. After several minutes they pulled back, code flowing from their own hand that moved around for a bit before pointing in a direction. "Perfect. Now to just…" He placed his hand over the code, a flash and when he opened it, there was a compass. No directional north, south, east and west, just the needle pointing one way. "There." "Cool." I said honestly. "Can't wait to see what it's pointing to." "Or who." Cript added as we followed the needle. We walked for what seemed like hours, was in all likelihood but void time was weird enough, void realm of sleep time I did not wanna think about. Finally though we found what seems to be a camp of sorts. Two Nexus, one human one Equestrian, non anthro, the Equestrian had a large great sword that pulsated with Void Keys void energy as they used it to bleed out a… something. It was a void beast but I can't tell what it is, it's all fur and blood as far as I can see. "Gotta play this good. Typically they have cynenide pill tooth, grenade tooth and an instant kill chip in their heads that activate if they say the wrong thing. Likely altered to resist or be immune to knock out spells or gasses so… what do we do?" Cript asked me. "I haven't dealt with Nexus, and King barely has." I said honestly. "Got anything creative you can think of?" I pondered… the biggest issue is those chips and suicide teeth… I activated Electronium abilities, something I haven't dabled in but King has. Using this I sensed their neural pathways, how the electricity flowed through their bodies and in and out of the chips. That would need surgery. Realizing something, I smirked, and one swap to their pathways and done. The two nexus dropped to the ground. Comatose, at least until I fix their neural pathways. "Clever girl." Cript said with a nod of approvement. "King would have went head on and ended up with corpses." "I'm sure King would have thought of it as well." I said honestly. "He just doesn't remember half the things he's maxed out in his skill trees." We got back up and headed over. Cript began removing Nexus's suicide teeth and even began to remove their kill chips… gross. I looked over the beast they were bleeding dry. "Well well well, isn't this a surprise." I stood on edge… that voice. I turned to the Great sword laid on the floor next to me… Void Key. "My proper host and my greatest annoyence sharing body, mind and soul. How cute." "The only reason why I'm not making you beg for mercy is because we have questions you sack of shit." I growled. "Ever asking questions and never learning the answers. Never asking the important questions, the why's and how's catch your mind more than the who and what of the matter." "Cause I want to know your life's story instead of just making your life a living hell." I frowned. "Those who are wise look at both the future and past in searching for answers. I have seen, searched and watched past, present and future for many cycles. I have seen enough to know the shift in the winds, and know now my time to act is fast approaching. Can you sense the difference in this cycle? The vital change that makes this one so unique compared to its predicessors?" "Besides the fact Vincent isn't Vincent and Void Mother first met us in the Tomb?" I asked. "And we know where you are, King is preparing to kick your ass." "Then pray tell, where am I?" "Right here?" I deadpanned. “Heh, a fragment of me, yes. Part of my power, but I myself am elsewhere. For me, this is no different than your Starfish clones. An easily disposable vessel.” “Alright.” I said simply, as I started to pull out Void Key’s Code with Coco and King’s experience and knowledge. “Now whether you like it or not, I’m going to learn everything about you you sack of garbage.” “You act as if this will help you.” As I was trying to pull his code I felt this… burning in my chest. It began flowing through my body and...and… I dropped Void Key, the damn asshole was laughing. “Coco is my perfect vessel! And I fight and destroy King’s Nothingness! Fusion you may be, that core from me resides in your code too! Contact with me just lets me activate it; and learn. Kico, what a simple name. But a good host you’d make as well, so should Choco, Zeco, Brain, Spitfire and Symbi, so long as Coco is part of the foundation, you’d all make wonderful, powerful hosts.” “You wish it was only one sided.” I growled. “King is going to find you and make you regret ever being made, and so will a whole lot of other people.” I said, now knowing quite a bit more about this bastard. “Promises Promises yet what shall be kept? I hope for a grand display when I can meet King face to face.” “So, making a new perfect host then?” Cript asked, done removing the kill chips and fixing their surgery marks. “I built Coco’s blueprints, well before she was born. I can improve and adapt, just as Vincent always has with you and your siblings Cript.” “And no matter what changes you do, no matter how you ‘adapt’...” I growled. “It will be for absolutely nothing.” “Threats are a two way street Kico. Tell me, how many children does King and Coco have together? How many about you? Ever notice you’re a bit slower in that department?” At that, Cript placed a code flowing hand on me. “... He’s right… According to this code, Coco has no ovaries… and yours just infuse Coco’s DNA into King’s. Doesn’t merge them like normal fusions do.” “Perfect to grow your own from an existing foundation. DNA and Code. So different yet so similar.” I stared at Void Key, trying to process what I was hearing...only for my fist to glow a greyish color as I rammed my fist into Void Key, the being’s true form feeling enormous pain from where it originally stood. “I’m going to break you.” I growled, tears falling down my eyes as the pain of Coco and myself was brought down on us. Void Key, just laughed. “Your pain, only keeps me fueled and inspires, how many of your own children should I-” Crack. The sword that Void Key spoke from shattered, Cript’s outstretched fist leaving it shards as that damned weapon shattered into shards smaller than sand. “Now he’s pissed me off.” Cript said, looking over to me, then, gave me a hug. “If he does… we can save them. I know we can. I don’t break promises, no matter how impossible they seem.” I hugged Cript and cried. “I...I can’t...I can’t have children…” “Shhh.” Cript said, holding me tight as I cried. “Void Key screwed up, cause now I am putting him atop my hit list. He took that special power from Coco, from you in his actions. Stole it, well we are getting it back and saving the ones he uses. I swear.” “I...know I hurt him.” I said while looking at my hand. “I...don’t know where that Grey came from but...I just know I hurt him bad.” “Good, fuckers like him need to get hurt. Remind them they are mortal. Come on.” Cript said, letting me go and turning to the two still unconscious nexus. “Now we can get answers. Maybe not the ones we need, but they will lead us somewhere.” Cript said, kneeling to the two. A snap of his fingers and they woke up, the second they saw us they tried to get up but were tied up. “Now then you two, we can do this the easy way…” Cript said, one of their fingers shifting into a metallic claw. “Of the hard way.” “I just learned I can’t have kids.” I growled to the two. “So either you tell us everything you know, or I swear to god whatever he does to you I will do something ten times worse. And you don’t have any of your safety net bullshit here.” Cript took a deep breath. “So?” He asked, trailing his metallic claw finger around the Equestrians face, blood following as the Nexus resisted screaming. Once Cript made a full trace around their face, he put the tip of his claw finger under their cut face, and pulled. The Equines face ripped off in a spray of blood as they yelled in pain. “Let’s get started.” The two were tougher than I expected. Cript tortured them and I asked the questions. Both of them were skinless, limbless quarter alive husks with their guts and organs pulled from their insides and circling them. THat…. Nearly made me sick, but I was too pissed to let it get to me. Turns out Void Key has been hunting the dream form of Void Wolves in this place, keeping them from sleeping by making their sleeping forms eternally painful so they don’t sleep, get weak so he can attack their den without much resistance. That bloody fur thing handing was formerly a Void Wolf, or their dream realm self at least. They have several bases mainly run by Void Key in this place, and a few that are from Nexus. “Thank you for cooperating.” Cript said, washing the blood off their hands and face. Their robe though was ruined. “You can wake up now, and warn your friends… cause I’m pissed.” Two blasts of fire magic, and the two were ash on the ground. “Cool.” I said. “Now we need to find the Void Wolves much faster...cause King’s time table haven't already been fucked into a crater before.” “Well then, let’s get to it.” Cript said. A wave of their hand and the ground under us floated and we were off towards the nearest base. We sat, and Cript gave me another hug. “I can probably undo the code work he did to Coco, and there for you, but your, Coco’s, first ovaries, we will get them back.” “I’m going to make Void Key pay...me and King…” I said as I hugged back again. “For now, let’s kick some ass. Just be warned… bases like this are… not pretty. At least you can direct your anger at them deservingly.” “Oh I’m going to do some really bad things to these people.” I said while cracking my knuckles. "You beat their asses while I nab all their data. Every little thing helps. Any prisoners we free if they aren't mindless beasts." “This is gonna be fun.” I said while energy sparked off of me. “They believe they know speed and power, but I’m gonna show them they know nothing.” I growled as I vanished towards the base, the Solid Dark Monofilament wall turning into nothing but a pile of rubble as I had my fist out. “Knock knock motherfuckers!” There weren't as many as there could be and most all armed. Speed Force out classes energy weapons and firearms. As I was tossing them into the still standing parts of the wall at mach 2 speed I saw Cript speeding inside the base itself. Once they were all tossed painfully I let them wake up even more painfully as I then took a look around. Cages were everywhere but only a quarter were full. There was only one cage that had Void Wolves in it, and just three, the rest held Void Dream Eaters, the mutated monsters hissing and clawing at their confines. “Alright, time to save some Void Wolves.” I said while grabbing the cage bars and ripping the entire cage in half. “Are you three okay?” Their replies were snarls, taking cautious sniffs at me. "You don't belong here, half-breed." The left, largest one spoke. “And neither do you, and while the full breed, the one that’s been trying to find you all, isn’t here right now, I’m here to save you.” I said simply. "Yet your reek of the poison that has plagued us for eons." The middle one said. "Nothingness." The right and last one growled. "That vial poison touched us once and to this day the effects can be felt in our bones and blood." “And yet I’m a fusion of the two.” I said simply, bringing up my hand and Void energy radiated off of it. “But right now we need your help in dealing with this crap. I don’t care if you’re against helping Nothingness, but it’s a hell of a lot better being murdered by Void Key.” They all growled at the name. "The accursed abomination has been weakening us for weeks now." The middle one said. "Restless sleep has made even our strongest weary. And his minions hunt us both here and in our home forest. It is worse than when the Admin of War enslaved a pack so long ago." "Justice came for him, thankfully." The largest one added. "And the pack's descendants have merged with our own." “Right now the person that wanted to find you is thankfully figuring out a way to make Nothingness not poisonous to you people, and he’s making great headway in it. We just need to find where you’re home forest is to stop these attacks in the waking world.” The three looked at me for a time. "We… can not accept the help of an outsider, the den elder would forbid it." "However," The right most one added. "Pray tell, half breed, what den race birthed you? Your mixed blood makes it unclear to determine." “I…” I started, thinking back to King’s race. “They call themselves Dire Wolves...but the more I think about it, with what my own half has learned and gone through...I don’t think their really called Dire Wolves...but thanks to those fucking hornet’s all that might have been lost to time…” I sighed out. The middle one smirked. "A half breed belonging to a forgotten pack is quite upsetting." Their smirk was then replaced by a frown. "You speak of Hornets. Pray tell, were they massive, the size of the largest of bolders and killed centuries ago? Who was the wolf who ended them?" "Yes and bigger, and the wolf that killed them is the same person that needs your help. He went by another name a long time ago, but his current name is King." I explained. They growled at hearing King's name, that made me confused. "The Lord of our poison wanting to help? It seems much like the void, creation and nature itself has gone wild and unpredictable." The right one said. "What proof do you have of his word?" The larger one asked. "He's willing to do your rite of passage, or whatever you want to prove his word." I said simply. "And so am I." "The source of Nothingness can never preform our rite of passage." The middle one said. "To become one of us they would need to drink the waters of the void, let it empower them. King can never partake in the ritual." "Knowing him, he'd dive head first into it to prove himself. But if he won't be enough, how about me? I have Void powers so I can do it right?" I asked curiously. The three looked at one another for a time. "Perhaps, can you take a feral Form half breed?" "Yes." I nodded while shifting into my feral form, which was the best combination between the flexibility and agility of a dire wolf with the strength and endurance of an Earth Pony. "Does this work?" "They look like a fine snack." The large one said with a bite at the air in front of my nose. I didn't move. "Got guts, for a half breed of predetor and prey." "If you truly wish to be of our pack, and form an alliance with the Lord of our natural enemy, you shall need to speak to the den elder." "And where would they be?" I asked curiously. The middle one gave a soft howl at the ground. The metal warped at the purity of the void they vocalized til there was the image of a gigantic rested inside a mountain, an equally massive arrow splitting it's skull in half. "This is Murdered Mountain, we will tell the elder to meet you here half-breed." "Okay...so where the hell is that?" I asked. "I don't know the layout of the void…" "Where are you in the waking void?" The right one asked. "The Heroes Tomb, floor 21." I said. They looked at one another again, this time in surprise. "The Heroes Tomb? There are few places we of the void dare not enter… And that dungeon tops the list right under the void mother's sanctuary." "Well King, Jericho, Coco and Kexez wanted to beat it to have the treasures inside...also because the Void Mother told us to beat it on the hardest rank for bonus stuff." They stared at me. "Clearly, the void hates you." Middle said bluntly. “And when does the Void not hate something?” I deadpan countered. “When they drip in blood and carnage.” The large wolf said. Finally the trio got out of the cage, right and large left in stupid fast runs while the middle one stood there looking at me for a time. “If you run into more of these encampments, please, burn them to ashes.” "Oh don't worry, I'm going to." I said simply. “Good.” With that, she rushed off in a haze of void. Shifting back to normal I turned and saw Cript walking out of the building. “Got all the data I could find, digital and physical. The rest is… unpleasant… So, ready for the next base?” “Yep, just got done talking with some of the Void Wolves and finally found a way to get their help.” I said honestly. "Cool. Now then, let's move." Cript said, a snap of their fingers and the building and the ground it was built on was raised to the heavens in an explotion of fire. The rest of the bases went about the same, break in, wreck everything, take data, free any non hostile void beings and then blow it to the moon. We were finally at the last camp, and when I say camp I mean camp. Tents and such were all that was here and it seemed to be… and excavation? "The hell are they digging up? Things don't die here, at least not normally." “We should probably stop them before they find whatever they're digging for.” I said nervously. Just like the others. Kick, punch(it’s all in the mind) and cleared. The dig site went down quite a ways, deeper than Cript and I expected. When we reached its bottom there was a half dug out stone door. “Well that’s...not good.” I started nervously. “Anything involving unearthing an ancient stone door can’t be good…” "No it can not." Cript said, taking a shovel and began trying to dig the rest of the door out. “And we’re finishing up the dig...why?” I asked worriedly. "Do I strike you as the type of person to not know what my enemies were searching for when it's right in front of me? Or the type of person to look at an ancient door and not open it?" Cript asked bluntly. “I mean...King would have done the same thing your doing.” I sighed out. "Yeah but I have more experience at this than them." Cript said, the last of the dirt nearly moved as they swept the rest aside with the shovel's tip. With the door clear the entirety of it's artwork was on display. Lines of stone carved code decorated the doors. "Oh, now that is impressive." “And...why the hell would an Admin door be here?” I asked nervously. "Not an Admin door, an Admin grave." Cript said, looking over the carved code. "Lord told me way back ago when an Admin was going to die they'd take their whole realm with them to the grave, and hide the entrance. All their secrets, knowledge and their title up for grabs for an admin willing to rob the grave." “So...we’re going to rob an admin’s grave?” I asked nervously. "Yes and no." Cript said, letting code flow from them over the door. After several still minutes it began to shrink and shrink until it was no bigger than a domino tile. Cript then picked it up and pocketed it. "I'll have Lord look it over, figure out who it was and why Nexus wanted them." “I mean...gaining an admin's power and realm are already two reasons why.” I said honestly. "Not when Vincent is involved." Cript sighed. "There's always a much bigger picture." “Cause there always needs to be a bigger picture.” I sighed out. "Always is." Cript confirmed. "Alright, this was the last one those two knew about, let's blow this place to the dawn of time and get back to the dungeon." “That would be great.” I said honestly. “Even if...I’d rather not…” I sighed out sadly, knowing what’s coming up next after the next in the dungeon. "Hey." Cript said, walking over to me and holding my hands. "It will be hard, but it will end up fine." They said, giving me a smile. "Just leave it all to me, okay?" “That’s if your spell doesn’t wear off just as we get to Den’s boss room and I unfuse…” I said honestly. "It won't, and Don't worry." Cript said, giving me a kiss on the forehead. "Keep Hope Kico, before we leave this floor, Den will be herself again." “Alright...I believe you.” I said gently. “Let’s...just hope things will be okay after this.” Back in the dungeon, Cript was out of Cerex and I no longer had a massive belly filled with milk. Steadying myself we headed for the boss door. The door had a wolf's head statue sticking out of it. We put the necklace on them, Den's tooth in the only tooth slot missing, and the whistle in it's mouth. Once we did, the mouth chomped, breaking the whistle as the door opened. Inside, there was the coffin. The lid flying off as with a growling, haunting howl jumped out… Den. Her once beautiful coat was pale, patches missing where rotten skin and holes oozed void, her eyes now pale death rather than their lovely deep blue, and her teeth a sickly yellow instead of her pearly white ones. “Oh god...it’s even worse than I thought…” I said sadly. I looked over at Cript, who looked at me and gave me a small smile before turning back to Den. “Time to come home Den.” Cript said. Den roared, and they charged. Cript in a blink seemed to have tackled Den, but then stopped her charge dead in their tracks and, to my shock, exploded. Not in fire, not in heat, in an all encompassing blast of divine magics, code and King’s Nothingness, the energies circling the two and flowing right into Den. She roared and hissed, bit and scratched at Cript who ignored it all as they poured all that energy, that mix of code and spellwork into her. Cerex wrapped around me, keeping me from getting blasted back by discharge of Cript’s energies. Putting all my focus into seeing, I watched as slowly Den’s wounds healed, the void flow from her slowing as her holes closed, fur growing back at crawling pace. A secondary explosion of energy, the flow seeming to have tripled as Den was beginning to look more and more like the wolf we all loved. “What...what is he doing?” I asked worriedly. “Think of it like a blood transfusion.” Cerex said, her upper half keeping low in the fast flowing energy. “Den’s current energy is pretty much decayed and void tainted, Cript’s pumping her with enough fresh code, energy and Nothingness to revive her.” “That’s...that’s fantastic.” I said honestly. “It’s never been done before.” Cerex added. “Leave it to Cript to do the impossible.” A third explosion of energies. I was nearly knocked back as I saw Den looking nearly completely normal, her eyes still that pale lifeless white. Her body was whole and complete. After several more intense minutes the energies stopped as rapidly as they began. Den stood there, her eyes back to normal but looked… hollow. Cript stood there, holding her head. “Den… come back to me, please.” They leaned in, kissing Den on the lips as there was a spark in her eyes, and I felt an energy that… I never felt before. It was… comfering, warm and made me feel safe and happy, as short as it was there. Den blinked, her eyes back to being filled with life. She looked at Cript for the longest time. “C-Cript?” She asked shakily. Cript just smiled, tears forming and falling. “Saved you again.” He said, the wolf hugging him tight, practically burying them in her embrace as she cried, cried in pain and in joy. Cript hugged her back just as tight. “Almost like how they met.” Cerex said, uncoiling and slithering next to me. “I’d be romantic if it wasn’t so fucked up.” “This...is something else…” I muttered, not sure what to say as my emotions were kind of messed up here. “Can...I go to her now?” Cerex just pushed me forwards. Walking slowly til I was in front of them, Den opened her eyes and saw me, smiling as tears kept flowing. “Kico.” She said, shakily and with a smile. I jumped in, next to Cript as we all shared a tear filled hug. “I’m...I’m so glad…” I said while nuzzling into Den. “I’m sorry…” To be continued... I can be better...with helpYa know…when I was told to ‘lose my morals’, I thought I would know…I really thought I knew what the ‘bottom of the barrel’ was…but no…”Are….are you serious?” I asked slowly. “Yep.” Cript said. “You always knew it was this bad." Lord said in his same smarmy tone. "Ya get used to it." Vincent shrugged "Eh." Gray shrugged. "I'm not even gonna ask how you did that." Cript said. I…I don’t really know what I expected…I…I knew it could be this bad…but it somehow felt worse…”This…this can’t be right…” I muttered, feeling just…pure fatigue after seeing this as I wasn’t sure what to actually feel at the moment. "Well, Fuck." Lord said. "Guess I have more shit to build then… that also explains how you kept your numbers in Nexus so high." Gray shrugged. "Nature takes too long. A factory style approach was faster and the end products were more customizable." I…actually felt numb at how they were just…so casually talking about this. “Are…are you for fucking real right now?” I asked slowly looking at Gray and Lord. "When I joke, you'll know." Lord said. "I'm just telling it how it is. Not like I'm the only one to mass produce an army. I just made it an efficient process." “I…I don’t know what I truly expected…” I muttered. “I mean…when the fuck do I? It’s not like I’ve been trying to figure thing’s out for the better part of my entire life only to, yet again, be told ‘go fuck yourself’.” I said, as a growing chuckle formed at it. "If you don't want any part of this King, you're more than free to wash your hands of it." Cript said. "Not just anyone can live with what we're doing here." That…I…I barked with laughter. “That’s fucking funny that you just openly tell me I can ‘walk away’ like what I’ve seen and heard, you think I can just ‘walk away’ after being told ‘you’re gonna have to let your petty feelings and morals go burn in a hole to actually fight this war’...” "Can't play with the big kids then get off the playground." Gray shrugged. "Zip it." Cript spat. "Look King… I know you haven't been well with everything lately. And Heart's choice in… I know how badly it's destroyed you. You aren't well King." “No…I’m not fine…” I admitted, staring at the four. “I’ve never been fine…and this?” I motioned ot everything. “And boy…is it not going to help you four.” “I know where this is going.” Vincent was quick to say. “King, don’t.” Vincent said bluntly, as if sensing how close to ‘done’ I was. “And why shouldn’t I? I’ve had to help peddle all your bullshit for decades…” I clenched my fists in some vain attempt to keep myself together here. "Because I thought you said you could handle this." Cript spoke up. "There's no shame in turning back King. Everyone in this room is here because we can and will do the unthinkable. The unspeakable, cross lines no one who claims to be fighting for a good cause should ever need to cross… there's no shame in leaving this behind for your own happiness. You don't have to force yourself to do any of this just to prove yourself of anything." “My own happiness?” I asked, the four hearing something snap as I just stared at him, tears in my eyes even as I gave him a smile. “I think you forgot something Cript…this is me we’re talking about, my happiness never mattered, it’s just some fucking plaything that everyone can use and abuse.” “Oh no…” Vincent muttered. “Oh yeah…I forgot…” Gray muttered. “I’m not fine, that’s why I’m here.” I said as I weakly raised my arms. “So come on, three of you don’t give a shit yet everyone of you seems to have seemed to take a step back.” I said, having noticed even a small amount that everyone but Cript took a step back from me like I was about to do something horrible. "King… calm down." Cript said. “Calm down? But I am calm.” I said with a smile, not knowing if it was deranged from how I felt or a genuine one. “You know me, it’s not like I’m so done with everything that I just want to rip reality asunder because of how little anything ever mattered to begin with.” "King." Cript said, taking a few steps towards me. "Take a breath." “Nothing matters…nothing ever mattered…” I laughed. “It’s all just some petty game for petty people, life is nothing but toy’s for people in power to fuck with, and I should know, these two made my life that way!” I laughed harder and pointed at Gray and Vincent. "King, Vincent was being controlled by Gray, but he did make him. Both are at fault for the shit all of us have gone through." Cript said as he got closer to me. "Believe me, if I could I'd kill Gray and Vincent but having them as ally's right now is our best bet to win this against the Gray that is our enemy right now." “I’m not going to kill them, that would be stupid.” I answered Cript, putting a hand on their shoulder. “I’m not stupid, we still need their help, and I got the best help I could get…learning that nothing matters…” "Ben!" Cript shouted, making me pause… how did he call me that…? Cript then wrapped their arms in a tight hug around me. "You've always mattered Ben… to say otherwise that you or nothing mattered… that's not you…" “First…how did you call my original name?” I asked in confusion, still feeling…numb even as he hugged me. “And two…you showed me what ‘no morals’ meant, the four of you did…as Lord said, I already knew…I just needed to witness it…” "Yet you're losing yourself in it. Lord, Vincent, Gray and I, we're beyond help or saving. You don't deserve to live like we do. As for your name, just another bullshit thing I can do…" Cript sighed. "You don't want this life Ben… trust me…" “Whether I want this life or not doesn’t matter…Heart was a good start in proving that what needs to be done is more important than what people feel…” "Heart did that because they couldn't live with participating in this war. They might be a Cript, but in the end, Heart wasn't strong enough. They trusted and hoped you'd take the weight of it and that was selfish of them." “I…I just hate all of this…” I muttered, just wanting to stop all this. “I’m…just tired…” "Then rest, Ben. You've pushed yourself to your breaking point… please, you don't have to push any further." “I have to though…Gray’s not going to wait for me to have some fucking spa day and get my bearings…” I said weakly. “I’m doing this war because I was made to and to stop my boredom, you looking more like a deranged lunatic is something I’ve already seen and it’s not entertaining.” Gray decided to chime in. "Heh… even the enemy says you need to stop Ben… You can rest, take a break. Gray won't be going anywhere. They're waiting for you to fight them after all." Cript said. “This still sucks…” I sighed. “There’s…too much at stake here…” "Take a fucking vacation…" Gray huffed. "If I know me then they won't wanna fight you at anything other than your best and you right now are so not at your best." "Heh, you heard them." Cript chuckled. "I'll help you get Heart back to normal." “Asshole there said no.” I pointed to Lord. “Cause it was Heart’s decision and nothing can change that…” "Lord. Orb." Cript said, Lord tossing him the orb. "There. Now let's go." “Oh, when I ask I get told to piss off…” I grumbled. “Whatever…don’t know what to do with all this now that I’m just…done.” "Just let us worry about this crap. When you're ready to help or when you can finally set foot on the battlefield, we'll let you know. Until then… enjoy the peace." Cript said. “I’ll…try.” I sighed. “Just…hope me relaxing isn’t too late for my mental health…” "It's never too late, it will just take time." "I pulled out my own teeth and scales?" Heart asked. After their personality and memories and well, them, was brought back they didn't have any memories of their time as a… Breeder. "That's… huh…" They said, tapping a finger across their teeth. “Yes…I literally left for five minutes to talk to an old friend of mine, Anna who is now an Admin of Shapeshifters, and see Vincent and Gray who were from her timeline which are helping us…when I got back after being told what was wrong…you weren’t happy to say the least…” I said, cuddling the shit out of my floof noodle lover. "I don't remember any of that… I remember laying back on that chair then… waking up here in the room… but I can see I was definitely… used as intended." Heart said, looking at their enlarged swollen lower half near bursting with eggs. "How long was I like that?" “Any amount of time as you being a Breeder was too long.” I said. “And…yes…you constantly wanted me to use you like you were nothing but a toy and…I…I hate it so fucking much…” "Seriously? Wow, though that also explains why down there is so sore… didn't even know I could get sore down there as an Admin…" “Yeah…things happen.” I sighed. “But…I have my Heart back, and I’m feeling so much better now.” "I'm sorry… I didn't think it would be that bad I… just didn't want to…" Heart sighed. "I'm a coward…" I wanted to tell them they weren’t…I really did. “We both are…” I sighed. “You wanted to give up and just throw yourself into being nothing but a sex toy…and I was going to give up and just…not care anymore…I would have been on a single minded warpath…reality being rent asunder under my power and mind that didn’t care anymore…I…I still hate how I can still see how I envisioned it all going…” Heart turned around, wrapping their arms around my head. "Well… I guess that makes us cowards together. Better than being alone…" “Yeah…I…I couldn’t be alone again…” I said weakly. “And Eclipsa is making damn well sure I know that I shouldn’t keep people at arms length…again…” "Where are they anyway?" “With me somewhe-” I was about to say before a certain Naga burst open the door with a clone of me over their shoulder like a sack of potatoes. “Sup chuckle fucks, time for cuddles!” Eclipsa said happily. “Way ahead of you.” I chuckled. To be continued... Nobody...N̴͎̉ö̴̠b̵̦̄o̴̠̓d̷̮̃y̷̮͠..Ń̷͎͎̘̹̹̩̥̮̠́̐͂̑͗̅̄̋͊̒̉̏͘̚ǫ̷̛̯͇͉̰̯͓̀̿̎ͅb̵̯͇͍̰̠̠̺͖̩͓́̎̀̐̾̇͐̓̀͜͜ó̸̳̀̋̈́̄̓̉́̆͌́͛͘̕͝d̸̨͕̼̤͔̻̓̋́̋̄̔̆̀̏̚y̵̛͍̭̫̤͓̱̰̩̺̬͇̰͍̣̿̅̌͆̉̾́̚͘͘͝The battle was dragging on, but me and Cript kept pummeling Gray, who kept up their happy demeanor…but as we kept going, something seemed…off about Gray, as their joyful look seemed to turn into a look of growing horror. “No…no it’s not time yet! Those bastards should have stayed locked up!” “The fuck is he talking about?” I asked in confusion. “Who cares, keep hammering him!” Cript countered, as Gray dodged Cript’s attacks. “No, no this wasn’t part of the plan!” Gray shouted angrily. “I was so focused on a new possibility, I new reality where I could lose that…” Gray’s eyes widened. “My deal…there’s…there’s nothing left of the outside world? I FUCKING CHECKED!” Gray shouted and pushed Cript back. “The hell is Gray talking about?” Cript asked. “It was apart of our Deal that we made when I was Kite, he said that I would have to face something ‘from the outside’, but never got around to it for some reason…” I said, only to feel all of Reality shake and shudder. “What did you do?” “I…I thought there was something, some random beast that was still alive that I could pull in, I thought I would grab one of the fucking guards…” Gray started to mutter as they looked around in fear. “What. Did. You. Do.” I asked again. “The All Makers are coming…” Gray said. “Well with a name like All Makers that can’t be good.” Cript frowned. “I was told about it by Belief, but he didn’t really know much because he claimed his memory was so blurry from all the resets.” I said carefully, as reality itself shuddered again as…two giant beastial hands punched through, grabbing onto the very air like fabric and ripped it open. “WHERE ARE THEY!?!” The being roared, their voice feeling like an entire world just shoved itself onto my shoulders as I witnessed a Behemoth creature step out, it’s purple fur standing out against it’s armor and engineering like attire, their black hair flowing down their head and back between four pitch black and sharp horns, their eyes filled with rage and…concern? “Uh…who the hell is that?” I asked worriedly to Gray. “That’s…Behemoth…” Gray said, taking a step back. “They are the ones that physically built the Machine, anything that comes into their hands is capable of becoming such a Master class item that nothing can be compared to it…” “Where are my friends!?” Behemoth shouted, taking a swipe at Gray who dodged out of the way the best they could. “Whoa there big guy! We’re kind of in the middle of something!” I said quickly, trying to get them to calm down…but the sudden glare they gave me…every fiber of my being told me to run…”What the hell…” “You are not gonna want to get between him and Gray, King.” Cript said, pulling me back. “Something tells me… We’re outclassed.” “How?” I asked, seeing Gray desperately try to avoid Behemoth’s swings. “Because if Gray of all people is scared of them… what chance are we gonna stand?” “I mean…” I tried to argue, but seeing how scared Gray was, who was so happy a moment ago to be taking damage…”What did I agree to?” I asked in horror, if this was the only thing our deal could come up with. “Where are my friends, you damned blight!?” Behemoth roared again. “I don’t know! Probably making sure you don’t break the reality you created even further!” Gray shouted back in some vain attempt to get him off his back. “Uh…do you have any idea who he might be talking about?” I asked Cript worriedly, fearing that if any swing connected with literally anything it would do something a lot worse then what our fight could have done. “That would be us.” Me and Cript turned around, to see both Nothingness Belief…and Void Mother… “Oh dear…” I muttered in a panic. “I see he’s about as overactive as ever…” Belief sighed. “It’s a miracle we even remember him…” Void Mother admitted. “But best try and calm him down…” “And you think we can do that when Gray itself is scared shitless?” I asked worriedly. “Yes, we knew the idiot back in the day.” Belief said. “We can handle him.” “So step back, and let’s show you why Gray tried to play the long game instead of fighting us directly.” Mother stated simply. “I mean…if you insist.” I said sheepishly, as both of them nodded and vanished from even my eyes, as Mother poked Behemoth’s shoulder. “Hey, Behemoth, it’s time to relax big guy.” Mother said, using her ability to pacify literally everything to try and get him to relax…but one thing that horrified me was that she had to bend backwards as the beastial swung at her. “Shut up you faker! My friend got past her Emo phase eons ago!” Behemoth roared. “Oof, yeah I remember that.” Belief said as he grabbed the hand that swung. “Come on big guy, we need you to take a deep breath and relax.” “And all I see is a Hollow Shell of my friend! You stopped being like this when Momo finally started dating you!” Behemoth shouted, grabbing Belief and slamming his fist into the guy, as I had to bring my arms up to block the sudden rush of force that knocked me and Cript back. “Where are my real friends!? The one this accursed machine took from us!” “We’re right here you idiot!” Mother shouted, channeling pure Void and slamming it into his chest the beast letting go of Belief as he jumped up and kneed Behemoth in the face and made them stagger back. The beastial behemoth roared, using Code work I’ve honestly never seen before and drawing out a massive hammer and swung it like it weighed nothing, both being’s that were said to be the End All Be All dodging and creating their own weapons, Belief with twin swords and Mother brought out a Staff made out of some wood I’ve never seen before. Even with all my stat boosts, all my training, and all my senses on high alert, I…I could barely track what they were doing, the sounds of clashing metal, of spells that haven’t been seen in this reality for god knows how long… It was both awe inspiring…and terrifying, as each clash and attack shook the very fabric of reality to it’s very Code…I…neither me nor Cript did this kind of damage…”Am…am I seeing this right?” I asked in awe. Gray appeared next to us, their hands on their knees as they were hunched over from all that dodging. “Why…did I ever think playcatting my own greed and your incessant need to be strong was a good idea?” Gray panted. “Because you were bored?” I asked nervously. “Maybe…but I thought there would have been something else…” Gray said worriedly, as there was more and more clashes, each strike I think I was seeing Creation be born and destroyed within each swing. “Is…there another one like that?” I asked worriedly. “There’s…one more…and I hope to whatever being is fully out there that someone doesn’t wake them up…” Gray answered. “The Worker…he should be stuck wherever he is…unless someone unlocks his ‘cell’, he’ll be stuck…” “So, what the hell is going on and why aren’t King and I killing you right now?” Cript asked. Gray groaned. "Because something much worse might happen…why you aren't killing me is because you will need all the help you can get…so way back when King and I made that Deal where I gave you almost all of my knowledge, I had the stipulation that I would send one creature from the 'Outside' at King." "And I was wondering when the fuck that was going to happen." I frowned. "And…apparently there is nothing on the Outside besides Truth, the Guards, Behemoth and…The Worker…" Gray explained. "So…while we were fighting…my power must have slipped out and started to siphon power that kept them in prison, and Behemoth rushed out first…either because the Workers stasis chamber is still online for however long it takes…or he's waiting…" “Right and these people are… who and what exactly?” Cript asked. "Ah, right, I blocked those memories in you whenever you learned their existence…" Grey muttered. "They are called All Makers, beings that created the Machine we live in, there used to be billions of them, each one as powerful as the next cause they had the real power…something stronger than Code, the same power that threatened their lives…" "...Imagination…" I said breathlessly, feeling like I just…went full fucking circle, with how I originally came to this world from God's imagination to…all this… "Yes," Gray said, ducking under a piece of unknown metal thrown his way. "They created the Machines to protect against the beasts that hunted them…formless, ni omnipotent monsters that even my infinite power couldn't handle…but so many times, I saw nothing out there besides this safe haven…" “Right, and where did these All Makers come from?” Cript asked. “From the Other Side.” I jumped a little at seeing Lord appear. “Sup, you… Three… Huh.” He said, looking at Gray. "Sup you old fuck." Gray said. "Everything's going tits up…no possible past outcome got this far…" "And you expect Lord to understand what you're talking about?" I asked. “I do, actually.” Lord said, making me turn to them. “I didn’t remember because I made myself forget. Once Behemoth broke out I remembered everything. That old fucker…” "Oh boy…" I said carefully. "So how fucked are we?" "Behemy there can be rather friendly when he's not in this rage…but the Worker…" Gray looked to Lord, who gave…an honest look of worry. "How bad?" I asked worriedly. “Well, if Mother and Belief can’t calm him, it’s not gonna be easy…” Lord sighed. “And if Builder gets out…” “So, how do you know these people?” Cript asked. “I was… something close to them, not personally, more like, a sibling species. They were born in the raw unfiltered imagination. I came into existence within it, from the same side they all came from.” Lord said. “Meaning?” “Meaning as far as we or this reality is concerned, they are gods from another reality we can never enter no matter what we try, and I was made like… a type of demi-god because I appeared within this Machine and now in the Raw Imagination outside. I was able to do most of what they could do, but to a lesser extent because of how I appeared here.” "And…how come Gray got to leave?" I inquired, looking to Gray. "That…is tricky to explain." Gray said carefully. "It took several cycles to go through, but I managed to gain enough power to weather the effects of Raw Imagination…but even in my Infinite power…" "They have the bigger Infinite?" "By leaps and bounds…if my Infinite was a standard numbering system, they're numbers doubled mine, so my one was their two and so on…" Grey shuddered. “Perks of All Maker biology, it doesn’t just unphase us it empowers us.” Lord chuckled. “Even I can power up a lot by standing out there for some time. Still, the creatures that appeared out there were a danger to us. They built the machine to be a safe zone, isolated and safe. In the end it bit them in the ass hard.” “How?” Cript asked, just as flabbergasted as me. “Mother and Belief are All Makers as well. They helped create the way it was supposed to generate power, by converting the Raw Imagination energy into what we know as Code, a refined, filtered version of the outside energy that was more stable and easier to work with. Unfortunately, it backfired. Mother became stuck, as a source of Imagination herself it thought she was it’s power source. Since she was able to generate the energy as it without end, it took her. Belief, being one of the best people they had that could use the raw energy with minimal effort, became it’s… OS, for lack of a better word. Mother creates the power, Belief makes it into something we all know and understand as the reality as it is now.” "That's…" I said weakly, looking over and seeing the three start to slow down on their fight as Behemy started to shake his head like he just came out from a deep sleep…"No…no wonder why Behemoth was so upset when he rushed in…why he thought Belief and Mother weren't themselves…" I said, my mind trying to come up with some rational explanation for this…but nothing came up… "You are technically looking at True God's, they're power isn't something anyone can quantify…not even I can fully grasp their true powers." Gray said carefully. “Eh, they’re mostly all still assholes.” Lord shrugged. “Considering you’re technically one of them, I’m inclined to agree.” Cript sighed. “So what now, looks like they’ve calmed big angry over there.” “Now… we figure out how to deal with Builder… that will be harder… he designed the machine so… he took their accidental binding to it the hardest.” "How hard?" I asked worriedly. "He's completely insane…and while my antics might have weakened his bindings, he still needs a key of his own design to unlock it…" Gray said carefully. “Cool… so what now?” Cript asked, motioning to the three who were now all hugging. “One crisis averted.” "One Crisis averted…but one that can be much worse…" Grey said carefully. "And what's this Key look like?" I inquired. "It's an item that changes to fit one's desire, something that can lead to what could be considered impossible." Gray answered. "Supposedly, once it fulfills its owners wish, it leads them to his cage to unlock his cage and let him out, which was his hope that he would be released after he regained his sanity…" "I…have a bad feeling about this…" I said nervously. "I…really hope no one found this magic item…" I said worriedly, as the three walked over while Behemoth scratched the back of his head. "S-sorry about that." Behemoth said sheepishly, his voice a lot softer than I thought outside of the rage. "I…kind of just woke up from a countless amount of time, and the last thing I remembered was the Machine backfiring on us…thought it was just something this thing made to trick me…" “Eh, not the first time someone tried to kill me.” Cript shrugged. “There have been worse reasons.” "And that's entirely fair." Behemoth. "So, my name's Behemoth, but most call me Behemy." He said. "You are…more soft spoken then I thought after your…screams of rage." I said. "Yes, I get that a lot." Behemy said honestly. "He's also the most cuddliest of cuddle bugs." Belief said, which made Behemy blush and try to swat at him, but he dodged with a laugh. "I thought we agreed not to talk about that?" Behemy groaned. "We have an eternity of teasing you." Mother giggled. "So, what questions do you have for me?" Behemy inquired. “Say… mind if I get a sample?” Cript asked. He then turned to Gray. “Actually, scratch that.” He then grabbed Gray by the neck. “You and I are gonna have a chat. No more secrets you ancient bored bastard…” He said as he dragged Gray off. "Right…" Behemy started. "So any questions?" "Uh…too many…" I said slowly. "So to start…how good are you at crafting? Cause I was told you Built the Machine." "Oh, that's easy. For our merry band, I was The Builder, any material that came into my hands I understood what it was and what it could do on a fundamental level." He said with a smile. "Even at a glance, I can tell how things were constructed and how well it was made…and to give an example, Cript was an attempt to create something that was 'Bullshit personified', and he is definitely strong but he could use some work on his Coding, that weird skateboarding quirk is involved with a few other things." "The fuck you mean his inability to skateboard is a design flaw?" I asked incredulously. "Oh, he can't Skateboard for shit whether it was a flaw or not, but there's some other things that's weirdly keyed to it." He said. "But…why Skateboards?" "Nobody knows…" I groaned. WARNING! WARNING! INTRUDER’S WITH ‘THE WORKSHOP KEYS’ HAS ENTERED! “First Behemoth get’s out and now this!?” Truth shouted, frantically sending his guards to stop whoever the hell decided to find that insane fuck’s keys. “Clear the way. Nothing will stop us.” The individual said as his subordinates flanked out. Taking out guard after guard. Truth watching in horror as they easily take apart his guards. Then he gets a better look at just Who is there. And slams his fist into the table of the monitors. “Are you fucking kidding me! Him!?” He shouted angrily, watching as Max, the son of that damned Cript project of Vincent’s walking towards the cage, seeing his Void King’s slaughtering the guards that should have made the Prime Cript easy to fight by comparison. “Damn it, this isn’t supposed to be happening…why oh why did I agree to Worker’s bullshit key plan…” The All Maker powering the Machine groaned as he tried to do something, anything to either delay or halt Max’s advance, as a majority of his power was stuck powering the Machine he was sadly limited in going up there and bitch smacking Max. As Max is making his way Frisk, in her adult form, gets close to him. “Are you sure about this? Who even knows if he will help?” She asked. After getting the key from that cloaked figure after Max’s battle with Rip, Max was dead set on this. Had all them work overtime and then some to get as strong as possible. She looks over as Broly, who managed to combine both Super Saiyan 4 and Blue Evolution as well as a Max Power form ripping guards in pieces. Then to Ghost who was in his small form dashing around slicing Guards down. Madoras was just waving his newest staff around causes Guards to either get cut in half from invisible magic cuts, getting pierced by invisible lances, or get smash by invisible force. Agamemnon was in his new armor forming new weapons left and right with his Psychopath blood power that he remastered. And Ardyn was just using his main sword. To say the least they all got much stronger. Especially Max. He wasn’t trying to copy his brother's look anymore. Now he was himself. He was wearing a silver cape that hung on his left shoulder while wearing a black shirt and pants that were armored up. In his hand was an silver and gold sword that radiates power, but that pales in comparison to him. A guard got close and lands an attack with a war hammer on Max’s face. He didn’t even flinch or budge. He just kept walking as Frisk finger gun points at the guard as a large orange gun forms and wipes him from existence. “I’m positive. We need to get there no matter the cost. Especially now while they are all distracted by their fighting. I don’t have much time anyway.” Max said as he kept marching on. Frisk frowns as she and the others know what he means. “You are making literally the biggest mistake in the entirety of Imagination! Turn back!” Truth said over an intercom. “Worker should never be released! His Insanity will burn the entire Machine and everyone that lives in it!” “Exactly.” Max said as he deleted the speaker. They kept advancing till to Truths horror they made it to the cage. It was a tower. The tower was surrounded by nothing. Literally nothing. Not the Nothing that King has. This place was meant to exist nowhere, but now it’s found. “The entrance is most likely at the top. Let’s move.” Max said as they advanced. “Please stop this! Your lust for power will only cause everything to go to hell, and none of you will survive it!” Truth tried to reason with them again, this time as armor that seemed to be strewn about started to form into Knight’s, pitch black goo started to form to give them their bodies as they let out roars not even the deepest parts of the Void could withstand hearing. Max holds up a hand to halt his Kings. He walks towards the advancing enemies and holds out a hand. Blood starts to form as his Psychopath eye glows blue, but it wasn’t Humanity Blue. Truth saw it was still Psychopath energy, but way too strong to be Psychopath. The blood then became multiple elements of fire. Lightning, ice, and pure blood and he launches powerful spells that destroyed the monsters. Then his power of Delete reaches out and Deletes all the remains and absorbs them. His power is growing even more. “So what. None of us will live to see that anyway.” Max said as they all advanced. “Oh…oh you shouldn’t have done that…” Truth muttered, as before Max could continue too far, all that power he felt grow in him suddenly started to…reverse, as that black goo like substance burst forth from his body viciously and formed into one big Knight, metal forming around it’s body as it brought out a large great ax and roared it’s challenge. “You’re outside the Machine Max, this all works differently than on the Inside…please, turn back, the last bastion of Life can’t be destroyed because you couldn’t settle down with your wife after beating Rip.” Truth pleads. Max gets up. Glances at Frisk, who nods at him. “That’s where your wrong Truth. There was no Settling down.” Max said as his hair tinges purple as he walks towards the monster. The knight swings it’s axe. It hits Max hard sending him back with a deep cut. It’s suddenly healed by Frisk using her Green Soul magic as Max walks forward again. Truth watches this repeat itself a few times before noticing that the cut is getting thinner and thinner and Max is standing his ground more and more. A quick glance with his Scan makes note of two abilities Max is using. One a Cript ability he inherited from his father and the other a Divine class power that is Exceptionally hard to use, but with both used in tandem… “Oh you’ve got to be kidding me…” Truth muttered, knowing exactly what is happening here. “Why…why does everything have to go wrong now?” He muttered, hating how he was pretty much powerless to stop the oncoming tide from possibly destroying everything they worked for… The knight swings one more time only for the axe to break on impact. Max looks at the broken axe with disappointment. “Pity. Seems that’s your limit.” Max grabs the arm and with one blast from his powered up state destroys every bit of the knight. Then proceeded to basically Supernova the spot it was in a dozen times to be sure. They proceed while Max stays in his new form. The knight not reforming or combing back. He…actually destroyed it. Just what has Max turned himself into. “That’s…impossible…” Truth muttered, knowing the Deathless were one of the Worker’s first creations, one of the first being’s to fight against the Imagination Beasts and at least come back alive… “Not Impossible. They still needed Code to come back. Even Souls have code. What happens when every strand of code is gone.” Max said as blood drips from his mouth. The power he gained did help in the process. But still while what info he gathered from the notes on Deathless. That was a lesser Deathless. Hard to kill but far from the Prime Deathless. “Nothing I say or will attempt to do will stop you from your suicide mission that will get you all killed?” The All Maker battery asked carefully. “And not just you, but anything and everything you ever cared about…especially your child.” Truth said, trying to possibly placate Frisk here to see some form of reason. “It’s already too late. We’re all gonna die anyway.” Max said. His kings, even Frisk, were silent as they marched with him. Determined looks on their faces. Showing they weren’t gonna stop. As they climbed the tower higher and higher. All Truth could do was see his SOS go out into the Machine, to give the other’s a warning about what’s to come as it was too late for them to get here and stop it, as all Truth could do now was try and get something ready for all the people inside to help them survive what’s about to come. As he prepares he sees a cloaked individual join them. Wondering where this one came from. Till he saw what looked like a black and gold shield gauntlet on their left arm and panics. It all makes sense now…how they got the key…how they found their way here! “You motherfucker!” Truth shouted. “Ausar, you know he’s still completely insane! Why are you damning everything we worked for!?” The figure,Ausar, chuckled. “Because it’s fun.” He said. Before Code with the most Vile feeling Truth has felt formed on his right armored hand and destroyed the camera. Leaving Truth to watch only static. Truth looked towards a screen showing how much power he was capable of using that wouldn’t harm the Machine and to help the other’s get ready for this…”Just enough to be a fucking spectator…” Truth growled, as he waved a hand over the static as a confluence of color shimmered past and returned his view back to what these bastards were about to commit. He sees them standing at the seal at the top. Max standing in front of the key hole on the ground. “You have the key. Free him.” Ausar said pointing at the hole. Truth grips the table hard enough to break it as Max gets on one knee.and feels his soul leave as max puts his hand into the seal. The glow indicating it’s coming undone as a triangle platform forms under their feet. Lowering them. Till it reaches the floor. Max looks up to see a stone throne covered in moss and cracks. And sitting there was the one he was after. In golden armor that has dulled from time and where a hood over his head. Max looks at him. Before speaking. “Greetings. And pleased to meet you. Worker of Secrets. Galath.” As eyes of Golded Code glows under the hood. Galath looked at Max, lightly reaching out and touching Max’s chest. “So…primitive.” He said, as Max suddenly fell to the ground, clutching his chest in pain. “But…usable…” Galath said, slowly getting off his throne, everyone hearing his entire body crack from ageless time of not moving. “Ausar…release the Prime…I must…talk with my saviors.” He said, while each of the King’s felt a coldness run down their spine like they just released something so unimaginably horrifying… “At once my lord. I’ll ready their cells. Although Truth did quite a job on their seals. I’ll require your help in breaking them my lord. I’ll go prepare them.“ Ausar said as he jumped out of the cell to prepare the others. The kings finally realized that they should be kneeling, especially since the loom Max was given them was telling the same they immediately dropped to their knees. “Lord Galath.” Frisk suddenly said. “ I-I have a request, as you no doubt noticed from a glance, but Max has a fatal error in his code.” “Fr-Frisk!“ Max tried to stop her. “Max will ask it himself, mainly because of his own stubbornness, but I beg of you. Please fix his Code. Max shouldn’t die due to an error that no one other than you can fix.” Frisk begged. She didn’t look at Galath the whole time. Fearing that he might find eye contact with her insulting. But was praying that Galath would at least humor them and help. “Your begging…it reminds me of…someone…” Galath put a hand to his head, the King’s and Max seeing Galath looking like he was trying to remember something but somehow couldn’t. “But…you are correct, a useful asset is wasted if it’s flawed.” He said, before waving a hand over Max, as each one of them saw not Code, but some etheric multicolored…thing pass over their master, as Max let out a silent scream for but a moment as it past. “Breath in your Life Max, no longer will it seep out of your body like a cracked bottle, and your power no longer snuffing out the light you have.” Max breathes. Starts to get up. Feeling…better than he has ever felt. After opening and closing his hands, to get a feel of himself, he gets down on one knee same as his kings. They all knowing that whether or not they tried to fight, it would be meaningless. The lift they were on going up towards the exit. As it reaches the exit they see Ausar, still in his cloak, standing before a couple of glowing orbs. He turns towards them. “Right on time. If you would please my lord.” Ausar ask as he steps aside. Galath takes one step off the seal. Savoring the feeling of being free. And that one step…sent a shiver through existence. As truth falls to his knees. Feeling like he is losing all his strength seeing Him free. As the shiver soon reaches King and the others As Galath raises his hand and breaks the seals on the cages as his Prime Deathless are free. Each taking a knee. “Now it is time.” Galath looks out towards Existence and says… “To create my Heaven.” To be conti̴̝̎n̷̮̽u̸̫̎ë̷̮́d̸͔̉
Nobody's lovebeep… Huh? beep... What? beep… That’s getting annoying. As the constant beeping I heard I decided to mull over my day. ”Okay so I managed to kill a Neoshadow and a Guard Armor, then have obvious bad guys telling me ‘oh hey I’m just gonna be a puppet master cause I’m a dick’ and then got shot by an asshole and flung on top of a carriage…” I think to myself while opening my eyes blearily, a dull pain still coursing through me. ”Sounds like a good a start as any.” I mentally sigh out, slowly putting a hand over my eyes to get the damned light away as I looked around for something noticeable. And just my luck I’m in a hospital, the heart monitor, the chairs, the constant background noise of either people moaning and groaning about their pain, doctors and nurses talking to each other or to their patients, and I’m just sitting here feeling like I got hit by a truck. “H-hello?” I try to call out, my voice sounding raspy and the obvious sign of a dry throat making itself known as my throat started to hurt. And much to my luck I thankfully got a nurse to appear with, strangely enough, a visitor. “How are you feeling?” The nurse says simply, the grey mare having honest concern written on her face at seeing me. “Dry throat, getting shot in my legs, shoulders and arm, and the dull pain of getting hit by a truck….I’d say I’m doing fine.” I explain before coughing in pain, regretting my decision of trying to explain it in a smarmy way. The nurse looked at me with an unamused look. “Well, it seems other than your attitude everything else seems fine. You really are lucky to be alive. The bullets that shot you were a .50 caliber, who ever shot you either wasn’t aiming to kill or was a terrible shot as they missed your bones, just grazing them by less than a millimeter.” “Wait...how do you know about that?” I ask curiously, kind of thinking that ponies were still in the medieval period in tech when it came to weapons. “Bit of a gun nut personally. Those griffins really know how to use them, but the minotaurs made them long ago. Though, how did that happen, you were shot eight times.” “Let’s just say a masked man’s friend didn’t get enough hugs as a kid.” “I think the news reports did have some photos with two people like that… Well, anyway, don’t worry about any bills, the crown is paying for this service.” “How, why, and where the hell is my cloak?” I ask, just now noticing I wasn’t wearing my cloak. “It’s being washed. Somehow it didn’t have any holes or tears, but it was soaked in blood. As for… well… your body seems similar to ours, are you a race from another land?” “You could...say that.” I say slowly, not entirely a hundred percent sure I should just out and out say where I really came from. “But why is the crown paying for this? I thought royalty were supposed to be greedy assholes?” I ask, pretending to think that Celestia and Luna were stuck up and terrible. “Well, if you didn’t destroy that monster Princess Celestia’s student and her friend might have gotten hurt. You were on top of the carriage they were in when paramedics got there and those two were trying to tend to your wounds.” My jaw dropped, not believing that Twilight and one of her friends were there ever so conveniently. “Um...is one of them here?” I ask honestly, keeping down my inner fanboy at meeting one of my favorite characters. “Twilight is, she says she saw when you got shot and has rarely left your side over the last two days.” “Two things…” I start before coughing again. “Okay three things. One can I get a glass of water? Two, why would a Princess’s personal student be near me when I’m just...me.” I say, my tone shifting to a sadder note considering ‘me’ is just a sassy asshole that thinks he’ll just be alone forever. “And three...two days? Really?” “Yes, two days. Second, you saved her, and a lot of ponies when you killed those creatures. They’ve been terrorizing everywhere from Canterlot to the Zebra lands, I think you have some fans… just look at all the gift baskets to your left. And third, I’ll be back with that water.” She left the room. When the nurse left I decided to do just that to see these gift baskets, and holy damn were there quite a bit of them. Quite a few were filled with food ranging from carrots, apples, candy and baked goods, all of them had cards giving thanks, ‘get well soon’ and…”Oh my god why?” I ask myself, seeing a few cards that had ‘special picture inside’ and my mind raced to an immediate ‘perv zone’ and thought of fangirls sending nudes. “Why...just...why?” I mutter, my entire face having turned the brightest shade of red ever. The door to the room opened and I placed the nudes back into the basket and dropped them off the side of my bed. Even though she was anthro, I recognized that purple coat and mane anywhere… Twilight… “Oh, you’re finally awake.” She said as she took a seat at the foot of my bed. “Uh...hello.” I say nervously, my mind running a mile a minute at seeing Twilight in the flesh, and the fact that quite a bit of mares sent me nude pictures to their hero. “I saw a lot of what happened… even heard what you were talking about with those two… so the kingdom you come from is called earth? I’ve never heard of it before. Is it far away?” “Far away doesn’t begin to describe it.” I say with a little chuckle. “I’ve never seen weapons like what you used before, those magic crossbows and that giant key, what are those? Does your kingdom make them?” “They wish.” I say, a little bit of pride entering my voice. “But...it’s hard to explain where I come from and...honestly…” I say before thoughts of my family and what little friends filled my mind. “Oh no…” “Did something happen to your kingdom?” “I could care less about my kingdom...just...thought about my family…” I sigh out sadly, knowing that I’ll probably never get to see them again. “Oh.... did the monsters like from a few days ago…” “Do you want me to explain what happened truthfully, or do you want me to just completely lie about it?” I ask simply, wondering if she’ll even believe my ramblings. “... I can see it’s touchy… alright then, subject change. So what are those weapons you used called?” “Well… those ‘crossbows’ are called, if memory serves, ‘Gun Arrows’. Yes bland ass name I know. But the key? Um...not entirely sure if I should explain that because way too much to explain and something bad might happen if I do.” I say, knowing that talking about a Keyblade could cause her to search for answers or learn certain things she shouldn’t know. “I guess it’s just some kinda powerful magic item. When you used it to kill that creature, it released something… what was it?” “That I can explain.” I say with a little nod. “Okay so, those monsters...there called Heartless, beings of darkness that steal a person’s heart to become what they are. The thing I killed was called a ‘Guard Armor’, and before you ask, the ‘Heart’ in this scenario is kind of like your soul in a sense, not your actual beating heart right now but...something even more.” “I guess I shouldn’t ask about how you know this, guessing it relates to your kingdom in some way? Well, that aside, a few people said they saw you in the public library before the… Heartless… appeared. You like books?” “Two things, one I had nothing to do with the heartless appearing just so you know so let’s get that out of the way, and about the books? Well...libraries and books were basically the number one things in my life, ever since I could read.” I say with a kind smile. “Heh, same. I studied so much in my youth I didn’t make friends until just a few years ago really… So you have a place to stay?” “Nope.” I state. “Nowhere to go, nowhere to stay...just the loner I’ve always been.” She laughed. “Well ‘loner’ since you like books, you can move in with me, I literally live in a library and an unused guest bed… my assistent likes to sleep in a large basket for some reason?” “Where have you been all my life?” I ask, slapping a hand over my mouth at my own stupid words. “Parden?” “N-nothing!” I say suddenly, my face beat red. “So uh...oh! What’s your name, I was only told by the nurse your name was...Twilight I presume?” I ask, hoping this will work to change the subject. “Yeah, that’s me. Most ponies get the wrong idea about me since the Princess taught me personally. So, I’m guessing your name isn’t what ponies have been calling you, White Knight?” I chuckled at hearing that. “Listen ma’am, I’m no ‘white knight’, even if I am awesome.” I say with a cheeky smile. “But...the names Bexn, or just Ben if you want.” “Alright then, Ben. The doctors said it will be a few more days til you’re good enough to leave, and I think someone is gonna come by a little later to ask you some more… direct questions.” “Listen I only ask direct questions after the first date.” I say with growing smile. Twilight chuckled. “Then I guess Princess Luna and I are gonna have no other choice in the matter, you seem to have won her over when word reached her.” “Wait wha?” I ask, my jaw dropping at hearing that I just won Luna, the princess of the moon, over with my little act of being a hero. “Uh...wai...wha……huh!?” “Let’s just say Princess Luna has a type, that type being anyone who can single handedly kill monsters. You are literally the first person in thousands of years to do that. Speaking of which, she should be here already? I’ll go check real quick.” Twilight left the room, leaving me all alone to fan out. ”HOLY SHIT I’M GONNA MEET PRINCESS LUNA!? WAIT NO I HAVE A CHANCE TO DATE BOTH PRINCESS LUNA AND TWILIGHT! HOLY FUCK THANK YOU GOD!” I mentally fangasm at the thoughts rushing through my head. “Well you seem happy.” I looked next to me, seeing the person who spoke… it was that masked man. “Have a good rest?” “Oh come on~.” I whine. “Relax, I’m not here to do anything other than just check up on you. Good to see you woke up faster than I expected.” “Glad I made a good first impression.” I say, rolling my eyes. “But glad to hear you’re not as...trigger happy as your gun slinging subordinate.” I say, knowing full well that mister shoots first ask questions later wasn’t the guy in charge. “He was in charge of his crime family back on earth. Majority of them are working for me now… they are behind a lot of things back on earth, can you name a recent mass murder that took place before you came here?” “I mean there was that one mass shooting at a school but I doubt it was from a collective of masters, seems to easy.” “The Greyville City high school shooting?” “Yes, heard that the kid responsible basically turned himself in with a goddamn smile on his face.” “Yeah, Greg Ventral. He’s with me to, lot of them have raw power I can use. He broke himself out of juvie and killed the wardens too. He’s a good asset to me, and Josh is the king of them all.” “And yet scar over his blind eye tells me someone beat him in quite a way.” “He did that to himself. Punishment for leaving someone alive.” “Ya know… it sounds silly in context of a professional family of killers to leave someone alive...but oh well, books aren’t always a good thing to base life off of…” “Truer words have never been spoken. Just stay on your guard, this Equestria has some use to me, and I will consume it… just like the millions before it.” “Congrats on the Satan impression, mind sounding more cliched than you already are?” I ask sarcastically. “You got a mouth on you, personally I like it. Just remember this, if there is one thing that will stop me, it isn’t you. I just like to see my opponent’s try to stop me. Zeke already knows how far I will go and how strong I am.” “Well it wouldn’t be a good story if only one main character didn’t stop all powerful bosses like yourself.” I say honestly. “But again, can’t base stories on real life...even if everyone has their own story.” I say, starting to sound like Auron right now. “Yeah, all our stories start, but just remember,” He jabbed his hand into my chest. “It can end abruptly.” He vanished into thin air, leaving me clutching my chest. “G-good talk.” I cough. “Ow…” The door opened and I sat up as Princess Luna and Twilight entered. “Greetings warrior… Ben… odd name for a warrior.” Luna said. “Says the princess with a name that explains her job.” I retort. “I mean really, ‘Luna’ is another word for the Moon.” Luna smiled. “A man unafraid of mine presence. Truly our children will be grand!” My face turned a bright shade of red. “Whoa whoa whoa! Let me at least take you out on a date first before we talk about that!” I say quickly, starting to get a little frantic at hearing the sudden ‘let’s have kids’ talk. “Can we at least kiss then?” ”Playitcoolplayitcoolplayitcoolplayitcoolplayitcool.” I think to myself, taking a deep breath before talking. “If it means kissing a beautiful princess such as yourself, it would be the best honor to have.” I say, trying to act like a gentlement. ”Nailed it.” I mentally add. Luna literally jumped on me, her tongue invading my mouth. “Easy Luna, don’t make his stay any longer than it has to be.” Twilight said. ”AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!” I mentally scream while having my first kiss taken by a very energetic Luna as my entire body was stock still as she kissed me. “Aw, then I shall stay here with you two until his recovery. We will make a proper herd!” Luna states as she presses against me... “But I like walking…” I whimper a little. “Also Princess...can you get off…” I say nervously, a certain something bumping Luna’s leg with as much subtlety as a truck at a prius convention. “Oh, so you like me after all?” She says with a sly smile. “Wh-who else would...be in this herd?” I ask nervously, hoping to have some help and not get molested. “Sparkle of course!” “Luna, let’s date him before you try and screw him.” Twilight said. “W-well...I hope I’m good for you both...also question, don’t you think this is...literally the least ‘princessy’ a princess can ever be?” I ask. Luna looked at me. “I have been trapped in the moon for a thousand years. Modern years were a quick adjustment, and quite frankly this attitude makes the nobles uneasy, which is fun for me since they’re all asses, and I generally don’t give a damn.” The lunar princess licked my ear. “Plus, I’m horny.” I shivered at the touch and hearing her say that only made my fears grow. “Um...I’m not as ‘big’ as ponies...two I’d like to keep my hips from being broken, and three I’d rather get to know my mare before the plowing begins…” I state, hoping to get that across here. “One, that’s fine, that’s why they made sex spells. And two, fine. But my attitude won’t change. So where are you staying?” “Um...Twilight offered me a place to stay in her library.” “Then I shall move in! Canterlot was getting bland anyway.” In a flash of blue magic, luna vanished. “Um...don’t you think she’s being kind of...quick for all of this?” I ask Twilight. “And not just talking about the...obvious.” “She still has some mentality from a thousand years ago. Back then ponies would marry at ten, or thirteen, and be parents not long after. She’s adjusted well, but she sticks to some things from back then.” Twilight said. “And honestly, I don’t blame her for wanting to leave Canterlot for a while, though I doubt Celestia will let her escape the paperwork.” “Well when one princess happens to instantly want to ditch paperwork for someone she loves it makes sense...but why do I have a feeling I’m going to have a very bad tea party after a while?” I ask with a frown. “Tea party?” “Does Celestia drink tea?” I deadpan, hoping she would figure out the obvious reason why I said ‘tea party’. “Not often. She prefers coffee.” “You’d think she was a morning person. Given that her name is ‘Celestial’ and the sun is a ‘Celestial Body’.” I say, having a feeling I’m going to break my cover on knowing about the show. “You’d think huh. Well, I guess I’ll call Spike at home, and tell-” Just then the nurse came back in. “I have your water sir, also, Twilight,” She pulled out a phone. “Someone named Spike is on the line for you… also how did he get my phone number?” As the nurse gave me the glass of water, Twilight took the phone. “Spike…. Wait, she, yes Spike Luna is moving in.... Yeah, a date she really wants a herd too… You can move into the guest room, that was supposed to be your bedroom anyway….. I know, wait, how many?! I, I don’t even wanna know, just make sure the…. Thanks, alright, also, how did you get this number, this is some ponies personal phone… How did Luna know this number?! … I guess that makes sense…. Alright, see you in a few days. Bye.” Twilight gave the phone back to the nurse who left. “Well that was crazy.” I thanked the nurse and started drinking the water. “So...what happened?” “Luna’s moving all her game consoles and ‘special built’ gaming computer into my bedroom, or as she is calling it, our bedroom now. She even got a bigger bed to fit the three of us, and she got you some new clothes. Spike managed to check on the houses circuits and made sure she won’t blackout Ponyville with all those gaming consoles.” “Ya know…” I start. “Maybe this...will be the first time I’ll be happy.” I smile warmly, tears forming in the corners of my eyes at the rush of joy flowing through me. To my surprise, Twilight kissed my cheek. “Everyone finds happiness at some point. I just hope Luna plans on paying the electric bill from now on.” “She’s a princess, she could pay for the entire town and then have enough to build an expansion on the town just for funsies.” “Fair enough. The only reason I’m not freaking out over this is because, A, I think this might work out… in some crazy way. And B, Luna has become a close friend… and if you didn’t come along she would have started dating only me, and I’m making you my sanity anchor from now on.” I weigh the pro’s and cons of making a dirty joke at what she just said but shrugged it off. “Well I’m glad to be of service to help make sure you both don’t torture each other...but um...what would my fangirls think?” “Either they’d keep sending nudes, yeah, I saw, or they’d try and join.” “Um...I never had a girlfriend to begin with and Luna already took my first kiss so I’m pretty sure I’ll just stick with two…” I say sheepishly. “But...thank you...thank you so very much…” “Don’t mention it. I’ll be back later. I’m gonna get you some non-hospital food, if Luna appears again while I’m gone, pray.” With that, Twilight left. And for possibly the first time ever, I did. “God….you are now the bestest friend ever. Thank you.” I say, tears streaming down my face and the biggest smile ever to grace my face appearing as I started crying, not of sadness, but one of the greatest joy I’ve ever felt since ever. To be continued...
Nobody's discoveriesSo once I was discharged from the hospital in Manehattan, sampled some of the foods from the gift baskets and had my cloak back on I had a luxurious ride in one of the more royal carriages driven by two stallion pegasi. The ride to Ponyville with Twilight was uneventful, but breathtaking as I got to see the world from so high up...only to remember that I had a fear of heights and started focusing on Twilight and her talks about the town. The lavender mare explained that Ponyville was quite a town, even if it was small. The citizens were more used to ‘unknown visitors’ because of all the weirdness happening almost every week, and the citizens were welcoming and happy, but she warned me to expect a pink pony to suddenly bombard me with a million questions per hour just to figure out what I liked and who I am. “Yeah I’m gonna get along with her great...” I groan, having a feeling that Pinkie is going to be a nightmare and I won’t like it. The more we continued the more she explained about her friends and life at the town, and before long we actually landed in town. I got out of the carriage and looked around, seeing that it was a small but ‘homey’ looking town, a quiet place to relax and enjoy the country instead of the constant hustle and bustle of Manehattan. “Reminds me of home…” I mutter to myself, having lived in a small quiet town for most of my life as I surveyed the town. “So...when will I meet Ms. Gonna piss me off a lot?” I ask Twilight curiously, wondering why I wasn’t bombarded with questions. “HI TWILIGHT!” Yelled an energetic pink anthro pony. She shook Twilight while saying that… where did she even come from? “Who’s the stiff?” She asked, pointing a thumb at me. “Well excuse me for getting out of the hospital not too long ago.” I frown. “But who are you bouncy girl?” I ask, pretending to not know who she is even though I was giddy on the inside to have a Pinkie Pie party. “I’m Pinkie Pie! And thanks for noticing! I just got a new bra!” “Listen...I don’t need to learn about your ‘Party Balloons’ okay?” I say to her, not believing I just called the pink mare's breasts ‘party balloons’. “How did you know I call them that?” ”Fuck, I’m blowing my cover...think of something quick!” I think to myself, trying to think of something to distract her. “Uh...names Ben.” I say simply, hoping to get her back on track instead of on boobs. “Hi Ben. So you’re the guy Luna and Twi are gonna date?” “Yes…” I nod. “I suppose she told you everything?” “I get to plan out the baby showers!” “Oh for the love of!” I throw my hands in the air. “Can she stop thinking like that? As much as I’d like to grab that moon sized rump I’d at least take her on a date...I just hope she hasn’t beaten anyone for gawking over her…” I say, before realizing what lewd things I’m saying and blushing mad under my hood. Pinkie pulled out a recorder. “Luna owes me two hundred bits now.” She said before bouncing off into the library. “How about no!” I shout before rushing after her in an embarrassed fuss. “I don’t want her hounding me for that!” I saw Pinkie bounce back my way. “Easy money.” With that, she bounced off. I put a hand up to my head and sighed out bitterly. “Great….just great...fucking things up already...can we go to your house Twilight?” “I might have a talk with Luna.” Twilight said, walking up to me. “Thank you…” I sigh out. “I just….want this to work alright? I don’t….I don’t want to lose…” I mutter, shaking my head at just saying something stupid. “So you like my ass?” Luna said, somehow getting behind me. “Thought you were a boob man.” “For the love of…” I mutter before turning around. “Can we at least talk about this behind closed doors? I...I don’t…” I mutter, rubbing my arm in embarrassment. “Shy? Cute! Well, in any case, the dining hall is set for our date/conversation.” “Well...sounds good enough for me at least. I’d like some food that either didn’t come from a gift basket or from the hospital…” I nod. We all walked over to the dining room. Three plates of salad, something I think might be meatloaf, and buttered bread sat on the table. We all took a seat. “So Ben, what was that key sword you used to kill that monster?” Luna’s voice and expression quickly turned serious. “Well sooner or later you will learn…” I sigh out. “I already have an idea… Starswirl had something similar.” “He had a Keyblade?” I ask, not entirely liking that thought. “So it’s the same weapon then, good to know. Yes, he did, he studied them.” “Why I didn’t tell Twilight was...I was scared that if either of you knew then...dark paths could come to you if you tried studying them.” I say, not knowing the full ramifications of studying such weapons but knowing that magical items of power could always lead to darkness. “Starswirl filled ten books, all sealed away to anyone but myself, about what he learned about them. His was a gift from his master.” Luna explains. “Do you know who Starswirl’s master was?” I ask curiously, hoping to get some glimpse into how that old stallion knew about the keyblade. “He referred to him as, Eraqus.” ”That old son of a bitch.” I think to myself with a hidden grin, thinking that Eraqus would do something like that. “So...this ‘Eraqus’, do you know what he looked like?” “I saw him once, he was very young, maybe five years older than you.” ”Twenty three? Damn.” I think to myself. “Well glad to know. How long have these creatures, or better known as ‘Heartless’, been around?” “Only in the last few months. Eraqus once said that this world was naturally resistant to darkness.” I nod. “Sounds like a good thing to know...but no matter how resistant some things will always push through…” “He said that too. When Starswirl died, his Keyblade was buried with him in his tomb. He said if darkness invades, I should retrieve it, and I want you there when I do… also, none of this conversation reaches my sister, understood?” “Understood.” I nod. “But your sister...Celestia correct?” I ask. Luna noded. “Um...do I have to worry about her...while we date?” I ask worriedly, knowing that family can be overprotective of their family. “I wish, sister prefers holes over poles.” “Didn’t...need to know that but alright.” I sigh out. “Meh, not many know that about her. So, in one of Starswirl's books, it mentioned how Keyblades have wills of their own, can you clarify?” “I don’t know much about Keyblades, so I only have limited information on it.” I say. “Alright then, what about a Keyblade also known as the X-blade. He was very interested in that weapon.” “That, my dear princess, is the strongest Keyblade in existence. A Keyblade that is said to open up something of great power. And I will leave it at that cause people who have seeked it have, more often than not, been egotistical maniacs with too much time on their hands.” “I see. One other thing kept popping up in his books, something called, Kingdom Hearts, what is it?” “Of course he said that…” I grumble. “It is, as legend says, the heart of everything. Of every living being with a heart, and...believe me even though this sounds crazy, the heart of every world.” I say simply. “I figured. Well, then a few more things. Who is Xehanort?” “Oh for the love of…” I sigh out. “Listen, I’m sorry if I’m sounding paranoid here...I just...don’t want you wrapped up in something that...could get you both killed…” I explain sadly, my breath starting to sound shaky as I my mind goes through all the ways they could die. “Damn depression…” “I see he is dangerous then. Last question, who are God, and Core?” “Xehanort is a dangerous man yes...but God and Core...God is a being of unimaginable power...a ‘Creator’ in a sense...and Core? I’ve met him, Twilight can attest to that...and just from looks and speech...a thoughtful planner that’s...a ‘Destroyer’ in a sense.” I explain. “So that’s what his last book meant when he referred to them as, the Brothers of Unity.” “Ya know...for some reason I feel like I’m being spoiled a major surprise…” I say, kind of confused on why but shrugged it off. “Anyways anymore questions? Or can we move onto something lighter.” “Well, just one I guess… and it’s very important.” Luna says. “Besides how much you want to get laid?” I ask sarcastically. “Hah, sadly no. What is a Nobody? The last book mentions them once, and that’s it.” I lifted a finger and was about to say something, but then closed my mouth and wondered something. “Hold on...don’t freak out but I’m gonna do something stupid…” I say before snapping my fingers, hoping God was right that I could summon Nobodies. When nothing happened I felt like I wasn’t ready to do something that special, but then I suddenly heard...something. Where is...my heart? Said something as a small white and grey creature crawled forward into all of our views. The thing ‘stood’ there as it’s muzzle moved around, ‘looking’ at all of us. “Luna, Twilight, that is a Nobody...a ‘Creeper’ as it’s called.” I say simply, still hearing it’s questions of where it’s heart is. Luna went down and looked at it. “So… this is what Heartless leave behind after their work is done…” “This is a low ranking Nobody. Small in size but can be dangerous in big numbers. There are thirteen total nobodies documented, but I’d rather not test my luck on trying to bring out anymore.” I say, the Creeper now questioning who Luna was. “How much pain the person it once was must have been in, yet the body refuses death, as the book stated.” “Yep…” I nod before waving my hand, a small white hole appeared below it before it quickly was consumed by white energy and simply vanished. “They are...special creatures. Having the body and soul of people that were separated from their heart.” Luna sat back down. “I am surprised Twilight hasn’t said anything.” Luna had a smirk. Twilight was way too busy writing down literally everything me and Luna were talking about, her eyes as wide as dinner plates and small white sparkles dancing in them as so much wonder and knowledge was basically being dumped onto her. “I suppose that’s why she hasn’t been talking.” I shrug. “Anyways, can we talk about something that’s less...serious and more ‘get to know each other’? Cause I’d rather not feel like crap and being too paranoid to explain things that are to that level of seriousness.” “Fine.” Luna said. “... So what kind of video games do you like?” “I like all of them besides horror games. Could never stand them.” I shrug. “I prefer challenging games, or mass multiplayer. Somepony gave me a new game yesterday, though I don’t know who.” “That’s all fine and dandy, but what was the game?” I ask curiously. “... It was odd… It was the point of view of a… I’m not sure who the character was, but they were in a dark place filled with monsters, I made it to what looked like a moon lit beach, and a man in black with a blind eye appeared, then it said ‘game over’.” “Did you get any names?” I ask, my curiosity peaking as the thought of the beach in the World of Darkness filled my head. “The blind eyed man called the character, “Test subject one” and he seemed like he could see me. Must have been a horror game cause that did scare me a bit.” My mind rushed through multiple possibilities, but the only thing I could think of was Core’s buddy messing with Luna. “Mind if I take a look at this game after we’re done with our date? Cause it sounds...interesting.” “Sure, I loaded it again, and now the level looked different, it’s paused upstairs.” “Well...that sounds interesting…” I say slowly, still concerned about this situation. “But anyways, what light hearted question next?” “I kinda wanna ask you something personal, that alright?” “Ask away miss ‘I wanna know if my boyfriend likes boobs or butts’.” I joke. “Are you a virgin?” And I tried so hard for my head not to hit the table. But I failed and with a thunk my head collided with the table. “Um...I told Twilight...I never had a girlfriend...and you...took my first...kiss…” I explain nervously, not sure if my voice was muffled or anything. “Oh… then good thing I made it sloppy. That aside, how did you get to Equestria?” I brought my head up and with the most ‘flare’ in my voice I said “Magic.” “Fair enough. So what kind of books do you prefer?” “I am dating a bookworm like myself,” while Twilight said ‘Hey!’ at that comment. “I’m living in a library that happens to be a tree for some coincidental reason, and the best thing to happen in my life happened to involve books, so...I have literally no idea what books I prefer.” I explain. “Then you would have loved the Canterlot Libraries.” Twilight said, finally done with her notes. “I lived there when I studied under Celestia.” “Well I’m gonna need to learn more about the history of this place and a lot more...but question….why the fuck was there a war about cheese?” I frown, still confused on the ‘cheese’ war thing. “... Well… that was… let’s just say cheese was new at the time and it was a delicacy everywhere.” Twilight said, quickly munching her salad. “And here I thought a magical crazy man started throwing cheese at people.” I chuckle, knowing I’m the only one to know the joke but still wanting to say it. “Where is Spike?” Luna asked. I looked around for the little guy but then saw the little drake walk into the room and towards the fridge. “I didn’t hear anything, I still hope you're paying for the electricity princess, and I was hoping you’d soundproof your room.” The drake says, sounding a lot more professional then he should. “Listen, we’ll have some... bro time later alright?” I ask him as the purple dragon rummaged a few snacks for himself. “Thanks, now if you’ll excuse me I have comics to read, snacks to eat, and questions to write down to ask you when we have bro time.” Spike says before closing the fridge door and heading off to his room. “That seemed...a lot easier than I originally thought…” I say with a little half frown. “But I suppose having to make sure this place didn’t blowout the entire town, have a princess suddenly live with you, and having Twilight start dating me is quite a lot to take in….” “Spike is a dragon. Mentally he’s our age, but physically he’s about nine.” Twilight said. ”Keep forgetting that this isn’t entirely like the show.” I think to myself. “Well that sounds nifty...so about Luna’s question on boobs or butts...well I’m the kind of guy that loves a mare for what they really are on the inside, not so much on what’s the outside...but a good looking lady never hurt.” I chuckle. “You can feel my inside tonight~” Luna teased. “We’ll...still need to soundproof our room…” I say sheepishly. “Spells.” Luna deadpanned. “Still.” I deadpan back. “But let’s talk about more than just sex lives...how in the name of hell did you get your hands on all those game consoles? Also do I even want to know how ‘specially made’ your computer is?” “I got into gaming to help adjust me quick to the modern world, and I’ve become an addict. Most of the extra money I get I spend on new games. And my computer can hold enough digital games to replace all my consoles. But I keep it solely for pc gaming, and game mods that look fun.” I look between Twilight, the lovable nerd that I’ve always liked, and Luna, the beautiful princess of the moon that happened to be a game addict, and I just sighed happily. “Ya know….I’m so glad this isn’t a dream...this is literally the greatest dream come true…” I smile. “You want sex dreams?” Luna asked. “So you want me to plow you out of dreams and the in dreams?” I ask. “You can do a lot more in a dream than just with a book of sex spells.” “I can imagine.” I say, feeling like steam was coming out of my head even with my cloak’s hood up. “Well, in any case, thank you for going along with this. You can imagine that being a ‘demon of the night’ before Twilight saved me gave me hundreds of dates before.” “Listen...this is the greatest thing to happen to me since I discovered books.” I say simply. “I just hope...I can be the man you both want and need instead of….thinking I was a waste of time…” “Don’t be like that. They say everything happens for a reason. Someone must be looking out for you if you ended up with us.” “You could say that.” I chuckle. “But...I thank you both...so much for letting me be in this relationship...not everyday you just kill heartless and then suddenly have two beautiful women want to date you.” “Tell that to the fans who sent those nudes.” Twilight said, laughing at the fact. “I didn’t expect them to send nudes okay?” I say quickly. “I mean...gift baskets and the ‘get well soon’ was obvious when I’m a hero but...nudes were the last thing on my mind…” “Well, when you put into accout there’s four to five mares per stallion in every city in Equestria, they had some hopes. That’s why herd relationships are common, and making a comeback with this gender shift over the last two generations.” “Damn.” I say simply, not knowing that four to five mares would date a single stallion. “Um...it wouldn’t be a surprise if more mares joined in...right?” I ask, having a feeling there will be more than just the three of us but not sure when. “Well, traditionally, the mare asks, and the stallion or ‘monarch’ of the herd decides. And informs the others… though I think Luna will be the monarch in this herd, she basically did start it. Though, I am unsure how many mares would even join with us, Luna and I kinda tend to scare ponies who know us by reputation.” “I’m sorry but right now I see two adorkable women who are either very into books or practically obsessed with video games...not sure how people can’t immediately see that.” I chuckle. “Titles.” Luna said plainly. “I am a princess, Twilight is the prized student of my sister. They place us on pedestals and they end up feeling inferior and… small, so they tend to fear us and respect us without even knowing us.” “And given that I’m now probably considered a national hero where I killed all but two things...that might add to the problem.” I shrug. “But anyways, I know about your sister, but what about relatives? Any relatives that I need to worry about?” I ask, hoping I won’t have a sibling or parent trying to fight me. “Well, no one on my side really, but I imagine Twilight’s brother will be cross.” “He might.” Twilight sighed. “We were so close as foals, he’s always looked out for me. Mom and dad will be happy, they never thought I’d get into dating, and Cadence… I’d rather not think about that.” I immediately thought of why Twilight wouldn’t want to know what Cadence thought but shrugged. “Oh well. At least I know I may have to deal with one person….probably gonna have to ‘prove my worth’ to Shining cause reasons and...a boatload of fun for a while. “Oh, it’s not that Cadence won’t be thrilled… she just might be too thrilled.” “That depends on your definition of ‘thrilled’.” I frown. “Cause if Luna is a good example…’thrilled’ can mean a few other things.” “Well… it’s still legal for royalty in the Crystal Empire to give Mares in Waiting as wife gifts to a newly married couple… and she kinda liked that idea… mainly because the Mares in Waiting are similar minded as her.” “Oh boy, can’t wait to have mares in maid outfits trying to gain my attention…” I say, which then immediately made me think of Twilight and Luna in said outfits. “Oh dear…” I mutter to myself, feeling my face heat up at the sight. “Well, dinner seems to be done.” Luna says as I look at our plates. They were all empty. “To the bedroom so we may try out that game, then head off to bed.” After putting the dishes away and me learning a tad more about the tree library we all went to our shared room...and good lordy was the room both big and jam packed with stuff. “Wow…” I say simply, seeing the place filled with gaming consoles, the big tv, the computer and all that stuff and a few more things. “So...where did you put the character at?” I ask, hoping to get some bearings in the game instead of just rushing head long into the unknown even for a video game. “The PC.” Luna says, taking a seat in the roller chair and taking the PC out of standby. “When I reloaded it, it said I was in some place, called, The Lab and-” When the PC turned on, the pause menu showed a man in a gashed face mask wearing purple robes… Core. “This isn’t where I left it?” Luna clicked continue, and Core waved his hand, and Twilight and Luna fell asleep. “Finally, that took forever.” “Well I’m sorry that I wanted to spend some quality time with people.” I frown. “So...how the hell did you put them to sleep, how the hell are you breaking the fourth wall of a video game, and how the hell did you program it this well?” I ask, having a good feeling the bastard could hear me through the game. “Somehow one of our latest test subjects managed to send an sos in for form of a disc, it contained some data, and she somehow managed to link a live feed from her perception to the disk. She must have encoded Heartless into the data for that to happen. Though, it helped us in catching her. Since Luna loaded it up as a game, she was in control of the test subject. “I am impressed with the advances in Subject 1c, that was advanced stuff. Still, it lead to her recapture in the end.” I took a seat on the computer chair and looked at the screen. “That is quite something.” I shrug. “But...why would one of your test subjects want to run and hide?” “Not all are willing brainiac. Majority are ones I took before their world was consumed.” “Makes sense, I doubt a lot of people would want to work for you willingly cause…’Destroyer of Worlds’ right here.” “Oh, now that’s a name I haven’t been called in a long time. So the fact you know that name means you also know God is my brother?” “Pretty obvious when you think ‘God is the Creator, wouldn’t there also be a Destroyer? And if so wouldn’t they be brothers?’.” I explain. “But quick question...why was I bored when seeing my world fall?” I ask curiously, still a little confused on why it was boring. “Funny, I had no part in my brothers imagination. That was all him, as for you… I took a sample of your heart when we last met. Your heart is full of self doubt, depression, and the best of all, it’s half dead.” “Ah, so that’s why I was bored.” I shrug. “But oh well, can’t be a winner all the time.” I say. “But that sounds worrying...half a heart isn’t really good when the heart is...quite important to a lot of things.” “I’ll only say this once, a heart is the source of all your emotions. Looks like half were left to die when you were on earth.” “If this is some Birth by Sleep shit I’m gonna be a tad pissed.” I frown. “Birth by Sleep? … Oh, those games.” “Yeah, those games that are apparently real cause Multi-verse theory.” I shrug. “It’s a lot simpler than that dear zombie, fact is, your world, and all it’s parallels and such, were nothing more than figments of my brothers imagination, given and sustained life within his mind.” “I’m sorry but Morpheus want’s his speeches back.” I say sarcastically. “Next time you meet him, ask, it’s the truth. The reality you exist in now is your True Reality. Then again, what does Reality even mean when you look at it like that?” “You make your reality, your choices help shape it, and those that you actually give a damn about help you shape it whenever you stutter in life.” I say. “Or we could believe that everything is Nothing and leave it at that.” “Smart, has a mouth, and a heart that wants to be fully alive again. You’ve surprised me.” “I feel like that’s the greatest achievement to surprise a god.” I say simply. Core laughed. “Please, god is just a name. I will let you know that, now that you’ve gained my full interest, expect a few foes coming your way.” “Where would the fun be if I wasn’t being attacked by bad guys?” I ask. “Now even though I’d like to live a happy quiet life for once I think others wouldn’t want that, whether it be you or someone else.” “True.” Core looked off screen. “Yellow, test this guy for me, and take Subject UV-C20 with you.” “Understood.” A feminine voice spoke from off screen. “Shit…” I frown. “So...anywhere specific I need to go to start fighting?” “Not right away. We’re evil, not irrational. Five days of peace and free time, then Yellow and C20 will test you.” “Well at least I won’t die a virgin.” I chuckle. “But thank you for the five days.” “Relax, if I sent them to kill you, I would have ordered it. I suggest you prepare well, C20 is one of our stronger fighters, and frankly, he’s been wanting a brawl.” The PC turned off, the CD drive ejecting the Disk, and it faded into darkness. “Welp...this isn’t going to be fun.” I sigh out before turning the swivel chair around and getting up, trying to wake up the two sleeping mares. “Hmmm.” Luna groaned. “When did I fall asleep. Were we going to bed?” “Yes, we were going to bed and there would probably be some plowing involved…” I say honestly. “Oh, why the change of mind?” “If you two are gonna go at it, I’ll bunk with Spike tonight. I’m not ready for sex yet.” Twilight says as she exits the room. “I think that would be for the best.” I say honestly. “But why the sudden change? Well...I suppose I just want to be with one of the most beautiful mares ever.” I say, hiding the fact that I only have five days of peace and training before a fight starts. “Well then, last one to strip down naked is on bottom.” Luna says with a giddy smile. To be continued...
Nobody's daysDay One As I woke up from sunlight shining in my eyes I grumbled bitterly. “Go away sun...no one likes you…” I mumble before cuddling up to something nice, warm, fuzzy and soft...before realizing what I did last night. “Did you sleep well?” Luna asked as my vision started to clear… to put it short, I was buried under her chest. “Mmm-hmm.” I hum, holding Luna close to me as steamy memories of our late night rushed to the forefront of my mind. ”I am the luckiest man ever.” I think to myself happily. “I told you spells would be fun.” She chimed. I moved my head out of her breasts as I got a bit of fresh air. “Um...quick question...did you use a...protection spell?” I ask worriedly, not wanting Luna to get pregnant after just a single time. “Relax, alicorn reproduction is more of a… force of will, type of deal.” “Oh thank god.” I sigh happily, glad about that little tidbit. “So...want to see if breakfast is made?” I ask, having a feeling Spike made breakfast. “Sure, just… help me find my pants… I forgot where I threw those.” After taking a well needed shower, cause I didn’t want to move around smelling like sex, and getting dressed me and Luna headed down to the kitchen, hoping breakfast is being made. “So...what you going to do today Luna?” I ask curiously, knowing what I’m going to be doing for the next five days whether the mares I care about like it or not. “I was thinking later today we can go after Starswirl’s Keyblade.” She replied nonchalantly. “Sounds like a plan I suppose.” I say before the scent of pancakes wafted into our noses. “Oh my god I haven’t had pancakes in a long time.” I say with a giant smile, this time it being visible to Luna because of my hood being down and not hiding my face. “A smile, you must be in a good mood.” She said as we went down, seeing Twilight and Spike at the table with a large plate of pancakes and bowls of oatmeal. “Well I’m sorry that I’m happy for pancakes.” I chuckle, walking towards the table. “Morning.” “Morning.” Spike nods while eating his breakfast. “You’re lucky I soundproof spelled the bedroom before I left you two… cause I could still hear it…” Twilight grumbled. “What spells did you use?” “S-sorry…” I say nervously, sitting down and starting to eat my plate of pancakes. “I didn’t think Luna was that loud…” I mutter. “Well, to be fair, your head was often between my boobs.” She said as she took a bite of oatmeal. “Pretty muffled I guess.” “I am so glad I’m mentally your age…” Spike mutters, knowing that if he was a normal nine year old he would have thought this was icky and rush out the room. “Sorry Spike…” I say sheepishly. “Please Spike,” Twilight says. “You brag about sex every time you and Rainbow get together… then she comes here and does the same thing…” “Damn.” I say, slightly surprised him and Rainbow were going at it. ”Didn’t think that would have happened, thought he would still be ramming his head into a wall because of Rarity.” I think to myself. “Well...shut up…” Spike says simply, blushing a little at having Twilight say this in front of both her new boyfriend and girlfriend. “I take it greed-growth is a factor for the height factor?” Luna asks. “Well...he is a dragon…” I trail off while Spike blushes. “Shush! I want to eat breakfast.” Spike says before continuing to eat his breakfast. “That is true, I’d like to eat without thinking of...other things…” I trail off, blushing a bit before eating more of my pancakes. “Well, in that case, would you like to know more about Starswirl’s Keyblade?” Luna asks me. “Yes I would.” I nod. “And wherever his tomb is, because if it’s in the middle of a magical volcano I’m gonna be a little pissed.” “It’s nowhere like that. He said it was called, Mana Drive. It gave him the extra mana that made him such a grand spellcaster. It’s with him in his tomb, located in the castle ruins in the everfree.” “Sounds about right.” I shrug. “But this Everfree, I doubt it’s as friendly as the name suggests?” I ask. “Those Heartless seems to crawl there all the time.” Twilight says. “Fluttershy has seen them wander near her home often.” “That doesn’t sound fun.” I sigh out. “But is there someone there?” “Zecora… she disappeared…” Twilight says sadly. “Well…” I frown, before taking a deep breath. “Sounds like I’m going to have to do a solo mission then. No way in hell-” “I am the only one who can touch Mana Drive.” Luna cut in. “Starswirl locked it to my heart before he died.” “Christ…” I groan, rubbing my temples gently. “Well this is gonna be fun...well I suppose I’ll learn the ways through a good training ground.” “Plus, it is a good thing you came here Ben. The lock on Starswirl’s tomb was sealed by his fellow wielder’s Keyblade.” “Well you’re welcome for being convenient.” I say sarcastically. “But to be honest, you're welcome. Means a lot to help the one I love.” “Sweet. So, when shall we head out?” “Once we’re done eating.” I say, continuing to enjoying the wonderful food that was pancakes. After a good breakfast me and Luna took off towards the Everfree, and no matter how many times Twilight tried to argue about how she wanted to see the tomb of her number one idle I rejected it because it’s too dangerous, she doesn’t want to see a long rotted corpse, and that it’s way too fucking dangerous. “So...how deep is this castle?” “The old pathway is grown over, but as long as we follow it, we’ll be there in a few minutes.” She says, using a sword like a machete to hack branches away. I nodded, raising a hand up and trying to summon a weapon just to be safe. What I got this time was Lexaeus’s ‘Axe-sword’. Now how in the world this giant great sword was an Axe as was is still beyond me but I slung it up to my shoulder as we continued onward. The bushes rustled. Luna and I got into battle stances. What came out… was morbid. It was a person, but the head was half of a Soldier Heartless helmet. “Run!” It screamed as it took off. “That’s...really concerning…” I say worriedly, wondering why half of a Soldier Heartless told us to run. Luna ran after it. “What is wrong?” She yelled as she chased after it. “Ah god damn it…” I groan before running swiftly towards Luna. “Luna stop! This might be a trap!” I shout to Luna. When I caught up, the Half Heartless, half person was in fetal position, Luna trying to calm it down. “Hush, what has you so scared?” She asked as she pet it. “This…this shouldn’t be possible…” I mutter, seeing the poor person in this position. “How…?” He looked at me. “You, y-you’re the new one, the, the one the monster took interest. You, you have the key, please kill me!” It yelled as he ran up to me and groveled. “Please, I, I can’t get captured again!” As the half heartless wished my weapon quickly vanished before I summoned Roxas’s Keyblade and stabbed the thing through the chest. “I’m sorry…” “Thank you…” It said as it vanished, the heart floating away free. “Ben!” Luna shouted. “He, how could you?” “That...that was a test subject.” I say sadly. “The poor thing was forced to become half a Heartless...I have literally no idea how that’s possible but...I gave the poor person peace...for however long.” Luna sighed. “I… Who could have done that?” “The only one that could possibly know…” I say. “Core, and whatever scientists sick enough to follow through with that kind of experiments.” “Rude.” We turned around. A man with blond hair, green eyes, and wearing a lab coat stood there. “I was retrieving subject E5, and now all that research is gone to waste.” “I’m sorry but I think it’s fine to destroy research that turns living beings into Heartless.” I frown. “There’s a fine line with knowledge, the things we should know, and things we should never know, and what you did is, at least in my opinion, something we shouldn’t know.” He huffed. “Ignorant child.” He lifted up a finger. “Dark gas.” He said, as a black mist surrounded Luna and I… it was hard to breath. We both ran as fast as possible away. “Bastard lied to me…” I growl. “I never lied.” I looked to my side, Core was leaning against a tree. “Of for christ sakes…” I groan. “Howdy.” “Sorry about Grand, he hates stupidity.” “Gee, I never knew.” I say sarcastically. “Anyways, how the fuck was that possible? The half Heartless thing?” “E5? That was just increasing the darkness in their heart, making it do physical change rather than mental.” I wanted to point something out but decided against it. “Well that’s nifty to know. But how was saying ‘there’s certain things people should never know’ a stupid thing? Seem’s pretty sound to me.” “Grand want’s to learn everything. He took that as an insult. Also, relax about the Gas, it’s just a hallucinogen. I’m using it to talk to you, and Luna is currently having a nightmare that’s leading her to a cliff side, chow.” He, and the forest went dark. When I woke up, I was where we were ran into the test subject and scientist. “Oh shit oh shit oh shit!” I say to myself quickly, rushing off to find wherever Luna ran off to, hoping to find her quickly. “LUNA! Luna where are you!?” I call out, hoping Luna would wake up before falling off a cliff. I finally found her, above the cliff leading towards the down area of the castle. She was close to the edge. “LUNA!” I shout, and in an act of blind desperation I summoned Xaldin’s spears and vanished suddenly, appearing near the lunar alicorn and grabbing her before she fell off the cliff. “Luna, wake up please wake up…” I plead. She twitched. “Huh?” She opened her eyes and looked at me. “... I had the weirdest nightmare.” The spears around me vanished as I pulled Luna into a hug as I shook in fear from almost seeing her fall off a cliff. “It’s...it’s alright Luna...you’re alright…” I cry, trying to stop my tears from falling. “Me, you’re the one who’s crying! What happened?” “That mist...it put us asleep. I talked with someone and you….you…” I stutter, only hugging her more. She looked up, and saw the cliff side. “I almost fell off? I haven’t done that since I was two hundred.” “That’s n-not funny…” I stutter. “No, I’m serious. Alicorns are… VERY hard to kill. Personally I’ve fallen off this same cliff four times in my childhood, been hit by more cannon fire than I care to recall, and once was set on fire. It would take another alicorn to kill me.” I was shocked at hearing how much stuff hurt her but didn’t seem to bother her that much. “I’m sorry but...when you get your new Keyblade...those are the least of your worries…” I say, taking a deep breath and trying to calm myself down. She hugged me. “Relax, Starswirl taught me all kinds of spells and abilities I can use with it. I’m no fragile flower.” “You’re still my flower…” I state. “Now that was just cheesy. Well, we’re here now, the tomb is actually down this cliff… Wanna see something cool?” “Anything that doesn’t involve you getting hurt would be cool right about now.” I say with a smile. Luna carried me like how prince charming carries the princess. “I won’t, but you’ll scream like a girl.” She ran, and jumped off the cliff. Still holding me in this emasculating way. I didn’t scream but only pouted. “I am a man damn it, I don’t need to be held like this…” I whine, summoning roxas’s keyblade again just in case of emergency glider. There was a loud thud. When I looked up, we were at the bottom of the cliff, and Luna was still standing, smiling. “Best landing yet.” “Good for you.” I say before kissing her cheek. “I can see why knights hold princesses like this~” She teased, making me struggle until she let me go. “Baby.” “Whatever.” I say while standing on the ground and dusting my coat off. “Anyways, where to next?” Luna pointed behind her, where a large, steel door stood. “There. That door was locked by a Keyblade, so this will be your job.” “Alright.” I say while walking up to the door, lifting up my Keyblade and pointing it at the door, the key point starting to glow and shooting a small beam of energy towards the door. After a moment a sudden k-thunk was heard as if something was being unlocked. The doors opened by themselves. Luna walked in, and I followed. There, in the center of a large room, was a stone coffin, with a Keyblade resting on top. It’s handle was four daggers, two on each side crossed, the blade was as long as me, and looked like Luna’s hair, and the tip of the blade held a crescent moon, wearing a blue hat with stars on it. They Keychain was the same as the tip. “It’s been years since I last saw it.” Luna said, slowly picking up the Keyblade. “Sometimes Keyblades are just as obvious as their owner.” I deadpan. “He did say they chose their wielders.” She retorted, giving the Keyblade a few good swings. “So… wanna have a match?” * * * Day Two After a thankful night worth of sleep after too much practice with our sparring, I slid out of bed and stretched my limbs, feeling them crack as I gave a satisfying sigh. ”Four more days…” I think to myself, hoping to get stronger before my dead lines up. “Mummm” Twilight said, slowly waking up. “Morning already?” She asked. I got a cheeky grin before leaning down and kissing Twilight on the lips as a sort of ‘wakey wakey’ thing. “Well it’s better than my alarm clock.” She joked. “Way better.” I smile. “Now come on, time to wake up. Even though I hate mornings I’ve got more shit to do then I normally want.” “Twilight!” Spike yelled from outside the door. “Rarity is here… she wants to see Ben.” Twilight’s eyes shrank. “Oh no!” She squealed. “Wait...we forgot about Pinkie’s party…” I say worriedly. “Um...maybe she just needed some extra time for that...right?” I ask, knowing that Pinkie was a monster when it came to preparing parties. “But why is Rarity here?” Twilight sighed. “She’s been trying to match me up with someone for as long as I’ve lived in Ponyville. Now that she knows about… this… She’ll want to know EVERYTHING.” “Well I have enough charm to make sure she stops bothering us.” I say with a smile. “Tell that to Luna.” Twilight deadpanned, to which I noticed Luna wasn’t here. “Where’s Luna?” I ask worriedly. “She woke up early… so likely she’s downstairs… talking with Rarity about everything.” My face immediately turned a shade of red I thought impossible before a dust cloud in the shape of me was left before I looked to where Luna and Rarity might be. “Five hours!?” I heard Rarity shout… too late... “Fuck.” I sadly say out loud, probably loud enough to have Rarity and Luna hear me. “That sounds like Mr. Endurance.” I heard Luna say, to which I awkwardly walk down the stairs. “Yup, finally awake.” “No one needs to hear how long I can last Luna.” I say with a frown. “Not to miss pompous over here.” I say, pointing at Rarity who, in fact, still looked like a pompous unicorn even if she was friendly. “What? I was just telling her how long out match yesterday lasted after you helped me retrieve the Sword.” Luna said, having a devious smile. “Oh for the love of…” I groan, taking a deep breath before leaning towards Luna. “And which ‘sword’ are we talking about here? Cause I’m getting mixed messages here…” I whisper. Luna pointed eyes at Rarity, to which I suddenly got the message. “Oh…” I mutter before turning to Rarity. “So how can I help you today?” I ask the white unicorn mare. Rarity was suddenly in front of me, looking me over. “Hmmm.” She squeezed one of my arms. She then took my height, and basically examined me. “Not built like a warrior, but Luna’s word and you actions over the news prove otherwise. An underdog! Oh how exciting!” She declared. “Go fuck yourself.” I frown. “That is the last thing I wanted to hear this morning, I’m sorry that I’m not ‘up to standards’ as you want me to be.” “Rude, temperamental, ill mannered, four mouthed… kinda reminds me of a book character I once read… Well, sorry if I offended you White Ni- …er, Ben. After hearing and seeing what you’ve done, I just wanted to see how you were built.” I take a breath and rub my head. “Listen...I’m sorry if I was rude...it’s just that...women where I come from made me feel like crap at every turn because ‘oh hey I’m popular, I can do whatever the hell I want cause I can get laid like a stupid whore’.” I say in a kind of decent impression of a ‘popular girl’. “And the look and sizing me up just to see how ‘built’ I was...brought back bad memories.” I sigh out, rubbing my arm sadly as I looked down. “Well, I may be a lady, I am not a, to be frank, bitch. Besides, Twilight is dating you, and Luna here has fallen head over heels for you, so you must have a kind heart under that rough exterior.” She suddenly leaned in uncomfortably close… so much to the point her chest was touching mine. “Luna has made an offer… but I will leave that to you to give me a chance, please take your time.” She sat back down on the couch… letting me breath again… they’re as big as Luna’s. I blushed brightly, feeling steam pillow out of my head at hearing that. “I’m...I’m sorry...but I try and want to be kind…” I say nervously, thinking about the possibility of having a third mare in my new herd. “Oh dear...three mares? That’s...quite something.” I say sheepishly. “B-but how are you doing today?” I ask Rarity, hoping to start a conversation that didn’t involve me being upset or involve thoughts about dating another sexy mare. “Like I said darling, take you time to think. As for my day, it’s been rather calm as compared to… recently.” She said solemnly. “It’s only going to get more lively from here on out that’s for sure.” I say, hoping the fight four days later won’t hurt anyone. “Rarity was telling me about her sister Sweetie Bell, and if I could help with her nightmares.” Luna said. “That sounds fine enough.” I say, not wanting to gamble on if I could enter dreams like Riku could. “It’s been happening ever since those monsters appeared. She’s such an innocent little filly, I hate to see her scared.” Rarity said, looking at her coffee cup. “That...doesn’t sound good.” I say worriedly. “It’s pretty odd as well, she’s dreaming she’s on an island… and then, this man in a black coat is there, leaving someone on an oddly shaped tree, then, she says everything goes hectic, a big ball of darkness in the sky, a giant monster with a hole in it’s chest, then a boy fighting it. It ends there usually.” My eyes were wide as I heard everything. “Oh no...oh no…” I mutter. “Well looks like I’m gonna be helping Luna here…” “I already checked last night Ben.” Luna states. “They are… memories, in dream form. Though, I know they aren’t Sweetie’s. I tried all I could, but they were just memories.” “In any case, I should be off.” Rarity said, getting up. “Sweetie has been clingy lately and I’m worried she won’t do well if I don’t check on her at school.” Rarity left, and Luna gave me a serious look. “Luna...you have no idea what Sweetie’s dreaming about...but I do.” I say. “How Sweetie is dreaming about that I could not say…” “I could tell, so what is it?” “I...can’t say.” I say simply, keeping that little bit of info to myself. “But all I can say is that she shouldn’t be having those memories...they belong to someone else.” “I know that much. I believe it’s someone… off world, calling for help. That’s how Starswirl met Eraqus in the first place.” ”Why the hell would Sora be calling for help? Especially at that point in his life?” I think to myself worriedly, so confused by this. “Well I’m still going to help, cause that giant Heartless is called a ‘Darkside’...and I really don’t want you to get hurt while fighting it.” “Again, you saw what I did yesterday. I beat you about four out of six rounds in our match. Plus, I have hundreds of years worth of combat experience above you. I’ll be fine, I'm just worried about Sweetie.” “I’m still tagging along whether you like it or not.” I frown. “But you just got lucky I don’t know half of my powers.” “Of course.” She sips her coffee. “I imagine only you know this world in question anyway.” “Her memories are of an offworld...called Destiny Island.” I say simply. “Before that event happens it’s actually quite a lovely place.” “Well then, I always wanted to try this.” She summoned Mana Drive, and tossed it into the air. The glider that came out was Like Aqua’s, but with Luna’s colors. “That was always cool when Starswirl did it.” “Well alright.” I nod before checking the room before summoning Roxas’s keyblade and tossing it up before summoning Terra’s bike, but this time looking more silver and gold instead of white and black. I hopped onto the bike and got ready. We made it to Destiny Island, where everything seemed fine. The kids weren’t on the island, but nothing was like in Sweeties dream. “This is the same place as in her dream.” Luna said as we landed. “But… nothing seems wrong.” I flew up to the area where Sora, Kairi and Riku always sat at during the sunset and searched the area, wondering what sort of thing I could find. “Is it before or after…” I mutter, not entirely sure if this is before the first game, or after it. “Something doesn’t feel right…” “Huh? Hey there!” I looked at the source of the voice, exiting the door from the other side of the island… was Micky. “What’s going on?” He asked as he ran over to me. ”The fuck?” I think to myself in confusion, wondering why the hell Mickey is here. “Oh, hello. I’m sorry I was just...looking around.” I say before hopping off of my bike and the thing vanishing. “You’re from another world.” He says. “Can you help me find some people?” He asks as Luna walks up. “Who are they?” She asks. “Terra, Ventus, and Aqua. It’s been almost a year and I haven’t seen or heard from any of them.” “Um…” I say, thinking about if I should help or not. “Well...sounds like those three are probably in a very...special situation.” I say, having a feeling that just from what Mickey said it’s passed Birth By Sleep. “Yeah, that’s why I gotta find them. All I have to go on are the last known worlds they went to… and I didn’t find anything here.” “Well...here’s a hint.” I say before taking a deep breath. “Black Water, Silver Earth, and Sleeping Wind.” I say. Mickey looked at me confused. “You can have future premonitions?” “You could say that.” I shrug. “Well… it’s really vague, maybe I should tell Master Yen Sid about this? Well, thanks anyway.” He pulled out his Starshard, and was zapped off world. “So… how much was crap?” Luna asks. “None of it actually.” I say honestly. “I don’t buy the ‘see future’ bit.” “Okay the ‘see future’ part was crap but what I said was fact. All you need to do is be wise enough to understand it.” I explain to Luna. “But I’m sure with the help of Yen Sid he’ll find a way to meet his friends again.” “Well, alright. Still, nothing is off about this world. What is sending Sweetie Bell those memories?” “Now that could be a premonition.” I say honestly. “But I don’t know.” Thud We both looked at the doorway that leads up to this semi-separate island. There was… Sweetie Bell, but gears and cogs were sticking out of all her body. “Finally.” She said, walking over to us. “Took your time.” “And why in the name of hell are you here and have gears and cogs sticking out of your body?” I frown. “Sweetie, what happened to you?!” Luna said, scarred. “I’m not… I’m not your Sweetie Bell. I’m one of the escaped test subjects Core had… TS-1, they called me.” “No wonder why she was having nightmares…” I mutter to myself. “So you’re one of the escapees?” “Yeah, been free for about a year, and finally I feel an energy of something other than Core, so I sent memories to myself in this reflection at the start date Core was able to send Heartless to this reflections Equestria. Guess it worked after all.” “Refle-” I mutter before face palming. “Of course it’s that kind of multiverse theory…” I groan. “Yes, my reflection-verse was completely destroyed.” “I’m sorry to hear that…” I sigh out. “But...maybe we could protect you from Core...if at all.” She smirked. “Please, Core made me to be a… replica of a special type of Keyblade.” “Which?” I ask. “It has no name, but the wielder gains a partial control over time, able to create events paradox free for as long as they put energy into it. I was a failure. I could only send memories, and such, back in time, not people.” “That cheating son of a bitch.” I huff, knowing full well what Keyblade she was supposed to replicate. “I can still shift, but other than that, I do need a place to protect. My home, and everything that existed with it is gone. If you let me come with you, I’ll be your second Keyblade.” “Welcome to the team.” I say simply. “Cause I’m gonna need all the help I could get because...Core happened to take interest in my world.” “And I know why. It’s heart is innocent, as such, anything innocent put into darkness becomes something… Demonic.” She walked over to Luna. “As a failed Keyblade, I still should chose my wielder, and I chose her.” “Well that’s just all kinds of nifty.” I say simply. “Just more and more things popping up out of the wazoo just to greet me in more confusing ways.” Sweetie chuckled. “Since when did that game even make sense.” She says, shifting into a near replica of young Xehanort’s Keyblade, only with Gears and Cogs sticking out of it, and moving. Luna held Sweetie, looking at her… it… with worry. “It all goes back to this… Core, doesn’t it?” She said. “Core is a Destroyer, and he is commanding people that love to destroy, so most likely yes.” I shrug. “But anyways we better head back, better give Sweetie her new present and...maybe have a party afterwards cause this is some heavy stuff.” “I wonder who else Core has done this to?” Luna says, looking out into the ocean. “He’s doing it to a lot of people...and all those people are unwilling...that scientist made that one poor person into what he was before I...killed him.” * * * Day Three ”Three more days…” I think to myself. ”Well at least I’m getting better with my powers…” I think, remembering me and Luna having another practice fight and this time I could summon a whole three Creepers! It wasn’t much but it was rather irritating to hear them all chant ‘where’s my heart’ for at least five minutes. But that’s not the only good news, Sweetie Belle got to meet her new Keyblade self, and let’s says that situation was...really something. Sweetie Bell, er, the Keyblade one, who wanted to go by Time Bell, to reduce confusion, stood across from her parallel, who was sitting at our kitchen table. “So… you’re me?” Sweetie asked. “Yes and no.” Time Bell replied. “It’s...rather confusing to explain.” I say sheepishly. “Why are we even here, I thought I made it clear I chose Luna?” “Because I thought it would be nice to show you to...well yourself given that you caused her nightmares.” I frown. She glared at me. “You have no idea how much this hurts me, seeing the people I saw die back in my world, walking around, alive, but it’s not them.” “Whether that’s true or not, you can see what you’re trying to defend now. The innocent that have no idea what horror’s you’ve been through.” “And you drag a twelve year old girl into battle?” “No, I’m going to ask her.” I say simply. “There is no way in hell I’m dragging a child through my troubles.” I say before turning to Sweetie Belle. “So...Sweetie, any questions about this...entire weird situation?” She looked at me, giving me what seemed to be her most straight face. “Are you gonna date my sister?” I looked at Sweetie for a moment, trying my hardest not to laugh. “So when you have...yourself staring at you, hearing the both of us talk about very serious stuff...you ask if I’m going to date your sister…” I take a breath. “Makes sense, but it’s only been a day since she asked.” “That’s how long her relationships usually last.” Sweetie deadpans, making Time Bell laugh. “Either the people she dates are complete assholes, she tries to date people and then immediately throws them under the bridge, or is just mean.” I frown, hearing that and making me feel like Rarity is now just a bitch. “But she told me to think about it...and when you’ve never had a girlfriend before then suddenly having two then another girl asks to be your girlfriend...it’s quite a lot…” “Well, she really is nice, she just dates, or rather, chooses poorly who she dates.” “Cause you know, all women that act ‘high and mighty’ can be nice but always choose wrong people at every damn corner.” I groan, face palming. “Jeez, it’s like highschool all over again…” “In any case.” Time Bell cut in. “What could she even do? I don’t get why Core was interested in the majority of reflections like her and I.” “Pure of heart I suppose.” I shrug. “Innocent children trying to find there way in the world, not having a single care in the world about the bad parts of life and just...lives life.” I explain. “Wait… pure of heart…” Time bell walked over to Sweetie Bell, staring her dead in the eyes. “No darkness… nothing… So that’s why he had thousands of reflection Sweetie Bells.” “That’s...morbid.” I frown. “What did you expect from the king of Heartless?” She snapped. “Milk and cookies?” I ask sarcastically. “No need for arguments right now.” “Coming from the guy who hates everyone.” “Either way.” I say with a dismissive wave of my hand at that line of thought. “But Sweetie...I know this entire conversation is probably going way above your head at this point but…” I sigh out. “Do you want to have the strength to protect those you care about?” I ask. “Well, if it means helping people that have been hurt, then yeah. I might not get everything at the moment, but I’ll learn. Plus, Time Bell looks like she could be my twin.” She replied, showing an innocent smile. “Time? Do you think you can be with Sweetie?” I ask honestly. “I know you picked Luna but she was already chosen by a Keyblade.” “I suppose,” she replied. “Mana Drive didn’t like me all that much.” “Thank you.” I smile. “But looks like Luna’s gonna have another trainee.” “Besides you?” Time remarked. “From the visions I saw, she straight up kicked your ass in that match.” “Again, she’s lucky I barely know my powers.” I say simply. “But oh well, we’re going to train and train and get stronger...and Sweetie...I’m probably going to agree with your sister it’s just...still worried is all.” I say nervously. Sweetie squeed… (heart attack!) “That would be so great!” “Can you not hurt my heart with cuteness?” I ask, holding my chest playfully as such a cute scene. “But alright...I just hope your sister doesn’t have too many standards.” I sigh out. “Just that they’re nice to her, and her loved ones… you can guess where they tend to fail at…” “Yes, I fully understand.” I nod, knowing full well that Rarity’s breasts can cause bad things to happen. “Well, should I at least learn how to fight now or what? Schools’ canceled today anyway, Applebloom is busy with chores, and Scootaloo is practicing flying with Rainbow.” “Sure, but we’re gonna need to go to somewhere open and not surrounded by buildings and people.” I say. “... well, I think the fields just out of town could do. Open, flat land, and nothing but one tree for about two miles.” “Sounds perfect.” I nod. “Now let’s get going and help teach you how to fight.” When we made it to the fields, Luna and I gave Sweetie the basics of sword fighting. Luna even taught her a few basic spells. Now that she understood generally what to do, she stood across from me, in a battle stance. “Hope I do alright.” She said. “Don’t worry Sweetie.” I say before bringing a hand up and a blue and white Claymore appeared in it. “You’re going to do fine.” I smile, readying myself for a fight. Sweetie was the first to attack, she landed a fair blow, but the Claymore took most of the impact. Guess blocking isn’t like in the game? I swung, hitting her and she flew a few feet… before back flipping midair and landing on her feet. “Wait… how?” She questioned, realizing what she just did. “That is a little ‘ability’ warriors learn, called ‘Aerial Recovery’. Helps make sure you are ready for another swing instead of landing on your back and open.” I explain before dashing forward and swinging my Claymore at Sweetie. She blocked with the protect spell Luna taught her, and it nearly knocked my Claymore out of my hand. She used to opportunity to land a swing at me… which sent me flying across the ground. “Ohmygosh! Are you alright?!” I got up before disbanding the Claymore, bringing out my two Gun Arrows. “No need to worry Sweetie, I’m still up for fighting.” I say with a smile, pointing one of my guns at Sweetie. “Hope you like arrows being shot at ya.” I say before shooting a single bolt towards Sweetie, aiming towards her left arm and hoping it wouldn’t hurt her too much. She blocked to my relief… oh crap they do bounce back! I barely dodged my own shot. ‘Wha?” She said… sounding like someone was talking to her. “Ummm alright?” She lifted Time Bell up to the air. “Light Volley.” She was floating in the air as light projectiles shot out her Keyblade’s tip. “Crap!” I shout before disbanding my gun arrows quickly. “Guard!” I shout before thrusting my hand out, a giant checkerboard shield appeared in front of me, the thing crackling with energy as it blocked the projectiles towards me. Sweetie dropped to the ground, and Time Bell reverted back into her… I’ll call it her human form for now. “Glad that worked.” She said. The energy shield disappeared before I started clapping. “That was great Sweetie.” I say with a smile. “What do you think Luna?” “Was impressive. I’ve never seen a move like that.” She replied. “They’re called Shotlocks.” Time replied. “Usually it’s called Dark Volley, but only those with large amounts of darkness in their hearts can use it… I modified it. Since Sweetie Bell’s heart is pure light, than those projectiles would have hit… match over.” “Makes sense.” I nod, knowing full well what Shotlocks were. “But because I can guard like that I suppose it didn’t go as planned.” “It’s not impossible to guard against them, but it’s difficult. Your best chance to guard against one it to do it right when it activates. Well, anyway, that was fun. You should go home Sweetie, I wanna tell Luna and Ben some things.” Sweetie noded. “Okay.” She ran off back towards town. “Glad to see she’s coming along.” I say with a little smile. “But Time...what do you need?” “To tell you some things about Core… and his only known weakness.” “Well good to know he has a weakness.” I say thankfully, glad to know he actually has something weak about him. “He talks about this… thing, from another Equestria, another reflection, called The Crystal Heart. It was made by some master there long before the Empire was there, when activated with a Keyblade, it turns on fully, and he, and his Heartless, can’t set foot on the world.” ”The Crystal Heart huh…” I think to myself. “That’s quite a weakness, but I bet it’s only in that specific place right?” “I’m note sure. Frankly, I don’t know what it is, but if the reflections are close enough, then it could be the same here. The heart in that world, it acts like a light amplifier, spreading its protection around the entire world. Though, it’s just a hunch.” “That sounds like quite a Keyhole…” I say simply. “It’s not a Keyhole. In that world, the heart was made by someone called, the Master of Masters. No idea who that is, but Core seems to know him.” “Well with a name like that…” I say, thinking to myself about this ‘Master of Masters’. “Um...why do I have a feeling he’s...like the grand master of keyblades?” I ask with a frown, not knowing much about this Master but having a good feeling that if he is somehow involved with Keyblades then he must be the greatest. “I don’t know, but Core hates him. Enough about that though, there’s something Core is after, the X-blade.” My eyes widen at hearing that name. “I-I thought…” I stutter, my mind rushing through what I know about Kingdom Hearts. “I thought...it was shattered?” I ask worriedly. “Another has been forged from what I gathered while I was there. Someone from… wherever you’re from wields it now, and Core wants this person to fight to the death before he claims it.” “That’s not good. That is not good at all.” I say worriedly. “Let’s hope I can find him before something bad happens.” I say worriedly, knowing that if Core want’s the X-blade then only terrible things could come to pass. “From what I gather, the one wielding it isn’t helpless, he can fight. He gave Core the gash across his mask.” “Well I mean he’s gonna have to be strong just to be able to wield that!” I say. “Half pure light, half pure darkness. That’s what makes the X-blade. This person’s heart is that by nature. Born with a balanced heart.” “Well glad to know he’s in a better boat than me…” I mutter, remembering Core telling me half of my heart is dead. “Anyways...who’s hungry?” “Define hungry.” Luna said, giving me a seductive look. “That’s not till tonight.” I roll my eyes. “I mean for actual food, jeez Luna no need to think that.” “A thousand years… stuck in the moon, immobile, just looking at the world below… I’m horny.” “Get a room you two.” Time said, rolling her eyes. Day Four After another night of joy with Luna I took a shower before she woke up, just standing in the water thinking about everything Time just told me. ”Two more days…” I think to myself, putting a hand up to my bare chest sadly. ”Let’s just hope I’m strong enough…” I mumble to myself before actually showering and getting out of my little sad corner of thought. After I exited the bathroom with a fresh pair of clothes on I grabbed my cloak and headed down stairs and head to the kitchen, seeing Spike and Twilight up already. “I hope we weren’t loud...again…” I say nervously, blushing brightly. “I increased the strength, so no.” Twilight said. “You two are better off together than I though… also… I was wondering if just you and I could be together today? You’ve spent three days with Luna…” “Sorry Twilight.” I sigh out. “Just...a lot of things were happening that needed both me and Luna to look at. But today’s going to be my Twilight day.” I smile. “I’m sorry but I didn’t wake up to hear cheese.” Spike points out groggily. “Spike, don’t be so rude.” Twilight says. “Well, if that’s the case then I have the perfect idea.” “Nah it’s alright, it looks like he just woke up.” I say, seeing the young drake yawn loudly. “But that sounds great, can’t wait to spend the day with you. So...any list I need to know about before it’s shoved into my face suddenly?” “Actually, I was thinking we could visit Princess Celestia, then head to the Canterlot history museum.” “Well I suppose it’ll be good to see my future sister in law.” I say with a nod. Twilight chuckled. “Well, make this date end well, and we’ll see how close we get to that.” “Um…” I frown. “And by that...you mean?” I ask, wondering what she meant by that. “... Cadence is in Canterlot at the moment... “ “Oh great, another future sister in law I’ll have to meet, and then an older brother I’m gonna have to fight cause reasons.” I sigh out. “Oh dear today is just gonna be a load of fun.” “I wanna argue… but that’s likely what will happen…” We took the train to Canterlot. It was a long ride, but it was an amazing ride. The view going up the mountain was breathtaking, why didn’t riding on my glider give me a view like this… oh yeah… haven’t ridden it that much... “The view is wonderful.” I say with a smile. “A lot better than back home.” I point out, knowing my world has all there great sights but just a simple train ride like this making me see such a sight beat it quite a lot. “We should be there soon. We can head to the castle pretty quickly from the train station, and the museum is just a few blocks down from there.” “Let’s hope I make a good impression...or not cause massive property damage.” I say worriedly. “Are the nobles as bad as Luna said?” I ask, feigning ignorance on those bastards. “A good quarter are… they’re second only to the crown.” “Can I beat any of them?” I ask, wondering if I could hurt any of them. “No, doing that is punishable by… well, you can guess.” “My christ is Celestia strict.” I frown. “But I suppose Heartless are up there, knowing that nobles are greedy, black hearted bastards.” I grumble. “Part of why Cadence is here, she goes where my brother goes. He still is captain of the guard, and the Heartless seam to keep away from the Empire for some reason.” “I know why…” I say simply. “And that...is most likely due to the Crystal Heart.” “That’s what I figured.” We got off, and headed towards the Castle. The guards let us pass through and we made our way to Celestia’s throne room. “Hello princess.” “Greetings Twilight, and you must be Ben. Luna has wrote much about you in her emails.” Celesta said, giving off a warm smile. “It is a pleasure to meet you your majesty.” I say, bowing to the princess “Please, at the rate you and Luna are going, that won’t be necessary.” “Can Luna stop telling everyone!?” I shout while flinging my hands in the air. “Jeez they're not called ‘bedroom things’ for nothing.” I frown, blushing brightly. “She and I were raised in a time where privacy was a luxury. And everyone was close. Believe me, she’s being tame with her actions.” “Listen as long as we’re not doing it in public that’s fine by me…” I sigh out. “But anyways, it’s nice to meet you in person Celestia, hope the ‘royal duties’ haven’t been too boring for ya.” “The Heartless have been an issue, and that’s about all really. Your actions have brought hope, but sadly some try to follow your example. I don’t blame you, those that fought did so of their own will, though many don’t come home…” I sigh out sadly. “This is why being a hero sucks sometimes. It makes good hearted people act like complete idiots...and sadly I can’t be everywhere.” I say sadly, not knowing if I could just hand out keyblades to those that would love to help me and Luna. “I just hope they stop….I don’t want people dying because of me…” “Luna and I have felt the same after war… we fight with out troops in battle, and many common people think they can help… I just wish that law was passed.” “Well...sometimes law can’t stop people…” “It’s not a law to stop them, it’s to help train them at a young age. I brought it up over two hundred years ago, yet the council of Law and the noble votes reject it every time. They say ‘the royal guard is supposed to protect us, not we protect ourselves’ … ignorant asses…” “Then apparently I need to step in and tell these dick holes that they need to get off their fat lazy asses and do something for a fucking change!” I shout, my anger rising at the lazy fucks. Celestia smiles at me. “No wonder Luna likes you. You kinda act like I did when I was your age. Well, talking with them won’t do, and threats are clearly out… maybe we can use your image?” “My image? You mean the whole ‘White Knight’ thing?” I ask curiously. “Exactly. You’ve already proven your strength, and many nobles, and council of Law admire you for this. If you could just speak at the next meeting with them with me, they might finally approve it. Then they, and their children can be better protected from this threat.” “Sounds like a plan.” I nod. “Let’s hope they at least listen to me instead of huff and puff and blow themselves up.” I sigh out. Celestia laughs. “If I didn’t prefer mares I’d date you as well. Well, the next meeting isn’t for a few months, so we have time for you to ‘show off’ and save people, and for me to get everything ready.” “You know I have your sister, Twilight, and most likely Rarity dating me. Can’t you just...ya know...bend your ‘interests’ a little?” I ask honestly. “Getting a little greedy aren’t we? Sorry, but I’ll stick to mares. Now run along you two.” “Well I see a lovely mare that want’s a special someone.” I chuckle. “But alright, see ya later Princess, have a nice day.” I say with a smile before turning on my heel and heading off. “That went well.” Twilight said. “Surprisingly well.” I say honestly. “But she’s a kind and wise mare, so I suppose my ‘surprisingly’ shouldn’t be there.” I shrug. We left the castle and headed towards the museum… it’s TEN STORIES! A ten floor high building, with five basement floors… all for public viewing… it’s beautiful… “I take it earth didn’t have anything like this?” Twilight asked. “There were museums like this back home, if not bigger, but I’ve never been to one so…” I trail off. “Well, the history stuff is on floors six, seven, and eight. We should head there first. Can you believe this place even has a food court?” “Not surprised because...the place is huge.” I say honestly. The elevator ride was oddly calming. The music was… abnormal. “Huh, wonder who the singer is?” Twilight ponders. “I don’t know but I am not enjoying it.” I frown. “No one needs to hear ‘monster’ fifty times in a row and have it be called a ‘song’.” “True enough.” Twilight said. “Must be a newcomer.” We thankfully got off and were met with a giant skeleton… as in an actual giants skeleton. “Oh, they finally put that in.” “Spooky scary skeletons~.” I say in a spooky tone, seeing the giant skeletons. “But what are those giant things supposed to be?” “Trolls… fifteen thousand years ago.” “Killed them with fire?” I ask simply. “No, volcano explosion did them in… so close.” “Yeesh.” I say with a frown. “Were they friend or foe?” “Not much is known. Though, their diet consisted of trees, large fish, and rock oddly enough.” “Huh...okay then.” I shrug while walking through the exhibits, searching for more things. “How much history is in this one place?” “Our hisotry is dated Pre-aliconrian/alicornian, Pre-Discordian/Discordian, and lastly middle age and new age.” “That’s quite a lot of history.” I comment. “Yeah, pony kind has been around since late alicornian. We didn’t advance much until middle age though.” “Sounds interesting.” I say. “But anything of interest in your history? Cause I don’t think I could memorize all this history.” “Well, there’s the Passing, that was the end of the alicornian era.” “And yet Celestia, Luna, and Cadence are still here.” I say, having a feeling the ‘alicornian era’ involved a lot more than just those three alicorns. “Cadence is only twenty seven. Celestia and Luna didn’t appear until around the discordian era.” “Huh...didn’t know that.” I say, finding this history lesson quite interesting. “Yeah, Cadence became an alicorn through an ancient trial. Celestia and Luna were found near the edge of the Wastelands back when ponies were escaping the madness.” “Wow…” I say, honestly surprised about all of this. “I wonder what other historical things I’ll learn while with you.” “Everything.” She said. Twilight practically became my tour guide through the museum, telling me about all the important events, and some rather interesting ones. The hall of relics was interesting… and surprising. “And here we have the Skyblock.” She said, pointing at the red cube in a display case. “You...you have a Gummi?” I ask, tilting my head at seeing such a thing here. “Gummi?” “Gummi is…” I say while thinking for a moment on how to explain it. “There magical and they help you go into space. I’m not sure how to explain it but imagine them as a special material that is great for space travel, and they can be as big or small as you want. If you want a good looking ship that can fly? That’s good. If you want a giant doughnut with guns on it? That can also be arranged.” I explain. “But I’m not a rocket scientist here.” Twilight stared at me. “... you’re serious?” “I am serious.” I say with a smile. “Besides, why would I lie to such a smart mare such as yourself?” “...first off, thanks for the compliment, second… how is that possible? The Skyblock fell to Equestria back in the alicornian era.” “They are magical. That’s the best answer I have.” I say, not knowing the finer details of these things. “And as far as I know they are light, strong, and don’t have any of the drawbacks of metal.” “That doesn’t make sense though, the alicornian ers as the beginning of life on Equestria… how could something that’s used in space travel exist back then?” “Multiverse theory, think about that for a moment.” I say. “But then how did this come through something as impossible as a gateway to another universe?” “You’d be surprised how easily someone can make something that sounds impossible possible.” I shrug. “Can you?” She deadpans. “You thought killing Heartless was an impossible feat.” I counter. “Hard, not impossible. Guards have managed to do it, but not like you can.” “Summoning beings with a snap of my fingers. That doesn’t sound rightfully possible in anyway shape or form.” I shrug. Twilight’s hand glows… and a small floating fat cat appeared. “Familiars, though yours are not that, summoning is still a thing.” “Being made of nothing.” I say simply. “According to you and Luna, they are the bodies of those who lost their heart to the Heartless, they aren’t made of nothing.” “Yet their realm is, by both appearance and definition, nothing.” “It’s not nothing if they can exist there, that makes it something.” “Whatever you say.” I say with a shrug, going to drop this before it goes into a full blown argument. “But believe me when I say that people have done the impossible…” “Alright, I guess when it comes to this stuff you do know more than me. Still, I wonder where the rest of this… gummi pieces went? We’ve only ever found the one.” “Well they would be on other worlds, in space, deep underground given that a lot of time has passed since it probably crash landed, or something else.” I shrug. “But hell if I know. I just got here not five days ago.” “Fair enough.” The rest of the museum was great. The newer area’s, aka, the middle/new age sections, held things that were very similar to stuff from earth history. After that Twilight dragged me back with her to her old home… where I met her parents… “So, that’s about it.” Twilight said, explaining to her parents how we met. “It’s a pleasure to meet you both…” I say nervously to Twilight’s parents, rubbing my arm and hoping I don’t make an idiot out of myself here. “So… he’s into books, was a social recluse… and the mind of a genius… Twilight, you found someone who can relate to you.” Her father, Nightlight, said. “And a hero to boot! There’s a theme with you now Twilight.” Her mother, Twilight Velvet, said proudly. “Well glad I’ve met your expectations.” I say sheepishly. “Believe me, we had no expectations with Twilight.” Night Light deadpanned. “Dad!” Twilight yelled. “Sorry sweety, but your mother and I did, kinda, give up on the idea of you dating a long time ago.” He looked at me. “She once studied in her room for so long, when her mother opened the blinds, she hissed, like a vampire.” He chuckled, much to Twilight’s embarrassment. All I could do was laugh at hearing such a thing. “Oh, oh my god Twilight!” I laugh happily. “Holy crap, I needed that.” I say with joy filling my heart. “Well I’ll make sure to make your daughter happy...now I believe I have a future brother and sister in law to meet.” I say. “Where are they if I may ask?” I ask curiously, wondering if they were here so I could get the ‘hearing Cadence talk my ear off’ and ‘Shining be an older brother’ out of the way. “Well, Shining is visiting some old academy friends, while Cadence went out for a bit, she should be back soon though.” Velvet said. “So, I hear you also snagged princess Luna?” “Yep. I am a very lucky man to have both Twilight and Luna as girlfriends.” I say with a warm smile. “If Night Light had allowed it, I would have had some of my own friends join our marriage, but he’s… a nervous stallion.” Night Light’s face turned red. “Don’t worry...I’m still a nervous wreck with having two girlfriends after having a life with no girlfriends.” I say sheepishly. “But don’t worry, I’ll make sure Twilight is a happy mare.” “Good to hear, that’s another thing you and Twilight have in common, both of you are new to dating.” Nightlight said. “Yep, but knowing Luna I’m pretty sure she can help push us along in our dating...and not in another way.” I say, my cheeks flushing a little and just glad my hood was up. The sound of a door being knocked down echoed. “Oh Twilight!~” “Oh no…” Twilight buried her face in her hands. “I have...a very bad feeling about this…” I say before three kunai appeared in my hand, not sure if I’ll need a weapon for self defense or if I’m just being paranoid. Soon enough, a pink alicorn entered the living room, wearing a white dress and red skirt. “So you must be Twilight and aunty Luna’s special someone~” She teased. “Yes…..yes I am.” I say slowly, looking over the pink alicorn. “And...you must be Cadence...my future sister in law…” She giggled, sitting next to me, pushing me pretty close against Twilight. “That would be correct, so how’s my sis-in-law been? She a screamer?’ “Cadence!” Twilight yelled. “We have not done the dirty yet. Twilight is not Luna here.” I say bluntly. “Aww, that’s no fun. Well, in any case, I knew Twilight would come today, Luna sent me an email, and I went out to get the two of you a few things.” She lifted up a rather large bag that… had XXX over it… dear lord... “Can…can you not?” I ask nervously, steam billowing above my head as thoughts rushed into my head about what’s in there. “Fine.” She waves her hand and the bag vanishes. “Luna will just have to go through it all.” “I’m in front of Twilight’s parents, I don’t want to talk about….that kind of stuff right now.” I say, trying my best not to stutter here. “We don’t mind.” Velvet stated. “It’s about time she started that dirty work.” Nightlight said. “Not you too…” I groan, placing my face in my hands as a groan escaped me. “God...next thing you know Luna want’s me to bang her in public while she wears a maid outfit…” I say, hoping my words were muffled enough. “Now you know how I have dealt with Luna.” Twilight said, dreading removing her face from her hands. “I’m… glad you all approve, but is all the sex talk necessary?” “We are just excited you finally found someone.” Cadence said. “I knew love was in your future, but I didn’t expect it to be with a herd… Shining won’t go for one…” “I understand why...I’m scared I’ll be spending too much time with one or the other...and I don’t want either of them to think I’m just leaving them…” I explain sadly, not wanting either Luna or Twilight to think I’m favoring one or the other. “I hate favorites...and favorites could ruin a herd…” “That’s why communication is key in any relationship, two party or more.” Velvet said. “Night and I talk out things every thursday afternoon and we’ve been together since high school.” “Well congrats on having a nice love life. I’ve either been ignored, or insulted by every girl ever. And even if I do have girls that like me it’s mostly been friends…” I explain. “So I’ve...been alone for a while…” “Well you are no longer alone Ben.” Cadence says. “Twilight cares about you, Luna is almost obsessed with you, and I’m sure some other mares have their eyes on you. In my opinion, that old you is dead, and has risen like a phoenix into this new, strong, hero, who just needs to realize this is not his old home.” She leaned in close. “We’ll talk more about that later.” She whispered. “Well my first attempt at being a hero already had mares send me nudes so...there’s that.” I shrug, before nodding at knowing we’ll talk later. “Oh, you get mine?” “Wait what?” I ask with a small frown. “I sent you a nude also.” “Aren’t you married?” I ask with a frown. “Panty shots of me are worth hundreds, that nude will be worth well over a thousand. Consider it an early wedding gift. Or do you prefer cash?” “I am not selling nude pictures of you, and I’m already dating someone that has more money than they know what to do with.” I explain. “Still, well if you aren’t going to sell it can I have it back… it’s actually one of the ones I gave Shining back when we were dating…” She had a sheepish grin. I only groaned and put my face back into my hands. “What is with you mares?” “Meh, we don’t cool down until we’re about thirty.” Velvet said. “Only reason Twilight isn’t the middle child is because Nightlight had a vasectomy.” My mind, for some ungodly reason, buzzed with lewd imagery of Velvet, Cadence, Twilight and Luna and all I got was an obvious nose bleed even though my face was hidden. “Damn it brain…” I gulp. “Um...does anyone have a paper towel? I...had thoughts I shouldn’t have….” I say worriedly. ”Damn it brain! Two of those mares are married!” I mentally shout at myself, while a ‘I don’t give a fuck’ thought rushed through my head for some reason. Day Five: Final Rest Me and Twilight both decided to stay a night over Twilight’s parents house and enjoyed cuddling each other instead of being separated whenever Luna needed my ‘services’. But sadly even our warm cuddling was overcome by the hated sun and the haze of consciousness. After getting dressed for the day the two of us held hands and headed down to breakfast, the simple act, forever brief, was heart warming and made me feel whole...until we got to the kitchen and then I saw a white stallion suddenly staring at me at the table which held our nice breakfast, their parents and Cadence. “Morning.” I say simply. “So...you’re dating my sister huh?” Shining asks simply, his features neutral and calm. “Yep.” I nod. “Making sure she’s happy?” The stallion asks. “But of course.” I reply simply. “How so?” The white stallion says, pushing his chair back and getting up. “Made sure she talked my ear off about history, which I was quite interested in.” I say before letting go of Twilight’s hand, the mare looking rather concerned at why we were just talking instead of something worse. “She does love her history.” Shining shrugs, the stallion walking towards me with trained steps only a soldier would know. “Oh yes she does.” I say with a smile. “Asked her so many questions about it she kept on going, always segwayed into the next topic.” “So…” We both say before standing next to each other, the stallion being about five inches taller than me as we both stared each other in the eyes. A silence filled the room before both of us punched each other in the face, the two of us staggering back. “OW!” We both shout, rubbing our cheeks in pain. “Damn dude, think you could lighten up a little?” I ask. “I should be asking you that.” Shining says while being quicker to recover from the simple punch. The two of us stood back up and stared at each other, before Shining raised a hand for a handshake. “Glad to meet ya.” The stallion says with a grin. “Nice to meet you to Captain.” I say while grabbing the stallions hand as we had a firm handshake. “And don’t worry, your sister’s going to be safe and happy.” “You better.” Shining says simply. “So you two done?” Twilight asks. “Cause the food is getting cold.” “Yeah yeah.” We both say at the same time before going to our seats, me sitting down where Twilight would be and Shining sitting next to Cadence as he continued to eat and I started to eat a delicious breakfast. “So, Cadence… might wanna invent a smell proof spell next, Shining’s bedroom is next to ours…” Nightlight said calmly as he sat down, causing me to laugh. “Oh dear…” I chuckle, calming myself down from my laughter. “But anyways how are people’s mornings?” “Good enough.” Cadence replied. “And I’ll get working on that Night…” She said sheepishly. “Well you could tell my morning.” Shining shrugs. “Yes I could.” I nod. “But even though it would be fun to stick around I believe we’re going to be taking the train home right Twilight?” I ask her, knowing we can’t stay here long. ”Especially since it’s my last day before a fight and I need to train…” I think to myself a little bitterly, hoping to train more so I could at least give some sort of a fight. “Yeah, we should leave after breakfast.” Twilight adds. “I’m sure Luna was lonely.” “I’m sure she’s kept herself busy.” I shrug, having seen her in my dream real quick just so she could ask how I was doing. “But I’m gonna have a busy day today…” We took the early train back… to where Luna tackled me… and nearly smothered me under her chest. “Welcome back!” She states, hugging me into submission. I pushed Luna away and took a thankful breath of air. “Can you not...smother me with boobs Luna?” I ask honestly. “But it’s good to see you again.” I say while kissing her cheek. “Glad to know. Oh yeah… There’s a package for you.” She says. “Didn’t have a return address.” “I wonder who it’s from…” I frown, hoping it’s not a prank or anything. “Well let’s get back to the library and see what the package is.” After getting to the library I saw the package. The package was a small box, 5x5 inch. I opened it and there was a letter, along with what looked like a Keychain… and a smaller black box. The letter read, Ben As you can either guess or not, this is Core. I sent you a… prototype I want to see work. The prototype is the Keychain. I want to see how well it works in your fight tomorrow, as for the black box, well, consider it a gift from… yourself… “What is your game…” I mutter, confused on why Core would just give me presents to help me fight, concerned on why he said that I got a gift from myself, and a bit furious that I was I was now a test subject working out his new prototype.I opened the black box. It was a silver Wayfinder. I decided to see what this Keychain did, so I switched out the one on my normal Keyblade for the new one… The form it took was oddly fitting for me. The handle was a creeper, morphed into the shape of a handle. The blade and tip of the Keyblade was a Dusk, swallowing a heart. “Well that’s creepy.” Luna said. “That is rather creepy.” I say with a frown. “But...why did I gift myself...a Wayfinder?” I ask, concerned to no end about this entire situation and just hating that I’m willing to be Core’s test subject just to see if this new ‘Dusk’ Keyblade worked. “Wonder what it’s supposed to symbolize?” Twilight asked. “Reunion maybe?” “No...it’s to show how far I’ve gotten in summoning Nobodies…” I frown. “I can summon at least one Dusk right now and three or four Creepers...if I train I can probably bring it up to two Dusk’s or five Creepers...how the hell…” I frown, finding this super concerning. ”What has that bastard done to that piece of my heart?” I think to myself, hoping he hasn’t made a double that will try and kill me. “Maybe Time Bell can tell us something?” Luna suggested. “She might know more.” “She may know more but even her knowledge is limited…” I say before nodding. “Twilight, want to come along and learn a lot of new things?” I ask the purple unicorn. “Always.” She replies. We made our way to Rarity’s, where Sweetie Bell and Time Bell were watching TV. “Oh, hey, where’d you go?” Time asked. “Just a date with Twilight.” I say to Time. “Sorry I missed a training day, but...I’d rather not let training take over my life when I want to make sure my girls are happy.” I say honestly. “But we have some questions…” I say while showing both my new Keyblade and my silver Wayfinder. “Know anything about these?” Time bell walked up, picking up the Wayfinder. “Well, clearly it’s a Wayfinder… standard magic has been placed into it, and I think I can feel a connection locked inside it, don’t think a Keyblade can open that though.” She handed it back and took the ‘Duskblade’. “Now this… is weird…” “Know anything of help? Cause I thought it was supposed to be a ‘tracker’ of some kind…” I say before grabbing my Wayfinder and putting it in my pocket. “Close… now, do you know what Core uses to make his… twisted Keyblades?” “Literally anything he can get his hands on?” I say bluntly. “Cause if you’re anything to go on...he grabs a random person and then starts testing on them to see what works…” “Close. My body, heart, and soul were used to make me into what I am, with my own memories being used as a sort of… glue, or wielder. This was made from a heart, someone’s heart that he likely ripped out… but the voice is concerning…” “What’s the voice?” I ask worriedly, hoping I’m not just using someone’s own body as a weapon. “The voice is yours Ben. As if her took your heart… but I can tell you still have your heart, so this makes little sense.” “What’s the voice say?” Twilight asked. “It’s really quiet, but it’s something like, ‘return to life’.” “Wow...that prick…” I growl. “I met Core at a hospital in Manehattan...he told me he took a little piece of my heart, which he discovered I’m...interesting cause my hearts not entirely okay...but I didn’t expect a piece to be turned into a Keyblade…” “From what I’ve seen, a piece is all he needs to regrow it, then forge a new one. The memories stored within the new heart aren't all there though, that takes time to regain them from the soul and body… so this is what he did…” She handed it back to me. “Well, as for your heart, what’s wrong with it?” “Well glad to know this is basically my clone…” I frown before grabbing the ‘Duskblade’ and seeing it vanished. “But...apparently...it’s half dead.” Time pondered. “A half dead heart… where did I… damn it, I know he said something about this long before I escaped, but I can’t remember.” “Well let’s hope I find someone that actually knows what the hell is going on that won’t probably kill me.” I sigh out. “This sucks…” “We got time.” We turned around, there was a woman, in Core’s get up, but yellow instead of purple, and a man… A tall man, black hair, red eyes, and his body looked like it was half Invisible Heartless, and the head was human. “You still have six hours.” The woman spoke. “Oh, TS-1, this was unexpected.” I immediately stepped forward and two laser beams shot out of my hands. “Time Bell is not yours to take back, and don’t you think it’s cheap to have me fight an Invisible so early?” “My orders are to deal with you, not recapture her. Frankly, she was a failure anyway, so she’s useless to us.” She held a hand up to the half Invisible. “This is Jet, my wielder for the fight, but as I said, you have six hours.” “A half Invisible...wielding a female Core as a weapon...yeah how is that even remotely fair?” I ask honestly. “A Guard Armor is one thing, but good lord.” The female Core, much like Time Bell does, changed into a Keyblade, Its handle looked like the Heartless symbol and the blade was an arm or darkness that held what looked like a heart in its hand. They keychain was a black heart. Jet picked it up. “Fair now?” Jet spoke. “Just the fact I’m fighting an Invisible so early…” I sigh out. “But anyways...six hours left…” The female Core changed back. “That’s right. We came early to make sure you’d be here. Might as well talk.” She walked over to the kitchen, and sat at the table. “Okay…” I sigh out, walking over and taking a seat at the table as well. “So...turning people into Heartless but still having a heart...how?” I ask with a frown. “Also when I said ‘fighting an Invisible so early’ I meant in more of a ‘I’m fighting an enemy that is probably way above my skill level’.” I explain, remembering Invisible’s were endgame level Heartless in the first game but even then were really tough to even prepared players. “Simple, we make the darkness in their hearts manifest physically. It changes the body, and we’ve learned that everyone, when turned into a heartless, the type is based on their darkness. Half Purebloods are rare, as Purebloods are made from negative emotions of intelligent life as a whole. Much like creatures known as Unversed, though, they are made when the light and dark of a heart are split in two.” “Well...that’s just all sorts of grand. And here I thought the worst thing was cloning Nobodies.” I say. “Good lord…” “That was our intention. Heartless are loyal, but mindless. We wanted something… smarter.” “I hate all of you…” I sigh out. “But how the hell did you did you turn...me into a Keyblade? And the whole Wayfinder thing?” I ask, thinking that was the most disturbing. “We grew another heart from the sample Core took from you, as for the Wayfinder, Core himself handled it, so that part is unknown to me.” “I better not be finding out you made another clone of me just to have the powers of heartless instead of nobodies…” “That would be meaningless.” “Okay so here’s a question...why? Why...all of this?” I ask, motioning to both all of her and all of the half pureblood. “I know there’s supposed to always be ‘light and darkness’ or ‘creation and destruction’ but come on.” I ask, still finding this whole thing just mind boggling. “We are doing what has always been done. Fighting a war. Light against dark, creation against destruction, both want to gain control, to bring a ‘unity’ of their own making. We chose dark, and it seems you have chosen light. It’s all a war in the end.” “But...you can’t have one without the other...sometimes wars just can’t go on forever...I’m not trying to be some philosopher telling people that this war is stupid and it should end but...to be blunt this war won’t end ever.” I say. “Whether one side ‘wins’ or not it’s all going to...seem like a waste of time and energy don’t you think?” “Perhaps, but if it was sent to a draw, then where would life be?” “Now that is the right question.” I say honestly. “But hell if I know. I have the powers of beings that rant and rave about ‘Nothingness’...life is confusing don’t ya think?” “As it has always been, but that’s what both sides want, for the confusion to end. If light was to win, everything would continue onwards forever, in a repetitive cycle of rebirth. If dark wins… it all ends, and the cycle is over, the confusion gone. Blissful silence.” “Ya know...I remember a game called ‘Dark Souls’, and not to get to into the lore of it there was an age where everything was grey, and things were simple, quiet, and ‘normal’...but then light and darkness came about and destroyed it…” I sigh out. “But hey, in my opinion life wouldn’t be life if it wasn’t confusing. Light can be nice but get’s boring and monotonous, dark is boring because everyone would probably die and there would be nothing left...but oh well, philosophy only makes things more confusing.” I say while rubbing my head a little bit. “That confusion is where darkness began, and what it wants to end. So, can you guess why Core want’s the X-blade?” “Kingdom Hearts obviously.” I nod. “Exactly. But is Kingdom Hearts the heart of every world, or ALL worlds?” “I hate Xehanort for confusing that so much.” I groan before sighing out. “But Kingdom Hearts is, and if memory serves, the heart of all worlds, and the heart of all living beings. It’s like ‘God’ in a sense, a being that’s all powerful and connected to everything...but given that one ass hole decided to see if you can make fake Kingdom Hearts from either the all worlds side or all man side….” I groan before I rubbed my temple. “True enough. In every reflection, there is only one Kingdom Hearts, and one X-blade. It has no reflection, no other versions of it. There is simply the one. When obtained, Core will consume it, ending everything at once. No escape anywhere.” “Or he could find some random bull shit answer that explains everything.” I shrug. “But who knows, as far as I know Kingdom Hearts is just a giant ass heart shaped moon, a more...white moon then that yellow rip off Xemnas tried creating.” “Who?” ”Fuck…” I think to myself quickly. “It’s no one special.” I say quickly. “If they can find a means to make an artificial Kingdom Hearts, then they must be. I will have to inform Core about this.” ”Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck….” I mentally rant in my head. “Quick question, how the hell does Core have a female reflection? And possibly more when he’s...well Core?” “He was human once, we all were, long ago. The details are… not important, but Core, is the one to reach out to us, and we’ve worked together to further understand darkness, just as brother God has researched into light.” “Why can’t people research ‘Nothing’? Cause if you go to deep into ‘good’ or ‘bad’ then you’ll just end up with this. Or at least find something that is an equivalent to a ‘middle ground’...” I sigh out. “Or am I spouting nonsense here?” “We already did that… you see, our bodies aren't actually that of a Heartless.” “I noticed.” I say. “You’re...somehow a Nobody but not a Nobody…” I say, my heart just...knowing it somehow. “Precisely. Like Core, all of we reflections, as Nobodies, turned out hearts into Keyblades of Darkness. Unlike Nobody's born in between light and darkness, we were born in darkness, wandered it for ages, and found our corrupted hearts, forging them into the Keyblades we now use. We replaced the holes where our hearts were with pure darkness from the Heart of Darkness, and became something beyond in between… Demons.” “Ya know...I was just about to call you that.” I say in a joking manner. “Please do,” I felt a cold creep down my spine as she spoke, feeling like she was smiling at me from under that mask. “We prefer it.” “That’s not creepy at all~.” I say sarcastically, trying to hide my discomfort with sarcasm. “Oi vey...but you said that Core want’s the X-blade...yet I think I heard a little something something about someone else already having the thing...how?” I ask. “Brother God. He was from your land, his heart was balanced, and God used parts of that heart to forge it a new body, and placed its power within. If the original X-blade body was to be reforged, it would be useless, a ‘Nobody’ Keyblade.” “I think I already trademarked that.” I say while summoning my ‘Duskblade’. “Cause seriously, this obviously screams ‘Nobody’ Keyblade...both figuratively and literally I think…” “In appearance, yes, but the power isn’t there. X-blades old body, if reforged, would not hold power over kingdom hearts, just over Nothingness. Maybe you should seek it.” “Well it would be interesting…” I say honestly, not sure if I would go mad from hearing all the Nobodies wanting their hearts back or feel at peace. “Question...what would happen to the beings of darkness if they were apart of this ‘Blissful Silence’ you want?” “Vaporized. Like you said, one cannot exist without the other, all will end, no acceptions. Even Core would die.” “Yet somehow I doubt it would last forever.” I say. “But yeah that sounds boring, just to have everything go…’poof’ in a shroud of darkness.” “No darkness, no light, not even nothingness. True end.” I raise my hand up but put it down and start to chuckle at hearing that. “Okay so...nothingness won’t exist...but nothingness will exist? That just...sounds silly don’t you think?” “Do you even know what came before nothingness?” “Something that came before nothing? Hmm...well honestly I couldn’t tell you, I could guess and sound like an idiot but I honestly don’t have an answer.” I say with a shrug, not really sure how to answer the question to be perfectly honest. “There was a name for it, back before the world became stars… Void. That is where everything truly began, and where it will return to.” ”I honestly should have thought of that…” I think to myself, thinking that the answer was obvious. “The Void huh? Sounds about right now that I think about it.” I say. “Another question…I know Core told me that you’re evil, not irrational...yet why are you being so…’friendly’?” I ask. “Four more hours. I act on orders, we all do.” “Seems right but...if Core wanted I would be long dead by now...I doubt ‘interest’ is the only thing keeping me alive.” I say, knowing that evil people could have multiple reasons for keeping people that obviously oppose them alive. “For the fun of it. We see something that can finally challenge us, people that might actually have a chance to… kill us. It’s all quite thrilling. I get chills just thinking about it.” I opened my mouth, wanting to say something really freaking stupid but then closed my mouth. I opened my mouth again before closing it…”Listen I don’t need to know what gets you off alright?” I say bluntly, mentally ramming my head into a wall at just saying those stupid words. She started laughing, madly. “Oh how I wish one swing from me wouldn’t kill you dead. I look forward to the day you can match our power, we all do, cause the rush of battle makes the kill all the more satisfying.” “I suppose my brand of comedy isn’t enough to keep me alive?” I ask, getting a little smile at having her laugh and kind of being a smart ass as well. “Still, I wish we could fight now… Oh well, we still have three hours, what would you like to know?” “First up.” I start. “Can someone make me food? I’m getting hungry and I can’t fight with an empty stomach.” I say to either Luna, Twilight or Rarity, hoping someone will make some food. “But besides the need for food...don’t you think a half Invisible is a tad much for...someone of my fighting level?” I ask. “Your heart sample placed you in a range just high enough to survive. Plus, the fight isn’t the real test.” Sweetie Bell placed a sandwich in front of me, and Time Bell placed… a dead, oddly familiar, white cat, in front of female Core. “Choke on it.” Time said, stomping out of the room. “... AH! OPAL!” Sweetie yelled, running out of the room crying. Female Core removed her mask… the whites of her eyes were black, her pupils crimson red, and her teeth were like tiny needles. “Thanks.” She lifted the dead cat up, and chomped, biotting half off in one bite. She finished after the second. “Nothing like recently killed.” “Well...that happened…” I say before eating my sandwich. She placed her mask back on. “As Demons, we need not eat, but when we do, it must be recently killed, or alive.” “I honestly don’t need to know that but okay.” I shrug. “But...how dangerous is having half a heart?” I ask. “Half dead you mean?” “Technicalities.” I roll my eyes. “I still have half a working one.” “It can be reversed, takes time, use emotions you didn’t use before. Kindness, compassion, happiness, love, all that jazz.” “Well I’m certainly going to have that in spades.” I smile...before it slowly turned into a frown. “And I’m pretty sure you and your buddies are going to make sure that doesn’t happen huh?” “We were interested because it’s a rare event, very few like that have been cataloged. The sample we got gave us all we need to know. We don’t care about it anymore.” “Which is why Core made me a test subject with his ‘Prototype’.” I say. “We want to know exactly how a person, wielding a Keyblade made from their own heart, while still having it, will react to each other. We imagine the wielder and Keyblade will work well together.” “Sounds good in theory, and I’ll be the guinea pig to help show if that theory is sound or not.” I say. “But wouldn’t you and Core be better to test this? Given how you and Core are….besides gender literally the same person?” “Our data would be inconclusive. We already forged our corrupt hearts into Keyblades, and what is there now is pure darkness.” “True.” I nod. “But I hope I give a good first impression against you and Jet, cause fighting a Guard Armor, while a good way to show strength...wouldn’t be much to compare against the big leagues.” “One hour. Jet, call for Crow, and have him lure the second subject.” Jet nodded, and vanished into a DTD. “What other test subject is trying to run away now?” I ask. “Not like that. This test subject is known as Zeke, and he wields the X-blade.” “I fucking hate you.” I say with a frown. “Now you’re going to keep my girlfriends hostage if I don’t play along.” “Zeke would be on your side. After all, he has a hopeless plan.” “But isn’t that how good guys always start out to defeat ‘evil’? Have a hopeless plan that ends out working perfectly?” I ask honestly. “It’s hopeless, cause he wants to make us human again. That is what makes it hopeless.” “Even demons can be more human then...well humans.” I shrug. “But I don’t know if that’s hopeless, I don’t know what hopeless is after...everything that I’ve just went through this past week.” I say with a shrug. Jet reappeared. “Crow will be here with Zeke Ventral soon.” He says. Female Core sighed. “Well, then our time is almost up. Any last questions?” “Last question? Well...can you, Core, or any of those stuck in Darkness...ever find happiness without everything disappearing?” She was silent. “... No, not after we lost… them…” I looked at her and just nodded. “I don’t know who you lost...but if it means anything...I’m sorry you had to experience such a thing.” I say, my tone soft and understanding. She flinched. “... T-” The front door was broke down, a guy in what looked like a thug was being held by the throat by a guy in black Ventus armor… holding the X-blade. “Come near my family again and I will send you to oblivion!” He threw the guy into the kitchen. The thug looking guy looked at female Core. “All yours.” He vanished into thin air. “You’re welcome.” I say loud enough for the female Core to hear, hoping she noticed my words even though her possible ‘thank you’ was cut off by sudden armored man. The man in the black Ventus armor walked into the room. “... Yellow? Wait… crap…” He noticed me. “... Well this is deja vu.” To be continued... Author's Note Longest chapter so far woo! Again a major thank you to BioQuill for all the help. But what's this? More plot development? New things being discovered? And an armored man wielding the strongest weapon in existence? I wonder what this could mean? Anyways I hope you all like this story and I'll see you all next chapter (Also this story will have chapters posted up whenever there done, sometimes it might take a bit because multiple chapters in a day or something along those lines)
Nobody's fightAuthor's Note Hello everyone, it's Xinrick. This chapter will be in the third person all the way through(but will go back to First person next chapter) and I thank BioQuillFiction and Lancerot for the crossover. Eclipse is from a story written by Lancerot that is pending to be submitted but helped write this story. Also this story involves spoilers for Lancerot's story so read at your own risk if you want. But if you don't care then please enjoy this chapter. Nobody's fight Ben took a deep breath. “So! How can I help you today?” He asks honestly, seeing the armored man. “First off… the hell is she doing here?” The man asked. “Before you suddenly burst in we were having a nice conversation before I had to fight her and her buddy.” The white cloaked being explains. “By the way it’s nice to meet you, name’s Ben.” He says with a nod. “Zeke, and… I’m sorry, you look like something I fought in my Mark of Mastery exam.” “Is it the white cloak?” Ben asks curiously. “Yeah, how’d you guess?” “As far as I know these cloaks only come in black, so if you said you saw something like me then it’s a little obvious.” He shrugs. “Judging from your speech, you’re from earth also?” “That is correct.” He nods. “And I’ve heard quite a bit about you my fine friend, being apart of some murder family yet being a nice guy travels fast.” He says, knowing ‘Yellow’ told him that but still. Zeke was silent. “I’m gonna ask, are you with Core, or against them?” “Well I’m supposed to be fighting against them so there’s that.” Ben shrugs. “Ms. Core here, or ‘Yellow’ as you called her, and her buddy Jet were supposed to be a little...test I suppose.” He says honestly. “But me and you have a lot to talk about...like a lot a lot.” “Your time is up.” Yellow said, getting up and walking over the Jet. “How did I miss him?” Zeke questioned. “He’s half Invisible. That’s why.” He says in a half joking manner. “Har har.” Zeke replies. “Well, in any case, this won’t be good.” He arched his back, and the Xehanort's guardian appeared. “Might as well go full out.” “Can we at least move to somewhere less….populated? Please?” Ben asked, summoning his Duskblade and getting up, moving closer to Zeke while looking at his new opponents. Yellow turned into a Keyblade, Jet wielding her. “Time to begin.” It was a haze, one swing and both Zeke and Ben were thrown through the wall of Rarity’s kitchen and rolled on the ground until they stopped. “Well fuck.” Zeke said, getting up quickly. “You don’t say?” Ben asked, raising his left hand and focusing, summoning Vexen’s shield and slightly surprising me that I still felt his keyblade in his other hand. “Thank god.” He muttered before getting up and readying himself. “I’ll ask later.” Zeke said, summoning another Keyblade. “Discord, now or never.” “Again, we have a lot to talk about.” He says, not really surprised to see Discord as a Keyblade considering a part of his heart was turned into the blade he has now. Zeke raised Discord into the air. “Chaos realm.” Jet, Ben and Zeke were all swallowed into a bubble, to which reality seemed to be falling apart. “This should be safe for a fight.” “Oh dear…” Ben muttered. “Shit’s about to get weird…” He muttered before taking a careful step forwards towards Jet. “Dark mass.” He said, summoning a large orb of darkness that circled around him. Zeke charged in. Swinging Discord. “Reality Shift!” His attack met the orb, and it was destroyed. Jet jumped back. “Unexpected.” Glass shattering could be heard before I swung one of Xaldin’s lances down towards Jet while he was distracted, stabbing the being in the shoulder before I grabbed a second lance and thrusted another one towards him, hoping the second hit will land. He caught it, and shoved it though Ben as he threw him off. Zeke ran over to Ben. “Healing hit.” Zeke tapped Ben on his head with Discord, and Ben’s injury vanished. “Man this comes in handy.” “Lucky…” Ben frowned before getting up and summoning Saix’s claymore, ready for Jet to make his attack. Jet lifted his Keyblade into the air. “Hellhounds.” What looked like Neoshadow Dogs appeared from behind him and charged at us. “Fuck.” Zeke said, throwing the X-blade into a Strike Raid, destroying one. Ben dismissed the claymore and brought out two Gun Arrows, starting to fire at the other dogs. The bolts of light destroyed one of the dogs and stunned another before he was forced to reload his weapons. “This is just great.” Ben mutters, not liking how this guy could summon allies easily while he was piss poor at it. “Two can play at that.” Zeke says, his Xehanort's Guardian pulsating with Darkness as a Darkside rises from the ground. “Thank god that worked.” He muttered. “How come everyone knows how to summon things like a champ while I can barely make two Dusks?” Ben asks with a frown, feeling a tad bit weak when seeing both Zeek and Jet’s actions. “Practice… this was the first time I actually did that.” Zeke admits. “Been around for nearly a year.” The Darkside Zeke summoned took swipes at the Hellhounds, vanquishing them instantly. “Been at this for all of a week or so.” Ben sighs out, dismissing his weapons and summoning his Keyblade and Vexen’s shield. “Got a plan? Cause I’d rather not run in like an idiot.” He asks, hoping Zeke has a plan.” “This reality bubble won’t hold forever.” Ben looked at Zeke confused, clearly hearing the different voice. “Gonna ask later.” Ben says before waving his keyblade up and summoning five Creepers, the nobodies muzzles glowing brightly before two move towards Jet and three close in on themselves and start pulsing. “Any suggestions Discord?” Another voice from Zeke spoke. “One, Just slash him Zeke.” “Alright.” Zeke’s voice spoke. The three creepers suddenly vanished, appearing above Jet as spears descended on the half heartless. “Well let’s get moving.” Ben says before moving forward, using his Creepers as a distraction to move forward, the two other creepers turning into swords and swing at Jet as well as Ben slashed at Jet with his keyblade, thankfully landing our hits. Zeke rushed in fast, swinging Discord. Zeke landed the hit, and Jet was given what looked like a tear of darkness across his back, he quickly was being swallowed by it, until only the tear remained floating in the air. The bubble vanished, and Zeke and Ben were left standing in Rarity’s back yard looking at the tear. “Well… that was a thing…” Zeke said. “Seemed...too easy…” Ben frowns, the creepers appearing next to him as he kept his shield and blade at the ready. “Fight’s not over, I sent him to a place where someone could help us. Jump in you idiots!” The first voice spoke, making Zeke and Ben look at each other. “Onward.” Ben says before dismissing the creepers and dashing through the portal with reckless abandon. Zeke followed close, and the two were in for a… rather rocky ride. Eclipse, Twilight’s twin brother, was wandering around town, getting used to having to moving around. Damn, it’s been awhile since I’ve had two legs. He thought as he neared Rarity’s shop. His dark, purple, messy hair with it’s blue and red streaks partly covered his blue-green eyes and the wind blew down the street. Looking around at other ponies, he wish he didn’t stand out with his darkening gray coat. He expected to encounter drama, as this is Rarity he was talking about. He, however, was not expecting a rift to open up above the ground in front of the shop. “Well shit….can’t go one day can I?” Three people came out of it, first was a man, with the body of an Invisible Heartless, and the head of a human, then a man in a white version of an Organization XIII cloak, wielding a, what he would call a ‘Duskblade’ and a familiar blue shield, and the third, was someone in black Ventus armor, wielding what looked like a Keyblade for Discord, and the X-blade. “Yeah, can’t go one day.” He said in response The one in the black armor got up first. “Damn, where are we now?” “Fuck if I know.” The one in the white cloak groaned before getting up. “Note to self, don’t jump through portals all willy nilly.” He grumbles. The one with the Invisible body stood up. “Test is not yet over.” He said, rushing in for an attack. “Well, sorry to interrupt, but I kinda need to get to Rarity...so I’ma going to burst your bubble, but the test is over.” Eclipse says before summoning Oathkeeper and Oblivion to his side. “And here I thought Huxley was trying to cosplay Roxas.” The one in the blackarmor comments. “Says the one in Black Ventus armor and the X-blade, being a Elementary schooler's OC.” “How about you both shut up for five seconds alright!” The one in the white cloak yells. “Fuck this isn’t a schoolyard rant!” “Oh, it isn’t? My bad, I thought we were in candy land.” He looks around. “I retract my statement.” The half Invisible looked at the newcomer. “Distraction.” He took one swing at the pony, and sent him flying through Rarity’s home. “Again… really?” The black armored man says. “Wow, he can actually hit. Haven’t met anypony who could since Nightmare.” Eclipse said, revealing a reflect spell over him. The black armored and white cloaked people run over to him. “Names Zeke, that’s Ben, you alright?” Zeke asked. “I’m fine, Rarity is going to be pissed….again...but that’s nothing.” He says, standing up from a crouched position. “The name’s Eclipse...well at least, it has been for eighteen years.” “Out beats the both of us.” Zeke commented. “Nonetheless, you haven't ever fought against one of Core’s creations…” “Who the hell is Core, and why come to my world? I was planning on a nap later.” He says, getting into a fighting position. “Well too bad, life sucks and shit isn’t going to work like that.” The man in white says simply. “But all I can say is that Core is a bad guy, and he’ll be happy to find another person that interests him.” “As long as he stays away from Twilight….” Eclipse mumbles as he stares straight at the Invisible hybrid. “So, who’s ugly?” “That would be Jet, a powerful being that works for Core.” Ben says simply. “And his Keyblade is one of Core’s reflections, Yellow.” Zeke answers. “So let me get this straight…..We have a half Heartless, wielding a Keyblade made of a multiverse version of this Core person, and you two unintentionally dragged me into this?” “Was Discord’s plan.” Zeke replies. “I take full blame.” Discord’s voice says from Zeke’s mouth. “Trust me Eclipse, whether Discord was to blame or not you were going to be apart of this anyways, whether you liked it or not.” Ben says with a frown, still staring at Jet and ready for the fight to continue. “Fine...Guess no holding back then?” “Not at all.” Zeke said, his Xehanort’s guardian reappearing, wielding Keyblades also. “Oh, that’s new.” “Unexpected.” Jet says, looking at the Heartless attached to Zeke’s back. “Core will be informed about this.” “Screw off!” Zeke yelled, throwing both the X-blade and Discord in to Reflect Raids. Eclipse dashes forward in a flash and yells, “Now!” Before his Keyblades glow and start to fight for themselves. “Show offs!” A different voice called from Zeke. Sorry! No your not! “Nice to see you again Oathkeeper… Go eat shit Oblivion.” Zeke catches Discord and X from the Raid attack “Knock it off you three.” He comments, going in for a frontal attack on Jet. “Quit talking and fight.” I say while dashing towards Jet. “Duh!” Zeke yelled, vanishing and appearing behind Jet and making a cross slash attack, knocking the half Heartless down for a moment. “Combat has improved.” Jet says. “Improve this!” Ben shouts before ramming his shield down onto Jet’s head. Eclipse pants and sweats as if he is doing all the work his keyblades are doing as he launches a cure onto both Zeke and Ben. “Thanks.” Zeke rushes around Jet, delivering four blows, two from his Keyblades, and the other two from the ones the Guardian holds. “Dark Void.” Jet says… The sky quickly goes dark and eyes start to replace where the stars and moon would be. “Impact level two.” He mutters, as all goes black. Pain beyond definition rushed through Ben, Eclipse, and Zeke. Then, the sky turns to normal, and the three lay on the ground, groaning in agony. Jet’s Keyblade shifts back into yellow Core. “Only at level two, hoped for more resistants.” She said, walking up to them. Oathkeeper and Oblivion rushed past her, landing in front of Eclipse, and lose their glow. “Ow…” Ben groans in pain, his weapons disappearing after being hit by something so painful. Zeke’s guardian, and a chunk of his armor backside are gone, revealing a large bleeding patch of skin. “D, damn you.” He grunts. Eclipse has seemingly fainted, his heart not strong to begin with. “Hate...this….” Ben groans, trying to move himself even if he was beyond pain right now. “Not yet strong enough.” She says, kicking Eclipse to the side and walking over to Ben and Zeke, holding both by their neck’s. “You are improving, that’s the good news, but you barely scratched Jet, and couldn’t even handle Dark Void?” “What….is it with you people….and monologues…..” Eclipse mumbles, making u to hear this. She looked over to Eclipse, dropping Zeke and Ben. “So you woke up, maybe you are worth a look at after all.” “Ha…try your luck, you might just… get the …losing hand.” She picked him up by his head hair. “You sure about that?” She grabbed his left foreleg, and squeezed, an audible cracking and gushing of blood happens as Eclipse’s screamed in agony. “Still weak.” “AT LEAST I FIGHT!” Eclipse yells at her, tears blinding him. She went close to his ear. “If I fought… it wouldn’t last long.“ She tossed him over her head, throwing him near Zeke and Ben. “Let’s go Jet, we gathered some surprising data.” The two entered a DTD, and vanished. Ben shakily got up, his entire body protesting against moving from being injured so much. “Christ…” He groans in pain. “Are...you two...alright?” “Don’t ask him that.” Zeke points to Eclipse. He manages to stand, and carefully lifts Eclipse up. “Where is the damn hospital?” “Down…..town….by town hall….” Eclipse mutters out as the blood loss starts to affect him. Ben and Zeke rush towards the hospital, many residents looking at them in fear. Mainly from the battle that they all saw. As they made it Eclipse was sent to Emergency care quickly. Zeke and Ben sat in the lobby. “Well… this was way worse than I expected.” Zeke confesses, his armor disbanding, revealing his, now torn, brown shirt and blue jeans. Ben shakily pulled his hood back, showing his bruised skin, black hair and turquoise eyes. “And here I was thinking their ‘test’ wouldn’t involve one shots.” Ben says bluntly. “So...wielder of the X-blade huh? Sounds like a great responsibility huh?” Zeke chuckled. “Supposedly I am supposed to keep Light and Darkness balanced on all worlds. Though, it’s become more of a fight to keep them in the sky rather than balanced.” “Makes sense.” Ben shrugs. “But before you kicked down my...soon to be girlfriends door me and Yellow were having an honest chat about stuff. What do you want to know first?” “Core and I have done the same many times. He told me that his wife was killed by Heartless… she was the first wielder of the X-blade.” “So that’s why…” Ben mutters, looking down sadly before taking a deep breath. “Yellow told me...they couldn’t be happy because they lost someone or some people special...I didn’t think of them losing their significant other…” “He told me she was the only one to beat him in a fight. When he lost her, he took the X-blade, and charged head first into the realm of darkness, he fought till he died. Now he’s… this… Makes you think how anyone could turn evil after something like that, or do something really stupid at least.” “I don’t know….but Yellow, I think, was about to tell me ‘Thank you’ before you burst it when I apologized to her…” Ben says. The Nurse interrupts the two, telling them that Eclipse was stable and that if they want ANY time with him then they better hurry before the elements of harmony come. “Christ…” Ben mutters, pulling up his hood and getting up. “Let’s hope they don’t immediately try to attack us like idiots…” He mutters, still feeling weak but not wanting to deal with ponies that don’t understand anything. The two found Eclipse in a cast that took up most of his left side. “So… you gonna be able to use that arm at all?” Zeke asks. Eclipse shook his head. “Not for a while at least. Though, before anyone else comes in, tell me, do you two know of earth by chance?” “We came from there… how do…?” Zeke questioned. “Did you ask to become a pony?” Ben asks. “First question, because I needed to confirm that this Core bitch wasn’t just after any old people, people like us who escaped are who Core’s after. Second, Yes...and I asked for a new life and apparently that old man either A: has a sense of humor or B: he took me by my exact wording because next thing I knew, I was being born.” “Talk about being literal.” Zeke says. “Pretty much.” Ben says with honest surprise. “So...we were told the elements were going to be here...think you can tell them not to attack me and Zeke here for no reason?” Ben asks, having a bad feeling that given Eclipse is hurt they’ll just blame him and Zeke and attack them cause convenience sake. “Yeah, don’t worry…if Core could beat me no problem...and I’m this world’s strongest warrior? You really just need to duck once.” Eclipse says, his pride shattered. “No need to be down. Besides, this should be a good lesson for ya.” Ben says honestly. “One doesn’t learn if they constantly win, in loss a true warrior learns.” “Besides, I think you’ve interested them, so they won’t kill you… right away…” Zeke says. “It's not me I’m worried about. Honestly if it was just me at risk I wouldn’t care. But …. With me out of the way….” Eclipse says, not wanting to think on the ‘what if’. “If needing Keyblades is the issue… I can hand them out.” Zeke says. “Ha...Luna and Celestia have twin Keyblades...but other than that I’m it here. If you want, go wild, but I wouldn’t. No one to train them and I’m sorry, I’m not taking them off world...not yet.” “I think some soldiers from my world could do in training them. Everyone on the world I’m at has a Keyblade.” “Fine, but keep it small. With Nightmare gone the Heartless are less common, but now Nobodies have started to show up more, however small their numbers.” He says before getting sleepy “Aaannnd that’d be the painkillers…..fuck.” Ben turned his head a little, hearing a subtle ‘where is my heart?’ drift through his mind. “Well he’s not joking…” Ben sighs out. “But we better leave to give the poor guy his sleep.” He sighs out. “Besides we still have notes to compare.” “Yeah.” Zeke says, opening a portal with the X-blade. “This should take us to your world, we can talk there.” As the two enter, they fail to notice the group of people rushing in as the portal vanished, leaving Eclipse alone with the people entering. “Be safe you two….” Eclipse whispers out as the portal vanishes. As the two stepped out of the portal Ben looked around to see that they were indeed back in his home world. “God help me if Luna finds me…” He groans, still being in pain and knowing that being smothered by lunar boobies won’t help him at all. “So Zeke...want to see my girlfriends worry over me?” He asks, knowing that it’s only a matter of time before they swarm him. He took a seat on the ground, there were in the open fields where Ben and Sweetie practiced at. “Hah, my wives will worry, then kill me…” He commented “Sounds like you have a caring family. But I only have Twilight and Luna, most likely going to ask Rarity to tag along cause I have to help Sweetie and...Time Bell...out a lot.” Ben shrugs before taking a seat next to “Time Bell?” “Oh yeah…” Ben sighs out. “So during my conversation I got to have a very good explanation on something’s...like how Core is making those heartless hybrids and Yellow also explained that he used a version of Sweetie Bell to...make a Keyblade. She goes by Time because she’s that Birth By Sleep ‘No Name’ keyblade, the blue one that controls time.” “Bastard.” Zeke summoned Discord. “On my equestria, a survivor of the Keyblade war was using Nobodies to capture or kill the inhabitants. Those he captured he ripped their hearts out and made into more foot soldiers for his army of Nobodies, there was only fifteen survivors in total, well, sixteen, Chrysalis managed to survive and hide. Well, during some trip a few people took back to the place he was experimenting, they found Discord as a Keychain. Unlike Yellow, he can’t turn back, he can’t even use his magic without me to cast if for him.” “Shit…” Ben says bluntly. “Um...wow...I...have literally no idea what to say about that. And here I was going to talk about how me and Yellow got all philosophical about this war…” The cloaked man says, looking up at the blue skies. “Fucking hell...here I’m living in a place that’s peaceful, where you got dumped off into a hell hole...but...glad to know there were survivors…” “It wasn’t where I first arrived, I wanted to try and see if I could find another survivor God told me about, Huxley, but I didn’t find him then, so I left, wanting to find a place with more action. I found it, now I have eight amazing wives, and eleven kids. None are by blood, but that could change soon.” “I was about to say. I mean I know Luna likes to plow like a rabbit in heat but jesus, I doubt you could last that long with eight women...no offense.” Ben says sheepishly. “None taken, spells help, and they all take turns… well, that’s as personal as I’ve ever gotten about my sex life.” “Yeah me to...at least this time I don’t have Luna basically spouting out how sex goes with me.” Ben chuckles. “Celestia and Cadence practically told me that if Luna will probably make me do it in public...which is scary.” Ben explains, not really sure why he’s talking about this but finding it funny. “Sounds like Rune, she’s one of my wives. She’s as horny as you can imagine… she read off every fetish in a small black book she has… it’s over a hundred pages long…” At this Ben fell on his back laughing his ass off. “Oh, oh, oh-ho my god haha!” He shouts, rolling around laughing at such a thing. “Yeah, so, you said you’re dating Twilight, Luna, and possibly Rarity?” “Yes yes and yes.” Ben nods, calming down from his laughing fit as he pulled down his hood. “Twilight is kind and we share a common interest in books and history, Luna is dating me because she’s nice and...is head over heels for me because I can kill Heartless easily, and Rarity? Well she asked if she could date me and when I told Sweetie that it was a possibility she seemed so happy...not to mention Rarity needs someone that isn’t a one night stand.” “Twilight, Fluttershy, Luna, Celestia, Hearts Care, if you ever went on the internet she was known as Button’s mom, Rune, Rainbow Dash, and Chrysalis. Well, also Toriel, but she isn’t a part of the marriage officially yet.” “That is quite the roster of ladies that love you….also why do you have a wife that’s an abbreviation for ‘Tutorial’?” Ben frowns, finding that little thing weird. “It’s just her name. Her world was odd though, but everything went fine in the end. She joined in cause I kinda… brought her two dead kids back to life, and her new adopted one really liked me and the others.” “And you said you did all of this...in a year?” Ben asks. “Less. Shit happens, simple as that. Lot’s been rebuilt, but all the ones who had their hearts taken are stuck out there as a Heartless and a Nobody. I know I can bring them back… but I’ve been hitting dead ends.” “It’s weird how a loner with half a dead heart became a national hero, dates two wonderful mares, and is somehow making friends with someone that is so much better then him…” Ben chuckles. “But hey, I can summon Nobodies and you can summon Heartless...maybe we could help each other out, you help me figure out more of my powers and I’ll help sort out the Nobodies you need.” Zeke looked hopeful. “That could work, we should test it, can you try and summon someone’s specific Nobody? I wanna try something.” “I don’t know about ‘specifics’ but I can summon up a Dusk if you want...also now that were on this topic once you help me learn more I want to see a Darkside and a Twilight Thorn fight, that would be freaking awesome wouldn’t it?” “Beyond words. Still try and summon… hang on.” Zeke raised his hand, focusing on exactly the hearts lost in the darkness he could access. A large body appeared. “If I did it right, I think the heart in that thing is my worlds Pinkie Pie, try and summon her Nobody.” “Um...I’ll try.” Ben says worriedly before summoning his Duskblade. “Oh and this keyblade? Formed from a piece of my heart just so you know.” He says before focusing, pointing the keyblade at the Large Body. After a few moments of searching I heard a Nobody appear, and when I looked up I saw a Dancer swaying about in front of the large body, but this Dancer seemed a tad more...pink than usual. Where...is my heart? A hollow female voice hums in my head, the voice reminding me of Pinkie Pie. “If we’re right then there’s your heart.” Ben says, hoping this will work. “So...how should we do this?” He asks, feeling a little out of breath here from summoning a specific Nobody. The Nobody attacked the Heartless, the two taking strikes at each other. “I think they got it covered?” Zeke questions. My heart...my heart… The female Nobody hums, sounding a bit more energetic even if it was hollow. The Dancer Nobody was the winner, and before the Heart floated away, it caught it. “So… I wonder how it will-” It swallowed the heart. “Never mind.” Zeke says. The Nobody flashed a blinding white, making Ben and Zeke cover their eyes. When it faded, they saw a familiar pink pony, Pinkie was back. “Crap, she’s naked…” Zeke commented. “Oh dear…” Ben says worriedly. “Wh-what happened?” The pink pony asks, rubbing her eyes and yawning. “It...feels like I was sleeping…” The anthro mare says groggily, sounding like she just woke up from a long sleep. “Holy hell it worked…” Ben whispers to Zeke. “You got a towel or something?” He asked Ben. He stood up and walked over to Pinkie. “You alright?” “I think so… wait… am I dreaming? I’m always naked in my dreams.” To this, Zeke chuckled, helping her up. “Sadly no, so we better get you home soon. Good thing no one else is around here.” “No...” Ben says, his entire face beat red from seeing the naked mare as he turned around to give her some dignity. “Jeez…” “Not just yet, we gotta get a few more at least. How many can you summon at a time before you can't go anymore?” “I can still create more...but I may need to take a break or two because of the stress...I can summon five Creepers, summoning specifics is a little rough.” “You think you can manage seven? Not all at once, but it’s practice that pushes you.” “Yeah...I think so.” It took well into the day, the sun was even setting when they were done, but Ben and Zeke did it, they brought back nine people. Pinkie Pie, Cloudchaser, Flitter, Applejack, Rarity, Derpy, Applebloom and Sweetie Bell, they were all back. They were all from Zeke’s world, but it was a start to fixing everyone lost. They all were naked, but his world Luna and others found them earlier, and brought clothes for the ones who returned. “That’s all of them… everyone is gonna be so happy when I get home… So, if you have it in you, anyone from your world you wanna try and get back?” Zeke asked, using a quick Cure on Ben. “Thanks…” Ben says with a nod, straightening himself after using his Keyblade as a makeshift cane from the entire situation. “So, got at least one more in you, it will be anyone from here that might be gone.” “Twilight told me Zecora disappeared…” Ben says before raising his hand up and summoning a Sorcerer Nobody, this time the being looked a shade of grey with black stripes on it, the cubes it normally has around it resting around her. Where is my heart? The feminine voice asks, the obvious accent showing she was a zebra. “Do you think you can find someone’s heart of this world?” Ben asks Zeke, knowing he’s been mostly focusing on people from his world but still. “Well, If I focus on the Nobody I think I can.” Zeke held up his hand, placing all thought into two things, the Nobody in front of him, and the Heartless that will appear. Soon enough, a Wizard Heartless appeared, and looked at the Nobody. My heart… She says, before the cubes surrounding her spun a bit before surrounding the Wizard heartless, the blocks smacking the otherwise weak heartless multiple times. The blocks made quick work of the Heartless before the Sorcerer floated forward, it’s always covered arms opening as a white hand grabbed the heart and swallowed it hole. After a quick flash of light appeared yet again a naked zebra appeared. “You okay?” Ben asks worriedly, the first one moving over to the mare on the ground rubbing her eyes. She twitched, and looked up at Ben. “... I am too tired to rhyme.” She fell back asleep with that. “Well…” Ben sighs out before getting up and walking over to Zeke. “You think this is a good start?” He whispers, keeping his voice down to let Zecora rest. “We’re practically bringing the dead back to life, I think we just won something over Core.” He replied, summoning Discord. Anyway we can have a CALM portal back home? Sure, but just this once. A light shoots out of Discord, revealing a portal of Light. You’re welcome “Alright, we’ll be off, I’ll be back some time later, hopefully with a means of stable travel without relying on X.” Zeke, and the others from his world, walked into the portal, and it closed when the last of them entered. Ben nodded, before throwing his keyblade up and summoning his Keyblade glider, gently picking up Zecora and putting her down comfortably enough on the bike as I steered it towards town. “Well...that was an eventful day…”
Nobody's partyAs I flew my giant bike back to town I thought about everything that happened the past...day? Two days? I don’t know. But all I knew was that it was filled with a bunch of new discoveries, new pains, and training thankfully as I helped Zeke somehow resurrect the dead. “I hope Zeke’s having a grand time back in his world…” I mutter to myself, finding pride and joy at being able to help people in such a way. “But...Yellow…” I mutter, the thought rushing about how someone that so happily called herself a ‘Demon’ flinched and was probably about to say ‘thank you’ to such an open display of care. “I thought it would have been shrugged off…” I comment to myself, still not sure what kind of repercussion my care had on Yellow. I landed outside the library and carried Zecora inside, laying her down on the couch. Twilight and Luna came in, looking a mix of happy and confused. “So what exactly happened when… whatever that was went down?” Luna asked. “It’s gonna be quite an explanation...so can someone make something to drink and some food?” I ask honestly. “Already on it.” I heard Spike yell from the kitchen. I explained everything that happened to Luna and Twilight, Zecora woke up during the explaining and we filled her in. After everything was said and done, Zecora looked at me. “A true hero you have become, even if you think you are no one.” “Aw I’m nothing more than a simple man.” I say simply, feeling like I should have added something to that. “I can vouch for that.” Luna says. “True, and besides I wouldn’t have been able to do half of that without some help.” I shrug. “But what do you last remember Zecora?” “... A creature, small and red… next thing I knew, I was on this couch like a bed.” She replied. “Alright.” I nod in understanding. “Looks like I’ve got more to explain.” “Pray tell, young fellow.” “I’ll give you some cliff notes because it’s better. The thing that attacked you was a being of darkness called a ‘Heartless’, you lost your heart and then turned into two beings, a Heartless, and a Nobody, which Nobody’s happen to be beings that are the hollow shells of what normal people are.” I explain. “And how you became whole is because, as I explained, me and my new friend Zeke summoned Heartless and Nobodies that were of the same person, which you were one of them, and in one instance if a Nobody and Heartless were to be killed they would go back to being whole...or if a Nobody absorbed there heart...so yeah.” I shrug. “Confusing I know but whatever.” She looked at me for a time, then sighed. “Then my home is lost… I’m too sad to be cross.” “I understand...I lost my home to before...all this happened.” I say honestly. “But...you can stay with us if you want until we get your home back.” “An offer most kind, thank you for letting me sleep for the night.” “Is it alright with you three?” I ask the two mares and dragon. “Zecora is a friend, It’s fine with me.” Twilight says. “The Everfree is crawling with Heartless… this may be better for her in the end.” Luna replied. “So… what are we gonna do about Rarity? Her house is… destroyed…” “Oh yeah...fuck.” I deadpan. “Well first I’m going to have to apologize a bunch for….making her, Sweetie and Time practically homeless until their house is fixed…” I say worriedly, rubbing my forehead in worry at not knowing what to do. “How bad are the damages?” “Well, just use your funds Ben.” “As far as I know I’m dirt poor.” I say while rummaging through my pockets, and the only thing in them was my Wayfinder. “Oh… I forgot to tell you, after your meeting with my sister, she set up an account for you, and placed funds into it. You have about… thirteen million bits in savings.” My jaw dropped at hearing that. “Uh...wai wha?” I ask dumbly, not knowing what to do with that ass ton of money. “W-well…” I stutter before shaking my head. “Looks like most of that is going to Rarity’s house being fixed.” “It will only cost a few thousand at most I think, but it will take a month or more to finish. She could stay here as well. Not many rooms, but that basement of Twilight’s could work also, just clean it up.” “Laboratory!” Twilight declares. “There’s expensive and delicate equipment down there.” “There is a storage facility in town.” “... Fine, I don’t use them that much these days anyway.” Twilight sighs. “I really hope this place can get bigger cause...we’re gonna need more room.” I say honestly. “So...what’s on today’s list that doesn’t involve fighting?” “Well, you and I can go to Zecora’s home in the Everfree and retrieve essentials for her. Other than that I guess help Rarity and them move in as well. Twilight, do you know any spells from the Nature’s Housing book?” “Yeah, oh, I see where you’re going with this.” Twilight said, grinning. “I always wanted to try those spells on a large scale.” “Well don’t over do it. No need to have this tree going from this size to the size of a small mountain while I’m gone okay?” I joke. “I’ll only expand back a bit, under too I guess.” “Alright.” I nod before getting off the couch. Well alright, let’s get going Luna. Zecora’s stuff won’t magically appear here by themselves.” I shrug. “True, well, it could but in this case no. I would need to know where everything in her house is for that to work.” We headed out, more Heartless were around than I expected, but they were all weak… compared to that Jet… We found Zecora’s hut in the forest and managed to gather most of her clothing, toothbrush, books that seemed important, and her cauldron, cause I think this is important to her. We placed all the things into it and headed back. Zecora was glad to see the cauldron more than her other things we brought. “What’s so special about this cookware?” Zecora looked up at Luna. “Old and ancient. Blood and lore have passed it down freely, now finally to me.” “Sometimes the simple things have the most history to it.” I explain. “But anyways I better head off to Rarity’s and deposit some of my new found money to fixing her house...god I’m gonna get an earful because of this.” I groan. “Oh, here.” Luna said, handing me a silver bank card. “The code is 2012.” “Oh the irony…” I mutter to myself taking the bank card and putting it in my pocket. “Thank you. But onwards to meeting a nag.” I say before heading off to Rarity’s house. When I arrived, I saw Rarity, Sweetie, and Time packing things up. “Well, didn’t think you had the balls to show up.” Time said. “Looks like I owe Sweetie ten bits…” “I’m sorry but I didn’t see you helping me and Zeke fight a being basically backhanded the two of us like we were nothing.” I frown at Time. “So shut it. Listen Rarity, I am incredibly sorry about...well literally everything. I’ll pay for everything, god knows I have enough money to do that and then some.” I chuckle, still thinking my bank account is massive. Rarity looked at me, inhaled, and then spoke. “While I don’t blame you for what happened to my home, I am grateful you are paying for the damages… my insurence sure didn’t want to… So, how did you come into the money to pay to fix the place?” “Let’s just say being the boyfriend to royalty has it’s perks...like seriously I have more money then I know what to do with.” I chuckle, still finding the amount of money I have hilarious. “Glad to hear… maybe some of what’s left over can go to increasing the showroom after it’s rebuilt… Anyway, I don’t suppose you have a place for us to stay?” “That depends on how much the repairs cost, but yes Twilight is willing to clean up her basement to let you three stay there. We’re also housing Zecora just so you know.” I say honestly. “Oh, they finally found her. Thank goodness.” “Something like that.” I say, leaving it at that and not wanting to tell Rarity that she died but was brought back from the dead. “Well, alright. We just have a few more things to pack. Thankfully my sewing machine is on wheels.” “So, who was the guy in black armor?” Time asked. “I know he’s the one Core has the most interest in cause, he had the X-blade, but who was he?” “That is Zeke, and he just so happens to control the Heartless in a way. But sadly he doesn’t have the power to control all of them everywhere, so there will still be the ‘ambient attackers’...no stopping that.” I explain. “He’s a nice guy when you get to know him. Eight wives can do that to ya.” “That’s not what I care about, his heart, you couldn’t tell?” “It was in balance?” I ask. “Well of course I could tell, that’s the major point about the damn thing.” “No, not just that. His heart was… it was like, billions of Keyblades were in it, and… it was like… Kingdom Hearts.” “I did sense that to some degree...I think it’s because he holds the X-blade...the first Keyblade...I mean I heard it’s voice through Zeke after all.” I explain. “... A Keyblade, who’s in perfect sync with it’s wielder, can talk to them… but through them… that’s… not even the X-blade can do that. It was like… his body was another X-blade from what I felt… It just makes no sense…” “You’re literally a keyblade yourself, I’m a human living in a magical land of ponies….do you want me to explain why ‘makes no sense’ sounds bullshit?” I ask. “Not like that! I could feel he was human still, but he was also a Keyblade… Gah! How the heck do I explain this!?” “Magic?” I ask simply. “Simplest thing to answer all these weird questions.” I shrug, not really knowing how half of this shit worked but knowing that it’ll be explained sooner or later. “Ugh, never mind. Just… next time Zeke shows up, I’m gonna talk to him.” “Well I think he has questions for you as well.” I say. “But anyways let’s get home and get you three settled in.” I say before feeling something in my hand that wasn’t there before. “Huh?” I question before lifting it up and finding a pink envelope. ”THERE we go.” I think to myself, having waited for more than a damned week for this as I looked it over and saw it was for Rarity and Sweetie. “Oh hey, Rarity, Sweetie, I got’s a message for ya.” I say while handing the envelope to them. Rarity took the envelope. “Oh, one of Pinkie’s?” As she opened it, a small blast of confetti shot out. “Yes, definately one of hers.” She unfolded the letter, and read it out loud. “You are invited to Ben’s ‘Sorry you got your butt kicked, glad you’re safe, welcome to Ponyville Party. Please head to Twilight’s library, once Rarity and them have gotten there it can… start… How does she do this?” Rarity questioned, examining the paper. “No idea but whatever. If it means I get an awesome party then sweet.” I smile. ”Please don’t let this somehow segway into me calling Pinkie’s ‘Pinkie Promises’ bullshit…” I think to myself worriedly, not wanting to hurt Pinkie’s feelings when she’s throwing me a party. As we got home… the tree Library looked like it grew a couple dozen feet wide and tall. As Rarity, Sweetie and Time placed their things inside, the whole Library was covered in streamers, balloons, a big banner that read ‘Ben’s Party’ and several large fold out tables with food, drinks, and one massive cake in the middle of it all. “Wow, she did more than I expected.” Rarity commented. “Well I’ve been here for more than a week, maybe she wanted to make this extra special for the days she missed.” I shrug. “Been too busy for this stuff anyways. But thank god it’s here.” “You were hoping for a party?” Twilight asks, coming out of the kitchen. “I mean… I kinda figured… from how you act around others… it wasn’t your thing…” “When I first saw Pinkie and heard her name I thought ‘okay first up that’s just stupid to name a person off of their color, but she seems so energetic that parties is probably her thing’.” I shrug. “But seriously naming your child after their skin color is like my parents calling me ‘Whitey’...and where I come from that’s kind of a racist term.” I point out, not sure why I pointed it out but feeling like I had to. “Oh, well, I’m not entirely sure about the whole name thing, but alright…? Well, anyway. Pinkie said when you got here to try the cake. I think she left to pick up some other things, so she should be back soon.” “Okay.” I shrug before walking over to the cake and cutting off a small piece and trying the cake. Now through my entire life I only liked ice cream cake, cause other cakes just didn’t taste right to me normally, but this cake...just destroyed all thoughts that any cake besides Ice Cream was good. I gave a happy moan of satisfaction as I ate cake, the explosion of wonderful goodness lasting even after I finished my small piece. “Ho...that was good.” I sigh out happily. To everyone's surprise, the cake’s top popped off, and Pinkie jumped out, did two mid air flips, and landed perfectly next to me, and hugged me. “Glad you like it!” “Your welcome.” I smile, blushing a little at the sudden hug by bouncy mare. “But...thank you for this party…” I say honestly. “Your welcome.” She says, letting me go. “Oh, and don’t worry, I was in a compartment inside the giant cake, not actually in it. Speaking of which, You can come out!” We all looked at the top of the cake… Celestia flew out. “My, those short cuts really are something.” She said, landing next to me as well. “Hello Ben.” “Hello Celestia, how you doing?” I ask with a smile, hugging Pinkie with a smile. “Fine, Luna tell you about my little ‘gift’?” “Yes, thirteen million is quite the ‘gift’.” I say simply. “Please, I could have given you a trillion from my personal funds, but that might have been too much.” “I barely know what to do with two thousand bits alone, but thirteen million is...quite a lot to be perfectly honest.” I say. She smiles at me. “Well, in any case, I’m not missing your party. Also, I have a gift for you.” She levitates a wrapped gift from the cake’s storage area, giving it to me. “Thank you.” I nod before grabbing the gift and unwrapping it. “Let’s hope it’s not more money.” I joke. “You might like it.” I open the box… and there’s a small silver crown in it. “Suprise, your own crown. Best part, it’s enchanted to stay floating above your head at any angle you place it at. Since you’ll be fighting a lot, that should come in handy.” “Bitchin.” I smile before grabbing the silver crown and putting atop my head, the crown floating above my head but crooked a little to my right side. “Thanks Celestia, it means a lot.” “Glad to hear.” She said, rubbing my head. “Now then, shall this party start?” “You know it!” Pinkie said, pulling out a small party cannon and shooting confetti everywhere. The sudden explosion made me vanish away and get into a fighting stance, holding two spears while the other four float around me. “Please...don’t…” I say, panting a little at having the sudden explosion happen and instincts kicking in. Pinkie blushed. “Sorry.” The party started after that, music, food, good friends, my two amazing girlfriends, and all that good stuff. No one told me the drinks were alcoholic until… I had three and was wasted. “You lightweight.” Luna teases, keeping me sitting upright on the couch. “Go *hic* ffuck yourshelf…” I slurr, hiccuping as my face was flushed red. She smiled, kissing me on the cheek. “Love you to.” “I *hic* hash an a-*hic*nnounshment…” I slur, raising my fourth glass with stupid idea’s and a giddy ass grin on my face. “Who wantsh to hear it?” I ask, swaying madly and chuckling like a madman. Luna was laughing her ass off next to me. “Well, go on then, what is it?” … Sun… is killing me… So, this is a hangover… Did I drink a lot? As I was coming slightly out of my fog and back into reality, I could feel I was… on top of something soft… I lifted my head up, struggling to open my eyes, and I saw Luna was under me… naked, which has become the norm for how I wake up these days. As I tried to move more I noticed something heavy was on me as well. I managed to look up and saw… Pink… Pinkie was naked on top of me… What the hell… no, no, I didn’t… I looked to my sides and saw it was only worse… Twilight, Rarity, and Zecora were all around me, naked and cuddling around me…. How drunk was I?!?!?! When that… finally happened, and everyone woke up, I was sitting in the kitchen with them all, awkwardly waiting for what happened yesterday… I had a feeling I could guess, but I still wanted to hear it. “Well, you were drunk, like really drunk.” Luna started. “I noticed when I had mares on top of me, below me, and three others around me completely naked and cuddling.” I deadpan. “So….who want’s to go first in explanations on how I probably slept with all five of you?” “Well, after you stood up to make an announcement you said you would date me darling.“ Rarity said. “Then Zecora offered… something about some warrior rights from her home land for saving a life, something like that, then Pinkie said she’d join the ‘Ben’s party boat’ as she called it. We all agreed in the end… the party kept on… lewd things happened, that’s when Time and Spike took Sweetie to bed… and well, you woke up to our bedroom aftermath…” Rarity explained, blushing as red as me. “... you’re quite good darling…” “Oh my god…” I groan, my head smacking the table. “I mean...Luna helped.’train me’ as it were but….all five? Shouldn’t I have been...out at two or something?” I ask. “I enhanced the spells… a lot…” Luna admitted. “Things just got so hot so fast…” “I never met a stallion that could make me scream like you did last night.” Pinkie said, placing a plate of pancakes on the table for everyone. “Oh my god!” I shout, not believing everything that’s going on. “Can someone shoot me already? This is just…so beyond embarrassing…” “I think Zecora did that last night~” Luna teased, causing Zecora and I to blush hot pink. “Oh my god people…” I groan loudly, lifting my head up and starting to eat my pancakes. “I really hope my stuff is being washed...and I also hope our bed didn’t break…” “I threw it into the wash after we all got up.” Twilight explained. “Though… we may have a more… concerning matter…” “Did any of you forget a protection spell?” I ask quickly, my eyes dilating to pin pricks here. They all were silent. “Oh...um…” I say before pushing the pancakes away for a moment and getting up. “I’ll just...take a shower…” I say slowly, not believing any of this right now. “Well, we won’t know til a week from now…” Rarity says. “It’s not my season yet… but it is soon…” “Same.” The others, save for Luna, said. “That doesn’t change the fact that I still could’ve gotten you all pregnant…” I say, my voice filled with worry. “Not to mention that I was drunk of all things….god fucking damn it I didn’t want to ask while drunk…” I say sadly, tears welling up in my eyes. “And I practically dragged you two into it...god damn it…” I say, putting a hand up to my head as the hangover pain is still there. I felt someone hug me. “It’s alright Ben.” Luna’s voice cooed. “We all were drunk, and for that to happen to me, that’s a lot of alcohol. Besides, we still care for you.” “I admit, I’d rather get pregnant while drunk with a drunk that cares for me, rather than by a one night stand that I’ll never see again.” Rarity says. “Children bring those with hurt souls together, everything will become better.” Zecora states. “I expected this to happen eventually given my sex life.” Pinkie deadpanned. “But least the father is gonna be a mega badass!” “You...” I take a shaky breath. “Are all the greatest things I could ask for...something I’ve always wished for…” I say, before hugging Luna tightly. “Thank you...even with my stupidity...thank you…” “Besides… least this would make us an ’official herd’ now.” Twilight says. “I….whether sex was involved or not...I would have happily loved you all and made it official...just wish I wasn’t drunk during it...I can’t remember how great it was.” I joke with a little smile, tears streaming down my face. “I uh, remembered for you... “ Luna said, to which I gave her a confused look. “When you were sleeping I recovered the memory of our… ‘night’ and placed it into my mind. When you sleep next I’ll put it back and play it as a dream.” “I...hope I didn’t try to act all ‘kingly’ because I got a crown…” I mutter. “UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhgggggggggg.” A loud moan from the living room was heard. We went to see the cause… and saw Celestia… sleeping on the ceiling. “Damn, I must be turning into a lightweight.” She muttered. “Why is everyone… oh crap.” She suddenly fell onto the floor face first. “Damn it, I slept defying gravity again…” “How in ze fuck?” I ask simply, not entirely sure how that was supposed to happen. She got up, and managed to look at me, with bloodshot eyes. “Oh, Ben.” She smiled. “Holy cow you, I, I heard all that noise from upstairs while I was finishing off the beer and food… you, if you had C-cup breasts, and were a pretty mare, I’d love to know what that was all about.” She said, managing to roll into the couch. “I think your soundproof spell failed last night… wait… I think I… I think I’m still drunk…” “How?” I ask worriedly, not sure how you fall asleep drunk only to wake up drunk. “Can someone get a bucket?” I ask quickly, not wanting Celestia to vomit on the floor. “I got this.” Luna walked up to Celestia, lifted her up into a sitting up position, and smacked her across the face. “Snap out of it!” Celestia fall over, drooling in her sleep. “... welp, she’s lost.” “Apparently…” I say with a little nod. “I just hope that soundproof spell didn’t wear off...god only know’s what Spike, Sweetie and Time might be thinking if that happened…” There was a squeak of rusty door hinges as we turned to the source… Time was there. “You are lucky I know soundproofing spells… or else…. ALL OF EQUESTRIA WOULD HAVE HEARD YOU!!!” She walked into the kitchen, leaving us all red faced. “Fucking hell…” I say in surprise, not knowing that we were that loud. “Um...maybe you...overdid it a little Luna?” “I was drunk also so likely…” She mutters. “Let’s just be thankful we can all walk okay right?” I say, hoping that none of us will walk funny for the rest of the day or longer. I sigh out before seeing Pinkie walk to the kitchen, not wanting to waste the pancakes she made for me before I noticed that she had a strange limp to her movements, something that… “Oh my god…” I mutter, looking at the others mares just shuffling worriedly at feeling their legs not entirely working right. “Also yes I’m finishing those Pinkie.” “Like you finished me last night.” Pinkie mutters, but sadly it wasn’t quiet enough. “I heard that!” I shout, blushing brightly at having Pinkie joke about such a thing. One Week Later. We were all in the new living room Twilight made with her magic while expanding the house. The girls all went to the doctors to get the results… none of them seemed pregnant in their actions, but still, we were just waiting for the mail to get here now. “This is… unnerving…” Twilight said. “Ya think?” I deadpan while pacing back and forth, worried shitless about this entire situation. “How much longer til Derpy gets here with the mail?” Rarity asked. “She’s not usually this late.” “I have no idea…” I say, before hearing a doorbell ring. “I got it.” Time Bell said, walking over to the door, then back into the living room. “So, should I read it out or?” “Please darling.” Rarity asked. “Just fucking read it…” I say worriedly. Time bell opened the letter, looking over all the documents enclosed. “Welp, looks like you all cut it close, no one is pregnant… I owe Spike ten bits now…” “Can people stop betting on shit that revolves around me!?” I shout while flinging my hands into the air. “I mean it’s been one bet after another. ‘Does he like breasts or boobs?’ ‘Will he date these people?’ ‘Will he get five mares pregnant after a single drunken night?’, for fuck sakes people stop...I’m already having enough trouble as is I don’t want to learn that most of my time here is nothing but a silly ass bet…” I sigh out sadly. “Hey, not our fault you make it easy. So, not parents after all… Well, guess life happens, but I guess it was a swing and a miss.” Time left the living room, leaving me and the girls alone in here. “Well...at least your not pregnant…” I say, walking over to the five mares. “I want cuddles now because Time thinks it’s alright to mess with a man that already has enough mental issues…” Rarity got up and gave me a kiss. “From what she’s told me, she has issues to, she saw so much death… things worse than death… She promised me not to tell this, but she doesn’t sleep.” “I can imagine, but all I can say is...we can help her. All she needs to do is ask for the love she really needs...or have it forced on her in the name of loving cuddles.” I say simply. “A simple act of kindness can help a lot of people.” “Ben, she uses her small grasp on time to keep herself awake. The one time she did fall asleep… she just kept screaming… crying… She was a sweet innocent girl and they stole that from her, they stole her mortality Ben. One time she fell out the window from my room, we saw her neck snap and she just got back up like it was nothing. She’s been through worse than hell.” “Well I’m next in line cause I’m gonna be fighting the fucker that caused it sooner or later.” I say with a shrug. “But...even if I couldn’t compare my problems to hers….we’re here for her now. We should still help her...she doesn’t deserve this kind of pain…” I explain. “No one does…” To be continued...
Nobody's normal dayI was relieved that the girls weren't… knocked up… The rest of the day went along calmly, I was reading some more history books, Twilight reading a science book, she was leaning against me, it felt kinda nice just to do this. Time was here too, writing some stuff in what looked like a journal. “No… maybe…” She muttered, jotting down something else in her book. “Something wrong Time?” I ask while looking away from my book. “I mean...besides…” I trail off, remembering what Rarity told me about Time’s nightmares. “Ever since Core did this to me I’ve been getting small glances of possible future events, and just now I’m finally able to catalog them, though, it all seems like gibberish.” She replied, not even looking up. “The future is always gibberish.” I say bluntly. “But what do you have written down now?” “Not sure, it’s like… I see Keyblades, clashing, and that armor guy just taking hits from a guy in a black version of your cloak.” “Well that doesn’t sound good.” I frown. “But I suppose it’s not unheard of for stuff like that to happen. Fights come to those who want to help those that need it.” I shrug. “Yeah, but what I hear disturbs me greatly.” “What do you hear besides the fighting?” I ask curiously. “The Keyblades crying, screaming ‘not again’.” “Oh no…” I mutter, my eyes widening at hearing that. “No...there can’t be another one…” I say, shaking my head in worry. “Do you hear anyone else saying anything? Like people talking or just the Keyblades?” “Keyblades talking, people, they both have a static when I hear it, not much is clear. Though, I did hear…. A name I think?” “Do you know what the name was? Anything is better than nothing.” I say honestly. ”I hope I’m wrong about this but...a Keyblade war…” I think to myself bitterly. “I think it was Zeke’s voice, that armor guy, yelling out in anger… Hux… Hux-something…?” “I’m not sure if he told me anyone with a name like that...but Core seemed to like someone specific as a puppet…” “... Oh, Huxley. Core often referred to that guy by Puppet.” “That’s not good…” I frown. “Let’s hope it doesn’t happen...or if I could be able to stop it…” “I did say ‘possible’, so nothing I see is set in stone. Why do you think I bet on you? I go by what I think was the likely possibility I see.” “True…” I sigh out. “But remember Time...all of us are here for you…” I say. “Three.... Two…. One…” She muttered, then a flash of magic blinded me as someone teleported in the livingroom. “Called it.” “Oh, hey Ben…” Celestia said, so she popped in? My eyes are still adjusting. “Tia what in thine holy ass are you doing here?” I ask, rubbing my eyes to help them readjust. “And next time can you make your entrance less blinding?” “Sorry, was in a hurry… well, anyway, I have a question to ask.” “What is your question princess?” I ask curiously, wondering why she just popped on in. “Can I… erm… barrow you…?” “I’m sorry you have to wait in a line of five mares.” I joke. “And before you ask, no you can’t turn me into female.” “No, not that… I suppose I should elaborate… you see… my parents-” “OH HELL NO!” Luna’s voice rang from upstairs as she teleported in front of Celestia. “You are going to lie to mom again, and use my boyfriend to do it!” “Holy hell Celestia can you not? And to be perfectly honest why are you only interested in mares? Just a tad curious.” I ask honestly. “Preferences or one too many bad dates with guys?” “I’ve always been into mares… but my…” She looked over to Luna. “our parents are… old fashioned… I’ve been hiding my sexuality from them since I was old enough to realize I was a lesbian. I’ve been… afraid of their judgement…” “Well don’t worry, they’ll fear my judgement.” I say with a smile. “So who are your parents again?” I asks, having literally no idea who the hell they were. “Our father is named Locus, the alicorn of space.” Luna explains. “And our mother is Faust, alicorn of life.” ”Holy shit they were right.” I think to myself, having seen some fanfiction of Faust being their mother or Faust being the ‘goddess’ of Equestria. “But now Faust will fear me more because she’s a hypocrite. She’s the alicorn of life, yet I have a feeling she hates people who are gay or lesbians…” “No...” Celestia said. “She doesn’t hate them… she just… as the alicorn of life, she… just finds it sad and unnatural about the whole ‘miracle of birth’ between same sex couples when magic or surrogates are required…” “And the fainting.” Luna added. “Mother has always been more… nervous about sexual topics, very much more than you Ben, she blushes when normal couples are talked about, same sex makes her faint.” “Well I can knock her out just by saying ‘sex’ and your father can deal with me back talking the fuck out of him.” I say simply. “Oh dad is no issue, this is only for mother’s sake.” Luna explains further. “He knows sister’s little secret, but is happy so long as she is.” I take a moment before groaning loudly and rubbing my temple. “So only the Alicorn of Life has a problem with life getting the chance to...do whatever it wants….for fuck sakes that’s still hypocrisy!” “Meh.” “Wait,” Twilight cut in. “I thought you two were found alone near the border of the badlands like in the books?” “Oh, that’s all crap story tellers made up about us as the ages drew on.” Celestia deadpanned. “The only reason mother and father got together is because they were the only two old alicorns from the alicornian era of equestria to survive… well they didn’t say, but I can imagine it was a war.” “It’s always war, no matter what you do, no matter what age you're in...it always ends with some good old fashioned, wasteful, useless war that is caused by someone calling a woman chubby.” I say with a shrug. “Or something like that I don’t know where I was going with that, but seriously war is fucking stupid, and rarely gets anyone anywhere in the long run.” “Look Ben, please, mother has already assumed I’m in this herd with Luna, please just play along, name your price. They won’t even meet you again in your lifetime.” I think for a moment. “The price can be anything right? Besides sex of course, I wouldn’t want to force that on you.” I say. “That’s right.” “Okay...my price…” I start. “I want you and Luna to take off your pants and show me both of your asses. I want to do a little...comparison of sorts.” I say with a perverted smile. Luna burst out laughing while Celestia looked mortified. “Ben, sit dog…” Twilight muttered. I think there’s an anime style dark aura around her… and she’s cracking my shoulder bones... “How about you relax for ten fucking seconds instead of getting pissy.” I growl at Twilight, not liking how she’s suddenly starting to turn evil here. “I am honestly curious, because I’m dating Luna I want to know if Celestia is just as nice, so stop cracking my shoulder bones and let me just do this simple thing that Celestia told me I could do.” I frown, staring down at the pissed off Twilight. “On one condition…” Celestia said, making Twilight stop breaking my shoulder and causing her to look at Celestia. “I… get to… Kiss Twilight…” “Say what?!” Twilight stuttered. “Sure.” I say with a smile. “Whatever makes you happy Celestia, I’m already doing something outside your comfort zone so I’ll allow you to be happy.” “Do I have any say in this?!” Twilight asked. “Seems not.” Luna deadpanned, finally breaking out of her laughing fit. “You cracked my shoulder bones Twilight, so no you don’t have any say in this.” I state as bluntly as humanly possible. “I may be a pervert but I still care about women, and I’ve fought against women, so I know how strong they can be.” I state. “So kiss her already, you probably made out with Zecora or Pinkie while we were drunk so who cares?” Needless to say, Twilight was about ready to slap me when Luna and Celestia dropped their pants, to which Celestia saved me from a hand shaped slap mark by grabbing Twilight and placing a deep kiss on her… to which when It was over I think Twilight’s brain was fried as she was unresponsive after that. We asked Time and the others to look after her while Luna, Celestia and I went to Canterlot to meet their parents. “Ya know...honestly I couldn’t tell whose was better.” I say honestly. “I mean both of you are very lovely women and anyone would be lucky to have either of you but still.” “Still not joining Ben.” Celestia said. “This is just an act, then when mom and dad leave, you can go back to deal with Twilight and bone zone my sister and I can go back to my girlfriend.” “I understand Celestia, I never said you had to, and I will never force you.” I say gently. “I may be a pervert, but I care about a women’s, or mares, decision in life. You can love mares as much as you want and all I can see is a happy and beautiful sister in law. So no need to be all ‘still not joining’.” I say with a smile, suddenly hugging the rainbow maned alicorn happily. “Thank you, but you did send some mixed signals with what I had to do to get you here.” She said, letting me go as we entered her throne room. “I’m sorry I find lesbians sexy.” I whisper with a blush. “That’s part of shy sister is one I imagine.” Luna comments. “The idea of making men watch what they can’t have…” “That’s just a bonus.” Celestia replies. “They will be here soon, I hope she locked herself up the bedroom…” “Let’s hope this goes well.” I sigh out. A guard entered the throne room. “Princess, Locus and Faust have arrived.” “Thank you, send them in.” Celestia said, she and Luna taking a seat on their thrones. I leaned against Luna’s. I fixed my silver crown a little bit, making sure it was good. “How do I look?” I ask Luna. “Iike royalty… edgy royalty…” The doors opened and what I saw… confused me. They looked like a normal mare and stallion, no wings or horns. The stallion was a silver color with a mane like Luna’s, while the mare looked like a shorter Celestia, but with a red mane. Not even flowing, just flat. “There’s our girls.” The stallion said as he entered. “Hi mom, dad.” Luna said, smiling with a wave. “Sir Locus, Madam Faust, I’ve heard so much about you two.” I half lie, smiling at the two normal looking ponies. “We’ve heard a bit about you as well, White Knight.” Faust said. “I haven’t seen a Keyblade in years.” “Um...should I even question how you know that?” I ask curiously. “We never told the girls this,” Locus started. “But we were in the Keyblade war… barely made it out of that chaos when… well, I’d rather not say.” “How come you never told us this?” Celestia asked. “Keyblades are dangerous tools Celestia, they cost the mass population of the universe their lives back then.” Faust stated. “We figured it would be best to leave it as story, or legend… seems the truth came out though.” “That would be a combination of my bad, and Starswirl’s.” I say honestly. “Starswirl had a Keyblade?!” Celestia asked in shock. Luna elbowed me. “Ben!” “She was going to figure it out sooner or later.” I say bluntly. “But don’t worry Celestia, there’s nothing more to that now then just stories. So can we get back to the topic at hand? Like how I’m dating both of your daughters?” “Yes, the topic of… Keyblades has left a sour taste in my mouth.” Faust said. “So, how did you meet our daughters White Knight?” “Please, no need for my ‘Hero’ name. Call me Ben.” I say with a smile. “But how did I meet them? Well it started with Luna wanting to meet me after I beat...Heartless…” I sigh out. “Yes, Heartless are around and are attacking places...but Luna was so happy to see me be a hero she just had to have her hands on me…” I say sheepishly. “Hah, little LuLu just loved those stories of heroes slaying monsters. Not surprised.” Locus said. “She once made her own ‘tower’ out of mud and waited to see if any ‘knights’ would show up and save her.” “I was nine!” Luna defended, a clear blush across her face. I gently patted Luna’s head. “You could have just told me.” I smile. “But Celestia? She was kind and nice but didn’t want to be as….forward as Luna. After a few dates she learned to love me and I agreed to date her along with Luna. And I couldn’t be luckier to have both the sun and the moon by my sides.” I smile warmly. “That’s lovely to hear.” Faust said. “I’m glad Luna has found you… so… Celestia… where’s you *gulp* girlfriend?” We were silent. “Is there a problem with Celestia having a girlfriend?” I ask curiously, the first to break the silence. “Mother! How did you find out?!” Celestia asked, scared. “Well, after I heard Canterlot was invaded by changelings I came to check on you… only to walk in on you and that Queen Chrysalis going at it... “ Faust said, making Celestia blush. “So… how did that happen?” “So you would rather date a women that can change into a man, then just a man and a woman….how the hell did you even get to date her Celestia?” I ask curious. Celestia’s face glowed red. “Well… when she changes into a male the parts are… still female… and I ran into her while I was out in a pub… using an illusion spell to appear normal, she was in disguise, we talked, got drunk. Next thing I knew I woke up in a hotel room with a changeling queen… we nearly gave eachother a heart attack… but we just… kept going like we did until…. Her whole hive now works among ponies in Canterlot and she lives with me here.” “Ya know…” I start. “I didn’t expect you to sleep with someone so much that peace could be solved….” I say simply. “So...what would happen if I were to say I’m pretending to be Celestia’s boyfriend? Cause me and Luna we’ve been together for a while now, and although Celestia practically wishes I was a mare so she could have me...which begs the question do you like mares with...extra parts?” I ask curiously, knowing that’s a thing in my original world but feeling like it would be more possible here. “Also Madam Fauster, why do you think it’s unnatural for two consenting adults, of the same gender, is sad?” I ask. ”Are you freaking kidding me? Did I just realize that Faust’s name could be placed into ‘Foster’s home for Imaginary friends’?” I think to myself with mild irritation. “Well… I just wish they could have a child without magic… children born from magic tend to have mental or physical issues… and a surrogate means it’s not truly both parents child… That’s all really.” “I understand.” I nod. “But life finds a way. That’s the best I can say to most weird shit that happens in life.” “True enough, now, Celi, I believe Ben also asked you a question as well? Something about hermaphrodites?” “Well…” Celestia was blushing. “I… I… no, just no…” “Is there spells that could give a mare a...actual real working set of parts?” I ask Luna curiously. “Ben, is this a fetish of yours?” Luna asked. “No, I’m just curious is all.” I say honestly. “I mean when you think about it from the history I’ve been learning magic can literally do...just about anything really. Tend to the earth, move the sun and moon, do daily things in life, even time travel and go to other worlds.” I explain. “Also quick question, shouldn’t you two have horns and wings? Or is that just a disguise of some sort?” The two looked sad at the mention of a horn and wings. “... they were sliced off of us. During the war.” Locus said. “Jesus christ…” I say sadly. “Well...this is the part where I shut up and stop talking before asking another question…” I sigh out, looking down and letting my shoulders sag in bitterness that I brought up something terrible for my two in law parents. “We can still fly and use our magic without them fine… but just the…. Well, let’s try and find something to better the mood then.” Faust said. “How about… A… Well, I got nothing aside from Luna and Celestia’s childhood stories.” “Are they as embarrassing as I think they are?” I ask with a growing smile. “Cause I’m up for hearing it. I mean, I can’t say much besides ‘I helped bring the dead back to life’ but that’s about as simple as can be.” “Wait, you know necromancy?” Locus asked. “No I don’t...but I had a little help from a friend as we both have...special powers. Want me to demonstrate one of my powers?” I ask. “I don’t want to scare two seasoned warriors so much that they suddenly blow up half the castle.” “We left our Keyblades at the Graveyard and disowned them.” Locus said. “May those hunks of metal find peace.” “I have a feeling they're not…” I say before snapping my fingers, suddenly a Dusk appeared and swayed in a passive manner. “I can summon Nobodies, my friend can summon Heartless. We just found the specifics and boom, out popped up naked people.” “So… I wonder who this was…” Faust asked, slowly approaching the Nobody. “I have no doubt that many of our comrades are stuck like this as well.” “His heart is in a state of perfect balance. And with that balanced heart he can control the Heartless he summons.” I explain, the Dusk looking around and asking where it’s heart was, knowing Faust is approaching it but not really caring at the moment. “With his help we saved eight people from their hearts from darkness...and I have a feeling, when I’m better at doing this, we can bring back so many more.” “Abilities that were used to kill each other… used to heal and bring back those lost… If only things didn’t end the way they did.” “We can’t change the past...and what caused the war was sad and regretful...but all we can do right now is look straight forward and make do with what we have and carve a better future.” I explain. “I’m not gonna have the past be the example of the future.” “Words well spoken. Tell me, have you run into anyone else who has had control of these forbidden abilities, but uses them for the wrong reasons?” “I’ve met two...maybe three but the third ran and the fourth had a handicap. One showed a sliver of doubt in her life of darkness and rage...one is consumed by it…but I have a feeling I’ll meet plenty more who would use their powers for evil...but where’s the fun if everything’s all sunshine and rainbows?” I ask. “Light can’t survive without Darkness, and Darkness can’t survive without Light. It’s a fact we all must learn, but some are just too blinded by one side they can’t figure that out...but I’m in the middle of both...for I am wise and stupid, sad but happy...I am Nothing.” I say. ”Can I stop talking like a fucking philosopher for ten fucking seconds?” “In other words, still in puberty?” Locus joked, causing everyone to laugh… even the Dusk. “Okay okay, that got me pretty good.” I wipe a tear from my eye from laughing to much. Joy? It’s...how? The Dusk asks me and only me, the being looking over at me and tilting it’s head. “Sometimes dad jokes are just so good even Nothing can find Something.” I smile. Luna and I headed home after dinner with her parents… Chrysalis joined in the dinner and… well, Faust did faint, but that was because of the tongue kissing she and Celestia did. All was good, life was still nothing more than madness and the library was tame… wait, what? As Luna and I entered, we saw Time waiting for us in front of the bedroom door. “You broke her…” She stated, looking unamused. “Listen, she tried breaking my shoulders.” I say. “And you broke her mind.” “As I was going to say, she was getting super pissy over me giving a price that Princess Celestia was, albeit worried for a few moments, willingly accepted...by letting Celestia kiss Twilight…” I say honestly. “I mean she probably kissed Luna a bunch...and Pinkie, Rarity and Zecora…” I trail off. “She was drunk, no memory, well, clear memory, but she was sober then, and now, she’s on some kinda kissing fetish frenzy!” “Where’s Twilight?” I ask. “In the bedroom, with Pinkie, Rarity, and Zecora, all three covered head to toe in each others lipstick and saliva!” She stormed off. “What did Celestia do? It was a fucking kiss…” I whisper to Luna worriedly. “I am just as lost as you…” Luna admitted, gulping as we opened the bedroom door. Only for us both to be grabbed by hands covered in what looked like lipstick kiss marks and spit. “Get in!” I couldn't’ tell who said that, all everything became was a blur of kisses and lipstick. To be continued... Author's Note So yeah...this is a chapter. It's random, weird and a tad unfocused, but hey a normal day for Ben shouldn't be 'normal'. All I can literally ask is to please not hate me or BioQuill for writing this...mess.
Nobody's Moonlight“So...many...kisses…” I pant, not believing how many times these girls could kiss. So just to recap after me and Luna stepped into the room and then dragged to bed we were all into a kissing frenzy, all of our clothes on the discarded just so we could all kiss even more. If you’ve ever heard of ‘showered with kisses’ then I would have been in waterfall of kisses with all this. “I...love...you all.” I chuckle, a goofy smile plastered on my face after all that. I got out of bed and into the shower… lipstick all over your body is a pain to wash off… After that I dot dressed and saw Spike, Sweetie, and Time in the living room. “You look like a tornado hit you.” Time said. “You could say that.” I say, my smile never leaving my face after what happened. “So how are you three today?” “I’m meeting up with Rainbow today.” Spike said. “I’m gonna draw.” Sweetie said. “I am gonna try and figure out more of my visions.” Time said. “Sounds good…” I nod. “Hey Spike...mind if I try something real quick?” I ask, summoning my Duskblade. “What?” He asked. “I just...want to see something.” I say while grabbing the blade part and holding out the guard towards Spike. “I believe this is a ‘vow’ to gain a Keyblade….so grab the handle if you would.” I say to Spike, hoping this’ll work. He held the handle and I began to try and remember the words. "In your hand, take this Key... So long as you have the makings, then through this simple act of taking, its wielder you shall one day be... And you will find me, friend—no ocean will contain you then... No more borders around, or below, or above, so long as you champion the ones you love." With that, Spike let go of the handle. “That’s it?” “If memory serves then yes. I don’t know how long it’ll take but soon you will be able to summon a Keyblade that’s just for you.” I explain. “Core did something very different than that…” Time muttered. “I am not a Master, and I don’t know if I could just wave my hand and give people Keyblades, but for right now that’s all I got. I don’t want to do what Core does cause…” “It’s Inhuman?” Time Bell offered. “Exactly.” I nod. “Well I do feel a power in Spike that wasn’t there before so I guess we just gotta wait for it to appear.” “If that’s all then I’m off.” Spike said, getting up and exiting the library/house. “Alright.” I nod. “Let’s hope I can do that with the other girls…” I say. “At least...when they wake up.” “I’m sure it will be soonish.” A voice spoke from nowhere. “Why hello there disembodied voice. How can I help you today?” I ask, looking around for the being I knew was around. “Dak!” A large snake/chimera like creature appeared in front of me. “I was hoping to spook you… you really are an odd one.” “Hey Discord.” Time said. “Hello Time Bell.” “Oh I’m the odd one, but you can go around looking like that.” I frown, seeing Discord and still finding even his features odd. “Anyways Discord, what do you want? Cause I doubt you want a Keyblade.” “Keep the things… after the war I never really want to see one again.” “Another one from the war huh?” I ask. “Yes, I fought along side Sun and Moon butts parents. When I saw you had one is the news on TV I did get flashbacks… besides the point, I figured I should tell you a few things about my least favorite topics right under sanity and ethics.” “Like how bad cheese and chocolate milk go together?” I ask, just a random thing crossing my mind at this point. “That is delicious and irrelevant to my point. I’m here to see how much you know about the Keyblade war.” “I know it was a giant massacre, there’s a giant Graveyard filled with Keyblades that are rusting over, and a few guesses on what happened after the war.” I say. “I’ll tell you this much. There were two types of survivors. Those like me and the royal sisters parents, who fled the battle, and those who stayed… and committed near genocide… But that aside, how many Keyblade wielders do you think fought in the war?” “In the millions? Or billions?” “Literally ALL of them… you see, the impact the war had on the multiverse, quite frankly tore holes between the dimensions, meaning every Keyblade war in each reflection got mixed together and became one massive battleground. This is partly why some Keyblades if not most you see in the graveyard are more than just one.” “Yet I have a feeling there were groups that didn’t take part in the war at all...because there’s always those groups that just run away…” “There was one group that didn’t participate at all, and fled to the outer worlds, to keep the light alive… that war should have ended everything, but if it wasn’t for that group, we wouldn’t be here. But my point is, the tears in reality are not healed completely in the Graveyard.” “That doesn’t sound good…” I frown. “This means that the genocidal survivors of the Keyblade war that still know this, can hop from one reflection to another with ease if they know where to ‘slice’.” “Damn…” I frown. “But um...question, who were your master and Luna’s parents master? Cause if you three were Keyblade wielders then you must have had a master…” I say, not knowing anything that happened before the Keyblade war. “Back then things were very different, but I guess you can say my master was Foreteller Gula. There used to be five unions all Keyblade wielders had to choose one to be in, and there was no going back to go to another. The royal butts parents belonged under Foreteller Ira’s union. None of us made it to the Master title… the war hit first.” “Okay then….but would it be weird if I said a version of you is...a Keyblade?” I ask honestly, knowing I heard Discord from Zeke. “You think I didn’t sense that version of me? I could tell, he was much, much, younger than me though, so that reflection of me must have been born after the war in his universe.” “This reflection crap is very confusing…” I grumble, rubbing my head gently. “Multiverse theory is a bitch.” “From what I was told, there was only one universe, one reality, back when the worlds were one… the multiverse was a result of not only the world breaking up into the stars we know today, but the reality around the world breaking as well.” “Sweet lord…” I mutter. “But...I know you’re retired and all but...I have a feeling you’re time of being ‘retired’ is coming to a close Discord...I don’t know when and I don’t know if you’ll ever decide to wield a keyblade again but…” “Like those two, I’m never touching the things again. I may be a chaos spirit, but what I saw that day was not chaos, that was murder. I do know someone who might be able to help though…” “Please, cause I have a feeling I’m gonna need all the help I can get...and hopefully it’s a teacher cause I’m not sure Luna could teach me, my four other girlfriends sooner or later and Spike…” “His name is Luxu… and he’s one of the Foretellers… well, sorta. He had a much different role during the war.” “Why do I have a feeling it involves some sort of chest or box?” I frown. “Cause if the other Foretellers were training new Keybladers he probably had a job to….maybe hide something.” “Yeah, his master’s last invention ever before he disappeared. Only he know what’s in it, but getting to Luxu is… tricky.” “How tricky?” I ask with a frown. “Do I have to go through three magical volcanoes and Nothingness just to get to him?” “... We’ll be in Core’s world…” “Fuck that then.” I say while throwing my hands into the air. “I’d rather not walk straight into enemy lines just to find him.” “Core has bases in every dark realm reflection, but Luxu is on the one place even he fears in that place.” “Void?” I ask. “No, a place called Moonlight… the only light in the realm of Darkness.” “Sounds fun. Too bad that I’ll never be able to get there.” I frown. “I’m still too weak sadly.” “So are the heartless that get near the place. Core doesn’t even go near the place, he’ll never see us and I’m sure Luxu will be able to help.” “Hopefully…” I sigh out. “But getting to Moonlight won’t be as simple as opening a door and walking through it to immediately be there.” I frown, knowing that getting to a place so special as that it’ll be a nightmare just to get close. “I can oped a DTD just a few miles from it, though when we get out the Pureblood Heartless will start appearing.” “Well let’s hope I’m fast enough.” I say before tossing up my keyblade and my glider appeared. Discord held out his hand, and opened a DTD. “No need for that in a DTD, besides, that cloak of yours will be enough.” “I’m coming too.” Time said. “If Ben’s too scared of the dark then someone’s gotta watch his back.” “I’m not scared of the dark.” I frown. “There’s a difference between being scared of the Dark, and being scared of what lurks in it. Major difference.” I say. “That’s a scared child's logic Ben.” She deadpanned, getting and and standing next to me. “Why do you think people are afraid of the dark? Because of what lives in it.” “Whatever you say.” I say before disbanding my keyblade glider and grabbing my Duskblade. “Well, onwards to Moonlight.” We entered the DTD, and when we came out we were on a trail of sorts. “Moonlight is three miles ahead.” Discord said. “We best move fast.” “Right then.” I say before heading off to Moonlight quickly. As we made it to the two and a half mile mark till our location, a hoard of Neoshadows appeared. “Of course this happened.” I groan before summoning Xigbar’s Gun Arrow’s and pointing them towards the Neoshadows, firing at them and trying to clear a way through the hoard. The arrows looked like they did nothing, the Neoshadows taking the shots like bullet sponges. “Genius.” Time said, running up and punching one of them right in the jaw as it vanished in a puff of darkness. “Only Keyblades can work in the Realm of Darkness.” “This is literally my first time here so shush.” I say before disbanding my gun arrows and summoning my Duskblade and Vexin’s shield as I cleaved my way through the Neoshadows. Discord was casting defensive and healing spells on the two of us. He shrunk himself to about the size of Mushu from Mulan and was riding in my hood. “Just keep running. If a Guardian Darkside finds us we are screwed.” “I hate everything…” I grumble while continuing to cut my way through the Neoshadows, the hoard not looking any smaller as me, Discord and Time kept getting closer to Moonlight. Then, in front of us, a swarm of Shadow heartless, looking and acting like a living tornado of darkness popped in front of us. “Demon Swarm. These things are smart Ben.” Time said. “Oh what the fuck…” I groan. “So how do I kill that thing? Or is it obvious with the giant glowing orb that’s trying not to say ‘I’m a weak point’?” “Good luck getting to it. We gotta avoid this thing, or else we may-” Something slashed the Demon Swarm. “What the?!” When the Demon Swarm fell, who was behind it surprised me. Master Aqua. “Come on!” She shouted, running ahead. “What’s Aqua doing here?” I mutter to myself, but shrugging it off as I dashed towards Aqua. We followed her as she hacked whole hordes of heartless in just a few swings. No doubting she was strong. We made it to what looked like a building, glowing white like the inside of castle oblivion. When we entered… I felt surprisingly calm. “You all alright?” Aqua asked. “Uh...yes…” I say with a slow nod, looking around the place. “But...this is Moonlight?” “Yes.” She replied. “It was built here by my friend Luxu, a hiding place that does stand out, but repels the Heartless.” “Time? Discord?” I ask, hoping the two were still with me here. “Behind you.” Time said. “Here.” Discord said, jumping out of my hood and returning to full size. “How did you get here?” Discord asked Aqua. “I was saving a friend from falling into darkness. He made it out, but I ended up falling in his place.” Aqua said, looking sad. “Has any large amount of time passed in the Realm of Light?” “More than you can imagine.” I sigh out. “You’ve missed a lot Master Aqua, but I’m sure you’ll be able to go back to the Realm of Light and see for yourself.” “I hope. Did you three escape from Core’s lab?” “I did.” Time said. “But that was a year ago and I made it back to the realm of light.” “Why come back?” “Look out for this idiot.” Time pointed a thumb at me. “Hey!” I snap at Time. “You didn’t have to come along Time, that was your own decision. But no, I am from the Realm of Light, we came here to meet Luxu...I didn’t expect to see you here Master.” I say, wanting to be respectful to Aqua as a Master. “I was wandering the realm of darkness when that Core found me. Such a powerful darkness, even among the never ending darkness here, I could feel it from him the most. I ran to escape him, and that’s when I found this place and met Luxu. He was glad to have the company. Come on, he’s in the other room.” Aqua led us down a narrow hall until we came across a door with a large blue eye painted on it. She knocked on it. “Luxu, we have company.” “Send them in.” A rather young voice, maybe a year or so older than me, spoke. We entered, and we saw a guy in a black organization XIII cloak sitting on a chair next to a fireplace. “Now how did you three get here? Wait, Discord?” He got up and walked up to Discord. “Long time no see friend.” Discord said, shaking Luxu’s hand. “Hello.” I say nervously, making sure my crown was in it’s right spot given that I’m talking to someone very important, even more important than Aqua here. “Oh, hey. Who are you?” Luxu asked. “The names Ben.” I say to the young man. “And I’m...a special kind of Keyblader…” I say while scratching the back of my head nervously, not feeling right with pointing out I’m ‘special’ to two masters that are way beyond my own set of skills. “I see, your heart is partly dead.” He said nonchalantly “Well it’s coming back to life with the amount of joy I’m in all the time.” I say with a smile. “But...still a partly dead heart isn’t good...right?” “What starts a heart dying is lack of emotions. You look like you're getting better, but I can tell you still hang on to the anger and grudges from your past. You are still rude to others, and generally it’s because they say something rude to you. Word of advice, let that crap go, and you’ll thank me later.” “Trying to, but it’ll come to me. Having five girlfriends can help with trying to get a heart back ya know?” I chuckle. “It’s not just the ones you care about that you need to respect and care about, it’s the ones you hate that you gotta care about also.” “That is true...I showed one of my enemies care…” I say. “I hope she’s alright though.” “Oh, so then that’s what that was.” “There was a woman, Yellow as she was called, and I showed her sympathy. She was probably going to say thank you but...for some reason I doubt the ‘she’s a reflection of Core’...unless reflections can be gender bent then she’s probably someone else entirely.” I say, having thought about that whole situation a tad too much in my free time. “Then that’s what happened at their lab. Ha, Core must be pissed.” “What happened?” I ask curiously and worriedly. “Did something bad happen?” “Some time ago, one of Core’s labs exploded in a burst of light, I’m talking atomic bomb bright. After it all settled, they were chasing one of the Core reflections and she escaped through a DTL. One of those this deep in the darkness, she must have escaped with a fragment of the Grandfather Light. I could see her heart from where I was… it was pure light, which it was not before the explosion.” “That is very strange….but this ‘Grandfather Light’...does it have something to do with Kingdom Hearts?” I ask. “Kid, it made Kingdom Hearts! It made everything! It’s like our god in a sense, but it largely died off save for the pieced Kingdom Hearts made into the Keyblades. If they have a fragment of it, then it must have come from a powerful Keyblade to make an explosion that large and purify a heart that dark.” “Well here’s the thing...Yellow explained to me that Core, and all his followers that had hearts, literally ripped their hearts out and shoved pure darkness into themselves, forging their hearts into Keyblades. They are literally Nobodies with darkness for hearts...and they call themselves Demons because of that.” I say. “I know. The Grandfather Light undid all of that to that female Core! That shit can do literally anything! It’s why they fear it above anything and everything.” “Listen, I’ve barely been in this for barely two weeks, and I barely know anything.” I say while rubbing my head. “Jeez this is a lot to take in…” I sigh out. “So anything else I need to know right now that I’ll need to know?” “Just one.” Luxu leaned in close. “So who’s the cutie with the gears stuck in her?” “This is Time Bell.” I say while patting her head. “She is…” I start, trying to find the right words. “A Keyblade…” “I was one of Core’s experiments.” She said. Luxu took one of her hands and kissed it, making Time actually blush. “You are still a very pretty lady.” He added, making her face turn even redder. I smiled at the scene. “She needs someone special in her life.” I say with a nod. “Someone that she can trust...and looks like you could be one of those people Luxu.” I chuckle, seeing Time’s beat red face just looking so precious here. “I-I-I-I-” Time stuttered. “Anything you need melady?” Luxu asked Time. She gulped. “B- Ben needs someone to teach him and the others a-a-about Keyblades…” She managed to say. “She also wants a date…” I joke with a cheeky smile. “But yes, she is correct...me and many others need to learn so we can stand a chance against Core and whatever crap he’ll throw at us next.” I explain in a more serious tone. “Alright.” Luxu said. “Been wanting to get the heck out of here anyway. So Aqua, you coming?” “Wait, you had a way out of this darkness this whole time?” Aqua asked, disbelief across her face. “It would be weird if he didn’t.” I shrug. “I mean, he looks like someone who’s traveled too long of a distance. So it would be weird if he didn’t have certain ways out of certain places.” “Yeah Aqua, you think I entered this place without a means of exiting?” Luxu said. “I never said anything cause you never asked.” Luxu summoned the Gazing Eye, and shot a beam of light at the fireplace. It glowed a bright white, and turned into a… steering wheel? “This whole building is a gummi ship I built specially to fly in and out of the realm of darkness… I just wanna do one thing first.” He walked into a DTD, then immediately ran back out. “Now we can GTFO.” He said as massive explosions were heard in the distance. “How do you even know what the hell that means?” I ask with a frown, slightly confused here on how he knows some lingo from Earth. “My grandpa told me about it. He visits when Aqua is out sometimes.” “You have an grandpa?” I ask with a raised eyebrow. “Yeah, my dad’s dad? Duh. His name’s God.” Luxu grabbed the steering wheel, and the whole building began to move. “My dad went by Master of Masters.” “Wait WHAT!?!” I shout in disbelief. “You mean to tell me you're the grandson of God?” I ask. “Yeah, why? He sounds important to you?” “Well…” I start, taking a deep breath. “Um...I’m not sure if God would like this but technically where I come from...I’m apart of his imagination.” I say sheepishly. Luxu looked at me. “Oh… OH! So that crazy old man finally pulled it off! Ha!” “Yes yes the power of Imagination can make you do literally anything and everything.” I say with a frown. “I don’t understand and I don’t think I’ll ever understand how he did...that.” “No, you won’t.” Luxu deadpanned. “Now… what world are you living on?” “Equestria.” Discord said. “Ah, been there. Well then, off we go!” “That was a better landing than expected.” Luxu said. The whole ship was upside down and we crashed just behind Twilight's library. “YOU ALMOST DESTROYED MY HOUSE!!” I shout at him, holding Xigbar’s gun arrows and thankfully learning how to defy gravity in the moments we were ‘flying’. “But I didn’t! Now then… what’s going on with the white lady with the rainbow hair outside?” Luxu asked as we saw Celestia standing outside the ship on a monitor that appeared when the ship took off. “Oh for christ sakes.” I grumble. “Luxu you suck at driving just so you know.” I frown. “Never claimed to know how to drive this thing.” He stated, getting back up. “Is everyone else alright?” I ask, hoping Time, Aqua and Discord are fine. “I’m good.” Aqua said. “Saw my life flash before my eyes… I think I might just take a short vacation, because it was all just fighting…” “Never been better.” Discord said. “Been better.” Time muttered. “Well thankfully Aqua you can have that vacation.” I say honestly. “Now how the hell are we going to get out of this house that’s upside down?” I ask with a frown. “This place is probably a wreck after your crash landing.” “Easy.” Luxu punched a person sized hole in the nearest wall. “Like that.” “I didn’t mean destroying part of your ship but whatever.” I say before walking outside. “Relax, I can repair and build another one.” When we got outside, Celestia was there with a concerned look. “Ben? What the heck is this? And who are they?” “Okay so that is a Gummi Ship called ‘Moonlight’. The two people inside are Keyblade masters, the female with blue hair is called Aqua, and the man in the black coat is Luxu. And why this happened is because Luxu sucks balls and driving.” I say with a shrug. “Albeit I have a feeling I wouldn’t have done better cause I don’t know how to drive a gummi ship...or drive to begin with.” I say, going right side up and stepping down on solid ground. “I never claimed to know how to drive!” Luxu yelled as he jumped out of the ship and landed face first on the ground. “Dirt… I actually missed dirt…” “Son of the Master of Masters….I can probably see that.” I say, thinking that the Master of Masters would probably be a kind guy who wasn’t like a ‘all seriousness’ kind of man. “Anyways Luxu, this is Celestia, princess of the sun and very concerned alicorn at having your ship crash land behind her student, and my girlfriends, house.” Luxu looked up at her. “Sup?” He dropped his head back onto the ground. “He’s rather… eccentric…” Celestia said. “And sadly he’s going to be one of my masters...and the others I’m planning on giving keyblades to.” I say with a shrug. “But thankfully Aqua is the more...calm and collected then ‘face in dirt’ over here.” “I was alone in the realm of darkness for sixty years realm of light time and about a month realm of darkness time… I’m kinda crazy alright?” Luxu said as he got up. “Though I am kinda acting more like my father before the war…” “I can imagine.” I say with a nod. “Anyways...I suppose I should meet you to the students you and Aqua are going to have...after Aqua spends some time relaxing and taking a break from fighting.” “Sure, but quick question?” “What be that quick question?” I ask curiously. “Where the fuck is the nearest restaurant? I and Aqua have been living off of light energy for a long ass time. I wanna taste food damn it.” “Oh Pinkie~.” I call out in a little sing song tone. “People need food and a party stat!” No sooner that I called out to her, she dragged us all inside where everything was already decorated with food everywhere. To which Celestia and Luxu got into a drinking and eating contest. Aqua ate about two whole cakes, and it was a near repeat of my part. Difference being that I woke up on the couch with everyone passed out around me. Luxu was missing, and so was Time. I know I saw them pass out yesterday? “God my head…” I mutter while putting a hand on my head. “Well...might as well see where Luxu and Time are…” I mutter while getting up and gently moving myself carefully to the basement, thinking I would find the two downstairs in Time’s room. When I got there, I saw Time cuddled up against Luxu on her bed… both had clothes on, thankfully, and I just carefully closed the door. “Better not ruin that moment.” I mumble to myself with a warm smile. “Man last night was fun.” As I made my way back upstairs I noticed I didn’t see Celestia either. I looked up… just in time for her body to fall on me. “Hu! What?” She said as she woke back up. “Did I sleep defying gravity again? Why do I do that when I’m drunk?” “Mmmm” I hum, my face full of Celestia’s boobs and thinking that this was nice. She noticed where I was and jumped off me. “Oh! Sorry Ben. That was unintentional.” “I didn’t complain about a face full of boobs.” I say with a smile, my face red from having boobs in my face. “But sorry Celestia, I didn’t see you up there...and it’s alright.” I say while getting up. “Well consider yourself lucky Ben. You’re officially the first man to ever feel my breasts.” “And boy were they just as heavenly as Luna’s.” I say with a goofy smile. She laughed. “Well that was a one time thing alright? I should get back to Canterlot. Thanks to my needy girlfriend and now with parties like these I’m behind on paperwork. Oh, when Luna wakes up tell her expect her half of the paperwork in the mail, alright?” “Alright, I’ll tell her.” I say with a nod. “But have a nice day Celestia.” I say with a smile and a quick hug. “Thanks Ben. You act like I always imagined a brother-in-law or a little brother would.” She teleported away, leaving me in a room full of hungover mares. “Welp...better get the day started.” I say while starting to wake up all the mares and Aqua. “Come on, time to get up, we got a lot of work to do today.” I say. Too be continued
Nobody's discovery's and decisionAfter a while of people coming down from their hangovers, and when people were done throwing up in the bathroom or in buckets when people were busy with the bathroom, Spike and I decided to help get people breakfast, Spike with the actual cooking and me just getting people some Water or the soda Sprite surprisingly. “Don’t you think...soda is bad in the morning?” Twilight asks quietly, holding her head as her head still felt like people were smacking it with sledge hammers. “Surprisingly Sprite of all things can help with hangovers. Where I came from a study showed that caffeine free soda can help speed up the chemicals that cause a hangover and stop it sooner.” I say while taking a swig of the sweet soda. “That’s good…” I smile, glad to taste soda again while handing out the glasses of water for Aqua, Twilight, Rarity and Zecora while I put glasses of Sprite in front of Pinkie and Luna. “By the way, where’s Luxu?” Aqua asks, looking around slowly and not seeing the two. “He’s…” I start, thinking a little about how to say it. “He’s helping someone finally get a well deserved rest.” I smile softly, thankful for Luxu to give Time her first ever calm night of sleep. “Time is sleeping?” Rarity asked. “Yes she is...and the scene I saw was just beyond adorable.” I say with a smile. “How old is Luxu anyway?” Luna asked. “Well, that’s hard to say.” Aqua added. “He told me when he went into the realm of darkness he was sixteen, but that he was thirtyfive before that, fourteen when the Keyblade war hit, and now sixteen after however long her was in the realm of darkness. I think he can control his age. With what I saw Core could do, it wouldn’t surprise me really.” “Yeesh...and here I thought seeing Luxu and Time sleeping and cuddling together was nice now you're making me think about immortality here…” I say with a frown. “Or at least agelessness, that’s probably a lot easier then that.” There was a sudden small flash on the table, and a tiny Discord walked up. “Hey Ben, everyone.” He said. “Sup Discord.” I say with a nod. “How you doing this morning? Having fun not having a hangover?” I ask, taking another sip of my Sprite. “Last time I had a hangover was after I fled from the war. Lasted well over a hundred years… so can imagine I never touched alcohol again.” “I can imagine.” I say with a little frown. “So, what’s on today’s agenda? Cause I still have to hand out Keyblades to my girlfriends here and...have a feeling I’m gonna have to take a very important test soon…” “Sooner or later. I’m gonna show you something after you’ve eaten and such. I’d rather show you as soon as possible.” “Alright.” I nod. “Breakfast is ready.” Spike says, while I help out placing breakfast in front of all the mares and lady. “I read up on what to serve for breakfast, and apparently honeyed toast and eggs are perfectly good for such a thing.” Spike says honestly. Breakfast went on as usual. After that I did a few other small things then met up with Discord outside. He was back to being full sized. “Ready?” I summon Vexen’s shield just in case. “Um...ready for what?” I ask, not knowing what I need to be ready for. Discord grabbed my arm, and I felt how a dog sticking it’s head out of a moving car looks. When that feeling passed, I was in a barren wasteland… surrounded by rusted Keyblades. “I felt I should show you the graveyard.” “Still as barren and sad as a graveyard should be.” I say while looking around the area, rusted Keyblades as far as the eye can see but...in some places there wasn’t anything there when Keyblades should have littered the place. “Weird…” I mutter, not sure what to make of the Keyblades going missing. “So you noticed. Some one has been taking them. If they had found a new wielder then I would know, but they wouldn’t have left footprints everywhere.” “Maybe...maybe it’s Zeke…” I say while putting a hand to my chin. “That human Keyblade? The Keyblades from the graveyard he took them from are all stored within him. They’d vanish as if they had found a new wielder, this is not the Keyblades doing, nor his. But that was just one strange part, the other is further ahead.” Discord and I walked for what felt like miles. The further we went, the more I could imagine the battle, the bloodshed. We walked into a cave of sorts, where… Ventus was sleeping in a crystal coffin. “That is what’s new here.” “What in the hell's?” I say breathlessly, my eyes furrowed in concern as I saw Ventus in that coffin. “He...he shouldn’t be here…” I say worriedly, shaking my head at this worrying sight. “He should be….somewhere completely different.” “I know. I sorta entered Aqua’s dreams to see what was up with her. I felt something off here not long before you arrived in this world Ben, but this just makes no sense. And that’s coming from me.” “What...what happened to Castle Oblivion?” I ask seriously, finding this way too worrying. “He should be there...not in the Keyblade Graveyard...what the hell is Core doing?” I mutter the last part, knowing this has something to do with Core in some way shape or form. ”I mean technically we’re all fucking with time in some way shape or form but this...this is fucking with time to a whole new level…” I think to myself, my mind racing through all the possibilities of what could have happened. “I checked on that place before I came to you this morning… it’s fallen Ben, the whole place was swallowed in darkness.” “B-but how? That place should have been locked up tighter than Celestia’s willingness to date a man!” I say, not knowing why I compared Castle Oblivion with Celestia. Discord chuckled. “Not the time for a joke, but good one. I’m not sure either. Only Aqua and the Master Keeper could undo it, so I’m at a loss. I’m not even sure how this kid got here.” “Someone has fucked with time...to no end…” I say seriously. “Should we move the coffin? Aqua might want to know about this...she’s the one that’s trying to help him the most…” I say. “Let’s just hope Terra’s alright…” I mutter, having a feeling that if Castle Oblivion is fucked over then Terra is in major trouble. “Maybe. The boy’s heart is not with him, but he is the one who made that coffin around him, so it might be possible to talk to him.” “I would be the best...he’s technically a Nobody at this point…” I say while walking over to the coffin, hoping my heart would reach out to the kid with no heart. “How the hell did this happen Ventus?” I mutter. There was no response. I took a deep breath and stepped closer to the coffin, gently putting a gloved hand on the crystal coffin. “A kid that was supposed to be comatose made this? How in the nine hells…” I mutter, trying to find a way to open the coffin. “Try mentioning Aqua, or something familiar to him?” Discord offered. “Maybe…” I nod. “I met Aqua, one of your dear friends…” I say simply. “A nice woman, kind and smart, always smiling and just a great person to be around.” I say, even though I met her under bad circumstances and her being drunk. The crystal cracked. “Keep talking about these things!” Discord insisted. “How he’s even doing any of this is beyond me, but keep at it.” “Have you ever seen Aqua drunk? The smart and stoic Aqua bumbling around and giggling like a madwoman, oh lord was that quite a sight.” I chuckle. “But right now she’s doing alright...Aqua talked about you and Terra, how much she want’s to save you both and be together again…” I explain gently. “She would be the happiest girl in the world to see you awake and happy again…” I say, not sure if any of this will help crack the coffin more. The crystal coffin cracked greatly, it looks like one more thing might do it. “You can meet Sora in person when you wake up…” I mutter. The coffin broke, the crystals shattering into dust as Ven fell on the ground. “ …….s…….s…...sor…… sora……” “Good morning.” I say with a smile. “But yes, you can meet Sor-” Before I could finish, Ventus stood up. His eyes looked hollow, like when Xehanort first split him into Ven and Venitus. His Keyblade appeared, and he screamed an inhuman sound. I covered my ears, Discord did the same as he continued. He finally stopped, and spoke. “No… no… NOOOO!” He yells, as a dark aura cloaked his body and he went in to strike me. I summoned Vexen’s shield and blocked the strike, summoning my Duskblade in my right hand and swung straight at Ventus, hoping to keep my attacks from hurting him badly. ”What in the hell? Is Venitus doing something?” I think to myself worriedly, hoping there’s an answer to this. “Stop it!” He yelled as his dark aura grew. His attacks still coming. “Discord! Need some help to calm him down!” I shout, blocking his attacks the best I could against the berserk Ventus. Discord snapped his fingers, chains wrapped around Ventus, making him fall to the ground as he struggled. “STOP! STOP! STOP!” “How?” Discord asked. “His heart is not with him, how is that much darkness in him?” “Vanitas…” I mutter while pointing my Duskblade at Ventus’s chest. “Leave him alone!” Ven yelled. “Leave Sora alone!” He spat out. “Ventus listen! We have done nothing to Sora, why are you freaking out?” I ask Ventus, hoping to get some answers. ”Hell considering a few factors I haven’t seen or heard anything about the bastard…” I think to myself, having a feeling Sora might have went to one Equestria or another by accident. “Help him! Someone help him!” Ven kept screaming. “Keep that man away!” “Ven calm down!” I shout. “What man do you want Sora to stay away from? What the hell are you talking about?” I ask worriedly, hoping my worst fears aren’t coming true. To my surprise, Ven broke his chains, and pointed his Keyblade into the air. “SORA!” He yelled as it shot a beam of light into a sudden portal. When it faded, a heart floated out of it, and down into Ventus. When it entered, he passed out. “What the fuck?” I say simply, looking at the passed out Ventus and not really sure what to do. “Uh...want to...go back home?” I ask slowly, disbanding my weapons and gently picking up the unconscious boy carefully. “How…” Discord said. “He… his heart is back? Like he knew where it was…” “I’d love to explain at least...what I think of the situation but we need to get back...we need Aqua to see this…” I say. ”If Core killed Sora Riku and Kairi...then what the fuck is going to happen to the whole multiverse?” I think to myself worriedly. Discord nodded, and grabbed both my, and Ven’s arms and that rush wind feeling passed over and we were in front of the library. As we entered, Aqua spotted us. “Ven?!” She yelled, coming over and taking him from me. “How?” “We have a lot of explaining to do…” I say to her. “Let’s go inside and let Ven sleep in a bed….” Discord and I explained everything that happened to Aqua, she was shaking when Discord told her about Castle Oblivion, and the rest seemed to more confuse her rather than calm her. “But… if the castle is gone, then how did Ven get to the Graveyard?” “And how did he somehow get there in a coffin made entirely of some kind of crystal?” I add, still confused on that part. “But...all I can say is Ven’s safe...but Terra is another story…” I say nervously, knowing his situation is quite a special one. Aqua looked at Ventus and rubbed his arm. “Ven… what happened?” Ven moaned, which startled us. He got up on the bed and stretched. “Man… that was a power nap… Aqua?” “Ven!” She cheered, hugging him tight. “Wow! Aqua, I was just napping! You act like it’s been years since you saw me.” “Yeah...about that…” I say sheepishly. “As far as I know...you’ve been….asleep for maybe at least eight to ten years…maybe less.” “What? No way! Um… who are you anyway? And where am I? Last thing I remember was leaving Aqua and terra to finish their Mark of Mastery exam.” “Wait what?” I ask, tilting my head in confusion. “Did you...see anyone when you were leaving? Anyone at all?” I ask with a frown, knowing for a fact that’s not what happened in Ven’s storyline. “No… I was just waiting in my room for them and then… I think I fell asleep.” “You don’t remember any of what happened Ven?” Aqua asked, concern all over her face. “Remember what?” “You...have a lot to remember.” I say simply. “Aqua can fill you in on some things...I can fill in the rest.” I say, hoping my explanation fits the storyline well enough. “Wait.” Ven said. “So… Terra is missing, Aqua and this Luxu guy were in the realm of Darkness, and who is Sora?” “Wait...you don’t know who Sora is?” I ask in confusion. “You were screaming the guy’s name when you were flipping the fuck out when I got you out of that coffin.” “Sorry, I don’t remember any of that. But… coming from anyone other than Aqua I’d call you a liar. So, if this is all true then what the heck happened to me when this… Vanitas… merged with me? All I can remember was being in my room waiting for Aqua and Terra to tell me what happened.” ”Which is weird cause he was there when Terra and Aqua were doing their exam…” I think to myself. “But this Vanitas, the dark half of your heart, when you and him merged the X-blade was formed, and Aqua and Mickey had to fight you to stop Vanitas from causing havoc since he was in control of your body...in your mind however it was you two fighting to see who would be in control of...well you. It ended with you being comatose, Terra’s body and heart being in Xehanort's control while his Armor is...doing something, and a bunch of other things.” I explain as best I could. “I know it literally makes no sense but believe me it’s true.” “Wait… Xehanort as in the old guy with a bald head and silver hair?” “Yes.” I nod. “He decided to use you as a test subject to forge the X-blade, and when that worked and failed he stole Terra’s body by very forcibly shoving his own heart into Terra’s body…” I explain. “But that’s probably something you don’t want to know or something I ramble to much.” “You remember something about him Ven?” Aqua asked. “Sorta… I remember a big house, lots of kids, and he walked in and took me… the other kids wished me luck… Sunset Orphanage? … Right! That’s where I was before Xehanort adopted me!” I leaned over to Aqua. “The fuck is he talking about?” I whisper to the blue haired lady, not knowing a single thing he’s talking about. “We didn’t know anything about Ven’s past other than he was Xehanort’s apprentice. Ven, you remembered where you came from?” “Yeah… It’s still fuzzy though…” Ven spoke, scratching his head. “This is just so weird…” I say while scratching the back of my head. “You have amnesia that’s for sure...but it seems a little too selective…” I frown, finding it weird that he forgot literally everything from when he went to his room to now. “Well...we’ll figure it out in time in suppose...even though time is all sorts of screwed up at this point…” “Whatever the case, Ven is remembering things he couldn’t before.” Aqua stated. “He may not remember our journey across the worlds, but he’s finally remembered something about his own past. I’ve been worried since he came to live with Terra, Eraqus and I that he’d never remember.” “Yeah…” I nod. “But right now I have to do important things, you and Ven spend some time together...I think you still have a lot of stuff to tell him.” I say honestly, not knowing what sort of things Aqua’s been through in the Realm of Darkness. The day went on rather uneventful after that, besides the oaths I had my other girlfriends take. The things Ven said still rang in my head though, bothering me to no end. It wasn’t til dinner when Ven and Aqua finally came downstairs. “Hey.” Ven said. “Hey Ven.” I say, with a nod. “So, what world is this?” Ventus asks curiously. “Equestria.” Luna said, sitting at the table with a pile of paperwork Celestia promised would come. “Oh, so… Ben, you have a Keyblade?” Ventus asks, wanting to know more about me. “Why yes, yes I do...well technically two but...I’m not showing you that one.” I say before raising my hand and summoning my normal Duskblade. “This is Duskblade...a special kind of Keyblade that...was made out of a part of me believe it or not.” “From all the stuff you and Aqua told me, I believe it.” “I also have other special powers.” I say honestly. “But it’s best if I wait to show you, Aqua and Luxu. By the way where has Luxu and Time been?” I ask, wondering where they’ve been all day given I haven’t seen them for a while. “They went out while you and Discord were gone.” Sweetie Bell said. “Not sure where.” “Well as long as there having fun on their date I’ll be fine.” I say with a shrug. “They both deserve some time alone...let’s just hope they're not doing anything bad.” I chuckle. “Define bad.” I looked up, seeing Luxu and Time standing on the ceiling. “Nice trick huh?” Luxu said. “It’s just a gravity spell.” I say simply. “But what do I define as ‘bad’? Well...I could say you two were doing something me and Luna did after our date...but I’ll just keep it clean and say you two didn’t pull and pranks.: “We are not horny perverts like you.” Time said before giggling like crazy. “Though, what we did was pretty bad.” “We spiked the ‘non-alcoholic’ wine at Celestia’s Day court, the whole bunch of them were so wasted after one sip.” Luxu explained as he laughed. “Okay that’s pretty bad…” I frown. “Dude you do know you just made the co-ruler of a country a silly drunk during her job right?” I ask. “That’s not good at all...even if it’s funny that’s actually a very bad thing to do…” I say, knowing that sometimes you just shouldn’t mess with someone important when their doing something important. “That's just it! We recorded the whole thing on video, the nobles there confessed in their drunk state so many illegal things! They're all likely in jail now.” “Damn.” I say honestly, my eyes wide with the fact that in a drunken stupor a bunch of nobles explained their illegal doings. “Well...that’s something. So when are we going to get down to training? Cause while peace is a fine and dandy thing I’m still worried about Core...and sorry if it get’s in between you and Time here Luxu. I know you two love each other dearly, your cuddling this morning told me enough.” I say with a warm smile. “Fine… I’ll teach you some things tomorrow… but tonight, how about a few Keyblade facts?” “The things are actually sentient beings with minds of their own?” I ask honestly, having been shown that by Zeke. “Yeah, that's one. Another is that the ‘body’ of the Keyblade is flexible.” “I believe Terra has done that...and his Armor…” I say, knowing full well about the ‘Lingering Will’ in the Keyblade Graveyard. “Not like that. A Keyblade and all it's power are in the Keychain. The body can actually be anything the chain attaches to.” “I know that. That’s how my Duskblade is how it is right now.” I say, still having the Nobody designed keyblade out. “You miss the point, if the keyblade’s chain is taken off and attached to say, a sword, the chain altars the body it's attached to, changing it into how it looks.” “Huh...I thought only Keyblades could have the Keychains…” I say honestly. “But then how the hell can someone turn something like a normal keyblade into a giant fuck off cannon?” “Magic, duh. Spells and abilities made, and perfected over the years. Just takes practice and time.” “More magical mumbo jumbo bullshit.” I sigh out. “Makes sense. What other facts about a keyblade do you want to tell us? That your Keyblade actually has a human eye in it or what?” I joke, having always found the fact it has an eye in it a little weird. “That's besides the point. A Keyblade will keep it's wielder alive. With the proper training a Keyblade will allow you to control how you age, be it slow, not at all, or fast. You decide.” “No wonder why you're so young.” I say simply. “Or maybe that’s just the realm of Darkness doing something silly I don’t know.” “Kid, officially I’m over a billion years old. That was well before the realm of darkness crap.” “My god.” I frown. “Doesn’t life get...ya know a little boring after that long of a life?” “I keep busy. One thing I always loved watching was how the worlds and people change. Never static.” “Sounds about right.” I shrug. “But how does it feel having a girlfriend?” I ask honestly. “Cause having five is wonderful.” I say with a smile. “And no I’m not meaning it in a pervy context Time.” I add with a frown. “Well, this is the newest thing for me, never bothered because I outlived everyone. Time no longer has her mortality, so who better to spend eternity with?” “Sounds about right.” I nod. “Spending the rest of your life, even if it’s for eternity, with the one you love is always a good thing.” I smile, looking around at the ladies that I love dearly. “For once I’m with Ben.” Time said. “So Luxu, what's the place you're from called?” “Daybreak Town. After the war I… went around through all the reflections… only one was still intact so I hid some things in it then locked it away, and flung the world into the realm of light, well, closer into it.” “So we have Daybreak Town, which most likely takes place at Daybreak or sunrise, then we have Twilight Town, which takes place at sunset or Twilight...and then Traverse Town is always at night...what other ‘time of day’ themed towns are there?” I ask with a frown, finding that all sorts of silly. “Huh, well in any case, where be the food?” It was late in the night. For some reason I couldn’t sleep. I kept trying, but nothing seemed to work, so I got up and walked around a bit. Everyone else is asleep, yet I’m wide awake at ass-crack in the morning. I walked into the living room, turning the light’s on and just dropping onto the couch. “What’s worrying me?” I mutter to myself, wondering if I was worried about anything. “Is it Ven’s words? Is it Core messing with Sora, Riku, and Kairi?” I mutter while rubbing my forehead. “Christ…” “Not quite.” I jumped, looking and sitting up to see God standing across from me. “You’ve been well Ben.” “Nice to see ya again God.” I say. “But yeah, I’ve been well...your grandson’s downstairs just so you know.” “I saw, we talked before you came down… that might be the last time I see him…” “Why?” I ask, my voice mixed with curiosity and worry. “Is Core up to something?” “When is he not? Anyway, I saw you met Zeke, and brought back people. I was hoping you two would do that.” “Well it wouldn’t be right if we just decided not to resurrect the dead.” I chuckle. “But yeah, nice guy even with his family’s history.” God sighed. “And that’s why I am here. Next you see Zeke, tell him, and the others, I will be in hiding for… a while…” “Do you need some help?” I ask. “And...did Zeke say something bad about a missing loved one?” I ask, knowing that if Yellow kind of freaked about losing someone important than Core would probably do the same. “Your actions towards Yellow altered her. In the same day, she tampered with something my brother stole from the X-blade when it was with it’s second wielder, back when the world fell into multiple. That part of the X-blade cured Yellow, turning her back into the human she was… Unum… a reflection of Core’s wife he tricked into joining him.” “The Grandfather Light turned Yellow back into a human huh? Also why am I honestly not surprised to hear Unum was a reflection of Core’s wife?” I ask with a frown, feeling bad about knowing an important thing before I was told it. “So Luxu told you about that? Good. As for that, you probably assumed it already. Thanks to her efforts, Zeke now has two upper hands on Core, and he’s responding with rather sadistic actions. I have to leave and hide where I know he won’t be able to find me. He’s finally coming after my greatest secret.” “That power?” I ask while tapping my head gently. “Trust me, I’ve thought of that power before and how overpowered it, you better keep that power safe.” “That’s why I must hide… if Core is to learn how it works… He won’t need the X-blade to achieve his goal. Ben, I must also ask of you something rather… unpleasant…” “I’ve been suspecting unpleasant things for awhile...I mean besides that cheap one shot Unum threw at me that one time.” I frown. “This is your choice… if Core is to find me… he will make it known, taking the information and power from me by force… if he does find me Ben… please, find where he will be holding me… and kill me.” “Well that’ll be tricky because I have no idea where you’ll be if, or when, Core finds you.” I say, keeping my thoughts clear with the ‘if or when’ part. God smiled. “Just trust in ‘Xion’, she can guide you to me if the time is to come. Use her to end me, my life, and memories, will be erased from existence with one swing from it.” “But...won’t I keep all your memories?” I ask. “That was...one of the conditions about her weapon.” I point out. “Normally yes, but not when you use it’s special ability… Essence Eater… it will take everything away… even… earth…” “I understand.” I say with a nod. “I’ll make sure...and sometimes...you gotta leave the past to move forward. And I’m willing to take that step forward…” I say with a determined look on my face. “This is why I ask you Ben… your heart isn’t healed enough to fully understand what you have accepted… and it pains me to hope it still is like this when the time may come…” “I’m a bookworm, even if my heart was whole I’d understand the cost…” I say simply. “Really? THen you know killing me means mass genocide of an entire multiverse… everyone that ever has or ever will be gone…. No recompense can wash that much blood off Ben… think clearly now, even with a partly dead heart… do you have it in you to kill one… and simultaneously kill everything?” “You’re making this sound a lot worse than it already is.” I say. “You’d be doing what Core wants to do to our reality… I only feel I should make sure you understand.” I sigh out, looking up at the ceiling knowing my girls were sleeping up there. “Listen...I know that killing an entire multiverse sounds terrible...but...it’s for the best that the multiverse you made...doesn’t exist if it means all of creation can be saved.” I say simply. “It sounds cold hearted but...it’s just one of those things a hero has to do. Will I feel bad that I killed god? Yes. Will I feel terrible about killing an entire multiverse? Most likely, cause that’s how it is. But if it means I can keep my friends and family safe...then I’ll make sure to do my part in keeping everything safe.” I say, knowing full well the shit storm I’m gonna be pushed in. “But hey, as an old master once said ‘Yesterday is History, Tomorrow is a Mystery, but Today is a gift...that is why it’s called the Present’.” I say with a warm smile. God smiled. “Thank you child… you should go upstairs now… get some rest.” As Ben went back upstairs, and climbed into bed, God was suddenly cloaked in darkness… and Core stood in his place. “That was almost too easy… Zeke is gonna have quite the ‘party’ to host when the time is right.” With that, he vanished into a DTD. Too be continued...
Nobody's testI woke up early, the talk me and God had worried me, concerned me, and yet somehow confused me. Worried cause he had to go into hiding from Core, concern because he told me to murder him, but confusion because...it didn’t feel like God for some reason. I got up and got out of bed without waking any of my girlfriends up thankfully and took a warm shower and be clouded by my thoughts. ”God knows Core is going after him, that’s true...but somehow I don’t buy that ‘I need to hide’...shouldn’t he be in a world of pure light? If I were to kill God he said that I would basically be handing Core everything he wants, which sounds like complete bullshit to be perfectly honest…” I think to myself, starting to think about our entire conversation and pointing out the things that are right but the parts that were so complete bullshit it’s weird. ”Maybe I’ll ask Luxu...hopefully he’s alright…” I think to myself, sighing out and continuing to shower. After exiting the shower fully clothed and having my cloak and crown on I headed down to the kitchen to make myself a little breakfast, not entirely wanting to have a big one after what ‘God’ told me. ”Something doesn’t add up. If God dies then an imaginary multiverse is gone...not all of Creation….and if God dies than Core won’t be able to gain God’s knowledge. God would probably tell me that but Core could just as easily tell me that.” I think to myself, my hood up and covering my face as I continued to think things through. “Hey Ben.” Aqua says with a smile, seeing me sit down and eat a bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios. “How are you doing?” She asks, not seeing my face and not knowing how much thinking I was in. ”Wait! He said ‘our reality’ not ‘our True Reality’...why did he make that little mistake?” I think curiously, eating my cereal and thinking more and more about the situation. ”Technically my ‘first’ reality is back on Earth, this may be my new reality but still...but when he said ‘our reality’...something’s not right here and I don’t like it one bit. I think to myself, finding another part of our conversation that’s wrong. ”And what about ‘Essence Eater’? Why would God want me to do that on him? Why not go to Core and use that on him? Why couldn’t he just tell me ‘if I’m captured, kill Core with this obviously super overpowered ability’...God of Destruction and God of Creation...wait Core wouldn’t be so fucking stupid as to basically say ‘oh hey I captured God, catch me if you can fuckers!’...” I mentally trail off, eating my cereal before I stopped for a moment. ”Oh that SON OF A BITCH!” I mentally scream, clenching my spoon hard in anger. “Ben? Are you okay?” Aqua asks worriedly, sensing my growing anger. “Yes I’m fine.” I say simply, taking a deep breath to calm myself. “I’m just going through a conversation I had with someone important and calling out his bullshit.” “Who’s the ‘someone important’?” Aqua asks curiously. “Someone who thinks that they can play a bookworm.” I frown. “But little does he know that a bookworm always calls bullshit on things they look over. Now sure did the person have a good point or two? Yes. But was the overall conversation fact and I should believe it? On a second look fuck no.” I frown, starting to get pissed here. “What did this person say?” Aqua asks curiously. “Let’s wait for Luxu, he might help me point out this shit.” I say simply. ”I hope.” I mentally add, not sure if Luxu is fine with his conversation with ‘God’. ”As far as I know most Gods can shapeshift...should have immediately thought that…” I mentally groan, hating myself for not seeing such easy shit. ”Am I reading too much into this? No, no, Core is a crafty little bastard so I need to think things through...too bad I was tired as hell at the time.” I think to myself bitterly, not believing I fell for Core’s crap. As Aqua and I sat around I heard Luxu whistling, as I looked up I saw him walk in… holding a tiny ukulele? “Sup guys?” He asked. “Two things, one Stitch want’s his Ukelele back, and two did you talk to ‘him’ last night?” I ask with a frown, putting an emphasis on ‘him’ to make him see who I was talking about. “Wait, how’d you know I stole this from that blue fuzz ball?” “Not important and you should give it back, it’s not nice to steal things from good people.” I deadpan. “Well, more borrowed anyway. I did take it from his bed… but I left a note saying I’d give it back later, and he has my Wayfinder as collateral.” “Alright then. So let’s go on about the conversation you and ‘God’ had last night.” I say, wanting to bring that up. “Gramps stopped by last night?” “That lying bastard.” I growl. “Listen...I’m not a hundred percent sure and I think my brain wasn’t that well off since I wasn’t sleeping well...but I think Core pretended to be God and meet me.” I explain. “So technically yes, ‘Gramps’ did stop by last night Luxu.” “Shapeshifting… Neither Core or gramps can do that…” “Well somehow the fucker did and now thinks he’s played me like a fool. But thankfully the bastard was inconsistent as fuck that I can say that he is full of shit just as much as the Percy Jackson's first book 'The Lightning Thief'.” I state. “Well, whatever you referenced aside, the only reason I think he would have done that was an attempt at getting your other Keyblade.” “He said that it can revoke someone’s existence. Do I believe it? Kind of. But am I curious on why he told me about it’s power when I could easily use it on him? Hell if I know.” I shrug. “Memory Stealer?” “Essence Eater.” I say, not knowing if he meant the Keyblades 'memory stealing' ability or it's actual name. “That’s the special ability, the name of the Keyblade is Memory Stealer. Let me see it.” “The Keyblade has two abilities apparently.” I say while summoning Xion’s Keyblade, it somehow shapeshifting to look like Gazing Eye. “Or...three because it can take the form of whatever Keyblade is around...and decided to look like this…” I frown. Luxu took it. “I know all about this damn thing…” “What other special things surround this mystery of a weapon? Cause stealing away memories and giving them to be, not to mention being able to revoke existence is broken as fuck.” “It only works against someone with a whole heart. A Nobody, or even you with a partly dead heart, would be immune to it’s effects.” “I suppose that’s why I can wield it.” I say honestly. “Maybe I don’t know the half of it.” “I really wish gramps didn’t give this away…” “I asked for the weapons of thirteen special Nobodies, and I got a fourteenth, which is that, because he wanted me to.” “Xion…” Luxu muttered. “Clones are...very special.” I say. “I don’t know the full story behind that but...I believe she was an experiment that could wield a Keyblade incase a certain Nobody didn’t work out.” I explain, not knowing if he knows about Organization XIII. “I know all about that bullshit!” Luxu shouted, startling me suddenly. “Her… damn that old geezer…” “I’m sorry...but to be perfectly honest...I didn’t know you existed until Discord told me about you. I don’t know anything about your past, or who your friends were…” I sigh out. “I’m just guessing with what you do and don’t know…” “Xion… in your reality, the one you were born in… she was supposed to replace Roxas, but as you might remember from how… the story went… she originally had no face til certain memories and determination to forge her own identity took hold, right?” “As far as I know. She looked more like Kairi because of Sora’s memories seeping out of Roxas. But to others it either had her hood up all the time or, for some reason, looked like Sora.” I say honestly. “Yeah… I knew her… Took some risks meeting her using darkness to semi time travel. Mixed the land of dreams and science with darkness, I got some rather interesting results.” “That sounds...both dangerous and interesting at the same time.” I say with a raised eyebrow. “It was. When I was given Gazing Eye, I could see the future, and I saw her. I was alone at the time, so I decided to take the risk and visit her in her dreams. I made it so she would only remember my visits in her sleep, so nothing in terms of destiny would change for her. We became quick friends.” “That sounds nice.” I say with a nod. “So how was she? Besides…” I trail off, not wanting to explain what she was designed for. “... honestly, I would call her innocent with how she acted at times. When I saw her… death… I reacted, and the week before it was to happen, I copied all her memories and made this out of them.” He pulled out a Castle Oblivion card… With Xion as the image. “Everything she is, will be, would be, and was, is stored in this card. I keep it with me as a reminder.” “I understand.” I nod. “Oh, actually talking about things that have some hidden meaning that’s being explained.” I start before pulling out my silver Wayfinder. “Time told me that there’s something hidden in this thing, which is weird cause...normally it was supposed to be just a little charm between friends to remember each other by…” I say, not entirely sure about why Time said something about it having something hidden in it. He handed Memory Stealer back and took the Wayfinder. “Huh.” He said as he looked it over. “Thought only mine was like this.” “Say what now?” I ask while taking the keyblade and dismissing it. “Well, typically the magic within Wayfinders link the hearts of those who you care about, or have made an impact on you. Increasing your strength with theirs, but this one seems to be part of a set.” “Well...what set is it from? Cause I was just given it with the keychain to my Duskblade.” I say, not entirely sure how that’s supposed to work. “Oh… oh… Was it Core who gave you this?” “You know if the keychain and wayfinder he gave me are somehow homing beacons I’m gonna throw them in a pit.” I frown. “No, they aren't… This Wayfinder used to be… Core’s… grandpa told me that him and his wife used to have Wayfinders. His was Silver, this one, and his wife's was purple.” “Ya know I was about to say gold...but apparently not.” I frown. “Oh well. But this was Core’s Wayfinder huh? Why did he give me it? Seems a little weird…” “It means one thing… No more holding back… He held onto this for countless years, the fact he gave it away means he no longer wants to just ‘toy’ with us.” “Well then…” I frown. “Or he gave that away cause he probably looked at it and remembered his...dead wife…” I say worriedly. “She’s beyond dead Ben… back then, when a Heartless killed someone, they didn’t become an Emblem Heartless, the heart was consumed with darkness till it rotted and faded into void.” “Well...that’s one way to make sure someone’s dead.” I say with a frown. “She was the first wielder of the X-blade, and the only one ever to beat Core in combat, and she didn’t even use the X-blade to do it.” “Now there’s either two reasons why she died...either she was cheap shotted after a long grueling fight...or something even worse than Core is alive…” “Trust me when I say… there are much worse things than Core, but they had nothing to do with her death. She was killed by a… an Embodiment.” “Um…” I frown. “Are we talking about an Embodiment of Darkness or is it a specific kind of enemy that I should worry about?” “They’re the original Purebloods. Old as Light and Darkness, stronger than anything you’d think possible… even Core can’t hold his own against one.” “I wonder if there are Embodiment's of Light and Embodiment's of Nothing…” I hum in curiosity. “Well, for light, Keyblade’s are about it, as for Nothing? Only Nobodies made by a Keyblade wielder taking someone’s heart out come close to that.” “Okay then…” I nod. “But sheesh...even right now in this huge expanse of a multiverse there’s still so much that makes you feel even smaller.” “Grandpa once told me something from back when everything was one world, dimension, etc. He said ‘the reason we seem so small on a world so big is because if we matched it, the world wouldn’t be fun to explore.’ That kinda holds up with Multiverse as well.” “That old man.” I chuckle with a little smile on my face. “Well thank you for explaining everything. Now I know for a fact that Core is trying to trick me into killing God.” I sigh out. “Hell, he even said ‘if I’m captured, Core will make it known.’ which is a giant fucking lie, but the more important thing is ‘Trust in Xion to find where I am’.” I say while shaking my head. “Christ...but we better get to training if Core isn’t wearing the kiddy gloves on anymore.” “Exactly. From now on, you and the others will be training more… brutally. When Aqua and I feel you’re ready, we’ll give you your Mark of Mastery exam. After that… training will take an unorthodox route.” “I have thirteen weapons to master, and then I have to take my Mark of Mastery test…” I sigh out. “Then I have to learn how to master summoning Nobodies...then I need to learn to master a bunch more shit...holy hell I have a long to do list…” I groan. “Well I’ll go wake everyone up so they can get their breakfast and coffee or tea, then they’ll start their back breaking work, and I’ll start my everything breaking work.” I say, comical tears falling out of my eyes as I sadly imagine how much crap I’m going to be put through. After breakfast, Luxu, Time, Sweetie, Luna and I all met up at the usual training area. We all stood in a line as Luxu and Aqua stood across from us. “Now then.” Luxu started. “We all know for a fact that none of us properly stand a chance against Core or even one of his lackeys. To understand where they draw power from, you must learn the sins that drove them to such… darkness.” “Well if memory serves the Ventral family was the crime family. They literally did everything from murder, sending drugs, thieving, hell if they wanted to I have a feeling they would have actually wanted to commit a full blown genocide. The only one I know that isn’t a dick monger is Zeke, as he is quite a nice man if the X-blade leads to anything about his character.” I explain, knowing at least where Core could get a bunch of hardworking and skilled killers from. “Yes. But you must all now learn just how far your own sins can drag you. How deep the darkness in your minds and hearts sinks you... “ I summoned my Duskblade and Vexen’s shield. “I have a feeling I’m going to need these.” I say, feeling like I’m going to get attacked by a lot of things soon. Luxu walked up to us, raised his hand, and shadow versions of ourselves appeared and jumped us. Everything went dark for a second until I shook the thing off me. “A little warning next time before I scream ‘rape’...” I frown, readying myself for whatever is to come after that weird event. I looked around, and quickly noticed that only me and the shadow me were in the field. “Well...okay then.” I say before gently shuffling towards my shadow, my sword and shield ready to fight this thing. “Hehe, pathetic.” My shadow spoke, standing up as the darkness around it faded, revealing a copy of me, but it’s eyes… looked like Yellow’s. “Too dead to care, yet still you have fears.” “I’d call it ‘caution’.” I state. “No need to rush in on an opponent blindly.” I say, continuing to shuffle forward carefully, trying to find the proper distance between us. “So, you're my sins huh? Point something out that I did wrong besides ‘I don’t give a crap about things’?” “You did nothing.” The shadow said simply. “Understatement of the year.” I roll my eyes. “And nothing is what you’ll continue to do.” It says, raising its arms as if taunting me to strike. “Oh really? Well let’s test that!” I shout before leaping forward and striking with my sword. Now here’s the thing about fighting your ‘sins’, they are tricky as hell depending on what sins you’ve done. Mine didn’t do anything and yet nothing happened, my Duskblade just went right through it like it didn’t exist. “Wh-what the?” I ask before a force suddenly rammed itself into my chest, pushing me to the ground and away by ten feet. “You have done nothing for most of your life. When times are hard you don’t bother to solve anything, you do nothing but read.” It says, a force ramming into my right leg. “Bullies picking on you everyday, you do nothing but take it.” It says before another force it’s my left arm. “Nothing is all you know, and Nothing is what you’ll do.” “Shut up!” I shout before dashing forward towards the shadow, my entire body burning in pain from the force hitting me and trying to attack again, thrusting my shield at it first only for it to stop like it hit something...but sadly it was a good few inches short of actually hitting the damned thing. “Oh come on.” I groan. “Nothing.” It says before I started coughing, kneeling down and coughing up blood. “How does it feel, losing to an enemy that has done nothing to you?” “Lying bastard, you’re doing something and I’ll figure out your gimmick.” I growl, getting back up and wiping away the blood from my mouth. “If you think that.” It says as another swing from my Duskblade fazed through it. I jumped away from the shadow and dismissed my weapons before summoning Siax’s claymore, dashing forward and trying to hit it in the chest, only for it to stop mere inches from its black form. “How can something stop nothing?” It asks before I was blasted with another wave of painful force. “It’s happened before, and it’ll happen again.” I state, dismissing the claymore and summoning Xaldin’s lances, vanishing into the wind and thrusting to lance's forward, and yet again it stopped. “Okay this is starting to become bullshit!” I shout, being pushed back again. My sins chuckled. “My, such ferocity… must come from those bags of blood and flesh you claim to care for.” “THEY ARE NOT BAGS OF FLESH!” I roar, disbanding my lances and summoning twin laser swords, dashing forward and slashing in an ‘x’ pattern, hoping this time it’ll actually hit. Another force pushed me back, and I landed in water. I swam back up and saw my Sins standing on the water. “I believe this is where you say a witty remark?” “Go to hell.” I frown, summoning Demyx’s Sitar and plucking one of the strings, a jet of water shooting towards my Sins. It moved ever slightly to dodge. “Sad really, so many tears you cried in the past, now they are all just about gone. Vast and endless is this ocean of your past tears. To fill up eternity, we truly had a bad life.” “You don’t say?” I ask bluntly. “But right now we have a new life, and that life is full of joy and love...and this?” I ask while showing the water around. “Even if I may not have many left...they will be shed in joy instead of sorrow.” I state with a frown, dismissing the sitar and summoning a deck of cards that vanished in my hand before I brought up five and threw them all at him. “You need a living heart to cry in joy.” He taunted as he dodged all the attacks without effort. “That’s the part you have yet to bring back. You are a human Nobody. Only the few memories of your few joys let you mimic it now. You… we have no joy.” “And yet I have laughed, smiled, and loved so genuinely. I was told I had half a dead heart, but I only have part of a dead heart now. But I still have a heart that’s filled with love and happiness, that dead part will probably linger a bit more but it won’t for long.” I state. “It will for as long as you leave your joy to keep drowning in your tears.” I looked at the thing in confusion. “Um...I’m not really drowning right now...so that doesn’t work.” I say, feeling like I’m going to regret that. “You aren't.” He looked down. “They are.” I looked down at the water… my friends, girlfriends… my family was just floating under there! “Tick. Tock.” “FUCK!” I shout before taking a deep breath and diving into the water, swimming towards everyone in hopes I can catch them. ”Please...I don’t want to lose everyone...I don’t want to lose everything I have….I don’t want to lose my joy…” I think to myself, swimming quicker and hoping to get them before they actually drown. “Truth is… you suffered something similar back when.” My sins said, somehow walking next to me and talking under the water. “I believe that’s when all the pain began… the arguing they did, the divorce… the suicides. All because you didn’t listen to one simple order, you ruined your own life.” I tried to ignore my sins words, trying to swim faster towards the ones I cared about. ”Yes I screwed up....yes I ruined my life...but God...God gave me this new life, and this new life has given me so much...and I won’t let all that slip away...not again.” I think, wanting to save everyone. ”I won’t sit there and do nothing...I will protect those I care about...and all those I love… “Air’s getting little low there? You could swim back up, leave them… or are you actually willing to die trying to save them?” “You know I am!” I screamed. The water and everything vanished as only my sins and I stood in a white void with cracks all around. “Welcome to what’s still dead in your heart.” My sins said. “Um...it just needs a little paint and redecorating and it’ll be as good as new.” I say while looking around, feeling a little bad that I’m joking about the dead part of my heart but not really knowing what to say. After I said that, a new crack formed. “Keep joking, that slick mouth just breaks it more.” “Well that sucks.” I frown. “So...this is what a dead heart looks like...never…” I say trail off, having literally never seen what it would be and still a little taken back at how white and cracked it is. “How...how do I fix it?” I ask, reaching my hand out like I could touch it and try to mend it but my hand shaky and unsure about how to even go about this situation. “The emotions are there, but your tears aren’t. You fear what unknown joy can bring you. You’d rather look into despair because it’s familiar. You don’t have joy, because you antagonize it still.” “But…” I start. “Luna, Twilight, Pinkie Zecora and Pinkie...Celestia and soon Spike cause I really need to have my ‘bro time’ with him...that has brought me so much joy to my life…” “And yet here I am. Your antagonized joy…” “Okay honestly, how is making jokes or being sassy ‘antagonizing’? There are plenty of people with good hearts that make jokes or are sassy and they’re still happy with life…” I explain. “I mean sure...I’ve lost one of my parents...but still.” “It’s because you never moved on. You never tried to accept what happened and move on. You rejected others, kept yourself in solitude, and left me to rot… I became a part of your darkness… and your greatest sin… Rejection.” “Oh…” I mutter. “So...if I move on from my past...and accept what happened...I’ll be better?” “You still talk as if it’s easy. You don’t get it.” My sin raised it’s hand, and my Duskblade appeared. “You lost me long… long ago Ben.” “Well…” I start, summoning Xaldin’s weapons. “If you're me...then you know I’m stubborn. And I’ll get back what I’ve lost...it won’t be easy...never said it wasn’t...but this is my story, and my story is just beginning.” I state. “Alright then.” My sins pointed my Duskblade at me. “Let’s just see how hollow that promise it.” He charged at me, knocking the lances I threw at him to the side as he got closer to me. I raised my arms up, not in a taunting gesture but in the way one would ask for a hug. “Welp...let’s see how hollow it really is.” I say with a kind smile, ready for the attack. He stopped mid swing from my face. “... you… you aren’t serious?!” “Afraid of Acceptance?” I ask with a smile. “Come on, you know you want a hug.” He was hesitant, moving slowly. When he finally wrapped his arms around me, I heard the Keyblade drop and he started crying as the room turned a blinding white. When it faded, we were standing in a playground, and when my sins let me go… he looked like I did when I was five. “You kept your promise.” The five year old me said with a teary smile. “Of course little guy, I would never break a promise.” I smile, getting down on a knee and putting a gentle hand on his head. He hugged me again. “Thank you!” He yelled as he jumped off. “Oh, and now that we’re whole again, your Duskblade is no longer… the Duskblade.” “Oh, well let’s see what it looks like now.” I say before raising my hand and summoning my former Duskblade. It was completely different, the handle was like two crescent moons, a sun at the hilt, the blade was the body of a person, or the outline of one? They held their hands over their heart, and were looking up as two large wings were sticking out of it’s back to make the ‘key tip’. “I call it Reunion.” My Joy said. “Wow...it’s...amazing.” I say with a giant smile on my face. “Thanks. It...it means way too much for words.” “Well then, I best go play and find the ones who keep you feeling… well, my emotion. They should be rushing in here soon. Now, go wake up… Master Ben.” The child says with a smile, waving a hand gently before rushing off to find his friends. Everything went white. When I woke up, I was in the bedroom of my home with Twi and the others. “What...what happened?” “Ben!” Rarity, Twilight, Pinkie, and Zecora yelled as they tackle hugged me down onto the bed. “Thank goodness.” Twilight said. “The hell happened?” I say, my voice muffled by the women on top of me “You’ve been out cold for three days.” Rarity explains. “You’re the first to wake up.” “Wait what?” I ask with a frown, trying to get the women off of me. “Come on, you can smother me with kisses and boobs later, what the hell happened to the others?” “Mark of Mastery exam.” Luxu said, looking at us from the doorway. “Time takes a different toll, and for you, and the others, I had it placed in your realm of sleep. You were all to fight your past sins, and fears. So, how’s it feel to be a Keyblade Master now?” “Well besides the fact you lied about how we were supposed to train before the Mark of Mastery exam…I’d say…” I say before raising my hand and Reunion was summoned. “I feel whole...for the first time in so long.” I say, tears threatening to fall. “That’s what I was hoping for,” Luxu commented. “I lied about the training because the training I had in mind only Masters can…. Learn from and… survive… So, I conducted it then, rather than later. Trust me when I say, the powers you’ll have as a Master will allow you to have a chance against the training, and later on, Core.” “Okay then...but what about the others? If I’m the first one to wake up, after three days...I fear what the others might be going through…” I say worriedly. “Each takes their own time. My exam I was out for close to a year.” “How come my exam was so different?” Aqua asked as she entered the room. “Because your master was a big teddy bear who didn’t want you to be put through the hell that is a TRUE Mark of Mastery exam. You are a master, but you got the title the easy way Aqua.” “Well…” I start before my stomach growls loudly. “How about food? I’ve been out for three days and I’m starving!” “Sure. We eat, wait for the others, then train.” Luxu says before heading off to the kitchen. To be continued...
Nobody's down time“Ah~, that was good.” I sigh out, patting my stomach after having what I could consider an all you can eat buffet of food and cake. “That was delicious.” “Glad you liked it, we wanted to make it special for you when you woke up.” Twilight says with a smile. “Thanks.” I smile. “But hey...I’m a Keyblade Master now, I have a whole heart, and a new Keyblade. And I still need to master twelve other weapons, and those fuckers are going to be a pain in the ass to figure out all their special powers...does anyone in town know how to play a Sitar?” I ask curiously, knowing full well I’m gonna have to learn how to play the damned thing if I want to use it’s powers correctly. “I can!” Pinkie cheers. “How?” I ask with a frown before Pinkie somehow pulled a wooden sitar out of the ether. “When I was learning about all the kinds of parties I needed to know for specific people I found this and it was a great thing to learn, along with so many other instruments.” Pinkie explains with a warm smile. “I’m….” I start before taking a deep breath, remembering this pink ponies weird antics. “I’m not going to question it, but I’m gonna need Sitar lessons because...one of my weapons happens to be a sitar.” I say before showing Demyx’s sitar...which led to Pinkie giggling like a mad mare. “It’s exactly what it looks like doesn’t it?” “Of course it does!” Pinkie giggles. “Who even makes a sitar like that?” “This sitar is made to resemble the symbol of all Nobodies.” I state. “So thinking it’s that is quite a lot of disrespect to those I want to save.” I frown. “O-oh…” Pinkie stops her giggling and looks down. “I….I’m sorry…” She says sadly, causing me to sigh out and disband the weapon before getting up and walking over to Pinkie. “No need to be sad.” I say while hugging the pink mare. “I’m sorry if I sounded mean...please don’t be sad…” I whisper, trying to hug her worries away. “I-it’s alright…” Pinkie says, hugging back. Luxu came running down from upstairs. “Sweetie and Time are awake… also for some reason Time is pissed at you Ben.” Luxu said as he took a seat. “The fuck did I do?” I ask with a frown. “I did literally nothing to her, why is she pissed at me?” There was a sudden crash as Time somehow broke the ceiling, or her floor, and was standing right infront of me as she gave a HARD suckerpunch to my face… causing my head to go threw the nearby wall. “Man I needed to get that out of my system.” Time said, instantly cooling off. I pulled my head out of the wall and then walked over to Time. “Time…” I say before putting a gentle hand on her shoulder, acting calm in my furious state. “Why, in the name of all that is holy, did you hit me for no fucking reason?” I ask, giving a smile to her as my hand on her shoulder started to tighten and my self restraint working it’s best for me not to smack the hell out of her. “My Mark of Mastery. Made me realize I keep way too much anger inside and I don’t dish it out. That was for just being a little bitch. Man up Ben.” “Oh?” I say simply. “Well if you want.” I say before suddenly grabbing Time by the throat and ramming her into the ground hard. “How about instead of being a bitch Time you do something better than randomly smack people.” I growl, not wanting to deal with this shit right now. “I’m going out for a while.” I say simply. “Not yet.” She says. I look back at Time, and she snapped her fingers, and somehow… I was back to eating breakfast. “She really want’s to pull this shit doesn’t she?” I frown, starting to hate this situation. “Who?” Rarity asked. “Oh, just Time abusing the fact she can control time. Cause you know, her anger issues have to involve me for some stupid fucking reason.” I shrug. “Don’t know why, and I find it really retarded.” “Um… Ben, Time can only send memories back in time… You did zone out for a second though.” “Morning.” Time said as she walked in. “So Ben… any good dreams?” She gave me a sly grin. “Oh you know, the usual.” I shrug. “How was your dreams? Anymore nightmares or was cuddling up to Luxu helping you not have nightmares?” “Later. Sweetie is up too, we both are masters now. How’s it feel?” She asked, sitting next to me. “Well…” I say while putting a hand over my heart. “I’m finally whole...and it feels nice.” I smile. “After so long...my Rejection turned into happy Acceptance.” “Like a real victim of depression.” Time teased as Rarity left the room for some reason. “So… how was the wall?” “Something that I don’t want to deal with again.” I frown. “But you know, now having to deal with you being all ‘I’m just going to attack Ben for no fucking reason’ is going to be annoying as hell.” I grumble. “It wasn’t just for no reason. There was a version of you in my Exam and he really pissed me off.” “Oh boo fucking hoo.” I say. “Nobody said it wasn’t going to be easy, or that it wouldn’t piss you off, but taking it out on people in real life for no reason is stupid.” “You wouldn’t be saying that… basically it started with Luxu greeting me… and he kissed me, and when he stopped… it was you I saw…” “You could have just said you liked me.” I joke with a smile. “You want an express ticket to the moon?” “Listen how about you spend time with Luxu alright? I’m pretty sure you want to spend time with your boyfriend then with me. You hate me enough as is so why do you even want to be around me to begin with?” I ask honestly. “To apologize. That whole exam was just messing with my emotions and… making me remember what Core and them did to me… So I had to release some stress.” “Ya know punching me wouldn’t relieve stress right? Especially when you give me a good reason to hit back.” I explain. “And you did… then I made it all unhappen. Look, frankly the only reason I don’t like you is because… well, you remind me of my reflection’s Scootaloo… She went insane from the experiments… and now she works for Core.” “I’m not her. No matter how many times you say ‘I remind you of her’, I’m not your sociopathic Scootaloo.” I say simply. “Remember that, I may be sassy but I’m not her….” I say, trying to hold in my complaint about being compared to another person. “You just have that same attitude she did. It’s hard not to see her when I hear you talk. I’m gonna go hang out with Luxu, if we don’t come back don’t worry, it just means we fell asleep.” She said, getting up and walking out of the room. “Okay so that’s a good reason to worry…” I mutter to myself, not thinking about those two doing anything stupid but the fact that sleep could make the two vulnerable. “Whatever...I wonder what I’m gonna do today?” I hum to myself as I thought about things to do today. Not long after the event with Time, Luna woke up, we had a quick… round and now she and I were in front of Aqua. Since Time is Sweetie’s Keyblade and she doesn’t have any other, she’s just watching. “Alright then, Ben, Luna, you both are masters, therefore you should know some Master only knowledge.” “What sort of master knowledge?” I ask curiously. “For starters, the ability to bend light to your will.” Aqua raised her Keyblade up, and three orbs of light floated around her. “You can modify this into various attacks.” “I wonder…” I mutter before summoning Reunion and raising it, white and grey thorns starting to come out of it before a single ball of light was made, the thorns circling around it like it was protecting it. “Um...those are Nobody thorns right?” I ask curiously, wondering why the hell that happened. “And...is that supposed to happen?” “From what I know, it can be unique to each master. Now, there is something iven more useful you can utilize, but far more taxing.” A circle of light appeared around Aqua as a second her walked out of her. “Duplicates from light. Like illusions, but they can attack.” “Cool…” I say, not entirely sure if I wanted to try that yet since the first ball of light felt a lot harder to do even if it looked easy. “Hmm...I wonder if I could…” I mutter before snapping my fingers, three dragoons suddenly appearing. “Huh...when I was with Zeke I barely had the strength after summoning one...now I can summon three without a problem…” I say before waving my hand, the three vanishing without a trace. “So besides control over light what else can a master do?” “One last thing is the ability to lock and transform a world via it’s Keyhole. But that’s a last resort… and only a Master Keeper Keyblade can do that.” “Like Castle Oblivion.” I say, still not able to believe how Core managed to mess with it. “Yes. Exactly like that.” “Sounds fancy...but wait...wouldn’t a Keyblade master be able to unlock the world? I was told that it was impossible but still.” “Again, only with the Master Keeper. It’s power is to reshape worlds. It’s one of the five legendary Keyblades.” “Now what the hell are the other four legendary Keyblades?” I frown. “Cause I have a strange feeling that one of those legendary weapons can just so conveniently fuck with the Master Keepers ability.” I frown, not liking this situation the more I’m hearing it. “Well, they are called that because they were the first five Keyblades to exist first. The X-blade, the power to create and control how life and the hearts of life exist. The Master Keeper, the power to reshape worlds for better or worse, as well as the travel between them. The Kingdom Key, the true power of a Keyblade and what they stand for. Way to Dawn, the power of darkness, but to be used to protect light and the balance. And lastly, No Name, the Keyblade that controls time, and space.” “Well isn’t that just fantastic.” I say simply. ”And funnily enough she met the wielders of the Kingdom Key and Way to Dawn.” I think to myself. “But it just so happened that Core tried making a copy of No Name, which happened to be Time Bell...actually why the hell is that keyblades name ‘No Name’? Seems...curious to say the least.” “Because the concept of time itself is real, but we gave it a name, therefore, time has no real name, so it’s called, No Name.” “Yet so many names could fit for it but I understand.” I nod. “So anyways back on track before I start derailing everything, I believe we’re going to train on how to bend light?” I ask. “Cause what I did seemed easy but it...really wasn’t.” “Yes, for today, you are to do the two techniques I showed you until you can no longer perform them. That will be all.” “Right then.” I say with a nod. “Um...question...there’s such a thing as a ‘Door to Darkness’...would there happen to be a ‘Door to Light’ and ‘Door to Nothing’?” I ask curiously, knowing that what Zeke did with Discord was not a DTD like what Core normally uses. “From what I know… I’m not sure. I know that DTD’s are real, and DTL’s are a theory, but a DTN is new to me.” “Well...I’m just gonna warn you that if a portal appears out of nowhere then it’s not my fault...training with something new and given I have Nobody powers can...lead to some weird situations.” I say, giving a warning before I happen to do something stupid. “You want to go first Luna?” “Sure.” Luna focused and took a meditative stance. A ring of light appeared around her and two other Luna’s were around her. “Wow… now this gives me ideas~” She, and her copies gave me rather seductive looks. “Uh...I don’t think I can handle three Luna’s at the same time…” I say worriedly, my face turning beat red at the seductive looks. “Not in front of Aqua please…” “Settle down you two.” Aqua said, chuckling a bit. “I was thinking, Ben, if you can make fourteen light replicas of you, then you can have each wielding one of your weapons.” “Can I at least master the damn things first? They would work so much better cause Clones would probably be of my skill level...and right now my skill level is that of comparing a Shadow to an Invisible…” I sigh out. “Or in simple terms, I suck at fighting still.” “What I saw back in the Realm of Darkness proved otherwise. I can teach you everything a Master should know about Keyblades, but as for weapons, you might have to find others to help you there.” “That is true...I wonder if I can use specific Nobodies to help teach me…” I say with wonder. “I mean they can only teach me so much but still…” “Well, if it’s still around, maybe some of the people of Radiant Garden can help. They all seemed skilled in a variety of weapons last time I was there.” I face palmed. “Of course, why didn’t I think of that! I mean some of these weapons came from their Nobodies after all.” I say, accidentally letting that slip. “Wait?” Aqua asks with a raised eyebrow. “Oh um…” I start before sighing out. “Do you want the cliff notes or the whole explanation? Cause I have a feeling I’m going to have to talk to you about this…” I say, not entirely sure if Aqua would want to hear the story about my thirteen weapons. “Did something happen to Radiant Garden?” “Well…” I trial before, trying to collect my thoughts about how to start this entire conversation. “My thirteen weapons, yes including the keyblade, all came from what I call ‘Organization’ Nobodies, the kind of Nobodies that still look and sound human but are still Nobodies.” I explain. “I’ll explain more when we get to Radiant Garden...it’ll be for the best cause of...certain things.” “Alright then. So, let’s go.” “Right then.” I say before pulling my hood up and fixing my silver crown on my head before bringing out Reunion and tossing it into the air, the bike now instead of grey and white, was a mix of reds and blues. “I’d recommend you opening the portal...I’m not good with that stuff yet.” I say sheepishly, not wanting to open a portal then suddenly appearing in the sixth circle of hell. Aqua opened a gateway and her Master Keeper turned into her regular glider, but kinda looked like Ventus’s was morphed into it. She hopped on and Luna took a ride with me. It took a bit of time, but we found Radient Garden and and landed in what I think was the town square? It’s where Aqua fought Terranort, that’s all I know. “Everything here seems normal from the last time I was here.” “Yes it does…” I say before hopping off my bike and it turned back into Reunion. “But...I can’t shake off this weird feeling all of a sudden…” I say, summoning Vexen’s shield and ready for a fight. “Oh, why, hello there young fellows.” We turned around and saw Merlin walking our way. “I must say, I remember you young lass, been what? Nearly a year now?” “Uh, yes sir. I came because my friend here wants to master a variety of weapons he has.” Aqua replied. “Well then, you might wanna check with the castle guard and staff. They all specialize in combat up there.” “Thank you sir.” “If they give you any fuss, just say Merlin says to let you in. If that old child of mine Ansum has any respect for me still they’ll let you in.” “Wait what?” I ask while raising my finger up in massive question. “Did you mean that as...Ansem is actually your son or in a different kind of context?” “I would like to think myself his father. I found him as a young lad, raised him into the man he is today. Taught him everything he knows. You’d think he’d at least visit from time to time.” “Well…” I start. “He’s probably a busy man, and I have a feeling that specific kind of busy involves that entire castle.” I say while pointing to the huge thing. “Yes, he always dove deep into research even as a child. Brilliant by all means, but he forgets to take his time and go slowly. Just last year he hired a new apprentice right off the bat because he wanted to conduct an experiment about those with amnesia taking on new identities.” My eyes widened at hearing that. “Oh fuck no…” I say breathlessly. “Merlin, did this apprentice happen to have silver spiky hair? Tan skin and thin but strong looking?” “Yes, he was found with a blue Keyblade and armor wrapped around him of all things. Can you believe that?” “Terra!” Aqua yelled, running right towards the castle. “Sorry Merlin, we’ve got to go!” I shout before throwing my keyblade up into the air, summoning my glider and riding off, grabbing Aqua and making her ride behind me as we headed off towards the castle. “Shit, I didn’t think we were this close…” I mutter to myself, hoping we won’t be too late for Terranort to start attacking the others and make them Nobodies. We reached the castle gate, and the guards did let us pass at mentioning Merlin. We got off my Glider and I ran/followed Aqua though the castle til Luna and I lost her. “She must really care for this Terra.” Luna said, catching her breath. “Terra is Aqua and Ventus’s best friend. Aqua lost Ventus in his coma and she almost lost Terra to the Realm of Darkness, but she took his place...but I’m sad to say there’s a hitch hiker in Terra’s body which is terrible.” I say, catching my breath quickly and trying to search around the place. “Come on, we have to find her before shit hits the fan.” I say before bolting off again, thinking of the right direction to find Ansem’s study. After a few turns I finally caught up to Aqua… who was with the Terranort, and Ansem the Wise. “I’m sorry miss, but I have no idea who you are.” Terrenort said. “Terra you have to remember.” Aqua pleaded. “My name is Xehanort. And that’s… all I do remember. I’m sorry if I knew you before, but I don’t now.” “Young lady.” Ansem spoke. “If you truly are this man's friend then do you have anything to jog his memory? I’ve been curious about my assistant here as well since I took him in.” “Would ‘Gazing Eye’ give you any ideas?” I ask while walking into the room. “Please Xehanort, do you know what the ‘Gazing Eye’ is?” I ask, knowing full well that Xehanort is stuck in Terra’s body. “Gazing… eye?” Terranort asks. “Is that a spell?” “It does sound like one doesn’t it.” I say simply. “But no, it’s actually a Keyblade. I’m sad you wouldn’t know your own Keyblade Xehanort.” I say. “Hey Aqua, want to know what happened when Terra fought Xehanort?” “You… tell me please.” Aqua begged. “That old bald bastard decided, after Terra was succumbing to darkness after kicking his ass, rip out his heart and shove his inside Terra’s body. Terra’s heart is still in his body, but there was a little...hiccup with Xehanort’s plan...Terra’s Lingering Will, that is still in his Keyblade Armor in the Keyblade Graveyard.” I explain. “After Xehanort got his ass kicked he became an amnesiac and him being Ansem’s apprentice was going to happen either way.” I explain, going to leave it at that so I don’t sound like I don’t know literally everything about the past present and future. “Uhhh.” Terranort said. “That’s… quite a story kid… but nothing you said clicked at all.” “May not click right now, I’m not a doctor nor do I know much about amnesia, but it’ll come to you.” I say, leaving out that I know five people are going to get killed and turned to Nobodies while Ansem has to run and become ‘Diz’. “If you say so…” “Terra,” Aqua said, crying. “You have to remember. Remember our home, Ventus, master Eraqus.” Terranort flinched. “That name… why does hearing it make me feel guilty?” “Ansem the Wise, can two hearts live inside the same body?” I ask. “And if that is possible, would both hearts try to take control of the host body and gain dominance?” Ansem stroked his chin in thought. “It’s possible, the body would submit to the strongest heart, and that heart would in turn consume the weaker, but if both are of equal strength then they would be stuck in a limbo, or fuse together, creating an entire new… being…” He looked over to Terranort. “I propose that this amnesia is due to this man right here, having the heart of this fine ladies friend Terra, as the body is home to Terra’s heart already, but is battling against a heart that was once held in the body of the man named Xehanort.” I say. “Why he remembered Xehanort is because Terra was the last one to fight the man who took over his body, Terra’s ‘Lingering Will’ happened to inhabit a special suit of armor that then beat him into unconsciousness and was sent straight to Radiant Garden somehow and that is how the amnesia took place.” “That, that’s absurd.” Terranort said. “How can that possibly happen, no spells or science can pull off such a feat.” “There are things stronger than both spells and magic.” I say before summoning my Keyblade, Reunion. “This is a Keyblade.” “That… that looks like the thing I was found with… Well, sorta.” “Can I see it?” Aqua asked. “Um, sure.” Terranort walked us over to his quarters in the castle, where he opened a large trunk and there was Aqua's armor, all in pieces, and her Keyblade, Stormfall. “See, it’s just a strangely made sword.” Aqua picked up Stormfall, and it reacted, glowing a bright flash of white before us. Her armor also vanished from the trunk, and when Aqua pushed the button for her armor to appear, it did. “Never thought I’d see these things again.” “How? I ran test after test on those things… they were just hunks of metal.” Terranort says, flabbergasted at such an event. “What you had in your possession is known as a ‘Keyblade’, a weapon of light that is mean to protect those from the creatures of Darkness, like Heartless. The thing you also found next to the keyblade was known as ‘Keyblade Armor’, and as it says in the name it is special armor that can help defend yourself against magic and physical attacks. Only those chosen by Keyblades can use Keyblade armor and even then some forgo the things entirely.” I say with a shrug. “I understand this makes about as much sense as someone praising a single ant as a god but it’s all true…” I say simply. “If this is all true, then why wouldn’t I recognize someone who says she was my friend?” Terranort asks. “Why only that name… Eraqus? Why did that only make me react?” “Terra…” Aqua started. “Xehanort… tricked you into striking him down, because he tried to hurt Ven.” “What?” Terranort looked shocked, horrified even. “But I... I-I never killed anyone.” “You have never killed anyone.” I say to Terranort. “But the two people battling in your body have. Terra killed his master because he didn’t understand the situation, but Xehanort...Xehanort has probably killed many...and could have killed more.” I sigh out. “I’m sorry man, this may seem so confusing in every which way…” I sigh out. “Yes it is, and rather boring as well.” We all turned around… and Core was leaning against the wall. “Such dribble.” “The fuck are you doing here Core?” I ask, summoning Reunion and Vexen’s shield as I stepped forward to keep everyone away from him. “Simply put… I’m here to collect Xehanort. I finally found a reflection of him, and now that he explained what his intention was, I am here to gather more of him.” “He’s still Terra, and I don’t want you to get that greedy son of a bitch.” I frown, readying for a fight. “Please.” He walked up to me, flicked my shield, and I was sent flying thru the wall. “You may be whole now, but you still pose no real threat.” He passed Aqua, and walked up to Terranort. “This will only hurt a lot.” He jabbed his hand into Terranort, and ripped out a black heart. “Lucky that Terra can put up a fight, otherwise I would have had to take the whole thing.” Terranort collapsed on the floor, his hair turning brown as he fell. I quickly came back into the scene and didn’t like this one bit. Core let the heart float for a bit before Darkness formed around it… making the Young Xehanort from Dream Drop Distance. “Well, that was easier than what I was planing.” Xehanort said. “You’d be surprised how easy things can be at times.” A DTD opened behind them. “This was all I wanted, enjoy the ‘fight’ against me when it comes. If you live long enough to see it.” Core and Xehanort walked into the DTD, leaving Aqua to rush to Terra’s side. “DAMN IT!” I shout in rage, ramming my fist into an undamaged part of the wall I was thrown through. “I lead that fucker straight to help….” I growl, hating this situation more and more. “Damn it.” I growl, a crack forming into the wall as I punched it again. “Great...just...fucking great…” “Ooooouuuuucccchhhhh.” Terra’s body spoke. “That felt way worse than what I was expecting.” “Terra!” Aqua cheered, hugging him tightly. “You’re back!” “Yeah. Didn’t expect that, but at least Xehanort is out of me… even though whoever that Core was seemes to be way worse…” “He want’s to use Kingdom Hearts to bring about Void.” I say to Terra. “Core’s not the worst, but...he’s the worst in the current situation.” “Void? You know what, I’ll have the fill in explanation later, right now… I’m gonna do something I kinda have been wanting to do.” “What’s that Ter-” Aqua was cut off by a sudden kiss on the lips from Terra. My jaw dropped at seeing this before I jump up and down in giddy enjoyment. “The ship is real oh my god!” I say with a giant ass smile plastered on my face. Too be continued...
Nobody's travelsAfter Terra was done kissing Aqua the woman’s face turned beat red and steam billowed out of her head before she suddenly fell over “Uh...Aqua?” Terra asks worriedly, wondering why Aqua just fell over like that. “I’m sure she’ll be fine.” I say with a giant ass smile on my face. “T-t-terra...k-k-kissed me…” Aqua stutters breathlessly, moving a hand up to her lips in disbelief. “What did you mean by that?” Ansem asks me curiously. “What’s the last word for ‘relationship’?” I ask before the good doctor nodded in understand. “I understand.” Ansem says before Aqua quickly got up quickly, summoned her old Keyblade and started smacking Terra with the blunt end of the weapon. “Aqua stop!” Terra pleads, raising his hands in some defense against the very flustered girls assault. “You don’t just kiss me like that you idiot!” Aqua shouts, her embarrassed and flustered tone sounding like that of a girl from a high school anime finally being kissed by her lover. “Alright alright no need to beat up the poor guy for finally showing you his true feelings.” I say, stepping forward to try and stop the super embarrassed Aqua. As Aqua cooled down a bit, Terra basically told Ansem that he quit and the three of us walked around Radient Garden for a bit to sight see, and to find people who could train me in the other weapons. The ones in the staff I already have dates set up for training, and we were looking for some others who might be able to help. “I thought finding the other eight wouldn’t be this hard.” Terra said. “Well I mean we need to find seven cause a girlfriend of mine knows how to play the Sitar surprisingly.” I say with a shrug. “But yeah, finding seven masters of seven different weapons is going to be a fucking nightmare…” I groan before rubbing my forehead. “Where’s a pub? I’m pretty sure we can find at least one of those people playing cards and beating people’s asses.” I say, not entirely sure if Luxord’s human form was there. “Hey, huh?” We turned around, and saw Braig standing behind us. “Terra?” “Yeah-” Terra was speaking before remembering. “You were the one helping Xehanort!” “Oops, guess cat broke out of the bag.” His weapons appeared, and we summoned ours. “Listen, how about instead of losing your other eye in a fight you can’t win how about we all just calm down alright?” I ask, not wanting to start a fight right now with the one eyed gunner. “Besides, it’s a good thing we found you cause I have a...request of sorts.” I say before switching my Keyblade out for the weapons that looks similar to Braig’s. “No way…” Braig said, suddenly right in front of me and looking at my weapons. “These are the ZRX17 models! How in the hell did you get these?!” “Oh these?” I ask while looking them over. “I call them ‘Sharpshooters’, but I was...given these beauties from a friend.” I say with a little smile. “But the main reason why I’m sort of glad your here is because...I need help actually learning how to use these damned things instead of pointing and shooting like an idiot.” I say sheepishly, even though I had combat experience with the bloody things I would still like to learn from the person that actually knows how to wield the things. “Your friend must have really liked you to just give these things away, they cost over 9.7 million munny each and the energy core is forged out of the essence from the sun of whatever world they were forged on.” My jaw dropped at hearing how special these damned things were. “Holy christ…” I say breathlessly. “I...didn’t think they were that special...I mean there special yes but still…” “Heck yeah! These things have so much magic placed into such a slick frame, the upgrades are so expensive it’s cheaper to make them yourself, and they allow both anti-gravity, AND small time shifts for the shooter of up to fifteen seconds to stop time completely!” ”I thought time was Luxord’s ability? But holy damn these things are awesome!” I think to myself in joy. “Well that’s just absolutely amazing in every sense of the word.” I say with a giant smile. “So anyways my one eyed friend, do you think you can help me get the hang of these or are you too busy gawking at how awesome these things are like I am?” I ask, still not able to believe how these things actually had a part in why Xigbar had those powers. He seemed to be thinking the offer over. “Well… Xehanort promised me a Keyblade, if you can match, or top his offer, then I’ll train you pipsqueak. My price as a merc is rare or legendary weapons, and a Keyblade tops just about all of them.” “Ya know, I’ll tell you legendary info that you possibly never believe.” I say honestly. “Want to know what it is?” He seemed reluctant, but leaned in to hear. “Xehanort was going to kill you and string you along as his pawn because of your greed.” I whisper to him. He seemed to jump back at this info. “That sleazy backstabbing old coot! My greed may be my biggest flaw, but I don’t want to die because of it! I ain’t that greedy!” “True, but Xehanort is a crafty bald bastard.” I say with a shrug. “So anyways, think that’s enough to slake your price to train me? And maybe, if you're lucky and these two don’t stab you with a knife thirty seven times in the chest for the shit you pulled on them you might just be able to get a chance at learning how to get a Keyblade.” I say with a warm smile. “Also I’m not joking on these two wanting to beat the crap out of you.” He looked between Terra and Aqua, and gulped. “Uh, sure. My gummi ship is parked just outside of town… I can drive us to… wherever you guys are from… that all?” “Actually no.” I say. “How much of this world do you know? And if you know a lot can you tell me if there are...special individuals who have mastered certain weapons and abilities?” “Personally, no… Last partnership gave me this bad eye, but I know a place that might… just um… keep those two and your Keyblades under control… lot of baddies that will kill you as soon as they look at you.” “I’m pretty sure who we might meet will be nothing in comparison to what we have seen.” I say simply, dismissing my weapons. “Alright then, follow me. We’re heading to Knowhere.” “Why do I have a feeling that’s supposed to be a bad joke?” I ask with a frown. We followed Braig out of town to his ship, which was rather large, and the inside… holy hell this guy is dangerous. Every inch of wall has either a locker with weapons, a weapon rack with a weapon in it, and ammunition boxed all over the floor. “Sorry, I don’t usually have company.” “I’m pretty sure you should clean before you knock something over and hurt yourself.” I frown, not liking how this place is literally covered in weapons. “Like come on, every inch of wall is filled with weapons…” “I told you I collect them, guy’s got to have a hobby.” Braig said, taking a seat into the driver's seat. “Will be a two hour flight, find something to pass the time. Anything with a red label, touch and you might break it, green means loaded, blue means broken, and yellow means take it, I got lots more of them.” I sigh out and start rubbing my temple through my hood, not believing this shit. “Christ...anyways, what is this ‘Knowhere’? Cause it seems a tad weird when you say ‘we’re going Knowhere’ like it’s an actual place.” I say, not knowing that he said ‘know’ instead of ‘no’. “It is, a colony full of criminals and such, takes all forms of currency, and built in the head of a long dead Celestial being. Man, when you see it, imagine what the thing that killed it must have been, sends a shiver down my back.” We started to lift off, and soon we were heading off. “I’m sorry, but what?” I ask with a frown. “Did you say a Celestial being? Um...define please.” I say worriedly, not knowing much about this. “You live under a rock kid? Celestial being, a creature of unknown origin that’s been around since the universe. Massive, powerful, capable of some really cool shit. They’re just about all dead, save for some distant descendants they made with regular life forms.” “This is starting to sound like something from Marvel Comics.” I frown, not knowing if they would know a comic book company or not, but just spouting it out. “To each world their own kid, but with my experience, everything seems to exist somewhere.” “And I suppose ‘Everything’ just so happens to be a Celestial.” I say, not knowing if I was right or not and just making up crap. “Heck if I know, I’m no historian.” Braig shrugs. “Whatever, anyways how long is the trip?” I ask, feeling like just using my Glider would be faster. “Still got an hour and a half, just have a look around, got a shooting range four doors down the hall, just remember the labels.” “Thank you.” I nod before turning and heading off to the shooting range to get some training with my guns, not wanting to just hope that auto targeting with the things would always get me out of a jam. After I entered the shooting range I was shooting for a good while and was getting a little better, but I looked over and saw a few guns from earth. Huh, didn’t know these were here. “Well I suppose some things would still be similar...but then that begs the question...is there a version of Earth that isn’t imaginary?” I ask myself with a frown, finding that little thing odd. “But...if that’s the case then…” I frown, questions starting to flood my head with everything that might entail. “No, the doctor in Equestria told me Minotaurs and Griffons made the things so...maybe I’m just getting confused for no reason.” I shake my head, trying to not think about complex crap about if even the imaginary multiverse actually existed in the ‘True Reality’. “Hey.” I looked around, and saw Braig there. “Ship’s on auto pilot, we’ll be there in a half hour. So, you see my latest additions?” “Yes I did, and I must ask...where in the name of hell did you get those? And who gave or sold them to you?” I ask curiously, slightly worried about this whole thing. “Odd story, I got them as payment for delivering some packages before I came back to Radiant Garden to check on Terra. I thought it was a rip off at first, but ammo he gave with them was just too good to pass.” “Do you know what the person looked like? Any defining features or did you just skip over literally everything about the job because you wanted fancy weapons?” I ask, hoping to get more details about this. “Hey, that job was sketchy from the start. Who has a merc deliver bio-tech components and pays in weapons? Anyway, they guy I got them from and paid me with the weapons was some cyborg looking guy. Glasses, lab coat, had his brain under a glass dome, that guy honestly freaked me out.” “Are….are you fucking kidding me?” I ask, my body going stock still. “That place exists in this giant realm? You just handed something to a mad scientist called Dr. Gero...who is most likely working for someone you don’t want to meet.” I say before disbanding my weapons again. ”Are you fucking kidding me? Dragon Ball world actually exists? For fuck sakes that’s only going to make our effort a million times worse…” I think to myself worriedly. “Look, it was a job and I got my pay in both munny and weapons out of it, when you work illegally you don’t wanna be that picky about what you do, you just gotta be good at it.” “I know I know...but sometimes even if you're working illegally you have to have boundaries on what you will do and what you won’t do…” I sigh out. “But whatever, thank you for telling me Braig, now onto the part where you start teaching me how to shoot these bloody things, cause I don’t want to trust it’s auto aiming for everything.” “Auto aiming… Oh, that’s an upgrade. There are five in total for that model, so you’ll need two of each, save for the fifth.” “Can you tell me all the upgrades for the things?” I ask curiously, wondering what other specialness this thing can do. “First off, is that Auto Aim you said, second is the rapid-fire-tracer mod. Third are the Time-trigger fire mods, fourth is the extended mags, and lastly is the rifle-shot-bullseye mod.” ”He’s going to be so pissed when he figures out I have all those things…” I think to myself. “Alright then...but what do you think of this?” I ask before putting the rifles together and charging a shot, before shooting a big blue and black shot that bounced at a paper target and tearing the thing to shreds before it vanished. “Wow… I need to get a set of those… So you already have the mods installed… again, you must have laid that friend good to get those…” “Trust me, these babies aren’t the only thing in my bag of tricks.” I say with a little smile. “But I hope we’ll find some people that can help me out at Knowhere...but I doubt it cause things aren’t that convenient.” “It’s Knowhere, if you can’t find it there, then you pay someone to.” The ship landed in a docking station and we walked around for a bit, Braig leading us to what looked like a weapons shop. “This is the guy I buy some of my mods and weapons from. He should know about everyone who uses any kind of weapon.” We entered, and we saw what looked like Bobafett's sister. “Diana! How you been?” “So, so. What you in for Braig?” Diana asked, looking over me, Terra and Aqua. “Kid I’m with is looking for people.” He pushed me forward towards her. “He’s a… my apprentice.” “Oh, about time you picked one up. So, kid, what weapons do you use?” Diana asked. ”Okay I know that four are in Radiant Garden…” I think to myself before taking a deep breath. “Okay so I’m going to need to find five other masters, each one having mastered a Scythe, Kunai Knives, Chakrams, a Claymore, a deck of magical cards…” I trail off at the end, not entirely sure if I should mention Xemnas’s twin laser swords. “Magic cards! Didn’t think anyone other than the old gambler up at the casino had a set of them.” “Well…” I say before a 52 card deck appeared in my hand. “I hope he’s someone who likes a Fair Game.” I say with a smile. “But is there anyone else with the kind of skills I’m looking for? Cause not only do I have to learn from Mr. One eye here.” I say while moving my hand to Braig. “I have a crap ton of other weapons to master. “I can get you a list of names, contacts, aliases, and known hideouts. Though good luck with that gambler Dorlu.” “Trust me, I already have a lot on my plate as is. But thank you for this.” I say with a nod. “So...given that this is a ‘criminal city’...where would this gambler be specifically? Cause I have a feeling casino’s are literally around every corner.” “Yeah, and he played the owners for them, and won them all. He’s likely in the Gamora. That was his first major win.” “For some reason that sounds like a woman’s name.” I say, giving a half frown at the casino named after a woman. “Just expect a lot of strippers… of all genders to greet you. Oh, and Braig, that package arrived.” “Finally!” Braig cheered, walking up to Diana and signing some papers before a small robot came by and dropped off a box. “Been looking forward this this baby.” “Mind if I get that list? Also what’s in the box?” I ask curiously, not wanting to be in the dark about another damned box. “List will be in a bit son.” She said, as Braig walked over to me, holding a small, odd looking gun. It looked like a toy alien blaster from the 1950’s, but it had a blue crystal at the end of the barrel. “You have no idea how hard it is to get these things.” “We’re inside the head of a giant fuck off being of unknown power, at least to me, so hearing that something’s ‘hard to find’ sounds a tad bit bullshit.” I frown. “It’s not really.” Diana said. “That gun comes from a whole other dimension. Back when Celestials like the one we’re in right now lived everywhere, a ship of advanced beings came through here, and one of their ships carrying cargo was lost. Billions of years later, we found several parts of it, as well as a small hundred of those little things. They may be small, but they are as deadly as deadly comes.” Diana explains. “Well alrighty then.” I say with a little nod. “Who knew a gun that looked like something from cliche 1950 alien movies are actually really fucking deadly.” I say. “I’ll show you why later.” Braig said, holding the little thing in a pocket in his shirt. Diana gave us the list, and we headed off for the Gamora. As Diana warned, lots of naked… everything… We finally found a lounge area… where Luxord was sitting on a couch drinking a cup of brandy. I took a deep breath and stepped forward towards the human Luxord. “Hello.” I say simply to the man. He looked me over a bit. “You clearly are either desperate or lost. People of your groups type, save for blind eye over there, don’t come into these types of places for game, drinks, skin or drugs. So why are you here?” Dorlu asked. “Let’s just say…” I say before normal sized cards swirled around me and into my open hand. “I’d like to learn the rules so to speak.” I say. “And as far as I’ve heard you’re the only one who knows how to use these things properly.” He stood up in shock. “I thought I was the only one who had magic cards.” He looked around. “Look, I can, and will help you, but first, you got to do a favor for me.” “Not surprising to be perfectly honest.” I say honestly. “But anyways, what be thine favor?” “You see that wolf girl at the bar?” He pointed over at the bar. So other anthros are real too? “I kinda need you to… keep her distracted long enough for me and her daughter to pack up and GTFO this place, deal?” “You want me to distract a mother from beating your ass?” I ask. “Her daughter already has twins by me, and she only lets her live in the casino because she hates humans, and this floor is as close as I can get to her without having my legs bitten off. We’ve been meaning to get out of here for a long time, but that literal bitch has her own daughter on a shock color. I can get it off, but someone has to keep her occupied.” “Quick question...I know that you already have kids with her but...do you two actually love each other and not just for obvious reasons that could make it seem fake?” I ask, knowing that women flock to money and power like moths to a flame. “Money and power can make women do a lot of stupid things…” I say honestly. I received a surprise smack from Dorlu. “You smart mouth kid! That woman is all I think about! The whole reason I gambled for these casino’s was for us to live in luxury away from that mother of hers. Sadly as long as her mother is around my poor Crystal is nothing more than an obedient slave to her mother's voice.” The gambler could tell, even behind my hood that was concealing my face, I was smiling at hearing that. “Glad to hear that Dorlu. Don’t worry, I’ll keep her busy while you and Crystal go off. I thank you...and I’m sorry...I’ve been surrounded by assholes that would use their money and power to get whatever they want...I’m sorry for thinking that.” I say before checking my deck of cards and seeing all the cards having a bunch of X’s and O’s on them just as I thought they would. “I’m pretty sure I can keep her busy for as long as you need.” “Good luck, just remember… it won’t be easy since you’re human.” Dorlu walked off, and I got ready to confront an overprotective mother. I shuffled my deck of cards without a single thought about it, the cards feeling second nature as I walked up to the mother. “Hello ma’am, would you like to play a little game?” I ask the wolf in question. She took one sniff, and looked confused. “You smell human… but also Equine? You ever been to a world called Equestria?” “Yes actually, how did you know?” I ask, being taken off guard only to lead to massive curiosity at this. “Your smell. You smell like pony.” She took another sniff. “And Zebra?” “One of the laws in Equestria, due to the massive difference between males and females, is a male can be in a herd. I have five loving girlfriends, and one of them happens to be a Zebra just as you said…” I say with a nod. “But anyways mind if I ask your name?” “Nyla. So, you here for the furry ladies like most humans?” She said as she poured a cup if scotch. “I have five girls back home so no. I’m not here to cheat on the five women I love.” I say simply. “Hah, now that’s a laugh.” She said, taking a sip of the scotch. “Humans and men only come to Gamora for two things, sex, and sex. And trust me when I say, that even though they are the same word, in this building, they have separate meanings.” “To some men who live here that may be true, but I am not one of those dick blisters.” I frown. “You may have seen a lot of men just go about their lives doing that but thinking that all men are like that is short sighted and kind of stupid. Hell, I used to see women thinking that they are so much better than men yet flocked to assholes that treated them like crap when they could have easily been with someone that actually gave a damn about their feelings, needs, and well being.” She chuckled. “For a pup, you’re pretty smart human. So, you’re too young to be here unoccupied. Your family here, or you escape the slave traders?” “I have some adult friends with me…” I say before taking a deep breath, trying not to let my sudden anger show. “And you just saying the word ‘slave traders’....would give any decent bastard a cause for finding and beating the bastards who even dare treat living breathing people like property than as actual human beings.” “I get that the term ‘human’ on your world means more than just your species, as it does on many, so I’ll look passed that. But even the Nova fear the new slave traders kid. They showed up out of the blue and took over within a week.” I frowned at hearing this. “Do you know anything about these people? What they look like? Names?” “Got some freaky weapons, mix of magic and science, they often buy slaves more than trade, and the one’s they trade… do not look like they did before. They do something to them, and they look a lot like… That guy.” She pointed and I turned to look at the person… Jet! ”Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck!!! I think to myself quickly and worriedly, now understanding who was owning the slave trade. I could tell he saw me, walked over, and sat next to me. “Whisky.” He said, and the barkeep poured him a cup. I took a deep breath and tried to be casual about this. “So how have you been?” I ask Jet. “Upgraded.” He said, taking a sip of his drink. “Yay~...” I cheer in a ‘dear god why’ tone. “Sounds like you’ve been busy…” “Not as much as before. With Yellow gone, progress is much slower than usual.” “Yeah I heard a little something something about that.” I say honestly. “But I suppose this is one of your ‘me days’ or are you here on break from work?” I ask curiously, knowing that if Jet was here then he and some others were the reason for the sudden Slave trade. “Work, on break.” Jet says simply. “Ya know…” I start as I thought of something stupid to say. “Sometimes I wonder what would happen if we were actually friends instead of...ya know.” I say, not wanting to give the wolf details about our past encounter. “Unknown. My free will was taken from me when I became this. I only follow orders.” He took another sip. I sigh out. “Kind of thought that…” I mutter before shaking my head. “Oh well...I just hope someday you get your free will back…” “If you say so.” He took another sip. “I only follow the one with the stronger dark heart near me.” “Even towards your own death?” I ask. “Yes.” I rub the back of my neck, starting to feel awkward at this point and hoping that Luxord was long gone with his wife. “Jeez...this is awkward…” I say bluntly, not knowing what to say to the Invisible next to me. “Hey kid!” Braig said, grabbing my arm and startling me. “I need a thousand more munny for a three-way with some strippers, you got the cash?” To my surprise, Jet handed him the munny. “Thanks you stranger.” “No need sir.” Jet said… almost like he was told to do it? “I was going to tell him to fuck off but thanks for that.” I say with a nod. Jet shrugged. “His heart was darker.” “Greed and Lust can do that to ya...but Wrath…” I say, slightly hinting at Core here. “At least to me...that’s where it can manifest the most.” I say, not really knowing why I’m being philosophical to a slave bent to Core’s will. “Can I ask you something?” Jet asked, catching me off guard. “Uh...sure.” I say simply, trying to get my guard back up. “That man… his heart is darker than my current master, but my current master ordered me to follow her and only her, but that goes against my programing of ‘follow the darkest heart’... which is the right choice? Follow that man, or my master?” “Ya see…” I start. “This is where ‘Free Will’ comes into play. Even if you were ‘programed’ into doing what you believe you should do, it’s all up to you in the end Jet. If you want to follow that guy then whatever. But if you want to stick with your master then that’s fine as well. No matter how much programming you’ve been through, and even if you didn’t have free will, you still have free will to choose who you follow. Your master would be pissed that you disobeyed their orders but whatever.” “Do I follow my programing, or my orders?” Jet asks, wanting a clear answer here. It suddenly clicked in my head… so long as Braig is on our side, and if Jet follows him…”Follow your programming. Follow the one with the darkest heart.” I say simply, wanting Jet to at least be on our side instead of me having to fight the guy again even if he didn’t have Yellow to help him. “Alright then. New master uploaded.” He got up, and kinda floated over to Braig. “Well that was something.” Nyla said. “Why you have him follow your friend?” “Cause his old master is, as far as I know, a psychopath that takes slaves to have them tortured and tested on to look like that and be even more of a slave than they already were. So instead of being a slave but having a will of their own, they are a slave and have no will of their own.” I explain. “Also because that guy is my friend and I’d rather have Jet on my side then on the enemies side. “Makes sense to me I guess. Since you’re in the advice given mood, mind if I ask a question?” The wolf lady asks honestly. “Sure, I’m a good guy that want’s to help others.” I say with a smile, not wanting to reject others in need of help. “Do yourself a favor, don’t say ‘good guy’ too much around here. Last ‘good guy’ that got caught in this place was… well, death by sex… the other meaning of it. Anyway, my question is, my daughter likes this gambler, he owns the place, and every other casino in Knowhere, and he did it all by gambling for it. Is it wrong that I don’t trust him for that?” I took a deep breath, thankfully forgetting the part I didn’t want to know. “Is it wrong not to trust a gambler for owning casino’s? Well that depends, what’s the gambler like? Does he look like a greedy man that just does it for the money? Is he a man that just likes the thrill of gambling?” “That’s what creeps me out about him. He’s not greedy, just damn lucky. Those cards he plays with are magic, but they are made to play a fair game. He ain’t greedy, and that’s supposed to be a trait in gamblers. It doesn’t feel right for me to see a gambler without greed.” “Maybe it’s not for the money or for the casino’s...maybe he’s trying to gamble for something that’s a lot deeper.” I say. “Yeah, rights to see my daughter. She does have… kids by him already… but hey… sperm donor was a gambler and he nearly gambled me into slavery… I don’t know if it’s just my old emotions or fear for her to turn out like me.” “I understand.” I say with a nod. “It’s alright to have your fears of the past...but if you dwell on them too much they're doomed to repeat.” I explain. “But let me ask...how was this gambler to your daughter? Was he kind and gentle to her? Cause if that’s true...then I suppose he was gambling the most dangerous game of all...being able to be with your daughter, the one he loves dearly against a wolf that hates gamblers due to her past.” I explain. “If I’m right and he does love her with all his heart then...he would have gambled away everything just to be with her.” “She did say he gambled this place so she could live in luxury, and she and the twins do live in the penthouse… Crap, I’m the bad guy here….” “It’s alright.” I say gently. “A mother was scared for her daughter, worried that something might happen to her like what happened to you…” I explain. “But...they both love each other...and I think it would be for the best if you gave them your blessing, instead of being paranoid give them your okay to be happy...and maybe you could be with them and be a nice grandmother.” I say with a smile. “Hey, I’m old, but grandma? I’m not that old yet. My race live to be up to four hundred years old, and I’m bearly forty. Anyhow, tell them they have my blessing when you see them on your ship.” She gave a sly smile. “Grandmother is a term for a person with grandchildren, I didn’t mean to say your old...but really? Forty is considered ‘old’? I’m sorry but you look like you're still in your twenties.” I say with a smile. “But alright, I’ll give them your blessing...but how long did you know?” I ask, wanting to know how long she knew about our scheme. “I’m a K9 race, ears that can hear up to a mile away.” “I shouldn’t be surprised.” I say with a little chuckle. “But you sure you don’t want to see them off?” “I’ll be leaving this dump sooner or later. I’ll find you, I know where Equestria is anyway. Got some family that live there, and finding a human on that world will be too easy.” “Huh, didn’t know wolves lived on Equestria. I mean I was already told about Griffon’s and Minotaurs but not about wolves.” I say in surprise, knowing about Diamond Dogs but didn’t think wolves existed. “Yeah, we tend to make settlements far off the beaten path. Some place called Night Howl Crest. All I know is that it’s far down south.” “Alright then.” I say with a nod. “But I ask you this because you have a sooner rather than a later.” I say honestly. “You can come along...I’m pretty sure you’d love to smell Equestrian air instead of...this.” I say, surprised that my sense of smell hasn’t burned away from all the shit here. She seemed to think it over. “Well, been years since I last smelled fresh air… Alright, but you gotta help with my unfinished business first.” “And what would that be?” I ask, having a feeling it’s going to be one fetch quest after another here. “It better not be distract a mother that could beat a grown man easily.” “I ain’t you kid. No, I got a… friend that disappeared two days ago… this goes with your hating the slave traders, because it’s not uncommon for them to take visitors that are new to this place. If she’s there then you gotta break her out fast, or she might end up like tall and ugly floating next to your friend over there.” “Listen I don’t want to know what Captain One Eye is doing right now.” I say honestly. “But who am I looking for exactly? Details will make this all the more better as I’m going to rush into a place where even worse people are in.” “Details I don’t got… but there is a guy here that might talk… he goes by Ramilua. Has a small shop two miles from here. Just ask for him when you get there.” “Okay then. Well this is going to be an interesting adventure. What I originally thought was going to lead to finding people to train me turned into a search and rescue...and talking to a mother to let her daughter be happy with the one she loves.” I say honestly. “But any defining features of the shop? Cause as far as I saw there’s an ass ton of shops around.” “Look for the pink neon rose.” ”Well there’s Marluxia.” I think to myself, hoping to add that person to my master list. “Thank you Nyla, I’ll find you when I finish saving the person.” I say before getting off of the chair, the cards vanishing before I headed out, hoping that Terra and Aqua were fine in this place. ”Let’s hope this won’t go poorly.” I think to myself worriedly. Nyla left for the ship while Terra, Aqua, Braig, and now Jet and I all headed over to the building with the big pink rose on it. When we got inside we were greeted with the scene of a… beauty parlor? “Greetings.” I looked to my side and my jaw dropped. Larxene?! “I’m Nelare, are you scheduled for an appointment or do you just want a quick makeover?” “Um…” I take a deep breath. “Two things...first is a question, are you a master of Kunai Knives?” I ask honestly. She was suddenly holding one between each of her fingers. “Yeah. I use them to cut hair, Ramilua uses a scythe to cut hair, but we both were trained with them to be assassins… We grew up here.” “Not to take you away from your work but mind if I talk with you and Ramilua in private? It’s...something important, for two reasons.” I say, not wanting to talk about things in public. “Sure. Hey Ramilua! You got a request!” She called out as a Marluxia with short pink hair walked out from the back room. “I thought she wasn’t coming toda- oh, who are you all?” Ramilua asked. “Hello.” I say to Ramilua. “Two things...one is a little...personal thing. Can you two teach me how to wield Kunai and a Scythe?” I ask, showing them both that I can summon the weapons at will, three kunai in my right hand and the pink scythe in my left hand. “And two...Nyla sent me here about helping someone.” The two looked at each other in surprise for a second. “Well… we can’t just up and leave the shop…” Nelare said. “Unless,” Ramilua added. “You can assure we can either start a new by making a new one, or getting us jobs at high traffic salons!” He finished with a little flourish. “I...can most likely assure the later. I know this wonderful salon in a nice town that just so happens to have many people with contacts to help give you two more publicity. It’s on another world but it’s nice and colorful and you’re more likely to pass out from too much candy then being shived.” I explain honestly. “But as I was saying before, Nyla sent me here to help someone...got any info?” I ask, disbanding my weapons. The two looked at each other and smiled. “It’s a deal young lad! Now… as for the info. The leader of the new slavers in Knowhere is an elderly human woman by the name of Nancy. She has lot’s of strange creatures at her disposal, and few sentient being’s that do the moving of… cargo. She’s not some pushover old lady either. I went down to those docks for a personal order and I saw her behead five life forms in one swing with some human weapon.” “What it look like?” Braig asked. “Um… was metal, no visible technology, handle was wrapped in cloth and the blade was rather thin.” “A Katana? Huh, I got my fair share of those things.” “Anyway, I can give you directions to the docks they park and trade at, you just let us know what ship to board so we can get out of this place.” Ramilua finished. “Braig will show you the ship, but where is the docks?” I ask curiously. “Also just so you two know a few others will be coming along...other people I’m asking for to be my master…” I say, wanting to warn them before they meet. “That’s alright.” Nelare said. “So long as we can finally leave this place.” “The docks they park at are on floor negative six.” Ramilua said. “Far in the back. If you hear crying you're on the right path.” “Yeah, this doesn’t sound like the set up to some stupid horror movie. Move around a creepy place and if you start hearing crying then you're on the right path, but if you start hearing the wails of the damned you’ve gone too far.” I say joke, sounding like one of those guides pointing towards the right direction out of hell. Braig took Nelare and Ramilua to the ship while Terra, Aqua and I went to floor negative six. It seemed to be largely restraints of sorts here, to our surprise, and we kept walking until we were far in the back… and the sound of crying was heard. We snuck around the corners until we saw a rather large ship, hundreds of people, humans and other, in cages with heartless everywhere. There were a few people with weapons, and standing just outside the ship, was what I guess the Nancy woman Ramilua warned about. She was rather old looking, a katana in its sheath strapped to her side, and she was looking at a locket around her neck with… a sad expression? “What’s our move?” Terra asked. “Hmm…” I hum before waving my hand, three assassin’s appearing before they phased through the ground and weren’t there to the untrained eye. “There’s a lot of heartless...and I don’t know how strong Nancy was...but that sad expression...hmm…” I mutter before taking a deep breath and thinking through this, the Assassin’s waiting for my command as I started gently moving towards the area, hoping to not get caught too soon. We snuck in closer, and I had the Nobodies attack the heartless swiftly. I summoned a few Samurai's as back up, and Terra, Aqua, and I began unlocking the cages. We dealt with the guards, and split up to cover more ground. “Anyone here a friend of Nyla?” I ask, opening another cage. “Here!” A woman’s voice called out. I opened all the cages as I went, and arrived at the one she was in, she was a mermaid?! “Nyla sent you?” She asked. “Yes and we better leave fast before shit hit’s the fan.” I say. “Um...should I carry you or can you change your...mermaid half into legs?” I ask, having literally no idea how Mermaids work given they were in so many mythologies. “My brother was taken into the ship, get him out and near water, he can help.” “Of fucking course…” I mutter before summoning Dusk’s to keep guard before bolting towards the ship, summoning my shield and Keyblade as I made my way through the place. ”Let’s hope this doesn’t go horribly wrong…” I think to myself, knowing that at any moment shit could hit the fan. I ran into the ship. The cages in here were empty, save for one… Demyx? I thought as I recognized that hairstyle anywhere. “Holy hell, someone did come!” He said, I ran over and noticed he had legs. “Don’t worry man, I’m gonna get you out of here.” I say before unlocking the cage and summoning my sitar, starting to strum the thing before a gentle mist of water surrounded Demyx. ”This is tiring as fuck…” I think to myself, even with second nature trying to take over it was still a pain. “Thanks.” He said, taking control of the water and creating a floating ball water. “This should help my sis out. Names Meyd, did Nyla send you?” “Yes, your sister is outside being guarded, now come on you fishy bastard we have some leaving to do.” I say before switching to my Keyblade and shield again. As we ran to the door, we were stopped by Nancy. “Interesting creatures, these Nobodies. The unnoticed other side of the coin when it comes to stolen hearts.” She said. “Listen, I’m just here to stop slaves from being taken away okay?” I ask honestly, readying myself for a fight. “But I saw you looking at your locket...anything I should know before I have a sword pointed at me?” I ask curiously, wondering if I could get a little knowledge about that. “Just mourning my lost family members. First my sister, her husband and my nephew… and most recent, my daughter.” “Where there hearts taken away?” I ask cautiously. “My sister and brother-in-law were killed before we left earth, and my nephew is missing, likely dead. My daughter was killed by a Keyblade wielder, but her heart was shattered in the killing blow, taking her and her unborn child’s life!” “Jesus christ…” I frown. “That’s….that’s just….fucking hell…” She raised her katana at us. “You and your allies all wield those accursed weapons. Whether you are guilty or not. I will have vengeance!” She was cloaked in darkness, rushing at us at much faster speeds than I expected. “So working for Core helps?” I ask while raising my shield swiftly, hoping to block her attack. “Who wields a Keyblade to kill innocents?” “His Keyblade and heart were stolen by one of you!” She swiped at the air, sending a energy wave of darkness at Meyd and I, hitting us both and sending him back some feet. “By who?” I ask with a frown. “A traitor!” She slashed at me, and I barely dodged. “Who you mean Yellow? What is it because she actually got some fucking free will and decided to ditch the bastard? Besides, from what I figured out Yellow was his wife who he tricked into thinking was a female version of him.” I say before swinging my Keyblade at the woman quickly, hoping to actually hit the much quicker foe. She blocked it. Damn that Katana is strong. And deflected it. She slashed again, and cut my arm. “When you care about the ones you love when drowned in your own sorrows and guilt… you do anything just to hold onto the past.” “THE PAST ONLY MAKES THINGS WORSE!” I roar at her as I shield bashed her. “If you focus on the past then you’re only going to be a depressed mess that will cling to literally anything good or bad! Look towards the future and try to find some sort of light!” She merely looked at me. “I am a Ventral, darkness is what we thrive in, what we strive to become! My closest loved ones may be gone, but Core can let us live our dream. We will become human demons!” She suddenly closed the gap between us in an eye blink. I was ready to take the attack, only to open my eyes and see water holding her back. “Hit her dang it!” I heard Meyd say. “That won’t hold forever!” I growled before my Keyblade started glowing a bright white as I slashed the women bound in water, the strike managing to hit her thankfully as the light turned to thorns and suddenly shot into her from where I struck her, twisting and turning around in her body like a bunch of snakes trying to wrap around it’s prey. “Human demons my ass.” I growl, swinging again dealing the final blow as more thorns struck out at her and ripped at her insides. She coughed up blood as she fell when the water holding her let go. “Heh… heh.” She placed her Katana on the side, and her pendent over it. “Sister… brother… daughter… I’ll be seeing you.” To my surprise, her body began to crack, like glass. The cracks kept going, and then, she shattered, nothing left of her other than blood and shards of glass. Did… Did I just kill her? “You finally went to where you belong ‘demon’...in hell.” I frown, taking a deep breath as I tried to calm myself from killing someone. ”Just calm down...self defense after all. She tried killing you and she didn’t give me a choice. She wanted to be a demon so I killed a demon. There’s a point…” I thing before taking another deep breath, this time shakier as my body shuddered. “C-come on Meyd...let’s go meet your sister.” I say, walking off outside the ship. “Sure…” He said, catching up to me. “Um. I grabbed these.” He showed he was holding the Katana and Pendant. “There’s two pictures in the pendant.” I took it and opened it. On the right, was the picture of a blond haired woman with blue eyes, leaning against and smiling at a tall, dirty blond man with green eyes. On the left, were four people, one was a girl… I’m guessing her daughter… two men, one holding the Katana she was using… and Zeke?! “No matter how much they try to forsake their humanity and try to act like demons...they still love each other…” I mutter, still not believing Zeke was in that picture of all people but still. I took a deep breath and closed the pendant and grabbed the Katana. “Meyd, mind if you and your sister come with me and a few friends?” “Sure, we only came here looking for odd jobs and got grabbed. I wanna put this place as far behind me as possible.” He said. “You're not the only one man.” I sigh out. “You're not the only one…” I say before heading off, seeing the Nobodies defending the freed slaves like I ordered and finding Terra and Aqua. “You two okay?” “Yeah.” Aqua said. “So…” Terra said. “Where are we taking them?” “Braig is gonna fucking hate me for this…” I grumble. “But I still have two other masters to find, but um...can you take Terra to Ponyville and get Luxu to fix his gummi ship? And someone that actually know’s how to pilot fly the fucking thing? Cause I don’t want these innocent people to die because of his shitty piloting.” I say, wanting Luxu to be here to help the innocents here. “Will do.” Aqua said. As she and Terra jumped on their gliders and left, I was standing around the others. “I don’t suppose any of you know about chakrams or claymore’s?” I ask curiously, hoping someone might be able to help me here. “I think I know someone in my world who can use chakrams.” A kid spoke up. “There’s a man in either Radiant Garden, or the Olympus Coliseum that knows everything about large swords, Claymores are likely one of them.” Another person spoke. “I don’t think this is your standard ‘Claymore’.” I say before showing them the claymore in question. “I know it looks more like a club but it’s a Claymore...but thank you both it means a lot.” “It still counts as a sword though.” The same person said. “True, and I thank you. But hopefully without much delays a gummi ship will appear that isn’t a slavery ship and take you to a new world just so you can all get to grips with being free and then will be sent to your home worlds if you want.” I explain. “That okay?” I ask while seeing everyone nod. “Alright, let’s get going.” Too be continued...
Nobody's New Adventure part 2Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.
Nobody's New Adventure part 3Author's Note Finally! Done with this 30,000+ 3 parter is done. My god was this a behemoth for five different people to write. Am I happy with it? Yes but I feel it could have been more focused and...detailed I suppose but eh. For this chapter there is a special difference between all of our chapters. Some short and sweet that will segway into the next chapter, others longer and are just there to fill in the ending to make it different but either way. Hope you liked it. Nobody's New Adventure part 3 Ben walked through the castle halls, still clad in his white trench coat and his crooked silver crown resting on his head but seeming to have an air of loneliness even if he was humming something that sounded enjoyable. “Let’s hope I can get home soon…” He mutters to himself, barely being gone for a day or two and already being homesick and lonely. “Hey Ben.” Huxley called out, walking down the hall towards Ben. “Oh, hey Huxley.” Ben says with a little wave. “How you doing? Thought you had stuff to do that wasn’t here?” Ben asks curiously. “I was planning on leaving later today but I wanted to make sure Zeke was fine. I didn’t see him after I left...even though I asked you guys to come and get me when he woke up.” Huxley said with a little anger in his voice. “Weird...anyways did you at least catch the monster fight? I think with how the empire is it was broadcasted everywhere here…” Ben says, hoping he at least caught it. “I think I went to bed before it happened.” Huxley said remembering that he went to bed around nine or ten. “Well that sucks. I think they’ll be showing it again for a while at least.” Ben says, hoping that’s true. “But do you want to know the winner?” “Let me guess it was the Twilight Thorn right?” Huxley guessed. “Yep. It threw out two giant spheres of energy to help take it down.” Ben says. “It was actually close but Twilight Thorn add the edge in agility, brain power, and the mere fact it can summon a god damn spirit bomb at will.” “Sweet. By the way what was in that room anyway?” Huxley asked wondering what was in the room of hell. “Horrors you don’t want to know about.” Ben says seriously, an involuntary shudder going down his spine at remembering it. “Good to know...Is that Kira. Hey Kira!” Huxley shouted. Kira looked over and waved. “Hey guys. Whatcha doin?” “We were talking about the giant monster fight.” Huxley said. “Oh, yeah that was awesome! The others and I were watching the whole thing. I knew the Twilight Thorn would win, but Jenny lost the bet to Alex so she was grumpy the rest of the night.” Kira said sheepishly. “I can imagine, but frankly why would someone want to be upset? It was a giant monster fight!” Ben says with a smile. “But how are you doing Kira? Hope...things didn’t give you nightmares…” Ben trails off, referencing the Hall of Sins. Kira’s smile faltered a bit. “Nah, I’m fine. What happened yesterday was unnerving, but that’s to be expected in our line of work.” “I understand.” Ben nods. “Also just to mention, the Twilight Thorn wouldn’t shush during the fight...seriously try being super excited about a fight but keep hearing the thing ask where it’s heart is.” He explains. “But to give some context...given that I have a heart and summon Nobodies I can hear them talk.” “I just had a thought what would be in that vault of hell.” Huxley said. “I don’t know. What do you think?” Kira asked sarcastically. “Some kind of device that makes keyblade’s.” Huxley said “That’s a tad specific, but no.” Ben says bluntly. “Well it was a thought, I don’t know what’s in there.” Huxley said. “And it would be better if you kept it that way.” Ben says honestly. “Yeah, It’s not like that’s exactly what was in there.” She said nervously, while winking and sticking her tongue out. Ben patted Kira’s head. “That’ll do Fox...that’ll do.” He chuckles, finding her little antics silly. “Anyway I’m going to check on Zeke before I leave, see you later.” Huxley said. “Okay Huxley, stay safe. Kira mind if I meet the rest of the Foretellers?” Ben asks Kira. “I’d really like to know the five of you. And learn more about what you all have done cause I have a story or two.” “Oh before I go should I take Elzin to your world so he can tell you what happens in the other Equestria Girls movies?” Huxley asked Kira. “There’s more than one?” Ben asks curiously. “I mean it is Hasbro and MLP so I should have expected that but...still.” “Really!? Cool. But I should probably take this seriously. Cause it could depict the future of my reflection.” Kira said with a, slightly cute, serious face. “Has anyone ever told you you're serious look is cute?” Ben asks honestly. “A few times. Oh, and there back in the common area. C’mon!” Kira smiles before grabbing Ben’s hand and drags him along to the common’s. “Okay Kira calm down!” Ben laughs while following along quickly, finding her actions silly and causing his loneliness feeling to fade away like dust in the wind. “Well that just happened.” Huxley said looking at Kira drag Ben. “Bye guys!” Huxley said. “Bye!” Ben calls out to Huxley. “Okay now where am I?” Huxley asked looking around at the signs apparently he was in the abandoned area. “Huxley.” Suddenly, Lan called out as he walked towards him. “Oh good I was worried I would have to fight this ghost alone, now I got Lan and Megaman.” Huxley joked. “Yes, yes, I have the same name.” Lan said with a sigh, “And what’s this about a ghost?” “Nothing its just were close to an abandoned area and normally that’s where there are ghost’s” Huxley explained as a ghostly wail came from direction of the abandoned area. “Ah alright. So are you lost too? I don’t want to admit it, but this is a very confusing building. It’s difficult not to get lost.” Lan said tiredly. “Yeah I know and did you not hear the ghostly wail?” Huxley asked as the ghostly wail went again. “Yes, I have noticed that. But it’s probably just the wind.” “I was looking for Zeke but I got lost here.” Huxley said. “I was just roaming around, why don’t we go back to the guest rooms and decide where to go from there?” “Sure let's head back.” Huxley said. They retraced their steps, and after a while they made it to the guests room. “So now where do we go from here?” Huxley asked. “Well I’m pretty sure you could ask the guards to show you the way. Now I have to go to the Common area to meet with my team. See you later Huxley.” “See yeah.” Huxley said as He asked the nearby guard where Zeke was. “I hope your family actually likes me.” Ben says honestly to Kira, hoping to not make a bad ‘first’ impression. “I’m sure they will. The five of us are a band of misfits anyways, so you won’t be the weird one out. I hope we can share our adventures so far.” She said. “Well I have quite a story that would make even a band of misfits feel upset.” Ben explains honestly. “But um...I might be a little ranty just to give a fair warning...I tend to rant.” “Eh, it’ll be fine. Promise.” She smiles. Eventually, they made it to the common area where the rest of the Foretellers were waiting around. “Heyo!” Ben calls out to the Foretellers. “How you all doing? Did you catch the fight?” “Yeah, we all did. Pretty sweet! I knew that speed would trump brute strength. And I got 5 munny.” Alex gloated. Jenny just glared and blew a raspberry at him. Ben laughed. “Glad you thought it was amazing. Also how many times have you all told Kira is adorable?” Ben asks curiously, having thought Kira was a silly ball of adorable joy. “About, at least, twice a day. She does it intentionally or does a clutzy thing that is pretty cute.” Dan said, making Kira blush in frustration. “It doesn't happen all the time!” Kira defended. “Listen, I’ve barely known you for a day Kira and even I know it probably happens all the time.” Ben chuckles. “Anyways I should probably explain the whole ‘summoning Nobodies’ thing correct?” “That would be nice to know.” Dan said. “Okay so, just like Zeke I was given the ability to summon Nobodies, as well as have all fourteen Organization weapons. But the drawbacks are I can’t learn magic like normal Keybladers can, but I have ways around that if I think about it enough, and there’s the whole…” Ben takes a deep breath. “Hearing voices in my head.” Ben explains. “And no, there not the usual voices in my head due to past depression, no. Whenever a Nobody is around, whether I summon it or it’s just an ambient thing, because I have a heart I start hearing them ask where their hearts are...which in numbers can get really annoying or with the Twilight Thorn sounding like if a Giant decided to ask something in a giant fucking echo chamber...you get the point…” He grumbles, rubbing his head gently at the faint pain of a headache. “Sounds like a huge pain.” Alex said. “Don’t worry, I have had voices in my head before.” Ben says offhandedly. “Yeah...nothing like having half a dead heart before coming to Equestria...isn’t life grand sometimes?” “Well that’s the burden of power. It isn’t just swooping in and saving people.” Jenny said. “No no I mean literally before I even met God himself.” Ben says. “Remember when everything was going to hell back on Earth? I was in the middle of my school library thinking that the ‘End of the World’ was boring as piss. Then I learned that because of….circumstances my heart was half dead…” “Wow, that had to be ruff dude.” Alex said. “You seem fine right now.” “That’s because I accepted my sins...in my Mark of Mastery exam.” Ben explains. “Oh! So you’re a Master like us?” Kira said. “Yep. And with me, myself and I here.” Ben explains before summoning Reunion. “I finally have a full healthy heart with five happy girlfriends back home. Oh and also Reunion...the ‘me, myself, and I’ isn’t just a joke, Reunion is literally me if you didn’t hear me tell Luxu that.” “So that’s why it doesn’t feel like a normal keyblade.” Alex said. “And five girlfriends huh? Looks like he got you beat by one Lan.” He said with a smirk. “For now.” Jenny said with a matching smirk, and Lan’s displeasure. “Listen how about we not compare harems and just be happy we have people that love us for who we are alright?” Ben asks honestly. “It doesn’t matter how many girls we have, as long as you and your lover(s) are happy then that’s fine.” Ben says while putting a hand near his heart. “God knows I’m happy to have girls that love me…” He says gently with a warm smile. “Yeah, I agree with you there.” Lan said. “Ditto. I may not have a harem like the two of you, but I’m happy with my Pinkie. I’m sure Dan can say the same about Rainbow.” Alex said, with Dan coughing and looking away. “Okay so besides our love lives how about we talk adventures, I’m pretty sure I have the most to talk about since I went inside a Celestial Being’s hollowed out skull.” Ben says, already feeling like he’s going to be great friends with the Foretellers. Eclipse yawned and stretched awake as he rolled out of bed. “Man, these beds are nice.” He walked over to Oathkeeper, her body still bent and dented. “Listen Oath, I-” I’m sorry. “...What?” I said I’m sorry. I...I was so caught up in Oblivion and trying to get you ready so we can go get him back that I-I forgot that you are hurting to. I ignored it because I wanted my brother back. I ignored my Wielder. I ignored you. “Oath, there is nothing to be sorry for. I would act the same way and you know Oblivion sure as hell would. You're worried about not only your brother, but your twin. You are his light, and he is your darkness. You need each other, help each other, and despite your arguments I can tell you love each other. I...I just wish I could have made peace with my darkness so we could have him back, I miss the guy already.” Eclipse says looking out the window. .....There might be a way…. But it’s risky and goes against one of the many rules us keyblades follow. After hearing Oathkeeper’s plan, Eclipse smiles. “Well, I was never one for tradition anyways. We can do it, after we get you repaired, and I keep my promise to X and open that orphanage, at least get the building plans written so it can be worked on while we’re away.” Are you sure? If the plan fails, you could lose both me and Oblivion. Though Oblivion would be free from your darkness, you could lose the ability to wield a keyblade forever. “After the shit I put you two through, consider it a favor payed, k?” Eclipse says calmly. “I may never get over the life I had taken, but I can help others live theres. That is the jist what X told me, and I’ll stick to it, even for you two.” And that is why you could wield us. Oathkeeper said with happiness in her voice. Huxley walked into the room with all of Zeke’s wives. “What up everybody?” Huxley asked. “You know it’s rude to walk into a bedroom without knocking.” Twilight said. “I did knock nobody answered.” Huxley said as they looked at him “Anyway would it be okay to talk to Zeke alone. “She’s in the shower.” Rune said, giggling. “If you came ten minutes sooner~” “Fine I’ll wait outside.” Huxley said walking outside. “Tell me when she’s decent!” Huxley said standing by the outside door. Huxley waited outside the room for ten or twelve minutes before Zeke came out… wearing short-shorts and a tight top. “Damnit Rune…” She muttered. “Whats up Shanna.” Huxley joked. “Sorry I missed you coming back anyway how you feeling?” Huxley asked. Zeke hit Huxley in the arm. “Still Zeke, but whatever. And thanks for asking… honestly, nervous, pregnant, obviously, and kinda hungry.” “Well I think I have something to at least make you feel less bad about the whole situation.” Huxley said as he looked into the room “Could you ask your wives to give us some time alone...and not for that reason RUNE!” Huxley shouted at Zeke’s horny wife. “We’ll be fine. Come on, lounge is just down the hall.” Zeke said as she led Huxley down the hall into a rather large library, complete with a large fireplace burning. “So what’s up?” Zeke asked as she took a seat. “Promise to tell nobody, but you’re not the only one that’s been ‘cursed’.” Huxley said grabbing a glass of cold water. “Cursed?” “Let me show you” Huxley said pouring the glass over his head and becoming shorter “Gah that’s cold!” the feminine voice of Huxley said. Zeke pulled Huxley’s hood off. “...Well…so your a b cup?” “That’s not the point here also D cup actually.” Huxley said opening his cloak to let his boobs out “Look during my trip two important things happened. One, I kicked Core off earth with a genie wish,” “Hacks.” Zeke said. “Genie's are hacks.” “Look it means no more of your family will try to kill us. And the second thing was I fell into a cursed pool and can turn into a girl...I’m surprised it didn’t happen when we fell into the blood pool but anyway.” “Is it a ‘change at will’ deal?” “No it cold water turns me into a girl hot water turns me back sort of deal” Huxley said. “Well, odd.” “Yo, I was told that-” Ben cuts himself off at seeing Huxley. “Um...okay I should have knocked…” “God damn it.” Huxley said facepalming “So...how the fuck did Ranma get here?” Ben asks, pointing at Huxley. “Hey Ben, whatcha doin?” Kira came into the scene, along with the other Foretellers. “Oh...well not entirely unexpected.” Eclipse is walking around and see’s the crowd forming. “Hey guy’s what’s….oh….you to huh? Ah oh well.” “I suppose we’ve all heard of Ranma half?” Ben asks curiously, completely ignoring Zeke’s terrible outfit. “Yes and does anybody here know chinese?” Huxley asked as they all shook their heads. “Great.” Huxley said Zeke scratched his head for a moment before summoning Discord. “You thinking what I’m thinking? She asked the chaos spirit. One mass genderbend coming up! Discord flashed, and everyone, save for Zeke and Huxley, were engulfed in smoke… and they all noticed the difference, even their clothes were changed. “Um…” Ben frowns before looking down. “C-cup? Eh, oh well.” He says nonchalantly, not really caring that he was now a woman. “Can I have my normal organization cloak back?” Ben frowns. “Mini skirts, or anything that doesn't go below your knees sucks total dick.” She frowns, fixing her crown. Lan was silent, but walked up to a nearby mirror to look at ‘herself.’ “Hm… not bad. But first.” He grabbed a nearby hair tie and put his now long, black hair into a ponytail. “There, now my look is complete.” “This is awesome!” Alex said, fondling his own B- cup boobs. “Hey, uh, I’ll be right back.” He scurried off. Eclipse shouted out after Alex. “Wait till you get a period!” She said before sighing. “Not again….” “I’d rather not know why you said ‘again’ but I have a feeling me and Lan are the only ones not that ‘worried’ or ‘scared’ about this.” Ben says with a frown. “God help me if Luna or any of my girlfriends find me like this…” “Well, now you guys will know how we feel.” Jenny said, Flexing her arms. “Man, I’m jacked!” “I ALREADY DO!” Shouted Eclipse exasperated. “Zeke why did you do this?” Huxley asked. “Two reasons.” She started. “One, now we all have been through the anime comedy cliche of being genderbent, and two… I was kinda curious.” Huxley just grabbed a nearby newspaper and smacked Zeke “No, bad X-blade wielder turn everyone back” Zeke rolled her eyes. “Fine. But… after Alex get’s back… I don’t wanna hear him scream. His fingers are, well, you can guess where those will be stuck at.” “I’m okay with this, as long as I don't get a period again.” Eclipse shrugs. “Or go into heat...that’d suck.” “Alright then.” Zeke raised Discord up and in another flash, everyone, but Zeke, Huxley and Eclipse, were back to normal. “So,anything we should discuss?” Ben slightly frowned. “Ya know...I expected that to last longer but oh well.” Ben shrugs. “Anyways I came here to see how you were doing and whenever a meeting could be brought up. Remember I’ve got important things to talk about.” “Is it as important as removing Core from all reflections of a world?” Huxley asked “That reminds me.” Zeke said. “When you wished that, what was the wish exactly?” “I wish Core was unable to step on any reflection of earth.” Huxley said. “I guess that could include worlds that where a part of earth like the land of dragons...maybe?” Huxley said confused. “Then… he can’t set foot, but Heartless, Unversed, and other followers of his can… not much different honestly.” “God damn it and just when I had a win too... anyway I also wanted to ask what's with Oblivion?” Huxley asks. “Well, you still do, we now know that genies can affect Core… so we should try and find them. Also, what about Oblivion?” “Well when I tried to use it last it was white.” Huxley explained. “For a second there I thought you were talking to me.” Eclipse chuckles nervously. “Why would I be asking you? It’s not like you had anything to do with it being white...right?” Huxley said as he looked at Eclipse. “I hope not…but there is a problem with my reflection of Oblivion.” “What happened.” Ben asks with a frown, now wanting to know what happened to Oblivion. “Well…he...damn it I'm just going to say it. My darkness swallowed him.” “Congratulations.” Ben frowns. “Now if I may so kindly ask...how in the name of fuck does that happen?” “When you have a heart that is tearing itself apart as we speak, weird shit happens...all I know is Oathkeeper is both pissed and depressed at the same time. Plus I can not summon Oblivion at all right now.” Eclipse retorts “Damn…” Ben frowns. “Well...if you need any help in solving that we’re all here for ya.” “I have a plan, but I promised Oathkeeper I wouldn't tell anyone about it. Sorry.” “No need to be sorry. I understand.” Ben nods. “Everyone’s got to do things on their own. But again, we’re here to help in any way that’s within our power.” “Damn strait!” Alex said, with the rest of his team nodding in agreement. “Admit it Alex, you just like my horse ass right now.” Eclipse said with a eye roll. “Hmm? You haven’t turned back to normal yet?” He taunted. “I thought you naturally looked like a sissy.” “Don't make me summon Oath to kick your ass. She may be dented, but she will still take you on any day lover boy.” Eclipse smirked. “Okay you two, how about we not fight? Eclipse has probably the worst situation out of all of us right now. So how about we calm down and not fight?” “I was messing around about fighting, take it easy. I won't be fighting with Oath until she is repaired.” Eclipse says. “Hmm. Whatever. I guess I shouldn’t have picked a fight.” Alex said. “Anyways…” Zeke cut in. “Eclipse, in terms of Keyblades, if Oathkeeper is out of commission and Oblivions is… whatever is up with him, I might be able to help.” She offered. Eclipse shook her head “Sorry, but fighting with any blade other than those two would just….seem wrong.” “You forget one thing though,” Zeke said as two Oathkeepers appeared in his hands. “Multiverse, and multiple.” The oathkeeper blades were not bent, nore damaged at all. “It’s still her, just a different body. I guess Oblivion was only affected largely because the Keychain was affected.” “I guess… It’ll work but it still seems wrong for some reason.” Eclipse admits. Zeke tossed the two Oathkeepers to Eclipse, and he tried talking to them to hear Oathkeepers voice. Don't worry so much Eclipse, it is still me. Keyblades and their reflections work differently than others. We all share a mind, so while I am wielded by say Zeke, I will still be with you at the same time. “Okay, that's some stress off my back.” Eclipse says with a sigh. “Why are you still a girl? By the way I just noticed this now.” Huxley said. “The way gender bending spells work is this: First, the change is normally temporary unless said person doesn't want to change. Second, if the time limit is up, the spell cancels unless as I said, the person doesn't want it to end. I am okay with it for now so no harm done.” Zeke took the bent Oathkeeper. “How to fix you?” She muttered. “Magic?” Huxley asks as everybody looked at her “What? It’s the obvious solution...I think” “A Keyblade forge.” X speaks though Zeke. “Making one though it’s…not easy…there was one that Mors, er, Lord Death used… wonder if he knows where it is?” “How about the Skyforge in Skyrim? That might be a Keyforge?” Huxley asks “I’d have to see.” “For some reason I thought the Cooper Clan would know something about a Keyblade forge…” Ben frowns. “Anyone know else know about Sly Cooper?” “Played the hell out of them.” Zeke said happily. “Yay! Someone else that knows about the game.” Ben smiles. Zeke’s eyes went wide. “Dude, we can go to that world!” “Then get robbed by Rocket Racoon.” Huxley says sarcastically. “How fucking dare you!” Ben says, sounding insulted here. “The Cooper clan is nothing like common thieves, and no they are not Rocket Racoon...I think I saw him when I went to Knowhere…” Ben says with a little thought. “I think there was a tree that said ‘I am Groot’...eh oh well.” Ben shrugs. “So you saw the Guardians of the Galaxy” Huxley said “Kind of. I at least remember the racoons name.” Ben says honestly. “Marvel Comics makes good hero’s.” “Why do I have the feeling Elzin has something that would piss us off like them turning Captain America into a nazi or something stupid like that.” Huxley said “Ya know...if Superman can be written as a Russian then I wouldn’t be surprised.” Ben sighs out. “Fan fiction writers have also tried that whole thing...oh no…” Ben mutters as his eyes widened. “Oh no...nonono….fan fictions are probably real...” “Certainly feels like that some days….” Eclipse says with a mane flip. “Oh no….it's started…” “Not even Core will prepare us for some of that weird shit…” Ben frowns. “If we meet Core...can we murder all of Sonic the Hedgehog reflections? That one thing has created too many shitty fan fictions….even if there are possibly good ones…” “And have us sonic 06….” Eclipse says depressed. “I remember when those games were good...played a couple in a arcade…” “Let’s not completely break the fourth wall here guys. We’re getting paid after all.” Kira said. “That depends on what we’re being paid for, but fine.” Ben says. “Good now back to the conversation of keyblade forges.” Huxley said. “We’ll have to speak with Lord Death about the forge.” Zeke says, quickly grabbing Unum and leading the group to the mirror in the council room in Lord Death’s seat. “I keep forgetting the damn code…” She muttered. “Hold on.” Ben says while summoning his sitar and a gentle fog covered the mirror. “No spontaneous singing in the council room.” Zeke says. “I wasn’t going to.” Ben says before writing the code to call Lord Death. “Yeah right and I’m a boy at the moment” Huxley said. “And there.” Ben says simply before the numbers ‘42-42-564’ on the fogged up mirror. “And if I did it right then he should be appearing.” A sudden flash of light showed on the mirror before a small boxed screen showing Lord Death’s masked face appeared. “Howdy, how’s it going?” Lord Death asked. “It’s nice to meet you Lord Death.” Ben says with a smile. “Sup” Huxley said casually. “Nice to see you again. Lord Death.” Lan said. Eclipse kept quiet during the introductions. “Mors, X said you know of a Keyblade forge, we need to repair a damaged Keyblade and maybe learn how to make more.” Zeke said. Lord Death scratched his masks chin. “Yes, I remember. Well, bad news is that after the world broke apart into many, I have no idea where those forges ended up, good news, they are indestructible… bad news, you can put the fire out and take it apart and scatter them.” “I believe one of them ended up in the province of Skyrim in Cyrodiil.” Huxley said. “I have no idea what that place is.” “It’s in a world named Nern. Hopefully we can find it to repair Oathkeeper.” Eclipse said. “Huh… I think… let me remember… Uh… Maybe… was it a place mainly inhabited by elves? Two in particular?” “Mainly yes, however humans are also a majority.” Eclipse informed Death. “I believe the… what did those two go by… Snow elves and … Dwemer? Yes, those two races made the majority of Keyblade forges in the past before the world split apart. If you are to find parts to a Keyblade forge, it’s there, or one still intact and not taken apart.” “Well we have two places to go first a place with warm water so I can stop being a girl then Skyrim.” Huxley said as they all looked at him “Oh! Yes that was a place that had one that was older than I am!” Lord Death said happily. “I used it back when I was just a smithing apprentice. If it’s still there, try and bring it to me, the art of forging Keyblades is likely known only by me.” “Let’s see if I have a DTL to Skyrim.” Huxley said looking at his book. “Nope sorry” Huxley said disappointed. “To know for certain if it’s a Keyblade forge, just tap the fire with a Keyblade and watch the flames turn into liquid fire. No, not lava, literal fire as a liquid. It’s rather amazing to see.” “I think I got this.” Zeke said, summoning X and pointing him up at a wall. “You know what to do.” The X-blades tip shot out a beam of light and a large DTL opened up. “Never fails.” “Thanks Lord death. May your heart be your guiding key or whatever the saying is.” Huxley said running head first into the portal before coming back out. “Umm the portal leads us to a mountain.” The others quickly followed, and were standing in snowy mountain. “Well… Weird.” Zeke said, the snow not affecting her all too much. “Not as cold as I should be… the hell?” “Why have you come here?” A voice called trembling the ground as everybody looked to see a dragon stand there. “Hello…” Ben says nervously, not sure if he should summon any weapons because of the giant dragon. “You are Paarthurnax, last of the Dovah?” Huxley asked. “Yes how did you know?” “We are not from this world and we were looking for a keyblade forge.” Huxley said. “You are looking for the Skyforge then.” Paarthurnax said. “Great thanks,” Huxley said levitating. “Race you!” she said before Paarthurnax spoke. “YOU WILL NOT STEAL THE SKYFORGE OUTSIDERS!” He roared as the world trembled. “Huxley, sit!” Zeke said, summoning Discord and using the chaos spirit’s magic to slam Huxley into the ground. “Idiot…” Zeke muttered as she turned to the dragon. “Please forgive my friend, he’s a hard headed ass… anyway, as you can see, we have Keyblades. We just want to look at the Skyforge, and if you know of another Keyblade forge, one that’s either in wrong hands, or in pieces, please, tell. We don’t mean any harm.” “Hmm maybe I misjudged you outsiders. I have been guarding this world for so long and the last outsiders that have come here tried to slay me but couldn’t due to not being of the Dovah or being Dovahkiin.” Paarthurnax said. “Forgive my bluntness but has Alduin returned?” Huxley asked “How do you know of my brother?” Paarthurnax asked before retracting his question. “It matters not, the answer is yes my brother has returned and was slain by the Dovahkiin years ago.” Paarthurnax said. “This is kinda over my head.” Zeke admitted. “So, who or what is this Dovahkiin?” “Dragonborn the main protagonist of Skyrim” Huxley said before asking “You’ve never played Skyrim before?” “How about we ask the dragon?” Eclipse says. “Excuse me Paarthurnax, Would you mind telling me and my companions who and what the dragonborn is? It might be vital to our mission.” “She is a Dark elf.” Paarthurnax explained “Thanks! Any idea on her where about's?” “No I do not keep track of her.” Paarthurnax said “Well with our luck we’ll run into her.” Huxley said “Thank you for your time Paarthurnax. Now, we should be off.” Eclipse says with a bow. “Race you to Whiterun” Huxley said flying off. “You little!” Eclipse shouts summoning her Keyblade gliders and using her metal wings to catch up. “Thank you…” Ben says to the dragon with a bow before summoning his keyblade glider and hopping on. “Well we better follow those two before they hurt themselves...or more importantly others…” Ben sighs out, waiting for his companions to saddle up before following Eclipse and Huxley. “Yeah.” Zeke said, summoning X, to which Paarthurnax screamed. “The fuck!”. “Is that the X-Blade?” Paarthurnax screamed “Yeah, long story.” “Hey did the dragon just scream?” Huxley said flying back curious. “Yeah, do you know about the X-blade?” Zeke asked Paarthurnax. “Only in legends passed down by the gods themselves.” Paarthurnax said “Then how do you know what it looks like?” Huxley asked. “Mystical things that only dragon’s can understand probably.” Ben shrugs. “Makes about as much sense as anything else does.” Jenny said saddling on Ursus. “Well Eclipse probably beat me to the town but she’s a horse so probably not allowed in so we should hurry up before she causes a scene.” Huxley said flying away. “Yeah we probably should.” Ben nods, following Huxley quickly. “This coming from the guy who’s literally flying…” Zeke muttered, turning X into a glider and following after them. “Let’s not get left behind.” Lan said as he and his team followed. As the group flew down the mountain Huxley caught up to Eclipse, who was waiting on the ground some ways from the town gates. “Hey maybe we should rethink part of the plan” “Like?” Zeke asked, landing. “Well we have a magic talking horse and I’m guessing they won’t let us in with her so we need to split into two groups I know a second forge that might be a keyblade one.” Huxley said. “Leave her by the stables and rape happens.” Zeke commented, causing Eclipse to wince. “So we splitting up or what? Cause to be perfectly honest I think only Huxley knows where everything is.” Ben says honestly, wondering if they’ll have to split up or something. “Just don’t leave me in the stables, for all we know with me being a pony it could be compatible, not to mention I don’t have plans on losing a female virginity any time soon.” Eclipse says, slightly terrified now. As they formulated a plan a khajiit walked up to them. “M’aiq knows many things. Forge is in two pieces.” He said as everyone ignored him as he walked off. “Did somebody say something?” Huxley asked. “Random cat person talked about a forge in town. Probably just rambled about the actual town blacksmith.” Ben says, not really caring about some random person just saying something random. “Fair enough.” Huxley said going back to the plan. “I feel like he said something important. But we don’t have the time to chase him down.” Dan said. “Okay so the lunar forge is to the northwest of Whiterun passed a small pool of water... maybe I should head in town and buy a map to show you better?” Huxley proposed. “I should know the way. I fu r da my way around for many hours….why couldn’t I finish that?” Eclipse says, confused. “We no speak dragon remember?” Ben says honestly. “But yes buying a map is a must, even if someone know’s the way.” “Okay I’ll be back.” Huxley said walking towards the town. “So...what now? Foretellers? Any ideas?” Eclipse asked while they waited. “Well, considering how our groups would be split up. I’d say Huxley, Zeke, Kira and I are one group. Eclipse, Ben, Jenny, Alex, and Dan are the other. But which of us should go to Whiterun?” Lan said. “Well, I can be counted out of whatever group goes to the city. I don’t think this is a modded Skyrim so companions who are not Human, Mer, or Beastman would be left in the stable instead of brought in.” Eclipse shrugged “So my group gets the forge while your group checks to see if my hunch is correct.“ Huxley said, returning with a map. “That was fast.” Zeke said. “There was a band of Khajiit who sold me a map.” Huxley said handing the map to the pony. “Don’t eat this.” Huxley joked. “Don’t tempt me…” Eclipse says, rolling with the joke. “So, time to split up? As group A went into the town a dark elf gave them a glare before heading into the breeze home “Damn bandits thinking they can come to my city.” She said getting her dragonbone armor and weapons. “Okay the Skyforge should be just here.” Huxley said as they saw guards standing in front of the companions home.’ “I feel like those guards could know something.” Kira said. “Hey is there a problem? We need to talk to the Companion leader.” Zeke said “Oh you’ve got here Bandits.” A woman said as the guards readied their weapons. “Were not-” Huxley was cut off by a crossbow bolt to the shoulder “bitch!” Huxley said pulling out the bolt and casting cura. “Looks like we’re doing this the hard way.” Lan said, summoning his keyblade. “FUS RO DAH!” She shouted, knocking Lan to the ground. “Don’t kill them!” Zeke said as a sword flew by her face. “Hey you're attacking a pregnant lady here!” Huxley said as another crossbow bolt entered her shoulder. “Bitch screw this ‘Gilgamesh!’ “She called out as she grew six more arms. “Well that’s new.” The woman said as she was punched by two fists. “Goblin punch.” Huxley called out before turning to Zeke “You just going to stand there or you going to help us fight?” Huxley asked as Zeke summoned a random keyblade “If they’ll let me,” Zeke said, taking a swing at a one of the companions that was attacking with a large hammer. Before Zeke’s Keyblade could meet the hammer, another Keyblade appeared and crossed it’s attack. “They won’t…” “Hold on!” Huxley said as he summoned seven more weapons. He quickly despatched of some of the companions non-lethally . “Murdering Bandits.” The Dragonborn screamed as Zeke knocked her out with her keyblade. Zeke walked up to Huxley and smacked her upside the head. “How… how in the multiverse is it, that I was raised by murderers, but you always managed to pick fights with everyone you meet?” “Hey they attacked us first...you were there weren't you paying attention?” “And you didn’t think to say ‘we’re not bandits, we come peacefully’ and leave fighting as a last resort?” “We did she shot me with a crossbow bolt and I said screw it.” “I’ve been shot with BUCKSHOT and still settled a fight with words!” “Okay, let’s all relax!” Kira yelled. “We shouldn’t start out like this! We come in peace!” “Oh great more guards let’s try to surrender this time...” Huxley said as they raised their arms and Huxley turned back from her Gilgamesh form. As the group surrendered they were escorted into the palace along with the dragonborn. As they were presented before the jearl, he sighed. “Sonna, why have you started yet another brawl?” “They’re bandits!” The dragonborn replied. “If they were, then why is it that guards and people alike saw you attack first while these people simply walked in? This is the tenth incident in a single month. What are you trying to prove?” Sonna was silent. “Figured as much.” “Might I add we have a pregnant lady in our group.” Huxley said as Sonna’s face reddened. “That would be me.” Zeke said. “Less than a month, but it’s growing.” “Sorry about knocking your guards out.” Huxley said as the jarl looked at her. “Since it was not your group that started this, we will only charge you a fine for the injuries to those who were hurt, as for Sonna…no longer are you my thane.” Sonna hung her head. “Fair enough…” “Why did you think we were bandits anyway?” Huxley asked. “Well a few days ago this man in a mask and purple cloak told me of a group of bandits that would try to steal the Skyforge with strange key like swords” Sonna said. The group narrowed their eyes at this information. “So, Core has been here too.” Lan muttered. “Your honor I would like to ask that you go easy on the Dragonborn here as she attacked under the influence of a Daedra.” Huxley said “No idea what that is.” Zeke added. “I take it that’s this world’s term for Demons.” “Yes it is, and why should I?” Jarl Balgruuf asked. “Because this daedra's influence is powerful and stronger than Molag Bal.” The jarls eyes narrowed. “With robes like those… are you necromancers?” “No I just like the look I can’t summon anything but my sword... anyway His influence is stronger than any of the known Deadra and he is cunning, he almost made me lead an army on her,” Huxley said pointing to Zeke. “He made me believe she was worse than any deadra and a vile heart as evil as darkest pit of Oblivion...So I ask you Jarl Balgruuf give her mercy she was not in her right mind.” Huxley said. Zeke rolled her eyes. “Again, how did you not get born into my family with anger and gullibility that high?” “Not now I’m trying to do some good for a woman who saved the world.” Huxley said giving her a death glare. “Fine, but you still owe me an apology for all of that crap.” “Later.” “Well, you are all clearly outsiders in this land with your speech, weapons… and pour taste in clothing. Fine, Sonna is my thane again, and as punishment for her actions, she is to act as a guide for your group during your stay.” The jarl said, waving his hand. “And Sonna, get over it, she said no.” “Thank you Jarl Balgruuf.” Sonna said. The group walked outside, where the dragonborn turned to them. “So… sorry about that… shooting you in the shoulder twice thing… And the shouts…so where are you all from, I’ve never seen clothing like that in Skyrim nor weapons.”she said mumbling something about mods “Wait did you say something about Mods?” Huxley said catching that “Uhh… that’s from whenever I spent time with the prince of madness… We’re kinda drinking buddies.” “Oh yeah how is the champion of Kavatch?” Huxley asked as she wondered. “Still king, and mourning his loss... wait how do you know that?” “I played Oblivion.” Huxley said as she dragged her and the group back to her home. “Okay Keyblades in a Skyrim that hasn’t been modded referencing the Oblivion event as if it was a game are you guys from earth?” Sonna asked. “Wait… you’re a survivor?” Zeke asked. “Wow, didn’t expect that. This is the first time I’ve meet a survivor that didn’t have a keyblade.” Kira said, with her brother agreeing. “Second for me.” Zeke said. “So, you’re like a friend of ours, you were reborn as a dark elf?” “Actually I asked to become this I wasn’t reborn...I just was teleported in at the wrong place and just so happened to ask to be the Dovahkiin.” She explained. “That’s why my name isn’t all dark elfey” she said. “I’m surprised that another survivor was in this reflection. So, what was that stuff the jarl said about a girl saying no?” “Reflection?” She asked ignoring the girl part. “Ever hear of a multiverse?” Huxley asked “Yes?” Sonna asked “Basically that.” Huxley said as she was smacked by a scroll. “Don’t just leave it off like that.” Kira said. “Reflections are better explained by other versions of a world. For example both Zeke and Huxley are from a world called Equestria, but they are different from each other even though they share the same name. As in a Reflection of each other.” “Ah.” Sonna said. “That makes sense. So, I remember you guys talking about the Skyforge? Is there something you want to smith?” “Basically we believe the forge is part of an ancient object known as a Keyblade Forge and we need to bring it together or at least use part of it to reforge something...I wasn't paying attention” Huxley said as she was hit again by a scroll. “Please don’t use my scrolls to hit people.” “Anyway before we go may I have some hot water?” Huxley asked “There is some in the fire boiling.” Sonna said. Huxley poured some into a cup and dumped it onto her head “Gah hot hot hot!” Huxley said as he changed back into a man. “What?” Sonna asked. “Long story.” Zeke said. “And again, what did the jarl say about a girl?” Sonna’s face turned red and she looked said. “Well, there’s this girl I like and we dated, she’s been with me since before I did this whole Dragonborn business… and she won’t marry me…” “Bumer, not like you know anything about that miss wont say no to marrying sixteen wives” Huxley said as Zeke surrounded him with keyblades. “You try looking them right in the eyes and have them get sad. Unlike your world, my world they all have eyes you can’t look away from.” Zeke said, disbanding the Keyblades. “Why sixteen though?” Sonna asked. “It’s legal. And it wasn’t all at once… it was in groups…” “Anyway I know the feeling try being dumped by somebody you didn’t even know you were dating stings.” Everyone gave Huxley a look. “That… is just pathetic... “ “Hey at least I can turn a girl down...unlike now when I can’t turn two girls down... yeah that light thing you stabbed me with must have done something to me.” Huxley said. “You mean you can feel your emotions now?” Zeke deadpanned. “No it's like I can’t say no...” Huxley said. “Don’t worry Huxley. We all succumb to that feeling.” Lan said placing a hand on his shoulder. “Anyway…” Sonna said, cutting in. “She went off for a while to rebuild her family castle now that we killed her father, talk about daddy issues there…anyway, I should go with you to the Skyforge, the others likely either want a rematch, or something.” Sonna said as she led the group to the Skyforge, where some of the members met them. “Hey…so, you all still mad?” “That depends, are we able to get a rematch?” Aela spoke. “No, sorry.” Zeke said “Then yes we are.” Aela said. “Get over it we are just here to improve the forge.” “And how will you do that?” Farkas asked “With these.” Zeke said, summoning Master Keeper. “They are more than they appear.” “Neat trick are they as good as real swords?” Aela asked. “Better.” Zeke walked over to the side of the companions building, and with one swing, made a four foot long hole in it, where you could see the inside of the place. “They got quite the kick.” “You're paying for that hole you know” Huxley said as one of the companions asked to pay for the hole. “Duh.” Zeke replied. “I don’t break what I can’t fix or repay, speaking of.” Zeke summoned DIscord. “Repair.” In a flash of purple, the hole was gone, and the wall was fixed. “Well that fixed that” Sonna said. “Anyway about that forge.” The companions looked at each other. “Well, you’d have to talk with Gray-Mane about messing with it, but I have a request first.” Aela asked. “Let me guess, you want a keyblade or to fight one of us” Huxley guessed “Close.” She said, pointing as Zeke. “I want her to participate in an archery duel, well, we’ll be using targets, not each other, but still.” “Why me?” Zeke asked. “You got the eyes of a hunter. I can tell you were born and raised to fight.” Zeke sighed. “Well, you’re not wrong… Fine.” As Aela and Zeke walked around to the back, the two were handed three arrows and a hunting bow. Three targets were placed in random places. One was strung above the skyforge, another atop the roof of the companions hall, and the last was across from the two. Aela drew her bow, and the arrow landed center of the target. Zeke did the same and the arrow landed center, next to Aela’s, earning a surprised look from her. She drew again and fired at the target on the roof, landing another hit in the center. Zeke repeated, and her arrow landed next to Aela’s in the center also. The people were whispering at this point, impressed with Zeke’s accuracy. “Nice shot.” Huxley called out. “Thanks.” Zeke replied. “Last shot,” Aela said. “Winner takes the boon.” Zeke wondered what exactly she meant, but Aela shot the last arrow dead inside the center. Zeke took her time aiming the final shot, she fired, and shot the arrow into Aela’s, and it was stuck in the end of her arrow. “Well then…” Aela said, shocked. “Tie.” “Whoa! A total Brave moment!” Kira said amazed. “Well anyway with that done let's upgrade the forge then meet up the talking horse.” Huxley said. “Talking horse?” Sonna asked. Eclipse lead team B across the plain, only a few mudcrabs getting in their way. “So, anyone prepared for bandits?” Eclipse said as they got within eyesight of the forge. “Yep.” Ben says while summoning Sharpshooter. “We’re all warriors, so we should be fine. But don’t let your guard down.” Jenny said summoning Ursus. Alex and Dan did the same. Eclipse summoned both Oathkeepers. “Well then…Let’s do...this ohmygod not now!” Eclipse says, some panic entering her voice. “What’s wrong?” Ben asks worriedly, wondering why Eclipse suddenly started to panic. “Eh…Erm...it’s spring…I’m a horse...and a mare at that…line up the pieces…..” Eclipse says, looking around frantically. “I hate you…” Ben mutters before waving a hand and suddenly two Snipers appeared next to Eclipse. “There, if anything tries to either attack you or molest you my fine Snipers will keep you safe alright you horny mare?” “Fuck you!...but thanks.” Eclipse says, embarrassed. “This is so strange.” Dan muttered. “Is that horse talking?” One of the bandits asked. “Who care’s, that good meat.” Another bandit said. “What are you two idiots standing around KILL THEM!” The chief said, before he suddenly had a strange arrow lodged in his head before he fell over, blood pouring down his wound. “So who else want’s an arrow to the head before they can even blink?” Ben asks, himself and his two Snipers already taking aim at the bandits and ready to kill them in a moments notice. “And what was that about meat?” Eclipse asked, appearing behind them in a blur, his eye having a slight red tint as both blades pressed against them. “Eclipse!” Ben shouts. “Calm yourself damn it!” Eclipse shakes his head as his eye goes back to normal “Thanks!” “No problem.” He says while the Snipers knock out the bandits quickly enough with their giant crossbows. “Christ...anywhosits...let’s get going before bad things happen.” Ben says quickly. “Agreed. We should avoid any more conflict if possible.” Dan said. “Hopefully no other bandits would be foolish enough to run with our group.” The group agreed and headed on their way. After a few more bandits easily taken out, the group finds the lunar forge. “If I remember, it only works on nights both moons are out.” “So we just wait here till night time?” Alex asked. “And I don’t know the Song of Time…” Ben frowns. “I have an instrument but I don’t know the song...oh well, we might as well wait.” “Well at least we have some down time now.” Jenny said sitting on the ground. “There were a bunch of bandits on the way here. Do we look like nobles or what?” “You never played Skyrim did you?” Eclipse said. ”They would attack someone wearing nothing but underwear and holding a stick.” “I kind of thought of it as ‘they’re bandits, they’ll attack whoever cause fuck it’.” Ben shrugs. “All I’m saying is that if I were a bandit I would be targeting the big dogs with the big pockets. Considering this is reality and all.” “But those people also have trained guards normally.” Eclipse says with a shrug. “That would just make it all the more fun to steal.” Jenny said with a smirk. “Not that I know anything about that.” “Can we stop thinking about that please? We’re hero’s, not bandits.” Ben frowns. “Or are we?” Jenny said with a smirk. “Dun dun duuun!” Eclipse says jokingly. Ben took a deep breath. “Why?” He asks breathlessly, motioning a hand to everyone. “Just...just why?” The rest of the group laughed. As time passed they all just made idle small talk about various subjects. Then came night fall, and the two moons rose to the sky. The metal in the forge had started to glow white as the moonlight touched the forge, causing power to practically bleed off the mantle. “Whoa, that’s trippy.” Alex said, breaking the silence. “Okay where’s the hidden monsters?” Ben frowns, not knowing what might happen but calling out that something might appear suddenly. “No monster...at least, none in the games. So, if no one else is going to…” Eclipse says, summoning one of his keyblades and sticking it into the fire to see what happens. The fire turns liquid as soon as the Keyblade touches the flames. “Well, there’s our answer.” Eclipse says, marveling at the liquid flame. “Hooray, we found a piece.” Ben says. “Now...how in the hells are we going to move this?” “Magic?” Jenny asked. “...well shit. We didn’t think things through.” Eclipse says with a frown. “Well…” Ben takes a deep breath. “How the hell are we going to start tugging this thing all the way to where Zeke and the others are? Cause I don’t think having a Twilight Thorn rip this thing from it’s foundation and lug it with us is a good idea…” “I don’t know, but I do know that I’m going somewhere private for the next ten minutes. Call me when you get an idea.” Eclipse says, trying to hide her blush as she walks slowly away from the group. “Hold on…” Ben sighs out before snapping his fingers, two Assassins following Eclipse underground while the Snipers also follow along to guard Eclipse. “There, two extra guards just in case.” Eclipse nods in thanks before they hear. “HOW STUPID ARE THESE FUCKEN BANDITS?!” Followed by shouts of male agony. “Fucking hell…” Ben grumbles, glad to know Eclipses guards are doing what they were told. The group was sitting in the companion hall drinking all except for Zeke who was pregnant and Huxley who didn’t like the taste. Eclipse was surrounded by the children and a few grown women, being covered in pets while she had her face buried in her hoofs, muttering something akin to ‘stupid, nice, soft pet’ The Foretellers where drinking some booze. “Hey I had an idea.” Huxley said to Zeke. “What is it?” “Well you need the Keyblade forge right?” Huxley said “Duh.” “Well you could ask Sonna what group she joined and if it's the legion you can ask her to take you to General Tullius, who can help you take back this world from elf nazis.” Huxley said “Well, if she can take me to the world’s leader(s) then that would make treaty and unity negotiations easier.” “Hey Sonna, Zeke has a question for you.” Huxley called out as everybody looked at him. “What's the question?” Sonna asked. “First who’s the ruler of Skyrim?” Huxley asked. “Elsif the Fair, why?” Sonna said. “Okay we were wondering if you could take us to meet General Tullius we may have a solution for the Thalmor.” Huxley said. “That would be great, bastards have been trying to take Skyrim back under their control for years now.” Sonna said. “So we should head out to Solitude.” Huxley said. “Can we head out tomorrow? Unum wants to sight see.” Zeke replied as Unum nodded. “I stay quiet an awful lot during these trips.” Unum said. “Sorry Unum.” Ben says honestly. “But...sometimes there’s not really much to say sometimes. I should know.” He says honestly. “Actually if we head out tonight we might make it tomorrow morning” Sonna said “Fine… but I’m sleeping on the way there… not like that…” “Might be bumpy.” Huxley said. “Let’s get going.” Ben says. “But...where the hell is Solitude again?” “Give me the map I bought and I’ll show you.” Huxley said as Eclipse handed him the map. “It’s here.” Huxley said pointing at the top of the map. “Alright let’s get going.” Zeke said, knowing she would fall asleep during the ride. “By the by...this randomly came to mind but did that dragon we first met sound like Mario to any of you?” Ben asks curiously, wondering why that random thought came up. “He is voiced by Mario’s voice actor so yes.” Huxley said as they left the Jorrvaskr. “Ah, okay then.” Ben nods. “Didn’t know that.” “Anyway let’s ride to Solitude.” Huxley said as Sonna went to the stable and got out her black horse. “This is Shadowmere.” Sonna said as he got close to Eclipse. ‘You’re mane looks like lavender but smells like hay.’’ Shadowmere neighed. “I don’t think you want to make an enemy.” Ben frowns, two snipers appearing in front of Eclipse. Eclipse seems to be fighting herself to keep calm. “N-no need for the snipers...after all what’s the harm in a roll on the hay- I mean another traveling companion!” Eclipse chuckles nervously, her tail swishing slightly and a blush apparent on her face. “Please don’t kill my horse. It’s going to take a week for him to respawn.” Sonna said. “How about we all just calm down before I literally smack a bitch.” Ben frowns, glaring at Eclipse in this situation. “So calm down, the Snipers are staying up, and you’re not doing something stupid got it?” Eclipse both nods in thanks and pouts at the same time as she simply crosses over and walks besides Shadowmere, whispering something in neighs in his ear with a small, horny smile. The Snipers are still hovering over Eclipse like the guards they were ordered to be. “Why does that horse look like a heartless?” Zeke asked. “So I take you kill you-know-who?” Huxley said. “Yeah that was before I joined the legion though.” Sonna said. “Right.” Huxley said as Zeke wondered who she killed. “Who did she kill?” Zeke asked. “Not important. But we really need you to play Skyrim or any elder scrolls game.” Huxley said. Eclipse rubs her hoofs together excitedly as she summons her Keyblades. “Oh I am sooo going to pay for this in the morning, but so worth it! Stop!” She shouts, targeting the group and the nobodies, but leaving Shadowmere alone. She takes out the Nobodies and run with Shadowmere to the stables giggling like a schoolgirl. Sadly, the spell was not that powerful as Eclipse had other things on her mind. “No bad horny horse.” Huxley said grabbing Eclipse by the tail and dragging her out of the hay. “NOO! It would have been over with! The heat would be over!” “Do I need to send you back to Daybreak?” Huxley asked. “No…” Eclipse pouts, all sense of masculinity thrown out the window due to this heat. “Don’t make me send you to my worlds Twilight, she loves Unicorns.” Huxley said. “Don’t tempt me….” Eclipse grumbles. “I’ll be good...just...let's get this done so I can go home to Luna...this heat sucks…” As Sonna had said, a day by the carriage had them at the entrance of Solitude, where after a quick stop at the inn for food, the group made their way to The Blue Palace, to meet with the High Queen, and general Tullius. “Hello High queen Elisif.” Sonna said. “Hello Sonna, who are these people with you?” Elisif asked. “We’re basically emissaries for her empire.” Huxley said, pointing to a missing Zeke who was distracted by a voice coming from coming pelagius wing. ”Where did Shanna go?” Huxley asked “Is that a horse in the palace?” A random member of the court said. Eclipse sighed, pissed after not having any true relief yet. “First of, I have a name, it’s Eclipse. Second, I’m a pony, not a horse, and third I am their guard in a way as I have enough power to probably kill everyone in this court without-” “No bad pony.” Huxley said, which caused Eclipse to hiss at him. “Sorry about her she’s pissy about the whole horse curse thing.” Huxley explained. “Horse curse?” “She pissed off Sheogorath and he turned her into a horse that’s always in heat.” Huxley said as he got a death glare by Eclipse. “Anyway Sonna look for Shanna we need her here to do the thing, Sorry for bothering you we’ll comeback as a group.” Huxley said as they went down to see the Pelagius wing open. “That's not supposed to be open, you don’t think...” Huxley said as they heard Zeke's voice down there. As they chased Zeke’s voice they wound up in wonderland. “There you guys are, this guy is awesome!” Discord’s voice spoke from Zeke. “That’s not Zeke is it.” “It’s Discord, and frankly this Sigy guy is a laughing stock!” “Ah tell yeah nobody has been this fun sense Ah came and killed me self back after the oblivion crisis.” He said in a scottish accent. “Great we got the Hero of Cyrodiil to deal with.” “Ah lady nobody’s called me that in years.” Sheogorath said. “D-do the thing with the dogs!” Discord asked as Flaming dogs fell from the sky. “Personally the ‘hotdog’ rain is a bit too literal for my taste, but this is still amazing. I’ve never met another being with so much raw chaos power.” “Well he is the prince of madness.” Eclipse meanwhile is keeping herself from jumping on the many deformed and crazy ‘horses’ for a roll in the hay. “Keep calm, keep calm, keep calm.” She repeats as she shakes in excitement. Discord chuckled. “Look, just let me have ten more minutes of fun and I’ll let Zeke go do her peace making thing and whatever. Oh, and I’ve been meaning to give you these.” WIth a snap of Zeke’s Discord controlled hand, Huxley, Ben, Eclipse, and Unum, were each holding one small gold token with Discord’s eye on it. “Think of it as a… logic free wish, kinda like a genie wish but not nearly as strong.” “Give me that.” Huxley said grabbing Eclipse’s coin. “You will get it back when you aren't a horny horse.” “Meany!” “Hey I could use it to wish to get rid of my curse, but do you see me do it?” Huxley asked. “No.” He said “Well it’s your wish, but It is limited, a genie is stronger than I believe it or not.” “I think I’ll save it for later then.” Huxley said as he put his and Eclipse’s token away. “So when did you take over?” “Walked by that room, and I was suddenly in control. With this much madness and chaos my own powers are very much amplified. Sadly I still am stuck as a Keyblade. Hope that will change in the future.” “Neat.” Huxley said not getting any of that. Discord spent his time having fun mostly and doing random chaos things, mostly to Eclipse and Huxley. When the time was up Sheogorath bid Discord farewell and asked him to visit again. As soon as they stepped out the door Zeke gained control again. “Well, that was kinda odd… still, was mostly funny. Especially when he turned Huxley into a ballerina.” Zeke chuckled. “Whatever Shanna by the way you’re going to need to referred to as that to not confuse the queen.” Huxley said as Zeke just looked at him before using discord to spawn a bucket of cold water over his head “Ow you placed the bucket on the wrong side.” Huxley said rubbing his head. “Fine, let’s finish this so we can all go home, cause Ben is lonely looking, Eclipse is horny, you’re clearly not having fun, and I just wanna see my kids.” Zeke said as they walked back to the High Queen. “We're back we found our friend she was in the pelagius wing talking to a painting.” “But there are no paintings in the pelagius wing.” “Yes the painting of the old man with a beard and miss matched clothing” “Anyway let's get back on point what did you want to talk to me about?” High queen Elisif asked “Well Shanna here is actually the ruler of an empire and she wanted to aid your fight against the Thalmor.” Huxley said “And how many of her forces are willing to aid us?” Elsif said as we all turned to Zeke. “Our forces in term of soldiers are always growing, but a fair three hundred are still on standby for general defence. Though, ten special ones would do, sadly two of them are off on missions right now.” Zeke said. “Your army is so small, yet you claim to be able to help us?” Elsif said. “Size isn't everything.” Huxley said “And each soldier could, can, and would take on entire platoons of your own without much effort from what I saw of the guards and the one’s training outside. If you want a demonstration I am more than willing to let some stress off, and no one would die by my blades.” Eclipse said casually. “Well we would need a demonstration of that, but if it's true then we could use you in the upcoming battle to retake the imperial city from the thalmor.” General Tullius said. “Say the word General and I can give you your demonstration.” Eclipse says, summoning both Oathkeepers to her side, keeping their tips pointed at the ground. “Spellswords? Hmm. Very well, if you say that the opponents won’t be killed I say a test is in order.” General Tullius said. “Shall we?” Eclipse said with a grin. The group was lead outside where the soldiers were training, being about a platoon not including recruits. “Troops line up you're about to be tested a platoon vs a small horse cursed by a deadra.” The general said as the troops stood still unfazed by the fact the had to fight a small, gray horse. “Wow stone cold warriors.” Huxley commented on as the general corrected him. “Actually they're just in alert mode so they can’t act freely. They have to stay in line.” The General said. “I have a feeling a few in the back are chuckling~” Eclipse says with a evil grin, both blades hovering around her. The men all marched on prepared to attack but were quickly defeated by the small gray horse. To say it was funny was to say Pinkie Pie hates new people. Eclipse, before it even started, unsummoned one of the Oathkeepers and even turned off her scan, with promising to also not use any moves that would level the building. And still, the gray pony tore through their ranks. A reflect spell, a shocklock, and a frenzy of speed later, all 100 troops were groaning on the floor and Eclipse was just smiling. “Thanks for the warm up! Any of you ready for me actually trying?” “That's enough you’ve made your point no need to humiliate my men any further.” The general said as Eclipse unsummoned the other Oathkeeper. “Well that was fast.“ Lan said startling Huxley. “Where did you guys come from?” Huxley asked. “You left us in Whiterun... we used our Keyblade rides to get here.” Lan said. “So you saw that huh?” Eclipse said with a smirk. “I’m surprised no one has phased through the floor yet…” Ben mutters, wondering how a world made by Bethesda was so normal. “This is real life, not a game Ben.” Kira said. “But it’s Bethesda…” Ben huffs. “Fine…” He sighs out. “Don’t worry the bucket trick still works.” Sonna said as she remembered how she got through the whole thieves guild. “I am so glad that even in real life...glitches still exist.” Ben chuckles happily. “They don’t call the universe the ultimate computer without a reason.” Zeke says. “Everything glitches. God called the X-blade a rule breaker when he gave it to me.” “Ha.” Ben laughs. “Glad to know things can still be weird in the funniest of ways.” “Anyway can we get back on point?” General Tullius asked. “Right now that we’ve shown you what the Keyblades can do, do you have faith in our plan to take Cyrodiil back from the Thalmor?” Huxley asked “Well that was certainly a show, but you said the weapons can’t kill right?” Elsif the fair asked. “They are driven by the wielders intent. Only if you wish to kill your enemy will they spill blood.” Zeke answered. “Makes getting the enemy troops captured alive easy.” “That's where the problem lies, if we have too many prisoners where would we put them all?” Elsif asked. “Not to mention the current emperor is at the Imperial City right now and bringing him to Skyrim would be problematic as the last emperor was assassinated here a few years ago.” General Tullius said. “We can take the prisoners to our world, plenty of room, plus we try and rehabilitate them. Give them the chance to live among the people again.” Zeke added. “World?” Elsif asked. “Oh right, technically were not from Nirn... just think of us as messengers of the divines.” Huxley said. “Okay?” Elsif said confused. “We’ll catch you up after this war of yours is done and over with.” Zeke says. “Trust me I’ve met Hermaeus Mora and I don’t think he knows about other worlds other than the realms of Oblivion or Nirn.” Sonna said. “Are you following any of this?” Ben whispers to Lan, feeling a tad too lost here. “Well considering you all left us behind in Whiterun, not really.” Lan whispered back. “Sorry...I thought you and the others were keeping up…” Ben whispers nervously. “Anyway we should leave to Iron out a contract for the the two of you” Huxley said opening a DTL back to Daybreak. “Come on guys we need to find a way to get the forge fixed while Ben and I need to head back home.” Huxley said as everyone left through the DTL before Huxley walked through the DTL he handed something to Zeke “Give this to Eclipse when she is back to he.” Huxley said walking through the portal. “I’ve still got crap to do with Zeke…” Ben frowns, knowing that Luxu would probably like to talk with Zeke and having to talk to Daybreaks Council for a few reasons. “Wait what he mean when Eclipse turns from a she to a he I thought she was cursed?” Elsif asked. Back in the daybreak empire Huxley grabbed his stuff then found the Foretellers and Ben talking. “So what are you five planning to do after all of this?” Ben asks the Foretellers. “We’ll first go home. I have a test tomorrow and Ms. Cheerilee is pretty strict.” Alex said. “But before that, we wanted to talk to Luxu.” Lan said, “There are somethings we have to settle.” “Hey guys.” Huxley said cutting of this conversation. “Oh, hey Huxley.” Ben says. “What brings you here? Thought you were going to immediately leave once we got here.” “I wanted to grab my stuff and say goodbye.” Huxley said holding up a back over his shoulder. “Yeah, we were about to do the same. Wasn’t there something with Elzin you wanted to tell us?” Jenny asked. “Yeah I’ll bring him around your world soon-ish I have stuff to do in my world, like making sure Aqua didn’t head to castle oblivion on her own or something like that.” Huxley said hoping she didn’t do something reckless like that. “Yeah...that would be a bad thing…” Ben frowns. “Anyways, why do you want to talk with Luxu? Anything important or should I not bother asking?” “He was friends with the original Foretellers, so we wanted to ask him if he has any advice for us and our Unions. Also, we wanted to settle things between us. Like he said, he sees us as the ghosts of his friends. I don’t want there to be any tension or bad blood between any of us.” Lan said. “Ah, makes sense.” Ben nods. “Oh that reminds me, I need to be told that story, I don’t think you told me about it or just gave me cliff notes about it.” Ben explains. “We basically gave you a Rotten Tomato summary. We’ll tell you later.” Jenny said. “Anyway see you guys tell Zeke that I left.” Huxley said opening his book and pressing a button and walking through a DTL. “See ya.” Ben waves. “Let’s hope Luxu just appears like before…” “You rang?” Luxu said, walking out from behind a column “Oh hey it's the ghosts.” “These five want to have a nice talk with you. Probably get you to see past the ‘ghost’ bit and all that fanciness.” Ben says. “I’ll leave you to it while I go find Zeke and tell him a few things.” Ben says before turning on his heels and walking off, giving the Foretellers and Luxu their space. Luxu looked at the Foretellers. “So what do you want?” “Well for starters, you can quit the ghost shit. That's what we wanted to talk about!” Jenny said harshly. “And why?” “Look, Master Luxu, we want to be friends. I know we kind of just took on the mantel of the former Foretellers, but treating us like this isn't right. We aren't them, we only want to succeed them. That includes you as well.” Dan said. “Do you even know how they started off?” Luxu asked. “How we met?” “We would like too.” Kira said, “If you're willing to tell us.” Luxu inhaled. “They… started off as… not good people. Criminals, stole a lot, put people in hospitals. They were caught, and tossed to the heartless. They only survived because my dad and I managed to be nearby and heard the screaming. We helped them, they tried to mug us, dad knocked them out, and then we took them home with us. It was rough for them to break open their shells, but they did, and we became a family… I made their masks, because they hated their faces. Hated what they did, who they were.” Luxu took another breath. “Dad gave them new names, the robes, and had them become the Foretellers, guardians of the light. They followed his every world to a T, out of thanks, and gratitude.” “They owe you two everything.” Alex said. “You guys sound as close as we are. I mean all of us found each other achieved by coincidence, and we are a family. Just like how you guys were.” “Yeah, that’s why I call you guys ghosts. Your pasts are so similar, it’s like they're back from the dead. Everytime I see you guys I see them… and I hate how I see them… like invisible corpses floating in front of you… I can’t unsee their bodies, their deaths… I can’t unsee any of it no matter how much I wish I could, but I look at it to remind me that… if I stepped in, saved them… things would have been different.” “You followed your father's orders just as they did. If you did anything else, they might have held it against you. You did nothing wrong Luxu.” Kira said. “Dad knew the war was genocide, what kind of parent just has their kid watch that massacre? I did nothing while my family died not far from me… their death is on my hand… all because dad told them one of them was a traitor… when the truth is, there was no traitor, that nightmare was his, he turned them against each other and sent me away so I didn’t mess with the plans… he’s a slave to the Gazing Eye and its predictions.” “What your father did was despicable yes, but he was only doing his role. We saw all of his inventions. Each one more vile than the next. But he was ready to throw away his life to protect the world's light.” Lan said seriously. “Yet he knows just as well as I do that the Gazing Eye’s predictions are only a chance of many to happen. When one prediction happens there’s many more to follow of what can happen. He made sure that he, and all his reflections, they made sure the Keyblade War happened everywhere, at the same time just to have a chance at destroying the X-blade.” “Well get over it!” Jenny said grabbing the front of his coat. “I’m sure you heard this somewhere before, but what's done is done! What good is it to just keep reminding ourselves of what happens and think about what could have been! We all have a past and we all need to deal with it!” she let go of his coat and calmed down a bit. “ We aren't them, so stop treating us like ghosts.” Luxu grabbed Jenny’s head by the temples, and in a pulse of magic, sent all his memories of the war into her mind. She dropped him, screaming in fear. “You try and live passed that hell!” He screamed, kicking her to the side. “I can never unsee it, all of that I always see and hear, every moment of my life it’s there, haunting me. When you see hell, you do one of two things, die in it, or laugh. I took the hard way and walked through it, watching that war and not stopping it when it started is my sin to carry for eternity. What will your eternal sins be?” “Then is that it?” Lan stepped forward, while Jenny was carried away by Alex. “We aren't saying forget about the past. We already know how the past can haunt someone. But can you honestly say that you aren't happy? If I remember right, you were with a girl called Time Bell back in Ben's reflection. Is the past stopping you from being happy with her?” “No… no we keep each other's nightmares away somehow… I knew there was a reason I didn’t… end it like the others… I realized it was because of her. Hard headed, stubborn, and broken like me. It’s how we connected, it’s why we’re together. Gazing Eye showed me all my possible futures… meeting her was the one with the smallest chance of happening. I lived on to make it happen.” Lan nodded. “We want to befriend you master. We aren't them, but we want to succeed them. Make up for the mistakes the Master did, as well as make sure their memories live on. Please, Master Luxu!” He bowed. Luxu sighed. “I can look past the ghosts I see you as, the memories you bring up, so I’ll try. If you really want to succeed them you’ll need to know more about the kind of power you posses.” “What do you mean?” Kira asked. “You are using the powers of the First Masters, and you have yet to realize the potential you have. I’ll swing by your world in a week, we can talk more then.” He said walking away. “And sorry about your friend. She’ll experience some trauma, but she’ll be fine given time.” Eclipse walked through the hall as she slowly became a he, much to his relief. “Damn...much longer and I would have been like Zeke at the rate I was going.” “And maybe next time don’t destroy the guards I made for you.” Ben frowns, finding Eclipse during his walk to find Zeke. Eclipse rubs his head. “Sorry about that… the only thing on my mind was getting that damn heat to end. Plus it itched like crazy doing nothing.” “Even though I have ‘pony’ girlfriends their anthro.” Ben frowns. “Also I don’t think it would be good to do it with a full on pony...also you would have beaten me for even agreeing to such a thing.” Ben explains, putting his hands in his cloak pockets. “Did I say it was smart or did I say the only thing I cared for was getting off through someone's manhood? But anyways, I’m sorry for the trouble.” Eclipse said honestly. “It’s alright man don’t worry.” Ben says. “But glad to see you’re turning back to normal. But question...why the hell were you perfectly normal here when you were a mare then suddenly went into heat in Skyrim? I thought the time tables for each world were roughly the same?” “Actually, they are drastically different. This was explained in Dream Drop distance, time in different worlds flows differently. For me it has been over eighteen years. I don't think anyone else has been in their world for that long.” Eclipse explains. “Oh...that makes sense.” Ben nods. “Sadly I forgot that…” He sighs out. “Well let’s hope it hasn’t been weeks or years back home, don’t want them all worried shitless…” “Mine are already going to be worried because last they saw me I was insane. But yea, lets hope no huge time gaps between here and our respective reflections.” Eclipse agrees “....Is this the first time we aren't at each other's throats?” “When were we at each other’s throats?” Ben asks curiously. “Huh...must have been thinking of Huxley. Seems like everyone has a keyblade now and days, so you can't just point and say ‘you have a keyblade!’ and know who they are.” Eclipse says embarrassed at the screw up. “Well we are all distinguishable because of looks. I have the white cloak, Huxley has the black cloak.” Ben says while showing his white cloak. “I also have this fancy silver crown cause I’m awesome.” Ben smiles and points to his crown. “Huh… I wonder if my Luna is going to try and get me one if I ever marry. Welp, we will just have to see.” Eclipse shrugs. “Oh also, have time to hear on what I’ve been working on ever since I saw a human again? “Do you want me to give you the honest answer or the smart ass answer?” Ben asks with a cheeky grin. “Haha.” Eclipse says with a smile despite his angry tone. “I’m working on a spell matrix to allow me to turn into the form of whatever inhabitants live in a world. Example, going to your world I would be anthro, and coming to Huxley’s world I would be a human with strange hair and eyes. It’s not done yet, but I hope to finish it before anything happens to me.” “Hopefully it get’s done because that sounds fancy.” Ben smiles. “Yea, but I think Huxley wants to prank his Twilight before I get to do that. But it could be useful for all of us when it’s done. Now, what were you doing before you ran into me? I don’t think you came down here looking for little old me.” Eclipse says bluntly. “I was heading off to find Zeke.” Ben says honestly. “I have to tell him a few things.” “Oh, well good luck. One of two things is gonna happen. Either Rune got him or he is busy with the counsel filling out paperwork about the Elder Scrolls world.” “I don’t know much about Rune, but I have a feeling he’s busy with paperwork or something.” He says with a shrug. “I mean, besides the weird fetish book…” “Lets just say, if you have a perverted marefriend, she and Rune would be best friends and leave it at that. “Well my Luna’s more...needy than perverted.” Ben shrugs. “But hey she’s been stuck in the moon for a thousand years it’s going to take a while to steady that girl.” “Makes sense. The only reason mine didn’t jump my bone was because we both worked together to defeat Nightmare Moon….who was her mark of mastery test apparently.” Eclipse says. “Well, you best be off. Keep in touch k?” Eclipse says with his trademark grin “Yep.” Ben says while patting Eclipse’s head gently. “Stay safe you very worrying pony.” He says while heading off to find Zeke again. Zeke was resting in the library, half of her wives were with her as she read over one of the books the Aqua from the new reflection Diamond Tiara made accidentally gave her. “Knock knock?” Ben asks while knocking on a bookshelf like a door. Zeke looked up. “Oh, hey Ben. Something up?” Zeke asks, putting the book down. “One, Huxley finally left to his world so there’s that.” Ben starts. “Two, I suppose now’s a good a time as any to say meet your wives and friends I suppose. And three...well as soon as Luxu is done talking with the Foretellers I’m pretty sure you two should have a talk.” Ben says honestly. “I was hoping for that. Also, anything you need?” “Well the first one was to meet the many women you’ve managed to marry you lucky bastard.” Ben frowns. “And two, should I head on home and then you call me to a meeting so I can tell everyone what Core’s been doing to my knowledge or should I stay here and wait?” “For the council we can have that meeting next week. As for the wives, well, you know Unum, then there’s Toriel, Derpy, Rarity, Twilight, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Flitter, Cloudchaser, Celestia, Luna, Rune, Hearts Care, and Chrysalis.” “One of you...can you please explain how his hips aren’t in another dimension?” Ben asks one of Zeke’s wives. “Also...is Toriel some goat mother looking person?” Toriel chuckled. “That was a nickname I had back home. Zeke and X managed to bring my two deceased children back, well, Chara was possessed by darkness, and Asriel was an artificial Nobody of sorts. My kind, our bodies don’t stay after death, they turn to dust when we die.” She explained. “Zeke and X made a heart for him.” “Okay Ms. Tutorial.” Ben says with a nod. “Glad to know all that...but besides the obvious thing of you look like a good school teacher...I met two weird skeletons...one that slept in the middle of where I was walking and one that kept calling me ‘Human’ and trying to be friends...while sounding like Skeletor for some reason…” “That was Sans, the one sleeping, the other is his brother Papyrus. Sans might not look like much, but since he and his brother moved here, Sans has become one of the highest ranked fighters in Daybreak. And if he gets hit once, he’s gone.” “RPG rules, got it.” Ben nods. “The weakest of the bunch happens to be the strongest and sleep keeps his fragile yet powerful strength up.” “Something like that, just don’t mess with his brother…last person who did Sans…well, shoved a bone up…well, you can guess.” “Was it a boy or a girl? Cause I can make a dirty pun out of it.” Ben says with a cheeky grin. “Perv.” Rainbow said. “Hey I have to hear my worlds Spike talk about how he ‘fluffs your cloud’ on a constant basis Rainbow, so shush.” Ben glares at Rainbow. Rainbow blushed. “Multiverse is so weird.” “Trust me, it’s only going to get weirder. Just be glad you haven’t met a fan of eldritch horror because that is going to be proven true in very horrible ways.” Ben explains. “Anywhosits, I presume we have people to start bringing back from the grave or are you too tired from all that’s happened and the bun in your oven?” “Oh right.” Zeke said, standing up. “Well, go big or go home.” Zeke and Ben raised a hand into the air, the power in the air was tangible with the amount of Nobodies and Heartless appearing. It went on for a few moments, less than five minutes, and it stopped abruptly. “Wow, so my Heartless can appear on the world? Meh, the moon was still a good battleground.” “I think it’s because of some magical bullshit that surrounds you.” Ben points out. “You being the ‘balance’ and all that jazz, giving the Heartless some sort of spark of light so they can be here, while Core and all his dick waffle comrades have no spark and so can’t be here...if that made any sense at all…” Ben sighs out, pinching the bridge of his nose because he thought he sounded like an idiot. “No, you did alright.” Eclipse said, leaning on the doorframe. “Anyone going to get these people clothes?” “They probably should and when did you get here?” Ben asks Eclipse. “Just now. I heard the sound of fighting and it wasn’t in the arena so I wanted to check it out. Now Zeke, can Discord help here? I think we are scaring these poor people.” Eclipse says looking at a confused anthro mare. Zeke rolled his eye and simply pulled out Discord and in a flash of pink the people were clothed. “So let’s take a headcount of who was saved shall we?” Ben asks. “WIth the amount of power we did… Discord?” Zeke asked. “Over 9/10 of this Equestria’s population is back, the last bunch… moved on.” Discord said with a hint of sadness, Zeke gritted her teeth. “One bastard did all that damage…” “Hey Discord...When people die completely, they go to one of two places right? Kingdom hearts or the Void.” Eclipse says. “Actually, depends on the world.” “Damn. I was hoping I could maybe help bring some back when I learned how to use Oathkeeper’s power.” Eclipse says. “I have a feeling I’m missing something, but is there extra magic to Oathkeeper and Oblivion?” Ben says, confused about what Oathkeeper’s powers were. “Well, is there anything you wanted Eclipse?” Zeke asks before remembering. “Oh right Huxley gave me this coin and told me to give it to you.” Zeke said handing the coin to Eclipse. “Thanks. And I was wondering if you wanted me to stay or not? I could leave if you want but I wanted to know if you wanted me to stay for your kid.” Eclipse says acting nonchalant. “Which?” “The bun in your oven. After all, it’s not everyday your cuz get knocked up. And if there is one thing about the Ventrals I accept whole heartedly, is the importance of family.” Eclipse says firmly. “Yeah, I’ll send a letter when the due date is near, got a month and a half, cause half Keyblade babies grow fast in the womb.” “I’ll be there. Well, hopefully. Oath and I have a plan and I just hope we come home in time to be here.” Eclipse says with a nod. “Alright then, well, if that’s all I just gotta talk with Luxu then start working on the aid for everyone who came back… that’s gonna be a headache. Well, later you two.” After leaving the Library I found a good place to make a portal and leave. "Well off I go then." I say, summoning Reunion and opening a DTL. "It was nice meeting you Daybreak Empire...let's hope I can come back in a more relaxed case..." I sigh out before walking through the portal, the light disappearing in an instant as I found myself home. "Ben~" Someone said with an eerie cheer. "Oh...shit..." I frown before being grabbed by three mares suddenly and nothing but my attempts at freedom could be heard before the library door slammed shut. To be continued...
Nobody's Lesson: Fair Game pt 1Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.
Nobody's Lesson: Fair Game pt 2Three days past since my first training session with cards, and considering Dorlu had a horny wife I could understand why he didn’t want to train me in those few days. “Wonder if he’ll be free today…” I mutter while walking around the old part of Ponyville, wondering if I’ll spot the gambler soon. “Let’s hope I don’t see him having to use crutches.” I chuckle to myself, taking a look around to see if he’s anywhere. I spotted him sitting on the police station steps, smoking a cigarette. “Oh, hey Ben.” He said as he saw me. “How you doing Dorlu?” I ask with a smile. “Hope the missus isn’t too much for ya.” “I love it when she goes wild, but she likely is pregnant again, which I don’t really mind, she’s just wondering how many in this litter if she is.” “Well at least she’ll raise her kids in a more...friendly world I suppose.” I shrug. “I’ll say, the kids we have when we first came here didn’t know what to make of being outside, they even asked what a tree was... “ “Ha.” I laugh. “That must have been quite an experience. So you free to help train me or busy with work or family?” I ask curiously, hoping he’s free to train. “Right now Crystal is at the doctors to see if she is, yes they can tell that fast with her race, the kids are in school, and the boy’s in there don’t have anything for me at the moment. Sure, you trained?” “Why of course.” I say while snapping my fingers, a Gambler nobody appearing behind me. “Good things to practice with but can’t compete with a master that’s for sure.” I say before the pink Nobody vanished. “So where should we go to start training? Cause public areas aren’t good for training.” “I think near the Everfree is good, not much is out there, and anything that crawls out of it we’ll be able to send back.” “Yeah that’s true.” I nod. “Let’s get going and see if that creepy forest doesn’t try to attack us for no reason.” Dorlu and I walked over to an area next to the Everfree’s border. We were a good two miles from town and half a mile from Fluttershy’s cottage, so we were pretty isolated. Dorlu stood across from me, his deck floating around him. “Let’s see what you got then?” “Alright.” I say before summoning my cards. The both of us looked at each other before a flurry of enchanted paper started whirling around us. “Ready?” I ask. “Ready.” Dorlu says before tossing up five cards that started to float above him. “Let’s see if you know how to play the game.” He says before the five cards flashed up one ‘O’ and four ‘X’ faced cards before flipping back around and shuffling around swiftly. As I followed along I heard something and reacted instantly, a card whizzed by my head before I threw six cards at Dorlu...only to have them bounce away and return to me. “No attacking me as per the rules.” The gambler says before I flash up my hand, thankfully the ‘O’ card flashed up and I sighed out happily. “No need to get complacent.” He says before a sudden explosion knocked me sideways. “Crap!” I yelp before skidding to a halt and throwing several cards at him, which he simply deflected before smaller cards fell down and exploded, causing the Gambler to skid back with raised arms, giving me enough chance to dash forward with a giant card and slash down at him. “Gotcha!” “Not quite.” Dorlu says before a card wall appeared in front of him that blocked my attack. One card swiftly turned around and showed a slow time stamp on it before I was smacked away, my entire body feeling sluggish and slow. A card appeared above me with a thirty second ticker counting down how many seconds my ‘slow’ condition lasted before I felt something hit my stomach and knock me back. “This sucks…” I mutter before I summon a pinkish orb which Dorlu immediately answered to. Dorlu saw the same thing he put me through but with four cards that flashed one ‘O’ and three ‘X’s before they flipped around and, to his surprise, shuffled a lot quicker then his shuffling did. Dorlu flashed up a card but it was an ‘X’ and he was pushed back a little, my slow condition immediately wearing off suddenly. “How’s that?” “Good good.” Dorlu says with a smile. “Now...Look closely.” He says before summoning a card and disappearing behind it. Ten cards suddenly appeared in front of me, one with Dorlu on it, three with explosive stamps, two with time stamps and the rest blank before they all fell to the ground and moving around perfectly even on the forest floor before they all flipped up with their backs facing me. I followed the proper card and didn’t notice any cards doubling but I placed my hand on the ground and my cards snaked around past the cards on the hunt for any tricks on the ground. I stood up and with a deep breath I flipped up a card, but the card in question seemed to stay still for a moment before a smaller card flipped up and showed Dorlu, the small card resizing and the man walking out of it. “Impressive.” “You haven’t seen anything yet.” I smirk. “Let’s see if you can follow along.” I say before doing the same trick on him, summoning five cards, one with me, one bomb, one time and two blank before I let them all fall to the ground and slide around. Dorlu was looking at the card I was in but he didn’t notice that I swapped to an extra card before hopping off to one of the cards that I snaked around just to make sure the guy didn’t do any tricks. After a few moments Dorlu picked a card, before it turned around to find ‘Gotcha’ written on it before I suddenly appeared before him and tapped his head with a card. But before I could start celebrating a job well done that I managed to win the Dorlu I was focused on glowed. “Aw fuck.” I frown before throwing up a card shield as the glowing ‘Dorlu’ exploded. “When the fuck can card clones be made?” I ask, looking around for the bastard. “You did surprise me don’t get me wrong.” Dorlu says before tapping my head behind me. “Changing to a card that wasn’t even apart of that little guessing game was smart, and the speed of your shuffles did put my ‘practice’ speed to shame but still not enough to beat the master.” Dorlu says smugly. “Didn’t answer my question you smug bastard.” I frown. “It an advanced technique.” He says simply. “Took me a few years to figure that little trick out but when you figure it out it a life savor.” “Spoken from experience right?” I ask. “Once or twice.” Dorlu shrugs. “Well want to go again?” I ask, walking back to my starting position and summoning all my cards back. “Nah, kids should be getting out soon and Crystal should be home with the news. Oh, Nyla wanted to talk to you about…something.” “Wonder what she wants to talk about.” I say, already thinking of some of the things she want’s to talk about. “Well no need to stand here and wonder. Just surprised something didn’t suddenly jump out at us…” “Guess nothing brave enough was nearby.” Dorlu said, shrugging as he started to walk towards town. “Probably.” I nod, following Dorlu. “By the by where’s Nyla again?” “She said she’ll be at your place to talk, so she should be there waiting for you.” “Wonder why…” I mutter. “But anyways thanks Dorlu, see you tomorrow?” I ask, hoping to get some more training in. “If not come by my place, wife and I will either be celebrating or out buying supplies ahead of time.” “Right then.” I nod. “Welp, see ya.” I say before summoning my glider and riding home. I landed at the front door and disbanded my glider. Once in I saw Nyla and Twilight sitting on the couch and drinking what looked like either hot tea or coffee. “Welcome back Ben.” Twilight said. “Hello Twilight, hello Nyla. How are you two doing today?” I ask kindly. “I’m fine, Nyla wanted to talk to you about some things though.” Twilight said, motioning for me to sit next to her. “What do you want to talk about Nyla?” I ask, taking a seat next to the canine lady. “It’s about, well, your weapons, and a few other things, but your weapons first. Twilight told me that you have a teacher for all but two, right?” Nyla asked. “Luna has someone that says they know someone for the claymore.” Twilight added. “Right, but I think I know a guy who can teach you the other one, chakrams.” “And who would this person be?” I ask curiously, really wanting to know who this chakram master is. “Well, first off, you two can only meet in private. He really isn’t supposed to be… well, can’t say with Twi here, but I think you two will work out fine.” “I’d rather not walk into a trap here lady.” I frown, not liking how she’s describing this. “I may be an idiot but I’m not that big of an idiot.” “Look, I know it sounds sketchy, but… hang on, can she, uh…” Nyla motioned for Twilight to leave, which she understood and left the room. “Alright, so the guy I’m talking about is a…inlaw of sorts back home.” “Hooray, another trip to Knowhere…” I grumble. “Not…exactly.” She says, looking nervous. “How ‘not exactly’?” I ask. “Cause I’m liking this less and less.” “How much do you know about the multiverse?” “Quite a bit actually. Why do you bring it up?” I ask curiously “Well, it’s like this. There’s more than one multiverse, a multiverse of the multiverse we call realms, divided by void in between, and special ‘barriers’ acting as walls that keep them, well, from the void and each other.” “Sounds about right. But why do you bring this up my fluffy friend?” I ask honestly. “I wasn’t born in THIS realm.” “Then how in the hell did you get here?” I ask with a worried frown. “I’ll show you.” She said, standing up. She tapped on a bracelet she had, and it changed into something like a pipboy from Fallout. She tapped the screen a few more times and a portal opened up in front of us. “Like that.” She deadpanned. “Fucking Bethesda…” I frown. “Actually, the design was used from it, but the tech in it, it’s all Freak Inc.” She stated. “There’s a fuck ton of questions I have right now…” I say honestly. “And I doubt I’ll get any of them. Anyways where does portal take us?” “My in law's house.” She said, walking in as I followed. When we exited we were in the tallest, widest, and fanciest hallway I’ve ever seen. “Crap, missed the entrance again and went right in…” She muttered. “Well isn’t this fancy to the nth degree.” I say while looking around. “Yeah, he really only had this built to… well, you’ll see.” She said, walking down the hall. “Keep up.” “I’m admiring fancy shush.” I say while following along quickly. “But mind if I ask who this ‘in law’ is? Cause the way you made it sound your in law isn’t entirely your favorite person.” She rolled her eyes. “Well, you know how big your friends and their herds/harems are?” “One friend has sixteen wives. What does this guy have twenty or something?” I ask. “What’s higher than a centillion?” “Centillion and one.” I deadpan. She elbowed me. “He has over that many wives, as in there is no known number yet made or named to count that high up, and when that limit was reached his first wife, who started the whole thing, found a loophole and, well, not technically are the newest ones wives, but, look, it’s complicated, for sanities sake, we just call him the man with infinite wives.” “Why in the salty fucks does this guy need that many wives?” I ask incredulously. “His first wife's main fetish… of which she got from a manga about a harem.” “A harem’s one thing, having five or six wives is fine for a healthy harem, sixteen wives is grounds for breaking a hip...but an infinite amount? That’s grounds for sex induced insanity.” I say, not believing any of this. “Not if you’re a god it’s not.” She said nonchalantly. “Now define ‘god’.” I say. “Because I know a ‘God’ and he’s a nice guy...but the term ‘god’ is kind of weird at this point for me.” “He was born human, went thought a lot of hell and pain, got lucky and just plain in the right place at the right time without meaning to be, and, well, he became a god. The Human God some call him.” “You didn’t answer it…” I mutter. “He has the ‘god’ title, a title, or rank, whichever, which in the eyes of every high being in the realms, makes you a god.” I take a deep breath. “So ‘god’ is just a title then. Nothing else to it?” I ask. “Well, you need the power to back it up, but yeah, that’s about it.” “Okay then…” I nod. “But I suppose Twilight told you about all my weapons?” “Yeah, this guy can find you a teacher for them easy if he doesn’t teach you a few things yourself. Though, your realm isn’t supposed to be ‘accessed’ just yet.” “I’m worried about what you mean by ‘accessed’...” I say worriedly. “You know that friend of yours, Zeke, and his Unity thing?” “Yes I do know Zeke and his Unity thing.” I nod. “This guy has had about ten years head start and already all of his realm is united as well as a fuck ton others.” “Well that’s a thing.” I say honestly. “That sounds like quite a feat...even though Zeke is a very special guy.” “Yeah, well, Cript is too. How many people can make their own universe just to act as a home of your family?” “Fucked if I know. I mean, if I master my weapons and figure out how to utilize their attributes then I possibly could...in a fuck lot of time.” I say with a frown. “Seriously it took me two months to learn advanced math and I’m already thinking of crap that’s probably never gonna happen.” “Well, anyway, we gotta hope we run into someone in this hall who can call him for us.” Nyla replied. “Hopefully.” I sigh out. “But I suppose it’s because of his ‘infinite harem’ that this ‘Cript’ if memory serves is your in law?” “Yeah, my sister was one of his earlier wives. At the time she was like the rest of my race, pumped full of darkness like you wouldn’t believe and she attacked his kids classroom in a darkness fueled rampage.” “Oh...that happened…” I say, not knowing what else to say. “Yeah, if it wasn’t for his Humanity Blade, we likely would have ended up dead.” “Adding another question to the massive list of questions I already have…” I sigh out, not knowing what the hell’s going on. “The Humanity Blade is basically, if there’s a single trace of humanity left on a person, it will snag onto it when attacking someone, encase them in crystal, then expel all the darkness. If they’re all darkness, then it just hurts them like any sword would.” “That sounds like something Zeke’s capable of doing.” I say honestly. “Not sure how it works, but it has saved a lot of races and people. So, anything else you wanna ask?” “The whole ‘pip boy makes dimensional portals to other reflections without the need of keyblades’ is probably a primary question right now.” I say honestly. “It’s called an Assistant. It can do a lot, can store well over a world’s worth of physical items by changing it into digital code, and the apps do most of the other stuff via special magic embedded in as the code.” “What’s this ‘Freak Inc.’? Cause it sounds like either a one stop shop for fetish items or something completely different.” I ask. “It’s Cript’s company. They started off making weapons, and with the shadow creatures starting to act up in mass, he quickly became vastly wealthy. He soon moved onto food, medicine, they made just about everything.” “Heartless made him push towards helping others...huh.” I say. “No, shadow creatures are different from heartless, and WAY more dangerous.” “That raises even more questions…” I frown. “Oh dear...what are these ‘shadow creatures’ if there not heartless?” “Monsters made from the purest darkness given physical form. Back when some scientist went made and made them, control them for years til he was defeated. Now though, so many other evils have used them and now they can reproduce or spawn via special crystals. Then there’s the Inhumans, and the Subhumans.” “So how little does Kingdom Hearts logic stand in this vast multiverse?” “In this realm, everything is reality. Everything you know as fiction law plays some part in this realm.” “I really hope Dragon Ball isn’t a thing here...cause Core is strong enough as is I don’t want Frieza appearing out of nowhere being stronger then him…” “Ha, Core wouldn’t last a nanosecond against Cript, trust me, he calls himself a demon, but not even a devil has lived against Cript.” “Well I’m sorry for not having the power to literally reshape reality to my whims.” I frown. “I’m a simple guy who has to master thirteen different weapons one at a time, and each of them has their own separate brand of problems…” I sigh out, rubbing my temples lightly. “Every weapon does.” Nyla said. We kept walking til we finally saw someone in the distance. We have to have walked at least four miles of hallway! We ran up and upon seeing the person I did a double check. Sebastian Mecalius… “Hey, can you call Cript here?” Nyla asked. “Certainly.” He replied. Yup, that voice is Sebastion’s. He vanished in a haze then reappeared in a second. “Master Cript will be here shortly.” He said before vanishing again. “So...Sebastion huh?” I ask. “Where’d you find him?” “Cript broke his contract with that kid, turned the kid and that ex demon into humans, then adopted the kid and employed the guy.” She replied. “Huh…” I say simply, my eyerbrows knitted together at having such a simple explanation given. “So this Cript...does he have the ability to bend reality to his will?” “Yeah, but he doesn’t use it much.” “I believe I’ve read some stories where reality benders thought life was either too easy or too boring after you’ve done specific things…” I say. “Is that true or am I just making up stupid shit?” “Depends, Cript can still occasionally find strong enemies to fight, but mostly he runs his company and spends time with his wives and kids.” “Sounds about right I suppose.” I shrug. “But...reminds me of Zeke to a point. Spending more time with his family and friends and trying to keep Daybreak from doing something silly.” We talked a bit more, just to pass time before a man in a brown trench coat, black shirt and blue jeans walked up to us… I had to look at him for several seconds before realizing he looked a lot like Zeke, only with brown hair rather than blonde and brown eyes rather than red. “Sup, long time no see Nyla.” The man, Cript, said. “I’ve been busy, how’s my sis?” Nyla asked. “She’s good, spends just about all her time in the nursery, as usual.” He then looked at me. “Uh… So who are you?” “Names Ben. And I was told your Cript correct?” I ask. “Yeah.” “Nyla told me you could help me with a little...problem I have at the moment.” I say. “Ya see I can’t seem to find a master for Chakrams and Ethereal Blades.” I explain. “Is there anyone you can point me to to help out? Cause hearing Nyla talk about you you seem to be a really busy person.” “Well, I can give you two options there, I can loan you a teacher, or one of my kids who has mastered those things already.” Cript said. “You have a kid that mastered both of those weapons already?” I ask curiously, finding that a tad strange. “Yeah, I have them trained in a wide variety of weapons. Heroes of tomorrow, that’s what everyone expects and according to the ‘boss’ they’ll be needed.” “Too.Many.Questions…” I whine, before shaking my head gently. “But who would you personally pick? Cause you’re basically picking the person to help me already.” “Personally… Huh, who would do the best…” He snapped his fingers. “Yeah, she’ll do.” He said, tapping on his assistant, as Nyla called it. “I sent the message to my daughter, Trinity.” “Right then.” I nod. “But has she mastered the two weapons I talked about? Or just one of them?” “She’s mastered both of those and ninety others.” “Can I stop feeling like I amount to nothing?” I ask with a frown, starting to get worried here. “Seriously it’s starting to get just a tad bit annoying when I’m weaker than someone that’s a fuck tons weaker than a god here…” “Different realms carry different variations of strength. Think of it like this, you play a game and become strong as hell in it, then you play it in multiplayer, and you aren’t as good as you thought. Same basic principle, just apply it to, well, everything. Right now, your reality/realm is ‘single player’ and my realm is ‘multiplayer’.” “Well that’s just fancy.” I sigh out. “Question...Nyla said that Core wasn’t anything compared to you...what would happen if he got his hands on Void powers?” “He’s moved up ten ranks, but that’s about it.” Cript said. “Trust me, there’s much stronger everything out there, even with all that Core has done, he’s not the evilest thing out there.” “Even though Core is dead set on making everything turn to Void.” I frown. “Him and about ten million other villains out there, only reason we let them run around for awhile is because we know someone else is gonna deal with them, or they’ll do something to mess themselves up.” “Sounds about right.” I nod. “But thank you for helping me here. I have a feeling I won’t be getting this help again any time soon though.” “Meh, I help you, and Trinity finally gets some field work. She’s been wanting-” Cript was cut of when a gust of wind that his hard enough to peel the wood off that walls blasted us. When the dust, and wood shavings cleared, there was a fourteen year old girl, red hair, green eyes, wearing a white dress and two MASSIVE WINGS were on her back. “There she is.” Cript said. “Hi daddy.” The girl said. “Hi Trinity. So, this is your first field mission, basically just train this guy, the one in the white coat, in ethereal blades and chakrams. Don’t show off too much, alright?” “Sure.” She said, smiling. “I do have to add the Ethereal blades and Chakrams do come with special properties though…” I say sheepishly, thinking I should have told them this earlier. “How so?” Trinity asked, tilting her head as the walls began to repair themselves. “I have Eternal Flames.” I start before summoning my two chakrams, the thing’s appearing in a burst of flames instead of just appearing in a flash of light surprisingly. “And then there’s Interdiction.” I say before the chakrams vanished and two Ethereal blades appeared, Nothingness thorns seeming to crawl along the red and white blades. “So I have to deal with a fire elemental chakrams and Nothingness blades.” I say before dismissing my weapons. “Then there’s the fuck ton of hidden abilities these damned things have...I should have told you this before I asked for a trainer…” I sigh out, rubbing my temple bitterly. “No need.” Trinity said. “I have those same chakrams, and those blades are rather standard, so I know what they do.” “Why do I have the feeling all my weapons are ‘standard’ in your reality…” I frown. “But anyways thank you so much for helping me. But the Ethereal blades by themselves seemed pretty standard by way of Red Lightsabers, but the ‘Nothingness’ attachment to it might not make it standard...I think.” “You’d be surprised how many weapons like that exist.” Cript said. “Either way, you two go. Oh, and Ben, right?” “Yes?” I ask curiously. I was suddenly floated and looking Cript right in the eyes, which changed to look like Core’s. “Make a move on her, and you really will know what Nothingness is first hand.” He said before vanishing. ”She’s fourteen for one thing...and two I wasn’t going to try and hit on her to begin with...I can understand overprotective father but jesus.” I think to myself as I fall on my butt, wondering why he changed his eyes to Core’s for some reason. “Oh well…” “Sorry about that.” Trinity said. “He’s a dad after all.” “I’ve seen that happen in too much manga and anime to know.” I say before getting up. “Anywhosits let’s get going back to my world. Let’s hope my girlfriends aren’t panicking at another disappearing act.” I say. “So...who’s going to magic up a portal back there?” “I got this.” Trinity snapped her fingers, and Nyla and I found ourselves just outside the library. “Nailed the landing. So you live here? Huh, this might be weird for me.” “The place has enough space for quite a lot of people to be honest. But yes this is where me and my five girlfriends live, along with three other people.” I say honestly. “But why is it awkward? Is it because you’re not good with libraries or what?” I ask, not wanting to bring up the huge wings in case it was a sensitive topic. “Well, while my birth mother is an angel, my other mothers largely come from Equestria reflections. So if I call anyone here mom, it’s involuntary and force of habit.” “Now while I want to say that can lead to some funny jokes…” I say worriedly. “Me and my girlfriends had a little scare one time...I’d...rather wait until after we’re all married for kids ya know?” I say, not entirely knowing if this is just wasted words on a fourteen year old. “Sorta, my mother is a cherub so… expect them to be… well, just make sure you use physical protection. A cherub in the room makes anyone they came near… EXTREMELY fertile for twenty-four hours.” “I do hope magic can stop that…” I say worriedly. “It won’t…” “Fuck.” I grumble. “Anyways want to have a look inside?” “Sure. Oh, and tell no one about where aunt Nyla and I come from. This realm isn’t supposed to be accessed just yet.” “Okay the hell does that mean?” “It means we aren’t supposed to enter it until a specific evil has been unleashed.” “I know Core’s not that big of a threat to your family but still.” I frown. “Core’s worrying enough in my realm as is…” I sigh out before walking over and opening the door. “Twilight! I’m home!” I call out into the library, hoping to find the purple unicorn quickly. She came down stairs quickly. “We might have an issue…” Twi said, making me frown. “I leave for five minutes and there’s already an issue.” I frown. “What is it?” “The radio went off saying there was some giant monster with bone armor completely destroying Manehattan!” She panicked. “The fuck?” I frown. “I...don’t remember any Heartless or Unversed looking like that…” “I think I know what it is.” Trinity said, grabbing the back of my cloak. “Come on.” She said. I blinked and found myself looking at what must have been a massive, ten mile high beast, that definitely wasn’t a Heartless, standing in a largely destroyed city. “Yeup, Titan…” “I’m sorry did you just say titan?” I ask, looking at the giant monster. “It’s a type of shadow creature, a rather strong one too… by normal standards.” She flicked her wrists and two white and blue chakrams that looked like they were made from gold appeared in her hands in a flash of light. “Watch what your teacher can do.” She said, flying over to it. She, from what I could make out, threw on chakram at it, and what happened next made my jaw drop. There was a small breaking noise, then the thing was falling over… sliced in half. She flew back over. “Thank goodness it was a level one titan.” She said. “I fucking hate this.” I say simply. “I...suddenly a monster that I’ve never seen appears randomly in Manehattan…” I started before his eyes widen. “Oh no….Oh nononononono!” I start repeating as I freaked out. “Three of my girlfriends could have...no...no…” I mutter, tears threatening to fall as I thought of three of my girlfriends dying while I was gone and me not being able to do anything. “Hold on.” Trinity says, placing a finger on forehead followed by a small static shock. She then closed her eyes like she was focusing. “Okay, found them. Ten miles away from the city, perfectly fine.” She said. “Special ability dad taught me, and a few others.” I fell to my knees, tears rolling down my face in joy at hearing there alright. “Oh...oh thank god they’re alright…” I say happily. “Well while they’re heading home… as for the city… looks like my relatives who work in the afterlife are gonna be working overtime…” “And here I am...who’s supposed to be the ‘White Knight of Equis’...and I couldn’t save shit…” I sigh out while getting up. “Well...we better get back…” “Relax, you know what they say, every warrior has an angel watching over them, well that’s what I’ll be until you can travel across the world in a nanosecond.” She said, patting my back. “I have five other masters that live here, four that I need to talk to on another world, and one more that I need to hunt down…” I sigh out. “But hey, if you help me get that strong then it’ll help me out in so many ways…” “That’s why my family exists, kinda our thing.” She said, putting a hand on my shoulder then I found myself back in the livingroom in Twilight’s library. “By the by is that just speed alone or some teleportation shenanigans?” I ask Trinity. “Speed.” She replied. “Angel, well, half, but still, can move stupidly fast.” “I can imagine.” I say with a nod. “But do you want to know all of my weapons and what other masters you might see me train with or no?” I ask, wondering if she’ll want to know them. “When I looked into your memories earlier I saw all of that already. Just let me know when you want to train and I’ll be there, til then I’m sight seeing.” She said, walking off. “Alrighty then.” I nod. “Wonder if Dorlu want’s to train again...maybe he has the time.” I mutter to myself while heading off to find him. To be continued... Author's Note Sorry that this chapter was maybe a tad bit too distracted from training but it's a lot more prominent then you'd think. Hope you enjoy the chapter and next chapter our hero will finally master cards...hopefully.
Nobody's Lesson: Fair Game pt 3After the scare and event that happened in Manehattan, I realized a few things. First off, there are things that are just way too powerful exist. Second, that some people can be too OP given Cript and his daughter, that thing destroyed the city in the time I was gone and she took it out in one swing. Lastly is that I need to beat Dorlu and finally master these cards. I don’t know if beating Trinity is even possible with what she can do, but I think she can train me in being stronger. “Good lordy…” I sigh out, scratching my head as many many thoughts rushed through my head. “Hopefully Dorlu is around and hasn’t been deployed to Manehattan…” I mutter before looking around for Detective Gambler. I walked into the police station and it was hectic with people moving back and forth, and papers were scattered everywhere. “Ben!” Dorlu called out, walking out from the chaos. “What are you doing here?” “Hoping to not see this for a start.” I start, looking around at the chaos worriedly. “It’s because of that monster right?” “Yeah, lot of folks here are being sent there to scout for survivors and… clean up. I gotta head out soon, some reports tell that heartless showed up not long after the thing was killed.” “Well shit…” I frown. “That’s not good. I better go out and help cause I’m supposed to be the ‘White Knight of Equis’ after all.” I say while twirling my finger pointed up in a ‘whoop-de-doo’ kind of motion. “I think Celestia would appreciate that.” Dorlu said, picking up some papers. “This is, from what I was told, Equestria’s first major tragedy since the changeling invasion, and no one even died in that.” “Yeah, nothing like starting to realize the world is a fuck lot bigger than you originally thought.” I sigh out bitterly. “Anyways I better head off, I’ll be there a lot sooner than most of the guards, unless you want to tag along on my glider.” “I have my own way.” Dorlu said, tossing out two cards that grew and stuck to his back like wings. “I’ve been meaning to try this out too.” “There’s a lot of things you have yet to accomplish my fine friend.” I chuckle while summoning my glider. “With just a little imagination those cards could become so much more. Come on we’ve got work to do.” I say before hopping on my glider and speeding off to Manehattan. After about twenty minutes of flying with Dorlu we both made it to the island city and things were not pretty in anyway shape or form. “Shit…” I frown. “You take on the heartless, I’ll look for survivors.” “Sounds like a plan.” I say before speeding headlong into the heartless, landing on the ground as I dismissed it, summoned my keyblade and shield and ran in, killing Heartless that tried attacking me in the process. The day was pretty long as I played exterminator and cleaved my way through Heartless rather quickly if I do say so myself, but sadly there was so many of the damned things. “Jesus hell where do you things keep coming from?” I grumble while continuing to rush through and kill heartless, trying to find survivors in my spare time to help Dorlu out. We found more corpses than survivors, and those that were alive were… heavily injured. I used cure more times today than I ever have, and even then it only made them stable, sealed deep wounds, and even fixed broken bones, but anything that was… missing… didn’t come back. Damn it, did Core bring that thing here? “Ben, some reports came in about a group heading our way, make sure they make it.” Dorlu said. I nodded and flew off on my glider, finding the group about five miles from where we set up camp. I swiftly flew down outside the camp and jumped off my glider, walking up to the group. “Hi, here to help.” I say simply, readying myself for a fight that may come. “Thank the stars.” One of the people in the group, a grey stallion, said. “There’s more injured over in the old library ruins, including some foul-” He was cut off by being cut. In a blink all of the group was hacked in half, the one responsible… a little girl, no older than ten, holding a small dagger. “Finally found the stragglers.” She said. “Oh come the fuck on~.” I groan, readying my sword and shield for the little girl. “Who are you? And why did you murder them?” She smiled at me, some kinda psycho cutesy smile. “I’m Jenny Ventral, and collecting the stragglers corpses is my job.” “Corpse collecting doesn’t seem that good for a ten year old. Even for a Ventral in my opinion.” I say honestly. “Core needs spare parts for his latest creations.” “Did he not hear some weird reports of a fucking titan that destroyed the city?” I ask with a frown “He sensed that thing appear, surprised him too. But he decided to take the opportunity to gather resources.” “Of course he would…” I sigh out. “Just peachy. And here I thought that after hearing Core was just a little bitch in the grand scheme of things I wouldn’t be so worried.” I joke before dismissing my sword and shield and summoning Fair Game. ”Good a time as ever to try and be a ‘master’ at this…” I think to myself, thinking that she could be a handful if she’s that fast. “Let’s play a little game shall we?” I say with a little smile, the girl suddenly sensing a weird foreboding that felt very worrying even for her. “This is a fight, not a ‘game’.” The child says before bolting after me, trying to slice at my neck to finish me but was immediately dropped to the ground as a crushing pain suddenly shot through her. “Oh I’m sorry, I forget you’re a Ventral.” I say with a little chuckle. “‘Games’ are always ‘how many kicks to the head will kill a puppy’ right?” I ask, seeing the girl get up and jump away, her knife at the ready. The girl vanished and appeared behind me, but then a ‘thump’ was heard as she gasped, her failed attempt at trying to deal a fatal blow to me winding her this time. “My god can you wait five seconds to know the rules?” “Fine.” She growls before getting up and appearing in front of me. “What are these ‘rules’.” She says, poison in her tone. “And no we don’t play ‘how many kicks to the head can kill a puppy’, my father loved dogs!” She shouts at me. “Wait really?” I ask honestly, surprised at hearing that. “Ventral's may be monsters but we’re still human...to some degree…” She says with a shrug. “Anyways, rules go.” “Okay so rule one, no killing.” I say, quietly making some hidden rules without her knowing. “Two, we both have a set time limit so whoever runs out of time first loses.” I say before two cards appear, showing that me and Jenny had the same exact amount of time. “And with each minute or subsequent hit we deal to each other will knock off our time. Whoever runs out of time first is the loser alright?” I ask, seeing the girl nod. “And three, keep the speed to visible alright? Wouldn’t want to make this too easy right?” “Yeah yeah.” She says before readying herself, putting away her knife and dropping down into a battle stance. “Whenever you are.” “Ready.” I say, cards starting to circle around me. “Fight!” I shout, a hidden timer already ticking down on Jenny as she bolted towards me, swiftly and with purpose, swinging a fist towards me that was blocked by a card quickly. The card flipped around and a slow stamp was on it as she was pushed back, her movements feeling slower as her time ticked down steadily from the hit. I grabbed the card and threw it at her, the big card splitting into ten smaller cards all homing at her, which she dodged with just the smallest of movements as she dashed towards me and punched me in the stomach. I gasped in pain at being punched really hard as my time went down as well before I skidded to a halt. “Look closely.” I say before vanishing behind a card, seven different cards appearing with me on it, two blank, two explosive and one time stamp before they all moved around swiftly. As Jenny was focused on my card that slipped under another card I decided to do a little trick that almost got Dorlu as I shrunk my main card down and swapped it with another card. “My mother taught me how to beat this silly ‘find the real card’.” She says before seeing each card flip up back first, walking over to the right one and flipping it, only to spot a time stamp on it and knocking her back, slowing her down even more. I revealed myself and readied for her next strike, the game still in full effect and things going a little too easy for me. She got up and shook off the dirt. “Alright, time for a trump card.” She said, lifting up one of her hands, which had some kinda symbols on it. “Oh Caster.” She said, a crazy eyes man and a hooded woman appeared. “Rule breaker, and some extra magic if you please.” They nodded, the crazy eyed man summoning a book and darkness began pouring out of it, while the lady pulled out a dagger and I could feel the game change. “And mind if I ask why the rules have proceeded to be changed to?” I ask, looking at my cards to see if the timers were still there. ”God please tell me my hidden rules are still in effect…” I mutter before sensing they were still in effect. ”Yes!” I mentally cheer. The corpses she made were covered in the dark magic from the crazy eyed man and then… they crawled to each other, and stood up before changing into a deck of black cards that fell into the girl’s hands. “Isn’t the game better with more cards?” She mocked, tossing cards out that nearly mimicked what mine did. ”Crap, she learned by watching?!” I mentally panic, readying myself. “While that’s true it only seems to be fair that I told you the rules of the game I made. So mind telling me the rules you made up?” I ask, taking a deep breath and starting to relax and focus. “The cards I placed have mixed in with the cards you already placed out, to keep it fair, some of yours are in my deck, and mine in yours. If you pull out one of my cards, you miss a turn, same applies to me, but now, thanks to my Casters, no physical attacks are enabled, only spell cards, you run out of magic then you skip a turn to recharge.” “Who knew Deja Vu could become real life.” I say, finding this kind of funny that Chain of Memories is now the new rules. “Welp, let’s get it started.” I say before my deck appeared in my hand, feeling the dark cards intermingled with them. She pulled out a card, to which the number was seven and seven fire blasts hit me. “Oh, the number on the card determines the potency of the attack, and how many hit you, when summoning, the number determines how many of what you summon appear.” She added. “What about Aces? Since they can count as either one or higher than a King.” I say, wanting to at least know that bit. “Those are basically a ‘wish card’ pick extra magic, an extra turn, or you can draw two cards next turn.” “Alright then.” I nod before picking up my card, turning it around and five icicle spears shot out and hit Jenny. “Just gonna point out that this feels less like a fight and more of those anime’s about children’s card games...just saying.” “I’m ten, what did you expect?” She retorted, pulling out another card to which I was hit by four gravity spells at once. “I don’t know...taking care of your own pony or something?” I ask, trying to ignore the pain as I drew my card, eight bolts of wind slashing at Jenny. “Do we still have the timer I set or do we have a new thing to point out our health?” “That is when a joker is drawn, timer starts for ten seconds, we basicly bombard each other for that time to try and and knock the timer off each other down enough to win.” “I really wish we were normal people…” I sigh out. “Even back home normal is impossible for a Ventral, no matter where we go, police and fear is there, whether we did something or not.” She said, pulling out a card, to which three heartless appeared, charging at me. “Each summon takes the according number of seconds off your timer regardless. Beat them in less, you gain the time back.” A card appeared in front of all the heartless before splitting off into smaller ones, glowing and exploding, killing all the things rather quickly. “That work or is that a little no no?” She pulled another card, a queen. “One queen, nice. Two queens or three kings drawn, winner automatically.” She said, placing the card in her pocket. “Sadly, I miss a turn.” I draw a card, and it just so happens to be a king. “Well looky there, I suppose we’re both getting lucky here.” I say before placing it in my pocket. “Go ahead.” I say, moving my hand in a ‘pass turn’ motion. She drew a card, to which two… half human half heartless things appeared. “I think you’ve seen these things before, you like?” “Three things, one don’t you think the police would actually stop hunting down a criminal family that...they can’t stop?” I ask before drawing a card and flipping it around, two Nobodies suddenly appeared and...they looked rather different than what I was accustomed to. “Two, when I said ‘I wish we were normal’ I meant more of ‘I wish we could be friends’ to some extent or another...and my third point was taken up with these giant wolf Nobodies.” I say, seeing the two growl before I looked at my card, seeing that it was a six. “I’m missing something...rather important. This was a six yet I got two...does it depend on the strength of the thing that was summoned or what?” “Yeah, you can use a higher level card to summon one or two strong allies, or the number of weaker allies the card allows.” She said. “As for friends… Maybe in another life.” She said, pulling out another card… which was a joker. “What’s the Joker's time limit?” I ask, readying myself for our fight. “Thirty seconds.” She said, drawing cards like crazy, to which I did the same. Magic was practically being flung like kids in a food fight if a bystander saw it, wind, fire, ice, gravity, all sorts of normal spells hit us both which dwindled both of our times like cocaine addicts on a severe Netflix binge before our time was up and we both ended up without a single card left in our deck. “Shit…” I frown, but glad it was my turn as I reformed my deck. She drew her last card, he deck reforming as she did and a three fireballs hit me. She started chuckling. “So, what reason do you have, for fighting?” She asked. “I’ve been rejecting everything for so long.” I say. “Too long...but now I have those that I love and care about, those that accept me...and I accepted back.” I say, my cloak covered in suit, ice, and other magical residue at this point. “And...even though you're a Ventral...and I barely know much about you’re family...but you can be that which you never thought you could…” I explain. “What? Be like cousin Zeke? Different? Everyone thought of him as odd, raised by the families best, yet never killed, never really participated. He just never seemed to care about anything.” “I think Zeke was the first in your family to have the balls to find a way to be apart of the family without being thief, murderer, slaver or anything else.” I say. “He found a way to be a kind person, yet still be of dark origin.” I explain, starting to look down at the thought of what that one Ventral I killed wanted to be if she wasn’t haunted by being a Ventral. “That’s why his difference shocked everyone. His red eyes man fate labeled him for the greatest monster of the family. Those red eyes are how our family started after all.” “And you're probably right. I’ve never seen him fight, but I think it would take a real monster to decide not to fight in a line of monsters willing to fight every chance they got.” I say. “Besides, it wouldn’t be fun if the strongest got to do everything without anyone to stop him.” I explain, remembering that in plenty of stories. She hung her head. “Do you even know how the Ventrals became villains… became real monsters in the first place?” “I have no idea but I think it involves a nice person being called a demon in some old age because they had red eyes.” I take a wild guess. “It was back in the fifteen hundreds, our oldest traced ancestor with the Ventral name was doctor to spanish royalty. He managed to marry into the family and his wife gave birth to three sons, one born blind, one mute, and one def, you know the old cliche. He and the kids were thrown out for some religious BS and the mother was hung. Years later he was a doctor in a small english town, raising his kids to heal as well. The blind son though, managed things he shouldn’t have been able to do. “Perfect amputations, stitching, all of it. He met a ‘witch’ that passed through town one day, and in exchange for medicine for her illness, she’d give him an elixir that would give him sight. He laughed it off, but helped her anyway. Out of curiosity he drank it, and he could see, his foggy eyes cleared, revealing the red behind the fog. His family celebrated, though something was off, his surgeries ended in deaths, and his patients never healed, only got worse. He was hunted down by the church and was to be hanged. In his cell, something changed, she gave him sight, but took his healing away, and replaced it with death’s eyes. He used it to his advantage and escaped, killing the whole church on the way out. The Ventral family continued after that, every red eyed Ventral keeping the legend alive.” I remained silent for a bit. “A potion took away healing hands...only to give death’s eyes…” I take a deep breath. “I...I really don’t know what to say really. I mean...I could spin something silly but...wow.” I say, hearing that entire story just made my head do a little spin. “But...I don’t know the proper name of it but I think it’s a thing...have you ever heard of a cycle where the beginning cycled to the end?” “Yeah.” “Well...I think Zeke...might be the one to bring the healing touch back into your family.” I say. “I’m not entirely sure if Zeke will go blind or anything but...just meeting him the few times I did...he always seemed like the one that you could always trust on for help, to always make those that are broken heal and be better in life. Maybe he’s the one to bring the healing hands out of the ocean of blood, as it always tried to for so long…” I explain, not entirely sure if this is true but it making all the more sense the more I thought about it. “Maybe.” She said. “Maybe the legend is just that, a legend…But hey, all stories have a source, right?” “Yep. All stories have a source…” I nod. “A bookworm wouldn’t be a bookworm if they didn’t know the source. And now knowing this…” “Still, if the story is true…then if there was no magic on earth, where did the witch and the elixir come from? After all, a witch and elixer’s are magic, so where did they come from?” “It’s funny...cause when you started saying that I thought Core...but I have a feeling he’s either involved in it somehow to gain a powerful family with hearts dark enough to easily bribe...or someone working under him. Or it could be one of the many monsters just fucking with Earth that God or Core couldn’t stand up to.” I shrug. “Maybe. Maybe something slipped under God’s defence. EIther way.” She said, taking the dagger from one of her ‘casters’. “We have a game to finish. What do you say? One last draw, both of us using our trump cards?” “Let’s have a little wager shall we?” Ben asks with a smile. “What you offering?” “My life.” I say, patting my chest. “If you win, I die, but if I win, you have to sever all ties with Core and and get help from Zeke. Unum was able to be saved from darkness...hearing your family’s story and knowing that your family still has humanity left in it...I know you can be saved as well. It’ll be tough but I’ll be damned if I’m wrong.” I say. “I accept, though, if I win then I’m not killing you. I’d rather take you alive, Core has been getting more interested in you given his newest…allies.” “Trust me...I’ve met some people that makes Core, and any of his allies look like ant’s. It’s...actually quite scary to be perfectly honest.” I chuckle before putting a hand on my next card, hearing the inaudible clock tick it’s final time. “Ready?” “He knows, why do you think he’s interested in Zeke so much? Other than having the X-blade, he found something interesting about our families red eye legend, but only Josh knows the whole thing.” She said, readying her dagger. The card I drew started glowing a bright white as I lifted it up in the air. “Ladies first.” She drew a card, but rather than something like an attack or summon appear she started charging at me… really fast as the dagger glowed. “Doom.” I say, the simple word echoing somehow before everything seemed to slow down for her. A cloaked being appeared behind me that only Jenny noticed, something that even the strongest Ventral feared. “Crap.” She muttered as she stopped charging and came to a stand still. The cloaked being move forward, grabbing her head with both it’s hands and poured some kinda energy into her head, making her scream in both fear and pain. After it was over, it dropped her and she was out cold. I looked over and just like one of my hidden rules stated, once it took into effect her entire time was lost. “I win…” I mutter, before falling to my knees as my eyes started to blur. “Fuck…everything hurts…” I mutter before gently moving over, our ‘game area’ dissipating as I checked her pulse. ”Doom was just to knock her out...thank fuck I managed to do it…” I think to myself, feeling a steady heart beat. “Oh thank god…” I sigh out happily. “Let’s get you somewhere safe…” I mutter as I get up shakily, gently picking her up and carrying her off, making sure to keep her knives away from her. “Crap...don’t have enough energy to summon my glider or Nobodies...and those wolves died in that flurry of spells. That was fun Jenny…” I say to the unconscious girl, hoping to find Dorlu and get home before I pass out. “Trinity?” I call out, hoping she somehow heard me call out to her. “Waz up?” A voice came out from above me, when I looked up, she was floating over me. Thank god she now is wearing jeans and a T-shirt. “Too weak...fought a very powerful ten year old in a children’s card game.” I say. “Cast Doom...hurt like a bitch.” “Oh.” She floated down and gave me a rather large bottle with green liquid in it. “Mega potion.” She said. “Oh thank god.” I smile before fixing Jenny’s position and taking the bottle before drinking a little bit of it, and already I felt a whole lot better. “Thank you. Oh, this is Jenny Ventral...and if you haven’t already looked at my mind of the events that happened then I beat her with the bet that if I win she cut ties to Core and get a lot of help.” I say. “Nice, reminds me of dad’s stories of how he did stuff before he made the Humanity blade.” She said, looking over Jenny. “Huh, well she’d been twisted pretty good, that I can fix… but how did she ingest cursed blood?” “Soul Eater world....” “No, not that junk. There’s some other blood, really old and really nasty in her. I think I can analyze it, but I’ll need her laid flat on the ground.” Trinity said. “She actually told me her family origins...which all started with a blind doctor, a witch and a magical potion.” I say. “It’s a long story but I think I can tell you...and should I wake her up? Doom took a lot out of her…” I say, staring at the once murderous child and now seeing the sleeping form and finding her in such a vulnerable state that you’d mistake her for a harmless ten year old. “Let me just see something.” She said, her hand glowing with light as she passed it over Jenny. “Oh…” She said, the light in her and fading as she looked horrified. “What?” I ask worriedly, hoping this isn’t as bad as I think. “Well…it’s a long story, but you know the bible story about Cain?” “Not really but I do remember that Cain killed Abel if that means anything.” I say worriedly, not really that much into religious work. “Yeah, well, that did happen, but the events after took a different take. You see, like how this realm was once one world, that’s true for my realm too, though, you know, differences. On that first world, Cain killed his brother, but unlike in the bible, he creates something new in a newly made existence, something that exists in all realms now. Murder. He became that fact, the physical representation for murder. As time passed, his power comes from every death from every murder committed. As such, those that kill so many, he changes, integrating himself into their bodies, souls, minds, etc. His signature are red, demon like eyes with black whites. We call those he has access to in that way, Psychopathes. This girl has the blood of an ancient psychopath in her, maybe an early or even from Cain himself.” “But the story she told me was that the original Ventral gave birth to the children, one who was deaf, blind and mute. The blind one had hands that could practically cure anything, but then a witch told him he could have his sight back for medicine, and when he took it he gained red eyes and gained the ‘eyes of death’...which then turned his hands of healing into hands of death...and then he took that in stride when he was sentenced to death…” I explain. “Well, it’s still a possibility, Cain was still at large til my dad helped him, then there are still old and powerful Psychopaths out there. That which could have been one that tried to create more… or she was a member of Nexus, but that’s a whole other thing.” “Yeah…” I sigh out. “I just hope to help her out to be honest. Zeke is a red eyed Ventral yet he wields the X-blade and has saved countless worlds and saved Unum...I maybe getting a little off topic here but still…” “Well, with this blood in her, she and anyone like her, as in family, has a direct connection to the fact of murder. I don’t think I can take it out, though dad might… He was fated to be a new Cain, but after the first time that fact turned him, he did a turn around and now only uses that power when dealing with other Psychopaths.” “And the world just keeps getting bigger and bigger.” I chuckle. “But the Ventrals...from what I’ve been told they still have some grounds in humanity thankfully...so maybe that can help pull them out of their blood thirsty rage...or god help those that stick with their bloodthirsty ways.” I frown, still holding onto hope that if one can be saved then others can as well. “Well… dads Humanity blade should work, but he’ll have to make another one. That might take some time, unless he pulls the ones he keeps in the vault.” “I don’t know if I should ask for him to make a new one or ask for the spare…” I say honestly. “Either one works, but the spares he keeps in case of realm wide war, which has happened several times.” “That’s concerning.” I say worriedly. “But question...am I even allowed to have one? Cause the strength of that blade sounds like there’s a catch or two behind it.” I say honestly. “Well, it’s powered by the user Will power, as long as you’re determined to win, the attacks will stay strong, and as the name suggests, anyone with humanity in them will be saved by it. As for getting one… even his kids have to take a special test his boss made, and it’s not easy.” I take a deep breath, closing my eyes and trying not to groan in rage. “I spent two whole months on math tests…” I sigh out. “I mean...taking a major test while I have twelve others waiting doesn’t sound that bad...but how do you define as ‘not easy’? Cause ‘not easy’ for you could mean ‘impossible’ for me.” “Dad’s boss made it that it’s, well, to simplify it, since you’ve played Kingdom Hearts, fighting the Lingering Will at level forty, when he’s level one hundred. It’s three trials, one to test your inner strength, one to test your outer, and the last to test your willpower, showing you your greatest pears and darkest moments.” “Huh...even though that sounds simple that sounds really fucking hard.” I say simply. “But not impossible thankfully.” “You’ll have to prove to dad you can take the test though, there are few exceptions for an outside the family person to be given a humanity blade.” “And I have a feeling those few exceptions were stuff that impressed him right?” I ask curiously. “Either you get adopted into our family, which thanks to a family curse, you become biologically his child also, or you can either beat, or equal at him in a fight.” “There’s no way I can beat a literal god...unless I figure out how to master and mix all my abilities together to be a ‘god’ of some form...but that’s not for a long ass time…” I sigh out. “Oh dear…” “There are perks to being adopted, instant power upgrade, a demigod title, and an Assistant.” “Now while that sounds tempting it sounds too easy of a solution for some reason.” I say honestly. “I mean sure it would be awesome but...I don’t know why…” I say. “The choice is yours, but beating or meeting dad in terms of power is near impossible unless you’re a Psychopath. Getting adopted and being an adult you’d be given some rather impressive opponents to practice against. As in the other kids.” “Hmm…” I hum. “I got it.” I start. “I’ll be adopted but there needs to be a deal along with it. And Cript is gonna need to be the one to hear it.” I explain, already having a good idea of how I can do this. “Alright then, I think I can call dad now.” She tapped on the device on her wrist and then it made a beep noise. “Three, two, one.” She counted. In a flash, Cript was standing next to us. “You rang?” He asked. “Cript. I have a deal.” I say to him. “And that deal is, I am to be adopted into your family, but that will only happen when I am able to pass your test and gain a humanity blade.” I start. “I will still be apart of your family but all the powers, curse, and demigod status will be withheld until I have passed that test. Sound good?” “Wait… you want to join my family for a Humanity Blade? For what reason?” “Psychopathes.” Trinity said to Cript’s surprise. He sighed. “Crap. They shouldn’t be here…Alright, you got a deal, but just to warn you, you also get a new mom, who will also be genetically your mom, among a few things you might get from them.” “The only mom I know of...was my fault…” I say before shaking my head. “Listen, I want to save any Ventrals I can...and Jenny is the first. Their family was probably poisoned by a Psychopath to become them but I don’t know...I just don’t want blood of another soul that wished they were different on my hands…” I say bitterly, knowing that I would have to kill more but still. Cript smiled. “You’re more like me already than I expected.” Cript held out a hand. “Deal, and welcome to the family.” “Thanks…” I smile. “But don’t be expecting me to call you dad okay?” “Your own pace, but whatever.” Cript said as I took his hand. Instantly my body felt… different. When I stood up I had one of those devices on my wrist. “Assistant goes to everyone, it’s free, can do a stupid amount of stuff, think of it as the ‘menu’ for a game. Also you can buy shit from my company just by, well, the store option, and it’s basically that game breaking inventory were you carry a shit ton of stuff while no differences externally. Oh, and you can set ‘waypoint’ to teleport to places, Trinity will show you the basics, one is set to your room back in my realm, yes you have a room, and later.” He finished as he vanished. “Later…” I say. “So...question, can someone steal this?” I ask, hoping to christ nobody can steal this. “If they try it will turn into something akin to a transformer and beat the hell out of them.” Trinity said. “The safety features in these things are ridiculous, and only you can take it off.” “Glad to know these things can’t be taken.” I sigh out thankfully. “Anyways, how do I disguise this? I don’t want anyone freaking out when they see it.” “Mentally. Just think of something you want it to look like until you tap it, taping it disperses the disguise.” “Alright then…” I nod before thinking for a moment, before seeing the thing somehow transform into a bracelet with a heart shape on the top. I checked it and saw that it opened up to hold pictures and I smiled warmly. “Thank god…” I mutter with a smile. “Now all I need is pictures and I can have it remind me of my new family…” I say with a smile, hoping to get a family photo soon so I can remember it. “Take off your hood, I wanna see if there are any physical differences.” Trinity asked. I raised an eyebrow before mentally shrugging, gently taking off my hood and glad to feel my crown was still there sitting proud on my head. “Anything different on my normally wonderful looking face?” She was grinning, then laughed a little. “Uh, I think I know the race of your new mom.” She said, chuckling. “I better not look like a troll…” I mutter, checking my face in hopes it’s not different. “Nope. More… canine.” She chuckled. “...How?” I ask worriedly. “Wolf eyes, ears on your head, fuzzy sideburns, and your hair is now a dark blue.” She explained. “Are my eyes still blue?” I ask, remembering my original parents loved my shiny blue eyes. “Yeah.” “Oh thank god…” I sigh out. “But...what are my girlfriends going to think? And does this also include a tail?” I ask. “Check.” I took a deep breath and focused on if there was a tail...and in fact yes, I did have a tail and it was wagging. “Oh no…” I whine, and to add insult to injury my whine sounded like that of a dog’s whine. Trinity broke out in laughter. “Sorry, but I never saw the change before you just look so… Sorry.” She said, wiping tears away. “Anyway, let me see if you’re on the sibling list.” She said, checking her Assistant. “God...my girlfriends are not going to let me live this down…” I mutter, putting my arm back around Jenny as she breathed gently, soundly asleep in my arms and curling up in my hold. “Let’s see. Here you are, Ben Cronthgh, that’s dad’s last name, age eighteen, level seventy nine, list of weapons, skills, stats, ets… Ah, here we are. Your mother is Den.” “Does she have a sister named ‘Nyla’?” “Yeah. Looks like she’s now your aunt for real.” “And I’m technically related to Dorlu...he’s not going to like this.” I say nervously. “Well, not by blood to him, just his kids.” Trinity corrected. “Well, enough worrying, we got people to save, stuff to do, and you, according to your states, are close to mastering your cards. Yes it tells that.” “Wait seriously?” I ask in amazement. “More of the fact that I’m close to mastering Fair Game, that’s awesome.” I smile, glad to achieve my second weapon. “Yeah, from what I saw, just one last tough opponent to beat and you get the master rank for them.” “I have a good feeling I’m going to have to fight Dorlu for my master rank. Only feels right ya know?” I ask honestly. “Yeah, and with your assistant, go on and buy some stuff if you want, it materializes in front of you after purchasing it.” “Uh...sure.” I say before before summoning a card and gently putting her on it, the card floating in the air as I tapped my Assistant as it flashed back to normal. It pressed the ‘shop’ button and up came a screen with a...Moogle on it asking if I wanted to buy, sell, or Synthesis stuff. “Huh…” “Well dad does have a sense of humor. Want it normal or that okay?” “No no this is perfect. Reminds me of when I played and went to a Moogle shop.” I say before pressing ‘Buy’, and noticed I had a shit ton of Munny. “Alright then, what you gonna buy, weapon, accessory, other? Other is normal things like games, furniture, the usual, even instant homes.” “Does a fuck ton of munny come with being a family member or did I just never notice I was somehow ambiently collecting the stuff?” I ask honestly, going to accessories and checking that out. “You get an allowance of a million rem a week. Rem is a…special currency in my realm, equal in value to all other currencies. I know that sounds broken, but that’s part of why it’s used.” “Makes sense…” I say while perusing the thing, starting off on the small sections and seeing what I can buy. “Oh, Sweetie might like this…” I say before pressing a button and accepting, losing three thousand Munny before out popped up a silver necklace with a golden gem in it. “A ‘Resist All’ necklace. It looks pretty and I’m sure it’ll help her in fights.” I say with a smile. “And maybe I should get the others something nice, I’ll save money for something of my own but I’ll keep that off to the side after I beat Dorlu.” I say while going back to looking through it, already planning out gifts as I pocketed the necklace. “The weapons are usually pretty expensive. One of them being the Mouse.” Trinity said. “I immediately thought of ‘Mickey Mouse’ for some weird reason.” I frown. “Damn Disney.” Trinity chuckled. “No, it’s basically a hand held nuclear reactor that fires a beam through a elemental crystal, amplifying the power.” “That sounds like the perfect toy to give to all children. Coming to stores now, ‘The Mouse’! Capable of murdering all your pesky problems and giving you two different types of cancer all in one!” I say in my best ‘tv salesperson’ voice. “Well it’s not priced at fifty billion rem without a good reason, plus only like, ten were ever sold and whatever wasn’t was hidden in other dimensions and such.” “Kind of sounds like the RHYNO from Ratchet and Clank.” I say, remembering that game series. “Anyways we got shit to do, no need to go on a shopping spree now, heartless are still attacking innocents and Dorlu needs our help...or my help I don’t know what you're going to do now.” “I’ll look for survivors, you get some medicine with this thing and bring it to them, then challenge Dorlu.” “Alright, before Jenny killed them, a survivor said more were at the library ruins.” Trinity nodded and flew off. “Right then.” I say before summoning my glider and flying off after Trinity, summoning Gamblers, Snipers, and Assassins to help protect Jenny and also left a note saying I was going to be gone for a bit helping people, stay here and the Nobodies will protect you from anyone that may try to do her harm. After a while me and Trinity found the library ruins and for a bookworm it really hurt to see a library filled with so many stories just destroyed so remorselessly that it kind of pissed me that. The survivors came out, to my surprise I recognized one of them as Applebloom’s cousin. “You with the royal guard?” She asked. “No I am not Babs Seed. I am the White Knight of Equis!” I say with a little flourish, just to help the kid laugh at my silliness. She smiled. “Oh, you’re that guy that fights the monsters, did you kill the thing that destroyed the city?” “I-” “It was all him.” Trinity cut in. “He’s not a hero without a reason, right?” Trinity said, giving me a ‘play along’ look. “That is definitely true my fellow friend.” I say with a smile. “Cleaved the thing down in one swing of my mighty sword.” I say while summoning Reunion. “I’m sorry I couldn’t get there sooner though...could have stopped so much destruction…” “Well, at least you came, better late than never, right?” She said, walking off to get the others. “That’s more true than you’d ever expect.” I sigh out, following Babs along to help her with the other survivors and guard them from any Heartless. Thankfully it went a lot smoother than I originally thought, Heartless did appear but I stopped them with ease, even though a Reverse Armor appeared just for irony’s sake, but I took it down just the same. “Reverse or not you're still a bitch.” I say with a grin, going back to helping the others to safety. “Wonder where Dorlu is? I hope he’s alright…” I mutter to myself, hoping my master was alright in this Heartless infested wreck that was once a city. “He’s in the main tent.” One of the injured said. “How many survivors did he find?” I ask curiously, knowing he’s a good officer and has an eye for detail. “So far there’s fifty.” The man said. “How many were originally in the city?” I ask worriedly. “Sixty thousand.” He said. “Oh…” I say before taking a deep breath. “Every life we can save right now matters. We’ll mourn the dead later.” I say, trying to force down the feeling of sadness at not being able to stop that thing before practically the entire city was killed by either the Titan, Jenny, or the Heartless. After a while me, Trinity, and the survivors we found made it to the main tent, where I saw many ponies crying and helping others calm down we all made it. “I’m here to see Dorlu.” I say to a guard, letting him know instead of just rushing in. He moved aside and upon walking in I saw Dorlu looking over some of the major injured. “Hey Ben.” He said. “This gives me some flashbacks to some days back at Knowhere.” “Just a little...I didn’t expect something like this to happen…” I sigh out. “But how are you doing?” “So-so. Really makes you think, first that whatever it was, now heartless. Feels like the whole universe is against us sometimes.” “All you can do is look at the positives sometimes.” I shrug, glad I had my hood covering my face and hid my tail under my coat. “But I managed to beat someone really powerful in a game.” I say honestly. “Got to do something really fancy as well.” “Really, that’s good. The cards are tricky to master, but once you got the hang of it, they do pretty much what you want.” “When you manage to input the spell ‘Doom’ into a hidden rule then that can always make things wonderful...too bad it took a lot out of me.” I say sheepishly. “I can imagine. Well, any lock finding supplies? Medicine and such are needed badly.” “Sorry no…” I sigh out. “But...maybe…” I start before I focus and snap my fingers, five Nobodies dressed up as doctors standing there at the ready. “Didn’t think that was possible…” I mutter, their faces and uniform symbols being red Nobody symbols. “Heal the injured.” I order as they immediately rush off, starting to do what they actually looked like, being doctors and helping the injured at great speed and precision. “I...honestly didn’t know that these Nobody's existed...but hey any help right?” “Yeah. Must have been doctors before…. Well, they became that.” “You’d think that.” I say, glad to see them all healing the injured. “Why I thought they existed was because giant wolves are also Nobodies...that world is starting to get a whole lot bigger than I thought.” I say. “Anyways after we’re done and take a day or two as a break, want to try another fight? Just to get that over with?” I ask honestly, hoping to get my mark of mastery done. “Sure, could use a break from all… this, plus these Nobodies of yours seem to have it handled. Let’s make it quick though.” Dorlu said. “Wait right now?” I ask honestly. “Cause I don’t think it’s gonna be quick…” I say honestly. “Relax, we fight in the hot zones we can take out heartless at the same time.” Dorlu said. “Two birds with one stone.” “Sure. And maybe it’ll be the match I master Fair Game.” I say with a smile, hoping that to be true even if stats say that might be true. “Only if you beat me.” Dorlu adds as the two of us head off into an area with a fair amount of heartless around them. “Ready?” “Ready.” I say, summoning my cards and noticing that Jenny’s cards are long gone. After a moment the both of us summoned a big card and clashed together, a gust of wind pushing outwards as we both swapped out the big card and threw smaller cards at each other. The two of us always dashing around slaughtering heartless, which I swapped out my cards for my Keyblade briefly just to kill heartless that got too close just to make sure they didn’t stick around, before leaping back in with Fair game. We both did our little games at the same time, the two of us guessing correctly before vanishing in cards, leaping out of others and clashing again and again with new and varying ways. He would surprise me with coming out of well placed cards I didn’t notice he placed, I surprised him by turning him into a six sided die! The fight continued and felt like it lasted forever, so many cards clashed, bruises and cuts littered our bodies before suddenly Dorlu grinned and a flash of light blinded me. “Look who’s on top of the game!” He shouts before his throwing his deck out, a ton of cards littered the area as I knew full well what he was doing. Now what I didn’t know is that he summoned three card clones and started assaulting me on several sides which I was hard pressed to defend, but thankfully a quick card clone and quick dodges helped wonders. Another brief flash of light appeared, before I chased Dorlu who vanished and a skyscraper sized card appeared, before a giant cage appeared around us both before I started at him. “Do you know the rules?” He asks while four cards appeared, but they all appeared blank which instead of flipping around he decided to keep it for me to see, but then each card started flashing ‘X’ and ‘O’ in varying degrees of speed, but I was a fan of the fight and even though it went to blazing speeds I was ready. All that was standing between me and total victory was one final card that practically vibrated between the two choices. “Now!” I shout before it hit ‘O’ which surprised Dorlu, his entire deck flying to my hand before I flung it straight at him, causing him to stagger back and take a knee, panting in exhaustion. “Look’s like I am on top of the game.” I say before flipping a card towards him like a weapon. “Do I win?” “Yes my apprentice, you have become an official master.” Dorlu says with a proud smile, my card suddenly glowing before I looked at the back and saw the Nobody symbol on the back got a strange...mark on it. It wasn’t a checkmark or anything, but it looked like a good enough sign to me that I mastered it. “Thanks Dorlu...you were an excellent master.” I say with a smile, the deck disappearing before I lowered my hand, the man grabbing it gratefully and I hefted him up. “Well, now that you have mastered the cards, are you gonna tell your girlfriends about your new body?” Trinity asks curiously. “New what?” Dorlu asks with a raised eyebrow “It’s….” I sigh out before taking off my hood and fixing my coat, showing my new features. “Nyla is now my aunt because of magical reasons…” I say nervously. Dorlu just looked at me, then laughed. “I’m sorry, but you look like that grumpy cat meme!” He yelled out in his laughing fit. “I’m sorry, but you're technically fucking my cousin.” I frown. “Also I’m part canine, not part cat asshole, and I don’t want to figure out if I have a canines sharp teeth on someone living.” I growl, the obvious sign that I’m part canine blatant enough in the growl. “I guess you’re a good example of what my kids will look like grown up.” Dorlu said as he calmed down. “Either way, glad to have you in the family. I didn’t know Nyla had a sister.” “Well she’s in a...strange place.” I say sheepishly. “But I hope to god my girlfriends don’t treat me any other way cause if they try to treat me like a dog then I’m going to slap one of them.” I frown. ”And I know at least one of them will enjoy it...still not into that…” I think to myself, remembering the ‘spanking’ thing one night. “Well, let’s head back.” Trinity said. “Yeah, I also need to check up on someone that I hope is still alright.” I say before summoning my glider. “Need a lift back to the main tent Dorlu?” “I’m good, if you see Crystal let her know I’ll be home in a week.” Dorlu replied. “Alright.” I nod before the glider floats up. “See ya Dorlu, and thank you for everything...even though the math could burn in a hole.” I frown before flying off to find Jenny and make sure she’s alright. I flew back and found Jenny, she was still out cold, and the Nobodies I posted told me no one appeared as far as they sensed or saw. “That’s good…” I sigh out thankfully before pulling up my hood and fixing my cloak to hide my tail as I grabbed Jenny and made sure she was comfy flying along with me, dismissed the Nobodies and thanked them for their work and headed off home. After a while of flying I finally made it home, I picked Jenny up off my glider and dismissed it, and when I got to the door of my house I heard... “So when should he get back?” A female voice I never heard before spoke. “I’m sure it’s… soon.” Twilight’s voice replied. I took a deep breath, and entered… to which I was greeted with Twilight, sitting next to a twelve foot tall wolf lady with… six… breasts...I walked over to the couch and gently put Jenny on the couch, putting a pillow under her head and made sure she was comfy, before walking over to the two and waving my finger towards the wolf woman. “Why...is there a Dire Wolf lady with six tits in our house?” I ask in a very calm tone. “She says she’s your…mother?” Twilight says. “You’re Ben?” The lady asked. I raised a hand for the two to wait, before I walked into the kitchen. The two heard some rustling before I came back with a big bottle of scotch. “SO! How can I help you today?” I ask, opening the bottle and already taking a swig of it. “Uh, I asked if you were Ben?” The wolf lady asked again. “If any of my girlfriends laugh I’m honestly going to be pissed.” I sigh out before lowering my hood and fixing my coat, showing off my new wolf parts. “But yes, I am Ben. I suppose you are my new mother, Den. I know your sister Nyla...but these breasts...why are there six? I mean...I know normal dogs anatomically have six nips but still…” I say, trying not to be happy to see titties but seeing six on one lady is kind of something. Den’s only response was grabbing me, causing me to drop my scotch, and hugged me tight between her… assets. “Oh, a new pup!” She cried in joy. ”I am so thankful that my six girls taught me proper breathing in these mounds.” I think to myself gladly. “Uh...I know you're happy but...I’m not ready to call your mother…” I say, my voice muffled by fluffy breasts. “Oh, that’s alright, before Cript saved me, and before I got injected with darkness, I was the tribe den mother, I raised the young but was not allowed any myself.” She said, not letting up on the hug. “I can see why.” I deadpan. “But...it’s more of a personal issue I...need to get past…” I say, moving my arms up and trying to hug her. “But...sooner or later...I’ll call you mom…” She gave me a kiss, and a wolf style kiss, aka a lick. “I’ll be happy for that day young pup.” She says, nuzzling my face. “This is going to need some getting used to…” I say, nuzzling her back gently. “But I suppose you met my girlfriend, Twilight. I wonder when the other four will get here.” I wonder, before it just so happened the door opened. “We’re home!” Pinkie calls out and bounces in. “We’re a-” “What the?” Rarity starts. “Dire Wolf…” Zecora mutters. “How is she bigger than me!?” Luna freaks, before closing her mouth quickly. “I’m sorry but...who are you? And why are you hugging...Ben?” Luna asks, seeing my cloak and my blue eyes and knowing it’s me but the other new things was pretty new. “Hey girls...this is Den...my soon to be new mother…” I say, while the mares tilt their head at the ‘soon to be’ part. “It’s...personal. I’d…” “You can tell us.” Pinkie says calmly, which surprised the fuck out of me seeing Pinkie not flipping out at seeing a new person. “Well, Ben here,” Den started. “Ben here made a deal with my husband. He’s been adopted into our… special family, and as such is now, because of a curse, biologically mine and my husband's child upon adoption. He’s got a new large family. Also, Nyla is my sister. She’s just not as big as I am in terms of height and… assets, because she was the runt of the tribe.” Den explained. “Wouldn’t really say that to be perfectly honest.” I say honestly. “But anyways I think they were talking about what I wanted to talk about...about my former parents…” “Oh, my bad.” Den says, letting me go. “It’s alright Den, they needed to know that anyways.” I say while grabbing a tissue and getting the saliva off of me. “Lordy…” I sigh out. “So my former parents...it’s a long story…” I mutter before grabbing my bottle of scotch and taking a swig. “Well, I was born in a normal family, we all got along great. One day, when I was about six, we went to the beach, my mom told me to stay on the sand but my dad said I could play in the water so long as I was in sight. They bickered over what was best for me, so I just jumped in the water anyway. Not knowing about waves, I got dragged out pretty far…then some asshole on a surfboard hit me and I went under. He got me out, and my parents took me to the hospital. That’s when things went south in a burning truck…When I came to in there I heard my parents arguing outside, saying that if I had stayed on the sand I’d have been find, if I was let out in the water dad would have kept an eye on me.” I say, taking another swig before continuing, already feeling tears of regret forming on the corners of my eyes. “Things went on like that for the next few years. They argued over everything and me being the source/in the middle of it all, I just started doing my own thing. One rare day when they both agreed I shouldn’t go out that night cause some robberies and muggings were happening around the area, I, in my infinite fucking wisdom, didn’t listen and snuck out the window. Well, I got mugged and on top of it all the cops thought I was the mugger when they drove by me. Parents picked me up, and apparently the system screwed them over with a large fine neither could afford alone. Dad ended up taking an overtime shift as his job at the bread factory…he fell asleep cleaning the ovens and they turned on automatically to keep some kinda schedule…Dad was baked alive.” I explain, taking a heavy swig this time before continuing, tears freely falling now. “Mom, having to pay my fine and the the funeral caused our insurance dropped us after they found out I got arrested once, fell into depression. I woke up one morning to find a ‘do not disturb’ sign on my mom’s bedroom door and for once I was listening…only for an hour later to hear gunshot…I ran in, saw my mom blew her brains out with dad’s old hunting shotgun… Got shipped off to child services and my grandparents took me in. I stayed away from people and such till, well, I came here, where you girls kinda threw yourselves at me and…made me care about people again.” I explain, looking at everything, sniffling before openly sobbing. “If I didn’t fuck up for once I could still...they could still…” I stutter, taking the bottle and practically chugging the thing now just to take away the pain. Den took the bottle from me and gave me another tight hug, to which the others joined in. “Pain like that should never fall on a child’s mind.” She said, petting my head. “When I first got injected with darkness the madness I felt made me lash out at everything around me…I was in the den…seventeen newborns…I couldn’t do anything because of what some sick warlock did to us…Things went on like that til I was in a new master’s care and ordered to attack the classroom of Cript’s children at the time…rather than kill me, he saved me. His true power is seeing the good still in anything. You, from what I was told about that girl you brought, are just like him. You’d rather save than kill, even if you fall in the process.” “I...I…” I mutter, my tears still falling as I tried burying my face into Den. “Please...I don’t want to lose...another mother…” I plead. She nuzzled the top of my head. “I have been through hardships like you, and I am in the most, well, happy, and open, family to ever exist, one that you are now a part of… but you also are making your own family I see. Like any mother, I will be there when you need me, for you… and how ever many grandkids you have.” She giggles before I snap my head up. “Mom!” I bark with a huff. “We don’t have grandkids yet. Wait until we’re married damn it.” “Some of your siblings do, about a quarter of them.” “I’m not them.” I huff. “Yeah, most of them are older, or younger with a few trillion your age.” “I’m not going to bother with knowing who I’m related to and who I’m not. All I care about is knowing that you're my mother...and…” I start. “That’s...all I really care about at the moment.” I smile. “Thank you pup.” She said, licking my face again. “So, as the newest pup, would you care for a feeding?” I blush brightly. “You girls wouldn’t mind right?” “Only if we got some!” Pinkie and Lua said simultaneously. “She’s our soon to be mother in law girls!” Rarity snapped. “So? Most of Ponyville's milk comes from mare milk brands, only cows are used for the big cities.” Pinkie said. “Mrs. Cake has a milker in the basement.” “Does that mean I’ve been drinking Cake brand breast milk for the past half year?” I ask in surprise. “Only when you eat there, when you have a cup here it’s either mine or Luna’s.” Pinkie said. “Magic.” Luna said. “Otherwise we’d have to be pregnant to have milk in the tanks.” I wasn’t sure if my new ears were as beat red as my face was, but all I could imagine was the obvious. “Uh...yes please.” I say with a shy smile. Needless to say… everyone managed to join in. Time, Sweetie, and Luxu walked in at the most… nude part… and walked right out. That kinda killed the mood so mom left, saying she’d be back later some time to visit, probably with some of my brothers or sisters… which Trinity now is actually now that I think about it. “Sup bro?” The angel in question asked, taking a seat next to me on the couch. “A lot of things happened...did you know that moms breast milk tastes good and actually helped get scotch out of your system?” I ask curiously. “Well yeah, all our moms breast feed, but few do it once the kids can eat on their own. Mama Den is just devoted like that. As for the milk, yeah all our moms…milk is magically enhanced, being married to dad they’re gods by marriage, few earned the title. It’s like a cure all for a bunch of stuff, plus they act as liquid exercise. Expect some muscles tomorrow morning.” “Well then…” I say in surprise. “Magic is a wonderful wonderful thing to be perfectly honest.” I chuckle. “I just hope Luxu, Time and Sweetie aren’t...bleaching their brains at the moment…” I say nervously, remembering seeing them enter and then promptly leave. Trinity looked through her Assistant, and showed me that, in the store section, there was actual brain bleach. “Fifteen rem for that last twenty-four hours or less gone from your memory.” She says. “While it sounds tempting I’d rather not.” I shrug. “But...I’m glad Den is my mother...got me to get something...very important off my chest…” “And you and your girlfriends onto hers?” She said with a sly smile. “Honestly it happened when I figured out I was drinking Luna and Pinkie’s breast milk for a majority of my stay in this new world.” I say honestly. “But Luxu, Time and Sweetie kind of saw us doing that…” I say sheepishly. “But besides that...I kind of did need it. Just to...know I now have a mother again…” “Lot of us are orphans, broke, or just plane alone. Dad takes them all in. He has this one move to, he often does it to some bad guys the Humanity Blade can’t save.” “Sounds like a nice guy.” I say. “Well, first off, you know how some people say everything is a computer simulation virtual reality?” “I barely played MMO’s so no.” I say simply. “Well, just from hearing that you should get the idea… well, it’s not false. We are literally a massive ass game a higher being made to both kill time and dive into it every so often to give help to he dubs the ‘protagonist’ which was a few other people before my dad popped up.” “Makes sense.” I shrug. “There’s always a bigger fish, no matter how big you get.” I shrug. “Yeah. Well, that higher being is my dad’s boss and friend, Jose. He’s had a lot of names but that’s his name this time around. Dad’s move accesses realities ‘code’ and he hacks into the person, erasing memories and even resetting the age, then he takes the de aged ex villain and raises them as his own. His alternative to death, a literal Reset.” “Well I can’t do it to that extent but…” I say while looking at the sleeping form of Jenny. “I’ll at least start by giving someone another chance.” “Just to make it easier I placed a sleeping spell on her. In case she doesn’t keep her word. Don’t worry, the spell keeps her in a…sleeping beauty like state. No need to worry about food or water, spell takes care of that.” “I don’t know how binding a ‘bet by blood’ is but I probably should have done that to make sure she wouldn’t go back on her word…” I sigh out. “Cause you know, even Psychopaths have to obey either their code of conduct or a rule that even they wouldn’t go against.” I shrug. “Some do.” She said. “Otherwise… I guess Cain would have died fighting dad.” “And here I was thinking religious stories were all but piles of shit because of some of the people wanting to ‘spread the word of god’.” I sigh out. “God’s, the ones in my realm, as in bible god, is retired, and most of the Jesus’s are pothead hipsters…” She grumbled. “My version of ‘Jesus’ happens to be the first Keyblade master and very dangerous scientist because he made….very powerful things that have no right to exist but still do.” I frown. “I can see that, dad keeps a vault full of stuff like that back home, safer there than anywhere else. Oh, I got you a present. My way of saying ‘welcome to the family’.” “Really?” I ask honestly. “Well...thank you. Wish I kind of got something for you for helping me this much…” “No need, first the standard gift.” She said, handing me a computer chip the size of my hand that was in the shape of an X. “Put it up to your forehead.” “This better not do something weird…” I mutter before putting in up to my forehead a little reluctantly, worried about what might happen. As soon as it touched my skin it sunk into my head, giving me a small headache before everything felt…super clear. “Chip X, helps the brain process information of everything, and kinda turns it into a supercomputer.” “I mean I was a living calculator before this but thanks.” I say with a smile. “Still bad about the headache though...anyways you said that’s the ‘standard gift’...” “Well, before I give you that, the chip X helps the Assistant show you the ‘HP’ bar of others. That was a spell matrix dad is proud of. Turn it on in the settings.” I looked though the setting in my Assistant and there was indeed an HP bar reader option. Mine was set to off, upon turning it on I saw green bars floating above Trinity's head, a number at the bottom of them, and a slam list of things next to her face. “Takes a bit of time getting used to.” “Fuck you have a lot of stuff about you.” I say honestly. “That’s my battle stats. Yours are pretty neat too, now for my personal gift.” She raised her hand into the air, and as if on cue lightning came out of nowhere and hit her hand, the light taking form into what looked like a ring that she placed into my hand. “Ta-Da!” She said. “An ethereal armory. Basically any angel weapon you can conjure with this ring on.” “Well I suppose having some armor wouldn’t hurt from time to time...maybe I can find one of those ‘halos’ that give a person plenty of nifty buffs besides just having a halo over one’s head.” “Oh, those are a status thing. Only archangels have those, and you have to earn that rank, which is easier than the test for the humanity blade, but again, you have to be an angel.” “I kind of thought that.” I say while putting the ring in my pocket. “Thanks...sis.” I say, not believing I would say that when I’ve never had any siblings at all. “What a day…” I sigh out, the entire day feeling so long. “Mastered a weapon, became the son of some multidimensional god, beat a Ventral without killing her, and...got a mother…” I explain. “Maybe this will be a good start for me to shedding the past...hopefully…” “I’m sure it will.” Trinity said, placing a hand on my shoulder. “If you ever feel like you need a challenge, just head on home and walk into the arena, no shortage of challenge there.” “I’d rather wait on that cause I already have plenty of masters that are gonna give me a run for my money.” I say honestly. “But um...how do I set way points?” I ask curiously. “Open up maps and tap on the ‘you’ icon, sets it automatically.” “Right then…” I say before doing just that, finding the write button and tapping on the ‘you’ icon. “And that should do it...I should probably set way points to other places when I get there…” I start, already thinking about how I should set quick travel spots to my friends worlds. “Yeah. The Sunset looks nice here.” Trinity said as I noticed the sun was setting through the window. “Yeah…” I smile. “A lot nicer than Earth...but why did a Titan just randomly appear? Do they just do that or what?” “Sometimes. Though, we tend to manage to keep them away by not entering other realms too often, leaves bits of itself in the realm they enter, and that’s a way they can enter.” “Ah, makes sense.” I nod. “I just hope they don’t keep up their random encounters like this...one destroyed city I couldn’t save…” I look down bitterly. “As long as portals are kept at minimum, and I set up a perimeter on this world, we’ll know when something from home realm sneaks in here. There’s over six hundred different species of shadow creatures, little under a hundred humans, and five variations of Subhumans, but the last ones aren’t as bad as you’d think.” “I can imagine…” I shrug. “But...at where I am now how difficult would it be to fight one of those things?” “If you hit the weakspots, it would be as hard as fighting a Darkside with armor, little harder I guess, the armor they have is the hardest part. Cutting through that is the challenge. That takes raw power.” “Yeesh.” I frown. “By the by...you said I was ‘78’...should I wonder about that or just throw it out the window like power levels?” “That’s your “level” a scientific and magical calculation of all your power and abilities in number form.” “So it’s just like power levels...I should probably ignore it because many stories and anime’s have shown that power levels are bullshit.” “More like a videogame level system honestly. For instance, I’m level 98,879. And then there’s higher than that.” “Right then...but if I was 78 when before I mastered Fair Game…” I mutter, now feeling a little giddy about wondering if I leveled up. “Oh well, I better not focus on it…” “That eagerness is how dad indirectly got the whole realm to train in combat for self defense, humans/intelligent races have a natural desire to challenge each other. He just finally made it measurable so they can see themselves get better.” “Well I have masters to make that happen.” I say honestly. “So I won’t bother thinking about it for a little bit. I’m gonna take a break, it’s been two solid months just focusing on one weapon and I’d like more than a three day break before more craziness happened.” I chuckle. “Sure.” Trinity says, standing up. “Just remember, condoms, and a wolf’s endurance.” She said, leaving me to quickly get what she meant. “Uh…” I start before I suddenly got a shiver down my spine, only to see five girls staring at me at hearing what Trinity said. “Uh...now listen girls…” I start sheepishly, before trying to bolt but sadly getting caught in a magical hold. “I don’t want my hips broken~!” I whine. “It’s been a while and we haven’t spent time with our lover so shush.” Luna says simply. “I’m...glad you didn’t laugh at me though…” I say. “Everyone else has been laughing at me because of how I look now…” “Remember Ben, we’re all covered in fur, you getting some on you just makes you look more sexy.” Luna says, floating me over to her. “Now I want to say that’s weird...but knowing you girls it’s probably normal…” I say with a frown. “Exactly, now let’s find out if you has a wolf’s endurance to match that look~” Luna said as they all started closing in around me. “I love you all.” I smile, just glad to have girlfriends that love me so much. To be continued... Author's Note So fucking much in this story! New revaluations, a new family for my character, a look into his past that is pretty depressing and so much more, and he mastered a weapon yay! Hope you all enjoyed it.
Nobody's MeetingAfter a week and a half of apologizing, gift giving and family time Ben finally heard a knock on the front door. “Wonder who that is…” Ben hums to himself, fixing his hood and tail and making his Assistant look like a bracelet before walking up to the front door and opening it. “Hello?” Before him stood a man in Keyblade armor, not Zeke. “You’re Ben, right?” He asked. “Yes I am Mr. Armored person. Who are you and where’s Zeke?” Ben asks. “You are being summoned to Daybreak to speak to the council about integration of this reflection, please bring two visitors with you to act as key speakers.” He said, opening a DTL behind him and walking into it.. “Luna! Trinity! Gonna need your help!” Ben calls out into the house. Trinity was the first to race down. “What happen, dad’s message said shit happened!” She said, looking around. “Bring Jenny, I just met a messenger from Zeke...cause he couldn’t appear himself for some reason.” The cloaked man says, worried about the situation now. Trinity took a sigh of relief at that. “Oh, I thought dad’s promotion did a thing.” She said. Luna came down before Ben could ask what Trinity meant. “Something about who Ben?” Luna asked, barely putting on a shirt as she came down. “We’re taking a road trip.” Ben says. “Oh, to where?” “A friend’s world.” Ben says while pointing to a DTL. “And there’s our ride.” Trinity walked into it, caution to the wind as she entered, Luna and Ben followed closely, Ben carrying the still sleeping Jenny on his back. Once in Daybreak the trio made their way up to the castle, stopping outside Zeke’s office. “Knock knock!” Ben calls out, ‘knocking’ on his door with his foot. “Enter.” Zeke’s voice calls out as they open the door. As they enter the first thing Ben notices is that Zeke has gotten a helper for the paperwork, stationed in a slightly smaller desk near the front door, and Zeke’s chair was rather low. “Oh, hey Ben…Your Luna, who’s the angel… and why is my younger cousin with you?” “I have a laundry list of shit to explain…” Ben sighs out. “Also…” Ben starts. “One...your chair is rather low...and two why do you look like Da-er Cript?” He asks, almost letting slip that word when he only want’s to call Den ‘mom’ at the moment. “Well, the thing with Cript I have no idea, coincidence likely, As for the chair…” Zeke slowly rolls his chair out to the side, showing Ben his legless form. “Core… tried to get me to activate my killing mood, I didn’t let him and lost my legs for it.” Zeke states, sighing. “What a dick.” Ben frowns. “And here I thought I had the worse situation to talk about…” “Let’s head to the lounge, more free room to talk.” Zeke looks at his helper. “Rich, take over for a while.” “Yes sir.” The stallion replied. The group headed out to the lounge, Ben’s Luna pushing Zeke against his wishes. Once settled, they began to talk more freely. “So, I ask again, who’s the angel girl?” Zeke asks. “This...would be my new sister and teacher, Trinity.” Ben says, putting Jenny gently down on a couch and putting her head on a pillow. “Still surprised she looks so harmless while sleeping when not long ago she tried murdering me with a children's card game.” Zeke chuckled. “She did do that, though she somehow did it without magic back on earth, she loves card games. And when you say new sister… did you finally marry?” “No, not yet.” Ben explains before sighing out. “Have you met Cript?” “Yeah, back when I was helping another survivor, John, cause Core and an apparent long lost brother of Core and God, had a fight and a good chunk of the world was fucked up. Cript… snapped his fingers, fixed the moon, clapped his hands, stopped the world from falling apart. He’s powerful, even offered me a spot in his family, but I said no unless I can match Core. If I can’t do that before my son Blake and daughter Nix turn one, then I’ll take the offer.” “Well I made a deal with Cript.” Ben starts. “Which is ‘only when I get the Humanity blade will I get all the demigod powers’.” He explains. “And here’s the side effects of such a choice…” Ben sighs out, standing up and fixing his tail and taking off his hood, showing off that he has a wolf tail and all the face changes. “So...yeah…” Zeke just stares at Ben. “Wow…So…your new sister is an angel, and from what Cript told me, your new mom is a furry?” “My mother is a six breast, twelve foot tall anthro wolf named Den….” Ben explains. “And she’s my mother and I am so happy that she is…” He says with a warm smile. “Six…breasts…don’t let Rune hear that, she’ll look for a spell to pull that off.” Zeke jokes. “But… wow, so…Trinity, is a demigod then?” “Yeah.” She replied. “Dad got a promotion.” She states happily. “Oh did he?” Ben asks, but shook his head. “No side tracking, I have a ton of crap to explain and I don’t need to get distracted.” He frowns. “So I mastered Fair Game.” Ben says, bringing out a single Nobody Card without having to ‘summon’ it. “So now I have eleven weapons left to master...and it’ll still be a nightmare to learn.” “Huh. Nice job. So what else happened on your reflection? Being a part of Cript’s family must be…interesting.” “I mean I have a bunch of other relatives living in Ponyville, but as long as I have mom I don’t care.” Ben starts. “But anyways, a Titan suddenly appeared on my reflection. And yes, I did just say ‘titan’. Destroyed all of Manehattan...only a hundred or so survived…” Ben says bitterly. Zeke gritted his teeth. “Core’s work?” “Actually… that’s from my realm.” Trinity says. “They are called shadow creatures, slightly smarter than heartless, triple in numbers, if not near infinite, and one common shadow creature for you, is equivalent in strength and speed of a novashadow. They make their way into realms via residue left over from realm travel, a gust of air carrying even a small amount of atoms can give them a trail, though, if they don’t have enough to go on only one trip can be made.” Zeke looked surprised. “Well, that’s a thing that we’re likely to face later on.” “Likely.” Trinity responds. “So… anything we’re missing?” “I made a bet with Jenny that if I beat her at her own game she cuts all ties with Core and tries to get a normal life…” Ben says. “I should add that...I couldn’t save your aunt but...I’ll try to save your family...whoever want’s the chance to have a normal life where their name doesn’t instantly cause people to try and attack them.” Zeke sighed. “Even those that would love a chance at normalcy, they won’t admit it or defect for three reasons, Josh would kill them, my grandpa would hunt them for sport, and their general fear. Being in public we all gained a fear of someone spotting us, was part of why when we rested it was usually in abandoned areas, forests, and the main reason we were always moving around. I’ve lived in almost every continent since I was born.” “Well I know two people I need to kill.” Ben frowns. “I’m willing to bet my life on having your family get the second chance they so desperately need.” Ben explains. “And you are also an important part to that.” He says. “Because I was told your family’s origins, and how someone fucked with your family in the 1500’s.” “That old witch story? It’s just a legend Ben, no magic existed on earth.” “Actually…” Ben starts. “Jenny explained that Josh knew more about it. And Trinity, along with Cript, explained that their is some weird and very bad blood circulating in every Ventral.” He explains. “Trinity would be better at explaining this cause….fucked if I know to be perfectly honest.” “Basically, you have Psychopath blood in you.” Trinity says. “I could have told you that.” Zeke says bluntly. “No, a Psychopath is someone who has become a physical representation of the fact of murder. Once that connection is made to that fact, they gain power from every murder ever. That explains your family’s Killing Mood rather well, the Psychopath blood absorbing the energy a body releases upon death, and no, not a soul, more like… the lost potential. Somehow back when someone gave your ancestor Psychopath blood, and since Psychopaths are strong enough to kill most high level entities, they can easily traverse between realities. Your ‘god’ must have let his guard down or this ‘witch’ forced her way in. Red eyes and black whites are the sign of a Psychopath.” Trinity explains. Zeke looked up. “So…that means Core is one. His eyes are exactly like that.” “I think there’s a difference between Core’s red eyes, which could probably be natural and not having weird demon blood, or it’s because of the shit he’s done to himself.” Ben explains. “I don’t know this is confusing.” “No, Zeke is likely right.” Trinity says. “Though, since Core has had no access to void he had no way to surpass his realms limitations, he’s as strong as a humanoid in this reality can become without traveling to another realm, meaning only I am likely stronger than him, and Ben here can now surpass him with time.” “I’m not entirely sure if I needed to go to another realm to be that strong…” Ben says. “I don’t know...but I feel like just mastering all my weapons will lead to something...a lot bigger than I originally thought…” “Maybe. Either way, when dad finally has the ‘routs’ into this realm open things stronger than Core will enter, you’ll need the training.” “Well I was going to have to train anyways because I have thirteen weapons to master. Now down to eleven but still.” Ben frowns, feeling like he’s the one that has the biggest ‘training road’ out of all his friends. “I’d go to train somewhere else, but without proper legs I’m kinda stuck in this chair.” Zeke says. “Don’t suppose you know anyone with good prosthetics? No world we’ve found has yet to have the type I’d need.” “Haven’t you looked for a Fullmetal Alchemist world?” Ben asks curiously. “Automail dude, you practically make suits of the stuff.” “I’ve tried, no luck. X says it’s either a world that fell before I got here of is too new for him to distinct from others.” “Your keyblade armor. Can’t you make anything with that? I know you have a shit ton of smart people that would know how to make those working prosthetics.” Ben explains. “Or hell, just find a world full of Dwarves, their normally master blacksmiths.” “We looked into it, but the problem there is that, I have no magic in me, other than this apparent blood stuff in me. Twilight says even if we did make it, only magic would work, but since I have no magic within me, it won’t work, and medicine, though largely advanced, has no methods of mechanical surgery for the nerves connecting to the metal limbs.” “Didn’t you tell me that you were a human keyblade?” Ben asks curiously, feeling like he’s pulling this out of his ass for some reason. “Or am I finally going crazy and spouting nonsense?” “No, I am now, but what’s that have to do with anything?” “I kind of thought that means you literally have magic in you cause you're technically magic.” Ben says. “Seems weird that a human keyblade isn’t magic in someway shape or form.” “A keyblades body can be made from anything when the keychain is attached, in this case, my heart, while my body now has a keyblades durability, and even those break. Unless I had magic before it happened, It’s like I’m a keyblade with a zero or negative magic number.” “Trinity…” Ben sighs out, rubbing his temples. “Mind helping cause I’m clueless here.” “Well there are prosthetic's that my family can get you, things are a bit hectic there. Long story short, dad’s promotion made him a REAL god, he’s got his own realm to create and a lot of moving and such is being done right now, opening portals would be risky, but I do have prosthetic's on me, kinda a rule to keep a city's worth of med supplies on you, though I don’t know how to attach them.” “Cripe…” Ben sighs out. “Wait...maybe…” Ben mutter before snapping his fingers, three doctor nobodies appearing. “I call these ‘Medics’, maybe they have the medical know how to attach prosthetics.” Ben says, looking over the three. “Do you know how to attach prosthetics to a person?” He asks. Trinity looked them over. “Maybe. The legs I have in mine will require only a small surgical incision, from what I know, but it’s in a rather…well, Zeke will have to be awake for it and it’s right over the nerves. Think you can handle that?” Trinity asks the Nobodies as they nod. “Well, you ready?” She asks Zeke. “If it gets me walking and a chance at Core again, I’ll muscle though it.” Zeke answers. The ‘surgery’ took less than an hour, and for Zeke, the incisions that the Nobody medics made was the easy part, once the legs were inserted in them he felt multiple vine like things grow through the still flesh parts of his legs, even in his bones. He managed to say conscious and once the pain had faded, he stood for the first time in two weeks. He, Trinity, and Ben were out in the castle gym, Zeke testing out the new legs. “As you can guess, it’s not ordinary metal Zeke.” Trinity says. “It’s monofilament, a metal Wolverine can’t cut though.” “Now that’s saying something.” Ben says in honest surprise. “How do they feel?” “Light.” Zeke says. “I expected them to feel heavier.” “That’s monofilament, light as aluminum, stronger than any metal in this realm. It’s combat leggings so there are… well, just feel for a small button.” Zeke felt along the sides of the new limbs, finding the small button near his still flesh part. He pressed it as a holster opened up on each side, a small handgun in each already. “Wow… they loaded?” He asked, taking them out. “Yes.” Trinity said. “Handy.” Ben says. “Think you’ll ever need a gun or you sticking with X and any other keyblades you normally use?” “Like John…if I need to I’d rather not get blood on any keyblade. And like I told him, if my killing mood ever happens… keep me occupied till it wears off, or kill me then and now.” Zeke said to Ben’s surprise. “You sure about that man? I mean sure Jenny said you were supposed to be the strongest of the Ventrals cause of your eyes but…” Ben says worriedly, not wanting to strike a friend down. “I don’t want to kill again…” “Josh only had one red eye, and when his killing mood happened he caused the marines and the NSA to get deployed on him, and about half of time square was completely destroyed, like a mini nuke went off. Mine will be worse.” “And that is where I can use Fair Game to stop you cold.” Ben says. “It won’t work.” Trinity adds. “At that moment he’ll be a Psychopath, nothing short of dad could stop him, so Ben, get strong fast…cause I will have trouble dealing with him when and if it happens.” “I’m sorry, but we don’t have the Hyperbolic Time Chamber here.” Ben frowns. “I can’t get that strong in such short time.” He says worriedly, feeling like he needs to get stronger that fast. “You should at least master your Knives then, you’d be able to match him in speed at that point.” “Or I could master my Scythe and use it’s hidden Doom property and make him weaker with each hit.” He brings up. “But yeah that’s true...well I needed to figure out what weapon to master next so glad to talk about this now rather than later.” “Just remember this Ben.” Zeke says. “If I’m in the killing mood and I pull out the guns… just use protect, dad taught me to never miss a shot.” “I can imagine.” Ben sighs out. “But I think sooner or later I’ll be something no one ever thought I could be.” Ben says, having had this strange thought in the back of his head after he mastered Fair Game. “With dad around, that is gonna happen.” Trinity says. “Though, with his new position our purpose is slightly shifted.” “Shifted how?” Ben asks curiously. “With dad a real god, or Admin now, he, nor us as his kids can fight specific battles. For example, I’ll be able to help deal with Zeke and his killing mood, but as for Core only you guys can fight him, I’m not allowed. Only in… special cases, can we hop in.” “Right then.” Ben nods. “But...that doesn’t include me right? Since technically I’m his son…” He asks worriedly, not wanting to just suddenly have a ‘you can’t do that’ sign bash his face in when he needs to help his friends. “Since you aren’t a full member of the family, plus this IS your story, shared with the others, that’s an exception. Afterwords though, it depends on the battle. Since dad is now… well, looking over this stuff, he might be able to bend some rules, but only if needed.” “My story isn’t going to end when Core’s dead that I know for a fact.” Ben says. “But where that story leads I have no clue…” He sighs out. “I think we can all agree that Cript is possible what happens next, but I do have a question. How did he go from having a god title to becoming a literal god?” Zeke asks. “All it said was that it was a payment for his last mission, whatever it was.” Trinity says. “Wonder how much the house has changed, I know the location is different now, but still.” Trinity ponders. “Yeah that’s true…” Ben agrees. “Hope mom’s okay with the move.” “They’re all likely alright Ben, I’m more worried about dad honestly, went from the fighter to the orchestrator, that’s the job of an admin, while the bad things are… largely random, it’s his job to pick the ‘heros’ and now that he’s an admin, we as half admins, yeah the curse added that, can’t take the ‘thunder’ of the heros.” “But..I am a ‘hero’...” Ben says worriedly. “You know what? Screw it I’ll learn more about this later Zeke’s probably either zoned out completely or just clueless…” “I get the jist of it Ben.” Zeke says, putting the handguns away. “Makes you wonder, now that’s he’s one of the most powerful beings, to just… create, how’s he gonna react to not being able to help when he can handle it so easy?” “Probably go a bit stir crazy not being able to fight things anymore.” Ben shrugs. “Anyways we came here because of council meeting and to see if you want to help Jenny or if I should be her ‘councilor’ on the way to a better life.” He says. “Also...does your family actually care about bet’s that they lose fairly?” “Only if it’s with another family member. Otherwise, well, she would have killed you in your sleep. I’d keep her sleeping til you get that blade, might try and get one too when I accept. Either way, with Core getting… more active and then this stuff from Cript’s realm, shit’s gonna hit the fan, fast.” “Yep.” Ben nods. “All the more reason to train.” Trinity said. “Look, even though it can technically be considered cheating your way up, dad can now give you all… boosts, for lack of a better word. Plus, if Core is, or is becoming, a Psychopath, you’ll get stronger faster.” “I made the deal that I would only get a power boost when I get the Humanity Blade, which won’t be for a long time because I need to master all my weapons.” Ben says. “Yeah, but I don’t mean the family boosts, I’m talking about… think of it as… an advanced level boost, or like finding a rare candy in pokemon.” “Oh…” Ben says while thinking about it. “Well that’s true...Zeke?” He asks, wondering what he thinks about this. “While a boost is welcome, with Core advancing and getting more aggressive with each step, we may have to take what Cript offers, he is now a real god, plus with him no longer being able to fight himself, this will ease his mindset about everything.” Zeke says. “Will the others be getting similar offers?” “Yeah, from what I figured he has a great interest in you… survivors? Anyway, yeah, if they haven’t already met him he’ll meet with them soonish.” Trinity replied. “Right then.” Ben nods. “So might as well accept the good power boost...by the by has there ever been a Hyperbolic Time Chamber in existence? A place where you can get a year’s worth of training in only a day?” “Yeah, dad has one in the vault back home, but like I said, opening portals won’t be safe for a while. Maybe… dad?” As Trinity said ‘dad’ Cript, to everyone's surprise, just fell out of the sky, face down. “Ugh…” He muttered. “Uh...you okay dad?” Ben asks with a worried look, wondering if he should help the poor guy. “I’m good.” Cript says as he gets up. “Changing from a ‘main character’ to an Admin has never been done before, power rush was insane and making a whole new… well, let’s just call it a creation, is mentally taxing. Just a tad dizzy, so what you up to? And when did Zeke get monofilament legs?” “Trinity said she had prosthetics on her, I summoned newly dubbed ‘Medic’ Nobodies and they performed the surgery very well all things considered.” Ben says. “I still wonder if they're supposed to be healers or if they’re supposed to be something completely different…” “Let me check.” Cript says, checking his Assistant. “Medic Nobody, no attack, only healing, and they only heal whoever they are ordered too.” He read off his device. “Why am I not surprised that thing could tell…” Ben sighs out. “But that’s good to know. Kind of thought I would have seen the things throwing out scalpel sharp thorns at people like medical ninjas or something.” “Meh, so what you guys need?” “Trinity said you can hand out power boosts like rare candies. Wondering if that’s true and if so is it alright if me and Zeke get it? And no it doesn’t affect our ‘deal’.” Ben says, adding the last part cause sometimes ‘deals’ can be pretty important to people. “Fair enough.” Cript says. “You are among a variety of heroes in this realm, so it is technically my job to help. Let me think on what can help here…. Oh. Well here’s one for Ben, this is usually either a one in who knows how many chance of getting, but I think this will help you out.” Cript held out his hand, to which Ben shook it as a sudden headrush hit him hard. “Sorry about that though.” Cript says as they stop. “Fucking headrush…” Ben grumbles, holding his head as he tried to get his bearings back. “So what’s the power?” “It’s the same ability that helped me train stupidly fast and learn crap impossibly fast. Copycat, any info, technique, or even power you can copy it almost as fast as you saw it. If it’s an attack of someone stronger than you the one you copy and do will only be half as strong though.” “Makes sense.” Ben nods. “Thanks...dad.” He smiles, wanting to tell him that after he told his story to his family. “No problem, now for Zeke…” Cript thinks, wondering what ability to hand him. Cript snapped his fingers. “Got an idea.” Cript walked up to Zeke, placing his thumb on Zeke’s forehead. Blue electricity and a migraine in Zeke’s brain soon followed as he went to his knees. “Yeah… that was gonna hurt more now that I think about it…” “The Fuck was that?” Zeke moans, clutching his head. “Blunt answer, I reworked some of your brain’s neural pathways, and gave you power over electricity, well, we call it electronium back home, but it’s generally the same thing. It’s not enough to do much with, but you will have faster reflexes and keener senses. Enough to, oh say… dodge bullets.” Zeke finally managed to stand, doing his best to grin. “Nice.” He said, still holding his forehead from the migraine. “That’s good to hear.” Ben nods. “But how’s mom? She doing okay with the move?” “Oh, Den is good.” Cript says. “She’s also………VERY pregnant…. again.” “Why?” Ben asks, wondering why he said ‘very’ like that and worried about things now. “Let’s just say that… well, demigod children aren’t born like normal kids, they’re ready to be born minutes after they… conceive. Though, they don’t actually need to be born then, that’s actually up to the mother, Den has always had large litters, but now, well, explaining this is… not easy. Basically… do you really want me to flat out say it?” “I already have Trinity as a sister how many more brothers and sisters will I suddenly have?” Ben asks. “Well… they’ve gone from one to nine, and no not always was the nine from wives like Den… to basically… well, how many sperm cells are in… well, a shot, that’s how many, though, it’s… well she looks nine months pregnant but with how her body is now she’s holding… billions…” Ben looked between Trinity, Zeke, and then Cript, and then placed his face into both of his hands. “The...the fuck….” Ben whimpers. “Den’s not the only one though… all your mothers are… like that, physically they look nine months with one, actuality… they have billions. Guess they got tired of not getting the full pregnancy experience?” Crips says unsurely. “Zeke….” Ben says, looking up to the man with a hilariously sad look. “Help…I can’t…” “I ain’t joined yet, and I’m disturbed.” Zeke replies. “Just get used to it.” Trinity says. “It will not be the weirdest thing you all see, or hear, in your lives.” Trinity finishes bluntly. “I suppose there was a good reason for getting a bottle of scotch the first time I met mom...besides the fact I told her and my girlfriends how I lost my parents…” Ben says. “You might want this.” Cript says, tapping on his Assistant as a large keg appeared with some mugs. “Asgardian…doesn’t give me a buzz but you’ll need it.” He walked over to the keg, replacing the mugs with small shot glasses. “That is really all you’ll need.” He finished as he vanished in a flash of light. Ben decided to be the one to first pass out from alcohol poisoning. “Please stop me before I do something stupid.” Ben says before gently getting his shot glass full of Asgardian mead. “Here’s to hoping I forget what my dad just said.” He says before downing the shot glass. No sooner did the liquid pass his lips, Ben fell over in a drunken slumber. “Wow… effective…” Zeke said, looking between his one shot drunk friend and the keg. “I best take him home.” Trinity said, pulling the sleeping Ben over her sholder. “Lightweight.” She said, summoning a mug of her own and dipping it into the mead, downing it in under a minute. “Huh, apple, but a hint of raspberry.” She said, tossing the mug and walking into Daybreak, grabbing Jenny before heading off, leaving Zeke with the mead. “The fuck do I do with this?” He asked no one, looking over the keg. Ben had snoozed off the Asgardian mead for the majority of the day, finally waking late into the night. Only Rarity was with him in the bed, the others were not present. Though, in his hungover state, he barely had the sense to go back to sleep, getting up to look for them instead. “The fuck happened?” Ben mutters, his head screeching in pain. He stumbled over to the bathroom, splashing cold water and taking some headache medicine Zecora had stocked up on, the magic and herbs taking some of the pain away. After two more quick sips of the rancid tasting potion, his headache was minor enough to ignore, though he was sure a bright light or loud enough noise would be enough to spike the pain back. “Fuck asgardian mead…” Ben mutters, holding his head and walking downstairs, not caring that he was only wearing a white shirt and his underwear at the moment. “Hello?” He mutters, hoping to find someone else at home besides Rarity. As he walked downstairs he could hear laughing and small talk, followed by a familiar voice. “How much longer will he be out?” The voice of his new mother Den rang in Ben’s ears, followed by the painful memory of what Cript had told him before drinking the one shot of Asgardian mead. “I’m here Mi-I mean mom…” Ben says, fixing himself to not say ‘milf’ cause that would cause his head to cave in even worse than his crippling hangover. When he finally got into the living room he saw Den surrounded by his girlfriends, and to his surprise Luxu, Time and Sweetie Bell were there. True to what Cript said, Den did indeed look very pregnant, though just how he imagines she’d look with a normal litter size for her species. “Morning pup.” Den cooed, not wanting to spike Ben’s obvious hangover. “Morning mom…” Ben mutters with a smile, his tail wagging gently at seeing his mother again. “How’s pregnancy?” “Filling.” She joked. “While I don’t mind at all, I’m getting used to walking around this big again, before the others and I did this we would give birth often the next day, left us feeling rather… cheated.” She explained. “It’s alright mom…” Ben says. “Uh...does your breast milk cure hangovers?” He asks curiously, still holding his head in minor pain. “We’re out.” Time, Luxu and Sweetie said, running for the basement. Den giggled at that. “I guess not everyone is open the the idea of continuous breast feeding. Yes Ben, it does, just be wary of my belly.” “Thank you...but isn’t there a milker around to help keep me away from your belly?” Ben asks, looking at Pinkie and Luna specifically for that reason. “We…hand milk…” Luna admits sheepishly. “Feels kinkier.” “Oh…” Ben slowly nods. “Well...okay then. I suppose I’ll just have to be careful...also I’m worried that that ‘hand milk’ will...lead to the bedroom fun…” “I’ll go buy a milker.” Pinkie says, jumping out of the room. “I think the pawn shop has one for sale, just needs cleaning.” With that, Pinkie jumped out of the house. “I don’t want a pawn shop milker used on you girls...or mom…” Ben mutters. “Anyways...what are you doing here mom? Besides...being a convenient hangover cure?” “I told you I was gonna come by and visit again, though, your siblings I brought ran off to look around.” Den explained. “Some of my siblings?” Ben asks. “Where did they run off to?” “Squirrel is likely exploring around, Tiara and Scootaloo are probably late night shopping with Trinity.” “Wait...why are you talking about Diamond Tiara and Scootaloo?” Ben asks curiously. “Remember sweetheart, multiverse of multiverse. They may exist here, but these are… some, of the reflections we adopted/saved. Diamond Tiara was saved since her world… well, I’d rather not say, and Scootaloo and Squirrel were adopted back when Cript only had four wives.” “I understand.” Ben nods. “Well...let’s hope our world’s Diamond and Scoots don’t see them...I know two of them will freak out…” He says sheepishly. There was the distinct sound of gunfire outside, causing Ben to run outside, and quickly put on his cloak. Out near the Everfree, he saw an anthro Diamond Tiara, and Scootaloo, both dressed in some kinda strange armor, shooting at each other. Diamond Tiara with a shotgun, and Scootaloo with twin laser pistols. “You are not winning this one!” Tiara yelled, firing off a shot that the Scootaloo dodged with ease. “You need to work on your aim sis.” She retorted. “WHAT IN ZE FUCK!?!” Ben shouts. The two stopped, looking at Ben confused. “Uh, dude, you interrupted our match?” The Scootaloo said. “Yeah, I was finally gonna break her win streak.” Tiara added. “I don’t give a racoons right ass cheek right now.” Ben says, walking up to the two and the mares seeing the obvious worry on his face. “What was I supposed to think when I immediately heard gun fire, only to see you two trying to shoot each other huh? Laugh it off and say ‘oh it’s just a silly thing they do all the time’?” He asks, his tone adding the worry he was feeling at just seeing the two trying to shoot each other. The two looked at each other, then back at Ben. “Duh!” They said in unison. “Aren’t you the new kid?” Tiara asked. “The one that’s the main cause of his parents collective suicides yes.” Ben says bluntly. “And I’ve barely been apart of this family for more than a week and a half and I still have barely looked into this...so just suddenly seeing family trying to murder each other isn’t really that good of a sight. And yes it was practically trying to kill each other when I see laser pistols and shotguns involved.” He huffs. To his surprise, the two started laughing. “He thinks these things can kill us!” Scootaloo yelled mid laughter. “Yes yes, laugh at someone actually worried for his new siblings safety. That just helps.” He says, tears forming in the corners of his eyes. “Great...just fucking great. I show worry for people and I get immediately laughed at...thanks.” He says bitterly, holding his head in pain from his hangover acting up. “Hey, you didn’t know these things can’t kill us.” Tiara said. “Frankly they bearly sting when we get hit, plus the regen factor is a welcome when fighting combat practice or live combat.” “Well I wouldn’t know that because I’ve barely been apart of this family and all my fights so far have been, besides training, life and death.” Ben frowns. “I don’t even have the special power boost you two have because I wanted to get stronger on my own before getting it...but I’m just rambling like an idiot and no one cares. Just like older siblings should right?” The two looked at each other again. “Uh, we’re four years younger than you.” Scootaloo said. “I’m taking the ‘older’ part because you’ve probably been apart of this family longer than me.” Ben shrugs. “Cause you know, age is one thing, age as a demigod is another.” “We’re still only fourteen.” Tiara said. “Cript adopted me about a year ago and Scoot’s here was back when dad had four wives so… five years ago?” “Six.” Scootaloo corrected. “Well congratulations.” Ben sighs out while holding his head in pain. “And you’ve also spiked my hangover pain...christ I’m not drinking that Asgardian Mead again…” Scootaloo poked a finger at Ben’s head. “Detoxify.” She said, his hangover gone as if someone dumped water on Ben’s head and it washed off. “Okay thank you…” Ben says with a little smile. “Don’t mention it. Still, where the hell is Squirrel?” Scootaloo asked, looking around. “He better not be-” She was cut off when an anthro Thestral appeared behind her, a sword through her chest. “Oh real mature.” She grumbled, pushing the sword out as her wound healed in seconds. “I still win.” The thestral said. “Who are you and why are you named Squirrel when you're a thestral?” Ben asked. “I am Squirrel, and I was named that because before dad picked me up I was the town orphan/thief who lived in trees.” He replied. “Ah, makes sense.” Ben nods. “So...fan of swords huh?” “Back in the village I grew up stealing daggers and kitchen knives to hunt with, after dad adopted me I kinda… kept the habit. So you’re Ben? I heard you got Keyblades, among other things.” “Thirteen different weapons actually.” Ben says honestly. “From a deck of cards to ethereal blades, lances to claymores, shields to tomes actually.” Ben shrugs. “Want to see them? I sadly only mastered two so far but hopefully I’ll master another.” “How about a quick keyblade match?” Scootaloo asks, her keyblade appearing in her hands. It had an odd design. It was a cloud with wings at the top, gold pillars ran down from it to a dark base where the grip and guard was a dark cloud with what looked like red rain starting to fall. They keychain was equally odd, a black and white cloud with a blind eye. “Been awhile since I used Fate Splitter here.” “Is that your Keyblades name?” Ben asks before summoning his keyblade. “Meet Reunion.” “Nice.” Scootaloo said, grabbing Fate Splitter by the grip, she tugged on it, and the Keyblade split into two, the colors changing as it did, one was all bright clouds, the other was dark clouds, a blood red wing, and the gold on the blade was rusted looking. “Bet yours can’t split into two.” “I don’t know what my keyblade does honestly. All I know is that this keyblade is literally me and became this when my heart became whole.” Ben explains before summoning his ice shield. “But I normally like using a shield along with Reunion. Remember I don’t have a healing factor...don’t have the standard demigod powers the special bundle gives.” “Meh, I’ll go easy then.” She said, jumping across the field in one leap. “Three hits wins!” She called out, taking a stance akin to Sora in Valor form. “Well this is gonna hurt.” Ben mutters while raising his shield and sword in a stance like that of a Spartan. “Who’s the ref?” “I’ll handle it.” Squirrel says, he and Tiara standing on the sideline. Ben and Scoot’s nodded. Ben blinks twice and Scootaloo was already a foot away from him, too his shock, when she came in for a slash, he, without even thinking, did the same, their blades meeting in a cross as Scootaloo’s eyes went wide. “No way. You got the copycat ability too?” “Well Dad said I’d need it.” Ben says honestly, unable to do much as Scootaloo’s strength was keeping him from counter attacking. “This just got interesting then.” Scootaloo jumped back, readying her blades to find a weak point in Ben’s copycat ability. Ben took the initiative and dashed towards Scoots, stepping down and swinging both his keyblades at her a lot faster than he’d originally thought he’d go. She jumped into the air, and slammed her Keyblades on Ben’s back. “Point one, me.” She said, stepping off her partly flattened brother. “Ow…” Ben mumbles before getting up and getting back in his stance. “Hmm…” He hums before switching his stance, this time his hands crackling with energy as he got into the stance of Sora’s Master form. “Let’s hope this works.” To his shock, his white cloak crackles with energy, turning a distinct pattern of yellow. “Oh, you can do that?” Scootaloo asked. “I had no idea I could do this…” Ben says honestly. “I thought only a specific person could do this but apparently not.” He says before taking a deep breath, his magic, strength and speed feeling so much better now that he’s in this form. “I just wish I had a drive gauge here to tell how long I can hold it…” He mutters bitterly. “Bottom right of sight, don’t you keep that vision sensor on battle mode?” Scootaloo asked. “You know, your Assistant and chip X?” Ben sighs out. “Now that you tell me that I just noticed it.” He says. “Probably too focused on the person to see the bars and all that.” He says, now noticing his drive gauge, his health and all the other things a Kingdom Hearts hud would have. “Anyways, Master Form here we go.” He says, cracking his shoulders before jumping into the air slightly and bolting after Scootaloo, his Keyblades swinging in a giant circle towards her. She met both his keyblades with one of hers, her armor suddenly turning a familiar pattern of red. “I prefer Valor honestly, I like the speed.” In a red haze, she was behind him. Ben’s copycat kicked in, turning around and blocking her attack before he even realized what happened. The two stepped back. “Hope you put that copycat to good use, you learn a lot about people when fighting them with it.” “In more ways than one apparently.” Ben says honestly, before he twisted around and a forceful wind followed by a keyblade tried smacking her back. She reacted by unfolding her wings, which Ben actually had not noticed, and took the the air, casting Thunder spells and throwing strike raides at him with her other keyblade. Ben countered with Reflect, a dome of magical glass appeared and blocked and deflected all her attacks, before he dashed and swung his keyblades at her, the explosion of Reflect caused helping add to his attack. Scootaloo blocked them, flying in a circle around Ben, firing a barrage Mega Flares. Ben kept up his Reflects, noticing that his mana was dropping quickly with the constant amount of magic he was forced to use. “Yeah, Mega Flare sure is fun to use isn’t it!?” Ben shouts at Scoots, not entirely liking his situation that he couldn’t stop. “Only when you can shoot off a lot.” Scootaloo replied, she was about to shoot off another barrage of Mega Flares when- “Kids, stop playing and come inside, it’s late out.” Den’s voice called from the distance. “Yes mom.” Scootaloo said, stopping her attack and flying down to the ground next to Ben. “Let’s pick this up some time later.” She said, walking over to Tiara and Squirrel. Ben nodded, before his Master Form ended and he tried taking a step forward, before doubling over in pain. “Okay….ow….too much master form…” Ben groans. “Uh...little help? In a weird amount of pain right now.” He says, not sure if it was because of his reflect magic doubling back at him or if it was just because he went into Master and Valor form for the first time. Squirrel walked over, casting a healing spell Ben didn’t recognize and helped him up. “Yeah, copycat must have taken a toll considering the level difference between you and Scoot’s, even if she did hold back.” “I also think it’s because I suddenly got a new ability my body didn’t originally have…” Ben sighs out before standing straight up again. “Well let’s see.” Squirrel grabs Ben’s arm, bringing his Assistant out and looking through the stats menu. “Yeah, well according to this you received master form as a level bonus nine levels ago in your spar with Scoot’s. That much leveling so fast probably messed with your body also.” “I’m going to need a major explanation about all this later because I have to get back and meet Zeke, I have a council meeting I sadly forgot about.” Ben says, gently taking his arm away from Squirrel. “I just hope I’m not too late.” He says while fixing his cloak’s hood and covering his tail. He opened a DTL, told them to let his girlfriends and mom know he went to finish up some work. When Ben walked through the DTL, he was met with a rather angry looking Luna. “You forgot about me…” She said in a deadpan voice. “I’m so sorry Luna…” Ben mutters, lowering his head bitterly at sadly forgetting his girlfriend. “Just...too many things…” He sighs out, knowing he screwed up royally and thinking she’d hate him for this. “While I’m made you left me I did have a fun time, Rune and I traded some… fetishes and I thought of a good way you can pay me back for this.” She stated. “I’m not going to get pregnant.” Ben looks at her dead in the eye with a stern look behind his hood. “That is the one thing I’m not going to do here. Also I don’t want weird fetishes here, Twilight made me listen to her secret math fetish for months I don’t want weird things thrown at me got it?” “Are you really in a position to argue? But no, they aren’t that bad, but your payment for me is simple. Fourteen.” “I have no idea what you're talking about.” Ben says honestly, not knowing what ‘fourteen’ is. “When we get married, I want fourteen foals, one for each weapon you have, including those two keyblades.” She explained. “I have a feeling I’m gonna need two more wives for that feat…” Ben says worriedly. “Fourteen foals with me only.” She added. Ben sighs out. “Listen, you're only getting thirteen. No one besides myself is going to keep my ‘special’ Keyblade. That weapon is off limits alright?” “I’m not saying they’ll inherit it, I’m just counting that one as a weapon of yours too. Besides, with Zeke his kids are half Keyblade, with ours they might each get the weapons you have, though I’m not sure about that last one given what that God fellow told me about it while I was stuck here.” Ben made a face between worry and anger. “What did ‘God’ tell you?” He asks simply, hoping Luna didn’t listen to Core pretending to be God. “He said to first tell you ‘if you think I’m Core I’m gonna slap you’ and then we just talked about your world and he gave me a rundown on how bad Core really is. Other than that he said congrats on your new family, the one you made and the one you were adopted into.” “Oh, well that’s good to hear.” Ben sighs out thankfully. “But how bad did God describe Core?” “He’s been keeping an eye on Core since apparently someone under his command is something called a ‘sleeper cell’ or something like that, God placed in there, and from what they have written it’s not looking good. Core’s readying armies and as God feared he now has means of controlling Nobodies, and Dream Eaters.” “Well Core’s going to have a bad time knowing that I’m better at controlling them.” Ben says with a frown. “But that is so not good…” “He also said Core is working on something that is taking a lot of hearts to make, though from what he said it seems like it’s specific hearts.” “That’s not good…” Ben frowns. “Does Zeke know anything about this?” He asks, having a feeling God would tell Zeke about this important stuff. “Yeah, the three of us were all talking about it. Zeke also wanted to talk with you after the council meeting, which you’re half an hour late for…” Luna finished as Ben B-lined it for the council hall. He made it through the doors, Luna next to him and Trinity appearing somehow on the other said. “What?” Trinity asked. “Nothing.” Ben sighs out, not believing he is a half an hour late. “God I hate being late…” Zeke rang a bell that was next to him. “Ben, you’re half an hour late. I’ll admit though given that mead managed to mess me up to when I tried some we’re overlooking the tardy. This meeting is now in motion. First order of business, Ben, how many worlds other than Equestria have you been to?” “Three.” Ben says. “Radiant Guardian, Knowhere and the Keyblade Graveyard.” “And how has their state of peace been?” “Radiant Garden is in working order. Knowhere is about as good as you can see from a massive black market, and the Keyblade Graveyard...is worrying. Some of the Keyblades are missing from there if memory serves. Oh, and my reflections Castle Oblivion has disappeared.” Ben adds quickly. The council muttered among themselves, causing Ben to worry. “Have you encountered any survivors of the Keyblade war?” Leon asks. “Three. My reflections Discord, and Celestia and Luna’s parents, Locus and Faust.” Ben nods. “Does anyone else other than you and likely these survivors wield keyblades?” “Discord, Locus and Faust, after they survived the Keyblade War, stabbed their keyblades into the ground and will never touch them again. Hoping they would rust away so nothing like…that would ever happen again.” Ben explains, still saddened by the giant wasteland filled with Keyblades acting like tombstones. “I have a Keyblade.” Luna says, summoning her Keyblade. “Oh, Sweetie is able to wield Time Bell and Terra, Aqua, and Ventus are on my world as well.” Ben says, his mind slightly jumbled at being so late and the fight he had with Scoots. “Also Luxu.” “How advanced would you say the technology is in your reflection given the worlds you’ve seen.” Cid asks. “My girlfriend Luna here has every gaming system known to Ponykind, has a specially made gaming computer...but besides that I haven’t looked into it that much sadly.” Ben sighs out, knowing how much gaming there was but not knowing their full technological advancements besides the stuff he normally saw. “But as far as I was told, Minotaurs on my Equestria do make guns, and griffons are apparently the ones that help show others how good they are. I don’t know if the people of Equestria use them but just thought I’d mention that…” He says, rubbing his temple gently, trying to get his thoughts in order here. “Has any major event or catastrophe happened since you’ve been on your Equestria?” Shining Armor asks. “A Titan destroyed all of Manehattan…” Ben says bitterly. “Killed all but a few hundred…” He says. “59,000 lives were lost…” The council muttered, louder than last time, among themselves. “We were told about this, Titan, from Zeke, who spoke with you and a god named Cript.” Lord Death said. “We now know that there are greater things than Core, or even Kingdom Hearts, but this changes little of our original goal. Core is our enemy, if these… shadow creatures and dark beings from beyond the void are to interfere we are placing you in charge of dealing with them.” “Can you help me with that Trinity?” Ben asks, knowing his angel sister knows a lot more about this than he does. Trinity stepped forwards. “I am Trinity, one of the human god, now Admin, Cript’s daughters. While the new laws my family and father must follow restrict us from fighting the main threat, we can still offer aid in the way of supplies, advanced training, at the cost of speeding up the possibility of beings from our reality entering. While we can deal with them, we are afraid in terms of lending… soldiers, to fight with you in your battles, we are limited in what we can do. This does not mean we refuse to help, we can, but not directly.” Trinity explained. “So what you are saying is that you will train us to deal with the threats, but you can not physically aid us on the battlefield?” Lord Death asked. “Exactly. As a peace offering, and sign of good will I can give you something you’ll likely make use of.” She said, tapping her assistant and several crates appeared. “Within these few, small boxes, is a digital library of my realms history, including Fathers.” The council muttered again, slightly annoying Ben. “We will accept.” Zeke says. “But as you said, we must be cautious about how we receive these items. We don’t want anymore Manehattan incidents… I feel like there’s a joke there but I’m not making it. Meeting closed.” Zeke said, ringing the bell again. “That went a little better than expected…” Ben mutters to himself while standing up, thinking he should start leaving right now. Luna placed a hand on his shoulder. “Come on Ben, Zeke wanted to talk to you.” She reminded him. “Oh yeah.” Ben nods. “So do we just go to his office or just wait in the lounge?” Ben asks, not really sure where to go. “Office.” Luna said. The group made their way to Zeke’s office, his helper wasn’t there, likely off the clock, Ben assumed, and Zeke was at his Desk. “Glad you could make it.” He said, motioning them to take a seat. Ben took a seat. “Listen I’m sorry about being late. It was less about the mead, which yes gave me an insane hangover, but my sister...Scootaloo believe it or not wanted a practice fight.” He explains. “I didn’t think it would take that long...also apparently my copycat ability let’s me use Drive Forms now.” “At this point I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, though me having my reflection Scootaloo as a daughter, now you saying she’s your sister feels… odd. Anyway, I wanted to ask you a favor Ben.” Zeke says, a serious expression on his face. “What’s the favor?” He asks. “Well, it’s about a family member of mine. Not Jenny, my brother Kevin. I think he might be able to leave willingly knowing him, join us.” “I’m sensing a massive catch here.” Ben frowns, knowing that things aren’t as simple as they seem. “Well, for starters Kevin is the family… clown, to say the least, when he’s not working he’s stupidly drunk, but that’s not the point. Point is, he… likely knows where my mom and dad are, since Core seems to have taken all of my family to work as his ‘allies’. The only issue is that our eldest brother, Dillen, always enjoyed messing with him in…not so nice ways. If he’s with Core than likely he’s been experimenting on Kevin. Willing or not. Thing is though, we both know a grand secret about each other.” “And what’s the grand secret?” Ben asks, not wanting to make a joke about how the Ventrals care about their family only to have them torture each other for funsies. “Kevin knows about my dream back on earth. If I could escape I was planning on faking my death then getting a new identity set up and work as a marine, saving people rather than killing innocents. Now Kevin is a different story. I was there the day he first killed. His killing mood never activated. To make it look like it did he kinda blew up cars and shot at whatever.” “Well that’s a thing.” Ben says honestly. “I suppose some people just don’t have it for some reason…” “No, Ventral's do, this is where we found out a secret, Dad is a pure blooded Ventral, mom married in. What does that tell you?” “Something weird happened?” Ben asks. “Kevin isn’t a Ventral by blood. We found out via DNA test, dad’s not his…well, biological dad. Mom never said so we don’t know if he knew or what.” “Would seem silly if he didn’t know.” Ben shrugs. “My point is, that’s our trump card in getting Kevin with us, even though he’s not Ventral by blood he was high ranked. If he still carried that into working with Core, we can learn what the bastard is up to.” “Sweet.” Ben smiles. “That will help so much in our quest to stop the bastard.” “Yes, plus, Kevin was rather good with explosives, so you should remind him to… let his boss know he quits, before you leave. I’d go with you but… well, the wives got me on a twenty foot leash since I lost my legs, even though Core dragged me into the realm of darkness that time.” “Do you know where to start? Cause I’d rather not go on a man hunt with just a name and high hopes that he loves Mythbusters enough to blow things up a lot.” Ben says honestly, not wanting to rush into this new thing blindly. “Umum said when she was still under Core’s influence, he saw someone with Kevin’s description at Core’s…cattle farm, as he calls it.” “That doesn’t sound creepy at all.” Ben says sarcastically, finding the mere thought of that horrifying. “It’s likely a place where Core placed people to later fuse with Heartless or Unversed. Though why it’s called that Unum didn’t want to say.” “I don’t want to know.” Ben frowns. “But I have a place with generic creepy name somewhere...cripe…” Ben sighs out, still not knowing where to go. “I think Luxu might know where it is given he likely stalked Core’s work during his time in the realm of darkness.” “That’s true…” Ben says with a nod. “But I don’t think he want’s to stand next to me because of...reasons.” Ben says nervously, still remembering how quickly those three left when ‘breastfeeding’ was talked about. “Let’s hope he helps, I’m sure Time would like some payback against Core so there’s a reason for her.” “That is also true.” Ben nods. “Anythings else my friend?” “No, that was pretty much it, you should go home, your Luna has… new things to show you.” Zeke said, groaning. “She and Rune talked for three hours…” “Thankfully it’s nothing to terrible that would make me run away from her.” Ben says nervously. “But she want’s fourteen…” Ben whimpers. “Dude, so far I have twenty six kids, including the adopted ones. That’s with all my wives, plus, you’re still human...ish. It will take more than a month and a half for your kids to be born.” “She want’s fourteen by herself.” Ben frowns. “I don’t know how many kids your wives had but still…” “So? You, from what Cript pretty much told us, are a part of a family that is way to huge to count the numbers, compared to that Luna is keeping it tame.” “I’m sorry I’m not you.” Ben frowns. “You take things in stride while I’m still concerned about so many things. You are strong and smart, and the leader of an entire world...while I have five girlfriends, am I complete jackass half the time, and still have anxiety issues.” Ben explains. “I also...just got done explaining how I made my parents both commit suicide not long ago...so yeah…” “Think of it like this, the past shackles you, the future frees you. You need to find the key in the present, for me, forgetting about my past and how fucked up my childhood was was when I saw my first born kids. It like, none of my old problems matter, these little guys, and girls aren’t me, they have none of my past problems, so why keep that over my head and make them suffer? I’m not saying forget about your past, just don’t let what makes you suffer make them suffer.” “I know…” Ben nods. “My girlfriends and mother made sure I’m happy...I just didn’t expect to get an infinite amount of siblings...and a billion extra siblings not long after…” He says sheepishly. “Hey, think of it like this, you went from the only child and losing your family, to gaining the biggest family to likely ever exist. Weather with them or with your girlfriends, you’re never gonna be alone or away from family ever again.” “Yeah...and hell knows that I need this family to stay sane…” Ben smiles warmly. To Ben’s shock, Trinity wrapped an arm around his neck and noogied him. “That’s why dad has so many and is always adopting. He knows how it is to be totally alone.” “Sis stop~.” Ben laughs, trying to stop the angel from her antics. Trinity let go, playfully shoving Ben. “Now that you’re on the path to getting over yourself, get your butt home, spend some time with mama Den then go fuck your still awake girlfriends.” She said, opening a DTL behind her. “Alright alright fine.” Ben laughs. “Okay Luna.” Ben says before moving swiftly, picking up Luna in a bridal style way. “Let’s get home, and I’m not forgetting this time.” He says with a warm smile. “Thanks for the talk Zeke, hopefully we can have a...more friendly get together alright?” “One can pray.” He replied as Ben walked with Luna in his arms, Trinity followed, the portal closing. “Let’s just hope Kevin can help…” To be continued... Author's Note So fuck tons of things happened in the chapter, hoped you all like it and more chapters will hopefully be
Nobody's chanceTwo days passed after my meeting with Zeke and I kept thinking about what I should do about everything. “Everythings going so fast…” I muttered, my mind in a haze of how I’m supposed to be the one to end Zeke’s life if it was necessary. “Fuck this I’m going to go somewhere.” I frowned before tapping my bracelet, my Assistant appearing before I tapped on a ‘Internet’ button. “Hmm...oh I know.” I muttered to myself before typing in ‘Overlord’. “Please tell me I didn’t miss out on such an amazing thing.” I hope, looking at the description of the ‘Overlord’ manga and anime. “Huh, it has a manga and anime?” I question, before scrolling down and seeing that it came out...2013. “Oh god damn it.” I huff to myself, hating that something great would have came out a year after the world went to shit. “Whatever…” I mutter, selecting the Wiki page and starting to read all I could about it. Twenty minutes passed as I finally finished reading everything I’d need to know, from the characters, story development, and just how amazing the entire thing is.“Well...might as well head there…” I say before summoning Reunion and opening a DTL, summoning my glider and speeding on through the door before it closed behind me. When I exited the DTL I noticed a crap ton of plains. Grassy plains as far as the eye could see, especially when I’m forty feet off the ground! As I continued flying I noticed a thing that shouldn’t be in a nice grassy plain...a massive fuck off tomb. “I’m this early?” I ask myself, surprised to see that the tomb wasn’t already circled by dirt and looked like a makeshift hill. “Hmm…” I mutter before starting to fly down towards the place, gently landing seventy feet away from the Tomb. “And if memory serves Sebas should be investigating…” I mutter. And speak of the devil and he shall appear. An old one eyed butler walked out of the Tomb and started investigating the area, only to see me sticking out like a sore thumb and he gently put a hand up to ear. ”Maybe this wasn’t a good idea…” I thought to myself, having a bad feeling about this before the butler gave a small nod and started walking over to me. “Uh...hello?” I called out, trying to be friendly and raised my hands up in the air, showing that I was here with no hostile intent. “Hmm…” The old man hummed to himself, looking at me with a piercing gaze seemingly sizing me up. “What is your name?” “The names…” I start, trying to think of a false name on the spot. “Name’s Fenrir.” I lie, but my tone and body language showed that I wasn’t. ”I’m gonna need Rarity to resize this…” I mentally grumble, my ears and tail always feeling a tad too uncomfortable whenever I hide them. “Why are you here?” The man asks, his hand seemed to crack in anticipation. “I wanted to meet the Leader of the Great Tomb of Nazarick, the most feared guild in all of Yggdrasil. I have always wanted to join the guild, Ainz Ooal Gown...but I feared that I wasn’t ‘monstrous’ enough for it.” I explain. Sebas looked at me, his gaze and aura telling me either two things, either he didn’t buy my crock of shit, even though I do wish I could actually join the guild, or he was trying to force me to break and tell him the truth. After what felt like an eternity the man nodded. “I understand.” He says. “But what are you exactly? Your cloak isn’t in the database and it’s hiding your appearance far too well.” He says, his tone steady and even “Oh this?” I ask, motioning to my cloak. “It was...a gift from a very talented tailor. She explained it was one of a kind and that no one else could ever receive one.” I explain before fixing my coat and hood, showing off that I had more wolf like features and a tail. “And now you can see why I’m not as…’monstrous’ as the guild members here.” Sebas raised an eyebrow, which I couldn’t tell if he was surprised or not. “Alright. Follow me, I have already informed my master of your appearance and arrival.” He explains. “But...what is out there?” He asks, not having had much time to investigate the area. “Grassy plains as far as the eye could see.” I say. “I see…” The well dressed butler mutters. The old man turned on his heel and headed back into the tomb, which I took that as my cue to follow him. Now here’s the thing, I looked up as much information as I could about the inside of the Tomb of Nazarick, but holy hell is it huge! Even with the shortcuts Sebas showed me to get down to the 6th floor arena I felt like I just walked across two states without stopping. “This place is huge…” I grumbled, finally getting to the arena proper and seeing quite the roster of monsters. I recognized everyone in the room and remembered everyone. First was the guild leader himself, Momonga the Elder Lich, wearing his ‘God level’ equipment and holding the Staff of Ainz Ooal Gown. Next was Albedo, the Succubus who stared at me with a smile, but I had a feeling that was just a facade. Next was Cocytus, the giant light blue Death Knight insectoid, the being not even trying to hide how he tried sizing me up as a warrior. Next were Aura and Mare, the crossdressing twin Dark Elves. Aura was staring at me with a wide smile, eagerness at meeting a new person all but present, and Mare acting shy at meeting someone new. Next was Shalltear, the young vampiress with an overly stuffed bra that just looked stupid given her frame and size, the girl staring at me with a tad bit of anger and ruining her chance to praise her master. And next was Demiurge, the Demon Lord, who was glaring at me with a quizzical look, already thinking of ways to manipulate or harm me which I did not like in anyway shape or form. “So is this the wolf you informed me of Sebas?” The Lich asks, turning over to me and the butler. “Yes sir.” He says, bowing to Momonga. “So you’re Fenrir?” Momonga asked me, his red eyes having a piercing glow to it, whether that was of his own volition or not I don’t know. “Yes sir.” I say with a nod, not bowing but showing that I did respect his position. “And you are the leader of one of the most infamous guilds in Yggdrasil, Momonga.” I say, while the skeleton’s body seemed to shift ever so slightly from a more defensive stance and into a more…casual stance? “Please, tell me what race you are?” Momonga asks. “I’m a Werewolf.” I say. “I’m a Weapon Master. I can use anything to slaughter my foes. From kunai to claymores, axe swords to chakrams, I’m your guy.” I smile. “That’s quite a list.” Momonga says in surprise. “Let me see if that’s true.” Cocytus steps in. “I want to see if you’re truly a weapon master.” He says, before swiftly bowing to Momonga. “If you allow it Master.” He quickly adds, not wanting to seem disrespectful to his master. “What level are you?” The elder lich asks curiously. “Cocytus isn’t a foe to be taken lightly.” “I managed to become level 100 but...then this weirdness happened.” I say honestly, which was the truth in some way. “Alright. Step into the ring, Cocytus? Don’t hurt our guest too much alright?” Momonga asks, having the utmost confidence the floor guardian would be able to manage that. “Yes my lord.” The insectoid chitters in jubilation before bowing to Momonga. “Well let’s get going then.” I say while hopping down into the arena, walking into the center of it. “Let’s have a fair fight okay?” I ask, hoping that’ll actually happen considering what I know of them. “Of course.” Cocytus states. “Champions provide true tests of strength to those looking to test themselves.” He explains, walking to the center of the arena with me. “Am I allowed all my weapons?” I ask him, summoning Lexaeus’s Axe Sword and resting it on my shoulder. “Of course.” He says, readying his halberd. “I will be the referee and if anything gets too close for comfort Albedo and Demiurge will break you two apart.” Momonga states, not wanting his guest to get too hurt if he couldn’t stop Cocytus. “Ready?” He calls out, raising his staff two inches off the ground, the both of us getting into battle ready stances. After a brief moment he tapped his staff onto the ground, the tap echoing before me and Cocytus dashed at each other, our weapons clashing together, the sound of metal striking against metal reverberating throughout the stands. Cocytus used his size to his advantage, pushing me back as one of his claws went for his mace. The mace came at blinding speeds from an overhead swing forcing me to switch to Lindworm and dodge the strike and parry with my own. Lindworm shot out only for the halberd to be spun with enough force to send them back. Lindworm floated around my body as the mace came back for another swing. I jumped on top of it racing across his arm and kicking him in the face. While he staggered back his last free arm raced up grabbing me around the waist and knocking me to the ground. Before I could roll out of the way the blade of the halberd came down forcing another switch to Frozen Pride as the blade clashed against it. The strike left an indentation in the ground but luckily I wasn’t winded. As he brought the halberd back up I rolled away and switched back to Skysplitter. Charging forward my axesword was ready to strike. At the apex of my swing another blade came from Cocytus’s free arm blocking my strike as another ringing of metal echoed out. His mandibles clicked in excitement as he pushed his advantage swinging wildly with the sword and mace. Taking a large leap back I pulled out Sharpshooters and began pelting him with shots only for the swinging of his halberd to cancel out most blows. A puff of cold air was released as the sound of Cocytus’s laughter echoed out. He was enjoying this immensely. To answer his enthusiasm I pulled out Skysplitter and charged once again. The joy was ecstatic as I jumped into the air with my weapon ready to strike. The blades once again clashed and the power within the ax exploded as the area around the us was uplifted and turned into a desolate wasteland of torn earth. Cocytus released a large gash of cold freezing the now torn earth. Even though it was cold the power coursing through my body was more than enough to keep me warm as the clashing of our weapons sent more earth out of place. As I jumped back I switched back to Lindworm and finally took stock all around me…The very arena was torn to shreds but Cocytus was still very willing to fight. Reluctantly, I prepared myself for my next plan. As he started another flurry of swings I ‘accidentally’ lost my footing stepping back as my weapon was knocked away and the halberd, sword, and mace crashed around my head but leaving me undamaged but startled. It was too close for a dive but it looked convincing I hoped. “Hot damn.” I panted, my body coming down from it’s massive power boost and adrenaline. “Outstanding!” Momonga say, clapping his boney hands together at having such a match happen. “Wonderful, wonderful!” “That was a really great match.” I smile, getting up shakily. “So, did I make the cut?” Cocytus gave me a look, the warrior having saw through my ‘fall’. “You didn’t just ‘make the cut’ as you say, you are an outstanding warrior!” Cocytus says with joy. “I’ve never had a fight like that in ages.” “Sorry about the arena...forgot my axesword could do...this.” I say sheepishly, looking around at the displaced earth. “I’ve never heard or seen weapons like the ones you use.” Cocytus admires. “What are their names? I must know.” The death knight says with giddy anticipation. “My axesword is called Skysplitter.” I say. “Why that is when it can do this to the earth I have no idea. Next up are my lances, Lindworm. Then Sharpshooters are my crossbows.” “You are indeed a Weapon Master.” Cocytus says, ‘smiling’ down at me. “Glad I could live up to my name.” I smile, before turning around and seeing the other Floor Guardians in a mixture of awe and respect. “I didn’t expect Cocytus to be so evenly matched.” Albedo coyly smirks. “That.Was.AMAZING!” Aura shouted, bouncing up and down in childish glee at seeing such an amazing fight. “I suppose it’s to be expected.” Demiurge points out, pushing up his glasses with a finger and keeping a straight face. Mare politely clapped. “G-good j-job you t-two.” He says, trying to sound normal but the spectacle of strength kind of scary. “Wow…” Shalltear gulps, not sure what to think about the fight other than that simple word. “Glad to know you were all entertained.” I say with a smile, wincing a little as I tried staying up right. “Ow...okay maybe that took a little too much out of me.” “I can imagine.” Momonga chuckles. “Not many people get to see Cocytus fight like that, and seeing it today makes me happy to see Cocytus is still in top form.” “Thank you Master.” Cocytus bows, thankful for the compliment even if I could tell he was actually a little tired from our fight. “Glad I got to show how strong I was.” I smile. “But I’m not that strong to be honest. I still have a long time before I can match Cocytus here.” I say, trying to act humble while Cocytus laughs. “You are a great warrior. Being humble is also a sign of a good warrior.” Cocytus says, pride filling his words at telling me I was a good fighter. “Thanks Cocytus.” I chuckles warmly. “I think your audition is over.” Momonga says, causing everyone’s head to snap up to the Lich. “Wait what?” I question, my wolf ears twitching and not entirely sure I heard that right. “You heard me.” Momonga says before floating down gently and walking towards me. “Not only was this a chance to prove to Cocytus your standing as a warrior, but this was also an audition to show me if you had what it takes to be apart of Ainz Ooal Gown.” He explains. “Master! You’re not saying…” Albedo gasps, her emotions actually showing for once besides a smile. “Yes Albedo.” Momonga nods. “Upon the definition of his skills has proven to me, Leader of the Tomb of Nazarick, to have the requisite power to become one of us. Ainz Ooal Gown will truly be feared throughout the land thanks in part of your presence and strength.” He chants. “Kneel.” He says before I kneel, not believing this was actually happening. “Welcome to Ainz Ooal Gown.” He says while tapping the Staff of Ainz Ooal Gown on my shoulders. “And you shall never know defeat so long as this guild stands behind you.” He finishes. “Thank you.” I say, joy rushing through me at being apart of this wonderful guild. “Thank you so much.” “Now while every guild member has made an NPC to their own specifications, I’m sad to say that Nazarick cannot make or hold anymore NPC’s.” He explains. “It’s alright sir. Just being apart of the guild is the greatest honor I could ask for.” I say before standing up. “As head of the Floor Guardians I must be privy to your plans whenever you head out on an assignment.” Albedo says, stepping forward into the conversation. “We are on high alert due to the entire tomb changing locations. What once was a swamp is now nothing more than grasslands in all directions.” “I understand.” I nod, understanding the situation. ”Should I make a joke about Shalltear’s breasts? Probably not.” I think to myself, not wanting to make a joke about how the grasslands is about as flat as the head vampire’s tits. “I wish to discuss something with you in private Fenrir.” Momonga says. “Yes sir.” I say. “Please, no ‘sir’.” He says with a raised skeletal hand. “We are both equals. That has always been in Ainz Ooal Gown, no guild members are below anyone else. Everyone is equal in this guild.” He says simply. “I understand.” I say, glad to know I don’t have to say ‘sir’ all the time. “Is there anything else you want of us master?” Albedo asks, hoping to have Momonga say something inspiring in front of all the floor guardians and the newest guild member. “Yes actually.” Momonga says before looking at everyone. “Keep watch over the area, we must not let our guard down in this uncertain time.” He says. “Wouldn’t it be best if the tomb is hidden master?” Demiurge asks. “That is true. The Tomb is vulnerable at this point. Mare is there anything you could do for this situation?” Momonga asks, as I took a step back so they could talk. “Yes, but it would be difficult with just magic. If we were to use dirt and vegetation to cover the walls then it could camouflage the entire tomb.” Mare explains, before sensing a very pissed off woman. “You dare to desecrate the walls of Nazarick with dirt?” Albedo growls, a dark rage aura surrounding the succubus. “Albedo!” Momonga snaps, snapping Albedo out of her little ‘rage state’. “Don’t make needless remarks.” He scolds, the woman shrinking a little at the little scolding. “Forgive me my lord.” She says quickly, bowing deeply. “Are you confident dirt would be sufficient Mare?” Momonga asks, wanting to continue with his thought. “Yes, of course...if you allow it.” The dark elf boy says nervously. “Wouldn’t it be unnatural if there’s just one random hill in the middle of a flat grassland?” I pipe up, wanting to question that. “When I was roaming around I didn’t see any hills around so one random hill in the middle of nowhere would look strange.” “That is true.” Momonga agrees. “We’ll have to make some dummy hills as well to better hide.” He says. “We’ll also have to use magic to hide all the open areas the dirt and vegetation can’t hide naturally.” He states. “Finally...there’s a question I have for all of you. Including you Fenrir.” He says while all of us look at him in wonder of what he’ll ask. “First, Shalltear, tell me in your own words the kind of person I am to you.” He says, wanting to know what everyone personally thinks of him. “Beauty incarnate.” Shalltear says, her cheeks flush at saying these words. “There is nothing living nor undead that could match your radiant glow.” She gushes, which kind of creeped me out considering she sounded like she was getting off to it. “Cocytus?” Momonga asks. “A man who’s strength cannot be rivaled by any guardian. You are truly worthy of ruling the Great Tomb of Nazarick, always and absolute.” Cocytus explains. “Aura.” Momonga says simply. “Compassionate, and you’re always three steps ahead of the game.” Aura says with a beaming smile. “Mare.” “Y-you’re a leader who is kind and merciful.” Mare answers. “Demiurge.” “A man who makes wise decisions, and acts upon them efficiently without any form of hesitation.” Demiurge answers, the demon smiling at having told his master what he thought of him. “Sebas.” “You are the head of all the Supreme Beings, and even though all the other creators have left us behind you mercifully stayed by our sides until the very end.” Sebas answers. “Albedo.” “You are the highest ranking member of the Supreme Beings, our ultimate master and the ruler of Nazarick.” She says. “As well as the man whom my heart belongs.” She adds with joy. “Uh…” Momonga stutters a little at the sudden showcase of love towards him. “And lastly, Fenrir.” “I see a man who can make the best out of any situation.” I start. “A man who is both powerful and wise, a man who can roll with the punches and still make it out on top, and lastly...a friend that will always be there when others need it most.” I explain with a smile. “Thank you.” He nods. “I have heard your answers and given you your orders. Now work faithfully in my name.” He says. “Lord.” The NPC’s all say at the same time before Momonga puts a hand on my shoulder and we suddenly vanish in front of them all. After a brief teleport Momonga sighed out loudly, which sounded like the sigh of someone who was way too stressed. “Oh man…” He mutters. “Beat?” I ask curiously. “Oh yeah.” Momonga says. “You have no idea how it feels to suddenly lose all context of basically everything and have NPC’s treat you as their master.” He explains, dropping the facade of ‘Guild Leader of Ainz Ooal Gown’ and acting more ‘human’ right now. “I can at least vouch for one of those.” I shrug. “So what do you want to personally talk about?” “I haven’t seen or heard anything about you at all. I’m pretty sure one of the guild members would have saw a Werewolf wanting to be apart of the guild.” He says. “Also I have never heard nor seen any of those weapons.” He says. “Honestly I kind of thought you would be ranting about how all of us were being so serious about putting you on a golden pedestal covered in all the most precious gems of all time.” I say honestly. “That is one of the things I was going to complain about.” Momonga sighs out. “Do you want to hear a lie or know the truth?” I ask curiously. “Truth. I have never seen anything like you or your weapons in Yggdrasil...I mean besides the Werewolf part.” Momonga says. “You have to promise that the NPC’s won’t know anything about this.” I say sternly, my face showing how serious this knowledge is. “I’m good at keeping secrets.” Momonga nods. “I’m not from here. Or from Yggdrasil.” I say, causing the Lich to look at me, his jaw dropping in the process. “Yep, I’m ‘off world’ as it were.” “H-how?” The flabbergasted skeleton asks. “Magic.” I say. “Magic that is beyond anything you could do. I don’t know what spells you know or how powerful your spells are but it’s beyond your comprehension.” I say, lying about not knowing what spells he knows cause I could see it from the little ‘hud’ that I had that only I could see. “Wow...is there anyway I can learn it?” Momonga asks curiously. “Gonna have to halt you right there man.” I say while raising a hand. “I have a feeling the NPC’s would try to take that and make you do some really bad things to people of other worlds. I’d stick with this place and try to get your bearings alright?” “Yeah...they’re...a little bit too serious…” Momonga says sheepishly. “But why did you come here?” “To meet new people and hopefully gain friends. Cocytus see’s me as an ally, but I’m worried about the others. And frankly when I joined this guild I kind of thought I became your friend.” I explain with a shrug. “Yeah...but honestly I’m just glad there’s another human being out there. Whether it was from Yggdrasil or not.” Momonga chuckles. “So what are you going to do now?” I ask curiously. “See what I can and can’t do.” Momonga says honestly. “I know I have all my spells, all the cooldowns, my health and mana, everything from the game but...I don’t know anything about this world so I’d like to get my bearings.” “Good first start.” I nod. “Get your bearings and start small. Then start adventuring and making up plans for the future.” “Is this a one time thing or what?” Momonga asks. “Because your an off worlder and all.” “I have five girlfriends back on my home world so I can’t stay here.” I say. “But while I may be gone I’ll still visit from time to time. And besides.” I smile. “Ainz Ooal Gown is a lot more than words and a name, it’s a bond between friends.” I explain. “And as long as we know we’re routing for each others success in life then we will know no defeat.” “Here here.” Momonga agrees. “But wait...five girlfriends?” He asks. “Yep, and trust me they are all handfuls and a half.” I chuckle, the skeleton not believing I was that lucky. “And don’t worry, magic keeps my hips from breaking thankfully.” “I’ve only seen Albedo love me for little more than a few hours…” Momonga says. “And...she is a tad...clingy.” “One of my girlfriends was like that because of...reasons.” I say nervously. Three days pass, and many many things happened. First after our private conversation where I got to learn a lot more of ‘Momonga the human’ than ‘Momonga the Guild leader’, then after a while Momonga gave a rousing speech about how he will be known as ‘Ainz Ooal Gown’ forever onward, which all the NPC’s praised him to hell and back for. Second while me and the newly dubbed Ainz, who was wearing his ‘Momon the Adventurer’ gear, appeared outside the tomb we found Mare doing a really good job at covering the tomb. A quick conversation and gift giving Mare, Albedo and I were all handed rings of Ainz Ooal Gown. Third was that I kind of got a guided tour through more of the...player centered area’s like hot springs, bars, war room, and a lot of other places. Fourth involved Aura trying to ‘tame me’...which ended with her flat on her back and me holding Lindworm pointed at her throat. Let’s just say that entire situation was really bad for Aura when Ainz found out. Fifth involved, surprisingly, a chess match with Demiurge...which I lost. Thankfully not as horribly as I first thought given that I was a living supercomputer but the cheeky demon had more experience in it so that couldn’t be helped. And all this time I kept getting a weird look from Albedo. “Okay woman why are you staring at me like that?” I ask with a frown, the Succubus ever so subtly flinched. “Is there something wrong?” Albedo asks through clenched teeth. “Listen, Ainz told me how much you love him, and your actions have proven you’d rip out your own heart and sell your soul to the most darkest of beings just to see him happy.” I explain. “But I’m not here to ‘take him away’. I’m not a blind follower who waits on hands and knees for him. I’m a friend that won’t hurt neither bone or cloth on the guy.” I frown, glaring at the woman who has so little faith in anyone that isn’t Ainz. “If you say so.” She glared at me before warping away with her ring. “Christ almighty.” I grumble, rubbing the back of my neck before warping off to the throne room, hoping Ainz is there. Sadly Albedo was there as well but Sebas was next to her talking to her. “Oh, Lord Fenrir.” Sebas says, apparently not expecting me to be here of all places. “I have orders from Lord Ainz that you and Albedo are to meet him outside Carne Village.” “And the reason?” I ask, not wanting to blindly follow orders here. “A village of humans are being attacked by a group of soldiers.” Sebas says to me, before seeing Albedo putting on a suit of armor and opening a portal. “We better not keep Lord Ainz waiting.” Albedo says before walking through the portal. “Thank you Sebas.” I nod before fixing my hood and coat, hiding my face and more defining details, walking into the portal as well. After a brief moment me and Albedo appeared to see Ainz sending off a giant Undead Knight while looking down at two girls, one severely injured. “We’re sorry for making you wait my lord.” Albedo says, staring at the humans with a hidden look of contempt. “It’s alright you two, you arrived right on time actually.” Ainz says, looking down and seeing the older girl wince in pain, blood coating her clothing and hiding her severe wound. “What should I do with these lower life forms?” Albedo asks bluntly. “These two are no threat. The humans wearing the armor are the enemies we are after.” Ainz says, looking towards where his Death Knight ran off to. “It looks like you're injured.” He says while pulling out a fancy bottle full of red liquid. “Here, drink this.” He says while gently moving it towards the two. “B-blood!?” The little girl asks in fear. “No, it’s not blood. It’s a healing potion.” I say, the two girls staring at me in confusion. “Just drink it, we don’t want you dying from blood loss.” I state, honestly not wanting to see the poor girl die in front of us. “O-okay…” The elder girl nods, taking the vial and opening it, and chugging the whole thing. After a moment her wound glowed green and she felt as good as new. “Wow…” She mutters, looking over at her back wound and seeing that even the blood stain on her clothes was gone. “And who knew it was great at removing blood from clothes.” I joke. “Is the pain gone?” Ainz asks curiously. “Oh, yes.” The blond haired girl nods. “Have you two ever heard of magic?” Ainz asks, wondering if he’s the only mage here. “Yes, I have a friend who frequents our village.” She explains. “He’s a pharmacist and practices magic.” “Perfect. Then it’s not hard to understand, I am a magical caster as well.” He says before raising his hand. “Anti-life cocoon, Protection of Arrows wall.” He says, two green circles appearing in front of his hand before a giant bubble appeared around the two girls. “I cast a protection spell around you two. As long as you stay inside this barrier you will remain safe. But just in case.” He adds before moving his hand into a pocket dimension and pulling out two horns. “Take these as well. If you blow these horns an army of goblins will appear to do your bidding.” He explains. “Don’t hesitate to use them if you need it.” He says before the three of us start our leave. “W-wait!” The blond girl says. “Thank you so much for saving us! We are forever grateful.” “Thank you very much.” The brown haired child says, wanting to give thanks as well. “It was no problem.” Ainz says simply. “Can we please have your name?” “Oh yes.” He says, before I start noticing swelling opera music that, for some magical reason, came from Albedo. ”How in the hell?” I think to myself. “You shall know my name, and tell everyone of my power!” He says before turning around, his mage cloak swaying in the wind that did not exist. “I am Ainz Ooal Gown!” He says with confidence, his tone absolute that he is beyond powerful to the two girls. After that naming scene, and a quick disguise for Ainz, we all made it to Carne Village, and the first thing I noticed was the massacre that happened...then the pleading of a rich prick begging people to have all his money if they keep him alive...which was thankfully stopped by the sound of a lot of stabbing. “Uh...do you think it went just a tiny bit overboard?” I whisper to Ainz. “A little…” Ainz whispers back. “Death Knight, that’s enough.” He calls out to it. “You have served me well.” He says, the monster stopping in it’s tracks from murdering more people. Ainz stepped in front of the Death Knight to meet the people and the guards that should have bolted a long time ago. “I am Ainz Ooal Gown, it is a pleasure to meet all of you.” He says, staring at everyone who were freaking the hell out. “Don’t worry about my Death Knight, no harm will come to you. Tell your super-I mean owner my kindness.” He says, the guards thankful to hear that they won’t die. “However, next time such heinous acts in this area, I will bring death to your entire kingdom.” He threatens, sounding a lot more like a ‘promise’ than anything else considering the creepy ass mask. “Leave! And make sure to speak Ainz name.” I shout, causing all the guards to drop their weapons and run away screaming. “Sheesh, you’d think they would have run away from the massacre instead of waiting till now…” I grumble. “U-uh pardon me sir…” An elderly voice asks, causing us to look over that the Chief of the village. “Why did you come here?” “I could not stand here and watch innocent people get mindlessly slaughtered.” Ainz states simply. “Call it a...moral obligation.” I add with a shrug, the town ‘aweing’ at us. “Be at ease.” Ainz says to the people. “This village is under my protection, you no longer need to be scared.” He says while walking towards the people, mutters of worry moving through the people. “I don’t do this kind of work for free though. I expect to be fairly compensated in return.” He explains, the villagers calming down and smiling at one another. ”I suppose ‘fair compensation’ is a good word around here.” I think to myself, not entirely sure why the villagers all turned from worried they would be murdered to happy people because they had to repay Ainz. Hours passed, Ainz learning quite a lot about this world and I listened to him talk about all the things he learned, even though I already knew about all this through the Wiki I still acted out how I would if I was learning new things. As the sun started setting and I was out on a walk, seeing the entire village get rebuilt I heard a thunder of...hooves? I looked over into the direction and saw a band of people on horseback, coming straight towards the place. “Yo Ainz! We got company!” I call out, the mage and his armored companion walking over to me as they both saw what I saw. “Well we better say hello to our new guests.” Ainz says, hoping to not have another bloodbath on this villages soil. Ten minutes later and me, the village chief and Ainz met up with the horse riders, the leader trotting his horse up and meeting us all. “I am the Chief Royal Warrior from the Re-Estize Kingdom, Gazef Stronoff.” He introduces himself. “The king has order me to hunt down the knights that have been terrorizing surrounding villages, your people are safe now.” “I’m sorry to say your about five hours too late there.” I point out, causing Gazef’s eyebrow to raise in confusion. “Are you the chief of this village?” He asks the elder, who nods. “Who are these two?” “Well you see-” The chief was about to start before Ainz stepped in. “It’s alright. It’s nice to meet you General, my name is Ainz Ooal Gown, and this is my partner, Fenrir.” He says, while I waved a gloved hand at the general quickly before putting my hands back in my pockets. “I’m a simple magic user who stumbled upon this village while it was being ransacked by those knights.” He explains, Gazef having a mixture of horror and amazement plastered on his face before he got off his horse. “Thank you sir Ainz. If you weren’t here the villagers would have been lost without you.” He says seriously, glad to hear this ‘man’ saved the village. “General!” A man calls out before a scout walks up. “We spotted an army of unknown origin surrounding the village even as we speak.” “Whoever is attacking this village either hates the kingdom, that village, or just really likes watching people getting murdered.” I frown, still kind of finding how much the village gets attacked quite worrying. Five minutes later we were in the chief’s house talking about what’s to happen. “It must be one of the Six Scriptures.” “You mean the ones who attacked the village earlier?” Ainz asks curiously. “Theocracy soldiers no doubt.” Gazef answers. “It looks like they dressed up in Imperial armor to throw us off.” “As I thought.” Ainz nods. “Does this village hold some significance in anyway shape or form?” “If you don’t know why they're attacking, then they certainly aren’t after you.” He says. “Which only means one thing.” He says, keeping his tone and face leveled so he doesn’t show any anger or contempt. “You must be pretty despised Chief Warrior.” Ainz points out. “Indeed, well lucky me.” He says sarcastically, looking outside. “To think, even the Slane Theocracy want’s me dead.” He says with a grin. “Seems a tad weird why their targeting you.” I frown. “When you’re the strongest warrior in an entire kingdom it makes sense.” Gazef answers. “So what’s the plan?” I ask. “Do we wait for an ambush? Or charge head first?” I ask. “I’d like to hire you, name a price and I’ll make sure you get it.” Gazef says. “I’m sorry but we’ll have to decline.” Ainz says, which I remained quiet in understanding. “I kind of thought that.” The human chuckles. “Very well. Please take care and thanks again. This village owes you gratitude, and so do I.” He says before Gazef and Ainz shake hands. “I know this sounds selfish and I have no right, but please, grant these people your protection one more time.” He says. “I have nothing to offer you now, but I beg you, please-” He says, trying to kneel before Ainz stopped him. “There is no need for you to go that far Gazef.” The masked skeleton says simply. “We already promised to protect this village. You don’t need to bow or plead with us.” I say. “We take our word seriously. Now go on General, you’ve got a job to do.” I say, seeing the general nod. “Oh, take this.” Ainz says before handing Gazef a statue. “Let’s say it’s a...good luck charm.” Ainz says, seeing the General look over it before nodded and putting it in his pocket. “Thank you.” Gazef nods, before heading outside and getting himself battle ready. After a minute or so he was already on horseback and charging forward with all his soldiers. Ainz stepped outside and saw Albedo, having to put on his ‘higher than thou’ persona. “When I first saw these humans I saw them as nothing more than insects like you do Albedo. But the more I talk to them the fonder I grow, like a child amongst helpless animals.” “Is that why you promised the great honor of your name at his request my lord?” Albedo asks. “Perhaps.” Ainz answers. “Maybe Gazef is one of the exceptions, where he is a great man even if he’s human.” I suggest. “He’s charging head first into a pack of angels, yet he shows no fear and has the air of one that will win this fight.” “Lord Ainz.” The chief calls out while running towards us. “Those Marauders are still out there, why did you send the Warrior Chief away?” “He was their true target, not the village.” Ainz explains. “Do we just stay here and wait for him to deal with them all?” The chief asks worriedly. “No. We have a plan, while the General is fighting he’ll give us a chance to escape. He’ll try to cause as much commotion as possible to make sure we have enough time.” Ainz explains. While I was listening to Ainz talk the chief and his wife into a calm state I sniffed the air, and something seemed...off. “I’ll be right back…” I say before putting on the ring Trinity gave me just in case as I dashed off towards the strange scent. “Hopefully it’s nothing too bad.” I mutter, knowing what’s to come next for Ainz and Albedo. As I continued through my investigation the scent of blood, black powder and...cake? “Why the hell do I smell cake?” I ask myself, summoning Lindworm just in case as the scent grew stronger. “If this person figured out how to make cake bombs this is gonna suck…” As I got closer to some bushes I could hear someone… humming? Behind the bushes was a guy, dressed in some kinda modified riot gear, with several cakes and a variety of explosives around him. “Huhu, bored as fuck so I’m screwing around~” He sings tunelessly. ”Da fuq?” I think to myself, before gently sneaking into the area. “Uh...hello?” I ask, readying to summon a weapon in case he tries to attack me with explosions...or cake. “Huh, oh… would a thermite explosive be too… cliche to serve in a red velvet cake?” He asks, not even turning around. “It fits for me but I don’t know?” “I’m pretty sure you’re not supposed to mix thermite with cake…” I frown. “Now using thermite to cut a car down the middle without hurting anyone, that’s always a fun time.” I say, remembering that Mythbusters episode. “Meh, using it to blow up shipyards was cool too.” He replies. I noticed he was rather skinny, with flat, dyed, neon blue hair. “C-4 is just too…well, to many chunks left to spray while thermite melts down what’s around it.” “By the by why are you trying to mix explosives with cakes?” I ask curiously. “Bored as fuck. Boss has me on standby so I’m taking a vacation…it’s not been fun at all.” “Working with crazy people you don’t like is never fun.” I say honestly. “But...mind if I ask for your name?” “Kevin.” He replied, pulling out a cupcake with a stick of TNT in it out of his jacket. “Need things that go boom, I’m your man.” He says with confidence. “I’m also a good baker.” “Do you know of a man named Zeke?” I ask, not wanting to just believe this was the specific Kevin I was told about from Zeke. “My baby bra was named Zeke. Was the family legend to be, but he didn’t want any part of it. Uncle tried scaring him with a branding and death threat, but that failed miserably.” “I know.” I nod. “He told me all about it. He’s a really nice guy once you get to know him.” “I know, me and him spent a lot of time together, took him on a bunch of missions with me. This one time, I took him with me to rob the Louvre in Paris, guards came up and Zeke used a fire hose to soak them, then a single taser made them all dance like drunk irishmen.” He chuckled. “We graffitied the Mona Lisa that day.” I couldn’t help but laugh at hearing that. “Oh god! That is just hilarious.” I smile. “Oh man...but onto not boring business. Zeke wanted me to find you and...try to persuade you to our side of the fight, instead of you having to work for Side Show Douche bag you call a boss.” He paused, placing down the cake and explosives and seemed to think about it. “Well… I wouldn’t mind, I’d think I speak for a lot of the family when I saw working for Core has been worse than when Grandpa was the family boss. But… I can’t leave for a few reasons.” “Zeke told me the three reasons why.” I say. “But I have a feeling there’s other reasons besides your uncle, your grandpa, and the common folk basically hating you for...reasons.” “I can get used to people’s hate, and Uncle Josh actually wants to leave too. Rumor has it his son is getting married, the only issues for me, are Grandpa… and this.” He pulled up his sleeves, were what looked like tattoos of castle oblivion cards were inked onto him. “These little bitches keep me on a leash…Dillen’s idea, fucken psycho.” “Well that sucks…” I frown. “Do you know anyway to get them off?” “They’re made from memories. Do you know how to destroy memories without hitting me upside the head? I’d rather not get amnesia.” “Yes I do actually.” I say while summoning Memory Stealer, the thing deciding to look like Reunion in this situation. “Say hello to Memory Stealer, with this wonderful weapon I can erase those tattoos and whatever memories are keeping you bound.” I say with a smile. “Huh…and it won’t cut my arms off, right?” “Nope.” I say. “All I need to do is gently tap your tattoo’s and they’re gone.” I say with a nod. “So, which arm do you want to start with?” “Well then, let’s see if it works.” Kevin said, lifting up his arms. “Right then.” I nod before tapping Memory Stealer on one of his tattoo’s, willing it to eat the memories that tattoo were keeping him bound to Core’s work. One by one each tattoo vanished, once all were gone Kevin was rubbing his arms. “Man, you have no idea how weird it feels to have cards under your skin. So, what’s your name anyway? I feel like I should know but I’m drunk half the time Core’s making us have a meeting.” “Ha.” I chuckle. “Anyways, the name’s Ben. One of Zeke’s friends.” “Oh, right. I remember a bit about what Core wanted you for. Something about rec...recreation?” “Do you mean ‘Reincarnation’?” I ask curiously. “Ya! That’s it. He found out you can use Nobodies to bring back animals and such that have been long since dead, and he thinks you being a human, with a heart, that controls them, can bring back people from the dead or something.” “Core’s...Core’s really fucking dumb.” I say as bluntly as possible. “Anyways, just so you know I managed to beat your cousin Jenny in a card game...does she also have those marks on her arms? Any knowledge on how to have her not stab me while I’m sleeping is wonderful because I want to help your family...and knowing they hate Core helps a lot more.” “Little Jen? Let me deal with the punk. But he had a point about that reversing death thing. I mean, a Nobody shouldn’t exist yet it does. He thinks the Realm of Nothingness has odd powers he wants to learn.” “Well sad to say he’s not going to figure it out.” I say bluntly. “I...don’t know exactly why he can’t but I just...know ya know?” I ask, not entirely sure if I’m making up nonsense or something here. “Meh. So… where too?” “Back to my world.” I say honestly, thankfully having put a waypoint in the throne room of the Tomb before I swapped out Memory Stealer for Reunion and then opening a DTL. “Well, let’s get going my friend.” I say while summoning my glider. “Need a ride or you just walking through?” I’ll walk.” Kevin said, walking into the DTL. “Right then.” I say before flying into the DTL. Brief quick travel later we both appeared outside my house. I got off my bike and knocked on the door. “Knocky knock ladies! We got a visitor!” The door opened and I was greeted by Rarity. “Hello Ben darling…who’s your friend? Also, where have you been?” “Firstly this is Kevin Ventral, older brother to Zeke and is all around a very nice guy. Loves explosions and baked goods.” I say with a smile. “And the second...well I just went out for a little stroll on another world, made new friends, happened to join a guild and then found this guy.” I explain. “Sup?” Kevin asked. “Well, come in then you two. Ben, Twilight and Luna are in Canterlot for a few days, something about a Celestia and Chrysalis. Zecora is going to be gone as well, her family is visiting and she’s meeting them halfway at the Baltimare shipyard.” “Oh cool.” I say with a smile, walking into the house. “Did mom visit? And how’s Luxu, Time and Sweetie?” I ask. “Also is Jenny in a bed or on the couch?” “Den hasn't been by yet, those three are in Las Pegasus for whatever reason, and Jenny is fishing by the river near Fluttershy’s home.” “Wait Jenny’s awake?” I ask worriedly. “Well… when I say fishing I mean Trinity kinda took her sleeping body and flew her out for some fresh air. The two are ‘fishing’ though it’s rather one sided.” “That’s...not creepy.” I frown. “Anywhosits, thank you for telling me this Rarity. Kevin, we have a new destination, and you can now see how colorful things are without having anyone getting stabbed for the hell of it.” I say with a smile. “Dare it be true?” Kevin joked. “So… just a quick question… why?” “Why what?” I ask. “Specifics Bob I can’t read minds.” “Why… do you live with only women?” “I has five girlfriends.” I say simply. “And we all live together.” “Uh huh… so… dare I ask the brand of painkillers you must be on? I mean, I’ve been in orgies with twenty women but… those are usually once a year type deals.” I burst out laughing. “Well let’s just say magic does wonders when you can have five women acting like seventy.” I chuckle. “It’s the main reason why my hips are still intact and I can walk straight.” “Alright. So, Jenny?” “Yeah, I think I need to tell you that whole debacle.” I say sheepishly. “So she decided to face me in a children's card game, shocking I know, but it was all around fun, she tried murdering me but I stopped her cold. She’s been asleep in case she wouldn’t abide by our deal of ‘if I win she cuts all ties with Core and get’s some serious help’...so there’s that.” “Well, considering she distrusts you is reasonable. Her mom and older sister were killed by some of you guys.” Kevin said. “Nancy was…” Ben mutters, clenching his fists and looking down sadly. “There’s not a single day that goes by where I don’t regret having killed her….” I say sadly. “I really didn’t...but she sadly gave me no choice…” Kevin looked away. “So… you're the bastard that killed her then?” “Go ahead and hit me…” I say sadly. “I’m...I’m so sorry…” “No… you don’t deserve that mercy. I know her dad has completely lost it now, he’s gonna get himself killed sooner or later too, that leaves Jenny an orphan then. Just…” He grabbed me by the scruff of my coat. “Look after her, or I will see if you can regrow the thing your girlfriends seems to love about you when the bedroom is mentioned.” “I was planning on it.” I say. “Zeke told me how much family matters for a Ventral...and I hate myself for taking a life...even if she was screaming ‘I’m a human demon, now face me or die’...” I explain. “But...since you're here...you can probably help me in this...I don’t know much about her and...I think the girls would be surprised to hear that Jenny’s going to be our adopted daughter…” He says while gently dislodging his hands from his coat. “Come on...I have a lot of mistakes to try and correct…” I mutter while continuing to walk towards Fluttershy’s house. After a few minutes of walking in relative silence and me sulking in my own sadness we finally made it to Fluttershy’s house, and we immediately saw Jenny lying behind Trinity as she held a fishing pole and wore a fishermans hat. “Yo Trinity!” I call out. She turned around. “Yo!” She called back. “Yo, I have a request.” I say while walking towards the fishing angel. “I need you to wake Jenny up. Kevin, Zeke’s brother and her cousin, thinks he can help her not shank me while I’m sleeping…” I say, even though I’d rather get a royal ass kicking from her instead of dying because of mine and Kevin’s conversation. “Alright.” She waved a hand over Jenny’s face, the little girl starting to wake up. “Ugh… I feel like sleeping beauty at the end of the original version of her story.” Jenny said groggily as she sat up. “What…the hell happened?” “Morning sunshine.” I say gently. “I’m sorry you had to stay knocked out...wasn’t a hundred percent sure if you’d keep to our deal...but hey Kevin’s here.” I say, motioning to he man next to me. “Kev?” She looked over to him. “Did… did you give me another pot brownie?” “Not this time runt.” He said, rubbing her head. “We… need to talk.” ”Here we go…” I think to myself. ”I’m so sorry...But...I’ll make sure Jenny has a good life Nancy...I just wish I didn’t do it…” I think to myself, still having regret about that entire situation. “About? Oh, I lost the deal with that punk…great…” “Not just that…listen… you know how one of the keyblade wielding punks like him… killed your sis and mom?” “How could I forget?” “...This guy, the one you lost too… is the one who killed your mom.” Jenny looked like she was going to burst. “W...what?” “Yes…” I say sadly. “She...we fought...I tried talking her out of fighting...she gave me no choice…” I say, my voice quivering in sadness and regret. “If you want to hit me then hit me...I won’t stop you…” It was then, in a flash, she changed, she now looked more wolf than I did, and she was being held back by Kevin. “I’LL KILL YOU YOU WORTHLESS PEICE OF SHIT!” She roared. “MY SISTER AND MOTHER WERE WORTH MORE THAN YOU COULD EVER AMOUNT!” “Jenny!” Kevin called, tightening his grip on her. “You know as well as I do after… first your mom’s sister and brother in law get killed, then Zeke vanished, and then your sister, it was only a matter of time before they died.” “I’LL STILL KILL HIM!” ”DO YOU THINK I DON’T KNOW THAT!?!” I roar at her. ”I’M THE CAUSE FOR MY OLD PARENTS DEATHS! YOU KNOW NOTHING ABOUT THE PAIN I CAUSE MYSELF EVERYDAY!!!” I shout, tears streaming down my face. “Do you have any idea how much I regret killing her?” “Ben! That’s enough!” Kevin yelled. “You’re not helping in the slightest.” “How are you helping him Kevin!?” Jenny yelled. “How can you side with him?!” “If we don’t we won’t ever be able to get out of Core’s grasp! It was a mistake to side with him, you know this!” Jenny seemed to shut up at that. “We’re bad, we’re evil, but that thing is not what I signed up for, I only joined because I wanted to see new places with you guys. Why else do you think I always took the international jobs? Without him, his allies, and Zeke we’re as good as dead.” “Z-Zeke’s alive?” Jenny asked, her from returning to that of a little girl. “W-We all thought… Core said he died with uncle Barry and Aunt Merry…” “He said that to get us more on his side… I found out and got the ringer for it, if it wasn’t for this guy… look, I know you want him dead, believe me… feeling’s parly mutual, but you need a home, Core didn’t keep tabs on you, he did with me. He can… he WILL keep you safe, alright?” Jenny was silent, only nodding. “I know… this is more fucked up than the things we’ve done before… but if it means we get out of this shit alive then fine by me.” Jenny muttered, glaring at me. “Just… what did mom say… before she died?” “She chuckled before saying ‘sister, brother, daughter...I’ll be seeing you’...and she left her pendant and katana. I gave them both to Zeke because...he deserves to even see them more than I do…” I sigh out. “I regret ever having to do that...and I don’t want to do it ever again…” “I’ll make sure of that…” Jenny said as she exhaled. “So…what now?” “Well...as per our deal you are going to get some help and not be a homicidal maniac...and I’m the one to do it.” I say. “I...I just hope this stupid idea of mine could help make up for my mistakes…” “Well… first off, getting advice on not killing from the guy who killed my mom is kinda... “ “Hypocritical?” I ask. “Yeah, and second… who is the giant wolf lady walking over here?” Jenny asks, and literally out of nowhere a record scratch could be heard before I whip around. “U-uh…” I stutter, looking over at Den. “H-hi mom! I didn’t expect you to be arriving so soon!” I say sheepishly. Mom came over to me, a large smile on her face. “You sneaky little pup, you got me a granddaughter already!” “I’m not his-” Jenny was cut off by mom hugging her tightly. “I wanted to adopt her mom.” I sigh out. “She’s not actually my child just...listen I have a lot to explain right now I’m already depressed about it anyways.” “But, you're adopted into this family, minus the extra powers Ben, curse is passive.” Den explained, still hugging Jenny. “Actually…” I sigh out. “The werewolf you're hugging is Jenny Ventral…” “So?” “She became that because of the power of Darkness.” I state. “And...she want’s to murder me because...I sadly had to...kill her mother…” I say bitterly, knowing full well that something bad’s going to happen to me. “And?” I looked at her and tilted my head, my hood falling down from my ears screwing with it and showing Kevin and Jenny that I was part Dire Wolf. “Listen mom, I want to help Jenny so much but she’d rather see me dead than anything...all because of my own mistakes…” “Ben, you really should look up your family more, most are actually former villains, some even former Psychopaths. Long story short, we don’t care so long as you are correcting your arong.” “Wait what?” I ask. “Um...honestly this family is too fucking huge...do you two have anything to say about this?” I ask, wondering what Kevin and Jenny think. “I’m lost.” Kevin said, getting up. “Welp, anyone needs me, I’ll be in that forest smoking my weed.” “Her fur is so soft.” Jenny said, still being hugged by mom. “And that could happen a lot more...if you choose to be my daughter.” I say gently. “Den is the best mother in the world...and I know I don’t deserve this at all...but please...I’d rather see you happy…” Jenny looked like she was pondering the question. “On one condition.” She finally said. “No murdering me, or my family got it? I kicked your ass once I can do it again.” I deadpan. “That’s a given, no. My condition is that I will not be the daughter of an unmarried father.” She said firmly. I sigh out. “Fine…” I mutter before tapping my Assistant and looking up wedding rings. “I’ll marry my five girlfriends...but if you happen to get more mothers don’t blame me blame the laws of this world.” I explain. It was then that Mom was now also hugging me. “Oh! My pup is becoming an Alpha!” “Mom~!” I yip, my face burning bright red here. “I need to buy wedding rings for all my girlfriends, and maybe a few extra just in case…” I explain, but hugging her anyways. “Thank you...for being my mother…” I say again. “I’m just so proud! Oh!” She dropped Jenny and I. “Wait til I tell the others.” WIth that, she teleported away. “That was Den...your soon to be grandmother.” I say. “She is...a very wonderful mother...do you want to know more about her?” I ask, summoning up eight wedding rings and putting them all in my pocket. “After I process what exactly just happened.” Jenny said. “Trust me, when I first met her I thought I had to drink heavily...but sadly that only went downhill...and probably mentally scarred three people.” I say nervously. “I’m a Ventral, we’re immune to a lot of crap, including mental scarring… though, this maybe an exception.” “Have you ever walked in on six people being breastfed at the same time?” I ask. “Yeah, one of Kevin’s birthday parties… walked in the wrong room there…” “Oh god.” I say, trying to hold in my laughter at hearing that. “Oh dear...but I wanted to say that fight we had...it was fun considering it was mostly a children’s card game.” “I’m ten, what you expect?” “Expecting you to either not murder people, or be more fluffy.” I say, patting her head gently. “I mean seriously, you're more wolf then I am.” “Well, wait, what was that thing your mom said about a curse?” “Apparently, my new father has a curse placed on him, that any person, no matter the age, is adopted into his family they...are now genetically related to him and his infinite amount of wives and children. And for me, you are given a specific mother to help take care of you and get you more...accustomed to it all.” I explain sheepishly. “Huh…So, since she said it was passive, that means when you marry and I accept the adoption…I become your genetic daughter and one of your wife's daughter genetically?” “I’ve barely been in the family for more than three weeks. Ask my sister, Trinity.” He says while pointing to the Angel. “Sup?” Trinity replied, still fishing as if what recently happened didn’t transpire. “Also, Ben… you’re so screwed.” She added. “Why?” I ask worriedly. “Out of the whole family…you’re going to be the first child to marry. It’s gonna be a BIG deal.” “Uh...how big?” I ask worriedly. “I sense a very terrible thing being thrown my way.” “Here’s a perspective, you know how big this reflection is? We’re gonna need a building the same size for everyone to fit in.” “Um…” I start. “Can...can I go to dad’s world and do it? I’m pretty sure he has a place big enough…” I say worriedly. “Oh, sure. I’ll let him know, though, mamma Den likely has told everyone already.” “How soon will I have brothers and sisters hounding me for a ‘party’?” I ask worriedly. “Also...maybe that’ll be a first for Pinkie...making a ‘universal party’ sounds like quite an achievement.” “I’d say… a week at least, two at most.” “Okay...so that’ll give me enough time to probably have other women hop on the ‘marry train’ before the actual wedding takes place…” I sigh out. “Go get em hound dog.” “Welcome to the family Jenny. Where every concept of ‘what the fuck’ you originally thought has now been thrown out the window so hard it burst into flames.” I explain, feeling like this is gonna be a nightmare and a half. Jenny just looked at the ground with a blank expression. “Well….this is gonna….be a thing?” She questions. “And if I know anything from stories and anime...it only get’s worse.” I say, the sheer absurdity of the entire thing making me laugh. To be continued...
Nobody get's more girlfriends“I have a week or two before my siblings hunt me down and have a ‘godly bachelor party’...then the week after that me, and my five girlfriends are going to getting married…” I say to myself, having finally figured out how to make Lindworm into a flying snake thing and taking it out for a ride. “I have five rings...and three more just in case…” I mutter continuing to enjoy the flight before I heard a loud screech. “The fuck?” I mutter before looking around carefully, only to be shocked at seeing seven Air Pirates attacking...Gilda? “Get away from me!” Gilda shouts, slashing at the Heartless to get them away from her. “Never fear citizen!” I shout, switching to Reunion and landing on a flying card and dashing towards the Heartless. “The hell?” Gilda asks, her and the Heartless actually turning towards me before I swiftly killed all of them rather quickly all things considered. “Who in the hell are you?” “I am the White Knight of Equis ma’am.” I say simply. “Slayer of Heartless, good person all around, and an all around badass.” I explain with a grin. “Badass huh?” Gilda says, clearly unimpressed. “...Too much?” I ask. “Yeah.” ”Christ…I did sound like a bad comic book hero…where the hell did that even come from?!” I mentally argue with myself. “Well, anyway…. So, what are you doing here? I haven’t seen a griffon in town before.” “I’m usually delivering packages for out of town or to pick them up. Being a griffon I can fly for longer periods of time compared to most ponies so I usually get stuck with the long distance deliveries.” “Sounds about right.” I nod. “But you living in town or outside of town?” I ask curiously. “I live with my roommate Derpy.” “Wait you're living with Derpy?” I ask, honestly shocked about that. “Yeah…after a friend and I had a falling out rather than go back to broken down, likely heartless infested Griffon Stone, I stayed and then Derpy came along…dropped a few hundred pounds of mail on me, treated my injuries then I just kinda moved in after that, she got me a job at the post office and I just kinda stayed.” “Yeah I heard Derpy tends to...do that on accident.” I say sheepishly. “By the by...does Derpy have a daughter?” I ask, wondering if Dinky did exist. “Yeah, little Dinky. No clue who her dad is sadly, I’ve been like a big sister to the kid.” I frowned at hearing that. “Well glad to know you’re helping Derpy and Dinky.” I nod. “But why did Air Pirates attack you randomly? Normally those things have some semblance of a reason to attack people…” I ask, wondering if there was some reason beyond just ‘random convenience’. “I don’t know. Was delivering a package to some address way out of town when they popped up.” “That’s concerning.” I frown. “Well I might as well tag along just so you won’t get attacked again...also...just a curious thing, has Derpy ever said anything about me? Like...a majority of the mares in Equestria?” I ask. “Well, considering she and Dinky were in Manehattan when you first showed up she did send you some get well gifts, oddly enough it was a pineapple. Other than that… well, let’s just say she may or may not have a full body pillow of you in her room that may or may not be anatomically correct.” “Oh…” I mutter, steam pillowing from my head. “And...she hasn’t tried to ask if she could join my herd...why?” “We both agree she’s got a hot bod, but she thinks males turn her down because of the eye thing. Personally that’s just cute to me.” “Her eyes are adorable!” I say with a frown. “Why no one would want to date her for that cute face alone is beyond me.” I huff. “Well, let’s get this thing delivered and then I can introduce you two, she may be my friend, but I wanna see the train wreck that is you two meeting.” Gilda said, starting to walk along the road. “I promise to not make it as much of a train wreck.” I say, sitting down on my floating card and following along. A mile or so out and we found the ‘address’ which was literally just read as “shed two miles outside of town” and landed in front of the small shed. It was green painted, red light bulb on the side and a brown roof with a door and window right next to each other. “Who can live in such a small shed?” “You’d be surprised.” I shrug. “Either people that just want a small house out of the way or people that just really want a roof over their head.” I explain. “Now...let’s see who lives in this creepy as hell shed.” Gilda knocked on the door, to which there was the sound of metal clanking and a cat screaming. “Why are you still in here cat!” A rather familiar voice yelled. When the door opened… Cript was there. “Oh, hey Ben, oh, my mail!” Cript took the box and walked into the shed…to which Gilda and I followed…seeing it was bigger on the inside…much bigger. “Dad...the fuck are you doing here?” I ask with a frown, looking around the inside of the ‘shed’. “Oh, making sure the Radist systems and functions are still working. Haven’t used this thing in a long time so wanted to make sure it was all still good.” “‘Radist systems’?” I ask with a frown. “Oh and Gilda...this is my dad…” I say, still not entirely sure why the hell he was here to begin with. “You know what a Tardis is?” “Of course it is…” I sigh out. “Found this thing in a time lord scrapyard, last owner was dead outside the door and the key was broken off inside the lock. Managed to get the key out and the power was about dead when I entered, got it running again and kinda made it my house after reading through the owner's manual.” He said, placing the package on the console. “Course, that was way before I became a god.” “I kind of thought that.” I nod. “But why does it look like a shed instead of a police box?” “Was like this when I found it, never found the circuit board for the chameleon functions so I just left it as is. Talked with the Doctor about it once and turns out mine was the newest model before the time war whereas his was already a museum piece. Now that’s lucky.” “Right then…” I nod. “But I suppose mom already told you and everyone?” “Oh yeah. Since the whole family, save for the infants are going to be there I’m having two worlds made, well, three, one for your bachelor party, one for the lucky ladies bachelorette party, and the one for the wedding.” “Oh dear…” I sigh out. “But don’t be surprised if there’s more wives...sometimes things happen ya know?” “Oh, I know. Heh, I remember when my first wife suggested a herd. I ran for the nearest closet… don’t you dare make a joke about that.” “It’s not my fault you walked into it dad.” I say, trying to contain my laughter. “But anyways...I think we kind of...blew Gilda’s mind with all this…” Dad and I looked at Gilda, who was just looking at the ceiling with an open mouth. “Yeah… Speaking of,” Dad grabbed the package, quickly opening it as what was inside was a pulsating white crystal. “Still not sure how this got here…” “Don’t know…” I frown. “Anyways...can you try to keep my family off my back for longer than a week? Also…” I start before tapping Gilda’s shoulder. “Gilda, you home?” I ask the dazed griffoness. She shook. “Wha…oh…HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE?!?!” She squawked, finally out of the daze and now in the freak out. “Maybe we should leave. Besides you have to show me where Derpy lives.” I say nervously. “I don’t want to...try and explain any of this right now.” “You two go on ahead.” Dad said, still looking at the crystal. “I’m trying to… wait, nevermind.” He said suddenly, tossing the crystal. “I’m stupid, I forgot about what let this thing exist…. Here.” Dad floated the crystal over to me. Holding it made me feel… kinda happy. “Keep it.” “Thanks...what is it?” I ask curiously, wondering why it made me feel happy. “Basically it’s pure light element condensed into a self recharging crystal. Lots of other crystals that are basically infinite resources of elements exist. That one is for light. Oh, do yourself a favor and try not to break it, weakens the power.” I immediately summoned my assistant and put the thing in my ‘bag’. “Yeah that’s going to stay there for a long ass time.” I say with a frown. “Anyways, Gilda, we have a cute mare to meet.” Gilda just nodded as she began to walk out the door. “I’m gonna pretend this didn’t happen.” She said as we got out. “It’s best if you did.” I nod. “I’m...sorry. That tends to happen sadly…” “Well… follow me then.” Gilda said as she took flight. I got on my cards and followed next to her. We ended up back in Ponyville, near town square actually when we landed, the house we were in front of was two stories, rather cozy looking with a nice front and back yard. “Welp, here’s home sweet home.” “Cozy.” I say honestly. “Ladies first.” Gilda rolled her eyes, walking up to the door and opening it. Inside was…really nice, some fancy furniture, pictures of Derpy, Dinky and even Gilda all hung on the wall. This was…a nice surprise. “Huh…” I say. “Looks nice.” I smile, looking at all the pictures and glad to see the three of them happy. “Yeah.” Gilda said, taking a seat on the couch and tossing me a…Diet Cola. “She takes a lot of vacations with Dinky and I tag along. Finally got to see some real amusement parks.” I put the bottle in my pocket and nodded. “Glad to know you’re having a nice time here.” I smile. “Must be nice...after having a break down you found people to pick you back up.” I say, looking down and sadly remembering my previous life. “Yeah, Derpy has always been lucky, kinda balances out her clumsiness. I guess I was meant to find her and be friends. Kinda restored my faith in ponies.” “Derpy could restore joy in anyone that’s for sure.” I chuckle. “But are Dinky and Derpy home or away?” “Dinky should still be at school, and Derpy should get off work in an hour or so. I guess if you plan on her joining this herd of yours I should show you around her home.” Gilda said as she got up and pulled me along. “And maybe if I’m lucky I can also have you.” I half joke. Gilda immediately stopped. “Dude, first off, I’m not easy to get along with, I still wonder how Derpy does it, second, you could never handle my tits.” “Firstly, we’re getting along perfectly fine. And two, I handle Luna’s, Twilight’s, Zecora’s, Rarity’s and Pinkie’s tits, at the same time.” I explain. “Ha, you perv. Well, anyway, first off is my room I guess.” Gilda said as we got upstairs. She opened the first door up here and inside was a not very decorated room, the only decoration was a slightly bloody closed letter pinned to the wall. “Well, here’s my room.” “Should I even ask about the slightly bloody closed letter?” I ask worriedly. ”Kind of thought I would see an instrument case or something…” I think to myself. “Oh, actually I keep that as a personal reminder. Was the first piece of mail Derpy dropped on me the day we met, address is all covered in blood and unreadable so I kept is as a…keepsake.” “Ah, I understand.” I nod. “But um...do you play any instruments? You look like someone that would.” “I used to play the flute when I was little, but I haven’t played in years, plus I never went back to Griffon Stone to get my old stuff when I moved here, so if it’s not stolen it’s likely buried in dust…. Assuming the roof didn’t cave in already.” “I'm sure someone can make you a new one.” I say honestly. “Cause I'd like to hear you play the flute.” “Heh, maybe. Playing a flute with a beak isn’t easy. Well, next is Dinky’s room.” Gilda closed the door, and a little bit down the hall to the right was a door with the words “Dinky’s room” written in fancy letters. The door was painted with a green field and a large blue sky above it. She opened the door and it was a kids dream come true in here, dresses and even a child sized manikin was dressed in a fancy dress, dolls and stuffed animals were scattered everywhere, and her bed was the top part of a bunk bed with a slide to go down and a ladder to go up. Though, I did notice the high end gaming PC on the desk under the top bunk. “As you can see, Derpy spoils her to death.” “Hot damn.” I say in surprise. “Well...as long as she's not acting spoiled…” “Derpy did have Dinky earn the bed and computer, the rest is actually gifts from her grandparents, save for all the games on that PC, Derpy buys her those.” “Sounds like a nice family.” I nod. “But how is Dinky? She nice to friends?” I ask curiously. “Her only friend is a filly named Ginger Snaps, and Dinky herself is nice, though, she’s almost as shy as that pony Fluttershy at times. I think that’s why Dinky likes playing games, she pretends she’s not… herself.” “Trust me...I know that all too well…” I sigh out. “But hopefully I can be a nice father figure.” “I know Derpy would agree.” Gild said, closing the door. “And lastly the kink de resistance.” Gilda dragged me over to the last door on the hallway. When she opened the door… I nearly had a heart attack. Pictures of me, most clearly fan art cause I DID NOT POSE IN THOSE CLOTHES! Were everywhere and as Gilda said… a full body pillow of me… nude… with all the right… parts… “Wow… you look as red as an apple.” Gilda said. “Uh…” I mutter, not entirely sure what to make of this. “Why hasn’t she asked to be in my herd again?” I ask, trying to keep myself calm and not freak out about all…that. “Seriously...there’s a difference between ‘cute’ and ‘creepy’...and this is on the borderline of ‘she would probably rape me if she had the chance’...” “Not her fetish as far as I know.” Gilda said. “But hey, from what I hear Luna was practically dry humping you when she visited you in the hospital.” “She kissed me and that's it…” I frown. “But seriously...who made these? I feel very violated here…” “Fans, who then sold them to porn shops and over the internet.” Gilda deadpanned. “The worst one she showed me was this one sex doll that comes to life via special words then screws you.” “If I find any of these people bad things are going to happen.” I frown. “And not the 'bad things’ they want…” “Meh, well Derpy only went with the body pillow. So now we just kinda wait around I guess.” Gilda said, closing the door and the two of us went back to the living room. “Why didn't she ask again?” I ask Gilda. “Self conscious about her eyes due to bad boyfriend experiences.” Gilda said as we took a seat. “Besides, she wonders how she can compete with three of the elements of harmony, princess Luna, and the most exotic female just below dragon, a Zebra.” “Damn….” I frown. “That's…something...but please tell me her room is sound proof...I hope Dinky doesn't hear her...private time…” “Yeah, she had that done with a special spell box she got at a porn shop in Canterlot. So… are the rumors Celestia and Chrysalis are a thing?” Gilda asked. “Yes actually.” I say honestly. “Surprising what sex and love can do...but the porn industry here must be huge…” I say, not sure why a porn shop has a portable 'soundproofing’ box. “From what I heard you should have gotten that answer when girls of all races sent you nudes while you were in the hospital.” “I didn't look at most of them...saw mares but all races?” I ask curiously. “Uh...kind of thought Dragons wouldn't see me as…’likable’ to begin with.” “I’m just going off rumors really. Though the dragon lord’s eldest daughter has made it public she likes you if the international news is to be believed.” “Listen I need to cleave my way through this planet's heartless population, I barely know anything outside Ponyville and Canterlot sadly.” I explain, never really having the time to travel to the other countries and clean up their Heartless problems. “Then you dude, need help. Why not ask… that guy, your dad, and those odd balls that you brought from… wherever.” “My dad can’t really help cause he’s...really busy. One of the ‘odd balls’ is a police officer but he can’t do everything, others are trying to have a normal life or do what they like...like a scythe wielder and kunai wielder being salon workers.” I shrug. “But I’m the main guy who has to do it…it’s my job after all and not many know how to use the main weapon I use.” “Not even that girl with the white wings?” “My sister?” I ask. “No...she’s also busy.” I sigh out. “But maybe, sooner or later, I can get…’apprentices’ and get some help.” I say before summoning Reunion. “And why I say that is because you need a ‘Keyblade’, which is what this is specifically to help mow down the pesky bastards.” I frown. “Well, where are you gonna find them? I’m guessing you can’t pick them up off of wherever.” “Actually…” I start. “If you do a special ‘oath’ then you’re able to get a keyblade. Not entirely sure why my four out of my five girlfriends and Spike didn’t get one sooner…” I mutter. “Spike…you mean the dragon living with Rainbow Dash?” “Thankfully I don’t get to hear him brag about it.” I sigh out, before turning the weapon around so it’s handle first for Gilda. “But if you want a keyblade, all you need to do is hold the handle and speak an oath. It’s all up to you my fine griffiness.” Gilda rolled her eyes at that, but was looking at the handle. She was clearly tempted, but before she grabbed it…“Gilda!” Screamed the high pitched voice of a filly. “I’m home.” Said the small, grey furred and blond maned filly named Dinky as she came into the doorway. “Maybe later.” I mutter before Reunion disappeared. “You got a special visitor.” I say to the little filly. “Guess who I am?” “Your that white knight guy… my mom wants your babies.” Dinky deadpanned. I groan, before rubbing my temples. “Christ she needs it bad…” I mutter. “How many times have you heard her say that?” “It’s unintentional when you come up in the news.” Dinky said, taking off her backpack. “When mom act’s, well, all fangirl she really goes all out.” “Well she’ll be glad to know about why I’m here.” I say with a smile. “But what do you think about me Dinky? Given that all I’ve heard most of the day is how Derpy thinks about me.” Dinky looked at me with a judging face. “...Stupidly lucky like mom.” “Even a child can see I’m an idiot…” I sigh out. “Wonders…” “It’s from what I’ve gathered.” Dinky said as she sat on the couch. “The day you showed up and kill a massive heartless you pretty much, in the same day, nail Princess Luna, Twilight Sparkle, then later Rarity and Pinkie Pie, and Zecora… wait… are you here… to add my mom?” “I saw her room sadly.” I sigh out. “But besides that Gilda explained that...she’s really lonely.” “That’s putting it lightly.” Dinky added. “Either way. But Gilda told me that people don’t like her because of her eyes...which frankly I’m rather concerned about people wondering why they would leave a cute woman just because of her eyes.” I say honestly. “Well…mom’s love life is that of Rarity’s before you hooked her. Picked the wrong men, then again, they chase her for her chest, butt, or money.” “Which I am after none of those.” I say simply. “I have too much money, and I don’t care how she looks physically. I care about the woman behind her physical features.” I explain. “That’s good.” Dinky said. “The ones only after the money are the worst.” “Remember how I said Derpy is lucky?” Gilda asked as I nodded. “She’s won at least one lottery every year since she was old enough to buy a ticket.” “Financially speaking Mom and I can live in Canterlot and not worry about investing money til I have grandkids.” Dinky said. “But mom and I like Ponyville and she likes her job.” “I’d rather live in a cozy town with people that actually give a damn about you then a city with a bunch of fuck wits with their heads shoved up their asses.” I frown. “Language.” Gilda said. “Kid in the room.” “Whatever.” I sigh out. “Anyways, when is Derpy getting home? Cause I’m pretty sure the moment she steps in here she’ll tackle me and I want to be prepared.” “Mom should be here in half n hour.” Dinky said. “Til then… is it true Luna is a game addict?” “Our room is filled to the brim with consoles and her gaming computer.” I deadpan. “I have never seen a woman that addicted to video games.” “Huh, alright. So… they say you have fourteen weapons?” “Yes I do.” I nod. “Can I see one?” “Sure.” I say while summoning my keyblade. “My signature weapon, Reunion.” “Do you have cards like the new cop downtown?” “Yes I do.” I nod, walking over and pulling a card from behind her ear. Dinky took it, looking It over. To my surprise she flung it at Gilda, who became trapped in It. “The heck!” Gilda shouted. “Wow…they work.” Dinky said. ”That...should not have happened…” I think to myself before snapping my fingers, Gilda being freed from the card and it coming back to my hand. “No trapping family in cards okay?” I ask, now just noticing a symbol on Reunion like on Fair Game. Dinky gave a cheeky smile. “Sorry, wanted to make sure they worked. And sorry Gilda, but if I flung it at Ben he likely would have stopped it.” “No more ice cream for you for a week.” Gilda grumbled. “Aw… fair enough.” Dinky said. “Anywhosits.” I say while making my weapons disappear. “How was your day Dinky?” I ask, hoping to have a casual conversation while we wait for Derpy. “Usual, waited for Cheerilee to hand out the tests, took them, then just kinda listened to music the rest of the day.” Dinky said. “Her tests are boring.” “Try taking nothing but math tests for over a month and a half straight.” I shudder. “She did.” Gilda said. “Dinky has an I.Q. that could rival Twilight’s.” ”I feel like there’s going to be a trend…” I think to myself worriedly. “Okay then...not sure how or why but okay.” I nod. “I’ve just always been smart for my age.” Dinky said. “Part of why I don't have many friends and why I keep quiet in public, people don’t like my ‘smart’ mouth.” “Listen, there’s a difference between being smart, and being sassy.” I explain. “Smart is basically telling people they are wrong, sassy is basically doing the same thing but in a more...joking or jerk kind of way.” I shrug. “Not when you’re eleven and you can catch mistakes serious ‘adults’ make. Once on a field trip to the mayor's office I got lost and found myself in her office, found her books for the town budget and her math was… well, let’s just say the town owes me for having the extra cash to rebuild the public pool.” Dinky said. “And the mayor got mad even though she did agree I was more correct in the numbers than she was.” “I think the mayor was mad because it’s her job to be correct and not screw up...and when she was pointed out she was wrong she probably got mad at herself or something.” I shrug, not knowing the whole situation. “Either way, people just get made when you correct them. Too prideful to accept help for anything.” “True.” I nod. “But oh well. So, I heard Gilda’s side of things, but what do you think about having Gilda here? Gilda said you treat her like a ‘big sister’, is that true?” “I do.” Dinky said, cheering up. “She’s tough, doesn’t take mouth from anyone, and mom’s last break up Gilda here scared the scum bag by flying him high up and dropped him into the lake.” I laughed at that. “Oh wow, that is hilarious.” I chuckle. “My finest work.” Gilda said, her voice filled with pride. “Glad to know you’re happy Dinky.” I smile. “A child should never be sad with life. No matter what.” The sound of the door opening caught our ears. And as expected Derpy came in. “Hey, Gilda, Dinky, I’m home.” Derpy said…when she entered the living room her eyes were covered with…seaweed? “Had an accident delivering some food to the petshop.” “How did you get home with those on your eyes?” Gilda asked. “I can see on my bad eye side, but I can only see the ceiling right now.” Derpy explained. “So anything happen?” She asked as she tried pulling off the seaweeds, the things tangled in her mane as well. “Here, let me help.” I say while stepping forward and helping the mare get the seaweed out of her mane. “Oh, Gilda, who’s your friend? He sounds nice.” Derpy said. Once the seaweed came off and she saw me she froze. “Yep. Just as adorable as I remember.” I smile. “Hello Derpy, it’s nice to see you.” I say kindly. Derpy still didn’t move.. But when a smell I quickly became familiar with started to arise she somehow did a sonic boom indoors, breaking anything glass as she zoomed upstairs. “Yup! About what I expected!” Gilda shouted, our ears ringing. “What the heck!?!” I shout, putting my hands over my ears and on my knees, blistering pain coursing through my head. ”God damn Dire Wolf hearing…” I think to myself, the pain hurting quite a lot. “Anyone else notice mom wet her pants?!” Dinky yelled/asked. Well, at least she didn’t know what that actually was. “I’m sorry my head feels like it got run over by a truck!” I yell, having noticed her pants wet but still. “Christ…” I grumble, starting to get up and just thankful I’m not deaf. I looked up, and to my surprise Luna and Trinity are there. Trinity put some kinda liquid in my ears and the pain left. “The heck happened?” She asked. “Luna and I were shopping then we hear a sonic boom.” “Derpy is my number one fan and she...has a lot of pictures and things that makes me feel violated.” I sigh out. “Well, fan art can never compare to the real things I have.” Luna said while Trinity started putting that liquid in Dinky and Gilda’s ears. “Derpy’s probably in her room.” I sigh out. “Sorry for you two to have to randomly appear here because of sonic booms...didn’t expect Derpy to move that fast…” “I don’t think Derpy moved that fast since her body pillow arrived.” Gilda said, still rubbing her ears. “I didn’t need to know that…” I mutter. “Oh, you should get used to it if you want her for your herd.” “Oh, you plan on adding to the herd?” Luna asked. “Then I must meet this mare.” “I have the weirdest feeling there’s going to be three more.” I say honestly. “One is Derpy...who is currently in her room most likely...then two others…” I trail off, still not sure if Gilda would even want to be apart of my herd anyways and maybe someone else. “But anyways, let’s go find her.” I say before heading off to Derpy’s room. “Allow me.” Luna said, having me step to the side as she opened the door, to which she was met with a scream. “If all goes well then please, keep those clothes off.” Luna told Derpy to my embarrassment. When I got to walk in I saw Derpy…holding the body pillow of me under the sheets. “I...I...I’m so embarrassed…” “I’m right here, if you wanted a hug you could have just asked.” I say sheepishly, knowing what’s under the sheets. “Instead of...trying to blow my ear drums out…” “Heheh…sorry.” Luna stepped forward. “Young filly, please tell me, if you were to be offered a place in our herd, would you accept?” Luna asked. “M-Me…in your herd? W-w-w-w-w-w-with…the w-white knight?” She stuttered. I stepped forward and gently put a hand on her cheek. “Yes. Do you want to be apart of my herd?” I ask gently, hoping she isn’t completely overwhelmed with everything. Her response was kicking the body pillow out and she dragged me under the sheets, as she started stripping me. “Well while this goes on I’ll be downstairs.” Luna said, closing the door behind her. Five…five hours. She can really take it, and she clearly needed it. “I see you...really needed it…” I say, starting to get dressed. Derpy chuckled. “I haven’t had anything other than my hands and toys to get me off since Dinky was born.” Derpy said, going through her closet. “So… like my ‘bubble butt’?” She asked, knowing I was face first in her cutie mark for a fair hour. “I do love your ‘bubble butt’.” I chuckle. “But I love you for you Derpy...and that’s a fact.” “Well, so far you know what you’ve been told and I only know you from what I’ve heard. Can’t wait to meet the you the news cannot report about.” Derpy says as she finishes getting dressed. “Call me Ben, that’s my ‘real name’. White Knight is the news name.” I say simply, stretching out a little from our ‘fun’. “Hey...do you ever think I could manage to get Gilda as a herd member or do you think that’s stupid?” I ask. “I think it would be good for her. She’s never been in a relationship and when it comes to friendships I barely managed to get to her try them again. She’s changed a lot since I first dropped that mail pile on her. I think she just needs the griffon way of choosing a mate.” “And I have no idea what that is.” I say honestly. “Cause Griffon’s aren’t the ‘fight me and win my hand’...I think that’s more ‘dragon’ oriented.” “Well, if my porn knowledge is right, and it is, for Griffons they have to see how good you are…by experience. Meaning if you can manage to get Gilda in bed, if what you did to me is just a part of what you can do, she’ll accept in half an hour. As for dragonesses, the mate in question has to fight the father, take a scale from them, then give it to the dragoness.” “How important is the porn industry here? I mean dear lord this is...kind of a lot for ‘porn’.” I explain. “Actually, most of this stuff comes from the Diamond Dog kingdom. After their new queen was crowned they got industrial. Most of the porn supplies in the world comes from there now, which makes sense given public sex is legal there, among other lewd activities.” “Oh god damn it…” I sigh out. “Well...anyways let’s go down stairs...foods probably made and they might be worried I accidentally broke your hip.” I say while getting fully dressed, putting on my cloak and heading on downstairs. “So, you two are still walking?” Gilda asked as we entered the kitchen. “Yes we are.” I nod. “I hope we weren’t keeping you from something.” “I was just telling Gilda here about your bedroom abilities.” Luna said, tapping Gilda on the arm. “She expects you in her bed after dinner.” I open up my Assistant and purchase a potion, and downing it and feeling way better. “Alright then.” I nod. “But um...did any of you...hear anything?” I ask worriedly. “No?” Dinky said. Luna leaned in and whispered. “I saw through the keyhole.” She said, making me blush. “Got to say, looking forward for when all of us gang up on you next time.” “So what’s for dinner?” I ask quickly, hoping to change the subject. “You and I are having Beef stew and the others are having Veggie.” Gilda said. “Right then.” I nod. “Need any help cooking or is it already made?” “It’s all done.” Dinky said, holding a bowel. “Dig in.” We all sat down and began eating, talking a bit too. “So Ben, Dinky and I played a new game that came out on the computer. It’s multiplayer so I ran home to get my laptop.” Luna said. “What’s the game?” I ask curiously. “Minecraft.” Dinky said. “It’s basically build whatever and survive.” ”It’s 2011 here?” I think to myself, remembering Minecraft on Earth came out in 2011. “Sounds nice, I suppose it looks like a world of squares?” I ask. “Yeah, basic, but fun.” “Right then.” I nod. “I really need to see what videogames are here...never decided to look it up because ‘saving the people’ and all that.” “You should take a vacation sometime Ben.” Luna said. “I’m sure Trinity wouldn’t mind and frankly Gilda here told me something interesting about the dragon kingdom.” “Right now is my ‘vacation’ because I’m looking for other girlfriends at this point...but after that I’m gonna need to be gone for a long time. Got to cleave through the world's Heartless population and try to make everywhere besides Equestria and a few outside places more….livable.” I sigh out. “Why not ask Zeke for help?” Luna asked. “He’s probably super busy and I need to make sure the planet is safe...I mean I can give more people Keyblades, and when the others actually summon theirs I’ll have to train them...or Luxu I don’t know…” I sigh out, knowing my list of shit to do is going from ‘laundry list’ to ‘Twilight’s list’ here. “I suppose Luxu and Time Bell can help in that regard. Luxu by himself could likely deal with the stronger ones while Time and Sweetie Bell handle the others.” “Hopefully.” I sigh out, finishing up my dinner after that. “Anyways, Dinky, what do you think about me in a ‘father’ sense?” I ask the filly. “I see comedy in my future.” She joked. “You...have no idea.” I say, shaking my head with a warm smile. “But it would mostly be a ‘what the heck’ kind of comedy…” “I guessed.” Dinky said, finishing her soup. “So, if Luna is gonna be my mom also then… does that make you prince and me a princess?” “Yes actually.” Luna said. “By marriage you’d become princesses, Ben becomes a prince, you know how it is.” “Sometimes I forget I’m wearing this thing.” I say while tapping the silver crown on my head. “Not sure why…” I mutter. “But what do you think about becoming a princess Dinky?” “Permission to rub it in Diamond Tiara’s face?” Dinky asked her mom. “Permission denied.” Derpy replied. “It’s mean, and unladylike.” “I’m sorry but Rarity want’s her lines back.” I joke. “Speaking of… I haven’t seen her reopen her shop yet?” Derpy asked. “Any reason why?” “She’s been busy either going to fashion shows, doing other things or being my girlfriend.” I shrug. “I’m sure she’ll reopen her shop here.” I say honestly. “She wouldn’t keep her stylish clothing away from the good people of Ponyville.” “I know the reason Ben, but that’s a secret between the women, and a surprise for you.” Luna teased. “Of course it is.” I sigh out. “So many surprises from my wonderful girlfriends.” “You’ll love it, trust me.” After Dinner Gilda and I… did the do and she’s now on board with the herd. Darpy was wrong, was after two hours. We also borrowed her soundproof box thing. With how late it was I spent the night there, and the next day Gilda, Derpy, Luna, Dinky and I walked back to the library and we told the news to the rest. “Yay! More milk for Ben!” Pinkie cheered. “Pinkie!” Twilight retorted. “There’s kids here.” “I’m not caring.” Jenny said, reading a book on the couch. “I’m confused.” Dinky said. “The girl on the couch is going to be your new sister, Jenny.” I explain. “She’s nice when you get to know her...just don’t make her mad okay?” “So you’re gonna be the bad influential sister?” Dinky asked. “Likely.” Jenny replied. “You smart for your age too?” “Haven’t had much school when your family is criminals that are on the shoot to kill list of every country. But I taught myself what I could. If you’re referring to maturity I can be more mature than Ben if I tried.” “...I think we’ll get along well.” “Just stay out of trouble you two.” I say simply. “I will.” Dinky said. “Expect me in handcuffs by high school.” Jenny replied. “You better not.” I frown. “A future princess shouldn’t be a criminal.” Jenny raised an eyebrow at me. “Princess? Me? … nah.” “Technically speaking when you’re apart of our family and I finally decide to marry all of my girlfriends you will be a princess.” I say simply. “Just don’t abuse your power.” “At most I’ll bankrupt the kingdom.” She mutters. “Why?” I ask with a frown, having heard her muttering. “Shits and giggles.” “Not surprised.” I sigh out. “Well I just hope we can help you not do that ever.” “Let me handle this.” Luna said, patting me on my side as she went up to Jenny. “How about this, if princess isn’t your thing, how about… future dungeon keeper?” “... keep talking.” “All the enemies we have yet to meet, the worst that we will have rot for the rest of their lives, it would be your job to keep them in chains behind bars, and if they escape, you can either rearrest them, torture them, then throw them back in their cells, or kill them. Your choice.” “...Deal.” Jenny said as she and Luna shook hands. “Well alright then.” I nod. ”Who knew Jenny would agree to murdering criminals…” I think to myself. “So, if that’s all darlings what next?” Rarity asked. “Dragon lands.” Luna said. “A very special princess there, if rumors are to be believed, has a thing for Ben and plus, a marriage with them will be instant peace between our kingdoms.” “Who is this dragoness again?” I ask curiously. “Also yes, I would like to know of another place besides Equestria...and is on the same planet for a change.” “Honora the princess of the current dragon lord.” Twilight said. “Her younger sister is named Ember, the two are… different. Ember wants to be dragon lord while Honora wants to explore beyond her kingdom. Her… condition makes that hard.” “Uh…’condition’?” I ask worriedly. “She’s a Snow Dragon.” Luna explained. “She was born in the dragon kingdom of fire, an egg lost and adopted by the fire dragon lord. She can’t leave her room or else she’ll suffer from heat stroke in minutes.” “Well I suppose it’s good that this,” I start before summoning Frozen Pride. “Is purely based on ice magic. Good shield to.” “That, and we asked a favor of Braig.” Rarity said. “You asked Braig for a favor?” I ask, not remembering that tidbit. “It was while you, Derpy and Gilda got to explore each other.” Luna said. “We knew of this and to be honest had planned to see her for both public and personal reasons. After the Manehattan incident, we need something to show the people Equestria will come back. The fire and Ice dragon lands are already at peace because of Honora, marrying her to an Equestrian prince to be will let the people know progress is being made, and we can get aid of the dragons. Their lands are rich in ores, and we are rich in gold and gems. It will all work out in rebuilding the city.” “Well glad to know that, not only will I get a dragon girlfriend but also help out in more ways around Equestria then murdering Heartless.” I nod, glad to be helping out as much as I can. “Yes, all we need now is-” Rarity was interrupted by Braig breaking down the door. “Speak of the devil.” “It took half my ammo cache but I got it.” Braig said, placing a small box on the table. “Pay up.” Twilight levitated a big chest, then when Braig took, he nearly fell over holding it. “Pleasure doing business, and Ben, when you’re done being lazy I’m training you next.” Braig said as he left. ”Prick.” I think to myself. “So...the hell’s in the box?” “We asked Braig if he knew of any items that let the user become immune to heat. He knew of several, but had none so we paid him to procure it.” Luna said, picking up and opening the small box. Inside was a ring, it looked like it was made from frozen fire. “He said it’s a ring of frozen lava. Made on a dangerous world, located in dangerous places. We paid him in about five hundred thousand bits, to which he agreed.” “Oh, okay then.” I nod. ”I suppose it’s best he get’s out and does stuff...and for me to not use my Assistant to basically get everything I need at a flick of my wrist…” I think to myself. “Anyways, when are we going?” I ask “Three days.” Twilight said. “Celestia and Chrysalis are coming too, they’ll be acting as our escorts since the changelings and dragons actually have had peace before, and Chrysalis wants to re-establish that.” “Well that’ll help out a bunch.” I nod. “But three days huh? Sounds like forever with most of the crap I’ve been doing lately.” “These three days are part of your vacation darling.” Rarity said. “Our way of saying… get to the bedroom, we’re not leaving till we have to go.” Rarity said as all the girls looked at me with those eyes. “Dinky, Jenny, have fun getting to know each other. Don’t burn anything down and if you see Sweetie, Time, and Luxu, mind explaining to them about my two new girlfriends?” “I’ll handle it.” Jenny said. “And if you actually don’t come out in three days I’ll get Kevin, think he’s living with someone named Cheerilee?” “Huh…” I start. “Well alrighty then. Thank you Jenny.” I nod. “Pay me when you escape or get out.” Jenny said as the girls dragged, well, carried me upstairs, locking the door behind them. To be continued...
Nobody's good to bad day pt1Three days of plowing my girlfriends later I gently made my way out of the room they were all sleeping in and made my way to the kitchen. “My pelvis hurts.” I grumble while walking in and making myself some breakfast. “He lives.” Jenny said, she and Dinky walking in. “Welp, he’s not limping or broken, pay up Dinky.” “Dang it.” Dinky said as she handed over… a raw chunk of gold, to Jenny. “Easy money.” “Why does everyone bet on me being injured or saying something?” I whine. “I bet on you at least having a limp or broken hip.” Dinky mumbled. “Clearly your body isn’t normal.” “You missed a lot by the way.” Jenny said, pouring herself some cereal. “Well start explaining.” I say, starting to eat my cereal. “Day one, taught Dinky here how to shoot, kill, stab, and dispose of bodies.” “We practiced with fish and a manticore Jenny killed… don’t tell Fluttershy.” Dinky said. “Does it involve a sassy white rabbit?” I ask curiously. “No…” Jenny mumbled. “Sneaky little rat stayed in her hair the whole them after he caught us…” “Then what did you kill?” I ask with a frown. “Also why did you teach Dinky how to kill? Self defense reasons that’s fine but to straight up murder?” “Little bit of both.” SHe confessed. “But we killed in total, ten fish, a manticore, and our boredom.” “Okay then.” I nod. “Anyways, next?” “Day two.” Dinky said. “Found Kevin and Cheerilee setting up some stuff outside the school. Guess Kevin is gonna teach gym? Some hours later some guy with blond spiky hair crashed in town hall, then shot back into space for no reasons, and after that we met your mom Den… needless to say that happened…we told her you were busy then she said some stuff about wondering if… something or other could happen, then that was about it for the rest of day two.” “I’ll have to call mom…” I sigh out. “Anyways, day three?” I ask. “Day three… we spent it with Kevin and Cheerilee cause that sound proof magic box of yours broke…” Jenny said. My forehead met the table rather quickly. “Uh...how loud were we?” “Well, Celestia stopped by to see how we were doing before Dinky and I left… if she had brought Chrysalis with her, she would have ended up in the changeling equivalent of a food coma.” Jenny explained. “Noise wise… no one walked within a ten foot radius of the library.” “Oh dear…” I sigh out. “Well we’re gonna have to fix that and double the strength…” I sigh out. “But anyways, congrats you two, you are going to have a total of eight mothers by the end of my stay at the dragon lands.” I say honestly. There was a crash, Jenny and I ran outside… and saw Luxu, Time, and Sweetie Bell scattered outside of Luxu’s gummi ship. “We’re back horn dog.” Luxu said as he got up. “Why didn’t you have Sweetie or Time drive?” I ask bluntly. “I did, this crash was all Sweetie.” Luxu states. “Can people stop sucking at driving for five seconds?” I ask bluntly. “When you stop being emo.” Time says as Luxu helps her up. “Also.” She tapped the door of the ship… it opened and a small mountain of bits fell out. “We got kicked out of, and likely bankrupted, every casino in Las Pegasus.” “Sweet christ.” I sigh out. “Also I’m not emo.” I frown. “Also, don’t tell Rarity but Sweetie got a tattoo.” Time added as Sweetie blushed. “Tattoo’s I don’t care about.” I say bluntly. “Now something more...private than that I will worry about. But what’s the tattoo?” “I...I’d rather not…” Sweetie mumbled worriedly. “I still have no idea how that happened.” Luxu said. “She didn’t drunk, mainly because she’s underage, yet after her fourth soda she got wasted on sugar… later followed by the craziest sugar rush ever.” “That’s...something.” I say worriedly. “But where did she get the tattoo?” Time looked between Sweetie and me, quickly walking over to me and whispering it. “Her…breasts…” “Oh for fuck sakes Sweetie.” I groan. “Really? There?” “The tattoo guy said I wasn’t the only one to get one there…” Sweetie mumbed, her face a cherry red. I only sighed out and shook my head. “We’re going to have a serious talk later. But right now I have to wake up the girls. I have to start traveling to the Dragon Lands later today.” “Oh, really?” Luxu asked. “Well while you and your herd are out, Time and I will find a doctor to remove Sweetie’s tattoo, and no one needs to know about the rest that went down in that now… half… two thirds, burned down city…” “How the fuck?” I ask, completely shocked at hearing that part. “That’s my fault…” Time admitted. “Some gang members tried to hit on Sweetie, knowing she was under age and I… lost it and hunted down them all… heh, turns out they pretty much owned that city so… well, at least the cops don't have to worry about them anymore?” Time said, nervous. “And, before you rant like hell, we did find a place where Heartless were holding people, ponies, whatever, and got rid of it, so there.” “Well...at least you helped save people.” I sigh out. “God only knows what Celestia’s going to say about hearing Las Pegasus being burned down.” I grumble. “Anyways, meet Jenny, she’s going to technically be your niece after I marry Rarity.” I say to Sweetie, pointing to Jenny. “Jenny, this is Time, Luxu, and Sweetie…” Luxu walked up to Jenny. “... you a murderer?” “Was.” Jenny replied. “Tried killing Ben?” “Yes.” “Failed?” “... yes.” “Got anger issues?” “Yes.” “You insane?” “Little bit.” “We’ll get along then.” Luxu said, shaking Jenny’s hand. “Glad to hear that.” I nod. “Oh wait...I forgot when Celestia and Chrysalis are supposed to get here…” I frown, sadly forgetting that little tidbit. Jenny looked up. “Three… two… one.” There was a loud thud behind me. I turned around, seeing Celestia carrying a… rather exposed Chrysalis bridal style. “Good news, I just got word Los Pegasus was burned to the ground.” Celestia said. “And I get to run what is rebuilt!” Chrysalis said, sounding semi-drunk. “And I suppose you're half drunk because…?” I ask Chrysalis. “I’m marrying this whore in that cities ashes!” Chrysalis yelled, kissing Celestia’s face. “Heh, that’s what I love about you bug-a-boo, you call me what I want to hear~” Celestia teased. “We have kids present.” I frown. “Mentally seventeen.” Jenny said. “Mentally thirty five.” Dinky said. “Had a test confirm it.” “I’m sure at this point we give no shits.” Jenny added. “Should have thought that.” I nod. “I’ll go wake up everyone else.” I say. “You can talk while I do that.” “Wait A minute!” Chrysalis said, rolling out of Celestia’s arms, dropping to the ground and standing- Oh my god her shirt and pants fell off and- SHE'S NOT WEARING UNDERGARMENTS?! She then walked over to me, her… chest, mere inches from my face. “Y-you’re that white night guy, right?” She asked, still drunk but apparently able to remember. “Yes...why aren’t you wearing any underwear?” I ask worriedly, taking a step away from her. She looked down at her nude self, a drunken smile on her face. “Oh… I haven’t really left the bedroom since sexy sun butt and I started dating, plus, changelings are usually always naked, even when we shape shift our skin will look like the clothes.” She said. “But… but… what was I gonna ask? Oh, right. I need a… fav...favor.” “What favor?” I ask worriedly. “First off, stop looking down, only Celie sees between the legs, and secondly, secondly… Oh, I found a thing out in the badlands when my soon to be niece and nephew in law love bomb shield... Whatever me and my hive out of the city.” “You never told me this Chrysi?” Celestia said, using her magic to teleport in a blanket and covering Chrysalis. “Well I would have but I felt it was more this guy’s ally.” “Um...I’ll look into it.” I nod. “You better.” Chrysalis said, failing to flick my nose. “The things look like you did before you..you got harry…you hit puberty? Meh, anyway, they no like me so they shot at us with… guns, and big boom things.” “I’ll take her inside.” Celestia said, the group of us walking inside, which, to my delight, the girls were up now. “Hi Luna.” “Greetings sister… sister in law?” Luna said, the last part with a bit of confusion towards Chrysalis. “Glad you’re all awake.” I nod. “So yes, Chrysalis is here, Los Pegasus happened to burn down in a terrible accident that involved the murdering of Heartless, and Chrysalis is drunk for some reason.” “Drunk on love!” Chrysalis says. “She’s not joking.” Celestia confirmed. “We… tried something new last night and she’s been like this for… thirteen hours… last night included…” “Oh dear…” I mutter. “Anyways, we need to travel to the dragon lands correct?” “Yes. RIght.” Twilight says, pouring everyone some coffee. “Just…give us like three hours…maybe four to shower and wake up, eat, all that.” “Sorry.” I say sheepishly. “I think I’ll take a shower first.” Derpy said, flying upstairs. “All the… sweat from those night might have made my feathers stiff.” Derpy finished, hurrying upstairs. “Yeah it’s gonna take them a while.” I say. “So how’s life been Celestia?” “Thanks to Chrysalis here, not boring. Before she showed up it was all paperwork, meetings, and sleep. Now…well, I’m not saying exactly everything but life’s been good. So… what do you think that stuff Chrysi was talking about was?” “I don’t know but I know I’m going to have to solve it.” I say honestly. “I’ve mostly been ‘protecting’ Equestria, I need to help the other countries soon.” “Well, Chrysalis’s hive is all in Equestria now, so we can see what this mess in the badlands is about after we finish our work in the dragonlands. So… Luna emailed me about your mom… she seems nice.” “Yeah...but mom is wonderful.” I smile. “One of the best things in my life. Right next to all my girlfriends.” “Well I hope to meet her someday.” Celestia said. “So, we got time to kill… tv?” “Sure why not.” I nod. “Might as well do something with our free time.” Five hours later everyone was ready, packed, and about to head out. Turns out we may spend the night there since it’s a long fly. Speaking of a MASSIVE dragon landed outside Ponyville, something akin to the passenger area’s of zeppelins attached to it’s back. We climbed in and it flew off. Fast. Celestia and Luna were setting the sun and moon by the time we arrived. We were greeted by the dragon lord, an even bigger dragon than the one that flew us, and a smaller one, blue scales… wait… every dragon here is naked… oh dear… “Greetings, White Knight.” The dragon lord said. “Celestia, a pleasure, Chrysalis, we have been looking forward to meeting a proper changeling queen.” Chrysalis, who was STILL drunk, managed to bow. “My daughter Ember here will escort you to your rooms, White Knight and his mates will room with Honora, Celestia and Chrysalis, given your relationship, shall room in the master guest room for the night.” “It’s a pleasure to meet you.” I say. “But may I ask a question?” “You may.” “I heard from one of my ‘mates’ that ‘dragon courting’ involves fighting the dragoness’s father...is that true?” I ask curiously, wondering if that’s true. “Yes, but in light of our attempt at peace and coexistence with the ponies, we will allow you to court her as if you were in Equestria. From what your mate princess Luna has told me it involves meeting them, talking, then lots of breeding after that.” “There’s a lot more talking and ‘getting to know each other’ then just breeding like rabbits.” I say quickly, glaring at Luna. “Says the guy who screwed his two newest additions for three days straight.” Gilda said. “A majority of the time I’m dragged in there so shut up.” I huff. “You could just say no.” Luna said. “Yes darling, we’re not savages.” Rarity added. “Bullshit!” I cough out. “Oh sorry, I had a cough.” The girls, save for Pinkie and Derpy, rolled their eyes. “Sir dragon lord, pray tell… is there a Heartless threat here?” Luna asked. “Those beasts of darkness… sadly yes, but our fire is more than enough to deal with what has so far shown up. If that fails then our size plays into our advantage as it has in the past. Our current issue though comes from a new creature we’ve seen not before, akin to you ponies and your bodies but not as… colorful, or furry.” “Fuck…” I mutter to myself. “Pray tell, what does this being look like? Any specific features?” “...” The dragon lord thought for a moment. “They are usually dressed in armor of some sort, but they fly in loud machines, and there’s a mark on all their armors.” The dragon lord dragged a claw in the dirt, drawing the mark… he didn’t need to finish, it was the american flag… “They all typically have this symbol on them. Not sure if it’s of their homeland or if it’s a magic one.” ”HOW DID I FUCKING KNOW!?!” I mentally shout, not believing that Earth actually did exist. “Oh...well looks like I have a lot of work to do…” I sigh out. “But anyways let’s not talk about depressing things and possible things I have to murder with extreme prejudice. Where is Honora’s room again?” The dragon lord’s daughter, Ember flew down to us. “This way.” She said, leading us. Turns out the ‘rooms’ were just caves that the inside was well decorated. She dropped off Celestia and Chrysalis at theirs first then took my group the Honora. It was dug rather deep, and not a few feet in we felt rather cold wind blowing out from inside the cave. The further we went the colder it got. After some meters underground the cave walls were all ice and the floor was covered in snow, only light was from some kinda brightly glowing crystals embedded into the ice. We finally reached what seemed to be a large bedroom, a white scaled, bright blue eye’d dragoness was on an actual, yet frozen, chair reading something. “Sis, your… mate is here.” Ember said as she left. Honora put her book down, looking at me before walking over. “So, you’re my mate to be?” She asked. ”Damn...didn’t think the anthro version of Blue Eyes White Dragon would be this hot… I think to myself in surprise. “Yes. Yes I am. And I believe you are the lovely Honora?” I ask. She kept looking me over, as if judging me. She went as far as to take off my hood and find my tail. She seemed surprised, but shook it off that I was a Dire Werewolf. To my, and everyone’s shock, she stuck he hand in my pants, and grabbed my boys. I yelped, her scales are SO COLD! “Yes.” She said, thankfully letting go and retracting her hand. “We will make many eggs together.” “Can y-you not grab my privates so suddenly?” I ask, feeling really cold just from her touch. “This is part of how a Dragoness chooses a non-dragon mate, I have been reading as such.” She spoke…somehow with a swedish accent. She then grabbed the book she was reading…and I couldn’t believe the title. ‘How To Pleasure The Opposite Sex, Same Sex, and Other Races’. “Was expecting you to be pony, but you are close enough so it still fits.” “I know you're a snow dragon and all but...is your touch always that cold?” I ask worriedly. “Oh, sorry. To me the room feels what you would feel…as a warm summer day, but I guess you feel it as cold as it looks huh?” “The only reason why I’m not freezing right now is because of my cloak, some magic, and this fancy thing.” I say while summoning my shield, Frozen Pride. “Oh, that reminds me, we have a gift for you.” Luna said, handing me the ring the girls payed Braig to get. “Gift for me?” Honora asked. “Why yes.” I nod, before summoning my cards and places seven other black boxes on them as they soon floated over to the rest of the girls. “I know this isn’t the best time...and I know that all of us just met you…” I say nervously, getting down onto one knee and all eight boxes opened, all showing beautiful wedding rings magically made for all of them. “Will...all of you marry me?” I ask, hoping beyond hope they say yes. “YES!” They all, even Gilda to my surprise, shouted, tackling me to the ground. Meanwhile, with Jenny “Dinky! I grew dog teeth, ears, and fur and I’m not in my fighting form! I think Ben proposed!” “I figured.” Dinky said, Jenny turning to her, eyes widening. Her pony fur was stripped blue and grey, as was he mane, her equine ears were now more canine, she also had canine teeth, but most surprising was the fact Dinky now had a pair of WINGS. “I get the teeth and fur…but the…where did the wings come from?” “...I have no idea…” Back to Ben, three hours later That ring made Honora’s once cold touch rather warm and pleasant now. Needless to say...all my new wives wanted to have a special…celebration as it were. “I’m pretty sure part of this room melted with our...activities.” I say sheepishly, cuddling up to my new wives. “I know.” Pinkie said. “I felt the cold drips when I got to be on top of you.” “If that is sex that makes eggs…I’m gonna love this…marriage, right? Yes, I’m going to love it!” Honora said. “Marriage means you are my mate for life.” I state. “Till death do us part…” I say, but that wording only made me sad as I tried to hold them all closer. “Please...don’t ever leave…” I whimper sadly. They all cuddled and managed to hug me. “We are going nowhere lifemate.” Honora said. “We may have just met, but I know we will forever be with you.” “Ain’t that a fact.” We all jumped, dad was at the doorway. “Sup kiddo?” “Hi dad.” I say sheepishly. “So...this is my harem.” I say while naming off all my girlfriends. “Girls, this is Cript...my dad.” I say, not entirely sure if I’ve introduced them to him yet. “First off, relax, I saw nothing. Secondly, I came to congratulate you, the one finally balling up and proposing. Ben…heh, did better than I did, the day I finally did manage to nut up and propose to my first wife, she already had the same idea and was gonna propose to me. Man, that was a fun dinner.” “Even though you probably had a long time to date her and I’m proposing to women I’ve known for...all of a few minutes to a few months.” I frown. “Oh wow I probably moved a tad fast here…” I say worriedly. “Welcome to my world.” Dad said. “Want to know what helps?” “Having magic to help keep your hips intact?” I joke. “I have clones for that, but besides that, cause wife one is always… adding, to the marriage of ours, I invented this little scape goat to constant talking.” Dad shot out blue lightning from his hands, hitting each of us in the head. It was like I was living all of my new wives lives at once, their memories pouring into me. When it stopped, I had a slight headache. “Memory sharing, I just saved you all about two months to two years of surprises about each other. So… no secrets between you all now.” “Okay then…” I say, before my eyes widened. “Oh dear…” I mutter, fearing what they might have seen and slightly fearing what crap I’ll be seeing in my memory. For the next few hours before we went to bed talking about each other's memories. Needless to say, Pinkie’s and Luna’s were VERY perverted… as their private times were also shared, and from memory I know what it’s like to fuck… me. Dad left not long after we started talking. On the plus side this has given me even more insight into what makes my girlfriends tick, and what turns them on, a weapon greater than the ones I can summon has just been given to me on a silver platter. The next morning Honora went out with us to meet with her father. It was the first time ever she’s left her room, her face when the sun was up, added with her not even feeling the heat around her, thanks to the ring, made her cry with joy. Having her memories now also I felt the pain, wonder, and general feeling of what that must have been like, even though she had those memories of us in the sun, to experience it is another thing. I did notice something was off in my memories though, a scene from not long after Rarity moved in for her shop being rebuilt, I think a day after she agreed to the herd, from all the girls that were there at the time actually. They were talking, then suddenly, like bad editing, it cut to them doing other things. A lot of memories of mine from them were like that. I’m only assuming Luna had removed memories of a certain thing, for what I’m not sure, but I won’t ask. Her and her dream walking abilities she can work with memories. We all sat at a large stone table, some vegetables were prepared specially for the girls while meats were made for me, Gilda, and Honora. “It is amazing to see you able to wander outside now Honora.” The dragon lord said. “It is equally amazing father.” Honora replied. “After today the dragons will have peace officially with Equestria, re-established peace with the changelings, and we will discuss the issue of the equine-ish beings.” The dragon lord announced, several other dragons, including Ember, were here. I’d say a lot happened about the Equestria and Changeling peace treaties was something to talk about, but it was just signing a large stone tablet, one for Equestria, one for the Changelings, and then sign paper ones that said the same thing. A few photos were taken and that was it. “Now, lastly, the issue with the new race.” Two dragons, larger than me, were carrying what looked like a still well armored soldier, in chains, over to us. “White Knight, would you please do the honors of interrogating them?” All eyes were on me. “I’m not really the ‘interrogating’ type but I’ll try.” I say while walking over to the well armored soldier. “Alright listen, we can either do this the easy way, or the hard way. The easy way, you just tell me all we need to know and you stop bothering literally every living being on this planet. Or the hard way, where I start actual torture methods.” I say to him bluntly. “And trust me, I may not know torture, but I’m pretty sure I can figure out something to make your life even worse than it already is.” He chuckled. “You folks get done talking peace now you're thinking torture? Hypocrites.” He said. “Isn’t that what America does?” I ask. “Tries to talk about peace but tortures its own citizens? Also what were you doing to these dragons? I only heard so much but I doubt it was for ‘peaceful’ reasons.” “You get swallowed up by a black hole looking thing, wake up with your whole base on some beach, then while exploring see real life fucken dragons in the same week and see if you aren't gonna shoot first ask probably never.” He retorted. “I had that same situation happen except with ponies.” I say honestly. “Then you lucked out.” “I understand the whole ‘suddenly getting shoved onto a different planet’ thing is quite a shock in several ways, but don’t you think you would have at least tried to ask a local for help? You know like what you're supposed to do? Instead of acting like a cliche in a random story or movie like an idiot?” I ask. “The first thing we see when getting here are fucking dragons, we didn’t attack til some smaller red one shot fire at us.” “Sadly this is true.” The dragon lord said. “The dragon known as Garble has been imprisoned for this, but we imprisoned this being for using a new type of bullet we’ve never seen before.” “AP ammo has been on earth for a while.” “Can you believe that the ‘earth’ I came from is apart of someone's imagination?” I ask the man. “Heh, why not, first some creatures right out of a video game start invading earth, then we wake up here, now you tell me this? Why the hell not.” “Good man.” I nod. “But just so you know, I’m still human, even though…” I say while pulling my hood back and showing wolf parts. “Sad to say...things happened. But where are the others? I better be the ‘ambassador’ here.” “Like I said, our base, somehow intact, appeared on a beach fifty miles from here.” “Sweet, well that’s going to be easy enough.” I say while summoning my keyblade glider. “Want a ride there? Cause I think handing you over as a sign of peace would be a good thing right now.” “I’m coming too.” Luna said, pulling out her Keyblade and summoning her glider. “If the dragons were a bad first meeting with our world then maybe I can help sort it out.” “By the by, what year was it on your earth soldier?” I ask, unshackling the guy. “2037.” “Damn, a whole 15 years before my Earth went to hell.” I chuckle, finally getting the shackles off of him. “Ya see, my imaginary earth kind of went to hell in the whole ‘2012 mayan calander’ bullshit. Didn’t actually happen but people just went berserk about it so...eh.” I shrug. “I was like, four when that happened so I don’t remember much.” The soldier said, rubbing his wrists. “Well glad to know your world didn’t go to hell until Heartless started showing up.” I say while getting on my bike. “Hop on. But what’s your name soldier?” “Lenny Grinlock, call me Len.” He said, getting on the bike. “Names Ben, or as this world knows me, White Knight.” I say honestly. “Ready Luna?” I ask, ready to speed off to find more humans. “Yes.” She replied as we both sped off. Len lead us to where his base was, over quite a distance we were met with the scene of a military base right out of a sci-fi movie. There was even an energy shield over it. Damn, technology must have tripled in progress after 2012. We landed just outside the gate. Len got off, and walked over to the barrier. “This is base capitan Grinlock, open the force field.” There was a siren noise for a sec before the shield flickered and faded. “Welcome to Base Redemption.” “It sure took the bastards long enough to actually make shit like this.” I frown, getting off my glider and it vanishing. “Seriously, first in 2000 was supposed to have flying cars, then later ‘holograms’, but all we got was a bunch of bullshit.” I huff. “Captain!” A random soldier came up. “We thought those things ate you or something.” “At ease general, they’re as intelligent as us, the one that shot at the heli was apparently some young punk of their kingdom, he got his. Oh, this is Ben, a…former earthling, and a blue pony woman.” Len said, pointing to us. “That would be my fiance, Princess Luna, Diarch of Equestria and, while this might sound crazy and impossible as fuck, ruler of the moon. She raises it and lowers it for the night to start and all that.” I explain. “Would explain the perfect day and night cycles.” Len said. “So general, what’s happened in my absence?” “Still no contact with any other possible earth survivors, reactor is doing fine but the fuel’s gonna run out in a month, and the men’s morale has… dropped.” “Well it’s a good thing me and Luna are here to help build some semblance of a peaceful relation between this world and all of you.” I say honestly. “If we can do this all right you can have the help of at least three kingdoms, the Dragons, Changelings, and Equestrians.” I say honestly. “Sir?” The general asked. “General, our first encounter went bad because of a dumb youth, to be honest I do trust the apparent princess lady more mainly because we’re at eye level as compared to those dragons.” “I can see that…” I mutter. “But anyways, while here and trying not to panic about dragons, have you seen any Heartless around?” I ask curiously. “Heartless?” The two asked. “Those weird shadow things that pulled you all into that black hole thing.” I say. “Weird shadow creatures with either a weird heart symbol or pure black creatures? Anything at all?” “Oh, yeah. We’ve seen them largely coming from a cave ten miles east of here.” The general said. “They leave the base alone for some reason.” “Either because their waiting for you all to lose moral, your resources, or waiting for that one jackass to be like ‘let’s join them because I’m an idiot’.” I frown. “But seriously have none of you ever heard of Kingdom Hearts?” “Kingdom hearts… I think a game like that was released late 2017…but it was the third one if I remember…god I was nine I should remember this.” “Teen wielding a giant key and killing things?” I say, trying to help him remember. “Yeah…that sounds about right.” “Yes captain, I played it, it was the last game in the series.” The general said. “Was…really good.” “Lucky bastards.” I frown. “I had to wait 5 damn years for that thing? Come on Square you're better than this.” I complain, not liking Square Enix for having to make a game take 5 damn years to make. “Anyways, who’s the leader here? We have a lot to talk about.” I say, not wanting to get too distracted with rants about a video game company. “Uh…” The general pointed to Len. “He is the base captain.” I face palmed. “Oh for fuck sakes.” I sigh out. “Well thanks for telling me that now.” I frown. “I did refer to him as captain for a reason.” The general said. “It’s a different title officially, but I like captain better.” Len said. “So Ben, what’s happened your end?” “We’re...gonna have to sit down for this.” I say sheepishly. “There’s so much crap that it’s not even funny.” Luna and I spent a good few hours telling Len what had been going on my end since I was picked up in 2012. I still found it a tad odd how fifteen years passes on earth when it’s not even been a full year for me yet. I chalked it up to God and left it at that. When I was done Len told me about some things from back on earth, how the heartless, and unversed from the looks of it had been seen around since 2012, but were just rumors until they started full on invading in 2020. He said china fell, then europe, followed by canada and japan a year later. If they didn’t take people they were either killing or throwing them into the black holes like what happened with this base. “Then that’s when the whole base came too, and we were here.” Len said, finishing his story. “Damn.” I say simply. “That’s a whole bunch of something. Did you happen to see any weird hybrids or humans helping out with the Heartless and Unversed?” I ask curiously, wondering if this was Core’s work. “Lots. Most we managed to take photos of matched missing person’s descriptions of… bodies, that were never found in the 2012 riots. Many called this a dead coming back thing but I don’t buy that.” “Mind if I see those pictures?” I ask curiously. “I might be able to tell some of those people but I’m not a hundred percent sure.” The general came up with a large file filled with photos of the heartless fusions and the people helping them. I searched through them all rather quickly. “Damn it Core…” I mutter to myself, still horrified that this asshole is going to such lengths to just slaughter everyone. One picture caught my attention and I didn’t like it. “Wait…” I mutter, staring at the picture and seeing...Josh Ventral? “Something doesn’t seem right with this one.” I say showing them Josh. “This man is named Josh Ventral...but something about it doesn’t seem right for some reason.” I say, looking at the picture more closely, knowing that Josh and the other Ventrals are forced to work for Core but not entirely sure if there’s anything else there that might tip me off. “Well that’s a mystery to us too. First off, he and all but one Ventral went missing back in 2013, and when this picture was taken and ran through the system, reports of him being in four different countries, at the same time, came in. It’s as if someone cloned them all.” “That bastard!” I bark, slamming my fist into the table. “How the fuck did Core figure that out? But...wait, Josh was in your Earth?” I ask curiously, finding that very weird. “We have no idea, he’s been missing for a while, like I said, all but one vanished, and he’s reported to be brutal, but these...Clones, if that’s why there seems to be more than one of him, act way more ruthless than any reports. For starters, the Ventrals made it known they largely only kill cops, because that’s who’s chasing them all the time, rival gangs, and thugs. Meaning they only kill innocents when their legendary Killing Mood starts. These ones kill anyone who steps out of line, even so much as a sneeze and they’ll kill you.” ”Too many things don’t add up here…” I think to myself. “Okay...so apparently Core managed to clone Josh and then take away everything made him...well him. Just so he could have an army of loyal, blood thirsty soldiers that don’t give a damn about anyone.” I explain. “I’ve met Josh before, got shot eight times in non-lethal areas, but I’ve also met his family...even they would say this is just mindless killing.” “Then it looks like whoever this Core is has some rather frightening resources, and a dark side too dark for the legendary Ventral family. Perhaps one of our men can go with you to see what’s up for himself, and report back at some time.” “Let’s hope whoever you want to tag along with me doesn’t die.” I sigh out. “But from what I heard from two Ventrals...Core is a monster, going way beyond even their comfort zones with the shit he does...which involves cloning, torture, and sick hybridization projects as you see in these pictures.” I say. “Well don’t worry, this guy can handle himself, he has a knack for surviving the impossible, even went toe to toe with a Ventral copy back on earth and walked away.” Len pulled out a walkie talkie. “First Sergeant Mike, report to the debrief room now.” He called. “He’ll be here soon, and trust me, you don’t make the rank of First Sergeant a week in the marines without impressing someone.” “Sounds impressive, but has he ever gotten super powers from ‘God’?” I ask. “Cause I have and it’s amazing.” “Well his combat abilities are nothing to dismiss, the Ventral he fought had some strange abilities too and he still took them down.” “Sounds like a badass.” I chuckle. “Can’t wait to meet him.” “Captain?” A voice came from the door. When I looked… I didn’t believe it. He was older, had a gash on his right cheek and blue eyes, but it was Zeke! “What’s the mission?” “How in the fuck?!” I yelp, not understanding how that was possible. “Okay...this is the second person that just so happens to look like a friend of mine.” I think to myself. “Sorry, it’s nice to meet you. Names Ben.” I say to the soldier. “Your mission Mike is to play follower to Ben here so we can gather useful field information. Gear up and meet him at the front gate with a report.” Mike saluted then headed out. “He’s a master marksman, hand to hand combat is second nature to him, and he’s a wizard with computers.” “I expected nothing less to be perfectly honest.” I say. “He a team player or does stuff by himself?” I ask curiously. “Just wondering cause cooperation right now is a must.” I state, not wanting to have Mike just suddenly head off and do something on his own without me knowing about it. “Either or really, put him in a team he follows whoever is named leader, in this case you, and alone he’s a one man army.” “Good to know.” I nod. “But...would it shock you if I said that he looks exactly like 2 people I know?” I ask curiously. “Not really I guess, lots of people can have the same face but never meet.” “No as in literally everything about them besides eye color and maybe hair color.” I say. “Eh, so anything you want to know about him other than his people skills?” “Well…” I think for a moment. “Is he a straight up soldier? Just the whole ‘must protect the people’ kind of guy or does he know anything outside that field?” I ask curiously. “A bit of both really. He’ll follow orders, but he tends to put his own spin on them. Once, a field report had said he managed to capture, alive, the Korean dictator during this Heartless invasion of the nation. I looked into it and Kim Jon is currently in a secret prison back on earth…Assuming it's still there.” “Let’s hope for the best I suppose.” I shrug. “Anyways want us to go anywhere specific? Cause I already have a spot that I need to investigate.” I say, not entirely sure if he told me where to head off. “Then head there, his mission is to view and report. Aid if asked. Other than that just do what you normally do.” “Right then.” I nod. “And Luna? Staying here to make peace or coming with me?” I ask, wondering what she’ll be doing while I’m long gone. “I guess I'll be here for a bit longer to talk about some things with the Capitan.” Luna said. “Alright.” I nod. “But just so you can tell all your men this Captain, if any of them hits on my fiance…” I say coldly. “The shit you all saw back on Earth will be child’s play.” I growl. “Relax, she's royalty so we’ll treat her as such. We’re military, besides, no longer being on earth and with no USA to serve…we do need a new…President…or perhaps a princess.” “Oh?” Luna said. “We are a branch of the U.S. Government, but seeing as our government is likely fallen or falling, perhaps to keep moral up here we can join the government of what princess Luna here governs?” “You’ll be the military of the Equestrian Government, ruled over by Princess Luna, and Princess Celestia, her sister.” I say. “I’m sure Celestia would love to hear about this.” I chuckle. “Also...I think I can try you people some weapons.” I say honestly. “Guns are fine and all but having magical weapons helps solve problems a little better.” “Heh. Find us a supplier and we’ll talk.” Len said. “I guess with that out of the way you find Mike and head on out.” “Alright.” I nod, giving Luna a quick goodbye kiss and heading out. After a quick walk I soon found Mike fully prepared. “Yo Mike!” I call out, jogging up to the man. “Sir.” He replied. “Where to?” “Badlands.” I say while summoning my glider and getting on. “I’m pretty sure this is faster than any car you have so hop on.” I say, hoping to get their quickly and figure out what’s going on there. Mike got on and we started heading off. It was still a ride so we had time to talk. “So I heard you are basically the best soldier ever.” “I do alright.” He replied. “You say ‘alright’, I say being able to fight a Ventral, win, and keep a captured target alive either has the elements of luck or your amazing at doing your job.” “I do alright.” He just repeated. “Okay.” I nod. “I also heard the captain say you got First Sergeant in a week. How did that happen?” I ask. “Was a Private, sent to some basic field work in the U.K station, those creatures attacked, I walked out of the U.K with a few hundred surviving civilians and killed several thousand of those human Heartless fusions.” “Damn.” I say, surprised at hearing that amount of people survives and heartless were killed. “What weapon did you use the entire time?” I ask curiously. “Switched out with whatever was around. Used mostly guns, and combat knife when ammo ran out.” “Nice.” I nod. “So how was your fight with that Ventral? Notice anything strange about him?” “Her, and… that wasn’t a Ventral, that was a monster.” “Mind explaining?” I ask curiously. “She was known for slave trading, her name was Nancy, she fought like a monster, not like the Ventrals tend to do.” I took a deep breath, trying to calm myself. “Did you kill her?” I ask sullenly. “Yes.” ”Fuck…” I think to myself bitterly. “Core, the Ventrals new boss….gave them powers. Super strength, speed, stamina, and a few other things. They hate their boss besides two people...but they're forced to do his dirty work...but because of a cloning project Core took out the restrictions out of the clones.” I explain. “That would explain it.” He said. “Did you see a number on her? Anything at all that might make you think she was a clone?” I ask curiously. “Yeah. On her right hand was a tattoo of the number 98.” “Not only is that fucker desecrating all over a dead woman’s body…” I growl. “This is bad...I fought Nancy...the actual one...and I was forced to kill her...it’s still terrible to me…” I mutter, continuing to fly towards the badlands. “They care about family, Ventrals don’t tend to die unless they have nothing left to lose, or they make a mistake.” “Yeah…” I sigh out. “But Nancy still had a ten year old girl named Jenny...which I adopted actually...she hates me but is willing to give it a shot thankfully.” “...good, that little freak show needs non criminal influences.” “She already taught my other daughter how to defend herself…” I say sheepishly. “Heh, sounds like her.” “You talk like you knew her?” I question. “...Research.” “Sounds a lot more than ‘research’ here.” I say. “Don’t worry, there are no eyes or ears around. Just the two of us. If you have anything to talk about or say I’m all ears.” “...I got nothing to say.” “You sure?” I ask. “No ‘who are you?’ or ‘how did you summon this huge flying bike out of thin air’?” “You’re my mission, and I could care less about a keyblade glider.” “Now how did you know this was a keyblade glider?” I ask curiously. “...I played some of the games.” “So did I my friend.” I say honestly. “So how was Kingdom Hearts 3?” I ask. “Was it awesome? Was it worth the wait?” “Didn’t play it, was…busy, at the time of release.” “Fighting off Heartless and Unversed?” I ask curiously. “More like…getting my life together.” “How so?” I ask curiously. “Rather not say.” “That bad huh?” “You could say I became a new man after it was over.” “Fighting video game monsters tends to do that.” I shrug. “But anything else? Cause we’re both Kingdom Hearts fans so we can probably talk about that for a bit.” “Well…so it’s all real here?” “Yep. Keyblades, Kingdom Hearts, Heartless, Nobodies, Unversed and Dream Eaters. Everything you’ve played is a reality.” I nod. “I have the powers of Organization 13 and can summon Nobodies, but I’m not a bad guy and I’m not a Nobody just so’s ya know.” “Huh. So what time frame story wise it this?” “It’s all fucked up to be perfectly honest.” I sigh out. “What do you know about Multiverse Theory?” “If it’s a ‘what if’ or an alternate version that might happen, it exists.” “Now take that, and put it in between two mirrors.” I say. “Damn.” “Yeah.” I nod. “A shit ton of reflections for all of this.” I sigh out. “But for this reflection, the time line took place where Terranort was still a student under Ansem the Wise...but then I interfered with Aqua and got him back...also it just so happens that Castle Oblivion is magically gone, Ventus has his heart back and is awake and the main game series is about as fucked as can be.” I say, not figuring out a colorful metaphor for it but still. “Huh, so I guess not long after that X-blade blew up then.” “Pretty much. Except there’s the tiny little catch that a man, who looks exactly like you but with red eyes, happens to have the X-blade.” I point out. He seemed to tense up at that. “Zeke Ventral?” “You know him?” I ask curiously. “He...he’s dead. His body was found shot to death by police back in 2018.” “Now here’s the small thing…” I start. “Where me and Zeke come from...it’s basically someone’s imagination land.” I say. “And the ‘mayan calendar’ thing that happened in 2012 was our worlds end basically. So the ‘god’ of that imagination land told us ‘welcome to real life, want’s some kick ass powers?’ and me, Zeke, and several others, decided to go with a Kingdom Hearts theme.” I explain. “Lot to take in I know but that’s about the sum of it. And apparently when we all thought Earth was just a figment of someone’s imagination it just so happened to actually exist. Who would have seen that sudden cliche as fuck twist?” “Well, if it exists in God’s mind then technically yes it does exist. That whole 2012 thing happened on Earth, the riots, all of it, so maybe Core and these heartless are tearing it up for some reason?” “My Earths ‘God’ just so happened to be just a very powerful random dude. Not the actual Christian ‘God’...also Core happens to be God’s brother cause reasons.” I shrug. “Huh, so sibling feuds or is he after something on Earth?” “It’s not a sibling feud that’s for fucking sure. I don’t know what Core’s after but...Core is after his brother to figure out how to do the whole ‘make a multiverse through imagination’ cause the guy want’s to do cliche bad guy stuff and end everything as we know it.” I explain. “I’m guessing a bullet won’t kill him then?” “Core can cleave a planet in half without trying.” I deadpan. “Then…huh, can I ask you something?” “Shoot.” “You said Zeke Ventral, the one you say you know, is from earth. When did you two get…picked up?” “On the day when people started rioting.” I say. “I don’t know what Zeke was doing at the time but I was at school not giving the greatest of fucks. And none of the student or teacher body gave a fuck either believe it or not.” “Huh, some high school. I was… at ‘home’. Parents were stocked up like hell, I was up in…my room, watching the neighbors pack up and leave. I took a nap, then woke up when some fucker shot the house down with a tank. Parent’s were dead and I left the rubble a day later to make sure they weren’t around.” “How the fuck did some random asshole get a tank?” I ask, completely flabbergasted at hearing that. “Didn’t bother asking when I found him, I just made him choke on the barrel of a shotgun as I fired slugs into his stomach.” “Brutal.” “It was payback… I noticed something off that day too.” “What would that be?” “...I had killed for the first time ever that day…and nothing happened.” “What do you mean ‘nothing happened’?” I ask worriedly. “Were you expecting some thrill at killing? Feelings that ‘I got my parents murderer’? Or guilt that you just murdered someone?” “...I was Zeke Ventral.” “Well that explains why you look exactly like Zeke.” I shrug. “I suppose you were shocked you didn’t have a ‘Killing Mood’ and all that right?” “Yeah. I didn’t even notice my eyes were blue till a week later when I found a not broken mirror. That surprised me more than no killing mood.” “Well either someone ripped you out of your body and put you in a new body, or some weird shenanigans happened that I don’t know about.” “The fact you know a Zeke Ventral and I was Zeke ventral before faking my death, something is up here.” “Remember when I said God happened to create an imaginary Earth?” “Yes. I believe we both come from there?” “Yep. I don’t know which one is the ‘real’ one here, but I think either you are a clone of Zeke, or Zeke is a clone of you. I have no idea, this makes less and less sense the more I go along with this.” I sigh out. “In a reality with magic, Keyblades, and other realities, not much will make sense.” “Ain’t that the truth.” I chuckle. “But I suppose you faked your death because you didn’t want to be targeted by your family?” “Not that. Everyone knew the Ventrals were disappearing back then before this recent comeback. I figured I’d disappear in a different way. I found a person, bad guy, with my general body type, shot the hell out of them, then payed a favor to the local coroner to rig the tests so it would come out as my DNA in the blood sample and not the actual person. Made sure that was their only option, broke and shot at any other way to identify. I laid low for a few years before I finally got out, had a part time job for a year then joined the marines not long after that. Forging a false identity was easy.” “Considering what I was told about you and what the Zeke I know could do...sounds about right.” I nod. “Even if one of us are a clone then I guess it doesn’t matter anyway. I’m a little over thirty, and have my own life, I’m sure he’s got his, so at this point are we even the same person?” “Do you have sixteen wives?” I ask curiously. “Cause the Zeke I know does.” “Damn… I haven’t even had a girlfriend before.” Mike says. “I got the short stick in this mayan clone crap.” “For some reason most of us have harems.” I say. “But whatever, you’ll get a girlfriend sooner or later. Your a thirty year old Zeke, I’m sure you’ll find someone nice.” “Just keep calling me Mike, less confusion and I have gotten used to it- Look out!” Mike tried to move us to the side, but something hit the glider and we were now crash landing. We crashed, my glider disbanding on impact as Mike and I rolled through the dry dirt. “Well, well, well.” A REALLY familiar, yet older, voice spoke. “Looks like I got two birds with one RPG.” I looked up, seeing an older, scar covered me. “My christ, who knew age didn’t agree with me.” I say, getting up as I stared at the older me. “So...what cliche bullshit is going on here?” Mike got up fast, pointing a rather large pistol at the older me. “That’s Ben Tanor, well known crime lord and co-leader of the Garette crime family. The only family to match the Ventrals.” “I suppose ‘cause of dead parents’ made you go murder crazy instead of super fucking depressed?” I ask, summoning my Keyblade and Shield. “Oh I was once a depressed fuck, so bad. Then I wake up, school’s being shot up, and my wife to be was the one with the mini-gun in both hands. Rather than kill me she noticed I wanted some payback for those idiots, gave me a shotgun and we’ve been dating ever since.” The evil me said. “You lucky bitch. You actually had a girlfriend!” I shout. “Oh well, shit happens. Anyways, why are you working for Core again? When you obviously know that he’s a psychopath even beyond your standards?” “Truth be told, I just like killing, besides.” He snapped his fingers. Two Titans appeared, one grabbing Mike and I while the other lifted the evil me to eye level. “Who said I’m working with that piss ant?” “Y-your the one…?” I stutter, looking at the titans. “Yup, I managed to send that titan to that New York rip off to see how well they do, and they do damage well!” My older self noticed thorns starting to trail over the titan’s hand. “How….” I growl. “HOW FUCKING DARE YOU!!!” I roar, a very bright light and sound of glass shattering resounding across the badlands. After a few seconds the titan was missing both a hand and arm as...everything started to get blurry for me. My older self saw me floating in mid air, missing my cloak but being covered in thorns, bandages, and a very dangerous aura even to him. ‘I’ looked at him with bandaged eyes as I took a deep breath. The older me stared at me, then laughed. “Well then, not bad. Now, see what you could be if you had the taste for blood.” I saw his eyes turn like Core’s, and in a blur, my arm was sliced from finger to shoulder. “This is the power of a Psychopath-” He was cut off. I saw dad side kick him… out of sight. “Now this isn’t good…” Dad said, using some magic to heal me. “You better?” “D-daddy?” I ask, my voice sounding completely hollow and echoey as I remained in my form. “Wow you must have hit your head if you called me that.” “No...I’m his Joy…” The new, more childish voice said to him. “Oh! Well…hi? One sec.” Dad summoned some kinda sword from his Assistant, the blade was black and it gave off the look of being on fire. The evil older me came flying back…from the other direction, and was impaled by dad’s sword. “Why hello Psycho.” “Why hello Cript, been a while.” The older me spoke, his voice now like thousands of people talking in unison. “Is this your newest brat?” “Yes, now how about I show him what I do to scum like you, shall I?” “Heh, as always, we’ll see.” The two vanished, energy was thick in the air all of a sudden as half of it felt like poison to breath, and the other half felt like breathing in mist. Up in the sky I saw the two clashing, dad dodging every attack the Psychopath aiming for with ease. His hand got covered in some kinda…one's and zero’s as he went in for an attack, only to be knocked to the side by a newcomer…who also had the Psychopath eyes. “Sorry human god but we have to keep our numbers.” They both said, vanishing in a mist of red. “Damn… great, out of retirement again…” Dad muttered as he flew back over to me. “Sorry I couldn’t show off son.” “It’s alright...but Ben’s...kind of not here at the moment.” Joy says worriedly. “Asleep or what?” “Anti-form.” The child says through me, showing off the more ‘Nobody like’ anti-form. “His...rage kind of broke for a minute.” “Oh…wuss.” Dad said, tapping ‘my’ head as Joy fell asleep and my body began to return to normal. My cloak and crown on me again. “Man you need training. Finish up with the weapons you got then see me fast kid.” Dad said, placing my barely conscious body next to Mike’s unconscious one. “Let’s see…oh, the place you want is about ten more miles ahead, good luck, and here’s some good news, they aren’t from your earth.” Dad vanished as I fell into unconsciousness. “Well that sucked.” I grumble, walking up to a playground bench and sitting down on it. “That’s what happens when your rage breaks.” Joy says, sitting down next to me. “So you can somehow take over my body?” I ask, looking over the child and seeing he was an adorable half Dire werewolf. “Also your adorable by the by.” “Thank you, but yes. When you were in your anti-form you kind of…’passed out’ and I got the chance to see Dad…” The pup says while rubbing ‘his’ arm. “That...that man wasn’t us...right?” “Of course not.” I say with a little grin. “I mean seriously, did you see how ugly he was? When I grow up I’ll still be as handsome as I am now.” I joke while Joy smiles warmly. “Ben!” Luna’s voice rang out behind me as I suddenly found my face in boobs as I was tackled. “Where have you-Oh, sorry.” She said, getting her chest of of my face. “No no, I was happy with that.” I smile. “Ben…” Joy huffs. “Fine fine...but anyways do you want the long or short of it Luna?” “Short now, long when we meet back up in the physical world.” She answered. “So apparently there’s an evil, and very old version of me, and he happened to get my rage to break...then Dad came in...fought...it was blurry to be perfectly honest.” I sigh out. She kissed me. “Ben, it’s already midnight, you’ve been missing all day. I can’t use magic to track you in the badlands because the dark magic interferes with such spells. My dream walking is all that works and I can’t track unless you know where you are.” “It’s best if me and Mike just go home…” I sigh out. “Hi Luna.” Joy says. “But please...we both need to be home and not in the badlands anymore...too many bad things happened…” “You’ll have to wake up and head back then Ben, I can wake you, so… sorry.” Luna slapped me as everything went black. I came too fast, feeling the phantom slap from my dream, but I noticed right away that Mike and I were in restraint jackets. “Oh for fuck sakes.” I grumble. “Okay why am I in a restraint jacket?” “Silence prisoner.” I looked up, seeing a guard with…an energy sword. “You will be questioned in the morning.” “I just woke up, I need some context here please.” I say worriedly, wondering why I’m restrained and a prisoner. “We got readings of massive power out in the desert appearing then vanishing suddenly, and when we searched we found you and that man out cold.” “Oh...well I can calmly and completely say that was not mine or my friends fault.” I say simply. “You have proof?” “I witnessed what happened, and trust me what happened I couldn’t do.” I say simply. “This world is filled with magic and...outsiders just so happened to have a fight here if you can believe that.” “...You’ll be questioned in the morning.” He said, closing some kinda second door over the barred door that was already there. It was at that point I realized the room Mike and I were in a padded room. “Fuck…” I mutter, summoning Fair Game and starting to cut myself loose. “No idea where I am, I’m being held against my will, and I’m being blamed for something I didn’t do…” I grumble, managing to cut myself out of the jacket. “I hate this…” I sigh out. “Yo, Mike? You awake?” “Huh?” He started, waking up. “...Crap.” He said as he saw the situation. “Yeah...sorry about that…” I sigh out, stretching my arms a bit. “I...didn’t expect any of that to happen….how you holding up?” “So so. Well, you wanna risk breaking out and not knowing what’s going on, or wait and see what happened?” “I’d rather break out to figure out what the fuck is going on.” I frown. “We were kidnapped here when we were knocked out, and for some reason they put us in restraint jackets and left us in a padded room like we were lunatics.” I say while helping Mike out of his restraints. “They said we were ‘prisoners’ and that we’re going to be ‘questioned’ in the morning.” Mike looked at the jacket, seeing a logo on the back. “Uh, Ben.” He showed me the logo, and it was a green leaf with a white plus in it. He then got up and looked at the room, and out a window the room had. “Same logo on the ship from what I can see here.” “Does this mean we're in a hospital?” I frown, seeing the plus and leaf and thinking ‘medical center’. “I think so. Huh, space hospital…that looks like it crashed. Wow… so… they clearly aren’t a threat to us anyway, they’re all doctors and other staff.” “With energy swords.” I point out. “But they apparently think we did...what you were knocked out for probably.” I say worriedly. “Well, either way we best stay and wait. Rather not ruin my new clean record.” Mike says as he lays down on the floor. “Fine…” I sigh out, sitting down and waiting. “Christ, this day went from absolutely wonderful, where I finally proposed to my eight girlfriends, which they all thankfully agreed to, to weird because suddenly ‘earth exists in real life’...then complete bullshit where a version of me is super fucking evil and my dad has to solve my damned problems.” I sigh out, summoning Reunion and Fair Game, noticing the symbols on them. “Welcome to my life.” Mike says. “Nothing ever goes according to plan or hopes, that’s why I have non. Night.” “Oh yeah…” I sigh out. “Night.” I say. ”Thirteen keys… I think to myself, not sure how I knew what the marks said but it seemed important. To be continued
Nobody's good to bad day pt2The wait for our captors was long, boring, and really uneventful as me and Mike just sat around waiting for whoever the fuck we were supposed to wait for. “My god this is boring.” I grumble. “Welcome to jail.” Mike said. “You, Zeke, whichever, have been in jail before?” I asked. “Nine times, three times I… er, we? We I guess, broke ourselves out. FIrst self breakout, classic laundry shoot jump, second, stole a guard's keycard, and last time we managed to knock out some guards and caused a riot as we made it to the parking lot… delivering an armored swat car to the family while we were at it. Heh, dad and mom were proud. We called in a favor to a makeup artist and managed to go to Disneyland.” “Now while breaking out of prison is a bad thing that actually sounds hilarious.” I chuckle. “Yeah. Looks the guards had when the last time it was Solitary I broke out of was the best laugh I had. Thankfully, being a Ventral, with red eyes no less, gave me a rep without needing to earn it. So some trades and… a few stolen bullets later I managed to blow the lock off. Since no guards usually checked on solitary, most I alerted was the smoke detector… that’s how the riot started. Smoke alarm triggered some safety protocol and the cell doors everywhere opened up.” “That’s basically the best way to get out, during a massive riot.” I chuckle. “But it’s a double edge sword if any ‘break out’ movies told me anything.” “Oddly enough I wasn't in a car chase after that though. Not sure how, I know guards saw me hijack the truck so maybe they thought the riot was more important than an escaping prisoner?” “They probably thought ‘again?’.” I say, pretending I was a guard that was tired of having a Ventral, yet again, breaking out of prison. “To be perfectly honest you’d think the police would just stop after the first few times you break out...maybe they just found the definition of ‘insanity’ after the hundredth time a Ventral broke out.” I joke “We don’t get arrested that much. Only, myself included… Zeke too I guess, nine Ventrals in our family history have been arrested. Four of which were the only ones to be executed after arrest.” “I think I remember one Ventral that got arrested with a smile on his face, went to juvie and then proceeded to kill guards, than warden, and went straight back to being a jack hole.” “Was likely my brother Dillen… psycho takes the term megalomaniac to a whole other level.” “I think it was someone different because the place was still standing and too many people inside were still alive.” I say, trying to remember that one person’s name. “Ah fuck it. Who cares right now…” The door to our ‘cell’ opened as a…a…a Nage male slithered in here. “So you two were at the scene of the power surge?” He asked. His human half was armored, and his snake half was half covered in some type of armor. “And who might you be? Cause it’s not everyday a Naga appears while two people are being held against their will.” “Naga?” He asked. “It’s a word for your kind on various worlds sir, likely during your kinds early space travels.” A guard outside the door replied. “Ah. Well I’m Doctor Grethic. And you two are here for questioning because we need to know what that power surge was?” “Okay...everything that I explain is the hundred percent truth okay?” I ask. “You sure you want to hear the...rather absurd happenings?” “My race was a predator one, I can hear your heartbeat so I’ll know if you’re lying.” He replied. “Okay so those power readings you just so happened to get was because two god like beings were fighting.” I say. “Absurd right?” “Not really. On my world we worshiped a whispering bolder for thousands of years before it finally broke open. Whispers were a god like being trapped in it. Let’s just say I’m plantless cause of the red and black eyed bastard.” “What ‘red and black eyed bastard’?” I ask worriedly. “Cause considering my line of work, I have seen...at least two people that would be happy to do such a thing.” “She was my race, but her eyes were black with red pupils like a felines. Her body was tattooed in some runes, wrapped in chains. When she broke out of the chains her tattoos practically evaporated away. It was Genocide.” “Congratulations...you’ve met a ‘Psychopath’. Now those people are actually completely different from your regular crazy people…” I sigh out. “Remember those energies? One of them was a Psychopath, the other was a man who goes out and tries to stop them…” I explain. “Well, as relieving as it is to hear someone can fight those beasts and live, this is disappointing.” “Yeah…” I sigh out. “And the two of us did about the middle ground of ‘fuck’ and ‘all’ against the bad guy. Sorry you didn’t get to meet the person that can actually fight the bastards.” I shrug. “So, what are you doing here on Equis? Seems random to find a spaceship in the middle of nowhere.” “If it wasn't obvious from the logo and the view from outside, were a hospital ship. Any ship with injuries or things of the such call out to one of us, we send out a rescue ship, treat them here and then we send them off to where we took their ships. Typical protocol.” “Makes sense.” I nod. “Mike? Any questions about this whole...situation?” “Just wondering, what made a ship this big crash?” He asked. “That is a curious thing. Did you happen to get shot down by something?” I ask. “Well, yes and no. We spotted someone, a humanoid drifting in space WITHOUT any gear. We took the body aboard but to our shock they were somehow alive. When they came too they explained someone was after them then suddenly the alarms rang. Strange sliver creatures appeared. The person of they were after managed to evade them, but they wound up in sector four C. During the fighting the primary and secondary engines blew, we only have the backup and it’s only enough to provide power, not fly the ship.” “Well...shit.” I say worriedly. “Yes, that is accurate of the situation. We were hoping this suprise energy spike was something we could use to help build a new engine and jump start the ship.” “Well sadly no.” I say. “But I know a lot of people that are willing to help you out in your time of need.” “That would be grand, but I do have a favor to ask of you two.” “And that favor would be?” “As I explained, the person who we brought from their space floating managed to hide somewhere in sector four C, but we can’t contact, nor dare we go in there.” “Right then, so we have to go into possibly Sliver infested territory to find a random person we have no idea about...what did this person look like?” I ask. “Female, brown hair with green eyes. Human, mostly, she has strange symbols tattooed on her arms and hands. Also, she seemed to be able to somehow summon a strange key looking weapon.” “Got a name?” I ask curiously, getting up and readying myself for the search. “We didn’t get the chance before those Sliver beasts appeared. But they have largely left, only reason we won’t go into sector four C is because it’s quarantine. When the ship crashed and the power was restarting, the computer reported the patients with… Necragilver, escaped.” “And that’s a deadly disease?” Mike asked. “Yes, by spit or blood the infected seem to die, then walk around with reduced brain functions. They have slowed heartbeats, so they are not the story book zombie, but it’s close.” “There fucking zombies.” I frown. “No matter if you say ‘it’s close’, or ‘it’s a fungus’, no it’s a fucking zombie and everyone knows it.” I say, still hating how people say that a ‘zombie’ can be somehow different when they are the exact fucking same. “Sorry for ranting...but anyways, want us to just cleave through the zombies and find the person?” “They are our patients, not some undead. There is a cure for them, but our ship didn’t have enough so we were going for a resupply when we found the woman and crashed.” The guards behind him gave him two futuristic looking rifles. “These are stun rifles, they’ll paralyze them patients, but I warn you, the patients despite lacking large brain functions, are fast. And no, they only bite or attack when hurt, they’re more likely to run away from you rather than attack you on sight.” “Well good to know that.” I nod while grabbing the rifle and checking it over. “Uh...Mike? Mind showing me how to actually use a rifle properly? I...never used a gun before.” I say nervously, which is funny because I use thirteen different weapons. As we were walked over to the entrance to quarantine, Mike showed me how to fire the rifle as it was not much different from a regular rifle. Once we got to the entrance we walked through a decontamination chamber and then we were in quarantine. It was still very well lit, no blood or dead bodies like in zombie games. We saw one ahead of us and when they spotted us they bolted away from us. “Huh, so the doc wasn’t lying.” Mike said. “They are fast. Think you can keep up?” I ask, knowing I could keep up with that speed surprisingly enough. “This isn’t a shoot-em up Ben, they’re just sick, scared people. Let’s find this woman and get out of here.” “I was just asking in case we had to actually fight.” I say simply. “But yeah, let’s just hurry up and find her…” I say, moving carefully through the place. As we walked we came across more and more of the sick people, who tried to run or hide from us. We found one locked door, to which Mike managed to break down. Inside was a rather ransacked looking room. “This was the only locked door so far.” Mike said out loud. “Hello?” I call out, hoping someone was in there. “W-w-who’s there?” A female voice asks shakily, the fear in her voice blatantly obvious. “We’re friends.” I say gently. “Come on, you can come out.” “Fine.” She answered, but to my surprise she dropped from the ceiling, she knocked the wind out of me before yelling “Stop!” I managed to look up, Mike had the stop spell clock over him and she was pointing…a Kingdom Key at my face. “Talk or I’ll gut you.” She threatened. “Here we are, trying to get you out of a zombie infested area, and you immediately decide to attack us…” I frown, summoning Reunion and readying it. “As I said, we’re friends.” “That’s what the one with the blank face mask said, then he kidnaps my son and kills my husband.” I groaned, pulling back my hood and showing my face. “See? No weird mask being worn by an asshole.” I say. “For the third time, we’re here to help you out. Who are you?” She removed the Kingdom Key from my face, and let me get up. “Name is Skyla.” “Nice to meet you Skyla, the names Ben. The person that you just stopped is Mike, he’s a friend of mine. But who was your husband and son?” I ask honestly. “My husband was named Greg, and my son is named Sora.” “Oh...shit.” I frown. “Um...maybe that’s….” I take a deep breath. “Fuck.” I groan before pinching the bridge of my nose. “Can we get out of here first? I think it would be best if we talked without there being zombies around here.” “Sure, let’s wait for your friend to come off the spell first.” After Mike was no longer under the Stop spell Skyla, Mike and I were in the mess hall, eating some pizza, surprisingly, and I started asking Skyla questions. “Okay before all of this.” I start, while motioning to the ship we were in. “What do you last remember?” “Running from those silver creatures in this place that looked like a rocky, sandy place where it was always night time.” She replied. “I heard them as 'Slivers’ but you say 'silver’. Also this is a space hospital.” I say to her. “I figured. All I know about them is that the man in the mask can make them appear, along with some dark creatures, and some more colorful but still dangerous ones, each seem to carry a symbol on their bodies though.” “That sucks…” I sigh out. “But you're thankfully safe now.” “My safety is unimportant. I need to find my son.” “About that…” I say nervously. “I don't know if this is true but either three things happened to him…” “If you know anything, talk.” She spoke, a touch of anger in her tone. “This is all a guess but it's either, A, he joined that blank masked bastard. B, he's long dead, or C, he is somewhere with friends and being a hero.” I explain. “First off, the blank masked man kidnapped him, I saw it. Second, that better not be the case… it can’t… and lastly he’s only six.” “You weren't with him after he was kidnapped. I hope he's not dead...and time is a finicky bitch.” I say. “Kinda hard when a fat monster is holding you back. All I know is that after this, dark portal thing the man dragged him into closed that fat monster was about to kill me, then this light appeared and it was gone, I was alone in my son’s bedroom holding this.” She summoned the Kingdom Key. “A bunch of other monsters started attacking everywhere. I managed to kill some, but was knocked out. When I came too, I was in this place called Joto.” “Okay then.” I nod. “Well you certainly have a story...Mike? Any questions?” “How did you end up in space without a suit?” Mike asked. “I met someone in a dream my first night on that other world. He was… unique.” Skyla said. “How so?” I ask curiously. “He was… rather old, spoke about the fact my world was taken by darkness and that this… Keyblade, he called it, could help me fight it. He wore a blue robe and had a long white beard.” “Did he also have a pointy hat?” I ask. “It was crooked at the top, plain blue same as his robes and he did have glasses.” “Well...you might have met Yen Sid...but I don't remember him wearing glasses.” I shrug. “Whoever he was, he told me how to use the Keyblade to travel between worlds, and I did. For the past two months I’ve been searching and finally I run back into the masked man, I wind up in some everlasting night world and am attacked left and right by monsters.” “Did you see a sign saying what town you were in?” I ask, feeling like she went to Traverse town. “There was no town, only rocks, sand, a series of roads, and monsters everywhere.” “Oh dear…” I mutters. “Please, continue.” “I found some kinda jail looking place, so many people… I searched for Sora but guards and monsters found me, then some small person in a black version of your cloak jumped me, opened a dark portal and threw me in. I woke up on this ship when I came too. Not even sure when I passed out.” “Damn…” I frown. “That sucks...well at least now you're on a world where 'sunshine and rainbows’ is more in the literal sense.” I say honestly. “I’ll consider moving after I find my son.” She said sarcastically. “I have to find him… he’s all I have left now…” “I hope I'm wrong…” I sigh out. “But anyways I'd recommend settling down for a bit okay? You need rest even after...all this crap.” “I’ll rest when I’m dead….and even then, I’ll haunt the mother fucker for stealing Sora.” “Oi vey…” I sigh out. “But dying would be a bad idea.” She sighed, looking me dead in the eyes. “You can’t understand… you’re not a parent, and if you are, then you’re not a good one if you won’t die to find them when they’re lost.” “You know, if I didn't just become a father I would have slapped you really hard and you wouldn't be able to stop me.” I frown. “Then start learning how to care.” She got up, opening a DTL with the Kingdom Key. “When you’ll die for your kids, smiling the whole time, find me.” She walked into the DTL, it closing behind her quickly. “That was a massive waste of fucking time.” I frown. “Good to know Sora’s mom is alive but...Sora’s kind of...dead.” I sigh out. “I don't know a hundred percent but Ventus is awake...so him being alive is kind of slim.” “She’s a parent.” Mike said, patting me on the back. “She’ll refuse truth till the end. She’s not wrong though…” Mike got up. “You are a father now, right now to kids, one in law and one adopted, you felt guilty for her mother's death, so imagine how she feels, failing to protect her son, the most important part of parenting.” “Well I wouldn't know because one is legally about 30 mentally, and the other is a part of a family of mass murderers.” I say simply. “Was.” Mike corrected. “She’s yours now, treat her as such.” “Listen how about I get passed the bajillion things alright?” I sigh out. “Got too much shit to do and less time to do it.” “One thing at a time then.” Mike said, walking off. I sighed out. They’re not wrong either. I still need to master the rest of my weapons, get hitched somewhere along that road, and now it seems learn how to be a dad properly…might wanna talk to Zeke about that one. “One thing at a time? Fuck you.” I grumble bitterly, knowing that, even if he was right, it was fucking impossible for me. “Not in my life.” I sigh out before heading off, readying myself to just head on home and try to think about the fuck load of things I have to do. To be continued...
Nobody's lesson: SharpshootersOn the way back to the Dragon lands to pick up the girls, then Luna at the military base, if she didn’t already head back to the dragon lands already, Skyla’s words kept ringing in my head, and it was pissing me off. I care about my family, yes I’m new at…all of it but I care! It seemed Mike agreed with her, but I don’t know why though, I know he’s not exactly Zeke but he…came from a mostly caring family given my interactions with them…crap this is all confusing. Next time I see Skyla I’m slapping the bitch out of her. “You look mad Ben.” Mike said as we were heading near the dragon lands. “The bitch said I didn’t care about my family and you agreed with her, don’t I have the right to be mad?” I ask with a frown. “Fair point, but look at it like this, you told a woman, a mother, who lost her son, husband, world, everything she cared about, to rest. I know you meant well, but by telling her that, she thought you didn’t think her son was in danger…and even if Sora is…gone already, she won’t belive it till she either see’s the body or Core tells her himself. She lost everything in less than a day and how the ability to find the one thing from her past she’s betting all hopes on that her son it alive. On your part, it was poor wording.” “I’m not a people person…” I grumble. “True, that’s obvious, but trust me, when one of your new wives has a child by you, you’re ‘stay calm getting mad isn’t a good idea’ perception is gonna turn a one eighty. You’ll have a whole new set of responsibilities, no longer to just your wives, but your kids. You can’t live without them, right?” “Of course.” I deadpan. “Well they can’t live without you, and no kid should grow up only hearing stories about their dead father who got himself killed to save them.” “Wait, so now you're on my side?” I ask curiously. “I’m in the middle, love them enough to die for them, care enough to always come back home. That’s something Skyla lacks, she’ll die for her son’s safety, but that will do him more harm than good.” Huh…love them enough to die for them, care enough to always come home. “Thanks… that kinda helped.” I sigh out. “Also I must add that you saying ‘take one thing at a time’ thing is complete and total bullshit. You may be a soldier and all that but I doubt you’ve ever had to go to every country around the world and cleave through the Heartless population, master 11 more weapons, worry about the wedding, have a ton of people, including yourself, to get stronger to protect everyone…” I explain, taking a deep breath and trying not to rant or rave about how shit my life is. “You get the idea…” “Yes, treat it like college, cram as much in as short a time as possible.” He replied. “Never went myself but the few soldiers back at the base that did go all said that’s what they did. Take like, an hour or two a day for a few weapon classes, or jump headfirst into one specific training and try to get it done as fast as possible.” Mike finished. “That's the problem though.” I frown. “I have so much shit to do and no time to do any of it that it's…” I take a deep breath. “You and your buddies didn't have to be good at magical weapons, kill magical creatures, and so much other shit...but I'm gonna have to do it all anyways.” “Speaking of, mind if I ask where we can obtain magical weapons, I have a feeling they’ll last longer and be more effective against this fight.” “I'll try to figure something out.” I sigh out. “Maybe I'll figure something out.” We arrived back at the Dragonlands, Luna was there and I was greeted with a large group hug and informed Chrysalis about the ship that attacked them. They likely attacked, judging her people based on their appearance. We headed back home and as ordered, Mike tagged along and when we got home, Dinky gave us a surprise. “How did this happen?” Derpy asked, looking at Dinky’s new wings. “They just appeared.” Dinky said. “Also congrats on your engagement mom.” “Okay so apparently you got wings because of your mother.” I say honestly. “Because of our new family curse more...defining features of the parents appear.” I say. “So congrats Dinky, you are now an Alicorn.” “You’re dad’s right.” We all looked at the doorway, seeing dad walk in. “And yes Ben, I’m watching you guys, but not in your private moments. Also, the family curse is only half responsible, the rest is your new… demi-god gene, powers, whatever you call it, it brings out the more… helpfull, genes in a person, letting their full potential emerge and manifest. With some time and training you can control how you look at the snap of a finger, but til then, you’re an alicorn.” “Hi dad. I’m not sure if you two met him but this is your Grandfather, Cript.” I say to both Jenny and Dinky. “And thank you for explaining that to me cause I barely know anything about our family curse.” “Nice to meet you Ben’s dad.” Derpy said, shaking dad’s hand. “Cript is fine.” Dad said. “Like I said, the curse makes any child adopted into my family, no matter how far along the generation, genetically me and my spouse's genetic child. In my case, it’s one of my spouse's. And like I said, as Ben is a demigod, so are his kids now, and you all by marriage.” Dad finished. “Thank you.” I nod. “Well, while it was nice to be home for all of three minutes I have training to do...then go around the world being a hero…” I sigh out. “Good luck son.” Dad said before leaving. “See ya dad.” I nod. “And I shall be going, sorry.” I say while heading off to find Braig. “Take care.” My wives all said as I left. Finding Braig was easy, he parked his ship in the middle of a park. I knocked on the door…only to hear an explosion go off. “FUCKING HELL!” Braig’s voice screamed as he ran out. “That’s not good…” I mutter. “You okay in there!?” I call out, hoping he didn’t do something stupid. “Just set off a grenade when you spooked me.” Braig said. “Was moving them, the knock spooked me and I pulled the clip on instinct.” Braig said as he walked up to me. “Instinct can do that to ya.” I nod. “So anyways, you’re my next teacher. Got free time?” “Yeah, I know a good place to practice so let’s go.” Braig and I walked into his shit, no signs of an explosion but there were more weapons on the wall, somehow, and ammo everywhere. He started the ship and we flew off to a world two worlds away from Equestria. Where he parked was a rocky mountain area with some snow on the top. “Welcome to ER-P7, otherwise known as Kelg.” Braig said as we walked out. “Never heard of a world named ‘Kelg’.” I say honestly. “What’s special about it besides rocky mountains and snow?” “Two things. One.” Braig points to the area. “It’s got the perfect environment for you to practice anti-gravity and teleporting.” Braig then walked over to a cliff side, showing me that the entire world below was all heartless. “Second is that, this world has had Heartless in millions on it for as long as travelers can remember. Some say this world has no keyhole, me, I think it’s just hard to find.” “Pretty sure it's hard to find….” I say. “But damn it I already have one world filled with Heartless murder, now I have even more heartless murder…” “We’re not here to exterminate, we’re here to use that.” Braig pointed one of his arrow guns at the swarm below us. “For combat practice.” “Right then…” I say while summoning my gun arrows. “Shoot specific things or what?” “First off, let’s see how you are with them.” Braig said, crossing his weapons in his signature pose and vanishing, reappearing upside down some feet away. “Teleport and defy gravity.” “Simple enough.” I say while doing exactly that. I teleported a few feet away from him and was also upside down. “Next?” I ask, already being used to this because of Lindworm and the few times I did defy gravity. “Next, how far can you teleport in one go.” Braig teleported up… so up I only really saw a black dot in the sky. I took a deep breath and teleported, sadly not as high as Braig but a good distance up where I could see more of him then just a black dot. We both teleported back to the ground. “Not bad, the key to longer teleporting is knowing exactly where you want to appear, the magic in the guns can only take you so far, to actually get distance you have to channel your own magic into them, acts as an overdrive for the teleporting.” Braig said, both of us on ground. “Makes sense. I've mostly done quick teleporting in fights so this will help.” I nod. “Anyways, next on the list?” Braig connected his two arrow guns, making the american version Kingdom Hearts 2 cut rifle. “Accuracy, we’ll start with the stronger, yet easier way to get direct hits.” I did the same as him and we walked over to the cliff side. He looked through the scope, or whatever it was. “See that Fat Bandit heartless in the Soldier heartless mosh pit? Headshot it.” I connected both crossbows together and looked down the sights, seeing the Fat bandit. From my little ‘scope’ I could see the bastards head clearly. ”Take a deep breath and focus…” I think to myself, taking a deep breath and exhaling, pulling the trigger and the arrow whizzing past, destroying the Fat Bandits head on impact as it vanished. “Good.” Braig said. “Now rapid teleport while defying gravity above those freaks, take out as many as you can til you’re unable to feel your trigger finger.” I nodded, before doing exactly that. Hundreds of Heartless were killed rather quickly and even though my trigger fingers felt numb I kept on going, too focused on how I have to keep getting better and better whether people tell me to stop or not. “Come on...come on…” I mutter to myself, feeling a liquid drip on my hands as I kept on teleporting around, defying gravity and murdering Heartless. After a lot longer I teleported back to Braig, panting from the amount of effort I put in and the one eyed marksmen could easily tell my numb trigger fingers were bleeding. “How was that?” “Passable.” He said. “Take a power nap, I’ll go look for a potion to heal those bleeding fingers, word of advice, gloves.” He said, pointing at one of his gloved hands before walking to his ship. “Fine…” I mutter before putting away my gun arrows and summoning up my Assistants shop, buying a potion and two leather gloves. I chugged the potion, felt a lot better and put the gloves on. “Maybe that’s what that feeling was…” I mutter, summoning my gun arrows and readying to continue. Braig came back out, even though I already drank a potion I took the one he gave me. “Alright, now for part two.” He took out a red bandana, and wrapped it around my eyes. “Blind shooting, not always are you gonna be able to rely on your eyes.” “Right then.” I nod. “So...am I supposed to aim at anything specific?” Without warning, Braig forced me to kneel on the ground, placing one of my hands on the ground. “The key to hitting a target blind takes heightened senses, lost your eyes, you got your ears, those go too, well, you have that new sniffer, and if that’s all gone, feel the ground for their faint vibrations. If all of that is gone by some unholy hate against you, use your aura to send magic pulses in the air, like magic echo location.” “Right…” I nod while my ears flick and turn, able to hear all the heartless down there. “Kill one hundred using only your hearing, after that’ I’ll pop in earplugs into those things, followed after that with a pin to block your sense of smell, and once that’s gone and you master shooting with feeling vibrations I got some special gear that makes you unable to feel a bullet passing through your arm, then you’ll be using your aura, which requires some time to figure out.” “Alright…” I nod while my ears turned and flicked at all the noises, before I took aim and fired, a mixture of my aim and the magical auto aim these things had helped me get a little better hits. I continued to fire at Heartless, thankful for my new Dire Wolf senses as I kept on firing, finally killing my hundredth Heartless. “K.” After returning to Braig he shoved something in my mouth, tasted like… a cold hamburger. “Gotta eat.” He said as I finished it, he then placed earplugs into my ears, turned me around and shoved me. I stopped myself before I probably fell of the cliff. “Cripe…” I mutter, sniffing the air and by god did Heartless not smell good. I wrinkled my nose at the constant scent of Darkness before I took aim and fired, hitting Heartless and killing them swiftly enough. “God this smells bad…” I mutter, missing a couple times but continuing to fire, which I noticed that my guns didn’t have to reload, which was unsurprising but surprising to me. With the lack of hearing them die I had to go off the decreased smell of darkness, which I hope was accurate, because it’s also hard to count. After I think I hit my hundredth I somehow teleported back up to Braig. He just put something that clung to my nose like a crab pinch, which hurt, but I got the message. “Okay…” I mutter, taking a deep breath as I made pulses of Nothingness magic, sensing the Heartless but because I didn’t want to accidentally summon a Nobody I started firing, this time I could tell a lot better how many I killed instead of guessing with my nose. ”I did use this a lot…” I think to myself, not entirely minding that I’m doing quite well doing all my shooting. After a while my arms and trigger fingers hurt again but I just pushed through the pain and kept on firing, the mental picture of me getting stronger to protect my family keeping me going even if I was done. “Okay...that should be it…” I say, stopping after my hundredth kill. “Anything else?” Braig took off my ‘handicaps’ and seeing after all that time blindfolded hurt my eyes, even if it was night. “We’ll rest up, first thing in the morning you’ll see what you did.” “Alright.” I nodded. “Where am I sleeping?” “Couch.” Braig said, Following him into the ship, seeing a couch I didn’t notice before. “Alright.” I nod, before walking over and sitting down on the couch. “Well, night.” I say, laying down and getting comfortable. Braig didn’t say anything, he just walked into what I guessed was his room and closed the door. I sighed, wondering what he meant by what I did. I managed to get some sleep even though I was bothered with what Braig said and a few other things stuck in my head. I got up and stretched, readying myself for another day of training. “Let’s hope I didn’t accidentally do something terrible…” As I walked outside the ship, Braig was sitting at the cliffside. “Good you woke up sunshine.” He said. “Glad I got some sleep. So what did I do?” I ask curiously, walking over to the cliffside. Upon reaching it, I saw that there were FAR fewer heartless, and in the center of it all, a massive metal hatch. “How you managed to walk on that a few times and not notice it surprises me.” Braig said. “I didn’t think I killed that many…” I mutter. “Anyways I never saw or noticed that at all...did you know it was there?” “Nope, during your blindfold test I saw it start to surface after a bit, that’s why I kept throwing you down there.” “You threw me down there never.” I say bluntly. “Anyways, what do you think is in that hatch?” “No idea…let’s open it.” Before I could protest, Braig had already teleported down to it. “Okay…” I mutter before teleporting down along with him, readying my weapons in case the Heartless will attack us. I had to summon large nobodies in order to help open the abnormally large hatch…when it did open, light flooded out, we were blinded, and when it faded, the Heartless were gone and the watch was wide open, revealing a long fall to wherever this thing led. “Damn…” Braig said. “Well...glad to know that’s where the Keyhole is.” I say honestly. “So, want me to hop on down there?” “Not without me.” Braig said, jumping down the hole in a freefall. I jumped after him, both of us activating out anti-gravity near the end, letting us land safely down in what was some kind of entrance. “No one knows if life ever existed here, this is possible proof of live forms that might have lived here… HA! Fame and fortune here we come!” “I have enough fame and fortune back home…” I state. “And frankly that only makes shit harder for me honestly…” “Whatever, come on.” Braig said, we pushed open the large doors, and light turned on instantly. We wandered in hallways for what had to have been hours, most rooms filled with metal crates, furniture, all covered in dust. We finally came into a rather unique looking room, mainly because there was only one thing in it… a Keyblade forge. “Well now, this world held Keyblade wielders?” “How in the fuck?” I ask worriedly. “That’s...that’s something…” I frown. Braig walked over to some kinda crystal sitting on a desk. He touched it, then a hologram or something appeared. “Greetings, I am…was, Trica, if you are viewing this then I, along with the rest of this world, have long been dead. This facility you find yourself in was built after the first invasion darkness dealt on light, a way to keep Home safe by developing new, powerful weapons. After years and years, with the help of our grand lord Kingdom Hearts, we finally succeeded.” An image of the X-blade appeared. “A Keyblade, a weapon unlike anything to ever exist, the power to destroy darkness, but also to keep it at balance with light.” “The X-blade?” I mutter. “I thought that was made before the worlds were split?” “It was.” Braig said. “This ‘world’ was part of it before it split, that’s how old this place is.” “How do you know that?” I ask curiously. “Take a look, this place has clearly been abandoned for a long fucking time and this hologram which is talking about creating Keyblades, put two and two together.” “Makes sense…” I mutter, scratching my head as this just got more confusing. “Well I better get in touch with Luxu so he can see this...he’d have a field day here.” The hologram woman began speaking again. “With instructions from the lord Kingdom Hearts, we built a special forge designed to create Keyblades, and this very room is where the first keyblade, the X-blade, was forged. By carefully mixing light and darkness as well as minerals only found in the void above us, the X-blade became reality, and upon completion, formed a link with the lord Kingdom Hearts. He wielded it himself and cut darkness down, sparing us from the clutches of darkness, or void. We continue to forge Keyblades and in the event darkness returns, the generation of life will be armed and ready.” The hologram faded out. “Well shit…” I mutter. “That’s a whole bunch of something.” I say. “I’ve got to call Trinity and get her to contact Luxu…” I muttered, tapping my Assistant and seeing if I could actually send a message to Trinity. I think I did cause after a bit, Luxu came out of a DTL. “Hey Ben, your sister said you…wow this place is old…” He said, looking around. “It is.” I nod. “There’s a message crystal there, which had a woman named Trica explain everything about this room and how the X-blade was made to some extent.” I explain. “WHAT?!” He screamed, finding the crystal fast and having the hologram play again. After it was done, he was rather silent. “This room… is the birthplace of Keyblades…” He finally spoke. “Apparently.” I say. “I don’t know how Braig knew about this world, and I don’t know why this world just so happened to hold this stuff...but it would explain why there was millions of heartless around…” “I trained with my master here.” Brag said. “You think I’m an asshole, the old bastard had me kill heartless with a slingshot before he let me near even a crossbow.” “Well...that’s a thing…” I frown. “But hey, we found the birthplace of Keyblades, the original Keyblade Forge, and a bunch of other things could happen right now...which actually raises a question...why is that here when in Zeke’s reflection it was split in two?” “When I was a kid there were Keyblade forges, a fair amount, dad used to say there were more than that before but eh, they’ve always been around…this one is the very first.” Luxu said, walking over to it. “Wow…” I mutter, not believing that this was the very first Keyblade forge. “It’s probably been forever since it was last used...I wonder if it’s still good.” “One way to find out.” Luxu said, magicking up a large backpack. He dumped the minerals in it, some of which I knew, the rest was new to me. He gathered several of what looked like Orichalcum+ and some other minerals I had no idea what they were and tossed them in. There was a bright flashing light and what floated out was a keychain, it looked like a heart wearing an Organization XIII cloak. “Wow.” Luxu said, holding it. “That’s a whole bunch of something.” I say honestly. “So that’s how keychains are made…” I mutter. “Uh...is a part of Grandfather Light in there?” “Yeah, otherwise that flash of light wouldn’t have appeared.” Luxu said. I summoned Reunion. “What would happen if I put Reunions keychain in there when it doesn’t have a piece of Grandfather Light?” “Let me take care of that.” Luxu said, walking over to me. I took off Reunion’s Keychain and gave it to him. He put on some kind of ring that had a kingdom key image on it, then shoved the hand holding Reunion’s keychain into the forge’s fire. I was surprised he didn’t scream, must be the ring. After a bit, there was a flash of light, a flash of darkness, then a flash of a strange grey light and Luxu pulled it out. He tossed it back to me. “Congrats, you’re keyblade is for the dawn.” He said. I grabbed Reunion’s keychain and put it back on my blade. “Why did it flash grey?” I ask curiously. “I understood the light and darkness flashes but grey? I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a Keyblade gaining the power of Nothing.” “From what I know, it goes like this. A flash of light means it’s got grandfather light only, flash of dark, grandfather darkness only, flash of both, it’s a balanced weapon, like the X-blade, but a flash of grey, that’s dawn, the power of both light and darkness and a connection to the place between the two, aka, Nothing. For them to exist it’s like… being born with six fingers on each hand, what are the odds?” “Slim to none?” I guess. “Something like that.” Luxu took a look around. “Wonder if all the keychain recipes that they had to have made are written down around here?” “What were some of those materials you brought? I only know some but not all of them.” I say honestly, wanting to know what else was there. “Also...I’ve noticed a massive lack of Moogles...where are they?” “Typically moogles are on their own world, Radiant garden, or if you has a Moogle shop game to summon one to you, as for the minerals you don’t know…that’s a secret.” “Alright then.” I nod in understanding. “So how are we going to get this thing out of here? Or should we just keep it here?” Luxu seemed to think about it for a time. “Agh! I don’t wanna mess with this place cause it’s practically sacred, but leaving it here might risk Core finding the place…” “And we all know that Core should never find this place.” I state. “So we better get moving.” “Hey you two!” Braig called out, he was standing in a doorway that was not there before. “You might wanna look at this.” “Shit…” I mutter before following Braig. “What did you find?” “Look.” He said bluntly. Luxu and I walked over to him, and in the room was a skeleton, very old, holding two crystals, and…a pure white X-blade…“Now that’s fucked up…” “How the fuck?” I mutter, seeing the crystals, the pure white X-blade. “I’m so confused...Luxu do you have any idea what’s going on?” “No, but we might soon get an answer.” Luxu walked over to the crystals, picking the out of the skeleton’s hand. He activated one, and a holographic book appeared. He flipped though a few pages. “...this is the recipe book for every Keyblade made here…and it’s a LOT.” He activated the other crystal, and a hologram Trica appeared over the skeleton, her arm holding the pure white X-blade pulsating with light and she was quite scared. “I… this was a mistake.” she started. “Lord Kingdom Hearts warned us that pure light could be more dangerous than pure darkness… he was right, we didn’t listen, we used the purest light we could find and tried forging a second X-blade… we succeeded, but it created a link with light and only light. You’d think that’s a good thing, but upon wielding it, the light was so bright… everyone turned to ash in seconds, the ashes rose, turning into black bodied, yellow eyes monsters.” “I can only hide, hide while they pour darkness into the forge, creating Keyblades of darkness. This facility was made to create the weapons to protect the future generations of life…now, it’s creating the weapons to end it… all because of this Keyblade…Whoever finds this Keyblade… destroy it, destroy Shadow maker, for in it’s presence they only grow stronger…” The hologram faded, leaving behind just the pure white X-blade and Trica’s skeleton. “This…this place was also the birthplace of purebloods…” Luxu muttered. “So yeah I’m gonna destroy that damned thing.” I frown. “What weapon would be good for smashing the damned thing?” “No idea.” Luxu said. “It makes darkness stronger when someone wields it, but that would mean the light in it grows in equal strength…we can’t touch it or face the same fate as the people here did, and we can’t leave it cause Core would make use of something like this.” “If we can’t touch it and we can’t break it, how the fuck are we supposed to move it?” I frown. “But wouldn’t Nothingness be able to destroy it?” Braig walked up to it, and took off the Keychain. “You overthink things.” He said, nothing happening to him as he held the Keychain. “Guess only when attached to a blade does it do that nasty stuff.” “Apparently…” I say with a frown. “Well this sucks...but we better start packing things up and hiding them away.” I suggest. “Zeke could make great use of this recipie book.” Luxu said, flipping through the paces. “Hey, here’s Gazing Eye…wait, what?” “What?” I frown. He showed me the book…on two pages were the Duskblade, and Reunion…“That’s freaky…” “How the fuck?” I question. “That...shouldn’t be a thing. I thought both of those...were new…” I mutter, summoning Reunion and looking at it. ”Sorry I’m clueless.” Joy told me through my Keyblade, not knowing how that’s possible. “Not exactly.” We all turned around, seeing God walk into the room. “My word, never in my life did I think I’d see this legendary place.” “Hi God.” I say. “I hope you’re having a nice day and not having Core do a shitty impersonation of you.” “Hey gramps.” Luxu said. “Hello Luxu. This place was just a legend back when I was a child, the Keyblade Factory. I’m surprised to see it still standing.” “It would seem silly if something so legendary would fall apart.” I say honestly. “But yeah me and Braig found all of this suddenly while I was training...and good lord is there a lot to explain…” I sigh out. “I know Ben, I heard.” God walked over to Braig, taking Shadow Maker’s Keychain from him. “You poor thing, you shine too bright you make everything around you a monster.” He said to the Keychain. “Also you are a lying bastard.” I frown. “You said Earth was an imaginary world, yet I have a few dozen human beings from a real Earth not a few miles away from the Dragon Kingdom.” “It is in my head Ben, and Core, even though he can’t set foot on it anymore, is making rapid advances to discover where I hid my secrets. So much so, in order to save anyone I had to work in a way that nearly exposed me to Core, as well as call upon a few old friends for favors.” “I have a feeling you won’t tell me…” I sigh out. “But hey I got a new dad and mom just so ya know.” “Really? Well, that explains the look, I thought you just got cursed.” “Yes and no.” I say honestly. “My new dad is Cript, and he has a family curse where I’m now genetically his son, as well as the son of a Dire Wolf named Den.” I explain. “Wow, you lucked out then I suppose.” “Well when you’re figuring out there’s worse shit than Core that exists I suppose it would make sense.” I shrug. “But back to how the DuskBlade and Reunion were already keyblades before I got my hands it?” “The Duskblade has always been a Keyblade Ben, I should know.” God lifted his hand, and summoned one. “It’s also my Keyblade. The keyblade of those with dying hearts, close to being a Nobody, struggling to stay a somebody. As for Reunion, that one is new, my guess, that book is connected to that forge, anything made in it is recorded.” “Well Reunion only gained a piece of Grandfather Light from the forge, Reunion became...well Reunion after my Mark of Mastery where my heart came back to life.” I explain. “Ah, so that’s it then. Explains I still have Duskblade then.” “Yep.” I nod. “Just gotta figure out what made your heart start dying to begin with then you can get started from there.” I shrug. “I had too much Rejection...but once I started Accepting everything thankfully came up wonders.” “I know my sins, to face them though…will end me…isn’t that right brother?” God said as Core walked in the room. “Sounds about right.” He spoke, summoning a black Fenrir. “Yeah how about ‘no’.” I frown, taking a step forward and summoning Reunion. “I’ve dealt with enough shit this week, I’m not going to have more stupid shit be thrown my way.” “Oh, I’m not here for you Ben, nor you Brother, I’m here for the forge.” “That is also not going to happen.” I frown. “And besides, why would you want the forge? You already have your own somehow.” “Yes, that I do, but this forge created the X-blade, and something strong enough to pull that off it can do it again.” “I’ve heard rumors you now have Void powers, why the hell would you want the X-blade still?” I ask with a frown. “Void is a resource, a playground for Admins, the materials there could be used to create anything, everything, even the perfect anti-X-blade.” “Not surprising.” I sigh out. “But I'm going to try and make sure that doesn't happen.” “You can try.” I blinked, and Core had the black Fenrir at my neck. “But you’ll die.” “I hate you...but I hate my 'future’ self more.” I frown. “Fucking prick.” I raised Reunion, Core quickly dodging. Luxu went in to strike, locking blades with Core as God tried to strike at Core’s back, to which Core used his free hand to grab God’s keyblade. Braig ran off someplace and I ran up to join the fight. Core released a wave of darkness, knocking God and Luxu back and staggering me, he was running back to reach the forge. I let my new… wolf instincts, kick in, and ran on all fours, tackling Core and crashing him into the floor. “Down mutt!” Core yelled as he kicked me off. I quickly shifted into Master Form, holding Reunion in one hand and a Kingdom Key in the other and righted myself. “I'm not a mutt.” I growled before dashing back in, swinging both of my Keyblades a lot faster then normal. Core locked blades with both my keyblades, he was pushing them towards me, and I was doing the same. A surge of energy rushed through me as I pushed Core back, a powerful aura surrounding me as I switched my Kingdom Key out for Skysplitter and slammed it down on top of Core, the ground around us cracking and shifting. I saw Braig teleport and take God and Luxu away. He also appeared behind me, putting something in my pocket before vanishing somewhere. “Core!” He yelled, gaining both our attention. I felt my blood run cold, he was holding the Shadow Maker Keychain, pointing his arrow gun at an atomic bomb placed over the forge. “One wrong move and I blow this whole place to hell and back.” “Where did you get that?!” I screamed. “Had it in my ship’s attic. Now then, Core, play nice.” “That still doesn’t explain how the fuck you got that!” I bark. “But yeah let’s listen to the man willing to shoot an atomic bomb….I doubt even you could survive it at point blank.” “...I’ll get hurt pretty bad I’ll admit.” Core said. “But you’re just a greedy mercenary, what reason would you have to blow all of us up?” “Three. One, the peaceful retirement life has been rather boring, Two, I wanna destroy this keychain and do a good thing for once, and three, Ben, you mastered the arrow guns in a day when it took me years. Talk about a prodigy.” “Wait really?” I ask in surprise. “Yeah, you just have one last test to become a master marksmen.” “And what would that be?” I ask curiously, not wanting to make a smart ass remark right now. “Just pull out the box in your pocket, and pull the trigger.” I frown, pulling out the thing he put in my pocket. My eyes widened when I saw it. “Dude...come on…” I mutter. “Thanks Braig…” I say honestly, giving him a kind smile before pulling the trigger. There was a flash, and I saw myself next to Braig’s ship, he, God and Luxu there as well as a mushroom cloud exploded, a shield around the ship keeping us from the heat and explosion. “Oh thank god the teleporter worked…” Braig said, letting go of a clearly long held breath. “You cheeky fuck!” I bark at him. “Here I thought you were going to do some ‘bad ass sacrifice’ thing but apparently not...but can you warn me next time?” “Sure, next battle with Core I’ll explain the plan through a megaphone so everyone can hear.” He said sarcastically. “What about the Forge? From what Lord Death told me those things are supposed to be indestructible…” I ask worriedly. “If it didn’t break, then it should have at least released the grandfather light and darkness in it.” God said. “Those things can be removed with force, and I say that was more than enough.” “And I made sure to drop the keychain to that damned Keyblade before teleporting.” Braig said. “Well, all in all I say that’s a job well-” The ground broke apart, Core rushing out of it, his whole body and skin melted and disfigured as he sliced Braig in half. “You’ll all pay!” He screamed before vanishing into a DTD. “Oh shit!” I yelp, rushing over to Braig and trying to find something to buy on my Assistant. “Come on come on, revival items have to be here somewhere…” I mutter, hoping to find a damn thing here. “Kid.” Braig said. “Heh, It’s alright, this was coming, I did a lot…a LOT, of bad, this is karma.” “Fuck karma!” I bark. “You are not dying after you just decided to become a hero ya one eyed bastard.” I exclaim while continuing my search. “Heh, isn’t that how it goes in books?” “Fuck the books!” I bark. “I’ve based shit on books all the time, I’m not going to have a weak ass cliched death befall a friend and master.” Braig was silent...to silent. “No...no...nonono…” I mutter. “Yo Ben, what I…oh…” I looked up, seeing Dad there. “Well…that’s bad…” “Your shops shit. I’m frantic yes but I haven’t found any revival items.” I frown, tears brimming in the corners of my eyes. “Let’s see.” Dad kneeled down to Braig, he waved his hand over him and an hourglass appeared over Braig’s head, a little bit of sand still falling. “They won’t work… his time is used up…” “And yet another weak ass death cliche appearing here…” I grumble. “So...can’t save him?” I ask. “I can do one thing, but I need to ask you, will you take care of him?” “Wait...you're saying…” I start before my eyes widen in realization. “Oh...yes. Yes I will…” Dad lifted his hand up, it glowed as the lines of ones and zeros appeared again, he shoved his hand into Braig, a crack appearing showing more code running around as Braig’s body glowed. When the light faded, where Braig laid down was now a baby. “Congrats, he’s barely a minute old now.” “Well…” I start. “I have two daughters to take care of I might as well start figuring out how to take care of a baby.” I say nervously. “He…won’t remember who he was, what I did is a reset, who he was is memories now, who he will be…well, raise him right.” Dad vanished in a blink as I picked up baby Braig, the second I touched him he turned into a Dire wolf pup, my colors…but he has Pinkie’s hair. “Oh my god…” I mutter, trying to contain my laughter at seeing Braig now being genetically related to Pinkie. “Yeah...he’s gonna be raised right.” I smile warmly. “So...anyone know how to drive a gummi ship that isn’t Luxu?” “I got it.” God said. “Thank you.” I smile, gently cradling my new son. During the ride back to Equestria I went into Braig’s old room. It was actually the only room without any weapons in it. I looked around, and found a tape recorder of all things. Took a while, but I found a tape labeled…’Will’. I played it. ”If anyone is listening to this, then I’m dead or worse…retired. Heh, that means you my friend are the owner of whatever and everything is in my ship is yours. If you are that shit eater Ben, heh, don’t hide it kid, then this is all still yours, but there’s something else I’d like you to have. Up in a secret panel in this room is a custom made mod for your arrow guns, it’s an add on to your auto aim, makes each shot bend to hit the target. It’s neat. There’s a few other things in there so go through them if you want, my only regret, being too greedy. I left my family at a young age because I wanted things my way, never saw them again, don’t let no prick kids of yours come out like me, consider it my last request if I’m dead. See ya around kid. The message stopped. I chuckled, tears falling down my face as I heard everything. “Thanks man...and don’t worry...you’ll get a new and better life.” I smile, before searching the room and trying to find the secret panel. I found it quickly, and attached the mod. I skimmed through the stuff in there and found a photo of what must have been Braig when he was younger. He looked like his dad, his mom was brown haired, he seemed to have a sister, she had dyed green hair and the house behind them was nice looking. “Alright…” I nod. “I wonder if they're still alive…” I mutter. When we arrived back home God left and parked the ship behind Twilight’s place. Upon telling the girls what happened and handing Pinkie her new son…she started feeding him…just, pulled her shirt and bra down right there…that’s gonna be normal soonish anyway. Dinner was done with and the girls dragged me into the living room with a surprise. They handed me a small box, and when I opened it, it was a key, not like a keyblade, but a house key. “And why do I have a house key when I have a keyblade that can literally lock and unlock literally any kind of lock in existence?” I ask curiously. “Cause it’s for our house.” Luna said. “When more than just Twilight and I got joined in, and with Rarity’s home broken at the time, we figured… we should just have our own place to call home.” “And this place is too small when there’s magic to literally make it bigger?” I ask. “Zoning laws.” Twilight muttered. “Legally this is as big as the Library can be.” “Oi vey...so where are we going to live at now?” I ask curiously. “Also, can any of you besides Luna summon a Keyblade? I completely forgot about that for some reason.” I frown. “We haven’t tried, we’ve been… occupying our time.” Zecora said, blushing. “Come on Ben, everyone get ready for a walk.” Luna said as Pinkie pulled a baby stroller from her hair…somehow, and everyone else was starting to walk out the door. She walked us into the Everfree, which seemed…calmer now for some reason, and we came upon the old castle…it was restored, actually no, redone, it looks more modern with some of it’s old features still there for appearance. “Like it? Celestia thought of restoring it and we split the cost.” “Sweet, now we’ll have enough room for all of us and our kids.” I smile. “Since it’s so big we do have to hire some help, no offense but I think your Nobodies would scare the babies Ben.” Twilight said. “There still going to be guards just in case. I won’t have them out constantly but I’ll still have them make sure somethings are safe.” I say. “That’s all we hoped for.” Luna said. “Come on, let’s go shopping for the new infant then get ready, tomorrow we move in.” “Hooray.” I say. “I mastered a weapon, got a new son, and now get an awesome castle. Everything’s going to go great for all of two weeks.” I say, just knowing bad shit’s gonna happen soon but glad things are going to look up for once. To be continued...
Nobody's breakdownAfter a thankful night with my ladies, a nice shower and getting my cloak washed thoroughly, I did a quick check up on my new son. Thankfully we got him a crib but we weren’t sure what stuffed animal to give him, but normally a bear works the best in my opinion. When I quietly opened the door I saw my son gently sleeping with a stuffed animal by his side I smiled gently before gently closing the door. I continued walking down the hall and even though it was getting to be morning I looked down bitterly. “Thank you all for caring so much…” I mutter to myself, feeling the two rings in my pocket, the present Trinity gave me and the Ainz Ooal Gown ring Momonga gave me. “But...I just can’t…” I mutter sadly, tears welling up in my eyes and knowing full well I’m not going to keep my promise to them. ”Please...don’t be sad…” Joy says worriedly, Reunion magically appearing out of nowhere and floating next to me. “What do you want Joy?” I ask bitterly. ”You being sad goes against everything our fiance’s are trying to do.” Joy states in my head. “I know that...but no one’s going to help me with this…” I mutter. ”Don’t be stubborn.” Joy says. ”I don’t want to disappear…” “You're not going to disappear Joy…” I say honestly to my inner emotion. “I just...have to go through shit by myself is all.” I sigh out. ”You have all your friends and family to help. Stop putting yourself down.” Joy tells me, not wanting me to be so sad. “I know…” I sigh out. “I know…” I mutter. “Sneaking out?” I jumped as Jenny appeared behind me. How does she do that?! “Why do you ask?” I ask, taking a deep breath and dismissing Reunion. “Cause your fiance's are still asleep and you don’t wake up this early.” “What are you doing up so early?” I ask curiously. “You saying I get up early is one thing, but you being up early...something wrong?” She reached into her pocket and…pulled out a small revolver, not pointing it at me, she just had it in her hand. “I clean it early, shoot it around noon then find ammo for it from Braig’s old ship.” “Alright then.” I nod. “Might as well keep busy I suppose.” I shrug. “But I hope your liking any of my fiances and Dinky…” “Dinky is alright and in terms of those women… they’re alright, at least Dinky talks to me without making me feel like a stupid kid.” “Sorry.” I sigh out. “Maybe it’s because they still see you as a child from a troubled past….and they just want you to have a normal life now...even though that’s impossible in every way possible.” I shrug. She sighed. “Least you’re not as dumb as I thought if you can figure that out. By the by… you should close your windows when you…roleplay…caught a photographer taking pics of you all and I kinda sorta…comatose.” “I’m going to have some…choice words with that bastard.” I growl, cracking my knuckles. “If he wakes up this year.” She chuckled. “Dropped him off near the hospital at least, but I don’t think he’s waking up this year.” “At least you didn’t make him comatose for the rest of his life.” I say while patting her head. “It’s a good first step at least. “Yeah… but I did find his camera… he’s good at what he does so I didn’t let his work go to waste.” She grinned evilly. “Whatever.” I shake my head. “Well anyways, I’m gonna be gone. Tell the girls when they wake up I’m gonna be training.” I say before opening the window and summoning my glider. “Also I hate how you were right about the sex dungeon...there’s no way in hell I’m going there anytime soon.” I grumble She nodded, walking off as I flew off. I headed towards the spa first to find Ramilua, since I don’t know where he lives, and waited for it to open. Man, I am early if not even Applejack’s stall is open yet. “Hopefully he comes here...god damn it.” I mutter. Only ten minutes passed before Aloe and Lotus appeared and opened shop, telling me Ramilua will be here in half an hour, of to head to his house a few blocks away. Zoning laws in this town are odd. I headed off looking for the house the two described, finding it rather fast. Red brick with a wood roof and stone fence surrounding the whole place. There was one of those machines to talk with someone inside the house from outside so I pushed it. “Who’s there?” A voice I did not recognize spoke. I push the button again. “Hello?” I ask. “Uh...this is Ben. I’m here to see Ramilua? And Nelare just to see if she’s doing alright.” I say, not knowing who this new person was. “Who is this?” “One moment.” The gate opened as I entered. The door also opened as I approached it…creepy, but I walked inside anyway. Upon entering I was met…with a rather elderly looking pony woman, pointing a fucking RPG at me. “Who sent ya!” She demanded. “Uh...I’m friends with Ramilua and Nelare.” I say worriedly, raising my hands at the very aggressive mare. “Nana.” I heard the voice of a rather sick Nelare speak. “Nana the tissue…” Nelare froze as she came into the scene. “Nana… this is a friend of mine, the one who got us out of Knowhere.” “Oh.” The elderly mare said, unloading and putting the RPG away. “Sorry dear, been away from home for a while, old habits.” “It’s alright ma’am.” I say sheepishly. “I should have said I was a friend sooner. But anyways, I can see you’re...not entirely doing well Nelare.” “Egh, don’t remind me.” She complained. “So Ben, this is Nana, she was stolen by pirates when she was a filly here on Equestria, and when I say pirates, I mean the space kind. Grew up their whore, killed them all in their sleep one day, crashed their ship into Knowhere and was living there ever since. We rented the old Salon from her.” “Oh...no wonder why she immediately...kind of acted like that.” I say sheepishly. “I’m so sorry ma’am…” “Eh, I got over it decades ago. With how old I am not even sure if any of my family is alive. I know mama was pregnant when I got taken, but that mare would be only five years younger than I am.” Nana said. “Well right now you are back on Equestria, where the sun’s shining, flowers are blooming, and a national hero is trying not to have a mental breakdown about too many things.” I say jokingly. “I got something for that.” Nana said, walking to the kitchen and coming back with…a brownie. “Yes it’s got pot.” She added. “I don’t think I should have pot when I’m about to ask Ramilua if I can start training today…” I say nervously, hiding the fact I’ve never had pot and am scared of declining. “Trust me, next to Frizt this will calm your nerves.” “Nana, Frizt will get him high and drunk for at least a week.” Nelare said. “Can’t believe that’s a legal medicine too…” “Only in fifty planets.” Ramilua said, walking out from behind Nelare. “Seems I missed a bit while I was finishing up my bedsheets.” “Which is weird cause if memory serves weed is literally the most harmless out of the ‘illegal drugs’.” I frown, before sighing out. “I’m sorry but no, I’d rather not start my morning with a pot brownie.” I say. “So Ramilua, morning. Um...should I wait till after you're done working for us to start training or...do I have to somehow start helping you out at the spa?” I ask, not really surprised if I might actually have to pick up how to be a good at that. “No, but there is something you can do here that is training. Close your eyes and hold out your hands.” He said before walking off. I was skeptical. ”If this involves cleaning this house I’m gonna be kinda pissed…” I mentally frown before closing my eyes and holding out my hands. When I heard footsteps come near me, I tensed up a bit. When something was dropped into my hands, It made me fall to the ground with it’s weight. I opened my eyes, seeing almost cartoony large barbells in my hands…I’m stuck… “These are the same barbells my master made me train with, lift them ten times every hour.” He said before walking out the door. “Jesus how much do these damned things weigh!?” I yelp, trying my best to heft these things up. I get on my feet and try to lift with my legs but even then it’s hard as hell. “Those are magic, they amplify gravity on themselves, so even though they're still somewhat small, they will always weigh five times the planets normal gravitational pull on them.” Nelare said. “Hard to come by actually.” “Well lucky me.” I grumble. ”I’m sensing a Dragon Ball Z trend starting up…” I think to myself as I struggle to heft it up, and hey with the help of my legs and my possibly stupid amount of base strength I lift it up a grand total of...two inches. “And I’m supposed to lift these things up to my shoulders while standing correct?” ”Well...this is gonna suck…” Joy says in my head. ”Trying to concentrate Joy.” I mentally grumble, slowly but surely gaining progress and lifting the things. “As high as you can reach over your head.” Nelare corrected. “Sure...fine enough with me.” I say, still struggling to lift it. “And if I can’t lift it up ten times in an hour?” “Rama used to tell me it was stacked onto the next hour, so… good luck.” Nelare said, sneezing before walking back to her room “Fuck…” I grumble, wondering if I could just cheat my way through this to make this less of a goddamn nightmare with my new gravity powers...but I shook my head and unless I literally needed to I won’t use it. “Well...let’s get started…” I grumble, before starting my very painful road down trying to lift these damn things. And let’s just say that this entire training session was a massive fucking nightmare. I lost track of the time as I kept trying to lift this damned thing. And just like Nelare said, the thing stacked...and so far I was just glad I kept the thing up let alone trying to lift it above my head. “This….fucking...sucks…” I groan, my arms stinging from the amount of force they were under, but the thoughts of me just losing to something simple enough made me just hate myself over it. ”No, I’m going to finish this damned thing even if it tears off my arms.” I mentally growl, not wanting to give up again as I finally lifted it up to my head. I took a short break when Nana brought out some ice tea, then went back to this. I could barely feel my arms as I tried lifting them up one more time. “Come on…” I growl, trying my damndest to lift this thing which I thankfully got it up higher and higher. “Almost…” I mutter, lifting it higher and higher until, for once today, it was above my head. “Finally…” “Well done.” Ramilua said as he came back inside the house. “You been at this since I left?” “I took one break, and that was to have tea with Nana.” I explain. “But besides that short little break I’ve been doing this for hours on end.” I explain, lowering it down and trying to lift it up again. Ramilua chuckled. “You know, there is a trick to these kind of exercises.” “I don’t know if I can bend gravity now that I mastered a specific weapon, but no I’m not going to cheat my way with that.” I say honestly. “But what’s the trick?” “Not that.” He took one of the weights, holding it like nothing. “These are meant to train not just your strength, but your control of your magic as well. Can you guess how?” “Does it involve adding your magic to your arms to lift it up that way or no?” I ask, thinking that it’s like you have to lift it up with your physical arms and magical ‘arms’ in this situation. “Yes, your body when it uses magic to run rather than how it biologically runs off energy from things you ingest, is twice as effective due to magic being a form of raw energy. When flowed into specific parts, like the arm or leg muscles, they still gain the workout, but it feels like less effort despite still working your muscles properly. Took me a month to learn that.” “Well goody for you, I feel like my arms are about to dislocate.” I say while managing to lift it up again. “But thanks for the ‘trick’...even though it’s not really a trick to be honest.” “It’s how beings that are like us have managed in the universe. Humans have two things going for us, an adaptive intelligence, if you’re not a religious bigot, and magic, and even then it’s not something every humanoid being has. But what we do with it is how humanoids have survived in the universe at all, aside from Keyblades like what you have. We create, craft, and always find tricks to survive.” “Yep.” I nod, taking a deep breath and focusing...and just like that it felt a fuck lot easier. “Sheesh...you’d think I’d have figured this crap out already.” I sigh out. “Mastered three weapons that needed magic put into them, and even if it’s different the same principle still applies…” I shake my head, starting to now do this easier, even if my arms were numb and shaking like hell. “This will teach you how to better manage your magic and strengthen your control, after at least a week of this, you can apply it to your scythe and other large weapons you may have, letting you better aim and swing them by using your magic to balance out their weight.” “Makes sense.” I nod. “By the by...have you ever seen cherry blossom or rose petals around whenever you use your magic or is that just special to my weapon?” I ask curiously, knowing Graceful Dahlia had magic to it. “Let me see it.” “Uh...sure.” I nod, dropping the weight which caused a loud ‘thud’, before I summoned my Scythe. “I don’t know much about this weapon…” I say, focusing and tapping it on the ground. A moment or two later the two of us saw petals gently float around me. “Are these cherry blossoms or rose petals?” I ask curiously. “Cherry Blossoms.” Ramilua said, grabbing one. “They are often a symbol of death on many worlds, in some cultures even insanity, madness, but death is the most common. Mind it I hold it?” “Um...sure.” I say, moving it so the handle was pointing towards him. “For some odd reason it looks like rose petals…” He took it, holding it and swinging it a bit before purposely cutting his finger on it, the blood on the blade looked like it was absorbed by it. “Yes, this Scythe was made from a demon cherry tree. Rare.” “Did you say this was made from a demon cherry blossom tree?” I ask, finding that shocking. “Yes, they only grow on worlds or in places where the blood of countless innocents, mainly children flow, drinking it and it’s wood and bark, if you can call it that, become harder than Vibranium.” “My weapons just keep getting weirder and weirder.” I frown. “First Braig tells me my gun arrows are the gun arrows that practically no one could get, then Dorlu says that he only knows about one magical card set, and now I’m told my scythe is made from a demon tree.” I frown. “Jeez, and here I thought these were simple weapons.” “These are no simple weapons. You know, my master had a scythe like this, only a person with a heart of pure light or darkness can force the demon cherry trees to turn themselves into weapons. They say those killed with weapons from these trees get their souls devoured by it.” “Huh...no wonder why it has a ‘doom’ effect to it…” I mutter. “That’s nifty to know about...I’ll try not to murder anyone with this that’s for sure.” “It’s only a legend. This weapon was born in the bloodshed of innocents killed, forged to kill. I just wonder, whoever made it, was the blood of evil, or more innocent on their mind?” Ramilua pondered as he handed it back to me. “You probably wouldn’t believe me where this weapon ‘originally’ came from.” I frown, taking my weapon and it vanishing. “Honestly I don’t care to know. Just make sure if blood is spilled with it, make it blood that should be wiped from creation.” “I’ll make damn sure about that.” I nod. “So, besides me lifting this magical weight, what about any other training?” “It’s nine in the afternoon Ben, we’ll save the rest for tomorrow. Til’ then, take an ice bath, helps when you stop flowing magic through your muscles and they start feeling like overcooked noodles again.” “That’ll help.” I nod, my arms numb at my sides. “Well I’ll be off. Thanks Ramilua...but when should I drop by tomorrow?” “Before I head off to work. That would be best.” “Right then.” I nod while summoning my glider and getting on it. “See ya tomorrow.” I say before flying home to get some rest. When I walked inside I noticed something odd. It was quiet. It’s a big castle, yes, but still it’s not this quiet. “Hello?” I call out. “Anybody home?” I ask worriedly, hoping my family is safe. I found Jenny’s room and upon opening the door I saw her with headphones on playing what looked like Minecraft on her Pc…when did she get that? I knocked on the door with my foot, hoping she could hear it. Jenny jumped a bit, taking off her headphones and turning around. “Oh, you're back.” She said. “I am back yes.” I nod. “So, where is everyone? I know the place is big but it’s eerily quiet.” Her eyes shifted. “Uh…heheh…here’s the thing, when they woke up and you were gone again they got into an argument that you don’t trust them, it’s dumb male pride, typical BS… so they made a decision about how to deal with it…” I felt my arms again...before I punched a wall and caused a crack in it. “Why the fuck would they think that?” I ask angrily and bitterly. “You made a promise, you leaving this morning before anyone of them woke up made them realize that even you won’t keep a promise to them if it means they could get hurt. So, they had Braig baby and Dinky spend the week with now aunt Celestia, I got to stay here cause I wanted to, and they managed to head off someplace…off world.” My eyes shrink to pin pricks. “Oh no...oh nonono…” I mutter, starting to panic. “This isn’t good...do you know where they went?” I ask worriedly. “Is Luxu with them? Terra? Aqua?” “Luxu told them of a place they could train but that’s all I know.” “Christ.” I growl. “Well yay for me, I need to find out where they are.” I frown. “Can’t train for one day without those girls scaring the shit out of me.” I say, a nagging feeling in my mind that...they don’t care about me because of this stunt. “I wonder if Trinity knows where they are...practically nothing can get past her.” I roll my eyes. “But uh...where did you get the PC from? Luna or Derpy give it to you?” She lifted her arm, showing me she had an Assistant on. “Grandpa Cript gave everyone one while you were gone, with about 9.8 Trillion in spending money each. Luna about fell over and Rarity kept stuttering.” “Yeah that’s dad for ya.” I chuckle. “Well let’s just hope I can find them with this thing…” I mutter, bringing up my Assistant and trying to search for my fiance's location. Sadly my lack of experience in using this thing was against me so I flew back to Twilight’s old Library where I know Trinity, Luxu, and Time were, Rarity said Sweetie switches between her parents home and her sister’s home to stay close to the whole family. I almost broke the door down, when I was inside I saw Luxu reading a book… laying upside down against a wall. “Figured you’d show up.” He said, not even looking my way. “Where.Are.They.” I growl. “Not telling.” “I spend one day training and they decide to bolt thinking I don’t give a shit about them and you do the ‘not telling’ crap!?” I bark in anger. “Yeah, they made me promise, and unlike you, I don’t break my promises even if it get’s those I love hurt. They trusted you to stay with them and help them train. You were gone when they wake up like a horn dog in a one night stand when they wake up after making a promise to help them train too. Help them gain their Keyblades. How do you think they felt?” “I DIDN’T BREAK ANY FUCKING PROMISE!” I shout in rage. “You should at least have left a note, I have lived longer than I wish I could have and I can only tell you this about women, in their minds, when you made the promise, the signal that you were going to keep it was to be there when they woke up, you weren’t, so to them, that means that you are breaking it.” “That’s bullshit in at least three ways.” I frown. “One, they never gave a specific time, and considering over twenty people are telling me to get stronger I was going to spend my time training, then help them all train like I promised. But apparently fucking not.” I frown. “Two, they should have kind of expected me to be training all things considered with my schedule and all, especially Twilight-” “They did, but they put their hopes on you at least being able to spend mornings with them, not run off at sunrise and coming back at, what is it, ten almost in the afternoon? What time can you give them when most of them would already be asleep by then save for whoever is watching that baby of yours?” I look down, my mind now rushing to ‘you failed them’, and so many other terrible things. “Please...where are they?” I ask, tears threatening to fall. “I promised not to tell… but if you can find it out, like… if you read my journal that is upstairs in the bedside table, that’s you finding it out.” I looked at him, my hopes of finding them rising but my suspicion beating it down. “And the catch?” I ask. “Cause that sounds too easy.” “I have no idea what you mean.” Luxu says in a fake ‘normal talk’ voice. “I’m just making conversation. It’s not like any dumbass can figure out this is a favor or anything.” That last part had a sarcastic tone to it. “Fine.” I mutter. “But hey uh...do you have any idea about what this symbol means?” I ask, summoning Reunion. “I can read it but...can you?” I ask, walking over and pointing to the strange marking that said ‘Keys’ to me. He looked at it, then looked back at his book. “That’s the mark of the King of Nothingness. Some old god that was made when Light and Darkness started clashing. Those with that mark are his knights or some BS like that, gain thirteen of them and you get the rights to challenge him for the crown. Or so the story goes.” “Oh…” I say before disbanding Reunion. “Well...that’s a thing.” I nod. “I met him once….he’s alright, but his personality is…unusual.” “Well when you're apparently the ‘King of Nothingness’ I’d expect it to be unusual.” “When a king talks to you like a…crap what’s a term that’s not offensive? Best I can say is a stereotype gay, that’s how he is….down to the fucking starbucks…” I stared at him for a moment. “Um...okay then.” I nod slowly. “Well, thanks Luxu. That makes this weird thing a lot more...understandable I suppose.” I shrug. “Whatever.” He said as I went upstairs. Finding his journal and skipping to the latest entry. ___/___/___ Ben’s fiance’s asked me about some world they could go to hide and train for a while. Some crap about wanting to prove they can take care of themselves without Ben so they can protect him better than he could protect them. Ugh, makes no sense to me but that’s Ben’s freakout when he finds out. They wanted a challenge where they could learn to kill if needed and train in proper combat. Several worlds came to mind but only one could teach them the skills they asked for specifically and I’m wondering why the fuck Ben didn’t do this already? Meh, after helping them summon their Keyblades, which I was surprised Twilight got a Gazing Eye too, somehow that suits her, and gave them the world’s name and coordinates. 678-785674-3453768-456734636-879869847-8568567 Long ass trip from Equestria to Tamriel, but fuck it, they’ll fit in alright there. “Shit.” I frown before closing the journal. “And wondering why I haven’t went to a world to get the proper skills? I’ve been getting that enough as is.” I grumble to myself before putting the journal away and summoning Reunion. “Well...let’s hope I can find them.” I say before summoning a DTL and walking through it all the way to Tamriel. God knows how long later I finally stepped out into Tamriel proper. “Now...which Elder scrolls area am I in again?” I ask myself, looking around and trying to get a good survey of the area. I don’t think I’m in Skyrim, it’s sand for…everywhere…am I in the Khajiit homeland? “Well...didn’t expect to be in a desert.” I frown, keeping my hood up and my tail hidden. “I just hope they don’t hate me too much…” ”They don’t hate you.” Joy says to me in my head. ”They just...want to keep us safe…” “I know Joy...but…” I mutter, putting my hands in my pockets and walking, thinking the girls would just either run or attack me if I was on my glider. With fur the hot sun was…extra hot. How do those damn cats live here? I was panting at this point when something startled me. “You look like a new traveler to these lands.” I jumped as a distinct Khajiit voice spoke from behind me. When I turned to look it was a female, dressed in what I recognized from the games as Hammerfell clothing. “You could say that.” I nod. “Um...have you seen people who looked…’different’ around here?” I ask. “I am looking at one.” She deadpanned. “I’m looking for eight women. My fiance’s actually...and I’m worried sick about them.” I say worriedly. “Please...if there’s anything you can tell me…” “If they are new here like you then they may be in the border cities. Closest one near us though is Orcrest, which is near all three main cities next to our borders.” “Thank you.” I nod. “And...which direction would that city be?” “You can follow Khajiit to it, you’d likely end up lost considering you’re already going in the opposite direction of Orcrest.” She pulled out a small leather flask. “Drink, Khajiit could hear your pants of overheating from ten feet away.” “Thank you.” I nod while taking the leather flask, uncapping it and taking a small drink from it. I put the cap back on and handed it back to the Khajiit woman. “Well...let’s get going I suppose.” She nodded, turning around and leading the way. It took two hours but we finally made it to the city, it was nothing special, tall stone and wood walls, shaks from wood and clay, and with it being late there were mages casting spells to place glowing orbs of light on set poles. Huh, magic street lights. “So Khajiit wonders, why did your mates leave?” She asked as we were walking the streets. “I’d...rather not say.” I say bitterly. “It’s all my fault...I just hope...they still care about me at all…” “Khajiit can not say much, but personally, if they are worriers like Khajiit, then did you do something to insult their honor as such?” “For some odd reason when I wasn’t there when they woke up they took things completely out of proportions.” I sigh out. “At least...to me.” I mutter. “Oh, Khajiit might know what this is about. You see, most females,like Khajiit, talk not just verbally, but physically as well. We interpret actions, large and small, as they seems to mean. If you left without explanation or even a note behind to set their minds at ease, then they became furious.” “Yes yes I already know that.” I say with a raised hand. “But the problem with that is, they already know what I do, because there’s one of them that really likes to plan out their day and the rest would understand that I also have stuff to do...but they took the ‘I have to do things’ to the extreme of ‘I suddenly don’t care about them’.” I frown. “Ah, no then this is not the case. I’m guessing you in your lands are well known and is a busy person, yes?” “Basically.” I shrug. “Then this is them saying, ‘you need the free time, we can do things on our own so you can be without distraction’. If you have no time to spend with them, or don’t make it, then why should they be there to pester you when they seem to know your importance?” “I always try to have time for them…” I say sadly. “I always try to be good to all of them...I try and try...but…” “But!” She whacked the side of my head. “You are one man, one person. You know, and they know you can only do so much, so they made a decision for you. Even if it hurts you, they made the choice to give you space and time for your business. Khajiit bets if you do find them that they will likely say you should go back and finish what you need to do.” “No...they won’t…” I sigh out. “I just know it…” I mutter, tears coming back and trying to fall as I had another thought of them looking at me in such a disappointed or hateful way. “I...I don’t want to fail them…” “Ah, you are a broken man who has placed your stability on them. Your family likely knows this as well, this is likely another reason they left to give you time and space. If you can trust them to be away and take care of themselves, then they will know that you truly care and trust them. Even though your emotions and mind are telling you otherwise, spend too much time with them and you become obsessive, and without you even realizing it, you are indirectly hurting them. And before you shout saying that’s not true, if you're about to yell, as Khajiit knows you were about to, this only proves Khajiit’s point.” “You're not helping…” I say bitterly. “I don’t want to fail them..yet you're telling me I basically am.” “No, you miss my point now. Khajiit says, failing them is one thing, you have them on a pedestal, and to you, failing them and losing them are the same thing. Life, relationships, you will always fail, this is fact no one, not even the gods can escape. You are only ‘failing’ them because you keep trying so hard not too. It makes little sense, this is true, but it is fact. You try to stretch yourself too far and now you stand in foreign lands looking for them as a consequence of your own stubbornness and clouded mind. No one likes to do something that disappoints the ones we care about, and you keep trying not to, but that is what is disappointing them.” I just stopped and stood there. “Well…” I mutter. “Glad to know...their disappointed in me…” I mutter, biting my lower lip and trying not to cry or whimper. “The trick now is, making it up to them, so stop wallowing in your own sadness and let’s come up with ideas.” “No…” I mutter. “They came here wanting me to stop worrying about them...they want to be strong and that’s fine, and I was going to help...but they just decided to up and leave, thinking I’m just some jackass that doesn’t care about them.” I sigh out. “I doubt they’ll take any of my crap...all I wanted to do was make sure they were safe…” I mutter. ”Ben…” Joy says to me in my head worriedly,not wanting me to be this sad. “Ben…” I jumped, turning to see Luna behind me. “Oh...hi.” I say with a small wave. “I’ll...just be going if you want.” “Ben, leaving to train on our own was an idea we had for a while…ever since you brought me to Radiant Garden actually. We weren’t planning on acting on it until after we all had Keyblades and basic training. I’m a master now so…when you left without a word this morning I knew you went out to train…we all did, but even then…Ben, we love you, why you doubt that sometimes hurts at times, but we don’t blame you. We left cause with all you need to do…it’s too much. You are one person trying to divide your time when you don’t have enough to begin with. So we acted on the plan, take some load off of you. Fact is Ben, while it only hurts cause you make us feel like we can’t do anything to help you.” Your only driving them away… A voice says in my head says. “I…” I mutter, putting a hand up to my head. ”No…” Joy starts. They’ll abandon you just like your parents did... ”No no no…” “I’ll...just…” I mutter, holding my head and feeling a horrible pain in my head. I was suddenly brought into a hug by Luna. “Ben, I know you don’t mean to make us feel like that, and we hate ourselves for making you feel like we don’t care…but we need this, and you need this…besides, now that we’re found out, you can visit during the week. That’s how long we’re going to be here.” She’s lying… ”Luna’s not lying!” “I’ll just...be going…” I mutter, pushing Luna away weakly before turning around and walking away, still holding my head as I just walked. “Ben!” Luna shouted, tackling me to the ground. “You are not leaving like this!” “Why?” I ask simply, my voice hollow from the sadness I was feeling. “You want to train by yourselves...I’m only letting you do so.” I say, Luna knowing full well tears were falling even behind the darkness my hood caused. “Not with you like this Ben, not with your sadness talking for you.” Luna growled, placing her hand over my forehead. “I think you, Joy, and I have to take care of something.” Everything went white. When Luna appeared she could tell it wasn’t the normal ‘playground’ we last met at...it was an open field with Shadow like creatures circling around Joy. “So these are the issue?” Luna said, me suddenly appearing next to her, still feeling my sadness but my thoughts felt clear as compared to earlier. “They were circling around him a moment ago.” Joy growls, summoning Reunion and getting into the same ready stance as I normally did. “What do you want?” I ask Luna. “Can’t you see I’m starting to have a breakdown here?” I ask bitterly, a shadow monster leaping at Joy who cleaved it in half with ease. “You can cheer him up now ya know?” Joy glares at Luna. “This is both your fault here.” He frowns, ducking another shadow creature swiping at him. “Ben.” Luna starts. “Do you know what these shadows are?” “Depression, negative thoughts, abandonment issues, and oh hey a mild case of PTSD over there.” I say like I’m checking them off like a goddamn check list. “You know, the normal things a guy has through a very shitty life.” “You aren’t wrong. These are your inner demons, trying to reclaim Joy.” “I’d rather not become Rejection again thank you very much!” Joy barks, a card being summoned and blocking another ‘demons’ attack before it split up and shredded the thing in a flurry of cards. “Your other emotions are busy making sure the other parts of your emotions and psyche don’t fall apart here jackass.” “It’s not my fault I feel like shit and was currently proven that I am being a piece of shit.” I frown. “And this is why it’s partly all our wives fault.” Joy frowns. “It’s not their fault…” I say bitterly. “It’s mine.” “That’s true, but it’s still their fault.” The young wolf says, summoning Sharpshooters and shooting a bunch of monsters and killing them, but either they're really good at regenerating or they keep respawning. “You knew you were having problems but kept them away from them, thinking that you’ve said ‘enough’ to them, and then it just so happens that they all decided ‘let’s just head off without telling Ben because we want to get stronger’ on the exact same day.” Joy frowns, summoning Frozen Pride and blocking another attack. “I may be your ‘Joy’ but I’m also the part of you that also want’s to speak out for help. Sometimes you need help to feel joy.” “Younger in body, older in mind he is.” Luna commented. “He’s not wrong…Ben, even though you’ve started telling us things, you still hold so much back, why are you afraid to cry or show your fear to us? We know you’re afraid of losing us, but we are also afraid of losing you damn it! You hold back the majority of your emotions and think the weight of the world's problems are on your shoulders alone when there’s a FUCKING ARMY OF LOVED ONE’S READY TO HELP CARRY YOUR SHIT!” Luna yelled that last part in her canterlot voice. “Why won’t you just accept the help? ...our help...” “Because…” I start, the Shadow beasts stopping to stare at me and Luna for a moment. “I’m scared...I’m scared that if I share any of my burden with you...I’ll only end up hurting you. If I try to show any other emotion than just moments of sadness or Joy...I’ll lose everything…” I whimper. “I...I don’t want...I don’t want to lose everything again…” I finish, falling to my knees and just openly sobbing over how stupid everything was. Luna knelt down, lifting my chin so I looked at her, she was giving a warm smile. “Ben…Life caters to no favorites, even if it looks like that, that’s just luck or planning. But even you have to admit, meeting us, coming to Equestria. Perhaps luck is doing you favors to rebuild yourself. You have a large family, friends, lovers…and soon, a mini army of pony, griffon, and dragon wolf hybrids running around. We’re not afraid to carry your burdens cause we know you will be there, and we can take comfort in that…even to the grave. I know the thought of losing those you care about tears you apart, you’ll do anything to prevent it, and that’s something we love about you, but you have others to keep each other in check too. That’s how a herd works, we keep each other in check. You need to know this at least, you aren’t alone anymore, and even if all of use aren’t with you at the moment, we are still there for you, and you have others to rely on. You’ll never be alone again. So long as you remember us.” “I don’t…” I mutter. “I don’t want to be alone anymore…” I mutter. “Can I point out how adorable and hilarious seeing that ‘mini army’ of kids is?” Joy asks, getting a giant smile and trying his best not to burst into laughter at the heart warming moment. “That is a funny thought.” I chuckle. “Can you just imagine be being tackled by ‘that’ much fur, feathers and scales?” “We better stockpile diapers like hoarders.” Luna added. “Wonder, will we have one or two at a time, or litters~” “Oh my god woman.” I groan, the shadow creatures starting to back away. “I still haven’t married you yet, and you're already wondering how many kids are going to be in there?” “It’s a reasonable question, I’d call Den about it, but I don’t have her number for her Assistant.” “That’s true…” I nod. “I’d...better call mom to…” I say, still trying to calm myself down from all my sad and bitter thoughts. “I know I keep things away...but next time…please don’t just up and vanish without a word?” I ask worriedly. “Yeah that’s one of the reasons. You vanished without a word and we immediately thought you were kidnapped by Core.” Joy huffs. “Or someone just as equally deranged.” “Fine.” Luna said, kissing me on the cheek. “New rule, no up and leaving without at least telling someone. And you can’t get out of bed til at least three of us are up, no acceptions.” “You already know I’m training with Ramilua right? So all of you would know where I’m at...also no I am learning how to use a scythe, not how to work at the Ponyville Spa just so’s ya know.” I point out. “Pitty, Pinkie’s porn stash had a scene with a sexy barber~” I facepalm at hearing that. “Too much information!” Joy barks, the young pup’s face a new shade of red at this point. “Joy, you are part of Ben, that means EVERYTHING he does to us, you know and feel, so don’t even try to play innocent ears here.” Luna says. “Hey at least she’s not connecting all our dreams together.” I say honestly, before I see Joy literally have a nose bleed. “Damn it…” The pup mutters. “Great...now you gave Luna an idea now that I’m here as well.” “Heh, naw, Dream sex can make the sheets worse than they are when Ben and us do it while awake.” Luna jokes. “Okay then.” I nod. “Well...at least I won’t be dragged into sex almost every day.” Joy says, magicking up a tissue and stopping his nose bleed. “And because I’m your emotion I’ll never have my own body technically.” “Heh. Well Ben, what should happen next?” Luna asks. “Well I have seven other girls to apologize to…” I sigh out. “I just hope they’re as…understanding as you.” I say sadly, knowing that at least two of them might smack me and be bitter about it. “They will be. Pinkie might screw you on the spot though, apparently the desert heat put her in… heat.” “Okay so apparently I’m going to have to stay here for a while.” I chuckle. “Also...what do you think the others would think about Joy?” I ask curiously. “If they don’t think I’m adorable they have problems.” Joy huffs, which only made him more adorable. Luna chuckled. “They’ll think he’s adorable, even Gilda. So Ben…the girls and I still want to train on other worlds, but I feel some new conditions can be made about it.” Luna says, a smile still on her face. “I promised to help you all...but apparently all of you thought I lied.” I frown. “You didn’t lie Ben. We just realized you have too much as is…we’re sorry for making you feel like that, but we figured you needed the burdens taken off, and so, as a Keyblade master, and a well made fighter after being in many Equestrian wars, I’ll take over training the others, anything advanced when you have the time you can teach us. But let’s get to the others before I bring up the idea.” “Alright…” I nod. “I love you.” I smile gently up to Luna. “Love you too my white knight.” Everything went white. After waking up Luna helped me up. “Well let’s hope that never happens again… ever.” Luna says, dusting off my cloak. “The part about being in my head or the part where I start having a breakdown in broad daylight?” I ask. “The last part, I don’t mind entering your head again… if only to try and find your lust and see what kinks you keep secret.” She gave a cheeky smile. “I’m pretty sure most of the crap you ladies have I don’t have.” I frown. ”There’s at least one they probably would enjoy. Joy mentally adds. ”Shut up Joy.” I mentally tell him. “Anyways, where is everyone else?” “The Inn nearby. Even though the decorations are different bits are as good as this world’s Septims because they’re both gold coins.” “Khajiit has no idea what just happened.” Luna and I turned, seeing the Khajiit woman still there. “But that was some advanced magic.” “Sorry miss. But uh...yeah magic let’s go with that.” I say simply. “But me and my fiance had a...little personal talk.” “Khajiit understands, and wishes you well.” She replied. “Thank you for trying to help my fiance miss.” Luna says. “You did a lot, and you’re a stranger.” “By the by...I’m sorry if this sounds offensive or anything but is your name Khajiit or do you just say that because of some reason I don’t know about?” I ask curiously. “Khajiit can see the confusion, it is part of our culture as when translated to this language, we refer to our kind in the third person, my name is Tsavssi.” “It’s nice to meet you Tsavssi.” I nod. “And...thank you for helping. But I have seven other fiance’s to meet.” I say while getting up with Luna. “I understand. I do ask a favor of you however.” “And this magical favor is?” I ask. She looked around real quick before whispering in my ear. “Get me the heck out of this place.” “That can be easily arranged.” I whisper back with a nod. “Why is that if I may ask?” She pulled back the sleeves on her clothes, revealing broken chains and shackles. “I’m the ‘wife’ of a bandit leader that’s terrorizing the desserts. I escaped then ran into you not long after. I said nothing in case you were untrustworthy or my ‘husband’ was on to me.” “Have you ever thought of going to another world?” I ask with a little grin. “...What?” “We’ll explain in a bit.” Luna says as we take Tsavssi with us to the Inn. My talk with the girls and the exchange of apologies lasted about two hours, lots of crying, and Pinkie dragged me into the closet for sex. After that was done Luna had us all sit in a circle of sorts. “So, first off, we all now have Keyblades, so that’s a good thing, we can also now open DTL’s, Ben, what do you think this means?” “No matter where I go you’ll somehow find me?” I ask sheepishly. “That’s the second part, the main thing is that we can travel between worlds now, meaning we can come home after training off world before Ben does. Twilight, care to think of a schedule?” Twilight smiled and nodded. “Well, if Ben is waking up at Sunrise, we can all try to wake up before, Celestia rises the sun at 5:45 on the dot, if we wake up at four am, we can all spend a rather early, yet enjoyable family breakfast then Ben can leave to train at sunrise and any free time between waking up and, eating and then Ben leaving at the end for training can be spend bonding as a family…however we decide to spend it~. That aside, while Ben is away training, at least half of us can leave to another world to train, Luna being the teacher in this case will always have to go given she also has the most experience in combat aside from Ben. As long as we can come home at eight, eight thirty in the afternoon before Ben comes home is he’s coming home at nine and we go to bed at ten we can get six hours sleep, and if Ben decides yes also we can take weekends off entirely from training to just spend together.” Twilight summed up. “That sound like a good plan Ben?” “Good enough for me.” I smile. “Besides...I want more family time…” “Then it’s settled.” Rarity said. “Waking up early on the days when I’m not training will be good to help me design clothes. Maybe some new cloaks for Ben.” “What about this land?” Honora asked. “Shall we leave now or the next day?” “I recommend now, and now for you Tsavssi.” Luna said, looking at Tsavssi as she sat at the only table in the room. “Our castle is in need of workers, what skills do you have?” “My ‘husband’ only ever had me cook cause it’s all I’ve ever done. My parents were both well known chefs and are still talked about these days. He kidnapped me because originally, he liked my fur and chest, but after learning I could cook I became his personal cook. I’d have poisoned the lot of them but the guards kept close eyes on me at all times.” “I’m pretty sure you still could have poisoned them all if they cared more about your fur and chest.” I frown. “Fucking bandits.” I growl. “Their gluttony outweighed their lust.” She replied in a deadpan tone. “Suprising.” I frown. “Well anyways, have you ever wanted to be in a place that’s nice, warm, has greenery everywhere, and the closest dick bag you can find is either imprisoned or getting their ass kicked by me?” I ask her. “As well as be well fed, housed, and capable of finding an actual mate that loves you for who you are instead of for lust or gluttony reasons?” “Such a place would be a welcome change to not only I, but the whole of Tamriel.” “Well you're getting a one way trip to the world we all live on.” I smile. “And, if you want, can work in our castle, where you will be fed, paid, and housed until you either want to leave and make it out on your own, or you can always stay in basically the lap of luxury as a hard worker we all treat as an equal.” “Show me this place and I will cook you my mother's famous Moon Sugar soup.” She replied with a chuckle. “Girls?” I ask. “Ready to head on home?” I ask. “Yes, we should get some moonsugar though.” Luna said. “Tsavssi here will be losing that bet.” After a quick shop to buy ten pounds of moon sugar, I opened a DTL, which scared Tsavssi, but she was calmed down by the girls as we walked through it. When she saw the castle, she acted like a new york tourist. “How do you like the castle Tsavssi?” “It is like something from a youngling fairy tail.” She replied, still looking around. “And you are willing to pay me and give me a home?” “We are all literally royalty here.” I say honestly. “We have so much money we don’t know what to do with it half the time. So yes, we are willing to pay you and give you a home.” “I… thank you. This means much to me…” To my surprise, Tsavssi hugged me, then let go quickly. “So… where will I be sleeping?” “I’m pretty sure there’s a lot of living spaces here…” I say honestly. “I’ll have to show you your room…” “There is a living quarters for all the different servent types, one for maids, one for butlers, two for guards, and one for the cooks, it’s connected to the kitchen so no need to worry about the long hallways.” Luna said. “I’ll show you there and then we can get started on this moon sugar soup.” With that, Luna lead Tsavssi off to the kitchen. “So…” I say, looking at the other ladies. “How have all you been? I mean...besides Pinkie because she showed me that a while ago.” “Well while we were there we did mostly some odd jobs.” Twilight said. “I think I might wanna learn blacksmithing after helping the one in that town.” Gilda said. “Alright.” I nod. “I know we just got done with all the apologizing, crying and all but...remember I’m marrying you all...I don’t want any of you...to…” I sigh out, sadly not able to get the words out because of how I said this already. “I’m sorry…” “We didn’t think it though either Ben.” Twilight said. “We want to help you but you kept rejecting so we tried taking matters in our own hands love.” Rarity said. “I never rejected anything…” I say. “I promised to help you, and sure I didn’t want you to get involved with this but…” Gilda wrapped an arm around me and gave me a noogie. “Your crap is our crap, that’s the one thing I know about relationships. Anything you have to deal with, so do we, otherwise we aren’t good partners.” “Just...don’t vanish on me again alright? I was scared when I came home…” I say honestly. “Sure I don’t leave a note telling you where I’m at because you know what I do normally...I...kind of don’t.” They gave me a confused look. “We left a note on the bedroom door.” Derpy said. “Uh...you did?” I ask in confusion. The walked me to the bedrom, which was well passed Jenny’s room, and showed me the note taped on the door. Ben, Gone off world to train for a week so you can focus on your training more and we can get stronger too, don’t freak out, we’ll be back in a week and if you get worried Celestia knows the name of the world Luxu gave us. Love, your Finances. “Jenny was around and heard you all practically arguing about stuff, then she told me you all went to Luxu, who also said ‘I promised not to tell’, but told me in written form where you were.” I frown. “I...probably would have had a breakdown regardless but...still.” I sigh out. “Would have saved ya some sanity though.” Pinkie said. “Not...really.” I sigh out. “I’ve read enough books and played enough games to know bad guys would force you to do that.” I say honestly. “And frankly I’ve called practically every cliche a bad guy has done or is in general.” They just chuckled. “Well either way some good still came out of it, you’re going to be more open with your feelings, and let us carry your burdens equally, and don’t worry, if it turns out to be too much for us, we’ll say something.” Twilight said. “Well...okay.” I nod. “But frankly I’ve mostly said my peace at this point. My dead parents, the fact I don’t want to be alone anymore...and a few other things.” “Yeah, been a rough day all around for you.” Gilda said. “Well, Luna and Tsavssi are likely making dinner… what to-” “Beeeeeeenn!” I heard mom’s voice call. “I’ll...be a moment.” I say while getting out of Gilda’s hold. “Not sure if on my Assistant…” I mutter, bracing myself for a giant dire wolf grabbing me in a big hug. Just that happened as Mom gave me, and three of my fiance's caught in her reach, a huge hug… I immediately noticed she had a flat stomach now. “Hello puppy!” She said, squeezing me tighter. “H-hi mom.” I say sheepishly. “Oh uh...Derpy, Gilda, Honora, this is my mother, Den.” I say to them, my voice muffled by my mother’s hug and boobs. “I’m not surprised.” Gilda shrugs. “She’s tall.” Honora says in surprise. “Her boobs are huge!” Derpy yelled. “Luna complained about how her boobs are bigger than hers.” I laugh. “I’m always filled with milk, can’t blame me.” Mom says as she puts us down. “So, Trinity texted saying you were looking for help for your castle.” “Yep.” I nod. “And I suppose the pregnancy went off without a hitch?” “Oh I already have seven litters of several million since I last visited.” She said nonchalantly. “Question…” I start. “Um...Luna brought this up...but will all my kids be part wolf? And two, would all my wives have a normal pregnancy or would they have litters like you do?” I ask nervously, rubbing the back of my neck. Mom looked at my wives, mainly their hips it seemed. “Well, once married and they become demi-gods by marriage, they will become more fertile than any normal being can, but the Assistant has features to choose whether or not they have one at a time, or litters as big as the rest of your mothers do. Me included.” “Well...that’s good to know.” I nod. “But hey, I managed to stay well after my first full blown breakdown.” I say to her. “Want to know why?” “No need sweetheart, just as long as you’re okay now.” She said kiss/licking my head. “Just be glad that washes out.” I grumble. “Oh, also Joy says hi.” I say to her. “Joy being a...separate personality I suppose?” I say, not entirely sure about how to word it. “But he’s the literal embodiment of...well my joy.” “Oh really?” Mom says with a smile, patting my head before I feel…something off. Not quite a headache but close as an aura poured out of me and…Joy sat on the ground between mom and I. “Oh! He’s adorable!” “How in the hell?” Joy asks in confusion, looking at himself. “I’m a goddess son, there are powers and magic, and other things, you will learn later.” Mom says as she grabs Joy and starts hugging him. “Um...this new.” Joy says, his voice muffled. “Also, shouldn’t I be in Ben’s head? I mean...I’m his literal joy after all.” He says nervously. “You technically are sweetie, I just used a small part of Ben’s aura and soul to make a body you can link your personality to. You’re like Ben’s little twin brother.” ”Uh...is that true?” I think curiously. ”Uh...surprisingly yes.” Joy says in my head. “Um...doesn’t that mean I have to also marry Ben’s fiance’s since I’m technically him?” The young pup asks curiously. Mom patted his head. “Don’t be silly dear, you may be his Joy but with a personality difference like yours you’re more like your father’s emotions/past lives.” “I’m so confused.” Joy says honestly. “Trust me Joy...it will only get weirder now that you have your own body.” I chuckle. “But welcome to the family little bro.” I smile. “Girls? What do you think of Joy?” “What do you mean past lives?” Derpy asked. “Easy.” Mom says. “Most past lives, when a soul is reincarnated, the past life will be…reused in a different way since the soul must have room for the new consciousness for the new being. Looks like Joy here was Ben some many years before Ben was born, maybe his first time alive at all, the fact Joy is a child means he died a child sadly…but took on the role of Ben’s joy when he reincarnated into Ben.” Mom explains. “Ben’s father has Six of these.” “This is only getting more and more confusing.” I sigh out. “Well...I mean I’m my own person.” Joy says sheepishly. “But um...how old would I technically be? I mean...by looks I’m probably about twelve or something...but I’m mentally 23 considering my time as...well…” Joy sighs out, not wanting to talk about his time as ‘Rejection’. “Hmmm.” Mom thinks. “Oh, I know who to call.” “GhostBusters?” Me and Joy say at the same time with cheeky smiles. Mom tapped on her Assistant and after a moment a black fog appeared and…the grim reaper. “Hi.” Mom said with a smile. “Oh, hey Death.” I say with a little wave. “Oh uh...question, are there multiple grim reapers?” To my shock, SHE took of her hood revealing a…human Twilight. “Yes son, there are.” She said. “A whole school for that actually, even death dies.” “Two things...okay three things actually.” I start. “One...did you just call me son? Two, I didn’t think a human Twilight would be a Grim Reaper...and three do I actually call a Grim Reaper when I cast Doom?” I ask curiously. “One, yes, I’m one of your dad’s wives, his third actually, and no I wasn’t a grim reaper then, two, I picked up the grim reaper job after the last Death realm guardian quit, also.” She shifted into a pony Twilight. “This is my real form, the human one just makes the job easier, and third, yes, a student at the school actually appears for those moves.” “Cool.” I say with a nod. “So...about Joy here.” I say honestly. “Um...what are we supposed to call you?” Joy asks Grim Twilight. “Cause uh...Den is our mother and uh…” “Biologically yes, but I’m no less your mother than she is.” Grim Twilight said, patting my head with her hoof, which was gentle, but still felt hard. “So what was it you wanted?” “Momma Den said you could tell me my proper age.” Joy says, giving a wave to Grim Twilight even though he was still being hugged. Grim Twilight looked between Joy and I. “Oh reincarnated then, this will be simple.” Her eyes turned black as she gazed at Joy, then me, then she blinked, her eyes returning to normal. “Well, from what I can tell your soul itself is over three hundred years old, quite the time gap considering it seems only Joy and you are the only personalities your soul has in it.” “That’s not true.” Joy says. “He has other emotions that I played with on the playground.” Joy says honestly. “They just...decided to stay in his head I suppose. Or were less vocal.” “No, when I say personalities I mean past lives.” Grim Twilight clarifies. “Only you and Ben are in the soul as…people, to simplify it.” “Uh...does this normally happen to people with multiple personalities?” I ask curiously. “Yes, if the personality in question when they were alive was rather strong willed or the soul itself is unstable in some way after it’s been reborn.” “Well…” I start. “That’s something.” “I know I’m more...physical but...is this a permanent thing?” Joy asks, starting to get used to actually having a body. “Being in Ben’s head is great and all, I always have someone to talk to...but having my own body...it’s nice.” “Consider it a gift.” Mom said. “Thanks mommy.” Joy says with a smile, hugging her as best he could. “Now for the extra facts.” grim Twilight said, a scroll appearing and opening in front of her. “Let’s see…First name ever given after birth, Kenneth Grodsen. Born 1709, mother was a maid working for an english nobalmen who was his father and even though it was kept secret only the three of them knew and officially Kenneth was on record as the maid's child who lived and worked with her when he was of age, though his father did care for him, birthday gifts and such. Died at age eleven after falling ill with an at the time unknown disease, laid to rest at Timothy cemetery where his gravestone still stands yet the wordings have long since been worn off.” With that she rolled the scroll up and it vanished. “That’s your past life in a nutshell.” “That...sucks.” Joy frowns. “Certainly does.” I agree. “But hey, now you're here with a new family, wonderful and loving relatives, and cool powers.” I smile. “Actually...can you summon my weapons?” “Well...I think so.” Joy says, raising his hand and summoning Reunion at least. “Well... we'll figure it out later.” Joy shrugs. “He should at least be able to summon Reunion.” Mom says. “Well...alright.” Joy nods. “Oh wait crap! What time is it?” I ask quickly, remembering I had to go to Ramilua early in the morning. “Too many things happened and I almost forgot.” “How about we just...take a break alright?” Joy asks, disbanding Reunion. “Let’s spend more time with mom...we barely do anyways.” “Yay!” Mom cheered. “Pinkie! Push the button!” Mom threw a button, with the words ‘that was easy’ on it, at Pinkie, who caught it. “Uh...are we missing something here?” Joy and I ask worriedly. Pinkie pushed the button, and in a blink… there were decorations, tables with food, servers, and what I assumed were my new brothers and sisters EVERYWHERE! “Instant party!” Mom yelled, taking some food from a nearby table. “Well…” I start. “That was easy.” Joy finishes. “But hey, we have family to meet...a lot of them.” Joy says nervously. “Don’t worry Joy, you're not the only one nervous about making a good impression.” I say sheepishly, the two of us taking a deep breath and walking over to the food table, wanting to get something to eat first. To be continued...
Nobody's bigger partyAuthor's Note WARNING! THIS CHAPTER IS VERY RANDOM! Nobody's bigger party “I have a bad feeling I’m going to forget some people…” I sigh out, munching on a very delicious cinnamon roll. “You're not the only one.” Joy agrees, nibbling on a cupcake worriedly. “I just hope they like us.” “So where should you start?” Luna asks, drinking what I’m assuming in champaign. “No idea.” I sigh out. “Maybe wait and see who’s going to try and either make a conversation, attack me for some reason, or get my attention in some way shape or form.” I shrug. Some time had passed before someone came up to me…I wasn't surprised. I met the butler’s kid…Ciel Phantomhive… “Greetings.” He spoke, wearing a blue tux. “Greetings young Phantomhive.” I say with a nod. “How are you doing?” “Good. I just got back from clearing out demons, usual, so I must ask what missions have you done yet?” “I have done no missions for the family yet.” I say. “We’ve been busy...training and trying not to die from very powerful people.” Joy explains. “Sounds like the usual in this family. So how did dad pick you up?” “Aunt Nyla brought me to dad’s house, with the original intentions of getting a master in some weapons...little did I know that I’d join this family soon after a fucking Titan destroyed Manehattan.” I frown. “Oh, what type? Standard, Omega, Boss, Armageddon, or Nova?” “Trinity cut it down the middle so I have no idea what the hell your talking about.” I shake my head. “Listen...we’re about as new to this as me suddenly gaining a body.” Joy says with a frown. “You’re talking to a kid who sold their soul to a demon, somehow ended up becoming a demon, then had a god show up, make me half human and turn my demon butler human, you quickly realize as new as something seems it can and likely has happened before. But let me clarify them. Standard titans are several miles high, covered in bone armor. Omega are twenty times the size of the originals with a space looking effect on their armor, Boss titans are basically living skeletons and are covered in every inch with their bone armor, Armageddons are as big as a Galaxy and would make that planet eating Marvel beast feel like a baby, and a Nova titan is small, about my size, but pack the punch of a Boss titan.” “And here I thought Attack on Titan was weird enough with it’s Titans.” I mutter. “Thanks...now I can tell which is which when most likely some jack off summons the fuckers again.” “I should also tell you about shadow spawners then. Basically…how to put this…it’s a large black Crystal, just kinda floats while darkness pours out of it and various Shadow Creatures come out of it. Shadow Creatures can also breed and they breed fast, so you find a nest, exterminate it, fast, and sometimes, most commonly, a spawner and a nest will be in the same location.” “What would happen if a person can just summon them with a snap of their fingers?” Joy asks. “It’s an ability people who can manifest darkness at will can do, but most likely they have a dark Elemental Crystal on their person. That’s where they originated from, Elemental crystals that can control anything from creating unlimited Electricity, to bringing back forests. They are common back home and with dad learning how they were made and placing the recipies for public viewing you can guess it’s both good for the people, and bed for them when the wrong types of people make them, or get ahold of them.” “Yeah.” I sigh out. “By the by, is there anyone that would try to...randomly try to attack us in some way shape or form just to give a family ‘hi’?” Joy asks, not wanting to have someone punch them just because it’s a ‘hi’. “Depends, the family works according to the three factions dad made when his company got big. The leaf, healing and medical practices varying from science to magic, the world, people and face to face verbal conflicts settled with words and paper, and lastly the Hazard symbol, the one where the fighters who will keep life safe from the front lines work, developing weapons, new combat magics, and of course, advanced combat training.” “Well then…” I say, finding that a whole bunch of something. “So...anything I should and shouldn’t say around people?” “Depends on their person also, but for the most part everyone is rather…loose, in terms of speech. Or interpretations.” “Oh dear.” I sigh out. “So...should we go out and talk to people or are they just going to come to us?” Joy asks nervously. “Well you two are the guests of honor here, you best socialize with your guests and family.” “Oh dear…” I sigh out. “It’s best we don’t split up Joy...better to not have any repeat talks with people.” I rub my forehead, already feeling a headache coming on from this before I finish my cinnamon roll and heading off to talk to someone, my tail and wolf features not hidden even if I’m still wearing my white cloak and crown. “Okay.” Joy says, wolfing down his cupcake before following me. “So...who first?” Joy wonders, looking around and seeing too many people to talk to. “No idea…” I frown, seeing too many people as well, all with variations on added body parts like wings, tails, weird sentient tentacles and too many others. A small kid walked up to me, he wore a green striped shirt, brown hair and red eyes. “Oh, hello.” I say to the kid. “So you’re the new guy?” He asked. “New ‘guys’ technically.” I say while patting Joy’s head. “But yes...and who are you?” I ask curiously. “Chara.” “A different Chara alright then.” I nod. “Sorry, a friend of ours is...married to Toriel. And she said her sons are Chara and Asriel...so we’re trying not to get confused.” Joy explains sheepishly. “You get used to it.” Chara said. “There’s twelve reflections of me in my math class alone. You get to tell us and your reflections apart after a while though.” “Have you ever wanted to murder a reflection of yourself with a bloody passion?” I ask curiously. Chara just gave me a look. “Really?” “It’s...a long story.” Joy says nervously. “I know about the games, I played them.” “No no, it’s about a personal experience I had...were a reflection of mine is...not the happiest of campers to say the least.” I explain. “Ah. Well not sure what to tell you there honestly. Our family kills monsters, when we get our humanity blades we can save some with humanity in them still, but till then they’re the Afterlife’s paperwork.” “Alright then.” I nod. “Anyways onto happier things.” I start. “How’s life been for you in the family?” Joy asks, hoping to change the subject. “Good. School is school, gym is as always, the fun class, and homework sucks.” “To true.” I chuckle. “What do you think about...us?” Joy asks curiously. “Just from looking at us?” “You… use a lot of shampoo?” He says. “I have eight fiances and I train a lot, so I have to make sure I am actually clean.” I frown. “So have you seen what dad’s done with his realm? And to the one he inherited?” “I didn’t know he inherited a realm but I heard he is probably making one.” I shrug. “Also I think I’m going to see sooner or later cause I’m going to have to ask him for a big enough church to get married in.” I chuckle. “Didn’t think I’d need that big of a place to marry them.” Chara shrugged. “Eh, and yeah he’s making one and the one he inherited he’s changing so rules in that/this place are much simpler and some other things still apply.” “Wait, why did you add ‘this’?” I ask curiously. “To ‘in that/this’?” “The realm dad inherited is your multiverse, and it’s respective multiverses. When dad became an admin, everything and everyone who knew him was gonna forget him, everything undone like a rest, which is what it was. Dad bypassed this by being the first Admin created being to become an admin and so he had everything move to his new realm where he incorporated it as a reflection of his realm, and those just go on from their and so on.” “Huh…” “That’s something.” Joy finishes for me. “Yeah, weird stuff, but that’s the price of admin hood, dad was the exception because he was the first to become an admin. He has always had a special way of bending or bypassing rules.” “He seems like one of those guys to bypass some rules.” I shrug. “Well you guys keep talking to the others, I’m gonna look for some more food.” Chara said as they walked off. “That’s a good first start I suppose.” I shrug. “Wonder who else we’ll meet.” Joy says, now wanting to meet people and have fun. “Hold on their little guy, we don’t know these people so we still better be careful.” I say honestly, looking around for who else to talk to. We walked around for a bit, seeing some rather interesting characters, before I ran into someone who had to be a mom, considering it was Celestia, twice as tall as the one I knew and twice as…featured and curvy. “Hi.” She said, shaking my hand. “Hello.” I say while shaking her hand. “I’m pretty sure our Celestia would beg to date you.” Joy says accidentally, causing the pup to blush and look down. “Uh...s-sorry for saying that…” He apologizes for his blunder. “It’s alright.” She replies. “It’s not like I haven’t done things with my reflections before.” She laughed. “Sorry, that’s between mothers and Cript.” Both me and Joy blushed brightly. “O-oh…” I mutter. “S-so! H-how are you doing today?” Joy asks quickly, trying to get his mind off of steamy thoughts. “It’s always nice to meet new children. Our family is becoming so well known for it. Is there anything about our family you want to know specifically?” “How many of them are here? And who should I talk to next cause I’m not sure if I can talk to them all in such a short time.” I say nervously. “Uh, members in the family total of here?” “Sorry...but yes.” I nod. “Too many people...we’re kind of nervous.” Joy explains for me. “Well, in total… not sure, we stopped counting a long time ago, here though are about a hundred or so.” Momma Celestia said. “Alright then...so I have to talk to ninety seven more people.” I sigh out. “I’m gonna need a drink.” I grumble. “You’re not getting drunk.” Joy frowns. “Remember the last time you got drunk?” “No because I passed right the hell out. Damn Asgardian Mead.” I grumble. “Heheh, well either way, enjoy your party. Gifts are outside by the way.” Momma Celestia said as she walked elsewhere. “Wait what gifts?” I ask curiously. “I have no idea.” Joy says honestly. “Well...let’s talk to someone else before we look at the presents. Wouldn’t be right if we jumped towards presents immediately.” “True.” I shrug. “So...who else here…” I felt a slap on my back as I turned around, seeing Squirrel there. “Sup?” He asked. “Hi Squirrel…” I say. “Why did you slap my back?” “Hi Squirrel.” Joy says to the Thestral. “To get your attention.” He replied casually. “Met your daughter Jenny, little ball of fire huh?” “She’s something alright.” I say honestly. “Actually, where is she? Is she around here or what?” I ask curiously. “Last I saw her she was jumping head first into the cake castle that’s in your backyard… it’s as big as this castle actually.” “CAKE CASTLE!?!” Me and Joy yell in disbelief. “How in the nine hells was that possible?” “Logic.” Squirrel laughed. “That’s a family thing we say when something makes no sense to us, chock it up to logic and move on.” I take a moment to put that into some sort of logic, then start thinking about Jenny in that situation and start laughing. “Oh my god! That’s actually pretty hilarious.” “So we have a cake castle in our backyard, we have gifts...um…” Joy starts. “Is this for his bachelor party or is this just a happy family party?” Joy asks. “Family party. Dad and Fred are planning your bachelor party and the moms are planning the bachelorette party for your wives. I’m betting clones, lots of them, all of, well, you guys, and oceans of lube.” “Uh…” I start, trying to figure out what Squirrel just said. “Nope.” Joy says, his face already blushing. “Nope nope nope. We’re still too young to die from nosebleeds.” Joy says while shaking his head, his ears flat against his head. “You are, he’s not.” “Don’t care.” Joy says with a frown. “Anyways, what did Celestia say about a bunch of gifts?” “Just a little something from the family that accepted the invite. They’re piled up in your front yard, one present for each member of the house.” “Oh god…” I sigh out. “What about Dinky and baby Braig? There still up with Celestia.” Joy says worriedly. “Crap…” I frown. “Well...let’s just enjoy the party right now. I need to stop worrying about stuff right now.” We walked around inside a bit more, and then saw something…concerning. Three Pinkie Pie’s. “Hi Ben!” The one on the left said, walking up and kissing me. “Check it out, I’m your wife, and they-me are your moms!” “Uh…” I mutter. “Well...um...glad to see you Pinkie. And yes...there also my mother’s…” I nod. ”How has the universe stayed together?” I think to myself worriedly. “So...how has it been to talk to...yourself?” “We have lots in common.” The Pinkie on the right said. “And a fair amount of differences.” The one on the left said. “How has the universe stayed together again?” Joy asks. “Um...I always had the weird thought that, if Pinkie met herself, something really bad would happen.” I say nervously. “Cause you know...you all bend the laws of physics without the need of god like powers.” All three chuckled. “Reality isn’t as fragile as sci-fi says it is.” “Cartoon physics says otherwise.” I point out. “Anyways, I believe it was you two and a massive group of bakers that made a massive castle sized cake?” Joy asks. “Nope.” The two said. “That cake was made with your father’s special mix of magic and alchemy.” The Pinkie on the right said. “Well...alchemy makes more sense than just ‘logic’.” I shrug. “So how are you enjoying the party Pinkie?” I ask. “He means his fiance Pinkie by the by.” Joy says, adding some clarity to his question. “I’m doing great!” She cheered. “I ate so much ice cream already!” “That’s good to hear.” I nod. “So, I suppose you already talked to everyone already?” “Almost.” “Surprising.” I say honestly. “And we still have so many more people to meet at this one party alone.” Joy sighs out. We said goodbye to Pinkie and…Pinkie…and Pinkie…for now and walked off to talk with more guests. “Who next who next…” I mutter, looking around and still not knowing who to talk with. “I don’t know…” Joy sighs out. “There’s just too many people…” Time passed as Joy and I must have had rather short conversations with many people, a few mothers, mostly brothers and sisters. Each conversation told me a bit more about my new family. Overall everyone was rather nice, some loud, some quiet, others normal, well, normal-ish. “Well...this was fun.” I say, grabbing another cinnamon roll and eating it. “I’m just glad people brought cases and bottles of stuff instead of having one major drink.” Joy says, taking a sip of his mountain dew. “No need for someone spiking drinks.” He points out. “True.” I nod. “Well...want to check out the gifts?” I ask, the pup smiling before the two of us head out to find the presents we heard about. It was a tower, presents all wrapped up covered in paper and the sizes varied. “Good evening.” We looked to our side, seeing a butler there. “Hello.” I nod. “How are you doing today?” “Good. Greetings sirs, I am Edward Glafram, at the request of the head butler of your family estate I am assigned to serve you directly.” “It’s nice to meet you Edward.” I nod. “Who’s this tower of presents for again?” Joy asks curiously. “We heard it was for us but we just wanted to make sure.” “The gifts are all mixed sadly, but names for the desired recipients are on them.” Edward explained. “Also I feel I should bring up some information and orders I received after meeting with your wives.” “And that would be?” I ask. “I am under strict orders to makes sure that during your training you stick to the schedule your wife Twilight has set up for you, while you train with your teacher I will school and educate young Joy here and when it's time to head home, if you refuse I have been given orders to, and I quote, ‘drag you back unconscious if need be’.” I groan. “Of course she would do this…” I groan. “Excuse me, but you said you’ll ‘school and educate’ me?” Joy asks. “To be blunt sir Ben, would you trust yourself to keep yourself in check? And yes Sir Joy. While Ben isn't a full member of the family yet, you are, and therefore need the proper schooling.” “Me and Ben are the same person still.” Joy points out. “Everything he knows, I know.” Joy explains. “Do you know the proper advance Magic schematics for creating basic food items from the atoms in the air or how to construct weapons from your own mana?” Joy raised a hand up...then lowered it...then raised it again...then lowered it. “Damn it.” Joy frowns. “Your schooling begins tomorrow.” Edward said plainly. “Shouldn’t Ben be schooled as well? Again the part of ‘we’re the same person’ still applies here.” Joy says. “You two know that Joy has a body of his own are by definition separate people but you are connected both by soul and mind. If wanted Joy could live an entirely different life separate from Sir Ben.” “That’s true but I’m not going anywhere without Ben.” Joy says with a frown. “That is why you two are listed as blood brothers in the family archives.” “Never mind.” I shake my head. “So, do we have to wait for a specific time to start unwrapping gifts or do we just start opening them?” I ask, knowing the butler is misunderstanding what Joy is saying. “You may start now if you wish.” “Yay!” Me and Joy cheer before rushing headlong into the tower and starting to unwrap gifts with my name and Joy’s name on it, like two kids during christmas. The first gift I opened was oddly enough shoes. There was a note with them and apparently they're enchanted to let me walk on water…even up waterfalls…nice. Joy opened his and it was, funnily enough, a puppy. It was brown, blue eyes and floppy ears. I noticed it had a weird collar on it, but shrugged it off. My next gift was…a classic bomb you'd see in Loony Toons...I did chuckle but this is likely real. Joy’s next gift was… a PlayStation 4…wow…I am so gonna borrow that often. My third gift was a stopwatch, when I looked at the note I got a little worried, it let's me stop time for five minutes and go back in time two...gonna keep that away from Jenny. Joy opened another and pulled out...The Fat Man from Fallout...how did it fit in a box so small... “All of these presents are awesome...but how the hell did a portable nuclear rocket launcher fit in that?” I wonder. “Don’t know, don’t care. I has puppy!” Joy cheers, hugging his puppy gently and happily. I opened my next one and it was at first I thought it was a sniper rifle…till I pulled the trigger and an arrow shot out, hitting another present. A sniper rifle that shoots crossbow bolts…huh. “I really hope nothing special was in that…” I say worriedly. Joy picked up the gift. “It's one of mine.” He opened it… and pulled out a skull…The bolt through an eye hole and out the back. “Okay one, why the hell is there a skull in here? And two, you shot the skull!” Joy says with a frown. The skull then screamed, scaring Joy as he dropped it and then it managed to hop and turn to face him. “The time is 7:56 pm.” It said. “Any alarms to set?” “Uh...Edward...the fuck?” Joy asks worriedly, pointing to the skull. Edward walked up, seeing the skull. “It's an alarm clock.” He said bluntly. “Most demented alarm clock I’ve ever seen.” Joy whimpers. “Let’s move on to our other gifts alright?” I say sheepishly, patting Joy’s head and hoping to calm him down. Joy nodded, opening another gift as he pulled out… a diamond sword. “Cool.” Joy smiles. I opened one too, and inside was a coupon that just said 34 on it. “Coupon with 34 on it…” I mutter, before blushing brightly. “No...it doesn’t mean that does it?” “That is a coupon for planet 34 sir.” Edward said. “A world where all sexual fantasies and desires are legal, though the darker one’s are only allowed in hyper realistic simulations.” I rub my temples at hearing that. “Of course it is…” I mutter, putting that away and making sure that none of my wives ever find it. Moving on, Joy opened another gift and it was single toy soldier. “Cool.” Joy smiles, checking the toy soldier out and seeing if there was anything special with it. “Wonder why you only got one. Back home you could get fifty of those things with ease.” I point out, wondering why he only got the one. After looking it over and finding nothing interesting about it, Joy tossed it back into the box...then the box glowed as the toy soldier grew into a green robot. “Awesome!” Joy says happily. “That’s a thing.” I chuckle. “Anyways, onto more presents cause we have barely scratched this tower.” I say, grabbing my next present. “God the girls are going to be so happy to see all this stuff.” I opened the present and inside was...a mouse… “Hey there little guy.” I say with a little smile. “You got any cheese?” The mouse asked. “You can talk…” I start. “Well...not on me right now but I can get you some.” “Yes I talk. I'm a Castle Mouse.” He explained. “And that is?” I ask. “I'm the mouse that lives in the castle walls. Every castle has one.” “I didn’t know that.” I say honestly. “So what’s your job little buddy? Besides living in my houses walls?” “I can act as a messenger to others in the castle and find lost things.” “Cool.” I nod. “Have a name?” “Tin.” The mouse nods. “Nice to meet you Tin.” I nod. “Names Ben, this is Joy, and you’ll soon meet the other inhabitants of the castle soon enough.” I say, kind of surprised the girls haven’t come out to get their presents. “Well let’s see my next present.” Joy says, getting his next present. Joy opened the box, inside was a bunch of apples…that are skull shaped. “What’s with all the skulls? What did they have too many skulls for the skull throne or something?” Joy asks worriedly. I took one, it smelled like an apple, so I took a bite...huh…not bad. “Surprisingly...not bad.” I say, eating more of the apple. “And hey, no cries of the damned scaring the crap out of us.” I finished the apple skull and grabbed my next gift. I opened it and it was a hand mirror. Huh. I thought as I looked at myself in it. There was a flash. And Joy started laughing. “What's so-” I cut myself off…why do I sound feminine…”Oh no…” I mutter, looking back into the mirror and finding myself a female. “Oh god…” I mutter, seeing myself as my ‘female self’ again and grabbing my chest, my breast feeling like it’s gotten...bigger. “Why me~.” I whine, not liking this. “But your so pretty.” Joy smiles. “Go to hell.” I frown. “Now how do I change back?” I grumble. I looked at myself in the mirror for a bit. Then there was another flash and I did a quick check. Yup, male again. “Oh thank god.” I sigh out thankfully. “Never letting the girls find this.” I say sheepishly. Joy rolled his eyes and grabbed another gift. Inside was another box. “A box within a box huh?” Joy sighs out, before grabbing the box and opening that. Out of that box was a strong wind as cookies, cake, ice cream, and anything remotely containing sugar flooded out… And didn't stop. Joy’s eyes widened and closed the box quickly, his entire body shaking with joy. “It...spawns…amazingness…” Joy says, looking at me with wide eyes and it filled with sparkles and childish glee at having his own box of sugary goodness. “Just make sure to eat in moderation, no need for you to somehow get diabetes you silly demi-god pup.” I chuckle. I grabbed my next gift and inside was… Gloves. Each pair with one of my girlfriends names on them. I spotted Luna in the distance and wondered...I put the pair that had her name on them on and pretended to squeeze, to which I saw Luna yelp and cover her chest. ”Awesome!” I mentally cheer, getting a cheeky ass smile on my face before squeezing again. “Perv…” Joy said. “Oh come on, you’re me so you're also a perv.” I point out with a cheeky grin. “Not in public.” He deadpanned. “That is true.” I nod, taking the gloves off and putting them back in the box. “I don’t like that kind of affection in public...but it never hurts to show how much I love my fiances.” I chuckle. Joy rolled his eyes, opening his next gift. It was one of those magic eight balls. “Hmm…” The pup mutters before shaking the eight ball and checking the whole to see what cheap ass ‘fortune’ it’ll give him. Ask a question. “Oh…” Joy starts. “Um…” Joy wonders before shrugging. “Who will I fall in love with?” He asks before shaking the ball. Four loves for life I see. Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, and Jenny Ventral. “AB...Sweetie...Scoots...and…” Joy mutters before his ears perk up and he blushes brightly. “Wh-why is…” “What?” I ask, looking at his answer before seeing the four girls he’ll be dating. “Oh...um...dad did say that Incest is fine…” I say sheepishly. “Oh dear...wonder how Jenny’s going to take that bit of info.” I chuckle nervously. “Take what?” Jenny asks, appearing from behind, and causing Joy to freak out and throw the eight ball away. “Scared much?” “N-no!” Joy yips quickly. “Just...uh….surprised.” He says nervously, his face beat red. “Whatever. So, cake castle has fallen…took a hundreds of stomachs, heh, so I came to open gifts.” “Well me and Joy have already opened up a few gifts.” I nod. “You’ll find anything from weird skulls, a nuclear rocket launcher, to a puppy.” I smile. “My puppy.” Joy says, holding his puppy. “Sweet.” Jenny says, finding a gift with her name on it and opening it. Inside was a locket. “Boo…was hoping for a weapon.” she opened it up and looked confused. “Why does one side hahava picture of those CMC and the other has a picture of Joy in it?” “Oh...you want the straight answer or do you want Joy to sputter like an idiot?” I ask curiously, seeing Joy try to justify how that’s a thing but just looks down, ears flat against his head as steam billowed out of his head. “Dare I ask?” “Joy got a magic eight ball that actually gave real futures...and it just so happens this little guy asked who he’ll fall in love with.” I explain. “And it just so happened that he’s going to fall in love with the CMC...and you.” I say honestly. Jenny looked at Joy, who was cherry red at this point. “Really?” “I m-mean...you are p-pretty…” Joy says nervously. “But...yes.” He nods, resigned to his fate of getting smacked upside the head. “Huh…” Jenny walked up to Joy, and to my and his surprise, planted a kiss right on his lips. When she broke it…there was a spit trail. “I guess you'll do.” She said with a cheeky smile. “Uh~” Joy started, his mind going completely blank here. “I...think you broke him Jenny.” I say nervously. “Then let me fix him.” Jenny gave Joy a smack, which brought him back before she grabbed him by the collar of his shirt. “You'll have to prove yourself as my alpha though, till then, I’m the alpha, and you're my bitch.” Jenny then grabbed Joy by the tail and dragged him off. “HELP!” Joy pleads. “I DON’T WANT TO BE APART OF THIS JOKE!” “Sorry Joy, but this is what happens when you get a girlfriend.” I laugh hysterically. To be continued...
Nobody's lesson: Graceful Dahlia part 2Morning came and I hit the breakfast table. Our new cook already had quite the spread set up and after most everyone was up Joy finally crawled out from his bedroom. I took immediate notice of his dog collar. “She didn't…” I mutter. “No.” Joy said, sitting down. “Thankfully she said she'll wait til at least sixteen for that stuff…this is just her way of claiming me.” Joy replied with a sigh. “But hey...at least that joke didn’t go ‘all the way’...” “Thankfully.” I sigh out. “But it’ll get to that point sooner or later. But oh well, I have to go back to training.” I say honestly, finishing up my delicious breakfast. “I’ll be schooling young Joy the today.” Edward said, appearing out of nowhere. “Morning Edward.” I nod, seeing Joy hop up onto a chair and start eating his breakfast. “Sooner or later I’m going to have to learn about all the crap our family can normally do on a daily basis...but I have a feeling Trinity will teach me that when I get around to it.” I say, accidentally forgetting she is my master for two weapons. “Well you’ll start learning that sooner or later.” Joy shrugs. “Yes. I shall also be teaching Jenny and Dinky. Since both are enrolled in miss Cheerilee's schoolhouse I will have to talk about the proper arrangements.” Edward said. “Oh yeah…” I nod. “Almost forgot about that…” I sigh out. “I have a portal door already set up to send the young ones to the house schoolroom for the new arrivals who have much to catch up on. I’ll talk with miss Cheerilee and then make it back to begin the lessons. It should take no more than an hour or so.” “Right then.” I nod before chugging my orange juice and taking all my dishes to the sink and putting them neatly down. “Well I’ll be off. Ramilua is probably wondering where the hell I was yesterday so I’ll need to explain all that.” “Just make sure you tell him you're alright. Ramilua might not be too happy with you having a breakdown.” Joy says, sipping his milk. It was at this moment Jenny came in, skipping and…wait, skipping?! “Sup?” She asked, jumping in her seat next to Joy. “You seem happy today.” I say honestly. “Especially with the skipping.” “You’ll see why soon.” She replied. “Oh dear…” I say worriedly. “Also...don’t do anything too rough with Joy alright?” I say worriedly. “She already has a collar on me...it can only get worse.” Joy sighs out. “Don't worry. I won't.” Jenny says with a cheeky grin. “Christ.” I groan. “Anyways I have to get going.” I say while walking over, patting Jenny’s head gently. “Don’t worry, after I master my scythe and nothing pops up we can have our road trip.” I say to her before heading off. ”God only know’s what crap she’s trying to pull...I know she hates me but why the hell is she trying to be like this? I know she can be a good kid…” I think to myself bitterly, thinking I’m not being a good dad to her. It was the very next second that her scheme came to light as a familiar set of voices scream echoed down the hall. ”CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS SOUL MATES YAY!!!!” “But...but I like being unharmed…” Joy mutters worriedly. “Whoa whoa hold up!” I bark towards the three hyper kids, hoping to stop the kids before they accidentally hurt Joy, themselves, or destroy a part of my house. My bark fell on deaf ears as they ran faster than bullets and tackled Joy in a three way hug. “OW!!” Joy yips, having jammed his elbow on his chair as he was tackled out of it. “What the hell!?! You don’t just tackle someone like that out of nowhere, even if I am your soul mate.” Joy says bitterly, trying to rub his pained elbow. When he tried to move his other hand to rub his elbow he grabbed something…softer. Sweetie’s blush and gasp said it all. “Oh...oh no…” He mutters, blushing brightly. “I’m...I’m so sorry.” He mutters nervously. Rather than sitting through this train wreck still moving I bolted. I did laugh the whole way to Ramilua’s though, feeling only sorry for the hell Joy is about to go through. I landed outside Ramilua's house and knocked on the door. “Coming.” Nana’s voice called as she opened the door. “Oh, hello Ben.” She said with a smile. “Hello.” I nod. “How are you doing today?” “Just fine. What about you. Word is you had a mental break down.” “And who told you this?” I ask honestly. “Your daughter Jenny has a really popular Facebook and Twitter pages where she posts stuff from her life and stuff you're doing.” “I know she hates me…” I sigh out. “But literally posting everything she knows about me? What the hell?” I shake my head. “But yes, I did have a breakdown.” “Glad you seem better. Ramilua is in the attic, sorting through some old things.” “Alright. Mind if I come in?” I ask politely. “Sure.” She nods, stepping to the side to let me in. “Thank you.” I nod, walking in and putting my hood down and letting my tail out cause it’s indoors. “So...where do I put my shoes?” I ask, wanting to be a good house guest here. “Near the door.” She said, sitting on the couch. “Thank you.” I nod, taking off my shoes and placing them near the door carefully. “So, where do I go to get to the attic?” “There's an open ladder hatch in the hallway.” “Thank you.” I nod, before walking through the house to find said ladder hatch. And lo and behold it was right there in front of me in the hallway. I grabbed the ladder and gently heading up. As I popped my head around I saw Ramilua moving around some boxes in a standard looking attic. “Hello.” I say, hoping not to startle the guy into dropping whatever he’s moving. “Hey Ben.” Ramilua said, looking through a box and not even turning to look at me. “How you doin?” I ask. “Besides cleaning your attic?” “Not really cleaning more looking for something.” He replied. “Looking for what?” I ask, curious about what the guy could be looking for. “Books on old haircuts or something?” “A tracer box.” He said. “Tracer Box?” I ask, raising an eyebrow at hearing that and not knowing what to do. “It's a box, solid metal with one button on the top.” “Need some help?” “Yes please.” He replied. I nod before getting fully into the attic and started helping Ramilua out in trying to find said box. I grabbed a box, inside it was packed with VHS tapes and the box. “Found it.” I say. “Also...are these VHS tapes?” Ramilua got up and looked, grabbing the box. “How did it get in Nelare’s things?” “No idea.” I shrug. “Just found it and the VHS tapes...so what are the tapes for? Private stuff?” “No, she just likes old movies.” “Oh…” I say before gently looking at them. “Holy crap she has Lilo and Stitch in here?” I ask in surprise, randomly finding the disney movie in there. “Yeah. Lot of weird movies like that have been popping up.” “Weird.” I point out. “Well anyway, now that I found it we can begin your training for today.” Ramilua said as the two of us went into the backyard. “And what will be on today’s agenda Ramilua?” I ask curiously, ready to summon my scythe if need be. He pushed the button on the box and a sci-fi style laser scanned me, then the box changed into a robotic replica of me. “You will be testing your speed against yourself.” Ramilua said. “Um...sure.” I nod, summoning my scythe. “Is it as fast as me or is it faster?” I ask, wondering how this is going to be a challenge. “Well...if you say so.” I shrug, before dashing to its right side, as swift as an arrow and insanely fast, but not fast enough for Ramilua to not track with ease. My robot moved just as swift and followed my every move. “Oh...I see.” I nod before I bolt around and around, trying to get towards it’s back, but the robot stopped me with it’s own speed every time. “It's built to mirror your every move by the millisecond. You have to figure out how to either be faster, or clever.” Ramilua said. “Alright then.” I nod, raising my hand and seeing the robot does the same, even if we’re moving around rather quickly. ”Hmm…” I think to myself. “Well let’s just see…” I mutter, swiftly moving forward and trying to bash the thing with the butt of my scythe to try and get behind it, but it stopped my weapon with the palm of it’s hand as it copied my actions. “Well...shit…” I mutter, hopping back. The copy did the same and we circled each other for a bit. ”If it copies everything I do this isn't gonna be easy… I’m speedy but not that fast so I gotta do something that either it can't mimic or something…” I think, trying to come up with something. “Hmm.” I mutter before tossing my scythe over to it and made a motion to swiftly grab it. And the bot actually did what I did and caught it perfectly. “Great.” I mutter with a grin, moving my hands up like I was still holding the scythe and it held it just the same, before I made the motion of slamming the blade into the ground, which the bot did as well and cut straight into the earth. “Uh...sorry about your backyard…” I say worriedly, thinking this was a horrible idea in hindsight. “Nothing some terraforming can't fix.” Ramilua said. “Alright then.” I say before dashing around without being slowed down by the scythe, but still holding it like the bot did. As I moved faster the dummy seemed to go a little slower from the weight of the scythe as well as trying to force it through the ground, and five minutes later and a surprisingly symmetrical line set up later, I managed to stand behind it. “Crap...that’s...even with that little trick I still had to spend five minutes.” I say honestly, but surprised I still managed to do it. “Finish it Ben.” Ramilua said. The scythe reappeared in my hands before I set the blade under it and cleaved right through it, bisecting it from bottom to top. “And there you go. One bisected robot, extra side of happy student.” I chuckle. “You are doing well… Come back here in two hours, then your final test will begin.” Ramilua said, walking back inside. “Kay.” I nod before hopping on my glider and flying off to town. “Maybe I should pick up some groceries? No, I already have specialty cooks at home that my family practically handed me...maybe I’ll get an apple. Besides I haven’t met Applejack or Big Mac yet.” I say to myself, hoping to find them and enjoy a good talk. I landed my glider in the town market and as hoped, managed to find Applejack’s stand. “Howdy partner, what’ll ya have?” She asked as I walked up to her. “An apple please.” I say, grabbing the necessary bits out of my pocket and putting it on the table. “So, how are you doing today Applejack? Do you know who I am?” I ask curiously, not sure if the apple farmer actually knew who I was. “You're that White Knight fella marrying my friends and some others. And I'm doin fine thanks for asking. Farm's never been better.” “That’s good to hear. But the names Ben, no need for my ‘hero name’ with friends.” I say while taking an apple and biting into it. “Oh yeah, I can tell the farms never been better.” I chuckle, tasting the farm grown deliciousness that was an Apple family apple. “Not just that, that sister of yours does jobs on the farm from time to time. She managed ta use some real fancy magics to get every tree to grow full of apples seconds after they're bucked clean. We have ten harvests worth and been sell’en ta a lot of new folks in bulk.” “Damn, Trinity sure is a hard worker.” I chuckle. “Also...have you heard about Apple Bloom dating someone yet?” I ask curiously. “Bloom is dating?” “God damn it Jenny.” I groan, pinching the bridge of my nose. “Okay, if your sister get’s home, ask her about a kid named Joy. You’ll figure it when she explains it.” I sigh out. “But how’s the family been over all?” “Granny’s the same, and Big Mac left for a long haul delivery but is running later than usual. Should have been back last night.” “Where was he going?” I ask curiously, having a bad feeling about this. “Just Pinkie’s family farm. Takes no more than ten or twelve hours.” ”Shit.” I think to myself before practically wolfing down the rest of the apple, taking out the apple seeds and putting them on the counter and eating the core and all. “Alright Applejack, I’ll be right back. Got to make sure your brothers safe.” I say while summoning my glider. “But either one of two things happened….he’s either found a nice girl and forgot about the time, or he’s in trouble. Which are you hoping for the most?” “If it was a girl I’d believe that the most. He’s hopeless when he’s got a crush.” Applejack said. “I find it hard he’d be in trouble, he’s got a good sense for danger. Part of how he survived Apple Bloom all these years.” She chuckled that last part. “Ha.” I chuckle. “Well anyways, have a nice day Applejack. I’ll find your brother and make sure to either bring him back if he’s in trouble, or give a good word if he’s found a nice lady.” I say before flying off to the Pie family rock farm. Three hours later I soon found the Pie family rock farm. “Holy shit it is as bland and colorless as the show explained it was.” I say in shock, surprised to see it like that. “Wait...I haven’t even met Pinkie’s parents yet...shit.” I groaned, landing in front of the home. Big Mac’s cart is out front… still loaded with apples. Huh. Not a good sign. I knocked on the door and it fell over. “Hello? Anybody home?” There was no response. I walked in, find the place mostly empty save for a glass of water on the kitchen table that was half gone. I summoned Reunion and looked through the bedrooms. They were all bland, few personal items aside from pictures and a few posters. I couldn't even tell which was Pinkie’s old room. There was no attic so I had to check the basement. It was dark, but lit with a single, surprisingly bright, light bulb. In the back there was a wooden ladder, going down a hole on the basement floor. “Okay if I’m starting to hear a banjo behind a chainsaw I’m out.” I frown, summoning Frozen pride and going towards the back and carefully going down the hole. The ladder went into a deep, dark, cave system of sorts. I ended up summoning my chakrams and letting the fire burn for light. The further I went the more this felt like something Silent Hill or a resident evil game would do to screw with you. I finally came across a door and when I opened it I was in a…Laboratory? “Okay Resident Evil wins.” I mutter to myself, summoning Frozen Pride and Reunion again while gently moving around. “The fuck is a lab doing down here?” ”Intruder Alert.” A loud yet calm computer voice said before I felt a prick at my leg. I looked down, seeing a dart in it as I got… really tired. “Fuck me…” I groan, trying my best to stay up even as the sleep dart tried pulling me under. “I...hate...cliches…” I grumble before my vision left me. “Sir, this is the intruder.” “Good god they're coming out of the walls…” “This one is a whole other race from the others.” “I can see that…him huh…this cloak looks unusual. Did you scan him and his items?” “Yes sir, his DNA came up as a...well, canine and human.” “Abnormal. And his items?” “They results were inconclusive.” “Run advanced scans on both those items. Place him in project six.” “Yes sir.” “I fucking hate everything…” I groan, shaking my head for the fifth time and finally getting some semblance of being awake here. “Christ.” I managed to adjust to the light and I was on a lab table, strapped down...naked… with an I.V. Looking thing taking blood OUT of me. “THE FUCK!” I bark, cutting the thing off with my claws. “Crap...how do I get this thing out without messing with a vein?” I mutter to myself, hoping this won’t end poorly. ”Test doner seven, can you understand me?” A voice spoke from a speaker somewhere I couldn't see. “How about you get your ass down here and talk to me directly.” I frown. “Against protocol. Here.” The straps came undone by themselves and the I.V. thing somehow floated out of my arm and onto the floor. ”Now then, is there anything you'd like to know before we proceed?” “Really? You have to start with ‘is there anything you’d like to know’ bull? I find a weird lab, most likely had you fucks do tests on me like I’m some common fucking animal, and you are wondering what I want to know first? You suck at this if you didn’t already know what I wanted to know first.” I rant. “Christ, and here I thought scientists were supposed to be smart.” ”We have been underground monitoring the life above since ten million years ago each new generation was vastly different from the last.” “So your mole people?” I ask. “Cause you sound like mole people if you’ve been underground for ten million years…” I say. “But besides that, what did you do to the Pie family and their Apple family visitor?” ”Insults aside, they are all safe, you will meet them shortly. You are the seventh test subject for Project six.” I look around the room. “Yeah, you see...I don’t take very kindly to being a fucking test subject to mad people so...so you have two options. Either let me and your other ‘test subjects’ that you kidnapped and probably tortured go, or I destroy this whole place and save those that you kidnapped, and you can’t do jack shit about it.” I explain. “That sound fun?” ”The base is connected to the other test subjects, you included, by a tracer chip now embedded within your brainstem, any harm to the base or staff will activate facility wide quarantine and…decontamination…and disposal of test subjects.” I take a deep breath. “So...tell me...what is this ‘Project Six’? And please explain to me why I still can’t just murder all of you and keep going without giving a single fuck?” I ask. ”Yo Joy, mind getting Trinity? I’m kind of stuck in a secret bunker underneath the Pie’s rock farm. I mentally tell him, thankfully getting an okay from him. ”You and the others are test subjects now. The disposal process will… consider it advanced neurosis. The tests are simple. Just walk through the nearby door.” Behind me, a door opened up. “By the by, is there a...certain amount of stress these chips can undergo before they just shut down?” I ask curiously, wanting to know that cause if so I can break it with ease. ”Unkown. If that were to happen though you would either die instantly or be paralyzed from the neck down given the chip is now a part of your brain stem.” ”You wish.” I think to myself, before walking through the door. ”Christ, why am I always shoved in these shitty situations?” I mentally groan. Once through the door my clothes were on a table, to which I quickly put them on. ”The first test will be simple.” Some kind of display cases came out of the ground and there were three in total. One had a heartless, the other, some kinda baby brown bear, and the third had…a HUMAN BABY! ”Which defines you?” “Okay what sort of crazy alien bullshit is going on here?” I ask, horrified by this. ”It's a simple question. Which defines you?” “How you got a heartless is beyond me, getting a weird baby brown bear is another, but where did you get a fucking human baby? What the fuck is wrong with you you sick fucks!” I bark. ”Subject seven the infant is only resting. Any louder and you will awake them. But which defines you. Monster. Beast. Or human?” ”I really hope Joy get’s Trinity cause this is bullshit.” I think to myself bitterly. “Human.” I frown. “But when I get this chip out of me, all of you are so dead.” I mutter angrily. ”Interesting.” The displays went back into the ground. Another display came up, this one with a photo of me. ”Who are you?” “Why should I answer that?” I frown. “I thought my name was ‘Subject Seven’, so you already know who I am.” I sass. ”Subject seven is your code name for these tests. Again. Who are you?” “I am me.” I say. “I am who I am. And you don’t need to know who I am cause you will never know who I am. Cause you kidnapped me and started testing on me like a bunch of fuck holes.” ”Inconclusive answer. Philosophical yes, but not the answer needed to proceed.” “Let me ask you a question, who are you? That’s the better question then trying to figure out who I am.” I say with a frown, crossing my arms. “Go on, tell me.” ”I am a quiz dungeon run by AI code and ‘dungeon masters’ spawned in after creation updated.” “Your a fucking quiz dungeon AI?” I ask. “Are….are you…” I groan, rubbing both of my temples. “Are you fucking with me right?” I ask, not believing this. “That’s it, where’s the exit, I’m done.” ”The exit and rewards will be granted after you properly proceed through the next three questions.” “I will properly proceed when I shove my foot up your creators ass that he’ll basically become my new slipper.” I frown. ”Please answer the questions accordingly. Subjects one through six have already passed and left the area, rewards in hand.” “Why though!?!” I groan loudly, face palming. “I start freaking out about a bunch of people disappearing, most likely being murdered, only to be dropped into some quiz show run by some fuck wits that were hear some fuck knows when. I was poisoned, dropped here, and was most likely very violated by all of your tests, and I still have no answers to anything. Your questions can go fuck themselves. This isn’t a fucking quiz show damn it…” I growl, swiftly losing my patience. “But my names Ben, or as the the inhabitants of this world have come to know me, ‘White Knight’.” The voice actually groaned. ”Alright thanks for that… now last question and you can leave.” The whole room lit up, and the photo of me went away and a single die came up on a table. ”Odd or even?” “What kind of die is it?” I ask, seeing a die and not sure if it’ll change into any other kind of die. ”It will determine the type of prize you get. Even prizes or odd prizes…” “Even?” I ask, still not a hundred percent sure about this. The dice rolled itself, landing on four. ”Here. The voice said as a…PS4 appeared in front of me. ”Now get out.” I blinked and was outside the Pie family home holding the boxed console. “THE FUCK!?!” I bark in rage. “Did anyone else have to go through that crap?” The door opened and I saw Pinkie's sisters, one holding a…mario mystery block, the other a large, rather cute, caterpillar thing, and the last was holding a spider that looked like it was made from diamond. Her parents were each holding Zapp apples, and Big Mac was holding a pillow. “These prizes were random.” The purple haired sister spoke in the most monotone voice ever. “I’m going to find whoever made that and smack him.” I frown. “But the PS4 is nice.” “Ben!” I looked outside, seeing Trinity fly down. “Joy passed the message. You didn't check your emails did you?” She asked. “No.” I frown. “Why do you ask?” I ask, hoping nothing bad happened. “Dad was gonna add a variety of unique dungeons and junk to the underground of every world to test out some stuff…what's with the PS4?” “I’m gonna smack dad.” I frown. “Cause apparently he decided to shove me, the Pie family, and Big Mac into a strange lab, where we were all probably tested on and violated on, and put into some stupid ass ‘quiz show’ thing, and the ‘AI’ said that if I destroyed anything a stupid ass chip in my brain stem, which I’m now calling fake as fuck right now, would kill me.” “A gameshow one? Dad must have hit randomize when making the themes…as for putting them there, he put them there yes but it's random who goes in, a chance of luck thing. Speaking of.” She zoomed into the basement. Less than two minutes later she reappeared with a…Kingdom Hearts 1.5 and 2.5 remix game for my PS4. “I got a free wish. Here.” She said, placing the game on my PS4. “Thanks.” I nod. “But do I actually have a chip in my brain stem? Or no?” “Heck no. The thing is new and dad would never make something like that, it was all talk and when I did ask it said ‘you would be teleported back topside missing the last hour of your memory.” “I fucking hate everything…” I mutter. “Well...at least I got a nice game and a PS4…” I shrug. “By the by, Big Mac, if it wasn’t for the dungeon being a prick, would you have stayed here this long?” I ask curiously, wondering if Big Mac had a crush on any of the Pie girls. He chuckled nervously. “Heh. Well we've been in that their dungeon… nine times trying for different prizes.” He said. “This pillow is my latest…and worst prize yet.” “Then what was that lab?” I ask, now kind of confused here. “But anyways, so you weren’t failing to try and be nice to the cute girl right there?” I ask, pointing a finger towards the long haired girl. “Marble is it?” I ask her, getting a nod from the shy mare. “Wha? No.” Mac said. “Marble is like a little sister ta me.” “Right then. It’s just that Applejack said you were hopeless when you had a crush.” I chuckle. “Anyways, want to go home now big guy? Or are you too busy having fun in a quiz show?” “It's fun.” The monotone one, Maud, said. “This is a diamond spider. Yes it's alive. Named him Chalk. Other things are in the shed out back.” “Right then.” I nod. “So, grab your things Mac, Applejack is worried about ya, Apple bloom is dating someone, and I don’t know about Granny Smith.” I say, wanting to get back so I can train. Big Mac stood still. “Applebloom is dating…” “I’ll explain it when we get home alright?” I ask. “It was nice to meet you all, and hopefully me and Pinkie, along with the rest of my fiance's can drop by to say hi.” I say to the Pie family. “Also yes, I’m marrying Pinkie, not sure if Pinkie sent a letter or not...albeit it wouldn’t be beyond her to have already sent a letter.” “She already sent us invites to the baby shower.” Pinkie’s mother said. “Wait...she’s…” I frown. “When?” “You forget Braig…” Trinity said, patting my back. “No I didn’t forget Braig, I wouldn’t never forget him. For some reason I thought she was actually pregnant…” I say nervously. “Anyways...I’ve had too much crap on my mind because of that dumb quiz thing, I just want to go home and get back to training.” I sigh out. Big Mac got his prizes from his runs. One of which was actually a bag of infinite honey roasted peanuts. Odd but useful, and we headed out. An hour later and I dropped Mac off at the Apple Farm and I flew off towards Ramilua’s house. When I landed in the backyard Ramilua was standing with his own scythe in hand. “Your final test is going to begin.” “Final test?” I ask worriedly, getting off my bike and looking at Ram. “I barely trained with it, I barely know any of it’s abilities, how the hell is this already my ‘final test’?” I ask worriedly, summoning my scythe and getting into my fighting stance just in case. “You advance fast. A scythe master only trains with another for a short period of time before solitary training is ordered. Your final test is the same as every. A tribute to the harvester.” “There’s still so much I have to learn…” I mutter. “How am I supposed to figure it all out on my own when this weapon is about the most confusing to me?” I ask, my worry getting the better of me here. “Once you master the basics, you can only improve and master from there. This is how scythe masters are. You catch on rather quick. But like I said, your final test is a tribute to the Harvester.” “And...this ‘Tribute to the Harvester’ is?” I ask, still having a bad feeling about this. “Find the demon that was born when your scythe was still a tree and harvest it.” “That’s great, I have no idea where the hell it even is.” I frown. ”Damn...God didn’t tell me anything about this…” I think to myself. “But...how am I supposed to do that?” I ask curiously. “Because as I say again, I barely know anything about this. I may be a quick learner but I have no idea about anything about things…” “Hand me your scythe.” Ramilua asked, holding out his other hand. “Okay…” I nod, handing him my scythe. Once he took it he he pricked a finger on the blade and slashed at the air, and the screams of what sounded like the cries of children echoed out as a red DT… something opened. “Through there.” Ramilua tossed my scythe back. “If this leads me to Silent Hill I’m gonna be pissed.” I frown while grabbing my scythe. “Well...wish me luck.” I nod to Ramilua, entering the red door and hoping this doesn’t end terribly. When I exited I was in a long dead forest. Long dead trees and animal skeletons littered everywhere. “Well...this is...not a pretty sight.” I say while starting my journey through this barren hellscape. “Hello? I’m looking for a weird ass demon tree.” I kept walking then I noticed my scythe get hot. Following the heat I could barely hold onto the scythe, the heat burned my hands even through my gloves. The heat suddenly went away, and I looked up, seeing a large bleeding tree, taller than a skyscraper as skeletons were embedded in the wood. “Well...that’s something.” I say with a frown. “What, does Griselbrand live in this thing?” I ask worriedly. I got closer and around the tree was a moat of blood. “Scary, ain't it.” I turned around. There was an elderly man with a lot of junk around him. How did I not notice this hobo camp? “It is…” I agree. “But...I can’t imagine just how beautiful it was before it was so ingrained with blood and death…” “Was a paradises to put a word to it.” The old man said. “People kept progress and nature in balance, then we found an old scripture in the deepest part of the ancient tombs. That's when it went south.” “And this is why people don’t dig too deep in ancient tombs.” I frown. “It was a simple sentence, who’d have guessed an old piece of paper was a prison.” “That’s...something.” I say worriedly. “Who are you if I may ask my kind stranger? It’s not everyday you meet a kind old man near a tree like this.” “Just the last thing alive here. When that thing escaped the prison, it killed everything. I only lived because I was up in a space station. It crashed down and I still walked away. Been alone here for forty six years.” “Well...what would happen if I said I can take you to a place where it’s more sunshine and rainbows?” I ask curiously. “I’m too old for good endings kid. To be honest I'm pretty sure you're in my head, if not then what took ya?” He chuckled. “Names Grath by the by.” “Names Ben.” I say. “But I...didn’t know your world was in such a state...my master, a Scythe Wielder, told me that I had to do something with where my scythe originally came from...I just...didn’t expect Graceful Dahlia to have come from that big of a tree.” I chuckle. “But if you want to know what a happy world looks like, one last time, just tell me and I’ll make it so.” “Maybe. What brings ya here anyway?” “A tribute to the Harvest.” I say, tapping my scythe on the ground and staring at the tree. “I have a demon to kill...and it’s in that tree.” “Do me a favor and spit on the red eyed bastard.” Grath said. “I will.” I laugh. “Anyways, how the fuck do I summon the damned thing again?” I ask, gently floating over to the tree. “Knock knock asshole!” I shout, tapping the tree with my butt of my scythe. A hand tore itself out of the tree, startling me as a…Psychopath. But… it was a child! ”Well well, the wolf mutt.” It said as it crawled out. “Silent Hill it is.” I frown. “So...random Psychopath child crawling out of a demon tree...this...is fucked up in several ways.” ”Hehehe. Oh how Silent Hill ripped us off. I bet you're wondering how a child became a demon like us huh?” “I’m seeing a lot of blood, murder, bloody murder, and possible traces of necromancy so…” I check off. “I think I have a good idea but mind clueing me in?” ”This planet's race was a war faring one. They created me, forced an innocent youngling to kill a grand hero and that let us enter the boy. They then feared us and locked us away till our rediscovery.” “That’s pretty fucked up.” I frown. “Pretty fucked up indeed.” ”To each their own. So what brings the mutt child of the human god here?” “I’m here for a Harvest tribute.” I say, showing off my scythe. “Graceful Dahlia here is apparently made from this tree...how I didn’t know this is completely beyond me when it originally was created by a Nobody…” I frown. ”How little you know. Many truths mean every lie is true and every truth is a lie. It's all the same and different to someone.” “I’m sorry what?” I ask, now completely confused. “I’m royally confused now…” I sigh out. “But yes, I know very little. And I have a feeling you’re going to tell me about things or going to murder me.” ”Either or matter not. You're now Cript’s child. I lay a finger and he comes in a blink.” “Then mind explaining to me what the ‘Harvest tribute’ is?” I ask with a frown. ”Simple really. The first to give and teach Man the way of harvest for life was death, as Psychopaths, we are the first to harvest life of sentients before their time was used up. Harvest a life like the first of both harvesters. Good, bad, young, old, matters not so long as the blood is spilled.” “Well…” I frown. “That’s...something. So I have to...kill someone?” I ask worriedly, not liking where this is going and gripping my scythe tighter. ”I can see your sins child, blood is already on your hands, one from mercy, one from progress, justice.” “I...didn’t want to kill her…” I mutter bitterly. “I still feel terrible about it…” I sigh out. “So...just kill someone? And that’s it?” I ask, already knowing I’m going to have to do it. ”Your scythe led you here. The blood it seeks is mine and the trees.” “Yeah that seems simple enough. Just got to get the blood from a Psychopath that’s in a demon tree.” I say. “Yeah, easier said than done really.” I say, already knowing what kind of power a Psychopath could tap into. ”Decisions decisions. What to choose? Fight me and die, run away to try another time or ask for help from those that will lend it?” I took a moment, thinking about who might help me, but thinking about all my fiance's first. “Christ...I’m gonna need help.” I sigh out. ”But...they can’t help...they barely started training….shit shit shit…” I think to myself worriedly, thinking of other people that could help but they're all probably busy. “Just...give me a moment.” I say while moving away from the child and tapping my Assistant and thinking of who might help. “Crap crap crap…” I mutter, checking through my contacts at who might be able to help. “Christ…” I mutter while tapping my Assistant and calling Edward. The butler appeared in a flash of teleportation. “Sir.” He said. “Do you know anyone that can help me with my special...situation?” I ask, pointing towards the Psychopath in the tree. “That’s apart of my test for my Scythe. Harvest tribute and all and fuck if I can kill him by myself.” “The only family I know of who have also dealt with Psychopaths are your father, and mother’s Andy and Zechariah.” Edward said. “Knowing dad’s busy, Mom is...mom...who are Andy and Zechariah?” I ask curiously. “Two of your mothers.” Edward deadpanned. “Yes yes I know I’m an idiot.” I sigh out. “Sorry just...I’m still having a bad week here…” I shake my head. “But um...are either of them busy at the moment? “They are all free.” “And here I was hoping I’d have a more ‘I don’t need help’ situation…” I sigh out. “Christ...well might as well meet someone new, let’s meet Zechariah…” I say. “Uh...how do you spell her name again?” I ask, about to just type in her name in the quick search but not knowing how to spell her own damned name. “Z.E.C.H.A.R.I.A.H.” Edward spelled. “Thank you.” I nod, typing in said name in the quick search, finding the person and pressing their name, calling them up. “Let’s hope this works…” I say, not really knowing what race this lady will be but feeling it’ll be a shocker. ”The Angel who was the only one to defect from us. It will be interesting to see them again.” “An angel huh?” I ask, wondering how this encounter will be. “Well let’s hope she either appears or picks up…” I mutter, starting to absentmindedly twirl my scythe without even noticing. After a bit of time I felt a tap on the back of my head. “Hello.” Said a female voice that…made me…kinda turned on to hear…oh god... “Trinity told me about you…” I say worriedly, blushing a bit and trying to keep myself under control. “It’s nice to meet you.” I say while turning around to meet my angel mother. She wasn't what the biblical depictions stated. Rather than a naked baby she was a tall, soft skinned woman with long blond hair, light blue eyes and she wore a white robe with a gold lace tied around her waist. “I have been watching you a bit. Gotta say, impressed.” “Glad to hear that…” I say honestly. “But um...you’re a Cherubim correct?” I ask curiously. “By birth yes. All those such powers and all but I worked my way into the Archangel class.” “Oh~, okay. Cause I was wondering why you either weren’t the biblical version of a Cherubim...both the ‘naked baby’ and ‘Dark Souls like’ creature…” I say sheepishly. “Fucken Dante’s Paradiso…” I mutter, remembering that four headed...thing. “As much as I’d love to continue this chat I believe we have…that to deal with.” Zechariah said as she pointed at the Psychopath. ”Long time no see Zechariah. You look well.” The Psychopath said. “Drop dead.” Mother Zechariah said as…she pulled out a great sword that would make Cloud feel small by comparison. “Mind helping me murder this kid?” I ask, readying my scythe and focusing on the Psychopath. “The Psychopath yes, the child we save.” “Well I have to Harvest the Psychopaths blood either way. Mastering my scythe and all.” I explain. “I got that part handled.” Mother Zechariah said as she pulled out a smaller sword in her other hand. It was all silver with a near heavenly white aura around it. On the blade were some symbols but I didn't fully recognize them. “Save the kid, kill the demon.” “Well this will be some good training to do that.” I say, spinning my scythe in the air and cherry blossoms swirled around me. Mother Zechariah handed me her silver sword. “This is a humanity blade, it's strength is funneled from it's welders will power. Let's see how strong your will is.” I nodded, grabbing the silver sword and taking a deep breath, steeling my will and readying myself to fight. I felt deep inside, put all my emotions into a swing with both my scythe and the humanity blade. The cross slash sent a visible energy wave that when it hit the tree, sent chunks of wood, splinters, and blood flying. When the dust, and blood, settled, all that was left of the tree was a broken stump with the psychopath standing in the center of it. “Damn…” I mutter, not expecting my attack to literally make the monster of a tree turn into nothing but a stump. “Next up, saving kid.” ”Those blasted blades have been a pain.” The psychopath said, appearing right in front of me. ”Time to play.” It smacked me and I was sent flying for several MILES. “Ow…” I groan, skidding in midair to a halt and dashing back towards the kid and my Cherubim mother. “This will be troublesome…” Mom went in, swinging at the child as it quickly pushed the blade aside and palm struck mother, sending her back a few meters. “Damn, Ben, distract it.” She whispered to me when she flew back next to me. “Alright.” I say before pointing my scythe at the kid, a sphere of thorns surrounding the being as I dashed forward, raising my Humanity Blade and swinging it at the kid, seeing the cherry blossom thorns start to rush down on the Psychopath. It hacked them apart with a sword it quickly summoned, then rushed me, slicing down my arm which was followed by a spin kick. A lot of blood was flowing from my wound. Mother was swinging the sword at the psychopath, it was fast in dodging her attacks. I started spinning my scythe rather quickly, before dashing towards the kid and swinging both my scythe and my Humanity blade like a very fast top and hoping to hit the kid. The kid actually pulled out a rope which wrapped around me then he yanked it and I honestly can't remember what happened next. I am way to dizzy. “Oro~” I groan, not sure why I sounded like Kenshin but just felt like saying it. I shook my head a few times to get back to my senses. When everything stopped spinning I saw mom was locked blades with the Psychopath. ”Here's my opening.” I realized as a charged in fast, slicing the psychopath with my new Humanity blade as a crystal like thing quickly coated its body. “Good work.” Mom said. “Once the Psychopath is out, finish it, they are as weak as butter without a host.” “Cool.” I nod, readying my scythe to strike down the Psychopath. There was a black mist coming out of the crystal and then it came out. It was like a red version of Venom from Spiderman was crawling out of the crystal. I sliced it in half and it evaporated into the air. The crystal around the child fell apart and he laid there unconscious. “Nice work.” Mom said, taking the Humanity Blade back. “When you earn yours you will make great use of it.” “Thanks mom.” I nod. “So...I ‘killed’ a Psychopath…” I start. “Now where’s the flash and congrats on mastering this thing?” I wonder, looking all over my scythe and wondering if another symbol will appear. It did, over the back of the blade where the blade and body met. “Open…” I mutter, reading the symbol before disbanding my scythe. “Well...that’s that I suppose.” I say. “Time to go home…” I mutter, starting to think about what to do next. “Do you want to take the child or should I?” Mother Zechariah asked. “I’ll take him…” I say before landing and picking up the child. “He needs a family...and a father and eight mothers would do the child some good.” I say while summoning Reunion and creating a DTL back home. “Hope the kid is willing to have me as a father…” I say sheepishly. “Thanks mom...also...how long will your...effect last?” I ask sheepishly. “Different for each person. Also what about him?” She pointed at Grath. “Oh yeah…” I mutter. “Hey Grath! Want a ride to a new world and home?” “Sure. Just let me pack my things.” Out of the junk around him Grath only grabbed a dirty backpack, some canned food, and a toothbrush. “Alright I am ready.” “Alright then my new hobo friend.” I say with a nod. “Walk into the light. I swear you’d think you were going to heaven if you believe in that.” I chuckle. “You and an angle lady just got rid of that thing that killed off my world. There is something akin to a god or higher.” He said walking into the DTL. “If only he knew.” I chuckle to myself. “Well it was nice meeting you mom, hopefully we can see each other again.” “Same. Also here.” She tossed me a birthday card. “There's so many kids and such in the family we just celebrate all their birthdays in one week long party. That's the gift everyone gets, a rule free wish.” “Sweet.” I say with a warm smile, taking the card and putting it in my pocket. “Actually...crap I don’t know when December is on Equestria…” I frown, remembering my actual birthday from Earth. Mom pointed at the assistant on my arm. “I know…” I sigh out. “Seriously...this has just not been my week.” I grumble, before walking into the DTL with the child in my arms. Once on Equestria, Grath set up camp in a rather deep hole in the cliff side wall at the castle home. I went back inside and upon doing so the child changed, he was now a wolf like Joy or Jenny, but with pony ears and a horn. His hair was the same color as Rarity’s. “Rarity is gonna be so happy.” I mutter with a little smile. I continue to walk around, wondering who I’ll bump into here. “I wonder how Joy is doing? He’s got school and girlfriends to deal with…” I walked into the bedroom where thankfully the girls were at and I put the new addition on the bed. “Another adoption?” Luna asked. “Yep, and he’s Rarity’s son.” I say. “You wouldn’t believe the situation this poor kid was in.” “Oh… a son?” Rarity said, getting up and looking at the boy. “Heh. I had hoped my first child would be a girl but, what can you do.” She said, patting the sleeping child’s head. “Well considering I met a specific mother of mine…” I say nervously. “I’m going to be as fertile as possible. Even spells can’t stop it somehow…” “Bathroom now!” Luna, Pinkie, and Derpy said as they pulled me into the bathroom shower. “Wrong thing to say…” I mutter, not really caring that I’m being pulled into the bathroom. “But...shouldn’t I be with all my girls?” “In a bit, then we’ll join.” Gilda said. “I gotta check up on Joy, the CMC and Jenny have been having him play tea party and house for… since you left. “Oh my god…” I sigh out. “He has work to do, not playing house…” “Sex now kids in two hours.” Luna said as she closed the bathroom door, turning on the shower and things got busy… fast. To be continued...
Nobody's daughter goes to RaptureTwo hours of nonstop love making later, I walked through the castle and wondered where Joy was. ”Yo Joy, where are you?” I mentally ask him. ”Having a...nice enough date with the Cutie Mark Crusaders.” Joy mentally tells me. ”Okay where in this giant ass castle?” I mentally groan, wanting to find them soon and tell Sweetie about her new nephew. ”At the apple farm.” Joy mentally tells me. ”Alright, I’ll be there real quick.” I mentally tell him before opening one of the many big windows and summoning my glider, speeding off towards the farm to see how Joy and the girls are doing. After about five minutes I flew over to the Apple farm and saw the CMC’s tree house. “There we are.” I say before landing a few feet from the actual ramp leading up to the tree house. “Hello?” I call out, not wanting to barge in there. The door opened and I saw Applebloom open the door. “Hi Ben.” She said with a smile. “Hello Apple Bloom. How are all of you doing?” I ask, getting off my glider. “Hope Joy’s been nice to you all.” “Hehe. He's been good. We've been playing house for practice.” “Practice?” I ask with a cheeky grin. “I heard that!” Joy barks from inside the tree house. “We also took that future tellen eight ball and have been seeing what’s in store. Hehe. So far a fun future.” “What kind of ‘fun future’?” I ask with a smile. “Well in terms of a house we get a whole planet like his pa, and in terms of kids…that just said ‘incalculable’.” “AB!” Joy calls out in shock, making me bend over laughing hysterically. “We also asked about you. Said the same thing.” “Oh dear.” I chuckle. “I’m sure all of them will be happy at least...hey Sweetie! You got a nephew!” There was a high pitched squeal of joy as I looked inside the tree house. Sweetie squeezing Joy like crazy. I also noticed Jenny in the back corner of the club house. “Halp!” Joy groans. “Can’t...breath…” He says, trying to get some air. “Alright Sweetie, don’t squeeze Joy too much.” I chuckle. “Anyways, how have you all been?” I ask, seeing Scootaloo grinning at Joy’s predicament. “Good so far. Just figuring some things out.” Scoots said. “Alright.” I nod. “Jenny? I suppose you’re enjoying Joy’s ‘torture’?” I ask, knowing she enjoys me and Joy being either embarrassed to hell or in pain. “It's cute I can't lie. Never knew a boy could blush that much.” She replied. “Glad to hear that.” I nod. “Anyways, I just finished mastering my weapon, and considering you have free time want to head off and go have fun?” I ask my daughter, hoping she’ll just allow some father daughter bonding at least once. “Sure. Scoots, you're head wife while I am gone.” “Yes!” Scootaloo cheered. “Lead the way.” Jenny said to me. “Don’t I get a say in this?” Joy asks worriedly. “Apparently not.” I say before summoning Reunion and spawning a DTL to the world Ramilua told me about. “You’ll get up there don’t worry.” I say while moving out of the way and letting Jenny go in the DTL first. We both went in and once there we were met with a pile of mangled corpses. “Reminds me of my dentists attic.” Jenny said. “Your dentist was a serial killer?” I ask with a frown. “No, just disposed of bodies we needed gone.” Jenny replied as she walked over to the corpses and took off a revolver from one of them and ammo from the rest. “So which way?” I summoned Frozen Pride and Graceful Dahlia. “Let’s see now…” I mutter, looking around to wherever we should go. “This way.” I say, starting to walk in a random direction. Jenny followed and no sooner we turned the corner I was tacked to the ground where a hook that was EMBEDDED into a person's arm to replace the hand was at my neck. “Hello little fish-” Bang. The person's head exploded as Jenny blew a hole through his head with her new revolver. “So what we learn?” “This place is filled with crazy people?” I ask curiously, getting up and brushing the blood off of me. “That…and remember to look up.” Jenny pointed up, when I looked up I saw two more of those crazies crawling on the ceiling. “That’s creepy.” I say while switching my scythe to one of my Gun Arrows. I raised my gun up and shot two arrows at them, both piercing through their heads with ease...which blew up their heads in the same instance. “Okay then...that’s nice.” “Wonder what else is here.” Jenny muttered as she walked off. “Probably mutants, monsters, more crazy people, and a lone man who’s trying to figure out how the fuck all this happened.” I say with a shrug. “But...how much do you hate me and Joy? I don’t know if how your acting is just because your a Ventral...or because you hate us a fuck ton.” “Joy, I am just messing with honestly. You…I want to drop dead.” “I know…” I nod. “But remember...if you ever need me, no matter how much you wish I was dead...I’ll always be here for you.” I tell her. “Whatever.” She replies. Opening a large metal door leading into a glass hallway with a view of the underwater city and ocean around it. “Oh...well this is new.” I state, still on my guard even though I was seeing that an entire city was built in the middle of the ocean. Entering the next building we were met with a crying, pale skinned little girl standing next to some kinda armored tank person. They had a drill attached to one arm. “Oh…” I mutter to myself, not liking how this might go. “Well that's creepy.” “Hey at least it’s not ‘Silent Hill’ creepy.” I whisper, gently moving away from the pale girl and the tank like being. “Wuss.” Jenny said, firing a shot at the tank like being and it turned red and roared in rage, charging at Jenny, who went full wolf and slashed at the being, it's head falling off and it's body falling over. “Well that was just too easy…” “That only makes it more worrying…” I say with a frown, looking over at the girl that was doing nothing right now. ”I have a bad feeling about this…” I think to myself. Jenny walked over to the girl, and put her revolver to the back of the girls head, I reacted and pushed Jenny down. “The fuck Jenny!?” I bark. “What? She's not gonna survive a place like this anyway.” “That’s why we’ll save her.” I say bluntly. “There’s obviously something wrong with her besides having a giant tank of a being with her...I don’t know much about this world but I already have a feeling these girls were heavily drugged with something…” “So what's the matter with killing a druggie?” “Besides the fact that a little girl was probably tested on without her being able to do anything?” I point out. “She’s not a monster, she’s probably a tortured soul that needs help…” I say before opening up my Assistant and checking what the hell this world actually is and who the girl was. “Waste of time in my opinion.” “Your a Ventral, anything that involves ‘sparing a life’ is a waste of time to you all.” I frown. “Just like relying on loved ones is too much trouble for you?” “I don’t want them to get hurt in my own damned problems.” I say bitterly. “They are your family, your problems and dangers are theirs now the second you started dating them.” “I know that...and I’m trying my best to let them know my problems.” I sigh out, seeing the title ‘Bioshock’ show on my Assistant. “And you’re now my daughter...and I want to help you be better than just a person that’s made for killing.” I say with a frown. “Some father…takes a person with a sicker mind than Core’s to kill a mother and then raise their child.” “Yet Nancy said she had no one left.” I say. “She said, in her own words, that the Ventrals become ‘demons’ when they don’t have anyone left for them. If you were Nancy’s daughter...then why did she think she had no one left in her life?” I ask, my mind now starting to think of many possibilities of why she would do such a thing. Jenny growled. “Shut up.” She warned. “I wanted to have a father daughter day, and I thought that killing stuff, preferably monsters or crazy people like the ones we just encountered, would help you relax and try and ‘open up’...” I start, before I raised my head and got a serious confused look. “Wait...Jenny, have you ever had a ‘killing mood’ before?” I ask, finding that sudden thought really weird for some reason. “Duh. Tokyo four years back. Was an accident but hey…there went an anime convention. Surprised they never released the security footage.” “That’s...even weirder now that I think about it.” I frown. “You’re a Ventral by blood yes...yet…” I start, before shaking my head. “This is getting more and more confusing the more I think about it. You have killing moods yes...but...why did she say all that?” I ask worriedly, scratching my head in confusion as more questions arose in my mind and leading to maybe an answer. “Cripe...you're probably not going to like what I’m thinking about.” I shake my head. “What? That my dad screwed another woman and she gave birth to me. I've known…” “How long?” I ask, hiding my anger from Jenny as I heard what she said. “Since I was five. Dad got drunk at a friends party and got too flirty with a striper. A year later same stripper finds dad and drops me off at his hideout at the time. M…Nancy raised me like a daughter but she only ever saw me as a friend. She did mess up dad bigtime for that but I still saw her like a mom. She was all I had after all, my birth mother left me.” I listened carefully, and I clenched my fists in anger and bitterness. “Wow…” I start. “Your fathers a prick, Nancy should have thought about you before making her decision…” I growl, raising my gun arrow towards a corner of the room and firing it, the sound of a head exploding filled the room and a body hit the floor. “You hate me for killing Nancy, that’s fine...but how in the wide world of hell she didn’t think of you as her own daughter is….kind of beyond me at this point.” “Simple. I’m a bastard. A child born from drunken unfaithfulness. She looked at me and cared, but remembered dad's mistake and could look no further. After all, what if Luna, or Twilight, even if they were drunk screwed another and was carrying their child. Can you honestly look me in the eye and tell me is you did raise them that every time you saw that child you would not see that mistake, that moment of hate and feeling of betrayal?” I stared Jenny right in the eyes. “I would not see a moment of hate, or a feeling of betrayal. I would be pissed at the person that would even dare try to do such a thing to my wives most definitely, but the children wouldn’t be at fault. I would never take out my own anger on innocent children who were born because of a mistake.” I say with a frown. “And besides...I’ve told myself I was a mistake several times, thinking I was nothing more than a giant waste of space, a murderer who killed his parents just for not listening to them in once in his god forsaken life.” I growl. “But here’s the thing, we both have a second chance to live a life that is filled with love, joy, and happiness with those that care about us. I have my wives, Dinky, Joy, and my new family, and you have your new family that see’s you as nothing less than a girl that needs love, care, and help.” I explain seriously, hoping my words could get through to her. “You agreed to be my daughter, and I want you to know that, no matter what you did in the past, you're getting a second chance to enjoy a life of being a daughter, not a ‘friend’, not a ‘mistake’, but as an actual daughter that your parents love and cherish. Alright?” Jenny didn't reply. Verbally. Rather, to my shock, she hugged me, crying loudly as she squeezed tighter. I disbanded my weapons and picked her up and hugged her, closing my eyes as tears formed at the corners of my eyes as I just hugged Jenny. “It’s alright...daddy’s here…” I whisper with care, just staying there and hugging the crying child. Something poked my back. When I looked around it was that pale girl, who had glowing yellow/white eyes. She looked confused. “Daddy?” She asked. I smiled gently and patted her head. “Daddy’s here.” I say with a smile, having looked for what these girls are and wanting to help her out. “I’ll be your daddy if you want.” She nodded, jumping on my back making me give her a piggy back ride. “Go see mama!” The girl said. “Onwards to mama.” I smile, heading off to find the pale girls mama. “Now...where’s your mama again?” I ask the pale girl, still holding Jenny gently. She jumped off and lead the way. We walked for a great while before we came to a door with a smaller door that she crawled through and after a bit it opened and behind it was a woman dressed in a fancy dress… pointing a shotgun at me. “Why has my little one brought you here?” She asked. “She wanted me to see her mama.” I say, motioning to the little girl. “I want to help.” She looked at the little girl than at Jenny. “You are not from Rapture, this much is clear. What brings…people… like you here.” “I originally brought my daughter here for some murdering monsters and crazy people...then we both had a heart to heart…” I say, still holding Jenny gently in my arms. “And it all started with helping that poor girl and whoever else might have been stuck like that.” I explain. “The fact you are not dead yet makes you a good sign for aid. Rapture has fallen thanks to its founder, Andrew Ryan. He founded a city without morals so those who flocked here when it opened, it went south from their thanks to eve and plasmids. My little ones are injected with a unique sea slug that produces this eve, they are like a safe with gold that every splicer in the city will kill to get every last drop of eve they can.” “And I suppose those giant tank things with drill arms are meant to be unstoppable bodyguards?” I ask curiously. “Big Daddy’s. Yes, they protect any and every Little Sister. They are genetically bound and bonded to their Little Sister, and will die for them. The people they once were are either long gone or trapped by genetic tampering and mind alteration.” “Huh...that’s something.” I say with a frown. “So, you want me and my daughter to help save all the Little Sisters before they become bloody shakes for crazy people? And maybe kill Andrew Douche Monger in the meantime?” I ask, already wanting to kill the bastard that’s responsible for all of this. “Killing Ryan is top priority, and beware of a man who goes by Atlas. He has been trying to kill Ryan for years and used Gorilla warfare to do it. He claims to be just but I don't trust him. Save any Little Sister you come across on your path to Ryan, to save every Little Sister in Rapture is a pipe dream given the city's size and the splicers.” “It’s not the first time I’ve done the impossible.” I chuckle. “Jenny?” I whisper to the girl in my arms, wondering if she is asleep or not. “Call Trinity.” She mumbled. “That crazy girl can get the Little Sisters easy.” “Alright.” I nod, gently nuzzling the top of Jenny’s head before using my Assistant to call for Trinity. “Sup bro!” Trinity's voice yelled behind me before I even sent the message. I jumped from shock. “Gah!” I yelp, still holding Jenny in my arms thankfully. “Jeez, can I stop getting spooked here?” I grumble. “Anyways, can we get some help? Little Sisters need saving.” “Ah. Gotcha. So once I get them where do I put them? Your house or our parents house?” “Are you gonna cure them of...whatever the hell this is?” I ask the woman who called them ‘my little ones’. “I can remove the excess eve yes, will only take few moments per little one.” She gave an example by patting the Little Sister that led me here, a white light went from her hand to the girl as the girl began to glow. In a flash, the child was no longer pale and her eyes were a deep green. She gave the woman a curtsy and ran over to me. “She likes you. Good. You are better than those Big Daddies. I shall look over these two and cure little ones. You deal with Ryan.” “Right.” I nod. “Ready to kill a madman who thinks he’s god Jenny?” I ask with a smile, hoping to have a happy time with murdering crazy people. “Next world dad...I need to calm down a bit still.” Jenny said as she jumping out of my grip and and sat on the floor, the newly cured Little Sister joining her. “Alright.” I smile, glad to hear her call me ‘dad’. “Well I’ll be off. Question, where’s Atlas and or Ryan right now or do you have no clue?” “Ryan is likely still in his office, a control room for all of Rapture and Atlas, not sure, all I can say for certain is that he has access to a lot of Eve. So he actually might be in the same place as Ryan, just in a different area. There is an Eve bank where little sisters used to store the excess eve they gather, but after the fall it was drained by splicers.” I crack my knuckles and ready both Frozen Pride and Graceful Dahlia. “Well this is gonna be fun. Got any directions or a map I can use so I don’t run around in circles?” “There is a tram three floors below. It can take you to a building that connects to the one with Ryan's office. He likely barricaded himself in and has all security active. And splicer bodyguards everywhere. Unless you know how to fly it's impossible to use the trash shoots.” “I can fly...three different ways.” I chuckle, starting to float in mid air just for funzies. “So, three floors down is where the tram is, and I use the trash shoots to get their quickly and without much of a problem with guards or security?” I ask curiously, stepping down from my little floating. “Alright…but hurry. The longer you stand or float here the more time Ryan and Atlas have to make things worse.” “Right.” I nod, before rushing off to quickly find my the trash chute and then to the tram. I checked my Assistant and thankfully it gave me a very detailed map of the place. Splicers came in swarms to stop me but a slice of my scythe cut them all down. I finally found the trash suit and used my arrow guns to teleport up in a blink up. Once at the top and out I saw the well dressed man of the city stand behinding a thick glass wall. “Clearly not Atlas.” He said, not even looking up from his book he was reading at his desk. “Come for entertainment?” “If by hearing you scream like those that have been tortured in this damned city then yes.” I nod. “Do you fear death?” I ask, summoning Graceful Dahlia and and gently twirling it. He looked at my scythe and then back to his book. He raised one hand…and the Star Seeker Keyblade appeared. “I've seen much, so the effect is lost on me.” “Okay...how?” I ask with a frown. “My great grandfather was one of the few selected to escape and keep the light of worlds alive from the Keyblade war. This keyblade is his. Passed down the family since his death.” “Okay...so you’re the great grandson of a man that wanted to keep the Light alive...and I suppose you decided ‘fuck it’ and made this hell hole?” I ask curiously. “I made a utopia to escape the norms and rules of government and the way the world works. Here, there are no gods or kings, only man. A man built this city and it was man that destroyed it.” “Now while your ‘utopia’ sounds nice on paper, you obviously can tell that in practice it sucks total balls.” I frown. “Not how I would have put it exactly, but yes. The city was meant to be self run by all who live here. If man was given true reign over their lives in a place where consequences are not delivered by an authority but by people, what does that say about man.” Ryan disbanded his keyblade and put his book down. “Man is dark, when handed paradise where the only rule was to keep it self sustaining they chose to abuse the gifts I gave and created their utopia, hell or heaven, I built the temple and man decided to ruin it.” “That is true.” I nod, disbanding my scythe. “But if memory serves, a single part of a utopia is supposed to have a figure head set the example. Kind of like God in the whole ‘Garden of Eden’ story. Now sure, there were only two people, but he gave them a simple task to follow and that’s about it...but temptation got the better of them since they didn’t have an example to follow.” I explain. “Examples can make or break a lot of things, stories and video games proved that enough.” “Men choose, and slaves obey. The few that chose led the slaves into the city we see now. Funny enough, why are we split as a species. Half are followers, less are leaders, and the rest are selfish. Undecided. I built a city to prove the nature of man wrong, yet when given true freedom only a handful stayed men while the rest became slaves.” “Sadly that’s just how people are.” I shrug. “People are either complacent, unsure about what to do when they actually get a say in things, or stuff like that.” I say honestly. “So mind if I ask, who sent you?” “I won’t tell you, but I suppose whoever sent me wanted to kill you on the basis that you caused all of this? Whether it be the hell hole that people made it into, or the entire ‘everyone’s fucking grotesque monstrosities’, frankly I don’t know...but I’d think it’s more ‘people are grotesque monstrosities’ in my personal opinion.” I explain. “Very well. But now, here is a choice for you.” Ryan pushed a button on his desk, a door opening and letting me walk in. I walked in and in one hand Ryan held a loaded revolver’s grip to me. “Are you a slave?” He pulled out his other hand, which held a key card of sorts in it. “Or a man?” “What does the Key Card do?” I ask curiously. “I’d rather have all the facts before choosing. Being a man doesn’t mean ‘be an idiot’.” “The card unlocks my personal chambers be a man and take what you find inside far from here so Atlas never finds it, or take the revolver, kill me, and what you find in my chamber.” “Honestly...you never looked like a guy that would cause all this death and destruction for shits and giggles.” I say while taking the card. “You look like a man that hoped for the best...but just didn’t quite get the last number on the equation as it were.” He nodded. “Take a left down the hall to your right.” “Thank you.” I nod. “Stay safe Ryan...and hopefully if you ever try to make your ideal utopia again you don’t find weird magical shit. I mean seriously, who the hell finds a weird needle filled with ‘summon bee’s from arm’?” I ask, just finding that little thing weird as fuck. “Not all plasmids are pure science. I did world travel in my youth.” “World traveling is nice, and when you find things that are any kinds of magical, science is proudly pushed off a cliff in a burning truck.” I chuckle. “Well, I’ll grab some things and then proceed to murder Atlas, cause he sounds like a prick.” I say. “Unless you have a warning about the bastard.” “Just that we have a past and he was not always called Atlas.” “Father?” I ask bluntly, having a rather good feeling that cliche is here. “Friend. Now go to the chambers, then come back here before leaving.” “Right.” I nod before heading off to find the specific chambers, summoning Frozen Pride and Graceful Dahlia just incase there was some trickery here. After following his directions I entered the specific chambers Ryan told me. It was like a luxury mansion, tall roof and large rooms, all decorated fancy. I walked around for a bit and after that bit of walking I ran into a small child. “Who are you?” He asked. “Oh, hello.” I say. “Didn’t expect to see you here little guy. What are you doing here?” “I live here. Father said some bad men grew me in a lab as a baby and he managed to save me before they took me somewhere away from the city. Sorry if that's random, I've just never met someone other than father before.” “I’m a friend of your fathers. And don’t worry, it wasn’t that random.” I shrug. “He told me I’m allowed in here and look around, maybe take things but I don’t think I’ll take anything.” I say honestly. “Son.” I turned around, seeing Ryan standing there. “...Would you kindly wait in your room while this man and I talk.” Rather than respond the child went straight to where his bedroom must have been. “I hate doing that…” “Nice kid.” I say with a little smile. “I suppose you saved him from bad things?” “Atlas, or Fountain as he was called before, took my and my wife's dna and made young Jack there. He was planning on using Jack as a last resort if I wasn't dead by the time Jack was of age. Little did Fountain know spies and DTL’s work well together. Once Jack was “born” I raised him here and destroyed the lab. He is genetically superior to humans. Flexible dna to contain adam and eve without prolonged consequences like the Little Sisters, can wield every produced Plasmid, and is a born professional with any form of combat…there is only one fault… Fountain embedded codes within the boy before birth. ‘Would you kindly’ commands him to do whatever is ordered, weather it is spoken or written. There are others but I am afraid only Fountain knows them.” “I suppose you might need help getting rid of those words...and I can probably beat out the words Atlas knows. I’d rather not see a poor child reduced to a mindless killing machine...that’s just terrible.” I sigh out. “Just please find a way to remove his programming and…raise him away from here…” “You do know that you can come with me and you can take care of your son on the world I live on right? I’m royalty and I can make sure you’re safe.” I say honestly. “And a sister of mine is roaming around saving all the Little Sisters so they can get cured. I’m pretty sure when I got here you just got yourself a ticket to having a happy life that isn’t filled with...bad things.” Ryan sighed. “No happy endings for me I am afraid…you see…Adam when held within a body unable to hold it properly mutates it…and with the lack of food here I have been modifying adam to act as food for Jack and myself. While Jack is fine… I…” Ryan pulled a sleeve back, showing his skin was turning black and looked rotted. “I’m running on pure willpower to not be just another splicer.” “Well..that’s not good.” I frown. “Even a world filled with magic and proper food couldn’t save you?” “No. Looked and researched. Only cure is a bullet. Kill Fountain, take Jack someplace safe and loving, a farm maybe, he always liked farms in the picture books.” “I think I know a farmer that wouldn’t mind taking care of him.” I say with a nod, summoning Sharpshooters. “I’d...recommend giving your son some last words...explain things to him...even if he cries…” Ryan nodded, walking over to Jack’s room while I headed for this Adam bank place. I swapped out my Sharpshooters and summoned Skysplitter, ready and willing to make Atlas feel pain. I checked my Assistant and saw where the Adam bank was and carefully moved my way towards it. I arrived at the locked glass doors, seeing a man in the distance messing with what looked like parts for a massive machine. I used Skysplitter to break the glass door down, startling the man as he turned to look at me. “Christ lad!” He yelled. “Knock knock.” I say. “Who are you?” I ask, putting Skysplitter on my shoulder and staring at the man screwing with the machine. “A-Atlas… Ryan sent you didn’t he?” “And so did a bunch of other people.” I state with a frown. “So congratulations, you're going to die asshole.” He chuckled. “I helped that son of a bitch build this city. It's potential is smothered by his ideals. This whole place is full of Bioweapons and technology that any sane person would gladly pay highest bid. This city was founded on progress, you think you can stop progress?!” “I can halt it by murdering you.” I say. “And besides, with you gone people will only see Rapture as a hell hole created by monsters, or have you completely forgotten the crazy and grotesque abominations roaming the halls of this place?” I ask, walking over to him. “So, start telling me about the kid you wanted to be nothing more than a mindless killing machine.” “...How do you…Ryan…how did he find out about Jack?” “None of your business.” I growl. Fountain huffed. “Imagine it, an army of loyal, born genetically enhanced warriors. Able to wipe a whole city with just one soldier. This is where Ryan and I agreed on in the beginning, no gods or kings, only man…even if the new race of man become something inhuman in appearance, evolution states that the victors are those with the better genes.” I walked over and I grabbed his arm and breaking it like a toothpick. “Okay, so do you want me to break your other arm or do you want me to just take the step towards me obliterating your head?” I ask. “I don’t have time for your mad scientist bullshit here. Tell me what other ‘code words’ you had in Jack. He spits in my eyes, then his other arm became covered in ice and the second he opened it I was frozen solid. He broke free of my grip at that point and ran over to a tube that had a long needle on the end of it. Once he jabbed it into his arm a red liquid flowed into his body. His arm healed and his size increased to about three times of what he was. “Evolution can not be stopped, natural or artificial.” He said, moving fast and side swiping me across the room which broke me out of the glass. I got up and brushed off the glass. I looked Atlas dead in the eyes. “My turn.” I say, a massive aura surrounding me before I vanished and rammed Skysplitter into his stomach, the very drugged up man feeling like he just got hit by a freight train even with his ‘evolved form’ as was sent flying across the room. “Evolution can never be stopped, that’s true...but how does Evolution stand up to Nothing?” I ask, an unconscious action causing my left hand to glow grey. His reply was his whole body turning on fire as he tackled me, it burned like hell fire every second he had hold of me. He rammed me into the wall, which was all glass as a crack formed in it. I rammed my left hand into his stomach, not really knowing what to do but for some reason, completely unknown to me, his fire started to die down. I was confused by it but couldn’t care less as I forced him off of me and summoning Graceful Dahlia and slashing one of his legs, the blood being swiftly drained into the scythe. I spun around and swiftly struck his other leg before leaping back and summoning Frozen Pride and getting into a strong defensive stance. “Come on, is that all you got?” I ask, seeing that even though he was still bigger and drugged up he seemed quite a bit weaker now. “You… are worse than he warned…” Fountain grunted. “Who warned you about me?” I ask, having a bad feeling about this. “Didn’t say, just some man in a blank face mask said a wolf man in white robes might show up...“ ”Two things...one how did that asshole know I was coming here? And two can that bastard leave me alone for a while? Jesus christ.” I think to myself bitterly. “Well alright then. Now, I think my scythe is willing to cut your head off.” I growl. “He gave me something… something incase you did show up.” He ripped the metal floor up, and pulled out…a black heart with wires and some other things attached to it. “If I can’t win this city, than no one will.” He flipped a switch on it, and the timer on it started counting down from five minutes. “Oh for the love of christ!” I shout. “How do I disarm the bomb asshole!?” I bark, starting to move towards the guy. “Try and die.” Fountain said, pulling out a shotgun from under the floor as well and pulling the trigger on his head, his skull exploding into hundreds of shards. “For all that is fucking holy...Trinity!” I call out, hoping she’ll appear and help. “Sup!” She said, appearing behind me again. “Took a while but all the Little sisters are safe and cured, sent them to your place, also that lady and Jenny are at your place too.” “I need help with both getting Jack to my place and the fact that there’s a Heartless bomb ticking down…” I say, pointing to the ticking bomb. “Seriously, how the fuck does that work?” “You’d be surprised.” She said, looking at the bomb. “Yeah…shit. You go get that kid I’ll…kinda just throw this into a black hole.” She said, picking up the bomb and vanishing. “Fuck…” I sigh out, rushing off and disbanding my weapons to find Ryan and Jack. “Hopefully the two of them are alright after...that.” I groan, hating this situation more and more. ”I hope Jenny is getting better…” I think to myself, my fatherly instincts kicking in for some reason about my daughter’s safety, even if she’s just mentally frazzled. After a few moments of running I finally made it back to Ryan and Jack’s place and opened the door with my key card. “Ryan? Jack?” “Here.” Ryan said, walking up to me holding a sleeping Jack. “Here.” He said, handing the boy over to me, he started to stir a bit. I held the child in my arms gently and carefully. “You told him what’s gonna happen?” I ask Ryan. “I am now…son.” He said, the boy sleepily looking at his father. Ryan had tears in his eyes. “W...Would you kindly forget…everything about Rapture and me.” At that said, the boy slumped back into unconsciousness. “Dude…” I mutter, looking at the poor guy. “That’s…” “It’s best he remembers nothing of me or this place I built. Speaking of, the Little sisters?” “All back on my world.” I say with a nod. “But...would Jack get Star Seeker? Technically Jack is your son…” I say, knowing how Jack was ‘made’ but still thinking about that. Ryan summoned Star Seeker, placing it in Jack’s hand as it disbanded. “It’s his now. Come with me real quick.” I followed Ryan into a rather empty room, only holding a single computer and keycard reader. “This computer only uses Genetic keys from me. It’s my eyes and ears on what goes on in the city.” “Nice.” I nod. “So...why did you bring me here?” I ask curiously. “My Keycard please?” He asked, holding out his hand as I gave him back his Keycard. He swiped it in the computer and pressed a few buttons and the whole room turned red as an alarm went off. “The reactors are built into a large underwater volcanic system. Once they blow it will shake the ground enough to send the city sinking into the dark abyss next to us. Anything left will be too broken to work and any splicers left alive will drown or starve in a short time.” “Atlas was an asshole and thought ‘oh hey let’s sell all the horrors down here for money’.” I growl. “He tried fighting me, which I got the upper hand...then he decided to activate a bomb that I had someone swiftly take care of...but after the bomb was activated the fucker blew his own head off.” I explain, summoning Reunion and opening a DTL. “Well...it was nice meeting you Ryan. Hopefully you find your utopia in the afterlife…” I chuckle a little, knowing full well that I couldn’t save him. “There are no gods or kings my lad, only man.” Ryan chuckled. “If there is a god… then I have some major sins to atone. Goodluck lad, and make sure Jack is raised as a child, not a weapon.” “I once thought there weren’t any gods...then I got a dad that basically is a god.” I chuckle. “But don’t worry, I’ll raise Jack right. He’s still young and I’ll make sure his ‘code words’ are gone.” I say starting to walk towards the DTL. “But...I’m sorry I couldn’t help out sooner Ryan.” I sigh out. “As long as Jack is safe, I can die in peace.” Ryan said. I walked into the DTL, right as I got out on the other side and it was closing I saw something fly out of it. I picked it up. It was an old photograph of Ryan, holding what I’m guessing is Jack as a baby. In the background his signature saying painted on the wall, but there was something added to it on the bottom part of the picture. “When men become gods may we finally achieve our Rapture.” I looked at the words and sighed out, putting the picture in my pocket. “God damn it…” I mutter, walking towards my home. After several minutes of walking I finally got to the front door and opened it, hoping to see someone after what just happened. “I’m home!” I call out, not really caring that Jack is still unconscious and would possibly wake up. “Over here!” Pinkie called from the dining room. When I entered…there were a LOT of little girls in here. “So… did you adopt them all?” Pinkie asked. “I know I adopted at least one girl and this little guy.” I say honestly. “I...don’t know about the rest of them...but how’s Jenny doing?” I ask worriedly. “Did she...look upset or anything?” “She went straight to her room followed by one of these little girls the whole way. Last I checked they’re still there. Jenny is showing her Youtube and other stuff.” “Alright…” I nod, handing Jack to Pinkie. “Figure out this little guys mother, cause I’m adopting him...I’ll go check on Jenny.” I say, turning and heading off to find Jenny. ”I know a crap ton of little girls are here and they want to know something but...Jenny needs my help more than me suddenly adopting a ton of little girls.” I think to myself, swiftly making my way to Jenny’s room and knocking on the door. “Hello?” “Come in.” Jenny’s voice called out. I entered and saw Jenny at her computer, the little sister I first met looking at the computer screen with great interest. “Well...Pinkie wasn’t wrong.” I chuckle a little. “But...are you doing alright?” I ask nervously. “I still need to process exactly how things are now. I’m feeling a bit better but I still just need to sort stuff out upstairs, ya know?” “I understand…” I nod, before raising an eyebrow. “Are those...wings?” I ask, pointing out the new wings Jenny somehow had. “I don’t remember you having wings…” “Say what?” Jenny asked as she looked behind her, eyes widening upon seeing the wings. “What the-” She freaked, swear interrupted by falling off her computer chair. “Ouch…” She groaned, standing back up. “Wait…something else feels off.” She said, lifting up her pants, her legs now more cat like. “The fuck?” “Wings...with cat like legs…” I frown. “Wait...you're genetically Gilda’s...but wait you became my daughter before Gilda was my wife…” “Yeah, but till now I didn’t exactly ‘accept’ you or them as family. Now that I have I guess… transaction complete?” “Makes sense.” I shrug. “Well...looks like you're going to have to get used to having wings and flying...also that’s probably confusing being part wolf, part human, part griffon now huh?” I say sheepishly, not expecting such a change to her legs. “As long as I don’t get wing boners like Derpy does when you’re mentioned I’m okay with it… seriously if she was a guy she’s be hard always. And yes that’s why her wings are always open when you see her.” “Honestly I don’t understand why she hasn’t learned to control that…” I sigh out, rubbing my temple bitterly. “Seriously, at least four of my wives are perverted to hell…” “Can you control your erections at will?” “Trying to learn that.” I shrug. “But oh well...but I think Joy will be happy to see you like this Jenny...and maybe a little miffed that he can’t grow wings even though he can fly without any weapons.” I roll my eyes, knowing full well that I have some form of gravity control even without having my weapons on me. Jenny’s eyes went wide. “Oh crap I left him with the CMC and with Scoot’s in charge to boot!” She said in a panic, running out the door and leaving a dust trail. ”Are you doing okay Joy?” I mentally ask him. ”Scoots is in charge my ass!” Joy responds with a laugh. ”I suppose you showed them that you're in charge?” I mentally chuckle. ”Nothing like showing them I’m better at puppy dog eyes, and I gave them all keyblades and started training them they realized I’m in charge...but how’s Jenny?” Joy mentally asks worriedly. ”Got things to figure out...but she’ll be near you soon enough. She freaked out about leaving you with the CMC and having Scoots in charge.” I mentally tell him. ”Oh that’s good...wait does she have wings!?!” Joy mentally asks me, flabbergasted at such a thing. ”Yep, finally excepted the whole family thing and she became Gilda’s daughter...I better tell the griffon.” I mentally chuckle, heading off back to the dining hall to get things sorted out. Once back in the dining hall the woman that the first little sister lead me to walked up to me. “We never exchanged names. I am Brigid Tenenbaum, and again, thank you for saving all the little ones.” “It’s no biggie. Just a hero being a hero after all.” I say with a smile. “Hey Gilda, Jenny’s your daughter now.” I say. “Cool.” The griffon replied simply. “But what is it you will be doing for them now?” Brigid asked. “Well there are two options...maybe three I don’t know.” I shrug. “The first one is seeing if you want to take care of all of them besides the one that’s grown attached to me and my daughter Jenny...or I can adopt all the Little Sisters.” I say. “Which one do you think is good?” “Raising all these little ones will be tricky, even with a house this big. The second option, but with a condition.” “Besides the obvious ‘treat them with love and care and don’t test on them like a fucking asshole’, what is it?” I ask. “They already see me as mother…considering my part in what happened to them… I need to be here so they can stay safe. Mentally they are still… in need of help. I wish to join this family also.” “Well...I’m gonna need to buy more wedding rings.” I chuckle. “But you sure? This family can be…really confusing and weird. In the more happy sense.” “It’s better than deadly and hazardous.” She replied. I nod. “Too true.” I say while bringing up my Assistant, and buying three more wedding rings, putting the two spares in my pocket and gently handing it to Brigid. “Wife number nine...welcome to the family Brigid, and all the little sisters.” I say with a warm smile, putting the ring on Brigid’s ring finger that fit perfectly cause magic. “Fancy. I look forward to the courting.” She said with a sly smile as she went over to a group of the Little sisters…daughters now. “Hey Ben!” Trinitiy’s voice rang out from behind me… AGAIN! “Can you stop appearing behind me!?” I shout, turning around to see her. “No, it’s fun, and besides, I counted every one of these little sisters I found. Guess how many.” “Please, tell me how many new daughters I just gained.” I ask. “Including your one new son Jack…” She looked at her Assistant. “Two hundred and sixty nine… and in the place where they made them records said over a thousand were around before… well, all that shit happened so… a lot died before we got there.” “At least you helped save a lot of them.” I chuckle. “But sheesh, two hundred and sixty nine extra kids?” “Yup, also, when mama Den comes by again, she is gonna freak so much. You fell into dad’s shoes better than I thought.” She said, elbowing me before vanishing. I rubbed my temples and groaned. “Christ…” I mumble. “Brigid, what would happen if I were to say my mother happened to be a twelve foot tall female dire wolf with six breasts about the size of your body?” I ask curiously. “I’d say you must have been the runt of the litter.” She replied jokingly. “Well...my original parents are kind of...dead.” I say nervously. “Dad adopted me and mom was happy enough to be there for me...and that’s kind of why me and Jenny are like what we are...as well as fellow children...by the by did someone figure out who Jack's mother is?” I ask, normally knowing that all our kids would change depending on their mother. “I am his mother, and he’s quite the hugger.” Zecora said, Jack now looked like a roughed up version of Joy with black and white striped hair in a mohawk. He was awake now and clinging to Zecora like his life depended on it. “Luna...do you know how to get rid of ‘code words’ from someone’s head?” I ask. “You mean mental programing?” She asked. “Sadly yes.” I nod. “A guy on the world me and Jenny went to decided ‘this is a great idea, let’s make genetically enhanced killing machines for funzies’.” I frown. “The guy’s dead thankfully but...I just hope Jack can be more ‘normal’ and happy...like right now.” “Well, it will take a while, especially if the codes alter the person completely. I will begin tonight and keep at it for as long as it takes.” “Is there anyway I can help?” I ask, hoping to help my son out in anyway. “I can handle it Ben, don’t worry. You just be the boy’s father.” “Well I’m gonna have to make sure I’m a good father to over 200 kids...it’s gonna be a pain but I think I can...maybe manage it without my back breaking.” I chuckle nervously. “Think of how your father must feel… how does he manage that anyway?” Twilight asked, pondering her own question. “He’s a god, with an infinite amount of wives and kids, he just has that many clones or something.” I shrug. “Seems simple enough to me...or he’s just really busy and everyone doesn’t bother him that much.” “A bit of both.” Dad’s voice spoke from behind me. “Can people stop appearing behind me for five seconds?” I grumble. “Or is that just a thing people like to do all the time?” “Kinda.” Dad said, patting my shoulder. “So you’re following my example in terms of family… you best learn how to make omnipresent copies of yourself. If you do go that far.” “Christ.” I grumble. “But apparently I am following your example...on accident kinda.” I say sheepishly. “It’s okay, same was with me. You think I started off adopting and marrying every woman in sight? The adopting I’m okay with, the wives… yeah that’s my first wife’s doing…you think Luna and Pinkie are horny? Ha, they got nothing on her.” “All my wives are horny...why I don’t know.” I sigh out. “But I’d rather not know that. But now I have a crap ton of children to take care of, figure out what next to do in life, figure out how to make clones, and also figure out if I’m going to marry two more women because reasons.” I say, remembering how I just grabbed three more wives when I originally thought I would have had five. “I can help with the clones, but that will be for next chapter, for now let’s fix up your house to… better hold all these kids, alright?” “This castle is already huge...what are you going to cast a spell to make this place a ‘House of Holding’?” I joke, remembering the ‘bag of holding’ in Dungeons and Dragons. “Not exactly.” Dad said as he walked over to a wall near the dining room door. “Here’s good enough.” He pulled a small black tile out of his pocket and placed it on the wall. In a second the castle shook and the small tile became a massive screen displaying the whole castle layout. “Let’s see here…” Dad mumbled, looking through the various rooms. “Here is alright.” He pressed on the floorplan for a room not far from here. A bunch of things popped up on screen and he pushed one of them all the way up and did several other things. “That should do it.” “Should I even ask what your doing?” I ask worriedly. “Follow me.” I followed dad to the room from the floor plan. “This was a regular sized bedroom for one right?” Dad asked. “Yep.” I nod. “Not anymore.” Dad opened the door… and it was like stepping into another world. The room was now easily four times the size of the actual castle, decorated as a little girl's dream land… puppies, cats, swimming pools, fucking candy trees! Even… almost ironically, ponies too. “Overkill or what?” “I think my little daughters deserve it after being brought here from...Rapture.” I sigh out. “Ryan wasn’t a bad guy...he just didn’t get the last number right…” I say bitterly. “Not everyone can win, but humanity be damned if we don’t try. By tomorrow all these girls should have mothers so I’ll send you a list so you can, well, keep track of who’s who’s daughter, mother, whatever.” “That’s gonna be a good idea. Pinkie, Rarity, Zecora and Gilda already have kids...but suddenly an extra two hundred and whatever amount of little girls...it’s gonna be a nightmare to keep track...oh god, do I just have all their birthdays in one week like you or what?” I ask worriedly, now thinking about how to be a good father to so many kids and just getting worried I’ll not be good enough. “Saves sanity and memory.” Dad replied. “Yeah…” I nod. “I just hope I’ll be a good father...I just helped Jenny see me as a father...even if she’s still thinking about it all…” “These things take time, for both parties involved. Just be glad you have me for advice.” “Oh yeah…” I sigh out. “Thanks Dad...don’t know what I would do if you weren’t here.” I chuckle. “That’s what parent’s are for. See ya next chapt- Tomorrow.” With that, dad vanished. “Fourth wall breaker.” I laugh, walking out and closing the door behind me. To be continued...
Nobody's slow dayAfter two solid hours of named two hundred and sixty eight I sat down at the dining table and started eating a bowl of popcorn cause fuck it. “Christ…” I grumble as I much on popcorn finally. “Naming is hard…” “Greetings sir.” Edward said, placing a plate with an inch thick cooked steak, large scoop of mashed potatoes and gravy and a equally large pile of corn and peas mixed in front of me. He also placed a glass of what I think is wine and next to the plate and a small bowl of vanilla ice cream behind my plate. “Your personal family doctor will be arriving from the family home world soon and your father will arrive around seven or eight in the afternoon.” “Thank you Edward.” I nod before putting my finished bowl of popcorn to the side as I started eating my next amount of food. “Is Joy doing well with his work?” I ask curiously, hoping the little guy is doing good. “Or has he even started?” “He is managing though it seems the subject is difficult for him to a degree. Miss Jenny does well enough.” “That’s good.” I nod. “Um...is there a family therapist? I...have a feeling Jenny’s going to need someone to talk to that isn’t me, even if she needs to think things through.” “I will inform the new doctor when she arrives. Would you care to view her profile?” “Sure.” I nod. “Might as well know the new doctor before she arrives.” Edward handed me the file and I opened it and looked it over. Dr. Navare Age: 47 Gender: F Race: Human Doctorates: Masters Anatomy Masters Biology Masters Bioengineering Masters Advanced Magics Masters Advanced Alchemy Masters Advanced Bio-Reconfiguring Summary: Well read and educated, is rather strict with patients, does well with children, Makes all prescribed medicines both magic and science based herself. Takes no chances. “Quite a doctor.” I say with a nod. “I’m sure she’ll like it here...maybe.” I shrug, continuing to eat my food. “She is ranked 387 in the families best performing doctors. It's a thousand numbered list.” “Jeez.” I frown. “Well...a doctor is always needed, no matter what their number is. As long as they can back up their words and master degrees then I’m fine.” Edward nodded. He left to do something and then Joy came up to the table, Edward reappeared and gave him the same as what I was eating, only the wine was replaced with a…Pepsi. “Thank you.” Joy smiles, taking a sip of his pepsi and digging in. “Hey Joy.” I say to him, the pup nodding. “Surprised to see Jenny have wings?” “Yeah, she told me she was Gilda’s daughter.” Joy says. “But...I could tell she’s been thinking a lot. What did you do?” “Just a father daughter talk.” I say honestly. “Jenny just needs some time to think...and the both of us will be there, me as her father, and you as her boyfriend.” I chuckle. “Jenny was a tad surprised about me being in charge of the CMC, but honestly those three are just silly marshmallows trying to be ‘tough’.” Joy chuckles happily. “But I was told you adopted 269 kids...why?” “I also got an extra wife.” I say with a shrug. “But hey, they were all stuck in a hell hole and I didn’t want them to be there anymore...so there all my kids now.” “I expected you to have a ton of kids from all your fiance's.” Joy chuckles. “God only knows if I can walk after making sure about that.” I sigh out. “Wonder if any of them will be here to eat...or Jenny appear to talk more…” Joy and I ate for a while before someone else appeared. It was Jack. He took a seat at the table and looked around, rather confused. “Hello.” I say to the little boy. “How are you doing?” He looked over at me. “Better I guess...how did...I get like this?” He asked, pointing at his new body. “I…I don't remember much…but I know I didn't look like this.” “It’s alright.” I say. “But you are now my son, and because of some magical mumbo jumbo, you became part Zebra, because your mother is my fiance Zecora.” I explain. “Remember the woman you hugged a lot?” “Yeah...she just felt... safe when I woke up. How come I can't remember anything before waking up?” “That’s...rather complicated.” I sigh out. “Hello. My names Joy.” Joy says to the child with a smile. “Are you… my brother? Mom said I got a LOT of sisters and one baby brother…” “You have a baby brother, a brother that is about your age, and a lot of sisters.” I explain. “But Joy is your Uncle. He’s my little brother.” I say while patting Joy’s head. “Oh…so who's the brother my age?” “Sadly that brother hasn’t woken up yet. He...went through a lot.” I say nervously. “But he is your mama Rarity’s son. But how are you feeling about everything right now? Besides feeling like something's amiss?” “Just confused. I can't remember anything from before waking up here, so I can't tell what's odd and what's normal. The few things that are coming to mind are picture books of farms and such.” “I do have a friend that works at a farm. If you want I can take you there.” I say honestly, finishing my food and starting to eat my ice cream. “Alright. What kind of farm is it?” “Apple farm.” I tell the child. “Just apples?” “Not sure if it’s a hundred percent apples, but there are many species of apples, and one kind of magic apple that only happens a few days of the year.” I explain. “Huh. Alright. So…what is this place? I can tell it's a castle but…the location just feels so…unfamiliar.” “Well this is your new home.” I say honestly. “But...it’s a long and slightly complicated story.” I sigh out. “I’m sorry I don’t know how to explain it without sounding silly...but have you ever thought about if other worlds had life?” “I think…I remember reading it was a possibility. Not sure where.” “Well you're on a different world called Equestria.” I say honestly. “A land filled with sunshine, rainbows, and all sorts of magical things.” “So… a relatively peaceful world?” “Yep.” I nod. “But crazy things tend to happen on a weekly basis so...there’s always a time when things in happy land aren’t always so happy.” I chuckle. “Is…there a government or is it all one for oneself?” “Oh god no.” I say honestly. “The many countries of this world has either a monarchy, a diarchy, or a kind of ‘rite’ system to be in charge.” I explain. “For instance, the rulers of Equestria are Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, even though I’m going to marry Princess Luna and have the title of ‘prince’, even have a fancy crown for it,” I explain while pointing to my silver crown. “I most likely don’t have a major say in the politics...nor do I want to get involved with that complicated crap. While in the Dragon Lands, yes there are dragons, they have a ritual called the ‘Gauntlet of Fire’, where all dragons, whether male or female, can attempt to try and get a staff that shows you are the Dragonlord.” I explain, mentally thanking Honora for explaining that all to me. “Does that make sense?” “As much as suddenly being part wolf and Zebra with no memories. So…this land is Equestria…is the…Princesses just leaders or…?” “The princesses don’t just sit around doing jack nothing acting all ‘I’m the best thing in the world’, they help their subjects the best they can, willing to fight for the innocent as hard as they can...also Celestia and Luna control the sun and moon respectively.” I explain. “Huh…odd evolution.” “Magic is weird.” I shrug. “Well that aside I guess I’ll explore this castle for a bit.” With that hallway got up and walked into the hallway. “Okay.” I nod, finishing up my ice cream and sighing out. “That was good.” I smile, tapping my stomach and glad to have eaten. “You the head of the house?” I turned around, seeing a woman in a lab coat, red hair and was carrying only a white box with a red cross on it. “Yes I am.” I nod. “And you must be Dr. Navare?” “Yes.” She placed the small box on the table and opened it, pulling out a metal syringe with a glowing yellow liquid. Me and Joy both take a deep breath...before leaping away and me summoning Vexen’s shield and Joy somehow summoning Lindwyrm. “Nope!” The both of us say at the same time. “No needles!” We both say in fear, not liking this at all as we tried using our summoned weapons as shields. “Ugh…babies.” She snapped her fingers and…our weapons disbanded and we were walking towards her, unable to control our bodies. “You demi gods all think you're invincible. Psst. If that were true I’d be out of a job.” She made us both hold out an arm and injected us both with the yellow liquid. “Ow!” Me and Joy both yelp. “Demigods can still have crippling fears of Needles…” I frown. “Best way to inject high grade anti toxins. There are poisons that can kill you in ways of slowly to Slowly and PAINFULLY. This medical cocktail will neutralize any and all poisons that can affect you two…and now I got to do the rest of the house.” “Still hate needles…” Joy mumbles, the both of us rubbing our arms. “Well...thank you Dr. Nevare.” I say to the lady. “Just...wish you could have told us that before...but our reactions would have probably still been the same…” I say sheepishly. “I figured. I’ll set up shop in one of the rooms. Oh, and Ben, your father is going to arrive soon so he told me to tell you to wait outside the castle.” Nevera said as she closed her box and began a search for her new office. “Alright.” I nod, walking back to the table and getting all my plates and washing them real quick, putting the dishes down to dry and chugging my wine. “Off I go.” “Tell dad I said hi.” Joy says while going back to eating his food. “I will.” I say while heading outside to see Dad. After a little walk I opened the front doors and stepped out on the dirt road, taking a deep breath of fresh air. After a few minutes a portal opened up and dad walked out of it. “Hey son.” He said, stretching, making audible pops from his joints. “Hey dad.” I nod. “So, what’s on today’s docket?” I ask, stretching out as well and audible pops resounding from my joints as well. “Ah~, that’s nice.” I sigh out, feeling at least some stress leave my body. “Today I guess I can teach you two things. First as my own personal keyblade technique, and none of the other kids know it so consider yourself lucky, and how to make omnipresent clones of yourself.” I summon Reunion and spin it a little bit. “Thanks dad. So, I suppose there’s steps to learning this stuff or do I just have to learn these abilities all in one go?” “It's a move I learned from having a Psychopath bound to my soul for…my whole life up till… two years ago? Yeah two years I think.” “Crap.” I say, my eyes widening at hearing that. “Oh uh...did you hear how me and my Cherubim mother beat a Psychopath?” I ask curiously. “Yes, and that's part of the reason I’m showing you this. What's the best way to kill a monster?” “I can name at least three...but I doubt those mean anything to specific monsters.” I say with a frown. “But what is the best way to kill a monster?” “With its own teeth.” Dad said, summoning a Keyblade that looked a LOT like the Void Keyblade and sliced his wrist with it, the blood flowing out of him and coating the blood, fixing the blade a dark red aura. “Sins Passed. Fueled by the users regrets. Mine is…I have my share.” “I...have several…” I mutter bitterly. “But is that it?” I ask. “Use your past sins to help murder your opponents?” “No better weapon than murder. That's what a Psychopath is after all, Murder given a body.” “Sounds about right.” I nod. “I was about to say ‘destroy the heart or brain’...but I suppose just straight up murder seems like a better option...even though both of those choice count…” I say with a small frown. “So...is this a ‘last resort’ kind of thing?” “The Psychopath you and Zechariah fought was dormant for a long time, so it was rusty. When you run into a more… active… one, use this move, breaks through their basic defenses and deals damage that would, to a planet, be a one hit genocide. To them, it's a forty percent hp drop per hit. Against those fuckers, that's a big number.” “Christ.” My eyes widen at hearing that. “Well...that’s something.” I say with a little nod. “Well...that’ll help in several ways...I mean, in case I can’t save them or anything.” “That's what the Humanity Blade is for, the True Psychopath acts, well, like a parasite that forms within the body. It's a Fact. Something that can't be Proven wrong. It's complicated but basically so long as there is murder and bloodshed there will be Psychopaths. But anyway, the humanity blade reaches to whatever is left of the original person, host, whatever you want to call them, and once it grasps them, purges the Psychopath out of the body while also giving the person a major dose of…guilt. The realization of what they did as a Psychopath hitting them all at once. Lot of therapy, lot of tears.” “Yeah...I’m gonna have to help the former psychopath boy I adopted...he still has yet to wake up…” I say worriedly, hoping to help the poor kid before something bad happens to him. “Yeah. Now, try to activate Sins Passed.” “Okay…” I nod, before bringing my Keyblade up and cutting my arm, blood dripping down onto the blade. Reunion started to glow a dark red. “Good. Now attack me with it.” I nodded, getting into a sturdy stance before dashing towards Cript, swinging my Keyblade at him. The attack hit, dad just stood there as my Keyblade sliced him in half. Before I could freak out over slicing my father in half his top half grew new legs…and clothes somehow…and his lower half grew a new upper body, also fully clothed. “Good, now for clones.” They both said nonchalantly. “You almost gave me a heart attack…” I say worriedly. “I didn’t think I could cut you in half…” “You can't. I dropped my defense low enough so you could hurt me. Not that it did too much. Took out about… two percent hp. Also fixed that crick in my back.” The one on the left said. “So guess what type of clone ability this is?” The one on the right asked. “Starfish logic?” I ask curiously. “Also...how did you get clothes so suddenly?” “Yes actually. It's called the Starfish Cloning Ability. As for the clothes that is a trick involving a lot of time using this ability. Sadly, you don't have this ability. But, I can give it to you using the Copycat ability.” “That would be nice...but that sounds really painful though…” I say nervously. “Meh, you get used to it. A simpler way is with hair or blood. Anything containing your pure DNA can grow into a clone. Saved my ass once that feature.” “Sounds nifty.” I nod. “But...they're all ‘me’ right? I won’t have to fear my kids being pissed about me not being there for some weird reason?” “Do you know what Omnipresent means?” “Yes I do.” I nod. “Sorry...I think while browsing on my Assistant I saw something called ‘Boruto’...looked like an terrible sequel to Naruto…” I frown. “Ehg. Anyway, you'll be able to control the clones, or control one and be able to switch between clones, gaining the memories that clone did while on “autopilot”. When you aren't controlling the clone there isn't much difference personality wise, and the clone identifies itself as both you and a copy. This is because once you make this clone, or clones like me, there is no longer just one you, there are many now. The only way to truly tell the one under the ‘you’ control from an autopilot is combat. The true you will always make the body you are controlling, well, as strong as you. Others in autopilot will be twenty five percent weaker.” “Damn…” I state. “And here I thought you were going to teach me shadow clones or something but this...is quite a lot.” “Shadow clones can't have sex and give you the memories.” Dad said, raising an eyebrow with a sly smile. “Wait...I completely forgot about Aqua, Terra and Ventus…” I frown. “Oh well...but yeah all my girls, and my newest wife, are going to enjoy me having clones…” I chuckle. “Yeah. And here is a work out you can enjoy. You can have one with each, and a spare to train and master your weapons. Also you die in a clone body you reappear in control of a random other one. Something like immorality but used for more family and recreational use.” I think about it but feel slightly...off about it. “All of my clones are me...yet...for some odd reason it doesn’t feel right…” I say, not entirely sure why that is. “Maybe it’s the whole ‘are clones just as real as the real you?’ kind of question...I know my wives won’t mind in anyway shape or form...but still.” “Depends on your mind in that one. An unstable mind controlling multiple bodies can make the clone start to identify as someone other than you. Happened to me a few times. But what keeps them you and you you is that they all share your soul.” “Alright then…” I nod nervously. “But...as you can obviously tell I am not of sound mind to be perfectly honest...I doubt that’ll be the only mental breakdown I have…” “Alright then.” Dad grabbed my hand and pressed his thumb into it. “Hold still.” I felt a sharp prick, like getting stabbed with scissors before he let go. “And ability is imprinted.” “Ow…” I grumble. “Thanks dad...I don’t think I’ll be using it right now though...I’m still having a bad week…” “Ah. Alright then. So what are you gonna do next?” “Worry…” I say sheepishly. “Worry about Jenny, worry about the son that has yet to wake up because of his Psychopath part...worry about all my new kids...and worry if me buying two extra wedding rings equals me suddenly marrying two extra women…” “In my family…most likely. But let's focus on the kids for now. Let's start with your son you saved from the Psychopath. Lead the way.” Dad said. I nod. “Well Rarity would most likely know.” I say. “It’s her son after all.” I say while heading inside my castle. After a while of walking and some directions from Rarity I lead dad up to my unnamed sons room and opened the door, seeing the standard looking room with the child in the bed, under the blankets and somehow holding a stuffed bear. “There he is.” “Ah.” Dad said, walking over to the child. “ Yeah…about what I expected when. Psychopath host is a child.” “The Psychopath explained that the people on the child’s world wanted to make a monster to kill a great hero...well they succeeded and then frantically made a cage for him…” I explain. “Been like that until some jack asses decided to set it free on accident.” “The death of a whole realm or of a grand hero? Psychopaths get their power from lost potential. The lives taken before their time leave a…mark on existence. The bigger the mark the more the power. The biggest marks are what draw the Psychopath to the host, all that lost potential is forever bound to them, but there is still one last requirement.” “Well when I got there the Psychopath happened to murder the entirety of a planet besides an old man that’s living in a cave near my house...and was stuck in a demon tree…” I explain. “That wouldn't have been enough…so a specific person's death is what brought the Psychopath to this kid. Someone who would have been a hero unmatched.” “Yeah...I also have a feeling that the kid who became a monster also went on a rampage until they sealed it away…” “That's what happens when they take over…it's a process they force you to watch, controlling your body while all you can do is beg for mercy inside. You feel the blood on your hands drip and splash... “ “That’s...not good.” I mutter. “But...can you help wake him up?” “Yeah… but here I give you a choice. Do you want him to remember all he did, or have him remember something...false.” I looked down bitterly. “I don’t want the child to suffer...he’s only twelve or something…” I say. Dad waved a hand over the kid. “Ten. So you choose to let him forget? And remember a lie?” “I know it sounds terrible to make him remember a lie...but if it means he’ll wake up without the guilt of killing an entire planet then...I suppose that’s my decision…” I explain, feeling bad about it but not wanting the child to only feel like he’s a demon. Dad nodded, placing his hand on the kids head and blue electricity sparked. After a bit a ball of light with flashing images and screams was pulled out. Dad held it in his palm, and crushed it, the orb becoming dust. He then sent a single blue jolt of electricity at the kid's head and sighed. “A very war focused race back then. Manages to forge a memory of him living in a…peaceful area of the world at the time. Then he gets adopted by a wolf man and a white pony lady, then the rest you can guess. In his mind, this will be his first day in a new home once he wakes up.” “Alright.” I nod. “Thanks dad...it means a lot.” I say, feeling slightly upset I couldn’t help my new son. “It's not the first time I have done this. And it's never easy. His name is Yer from what I saw in his memories. He’ll wake up soon. Best tell your kids and wives ahead of time.” “Alright.” I nod. “But now I need to figure out what weapon I need to master next…” I mutter with some thought. “Oh wait, I need to check on Jenny. I hope she’s gotten better…” I say worriedly, heading off to tell everyone about Yer waking up and to find Jenny. After a few moments of telling everyone I could I searched for Jenny, immediately thinking she’s in her room and knocking on her door. “Hello?” “Enter.” Her voice replied from inside. I gently opened the door and walked in. “Hello.” I say while closing the door behind me. “So your new brother is finally going to wake up soon.” “Okay.” She said, doing something on the computer. “How are you doing?” I ask. “Are you doing better?” “I guess. You need anything?” “I wanted to tell you about your brother and to make sure you were feeling better.” I say. “I’m...sorry if I made you so upset…” I mutter, rubbing my arm worriedly. “Not upset per say, more…like you made me realize something.” “Realize what?” I ask. ”Please don’t say ‘you're an idiot’...” I think to myself worriedly. “My family is stupid.” “Uh...which family?” I ask curiously. “The Ventral family or...my family?” “The one I was born into. We accepted Core’s offer thinking anywhere we go we’ll be hunted down…yet now that he's trying to replace us we realized there's a lot of places we could life without fear…but out of habit we burned a lot of chances so far.” “I kind of thought that…” I nod. “But hey, I’m here to help all the Ventrals if able...just to repent for the one Ventral I killed…” I sigh out. “But hey, if what Kevin said is true then I have three people to murder, his brother, his grandfather, and the obvious one being Core.” I explain. “Everyone deserves a second chance...even those that fear being given that chance.” “Yeah. But that's the problem. They're paranoid. They won't feel safe around people, cities, and especially law enforcement. If my family is to gain a second chance they need to be put in a place as dangerous as they have lived.” “Have you been hugged by Den?” I joke. “I’m pretty sure her hugs alone are dangerous.” I laugh. “Jokes about grandma aside, what would be the “safe” place for them? A world filled with danger that the current Ventrals can thrive in and the next generation can choose to leave without the past gens fears.” “That’s true...but there’s still so much to think about and so little time.” I shrug. “But frankly...I just want them all to know that they have people on the outside that are willing to help them out and give them a new life that doesn’t involve murdering everyone that looks at you funny.” “Well I do have a few ideas. If every fictional thing we knew on earth exists as an actual world then I already have a few ideas.” “Really?” I ask. “Also, what card games do you like to play?” I add, wanting to know that little bit, whether she liked to play Yugioh or Magic the Gathering. “I don't play card games per say, I just like to make up rules for a game with normal card decks. I do collect cards though. Any kind of card. Dad stole a Babe Ruth card, autographed by the whole team for me on my seventh birthday and I don't even watch baseball. I just like cards.” “Okay then.” I nod. “Kind of thought you’d like to play a card game like Magic the Gathering or something.” I shrug, remembering how much I liked playing that. “What's that?” “Okay so, Magic the Gathering was a pretty popular card game back home.” I start. “Hundreds of thousands of people played it…” I continue before buying two starter decks from my Assistant. “Here, why don’t we play a game?” I ask. “The rules are in the boxes and everything, and I’ll explain to you some of the lore and story behind it. Sound good?” I ask curiously. “Is it a card version of world of warcraft?” “Actually no, Blizzard actually made a World of Warcraft trading card game. But Magic the gathering is something completely different.” I say, putting one of the starter decks on Jenny’s bed. “Oh. I played a lot of Warcraft back on earth when me and the computer could stay in a place with internet for a week at least. Was trying to log back into my account.” “As in the RTS Warcraft or the MMO Warcraft?” I ask curiously, starting to think about my old account back home. “I remember playing WoW a bit...wonder what patch it’s on considering we’re in ‘real life’.” I wonder. “Who knows but I think my account is deleted considering it's been ten or something years on earth last I heard. Damn and I was Level 59 too…” “I had a level 60 hunter...don’t remember what race though.” I say, not entirely remembering what my race was. “...Huh…wait…how would an MMO work in the real world?” “...” I thought for a moment. “I mean...it’s still a game technically…” I say before thinking a bit. “Imagine Kingdom Hearts as an MMO, but everyone’s almost always exclusively apart for reasons.” I shrug. “But what about the character you made? Would they exist in a reflection elsewhere of what?” “I...have no idea.” I say honestly. “Horde or Alliance?” I ask Jenny, wondering what side she was on in WoW. “But I’d have to ask dad about how that works…” “What's the difference?” “A few things…” I say with a shrug. “Oh well...but hey if you want I can get myself a laptop and we can both play WoW if you want. Get some father daughter bonding time over video games.” “Sounds like a plan. Bet I can get to level 10 faster than you.” She said, jumping on her pc and creating a new account. I quickly summoned a laptop and got WoW downloaded to it, before it said ‘Legion’. “Huh...Legion? Is that the newest expansion or something?” I ask curiously, seeing it update a bit. “Not sure, don't care.” Jenny said, starting to spawn in the world already. I quickly got the game up and running and saw Death Knight. “What race you picking?” I ask curiously, scrolling down to Troll Death Knight. “I typically go elf.” “Blood Elf or Night Elf?” I ask, hoping to pick soon and not have to deal with her trying to do PVP crap. “Blood.” She replies. “I like the way they look.” “Right then.” I nod, choosing a troll death knight and logging in, happening to start off at...level 55. “I win.” I say cheekily. “Wonder how fun this class will be.” I smile. “What did you name your character?” “Check again.” Jenny says, showing me her pc screen…Level 60. “Bought the deluxe pack.” I looked over and saw...get to level 100…”Okay that’s weird…” I frown, using the level 100 thing on my death knight. “Well...what’s your blood elves name again?” “Vikra.” Jenny said. “Wow this game changed a lot.” I spawned my Death Knight in and saw I was on a ship. “The hell?” I mutter, going through a sudden tutorial on how to play a Death Knight. “Mine’s Xin just so’s you know.” I say while going to the map and then going all the way out. “The fuck’s a ‘Draenor’?” I frown. “No idea. Damn they changed the setup… crap I think I entered a dungeon and- Holy shit!” Yelled Jenny. When I looked at her screen her character was dead. “A troll one shot me!” “What level was the fucker?” I ask worriedly, going through the tutorial and flying off to find Jenny’s character. “400, this fucker has either great skill or no life. Or it’s a shared account.” “How in the bloody hell is there a level 400 character there?” I ask with a frown. “Glitches, new updates, an admin, a hacker. You name it.” “Blood Elves are on the horde side...and so are Trolls...was it a player character or a random enemy?” I ask, finding this rather concerning for a first time back. “Player.” Jenny and I spent a good three hours playing WoW. We found that creep that one shot her and turns out it was a hacker and with one swift message he was promptly banned. We spent the rest of the time doing missions and exploring the new areas the new updates added. “Panda’s, lich king's, primordial dragons...jesus christ we sure missed a fuck ton.” I say, not believing Blizzard had all this time to update their game. “This is fun.” “Yeah. Got plenty of space on this pc too so I am buying all the good games. This one called Overwatch looks like a better graphics copy of TF2…still looks neat though.” “And considering we basically have infinite money…” I start. “We’re going to be even heavier gamers then Luna I just know it.” I laugh. “Wanna bet?” Luna’s voice called from the doorway. “Glad to see you two getting along.” “If there’s anything me and Jenny hate more is a hacker trying to fuck with us.” I frown. “But yeah, I’m really happy we’re getting along...but seriously we missed a shit ton of things in the game we’re playing...and there’s still an asinine amount of games we’re still figuring finding all over the internet, glad I got a PS4.” “Speaking of your father has been redecorating the castle and defying the laws of space time all over the place.” “Well...how so?” I ask curiously. “Adding rooms mostly. Making the inside of the castle bigger than the whole of Canterlot, somehow, added a nice garden, and…well…not sure how to put what he did to Ponyville.” “What did he do…?” I ask, wondering what in the nine hells he did to Ponyville. “How did he say it…we are still on Equestria, Ponyville is just surrounded by a new world? He put up large poles then when they turned on save for some massive gates the whole of Equestria seemed to vanish but outside the gate Ponyville is still on Equestria but inside it's not? It's…confusing.” “Christ…” I grumble. “I mean...I heard that the place where we all have our wedding will need to be...the size of an entire universe.” I say sheepishly. “Wait...I forgot something…” I frown. ”How in the fuck could I forget my bachelor party?” “Well he’s eating a pumpkin Pie in the dining room right now so go talk with him.” “Yeah.” I nod. “Sorry Jenny, I have stuff to do. I promise to have more game time with you when I’m not trying to figure out what new crazy crap is happening.” I sigh out, closing out of the game and turning off my laptop, putting it on her bed and getting up. “But yay, I’m getting back into video games, and I have a wonderful family to play with.” I smile, patting Jenny’s head and hugging Luna before heading off to find Dad and figure out what he did to Ponyville. I quickly made my way to the dining hall, seeing dad eating that pie. “Hey dad, so what did you do to Ponyville?” “Ever hear of a pocket dimension?” He said, taking another bite of pie. “Yes I have...so you put Ponyville in a pocket dimension?” “No. If I put it in a pocket dimension it would be like what I did to the inside of your house. I took Pocket dimension logic and gave it steroids till it looked like Wolverine’s muscles inflated to the size of monster truck wheels. That way Ponyville is not only in it's own universe, but also still on Equestria. This is my work around to the whole ‘finite resources’ thing every world deals with at some point. I put the spawn rate at high…I actually put every spawn on high, and let it generate a world and universe by ripping off Minecraft world generating logic.” “Well...alright then.” I nod. “That sounds nifty...why though?” I ask curiously. “Just...wondering why you just decided to do that to Ponyville of all places.” “Why not?” He replied. “This isn't old tec and it's a great bonus for income for the town. Farms, mining companies and construction companies will flock to Ponyville with all this new, untouched land.” “True…” I shrug. “And makes sense I suppose. But plenty of people are going to be confused on that whole thing.” “I informed Celestia of this she sent an announcement in the papers not long after this went up.” “Okay then.” I nod. “Glad to at least know Celestia knows about it and is going to tell everyone.” I say, thinking about what I’m going to do for the rest of the day. “So what are your plans?” Dad asked as he finished his pie. “I don’t have plans for today actually.” I say, frowning a little. “That’s...actually kind of a first to be honest. Normally I’m either being told to do stuff, fighting stuff, or training…” I say, thinking about what to do today. “Still can’t believe Rarity said this cloak was tacky.” I frown. “It is just plain white. Kinda...boring. Maybe you should ask her about giving it an upgrade design wise?” “He’s got a point deary.” Rarity says while walking into the room. “So what? You want to add a splash of black, blue, red, what?” I ask, knowing full well I’m not going to get out of this. “Hmmm…I have an idea but first I need to make a stop at the train station.” “Stop at the train station? Meeting someone?” I ask Rarity, wondering who she might be meeting. “Yes. She was a friend I made on a visit to Manhattan before…you know…her boss didn't make it but she did and since she's just getting out of recovery I figure she can live and work at my old boutique.” “Oh…” I say. “I should come along...I need to be there to show her ‘oh hey I helped save people’...” I say, still feeling bitter about not saving all of Manehattan. “But who’s this friend of yours?” “Coco Pommel. She's as timid as Fluttershy at times. Her old boss was a…well a bitch to put it bluntly. Coco did all the work for her and got none of the credit.” “Her boss is a bitch.” I frown. “Hate her boss died...but she’s still a bitch.” I say. “Anyways, I suppose she’s going to help you out with my cloak?” “I’m sure she’d be ecstatic. Come now, the train arrives in half an hour.” Rarity said, leading the way. “Alright. Off to meet Coco.” I say, already thinking about how the mare might look like considering her name. Surprisingly Rarity summoned a keyblade glider, even though it seemed like a more purple and white version of Aqua’s glider I was still happy to see her summon it as we both flew off towards the train station. Five minutes later we landed and waited by the train station. “So what does Coco look like?” “Cream colored coat with a near sky blue mane. She wrote last that she had a trinket from the Manehattan incident but other than that she also said she has a large blue backpack.” “Alright.” I nod. “For some odd reason I thought her coat would be a ‘coco’ kind of color...not cream colored.” I shrug. “Well whatever the case I hope she enjoys moving here to Ponyville.” “So do I.” I nod. “Again...I’m kind of sorry for destroying your house way back when…” I say sheepishly. “It feels like years since I first came to Ponyville…” I chuckle. “All is forgiven long ago. Also speaking of… next month will be a half a year since you first appeared in Equestria Ben.” “Half a year?” I ask, flabbergasted at such a short time frame. “You sure? Cause I’m pretty sure I’ve been here for at least two months.” “Luna and Twilight have counted the days. A lot has happened so the time flew by. Days like today where very little has happened at all are nice and the ones I love best.” “Days where you can do about jack nothing and just enjoy your time with family is always great.” I agree with a warm smile. “Yes, makes you wonder, when our time comes to enjoy the rest of our days like this one, will we be able? There will be more threats, that’s for certain, but then again I guess that’s why Heroes like you exist Ben, you sacrifice your peace of mind and life so others can keep theirs.” “As long as I have a family to return home to then that’s the best prize I could ever ask for.” I smile. “But frankly...having a ‘peace of mind’ sounds over rated when you look at my life as a whole.” “Perhaps that’s why your father decided to offer a place in his family. I only met him twice but from what your mother said about him it seems he gave up a chance for normalcy for duty to others. You do the same, but you still have a family to anchor your sanity to.” “Kind of.” I chuckle. “But hey...at least I have a family now.” I smile warmly. The train whistle drew both our attentions to the incoming locomotive. It wasn’t as pink as she show had it, in fact it looked like it got repainted to also have blue and green. It came to a screeching stop and once the doors opened ponies flooded out. Rarity and I kept an eye out for Coco but it wasn’t till the flood was dying down that the mare we were searching for came out of the tram. She was dressed in a yellow top, blue jeans with a red scarf around her neck. “Hello.” I say with a little wave to Coco, having remembered to put my hood up and hide my ears and tail. She noticed me and speed walked up. “Hi, oh hello Rarity.” Coco said. “Hello darling, how have you been?” “Good, thankfully. I see Ben is with you.” She added. “Oh, I suppose my ‘White Knight’ look is not needed here?” I ask curiously. “Rarity has told me a lot about you so I didn’t think you’d mind.” Coco replied with a smile. “So…shall we head to the new Boutique?” “Sure.” I nod. ”Wow...she’s really cute.” I say, carefully looking over the mare wanting to help make a new cloak for me. Rarity walked us to the renovated Carousel Boutique, which was now three stories, twice as big, and had two large window displays. “Luna and Twilight helped me with the new designs.” Rarity said, taking out a key and unlocking the door, inside were mannequins, all dressed in amazing dresses…and some male clothing. “Clothing for the opposite sex I’ve done but I hope to make it more common in terms of orders.” “Right then.” I nod. “Place is bigger...and Coco’s first job as tailor of Ponyville is to make a new cloak for the White Knight of Equestria…” I say, still feeling like that title means shit considering what happened in Manehattan and how I can’t get over the damned thing. “Oh, well then can I have the cloak so I can work on it later or tomorrow?” Coco asked. “Still can’t believe some people think this is ‘tacky’.” I grumble, taking off my cloak and showing my normal body, a very well toned eighteen year old from many days of fighting and training, blue fur covering my arms, my ears and tail freed from the cloaks confines, and my crown still resting on my head. “Mind making that a little bigger so my tail and ears don’t stiff? Seriously you have no idea how much that actually hurts.” “I can do that, should take… a week or so and I can give it back looking like it’s a whole other outfit.” “Can you at least keep the white? It would be weird if a ‘white knight’ wasn’t wearing his white cloak.” I say, walking over to a mirror and looking over myself. “Sheesh, when did I get buff as hell?” I ask, flexing my arm and noticing the muscle flexing, the muscles being defined and strong, not big and more for looks than actual practicality. “I have some things you can wear in the meantime darling.” Rarity said, handing me several pairs of jeans and shirts, and four pairs of shoes. “Oh… not sure how well the shoes will fit given your… claws on the toes…” “Thanks Rarity.” I smile, looking down and noticing that my shoes have been practically reduced to sandals and I never realised it. “Uh...I never realized my shoes were now sandals…” I say nervously. “We can figure out that later.” Coco said. “Oh, Coco, I have something for you upstairs, I’ll go get it.” Rarity said, quickly going up the stairs and into the living area. “So, Coco…” I say, deciding not to stare at myself for a few moments and took off my torn up shoes and socks. “How are you doing today?” I ask, hoping to strike up a conversation with the cute anthro mare. “Alright. Thankfully my old apartment building was mostly intact after that thing was killed so I could grab my things and the task force that helped me heal is going to mail the rest of the items here so I can fully settle in.” “I hope my Medics helped…” I sigh out. “I’m...sorry I wasn’t there before it destroyed everything.” “It came out of nowhere so nothing could have prepared you or the crown for it. I spent some time looking through the broken buildings. I did find something in a broken gutter near the library though, you should see it.” Coco pulled out something I thought I lost when I first came to Equestria, it was cloth, with a nike logo on it. My wallet. “How the hell did you find my wallet?” I ask curiously. “I can only guess when you first appeared and fought that purple knight monster it fell out during the scuffle. I’m sorry but I did look inside… Saw that picture…” I inhaled deeply. It was the only picture of my birth parents I had when I was older…before...I took the picture out of it’s slide and smiled gently. “I know you're long gone...but I hope you're happy about who I became.” I mumble to myself. “I’m still sorry...about everything...but please...be happy with who I am now and not the bastard I was…” I mutter, tears welling up in the corners of my eyes. “It’s a nice picture of them in the park, you take it?” “I...honestly don’t remember.” I shake my head. “It was over ten or so years ago…” “I was wondering, who was that lady looking at them in the back?” “What?” I frown, looking at the background and seeing the new person. “Weird...I never saw that person before...I wonder who that person is?” I frown, not knowing who this person was but for some reason having this unbridled hatred at the person. “Well whatever the case, glad to be here. So, did you hear what they have planned in terms of rebuilding?” “Rebuilding Manehattan?” I ask. “No, I haven’t heard anything about it.” I shake my head. “What are they doing?” “Once everything is cleared out they plan on making the whole of what’s left a massive memorial. Think about it, a massive park and in the center, a plaque with all the lost ones names, and holding that massive plaque, a statue of you, hood up.” I smiled gently. “That sounds nice…” I nod. “But...even hero’s can’t save everyone I suppose…” I sigh out. “So...uh...you seeing anyone?” I ask curiously, before I swiftly facepalm. “I am so sorry for just saying that randomly.” “It’s fine. And…aren’t you already engaged?” “The more the merrier I suppose. I mean, I happened to get an extra fiance because of strange circumstances...but sorry to just drop this suddenly, I’m just being an idiot because...cute mare here…” I mumble the last part, motioning to all of Coco and how cute she is. “Heh, thanks for the complement. Most stallions that try and ask me out either stutter or ask for the dirty business first and a relationship never.” “I’m sorry, I know it’s bad to just say it outright…” I say nervously. “Also I hate those kinds of people...just asking for nothing more than sex when they have a wonderful mare such as yourself.” “Heh. I take it that Luna and Twilight asked you out right? Cause you sound really new at asking mares out.” “I only have three girls that joined my herd without sex involved.” I state. “But in order, Luna was horny and loved me because I was a hero, Twilight joined because she wanted to be in a harem and was basically dating Luna at the time, Rarity joined in because Luna told her about my sex life for some reason, and then proceeded to fully join when I was drunk, Zecora the Zebra joined because of strange circumstances you probably wouldn’t understand, Pinkie joined because I was drunk at the same time of asking Rarity out, Derpy was a very huge fan of mine and...well I plowed the hell out of her anyways, Gilda the griffon because apparently griffons have the line of thought that ‘prove yourself in bed’ counts as a good segway to dating, Honora the dragoness princess because apparently she had her eyes on me for some time…” I explain my entire experience with women. “So...yeah...and my newest fiance Brigid, decided to tag along because I helped her out in a very serious issue.” I explain nervously. “So why ask me?” “Because…” I start, blushing a little and scratching my cheek nervously. “I’m...a sucker for a cute mare…” I mutter nervously, my tail wagging without my consent. “Daw.” She replied, blushing. “I’ll talk with Rarity about it, knowing her she might say yes, if that’s alright?” “Knowing Pinkie, Luna and Derpy...they’d ask what fetishes you are into…” I grumble. “You wanna know or should I keep that a secret til after I talk with your fiance’s tomorrow?” She asked in a teasing voice. “Frankly I’d rather not know any of my fiance’s fetishes.” I sigh out. “But knowing them they’ll force it on me whether I like it or not.” I groan bitterly. “Back darling!” Rarity chimed as she came back downstairs. “Here you go Coco.” Rarity said, handing Coco a keychain. It wasn’t any keychain though, that Keychain went to Oathkeeper! “Found it in one of the new rooms Ben’s father… renovated, before we left and I was just making sure the keys worked.” Rarity said, handing Coco the keys and Oathkeeper Keychain. “Right then.” I nod. “Well, Coco is wondering if she can join the herd.” Rarity looked between me and Coco. “Oh that would be rather nice, I’ll let Luna and the others know and we can talk with Coco about it tomorrow. Well, I’ll let you get settled in for now Coco, but if things go well you’ll be moving into the home we share with Ben. Night.” Rarity said as she started to walk out. “It feels like this place will be completely empty...and I feel kind of bad.” I say honestly. “It was only half a year ago when I crashed through a wall to fight a bad guy.” I chuckle. “I believe that was someone else darling, you were talking with that Yellow Core remember?” Rarity said as I walked towards her and the door. “Yeah, but now she isn’t ‘Yellow Core’ anymore. She’s Unum...a reflection of Core’s dead wife.” I say sheepishly. “Trust me...when I figured that out that was both really creepy...and really fucking weird.” “I guess it's something I'll have to get used to. Night.” Coco said as Rarity and I left, closing the door behind us. “Now...what next?” I mutter to myself, already thinking of what next to do for the dwindling day. “Perhaps some family time. The girls back home should have a surprise ready.” “Yeah...that would be good.” I nod. “So let’s go home.” It was a short glider ride back home. When we got back home Rarity lead me to the kitchen fast. When the doors opened the girls, mom and dad, the kids...and countless dire wolf anthro pups were there. “Surprise!” They all yelled. “Jesus christ that’s a lot of puppies.” I say. “But why the surprise?” “Your family birthday week passed and you missed it.” Mom said, giving me a kiss lick on the cheek. “So your father planned this with your wives and kids. I also brought some of your older siblings. Just the ones who can walk. They're ten months.” “That’s good.” I smile and hug my mother. “But is this a party or something? Or am I going to be literally dog piled?” I chuckle. “Party.” Dad spoke up. “Your mom and I each got you something nice too.” “What would that be?” I ask curiously, wondering what nice things they got me. “I got you this.” Mom said, handing me a wrapped box. Inside was a necklace made from what looked like small bones. “It's a hunter's necklace in my culture. It's made from the teeth of fallen warriors passed. Not much of my kind survived what happened to us so you're the first hunter in the new generation.” “I hope I can be such a good hunter.” I say while putting on my new necklace. “Thanks mom.” “And I have two gifts.” Dad said, he gave me a small box and a stop watch. “The box is…well, you'll find out, and the stopwatch, well, stops time for up to twelve minutes, and can send you back and forth in time twelve minutes. Not a time machine exactly but helpful.” “Oh yeah, this is very helpful.” I smile, putting the stopwatch in my pants pocket and thankfully finding the several ring types in my pants pocket instead of my coat pocket and I opened the box. There was a blinding light that came out of it. I dropped it to cover my eyes and when the light faded and I looked…I saw them…my birth parents…“Ben!” They both said, hugging me tight. “M-mom! D-dad! Wh-wh-what?” I stutter, my eyes starting to water and not believing this. “H-h-how?” I whimper. “My doin.” Dad, Cript dad, said. “They have been watching you ya know. After all, life gets the best tv. Reality tv anyway.” He chuckled. “And we are so proud!” Mom said, squeezing me tighter. “But...but…” I try to start. “I...it was my fault…” “Ben, that's something we need to tell you.” Dad spoke, he and mom getting serious. He reached into my pocket, pulling out the photo of them. “This woman in the background. She is a murderer. She knocked me out at the bread factory and when your mother was resting she added some kinda drug to her so she stayed asleep when she made it look like she shot herself. She’s a professional killer.” “It's in their death reports too.” Cript dad added, handing me a file with a skull on it. “Grimm reapers take good notes. They nicknamed her the ‘Suicide Killer’ because she makes all her kills appear accidental or suicides.” I stared at all four of my parents, only to look down and start shaking, a grey aura starting to surround me in pure rage. “Well...looks like I’m gonna be hunting this bitch until I rip her head off.” I growl. “Take it easy there kid.” Cript dad said, snapping his fingers and I felt…suddenly calm as my aura faded. “She is a professional killer and from what I learned, is backed up by Core so she's even deadlier. Her strength is rather impressive actually. Best you master weapons before taking her on. Just be careful around her. She has the potential to become a Psychopath also.” “So...who am I supposed to call mom and dad now?” I ask sheepishly. “Cause...mom and dad are here...but mom and dad are also here…” I say, pointing between my parents. “Well most kids call me mama.” Mama Den said. “Mama, then my name so call me mama Den.” “Just call me Cript if it helps.” Cript said. “I do have something to say to you Ben.” Dad said, holding out his hand. “And that would be dad?” I ask, holding out my hand like there’s supposed to be some sort of handshake. He shook my hand. “Congratulations, you're a son of a bitch.” Everyone broke out laughing at it, even mama Den. “Jesus christ dad!” I laugh, not believing he just said that. “Still my dad...so...who do you want to meet first in my giant family? The massive amount of dire wolf pups that are my brothers and sisters? My fiances? Or my massive amount of adopted kids?” “I am gonna talk with your girls and meet your kids. I can't believe I'm a grandma!” Mom said. “And I'm gonna talk with your new father. We are both your father now so, I should get to know him more.” Dad said, walking over to Cript. “So what do ya like to do besides sex fella?” “Like any dad, one that's always fun is embarrassing my kids.” Cript said with a wicked smile, snapping his fingers and…hundreds of my baby photos starting raining down. “Where the fuck did you get those!?!” I yelp as I dash around and grab the baby photos, hoping to christ no one saw them. “Daw. You had a cute little butt Ben!” Luna called out, a photo in her hand. “Stahp!” I whine, grabbing the photo and hoping I got them all. “Jeez…” I mutter, having a bad feeling mama Den found one. “Uh… dad… Why did you try to eat a tampon?” Jenny asked, holding another photo. “He thought it was ice cream.” Mom laughed. “I was barely over a year old!" I bark, but my shoulders sagged. "Can...someone kill me? Please.” I whimper, completely defeated. “I don’t want this torture to continue.” “Relax.” Cript said, holding a…frying pan? “This will just feel like a bad dream.” He hit me with the frying pan and unconsciousness took me instantly. “Was that...really necessary?” Joy asks worriedly, my mom and dad spotting a child version of me talk. “Yes.” Cript replied. To be continued... Author's Note Weird and magical things happen slow days like this chapter...so please don't hate it.
Nobody investigates“Gah!” I bark, sitting up quickly in shock. “Oh god...that was probably...just a horrible dream.” I mutter, hoping my old baby pictures was just a figment of my imagination. I saw I was in the bedroom, Derpy and Twilight, one on each side, next to me napping it seemed. I gently moved out between them and got out of bed, finding myself thankfully in pajama pants at least. I put on a shirt real quick and headed off, wondering what I missed. As I roamed around I was starting thinking about what my mom and dad said. “I’m...so glad there back…” I smile warmly. “Oh...actually...what would they think of Joy?” I ask myself, continuing to look around and search for literally anyone in the halls of this giant castle I call a house. “Yes yes, I’m adorable.” I hear Joy giggle, the sounds of my parents ‘d’awing’ over him was present and it only made me smile. After I walked closer to the sounds I turned the corner and saw my mother hugging and petting Joy, not believing she is seeing a puppy version of her baby boy and my dad was just smiling at the sight of his wife and new son here just being adorable. “So, Joy, your…wait, you’re Ben’s brother right?” Dad asked for clarification. “It’s a little complicated but technically speaking yes.” Joy nods. “I may be his literal Joy given physical form but I’m my own person...I just happen to be him when he was about twelve years old.” “Alright, but anyway, your sisters in law did say you got some ladies lined up too, one of which being Jenny, isn’t she like, your niece in a sense?” “That’s...where things get really confusing.” Joy says sheepishly. “Because we’re biologically the sons of Cript, who is literally a god, incest is fine and has none of the scary drawbacks.” I explain, walking into the room. “Hi mom, hi dad. I see you’ve met Joy.” “Hi Ben.” THey both say. “So gods are…genetically superior or is it something else that does that?” Mom asked. “It’s that, magical mumbo jumbo, and some other things that make about as much sense as me having a brother come from my head.” I shrug. “Oh, we also talked with Den and…you are your father's, first fathers, son. He couldn’t stop drinking my milk when I was pregnant with you.” Mom said, making Joy, dad and I blush a bit. “And don’t deny it either hun.” “...Guilty.” Dad admitted. “No wonder why…” I mutter, scratching my cheek gently and not wanting to voice why I like that. “Well that explains at least a thing…” “Your new family is…interesting to say the least.” Mom spoke up. “Cript and Den are certainly characters, and your wives are each lovely, though to be honest Pinkie scares me a little.” “That’s just Pinkie being Pinkie…” I sigh out. “She runs off cartoon logic sometimes...also eats too much sugar if you didn’t notice.” “How is she not diabetic?” “Either because she’s a pony, she’s magic, or she stuffs all that stuff in the ‘trunk’ as it were.” I say sheepishly. “Well whatever the case she did want to talk with you.” Dad said. “Something about a list.” “Cripe…” I grumble. “Well I better go off to find her. Don’t hug Joy to death Mom, I know how much you like cute things.” I chuckle a little. “But do any of you know where Pinkie is?” “Kitchen maybe, last I saw she was baking with the cook.” My mother said. “Thank you.” I nod, before turning on my heel and heading off to the kitchen. After a quick walk I found Pinkie’s scent surrounded with actual baking. “Hopefully she’s right…” I mutter, speeding up my walk towards the kitchen. Upon entering the kitchen I saw Pinkie and the cook surrounded with many trays of sweets and pastries…they were even making candy. “Hi Ben!” Pinkie said, pulling out a tray of what looked like lollipops out of the oven. “I see a ton of candy and pastries...why this happening?” I ask. “Some of it better be an apology for you all making fun of me…” I mutter, still upset about what happened before Cript knocked me out. “Nah, this is just something I promised Bon Bon I’d help her with a week ago, been kinda busy so I’m rushing to finish this up.” “Well that’s not good.” I frown. “Need any help or you got things?” I ask curiously. “I can at least help deliver stuff.” “I actually need you to pick up some things for me.” Pinkie said, jumping over and giving me a list. “Some of my family made rock candy, I sent them a letter and got one back saying they finished and it’s ready for pick up, some more apples from Applejack’s farm, and zap apple jam, then some Blazing gems from Luxu, and lastly pick up Bon Bon and bring her here.” “Sounds like quite a list.” I say before grabbing the list and nodding. “I better get to Applejack’s farm first, better get an important item that’s close by first.” I say before opening a window and jumping out, summoning my glider and flying off towards town, hoping Luxu is also there. I arrived at the old library home, it got an upgrade! It was still a tree but was now more wide around and easily TEN stories tall. I walked inside and there were a lot of people in here, some on computers, others looking through the books. “Hey Ben.” I turned around, seeing Luxu and Time walk up to me. “Christ, what did you two do to this place?” I ask, not believing how big this place got. “Also I’m gonna need some Blazing Gems.” “Well after everyone moved out I decided to give the place a major overhaul. Celestia donated some books and the rest are from my personal stashes I hid all over the reflections. Also here.” Luxu handed me a bag filled with blazing games. “Still have no idea how Pinkie makes hot sauce out of them, but it tastes great on tacos.” “Thank you...but I suppose all the computers and all the other stories are doing good things?” I ask. “Yeah. Cheerilee now has her classes use the newest text books, fresh off the printers from Canterlot. She also has foals check out book here.” “Cool.” I nod. “I suppose you’ve also been keeping tabs on the stuff I do or do you care little? Also what about Terra, Aqua and Ventus? I haven’t checked up on them in a while and I feel kind of bad about it…” I sigh out, having had too much shit to do and too little time to spend with friends. “They’re living with Applejack these days. Those three have been helping her pick the fields faster than she and her two siblings ever could alone.” “That’s good, and I suppose you heard about Joy and all that?” I ask. “Yeah. Cript actually asked me to hold onto a thing for awhile yesterday.” “What would be the thing?” I ask. “Also, I just so happened to figure out my original birth parents were murdered...straight from their mouths after Cript revived them.” “Yikes….well good luck finding their murderer, also he had me hold onto a book, looked burned and was locked.” “Why’d he ask you to keep a burned and locked book?” I asked, finding that rather weird. “He’s reorganizing his own vault and needed that somewhere else so it isn’t lost.” “Okay then.” I nod. “But how are you two doing over all?” “Doing well.” Time said. “Celestia was impressed with what I did in Las Pegasus so she hired me as…political muscle.” “And while other people are doing a hero’s job I’m somehow getting a statue in the center of Manehattan holding up the many names of the people that died…” I sigh out. “Christ...feeling less and less like a hero with how little I’ve been helping people…” I grumble. ”And the whispers aren’t fucking helping. I think to myself, having tried to block out the growing whispers in my head that were now just a little more vocal but still out of ‘hearing’. “You’re the people’s idols dummy.” Time said as she flicked my nose. “You’re the original hero in these parts, all we are are…follow ups, sidekicks, that’s what they think of us, you, you’re the hero to them, like it or not.” “And I’d be glad to be the hero they need and deserve.” I say. “Hmm...maybe I should head off to Zebrica or something...maybe figure out where the hell the Minotaur nation or the Diamond Dog nations are...they are probably in need of help.” I shrug, wondering about those two races. “From what I hear the Minotaurs are doing well against heartless attacks, Zebra magic is keeping them away and the diamond dogs, there’s rumors they’re dealing with them, trading stuff.” “If those fuckers are dealing with Core or his goons so help me god I’m gonna bitch smack one of them.” I frown. “But after I get done with Pinkie’s grocery list I’ll be heading to their nation...wherever the hell it is.” I took the bag and headed off to the apple family farm. It was full of ripe apple trees as always, I saw Aqua and Ventus on their gliders, using Aero to blast apples out of the trees while Terra flew around with a large net attached to his glider, catching the apples. “Yo!” I call out, flying down and landing gently near the tree line. They all landed near me. “Long time no see Ben.” Ven said as he came up and hi fives me. “Heard you’ve been busy.” “More busy then you can believe.” I sigh out. “So how have you been? Hope Terra and Aqua are still together.” “More than together.” Aqua said as she wrapped arms around Terra. “Got married last night.” “Why didn’t I get invited?” I groan. “It was an old Keyblade wielders style wedding.” Terra said. “It’s only meant to be done by the two being married, no witnesses or guests. A more public one is being planned for a month from now.” “I’m sorry...but I think that style of wedding is only after a normal wedding.” I frown. “And no, I don’t want to know about how certain keys fit into certain keyholes.” I joke with a cheeky grin. “Well the reason this type of wedding is so unique is the way the ‘till death’ part works.” “Should I even ask?” I ask curiously. “Cause it sounds important.” “If death is to claim me, then I will still fight, wielded in your hand, powered by your light.” Terra said. “It means if I, or Aqua dies, but one of us is still alive, our bodies will turn into a Keyblade to continue fighting for the ones we care about.” I put a hand over my heart. “Can you...tell me how to do it?” I ask, not wanting to leave them all if I ever die. “Sure. But if you do it, then there is no after life, you’ll become a keyblade body, mind, soul, and heart. Linked forever by their rules.” “Ah...well...I’ll think about it…” I sigh out bitterly. “Anyways, I’m here for some zap apple jam?” “Applejack has it.” Ven said. “She’s just waiting at the house for Pinkie…or you since you’re here.” “Thanks.” I nod. “Just make sure to soundproof your room you two...no need for people to stay away from the apple farm in general.” I joke to Terra and Aqua, laughing before jogging off to meet Applejack. I arrived at the house and knocked on the door. “Coming!” Appleblooms voice said from inside before the little filly opened the door. “Oh, hi Ben. You here for Pinkie’s pick up?” “Yep.” I nod. “You got the zap apple jam? Oh, and do I have to pay you?” I say nervously, completely forgetting about if I had to pay these people or if it was just free. “Pinkie payed in advance.” The filly said before dashing back inside before coming back out with jar of the rainbow colored treat. “Here ya go.” “Thanks Applebloom.” I smile, putting the jar in the bag. “What do you think about Joy?” I ask the filly curiously, wondering what she thought about the little pup. “He’s cute, especially when we gave him a scarf.” “You gave him a scarf?” I ask curiously, wondering why I didn’t see him with it. “Yeah, Sweetie made it while Scoots and I stitched some things of ours to it.” “Huh...wonder why I didn’t see it…” I mutter. “Well, glad to hear that you enjoy being with Joy. By the by….when I immediately left after you tackled him...what happened?” I ask nervously, wondering what they did. “Jenny had us drag him to the clubhouse and had us figure out how our future house life would be.” “Really?” I ask, surprised by hearing that. “And how did that work out?” “Pretty good. According to that 8 ball I do most of the cooking, which I’m okay with, Scoots takes care of the older kids, and it said Sweetie stays in the bed alot. Hope she don't get sick.” ”Oh...okay…” I think to myself, having a good feeling about what might be the actual thing about that. “What about Jenny?” “She didn't say.” “Right then.” I nod. “Well glad to hear you enjoy being with Joy...oh actually, Joy said that he beat you three in giving ‘puppy dog eyes’ and he’s teaching you how to use keyblades...that true?” “Yeah!” Applebloom said as she summoned the Sweet Memories keyblade. “His puppy eyes are too cute to say no to and he wanted us to know how to protect ourselves.” “Good for him.” I smile gently. “Well I best be going. Got another stop and got to pick up a friend. Have a nice day Applebloom.” I smile, summoning my glider again and flying off to the rock farm. It was as barren as last time, though there was random junk everywhere. They must still be using that weird ass dungeon thing. I landed outside the door. I knocked. “Enter.” Said the monotone voice of Pinkie’s sister Maud. I entered and saw Maud sitting on a recliner that was not here last time playing a 3ds. “Still having fun with that dungeon?” I ask curiously. “Yes.” She replied plainly. “Got this new game two days ago.” “Sounds good. I hope it didn't distract you from making rock candy.” I say. “Or...your family job in general.” “It’s on the counter.” She said. “Didn't take long to make. Plus this is why pause was invented.” “I know.” I chuckle before walking over to the counter, seeing the rock candy already packed and I put it all in my bag with the rest of my stuff. “Thanks.” I nod before heading out and flying back to Ponyville to find Bon Bon. I didn't know where she lived so I landed in the market to ask around. Didn't take long as a nice vendor pointed me to her place. It was two stories, brick, white room with various flowers and plants around. I walk up and knock on the front door. “Hello?” I call out, hoping they're home. “Just a second.” A female voice called out. After a bit a woman with green fur and mane and yellow eyes opened the door. “Howdy.” I wave. “I'm here for Bon Bon, Pinkie couldn't make it so I'm here to pick her up.” I explain to the mare. “Oh hey… who are you?” She asked. “Uh…” I frown, before looking down and seeing I was in my normal clothes on. “Oh, sorry. I don't have my cloak on. But the names Ben, or as I'm known around the world, White Knight.” I explain. “This is just...how I normally look.” “The what?” “The hero that kills monsters? The man who helped save Manhattan? The guy thats going to marry three elements of harmony, princess Luna?” “I just got back from a year long tour of the minotaur lands. They don't get too much Equestria news over there.” “Where's Bon Bon?” I sigh out. “But you have way too much to catch up on in Equestria news…” “She's in her lab. Down the hall to the left, first door.” “Thank you.” I nod. “And if you want at least some cliff notes, go to either the Spa and asks for a person named Ramilua, or go to the police station and ask for Dorlu.” I say before walking in and heading down to Bon Bons lab. After a few moments I found the right door and checked to see if there was any noises coming from it before I knocked. There was nothing so I knocked. “Who is it?” A female voice asked. “It's Ben. I'm here to pick you up cause Pinkies busy.” “Oh. One second.” There was the sound of quick packing before the door opened, revealing a white and violet manes, cream colored coat mare dressed in a lab coat. “So you're Pinkie’s fiancée?” “Yep, just not wearing my normal coat.” I nod. “Also question...are you and the mare I just met roommates or what?” I ask, wanting to at least know if people were right about the pairing. “We’ve been friends since school. So yeah she’s my roommate.” “Alright.” I nod. “Well let's get going. No need to keep that hyper mare waiting.” I say before walking outside the house and summoning my glider. “Hop on.” I say, getting on it and there was enough room for the mare. She got on and I flew us over to the castle. Once we landed I lead her to the kitchen… where there were even more candies and sweets… and Joy sitting in the corner eating some. “Thanks Ben.” Pinkie said as she came up, hugged me and too the items and mare to the messy counter. “Your welcome Pinkie.” I smile, walking over and starting to eat sweets with Joy. Pinkie and Bon Bon got to work, mixing the zap apple jam with the rock candy that Bon Bon finely grounded to powder. They mixed it with some other stuff and it turned out they were making it into a frosting which they started placing on a cake that just needed the frosting added. “What are you two making?” I ask, munching on another cupcake. “Besides cake?” “That’s it really, Pinkie and I came up with a recipe to cake frosting involving her family made rock candy and zapp apple jam. We’ve just been needing to try it out.” Bon Bon said. “And the blazing gems?” I ask curiously, wondering why Pinkie needed that. “My ten alarm hot sauce calls for it!” Pinkie said, dropping the gems into a pot with boiling water and a few other things into it. “Uh...okay.” I nod. “What do you think about my mom and dad?” I ask the pink mare. “They’re neato! We're learning about stuff you never talked to us about. Like your arachnophobia.” Pinkie said, giving me a candy spider. “I hate spiders…” I grumble, tossing it away worriedly. “I hope they kept any...embarrassing stories away…” “Well thanks for helping Ben, Bon Bon and I got the rest covered, you go have fun with Rarity, she and Coco are in her sewing room working on your cloak.” “Oh sweet.” I smile, getting up and heading off to Rarity sewing room quickly, hoping to get my cloak and see how good it is now. We need to put an elevator in here, it’s just stairs at the moment so yeah… I finally made it to the sewing room where I saw fabrics scattered and those two at my cloak that was being worn by a mannequin, and there were new features. It had those grey and black thorns sewn into the arms and chest, the hood now resembled more of a Dusk’s head, the zipper also went all the way up the hood rather than stopping at the neck, and they were doing something with the lower half. “Wow…” I mutter, really liking my cloak design. “Oh, hello love.” Rarity said, quickly giving me a kiss before heading back to the cloak. “You like the design?” “It looks great. The Dusk design is cool, but what else are you doing with it?” I ask curiously. “We are altering the lower part to flow more and have a flare while doing it.” Coco said. “The cloak is also going to get some enchantments your father Cript is going to help us with.” “Really? Cool.” I nod. “What kind of enchantments?” “He said some elemental protection, general defences, and some special features.” “Yay, surprises.” I sigh out. “But how close are you to finishing it? It honestly feels weird to not have my cloak on…” I say sheepishly, not wanting to say I felt naked without it but still. “Well we are just finishing up this, then your father will do the rest and that will be that, should be done by dinner time or tomorrow morning.” Rarity said. “Well...I was kind of planning on going to the Diamond Dog nation today...but I suppose tomorrow seems fine enough.” I say. ”I just hope there not pawns under Core’s thumb...I don’t want that fucker getting a foothold here.” I think to myself worriedly. “I advice not letting Pinkie or Luna tag along… Diamond Dog nation is the porn capital of the world.” “I wasn’t going to bring anyone anyways.” I state bluntly. “Maybe Joy but that’s about it. No one else, I’m a hero and I need to be the hero a good portion of the world see’s me as.” “Alright, just before you leave say your goodbyes, or we will hunt you down.” Rarity said with a sly smile. “God help me…” I grumble. “But before I leave...did Coco tell you all something only you're allowed to know and for me to never find out?” “No.” Rarity said. “I didn’t.” Coco said. “Alright.” I nod. “Well see you.” I say, patting Coco’s shoulder and kissing Rarity’s cheek. “Thanks.” I say while heading out, swiftly moving through the house and telling everyone bye and getting Joy to tag along, which he wore a nice looking scarf as he followed me on a card he started surfboarding on as we headed off towards the diamond dog region that I thankfully got the directions from Gilda who really didn’t care about tagging along to porn central. Even at the speed we were going it got late when we arrived. The whole kingdom was a tall, walled in place with one main gate and mines all around the surrounding lands. The main city as it seemed was rather modern looking to my and Joy’s surprise. When we landed the people didn't even bat an eye…we blend right in! “Well...glad we blend in.” Joy says honestly, keeping his guard up though. “Just be careful, I’m pretty sure many a dog will try to hit on us whether we’re dating or not.” I frown. We walked through town, finding it rather interesting, though occasionally some people dug themselves out of the ground. And dug themselves into it. Guess it’s normal as no one batted an eye either. If we wanna find evidence of the Diamond Dogs dealing with Core we gotta think. Where would that happen…on Knowhere that trading thing took place in an older spot of the place so maybe same rules apply? Where’s info when you need it? “Taverns?” Joy asks. “Taverns are probably the best place.” I sigh out. “Let’s hope things don’t go poorly.” I mutter. We looked around and saw a place that looked like a restaurant and a bar, Joy and I entered and to our surprise the barkeep was human. “What will it be?” She asked as Joy and I took a seat. “No booze for minors.” She quipped, putting a cup of water in front of Joy. “Get me a glass of water as well, I don’t want booze at the moment.” I say with a little raised hand. She placed the glass in front of me. “You ain’t from this city.” She said. “Tourists?” “Just heard some rumors about the place, besides the obvious.” I say honestly. “We’ve been hearing monsters are being handled everywhere but here...yet they don’t attack. Know anything or know anyone that might know about this weird coincidence?” Joy asks, acting like a kid that’s just been hearing about the dangerous stuff. “All I know is that the last guy who asked that question took his answer to the grave. Some detective from Minos came here a month ago asking the same thing, was found dead a week ago, the scene was brutal.” The woman said. “I do know he had a knack for journaling, his is likely in his coffin with the poor guy.” “Have you seen anyone…’interesting’ around here? Like they don’t fit right in this weird ass world?” I ask curiously. “I’d rather not bump into the wrong person by accident.” “Well yesterday on my way to work I saw another human in the streets. Some guy that was rummaging through garbage out back. Other than that no. And yes that’s odd as I’m the only human in this city, least til I saw him.” “What did he look like?” I ask, having a worse and worse feeling that one of Core’s lackeys are here. ”It’s Core, or that evil me.” I think to myself angrily. “Kinda short, red shirt, dyed green hair, and had some kinda backpack with him.” I looked at Joy, who just had a thoughtful look. “Thank you. Do you know anyone that might be alive and know something?” I ask curiously, knowing full well just asking this puts her in danger and us. “Nope. Anyone who asks questions like yours and act on them go missing and are often found dead.” “Right then.” I nod. “Thanks for telling us all this...and sorry.” I say sheepishly. “Whatever.” She said. “Ten bits for the water, each.” “That’s...bull…” I frown. “Water station’s been out for three days, supply and demand.” She said. “Has there been any reports on why that happened or was there just the usual ‘something bad happened, we’ll fix it’?” Joy asks. “Just some punks stole the main pumps, the whole pumps. Those things are two inches thick and weigh at least a ton, must have been some kinda mess, they need to build new ones or else in two more days city’s safe water supply will have run dry.” ”How in the hell?” I think to myself, wondering how the fuck some punks stole whole fucking pumps like that. “Thank you for everything.” I say while grabbing my wallet and giving her thirty bits. “Ten bits for you.” I smile, wanting to be nice at least. “Thanks.” She replied. “So...what’s there to eat?” Joy asks, just wondering what small thing to eat here. “Beef, beef, Pork, and Beef.” She said plainly. “I’ll have some pork.” Joy nods. “Any specifics on the beef besides ‘you just get beef’?” I ask curiously, wondering if she was just being silly. “Hamburger or ribs? Cook’s out sick so that’s all I can cook with what we got.” The barkeep said. “Ribs please.” I say with a little nod, feeling like the bad things happening here seems a tad too coincidental. She left into the back room and about ten minutes later came out with a plate of barbecue ribs for me and a slab of cooked pork for Joy. “Anything else?” “That’s it, thank you.” I nodded. “Thank you.” Joy smiled cutely, before digging into his food happily. We ate our food, which wasn’t half bad, and when we finished she gave us the bill…only three bits? “Here’s you go.” I say, handing the bits. “But let’s see now...the food is cheap but the water is expensive...I suppose you're having a good amount of meat being brought in?” “Diamond dog lands may not look like much, be we carry more meat products than Minous and the dragon kingdoms put together, meats all raised underground since top side is largely holes. Beef is the most common at a bit, and pork second at two bits.” “Sheesh, sounds nice.” I nod while getting up. “It was good.” “Thank you.” Joy smiles before the two of us leave the tavern. “Yeah...this seems kind of convenient…” Joy mutters, finding all the weird murders over people asking questions, and how their water supply getting instantly shivved seemed quite weird to happen so closely. We headed for the water plant first, it was all fenced off but Joy and I used out gliders and flew over it. There wasn’t anything locked and when we got in we found two tanks filled with nasty looking water and two massive holes in the wall. So that’s where the missing pipes used to be. “Jesus christ...who the hell could pull them out? I doubt normal diamond dog ‘punks’ could do this..” I mutter. “I have a bad feeling about this…” Joy mutters, his ears twitching and keeping up on listening for anything out there. We examined the spot where the pipes went and they looked sliced off. Something able to slice cleanly through two inch steel and strong enough to carry them out. Liking this less and less. “We better leave...I have a feeling someone of power would know what’s going on.” I frown, having a feeling people in charge would be able to tell us. “Hello?” Joy and I froze as a flashlight shined on us. It was a diamond dog, dressed in a security guard's uniform. “What? What are you two doing here?” He asked. “Cripe…” I sigh out. “Question, have you heard of the ‘White Knight of Equis’?” I ask curiously, hoping the guard knew who I was. “Yes I know, I’m not wearing my cloak, but it is me, and I can show you proof if you need my guard.” “You have proof?” “Yes.” I nod, raising my hand and summoning Reunion. “Only the White Knight can summon a weapon like this in this way.” I say. “And only he knows it’s weapons name.” He says. “Alright, you proved it. But what are you doing looking into stolen pipes? Things slow in the pony lands?” “This worlds name is ‘Equis’, which means I’m here to protect the entire world.” I say. “But me and my sidekick here are investigating some very...strange rumors.” I explain. “This being one of them. And it just so happens someone very strong cut through this and hauled it away, no ‘punks’ could do this no matter how hard they tried.” I frown. “Have you heard any rumors around about how the pipes were stolen or destroyed?” “...Well, only the royal detectives have seen this, but I do still have the security footage. It’s odd to say the least.” The guard said. “Can we see the footage?” Joy asks hopefully. “Yeah, the office is this way.” He said, leading us to the office. It was fair sized, a few desks and a table with many screens. He looked through a desk then pulled out a video tap with red tape on it. He put it to play then fast forward to the part with the pipes. There was someone in a hooded robe on screen. His head lit up and there was a flash as the pipes vanished and he walked away. “Unicorn, strong one too it seems to magic away pipes that big.” “Magic can teleport it away, but what about the part where they cut the entire things off?” I frown, rewinding it and putting the thing in slow motion, watching every single little detail about the footage. “Come on you cheeky fuck...tell me your secrets on how you did this…” I mutter. “It was the teleportation.” Joy, the guard, and I jumped as we turned around, seeing Cript dad there. “Come on that’s teleporting 101.” “So the fact that the pipes were completely cut off was a teleportation spell?” I ask with a frown. “Yeah, when you teleport only part of an object what’s left behind is left with a clean cut where the magic didn't cover. Also here.” Cript dad handed me my new cloak. “And here.” He handed a smaller version of it to Joy, but the hood on his looked more like the Samurai rather than a Dusk. “Figured why not.” “Yay!” Joy cheers, putting on his coat happily and finding it fits perfectly. “Thanks dad.” I nodded, putting on my cloak as well. “This blot your pa?” The guard asked. “Yeah, his mother is a dire wolf.” “Ah.” The guard said, satisfied with the answer. “Okay so we know about the teleportation part...but that still doesn’t explain why they would just take the pipe? Yes if you cripple a nation's water supply they start dwindling…” I frown. “Then why aren’t Heartless around here and why investigators are dying left and right just for asking questions.” Joy adds, finding these questions rather worrying. “Your side quest.” Dad said. “But here’s a hint, each person’s magic smells unique to a dog.” With that dad vanished. Me and Joy frowned, having a good feeling that our tracking by scent skills were going to be put to the test. “Thank you very much...uh...sorry what’s your name again?” “Oh, Kreg.” The guard said. “It was nice to meet you Kreg, and thank you for showing us this.” I nod. “It was nice meeting you.” Joy smiles, the two of us starting to leave, putting our hoods up and feeling cool again. “This feels cool.” Joy chuckles happily. We walked up to where the pipes were teleported away and took a....sniff. Bad water mostly filled our noses but there was something faint…caramel? “Why the hell does the magic smell of caramel?” I frown. “Well we have a lead at least...let’s just make sure we stay away from a place that makes caramel.” Joy says sheepishly. We both left the entire water plant and started moving through the place, following the scent of caramel magic through the place without looking like a bunch of jackasses...even though our cloaks made us stand out like sore thumbs. We ended up in…a suburban area surprisingly. And we were brought to a house that was wood, one story with a nice yard. “Oi vey…” I mutter, walking up to the front door of the house and knocking on the door. “Hello?” “Coming.” A female voice called out. After a bit, to our surprise, a wolf pony person opened the door. She was pony cause diamond dogs don’t have wings. “Hello? Wait…the white knight?” “Hello.” I nod to the wolf pony. “How are you doing today?” I ask curiously. “Uh, w-what are you doing here?” She asked flustered. “Me and my partner here are wondering something. May we come in?” I ask kindly, Joy staring at the wolf pony and just smiled happily. “S-sure.” She said as we came in. It was a nice home, and cozy. Joy and I sat on the couch across from the woman. “So… what brings Equestria’s greatest hero to my home?” “Have you heard about the water pipes somehow disappearing?” I ask the wolf. “Anything at all?” “Who hasn’t, someone broke into the facility and stole them…somehow. Heard they’re huge so whoever did it had the resources.” “Ya see...there’s a saying ‘the nose knows’...and for some reason me and my partner here just so happened to have caught magic with the scent of caramel.” I explain. “But we were brought here...and you’re part pegasus...mind explaining that Ms…?” I ask, hoping she’ll give us a name. “Please, any information would be wonderful.” Joy says, wanting to get to the bottom of this. “Star Gem, and sorry but I’m the only halfbreed in this area, as for regular ponies there is the mailman, Letter Check. But he lives on the other side of town.” “Then why were we brought here?” I frown, sniffing the air again just to make sure that the scent was right. I could still smell it, slightly stronger sure but I didn’t smell anyone else. “Uh...mind if we search the house? I just...want to make sure of something.” “Sure.” Star said. I searched the house and kept sniffing, following the faint yet growing smell of caramel. I ended up in stars room and the scent was coming directly from some kind of necklace that was hung on the wall among others on display. “Hey Star? What’s this necklace?” I ask worriedly, hoping this isn’t some possession type of thing. She came over and looked at it. “A friend of mine asked me to have it, said it was payback for the eighty bits he owed me. I’m no rock expert or anything, ironic given where I live, so I just put it with my other necklaces.” The necklace looked like the metal was regulat iron and the gem was opal, but smelled like the caramel I was following. “Have you ever wore this?” I ask, glaring at the necklace and having a bad feeling about this. “And where did your friend find this?” “Dunno. He works in the mines so he probably made it.” “Yet the thing is filled with the same magic that stole the water pipes.” I frown. “Have you ever wore this?” I ask, hating this damned necklace more than ever. “No, opals aren’t my thing. I was gonna sell it for my eighty bits actually. Wait, it was used to steal the pipes? How?” “It’s probably enchanted…” I frown. “I don’t know how…” I frown, gently poking it and wondering if it’ll either shock me or cause some sort of effect. When nothing happened I pocketed the gem. “Man…not Iron Side…” “Ironside?” I ask, raising an eyebrow at the wolf girl. “The friend that gave it to me… you think he’s the one who stole the pipes?” “Where does he live?” I ask curiously, wanting to make sure this jack wipe didn’t just screw over a country. “Across from me actually.” She went over to the window, pointing at the house directly across from us. “There.” “Well alright then.” I nod. “Thank you for your time Ms. Star. I hope you have a nice day.” I say to her, patting her head gently before me and Joy head off to Iron Side’s house. After a little bit and knocked on the front door of Iron Side’s house. “Hello?” I call out, hoping the person was here. There was no response other than a cat’s meow from inside. I took a sniff. It was a real cat. “Of course…” I mutter, trying to door knob to see if it was open at least even though the person probably wasn’t home. It opened and out of worry I summoned Sharp Shooters, as did Joy. We walked in and aside from being dusty it was a nice enough place. Dude even had a PS3 and a small library of games. We walked into the bathroom and saw the tub completely taped over. “Yeah...this isn’t really fucking worrying.” I frown. “Yeah...why is the bathtub tapped over?” Joy asks worriedly, hoping that isn’t hiding a body. “Meow.” The cat came out, walking over by me, then to Joy. It was completely white. “Meow.” Is meowed at Joy, looking him dead in the eyes. “Hello, trying to tell us something?” I ask curiously, hoping the strange cat is trying to tell us something rather than being annoying. “I’m not sure if the girls are allergic to cats...:” “Rarity has a cat…had a cat…” Joy said nervously. “Oh yeah.” I say while picking up the pure white kitty. “How you doing little one?” I ask, hoping the cat’s at least fed. “Meow.” Was all it said. “Good.” I nod, petting the cat before putting him down gently. “Well so far this house has shown us jack all besides dusty as fuck, a taped over bath tub, and a pure white cat…” I frown, Joy walking over to the tub and gently poking a hole in it and hoping to christ nothing bad happened. The stench of decay filled the room in seconds, and with a dire wolf’s sense of smell that’s STRONG! Joy and I bolted, Joy grabbing the cat as we exited. We immediately rushed over to Stars house and opened the door, letting the cat in before rushing over to some bushes and collectively threw up on them. “Ho fuck! That is just wrong!” I whimper. “Never...again…” Joy whimpers, throwing up some more into the bushes. “Whimps.” We looked up, seeing dad floating in front of us. “Little death and you turn tail and flee.” “Two things, one, I have only killed one person and they just shattered...and two that’s both the first time we smelled necrotic anything...and our noses are really sensitive.” I groan. “Excuses. Anyway, just so you know I am kinda watching/following you.” “Kind of thought that Cript.” I sigh out. “Anyways...we have an enchanted necklace, a dead body...and a loss of leads.” Joy groans. “Or at least as far as we know cause that necklace smells exactly what the magic used back in the water pipes is…” “Well, now that’s cheap.” Cript said, floating down and looking at the necklace. “It’s just for storing a single spell. Cheap.” “And now we’re back at square one of ‘who did it?’, but now we have the question of ‘who used that necklace?’, because I have a feeling the spell on that is a teleportation spell…” I sigh out. “One time use too.” Dad added, tossing back the necklace. “Whoever put the spell in it had a vague idea of what to do.” I grabbed the necklace and put it in my pocket. “Fucking weak.” I groan. “Well...maybe we can solve at least two mysteries by going to meet the leader...they might know something about both the water pipes, and the fact that Heartless aren’t attacking here and all the deaths for people asking it.” “Killing someone and doing that to the body… that’s the mark of a professional. If they can’t hide the body they can prolong its discovery. Hiding the smell is one of the better ways. There still might be evidence in the house. Notes, items, the works.” “We could probably...try to stomach through the smell and see the body…” I sigh out. “Christ...being a detective isn’t a nice job…” I grumble. “There is a reason those hoods zip all the way up you two, added a gas mask spell that turns on when you zip the hood all the way up, also yes you can see with it like that.” “You could have told us that…” We sigh out, zipping up our coats all the way up. “There we go…” I mutter. “Time to get back in there and investigate.” I say, heading off back into the house with Joy. When we were back in we were hoping the gas mask wasn’t a joke...only to be thankful that the gas mask worked, and soon we were on our way to investigating the entire house and trying to find anything. Joy tackled the rest of the house while I tackled the possible body in the bath. I took a deep breath and started taking off the tape, hoping to figure out the things situation. When the tape came off the body looked like it was oozing pus as the eyes went from a dead grey to a long dead black. Flesh had fallen if in some parts while it was grotesquely swollen in others. His fur looked like he had mange. He also had pants on so I took a deep breath and checked the pockets. There was a few bits and some folded up piece of paper that was partly soaked in dead body juices. Queen’s Dog House 7:00 Is what it said. “Well...at least it’s a lead...but where the hell is it?” I mutter, memorising the place and time, even though it was a little ambiguous due to it not giving either a ‘day/night’ kind of thing for the time. “Well it’s better than nothing.” I mutter. When I got out Joy said he found nothing so we went back to Star’s place. When we entered the house we pulled down the zippers and took a breath of fresh air. “That’s nice.” “So, what did you find?” Joy asks curiously. “A note telling Iron Side to head to the ‘Queen’s Dog House’.” I say. “At seven...and that was it. No day or night part given.” “It was a reminder.” Dad said, appearing next to Joy and I again. “Only notes to remind yourself are so lack of info. Cause it’s only what you need to remember.” “There are two things wrong, what’s the proper time, and where’s the place…” I frown. “Hey Star?” I ask. “Queen’s Dog House?” Star asked. “I know the place actually, used to work there…not proud of it.” “Is it what I think it is?” I frown. “Yep. Strip club. Not many places hire hybrids unless they actually listen to the crowns laws about hybrids or their clients are into other species or mixed species.” “Oh dear…” I sigh out. “I don’t think this is gonna be good…” Joy says worriedly. “Well...who knew an investigation will lead us to a freaking strip club…” I shake my head. “Oi vey…” With the address given to us we found the strip club rather quickly. It was a surprisingly new looking building, had a sexy Diamond dog woman with a gold tiara on the entrance. As Joy and I began walking in the Bouncer stopped us. “I.D. please.” He asked. I brought out my wallet and checked my I.D. and it just so happened that it showed my new face and name. “Here’s you go.” I say while showing it to the bouncers, Joy rummaging through his pockets and finding his I.D. as well. “Uh...here you go.” Joy says, bringing it up to the bouncers and even though he was the look and size of a twelve year old it read that he was over 300 years old for some reason. “Tall, go in, small fry, nice try.” The bouncer said as he was letting me in but holding Joy back. “Sorry little guy.” I say while patting Joy’s head, making the little guy huff. “Sheesh, beings in their mid twenties can be believed to be a thousand or so years old, but when a twelve year old has honest I.D. saying he’s three hundred is apparently ‘too far fetched’.” Joy grumbles while I just chuckle and walk on into the strip club. Upon entering I was met with naked and near naked woman everywhere, a fair amount mixed or a race other than Diamond dog. Where to look…“Hey puppy.” I turned around as a griffon-diamond dog mixed lady in a…lacy, bikini, spoke to me. She had wings and a lion’s tail but the rest was largely diamond dog, save for a few feathers near her elbows. ”Oh dear…” I think to myself bitterly. ”Should I just openly say ‘has this guy come here?’...christ I should have thought this through…” I think to myself worriedly. “Hi…” I say to the sexy woman. “So what brings you here? Ball and chain too old?” She puts, grabbing my hand with the engagement ring and petting it. “I won’t tell~” I growled. “I’m engaged, and no I’m not here to ‘entertain’ myself. I’m here to ask a question, do you know someone by the name of ‘Iron Side’? Or anyone here that knows of him?” I ask curiously, hoping the stripper would get her thoughts away from my pants and to some actual helpful talk as I pulled my hand away, making sure my ring was still on my finger. “Iron Side?” She asked, breaking the ‘slutty’ persona. “He was checking up on his cousin, regularly, and no, not like that. She works the… bathroom…” The woman said, pointing over the the only bathroom door in the building. “Thank you.” I nod. “But...considering how you stopped to say that word...is she doing what I think she’s doing?” “Relax, it’s more of a…well, no one actually uses the bathroom. Just watch where you walk, and…don’t touch the walls…or doorknob.” “Oh for fuck sakes.” I groan, pinching the bridge of my nose bitterly. “Thanks…” I mutter, starting to walk towards the ‘bathroom’. “Seriously...a messy as hell bathroom is a medical problem waiting to happen and I don’t even know the health codes…” I mutter bitterly, putting my hands in my pockets and ignoring the many women staring at me. I, rather trickily, opened the door and inside was all white, and there was stalls…made of clear glass as several women were sitting behind the locked stall doors. “Anyone specific~?” The woman in the first stall asked. “First up this already looks like a slave pen for some reason…” I say worriedly. “We let the highest bidders in sweetheart~. This glass is bulletproof.” I take a deep breath. “And by ‘highest bidder’...” I start, trying my best not to just get super pissed here. “Bathroom sex fetish. You new at this?” “No...it’s just I said ‘this looks like a slave pen’, then you said ‘we let the highest bidders in’...so that’s kinda your fault honestly.” I shrug. “Whatever. So you gonna bid or talk?” “I’m looking for a relative of Iron Side. I was told she was here.” I say. “Oh, last stall.” She said, pointing to the last stall as a diamond dog woman dressed in only toilet paper, clean, was there looking confused at me now. I walk over to the last stall. “Hello.” I say. “What’s your name Ms…?” I ask, even though I was in a fucking strip club I wanted to be at least nice to some extent. “Copper Plate. Why are you looking for me specifically?” “Iron Side...sadly came down with a case of murdered.” I state. “And I’m wondering if you know who might actually want to murder him for whatever reason.” Copper Plate looked horrified. “Y..you’re sure it was Iron Side?!” She asked in a panic, unlocking the stall door and grabbing me by my cloak. “Are you sure?!” “I found his decaying body in a taped over bath tub.” I say. “I’m sorry...but please, tell me who would even go that far to kill him? Has Iron Side done anything weird? Has he been talking to the wrong people? Tell me everything you know please.” She cried for a bit before trying to compose herself. “H-he, he was trying to become a detective. Since a lot of underground types come here he asked me for leads. I told him a while ago that a new gang rented the whole club out, they were lead by some… woman, human surprisingly. She didn’t do anything but talk with someone else about random stuff. I told him this and a month later he was in the gang under cover to gather evidence for the police. Last I saw him I gave him this enchanted pendant with a teleportation spell for use in it in case it went too far for him.” “That’s...even weirder…” I frown. “The necklace you gave him, what did it look like?” “Amber stone, cheap metal, was just in case of emergency for him.” “Well apparently the gang that Iron was in gave them a key to stealing the main water pumps…” I frown. “That’s not good…” I frown. “What was the lead? Who is this gang?” I ask, already having a feeling I’m gonna have to beat some people here. “I just told him what I overheard. The woman was recruiting locals at some park, and the gang…they didn’t have any name I heard, just a symbol.” “Mind showing me this symbol?” I ask, having a bad feeling about all of this. “You got a pen and paper?” I quickly brought out a pen and pad of paper, due to how many damned times Twilight told me to carry them. “Here’s you go my toilet paper clad lady.” “Har har.” She said, taking the items and began drawing. When she gave the drawing back to me, it was a symbol I somewhat recognized…this was from a fairly new game back on earth…Dishonored I think, but it was over the Heartless symbol. “Well…” I start. “Shit.” I frown. “My worst fears just happened to come true. Do you know anyone that is possibly related to this symbol at all? Anyone that knows more?” I ask. “Just rumors. One regular here does have this symbol on his left hand. He usually comes around seven.” “What does he look like?” I ask, my hood hiding my rage. “Pure blooded griffon from the look of him. Black feathers too, red tips.” “Thank you.” I nod. “You have no idea how much you’ve helped me here. Now I can stop this hidden choke hold on this entire kingdom.” I growl, patting the dog’s head gently. “Just catch my cousin’s killer… I’m gonna cash in my vacation days…” She said sadly as she left. I sighed out and left the ‘bathroom’ as well, and then immediately the entire strip club and found Joy. “Figure anything out?” Joy asks, getting up from his seated position. “Well we’re gonna have to wait till 7 to find the proper fucker behind all this.” I frown. “I just hope nothing bad will happen…” I sigh out, checking the time and wondering how long we’ll have to wait. It was five, about two hours to kill. Well, guess I’ll leave and steak out from the outside. I walked outside and saw Joy playing tic-tac-toe with the bouncer. “Cat wins.” The bouncer said, no winner on the board. “Seems like you're having fun.” I chuckle. “I was bored, he wanted to play.” Joy shrugged. Luckily there was a restaurant with window seats across from the strip club so Joy and I walked in there, took seats at a window with a good view of the club and tried to act like we were just killing time rather than waiting for a suspect. “So...one of Core’s lacky’s are here.” I sigh out. “What was your first clue?” Joy deadpans. “There’s the part where I saw a Dishonored symbol mixed with a Heartless symbol...which is rather worrisome because if memory serves from trailers that symbol gave you magic powers…” I explain. “So having Dishonored powers and Darkness powers...that sounds kind of worrying.” I frown. The waitress came and we ordered some burgers and some soda. After half an hour the griffin that was the description Copper gave us walked up to the strip club. Joy and I payed for the meal then headed out. The bouncer still didn’t let Joy in but he stood close to the door just incase. I entered and looked around for the Griffin. I spotted him sitting at a table drinking with a view of the pole dancers. I swiftly made my way over to the Griffon in question. “How are you doing today my obviously not evilly designed friend?” I ask the griffon honestly, making a joke about how his design just said ‘evil’ with the black and red motif. “You stupid? Cause the White Knight of Equis clearly doesn't know the meaning of discrete or camouflage. You stick out like a sore thumb Knight.” “So does the black and red griffon trying not to literally have ‘Evil’ flash above him in giant neon letters.” I deadpan. “Mind finishing up your drink and taking this outside? I have some...choice words.” “Again, I ain’t stupid. I’m staying right here. You won’t risk making a move on me and scaring these people and I can keep my head.” He said as he took a small sip. “Then let me ask why you’re just murdering everyone here and have most likely crippled the kingdom’s water pumps?” I ask, finding that weird. “Fine, but here’s my catch. You ask me a question, I ask you a question. Deal?” “Fine enough.” I say. “So you want to ask your question first or answer mine first?” “I’ll answer, consider it kindness. It’s the bosses plan. She got the whole underground working to move in on the crown fast. Now here’s a question for you. What reason do you have to fight?” “My reason is to make sure shit lords like your boss and your bosses bosses don’t just destroy everything without a single fuck given.” I explain. “And you must know that you are literally a shit stain to your boss and would sooner kill you if you aren’t useful right?” I aks. “I know I’m disposable. We all are. That counts as your question by the way. My question, what’s your relation to Gilda?” “Why is that important?” I ask. “I just want some clarification here, are you a relative or something for you to warrant worry?” “I’m her father.” “I’m her fiance.” I say to him. “Ah, already on opposite sides of the law it seems. I left Gilda with her mother when she was just four. Work like mine it’s best to cut ties before the enemy finds them.” “Well Gilda’s always been a rebel...but do you have a ‘collar’ on you as it were?” I ask curiously. “Like you are now forced to work with these sick fucks by force instead of by your own volition?” I ask, hearing Joy mentally tell me he’s called for help. “I signed up for this yes, my only reason for still working with the boss is that she’s insane. Why do you think Iron Side died? He hesitated on a job and she killed him. Professional killer, and little emotions.” “Who’s your boss?” I ask. “She goes by Clare. Wears this metal mask that looks like a mechanical demon face of sorts, or a sad robot. Either or I’ve never seen her face. So… how did you and Gilda meet?” “Why should you care anyways? I have a feeling you’d rather see her dead now because of what side she’s on.” I ask with a frown, knowing full well that if you pick a side you’d sooner kill family without a second thought if they were on the other side. “Sides aside she’s blood. Griffon’s value blood ties more than gold before our homeland pride was shattered. Call me old schooled.” “We met when I was helping a her friend, who happens to now be one of my fiance's as well.” I say with a nod. “But let me ask, what was the ‘old school courting’ for griffons?” “Dominance. Female picks out a mate and if he could ‘tame’ the female they were wed.” “Looks like Gilda is ‘old school’ in one way.” I say sheepishly. “Heh. Good to know. Has she spoken of her mother at all?” I sigh out. “Sadly no. I’m either too busy or she’s busy trying to get stronger because of your boss and their group for us to try and get closer through words…” I say bitterly. “But I’m sure she’ll talk to me about it. You have any words about your wife?” “Not much. We were wed and had Gilda very quickly so we didn’t know each other well enough sadly. She was a…proud griffon though. Never asked for help nor needed it. Part of why I felt safe leaving Gilda with her. Out of the griffon’s in that sad place she could raise Gilda with a sense of pride.” “And you can be proud of your daughter now.” I say. “She’s strong, tough, and will be a wonderful mother with the rest of my herd.” I say. “I never understood ponies and herds well, but to each their own. So what else do you want to know?” “You said your boss is going towards the crown...so your boss is literally going to kill the new leader and make this a foothold for her boss?” I ask. “Her plan is simpler than that. It’s pure regicide. Chock the water, food will follow, and with the crown gone, the kingdom dies. Frankly she’d prefer to blow the city to hell and deeper, but her boss want’s the queen’s heart for some reason.” “Excuse me a moment.” I say while turning around and calling for help, just to make sure Joy’s call got through. ”Shit shit shit shit, things bad happening!” I think to myself worriedly, hoping to nip this problem before it fully chokes the country. “Thank you Mr…?” “Delto. So do you even know who the current queen is?” “I’ve heard...but sadly because of the amount of shit the ‘White Knight of Equis’ has to do sometimes my mind gets sidetracked.” I sigh out. “Who is the queen? And honestly...I was debating on whether in Diamond Dog territory whether it was ‘Alpha’ or ‘Queen’, so I just went with ‘leader’.” “Well queen is more of a… title. The queen is declared based upon popularity among the peoples. It can be anyone but this queen is unique.” “How so?” I ask, wondering what’s special about this queen besides having possibly made this kingdom what it is today. “Well for starters, she is a Pony, not a Diamond Dog.” “Oh...now I’m curious on how that happened.” I say honestly. “But you said that your boss and your fellow workers are going after the queen correct?” “Sorta. You see, the Queen is bound to the kingdom via an ancient necklace. It keeps her stuck in the castle too. It's powered by the people's devotion to her also. It's called the Queen’s Heart. Something about it the Boss wants. Sadly it only comes off if the people no longer care for her or if she dies.” “Well that’s not good…” I frown. “So I just have to stop your boss and her followers before the queen dies huh? Sounds simple enough in a ‘this is going to suck’ kind of way.” I sigh out. “Are they in the middle of attacking the queen or are they still getting there?” “It won't take long for them to reach the queen. They plan to start the attack in four hours. I’ll be there also. So if it comes to it, don't hesitate to end me.” To my surprise in the corner of my eye there was letters forming. -Optional: Kill Delto. “I’ll...think on that.” I say. “But...do you have any last words I should tell Gilda?” I ask. “As a father, not as a murderer.” “Tell her…check her favorite swing at the old playground.” With that, Delto raised the hand with the mark. It glowed and he vanished ar darkness covered him. “Well…” I mutter, before vanishing and appearing outside. “Not good not good not good.” I mutter, starting to fly in the air and summoning Reunion and Frozen Pride. “So little time…” I mutter before bolting off to the castle. “Hey!” Joy calls out, the pup wielding Sharpshooters and following next to me quickly. “So yeah...this is a whole bunch of things.” “Four hours till this entire kingdom is bricked...and we don’t even know where to start besides the castle...not to mention that weird leader…” I growl, continuing to fly off towards the castle. “And I have a good feeling we’re not going to get help cause ‘it’s our quest, no helping’.” I say in a tad bit of anger, not sure if we’ll be able to save everyone. When we flew to the castle and upon landing were stopped by guards. “Halt!” They barked. “Don’t give a fuck, need to warn the queen.” I frown. “Provide identification and maybe we’ll escort you to her majesty Rune.” “Does the cloak and weird looking sword not already explain how obvious it is to tell who I am?” I ask the guards. “Or are you out of the loop of all the porn that’s been made of me?” I explain. “This little guy is my sidekick, haven’t thought of a name yet, so how’s about you lead us to the Queen or she’s going to die in the next four hours.” “Wait… Rune?” Joy asked, slightly confused. “Wait...oh for fuck sakes of course it’s that horny as hell mare…” I groaned, facepalming at now remembering Zeke’s horny as hell wife. “Yes, it’s that Rune.” I say, our memories being shared to plenty of an extent. “Oh jeez…” Joy mutters, now remembering Unum’s words to Zeke. “Anyways, can we please meet the Queen? It’s a matter of her own safety.” “We got role play strippers here all the time. ID then you can enter.” One of the guards said. I walked over and walked through the door without caring. “I have diplomatic immunity! I am a Prince of Equestria and am marrying the Dragon Lord’s daughter, you can suck my dick.” I state while just walking through. “Thanks for the offer!” I jumped as my reflections Rune appeared in front of me with Pinkie style teleportation. The only difference between this one and Zeke’s is that this one was red highlights in her mane. “So this is the real White Knight of Equis…kinda thought you'd be taller.” “I’m eighteen, I’m pretty sure I still have room for growing.” I say. “Anyways my very horny majesty, you’re life is in danger.” “Yes, trained assassins with magic beyond this world are coming to kill you and destroy this entire kingdom. They’ve murdered every investigator, destroyed the water pumps, and are coming for you in four hours.” Joy explains, wanting her to know full well that she’s in danger. “And their boss won’t stop until she has your head and your necklace.” “Oh…well shit.” She said. “So… ah! I give you White Knight and….White Squire…full legal reign of the kingdom so long as my head doesn't roll.” “Sweet.” Joy smiles. “Thank you your majesty.” I nod. “Now, your guard said that you have...role play strippers...the fuck lady?” I frown. “I didn't make this place the porn capital and not indulge a bit every now and then. Before I got here this city was mostly dirt and brick houses. Now it's modern.” “Yet for some reason your guards thought I wasn’t me...so I’ve been role played before?” I ask, wondering if that horror of an idea is something. “To this castle. Yes. Sixteen times. Maids each had one for their bachelorette parties.” “Oh lordy…” I sigh out. “All this guys wives would tell you your ‘role players’ have nothing on him.” Joy says while pointing to me. “Shut up Squire…” I growl, my face going beat red. “This is not the time to talk, we need to be ready for the assassins…” “Gah!” We turned around, seeing someone in black clothes and a gas mask stabbing one of the guards. A bit further back was more, a woman in a metal mask, and Delto. “Delto, take care of the Squire. I’ll deal with the Knight. Rest of you… have fun.” Everyone nodded as they scattered, Delto rushing at Joy and the Boss, or Clare, as Delto said, charged at me. “Run!” I shout to Rune, summoning Samurai’s to handle the others before dashing towards Clare and trying to slash at her, Joy dashing to the side while summoning Fair Game and drawing Delto towards him and off to the side. Clare pulled out a black Fenrir keyblade and we crossed keyblades. “So you are the White Knight. Real name Ben, age eighteen, born 1993, November 5th, blood type B positive, 2.1 gpa, B average.” “Random things are random.” I frown, thorns starting to crawl up my keyblade and trying to stab at Clare’s hand and face. She blocked and dodged them effortlessly. “Father dead, mother dead few years later. Foster care for two years before grandparents took you in.” She added, pulling out a crossbow and firing at me. I raised my shield and a pillar of ice shot up from the ground, blocking the crossbow bolts. “How do you know any of this?” I ask, moving to the side of the pillar and dashing forward, slashing again at the masked woman. I hit her in the face and her mask broke and fell off…it was HER! The wan from the photo! “I’m a professional.” She stated emotionlessly. I jumped back and stared at her, glaring at her angrily. “You were the one who killed my parents…” I growl. “Yes.” She said plainly. “Why?” I ask, my clothes shifting and getting a yellow tint to it as I swapped out Frozen Pride with Skysplitter and held both my ax and keyblade at the ready. “One by one. Life must die. One by one. Be that in people… or planets.” “Just another sick bitch.” I growl, my ax’s magic starting to surround me. “Well, looks like I can still kick your ass!” I shout, vanishing and swinging Skysplitter at the killer. I hit, she flipped mid air as she was thrown from the hit and her mark glowed as she used her black keyblade and she made a tear…in the air. My brain and eyes felt terrible as it felt like they were rejecting seeing the tear she made. A black knight walked out of it, a blood stained greatsword in one hand and a battle scarred shield in the other. “Kill him.” She said as the knight began attacking. “Shit!” I shout, the aura surrounding me got even bigger as I defended myself with Skysplitter and Reunion. “The fuck is this thing!?!” “A lost soul of the void.” Clare said, taking a seat to watch me fight. “Once a proud warrior now twisted by the hollowness of deep void. Something less than a shell or shadow of who it once was.” ”God I hope I can get some help…” I think to myself. ”Never thought I’d fight a void creature again…” I think to myself, hoping to at least do damage to this thing. “So you can just summon these fuckers at will?” I growl, starting to hear a solitary whisper in the back of my head, not entirely sure what it was saying while I kept trying to fight against the lost soul. “Yes. It's pure beastial rage and power now. So long as I can give orders and open portals I can summon them. What comes out of the tear though is random though.” “Well shit…” I growled, before stomping down and cracking the ground beneath me, deflecting it’s sword strike and ramming Skysplitter into it’s side with enough force to most likely destroy a mountain. It skidded across the ground, hitting the wall across the room. It then twitched as it walked out of the hole in the wall it made. “Get back in the hole!” I shout, appearing near the soul and using Skysplitter as a baseball bat and ramming it into the knight, straight back into the hole it made and even dug it deeper into said hole. When the dust cleared it was still standing in a battle ready stance. “Oh come on! How do you kill this fucker?” I ask, jumping away from it and readying myself for it’s next attack. It dragged it's sword in the ground, making a circle around it. It then made an aura around itself, it's armor and body growing about five feet and it's helmet falling off…it's head looked like Cthulhu and a dog had a baby…”What sick fuckery is this!?” I shout, finding that face extremely horrifying. It charged at me, swinging it's sword that I blocked with Skysplitter. We crossed swords and butted shields as it stared me in the eyes… it’s eyes look like they have eyes!!! I quickly close my eyes and with the thoughts on how to fight this abomination was buzzing around I continued to fight, except with my closed eyes I saw a white...being for some reason. I just shrugged it off as I kept trying to fight the thing, my precision not being lost even with my eyes closed. “Hey ugly mutt!” I looked back as much as I could, seeing Joy with Sharpshooters charging a strong attack with them. “Bite this!” He fired as a massive bolt was shot, hitting the abomination between the eyes as it roared in pain and backed away staggering. I lept up in the air. “Megaton Press!” I shout, ramming my hammer down on the monsters skull and my aura flared out, causing the entire ground to crack, shift, and even raise the ground up as if gravity wasn’t there. When it all faded the beast slumped over as it's body began to rapidly decay till nothing but a still scary skeleton remained within the armor. I looked up, seeing Clare clap. “Bravo.” She said. “Not many have killed them before.” “I put Delto in a Card after he lost.” Joy says to me. “Thanks Joy. Now it’s on to you.” I say, pointing Skysplitter at Clare. “What about me?” She asked so…uncaringly. “Your turn to die.” I growl, knowing full well this bitch lost her humanity a long time ago. “You can try.” She said, standing up and leaving herself wide open. “Give it your best shot.” I took a deep breath, the aura around me starting to coat the ax as well as nothingness thorns. “Gigaton!” I shout, bolting towards her and cracking or breaking the ground as I ran. “Hammer!” I shout, swinging my ax like a War Hammer and swinging it at the open Clare, what felt like an insurmountable amount of force being swung straight towards the cocky murderer. It made contact. There was a blast and I was sent flying back, hitting the wall across the room as some blood came up from the impact. I saw the dust clear and Clare was unmoved… not even phased. I saw something on the floor next to her though…something that made my stomach turn…Skysplitter’s mangled, broken blade. I looked at my hand and only it's grip was there...“I expected at least a bruise.” Clare said, tossing the broken blade at me. “H-h-how…?” I ask, coughing up blood and forcing myself out of the hole I made. “How the fuck?” “Core’s been tinkering with void. I’m the first test subject he tested every experiment with. Void is my skin now. No force can harm me.” She walked over to the unconscious Rune in the other corner and somehow ripped the necklace off her. Clare broke the necklace as something fell out of it…a keychain? “Target aquired. I’ll see you later pup.” She said as she teleported away, her surviving followers doing the same. “Damn…” I groan, coughing up more blood as I just shuffled over and grabbed Skysplitters blade. “Fucking hell...well everything went wrong...and I’m still a fuck wit...hooray.” I fake cheer, still glad to see Rune alive. “You okay?” Joy asks, rushing over to my battered side as he was just covered in dust and some rocks. “I’m coughing up blood, my body feels like shit, and Skysplitters broken...what do you think jackass?” I growl at Joy. “Maybe Cript could fix it…” Joy says, still seeing the destroyed weapon. “He could have also warned me that the whore was that stupid strong.” I said, spitting blood on the ground before moving over and gently shaking Rune awake. “Wakey wakey sleepy head, you're not dead.” “Huh?” She groaned. “Ugh…feels like last year's new year’s party…” She groaned as she rubbed her head. “Don’t know, don’t fucking care.” I state. “How did a keychain get into your now destroyed necklace?” “Calm down, your still hurt.” Joy says to me worriedly. “Don’t give a shit. Come on Rune, someone must have told you how special your necklace was besides ‘it makes me queen’.” I frown. “Uh…” She pondered. “Nope. Just some stuff about it being made after the alicornien era.” “Oh for fuck sakes.” I growl, helping Rune up. “Your alive, your necklace is fucked, your still queen, and I'm going to get Equestria to help you out in your water problems.” I explain, before doubling over and holding my ribs in pain. “Ho fuck...that hurts.” I groan, coughing up blood again. “Oh for fuck sakes…” Joy frowns before bringing out a health potion and making me down it, making me feel a whole lot better. “I'm sorry your majesty...is there anything we can do to repay your destroyed castle?” “Maybe… I wanna meet Celestia.” Was her response. “In what way?” I ask, wondering if it was just for political or steamy ways. “Proper treaty and to see if her and her sexy shapeshifting lover are as loose with boobs as rumors say~” “I'm pretty sure if I was a woman they'd force me into a threeway.” I sigh out. “But I'll see if she's available, and if she's busy then tits will make sure she's not.” “Yay. Well in any case mind doing me one more favor?” “And that would be?” I ask. “Mind finding the missing pipes for the water?” “I have literally no idea where to start.” I frown. “Our little investigation involves a teleportation spell...so we have no clue.” “Sorry…” Joy says sheepishly. “Let me out now!” The yelling of Delto from one of Joy’s cards caught our attention. Joy brought out the card in question. “Do you know where the pipes are?” I frown. “Duh.” He said. “I’ll show you the hideout.” “And what's to say you won't just bolt after your free?” “Uh, cause if I didn't die here then boss will kill me later. The second the young one put me in this card, I was branded a traitor in her mind.” “What a bitch.” I frown. “But hey, we can help each other out, I can give you a new and better life, I can make sure your daughter doesn't murder you, and you can help me figure out what powers you have and help us figure out what's with your boss...and help find the pipes.” I say while Joy waved the card and let Delto out. “We don't kill those that can get a second chance.” Joy says. “And Gilda will be happy to see you.” “She won't remember me.” Delto said. “She was too young to. And her mother likely did not speak of me after I left.” “Right then. Well you can solve that problem.” I say. “Anyways, lead the way to the pipes while I think if a punishment for following a crazy woman who's beyond fucked with.” I say, still carrying Skysplitter and scared that if I disbanded it it would just disappear forever. We followed Delto around the city until finally stopping at… the water plant? “Back here? Really?” “No one ever noticed that the tanks rose in height on the security footage. We just had them teleported to the bottom of the massive tanks.” “Christ…” I sigh out. “Well let's get to work I suppose.” It took two hours and a crane to get the pipes out but they were fished out and repaired, and started pumping out water immediately. “There we go.” I sigh out. “Back to normal. Now, I wonder what Cripts going to think about my failed fight…” I mutter to myself. “What failed fight?” I jumped as Cript’s voice spoke from behind me. “I fought my parents killer...and apparently she's been subjected to every void related test Core could think of.” I say while showing my broken weapon. “Hit her as hard as I could...only destroyed Skysplitter and hurt myself a lot. Killed a void Knight though.” “And that was the mission. Keep the queen alive, kill the void knight. Did you not look at your assistant for mission details?” “I think my mission should have read 'keep queen alive and unknown keychain away from enemy, kill Knight’. Seriously I don't know why Rune’s necklace had a keychain in it.” I frown worriedly. “That's for you to learn. Besides, she’s a… boss. For a later fight. So… about Skysplitter.” “I don't know how to fix it...and I'm scared about fixing it because I'll probably screw it up, I don't know this things origins, I mean my scythe came from demon tree for god's sake.” I explain. “Hand it over.” Cript said, holding out his hands. I hand both parts of my weapon over to him, both the undamaged grip and the mangled and broken blade. “Please help.” “On it already.” Cript had both blade and handle float in the air before they flashed a bright light. When the light faded Skysplitter was whole and fixed. I grabbed it, then the weight made me nearly fall over. “Fuck!” I yelp, using my other hand and lifting it up. “That's weird...it wasn't this heavy before...but I always used master form with it though…” I say sheepishly. “Not that. Your weapon was mental thought made reality. Technically it was just an image made real. Me fixing it made it real. The same can be said with your other weapons. Save for reunion. That's been real.” “Wait, Sharpshooters and Graceful Dahlia are both real...how is something real a magical image?” I ask curiously, finding that sort of confusing. “It's how you first existed when you came into this reality, you were an image, a thought existing in a dimension made in his head. For him to give you a ‘physical’ body he had to pump a LOT of magic for you to feel real. Overtime your magic body would absorb materials from food, air, etc, and become real. But as my adopted child that was sped up, think about it. First time here you were shot a bunch and are still able to use the arm that was shot to swiss cheese.” “He only shot my arms twice.” I say. “Not a thousand.” I frown. “But can I still 'unsummon’ Skysplitter now?” I ask, understanding what Cript was saying. “Yeah. But your weapons will weigh a bit more now. Also…have you considered getting your weapons upgraded?” “I didn't know I could.” I say. “I thought I was just going by normal Kingdom Hearts rules, not 358 days logic.” I say, remembering how you could get the 'ultimate’ version of the weapons. “More like… well, can't describe it exactly. But You can buy already prepared upgrades for weapons, but the best you have to make yourself.” “Didn't know that…” I say with a frown. “I'm gonna have to spend a day just looking through this fucking thing.” I frown, staring at my Assistant. “It can't just be an emergency health potion all the time.” “Heh. Yeah. So anyway. You should head home I guess.” “We should.” I nod. “I just...want to cuddle with Jenny…” Joy sighs out. “And Delto is going to be our family's Butler for as long as he lives so he can have some sort of punishment.” I frown. “But yeah...let's go home…” I say before me, Joy, and the forced along Delto flew off home. After fifteen minutes of flying me, Joy, and Delto landed in front of my castle. “This be my house.” I say to the black and red Griffin. “Impressive.” The griff said. “So… do I get a uniform?” “Yes you do, but you'll have to wait.” I say before walking up and opening the front door. “I'm home!” I call out, hoping my fiance's can hear me. “Joys back and I brought a visitor!” There was a blur that rushed at Joy. When I looked it was the CMC in…the cutiest footie pajamas ever, cuddling against Joy. “Welcome back!” The trio said. “Guess what Joy!” Sweetie said. “Me first!” Scoot’s cut in. “Take a breath you silly fillies.” Joy laughs happily. “What's going on? You all seem happy in your adorable pajamas.” “Well.” Sweetie started. “My parents are on business again and won't be back for two years and since Rarity watches over me when they have businesses I’m going to be living here for two whole years!” “And my parents said if I wanted I could sleepover at Rarity’s new place whenever and for as long as I wanted so long as I call so I’m here 8/10 times!” Scootaloo explained happily. “And I got to be here every day for two months cause summer vacation started today!” Applebloom said happily. “Though AJ said I can only sleep over four nights a week.” Apple Bloom said with less joy at not being able to stay over the longest. “That's great to hear.” Joy cheers, cuddling up to the three. “Well you're going to have to help on the farm for those three days…” I shrug. “But where's everyone else? And how's Jenny?” I ask, hoping she's been happy. “She's been marathoning this anime called…what was it…?” Scoot’s pondered. “Darn. Oh! Gurren Lagann!” “She's my daughter alright.” I laugh. “Soon she will learn how to get the powers to pierce the heavens.” I smile warmly. “Nice hood Joy.” Scoot’s said, noticing Joy’s new cloak. “Uh…. White Squire?” “Sadly yes, I have to go with this because I'm Ben's 'sidekick’, because he's the 'White Knight’ and all.” Joy explains. “Ah. Alright then. So let's go let Jenny know Joy is back.” Sweetie said as she and the other three carried Joy with them. “Maybe they'll be as happy to see me…” I mutter, walking off through the house and hoping to find my fiance's. “Hello?” I call out, feeling alone in these massive halls. “Surprise!” I heard Pinkie say as she jumped me from behind. “Welcome back hunk.” “Hey Pinkie.” I smile. “Glad to get a hug. Anything new?” “Just some news for you. Girls can tell when we get to the bedroom.” Pinkie said, leading the way to the bedroom. “Listen I think the only one would possibly be pregnant right now is you because you were in heat and we...kind of forgot protection if memory serves.” I say honestly. “Not just that.” Pinkie said, still walking. “Oh wait...all of them?” I ask, my eyes widening. “Yup. That's surprise number one.” “Alright…” I nod before walking over to our bedroom door and opening it. “Surprise number two is…” We arrived at the bedroom. All the girls were sitting around a crib… Braig’s crib to be exact. Pinkie walked over and picked him up. “Hi sweetheart.” She said. “Mama.” Braig said. “His first word?” I ask with a smile, walking over to baby Braig. “Hello.” I say gently to the baby, hoping I didn't look threatening or upset him. “...pa!” He cheered, grabbing my nose. I chuckled softly, gently tickling the child. “Pa’s here.” I smile gently. “How many more surprises?” “Well did Pinkie tell you?” Luna asked, giving me a kiss on the cheek. “I figured it out.” I say with a smile. “So Braig said his first few words and I knocked up all my girls...wonder if I'll swiftly knock up the two other girls I'll probably somehow end up marrying.” I chuckle a little. “Not just that.” I turned at the doorway, seeing the family doc here. “You know about god/demigod reproduction? At least in this family. Right?” She asked, looking at a clip board. “Congrats girls...have fun giving birth to a few...million kids maybe.” I say nervously. “I mean, if that's what I think is going to happen.” “Sorta.” The doc said. “For starters… three...two...one.” At the moment all the girls, save for Coco and Brigid, grew nine month pregnant sized bellies. “For one they can choose when to give birth, and how many, sex is still safe but it just adds to the kids in their already. They will come out as colorful pebbles at first before turning into the babies they are, and for the record as of now your wives wombs are stronger than a dark monofilament bunker.” “Damn.” I say in surprise. “That's...surprising.” “Your father and first mother Lyra wanted children protected more than anything. Fact is from babies to teenagers the child gets weaker as they grow, kinda lets them develop their own strength and defence too. Family curse wise baby Braig there could survive a second Big Bang… your wives like… fifty. So long as they're pregnant. That's the curse rules.” “How come I can't be that tanky?” I frown. “You’re eighteen, male, need more?” “I got my ass kicked today saving the queen of the Diamond Dogs...it sucked.” I sigh out. “Now…” I say while making sure Coco had a wedding ring. “Who's going to be my last wife?” I wonder. “And how the hell am I supposed to be a good father without having a nervous breakdown?” I ask, already knowing I'm depressed and have slight self esteem issues it's gonna be a bitch and a half. “Not sure. Also…let's take a trip to Canterlot. I wanna show off this belly to sister.” Luna chuckled. “Rune also wants to meet Celestia. That horny as hell mare made that kingdom what it is today...and I should know I went there for most of the day being a detective.” I frown. “Well…we can pack tomorrow and if sex is still safe…let's see how Ben handles our added weight!” Pinkie declared as they ganged up on me. Bridgid, Coco and Doc quickly giving us privacy. “Just what I needed after a rough day.” I chuckle. To be continued...
Joy's week“Okay…” I sigh out, taking off my Samurai cloak and hanging it up. “Time for, hopefully, a relaxing day.” I smile, walking out and wondering if I’ll have a better day than Ben does most of the time. “Maybe I could have a quiet day for once, no work, no girlfriends trying to glomp me...just a quiet day.” I knew The CMC was playing with my...nieces….yeah, nieces. Jenny might still be binge watching anime. Wonder if she's watching something new. So I decided to walk over and knock on Penny's door. “Hello?” There was no answer. I opened the door and saw Jenny asleep, large headphones on and music blasting from them. I frowned a little at that. “How does she even sleep with music being that loud?” I mutter to myself, kind of confused on how she can even stand loud noises to begin with. I saw in her hands that eight ball that jump started my love life was in her hand. What caught me off guard was it was flashing slightly. I carefully snuck over and tried to sneakily take the eight ball out of Jenny’s hand, hoping not to wake her up as I wanted to make sure the magic eight ball wasn’t about to blow up. I grabbed the eight ball and carefully took it out of her hand. ”Pleasedon’twakeuppleasedon’twakepleasedon’twakeup… I mentally chant, hoping to god she doesn’t wake up and probably smack me. After taking it out of Jenny’s hand I quickly looked over the magic eight ball, wondering why it was glowing and checking the hole to see if there was a message saying anything. There was indeed a message. Answer changed. Fate altered. Shake again. ”Oh no…” Joy thinks to himself. ”Uh...who will I marry?” He thinks to himself and shaking the thing. ”Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, Jenny Ventral, Gabby the Griffon, Diamond Tiara x2, Lupa, Lovely Days, Aileen. My eyes widened at reading that...before frowning. ”Who is Gabby the Griffon?” He mentally asks, shaking the ball again and hoping for an answer. Gabby the Griffon is an overly energetic griffin from the kingdom of Griffinstone. She is the youngest there at age 13, and despite the locals known to be rude or greedy she is rather friendly and caring. Wishes to understand how to get Griffins to make friends again. ”Cool.” Joy thinks to himself. ”Who is Lupa? He thinks to himself and shakes it. Lupa, a young female Diamond Dog. She is 13 years old and to some in their kingdom she looks like the wolf goddess the diamond dogs revered, not for their greed or lust, but for her strength and care for those that weren’t a diamond dog. She is caring and wise, but quick tempered and willing to fight for those she cares about. ”Nice.” Joy smiles. ”Who is Lovely Days?” Lovely Days is the only descendant and child of the Baltimare mafia. While she has no records at all, she is 11, wishes to explore the outside and see more of what life holds. She is born with a rare magic disorder that makes her pupils appear as pink hearts, letting her see the love of living things around her. She is no pushover but likes to play with others… if she could. ”I’m sensing she’s related to Cadence in some ways…” I think to himself. ”Why was my fate changed?” I mentally ask the big question, forgetting about the last girl for the bigger quesiton. Unknown. ”Cripe…” I mentally sighs. I scratched the back of my head before continuing. ”Who are the Diamond Tiara’s I’m going to marry?” One from this reflection. The other from an ally. ”An ally?” Joy thinks to himself. ”Zeke’s Diamond Tiara?” Joy thinks, wondering if that’s the right one. Yes. ”Well shit...Zeke’s probably not going to be happy with that…” I thinks to himself, trying to figure out any other questions Before Joy could continue Jenny, still sleeping, grabbed hold of Joy’s tail and turned around. I suppressed a yelp, and found myself being used like a blanket on top of Jenny. ”Damn it Jenny! Great, now I’m a blanket and it’ll be a pain just to get out of this… I think to myself bitterly. ”How does Ben deal with this so easily?” I think bitterly, trying to get my tail out of her hand carefully. Moving in her sleep again, Jenny somehow made it that I was now a body pillow. Time kinda froze there as, well, Jenny has yet to develop her body, but at this moment she was pressing ALL she had tight against my side. If she was Sweetie Bell I’d have a nosebleed, but either way I was blushing at the close contact. ”Shitshitshitshitshitshitshitshit~!” I mentally chant, not believing she was pressing so closely on me. I tried getting out of her hold, making sure my hands didn’t suddenly go awol and grab something they shouldn’t have. ”Come on…” I think to myself, finally getting out of her grip before touching something soft and firm. ”Uh…” I think to myself worriedly, looking over and seeing that I’m now accidentally groping her butt. I went stop still, my hand unconsciously groping the soft bum as my face and ears just started burning in embarrassment. Then. The second worst thing happened. Jenny let out a moan of pleasure. That sent a trail of blood to slide out from my nose. “Uh…” I said accidentally, not believing I heard Jenny just moan “Oh….dear…” I mutter, my thoughts escaping my mouth. ”She just...she just...oh god...age doesn’t really matter at this point in some cases but...oh my god…” I think to myself worriedly, trying to get out of here faster even though my hand wouldn’t stop groping her soft rump for some reason! It was then that something worse happened next…Luna walked in… “Oh.” She said in a low, but surprised voice. “It’s not what it looks like~...” I whisper whine pitifully, my eyes showing how scared and embarrassed I was. “Halp…” I whisper to Luna. She merely winked before using her magic to summon a blanket to cover us with. With that she grinned and was clearly trying to suppress joyous cheer as she left, closing the door and turning off the lights. ”NOOOOOOOOO!” I mentally scream, wondering why Luna has forsaken me to the hell that is being treated as a body pillow and accidentally touching Jenny’s butt. ”God how can this get any worse!?!” Well apparently everything hated me cause it got worse! I was right in front of Jenny’s face as she slowly opened her eyes. Upon seeing me she, at first, was confused, then as she woke up, she realized what was going on. “...So… if you like them sleeping that can work out for roleplay.” She said, her face betraying her witty reply. “It’s...not what you think.” I whimper, Jenny noticing the gentle grope of her rump that I have yet to stop. “You grabbed me by my tail...then you...uh…” I stutter, my face so red and hot I could swear there was steam coming out of it right now. “Stop.” She said, increasing her grip on me then grabbing MY ASS! “Ten more minutes and then we never say this happened.” “Alright…” I nod nervously. “Your...butt’s soft…” I mutter to myself, hoping she didn’t just hear my out loud thought. “I’m...glad you’re not mad…” “Not gonna lie and say I haven't dreamed this once or twice. Though in my dream we were older.” “As in just cuddling or…?” I ask. “But I’m always here if you want to cuddle. Cuddling is fine.” I say with a warm smile. “But...sorry for touching your butt…” “Didn't think you the handsy type. But as long as you ask in the future~” Jenny whispered in my ear, steam flying out of my head like a coal train. “Uh…” I mutter, my eyes wide at hearing that. “Um…” I start, taking a deep breath and trying not to think about that just yet. “But...you kind of...moaned in your sleep…” Joy mutters worriedly. “heh…Don't tell but my butt has always been my weakness. Kinda got shot there when I was a baby still. You can guess my dad made the shooters death painful beyond words. But after I healed the nerves in my butt just…over exaggerate. Sitting is fine but falling on it hurts like crazy and you grabbing it like this I’m suppressing my desire to drool.” “Oh…” I mutter. “I’m sorry to hear that...but I suppose butt rubs would be out of the question until we’re older?” I ask, wanting to make Jenny feel better after telling me about her injury but not wanting to do something silly. “For now, this is our secret.” Jenny said as she kissed my cheek. I took a deep breath and kissed Jenny on the lips quickly and looked away sheepishly. “I love you…” I say with a smile, moving my hands up and wrapping them around her back carefully so I don’t do something to her wings. “And I'm learning to love you.” Jenny said as she did the same. “So far, I think I’m close.” She said as she nuzzled my neck, quickly falling back asleep. I smiled and nuzzled Jenny’s cheek gently and just cuddling up to her. ”She’s a toughy...but I’m glad she’s my tough girl.” I think to myself happily, just being there for her while she slept. After what felt like ten minutes I carefully and gently got out of my sleeping lady’s hold and wiped my nose clean from the dried blood, opening the door and closing it silently for Jenny as I headed off to do more things. “Well...maybe it was a good thing Luna left me there...at least I got to talk with Jenny.” I went to the bathroom and washed off the dried blood and made sure my ears were okay after blowing out steam. “Probably cleaned out my ears actually…” I mutter. “Oh well…” I sigh out, grabbing a washcloth and drying my face off. “Let’s see now...what to do?” I mutter before my stomach growls. “Oh...well I could get a snack at least before going back to just roaming around.” With a snack in mind I grinned, quickly heading to my room and searching for my infinite sweets box. As I opened the closet where I had the box my eyes widened. There on the floor sat Sweetie Bell, holding my infinite sweets box, with a milk jug next to her. “Hi.” She said, mouth full of cookies. “Sweetie...why do you have my infinite sweets box?” I ask honestly. “It's a box of unlimited sweets. That's self explanatory.” Sweetie said, opening it up and pulling out a cupcake. “Fine fine.” I say while sitting down and grabbing a cookie out of the box as well. “Where’s Apple Bloom and Scootaloo?” I ask, munching on my chocolate chip cookie. “Apple Bloom is with her sister helping out today. Scootaloo is out shopping. She rarely shops with her allowance.” “By the by you said Scootaloo had parents right?” I ask curiously. “Who are her parents again?” I ask, if my memory...or well Ben’s memory serves we were either never given confirmation on Scootaloo’s parents or was just straight up told she was an orphan. ”I’ll just go with ‘never given confirmation...that seems too sad for Scoots…” Joy thinks to himself sadly. “Scoot’s parents live in Cloudsdale, they let her live in Ponyville with her aunt. You know the house that's bigger than Diamond Tiara’s?” “Wait really?” I ask, my eyes widening at the sudden realization. “Her family must be rich, sheesh.” “Her family owns the weather factory. Her parents have seat right next to the Princesses on their courts.” “Ha!” I laugh at hearing that. “I wonder what Diamond will think when she realises your dating royalty.” “She actually has been…skipping school lately.” Sweetie said as she drank some milk. “Huh...wonder why.” I say, finding that a tad strange. “Maybe I should go out and see if she’s alright. Just to be nice at least.” I say while grabbing a few more cookies and getting up. “Sorry I couldn’t stay longer Sweetie, but I think I have to help a girl from a bad situation.” I say while leaning over and kissing Sweetie’s cheek. Her face turned cherry red before blood shot out of her nose like a fountain before fainting. I couldn’t help but chuckle at that and closed the box, grabbing a paper towel and helping stem the fountain of blood Sweetie’s nose was giving off. With Sweetie’s nose bleed fixed I put her on the bed. She had the most adorable goofy smile. I pulled a Ben and jumped out the window as I summoned my/Ben’s glider. I flew off to the school house, hoping to find Cheerilee for some kinda answer. I was in luck as I saw the lady walking up to the schoolhouse. “Hey Ms. Cheerilee!” I call out before landing down and hopping off my bike and walking towards the mare. “Oh. Hello there…a friend of the White Knight?” She asked. A hint of confusion in her voice. “I am not his friend actually, I’m his partner, the White Squire. I’m just not wearing my cloak.” Joy shrugs. “But the names Joy, I’m dating with Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo, and I was wondering about why Sweetie told me about Diamond Tiara not coming to class as often.” “Oh… right…” Cheerilee said with a sad tone. “All I know is that her home life isn't the best right now. Her father is angry after losing some client and her mother is just a plain bitch. I can give you her address in a bit if you want?” “Yes please.” I nod, wanting to help Diamond in her rough life. “Is Filthy normally mad? I can see why Diamonds mother is a bitch though...rich people can always be terrible.” “Normally no, he is a rather nice stallion but after the Manehattan incident his stocks dropped to zero. His store does well but majority of his profits came from his Manhattan locations.” Cheerilee said as she opened up the schoolhouse. I followed her in. “Well...that’s not good.” I frown. “I hope I can help him and Diamond from their terrible time.” I sigh out. “How big of a bitch is Spoiled? I could tell she’s a big enough bitch by her name alone...have any bar to set for her?” “From my experience working with her since she's on the Ponyville Education committee she's not the kind of pony you like to run into. She does whatever to get her way most of the time but knows when she's hit a brick wall. Sadly though she was in Manehattan when the…thing appeared.” “She...died?” I ask worriedly. “Yeah...so’s Silver Spoon. Was with her family vacationing, so they said, not many ponies knew Silver had growing issues with her health.” “Where’s Diamond’s house?” I ask sternly, feeling terrible that Diamond not only lost her mother, whether she was a bitch or not, and lost her only friend in the same day. “She doesn’t need to be sad right now...she needs help…” “Well her house is the older estate Downtown, the one with big bits on the gate. But if I were Tiara I’d be at Ponyville cemetery. That's what the foals were saying before classes let out. Technically she should be here for summer school but I’m not pressing the issue much.” “Where’s the cemetery?” I ask, feeling upset that neither me or Ben could have stopped it sooner. “Not hard to miss. Go passed Sweet Apple Acres til the trees are replaced with tombstones.” “Thank you.” I nod. “Anything else I should know before just bolting to find Diamond?” “Just be cautious with her. She's not talking much but I have noticed her new fashion. She always hates long sleeve anything so that's been concerning me the few times I’ve seen her. After Manehattan that is.” My eyes widened before I ran outside. “Thank you!” I call out to the mare before I summoned my glider and flew off to Sweet Apple Acres. “No no no no….please don’t do that Diamond…” I mutter to myself, flying as fast as I could to the cemetery. Seeing the cemetery next to Sweet Apple Acres must have been what it's like to see Light and Darkness next to each other. One side happy and alive and the other sad and empty feeling. It didn't take long for me to spot the filly sitting under a willow tree, dressed in a grey hoodie with blue jeans… She's never worn that before. I landed a few feet away without hurting any of the gravestones and hopped off. “Diamond?” I ask gently, hoping to at least talk to the poor filly. She didn't react. She didn't talk. She didn't even look up from the ground. I walked over carefully to the seemingly motionless girl. “Diamond?” I repeat gently, reaching out and putting a gentle hand on her shoulder. Still nothing. “Diamond!” I shout, my worry over her safety freaking me out a bit and fearful of her safety. I checked her arm and tried to find a pulse, hoping to god she wasn’t dead. There was a pulse, but when I lifted her sleeve back further my blood ran cold. Bloody wrapps covered the length of her arm. I checked the other one and it was the same. “Shit!” I yelp, bringing out my assistant and buying a health potion. “Sorry Diamond.” I mutter before opening it and opening her mouth and forcing her to drink the health potion. She gagged a bit as I forced the potion down her throat. I quickly stopped and pulled it away, worried that I just fucked up big time. “I’m sorry...I’m so sorry…” I mutter worriedly, feeling even worse about this all for doing something so fucking stupid. “Can you now actually talk to me? Even though I was trying to force medicine down your throat?” “Go away.” She said in a voice soft and hollow. “No.” I frown. “Not when I see a filly doing this to herself!” I bark, lifting her arm up and showing the bloody bandages. They unwrapped as I lifted it up, the cuts healed up from the potion left scars that looked like her arm had been sent through a wood chipper. “Jesus christ Diamond why were you doing this to yourself!?” “Took away the pain...a bit. Lost my mom, my only friend. And as of this morning I’m all alone now.” “What?” I ask worriedly. “What happened to Filthy?” “Check dad’s office. He should still be hanging there…” I couldn’t believe my ears when I heard that. “Oh…” I mutter...only to grab Diamond into a hug. “I’m sorry...I’m so so sorry…” I whisper sadly. She sighed. “You know. After mom and Silver died I was told what happened by that Dorlu guy when he was giving the news. Mom was found crushed under what was once a shopping mall… new clothes my size. Silver was found still in the MRI machine, also crushed, she had early bone cancer. Was gonna be a bitch to treat but she had a fair chance since her grandma had it and survived.” Tiara broke the hug, pulling out two urns from behind her. “Silver’s parents died with her, but they had to be ID’d from DNA. Apparently a giant foot can leave only paste behind.” “I’m sorry…” I mutter, feeling like crap here. “But...you don’t need to be alone…” I say, hoping my dumb thought would work. “And turn to who? I’m a bitch like my mom was but at least she did care enough to consider and think about me half the time. Silver was a friend since we were newborns. Not even sure why you're here.” “Because...I care.” I say gently. “I care about you. Sweetie said she was worried because you weren’t at school half the time...then Cheerilee told me everything...I’m sorry...but remember.” I say gently. “I’ll always be here for you alright?” I tell the poor filly. “Thanks I guess…” She said, sighing. “Wonder what happens next for me? Parents dead, best friend dead, no home to go too. Especially not now…” “Well…” I say with a little thought. “What would you think...if you became my girlfriend? I’m the White Knight’s younger brother after all so technically I’m a prince and I can help you out.” She chuckled. “And live as a housewife? Little young aren't we?” “We’re dating, not getting married.” I chuckle. “Listen, I don’t want you to be so depressed...and I don’t want to see you kill yourself…” I explain. “You need someone who will love and care for you in such a dire time...and I’ll be that guy who will love you and care for you.” “Heh. Aren't the CMC there too? They'd kick me out when your back is turned. Wouldn't blame them either with how I treated them before.” “I’m pretty sure this alone will make them think otherwise.” I state, lifting up her arm and showing her blendered arm. “Cheerilee said you hate long sleeves, and I’m pretty sure the CMC would be smart enough to know you wearing long sleeves would be a bad thing. There’s also the fact that telling them your parents and only friend died is also a good way to make those three make sure they never stop hugging you for at least three days.” I explain to her with a little grin. “Do I have a choice?” “There is but...” I trail off. “I think you want to be happy with someone special.” She sighed. “Fine.” She said, getting up. “So…how's this work cause my dad's corpse is still at home and I told no one… oh wait, maybe the maid saw? She might have.” “Well...let’s go to your house...I want to at least see…” I say, my voice trailing off to bitterness at hearing someone’s father kill himself because of some reason. Rather than use the glider I walked along side Diamond Tiara. This would give me opportunity to talk some more. “So...what’s your favorite food?” I ask, trying to make this conversation a little less upsetting. “Black licorice. Even before. I just like the sweet and bitter taste. Not actually a food but still.” “It’s alright.” I nod. “Do you read any comic books? Play games? Anything like that?” “When I was younger. I still play some handheld games every now and then but that's it.” “Honest...why is your tiara so special to you?” I ask, always thinking it was a ‘parents little princess’ kind of thing but finding her antics, looks, and cutie mark just plain weird on all of it. “In my name or cutie mark talent?” “Yes.” I nod. “Sometimes pony names confuse me…” “Well they wanted the word Diamond in my name when they found out my gender. Tiara came a month before my birth when they were shopping for baby clothes and there was one that had a small, baby safe, toy tiara in it. That's where the tiara part comes from and this tiara I wear is the same one. When I turned five mom replaced the fake diamonds with real ones. Thing was silver already so it's worth about seven thousand bits. Expensive hat huh?” “Pretty much.” Joy nods. “As for special talent it's actually in structuring. I look for any flaws in anything. Buildings, work systems, others… I try to make it like a...diamond tiara. Elegant, and perfect.” “Sounds like you if you weren’t so…” I trail off, not wanting to say the word. “Bitchy?” Diamond Tiara finishes. “Yeah.” I sigh out. “Sorry, but you being a bitch kind of ruins your natural talent and beauty…” I say...before realizing the last thing I said. “Damn it…” I grumble to myself, not understanding why I say these things as my face turns beat red. “Heh. Nice of you to say, but to be honest I never actually saw myself as pretty. Overly pink, yes, but never cute or pretty. It's why I let mom pick out my clothes, she had a sense of fashion. Even if it was just more pink.” “Have you ever met Pinkie?” I ask. “Your overly pinki? Let’s talk to the woman that is all pink all the time. You on the other hand are not overly pink...and honestly I would say Rarity has better fashion sense then a ton of people.” I shrug. “So besides all that, do you have any hobbies?” “...it's stupid…” She said, trying to shrug the question off. “I doubt that.” I deadpan. “Come on, tell me.” “You'll think it's weird.” “I’m related to and work for the White Knight who is going to marry ten women so far. Try me.” I frown. “...I...collect and search for haunted things and locations.” She admitted. “Ghosts, demons, angels, things like that.” I stare at her for a moment. “Really?” I ask. “That isn’t weird, and it’s not stupid. Trust me on this, I’ve seen weirder, and I’ve seen creepier.” “Heh. I also record the stuff. Got over a thousand hours of various footage from my trips with Silver. Dad knew and joined in on it. Hehe…one time, in the Zebra lands, dad ran out of a supposedly cursed cave because a bat was giving birth.” “A bat was giving birth and he ran away? Really?” I chuckle, finding that thing all sorts of silly. “He was grossed out. Man…if I ever get back to that it’ll feel weird without dad and Silver there…” “Well...you’ll have me.” I smile. “And I’ll always be there for you. No matter how haunted it is.” I say with confidence, puffing out my chest and trying to act tough even if I was still young. “Heh. That...might be nice.” Diamond Tiara called it. When we arrived at her home police and an ambulance were taking her father's body away while the police were talking with the maid. They told Diamond Tiara what she already knew and I managed to get the cops to let Diamond Tiara come to live with me and Ben rather than take her to get dropped into the system. I called Ben and he and Jenny agreed to help gather Tiara’s things. Since her father's company went under after Manehattan, the banks were gonna repo whatever was left behind to auction off at a public auction. Diamond Tiara’s room was surprisingly normal if not big. She had posters of horror movies, pictures of what were likely haunted places she visited, and photos of family and friends all over her walls. “These are technically all your belongings…” I say to Diamond. “Do you want to keep any of them?” She sighed. “My head says burn them and my heart says hide them. Gonna go with the heart for now.” She says, taking the full toll of how much her life has changed. “Need any help?” I ask, knowing she’s gonna need help with all the crap she has to collect and hide. “My gear for urban exploring/ghost hunting is in the closet. Mind getting those?” She asks as she’s placing a rather expensive looking laptop onto her backpack. I nod while walking over to the closet and opening it, ready to collect all of Diamonds things. Inside the closet besides some unpacked clothes were still hanging. In the corner was a dark blue hikers backpack. I took it out and inside were all kinds of high tech items...and a locked wooden box? “Hey, what’s in the box?” I ask curiously, taking out the wooden box and just checking the outside of it. “Oh. That's just...personal things.” Diamond replied, quickly taking the backpack from me. “That should be all.” “Alright then.” I nod. “Let’s get going...oh also...just to warn you before we get to my place...it’s very big, filled with a lot of people...and weird things normally happen on a daily basis.” I say sheepishly. “Sounds distracting. Just what I need.” Diamond Tiara sighs with the smallest smile. “Let's get goin.” “Right then.” I nod. “Yay.” Jenny said. “Got a surprise for Joy when we get home.” “Oh hey Jenny.” I say to her. “What are you doing here?” “Spoiler!” She shouts in surprise. “Damn been hanging with Pinkie too much…” We arrived home and when we entered the front door Luna was there to greet us. “Joy, Jenny, this a new friend?” She asked. “This is Diamond Tiara...she...needs a lot of help.” I say. “And...is maybe going to be my new girlfriend if she so decides.” I add sheepishly, knowing full well that’s still up for massive debate here. ”Can’t get women as much as Ben can so just going to say ‘maybe’...” I mentally add. “Oh. Perfect!” Luna cheered as she pushed us all to my room. “Jenny thought of this and while you all are rather young but it will be cute.” “Should...I even ask?” I ask worriedly, wondering why she specified ‘while you all are rather young’. “What do you mean by that?” “We’re here.” Luna said. It was my bedroom door. She opened it and I was staring at a living room…of a HOUSE! “Welcome home.” The unison voices of the CMC caught my ears. I turned, seeing them all. Scoot’s was in short shorts and a black tank top. Apple Bloom was in a green shirt with blue jeans and Sweetie was in a white and blue sundress that went a little below her knees. “Uh…” I blink multiple times at seeing this before shaking my head. “Okay...so my room is now a living room of a house…” I take a breath and stare at Luna. “Luna...what in thine lunar ass cheeks happened while I was gone?” “This is a whole house now.” Jenny spoke up. “I was messing with that thing gramps put in the kitchen. I messed with the thing for your bedroom while you were gone and made it into a house. Complete fully furnished, three stories, and somehow has a front AND backyard that goes for the size of Sweet Apple Acres then you hit the wall. Feel like when you reach the maps end in a bethesda game.” I take a deep breath and pinch the bridge of my nose. “Okay then...what brought about this sudden change? Did people not like being so far away in their own rooms or something?” “That and this was cheaper than moving out.” Jenny said with a laugh. “You weren’t going to move out anyways. You enjoy messing with Ben too much I say with a shrug. “Anyways, it looks nice. Glad to know I have my own house in a giant castle. You three like our new house?” Joy asks the CMC. “Yeah. It's snazy.” Apple Bloom said. “It's got so many rooms!” Scoot’s said. “It’just the right size.” Sweetie finished. “Also.” Jenny said as she clapped and one of those Mr. Handy robots from Fallout came out of the, what I’m assuming is, the kitchen. “Joy, Gearbox, Gearbox, the man of the house/room.” “Pleasure to meet you master.” It said in its iconic mechanical british accent. “It’s nice to meet you to Gearbox…” I nod, only being kind to the robot. “So...I hope all my girls have been nice enough to you considering some of their...past exploits.” He says sheepishly, remembering how much property damage the CMC normally rack up. “The girls have been extraordinarily nice sir, as well as impressed with my abilities to cook, clean, and provide the necessary daily activities.” “Thank you.” I nod. “Hey Diamond? What do you think?” I ask, looking around for the filly that came in with me. “Looks...nice.” Diamond Tiara said, when the CMC came it they were a mix of concern and worry. “Well you’ll be living here with us…” I say with a smile. “Do you want to tell them or should I?” I ask Diamond, wondering if she want’s to tell the CMC about her depressed state and her scars. “You can if you want. I’ll… just be ‘outside’.” Diamond Tiara said as she left through a glass sliding door into a pocket dimension yard. “So...she's not good?” Sweetie asked. “Where to start…” I sigh out. “Okay so...the incident in Manehattan...the monster killed both her mother and killed a sick Silver Spoon.” I start. “And because apparently Filthy’s entire company was based there for some unknown reason, his entire company dropped like a rock. So with the thoughts of his wife dying, his daughters only friend and family dying, and the fact that he feared he couldn’t support Diamond anymore...he sort of...decided to hang himself.” I explain bitterly. “I saved Diamond from killing herself...she’ll be wearing long sleeves for a long time...there are too many scars…” I explain, tears brimming at the corners of my eyes. The CMC looked mortified while Jenny kept a calm expression. “W...what was Silver Spoon sick with?” Sweetie asked. Her eyes the size of pin pricks from the information dump. “Silver Spoon had the early stages of a bone condition. She would have been saved considering her grandmother pulled through...she never made it out of the hospital…” I explain sadly, shaking my head and knowing full well I have to be strong here. ”I have to be strong...even if it hurts…” I think to myself, my ears pressed against my head in sadness as I rubbed the tears out of my eyes. The CMC looked like they were gonna have panic attacks before Jenny spoke. “Well?” She asked. “W...well what?” Scoot’s said. “There’s a broken, lost girl out in the backyard alone and confused. Show her you care dummies!” The CMC all shook their heads, their panic replaced with determination. “Jenny’s right. Let's go give Tiara a welcome to the Herd-to-be she’ll love forever!” Apple Bloom said. “Yay!” They all said, rushing ‘outside’ leaving me and Jenny alone. “Thanks Jenny…” I sniffle. “But I better head out and help show Diamond I care as well. “Same. Been in her shoes once and I know a way to convince her this family in a family is for her.” She smiled, grabbing my hand and pulling me to the yard. It was like being outside, sun, clouds, WIND! Wait, did we pass an Olympic pool?! “Dear god you sure went all out when making this.” I say in surprise. “Yup. There's also a baseball field, tennis court, outdoor bowling, mini golf course, and a race track with your choice of cars.” She listed off as we were approaching the CMC, who were all hugging Diamond Tiara who wasn't resisting but clearly felt awkward about it. “And that's just outside.” “Good lord.” I mutter. “Sheesh that’s a lot of things...but Diamond looks so silly…” I mutter with a little chuckle and a grin on my face at seeing the adorable sight. “They came out of nowhere.” Diamond said, still squeezed between the CMC. “Little help?” “They want you to feel happy. And maybe a little ‘welcome to the herd if you want’ a bit.” I say with a smile. “If I say yes will they let go?” She asks, trying to wiggle her way to freedom. “Maybe.” I shrug. “Come on you three, let the diamond girl go. She’s feeling awkward and wants her freedom.” I tell the CMC. They let her go and I caught her as she almost fell. “Air… thank you.” She said as I laughed. “Your welcome.” I smile. “Phase two.” Jenny said before I felt her kick my back. She knocked me and Diamond Tiara over. I fell over her, my arms keeping me from falling on her…but during the fall we landed lip locked. “Mmh!” I muffle yelp into the kiss, my eyes wide as saucers and my face beat red at this sudden turn of events. Diamond Tiara was in shock at first, before she wrapped her arms around my waist and went in for more. ”Why do I always get into these kinds of situations!?” I mentally shout in worry, wondering why I was always in embarrassing situations as I just kept kissing Diamond. ”Cause you're perverted like me~” Ben spoke to me mentally. ”Go to hell Ben!” I mentally shout only for Ben to mentally laugh at my predicament. Two minutes passed before Diamond Tiara broke the kiss. “That was… my first kiss.” She said with a smile, breathless. I panted gently. “I’m...glad you like it.” I say with a smile. “So...you want to be my girlfriend now?” “For now…I hope for more in the future.” She said she kissed my lips quickly before tossing me off of her and getting up. “Well...there will be more in the future.” I say while getting up. “Welcome to the herd Diamond. And welcome to the family where things are always a happy kind of weird.” I say with a smile. “Now for the support of the head wife to be.” Jenny said. She grabbed Diamond Tiara and went in for a KISS. She lip locked the pink filly, who turned bright red but slowly let the kiss happen. I fell backwards, blood spurting from my nose like a miner struck oil. “Why does this keep happening to me?” I whimper, wondering why I always find lewd things like this. Night came and we had dinner with the family, introducing Diamond Tiara as my new Girlfriend. After dinner I showered up and upon opening the door I was glad I got dressed before I got out because Jenny was outside the door. “Sup pup?” She asked. “Hey Jenny.” I nod nervously. “Uh...what are you doing here?” I ask sheepishly. “Wanna give you the tour of the noteworthy rooms I added.” “I have a feeling at least one or two of the rooms involve ‘adults only’ right?” I ask. “But alright, let’s get going on the tour.” I nod, following Jenny for the guided tour. “First up, bedroom.” She said, opening the door and inside was a tall room with the upper half claimed by some kinda indoor balcony where a large bed and several dressers sat. Under the balcony and on the floor was like a second living room with three couches, a LARGE flatscreen T.V., and a Soda Bar in the back. There was also a computer desk, well, desks, with a computer for one each, and a...ball pit? “You like?” She asked. “There is sure a lot...but what’s with the ball pit?” I ask in confusion. “I like the ball pit but...seems weird to add a ball pit here for some reason.” “Why not? Any age a ball pit is just plain fun. Also.” Jenny practically dragged me over to a door on the bottom half of the room next to the Soda Bar. She opened it and it looked like one of those japanese public bath houses…where the CMC and Diamond Tiara were bathing...my nose dripped blood instead of a fountain. “I’m...so confused on why I haven’t died from blood loss…” I mutter, not believing I was seeing the four bathing together. “Uh...okay then...that’s...nice to see.” I nod. “Anything else Jenny?” “AAAHHHH!” The yelled upon seeing me, Jenny quickly closing the door. “Couldn't resist. I’m reformed but hey, still a troublemaker.” She said. “And I wouldn’t change that at all.” I smile warmly. “So...anywhere else we need to look? Cause so far our room is huge and the bathroom is also big...and filled with lewd imagery in the known future…” She chuckled, dragging me by my arm again and took me to the first floor of what would normally be the basement but was instead a hallway with five rooms. Two doors on each side and one in front of us. “To our right, the game room.” She said, opening the first door on the right and inside was another massive room filled with a TV, one for every game station ever made, a lounge looking area where handhelds were laid around like dirty clothes, a library shelf of games that went all around the room from top to bottom, a line of super high end looking computers, and scattered around it all tabletop games and one small area where there were board games. “Was the hardest one actually.” Jenny said. “Showed Luna, had to drag her out with Ben’s help.” “Where have you been all my life?” I ask Jenny, my eyes wide at such a holy ground for gamers. “Wait….” I mutter, realising what I said and my face turned beat red. “Uh...s-sorry. But seriously this is a massive game room...it’s amazing.” I say, looking around at it all. “But I find it a little weird that Ben and Luna haven’t already made a game room. But I suppose Ben would want to have some ‘father daughter game time’ sometimes right?” “Maybe. Next room.” She said, closing the door and opening the first door on the left. In there was a library that is bigger than it should be…this magic stuff is odd. “Figured it be classy.” “Classy indeed.” I nod. “Maybe I’ll be here a few times...me and Ben have been behind in reading.” I shrug. “So, how many books and or mangas are here?” “In total, including books, manga, comics, and audio records…over sixty trillion.” “Hot damn.” I say, honestly shocked by the amount of reading material here. “Yeah. All received copies from the family home. Ya know, Cript.” “Oh yeah.” I nod. “Okay...so Library, Game room, our amazing bedroom...what next?” I ask, already excited about the next room that my tail was wagging. “Next room.” She said, closing the door and opening the second on the left. Inside was...heaven. Candy and sweets everywhere, licorice grass, candy apple trees, chocolate milk river, you name it, this made Willy Wonka look like a sad candy store. “Haven't showed Pinkie or Sweetie yet…and I don't plan on letting Pinkie know about this room.” I could have sworn my jaw was on the ground at the sight. “You...made all this?” “Yeah. Best part all this stuff grows right back after a while.” “Are….are you an angel?” I ask breathlessly, my eyes glittering at what Jenny has made in this single room. “Sixteen for that role play love.” She said, booping my nose. I shake my head at that sudden boop. “I don’t think it needs to be a role play if it’s true.” I chuckle happily. “Anyways, before I start drooling and or stuck in this room forever, let’s go to the next room.” “Alright then. Next room.” She closed the door and then opened the second right one. Inside was…weapons. Weapons and ammo boxes scattered everywhere. Also there was swords and such, a shooting range, and a ring for close combat. “Gotta stay in shape right?” “True...oh dear I don’t want the other girls getting hurt…” I say, starting to think and fuss over all the ways the four fillies could get hurt. “This place is also stocked with potions and such so that's covered for practice injuries.” She added. “Oh thank god.” I sigh out happily. “So...training room, sounds good enough...and it’ll be good to show the others how to defend themselves.” “Yeah. And now the final room for the basement.” She said, closing the door and opened the final door. Inside was my Samurai outfit on a mannequin in a glass display case. The room was painted like the realm of Nothingness. And this case with my outfit was all that was here. “Tada! Your place to hang the cloak, and a trophy room for you to customize.” “Wow…” I mutter, my eyes wide at seeing such a nice place. “This...looks amazing...thanks Jenny.” I smile warmly, glad to see my own trophy room to show how well I’ve been as a hero. “You may be the sidekick, but remember. Ben is a Dusk, you're a Samurai, how many other nobodies can make you two an organization?” “Well actually...if memory serves Dusks aren’t apart of the ‘Organization XIII’ in Kingdom Hearts 2...but we’ll make an exception about it considering he can literally summon every kind of Nobody and considering the whispers I hear in his head every now and then…” I trail off worriedly. “But honestly...we have literally no idea how many Nobodies there are. We’ve only known about the original fourteen Nobodies in that game but we’ve seen wolves, Medics, and those whispers...it makes us think there’s something ancient that we have no idea about…” I shake his head. “But oh well. We have enough problems to be honest.” I say. “But besides me going off on a tangent...we have no idea actually. The game only had thirteen people but an organization could be any amount all things considered.” “Well whatever the case things will only ever get weirder. Come on, let's hit the hay.” Jenny said, closing the door and swaying her tail...which made mine wag like crazy. I gulped and followed Jenny, not believing my tail would betray me here. “Y-yeah...let’s hit the hay…” I woke up in a dog pile…literally. “Huh?” I mutter, wondering why I was in a dog pile. I opened my eyes and I was cuddling Apple Bloom. Sweetie and Scoots behind me, Jenny behind Apple Bloom. Where’s Diamond Tiara? I looking around trying to find Diamond and wondering where she was. “Diamond?” I whisper, wondering where she was. She was nowhere to be seen. Using the utmost of the stealth I could muster I snuck out of bed and went into the lower living-room, only to kneel down and stop at the top of the steps. Diamond Tiara was on the couch down there, staring at the box from that bag. “Need to talk?” I ask, stopping my sneaking and walking over to the teen pony. She jumped. “Joy? W...what are you doing up… It's almost four in the morning.” “I’ve had 282 year’s worth of sleeping Diamond. Waking up now is nothing more than a little nap considering I was also stuck in Ben’s head for eighteen extra years.” I explain, walking over and sitting next to Diamond on the couch. “Come on, we’re all here to help, and talking to me about this box will help out...also I was worried about you when I didn’t find you in our cuddling dog pile.” “N...no…what's in this box is…family business…from my dad’s side.” “You may be my girlfriend but you're apart of this family...please, you can tell me anything.” I say gently. “Want to know something about me that’s personal just so you can talk about your personal stuff?” “...You first then.” “I...wasn’t actually a person technically.” I say honestly. “I was originally Ben’s ‘Joy’, which is actually my name. But when Ben’s parents were murdered and made to look like suicides Ben felt like it was all his fault...so I slowly turned from Joy...to Rejection.” I explain sadly. “I don’t remember how long I’ve been Rejection...it was horrible...and only when Ben finally did his Keyblade Mastery Exam did...I finally became Joy again…” I explain, tears forming in my eyes at that horrible but wonderful memory. “I...thought I wouldn’t be myself again...but...he unknowingly promised me...and he fulfilled it...and it was only when I was brought back did he remember…” I say sadly. “I tried killing the bastard all because he was a sassy bastard that was slowly, and unknowingly, killing himself in a special way…” I shake my head bitterly. “Ben told everyone his side...but I’ve never told anyone my side...it was cold...uncaring...all my friends in his head all feared me because I was nothing more than his rejection of everything...I don’t...I don’t want to feel that way anymore…” I whimper, bringing my knees up on the couch and tried not to cry over it all. “Okay...that's pretty bad…” Diamond Tiara went over and opened the box. Inside was one book, bound in metal with some kinda seals wrapping the majority of it. “My family from my Dad’s side…when we find them, use this book to capture demons. It's why I always went looking for haunted places. Three hundred years of captured demons are in this book.” “Demon hunters eh?” I say honestly. “But...that’s still raises the glaring question...why would Filthy hang himself? I thought it was because he feared he couldn’t help you but that would be weird…” I say. ”Unless it was that bitch that killed our parents.” I mentally growl. “Not entirely. You see…every male in my family has killed themselves when times of high stress and little hope appear. A curse of the first demon we ever captured. In the book it's nicknamed Depression. The curse not only kills the male but...also turns them into a demon after death… “ “Oh...shit.” I frown. “That’s not good…” “You can guess why I brought it out then huh?” “But...we can save him right? There has to be a way? Demons aren’t mindless killing machines.” “Nothing my ancestors tried worked. Once Nothing, there's not enough of the original soul to save. Like trying to replant a tree after it's become toothpicks.” “Then you haven’t seen our extended family. You see, me and Ben originally don’t look like human dire wolf hybrids. We were actually originally human, but because of a family curse we became this because the curse made our new biological mother, Den. I’m sure either she or Cript would know.” I say with a growing feeling of hope at least. “No one should ever lose their parents...me and Ben know that from experience…” “So they can do what? Where are they?” “Hold on…” I say while pulling out my Assistant and checking the people that are available for helping. “Ah, here she is.” I say before tapping on Mama Den’s name and calling her up. ”I hope this would be a little derp on my part…” I think to myself, knowing how Den can be. “Baby!” Mama Den called out from behind me before I was tackled by her and underneath her massive body...and chest. “How's my puppy been?” She asked. “Hi mama.” I say with a massive blush. “Uh...Diamond, this is Den, mama, this is my newest girlfriend, Diamond Tiara...and I’m doing good.” “Newest girlfriend?! When did you first get one?!?!” “Magic Eight Ball...from my Cherubim mama most likely.” I say sheepishly. “Diamonds my fifth girlfriend, but anyways that’s not important at the moment. Diamonds father needs help and I don’t know what to do…” I say sadly before explaining to the giant Dire wolf the situation with Filthy Rich, and somehow managing to say all this while being muffled with big wolf breasts. “My goodness that's sad.” Mama Den said, still not getting off me. “Do you think you can help us save him?” I ask. “Please...sure Diamond has me and the other girls but...I don’t want her to feel like she’s going to have to seal away her father forever without a chance to help…” “Well demons aren't my area of expertise. But I know someone who is.” “Please help.” I say. “That’s all I ask.” “Alright, one moment.” Mama Den finally got off of me before typing on her assistant. After a bit a small patch of ground erupted in fire as a human crawled out of it. “Getting old Adam?” Cript said, appearing out of thin air like he does. “Parenthood is tiring.” The man from the fire, Adam, replied. Once he was out the fire left, no sign it was there. “Uh...who the hell?” I ask with a frown. “Joy, Adam, Adam, Joy.” Cript said. “Adam is Hell’s current king, aka, the devil.” “Huh…” I start. “For some reason I thought ‘Adam’ from ‘Adam and Eve’ for some strange reason...don’t know why.” I shake my head. “Anyways, it’s nice to meet you Adam.” “Sup.” Adam said. “So you call me at ass crack in the night for what exactly?” “Demon issue.” Den spoke up. “These two could use some advice and/or help.” She finished, motioning towards Diamond Tiara and I. “Diamonds family was cursed by a demon some hundred years ago or something, and it just so happens that it involves ‘if high stress and little hope are in your way, hang yourself and turn into a demon cause fuck you’.” I explain. “Is there anyway to help him? Get his soul back or just...plain old anything to bring him back?” Adam pondered. “Huh…well if his soul has turned into a demon then there’s nothing I can do there. I can break the curse but anything involving souls it's safest to use Cript’s Reset ability. Any other way would be dangerous for both parties.” “I just want Diamond to be happy and have her father back…” I sigh out. “And frankly I don’t care about the danger, Core already want’s me and Ben dead eight ways to sunday so...there’s that.” I shrug. “So, is there any way to save her father that doesn’t involve him becoming an infant? Anything at all, any idea’s cause I don’t care about the danger...besides dying...dying would be bad.” “What about a memory transfer?” Cript offered. “That might work, but getting him still is the bitch. I’m the king of hell, but not every demon bows to me.” Adam replied. “Can you at least tell me where he is though?” I ask. “Also, do I need to beat the crap out of the demon Filthy Rich just to make the memory transfer easier or no?” “I can summon him but I recommend something...new, I’ve been working on.” Cript suggested, pulling out a small red gem, tossing it to me. “Once you got his memories use that and it will make a body for him, how he sees himself anyway.” I grabbed the red gem. “Alright then...this is gonna be a thing. Never fought a demon before...wonder how well or bad this will go…” “Best we not do it here for starters.” Cript said as he pointed up to the indoor balcony. Right… The CMC and Jenny...how are they still asleep? “Yeah, let’s take this outside…” I nod, not wanting to hurt the four girls that are still somehow asleep. “No need to do something stupid…” I mutter before walking towards the door and opening it and walking out into my new ‘outside’ for my massive as hell room. After walking to a more or less clear spot in my yard I summoned Lindworm and readied myself for what’s to come next. Cript threw a small ball of fire at the ground, it burst in a fiery wind as a skeleton emerged, it's bones bound by chains, eyes like snakes and teeth like needles. “Wow…that's kinda cool.” Cript said. “The fuck is this?” I ask with worry. “Filthy Rich.” Adam said. “The demon he turned into.” “I know there’s hundreds of demons but...this doesn’t look like a demon I’ve ever seen and or heard of.” I say worriedly. “So...what now? I’m still new to all of this.” “Now, duck.” Cript said as the demon Rich howled before charging at me. Teeth bearing and it's mouth open like a snakes. “Shit!” I yip and duck away from the monster, my lances creating a wall of wind around me to help protect me as well. The demon hit the ground but jumped back up, it reached my wind wall and started throwing its body against it. The force was pushing me and the shield back, making marks in the dirt. I grab one of my lances and swung it at the charging demon to get it off me. I hit it's jaw, which broke off but it seemed unaffected as it kept at it. “How long do I have to fight this thing?” I ask, pushing the demon away in a sudden gust of wind as I charged for a Jump attack. “Just long enough to let me gather the memories, well, copy them anyway.” Adam said, holding a small glowing orb. “Should take… three more minutes.” “Cripe…” I mutter. “Jump!” I shout, leaping high into the air and floating up there for a moment, pointing all my lances down and launching myself at the demon, making sure I wasn’t using enough strength to completely damage or kill the thing. The lances largely missed the thing, one hitting though it’s ribs. That broke the chains though… Once the chains fell it’s bones changed, reshaping, breaking and reforming until it was wolf...no, big cat like. It snarled up at me. “Uh...that’s not good…” I mutter, readying my lances again and using them to summon up a whirlwind shield around me. It jumped up at me, and when it made contact with the shield it somehow was STANDING on it, and started to scratch at it, snarling the whole time. “How in the wide hells?” I mutter, starting to channel Nothingness in my right hand. “Anytime now!” “One more minute.” Adam replied. The thing sliced through my shield, pouncing on me and then sending me crashing into the ground. “Twilight Fist!” I shout, forcing my fist into the thing and sending the debuff Ben figured out into the demon hopefully. “And… now.” Adam said, the orb turning a light blue. “Okay, kill it.” “Winds of Despair!” I shout, my lances glowing green as I started shredding into the Demon with my lances, before the six lances turned into a dragon head and opened up and sent a giant whirlwind of cutting wind that enveloped the blind demon. After the dust cleared, the demon was standing, but heavily damaged. It gave a faint growl, then it’s body began to break apart, the bones turning to ash in the wind. When the bones were gone, all that was left behind was a gold ring that Diamond Tiara ran over and picked up instantly. “This was his… a family heirloom…” She muttered. “Should...I have actually killed it or no?” I ask worriedly, feeling like I just screwed up somehow. “Well let’s see what happens.” Crips said, walking over to me with the orb from Adam. “The stone?” I handed the stone over to Cript. “I hope I didn’t screw something up…” “Well, be warned, this rock will make a body based on what Rich saw himself as so… just a warning.” With that said Cript put the orb in the stone, it glowed and began floating. We backed up a bit and after a while the light grew out, gaining form as the gem began to dissolve. What appeared was Filthy Rich, but…younger…MUCH younger, like my age physically. “Well… kid at heart?” “Dad always acted like a kid around me.” Diamond said, walking up to her young father. “Dad?” He looked up. “Diamond. I, wha… wait.” He looked himself over quickly. “How am I… I’m ten?” “Because you were resurrected in a body made by your own thoughts. I’m Joy, Diamonds new boyfriend by the by.” I mention, just wanting to bring that up. He stared at me for a moment before I blinked and I was on the ground with him choking me. “Who said you can date my princess!” “Dad!” DIamond screeched, trying to take her father off of me. I swiftly got the young Filthy off of me suddenly. “I DID AFTER YOU ABANDONED HER YOU PRICK!” I bark at him in anger. “I… what are you talking about?!” Cript gave a cough, then whispered something into my ear. “That curse was strong, he has no memory from when it kicked in, so...last thing he remembers was before hearing about Manehattan.” “Oh…” I mutter. “Oh.” I nod...before my eyes widen. “Oh god damn it!” I shout, flinging my arms in the air. “Is he still cursed?” I whisper to Cript worriedly. “No, broke that on Tiara, and since he’s still technically dead, he’s no longer affected.” “Okay then…” I nod. “Congratulations Diamond, Filthy, you are no longer cursed. So I can tell you all the bad shit that happened that you suddenly forgot.” I say. “Unless you don’t want to hear a bunch of bad and depressing things right now Filthy.” “I just want some answers honestly.” He replied. “Manehattan’s destroyed, your wife, Silver Spoon and her parents are dead, your company tanked harder than the Titanic, and you killed yourself because of your family curse.” I list off. “...Oh stars damn it!” Rich yelled. “Company I can care less about but fuck I broke the chain. I would have been the fourth male in the family to break the curse by not being depressed… so… Spoiled is dead?” He asked, his tone turn somber. “Flat as a pancake in a mall getting stuff for Diamond and or herself.” I say. “But do you want to know everything after you hung yourself in your own home office?” “...I own ten guns and I hung myself? The hell?” Was his reply. “No idea.” I shrug. “But hey, just be glad Diamond here didn’t see your blood and brains staining the room at least.” I frown. “Fair point. “Rich said, turning to face Tiara. “I’m so sorry sweet heart.” “You’re back dad, that’s all that matters.” She said, hugging him. “Want me to continue or...you just happy?” I ask curiously. “That’s enough for now.” Both Tiara and Rich said. “Alright.” I nod before turning to Cript and Adam. “Thanks you two. It...means a lot.” I smile to Adam and Cript, glad to have had their help in making Diamond happy. “Well normally I’d snap my fingers and fix this issue but this was more fun and I wanted to try something different.” Cript said before he and Adam vanished. “Well...good enough for me.” I nod. “Hey, want to go inside you two?” I ask Filthy and Diamond. “Yeah, we should get to bed.” Dimond said. “I’ll show dad to the guest room.” SHe said as she and Rich walked off and I went back inside and plopped on the bed. I woke up to sunlight hitting my eyes. I was somehow cuddling Diamond Tiara. As I looked up I saw her father looking at me...shotgun in hand. “Mind explaining?” He asked, cocking it. Breakfast was...awkward to say the least. I sat across from Rich, who was showing his black eye Diamond gave him with a monotone expression. “I am still your father Tiara.” He said. “You pointed a shotgun at Joy in our bed.” She replied. “You’re eleven.” “You were six when you and mom first kissed.” “And you killed yourself when Diamond officially joined my herd.” I state to Filthy. “Just going to bring that little point up for you to stop being pissy at our choice.” “I didn’t even spend a night with your mother till we were dating Tiara, at age seventeen.” “Mom said you two had sex at age fourteen.” Diamond Tiara retorted. Rich dropped his fork. “Damn that woman…” He said, his face red. “And here I am waiting until my girls are sixteen to have sex.” I frown. “So what’s your excuse now?” “...Spoiled was an early bloomer…” He said, head down in defeat. “And so is Sweetie Belle but you don’t see me hounding her every five seconds.” I state. “Wait till she get’s her first heat.” He said simply. “With your dog body that will be too good a sniff to not indulge.” “That is what leads to most undarage sex.” Diamond added. “What age is it legally?” I ask curiously. “Cheerilee said sixteen legally, but in Ponyville the age is fifteen.” Rich said. “Some old thing from back when the town was founded that never got changed in the modern age.” “Right then.” I nod. “So technically I am of legal age because my actual age is three hundred.” I state. “But that’s not important right now. How long are you going to pull this ‘you're not allowed to date my princess’ schtick here Filthy?” “She’s my daughter, if you had a daughter would you not do the same?” He replied as I started to think about it. “Would I immediately do it like a jackass? No.” I state. “I judge people by who they actually are. Not by looks, not by ‘my daughters weird goth phase’ for some dumb ass reason, I actually ask the person, whether male or female, if they actually love and care for my daughter.” I state. “Not just immediately pull out a shotgun and make a good person, that could have been a nice pick for your daughter, run for their lives and ruin your daughter's happiness.” I explain. “There’s a saying out there, ‘don’t judge a book by it’s cover’. Do you understand?” I ask, staring Filthy straight in the eye. “Yes, but words are easier to say than actions.” He replied, taking a sip of his coffee. “You won’t understand my perspective till you spend your best years caring for something so innocent, you will overreact like me when that innocence begins to fade for maturity. Spoiled’s father broke my legs and yet I still went after her. It’s a tradition as old as time.” “Makes sense.” I nod. “Question, why did Cheerilee tell me your wife was a straight up bitch? I mean sure the nickname ‘Spoiled Bitch’ comes to mind but I have no idea why she would tell me that.” I explain, not entirely sure why. Rich sighed. “Spoiled was born into money, a lot of money. Her family owned the Equestrian National Banks. Sadly Spoiled was the only Earth pony in the family, a family of Canterlot unicorn nobles, so can you guess what that made her?” “Sooner or later Ben’s gonna have to go up there and revoke some nobility.” I groan. “Seriously, from what Ben has told me is that they are nothing more then stuck up bastards that do nothing nine times out of ten.” “She was the daughter of a maid the youngest son had a fling with. Mother died in the birth but he cared for her, even when the family disowned him he managed to keep a quarter of the company shares and built an import-export business. Spoiled was raised by him, servants, and the few family members who cared enough to do business. She thought if she acted like her family she’d be accepted as one of them. It was or not though, they were racist bigots so she grew rather hard, only nice around me and Tiara.” I raised an eyebrow. “Well isn’t that just ironic.” I chuckle. “Want to hear a little story about myself?” I ask. “That girl Jenny told me some things...she’s interesting.” Rich said. “Wow I just remembered…” “What?” I ask. “Now that my company has fallen my brother is likely going to buy out everything I own from the auction house.” “Uncle Gold?” Diamond asked. “Yes Gold Trot dear.” “Who?” I ask. “Also...I had the sudden fear of something that’s probably non-existent here…” “Well as I said, Gold Trot is my brother, younger brother, he ran away from home when he was sixteen, ended up the husband and co-boss of the Baltimare Mafia. They aren’t bad, in fact the crown funds them to deal with other underground organizations and keep the peace in the streets when the police or crown can’t. After Manehattan I can only imagine they’re working overtime.” “Oh, that’s interesting.” I nod. “Glad to hear your brother is doing good for himself...I wonder how he’ll react to not being the ‘little brother’ anymore.” I chuckle. “Oh ha, ha. Gold probably might try and take in Tiara after hearing about my ‘death’...question, how would you deal with an eccentric borderline radicalist?” “That depends on how eccentric and radicalist he is. But Gold is not taking Tiara away because she is my girlfriend and under the protection of the crown technically because I’m a prince.” I explain. “And he once bitch slapped Celestia for taking his donut away at a meeting. Trust me, Gold gives ZERO fucks about who you are, he’ll judge you when he meets you.” I frown. “It depends on how much of a dick he is then. Cause if he’s a dick then he’s not going to be happy about his life choices.” “You’re talking about a stallion who once took out a whole prison of criminals, with only a single shot shotgun, five shot revolver, and a dictionary.” “Hmm…” I take a moment. “Meh, I’m not here to counter his achievements with my own. Oh well, let’s hope we don’t come to blows.” I shrug. “No need for fights when there doesn’t need to be any.” I say while sipping my orange juice. “So, how long until the auction?” “Soon I’d imagine.” “Well cripe...where does it take place?” I ask, hoping to find it soon. “In cases like this, mine, whatever, the items in the house are catalogued and then the list and pictures of the items are shown at town hall for the auction, once that’s done everything is mailed to the buyers.” “Right then.” I nod. “Glad to know I’m going to go to town hall...ya know I have a feeling none of us ever went to town hall...weird.” I frown, just noticing that in all the places of Ponyville me and Ben haven’t gone to town hall. Diamond, Jenny, Rich and I left to see about town hall. Ben didn’t come since he was on a date night with Bridget. We went to town hall and the main lobby was like the show on the first episode with rooms connecting to other areas. The lobby was our main place though as people were sitting in fold out chairs while pictures of items from Rich’s and Diamond’s home were on on display. “And sold to the gentle stallion in the back, one Alicornien era painting.” Mayor Mare said, standing on a podium. “Well...glad to see things are already selling out well.” I mutter. “So...look for Gold or what?” “The one who bought the painting.” Rich said, pointing at the stallion in the back. His coat was the same as Rich’s and his mane was gold yellow. I noticed there was a peach colored filly next to him with a blond mane and dark black sunglasses. “Go over there and ask him to come over here or just let him buy as much as he can?” I ask curiously, not entirely sure what to do during an auction since it was the first time either me or Ben have been to one. “Might as well.” Rich said, leading us over to Gold. “Goldfish.” Rich said as we stood next to his brother. The stallion turned around, looking down at Rich before his eyes went wide. “...Rich Bitch?” “Glad you remember.” “...How in the five fucks?” “Let’s talk somewhere private.” “Rich bitch?” I whisper to Diamond worriedly. “Dad and uncle Gold had dumb nicknames for eachother as foals. Dad’s was Rich Bitch and Gold’s was Goldfish.” She explained. “Weird…” I mutter. “Well let’s hope this all doesn’t go to hell.” We walked outside the building, that sunglasses wearing filly following us. “So… how did this happen?” “Long story.” I sigh out. “Names Joy, or ‘White Squire’ as the public would start knowing me given my cloak.” I explained everything to Gold, he took it surprisingly calmly. “Alright then.” He said, sighing. “So, all I got from that is you are dating/taking care of Diamond Tiara and I’m now the older brother.” “Basically.” I nod. “So...any problems?” “No, but I do have a favor.” He said, shoving the filly with the sunglasses in front of me. “This is my daughter Lovely Days. Diamond’s cousin. Please look after her as I am not trusting my house staff at the moment and if anything happens then meh, more to the family.” “Dad!” The filly, Lovely, finally spoke. “I make no promises on not trying to date the Lovely girl that’s in front of me.” I say and motioning to Lovely Days, making a poor attempt at both a pun and a pick up line. “But what I do promise is her safety. That’s something I never make shitty puns about.” “Well either way, look after her and I will be taking my brother with me.” “Wait, what, why?” Rich asked. “As you know Lovely has been kept hidden as my child since her birth for safety reason. Just recently word fell into other, not so friendly hands, that I have a child, but their name, gender, and such are not known to them. I trust Rich to be able to help himself while Lovely is safe with the wolf boy.” “Lovely will be safe with me.” I nod. “But my name’s Joy, not ‘wolf boy’ just so you know.” “Whatever wolf boy.” Gold said. “Rich, you ready?” Rich sighed. “Fine...Diamond, I’ll visit when I can. You all just...go home I guess?” “Sure dad.” Diamond said as she, Jenny, Lovely and I walked out of town hall. “So Lovely...how have you been today?” I ask, hoping to at least start a conversation. “So so. Wow…” She said, staring at Jenny, Diamond and I. “What?” I ask, remembering what my eight ball said and told me that she could see love but wanting to play dumb just for it. “You three… really are meant for eachother.” “How can you tell?” I ask “...Might as well.” She said, taking off her sunglasses, revealing her eyes that looked like pink hearts. “Magic disorder, it affected my eyes and I can see the colors of love between pomies. Same colors or similar enough means they can be really happy together. For you three it’s the exact same color.” “I’m pretty sure a certain princess of love would want to have a word with you if she figures this out.” I chuckle. “But hey...can you tell if you're connected to anyone if you look into a mirror or a reflective surface?” I ask curiously, just wondering if that’s a thing. “Nope, can’t see my love’s color, never could for some reason.” “Hmm…” I hum to myself. “Strange...mind if I ask what color you see from the three of us?” I ask curiously, trying not to lose track of things from those magically beautiful eyes. “Like a silver with a pink tint.” Lovely said. “Okay then.” I nod. “Thank you for telling me that.” I say, still thinking about how and or why she couldn’t notice her own love. “Hey, what’s this?” She asked, grabbing the arm with my Assistant. “Something very special in many ways.” I tell her. “It’s called an Assistant. Jenny? Do you have anything to say about this thing?” I ask, knowing she’ll be better at explaining things. “You can buy cool stuff from it.” Jenny added, pulling out a syringe from her pocket filled with a pink neon glowing liquid. “This was just called Neon and I have no idea what it does.” I decided that seeing the syringe and hearing Jenny not knowing what something does to swiftly, and perfectly fine, hide behind Lovely Days. “Nuu...” I mutter, using my possible future wife as a shield to make sure I stay away from the needle. “A-anyways...Lovely, want to see your new home?” “Kinda wanna see what the Neon glowy stuff does.” She replied. “One way to find out.” Jenny said, taking the cap off the needle and sticking it in Lovely’s arm. “Ow! Hey!” Lovely replied, Jenny already taking out the empty syringe. “Wow, I feel…” Lovely said before her eyes glowed with a neon hot pink as her arms began to get covered in lines of the same neon hot pink. “Lovely are you okay?” I ask immediately, my ears flat against my head and just me feeling a whole tons of worry for Lovely. “I feel so...good.” She replied, her arms flowing the neon towards her hands as she twirled her fingers, making the neon lines spiral around in a rather bright and colorful manor. “Mind looking that Neon stuff up Joy?” Lovely asked, still looking at her self generated light show. “Uh...sure…” I nod, pulling up my Assistant and searching it up, glaring at Jenny for a moment for possibly hurting Lovely as I looked down and saw it. Neon. A fully active and flexible Conduit gene that gives the injector the power over Neon Light Energy. Abilities are all listed, effects permanent. “Well as far as I see the effects are permanent and you now have the power to produce Neon Light Energy...Lovely.” I groan, not believing I just made another pun off of her name. “Uh...no pun intended…” I mutter while looking over the other possible abilities besides ‘produce light’ this thing gave her. “Cool.” Lovely said, the lights fading and her eyes returning to normal. “That's gonna be fun to mess with.” “It can be.” I shrug. “But...hmm…” I hum again, my mind wandering to ‘if she’ll literally glow beat red if something embarrassing happened to her’. “So...head home?” Jenny asked. “Yeah, Lovely has a lot to see and a lot more people to meet.” I nod. “Let’s hope the others won’t do something silly.” I sigh out, moving around so I wouldn’t be behind Lovely anymore. “So, ever lived in a castle before Lovely?” “On a trip to the sheepland isles once. Was old and creepy. So which way if your home?” “This way.” I say while leading the way. “Who want’s to fly home?” I ask the three girls honestly before we just start walking. “Race!” Lovely said, but as soon as she ran she was a mile away in a second, covered in Neon light, leaving a hot pink neon trail in the air and an after image of her in every footstep. “Jesus hell…” I mutter, summoning my glider. “Alright, who want’s to hop on and follow after the hyper girl?” We followed the trail she left and found her waiting outside the castle front door. “This Neon stuff is REALLY going to be fun.” Lovely said, twitching with excitement. “Slow down you silly girl jeez.” I chuckle. “But anyways, this is the castle we all live in. There’s a lot of things to look at, experience, and explain.” I say while walking over and opening the door and leading Lovely through the house. Introducing her to Ben and his wives went well, but the nieces and nephews was...time consuming. Once that was all done with we went into my room/house and when we finally found the CMC they were on the couch in the bedroom, Applebloom and Scootaloo patting a beat red Sweetie on the back. “Uh...what did we miss?” I ask. Before anyone answered Scoot’s ran up to me and put a clothes line pin over my nose. “Sweetie just went into her first heat.” “Oh for the love of god…” I groan. “Anyways! This is Lovely Days, she’s going to be living with us...so she might accidentally be apart of the herd I don’t know that’s up to her.” I explain while showing them Lovely Days, summoning Frozen Pride just incase Sweetie tries to tackle me. “Hey.” Lovely said. “Sorry about suddenly bringing you here while Sweetie Belle is in her first heat…” I say sheepishly. “Just uh...don’t be surprised if Sweetie tries to chase me…” “Meh.” Lovely replied. “Right then, so let me show you around the entirety of our house and everything that is in my room.” I say while showing Lovely around. She saw the candy room and started munching on the “grass” which was liquorish. And she, alone, devoured a whole candy apple tree...where did she put it all? “Uh...Lovely? You do know you just ate an entire candy apple tree...like...the entire thing...how?” I ask, wondering how in the world she did that feat of magic. “No idea.” She replied, licking the caramel from her fingers. “Maybe this Neon thing changed me more than just giving me pretty light powers.” I checked my Assistant for all the ‘powers’ and ‘side effects’ the Neon thing gave her. “Well let’s hope it’s nothing too bad…” I mutter. Neon abilities. Neon Drain Neon Beam Rapid fire Phosphor Beam Light Speed Photon Jump Endless Speed Laser Insight Laser Focus Speed Laser Stasis Bubble Extended bubble Enhanced stasis Deadly stasis Radiant sweep Listed above are standard Neon Conduit powers, each individual can create their own unique powers, new injectors of the Conduite gene syringes will experiences rapid metabolism increases and hunger for ten to thirteen hours after injection. “I figured out your problem Lovely...Jenny literally injected a different species genetics into you.” I frown. “And that race would be a ‘Neon Conduit’ apparently...so you're going to have to stuff yourself for possibly ten to thirteen hours...great...and here I was hoping for my day to get back to some normalcy.” I grumble. “Instead of trying to talk and hope to see if Lovely will actually like me I have to see her stuff herself for hours on end…” I mumble to myself. “Hey Joy.” Applebloom said as she entered the room. “So Lovely still eaten?” “For the next ten to thirteen hours yeah.” I nod. “How’s Sweetie doing?” I ask, hoping she’s alright and not hurt because of her heat. “Sore, but that’s about it for the moment. Rarity said she's early, like she did, so she wasn't too surprised ta hear.” “Well that’s just splendid.” I sigh out. “No cuddling from me until it goes away...in however many days it lasts…” I sigh out. “How long does a mare’s heat normally last?” “A week or two, but they only spring up two or three times a season.” “Right then.” I nod. “But is it best if I keep my distance from Sweetie?” I ask Apple Bloom, not entirely liking how I need to literally leave someone I care about. “Well Rarity said Sweetie has two options in this situation since the obvious third one is out til age sixteen.” “And those two options would be?” I ask, hoping there’s at least something to do for me to help her. “A spell that reduces the...effects, of heat so she's so so normal or a lot of masterbation.” “Was the ‘a lot of masterbation’ the second option or no?” I ask. “Yeah.” “Right then.” I nod. “But it’s up to Sweetie, I can’t force her into a decision.” “Especially about her body.” Applebloom chuckled, quickly hugging me. I hugged Applebloom back with a smile. “Thanks AB...I’ll try to talk to Rarity and Sweetie about it all...hopefully Sweetie just doesn’t tackle me to the ground though.” I chuckle nervously. “Let's hope.” She said before kissing me…deep throating me with her tongue before parting and leaning in close to my ear. “I called dibs on ya first~” She playfully whispered as she let go of the hug and skipped happily away. “W-woof…” I mutter, my face beat red and my tail wagging back and forth. “I love my girls…” I mutter with a smile. “H-hey Lovely! You still here?” I call out, shaking my head. “Saw the whole thing.” She replied, munching on a candy cane. “That was sexy.” “You can...join the herd if you want…” I say nervously. “But only if you want to.” I add quickly. “Meh, might as well.” She said, tossing the candy and walking up to me. She grabbed one of my ears but started scratching at the base…my tail and twitching leg ratted in my pure bliss state out. “Who’s a good boy?” “N-not this c-crap a-a-again~...” I pant, not believing how good this felt. “But...I am…” I moan in pure bliss. “Good pup.” She said, kissing my cheek before walking off. When she stopped scratching I fell over, but didn't care as I was in the afterglow of her scratching. “Life is grand.” I sigh out happily, my tail wagging lazily from that wonderful time. The rest of the day was rather…Joyfull… Ugh, can I stop with the puns today? “Okay...so I made two girlfriends...helped one of them get their father back...had an otherwise weird and embarrassing few days…” I sigh out. “I shouldn’t be surprised about the weird and embarrassing part…” I grumble. “Oh...wait...Lovely might have told Jenny about…” I trail off as my eyes widen and my face turns beat red. “Oh no…” I mutter, before shaking my head. “Well...I suppose video games wouldn’t hurt get my mind off of things.” I say to myself while heading off to the game room in hopes of just getting my mind off of somethings. There wasn’t anybody in here so I decided to skim through the selection on the shelves. Huh, Fallout 4 game of the year edition? About time they made this game. Thirty six hours later “GAH!!!!” I screamed. Damn Deathclaws got an upgrade in both toughness and fear. Where the fuck did this one even come from?!? “Joy?” My red eyes looked behind me, seeing Scootaloo at the door. “You alright?” “No, a Deathclaw appeared out of nowhere and killed me.” I huff. I rubbed my eyes a little bit just to help them refocus. “How are you doing?” “Well rested unlike you. You’ve been playing that game for over a day already.” “Wait what?” I frown. “No I didn’t...I was only playing for five hours or something…” I say nervously. It was at that moment the lack of a day and a half’s worth of food hit me as I curled up on myself. “Oh god…” I groan, holding my growling and in pain stomach. “Halp…” I whimper, my eyes also starting to burn at my own realization of how long it’s been. Scoot’s laughed before walking over and grabbing a sandwich out of the mini fridge...how did I forget about that? “Here.” She said as I took it and scarfed it down. “Damn, you’ll give yourself indigestion eating that fast.” “I didn’t eat for a day and a half.” I say. “But how is everyone else?” I ask, hoping there fine and haven’t been looking for me. “Lovely has already come off her hunger thing and is also coming off her sugar high as well as you’d expect. Applebloom’s been baking some recipies her sister and Pinkie lent her, Sweetie’s better though no idea which route in her options she chose, and Jenny is teaching Diamond Tiara about firearms in the armory next door.” “Right then…” I nod. “I’m gonna need more food though...and maybe hug you all in apology for staying away from you all for a day and a half…” I sigh out, getting up shakily. “Okay...I...need some help.” I say, my legs numb as hell. “Legs...asleep...help…” She chuckled again before wrapping one of my arms over her neck to help me stay up. “This good?” “Yes.” I nod, kissing Scootaloo’s cheek gently. “Thank you.” “Yeah yeah I’m great.” She laughed. “You know, out of all the things I expected to do with my friends, being in a herd was not on that list.” “Really?” I ask. “Though that does sound about right but...all three of you are practically inseparable.” I point out. “What was on your list of things you expected?” “Get cutie mark…finally fly, and just stay friends.” Why did she pause after the cutie mark part? “Why did you pause?” I ask. “Huh?” “When you said ‘get cutie mark’ you paused then said ‘finally fly’. Is something wrong?” “Well those two are kinda connected…” Scoot’s looked around, then opened a random door as she walked me in. It was the library. “So… I can’t fly despite most pegasus foals my age flying like pros, heck, even Dinky got new wings and can fly with them well, same with Jenny, but I can’t fly cause…I have brittle bone.” “Brittle bones?” I ask. “It’s a disease in which my bones aren’t as strong as they should me, a bad fall and I break a leg or arm with ease…the bones in my wings included. I get lift off and they break under my own body weight.” “That’s...terrible.” I say sadly. “You always looked strong and felt just the same...I didn’t…” I mutter, holding her close. “I’m used to it, fact is I broke several bones hanging out with the girls already, but I’m so used to it I can muscle through the pain. And here’s the part involving my cutie mark.” “What does your cutie mark have to do with your brittle bones?” I ask, feeling upset that I couldn’t help my girlfriend. “As far as the girls know I don’t have one, but…” She pulled down the side of her pants, showing her hip. I blushed a bit, but my eyes widened when she smeared some kinda make up off her hip, showing her cutie mark was an X-ray of a pair of wings. “W-w-what?” I stutter. “Had it before I even met them, painted over it cause I thought, hey, new school, maybe some pity friends would be nice. Never expected to make friends for life honestly.” “But…” I mutter. “Your amazing Scootaloo, it would be weird if people didn’t want to be your friend. And...it would be wrong if I didn’t love you…” I say gently. “When did you get your mark? And what does it even mean?” “I was three and broke my arm falling off the bed, doing that on a CLOUD floor means something. I wanted to know why I was always breaking, so I picked up books on anatomy and forced myself to understand all the big words. Two years later the doctor showed me an X-ray of my latest break in my arm and I started naming off all the individual bones. When I finished it appeared. Doc said I didn’t get any wrong or miss one.” “So...your special talent is being a bone doctor or something?” I ask curiously. “Anthropology, anything to do with bones, and their injuries I can get with ease. For example, from how Ben walks I could tell he broke his leg at a young age, but it didn’t heal right, causing an arch in his walk that will never go away.” “Even if he breaks it willingly and is set right?” I ask, not believing Scoots just said a secret Ben was hiding for a long ass time. “You can’t ‘set it right’, the bones have healed in ordinance with the original resetting. They’re slightly curved and even so walking the way he does now, even if that was somehow possible it would be habbit of him to still walk like he does now.” “Wow.” I say, honestly impressed by her knowledge. “That’s impressive.” I say honestly. “But...I’m pretty sure no one will judge you on having a cutie mark...I mean Jenny probably already knows given that she’s Jenny.” I roll my eyes at that. “Meh, you can tell from her walk she’s broken both legs twice. Best guess is from some kinda head on collision, judging from her reactions I’ve seen her when we played laser tag she double checked everything around her feet so the second breaks happened likely right after the other.” “Jesus.” I mutter. “Anything about me or the other CMC?” “Sweetie’s normal, nothing wrong there, Apple Bloom, from her walk, has broken her right leg and a rib, leg when she was really young, and rib I was there for that one…you though I notice have issues raising your left hand, you write with it yet you fight with your Keyblade right handed, unlike Ben who fights and writes with his right hand. Something happen with your shoulder?” “I honestly don’t know.” I say while rolling my left shoulder. “It was probably something so long ago that I don’t even remember.” I say, a crick heard from it and I winced. “Okay...that’s either because my shoulders are just not relaxed or...something else.” “Let’s see.” Scoot’s said, feeling my left shoulder. “Huh… did you do a lot of heavy lifting with this arm at a young age? Like how you’d have a strap bag on it loaded with stuff?” “I’d need to look at my history three hundred years ago…” I frown. “That’s the problem...” She squeezed it a bit and felt along my shoulder, still squeezing. “This is unaligned, likely from either heavy lifting of a hard tug at the arm at a young age. Now this is gonna hurt.” She acted quickly, grabbing my arm and yanking it with her full body weight. I yelped, not able to move my arm but then she quickly applied fast pressure and I yelped again from the spike in pain. It lasted only a few seconds though and lifted my left arm...all the way over my head. I couldn’t do that before! “There.” “Wow…” I mutter, moving my left arm around and feeling it was perfectly fine. “That’s...Scoots this is amazing!” I say with a warm smile. “Thanks. Felt kinda good working with a skeleton again. Used to have toy ones and use scissors or rocks to make them look injured and think about how they got them if they were real people. Demented, yes, but bones are what I do best.” “Yes they are.” I nod. “Um...do you want to tell the others or should I?” I ask, wondering if she wanted them to know about her cutie mark. “Maybe...but not now. I’ll tell them when I feel I can, till then, not a word, alright?” “Alright.” I nod. “Thank you Scoots...it means a lot.” I smile. “But what do you want to do today besides fixing my shoulder?” “Was gonna just watch tv, you?” “I was gonna do whatever my lovely girlfriends were doing.” I shrug. “I don’t have much to do unless I’m told something special.” I say honestly. “So you’re a follower?” She said, poking me in the chest. “Only when I want to spend time with my lovely girls.” I smile. “Especially a smart and tough one like you.” I smile, nuzzling the brittle pegasus lovingly. “Hehe, well then maybe you can follow me to the couch so I can see how different a wolf skeleton is from a pony~” Scoot’s said, a sway in her tail as she left the library. I blush brightly at seeing the sway. “Gods…” I mutter. “These girls are needy…” I mutter to myself while following along quickly, my stomach growling again. “Well...the kitchen’s on the way…” I mutter, hoping to at least get some more food before things like that happens. I entered the kitchen and saw many pies, a few cakes, and…Braig? “Po!” He declared, pointing at me. “What are you doing here Braig?” I ask curiously, walking over to the kid. “And...did you make all these?” “That was me.” Applebloom said, coming up from behind me and giving me a kiss on the cheek. “Pinkie and my sis gave me some recipes to try out. Pinkie also has me looking after Braig here for practice she said.” “Honestly I thought Braig was making this all cause he’s Pinkie’s son.” I chuckle. “Wouldn’t surprise me because of Pinkie but remember, he was a mercenary before your gramps turned him inta a baby when he died.” “Yeah that’s true.” I nod. “But oh well, mind if I try some? I haven’t eaten in a day and a half.” “Yeah, try this one.” Bloom said, handing me a yellow colored pie. “Thank you.” I nod, taking the yellow colored pie and just eating it happily. The taste was...odd. Was creamy but very fruity. “Like it? Pinkie’s recipe for mango cream pie.” “It’s...odd.” I point out. “Maybe it’s the texture or something…” I shrug. ”I am not running into a ‘that’s what she said’ joke.” I mentally frown. “Anyways, anything else you want me to try?” “Well there is this pie but I don’t get it?” She said, pulling out the card, which was just the picture of a Y with cream topped in the middle top with a cherry…OH! ”OH MY FUCKING GOD!” I mentally scream, my face turning beat red. “Come on that’s not cool Pinkie. I maybe old enough for this but everyone else isn’t.” I frown. “Old enough for what?” Applebloom asked, still holding that card. “Nothing.” I state while taking the card away from Apple Bloom. “You're too young to understand.” I state while putting the card in my pocket. “Okay… Well try this then.” She said, handing me a green colored pie. “This one was called the Athletes pie, made with a lot of nuts, and you replace all water with an energy drink called Monster.” “Oh dear god…” I mutter, shaking my head. “That’s not how you make pie…” I frown before taking it and biting into it. It wasn’t as bad as I was expecting, tasted kinda like a candy bar. “So, how was it?” “Not as bad as I was expecting actually.” I say honestly. “Takes like a candy bar to be honest.” “Cool, now, try this one.” She said, giving me a normal looking pie. I took the pie and ate it, it was gooey, like a really ripe peach, the inside was green and it tasted not too bad, like...a pudding, but I couldn’t get the flavor. “I don’t know if it has a flavor and it tastes like pudding…” “Dang it. Pinkie got this recipe from Zeke’s wife Toriel. Made from snails, it’s supposed to taste like Vanilla and mint…maybe not enough mint?” “Wait, when did Pinkie meet Toriel?” I ask in confusion. “What do you think they do when you and Ben are off doing hero? They like to be social too, who better than others who REALLY understand what it’s like to be married to a hero type. Awkward when they’re the same person but they’re used to it already.” “Oh god...poor Ben.” I mutter. ”Ben’s going to be in so much pain if he has to experience anything they learned from Rune…” I think to myself. “Anyways that’s good to know...wonder why snails don’t taste like crap though...weird.” “Pinkie said they’re normally flavorless, but full of protein and stuff like that. Since it’s a Monster Food recipe maybe I need ingredients made and grown by them?” “Maybe.” I shrug. “Who knows really. But what next?” “Just your standard pies. Eat what ya like, I’m gonna look through the pantry for more ingredients.” “Alright then. Thank you.” I nod while getting water and started to eat my fill. After about five minutes I smiled. “Thanks Apple Bloom, it was delicious.” “Your welcome.” She replied, still rummaging through the pantry. “Need some help?” I ask. “I’m good.” She replied. I nodded and headed into the living room, Scoot’s slouched on the couch watching...My Little Pony. “Wow this show makes me look like I got ADHD.” She replied. “I mean...you looked up to Rainbow Dash.” I point out. “Yeah, but that’s fangirling. You’d freak meeting someone you admire too right?” “I haven’t fanned over something so I wouldn’t know. But there’s a point between ‘fangirling’ and ‘literally wanting to be like them’.” I say. “Well Rainbow has arthritis in her wings and still flies like she does.” “That doesn’t sound good for a pegasus.” I say worriedly. “Especially for someone that want’s to be a Wonderbolt...I mean...she has a kid so…” “Yeah. You can tell she has it because of her expression, her wings shouldn’t handle the pain she’s in flying like she does, they should lock up immediately at speeds above twenty but she’s flying near a hundred. She’s gotta be on some kinda pain medication.” “That’s true…” I say with a shrug. “But you know, ‘work through the pain’ as it were.” I shrug. “But what else have you noticed through the show?” “From seeing this, along with some other things I could tell everyone’s life is a reality in some form elsewhere, but other realities can view on or more of them in the alternate versions that exist within the multiverse. Basically originality is crap and fiction and reality are the same thing in the multiverse.” “Pretty much.” I shrug. “Glad you figured that out and haven’t panicked. Not everyday you realise ‘oh hey, in one universe I’m just a children’s show even though I’m real here.’” “Meh, check channel 5009890.” She replied, grabbing the remote and changing it to the channel...it was Ponyville, but with a silent hill theme with Fluttershy the main character. “Not so TV-Y huh?” “That’s because she’s in a Silent Hill version of Ponyville for some reason…” I frown. “Poor Fluttershy.” I sigh out. “But enjoying the more...light hearted versions of the show instead of this?” “Meh, check this one out.” She said, changing the channel again and...we were on the tv. “Looked around too, no cameras.” Scoot’s said, the her on TV saying the same thing. “I’m concerned…” I frown. “And pissed.” I growl. “Well...life is a show to the afterlife if what Cript said was true.” I sigh out. “So, any other shows you enjoy?” “Well...This is the same channel, but shows the ones from ‘yesterday’.” She said, searching for the right channel then finally finding it…it was when Jenny had me in her bed…“Daw, you blush so cute.” I blushed brightly. “Shush you...also Jenny is going to be so pissed when she finds this…” I say worriedly. “Already know.” The girl in question replied, petting my head. “Kinda turns me on.” A small trickle of blood started to pour out of my nose. “Uh…” I mutter, my face as red as can be. “Um...I...didn’t know that…” “Wonder how this is filmed anyway?” Jenny asked, hopping up on the couch. “Afterlife stuff or something?” I guess. “But I feel worried...cause now everyone’s secrets are just plastered all over the t.v. and nothing can be kept hidden, even when it’s not bad secrets…” I frown. “Also...I suppose people saw the magic eight ball stuff?” I ask nervously. “Likely.” Scoot’s said. “Shit…” I mutter. “Has Sweetie gone to talk with Rarity about that ‘heat spell’?” I ask. “Likely.” Jenny said. “She’s been walking around just fine for a while.” “Should I try to talk to her?” I ask. “I don’t want to leave her alone…” I trail off, not wanting to feel bad about ignoring her just because of her heat. “Well she’s with her sister at the moment so, she should be in the sewing room.” Applebloom said, walking in while carrying five pies, two on each arm and one on her head. “Alright then, looks like I’ll need to go down there. Also I need to thank Rarity for my cloak, it’s still awesome.” I smile warmly. “Anyways, I’ll be off.” I say while heading off to the Sewing room. As I was walking through the hallway down I bumped into a familiar six breasted lady, before I was crushed by her hug. “Baby!” Mama Den said, hugging the air out of me. “Hi mama.” I groan. “Need….air….” I manage to say. She loosens her grip, enough fmr me to breath but lifted me up to just under her neck, still in her chest. Damn I keep forgetting how tall she is. “Sorry pup.” She said, giving me a kiss/lick. “You heading to the sewing room for?” “Yes I am. Why do you ask?” I ask her. “Is it ‘private’ right now?” “No, just wondering.” She said, giving me another kiss/lick. “I’m still glad it washes out.” I say while kissing my mama’s neck. “But thank you mama, but why are you here today? Something come up or did you just want to see us?” “Wanted to see you. Plus I...let’s just say Ben’s stocked up on milk.” “Really?” I ask, looking up at the dire wolf mother. “Well that’s something. Is it your breast milk mama?” I ask, having the memories of Ben drinking her breast milk and remembering it was heavenly. “Yup. Had six milking machines hooked up to me and I’m still full, but enough about your...mothers milk, hehe, I hear you got yourself some new filly.” “Yes I did...and I still have...I think two or three more girlfriends to get if my magic eight ball is correct.” I say honestly. “A griffon, a diamond dog...and I think a human...I don’t remember the last one because of all the stuff that’s been going on.” “Well I hear you got that Jenny girl, the one… well, Ben, you know, and her sister…” “Jenny, Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, Diamond Tiara, and Lovely Days.” I list off all the girls I’m dating right now. “I’m most likely going to date Gabby the Griffon, Lupa the Diamond dog, another Diamond Tiara that happens to be Zeke’s daughter...and if memory serves Aileen.” I explain. “You leaving soon?” “Not really. But I do wanna ask you something.” She said, putting me down and giving me a serious look. “Does Jenny miss her sister?” “I...haven’t asked…” I mutter sadly. “You...want me to go back and ask her? Cause I can and you can tag along, it would be best if Diamond and Lovely met you as well.” I say, wanting her to at least know who I’m dating and maybe help Jenny. “I’m sorry I didn’t ask because...I didn’t want to upset her…” “I ask because you know I can do something about that, right? Death isn’t my territory but the mother Twilight that pulled up your records from when you were alive can do something if you ask, she’d be back baby and all.” “Wait...really?” I ask, my eyes as wide as dinner plates. “W-well...I need to ask Jenny...she would either love to hear this...or be upset about this...I don’t know…” I say worriedly. “But mind putting me down? I can’t lead you to where Jenny is right now.” I say, my mind already divided between how happy Jenny would be...or how horrifically pissed she’ll be from this news. “Sure, I’ll be in the livingroom when you’re ready.” Mama Den said, giving me one last kiss/lick before putting me down. “Thanks mama.” I nod before rushing off back to my house to tell Jenny about this. ”Okay, I’m gonna have to stay calm about this. Jenny will probably be royally pissed about this...but maybe her sister won’t be mad considering Cript said the afterlife get’s the best live tv…” I think to myself worriedly, and before long I entered my house. “Jenny?” I ask, hoping she’s still here. “Attic!” I heard the girl yell from above. Huh, she didn’t show me the attic. “Kay!” I call out. “Uh...where is it?” I call out, walking through the house and hoping to find a ladder or stairs. I found a set of stairs near the kitchen and went up. Once there I saw the attic was another hallway, longer than the house should be, but all the doors were missing and the rooms small and empty. I saw Jenny looking into one of them. “Jenny?” I ask, moving over to the girl. “Mind if I ask a...personal question?” “Sure.” She said, still looking at the empty room. “Um...do you...miss your sister?” I ask nervously. She looked over to me. “Well, yeah, when...Mom, Nancy, wasn’t acting like a friend she acted like a mom, said raising me made her want to be a mom. Aside from her skills in bankrolling her skills in preparing for mothering were rivaled by only, well, maybe Cript’s family with all the babies and stuff.” “Maybe.” I nod. “But...what would happen if...both your sister and her baby could be brought back to life?” I ask carefully. “Ben’s, and subsequently mine’s, parents back on earth were brought back to life, and told us their murderer. And Cript told us that they saw everything in our lives because of some weird tv show…” I explain, or ramble I don’t know, to Jenny. “It’s...up to you…” “Wait, you mean… MY SIS CAN COME BACK!?!” She screamed, shaking me hard enough to induce whiplash. “Yes yes stop shaking me!” I shout, my face turning green for a moment. “Oh god my head…” “Then where!?” She said, almost tossing me as she let go. “Hold on a fucking moment!” I bark, grabbing Jenny by the shoulders and stopping her. “Christ...let me get my head on straight.” I frown while taking deep breaths and calming down, my head still in pain but it’s getting better. “Fine...okay so follow me.” I say bluntly, getting her hands off of me and leading her to Den. After five minutes of walking with a very hyper and excited girlfriend we finally made it to the castle living room and saw Den. “Yes, she’s really excited about getting her sister back. Gave me whiplash…” “Hehe, alright then.” Mama Den said, sending a message on her Assistant and not stwo seconds later the same grim reaper Twilight appeared in front of us. “You got them Twilight?” “Yeah, wasn’t hard.” She replied, taking out a white and pink stone. She wrapped it in some...clay? Then placed it on the ground as it glowed, growing until it was the size of a person. “This lady really wanted this baby, not many souls hang onto their unborn children’s souls in the afterlife.” Twilight commented as the light took shape, quickly turning into a blond woman, blue eyes… and is naked. “Gah!” She said, filling her lungs with air. “Jesus what...what?” She asked, looking around, then noticing Jenny. “Sis?” Jenny hugged her instantly. “You’re back!” She cried, and kept crying with happiness. “How are you doing?” I ask Jenny’s sister, not knowing her name but just glad to see Jenny happy. “I’m...naked.” She replied, making us all laugh a bit before mama Den summoned up a blanket for her. “Well our work is done, shall we go Twi?” Den asked. “Sure.” Twilight said as she and Den vanished in a flash of light. “Hello.” I say with a little wave. “Hey…” Jenny’s sister said, looking at Jenny. “The fuck is he and why are you a dog sis?” She asked. “Long story.” Jenny replied. “Good to see you again sis. So… Joy, this is my big sis Kristy, sis, this is...my husband to be.” Kristy was silent. “...Horny bitch.” She said with a sly smile to Jenny, making her laugh. “This coming from the girl who slept around for a month straight before finally getting knocked up.” “Okay so...where do you want to start?” I ask Kristy bluntly. “Cause you have...a lot to catch up on.” I say. “Start at the beginning on how Jenny is how she is or…?” “I’ll figure it out.” Kristy replied. “So...clothes?” Ben sat across from Joy in Rarities sewing room, Jenny and Rarity both working to help make some clothes for Kristy. “So...how’s she gonna work?” Ben asked me. “...Any ideas?” I asked. “Well…” Ben starts, thinking over it all. “Okay first did you even explain things to her?” “Nope, she said she’ll figure it all out.” I told him. “Right then…” Ben sighs out. “Yo Jenny, what’s your sister good at besides murder?” “Mothering and sex! Other than that a master thief. Could rob fort knox blind in a well timed day!” The young girl replied from behind the blinder where Kristy was trying on clothes. “Thank you.” Ben nods. “Hmm...I can think of two things...one involves her helping with security and the other is being a good nanny for my two hundred and seventy kids…” Ben says with a little thought. “Dear lordy…” The man sighs out. “Well she could fit there, she and her kid would also be safe here to. As far as Core and her not so nice family members know she's still dead.” “That’s true.” Ben nods. “I just hope she likes it here though.” I point out. “But...what would happen if the rest of your family figured out that she was brought back to life?” I ask curiously. “They will either think it’s a trick, think it’s a miracle, or something else.” Ben shrugs. “Hey...do you think Cript can bring back Nancy too?” Jenny asked. “I...don’t know.” Ben says slowly. “She cracked and broke apart, not actually ‘died’ normally…” He says nervously. “I’ll have to check...but I make no promises on if she could be brought back.” Ben says while checking his Assistant if Cript was free and to see the ways of resurrection cause the way Nancy died, it didn’t feel like she could be brought back. “Oh he’s free…” Ben mutters while calling Cript in hopes of figuring out this issue. Ben felt a poke at his back and when he turned around Cript was there. “You rang?” “Yes I did.” Ben nods. “What’s the rules about resurrecting someone that shattered like glass?” I ask. “Like...when they were dying they just started cracking and fell apart like glass.” I fix, not entirely sure how to describe how Nancy ‘died’. “Same as any since her soul was intact unlike her body. But I did check and there’s an issue.” “No heart?” Ben asks. “Not that, her soul is already in for reincarnation. Or recycling as the angels call it. But I can do a work around with that.” “What can’t you do?” I ask. “I can't ride a skateboard.” Me and Ben just stared at him. “Really?” We both deadpan at the most weak and unimpressive thing he can’t do. “Yeah. Can't. Get too skittish when it starts moving.” Cript said as he started to think. “Ben, how guilty do you feel about her death?” “Royally…” Ben says sadly. “I...didn’t want to...it still hurts sometimes…” “Then that settles that. Where’s Rarity?” “Right behind the blinder.” I say while pointing to where Rarity probably is. Cript walked over there. “Cript! What are you- what! Oh~” Rarity’s voice spoke. There was the sound of a baby’s crying as Cript walked out behind the blinder, holding a white wolf puppy with Ben’s messy hair. “It’s a girl.” He said, giving the baby to Ben. “Uh…” I start, Ben holding the baby girl. “Um...I’m rather concerned…” Ben says worriedly. “This is...rather sudden don’t you think?” He asks, gently cradling the crying pup. “Hey, you killed her, now you raise her.” Cript replied. “Just be glad her soul was still waiting for a body.” “Right then…” Ben nods slowly. “So...Nancy is now a wolf puppy and is now my daughter…” The worried half direwolf says. “Yeah...I think I can make this work…” “Well good luck with it. FYI, kill anyone else and I will do this again. Maybe modify it…” Cript trailed off getting lost in thought. “I’m going to try my best not to kill anyone.” Ben frowns. “But I have made reservations on who I will murder, and those three need to rot in hell.” “Let me guess...evil you, Core, and... ?” “Okay five people then.” Ben sighs out. “Two Ventrals that are probably as bad as Core, the person that murdered my parents, Core and Evil Me.” Ben explains. “So we both have a massive to do list here.” I agree. “Not to mention I also have to help take care of all my wonderful kids.” Ben points out as well, still cradling and caring for his newborn daughter. “So much to do…” “Thank you for doing this.” I say to Cript, glad to know that someone special is getting a second chance. ”But I know it can’t be done all the time...even if someone proves me wrong…” I think to myself bitterly. “Well it's a hobby.” Cript said. “Well when you're a god and have literally nothing better to do you tend to make ‘god send’ kind of things into hobbies.” I shrug. “...oh my god I just realized that…” Cript said, shaking his head. “Well, later.” He waved, vanishing in a flash of light. “Well...alright then.” I nod. “So...Nancy’s back as an adorable white wolf puppy.” I point out. “Well that was...sensational.” Rarity said, walking out from behind the blinder. “I miss anything?” “Meet Nancy, our new pup.” Ben says while showing the wolf pup to Rarity. “Isn’t she adorable?” “Oh my.” Rarity said, walking over and sitting next to Ben. “She's divine. She has your eyes. And messy hair…well nothing some proper conditioners can't tame.” “But she looks adorable with messy hair.” Ben chuckles. “Yes but she is also going to be a lady sweety, and my daughter, not just yours.” “I know I know.” Ben nods. “So, Jenny, Krysti, want to see the new pup?” “She’s adorable.” I smile, seeing the little pup calm down in Ben’s arms. “In a sec.” The two replied. “Alright.” Ben nods. “Isn’t this family wonderful?” I ask. “A tad confusing but each family has their quirks.” Rarity said. “One baby out...infinity to go with all the sex Ben’s been having with us. You have a pregnancy fetish darling?” Rarity asked Ben, giving her best seductive gaze at the poor man. “I...don’t know…” Ben blushes at hearing that. “All of you are too needy half the time.” “Can we not have talk of your sex life here?” I ask, not believing these two are talking about that. “I’ve seen your thoughts about when you’re all sixteen.” Ben huffs. “I did no such thing.” I tell him quickly, looking away in embarrassment. “Anyways...glad all of you are happy.” “Same.” Rarity said, picking up Nancy and she began feeding her...didn't think Rarity the breast feeding type. “Wonder when Applejack will find someone? She's busy with her farm and all but still. She needs her own life.” “I’m sure she’ll find someone.” I shrug. “But who knows.” “It's just doing this reminds me of when she lost her parents. Applebloom was only a month old and here Applejack was bottle feeding and taking care of the infant. I know she's one for big families but her work takes her away from her own life.” “Yeah…” Ben sighs out. “I don’t know...should I?” He asks Rarity. “Should you what darling?” “Should I date Applejack or should I not?” He asks. “Oh darling you don't know Applejack. She never accepts offers like that. Never has for as long as I’ve known her. Only way for her to be with someone is for her to go after them.” “Right then.” Ben nods. “Well hopefully she finds the right person.” I shrug. ”This has been a long week…” I think to myself, finding all the things done this one solitary week to be very long and filled with so much stuff. “How do I look?” Kristy asked, walking out from behind the blinder, dressed in a, proper, not sexy, proper, maid outfit. “This was a hobby I picked up during a crime spree in Japan.” She said, twirling around. “You look wonderful.” I say with a smile. “Nice maid outfit.” Ben nods. “But your hobby was being a maid or dressing up as a maid?” “A bit of both. I forgot the name it goes by but from what I overheard I can wear this while being your nanny… speaking of, I found this guy and tada!” The moved the blinder aside...showing Jet...in a maid outfit... Me and Ben stared at Jet. “Uh...why?” I ask Jet. “She is my new master.” Jet said. “After Braig died I stood still till someone with the proper darkness came along. She appeared and is now my new master.” He replied plainly. “Right then...but couldn’t you...put him in a butler outfit instead of a maid outfit?” Ben says nervously. “Later. This is too fun to not do.” Kristiny said, chuckling. “Well glad to see your happy.” Ben nods. “And don’t worry, while you work for us you will get free food, housing, and your child will also get proper care and treatment.” Ben explains to the pregnant woman. “Yay! I get to freeload and be with infants. Best life ever!” “You're not going to freeload.” I say. “Cause you’re going to have to be a nanny and help out with two hundred and seventy children...and when the time comes that number is going to go up by the millions or possibly billions.” I explain. “You can still try to find a date but…’freeloading’ is not something you're going to do.” “Dude, I’m getting free food, living space, and taking care of babies and kids. You're describing my days off from crime.” She retorts. “Well we barely know much about you or your family besides ‘they love crime’.” Ben says. “But we do know a bit.” I add. “But glad to hear we basically gave you your dream job.” “Well then I’ll get to working. Come on Jet, we got kids to meet.” “Yes ma’am.” Jet says as he float follows Kristie out of the room. “Come now Ben, let's show the others little Nancy here.” Rarity said, still feeding her. “Alright.” Ben nods. “I’m sure the others will love meeting her.” He smiles, following Rarity out, leaving me and Jenny alone. “And I’ll be off doing...something.” I say, not entirely sure what to do after all this. “Come on pup.” Jenny said, tugging my tail playfully. “You deserve a reward for this~” “A reward?” I ask. “What kind of reward?” “Oh Sweetie~” Jenny calls, Sweetie Bell coming out from one of the dressing rooms...in a VERY revealing bikini. “Shall we make use of the new pool? Give Joy a show?” “Yes. Yes we shall.” She said, walking out with a sway in her hips and tail. My eyes are as wide as dinner plates, staring at my lovely girlfriend. “W-woof…” I mutter, a little trickle of drool trickling out of my open mouth. “Oh, and Joy.” Jenny said, making me turn around to see her in her own, extremely adorable, swimsuit. “When we find those last few girlfriends you saw in the eight ball, try and keep your drool in your mouth~” She said, using her wings to tickle my chin with her feathers as she left. I blush brightly and wipe away the drool from my mouth. “Uh...but...uh…” I stutter, trying to find some way to speak when I was just royally floored by what I’m seeing between the two. Needless to say the pool was...VERY fun. The girls were teases as they had me rub each of them with lotion… Sweetie and Jenny three times. Sweetie, even with that spell on was very...out...as in it was clear what she wanted, and she was acting almost Rainbow Dash confident. Heat really changes them. “Glad to know you two are happy but why must you tease me so much?” I ask with a frown. “We gotta have something until we’re old enough.” Jenny said, sunbathing. “We can jerk off later, then again…” Jenny sat up…and took the top half of her swimsuit off and folded it around her belly...showing her chest… “No girl wants tan lines~” She said as she layed back down. I held my nose to stop it from bleeding. “Christ...you're all going to make me die from blood loss one of these days.” I shake my head with a little smile. “So...happy that Nancy came back in some way?” “Kinda. Glad sis is happy and maybe since, ya know, reincarnation, she doesn't remember me. But I’ll treat her like an aunt should treat a niece.” “Makes sense.” I nod. “But glad you're okay with that. And glad to hear you’ll treat her okay. Sweetie? How does it feel being an aunt?” “Makes me feel older, but in a good way, mature… That's two things that say I’m growing up.” She said, taking off her bikini top… “Hey, Jenny’s right about tan lines.” “There’s...another reason why you feel mature…” I mutter, blushing brightly and looking away and not wanting to stare at their uncovered chests. I decided to jump in the pool and the take a swim. It was fifty yards long and the deepest part was a mile long...needless to say I stay in the “shallow” end. After swimming around a bit a familiar hot pink neon girl began circling me, somehow running on the water until she stopped, the literal heart eyes girl now in front of me in the water. She was in a bikini too and since Lovely’s body was only slightly smaller than Sweetie’s it...gave a view. “How’s the swim?” Lovely asked. “How's running on water?” I ask, now just floating on my back. “Not bad.” She said, laying her arms on my stomach like a counter or table top. “Maybe that Jesus guy from the bible was a Neon Conduit.” She joked. “Not really, just magic.” I say. “Also I'm not a table top. But how are you doing Lovely?” “Better. That indigestion and sugar crash was a pain but glad it's over. Happy spending time in relaxation?” “Just getting some relaxing in after so many teasing bits…” I sigh out. “It's been a long few days or a week…” I say, honestly surprised about how much stuff happened to me and the people I care about. “Yeah. That's life. So, was told you played a game for a day and a half strait. What level were you when you finally stopped playing?” “No idea.” I shrug. “Lost track after everything happened today. I could probably go back and check but meh.” “Hehe. Ya know, I didn't talk to anyone my age before you came along. Now I’m practically engaged to you and got a normal...ish, life. I owe you.” “You don't owe me anything.” I say gently. “All I want is to see my girls happy and healthy. Also no I'm not going to make another pun out of your name...at least today.” “Awh. You think I’m taking no for an answer~” Lovely suddenly got on top of me. A few splashes and I managed to keep balance with her body weight, she had her legs around my waist, arms around me back...chest squeezed against mine, and lips locked on mine. “At a girl Lovely!” Jenny cheered. “Mmm…” I mumbled while kissing Lovely back happily, my arms moving around her back and holding her close. ”This is nice…” I think to myself happily. After what felt like minutes I broke the kiss. “Thanks Lovely.” “Hehe. Ya know, when your nose isn't bleeding you get a knock at the barn door~” “Wait...what?” I ask, my eyes widening at the implications. “As...as in?” “Hehe. I’ve been poked.” I blushed brightly, indeed feeling something down south betray me and poke against Lovely. “I'm...I'm sorry.” I say nervously. “Why? Four more years you’ll be plowing us all a lot~” “Anyone else feel like we take this too far at times?” Applebloom asked Scoot’s “Sometimes, but I blame the gender difference, evolution, and Ben’s not so good example family.” Scoot’s replied, dressed in normal clothes and reading a magazine. “I heard that and yes!” I call out to Apple Bloom. “You all do take it too far...sometimes it's fine and sometimes it's not.” I sigh out. “Can you get off Lovely? While it's nice to cuddle I need to...cool off…” I say, royally embarrassed because of this. “No. I don't wanna.” She said, squeezing me tighter. “Oi vey.” I sigh out. “Fine fine...but Jenny or Sweetie might tag along just so you know.” “Hmmm. Sweetie, get his back, Jenny, his face!” Lovely yelled. I looked up and the two, still topless, were swimming after me. “Don't I get a say in this!?” I yip worriedly. “Nope!” My girls say at the same time, causing me to whimper worriedly. To be continued...
Nobody's Underground“So all save for Scootaloo and Applebloom cuddled you naked?!” I said in disbelief as Joy recapped his previous few days. “Do we give off that image?” I ask, only for Joy to give me the ‘are you joking’ look. “Fine fine.” I sigh out. “Anyways, after that whole debacle and you somehow gaining women as fast as I do basically, want to head off to adventure?” “Yay.” Joy cheers. “But where to?” The pup asks curiously, wondering where we were going to go. “Dunno.” I say. “Should we ask someone?” “Maybe...or we could just wing it.” Joy shrugs. “Just open a portal and see where it goes.” “Sounds risky, but why not. I’ll tell my girls, you tell yours.” I say, getting up too quickly find them as Joy did the same. It didn't take long to find them as they were all in the bedroom looking over Rarity’s new baby Nancy. “Hey everyone.” I say with a smile. “Meeting Nancy?” I ask all the girls, walking over to also see my new daughter. “She's adorable.” Luna said. “Might push one...or three out soon since birthing is at will for us now. Also we got a letter from Den.” She said, handing me the letter. “Thank you.” I nod while taking the letter and opening it, wondering what mama Den had to tell me. Dear Ben and puppy Joy. Big things happening in family and everyone. Will tell when can. Will be gone for a while. Lots of licks, mommy. Ps- I will be able to reply to texts. “Well okay then.” I nod while folding up the letter. “Me and Joy will be going off somewhere. Just wanted to tell you all instead of just leaving suddenly.” I tell them all. “Thank you for that Ben.” Rarity said. “So when will you be back?” “No idea.” I sigh out. “Time is weird when you're in a different world...but I’ll be back as soon as I can...let’s just hope where me and Joy are going doesn’t involve us being there for a long time…” I say bitterly, hating to be away from my family for so long. “For every day you're gone that's a night each~” Pinkie teased. “You girls are insatiable you know that?” I ask. “Meh.” They all replied. I chuckled as I met back up with Joy who was now wearing his Samurai cloak. “Girls want a souvenir each.” Joy said. “Well hopefully we don’t destroy the souvenir’s on accident.” I say sheepishly. “Anyways, let’s get going.” I say while opening up a DTL for the two of us as we both walked in. Where we exited the DTL was some forest. One that crawled up a mountain. “Yay, climbing.” I say while summoning my glider. “Exactly.” Joy agrees while hopping onto a card as the both of us start flying up the mountain. After a few moments of flying up we made it all the way up, only to find a cave. “And a cave…” Joy mutters while we both enter the cave carefully. We went in for a bit before Joy tripped over something. He growled before pulling out...a Hello Kitty flashlight? “Uh...why?” “Sweetie made me…” He groaned. He shined the flashlight and we were in some kinda makeshift camp made from junk and dirty things. “Well someone’s already been here…” I say. “Hello?” I call out while moving to the camp, hoping someone was there. As Joy and I entered there didn't seem to be anyone. We did find a journal. Entry 1, day 1 Finally stopped running. Police lost me at last. Can't go back to that home, never again. It's dark in this cave, still more space than my old room. Got a few cans of food and a can opener. Won't last. Gotta find food in the wild or scavenge from trash in town. Dangerous. Both are. Wild has the legends tell of monsters, go back into town, could get caught. Later is best for now. If I get caught, they still have to catch me. ;P “Okay then…” I frown. “Well, that’s a thing.” I mutter while looking through more of the journal in case there was more. I skipped ahead to the last page with writing. Entry…? Day…?? Been...a year maybe? Finally someone saw me...and it had to be THEM…I ran, lost them, but can't stay here. They saw where I ran towards. There's a hole further up I saw some months back. Gonna check it out, how deep can it be anyway? “Okay so down the rabbit hole we go.” I say while putting the journal down. “You sure?” Joy asks. “Yep.” I nod. “Now let’s not fall face first down the hole.” I say while the both of us head off towards the hole. After about a minute or so we saw this big fuck off hole in the end of the cave. “Well there’s our hole.” “Sharp shooter anti grav?” Joy suggests, summoning his sharp shooters. I floated off the ground without any weapons out. “I kind of thought that I would be able to use the weapons innate magic so...I don’t need my weapons to float.” I say while heading down the hole at a good but safe decent. Time passed, it was a DEEP hole. After half an hour we saw the bottom...and a kid laying there on a...rather conveniently placed bed of yellow flowers. “And there be our kid possibly.” I say while floating to the ground with Joy, summoning my shield just in case and landed safely on the ground with him. “Hey, you okay?” I ask the fallen child, kneeling down and gently shaking their shoulder. They groaned, slowly lifting their head up…they looked exactly like Zeke’s son Frisk...save for this Frisk was longer hair...and softer facial features… “ugh… what?” Yup. Girl. Totally a girl's voice. “Took a nasty fall their kid, if this oh so royally convenient patch of flowers were here you’d be as flat as a pancakes.” I explain. “What?” She asked, looking up at Joy and I. Her eyes went wide, then, she screamed. “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!” Joy and I felt our ears bleed at that as she ran off deeper into the cave yelling, “MONSTERS!!!” “Fuck!!” Me and Joy shout in pain, grabbing out spare potions and chugging them as our ears started feeling better. “Ow…” I mutter before we both head off to find the girl before she get’s hurt. “Kid wait!” I shout, hoping to catch her before they get into a bad situation. We chased after her and found ourselves in some kinda ruins. We couldn't hear the girl, damn she's fast, but continued forewords. “Sheesh, she couldn’t have gotten that far.” Joy frowns, surprised that we weren’t getting any headway here. We came across some kinda traps or puzzles but they were activated. They were...rather simple. “This is...honestly insulting to be honest.” I frown. “We’re not four.” Joy says while we solved the puzzles with ease. We kept on until we came across a nice looking house way in the backmost part of these ruins...it looked rather new. “Convenient home is convenient.” I point out. “Wonder if that kids still here.” We knocked on the door and...a voice similar to skeletor's replied. “Coming!” Who opened the door nearly made me jump. It was Papyrus...but he was wearing robes.“Oh. Are you two new to the Ruins?” He asked “Papyrus?” I ask, raising my eyebrow at seeing Papyrus here of all places and not in his standard uniform. “Is that you?” “Why, I didn't think any monster in the Ruins knew what I looked like. How embarrassing...did...did my brother send you?” The skeleton asks nervously. “No, Sans didn’t send us.” I say. “Listen, did you see a little girl come through? About this tall, screaming ‘monsters’ like a banshee?” “No. I did find a little girl passed out in my front yard a bit before you two showed up though. Poor thing looked like she ran across the entire ruins.” “That was our faults sadly.” I sigh out. “You see, we actually came from the surface and were worried about the little girl that literally dropped a few hundred...maybe more than a few hundred feet straight into a patch of flowers.” Joy explains, not entirely sure if the skeleton will buy our crap but our concern for Frisk was still there. “Oh. She's resting in the guest room. Best not to wake her just yet. Would you two like to come in? I just made spaghetti and ice tea.” “Well it’s only nice to accept the hosts offer.” I say with a smile. “Sure, thank you.” Joy and I entered and sat at the table. Papyrus gave us each a plate of spaghetti and a cup of ice tea. “So, what brings such fuzzy humans to the underground?” He asked. ”We should really remember to put up our hoods more...don’t know why we forgot that…” I mentally sigh out. “We heard ancient legends of Mt. Ebott and were wondering if the stories were true. We found a small little camp made by the girl that’s in your guest room and her journal. She said she jumped down so we had to follow along just to make sure she’s safe.” I explain, my explanation and gigantic lie but still having a grain of truth about the worry over the girl. “Oh. How caring! Are you two her father's?” “I’m getting married to a woman.” I deadpan. “I have a girlfriend.” Joy frowns. “Sure no discrimination against them but we’re not her father's. We’re just concerned people about a young girl who decided to take a jump down a hole that...kind of should have killed her if not for the very convenient patch of flowers.” “Oh yes. That flower patch has been there since monsters were trapped under here. It never seems to die which is odd as no one tends to it nor are they magical. They're just there.” “Well I suppose they are magic in that case.” I shrug. “The purest magic, where you don’t understand why it’s there or how it works but it happens anyways.” I explain. “Well whatever the case she best be careful. She's not the first to fall and last I knew Sa-... The king, has five already. Five human souls. He needs two more to become a god and break the barrier. This girl makes the second human he needs.” “How does the barrier work?” I ask curiously, not remembering if Zeke or the people there told me about the barrier and how it worked. “It was made by seven powerful human mages. It can only be crossed by humans, a monster with a human soul, or broken by one being carrying said seven souls. The king has five already, this girl makes seven…” “Why didn’t he just take one human soul, pass through the barrier and get the other six?” I ask in confusion. “Would you, a normal human, seeing something different and unknown to you listen to what it has to say? People fear what they don't understand. Part of why we were trapped down here, they feared us because of what we are. Magic wise we are stronger, body wise...that's weaker. Until we absorb a human soul. Then we carry both human determination and a monsters magical power. They thought we would hunt them for their souls… sadly some did, and now after a long bloody war here we are, trapped.” “Well alright then.” I nod. ”Even though that part is still kind of...bullshit considering a vast majority of nowadays would just be amazed that monsters even exist.” I mentally add to myself. “Wait, you said ‘two’ humans were here. Who’s the other human?” Joy asks curiously. “I have only seen them once. Another young girl, about this child's age. She has brown reddish hair, red eyes, and wears a green hoodie. She lives with a young goat monster she calls brother. They play more than anything.” “Right then.” I nod. “When do you think the girl will wake up? Also did you see anything follow her? Like...a demonic looking flower or something?” I ask, not entirely sure why I pointed that out but it just felt...right to say that since she fell into a world of monsters in a giant landing pad of flowers. “Not that I have seen. And she might wake up soon.” “Alright then.” I nod. “Well hopefully she won’t blow our eardrums out again…” “I have never heard a girl scream that loudly…” Joy shudders in memorable pain. “So it was her screams that broke my windows. Didn't take long to replace. I always keep spares of everything in the house. And outside.” “Always good to have spares.” I nod. “Now, let’s hope she doesn’t flip out again.” I say while drinking my ice tea. “Thank you.” Joy says while finishing up the spaghetti the skeleton made. “I hope so too. I’d have to buy more spare windows if that happens.” “Right then.” I nod. “So, is there anyone outside the ruins we need to look out for? Guards? Crazy scientists? Anything?” I ask, wanting to at least know what we’re getting into when we actually leave with the kid. “Just the royal guards head guard Toriel, she's a caring woman, but hard and firm when she has to be.” “That’s what she said.” I whisper to Joy who gave me a deadpanned look, trying his damndest not to get a grin and laugh. “Thank you Papyrus...by the by, is there anything special about combat?” I ask curiously. “Like styles, attacks, something of that nature?” I ask, wanting to know the fighting in this world before I just start using my shield to block everything in worry that I might break something. “Not really.” “Okay then.” I nod. “Well glad to know that.” “We better check on the kid, hopefully she’s awake and not panicking.” Joy says while taking the finished plate and cup from the table and walking over to the sink, floating up and cleaning the dishes. I quickly followed in his footsteps without the floating and cleaned my dishes as well just to be kind. “Where’s the guest room?” Joy asks Papyrus. “Down the hall, second door on the left.” He said, taking our dishes and washing them just in case. “Thank you.” Joy nods while the two of us walk off to find the guest room. After a few moments of walking we found the right door. “Let me...at least she won’t freak out about a kid probably her age right?” He says nervously. I backed up as he walked in, though I kept a close look through a crack in the door. “Uh...hey.” “Ah! A furry!” She yelled, throwing a shoe at Joy. “Wow, rude.” He says while sidestepping the shoe thrown at him. “First you blow my ear drums out then you throw a shoe at me?” He huffs. “Anyways, the name’s Joy, what’s yours?” He asks, a text box appearing above him that he didn’t notice. Joy strikes up a friendly conversation “S...sorry. Just. I mean. You're a wolf boy! Like in all the deviant art pics, only smaller...and clothed.” Joy blushed brightly. “I am not apart of that deviant art crap.” Joy says sternly. “And now you made me feel violated.” He pouts. “Internet. No one is safe. So...sorry for screaming that loud…” “Thank you for apologizing.” He sighs out. “And my brother is also thankful considering you called him a monster.” Joy says. “Especially when he was making sure you were okay.” “Well you don't look human, save for fingers and being on two legs.” “We are humans.” Joy says. “Born human, just...magical things happened.” He shrugs. “But I didn’t get your name.” “Call me Frisk. My real name is...boring…” “My name is Joy.” Joy deadpans. “And my brother’s name is Ben, try me.” “2. My name is literally the number 2.” A text box appeared above him. Joy couldn’t even… “The fuck?” “My parents were scientists. They didn't pay much attention to my sister or me so to cut time for calling us they named her 1 and me 2. My sis nicknamed me Frisk cause I like to flirt. Too much anime. And I nick named her Chara. Cause she wanted to be a character in a story.” “Well...I suppose she has good Character.” Joy says with a cheeky grin. Joy makes a shitty pun in hopes of making Frisk laughs the text box says above his head. Frisk was quiet at first, before breaking down in laughter. “Wow...that was bad.” “Bad or not it made you laugh.” Joy smiles genuinely. “But I suppose anime made you frisky huh?” Joy made another shitty pun...or flirts. A textbox said. “I suppose. Too many harem animes~” Frisk said, taking two fingers and walking them up Joy’s chest. “Well…” Joy trails off. “You want to know something practically unbelievable?” Joy asks curiously. “Sure.” “I have a harem back on another world.” Joy says with a little smile. “My home world actually.” “Oh really~. Tell me, they like it doggie style~?” Frisk said, really close to Joy’s face now. “They said to wait until sixteen...but I know my older brother’s fiance's sure do love it.” Joy says with a grin, not backing down from her lewd comments. “...Damn it he’s right too…especially Pinkie and Luna…” I mutter under my breath. “Cheeky little bastard.” “So you’re gonna wait for them? What a gentlemen~” Frisk said. If she was any closer she’d be Joy’s new cloak! “Okay my frisky lady let’s calm down a moment.” Joy says gently. “Flirting is with words, not actual physical contact that someone might mistake for ‘make out session’.” He explains, wanting to make sure she see’s more than just his beautiful sea green eyes. “How old are you?” She asks with pouty eyes. “You wouldn’t believe me even if I told you.” Joy tells her. “Give me an estimate then.” “Three hundred.” Joy states. “I’m three hundred years old, Death told me, my older brother, and his fiance’s.” “How old were you when you died?” “Thirteen.” He tells her. “I’m fourteen.” She whispered in his left hear. “And your fur smells nice~” She then did something the girls did to me sometimes...and I did to them...she bit his ear, his tail began wagging like crazy at that. “You sure about this?” Joy says, shuddering a little against her. She let go of his ear. “Not gonna go that far, just wondered if you were gonna stop it.” “I was.” Joy says, Frisk feeling a hand on her stomach in case he needed to stop it. “But...if you want...you can meet my other girlfriends and if they agree you can join my harem since you love harems so much.” “Maybe, first things first, we get out of here and then find my sister.” She said, jumping off Joy and pushing him onto the floor. “Then I’ll talk to them.” Joy got up off the ground. “Okay then.” “Okay love birds that’s enough talking.” I say while opening the door and showing myself. “Hello Frisk.” “Hi there peeping tom.” She said with a chuckle. “Those big, reflective eyes, make you easy to spot.” “Either way.” I shrug. “Names Ben, the ‘monster’ that you kept screaming and the other poor injured person with thankfully healed ears.” “Heh, sorry about that. Was still groggy from the fall and seeing you two well…” “Just be glad your not dead.” I point out. “And be extra thankful you’re possibly going to be with my little brother.” “Meh, we’ll see. So...two things, one, how did I get into this room, and two, why do I smell spaghetti?” After introducing Frisk to Papyrus and talking him into letting us escort Frisk out of the underground and back topside we found ourselves exiting through the door to the rest of the underground Pap had in his basement...for some reason. When we went through it we found ourselves in a snowy forest. “Snow I get, trees...not so much.” Frisk said. “You just met a magical talking skeleton. Snowy trees not making sense should be the last thing on your mind, also how the hell does this even work when were a thousand feet underground?” I point out, finding those points rather weird since we’re literally underground. “Big cave? Anyway, onwards!” Frisk said, holding a stick and lifting up as she marched forwards. “And you're going to date her.” I chuckle while summoning Vexen’s shield and following along. “Oh shush you.” Joy frowns, summoning Xaldin’s spears and preparing to defend himself just in case. Walking on the snowy trail for a tad bit led us to a bridge...only that the three of us heard someone walking behind us and me and Joy whipping around in defense due to massive amounts of paranoia and combat training. “Whoa whoa.” The girl says while pulling her hands up from her hoodie pockets in a non-threatening gesture. “Don’t ya know how to shake a new friend’s hand pal?” “Sorry…” I sigh out. “Just a little jumpy when things appear behind us.” Joy says sheepishly, letting his lances float behind him as he took the tentative step forward and willing to shake the girl’s hand. Joy shook her hand, and ketchup got squirted onto his hand and part of his sleeve. “What the?” “Hehe.” The girl said, taking off her hood. She had brown hair, and red eyes that...reminded me of Zeke before that incident. “Hey, names Chara-” She was talking before she and Frisk spotted each other. “S-s-sis?!” Frisk practically charged at Chara, nearly knocking her over as she gave her a tear filled hug. “I thought I’d never see you again!” Frisk cried. Chara, after the shock left, pet Frisk’s head. “You crybaby.” “This is...oddly convenient…” I say with a half frown. “But not unwanted convenient.” Joy adds. “So how did you get down here?” Frisk asks Chara. “Ya know that brat Steve from school?” “Yeah?” “Dared me to jump in. Did, little prick likely thinks I’m dead. Hope he’s paranoid as all hell for it.” “You crazy.” Frisk said as she punched Chara’s shoulder. “Well glad to see you two catching up.” I smile. “I smell goat…” Joy points out. “Why do I smell goat? And…” Joy trails off. “A crap ton of purity?” He adds, not sure why purity had a scent but pointed it out nonetheless. “That be my sorta brother Ray-” Chara starts before Frisk interrupts. “We got a brother?!” Frisk says. “Where!?” “Calm down Flash, he’s up ahead. We’ve been playing a game for a while but usually he wins. Mind helping out my reflection?” “Chara, you know that nick name creeps me out.” “We are twins, technically you are since I was born first.” “Well we were going to help her anyways cause casanova here decided to have a flirting contest with her.” I say while patting Joy’s head. “Do you really need to tell her?” Joy huffs. “Not my fault you told Frisk you were in a harem when she likes harem anime’s.” I point out. “Well since you three are here, mind helping me out?” Chara asks. “Besides helping Frisk, what did you have in mind?” I ask. “My bro is gonna come along soon, Frisk can help me with my end but to make it fair game. You two help Ray try and “capture” us. Just, don't hurt Frisk or me when Ray gets too into it.” “Don’t worry, we won’t.” Me and Joy say at the same time. “Anyways, onwards to finding Ray.” I say while me and Joy walk off in hopes of finding Ray, deciding to float over the chasm instead of taking the bridge like normal people because fuck it. When we reached the sentry station just before entering a town I saw Chara at the wooden station. Joy and I landed next to it. “Sup?” She asked. “Either you teleport or you're just fast.” I frown. “So you just left Frisk?” “Trade secrets.” She replied with a smile. “Since you two look like monsters and not humans just play along when Ray get's here. Frisk is hiding under the desk here,” “Hi.” Frisk replied. Still hiding. “He should be coming around soon to call me lazy again for not finding humans. Psst, I see one in the mirror every day.” “I’m pretty sure he got mad when you told him ‘I found a human’ and pointed at a mirror.” I chuckle. “It's adorable when he gets flustered.” Chara chuckled. “Oh, speak of the goat.” “Chara!” Joy and I looked to our side, seeing a...goat child. He was Joy’s hight, pure white, fluffy fur, wearing an adorable costume with a long scarf. “Did you find a human?” He asked, coming up to her desk. “Chara...how can this fluffy goat child be so adorable?” I ask. “That's just how Ray is. He gets his fluffiness from mom.” She said. “Is her name Toriel?” I ask, having met Toriel before on Daybreak but not knowing much about Toriel here. “Yeah. She's captain of the royal guard.” “Right then.” I nod. “And I suppose you want to be like your mother huh?” “Yeah! She protects the whole underground. The only monster here stronger than her is the king.” Ray said. “Only heard of how strong Sans is...never actually seen him fight.” I shrug, using my ‘monster’ look as an excuse to just outright know who the king was. “They say he only has one hp, but has enough mana to more than make up for it.” “I have a feeling he’s also good at dodging.” I point out. “Cause no matter how magically strong you are, if a stiff breeze can basically knock you over still then you need to prepare for it.” “Oh yeah, his rate of teleportation is unmatched. Some say he also knows your next move before you do.” “Sounds interesting.” I say, honestly impressed. “We haven’t actually introduced ourselves actually.” Joy says, reminding me that we haven’t even said our names. “Oh, sorry.” I say sheepishly. “My names Ben, and this is my little brother Joy.” I say while patting Joy’s head. “Nice to meet you.” Ray said. “Haven't seen you in town before. You from Hotland or?” “That’s a...little hard to explain. But what’s your name? Cause all Chara here said was your name is ‘Ray’.” I say. “It's a nickname. My name is Asriel.” “Nice to meet you Asriel.” I say. “You said your a guard in training?” Joy asks. “Yeup! Mom let me and Chara live in our Snowden home for training as sentries. Though she has me visit her once a week in our home in Waterfall for special training.” “Really? First you name a town after a snow pun...and then you probably just named an entire section of the ground because it has waterfalls?” I frown. “I’m sorry but does any of the places back home sound any less terrible with the puns?” Joy asks. “I know I know.” I sigh out, rubbing my temple. “But I suppose people have been snowden a few too many times to not name it that right?” I ask, making a shitty shitty pun that I feel bad about. “Every morning!” Ray says with surprising enthusiasm. “Takes half an hour to dig out the front door.” Chara adds. “Bright side, we have made some amazing snow sculptures.” “I made a shitty pun and you pointed out how it actually happens…” I frown. “Surprising.” Joy says, a snowflake gently landing on Joy’s nose. “But understandable.” “So, Ray. How went patrolling east Snowden?” Chara asks. “All’s clear!” Ray said. “What are you looking for?” I ask. “A snow poff or something?” I wonder, not sure why I pointed out a snow poff but finding it...suitable I suppose. “A human so I can tell mom so she can warn them about the king.” “Then I suppose we already found a human.” Joy says while pointing to Chara. “Or is there some story behind this?” “Mom saved me when the king was about to rip my soul out.” Chara said. “Yelled some nasty words I didn't see coming and took me to her home. Been living with her, dad, and Ray ever since.” “Who’s your dad?” I ask, not really knowing who Toriel was married to to begin with. “Asgore, the royal scientist.” “We have a guard captain and a royal scientist...makes sense.” I shrug. “Are they still married?” Joy asks, worried that there bond still held instead of being long gone. “That's...complicated…both mom and dad work to serve the kingdom but they've been...distant lately.” Me and Joy look down. “Well...hopefully it can be solved. And hey, maybe with a little help it can be solved.” I say, hoping to at least save a suffering marriage that two children shouldn’t be put through. “Where is your father actually?” Joy asks curiously. “In Hotland, that's where his lab is.” Ray says. “Okay then.” I nod. “Glad to know that. But let’s see now, we have ‘Snowdin’, ‘Waterfall’, and ‘Hotland’...this is starting to sound like the start of a Mario game…” I frown, now only missing the desert and jungle worlds. “Do either of you have any favorite pass times?” Joy asks, wondering when Frisk will do something here, even though talking to new friends is nice. “I play capture the human with Chara. Wanna play?” Ray asked. “Well…” I start. “Got nothing better to do I suppose.” “Isn’t it a little unfair considering Chara’s the only human here?” Joy asks, playing dumb that Frisk is still probably under the table. “Well, kinda, but Chara is a lot tougher than she looks!” “Plus.” Chara said. “Plus?” Ray questioned. “Plus this time I’m not alone.” Chara stepped back, and Frisk jumped up. “This is Frisk Ray, my sister from topside and partner in our game.” “What?! No way! Glad to finally meet you, Chara’s always talking about you, but, uh, guess we’ll introduce better after the game though, come on you two, let’s go set up the puzzles!” Ray said, running ahead, full of energy. “Wow, he seems more happy than usual, you two best catch up, I wanna talk with my sis for a bit, catch each other up on what’s gone on since I did my disappearing act two years ago.” “Alright.” I nod. “Wait up.” Joy says, rushing along to catch up with the happy goat child. “See ya later.” I say while vanishing, snow kicking up before I caught up to Joy who was chasing Asriel. After a bit of a chase, we caught up with the goat child. “Oh, you two finally caught up, great, now, I need you two to help with something, you see this large field of snow?” Ray asks, pointing out to a large empty field of snow. “I’m sorry, but I think we’re looking at another large field of snow.” I point out, considering this entire area of the underground is basically nothing but snow. “Yes, we do see the empty snow field.” “Take this and walk into it.” Ray said, tossing Joy a small blue orb. Joy nodded and took the blue orb. “Okay.” Joy shrugs while walking over the field with the orb in hand. “So what? Is this a ‘guess where to step’ puzzle?” Joy asks, having a good feeling about the puzzle as he just walks through it. As soon as he walked into it, he felt like he bumped into something and the orb made a loud buzz sound, startling Joy and making Ray laugh. “It’s an invisible electric fence maze! Dad made it for me! I had to beg for a month before mom finally said I could get it.” “Interesting.” I say. “You could say I’m shocked by how creative it is.” I say, making another shitty pun. “That pun was bad and you should feel bad.” Joy frowns. “I always feel bad Joy.” I say with a smile. “Come on, let’s get on the other side before Chara and her sister show up.” Ray said, walking on a space around the maze, covering his tracks as he did. After a bit Chara arrived first...from BEHIND US, and Frisk arrived from the way we came. “Aha human, this is the insolvable, Electric Puzzle Maze!” Ray said, getting into character of this game. “You will have to watch yourself, a wrong step and the blue...the blue...uh, Joy, did you leave the orb on the other side for Frisk?” Joy looked down at the orb still in his hands. “Uh...no? Chara forgot it.” Joy says nervously, while I just chuckled at the poor pups plight. “Uh...here, you know your way through the maze so here.” He says while handing the orb to Chara. “Thanks.” Chara said, taking the route around the maze, giving it to Frisk, then walking back here on the same side path. Frisk chuckled before following Chara’s footprints in the snow over to us. “Curses human, you are too clever!” Ray declared. “My next puzzle will not be so forgiving!” With that, he dashed off. “Well that went better than usual.” Chara says. “He’s too pure for this world.” I whine, not believing someone that wasn’t one of my children was so pure. “Anyways, onwards to the next puzzle.” Joy says, wanting to see what else Asriel had in store for Frisk. “Sure, it’s a bit of a walk, you’ll run into snow poffs, a few messed up snow dog statues, a Nicecream vendor, and a mini puzzle or two. Go on ahead to catch Ray, wanna relax a bit with sis.” Chara informed us. “Wait, why is someone selling ice cream in the middle of an area that is always snowing and cold?” I ask with a frown. “That’s a bad business decision…” “Well either way let’s just find Asriel before he wonders where we went.” Joy says before running off to find the lovable goat. “Fine fine.” I say while following along. We found all that Chara said we’d find, including the Nice cream, not ice cream, vendor, and Joy and I bought one since it was one of those things you can break in two since it had two sticks. We shared one, it tasted really good despite the cold environment, and we caught up with Ray. “Oh, hey you two.” Ray said, writing some stuff down in front of some kinda puzzle that was rather poorly made it seems. It had blue X’s and I think it’s one of those, get all the X’s and turned into O’s but step on one twice and you have to restart. “I’m mostly planning right now, take a rest if you want.” “And what is this barely finished puzzle?” I ask curiously. “Is it a ‘get all the tiles to be the same color’ or something?” “Yeah, Chara and I can’t figure it out because of how bad whoever made it set it up. You can try and solve it but Chara and I have been trying to for months, but knock yourselves out.” I nod before taking a step forward and onto the first tile, wondering if it just turns to only one other color or too many colors. It did, and when I stepped off and on it again it changed again, but trying it a third time it didn’t switch. Joy was at the reset button for whenever I messed up. After my second try because of dealing with the shitty design of it I finally solved it. “It’s not that hard to solve, it’s just the design is shit.” I shrug. “Oh, thanks, saved me time.” Frisk said, skipping passed up as Ray tried to run ahead of her. “Wow...that could not have been timed better.” Chara said, somehow behind me. “Yeah, after solving a simple puzzle that apparently the two of you couldn’t solve.” I shrug. “But I can understand because it’s design is shit.” I frown. “Anymore puzzles or is Ray going to use his adorableness against Frisk?” “He likely has two more in mind but I wouldn’t worry about them. Dad just made an empty metal box for the first one and the second one, mom and dad both didn’t even attempt to make it.” Chara said. “I’m worried…” I say with a frown. “But anyways, we better catch up to the two before something silly happens.” Joy and I ran after the two. When we arrived Chara was somehow on the other side with Ray...how? She didn’t even run along side us? “How in the hell?” I frown at Chara. “I call hax.” Joy says, finding the amount of how Chara can just instantly teleport without caring is a tad stupid. “Meh.” Chara said. “Now than human! Time for one of the most dangerous puzzles, my dad, has made!” Ray said, very much in character and not caring about Chara’s hacking reality. “Now, time for-” “I’m gonna stop you there bro.” Chara said. “First off, you really think mom would let you have a deathtrap tile puzzle? Or that dad would actually build it? This box here is empty, well, I keep ketchup packets in here but it’s mostly empty, and the tiles on the floor are just broken flatscreen tv’s found from the junk that falls into the underground.” “But-” “No Ray, sorry to be blunt, but you know mom and dad won’t ever let you have something that dangerous. Mom about had a cow when you got hurt using a SPORK!” “How the hell did you hurt yourself with a spork?” I ask, not believing that actually happened. “Not even he knows… he was eating with it...then he somehow got a cut on his lip taking it out of his mouth...needless to say mom burned it to an unrecognizable pile of metal forever melted into the ground in out backyard in our Waterfall home.” “The cinnamon roll...is weird…” I shake my head. “And I’m calling Ray a cinnamon roll because he’s too pure for this world just so’s ya know.” I say honestly. “Hey!” Ray called out. “He’s not too off.” Chara said. “I often wonder...hang on a moment… Yo Joy, mind coming over here?” Joy nodded and walked over to Chara. “What do you need?” He asks Chara, wondering what the girl wanted. “Stand in front of Ray, like...that.” She positioned Joy so he was in front of Ray, facing sideways, or rather, facing her. “Perfect!” “Am I missing something?” Joy asks curiously. “Or are you trying to compare me to Ray here?” “Not exactly.” She said, placing an arm on Joy’s shoulder and, before Joy could properly react, fell backwards, pulling Joy with her. She made sure that how they fell they...well, they touched in THAT area. “Oh my~ Naughty dog~” “I wha- wait!” Joy tried to say, only for stuttering nonsense to come out at the circumstance. “Watta go sis!” Frisk cheered. “Sheesh, you are a natural with women.” I laugh, seeing Joy’s face completely beat red. “Uh...I...uh…” Joy mutters, not believing any of this and worried he’s doing something wrong. Chara looked over at Ray...who’s face was cherry red blush...and unconscious. “Damn it, he is too pure…” She said, tossing Joy off her. “Well all I got out of that was the length of Joy’s member...pretty sure that’s big for a thirteen year old.” Joy’s nose started to turn into a blood fountain. “Uh...I...uh...I didn’t...think I’d…” “Get two girlfriends on this trip?” I ask with a cheeky grin. “Any number of girlfriends…” He says, reaching over and finding a snow poff before using it to smother his face...only for it to steam away with how hot his face was. “At least the nose bleed went down.” I point out. “Shut up…” Joy whines, getting up and brushing the snow off his cloak. “Anyways...did Frisk tell you about me and Ben? And a...thing she want’s to probably join?” “Yeah, and us being twins wanna tell you, or rather, show something to you.” Chara said with a devious smile while she motioned Frisk to come over, she did and the two talked up to Joy. They were...real close...they then hugged each other tightly before Frisk gave a playful lick to Chara’s cheek… Joy’s nosebleed went up to ten feet high at that. “OH COME ON!” Joy complains, trying to stop his nosebleed. “I don’t want to die from blood loss…” He whines. “Be glad your blood is going north rather than south.” I chuckle. “Stahp!” Joy whines. “You're not helping! “Relax doggie style.” Chara says, she and Frisk separating. “That’s just a tease, still debating on being with you~” “Well...I hope I make a good impression.” He says with a little smile, hoping these two lovely teens can join in. “Cause...I do hope to make two lovely girls like you two be happy and feel loved.” He explains with a smile. “I’d only accept on one condition.” Chara said. “What’s the condition?” Joy asks. “Well first off, Joy, next time check your pockets.” Chara said as she pulled out...the gender bending mirror! “You dropped this, and man was that a surprise when we found out what it does.” “Uh...I can explain.” I say nervously. “And Joy, how the hell did you get that?” “You almost forgot it, so I took it to make sure they didn’t know about it…” Joy says nervously. “Crap...the cat’s out of the bag on this one.” He says nervously. “Well point is I wanna use this to prank Ray, turn him into a goat girl for a bit, and some laughs, then change him back. Just, when he wakes up, tell him he has something on his face and when he looks into your convenient mirror, poof, shock of his life.” Chara says. “That sounds funny.” Joy chuckles. “Okay...but when he wakes up.” “Should be a few more minutes.” “Alright.” Joy nods. “What do you think about Joy you two?” I ask curiously. “He’s too easy, but fun.” Frisk said. “Meh, he’s big enough.” Chara said. “I know we just met...but that seems a little harsh…” Joy says bitterly. “But...hopefully I can change that if we get to know each other more…” He says, hoping that they’ll see him more than just a sex object. “Don’t worry they will.” I say honestly. “Or not, that’s up to them.” “Still, here’s this to think about. You got two, bisexual, incestual, twin sisters considering you as their boyfriend~” Chara said as she and Frisk walked over to Joy. Joy stood up again and brushed the snow off of his coat. “It does sound amazing when you put it that way.” Joy chuckles. “Joy is a happy little ball of fluff if you two haven’t realised, so he will make sure the two of you, and the rest of his harem, are all happy as can be.” I explain simply. “And seriously, seeing Joy embarrassed is just adorable.” “Shut up!” Joy barks at me, only making me laugh. “Ugh, what happened?” Ray said as he began to wake up. “Showtime.” Chara said, handing Joy the mirror. “Hey Ray, I think you got a little something on your face.” Joy says while walking over. “Here’s a mirror to help you out.” He says, handing the gender bending mirror to the goat child. “Oh. Thanks.” Ray said as he stood up and took the mirror. The second he looked into it the magic activated and the flash startled him...he dropped the mirror and it hit the snow...but the sound of breaking glass made my blood run cold. “What was-” Ray stopped talking, noticing the slight tone change in his voice. It was more feminine. “What happened to my voice?” Physically Ray didn't look too different, ears were a bit longer but that was all we could see. “You broke the mirror…” I mutter. “Well...that’s at least a load off my back…” I mutter to myself thankfully. “So Ray, what you looked into was a ‘gender bending mirror’, which basically means ‘you're now a girl’.” I explain simply. “What?” He, er, she asked. Ray ran behind a tree...two seconds later a high pitched scream that rivaled Frisk’s when we first arrived. “Fuck!!” Me and Joy shout in pain, covering our ears and thankfully not feeling blood but still extreme pain from the scream. “CHARA!!!” Ray yelled, running in a panic with some tears up to the girl. “What do I do!?” Ray asked as ‘she’ shook her. “First...stop...shaking...me!” She yelled, making Ray stop. “Thank you. Now Ray, there is only one option for you.” Chara said, making her best serious face and looking Ray right in the eyes. “First, tell mom, second, if this can’t be fixed, I recommend masterbating to-” Joy actually hit Chara on the head, lightly, with Skysplitter. “As far as I know it can’t be fixed because the mirrors broken.” I point out. “Chara!” Joy barks. “This isn’t the time for dirty jokes.” He says to her, honestly sad and worried to see Ray like this. “How else is Ray gonna get used to having a vagina and a clitoris!” She barked back at Joy. “Besides, she, he, she, is fourteen too and even when Ray was a girl they didn’t know what masterbating was til I told them...mom got me good for that...couldn’t sit for a week, but got free ice cream for that week as I saved her and dad from having the talk with Ray.” “Why are you trying to tell the cinnamon roll dirty things?” I ask. “I know it’s a fact of life and we can’t escape it but still…” I say. “It must have also been hilarious to try to talk about it.” “His face was also red for a week.” Chara said with a hint of pride. “Ha.” I chuckle, while Joy moves over to Ray. “Are you okay?” Joy asks the new goat girl gently, trying his best to be caring and considerate for her plight. “I feel...really weird…” Ray admits. “I’m sorry…” Joy apologizes for the entire thing. “But...I’m here for you if you need any help okay? I’m not a girl so...I don’t know your pain but I’m here to help.” The dire wolf pup says to the goat, the weird difference between their races, Joy being a Dire Wolf and Asriel being a goat monster, only making the scene just...more adorable for some reason. “I feel...oddly warm...Uhhh.” Ray said, trailing off as she stared at Joy... “Uh...warm...how?” Joy says nervously. Ray’s only response was a small drool line from the side of her mouth. “MINE!” She screamed, pouncing on Joy like a Lion going for a kill...she also had her tongue ALL the way down his throat. “Wow...didn’t see that coming.” Chara said, taking out a lollipop and unwrapped it and starting eating it. Joy was practically freaking out because of the forcefulness and how her tongue somehow went all the way down his throat. He put his hands on her chest and tried to push away just so he could breath for five seconds. “We should stop this…” I say simply. “Hmm…” I look at Chara and Frisk, wondering if they’ll do anything about it. Chara shrugged. “Meh, it’s a good show. Pray hunts the predator~” Frisk said. Joy managed to push Ray off of him and broke the kiss, panting for breath. “Jesus christ girl, slow down for five seconds.” He pants. Ray’s response was moving her mouth...towards Joy’s pants zipper…”NOPE!” Joy shouts, grabbing her head and lifting her up in the air. “Not until you're sixteen, just like your sisters and the rest of my harem. Got.That?” Joy growls, the very horny girl seeing his predatory stare of ‘you won’t get it until I say you’ll get it’. “Okay that’s enough you two!” I bark, walking over and lifting the two by their collars, Joy removing his hands from Ray’s head and I separated the two. “No fucking until you're sixteen.” I frown. “I NEED- Yipe!” Ray yelped as Chara put a very large snowball in Ray’s underpants. “Better?” She asked. “Lots.” Ray said, some relief in her voice. “There.” He says while putting the two down. “Now, Ray. Since you practically tried to rape Joy, you're going to join his harem, that both Chara and Frisk are willing to join if they so decide.” “Might as well, that was fun to watch.” Chara said. “That happen often with the others?” “It’s more...just teasing about when the rest of the girls are sixteen.” Joy sighs out. “I...honestly want the teasing to stop cause it’s getting to the point where they literally don’t care about age anymore but keep saying ‘until we’re sixteen’.” Joy rolls his eyes, finding the amount of teasing so gratuitous it’s not even funny. “I am so there!” Frisk cheered. “Warning! I sleep in the nude!” “So do some of my other girlfriends.” Joy sighs out. “Sheesh Joy, you are getting all the lucky ladies.” I chuckle. “Shut up.” Joy sighs out. “Anyways, where to next? Cause I’m pretty sure we’re going to have to meet your parents next you two.” I say while pointing to Chara and Ray. “I’m sure Toriel’s gonna have a field day learning about this.” I grumble. “I’ll call mom and tell her to meet us in Hotland at Dad’s lab.” Chara said. “I know a good shortcut from here to Hotland.” We followed Chara to their home. It was a nice house. Chara grabbed a cell phone and called Toriel. They chatted and she agreed to meet us at their dad’s lab in Hotland. Chara walked us over to this place where...a yellow duck stood there. “Across please.” The duck one by one flew us all across a small, but deep, river and we walked on the other side and we were in Hotland, where Chara walked us over to her and Ray’s dad’s lab. “Let’s hope shit doesn’t hit the fan…” I whisper to Joy. “Don’t worry...it’s gonna hit the fan…” Joy whispers back bitterly. We entered the lad, where a Toriel in armor and an Asgore in a lab coat with glasses. “What did you want to talk about Chara?” Toriel asked, her voice very calm and motherly...lot like mamma Den. “This.” Chara said...pulling Ray’s pants and underwear down… “You son is a girl and my brother is now a sister...also my sister from the surface, Frisk.” “Hi.” Frisk said. Toriel and Asgore had their jaws dropped...then they both passed out. “That’s what I expected.” “Well...that happened.” I shrug. “Kind of expected them to at least last more then that sentence and display…” Joy says honestly. “So now we wait for them to wake up. Ray pulled up her pants fast. “Why did you have to pants me?!” She yelled at Chara. “Didn’t wanna explain everything.” Chara replied in a rather uncaring tone. “Plus mom would have had to see sooner or later. I picked show her now rather than sooner, being later, and later, being when your guard is down.” “Alright then.” I nod. “So, what are they going to think about Frisk?” I ask curiously. “And what are they going to think about me?” Joy asks worriedly. “Dad will like you both, mom will like Frisk, most likely try and kill you Joy. She’s protective like that. Dad let’s us have fun within reason.” “Okay then.” I nod. “Oi vey…” Joy sighs out, summoning Xaldin’s lances just in case. “Well I better have these out just in case.” After Toriel and Asgore woke up and we explained what happened Asgore took a look at the broken mirror and Toriel chased Joy around the lab...and most of Hotland, launching house sized fireballs at the pup. About four hours passed Toriel calmed down some, though Joy needs his suit repaired and his tail hair was half burned. “So you are willing to take in Chara and Asriel, as well as Frisk, have them in a safe place, teach them to fight properly, while this...mutt, also dates them…” Toriel said. “The only reason why I-” Joy starts before I stop him. “To start off. Yes, I have a home for the three that is safe, guarded, and I know plenty of masters that can teach them how to fight with many weapons.” I say simply, before stepping forward and glaring at her. “But if you dare call my little brother, the one that’s going to show them love and affection in a now breaking marriage, again…” I say coldly, the well trained and experienced guard sensing that she’s over her head with me. “The only reason Asgore and I are divorcing is because of what he does for the king...every human the king killed Asgore used their souls to experiment ways to open or break the barrier…” Toriel growled. “I only did as ordered Tori, the king may not feel regrets but I do. He’s insane! Thinking he can become a god and talking to himself when it’s dark.” Asgore barked back at Toriel. “I’ve met an actual god...there’s no way in hell he can be like that.” I shake my head. “Toriel, listen to the one person that loves you. Would he really do this of his own free will? Do you have any idea what threats the king has thrown at him just to do what he has to do now?” I ask. “Your life, and the life of your children, or doing work to try and break the barrier. If you were in his shoes, would you sacrifice the only things that you love above all else just to show that you don’t agree with him?” I growl. Toriel began to ponder. “Well…ever since I stopped talking to him and his brother left the king has been more isolated, save for his new consultant.” “Who.” I say, not as a question, but as a demand to know. “Cause what you just said...is most likely a life or death situation for all beings on this world.” I growl. “Who is his consultant? Or do you even know?” Joy asks, trying to have a more gentle approach than me being aggressive. “Never said her name, just know she wears a metal mask all the time.” Asgore said. “That’s not good.” I frown. “That is not good at all…” I mutter while stepping away and turning to Chara. “You know a shortcut to the Ruins right?” I ask Chara, hoping to god this girl knows a shortcut. “I know one that can work, but it takes a lot of mana that I don’t have. Humans like me don’t generate all that much naturally.” “Shit...can you show Toriel how to use it?” I ask curiously. “Can’t, not sure how I even do it.” “Try this.” Asoge said, handing Chara a bag of...mana chisps. “Monster food is made from magic, but Chara being human needs more to pull off magic attacks. These new chips are made with the amount of mana a month's worth of monster food holds. This should be enough.” “Thanks dad.” Chara said, opening the bag and chowing down. She then pulled a knife- “Chara! Where did you get that?!” Toriel demanded in that ‘you’re in trouble’ parenting voice. “Later mom.” Chara said, the knife in her hand glowing red like it it was super heated. She then slashed the air...a tear in space time opening up… “This should lead back to the Ruins entrance. I used this to jump around Snowdin when we were playing. Small distances are easy, long ones like where it’s going are harder.” “That’s a nifty ability.” I say with a nod. “Toriel, you can Chara go down and get Papyrus’s bony ass up here and get to the castle as fast and possible. Me and Joy will head off to find Sans...hopefully he’s not too far gone…” I frown. “We better get going.” Joy says. “You should stay here Frisk, we don’t know how strong Sans is and I don’t want to see you hurt.” “Okay, so...I’ll watch Tv.” She said. “I’ll make some popcorn.” Asgore said. “And then Frisk sneaks out under your nose and appears near us.” I point out. “How good at you are dodging Frisk?” I ask the girl, knowing full well she’s going to follow along even if Joy didn’t like it. “About as fast as Chara, when we got bored back on the surface we raced the kids on bikes and did some parkour by running over fences.” “If you were to have an arrow shot at you, could you dodge it?” I ask. “Have and did, never run through the archery teams line of fire for a shortcut in school.” “Fast enough.” I nod. “Alright you, let’s go.” I say. “Where be the right direction besides ‘go through that door’?” I ask, pointing to the door that we didn’t go through. “And how much property damage am I going to have to pay for?” “Get us out of the underground, none.” Asgore said. “I’ll ring the evacuation drill so everyone leaves for Snowdin. Should take them ten minutes, half an hour at longest.” “Thank you. But just so you know, doors will be destroyed, puzzles will be ignored, and monsters will hopefully ignore us long enough to get to the tricked king.” I explain. “Take the elevator, it’s linked to the king’s throne room. Just hit all the buttons twice, that’s the code to make it run up there. Can’t having anyone enter his throne right? Well, this is an exception but that’s besides the point.” “Thanks Asgore.” I nod. “Alright you two, let’s go.” I say while walking towards the pretty convenient elevator and pushed the button, seeing the doors open. When me, Frisk and Joy were all in the elevator and pushed all the buttons twice, seeing the doors close and we all shot up towards the throne room. “So...ready to talk a skeleton down from causing mass genocide?” I ask Frisk. “If we can.” Joy said. “If this is...her, then who knows what she’s told and done to him.” “Let’s hope it’s not her…” I say worriedly. “We’re pretty boned if it’s that bitch who made Sans go crazy.” The elevator dinged and the opened, we were facing behind his throne. “So...what brings you three here?” Sans’s voice spoke in a dull monotone. “We’re here to stop the person who’s controlling you, and save you from this madness.” I explain. “You're smart, you must know you’re being used.” “Duh.” He replied. “I’ve known, but these days I just don’t care. Don’t even have the energy to fight her on a move.” “Who is she?” I ask, summoning my shield and Reunion just in case. “We’re here to help.” I say, Joy spawning an elixer. “I have something that’ll make you feel a hundred percent.” Joy says, hoping he can be saved as Lindworm surrounded him. “I trained Toriel, all my guards personally...besides,” Joy felt a bony hand grab his shoulder, he looked over it, seeing Sans there, a small crown on his head and some elegant robes for his clothes. “Checkmate.” Joy was suddenly thrown across the room, as I was about to react, bones went THROUGH my legs, pinning me down, and likely crippling me too while Sans grabbed Frisk. “Well, at least you help contribute to the kingdom.” Sans said as he dragged Frisk. “Like hell!” I shout, the bones that went through my legs snapping as I went into my Master form and healing me fully. “You are not going to kill Frisk.” I growl. A bone went though Frisk’s arm. “I can.” Another though her leg. “And I will…” The third...through her heart… “To save my people from this prison.” “NO!” Joy shouts in rage. “Murdering children is not the answer!” I shout, Joy grabbing Frisk's body and disappearing, bringing out a revival item in hopes to safe her. “What would Papyrus think!?!” “YOU BASTARD!!” We all turned to the main entrance, seeing Chara, Toriel, and Papyrus...though, it was Chara that screamed. She lifted up her knife, it glowed red...and her eyes turned black. “Let’s go dirty sister killer!” “You’ll have a bad time kid.” Sans replied, he shot bones at Chara. We didn’t even see her move before the bones were sliced into powder. “Oh right, you’re human...the Determination trait… This will be interesting.” The two circled each other before vanishing, a hole appeared in the wall while all anyone could see outside was flashes of light and the occasional clanking. “Come on Phoenix Down, don't be useless.” Joy mutters, tears falling as he placed it down on the dead girl, seeing a light gently heal her wounds. “Please...please work…” He mutters sadly. The wounds on her body healed in flashes of light, then she coughed as she took air back into her lungs. “Owh...that sucked…” She muttered. “Frisk!” Joy yips happily and hugged her happily. “Still sore, still sore!” She cried. “Oh, sorry.” He says worriedly, loosening up his grip. “I'm glad your back...but Chara is...fighting Sans.” “And I have a bitch to kill.” I growl. “Oh shit!” Frisk said, jumping up. “We gotta stop her!” “Can you keep track of that?” Joy frowns, pointing towards the DBZ esc fight. “Uh...no...she’s never fought with magic before so I can’t even see where she is!” Frisk said worried. “I know you're here!” I bark to literally no one. “So get your ass out here and quit hiding like the bitch you are!” I shout, readying myself for a fight. There were footsteps, slowly walking, but I didn’t see anyone...then I looked up, and saw her, wearing that mask! “Nice to see you again...Ben, right?” She asked, sitting down on the ceiling. “Having fun making a good person go mad?” I growl. “But get down here.” “You get up here.” She said, waving her hand as I fell...UP! I managed to spin to my feet...upside down, whatever and found myself standing in front of her. “Why did you corrupt a nice king?” I growl. “Nice doesn’t describe him. He slaughtered thousands in the war that trapped his people down here, if it wasn’t for his brother stopping him, humans would have gone extinct on this world. He’s a being without much light in his heart, yet still wishes to be good, but is easily swayed by his inability to find other routes.” “He just needs help being pushed in the right direction.” I say while pointing my Keyblade at the assassin. I could feel her smile under that mask of hers. “You and him are a lot alike, both naturally dark, wanting to be good, fighting your hearts nature...it’s entertaining really.” “You wish.” I say, taking a deep breath and readying myself to fight. She stood, taking out some kinda sword rather than summoning a Keyblade. She charged forward and I dodged. She was fast, damn it! Can’t get a hit on her just yet. “So you’re one of many now, son of a god?” She asked, not letting up her attack. “Haste.” I mutter, a golden clock appearing behind me and speeding me up tremendously. “That’s none of your business.” I say while using my increased speed to swing at her, hoping to hurt her at least while dodging her swings. “It’s my business to learn about my targets.” She said, switching to hitting my blade, and using her sword to block and meet my Keyblade with an attack. “My life is none of your concern.” I say, my shield growing an ice spike and I tried to shield bash her quickly. SHe waved her hand, changing the direction of my bash so it went passed her arm. “Did you know Core is kidnapping people?” She asked, keeping up her pace. “The same three people from every reflection.” “Sora, Riku and Kairi.” I deadpan. “Seemed kind of obvious cause of the games.” I state. “Did you know even the realm of darkness has a heart?” “An idiot would think it didn't.” I say. “So why are you telling me this?” “Can you link what he’s doing the the Heart of Darkness?” She asked, making a forward move...big mistake. I side stepped, and rammed Reunion into her mask, breaking it as she jumped back. There was a scar across her nose now, blood dripped from it. “Not bad, left my defence down for one point three seconds.” “I can.” I say. “Again, why are you telling me this?” “Core says no more secrets, no more hiding it now that he’s so close. He plans to make his own X-blade, one for the realm of darkness. What better to fight the original with than it’s twin, he has most of what he needs, just missing the pieces of it’s old body.” “The X-blade is a weapon of Light and Darkness, not just one or the other.” I frown. “You can't just make one that just so happens to be all darkness because you can. That makes literally no sense.” “That’s why Core’s kept Zeke alive this long.” “Unless he’s using Void there is literally no way to make an all Darkness X-blade.” I frown, remembering he’s using a bunch of void to do tests. “Now, anything else you want to tell me?” I ask her, having a feeling she want’s to tell me more. “Besides you hitting the nail on the hammer, nothing much else. But here’s a warning, Core will declare war against Zeke. This time, light and void will fight with darkness as the battleground.” “Well...that’s something.” I say simply. “But you won’t be there to experience it.” I say, readying myself to beat her. “You caught me off my guard once, not this time.” She said, readying her blade to block. “Let's see about that.” I say, dashing forward and swinging down, nothingness thorns shooting out like snakes to impale themselves into her or distract her blade from the main swing. I poured all I had into Reunion...even some memories, my rage, sadness...joy, heh, thanks Joy...and will all I had I made sure my strike was true and had everything behind it. When it hit, there was an explosion, both she and I were thrown back. I checked Reunion, still whole, thank god, and she...was missing half of her head...though she still got up. “Not bad, should have used that when you first had the open swing, might have killed me then.” She said, her mark glowing before she vanished. “How the hell is she still alive?” I wonder, readying myself in case she's still here. Gravity decided to stop being backwards and I fell down, though this time I fell on my side. “Owe...that hurt.” I groan after hitting the floor. “You okay?” Joy asks me after rushing over. “Frisk is alive thankfully...but we still have to stop Chara and Sans…” “I'm fine...but how are we going to stop very pissed people?” I ask worriedly. “I just hope neither of them are dead.” “No...but the empty city is.” Frisk said, pointing out the hole in the wall, showing all the city was nothing but rubble while Chara and Sans stood across from each other in the distance, from what we could see, they both looked exhausted. But both looked unharmed. “Shit.” I frown. “We have to stop them before they start up again.” Joy says, not wanting the two to kill each other. “Okay then. Papyrus? You still here?” I ask curiously, hoping the skeleton was still here. “He ran for the battlefield like, five minutes ago.” Frisk said. “Christ.” I sigh out. “Better find him before he get’s himself hurt.” I say while summoning my glider and flying down to the battlefield, hoping to find Papyrus and hopefully stop the fight. Frisk and Joy hopped on and when we arrived Frisk jumped off and tackle hugged Chara while Papyrus came a few seconds later and hugged Sans. “Brother, please, this is enough.” Pap said. “P… Papyrus?” Sans muttered, his blue eyes glow fading as he went unconscious. “Chara...enough...don’t go too far.” Frisk said to Chara. After a bit, Chara’s eyes went back to normal and she pet Frisk. “You dummy. Told you a good tackle you aim for the gut, not chest.” “Depends on things~” “You perv.” Chara chuckled, hugging Frisk back. Joy dashed over and lifted the two up in a hug. “I’m glad you're both okay…” Joy says, happy that Chara is also safe after Frisk was revived. “Yo, Papyrus? How long is Sans gonna be asleep?” “If I know my brother...days if he wanted too. He’ll actually wake up in probably a few hours and I’ll make him some food to get get his lazy but some energy again.” “Right then.” I nod. “So...now to break the barrier.” I nod. “How can the barrier be broken anyway?” Joy asks, hoping for either Chara or Papyrus to answer. “Seven souls or seven mages were used to create the barrier, so unless you have some kinda keys to the souls only seven more human souls will break it.” “Would Keyblades work?” Joy asks me. “Well considering Keyblades are all encompassing magical weapons…” I trail off. “Hey, want kick ass swords?” I ask Chara, Frisk and Papyrus. “I’ll give one to Sans and Toriel...and maybe Asgore because he’s a scientist.” I shrug. “Uh, sure.” Chara said as she and Frisk stood up. “So...I’ll go get mom and dad.” “Thank you.” I nod. “And...oh wait...shit.” I frown. “What?” Joy asks. “I forgot...giving keyblades takes time…” I frown. “Before you leave Chara, where do all the monsters go when they evacuate?” I ask her before she suddenly leaves. “Snowdin. Lot of trees and space to build new homes. Not many people live in Waterfall, but those that do it’s easy to find them.” “Okay then...so let's go find people.and I can open my own shortcut to a different planet.” I say. “Don't worry, you'll love the world me and Joy call home.” “Let's get going. We've got a ton of monsters to find and a few things to explain.” Joy says sheepishly. “So...all these people came from another world, their main city is destroyed, and you brought them all here to make a new home?” Celestia asked. We brought everyone from the Underground and right now they all are here in Ponyville. Wasn’t hard getting Celestia here, where we are, in my livingroom, Luna next to me and Chrysalis next to Celestia. “To sum it up yes.” I nod. “But you also forgot Joy getting three new girlfriends.” I point out. “Given your record so far I’m not surprised. Also we met up with the queen of the Diamond dogs...here.” She said, handing me an invite. You are Invited! To The royal wedding of Celestia, princess of Equestria, Chrysalis, Queen of the Changelings and new princess of Equestria, And Rune, queen of the Diamond Dogs. “That mare made me act like Chrysalis when she’s drunk on love...I am so backed up on paperwork right now…” Celestia said, glaring at Luna. “Heheh...I’ll get on that.” Luna said as she got up and walked towards her office. “Good Lord.” I sigh out, not believing this. “Anyways, have you talked to Sans? The King of the monsters that are moving in?” I ask. “Also congratulations.” “Not yet, I’m heading there after this talk.” “If he's asleep talk to Papyrus, his brother.” I say. “But I hope you don't mind all the new people appearing in Equestria...they needed a new home.” “After Manehatten and the crime genocide in Las pegasus Equestria’s population has dwindled greatly. This at least makes up the dead criminals from Las Pegusus. I was actually going over the plans for rebuilding Manehatten and we thought a large park with the memorial statue would be fine and around it a newly built city, so long as they are willing to aid in construction this project will be quite the job maker for our nation as well.” “I can imagine.” I shrug. “But I think it was either Time or Luxu that told me about the memorial...it's a statue of me holding up something that has...all the dead names on it right?” I ask. “Yes. Twilight told me about your Lexicon weapon and we figured you holding that, open with all the names in it, and your Reunion in the other hand would be perfect. I have to admit, where did you find a magic lexicon anyway? Haven’t seen one of those in years.” “You wouldn't believe me if I told you where I got all my weapons.” I tell her. “But...alright I suppose. But given my new cloak...I have a feeling you're going to want me to pose for the statue?” I ask, having a feeling I'll have to pose for the statue or something. “A few photos will be enough, the sculpter is good at their job, it will be a multi pony project, but this mare is the best in the world so we have her supervising.” “That's good.” I nod. “But...how do you know who died and who didn't? Is there something special you can do to tell all the people who died?” I ask, finding over fifty thousand people dead and naming off everyone is kind of difficult without some sort of thing to keep track of all the names. “Well, given how the event went down it’s not too hard. Anyone who wasn’t found alive or...as a corpse, is dead. Canterlot has copies of all the towns and cities records, and luckily an updated shipment arrived the day before it happened.” “Alright.” I nod, hiding the still biting sadness if not being able to stop that mindless slaughter. “That's good to hear. I should probably go help Luna with the paperwork...unless you two had anything else to share.” “Not yet, I do have a surprise I plan on telling her and you later but it’s not ready yet. You best go help Luna, it’s a weeks worth of document signing, if you’re a prince now you best get used to writer's cramps.” Celestia and Chrysalis chuckled before teleporting out. “If you stopped plowing then you could do your work…” I mumbled to myself while getting up and heading off to Luna's office. “I should make sure they got their Keyblades though…” I mutter, remembering I gave the people of the underground Keyblades. “Oh no you don’t!” Luna called out, using her magic to float me into her office and dropped me in a seat next to her before she placed a pen in my hand and a stack of papers in front of me. “The others do their homework, as in, well, work around home, now you, no if’s, and's, or but’s.” She said firmly. “I never said I wasn't going to not help you.” I say to her. “I just need to make sure about that.” “Already sent a letter to Joy to take care of it.” “And he's probably busy with the new girls with all his other girlfriends.” I point out. ”Nope! They after me! I out for a week dude, you’re on your own.” Joy tells me mentally. “Or...they are literally after him...and is out for a week.” I frown. “Get reading, it’s going to be an all nighter.” Luna says with a sly smile. To my surprise she pulled out reading glasses and put them on...wow that’s sexy. “Oi vey…” I sigh out. “Are you doing that to tease me or something?” I ask honestly. “Tell you what, finish at least fifty documents, read them all and sign the yesses, trash the obvious no’s, and you get a reward.” “Okay.” I nod. “But what's the reward? Or is it a surprise?” “It’s hot office roleplay sex~” “Yay.” I cheer. “But...at least we're doing our work instead of fucking all the time...unlike Celestia.” I frown. “You kidding? The video’s Chrysalis sent me shows she works while fucking, in her office at least.” “Huh...surprising.” I say. “Well let's get working...but uh...how many days was I gone?” I ask. “Two, consider my having you work now mercy. Pinkie tried some special chocolates that increase sex drive, shared them with the others, and well, they’re still in there and when I peaked, bed’s broken, wardrobes broken, bathroom’s flooded, and you don’t wanna know about the tv.” “Yeah I'm not going near that...but apparently Joys girlfriends are throwing out the 'wait till sixteen’ bit...but let's get cracking” “No, they took pages from Pinkie and are teasing...though a tease for her is fist deep...well, you don’t wanna know.” “Christ…” I sigh out. “Seriously, Joys head is going to explode if they keep this up.” “Well, that’s what the family doctor is for. Now let’s get to work, got the butler bringing us coffee every so often so we stay awake, and if we do crash the guest bedroom is ready.” “That'll be a good idea.” I nod. “Let's get to signing this papers...hopefully there will be less shit than I think there will be here.” I say while grabbing my first paper and reading through it. To be continued...
Nobody's dating Coco“I know I asked for a schedule for a 'one on one’ dates but...sheesh Twilight.” I frown, seeing the massive lists she made. “Don't you think you went a little over board?” “Not at all, we all need some one on one time with you Ben, last time it was just you and me was that trip to Canterlot.” Twilight replied. “And last time I had a chance to have a one on one dates with everyone you were all extremely high and horny off of some damned chocolate Pinkie found.” I frown. “Seriously...I can still smell it in our room and you washed the room and burned some things.” “Heheh...last time I take chocolate from Pinkie...anyway. So I figured we go in reverse order. Last one brought in goes first and go backwards from there. Coco is waiting in the living room, she's got her time planned out for you two, have fun.” “Alright.” I nod. “Thanks Twilight.” I smile and kiss her gently and then leaving to find Coco and start our date. As Twilight said I found Coco in the living room, wearing a red top and short shorts. “Hi Ben.” She waved with a blush. She still hasn't fully been with me but those chocolate ls changed that with the others and her. “Don't you think your outfit is...a little revealing?” I ask her, putting my hands in my coat pockets. “It's ninety seven degrees today. Best cool rather than sweaty like you will in your cloak.” She replied. “Says the mare that was sweaty in more ways than one.” I mention offhandedly. “Oh please.” She said, rolling her eyes and handing me a folded shirt and cargo shorts. “Change please, I don't want you getting heat stroke.” “Nah I'm fine.” I say with a shrug. “I was wearing this in an area literally on top of molten lava, and I didn't break a sweat.” I say simply. “Also, I'm not wearing shorts...can't stand wearing those damned things.” I grumble. “O..oh...okay…” Coco said with a whimper that made me feel sad. “Why do you want me to change anyways?” I ask curiously, not wanting to upset her. “I made them. I made all my clothes and I wanted to make you some...if you don't want them then, that's fine…” “I don't like the guilt tripping.” I frown while taking the clothes. “Fine...but I'm still wearing my cloak.” I state. “That's okay.” She said, perking up a bit. “Thanks honey.” I say while patting her head gently. Her face went cherry red. “Y-your welcome!” “Adorable.” I chuckle before heading off to change my clothes. Three minutes later after changing in a private room I walked towards Coco with my cloak unzipped so she could see wearing the clothes she made...but I still didn't like the shorts since, even though they were perfect, still felt weird to me. “Happy?” “Thank you.” She said with a smile. “So, let's get going.” She said as we left though the front door. Walking to town. “So, what do you have planned for today?” I ask her. “Just a walk through town, maybe some snacks, and I did wanna visit a friend I made a few days ago.” “Alright.” I nod. “Who's the friend?” I ask. “Nyla. Her daughter is married to your friend Dorlu.” “Oh yeah, she's my aunt actually, given that she's Mama Dens sister.” I point out. “How did you two meet?” “Was shopping and I saw her in the market place. Thought she was you at first. We talked and she told me about her life and I talked about mine.” “I hope you were talking about good things…” I say nervously. “Nothing bad, just talked about each other.” “Okay.” I nod. “I understand. “Wonder where she is this time of day? I've been too busy to keep up with friends sadly.” “She works at the jewelry shop downtown. Her nose can smell real precious metals from fakes.” “The nose knows I suppose.” I shrug. Coco giggled. “Yeah. So, mind if I ask a personal question?” “Go right ahead. It's not like the others filled you in on my near crippling depression.” I shrug. “They did, and it’s kinda related. Um...since you know know your parent’s were murdered and not killed because of events...will you really stoop to her level for revenge?” “Revenge?” I ask, laughing at that. “Fuck no. Revenge is for the weak. And I'm going to kill that assassin on the basis that she's nothing but a monster now. She is nothing more than a test subject for Core, so I'm just killing a monster, like what hero's do all the time.” “Ever wonder why she became a monster? Luna told me about...when you killed that half heartless half human. He had his sanity still, he was just afraid. It’s...like the Nobodies you summon, lost and confused since they’re not...them anymore. Only following the strongest cause they can’t think for themselves. I believe anyone can be saved, be good if they tried, with help of course.” “My god…” I sigh out. “People can be saved yes, but for people like that can't be saved no matter how hard you try. They are nothing but monsters, and they enjoy seeing people try to see some sort of light in them...while ripping open their chest and eating their still beating hearts.” I shrug, getting really freaking morbid all of a sudden. “I dunno, people can change, I’ve seen it.” She said, leaning against me a bit as we walked. “People can change. Monsters can't.” I say. “I've seen monsters.” I say. “And I don't want any of you to meet any of them, cause they will kill you without a second thought.” I explain. “That’s what ponies said about my dad.” Coco said, going silent a bit before continuing. “Before I was born, my dad was a well known serial killer, his name was Bonesaw, but the media know him as Jaw Bone, since his calling card was his victims jawbone mailed to the cops. That changed when he met my mom. His whole life he thought of killing. He saw her...and wanted her safe more than anything, even above his bloodlust. One day he saw her being mugged in the street, beat up the muggers and finally the two dated. She found out who he was but didn’t care, he gave it all up for her. Three years later I was born...ten years later cops found him and he was executed… He was a monster his whole life. One person is all it takes sometimes to change them for the better.” “Ponies definition of 'monster’ is a fuck of a lot different than my definition of monster.” I frown. “He had a heart, he just needed to find the one person to show him that. But the monsters I fight, and see on a daily basis, makes him look like toddler throwing a hissy fit.” I frown. “In power, bloodlust, cruelty, and all around just not giving a single shit about anything and everything.” I explain, wrapping an arm around Coco. “Your thoughts are fine...but not everything deserves it.” “Maybe, still, the longer it festers the worst it can become, especially alone. Joy told me what happened to him when you were alone after everything that happened. Maybe not everyone can be saved, but how sure can we be if they truly monsters unless we try?” “Met the woman twice. I should know after she tried murdering me those two times.” I say with a shrug. “But whatever, let's just have a nice day okay” I ask, wanting to have a nice day instead of talk about sad crap. “Alright then. In that case, Joy told me a dream of yours was to visit some place called Italy? Where is that?” “Can Joy stop telling people things?” I grumbled. “Anyways, Italy, it is nonexistent because Italy is back on Earth. Unless there's a place in Equestria that's Italian then you’re out of luck.” “Well, maybe not on Equestria but maybe on another world? Plus, who knows, Joy says things from your old world are popping up here for some reason. Maybe a country will too?” “Well…” I start. “Honestly I doubt know if an entire country could just magic itself here out of nowhere…” I say simply. “Who knows...too many things and frankly I'd rather spend time with my mare instead of searching all around the world for a place that probably isn't here.” “Is this close enough?” Coco asked. I didn’t pay attention to where we were walking but when I looked in front of me my jaw dropped. It was a three story tall version of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. It was a restaurant! “Like? Joy used your multiverse internet to find a picture and Luna payed for it to be built. All food follows Italian cooking standards. Aka, all fresh ingredients.” “Oh…” I mutter. “Probably pissed someone off to make this thing lean like that. But sweet! Let's go.” I smile warmly, my tail wagging at the thought of eating delicious pizza for once as I started leading Coco into the restaurant. When we opened the door we were greeted by...Kevin? “Hey Ben.” He said. “Like it? Figured I get a job rather than just free loading at Fluttershy’s place.” “Glad to see you got a job. And how is Fluttershy?” I ask him, wondering if she's alright. “And yes, the place is amazing.” “She’s good, think she and Discord are trying to be a thing and watching those two try to flirt is hilarious. Other than that yeah, I designed the interior of this place actually. Been to italy more than a handful of times...mainly to steal artwork. But took in the scenery, and high priced sports cars.” “Cool.” I nod. “Always wanted to go to Italy...sadly never got the chance.” I shrug. “But hey, next best thing is a replica restaurant with good ol fashioned cooking.” I smile. “Still sure someone was pissed about this place leaning.” “Actually that was the easy part. Magic is awesome. Anyway, you two have a table on the roof, and don’t worry, glass covered. Follow me.” Kevin said. We followed him to a small glass elevator and we went up. The rooftop seats had a view that stretched all around Ponyville, and a pretty good view of Canterlot too. Our seat was next to the glass, and Kevin gave us each a menu before leaving for us to talk and decide. “Wonderful ain't it?” I ask Coco. “The view is beautiful, and I’m glad you like this, each of us pooled together, with Joy’s help, and made something for you, this is mine, Luna payed for it since I don’t have access to those funds yet. Not till I officially say yes anyway. I do have to ask though, when researching and from what Joy told us do you like history?” “I dabble.” I shrug. “Still surprised a structural marvel such as this was done completely by accident. Or rather, by a serious fuck up.” I shrug. “Most amazing things are. Dumb luck and all. And if anypony knows about dumb luck it’s me.” Coco said with a blush. “No, if anyone would know about dumb luck it's me.” I say simply. “If I were told before that this would be my life I would called the person a nut job for giving me hope of being awesome and being in a harem to begin with…” I chuckle. “If somepony told me I’d do anything with my life I’d have called them liars. Being a serial killer's daughter makes you...not very desirable. Was jobless and homeless for a long time before my boss picked me up, she was...not nice but just wanted somepony to work as a grunt. It was that or the streets. Least I learned how to sew, it’s how I got my cutie mark. She...died, even though she was real mean I do miss her a lot. She gave me a place to stay, money, a chance. Can’t hate her no matter how mean she was.” “And I swept you off your feet practically.” I chuckled. “I'm such a ladies man...and by that I mean I've been so lucky to just have women throwing themselves at me...Derpy the most literal example.” I chuckle. “Yeah...saw her stuff from her room. Well you’ve done a lot for this world, even with what went down in Manehattan, a lot of people are alive because of you. Only reason I haven’t is because...dating is new to me...this is actually my first real date.” “I'll make sure to give you a nice enough date.” I smile. “And if this goes pear shaped we can just do the griffon way of dating. Helped me get Gilda as a fiance real quick.” I chuckle. “Gilda told me about that, I’m not that easy mister.” Coco said playfully, poking my nose. “Treats are earned, not given freely~” “Tell that to literally all my fiance's.” I laugh. “Well it’s just with me. Mainly because my cherry is whole.” She teases, her tail swishing. “Pretty sure that’s a good sounding treat for a date gone well?” “Well a cherry on top is always a good addition.” I chuckle. “So, what ya ordering.” Coco says as she opens her menu. “With some of the Manehattan survivors being omnivores and moving here to Ponyville there’s a fair amount of meat items.” “Well I'll have some pasta.” I say simply, knowing I'll had meatballs as well. “I wonder if we'll get bread sticks as well. Those are always good.” “I think we will? I’m gonna have the Fruit salad and spinach lasagna.” “Sounds nice.” I nod. “But how do you like life now?” “It’s nice, better than I ever imagined. Ponyville is a nice town, people are friendly, Apple Bloom told me the town was almost named Second Chance. Lot of the old ponies that moved here were hard on luck, or petty criminals that needed a, well, second chance. This town had it all for them.” “Glad to hear that.” I nod. “And I'm happy to hear you're happy with your new life.” “I am, guess grandpa was right, life’s a gamble. Grandpa from my mom’s side.” She added. “Life is always a gamble. But hey, glad it's been going on.” I say with a smile. “So, let’s play a game.” Coco said, clapping her hands. “The last game I played lead to me and Pinkie dragging Luna out of a game room.” I chuckle. “Hehe, no. This is a game about each other. I tell you something embarrassing about myself, then you tell me something embarrassing about you. Winner is whoever doesn’t cave and stop talking or runs out of things to say.” “Okay then, you start.” I nod to her. “Alright...I...like to play in the mud.” Coco Said, blushing. “Don’t make me explain it.” “Context.” I frown. “Please, for my own sake give me some context on how you 'like’ to play in mud.” “You...Fine. Growing up in the city I rarely saw dirt or grass save for some small parks. So...when it was raining or after a rain I’d look for mud and just kinda...play around.” “Well...at least it's not dirty.” I sigh out, accidentally making a pun in the process. “Your turn now.” “Joy recalling all the times I've had sex in vivid detail.” I shrug. “Christ that was embarrassing...albeit he was cheating because he's literally a part of me.” “That’s pretty bad...okay...I collected Jars. Back in Manehattan, they’re all shattered now, but I saw a jar broke, dirty, new, I grab it.” “That's a hobby, not an embarrassing thing. Not to mention if you found a jar that happened to have some historical value you can get a bunch of money. If people can do it with cans than the same can be said for jars.” I explain. “For me...asking my parents about the birds and the bees.” I chuckle. “You could ask them how that entire situation went.” “Walking in on the boss and a ‘private’ client meeting...she let me watch in exchange for not blackmailing.” “Having watched my parents have sex“ I say. “About...eight years old. Accident and I had a nightmare…” I say sheepishly. “Okay...I can’t believe I’m admitting this, but there is currently, online, a video of me...masterbating in the mirror. I really needed the money.” “The entire porn collection I saw in Derpy’s room made to resemble me, looks, and 'size’ somehow accurate enough.” I frown. “Sweet god, I felt so embarrassed and violated at the time…” I muttered worriedly. “Boss sold my image to a video game company, in the new game ‘Riptide’ an island mafia game thing, the main villain's wife is an overly sexualized version of me...body and voice.” “Your too cute for a role like that.” I frown. She smirked, handing me a photo of the character...my nose bleed. “Damn…” “Yeah.” She chuckled. “On the bright side I got a letter in the survivors camp saying since my boss was dead I get her things, including my part of sales when the game is released.” “Okay then.” I nod. “But my next embarrassing thing about me…” I think for a moment. “Before I was told this place was real...I always wished I could date with Twilight or Luna.” I say honestly. “Yes, when this world was nothing but make believe I wanted to date this two.” I say sheepishly. “It's...a lot more embarrassing if you think about it.” “Everyone has crushes...matter of fact I had a crush on Rarity when I first met her. Bi. And can you blame me?” “When I got a good handful of that marshmallow butt I can totally understand.” I chuckle. “But speaking of Rarity, one of the main reasons...or only reason at the time….was because she was told by Luna about our...sex life.” I sigh out. “Heheh.” Coco chuckled. “That started the ball rolling on this herd?” “Not entirely. Given that Luna wanted to date me because I'm a hero, and Twilight and Rarity because of me saving their lives the first time I was in Manehattan...then Zecora because of magic stuff, Pinkie because I was drunk…” I sigh out. “Oh dear…” “Heheh. There are weirder ways of finding love.” Our dinner was amazing, the food was right out of the pot, oven, whatever they’re baked in, it was all really good. Coco and I left the dinner and she lead the way still. “So, can you guess what else we’re gonna do?” “Twilight told me about your lists, not what they had in them.” I tell her. “Well it’s just two more things than back home for a Dream date night with Luna. Yes, they will milk that.” Coco says as we start arriving at the train station. “Manehattan?” I ask her. “Not exactly.” We walked onto the loading platform. There was no one around and the train was taking it’s time. “According to Jenny it shouldn’t be much longer.” I summoned my shield at that. “Yeah I'm probably gonna need this.” I frown. “So...where are we going?” At that moment there was a bright flash of light from the train tracks as the blue train that went from Twilight Town to Yen Sid’s tower arrived and stopped in front of us. The door opened and Jenny stepped out. “Lady and Gentle...man? Dog? Eh, your train awaits.” “Gentleman is fine.” I say with a little chuckle. “So, we're going to Yen Sid’s place?” I ask, walking into the train. “Or is this something else?” “This will just go to you’ll find out.” Jenny said as she walked in as Coco and I followed and took seats. The train started and suddenly we were on magic rails in space. “Isn't space pretty or what?” I smile, enjoying the sight of the stars. “It’s amazing.” Coco replied. “When Luna and them told me about the stars being other world my mind was blown. At first I thought it was a joke, but after meeting Time, Luxu, and you, it became more believable.” “Glad to hear that.” I nod. “If I were told any of this...I'd beat them for giving me hope that they were possibly telling me the truth.” I sigh out. “Makes you think though, all that’s out there, limitless possibilities, everything just feels so much bigger while you feel smaller.” “That's not what my harem keeps saying.” I joke, finding my dirty joke funny. “Are you sure you’re nineteen?” Coco said with a sly smile. “I'm sure that I've plowed a lot of women that give a damn about me way too much for a nineteen year old.” I chuckle. “But...I'm still glad they care…” There was a bright flash from the windows and we were in...Destiny Island? By the town, the train resting on the beach, the Destiny Island from the game across the sea...full of lights and tents. “Destiny Island festival of the Sea! Now off loading!” Jenny said cheerfully. “Wait what now?” I ask. “I’ve been world traveling.” Jenny replied. “Learned they were having a little festival today, games, seafood, all that jazz. Boat over there is on the other side of the beach, I parked the train here to hide it from the people over there. If anyone asks I’ll just say it’s a...train exhibit?” She said, the look of not buying her own excuse across her face. “I’ll just make sure no one goes near the train.” “Thank you...and I suppose no one will question the fact an anthro mare and a half dire wolf would be walking around?” I ask. “I’ve been here five times and the towns folk think I just wear a costume. Just tell them it’s something your hometown does and they leave it alone.” “Good enough for me.” I shrug. “Anyways, let's get going. There's a festival to get to.” Coco and I walked over to the other side of the Beach where a man with silver hair, elderly, was sitting in a boat. He spotted us. “Why hello there. You two from the same town as that Jenny lass?” He asked. “Yes actually.” I nod. “How are you doing sir?” I ask, wanting to be kind to the elder. “I do alright. You two heading to the festival?” “Yes sir, a good way to spend a first date am I right?” I chuckle. “Ah yes. It’s how I met my wife...and how our kids were born.” The old man laughed as Coco and I hopped in and he started rowing. “So, aside from the festival what brings you to our village?” “Hoping to not embarrass myself in front of my girlfriend that's a start.” I joke. “Even if you do it’s still a good memory.” Coco said, leaning against me. “Ah, young love, glad to see some happiness given recent events.” “What do you mean by that?”, I ask worriedly. The old man sighed. “Some of the village kids went missing some months back, me granddaughter included.” The old man said, grief across his face. “She and her friend been sailing the island since before they popped out of their mothers, so we don’t think they got lost at sea, and we dived in the waters already, nothing but fish, sand and coral for miles. They just, vanished.” “What were the kids names?” I ask worriedly. “Hikaru, Sarah, and the new boy that arrived last year Ken. He arrived as randomly as they all disappeared. Just was on the beach.” “Um…” I start, getting a bad feeling about this. “If you could...switch their genders...now that sounds crazy and so will this...but if you could change their genders, would their names be Sora, Riku, and Kairi?” I ask the old man, getting scared right now. “Dunno, save for Riku, my boy was gonna name his child Riku if it was a boy, and Hikaru if it’s a girl. Child was born a lass and Hikaru was her name. That lass...strong both body and will, I just hope wherever she is it’s safe, or she’s puttin the family stubbornness though the grinder.” “Um…” I frown. “Was there any...mysterious events happening when they disappeared? And how old were they when they vanished?” “Ten, Hikaru is eleven, and no, they left for school as usual, school saw them leave, but they never came back home. None of the other kids saw anything either.” ”Shit. That's not good…” I think to myself, getting worried now. “Is there any short cuts or something they take?” Coco asked, catching me a bit off guard. “Well, there’s a small group of trees they walk though coming home, lot of tall bushes too, but we searched that too.” The old man said. “It only takes eight or so minutes to walk through it, and only a few bushes are large enough to hide behind, but like I said, we searched it too.” “Oh dear…” I mutter. “I'm sorry sir but...I have a feeling they were kidnapped.” I say worriedly. “Kidnapped? In the span of seven minutes in a somewhat clear forrest…” He sighed. “Their parents and Ken’s foster parents think that too, but it’s been too long, don’t these things usually come with a ransome?” “Unless they've been kidnapped by someone that is beyond terrible.” I growl, knowing full well who kidnapped them now. “I know there be bad people in the world, but nothing bad has happened here since…” The man trailed off. “Since?” I ask curiously. “Long time ago, there was a man that wanted to leave the village, see sites, and explore the unknown. He somehow found a way, and when he did, people died. That was sixty years ago though, nothing else has happened since.” “That's….weird.” I frown. “Thank you sir.” “It’s nothin, getting the word out is best to find the kids.” The man said as the boat stopped, we were on the island. “Well, we’re here, you lot have fun, don’t think anyone else is coming over and if they are they can bring their own boat, I’m getting a drink.” The elderly man said, getting out of the boat and walking into the festival. “Best you do. And thank you sir “ I nod. “Crap…” I mutter. “Bad things?” Coco asked. “Major bad things.” I sigh out. “It's...quite a story…” “Oh…” Coco said, looking around. “I don't want to ruin our date…” I sigh out. “Hell...I don't even know if those kids are alive if he got to them…” “Well...I may have an idea…” “And this plan is?” I ask worriedly. “I...don't want you hurt…” Coco looked around, and dragged me behind a tent so no one could see. She then summoned her Keyblade...the No Name keyblade. “Time told me about it’s abilities. Not completely sure how they work but we can at least see what happened to them.” “Are you sure messing with the fabric of time is a good idea?” I ask. “Cause Cript does that with...specialness…” “Time said as long as we don’t interfere with the past we won’t make a new reflection, as long as we only watch it’s all good.” “But...what if he notices?” I ask, not wanting to say Cores name lest it somehow invoke him suddenly appearing for whatever reason. “That’s why Time showed me a special ability. I just need a bowl of water.” I summoned Frozen Pride and, with a lot of concentration cause I haven't tried to make anything with this thing, created a bowl of ice, then summoning my flame chackram and starting to melt the ice in the middle of the bowl and out came a bowl of water. “That...was actually a bit more difficult for some reason…” I sigh out. Coco tapped the water with No Name, it showed a clock going counter clockwise, after a bit it showed genderbent Sora, Riku, and Kiari. ”So Hikaru, what you gonna do over the weekend?” Sahra asked. “Dad’s getting me a new game system, you and Ken can come over to play.” “Sweet.” Ken replied. “What games you getting?” “I already got the games, three. Never heard of them, but one’s called Need for Speed, the other is Sly Cooper, and the last is called Dark Cloud.” “Dark Cloud sounds neat.” Sahra said. “Well only Need for Speed has multiplayer.” They walked into the forest and as soon as they walked behind some tall bushes, DTD’s opened under them as Neoshadows jumped out, covered their mouths, and dragged them into the darkness. When they were swallowed by it, the image in the water faded. “Fuck…” I frown. “Core did take them away…” I frown. “Well he took them alive, so what does that tell you?” Coco asked. “He probably wanted to jerk off to the sound of children's screams?” I ask. “It's Core, he'd do something that sick.” “...Wow...anyway...It likely means he needs them for something big, he made it quick and to the point about taking them, and he made it fast, why?” “In my world Kingdom Hearts, the thing that had Nobodies, Heartless, and bo much more crap, was nothing but a game.” I frown. “Sora, Riku, and Kairi are the main characters and are supposed to help bring back the pieces of the X-blade and summon Kingdom Hearts...so Core would kill them most likely cause he's fucking with the games timeline and so much more…” I groan. “Well, from what Luxu and Time told me he likely needs their hearts…” Coco rolled her hand, motioning for me to continue. “Sadly he has Xehanort, the games 'big bad’, and he knew how to summon the shattered X-blade. Which it needed seven pieces of Light, and thirteen pieces of Darkness. The thirteen darkness pieces involves Xehanort splitting his heart into thirteen pieces, while the seven pieces of Light happened to be seven princesses of light...or the seven Keybladers. And those seven would be Sora, Riku, Kairi, Terra, Aqua, Ventus, and either King Mickey or Axel.” I explain. “...No, it means he’s likely taking their hearts with a Keyblade, and Time told me it’s more likely special Nobodies are made when their heart is taken by a keyblade, so you can…” She motioned again. “Even though Xehanort wanted to keep Sora’s body instead of Riku’s and Kairi is one of the seven pieces of Light.” I frown. “If there is a chance they have Nobodies, you should be able to summon them, right?” “Most likely…” I say while putting both of my palms together. I focused intently and tried to sense their Nobodies, even if they weren't their. To my surprise, someone replied. ”Who...are you?” A young girl’s voice spoke in my head, they sounded...hollow. ”Hi, the names Ben.” I mentally tell the child. ”Where are you?” I ask the girl mentally. ”I...don’t know. There’s a lot of buildings, people marching along, in yellow and black outfits.” ”Do you have friends?” I ask her. ”...Friends? Those...what are those?” ”Do you see anyone that isn't white or black? Anyone that looks like you in some way? I ask, hoping for something. ”lots...adults, all around the streets...a man flying on smoke. The ones in yellow and back are shooting at him.” ”Do you have a name? I ask. ”...Name...It...It started with an H…” ”Hikaru?” I asked her. ”That...That’s it! My name is Hikaru!” ”Do you know where Ken and Sarah are? Or do you even know who they are?” I ask her. ”They...those are my friends...what...what happened to us? Why...why can’t I feel...like me?” ”It's alright, calm down. Do you know where they are? I'll explain everything when you three are with me okay?” I ask. ”N..no. All I remember is darkness, then I woke up in this place, I haven’t left this rooftop in days...I don’t even feel hungry...thirsty…” I sigh out and focused more, trying to summon Hikaru to me in hopes to get her here.”Do you see a white portal?” I mentally ask her. ”N...No, not near me anyway. One just appeared on the roof next to me. The man who flew on smoke is looking at it.” ”Oh shit…” I frown, having a bad feeling about this but letting the portal stay open for the person. ”Don't worry Hikari, I'll get you out soon, just gotta help this person first.” ”He already walked in. I’m gonna follow.” She said, then things went quiet. A few moments passed before a guy in a jean jacket with some kinda blue eagle on his back with a red beanie hat came out of a Nobody style summon, followed by a young, genderbend Riku. “Ouch...That sucked.” The man said, getting up. “Sup.” I say while closing the portal quickly. “And how are you two doing?” The man looked at me and Coco and stared. “...Well...werewolf Conduits...that’s...new.” He said. “He cushioned my fall.” Hikaru said. “I'm gonna have to explain so many things to the two of you. But right now I have two other kids to rescue.” I say, knowing Cores forces are probably on high alert considering a nobody portal suddenly opened. ”Please work.” I think to myself worriedly, trying to find Sahra and Ken. ”A voice? That’s...new.” A young boys voice replied. ”Hi, how you doing. Ken right?” I mentally ask, hoping to get this done quick before shit hits the fan. ”That’s… how do you know my name...how are you talking to me?” ”Hikari, magic, and can you see a portal?” I mentally ask, trying to make sure it was actually closer to the nobody then away. ”A..portal? Is it white?” ”Yes.” I tell him ”It’s across from me, give me a moment.” For some reason I thought I could hear a shotgun cocking. A few moments passed before the genderbend Kiari appeared...followed by the group from Left 4 Dead 2… “And we are safe!” Ken declared. Clothes covered in blood. “Oh for the love of…” I sigh out. “Ken, wait over with Hikari, you four, stay with that person and wait patiently.” I tell them. “Hey! The name’s Delson.” He replied, slightly pissed. “Don't care at the moment, trying to save people.” I say before focusing, my shoulders shaking from the strain. ”Sahra? You there?” I mentally ask, hoping she's there. ”Who are you?” The last girl’s voice spoke...she sounded kinda angry. ”Friend, with Ken and Hikari here. Do you see a white portal?” I mentally ask the angry girl, trying my best to summon a portal for her and any hitch hikers along the way. ”There is, why should I leave where I am?” ”Because Hikari and Ken are here, to at least some sort of safety, and because I doubt you want to be anywhere near where you are at the moment. Please?” I ask her. ”Things like me belong here, there’s nothing here, nothing but them, and me.” ”Uh...what?” I ask worriedly. ”You...feel like us...come and see.” A DTD opened in front of me. ”Oh for fuck sakes.” I mentally groan. ”Where are you?” ”With ghosts.” Several hands came out of the DTD and grabbed me, pulling me in. I came out the other side landing on the ground. “Shit.” I growl, getting up and summoning Reunion and Frozen Pride, readying myself for whatever might happen. “Hello?” In front of me sat Sahra, sitting at the end of where Castle Oblivion Should have been, but..right, Core stole it. In front of her were three Absent Silhouettes, two had Kingdom Key’s on them, and the one on the center had a sketchpad. “Hi.” She replied, staring at the emptiness. “Uh...hi.” I say. “Um...why are we here?” “This is where I woke up.” She replied. “Just me and them here since I woke up. They showed me things.” She said, holding out her hand as a Duskblade appeared. “Said destiny changed, now they are truly ghosts of beings that don’t exist.” “Roxas...Namine...but who's the third?” I raise an eyebrow. “Riku...never had a Nobody right?” I wonder. “Her name, is Xion.” Sahra said defensively. “Oh...sorry.” I sigh out. “I didn't mean to sound rude…” “They want to rest, Namine, she want’s to talk. Talk to someone that exists but acts like they don’t.” “And why do I have a feeling I'm supposed to be that person?” I ask. “Cause like them, you aren’t supposed to exist, least not in this place.” Sahra said. “Just touch one and you’ll be in their domain.” “This isn't the first time I've heard I'm not supposed to exist...except in a harsher way.” I shrug while walking over to Roxas’s kingdom key and touching it, having a bad feeling about this. There was a bright flash and suddenly, I was on the tower from Twilight Town, sitting down with Roxas, how he was from the games, sitting next to me, dressed in his casual clothing eating a Sea Salt Ice cream. “So, you’re the human Nobody?” He asked, taking a bit. “I'm not a Nobody anymore.” I say. “My heart's whole, I have a loving family, and even if I'm still depressed I know what emotions are.” I say simply. “So do I, and I never had a heart, or existed. Now I never will.” “I’m sorry...the bastard responsible doesn't understand what kind of things he fucked with.” I shake my head. “Does it matter in the end? All that could have been that you knew of, has yet to happen, and now never will. That’s the thing when you know the future, it’s always gonna change. Every little possibility, ripples endlessly.” He said, taking another bite. “He’s close to his goal too.” “Oh no…” I mutter. “That's...way not good…” “He’s giving you all time though, fifteen years to prepare. He has all that he needs, he’s just letting us either make the most out of what time he’s given us, or go mad waiting. Either way, it’s not looking good from what all the Sora’s of the multiverse saw.” “And yet I may possibly be able to practically own a law of reality if I can guess how my future's going to go.” I say honestly. “Heh, future...what a joke. In the end we all wonder what it holds, even as we live it.” “That's why we focus on today.” I shrug. “The future is always a mystery, no one knows what will happen...except those people in Greek, Roman, and Norse stories...they basically told everyone how things end so...eh.” I shrug. “Heh, true enough.” Roxa tossed his unfinished ice cream over the edge, stood up, and pulled me up. “You know, someone once told me that so long as you live on in people’s memories, you’ll live forever. And I’ve learned something...When you live in someone’s memories only...it hurts more.” Everything went white and when I opened my eyes, we were standing on...my Station of Awakening. There I was, curled fetal position looking at...the viewer I guess, those circles that that each seemed to have, one for each of my girls faces in them, and in the background all my kids. I didn’t look sad either on the glass like picture...I looked thoughtful. “So, am I going to finish fading into only memory or what?” Roxas spoke, summoning Oathkeeper and Oblivion. “That depends on what you mean.” I say while summoning Reunion and my Shield. “Cause if you want to be real then I'm willing to help. But I doubt it'll be that easy.” I say, hoping it won't lead to a fight. “You don’t get it.” He said, raising Oblivion to me. “I don’t exist, even more so than a regular Nobody, the future in which I was meant to be in is impossible now. The only way for Namine and I to live on now is in memories. Least Xion lucked out.” “That card…” I start...before snapping my fingers. “Wait, there has to be a way you and Namine can exist. I just...sadly don't know how those fucking cards work.” I sigh out. “I have a Keyblade to store memories but...oi vey…” I groan, raising my shield to protect myself. “Like I care!” Roxas shouted, charging. He jumped and slammed both Keyblades on Frozen Pride. I managed to block, but was sent skidding back near the edge of the battle ground. “Even if Nanine and I can never exist, at least Xion finally can.” “So you'd rather cease to exist all together?” I ask, taking careful steps away from the edge and staring at Roxas. “We already do, the only reason there are nobodies of Sahra, Hikaru and Ken is because Core let them go, every other Nobody of them that popped out after he took our hearts he destroyed. Namine and I are nothing more than echos of their screams! Xion is here only because she somehow exists now.” “There is a way for you two to exist...I just …” I trail off bitterly. “The one fucking time I needed to know something is the time where I don't have a single fucking clue about.” I sigh out. “But listen, this might sound crazy, but someone basically stored all of Xion’s memories into a card and used it somewhere. I don't know how that even fucking works but it does. I...know Castle Oblivion doesn't exist anymore but...I know for a fact it can happen again.” Roxas looked at me, then sighed. “You’re just like him.” He disbanded Oathkeeper and Oblivion. “Always looking for an alternate option.” “People deserve chances at life.” I say, summoning Memory Stealer and Fair game. To my shock, memory stealer didn’t look like a copy of Reunion, it looked like the grip was a heart when you see them float out of Heartless, the blade part was blank cards like those from castle oblivion, and the tip looked like a mini version of said castle. It’s Keychain, a sketchbook. “Nice look.” I nod. “So, ready?” I ask, not a hundred percent sure how this is going to work but hoping for the best. “Do I have many options?” He asked, rubbing the back of his head. “Not really.” I shrug. “But...you'll be in a good family.” I tell him. “Memory Stealer.” I whisper, stabbing Roxas in the chest. “Heh, there are worst things I guess.” He said, his body fading into light. I looked at Memory stealer. There were twelve cards as it’s blade, and an image of Roxas appeared on the card that connected the blade and grip. I turned it over, that card was blank on the other side. “Twenty four memories? Huh.” I pondered. Why twenty four? “Well...here goes nothing.” I say while pulling out a Fair Game card and gently poking it with Memory Stealer. “Memory shift.” I mutter, feeling the blade start shifting the memories embedded in the blade and into the card. After about a minute the card had a picture of Roxas on the Fair Game card and not on Memory Stealer anymore. “Alright.” I nod. “Okay! Where's Namine’s door?” I call out, wondering where I'll find her now. I turned around, and saw one of those doors that appear in a Station of awakening. I opened it, got blinded by a bright light, and found myself sitting across from Namine in the Twilight Town mansion White Room. “Hello, Ben. I’ve been looking forward to speaking to you.” “It's nice to talk to you as well Namine.” I nod. “So, you have anything to talk to me about?” “Lots. No longer truly existing at all has had a few surprising benefits.” She said, walking up towards me, sketchbook in hand, and opened it, showing a crayon drawing of me, I think, sitting on some kinda throne. “You all have amazing futures.” “Well you know, when you suddenly have runes appearing on your weapons you know you're going to have a pretty good future.” I chuckle. “But I didn't think being a King would be in my future...I thought I would see me being in a massive pile of kids and my wives laughing.” I chuckle. “I was going to draw that, but then there goes my sketch pad.” Namine chuckled, flipping the page, it was the X-blade, but looked like the Kingdom Key D version. “Can you guess who this is?” “Wait…’who’?” I ask. “I know X is sentient but...that sounds worrying.” I say, seeing the version. “It’s Zeke’s future. This is what he will become.” “He...becomes X? But…” I start. “What about his family? His kids? I doubt he'll just turn into that for funzies.” “They move on, they’ll see him again in their lifetimes, but he will be bound by the rules of a Keyblade, the laws the X-blade has to follow.” “Oh…” I sigh out. “Well...it's his choice. I know that for a fact.” I nod. “Anything else?” I ask curiously. “In your battle with Core, there will be a part of him that survives, and I’m not sure who, but one of you will be unknowingly caring for it, cause like the Psychopaths, it will infect a host. One of your own children will be infected at birth, though whose children it infect I do not know.” “I...hope Cript can help...cause if it's one of my children...Core might be an asshole and try to use my kid but honestly, even if he should rot in the darkest pits of hell...I think he needs a second chance at least…” I sigh out. “Hopefully…” “Well, aside from that, an old allie will likely show himself again.” Namine flipped the page, showing someone in the black version of the Organization thirteen cloak. “He calls himself, Huxley.” “Haven't heard from him in a while...albeit I haven't heard from Eclipse or the Foretellers either...and I still need to meet this John Corvo guy.” I frown, feeling like I need to talk to my friends and make new ones soon. “He has gotten much stronger, and colder. He’s putting himself into deep darkness to gain strength to prove himself.” She flipped the page, it was an image of a Keyblade I think. It was a black cloak, flowing in the wind while it rested on a cross. “Master No More. The Master of Master’s last gift for the students he wronged.” “The Foretellers I take it?” I ask, still not knowing much about that whole thing. “Yes.” She flipped the page. It was the image of two Luna’s, one pony, the other anthro, cradling infants wrapped in blankets. “Roxas’s mother, and mine, must be the same, but from different reflections. Otherwise, the people we grow up into will conflict with who we were.” “Is the anthro my Luna? Cause...I have a feeling the normal Luna is Eclipses I think…” I say, not sure who is who. Namine nodded. “Yes. Roxas will be your son while I will become Eclipses daughter. My power over memories will make Memory Stealer mine one day, but it’s the memories yet to be that I will have power over.” “Alright. But you might not remember my words but be safe with the thing. It's pretty scary what it can do.” I tell her. “You will tell me again, in my new life...there is, one last thing.” She flipped the page, and it was a child, covered in a black aura. “The embodiment of Greed. The new Xion, Roxas and I will be the only ones like us in the whole of the multiverse. He will be after us. It will be years, but an early warning is better than none.” “Going after children...what a dick.” I frown. “Wait...why is it a kid?” “All the embodiments of the realm of darkness are children, not sure why, but they always have.” She closed her sketch book, placed it on the table, and took a deep breath. “Will it hurt?” “I don't know…” I sigh out. “But I'll make sure it doesn't. But...can I keep the sketchbook?” “It’s an illusion, all of this is, but here.” She placed a hand on my head, and another on Memory Stealer, and a card image of her sketches appeared in my hands. “Those are real, and when the time for them to happen has arrived they will change...into helpfull little trinkets, a gift for existence from something that doesn’t.” “You'll still have a nice family.” I say while getting out of my chair. “Just...stand still. I'll make sure it doesn't hurt.” I say while aiming Memory Stealer at her chest. I stabbed her chest swiftly and made sure it wasn't as painful as it could be. “Thank you.” She said, her body fading into light. Her image appeared on the same card as Roxas’s did on Memory Stealer. “Alright…” I nod while putting the drawings in my pocket and putting all the memories in Memory Stealer into another Fair Game card, now having the memories of both Roxas and Namine. “Okay...do I need to go through Xion's stuff or not?” I ask, having seen Xion's Keyblade but not sure about it. I walked out the door of the White room, and was wandering in darkness. After a bit, I came across a Station of Awakening. It had Xion on it. She was like how Sora’s was, an image of Unim and Zeke were the only two circles here with faces, though, there was Zeke’s female form in the circle with him. The background held hearts and Kingdom Key Silhouettes in a pattern all around, and next to Xion, was the image of a X-blade, made from two Oblivions. “So you came.” I turned around, seeing a child version of Xion, no older than five. “Nice to meet you, I’m Xion...well, I used to be called that. Now, my name is Nix.” “It's nice to meet you Nix.” I smile gently. “Strange having a male mother huh?” I chuckle, remembering Zeke's predicament well. “Meh, not many can love a child as both a mother and father.” She giggled. “I’m still an infant, but mentally I’m five, so that’s why I look like this to you.” “I can imagine.” I say while bending down to my knees. “So how's life been? I bet it's been nice all things considered.” “Aside from needed dad or one of my mom’s to change me and the inability to speak, good. Dad let’s or mama Celestia usually reads to me regularly. My brother Blake still breastfeeds though, I already switched to bottles.” “Okay.” I nod. “So...you have all your memories correct?” I ask. “Not exactly. I remember here because this is my heart...heh, before that was a sentence I never expected to say, now...feels good. I probably won’t remember out there till I’m older. All I know out there is that I’m too smart for my age.” “Zeke probably tells you that all the time doesn't he?” I ask her, grinning at the thought of him saying that. “All my moms too. I can nod and shake to keep a conversation, so, yeah.” “Okay then.” I nod. “But...uh...do you know who...Roxas and Namine are?” “Of course. Namine is who I was based on, and Roxas is my friend.” “Well…” I say while turning two cards over and showing their pictures. “Let's say Uncle Ben is gonna give them a second chance to be with their friend again.” “That’s so sweet.” Xio- Nix cheered. “Here.” She said, walking over to me and giving me something. It was a key, really old, rusted to all hell, with thirteen symbols on it. The ones I recognized were because they were on my weapons I mastered. “H-how in the..?” I stutter, looking at the young girl in surprise. “I was the biggest Nothing, it was a gift from the King of Nothingness. Once you’ve mastered all his weapons, summon them all and a door to his castle will appear. He want’s to have a word with you.” “Goodie. I get to talk to someone that owns a literal fact of existence.” I sigh out. “Till next time.” She waved, her body vanishing as the ground under me too. I fell in darkness then hit dirt...I was back in front of the spot where Castle Oblivion was supposed to be. “Welcome back.” Sahra spoke. “That was fast.” “Well it was simple enough.” I shrug, putting the cards and key into my pocket. “So, now do you want to follow me to see your friends?” “Sure.” She said, getting up and opening a DTD. We walked though and were with the others, though, the Left 4 Dead people and...Delson, I think, we're missing. “Hikaru, Ken.” “Coco, where did the five other people go?” I ask my girlfriend. “Oh, Jenny came by wondering how we were doing and took them with her. They’re in the train.” “Okay then.” I nodded. “Um...again I'm so sorry about...this.” I say nervously. “I was hoping for the date to go great Coco.” “You just saved what you could of three kids, that’s...hot~” Coco said, tracing a finger up my chest. I blushed at that. “Well….I suppose...we should go home and...get some things settled huh?” I ask with a little smile. “There’s a secret spot I found while you were gone~” “We’ll stand watch....till our families find us or something.” Hikaru said as Coco somehow carried me over her shoulder and ran with me into the cave. Save for the lack of drawings, it was just like the game...even the door was here. “Have fun kids...halp…” I say worriedly. To be continued...
Nobody's dating BrigidThe next day had come, Coco was now one of the...super pregnant wives, damn did she make me work last night… but, keeping up with the schedule I got up, showered and waited for whoever was next to appear. “Wonder who's day it is today?” I wonder to myself. A few minutes passed before someone finally walked up. Brigid. I haven’t seen much of her around come to think of it? “Hello love, where to?” She asked, dressed like how Marilyn Monroe would dress. “Now I feel underdressed.” I joke, wearing a simple pair of jeans and a Deathwing T-shirt under my cloak. “But where did you want to go? It's up to you cause Twilight made a list about it.” I explain. “Well I do have one place in mine, but before we go I have to give you this.” She said, handing me a necklace. It was simple, but I could feel some potent magic on it. “I'm sorry I haven't been spending time with you Brigid.” I say while putting the necklace on top of my bone hunter necklace Den gave me. I felt the magic activate, and when I looked at my hands...they were human. I ran over to the nearest mirror and I looked human again. “It’s just an illusion, so long as the necklace is on you’ll look human. But your wolf features are still there, so mind that.” She explained. “Sheesh, it's been forever since I last saw my actual normal face.” I say, still feeling my ears and tail but not seeing them. “Thanks. But where to my lovely lady?” I ask with a smile. “My world, I always wanted to visit America, heard this and that about it, and being in Rapture for so long I heard a lot before the fall.” “What year was it back on your world?” I ask curiously. “Cause I have a feeling I'm gonna need to dress up for the occasion instead of...well this.” I say nervously. “1960, last I checked. So...yes, best change to a suit or something.” “I don't even know if I have one.” I say worriedly. “Crap...you'd think Rarity or Coco would make me one...albeit my suit would be this.” I say while patting my cloak. “I better find them, and actually I have to find Luna, just to do something important as well.” I say. “I'm sorry...just...so much stuff…” I sigh out, feeling bad about this not so good start. “I will wait then, and knowing Rarity she probably has some suits made already for you.” “Alright.” I nod. “Trust me Brigid, I'll try to make this a great day for you.” I say while walking over, kissing her cheek and rushing off to find Rarity. As expected I found Rarity in her sewing room, Coco was there to, the two of them stitching something. “Oh, hello Ben, what brings you here love?” Rarity asked. “I need a suit. Going to a time where my standard wear would make me look like a freak.” I sigh out. “Also have you two seen Luna?” I ask curiously, wondering if I have to do this sooner or later. “Well yes, I made a few suits for you, let me get them real quick.” Rarity said, getting up and walking over to a dresser, one of many, and pulling out a dark blue folded suit in a clear plastic covering on top of a shoe box. “I had a friend up in Baltimare make you the shoes deary, fashionable, and comfortable.” She said, handing them over to me. “As for Luna… I think she’s in the garden?” “Which?” I ask. “Cause honestly I think there's dozens of gardens here, and not the ones outside or in Joy’s room.” I explain. “The one she’s making on the roof. It’s her ‘personal’ garden she says.” “Thank you.” I nod while stepping into a changing room and getting dressed in my fancy new outfit. Five minutes later I walked out and while it was comfortable it felt weird given I wasn't wearing my cloak anymore. “What do you think?” I ask, showing off to my fiance's. “Lovely darling.” “Look at you stud.” Jenny said, walking in. “What’s with the blue monkey suit?” “Going to 1960’s Earth to go on a date with Brigid.” I tell her. “Ah. Hey mama Rarity, is the outfit I asked for ready?” “Yes, Coco, would you go show it to her?” Rarity asked. “Sure. Come on Jenny.” She said, getting up as she and Jenny walked into a different room. “Is it something to show off for Joy?” I ask. “No, that Delson fellow that arrived with the others yesterday is teaching Lovely how to use her abilities. Turns out, his world is where her powers come from. So he’s teaching her some moves and Jenny asked for an outfit that would suit her for combat.” “That's good to hear.” I nod. “Anyways I best be off to find Luna. Have a nice day.” I say while heading off to find Luna. Getting up to the roof was one thing but trying to find her garden was another as I wondering if she had the garden inside or outside the castle. When I got to the roof of our home what should have been stone was now covered in blue grass, several dark colored bushes of plants were growing here and there, and I saw Luna furthest back, there was some kinda statue there she was looking at too, though, of what I’m not sure. As I approached she noticed me. “Oh, hi Ben.” Luna said, still looking at the statue. It was seven feet tall, and depicted a woman, pregnant, wearing a dress of...what I can only guess are black hides, and her eyes had these black stripes on them going from her cheeks, over her eyes, and into her hair. “Who is this statue?” I ask. “No idea.” Luna admitted. “I was coming up here to water the plants and it was here. As far as I can tell it’s just stone, but it just...appeared.” “Hmm…” I mutter, pulling up my Assistant and seeing if it had something to help describe this thing. “This thing is weird and I'm worried it'll attack us if we blink.” I frown. “If that was true I’d be harmed already.” Luna said, touching it on the belly. “It’s so strange. Looks like stone but...feels off.” I raised an eyebrow and lowered my arm, walking over and gently putting an arm on the statues pregnant belly. Luna was right, it felt...not like stone. It was hard like stone, but felt like...skin? “Either this is a being literally made of stone but can't move...a stone spell got pretty fancy...or someone is really good at making a stone sculpture.” “Neither.” I turned around, seeing Cript walk up. “Now how in the hell did this get here?” He asked, walking up to it. “What is it?” I ask curiously. “Something that should not be here at all. A...well, you know how I’m the admin, I control everything right?” “I suppose.” I say, not knowing the finer details of this. “Okay, so think of existence as a videogame, the ultimate rpg, or whatever, each Realm is a different version of the same game, just... different save file, playthrough, etc. Reflections are a lesser version of that. This statue...came from...I guess you could call it my game. Connected to this one, but different in lots of ways, kinda like a sequel that you don’t need to play the original for.” “I doubt Core or my evil self had anything to do with this…” I say with a frown. “And you probably heard the news already Cript.” I sigh out. “But who is this lady?” “...Long story, not telling, yet anyway. Your evil self is a Psychopath son and the place this statue should be they can travel there too, their facts, they exist everywhere. A real bitch to work around. I’m gonna take this back, just be glad what it needs to run properly doesn't exist here, otherwise this place would be overrun with Shadow Creatures.” Cript said as he touched the statue and he, and it, vanished. “Huh…” I frown. “That's...a thing.” I say. “Well, did you need anything Ben, before that all happened?” Luna asked. “Yes actually.” I say while pulling out Roxas’s card. “Not sure what will happen but this card had everything for our new son.” I say. “Hopefully nothing bad happens.” I say while touching the card onto Luna’s pregnant tummy. The card glowed as it went into her tummy, her whole tummy glowed a bit before it faded as Luna shivered. “Wow...that felt ticklish inside there. What was that?” “That was literally all the memories of someone being put inside you. Hopefully it is for a specific kid cause you have a stomach full of pebble babies at the moment.” “Oh, well that’s new. What would you call that fetish~” Luna teased. “It's not a fetish.” I say seriously, rubbing my temples a little and trying to keep an angry rant from coming out. “Anyway, I have to go find Brigid, it's her dating day after all.” I say while hugging Luna and heading off to find her. I found Brigid where I left her, leaning against a wall. “You look sharp.” She commented. “Only the best.” I say with a smile, pulling out Reunion and opening a DTL. “After you my lady.” I say with a little bow, my Keyblade vanishing quickly. “Why thank you.” She gave a curtsy, and walked in and I walked behind her. We exited out, and were in, what looked like New York. “Tall building on land? Heh, were probably cheaper to make than the ones in Rapture.” “Most likely.” I shrug. “So, where to first?” I ask, raising my arm for her to wrap her arm around. “I don’t know. Never been here before. Let’s get some food and see some sights before anything.” She said, pulling my arm and wrapping it around her as we started walking. “Honestly this is my first time being in New York City.” I mention. “So it's gonna be an adventure for the both of us.” We walked the streets and mostly looked at all the bright lights. We stopped at a hotdog stand and ate, then kept on walking. We made it into some kinda business district when we heard someone yell. “Just give us the girl and the debt’s gone!” There was a gunshot as a man in a trenchcoat and hat ran passed us. We looked at where he ran, there was a man there at a doorway. “And screw you!” He yelled. “Hello my good sir. And what just happened here?” I ask the man curiously. He saw us and sighed, putting his gun away. “Sorry you had to see that folks. Just...some odd people who I owe some money too. Rather than working off my debt like any other they just keep asking for my daughter.” “Uh...that's weird.” I frown. “Is there something special with your daughter?” “She’s just an infant, not even a full month yet. Her mother...died giving birth.” He said, wiping some sweat away, I noticed his hand had the tattoo AD on it. “What's with the tattoo?” I ask. “Huh?” He said, looking at his hand. “Oh, It’s my daughters initials, AD, Anna DeWitt. Name’s Booker. I promised my wife I’d do this after she told me she was pregnant. I told her it would be a girl, and her name would be these initials.” “Okay then.” I nod. “Has there been any...strange projects around here? Like a city in the sky or something?” I ask. “Columbia? That took to the sky last year. Already everyone regrets it after they bombed half the world. If it wasn’t for nukes they’d have hit everywhere they could already. What’s that gotta do with these… wait, who are you?” “Names Ben. And this is my fiance Brigid.” I tell him. “I was just wondering if something was being built because something might be weird.” I half lie. “Heh, hey I’m the detective here.” He joked, looking behind us and frowning. I looked back and could see that man eyeing us from behind a building corner some blocks away. “You two come on in, some...unpleasurable company walks around around this time of day.” “And here I was hoping for a normal day with my love.” I sigh out. “But thanks Booker.” I say. “Ladies first.” I say, not wanting Brigid to enter after me. Brigid walked in first, followed by me, then Booker walked in, closing and locking the door. “Sorry about the mess, been hectic here for a while.” Booker said, picking up newspapers and some clothings that were scattered around. Brigid and I sat on the couch, and when Booker came back, he had coffee with him. “Hope you like it black, haven’t had the time to shop in a while.” “It's fine.” I say with a raised hand. “So, mind if I ask why in the world creepy people are asking for an infant girl?” I ask. “Is there anything special about her?” “Well, the man, who I think has a twin sister since a woman sometimes comes by asking the same thing he does, are the ones I owe the debt too, and one man claims himself a prophet, I’ve only seen him once, is their boss I think. Not sure where they work exactly, all I know is that they came by after I lost money on a horse race three months ago. Doubt they work at the tracks. That man and woman talk way too smart for that line of work.” “Okay so city in the sky is breeding crazy people.” I frown. “I mean if you think about it, city starts flying a year ago and then about a year later a 'prophet’ and some strange people start harassing you for your daughter?” I ask. “Still makes no sense. Colombia’s a floating, fucking city, my daughter and I are nothing special, we just get by like anyone else. Though…” “You could have started with the 'though’.” I deadpan. “What is the problem?” “I swear I’ll hear someone talking to Anna when I’m outside her bedroom door. It’s a lass’s voice, young, but I’ve never heard it before. I open the door and no one is there, spent nights awake, paranoide, watching her, but it’s only when I’m not in her room.” “That's...strange.” I frown. “Maybe I could help. I have some...experience finding people that seem to vanish in thin air.” I explain. “Well it won’t hurt anything.” Booker admits, scratching his head. “Fine, you can check now. And since you mentioned something about a date, I’ll start making dinner. Gotta go shopping though. I’ll be back in half an hour, I’m trusting you two here, anything missing or worse, I will kill you.” He said, walking out the door. “Couldn't kill me even if he tried.” I grumble. “Brigid...I'm so sorry that this date went from just looking around town to me doing work…” I sigh out, feeling bad about this. “You kidding? I’ve missed the questions, doing something in the field, yes I’m glad the little ones are safe, but I missed the...action, you could say. A mystery is afoot love.” She said, standing up. “Let’s give it our best shot shall we?” She said, giving me a sly grin. “Sure. Let's see what our magic infant is hiding.” I say while getting up. “I don't know if the others did this but I'm gonna have to give you and Coco a Keyblade sooner or later.” “Later, right now I’m good with this.” She said, pulling out a revolver. “Rarity knows how to make a dress with pockets for all a lady needs.” “Glad to hear.” I say while heading up to where his daughter's room was. “Let's hope we can solve this…” I mutter, knowing this will be tricky. We put our ears up to the door, and listen. “Hush little child all is well, papa’s life revolves around you, your future is for him to atone his sins~” A woman's voice was singing in a low pitch. Knowing I couldn't just barge in I pulled out a Fair Game card and put myself in it before sliding in under the door. After a moment I popped up into the room for whoever is in here. “And who are you?” “Gah!” She yelped, turning around. “How in the- Wait...Ben?” She asked, walking up to me. “Who are you?” I frown, pointing a card at her. “And have we met?” “It is!” She then hugged me and somehow spun me around. “Long time no see!” She said, finally letting me go. “No seriously the hell lady.” I started. “Who are you?” “Huh...Oh, right. Last time you saw me you were a teenager and I was like...almost seventy! It’s me, your grandma!” She said. “Gr-granny!?” I bark, my bark sounding quite wolf like. “But...how?” “When all that stuff was going on, world going to hell and all some nasty people broke into the house and well, an old lady can only do so much with a cane when they have shotguns. Woke up in this white place and spoke with God. He asked me what I wanted and I asked to be twenty again, and to travel wherever I wish. So, here I am!” “But...you're young! And...not smacking me with a cane because I broke a finger again.” I say in shock, before hugging my granny as tears filled my eyes. “I have so much to talk about...what about Grandpa?” “Asked God about it, he just wanted to go to heaven. I’ve been traveling so many realities. Oh, and sorry about that, meds didn’t help with my brain problems, Being old sucked.” “You have absolutely no idea what stories I have to tell you granny.” I say before something clicked. “Oh sorry. Hey Brigid, the doors unlocked.” I tell the woman outside. She walked in and gave a bow. “I heard everything from the other side of the door. Nice to meet you miss.” Brigid said, holding out a hand that granny shook. “This is Brigid, one of my fiance's.” I say with a smile. “There's so many things I have to tell you.” I say giddily, not believing I get to see my granny again. “Wait, one of what now?” She asked, shocked. “You have a harem!? Ha! Your grandpa was right.” “The afterlife has the best tv after all.” I chuckle. “But you got to see Grandpa? I thought he was in heaven?” “No, this was back when we were all on earth. He said the anti social one always get’s all the girls, and I told him to stop binge watching so much anime.” “Grandpa? Watching anime?” I ask, making me laugh at such a thing. “Yeah, he used your computer when you were at school.” She chuckled. “So I bet you’re probably wondering what I’m doing singing to a baby when the dad’s not here, huh?” “He's been freaking the hell out about it.” I tell her. “But a mother and grandmother taking care of an infant? I suppose it should be obvious but the lyrics made it sound more...future heavy.” “Yeah, there’s so many realities all revolving around her, it’s crazy. Talked to so many versions of her, just hoping to stop that cycle. Been giving them money and such without him knowing, otherwise he would have given her up to them a long time ago.” “If you need money all you have to do is ask me.” I say with a chuckle. “Being the prince of two countries, a world wide super hero, and a few other things can really give you the funds for basically anything.” I explain. “No, I’m good.” She said. “So, Booker is gone right?” “For about a half an hour. Went to get groceries. But you do know you'll have to explain yourself right granny?” I ask her. “Only if I get caught. Listen Ben, this is something I just gotta do, alright, please, not a word, for me.” Granny asked me, looking me dead in the eyes. “Who said you weren't going to get help?” I ask. “You want to help Booker and his daughter out a lot right? Me and Brigid are here to help.” I explain. “Besides, it's not everyday you hear someone call themselves a prophet and ask for an infant. Bad things are happening around here and Brigid's thirst for investigation needs to be sated.” “Fine, you’re as stubborn as your grandfather, I swear.” Granny mutters. “You go deal with those two posing as twins, I’ll be here, that Prophet’s been around here a few times too many the last few weeks.” “Alright Granny.” I nod. “And maybe after this you can come home and meet everyone. I'm sure my little brother Joy would be happy to see you again.” I chuckle, letting slip about Joy right now. “I’ll ask when I get there, but as a grandma, let me at least spoil you a bit.” She waved her hand and a box popped out of thin air. “Here.” She said, handing it to me. “Thanks.” I say while taking the box. “But what's in it? Also this is important...mom and dad are back. And there living at my house.” I tell her with a smile, opening the box and wondering what she wanted to spoil me with. “Not gonna ask, I’ll see them when I arrive. And it’s a little do-dad I picked up in some abandoned lab.” I opened the box….It’s a portal gun… “You are the best granny.” I smile, putting the lid back and hugging her happily. “Love you granny.” “Same sweety.” She said, hugging me back. “Now, as much as Brigid here would love to head off too, best she stay here, tell Booker you went after the man in the coat.” “That okay with you?” I ask Brigid curiously. “Just make sure you take me along to deal with that ‘prophet’.” She said, giving me a peck on the cheek. “Alright hon.” I chuckle. “Anyways, off I go. See ya later. And please stay safe.” I say before heading out to stop the bad guys, wherever they are. I ran out the door, and as luck would have it, the man in the coat. He gasped before turning around and running. “Get back here!” I shout, rushing after the man quickly. He was fast, just managing to keep out of reach. He turned into an alleyway, and that’s when it got weird. This, portal opened up, and he ran in, and I jumped in. I managed to tackle him then, but we were in some kinda...library/lab. “Let go!” He yelled. “Not until you answer my questions.” I growl. “Like why you are so obsessed with an infant that borders between creepy and absolutely disgusting.” “Fact dear.” I turned around, a woman that looked just like a female version of the man said, at some kinda machine’s control station...wait, we came out of a portal making machine? “Across many realities, we have learned a fact. When something is taken from a reality that is not its own, the...side effects of what is taken can show amazing results.” “Like?” I ask with a frown. “Speak English lady.” “Like all of her parallels that were taken from her home reality, with time she too will be able to open tears in reality, see them and open them, bringing items, people, and even entering other realities all together.” The man said, grunting in discomfort. “Okay...so?” I ask. “Kidnapping a baby is still wrong.” “Hey, we just work for the Profit, we’re scientists, not monsters.” The woman said. “The only reason he’s after her really is because her ability to enter parallel realities effects the one she’s in. She doesn't just enter them, she reshapes the world around her to be that reality. With the proper...handicaps, for lack of a better word, you can see the future with her powers.” “And seeing the future is bullshit.” I frown. “The prophet is a madman if he thinks kidnapping an infant and then raising them as nothing more than a cash grab is sick. Scientist or not you have morals right?” I ask, hoping they know how insane this Prophet is. “Debatable.” They both said. “So long as we have funding, we’ll do whatever we’re ordered to do.” The man said, shaking me off and standing up. “Besides, it’s not like it’s not his daughter in the big picture.” The woman added. “And what's the big picture? Booker murdering a majority of the inhabitants on that flying City and then blowing it up all on the basis of 'he wants his daughter back’?” I ask with a frown. “Not exactly.” They both said. “More along the lines of… The Prophet and Booker are the same person, but of different realities.” “You see, at one time in Booker’s life, after being discharged from war, he was offered “salvation” in the form of baptism. If he accepted, he becomes the prophet, if he refuses, and he has in the reality we were just at, he stay’s himself, and has his daughter.” “Okay then...so what does this have to do with the here and now?” I ask. “Timeline wise, we’re behind.” The man said. “Something that has yet to happen in any other reality.” “Time is a very fickle and very screwy thing.” I say. “You think you know what's gonna happen one minute, but then something completely different happens.” I explain. “But please, explain how your 'behind’.” “She should have been handed over to us a week or month after her mother died at birth. Yet because she hasn't, events are getting...off.” “How 'off’?” I ask. They pointed at the doorway. I walked over and opened it...Everything was in chaos. There were gunfights everywhere, a guy who controlled crows having them attack people, a guy on FIRE, walking around, melting everything around him, and one large clearly rebel army shooting everyone in sight. I shut the door quickly. “Well good job. Just as fucked as Rapture.” I frown. “And that’s just this reality.” They added. “The one we were in just now, this will be its future if more time is allowed to pass.” “Then change it assholes.” I frown. “You know the future, so change it, stop the super power bullshit and cut it off. Make sure this future doesn't exist. This isn't a 'it will happen no matter what’, it's a 'stop pussy footing and do the right thing to stop it’s thing.” I explain with a frown. “Not our job.” They replied. “We observe, give hints, that’s about all.” “So you'd rather been in a future that's the end of the world...rather than getting off your asses and actually doing something about it?” I ask bluntly. “Well, we can’t stop this, in every Reality, it’s Booker that makes Colombia fall.” “And why can't you make the place fall? Just make the place blow up, your scientists you know how to make explosives right?” I ask. “We can make it fall.” They said. “But in Colombia not there’s only about, oh, six thousand infants and children. Adults are all bigots, but the kids...it would be a quick death, but we can’t pull the trigger.” “Christ…” I sigh out. “Well...I doubt Trinity will be willing to just gather up six thousand children and infants…” I mutter. “Well, there is another option.” The man suggests. “Oh? Pray tell.” The woman asks. “If Colombia never flew, or even better, the Prophet never came to be, everything will work around that.” “Have you ever heard of a theory called 'multiverse theory’?” I ask, not sure if the theory has been talked about yet. “Yes, but here’s a fact, there is a way to erase them all. Ever here of the Prime reality?” The woman asked. “Yes I have actually. It's the 'roots’ of the multiverse correct? Or the trunk right? Not sure which…” I sigh out. “The original source of what causes the other Multiverses yes. That first, split of reality where a major choice changes everything. We can end the prophet there, at the baptism...at a price.” “Messing with time to such a massive degree always has consequences.” I shrug. So what is it?” “In order to keep the choice of Booker accepting/denying the baptism...he has to die. This will, in turn, kill off every Prophet, and Booker in all realities.” “But...what about his daughter?” I ask with a frown. “Given all her other versions, she’s...scattered. Even this infant version of her will remain. Funny, a being not meant to exist, but does anyway. Wonder what you would call it?” The man pondered. “A Nobody.” I say. “But will all Booker's die? Will he never be able to live a normal life with his daughter like he always wanted?” I ask, feeling kind of bad to just ruining his life for the greater good when he wants to be a good dad. “Either one version of the same man in every reality dies, or infinite lives throughout all realities do.” They said in unison again. Everything went white, and I found myself at a… green field. I was atop a hill in the middle of a large pond, a circle of people were standing around, listening to a priest speak about god...in the backmost of the group, I saw Booker. “Excuse me!” I call out through the crowd, walking forward to the gathering. “Sorry to ruin your...weird ritual but something doesn't seem right here.” “Oh child, those without god in their hearts see the world strange and hollow. Have you come to accept his grace?” The priest asked. I closed my eyes. “Okay…” I mutter. “I am a messenger from God.” I say. The group laughed, even saw Booker chuckle back there. “Oh child, what lies the demons whisper to you in the dark.” The priest chuckled. “Oh really?” I ask while starting to float in the air, slipping my angel ring on without anyone noticing and equipping some angel equipment to look like a messenger rather than a fighter. “I suppose My Lord was right to tell me they wouldn't believe me if I disguised myself to look like a mortal.” I explain simply, lying out my ass here but believable enough to these religious nutcases. Everyone, save for Booker, immediately took a fearful praying stance. “Young one, why do you not bow?” I ask Booker specifically. “Just, I carry my sins with purpose. Not sure an angel can understand. Water alone can’t wash blood away.” “Then why are you here? Wanting to wash away your sins?” I ask. “God tells us angels not to interfere with his children...but we do understand your sins.” I shake my head. “Please young one, explain yourself to me.” “Do you really want to know?” Booker asked, looking me dead in the eyes. “You treat us angels as perfect beings who know no wrong. But we understand more than you all know.” I say. “Tell me, what are your sins?” He looked at the water. There was silence for a time. “In the war. I killed, and killed, and killed. Do you know what my greatest sin was in that war?” “You enjoyed it...didn't you?” I ask gently. He looked up at me...his eyes… “Like an addiction.” The water around him turned red, I turned around, all the people were...god… “Now angel.” He said, appearing in front of me. “Do you think simple water with ‘divine’ powers can clean the demon that I have become?” “Sadly no...but I do know someone that can.” I say while calling up Cript for help, knowing he has the most experience about this. “You may be a demon, but there is one that can help you. And he can help you become the normal father you always wanted to be.” I say gently, moving backwards slightly. “May your humanity guide you back to life.” Suddenly, Cript appeared behind Booker, his Humanity sword slicing clean into Booker. His body was covered in Crystal, and fell into the water. “Huh, guess he got that baptism after all.” Cript commented before flicking me in the head. “You’re an idiot.” “It took you this long to figure that out?” I ask, rubbing my forehead gently. “What did I do wrong? Did I basically play into why this world is fucked in the future?” “No, it’s against multiversal law for anyone without a god, divine, or scattered status to enter Prime realities.” “Uh…” I frown. “Shit…” I frown. “That's...uh...does saying that I'm the Heir to Nothingness count for anything?” I ask, not really knowing if I am or not but still. “Nope, king or bust. And in this case, you’re bust.” “Well...it was nice to have...anything really.” I say, expecting that either my life, or everything I know and love, are now absolute forfeit now. “Please, what do you take us for? Biblical crazed murderers?” Cript snapped his fingers and...I was in a courtroom…there was… Jesus as my lawyer...Cript as the judge...and other various gods as the jury. “Court in session. Ben, your are guilty of entering a Prime Reality illegally. Has your defence anything to say?” “Uh...can I ask a question? How does this work? Cause I don't know if this is super court or normal court.” I say worriedly, not sure what to do here. Jesus coughed. “Basically like mortal court. ‘Pray’ for community service.” He joked, earning a frown from me. “Yeah...no one laughs at that…” “People think gods stick to the ways you read about in lore, but fun fact, mortals change, so do higher beings.” One of the jury spoke...I think it’s Hores? “Okay then…” I sigh out. “First time in court...and slightly half expected Pheonix Wright to be here…” I mutter to myself. “But...I suppose?” “Well our defence, your honor, is simple. Yes, my client entered a Prime Reality illegally, but he was doing what any other Hero does when duty calls. Ben’s line up of Heroic acts is stacking very well.” Jesus said. “Actually...that raises a dire question…” I frown. “No idea why I didn't question this before but...how did those scientists even know about the prime reality? And how could they send me there in the first place?” I ask in confusion. “They are scattered. Existing within the walls between realities rather than on one side or the other. Puts you at a divine status, but because they can still die via mortal reasons, they are called Scattered.” Cript explained. “Thank you.” I nod. “With that out of the way, the jury will now review all of Ben’s actions.” Cript said, the jury all viewing, what looked like my life on fast forward. Man was it kind of disappointing at parts. After about seven minutes, it ended and they all stood, mumbling among one another. “Your honor, we find the defendant guilty, but within the rights of Heroes. We request a minimum sentence as punishment.” “Alright. Ben, your choice. Community service, or a fine?” “That depends on your definition of 'community service’ and 'fine’.” I point out. “Community service is slaying demons in hell. A fine is a hundred to three hundred souls.” Jesus clarifies. “And no, not those souls.” “Okay thank Christ.” I sigh out. “Uh...no offence.” “Hey!” Jesus cheers. “Love it when that happens.” “Oi vey.” I shake my head. “What are these souls? Again this is my first time doing...this.” I say while gesturing to all of the room and all the God's. “The souls we refer to, are small pieces of reality itself in a physical form. Well, primordial reality at least. They can be used to make up anything, it’s how gods like the jury and J’s father there made worlds and life. Think of it like...a Simcity game.” Cript explained. “Souls in this case are...munny, in a sense. I’m an admin, so I don’t even need them, used them once. Made a hat.” “Well given this is the first time I've heard of these souls I have to pick the community service sadly because I have none as far as I know.” I sigh out. “Always knew I was going to hell...just didn't think in this way.” I said, before a nagging feeling made me look around. Void Emperor power? the voice mumbled in my head. “Something's...not right…” I mutter to myself. Its weak...but that void power is familiar… The voice adds in a whisper, it's voice still indistinct on who owns it. “Uh...excuse me, does anyone else sense that?” I ask “That Void surge, yeah.” Cript said. “Seems like that old Demon’s finally getting off his ass.” “Demon?” I ask. “Is that it's name or not?” “No, never really learned it’s name, read about it a bit, got board. Alright then, change of plan, Ben, your community service is to see what got that old fart off his butt.” “I'm gonna have to do some stuff first. Apologise to my girlfriend for...a little bad date, take her home and get Joy.” I sigh out. “Relax. I’ll stop time till you get back. No one will be the wiser.” Cript said, snapping his fingers as Joy appeared next to me. “Why am I here? Is that Horus? Is that Jesus? I'm...confused.” Joy frowns. “But I suppose it's because of that energy I sensed?” “Yeah, time’s frozen till you guy’s finish this thing. Good luck, slap that demon for me, tell him it’s from me.” “I...kind of doubt I could…” I say worriedly. “But um...what's a Void Emperor?” I ask. “The voice in my head said it was Void Emperor power being put out.” “Basically the old king of Void. Something about him being tricked or trapped, I forget really.” “So...I have to meet the old Ruler of the Void huh?” I ask. “Seems so, now hop to it, if I have to rebuild that world of John’s again I’m adding my own touches...and you don’t want that.” Cript said with a chuckle. He snapped his fingers, and we were outside of some kinda town build around this reflections old castle/my home. “Okay then.” I say while looking around. “Damn, you can sense all the energy here.” Joy says while summoning Lindworm. “Yep.” I nod while summoning Frozen Pride and Reunion. “Welp, we got a Demon to find, some had guys to help stop, and possibly meet a new friend.” I shrug. To be continued...
Nobody's spare time“Sheesh, the hell happened?” I ask with a frown, seeing giant craters here and there as the two of us continued forward. “No idea...but whatever it is, it’s really strong.” Joy says, Lindworm floating around him at the ready. Joy and I flew around for a bit and arrived at a town, some kinda...dark miasma was in the air as the ponies were choking to breath. We found it hard to breath too. We both zipped up our cloaks to keep the miasma out and acted fast, Joy trying to push the miasma up and away from the people and me helping out the people to get to a safer spot. “Shit, looks like the parties already in full swing.” I growl. “H- *Cough* Help!” I turned around, seeing a pony Applebloom wandering aimlessly, coughing along the way. Before I could react, Joy ran ahead. “Don't worry. I got you.” Joy says while helping the poor pony, not wanting to see any version of the girl he loves hurt. “Let's get you out of here. It's too dangerous.” He says while moving fresh, untainted air towards AB to help her breath. “*Cough* Who are you?” She asked, Joy noticing her eyes. I did too. She’s blind. “My name's Joy.” Joy says slowly. “H-how did you become blind?” “Heh, when some black eyed man and a purple robe wearing...things fought. They blew up the moon, and majority of Equestria. Then John and Blueblood both went demon and nearly blew up the world. If it wasn’t for some...god called Cript we’d all be goners.” “Well...glad to hear he helped the world.” Joy says. “Wonder which direction that cloud came from…” I frown, looking around and wondering which direction to head off to first. Applebloom pointed up, and I dropped my jaw. It was...a lich, fighting some kind a Demon. “John’s fighting that thing. I heard it’s voice. It was the creature in purple.” She muttered. “Well...that's a bunch if something.” I frown. “But let's get you to safety with the others. This place isn't safe at all.” I say worriedly, the air feeling...strained around me and Joy for some reason. “The castle has a bunker, around the back.” Applebloom said. “Something in there too, might help.” “So that's where the people we're heading off to…” I mutter. “Well let's just get going. The sooner you and the rest of the people are safe the better.” Joy says, wanting to get out of here before the fight rushes to them. Ben and Joy ran fast, looking around for others before they had a small group and finally made their way to the bunker entrance. They led the group down, and Joy and Ben stared at...a generator, pipes self dug into the soil of the planet itself. “Well...that's probably what Cript used to help keep the planet okay.” I say while unzipping my cloak hood and pulling it down. “Yeah, he sure knows how to make great things.” Joy says while doing the same just to breath some fresh air. “Okay, did we get everyone?” The pup asked both me and the people. “No, but most are exploring further out from here, so they should be safe.” Joy and I looked up, to our surprise, a Changeling answered. “But Gilda and the Princesses were on the Castle’s roof training. Not sure if this gas is up there, but Luna and Celestia especially are weaker right now.” “I have a feeling it involved a combination of the world almost blowing up and the moon blowing up correct?” I ask curiously, already finding this world a ton more fucked than I first thought. “Back when Core, and a being John refers to as The Outsider battled, Luna and Celestia tried to stop them...Celestia lost her wings...and Luna lost all her legs. They have artificial ones now, but they’re not used to them all quite yet.” “Well.” I state. “That...is fucked up.” Joy says. “And who is this John person? We only heard a friend say his name and a little other tidbits, we never got any story on him.” “At the moment he’s the demon fighting Core, that man in purple, or whatever he is. Before heading here I saw him change into what looked like Death itself.” “Ah, I saw that.” I nod. “And it was not pretty to say the least.” Jot finishes for me. “You best hurry, John like this he’s...not exactly there. Best hurry before a stray attack knocks them into the stars.” “That's not good.” Joy frowns. “Right away. Come on Joy, let's get to work.” I say while rushing out, not wanting the people to get hurt from an accident, and Joy quickly followed. After we made sure the door to the bunker was sealed to keep any unwanted visitors out we rushed as fast as we could to the fight, hoping to at least do something to stop the world from ending...and to this reflection it would be a repeat. We flew up on our Lindworms, rushing towards the top. When we arrived, we spotted Gilda, Cadence, and a Luna and Celestia with some mechanical limbs. “I’m going to assume you both are on John’s side?” Gilda asked. “I want to make a sassy remark but I won't. Yes we are on John's side and want to see Core about as dead as you can get for super powered beings.” I shrug. “Same, that SoB nearly killed off- Oh the fuck.” Gilda said, Joy and I looked back and saw Core change, his body shifted into a set of black armor with a MASSIVE greatsword version of Soul Eater. “Oh fuck… Get us out of here...fast.” “Hang on.” Me and Joy say while seeing summoned our cards big enough to hold all of us and shot swiftly through the air away from what's going to happen rather quickly. “How the hell do you get Keyblade Armor? I want to know.” I frown, thinking it's a form that gives you a power and defense boost. We shot fast back to the Bunker doors, letting the Princesses and Gilda enter before we closed them and headed down with them. “You got a plan?” Luna asked Joy and I. “Uh…” I mutter. “We...normally don't have plans to start out. We know how to plan during a fight but…not before.” Joy explains sheepishly. “Been in too many fights to have a plan going in when we don't know much about the situation.” “Maybe the generator can do something?” Celestia offered. “We haven’t messed with it, but it might be able to do something.” “Maybe…” I mutter while gently floating over the people and bringing my Assistant up to try and find the exact details of this thing. “Okay...where is this generator cause there's a fuck ton of them…” I frown, wanting at least some basic knowledge about it even if my brain is going a million miles per hour half the time. “So how long have you all known John?” Joy asks Luna, Gilda, and Celestia while I dicked around trying to figure out the Generator. “Well, that’s a story. You see, we first found out about him when a series of murders were happening in Canterlot. Guards saw John over two corpses and he was labeled the murderer, though, turns out it was one of those corpses he was next to that was the real serial killer.” Celestia explained. “He just kept delivering justice, depending on their crimes the criminals were either found unconscious, dead, or...rarely, eaten alive by hoards of rats. Then Blueblood teamed up with Core, but he already had Void powers, he’s little under half of my sister’s age. Well, was. He made his move, and the world, and the guards, finally realized who the real hero was on Equestria.” “You know...I forgot Blueblood even even existed back on our world.” Joy frowns. “Well...he deserves getting his ass kicked cause if memory serves he's nothing but an asshole.” “Well, we are unsure of your blueblood, but what ours did...he deserved the death he got. Decapitated by Cript and body rolled into a ravine of lava.” Joy took a breath. “I can think of worse ways to die….but I won't name them cause most involve torture to a high degree…” He sighs out. “What do ya’ think he did ta’ us?!” an Applejack walked up. “He had me hung up with needles in every inch of my skin, Twi on a rack, for you can guess what, Luna in an Iron Maiden, and Celestia strapped to a table for…” She shivered. “And that wasn't even the worst part of it all.” She hissed. “He took...our marehood. We can’t have foals…” Applejack said, tears filling her eyes. Joy walked over and gently put a soft gentle paw on her shoulder. “I understand...I don't know anyone personally or have experienced such a horrible thing….but believe me….I understand the pain of losing something so important…” He says sadly, remembering himself turning into Rejection and losing himself entirely for so long. “We are trying to keep that experience just a memory.” Celestia sighed. “We raised Blueblood since he was a foal on the streets. I just wonder what went wrong.” “Who knows. It could be so many things.” Joy shrugs. “But the fuckers dead and he can't do anymore damage to any of you.” “Well…” I said. “Remember your Tiara’s dad?” “That's different.” Joy said to me. “I’m just saying, if he’s that bad and in hell, which he likely is, who knows what he could become down there.” I said, pressing another button and the machine began to glow. “Okay...did a thing.” The generator glowed brighter, and flashed bright enough to blind us a bit. When it faded, the Generator was larger, and even more tubes were going into the ground...and some that were just sticking out of the ground, unlike the larger ones, these ones were small, thin, and were poking out of the ground everywhere. “Ben...what did you do?” Joy asks worriedly. “Um….” I mutter while looking at the manual again to see what happened. “Okay so… New pipes?” I checked my Assistant about this Generator. This Model Generator like all World Core Generators, makes a dying, or uninhabitable world habitable by fertilizing soil, rapid growing plant, rapid evolution of animal species, rivers, oceans, and in extreme cases, air. To generate clean air or filter an already existing atmosphere, simply press the reset button after engaging Heavy Renovations mode. You will know this mode is activated when small, thin tubes sprout out of the ground around the planet. “Well...that answers that…” I frown. “Okay so it's nothing drastic but...I put it in heavy renovations mode. Basically it's a setting that cleans up or replaces air.” I explain. “Nothing bad. But i...still have no idea what I'm doing…” I frown. “The hero of an entire universe everyone. Give him a round of applause.” Joy says sarcastically. “Oh shush you.” I huff at Joy. I clicked the big red Reset button on the machine and it turned off for a few seconds, then turned on again, the tubs sucking and blowing out air. “Huh, smells like...New car smell?” “I hope it doesn't stick around long.” Celestia said, cringing at the smell. “Weird…” Joy mutters. “It’s will probably go away after a little bit...but...who knows sadly.” “Let’s go see how things are topside.” Celestia said, leading Joy and I to the bunker doors. We opened the doors and the miasma was quickly being sucked into the pipes while clean air was pumped out. “Thanks goodness.” ”Well at least the air isn't filled with that miasma.” Joy nods. “Now...what to do next.” “Dying is a start.” Joy and I dodged, jumping back in time before…she almost sliced us with...a skeleton version of Reunion. “Nice moves.” She said, her body...was weird, darkness and...void, I think, were fizzing out of her. “Dying is not on my list here lady.” I tell her while summoning Frozen Pride and Reunion. “And what the hell happened to that Keyblade?” “And looks like more experiments were done on her.” Joy frowns while summoning Lindworm and readying himself for a fight. She raised up her corrupted Reunion. “This is the Keyblade Core gave me, after all, for every Reunion, there’s a Fall Out.” She said, pulling out her sword in her other hand. “Well aren't you just fancy with word play.” I frown, readying my Keyblade and shield. She smirked, and slammed Fall Out into the ground. “Sin’s Greed!” She cast, a pair of hands coming out of the ground. They pulled whatever it was out, and a silhouette of a human emerged from the soil. It looked at me, and summoned a silhouette version of Reunion, then charged. I took a deep breath. “Let's get started.” I mutter. “Dragon Talon!” Joy shouts, using his lances to summon a dragon claw made up of green magic and wind and swinging it at the charging silhouette. It quickly dodged each swipe, and even grabbed one of the spears, throwing it back at Joy before going into hit me. I raises Frozen Pride and blocked it. There was a large spark of darkness from the block. Then, much to my displeasure, it grew a single eye in the center of it’s head, and a mouth filled with needle like teeth as it grinned at me. “Can shit stop being creepy?” I frown, Nothingness coiling around my Keyblade as I slashed at it. It bent its head back an exact ninety degrees to dodge, then it went back into position, opening it’s teeth filled mouth as a tongue that looked like something out of Alien was sliding towards my face. “Frozen Pulse.” I growl, my shield glowing blue and sending a wave of energy at it, and fully able to freeze it if it stayed close. Sadly, it jumped back, but that freaky tongue of it’s was frozen, cut off when the weight of the ice brought it down on it’s teeth. It...it’s blood is red? “Confused yet?” The assassin asked. “The hell did you do?” I ask with a frown. “Sin’s Greed summonses forth the person you have wronged most, and makes them fight you to the death. In this case…” The Silhouette’s darkness around it’s face peeled back like a mask... and the person inside was me. Younger, by at least two years, crying and scared. “The hell is going on?!” He, I, asked. “Since it couldn’t summon you, as it’s fighting you, it pulled a version of you from another reality, same life, well, past anyway.” The assassin explained. “You always did hate yourself above anyone and everyone else.” “Technically speaking I hate another version of me that makes you look like a bitch in comparison...but he's not here and hadn't bothered me for some reason.” I shrug, “Oh god…” Joy mutters. “So...he can only be saved through death? Cause that seems weird.” “Heh, kill him, the dark Silhouette will still puppeteer the body, kill me, the silhouette kills him, or…” “Or?” I ask, knowing I'm going to regret answering as I kept my guard up along with Joy. “I can let him go, be out of your hair, leave you alone for, oh...five years max, if you do something for me.” “I'm not going to kill myself, Joy, innocent people, my wives, or my children got it you sick whore?” I growl, white energy sparking around me. “Oh please, I do my own killing. No, I just need one, small, insignificant favor. No one dies, on the contrary, someone will be brought to life with my favor.” “And who would that be?” I ask, finding this way too weird, especially for a very sick and twisted assassin that's been tested on more than...something only God knows. “It’s simple.”She said, tossing me a box. It was small. Inside was a...very odd looking syringe. “I just need that syringe full of your blood, and I’ll be off.” “Are you going to hand Core a new person to clone?” I ask with a frown. “Please, with how that John is taking care of Core I don’t expect him to be himself after this fight. No, your blood is for something...personal.” “Will you tell me this personal thing? Cause I doubt it's too make a boyfriend.” I frown, “If you find me before five years are up, yes. If not, you’ll have to wait and see.” “Oi vey…” I sigh out while lifting the sleeve of my arm and finding a vein. “You sure about this Ben?” Joy asks worriedly. “Nope, but if it helps save a life then I'm fine...and apparently it will bring about new life…” I say while pushing the needle into my arm and drawing out blood. “And hey, maybe she just wanted a child and chose me for some weird fucking reason.” I point out, taking a wild shot in the dark as the syringe was filled with my blood. I pulled it out and healed my arm real quick. “There, don't do anything weird with it okay?” I ask, holding my hand out with the syringe. “Well, you already guessed what I am going to do with it.” She smiled, looking at the syringe. Both Joy's and my own jaws dropped. “WHAT!?!” We shout in surprise. “I mean...considering what Core did to you...I suppose this would be the only way to have a child...but why me?” I ask in confusion. “Two reasons, one, Core’s dark void implant on my hand has been damaged. Not even he can repair this.” She said, showing us the slash on her hand where a strange tattoo was. “I’ll be dead in six or seven years. And you, because puppy there is a tad too young to have offspring, even being a dog.” “Okay but why me specifically?” I ask again. “Honestly, you’re the first target to survive me, figure the child of a grand hero and a master assassin might lead quite the life, deciding which parent to follow.” “Uh…” I frown. “So let me get this straight, because you couldn't kill Ben...you technically fell in love with him huh?” Joy asks. “Since when do two people need love to have kids?” The assassin questioned. “I just always figured, when the time comes, pick a good partner, a rather unsafe one night stand later, then I raise my kid.” “Oh no, you're not raising that kid alone here lady.” I frown. “I don't care what you say, but I am not some dick bag like that…” I shake my head, “You can have a second chance at life-” “Yeah, I’m gonna stop you right there.” She interrupted. “I have about six years left to live, for five of them, I plan on raising my child, my way, and once the kid is four and year five is up, I’ll leave him to you, walk out into some random place, activate my dark void mark, and explode like an A Bomb. Till then, ciao.” She said, walking into a DTD. “Fuck…” I frown. “That's not good…” Joy says worriedly, looking at the other Ben. “Come on, we have to help him out...and then get ready for the next fight.” “But I also have to hunt her down and make sure she doesn't just give up on a possible good life without being a mass murderer and my new kid she's going to take care of.” I frown, Joy walking over to my other self carefully, “So...anyone wanna tell me what the heck is going on or…” The other me asked. “Its...a fuck lot of complicated.” Joy sighs out. “But cliff notes, I'm Joy, the physical manifestation of your own emotion of Joy and happiness. Why we look like wolves is because of some omnipotent god person with a curse and our technical new mother is a twelve foot tall, six breasted dire wolf, and everything in video games, books, and all other fictional things are real in every way shape and form.” Joy explains. “Complicated I know.” “Yeah… So, we’re all the same person? What about names? Are they the same or different?” “I'm technically different but the names Joy.” Joy says. “I'm Ben, but my hero name is ‘White Knight’.” I shrug. “Also I have a harem...and so does Joy here.” I point out. “Did you really need to point that out?” Joy frowns. “Okay...so names are different, well, sorta, my name’s Bate.” The other me said. “Who names their-” I start. “Two of my girlfriends were literally named One and Two.” Joy cuts me off. “Oh…also….your technical parents are alive and at our castle.” Joy says. “Unless their different where you come from.” “No idea, we look the same so I’m assuming they look like mine. So, did yours not die or?” Bate asked. “The chick that summoned you here murdered them and staged them as accidents.” I frown. “And now I'm technically going to have a kid with her...by technicalities.” I sigh out, “Heh, mine died in an airplane crash about eight years ago.” Bate said. “My dad was killed by burning to death in a big bread oven, and my mom was murdered by hunting rifle through the mouth. Saw the aftermath as well.” I sigh out. “Heh, yikes...So, how am I getting out of this?” I summoned a DTL back home. “There you go, walk into the light and you'll find yourself in front of a castle, knock on the front door and say your husband sent a clone of his here.” I explain. “Yeah, no. Wouldn’t two of us in the same place be...weird? I mean, I still look human, you’re a wolf, but still.” “No actually. Since you'll be the third me on my Equestria. Short answer a very powerful, and very murderous version of us is there doing something I don't know about. Also I've met other versions of my fiance’s, and they've met other versions of themselves. Seeing double means fuck all at this point, considering there's practically an infinite amount of us in some way shape or form.” I shrug. “O...kay? Well, might as well.” Bate said, entering the DTL. “Well...that was a thing.” I sigh out while the DTL closed after Bate entered it. “He is going to be so confused when he enters our house.” “So...are you really sure you want to give that bitch another chance?” Joy asks me. “She just literally asked me if I could help give her a child...she may be cold and ruthless but there's a heart in there somewhere...and it's and heart that wants to see a child grow strong...not sure if happy cause it's her but still.” I explain with a shrug. “Whatever you say.” Joy shakes his head. “But we better get a move on, maybe we can find some friends who's also sensed all this. And we better do this quick.” Joy says. “Yeah…” I sigh out. “Let's hope shit doesn't hit the fan too hard.” I shake my head and start heading out, hoping to find some friends and stop this. To be continued...
Nobodies fighting timeBen and Joy ran towards the increasing or ending fight, the two so focused on trying to figure out how to stop this they didn't notice grey sparks crackling around them. “I'm pretty sure we're over our heads on this one.” Joy says worriedly. “Like all the other time's right?” Ben jokes lightly, knowing their fucked sideways if they actually got caught in the crossfire. As the two continued onwards, a light appeared behind them. Turning around, they saw Zeke walking out of a DTL, holding the Kingdom Key D. “Sup, long time no see.” Zeke said as he approached the two. “Sup Zeke, how you doing?” Ben asks, holding Frozen Pride and Reunion. “Hopefully not as weirded out as us though.” Joy says, Lindworm surrounding him at the ready. “Was just practicing with darkness when felt that spike. Cript gave me a...unique ability, a sort of gift since we’re apparently reflections.” “Did I mention I met another reflection of yours that got your wish of ‘What would happen if I could get the hell out of my family’?” Ben asks him. “Really? Huh. Well, big universe I guess.” “Pretty much.” Joy shrugged. “So, see anything?” “Besides meeting the people of this Equestria, fucked up by the way, seeing Core and apparently John fighting, and apparently my parents murderer about to make a child from my blood and most likely hers…” Ben explains offhandedly “It's...weird.” Joy sighs out. “...What would pregnancy via blood be called?” Zeke questioned aloud, making Ben and Joy fall over anime style. “Jesus fucking Christ Zeke.” Ben sighs out. “Listen, we're going to have to find her within 5 years anyways.” Joy says. “She’s apparently going to die then.” “...Okay...Good luck with that, till then, Let’s go find Core and John.” Zeke said, walking ahead. Next to them, another portal opened, and out walked the Foretellers. Kira smile, “Oh, hey guys! Looks like we aren't the only ones here.” “You smell like ponies and vampires…” Joy starts. “Alushy?” Ben asks the Foretellers, remembering he saw something in his assistant about them. “And uh...Kira lost...should I even ask?” “It’s a long story.” Kira said sheepishly. “So I’m guessing we’re headed to the same place?” Jenny guessed. “Seems so, also Lan, you finally make that connection ya thick headed idjit?” Zeke asked, tapping the tip of Kingdom Key D against his head to emphasize the question. Lan blushed. “I will not admit, or deny anything.” He pouted and crossed his arms. “That blush says it all...also how does a vampire blush?” Dan interjects. “Well we’re technically still alive do to the pony side, just vampire characteristics. Everything is still functioning normally. Except for the craving of tomato juice from time to time.” he explained. “Anyways. Let’s get to the real reason why we are all here.” “Yes, Core and John fighting.” Ben states, the others noticing grey static around himself and Joy. “So, who's got a plan for stopping two people that are way above anything we can do at the moment?” “ A figure that to Zeke looked like John appeared before them, but somehow he could tell that wasn't John. “Do I know you Demon John?” Zeke asked. It spoke “You're the Void Emperor...or...old Emperor…” Ben says, shaking his head to get some sort of sense in his head. “It's saying...it’s good to see you again, even through my heirs.” Ben says, taking a deep breath at that. ”You too old friend. Don't worry I won't hurt your heirs.” It spoke. “I believe I haven't introduced myself yet. I...am Jar’Mudan. The previous Emperor of Void.” The now named Jar introduced. Joy fell to his knees, energy crackling off him at an insane rate. “Ow...the fuck is going on?” Joy asks, pain obvious in his voice. “Basically your Nothingness is reacting to all the pure raw Void. Void and Nothingness are basically polar opposites. Similar to light and darkness. You two are still novices especially you Joy, so it's causing great discomfort.” “I...suppose.” Joy says, getting up and fighting through the discomfort. “So...know who the hell is stuck in my head kind of?” Ben asks. “And why I see this weird Nobody I've never seen nor heard of before?” He asks. Jar focused for a second then spoke in a lighter tone. “That would be a Royal Guard class nobody. A Paladin.” “Huh...that's something.” Ben frowned. “You learn something new everyday.” Joy adds. “Anyone else got a say in this news?” “I think we’d rather get to the point.” Dan said. “What were you saying before Jar?” “I spoke of many things. Which do you mean?” Jar said. They could somehow tell he was smirking. “About the fight being over. What happened?” Lan asked. “Well you know how a bit of it went. John tapped into to 2% of my power and nearly killed Core- “AFTER!” ”Hehe ok. Core used a final trump card to keep himself from being erased. John's still alive although unconscious and Core lost most of his power. Allow me to take you there.” Jar snapped his fingers and the next thing they knew they were at a huge crater. It looked like a mountain could fit in it. Hey saw Core and who they suspect to be John at the bottom with Core looking right at them. “Oh damn it.” Core muttered, summoning a black Fenrir. “You “heroes” are like roaches.” “Is it because we keep coming back or because you suck balls at killing us?” Ben asks simply, seeing Core through his ‘hud’ and knowing Core was horrifically weaker but still powerful enough to continue fighting, “My mistake then.” He slashed his black fenrir, sending a wave of dark energy at them. They all brought out their Keyblades quickly and blocked it. “Damn.” Core muttered, readying himself. “Hastega!” Ben and Joy say, golden clocks appearing behind the two of them and all their friends, their speed doubling suddenly. “Now, let's get going.” Ben states while summoning Skysplitter and going into his Master form as well. “Grave!” Ben shouts, raising the earth weapon high as spikes of earth shot out at Core quickly. “Hey watch it! You nearly hit my heir!” Jar said holding John. He then proceeded to lay him down. “No place for an unconscious man.” Zeke said, summoning the X-blade and rushing at Core, the two locking blades. “So, word is you’re a tad on the limp side right now Core, what’s the matter? Can’t play with the big boys?” “In time.” Core said, vanishing then reappearing behind Zeke, spin kicking him across the ground. Lan turned to his siblings. “Well, no reason to just stand around here.” He said, with his siblings agreeing. They all activated their armors and rushed to their friends sides. Lan and Jenny rushed towards Core in a pincer like formation. Lan clashed his Unicornis with Core’s Fenrir making it a stand still, only to have Jenny on Core’s other side slashing at him. Core managed to break his lock with Lan to just narrowly avoid being hit, only to step on a suddenly frozen ground. Not to far away, Dan was seen with his Anguis stabbed into the ground, which froze it. Core tried to move, but couldn’t as his feet were also frozen in the ground. Suddenly in a flash of lightning speed, Alex skated across the frozen land gaining momentum. Once he got close enough, Alex delivered an electricity charged slash to Core’s abdomen. Breaking him out of the ice and sending him flying back. “You lot...have no idea…” Core was muttering as he got back up from the small crater the impact after flying back made. “What you are doing.” He finished, getting back up. “Hey Core ever wonder what it felt like to be a ping pong ball!?” Ben shouts at him randomly. “Well here's how it feels!” Joy adds while Ben ramming Skysplitter into Cores stomach and sending him flying, Joy moving Lindworm in a way to basically make it a spiked fist and punching Core straight back at Ben, and it kept going like that except it kept getting faster and much more painful for Core. Joy smacked Core up into the air, only for Ben to appear above Core quickly. “Gigaton Hammer!” Ben shouted, Skysplitter glowing a bright orange and ramming down into Cores chest, shooting the ‘demon’ straight into the ground and causing a massive crater on impact. Core rose up. Blood from deep gashes dripped from his head and arms. “Fine...Let’s do this the hard way.” He said, slicing his chest open and grabbing the pure darkness where his heart should be. Shockwaves of darkness cracked the land, darkened the sky, and Core stood looking healed, only to pull out a vile of blood...or so it looked. “Look familiar Zeke!?” Zeke’s eyes widened. “That’s...the Psychopath blood that was in me…” “Yeah. Refining it to work with me isn’t a cakewalk. Still not even a percent to done, but…” He then broke the lid off and drink it, tossing the empty vial. “I will last enough to kill you all.” Power surged from Core, red energy flowing around him like a small tornado. After a time, it settled, and his eyes were that of a Psychopaths. “Well…” Ben starts. “That's not good.” Joy finishes. “Not for you guys no.” Jar said watching Core change. “And not good for you because John could die in the crossfire.” Joy points out. “Have a plan for that.” He said walking over to John and placing a hand on his chest. “I’ve been in that…things head.” Zeke said, staying defensive. “It’ll attack one of us at random.” “Correct, but not if someone strong enough fights first.” Jar said as his hand started glowing brightly, covering John in a protective bubble. “Flashy.” Core spoke, his voice like countless talking in unison as he rushed forward, elbowing Joy and sending him flying, blood spilling from his mouth as he then grabbed Lan and flung him high into the air. Kira tried to attack, only for him to vanish before her swing made contact. He reappeared behind her, hammerfisting her into the ground, her head still sticking out of the ground almost comically as blood flowed from a newly acquired gash. “Shouldn't have done that.” Jar said as the light covering John got brighter and brighter. “Hehehehhe, it’s cute how you think Core is calling these shots Jar.” Psychopath said, appearing in front of him. “Even in this pathetic body pathetic body, we can do you some damage.” “Who said I thought that was Core? I sensed you the millisecond Core drank that stuff.” Jar said. As the light started fading. “Heh, whatever you say, old king.” Psychopath said, suddenly appearing behind Jar...holding both his ripped off arms. The strange blood of Jar’s not even spilling out until some time after the pain registered. Jar looked at both spots and just laughed. “You seem to forget that pain doesn't bother me. Not after what happened to me of course. Besides not much I can do now. Me friend here is enough for your current self.” “Hehe, and you forget, those old legends about your blood.” Psychopath then ate one of the arms whole, the other all the blood flowing out and becoming a black-red blade as the skin and bone that was left behind was tossed. “Always so hard to find it. Drink it, live eternal, or in this body’s case, a few more hours, or forge it. A weapon to match all others.” Jar not even fazed just sighed. “What? In the name of all the crack crazy admins makes you think I don't know my own blood? Besides that's temporary anyway. Doppelganger here. So it's going to disappear in a few minutes, and again even with that this guy can take you.” Jar tilted his head towards a figure nearby that wasn't there before. “Core, or us?” Psycho asked, rushing and locking blades with Zeke. “Heheh, the last parallel of Cript, how similar you two are, yet you will fall to your rightful place soon.” “Burn in hell!” Zeke yelled, breaking the lock and took a swing, Psycho vanishing and appearing next to Ben, who he Sparta kicked across the field and into Canterlot Mountain. “You alright Ben?!” “Maximise Magic! Reality Slash!” Ben shouts, something hitting the Psychopath from behind and feeling like he was being split in half from a very weak reality shifting standpoint. “Thank Christ for card clones.” Ben says while holding my book weapon and looking perfectly fine, Cores injury shifting back to normal but blood seeping out of the wound. Zeke sighed in relief. In the corner of his eye he saw something moving. Fast. He looked, seeing a rather pissed off looking Joy wielding Graceful Dahlia. From above, Lan was performing a drop attack, trying to surprise Psychopath. Psycho caught Lan’s attack by his Keyblade, but Joy managed to land a blow that sent him a few feet. “Crimson Bouquet.” Joy says, his attack absorbing the psychopaths blood before blood soaked lotus flowers bloomed on his wound and started tearing into him, the more blood the flowers soaked up, the stronger the effect worked. “Hehe, weak body lives.” Psycho said as the eyes became normal again. Core regained control. “What? No, No, no!” He then looked over at Joy. “DIE MUTT!” He shouted, slicing off his own arm and the darkness then flowed out formed a black scythe. Before He got close, Zeke jumped in front of him, his right hand pulsating with darkness. He charged at Core, his hand phasing into Core’s chest. “Consume Darkness!” Black lines highlighted both Core’s and Zeke’s bodies, the two screaming in pain as it looked like Zeke’s arm was pumping all of Core’s darkness into his own body. When he pulled out, a shockwave ripped the ground up and knocked the others over. “Shit, Zeke!” Ben shouted, getting up after the explosion happened. “Zeke?” He calls out, readying himself for what's to come next. “Grah.” Zeke huffed, lifting himself out of a dirt pile. “I’m alive...surprisingly.” He said, looking at his hand. “That was...creepy feeling.” “Gah! NO!” They all turned, eyes wide. Core stood across from them, dressed in ragged cloth clothing. His eyes looked...human. “You...I’m just a Nobody again!?” “Yes you are.” Ben nodded, Joy using Graceful Dahlia to fully absorb the other lotus petals that were filled with Psychopath Blood, the scythe absorbing any and all blood so no one else could use it for damnable reasons. “So ready to give up and die with some dignity?” Ben growled. Core just looked furious. “I may not be a demon anymore...But you forget even in this form I have some tricks.” Core said, snapping his fingers as three Twilight Thorns appeared, each side swiping and distracting them as Core adorned a purple cloak, and walked into a DTD. “Shit!” Ben and Joy yelp, before hearing someone tell the two to try and command them. “Halt!” Ben and Joy shout at the three nobodies, hoping that their order would stop them, which they highly doubted from how the day was going, To their relief, it worked as the stood still. The two waves, the Twilight Thorns disbanding. By then it was too late. Core was gone. “Shit…” Zeke muttered, taking a seat on a large rock. “...does this count as a win or...a tie?” Ben growled, looking around. “I know there's more of you! Come on out!” Ben barks out at no one. “It’s not done yet, I just know it. “Ben! It’s over! We...tied, I think?” Zeke said, sighing. “Core will be back, but at least he’s a lot weaker now. We can call this in to the others and- GAH!” Zeke yelled, falling off his rock and clutching his chest. “Well then. That's not good.” Jar said as he and a figure near him turned towards Zeke. “Something's not right…” Ben mutters while Joy rushes over to Zeke and checks over him quickly, using his assistant to help out on that. “Grah! Damn this hurts!” Zeke yelled, his body suddenly pulsing white and dark. “That kinda happens when you absorb that much darkness. Not to mention your a balanced heart. So ya while you weakened Core you probably might kill yourself. At best. Jar told Zeke. “His Heart is splitting!” X warned. “RUN!” “And that's our que. I'll grab Ben and the pup. You grab the Foretellers.” Jar said quickly grabbed both Ben and Joy while the figure got the Foretellers and got out of there before something happens. When they were far enough away, an explosion ripped the ground up. A dome of Light and Darkness swirled around for what felt like hours before it settled. In a newly formed crater’s center was a pulsating form of darkness, and a glowing form of light. “Zeke?” Ben asked, he and Joy running over and jumping in and sliding down the crater. The two saw...Two Zekes, one in night black clothing with Steel grey hair, and the other in Bright bright white clothing with pure blond hair rather than Zeke’s regular dirty blond after his hair dye finally washed out. “Well that can't be good. You better go help out. I'm talking to you Foretellers to by the way.” Jar said. “Zeke...s?” Joy asked, both getting up groggily. “Ouch...my neck.” The dark-haired Zeke said. “Don’t be so competent brother.” The light haired Zeke said. “Speak for yourself, I am the one that took in all that darkness.” The dark haired one retorted. “Okay...who, what?” Ben asked. “Okay, first off, names. What are we calling you two til we can get Zeke back.” Ben asked. “Drazke.” The dark haired one said. “Lake.” The blond one said. “Don't see this every day.” The figure said next to Ben and Joy. “And I've seen a lot.” “Well, didn’t see that coming,” Alex commented, with him and his siblings entering the scene. “Anyone see where that arm went?” Drake asked, wondering around looking for Core’s arm where the blood blossoms were still somewhat attached. “Over there.” The figure said pointing at the arm a couple yards away. The others just now noticing him. “Thanks,” Drazke said, heading over to grab it. Lake, for his part, went up to Kira. “Oh, you poor child. Does that gash hurt?” Kira rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly. “A little, but a little vampire healing and a cure spell and it’ll be all fine.” The figure suddenly pointed a Keyblade at Kira’s gash and said. “Cura.” He healed up her gash. “Oh, thanks whoever you are. So what's going on here?” She asked wanting an update. “I am Lake, Zeke’s light half.” Lake explained. “The dark haird me getting that arm is Drazke, my brother and Zeke’s dark half.” “So you are the two halves of his heart?” Lan interjected. “There’s a lot of questions still up in the air, but I guess the first one is if we can put you two back together.” “Well, we split because the darkness Zeke took from Core put us out of balance with one another. Right now Drazke has all Core’s old strength, and I am...well, as strong as Zeke is normally.” “Will your dark half be a problem by any chance?” The figure asks. Being cautious. “We come from a naturally balanced being. This is just a hiccup. I’ll even out with Drazke in a few days or so. Til then...I guess the wives back home will have more of me, us?” “Pinkie’s fetish,” Drazke said, walking back over with the arm. “Clone sex...a WTF if I ever heard one.” “Can our pinkies not share so much…” Ben mutters to himself. Jenny covered Kira’s ears. “Hey, Zeke’s! Cool it with the dirty talk! We have a little sister here.” “Huh?” Kira said confused. “What’s everyone saying?” The figure was watching this when he suddenly started laughing. “Man. Never thought their reincarnations would be like this.” “Well, that’s life,” Drazke said, moving his grip on Core’s arm, the arm moving and a small drop of blood flying off, hitting Lake in the eye. “Ouch! That stings.” Lake said, rubbing his eye. When he stopped and blinked...the eye was a Psychopaths. All eyes were on Lake now. “What?” “I thought I got rid of all of it…” Joy says worriedly. Drazke carefully put the arm down. “Brother. Be calm.” Dan and his siblings just stared dumbly. “Wow… that's like, super gross.” “It’s worse than what you are thinking,” Drazke said, Lake’s other eye slowly being covered in the red. “Not good. Well at least I can do something.” The figure said summoning two Keyblades. “Why are you so scared brother?” Lake asked. “Just, stay calm,” Drazke said. “Some...Psychopath blood must have been at that drop.” “WHAT?!” Lake screamed, panicking. “Brother, stay calm! It won’t activate if you stay calm.” “But, Brother I...I’m Scared” Lake’s other eye became completely covered. “And he lost it.” The figure said. “Fuck.” Ben and Joy say at the same time. Lake’s face was blank for a time. Everything felt still as everyone waited for him to make a move. “Brother?” Drazke asked. “Not here.” Psychopath replied, rushing the Figure, palm striking him as the Figure’s body exploded into blood and microscopic bits of flesh. “Finally, a proper host again. And with such unique powers.” “Where were you aiming?” Psycho looked behind him to see the figure completely fine. Puzzled till he saw his eyes were tinged with silver. “Okay, well this escalated quickly.” Lan summoned his blade once again in defence. “Oh Lan, you should know.” Psycho said, appearing behind him. “No rest for the wicked.” There was an audible snap. Lan fell over as Psychopath was holding what appeared to be a chunk of spine. “Have fun regrowing that.” “No problem. Curza.” The figure used a powerful Cure spell to heal Lan. “Is that it?” Lan got back up, stretching his “new” back. “Thank goodness for healing magic and vampire healing factor.” “Oh fine, play it your way then.” Psychopath said, snapping his fingers as pools of blood appeared around him. What crawled out horrified the Foretellers...the fallen union members from the Clone Josh attack. “Have fun, I got other things to attend to.” Psycho said as he stepped into one of the pools. “Where you going!” The figure hit him with a chain of light attaching to Psycho and pulled him back and slammed him out of the crater. “You guys deal with the dead. Me and Drazke will handle Psycho.” “Oh, you tease. You think it’s just the newest members coming out?” The pools of blood opened wider, and out crawled hundreds of blood covered fallen...from the Keyblade War. “Let me go and save the world, or hold me here and let it die. Cause for as long as I am here these portals stay open. Your choice.” The Figure looked at the fallen in silence. “...those are my friends.” He suddenly appeared before Psycho with pure white wings on him shining a lot of light with both keyblades glowing like stars. He then started hitting him with enough to force to turn mountains into pebbles. Yelling out a word at each hit. “THOSE! ARE! MY! FRIENDS! YOU! GOD! DAMN! BASTARD!” At the last hit he turned the black looking Keyblade into an axe and smashed Psycho away. “Like I care.” Psycho said, appearing behind the Figure, unharmed, and out of the chains. “You forget it’s not easy to kill one of us. Especially in a host like this. Cript’s parallels all hold the keys to the greatest source of power in all creations, and that’s why I made it my goal to take all of them.” “I've killed worse than you. I've not even begun to fight.” The figure said taking off his hoodie revealing his face. “Besides you pissed me off.” “Yeah, I do that.”” Psycho said, spin kicking Figure. He blocked with his Keyblades...both of which broke on impact and sent him across the sky. “The Sentient life forms willpower. In no one in all creation and time is it stronger than in Cript and his parallels. Not, all but one...and a half are mine.” “Want to know something great about Keyblades?” The figure appeared behind Psycho. Who suddenly had a cut on his cheek. “Even if something breaks them. The wielders heart can always bring them back.” He said holding both again. “Wanna test that?” Psycho said with a smile, snapping his fingers as blood covered Keyblades appeared. “Oh goodie, I got half of those keys stuck inside Zeke’s heart still.” He snapped his fingers again, more appearing. With a flick of his finger, Psycho sent them all after Figure. Figured smirked at the sight. It's been awhile since he went all out. As they gazed at the horde of the bloody spectators of their dead Union members, they’re faces were showing intensity. If the horde was of living beings, they would have felt the intense pressure emanated from them. “How dare he. To disrespect not only us, but the lives of our Union members.” Lan said, venom dripping from his voice. Jenny clenched her teeth so hard they became fangs. “That Bastard! When I get my hands on him, I’ll tear him to shreds!” Dan still looked cool, but anger was evident by his fierce glare. “But first we have to deal with these abominations.” Alex agreed. “Why don’t we pull out the big guns?” Kira nodded, not saying anything and only wanted to fight. “Allow me to help a little. I don't have much power left in this form, and Drex is running on a timer holding that Psycho off. So I'll split it. Half will go to you guys. Nearly doubling your current strength and the other half will go to Drex to buy more time. Good luck.” with that Jar split his remaining power and sent it to them and the figure who they now know as Drex. Although it sounded familiar they'll worry about it later. The energy they received from Jar brought back some of the fire they held. They were now ready for a fight. “Thank you Jar. We’ll put this power to good use. Hope you guys don’t mind a change of scenery.” Lan brought out a Dream Card, as well as his siblings. “Ready?” “Ready!” They said together. "We cast: Serene Sanctuary!" The area around them was surrounded by white light before settling down and revealed their new battlefield. There was a single alter in the center of the everything. Surrounded by shallow waters, enough for them to stand on firmly. The sunlight that pierced through the cloudy skies illuminated the whole field. “Welcome to our personal Dream Field. This one has a particularly OP ability, which is why it takes all five of us to cast.” Dan started explaining. “It pertains to us specifically. Increasing the states of all of us and those who we see as our allies. As well as lowering those of our enemies.” Lan finished. “Impressive. Tell me, do you see their faces in your nightmares?” Psycho asked, looking around at the new battlefield. “Is this fucking Sanctuary from Dissidia Final Fantasy?" Ben asks with a frown. “Well it looks pretty at least.” Joy points out. “But we still have to fight.” “Right. Be careful guys. Just because their undead doesn't mean they're not dangerous, and I'm fighting a Psychopath so it's kinda up for debate who has the worst deal.” Drex said holding both his Keyblades at Psycho. “Hey, guys, how much stress can this place take before it breaks?” Ben asks the Foretellers, opening his book to a certain page. “Quite a bit. It’s being cast by all five of us after all. So go nuts.” Alex smirked. Giant blue spell circles and rune work surrounded Ben as they said that. “Cool.” He grins. “Quicken Supreme Spell. Now Supreme Magic! FALLEN DOWN!” Ben shouts, in the middle of the undead army a massive column of magic exploded downwards, the column of magic destroying any enemy not strong enough that remained in its three hundred foot radius. That was the flame that lit the fire of battle as they all charged into the fight. Joy rushed over to Drezke and slapped him hard. “Wakey Wakey Jackass it's time for fighting!” Drezke rubbed the mark Joy left. “...Let’s see what I still have.” He said, focusing as Kingdom Key D and Discord appeared. “Huh...This will do.” He said, a dark aura growing around him. “Hey, a little help would be appreciated!?” Drexel yelled while clashing with Psycho. “Shit.” Joy growled while rushing over to help Drexel fight, switching to Lindworm as Ben started fighting the horde of enemies. “Wind Talon!” Joy shouted, swinging the lances as sickies of wind shot fast towards the Psychopath. Psycho block the attack, blood appearing out of the air and shielded him. Drezke joined in, his aura not four times his size as pure rage was filling him and fueling his attacks. Psycho shook both Joy and Drexel just to clash with Drezke. “Heh, your brother is not in here, you know that.” “Then at least I can give him a proper burial!” Drazke shouted, darkness affecting his appearance now as he appeared like a humanoid Neo Shadow, clashing Psycho. “Damn…” Joy muttered, dashing towards the Psychopath and attempting to stab him with his keyblade while he was busy holding Drazke back. Joy’s Keyblade went through Psycho, who simply grabbed Joy’s Keyblade and finished pulling it through him, his wound vanishing mere seconds after the Keyblade was removed. “Nice try mutt.” Psychopath said, slashing Joy with his own Keyblade, he dodged, but part of his left ear was cut off. Joy growled. “Shit…” He mutters, before cutting his hand with his keyblade, the blood dripping on Reunion and the blade gaining a dark red glow. “Let's hope this works…” He muttered while dashing towards the Psychopath. “Drezke move!” Joy shouted. Hesitantly, Drezke moved to the side, giving Joy an opening. ”Sorry Zeke…” Joy thinks to himself while slashing down at the Psychopath with his sin infused keyblade, hoping to finish it. Meanwhile, at the outer rim of the battle field, the Foretellers and Ben were mowing down the horde of the Undead. Keeping the entire horde away from the main battle. One by one, tens by tens, the undead Union members were no match for their former masters. “Hey guys?” Alex called out while slashing away more enemies. “I’m not complaining or anything, but why are we taking the role of supporting characters this time around? I want more of the action.” “Okay one I have no idea if any of you ever fought a Psychopath. It's never fucking fun.” Ben states. “And two, if you all want, we can have our own adventure, hopefully something that doesn't involve the end of the universe.” He says, creating a massive explosion and killing more of the undead. “How's that sound?” Outside of his senses, three more undead appeared behind Ben. Before they had time to strike, Jenny came in swinging, killing them all. “Ben’s right Alex, that isn’t our role here. We’re here to help them deal with their problem.” “Yeah, this isn’t our story,” Kira said, casting more spells that destroyed a lot of other enemies. “No, it's just not your time to shine in this giant ass story.” Ben says to Kira, swapping to Skysplitter. “But right now is the time for some healthy family undead slaying!” Ben cheers, golf clubbing the ground and a bunch of zombies flew away in pieces before he rushing through. Alex huffed. “Alright, back to the old grind.” Charging his keyblade with lightning and zipped through the battle field. “Hey at least calmer hang out times are ahead with me and Joy right?” Ben asks. “Right!” Kira cheered. “Especially with how adorable Kira and Joy will be when they hang out.” Ben points out with a giant smile. Back to Joy, Drazek, Drex, and the Psycho. Joy’s Sin attack hit, slicing off Psychopath’s head as it and the body fell. There was a silence as they slowly walked towards it. “Is...are they dead?” Drezke asked, worry across his face. “Something tells me it ain't over yet. That was too easy.” Drex said not letting his guard down. As Drezke walked over to the headless body, it twitched, making him jump as the three pointed their weapons at it. The body stood up, grabbing it’s head. Blood poured from the head and blood flowed out of the body. The body grew a head out of just blood, a silhouette or one, and the head made a body of one. “I’ll give it to you, that kinda hurt.” “Oh no…” Joy said breathlessly. “How in the nine hells are you doing that? And what about…” Joy was to scared off what he most likely caused in this situation. “Great. Is he immortal? Knew that was too easy.” Drex said deadpanned. “Heh, everything dies. I’m no exception.” Psycho said, the body rushing and attacking Drexel while the head charged Joy and Drezke. “Shit!” Joy yelped, summoning Frozen Pride. “Drezke, mind keeping it busy?” “Trying!” Drezke said Psycho’s blood arm stretched out like a vine pinning him down. “How is a liquid so fucking dense!?” “Fighting a headless body. Strangely not the weirdest fight I got into.” Drex said using his Keyblades in gun mode blasting it back as well as the Keyblades attacking him. “Come on, come on…” Joy tried finding someone who could help them out in this situation. “Damn it.” He growled before calling someone who has experience against Psychopaths. He then summoned Graceful Dahlia and rushed after the head attacking them hoping the person he called would come soon. As Joy attacked, there was a flash. When he blinked, Both parts of Psychopath were tosses to the side. The attacker. A dark brown haired woman, she wore a tunic or sorts, had some kind of old fang earring, and wielded a really odd weapon. A blood stained rock, held to the top of a stick with leather straps. “You rang?” She asked. “Yes.” Joy nodded while pointed to both the head thing and the headless thing. “Too much to explain but Zeke's light half became a Psychopath.” He tells her. “Hehe, long time no see.” Psychopath said, both parts of him getting back up and returning to one body. “How’s it been, Cain?” “Wait for what!?!” Joy barked in surprise. “Been what? Close to two years since I finally got you out of me Psychopath, I say not long enough.” Cain barked. “Heheh, I owe every host I had back in that realm to you.” Cain pointed the weapon at Psychopath. “My biggest mistake.” Joy growled, drinking a potion and his ear being all better. “Well, let's get this over with.” Joy said. ”Hopefully I can get him back if I take out the psychopaths blood.” Joy thinks to himself, thinking that if he doesn't have a humanity blade getting the blood out would be a good second. “Let's just end this please,” Drex said getting up. “I don't have much time left anyway.” “Let’s try, in the body, he has now...It won’t be easy.” Cain said. Drezke looked at what was once his other half, his brother. It dawned on him that, if he can’t be cured, he has to be killed...and Zeke will never come back. “...Let him leave…” Drezke said. “What? But if he leaves who knows what he'll do. And we can cure him right?” Joy asks. “None of us have a Humanity weapon.” Cain pointed out. “I just got the First Weapon. Besides, I can’t even wield one, and Joy and Ben, the others would have to earn one. Even with one, there’s no guarantee it will cure him. Every Psycho possessed Parallel Cript has encountered...Was incurable, so our odds are low.” “Oh no…” Joy muttered. “Damn it,” Drex said. “Heh, what the circumstance you all have, kill me now and Zeke will never have a chance to come back, wait to see if the host is curable, at the cost of, rough estimate, a few hundred thousand worlds. So, what’s more important to you all, one man, or all those lives?” Psychopath asked, a sly smirk on his face as he spoke. “I really want to kill you.” Drex deadpanned. Powering down. His hair turning brown and eyes going green. “Sorry Drezke, but you did make us promise.” Joy tells him while moving forward. “Crimson Lotus Blitz!” Joy shouts, bolting towards the Psycho as dozens of blade-like lotus flowers shot towards him. As Joy was about to strike, he was suddenly hit by Drezke, his attack failing as he fell. Drezke then grabbed Joy by his neck. “If he is incurable. I will kill him myself. Then. You kill me.” He finished, throwing Joy back towards Drexel. He then turned to Psychopath. “Don’t even think I am bluffing.” “I know, I have his memories after all.” Psychopath said, a red portal opening under him as he fell in, it closing as he went in. “Well at least it's over...for now,” Drex said holding Joy before putting him back on his feet. “Fucking hell.” Joy frowned. “Thanks.” He says to Drexel while rubbing his neck. “Well...that was a thing…” “Come on. Let's go see if the others are ok.” Drex said turning around and walking towards them. Joy looked over to where the others were, seeing another explosion happened. “I'm sure they're fine.” Joy says. “It was nice to meet you.” Joy kindly says to Cain. “Same, maybe next time we meet it’s without something worse than Death itself around,” Cain said with a small smile as she snapped her fingers, and vanished. “Hopefully…” Joy sighs out while heading off to see if his family is alright fighting a bunch of zombies. “Today just went from fine, too bad, to weird, too bad, to worse…” He sighed out. “Good job everyone,” Ben says to the Foretellers, standing in a small crater filled with dead zombies. “Now...where's the other shit that's gonna obviously appear?” “Well, considering our track record. It should be happening pretty soon.” Lan piped in. “Be ready for anything guys.” “Yo. We're back. With some bad news.” Drex said with Joy near him. “Psychopath got away, Drezke is gonna kill it, then I and Ben are gonna kill him.” Joy tells them. “Fuck.” Ben frowned. “Well don't worry, there's more shit coming as per normal.” “Life of keybearers,” Drex said, shrugging. “Well...I mean besides the fact most of us are in herds.” Ben says honestly, looking around for any portals suddenly opening up. “Who wants potions?” He asks, wanting to give them out to help. “I got this. Curza.” Drexel said. Healing everyone there. “Oh hey.” Kira walked up to Drexel. “I never got to ask with all the fighting going on. But who are you?” She asked, feeling like she knew him. Drex looked at her for a sec before pointing behind the Foretellers. “I think you have something else to do Ava.” They looked behind them to see...ghost. The ghost of the Unions from the war. They all looked towards their former masters with solemn looks. “Everyone,” Kira said, tears threatened to fall from her eyes. They did not speak, only stared as the Masters gazed at them. “... We’re sorry. Everything was destroyed because of our foolishness.” Lan spoke first. Jenny clenched her fist. “If we weren't so hard headed and blind to the Masters plot, we could have all continued to live in peace.” “But instead, we dragged all of you into our fight, and it cost you your lives.” Dan piped in. “We really screwed up. I guess I speak for all of us when I say we don’t expect you to forgive us. But just know, that we are sorry.” The spirits still stood there staring, until two of them stepped forward out of the crowd. “Skuld, Ephemera.” Kira recognized them. After a moment of silence, the two of them smiled and knelt down to bow. The rest followed their lead. “You… Forgive us? Why? If it weren’t for us…” Kira started but stopped when they all stood back up. Skuld and Ephemera placed their hands over their heart, before thrusting them out in a flowing motion. The Foretellers were confused at first, but quickly remembered when it meant. “May your heart be your guiding key.” Lan translated with a smile. Drex looks on and smiled. “They forgive you. Because they know you'll do better this time. Right, Skuld. Ephemera.” Drex said. Both looked at him and nodded. The Foretellers noticed that the way he spoke sounded like he knew them. They tried to think about why Drex looked familiar. “As for you earlier question Ava. My name...is Drexel Quake.” Drexel Quake, that single name struck a chord in all their minds. Memories started flooding into their minds of their past lives. “Drexel Quake. I remember.” Lan said shocked. “You were a member of my Union, back when we were who we were.” “But that was Millennia ago, how is this possible?” Dan asked. “Hey! You’re the boy that Marinette was talking about. You cut my arm off!” Jenny said, comically angry. “One, that was before the war was even in thought, and two. You guys killed me so we’re even.” Drex said. Lan gazed at the ground with shame. “Yes, that’s true and I’m sorry.” Drex walked up to Lan and smack his head. “Don't worry about it. That was the past.” “Hey don't hit your master,” Lan smirked before both of them laughed together. “But still, how are you here?” “Thank Jar'Mudan for that. You guys know John? Well, he is my reincarnation.” Drex said pointing at the still unconscious John. “So we aren’t the only ones that were brought back.” Dan realized. “I wonder how much more there are out there.” Drex shrugged. “Who knows. Well, what about you two over there?” He said to Ben and Joy. “Cat got your tongues?” He smirked a little. “Nah just listening,” Ben says. “Why is everyone else reincarnations of special people and I’m Ben's old life?” Joy asks. Shrugged. “Luck? Who knows.” Drex said. “You are amazing Joy, not as amazing as them but still amazing.” Ben smiles. “Now, now, don’t sell yourself short Ben, Joy. It’s not who you are affiliated with that makes you amazing, it’s your actions. You're just as amazing as the rest of us.” Kira said, cheering him up. “I always sell myself short.” Ben deadpans. “And also damn, you and Joy would be the most adorable couple.” He says to Kira. “Nuu~.” Joy blushes in embarrassment. “She probably already has a boyfriend.” He tells Ben, his hood down and yes the Foretellers could see Joy was adorable as hell. “If Joy and Kira were a couple how adorable would they be?” Ben asks the others. Drex looked at Kira to see her blushing as well and chuckled. He patted her head while chuckling. While Kira was busy being embarrassed, the other four just smiled. Although if one were to pay attention, they could sense a dark presence behind them. Lan suddenly gripped Ben’s shoulder. “Let’s not go off pairing them off just yet.” “Correct, she’s too young to date,” Dan said sinisterly. “And any boy[b/] that thinks he has a chance has to go through us.” Alex finished. Ben just laughed at this. “Oh god, this is hilarious.” “Dude! They look like their gonna murder me.” Joy whimpers. “Kira is pretty yes but I'm too young to die.” “Good call dude,” Drex said while still patting Kira's head. “I asked if they would be a cute couple, but your reactions are just too funny.” Ben sighs out with a happy smile. Drex suddenly started to glow. “Well. Guess my time is up.” “For now.” Drezke said, walking up to the group finally. “You’ll be back.” “Maybe. Depends I guess.” Drex said smiling. “Doubt it though.” “I just want to say a few things before I go.” “What is it Drezke?” Lan asked. “First off, give this to my family,” Drezke said, handing Lan a ring. “Tell them Zeke is dead, and this was all that was found.” “We’ll keep our promise,” Ben says to Drezke. “Well, i guess that he is technically dead.” Alex chimed in. “You sure about this?” “If Zeke can come back, he’ll sort this mess out.” Drezke explained. “If not, I’ll be dying anyway. Best his family never know about this. And secondly, about Lake…” Drezke’s aura grew rapidly, Hordes of Heartless and even Unversed appeared all around the group. “Go after him to end him...I will. End. You.” With that, Drezke fell into a DTD, the Heartless and Unversed following suit. “Well ain't he just a ray of sunshine,” Drex said. “He’s just peachy.” Ben agreed. “Well. Later guys. John should wake up soon once I'm gone. Take care.” Drex said before disappearing. After he was gone everyone heard a noise. They looked to see John coming to. “What happened? John said before see a bunch of people he didn't recognize. “Um who are you?” “People making sure your world wasn't destroyed,” Ben says. “So friends. Names Ben.” “Thanks for the help. I'm John. John Corvo.” John said. The others then introduced themselves as well. They filled John in on what happened. It was a lot to process. “Wow. So Zeke is gone?” He said looking at the Foretellers. “In a technical term, yes, but I have a feeling we’ll see him again. If not one, then in pieces.” Dan stated. “So. What now?” John asked. Lan stepped up. “For now, let’s all return to our own worlds and take some well-deserved rest.” “That's a good idea Lan” A voice from nowhere said. A purple portal appeared. Ben, Joy, and John could instantly tell it was void. Ben and Joy summoned their weapons and held them at the ready, only knowing Jar as a friendly enough void being. “Who are you?” Ben growls, still expecting more enemies to appear. The Figure walked out. “Don't worry. Besides you, all have been dealing with my brother Core, and my brother God brought you all together.” “Hollow,” John said. “ We will speak in a moment. For now, the others should return.” Hollow said. With a snap of his fingers, portals to their worlds appeared. “Yeah, that’d be good.” Lan looked at the ring in his hands. “We have some bad news to break.” Him and his siblings walked through the portal. Before Lan was fully through, he turned around and looked to John. “May your heart be your guiding key, Drexel.” With that, he left. “Drexel?” John said. They left out a few bits of info when explaining to him what happened. “It’s complicated…” Ben sighed out. “Anyways we better get going.” “Sorry, we couldn't stay longer and talk.” Joy says. “See ya.” The two then entered the portal and left. After we got back to our world me and Joy sat down under a tree and relaxed. "So...Kira's pretty huh?" I ask with a cheeky grin. "Shut up." Joy tells me, blushing brightly as I started to laugh again. To be continued...
Nobody's plans and actionsSo about a week passed after everything happened, and while I felt like crap about Zeke being split apart I knew I had to get stronger to face against his dark or light half when the time came. I was glad to hear Joy helped Zeke’s Scootaloo and was gonna date Zeke’s Diamond Tiara as well, even though I still teased him about Kira once in awhile. “Fuck, what weapon should I train with now?” I grumble to myself, not sure what to do right now. “Ben?” I heard Coco’s voice call out from the hall. “Yeah Coco?” I ask, walking over to where I heard her call. “What's wrong?” I ask while walking into the hallway. “I got a letter from Celestia for you.” Coco said, giving me the letter. “Wonder what she wants?” I wonder while opening the letter. “It better not be the titan that Joy killed.” I frown a little while reading the message. Dear Ben I am writing you this letter to ask a favor of. The details of which we will discuss upon your arrival here at the castle. I expect you soon, Celestia, Chrysalis, and Rune. “Well I'm off to help Celestia with something.” I say while rolling up the letter. “See ya, tell the others I'll be off to Canterlot.” I say while giving Coco a goodbye kiss before leaving and heading off to Canterlot on my glider. After about five minutes I flew over to the castle and entered without much fuss. “Wonder why Celestia wanted me? Unless Rune wanted win a bet or something.” I grumble, walking through the halls to find the three and hope Rune wasn't wanting to figure out if I can turn Celestia and Chrysalis bi. In the throne room sat the three, each with their own unique throne. “Glad you could get here so quickly Ben.” Celestia said, seeming relieved. “What's the problem? Or is Rune wanting to win a bet and I'm involved somehow?" I ask curiously. “No, well, you see-” “I had her call you.” I turned around, recognizing that voice anywhere. “You know, I never got your name. What is it?” I ask the assassin. “Just call me Lola.” She said, walking passed me and up to the princesses...queens… Whatever. “What do you want Lola?” I ask, ready to stop her from killing any of them. “Well let’s just say the blood you gave me had extra left over.” “And by that you mean?” I ask worriedly. “She knocked us up with your kids.” Chrysalis deadpanned. “Not even a thank you ma’am or foreplay.” “Well...you probably hate me…” I say worriedly. “And what about you Lola? Happy with having my kid?” I ask. “I would be...If it was just the one…” She said, trailing off at the end there. “We don’t hate you Ben.” Celestia said. “Honestly I was planning on asking you to, ehm, donate, for us to have offspring.” “Um…” I start. “I don't know the finer details...but uh...oh god how do I explain this?” I groan, rubbing my temple. “I don't know if it counts but you'll probably have a few...million kids in you.” I say sheepishly. “Fuck...I don't know finer details…” I groan, looking for the most obvious part of a nine month pregnant belly and hoping I'm wrong here. “Eh, that’s how I give birth anyway.” Chrysalis said nonchalantly. Celestia rubbed her chin while her horn lit up, there was a flash and the lot of them had pregnancy bellies like my wives all did. “Well that explains this…” “I kinda like it.” Rune said. “Well since this happened I need some help.” Lola said, walking up to me. “I’ve killed old, young, inbetween, but never babies...and seeing as now I forever have them inside me, I need you to stabilize me so I don’t explode in five years or so.” “Now I was told all of you could survive multiple big bangs at least…” I start before bringing up my assistant and trying to find someone that knows how to fix magical rune work. “Now where the hell is someone that can help…” I frowned, looking through the thing. I finally found one labeled doctor and clicked it. Almost like a ghost a skeleton man appeared. “Greetings. You dialed?” He spoke. He had a strange accent. “She needs help.” I point to Lola. “Her Mark is screwed up in a dozen ways.” I sigh out. “No idea how it's damaged, no idea how to help. Please help.” The skeleton man walked over to Lola, looking at the mark on her hand. “Hmm. A very dangerous situation. I can remove it, but there may be side effects.” “What side effects?” I ask worriedly. “Anything threatening to her or the kids?” I ask, Lola obvious pregnant here. “No. This mark is linked to her soul. Everything she is comes from a soul. So she might come out different.” “How different?” I ask. “Like different physically? Emotionally? Both?” “These issues are always mental. It varies from person to person. Some lose all their memories, others keep them but they are exact opposites of who they were. Rarely are they the same, but it happens.” He explained. “We will just have to see what happens.” “Well...you can at least stop her from being a living bomb.” I say. “What do you think Lola? Want to get that second chance I offered?” “Eh, let’s roll the dice.” Lola said, holding out the hand with the sign on it. The doctor held it, his other hand held a glass jar with some sort of engravings on it. He placed the open lid over her mark, and the mark started lifting off her hand. When it was just floating in there, it then pulsated. The doc quickly covered the lid and sealed it. “There it is, safely locked away.” “Lola? You okay?” I asked the woman. “Oh yeah, I feel great!” Lola said, moving in an...extremely feminine way. “Uh...what's the last thing you remember about me?” I ask, knowing she'd know something about me specifically. “Or just...the last thing you remember in general?” “The last thing I remember is you asking me what was the last thing I remember silly~” Lola said, patting me on the head. “Is she stupid?” Chrysalis asked. The Doctor’s hand glowed, waving over Lola’s head. “...plainly, yes. Her I.Q. was 185, now...it’s 37…It also seems her personality was altered.” “Oh no…” I groan under my breath. “So...she's stuck like this...forever?” I ask The Doctor. “Yeup. These things are permanent. I.Q. loss is even rarer though. One in, a thousand at least.” I stood there for a moment. “Never would I have ever thought of saying I wish I still had the super assassin trying to kill me back…” I say with a frown. “Crap...well sadly I can't change that…” Lola gahsped. “An Ass sisin! ...is that a type of workout clothes?” Chrysalis burst out laughing while the others, myself included, nearly face palmed. This...is going to be a thing… “So, now that this is all settled, I am afraid there is still a matter to attend to.” Celestia spoke up, rubbing her temples. “I mean besides all of you being pregnant with my kids?” I ask the three rulers. “But I wanted to point out about a bet Rune would make...to see how long it would take me to at least make you two bi.” I say to Celestia and Chrysalis, “Still not happening.” Celestia said. “Eh.” Chrysalis said, shrugging. “But, the matter is in an old law. Whoever lays and has the princess, or princesses, bare an heir, is to be crown king. You technically already are with Luna, but this...event, after some discussion is a qualifier for the law. So...congrats, you married me also. Still not gonna be bi though.” “That's fine.” I say simply. “But by that law I'm technically also co-ruler of the Changelings and Diamond Dogs right?” I ask curiously, “Full ruler actually.” Rune and Chrysalis said simultaneously. “Once married the queen's job is, well, simply to breed. I don’t mind, more fun for me.” Chrysalis said. “Diamond dogs have all their laws tiered towards males in terms of marriage and laws. So, yeah. This accident fully united Ponies, Changelings, and Diamond Dogs...which is funny since all our kingdoms are next to each other.” Rune finished. “And Dragons, don't forget dragons.” I point out. “Actually, Ember took that crown.” Celestia chimed in. “While you were away Spike was called to the dragon lands and events happened, so Honora’s older sister is Dragon Lord. Their laws are simpler. Whoever wins the Dragon Lords staff in a competition or dual is the Dragon Lord. Regardless of race too.” “Cool...but now this raises a question, will I accidentally unite the other countries this way or not? Cause this...is quite something.” I say nervously. “Huh…” Celestia said, scratching her chin. “That’s...a thought. Let’s see. Each of the royal families have heirs and daughters. The Deer, the Caribou, the Griffons, though that’s a long shot, the Minotaurs, the Camels, the Hippogriffs, the Centaurs, and the Zebras.” “Don’t forget the Bison and the Yaks.” Chrysalis added. “True, but no one really knows how their customs work. The Yaks have lived in isolation for years, and the Bison are very secretive of their lands. They only shared with Appaloosa for a share of the food so they could use some land to farm.” “Are there any wolf or tiger tribe's?” I ask curiously. “Or are they hidden in jungles and forests?” “Wolves live under the rule of the Deers, and Tigers live under the rule of the Camels.” “Okay then...but I'm not gonna whore myself out here.” I frown. “Just to be clear here okay? I want peace as well but not if I have to plow every queen or princess on the planet.” “Well we have tried in the past for that, the only issues are the fact that barriers stop the process dead. Customs, Languages, you name it. Finding common ground to make peace will be...tricky.” “Well don't worry, I've managed weirder situations.” I shrug. “But god are all these women gonna be confused when their suddenly indestructible and pregnant with a million kids.” “Well the way I see if you have two options for this world peace thing.” Chrysalis said. “Whore yourself out, or take the time to learn every customer and such to ensure peace. Either way, it’s your time wasted, not mine.” “It's not time wasted when I'm supposed to be this planet's hero.” I frown. “This is gonna be bad...god what will my fiance’s think? Oh hell actually what will they think of this situation?” “I imagine Pinkie will be happy, Luna maybe.” Rune said. “Oh, she will. Luna has a herd fetish.” Celestia said, nearly making me trip over nothing. “Of course she fucking does…” I groan. “No wonder why she was always so excited for more wives…” I sigh out. “God...what's Twilight and Dinky gonna think when I ask them to teach Lola in some way?” “I imagine it will be a challenge for her.” Celestia said. “Twilight is many things...parents for teaching others...she is now. Not much at least.” “I hope she can manage…” I sigh out. “I wonder what else I'm going to do today besides...this.” I motion to Lola. “Aside from doing her, get your family here. Might as well move into the castle...Heh, staff and city are gonna freak.” Chrysalis said, a smile on her face as she stretched in her seat and relaxed. “I like where we live, besides it's a lot bigger than this.” I say. “Also I'm not gonna do her...I barely know what to do anymore…” I sigh out, my shoulders sagging a little. “Awh, it’s okay.” Lola said, putting both hands on my shoulders and looking me dead in the eye. “I forget how to dodo too.” This...is going to be a long, LONG, day... The princesses and Lola all came with me back home, they, and my wives, all sat in the living room...me in the middle….and Jenny laughing her ass off. “HAHAHAHAH! Oh man!” She cried between laughs. “So besides laughing at me, or possibly hating me, who else wants to talk about...this?” I ask, trying not to feel like crap while everyone was silently judging me. “Well, it’s definitely...out there…” Twilight said. “I for one am up to it if it makes the world whole.” Rarity said. “As am I.” Honora said in agreement. “Life can’t get much stranger, right?” Coco threw out. “No Coco...it only gets worse and worse.” I tell her bluntly. “Whether it's for the better...or it just makes people laugh at me.” “I wonder if this is just a family thing?” Pinkie asked. “Think about it, your new dad is married to, pretty much all where he’s from.” “So what? I'm gonna have to marry every royal women on this planet?” I ask. “That’s the easiest in terms of the plan. Plus, it’s a good card. Most every Royal in the other lands have been giving birth to female heirs. Plus, your reputation will help convince them.” Celestia said. “In the past Equestria, and the other lands have had issues in terms of gender balance, but these recent years have been largely shifted female. Female to male in Equestria is close to a hundred mares per two stallions. Don’t even get me started about the Caribou. Their males are one in every thousand births.” I looked at everyone in the room. “So what? Now I'm the solution to your breeding crisis? I'm a hero...not...this…” I sigh out, more finding this conversation weird and strange then demeaning honestly. “Welcome to the club…” I nearly jumped out of my seat as Cript appeared next to me...wearing sun glasses oddly enough. “And I am still getting girls...It’s something you never expect, don’t ask for, but deal with in my experience.” “Except you're an omnipotent god who’s been dealing with this crap for god knows how long.” I frown. Cript looked over at me. “I was married to my first wife Lyra for two and a half years before a herd even happened. Back then, I was just a mage, not a god, not even close to an admin. I was just a mage that knew every spell in the book and had a link to origin magic. That discovery explained a lot about my talents with spellcraft. You know what I did when Lyra and my other now wives came to me and asked for a herd?” “Probably had a better time then adding more and more with little more than a day's notice.” I roll my eyes. “I ran to the nearest room, which happened to be a closet, and closed the door behind me. Lyra had to talk me out of there for nearly half an hour. You wanna know why I hid?” “You were either scared or you were too shocked to hear such a thing?” I ask. “Heh, a bit of both. Me marrying Lyra, it was hard to believe. With all I do, what...Psychopath made me do...I was ready to spend my life alone...Then she comes along...runs me over with her waggon and gives me amnesia...When my memories came back, I was ready to leave her...Sneaky mare found her way onto my ship and she stuck to me like glue. When the herd thing came into play, that was...unexpected. But, my former boss explained what happened to lead to that.” I sigh out. “Fine...I suppose this is because everything kind of...caught up to me is all.” I say. “I mean...seriously? Who expected a severely depressed idiot to suddenly have all this in half a year?” “Took me longer, but join the club.” Cript said, patting me on the back. “You know that saying ‘everything just lines up perfectly for you’?” “Its ‘everything happens for a reason’ or something like that.” I tell him. “And yes I do. Why do you ask?” “Cause it’s true, different for everyone. In my case, I had the potential to become to much, and I surpassed it all, and I was meant to be nothing more than a side character when the “adventure” started. Because I stepped out of that, became the protagonist, I ROYALLY screwed up timelines. The reason my herd started was because those that my herd started with, were my other timeline possibilities. Same is going for you right now.” I was about to say something...before I rubbed my temple and started chuckling. “Jesus, I was feeling like crap because I was going to go basically fuck all the female royalty in this world...then we suddenly had a nice chat about life...who else normally does that?” I ask. “Eh, let’s see here, Zeke for starters, you, me, Lan is on his way there at his rate. Here. Let me show you something.” Cript said, tossing a pocket watch on the floor. It opened, and what looked like a single blue beam, but upon closer inspection was actually countless smaller blue lines, shot up out of it. “This, is the timeline of everyone on this world, before I stepped out of my role of Side character and into Hero.” Cript then waved his hand, the lines changing and now acted like something out of Dubstep. “This is every individual timeline now. Tell me, does this make sense?” “Only to Vinyl at the moment.” I frown. “Why are they acting like something from Dubstep?” “My doing. Long story short, I cause the god of time to quit and retire. Because I stepped out of something what was meant to be fixed, Every timeline now can crossover with another. Lovers that were never meant to be, or even happen happen, work. It actually worked out. It’s funny really, temporal chaos lead to order among most of Sentient life.” Cript said, closing the pocket watch and putting it back in his pocket. “That must have been weird. Hearing the god of time say ‘damn it I'm too old for this shit’ when they're supposed to look over time itself.” I chuckled a little. “And okay then...that sounds pretty special.” “I guess, it’s why you have all these girls. How I have all mine. Accidents happen, but sometimes they lead to great things.” “So literally being the king of a world just because you married every single royal woman leads to great thing?” I ask. “Think of it this way, you can make people get along, slowly, but surely. After all, they may defy you, but would they defy their princess and/or queen?” “That depends on if the princess or Queen was being complete bitch.” I say. “Well, true. Heck, if she is then they will definitely listen to you.” Cript said, taking off the sunglasses. “Two simple things. There are leaders, and followers, good leaders change what’s important, bad leaders change everything but the important things.” With that, Cript snapped his fingers and was gone, though, his sunglasses were still there. I grabbed the sunglasses off the ground, wondering why he left them. “So…” I start. “Where should I go first?” I ask the others. “Perhaps some training.” A voice said behind me before something banged the back of my head. I looked up. Vexen? “I have been waiting on this world for three days!” “When the fuck did you get here?” I ask the guy. “Like I said, three days ago! Ramilua called me asking to help you train since I am both a well renowned alchemist and knight.” “Okay first up, how did he know to find you specifically?” I ask, finding that a tad suspicious. “Some old cook named Merlin gave him my number. Apparently they know each other and Merlin knows Ansem so I was given time off to train you. To my disappointment you weren’t here. Three days of my time I am never getting back.” He grumbled. “Okay first up i was never told about you coming here so sorry. Two I was either busy doing stuff off world or something else.” I tell him while rubbing the back of my head. “And three weren't you using your time wisely in those three days? You seem pretty miffed about being on a world full of magic.” “Yeah, but all the magical knowledge in this world is C grade at best, everything in every book on science and magic I picked up here since arriving have been revie of things I learned long ago. Most I’ve done so far is freeze some ancient evil thing.” “What ancient evil thing?” I ask with a frown, having completely forgotten about this world's time line. “I don’t know, I was far up north studying the geology when some city made of gemstones came out of the ground and a black mist with a face attacked me. Froze it on the spot, then went back to work.” “Um...wasn't Sombra already taken care of?” I ask Twilight. “Unless you managed to find *another* long forgotten crystal town that a shadow monster hid…” I say. “Who’s Sombra?” Twilight asked. I looked at Celestia and Luna, who both kinda coughed, as if a cat got out of a bag. “Okay I know Cript did a thing….but how in the hell was Discord redeemed *before* the Crystal Empire appeared?” I ask. “*Cough*” I looked to my side, seeing Jenny about to whisper something to me. “Yeah...this Equestria’s timeline is different. Discord was reformed same day he got out by Fluttershy.” She whispered. “Guess each reflections is different in very strange ways.” I could only facepalm. “Of course...” I groaned. “Anyways, Cadence and Shining now own a kingdom up north Twilight, sooner or later we're gonna need to help them find the Crystal Heart, and I have some training to do.” “Exactly.” Vexe-...whatever his actual name is. “Well, come on, we have work to do.” He said, grabbing me by an ear and dragging me. “Ow!” I shout while getting his hand off my ear. “No dragging me by the ear.” I growl, my ears being a bit more sensitive than more ears when it comes to pain. “But anywhere specific we need to go?” I ask while rubbing my ear. “I set up a laboratory in one of the stupidly many spare rooms you have.” He said, waving for me to follow. “Oh, and the name’s Even.” “Yeah my house had a crap ton of rooms.” I say while following along. “But the names Ben if Ramilua didn't already tell you.” I say, the two of us continuing through my home. After a while of walking and some hello’s to my wonderful daughter's that were roaming around and seeing Joy walking to the kitchen while his head was steaming we finally made it to the specific room he took over. He opened the door...and it was like walking into Dexter's Laboratory. “Come on, let’s start at the basics.” He explained, walking me over to...something. It was huge and had a lot of flashing lights and buttons. “So...all of this huh?” I ask, not really knowing what extra stuff the shield could do when I thought his fight involved something only his Nobody could do then what his ice magic and shield could do. “I have...literally no idea what most of this stuff is.” “Just some basic stuff.” He said, opening a panel on the side of the huge device and taking out some kind of wires and a helmet with a huge wire connecting it to the machine. The next thing I knew I was shirtless, had wires attached to me and that helmet on my head while Even was looking at a screen on the side of the machine. “I told Twilight no on this kind of stuff…” I say nervously, rather concerned about this. “But should I be concerned about if you're going to start doing weird mad scientist shit on me?” “Oh please, this is just a physical.” He said, pushing a button before what felt like a lightning bolt struck me. When it was over some of my fur was burnt, even smoking while Even looked at a data appearing on the screen. “You can take the stuff off now.” “The fuck!?!” I bark. “Trying to stop my heart or what?” “Don’t be so dramatic.” He said, looking over the data still. “Alright, so far so good. Though, it seems you are genetically prone to addiction. Best steer clear of addictive things.” “You basically sent a lightning bolt through my chest , and what addiction?” I frown. “Anything. Drugs, cigarettes, booze, the works.” He said, looking at the data again. “And a shellfish allergy.” “Well I'm not addicted to any of those, I've never actually had shellfish, and this is so far this has nothing to do with training.” I frown. “I know the thing I'm going to train with is a shield but it's probably got something special about it.” “This is just a formality, also, sign this.” Even said, dropping a foot thick stack of papers at my feet, a pen resting on top of it. When it was dropped I grabbed the entire thing and read through all of it out of reflex when me and Luna did so much signing. “And why should I?” I ask, still looking through everything about the thing I have to sign. “So in case of any-” He then tapped the stack of papers. “Mutations, injuries, indigestion, cryogenic freezings, illnesses, magical mishaps, and in the rare case, death, I am not at fault.” “How in the nine hells does this have anything to do with this?” I ask while summoning my shield. “It's a fucking shield with ice magic, how does literally anything you explained pertain to it besides the cryogenic freezing part?” I ask, royally confused on this. Even rolled his eyes. “Because it’s my policy. Non-negotiable after...well, let’s just say an incident where a former lab assistant received a...fourth head, I make everyone I work with sign this.” I take a deep breath and disband my shield. “Policy or not you still didn't answer my question. What sort of stuff are you planning on doing that involves ice magic and a shield? I know you're a scientist but...still.” “Well it blocks both physical attacks and magic ones idiot. I’ll be casting all manors of spells, each with varying effects.” He then tapped on the paper, right over where the word Explosive Diarrhea, was written. “I recommend keeping clean clothes near by.” “Well I'm immune to all illnesses and most likely unwanted mutations so fine.” I say. “Also, this better not have some crap where I'm legally signing myself to be your test subject for whatever reason.” “Relax...that stack is ten feet thick.” Even said, taking the papers after I signed them. “Alright, so, what exactly can you do with it so far?” “So far I can cause people who are touching it to start freezing, cause a small spike of ice about...three feet away, and have stopped really powerful and possibly magically enhanced attacks with it.” I explain. “But besides that I haven't done much...just using it like a proper shield even if it's design is...a little weird for shields.” Even sighed. “Fun fact.” He said, summoning his own shield and throwing it, and it went a distance before flying back. “It’s also a boomerang.” He said, catching it. “These spiky, sharp edges aren’t just for show.” “Huh...aerodynamics be damned.” I say in honest surprise while summoning my shield. I threw it like a boomerang, and surprise to me it did come back, and I caught it with my hand even though for some reason my wolf part wanted me to chase it like a goddamn stick. “Not bad, now try this.” Even said, throwing it again, but this time large spikes of ice grew under where it flew, and when it flew back ice spikes shot out of it, hitting anything on it’s side before flying back to him. “Uh…” I mutter, throwing it again and when I tried to concentrate only a spike or two appeared under it and that was it even as it returned. “This might be a little more complicated than I thought…” “Okay then, let’s start with something more simple. Try this.” Even said, raising his shield up as a single ice spike rose up from the ground a few feet away. “Just focus your mana into it, and think about size and location.” I took a deep breath, holding it and, for once, I actually took note of my hud and saw a circle slightly glowing where I thought it would be. I focused my magic and lifting my shield up, making a single ice spike about five feet away, four feet tall and three feet in diameter. “Right then.” I nodded. “Good. Now try this.” He said, raising his shield to defend as some kind of frost layer covered it. “This makes it harder for anything to knock you to the side like a rag doll.” I raised it up, and when I tried to do as he did I felt a pulse of mana and the area in front of the shield, about five inches away, suddenly made a solid ball of ice and it fell, shattering as it hit the ground. “Damn it.” I frowned a little. “Not what I wanted but nifty to know I could do that.” I say to myself while focusing again, putting the shield up in a defensive position and a frost layer formed in front of it thankfully. “There we go…” “Good, now try this.” Even said, the frost on his shield melting, floating just above the shield a bit then shooting out, making a machine that was in their way metalic swiss cheese. “Well...that's a thing.” I say, letting the ice melt part was easy, the hard part was me trying to make the water turn to ice needles...but sadly after three times of shooting bowling ball sized ice chunks out I face palmed. “Damn it.” I groan. “I doubt making a cannon is the proper way to do this.” I scratch my head, trying one more time. While it didn't look as good as Even’s I managed to make a bunch of needles finally and shot it out, the needles passing through an unused machine with ease. “Good. Took a while, but good. Now, my personal favorite.” He said, grabbing a blue plastic cup and summoned just a little frost, which melted and fell into the cup. He then made some small chunks of ice and let them drop into it also. “Cleanest water you will ever drink.” He said, taking a sip. “Owe. Cold as a glacier too. Instant brain freeze.” “How does one make ice cream again?” I ask, for some odd reason the first immediate thought I had to that trick was ice cream made of my fiance’s breast milk. “For that you need a blazing gem, and a mythril to pull off ice cream.” He said, taking another sip and getting another brain freeze. “No need to hurt yourself anymore on cold water.” I say. “But for some reason I have a feeling we're talking about something different when I mention ice cream…” “Eh. So, time for something harder.” Even said, raising his shield...and swinging it on his arm, the spike impaling it. “SHIT!” He yelled, pulling it out then waved the shield over the fresh wound, ice covering it, melting, leaving only a scar behind as the wound was instantly healed. “This has saved my life...five times. Almost six, but thankfully it was not that bad a wound that one.” “Huh...didn't think ice could heal that quickly...” I say while looking at my shield. “Um...can I at least get some explanation so finding accidentally do something bad to myself?” “Basically you instantly freeze all the way through the wound, and the ice that melts becomes, well, water, the ice that doesn’t has adapted, becoming flesh and blood, bone even if needed. You just need to freeze the wound, the ice will do the rest.” “Okay then…” I start while summoning a spike of ice and rolling up my sleeve. I rammed the spike into my arm, the pain not feeling at all bad before I tried the technique, breaking off the ice and channeling my magic, the wound healing up rather well. “Good. Now, if you don’t mind I have important business to take care of in a bit so if you would kindly...do something else for a day. Come back tomorrow.” “Okay.” I nodded while fixing my sleeve. “Thanks Even...um I forgot do the other knights in Radiant Garden know about my training or is it just you?” I ask curiously. “They know, and they’ll call before arriving. Now head off, before-” Knock, Knock, Knock. There was a knock at the door. “Coming!” I call out, walking over to the doors and opening them. “Yes?” When I opened the door, it wasn’t anyone I knew right away...I’ve seen this guy around town… Damn, what’s his name. ‘Um, Hi. Is Even here?” “Here! Here!” Even said, almost pushing me out of the way. “Okay, um, give me a moment.” He said, closing the door. “Leave. Now.” He said, looking dead at me. “Okay okay fine jeez.” I say while leaving. “Just remember to make sure none of my kids get in here.” I tell him before leaving, wondering what I'm going to do with the rest of the day. “Either travel...or do that one idea…” I mutter to myself, walking through the place again. “Pinkie! Can I get some help with an idea?” I call out through the halls, knowing her she'd be here in an instant. “What ya need?” My pink fiance asked...somehow appearing inside my cloak with me... “Do you know how to make Ice Cream? Even taught me a thing...and it made me wonder...if I could make ice cream from….your breast milk…” I blush. “Oh silly billy.” Pinkie said, rubbing my head and giving me a kiss. “I already have a tone of breast milk ice cream in the walk in freezer in the kitchen basement.” “Glad to know that.” I chuckled. “But uh...about me roaming the world marrying princesses or queens to bring about world peace somehow...none of you mind?” I ask nervously,wanting to check here. “We talked about it while you were gone with Even. We’re okay with it since it’s a fast way to bring about world peace. Plus, it’s kinda fitting. Your adopted bio-dad Cript has endless wives, you can get close. Sides, Zeke had like, what, twenty?” I sighed at hearing him. “I probably forgot to tell you all….” I shake my head. “But he had sixteen or so wives...I hope they're doing okay based on what Joy told me.” I say. “I heard you all meet Zeke’s wives from time to time right?” “Lately...not so much.” Rarity said sadly. “They’re...working through things, so we’re giving them their space.” “Yeah…” I sigh out. “Zeke’s death probably hit his entire world hard…” “We can only hope things get better later on.” Twilight said. “Hopefully.” “Not to be rude, but back to the matter at hand?” Celestia said/asked. “The original topic was breast milk ice cream.” I pointed. “Or did you want to get back to me sleeping with every single princess and or queen on the planet?” “The later…” Celestia replied, looking rathe confused. “Is that..common here?” “I asked Pinkie if Breast Milk Ice Cream was a thing because I was curious if it could be made...little did I know it was actually real…” I say sheepishly. “I think I have a lactation fetish…” “Okay...I’ll have to get used to that…” “Meh.” Chrysalis said. “Well I’m used to that, Diamond Dogs only ever drink their own milk. It’s a tradition thing.” Rune replied. “Anywhosits, which kingdom should I start with first?” I ask curiously. “Cause I have zero idea on any of the other countries.” I say nervously. “Well, the hardest will be the griffons, so we start there the rest will be easy.” Chrysalis said. “Where’s Gilda? I might need her help with some history and such.” I say, not knowing much about the Griffin kingdom as is. “She’s napping still.” Pinkie answered. “She stayed up late last night helping Dinky beat something on a video game.” “Right then.” I nodded. “Where be Joy?” Joy immediately walked up with a frown. “Why were you thinking about breast milk ice cream?” He huffed. “Science?” I lie horrifically with a sheepish smile. Joy saw through it easily. “Anyways, Griffin Kingdom right?” I nodded. “Right, does anyone know Griffin history besides Gilda?’ “I do.” Twilight said. “I did a lot of research on it. The short version is that the griffons used to be a very proud and powerful kingdom, but they worshiped a special idol made from pure gold. One day a monster came and stole the idol. They chased it to a gorge where the monster, and the idol fell in, and the winds passing through that gorge are so fast and dangerous, they didn’t dare try or else they’d be blown away and probably end up stuck forever or impaled on the sharp rocks. Without their idol, they fell apart.” “Good enough for us.” I shrug. “But is there any ruling body as of now or is it just a massive wreck?” “Last time I was there it looked like they never bothered fixing up the city after the monster attacked.” Chrysalis spoke up. “It’s all a wreck, and the only form of government they have from what I saw is currency. No one there does anything unless there’s money involved. I can see why too, get out of there as fast as possible.” “Well looks like Gilda’s gonna be a queen soon enough.” I say simply. “Actually, there might be someone there still related to the old king.” Twilight said, her horn glowing before a book appeared and she opened it up. “Yeah, here it is. According the legends, the old king had a wife, who already had an egg by him, and was pregnant with another. After the monster attack, she left her kingdom, unable to see it falling apart. They say she went to the only other griffon city that held no ties to any lands or crown, Revastal. The griffon equivalent of Cloudsdale.” “Alright then.” I nodded. “I'll go to Revastal and go find the Queen and Joy can go find the Idol, cause if we have both then the people will hopefully come back together and not be in shambles.” I say, hoping this simple plan will work. “Oh uh...how long was it since the kingdom fell to shit?” “Four hundred years.” Celestia answered. “After Griffinstone fell, Revastal went into isolation. All we know about it is that it was ahead of its time when the griffon kingdom fell.” “Right...so I have a feeling they might or might not know who I am.” I say with a nod. “I guess you’ll see.” Rune said. “You two, good luck, we'll work on finding a bigger bed and getting more rings.” “Thanks Rune.” I nodded while me and Joy started to leave, ready to start a new adventure. “Know what time it is?” I ask Joy. “Adventure Time?” Joy asks with a grin while we both fist bump. To be continued...
Nobody's new travels“I really should have asked where this place was….” I frown, flying around the Griffin Kingdom on my glider while Joy went to Griffon Stone. “It's like Cloudsdale...but I doubt it's literally like Cloudsdale.” I frown, continuing to look around for this isolated town. As I flew further east, now well passed Equestria’s coast, there was a sudden storm. Thankfully, my glider seemed able to push through the strong winds. “Of course there’s a fucking storm.” I frown, glad my hood was up as I continued forward, looking around for where the town was or what was causing the sudden storm. As I kept flying there was a sudden shock wave of wind. It rattled my glider and something came out of the water...It was Disney’s Devil...in heavy looking chains with heartless symbols all over them...It looked right at me. I was curious about something. “Hey! Can you talk?!” I shout at it, knowing it was from a music only movie but just wondering. It shook its head, opening it’s mouth...showing its tongue was missing. “Ouch.” I wince. “Who chained you up?!” I call out curiously. He just gave me a look. “Right...Can’t answer that…” I sighed out. “Are you going to destroy the planet if I free you?” I ask, knowing this would be a bad idea. He looked confused at me, and then shook his head. “Surprising.” I mutter while flying over to it. “Know how to break your chains?” I call out. He turned around, a small, magic looking lock was keeping all the chains bonded together. “Simple enough.” I say while jumping in the air and floating, changing my glider into my keyblade. “If I free you will darkness start spreading out?” I call out, hoping it could possibly answer that. He shook his head. “Thank you.” I say while pointing my Keyblade at the keyhole and unlocking it, knowing full well something bad is going to happen. Once the lock disappeared and the chains began falling off, Disney devil began to stretch and shake off the feeling of those chains. After a bit, he then placed a finger in his mouth, to which his tongue grew back. “Thank you, those chains restricted more than just my movement.” He said, still stretching. “Now I remember! Your names Chernabog.” I say, snapping my fingers at remembering it's name. “So my giant demonic friend, why the hell were you chained up with Heartless chains?” “Core. Back when he was first taking over and expanding his own kingdom in the realm of darkness, me and my counterparts were his first obstacle, as back then we controlled the vast darkness. He slayed all my counterparts, except for me. He chained me up, and til some time ago, continuously tortured me for ancient information on darkness. I learned he was killed, so I took my chance, and escaped. I got out of my cage, but the chains were another matter entirely.” “He’s dead? Who killed him?” I ask, finding that information surprising. “I don’t know. I didn’t stick around to ask, Core’s followers are creating chaos in the realm of darkness...and that’s saying something. That aside, I thank you for freeing me, is there a way I can repay you?” “Well before I answer that, do you know Cript?” I ask curiously. “I have heard of him, of his creating. I now hear that plan for him backfired immensely.” “What plan?” I ask, wondering if it involved Zeke. “Back when this creation was young, the beings known only as Psychopaths already had a foothold, and needed something to bring the whole of every creation into their favor. So, through countless years of planning, altering events, and gaining followers and having certain ones breed, each multiverse in the creation had a version of Cript. The perfect host, by his very nature and bloodline, he is their perfect killing machine. And for a time, it seemed their plan would work. Til, one defied his place as a host, and broke free from his possession. Sadly, the same can not be said about his parallels, who are the strongest host bodies the Psychopaths possess. Cript, and all his parallels, were born to be Psychopaths, and one ran from destiny, and forged his own.” I looked at him and was honestly surprised by this. “Damn…” I frown. “That's...most certainly a thing.” “Yes. He is the second being to ever break from a Psychopath. Oh, and call me Cher.” “Right then.” I nod. “But do you know where Revatal is?” I ask. “Yes. Is there a reason you seek that city?” “Apparently there's royalty there and an old law would be quite needed for world peace here.” I tell him. “Ah. You seek the lost heir of Griffon Stone.” He said, snapping his fingers as a portal opened, a cloud city looking like that movie Castle in The Sky on the other side. “I will help you find the heir, if you will have me.” “Thanks Cher, that would be good. But if you need help fighting against Cores lackeys then I can help out, I know a bunch of others as well that can help.” I explain to him. “I do not believe I will ever return. It is no longer my home.” “Well then considering I'll be king of the world, mind helping me keep the place safe?” I ask. “Or helping me fight against Cores forces? I'll make sure you get a good home even if you are...bigger than a mountain.” “I can change my form as needed. I will meet you in the city.” Cher said, his whole body turning into mist and a ball of it flying through the portal as I followed. “Can't believe I'm becoming friends with Disney's version of Satan.” I mutter to myself. As I landed I looked around, wondering what form Cher took. I felt a tug at my cloak. Looking, I saw a young griffon...with dark blue feathers and a rather strange set of wings. “Hello Ben.” She said. That voice is that of a girls. “Hello.” I said to her. “How you doing?“ “Okay I guess. This form is rather small, but I’ll get used to it.” “Eh you'll get used to it. Like walking for instance cause your legs have normally been stuck in a mountain right?” I ask curiously. “Only when I exit the realm of darkness and appear in the mortal worlds.” “Right then.” I nodded. “So, let's see if we can find the heir in this place.” I say, ready to start the search. Cher took a sniff of the air. “Royal blood was here recently.” She said, taking another sniff. “An hour at least.” “Which direction did they head off to?” I ask, trying to think of how far they could have gone within an hour. Cher took another, longer sniff. “That way.” She pointed, showing a road where a lot of griffons were walking along. A market place. “Follow me.” She said, leading the way. I followed along closely, wondering what I'll see in this new town. “Wonder what's gonna happen when we meet the lost heir.” “Dunno. There might be a chance she knows what she is. The Griffon Stone royals are the only griffons born with green eyes. It’s specific to them, though I imagine that fact was lost to time.” Cher said. “She might also have the old queen’s crown, when it’s within range of their idol, it glows and gives the royal wearing it powers.” “Cool.” I nod. “But I was told the Idol was lost and the Queen ran hundreds of years ago, so wouldn't the eye color not be as reliable as we think?” I ask, still looking around just to see the town and its people. “Maybe to your races version of Royalty, but to Griffons eye color is a way of telling families. The only reason they wouldn’t have them is if they marry in. It’s magic for the griffons, so a half sibling would have an eye color from each family. For instance, your Gilda has brown eyes, correct?” “A light brown but yes.” I answered. “Light brown eyes means she’s from the Caribara family, they were Griffon Stone's finest blacksmiths back in it’s hayday.” “I sense a pun in there since this world is mostly filled with ponies.” I say. “But that's interesting, might need to bring that up with Gilda when she wakes up.” “Perhaps. Ponies have Cutie marks, Griffons have their eye colors. It’s different for each race on this planet.” “Makes sense." I nod. “Wonder how old this Griffin is though.” Cher took another sniff. “My guess, early to mid twenties. That works out, every griffon royale took the crown from the last around that age. Seems this is fated.” Cher then stopped, taking in many sniffs and looking around. “We’re being followed.” I stopped and looked around. “We know you're there, no need to hide anymore.” I call out to the person following us. They stepped out of the crowd. It looked like a human, the eyes alone seemed to give that away, and they were wearing a red scarf covering the majority of their face and they wore some kind of black suit. “Easy tiger.” They spoke. “How may I help you today?” I ask them, not sure if their friend or foe but prepared for the encounter either way. “I’m looking for a man by the name of Braig, and was told he was last seen on Knowhere with a fellow of your description.” They said. I sighed out while bringing out a photo. “I'm sorry but there’s been...way too much stuff to explain. But here's a photo of what he is now.” I say while handing them a picture, it being a picture of baby Braig being cradled by Pinkie. He took the photo. “An infant? Braig has become an infant?” “He used to be my master...but now, after he was...unfortunately killed, someone special gave him another chance at life, but only as an infant.” I tell them. “But he's been a happy child ever since. Why do you care about Braig?” I ask curiously. “Because I am the holder of his last will and testament.” The man said, pulling out a scroll. He opened it up. “In the event of Braig Grothmer’s death, his family and/or next of kin shall receive his family legacy. A hefty five trillion pounds of gold, and the keys to it on his family's planet, Carnic ten.” He then put the scroll away. “This is a strange development though. Braig was the last of his family alive, and the only one thought to produce an heir...this is quite the situation.” “When he was dying, before he was turned into an infant and bonded with my very pink fiance there, he told me I should listen to his will.” I told him. “Oh, so he has named you his successor?” the man asked. I summoned my gun arrows. “Yep, and to prove he did name me his successor.” I say while shooting a fly an inch away from his head, not hurting the man in the process. “Only his successor could kill a fly an inch away from a person's head without injuring the person.” I say with a grin. “Hmm...Fair enough.” He said, walking up to me, seemingly unfazed by the shot fired and handed me some kind of key and what looked like a doorknob. “Replace any doorknob with this one, then just turn the key in it and open the door, it will take you to Braig’s home, do with what you find there as you please. Oh, and sign this.” He said, pulling out a sheet of paper with some words and such on it while holding a pen. I read the paper real quick, hoping it didn't have any fine print bullshit on it, which thankfully it didn't and I quickly signed it. “There you go.” I say while handing him the pen and signed paper. “Thank you.” He said, pushing a button on what looked like a watch and he teleported away Star Trek Style. “That was strange.” Cher said. “Does this happen a lot to you?” “You have no idea.” I sighed out. “Anyways, back to finding Royalty.” “Yes. She shouldn’t be too far away.” Meanwhile, in Griffon Stone, Joy was looking at a kingdom broken. It was hard to believe this is where Gilda came from, not a single building was intact, not even grass looked like it wanted to grow here. “Jesus how do they even stay alive?” Joy asks, flying down on Lindworm and hopping off, wondering who might know where the gorge was so he wouldn't have to scour the entire fucking place. “Should have just asked…” As he looked around he finally spotted a griffon. “Excuse me, do you know where the Monster Gorge is?” He asks the griffon. The griffon seemed to ignore Joy, shrugging the question off and continued his walk. “Or just...walk away like an asshole.” Joy muttered to himself, walking off as well and searched for a more talkative griffon. An hour passed and every griffon ignored Joy in some way or form. As he was ready to give up he felt a tap on his shoulder and looked behind him, seeing a dark and light blue feathered gryphoness, with dark green eyes. “Um, hello, you are new here, right?” She asked. “Yes, yes I am.” Joy says with a nod. “Who are you if I may ask?” He asks the cute griffoness. “Gabby, nice to actually have a conversation. Most people around here just keep to themselves.” “I noticed.” “Yeah...things aren’t great...ever. But I overheard you are looking for something?” “I was looking for an Idol, but you're much prettier and wonderful then that.” He flirts kind of poorly, getting into that habit because of Frisk. Gabby though, blushed rose red. “Oh, oh y-y-y-you mean the one from the old legend?” She stuttered, her feathers beginning to puff up. Joy smiled, finding her feathers puffing up so adorable. “Yes I am, but you're so adorable I'd rather stay here with you.” He flirts again with a smile. “I, uh. Um…” Gabby tried to say, but no words came out. “Take a deep breath.” He tells her while showing her the breathing technique him and I normally used all the time She did as told, and after about five minutes, finally started to calm down. “S-s-sorry. Never had...whatever you did happen to me.” “It's called flirting.” He says. “It's when someone tells a girl they like nice things, like how pretty they are or how their eyes shine like the stars.” He smiled. “But anyways, my name is Joy, and do you know where the Griffin idol is?” “Well, according to legends it fell with the monster into Ghastly Gorge, but even if those rumors were true, the wind in that thing is too strong. Wait, why are you so interested in the legend anyway?” “My brother, the White Knight of Equis, wants to bring about world peace.” He says. “Oh, okay, um...We don’t get news from...anywhere so I have no idea who that is, but if he’s famous then cool.” “Ever heard of super heroes?” Joy asks curiously. “Cause he's basically a world wide super hero, and I'm his partner.” “Um, no. We have...nothing here really. After the kingdom fell all those years ago we don’t even trade with others, and well, what you can call farming here is mostly small nuts and berries. Any meat we eat is caught, like a squirrel, mouse, things like that.” “Yeah this country really needs help.” Joy says worriedly. “But want to help me find the gorge? And also...want to see the world outside this...depressing place?” He asks her. “Is a mouse gray?” Gabby asked. “Not all the time.” Joy says honestly. “Oh, um...okay, bad example. But, yes, yes I would like to join you, but, um… Wait here for a second.” Gabby zoomed off, leaving a dust trail that, when she returned, was still floating. “Would you...take this…” She asked, handing over an old, beaten up bracelet to Joy. She looked extremely nervous. Joy smiled gently. “Anything for you.” He says while taking the bracelet delicately. “What is it if I may ask?” He asks. When he looked at Gabby, he saw her look like she was the happiest griffon in the city...which she probably was, tears started streaming down her eyes...then she almost tackled Joy as she, somehow, kissed him smack on the lips. Joy was surprised by the sudden kiss, but it answered his question as he kissed her back to show his love. He broke the kiss soon after. “So...I suppose this was a sign of marriage or something?” “Yeah. Griffons, even before our kingdom fell, were notoriously greedy, beaten only by dragons. Especially when it came to gold. It was a symbol when one griffon gave something of old and gold to another, of love, and if they accepted, it was sealed with a kiss.” Gabby then snuggled up to Joy, her feathers were soft, and kinda tickling him. “I’m yours now.” She said happily. “Um...what do griffons think of herds?” Joy asks curiously. “They exist, not so much anymore, heck, the closest thing to marriage these days is one griffon asking another if they wanna...have sex… and if a hatchling happens in the process then, they just raise them till they turn ten, then they go to work.” Gabby said, looking kind of sad. “My mom and dad were old fashioned...only reason they’re not here now is because they went hunting for some meat and… Flew into the wrong cave… Ursa Major… Only thing I have from them is that.” She said, pointing to the bracelet Joy was still holding. “It’s been in my dad’s side of the family for years.” Joy gently nuzzled Gabby. “Listen...I'm sorry about your family...but with this, you'll be joining my family, and it's huge.” Joy smiles. “And uh...what do you think of excessive amounts of teasing? Cause all my other girlfriends do that...a lot.” “Teasing?” Gabby asked, confused. “Like, making fun of you?” “As in...sexual teasing, where it's a ‘look don't touch’ kind of thing.” He tells her nervously. “Huh...Griffons don’t do that, if it’s intended we want...sex...it happens. Then and there.” “Ah.” He nodded. “Well...all I can say is my family is weird...really weird...but a good kind of weird.” He tells her. “Cool.” Gabby said, cheering up and grabbing Joy’s hand. “Now come on, the gorge should be this way.” Back in Revatal, Ben and Cher were running through the marketplace, Cher having caught the scent of the royal strong nearby. Finally, they spotted the royal, or at least who she said was the royal. For some reason she had some kind of veil over her face, and was holding the hand of a younger griffon who had the same kind of veil over their face. “That’s her….” She took a sniff. “The young one isn’t royal, though, they seem close. Adopted maybe?” “They look like they need us.” I say worriedly, checking if my hood was down, which it was of course. “Well...I'm gonna try to talk to them.” I say while moving over to the veiled griffons. “Excuse me, may I have a moment of your time?” I ask the veiled griffons politely. The royal one looked over, face still under the veil, and I think she was studying me. “How did you get to the city? It’s rather isolated...you must be rather stubborn.” “I am rather stubborn.” I concede. “But I must ask, does Griffin Stone mean anything to you?” “...So you don’t know then.” She said, sighing. “Yes, it does...my great, great, many more greats grandmother was the queen of it, she fled to this place to avoid seeing it fall. Since Revatal is a city of self controlization, meaning everyone does their own thing, and judgment is passed by a court of the highest guild leaders, back then when she came for refuge, the guild leaders granted it, but on the condition that, to keep their city from becoming a monarchy, she, and all her descendants that bear the royals eyes wear a veil to hide them. So, here I am, and this is Gratta.” She said, patting the young griffon on their head. “She’s adopted, but the rule still applies.” I nodded, fully understanding the situation. “But if I may, it's time for you to step out of the shadows. You might not know who I am, but-” “You’re the White Night of Equis. I know, and I’m not in the shadows. I’m the leader of the News Guild, I’m anything but hiding. I just wear this because after the third generation it became a thing my family did. Council doesn’t even enforce it, hasn't for a long time.” “I was going to say come out of the shadows and be Queen of the griffons again.” I say. “And why I'm asking this because apparently...well let me start with my many titles, starting with me being King of the Diamond Dogs, Changelings, and Prince of Equestria.” I state. “The other two are from...strange circumstances but Celestia told me an old law that can bring about world peace in some way shape or form.” I explain. “So...do you know what old law I'm talking about or should I answer?” “Yeah, was part of my college history classes. They say back before all these many races appeared on Equestria there was one race that split up, and became the many races we have now. They think that if that’s true then it’s why we can all crossbreed. Legends say that back then, to ensure peace among the many races the “Royal Family” was to have the king be of one race, and the the wives to be of the rest. From what I learned, it didn’t last long. I think a war broke out then they all split and stayed away from each other for a couple thousand years.” “Well guess what I'm going to do?” I ask with a smile. “Seriously? And what makes you think it will work this time around?” “Being a world wide hero for starters, two because I'm basically a chick magnet with my current record if at least ten wives in less than half a year, one being a princess of equestria and the other being the sister of the current Dragon Lord, three I have the special power of being an optimistic idiot that women find attractive thankfully, four because I'm magical, and five because of something I'm not allowed to talk about in front of minors.” I say honestly. “I will still count that as four reasons and, not a bad track record. I suppose, I just need to take care of some things here first.” “My little brother Joy is finding the Griffin Idol just so you know.” I mention. “But what do you need to do?” “Well first if I’m going through with this, I gotta find someone to replace me in the guild, which isn’t gonna be easy as everyone there is an idiot, and then grab some things from my place.” “I mean if you follow through with this then I can find someone who could help your guild...and how dumb are they?” I ask. “Before I took over their best selling paper was about a knocked over cabbage cart...when a bank robbery happened the same day.” “Oh no…” I frowned. “Yeah uh...that's not good. But I was told this town was isolated...why is that?” “After the Griffon Kingdom fell, they lost their main supplier of meat, so they moved out here in the middle of nowhere ocean where fish is plenty.” “Ah, well if all goes well then the Griffon Kingdom will rise along with the other kingdoms and be good again, causing this town to not be so isolated again.” I explain. “Also...what do you think about herds?” I ask. “Eh. As long as the only action I get is from you, I’ll be fine. I don’t do chicks...for some reason I’m like a lesbo magnet...so this veil helps a lot with that also.” “Don't be surprised if that changes somehow.” I say sheepishly. “Anyways, better get to the guild.” “Yeah, come on, it’s this way. Oh and my name is Viva.” She added before leading the way. I stopped myself from adding ‘Las Vegas’ to her name. “Right then.” I nod while following along. “Hope to make a good impression.” Back in Griffon Stone, Joy and Gabby made their way to the gorge, where Gabby was right, the winds flowing though it were fierce. Joy lifted up and dropped a rather heavy rock into the winds below and it was blown away like paper in the wind. “So...how do you plan on looking?” Gabby asked. “Well..it'll be a good first try.” Joy says while summoning Lindworm and hopped in, wind circling around Joy as he tried to see if his spears and wind abilities could make this not as dangerous. While the winds didn't throw him around like a rag doll his wind abilities still made it a bumpy ride down as he searched for the Idol. “Well...good enough for me…” Joy mutters. Joy searched the edges around the gorge, finding nothing and realizing he’d have to go deeper, where the light barely reached. “Damn it.” He muttered while heading down further, using his natural enhanced senses to look around and try to sense the golden idol. As he was where the light was reaching the end of it’s grip, he spotted something in the distance. He flew towards it, and saw it was the giant skill of some kind of horned cyclops. “That better not come to life.” Joy frowned as he looked around the skull, trying to find the Idol. “Shiny things always happen to be near corpses or skeletons.” He saw, near the ends of the, well, edge that the skull rested on, sat a rusted, beaten, but still gold looking, idol. He picked it up, looking it over. “Well it looks like shit but I doubt they'd care.” Joy mutters while flying up to the surface to show Gabby the Idol. After a good few minutes he landed on solid ground and disbanded his weapon. “I got me a thing.” He says, hoping Gabby was still around He received his answer when the happy griffon tackle hugged him. “You found it!” She cheered, squeezing him rather tight. “Air…” Joy wheezed out. Gabby, let go some, but kept her hug firm. “You are going to make the griffons great again!” “Idols mean nothing without someone leading. My brother is gonna come here with the rightful heir to the kingdom...and most likely marry her.” He chuckled. “What do you think about that?” “Meh, I still got you.” She said, purring now, which made Joy...relaxed to hear it. He nuzzled Gabby happily. “Love you.” He says lovingly. “Hehehe, prove it~” Gabby said, now on all fours over Joy. “Not until we're sixteen.” He tells her, his face beat red now. Gabby leaned in close to his ear. “Does it look like I care? Remember, when a griffon wants sex...we get it.” She then lightly bit Joy’s ear...and all sense was lost to him. I looked up and my ears twitched. “Well...Joy finally had some special times.” I chuckled. “Who?” Viva asked as we reached the News Guild. “My little brother Joy.” I tell her. “And this is the News Guild?” “Yes, outside is the same as all others, but the inside is all computers, printers, and the strong smell of ink that takes about an hour to leave your nose no matter how little time you spend in there.” Viva then sighed. “Let’s get this over with.” She said, walking in, Gratta behind her and Cher and I behind her. Viva was right, the stench of ink was strong in here. Surprisingly though, the inside was brick and wood. After going up some stairs we entered an office, which had air fresheners hanging everywhere. “I’m gonna sort through my employee files. Find someone who won’t ruin this place.” Viva said, sitting in her desk and opening a drawer. “Nothing like sorting through a bunch of papers again.” I sigh out, moving over and starting to work on finding some good people to lead. “So, what’s the princesses like?” Viva asked, trying to make some small talk to pass the time. “Luna is strong and tough, but loving. Celestia just as much. Rune is a sex addict who made the Diamond Dog country into the Porn center of the world, and Chrysalis is nice enough...she just happens to get drunk when fed too much love.” I explain simply. “Heh, man, a paper with the headline ‘Changeling Queen Can’t Hold Love Down’ would sell so well. Eh, let’s see here. Patchworks, nah, Gyro, probably not...Alcectia...Maybe.” She said, placing the file with that griffons name on the desk and the others back into the drawer. She then pulled out some more files from the back of the drawer. “I know a better headline.” I say while checking through the names and what they can do. “But I don't know how to word it...but it involved Celestia going from being a lesbian to being bi. Not sure how to word it but it sounded funny in my head.” “Heh, that’s always an issue. Headlines have to be something to catch attention, or make the reader curious.” She said, looking though the new files. “Grapha...no. Definitely not. Cyo...Maybe. Halo...maybe… Feather Trill...No.” With that, she put the maybe’s on her desk and the rest in the drawer. “Alright, so it’s between Alcecta from Field Work, Cyo from editing, or Halo from Printworks.” “I don't know much about this, but what makes all of them a ‘maybe’?” I ask curiously. “Well, Cyo makes some of the better headlines, Alcecta actually finds things that are interesting, and Halo is the only other griffon in this place as smart as me, he just prefers to work with the machines rather than do any actual reports.” “Why not have the three of them work together to lead the place?” I ask curiously. “Halo being the brains, Alcecta being the eyes, and Cyo being the words. Make enough sense?” “Huh, true, and there are guilds where there’s more than one leader.” She then grabbed a microphone on her desk and pressed a button on it. “Cyo, Halo, and Alcenta, my office, now.” Some time passed and the three griffons each entered the room one after the other. “Now, I am going to be gone for, possible forever, so, I need you three to each keep the News Guild up and running by simply keeping up with what you three all do. Halo, on top of keeping the machines working, look over everything Alcecta brings in, and just all three of you keep eyes on each other, and work together. Alright?” “Yes ma’am!” The three said, Viva waving a claw and they left. “There, now let’s get to my place to pick up some stuff. Come on.” “Alright then.” I nodded. Joy was tired. It was a type of tired he never knew, even after all his battles, this tired feeling was very different from them. At some point his clothes ended up being used as makeshift blankets, while the clothes Gabby wore, then took off, were being used to barely cover them. “Hehe, so that’s what sex feels like…” Gabby said, cuddled next to Joy. “Woof.” Joy says gently. “Never did I think...it would be that great…” He smiled...before his eyes widened in horror. “Oh no...the other girls...there gonna be pissed…” He says worriedly. “Hmm, let them, they know what to do to get even with you~” She said, gently tracing a claw down from Joy’s chest to his waist. “I’ll be sure to tell them about your ear~” “We...we told each other to wait…” He says worriedly. “Ugh...I have a bad feeling…” “Eh, if they get that mad I’ll calm them down. Hehe~ Also...where are my underwear?” “Equestria law states the legal age for sex is sixteen...and I have no idea...just glad my cloak and some clothes are still here.” Joy sighs out. “So...how was it for the first time?” “Good. You left a mark on me.” She said, giving him a peck on the cheek. “Well...I hope you don't get pregnant immediately…” He mutters worriedly. “...Well that’s kinda the mark you left.” Gabby said, moving her shirt to the side, showing her belly was nine months large pregnate. “Not sure how that happened so fast...even by griffon standards that’s fast.” Joy could mentally hear Ben laughing his ass off as Joy starred. “Uh...let's...get dressed...and go…” Joy says slowly, fearing he's gonna get killed when they get home. “Alright...my shirt’s gonna be tight now.” Gabby said, putting her shirt on, it stretching over her now massive belly. “Huh, not too bad I guess.” She said, Joy helping her to get up and gather their things. The walk back to Griffon Stone Joy was silent, a tad embarrassed, and kept eyeing her belly. “I can see you eyeing it Joy~” Gabby said with a sly smile. “No.” He says nervously. “I'm just...scared is all…” He sighs out. “I'm thirteen for christ sakes, and I was saving myself for all my girls…” “Hey, Griffons by age twelve can have sex and give birth, or, lay eggs, safely and so on, males are actually ready to have sex by age nine. Believe me, this is normal by griffon standards. I know in Equestria it’s different, and you made a promise, but we can work it all out.” “It's gonna be...weird for them...and they'll get mad that I couldn't wait.” He tells her. “And I...don't know if I could be a good father…” “Hey, most griffon fathers only see their kids as eggs and that’s it, I lucked out, even more so with you, a large family, and I’m sure that in a while I won’t be the only one with a belly this big~. When we were doing it doggy style you told me about Jenny and how she’s part Griffon. Think about that~” “If Jenny knew about this...god help me…” Joy mutters the last part while rubbing his temple. While they walked into the city, as expected, not a single griffon looked at the two...until. “Holy shit! That’s the idol of Bourius!” After that, every Griffon turned and looked at Joy, holding the idol. The pup gulped, every griffon in the ruined city just...stared at him. “Uh...Hi?” Joy says sheepishly. Before Joy could say another word, a mob grabbed him and Gabby, carrying the two to a very ruined castle, where they carefully placed them down in front of a large podium. There was an empty slot that would fit the idol’s base. “Legend says it rested here, place it.” One of the griffons from the crowd spoke up. “Um...shouldn't royalty place it?” Joy asks curiously. “Eh.” Was the majority of the response from the mob. Gabby just shrugged. “I can place it if you want?” Gabby asked. “Fuck it I'm royalty to three different kingdoms technically.” Joy says while putting the beat up Idol in the slot. “So here it is.” Viva said, showing an old, but well kept gold crown. “The crown of the old king of Griffon Stone.” “I thought it was the queen's crown you had?” I asked, confused. “No, the legend is a tad off. I have the old queen's journal, and she only left with the egg she was still carrying. Her first born child stayed in Griffon Stone, refusing to leave his father. So she gave him her crown. It’s not much of a crown, from the picture she drew in her journal of it, it’s about the size of a bracelet.” With the idol placed, there was nothing for a moment...then a golden energy flooded out of the idol like a waterfall. Joy’s pocket burned as he pulled out Gabby’s bracelet, it glowed red hot and he had to drop it. When it hit the floor it reshaped and, as if time went backwards, the bracelet looked like new, and floated onto Gabby’s head, her eyes glowing the same gold as the energy shooting out of the idol. After some time, the energy began to settle, the idol, also renewed by the energy it released, now stood as a base for an orb of glowing gold energy. Gabby, for her part, felt a bit dizzy. “That feels weird…” “Holy mother of damn.” Joy says in shock. “Are you okay Gabby?” He asks worriedly. “I just feel kind of funny…” She said, shaking her head. As she did that, some gold energy flowed off of her for a moment before settling. “Why...did my bracelet float on top of my head?” “That's...because it's a crown.” Joy tells her. “Oh...wait, what?” “Gabby is the lost heir!” One of the griffons yelled, followed by a constant chanting of Gabby’s name. “...Well...this is unexpected.” Gabby said, taking a seat. “But...the legends said the Queen ran away before the kingdom went to hell. The crap is going on?” Joy asks in confusion. “I think we can answer that.” Joy turned around, just in time for a larger gold crown to fly towards him, and land itself on his head. He saw Ben, and three other griffons, two wearing veils, which they took off. The young one had bright red feathers, and the older one had purple feathers...and the same color eyes as Gabby. “Wow...seen everything filtered through this thing for so long...it’s bright.” She said, blinking and rubbing her eyes. “Well looks like my little bro is now king of the Griffons. And he also didn't wait till he was sixteen.” I chuckle. “Shut up.” Joy frowned. “But now we can start getting the griffons back on track with the help of the other countries.” “I wanna try something first.” Viva said, walking to to Gabby...while Cher walked up to Joy. “Hey.” Viva said to Gabby. “Looks like we’re family.” “Family? Really!” Gabby said, happy. “Yes. Heh, well, looks like the crown is yours. I may not have it, but if great great etc great grandma’s journal is right then I can at least tap into some of this.” “What is it?” Gabby asked. “Magic. The same magic that alicorns use. In it’s raw, unfiltered form. This, this is what made Griffon Stone great. That’s why that old monster tried to steal the idol, for the power it released. Heh, too bad for it, this idol is linked directly to our family bloodline. Unless there’s no more us alive, only then can the idol be tampered with by third parties. And judging from that belly it looks like the bloodline is gonna run rather strong for a while.” Viva said that last part with a smirk, looking over at Joy. “Um...who would get the crown out of a few...million kids?” Joy asks worriedly. “You see, when either me or Joy get a woman pregnant, they become magically nine months pregnant and can withstand almost any kind of attack...but they also have to carry a few million kids in their womb.” I explain for their sake. “If my etc great grandmother’s journal is correct, which it should be, the first born. So whoever pops out of that belly first, and hatches, will get the crown. Though, it’s powers can’t go past a couple miles outside of Griffon Stone. That’s the only flaw in the power here.” “Well both of you can get this kind of power without arbitrary distances.” I tell them while summoning Reunion. “This is a Keyblade, a magical weapon to defend yourself against darkness.” I tell them. “Or.” Everyone in the room jumped, seeing Cript behind me. “I can actually help in this regard. But, how much help do you want?” “That depends, cause an entire civilization needs help getting back on its very crippled feet to learn how to walk again.” I tell him. “But their little crowns and magic have an arbitrary distance limit for some reason...man your girlfriends are gonna be so pissed Joy.” “Shut up.” Joy huffs. “But um...how much help are you willing to give Cript?” “Well, I can tell you, or show you, which would you prefer?” Cript asked. “You're probably gonna show us anyways.” I point out. “So show us if you want.” “Oh I am happy you said that.” Cript said with a smile. “First, that sad, sad, sad...sad excuse for a town.” Cript said, snapping his fingers. When we all looked back….it was modern! Like a mix of Canterlot and earth. “Now, this castle.” He snapped his fingers again, and as if he, which he probably did, made us all blink, the castle was...like new, and very fancy and fully furnished. “Now, for that.” Cript said, pointing at the orb of magic. He then held out a hand to Joy and Gabby. “Crowns please?” Joy shrugged and handed Cript his crown. Gabby took hers off, trusting Joy and handed hers to Crips also. They then floated on their own in mid air, Cript waving a finger at the orb of magic and two, pebble sized orbs of magic came out. One tiny orb of magic floated next to a crown, and then, he clapped his hands, and light covered the crowns and magic, their forms changing...and I knew what he was doing. When it was over, Gabby’s crown changed into a thin, gold colored version of the Ultima Weapon from Birth By Sleep, but the Keychain was a mini version of her crown, and Joy’s crown changed into a gold version of Oblivion, with the Keychain being a mini version of his crown. He then handed Joy and Gabby their respected ‘Crowns.’ “There, that settles that.” “Um...do they turn back into normal crowns?” Joy asks. “And are you gonna live here now?” I ask Joy. “What about all your stuff and girlfriends living at my place?” I ask, wondering how our living arrangements will be now. “They Keyblades are both called The Crowns of Griffin Stone.” Cript informed. “There’s a door by the thrones over there.” Cript pointed, we not noticing the large, red velvet colored thrones on the other side of the room. “That connects this place to Joy’s place. And no, they don’t turn back into crowns. Also, because I am going to be an asshole.” Cript waved a finger, Gabby and Joy floating up as he magicked them into the door behind the thrones. “I’m sorry, but I can’t resist this…” “Oh, did you meet Mike?” I ask Cript, forgetting about Zeke's human reflection here. “Nope….Hey...why is Disney’s devil disguised as a little girl behind you?” Cript asked me, closing the door after Joy and Gabby were placed safely inside...where all of Joy’s girls were in the room they landed in. The last thing heard was a yelp from Joy as the door closed. “Oh him? Apparently Chernabog, or Cher as he wants to be called, was chained up by Core and promptly tortured for all his secrets...but he told me Core is dead.” I tell Cript, but I know the bastard will be reborn sooner or later. “Oh yeah, sorta.” Cript replied. “Daybreak still has his heart, so he can pull a Terranort...though it won’t be the same Core I guess if he comes back like that.” “Namine told me he’ll be reborn as one of our kids…” I tell him. “But also...I learned a very...special thing about you and...all your other reflections…” I sigh out. “I didn't know that...” I say, Cript knowing I was talking about being ‘made’ for Psychopaths. “Yeah...I had a fucked up life.” Cript says, knowing what I am talking about. “You know, I owe a fair amount to my mom for screwing up those plans. You see.” Cript started, taking a seat on the floor. “She was born into Nexus, a multidimensional organization that follow the Psychopaths, from a young age they are all trained to kill. Mom was different. And my father...if you can call him that, was the Nexus leader. At the time. Not long after I was born, she found out what they wanted to do with me, that I was going to be a Psychopath host at only a year old. She escaped, with me. Dimension hopped for a while, til she ended up where I grew up. Unable to run much longer, she gave me to this temple of monks, they knew of the Psychopaths, and had their temple warded against them. I never saw my mom again after that, barely three. For a long time I thought she just left me there. “Long story short, stuff happened and...after a journey that was mandatory of all mages in training, I came home, back to the temple I called home...and found it in flames.” I took a deep breath and hugged Cript. “You really need a hug dude …” I tell him, his backstory being so terrible. “Heh...You know who it was that burned my home and killed my masters? A fellow mage in training, he was there when I got there. He was like a brother...Andy. I learned later on that, Nexus found him, and did things to him. He was not quite a Psychopath, but as evil as one. He walked right passed the wardings...When I got there, he was sitting on their corpses. He, knocked me out. For a year, he experimented on me, did everything to try and...make me...turn me into a Psychopath. He got desperate one day. Remembered something about me.” “Oh no…” I muttered. “You see, Nexus, taking orders from the Psychos, knew that when I was born, I would be born with...a unique soul. One that had an angel bound to it...a Psychopath possessed angel. A host, host to a different host. Talk about redundant. It’s...why my true Keyblade would...go wild, why I could never do holy magic, that thing in me. I still don’t know how, but he woke it up...remember everything it did. Breaking the chains off like they were wet paper, wings grew out of my back, it hurt. Then, it flew, and landed on mars, which in my realm at the time was the first ever terra formed planet. Two million people were living there...Not one survived...I can still hear every scream, feel the blood flow on my hands...the bones breaking in their grip...I remember their faces… One point six million adults, half women, the other half men. Five hundred thousand teens and children...and one hundred million infants…” “Fucking hell.” I frown. “I...I'm sorry…” “It’s...why when Lyra brought up the idea that...more than one baby be born in this family, WAY more than what should be possible, I agreed. I can’t ever undo that, it’s fixed, no time travel can alter it, so...The thing with all the kids is me trying to make right with what happened. For every life the Psychopaths take, our family will create a hundred more, able to fight back against them.” “Well don't worry, your family is with you.” I nod. “And all the extra kids we'll have.” “I just hope that someday, this war against them can end...though, that’s a pipe dream.” “You’d be surprised on what can be stopped by stupid and stubborn heroes.” I tell him with a little chuckle. “Even a fact of life can be stopped if your willing to do the impossible.”l “Maybe...But, not by me.” “But by us right?” I ask. “Me and my friends right?” “I don’t know. I’m retiring. I’ve gone passed my story’s end and beyond, but now...I think it’s time to finally let the next generations of heroes go at it. Wives and I are gonna be doing something someplace else for a while, then set up some stuff so you all can be prepared...cause I’ve seen the first realm, the place where it all started...where the Psychopaths were born… I know I can go there, get strong and win this...but I just have this feeling. It’s not my place, not my battle.” “Make sure you're there on my wedding day okay? This battle won't happen for a long time so we have time to prepare. And I'll make sure not to be too awesome when the big battle happens.” I chuckled. “Heh, you can try. Here’s a warning though. You’ll know when it’s time for war...when the dead throughout time return as them.” With that, Cript snapped his fingers, vanishing. “Well...that's a thing…” I sigh out. “Well that was...an experience.” I mutter while looking around to see if anyone was around hearing our entire talk. “So, where to now?” Viva asked, walking up to me from her exploring the newly done room. “Home.” I say while summoning my glider and getting on. “It's not that far. But the house is way bigger on the inside, and you'll meet all my fiances and kids.” I smile. “Hop on.” “Uh...h-hi girls…” Joy says nervously, seeing all his girlfriend's in the living room. “...” Was their response, seeing the large bellied Gabby. “...Dang it.” Jenny and Sweetie said in unison. “Well...so...wait, waiting is out the window?” Applebloom asked. “I am...confused.” Diamond Tiara stated. “Okay so...from the top…” Joy sighs out. “This is Gabby Griffon...and she kinda sorta…” He sighs out. “Me and Gabby are the king and queen of the griffon kingdom, she got a keyblade, I got a new one...I'm sorry I didn't wait...Gabby forced it.” He tells them in simple but embarrassed terms. “If a griffon wants it, we get it.” Gabby said with a smile. Jenny just stared at Gabby, then over to Joy. “...Get him!” To Be continued...
Nobody's testWhen I appeared out of the DTL into my world, after making some peace with my darkness, I began searching for Even. It wasn’t hard to find, he was in the lab he set up in my house, working with some chemicals it sems. “What do you want?” He asked, not even looking at me. “Training.” I say. “Sorry about being gone for a while...had stuff to do.” “Well, your absence is my gain. While you were away I payed a visit to your local hospital and wiped up a cure for about a quarter of this planet's mirror illnesses. No more Feather flu, common cold or Chicken pox.” He said, mixing some chemicals. “Well that's a thing.” I say. “So, you too busy for training?” I ask. “Not really. Here.” He said, his shield appearing on his back and ice began to shoot out of it, at me. “This is a blocking exercise. The point is defend yourself, don’t attack.” He said as I pulled out Frozen Pride and started blocking. “People think wielding a shield is just holding it in front of whatever is coming at you. Heh, idiots.” I shrugged, continuing to block the ice shooting at me. “Well it's best to start with blocking stuff in front of you, then things around you.” “Exactly. Learning to attack with them will be our last lesson.” He said, the ice shards picking up in speed. “Alright.” I nodded while moving faster and continuing to block the ice shards. “But can attacks used defensively count for this exercise?” I ask curiously. “For this lesson. No.” He said, three ice shards coming at me at once at high speeds. I quickly moved my shield in such a way to block all three at the same time. “I suppose your having a good time in Equis?” I ask him. “While it’s fine showing up those so called scientists and mages the only good thing was, well, you know.” He said, ten ice shards coming at me now in rows. I frowned, suddenly thinking of his pattern and blocking the shards quickly. “Have you been to Olympus Coliseum?” I asked, weirdly starting to find his pattern that of the Ice Titans shard attacks. “Sadly yes...I’m from there.” He admitted, another row of ten coming at me. “So that's why…” I mutter, blocking more of his attacks. “I suppose being a scientist at heart you wanted to get out of ancient Greece?” I asked curiously. “At first no. In my youth I was contempt with being a guard to the town. Then...someone broke into my home and killed my family. My mother, father, brother and sisters… They never found the culprit, and I wanted to understand, learn how someone could break into a home and not steal anything but the lives of my loved ones. I read every book and scroll I could find on the human mind, and when that ran out I met a world traveler, payed them to take me to a world with higher levels of knowledge, and I ended up in Radiant Garden. I got a job as a guard at the castle and in my spare time researched. Finally I learned about the Heart, and the darkness that lies within just about everyone. I knew Ansem the Wise was researching the same thing, so, after preparing and presenting my research, he hired my as one of his scientists. Years went by and the questions grew and the answers dwindled, so, I gave up, still worked on it with him but I put most of my time towards other fields of study.” “Huh…” I mutter. “That's...quite a lot...and I'm sorry to hear about your loss. But I suppose keeping busy helped you not think about other things so much?” I ask curiously. “That’s why I work so much.” “Ah...well this world is full of new experiences and people. Maybe you can take a break and just stand outside and enjoy nature.” I suggest to the scientist. “I grew up in a forest. I’ve had my fair share of nature.” “Don't forget about nature my friend. I'm sure you met some beings that found the perfect balance between nature and technology.” I explain. “Nope. Not really.” He said, this time ice spike orbs being shot at me. I decided to change up and parry all the orbs appearing. “Right then. So what are you working on now?” I ask, seeing him work on something that wasn't trying to attack me. “Cure for cancer.” He said, stirring them together. “It’s a bitch on all planets and very different depending on the laws of that world and DNA.” “Yeah, cancer is a massive bitch…” I sigh out. “But let's hope your work will prove amazing.” “Well, so far I’ve isolated the specific gene mutation that starts the basic version. But the trick is going even further, finding the base gene that starts the whole thing.” “Yeah that seems like a pain.” I nod. “But hey, at least you're making more progress than most right?” “Like I said, I got the gene isolated for the basic version, but they all start with a single starting mutation, then rapidly changed from there.” I nodded. “Question…” I say before explaining what Yellow told me about this Purgatory theory Core had, wondering if Even had any idea about it. “Yes, that is true. Neither matter from science, magic, even spiritual matter like a soul of the human consciousness just fades. That’s where the afterlife and all that plays into the mix. Matter is just constantly recycling itself.” “Huh…” I muttered. “Well he explained it when someone’s heart was split in half between light and dark. Like if two people come from one person...what happened to the original?” I ask. “Well, in may worlds and religion, there is talk of a purgatory, a place in between heavens and hells, where those who are undecided or don’t fit into either heaven or hell go. If what you are telling me is accurate, and it takes both halves of a balanced heart to form the true self of this Zeke and Crow people, then I can assume that their true consciousness is in a place like this. While accessing Purgatory in any world/religion has always been difficult, but it’s plausible.” “Huh…” I mutter. “Well that's something. I wonder if I can save a friend that way…” I mumble to myself, worried what I might do will cause something bad to happen. “So this theory about a religious place doesn't sound at all crazy to you?” “I have seen a lot in my time, and when you arrived the new guy in the lab turned out to be two hearts sharing a body, and then had that second heart removed by a masked man who made that second heart a body. This is still the easiest to understand.” “Magic is weird.” I state. “But yeah, I can see why it seems more understandable then all that.” “So, with that out of the way, what do you plan on doing now?” “Be a hero, try to be a good father, and meet the old man behind that special door.” I say honestly. “Just a tad confused on why the Realm of Nothingness was dark except for the glowing symbols on that door…” “Well, if the old king is alive behind this door, perhaps he has control over it, wanted to see what you have going for you… Tell you what. One last test, and that will prove to me that you are a master of the shield. Deal?” “Sure.” I nod, wondering how he knew of the king. “What is the test?” “Follow.” He said, leading me outside and into the everfree. “Now then, your abilities are the same as mine, being a shield and ice. Now then, why do you think these shields are linked to ice specifically?” “Magic? Name? It being made of something strangely specific?” I ask. “Your shield, like mine, is forged from magic ice. Ic can never melt, crack, or scratch. I took this test...and nearly died. Sure you still want to do it?” “It’s not gonna be the worst thing I’ve done.” I shrug. “But what's the test? I'd like to know?” “I will jump charge the magic ice your shield is made of, and it will completely cover you. You, have to find out how to break out. After all, if you can’t break through a defence that is as strong as you are, then you are no shield master.” “Sounds about right.” I nod. “Good thing I can't get sick anymore…” I mutter, thinking the sudden cold would suck. “Pinkie? Mind readying a cup of hot chocolate for me?” I call out, knowing she can hear me all the way from here cause she's special and happy like that. “Are you ready?” “Yes I am.” I nod, taking a deep breath and readying myself for the deep freeze. Once I handed Even my shield, he placed it over my chest, and there was a small blue flash before it felt like someone dumped and stuck ice cubes to my chest. It quickly grew and covered my whole body...So cold! So sosososososo cold! Ic was all over my body, and I was looking through an ice filter...can’t breath! “Hurry Ben, that’s how you can die.” Even’s muffled voice said. I channeled my magic and strength, starting to use the direct approach and try to break out of the magic ice with force. Nothing. “You can’t break magic ice with force Ben! It’s linked to you! Think, think real hard, what can break you!” Even yelled again. ”What can break me?” I think to myself, before thinking about what could break me. ”Physically or emotionally?” I think to myself, already knowing full well what can break me. I thought about what could break me...the loss of everyone...all my friends...all my family...just gone, and I could do nothing about it. Crack. It cracked...I need to think about it...vision...losing everyone…”I'm sorry I can't be who you all wanted me to be… I think to myself. ”Heh...dying in a block of ice… Crack. Crack. Zip. The ice broke to the point a chunk came off. I could move my hand now. ”Too bad it means nothing in this situation…” I think to myself sadly, starting to lose consciousness. “Ugh...What?” I mumble, waking up in...my room? What? I picked up my phone. December 13, 2012. 10:45 am. “Wait...what?” I mutter, scratching my head in confusion...but stopped as I noticed a lack of wolf ears. “What…?” I mumble, looking around my room in hopes that I'm just going crazy here. “Ben!” I jumped, hearing my grandmother’s voice yell. “Get down here! It’s saturday, eat some breakfast then help your grandpa shovel the snow off the driveway!” My eyes widened, remembering my grandmother telling me my grandpa died. “Oh no…” I mutter while rushing over to the bathroom and checking over myself. I was back to normal… My heart didn't feel anything… I should have realised when I woke up and didn't feel anything… Everything I did...everything I felt...everyone I met and fell in love with… … Gone… “Ben!” I heard her yell again, opening the bathroom door. “Ben...um...you alright?” She asked...she...never asked that before? “What's going on?” I ask, taking a step away from her. “My granny never asked if that…” “Ben, come on, you had a hard day yesterday what with that Ventral shooting up the place. You’re lucky to have been alive. Come on now, I made your favorite. Bacon and eggs with pancakes.” She said, motioning for me to follow. “A Ventral didn't attack yesterday.” I tell her bluntly, things just confusing me so much and I felt...cold. “Yes they did, and it was bad.” She replied as I followed. Everything was...the same, as far as I could tell. ”My new life...it couldn't have been a dream…” I think to myself. ”It was never a dream...I spent half a year with the ones i loved and cared about. I...I told Celestia…” I think to myself, my heart hurting as I remembered what I told her. I sat down, and as granny said, a plate of bacon and eggs with a stack of pancakes were where I always sat. The small TV she always had in the morning was on, a newsman speaking. ”Yes, folks, most of us have survived 2012, though, with all the chaos from both citizens around the world and the infamous Ventral family having made one of the bloodiest rampages since the the end or world war two, and the stock market crash before that. The death toll is still being counted, but nation wide is expected to be close to be...a...about fifteen million...This is Brock Phillis...channel five local news…” The news ended and some commercials began playing. “I wasn't here for any of that...” I muttered to myself. ”Did...did I really...lose all I held dear?” I think to myself sadly. I finished up and grabbed my coat, it hanging where it always does, and headed outside...this was the neighborhood...half burned down with police and other government looking people walking around...carrying bodies away. “Shame huh?” I looked to the driveway, where I saw...grandpa...looked just like in the pictures Granny always showed me. “Such nice people. Went out like the Purge. Damn idjits.” “Grandpa…” I muttered, wondering how the hell he was here. ”Well...at least Grandpa looks okay...but why am I here? I'm supposed to be home with my family...not here…” I think to myself, thinking this is some nightmare. “Come on Ben, grab the spare.” He said, shoveling some of the...red stained snow...away. “Gonna be a while til we get new neighbors in this place. We should be glade water and power is still going.” I grabbed the spare that was on the patio and started shoveling. It didn’t take long, was a small driveway. Even with the cold...I felt nothing. ”Luna...please send me a sign that this is just a horrible nightmare…” I mentally plead, feeling like I should cry but can't. “Thanks for the help boy, you head back on inside, I’ll be in the garage if you need me.” He said, taking the spare with him and opening the garage...inside was a queen sized bed and...things from when I was with mom and dad? The garage was remodeled into a bedroom. I frowned and followed him into the remodeled garage, wondering why the hell the garage had stuff from my parents room. “Why are my parents stuff here?” I ask curiously. Grandpa looked at me. “Why shouldn’t it? You and your folks been living with us for close to four years now. Boy don’t you remember? After that judge screw’d you all over with that fine, your parents sold the house and you all moved in with us. Paid the fine and your granny and I put an end to that bickering they were always doin.” “My parents are dead.” I tell him bluntly. “My dad burned to death and my mom shot herself.” I tell him, pretending not to know my parents actual killer. He gave me a shocked, look, but he tried to keep his face still. “Boy I know you had nightmares, but that’s just plain Stephen King crap there. If they’re really dead, then who’s those two driven up here now?” I turned around...and my heart dropped into my stomach. My parents were driving their old mini van, they’ve had it since before I was born, and they drove up the driveway. Mom got out and hugged me. “Sorry we left so early sweetheart, food supply drop off had one heck of a line.” “Mind helping load this all inside son?” Dad asked, carrying a box with canned and other types of food in it. “There’s like nine more of these boxes.” I...I honestly couldn't believe what I was seeing. “No...no I remember clearly…” I mutter, trying to make heads or tails of this sudden mad world. “H-how…?” I mutter, feeling like everything around me was a lie. “Ben, have you been having those night terrors again?” Mom asked, looking at me sternly. “You’ve been having them on and off again since you were thirteen.” “Must have been the shooting at his school yesterday. Mom and dad were right, should have just kept him out.” Dad said, walking inside with the first box. “What the fuck is going on!?!” I shout in panic, taking a step away from these lies. “They...they weren't night terrors…” I mutter, wondering what sort of nightmare is happening here. “Ben?” Mom asked, worried. “Miss, is there something wrong here?” A guy in a yellow and green suit asked. “I, I don’t know, my son just...I think he’s having a mental break down.” I had two decisions, be rational and just take a deep breath, saying I'm fine and just tired, or run away scared that my entire life has been nothing but a lie. But because I was scared, confused, and not in my right mind at the moment I decided to run as fast as I could away from them. ”This isn't right...this isn't real…how are my parents alive when I'm back on earth? Why am I being told it's all night terrors?” I mentally ask myself in fear. As I ran I knew someone or ones, were chasing me, calling to me, but I didn’t stop…”My life is a lie…” I mutter to myself in tears. As I turned a corner I...heard Anime music? Once the vocals on it kicked in I heard gunfire. “The fuck?” I mutter, looking around to where the gunshot happened. “Why is Spice and Wolf playing?” I mutter to myself. “Ventral-gah!” I turned around, one of the people chasing me with their head bearing a large bullet hole. “A Ventral!?” I yelp. “Get out of here! Run!” I shout at the people who were running after me, looking around for where the Ventral was. When they turned around to run, but were all shot dead...walking around the corner...Zeke...and Jenny. “Lookie Cuz, a strangler.” Jenny said, armed with what looked like an SMG while Zeke had handguns. “Heads or tails?” Zeke asked. “Zeke...Jenny?” I ask, not believing this. “What the hell…?” Zeke pulled out a coin, it looked really old, and flipped it. Jenny caught it. “Heads. Fun.” She said, the both of them taking aim at me. “I thought you hated killing Zeke?” I ask him worriedly. “I did...till yesterday. Some shit with a tank blew up the house my folks and I were in. I escaped unsaved, they were crushed, and I made the dick in the tank eat 12 gauge buckshot. My killing mood was amazing. Heh, bye bye South Carolina small town.” I looked at him. “So...my life actually is a lie huh?” I mutter to myself, looking around and just starting to chuckle at the absurdity. “Ever wake up and see that everything you knew, experienced, and cared about was nothing but a figment of your imagination?” I ask the two simply. “Oh wait, you wouldn't. The taste of fresh blood is always tantalizing to crazy people.” “Well then, from one crazy man to another,” he said, walking up to me and putting the gun to my head. “Here's your wake up call- Gah!” I was stunned, seeing... Luna...and my Jenny, Luna tackling Zeke and my Jenny tackling her human version. “Ben! Wake up!” Luna yelled, keeping Zeke pinned down. “How?” I ask, so confused on literally everything going on. “I can't just…” “Dad, wake up, or I will let Rune do anal on your unconscious body!” She shouted, snapping her human self's neck. “Wow...I do not even know how to feel about this.” “I'd love to wake up but short of shooting myself in the head I don't know how to wake up from a night terror like this!” I shout, putting a hand up to my head. “Oh for the love of.” Jenny said, picking up the dead her's gun, shooting Zeke then pushing Luna towards me. “Kiss this idiot I somehow call dad.” I rolled my eyes, grabbed Luna and kissed her fully...just so happy to know she's here and real. “Ugh…” I groan...in bed, cuddling Luna. I did a quick check. Yes. Wolf features. “Luna?” I mumble, hoping she's awake. I received a tight hug. “Glad you woke up.” She said, giving me a peck on my forehead. “The hell kind of night terror was that?” I ask worriedly. “Your test.” Even said from the doorway. “Once that thought is put into your head your mind puts you into a hell, a hell made up of all the fears you have. Die in it, you die for real. But, you lived, so congratulations.” He said, leaving. “Fuck that test…” I mutter. “But...thanks Luna...if it wasn't for you…” “I could tell. Pinkie had us bringing you some hot Coco for your test, and a sexy Coco~ saw you when you fell out of the Ice and… it was horrifying. Even said that it looked worse than it should have been.” “Well that's what happens when your worst nightmare is literally everything you know is a lie.” I tell her simply. “Oi vey...can I see the others? I want to be sure...everyone's real.” Luna just smiled, turning my head…three words. Frosting. Cherries...and bananas. “You're welcome.” Luna said. I stare at them all. “Woof…” I said dumbly. To be continued...
Nobody is busyWhen I got fully dressed and saw all my wives still in bed I smiled. “Can't wait for the wedding…” I mutter to myself, knowing it's been a while since I proposed to all of them. I left, it being still early surprisingly and was wondering if anyone was up. As I turned the hall I saw Trinity sitting in an open window, just watching the night sky. “Oh, hey Trinity.” I say while walking over to her. “Enjoying Luna’s night?” “Keeping watch.” She replied. “Heard about Zeke, and his light half becoming a Psychopath. You know how they say ‘shit’s about to hit the fan’? With that monster out there, it hit and broke the damn fan. See for yourself.” Confused, and worried, I walked over to the window… At first, I didn’t notice much...then I saw it. A star went out. “Oh no…” “At least when Darkness takes them, the world can return. Him ending them, it’s Void for everything on it. So far, that’s the fifth star...This hour.” “I need to stop him…” I growl. “I need….to do something…” I say, the second time I said it sounded weak given how weak I am compared to that thing. “It may be half, but it’s still a reflection of dad, chance of cure is below none. Come on.” She said, jumping back into the hallway and opening a portal. “Time I trained you, and it will be in more than just Chakrams.” “Thank you...I'm still too weak…” I mutter, fearing that everything I know and love will be next on their damned list here. “So...training area?” I ask, motioning to the portal. “Sorta.” She said, I entered the portal, and was on what looked like a barron, bleak place with scorched soil everywhere. “Welcome to Warzone. This planet has the highest ever shadow creature spawn rate to date. It’s 24/7 three-sixty combat.” She said, summoning her chackrems. “In other words, don’t stop fighting, or you’ll die.” When she finished that, swarms of what looked like the Flood Unversed, but were a bit larger and had Shadow heartless antenna were charging at us from...everywhere. I summoned my chakrams and spun them quickly, fire catching on them. “By the by, do you know Latin?” I ask Trinity. She grinned. Spinning her chackrems and then clashing them together. “Morsus Pyro!” She yelled, a tornado of flames shooting out of her weapons, incinerating a good chunk of the horde incoming. “I’m part angel, it’s natural to me.” “Care to teach me while we fight?” I ask curiously, raising my chakrams up. “Triple Firaga!” I shout, three points seeming to collapse inward before a blowing up in giant fireballs, going back to the normal stance Axel was in during his fights. I took out a small group, but with the amount all around, it was going to be a long day. “Gelida ignis!” She yelled, each chackram getting covered in sky blue flames. She threw them, dozens of shadow creatures being burned...and frozen? “Frozen flames. Fire so cold it burns.” She said, catching them as they returned. “Well glad to know that…” I mutter while spinning my chakrams, fire reigniting. “Don't forget this!” I shout, my body glowing orange as I started using Axel’s desperation move and cleaning through some shadow creatures before floating back. “Got it memorized?” I mutter to myself while shoving my chakrams into the ground, pillars of flame shooting into the shadow monsters ranks. “Now you’re just role playing.” Trinity chuckled, spinning her chakrams together, in a way that was like gears turning...fast. “Ustilo!” She yelled, white fire shooting out like a beam, not even ash remaining of them when it hit. “Come on Ben, you try it!” I took a deep breath and focused, my chakrams spinning. “Ustilo!” I shout, the word reverberating in me somehow as pure white flames shot out towards the monsters. “Huh...cool. But about the ‘role playing’, words can help raise the strength of special moves okay?” I huff. Trinity just chuckled. Her face then turned stern, looking back at the hordes. “New meat incoming! Looks like Knights!” She said, I looked and black knight looking things with swords for hands and large mouths in their chests were running towards us too now. “Dullahans? Really?” I frown, swinging my chakram and killing a Shadow Beast that tried to hit me. “Lets try…Morsus Pyro!” I shout, feeling the words reverberate again, as I shot fire tornados towards the Knights, even if it wasn't as strong as Trinity’s. Some went down, but others kept on. I was ready for another attack...nothing happened. My assistant beeping in alarm. Quickly checking it. Mana Levels: 0 “Ah shit.” I grumble, trying to quickly find a mana potion to buy when one of those Knight shadow creatures stabbed me though my arm, then threw me across the field. “Gah!” I shout, that hurting a lot more than I expected. “Ben, lookout!” Trinity yelled, right when a Knight stabbed me though my chest. It hurt...then went dark. “Ugh…” I woke up, remembering what happened and quickly checking my chest...no damage, injury? I then looked up...I was in a waiting room? “Either Cript stuff...I'm being stuck in Heaven's waiting room...or they're wondering if I could just go back and not try to kill myself in Heaven.” I mutter, hating myself for being so stupid and weak. “Still too weak…” I mutter to myself. As I just waited, there was a flash of light in the chair next to me, and...Scootaloo was there. “Damn it!” She yelled. “I hate ocean worlds.” She grumbled, slumping over. “Hey Ben.” She said, sighing. “Waiting for respawn?” I ask curiously. “Yeah. This is Respawn Hub. Dad, out of extreme worry and reasonable overprotectiveness, made this. Any of us die, rather than ending up in the afterlife, we end up here. Wait for about three or five minutes til our name is called then walk into some room where a dude relays our last location and death, then we just pay the fine.” “Can't wait to hear him complain how I just got back to life then died from my fiances hearing I died.” I sigh out, rubbing my temples. “Eh, not the worst way one of us has died. Check this.” She said, picking up a magazine...that was somehow there. The cover read ‘Lamest Deaths of The Dyritix Family.’ “That’s dad’s last name. Funny he didn’t learn that till he found, then later killed his own dad...long story.” She said, handing it to me. “Lamest death still goes to Gabriel. Died by paper clip accidentally swallowed, and choked on.” “I thought the lamest was gonna be someone died while masterbating.” I frown, finding that thing a bit more lame than choking on something. “Here, check this one out.” She said, handing me another magazine. ‘Greatest Deaths of The Dyritix Family.’ “Number one goes to Beck, flattened by a planet. Eight is Trinity, stepped on by a Titan Shadow. That was when she first joined the family two years ago. Never fought a shadow creature before, demons in hell, walked out without a scratch, first shadow creature battle, becomes gum on a Titan Shadow’s foot. Everyone starts off weak bro, just takes time.” “But everyone doesn't immediately have to fend off Psychopaths that are appearing out of nowhere for some reason.” I frown. “Like me, I have to be so strong too fast and...I'm not…” I sigh out. “Dad was the same.” She said, sighing. “His Psychopath was bound to his soul, and when it broke free, he knew time was not on his side, and despite being outmatched, he beat it. Wanna know how?” “How?” I ask honestly. “Honestly...now that I think about it...something feels off now that I've fought Psychopaths…” I say, thinking about this. “Dad was a lot like you, then he met Mama Lyra, then the others, adopted me, Squirrel, he used his love for us, and tapped into sentient life’s true power. Humanity. Psychopaths power come from our darkest creation...murder, dad...dad drew power from the love one person can have for another. It’s like they're other side of a coin. Draw power from your love of those you hold dear, your strength will be limitless like dad’s.” She said, leaning back in her chair. “It’s hard though, I asked dad how he tapped into Humanity’s power, and he shrugged, said it came to him when in the heat of battle, he only could think of us.” I thought about that for a moment...before nodding. “I'll have to give it a try...maybe I can figure it out.” I shrug, hoping to figure out this mystery power. “Ben.” Scootaloo and I looked up, a door appearing on the wall and opening after some random voice called out to me. “Looks like you’re gonna respawn now.” Scoot’s said, putting her feet up on the small table. “Good luck.” I got up and walked over to the door and entering it. “Hello?” I ask, wondering who called me. Once I entered, I saw a man in a suit sitting at a table with a chair open for me. When I sat in it, the door behind me closed and vanished. “Greetings. First time you died I see.” He said, looking over the papers. “You've come close before though, quite close indeed.” “Too bad my stubbornness and determination didn't keep me alive here.” I shrug. “But it's nice to meet you sir.” I nod. “I have no name.” He said, reading them over again. “Though Sir, sounds nice. So, ready to head back to the grind?” “Don't be surprised if we meet again, if my fiances hear I died they might kill me.” I chuckle sheepishly. “Yes well, that’s life.” He said, handing me three sheets of paper. Lots of words on them and on the third was a signature line. “Terms are standard, fine for respawn is a quarter of your rem, and your exp collected to your next level up will be removed. Check your level now if you wish, it will not be effected, just the exp to the next level removed.” He said, handing me a pen. “When does level even matter to be honest?” I ask, reading through the papers. “Seriously, I haven't noticed the levels doing much...maybe it's because I keep thinking in Dragon Ball logic here.” I mutter. “Like with anything, time and training helps to make the difference noticeable.” He said. I signed the papers, seeing everything was okay, though taking a quarter of my money and exp to next level seemed odd. Once those papers were signed he took them, stabled them together, then put them in his desk. “Pleasure reviving you this evening, we hope not to see you again soon. Now, wake up.” He said, snapping his fingers. “Gah!” I yelped, waking up in… a bunker? “Sup?” I looked to my side, seeing Trinity there. “This is Save Zone. Only place on the planet where the shadows don’t spawn. So, this is the only place you can respawn.” “Okay then…” I mutter. “So I learned a little thing about Cript being so strong.” I say. “But how long was I out?” “Just an hour. Be glad when you respawn your new body is exactly like your old one, and clothes and all. Shadows really...well, ate your old body.” “Well that…” I start before panicking, checking my pockets to see if I still had all my stuff, from the Ainz Ooal Gown guild ring, Trinity’s angel ring, and some other things...And I checked my neck to see if I still had my necklace Den gave me. It was all there. “Oh thank god.” I sigh out thankfully. “Told you.” She said, patting my arm. “Now get a bite to eat, and meet me back in the battlefield. We are FAR from done training.” “Oh dear…” I mutter, checking my level and the amount of money I had. Rem: 999,999,999+ Level: 187 “Still don't feel this level thing for some reason…” I mutter, going to the shop and buying myself a chicken sandwich cause fuck it. When it appeared I took it and ate it quickly. “What do you think about the level stuff?” “Helps keep track of how far we’re going. For instance, and I know you didn’t know your level before starting. You were only level 96 when we started this, and now you’re 187. Not bad huh?” “When you completely forgot it existed to begin with?” I frown. “No.” “Ben, we were only fighting for about forty minutes before you died. That’s good progress.” “Forty minutes?” I ask with a raised eyebrow. “Didn't feel that long.” “Time flies when you’re having fun.” She laughed. “Come on, finish that up and head on outside, it’s not over til you are at least level 1,000 and can hack any enemy to pieces.” “I known I know.” I say while finishing my sandwich and getting up on my feet. “I suppose this isn't a ‘you teaching me how to use certain weapon’ and just ‘kill enough things till you got it’ kind of thing?” I ask her, “That’s how dad learned.” She said, leading the way out of the bunker. “No better teacher than practice.” “I mean...while that's true you at least need a starting off point then just swinging away. I do that with my other weapons but I haven't mastered them.” “True, that’s why you need to master your flames with them also. How did Hades put it in Kingdom Hearts 2…’Feel The Heat’? Something like that.” I chuckle. “You know, out of all the world's I've been to I have never been to a Disney world.” I say honestly. “But true, just got to learn my fire and fight through with it.” The way out of the bunker was a long elevator ride. When it stopped and the doors opened, we were greeted with a metal fence, and what I was guessing was…..family, all over, shooting from inside the fence and others wielding other weapons of all kinds jumping the, clearly twelve foot tall fence, and into the swarms of Shadow Creatures trying to get though. “Ready?” Trinity asked, summoning her chakrams. I summoned my chakrams as well. “Just don't tell my fiances. I don't want to die a second time in such a short time frame.” I say nervously. Using her wings, Trinity flew over the fence, and fell into the horde, flames them burst around where she entered, only she stood when the flames died down, and she went at them without mercy. I flew over the fence and fell feet first, my chakrams spinning and flames billowing with increased speed. “BURN BABY!” I shout just like Axel and slam my chakrams towards the ground, a massive pillar of flames incinerating shadow beasts before I leapt through the flames after they started to die down and started to carve through things the best I could. “Better be more conscious on my mana here…” I mutter to myself, not wanting to die because I freaked out about not having mana. As if it knew what I wanted, my assistant...altered my eye sight, I saw my face, like in Kingdom Hearts, my health bar wrapping around it. Wow, that’s long, and an MP bar, just like the one in Kingdom Hearts 2, and only a small bit of it was missing at the moment. I cloaked my chakrams in flames as I hacked and slashed at everything around me taking out many, seven or ten rather than two or four like before. My MP bar was still holding strong. As I was slashing through them I started thinking. My life before all this. The more I thought about it, the more I found it funny, it’s like God knew exactly what reflections to put us in, where we would find love, make a life, be heroes. I wouldn’t be surprised if he did do that somehow. I remember my first battle, waking up in that hospital where Twilight was with me, Luna coming in not much later. Everything moved so fast, they put up with my crap and it still amazes me. Assistant Power Analysis. New Power Detected. Humanity power accessing… .0003% I slashed at them, but this was...stronger. The whole wave of them was taken out, for a long ways back. “What the?” I muttered. Assistant Power Analysis. New Power Vanished. Returning to base mana usage. “Nice going!” Trinity said, flying next to me. “How’d you pull that off?” “I think my Assistant said something...like ‘.0003% of Humanity’ or something? I don't know...I was just fighting and then thought of my family.” I shrugged. “Wait, what!?” She yelled, grabbing the arm I had the assistant on, she quickly cast a barrier around us to keep the shadows from hitting us. “Holy shit. It’s right here in the records log...You used Dad’s power...how?” “Uh...I thought how my life is...just laughably absurd, my loving family putting up with my crap...and suddenly I cleaved through a fuck ton of shadow beasts...then it left just as quickly.” I explained simply. “Scootaloo explained stuff to me in the respawn room but...didn't think it would actually happen.” I tell her. “I'm just as surprised and clueless as you here Trinity...now that raises the question...what's gonna show up now that I did that?” I ask worriedly. “Me.” We looked to our side, Cript standing there. “And I just got to say, Finally, one of you kids are figuring it out.” “Well not many find their life being as absurd as mine when you think about it.” I joke, knowing it was bad but it was still there. “But hey, when you have a loving family and somehow think God set up our happy lives...well it feels good to think about all the love and family you made.” Cript clapped. “THANK YOU!” He yelled in joy. “Finally, that’s the key to it! Realizing you have such happiness, loved ones, and despite your past, despite your faults, they love you. That’s the key to accessing the Humanity Power.” “Hooray, now what's my next protagonist revelation?” I joke. “Master your weapons.” Cript said quickly. “All of them, once you have, I’ll come to train you personally. I warn you though, this will be different than how I trained the other kids. Sad to say, but I will be putting you through hell, then throwing that hell into a Freddy Nightmare, then putting that nightmare into my memories. Then we’ll see how strong you get after that.” “So Tuesday?” I ask with a cheeky grin, knowing it's a lot more serious but I couldn't help it. Cript laughed. “Oh so far you funny. When you master them all, I’ll just pop in.” “Gonna have to take a rain check on that part cause once I master all my weapons I'm gonna have to meet that old man ya know?” I say, meaning the King of Nothingness, but calling him an old man cause I don't know his actual name. “Saw the ‘special door’ as it were not too long ago. Get what I'm saying?” “Yeah, I get it. Well, I’ll let you get back to this. Oh, and just to show you what Humanity power can do, watch this.” Cript said, pulling out a handgun. “Just a normal .32 pistol, weak caliber, but charged with some Humanity.” He said, a gold and grey energy flowing around the gun. He fired it, the bullet hit a Shadow creature, then everything went white. When it faded...there wasn’t a shadow in sight. “That, was with a full percent. Trust me when I say this Ben, Humanity power is one of the few ways there is to meeting a Psychopath on even grounds. Master it, and they will learn to want to avoid you.” “The power of Heart seems a lot less shit then what the Captain Planet show makes it look…” I say bluntly, completely dumbstruck at how strong that attack was at one percent. “Best part, by its very nature, it only eradicates evil. Innocents are spared. It’s this power I used when I fought Psychopaths and Admins before becoming one. There were some screwed up Admins, and I made them know me when one by one I ended them. Not all, just those who were...too stubborn to accept the change that was occurring.” “Well...I suppose that makes sense.” I say nervously. “But how can someone that powerful still die? Does Immortality mean literally nothing here?” “Admins are hard to kill, but they are not immortal. They age, a trillion years for us is an hour in their lifespans, and killing them means having the most power. I only know of one true immortal, and thankfully, he’s an ally. An asshole, but an ally.” “Well glad to know immortality is a real thing but is it that extremely rare?” I ask curiously. “Well, we, me, you, this family. I’ve set it so we choose when to die. Already you’re...what, nineteen?” “And gonna have a few billion kids soon and forgetting when my actual wedding day is.” I nod. “Yeah, once you turn twenty one, you’ll stop aging physically all together.” “Right.” I nod. “But seriously when the hell's my wedding day? I think I forgot...or we never decided on a day.” “Hmm...Don’t know, not sure, it’s your job to firstly gather your fiance’s together, propose, then pick the day.” “Did everything but pick a day.” I tell him. “But I'm in the middle of training…” I frown. “And back to it.” Cript said, snapping his fingers, vanishing as Shadow Creatures began appearing again. “Well, you heard Dad, back to it Ben.” Trinity said, flames covering her chakrams. “Let's burn them all to the ground.” I grin, my chakrams spinning with fire around them. Meanwhile, back on Equestria, Joy was having a rather normal day. His girlfriends were having a girls day, which left him to his own devices, mainy, some light reading while music played softly on a stereo behind him. “Ah, nothing like a good book, soothing music and some relaxation.” Joy sighs out. “Okay what problem is gonna ruin this peaceful moment?” Joy frowned, knowing something will ruin the moment. On cue, the doorbell rang. “Better than an explosion…” Joy mutters while putting his book down and heading to the door. When Joy got to the door he opened it. “Hello?” “Hi Joy.” Ventus said, being the peace disturbing culprit. “I came to...ask a favor…” “Do you need to find a girlfriend?” Joy asks with a cheeky grin. “What? No, heh, no...It’s just...ever since Ben broke me out of the crystal coffin, I got my heart back and such, I’ve been remembering things from my past, from before Xehanort and all that. It’s just that… I finally remembered where I was born, the world I came from...I was hoping not to go there alone.” “Sure, anything for my wind affiliated friend.” Joy nodded. “Know where it is?” “Yeah, I think I can open a DTL to it.” He said, summoning his Keyblade and opening a DTL. “Well...Here’s to finding out where I came from.” He said, walking in as Joy followed. “Hope for the best.” Joy says, entering the portal with Ventus. When they exited, they found themselves in a large green field of grass, a single dirt road was the only path in one way or another, and a knee high stone wall sat along one of the roads sides. “Well, it looks nice at least.” Ventus said, taking in the scenery. Joy hopped on top of the stone wall and walked on it like a tightrope. “Yeah it is pretty. So take to the air and look around?” Joy asks, ready to fly around and see if there was any towns nearby. “Actually…” Ventus says, looking down one of the roads only two ways. “I think I...know this road…” He said, letting memory and instinct take over as he walked down the road. Joy followed Ventus, letting him take the lead in his memories and instinct. “Know where you're going?” “It feels...familiar. I...think I walked this road a lot before Xehanort adopted me…” Joy heard that, curiosity peeking his interest. “That still raises the question, why did Xehanort adopt you?” He asks curiously. “I...don’t know. I was young when he did though, four maybe. Man, ten years flew by. At first, he was nice, taught me about Keyblades and treated me like a son, then, he said I had to learn to access the darkness in my heart, learn to fight with rage. He took me to the Badlands, the area outside the Keyblade Graveyard, and was having me fight heartless. It wasn’t going well, at some point he stepped in when I was almost passed out, the heartless left, and...that’s when Vanitus came into the picture. I think you know the rest.” “That's weird…” Joy frowns. “The old man adopted you, raised you as his own, then abandoned you cause ‘I want ultimate power for no reason’.” Joy says in a mock impression of Xehanort. “I don’t get it either.” Ventus said, looking up ahead. “Oh, there’s a fork in the road.” He said, Joy looking over Ven’s side and seeing the split in the road, a signpost in the middle, two arrows made from wood, each pointing in one of the directions. “Which way my friend?” Joy asks, not knowing anything about this world. “Let’s see.” He said, we coming up on the signs. The top one, pointing left, read, in a newer sign, Sunset Orphanage, and the on pointing right, read Elric Household. “Elric...that sounds familiar.” “Edward and Alphonse Elric?” Joy asks, wondering if their actually in this specific world. “Yeah...Edward...that...dang it, I feel like that name is important to me, but I can’t quite put it down...that person...that name just...feels important.” Ventus said, trying to think. “Dang it…” He muttered. “Well he would be important cause he and his brother stopped Father and his homunculi from destroying their country.” Joy explains. “Why don't we head to the Elric household okay?” “Yeah. Sure.” Ven said, still trying to think on the name. The walk to the Elric house was several minutes before they came up on a large house, flowers planted around and in decorative pots set around. “Pretty.” Joy says while seeing the flowers planted. “But I do wonder if this is really the Elrics house...if we hear a guy complain about a woman named Winry smacking him for some reason then we might be in the right place.” Joy explains, heading towards the house, avoiding the plants and pots carefully. When he got up to the house he knocked on the front door. “Hello? Anyone home?” After a time, a girl, maybe a little younger than Ventus, opened the door. She was bright blonde with Ven’s blue eyes. “Yes?” She asked. “Hello.” Joy nodded. “My name is Joy, and my friend here is Ventus.” He gestures to Ventus. “Mind if we come in miss?” He asks politely. “Wendy. Wendy Elric. Are you fans of my dad and uncle?” “I am but I think...Ventus here is a bit special to your family.” He says. “May we come in Wendy?” Joy asks politely, now knowing full well this is the Elrics house. “Um, sure…” She said, letting us in. The inside was decorated simply, and on the living room wall, was hundreds of pictures, old and new pinned up all over it. We sat at the dining table, Wendy looking us over. “So, my dad’s at work and mom’s at her automail shop. I guess you’re here for autographs then?” Joy looked at the photos but had a weird thought. “Did you have a brother?” Joy asks curiously, having a strange feeling about this. ”If this is actually after Brotherhood then…” Joy thinks to himself, looking at Ventus and Wendy, then some of the new and old pictures to see if there was a lack of brother in them. She sighed. “Mom and dad don’t like to talk about it. I was barely two when he disappeared. When great granny died, mom wanted to put her old house to good use. So, it became an orphanage for Ishvalan children and such. War was long since over but the after effects still affect us. Mom would have my brother and I play and stay there, since it was run by an old friend of dad’s, when mom went to her new shop and dad was teaching at the university. I don’t know what happened, but one day, Von just...was gone.” “Do you have a phone?” Joy asks. “And do you know if your parents have phones or a phone nearby?” He asks, deductive reasoning taking over his mind at the moment. “Mom’s office has a phone, but you’d have to leave a message for dad, he’s in Central City teaching at the university.” “Can you call them and tell them it's an emergency? I think...I helped bring your brother, and their son, here.” Joy says while motioning to Ventus. Wendy chuckled. “Yeah, sure. A lot of people came here with kids, claiming them to be Von. If it was really Von, he’d have an aged scar on his right arms wrist.” “Oh, you mean this?” Ventus asked, taking off one of his...bracelet, things, showing there was a scar going all around it. “Had it for as long as I can remember, I started covering it up cause it just-” Ventus stopped, Wendy’s hands lifting his face up...her eyes filled with tears. “Von…” She said, grabbing his wrist, looking at the scar. “It...It’s you...it’s you!” She cheered, hugging Ventus. Joy smiled gently. “Where's your uncle?” Joy asks curiously, thinking he could get to Alphonse faster. “H-he should be in town. He’s here on break from traveling.” She said. After a while, and several phone calls, Edward, Winry, and Al were all in the room, Winry and Ed just...looked at Ventus, shock and...joy in their eyes. Joy smiled at their own joy. “Glad to see your all happy.” Joy says. “I just...I can’t believe it. Von…” Ed started. “I called in every favor I had when you vanished, we searched from here to Ishval for crying out loud...where were you?” “Who knows how to make tea?” Joy asks. “Cause this is going to be a long...and very complicated explanation, even more complicated than explaining seeing the face of god.” Joy says simply. “I’ll go start a pot.” Al said, getting up and entering the connected kitchen. “Well...That’s kinda...hard to explain.” Ven admits. “First I guess I should ask before I try and answer that is...my real name is Von?” “I...named you after my dad. Your grandfather. At first I thought against it...but after all he did for Al, me, and the world pretty much...I guess I owed him that much.” “So...where were you Von?” Winry asked. “Basically...another world.” That earned confused looks from Winry and Ed, even Al, who was hearing bits and pieces from the kitchen, was confused by Ven’s statement. “Trust me, it's true.” Joy says. “The world he was on at the time is my home world with my older brother and all my girlfriends and his fiance’s.” Joy starts. “But...want a weird but kind of understandable explanation for different worlds?” “Uh...I’ll have to get a rain check on that.” Ed said, rubbing his temples. “I dealt with a lot of crazy crap when I was younger...but that’s...a new one.” “Mind if I ask a question?” Al asked. “Um, shoot?” Ventus asked. “How did you get the name Ventus?” “...Xehanort gave it to me, sorta…” “I think I can help explain that.” Winry spoke up. “You see Von, when you were young, your teeth didn’t want to grow in right, and you couldn’t pronounces anything with an O, so when you spoke, whenever anyone asked your name, you would say ‘Van’ or ‘Ven’ rather than Von.” “Oh...I guess when Xehanort asked I said Ven, and he thought it was short for Ventus.” “Alright, now I have a question for the guy who brought you here.” Ed said, looking at Joy. “My name's Joy.” Joy nods. “And please, ask away.” “That cloak of yours...are you in some sort of club or something? I saw some people wearing other colored versions of that cloak, and a woman wearing a black one. They said they were alchemists and were in the aria for research. They had the pocket watches and paperwork so I didn’t ask much.” Joy frowned. “Did they give any names?” Joy asks curiously. “No, no names, just asked where the edge of town was from the train station. Something about that chick rubbed me the wrong way, she was icy and just gave me the creeps. I gave them directions but that way leads to a river that acts as the edge of town.” “Ah shit.” Joy muttered. “Any other questions before I go out and make sure those strange people aren't poisoning your river?” Joy asks curiously, not sure who they are but worried either way. “Not really. If they are still there, let me know, guy at the train station got some pretty good sketches of them as well as a photo. If they are bad I’ll send world to the president, heh, man, calling the colonel a president just feels weird.” “Mustang right?” Joy asks. “Yeah.” “Right then. Ventus can explain his life and all the magical crap involved, I'm gonna be right back.” Joy says while leaving. “And can you please save some tea?” “Will do.” Ed says, Joy heading out and quickly taking to the sky with his glider. Once high up, he began looking for the river, which wasn’t hard. “Okay, let's see where these strange people are…” Joy mutters while flying towards the river and search it, hoping nothing too bad is happening here. “And why is a state alchemist wearing an organization cloak?” He mutters, too many questions being raised too quickly. Joy quickly saw in the distance, a building under construction...with those half Heartless half human abominations of Core’s doing the work. “Come on guy’s, Rich wants this base set up by the end of the week!” A man with Neoshadow antenna’s, left leg and arms yelled. “Yo! The fuck is going on here?” Joy shouts, taking the direct approach to this situation. The Neoshadow guy looked up. “Crap! It’s the mini mutt!” Joy then found himself being assaulted by the ones that could fly, and all sorts of spells being cast at him. “Shit!” Joy yelped while diving and dodging the spells and attacks, disbanding his glider and summoning Reunion and Lindworm. “Ventus Ira!” Joy shouted, feeling the words resonate with his magic as bladed tornadoes suddenly appeared near the enemies, ripping all who got sucked in apart. Tired. Everything hurt, I was tired, but I wasn’t stopping. I hacked them apart, by fire or by actually slashing them. I’m not sure how long it’s actually been, but I wasn’t giving up. Wave after wave of these monsters came, and at some point, I realized I was alone fighting these things. “Fuck...you...ALL!” I shouted, fire erupting around me like a bomb going off. They were gone for the moment...I took a breather. “Well, well, not bad.” I heard that voice, accompanied by stupid slow clapping. It was him...that copy of me that… “You’re doing well I see.” “Oh come on!” I flung my arms in the air, wincing a bit at my body being in pain. “Okay, hi. Why are you here sènior?” “What? A copy can’t check in on the original?” He asked, walking smugly. Wait, is he wearing a sweater vest? “I’ve just been going around for a while, seeing sights, meeting grand places. Did you know your world also has a Mirror portal to an Equestria girls universe too? Wow, had fun there.” “You...killed everyone there?” I asked. “Not everyone. Just that Sunset bitch and the Sirens, and the world leaders, released a few Shadows, some deadly diseases, set off a nuke or two… I just made it more interesting.” “By killing people and damning everyone else.” I frown. “Yes. Post apocalyptic worlds are fun. Even more so when you’re the one making them like that. Though, to be fair, I did not touch Africa, they have enough issues.” “Oh glad to see a Psychopath have a heart.” I sass, wondering why he was really here. “Oh don’t worry.” He said, blinking as...his eyes became that of Psychopaths, before blinking again and they returned to normal. “I didn’t touch them, but the blast force of the nuke did though~.” I took a deep breath, remembering my family and friends, all the ones I cared deeply for and why I fight. “I've gotten over hating myself just so you know.” I tell him. “But here's the thing...you should really take up Cript’s offer for a new life. It helps give some new perspectives on things...and when you have a harem you'd spend eternity with, that also helps.” I explain simply. “Nah, I’m just too fucked up.” He said, pulling out a dagger and slicing his arm, blood pouring out, more than what should be. “You see, I remembered something. Something long before all this happened. A sin. A sin we committed so long ago. You remember? Our first time behind the wheel,” As he spoke, the blood coming out of him formed a pool, and a hand was starting to come out. “All went well, then she just ran in front.” As he spoke...the blood soaked...woman I...She came out of nowhere. “We were there when she died in the hospital. It was so bad, you repressed it.” The woman was now out of the pool of blood, her eyes black and body soaked in blood and twisted. “She didn’t blame you...but you sure did.” “What?” I ask, taking a step back. “She...I…” I mutter, putting a hand to my head in pain from apparently the repressed memory. “It...was an accident…” He smiled. “Yes, it was, but her blood stained the windshield in the end.” The woman’s twisted body then tackled me, pinning me down as her lifeless black eyes stared into mine. “I'm sorry.” I tell the woman. “Even if your not in there...just wanted to apologize for such a thing.” I say to the lifeless woman, trying to get out of the woman's hold. She arched her back so her head was up high...as her mouth suddenly covered her entire face, and she went in for a kill...I closed my eyes...before feeling something splash on my face. I opened my eyes...her head was gone, and blood was pouring on me. “Get up.” I heard Cript say, him pulling me back on my feet. “And don’t worry, that’s not Psychopath blood...though you may want to get a check up at the family doctors.” “And where'd my happy reflection go?” I ask him, hating the amount of blood on me. “Still here.” He said, now in front of me. “So, this is Cript. Wow, the stories I’ve heard. Still, I wonder if.” The other me said, reaching for my throat. “They are,” He grabbed it. “True.” Then, a roar, something like that of the worst beast in hell roared, and the other me was suddenly not in front of me, and rather, was a dozen or so feet away from me, a large wolf pulsating with a dark aura was ripping him apart. “Oh they are.” Cript said. “But I am not the only one who can handle my own against you freaks.” “Is that Den?” I ask, shocked at the sudden giant wolf attacking him. “Yup, that’s your mama’s Primal Form.” Cript informed. I looked at what was my happy and energetic sexy wolfmother being a primal badass right in front of me. “Woof…” I mutter, my tail wagging against my will. “Careful there, she is your mom.” Cript said, patting my back. “But yes...woof.” “I'm sorry just…” I put a hand to the necklace she made me. “Best mom ever...you are lucky she is your wife.” “Well, it happened unexpectedly. I’m sure she told you the story, right?” “I believe she did...it was when she…” I trail off, not wanting to say it. “Yeah, she was like this, unable to control herself. She was sent to kill Scoot’s, Squirrel, I received word fast, and was there before any casualties or injury had appeared. A split second, I looked into her eyes...I saw rage, hate, but behind it, I saw fear, sadness, and pain. That was back when the Humanity Blade was new, and it worked. I stabbed it though her heart, and it began to work it’s power, it encased her in crystal, and expelled all that evil that was making her act the way she did. When she broke free, she was…a bit lost, hurting, but there was just such...love, in her. It wasn’t long until she became one of the wives...but…Damn she can get freaky… I can not belive I just said that.” “Rune, Pinkie, Derpy, and Luna...christ do they want some freaky stuff that I don't like.” I shook my head. “But uh...why is Den here exactly?” I ask curiously, thinking it was a tad random for her to be here. “Now I love Mama Den whenever she's around and it's always a nice time but...pretty convenient huh?” “She is very protective, you may be her oldest pup, but she’s always watching you too. And with a thing like that.” Cript pointed to the now mangled other me. “She felt the need to...be the protective mother.” “Remind me to never piss her off.” I say. “And...I need help trying not to be attracted to the greatest Milf ever.” I mutter. Cript smacked the back of my head. “Wow...incest much?” “Joy is technically my little brother and is dating Jenny who is my daughter.” I frown, rubbing the back of my head. “But yes I know, it's...well actually Celestia is added to my herd...frankly incest is only frowned upon by the genetic part of it, but besides that if it's two consenting legal parties who love each other without a single fault then power to them.” I explain. “Love knows no bounds right?” I ask. “I think it’s time to take a break.” Cript and I looked up, seeing Den, in her anthro, sexy form. “And awe, how cute. You have a crush on your mama.” Den said, kissing my forehead. “Cript, do you know what I’m thinking right now~” “I think I do...and ha!” He laughed. “I feel like I'm missing a joke here…” I say, thinking I'm gonna be knocked out here soon for some reason. “Close your eyes deary.” Den said, and hesitantly, I did...why’s everything hot and squishy? Joy finally dealt with them all, and the house that was being built was now ruble, and he now had the Neoshadow man impaled on the ground, questioning him. “Why the hell were you building here?” “Grah! Screw you mutt.” He snapped. “Hmm...what would a ball of concentrated light do to you when up close?” Joy asked, using Reunion to make a ball of light and gently inching it to the half Neoshadow, wondering if it would burn him or just not do anything. It seemed to be burning him, and he was trying to squirm away. “Fuck! Fine, I’ll talk, just turn that crap off!” Joy took the ball away from him but didn't turn it off. “Thank you. Now why were you building here?” Joy asks again. “Cause the new boss marked this site for a base. After that Huxley dush killed Core, Spoiled Rich took over and has been running operations. All I know is that this place is for researching what this world calls Alchemy.” Joy rolled his eyes. “Oh yeah? And how well has working for Spoiled Bitch doing for ya?” Joy asks. “Surprisingly, no different than Core. She somehow managed to get into his research terminals and has been making progress with researching Psychopaths and Cript.” “Of course…” He sighs out. “Hoping she would be retarded here.” He muttered. “Why do you all want to learn Alchemy?” He asks. “It’s from Core’s research about Cript. It said something about Alchemy from an off world being used on him to try and trigger his Psychopath coming out.” “Do you even know what Psychopaths are? How strong they are and how little they give a damn about you or everyone in this worthless war?” Joy asks curiously. “All I know about them is that they are nearly unstoppable, but Spoiled isn’t after them directly, she’s after the rejected host forms.” “Anything specific you know about these rejected hosts?” Joy asks, finding that news interesting. “All I know is that they have a fraction of the power of a Psychopath, but all the mental insanity, that’s why they are called Insanities. Their a body that had the potential, but couldn’t hold the pain and mentality of the Psychopaths.” “Then everyone under Spoiled’s command must have heard that as long as there's a living being in existence a Psychopath will hunt them down and kill them for the fun of it.” Joy says. “Being the physical manifestation of murder does that to ya.” “Grr. I’m just a foot soldier anyway, having this done to me, I only got about a month or two before my own heart collapses on it’s own stress. I’ll be dead before that psycho bitch figures out that power.” Joy thought for a moment and checked his assistant. “Hmm…” He wonders. “Do you want a second chance at a proper life?” Joy asks, a hollow crystal appearing in his hand. “Cause I can give you a second chance without any chains attached.” “If it works, dump me on some random world.” He said, his expression telling me he doesn't think it will work. “Okay.” Joy nods before pointing Reunion at him and closing his eyes, the hollow crystal starting to glow as the half Neoshadow felt like the darkness killing him was...being lifted and taken off his burdened heart. “Almost there…” Joy muttered, before at some point he stopped, the hollow crystal seeming to be filled with a dark liquid. “You okay?” Joy asks, opening his eyes and hoping his idea worked and didn't do any serious problems on the poor guy. “I’m...wait.” He said, getting up, seeing his body was fully human again. “That...worked...holy crap…” “Good.” Joy smiled, glad to see it worked. “Now...we have a way to help everyone else like you.” Joy said, excited to explain his new finding on saving people from darkness. ”Thanks Zeke…” Joy thinks to himself, thinking this was a good attempt at what Zeke did with his Reject Darkness ability. “Well...thanks. Oh, um...here.” He said, handing Joy what looked like a stone, carved into a donut like shape with a yellow glowing ring glowing on it. “That’s my access ‘card’. If you find yourself in one of the bases in the realm of darkness, use that to get into any building with a yellow mark on it. They typically break when we die but since I’m not dead, it’s yours.” “Cool.” Joy nodded, pocketing the access stone and the crystal. “So, what world did you want to live on specifically? Or just some random planet?” Joy asks, worried about what the Psychopaths might do to the next world they encounter. “I guess… I heard a lot about this place called Twilight Town, sounds nice enough, and before back on Earth I worked selling pretzels on the beach, maybe I can get back to that, simple work, easy money, and it’s fun.” “Sounds simple enough.” Joy nods, pointing Reunion and a DTL opened. “Just walk into the light and you'll be in Twilight town.” He says. “Start of your new life with a good step.” “Thanks. If you stop by and you want a pretzel, you will be getting them ninety percent off.” He said, walking into the DTL as it closed behind him. Joy smiled and took a deep breath. “It’s good to be helping.” Joy smiled, getting on his glider and flying back to the Elrics house. As he got back he saw them all moving around, getting ready to cook a meal it looks like. “Oh, Hey Joy.” Ventus said as I entered the home. “Everything go okay?” “Yeah everything's good. Figured out how to help save people from Darkness.” Joy smiled. “Oh...cool.” “So, will you be staying for dinner?” Winry asked me. “I’m making Ed’s favorite, Stew.” “If I'm allowed.” Joy says sheepishly. “Of course, the one who brought our son back to us after all these years is always welcome in our home.” Ed said. After...that event I went back home. “It was fun and you know it.” Den said as she and Cript followed me through Canterlot Castle halls. I stopped and looked at Den. “Do you always do that?” I ask bluntly. “Yup.” Cript said. “Let's just say free time and...magic, leads to many a things in the bedroom.” “I meant more to traumatize people.” I said bluntly. “Cause...I didn't like it…at all.” I shake my head. “Well I did.” Den said firmly. “And if you don't, then I can just use that as a punishment if it's needed.” She said, patting my head. “So, what are you looking for in here anyway?” “That mirror portal.” I state. “I...need to see how bad he screwed that world up.” “Ah.” Cript said. “Well, let's keep looking then.” It was a find, but finally, we found the room where the mirror was. “Let’s hope it's not as bad as I fear...” I mutter while opening the door to the mirror, wondering if he destroyed the thing so we couldn't save them. Entering the room, the mirror was whole, on this end anyway, and I summoned Reunion, tapping the mirror as it's magic activated and I took a deep sigh. I walked in...and saw that school… burned down. “Thought it would be a barren wasteland…” I mutter, looking around and wondering if there's any survivors. The more I looked around the more I saw the carnage, building either burned down or destroyed. There were...bodies, here and there, but no one that I recognized. It was chaos...and, it looked rather old, like it’s been this way for a while. “Oh no…” I mutter, looking around and seeing all this senseless death and violence. “I could have stopped this...I know I could have…” I mutter, feeling like shit I couldn't save this world. “Damn it to hell.” I mutter while continuing to walk around, hoping to find survivors at least. As I turned the corner I spotted a now all too familiar sight. Shadow Creatures, surrounding a woman, wrapped head to toe in bandages with goggles over her eyes, trying to keep them away with a machete. I summoned my chakrams out of sudden habit and threw the two at the Shadow Creatures, the flaming weapons circling around and killing the monsters while keeping the woman safe. “You okay?” I ask, rushing over and catching my chakrams, ready to fight more. She nodded, putting her weapon away and began walking off, motioning for me to follow. I nodded and followed along. “Is...is there anyone else?” I ask, hoping to save as many people as possible here. She nodded, not turning back as she raised a hand, one finger pointing at her, then opening her hand to show five, then put her thumb down, four...nine? “Can you actually talk?” I ask. She stopped for a moment, then shook her head and continued walking. I nodded. “So...only nine are alive?” I ask, wondering if she meant that. She nodded. Holding a hand up to stop me. She jumped back, another Shadow Creature jumping out from a pile of rubble, to which she pulled out her weapon and decapitated it quickly, then continued walking. I raised an eyebrow, wondering how she's able to cut these things head off with a simple machete and with surprising ease. “Practiced?” I asked her. She nodded. She then spun her finger around in the air, and held up three fingers. Three...something... “No idea what you mean…” I frown, looking around to see if any other Shadow Creatures would appear. The sun was going down, and she stopped, looking up at the sky as it did. Once the sun was gone completely, she sighed, rubbing her head and then kept on walking. I looked up in the sky… There was only a single group of stars up there... “So much needless death…” I mutter, following along. “The night...is losing its beauty…” She nodded, stopping at a manhole cover and kneeled down, lifting it off and jumping down. I sighed, jumping down also, and was met with a sewer that was lit up with glow in the dark paint and completely cleaned of any...sewage. “Secret home?” I ask curiously. She shrugged, leading the way til we found ourselves at some sort of flood gate. SHe knocked four times, then it opened, a blonde haired, fair skin toned girl with a cowboy hat was there when it opened. “Welcome back Silence...Oh, you found someone?” The woman, Silence, spun her finger around. “Oh, he found you. Well, come on in then.” Applejack motioned. We walked in and once in, she pushed a button on the wall that closed the floodgate. “Well then, glad to see there are still people out there.” “I'm glad people are alive here.” I sigh out. “Is there anyone else?” “There’s me, Silence, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Luna, Nurse Red Heart, and Trixie.” Applejack said. “You’re the first guy we actually found, heh, guess I owe Rainbow Dash ten bucks.” “Why?” I ask curiously. “She bet we weren’t all that was left, I bet we were, I lost.” “Who bet if there was only one male left a harem would happen?” I ask. “Pinkie.” “Of course.” I chuckled. “Always the silly one…” I mutter with a smile. “So, what would happen if I said I could give all of you a second chance at a happy life?” I ask seriously, cutting right to the chase here. “Ah’d say you better have some proof.” “Want to go their physically? Or do you want to see an actual picture?” I ask curiously. “Either.” She shrugged. “Gonna need everyone here if you want physical proof.” I say. “Well, might as well.” She said, Applejack and SIlence leading the way to a second floodgate. She opened it and inside were the rest of them. When Pinkie looked up and saw me she jumped up. “HA! Pay up!” That earned a groan from some and a chuckle from others. “Now while I do enjoy some harmless bets not pointed at me, who wants a second chance at life?” I ask curiously. “If you have a way out of this shit hole I’ll actually do that harem thing Pinkie talked about.” Rainbow said. “Ditto.” The rest all said. “Alright then.” I nod. “We’re going to need to get to the statue near the school. Trust me it will be worth the dangerous wait.” I say honestly. “Where we’re going...it'll feel like home.” I tell them. “I’d call you crazy but at this point we are desperate.” Luna said, standing up. “Three months of this hell is enough for me to chase after any gleam of hope.” Three months...is that what Silence was trying to say? “I...I was three months late?” I mutter to myself, clenching my chakrams tightly as I tried to keep my fire under control here. “Come on...we don't have much time.” I say while leading them to the mirror. “Just...don't be surprised what you'll see in the new world okay? It's gonna be...special.” I say, wondering what they'll all think when they meet my fiances and family. As we were nearing the portal something felt...off. I know this world is in hell...but something feels...bad. I looked up, and saw why...not a star was up there. “Oh no…” I mutter in worry. ”Oh, yes.” I nearly froze hearing that voice, we all turned around, seeing Psychopath light Zeke standing there. ”It’s breathtaking. Pure silence, I just have ten little bugs to take out and this reflection finally will fall.” “Your not killing anyone here.” I growled, my chakrams spinning and flames roaring to life. ”Hehehe, try and stop me, mutt.” Psychopath said, summoning a blood soaked Kingdom Key...no, not blood soaked, bleeding... “The hell happened to the Kingdom Key?” I ask, wondering why his keyblade was bleeding. ”All of the Keyblades within Zeke’s heart split into groups of two, the light half with this body, and the dark ones with Drezke. I just showed them what our power is.” “Or in actually correct terms, you brainwashed them with a fuck ton of bloodshed.” I frown. “Keyblades aren't for killing innocents, especially at the rate your doing.” I tell him bluntly. “There meant to help keep balance in all world's, not used for a murderers whimsy, or for him to forget their are soundproof rooms.” I frown. “The more pain and death you inflict, the more it hurts you...and you know that.” I say, having felt pain from killing those I never wanted to. ”Quite the contrary.” He stated. ”We are the facts of Murder. We are in constant pain, feeling every death that has happened, is happening, or will happen. Our minds are filled with all the conflicting emotions those who murdered feel when the act is done. But with each Reflection and realm fallen, our pain becomes less. Even when we die, we are reborn when another death occurs, and that’s always. In order for us to stop this pain, stop this pointless cycle you sentient life forms put us in, we will end everything.” “Oh…” I mutter, now understanding their pain. “But here's the thing, sometimes instead of feeling nothing but pain and the onslaught of emotions...maybe you should be looking at the Humanity in people, who are willing to fight to protect the ones they love and care for, even above their own life.” I say to him. “I heard you may not be able to come back Zeke, but I'm nothing if not stubborn to help a dear friend.” I say, cracking my neck and ready to protect the people behind me. ”Oh really? Well then.” He said, snapping his fingers as we were then surrounded...by countless...Zeke’s...no...Cripts. Right, Cript is his only...him, to not become one of these things. ”In every reflection in every Realm, Cript’s parallels have been our strongest host body. Can you help...all of him?” They were all laughing, every last one of them. “I've helped at least two if memory serves.” I shrugged. “But if I need to beat all of your asses just to bring you all back then so be it.” I say. “I'll be the first to save the people who can't be saved. It can't be that hard right?” I ask, knowing the massive pile of shit in just said is all but impossible but damn it I could at least try. ”HAHAAHAHHAHAHAHA! Let’s see about that!” They all yelled, charging in at us...right when they were in front of me...then, they...weren’t? I blinked, looking behind me and seeing the others...they were pony now? “You...are stupid brave, you know that?” Cript’s voice said, making me look forward and seeing him there...we were back in the mirror room. “Like father like son huh?” I joke with a grin. “Hmm...Little bit. Well, off to your house then.” Cript said, snapping his fingers and I...was in my bedroom...my fiances here too...and the people I saved behind me. “...Is this one of those...just accept it things?” Rainbow Dash asked. “I can explain…” I start. “But...I doubt you will believe me.” I say sheepishly. “So….who wants to start first?” After a somewhat detailed explanation of what happened, leaving out what Den did to me...and the dying part, and we explained to the other Pinkie, who now that I looked, had brown eyes rather than my Pinkie’s blue eyes, and the other Luna was just a pegasus, not an alicorn. “Well...glad to hear Ben saved you all.” Celestia said, taking a sip of tea. “So...you are all...marrying him?” The other Luna asked, who for clarity sake, are calling Lulu. “We still need to figure out a wedding day….we kinda forgot that.” I say nervously. “Well...That’s...interesting...So...may I ask a question?” Trixie asked. Huh, surprised she’s not talking in third person. “Sure.” I nod. “What be your question?” That got them all blushing. “Well...that bet with Pinkie about a male coming along was a Pinkie Promise thing...and everyone in our school knows better than to go back on a promise with her name in it so…” “You want to join?” I ask with a little grin. “Well...yes.” “We’re all strait and after three months we’re all kinda...antsy…” Lulu admitted. “I can think of some fun stuff I can do involving my other~” The other Pinkie said, who, for some reason, wants to be called Twin Pie. “I think I know what I’m thinking~” My Pinkie said, the two looking at each other, then to me... “Just so you all know...don’t be surprised if you turn bi.” I say to the other girls. “Great...now I need to buy nine more rings...and why are you two staring at me?” I ask worriedly at the two Pinkies. “Twin sex!” They both yelled at the same time. “Of course.” I chuckle and shake my head. “Welcome to your new life ladies, where it's filled with weirdness, magic, and a whole lot of lewd things.” “I’m gonna have to take some time to get used to being covered in...fur.” Applejack said, looking at her new form. “Wait...is my chest...bigger, or is that the fur?” To be continued...
Nobody's rough dayA month passed since the reflection where these all came from fell… the mirror broke not long after. In all this time two things became apparent to me. One, those Psychpaths need to be dealt with, and second… the whole time Silence has been here, the only new thing I have learned about her is that she's a unicorn here. She changes her bandages, I've seen the old ones in the trash...which leads me to think she's burned all over. I figure it's best to try and confront her about it. I saw her reading a book in the library, and took a seat next to her. “Hey, how you doing?” I ask Silence. She shrugged, turning the page. “Hey...do you want to talk again?” I ask her. “Or are you used to sign language?” I ask. She still wore her goggles, but I could feel her eyes roll when I said 'talk’. “Wrong wording…” I mutter. “Did you lose your voice?” She sighed, nodding as she traced her finger across her neck, then made sewing motions. “Do you want to have your voice back?” I ask. She looked like she was thinking about it, but shook her head. “Alright.” I nod. “So...what do you think of your new home?” She looked at me, then looked around us. Seeing that we were alone, she tapped where her heart is, then pointed at the ground. “Fuck it.” I mutter, grabbing a pencil and pad of paper and handed it to her. “No clue about sign language, hate guessing, gonna ask someone to teach me but right please write what you mean.” I say, hating myself for not knowing her sign language. I felt her eyes roll again. She picked up the pen and started writing. ”This...is my home. Well, was. Never expected to be back.” “As in...you were from Equis originally?” I ask curiously. She nodded. “Huh…” I mutter. “Well...did you expect to be apart of...all of this when you came back?” She shook her head. Then wrote something. ”No...I had plans to come back, but after recovering from some Psycho trying to slice my throat open then burned me alive…I figured the old me did die there…and Silence was born.” “I'm...sorry I wasn't there…” I say sadly. “You've heard of how I'm this grand hero...but I wasn't there to protect any of you…” She did something I should have expected but didn't...she slapped me...hard. She then wrote two simple word. ”Shut up.” She then hugged me. I hugged back. “You've known me for a month and heard all my fiances talk about me...you know I can't.” I joke. “But...at least all of you are safe...that’s all I can ask for…” I say gently. She then broke the hug, and began writing something down. ”Don’t tell anyone I am from here….Especially Celestia. “Don't worry Silence, I won’t.” I say gently. “But you adjusting to all this weirdness okay?” I ask, wondering how well she was adjusting to life. She began writing again. ”It’s...odd, but nice odd. It’s like that crazy and wild but loving family orphans dream of.” “That's good.” I nodded. “I suppose Twin and Lulu told you and the others about...bedroom stuff?” I ask. She nodded...her blush somehow going through her bandages. “Kind of thought that.” I chuckled. “You know I got some of my fiances through….that.” I chuckle sheepishly. “Who knew sex was the quickest way to some women's hearts...oh wait...I forgot how I was gonna unite the world…” I mutter, blushing at remembering that conversation. “Ben!” I turned to the doorway, seeing Joy stop there, worry on his face. “Come on, in the front yard, it’s Yellow.” “Excuse me for a moment.” I say to Silence before rushing to the front yard, wondering why Yellow is here. As I exited the front door I saw Yellow there...His body fading, turning to...dirt as he stood slumped across the bridge that counted as the front door. “He...hey.” He said, clearly exhausting himself to just stand. “I see your...staying together.” I say sheepishly, not sure what to say. “What are you doing here?” I ask, wondering if I could help him. “Drezke…” He collapsed, and I ran over to him. “He took the fake X-blade, and all the Xehanort hearts I had in me.” “Mother of fuck…” I mutter. “Well I'm gonna have to deal with that guy later, right now…” I trail off, looking down at the crumbling Yellow. “Do you need help coming back or...just to end your suffering?” I as. Yellow chuckled. “I’m dying now.” He said, his legs a pile of dirt and slowly his hands and torso were following. “This world...Core almost made me attack it, heh, glad something else came up. The sky is nice.” “Yeah…” I nodded. “How was your last day?” I ask, hoping he had a good time. “Nice.” He said, his arms gone and torso not gone too...he’s just a head now. “Just wish...the sunset lasted longer.” He said, his head turning into a dirt pile in my hands. There was something else there too...a Keychain? It was a Castle Oblivion card, with what looked like a cut up image of Zeke in it. I raised my eyebrow and summoned Reunion. “I have a bad feeling about this…” I mutter while taking off Reunions keychain and putting it in my pocket, before kneeling down and picking up the keychain left by Yellow. “Okay...this might be a little weird.” I mutter while putting the keychain on my blank keyblade. It changed, looking something like Memory Stealer, only with images in the cards that went up along the blade. Bottom was Josh, above him was Jenny, above her was… Nancy, and finally, on top, was Kevin… Are these...the ones whose memories were put together to make Yellow? “This is weird…” I mutter. “How do I figure out more about you?” I mutter, not sure if my Assistant can tell me what this thing is or what's about it considering it came from a clone. “Fuck it…” I mutter while using my assistant to scan this special keyblade. “I know your not Memory Stealer…” I mutter, hoping for some answers on this confusing thing. Scanning… Scan complete. Name: Memory Shard Att: 8 Def: 5 Mag: 3 Special Ability: Memories Mine - Use own memories and add them to spells to cast greater range and damage. “Cool.” I nodded, before taking Memory Shard off. “Well...I suppose it makes sense why he turned into a keychain…” I mutter while putting Reunion back on and disbanding it. “I...think.” I mutter, not sure if Yellow actually was a human keyblade. I headed back inside, thinking on what was to come next. So much going on, and now, Drezke might have gone off the deep end. “God I need a vacation…” I mutter, really upset about so much shit going on. “But I forgot, I need to finish training my chakrams…” I frown, summoning the two and checking over them to see if I somehow missed a mastery mark. “Trinity? You busy?” I call out, wondering if my sister was around. There was no reply anywhere. Great, gonna have to find her. I then spent the next four hours searching my massive home for her, not finding her anywhere. “Fuck.” I frown. “I can either find Nelare and train with my knives...go to a different world and try to be a hero...or just wait till someone decides to bring something up…” I mutter, thinking through this. Maybe I can track her via assistant? I brought it up, typing in Trinity’s name and a location came up. Canterlot? What’s she doing there? “Something to do.” I mutter while opening a big window and flying towards Canterlot. After a time I finally got to Canterlot, and then I started my damned search again. “Let's hope nothing bad is happening…” I mutter. Following my GPS like locater for Trinity, it lead me to the outside of a...Club? Why is she at a club? I walked up and the bouncer stopped me. “Name and ID sir.” He said...wow, ten feet tall easy. I pull out my ID. “The names Ben.” I say simply and hand over my ID. He looked at me, then the ID. “This is a joke, right? This photo doesn't even look like you.” He said, showing my the picture. Crap, that’s from when I was human and not a wolf… “Besides, no entry under twenty one, this says you are nineteen.” “And I'm also gonna marry at least…” I frown and start counting in my head. “At least eighteen women.” I state. “But what could be in a club so bad for a world wide hero?” “Alcohol and stripers.” He said simply. “I'm marrying Rune.” I say bluntly. “That new Diamond Dog Queen?” He asked. “The one that made the porn industry boom because of her giant libido? Yes.” I nod. “Sorry, you’re still under age.” “And my sister Trinity can?” I ask bluntly. “Her ID says she’s twenty one even...ish. Only way you’re getting in here is by beaten me in a game of cards.” He said, a deck of normal cards appearing in his hands. “Aw.” I say while Fair Game appeared in my hand. “And here I thought I had to supply the deck.” I chuckle. “What's your name?” I ask the guy. “Friends call me Bexly.” He said, cutting and preparing the deck. “It’s simple. Pull out either a queen or ace, and I’ll let you in. Pull anything else, you don’t. And so you don’t think I’m cheating.” He held up the Deck’s faces, and I could see queens and aces in there. He then sorted and cut it again several time before holding them out like a magician would. “Oh how I have fallen if I'm literally having this much trouble getting into a goddamn strip club.” I sigh out before just pulling a card out. “Today is slow…” “So I guess.” He said, the card I pulled out, surprisingly, was an ace. “Guess you get in. Well then, Welcome to Club Ruby Red, Bar and Strip club and current performance center for local DJ, DJ Pon3.” He said, stepping aside so I could enter. “Ya know, I've never actually been to one of her performances.” I realize out of nowhere before just entering the strip club with my hood up and tail tucked away. Once in I saw what you’d expect, stallions and mares throwing bits at stripping/pole dancing mares and stallions. Mares and stallions in...open...clothing walking around and offering drinks, a bar, and in the back most of it all, a dance floor that...smelled much like a load of my dirty bed sheets after an...active, night, with a DJ stand setup where Vinyl was blasting her music. Trinity was dancing in the crowd...yeah there’s no way in hell I’m stepping on that dance floor. I instead sat next to a mare who was clearly dressed to hide who she really was. “Mind if I take a seat?” I asked. “Sure.” She said simply as I took a seat. “How you doing this fine day?” I ask casually. “Not everyday you see someone trying to actively hide in a strip club.” “I’m just here cause my friend is working here tonight.” She said. “Is it a worker here or is it the DJ?” I ask curiously, wondering if Vinyl and Octavia were together. “It’s the DJ, I’ve attended all of her shows and she’s attended all of mine. The only reason she agreed to working a gig here is because they are paying her very handsomely.” “Do you perchance play the Cello?” I ask curiously, wondering if she was Octavia. She looked at me, then sighed, taking off her glasses and hood cover, revealing it was in fact Octavia. “Great, I was found out. What gave it away?” She asked. “I can name several...the first thing to come to mind was you both perform music and such...second would be the accent, and third is how willing would someone be to support their girlfriend.” I explain. “Unless you two aren't dating I suppose.” I say sheepishly. “While we...have shared moments, we are waiting to the right male to make a small herd with to make it official and go public with it.” “You do know who I am right?” I ask in a joking fashion. “Yes, White Knight, but again, I said small herd, not the royal spoonfest that your love life is, no offence.” I chuckled at that. “No need, trust me.” I tell her. “I love them all with my heart and soul, but they really need to relax.” I chuckle at that. “But anyways, I'm pretty sure I can help you play matchmaker. What kind of guy you looking for?” “Well...A lot like Vinyl, soft spoke, actions speak louder than words kind of guy. In touch with his feminine side, gentle, nice, but not shy to throw down when needed...maybe pink hair, I know a male with pink hair is a bit rare, since it’s normally a mare color, but I always found that more attractive on a male than on mares.” Octavia said. “Vinyl and I agree that’s a good enough male for us, though, she want one who knows his way around hair. That neon blue hair of her’s isn’t natural, and some help from another who knows hair care would come in handy.” I stared at her. “Do you live in Ponyville?” I ask. “And if so, have you ever been to the Ponyvile Spa? I mean crap you just explained my friend and teacher.” “Really? Vinyl and I have a house there for when we get time off. Never went to that spa though… what's his name?” “Ramilua.” I say simply. “You'll know it's him from either the pink hair, or the scythe he uses to cut hair.” I say simply. “He uses a scythe to cut hair? Wow...sounds exciting~” She said, twirling her hair with a light blush appearing on her cheeks. “I'll have to tell Vinyl when the show is over.” “Ram is going to have a field day with this.” I chuckle. “But I never actually attended one of Vinyls shows. Strange huh?” “Her locations are not very standard or in one area. She's been the main event in clubs all over Canterlot and Manehattan... before the incident. We talk about her getting a club of her own to run and preform at but no good locations came up.” “Ponyville is a nice centralized town surprisingly. And considering everything that happens there…I'm sure you'll be making tons with all the parties.” I shrug simply. “Oh wait...I forgot to check up on Sans and the rest...damn it.” I mutter to myself as I remembered about the Manhattan project and the monsters living there now. “Well, I’ll be sure to tell Vinyl about this friend of yours then. The show ends in a half an hour, so you can kill time one of three ways here.” “I'm surprised no ones cared about me being here to begin with.” I point out. “But I suppose a world wide hero isn't as great as hot naked women.” I chuckle. “I’d think twice about that.” She said with a chuckle. I look over...and saw...me...wearing a man thong dancing on a pole... “I didn't need to see that.” I frown. “I...how the fuck...I know I’m marrying Chrysalis but jesus.” “Yeah. It was announced a while ago and lots of places like this hire them for entertainment. They all have this hive mind thing so that explains the likenesses…not bad length.” “I hate everything…” I mutter, blushing like crazy at that. “I don't dance...especially not in a thong…” “I imagine if your fiances saw that, that stripper would be rich.” “I don't want to be drunk…” I frown. “But it's people like these that drive me to drink…” I complain with a hidden pout. “But no, if they saw that they would force me to do such a thing.” “Hey, this form pays my rent!” The fake me yelled. “I'll give you ten mil if you stop turning into me.” I told the changeling bluntly. “I know I'm me but god…” I mutter, trying not to just walk up to the bar and drink my troubles away. “And here I thought all the merch Rune made of me was bad enough.” I sigh out, rubbing my temples, ignoring any who would be staring at me at the moment. “Wait, that’s the real White Knight!” A mare yelled from the stage. “Sign my panties!” One yelled...a pair of...soaked undies hitting my face. God damn it… “That ended...oddly.” Trinity said. At some point in my wet undies assault from...everywhere, she came and I found myself in Canterlot Gardens. “I.Hate.Everyone.” I grumble. “Went from throwing bits to throwing underwear...oh how today is just stupid…” I sigh out. “Well what did you expect, hell, Twilight checks all your mail and burns all the nudes that get sent in, and yes, mares are still sending those in.” I took a deep breath. “My god...sooner or later I'm gonna be like Cript with his massive harem if this keeps up.” I sigh out. “Well, come on then, you wanna finish your training right?” “Yes...yes I do.” I sigh out thankfully. “Anything to get...that out of my mind. “Well come on, I think I know a good last test for this. It will be two parts, you ready?” I summoned my chakrams. “Of course.” I nodded, ready for my test. “What's part one?” “This.” Trinity said, I blinked and was… on the edge of a big ass Volcano. “Your chakrams are linked to fire, your first test is to use that connection to heat and survive going all the way down the lava and retrive me a Fire Amber, with a spider in it.” “Fuck.” I mutter, before taking a deep breath. “Okay...I think I can imagine how to do what you said…” I say. “But just to make sure...deep breathing is apart of such a thing correct?” I ask, thinking of The Last Airbender cartoon here. “If you do it right, you can breath under all that, though, watch out for a dragon that’s supposed to live in this Volcano.” “I’m getting married to the dragon lords sister.” I say with a shrug. “But...this is gonna hurt a bit.” I say while hoping into the volcano, my chakrams spinning as I continued to take deep breaths and feel the connection my chakrams had to fire. ”Let's hope this works…” I think to myself. As I got closer to the lava the more deep breaths I took the...calmer it felt? Like instead of diving straight into a volcano it felt more like a massive amount of warm water, and when I finally entered it, oh so thankfully, I wasn't burning alive and saw my entire body wasn't being burned to cinders. ”Cool.” I think to myself while starting to swim down. I couldn’t see a damn thing, but kept going down slowly until I felt I hit bottom. I felt around, feeling mostly smooth rock, then, I felt a small wave of movement from behind me. Like swimming. ”Maybe I should have asked how the hell I could see down here…” I think to myself, closing my eyes and letting what other senses I had to basically shape the entire area for me, from my limited hearing, smell and touch, to my unimpeded magical sense making the entire area around me. My magic sense showed me the Dragon trying to hunt me. It was female, I saw that clearly, she was at least ten feet tall, wings with a twelve foot wingspan, and was floating about twenty feet from me. I thought of something...but went against it as I just waved hello at the dragoness like she wanted trying to prepare to attack me. I could tell she seemed surprised, but swam towards me, grabbed me then swam dragging me into a...cave of sorts where the Lava didn’t enter. I was thrown out onto the floor and she came out after, and she’s naked… “What are you doing here?” She asked with an icy tone...those scales….they look like Spike’s? “Before I go into detail...what's your name?” I ask, wondering if I just magically found Spikes sister. “Cause...your scales look identical to my friends...” “I am Clattatona, and that’s a laugh. My breed of dragons is all but dead, it’s just me…” “What would happen if I said another of your breed is living with a Pegasus and has a kid about...a month or two ago?” I ask simply. “Also it's a male dragon just so you know.” “Heh, the last male was the father of my egg...that those damn smuggler ponies stole. My mate died years ago, trying to find our egg.” I took a deep breath. “Oh no…” I mutter. “Okay...I came down here for a spider stuck in fire amber...if you help me, I will take you to your son and your granddaughter okay?” I ask simply. “Yeah right, like my child is alive.” “Would his scales be purple and green? Has green fins going from the top of his head all the way down to his tail?” I ask curiously. “Just asking if this fits his general description of how he would look as...maybe a teenager right now.” “...are his spine scales green?” She asked. “Huh, always thought those were more like fins...but yes.” I nodded. “...Deal.” She said, jumping back into the lava, coming out a short time later, came out with what I assumed was a fire amber, a spider that looked like a rock inside it. “Here, now where’s my son?” “He goes by Spike right now and he lives in a cloud home near a town called Ponyville. It's a simple looking town near the mountain city called Canterlot.” I explain while taking the Fire amber. “I'll lead you there since you probably have no idea what I'm talking about.” “I was living here since before I was even with egg, so...yeah, I’m a tad outdated.” “Outdated...doesn't even begin to describe everything you've missed.” I tell her bluntly. “Come on, we better get going.” I say while taking a deep breath and focusing my magic for the lava again and jumped in, swimming back to where Trinity was. After a bit of swimming up I finally got out of the volcano. “Oh, good, you found it.” She said, helping me out of the lava. “And you...brought the dragoness. Neat.” “Considering she's apparently Spikes real mother I think it's important.” I tell her simply. “Oh, cool. And thanks for the spider.” She said, looking at the spider in the fire ember. She then broke it open, the Spider’s...inside’s, somehow still there and a glowing green goo that she took on her fingers and then...ate it… “Damn little bugs are hard as hell to find, but really tasty.” “Ew…” I mutter. “Anyways, I need to help her find Spike, so I might need to put the second part on-” “One second.” She said, finishing off...the spider, then tossing the empty ember it was once in. “Alright, first off.” She said, snapping her fingers and Clattatona was gone. “She’ll be in front of Spike now, so that’s taken care of in a not-so-neat bow.” “Right then.” I nod, “Hopefully that goes over well...so second part of my test?” I ask curiously. “Yeah, here.” She said, handing me a...scroll... I frowned and took the scroll. “This better not end up causing an explosion or summoning an elder fire elemental.” I frown before opening the scroll. Inside was...a name. Lead Hoof. Age: 36, location, Canterlot Blacksmithery. “I'm gonna learn how to blacksmith?” I ask curiously. “Close, Chakrams are weapons of assassin's...that’s your target…” I went stock still at that. “I don't remember chakrams being assassin weapons...and why should I kill a random person here?” “He’s not random, he’s a smuggler. Leader of some illegal arms dealings. His company makes weapons for the guards...and the local gangs.” “Does he have a family? Wife and kids that he cares about more than just an alibi?” I ask, not wanting to kill someone who has a loving family. “You know me...I can't kill...not again.” I mutter, remembering how I openly killed Nancy without hesitation. “Damn it…” “He has one son, no wife, she died from cancer.” “And his son? Does he look up to him?” I ask. “Do the two care about each other dearly?” I ask bluntly, not liking how I have to kill a father for some reason. “Yeah, but the son doesn’t know what his dad does. Police know, but have no hard evidence.” “Is he helping the gangs of his own volition or is his son being used to force him to work?” I ask, liking this less and less. “You know why I'm asking this Trinity, I can’t kill a single parent and leave a child by themselves.” I state, not wanting someone to feel the pain I felt when my parents died. “His own free will. Saw a way to make more money, and went for it. Look, I don’t like it either but this is part of what I do. I take on missions from the Fates Karma guild from the Grim Reapers, they mark people a world would be better off without, and I do them...some I really didn’t like, but they were bad people. Sometimes a bad person has two faces, the one for friends and family, and the one for…work.” “And what of his son? Do I just tell him his dad's a bad guy and be on my way?” I ask bluntly. “Ten, fond of his dad, likes the Wonderbolts, special talent is on comedy.” “Does….does he have anyone to go to when he learns about his dad's...untimely fate?” I ask. “Or do I just hear it from the man I'm supposed to kill?” I frown, feeling terrible about having to make a ten year old lose the father he loves. “He has his grandparents...Why does this sound familiar?” “No.” I tell her. “I'm not forcing what I experienced on an innocent!” I barked. “When my parents died due to...the former Suicide Queen, I was sent off to my grandparents and that's when things went down hill...I can't...I can't force that on an innocent child.” I told her, my hands shaking at how similar this sounded. “Well if he isn’t gonna die then the only other option is to hand the cops evidence.” Trinity said. “As long as nobody dies.” I say bluntly. “I'll get evidence...or I could just walk up to him and he'll know who I am and why I'm there because I'm me.” I say honestly. “Doubt it, this guy has the best poker face I have ever seen.” “I've learned from the best gambler I know. Even if he doesn't look like he's worried, he can still be noticed in other ways.” I say honestly. “Still. You gotta handle this as a mission so...dress for it.” I growled a little but summoned my glider. “I'll ask Rarity and Coco to make me something…” I sigh out. “No need. Here.” Trinity said, pulling a grey suit from her Assistant. “Just put that on and I’ll drop you off where you need to be.” I nodded, taking off my cloak and putting on the suit. “Damn it to hell…” I mutter sadly. “Being the good guy is a job everyone wants, but it's harder than expected.” “Yet somehow all good guys are never allowed to kill because morality.” I frown. “...not entirely true…” Trinity sighed. “Whatever.” I mutter while finishing putting on my grey suit. “There…” “Great. Now, the job begins.” Trinity snapped her fingers, and we were outside a brick warehouse in what looked like Canterlot. Trinity was also dressed in more formal attire. Light brown coat, skirt, and a purse. “This is his factory. I got some…IDs that should get us a meeting with him.” “Alright.” I nodded. “Can't wait to feel like garbage after this…” I mutter bitterly. We headed inside and once we ran into someone official came along Trinity showed our fake IDs and they lead us to an office on the second floor. Lead Foot was...big. Easy eleven feet, and three feet wide shoulder span. Trinity and I sat in some chairs in front of his desk, and when he sat down...it made an impact. “So, I was told you two are from the Minotaur lands blacksmith guild?” “Yes, that is correct.” Trinity said. “I see. So, you are interested in purchasing from my company?” “Yes.” I nod, having literally no idea what to do here and just keeping things simple. “We heard your skills in blacksmithing and were curious to see if it was true.” I say, not sure how this went from an assassination attempt to business talk. “Well it's flattering to say the least. Minos is known for their weaponry so to be asked to sell to it it an honor.” “Yes, my partner here will handle the paperwork and get it ready, so to pass the time how about I see your factory?” “Sure, won't take more than ten or so minutes.” Lead Hoof said, getting up as Trinity followed. Taking their full exit as my cue I decided to search around the room for the paperwork I had to do and any connections to the mafia I could so he could just be off to prison instead of dying. “Okay papers...where are you…” I mutter, having to work fast given I only had ten minutes. Looking through the desk I only found old and recent shipping invoices, all to the royal guard. I did notice the last shipment was for raw ores rather than completed weapons. I found it odd, but put it back, making a mental note as to why. “Okay...now where's the secret compartments?” I muttered, now checking the room to see if there was a hidden safe or hidden area’s to hold not so legal documents. There were no paintings so that was out. I decided to look around for anything out of the ordinary, all I found was a floorboard in the corner of the room with a hole in it. “Cheeky bastard...” I muttered, walking over and kneeling down to the floorboard with the hole in it and checked it carefully, wondering if this was to look convincing of a normal floor board but was actually holding things underneath it. I put a finger in it, and it came off like nothing. Inside I pulled up a suitcase. It was a simple latch lock, opening it, inside was a file rather filled with papers, some Platinum bits. Luna told me about them. Three distinct types of bits, Bronze, five making up one gold bit. Gold bits, most common type of bit out there by far, and Platinum bits, a thousand gold bits make up one platinum bit...and there was twenty platinum bits in here. I opened the file, and inside were all handwritten orders, pick up and drop off locations and what I was assuming gang names as the ones who placed the orders. “Good.” I muttered, summoning a card and putting it on the file and all the papers and it absorbed it, the thing being in the magical card before I put everything back in place without looking suspicious. As I was getting up I felt something...sharp, tap my back. “And what are you doing?” That...was not an adult’s voice. I turned around...and saw a small version of Lead Hoof...his son...is holding a sword to me. “Hello.” I say to the kid. “Do you really want to be pointing that at me?” I ask him, my voice calm even though a sword was against my back. “That depends, you sending my dad to jail?” “So you do know…” I sigh out, rubbing my temple. “Okay...do you know why your dad is doing shady shit?” I ask him simply. “Not so much him...more I am.” The kid said, reaching and swiping the card I had the files in. The card shrunk and he missed to grab it. “So are you the one doing mafia crap? Or something worse?” I ask. “Dad always makes more than he is selling, calls them gifts to the crown. Please. After Manehattan, I realized even Hero’s let you down, so, I found a few like minded workers of dad and we split the profits. After all, with all the crazy stuff going on, everyone wants some more...enforcement.” “So you’re giving weapons to the mafia because of my mistakes?” I ask him simply. “Heh...funny.” “Before you showed up it was just those Heartless...now, Manehattan's been destroyed, more and more Heartless have been showing up, and some of them are...wrong, half a person, half a monster. You call yourself a hero White Knight, but you’ve done more harm than good.” “Let me ask you something.” I say simply. “What would happen if the entire world looked to you for help, what would happen if you knew you had to protect the world you hold dear and everyone on it...But know you can't?” I ask him simply. “What would you do if you learned, even if everyone looked at you as a hero, you yourself felt like a failure cause you can't be everywhere and protect everyone?” I turn around carefully to look at him. “Would you break down under the weight of your failures before they even happen? Or do you keep moving forward, trying to help everyone you can and trying your damndest to do everything you possibly can?” I ask, knowing I should make a school for keybladers but sadly never having the time to do it. He lowered the sword...then chuckled… As a powerful aura of darkness began emerging from him. “I’d let it burn.” I took a deep breath, the fire in the warehouse seeming to grow and dim ever so gently as I focused. “You really want to do this huh?” I ask, summoning my chakrams and ready to fight. He readied his sword, now also coated in darkness and we stood waiting for the other to make a move. “Zantetsuken.” The kid said, I barely cast Reflect in time. “You really want to do this?” I ask him again, giving him one more chance here. “Last chance kid. I don't want to leave your father with your corpse.” I tell him. He chuckled. “He said you’d be all talk.” The kid said, tossing his sword and summoning...a Keyblade...the Chaos Ripper one from Birth By Sleep. “Who told you?” I ask, wondering why this kid is suddenly so bloodthirsty here. “Didn’t say his name, just gave me this and told me to gather all the darkness in this world...and end it, starting with you!” He yelled, somehow making a dark attack where he was moving in a wheel like motion, rushing towards me. I dodged the attack quickly and slashed at the kid, trying to keep my strikes non-lethal. “Why do you want to destroy the world?” His attack stopped right before hitting the wall, and he turned to face me. “Not the world, just it’s darkness. That’s his plan after all, let the dark ones think you are an allie, then end them when they have all gathered to strike.” He said, slashing and sending dark waves at me. I threw one of my chakrams, cutting the dark waves and dissipating them. “And why me if I may ask?” I ask curiously. “Also yes you are technically destroying the planet by getting rid of its other part.” I point out. “Heheheheh. That’s what you think.” “No that's just a fact.” I frown. “You can't have one thing without the other, no matter what you do.” I tell him simply. “Once there was no darkness in the hearts of the living, or the worlds themselves. We will bring them back to that era!” He yelled, shooting Mega Flares at me. My chakrams spun, feeling the fire magic in the Mega Flare’s and raising them both, the balls of flame stopping in their tracks. “Light and Darkness are two sides of the same coin, even in that era darkness was always there.” I say, my chakrams absorbing the Mega flares. “But there was an era long before Light and Dark.” I say, grey thorns surrounding me. “There is, and always will be Void…” I say while appeared in front of him. “Nothingness.” I whisper to him, my fist colliding into his stomach hard, enforced by Nothingness to drain his stamina and stop his rampage. He collapsed over, coughing, trying to get air back into his lungs. “N-Not...while he is walking…” His dark aura then suddenly vanished, and he stood up. When he stood up, and open his eyes...they were black. “Long time no see Ben.” Drezke’s voice spoke from the kid. “Two things...one is the kid alive? I didn't mean to punch him too hard.” I say worriedly, worried about his safety. “And two...the fuck are you doing here? I thought you would be keeping darkness away from Daybreak given its being attacked.” I say, Joy having told me Daybreak is under attack, but he's got it. “Daybreak will survive.” Drezke said, the Kid’s body moving in a slow, looking around motion. “I see you met Lead Hoof’s son. He has great promise.” “You didn't answer my first question, but my third question now is why you think getting rid of Darkness as a whole is a good idea in any way shape or form?” I ask simply. “And why I need to die for some stupid reason.” “Being half of Zeke, absorbing Core’s darkness, seeing it for myself. In the end, darkness is too strong for the light. Yes, the light pulls off miracles, but darkness is uncontrollable, untamable...unstable. The Embodiments are the source of all darkness, so I will fight fire with fire. They have lasted since darkness began, and it’s time to end them, and darkness, before they end the light.” “You can't destroy Darkness.” I frown. “Again, you can't have one thing without the other. Why do people keep thinking that!?” I fling my arms in the air, hating asshole’s that think that shit can work. “The light won't end, that's a fact and you know full well we all won't let it end.” “Really?” “No, it's not like me, the Foretellers, Eclipse, John, and everyone Zeke has helped train and love have been training to defend the light. We've been training to defend the right to eat cookies.” I tell him, my voice dripping with sarcasm. “Yes really!” I tell him seriously. “Well then. I guess it’s time to see if one of Cript’s own can die.” He said, a ghost version of the kid walked out of him, ran THROUGH me, that felt...cold...something is missing. “Free? I’m...free?” I turned around...and saw Rejection there. “HA! Finally!” “Enjoy what comes next.” Drezke said as the kids eyes closed and he collapsed, unconscious. “Oh no.” I mutter. “Rejection...how does it feel being apart of the real world?” I ask, my heart feeling odd at my missing darkness. “It feels...liberating.” He said, summoning his Duskblade. “Everything is so...physical and...touchy.” He said, poking himself. I noticed he’s wearing a black version of my cloak. “This can only lead to bad things and you know it.” I tell him. “Even if it is nice to see you again.” “Everything feels...real. And it’s gone. All your paranoid thoughts, all your self esteem issues, all your depression is gone!” He laughed. “It’s gone! It’s all gone!” “Good to hear.” I say. “So...what do you want to do now?” I ask, keeping my guard up in case he'd attack me. “What I want to do… What do I want to do?” He questioned, pacing around...his Duskblade still in hand. “What to do...Hmmm Oh, I think I know.” “Okay before you do anything, I'm just gonna warn you...don't hurt our family.” I tell him bluntly. “Our family?” Rejection asked...then I felt my face wet...I felt and...my face was sliced from cheek, over my nose, to my other cheek. “You mean your family. You built that with Joy, I have no place in it and you know it. I know what I am going to do.” He said, jumping back and across the room, putting his hood on. “I’m going to undo the little good you’ve done since you’ve been here. Whatever the cost.” He said, snapping his fingers as both Nobodies and Unversed appeared...and four lances. Crap, he has all my abilities too...and an extra. “Do you really want to do this?” I ask him simply, ready to protect all I know and love from him. “Do you really want to do this?” I ask him, not even upset at Rejection or what he’s doing. “Ha. More than anything.” He said, from what I could see...he was smiling. Smiling like I’d seen the Psychopaths do. The Nobodies and Unversed came at me. “Ow…” I mutter, rubbing my forehead. “The fuck happened?” I mutter to myself, feeling a lot...happier for some reason. “You were hit hard by Nobodies and Unversed.” Trinity said, me realizing I’m in my bedroom and she was next to me on a chair. “Been out for a day.” “And Rejection?” I ask. “And my mastery test?” “Escaped. As for your test, the kid woke up and had no memory of what happened. In fact, he didn’t remember what happened for the past month, guess that’s when Drezke got to him. Either way, it counted to a pass, so congrats.” I smiled, feeling a lot happier than I should for some reason. “Sweet. Where are my fiances?” I ask, feeling really happy and wanting to set a date for our wedding. “Preparing wedding stuff. Mostly dresses. So, your darkness is gone...feel odd then?” “Well I feel happier for one.” I say simply. “I should be complaining about losing my darkness cause, again, that's important...but...I haven't felt this happy in a long time.” “Yeah. Here, this should help with some understanding.” Trinity said, an orb appearing, a large part of it dark, and a smaller, I’d say twenty percent, being light. “This is your heart normally, as you can see, your darkness is dominant. Your light part being all alone now, it’s emmeting energy it otherwise had to filter through your darkness.” “So I'm not depressed?” I ask curiously. “Cause honestly that sounds great.” “Yeah, pretty much.” Trinity said. “Finally.” I sigh out happily. “Feels like a massive weight is off my shoulders.” I tell her. “But while I am happy...are their any drawbacks?” “Well...for you, none off the top of my head. Welp, now that I am done training you, it’s time I head home and crash on my own bed for a spell. Later bro.” Trinity said as she teleported away. “Who do I have for Ethereal blades again?” I wonder to myself, completely forgetting about that while I got out of bed. “Eh, fuck it. I have wedding plans to help with.” I say while heading off for a shower first cause I reeked. After a quick shower and a new change of clothes I happily hummed and walked around my castle, seeing the colors of the castle being a bit brighter now. “Can't wait to marry them all….it's been too long.” I smile gently, but the things Joy told me that was really important seemed to be a massive pain in the ass...but right now Im glad to be happy right now. After a bit I opened the door to the kitchen, wanting something to eat. “Surprised at least Pinkie hasn't surprised me…” I mutter, wondering what those two be doing besides wedding stuff. I made myself a simple PB’N’J sandwich with some milk then sat down to enjoy my meal. I realized there was a Radio on the table so I turned it on. ”This just in, Now Nobodies are aiding the new found beings dubbed, Unversed, in Heartless attacks. Is there another besides the White Knight of Equis? Or has he somehow turned on us? Some witness speak of a black coated version of the Knight at the scenes of the attacks, but nothing solid has been confirmed. And now, the sweet, sweet vocals of Sapphire Shores.” “Oh…” I mumble, my happy mood starting to drop because of all the shit going on now. “First day of being happy...things are worse.” I mutter, eating my food. “I really should make a school to teach people...maybe Luxu can help.” I wonder. With my quick meal done I got up and did a bit of looking around. I saw some of my daughters, said hi and...somehow I am now at the world's largest Tea party. “Well...this is new.” I mutter, never actually having been in a tea party. It was nice to spend time with my kids. It was something I...didn’t do much of...at all now that I think of it. Man, wonder how Cript deal- Oh right, something about clones. ”Maybe I should try that cloning ability out sometime...at least it'll help give me time with my family...they deserve it.” I think to myself, really wishing I could spend time with my family but hero business always took up my time. Rejection sat atop a hill. There were many hills in this valley, all magic made. Memory served him right, that Monsters guild Ben had joined was here, and one by one it’s residents met their end. While the leader escaped, to his disatisfaction, he enjoyed the carnage. Their screams, all thinking he was here to just harm their master. No, he came to end them all with all he could kill dead, he incinerated the structure, all that was left behind was a scorched crater and ash. “Hmm Let’s see, what other worlds has Ben been too? Right, Knowhere… a den of criminals anyway, no one will miss it.” He said to no one, walking away from his work till he heard footsteps other than his own. He turned, Duskblade pointing to a hooded woman. “Spoiled Rich?” “Yes.” She replied, taking off her hood. “The real deal.” “So, what did I do to earn this punishment?” “Heh, so his sarcasm comes from you? Expected. I came to offer an alliance.” “For what?” “Information, something both Core and I find the constant need for. You have all Ben’s memories, I can give you resources, make you stronger, cruler.” “Interesting...and if I refuse?” “I’ll let you be on your merry way. After all, alliance or not, anyone wanting to harm these goodie goodies is a friend of mine.” “Hmm… Alright then, let’s cause some chaos.” Rejection said, smiling the Psychopaths smile yet again. To be continued...
Nobody's getting tired of chapter names“I should tell the public I'm not against them...but I also should ask Luxu about helping me make a Keyblader school...” I mumble while looking over my list. “But I also have to help with wedding preparations...and figure out what weapon I'm gonna train with next…” I mutter, pacing back and forth while trying to figure out what to do. “Feel happy, but damn do I have a lot of stuff to do.” I sigh out. “Well it should be easy to ease the public at least.” Celestia said, reading a book. “A public speech from me, you, and Luna should settle them enough.” “Besides, Drezke took your darkness out and now it’s going wild. Who knows what Rejection is out there doing.” Twilight added, writing something down in a notebook. “Ben!” I heard someone shout before Momonga teleported in with his Guild Leader staff, all his best gear, and what I thought was a giant bag of holding on his back. “What's wrong?” I ask him, the Elder Lich seeming like he just saw death itself. “Rejection...he killed everyone…” Momonga told me, making me go stock still. “Oh no…” I mutter. “Even with all their strength and abilities...even when they were resurrected...he cut them all down…” Momonga told me in honest fear. “I've...never seen anyone that strong.” “Mother of fuck.” I sigh out, rubbing my temple. “Damn...he works too fast…” “Why did he attack you though, also, Ben...who is he?” Rarity asked. “Girls, this is Momonga, leader of the guild Ainz Ooal Gown. He's a friend I met on a world travel. He's a human like me but...he became like that from different circumstances.” I explain. “Well...I see Ben wasn't joking.” The Elder Lich says honestly. “But why he attacked...he said he was ‘taking care of Ben’s good deeds’.” Momonga told us. “So...he’s trying to ruin Ben’s good name?” Pinkie asked. “Um, guy’s…” We all turned to the doorway, seeing Gilda walk in. “I was just in the garage and that ship that was Braig’s is...going nuts, like an alarm going off.” “Ah shit.” I frown. “Sorry girls, talk to Momonga and tell him about our world, maybe give him a keyblade I don't know.” I say before bolting off towards Braig’s ship, hoping Rejection wasn't destroying Knowhere. When I arrived there was a rather loud alarm going off and a red light flashing from somewhere. I ran in and managed to turn it off and saw there was a message on the display. I clicked play, and a video with that alien woman thing that told Braig and I about where to find masters and gave him that weird weapon appeared. ”Braig, if you’re getting this that means Knowhere’ going to hell in a handbasket. Some look-alike of your apprentice is here just wrecking the place! Him and some group of chicks with scythes like Ramilua are massecuring everyone. They’re using those freaky monsters too. If you’re getting this, don’t come back here. I’ll likely dead, and I’m sending you coordinates to my wearhouse. Take it all you horder. She chuckled as the video ended. “No…” I mumbled, not believing Rejection would do this. “God damn it…” I sigh out. “I saved all the monsters thankfully...that world is probably burned to the ground…” I sigh out, before leaving the ship. “Damn it to hell.” I mutter, wondering what other world he's going to burn so he can become a Psychopath if that grin means anything. “I should warn everybody.” I mutter while rushing off to my fiances and friend. As I ran back to the room with my wives and Momonga were...and ran into a room where Spoiled clones were each holding someone at Scythe point by their necks...and Rejection sitting across the room. “Hi there Ben.” He said, reading a book and turning the page. “Let them go.” I tell them. “Your fight is with me, not them.” I frown, trying not to look scared at my loved ones and friend being held captured. “Oh relax, I’m not going to kill them, that would just be too easy now wouldn’t it?” He asked as he turned another page. “Funny, the whole time we were here, the book we read some were parodies of ones from earth. Everything is fanfiction I suppose.” “That depends on how you look at it.” I frown. “But why are you killing so many innocents?” I ask, not sure what to do with everyone at blade point. “And why are you here?” “I’m killing them because it’s what we thought about. And I’m here to remind you of that fact.” “The hell are you talking about? I didn't think about killing any of them.” I tell him, honestly confused on what he was talking about. “The people of Ainz Ooal Gown, everyone that lived on Knowhere...I never once thought about killing them.” “Heh, lie to yourself all you want.” He said, tossing the book behind him. “But I remember. Every time someone picked on us, shoved us, hit us, we got a brief flash, a little clip show, them, dead, with us over them. Their blood on our hands, it became a subconscious habit after a time. Any time anyone did something that triggers a snap or snark from you, there was that clip show, and no one was safe from it. Not even your beloveds here, especially when they left to try and train on another world. Man, that was some dark thoughts.” “LIAR!” I shouted at him. “I would never do something like that! Never!” I barked, glaring at Rejection but knowing if I made a move to attack everyone would get hurt. “Ah, but here’s the proof.” He said, pulling out a castle oblivion card. He tossed it on the floor and some kind of holo screen popped up...showing memories of mine...but, they were people that I remembered picked on me...and from my perspective...I was murdering them. “Kids, adults, teachers, didn’t matter who, if they wronged you, you thought of how to kill them.” “LIES!” I barked, tears filling my eyes and shaking my head. “This isn't true, that isn't something I would do.” “Really? Then pray tell, why did the clone of you god left on earth go so rouge? He was like you in every way, and he’s a Psychopath now. This,” Rejection said, walking up to me and pointing at the holo screen playing those...things. “Is our true nature, we crave blood, murder, carnage. Why deny what you are when you’ve seen a you that embraced it?” “Because…” I growled, my hands shaking in rage. “Because…” I say again, looking around to all my fiances and friend. “Because I have a family. I have friends. And I'd be damned if I chose such a path that would harm the people I care about.” I tell him, starting to calm myself down. “I have people who love and care about me, not people that a dick waffle like you would see as blood bags waiting to be ripped apart.” I told him bluntly. “I deny what you say because I'm not a Psychopath, I'm not someone who loves mindless bloodshed, and I'm not like you who's been crippling my life when everything looked terrible.” I explained. “That person maybe me, but he's someone that lost all hope in life and decided to mindlessly kill everything. That’s.Not.Me.” Rejection chuckled. “Maybe.” He said, summoning his Duskblade. “But that’s because you’re lacking me now.” The Spoiled’s all vanished, my family and friend being released as Rejection just stood across from me. “We are a host for them Ben, weather you and I are together when they come to claim us or not is irrelevant. Also, I figured I’d give you something from my trip to Knowhere.” Rejection said as he reached into his pocket, and pulled out a heart. “It’s that weapon dealer that you met, felt sentimental, so…” Rejection hand then pulsated with darkness...and crushed it, shattering like glass and fading away. “Just thought I’d share her last moments with you.” Rejection felt something cut him from one cheek to another. “You just don't understand how to leave well enough alone…” I say, Reunion in my hand and dripping with darkness from cutting Rejection. Rejection felt the cut across his face, and smiled. “Now that’s interesting. Very interesting.” He said, a DTD opening under him. He fell in and it closed just as fast as it opened. Reunion disappeared and I looked at the ground where Rejection left. “And...he's gone…” I muttered, my shoulders starting to shake as I tried to keep my tears at bay. “Damn it...damn it all…” I whisper sadly, looking at the others. “You all okay?” I ask, fearing they'll see me as a monster from those…’memories’. “We’re good, though, we should be asking you that.” Rainbow said. “Man, they told us about the people you deal with...but actually seeing one of them is…” Silence then drew an invisible line across her neck. “Yeah, that.” Rainbow agreed. “This is why I didn't want any of you involved in my problems.” I tell them. “But...please believe me, I didn't think of what Rejection said or showed...I'm not a Psychopath who wants to kill everyone…” I say, bordering on pleading for them to believe me. “Relax Ben, we believe you.” Luna said, the others agreeing. “Yeah, that Rejection is just a meanie.” Derpy said. “Has nothing else better to do other than hurt other people.” “Yeah…” I sniffle. “God...I have a lot of work to do…” I say sadly. “I have to tell the public about a keyblader school to help train people...I need to keep myself from breaking down half the time...and I need to help with wedding preparations…” I sigh out and rub my temple gently. “We can address the public about the Keyblade school and Rejection.” Celestia said, Luna nodding. “It’s true, the both of us telling it will not gain a word speaking otherwise.” Luna added. “I can help keep you sane~” Derpy said almost sing songy. “And the rest of us are already brainstorming wedding ideas and researching the cultures of our other soon-to-be-brides home nations.” Rarity added. “True.” I nod gently. “But I need Luxu, Terra, Aqua and Ventus on bored...even though Ventus is with his real family if memory serves and I sadly forgot where Terra and Aqua are…” I sigh out. “Where's the library?” Momonga asks curiously. “Down the hall, five doors to the left.” I say while pointing it out, the skeletal lich nodding and heading off to do some much needed research. “So...what should I do right now?” I ask the others, not entirely sure what to do and feeling like crap at the moment. “I’ll be happy to help.” Derpy said, coming up behind me and giving me a hug. “Been going to special pregnancy yoga classes so let’s see how well those classes are paying off~” “You girls are insatiable sometimes you know that?” I chuckle, nuzzling Derpy lovingly. “But...something to help take my mind off of stuff like this would be okay.” When I finished up with Derpy...that yoga is totally paying off, I went to check on things. I ran into Pinkie and Twin eating cereal in the kitchen. “Hi Ben.” Twin said. “Hello.” I say with a nod. “How are you two doing?” “We’re doing alright.” Pinkie said. “Yeah, went to get the mail, Luna and Celestia left a bit ago to Canterlot to address the public about your Keyblade school being built and to inform them about Rejection.” Twin added. “Also, you got this.” Pinkie said, handing me a letter...from Daybreak. “I mean...I know Joy’s in Daybreak but wonder why I got a letter…” I mutter while taking the letter and opening it, wondering what the message was. Dear Ben, Daybreak Council is summoning you as per request of our science division for research involving Nobodies. Please at your quickest convenience, reply a denial or arrive to agree or deny the request. If you do participate, Daybreak will supplement you accordingly. Signed. Twilight Sparkle. “Well looks like I'm going to Daybreak.” I say while folding the letter. “Hooray...at least everyone's got things covered hopefully.” I sigh out while summoning Reunion and opening a DTL to Daybreak. “Tell the others I'll be back, just gonna do some things.” I say while entering the door and it closed behind me. As I exited the door and entered Daybreak I looked around. “Okay...so where be the science division?” I mutter to myself, wondering if I'll see Joy here as well. I started to walk around, wondering if the people here were okay from the attack Joy told me about. Aside from some damage to streets and buildings, Daybreak seemed fine, repairs were being done quick and without inconvenience to shops and such. The people were all walking around like that attack didn’t happen. I finally made my way to the castle and upon entering, a receptionist lead me to the science division. Once there I saw people in lab coats walking around all over the place. “Yo, Twilight called me here.” I say to the people in lab coats, hoping to learn why I'm needed. “Over there, down the lab by the floating heart.” I looked, seeing Ansem the Wise pointing me in the right direction. “Can't wait.” I mutter while walking in the right direction to the heart. “This will be an interesting conversation…” Walking down the lab, passed machines and other scientists, I finally found Twilight and a heart floating next to her, she looked up and saw me. “Oh, Ben. Good, you made it.” “Greetings.” The heart spoke...in Core’s voice. “Howdy Core.” I say. “Hello Twilight, what do you need?” I ask, wondering what Nobody business needed to be talked about. “Well, as you know Daybreak has a lot of information on all sorts of enemies, Heartless, Dream Eaters, thanks to the Foretellers retrieving that lost information, but we still don’t have much on Nobodies, and lately with the recent attack of some hybrid Nobodies and the appearance of 13 and a whole new type of what seems to be a Nobody parasite, we need all the data we can gather.” Twilight explained. “I have no idea about the Nobody Parasite. Also Joy explained some things to me while he was here during the attack.” I say. “So what kind of tests do you need done? Cause...honestly I haven't summoned Nobodies in a while to be perfectly honest.” I say sheepishly. “Well it’s simple, follow me.” Twilight said, leading me, Core’s heart following, somehow, to a large machine with thirteen large containers, two of which were holding things, one holding...a Nobody slug, and the other...Roxas? “They were retrieved by Joy in the attack, he got that slug out of 13 there, and he’s been unconscious ever since. The slug itself has some very strange qualities. Anyway, the eleven other containers just put one of each of your nobodies in them and the machine will scan and identify them.” I raised an eyebrow, curious as to why Roxas was there and unconscious with the slug. “That's strange…” I mutter before snapping my fingers, the containers filling with each Nobody besides Medics or that weird wolf Nobody I kind of forgot about. “Roxas said…” I trailed off, confused on how he was still here. “He can use Keyblades, we have them over there.” Twilight said, I looked over and on a table were an Oathkeeper and Oblivion. “They haven’t disbanded either. A Spoiled clone was controlling both him, and the hybrid Nobodies in the attack. This is the only slug recovered, so we don’t know what happened. Joy tried to control them, but they resisted.” “Joy told me that there are Heartless inside them…” I say, starting to think. “Maybe it's because the heartless taking over the Nobody...that stopped him from taking control.” “That’s what I theorized, and when the Nobody should have been killed, the Heartless took over, able to control both their abilities, and the Nobodies. One thing that was seen was that every Heartless that was seen inside a Nobody was a Pureblood, none were emblem heartless.” “Maybe it's because Purebloods can morph to fit certain things?” I ask. “I mean, Emblem Heartless have a more defined and solid body...Purebloods are just shadows given a solid form...maybe they just shoved Purebloods into the Nobodies, and the Nobodies were nothing but suits…” I say, thinking about how such a thing was possible. “Well, we theorized that it’s the lack of Hearts, Nobodies are bodies without a heart, and Emblem heartless are hearts take by darkness, but Pureblood Heartless are just darkness, no hearts, so there’s no risk of some fusion mishap.” “True.” I nodded. “Jeez...first they abuse Darkness, then Void...now they want to abuse Nothingness? They understand none of the consequences their heading towards.” I frown. “So, anything else you need besides the Nobodies?” I ask, hearing them ask about their hearts. “Yes, we need you to examine the Nobody slug Joy captured, it’s right here.” Twilight said, walking over and leading me to a capsule that held a Nobody slug. “As far as we do know, only sentient life forms can have Nobodies, we want to know if at all this thing was sentient, or somehow a parasite they made into a Nobody.” “Right then.” I nod before raising my hand up. “Haven't done this in a while…” I mutter while my hand glowed white, trying to get a feel for the slug and sense if it had a voice at all. “And if this doesn't work at all...then my assistant can help.” I mutter, hoping my powers can help more than just looking at the Assistant for everything. I listened, normally hearing something right away but...Something’s not right. “Greetings.” I opened my eyes. I was in a black void of sorts, and behind me was Spoiled sitting on an old stone throne. “I figured you’d mess with my Parasite.” “Ah, Spoiled.” I nodded. “How are you doing?” I ask casually. “Good, Core was holding back on us. He had some experiments he never even brought out. I’ve been having fun with them.” “Maybe it's because Core, even in his life, had some boundaries and didn't want you all to know the shit he does.” I suggest. She grinned. “Whatever the case, the slug that Parasite came from came from a world called Rapture, they had them inside little girls, producing some special chemical. So, Core managed to produce a Heartless version of it, and the Nobody version you are using. The heartless version once inside a host produces mass amounts of Darkness, and the Nobody version allows control over the host it’s in, alive, dead, Nobody...or Heartless.” “Of course.” I sigh out, rubbing my temple. “So, let me ask you this. Why are you still fighting the Light when there’s dozens of worse things out there?” I ask her simply. “Like say Psychopaths that will kill you and everyone you follow for shits and giggles.” “Yes, the Psychopaths...Core’s main goal, unstable, and far too risky, uncontrollable. I’m after their...lesser half, just as powerful, far more controllable. Insanities. A Psychopath host half able to carry all that mentality and pain, while they don’t gain all the fancy blood spills, they get twisted and turned into something just as evil.” “That doesn't solve the fucking problem though.” I frown. “That's like saying ‘I'm not gonna eat cheese cake cause I'm on a diet, let me just eat red velvet cake instead’. You can't have it both ways without something fucking up royally.” She chuckled. “Then it’s a good thing I have a friend in this regard.” She said, A person emerged from the shadows behind her. It was a teenage girl, thin, short, black hair, ash grey skin, red pupils, grey whites. “This is Kora, she’s a special race called Sub-humans. While Cript and his family said all that is good, they aid all that is bad in the worlds.” Kora nodded. “I offered Spoiled here the information to control the Insanities, how to produce one, and when she has one under her thumb, I’ll show her how to put a Psychopath on a leash.” “Let me ask...why are a ton of people blind?” I ask curiously. “Why do a ton of people cause such pointless fucking wars, knowing full well it's pointless, but continue anyway? Why do people believe they can just dick around with things way above what they know and get away with it? Why?” I ask them. “Since you two seem so smart here and believe this shit.” “It’s a fact Ben.” I turned around, seeing Cript walk up next to me. “Kora, you’re doing well.” “Creator.” She bowed. “Wait, what?” Spoiled and I both said, looking at the two. “Excuse me but...some explanations are needed here.” I say worriedly. “I know you’re an admin and you create things but...wat?” I ask worriedly. “It was a long time ago Ben… to put it simply, there is one Fact that binds all the realities and life itself together. Do you know what that fact is?” “It better not be fucking hatred.” I frown. “War. Before there was anything, there were Admins, the first ever of their race. They just existed, did nothing but wait for nothing to come in a time when there wasn’t even void. One day, one of them discovered Code, the building blocks of everything...and soon after, Death, murder. That gave birth to the Psychopaths, and War. They nearly wiped themselves out completely. Those who survived split their reality into the infinite we live in now, and split off into many groups. The group my old boss came from for a time lost Code, and found it again generations later, and generations for an Admin...it’s incalculable. Not all of them could use it properly, but those that could created their own realms, the original Admin of this realm made it to constantly create and operate without any overseeing whatsoever. “It was like that for eternity...till I came along, every reflections of me born to become a Psychopath or Insanity...save for me. My whole reason for existing was to tip the scale of balance, for the worst, but me defying my reflective destiny changed a lot, but I still tipped the scale, this time though...for good...or so I fully thought. I realized that War is a fact no reality can’t exist without, every world has war, it’s a Fact, like Psychopaths, Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel. All facts constantly being replayed in every way. When I beat my realms Cain, the first Psychopath in my realm, and Joshua, the first Insanity of my realm, I tipped the scales too much. Light was taking over darkness, stars grew too big, matter itself was becoming unstable, so, I spawned in countless Shadow Creatures to balance it out quickly, but it was temporary, I needed something that can keep my, and my families tipping the scales into the light even with darkness...and from there, I made the Sub-Humans, not directly to attack, just find darkness existing, and make it grow into something to start another war to balance out a realm. “Not my proudest moment, not by far, but necessary. They do what is needed to keep light in check, and I and my family do what is needed to keep the dark in check, a War neverending, for creation itself can’t exist without it. Sad and fucked up I know, but that’s Creation.” I looked at him, at the Sub-human, and at Spoiled. “Huh…” I start. “And here I told Core that books don't mirror life. But I guess I was wrong and how absolute bullshit everything is!” I bark and fling my arms in the air. “You can have balance without War! Why do people forget that, I mean fuck. War, as it has been explained by both songs, people, writing and history, is that war is, nine times out of ten, a massive mistake that can turn what once was supposed to do something important, into mindless bloodshed that helps no one!” I tell them. “I haven't been alive for fuck knows how long, but I know, for a fact, that life could continue in balance without War. Besides, it's shit like this,” I motion to literally nothing in particular. “That's causing all of this! Now I know you could say that War is a self fulfilling prophecy, and christ knows how bullshit easy stopping some of those can be, but come on. The more you feed War the more pointless it seems! Why feed into a damned idea when it does nothing more than kills and destroys so much and solves so fucking little!?!” I shout, barely knowing anything about the greater scheme of things and Cript knew that, but I needed to vent hard. “...A million years Ben.” Cript said, gaining my attention. “To prove a Fact wrong takes one planet to live without it for one million years. You think you can make a world, and make it go that long without War, or Murder?” Cript asked me. “Cause by proving a fact wrong, will cause all Creation to rewrite how it holds itself together, and what it could use might be worse than just War and Murder. Ben, in my opinion, we are already in the best option.” “My power is Nothingness, so I am outside the realm of Light and Darkness. Balance, Harmony, Equality, such things have been talked about, preached, represented, and so much more for so long...how can those be worse?” I ask him. “Everything has a good and bad side to it...but having Light look good and Darkness look evil in so many ways only makes the ‘best option’ look a tad worse. Shits not black and white.” I tell him. Cript chuckled, and gave me a smile. “I was hoping one of you kids would try and outdo me. Make me proud Ben, and here, a good luck charm.” He said, handing me a Keychain, it was a black Biohazard Symbol. “I’ll let you wrap this up, and Kora?” “Yes?” Kora asked. “Make things interesting, can’t be too easy for them.” She chuckled. “It’s what I was made for.” WIth that, both Kora and Cript vanished. “Well that was...informative.” Spoiled said. “So all creation is held by war...and you want to change that?” “Of course.” I tell her. “Someone's gotta do it, can't be like this forever.” I say honestly. “Only a blind retard would say everything is perfect while seeing world's be turned into barren wastelands covered in billions of corpses. Even if your the winner...would all the deaths, sacrifices, destruction, and loss be worth it? What would you do with all the power in your victory...and end up with nothing?” I ask ask her. “Laugh. After all, the Winner in this war, claims the life of All of Creation. I used to think life itself was rather pointless, so, might as well make it null entirely. Oh Rejection.” Someone grabbed my shoulder, turning around, I saw Rejection there...he was mutated, Dragoon wings sticking out of his back, an arm like a Berserker, and a mouth like a Dusks. “Till next time Ben!” Using his Berzerker arm, he slammed me to the ground. I blinked, nearly jumping as I found myself back in the Lab, Twilight next to me. “What happened, you were focusing for a while.” She asked. “Got an information dump, told a creator of existence I'm going to rewrite existence and show him facts are retarded…” I trail off and shook my head. “Just a bunch of things.” I say while looking at my hand, seeing the Biohazard keychain there. “Wonder why Cript gave me this…?” I think to myself. “Anyways, apparently those things are Parasites, made in Rapture. Nobodies can control practically anything, from Nobodies to Heartless, dead or alive.” I tell her. “Wow...that’s...amazing. Bad, but amazing! I’ll go inform Ansem and we’ll compile the data.” Twilight left, and I looked at the Keychain. Curious, I summoned Reunion. “Okay...let's see.” I mutter while switching keychains. “I hope I didn't fuck up.” I mutter worriedly. What appeared was a black Keyblade, black tendrils crawling up the handle, forming the blade and wrapping around each other rather tightly til it reached the tip, a large black biohazard symbol wrapped in the dark tendrils. I then checked the Assistant. Biohazards Curse. One of Cript’s Soul Blades, it gaines extra strength from the wielders own darkness. Att: 8 (Base) (With Darkness +0: No darkness in Wielder) Def: 5 (Base) (With Darkness +0: No Darkness in Wielder) Mag: 4 (Base) (With Darkness +0: No Darkness in Wielder) “Interesting.” I say while switching back to Reunion. “Getting more Keyblades technically but most aren't Nothingness based...not surprised though.” I mutter, putting the Biohazard keychain in my pocket. “So...what to do now?” I mutter, finally knowing the name of the thing God had that Core wanted. With that done I headed back home, finding Luna and Celestia with notebooks and calendars all around...they were thin too… ”I missed...a lot didn't I?” I ask them both. “No.” Luna said. “Den came by when you were gone and told us about this new thing they are doing called the Mother program. For every wife you have, a sort of combination clone is made, and stores all the babies. They will get birthed through us, but are safe in the clone at Cript’s house.” “Seems fitting, this way the girls can all pick back up Keyblade training.” Celestia added. “After all, fighting pregnant is...tricky…” “Ah.” I nodded. “So I had an...eventful time.” I shrug. “When do you not?” Luna giggled. “Come on, we’re planning dates.” “As in?” I ask. “And what about the people? Are the okay with everything?” “Yes, they have calmed down for now, and the School is under construction in New Manehattan. Luxu is currently training Sans and some of the new monster residents so they can be teachers. Should take him a month he said.” “And what about Ainz? He doing okay?” I ask. “He’s...dealing with the grief, but is studying all we have on Equestrian history.” Celestia said. I was about to say something, but a sudden loud explosion stopped me. “The hell?” I frown. “Wrong spell Twilight!” I heard Momonga tell Twilight, making me look outside the window and seeing Ainz with Crown of Guilt in one hand and his guild leader staff floating next to him, looking at Twilight with what could have been a grin on his skeletal face. “Sorry.” She replied sheepishly, looking at the crater where something used to be. “Well...looks like he's doing stuff.” I say with a little grin. “Twilight probably asked him about his magic...but who gave him a Keyblade?” I ask the two sisters. “Luxu.” Celestia and Luna replied. “He figured he’d be a good teacher also.” The sound of lightning hitting a tree happened. “Wrong spell Twilight!” Momonga laughed. “But I'm surprised you casted Call Greater Thunder.” He said honestly. “Well his spells are different then Equestria’s…” I mutter. “So anyways, I should probably go to New Manehattan to check on things there...and hopefully stop beating myself with the incident…” I sigh out. “Well first come here so we can schedule some dates, and by dates I mean when you’ll be picking up your extra wives.” Celestia said. “Yes, we sent letters to all the kingdoms and they all came back in agreeance, though the Zebra kingdom asked for a favor first before they hand you their eldest daughter in marriage.” “Oh, dating is always a think I have sadly skipped out on...which brings up the dates I missed with all of you besides Coco and Brigid.” I point out. “So, what's the favor?” “They require a special book, it’s something that was lost to them ages ago, but is believed to be somewhere in their kingdoms southern borders, though no one goes there due to both monsters having been there for ages, and now Heartless.” “Sounds like an adventure.” I nod. “What's the book? Special history? Magical tome? An old kings favorite lewd story?” I ask with a smile. “It’s from the Alicornian era, and the legends say it tells of weapons they believe relate to your Keyblade. If that’s true, it could be a lost piece of Keyblade history from before the war.” “Sweet.” I nod. “But first, dates. Gonna need to know the days I'll meet new ladies, plow, and then propose to as per usual.” I chuckle. “God I am way too fast with women…” I sigh out. “Well the Zebra lands will be the one that lasts the longest, so we’ll head there first next week, after that we hit the Merponies, and the Hippogriffs after that, then the Minotaurs, the Yaks, Saddle Arabia, and lastly the Deers. It should take up no more than a month and a half.” Celestia said. “Question...is there a ‘Queen of Monsters’ on this world?” I ask them curiously. “Cause while there are a lot of normal animals there are a ton of ‘monsters’.” I point out, putting quotation marks around monster. “Well…” Celestia started. “From what Chrysalis told me, there was once a royal family to the monsters, but the heir is in hiding after their parents were slain by Tirek over two thousand years ago. We can only assume they passed long ago. All Chrysalis knew about the Heir of Monsters was that they were a Centaur type beast like Tirek.” “So don't be surprised if I come home with a female centaur lady.” I tell them. “Cause if we know anything, sometimes the impossible happens near me.” I say with a smile. “I’ve come to love that about you.” Luna said, giving me a happy smile. “Then, we give the new brides a month to settle in, then the wedding.” “Right.” I nodded. “It's been long enough since I proposed, I'd like to be officially married.” I tell them. “So, first up, Zebrica.” “We leave for that next week, after all, we’re all going for this and Luxu wanted to talk to you, then Den was gonna stop by to show you our Mother...that sounds weirder than I expected.” Luna said. “Is it because you can now openly say you've tasted the Sun?” I ask with a cheeky grin. “Gross!” Luna yelled. “Tia may be my co-wife, but she’s still my sister.” “Yes...that was rather awkward Ben…” Celestia agreed. “Oh that's bad, but this isn't?” I ask, going into my pocket and putting Rune’s fetish book down. “I found it, she wasn't hiding it for some dumbass reason, and I looked at two pages, and was out. I can imagine all of you have a bunch of common likes in there.” I huff. “Well yes.” Celestia said. “Being bloated with babies leaves...not much else to do when you’re gone Ben.” Luna added. “Main reason why we accepted the Mother program was to do things easy and without worrying about the pretty much infinite bundles inside us. Why else did you think we were on you all the time?” “Because you women don't know what ’stop’ means half the time?” I ask. “I know you all enjoy our fun times but...sweet christ do you all need it a bunch, even before you were all pregnant.” “Well I’m just horny, Twilight was reading too much erotica, Pinkie is also just horny, and Rarity was happy to have a stable relationship.” “And Zecora, Honora, Derpy and Gilda?” I ask her. “I know Derpy can barely keep herself off me...but still.” “Well, Den set up the same thing for Joy and his girls, so he’s in for a surprise when he gets back.” Luna said. “A Mother program I mean. Gets those girls back into training.” “And the other thing you didn't mention.” I shrug. “But anyways, got to meet Luxu today right?” “That’s right big man!” Luxu’s voice called behind me, and I received a rather hard slap on the back. “So I hear your knot is finally getting tied.” “I'm not sure if your making a pun given I'm half dire wolf.” I frown. “But how you doing Luxu? Time doing okay?” “Yeah, she’s in Daybreak getting copies of some much needed books for the school. Anyway, I am here to tell you I am throwing you a bachelor party.” “And...did you happen to meet about thirty other people saying they want to help with their brothers bachelor party?” I ask, remembering either Trinity or Cript telling me the Admin side of my family would help throw me a bachelor party. “Yes actually, those of us that can attend this are making it...Can’t say, the rating on this story is too low.” “Well…” I start, looking off to the unknown fourth wall. “Eh, maybe they'll make a side story for all the lewd stuff.” I say. “Damn...I'm getting too used to people breaking the fourth wall.” I shook my head. “So, I’ll see you for the party the day you come back after wife collecting. FYI it’ll be off world for reasons I also can’t say cause of the rating. Later!” Luxu said, snapping his fingers as a DTL opened behind him. “See you then!” He said as he walked into it and it closed. “Riiiiight….” I mutter. “So...that's a thing.” “Well Den is gonna throw us a Bachelorette party.” Luna said. “So looks like we’re all gonna be having some fun~” “Right then.” I nod. “So after that, we got some more planning to work on here.” “We already have a Zeppelin being prepared.” Celestia said. “And I’ve been looking around for nannies...lots of nannies to take care of all the babies and kids. That includes Joy and his girls.” “I...doubt I could just summon Nobodies to help out right?” I ask nervously. “Well...I just prefer...Your Nobodies just creep me out.” Celestia admitted. “Okay fine.” I say. “Hmm…” I mutter, thinking about how I can help here. “I have a...stupid idea.” I say while taking off my cloak and summoning Reunion. The cloning ability Cript showed me coming to mind and knowing full well how it works. “Now don't panic…” I say before taking a deep breath to steel my nerves. I quickly cut off my left arm, hoping this starfish clone thing will work. “Ben what the?!” Celestia and Luna yelled. ”THAT HURT!!!” I yelped mentally, my arm on the ground beginning to grow while...I grew a new arm. After a few minutes there was a new arm on me...and another me… ”Wow...I can see through his eyes too as well as mine...that’s...weird….wonder if this is how Spiders see?” “...Okay...how?” They both asked, looking between me and my naked clone. “First, I need clothes.” My clone says nervously, his face beat red. “It's an ability Cript showed me. Helps be a father to all the children.” I say while flexing my newly regenerated arm. “Fuck that hurt.” I frown. “Works like starfish regeneration, but it's like I'm in two places at once in more ways than one.” I say while giving my clone a cloak to cover himself at the moment. “So...any questions besides that?” “So...he’s another you...are you two linked in any way?” Luna asked. “Like, telepathically or…?” Celestia continued/asked. I think about it, but also hear my clone think as well. “I believe it works like my connection with Joy mentally, and I can also ‘take over’ the clone so there's that…” “And we won’t know if you-you...are with us cause I’m assuming they are like you in every way?” “That’s right!” We all turned around, seeing Den walk in. “You each get your own Ben, exactly like him, which means no waiting for turns in the bedroom.” That made Celestia and Luna look at one another. “Don't change gender though.” I frown. “I don't know what would happen if you did that and I'd rather not learn that.” “They become their own person.” Den said. “It changes them from the other clones so they begin to become their own persons.” “Right then.” I nodded. “I'm gonna get changed real quick.” My clone says before bolting off. “So now there's a second me running around.” I nod. “If those clones mean little to no sharing in bed we all better be getting one.” Luna said. “I admit, won’t be lonely when you’re gone, we each get our own you...and if we want to get kinky hey, there’s more than one you to go around~” Celestia said with a grin. “No.” I frown. “But I also made a clone so...I could be the father I sadly can't be most of the time.” I sigh out sadly. “Alright...but don’t be surprised if you wake up and we each have one of our own.” Luna said. “I will cut you.” She said with a chuckle. “That's wrong...in too many ways.” I shake my head, feeling disturbed, saddened, and creeped out at how she so casually said it. “Relax, I’m joking...But I really hope you do that for us, waiting for Pinkie to say she’s done so you can move onto the next one of us is kinda annoying, I mean, sure Rarity, Twilight and some of the others, we fool around waiting for you but still…” “I know.” I nod. “Trust me, I know.” I chuckle. “But don't expect me to do it often, cause that really hurt.” I tell them. “We’ll give you some time, at least now with two of you in bed it will go better. We’ll give you some time then.” “Well, now that that’s taken care of I’m here to show you your and Joy’s Mother program, come along Ben.” Den said, opening a portal with a wave of her hand. “Right.” I nod. “See ya later.” I wave to Celestia and Luna before entering the portal. When Den and I came out there were...babies. Babies everywhere. All in their own beds sleeping or playing with stuffed animals. “This is the Nursery, literally the safest place here in the house, to get in here, you have to either be one of Cript’s wives, registered kin, or licenced Nanny, nurse, etc.” “For some reason ‘Lammy’ comes to mind being a nanny here.” I say. “Not sure way...maybe it's because of UmJammer Lammy…” I mutter, thinking of that old PS1 spin off game of Parappa the Rapper. “They’re this way.” Den said, leading the way through the ENDLESS isles of infants. “Ba!” I looked at my feet, and saw a small black coated, red maned pony foal there looking up at me. “Hello.” I smile gently at the small foal, noting the foal had four hooves instead of like the ponies on my world. “Ba!” He said again. “Blake, you little sneak.” Den said, picking him up. “Now where’s your sister?” “Bo!” I nearly jumped back as a red coated filly crawled out from my cloak, she had a white mane with a green strip that went around and behind her ear. “Sneaky little foals aren't they?” I chuckle a little. Den took the filly also. “Ben, this is Nyx, and Blake, the first babies born in this family ever. Technically they should be like, five now but they’re as powerful as Cript so they actually keep themselves as babies for fun.” The foals then giggled. “Well whatever makes the two happy.” I smile. “Yeah, occasionally they are the age they should be but majority of the time they’re in their foal forms. They like to explore.” “Must be a small pain to keep track of these two while they try exploring a bunch.” I say. “Heh, we don’t even try anymore, they vanish for a little bit and come back with pets, random stuff….and a new wife for Cript once...that one we were weirded out by.” “Honestly...if I was in that situation I would have laughed.” I shrug. “Just seems so out there, two adorable baby's helping get their father a wife? That seems both touching, a tad weird, and funny at the same time.” “I know, woman wasn’t sure what happened either, one minute she’s fighting dragons to save a village on her world, next these two appear, turn the dragon into a kitten and bring her here.” I chuckle at that. “Wow, that is funny.” I smile. “But...how do you all manage to take care of so many kids?” I ask curiously, so many adorable children being adorable around me. “Same as Cript manages us, clones. Around us are just the newborns, we actually have a whole dimension filled with clones of each wife, and Cript, where we raise them with one or two of their siblings in the same roof...hard to explain but we parent them all, each wife has a whole world in that dimension filled with clone them, a Cript, and one to three kids to raise under each house, and they all come here to learn when they’re old enough. Time is also weird in that dimension, sometimes they’re ten for five years, sometimes the next day comes along here and they’re eighteen already.” “Things are weird.” I shrug. “But I have a Mother to find?” “Yes, now run along you two trouble makers.” Den said to Blake and Nyx, who giggles before vanishing in a puff of smoke. Den chuckled. “Kids.” With that we walked a time longer before we came across a floor mat...everywhere else was soft rug. Den and I both stood on it before I blinked and we were now in some kind of...hallway? There were pods, not like the ones from Kingdom Hearts, more like...cryogenic pods. There were three pods, and Den walked me to the second one, which held a pony mare sleeping inside it, she had golden hair, and was white coated like Celestia. “This is your Mother.” I looked down, realizing A, she’s naked, and B, she’s got the nine month pregnancy belly. “Huh…” I mutter. “So...this is the Mother...mind if I get an explanation on somethings about her?” I ask curiously. “Sure, what do you want to know?” “To start of with...who is she?” I ask. “She’s sort of a clone, when your wives all agreed to being in the Mother Program, DNA was collected to make her. She’s a mix of all your current wives, and any new wives gained she will acquire their DNA magically, and become linked to them so you knock both her and your wives up, think of it as despite screwing different women, they all now share a womb, her.” “Why is she in cryosleep?” I ask. “Well that’s because she technically is a vegetable. The Mothers, when being made, their DNA also gains them the memories of everyone that makes them up...they can’t handle that, they get confused and try to mix their identities or pick one in particular and fail. Having them sleep here, it’s easier for them, otherwise they’d drive themselves mad trying to make an identity.” “That's...upsetting.” I say worriedly. “I know, Cript is trying to workaround the issue so they can be a part of the family’s they hold the infants for, but dealing with memories is a mix of the mind and the heart, something Cript doesn’t have that much experience in. So far wiping their memories would work, implant basic ones so they can be normal, like waking up with amnesia, but that’s not all that much better.” “Have you tried...ya know talking to them about it?” I ask. “Being there for them and helping them sort through everything?” “Yeah, the first Mother prototype...well, she wasn’t connected to us yet, and she left. Having all our DNA, memories...and some of our abilities. She just...vanished. Cript is looking for her, but she’s part admin, DNA of his. We have no idea where she is.” I thought for a moment. “I sadly don't know all my mother's but...where's the first and last place you would look for her?” I ask. “Cause she has all your memories...I think...and I'm not a philosopher or anything...but I think she's searching for something important...something to make her feel...like her.” I say, not sure if I'm correct or not just feeling like it was the right thing to say. “She’s got all of Cript’s wives memories...there’s countless of us, and when she was made there were about a billion back then… We just have to find her and hope she isn’t in trouble. It’s...weird, really. The wives, Cript, we all did this one thing where we all fuzed into the same body, that’s where the Mother Program idea came from, but we operated perfectly. Can’t figure out what’s wrong.” Den sighed. “Anything else?” “One of my fiances said that they can still give birth through themselves if they want...is that true?” I ask curiously. “Yes. The babies are made in your wives, once conceived the fertilized eggs are sent into her, where they grow into babies, then when they want to give birth, a Baby, randomly picked, get put back into them, and is birthed out naturally.” “Right.” I nodded. “Will there...ever be a time when I can meet her as a person?” I ask. “That’s what Cript is working on, he just needs to find that missing link that can let them have all those memories, and form an identity of their own. After that they can come out, talk, be with others, but funny enough can’t have sex.” “What did your Mother look like?” I ask Den. “I'm just curious is all.” I say, thinking about what I could do to help out. “Like her.” Den said, pointing over to the first pod. Inside was a small human woman, with the same golden blond hair as my Mother. “That’s also how we all looked when we fuzed.” “Have you dived into their dreams?” I ask Den. “I'm not good at dreams but…” “Yeah, it’s playbacks of memories on loops. Over there is Joy’s Mother.” Den pointed to the last pod, where a much younger wolf girl was. She also had the gold blonde hair, but was a wolf girl. “Huh...well too bad Joy isn't here to see this.” I say simply. “Yeah. Don’t know where the gold hair comes from though.” “Humanity?” I ask curiously. “Isn't it's colors blue and gold?” “No, Humanity power, raw, typically has a dull white color.” “Ah…” I say with a little nod. “Then...I've got nothing.” I shrug. “I barely understand this whole thing, and I'm the guy who is telling people that I'm gonna do the impossible like a jackass.” “Heh, well, good luck with that. Come on, let’s got you home.” Den said, opening a portal that we both walked through. I exited and saw my clone there, wearing just jeans and a shirt with a big number two on it. “Yo.” My clone says. “Yeah this isn't gonna get awkward anytime soon.” I sigh out. “Anyways, I'm home...technically.” I call out sheepishly, letting the others know I'm here besides my clone. “Well that didn’t take long.” Celestia said, sorting out papers. “I’ve had your clone helping me but I still feel like something in these orders are off?” “What do you mean?” I ask. “Do I need to get Twilight to sort things out again?” “Here, read this.” Celestia said, handing me one of the papers. Materials Order Form 900 Oricalculum Plus 700 Oricalculum 700 Mythril Crystal 700 Dense Crystal 700 Twilight Crystal 800 Serenity Crystal Please deliver directly to the Royal Guard Armory upon arrival to the palace. “The guard early orders raw materials, especially in such bulk. The rest of the forms state they’re to improve enchantments and durability of their weapons and armor, but typically we send them to the Blacksmiths over in Filiedeflhia.” “Either someone wants to mass produce Ultima Weapon keyblades...Luxu put the keyblade forge their for some dumbass reason...or something very bad is gonna happen.” I say worriedly. “I should head up to Canterlot and look into this...I found some reports for raw materials hidden away by one of the blacksmiths in Canterlot...I knew something was going wrong...“ “But don’t you need a Moogle to Synthesize an Ultima Weapon?” My clone asked. “For as long as we’ve been here, we haven’t seen a one.” “That...raises several questions on where Moogle’s are in this reflection but all you need is the materials, a keyblade forge, and a good blacksmith to make shit.” I say. “I'll be back, I gotta make sure our world isn't selling bad guys materials to start a war.” I say, opening a big window and summoning my glide and rushing off to Canterlot, wondering what sort of conspiracy is going on. “Have the materials arrived yet?” A stallion in royal guard armor asked another. “Yes Lieutenant Spear, we’re having our guest craft the weapons as we speak.” “Good.” “Also, sir...she’s in your office.” “Ah, I was expecting her.” Spear said, heading off into the castle, past the guard barracks and training rooms, into his office. When Shining armor got married to Princess Cadence and became a prince, he took over the guard, but was still ranked Lieutenant since Shining kept his Captain position, despite being a prince. Inside his office, once the door was closed, a small, cloaked figure appeared. “Greetings, where’s Spoiled?” “Had other matters to attend to.” They spoke, their voice that of just a young girl. “Ah, so, did you bring them then?” The small figure raised her hand, and appeared a Kingdom Key. “Grand.” “Making them was easy once we finally acquired the proper fuel, Castle Oblivion began pumping out the copies with max results, sadly though, they are still just fakes.” She said, tossing Spear the False Kingdom Key. “Fake or not, they will be enough to drive away the Heartless and Nobodies the White Knight can’t get to, after all, he’s too busy screwing the Princesses to patrole what’s left of Equestria. So, just replace the Keychains and-” “They will change, though, they won’t be as strong as the original.” “I see. Well, no matter, once this has been completed Spoiled will have her side of the deal.” “Remember, Ben’s not going to fall easy.” “I’m aware. But Rejection will get Ben’s heart, and we’ll see how the prince of Nobodies takes being one himself.” To be continued...
Nobody's whole“The guards better not be going behind the people's backs.” I mumble while landing near the royal guard barracks, worried the guards are working for Spoiled so they could protect them from things like Spoiled. “Lets hope I'm wrong.” I mutter while walking in, hoping to meet the head guard, summoning my shield just in case. One of them spotted me, his mane was blue and his coat orange. “Oh, White Knight, or should we be calling you Prince now considering…?” He asked. “All of my fiance’s are pregnant yes.” I tell him. “But calling me prince? Well if you want considering the guards got a shit ton of raw materials without rhyme or reason given.” I say simply, looking around the place with my guard up. “I know I'm not around as much as I should, but life and much worse things keep me busy.” “Oh that, come on, I can show you.” He said, leading me into the warehouse, where I saw ponies of all kinds hammering on armors and weapons. “The Guard got a bonus for our budget to go towards weapon improvements, magic enchanted gems and magical materials are hammered into the weapons and armor to increase their durability, and damage. Been something we always talked about but never had the funds for till now.” I nod. “Sounds good. I suppose you all heard Celestia and Luna talk about the Keyblader school I'm going to open?” I ask him. “Yeah...actually, it’s where the extra funding came from...after Manehattan, us no longer having to spend bits on training for officers up there there was...extra…” He said, trailing off. “At least some good came out of it.” ”Then who's the fuck peddling off the materials to the bad guys to give you all Keyblades?” I ask him simply, taking a shot in the dark here. He gave me a look of pure confusion. “Um...come again?” “Celestia and Luna told me the massive amount of materials would be going to Fillydelphia to be worked on by the blacksmiths there, not here, and especially in such bulk.” I tell him. “Don't you think that's a bit strange? That so many materials in such bulk was being sent here instead of the usual blacksmiths?” “I...still don’t know what you are talking about...But our usual blacksmiths are going under, Manehattan was their main supply line, and with it gone they had to pay more for direct deliveries for their materials and couldn’t afford it anymore...and what in bulk? There was only a hundred or so Mythril gems sent to boost the armor and weapons.” “Where's the highest ranking guard here?” I ask him simply. “That would be Lieutenant Spear, after Captain Shining and his wife went to the Crystal Empire to help it get back on track and modern, he was assigned in charge.” “Where can I find Lieutenant Spear? Cause he's hiding a lot of shit.” I frown. “Uhh...His new office is past the barracks, just down the hall that way.” He pointed me in the direction and I headed there quick. “Shit, this cheeky fuck probably made a deal with Spoiled already.” I mutter, rushing quickly to the office. ”If he's peddling off materials...shits not going to end well.” I think to myself worriedly. I arrived at the office and knocked. “Come in.” I entered, seeing an older, hardened stallion there, his mane a dark violet and coat a pale pink. “White Knight, what brings you to my office?” “You mean besides the fuck ton of materials your peddling off to the people that want to destroy this planet?” I ask. “If not just that did you hear about the fact I'm opening a keyblader school?” “My lad, I have a feeling you don’t trust me.” He said, almost grinning. I show him the paper listing all of the materials he got. “I have ten copies back home, so let me ask why one guard told me you only got one hundred mythril gems and this entire list in non-existent?” I ask him simply, knowing this is a trap. “Ah, Well those materials are for a special side project my lad. You see, I came across a recipe for something called an Ultima Weapon, naturally it intrigued me, and when I made it, I was rather disappointed all I got was this.” He said, pulling out a Keychain from his pocket. “Then, I did this.” He said, putting it on his sword, and it changed into the Ultima from Kingdom Hearts one. “And was rather happy.” “Listen…” I sigh out. “I know why your doing this, believe me I do...but you do know the consequences of giving someone wanting to destroy all life as we know it materials and a side of the deal.” I tell him. “This war is a lot bigger, and much worse than you think.” I say, readying to summon Reunion at a moment's notice to protect myself from him or the person who's obviously going to appear behind me. “Lad, were using all these materials to produce these.” He said, shaking Ultima. “After all, if all the guard and officers in the land have weapons like yours, wouldn’t that make things easier for you?” “And where did you get a Keyblade forge?” I ask. “I don't remember Luxu telling me anything important like that.” “My lad, we don’t have one. We have a friend crafting them for us.” “Spoiled Rich?” I ask him simply. “Or one of her followers that want to see all life die.” He seemed to flinch, barely noticable. “No, but I’m glad you asked, please, follow me.” He said, getting up and leading me out of the office. Walking back across the hall, and reached a door that had a number pad code lock. He entered the code and it opened. Inside the room was boxes of Ultima Weapon Keychains, materials...and a Moogle? “Found the little guy wondering the streets, said he was looking for work, a place to set up a shop. We made a deal, he crafts and sells us the items he wants, he gets the money, and so far it’s worked out great.” “I'll give you a hundred million money and a bigger and better shop.” I tell the Moogle, wondering if it was a real Moogle of it reacted to such a gift. “Nah, I’m good here.” The moogle replied, floating over to the materials and grabbing some. “Been here a week and already I’m a Master Synthesizer!” “Cool.” I nodded. “So Lieutenant, tell me...how do you know Spoiled Rich?” I ask simply. “And don't lie, I saw you flinch. I bet Rejections hiding here somewhere for the obvious ambush cause he really wants my head.” “Hm, glad you asked.” He said, snapping his fingers and the door closed and locked behind him. “You see, my name isn’t just Spear, it’s Speared Milk...Spoiled was my sister…then Manehattan...and then, she came back from the dead.” “Oh~.” I say. “No wonder why your so eager to help her kill everyone, including your niece, who you completely forgot about when she nearly killed herself in grief over her death, and Silvers death. Good thing Joy saved her though...she's a great kid.” I tell him simply, summoning Reunion and preparing for a fight. “Dating Joy actually, never seen her so happy.” “Yeah, I never gave a crap about that needy little twit. The sister I lost in Manehattan loved her, but I didn’t. I was never close to my family, in fact, when I heard about Spoiled being a victim of Manehattan, I laughed. The Spoiled that came to me, I think her more kin than the one I was given. I’d almost say I care for her. Almost.” I sigh out. “But of course you're one of those crazy people. So, what did you promise Spoiled? My head? My heart? The world itself?” I ask him simply, my senses on high alert for anything. “I promised her your heart, so that other you Rejection can crush it, and leave you a Nobody. From what I am told you are the prince of Nobodies, so why not become one?” “Rejection should have already said I was one already.” I said simply. “Come on out Rejection, I know your going to pull some cliche bullshit on me here.” I frown, ready to defend myself against the abomination. “He’s not here, and personally I’m glad, quite the ugly little shit he’s let Spoiled turn him into. And all for you, my my, the fans you gather.” “Oh trust me, I get a lot of fans, some that are good, and some that aren't good.” I say. “So...what are you going to do now? Fight me or something?” “Nah. I feel it’s clear to anyone, I’m outmatched, my blood will be on your hands, turn me in, the guard will be in chaos, right now we are barely keeping those gangs at bay. Kill or turn me in, the guard falls into disorder, long enough for them to step up, take over. Care to take that risk?” “Funnily enough I can actually take that risk.” I say simply. “And it could take...about twenty minutes or so before shit hits the fan.” I tell him. “So, willing to come quietly?” I ask, knowing full well somethings gonna happen. “Nah, I’d rather make it harder for you.” He said, taking out a dagger...and slicing his throat, falling over dead. I frown, buying a Phoenix down and using it on him, reviving him as I took away his weapons. “Not happening today douche canoe.” I say while binding his hands in light chains. He didn’t say anything, in fact he was rather...too silent. I looked at his eyes, seeing they were...empty. I then looked at his dagger, which was now flashing white...fast. “Fuck.” I mutter while encasing the thing in Nothingness, Light and Ice to keep it from causing a massive explosion. Not convinced, I grabbed the moogle and got out of there, just in time for it to go off, the whole side of the building exploding, the already made Ultima Weapon Keychains shooting out everywhere like shooting stars across the sky. “Oh boy...that’s not good.” The moogle said. “How bad is it?” I ask, having a feeling that was a signal of some kind. “Please tell me it's not as bad as I think it is.” I say worriedly. “Well, uh… Those Keychains, if attached to anything will become a Keyblade, and it looks like they’re shooting out all over the city...maybe even passed it, so...bad. Damn, I am so getting in trouble with my supervisor…” “What the fuck do you mean?” I ask worriedly. “And your supervisor isn't the one you should be worried about here.” I tell him, holding him and rushing to find some guards to explain things and keep it together. “I mean, they were going to attach them to some fake Keyblade some small cloaked girl gave Spear, last I knew he handed them to certain pony people, then deliver them their Keychains...to make them stronger, though still fake… He left out the part where they can attach to anything and make a body for themselves, so...look out for folks with Kingdom Key’s….” “Mother of fuck.” I mutter, rushing over to the barracks. “Everyone!” I call out to all the guards, hoping to gather their attention. There were no guards or staff of any kind anywhere. “Huh, guess they skedaddled when the building went boom.” The moogle said. “God damn it…” I growled, getting my clone to tell everyone at home what's going on as I rushed outside. “Let's hope the guards aren't busy.” “...Wanna get lunch?” The moogle asked. “Seriously? Bad shit is happening and you want to get lunch?” I frown. “Also that begs the question, where are all of you? I kinda thought you all had shops in every world?” “We got called back to homeworld for inventory updates. Takes a month but it’s worth it, now we’re scattering all about again.” “Ah.” I say. “Well looks like your gonna need a new shop.” I say while exiting the barracks and looking around for the guards. I saw people all around looking at the display...and in the back of the crowd, I saw Rejection. He looked...normal, but even with the distance I felt something off about him...something that made my k9 senses scream unend. “Okay people!” I call out. “I know you have several questions on why a part of the barracks exploded, and I will get to those questions.” I say while letting of the Moogle. “But I have something to take care of.” I say while flying up in the air and staring at Rejection the entire time. ”Damn it...I got to get him away from the people…” I think to myself worriedly, trying to think of a way to get him away from them without them getting hurt. He looked back at me, smiling. He waved, then walked into a DTD that opened up behind him, and it stayed open. “This is a bad idea…” I mutter while flying down, near the DTD, making sure other people wouldn't get near it, and entered through it to find where Rejection wanted me. When I entered, I exited on a...Station of Awakening, Both Rejection and I posed on it like Ventus and Vanitas in the final battle. “Figured it’s time we...rejoin.” Rejection said, standing across from me. “Winner gains total control over us.” “Hey, you won't hear my depressed thoughts anymore.” I say simply. “Having a light only heart...helped me through some stuff. So, you really want to fight this out instead of doing this like sensible people and not fight?” “Oh relax, I know I’m losing this fight.” He said, taking a step back. “I know, that despite all the hell I’ve done to screw with you, all the pain I put myself through! You. Won’t. Fail.” He took another step backwards. “So I can’t win...but I can give it my all...and let something worse fight for me.” He said, turning around and jumping off the edge of the Station. “Bind!” I shout, thrusting my hand out and a massive line of Nothingness Thorns shot out, trying to grab Rejection before he could do something terrible. They missed, and he fell down. I ran over to the edge, seeing only darkness for all the way down...til a massive beam or red and black energy shot back up. All my animal instincts were screaming, telling me to run and don’t look back. I actually took a few steps back because of it. I saw a hand grab the edge of the Station, then...Rejection crawled over, his body moved twisted and...wrong...and his eyes were solid black with red cat like slits...reverse of Psychopaths. “Insanity?” I ask worriedly, raising my shield and readying Reunion. It looked at me, then began to...try and fix itself up right...cracking and breaking bone sounds with every movement, finally, it was up on two feet...standing backwards...then his head spun around, a sickening crack as it did and it smiled facing me. ”sO niCe to SeE yoU.” “The fuck are you?” I ask it, trying not to feel sick at all its cracking and how it's basically some horror movie monster. It laughed. ”I’M yOu beN. YoUR daRknEsS. All thE pAiN of beComInG a PsYchoPatH, nOnE of thE tRue poWer. I’m twIsTed bEn.” It said, walking towards me, it’s knees making a crack with it’s backwards steps. ”I’m SicK.” He said, his hands grabbing my arms...his fingers breaking as he bent them the wrong way. ”lEt mE joIn. LeT mE be whOlE.” His face was in front of mine. ”LeT Me kiLL eVeryThiNg.” I look at the twisted amalgamation. “Your not Rejection.” I tell him, remembering what Zeke could do with a balanced heart, and given I have a full light heart…”You just need some help.” I say while remembering his heart would be on the right side if he's quite literally backwards. “Just bear with it.” I say before stabbing the middle of his ‘chest’. “Reject Darkness.” I say, hoping this will work and I don't need X for this specific thing. Light came from my hand, through my Keyblade, and into the Insanity. It’s whole body straightened out as Light glowed from it’s eyes and mouth and it screamed. When it all faded Rejection fell back...his body beginning to fade. “Heh. Knew you’d win...you bitch.” He huffed. “You’s a bitch.” I joke, gently putting my hand on his head. “Come on, time to go home.” “Heh, your home. All I do is make you feel like shit for stupid crap. Just let me fade.” “That's not gonna happen you stubborn bastard.” I frown. “I'm depression free, apparently mind over matter is a thing.” “Hah. That’s a laugh. Let me back in if you want, all I want to do right now is...sleep.” Rejection said, closing his eyes. “Get your sleep buddy.” I say gently while letting Rejection back into my heart to help save him. “And when you wake up...you'll see a much brighter side of our life.” Rejection turned into pure dark sludge, which flowed back into my chest, the Station of Awakening glowing a bright white, and when it faded, there was only me, posed like Sora, circles with all my girls, Joy in his own lower on the image, and my weapons taking up any space left. I looked where Rejection was, and saw a Keychain there. It was small, smaller than most I’ve seen, being just what seemed to be a black cloud. “Hmm…” I mutter while switching Reunions keychain with this new keychain, wondering what it'll do. It changed into a Keyblade with what seemed to be two Flood unversed making up the handle, dark something being wrapped in Nothingness thorns, keeping it still, and the Insanity’s eye at the tip, blood flowing off of it. I checked my Assistant. Darkness Sleeps. A Keyblade with terrible power, allowing the wielder to inject enemies with Darkness from the wielders own heart. Att: 15 Def: 7 Mag: -10 Special Ability: Reject Light. “Right then.” I nod, taking off Darkness Sleeps and putting back Reunion. “Not gonna use that for a while hopefully.” I mutter, putting the keychain in my pocket and opening a DTL. “Better get back and set some shit straight before things end poorly.” I mutter, walking into the DTL and going back to Equestria. When I exited the door I was back in Canterlot. “Okay...better start here…” Looking around I saw few ponies still around, most just taking in the look of the damaged buildings, others just taking peaks to see if there was anything more deeper in the building. “Yo.” I say to the people. “I suppose some of you are wanting some questions?” “What...exactly happened?” One of the people asked. “An explosion happened.” I say simply. “Caused by a bad guy.” “But, that was the Royal Guards building...Have the guard turned on us?” That got a lot of not-so-quiet murmuring going. “No they have not.” I state bluntly. “The royal guard are loyal and care for their people, it's too bad that who caused the explosion wasn't loyal or cared about the people in anyway shape or form.” I tell them. “The Royal Guard have given up much to protect the people they swore to protect, one lone man can't make the entirety of the people that fight and die for your safety be all for not.” “Then where are the guard now!? Why aren’t here quarantining the area or something!?” It was then that I looked around...not a single guard in sight. I frowned. “Maybe because the explosion caused something bad to happen that needed their attention. Believe me.” “OH MY STARS!” We all turned around, seeing a mare scream looking down a nearby alley. I ran over...and felt sick. The guard, all of them, other staff too...dead, slaughtered worse than if an animal had done this. On the wall was a message. Protect them all, Heir of Nothing. “Mother of Fuck!” I shout, my clone telling the girls at home urgently that the guard is dead. “Not good...so not good.” I mutter, trying to think about all the places that could be under attack right now. “g...Gah!” I looked at the pile of bodies, an arm crawling out from under them. I ran and pulled, seeing that one I initially talked to there, a gash across his throat, but not too deep. “B-bitch.” He spat. I cast Cure on him and trying to get him back to full health. “Don't strain yourself.” I say worriedly, hoping I got to him fast enough. He was breathing heavily. “It happened so fast, one moment you left for the office...next I’m in the alley, some small crazy kid or something in a black cloak sliced my throat with a sword that...looked like it was made of flowers.” “Well shit.” I frown. “Don't worry, I'll get you healed and feeling better quick...but the families…” I mutter sadly, feeling bad for everyone that died needlessly today as I cast Cure on him again to try and keep in okay. “I got a sister up in the Crystal Empire on Vacation, mom and dad died about two years back. By the way, name’s Flash, Flash Sentry.” “It's good to meet you Flash, but your not dying today.” I say bluntly. ”Could I revive them all? Or have they passed on?” I think to myself worriedly, deciding to do something and using my Assistant to check a dead body to see if they could be resurrected or not. Resurrecting the dead. Depending on decomposition, the dead can be brought back to life one of several ways. Sacrifice, a life for a life. Philosopher's Stone. A Deal with a Demon Necromancy Beating Death in a Battle Dragon Balls Wish Stone Entering the Afterlife and Retrieving the Souls personally. “Good to know but doesn't really answer what I'm asking.” I frown, knowing these bodies have been torn to shreds but wondering if they could be brought back. “You know what, fuck it.” I mutter while buying a bunch revival items and using one of said items on a dead guard in hopes it'll work. None I got worked. “Revival items my ass.” I grumble. “Christ...well I have a lot of families to sadly talk to.” It took some time, but doctors and medics all helped move the bodies and they began cleaning the area. One doctor said he’d send me a list of the deceased guards names when he identified them all. For security reasons, the guard largely wore enchanted armor, making them look almost identical to one another. Most did, not all. I came home and saw someone I...didn’t expect. Well, two someones. Prince Blueblood, and Cadence, Blueblood drinking a beer and Cadence Crying with Celestia and Luna sitting with her, I looked towards another couch and Twilight was crying too, my clone comforting her. “Shining better not be dead.” I frown worriedly. “Cause...I've dealt with enough death as is…” Celestia and Luna gave me this look...and I hit the nail on the hammer. “A black coated child appeared and...decapitated him. The whole of the crystal guard too.” Celestia said. “This was for you.” Luna said, handing me a note. I took the paper and wondered what the assailant could have done here. When I opened it, there was a single word. A name. Ben. I was confused, til a bright light flashed over me, and I found myself in the clearing of the woods. “Hey there pal.” I looked up...and saw that older, Psychopath me. “What brings you into my cage?” “I thought Den killed you?” I ask curiously. “She did damage, but it takes a lot to kill a Psychopath, especially a rather well compatible host, yeah I was hurt but healed up an hour later, damn bitch had trace Humanity power in her teeth so healing took longer than I wanted. After that I wandered a bit, killed a few worlds til some ashy skinned bitch and Spoiled found me, put this on my neck,” He pointed to a large, silver necklace with some kind of ruins around it and a chain going down and then...fading like a ghost. “And now I can’t kill unless she says so. Bitch made me a dog.” “I suppose it's more suppressing the body rather than the power…” I say, thinking about how such a thing could work. “So, someone sent me here, and has been killing all the guards on my planet...what do you know?” “Yeah, that would be Namine, or at least, a well made copy of her, before Core bit the dust he wiped out all the Nobodies of those three kids he had all those reflections of, but their data was still in his computers, and Spoiled made some well made clones with that.” “Roxas, Xion and Namine told me there were no more…” I say. “Do you know where Castle Oblivion is?” I ask him, ready to blow the thing to pieces to keep it away from anyone. “And why would Namine...wait...oh those damned slugs…” I growl. “Yup, they’re Spoiled’s Loyalty Enforcers, or whatever. They keep any normally rogue elements in check and under her thumb. Ever since she started using hearts as fuel rather than just darkness to make clones.” I growled. “She's now desecrating people's lives just to fuel her damned army?” I ask, trying not to get furious here. “Yup. One heart makes a thousand of any clone she wants, and stronger and more solid than the others.” I took a deep breath. “Where's Castle Oblivion?” I ask him. “You can sense the life energy there right?” I ask, thinking Psychopaths could sense life no matter how far. “Not from here.” He said, kicking the dirt. “In this cage I’m cut off from everything, and this necklace keeps my abilities suppressed to Spoiled’s wants. All I know is that it’s someplace near Core’s old Castle in the Realm of Darkness.” “Shit.” I frown. “But...here's a strange thing...why was I teleported here?” I ask, both curious and worried about it all. “That page. You know how that Hundred Acre Woods world worked in the game, same magic, special paper, magic ink, and a fuck ton other spells, and you got yourself a world written on paper you can enter. She made the book itself my cage, and paper from it can act as a portal for others to enter, but unless she opens the book itself I’m stuck here. And she only opens to book to give me an order.” “Interesting…” I mutter. “By the way...how come you're still sane enough being a Psychopath?” I ask curiously. “There are three types of Psychopaths. Sentials, like me, we can keep our own identity of who we are and connect to the ‘hive mind’ to use the power. Eclipsed, like that Light half of Zeke or all those turned Reflections of Cript, totally given into the hive mind, nothing of who they were left. And lastly Insanities, hosts fitted but unable to handle all that power, pain and mental insanity properly, their body gets burned and they become something just plain disturbing.” “Do their eyes happen to be inverted from regular Psychopaths?” I ask him. “Yup. Psychopaths like me and Eclipsed ones usually just ignore them since they’re...unusable. They die a lot easier and aren’t as strong.” “Right…” I nodded. “But…” I start. “Can Psychopaths be saved? Even Eclipsed ones?” I ask y.curiously “Fact is, Cript actually has a way, and cured a bunch, the only ones still out their are largely his Reflections that are turned, and myself. His blood, when he broke from the Hive, being Eclipsed, his own blood became like ours already, but...different, Psychopath blood and Humanity mixed, a combo never before seen. Made special bullets with them and right in front of the first and oldest Psychopaths, cured one, they were still a Psychopath, but their pain, their mental insanity...it stopped. Personally I like being this way, and so do all his Reflections, so now it’s like that.” “You all love feeling pain, being mentally unstable, and killing billions for the fuck of it?” I ask him worriedly. “I am you, remember...It’s better than what we went through, and with the Hive...Not so lonely. I’d take the Physical pain to remind me I am my own person, not a replacement for you on earth before it fell, and the mental instability just further reminds me that there are others worse off out there.” “You are you, and you can live a normal life with someone you love.” I tell him. “I can try and figure out how to stop your pain, and I can take you to Equestria...and you can meet a nice person to date and marry.” I say, sounding like an idealistic idiot. “You don't need to feel so much pain, and you don't need or want to kill so many people for no reason…” I say, wanting to help the version of me that fell so far down. He smirked. “I’d like that, but the thing is, who says you gotta be good to be happy? I got a Ventral lady in hiding, and when I find her, I’m gonna marry her, have kids, and we’re all gonna be a bunch of murdering bastards. After all, not all the Ventrals left crime.” He finished with a chuckle. “Who's the lucky lady?” I ask. “And you know I'm gonna have to stop you and your family from killing so many right?” “Her name’s Cathy, Cathy Ventral, if you find her, tell her I’m here and she might just work with you to free me. Maybe, she’s a crazy bitch, and I love that about her.” “Well at least your not marrying at least...twenty or so women.” I chuckle. “But glad you found someone to love...maybe you can find out Humanity is a lot more important than being a Psychopath.” I say simply, thinking even if he was a bad guy, Humanity can naturally help him recover from his pain if he had a loving family. “Nah, being human is...kinda overrated.” He looked up, and so did I, there were storm clouds now. “Ah, bitch is sending me to the grind. Well, later mutt me, you’d best leave.” He said, pushing me back and everything went white. I then felt myself falling and landed on my back, back in my living room, my wives and clone looking at me. “You okay?” Luna asked. “Well my Psychopath version is on a leash.” I say while getting up. “Not good. And yes I'm fine...just a lot of things to worry about, like the fact the royal guard in Canterlot was also slaughtered...besides Flash Sentry...too many things are happening too fast damn it.” I complain and pout like an upset pup, unintentionally looking rather cute as I pout. “What about Daybreak?” Rarity asked. “Didn’t Zeke say his world is always happy to help?” “They're recovering from an attack that Spoiled threw at them. And I have a shit ton of things to do here, like help set up the school, help keep the people together and stop any criminals from capitalizing on the guards being butchered corpses…” I sigh out. “Hmm...What about your Nobodies?” Pinkie asked. “Can’t you summon up a bunch until things get better sorted out?” “I've been so focused on getting myself stronger I keep forgetting I can just summon things.” I sigh out. “But I can.” I say while snapping my fingers, ten Dragoons appearing. “Well I can call some strong nobod-" I was about to say but one of the Dragoons looked...different. “Huh…” I say, seeing the specific Nobody, the Dragoon looking relatively similar to its counterparts but its spear seemed more...distinct, it's body looking more defined and strong, and all around it looked better. “Nobodies can evolve?” I ask curiously, finding this development a tad strange but cool. “We know as much as you do.” Was the majority reply from my wives. I sent out the Dragoons and some Snipers, and Dusks to Canterlot, the Crystal Empire, and even some here in Ponyville. I was exhausted, today was just...bad. So much death… “Hey Ben.” I looked up, seeing Blueblood handing me a beer. “You look like you need stronger, but all I got now is this.” “Nah I'm fine...but why are you here? Shouldn't you be...well you in Canterlot?” I ask, not wanting to call him an asshole but still. “I got word my Cousin’s husband died and came here where I was told she’d be. Cadence and I were really close growing up. I got to know Shining Armor well also, heck, I threw his Bachelor party. Cadence was more a sister to me than anything and Shining was like the step brother you’d hope to have when your sister marries.” “I'm...sorry I couldn't save anyone…” I sigh out, looking at my clone and thinking I could have just made more of me and stopped so much death. “Heh, if I’ve learned anything in life, it’s that there are things you just can’t stop. When my mother died, I got into Necromancy...If auntie didn’t find out and stop me...I’d be locked in the dungeon or worse. I guess being in your position just feels like shit when bad things happen you only learn about later, right?” “Well it's worse cause I'm supposed to be the hero...the one who's always here to protect the people...and I've barely done that as is. And Rejection, who's back in my heart thankfully, killed my friends and thousands of others to make things worse…” I sigh out, rubbing my temples. “You are just one man.” Blueblood cut in. “A man who carries the weight of the world on his shoulders alone is destined to carry it and never move forward while the world itself does.” “Technically I'm two people and can clone myself more.” I say simply. “But hey...if I have to carry the world to see the people I love move forward and be happy...then that's fine with me.” I tell him. “Heh, true enough.” He said, taking a sip of his beer. “You know, I’ve been thinking about moving out of Canterlot. Things been getting too hectic there lately.” He said with a chuckle. “Do you want to be a captain or something?” I ask him. “Heh, screw that. Shining made Captain of the Guard look easy but if he didn’t have Cadence to...relieve that stress, he’s have gone bald young. Nah...I think I’ll travel, Cutie mark isn’t a Navigating Star for nothing.” “Well I was gonna say a captain of a ship traveling the sea’s because of your cutie mark but works for me.” I nod. “Glad to hear your gonna do something nice with your life. I'm just here with an amazing herd...being a hero…” I trail off. “I'm so tired…” I sigh out. “You best figure out how sleeping in bed’s gonna work considering there’s now two of you.” Celestia tells me. “Don't remind me.” I say, still glad I can feel through my clone. “Gonna be weird not having all my girls laying on top of me anymore...but oh well.” “Well, good luck with that then, I’ll just head back into town and crash at a motel. Besides, there’s something I wanted to check up on in town.” “Besides a girl you find attractive?” I joke with a little smile. “Ha, I don’t know anyone here, no, just wanted to see the sights. Heard Ponyville has some nice ones.” “Ponyville is a sturdy town full of nice people.” I say simply. “If you ever want to live in a place that's welcoming and feels like home, go there.” “Maybe...Maybe.” Blueblood said, finishing off his beer. “See you later.” “See ya.” I nod. “Stay safe.” I headed to the bedroom. The newer girls were all with clone me, the bed being now twice as big as this morning. ”They must have got another new one.” I think, chuckling at my own thought as I crawl in, laying down and Rune hugging me from the front and Chrysalis from the back. “Thanks girls...I love you all.” I tell them gently, cuddling up to the two warmly and feeling safe and whole. To be continued...
Nobody's average dayI got up out of bed from my nice cuddle nap and stretched. “Ah, that was nice.” I hum with a smile. “Now...how long was it before I went to Zebrica to find special book?” I mutter, kind of forgetting because of all the shit that happened, but my stomach growled signalling I needed food instead of wondering when I'm traveling. “Right...food first.” I mutter while heading off to the kitchen to get some good food. When I got to the kitchen I decided to do something I haven't done in a while, and that is making some good ol’ macaroni and cheese. “Haven't had some in a while.” I mutter with a smile, wondering how it will taste with breast milk rather than normal milk. After a few minutes of making the food without special magic I took the pot, grabbed a fork, walked over to the table and started eating happily. “Wonder what's on today's agenda….maybe going to Zebrica, doing something else, training, or world jumping…” I wonder to myself, continuing to eat my good food. The kitchen door opened and I saw Jenny...literally dragging herself along the floor, her whole front body on the ground while her arms and hands dragged her along. She was making some kinda squeaking sound as she did. “Uh...Jenny? You okay?” I ask worriedly, hoping she's okay. “Uhhhg.” She said, looking up at me. “It’s so boring without Joy to tease. Least I can move better with that Mother thing Den got for us.” She said, her face returning to the floor. “Crybaby.” I mutter. “But sounds like you and me need to have an adventure to keep you busy.” “I guess, Frisk, Chara and Asriel are meeting up with their parents in New Manehattan, the CMC are making up for late school work, and Lovely, Dinky and Gabby are with them. So I guess I’m free.” She said, pushing herself back up. “Well...I've never been to a Disney world shockingly. Want to travel to one?” I ask, finishing up my Mac n’ Cheese. “Sure, how about that Olympus Coliseum one? Saw Zeke playing through it back when he babysat me once. I like it soly cause of Cerberus.” Jenny said with a nod. “Speaking of, I should probably visit him and tell him I’m doing well.” “That's...gonna be a problem.” I sigh out sadly. “I thought Joy told you…” I mutter. “Zeke...isn't gonna be back for a while.” I tell her. “Not because he's busy...well I mean he probably is wherever the hell he is, but he's kind of...split.” I tell her bitterly. “Tried something stupid before me, Joy or anyone could stop him while we were fighting Core’s body.” “...He’s dead?” She asked. “Technically yes, but with what I figured out, technically no.” I say nervously. “I don't know how to explain it well, but Zeke is in a different dimension while his Darkness is roaming around…” “And his light half?” “No idea what's the status of it, I think I might have heard of its status but it was taken over by a Psychopath and…” I sigh out. “Don't be surprised if we learn that his Darkness killed his Psychopathic light.” I shake my head, hating this all. Jenny was silent for a time, before she summoned a Bond of Flame Keyblade and opened a DTL. “Come on, I think what I’m looking for can be found on this world.” She said, walking into it. I sigh out and follow her closely, entering the DTL after her. We were in a busy city I recognized from the Hercules movie, Jenny was ahead of me, heading for what I saw was the Colosseum ahead. Pushing through the crowd, I followed her, finally catching up as I saw her talking with Phil outside the Colosseum doors. “You sure you wanna do that kid?” Phil said. “Yes, I can handle it.” Jenny replied. “I don't doubt it, your eyes tell one heck of a story kid. I’ll get you signed up for that tournament right away.” Phil said as he entered the Colosseum. “You better not have asked to fight Sephiroth here.” I frown. “No, the Hades cup, the final boss in that competition is the rock titan, and it has what I need.” “Besides being a slow wall you can beat the shit out of for some much needed stress relief?” I ask curiously. “Look, what I’m gonna do here...I won’t be proud of, watch, don’t watch, your nightmares.” Jenny said, heading inside. “Won't be the worst thing.” I say while heading inside as well, wanting to see what Jenny had in mind for the Rock Titan. I was halted before heading inside. “Competitor or Spectator?” I was asked by a young Hercules. I thought for a moment. “Spectator for now, gonna check all the tournament's after I watch my daughter rip a titan apart.” I say simply. “Alright so is that ticket for the Hades cup only or all of today's tournaments?” “Hades cup.” I tell him. “Alright and that will be five hundred munny.” I hand the young Hercules the five hundred munny. “There you go.” I nod. “By the way, your names Hercules correct?” I ask the young kid. “Oh, uh, yeah. Phil’s been training me for a few years now but I’m not ready for the Colosseum.” “So stuck on ticket duty?” I ask him simply. “Only cause Phil’s too cheap to pay somebody else to do this.” He laughed, handing me the ticket. “Snacks and bathrooms are down the hall just before the Colosseum entrance, make a right and you’ll find yourself in the seats area, and don’t worry about anything falling on you, there’s a magic barrier around the area.” “Thank you.” I nod. “But remember, all great hero's have humble beginnings. Some might start great, some might start small and weak, but if you keep working hard and striving for your dream, then nothing can stand in your way.” I tell him with a smile. “Oh, sorry. Just...rambling, I tend to do that.” I say sheepishly, scratching the back of my head in embarrassment. “Heh, it’s alright. Phil pretty much says the same thing from time to time.” I waved goodbye and headed towards the seats….the game did the Colosseum no justice, this place is MASSIVE the arena was huge and the Seats stretched all around it. I took mine as close as I could get to the arena. Some time passed and, to make sure no one steals my seat, I sent a Nobody to get me some snacks. It came back with popcorn, lemonade, and… Twizzlers? Not even gonna ask. The fight began and Jenny stepped out. “And our competitor for this day, Jenny Ventral!” Phil’s voice came from tubes, acting like loud speakers. “She is fighting the Hades cup folks, so this may or may not be a long fight.” The enemies appeared from the otherside, and when the match started, I blinked, and Jenny...was on the other side of the arena, Keyblade drawn and the Heartless that came out were cut down. “WOW! Folks we might have a real fighter here. Tiny but mighty.” Phil said. “Just don't hurt the people too bad Jenny!” I call out, hoping she wouldn't hurt the actual people that might appear in the tournament here. The rest of the heartless battles went pretty much the same, then she got to Yuffie. “I’ll go easy on ya small fry.” Yuffie said as she charged. Jenny sidestepped her with ease, not even using her Keyblade as she elbowed Yuffie on the back...and she fell over. “Uh, Folks we’re sending someone out there right now to...check on her.” Phil said, two people running out there and checking on Yuffie. They gave a thumbs up. “And she’s knocked out! With that, the first part of the Hades cup is over, come back in half an hour after getting more snacks, bathroom breaks, etcetera.” Phil said as people began getting up. Seeing an opening, I ran down to the front row, where Jenny was closest. “Hey Jenny.” I call out, hoping to get her attention. “Come here for a moment.” I tell her, hoping she didn't hit Yuffie to hard that she is now completely paralyzed. Jenny walked over. “Yeah?” “When you hit Yuffie in the back of the neck...you made sure not to paralyze her for life right?” I ask, hoping she didn't just cripple the ninja. “It’s nothing a potion can’t heal.” She replied simply. “Of course…” I mutter. “Just remember, Leon and Cloud together are no pushovers together, Hades can be a bit of a pain, and some combinations are just cruel.” I say. “I got this, I didn’t take on the NYPD without preparing for it, and I was five back then.” I nod. “Alright, just be prepared for any sudden curve balls, don't do any severe damage on any living combatants...and why do you want to fight the Rock Titan specifically?” I ask her curiously. “You’ll see.” She said, heading into the waiting area. I took my seat where I now sat, having a better view and waiting for the match to go on. After the half an hour, it began again, the heartless enemies tougher, but Jenny was taking them out with ease. The next boss was the Behemoth Heartless, thing took up a lot of the arena, Jenny just jumped, slicing off it’s horn then pointing her Keyblade at it. “Fatal Flames.” She said, Fire...dancing from the tip of her Keyblade and around the Behemoth. They danced in a circle til they suddenly became a fire tornado, engulfing the whole Behemoth. When it faded, the giant heartless was gone. “This pipsqueak's got surprises on end folks!” Phil said as the crowd cheered. “Huh...interesting…” I hum. “There has to be a bit more to the attack then just a fire tornado…” I had a Nobody hold my seat while I took a bathroom break, and came back just in time for the next set of fights. Jenny still showed a mix of strength and brutality when dealing with the heartless enemies, there were more this time, but they fell to her Keyblade. The next boss round came around, and Cerberus came out, all three of it’s heads roaring at her. Jenny walked up to Cerberus...and scratched it’s center head. “Who’s a good boy!” She cheered, the middle head looking like it was in heaven, one of the back legs moving like crazy in pure bliss. She then moved to the other two, and when she was done the giant three headed dog was looking at her happy...then jumped, covering itself in flames and….falling back down as a small, black three headed puppy. “Aw, so cute!” Jenny squealed happily. “...I don’t know what just happened folks, but Jenny wins...I think...Nothing in the rules against it.” Phil said as the crowd chatted. “Don't forget she's like twelve, thirteen years old!” I call out to everyone. “She can kick your ass in seven different ways, but she's still a kid who loves dogs.” I tell him. ”Too bad Jenny can't keep him...it would be fun to have a Cerberus pup around the house.” I think to myself with a smile, glad to see Jenny happy about the puppy. Jenny handed me the Cerberus puppy, he curling up next to me, one head napping and the other two looking board. I had a Nobody get a chicken leg for him, them… and they, he...seemed to enjoy it. The next set of rounds came along. Jenny had some issue with the Opposite Armor, but ended it all the same. Finally, Leon and Cloud came up, the two not looking like they want to make Yuffie’s mistake, both charged in and swung at Jenny...who grabbed both their swords, and in one twist, broke them… Leon and Cloud looked at one another. “I’m out.” They both said. “And Jenny wins by opponent forfeit!” Phil said. I couldn't help but laugh at that. “Oh those poor guys.” I chuckle. “I should go say hi to them. Haven't met any Final Fantasy characters actually...damn there's a lot of stuff I haven't done.” I frown. I had a Nobody hold my seat and caught the two as they were exiting the Colosseum. “Yo.” I say to the two, still holding the Cerberus pup in my arms cause reasons. “Oh, hey.” Leon said. “Hi.” Cloud said. “Sorry about my daughter...didn't think she'd snap your swords in half.” I say nervously. “That was your daughter?!” Leon said in shock while Cloud’s only expression was wide eyes. “Well, as her father I suppose you’re proud of her for being that strong. I’ve only encountered one person who has broken one of my swords before.” Cloud said. “Shopping for a new one for me is gonna be a pain though, since they discontinued it.” Leon sighed. “Well I can either give you a keyblade weapon to help fix your issue, or I can show you my world and help you find a proper blacksmith.” I suggest. “And I'm glad Jenny is strong but...I'm still worried she'll go overboard.” “A Keyblade?” Cloud asked. “Didn’t the last known Keybladers die like, four years ago or something?” Leon asked. I summon Reunion. “The universe is full of many things my friends. If you have any friends I can take you all to my world, we could use some strong people to help the people after...events.” I say worriedly. “I can make it worth your time, a home, money, resources, and plenty of training.” I say, hoping to get some help. “I'm sorry this is short notice but...we really do need help.” “Well, Radiant Garden is doing well. I guess I could take leave til Tifa drags my but back.” Leon chuckled. “A Keyblade might give me the light I need to end my darkness.” Cloud said. “Deal.” The two said. “Sweet, I'll try to ask Yuffie about it as well, and maybe your friends could also tag along to my world. It's weird and full of magic but it's welcoming and friendly.” I nod while flipping my keyblade over. “Grab the handle and I'll do the ritual, you'll feel the power in you but don't be surprised if you can't get a keyblade immediately, I maybe magical but I'm not all magical.” I chuckle. “We’ve heard rumors.” Clout said taking the handle, once that was done, Leon did it also. “Well then, I guess I’ll go see how Yuffie is doing, your daughter did some damage, but nothing a potion couldn’t heal. I think she’s at the hot spring in town…” “You are on your own there.” Cloud said. “Gee, thanks…” Leon grumbled. “Start with dates first, don't be like me and speed through a love life with over twenty women and counting at the moment.” I say. “And yes, I'm marrying all of them.” I say with a cheeky grin. “...So a dog in looks and love.” Cloud joked, earning a loud laugh from Leon. “Pretty much.” I chuckle. “But that's what you get for being a national hero. But remember...even if your stuck in the dark, or just too stubborn about stuff...love can help you so much...and make you feel whole.” I say with a soft smile. The two looked at one another and shrugged, walking off to find their friend as I headed back in. Surprisingly, I came back right when Jenny was fighting Hades himself. “Kick his ass Jenny!” I cheer with a smile, getting back to my seat and thanking the Nobody for keeping my seat. “Hey, dogmeat, stay out of this.” Hades snapped back at me. He then looked back at Jenny. “Alright now, kid, how’s about you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours, huh?” Jenny just smiled, taking a step...then was behind him, her back to him and Keyblade drawn. “I don’t deal with devils anymore.” She said. “Wait, what did yo- Gah!” Hades said, a line forming across his neck...then his head fell off, hitting the floor as his body did. “...Folks I...Uh...I think she killed the lord of the Underworld!... Is this a good or bad thing?” Phil said as the crowd was a mix of cheering and murmuring. “Uh...you shouldn't have done that Jenny!” I called out worriedly, not sure how this world is gonna react to Hades being dead. The next rounds went off like the others, and finally, the rock titan appeared. Jenny sighed, pointing her Keyblade at it. “Ignition.” She said, Fire engulfing the titan, heat radiating so hot it was like the sun itself was in the arena. When it died, all that was left of the titans was a large boulder, which Jenny then sliced, it breaking and the rubble that fell off revealed a stone crucifix. “And she finishes this one off with art! The Hades cup goes to Jenny Ventral!” Phil declared as the crowd cheered. I raised an eyebrow at seeing the stone crucifix. “Yo Jenny, the hell is that?” I call out, pointing to the thing that's not supposed to be there. “You’ll see!” Jenny called out. We headed back home, Jenny carrying her large crucifix and I followed her to Ponyville’s Cemetery, where she planted it, then tied a photo of Zeke, as well as a tamagotchi to it. “Hmm?” I hum curiously, wondering what the tamagotchi was for but understanding why the cross was here now. “It’s silly, I know, but back when our earliest ancestor was getting known, a priest told him salvation could still be his, if he was crucified like Jesus was upon death, so, it became tradition to crucify our dead, then burn them.” Jenny said. “Zeke...I don’t think he’s coming back, and if he does...something tells me he won’t be all him. So, all I can burn of him are a photo I had, and a tamagotchi he gave me.” She said, pointing her Keyblade at it. “Ashes.” She said, the stone itself was burning, and turning to ash as it did. “He was a black sheep, but he was still a Ventral, and should go out like one.” “He was a dear friend…” I say. “If only I was fast enough to stop him from doing that…” I sigh out sadly. “But...sadly we can't rewrite history…” “Let me guess, he died doing something that would do good, right?” “He took away Core’s darkness...all of it.” I sigh out. “Ah...Yeah, that sounds like something he’d do. Wanted nothing more than to be a hero, rather than a villain like the rest of us.” “But hey...Core’s body is dead...and your growing into a hero...or antihero either or.” I say gently. “Heh, was always a fan of Deadpool.” She chuckled, tears trickling down. I bent down and hugged Jenny gently. “I'm sorry…” I whisper, the simple words meaning so much, ranging from not being able to help Zeke, to not being able to help her through all the shit she has to bear on her shoulders. We went home and Jenny went to her room/house to rest while I sat in the living room, thinking about all that happened...then Lightning popped in my room, Zeus from the Hercules movie appearing in my living room. He then pointed a finger at me. “YOU!” He shouted with a booming voice. “You...you...wait, you’re not the dog human that killed my brother...are you?” “I'm her father.” I say simply, the god seeing the strength and experience in my eyes even if I was being casual. “I understand what my daughter did was wrong and am most likely going to have to solve it...but why are you here?” I ask simply. “Wrong? Heck! I’m thrilled!” “She killed the guy who watches over the Underworld and keeps it in check, why are you thrilled?” I ask with a frown. “The only reasons Hades watches the Underworld is because I put him there, he’s a jerk, and stole my son when he was an infant, and made him mortal! I can find some other sap to watch over the underworld, or make one, whichever, besides, Hades hated the job so much it’s largely self automated, it will be awhile before anyone actually has to check it.” “Ah.” I nodded. “So you don't mind Cerberus being my daughter's puppy?” I ask...before face palming. “Ah damn it, I forgot Leon, Cloud and Yuffie back on Olympus.” I groan. “Oh don’t worry, watch this.” He said, snapping his fingers and in a boom of Lighting and thunder, they appeared in my living room. “What the…” Yuffie asked. “Not even asking.” Cloud said. “Ditto.” Leon said. “And nah, that dog needed a better owner anyway.” Zeus finished, snapping his fingers and vanishing in a boom of thunder and lightning. “He could at least keep the teleporting down.” I grumble. “So, Yuffie, Cloud, Leon, welcome to my home.” I say simply. “We’re in one of the many living rooms of my castle.” I tell them. “Want a tour of the place or do you want to wait for two of my fiances to pop up from nowhere to say hi?” “So, what is this world called?” Cloud asked. “Equis.” I tell him. “A world filled with a very wide diversity of people. From Unicorns, Pegasi, Earth Ponies, to Griffons, Minotaurs, Diamond Dogs, and so many more.” I explain. “Huh, that is diverse. So, what are we going to do til our Keyblades appear?” “That is up to you three.” I tell them. “You can travel, see the wonderful sights, meet the people, and a lot of other things, but what I recommend is heading to the library and working on your history.” I say. “Best to know about the world before just rushing head first into it.” “Can we at least get something to replace our weapons Jenny broke?” Leon asked. I pulled out my Assistant and then bought them their signature weapons. “I know I could have just done this to begin with but having a Keyblade is pretty important.” I shrug. “Oh, thanks.” Leon said, taking his sword as Cloud did the same. “I’m gonna explore, where’s the most dangerous area?” Cloud asked. “My house is the most dangerous area cause Jenny, me, and a lot of other strong people live here.” I say simply. “But what's the most dangerous area? No idea, I have been bad with traveling the world...but I'm gonna solve that when I'm traveling to marry a crap ton of queens or princesses to help create world peace in some sense.” “In that case, I’ll be off.” Cloud said, walking out the door as Leon and Yuffie sighed. “Same as ever.” Leon said. “Yup, he’ll never let go.” Yuffie said. “Well he better let it go or else he'll get Dolphin Punched in the dick by Tifa.” I frown. The two looked at me. “Hey, it's not my fault his girlfriend would be pissed about him not letting a sexy man go.” I say simply. “Well...I’m gonna go...look for a place to rent.” Yuffie said, dropping a smoke bomb and vanishing. “And I will...Go find ammo for the gun part of my weapon.” Leon said as he left. “Its three doors down on the left most hallway.” I tell Leon so he wouldn't get lost. ”Eh they'll get used to the weirdness….albeit it is kind of funny that Tifa hasn't just kicked Clouds ass for possibly being gay for Sephiroth.” I think to myself, before my ear twitched and looked over, seeing Ainz walk into the living room. “Oh, hey man.” I nod to the elder lich. “Hello.” Ainz nodded. “Now...about that cheese war.” “I asked Luna the exact same thing.” I chuckle. “But basically, if memory serves, it was a very important delicacy that people fought over for...practically no reason.” I shrug. “This world's weird.” Ainz ‘frowned’. “Eh, you get used to it.” I shrug. “Anyways, you look like you want to know something? Oh and what about all the stuff you brought?” I ask curiously. “Ah, my guilds items…” He trails off, feeling terrible about his guild being mindlessly slaughtered. “All of them have been put into a special room I managed to create with Rarity’s help. And with the help of Pandora’s Actor, the only one who survived…” “Its alright Momonga...no need to blame yourself when it's my fault mostly.” I sigh out. “Either way.” Momonga sighs out. “But Pandora’s Actor is keeping track of all the materials, money, and all other items in the castle right now. But I read up on the Manehattan incident.” The skeletal mage says while tapping his staff on the ground. “I've felt this world's mana and I feel like I could do so much more now...maybe I can help rebuild it.” He says. “Please, it would be really good to have the help.” I say with a nod. “Alright.” He nods while opening a portal to Manehattan. “Want to tag along?” “Yes, I have to meet the people, and talk to the king considering the last time I've met him.” I say sheepishly, before the two of us walked through the portal to the city being rebuilt. Progress was…. surprising. From what I could tell a few blocks were rebuilt, an Apartment, hospital, and several other building were whole or under reconstruction. “Oh, hello there Ben.” I turned around, seeing Asgore the Scientist approach me. “How have you been?” “Fine. How you doing?” I ask the goat man. “Good, magic here works differently but similar in many ways as it does back home, so researching that has been interesting.” “That's good. What about Toriel? I hope you two have...gotten back together after everything.” I say, hoping the two didn't split off. “Things have gotten better, we are receiving counseling for our marriage and things have gotten better, I am limiting my time in the lab to spend more time with her, and the...girls...Asriel becoming a girl was...unexpected, but Tori always wanted daughters so I guess it works out. I did try and see if I could reverse it, but whatever magic that mirror had is beyond anything I’ve ever seen.” “Trust me, it's pretty special magic.” I chuckle. “But I hope Chara and Asriel have only said good things about Joy and the rest of his harem.” I say, knowing those two have probably said stuff about Joy and his harem. “They enjoy it...though...Toriel isn’t happy her daughters lost their...ehem, innocence, so young… But, I know Chara was behind that largely, not Joy.” “Yeah, her and Frisk tease the poor guy more than Jenny.” I chuckle. “But glad to hear you two are happy for them. So, where's Sans? From the King of at least four different races to the king of one, got to keep relationships healthy.” “Oh, Sans is over there.” Asgore pointed towards a...bar? “After the whole incident, he turned the throne over to his brother, and he opened up a bar.” “So that means I need to find Papyrus given he's the king...but I need to pay Sans a visit for nearly destroying my legs.” I huff. “Even if he was under the influence." I shrug, not entirely sure if I made a pun or not. “Papyrus is usually at the Hospital this time of day, but if you must see Sans first, and don’t worry, he’s not a drinker. Smokes, but not a drinker.” “Good to know.” I nod before looking around and seeing Ainz kind of left. “Oh, and if you see a skeletal mage with very fancy robes on and a cool looking staff, his name is Momonga, or Ainz Ooal Gown, and he's here to help rebuild the city.” I tell Asgore. “He's easy enough to find. Have a nice day.” I nod before heading off to the bar Sans opened. “Wonder why Sans opened a bar?” I mutter to myself, walking up to the front door and fully expecting someone to stop me. I entered and saw it was half empty, several pony people and monsters sitting around, drinking, Sans as the barkeep. I walked up and took a seat. “What’ll ya have?” Sans asked. “An apology for nearly destroying my knees would be nice all things considered.” I joke with a smile. “One Devil’s Poison coming up.” He said, bringing out a bottle that was...I am hoping, ceramic, a skull. He opened the jaw and poured it into a mug half filled with beer and gave it to me. “I’ll need one too.” Sans said, pouring the skull liquid into...a ketchup bottle? “So, heard you stepped down to have Papyrus step up and be the hero.” I say. “And what's with the ketchup bottle? Normally drink it out of one or do you mix the drink with ketchup for some reason?” “I always liked drinking ketchup. I only spike it when I feel something bad is coming along.” He said, taking a sip of the spikes condiment. “Well that depends.” I start. “Well...maybe I can start with why you even went down such a dark path to begin with.” I say, ignoring my drink since I don't want to get drunk when I'm gonna meet Papyrus later. “Simple, it was the only way at the time.” He said, rubbing his temples. “Paps and I were born before the war, monsters live a really long time, and he was too young, but I remember the sun, wind, stars. When the war started...and ended, we were trapped under there. Believe me, I never hated humans, but, we knew it would take seven human souls to break the barrier, to free us. The thing is...like our bodies, our food is very different. Monster food is made up of mostly mana, unlike human food that’s largely solid mass, so, a human can only live off mana food for so long before they...starve. Killing them was a mercy, or so I told myself.” “Depending on how you look at it.” I sigh out. “I heard you were also getting some training from Luxu, hope his training wasn't leaving you bone tired.” I say, making a very shitty attempt at a pun. “Heh, nice one. Yeah, some. He’s mostly learning from me more than him teaching me anything.” “How so? Is it because you keep dodging everything like a boss?” I ask, not knowing I accidentally made a pun considering he's a boss monster. “Or is it something else?” “He’s interested in how I teleport. Normally, teleportation works by mana deconstructing your whole being, and reconstruction it elsewhere. How I teleport is that I actually mess with time itself. You see, just like there are multiple realities, there are multiple versions of time within a single dimension, to put it short, I swap out with an alternate time version of myself in an event in combat, it’s like I teleported, and I’m still me, but from a different point in time/version of time.” “Makes about enough sense as a Skeleton being more fragile than a wet paper towel still being able to destroy giant buildings with a flick of his wrist.” Sans chuckled. “Kid, let me ask you something...do you think my bro and I were born monsters?” “If you were then why do you have so much Determination in you right now?” I ask him. “If memory serves that doesn't really mix well with monsters. So you either became this way through an experiment with a human soul, necromancy, becoming a lich, or something else when you two were human or something along those lines.” “It was fifty years before the war. Back then...Paps and I were human. My mother died giving birth to Paps...and our sperm donors were nowhere to be found. I was a thief, stole what I needed for me and Paps, till I stole from the wrong people. Group of crazed Necromancers. They put a spell on us, kept us from dying as they gutted us, skinned us, removed out flesh from our bones, our brains out of our noses Egyptian style...scooped out eyes out...I was ten, Paps was two. We were souls bound to immobile bones...then, we changed, our souls changed from human ones to monster ones, after all, magic is what was keeping us alive, and that’s what monsters are in a sense, living magic. When I was able to move and put myself back together I did the same for Paps then ran, finally entering the Monster kingdom. It was there the old king...Gaster, took us in. Paps was young, got over what happened easily cause he didn’t remember it. As far as Paps knows, he’s been a monster from birth… I took longer, but did get better after a few years...then the war broke out. Gaster disappeared, and I took the throne. Being the eldest ‘heir’.” I looked at him. “Well….” I mutter. “Thats...a thing. But where did Gaster go?” I ask curiously, having done some research on all the monsters in my short bursts of spare time but not getting around to Gaster much. ”Well...at least the one in his world and not the doctor I know.” I mentally add to myself. “Dunno. Everyone assumes he died in the war, but I always figured he got lost in his work. He spent a lot of time researching unconventional magics, thought it could spare both humans and monsters of the war...but he vanished before he even got the chance to test it.” “I…have a feeling what happened to him.” I sigh out. “But not sure if you want to know.” “Been to long for me to care anymore. So, anything else you wanna know?” The skeleton asked, using his magic to move a rag across the bar counter to clean it. “Ever heard of a sitar playing water bender anywhere around here?” I ask, completely forgetting where the whole version of Demyx was. “You mean Meyd? He’s a doctor at the hospital. His abilities with water help those with severe blood loss stay alive.” “Oh cool, I better check on him. Kept forgetting one of my masters...but been too damned busy half the time.” I sigh out. “Time is a fickle thing, there’s either too much time to spend, so you waste it, or never enough.” “And when you have the life span I have...you feel like you have too much and too little." I sigh out before standing up and putting some gold on the counter. “Well I better get going, sorry I didn't take a drink of your beverage, but I need to be sober for both Papyrus and Deym.” “Alright, I’ll just put it on your tab.” “I mean the bits are right there.” I point out. “But have a nice day Sans.” I nod while heading out to the hospital to meet some people. The Hospital was easy to find, and a nurse told me Meyd was on the third floor. I took the elevator up and when the doors opened I immediately heard the sound of a sitar playing. I followed it and saw Meyd, sitting in a chair playing his sitar in a room full of kids in beds. He looked up. “Ben! Where have you been?” “You wouldn't even believe half the stuff I've done.” I chuckle. “So, how are you doing today?” “Well I came here, sister moved in with some Seaponies well across the other side of the world, visit her when I can. Came here, helped some people not to bleed out by bending the water in their bodies to stop bleeding out and accelerate scab production so it won’t bleed out on it’s own, they gave me a lab coat and made me a doctor.” He summed up. “In my free time I sing for the kids here.” “Sounds good.” I nod. “And I suppose all the children love when you drop by to sing?” “I dunno.” Meyd said, confused, I looked around...they were all...comatose… “I like to think so. We don’t know why they’re comatose, they were just found that way.” I frown and walk over to a child, pulling out my Assistant and checking the child, wondering why their comatose. Error. Error. Unknown virus detected. Please take sample. Out of a side of the assistant, popped a needle. I frowned before leaning down and using the needle to get a sample of whatever the hell is ailing these children. “Lets hope I can figure out what to do for these poor kids…” I said, poking the needle into them and taking it out, putting it back into the slot it came in. Scanning. Analyzing. Cross Referencing. Virus primordial form detected. Natshuru This ancient Virus has been extinct for twenty million years, last known appeared in Natu, a planet of bizzare technology and magic. No known cure available. Symptoms: Comatose like state of sleep High Temperature (140) Internal Organ Failure Advanced Muscle Deformation Death. Each symptom takes a week to fully manifest, and according to ancient stories, can only be cured or healed by the third week. “How have these kids been comatose?” I ask worriedly, wondering how the fuck a long extinct virus hasn't had a cure made especially when it was running rampant. “Uh, first victim was found a week and a half ago.” Meyd replied. “So there's still probably time to cure it.” I say, trying to find anything about this damned disease through my Assistant. All I got was there was a cure, but it’s recipes was lost to time. I made a call, and A doctor from Cript’s place, a different one, this one being a woman, thirties, dressed in normal doctor attire. “Yes, what’s this personal call about?” “Natshuru has spread to all these children and god knows how many else...Please help.” I slightly plead, not wanting this world to suffer another catastrophe. “Natshuru? Man, didn’t even know that was a thing till I started working for Cript.” She said, walking over to the kids. “Huh, well it’s spread by the air, but only infects people with type B- blood. Least that’s what some medical archaeological article discovered. Well, don’t know what to tell you. The cure was lost to time, might wanna check in with Cript on this one kid.” “Mother of fuck.” I frown while calling Cript for some help. I felt a tap on my head, I turned around, but didn’t see anything. I looked up, and saw Cript floating above me. “Yo.” He said. “Hi.” I sigh out. “So, Natshuru outbreak some fucking how...Please tell me you know the cure or at least know the ingredients?” “Not me directly...but…” He said, a portal opening behind me. Cript fell to the ground. “Come on.” He said, walking in as I followed. Where we exited was ruins, some once large building or structure was now ash, scorched soil, rock and wood. We were in a forest, surrounded by a seven foot rock wall, around the ruins anyway. “Damn.” I frown. “The hell happened here?” “This was my home.” Cript said, taking a deep breath. “It was a temple, the last place on my world where magic was still practiced. I lived here just about all my life. Me, and my friends Andy and Kevin grew up here, learned all sorts of magic and spells. When we turn ten, it’s a mages task to traverse the world for a year, then return with some form of new magic or spell. When I arrived...the temple was burned down, Kevin, my masters, dead…” “I'm...gonna stop talking…” I mutter worriedly, feeling bad about walking here now. “Come on, the Vault is this way.” Cript said, leading the way through the burned down temple. As I walked I felt...fearful, and I don’t know why. All my animal instincts were on edge. We made it to a cellar door where we went down, the fear feeling lessened, but still there. In the cellar was a large room, with an equally large, gold door with designs from all around the world engraved and sculpted onto it. “This is where they kept every spell, ancient knowledge, everything. The masters had a lot of rules, but the most important rule was, NEVER open the Vault.” “And we're gonna open it and see what's inside?” I ask bluntly. “I’ve already opened it, it’s what I put in that we will have to watch for.” He said, waving his hand as the large door began to open, sliding open without even a hint of resistance. Inside was scrolls, books, as far back as the eye could see, and at the doorway, kneeled an armored figure, his armor like that of a fairy tail knight, a shield on one arm and a sword at his side. “A guardian?” I ask nervously, not sure what's gonna happen if the thing suddenly got up. “Sorta.” Cript said as the armored figure rose, drawing his sword. “A spirit.” He said, the figure charging at us. Cript side stepped it, elbowing it in the back of the head, knocking off it’s helmet. Who was underneath was a young, blond haired, blue eyed...kid? “Kevin was gonna stay at the temple, be a monk and guard the Vault, and he did that in death.” Cript said, taking out a hand gun and firing a round off at Kevin, stunning him a bit before I came in, using Lindworm and impaling it to the wall. “There…” I sigh out. “So...is there a dragon of knowledge in here or is a giant black feathered owl going to come out and tell us where we need to go?” I ask, remembering Avatar the Last Airbender and his library. “It’s a library Ben, nothing more.” Cript said, walking in. I followed and got immediate inursha. All around was shelves of books and scrolls, going back further and up higher than I could see. “I’ll search for the cure, their organization system is by the ancient name of the worlds, so you just wait around here, read something.” Cript said, snapping his fingers and vanishing as I shrugged, taking a seat at a table and looking at the books it was on. “Okay let's see here…” I mutter while taking one of the books on the table and opening it up, wondering what was to read. The Lusty Argonian Maid. Vol 1 I remembered this from Skyrim and immediately closed it. I grabbed the next book, finding it...odd. The cover was leather, blank of any words, and the front was just a hand imprint with a small, blue dot on the palm. “Hmm…” I mutter while checking the dot, wondering if it was just a normal dot or if it was a small keyhole. From what I could see it was just a dot, whether it was intentional or accidental was unknown to me, but I opened the book. NEXUS: THE FOREVER EVILS The first page read. “Unoriginal but…” I trail off, feeling like I shouldn't read this but I went to the second page carefully, wondering what would be said or suddenly appear. Nexus, throughout the ages in many Realms, in every point in time, they have existed to puppeteer the darker forces from the blinding darkness deep within shadows. They rarely take in anyone from outside their organization, the organization itself largely one massive family, each newborn member embedded with a special dot on their right hands palm, allowing the leaders to track and puppet the youth, and alter them to their desires. The Blue Dot is also a curse, making any non blood additions related to them by blood. They exist to create the perfect Psychopath host, worshiping the monsters like gods. In return for crafting the Psychopaths better, stronger and more capable hosts, Nexus has gained information involving time travel, advanced, lethal magics, and the leftovers of what the Psychopaths leave behind. Namely, technology, resources, and food stocks of the world who’s life was extinguished by the Psychopaths. Their ultimate goal is still the perfect Psychopath host, and they have come close. They called it, Project C.R.I.P.T. Carnage, Relentless, Intelligent, Primal, Tyrant. I put the book down immediately. “Nope…” I mutter while taking off my right hand glove and checking my hand, wondering if it was true. Through the fur, no blue dot. “Curiosity kills.” I nearly jumped, seeing Cript standing behind me. “Really should have moved that book.” “Uh...sorry.” I sigh out. “But...wow…” I say, shaking my head at what I read. “But...this isn't a special thing but it said a blue dot is the sign of….that. How come I don't have one?” I ask curiously, the dot being the safest thing to ask here. “Because they aren’t born with one, it’s inserted. Like mine was.” Cript said, showing me his right hand. A blue dot. “Ah.” I nod. “But...glad to know the name of the cult that...are beyond suicidal and crazy…” I say worriedly. “Sheesh, and I thought old god stuff was creepy and stupid.” “Heh, yeah...I don’t remember them, I was two when my mom took me away, and brought me to this Temple. It was one of the few places that Nexus couldn’t enter, or find. They nullified the curses ability to control me, but it wasn’t removable, so the blood through adoption part stayed in effect. My...reflections were largely not so lucky. Some died, most became Psychopaths, others...just plain killed. Some even became Insanities...one became an Error but that’s a story for another time. Funny, in a way I was to be their greatest success...but I became their greatest failure.” “True.” I nod. “But...what's an Error? Does it have to do with that one Zeke that's on my Equestria and somehow lost his Psychopath blood?” I ask curiously. “No, an Error is...well...to put it simple, it’s like a Nobody, but...worse.” “Its like MissingNo huh?” I ask simply. “Heh, I wish, when I killed the bastard I didn’t get the fourth or third item in my inventory maxed out.” He joked. “Come on, found the cure, I got this stuff in my lab.” He said, showing me a scroll. As we left and got back up out I noticed...graves. Five. Above them orbs of pulsating light floated. “What's the pulsing orbs of light doing above the graves?” I ask curiously. Cript looked over. “You know Absent Silhouettes? That’s the opposite, Lingering Memories. So much mana, memories, everything in this place that when my Masters and Kevin were killed those were created, Same Concept as Absent Silhouettes but...less angry.” Cript explained. “Oh, so it's like Terra’s Lingering Will in the Keyblade Graveyard.” I say in realization. “Yeah, about right. Wanna see them? Might help you to fight Zeke’s Absent Silhouette.” “I heard Joy was gonna fight him...haven't heard back from him. Must be a long ass fight.” I say. “But sure, maybe I can learn a thing or two about what I can do with my mastered weapons and their abilities.” I say, wanting to do some good training. “Alright, you best start with the one on the far right, Master Eris. Heh, he was the youngest of them all, but then again, he was seventy while the rest of them were over a hundred.” “Right then.” I nodded while walking over to Eris’s grave. “Let’s hope I don't fail miserably.” I mutter while gently touching the Lingering Will floating above the grave. There was a bright flash, and I found myself in...the same area, only, behind me stood the Temple, whole. Wow...it’s huge! “Ah, so one of Cript’s finds his way here.” I looked behind me, seeing an old man wearing orange robes with some sort of beads strung around him, a walking stick in his right hand. “Tell me, who are you, who bears the curse of Cript’s origins?” I bow to the monk. “My name's Ben, Master Eris.” I say, wanting to be respectful to the master and to the dead. “Ben. Hmm, yes. I see it. Self doubt, sadness, but it’s...lessened. A hard life you have lived child.” “It’s...better than the other outcome.” I sigh out. “But hey...at least I have a loving family to keep me up and happy.” “Yes, I can see that. So, how is Cript? He talked with us once, a few years back, but has been absent since.” “He’s...been busy.” I say nervously. “A lot of stuff has been going on lately...and considering I'm going to try to do the impossible...it makes his life a bit more of a pain.” “Ah, sounds like him. I remember when his mother left him with us, just barely two, wearing nothing but ragged attire, clutching an old toy bear, his only possession. I can assume you know about why Cript even exists, yes?” “Read it in a book on accident.” I sigh out. “But...why though? Are these people suicidal or something?” Eris sighed, scratching his hand. “Nexus, the whole family, organization, call it what you want, but they are leeches, parasites. They are remnants of an old faction of the Admins from back before anything existed. Back in those days, Psychopaths were few, and their hosts were too weak to hold them long, even an Admin host would burn out within a year, mortal time. They needed to survive, and the Psychopaths wanted stronger hosts. So, they made a deal, ‘make us hosts that can last for eternity’ the Psychopaths asked, ‘and the carnage from our kills are yours to sort through’. “So, through the generations, Nexus managed to create through either forced breeding and genetic engineering, hosts that could last longer, access more of the Psychopaths true power. Then, one reward lead to the problem we have today, access to other Realms, and realities. It was when this happened they began to puppiter entire worlds, creating beings like Cain, the first Psychopath on the worlds they began to puppet. Cain was a strong, able host for the Psychopaths, but they two, burned out after several hundred years. Finally, they began engineering a host for the Psychopaths to last eternally, a host that could access all their power, learn anything, create new and destructive ability, master anything thought to it. They engineered Cript. What made the Cript hosts so strong, so able, was the blood of the first Psychopath ever to be created, merging with the blood of strong magic users, fighters, and monsters over the generations. “As you can see, they achieved their goal. Cript, and all his reflections, were destined to become Psychopaths, but the Cript you and I know, was to be their greatest achievement.” “But ultimately became their greatest failure.” I say. “Right?” “Yes, you see, when Cript was born, his soul was...unique. Bound to it, was Zechariah, an angel who became a Psychopath, hell feared it, and heaven banished it, so, the angels bound it to a human soul, and had it reincarnated, for generations. Cript, having this unique Psychopath as a soul, was to be the strongest, most powerful host ever, believed by the Psychopaths to be the host that would lead the end of everything, including, themselves. His body, able to channel and contain all kinds of power, his mind, able to learn anything within a short amount of time, and his fighting abilities, are natural, any weapon he can learn in short time. When his mother, realizing he was the end of everything, brought him to us, so we can perhaps, change his destiny, and as you can see, we succeeded.” “Wow…” I say. “But...now I'm both concerned and curious...why did Cript tell me he sees himself in me?” I wonder. “I mean...he's said he's proud of me actually doing stuff his other adopted kids wouldn't do but...still.” “Cript, and I can see why he said this, despite all he has done, all he can do, takes no pride or joy in it. He is self doubtful, and every battle he has fought, he has fought, expecting to die. He cares not for his own life, in fact, he would have ended it himself long ago, if not for that mint green wife of his, igniting an emotion he thought himself to lack entirely. Love. When Cript came back to the temple, after his year long travel, he saw us all slaughtered...by Andy, his friend, the two were like brothers, and out blood soaked his clothes, and the fires that burned his home down, his best friends doing. “Andy, was controlled by Nexus directly. He became evil incarnate, captured and tortured Cript for an entire year, trying to get him to become a Psychopath, as Nexus wanted. What happened, was unexpected. Cript refused to turn, but the Psychopath angel Zechariah, awoke, taking control of him and escaping, slaughtering the newly colonized planet mars. Cript didn’t regain control until after the slaughter. He was broken, and craved death, fighting only to see what will kill him. He locked Zechariah back inside, crucified him to his soul. He created a company, Freak Inc. Where they merged magic, technology, and the unknown together, and made life better all around. But it’s true purpose was far darker, he created it, to find a means to kill himself, and the monster he hid inside. “He went to a world, where a rare, powerful type of magic flowed freely, and was to meet with the ruler of it to discuss safe means of collecting it, can you guess this world, I feel you know it.” I looked at him, feeling confused about how I could know where Cript went...but it suddenly clicked. “Equestria…” I say. “Yes. He met with it’s ruler, Celestia, and made the deal to collect the magic, taking the form of one of its inhabitants, but, he was curious as to how this world's magic differed in flow and use, and ended up teleporting to random places. He finally stopped, and didn’t realize where he was. A dirt road, just within a town called Ponyville’s outer borders. Too lost in thought, he didn’t hear when a mint green mare yelled out for him to move, and as such, he was ran over by a runaway cart, loaded with raw ingredients for candies. What Andy did to him made his injuries nothing, but with the new anatomy, his horn cracked, and went into his skull, shattering his brain. He healed, in seconds, and when the mare brought him to the hospital, took full responsibility for him, as he woke up without any memories.” “Wow…” I say honestly. “That's...interesting. Backstory central here and it's all...rather informative.” “Yes, Cript has had a rather...interesting life, hasn't he?” “More interesting than mine.” I say. “Anything else I should know before asking about why I originally came to meet you master?” I ask, wondering what other important things I should know about. “Not really, so then.” He said, tapping his walking stick on the ground and magic circles began appearing around him, their symbols and letters lost on me completely. “Shall we begin?” “The Heir of Nothingness against a Master of Runic magic...well I can tell I'm at a drastic disadvantage.” I frown while summoning Reunion and Frozen Pride, preparing for the fight. My Assistant seemed to play what sounded like an announcer calling out a fight. ”A great slam and then some.” The announcer said, sounding like he was from an old timey cartoon. After a moment the announcer chimed ”Here goes!” and I dashed forward swiftly like an arrow towards the monk and slashed at him, hoping to disrupt his spell work before it could get to a proper start. One of the circles moved in front of me and...absorbed my attack. “This is a different version of the spell you would call, Reflect.” He said as it began glowing. “Fuck!” I yelp while raising my shield, ready to block the reflected attack. It hit me back, and I was thrown back some feet. “Not bad, but I taught Cript everything he started off with involving Runic magics, in all it’s forms. It will take much more than brute force to break through my Spell Matrix.” I stared at him, my eyes glowing a gentle green as I disbanded my Keyblade and shield and summoned my Lexicon. “You know, Cript gave me a hand ability as a gift.” I say while I channeled magic, the book opening up and pages seeming to fly around me. “I doubt this will work but...best to try.” I say while spell circles started to form around me. “I doubt I can copy you Master, but it's worth a shot to understand.” I say, runes starting to slowly form as my first attempt to do such a thing. Slowly, the runes manifested around me, until they were exact replicas of what he had. “Oh, his Copycat ability. So you inherited it, impressive.” “Yeah, good to have when your fighting someone with special things like you master.” I nod while taking a deep breath and looking at the runes, hoping to learn what they read so I don't accidentally blow myself up here. “Let's hope this works.” I mutter before one of the runic circles glows and a jet of fire shoots out towards the monk. Another rune circle moved in front of him, shooting out a massive jet of water, extinguishing my attack...and soaking me. “Heh, when Cript was ten I used that one to bathe him when he didn't want to bathe in the springs.” I used another rune and a powerful wind was whipped up and dried me off. “Your not taking this seriously apparently.” I frown, wind blades firing off towards the master in hopes of doing something. My eyes widened as he danced around them, at some point break dance dodging them till he finished with a head spin on the ground, thankfully his roab not falling down. “Not bad for a near eighty year old man eh?” He asked, jumping back on two feet. “What the fuck?” I mutter. “I mean...technically this is your mind I think…” I frown, not knowing what to call this actually. “Here, you’ve shown resolve and strength, let me show you something I know for a fact Cript still uses to this day.” He said, walking up to me and grabbing my right arm by my wrist and lifting it up, pulling my sleeve back. He then lifted his up and pulled his sleeve back. “Tell me, what can you see?” I was a tad worried as I prepared myself for what might happen as I looked at his arm and mine, hoping something bad didn't happen. ”Let's hope this won't end poorly…” I think to myself worriedly. I looked, but...didn’t see anything, aside from a freckle that, if he wasn’t already dead, I’d suggest he get looked at. “Don’t see it huh, heh, well try now.” He said, his arm glowing as...rune circles, dozens of them were on his skin like tattoos, all connected by thin, lightly pulsing lines of energy. “By embedding the spell work on to your body, you can have them ‘leech’ in a sense, off of your internal mana, allowing you to gain inhuman speed, strength, durability, and agility. Depending on what rune spells you marked on what part of your body, you can focus your mana to flow more their to increase their potency. Impressive, no?” “It really is...and I suppose it's an activation or is it passive?” I ask curiously. “It is passive, but to increase their effects, you have to think on where to make your internal mana flow more. By nature, magic users draw in mana from the environment, from things like plants, people, animals, the world itself, then their are those who create mana within themselves like your body creates energy to run from the food you eat. Then, there is the rare third, those who can do both. You can guess Nexus made Cript that third, it’s how he advanced in magic so fast. All except Holy magic. Always struggled with that one.” “And what about me? I...actually have barely trained in how I can control my magic flow sadly...normally have it on the background whenever I fight like it's supposed to be second nature...only to think about it and realize I barely know anything about it.” “Let’s see.” He said, placing a thumb to my forehead and closing his eyes. A few seconds later, he removed it. “Well, the good news it, you draw you mana in from your surroundings, better news, there’s a lot stored up in you. You must live in a very magic heavy world.” “Equestria actually.” I say simply. “It's very magical, and...well ironically it's the place that helped me become who I am today.” I chuckle. “Ah. Yes. It shouldn’t be too hard to control your flow. Here, these will be for practice...sadly, you’ll need to be in at least just your shorts for me to set it up for you.” “Does it have to deal with getting runes tattooed on me?” I ask curiously. “It’s not actually tattoos, that’s just how they appear.” “Ah…” I nod. “Makes sense I suppose…” I say while taking off my cloak. “Does the whole rune thing hurt at all?” I ask curiously, not knowing much about this as I took my clothes off except my underwear. “Eh.” He said, his hand glowing and running it along my body, from my right hand, up my arm, over my shoulders, down my other arm to my left hand. Then he placed his hand over my neck, and trailed down to my stomach, then finally trailed up my legs. “That should do it, these will help, but are basic training wheels.” I took a look and on the palms of my hands, all my joints, stomach, and my feet had rune circles on them, all linked via glowing lines all coming from my stomach rune it seemed. “Right then.” I nodded while putting my clothes and cloak back on. “And then it's up to me to figure out all the other stuff about runes?” I ask curiously. “You can customize them as you like, but this is how they are now. As a whole, those runes increase your agility, the rune over your stomach increases your strength, the runes on your legs and feet will increase your speed, the runes along your arms and in the palms of your hands will help you to force the mana out of your body in the form of spells and such without the air of an item, like a Keyblade or lexicon.” “And if I add my weapons along with the runes?” I ask. “Does it act like a multiplier or what?” “Yes, with your Keyblades, their magic damage addition is the multiplier, and with the lexicon, it’s random change multiplier.” “And I suppose it'll help with my eleven other weapons?” I ask, thinking if it works for two of them it works for all of them. “If they run off of mana of any kind, yes. Mind if I see your weapons?” I nodded before bringing out my weapons to show him. “Each of these weapons have either an element or a special thing about it, like Sharpshooters, the gun arrows, control over space and gravity, and Fair Game which can control time.” I explain. “But...when I mastered my weapons I learned how to use their abilities when not wielding them but...it feels like I could do something special and big but never tried cause I'm too simple of a person.” “Hmmm.” He chimed, touching Sharpshooters. “Yes...Kio. I’d recognize his magic anywhere.” “Kio?” I ask curiously. “Is this something new like how my Scythe, Graceful Dahlia, was created using a Demon Tree?” “Kio was a student here back when I was alive and young...He had a talent with Hollow Magic, or as you would call it, Nothingness.” “The antithesis of Void.” I nod. “I...barely understand it cause I haven't done things with it…” I trail off. “Christ I haven't been doing a lot of important things.” I frown. “Yes. He was a strange one, was obsessed with wanting to understand the Hollow and its inhabitants. His experiments became...too risky, so we had to send him away. Judging from the way these weapons irradiate his unique magic style, he must have found what he was after.” “And I'm probably gonna be taking his spot as King of Nothingness.“ I say honestly. “But who knows.” I shrug. “Well then, Ben, it has been a delight. But, you must be heading home now, come by when you are able, maybe then we can have a real mages fight.” “Alright.” I nod before taking a step back and bowing. “Thank you master.” I say, wanting to be respectful to him. With that there was a flash and I found myself back in front of the orb, in the real world. “Hey, that took some time.” Cript said as he came up to me. “Yeah it took some time. Had a nice conversation, learned something about runes, and I learned that Kio is possibly the King of Nothingness.” I say simply, pulling my sleeve back and showing Cript the runes he gave me. “Can't wait to learn about runes...as well as Humanity...Latin...the rest of my weapons...Nothingness…” I take a deep breath. “Mother of hell….I have a bunch of things to learn.” I sigh out. “Do them one at a time, how many weapons have you mastered already?” He asked. I summoned the weapons I mastered, Reunion, Sharpshooter, Graceful Dahlia, Fair Game, Frozen Pride, and Eternal Flames all floated around me. “Mastered my keyblade, Gun Arrows, Scythe, Cards, Shield and Chakrams. Now I need to master my Tomahawk, Claymore, Lances, Lexicon, Kunai, Ethereal Blades, and Sitar.” I tell him. “Still got a lot to do.” “So work on finishing those weapons, and learning some latin in between. But, I know something you can do right now, well, after you get this recipe to the hospital.” Cript said, handing me the scroll. “Is it the antidote?” I ask, hoping it is so I can help all those people. “Yup, ingredients are surprisingly common. So, can you guess what you should do after delivering this cure?” “Train?” I ask him simply. “Or do something else?” “I believe when you spent that day with Yellow clone Zeke, he mentioned something about a spy in Daybreak? And before you ask how I know, I admit, I spy on the majority of you. Your lives, so much more interesting than reality tv.” “Oi vey…” I sigh out. “But yes, I heard about the spy...I don't know who it could be but I...sadly forgot to tell anyone important about the spy...should I go off and look into it?” “Yes. Drop off the cure then go off to Daybreak.” He said with a smile...a kind of...hiding something smile. “I know you're hiding something.” I say bluntly. “But your not gonna tell me what you're hiding huh?” He laughed. “My poker face can either be on point or non existent sometimes. And yes, I am not gonna tell you, cause it’s gonna be a thing when you see it. Welp, chow.” Cript said, saluting me. I blinked...and was in front of the hospital. “Right…” I mutter before rushing into the hospital. “Hey, where's the head doctor?” I ask a nurse. “Second floor, room C24.” She answered. “Thank you.” I say while heading off to the specific floor the doctor was on. “Let's hope the doctor will believe this.” I mutter, getting into the open elevator and clicking the second floor. It was a walk to his office, but I found it and quickly explained I had the cure for what the “comma’ patients had. Me being me, he trusted me and took a look at the scroll. It didn’t take long for the staff to gather the ingredients, and they whipped up a large batch of the cure, making it go down their throats, as the instructions said to, and within an hour people started waking up. Now then...to Daybreak, to warn about a spy...and see what this surprise Cript seems eager to have me see. “Alright. Time to go.” I mutter while opening a DTL. “Let's hope I'm not too late to warn them.” I mutter while walking into the door, it closing behind me as I headed straight to Daybreak.
Nobody's visit to Daybreak“Alright, where the hell are the important people to talk to again?” Ben wonder to himself, walking around Daybreak and hoping to find someone to talk to about the spy. As I looked around and realized he was in a shopping district of sorts, the stores looking rather old, but functioning and by the looks of it, selling well. He looked up and saw the castle and nodded, running for it to tell the council about the spy. Heading there, he was too lost in thought, wondering who this spy is, how far in they infiltrated and so much more. He only looked up when he ran into someone. “Oh, so-” Ben stopped himself, looking up and freezing in place. Before him, stood Zeke. “Oh right...forgot to tell you guys I’m not dead…” He muttered. “No...no no no…” Ben shakes his head. “This can't be….how the hell did Twilight…” He mutters worriedly. “What was the last thing you remember before...waking up?” Ben asks Zeke, not believing this at all. “The last thing...fighting Core. I took his darkness then, not really sure after that.” He said, scratching the back of his head. “According to my wives I was found in an unexplored reflection, comatose for a year or so there and a month or more when they brought me to Daybreak.” Ben looked at him. “I'm gonna need to talk to Twilight about something important later. But can you get me an emergency meeting with the Council?” He asks, wanting to deal with one big thing at a time and not wanting to drop this whole thing right now. “Uh, sure.” Zeke said. “Sorry I didn’t come by earlier to tell the news, been busy. You can imagine how much paperwork I had to catch up on.” He said, the two walking towards the castle. “I'm pretty sure it was for...another reason.” Ben mutters. “Oh yeah, did Diamond tell you about her dating Joy?” The half dire wolf man asks curiously. “Yeah, two weeks ago. Can’t say I’m surprised, she always liked puppies.” He joked. “Heh. Right then.” Ben chuckles. “But...did she say anything about a...special fight her and Joy tried to do together?” “Uhh...no. Just said she went on a double date with Scootaloo then a walk.” “Ah.” Ben nodded. “How's X?” He asks curiously. “I think my heart being out of Balance for so long messed with him, I mean, he works fine, but his voice is...off.” Zeke saw Ben slightly twitch, like he's trying his damndest not to say something. “Right.” He nodded. “But I mastered my shield and chakrams while you were gone and figured out a bunch of important things.” He says simply. ”Damn it, I can't tell him the truth or his wives and kids...this isn't good. Damn it Twilight.” Ben thinks to himself bitterly. “Nice, so that’s what? Half down, half to go?” “Got seven more to master.” Ben nods. “And each one is gonna still be annoying to master.” “Well, you get what you asked for, right?” “In spades.” Ben nodded. “But I have a ton of shit to do and less time to do it.” “Heh, always seems that way. So, stopping by for any particular reason? Cause asking to see the council is a biggy.” “Sadly, there's a spy in Daybreak.” Ben whispers to Zeke, not wanting his words to be overheard by others. Zeke nearly stopped, but kept walking with a plain expression. “A spy? Damn it, I knew one would make their way into the system at some point. Anyway to know who the spy is?” Zeke whispered back. “Sadly I don't know. I mean, there is a special parasite that can control people but I'm worried who it is...then there's the part of where the spy is in the system...there's too many variables to try and figure out who the spy is.” Ben whispers. “The best place to hide a spy is ironically enough, within a government itself. Heh, I once snuck into an army base to disable the automated security and alarms so my mom and dad could ride in and steal the armory. That was...actually a year before I came to Equestria. Hang on.” He said, patting his pockets, and then began to look worried. “Oh shit.” “What?” Ben asks worriedly. “Before I went on that job I spent a month coding a special computer virus. Once activated it begins erasing all system data, then, right before the system is wiped, forces the power to jolt throughout a whole system. Radios, computers, even cars, anything it can reach via a frequency, like radio or wifi will make them create a mini EMP, sorta of a self destruct feature. The flashdrive I had it on is gone.” Zeke said, checking his pockets again. “Damn it, it’s been about a month already and I didn’t notice till now.” Ben looked at Zeke, his eyes looking sad as he knew full well about what this Zeke was. “Maybe we still have a chance to solve this. It's never too late as long as we can protect the ones we care about.” “We’d best hurry then, if the spy somehow has the flash drive, the virus in it could bring down the combat arena...man, if we find it, I gotta find it and either hide it better or destroy it.” He said as the two entered the Castle. Once inside Zeke informed the council for a special meeting. Members only, save for Ben. “What’s with the sudden meeting Zeke?” Mors asked from his seat, which was a large mirror where one of the chairs would normally be. “Ben here has acquired information that there is a Spy in Daybreak’s government.” Zeke said as the council began murmuring. “Do we have any clues as to who it could be?” Cid asked. “The person that told me said they had a Way to Dawn Keyblade.” Ben tells everyone. “Who has that specific keyblade?” “Within the government.” Leon started, checking a tablet of sorts. “Fifteen. In this room...two.” Leon said as they all looked at Lord Death, and a man Ben hadn't noticed before. He was old, easily seventy, wearing a brown cloak. “Mors, and Kenobi.” “Obi Wan Kenobi?” Ben asks the old man curiously, wondering if it was the Obi Wan from the movies. “Leon, go round up the remaining suspects, Obi Wan, I’ll escort you personally to Mors’s world.” “Well, it will be nice to have guests.” Mors said. “Oh! I’ll set up some snacks!” With that, the mirror flashed, becoming just a simple mirror. “Come one Ben, you keep a weapon on him, I’m sorry Obi Wan, it’s nothing personal.” “I understand.” He said, rising from his seat. “Well then, to Death City.” Zeke summoned X, Ben looking at it, and seeing no physical differences on it as Zeke opened a DTL and Ben summoned a Sharpshooter and kept it on the elder Jedi as they walked in. “So, when did you join the Council?” Ben asks Obi Wan curiously. “Or have I just not noticed you the last time I was there?” “Around the time Zeke vanished, which alone makes me a prime suspect.” He admitted. “Has there been anyone else that joined the government around that time?” Ben asks, trying to sense if there was that weird Nobody Parasite in him. “Not to my knowledge.” He said, we entering Mors’s chamber. It looked just like the anime, and before Ben, stood Mors….wearing a pink apron setting out a snack table. “Oh, goodie, arrivals. Pardon me, the rest of the snacks will be here shortly. Most of my visitors are, so this is a treat for me, even under the circumstances.” He admitted, placing down a large tray of skull shaped cupcakes. “Thank you.” Ben nods. “So Mors, how have you been doing?” “Well, pretty good. Kid can’t stop talking about his girlfriend, for one I am happy he has love in his life, but on the other his grades are… well, we had to make a grade lesser than F, so we went with L, any worse and we’ll be giving him a Z.” “Yeesh. He better get to work instead of being with his girlfriend all the time.” Ben says honestly. “But hey, don't be surprised if you suddenly hear Scootaloo is pregnant.” Ben shrugs, knowing how bad him and Joy are with relationships and thinking it could happen to them. “Best not to, cause that sentence along seems to have set Zeke off.” Mors said, Ben looking back and seeing Zeke with a dark aura, demonic eyes, horns of darkness, and looking more like death that...the Death in the room. “I… Am going to have a talk with Kid…” “Zeke, calm down.” Ben frowns. “Getting pissed over Scootaloo having a kid with the one she loves is a stupid thing.” He frowns. “Can’t say he’s not a father if he wants to protect his daughters innocence that badly.” Mors said. “Protecting his daughters innocence is one thing, getting this pissed over something his daughter gave honest consent to is another.” Ben frowns. “Sure I do care about my kids and would be upset about certain things they do...but I'm not so pissed I basically look like death.” A DTL opened up again and thirteen other people came in, Leon behind. When he saw Zeke he whacked him on the back of the head. “Knock it off, time to get to work.” Zeke’s whole appearance reverted back to normal. “Yeah yeah…” He said, looking over the group before him. Two council members, three couriers, and ten from security. “So, all you, save for two, don’t know why you are here. Well, sadly, one of you in this very room...is a spy. For C-Spoiled.” Zeke said, reminding himself that Core is dead now. “All we know is that they are working in the government, and they have a Way to Dawn Keyblade. You all have this Keyblade. So, this can be done the easy way, or the hard way.” Ben looked at all of them, trying to sense if any of them have a Parasite in them. “And the specific person wouldn't even know it cause they are probably possessed by a Parasite.” The wolf says, knowing he can sense all Nobodies, including these nobody parasites. “Alright, Ben here will use his connection to Nobodies to see if one is inside any of you, if he senses none, then that means one of you is a willing spy. In that case, Leon will use his Keyblades special ability to reveal the spy. It will force you to speak the truth, by making your heart do the talking. And we all know, hearts don’t lie.” Zeke said, motioning for Ben to move forwards. Ben took a deep breath and focused, a grey aura surrounding him gently as he tried to sense if there was any Parasites in them. ”Come on, I know I can sense these damned things.” Ben thinks to himself, trying to sense if there was any Parasites in them. One by one Ben checked everyone in the room...Nothing. Not a single parasite. “Right…” Ben mutters, frowning at not sensing the Parasites. “They're clean. All of them.” He says, but not sure if that's fully true. Zeke sighed. “Alright then, time for the hard way. Leon, go.” Zeke said as Leon stepped up, summoning his Keyblade and pointing it at the crowd. “Secrets Awake.” Leon said, shot lock like bolts of light firing from his Keyblade and into the hearts of the suspects. “Alright, now who here has been working with Spoiled. Speak up now.” Silence. “What?” “Did you do it right?” Zeke asked. “Of course, no one can resist it, we even tested it on Maleficent, she sang like a bird.” Leon said, confused. “Then...either the spy somehow is using a different Keyblade, or is someone outside the government.” Zeke said. “Yet it would still have to be someone in an important place.” Ben frowns. “Anything about the scientists? Blacksmiths? Does anyone in an important station have Way to Dawn?” “In Daybreak, lots, but anything Spoiled would want to know would be in the government.” “When she managed to sway someone in my world she had it be a guard lieutenant that helped ship a ton of materials for her...to help make fake keyblades.” Ben explains worriedly. “But...what would she want on your world?” “Information likely, Daybreak is still sorting through all the secrets the Foretellers helped us uncover when they unlocked the rest of the city. Alright then, everyone, this investigation will continue, under minimal raidar. Mors, you and Leon will be in charge of this, until we can find out who this spy is, keep anything about this spy between the people in this group, if you suspect anyone, inform Mors or Leon. As you all were.” As Zeke said that everyone left, returning to Daybreak via DTL’s. Zeke himself sighed, sitting criss crossed on the ground. “Figured finding a spy wouldn’t be easy.” He shrugged. “This is not gonna be easy.” “Finding a spy is never easy.” Ben shakes his head. “But-" Ben stops and puts a hand to his head. How? Nothingness connected to Kingdom Hearts? Who is he? ”Shut up!” Ben mentally shouts, feeling like he's hearing all the Nobody's in existence all at once before sensing a powerful Nobody somewhere. “The hell?” Ben mutters. “Sorry Zeke...I've got something...important to do. Nobody's are going nuts for some reason.” Ben says while opening a DTL to where he felt that massive energy. “Tell Twilight I want to talk to her later, and be careful about the spy.” He says before putting his hood up. “Talk to her in a bit then, she’ll be working late in her lab.” Zeke said as Ben left. Ben arrived in a world that was...far. He could tell this was the furthest he’d even traveled, the stars were so...different. He took a look around, and saw he was in a forest. Key word was. All around him scorched trees were all around, in the center of the event, stood a deep scorch mark, shaped in Kingdom Hearts image. “The fuck happened?” Ben mutters while heading down to the scorch mark, summoning Reunion and Frozen Pride just in case. “Hello?” He calls out, hoping to find someone here. Ben heard a noise, and turned around, seeing a Sniper Nobody there...bearing a Blue Heart symbol over it’s head. ”Ah, master. Greetings.” “Uh...hi.” Ben says nervously. “Um...sorry, first time hearing a Nobody call me that. So...think you can help me figure out what the hell happened here?” I ask the special Sniper. ”Something came, came from the afterlife of Heartless, and Nobodies. He summoned me, and I am sorry to say, but while you are my master, I obey him. He has marked me, let me remember, who I was. “And now someone's stealing my job.” Ben frowns. “Of course...so what did this guy look like? Anything of note like...say I don't know, have the X-blade on him?” Ben asks, feeling like it's him. ”He wields a Starlight, and wears the mask of the father of the Unversed, dressed in ragged, battle torn clothings. I can see why, Purgatory is an unpleasant place.” Ben looked at the Nobody. “Well can't say he doesn't like making an entrance.” He shrugs. “Zeke! Get your job stealing butt out here!” He calls out. “I'm the one who's supposed to help Nobody's, even though I've been doing a shit job at it because I've been to fucking busy all the goddamn time…” He trailed off. ”He has left master, he needs to find a means to leave this world. Till next time we meet.” The Sniper said, vanishing in an aura of grey and black. “Oh come on.” Ben frowns before summoning his glider and flying around, thinking Zeke hasn't left the world yet. ”Zeke! You around here?” He mentally calls out to his Nobody friend, hoping he can actually do something like that. There was no response. Zeke either wasn’t responding, or couldn’t hear him. Ben flew around for a time longer, seeing nothing much other than forrest, and a long open road. Grunting, Ben withdrawal, knowing he had thing to do back on his world, but first, he had to talk with a certain Twilight Sparkle. She was in her lab, alone. Twilight worked well in a group, and alone. So many projects, so little time. A DTL opened behind her, and she sighed. “I had hoped you’d be fooled by him.” She said, Ben walking up behind her. “No.” Ben frowns. “Are you fucking kidding me Sparkle?” He growls. “Pinkie is a better prankster, I don’t joke much.” She said, stirring something, not even looking at Ben. “So your the fucking spy.” Ben growls. “So you betrayed everyone that you loved and cared for...for a fucking clone!?” “I betrayed no one, I made him. A clone of Spoiled that attacked Daybreak a while ago provided enough data to build one from scratch. I don’t expect you to understand my reasons, but...when you lose someone...you do things that don’t make sense, not even to you.” “I lost my parents when I was powerless, and I kept walking.” Ben says. “Holding onto the past only hurts people the more they drag it along. And doing this? Zeke would never want the woman he loves to stoop so low...he knows you're better than this.” Twilight stopped what she was doing, placing what she was stirring down. “Zeke’s dead. We received word about Drezke. And how he crushed his other half in his own hand… Without his light half, Drezke will grow more and more wild, nothing to balance him out, and then, will have to be dealt with… Even if Zeke would come back as a Nobody...he’d have no heart, he won’t be him… I watched friends, family, that sicko from the Keyblade war kill them all. I remember the panic from when Nobody's first invaded, how everypony came to me and my friends for help, and nothing we did work. Shining, Spike, and Cadence may be alright, but our parents never came back… When you and Zeke brought what you could back from the dead, only forty percent of Equestria’s total population returned. I don’t blame you, Nobodies… I blame myself. “When Zeke saved us, he eventually told us about his life from before, and rather than just keep training, working to get stronger...we settled for being housewives. Because we knew Zeke was always stronger, we thought he wouldn’t need the help. Then, the Foretellers come along, and tell us he died. Then, we hear about Drezke, well, I did...only Celestia and Unum know about Drezke and what Zeke is. The others, including the kids, and council, are in the dark.” “Few things.” Ben starts. “One, why the Foretellers told you all he died was because Drezke, before he went off to do his own thing, told them to tell you all he died because of...important reasons.” Ben says. “Two, I’m sure you met my wives and how they are still training because they know I can't do everything...and how low I can go sometimes.” He sighs out. “And three...ironically enough, Zeke actually came back from the dead as a Nobody, and you just helped solve his problem of not having a heart.” He explains simply. “But if I may ask...why are you a spy for Spoiled though?” Twilight sighed. “I can’t tell you that, and you can’t tell a word of this, to anyone.” “Cloning Zeke or working for the person that wants to take everything you hold dear away from you?” Ben asks simply. “I know what it feels like to lose the ones you love and feel hopeless...believe me I do...but doing this? It's like you thought Zeke wouldn't come back for his family even if it seemed impossible.” “It’s not just that Ben…” Twilight said, her hair suddenly turning brown as she turned back to look at him, her eyes now a shade of green. “She’s got a room mate in here.” The voice that came from Twilight was...high pitched, trying to be a male voice but failing. “Who the fuck are you?” Ben asks worriedly, wondering how he can help Twilight here. “Back before the war I was called Bara.” He/she said, summoning Way to the Dawn. “I must admit, using my Keyblade to become a Nobody was rather efficient, but I did miss it, of course, making an army of my own from this world’s inhabitants did go well til that red eyed bastard came along.” “So your a Nobody inhabiting Twilights body?” Ben asks curiously, bringing out Frozen Pride. “I removed my heart gain control over them, sadly though, I should have hidden my heart better. They found it and for months I was just floating in a jar...till one accident made it fall and break, and Sparkle butt here was the closest meat suit. Being female is rather odd, but, I’m kinda liking it.” “So you took out your heart...to do something you could have done with a heart…” Ben says. “What?” “To control the Nobodies, one must be without a heart, save for you, it’s fact...which intrigues me~” Bara said, walking up to Ben. “I wonder what makes someone with a heart control the Nobodies. Hmm...What makes you tic.” Bara licked Ben’s nose, making him jump back. “Okay that's enough.” Ben frowns summoning Reunion. “Na, uh dog man, this is our secret. Even if you tell, who’d believe you? And if you were to rip me out, I’m latched onto this mare’s heart like an anchor, I go, she goes, Zeke, or rather, 109, goes savage, and Daybreak will hunt you down.” “Hold on.” He says while using his Assistant real quick. “This will only take a moment.” Ben says to the weirdo, looking up to see how he can take out Bara’s heart without hurting Twilight. Showing Results for “Removing a Heart from Within a Heart” Answer: The Heart inside of the Host heart must leave of its own volition. “Oh go fuck yourself…” Ben mutters. “Hmm…” He hums. “Here, you want to know how I do things correct?” He asks Bara simply. “Well your gonna have to get your own body. Cause if your doing this in Twilights body your not really learning anything, your just making Twilight learn something you understand?” “I dunno~ Are you gonna risk harming her?” Bara asked, rubbing...the belly. “I made 109 fertile for a reason, and added in some...extra need to protect those that are his, any harm to them he’ll attack whoever is responsible. All I have to do is scream, and he’ll be here, and your head will roll.” “I don't need to hurt her. All you need to do is leave her heart voluntarily and I'll teach you some things.” Ben tells Bara simply. “Like what?” Bara askes, taking a seat on the table behind...her. “Like how to control Nobodies with a Heart for instance.” Ben says. “Just a simple thing, leave her heart voluntarily, and I'll teach you.” “Hmm...Tempting, but, I’ll pass. You see, I’ve got it good here, and with Spoiled’s help.” Bara snapped her fingers, several Dusk’s, and three cloaked Nobodies appeared. “I can controle FAR more than I ever imagined. I’m working on my experiments, I have an army, I am in the safest place in this whole reflection, and I finally found a man to rutt me right...well, made one, but still~” Bara said, licking her fingers. Ben took a deep breath, Bara noticing the Nobodies sway ever so slightly. “You really think...you understand anything?” The man asks, his voice calm even if he was trying to figure out how to save Twilight. ”God do I wish Zeke was here to help…” Ben thinks to himself worriedly. “Oh, I know what I understand is little to nothing. Even before the Keyblade war, I joined the Anguis union because like everyone else there, I wanted to learn all I could. Research has always been my life, and when the war broke out, I finally had the chance to perform my experiments. Oh the spells I had only theorized and wrote on paper, finally I could cast them, and the hundreds, thousands I slaughtered. To see my research work, it was glorious, so after I emerged from the bloodshed I went about to research as much as I could. For countless years, I researched, studied, knowledge is my life, my goal, an endless journey. It’s why this host took so well to me. When I entered, I had no resistance, I was wrong about that pink cry baby Tiara, this vessel, the person I live off of like a parasite, she and I are more alike than I could ever imagine.” ”Zeke your wife is being controlled by the bastard that ripped this Equestria apart.” Ben mentally calls out to Zeke’s Nobody self. ”Even if you can't hear me...lets just hope I can do something to save her.” He mentally sighs out. “What's the point?” Ben asks Bara. “What is the point of all the knowledge you gained if your just going to get killed either way?” Ben asks. “You know full well your going to die if Spoiled gets her way, so why help her?” “Because, why not? She may be trying to end everything, but you and I both know it will backfire horribly. Till then, I get knowledge from every world, from countless reflections. I win, she dies, and I can pick through all the leftovers of her fallen empire.” “Zeke will try and get you out of Twilight you know that right?” Ben asks curiously. “He knows there's a spy with your keyblade, and there is a way to force you to come out. And believe me...I'm pretty sure he'd believe me when we're both put under a truth spell.” Ben says, not bringing up how he can put this entire encounter in Memory Stealer and replay it for all. “And that’s where you are wrong. You see this?” She asked, holding a Castle Oblivion card with Zeke’s image on it. “This card is all of what 109 is, you tell him, I break it, and he will resort to what he is crafted from, darkness, several Nobodies, and, oh yes, a minimal link to Kingdom Hearts, enough of a link to turn him into something even I shiver to think about. And then there’s this.” She pulled out another card, this one having the Crystal Heart on it. “Everyone in Daybreak, even Mors, the Heart is reaching, I break this, the heart breaks, and Spoiled will flood this world in, well, let’s just say that older, insane you will make an appearance.” Ben looked at this for a moment, before he rubbed his temple. “Fine.” Ben says, before snapping his fingers and the Nobodies, even the cloaked ones, seemed to go stock still at the snap. “The Nobodies won't hurt the people and you won't hurt the people if no one knows correct?” He asks, hating not being able to do anything. “Yes, I’d rather keep this act going. It’s fun to be honest.” “Just...don't be surprised if everything you worked for gets destroyed and you lose everything in the process.” Ben says. “But...what I wanted to ask, why clone Zeke? I'm just curious is all.” “To shut up his wives. ‘Zeke, Zeke, waahh.’ Day and night, especially at night...for two reasons…It just got old so I made them the best sex toy ever.” “Your someone that doesn't understand love and would never understand the real pain they feel Bara…” Ben sighs out. “Christ...today has been a massive headache…” I mutter. “Has Twilight heard this entire conversation?” “Yeah... I did.” Twilights voice returned as her hair and eyes returned to normal. “I’m...sorry Ben...Bara’s heart is strong...and he’s smart...smarter than I am…” Twilight said, looking as miserable as one can get. “I'm sorry...but remember, he’s only one person, you have your family.” Ben tells her simply. “He can't beat all of you, even if he has some bullshit redundancy, but I know you have a stronger heart than him.” He explains. “Just remember who your fighting for.” “If Zeke taught me anything Ben...sometimes...one person can be stronger than everybody...and if Zeke...is back, even as a Nobody...Tell him...I miss him.” Twilight said, getting off the table and leaving the lab, Ben, gritting his teeth as he headed home. Too be continued...
Nobody trains and Joy searches”Damn that Bara…” I mentally grumble, pacing around as I tried to think of a way to help Zeke's Twilight from being nothing more than a prisoner. “Christ...this sucks…” I mutter, continuing to pace around. “What to do...what to do…” I mutter, hearing my stomach growl. “Well...food might be good right now.” I mutter while heading off to the kitchen to get something to eat and help think about how to get Bara out of Twilight. After getting a quick bite to eat I remembered I have other shit to figure out. “Ah crap, I need to get ready for our trip to Zebrica…” I sigh out. “Well better go help back…” I mutter, knowing I have a clone to help but wanting to help them out. I walked around looking for where my girls were and see how much they packed up for our trip. I found them all in our bedroom, several suitcases and such being packed and some already packed. “Oh, hey Ben. We packed some essential items for you already, but it’s gonna be a long trip so pack whatever else you’ll need.” Pinkie said. “Right then.” I nodded, thinking about what I should pack. “Hmm...I mean...I have my Assistant so I have everything at the touch of a button…” I frown. “Did you pack some extra clothes?” “Yes, Rarity even was working on some more durable clothings for you, as well as some enchantments we figured would come in handy from Daybreak.” Celestia said. “Right.” I nodded. “What to pack...what to pack…” I mutter. “I've barely traveled, and normally I don't need to pack anything… “ I sigh out. “So I presume we're going to Zebrica first?” “Yes actually, and we end at the Yak kingdom, that will have taken us all around Equis.” Luna informed. “And then we can see how many more fiances I'll get.” I point out. “Hero of an entire world is basically whoring himself out to create world peace, who'd have thought that?” I joke at my own expense. “By the by have any of you heard from Joy? It's been a while and I haven't heard from him in a while.” I ask them, curious as to what's taking Joy so long. “No, not yet.” Twilight said. “Weird…” I mutter. “If memory serves I was going to look for a special book or something before meeting the Zebrica royals or the other way around?” “Yes, we think it’s something from the Alicornien era.” “Ah.” I nod. “Is anyone tagging along or is it just me looking for the book?” I ask, wondering if I'm gonna get a guide or just have to wing it by myself. “Well, Gilda wants to tag along.” Flutters said. “About time I get into a fight.” The griffon replied. “Which Keyblade do you have again? I...kind of forgot.” I say sheepishly, not remembering what keyblades my fiances have knowing all of them have one. Gilda raided her hand, a Gull Wing Keyblade appearing. “Been practicing, but I want some live action.” “Good.” I nodded. “When are we leaving?” I ask curiously. “A week.” Luna said. “The kids are staying here, and I’m including Joy in that, so he will be in charge of both our kids, his girlfriends, and because we both know that won’t work, Den is gonna babysit them.” “I've seen Joy’s puppy dog eyes...at least mentally. And he could defeat any bad guy with those adorable eyes.” I chuckle. “And of course it's still a week of waiting…” I sigh out. “Wonder what I'm gonna do in the meantime?” I wonder, thinking of all the crap I need to work on. “I have too much shit to do…” I shake my head bitterly and start to pace. “Screw it. I’m gonna go see if Nelare is busy.” I say. “I'll be back.” I say while heading off to the Ponyville spa to see if my dagger master is busy. As I was flying down I spotted a familiar officer waving at me, so, I landed near him. “Hey Ben.” Dorlu said with a smile. “Sup Dorlu.” I nod while landing my glider down near him. “How are you doing?” “Glad to be back in Ponyville, but sadly work is never done. Wanna hitch a ride, we got a crime scene a block down.” “I've got my own ride but sure.” I nod, “There's...a lot of shit that went down and I need to start working more…” I sigh out, still hating how I couldn't stop all the guards getting brutally murdered like that. “Yeah, normally this would be something we’d call the Guard for but….ya know. So, this is the first murder the police department is gonna handle.” “Murder…” I mutter. “You'd think this world wouldn't have death in it.” I sigh out. “It’s a fact of life, what can ya do.” Dorlu’s words rang in my head upon hearing that. “I was actually told how to stop a fact of life...too bad a single world needs to last about a million years or so without said fact happening.” I sigh out. “And I'm going to try my damndest to make sure that becomes a reality.” “Well then, good luck my friend.” Dorlu said, the two of us walking for a while til we came to a house where cops were everywhere, and an ambulance was parked out front. “From what I was told a stallion names Carmel got into an argument with his boyfriend and it went bad fast. Found him locked up in the basement, bloody, and the weapon in his hand. We’re trying to talk him out but he’s being difficult. Won’t reply and we can’t get the door open, he’s blocking it with something.” “Have you tried putting yourself into a card and sliding under the door?” I ask curiously. “But...I wonder why this happened? A simple argument doesn't involve murder…” “Being from Knowhere, I’ve seen people killed for less.” Dorlu said, walking me in the house and to a door. Heavy metal, a small window showing me a small view of a blood soaked Stallion clutching a knife. “Here he is. You try cause, we’ve tried everything and he’s not budging. Or talking back, which is both strange and concerning.” “Okay then.” I nod before knocking on the door. “Hello?” I call out, hoping if I could solve this with words first. He gave no reply, didn’t even move. “I'm scared he's dead.” I frown before summoning Fair Game and turning into a card before sliding under the metal door and getting into the room. I then flipped the card up and appeared in the room. “Hello?" I ask curiously, ready for anything. Still nothing. I summoned Frozen Pride and then poked the body gently with my shield. “Hello?” I ask worriedly, wondering if Caramel was actually dead. ”Heheheheh. Got ya.” A voice I recognized too well said, Caramel suddenly getting up, tossing me against the wall, and stabbed the knife THROUGH my side, and into the wall. His hand under my skin. ”Finally. A host from this Realm.” I looked at his eyes… Psychopath. “Oh for fuck sakes.” I grunt, ignoring the throbbing pain coursing through me. “Dorlu! Get out of here!” I shout, using Frozen Pride to shoot a block of ice at the Psychopath to get him away from me. Dorlu ran everyone out, the Psychopath in front of me with an ice spike in it’s chest, which it pulled out and dropped, it’s wound bleeding out...then the blood stopped and the wound was gone. ”Tickles.” “Assistant?” I ask my Assistant, hoping it has a voice command. ”Yes?” A female voice came from my Assistant. ”Oh thank fuck!” I mentally shout in glee. “Call Cript or anyone that has Psychopath experience. I need help against a Psychopath.” I tell my Assistant, summoning my Lexicon and healing myself quickly. “Why the hell are you here at all?” I ask the Psychopath with a frown. ”Hehehehehehehhehehehe, the barrier is broken. We can finally claim hosts here. We can invade...we can kill. Hehehe. All in time.” “That’s...thats not right.” I say worriedly. “How the fuck did that happen? What did you do?” ”We can’t claim hosts in realms for two reasons. One, it’s protected, a barrier of it’s own logic and reality, or Cript. All your realm traversing has weakened it, and we entered. So, travel, explore, for when the time comes, we will end all.” The Psychopath laughed, a pool of blood opening under it as it fell in with a splash. It’s ‘portal’ gone and blood staining...everything. Including my clothes. “I...I didn't go to different realms that much…” I mutter. “I only stayed in this realm...no...nononono.” I say, starting to panic at how I could have caused these fuckers to enter my reflection and how much death and destruction they could cause. “No….damn it…” I mutter while using Arpeggio, my Sitar, to get the blood off of me. “Damn it….Damn it…” I mutter, not sure if the thing is still in the room or it left. I looked around a bit, figuring the monster was gone and went outside, there, I saw Cript leaning against the ambulance, eating an apple. “I didn't go to other Realms...I stayed in this Realm and all its reflections…” I tell him weakly. “Blame isn’t totally on you...remember when Trinity took you to our realm to train you with your Chakrams, or when I took you to find that scroll?” “Oh…” I look down. “But...if I was actually stronger and didn't need your help all the damned time this...ah who the fuck am I kidding, I sure as hell always need your, or the others, help considering all the shit going on that's outside my scale…” Cript shrugged, putting a hand on my shoulder. “One thing at a time. Technically, I’m not supposed to do this, but things are getting out of hand. I’m gonna put you and Zeke, quote, Zeke, unquote, through a Script.” “A Script? And Zeke is back, I can sense him.” I tell Cript. “Know that, anyway, think of it as how a Video game needs certain events or objectives to be met before something else happens. If I run this, you’ll be able to take things on one at a time, with minor interferences, no major things until the last one is dealt with. Alright?” “What about the others? John, the Foretellers? Are they gonna go through this as well considering this is...mostly my fault?” “Right now you and Zeke are the ones stuck in this, I’ll worry about them when I need to, besides, a ‘pet’ project of mine is nearly finished and I wanna make sure there’s no buggs. So, run it, or no?” “Run it.” I say. “I'm too far behind on a lot of things and Trinity said she would help me with my Ethereal Blades I don't have a Claymore master…” I sigh out. “Then there's the fact I barely know about Nothingness….” I take a deep breath, trying to keep my rage in check so I don't rant about me being a lazy bastard. “Alright, but, this will be the last time you see me for a while. Den will be able to pop in whenever, but I won’t be able to be around till you’ve been totally caught up. But, I will be planning this script out some, so you can have plenty of opportunities to grow strong, also, you won’t be able to buy things or use your Assistant for much other than storage and it’s combat features.” “Good enough for me.” I nod. “Shits going too fast right now and I have too much to do…” I sigh out. “Lets hope this works.” “Alright, see you in a while, son.” Cript said, snapping his fingers as...everything went white. “Gah!” I yelp, shooting up in my...bed? “Wait...wasn't I…?” I mutter before shaking my head. “Never mind, a Cript thing.” I say while looking around and seeing I was in my bedroom back home. “Okay...back home…” I mutter before getting out of bed and seeing I was in my pajamas. “Well better get properly dressed.” I mutter while walking over to our walk in closet and starting to get dressed for the new day. “Wonder how this whole thing is gonna work...” I wonder to myself, Cript telling me this was like a video game but not sure what kind of video game he meant. “Can't buy items from my Assistant besides having it for storage...maybe I should just go to town and get some training from Nelare.” I mutter while getting dressed and heading off to Ponyville. Once I flew down to Ponyville the first place I looked was the Ponyville Salon, wondering if she would be at work. I walked in and checked to see if anyone was at the front desk so I tapped on the little bell to get someone. “Hello?” Rather than one of the spa ponies, Aloe, or Lotus, to greet me, a tall, muscular, oversized stallion came. “Yes?” “Is Nelare in?" I ask curiously, hoping she was here and not sick again. “I was wondering if I could ask her something important.” “Yeah, she’s here. Hang on.” He said, leaving. Waiting for a bit, Nelare came out from the main spa room entrance. “Hello." I nod to the knife master. “How are you doing?” “Feeling better. Flue sucks. So, I take it you are here to learn about the Kunai’s?” “Yes please.” I nod. “Need to learn how to use Foudre properly.” I nod, naming of my lightning kunai. “Alright then, Hey Rem, Aloe, Lotus, I’m taking some time off!” She yelled into the back room of the ponyville spa before she lead me outside. “While I can teach you some basic stuff, I will need your help gathering some more required items. Mainly targets.” She said. I took a deep breath. “Do we really need to do this on live targets?” I ask worriedly. “What, no. Just wood boards with a bullseye painted on them.” Nelare said. “Oh thank god.” I sigh out thankfully. “Would going to the Everfree or Whitetail Woods be good places to train? All the trees can be used for targets.” “That will be later, first rule of Kunai’s, you gotta be fast. When attacking, you are closer than with even a dagger in combat, so being fast makes sure you deal the hits rather than taking them. Let’s go to a hardware store, then we can start on some basics.” She said, leading the way to the shopping district. I nodded while following along. “Question, is there any kind of special Kunai that are either very special or magical?” I ask curiously. “Cause I was told my Gun Arrows are very very cool, and my Scythe is made of a demon tree.” I explain, wondering if there's gonna be something special about them, “Depends, let me see them.” I nod and summon my Kunai, the yellow and blue weapons appearing between my fingers before I gently handed them to her. “This is Foudre, not entirely sure what the name means but it sounds fancy.” She looked them over, inspecting them. She took her time looking them over before handing them back to me. “Well, as far as I can tell the metal is rather standard Steel, but it’s the enchantments that are what are impressive about them.” “Is it because there lightning based?” I ask curiously, remembering the ton of crap Larxene did in the games but not sure if it was from her or her weapon. “Well, from what I can tell the enchantments boost lightning based attacks by seventy five percent, those types of attacks already some of the strongest all by themselves, they increase your mana by about fifty percent, and speed by sixty percent.” “That's a lot of buffs.” I say honestly, surprised about that. “But, like with all magic, there is a catch. All those buffs take away from your defence, meaning wielding these means you’ll be able to take less hits than you would normally. Seems like a fair trade in my opinion.” “Question...is there an after image technique that looks and feels more like cloning?” I ask curiously, always wondering how Larxene was able to do that. “Or is that some special magic?” “That’s a technique. I can teach you that too if you want.” “Please teach me everything you know.” I say readily. “Can't be a master of a weapon if I don't know all I can learn...well...everyone has room to grow and learn, even masters.” I say, quickly fixing my little mess up. “Heh, true enough. Let’s get shopping.” Neler and I went into town, buying some wood items and paint. Once we made it to an open area not too far into the Everfree. We quickly set up some targets and such all around a mile long stretch of the area. Finally, the training was about to begin. “Alright, now then, let me see your pose.” I summoned my knives, three in each hand and I thought for a moment about my stance. ”Can't use her stance...maybe I could…” I think to myself while sliding my right foot back slightly to form a stable stance, and moving my arms so my left hand was up around my chest looking like I could quickly jab someone and my right hand laid near my side, making it look like my right hand could either throw a strong punch or throw the Kunai quickly. “This okay?” I ask, my stance looking solid enough but leaning more on looking like a weird mix of a boxing stance and a martial art stance then a standard stance for Kunai wielders. “Uh huh…” Nelear said, walking around me. Inspecting me I guess. “Well, pose can work, but, we need to start at the basics.” She said, taking all but one of my knives from me. She then pointed over to a target board across from me. “Basic throwing. Let’s see it.” I took a deep breath and went to throw it. But when I threw it I forgot how fast I could go now and hit a tree just before it got to the board. “Huh...didn't expect to be that fast…” I mutter worriedly, clenching my fist gently and seeing a slight burn mark on my glove from how fast it was going. “Huh.” She said, looking at my arm. “Hmm...Strength is good, just need aim, and the propper throw. You threw yours in a way that it it spun while in the air, to throw them properly, you throw them so they are stable while in the air.” “I've...never actually thrown daggers before.” I say sheepishly. “Feels a lot different then cards that's for sure…” I mutter, the dagger in the tree disappearing and appearing in my hand. “Okay...maybe turn back the speed and strength a bit.” I mutter, trying again and throwing it again, now actually noticing it was spinning and sticking in the top right corner of the board. “This is gonna take a while…” “Here.” Nelare said, showing me how she was holding one of the Kunai’s, the blade pointed backwards, resting against her wrist. “You hold it like this, and then,” She then made a throw motion, but held onto the Kunai, showing how once it was in the right position in the wrist motion, she would let go. “That should help you keep it steady while throwing.” I nodded, taking a deep breath and trying once again, this time it only spun once before hitting the board a little closer to the target. “Great, now, apply speed to your throw, and strength.” I sigh out. “Just...don't be surprised in it doesn't look like I actually threw it.” I say, not really knowing how fast I could throw one of these but trying anyways. I did the motion of properly throwing before I threw it, my hand blurring and the Kunai hit the center, embedding itself almost all the way to the handle. “Better…” I nodded. “Perfect. Now do it again five hundred more times.” “Great…” I mutter before making a new one and proceeding to do as she asked, my hand and arm seeming to blur as I threw the amount of Kunai she wanted me, some missing completely and sticking into trees, some chipping off of the board, and the rest basically making the board look like a pincushion getting attacked by a needle storm. “Yeesh, and hear I thought swinging a scythe a lot was a little bad for your shoulder.” I frown while rolling my shoulder. “You missed about half.” Nelear said, sighing. “We’ll work on that later, now, same thing, but with your left arm.” “Crap…” I mutter. “This is gonna be a long day…” I say before using my left arm and throwing Kunai, but instead of just blazing through I toned down the speed a tad and actually tried to aim...didn't help I still got the same hit to miss ratio with my right arm. “Well...at least I didn't miss as much as I thought I would.” I say, glad that my non dominant hand was at least fine enough. “Not bad, not bad.” She said, changing the very damaged target board for a clean one. “Again, we ain't leaving till you are accurate to a T.” I rolled my shoulders and hearing them crack a bit. “Right then. Time to start praying I can do this right.” I say while going back to my right hand and doing the motion for a moment. “Okay…” I mutter, taking a deep breath and focusing before I threw the five hundred at a blinding speed, Nelare noticing sparks flying off of my arm which seemed to blur in and out. After I counted five hundred I stopped, my arm steaming from the speed and noticing I hit the target a lot more, but not perfectly accurate. “Maybe I should slow down a bit…” I mutter with a frown, thinking my speed is throwing off my timing or aim. “I hope I won't take too much of your time...actually, have two ponies come here to see Remilua?” I ask curiously, remembering I told Octavia about the scythe wielder. “Yeah… Last I knew he went on a date with them...that was two days ago...though I did get a postcard from New Las Pegasus saying “Alive still”.” I chuckled at hearing that. “Well don't be surprised if you see him with those two already married. This world can...have pretty fast herds...or at least in my experience.” I say sheepishly, not being one to look at for proper dating tips. “So, talking about love lives, you thought of anyone special around Ponyville?” I ask her curiously, switching to my left hand and starting to throw the Kunai carefully. “Not really. I’m not really one for romance.” “I understand.” I nod. “So, how have you been during your stay on Equestria?” I ask curiously, keeping up my throwing which got faster slowly. “Relaxing. Back on Knowhere if you weren’t on your toes all the time you’d get robbed or worse, here, I can go for a walk, WITH a purse.” “True, true.” I nod. “But...sadly...Knowhere is probably a been wasteland.” I sigh out. “Something I couldn't stop went there and probably killed everyone there…” I shook my head and threw more Kunai till I hit the five hundred mark. “Anyone at Knowhere you were at least friends with besides Remilua?" I ask. “Not really, the only reason to be close to someone on Knowhere was for items, sex, or child support.” “Ah.” I nodded. “Makes enough sense considering it was basically a massive black market.” I say, finishing my second attempt at five hundred hitting the board, seeing that I was getting my aim down at least. “Well I at least hit the thing with all of them this time.” I say simply. “Yeah, arms hurt yet?” I roll my shoulders and my arms did hurt a bit but nothing too bad. “Not so much. Why do you ask?” I ask curiously, wondering if she thought my arms hurt because of how fast I was throwing these things. “Cause if they don’t hurt yet, I’m not doing my job.” She said, looking up at the sky and seeing it was getting late. “I’ll go tell your wives you’ll be training late, keep it up, or we’ll see how long you can last throwing at top speed.” She said, heading off for my home. “Alright.” I nodded before using my right hand and throwing five hundred Kunai again, this time starting to bunch them as they all hit within the target thankfully. “Okay...time for the left.” I say while moving to my left and throwing five hundred again, this time going a bit faster and seeing I'm getting better at it. “Glad I'm a quick learner.” I mutter thankfully. I kept it up for a while. It was an hour or more, the sun getting lower and lower. Finally, the light from Flashlights came over me, when I looked around...it was the girls. “Hi Ben!” Pinkie and Twin said in unison. “Oh, hey.” I nodded. “What are you doing here?” “They wanted to tag along and watch you.” Nelear said, walking up from behind the mini army that was my fiances. “Can’t really say much against it, so long as they don’t interfere.” “Okay.” I nod before changing the stabbed to hell board for another board and went back to my starting position. “Okay, five hundred.” I say before all my fiances barely saw my right arm blur as five hundred Kunai embedded themselves in the board where the target was. “Well got the five hundred in the target.” I say to Nelare before switching to my left hand. “Alright...left hand.” I say while throwing them all at the same board, managing to get them all within the target. “There.” I say while rolling my shoulders. “Think my aim is good?” “So far.” Nelear said, helping my fiance’s set up a campfire. “Do five hundred more and we can take a small break.” “Right then.” I nod while switching my target again. “Five hundred more.” I mutter before throwing five hundred from each arm again, hitting the target accurately. ”Good.” I nodded, thankful that I was progressing well with my throw and aim. With that done I took a seat near the campfire my fiances set up. “Did someone bring marshmallows?” I ask curiously. “Or...is that something people normally bring to campfires?” I ask, not entirely sure given I've never camped out before. Twin brought out a...Large, to but it mildly, bag of marshmallows from her way to small to hold that backpack...quickly followed by cooking gear, gram crackers, chocolate bars… a...cat? And fishing poles. “Always prepared!” She declared. “Why the hell did you bring a cat and fishing poles?” I ask, staring at Twin and kind of concerned at how the hell she fit all those things in that bag. “And...how did all that fit in your backpack when it's way too small?” “The Fishing poles I brought cause late night fishing is a hobby of mine, and the cat...I have no idea how it got into my bag.” “Weird…” I mutter while checking the cat to see if it was hurt or if it was special in some way. “Okay little cat, what are you?” I mutter while gently picking up said cat and seeing what breed the cat was. It was Siamies, white just about all over save for her, and it was a she, front paws, tip of her tail, and ears. She had pretty blue eyes, and a collar, with a simple name. Cheese. “Her names Cheese.” I say, gently petting the cat. “Anyone know of a person who owned a Siamese named Cheese?” They all shook their heads. “Well...looks like we got ourselves a pet cat...lets just hope Cerberus doesn't mind.” I say nervously. “Also before you ask, it's a different Cerberus, not the one near Tarta-" I cut myself off as I took a deep breath. “Fuck...I completely forgot about that place…” I sigh out, completely forgetting this world's super prison like a jackass. “Anyways, how have all of your days been?” I ask everyone curiously, not really having many times to ask that simple question. “Baked.” Twin and Pinkie said. “Practiced some spells.” Luna said. “Went shopping.” Rarity said. “Splic- I mean, read.” Brigid said, quickly fixing what she said. “Better not be splicing.” I say. “And the rest of you? Anything special?” I ask the rest of my wives curiously. The rest was some simple things, Twilight visited her family, Celestia was going over some documents about how to handle the lack of guards. It was nice. ”Wonder what Joy is doing?” I thought, roasting a marshmallow. (Joy POV) “Okay...so this is where God is huh?” I muttered, looking around the new world God was hiding in. “Wonder where he is…” I muttered, starting to walk around. It was a rather baren world, only a few buildings along a single, solitary stretch of road. With not much of an option, I began looking through the dirty windows and such, the inside of the buildings rather empty and barren. Finally, I found a building that, on the inside, looked rather clean and kept, and went in. “Hello?” I call out into the clean home. “Huh?” A familiar voice calls out as the old man I knew as God from Ben’s memories walked into the room from another. “Oh...Joy right, you were from Ben? Well, his emotions, right?” He asked, looking...terrible, no beating around it. “Technically Ben is my reincarnation but pretty much.” I nodded. “But you look like you need some help...and a lot of shit to be told about.” I say, bringing out my Assistant and deciding to just start with scanning the old man to see what's fully wrong with him besides a universe collapsing inside him. Function no longer available. “The fuck?” I frown, checking my Assistant to see why a simple action was no longer available. “Weird...anyways, how can I help?” I ask simply. “Heh, you can’t.” The old man says simply, taking a seat on a rocking chair. “When I made this universe, I knew it would not last forever. You’ve met my father, I presume?” “Yes I'm met Mr. Disney...but...I've also met your mother.” I tell him. “I know you won't believe me...and you probably won't believe me if I told you Core is only a heart and not a crazy person and your long lost brother Hollow is alive and well with Void powers.” I explain with a shrug. “That I knew, but Core being just his heart… that’s new.” He said, pulling out a bottle of Whisky and taking a swing. “Tell me, do you know how dad and I lived so long?” “Magic? Special abilities? Being actual god's?” I ask simply. “Our hearts. While hearts can be destroyed, they themselves are pure energy or light, dark, pure light or pure darkness, all feeding from Kingdom Hearts, and worlds are no exception. Father learned long ago how to feed that energy into his mortal body, extending his life from the beginning of everything, to this day. Core, his Nobody, exists outside of time, and Hollow, the void keeps him young, for time, space, not even meaning or logic have meaning there. When I made your universe, I used my heart to create it, fuel it, keep it stable. It’s why all I can sustain for my body is this elderly form. Sadly though, your universe crumbling...also means my own heart is shattering.” “There has to be a way to help.” I say worriedly, not really knowing how to help. “Damn it, the one time when I need this damned thing and suddenly it doesn't work.” I growl, glaring at my Assistant like it kicked a puppy. “There has to be a way to help...your heart is crumbling how?” I ask, wondering when Eve is gonna appear and try to do something for her poor son. “Parts of your universe, you know this, items, places, people. All parts of my heart. If you saw earth itself, you’d cry…” God said, taking another sip. “When it all breaks, it will all spill out into the reflections. My heart will be gone, my body, not sure. Soul, you don’t want to know. Just, here.” God said, taking Joy’s hand and placing a small, red box in it, a small keyhole on it. “It’s the power I used to bring you all from my mind into my reality.” Joy looked at the box. “I have no idea what it does…” Joy says nervously. “Just don’t open it. Hide it. Anyone with bad intentions gets their hands on it, heh, well, let’s just say it’s Apocalypse Now.” I nodded and checked if his Assistant could at least be a good item storage as he tried to put the box away. And thankfully it did. “Okay…” I nod. “But…” Joy mutters. “Eve? I know you can hear me, especially when I'm so close to your son. You can come out and say hi.” Joy says to no one in particular, hoping for once calling someone powerful out would cause them to appear when he actually needs them. ”Can't believe I'm calling Eve here when she's someone we need to fight…” I mentally sighed out. “Never mind...but is there a way to keep your heart and send my world into the reflections we know?” I ask him curiously, thinking that if he doesn't fight it and let's it flow his heart will stick around. “Heh...I don’t think so. There’s someone I’ll need you to find, he has a world all his own in your friends the Foretellers world. He goes by Chuck, and for a time, was my apprentice. He is the only other person who knows how to bring imagination into reality. Though, you may have to watch out for his ‘sister’ if she’s still around.” “I was going to ask if this Chucks last name was Norris but...I don't remember the guy ever having a sister.” I shrug. “But...there's literally no way to save you? Even if...even if I used Memory Stealer to preserve your heart and memories? It's worked Roxas, Namine and Xion, it can work with others.” I say, trying to draw any straws I can to help the poor guy. “Joy… there’s not much time left for me.” He said with a chuckle. “Here.” God said, raising his hand as a Keyblade, it’s handle shaped like ice caps, blade and hilt the continents of earth going up until the tip, which were more ice caps, the sun and moon, the moon in front of the sun slightly. “It’s made from the memories of earth. From the day it appeared, till now. My memories of it. I call it, Mankind.” He said, handing it over to me. “Take it. It will help you find those from your reflection.” I looked down, saddened that the guy that gave Ben and me so much has to die in such a way. “I'm sorry I can't help…” I say sadly while taking the Keyblade. “I have to admit, thought I’d at least see Luxu one last time. If you see my boy, tell him to let go. His fear of the X-blade made him do so much harm. Heh, Core’s descendants became grand criminals, mine started the Keyblade War, for nothing, and Hollow never had any. It’s funny really. We all had high hopes for ourselves, only for us all to end up this way.” “Which seems even worse when Core’s descendants all have the capability to become Psychopaths, and...wait your son is named Luxu? I thought your grandson was named Luxu?” I ask curiously, confused on that part. “Luxu is my grandson...My son’s name is…” He dropped his whisky, shaking a bit. “Heh, there goes the last of it…” He said, looking...tired. “Luxu’s father is called… Michel…” God closed his eyes, a flash of light coming from his chest as his body began fading into shards of light, rather quickly his body vanishing completely and into the air. I stood there and took a deep breath. “Damn it…” I growl. “Damn it…” I sigh out. “Well...I better go find Chuck…” I sigh out while using Mankind to open a door to where Chuck was. “Lets hope this will lead me there.” I mutter while walking through the door, hating how I couldn't save God. I exited the door, finding myself in a...bar? There was a homeless looking man here too. “Who are you?” He asked. “Names Joy.” I say simply. “Who are you if I may ask?” “Well, on earth people knew me as Marv, but my real name is Mettaton, in another time I was the scribe of God.” He said, taking a seat on a barstool and grabbing a mug, filling it with beer from the tap. “So, if I may ask, what in the hells are you?” “I'm also a person from Earth, well...technically speaking. Then some magic stuff happened and made me half dire wolf.” I explain simply. “So what's the scribe of God doing here?” I ask curiously. “Especially looking like this.” “No idea, was in a dumpster scrounging for some food, long story short I had my grace taken and became mortal. Next thing I know, I’m here.” Mettaton said, taking a swig of beer. “Hey, who are you?” We both turned around, seeing a skinny, tall man look at us from a booth, pointing at me. “Wait… no. Don’t tell me… Is he dead?” The mystery man asked. “Wish I could have saved him…” I sigh out bitterly. “But the names Joy. Who are you?” “Uh...Heh...Uh...this is gonna be a long story…” He said, rubbing the back of his head. Turns out, this was Chuck, the first thing God pulled from his mind, himself, younger, as well as his darkness, Chuck’s sister, Amara. Where Mettaton and I were now was his ‘safe room’ the only place Amara couldn’t touch or find. Chuck locked up his sister a long time ago, but she was released when a curse she was bound to was broken, releasing her. Now, the world Chuck, or ‘God’ as they all know him as, are being harmed by her, and to sum it up. “You’re a coward.” I said simply. “Hey! She is just as strong as I am, if not more. Besides… I’ve had more important matters to attend to.” Chuck said. “Like what?” Mettaton asked, having a mental breakdown as everything he thought to be true was all a lie. “You lied to everybody, angel, demon, human, yourself. You’re just a… a young clone of the actual God, what’s so important for you given you’ve been missing for, oh I don’t know, the last ten thousand years!” “Okay that's enough.” I state bluntly. “No need to be pissed at him for things outside of his control, and to be honest angels and demons probably weren't lied to because of obvious reasons like the after life being outside even his powers.” I explain. “I uh...made my own. This world, completely cut off from Kingdom Hearts, it has its own afterlife, and such. Guess I inherited that from the big G… Can’t believe he’s really gone…” Chuck sighed. “What's funny is that he wasn't really a god to begin with. Sure having the power of Imagination is overpowered as hell I've actually met gods...and Admins...and Psychopaths…” I frown. “Christ did we all jump the gun on seeing what's strong…” I say, having thought Core was the strongest then jumping straight to Cript and Psychopaths. “Well, that said, I suppose I can tell you about someone you might know. While ago a door to Purgatory, different purgatory Mettaton, and out appeared a Nobody, one of those human looking ones...If I didn’t see it I wouldn’t have believed it, but he had a Keyblade, and his energy...I haven’t felt anything like that since big G brought me to see Kingdom Hearts itself.” “Yeah that’s Zeke. I can sense him even from here, and the Nobodies won't shut up about it.” I grumble. “Nothing like being a human X blade while having the ability to wield the X blade.” I explain. “So, know where he is?” I ask him curiously, remembering Yellow talking about Purgatory before. “Uh...No. After he appeared is when I built this...kinda freaked me out.” “Of course you did.” I sighed out. “Well good thing God gave me this.” I say while showing Mankind. “This can help me find him...but poor Yen Sid and Eve...gonna be tough for them to hear this…” “Well, uh...Good luck with that. So, um...I’ll just drop you off where he landed and...you take it from there. Bye.” Chuck said with a wave, I finding myself in a forest where it looked like a nuke went off. Trees scorched and burned to crisps for as far as the eye could see. “I probably should have warned him about shit that might hunt him…” I muttered before raising Mankind. “Okay you, help me look for Zeke.” I say, trying to use the Keyblades special ability to search for people from Earth here. It glowed, a blue orb of light appearing out of it and began gingerly floating away from me. Leading me to, hopefully, Zeke. “Right then.” Joy mutters while putting his hood up and following the orb to find Zeke hopefully. ”How far...IS HE!?!?” I mentally scream, having been walking all night through what felt like an endless forest. “If I don’t find him soon…” I grumble, seeing the orb speed up. “That better mean what I think it means.” I say, picking up the pace. An hour of a slow paced jog, I found what looked like… I’m not sure. It kind of looks like it would have been an old entrance to some sewers… or a bunker of sorts. “Riiiiiiiiight…” I mutter. “Hello?” I call out, wondering if I'll hear an echo if it was some sewers or someone was there if it was a kind of bunker. I tried to enter, but it was locked. Smirking, I tapped Mankind against it, knowing just a tap works… Jenny’s opened the locked bathroom door enough times… I pulled the door- Locked? “The fuck?” I frown, switching to Hearts Guardian and tapping it again, trying to pull it open again. Nothing… a lock immune to Keyblades? How? As I started banging the door I was knocked back when it was kicked open from the inside. Ouch, my nose! “Ow!” I whine and hold my nose. “Maybe try not kicking the door down next time jack ass!” I frown, looking up at who just kicked the door down. I froze. My blood went cold… “How...you’re dead!” I said, backing up a bit. “So I heard.” A voice I thought I’d never hear again spoke...Core… His blank wooden mask on, but his apparel a purple version of Eraqus's clothing. “Okay...how the fuck are you alive and why are you here?” I ask worriedly, confused on how Core is here and not in Daybreak. “That’s not important.” He said, a...rather strange Keyblade appearing in his hand. It was like the swords the Invisible’s wield, a cloth wrapped around it partly as the tip was a heart shaped moon. “You’d best leave. There are...things Dexez needs to complete.” “And I also want to see a friend me and Ben thought died when Drezke killed his Light half.” I frown, summoning my new and improved Lindworm. “Also...want to know some special things I figured out not too long ago?” “Does it matter? You. Need. To. Leave.” “When it involves your mother and the descendants of your own son then yes it does matter.” I say simply. “Like I said, You. Need. To. LEAVE!” Core shouted, charging as I blocked. I used Wind Guardian and sent him flying back a bit...until I went in to strike him...He blocked me and I saw green energy fill him...oh crap. He used the Jump reaction, hitting me five times continuously and hitting me with a hard combo before he jumped back. “You’re leaving. Conscious or not.” “You'd think I would be immune to that Reaction crap…” I cough. “But can I at least get an explanation here? It's not everyday your friend that sacrificed himself to stop you, get split in half, then have his dark half kill his Light, Psychopath corrupted half, and then literally feel and hear him come back to life.” I frown. “Let’s just say…” Core started, looking at his own hand… then to me. “He’s setting things right.” Core rushed at me, and everything went black. “Joy?” I heard Sweetie Belle’s voice call to me as I woke up...in our bed. “Oh thank goodness. Are you alright?” She asked. I took a quick look around, seeing some bandages and such on the bedside table. I looked at myself. My cloak was off, just shorts on as my arm and forehead were bandaged. “Oh you know, just wanted to meet a friend I once thought was dead, then got stopped at the front door by some asshole that managed to kick my ass. You know, the usual.” I joke, wincing as I felt my head sting like mad. “You just flew out of a DTD unconscious. It’s been about an hour.” “Well...better than it being a day or so.” I sigh out. “Where are the others? They're probably gonna freak when they know I woke up.” I chuckle, knowing at least Jenny would want to start messin with me a bunch now. “Jenny, Applebloom and Scootaloo are in town doing a bit of shopping. Lovely, Gabby and DT went to Canterlot for sightseeing. Frisk, Chara, and Asriel are up in New Manehattan, visiting their family. I stayed here cause I was taking a nap.” “Right…” I nodded gently. “Um...for some reason it feels like I should have a wolf girlfriend...maybe I should go back to the Diamond Dog kingdom and check…” “Heh, taking after Ben I see.” Sweetie said with a chuckle. “He has twenty fiances, I have ten girlfriends. I doubt I'm gonna get more girlfriends over eleven….but don't be surprised if I get more.” I chuckle. “So, how’s everyone else been doing? “Ben’s training with his knife teacher. All his fiance’s are out with him, so I guess it’s gonna be a while.” “Right.” I nodded, before hearing the sound of a twenty foot dog barking outside. “Did Jenny go to Olympus Coliseum or something?” I ask curiously, wondering if that was Cerberus I heard. “Yeah, in the round against him she just pet him and he turned himself into a puppy and she adopted him. He’s not too bad either. Though he ate...ALL the meat stuff we had so that’s why they are shopping.” “Of course.” I sigh out. “But glad to hear Cerberus is a good dog...but is it a male or female?” “Jenny says, according to lore from the world he’s from, he’s a demon hound, so he’s both and neither. Not sure what that means.” “I think Cerberus has both sets of...parts, but when you look at him it doesn't look like he has any at all.” I say. “But I have no idea, I'm not good at demon hound biology...or demon biology to begin with.” I shrug while getting up. “So, what do you want to do?” I ask curiously, wondering what the two of us could do right now. “To be honest…~” Sweetie said, getting real close to me with a look I haven’t seen on her since her heat. “Borrowed Rune’s book. And it’s just you and me to test them out~” “Nope.” I say while getting out of bed. “Nope. Nope. Nope. Not dealing with all the fetishes there. I don't even want to know some of the sick shit she wrote in there.” I say bluntly, not knowing what things Rune wrote and there and honestly not wanting to find out. “You read it haven't you?” “Yup.” She said, putting a...dog collar on...why am I… “This was hard to get, but has hormones in it that draw male diamond dogs to mates. And judging from your drool...it works on you too~” “Are...we at least keeping it safe enough?” I ask, trying my best not to just rush her and make her mine. “All I have to do is take it off if things get too hot.” She said, not even touching me as I followed her finger and was now over her. “Fine...but if I turn into a girl I'm not having it there got it?” I tell her bluntly. Before she spoke, she pulled my head down, my nose right in front of her collar...the hormones floo- “Hehe, think less, act more.” To be continued...
Nobody talksThe next morning Nelare had me start off with another five hundred, and once that was done, upped it to one thousand, with multiple targets I had to hit all around me. Needless to say, it took a bit, but I finished. “You’re progressing faster than I expected.” Nelare said, giving me an approved nod. “Take a break, I gotta head back into town to get more targets.” She said, walking off as I sat on a log. Girls all went back to the castle to bring breakfast stuff to cook out here. All in all...it was peaceful. “Mind explaining what the hell is up with my Assistant?” Joy asks me. Until it wasn't. “How are you doing Joy?” I ask him simply. “It's been a while since I last heard you. Been busy?” “Pretty much.” Joy nodded. “So, the hell happened while I was gone?” “Cript put us in...a sort of Script as it were. No idea what that fully entails but we have time…” I explain, looking down bitterly as Joy saw what was now capable of freely roaming in our home. “Oh no…” Joy mutters worriedly. “Yeah…” I sigh out. “Hopefully this will give us enough time to do...whatever.” I shrug. “Yeah…” Joy trails off, not sure where to start here. “Mind telling me what you were doing for so long?” I ask my little brother. “Well...God...passed.” Joy tells me bitterly, summoning a Keyblade with all the continents of earth and its sun and moon as part of it’s design. “He gave me this before he died… said it can find others from earth…” I took a deep breath. “Well...that sucks.” I mutter. “But...anything else?” “...I know where Zeke’s Nobody is...generally...but someone…stopped me from seeing him.” The pup said. “I'd love to guess...but I'm not sure who it might be.” I say simply, wondering who could beat Joy so easily. “...Core…” Joy said, his voice a mix of fear and venom. “I thought the fucker was nothing but a heart?” I ask, completely confused here. “I don’t know. I asked and Core’s heart is still at Daybreak, but this… He wasn’t a Nobody pumped with darkness like the one we know. This Core was a person, I could tell that much. How though… I don’t know.” “Well shit.” I sigh out. “What the fuck is Zeke doing?” I mutter worriedly. “Anything else? Like how that Absent Silhouette fight went?” I ask, having remembered that before he got cut off. “Check this.” Joy said, summoning a Keyblade that…was rather cool. “It’s called Hearts Guardian. It’s one of the prizes I got for beating that SOB...Was not fun…” Joy said, giving a heavy sigh. “Bright side, it’s stupidly strong.” “It better be if it was a pain in the ass.” I say simply. “I have a feeling you got some other stuff.” “Attack is twelve, and a ten to magic. Plus, according to the Assistant, all the past X-blade wielders special powers, with this, I can learn to use. I also got Valor form, Keyblade armor, a fuck ton of money, some shotlocks, and I can summon Stitch… Speaking of… where is…” Joy and I looked to our side, seeing the small blue alien walking passed up, shushing us as he then ran off. “Hey! Get back here!” We saw Luxu run passed, his cloak spray painted green and orange. “You’re gonna pay for this!” Luxu declared as he chased after the blue alien. “Ri~ght...” I frown. “But...I feel like you got a book of...an old friend.” I say. “I did get a spell book...and...this.” Joy said, handing me a Winnie the Pooh book. “Not sure if it’s magic or not, best check that later. I also got, this.” Joy said, pulling out a Keyblade armor sleeve. “Among other miscellaneous things.” I took the book and smiled gently. “Glad to have this book.” I nodded...before sensing something off about Joy. “You feel...different somehow.” I point out. “Did you get something else besides all these items and abilities?” I ask. Joy looked a bit remorse, tapping his Keyblade on the ground...like he was contemplating telling me. “...I learned...about Eve’s past. From the very beginning.” Joy said, beginning to explain the story that was Eve’s life he witnessed through her eyes, save for some parts. When he got towards the end, my jaw dropped. “So yeah… Eve was God, Core, and Hollow’s mother, and Zeke is related to not just Core, but Yen Sid and Eve, as well as Unum, the original, not his wife.” “That cheeky fuck.” I mutter. “Sheesh...no wonder why he's super special. That's a...lot to take in. So all that happened…ah damn Eve isn't gonna be happy…” “Also...Yen Sid is OLD.” Joy threw in. “I mean, he’s old, yeah, but...damn… That’s like, immortal old. Also...Zeke couldn’t use magic without Discord as his Keyblade...but...he’s a descendant of Yen Sid, the, apparent, first mage… that seems a tad odd.” “Yes, yes it does.” I nod. “But who knows what reason made him unable to use magic. But I think we got side tracked about other stuff when I asked why your aura seemed...different.” I say, still curious about that. “Oh, that...yeah… Yen Sid told me that, only the true Heir of Nothing can wield all the weapons…but, each can be wielded by his fated staff, or something like that. I got Lindworm.” Joy said, summoning the spears, and wow...they looked...cool. “I’m your Bodyguard. That’s the role of the wielder of the spears. Each weapon has a role, and a fated wielder, and he asked me to find them, before you take the crown.” “And I have a feeling most of them are gonna be my masters right?” I ask curiously. “I don’t think so.” Joy said with a head shake. “I got the spears, but you haven’t even mastered them though. I have a feeling...it might be people close to you, in some way or form. Makes sense right? A kings family serves him, whether they be the queens or kids.” “I mean...that's true.” I say, wondering how that whole thing is gonna work. “Can you sense those worthy? Or is it just gonna be a ‘I choose you and hope for the best’ kind of thing?” “I dunno. Yen Sid trusted me with this...cause I guess my link to you means I can tell? I guess it’s something I’ll have to feel.” “Yeah true.” I say, before looking up at the calm blue skies. “You know...we never had the time to just...reminisce about all the crap we've done.” I chuckle. “We’ve come a long way.” Joy said, looking up at the sky too. “How long has it been?” “More than half a year the last time I checked.” I say simply. “It’s funny how we got here considering where we both started at ya know?” I ask Joy simply. “Yeah. With all that’s gone on...it’s nice to just look at the sky.” “How we thought it was impossible that all this existed...only to be brought out and see that everything is so much bigger.” I say, seeing stray clouds gently drift by. “How someone like me could be here, with everything I have...seems even crazier than experiencing the multiverse itself.” “Yeah. When you see everything is now so big… makes you really see how everyone is just so small.” “True.” I shrug. “But even people so small can cause very big things to happen.” I say simply. “I guess. I keep thinking about what Core told me. That Zeke’s Nobody was… Well, he called him Kexez, that he’s ‘setting things right’. Whatever that means.” “That could mean a lot of things…” I sigh out. “Who knows what's going on in that guys head. Especially now considering he's a Nobody, but we both know he's still the same ol’ Zeke...hopefully.” I say nervously. “He’s missing his heart. Who knows what he’s thinking, or capable of now.” “He better not be doing something stupid.” I frown. “He may not have his heart but he still has his memories and morals. Those things don't change I know it.” I say simply. “And if he's doing something stupid we’ll just give him a good smack and get him back on track.” “If we can touch him. This Core didn’t seem as strong as the one we know, but he still beat me pretty good, and who knows who else Zeke might have…’recruited’.” Joy says with a sigh. “I just wanna know...how?” “Mind being a bit specific there?” I ask curiously. “Cause there's a lot of how's everyone wants to know.” I shrug. “Or do you want to know how Zeke even came back?” “I mean Core, how is he back, didn’t Huxley end him permanently?” “Fuck if I know.” I shrug. “Clone? Magic? Purgatory? Until Zeke gets off his ass and actually shows himself to his friends with a sign of peace we’ll either have to wait, or get stronger than his guards.” I say simply. “Who knows how many he has… So, when you gonna take on that Absent Silhouette? Trust me, it’s a pain in the ass, especially at the end.” “How many forms does the thing have?” I ask curiously, knowing a fight like that must be a bitch with forms or phases. “Too many.” Joy states with a frown. “Right then.” I nod. “But I'll probably do it after I'm done training with Foudre. Gonna need to get stronger before fighting him, and I don't have my Assistant for emergency items anymore...actually we do have a Moogle merchant in our home now so I could buy everything off of him.” “Cool.” Joy said, chuckling. “Remember when you, back then we I guess, first saw Kingdom Hearts? The games I mean.” “Oh god that seems like forever ago.” I chuckle. “But yeah, I remember. Why you ask? Met it or something?” “Yeah. But that’s besides the point. Remember, you were like, seven, Mom and Dad brought you with them into a pawn shop, they got you that used PS2 and told you to pick out some games. All they had were those crappy sports games, but you snuck into the backroom and found it in a pile of yet to be placed items.” “Yeah I did. Who knew a pawn shop had shitty security at the time.” I chuckle. “I remember when you first heard the theme song play, you felt so… happy, the visuals it had were good too. You spent half the day just playing and fighting the others on Destiny Island. THEN you went on to day two.” Joy laughed. “Yeah I remember.” I nod, sitting down on the soft grass knowing this is gonna be a long conversation. “Was a tad upset that I couldn't fight Riku again and only had a race, but the three on one fight made up for it.” “I think you were almost level ten when you finally got to Traverse Town. You spent a lot of time in the Pooh story book in game as much as you did the movies and actual books in real life. You really loved those mini games, the music of the area.” Joy said, smiling. Then...I saw a tear trick down. “I remember the exact day...I became Rejection…” Joy said sadly. “That day…” I look down sadly. “It was the day everything went downhill…” “When dad died...that’s when it started. Then, after mom...that’s when it took me, the darkness in your heart. So much...pain, anger, sadness, grief…when I fought you, during your Mark of Mastery...I fought you...so you’d kill me.” Joy admitted, my eyes widening at that. “But...but why?” I ask in shock, not believing Joy...my little brother would do something like that. “Part of it...because I was tired. Tired of being in Darkness for so long...the other. To save you. In that fight, I had in me, that...thought… you know the one.” Joy said, making his fingers into a handgun and pointing it at his head. “I knew, if you killed me, while I had those thoughts trapped within me, they’d die too. At least...no matter how bad things got...you’d never consider it, with them gone.” I put a hand on top of Joy’s head gently. “I maybe an Insanity...but there's no way I would kill you. My Joy, my little brother.” I say gently. “I promised remember? Even if I didn't remember clearly...I promised to save you.” “Hm. I remember.” Joy said with a nod. “Promise.” He said, taking out a Wayfinder and holding it up. “At some point, we got to learn to use these things, cause what Zeke’s Absent Silhouette did with his was… Wow…” I pulled out my own silver Wayfinder. “I never fully understood what these things were for besides ‘friends forever’ metaphors…” I say honestly. “But hey...if it helps keep me connected to my friends and family…” I say while putting my Wayfinder to my chest, right above my heart. “It's the perfect thing for me.” I smile. Joy smiled, doing the same. “Yeah. As long as we remember, and care for them, these things have meaning.” It was then, both our Assistants flashed. D-Link Drive Active. Formed D-link with: Joy Celestia Luna Jenny Ventral Dan Foreteller Lan Foreteller Kira Foreteller Alex Foreteller Jenny Foreteller Huxley Eclipse ($*# (Error) Mine said. D-Link Drive Active. Formed D-link With: Ben Dinky Hooves Jenny Ventral Dan Foreteller Lan Foreteller Kira Foreteller Alex Foreteller Jenny Foreteller Huxley Eclipse ($*# (Error) Joy’s said. “Well…that's a thing.” I say honestly. “Wonder what Error is?” Joy asked, shrugging. “Maybe Zeke? I mean he is a Nobody and lost his heart...maybe it's someone we don't know about that will be important later somehow.” I shrug. “Who knows…” “Heh. Maybe...you know, we never actually had a spar… Wanna try out our new D-Link abilities?” Joy asked. “Sure.” I nodded while standing up and stretching a bit. “Well...actually how does D-Links work in real life?” I ask with a frown. “Uh…” Joy thought, standing up and looking at his Wayfinder, placing it over his heart as he thought about one of the people he seemed to have a link with. Then, a white light flashed under him as white magic lines traveled around him. D-Link with Jenny Ventral “Wow…” Joy said, feeling… odd by the look of him. “I...I know all her moves I don’t… Cool. Just hold it over your heart and think of a friend, or loved one.” Joy said. I took a deep breath and put the Wayfinder over my heart, my mind wandering and thinking about everyone that I've grown to call friends, everyone that I see as family, and everyone that I loved dearly, losing track that I had to pick only one. D-Link with Luna ”Figures, the first one.” I thought, all of Luna’s unique moves flowing into my mind. “Hey, you ready?” Joy asked, Keyblade ready. “Yeah.” I nod, summoning Reunion and readying myself. “I'm ready.” “Strike Raid!” Joy started off with, throwing his Keyblade at me in a Strike Raid. “Lunar Shield!” I shout, moving my Keyblade up as what looked like a full moon appeared in front of me and blocked the attacked. “Starfall!” I countered as a giant ball of energy flew down from the sky towards Joy. “Ricochet!” Joy said, blocking as it hit him, the move bouncing the attack towards me. “Gravity.” I say while a black sphere appeared where the ball of energy was and it hit the ground. “Good good.” I nod. “Lunar Slash!” I shout, slashing my Keyblade and a wave of moonlight shot towards Joy. Joy dodged, his body glowed as his Keyblade gained an ethereal outline...like a sniper rifle. He jumped back, looking down the scope and fired four shots, each one hitting me. When it faded, Joy looked at his Keyblade. “That...was cool! That must have been her first special finisher.” “Ow.” I mutter, seeing that I could use Luna’s special finisher. “Well...Sleep Well.” I say, pointing Reunion forward as four portals opened and bloody hell I didn't expect Dream Eaters to just suddenly stampede towards Joy, ramming into him, and attacking him. When it ended Joy haphazardly got back on two feet. “Anyone get the number of that Meow Wow that hit me?” He asked, falling over. I saw cartoonish stars circling above Joy’s head. “You okay there bro?” I chuckle. “Guh. That...sucked.” Joy said as he shook his head, coming back to his senses as he stood up properly. “That was cool.” Our Assistants flashed. D-link Gauge Drained. With that, there was another flash, and the abilities we just used were...gone… I forgot how I used them, and from how Joy looked, it was the same for him. “We forgot our abilities...oh well.” I shrug. “So what do you think about D-links?” “I think you should have used them more when you played the games.” Joy said with a chuckle. “I’m gonna go find that moogle, see what he has to upgrade or refill our D-link Gauges.” “Yeah, we should also stock up on potions and ethers, gonna need them given we can't just buy them from our assistants anymore for the time being.” I say while heading home. “Today has been a day huh?” “Been fun. Come on, I think if you’re late your teacher might make you do some harder work.” Joy says, running towards home, myself not far behind. It wasn’t hard to find the moogle, he set up shop in the front yard… Is that a save point? “Hi.” The moogle said as we approached. “Ready to buy some goods?” “Hold on a moment.” I say while walking over and checking the glowing spot next to the Moogle, gently standing on the thing. And indeed it was a save point. “Huh...it is a save point.” I say, quickly saving my progress before stepping off and Joy doing the same quickly. “But yes my good friend, what are ya selling?” “In stok, here.” He said, a hologram like menu appearing in front of him. Buy Sell Synthesize Exit. Were my options. I clicked on buy just to see his stock. Potion……………………….100 Hi-Potion…………………….250 Either………………………...150 I check to see how much money I had in any sense of the word. 999,999,999,999- Dollars 999,999,999,999- Equestrian Platinum Bits 999,999,999,999- Equestrian Gold Bits 999,999,999,999- Equestrian Silver Bits 999,999,999,999- Equestrian Bronze Bits 999,999,999,999- Equestrian Copper Bits 999,999,999,999- Munny The list went on, and I got the idea. I’m beyond Loaded…”How many am I allowed to buy at a time?” I ask the Moogle curiously. “The maximum is ninety nine at a time sir.” The moogle tells me. “If you’d like, you can pay for them all and I can give you the ninety nine hi-potions and others now, and the rest will be sent by mail. Should take about two days to arrive.” “We’ll both take a thousand hi-potions and ethers please.” I motion to myself and Joy, handing the moogle all the munny that was needed for the purchase. “Thank you sir, and here you go.” Our assistants flashed, informing us that out items were deposited in. “Oh, and we give this to all out customers that spend over fifty thousand munny in one go.” He said, two tickets appearing, floating in front of us. We grabbed them, reading what they said. “Full Access Inventory Buyers Pass for Moogle H.Q.?” Joy questioned. “If gives you a one time full access to ALL our stock, at our H.Q. Next ticket you’ll have to spend a hundred thousand munny.” The moogle explained. “Sweet.” I nod while closing out of the buy menu and Joy clicked on the Synthesis tab. “Do I need to give you all of my synthesis items?” Joy asks, knowing that's how it works in the game but not sure in real life. “Yes, each customer has an account upon first purchase with us, it’s also where we store Synthesis materials for you.” The moogle said as he took all of what Joy handed him. “Thank you. Would you like to see what you are able at craft at the time?” “Yes please.” Joy nods, excited to see all the stuff he could probably make. Another Holographic menu appeared. Drive Recovery Hi-Drive Recovery Either Mega Potion Mega Either Megalixir ???? “Do you know what these materials are?” Joy asks while pointing to all the materials he has no idea about. “Yes, and I can tell you, you can craft them each, but not all of them.” “So you know what all the materials I have no idea about are?” He asks. “Yup.” “Thank you...so what are they?” He asks nervously, knowing all the materials from the games but not all the new ones. “Blaze Shard x10, Blaze Stone x10, Blaze Gem x10, Frost Gem x10, Thunder Shard x10-” “I think I get the idea…” Joy said, not wanting to stand there and listen to the list go on for a long time. “Okay, would you like to craft anything?” The moogle asked. “How many megalixir’s can I make?” Joy asks curiously, knowing those will be really helpful. “Ten.” The moogle says simply. “Let's make four.” Joy says with a nod. After a short bit, four Megalixers appeared before Joy. “Will that be all?” The moogle asked. “How do you make Keyblades?” I ask. “I've heard of Moogle’s exceptional synthesis skills but don't you need a keyblade forge to make Keyblades?” “That is a trade secret sir, all I can tell you about that is that Moogles do not require a Keyblade forge to Synthesize Keyblade Keychains.” “Do you know where I can find Chocobo’s?” I ask, my inner child getting out accidentally given I've always wanted to ride one. “I know a farm where you can find them. Fifty munny.” I pay the Moogle. “Here's you go.” I smile. “Here.” The moogle said, handing me a star map with coordinates. “Just type that into your Gummi Ship console and you’ll find your way there easy.” “Always used doors to light for travel...would be fun to pilot a Gummi Ship for once.” I shrug, taking the star map and putting it in my inventory. “Thank you.” I nod while closing out of the Synthesis menu. “But how have you been doing?” I ask the Moogle curiously, wondering how it's days been. “Slow. I am setting up some other holo shops in town. Holo gems should be here within the week. Ah, and when you’re ready to cash in on those tickets, just say the word.” “Thank you.” I nod. “Oh, do you have any items that increase or recover d-link and shotlock gauges?” I ask curiously. “Yes, for D-links, Balloon Letters restore a D-link, and any variation of the either items restore Shotlocks as it also restores mana, Shotlocks running off of the mana within, unless you have a specific energy fueling your Shotlocks, in which case there is a variation of the eithers I sell that restores that.” “The shop didn't say you were selling Balloon Letters though…” I point out. “Not in stock or just only started off with bare essentials?” “Typically we don’t show all out inventory until a customer has returned and opened their account on another world or such a few times before showing them, but we can make acceptions every now and then. Balloon Letters are 25 munny each.” “A thousand Balloon Letters each please.” I say while paying the Moogle again. “Look at all the money you just got in less than ten minutes.” I chuckle. “This is only puts me in the seven hundredth place of most money earned within a day.” The moogle says, giving Joy and I ninety nine balloon letters each before placing an order for a delivery to our house. “The rest should arrive at the same time as the Hi-Potions and Ethers.” “Seven hundredth? Sheesh I wonder what first place got in a day.” I say in surprise. “They’re still buying. Not sure who they are. Or even how they got that much munny. They are also synthesising like crazy. There’s already over a hundred moogles stations there to meet demand.” “Where is this happening?” Joy asks, a tad worried someone of I'll intent is using the Moogle’s to fund them of all the shit they need. “That is private information… I can give a name though. One million munny.” “A million for a name?!” Joy yelled. “I’m breaking the main rule of moogle shop keeping. I need a fair compensation.” “Ah. Okay, sorry for asking.” I say nervously. “Just...there are some bad people out there that could be keeping up that spot and...kind of worries us is all.” I explain nervously. “But your on neutral grounds for all so...oh well.” “Finally, someone gets it. People think we only sell to one side. Then rage at us when the learn we supply the other side. Ha. So, pay up or no?” “Nah, don't want to get you fired after all.” I say, wanting to be considerate to the Moogle. “Nah. I won’t get fired, just a demerit. Moogles are neutral as well as...not very good at punishments. It’s a thousand demerits to get fired and the most any of us ever got was three.” “Moogles are...very forgiving.” I frown. “Wonder what would happen if Tonberry’s were in your place…” I wonder. “Can we not talk about them? They are a pain in the ass to fight, I don't want to know what would happen if they are our primary shopkeepers.” Joy frowns. “Either way.” I shrug. “So…” I mutter, deciding if we should just buy the info. “You buying the info or not?” The moogle asked impatiently. “Sure.” I say, handing over the money. “Sorry, just deciding on it. So, where be the place?” I ask curiously, hoping to find where the sudden surge of shopping and synthesizing is taking place. “Great. Number one’s name is Drezke.” The moogle said simply, jumping off his stand and a holo closed sign appeared. “On lunch. Be back in an hour.” He said, vanishing in a small flash of light. “I asked the place...not the person but that still works.” I say worriedly. “The fuck is he doing?” I mutter, scared on what Drezke could be doing with all the Moogles. “Well we can send a Nobody out to find him.” Joy brings up. “You know…” I start. “I should really be doing a lot of stuff I think of but never put into practice.” I sigh out, snapping my fingers and three large white wolf Nobody’s appeared. “I want you three to search for a being known as Drezke. And when you do tell me.” I order the three, seeing them bow to me like I'm royalty or something before vanishing to god knows where. “Right, that'll take a while for that to get going.” I sigh out. “First Zeke comes back as a Nobody and doing something, now Drezke is doing something special…” I rub my temple. “Lets hope they find him soon.” “Just relax.” Joy says, seeing me in my bored and slightly aggravated state. “Can't have something like this happen too quickly, we need to be cautious.” “I know that but normally things are just thrown at us way to fast and that brings us something to do.” I frown. “Hey, that’s life.” Joy said. “Lets you finish up those kunai’s then you can deal with the Absent Silhouette of Zeke, then we can see what Drezke is up to.” I nod. “Yeah that's life…” I say while looking up at the sky again. “The Life of a Nobody…” I mutter, smiling as that felt...right to say about my life even with everything that's happened in this nobody’s life. To be continued...
Nobody witnesses WarI don't know why I felt happy about saying that I was a Nobody, but considering my powers over Nothing and how I'm gonna be king of it it felt a little understandable...and the fact I almost became a living Nobody but details. I ran back just in time to help Nelare put up the remaining new targets. This time she had me run back and forth in the training area, making sure every target was hit precisely. Needless to say, it went by easily. “Not bad, one last trial, and you mastered them.” Nelare said, throwing one of her own kuni’s into a tree, it glowing upon impact. “The final test, that Kunai is enchanted, it will zap you at your own speed as you try to grab it. In other words, you have to be so fast, the spell can’t zap you, and pull it out.” “But...I’ve barely learned anything besides throwing.” I say, not sure how I'm so close to mastering my weapon so soon. “Kunai’s are about two things, speed, and accuracy. You got both down, but a true master can always be faster. I’ve seen how you move throwing, it won’t be long till you are fast in full body motion, and that you can train yourself in.” “And that speed clone technique?” I ask curiously, not really knowing how that works. “I doubt it's just ‘your so fast your literally in two places at once’.” “That is...how to put it… It’s a simple spell actually. Here.” Nelear said, teaching me the spell. Turns out, it’s half an illusion, half a clone. The lightning makes a copy of me, and the high levels of electricity in the air mess with the opponents brain, making them feel the hits from the fake copies. Sadly, the electricity in the air making the copies also affects my own nerve system. So when they hit a clone me, real me also takes the damage. “Seems...a lot simpler then I thought.” I frown. “Weird…” I shook my head, before walking over to the Kunai in the tree. “Just take it out before I get shocked right?” I ask, wondering if there was anything else. “Just that.” Nodding, I went at it at my throwing spee- “YAH!” I yelled, feeling like my hand was just shoved into a live power cable, the kind hung above those high up poles. “Okay...ow.” I shook my hand from how much it stung. “Okay…” I took a deep breath and tried again, this time going fast enough that lightning sparked off my arm and tried to grab it. ZAP! “Owe…” I wheezed. Again. ZAP! “Just how…” I wonder, trying to figure out how to beat a spell that zaps me as fast as I can move… ”It can’t be that simple?” I question, reaching into my pocket and putting on my gloves. I then grabbed the kunai… and pulled it out. “And that’s it.” Nelear said with a clap. “Really?” I ask her simply. “Just put on a glove and pull it out? What is that supposed to be a joke or what?” I ask, not understanding this to be perfectly honest. “No, I don’t know why you put a glove on. The spell zaps you as fast as you are moving. So, you don’t move fast, the spell takes more time to hit you. I seriously don’t know why you put on a glove.” “Certain kinds of materials don't conduct electricity.” I shrug. “Seemed simple when you think about it.” “Fair enough. But yeah, that’s it. To fully master a Kunai, one must be as fast, accurate, and agile, but also must remember to take their time. So, congrats. I’m gonna clean this up then head back home before I go back to work tomorrow.” “Alright.” I nod. “Thank you master.” I bow to Nelare in a sign of respect. “Now...just gotta learn a fuck ton of lightning magic.” I mutter, electricity sparking across my hands as I wondered what I could do. “But I can clean this all up if you need to get back to town.” “Nah, gives me an excuse to sleep the rest of the day til tomorrow. Later Ben.” Nelear said as she began picking up the boards. “Alright.” I nod. “See ya.” I say while taking my leave, heading back home. “Hmm...should I look off world for a teacher or should I go see Medy to train with Arpeggio?” I wonder. “I still got a week...this is gonna take a while…” I sigh out. “I need to find my Claymore instructor...who also probably is gonna be a berserker because that's Lunatics gimmick...and I can probably hope Trinity is willing to teach me Ethereal Blades or I have to search for someone else…” I mutter to myself, wondering what the hell I'm gonna do next as I continued my way home. As I reached the front door I stopped when a Dusk appeared behind me. ”He is located my liege.” The Dusk said to me mentally. “Thank you.” I nod. “Mind showing me the way my friend?” I ask, glad to know we found Drezke but I still have no idea where he is specifically. A DTD appeared behind the Dusk. ”This way my lord.” The dusk said as it walked into it. When I exited, I was in a rather barren world...though, in the distance, I saw a massive structure of some sort. Like a tower or something. ”He is within the compound. Be warned, he is not alone, nor defenceless.” “Thank you.” I nod. “You may leave, I'll handle this.” I say while cracking my knuckles before heading off towards the castle, my eyes lighting up as my hud presented itself. As I summoned Reunion and was about to turn it into a glider. I heard a DTD open behind me. Turning around, I saw a...Really small pony, quadruped pony, wearing an organization XIII cloak walk out of it. “Hello.” I say, to the new pony, wondering who this was as I prepared myself for a fight. In a flash, Oathkeeper and Oblivion appeared in a magic aura that was a light green in color. She then took a stance, a faint amount of darkness covered her hooves as she then slid fast towards me and- Oh crap it’s that one Roxas move…. Sure enough, she slashed out in all directions, knocking me back some as she basically slid around me, that darkness on her hooves acting like she was wearing skates. “Okay. If you want a fight.” I say before vanishing, appearing at the pony’s side and slamming Frozen Pride against their side. They did an aerial recovery before slashing at the air, waves of darkness and light rushing at me at fast pace. I blocked with frozen pride, but they were hitting hard. They stopped, and ran around then at me. I charged too, and upper cut them, their Keyblades now...under my control… Huh, exactly like that fight then. I quickly drew Reunion and Foudre and with a combination of my Keyblades strength, the speed Foudre gave me, the two other Keyblades under my control, and the Rune work on my body it felt like I was making quick work of the pony, but keeping myself from actually killing the pony. My strength seemed to finish them as once I was finished with my attack, they slumped over. Oathkeeper and Oblivion vanishing as their wielder fell unconscious. Curious, I walked over to the pony Taking off their hood, I saw it was a filly. Young. Really young. She was a pale grey, with a brown mane. “The fuck are you doing Drezke…” I mutter to myself, wondering why he's using children to fight as I pulled my hood up and looking around for a place to put the filly safely. As I picked her up, ten DTD’s opened around me, all quadruped creatures, small, likely all kids too, walked out. Each in their own cloak. “Now hold on a second.” I start. “She attacked me first and I wanted to find a safe place to put her while I continued to meet...a friend.” I explain, having a feeling they won't buy it at all but if their kids they'll probably buy friendship...hopefully. “Do you know where a medic is?” Each one of them summoned a Keyblade, but it was one, bigger than the filly in my arms, that attacked, with a Gazing Eye Keyblade. “You’re trespassing.” She said. Her voice was female, young, and cold in it’s tone. “Oh come on, I just want to talk to Drezke about something.” I say, quickly ducking and sweeping the young girls feet out from under her. “Especially after he ripped my darkness from me and made it go off on a killing spree for funsies.” I frown, still not believing I was an Insanity in some way. “It’s alright Velvet.” Drezke’s voice filled the air, looking to my side...he was next to us. “He’s an acquaintance.” At that, the others all left, but Velvet stayed a bit, looking at me before taking the filly in my arms out with her magic then leaving through a DTD. “Forgive her, she’s protective of Littlepip.” “I can imagine.” I sigh out. “Sorry to pop in unannounced, but I doubt you care.” I frown. “So, word is your doing a lot of synthesizing, mind if I ask what's that all about?” “Just preparing.” He said, looking at the tower way in the distance. “Can you guess how long I’ve been on this world?” He asked. “Long enough to not only train these people, but also make this giant castle?” I ask simply. “And preparing for what?” “War.” He said simply. “A war needs an army. I’m building mine, Eve and her kin, don’t need one. I have almost everything ready. I’m just missing one tool.” “Is this a war against the light or against Eve?” I ask him. “Eve. Tell me...do you know what became of my other half?” “Your light half? He's dead, you crushed his heart.” I say, remembering what Cript told me about that situation. “Or are you talking about your body that popped up recently?” “I felt that. How could I not? It’s pointless now, Lake is dead. Zeke can never be whole. Just half a heart...at the rate I am going… I’ll drag him into eternal darkness, against both our wills.” “You've probably been busy but...Bara took control of Twilights body and made a clone of you.” I tell him. “Sadly the bastard can't leave unless he willingly leaves...which I doubt…” “Bara… That’s the one who originally killed off Equestria. It was Zeke’s first real battle… It was the first time his Psychopath blood, felt death. I remember that day. That power… it’s horrifying. Thankfully, since he was a Nobody at the time, Bara’s death as Zeke’s hands didn’t truly count, but, it did awaken it. Tell me, do you know how much power Zeke held back in every fight?” “Quite a bit if what Joy told me about his Absent Silhouette fight is correct.” I say honestly. “Joy still managed to beat it though...even though he also had to fight other X-blade wielders, X-blade himself, and then apparently Kingdom Hearts but that's getting into some specific details here.” I shrug. “Zeke, could have easily killed Core, the first time they fought, if he tapped into that power. Past X-blade wielders all accessed what they could handle of it, and Kingdom Hearts power… Zeke is a reflection of Cript, his body, could use it endlessly and freely. He chose not to, Yen Sid, made that fight based on Zeke’s own power alone, the power the X-blade could draw from him, and… I don’t know about Kingdom Hearts. Guess he just wanted to talk to someone.” “Yeah…” I nod. “And...sadly I learned a lot more about Cript then I probably should have.” I say simply. “So, what do you think about the Spoiled situation? She has...my Psychopath reflection.” “Why bother with the small fry when the head is what needs to be dealt with?” Drezke asked, looking at me. “I know about Nexus, what they do. Sadly, I won’t be around to help deal with them.” “You know you can't kill Darkness.” I tell him. “And Zeke is already busy doing something if he somehow has Core working along with him...still don't know how that's a thing.” “Simple. He’s building his own army.” I rub my temples. “Have I ever told you you give me a headache sometimes?” I ask him. “Okay so he's making an army...for some reason. And both of you are so dead set on shunning your friends and family to do this crap…” I shake my head. “Never mind, I don't want to rant and lose the topic right now…” “...Come. There’s something you need to see.” Drezke said, opening a DTD as we both walked into it. Once through we… Oh...My...God… All around us were spell works, locks, physical, magic, enchanted, and chained up, was a woman in some sort of military get up. “Guess what she is?” “Besides a super soldier?” I ask bluntly. “Cause I'm getting super soldier here.” Drezke walked me over to her back, out of the thick layers of chains, her hands were visible… the blue dot. “She’s Nexus. Just a scout, but them all the same. You know what her being here means?” “There hunting you, to get another vessel for a Psychopath.” I frown. “Wait...how did you figure this stuff out? I needed a special book to tell me this crap.” I frown. “Darkness...can be chattier than you think. Especially when it’s the darkness between reflections of a person. Whenever Cript appeared, I heard his darkness talk, wherever he was, his darkness talked to me, told me everything.” Drezke said, looking at the chained up Nexus scout. “Including that script he has going on. She was left behind when they were leaving. A script of his would leave them cut off from their many headquarters. She’s been quiet though, so I don’t know why they are here really, but all I do know is nothing good can become of it.” “They're supposed to remain in the background fucking with people and puppeting them along a path of their choosing.” I frown. “But...I have no idea...there's just so much stuff happening too quickly…” I sigh out. “Twelve-Nine-fifty seven.” We both looked at the nexus scout. She...spoke. “That’s the most she’s said this entire time.” Drezke said, pulling her head by her hair, her face was…kinda pretty actually. Smooth skin, blue eyes, and her hair was blonde… marrying soon dude, stop that. “What are those numbers?” “A code or something? Maybe it's a number for a specific person…” I say, thinking about the numbers. “There are plenty of ways one could use three different numbers like that…” I frown. “Sixty-thirty three-five.” She said again, the air… felt odd. “Seven-one-seven.” She finished, lines of code appeared in the air as he chains became undone. She then grabbed Drezke and I, throwing us across the room. “Fifty five-nine-four. Eighteen-seven-two. Sixty seven-one-zero.” She said, a hole appeared in reality, code spinning around it as she jumped in, and it closed behind her. “Gah. The hell was that?” Drezke said as he picked himself up. “Did she...just spout numbers and hack reality?” My eyes widened. “But...but I thought only Admins had that power!?!” I panic, getting up quickly. “From what I heard, Nexus came from admins, once upon a time. Whether that’s true or they have their own ways around that, we’ll figure out later. For now, she’s gone. I know for a fact Cript likely felt that, let him deal with it. For now. So, mind helping me acquire a last needed item?” Drezke asked me. “And that item is?” I ask. “I believe you’ve seen it. The Void Keyblade X shoved into the core of Daybreak. It’s the only thing that can kill the Embodiments...and me.” “No.” I frown. “Just...just no.” I shake my head. “I know what your going to do...and just don't Okay? There are other ways of dealing with this without the need of….that thing.” Drezke signed. “I figured you’d say that.” He said, I was suddenly grabbed by a darkside’s arm...that grew from Drezke’s own body. His skin then changed, going from normal human look to...how Eve and them look. “I took in ALL this worlds Darkness, right from it’s infected Keyhole, and killed all those who had too much darkness to spare in them, that’s why my army is all children. It was children that kept the light going after the Keyblade war, and it will be children who make the worlds right again. A second Keyblade war is coming Ben, Darkness, light, and all that’s in between are getting ready. You best do the same.” “No!” I shout, a grey aura surrounding me as I managed to push his hand enough for me to get out. “There won't be another Keyblade war! All life has suffered through one, there can't be a second one! We can't feed these damned Psychopaths, you know as well as I do that we need to stop this blind and senseless war! I know a way to prove Facts wrong...everything had been going on in this damned cycle of death and destruction for too damned long...this can't go on forever...even forces of the universe can get tired of all this damned bloodshed and you know it.” “If they did, then why hasn't anything changed? Face it, the only admins who give a damn are Cript and his old boss, and even they are clueless! You know why? Because sentient life has a flaw. And that flaw is the so-called blessing of freedom. So long as we can choose, there are going to be those who choose wrong! Whether they know it or not. I can’t say what I’m doing is right, or wrong, but at least I know it will have lasting impact. What happened after...that’s why I’m training these children. Only kids can see and make pure choices. They see me, a creature of pure darkness, and some even call me father. I know killing Eve, her kin, and myself won’t get rid of darkness, but at least these kids can help it in the aftermath, because darkness isn’t evil, it’s scared, like a kid.” “Then how about instead of killing yourself along with the Embodiments, how about you embody Darkness in both its good and bad parts. You now have the power to help balance things out, and you dying doesn't solve it…” I tell him. “What...what would the kids think of they learned you died because you thought you were also apart of the problem Darkness is having?” “Ben...I’m not Zeke...that selflessness...comes from Lake… I guess I’m just...selfish then.” Drezke said, a Guardian appearing behind him as Discord and a Kingdom Key D appeared in his hands. “Doesn't sound pretty selfish if you want to die and leave your children behind.” I say. “But hey Discord, how you doing?” I ask, drawing Frozen Pride and ready to defend myself. Drezke vanished, appearing behind me as his Guardian grabbed me by my neck with one hand, and held my arms against me with the other. “I guess Rejection taught you nothing about selfishness then, did he?” Drezke cross slashed, and everything went black. “Guah!” I gasped, waking up in… Yen Sid’s tower? “You have awoken.” I looked to my side, Yen Sid was at his desk, a teapot steaming on an electric burner. “Good. It was touch and go there for a time.” “Ow…” I mutter. “So...why am I here?” “Drezke beat you to the brink of death, then tossed you in the lanes between. My apprentice found you, and brought you here. That, was just a few hours ago. Thankfully, what Cript has done to you made your injuries far less worrisome than normal, but still.” “Okay…” I nod. “But Drezke is being a jackass...but you probably know his plans.” “I know Eve won’t go down without a fight, but if he can do it, she will embrace the death. As will her kin.” “I'm gonna make sure the fucker doesn't get Void though...Embodiments can die without that damned thing…” I growl. “My grandson showed it to me when he forged it.” Yen Sid said, my eyes on him now. “Never before had such, fear filled me. Just looking at it made me paranoid beyond imagination. When I learned of the cost he paid to forge it… I knew then and there… Michel...was gone.” “Did he use his body and soul to make the thing?” I ask. “His, and all his reflections that existed. All their collective fear and rage towards the X-blade, are what you saw that day in Daybreak. He is nothing more than a lingering will now. No heart, body, soul, just a mind, forcing itself to continue on.” I look at him. “So the Master of Masters is nothing but a will...but what about Luxu?” I ask. “I know he's left after...having walked away from that graveyard…” I shook my head. “Anyways, besides that whole thing...is there anything specific you want to talk about? Like...explain to me what's so special about me and this king stuff?” “My son gave many like you that same request, but you. You possess something unique that now has made you the heir to nothing. That something, was your half dead heart. An existence between existing and not. The king has the same, but you, you made yours whole again. Something he could not do.” Yen Sid said, his tea pot ready as he grabbed a cup and poured some out. “As for Luxu, an Embodiment stole his body, under that cloak of his is a form made from gathered darkness, keeping his heart from falling into its deepest depths. In other words, he made himself a heartless, but has control over his actions.” “Ah…” I nod. “And about the king thing...makes sense I suppose. Having a heart means a lot more than not having one when you think about it.” I explain. “Oh, did you tell Mickey about Terra Aqua and Ventus?” I ask, thinking the apprentice was Mickey specifically. “Yes. When he brought you to me. He is very happy to hear of their safety. So then, Ben. What are your plans for the Second Keyblade War?” Yen Sid asked as he took a sip of his tea. “Is there...no way to stop it?” I ask. “Please...tell me there's a way to stop it.” I ask, practically begging for a way to stop this. “Hmm.” The old wizard thought. “History repeats itself, because we forget the lessons of the past. There is one way to stop this war. At least, stop it from harming the future.” “Can't bad shit not happen?” I ask with a frown. “But...what way can this not hurt the future?” “There are thre routes to keeping this new war from harming the realms. Have it happen in the realm of dreams, the realm of darkness… or, fight the second war, along the first one.” “Are you sure there's no way to stop this mindless bloodshed?” I ask worriedly, not liking how it's just ‘pick a location’ here. “That I am unsure of, the first war was fought over a lie, to end the X-blade, and it failed. This war, is fought over ending ancient enemies. What rises from the ashes of this new war I do not know, but, what I do know is, that Home will be made whole again, by this war’s end.” “Yeah, then it'll be one world for all the Psychopaths to wander and destroy.” I frown. “Damn it...I really wish I could stop this...maybe if I had my friends with me...maybe we could stop it.” I say, not having an army at my side right now and just scared of something this big happening. “In times of the bleakest of circumstances, is when the brightest lights, and darkest shadows rise. Eve and her kin are not evil by choice, they will fight in this war, simply to die in it. But, the ones who will end this war, are some who might surprise you.” “What's scariest for me...” I start. “Is losing myself...and everyone I love.” I say sadly, not wanting to lose my fiances and children. “This war… will change the universe...forever. Just as the last one did. For better or worse...that’s for the survivors to decide.” “Can't things...ever be simple?” I ask, scared of what's the future holds. “If everything was simple, what point would there be to life?” I sigh out. “True true...but…” I start. “You’re...okay with your wife dying?” I ask. “I heard from Joy about that whole story but…” I trail off, wishing I could do something to help everyone. “It has been Eve’s wish to die ever since she discovered what she was. A human body, created with the darkness that was the other side of Kingdom Hearts himself. That was his biggest mistake. Tell me, how many Heartless or Unversed do you know that can talk, be intelligent without outside tampering or alterations?” “Uh...one I suppose?” I ask nervously. “Xehanorts Heartless that took Ansems name...that's the only one I can think of.” “That was his heart. Xehanort’s heart itself was so dark, his human body was all that was keeping him from being a heartless. Darkness, is mindless. It’s pure instinct and emotion, given physical form. Eve and her kin...carry all that, and have their own minds. Drezke is not far behind, if my assumption is correct.” Yen Sid said as he took another sip. “Took an entire world's Darkness into himself.” I say. “He’s...close to becoming an Embodiment...I saw it. But...he wants to kill himself after all the others die...doesn't that fuck with the balance though?” “When Eve and her kin created the realm of darkness, they sewed within it’s tainted soils a seed. In the center of them all, there are thirteen trees, their very darkness pulsating and filling the land with darkness. There, is the way they would keep balance when they died, for they themselves can die, the darkness within them each, can not. It will flee to those trees, and exist there. I know what you are thinking Ben, ‘why don’t they just remove their darkness?’. The answer is simple, their bodies would become Nobodies, and if those are destroyed, their darkness will find them, and they will be resurrected. They need a proper death, for that darkness in them to be unable to resurrect them.” “But if Drezke gets Void than...there plan would be ruined.” I say worriedly. “That depends. While I have had the dissatisfaction of seeing it work in person, it is unstable. Whatever it sends to void, takes a toll on itself. The stronger, the worse the toll, and when it has become too much, it will break, and it’s wielder, will be dragged into void as well.” “Unless he figured out how to stabilize it...which I hope he didn't and doesn't, his plan would fail if he tried to use the thing.” I say. “Especially against Embodiments.” “Besides, there might be a way to stop Drezke’s plan. It will not be easy.” “Nothing is, especially when Drezke is a part of Zeke.” I say. “But how do I stop him? Also...I don't understand why Drezke would kill himself...when he has people who see him as a father.” “Drezke contains all of Zeke’s needs, and since his birth, Zeke’s light and darkness have been at balance, like twins. Without his other, he is falling into his instincts. He is losing himself, because his other half is gone...but, perhaps not so.” “Twilight...and Bara, created a clone of Zeke, memories, Heart and all, hell they even made an X-blade out of memories surprisingly. Think that might help?” “No, that clone is a time bomb. When the truth is learned, it will go off, and when that happens...I don’t know what will happen. But, Lake, Zeke’s light half, was destroyed by Drezke. This means he was also freed from the Psychopaths hold. There might be a chance, a slight chance, that Lake is in Purgatory, the very place Zeke himself escaped.” My eyes widened. “But...his heart was shattered...wait how do I even go to such a place if I may ask?” “There is one way that I know of, but it will take time. I heard of stories where the king of nothingness would enter battle, with soldiers once thought dead. I did some personal research and have a hypothesis. The King of Nothing, also has reign over Purgatory, being it is an afterlife of sorts for the energy of Heartless, Nobodies, Unversed, and where the consciousness of those with balanced hearts go when split, or where those unique Nobodies go when slane. It is a waiting place for nobodies looking for their bodies after their death, and a… trash bin, you could say, for things that should no longer exist, or exist at all. Where that energy goes. If Lake died, he would likely end up there, as the energy of a balanced heart is something hard to snuff out.” “So I need to master the rest of my weapons and become the King before I can save Lake...wonders.” I roll my eyes. “But...here's a thing Zeke did as a Nobody, he somehow gave a regular Sniper all their memories back of who they used to be...how is that possible?” “Even as a Nobody, Zeke has a link to Kingdom Hearts, to all hearts, it wouldn’t be surprising if he could link a Nobody to their heart lost in darkness. Whether it was purpose or accidental, I would like to know.” “Ah.” I nodded. “Maybe...but let's hope I can actually contact Zeke before it's too late…” I say worriedly. “And here I thought I was on the clock before.” I mutter. “Anything else I should know?” “To my knowledge, no. I will send word to the others, of the coming war. You, I believe now understand the task at hand. But know this, Lake will be energy with sentient thought, he will need a vessel to rest in until he is healed, able to exist again. He will need to rest within someone with a balanced heart, otherwise, he will never heal.” “Well shit...I can't have that Zeke clone help...and I don't know anyone with a balanced heart…” I frown. “Sheesh, this is gonna a hassle and a half.” I shook my head. “Uh hey, do you know of someone who can help me train with this?” I ask while summoning Lunatic, my special claymore. “Cause...I have no idea who deals with Claymores, and is also a berserker given this things...special abilities.” “In time. Now then, you best be off, there is much to do, and I am unsure of how much time there is to do it.” Yen Sid said, finishing his cup of tea. “There's never a dull moment in my life.” I shook my head while switching Lunatic with Reunion. “See ya later Yen Sid. Stay safe.” I say while summoning a DTL back home and walking through it, having even more things to deal with now. I arrived outside my home...there was a huge zeppelin parked on my roof. “There you are.” Celestia said as she walked up to me. “Zeppelin is here, not much longer now til we head off. Excited, or nervous?” She asked me. “I wish I could be excited or nervous about this…” I say sadly. “Just...too many things are happening and I'm getting less and less time to do things, whether it be train, spend time with all of you, or doing this…” I say bitterly. “I'm...scared I'll lose everyone…” Celestia wrapped an arm around me, and pulled my in...wow, never realized how tall she was, I only reach just under her...ehem...chest. “You aren’t getting rid of us that easily. Hope you don’t mind, but we moved the leave date for tomorrow, stuff is all packed and ready and the pilot is gonna be here soon. It’s also got a training room and gym, Luna figures we should all get fit to help you in a fight if needed.” “I might as well help you all get stronger.” I say, hugging Celestia. ”How the fuck am I supposed to tell them about the Keyblade war? They'll probably immediately try to rush in and fight with me…” I think to myself, scared about such an outcome if it ever happened, and also not knowing if Celestia could read minds. “Come on, Luna figured for help someone from Daybreak could help us in Keyblades while you were busy with training or adventuring. Also…” Celestia said, rubbing the back of her neck… I know that look, that’s they ‘how do I put this’ look. “What’s wrong?” I ask worriedly. “I know that look...is there something wrong?” “Well...It’s about Cadence. She...just found out she’s pregnant.” “With...Shining’s?” I ask slowly. “Yes, only stallion she ever loved. She’s going to stay here at home, helping Den look after everyone else, and get some hands on motherhood training of her own.” Celestia said with a sigh. “She’s going to smother that baby once it’s born, it’s all she has of him now.” “If only I was there...I could have saved him…” I growled, wishing I could have helped. “Prince of the world…” I mutter, touching the silver crown on my head. “And proud hunter…” I pull out the bone tooth necklace Den gave me. “Can't do jack shit to save his people…” “No one can be everywhere at once Ben, you keep forgetting that.” Celestia said, patting my head. “In time, you’ll learn royalty isn’t perfect, and hunters fail also.” She said, walking me inside. “Except I can clone myself remember?” I ask her. “My clones at home helping the kids...since I can't normally spend time with them…” “True...so, are we leaving the clone here then or…?” Celestia asked, now confused. “Leaving him here. I need to be a father...however pitiful of a father I've been so far.” I shook my head sadly. “Been too busy...I wish I could...be with my family, for a calm day just spending time with all of you...my twenty plus wives and three hundred plus children.” I chuckle, finding the amount of kids a tad absurd and finding it funny. “Well, let’s get to it then. Tomorrow we leave early, and should arrive at the Zebra lands by the end of the day.” “Alright.” I nod. “Thank you for...being here Celestia...and I still remember when I was flirting and your all like ‘holes before poles’.” I chuckle, remembering when I first came here and she only had eyes for Chrysalis at the time. “Yes, I know. Guess you were right after all.” Celestia chuckled, the two of us heading inside and after a short walk entered the kitchen...where a woman in Keyblade armor was sitting. “Oh, you must be from Daybreak.” “Yes.” She said, her voice...oh no… She took off her helmet...Twilight, Zeke’s Twilight. “I know, confusing, but I figured this would help tell the difference.” She said. “Ah, I understand, don’t want Ben here kissing the wrong Twilight.” Celestia chuckled, leaving. When she did, Twilight’s hair turned brown. “Hi there Heir to Nothing.” Bara said, taking over. “The fuck are you doing here Bara?” I growl, not at all happy to see him here. “I doubt your here to do anything nice…” I say, wondering why he's here. “Well you're Luna asked for a Keyblade instructor, and who better than a Keyblade war survivor.” They said, taking a seat on the dining room table. “After all, it’s part of my bargain for you.” “And what's this bargain?” I ask simply. “I can teach your family to survive any fight. No more worrying about if they get hurt, you’d find yourself worrying for their opponents. All I ask is that in exchange for helping them all get strong, fast, I get to enter the Kingdom of Nothing when you claim the throne.” I stare at him. “Even through a second Keyblade War?” I ask Bara, my words sounding more like the Keyblade war is gonna happen even if I didn't want it to. “I survived it, that should be proof enough of the quality I’m providing.” Bara said smugly. “After all, through books, it will take years to learn all the old powers and such from the first war, and something tells me you don’t exactly have years do you?” “When this Keyblade war involves fighting Embodiments of darkness and a fuck ton of others in this upcoming Keyblade war...and Psychopaths…” I look down sadly. “Too much stuff to do and too little time…” I sigh out. “But you don't care about me being scared shitless about the ones I love and care for. You've shown how little you care about families when you first destroyed Zeke’s Equestria.” Bara smirked. “Well, what can I say, I was just…heartless.” I frowned at them. “Eh, so. To prove to you I can train them to keep themselves safe, tomorrow, while you’re all on the big ass balloon to the Zebra lands, you can watch me train your Twilight.” “Alright.” I nod. “But Twilight has been learning some magic from my friend Momonga lately, so if she casts some magic you don't recognize don't be surprised.” I tell them. “So...all you want is to see the Castle of Nothing huh?” “More importantly, its library. When I learned about Nobodies I wanted to learn everything about them… Too little success, even when I was one. That library has to have the information I’m after.” “I have a feeling you'll have your own body at the time correct?” I ask them simply. “But...I'll think about it, I'm still behind here…” “My own body...I still like this one, but, eh. Just finish up and let’s make a deal, and to be sure you can trust me.” Bara said, their hand glowing as an outline of a snake appeared on it. “It’s a Union promise, I break it, whatever you decide is to be done with me, the magic will force me to do. Sound secure enough to you?” “Unlike you I wouldn't break a promise, especially if there were loopholes.” I say simply. “It's how I got my heart back, and saved Joy.” I say. “So, you train my fiances, and that will include the new fiances I will be getting through our journey around the world, and when I become king you can see the Library.” I say. “Sounds okay?” I ask, my wording being specific here. “Deal.” Bara said, shaking my hand, the snake outline shifting from her hand, over to mine. “I’ll start in the morning. You go get some rest, I’m gonna go ransack your library.” Bara said, putting the helmet back on and left. “Don't be surprised if there are more story books then history or science books." I call out to Bara, before walking over to the fridge. “I'm hungry.” I mutter, ready to make myself some food but not sure what to make. After a quick meal of some leftovers, I began to head off to bed. My Twilight and Rarity were there already. Rarity asleep and Twilight reading, as expected. She looked up when I entered the room. “Hi Ben. Ready to tomorrow?” She asked, bookmarking her place and closing it. “Ready as I'll ever be.” I say as I take my cloak off and stretch. “Are you ready for tomorrow?” “Yeah. Just about everything is packed. Rarity practically moved her sewing room in that thing so that’s why she’s out of it already. The rest are just exploring it a bit before heading here.” I nodded. “Sounds about right.” I say, getting ready for bed. “Sorry if me or my clone haven't been helping pack...me having to train and my clone taking care of the kids…” I sigh out, putting on my pajamas and my tail wagging freely. “So much stuff to do ya know?” I sigh out while crawling into bed with my two fiances. “I bet. You take on a lot on your own, you know that?” Twilight said, elbowing me playfully. “So, what’s on the list in total so far?” “I just learned a lot more things I need to prepare for.” I say bitterly. “And the worst of them all...is there's going to be...a Keyblade war coming sooner or later…” “Another one?” Twilight asked. “I read some books written about it… What’s this one going to be fought over?” “From what Yen Sid told me, it's gonna be about killing the Embodiments of Darkness...and as a side effect to all the madness and bloodshed all the world's in existence are gonna join back together…” “Huh...Well clearly Spoiled is gonna throw her hat into this. As well as any bad guy with lots of power or control over something. So, are you participating?” “I'm gonna have to considering it's gonna happen while I'm King of Nothingness most likely.” I sigh out. “And I really want none of you to participate in this...but I doubt you'll listen to that.” I sigh out. “Well, I probably won’t, though, I can see Luna entering with you. I remember reading in books about some wars Celestia and Luna participated in.” “Yeah like how they went to war over cheese.” I chuckle. “It's still unbelievable that cheese was a thing to fight over.” “Not that, that was just between, nevermind. I mean, like when King Sombra first tried invading. The books for the public don’t tell much… but the ones Celestia gave me access to in the Canterlot Archives painted a much more… violent picture.” “The Keyblade war...if it wasn't for a select group of people running away from the fighting to keep the light alive, everyone, in all reflections, would be dead in the Keyblade graveyard.” I tell her sadly. “I've never experienced war, and I definitely don't want to experience a Keyblade war if it's that bloody and violent.” I explain bitterly. “If you want proof ask Celestia and Luna’s parents or Discord...those three are living proof of the horrors of it.” “We know.” I nearly jumped onto Twilight, Discord, and Celestia and Luna’s parents were in the room. Discord was the one who spoke. “I felt the chill, and informed Faust and Locus.” “I'm sorry…” I sigh out. “Yen Sid said it couldn't be stopped...only change some things to make sure everything doesn't blow up.” I say bitterly. Faust sighed. “Can you...come with us Ben? There’s something we’ll need you with us for.” “Hooray, more learning.” I sigh out while getting out of bed. “Okay...got somewhere specific we should go?” I ask, wondering where we needed to go for this special thing. “We’re taking you there.” Discord said, snapping his fingers and we...were in the Keyblade Graveyard. There were still Keyblades everywhere. Huh, thought Zeke got them? “Up there.” Discord pointed, there, three Keyblades sat in the ground. One, was Royal Radiance, the other, the Ultima Weapon, the one from Kingdom Hearts one, and the third, was the Chaos Ripper, each one covered in dust and rusted. “Those are our Keyblades.” “I remember that day...all too vividly.” Faust said. I looked around, hearing...whispers? “Weird…” I muttered. “So...these are your keyblades huh?” I ask, having a strange feeling that...Nobodies are here. As I looked around I noticed… the air itself was pulsating, the imagery around us...changing… Then, I saw it. The War. To call it bloodshed was… an understatement. Everyone had Keyblade armor on...that seemed useless, some of these people slicing others in half, quarters, eighths, all with one swing. Spells were cast, freezing the targets alive, and shattering them, electrocuting them, burning them to ashes. It was then that an armored...snake like dragon flew over me… Discord? I thought, the dragon wielding the Chaos Ripper and performing continuous Zentanzucans in the air… heads rolled. Two then ran passed me, large wings and horns sticking out of their armor like a sore thumb. Faust...Locus… Locus threw his Keyblade, the Ultima Weapon, into strike raides, each time more and more gore covered the blade, while Faust cast spells, freezing then shattering her targets. Then, there was an explosion, looking around...rifts. This is when the war leaked into all its other reflections… Keyblade wielders, dead and alive fell through, and the fighting just grew. It was then something caught my eye… A younger fighter, keyblade armor soaked in blood and his Keyblade...Reunion? He fell from a rift, attacking and blocking, but quickly fell when someone wielding an Oblivion Keyblade stabbed him all the way through, tossing him off and returning to the carnage. I ran over to the one with Reunion, and saw them limp, Reunion itself seeming to go pale. I saw a Wayfinder in his other hand… It was then that I saw a familiar sight. The Foreteller who wore Kira’s attire before her, Ava, I think, fighting another union member, the one with the unicorn mask. The two dodged and blocked each others attacks, but what they dodged hit others. Blood and limbs flying like rain. “This...this isn't a war…..this isn't even a fight!” I shout, backing away from this and clutching my head. “This is just a mindless slaughter! No one even knows why they were fighting, they just bathed in their fellow keybladers blood at this fucking point! What the fuck!?!” I shout, panicking at how horrid seeing this was. “No...no my family is not joining me if this is what this damned thing was!” I tell myself, fearing that if any of my family were to be here they would be ripped apart. I looked up, seeing Faust, Locus, and Discord all fighting off others Keybladers, til one walked up, not even wearing a helmet...just a bear mask… Bara… He wielded Way to Dawn backhanded, charging as fire and darkness pulsated through him...and he swung. It was like a dark Mega Flare, Discord saw, wrapping himself around Faust and Locus, but their wings and horn were exposed. When it hit, and the light faded, most of Discord’s armor was gone, his exposed skin was severely burned. He unwrapped the two, their wings burned on their bodies and horns broke off with simple movements. Faust fell to her knees, crying while Locus looked at Bara, throwing his keyblade into a strike raid, and Bara deflected it with a simple movement of his Keyblade. When Locus’s Keyblade returned to him, he picked his wife up and used cure on Discord, his wounds lessened, but still bad. They then ran, striking their Keyblades into the ground as they escaped into a DTL. Reality shifted back, and I was back with them… They each wielding their Keyblades again, the weapons no longer rusted, but alive, and ready for a fight. “So, that was part of the war.” Locus said. “From what we heard, it lasted three days...that was four hours in…” Faust trailed off. “No…” I shake my head, Nothingness Thorns trailing down to the ground and acting like they were to protect me from that nightmare. “No...nobody even knew why they were fighting, they just...slaughtered endlessly, friend or foe...that's not a war...that's mindless bloodshed…” I say, shaking and trying to stop myself from having a panic attack from such a horrid scene. “War has many forms. That, was its worst.” Faust said, dropping in front of me a rusted...Reunion...and...Wayfinder. “You are right, to want to keep them out of this new war coming.” She said, trailing along it’s blade with her finger. “Otherwise...Celestia would have been the middle child in our family….” I shakily picked up the rusted Reunion and Wayfinder. “Most of them...they could have been children…” I mutter. “His name was Starfire.” Locus said. “He was our first born...he wanted nothing more than to be strong like us… We told him to stay home, but he was a rebellious child…” “He was only fourteen.” Discord said. “And I...was dumb enough to encourage his dreams…” “We didn’t even know he was in the war...till we came back after...and saw his corpse…” Faust said, tears falling freely. “He was a lot like you.” Locus said. “Smart, but always underestimating himself. It’s why Reunion was his Keyblade, because when he finally gained confidence, his Starlight keyblade changed, and he wanted to always challenge himself.” I looked at the Wayfinder and Reunion in my hands, breaking into uncontrollable sobs. “I'm sorry...I'm so sorry…” I mutter, feeling powerless and small to this all. “The past...is past.” Faust said, drying her tears. “We are here, to ask you for permission…” “For what?” I ask, trying to control myself and stop crying here. “Permission for what? I...don't think I'm allowed to give permission to you all...especially after this...hell.” I say sadly. They then kneeled...to me… “We...abandoned our Unions...our comrades…” Locus started. “We broke an oath of brotherhood and sisterhood.” Faust continued. “We, with your permission, would fight in your name, under your faction, your flag. To redeem ourselves...and our fallen union members.” Discord finished. “For the next war, and onward til death.” They all said. I looked at the three, completely surprised about their request but I took a deep breath and got myself in some form of control. “Alright.” I nod, putting Starfires Reunion and Wayfinder down gently as I summoned my own Reunion. “From now until the day you die.” I start, Nothingness Thorns starting to gently surround the three. “All three of you shall fall under my banner, but not as servants to a master, not as soldiers to a commander…” I say, the thorns gently crawling up and gently swirling around their dominant arms. “But as friends, willing to lay down their lives to protect each other. As the Heir of Nothingness, you three shall serve and protect me and our family to the best of your ability and beyond.” I say, Nothingness forming into what looked like Keyblade armor shifters. “When Light and Darkness fall, may Nothingness stand by your side.” I finish. “There...you may rise.” They each stood up, each one of them wearing a grey, Keyblade armor sleeve with the Nobody symbol on them. “Thank you for this.” Faust said. “We each regret just...leaving. Scared and hurt. With… If you’d allow, we would like to explore, find others who fled like us, and see if they are willing to join your faction.” I grabbed the rusty Reunion and the Wayfinder of the ground. “Yes please, I'd like to show those out there that they're not alone, and we're willing to help them get past this nightmare.” I shake my head. “Luna is not gonna be happy with all the nightmares I'm gonna have after this…” I sigh out. “But...do you want these in Equestria for a proper burial...or do you want me to pass these down to one of your grandchildren?” I ask Locus and Faust, not sure if this Reunion will bond to me given I have a Reunion keychain, and I already have a wayfinder. Faust took them both. “Starfire died here, he fought to earn his place in the union.” She said, striking it into the ground and tying the wayfinder around the grip. “He...earned this, at least.” I nodded. “Alright...lets...let's go home.” I say, wanting to go home and cuddle with all my fiances right now. “They...they won't be apart of this...no matter what they say or do.” To be continued...
Nobody goes travelingAfter a night cuddling up to all my fiances and Luna helping keep the Nightmares away I woke up for our day of adventuring. “God...feels like I barely slept…” I mutter, the war still heavy in my mind. “Well...today's the day…” I looked around, seeing I was...alone? Getting up and dressed I walked outside the bedroom, not even seeing the houses hallway furniture anywhere...it was bare. “Uh...the fuck?” I frown, continuing to walk around. “Hello?” I call out, hoping someone was around here. “Anyone here?” I walked passed a window, and did a double take… people, countless. Many in Keyblade armor, all wielding Keyblades, fighting. There were corpses scattered about, Keyblades fighting by ground and air via gliders or gummi ships… I saw Joy hacking many by the hundreds, Dinky spellcasting mega flares all about, blowing up dozens, and Jenny a mix of Keyblade slashing and shotgun shooting people. “No...no no no!” I shout, trying to open the big enough window for me to get outside and help protect my family, but it was sadly locked. I then saw Celestia, wielding a Divine Rose Keyblade... fighting Drezke. She wasn't lasting, she fell, and Drezke slashed across her back, her wings flying off in a spew of blood. Not far away, Luna was fighting the Core I fought, he dodging her attacks with ease then grabbing her wrist, snapping her arm then grabbing her by her neck. “NO!” I roar, bringing out Skysplitter and slamming it into the wall. My strike bounced off, leaving the wall perfectly intact. “Wh-wh-what!?!” I stutter in panic. “No….no…” I mutter while bashing against the strangely strong wall, trying to get to my family. Outside, I saw Drezke looking at me, a twisted smile as he lifted Celestia by her head, she screamed, then, in a splatter of gore and blood, he crushed her skull. Behind that, Core snapped Luna’s neck, casting a fire spell to burn her body. I saw Jenny get tackled by that Velvet filly, the small foal ripping out Jenny's shotgun from her grip and firing it, a large hole in Jenny's back spewing blood. Joy was now crucified with his own Spears, that small filly Littlepip striking the final spear into the pups head. Dinky was being dragged into darkness, scratching at the ground to try and save herself. “Stop it!” I shout, tears streaming down my face as I tried to break this damned wall down. “Stop!” I shout, begging for this Nightmare to end. “Damn it…” I sob, hearing all of their screams of pain and being unable to do anything about it caused me to fall to my knees. “I’m...I'm sorry...I'm so sorry…” I sob, grabbing my head as I sobbed hard. It was then I saw...reality seem to shift. The hallway going really wide, and out of a DTD, walked a man in something like Terra’s clothing, an Organization XIII cloak worn almost like a cape, and a Vanitas mask on. “You called?” He asked, the mask muffed his voice. I looked at the person, sniffling as I tried to wipe away all my tears. “Who...who are you?” I ask. “An old friend.” He said, walking over to the window. “Huh...so this is your nightmare. How trivial.” He said, waving a hand, the scene outside vanishing in a puff of smoke. “Trivial…?” I mutter, my state of mind not entirely being okay at seeing my family brutally murdered. “Trivial!?! I just saw my family get brutally killed and I couldn't do a damn thing about it! How is that trivial?” I growl, my anger and sadness filling my every word. “Why fret over a dream? Even when I had my heart, I never fret over nightmares.” “Nightmares show you your worst fears...and that...seeing everyone I care about die...and being unable to do anything to stop it? I think it's something to fret over. And seriously I still have no idea who you are!” I frown. He looked at me, a finger tapping the side of his helmet, it faded back just to show his eyes and it stopped there...red eyes...the visor covered them over quickly. “You can call me, Kexez.” “I'm...just gonna stick with Zeke okay?” I say, rubbing my eyes again to get rid of the tears. “But...what have you been doing since you came back?” “Trying to set things right.” He said, looking outside the window. “Our being set here has had a terrible cost to its natural timeline. I’m working to set it right. Not even this new Keyblade war will stop me, in fact, it's just what I’ll need to finish this project.” I growl. “So this war, this mindless, blood soaked massacre means nothing to you!?! What about your family? Friends? Everyone you cared about?” I ask. “You may have been told what the Keyblade war was like, but I saw that mindless free for all…” I choke up, remembering that damned thing. “I...I don't want that to happen...I don't want to lose everyone…” “Ben, I did see the war. I even participated.” Zeke said, I looked at him, confused. “Uh...wat?” I ask, beyond confused here. “I went to the Foretellers to deliver a message, then saw their special computer. Such an advance thing. Can simulate just about anything. But, hardware only goes so far. So, I programmed all it's functions into a digital Keyblade, then, had the pc bring it into the real world, and made it a real Keyblade. Within it is a simulation of creation, from the very beginning. Inside time passes slowly in the real world, and in the real world, time passes quickly within the simulation. So far, everything is going well.” “So while you and Drezke are playing mad scientists I'm busy doing fuck all.” I frown. “Lucky me knowing I have a friend who can do basically everything.” I say sarcastically. “So, while you've been doing that, why haven't you actually tried to talk to us? Shown that you are indeed back in action instead of somehow getting Core back and making him kick Joy away from your hideout?” “Simple. I don't care.” “I know your a Nobody but come on man.” I frown. “Not caring is one thing, actually doing something smart like talk about what your plans are to the people you can trust is another.” I explain. “My plans are going well. My followers grow daily, and by the time this new war starts, it will be ready.” “Does everyone want this damned war to go off or am I just going fucking crazy!?!” I shout, flinging my arms in the air in frustration. “Zeke, you know this war will feed Psychopaths what they want, why go along with shit like this?” “Because, there is a pattern to things Ben. A pattern of three. People I found from Earth call 2012 world war three. There were three Keyblade wielding heroes who stopped this very second war from starting, and three more were to rise up to stop it yet again. Our being here, caused that to be no more.” “I really wouldn't say us being here is a problem when it was Core being a douche to be perfectly honest.” I point out. “And what? Your plan is to make all of us...what not exist anymore? Kill everyone from earth and reset everything? Rip away our new lives and all the people in them?” “No. It was three heros who prevented a second Keyblade war, once. Three more are needed, but it will be to late for them to prevent this war, but they can end it, and keep the third and final war from occurring. It's all ancient legends Ben, each war impacting in worst ways than the last, my plan isn't to reset creation, just to keep it going. That third and final war… it will extinguish both dark, light. And all in. Be. Tween.” He said, tapping my head with his finger when he said that. “But all of us are here to make sure that doesn't happen!” I tell him bluntly. “We don't need a miracle trio to stop certain shit if we can stop it ourselves!” I growl. “If the Foretellers and John were here they would agree wholeheartedly that we should stop this war before it happens, not wait for three random fucks to drop in and stop it...even if that is a good backup plan though…” I sigh out. “In the legends, there is a sign that appears, that sign is both a warning, and the trigger that the war is beginning.” Zeke said, walking to the center of the room. “The sign of the first war, when a master betrays his students. The Master of Masters, and the old Foretellers. Can you guess the sign of the second war?” “I barely understand half this shit how am I supposed to know?” I deadpan. “I'm just the guy getting a lot of information thrown at me that I wouldn't otherwise know because I've been too busy.” Zeke chuckled. “The sign of the second war, when a heartless being escapes Purgatory.” Zeke said, I flinched a bit at that. “I was the second sign. Like I said Ben, it's too late to stop this second war, but I know we can end it quickly. And prevent the final war.” I clenched my fists, hating that this war was gonna happen either way. “How fast can it end? You may be a Nobody...but I doubt even you want your family to be apart of this damned thing…” “If the progress goes as it, this second war should, hopefully, only last just a week.” “A week...longer than the first… and, the sign of the last war?” I ask. “...When Kingdom Hearts dies.” He said. “Well,..that’s a thing.” I sigh out, rubbing my temples bitterly, “So...a full week of mindless bloodshed…” I say, Zeke seeing my left eye turning black with a red pupil, my head stinging a little at that as I covered the left side of my face. “Damn it...I just...hope I'll be strong enough to keep all my family out of this...becoming King of Nothingness better help.” I mutter bitterly. “But...on an unrelated note...I suppose you've been keeping tabs on Daybreak and all that's been happening?” “Does it matter?” He said, a DTD opening in front of him as he started to walk in. “And Ben…” “Am I gonna immediately wake up when you say ‘wake up’?” I ask bluntly. “Cause that's one cliche...I haven't had happen to me before…” “No,” He said, suddenly in front of me, a hand gun shoved down my throat. “Stop being a wuss. You gave me a headache. You may be the heir of Nothing, and I a Nobody, but you are no king to me.” BANG “Gah!” I shout, waking up and panting heavily. ”Well Zeke is an asshole for some reason…” I think to myself bitterly, rubbing my eyes gently and feeling like I was crying a whole bunch...but considering my nightmare it's not surprising. “Hmm?” I looked to my side, Luna sturing. “Ben? You up?” She asked, very sleepily. “Sorry...I just...had a bad nightmare…” I whisper, putting a hand over my left eye. “Luna...never mind, I'll tell you all when we're ready to leave…” I mutter, trying to carefully get out of bed without waking up anymore of my fiances. I saw Luna shrug and lay back down. I walked on outside and towards the living room. I passed the window from my dream, and outside in the front yard, I saw… Time Belle? Opening the window, I summoned my glider and flew down to her. “Hey Time.” I call out to the unicorn. “What are you doing here?” “Luxu...found out about a second Keyblade war that was going to happen…” She trailed off. “I really wish it wouldn't happen...and I really wish I could stop it.” I sigh out. “Where is he? I hope he's...not doing something bad.” She nodded up, and looking back at my castle house, I saw Luxu standing atop the Zeppelin. Looking at the moon. “I should...probably go up there and talk to him…” I say worriedly. “I'll...be right back.” I say while flying up to Luxu, hating the fact a Keyblade war is gonna happen. I landed atop The Zeppelin next to Luxu, the floor squishy and hard to balance on. “Hey Ben.” Luxu said, not moving at all. “Hey Luxu…” I say simply. “I...I'm sorry…” I sigh out sadly, wishing I could do something here but knowing I can't. “I...saw the War…” I shook my head. “No...I saw a bloody free for all…” I shook my head, the horror of what I saw not even being able to be called a ‘war’. “You saw just a small part of it. I’m the one who watched it all, every second, day and night... because of a promise...a promise to the man who started it...all out of paranoia…” “Yen Sid told me about that…” I sigh out. “But...what are we going to do? I want to stop this before it happens...before…” I trail off, trying not to break down at the thought of my nightmare. “You. I take it you are gonna build an army, like everyone else is?” “Lucas, Faust, and Discord are already out searching for survivors to see if they'll fall under my banner for this...and then Joy is looking for my ‘Council’ as it were…” I shook my head. “Everything's going too fast...I don't want there to be a war...if I get an army then fine whatever…” I sigh out. “I'm a nobody, how the fuck am I supposed to lead an army to this bloodbath?” “Ben. Summon your claymore.” Luxu asked. I summoned Lunatic. “Why did you want this out?” I ask curiously, kind of confused here. He held out a hand, Lunatic vibrated, and a second one appeared in Luxu’s hand, it changing, it's length becoming a tall tower of dirt, Keyblades stabbed all in it, Lunatics tip now an image of Kingdom Hearts, with the eye from Gazing eye in it's center. “The Claymore, the general of the king. Ben, I sat back...and watched my best friends... slaughter each other. This time… I won't just sit back, watch and cry.” I took a deep breath. “Glad to hear that.” I nod. “Good to know your my General...somehow.” I say, not entirely sure how this all works. “Seriously I understand barely anything here with my upcoming job…” I sigh out. “I know for a fact my Dad will be in this war… if you see him, tell me. I. Will. Kill. Him.” “No promises.” I say while looking at the moon. “The bastard made all those damned weapons and caused the world's to split….he caused so many people to die.” I growl, my eyes turning to slits as Lunatic shifted to its berserk form. “I'll...make sure you get to kill the fucker...just don't expect him to be in peak fighting condition.” I say, calming myself down as Lunatic turned back to normal. “I can't kill…” I mutter, putting a hand over the left side of my face. “I can't kill…” I mutter, scared of what I could become if I get blood on my hands to such a degree. “This war will be very different from the first. No telling what will happen this time around.” “All I have heard is that the Embodiments of Darkness will be killed.” I say simply. “But...how I don't know...but as long as they don't get killed by that Void Keyblade we’ll be okay…hopefully.” “Til the war then.” Luxu said, jumping down from the Zeppelin to the ground, unharmed in his landing, and he and Time walked off back to town. “God help us all.” I mutter, looking out over the peaceful land from the zeppelin. “How the fuck did it get...this out of control?” I ask myself bitterly before heading off to bed. Joy sensed someone was chosen for a weapon, and when he focused he felt that Luxu was chosen as the Claymore wielder. “Okay…” Joy mutters while summoning Fair Game. “I know you know your true wielder…” He mutters, trying to think of who could be it's true master. “Lets see…” He mutters while tossing the cards up and focusing, trying to see if he could sense it's true wielder somewhere. The cards floated, spinning before stopping and flying around, Joy following the cards as the lead him into town. Finally, they stopped outside Ponyville's pet shop. “Huh...wonder why it's the pet shop.” He mutters while checking to see if the shop was open for starters. It was, and when Joy entered the cashier was someone Joy or Ben had yet to meet yet… Trixie. “Hello and welcome to the Ponyville pet shop.” She said unenthusiastically. “Groomings don't start til tomorrow and vaccinations are next week.” “Trixie?" Joy asks, tilting his head in confusion. “What are you doing here?” “Short story, it was this or the dungeon for the whole alicorn amulet incident. So, who are you?” “Names Joy, little brother of the White Knight.” Joy says simply, not making a big deal out of it as he let a card float near him. “So besides working here, how's life been?” He asks, wondering if the card will fly towards her if it chose her. The card zipped towards her. “What's with the magic card?” She asked, grabbing it, and it changed. Now, the image adorned was her Cutie mark, and the card itself changed shape from a simple rectangle, to look like her iconic magicians hat. “Wow...looks nice.” “How would you like to come with me and learn about your new future?” Joy asks simply, the meaning coming to mind instantly. “Because you are now the Kings Gypsy. Your new job is to foretell the future for our future king, telling him the odds of events and battles.” Joy says, the words seeming to resonate with Trixie as the unicorn mare held her magical card. She then looked at the card, pondering the option before her. “Do I get to quite the job I have here?” “And you get to live in a much better place.” Joy says. “Just remember to keep your ego in check okay?” He says, not wanting her to get too hot headed here. “I got therapy for that.” She said, taking off her name tag. “Welp, gypsy huh...knew that would come back to haunt me.” Trixie said as she left the store. Shrugging, Joy summoned Sharp Shooters, and without him doing anything else, the Lexicon and Skysplitter also appeared. “Uhh…”Joy said, the weapons all circling, and opened a portal that Joy was dragged into. When Joy fell out on the other side, he was looking at a city completely destroyed, apocalyptic was an understatement. “Okay...why the hell am I here?” Joy asks himself while looking at the three weapons that dragged him here. They almost lazily floated along, Joy following until he ran into a man with white hair, wearing a black hoodless cloak with some blue patterns on one side and holding a sheathed katana. Skysplitter rushed towards the man and into his free hand, it changed, becoming as thin as a sword, keeping its general shape while the main blade was demonic in appearance and the grip was more angelic in design. “What the?” The man said. “Uh...hi.” Joy starts. “Names Joy, what's your name?” Joy asks, knowing he was the new Gate Guardian. “Vergil.” He said, walking up to Joy. “What...is this?” he asked, holding up Skysplitter. “That is a Tomahawk, but it shifted to suit your style. You have been chosen as the Gate Guard, the second line of defense for the King of Nothingness.” Joy explains. “King of...I have read about him, an ancient being that…” Vergil looked at the tomahawk. “Heh...I guess Dante was right... we weren't meant to rule over humanity… wow… I feel like a douchebag right now.” “Hindsight is twenty twenty after all.” Joy shrugs. “Now mind helping me find the two who are chosen by these weapons?” Joy asks, pointing to the Lexicon and Sharpshooters. “I...have a feeling, but, mind if I… be a bit behind you when we do? I sorta…yeah… long story short, hurt a long time friend and fought my own brother to the point he nearly...killed me…” “It's alright.” Joy nodded. “When they figure stuff out here they'll forgive you.” He says. ”I like old Vergils design better…” Joy thinks to himself honestly. “So, know where they are?” Joy asks curiously. “Not to far from where I was just coming from. Come.” He said, leading the way as Joy and the weapons followed. When they came to a small clearing Joy saw a short, white haired Dante and a woman with a star tattoo on her forehead. Dante looked at Vergil. “Okay...first off-” Vergil was stopped when Dante pulled out Ebony and Ivory and fired endlessly at him, Vergil getting hit by every shot but not harmed by them. When Dante stopped, Vergil was a tad dazed. “Okay...not gonna deny I deserved that…” “You deserve worse, why the fuck you just come back for and who in the hell is this kid and...why are there crossbows and a book floating next to him?” Dante said as he looked over at me. “I mean seriously… what the actual hell.” “All will be explained.” Joy says while Sharpshooters and the Lexicon rush towards the two, Dante feeling a sense of deja vu as yet another weapon rushed towards him to bond with him. “You two have been chosen to be the Archer and the Mage of the King of Nothingness.” Joy states, the weapons changing to fit the two. Dante received the Sharpshooters, one changing to a fiery, demonic appearance while the other changed to an angelic theme. Kat, the new Lexicon owner, didn't change much, just the colors from black and chrome to gold and white, through, the image on the cover was now a spray can. “Congratulations. Dante, you are now the first line of defense to the King, and lady...uh sorry I forgot to ask your name.” Joy says sheepishly, not knowing who the woman's name was. “Kat… Dante, the king of Nothing is a strong entity. Working with him we could end the threats of the remaining demons.” Dante sighed, looking at Kat, then Joy. “Fine, but on one condition.” “Does it involve having a nice home with your girlfriend?” Joy asks, moving a finger between Dante and Kat like they were a couple. “We aren't da, ugh. Just make sure if someone is to rule this world, it's a human.” “No promises.” Joy says. “But Kat, you are in charge of all the Spellcasters and Record Keeping for the King.” He says while summoning Hearts Guardian. “Now you'll probably want to know your new home.” He says while opening up a DTL to Equestria. “Go through the door and you'll see yourselves in front of a castle, you'll start there.” “You two go on if you want, I got some things to check.” Dante said, jumping off a cliff edge, sliding down the dirt/rubble. “He’ll be fine.” Vergil said. “Nothing can kill that idiot.” “Unless he stops being a pussy and shows his true power he's gonna get killed easily.” Joy says bluntly. “He's hiding a fuck ton of power...he better learn to control it.” He shook his head. “You could tell he was hiding his true strength to couldn't you?” He asks Vergil simply. “Yes. He has discovered it, but has yet to embrace it. I wish I could say the same.” “You are strong in your own ways, and have more room to grow. You'll never be as physically strong as Dante by a giant margin, but your technique and abilities can at least keep up with it.” Joy explains. “Kat? What do you think of all this?” Joy asks the woman. “It's...well, as long as I have a purpose,” She looked over at Vergil, her gaze filled with hate. “And a worthy leader, I’ll be okay.” Joy looked at her. “You and Dante are going to need to drop your hatred here. You are going to have a new life, and all past mistakes will be null in Nothing.” Joy states. “But when your ready the door to your new home will be ready...and either me or your new King will try to explain a lot of things...if you thought this was crazy, you haven't seen anything.” Joy chuckles, the pup giving a cute knowing smile at how the three might react. “Tell them Joy sent you, they'll give you a room.” They nodded, Vergil and Kat entering the DTL. Joy summoned the chakrams next, the spun in a fast blaze of fire before another portal opened up. “Right then.” He nodded while entering the new portal, wondering who he'll meet next. Exiting, Joy found himself in a…. very small apartment. Literally one room, kitchen next to the living room/bedroom. “Hello?” Joy calls out, wondering why he appeared in this apartment. “Master, where did you acquire that meat?” A voice from the outside of the front door spoke. “It's just...something I picked up.” Another replied, the door opening as a bald, young man entered along with a blond cyborg. “Oh. company?” The bald man spoke. “He might be a monster sier.” The cyborg replied. “Well he hasn't attacked us yet. So...hey there.” Joy blinked. “Hi...names Joy.” He says, trying to keep his composure as he sensed the bald guys asinine amount of power. “I'm not a monster just so you know...even if I look like this.” He says, trying to keep things simple for the simple looking guy. “Wow, he talks!” The bald guy said, walking over and petting the pup. “Hey there. My name is Saitama, and my, uh… friend, there, is Genos.” “Uh...hi.” Joy says, his tail wagging as he was pet but he quickly moved away. “I'm sorry for just barging into your home, these things were looking for their master and dropped me in here.” He says, showing the two chakrams floating calmly. “Weird, they look like Ninja weapons.” Saitama said. “They are called chakrams if I am not mistaken master.” Genos said, the chakrams floating over to the cyborg and changing, no longer red and chrome, but greased steel color with glowing yellow lines as actual fire blew from their tips. “They also appear to be magic.” Genos said nonchalantly. “Okay…” Joy says while thinking for a moment. “You are the King’s Anarchist, his one man army, capable of taking down anything.” Joy says before frowning. “Hey Saitama, want to follow us to a new home filled with free food, housing, and strong things to fight that won't fall over in one punch?” Joy asks him simply, knowing Genos was strong but feeling like he should have Saitama as help. “Uh… sure. Nothing else much going on here since Boros was killed.” “I will follow my master wherever he goes.” Genos said. “Alright then, let's get packing Genos.” Saitama said, gathering up his few things. “If your wondering who the King I was talking about was it's the King of Nothingness.” Joy points out. “Just so you know.” He says while opening a DTL. “Just walk through the portal and you'll see a castle, go there and there will be someone to escort you to your new room. Tell them Joy sent you.” As Joy was about to leave a kunai knife flew past him at blazing speed, Saitama catching it before it sliced the pups nose. “Oh darn, Sonic is back.” He said with a sigh. “Shall I deal with him?” Genos asked, looking like he wanted to try out his new weapons. “I got this.” Saitama said, opening a sliding door that revealed a small patio. “Hey Sonic, I’m moving do you wanna make this quick or what?” On an almost afterimage motion, a man in black and purple tights, black hair, carrying an assortment or Ninja weapons appeared. “You can not move! I have yet to defeat you! I forbid it!” The Ninja, Sonic, said. “Forbid? Dude, you are not my mom.” “Rah!” Sonic huffed, Foudre appearing in front of him, changing color, once blue and yellow now was black and purple. “Uh... what's with the magic Kunai’s?” “Okay, your now the King’s Assassin, self explanatory.” Joy sighs out. “King of Nothingness is now your boss, blah blah your an idiot for thinking you can hurt Saitama.” Joy says bluntly. “So go on through, your new rooms will be there for ya and some decent explanations for ya will also be given.” He says, the DTL still open for the three. “Hey!” Joy looked at the portal, Nelear walking out. “Joy! That portal is blocking the spa’s front entrance!” “How? I opened the portal to my house.” Joy says, honestly confused as he knew the portal went to the front of their house. While Joy and Nelear fixed the issue, Sonic never took his eyes off of Nelear. When the issue was corrected, Sonic walked over to the portal. “I’ll play along for now…” He said, a slight blush on his face as he ran into the portal. “Well...hope he doesn't screw up with Nelare.” He mutters, having noticed him staring at Nelare. “Okay...so next up.” He mutters while summoning Arpeggio the Sitar. The sitar glowed a bit before creating a pool of water, to which the sitar splashed into. “Gonna be swimming...great.” He muttered while diving into the pool of water, wondering where the muscle weapon is taking him. It wasn't long until the pup was now above the water, ocean as far as the eye could see. “Well shit.” Joy mutters while he summoned his dragon spears. “AAAHHHOOOOYYYY!” A loud voice called as something grabbed Joy by his scruff and he was lifted out of the water, across the water, and onto a ship. He saw one thing...a straw hat. “Hey there, who are you?” The one with the straw hat said, Joy recognizing him as Luffy. “Names Joy, who are you my fine straw hat friend?” Joy asks, his dragon spears still floating gently around him in a non-threatening manner. “Names Luffy. Saw ya floating in the water there. So what's a dog man doing all the way out here in these waters?” “I’m looking for people for a special thing.” The pup says. “Know anyone that likes to play music?” He asks, Arpeggio floating above him. “That would be me.” Joy looked up, seeing a skeleton with an afro walk up. “The name's Brook.” “How do you have an afro when your a skeleton?” Joy asks curiously, not entirely sure how that works. “Details. So, why are you looking for musicians this far- good heavens!” Brook said, eyeing the sitar. He ran over to it, and when he grabbed it, it changed, becoming smaller, made from wood, and had two sides, one for playing normal, the other, a more violin style. “Oh my, such beauty. Such magic, it's just beautiful!” “Looks like Arpeggio chose you my skeletal friend.” Joy smiles. “But you have been chosen to be apart of the council for the King of Nothingness.” The pup said. “You are the Bard, playing music, torturing your enemies, and gathering information from many ways.” Joy says, before hearing someone gasp. “The...King of Nothingness?” A mature female asked, making Joy turn over and see Robin looking shocked, but Joy looked away as his face turned red. “I thought that was just a myth?” “Well...it's not a myth ma’am.” He says simply, trying not to look like an idiot here. “He’s as real as you or me.” “Interesting…” Robin mutters, thinking about all this. “I suppose the Poneglyphs were right…” She mutters, remembering seeing some bits about the King of Nothingness from the ancient writings. Joy was about to bring up a DTL back home but stopped himself, concerned about what's gonna happen if he takes a crew member away. ”Shit...I'm screwing with time a lot...this isn't good…” He thinks to himself worriedly, a worried look crossing his face as he thought of what bad he's done trying to find these people. “So, why are you sailing across this beautiful ocean?” Joy asks curiously. “We’re sailing to find One Piece.” Luffy says with a smile. “And I'm gonna be the King of the Pirates.” Luffy declares with pride. “Who's the kid?” Someone asked, making Joy turn and spot Zoro and the rest of the crew walk up. “Aw~, he's so cute.” The orange haired girl, Nami, smiled happily. “Where'd you find him Luffy?” A thin man with a long nose, Usopp, asks Luffy. “I found him in the ocean floating around.” Luffy says simply. “Were you drowning?” The black suited blond, Sanji, asked simply, lighting a new cigarette. “No, and those can kill you ya know?” Joy points out. “Eh, helps keep me calm.” Sanjii shrugs. “Well your not a Devil Fruit user.” The blue nosed reindeer, Chopper, said honestly. “But I haven't heard of any animal human hybrid before.” “Things are a lot bigger when you look to the stars.” Joy says vaguely. “Better to keep your eyes on the sea right now then look up at the stars.” A big man wearing a hawaii shirt and a speedo, Franky, pointed out. “But what's your name kid? Not everyday someone just gets pulled up out of the ocean.” “Names Joy.” He says while standing up and using Lindworm to dry himself off. “And who are all of you if I may ask? And...what are your dreams if I may ask?” Joy asks curiously. “Strange thing to ask…” Zoro mutters. “But the names Roronoa Zoro, and I'm going to become the best swordsman in the world.” “My name's Nami, and I'm going to create a map of the whole world.” The orange haired girl says. “My name's Usopp, and I'm gonna become a brave warrior of the sea.” Usopp says with confidence, even though Joy could tell his confidence was lacking sometimes. “The names Sanji, and I'm going to find the All Blue.” Sanji say simply, taking his cigarette out of his mouth and blowing smoke into the air. “I'm Chopper, and I'm going to be the best doctor and cure all diseases.” Chopper says. “My name is Robin, and I'm going to learn the true history of the world.” She says, grinning a little at seeing Joy look a little shy and blush. “The names Franky, and one day I'll build my dream boat that'll be able to sail anywhere, from the sea to the sky.” Franky declares proudly. “I'm Brooke, and one day I'm going to meet my wonderful friend Laboon again.” The skeleton stated. “All good dreams to have, and I can tell all of you are going to fulfill those dreams one day.” Joy nodded with a smile. “But my dream...is to one day live in peace with my family and friends.” He says with a smile. “Now...I sent other council members of the Council of Nothing to my home in a different world, I won't split you all apart.” “Wait wait wait, did you just say ‘other world’?” Franky asks bluntly. “How is that even remotely possible?” “Magic.” Joy states simply. “But...would you all fight for your friends? Even if it means fighting under someone else's banner?” The pup asks. “If it means helping protect friends, then I would work together.” Luffy says. “We won't serve under anyone, but together.” “For a price of course.” Nami brings up, being a pirate and greedy coming to a front. Joy wants to say something, but Robin cuts in. “Let me ask...what is this ‘Keyblade War’?” She asks curiously. “I read the name on a Poneglyph about three months ago...what is it?” “It…” He tried to find the proper words for this. “Imagine there are five sides wanting to fight each other...but then it devolved into a bloodthirsty free for all where all of reality started to rip apart and increase the body count.” Joy says, the entire crew looking horrified at such an image. “Me and my brother, the future king Brook, myself, and others will serve soon, saw only a fraction of the event…” “How...how long did it last?” Robin asks, her normally tan skin seeming to go pale. “Somewhere around...three days.” Joy says. “Three days of none stop fighting nothing of which has been seen or felt before...and sooner or later rather than never…it's going to happen again.” He shook his head, trying not to cry at seeing such horrors. Luffy put a hand on Joy’s head. “If Brook is gonna be apart of this, then we're gonna be apart of this.” Luffy states. “We never abandon our family.” “If what you said is true then that means we'll be apart of it either way.“ Zoro points out, not knowing much of what I explained but knowing the fight was so huge no matter how far one was the fight could still be felt. “Might as well fight with the guy who Brooks going to follow.” “I...never thought I'd have to be a war medic…” Chopper says worriedly. “Are...you guys sure we should...join in this?” Usopp asks, scared shitless here. “You all can't fight on an empty stomach.” Sanji states. “If you need a master chef I'm your guy.” “You'll need a good engineer for a war.” Franky points out. “And I'll be that engineer.” “If everyone else is agreeing then I'll tag along.” Robin nodded. “You'll also need an experienced spy to give proper information.” “I hope I can live up to the expectations here.” Brook says while tuning his new instrument. “But as long as I can protect my friends then that will be that.” Brook nodded. “Good.” Joy nodded. “Now while I did this to the others...I don't think I can just take you away to a different world and drop everything right now.” Joy says. “Not gonna happen.” Luffy states. “So, mind if I join the crew?” Joy asks simply. “I can help make you all stronger and give you all a special weapon.” Joy says, knowing the ones who don’t have special weapons having Keyblades could help. “What kind of weapons?” Franky asks curiously, looking at the design of the dragon lance. “Keyblades.” The pup says. “Well...if the war was real then they must be real.” Robin points out, while others bring up how they either heard about them through either rumors, elders or masters telling them about it, or ancient history. “Sure most of you don't look like sword fighters, but Keyblades can actually shapeshift, either into bows, staffs, or giant cannons.” Joy brings up, knowing most weren't really sword fighters. “Interesting…” Franky mutters, his inner engineer wondering how something could shape shift like that if it's normally like a sword. “So, who wants to start training?” Joy asks, the small crew of pirates feeling like their long, long journeys was gonna get a lot longer. The castle was quite, silent, partly. Ben went off on his wife gathering adventure little over an hour ago, while at his home, we're Joy’s girls, Cadence, his his clone, and all 300 plus children. “Wonder how long till Den arrives?” Cadence spoke aloud, skimming through whatever parenting and child care books she could find. “She’ll arrive, don't worry.” My clone says simply, gently cradling baby Braig in his arms. “But...I'm sorry…” He says sadly, hating the fact that I couldn't save Shining and all the others. “It just happened so suddenly. One minute we were walking down the castle hallway...next, I heard a thud and...turned around…” She stopped, rubbing her arms after putting the book down. “I never saw death before, read about it, saw it portrayed in movies… I just...froze. it was little over an hour before a guard found me and...Shining.” “I understand…” My clone says. “I've seen it before...it's never pretty…” He sighs out. “A world like this should never know such horrors.” “... what's it like?” Cadence asked me. “Holding a baby, I mean. I took care of Twilight when she was a filly, but she was five and...heh, so very independent already. Had to trick her into playing like a kid.” My clone looked down and saw the pink haired Braig looking up at him with innocent and happy eyes. “This is the first time I’ve held a baby before…” He says. “But...it feels nice holding your own child like this...makes the world feel more..innocent and warm...even when it's not.” “I can guess. In the eyes of a child, everything is so pure and full of wonder and potential. It's a shame when I hear about some horrors children go through.” “Lets hope our children can live happy lives here…” My clone says, feeling his shirt being tugged and turning around, seeing one of his daughters he saved from Rapture holding his shirt with a hand and hugging a stuffed tiger in her arm. “Oh, hello Amelia.” My clone says gently. “Why are you here?” “Auntie Cadence look sad.” She says innocently. “Can I help?” She asks, her eyes having gone from being tainted from the crap on Rapture to being grey colored and full of the same childish innocence here. “What do you think Cadence? Think Amelia could help you feel better?” My clone asks honestly, knowing the poor Alicorn could use a helping hand and not sure how to help fully. “I uh...heh… I guess we can play a game, what would you like to play Amelia?” Cadence asked. The little girl's eyes shined happily as the seven year old ran over to a table and pulled out a board game, a game Cadence was shocked to see again after so many years. “Mommy Twilight showed me this game and it's so fun.” She said happily. “Oh, Twili loved this when she was a filly. I didn't even know they still made Froggy Chess.” When Amelia opened the box Cadence saw the board and pieces, but they weren't brand new, she could tell the pieces and board were the exact same as the one she played when Twilight was a little filly. “Mommy Twilight said this was her favorite game to play when she was my age.” Amelia smiled, Cadence noticing there was a pinkish purple stripe in the little girls hair, reminding Cadence of Twilight as a filly and how adorable she was as she started setting the board with childish glee. It was adorable, and as Cadence picked up the pieces, aged but well taken care of, and the board, worn, aged, but still preserved. Sentimentalism crept over her as she aligned the pieces. “I can’t believe she kept it.” Cadence said as she placed the final piece. “Well...when you grow up sometimes you keep old things to remember the times you were most happy.” My clone says with a smile. “I guess. So, when’s Den supposed to be here?” She asked, starting the game. The game board was blue, with lily pads as the move spaces and the different stages of a frog's life as the pieces. The king and queen were obviously adult frogs, with a crown for the king, and a tiara for the queen. “Not sure.” My clone says, seeing Amelia make the first move. “I hope she gets here soon, it would be nice to talk to her about...everything.” “Here!” Cadence and I jumped, Den appearing behind the couch, holding a LARGE duffle bag. “And I am going to be here for a while, Cript’s script...hehe, rhymes, makes it hard for me to get back so I’m here for a while.” She said, dropping the bag on the floor, an audible thud as it hit the stone ground...followed by cracks in the ground under it. “What is in that bag?” My clone asked worriedly. “Cause...a normal bag full of stuff shouldn't cause cracks in the ground…” “Since is anything with me or your father normal?” She asked, unzipping it. “I just grabbed stuff from home, special phone to call family, like, a million bottles of formula, and-” She said, pulling out the Mother Cript made for Ben, awake, and active and...Cript? “Your baby's mama and my clone of your dad.” “Did you have to put us in the bag?” Cript asked. “I’m with him.” The Mother said. “No reason. Just for comedy.” Den answered. My clone looked at them and sighed out. “Right then.” He nodded, still cradling baby Braig. “But I see the Mother is awake.” “Yeah, turned out all they needed was small pieces of each wives soul and that stabilized her.” Cript said, dusting himself off. “Also, her name is Celua. You can guess why.” Cript said, showing the mother had...Celestia’s chest and Luna’s butt, to which my clone blushed. “Uh...yeah...I can fully tell.” My clone says carefully, not sure of what to say about the sexy lady. “So, you’re the father of all the children I carry.” She said, inspecting me. “I have to say, those memories don’t do you all that much justice.” Celua then pulled be in, tightly and planted a kiss on my lips before just hugging me between her...breasts. “This is going to be fun.” “Uh…” My clone’s face turned beat red and steam billowed out of his head. “Okay...this will...be nice.” Cadence rolled her eyes. “So, Den...what will I be learning?” She asked, standing up. “Well, we should start off with the simple things, preparing. Ben, bring Braig and any other infant born already and I’ll help Cadence set up the strollers.” Den said as she reached into the bag, pulling out some strollers. In their boxes. My clone nodded and headed off to find baby Nancy. “Maybe she's with Jenny’s sister…” My clone mutters, walking through the halls to find them. It didn’t take long for my clone to find Nancy, Kristy was building a nursery, just for her. It was decorated nice...though, there was a rotary made from bullets above the crib. “Oh, hey Ben.” She said, still wearing her maid outfit with Jet putting up wallpaper. “Hey Kristy...uh why are you making that?” My clone asks nervously. “But I'm here to get Nancy, Dens here to help teach Cadence how to take care of a kid.” “Oh...mind if I tag along?” She asked, turning around and that’s when...right, she’s pregnant too. “And the roatery is actually from when Jenny was a baby. Sure we can steal them back then but, a Ventral walking into a baby store or...well, any store sets off all the alarms.” “Right then.” My clone nods and picking up the white wolf puppy. “How you doing Nancy?” My clone asks the baby girl with a smile. Nancy, for her part, just frowns. Krista laughing at my clone. “She may be a baby, but she is still a Ventral.” She said, walking over to my clone and waving a skull shaped rattle over the baby, to that Nancy brightened up, grabbing the disturbing toy and shook it. “Good thing I have you here cause...I don't know.” My clone sighs out. “But anyways, let's get going, Den is probably waiting for us.” I say while leading Kristy to where Den and Cadence are. “So, how have you been doing?” My clone asks her. “I just found out my child is a boy.” She said as we walked down the hall, Jet following her. “That's great to hear.” My clone smiles. “How much longer till you give birth?” My clone asks curiously. “I’m at four months now, doctors all say I’ll likely be giving birth in the winter. Spring if I’m really late.” “Alright.” My clone nods. “What do you think about Jenny and Joy being together? I'm not entirely sure if I asked that before.” “It’s cute, most Ventrals find our partners rather young, or lose our virginity young, one or the other.” “Mind if I ask...is there anything happy about the Ventrals?” My clone asks. “I know about your family's history, and how true it is...but is there anything...ya know normal about your family?” “Normal...huh…” She thought, pondering the question. “I guess...just how we give birth really, other than that we live and grow up far from the norm.” “Your dreams? I heard Nancy wanted to have a simple job if she could have…” My clone points out. “And you wanting to basically be a maid seemed good for you.” “My dream was to just be a mother, mom’s was to own a bakery, Jenny’s would be to own a gun store… I remember Zeke told me his dream once.” “What was his dream?” My clone asks. “To be a marine. He might not have participated in our crime sprees, but he loved to fight, losing himself in the adrenaline. He didn’t want to fight for no reason though, he wanted to fight for a just cause. I saw him go hand to hand with his dad once… it was amazing, puts all boxing and wrestling to shame. Hang on.” She said, reaching into her pocket and pulling out a photo. In it was Zeke, atop a large black bear, his father, and mother as well as his two other brothers on each side of it. “That’s from their hideout in the woods two years back, that bear attacked, Zeke jumped on its back and snapped its neck. If I didn't have this photo I wouldn’t believe it.” “I probably would...but in this line of work snapping a black bears neck isn't that special anymore.“ My clone sighs out. “I...do wonder what the other Ventrals are doing? I...kind of had this thought, after I was told all of you wished to have normal lives, that I could help give you the chance...besides your insane grandfather and cousin…” My clone frowns. “But right now...I'm just a rambling idiot with way too much stuff to do in life.” “From what I heard Zeke killed grandpa and threw his brother into the void.” “Good to know both of them are dead. Heard they were the worst of the bunch.” My clone says honestly. “Yeah, when grandpa found out he had a grandson with full red eyes, he set off a bomb in Wisconsin to celebrate. Zeke was the first full red eye’d Ventral in four generations. Normally, there’s at least one per generation, but for the past four there’s just been them like uncle Josh, having only one red eye rather than two.” “Ah.” My clone nodded. “Talk about starting things off with a bang.” “You should see what we do for the fourth of july.” Krista laughed. We arrived back in the living room, Den and Cadence setting up second and final stroller. Braig was in the stroller, half asleep with a toy bunny. “Hey. What took so long?” Den asked. “Brought Kristy here to learn how to be a mother as well, and we talked.” My clone says honestly. “And here is Nancy.” He says while showing the pup that was clearly Rarity’s daughter. Den took her, cradling her softly as she placed her in the newly built stroller. “Alright then, Ben, Cadence, you two push. We got to practice stocking up, but, first question first. What’s your early feeding route? Breastfeeding or bottle feeding?” My clone pushed Braigs stroller. “The early feeding route should be breastfeeding correct?” “Yeah, but in the end it is the mothers choice, if you don’t want to use formula at all an breast milker is the best option for sure nutrition.” Den said as we started out walk outside. There were some glances and some photos taken of us. My clone imagined the newspapers as he walked by. Finally, they arrived at Ponyville’s major foal stuffs store, Fillies and Colts Tots Emporium. “The people better not think we're a couple…” My clone mutters, scared about what Cadence would think about everyone thinking I'm dating the recent widow. “Okay...so how much stuff do we need to buy here?” “Either way you’ll be needing diapers...lots. Bottles, also a lot, and toys.” “So I need to basically buy the place out huh?” My clone asks, not wanting to buy everything and leave nothing for others. “God...it's gonna be a nightmare to handle all the kids in the future…” “If you keep your birth rates low you can just make due with a triplets amount.” Den said, opening the door for us all to walk in. We walked up to the mare at the register. “Hello and welcome to Fillies and Colts Tots Emporium, how may I assist you this fine day?” The mare says. My clone thought about how to word this as delicately as possible. “Who are your suppliers?” My clone asks curiously, hoping to at least know that before saying something stupid. “All of our suppliers are located in Canterlot Secondary.” “How fast do you get your supplies?” My clone asks. “We restock every Thursday, and our stock comes in every Wednesday.” “I keep wanting to just say ‘I want to buy everything in your store’...but I know that's impossible…” My clone sighs out. “Well, if you would like I can take a list of items you’d require, order them and when they arrive you just pay the amount for the shipment, plus some interest.” The mare said. “Thank you…” My clone sighs out thankfully. “Hmm...how much to buy…” My clone mutters, knowing this place has a lot of stuff for my future needs. “I'm sorry, it's just...twenty loving fiances so…” My clone says sheepishly, not bringing up the fact I'm gonna get more wives soon. “I know, my supervisor was expecting you to come around here at some point. So, if you need I can get you a pen and paper to write down that list then I can fill it out on the order forms.” “Please.” My clone said thankfully. When she gave him the pen and pad paper my clone proceeded to write down everything we needed for all the children. “And that's about it.” My clone says while handing her the paper and pen. “How much will this all cost?” The mare looked at all the things and tapped a pencil on the counter, probably doing all the math in her head. “Ten thousand six hundred and ten gold bits.” She says. “Cool.” My clone says before lifting up the big bag of coins. “Here's all the gold bits ya need.” “Thank you.” She said, dragging the bag of bits. “I’ll get that order form filled out for you. Anything you’ll need at the moment?” She asked, dragging the big bag across the counter. “Need some help?” My clone asks her. “That's...over six hundred pounds if a gold bit weighs an ounce each.” “It’s alright, so, is there anything else you need?” “Um…” My clone thinks for a moment. “Not really no.” He shook his head. “Thank you a lot ma’am.” “You’re welcome.” She said as we began to leave. Once outside we walked around for a bit, it was nice. “Next step, socialization.” Den said. “It’s important for babies to play with others. Know any in town?” “To be honest I have barely looked around town.” My clone says worriedly. “Hell, when I first started training with Dorlu was when I actually found out there was a police station here.” “Hm, well, how about the park then, good place to look and let the little ones play.” “True.” My clone nodded. “Man...it's been awhile since I've last been to a park…” With that decided, we all headed to the park. It was a nice, quiet day. Not many people were out, the sun was up, barely any clouds. Cadence was playing with Braig on the swings while I was trying to make Nancy laugh. ”Sheesh, how hard is it to make this kid laugh?” I think to myself, trying to do silly faces cause that normally gets children to laugh. With Nancy, nothing. Not even a giggle, just this frown of unimpressed. “Hmm…” Krista thought, flicking my ear. I yelped, ears being sensitive, and Nancy gigled. “Thought so.” She said. “Oh come on!” My clone flung his hands into the air. “Infancy, loves to see people hurt. I have some serious concerns here.” “It’s just how we are. Mom used to say when I was a baby I laughed every time dad shot back at the cops, and yes, the cops shot at us with infants in the back.” “All of you worry me...a lot.” My clone shakes his head. “Being reborn as Rarity’s daughter doesn't change anything somehow...ugh this sucks...while other infants would be happy about silly things this infant laughs at pain and suffering.” “She may be yours and Rarity’s daughter now, but she was a Ventral first, and my mom...that’s a sentence I never expected to say.” Kristy said. “There's a lot of sentences a lot of people never thought they could say.” My clone shrugs. “Especially now a days.” “True. So, I’ve been wanting to ask you something.” “And what is that?” My clone asks curiously. “Well, I’ve been working as a maid for you for a bit now and I was wondering...when am I getting paid?” “And what are you going to do with any money I give you?” My clone asks. “When at home you kind of have enough you can just lay back and let life go by.” “I don’t live in your castle. I live in an apartment in town. Kinda been living off of whatever I took when I left Core back when he was a deal.” “What are you talking about? I gave you a room to live in when you started working for me right?” My clone asks, honestly confused as I remembered telling her she had her own room. “Weird...but my memory isn't all that sorted with all the crap I have to deal with…” My clone sighs out, rubbing his temples bitterly. “You did give me a room, but I wanted a place in town. So, whatever I had I packed and found a nice place in town, just a mile or so from work, rather cheap too.” “How much is one platinum bit?” My clone asks. “Everyone normally uses gold so I don't entirely know… “ I say, wondering how much to pay her. “If I remember, one Platinum bit is worth a thousand gold bits, one gold bit is worth a hundred silver bits, one silver bit is worth fifty copper bits, and one copper bit is worth twenty bronze bits, one bronze bits are worth ten iron bits.” “There are a lot of bits.” My clone said while giving her two platinum bits. “This good?” “...Overkill, but hey, not complaining.” Krista said as she took the two bits and pocketed them. “Banks is gonna have a field day.” “Eh.” My clone shrugs. “If they know you work for me they'll buy it.” My clone says. “But...how can I raise Nancy right?” My clone asks Kristy. “She has a new life, but of course she's still a Ventral...I just...want to do right after I screwed up…” My clone says sadly. “Well, her violent tendencies likely will always be there, but, perhaps when she’d older you can redirect it, rather than putting it to bad uses, have her put it to good uses.” “Maybe…” My clone says, my nightmare resurfacing sadly and making me shake my head. “But it'll be a long time before she's old enough…” He says honestly, putting a hand over his left eye. “I just hope she has enough time to grow…” He muttered worriedly. “Well, only one way to find out, right?” “Yeah…” My clone says, hoping everyone will be safe when the war starts. To be continued...
Nobody's council, Joy's journey“First time going to Zebrica...wonder what the country is like?” I wonder to myself, walking around the zeppelin as we were flying off towards said Zebra country. ”I just hope Bara is keeping his word…” I think to myself while heading off to find the ‘training area’ they're using. Finding the training areas wasn’t hard, it was the deck. There was some wind and such blowing, not too strong, and Bara, or Twilight, can’t tell, their helmet is on, was up there working with Coco. “Remember Coco, key to surviving any match is defence, offence, and maneuverability. In a fight, you have to be the hardest thing to get hit.” They charged, Coco dodging the swings that she could, one hit her and she fell, getting back up quickly. “Hey.” I say to the two and walking up. “Busy training I see.” “Yeah.” Coco said. “Twilight says my small, thin frame makes me best suited for dodging and speed.” “True.” I nod. “And I supposed it's just dodging practice right now?” “Yes.” Twilight said...though I am pretty sure she’s speaking for another. “I swing in pattern and randomly, so she can identify how best to avoid the attacks.” “That's good.” I nodded, looking out at the lands we were passing by. “Need any help training if I may ask?” “I think we’re good.” Coco said, starting the match, Twilight/Bara charging, Coco dodging and keeping distance between her and Twilight/Bara. I nodded, continuing to look out over the landscape while glancing over to the two training. ”I'm glad Bara is helping train my family...but…” I mentally trail off, wondering if I should stop them from even being apart of this new war. ”Damn it to hell…” I think to myself worriedly, wishing there was a way to stop this damned war. “What to do, what to do…” I mutter, knowing Den, Cript and Celua are at home because of my clone and Joy is off on an adventure. I looked back to the sparring match. Coco was dodging with impressive speeds, Twilight/Bara increasing their speed, and Coco noticed, increasing her distance from them to keep the advantage. “Hmm…” I hummed, watching the sparring intently and seeing how well Coco was doing at dodging and keeping her distance. “While everyone's training...what am I gonna do?” I mutter to myself not knowing how far the place was where I needed to search for an ancient book. “Ugh...I hate having nothing to do…” I sat on a bench that was bolted to the deck, switching between watching the landscape and the fighting. I began to wonder, is this what life will be like when all the fighting is over? ”I've been so caught up in things to do...I completely forgot the after…” I think to myself. ”When the fightings over...is it just gonna be this? I mean...I'd love to spend time with my family and friends and just be happy...but I've been to caught up in fights…” I think to myself worriedly, not wanting to be someone that wishes for more fighting. I heard someone walk over to me, and when I looked I saw Zecora take a seat next to me. “Greetings love pup, you seem in a rut?” She questioned, wearing something...revealing, but from it’s design it’s likely something from her home land. “Just a bit.” I sigh out. “Seeing Coco and Sparkle there training made me think...what's gonna happen after all the fighting's done?” I ask. “I'd love for the fighting to end but normally I'm off doing something important...I don't want to be someone who wants more fighting…” “Even in times of peace, there are always things that will try and stop the free. There are times I wish I could see, worriers fighting across the seas. A new purpose I have found, in this herd all around.” “Mind telling me some stuff about Zebrica if I may ask?” I ask her curiously. “I've only been to the Dragon Lands, Griffon stone and the Diamond dog capital...I haven't really been to many places around the world." “The sun is always beating, and when the rain falls it’s like the stars are weeping. It is a hard, wild place, but it is home nonetheless.” “Must have been quite a change when you got to Equestria huh?” I ask, feeling like Zebrica and Equestria was like night and day all things considered. “Never before had I seen a land so lush and green, it was a place seen only in dreams. The ponies were hard, at first, but thanks to a kind heart I got my chance to have a fresh start.” “So Zebrica is a desert then?” I ask curiously. “And a kind heart? I presume that was Apple Bloom correct?” I ask. Zecora nodded, remembrance in her expression as she remembered the past. “My home is so large, and vast. It’s secrets are withheld, by shamans of past.” “Fancy.” I smile gently. “But...ever expect to share a husband with royalty?” I ask her. “From...well soon to be all races?” “I think I speak for all when I say that life with you is never dull.” “Would be weird if it was dull when I'm around.” I chuckle. “But...have you been happy with me?” I ask Zecora. “Like...not just physically happy…but...” I trail off, trying to find the proper words here. “I left home for a reason, and that...was an accusation of treason. I got a letter telling me a truth I already knew, innocent I was, but the laws were moved none. I met you and… I can’t even find a rhyme to describe how you make me feel. I was happy, when Bloom made their village realize I was no threat, and when I met you...I placed love as my bet.” I took Zecora's hand and squeezed it gently. “Thank you...but...this act of treason...what happened to cause such a thing?” “It was many moons past, A happy time that was not to last. I was apprentice to the royal sorcerer, and when he died, I was blamed for his murder. His body wreaked of poison, from herbs only he and I had. I took the fall, for a rebel I trusted whole.” “Oh dear…” I say worriedly. “That's...not good. But...how's it feel going back to Zebrica after...all that?” “Like a dying dream revived at last.” “Let's hope the people won't treat you poorly when we get there.” I say. “Your too good to be seen as a traitor.” I smile warmly. “But I like your new...attire.” I bring up. “It is traditional Shaman attire, I figured it would help make our trip a little more...brighter~” She said, stroking a finger across my arm. I blush at that. “Have I ever told any of you how lucky I am to be marrying all of you?” I ask with a smile. Joy was really enjoying adventuring in a world. It had been a month since he agreed to help them, and many new changes showed. His once normally smooth and flat fur was now wild and rough. He even grew some muscles on his arms and legs. “Hey guys! I can see the next island!” Joy calls out to them all as he flew down onto the ships deck, Nami looking up from a map “That looks like the Sabaody Archipelago.” Nami says, rolling up the paper that told her a few things about the island. “I wonder what's gonna be on the new island?” Luffy says in excitement. After a time they finally docked and started looking around the island, bubbles floating above everyone high in the air as the trees went even higher, the crew met plenty of people. While everyone was looking around they heard there was going to be an auction soon at the big auction house. Joy, Luffy Robin, Chopper, and Nami all walked around being led by Hachan, Keimi, and Pappug, but what they found in the middle of the street was really bad. They saw two overly dressed people, a male and a female, standing over a bloodied body, the woman holding a gun towards the downed guy. “And this is what you get for disobeying.” She says while shooting the downed man, who Joy had heard him begging weakly like he was beaten really badly. “Who the hell…?” Joy growls. “Those are Celestial Dragons.” Hachan says. “Don't do anything and leave them alone. They are the most important nobles in the world.” “But he looked strong enough to fight them though…” Luffy points out. “If you hurt any Celestial Dragon, the Admirals themselves will hunt you down.” The starfish, Pappug, warns them. “I've met worse.” Joy growls. “They are three very powerful people with powerful devil fruit powers.” Robin warns. “Still met, and fought, worse.” Joy states, seeing the Celestial Dragons leave. “Let's just...get going.” Hachan says worriedly while the group continue on. The group continued towards a tree with a giant ‘13’ written on it, they met a few bounty hunters wanting to fight, which were easily disposed off, and after that Hachan proceeded to explain why there were twenty nine different trees and what the island had to fully offer before they finally made it to the bar Hachan had talked about. “Oh, hello Hachan.” A black haired woman said to the octopus. “Hello Shakky.” Hachan says happily while Joy and the crew entered the bar. “Everyone, this is Shakuyaku.” “Please, call me Shakky.” She says humbly. “So you must be the infamous Straw Hat pirates huh?” “You know about us?” Luffy asks, somehow thinking this was a shocking revelation. “Yeah, I've been keeping track of your crew, especially you Luffy. When I used to be a pirate old man Garp use to hunt me down sometimes.” She chuckled. “But your new, who might you be?” “Names Joy.” Joy nodded with a smile. “Nice to meet you.” She nodded. “Is Raleigh here Shakky?” Hachan asks curiously. “Still a big no on that.” She sighs out, cleaning out a mug. “Then we'll wait for him then.” Luffy says, thinking he's got this sorted out. “That wouldn't be good either. He's been gone for half a year roaming from bar to casino all across the island.” She shook her head. “Well looks like we've got to look around for the guy.” Joy says simply. “That wouldn't be a good idea either.” Shakky says. “See there are a lot of dangerous people here above Luffy’s current one.” “There are people with over a hundred million berries!?!” Chopper gasps in shock. “Yes, and to name a few you have the Surgeon of Death, Traffalgar Law, who's bounty is two hundred million, Eustass ‘Captain’ Kid, with a bounty of three hundred and fifteen million, the Magician Basil Hawkins, with a bounty of two hundred and forty nine million, and ‘the Roar of the Sea’ Scratchman Apoo with a one hundred and ninety eight million beri bounty. Just to name a few.” She explains. “Damn.” Joy says simply. “Quite the competition.” “But remember, everything past this point is where nothing but the best of the best can go.” She tells them. “No need to worry, but what I am worried about is Rayleigh.” Luffy says, causing Shakky to chuckle at that. “Oh the old man will be fine. No need to worry, besides he's a hundred times stronger than all the rookies here.” She says with a knowing grin. “Okay…” My clone muttered. “What to do today?” He wonders, having gone back home after a nice day at the park. “Wait...didn't Joy send people here?” My clone mutters worriedly, thinking about what they're probably doing at the moment. As he walked into the castle’s second living room, he saw a man sitting on one of the couches there, Skysplitter at his side, my clone could feel it, though, it was not different in appearance. The man looked up, hair white, wearing a black cloak with a blue design along the right arm. “Oh, hi. I’m Vergil, the… This,” He said, picking up Skysplitter. “This things wielder.” “That weapon is called Skysplitter.” My clone says. “It's nice to meet you Vergil, I presume my brother Joy brought you here?” He asks. “Your broth- Oh, Oh. Your Highness.” He said, getting up and bowing. “Please, no need to bow.” My clone says sheepishly. “But I'm not the king yet, I'm the heir...but it is rather important I have my court before I become king, understand?” My clone asks him, knowing Vergil was smart and could probably understand why. “Yes, um. So, shall I assist in finding the others that are here so far?” “Who else is here if I may ask?” My clone asks curiously. “And let's both look for them cause I know the layout of my house and...let's hope they aren't doing something stupid…” My clone says worriedly. Vergil nodded as he and I walked through the halls. In the dining room my clone spotted a mare I haven’t actually met before...Trixie. She was flipping the cards around and eating some cake. “Oh, hello Trixie.” My clone said. “I see Joy gave you Fair Game.” He says while pointing to the card. “Oh, yeah. It’s weird, but neat. I haven’t done card tricks in years, but these cards likely do more than simple tricks, huh?” “You’ll learn plenty.” My clone says. “Met Vergil yet? And...anyone else Joy might have brought here?” “I did meet his brother, and some emo chick, they were in the library.” “If you would Trixie, please make your way to the second living room. I believe the future king has some words he’d like to say.” Vergil said, Trixie shrugging as she got up and left. “Now to find the others that Joy sent here.” My clone says while leading Vergil to the library the two were probably in. “So, what do you think of my house?” “It’s large, reminds me of the house my brother an I grew up in. Whatever memories I do have, they’re all fuzzy and such.” “Sometimes things become fuzzy when you try to remember your childhood.” My clone says. “But...what's Your relationship with your brother? Friendly, hate each other, or just got back together?” “Tense...At first we got along good after we found each other, then we killed the demon who killed our mother and imprisoned our father to eternal torture, then when it was over we fought. I believe humanity on my world needed a firm hand to guide them, they don’t exactly have the best track record when given true freedoms. We fought, and he won, almost killed me if it wasn’t for Kat, a friend of ours. When I was getting away after he let me go, that is when your brother found me.” “Considering your half demon and angel I can kind of see why.” My clone says, having noticed the special energies swirling around Vergil and could tell it was demonic and angelic. “Nephilim, and yes. My brother and I are the last and only of our kind in centuries. To be honest I half expected me to lose. Dante was the fighter, stronger, and did all the work while I hid in the background. I have my own strengths, but Dante is...stronger. By far.” “Physical strength doesn't mean everything.” My clone says. “Sure he can overpower you, but could you tell me you couldn't beat him in a test of skill?” “Skills I had, Dante didn’t tap into his true powers til after I found him. I had years ahead of him, and he still beat me. In a test of intelligence it’s no problem, but strength and skill...Dante just has a way of overcoming the odds.” “I'm gonna need to test all of you on base stuff…” My clone mutters before stepping up to the library doors and opened them. “Hello?” “Huh?” Said a female voice, a girl, holding the Lexicon and a guy with short white hair, a sandwich in his mouth, looked over from the other side of bookshelves. They walked out. “Oh, hello. You must be Ben. I’m Kat, and this is Dante.” “Sup” He said, the sandwich still in his mouth as he raised up the Sharpshooters, which now had an angelic and demonic design to each. “Looks like you got Sharpshooters and you got Book of Retribution.” My clone says to the two. “But sorry to disturb your reading time but have you seen anyone else around here that Joy might have sent here?” “Think I saw a black and purple ninja, bald guy and Cyborg in the backyard...and there’s a sentence I never thought I’d say.” Kat said, shaking her head. “Is there a meeting?” “Yes, second Living Room.” Vergil confirmed, Kat and Dante walking passed us, Dante whacking his brother on the side of the head as he passed. “Gonna need to chill on the hate here Dante.” My clone says to Dante bluntly. “Yeah yeah.” He said as he left the room into the hall. “Can you blame him really?” Vergil asked. “He’s been alone for years, finds out the truth, that he has family...and I try and pull what I did. I convinced him we were fighting for humanity...when I had him fighting to make room for a better king.” “We all do stupid stuff when we want to do something right.” My clone says simply. “And to be perfectly honest, if you were saving humanity from something in power, than the obvious thing would be to put in a new person in charge so a power vacuum doesn't suddenly cause massive destruction.” My clone shrugs while heading off to the backyard. “Come on, we need to find the rest.” I say to Vergil. “But...you saw Joy right? The innocent little pup that looked like he should be out with friends rather than being my personal bodyguard right?” “Yes. He is young, and small, but there is great power within him.” “He...wanted me to kill him once…” My clone says sadly. “He was corrupted by Darkness...and just wanted me to end his pain...so while your family issues are understandable...mine are a lot harsher…” “To each their own I suppose.” Vergil said as we headed out to the backyard, finding Genos, Saitama, and Sonic all messing around in it. Saitama was laying in the grass, Sonic was hanging upside down in a tree, and Genos was staring at flowers. “Hey guys.” My clone calls out to the three. “What are you all doing?” I ask the three simply. “Nothin much.” Saitama said. “Enjoying the feeling of nature?” He asked the three. “I grew up in a town much like the one nearby.” Genos said. “Same.” Sonic said. “I was born and raised in the city. It’s not bad, but it gets boring.” Saitama said. “There is a meeting in the second living room.” Vergil announced Genos and Sonic nodding. “I shall be back Master.” Genos said. “Take your time.” Saitama waved, not getting up or even moving. “We’ll have a sparring match after the meeting okay?” My clone asks him, feeling like Saitama just wants a good fight. “Sure. Sounds fun.” The yellow clad hero said, getting a good idea of how strong I ask just from the simple conversation. “Alright.” My clone nodded before turning around and heading off to start the meeting. It was a quick walk, my clone and Vergil made our ways to the second living room, everyone was present and accounted for. Even Luxu was here. “Hello everyone.” My clone said to them all. “So, starting off simple...I'm gonna be your new King, as my brother Joy probably already told you.” My clone starts off. “How many people have actually heard of the King or Nothingness if I may ask?” My clone asked them, knowing Luxu knew possibly everything about this. “Just Vergil and I.” Kat said. “Here, the Lexicon can explain more.” She said, the book floating out of her hands and into the center of the room. It opened, and a holographic image of an armored man, his armor much like the No Heart enemy, but with a faint glow in the helmets visor. “From what I know, he has lived forever, yet is unknown when he was born. The only fact there is about him is that he and his thirteen council members reside within an alternate version of the void, a place not outside of everything, but rather between it all.” “Nothingness.” My clone says, putting out a hand and a ball of nothingness thorns formed. “I've heard from the old man once before...but that was a rare case.” My clone sighed out while dismissing the ball. “So, Joy told you about all your jobs?” My clone asks everyone but Luxu. ”Maybe I should have prepared a list of things to talk about…” I think to myself worriedly. When they all nodded my clone sighed out. “Okay...so how many of you actually know how to use said weapons?” “I’ve been using things like this my whole life, it shouldn’t take me long to learn these special ones.” Sonic said. “Fire is part of my combat abilities, weaponized flamethrowers and the ability to ignite the air around my palms was part of my new design. These chakrams shouldn’t take me too long to figure out.” Genos said. “Been using guns my whole life, shouldn’t be too hard to point and fire these.” Dante said. “Magic is a specialty of mine, and this book itself has notes on best how to use it. I can figure it out.” Kat said. “So that just leaves Trixie, Luxu, and myself as being sub-par in our new weapons.” Vergil said. “Alright then. Good thing I'm going to be seeing how well all of you are in combat with your specific weapons.” My clone says with a nod. “So, any specific questions from any of you? Any at all?” “I got one.” Dante said, walking up to me. “Aside from being this, heir or whatever, what rights do you have to be king? I doubt you’re related to this old king, so why are you the heir?” I pulled out Memory Stealer and took a deep breath. “Memories past.” My clone mutters, the room seeming to shift for everyone...before they heard a weak heartbeat, the room looking like one half was perfectly fine but the other...was completely blank and covered in black cracks. “This used to be my heart. A half dead husk after years of abandoning my emotions after my parents died. This, along with my powers over Nothing...made the king take notice.” My clone explains. “Then, after a test where...I saved my little brother Joy.” My clone says while the scene shifted and changed to what looked like a children's playground, filled with kids playing happily. “My heart became whole, and all my emotions finally came back to enjoy life again.” He says, what looked like a human version of Joy running past me with a few other kids playing tag. “This moment made the king know I was right to be the heir.” My clone says while the scene shifted again to the pitch black gate with all thirteen weapons over it and a heart in the middle. “A True King needs a Heart to rule.” He states, the group seeing what looked like a pure white figure standing off to the side as if he was watching his journey. “Good enough for you Dante?” My clone asks, Luxu being able to tell the figure was the King as the scene faded back to them being in the living room, disbanding Memory Stealer. “For now. Just don’t go mad with power, I already killed a demon king, a king of nothingness...You’ll be going down with me. So, what’s the plan for now?” “My plan right now?” My clone asks. “That depends, are we talking about right now plans for future plans?” “Right now, I mean, there’s a war going to happen, just thirteen people and a to-be king can’t really fight and expect to survive it.” “I...don't entirely know if it's true or not, but when I can technically open the gates of purgatory and have them all fight with us at a moment's notice or something I think it's gonna be fine.” My clone says simply. “Plus, three friends of mine are out and about looking for others like them...and hopefully have them join us.” My clone says. “But one thing I have planned is to try and help train you all to become a lot stronger than you already are...with help from Luxu here.” “A secondary weapon for us all also has to be a Keyblade. This up and coming war will be like the last, but also different. It will be fought with them, yet new advancements I have seen will change the way this new war will be fought.” Luxu lifted up a hand, in it between his index finger and thumb was a bullet. “For example, this bullet is infuzed with darkness, strong enough to force a Keyblade to disband when hit. Core made a lot of new and...terrifying technologies, but I have a feeling Spoiled has twice the...imagination, so her part in this fight will be bad.” “And when we actually step foot into the castle a whole new world of tech can and will be developed and made better.” My clone says. “But let me ask...what's the worst calamity any of you have seen?” “Just before Joy found us,” Vergil started. “Our world was being puppeteered by a demon king named Mundus. He drew power from a hell gate, which while it was open, he was immortal. We closed it, fought him… The entire city was leveled.” “I found some survivors. Worlds going nuts cause not earth and Purgatory fell into each other so now demons can affect humans more than just mentaily or souls wise.” Dante added. “On my world, city to global wide catastrophes happen several times a year or month.” Genos said. “Most recent was an alien invasion, before than some fish man invasion, and before than it was a giant meteor.” Sonic added. “All of which master Saitama prevented, or at least, lessened.” “The manhattan incident…” Trixie said. “...The Keyblade war.” Luxu said. Everyone turned to look at him. “Imagine how bad hell must be...and immagine wanting to be there rather than in that war...this second one...will make the first one look like child's play.” “Correct.” My clone says. “This war will rip apart time and space on a grander scale. So all of you must be prepared to fight in this bloody war…” “I have a question.” Trixie said. “Yes Trixie?” My clone asked. “Are we all going to have to wear cloaks like yours?” She asked. “Probably, but I'd rather get Rarity and Coco’s professional opinion on that cause...well there better and that kind of stuff than me.” My clone explains simply. “Anything else?” My clone asks curiously. There was silence. “I guess that wraps up this meeting. Perhaps a weekly meeting sessions would be best to keep us all on topic.” Vergil suggested. “Yes.” My clone nodded. “But something I want to do is test all of your abilities and strengths.” My clone says. “And there is a good sparring area.” My clone says honestly. “Follow me, might as well start with training cause we have...not that much time…” My clone sighs out, heading off to the training area. ”This isn’t going to go well, this war...How bad will it be?” I think to myself worriedly, scared of what's gonna happen soon. ”Should...should I let my family join this fight? Wait why am I even contemplating that? They shouldn't have to be apart of this!” I think to myself, not wanting the ones I love to be in this massacre. To be continued... Author's Note Hey guys, so yes Joy is in One Piece world and I will try to stick to the actual source but it'll sadly be more...generalized And things will be missed out cause I'm not perfect...it's gonna be a long story
Nobody's inner discovery, Joy's TalkI was running. My breath was heavy as I ran through the battlefield. The war had begun and everything fell into chaos. I passed John, fighting off a Darkside, the Foretellers, fighting off Daybreak soldiers, and as I looked up atop a cliffside I saw Zeke, standing above all this, the X-blade in hand and Kingdom Hearts in the sky behind him, hearts floating up to it in the sky almost like stars. “God damn it…” I growl. “Why is this fucking happening? And why aren't you doing anything to try and stop this!?!” I shout at Zeke, hating how he's just standing there and staring at everyone killing each other for no reason. I saw him walk away as I got on my glider and up to the cliff. When I got off my eyes widened. Zeke sat on a throne, around him were the pale corpses of his family, and next to him was his Nobody, Drezke, and his Psychopath Light half. Zeke sat on that throne like he owned the world. I clenched my fists and growled. “Zeke….what the fuck is wrong with you!?! Your family lays dead, and your just sitting there like you rule the fucking world!?! Where do you get off on thinking you rule when your the cause of this fucking war!?!” I bark, drawing Reunion and the other weapons I've mastered and ready to beat the shit out of him. He raised a hand, snapping his fingers as my own shadow rose up from the ground. Then, his Psychopath light half snapped it’s fingers, his family’s corpses all rising up, blades formed from their own blood forming in their hands. I growled, Nothingness swirling around me in my anger. “So...you really think you can do this without anyone fighting back?” I ask, shifting to Master Form. “Well...I'm not gonna just stand around and let you pull this shit!” I bark while grabbing Skysplitter and bolting forward, knocking my shadow away in my anger and rushing after Zeke. He grabbed Skysplitter with one hand, looking me dead in the eyes as he broke it’s blade off, and rammed it through my chest. I coughed as it was rammed through my chest, before Foudre was sparking with electricity. “Arc Flash!” I shout, Skysplitter vanishing as a massive arc bolt shot at Zeke, hoping to hurt the fucker. When the lightning faded he sat there unaffected, his eyes flashed yellow as the sky darkened. I looked up, seeing Kingdom Hearts blue tone fade, and turn black. When I looked back at Zeke, his skin was gold, and his hair was blue, and his eyes. Heartless yellow. “From darkness, the first heart was born, and to it, all hearts return. Time to end this Cycle.” He said, reaching into my chest and pulling out my own heart. “Time to end our father.” He said, crushing it in his hand. My heart turning to sparks of light as it faded away. I stared as my heart faded away, my emotions going haywire as the scent of blood, the sound of death, and just this whole thing was going down hill so fast. “So…” I start, my left eye turning back to an Insanity again, and I could just feel it. “This...is your decision?” I ask, my voice monotone as I grabbed Zeke by the neck. “You made a grAvE mIstAKE!!” I tell him. Then, his Psychopath light grabbed my forehead. ”Worthless mutt.” He said, squeezing as my head cracked, and everything went black. “Gah!” I bark, bolting up in bed and panting heavily. “Damn…” I mutter, covering my left eye in fear of what I could become. “Another…?” I mutter worriedly. ”I'm gonna have to ask Cript about...that...I don't want to become a monster…” I think to myself in fear. I quietly got out of bed and got dressed, ready for the day but hating everything else. “Well...time to start the day…” I mutter while walking out, my cloak hung over my shoulder as I walked towards the kitchen to get something to eat. I entered the kitchen and got myself some cereal, thinking about my nightmare and how I wish it wouldn't happen. “Can't...things go back to being simple?” I mutter, wishing this damned war wasn't gonna happen. “Wonder if we're close to where the book is?” I wonder, eating my cereal and thinking about what might happen to get said book. After finishing breakfast I went out to the deck of the Zeppelin, hoping some fresh air will help clear my head. I took a deep breath, feeling a bit shaky from that nightmare. “Greetings.” I looked to my side, Bara in control walked up, and leaned against the rails, looking at the landscape. “You're up early.” “Nightmares…” I sigh out. “This...damned war is bugging the hell out of me...and this was the second nightmare…” I shook my head. “But you should know about the nightmares of the war, I saw you nearly kill Discord and Celestia and Luna’s parents.” I frown. “Yeah. It was a darkness infused Mega Flare. Worked as I expected. Still, that's not the event that haunts me.” Bara said, gaining my attention. “And what does haunt you? Lose someone dear to you? Lost so much information?” I ask him simply. “My daughter…” Bara said, trailing off. “Well, she wasn't actually my daughter. She was a local orphan, she'd just break into my lab and try and read my notes. After the tenth time I just accepted the little spitfire wasn't leaving anytime soon.” “Faust and her husband lost their son as well.” I tell him. “I saw it...and I held his Reunion and Wayfinder...are you sure this training will help my wives live through this war?” I ask, my voice sounding like I was wishing this event won't happen at all. “It's the attacks and methods I did that got me through it. But the hard part is still to come.” “Actually putting them through some simulation of it?” I ask, my voice dripping with sadness at the thought. “Not exactly. You saw me train Coco in her speed and agility, defence will be next. It will be brutal.” “What do you know about Psychopaths?” I ask him gently, changing the subject to...something important. “Insanities specifically…” “Let's see...damn that was a while ago… Insanities are a failed Psychopath host. They are compatible but for one reason or another they don't connect to the hive mind properly, the failing to connect turns then into broken, insane, hence the name, abominations really. They are way weaker than a Psychopath, but way more unpredictable. They can still end universes, but they are often just either put on leashes or put down by Psychopaths. They are like cancer to Psychopaths, in their mind, it's best to put it down if it isn't worth anything to them.” I put a hand over my left eye. “And...is it possible for an Insanity to suddenly become a Psychopath somehow?” I ask, hating how I'm apart of this damned thing. “Yes. Though, it can only happen if they are infused with some Psychopath blood, the connection will retry. If it works, they become a Psychopath, if not, they die.” “Goody…” I mutter bitterly. “You probably know why I'm asking this huh?” I ask him, knowing how smart Bara is. “Yup. Question is, how are you not either dead or murdering anything with a heartbeat?” “My family, my friends...and my Humanity.” I say, looking over and my left eye showed as an Insanity. “I can tell when my left eye looks like that...there are no whispers or anything like that...but I can still feel it...and I'm scared...if I take a single misstep...everything I hold dear to me will just…” I trail off, not wanting to finish the thought. “Well, everyone has their demons. Wanna know how I deal with mine?” “Looking in a mirror and saying ‘I am what I am’?” I ask him, blinking and my left eye went back to normal. “Sex, research, and about a gallon of vodka a day.” They said, tossing me a bottle. “I got immune to it in my old body, so it's nice to feel drunk again in this one.” I grabbed the bottle. “I think I'm gonna need something stronger but thanks.” I nod while opening the bottle and taking a swig of some of it. “Well...right now we're getting closer to this book the Zebra king wants found.” “Seems so. So, want some endurance training?” They asked, downing half the bottle on one go. “Your in a married woman's body dude, come on.” I joke with a small smile. “Heh, not like that. It's old union methods.” They said, downing the other half of the bottle and throwing it over the Zeppelin edge. “Might help you out later on.” “Okay then. So, what is this endurance training?” I ask curiously. “Simple. It's a barrage or spells cast by me, and you have to endure them as long as possible unarmed. I start off with weak spells and as you begin to stand them better, I go a rank up.” “Sure.” I nod. “But just to warn you...I may be highly resistant to magic.” I say, not really knowing my magic resist here. “Well, you are a wolf man, so ice magic won't do much likely, so we will start off with fire.” Bara said, Twilight’s Keyblade appearing in their hand and pointed at me. “Fire!” The cast, the fire ball hit me. Ouch! “Okay.” I say, having suffered worse pains than this. “Continue.” I say while bracing for it now. “Fire!” They cast, the spells coming without any seeming end. My arms were losing their fur, my sleeves gone long ago. “Well….good thing I'm not wearing my cloak...Rarity would be pissed…” I mutter, enduring the pain of the fire. “I’m going a rank up.” Bara warned. “Fira!” Bara cast, a larger ball of fire shot towards me. The impact was worse, but bearable. “Again.” I tell him bluntly. “I can take anything you can throw at me.” I say, knowing this won't amount to the pain I felt in my nightmares. “You sure?” Bara asked. “When you’ve been forced to see your family die in brutal ways and you not being able to do anything about it, I think this is child's play.” I tell him. “I told them all...I would give my life for them...and always be there to protect them…” “Alright. This is my strongest, normal spell.” She said, floating as five large balls of fire appeared around them. “Tracing Balloon Flare!” They spun and all the oversized mega flares came at me. The heat scorched me, I felt all my fur burn off and my clothes too. The heat was insane. My body wanted to fall over, but I kept myself standing. I growled, enduring the pain that was thrown at me. “This pain...if it's something everyone I care about doesn't have to endure…” I say, gritting my teeth from the pain as I still stood. “Impressive.” Bara said, walking up to me. “Even my union leader would be on a knee after that.” “I'll deal with any pain as long as my family is safe.” I say. “So, that's it?” I ask, grabbing a potion and hoping it will bring my fur back so I don't have to wait for it to grow. “Still. So… you're like what? Seven inches?” Bara asked pointing down... my clothes were burned off... I roll my eyes and grab my unburned cloak and put it on, zipping it up to cover myself. “Good thing we packed clothes.” I mutter. “And...more like nine…normally.” I say, kind of embarrassed by this but not really caring. “Wow. No wonder you landed all those mares.” Bara chuckled. “It was mostly due to me being the White Knight of Equis and all.” I shrug. “Being a world wide hero does help you get a girlfriend sometimes. But that's not important.” I shook my head. “But I better get some new clothes on before heading down into the forest looking for the book.” “Fine. But before you go, can you do something for me?” “What is it?” I ask curiously. Bara grabbed me by my cloaks collar, and...kissed me… my brain didn't register what happened until it was over….there were tears in Bara’s eyes? “Heh, ignore those, that's just Twilight throwing a hissy fit.” Bara said, wiping them off. “Still can't accept facts. Zeke's gone.” “No Zeke's back...he just calls himself Kexez now...and is a total asshole for some reason.” I frown. Bara chuckled. “You mean his Nobody?” I nodded. “Heh. He is a Balanced being, his heart, light and darkness, and his body, mind, soul. Everything about his existence is in perfect balance. And now, his dark half is running wild, and his body, like his dark half, can't be guided by his heart. It's acting on all it knows. A lifetime of violence, and the blood that makes his eyes red flowing through him again.” “But what about the parts for his friends and family?” I ask. “You can't just forget important things like that.” “Only something with a heart can love. Can care. When Kexez escaped Purgatory, triggering this second Keyblade war, an...after image of his heart was within him, but it is rapidly fading. Soon, he can look his infants in the eyes and end them, and feel nothing. There's two ways to deal with him before that happens, cause remember Ben, he has the blood in him again, and all they really need is his body.” “I know…” I sigh out bitterly. “Lets...just hope we’re not too late.” I shook my head while looking over, seeing our designation coming up. “Right, I'd better get dressed before heading down there. Wonder what this book has in it that's so special?” I wonder before chugging a potion and feeling better, my fur surprisingly growing back healthily somehow. “Well, we are approaching the location of that book, go get dressed stud.” “Get your own body first Bara.” I frown before heading off back to my room to get changed. After I got dressed in some new clothes we finally got to our first destination in Zebrica. The rumored location of the book. It was a mountainous valley, and the only trail lead into a cave the Zeppelin parked, er, stopped and floated over. “Many stories are told about the cave that devours souls.” Zecora said, shivering at the cave below us. “Heartless are probably down there.” I say simply. “But the cave won't steal any of your souls, I'm here and all of you have gotten stronger.” I explain, ready to drop down and look for the book. I jumped down, and saw next to me Luna land as I did. “You are not going in there alone, and if you say no, Sweetie Belle told me about that special collar that turned Joy into a zombie, so you've been warned.” Luna said with a wink. I rolled my eyes. “You wish you could put a collar on me.” I say simply. “The collar is for me, the hormones that drive canines mad with lust that it releases are for you~” She cooed, walking into the cave. “All of you are insatiable…” I shook my head while walking into the cave as well. “But your gonna follow me anyways so what else can I do?” When we entered the cave my canine sense went wild, a foul unnatural stench filled the air, along with a rotten putrid aroma, like a long dead creature. “If my memory serves, Starswirl investigated this cave himself, and barely escaped it's legendary beast.” Luna said, covering her nose to try and keep the stench at bay. I zipped up my cloak all the way so I could breathe properly without smelling death. “Well...it's either something that just smells like crap, or it's an undead...what did Starswirl say about this legendary beast?” “He said when he entered a section of the cave where corpses that looked as if all the life had been drained from them, his lantern went out, and something slashed him. He cast a single spell at is as he ran out, and he said it was a beast made of evil and corpses, with a snake length tongue that had a tooth at it's tip. When he showed me the scar it gave him...he was lucky, any closer and he would have lost his arm.” “Hmm…” I hum, summoning Reunion and keeping it at the ready. “Now while I would say this is something trying to become Legion I doubt it…” I say worriedly. “Quite an interesting monster…” “If it is a heartless, it's unlike any he recorded in his travels.” She said, the darkness of the cave peaking. Tunk! “Owe!” Luna yelped. “I think I stubbed my toe on a rock.” Luna said, feeling around for it. “Where are, got ya you...you...lantern?” She questioned, using her magic to ignite the candle on it. She then looked at it, rubbing the dirt off of a side of it. “It...it was Starswirl’s...his name is on it…” We looked forward, and before us was a large opening, a pile of mummified corpses filling it to what had to be a ten feet high ceiling. “By the stars…” Luna said wide eyed. I gripped Reunion hard as light swirled around it. “Photon!” I shout, lifting my keyblade up as a ball of pure light encircled a part of the mound of corpses. “May the light give your bodies rest.” I say before it crushed down, destroying the corpses so they wouldn't be used by this undead ever again. “You need to get out of here Luna, now.” I growl, looking around for where the monster could be. “How did Jenny put it...like hell I am.” Luna deadpanned. There was then a monstrous growl from where the light didn't reach. Slowly, walking into view came a large, feral beast that was a mass of darkness, skeletons adorned it's backside, arms, legs, rib cages. It's face was two skulls, their mouths open to be it's eyes as it's jaw hung loosely while a long scalded tongue slithered out, a dagger like bone at it's tip. My assistant flashed, it's hp bar showing as well as its name. Seven hp bars, name...The Fallen. “The Fallen…” I mutter, summoning Frozen Pride and standing in front of Luna, prepared to fight this thing. “Gonna be an interesting fight.” I growl, before rushing forward and slashing at the undead. Before my hit can land it jumped back, bouncing off the wall behind it and ramming me before it's toungue tooth scratched my face. Luna managed to get it with a Zentenzukan, it jumping off me and chasing her. “Ben, I saw it, on its belly! It's a Heartless, it has the symbol!” She yelled. I saw the Heartless chase Luna, my nightmares of her being attacked by a monster making me...kind of snap to be honest. “Don't you fucking dare hurt my Luna!” I roar, bolting and stabbing the thing in the side in the blink of an eye. “Holy Lance!” I shout, five lances of light stabbing into the Heartless as well. It roared in pain. When the attack hit it, the wound I made it it shined bright, like a… “Ben...that thing… it has a Keyhole in it!” Luna yelled, the beast’s eyes widening, shaking and tossing me aside as it ran towards the caves deepest pits. “A...Keyhole?” I mutter. “How in the hell? Ugh, not important at the moment, we need to find it and either kill it or figure out how to get the keyhole out of it.” “Ben...what if the Keyhole in it...is Equestria's?” Luna asked. “I know the heartless can feed off of them...but to swallow one?” “It's probably why it's strong and looks like that…” I say, keeping my face away from Luna as the sudden rush of anger and fear for Luna’s safety turned my left eye again. “But we need to find it, and get the keyhole out of it...and hey maybe we can also find the book as well.” “That is why we are here.” Luna nodded, the both of us chasing the thing down the cave. Finally, we came across a torchlit room. The heartless wasn't around, but there was a stone coffin in the center, an emblem with a hood with wings and a horn on it. “That's...the old symbol of the alicorns. Mother and father showed it to me a long time ago…” Luna said, walking up to the coffin. “Careful.” I say, looking around the room. “Something feels off here.” Luna looked at the coffin, and with some effort, pushed the lid off. The top fell on the ground, and Luna’s eyes went wide. “Well... it's an alicorn…” I walked up to it, the long dead alicorn was in Keyblade armor, in one hand was the book, and the other, a Keychain. “Well...this is what we came here for...sorry.” I say while gently taking the book and keychain. “What... something doesn't add up. A heartless that swallowed a Keyhole, and an alicorn tomb in Zebra lands… something isn't right at all.” “I don't know...but maybe this book has some answers.” I say while gently opening the book to see if it had anything important here. I opened the book, the language it was written in was...unknown to me, but thankfully my Assistant was translating it to English before my very eyes. The Book of Nothingness. Vol. XVIX: Spells and Enchanting. I blinked at reading that. “Huh…” I say while flipping the page, wondering what the book had to say about Nothingness. “Well...they were right saying this had something important in it.” Spells, a basic introduction. To those with basic knowledge of Nothingness and it's capabilities, Twilight Thorns (the grey, black and white vines, not the Sentinels) are the most basic way Nothingness can enter the realms of light and darkness. By themselves they harm anything with a heart, but this is just their basic form and use. If attuned properly, they can be used to infuse Nothingness into spells, such as fire, magnet, thunder, and blizzard. “Interesting.” I mutter while closing the book and putting it in my pocket, before changing Reunion out for the new keychain to see what it was. My eyes widened. Rather than a blade, it was a bow. The grip was the center and the bows body was like stained glass, the string was a faint light. “Well that's new.” Luna deadpanned. I checked my Assistant, knowing it could tell me things I had in my inventory so it could probably tell me the new bow I had equipped. “It works like a game, so it should tell me what I have equipped…” I mutter to myself, hoping to find out something about this bow. Name: Guardian of Hope. Att: 8 Def: 3 Mag: 12 Special ability: Monochrome. Casts Stop spell on targets (30%) This Key’blade’ was one of the rare Key-armaments. Forged not long after the X-blade, it was a prototype in weapons against the darkness. While all it's abilities are the same as a Keyblade, it's design was scrapped for the Keyblades we know today. “Huh...that's interesting.” I say while holding the bow properly. “A Key-Armament, I can kind of see why they stuck with the original Keyblade idea.” I say honestly. “But it does look cool though.” I point out before changing back to Reunion. “Mind if I have it?” Luna asked. “I was quite fond or archery years ago.” “Sure.” I nodded while handing Guardian of Hope’s keychain to Luna. “Its special ability is that it has a thirty percent chance of casting stop on anything this thing hits.” I explain. “Cool.” Luna said, equipping it immediately. There was a growl from behind us. We looked and saw the Fallen enter, it looked...pissed we were here. Its tongue slid back into its mouth, and then it's throat opened wide, a bright light shining as a beam shot at us. We dodged, and the beam hit the wall. We looked, it was a clean cut through easy a mile of dense rock, daylight shining from the other side of the new hole. “Well…” I start. “Thats...a thing.” I say before looking at the Fallen. “Are you this Alicorns guardian?” I ask it, knowing it was smart enough to have emotions and it seemed rather upset we were here for some reason or another. “Or are you just a random Heartless here?” I ask the Fallen, ready to fight it if need be. It snarled, walking slowly towards us. Luna drew the bow’s string back, an arrow of light appearing once it was all the way back. “Thundaga!” She cast, the arrow changing to pure electricity as she fired, the arrow striking the Fallen as it screamed from the attack. It shook it off, and continued it’s slow walk. I looked at the beast. “Your not a normal heartless…” I mutter, taking a step towards the coffin where the Alicorn was to test something. I summoned a ball of Twilight Thorns and held it above the coffin, wondering if it would react to me holding something above the Alicorns dead body. It paused, standing deathly still. “Your smart for a heartless, and you also have the light of a Keyhole inside of you.” I say, staring at the skeletal heartless. “Can you understand us?” I ask the Heartless. “Bark once for yes, bark twice for no.” It growled. Eyes narrowed. ”The book and Guardian are yours to take, leave him and me alone.” It said, speaking...in my head… Telepathy? “We will.” I nod. “But...I do have some questions if it's alright to ask.” I say to the Heartless. “I've never seen or heard of a heartless like you, or the fact you have such a powerful light inside of you...what or who are you?” ”This world is unique, tied to the light in such a way, it’s strong in both the land and its inhabitants. So much so, the Keyhole of this world is not within a location, but in fact, in the heart of a special inhabitant, reborn immediately upon the old ones death.” “So that's why you have such a light.” I say, honestly surprised about that. “I...suppose the Alicorn held the Keyhole before you?” I ask it, finding this very interesting. ”No, he was my guardian, stayed here when the Keyblade war broke out, and died, for only an alicorn can be my guardian. To keep the Keyhole within my heart safe, I fell into the darkness, the light keeping my mind sane, but the darkness still has its ways of turning me beastial.” “Do you want to be stuck down here for an eternity? Or...do you want to come with us and we can help you regain yourself, or at least stem the tide of darkness inside you?” I ask the Heartless carefully, wanting to help it. ”For my true self to be achieved, an alicorns oath of service I must attain.” “Luna…” I start. “Mind if I ask you to...swear an oath of service to protect Equis’s Keyhole?” I ask her, motioning to the Heartless. “Wait...if she does this...does she have to stay here?” I ask the Fallen worriedly. ”Wherever I go, she must follow. Failure to be within my sight, she will pay the price of life.” “Oh...uh…” I trail off, scared of losing Luna. “I don't want to lose Luna…” I say, my nightmares coming up and seeing Luna die again. “Oh god…” I mutter, shaking as I try to stave off my growing panic. “Uh...Luna...did Fallen also talk to you?” I ask, trying to distract myself from my worry and fear. “Yes… I accepted.” “What?!” I yelled, Luna’s right hand glowing bright as a Keyhole tattoo appeared on it, the Fallen began glowing bright, it’s shape fading as now, asleep on the ground, laid a...kid? A Zebra child, at least seven. They were adorned with white robes and a crown that looked like that of a Keyhole. “Uh...what?” I ask, raising an eyebrow and seeing the child. “I...suppose that's a thing…” I say while walking over to the kid and kneeling down and gently picking up the sleeping child. “Okay...back to the Zeppelin?” I whisper to Luna. “Ubani, ungubani?” The child spoke sleepily. “Oh.” I mutter, wondering if the little kid was waking up. “Uh...does Zebrica have its own separate language?” I ask Luna quietly. “Yes, while many now speak in Equis, there are those who still speak the old language and it only, while most others speak both Zalu, the old Zebra language, and Equis.” “Oh dear…” I say worriedly. “Well...good to know cause I have no idea what this little kid said.” I say, not sure if the zebra was a boy or a girl. “I suppose you know how to speak Zalu?” I ask, hoping to learn how to speak other languages. “No, but Celestia or Zecora must.” Luna said. “Even back when, Celestia was the one to handle foreign parties.” “Makes sense.” I nodded, carrying the Zebra child carefully like a father would. “Alright, let's get back. The others are gonna need some explanation on why we suddenly brought this little kid with us out of a tomb.” I say simply, not sure if I should go first or if I should go second because I don't want Luna hurt, but just shook my head and headed out so we could get out of here. It was a silent walk back to the Zeppelin, when we got up to it, Celestia and Zecora took the child, the three talking in Zalu while I spoke with Luna. “So...what does it feel like to have the oath?” I ask Luna curiously. “Strange… Ever since becoming me again and being freed from Nightmare Moon, I always had this...darkness lingering, but now it feels far away. “ She lifted up her hand, looking at the tattoo on it. “This mark… just looking at it I feel warmth.” “You are the guardian of Equis’s Keyhole, so it would make sense that you feel better.” I say simply. “And...as long as you're okay…” I trail off, putting a hand over my left eye. “That’s...that’s all I can ask for…” “I’ll be fine Ben.” Luna said, elbowing me. “Okay.” I nod. “Well...we got the book...so off to the capital.” I say, hoping the royal family won't be pissed about Zecora. “As you can clearly see this place is big enough to train.” My clone says to all the council members, showing them the training room. The room they were all in look like it could fit a very large city in it and then some, sections were made for mountains, plains, deserts, forests, and one area looked like a standard training area but big enough to fit them all. “And this place is where all of you will be training with your new weapons and abilities.” My clone explains to them all. “Who wants to start training first?” “I guess me.” Trixie said, walking up. “So...how do they work?” She asked, the cards appearing for her. My clone summoned Fair Game. “So, Fair Game…how good are you at math?” I ask curiously. “Cause math was the very first thing I had to learn when dealing with these things.” “I was a B average.” Trixie admitted. My clone took a deep breath. “Okay...I'm gonna have to fix that drastically.” My clone says, trying to think of how to do this. “The cards in your control are more of a gambler type of weapon.” My clone says while cards start to float over my head and Trixie could somehow tell that she had to pick the ‘O’ card as it cycled through four ‘X’ cards at a reasonable pace for her. “The game hour seeing right now is simple, just pick a card and say ‘stop’, if it's on the O and your good, pick the X and your punished.” My clone explains. “Oh...Hmm…” Trixie thought, calling stop four times, earning all O’s. “Huh, I was right.” “Good first try.” My clone nodded, before grabbing a card and making it the size of a coffee table. “But games isn't the only thing it can do, you can resize cards to be as big or as small as you can think of, and it can also cause explosions.” I say while a card off to the side had an explosion sigil on it. “Or casts slow on opponents.” My clone says, a slow looking clock sigil on another card. “But above all, is how good are you at card games and tricks.” My clone says, probably should have told her about that part first so she knew what to immediately do. “How good are you at card tricks and games?” “Actually…” Trixie thought, looking at her own cards before throwing them, the cards all falling in place as she jumped back, one opening up and letting her in. I turned around, seeing her appear out of a card that landed behind me. “Yeah, it’s almost the same.” Trixie said, the cards all shrinking back to normal as they returned to her. “Got a good feeling on what your cards can possibly do?” My clone asks curiously. “I think. It’s like when I was little. My parents worked in a casino in Las Pegasus, my dad worked the tables and my mom was a performer. When I was younger I helped my mom pull off illusion acts, something like this we did, but with fake mirrors and such. The mirrors has fake glass, and when we fell through we land on a mattress, then move quickly to another mirror and use a trampoline to jump back up. It was almost just like that what I just did.” “Good.” My clone nodded. “Think of it kind of like that, a mixture of a gambler and a magician.” “Oh then I so got this, dad taught me all the ways people counted cards and such, to keep an eye out for cheaters so I could help out while moms shows were setting up for other acts.” “Basically, but now add in what you can do with a gambler that can count cards and can predict situations three steps ahead of yourself. You are the dealer and the player, remember that.” My clone says with a smile. “Think you got the general idea down?” “Yeah. I got it, just have to practice and come up with some of my own works.” “Good.” Clone me nodded. “Okay, who's next?” My clone asks, glad that Trixie got the general idea. “Who else wants a general rundown on what their weapon does?” My clone asks, looking at Vergil, Dante, Kat, Genos and Sonic. “If my analysis of what Trixie has is clear, we all seem to have the base experience in order to further develop with these weapons individually.” Genos said. “Either through the element, the base weapon, or what it is capable of doing.” My clone says while Eternal Flames appeared around in my hands. “Your weapons element is fire, while Fair Game is Time.” Clone me says. “How good are you with fire?” My clone asks Genos Genos held up a hand, in his palm was a circle to which a flame started burning from. “It’s my primary weapon. My system is designed to ignite the air for fuel and burn it to any degree I wish, allowing me to create great destruction or minimal.” My clone nodded. “Natural affinity for it good...but what about combat experience? How strong are you?” Genos turned around, his arm gaining static at the flame grew. Finally, he fired, it was like being next to a sun with the heat, and when it faded, the earth before us was scorched for miles. “I did a scan, and there was no life other than plant based for the ten miles my attack reached.” “How many times have you gotten your ass kicked?” My clone asks curiously. “Since studying under my master, my body has been nearly destroyed at least three separate times. Before than damage was minimal, and after average damage was at least sixty four percent of my body.” My clone nodded. “Right then, we're gonna have to fix that a lot. If your in my council wielding those chakrams, you need to be a one man army, not a pansy that always gets half his body ripped in half on average.” My clone frowns. “But do you know how to wield Chakrams?” I ask Genos curiously. “My database contains combat information for hundreds of weapons, these included. While my worlds counterparts are far more simple, it’s nothing I can’t adapt to.” “Good.” My clone nods. “Train and get stronger, even if your mostly machine you still have a lot of room to grow.” “Yes sir.” He said with a bow. Seeing everyone seemed to get the idea, I headed off, feeling like they can continue from there. I entered the living room, seeing Den reading a book while Cript slept on her lap. My clone could only smile at seeing that. “Hi.” My clone whispered to Den, not wanting to wake Cript up from his comfy spot. “Hi Ben.” Den said, putting her book down. “So, how is your day going?” “Fine. Just let some people know how to start their training.” My clone says honestly. “But...I'm also feeling like crap…” He sighed out bitterly. “Mostly because of...nightmares and...something worse…” “Insanity?” She asked, my eyes widening as I looked at her. “I can smell it Ben, so no use denying it.” My clone sighed out and covered it's left eye. “Yeah...I'm an Insanity...and you can obviously tell I'm scared of it…” “That’s the curse, dealing with it like Cript does.” She said, looking at him and began petting his head. “An Insanity link, even broken, lingers forever, and implants fear and illusions to break you so it can take over. The Psychopaths do worse. For Cript, they make him see death, murder of the worst and brutalist kind by his hands. Day or night, happy, and even more so when sad. They are images and visions meant to break you...and remind you that they still crave you.” “And it doesn't help that I'm having nightmares about this damned war coming up…” My clone says sadly. “God...this is a massive pain…” My clone mumbles. “How can I handle this new nightmare?” “What was it about?” Den asked. “The second Keyblade war…” My clone says bitterly. “My family fighting in it...and everyone dying...and how Zeke is the cause of it all as he sits on a throne like he owns all the people's corpses.” My clone growls, anger welling up as I remembered the last nightmare. “How he seemed so perfectly fine having his dead family become Psychopath puppets, how he ripped my heart out and shattered it…” My clone growled, my left eye shifting to an Insanity. “How...scared I was when I lost it...how if the dream didn't end...I would have just slaughtered so many…” My clone shook, tears brimming in the corners of his eyes. “Hmm…” Den hummed, still petting Cript’s head. “Tell me, do you know why Cript sleeps?” “Either one of two reasons...one because even the strongest of us need sleep...or he goes inside his head to make sure some things are kept in check.” My clone guessed. “Close. Cript sleeps to remember, to re-live certain events from his past.” “Both the good and the bad?” My clone asked curiously. “Bad only. His harshest past reminds him why he fights.” “Ah…” My clone mutters. “I...suppose that makes sense.” “Do you want to see it?” Den asked. “I know it’s rather strange to ask, but it might help you understand how he pushes on.” “Please.” My clone says. “I...I want to know...so I don't hurt my family…” “Alright. This will be...hard on you, and this is what Cript went through himself. You’ve been warned.” Den said, placing a finger to my head as I began to feel...sleepy. I opened my eyes, but I didn’t feel...myself. My body was hanging, heavy, cold chains kept my legs and arms held back. They were tight, firm, and painful. The room was dark, the only light coming from a hole in the roof some feet away. The floor was wet, blood stained and old. “Well...this...is something.” I said, though, it seemed I had no control over anything. There were footsteps, heavy boots from the sound of it. My body, or rather, Cript, looked up, seeing a man no older than I was. His hair was cut short, and he wore black pants, and a leather jacket and boots. “Andy.” Cript said. “Cript. Ready for round...hmm…” This Andy guy thought before smirking. “How long has it been?” “At least six months.” He said. ”Six months of being in a torture room?” I mutter to myself, knowing I'm just a passenger here but still. ”This...is gonna hurt…” I mutter to myself worriedly. “That sounds about right.” He chuckled. “I admit, you really are a lot tougher than when we first left for our year long round the world journey.” He said, a sword appearing in his hand as it glowed red hot. “Let’s start with the basics.” He then stabbed it into Cript, the burning alone was agony. Cript, and even I was screaming. I felt that! He then sliced it down Cript’s body, leaving a cauterized gash as the blade sliced it’s way out. I then felt Cript’s body begin to heal, painfully stitching itself back together. “Come on now Cript, you know how to make this end. How much longer?” “Agh! Ahh…” Cript coughed out. “S...Screw you.” ”Okay...that hurt...but nothing I haven't felt before.” I tell myself, thinking Bara’s fire attacks were worse. ”But...this must be when they were...trying to turn him into a Psychopath…” “Awh, don’t be like that!” Andy shouted the last word, kicking Cript in the head, a tooth flying out, but grew back. “Come on Cript, we both know what you are, what’s inside you.” Cript looked up, there was a mirror in front of him now. It showed him in dirty, tattered clothes, chains keeping his arms and legs still, and his body was horribly malnourished. But what made my jaw drop was the ethereal, ghost like crucified angel behind him. “Just wake it up, and this can all end. Wake up Zechariah, and all your pain will end. Let the beast Heaven cast out and hell fears out of it’s cage you wuss.” Andy moved the mirror aside, showing himself now. “At least, try now.” ”What the hell…?” I think to myself worriedly, fearing what's gonna happen next. “I told you...that…thing is bound to my soul for a reason. What that is, I don’t know. But I’d rather not find out.” Cript said. “Heh, like a broken record.” Andy said. “Time and time again, the same answer. Well, I did a lot of footwork to grab that Las Plagas prototype that’s keeping you alive, but that can’t keep you alive forever. So, let’s see what The One will do.” Crit jerked up. “Andy, that’s forbidden in every field of magic and alchemy! You can’t!” “I didn’t think I had to, but you’ve left me with no other choice.” Andy said, pulling out a stick of chalk from his pocket and began drawing a circle around Cript. Cript shouting at Andy to stop. When It was done I realized what it was… That human transmutation circle from FullMetal Alchemist. “So, gonna wake it up yet?” “I...I can’t!” Andy smirked. “Fime then, pray he’s generous.” The circle activated, and everything went white. ”Well fuck…” I say, having felt the pain he suffered and wondering what's gonna happen now. When Cript opened his eyes, there were two doors, one behind him, and another behind that Silhouette thing from the FMA anime. “Well now, I wasn’t expecting you to be here.” It spoke. “Y-You’re the one? The collective consciousness of everything on a world that has been, is or will be…?” Cript asked. “Fools call me God, but you know better than that I imagine. Now then, what will the price be for you…” Cript flinched. “I, I don’t...I didn’t…” “A body part is too lacking, and your soul is… off limits by any deity. Hmmm?” It thought, finally snapping it’s fingers. “I got it.” It raised its hand, and Cript started coughing. He coughed up blood until, finally, a dark grey pearl looking item came out. It rolled over to it, and it grabbed it. “There, a fitting price I’ll say.” “Cah! What, what is it? What did you take from me?!” “Simply put child.” He raised the pearl up for view. “I took your ability to die.” Cript’s eyes went wide. “You can try and try, but nothing will kill you. Not even things from the void and above can do you in.” “You...You stole my mortality!” “Stole? Heh, you forget who you deal with child. I don’t steal...I bargain.” There was a creek, the door behind Cript started opening, as did the one behind it. “Your mortality, for the knowledge of…” He chuckled. “Everything.” Then, a black tendril came from both doors, each wrapping around Cript tightly. “No! Keep your knowledge, give me back my mortality you bastard!” “A trade has been made my child. And a trade like this...there are no take backs.” It smiled, the tendrils covering Cript’s face. Once all was dark… pain, everything, and I mean anything and everything that could be learned was being poured into Cript’s head. The pain from it all made us both just scream. I didn’t see the knowledge, but I felt the pain. My head felt like it was splitting. Cracking from the pressure. ”Gah! Fucking hell!” I mentally shout in pain, trying my darndest to bear through the pain that was rushing at me. As quickly as it started, it stopped. Cript was back in the all white chamber, it across from him. “So, how is it? I give mortals glimpses for limbs and other such things, but never has a mortal taken it all in before. So tell me, what’s it like?” Cript’s breath was shaky. “P...Pointless.” “Huh?” “What’s the point in all this knowledge? You show me everything that can be learned, that can be understood and what should never be understood… But...what’s the point...If I can’t die? Death is part of life, all that knowledge says so...but you...just broke your own logic.” It smiled. “Yes and no my lad. You see...I showed you everything I know, that’s everything anyone who will live on E arth has known, knows and will know til it’s death. But you, heh, well you are not from earth now are you?” “W-what?” In a blink, we were back in the dungeon, Andy standing over us. “Well, no missing limbs, internal organs maybe?” He questioned. “My death…” “Huh?” Cript charged, his chains breaking as if they were wet paper and slammed Andy to the ground. “My Death! He took my mortality you sick bastard!” Cript began punching Andy, each punch leaving a nasty bruise or made one heck of a crack. “What’s the point of living life if there’s no end to find!” Cript’s hand then pulsated with powerful, blue electricity as he electrocuted Andy, the man laughing as Cript did this to him. ”Cript...can never die?” I mutter to myself, not believing Truth would do such a horrid thing to him. ”Heh, Finally.” A voice I recognized spoke, Cript’s body glowing with a holy light, altering as he grew taller, his hair changed from brown to blond, his clothes became like white silk robes with a gold belt, and two, large wings sprouted out of his back. ”Heheh...heheheh…..HAHAHAHHHAHAHA! Psychopath was free. ”Finally! Five incarnations over ten thousand years bound to this soul and I. Am. FREE!” ”Oh so that's why they always had blonde hair…” I say, wondering why I just had to point that out when a Psychopath was just freed. It then looked over at Andy. ”Hmm for thanks I’ll let you live, shall we ever cross paths again, your head I will take. Hehehehe. Nothing personal.” It then flapped its wings, and flew up. In a haze, we were on...where are we? Everything looks… Wait, is that earth up there? There were people all around, looking at us in surprise. Psychopath then cracked it’s neck. ”I’m a bit rusty, but it’s like riding a bicycle.” ”So Earth was a real place...but now it's not cause this assholes gonna burn it to the ground…” I frown, not liking how the Psychopath immediately went to Earth here. ”You, youngling.” Psychopathe said, appearing in front of a child. ”What world is this?” “M-m-m-m-mars…” ”Ah, the red planet.” It said, looking around. ”Not so much anymore… Let’s correct that.” Psychopath said, grabbing the kids neck, and snapped it… I felt it...snapping the child's neck. ”Oh no…” I mutter, fearing what's gonna happen next. “Gah, wha, where?” I said, waking back up in the livingroom and getting up...Cript was up. “So...you saw that…” He said. “Ye-yeah…” I nod, covering my left eye bitterly as the feeling of snapping a child's neck still lingered. “I...saw it…” “In my realm, that day is known as the Mars Colony Incident. It started a fast downward spiral, racism and abuse of ET’s who everyone blamed for that event... “ “I...can imagine.” I sigh out. “So...immortal huh? How the hell is that even possible?” “Death is a fact, woven into everything. Even admins can die… Save for me. You see, death can come in any form, it’s a probability. The One, stole that probability from me. It’s the main reason as to why in every battle, every war...I come out unharmed, and unscaved. There’s no way for me to die.” “But how the hell can something take that away?” I ask, still not understanding how you can just ‘take away’ someone's mortality. “Just...it should seem impossible when you think about it…” “When you enter that...things, territory, you're being as a whole is like a market to it. It trades something of value from you, and depending on the value you placed on it, depends on the information he gives you. For me, I just wanted to live my life, and when my time was to come, reflect on my life before death took me...now...there is no death for me. Just continue.” “Well...that sucks…” I frown. “But...you can probably tell why I saw all that...or even wanted to.” I sigh out. “You wanted to know how to make those nightmares stop?” “I wish I could stop these nightmares...honestly I don't know if its because of the old Keyblade war I saw...or because of this damned Insanity stuck inside my heart…” I say bitterly. “Sad to say Ben, but it’s neither.” “Am I getting some weird visions of the future?” I ask him. “Cause I doubt it's visions.” “It’s not visions either.” Cript said. “Think Ben, what reasons would you have for having those nightmares? What do they all focus on?” “Zeke and the damned Keyblade war...Kingdom Hearts being consumed by Darkness…” I say. “All my friends fighting...my family being slaughtered...Zeke acting like he's the fucking king of a death laden wasteland...” I growl, taking a few deep breaths and reigning in my growing anger. “Is it a warning or something?” “Nope. Now, think on what they all lack?” “They lack?” I ask, confused by what he meant. “My council for one...Nobody’s...the...Embodiments…” I name off slowly, trying to think of what these damned nightmares lacked, but thinking it lacked people instead of something Cript laughed. “What they all lack, is hope.” Cript said. “You keep imagining a bleak and hopeless war with a terrible outcome. The first Keyblade war was terrible, and cost countless lives, but, people and the light survived. You keep thinking that this war won’t leave any survivors, or have hope for a better future for when it’s all over.” “When it's going to last a week, and countless numbers of people are going to be fighting this damned war that shouldn't be happening to be perfectly honest...it's hard to find hope sometimes…” I sigh out. “This is the first time I'm going to be fighting in a war...and...honestly this war shouldn't even be happening. But Drezke and Kexez are so dead fucking set on killing billions because of some prophecy bullshit it's rather infuriating to be honest.” I growl. “Instincts be damned they still have their minds...they’re not stupid to willingly go through with this...“ “Who said they were going to try and kill people?” Cript asked. “Drezke said, if I remember, he was building an army to fight the Embodiments. That also includes Spoiled if he has the chance. Now, what does Kexez want to fight in this war? Didn’t he tell you anything?” “He told me he's gonna make something to stop the third war from happening...but it'll take a week after the war starts.” I say. “But the one thing that makes me think they'll just...do that is because neither of them even bothered to tell the people they trust about this...Joy tried to talk to Kexez once, Core kicked the crap out of him...I talked to Kexez and...well we talked but he woke me up with a bullet to the head…” I say bitterly. “Zeke is a balanced being Ben, not just his heart, but his body as well. Without his heart, Kexez is lost, without Lake, Drezke can’t ignore his instincts, and without Drezke, Lake has no meaning. Lake keeps Drezke safe, supported in his choices, while Drezke gives his strength, and Kexez channels their energies, the three making Zeke, his whole being. Heh, funny, this realm seems to work in a pattern of three, huh?” “I suppose.” I say. “But...Yen Sid told me when I become king...I can get Lake back...somehow.” I say, not knowing how that's supposed to work. “He said I can open the Doors of Purgatory to do it...but fuck if I know how that's even possible.” “In time.” Cript said. “You all have quite the futures ahead of you...quite the futures…” “Yeah, gonna be a King and all.” I shrug. “But...question…” I start. “This...is crazy and stupid...but how can I...control an Insanitys power? I'm just...curious about it cause of...something I heard about before.” I say, remembering how Cript somehow fused Psychopath and Humanity together to somehow ‘cure’ Psychopaths. “...If I can control their power, you can control that things power. In time though, it’s reckless to use it without knowing your limits.” “I didn't think I'd get a straight answer…” I sigh out. “It will all come in time Ben. As an admin I have seen many possibilities for your life, most which head to the same destination.” “I doubt it's towards me relaxing at a beach resort with my family huh?” I say, making a joke about what the future will hold. “Heh, if you want it to be… Come on, I wanna talk in private.” Cript said, getting up and walking down the hallway. “Okay…” I say, walking along with Cript. “So, what did you want to talk about?” “To put it simply, I wanna ask you a question. It’s a simple question, with no wrong answers.” “That's what they all say before hearing the wrong answer.” I frown. “But what's the question if I may ask?” “Your Nightmares, would you like to see who is causing them?” I frowned. “So there's someone outside of me that's causing It?” “Yes, or no?” Cript asked, finally stopping and turning to face me, a small smile on his face clearly hiding his knowledge. “Yes.” I huff, having a feeling he's just gonna pull out a mirror and say ‘it’s you’ like a cheeky bastard. “Heh, alright. Oh, and sorry in advance.” “For w-” Was all I could say before Cript formed a fist, and punched me right in the forehead, everything going black as I fell to the ground. “Ouch…” I groaned, that punch hurt like hell… I managed to look around, seeing I was… I was in some neighborhood. It looked like one from earth...but I don’t know where from earth. “The hell?” I muttered, getting up and dusting myself off. “Where am I?” I mutter to myself, walking down the sidewalk in hopes of finding something to tell me where I am. “Hehe.” I heard, turning around. I swear I heard a...child laugh. I quickly turned back around, hearing footsteps from...somewhere. “Hello?” I call out, moving towards where I heard the sound. “Is someone here?” “Heheh!” I heard, seeing a bit of someone run behind one of the houses. I ran, following and skidded to a halt. It was a backyard, like many, set up for a barbecue, but there was no one. What was here, was a large sword, embedded into the nearby tree, and a pair of large handguns on a table next to it. “Those...are Dante’s?” I ask myself, walking up to the weapons. “Why are his guns here?” I ask myself, grabbing Ebony, Ivory, and Rebellion. “Okay...so this is worrying.” I frown, putting the guns and sword away as I continued to search around for the kid. “Heheh.” I looked, seeing the back door entering the house slam shut. Slowly, I walked in, the lights all on, thankfully. It was a nice house, well decorated, and rather large it seemed. “Hello?” I call out, searching around the rather large house. “Creepily laughing and running doesn't really help here kid.” Tink. I looked down, stepping on something. It was a small pouch. I picked it up, inside was several small ninja throwing weapons. Stitched into the flap read ‘property of Sonic’. “Sonic’s...throwing weapons?” I frown, putting away Sonic’s bag of throwing items and continued onward. “Vergil? Genos? Luxu?” I call out, having a bad feeling about this. “I've got a bad feeling about this…” I mutter, continuing my search for the noise and wondering who else’s stuff is lying around here. I headed upstairs, and in a bedroom of sorts I spotted Luxu’s Keyblade, resting on the bed. I picked it up, and the door slammed shut. I turned around, and a DTD opened up, a figure dressed in a black and gold organization XIII cloak walked out. “Why hello there.” I say to the new person. “How may I help you on this fine...kind of creepy day?” I ask them. He turned around, and everything shook. The room, specifically, the section of floor, wall, and the door were pulled from the rest of the room, a massive, long gap separates us as random house hold items from the room floated all into random places in the now massively high ceiling. Rebellion then glowed, first a fiery red, then a bright, calming blue before becoming normal. “O~kay then…” I say worriedly, drawing Rebellion and wondering why the hell it glowed as well as preparing myself for an upcoming fight. It was after I drew Rebellion that I saw some strange things. Some of the furniture either had a blue or red glow around it. Pointing it at the lamp with a red glow, it changed, no longer a sword, but a whip with a skeletal demon head and moving jaw at the tip. I swung it, the whip growing in length as the demon head bit onto the lamp. I pulled, and it floated over to me. Carefully, I pressed a foot on it, the lamp not seeming to move. My next target glowed blue. Some dresser drawers. Rebellion changed into a chrome and blue whip with a dragon head at the tip. I swung it, but it pulled me, almost panicking, I did it again, it latching onto the next drawer and this time I landed on a desk. “Awesome.” I smile, understanding how this is going to work as I looked around for my next stepping stone. “Lets hope this will lead the right way.” I mutter while jumping up and latching onto another blue object and landing on it carefully. I was on my last swing to the door when the stranger walked down the hall. The swing threw me through the door as it closed behind me. The hallway was...unchanged. Okay…”So...where the hell am I supposed to go?” I frown, looking around the room and seeing if there was another way before going through the obvious ‘repeating room’ thing. I opened another door, it was a bathroom, shower curtains closed and the shower running. The room was filled with steam. “Hello?” I ask, hoping someone was here as I carefully stepped through the steamy room. “La da, da da dum, da da.” A woman's voice began singing from behind the curtains. “Hello?” I ask again, hoping the lady will hear me this time. ”This better not be a jump scare…” I think to myself bitterly. The lady kept singing. The more I listened the more I realized...she sounded rather young. “Hello?” I ask again, the girl still just singing. Begrudgingly, I walked up the the curtains. Slowly, I opened them. Inside was...nothing. The singing stopped and inside the shower, water running on it was a shield I recognized. It was red, white and blue, with a white star in the center. “Captain...America?” I question, picking up the shield. He’s not...wait, is he going to be the next chosen? “Um...okay.” I say while grabbing his shield. “Okay...where to next?” I mutter. As I exited the room I saw the figure across from me. He waved his hand as a shadow appeared. It looked human in shape, dressed in a dark pink top, short shorts and had red hair, but her skin was shadow black with those ever familiar yellow eyes. “Oh come on.” I complain, preparing myself for the possible fight. The shadow lady crawled towards me, then rapidly jumped on the wall and off, grabbing my head and opening her mouth, a bright light shining from her mouth as everything started going...grey. I blinked, and I was standing in the backyard of this house, people around, talking, cooking, grilling and eating. “What the hell?” I frown, wondering what in the nine hells is going on. I put away Rebellion and Cap’s shield. “Um...hello?” I ask a random person. “Where am I? I’m...new around here.” They didn't seem to hear me...or even notice me. I tried touching them, and my hand phased through them. “You know, cause fuck it.” I frown, walking around and looking to see if there was anything of importance. At the corner of my eye I saw someone… Zeke. Looking at him properly I saw he was younger than how I know him, his eyes for some reason we're… green? He was eating some ribs when he got up and ran inside quick. Then I saw that girl, the shadow one, but she was human here, chase after him. I ran after them, and saw Zeke in the bathroom...he took out something on his eye… Contacts? “Itchy?” The girl asked. “Like all hell.” Zeke replied. He dripping a liquid into his now red eye as he placed the contract back in. “Worth it though.” “Where did you even find eye color changing contacts?” “Internet.” Zeke replied, setting it back in proper. “What the hell?” I mutter, wondering what’s going on here. “So, family still has no clue where you are?” She asked. “Thankfully. Your dad, did me a miracle declaring my arrest and execution.” Zeke replied. “Hey, you made him chief of police with that bargain, and now you're a part of this family.” “Yeah. Mowing lawns, barbecues. Apple pie life. It's nice.” “Is this a different Zeke’s life? One where he got a nice simple life?” I wonder to myself, now confused on how this was supposed to solve my nightmare problem. “Why am I seeing this?” “So, where is your dad anyway?” Zeke asked the girl. “Finishing up some work and mom just left to get more meat for the cookout.” She explained. “So...we got time?” Zeke asked her with a grin. “Maybe~ Door does have a lock…” The girl said, grinning back. “I’ll get the clean clothes.” Zeke said, walking into the room as the girl laughed, starting to undress as she turned the shower on. “Um…” I frown. “I’m...not entirely sure what to think of this and in what context…” I tell myself, shaking my head. “This is confusing…” I sigh out, wondering what the hell I’m even supposed to be doing here now. The world changed. Everything shifted and I was in the normal hallway again. Well, normal-ish. “Oi vey.” I sigh out while moving forward, looking around trying to find something important. “Okay, so in another strange hallway...why the hell am I here?” I frown, wondering if I'll find another thing involving my Council, another weird showing of Zeke if he managed to be someone else, or if this will lead to something else. “Where's the next door…” I mutter, waking through the normal-ish hallway. Exiting back downstairs I found myself in the kitchen. Stabbed into the cutting board was Vergil's Katana. “Okay...there's Yamato…” I mutter while walking over and grabbing the katana that can cut dimensions. Once I pulled it out I looked it over, wondering why I was finding all my councils weapons, even one I haven’t seen yet. ”What is going on here, what...is this?” I ponder, walking out of the kitchen and seeing someone in the living room. He was an older man, bald, wearing a well worn aviators jacket and jeans with some thick leather boots. “Hello?” I ask the man, walking into the living room. He turned around, and I saw his eyes...Red. “Come on now sonny, come back to the family.” He said with open arms. “I think you're mistaking me for someone else sir.” I say worriedly. “Who are you?” “Ah come on now kid, it’s been ten years and I may be a lot older, but I recognize my own kin, I’m not losing my head just yet now.” “Who are you?” I repeat myself, a tad worried about the red eyes man. “Cause...I don't think we've ever met…” His expression changed to one of a tad annoyed. “Now son, you are trying my patients, and I know your daddy told you just how mean I can get when I am annoyed. Are you gonna make this easy,” He said, suddenly grabbing out into the air and an ethereal image of that girl Zeke was with appeared, him holding her by the neck and holding a rather large revolver to her head. “Or are you gonna make this easy for us?” “Gah, Zeke!” The girl called. “Marcy!” I jumped, an ethereal Zeke came out from me and ran towards them, all three fading before Zeke got halfway to the old man. “Uh...what?” I blink, wondering just what the hell is going on. “I...am so confused right now…” I frown. Shaking that off, I headed into some kind of… Library of sorts. On a table in the center of the room, was a stray paint can. I took a whi- GAH that is not paint! It reeks!. Taking a quick second look, I saw the name Kat on it, as well as a small list of what seemed to be spell names written on it. “And here’s Kats can of orange piss water.” I frowned, wrinkling my nose at the creepy smell of it. “Okay…time to take this along as well...it probably has something special with it…” I mutter while putting the can away and looking around for the next spot to go. I walked back into the living room and froze. Zeke was there, on his knees, holding that girl, a large hole in her head, blood everywhere, and he looked dead at me. “Y-You killed her…” He muttered as the tears started to fall from his eyes, his contacts sliding out as he did. “No I didn't.” I frown. “But your not going to listen or understand me cause this world is weird.” I roll my eyes, having a feeling I'm just reliving a part of Zeke’s past for whatever reason and finding my council's weapons for some unknown reason. “You had this coming.” I jumped again, this time an ethereal version of the old man walked out of me. “We don’t get to have normal lives Zeke, we are Ventrals.” “I never wanted to be one!” He screamed, hugging the girls body. “I...I just wanted…” The images faded again, Zeke, the girl, the old man, and even all the blood. ”Why am I seeing things about Zeke if this is supposed to solve my nightmares?” I question, finding this all...strange. ”Well...let's hope the next spot will answer something instead of giving more questions…” I think to myself while heading off to find the next thing to spark a memory or to find another council item. I headed outside and saw that cloaked man again, he turned to look at me before waving his hand, thirteen stones raised from the ground as he vanished into thin air. Rushing down to them, each had...shots… A sword and pistols, a katana, a round shield… I pulled out the weapons I had and placed them into their properly fitted slots. Each fitting perfectly. They all then glowed, and above them, a line stretched out to the center of this formation, and a Keyhole appeared, but it was incomplete, sections missing from it here and there. “Five down...eight more to go…” I sigh out. “Okay...which ones do I have left…” I mutter while checking the other pillars to see what inward looking for. Let’s see here… A...Chainsaw… A Violin of sorts, Reunion Keyblade, Joy obviously, A Gazing Eye Keyblade, Luxu, a magicians hat...Trixie. Some kind of...orb, A sword, a rather important looking outline of one, and… Way to Dawn? … No...It… It can’t be Bara… “Well this sucks…” I mutter. “So, time to go on this weird scavenger hunt. And I wonder who that weird cloaked guy was…” I mutter while looking around, wondering where to go to find the items. As I was walking back to the house, I decided to open up the garage door. Inside was tools, as to expect, but there was a red and chrome chainsaw on the desk in the back. “Just what I was looking for.” I say while walking over and picking up the chainsaw. “Wonder why there's chrome on it?” I mutter, knowing there were red chainsaws but still. “Well let's find the rest.” I say while putting the chainsaw away and thinking about where else the things could be. “The violin could be in a music room maybe? But then why was a shield in a bathroom?” I frown. Shrugging, I noticed two doors. One just in the wall, and the other with some stairs going up. The one with stairs must go back into the house, so let's check out the basement. Walking over to the door I opened it and saw a long stairway down. “Wonder what's down here…” I mutter, heading down the stairs to see what's there. Walking down the dark hallway was creepy, at least, till I reached the bottom and came across a bunch of boxes, old furniture, normal basement stuff it seemed. “Seems...rather normal…” I mutter, going around and checking the boxes to see if there was something important. The first box I checked was...empty. The next, empty again. Three more boxes in I realized they are...all empty. A tad annoyed, I kicked them, the stack of empty boxes topeling on me and when I broke out I felt something on my head. I lifted it off, and it was...trixie's hat? “Not something I'd wear but glad I found it.” I say with a little smile, putting away the magicians hat and checking the rest of the basement for anything. I didn’t find much, but I went back up the stairs and saw that figure again. “Hi, are you actually going to say something this time?” I ask the figure. He reached behind himself, pulling out a violin. He posed himself properly, and began to play. The music was...amazing. It was a sad melody that sounded like it belonged to someone with tragic life. I actually was tearing. “Uh...Okay wow…” I say, rubbing the tears out of my eyes. “But...who are you?” “This song.” He finally spoke, his voice firm, not too deep, and...frightful all the same. “Do you know what is is called?” He said, still playing. “No, I don't...but I can probably tell the meaning behind it.” I say to the being. “Hm.” He said, still playing. “This song is called, Ben. It’s your song. Every heart has its own melody, altered and changed as they age, develop, the melody changing as they do. Those who hear their songs can tell how far they have come based on how it plays. These songs are how Keyblades choose their wielders, not by the light or darkness, but by the melodies.” He said, still playing. “Well...sounds about right.” I nodded. “I...suppose the tune will sound a bit more upbeat after a bit considering...what my current life has been?” “Yes, it should, I suppose. Now then, tell me, what do multiple melodies sound like? When two or more people's hearts are linked.” “Hehe.” I turned around, and saw a kid, dressed in a red hoodie, green pants, and had his hood hiding his face. He pulled out a small version of my Sitar and began playing. The child's song was a mix of high exciting and low, sad notes all played in rapid succession creating a unique, interesting song that when played next to mine the older man was playing...sounded amazing. “Sounds amazing actually.” I say, starting to think about who the kid and the cloaked man are. “But...are you two…?” I ask, trying to think of the right word here as I tried to figure out who they were. The kids song then stopped abruptly, catching me off guard as he began to play only parts of the notes. The once mighty and interesting song now faded to almost background noise on mine. “When someone dies, those who knew them, those who had a link to them, keep parts of them in their hearts, in the memories they keep. Those fragments are what allow even the dead to give strength to the living in the afterlife, the heart remembers, the memories, and the melodies.” “Mom and dad are alive again...granny is somewhere...and grandpa is happy in heaven…” I mutter. “So...this is a wonderful thing to learn...why bring this up?” I ask them, liking the lesson but unsure on why the sudden lesson on melodies. “Simple. We are memories. This child and I are the fragments of someone close to you in your heart. Through the melodies of the others we have created a plan, and are trying to bring it to action. Sadly, we are trapped here. There is something you haven't done that must free us.” “There's a lot of things I haven't done, so mind being a bit specific here?” I ask simply. Both of them stopped playing entirely. The cloaked man then threw me the violine and I caught it. The both then took off their hoods, and I felt stupid for not realizing… Zeke, they were both Zeke, younger, and damaged, the older one was covered in black spots missing his left eye, part of his forehead and god knows what else, while the kid was missing half his mouth and eyes. “I am Nightmare, all of Zeke’s worst memories, fears and dread I keep, and my other half here is Zeke’s Joy, his best memories, aspirations and dreams are within him. We escaped into the hearts of his friends, all of us split into groups of two, and there are ten of us, five of light, the positives, five of darkness, the negatives. We...were scared. When Zeke’s heart split, and his light half changed into the abomination, his light halfs emotions escaped, and as their other halves, we followed. Us leaving is why Drezke is going insane, Lake could not fight the blood of those monsters, and why Kexez can not feel anymore.” “Understanding.” The child, Joy, spoke. “You knew Zeke, but you never understood him.” “So that's why I'm seeing his past…” I nodded a bit. “And...when I put all the pieces into the pillars I can free you both?” I ask curiously. “Also, some of your family are just absolute dick mongers ya know?” “Zeke was fifteen.” Joy spoke. “He grew tired of the pressures of being the greatest Ventral in recent history.” “He wanted the impossible.” Nightmare spoke up. “To escape his family bloodline. It took him some doing, but he found a small lace in Colorado where his family was both rarely seen and largely ignored. His plan was set, hid in the cargo hold of a bus headed to the town, and once there, use color changing contacts to blend in.” “He was found out, quickly, or so he thought, when he picked him up. A minor in the streets, even in that town, it was odd.” “Everyone knew everyone there. Zeke fell into the system there, no Ventral unless arrested has their fingerprints in the system, so Zeke wasn’t anyware. To them, he appeared out of thin air.” “The sheriff took him in, and his daughter took a liking. It was her who realized he was a Ventral.” “She had a dirty habbit, sneaking into the shower to spook people.” “She saw his eyes, and froze… Then she looked down…” “You can guess what happened.” “Zeke confessed that night who he was, and she didn’t care.” “It was a full year before they told her father about their relationship and the truth about who he was. If it wasn’t for the time, bonding and saving him from bears several times over, he would have arrested Zeke.” “To get his family off his track, they came up with a plan, they took a cadaver from the local medical school, about Zeke’s age and build, and set up a false shootout, hitting a propane tank and gasoline can placed next to it. He filed the report, and other officers made their peace with it. Zeke Ventral, was dead.” “The grandfather, filled with rage and grief, went to kill him, and found his grandson alive and well, hiding his eyes.” “The rest you can tell.” Joy finished. “Josh had one red eye, Zeke was the only one, to their knowledge, with two red eyes.” “If they had found Eclipse, back on earth, his life would have been different...darkly so.” Nightmare added. “I can imagine.” I sigh out. “Jeez...this is quite a thing. But where are your other parts? Am I going to have to track you all down or something?” “We are unsure.” Joy said. “We ran, riding along the lines connecting Zeke’s hearts to his friends. The others don’t know who they are in yet, though, Bravery and Rage think they are within Eclipse, the heart and body similar to Zeke’s in many ways, energy wise at least.” “Well that’s a thing.” I say. “So...besides you having the violin I was looking for mind helping me find the other stuff I need to help set you free? I mean, I'm pretty sure that's what those pillars are for right?” “Yes, but you are warned, the pillars will set more than just us free. They are a lock on not just us, but your most unpleasant memory.” “I wonder which memory that is.” I roll my eyes. “Can't be any worse than the nightmares I've been having.” I frown. “But besides an unpleasant memory...does it involve...Rejection at all?” They both nodded. “Fuck…” I sigh out, putting a hand over my left eye. “I don't want that asshole getting out...especially with how he's corrupted.” I sigh out. “The Insanity is gone Ben.” Joy said as I looked up in confusion. “It is true, Rejection is no longer an Insanity, but he believes himself to be.” “His mind is shattered, he is the one causing your nightmares, and believe me, I am holding back the worst of it.” Nightmare said. “Looks like I'm gonna need to beat the bastard again, and this time till he gets his head back together and stop this foolish crap.” I frown. “Be warned, our presence here has caused an irregularity in this place. Rejection has made Zeke’s memories his lines of defence.” Nightmare warned. “Okay then.” I nodded. “So...just got to walk around the place and find all the things, then find Rejection and kick his ass right?” I ask. “Or am I not allowed to beat him?” “Do what you must, be we warn you, Rejections mind is shattered, he isn’t an insanity anymore, but he truly believes he is one.” Joy added. “Well...time to prove the idiot wrong.” I frown. “So, where to next?” I ask the two. “You two have been leading me to the items before so…” I say, hoping for a guide through this place. “No, from now on the remaining few items will be guarded, each by a memory phantom.” “Oh goody.” I frown. “Not like I expected this to be easy at all.” I say sarcastically. “So...do you know where these phantoms are?” They shook their heads. “You'd think people living in my head would know the way around.” I frown. “Oh well, I best be off to find the other items and fight whatever is here.” I sigh out while walking of to start my search. Looking back inside the house, I went back up the stairs and found the attic entrance. It was an easy climb and once there I spotted that old guy, Zeke’s grandpa I think. “Wonder why he's up here…” I mutter to myself, preparing myself for a possible fight. ”Basterd!” Zeke’s voice rang in the air like a battle cry. An ethereal version of him tackled the old man, and began beating his head into the ground mercilessly. “Oh...well that's a thing…” I mutter worriedly. ”Zeke, stop!” An ethereal version of Josh and who I think is Zeke’s dad came up, each grabbing and holding him back. ”For christ’s sake he’s your grandfather!” His dad yelled. ”He’s DEAD!” Zeke yelled, his arms spun, flipping Josh and his dad over as he grabbed a kitchen knife from somewhere...and plunged it into his grandfather's chest... “Shit…” I frown. “Well...good to know that happened…” ”Zeke, what did you-” ”Hehe...Hehehe….Hehehehehhe….HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!” I froze, seeing Zeke’s eyes change to that of a Psychopaths, his hair even changed from blonde to a crimson red. ”What the fuck!?” Josh yelled as they all vanished in a haze. “Oh…” I frown, looking around the attic carefully. “That's...a scary thought.” Where they were I spotted two swords, crossed and layed on the ground. Looking at them closely, they connected into one sword, and split into two to down the middle. “Wait...aren't these...Zuko’s?” I ask, honestly surprised to see these here. I put them away and headed out. “Okay, where to next?” I mutter, thinking of all the places I looked. “Need Genos’s core, Reunion, Gazing Eye and Way to Dawn...this is gonna take a while…” I headed out, seeing in front of me now Josh and Zeke’s dad standing in the hallway, both shooting guns fast. “Crap! What happened to him!?” Josh yelled. “How should I know!” “You’re his dad!” “You'd think they would know there own damned Psychopath rage when killing someone.” I frowned. “Or it could be something else…” It was then when they faded, and Psychopath jumped at me, phasing through me...that felt bad… My stomach hurts. “That's...not good...” I mutter, wondering why my stomach hurts. “Well...no rest for the wicked...” I mutter, grabbing a potion and downing it just in case it was a serious problem. ”Heheheheheh…” I turned around, the Psychopath was there on all fours like some rabid animal. “Shit.” I mutter, summoning Reunion and Frozen Pride. “That's not good…” ”Grah!” He roared, jumping and phasing through me again. When I turned around he wasn’t there, nor anywhere...ouch! I felt my right ear...blood...and it’s...shorter… Did it...bite half my ear off? “Asshole!” I shout, shifting into master form and healing my ear before changing out Frozen Pride for Skysplitter and preparing myself for when the thing will jump at me. “Okay ya piece of shit, not gonna get another bite out of me.” Slowly I walked down to the living room, spotting a fireplace with actual fire going. “Okay…” I mutter, wondering why there was a fire going right now. Inside, I saw a round orb of sorts, glowing with power, the word Core written on it on several places. “Maybe this belongs to Genos?” I mutter, bringing out my chakrams and using them to control the flame as I grabbed the core and pulled it out of the fire place. “Genos.” I thought aloud, packing the Core and heading off. “Okay...now just got to get Reunion, Gazing Eye, and Way to Dawn…” I mutter, having literally no clue where to get at least two of them and not sure if I could use my Reunion for that. “Hmm…” I hum, continuing to walk around and look for where I need to go next. I stepped outside, and saw a knight figure on the front Lawn, Reunion in his grasp as he was posed like the Lingering Will, and held a massive shield strapped across his back. “Well I can see where this is going.” I mutter while walking over. “Hello?” I ask the knight, wondering if he was talkative first. He rose, drawing Reunion and his shield, it was like a wall of decorative metal that he lifted with one hand, and slammed it on the ground, the earth shook, and he grew...huge...really huge. King Kong Huge. “Well…” I frowned. “That's a thing.” I say before rushing to its feet and about to stab it's shin till it either fell over, got down to my size for a good honest fight, or it died from blood loss and pain from getting stabbed in the shin too many god damn times. He swung, his blade phasing through the buildings, but hitting me and sending me skidding across the ground. “I call bullshit!” I shout, getting back up and rushing back towards it carefully so I wouldn't get hit this time. He stomped a foot on the ground, and knocked me flat on my ass with the shockwave. As I was getting up he held Reunion like a spear as it began to glow blue, and a bolt shot out, hitting near me and blasting me back across where I first fell down. “Ow…” I muttered, getting back up and bringing out Sharpshooters and firing at him quickly. Sharpshooters did nothing, his armor is too thick and that shield of his can block anything. Using Sharpshooters, I teleported to his head and quickly pulled out Skysplitter, and slammed it on his head. That seemed to do damage as he stumbled around for a bit. I saw his helmet was cracked now. “Alright, glad to know this fucker can be hurt.” I say while floating in midair and pressing my advantage a bit, moving behind it and smacking the back of its head with Skysplitter. His Helmet broke off, and inside what I saw made me freeze. It was...a pony person. Male, horn broken down the middle and wings cut, leaving nubs...an alicorn? He was blue mane with a white coat. His body was covered in black tendrils, and his eyes were black as void. His chest...was scarred over, like he was...impaled... “Your…” I mutter, my mind going back to seeing Faust's kid killed in the war. “Oh...that's...a thing.” I muttered worriedly, keeping my guard up in case it attacked. He looked up at me, and screamed this monstrous scream. I covered my ears, it was like hearing evil itself as he and the armor faded, leaving just Reunion sticking out of the ground. “Right…” I mutter, walking over to Reunion and grabbing the holy and pulling it out of the ground. “Jeez…” I shook my head and looked around for where else to go. No sooner did I turn around I saw an outline of a person, like Truth from Fullmetal Alchemist, Way to Dawn equipped in it’s hand as it was ready to fight. “Well hello there.” I say before swinging Skysplitter like a golf club, a massive chunk of rock being shot towards the figure. It sliced it down the middle, rushing fast towards me as we clashed blades. The way it swung was...framilier. It's not Bara though. “Who are you?” I frown, pushing back and swinging at it with Reunion. It didn’t speak, but continued to swing at me, and blocked each of my attacks with ease. It wasn’t till I pulled out Sharpshooters, teleporting sporadically until he did something new. He blocked, but not with his Keyblade, with a spell. It was one you’d see only one person cast in all of Kingdom Hearts two, on the very last world… “Riku?” I frowned, realizing who it was. It stopped, it’s body growing flesh and skin, till an older, maybe early twenties Riku stood before me. He lowered his Keyblade, and nodded. He stuck Way To Dawn into the ground, and faded in thin air. “Right then…” I mutter while walking forward and grabbing Way to Dawn and putting it away. “Okay...Gazing Eye is the last one.” I say, looking around for who might have it. “Okay...so is there someone else that wants to pop up with the thing I need?” As if on cue, all my primal instinct screamed, and I ducked, bearly dodging whoever swung Gazing Eye. When I got back up and jumped away some feet, I saw it was someone in the simple Organization 13 cloak. Right. Luxu. “Right then, time to fight Luxu.” I say before shooting at the guy with Sharpshooters. Luxu blocked with perfect movements, rushing in I tried to dodge, but his swing was too large and he sliced my coat, but missed my stomach. Barely. “Rarity is gonna kill me for ruining this.” I mutter, swapping to Reunion and slashing at Luxu swiftly. He didn’t even block with his Keyblade. He blocked with his arm. I saw it cut into it, his blood soaking his cloaks sleeve and even began dripping. He then grabbed Reunion’s blade and forced it back to me, hitting me hard in the chest several times before I got away. “Ow...” I growled before chugging a healing potion real quick, summoning Eternal Flames and sending a torrent of flames at Luxu. He raised a hand… and deflected it off to the side. I saw his hand, glove gone, hand was scorched, same hand on his wounded arm, but kept on. Grabbing Gazing Eye in it again and he raised it to me. He was badly injured, but acted like nothing was the matter? “What's wrong Luxu?” I ask, feeling like something was very off with how he just took the punishment without giving a damn. He didn’t answer, but charged at me. I dodged, using Skysplitter to slam his body. For a moment he was still, but got up. His leg...Oh god. It was completely broken, almost falling off. Luxu stood up, casting a Firaga on it, melting the flesh back together then quickly casting freeze to stop the melting. The frost was still on his leg, but he stood on it...he didn’t flinch at all... “I wonder…” I mutter, pulling out one of my potions and opening it, before throwing the healing liquid at him, wondering if he was hurt by healing rather than actually kicking his ass. When the potion hit him, it evaporated on his skin, having no effect. Luxu just brushed of the glass shards and ran at me. Backing up, I used Skysplitter again, missing his head but slicing his cloaks hood… He wore a mask. It was made of sewn together fragments and parts of the Foretellers masks. “Well...that's not good.” I frown, raising my hand and shooting Twilight Thorns towards the guy. He didn’t move, the thorns hitting his mask and it broke… I felt sick. His face was rotting, eyes dead, skin black with rot and decay, some bone visible...and he was crying. Tears kept going, falling down. I’m fighting a crying corpse?! “How can I put you to rest?” I ask, not believing I'm fighting a crying corpse...but he needs to be put to rest here. He dropped Gazing Eye, and an image of the Foretellers appeared in it, in the other, what looked like his heart...it was filled with cracks and overflowing with darkness. “I won’t have long...when they find my body and reunite with me. I will only have time, for a few goodbyes. Maybe then, I can keep my promise.” Luxu said. “What was your promise?” I ask carefully. “Myself, and all my reflections, all promised we’d be with the Foretellers. Forever. We were family. That is why all my reflections killed themselves, all but me. I was the only one...too scared. Maybe then, I can write a wrong, put to rest that fallen Ava, and see them again, as they now see each other.” “And what of Time?” I ask him, knowing my Luxu and this Luxu were two different people but I just wanted to check something. “She will find me. If all goes well, when the time comes, I’ll be back, but I won't be…me. I’ll be like my family. Alive again as another.” Luxu said, fading as all that remained was his cloak, and Gazing Eye. Hesitantly, I want up to Gazing Eye to pick it up, and saw something in his Cloak. A Keychain. It was the cloak of Organization thirteen, but it was open, like a raven...no, a crow? I changed Reunion for it, and the Keyblade it changed too held all the masks of the Foretellers, wrapped around in the black cloak, held together forming the blade from a Starlight like grip. The tip was Gazing Eye and No Name, crossed. I used my assistant and checked to see what kind of Keyblade this was. “Let's see here…” I mutter, wondering what this keyblade is like. Ageless Promise Att: 14 Def: 9 Mag: 9 A Keyblade binding hearts through time. Pair with a Wayfinder to call allies from the past and future. “Cool.” I say while disbanding my new keyblade, thinking I'll try out something new as I headed back to the pillars, finally having all the pieces I needed. “Okay Rejection, time to kick some sense back into you.” I walked back to the pillars. I placed all the weapons into them and the word began shaking. There was a bright light...then it all faded… the area around me looked...normal. Colors everywhere. From behind the house I spotted the old man, Zeke’s grandpa, dragging Zeke, his dad, and Josh. Josh and Zeke’s dad were beat up bad, and Zeke was...shredded, but his wounds were healing… Wait, didn’t that old guy… He dropped them all, the old man’s lethal wounds still there, but healed in seconds. “Grah, pain in the ass.” He muttered, taking a needle to Zeke and pulling out… Psychopath blood. Near him, one of those Code portals opened up and out came a woman in a long black dress. “Nice work, how’s the new Cript Prototype coming along?” She asked. “Strong, but unstable. Too much Psychopath blood, started an early activation.” The old man said. “Huh, and them?” she pointed to Josh and Zeke's’ dad. “Eh, just tell the up and ups that we need to reset this town and erase their memories, kid’s too. His body needs some more time to ferment with what he has.” He said, taking out the needle and tossing it to the woman. “Gotta say, you really think altering the past to change their biology will make a better host?” “I’ve already traced his oldest ancestor. Once this is done, time will rewrite itself and by the time this Cript is born here, his connection to them will be unbreakable.” “They call him Zeke here.” “What’s it matter, he’s a project nonetheless. I’m off to the past, thanks for the fresh sample, will make one hell of a Psychopath when the time comes.” “Eh, alright. Criminal family made worse, what can go wrong?” They all faded. Leaving me facing a doorway. I could see on the other side was my Station of Awakening...and Rejection curled up. I opened the doorway and entered my station of awakening. “Rejection?” “Hehehehehe, pain from the blood, pain from the moving, pain from standing. Painpainpainpainpain.” He babbled. “Okay…” I mutter while carefully walking over with a potion in hand. “Hey there buddy, time for your crazy meds…” I say nervously, wondering what happened to the poor bastard. “Hehehehe. It hurts, it always hurts all the blood hurts. Too many alive not enough dead, hurts from the death. Hehehehe.” He muttered. I gently moved his head over and forced him to drink the potion, not knowing if it'll fully help but knowing it'll at least dull whatever the hell he's feeling. “Just drink up Mr. Crazy man, it'll be okay.” ‘Hehehehehehehhehehe.Need to stop, how can it stop? Pain, pain-” He then grabbed me by my collsr and slammed his head into mine, and held our heads together, our eyes directly looking into each others. “Hehehehehehhe. Why can’t our pain just go away?!” It was like I was seeing through his...no… Through Psychopaths eyes. I could see it. ALL of it, every death, murder. All from every world, reality, life form, sentient or not, even plants. That wasn’t what was the worst though. I FELT it. ALL of it, the pain. Cyanide, bleeding out, burning alive, suffocation, cancer, heart attack, being crushed. Nuclear explosion. I was feeling it all. This is what they feel...this is why they want it all gone… When it cut, I couldn’t move. Every inch of my body felt the aftershock. The pain. I was crying, there was nothing else I could do. I couldn’t think, barely breathe, my eyes were shut so tight, everything hurt, my body was wanting to go into paralysis. This is why they want everything dead, they can’t make it end any other way? They...just want to die. I could feel it all slipping… my mind was...breaking. I thought of Luna, Twilight, Rarity, Jenny, Dinky, Derpy. They all… Huh? I thought, realizing my body was...was feeling better. I managed to open my eyes and saw...a figure. They were a pure white silhouette, radiating with a...holy glow, is the best I can describe it. “H-hello?” I asked, feeling my left eye be the color of an Insanity but I didn’t feel anything bad from it. “Who...who are you?” “What, is the better answer.” They said, their voice was like a man and woman talking at once in unison. “I am Humanity, the light of it anyway. You, Cript, and another draw power from me. But I am only half of what Humanity is truly.” “And that half won't be here cause...well…” I point to my black and red eye for emphasis. “Heh, no. In a way, that is part of them. Tell me, do you really believe Sentient life, or life in general, is meant to be completely good? Or even balanced?” “It should at least be balanced enough so shit doesn't go haywire and all life dies.” I say. “All life shouldn't be completely good or completely evil, but there's this mystical grey area everyone keeps forgetting about, where goods not always good and evils not always evil…” I explain simply. “But given your a fact of life what's the answer you were expecting?” “Nothing you said is wrong, but, in truth, everything is wrong.” “What do you mean?” I asked curiously. “Seems a tad weird that everything is wrong.” “How to put this… There is one man I know of who has the closest answer… Ah, right. Nothing matters, as he puts it. Nothing exists with reason, we make our own reasons, and give each other reason. So long as we hold something or someone dear, that’s all we need to keep going with a sense of purpose, or destiny, as some put it.” “I don't entirely like Destiny...but hey if I didn't have my family right now I wouldn't be where I am now.” I explain. “Exactly...and that is where my other half has failed. They became lost, driven mad by a desire for there to be some force grander than all governing everything, and so, when the first Admins went to war, he took action, creating death, and in time, darkness, evil, The Psychopaths. Those abominations are him directly, controlling bodies directly. My power can cut the link between a Psychopath, or him, and the host, but sometimes...it’s too strong, and when the link is cut, they die. He is...no longer my other half.” “And what would happen if some lucky jackass had both halves?” I asked curiously, remembering a thing about Cript and having both of those halves. “Can it...help stop the pain?” “We are meant to be one, but his choices made us two. Within Cript, there is part of the answer, but there must be more to it. We exist because of life believing in things like good and evil, more must know the power of both, to understand what was meant to be true humanity, born neutral, and then chooses good and evil. Many do already, but that is still not enough. Corruption lies deep within the heart and soul of many, many, but not all.” “Right…” I say. “So that's a thing. Can't wait to stumble upon an answer out of the blue for whatever reason.” I chuckle, knowing my luck that just might happened. “For now, I can keep you and your darkness safe, but until you can understand evil as much as you do good, these nightmares will continue, and grow worse.” “Maybe the bastard Psychopath can drop by and tell me that for whatever reason.” I shrug. “But Cript is gonna be a good second if I never meet the soul bastard responsible.” I say. “So...understand evil to stop my nightmares...easier said than done.” “In time. For now, return to the waking world, for a long road ahead of you.” They said, placing a ringer to my head and I felt...tired. The sound of flesh hitting flesh resonated in the auction hall, a fancily dressed guy being flung straight into a solid stone wall and creating a hole in it from the force. All eyes stayed on Straw Hat Luffy as Celestial Dragon blood dripped from his fist. Now while this did cause a panic, Joy felt his fur stand on end as he looked at a white haired man glare at nothing, causing everyone besides Joy, the straw hat pirates, and two others who were just sitting in their stands. “There we go.” The old man says. “The...hell was that?” Joy mutters, wondering how the hell the old man could force his will to knock out others. “Well, you kids certainly seem to be having fun.” The old man said, before turning to the captive mermaid in the broken container. “Wait!” Nami called out in a panic, only to see the old man just take the collar off with no problem. “Huh?” “Ah come on, I just got the keys.” Franky frowned, showing he had the keys to the collar and cuffs. “You can hand them over to them.” The old man said, pointing to the other slaves. “Rayleigh!” The mermaid smiled, so glad to see her friend here. “What are you doing here?” “I was sleeping, but then all this happened.” The old man said simply, looking at everyone not knocked out, his sight lingering on both Luffy and Joy. “Hmm...quite a group here.” Joy’s ear twitched as he looked at the entrance. “Mind if we get to talking later? Sounds like the Navy is here and they don't sound happy.” “Well looks like we should give them a nice greeting.” Trafalgar Law said, standing up and heading out, his Nodachi resting across his shoulder. “Yeah, no need to keep them waiting.” Another said, this time it was Captain Kid that got up and walked out. As the group walked out they were met with a crap ton of marine grunts with swords drawn, flintlock rifles and mobile cannons all pointed at the group. “Put your hands in the air pirates!” A marine shouted. “They do know who we are right?” Joy asks curiously. “Haven't heard anything about you pup.” Law said simply, a small ring of wind forming above his hand. “Make sure not to get in our way.” Eustass said dismissively, his grin never leaving as he had the glint of bloodlust here. “Oh you want to see what I can do?” Joy asks, starting to walk over to the marines. “Hey! Put your hands in the air now!” The marine demands. “You’re grunts, mere cannon fodder here. What do you think you'll do?” Joy asks simply, the sound of a gunshot was heard and Joy grabbed something out of the air. He opened his hand and showed a steaming bullet in his hand, completely unfazed. “Anyone else want to prove my point?” Joy asks simply. “Damn it, attack!” The marine in charge shouted as the marines charged, Joy blurring out of existence and shocking both Kid and Law. “Who is that kid?” Law asked Luffy, seeing him start to beat Marines with his bear hands. “That's Joy, a new friend.” Luffy replied with a proud smile. “He's really strong.” “Fire!” Someone shouted as cannons went off and shot towards the three pirates. “Gum Gum Balloon!” Luffy said while inflating like a balloon and bouncing the ball back. “Repel.” Kid said while raising a hand and pushing the cannonball back. “Room.” Law said while a giant bubble surrounded him and bunch of marines. “Shambles.” He said, flicking his hand in a weird way, the cannonball and a marines head somehow switching places before the explosion hit several other marines. “Interesting…” Joy muttered, seeing Law and Eustass Kids powers on display. Joy dodged an obvious swing from a marine and just looked at him. “Is there any high ranking officer here? Cause trust me...you’re not going to win here.” Joy said simply. “What are you?” The marine asked in fear, seeing Joys eyes and knowing, even though Joy was a kid, there was power behind it. “Someone way above your pay grade.” Joy tells the marine. “Joy! Let's go!” Luffy calls out, running off with his crew back to Shakky’s bar. “Right then.” Joy nodded while dashing off towards his friends. “That kid is hiding something…” Law mutters to himself, only to hear Eustass getting hit by something, only to turn and see someone he really didn't want to. “Well shit.” When Joy and the rest entered Shakky’s bar they noticed Rayleigh sitting at the counter with a drink already. “Oh, hey guys.” The old man said honestly. “Hey Rayleigh.” Luffy smiled, everyone going around and getting comfy. “So, who's the pup?” Rayleigh asked, motioning to Joy. “My name's Joy…” The pup said, trying to figure out what was this power behind Rayleigh. “Ah, a Keyblader huh?” Rayleigh asked with a knowing grin, causing everyone, besides Shakky, to stare at him. “How did you…” Nami starts, before Rayleigh lifts his hand and summoned a Keyblade himself. “Ends of the Earth?” Joy asks, surprised to see him have such a Keyblade, thinking Rayleigh would have something different. “Well when you've been to the end of this earth it seems fitting.” Rayleigh says honestly. “Roger had one, and so did many of his crew.” He said simply. “So...you know about the Void Century?” Robin asked him. “Yeah. We know about it.” Rayleigh nodded with a knowing grin. “But I'm sure you'll learn about it sooner or later Nico Robin.” “Who else knows about Keyblades?” Joy asked. “The World Government, Shanks and his crew, Whitebeard and most likely his crew, and a few others.” He says simply, disbanding his keyblade. “Hell, there was an entire island full of them we didn't know whether we stepped onto another world or not.” He chuckled. “Wait, Shanks knows about those key things?” Luffy asked with a smile. “Oh yeah, he even has one.” Rayleigh nodded. “Shanks has said a lot about you Luffy, and I'm glad to meet the kid he gave his straw hat to.” He nodded, Luffy getting a giant smile and gently pulling down his hat in joy at the thought of his old friend. Joy looked thoughtful, wondering if there was any survivors of the keyblade war on this world. “Interesting…” Joy muttered, before they heard something outside blow up. “That's not good…” Joy muttered before rushing outside with the others. To be continued...
Nobody's bad day, Joy's messagePain. Everything hurt. My body ached like crazy. Slowly, I forced my eyes open, and saw I was buried. Under corpses. “Oh…” I muttered, trying to move the corpses off of me so I can see what's going on. When I got myself out under what felt like a mountain of death. When I emerged, I was in the Keyblade Graveyard. The death was everywhere. “Again?” I muttered. “Okay...time to look around…” I mutter while starting to move around this new graveyard to see if there were any survivors. I called out, no response. As I was walking I came across… Twilight. Her Keyblade shoved do deep through her stomach and into the wall she was pinned to only half the grip was out. I knew it was her Keyblade, cause I saw the keychain…”Oh no…” I muttered. “No...no no no….” I walked up to her. Slowly, I lifted her head. Horror flooded me. Her eyes... they looked like they were burned clear through into her skull. Just...chard skin and bone the way through. “Fucking hell.” I muttered, starting to look around and hoping the others are alive. “Hello?” I called out again, moving around to see where the others were. I heard a scream, and followed. When I turned a corner, I saw someone in a blue organization 13 cloak. They had a hand pressed against someone's head. The person's eyes glowing a bright light as fire erupted from their eye sockets. “Hey!” I barked, summoning my new keyblade that I got from my one dream and rushing towards the bastard burning the person alive. They turned to me, summoning One Winged Angel and raised it to face me. I slashed down towards the strange person with the rare keyblade. They blocked, quickly going in for a jab. I dodged, bearly, and swung my Keyblade at them as I spun. Rather than dodge, he drew a new weapon… Graceful Delilah… How does he have it? And blocked my swing with it. “Who are you?” I asked bluntly, summoning Skysplitter and swinging at him, trying to catch him off guard. Every swing I made, he dodged. It was like he had an eternity of combat ahead of me. Finally, I managed to knock his hood back...and froze. His eyes...were stitched shut, and branded with...some kind of symbols. His mouth, his cheeks on both sides were...torn and...ripped, like they were pried open beyond what he should be able. “Okay what in the unholy fuck.” I frowned. ”I wonder if I'm going to talk to the King in this new hell...cause I'm talking to everyone here!” I mentally complain, finding this pretty freaky. “Like it.” As I turned around I felt the tip of a Keyblade pressed against my back. That voice… “You sure have been having a lot of Nightmares Ben.” Kexez said. “Like you give a damn.” I roll my eyes. “Your a Nobody with God like powers you don't want to use. I kind of guessed you had it because of the X-blade in some way shape or form.” I said. “True. Zeke learned early on the X-blade is only wielded by one of a balanced heart, Royalty. King, or Queen, of the realm of light and darkness. Zeke didn’t care for that though, so it was tossed aside. Even without his heart, I can still use some of it. I can create Keyblades, as well as new life. For example, before you is one of my former followers turn mutant. An angel. His name was Castiel, heh, was being the keyword. Now his mind is empty, his heart broken, just a loyal husk with incredible powers and strength. The world I made base on has...quite the plethora of unique and strong beings. As well as artifacts. In place of his heart, I placed an item called The Leviathan Tablet. There are lots of tablets on that world, each for a different creature, but you see what a Leviathan-Angel hybrid can do.” Kexez snapped his fingers, and Castiel’s head snapped open, his head becoming nothing but one big mouth as featherless wings sprouted from his back. I started to shake, my left eye turning into a Psychopaths. “This waste of life…” I growled. “You just torture people and strip away their life...just to make weapons?” I said, preparing myself to fight these two fuckers. “You want to see how strong this fucker is? Well I'll show you it's not enough.” I growled, spells circling around me as I boosted all my stats and the runes on my body glowed. “Halt.” Kexez and I looked to the left where the voice called out. There was someone walking in the armor Joy described adorned him when he fought Eve. “Hmm. Well, what warrants his arrival?” Kexez asked aloud. “Maybe to see my interpretation of the next keyblade war.” I say while motioning to the mountains of bodies in this barren hellscape. “I care not for your childish nightmares or this one’s hellish creations.” He said, motioning towards Kexez. “I come today to tell you that you are no longer the sole heir Ben.” “Cause when you have a Nobody who's connected to Kingdom Hearts your like ‘Gee should I wait for this one depressed fuck with a lot of issues or just go with Mr. God Like over here’.” I explain, my tone being very good at explaining how bullshit that sounds. “Am I wrong?” I asked bluntly, knowing full well he's gonna talk about Kexez here. “Very much so.” The old king said, making me confused. “It’s been so long since anyone met the qualifications. Let alone two. So, for my own amusement, I’m making it a competition for the crown. Before this second Keyblade war is to begin, you two will battle for my crown on the world without a heart. There, we will see if one with a heart can claim the crown, or something without a heart, but connected to them all.” “Well...it's a bit better than throwing me under the bus…” I said, taking a deep breath. “So, I'm glad to finally meet you...um...I think I heard your name before from Cripts old master...but Im not sure…” I say, remembering when I went into that Masters world above his grave. “A life I long since called dead. Now then, to make this official.” He said, raising a hand as mine, and from the look of it, Kexez’s right hands burned and smoked, the Nobody symbol branding us. “You both have armies, power, potential. Make it a good show.” He said, laughing as everything went black. I woke up and groaned. “Damn it…” I mutter, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes. “Well…” I muttered, looking at right hand to see if the symbol was there. And when I saw it was there I just groaned more. “That was a thing…” I got out of bed and got dressed, feeling tired even though my nightmare wasn't that horrific and I noticed the runes on my body glowed. “Oh yeah...I need to practice these…” I mutter. Too tired for much thought I just looked back at the bed. Pinkie and Twin were still there, as well as Aj and Silence. ”Wonder how she sleeps with those things on?” I thought to myself about Silences bandages. ”This shouldn't be your fight…” I thought before sighing, heading out to get some breakfast. In the kitchen I saw Celestia making rather large stacks of paincakes and Luna chugging a pot of coffee right out from the maker. “Morning Ben…” Luna grumbled, drinking more coffee. “I see I'm not the only one who hasn't been sleeping well.” I grumble, loving the smell of pancakes. “But morning...um Luna...have you looked into my dreams?” I ask the tired mare. “Hm? Oh, no. Can’t. Your brain’s frequency is something I can’t access. I think it’s the Nobodies who do it, I was only able to do it that one time cause of Jenny, through her dreams we traveled through the links from the heats, and from there you can technically say I used her as a shield to get into your mind. Speaking of, wonder how she is doing?” Meanwhile. “Week long bender!” Jenny screamed, standing atop a pile of drunken crusaders. “Where is Joy…..” Sweetie muttered through her drunken headache. With Ben. “Eh, can’t be too bad since your clone is there.” “Jenny's there…” I frowned. “And...oh wait, there going on a week long bender wondering where the hell Joy is…” I frowned. Luna sighed. “If it was any other child, I’d be worried.” Luna said, finishing off the coffee then putting the jar back to refill. “So, has anyone seen Chrysalis this morning?” Celestia asked. “She wasn’t in bed when I woke up and I haven’t seen her yet.” “No…” I say worriedly. “I hope she's alright.“ “Has she done this before?” Luna asked, setting the coffee pot to brew again. “Well, once. Don’t know what she did then either but she was back rather fast.” Celestia admitted. “Well looks like I'm gonna be having to look for her…” I sigh out, knowing there's plenty of spots to hide here. “How close are we to the capital?” “We’ll be there by days end.” Luna said. Watching the coffee drip into the pot. “Alright…” I nodded. “Do I...move in my sleep?” I ask nervously, thinking these nightmares would make me accidentally hit one of them. “Not really, you do mutter a lot, but it’s like… I don’t know, another language I think?” Celestia said, flipping an oversized pancake on her pan. “It’s really soft so we only hear it when one of us directly next to you.” “Anything you can recite? Cause the only language I know well is Common and some minor Latin…” I say nervously. “One word you say a lot I think it’s… Kersra, or something like that.” “Kersra?” I ask, raising an eyebrow in confusion. “I mean...Kexez is the closest I could think off…” I mutter worriedly, wondering what I spout while I'm asleep. “Maybe Pinkie or Twin recorded what I said because...reasons.” I rolled my eyes, knowing they probably would do something that weird. I wanted to talk about them being apart of my fights but I stopped myself. “When are those pancakes gonna be done?” “Ten more minutes or so.” “Okay, call me when your done. I'm gonna be looking for Chrysalis.” I say while getting a quick drink of water and downing it before walking off through the place, looking for Chrysalis. “Hope she's alright…” I muttered, searching for the sexy changeling. I went out to the deck and looked up. High up near the front was a form of Crows next, and there, I spotted her. She was looking at the landscape. “Hello?” I gently called out. “What are you doing out here Chrysalis?” “Hm?” She looked down at me. “Oh. Hey Ben. Nothing, just...looking at the landscape.” She admitted. “My whole life my hive lived underground, expanding the hive and having to sneak around to gather love to survive. Now… We can stay out in the open, no disguise needed, and not have to worry about when our next meal is… it’s a world my mother used to say was never meant for a changeling.” She spoke, gaze never leaving the landscape. “How's it feel to prove her so horribly wrong?” I ask her, looking to the landscape below us. “Half glad, half sad. Mom put so much for the hive in her time. We have been called lots throughout the years. Monsters. Demons. Shapeshifters. Ghosts. Angles once, but we always called ourselves hungry, or starving. For once my kind will know what it is like to never fear hunger or starvation. Look, my holes even healed up. Didn't know they could heal up or close, had them for as long as I can remember.” “I understand.” I nodded. “And glad to see those holes are healed up. But hey, right now your in a loving herd, with children on the way...oh god it's gonna be a nightmare to name all of the kids.” I groaned. “So...know anything about the Zebrican royals that I should be aware of?” “I know there was an old changeling hive there two thousand years ago. Doubt it’s still there. If it is, we’re in trouble.” “Why?” I asked worriedly. “Changelings from different hives act like wasps from different nests. We just fight, and fight, and fight until one hive remains. Something about the difference in our pheromones.” “Well if they are there they'll probably know about me and how I deal with bullshit against my family.” I say simply. “Maybe. Believe it or not my past invasion of Canterlot was tame compared to what past hives have done. There is one hive that’s the worst of them all though. It was the one time all other changeling hives managed to resist the urge to kill one another and worked to kill them specifically.” “Fed off wrath huh?” I asked curiously. “Or do all Changelings just feed off of one thing ?” “Normally, all changelings feed off love, but those ones… they fed on souls. Their queen was talented with magic, but was...selfish minded. She summoned forth a demon, and killed it. Legends speak of those who kill demons and devour their hearts… Being the queen, when she ate the demons heart, she gained all it’s powers, and so did all her hive. They weren’t changelings anymore, just shape shifting demons. Before, that war, there was over a hundred hives, after, there was four left. Mine, my great grandmothers at the time. The Zebrican hive, The South Hive and the Lunar hive.” “There's still so much I don't know about this world…” I sighed out. “But the Lunar hive? What, are they big Luna fans?” I joke, trying to lighten the mood. “Hehe, no. Some old legends say that the Lunar hive feeds not on love, but on celestial energy, energy from planets, or moons. They were also talented with magic, and fed from the moon every night. No tales of where their hive is though. Lots think they died off after the war, some say they were never real. Was WAY before I was born, so I don’t know for sure.” “Right then.” I nodded. “Uh...question, are Ursa Minors and Majors celestial creatures? And if so...are there others?” I ask, really curious on if there are others. “The Ursa are not Celestial themselves, but they reflect them. The only real Celestial creatures are Alicorns and from the look of it, Keyblades it seems.” “Apparently. But are there more than just the Ursa? Like Scorpions, Lions, anything else?” I ask, really hoping I can possibly tame a celestial scorpion and ride it, or maybe a celestial lion. “Not to my knowledge. Maybe Twilight or that other Twilight might know… Say, have you noticed something off about that one? The one from Daybreak I mean?” “She's just going through some stuff.” I shrug, not lying but dodging the question like Zeke dodging a much needed nerf. “Maybe. There’s just something about her… I might just be paranoid or something but I swear it’s like looking into her eyes there’s someone else looking through them. Know what I mean?” I put my hand over my left eye. “You'd be saying the same thing to me…” I mutter sadly, knowing I have to face this and accept it but it still scares me. “Hm?” “Just...something I'm wondering if I should show you all…” I sigh out. “Yeah, I-” Chrysalis started before stopping abruptly. She turned he head to the right so fast it would make an owl jealous. “Did...you sense that?” I took a deep breath and focused, trying to sense what she felt and bringing out my new keyblade just in case. It was an energy, new, that just appeared. It was familiar yet different. I took a sniff to the air and smelled someone… female, that was all I could make out. “Someone’s here.” I growled, looking around to see if they were here specifically. Chrysalis got up, looking out and over the edge of the deck. Nearby, she opened a sack and pulled out a spyglass. She peered down it for a time before speaking. “I see someone.” She said, handing me the spyglass. I took it and looking into it, I saw someone… they were holding a rather large axe, dressed in a full set of metal armor, like a knights, and they were covered in this unnatural red aura. They looked around for a time before taking...something out, and vanished in flurry of firefly like green lights. When they left I looked at Chrysalis, the both of us feeling that energy leave. “That...was very weird...and very worrying.” I say worriedly. “That power...it felt familiar...god who was that?” I asked worriedly, wondering if I ever saw someone with either an axe or armor like she had. “You think the others felt it too?” “It would be weird if they didn't cause...that's a lot of power that just up and vanished.” I say. “This is weird…” I ran back inside to find the others. As I passed an open door I saw Twi- No...Bara… She-He was reading that book I found. The one from the cave. “Hey, did you sense that energy and if so do you know who it belongs to?” I ask. “I felt it.” They said simply, flipping the page. “Who it belongs too I don’t know, but I know what causes that. Figured you would know. Your dead friend carried that Keyblade.” They then looked up at me, a smirk on their face. “Looks like things in Daybreak are going to get interesting.” “Then it sounds like you need to go back before shit goes haywire.” I say, worried about how someone just suddenly had that power here. “And what's in the book given your reading it?” I asked, not having gotten around to reading the whole thing yet. “Most of it talks about the Gazing Eye and No Name Keyblades, their abilities, and how to replicate them with spells. It’s interesting, but not what I was hoping for.” “Doesn't it talk about Nothingness in some way?” I asked, kind of hoping to learn something about it cause of speeded up deadlines. “Not really. Sorry pup, but when it comes to Nothingness there’s already little to say there. Only one with the answers is the King himself.” She said, closing the book and getting up. “But I guess you are right, I don't wanna miss seeing who is this new wielder of the X-blade.” She said as a DTD opened behind her. “Or...too Daybreak to make sure something bad doesn't happen?” I suggest. “Nah. What’s the fun in that?” They asked as they walked into the DTD, it closing behind them. “Of course…” I sighed out before heading off to find the others and talk to them about the sudden power. “Well...let's hope there not going to my house...300+ daughter's, Joy’s herd going on a drunken bender...oi vey.” I sigh out. Joy and the Straw Hat crew exited the bar and saw someone they really hoped they wouldn't meet. “Kuma!?” Robin gasped. “Well shit.” Joy frowned, but looked closer. “Wait...that's not Kuma!” Joy shouted, the giant person opened his mouth and light glowed in it. “Shit!” Joy yelped before bolting over and uppercutting the robot, causing it's head to snap up and fire the bolt towards one of the giant trees, causing a huge explosion when it hit. “No, they finished it!?” Robin gasped. “Finished what?” Franky asked bluntly. “The Pacifista…” Robin said worriedly. “A robot made to look like the real Kuma and follow absolute orders…” “So basically their killing machines for the government? Wonderful.” Joy grumbled before the fight went into full swing. After about two minutes the machine went down and exploded, Luffy, Sanji and Zoro all panting from the exertion. “There...we beat it.” “Oh dear.” A laid back voice said in surprise, making everyone snap over to see a very tall man dressed in a yellow and white striped outfit, a navy admiral cape drapped across his shoulders. “Admiral Kizaru!?!” Joy panicked, knowing exactly where this is going. “Admiral!?!” Chopper, Brook and Usopp all screamed in terror. “You destroyed one of our Pacifista robots huh?” Kizaru said, seeing the crater the explosion caused. “Well I better no let you all go.” He said before raising his leg, the entire body part shining a bright light. “Move!” Joy shouted, everyone diving for cover as a beam of light shot out, causing another big explosion. “This is all I needed right now.” Joy muttered, drawing Hearts Guardian cause he wasn't sure if Lindworm could hurt a man literally made of light. “A Keyblade huh?” Kizaru said in more surprise. “Who are you little guy?” “The names Joy.” He said, ready to fight the guy. “Hold that thought.” He said before another Pacifista walked up to the group. “Oh come on!” Sanji shouted. “Another one!?” “We’ll just keep breaking them until there isn't any left!” Luffy shouted before leaping over to fight the new robot. “Where'd you come from kid? Off world?” Kizaru asked, creating a sword made of pure light. “Off world, but I come with a message.” Joy said. “And you can take this up to your superiors, but the Straw Hat pirates are under the protection of the Prince of Nothingness, one of the, being his Bard.” Joy said. “And the second Keyblade war is coming, the Prince is extending his hand to all the survivors or any keyblader wanting to keep the light alive to join him under his banner.” Joy told Kizaru. Kizaru’s normally laid back demeanor seemed to go stock still. “I've heard of the war kid…” “So the Prince wants us old timers to join him to fight the war huh?” Rayleigh asked, walking up with his normal sword and Ends of the Earth in both his hands. “I never was apart of the war, but I heard it was the bloodiest of all time...not even the most blood thirstiest of pirates would want to be apart of it if they knew it's horrors.” “Well I'm just putting the message out. We need all the help we can get, and three survivors of the keyblade war are also out spreading the word. We only want existence to stay intact and people survive after all this.” “Hmm…” Kizaru hummed, looking over and seeing the Straw Hats being flung away by the real Kuma. “I'll send word to the Government Joy. We may not want to work with pirates...but if it's to save our world then so be it.” “I'll put out word as well to the people I know.” Rayleigh said. “Thanks.” Joy nodded, before Kuma stood behind him. “Sent the others away?” Joy asked. “Yes.” He nodded, seeing the keyblade in Joys hands. “That weapon…” “He works for the Prince of Nothingness Kuma...I'll tell you the rest when we head back to HQ.” Kizaru said, his laid back nature seeming to take a back seat here. Kuma nodded. “I know a place…” “If it means more help...then let's get going.” Joy said, taking a deep breath before he vanished into thin air from Kuma sending him away with his Paw Paw ability. Den had Cadence and I in the living room to practice some stuff. “So...after all of this your going back to the Crystal Empire?” I asked Cadence curiously. “I...don’t know honestly. I know it’s my kingdom, they need me, but… Could you go back to the place you saw your loved one murdered?” She asked me. I wanted to make a joke about how I kind of abandoned Earth to be hear but kept it to myself. “Sooner or later your gonna have to face it...even if it hurts.” Cadence sighed. “I know… But right now I just… want to stay away from it.” “It's alright, stay as long as you want.” I tell her gently, hiding my worry about that weird knight woman behind just talking and practice. “Oh question, Chrysalis didn't know but are there any other creatures like the Ursa?” I ask her, having a feeling she would know cause of Twilight. “Hm...I remember Twilight did a report on them, they have a sort of cousin way up north, past the Crystal Empire. They’re only seen during an Aurora though.” “And other species besides bear?” I ask curiously. “I was told the Ursa and anything like them aren't celestial beings...even if they have constellations in their fur.” “Well, they say there is a special type of Dove in the White Tail Woods. It’s like a Phoenix, but shines bright blue and freezes what it touches, rather than burns. They say if it’s caught, the one who catches it gets a wish. It’s an old foals tail so I’m not sure if it’s true or not.” “Nightmare Moon was treated as an old foals tale, Im sure the Crystal empire was also treated as it, Slender Pony needs to stop staring at this house and actually come up and say hi, and there was a war on cheese...I'm pretty sure an Ice Swan granting wishes isn't that much of a story when you think about it.” I explain. “I guess. Most of Equestria is unexplored so it is likely. Still…” “Hello.” Den said as she entered the room, carrying Baby Braig, Nancy, and some diapers. “Today is Diaper changing.” Den said. “Goody.” I grumble. “Alright, let's get on with this.” I got a whack on the back of the head. Looking behind me, I saw it was Cript. “Pay attention. It’s a lesson males and females need to know.” “That's why I said ‘let's get on with this’.” I said. “Just because I don't like it doesn't mean I'm not gonna do it.” I huff, rubbing the back of my head. “Less attitude then.” Cript said, pulling out a book and flipping through the pages. “Fine fine…” I say. “But...I talked to Humanity if you needed to know.” I tell Cript, not knowing if he knew it but still wanting to tell him as I got ready to start with my new job here. “Really? So, how did that go?” Cript asked as Den handed me Nancy, the pup drawing a blank expression upon looking at me. “Oh you know, a good talk about how Psychopath is it's other half, how it might be possible to have both Psychopath and Humanity powers, and how if I don't fully understand good and evil my nightmares will continue to get worse.” I explain, starting to change Nancy’s diaper. “Welcome to my hell, population now two.” Cript said, petting/messing up my hair. “And besides that whole thing the King of Nothingness is now wanting me to beat Kexez in a fight to keep my future job cause you know, he wants entertainment when he can pick a god like douche.” “Called it!” Cript yelled, suddenly running towards a window. “You owe me fifty rem Jesus! Pay up ya pot smoking hippie!” As soon as Cript moved from the window, a small bag was thrown in from nowhere. “That’s more like it.” He said as he picked up the small bag. “It's been awhile since someone bet on me doing something or being apart of something.” I sigh out. “But you know, Zeke needs to be kicked down a few pegs and his Nobody is the closest thing right now for me to shove all my rage on.” “Had an issue with the old X-blade wielder?” Cript asked, counting the money in the bag. “Zeke as a nice guy and all, but when he was basically gifted god like powers right out the gate while we all have to work for it…” I frowned. “And then a bunch of other crap happens, he's the cause for this new war coming up…” I sigh out. “Just a bunch of crap going on right now.” I said. “Did you ever see Zeke use the full extent of his powers?” Cript asked. “No for a few reasons, one because we’re not at the part of the story where we all get god like powers, two because he didn't feel like it, and three because he'd possibly rather just be a hero with a keyblade rather than god.” I say honestly. “Or is it for another reason?” “Well, if he is a reflection of me, and he is, it’s likely just he didn’t care for it. Even before I became an Admin I was OP. My magic was unmatched, ranged combat was very accurate, swords and hand to hand, I was fast and deadly. Did I take advantage of that? Nope. Never cared. I used what I was given to help others when needed, but I just took what life kept throwing at me. It’s how I met Lyra, this whole massive family stuff happened. I only became an Admin because it was the one thing I chose. I only chose it because this is a power too great and easily abused. I’ve made creation better, but I accepted it because, guess why?” “I don't know, I wasn't born great like you and Zeke.” I said sarcastically even if it was true on a technical sense. “Says you. I accepted it because what I was, half a creation, half an admin...it’s what the ‘Pureblood Admins’ needed. They were dying off. A thousand years to us is a nanosecond to them, but they still grow old and die. There’s only about ten that can use Code, the remaining four hundred or so can’t. So, me being an Admin makes you…” Cript pointed at me, wanting me to finish. “Part admin?” I asked. “And we have a winner.” Cript said, moving a finger as a bell rang from...somewhere. “All of you kids have the potential to use Code, but like Humanity, it’s something you have to develop and learn to call forth. Like Humanity likely told you, there is no point to anything, only self motivated purpose. Mine is to keep all reality from screwing itself over too bad, yours is your family, and to be king of nothingness, but being in my family, I am keeping doors open for you for higher purposes, only if you want them. Whether you do or not, they will be there, but it’s your choice.” “Well I already have an ass ton of things to do...and given current trends in my life I'm most likely going to have full Psychopath powers along with Humanity somehow…” I shook my head. “Jeez, came a long way from being just an average guy with super powers to suddenly becoming...all of this.” As I finished up Diapering Nancy, Cript nodded. “Well yes, but the question you keep forgetting to ask is. Do you want all of this? Do you want to be King of Nothing? A World Renowned Hero?” “A world renowned hero? That's fine, got the powers so might as well do something good with them. King of Nothing? Well that's been predetermined for me and I've done a lot of work for it so might as well.” I shrug. “And then everything else? Well I'll get to it when it actually becomes a more relevant thing.” I explain. “But if this all means I can keep my family safe...then sure it seems fine with me.” “Good an-” Cript suddenly stopped, his eyes growing wide. Like he just saw a ghost. “Cript?” Den asked. “I gotta go.” He said quickly, vanishing in thin air. “Well...that's not good.” I frown. “I’ve seen him like that before. When something bad just happens…” Den spoke, looking uneasy. “Wonder what it was?” Then, there was a beep on my Assistant. “Hmm?” I hum, looking at my Assistant to see what was up. Attention Family. Spike “The Dragon” Sparkle, son of Mother Twilight #1 … Has passed. Age: 16 May 14, 2002 - May 21, 2018 Level: 983,278 “Ah, that's why.” I said. “It happens to the best of us, no matter how hard we try.” I say, not knowing if I met the guy but I did feel sad about him being dead. I looked up at Den...she was in tears. “I...have to go…” She said, getting up and leaving. “Must have been a pretty good kid…” I mutter, not knowing much about my family but family dying...well I've been through that already. “He was the first.” I turned around, seeing Cript, eyes red from tears and...his arms were black? Almost charcoal. “My...first child. Adopted, when Twilight married in…” I took a deep breath. “Oh...right.” I say, not entirely feeling like a dick since I had literally no emotional investment with that Spike but knowing how it feels to lose someone truly close to you. “I'm sorry…” “And now...he’s the first to die, and not come back… Ever.” Cript added. “How did...he die?” Cadence asked. “A Delete. I...wanted to explain later, but now seems as good as any.” Cript said, taking a seat next to me. “You know about Nexus and all that they do, right?” Cript asked me. “Just the part about you and their worship for Psychopaths, but besides that I have literally no idea about them.” I said. “Just some super evil society from what I gathered.” “Well, to put it short I recently found out they have been...Evolving. So to speak. They no longer care for the Psychopaths. They moved on to Deletes, much worse, but way more rare and hard to find. They are made inside the void, and anything they touch or even get near…. vanishes...Admins included. I learned making enough excess energy around one can keep you alive...long enough to kill one. But they...are making them. I don’t know how, but they are. They are becoming those Deletes...and they killed Spike… His mind, soul...it’s gone. They left his body as a warning… They’re going from parasites, to predators.” “Can my time limit get any shorter?” I frown, hating how another big thing is happening that I have to super prepare for. “Relax. This script you are all working from is made to accelerate time for you and the others involved in it. For it, it will feel normal. Outside, a month for you is an hour outside it. You have time. I’m the one...who’s going to have to step it up outside this Script.” Cript said. His body was twitching all over. “If these things are made with Void…” I say. “Maybe I could make something to be its opposite and stop them, ya know because Void and Nothingness are like Light and Darkness, they can cancel each other out if the circumstances are met.” I explain. “But then someone would make an ‘Alt’ for my Control and their Delete…” I rub my temple. “I'm so sorry for sounding like an idiot…” “Heh...it’s alright. Your idea has a basis, but until you can grab that crown… It’s just a theory. I need to go… When Den calms down tell her...I’m out of retirement.” Cript said, vanishing in thin air again. “...Feels like your family is, uh...going to war?” Cadence said, rocking Braig back and forth. I picked up Nancy and cradled her like a loving father would. “My extended family is going to war with super bad guys...while my family here is preparing to go to war against regular bad guys.” I sighed out. “And here I was hoping, after I got my crown, I would just start being a good husband and a good father…” I say sadly, tearing up a little as those thoughts seemed farther and farther away. “Wonder if that’s how Cript feels?” I looked at Cadence, confused. “You didn’t hear? His voice when he said ‘tell Den I’m out of retirement’? It sounded like that wasn’t the first time he’d had to say that.” “I suppose.” I said. “I don't know much about this whole family...but oh well, it happens.” “I’m amazed.” “By what?” I asked curiously. “Your lack of empathy.” Cadence said plainly. “If it was Nancy, or Braig, or stars forbid Twilight...you’d be in a worse place than Cript, and he lost his son. Just because you didn’t know him, doesn’t mean you should shrug it off.” “I heard my mother get her brains blown out with a shotgun and saw the mess.” I tell her. “I saw my husband murdered right next to me. His blood soaked DEEP into my fur.” “It's not the fact I don't have empathy.” I state, looking dead in her eyes. “I understand they're in pain, but I quite literally have no emotional investment to that specific Spike. I probably never met him, I don't know anything about him besides he's Spike, and that's it. It's sad yes but death…” I took a deep breath. “Death is a thing that takes us all in unknown number of ways, at any time.” I shook my head. “A friend of mine once told me the best thing we can hope for is the people we care about not die within our life time...but being immortal doesn't give you that privilege.” I tell her. “I do care, and I do have empathy, but when you don't have any emotion behind it...it's just a thing, like when my cousin I barely knew died one day, I was a bit sad but besides that I barely talked to him and I didn't know much about him so I couldn't really be all that sad.” I shrug. “You understand or are you gonna tell me I'm a heartless dick?” “You want the truth?” She asked me, looking away and back to Braig. “Go on.” I say to her. “I hope,” She started, petting Braigs head. “These little ones come out more like their mothers...than their father.” She said, taking Nancy from me and walking to the nursery. “So do I Cadence, at least then they'll be good people.” I call out to her. I sat there for a time, contemplating everything. I began to wonder, and realize, how similar I was to others back on earth. Realizing we only cared about immediate family, those we grew up with, were attached to, we’re devastated when they are gone, but someone across the world dies, no one other than those who knew them will care, or notice for that matter. ”Damn. No wonder it all went to hell come 2012.” I thought. ”Oh well...not like it's gonna change anything right now, Cadence can think I'm a monster all she wants...too bad she's technically kinda right…” I think to myself. So, this is his dwelling? This White Knight… Hm. Guess it’s time to test his metal. As I contemplated getting a drink, ALL my instincts screamed as I jumped forward, right as a beam of pure light tore through the room behind me. When I looked back, the whole of the room behind where I was sitting was...gone. “Looks like some cock ring *really* wants to test my patience.” I growled, casting all my buff spells right now just in case. “So! Who the fuck destroyed a part of my house!?!” I barked. Outside I saw a dark purple mare. She was dressed in black, mane was rather wild looking, her horn was...broken...and she was wielding… Master Keeper?! “So, you’re the White Knight? Rumor had it you were traveling across to the Zebra lands. Guess they were wrong.” She said simply. I saw a large scar over her eye. “Okay...what bad guy are you working for that's obviously lying his ass off to have you be his loyal servant?” I asked the mare simply. She laughed softly. “Oh no, my Master didn’t send me here. This is strictly personal.” She said, taking some steps forward. “I was the only one with one of these Keyblades for SO long, and I’ve been itching to test another wielders metal. Then you show up, playing Hero for Equestria like it’s a sappy comic book.” “Cause being a cunt and letting people die is a bad thing.” I tell her. “And trust me...you do not want to fight me lady.” I frowned. “Funny, I was gonna say the same thing.” She said, her eye with the scar over it changing from it’s light blue/green to a grey brown. I took a deep breath and sighed out, pulling out my Lexicon and opening it up. “Well...if you insist.” I say, an open book appearing behind the mare and slamming closed with her inside. “Off to book world with you.” I say simply. Before I could disband it, the book burst open, it’s pages flying around as… a dark impulse claw reached out, and she climbed herself out. “Nice try.” She said, brushing off the scrapped paper. “My turn.” She said, falling into darkness that quickly rushed towards under me. I jumped back, but the claw came out and grabbed me, and pinned me down. “Cocky, are we?” She asked, the darkness irradiating off her made me feel ill. I put my hand close to her stomach. “Gravity Maelstrom!” I shout, a ball of super condensed gravity hitting her stomach at point blank range and getting her off me. “Cocky? No. Just strong.” I told her while getting up quickly, She chuckled, striking Master Keeper into the ground before placing both hands over her heart. “Come now, my guardian!” She called. I held back a scream as a massive amount of darkness poured out from her, forming a figure in Keyblade armor. The mare fainted, and the dark armored figure picked up the Keyblade and cast a protect spell over her before raising it to me… that armor...looks familiar... “Is that fucking Eraqus?” I frowned, drawing my keyblade and frozen pride as I prepared for this new fighter. They charged. FAST! They were swinging way too fast for me to dodge, so I was forced to use Frozen Pride to keep the attacks from hitting. Damn, I remember from the game he was a pain, and that was him normal! He has to be supercharged like this from the darkness! Think damn it, how am I gonna deal with this? “Twilight Hold!” I shout, a twilight thorns suddenly appearing around the dark being and clamping down on it, starting to tear into it. “Ben!” I looked at the hole in my home, seeing Aqua and Terra jump in. “We just came back and felt that darkness, what’s- What?!” Aqua yelled upon seeing the dark form of her former master. “But that’s...how?” “Master…” Terra said, disbelief across his face as he dropped his Keyblade. “Master... it's me...Terra.” He said, taking a few steps forward. “Don’t.” I tell him. “That guy...he's taken all the darkness from the bitch that wrecked my house. I'm not sure if he's in there or not but one thing's for sure.” I growled, runic circles swirling around me. “Bitch is gonna die.” I could tell my warning fell on deaf ears as he kept moving closer. “Master...dad...please, what happened?” What was once Eriquis looked over at Terra… then shot a ball of darkness towards him. “Terra!” Aqua yelled, rushing and pushing him out of the way...only to take the full force of the attack herself. When Terra his the floor, he snapped back to reality… just in time to see a bright light envelope Aqua’s body… and she changed...their wedding vows magic taking effect...she is becoming a Keyblade. Terra was, the best I could put, speechless. Quickly getting up and taking the newly formed Keyblade. “Aqua… no...no!” He wailed, tears flowing free like a river. I closed my eyes, took a deep shaky breath, but my rage couldn't be contained. The ground beneath be cracked as I slammed into the shadow armor with Skysplitter, to any outside viewer you would have thought you saw the very air crack like glass, and sent the bastard flying with God knows how much force. “FALLEN DOWN!” I roared, the point of where the armor was seemed to sparkle a little, before a massive ball of energy exploded outwards. “How fucking dare you!” I barked, storming over and grabbing Tempest by the neck. “Wake up!” I barked at the unconscious mare, trying to wake the mare up from her stupid power nap. Not three seconds later the fallen Eriquis rushed me, knocking me aside and gently placing Tempest down. Once he saw she was safe he turned to me… I could feel he was pissed now. “YOU KILLED AQUA YOU CUNT!” I shouted at the armor. “If you can even understand me, you'd know you fucked up royally!” I growled, readying Skysplitter to beat this guy. ”I will... protect this mare…” He spoke, raising his Keyblade to me. ”No matter the cost. “You've given up on your students huh?” I ask him, getting into a battle stance as power radiated from me. “Well bring it you old fuck.” I growl. Eriquis rushed me. I brought up Skysplitter ready to slam it on his head, only for his to vanish at the last moment. I was then wrapped tightly in chains of light…. Or darkness rather. The chains pulsating with it and burned my skin. Crap, I can't move at all! I focused and thorns shot out and wrapped around the chains, pulling and breaking the chains as I was able to move thankfully and broke the rest. “Come on, that the best you got?” He simply raised a hand, and a DTD opened behind me. Like an idiot, I looked behind me, and got wrapped in those chains again, only this time, there was something different… I was frozen. I really can't move at all! Eriquis nodded, fading back to shadow and returning to Tempest, who woke up immediately after the last of the darkness returned to her. Upon seeing me she laughed. “Well, seems my Guardian did well, as usual.” I wanted to retort, but couldn't even talk. “Stopga is way overpowered, but necessary sometimes.” She said, walking up to me. “Hm, so much rage… so unwilling to use it properly.” She said, pushing me into the DTD. “The world you are going too recently appeared, and is very unique. Good luck escaping.” She said, darkness clouded everything...then I unfroze, almost falling over as I found myself stop a buildings roof edge. Everything around me was… it looked like a bomb went off here. “Well...doesn’t this look fucking peachy.” I frowned, trying to summon my keyblade to get home. Nothing. I could feel it trying to come, but it couldn't. Like it was lost or...being kept away. “Okay…” I said before focusing, trying to open a Door to Nothingness so I could get home cause if Keyblades won't work let's go with something that isn't light. Still nothing. Not even Nothingness works? What is this place? “Woah!” I heard someone help followed be a crash behind me. Turning around, I saw...Genos? “Darn, that mare got me. When will I learn to stop underestimating my opponents? Oh, hi Ben.” He said, getting up. “Okay...so we're...somewhere.” I said with a frown, looking around to see where we were. “Seriously where are we?” “My scans show very little. I am not detecting life, but I am picking up a familiar geological structure or the area matching one within my data base.” “What's the familiar structure?” I asked him. “Well, this location matches the city known as… Ohio, of the United States. It's a sixty five percent match, the rest seems to be either flooded or obliterated.” Ohio...my home state…”That cunt shoved us back to my world.” I growled. “Well now we know where we are…” “So it-” “Ahhhhhh!” Crash. As if anime logic dictated, Trixie fell from the sky...and crashed on top of Genos. “Ouch! That Tempest is a bitch!” She growler, getting up. “Oh! Sorry Genos.” She said, helping the cyborg up. “Oh! Ben, thank goodness you are alright!” “If that bitch hurts any of my children I swear to god she will be for death!” I barked in rage. “Don’t worry. Den and Cadence got them out of the house and Jenny, surprisingly not hungover, is keeping her busy so they can evacuate Ponyville. She’s calling a lot of heartless.” I stared at Trixie and Genos, the two seeing my Psychopath eye plain as day and it was pretty creepy. “Good….as...as long as they're all okay.” I say, thankful for my family to be safe. “So...welcome to Earth, my original world.” Trixie took a look around. “It's a… it's a dump, can't lie and say it's nice. Sorry.” “That's what happens when the end of the world happens.” I shrugged. “But this world used to be full of life and was fine, where we didn't know people like you two weren't just fictional characters.” I explain simply. “But the day I was sent to Equestria with all my powers...well that was the day the world was ending.” I explained. “So yeah, it's fine to call it a dump.” “So, what are we going to do?” Genos asked. “No idea…” I sigh out. “I can't summon my keyblade for whatever reason, and I can't open a door with Nothingness for whatever fucking reason…” “Hmm…” Genos looked over at Trixie, the two nodded and summoned their weapons fine. “Hm. So it is just Keyblades that cannot be summoned? Strange.” I summoned Skysplitter and cycled through all my weapons that weren't keyblades. “Strange indeed…” I mutter before floating up. “Well we better start searching for answers on how to get home, cause I need to rip the rest of that unicorns horn off and shove it up her ass.” I growled. Trixie threw a card up, it grew large enough for her and Genos to ride as we flew around. It was a short ride before I spotted a familiar building… my home…”And...here's my old home..” I muttered while diving down towards my old house, wondering how wrecked it was. As we got closer I saw it didn't look too bad. Obvious damages were fixed and aside from a broken window looked good. Upon walking inside I felt uneasy. A lot of memories here… when I looked around, I saw what looked like a corpse laid on the couch. “And why is a corpse freeloading in my house?” I ask with a frown, having a bad feeling about this. Genos walked up to examine it, it's body was almost mummified. It's eyes were even long since rotted away. As soon as Genos touched it, it moved, grabbing his arm and made him jump back. “That, it's not alive! I’m not detecting life from it?!” “Get...out…” It heaved, barely able to move. “This house...belonged to a good kid long ago, an old student of mine… I won't...let you defile it…” “Wait…” I said, remembering that voice. “Mr. Torres?” I asked, kneeling down and looking over the mummy. “Mr. Torres is that you?” “Ben… is that...really you?” He wheased out. I...how is he even talking? “I can't see. Eyes rotted ten years ago.” “Ten…” I mutter before pulling out my Lexicon and sifting through it, before closing my eyes and humming an incantation, the mummy was starting to be imbued with unholy energy, my old teacher regaining former strength. “Believe me Mr. Torres, I have a lot to talk about, but what do you mean ten years?” I ask, still very thankful I copied literally all the spells Ainz knew, which happened to be all the spells in Yggdrasil as well as a mastery of Necromancy. “Well… how to put it.” He said, being able to move a bit more, but the spell is still taking effect. “2012 ended badly. Lots died, monsters appeared afterwords. There was just war and survival for sixteen years.” Torres said, sounding sad. “Then, thirty years back, god appeared, said all who is left here, for our sins of violence, tainting the world in blood of our own kind, we will never know the afterlife. We will be bound to our bodies til they rot completely and after, remain as ghosts upon this soil for all eternity. After that, the dead and living fought… if I counted right, and I did, you know I never fail at math Ben, lot like you… it's been close to a hundred years since 2012.” “A hundred years…” I mutter. “But...I've only been gone for half a year at least…” I said, Mr. Torres being able to see even without his eyes and he could tell I was a fuck lot different. “Others...came here, last fall. Time...is a fickle thing Ben, remember that.” He said, able to move proper now and could see, his eyes now glowing orbs. “Wow...always figured you for a furry.” He laughed. I couldn't help but laugh at that. “You have no idea. Trixie, Genos, this is Mr. Torres, my...very old math teacher.” “Pleasure.” Genos said. “Hi…” Trixie said, clearly a bit creeped out. “So, Ben...what happened to you?” Torres asked. “I went looking for you on day Zero but you weren't in the library. Also, here.” He said, handing me a large, old pile of papers. “You owe me like so much home and school work.” “I think I'm way passed a hundred years of home and school work here.” I chuckle. “But God...decided me and a few special others were worthy enough to go see the real universe...which your in right now cause he kind of...died not too long ago if memory serves.” I said honestly. “Huh… well that's unexpected.” Mr. Torres said. “Well, guess it's good you came when you did. Any longer my body would have fully rotted and I'd have gone spirit.” “Well...a friend of mine was so gracious to basically help me become a Lord of the Undead.” I tell him. “So cliff notes, all the things we thought were fictional are all actually real, Kingdom Hearts is a prominent thing in this plane of existence, I have a harem of twenty very sexy women and growing and I'm going to sooner or later be king of a planet.” I explain to him simply. “Also I am all magical with special super powers.” “So your life went from high school loser to poorly thought out fanfiction huh?” Torres laughed. “Pretty much.” I chuckle. “So, is there anyone else still around here I should know about?” “Only ghosts, which reminds me, you best leave before they come around. The ghosts are just murderous and LOVE playing mind games. You got to get off this haunted hunk of rock before sundown.” “We’d love to but…” I frown. “We kind of can't at the moment…” I said worriedly. “But I know an ass ton of spells to subjugate undead so...maybe that'll help.” “Maybe. Let's hope so. Cause come sundown they will be the most active.” “Alright.” I nodded. “Think you can move around enough to help us?” I ask. “Or do you need a bit more of a pick me up?” I ask, noting I still had plenty of MP to last me a long time. “I think I’m good.” He said, getting and standing up. “Damn. Haven't been able to stand for twenty years… good thing my nerves are still dead, otherwise I’d have some serious cramps.” “Alright then.” I nodded. “This still leaves the question as to how we get off this world.” Genos said. “Back when my body still was mobile and not too rotten I saw some off world types getting toyed with by ghosts, didn't hear them start that ship of there's so it might still be there. Granted it would be seventy years old, but it's your best bet.” Torres said. “Want to get off this hell hole?” I asked Torres curiously, not wanting to leave a friend here. “Hell yes. I never thought I’d miss being a teacher so much.” He replied. “Alright.” I nodded. “Ever used a weapon before?” I asked him, flipping through my book and finding a spell to give undead warriors special weapons. “Cause I can give you a weapon if you need.” “Can they fend off or harm ghosts?” “It's a magical weapon yes.” I nodded. “What kind of weapon do ya want?” “What do you have?” “I can create a lot of things with the ‘Create Greater Magic Item’ spell.” I tell him. “I guess just a sword is alright.” “What kind? Short, normal or great?” I ask honestly. “There are dozens of swords to choose from.” “Normal.” “Alright.” I nod before my book glowed. “Create Greater Magic Item.” I said. “One epic level undead bane sword for ya, only works against your foes, not you, coming right up.” My book glowed for a bit before a sword appeared on the ground before me. It was a simple knight sword, with a light green glow around the blade. Mr. Torres picked it up. “Sweet.” “Glad you like it.” I said. “So, let's get going then.” I say, closing my book but keeping it out, digging in my pocket and using an ether on myself just to make sure my mana was up. “So, which way was the ship?” “The park, and we best hurry, it will be dark-” Mr. Torres stopped as we all saw the sky start to darken. “Crap! Run!” He yelled, Genos, Trixie and I following him. “Hastega!” I shout, four copper clocks appeared behind the four of is with the hands spinning faster and faster, doubling our speed. “We’re faster now, let's pick up the pace.” We ran, memory and Torres leading us towards the park. “I still can't believe it's been over a hundred years…” I mutter sadly, finding my old home destroyed to such a horrid extent. “Even after those monsters stopped coming here those left here didn't stop breaking stuff. Last I heard New York got the worst of it.” Torres said as we turned the corner. The old park near the town hall was always beautiful, but now… it's dead. No grass, trees, not even bugs look like they wander around here. It made the ship easy to spot though. “There! That thing has to have some power.” “Lets hope, and if not I probably know a spell to fix it.” I say, hoping to get there before the ghosts find us. “Almost there…” As we reached the home stretch the sky turned dark, and we all were thrown back by an unseen force. “Shit.” Torres and I said. We all got back up and ethereal people started appearing...I know these people. John the local handyman...Suzie the librarian… Harry the Gamestop guy…”John...Suzie...Harry…” I said slowly. “It's me Ben...believe it or not.” Before I took a step forward I realized something...this is what Terra did before- I quickly side stepped and dodged a wave of energy, looking back at the three I saw their eyes were all white, and they seemed… primal, almost. “Hello?” I asked worriedly, ready to defend myself just in case. They didn't reply, each of them letting out a horrifically loud scream that broke whatever glass wasn't broken yet. They then vanished, but my animal instincts told me they weren't gone. “Ben, once someone here loses their body completely they are just mindless killer- gah!” Torres yelped as he was flung against a nearby building. “So glad I still don't have nerves…” He grunted. I growled before I opened my book and light flared out of it. “Consecration!” I shouted, a giant circle appeared out from under me and shot outwards also having Trixie, Genos and Torres in it. “Spirits, get out of my friends and speak.” I demand, the circle glowing with power at my command. The three of them appeared again before me, it looked like they were fighting the spell. “Can you hear me?” I ask the spirits. “Cause I'm sure the librarian would understand the words of a kid that's been in her library too many times to count, the handyman who's helped my dad fix stuff, and the gamestop guy I always met when I bought new games.” I told the three. “I know I look...a lot different but you guys couldn't have lost yourselves here.” “G...g….g…” They started saying, the spell forcing them to speak. “Ge...ge...get!” “Get what?” I asked them. “Get...get...get… GET OFF OUR PLANET!” They screamed, a powerful wave blasted us all back and on the floor. I looked up, seeing them changing the sky...lightning. “AND DIE!” They shouted as the lightning came down. I flinched, closing my eyes… I opened them again and...that person… the one I saw through the telescope. “Who the hell?” I gulped, wondering what more bad lucked I'm getting thrown with. “Who are you?” They turned to look at me. They nodded and looked at the ghosts. They pulled out a wand of some sort and waved it over their rather nasty looking axe. The axe gained a goldish color. He rushed them, the axe actually hacking one of them in half then he spun around, the second blow making the ghost vanish as they turned to light and that light went into the new figure. They then used the wand and summoned a lightning bolt like Zeus and shot it at the ghosts. The area of impact hitting them both as they did the same as the first one who fell. “Who are you? And what the hell did you do?” I ask with a frown, having a weird feeling this was someone like that Knight thing in my head a while ago. They pulled off their helmet...and my jaw dropped. I saw the face of a friend I thought was gone for good… “Long time no see Ben.” The blue eyed blond Ventral said. “Well...I'll be damned.” I said. “It's been a while man.” I smiled. “So...what's with the get up?” “I have been on the best RPG adventure. Let me tell you about it.” Zeke said as we all got on the ship.
Nobody meets a friendZeke and Ben sat across from one another as Genos got the ship working and they took off. There was an understandable silence. “So, first fight against spirits?” Zeke asked, breaking the silence. “I could have handled it.” Ben said while showing his Lexicon. “All the necromantic abilities of an elder lich who's mastered Death magic to the max.” “Hacks.” Zeke said with a laugh. “So...you’re probably wondering where I have been.” “I've been wondering when I'm gonna have to murder your Nobody and dark half.” Ben frowned. “Wait, what? Why? Also… I have a Nobody too? Damn, what did I miss after I exploded?” Ben proceeded to tell ‘Zeke’ all the shit his Nobody, Dark half, and light half have been up to and how his Nobody came to be. When all was said and done, Zeke sighed. “What's fucked up is that it makes sense.” Zeke said. “Nobodies are the body and soul of a person without a heart. If my body is moving around without me, then that means what's keeping it kicking is Psychopath blood, as for my dark half...yeah… sounds like what he would do if he lost my light half.” Zeke muttered. “How's my family been? How long has it been?” “Too long.” Ben shook his head before explaining everything that he knows about what's been going on with his family, about Bara and that whole thing, his new clone just to keep his family together, and as much as he learned from what his fiance's told him. “Its...a long list…” “Damn… So that Psycho who practically killed my Equestria before I arrived is back… damn it, and he's using Twilight as cover and a shield… when the time comes I am going to rip his heart out of her and shatter it.” “Right now he's teaching my fiances how to fight good enough to not die in the new keyblade war your Nobody kind of started.” Ben sighed out. “But yeah, it would be good to have him dead. And why didn't you say anything when I saw you in Zebrica?” “That's where I was? I was warping randomly after modifying a stone I was given to teleport me to alternate worlds of the one I was on. I managed to modify it with a sage to warp me to other worlds aside from the reflections of the one I was on.” “Yeah, you appeared in my world's Zebrica, where I'm going to meet the king and queen and...marry their princess after a nice date.” I say sheepishly. “Wow… world peace via male prostitution. Now I've seen everything.” Zeke laughed. “Says the original man whore.” The wolf chuckled. “But yeah I'm basically going to be king of Equestria by marrying all the single royalty...and also maybe marrying a sexy centaur lady who happens to be the queen of all monsters I don't know.” Ben shrugged. “Wow… well aside from that my time in The Nexus was quite the adventure. Not Nexus the assholes a place called the Nexus that binds powerful souls to it. Guess that explains how I ended up outside my body, and why even after killing all the demons I still didn't reclaim my body.” “Well your body is busy torturing people and turning them into killing machines at the moment.” Ben told him. “And is trying to steal my job.” “Job? Oh that whole heir of nothing stuff. Right. Damn. So, aside from all hell breaking loose anything actually good happen while I was gone?” “Anything good? Well…” Ben tried to think of something, putting a hand over his left eye worriedly. “I mean...I learned why I'm having nightmares of everyone dying.” Ben said sheepishly. “...okay so that would be a no.” Zeke said, scratching the back of his head. “Damn. A guy can't die without everything going to hell and a handbasket huh?” “Except your death caused an ass ton of problems.” Ben frowned. “But oh well. Everyone else is fine as far as I know, except for Huxley he's kinda dead if memory serves.” “He died? Damn… never got to have that fight. Was looking forward to it too. So, where you heading?” “Back home cause this bitch named Tempest kicked me back to that destroyed earth. Fucking Erequis is taking all her Darkness and is protecting her, as well as killing my world's Aqua…” Ben growled, Zeke seeing Ben's left eye changing into a Psychopaths. “But I was told...my family is safe, Den and Cadence got all my kids out…” “Well that's good. Don't suppose you have a spare keyblade huh? I can't summon any other than this.” Zeke said, holding out his hand as a black and white X-blade appeared. “Can't open DTL’s or even change it to a glider. All I can do is summon it, dismiss it, and hit stuff with it. It don't hit hard either.” Ben checked my pocket and found Reunion, and the two Keyblades he got from Yellows corpse and from Cript. “Here, this one Cript gave me, Cript said it's stronger the more darkness you have...and considering you came from a Dark Souls world if the armor and weapon mean anything…” Ben said while handing him the biohazard keychain. “Demon's Souls. My favorite game up with Kingdom Hearts. And… maybe.” Zeke said, taking it and switching it with the bizzare X-blade one. The Keyblade changing to Cript’s Keyblade. “Alright.” I nodded. “So, what happened to you when you woke up?” “Well, I remember exploding… then this forrest was coming into view, then I was in the Nexus, waking up on some freaky magic floor where it was me, a few other people, and a woman with wax covered eyes. Thankfully there was a few weapons I could use to take and fight with since X is sorta MIA for me.” “True.” Ben nodded. “Understandable I suppose. So do you want help tracking your Nobody down? Cause I have a feeling you are the one who has to kick his ass and take your body back.” “Right now I’d rather confront Bara and tell them I’m back. Sort of.” “Yeah, that would be good.” Ben nodded. “Also be careful...your dark half will try to attack your home and steal that Void Keyblade...only way he can get rid of Darkness for good as far as he kept saying.” Ben shrugged. “Hm… Interesting, but a lost cause. X locked and wrapped in in special chains of light. Only X can unlock it.” “Does it need to be the whole X or just X with whatever fragment it has?” The dire wolf asked curiously. “Huh. Not sure. I guess whatever part of the X-blade my other pieces have. If the part I have is like a frame of something, so either my Nobody, light, or darkness has the part that holds it's Keyblade powers.” “But does it need to be whole to unlock it?” I ask worriedly, having a bad feeling about this. “Cause...bad things might happen if it doesn't.” “Well… only X can answer that but since he isn't really here we have no way of knowing.” “Of course…” I sigh out. “So, how was your time in Demon souls land?” “Well the bosses where harder than in the game. Tower Knight fight was...odd.” “Did you break off its helmet and the face looked weird?” I ask, having a feeling I fought that thing in my head. “Nope. Normally you get a named soul for beating it, I just got this.” Zeke said, pulling out a small orb. Ben’s primal instincts and Nothingness sensitivity screamed as he felt the Nothingness in it was like a atom bomb. “Still got the souls for killing it bit I was collecting those demons souls and this isn't a demon's soul.” “That’s…” Ben mutter worriedly. “A very dangerous thing…” Ben say worriedly, hoping his Assistant can actually scan the damn thing and see what it is. “Please work…” he mutters, checking to see if his Assistant can scan whatever the hell it was cause it's kind of freaking him out. Scan Complete. Heart of A Nobody. This item is the very essence and being on those who are chosen to be in the council of the King of Nothing. Those who are chosen exist between the realms of light, dark, and nothing, therefore, their very beings when killed are sealed into these orbs, which contain immeasurable power. To revive one, the King or Heir must revive them with the Lexicon and Cards. I took a deep breath as Fair Game and my Lexicon appeared. “What your holding is the Heart of a Nobody… a chosen council member to be exact.” I say while focusing. “Now I maybe able to revive them...but it's gonna be a bit tricky…” I say, hoping this won't cause any damage to the ship. Ben let the items do their magic. The card taking in the orb as the Lexicon poured Mana into it like a fountain. Three long minutes passed before the card began glowing, and before them, the card grew into a smaller version of the tower Knight Zeke had killed. It's shield and signature spear/sword missing, and armor colored Blue and White rather than the colors Zeke saw it bear in it’s 'arena’. “Well damn.” Zeke said as the tower Knight stood...then collapsed. “Saw that coming.” As Zeke sighed, he saw a small chrome glowing orb roll over to him. “Oh sweet! The Iron Demons soul!” He said, picking it up and placing it into his bag. “Now my collection is complete...now what to do with them?” He pondered. Ben looked at the collapsed knight. “Rise.” He ordered the knight, wondering if the thing was still ‘alive’ and now under his command. The knight twitched, getting up and groaned. “Agh. My fucking head.” He groaned. “Feels like someone took a keyblade to it.” “Close, an Executioner's Axe.” Zeke said, a sharp, curved, short grip/reach axe in his right hand. Blood stained onto it. “Still my favorite.” “You said someone smacked you upside the head with a keyblade...what do you mean by that?” Ben asked the knight, remembering that this knight has the same colors as that one Sniper Joy met when he was hunting down Kexez. “Have you ever seen a keyblade before or what?” “Uh. Duh.” He said, summoning his Duskblade. “I...wait...where...am I? I was in the Keyblade war… the heck?” Ben took a deep breath. “We have a lot to talk about.” Ben said. “Where do you want to start my ancient keyblader?” The wolf asked, having a bad feeling about this. “Ancient? I’m only sixteen?!” “What year was the keyblade war?” Ben asked, wondering how long its been since the last one. “Era three… what era is this…?” He asked, sounding worried. “How long is an era?” Zeke asked. “A new era is whenever Kingdom hearts cycles all of the worlds… so typically it's a thousand years.” “What do you mean by ‘cycles’?” Ben asked, already feeling like this guy is a lot older than a thousand years old. “Like Kingdom Hearts orbiting all the world's like a moon or what?” He nodded. “Yeah. It's a whole day for Kingdom Hearts to orbit a world, more if something happens and it’s called to a specific world.” Ben looked worried. “Sorry to say but...I'm pretty sure it's been over a thousand years...maybe a crap ton more…” Ben said while checking his Assistant and checking the date with what the knight explained. “But just to be sure…” He muttered, hoping this thing could tell what era it was. The Keyblade War. The Keyblade War was an ancient war among the fourth generation of a world of Keyblade wielders. This war took place in Era three and affected the whole Multiverse. Nearly five hundred Era’s later, we still see the effects. “Jesus Christ nearly five hundred!?” Ben said, startling a little chuckle from him because of how damn long it's been. “So yeah, it's been nearly five hundred eras after the first keyblade war...so you'd be about...fifty thousand years old, give or take a few decades or millennia due to...events.” He told the knight worriedly. “...YES!” He screamed. Ben looked over at Zeke, who just spun a finger around the temple of his head. “And that's good how?” “It means that the light has been alive for this long correct?” Ben suggested. “So, what do you think...oh we don't actually know your name.” I said to the knight. “Kronos, and I’m happy cause I outlived the war! Ha!” “And so did a lot of other people, like Discord, Faust, Orion and...Bara.” Ben told him. “Wait...mom...and dad are alive?” He asked. Ben's eyes widened. “Wait...I saw….” He muttered, before shaking his head. “Yes, they are alive...and while the war stole their wings and horns there alive and well.” Ben said. “And you have two sisters.” “Wait what?” The group flew for a while and thankfully Ben was able to summon his Keyblade and use Nothingness again. “We should be nearing Equestria soon Ben.” Genos said. “Good.” Ben nodded. “Let's just hope my house isn't torn to shreds...and my family is okay.” He said worriedly. “Can't wait kick Tempests ass for doing this crap.” Ben growled. “She sounds like a bitch.” Zeke said, sharpening yet another weapon. This one large, battle worn sword that no ordinary man could wield. “What makes her deserving of your anger?” Zeke asked, tone firm, yet laxed in his speech. “Not only did she destroy my house, and attack my family...she killed Aqua.” Ben said sadly. Zeke's motions in his sharpening stopped, there was silence hanging like a thick smog. After a time, he continued to sharpen his blade, his motions the same, but tension was seen on his face and slight shifts in movement. “How?” “Apparently Eraquis has taken a liking to her and took in all her Darkness, basically becoming a Guardian, but she's knocked out in the process. The old fuck is strong, fast, and can tank a super tier spell quite well.” Ben explained. “Hm..Hm...interesting.” Zeke said, flipping the large blade over with one hand as if the large sword were a toy. “Why is that? Any theories?” “Maybe he saw something good in her, a light that shouldn't be corrupted...too bad she decided to be an arrogant cunt in the process.” Ben growled. “Maybe not.” Zeke said, gaining all Ben’s attention. “In the games, and life it seems, Eraqus will do whatever it takes to protect the light. He despises darkness. He raised his Keyblade to Ventus and Terra to stop the X-blade from being forged. What is worth protecting so much that he’d become engulfed is Darkness? Willingly, it sounds.” “Maybe he felt guilty for fucking up with Terra and the rest? Maybe...maybe he thought Tempest would be consumed by darkness...or maybe the bastard thought she would have a balanced heart o me day and get the X blade cause fuck it.” Ben shrugged. “Too many possibilities…” “That's not like him. Think about it. Darkness is attracted to powerful lights. Keyblade wielders, and Princesses of Heart especially? What if…” Zeke left off for Ben to continue. “Her heart was pure light...and Tempest let him reside in her heart like Sora and Ventus?” Ben asked curiously. “Seems likely. Ventus needed a friend, perhaps Eraqus needed a new purpose. Protecting her light, taking in influencing darkness, sadly becoming it himself. Unintentionally, becoming like Xehanort.” “Oh the irony…” Ben sighed out. “But...now that this is brought into perspective...maybe it's Eraqus’s fault for her decisions…” Ben says, now wondering if this is gonna be another ‘marrying a super assassin’ event. “Possibly.” Zeke said simply. “Heh...you missed me huh?” “After everything so far...just seeing a familiar face that doesn't want to kill you is always a wonderful thing.” Ben said with a smile, his shoulders slumping at that. “You have no idea how bad things have been…” Ben sighed out, putting a hand over his left eye worriedly. “I’m getting an idea. Guess that's something Cript and I have in common.” “I suppose.” Ben said. “But hey, at least Humanity was kind enough to talk to me about this crap.” He shrugged. “Doesn't mean my nightmares are gonna get better though…” He muttered bitterly. “Heh. I meant… neither of us can put up the towel, without something happening.” Upon hearing this, Ben remembered Cript’s word about coming out of retirement, and how Cadence understood it. Zeke died...and hell happened. Ben then wondered...how things would go if he himself died. “Yeah…” Ben muttered. “Never being able to throw in the towel…” He said, scared of what would happen to the people he loved if he died. “I just...hope we can find a time...where it is possible to throw in the towel ya know? Actually spend time with family and friends without the threat of something appearing out of nowhere and pulling us back in…” “Why do you think I had so many kids?” Zeke said, making the two laugh. “Yeah that's true...I mean I need to look after three hundred plus daughter's, a few sons, and god knows how many more are on the way…” Ben chuckled. “You just had to beat me huh?” Zeke laughed again. “I went to Rapture, not my fault I adopted all the Little Sisters.” Ben laughed, feeling a whole lot better now that he was laughing with a dear friend. “Also blame Cript, since I'm related to him somehow I make my fiances super pregnant.” “Oh, so there's your fetish!” Zeke laughed, making Ben’s jaw drop as his face turned red. “Says the guy who's also got a pregnant fetish.” I growled, flustered by what he said. “Hey, hey… I never tried to hide it.” Zeke said, bursting out in full blown tears of laughter. “God I haven't laughed that hard in forever.” Ben sighed out and shook his head. “Glad your feeling better man.” He smiled. “Must have been rough in Demon Souls land.” “Yeah. It was. Weird. I...should have died a lot and just returned to the Nexus… but I was slashed, impaled, got arrows and crossbow bolts jabbed everywhere, set on fire, hit with enough forge to bash pure stone into gravel, poisoned, bled out, caught the plague… yet I never died. Not sure how or why. I felt it all… yet didn't die. It...sucked.” “Yeesh…” Ben frowned. “That sucks.” “Yeah. Made boss fights a bitch and don't even get me started on when I got swarmed and those fuckers attacked non stop.” Zeke groaned. “Wonder if that ever happened to Cript?” Ben flinched, remembering Cript’s stolen mortality. “Yeah…” He muttered. “He would know…” “So, any word from the Foretellers? Eclipse?” “No and no. I've been so busy I didn't go check on them.” Ben sighed out. “Hopefully I can see them, it would be nice to talk to them and catch up on stuff.” “Yeah. So, what's your goal for after you deal with Tempest and your world marriage thing?” “Make sure my family survives the war.” Ben says readily. “Even if I might master all my weapons while marrying all the royalty on my Equestria...my family comes first.” He explained simply. “As a father.” Zeke said, starting to sharpen the other side of the large blade. “What about a king? What's most important to you as a king? The safety of your subjects? Or of the ones you keep closest?” “A king isn't a king without his people.” Ben said. “When I become the King, my people, family, friends, everyone comes first.” The wolf stated. “But not even god can save them all.” Zeke said simply. “So as a king, and as a father...who comes first? Ben, the father of his family, or Ben the White Knight, King of the world? Who are you when the time comes for the hard choices?” “I'll save as many as I can, even if it kills me.” Ben said. “I'm a hero, and I'm not gonna be a King who sits back and let's others deal with my problems.” He said. “Besides paperwork, paperwork is a bitch.” He said, wanting to be a hero and protect the people even if he knows he can't save everyone. “Huh. Guess that makes us different. It's why I made a council when we rebuilt Daybreak. Guess why?” “I also have a council, but why are we so different in this case?” Ben asked. “Is it because you can trust people more than me? Is it because I don't want to be lazy? Is it because I don't want to lose my family again? Please, tell me.” “Because if Daybreak falls… I’m escaping with my family, and leaving it. Why do you think I made the council, gave everybody a Keyblade? I made the council to do the work I’d have to do otherwise as a main leader, and gave everybody a Keyblade, so they can evacuate or fight as they desire. I’m no hero...hell half the time I don't consider myself a good person. But I have morals, so that's why I try.” “I know…” Ben said. “I have a council to, and Luxu and others are helping create a school for keybladers. But I'm not that good of a person either...but given I have powers to protect the people, I'm gonna use them to protect the people.” Ben said, Soul Zeke seeing Ben less of a sassy wolf who tries to hard, and seeing more of a scared teen who's trying his damndest not to lose the things important to him again. “I was given powers to use as I see fit...and I'll use them to be a hero. I know I need help…” He trailed off sadly. “Don't we all.” Zeke replied simply, gazing down to his sword. “I got this big bad ass blade killing a Dragon God. Another few for various things. Thanks to a sage I saved I have one of those RPG bags that holds everything. I have a crap ton of stuff in this thing.” He said, patting the leather bag next to him. “I couldn't have gotten or even held all the shit I needed to survive-ish without the people I helped helping me in return.” “Yeah…” Ben nodded. “But when you lost your family at a young age...you tend to not trust help in fear of losing the people who give a damn about you.” He said. “But I think I'm getting better…hopefully.” “Only time will tell.” Zeke said softly. “All I know now is, we have work to do.” “Way too much work.” Ben said. “So much to do, so little time…” “As always. One good thing came out of my time in Boletaria. That's the Demon’s Souls world. I can do magic now without needing Discord.” Ben blinked and his eyes glowed green, scanning over Zeke to see all his stuff. “Sounds good. Best to be able to do stuff without being handicapped. Oh also, you have an Absent Silhouette on Johns world from what Joy told me, it's a pain in the ass and has way too many forms.” Ben said, wondering if he should go there and try his luck. “Seriously? The actual fuck?” “Yeah, apparently it starts with you, then you D-link with a bunch of previous X-blade wielders, then X itself decides to step in and fight, and then, believe it or not, he fought Kingdom Hearts itself...which was in the form of a child for whatever reason.” Ben explained with a shrug. “The rewards he got was great...and there was some other things about it.” Ben said. “So hey, whenever you want to fight yourself without holding back then go right ahead.” “That will be...interesting.” “I mean your gonna have to fight yourself anyway so...might as well get some practice in.” Ben shrugged. “I should probably go there and test how far I can go...it would be interesting to see.” “Wanna see if he can handle two fighters?” “That would be cool.” Ben nodded. “Especially two experienced fighters like us.” He said, wanting to try teamwork stuff to try and trust people more. “It will be interesting.” “So after we deal with my bit of problems want to head out to test our teamwork?” Ben asked. “Or you gonna just head there right now?” “Well before anything I wanna fix up home. After that I need to figure something out then I guess we can tackle it. Does it give any kind of rewards?” “From what I got from Joy it gives thirteen chests. Each chest gives either a drive form, ability, an ass ton of experience, an ass ton of synthesis items, a special item like the Winnie the Pooh book, spells, command styles...and the thirteenth can be whatever one most desires...which is why Joy saw Eve’s past.” Ben explained. “So yeah, it sounds pretty worth it in my opinion.” “Sweet. So wait? Will it be split between us then or will there be twenty six?” “There better be twenty six.” Ben says. “But if not well we’ll have to figure out how to split it.” Ben shrugged. “Cause to be perfectly honest the rewards are pretty damn good...like what a super boss should give...which brings up your still a lucky bastard cause your a super boss when you don't give a shit.” “Am I?” Zeke asked confused. “Eh, I don't see it.” “Have you ever gone one hundred percent, using all the abilities you know and could think up on the fly, without any limiters or thoughts of holding back? And if not, imagine it.” Ben told him. “Cause Joy fought that, and it looked like a massive pain in the ass.” “I...try not to think about it.” “Scared of what could happen if you did go all out with no reservations?” Ben asked. “I know very well what will happen Ben…” Ben nodded. “And what's funny is that I don't know what my hundred percent time would be like...never thought about it, and I kind of fear for whoever decides to push me that far.” He said honestly. “Sometimes not knowing is better than knowing Ben.” Zeke said, finishing his work on the sword and placing it away in his special bag. “I know.” Ben sighed out. “But...it's best to at least prepare before a planet explodes on complete accident.” “Mortality.” Zeke said, confusing Ben. “If I take all that power, use it, I take Kingdom Hearts into me. It's a heart like any other. I do that, I’m king of everything, save for your territory. Light and darkness will be mine to shape and bend, form, at the cost of my mortality. Nothing, not time, not blades...nothing could kill me. I might even be able to give Cript a challenge in battle… I can't go on...I can't ever go all out...if I have to see my loved ones grow old without me.” “Huh…” Ben said. “That's...a whole bunch of something.” He said while looking at his hands. “But when you explained that...something felt off...like...True Nothingness…” He said, scowling at his hands wondering why that term seemed very scary but fitting to compare it to what Zeke explained. “Perhaps that's your true power as well? Total power, at the cost of what you care for? Who knows.” “It better fucking not…” Ben growled. “God...well actually God, the one who brought us here, is actually dead if you didn't know.” “The satanists were right.” Zeke chuckled lightly. “So, what's our first move, if Tempest is there? Cause if she's not I’m heading to my home to clear up some business.” “If she's there then we're going to have to separate her from Eraqus, or at least beat the bastard til he can't move, then try and figure out how to convince Tempest not to be a complete bitch.” Ben explained. “Just...well watch out for stop cause that's always a thing.” “Heh, Huxley spammed that on me first time we met.” “Yeah...I barely knew the guy but he seemed nice enough.” Ben shrugged, pulling out his lexicon and checking his spells. “Okay...let's look up anti stop spells shall we?” Ben muttered while looking through his lexicon, finding an absolute ass ton of spells. “Damn...didn't think I had this many…” “Here thou art, Hero.” Ben nearly jumped, from nowhere a woman dressed in all black, with wax covering her eyes completely appeared. “Thin Request is complete.” “That was...fast.” Zeke said, looking at Ben. “Oh, this is The Maiden in Black. She keeps the candles lit within the Nexus and was going to lul the old one back to sleep...but I uh...killed him. The look on her face was priceless.” “Yeah, killing an eldritch horror is one way to get a girlfriend.” Ben joked. Zeke and the Maiden looked at one another. “He has not courted me, young wolf. Our Relationship is platonic, for I am ageless and now will keep watch over the lost souls still yet to be found, now that the Old One is dead.” Ben shrugged. “Eh, okay." He said. “So I suppose you watched over my friend here since he got to your world?” “Yes. From the moment he arrived I knew he was different, never before have I met anyone with such a unique soul. Through the Archstones I saw him fight, yet I could tell he held back his true power always. When he killed the Old One, a feat I knew not possible, I felt without purpose, yet he gave me one. Watch over all lost souls, he told me, and so I will, now that his request is complete.” She explained. “Would you believe me if I said this guy is only his soul?” Ben asked simply. “From his inability to regain his body, even after slaying all the demons, and the Old One, yes. Which brings me to your Request Zeke. I have found you a body, fit perfectly for thine soul.” Upon hearing that, Ben’s ears twitched. “Perfect. Where?” Zeke replied. “A world much like mine own, but far darker.” She said, holding out her hands as there was a small ball of five that leaned in a direction. “I can lead the way.” “Darker how?” Ben asked, wondering if it's Dark Souls or Bloodborne. “Like mine, ravaged by demons, curses and ailments, but the Undead roam, cursed by an unholy madness. Much like the Soul Starved of mine own world.” “Hollows…” Ben said. “Yeah that's Dark Souls. If memory serves from video games the place is a pain in the ass.” “Mind if we make a detour?” Zeke asked Ben. “I know your family is important, but I need to have a body in order to stand a chance against Kexez, and to hold my heart when I smack some sense into my dark half and bring my light half back to life.” Ben nodded. “Alright...but it's gonna be a bitch cause that world...just saying it I can tell it's covered in Void…” Ben had Genos change course to where the Maiden’s flame guided. It wasn’t a long flight til they came across the world. … It looked sick. The landscape a mix of baren, burned, and...red… only small patches of green were around. “Damn, then again, it is a dying world.” Zeke said. “Boletaria looked better than this place.” They landed, just outside a place Zeke knew. “The Undead Asylum. I made it further in Demon Souls than Dark Souls. Never got passed the fourth boss of the game.” Zeke said, taking out one of his greatswords and the Keyblade Ben gave him. It was then Ben noticed Zeke pulling the normal weapons from seemingly thin air. “I beat the game, it was a pain but I managed.” Ben shrugged as he summoned Frozen Pride and his own keyblade. “So...I wonder if we're going to meet the Pygmy soul here.” Ben said, wondering if they'll meet the player character of the Dark Souls game. “Hey...where are you keeping all those weapons?” “Huh? Oh, this.” Zeke said, showing Ben a leg pouch strapped on his leg. “Saved a grand sage or whatever he called himself, had him make me this. Can’t hold limitless items, but with enough souls he managed to make it hold eight hundred pounds worth of stuff without affecting me much. Made that guy who offered to hold my stuff sad...til I found his family for him, well, their souls at least and Maiden turned them into Phantoms like me. I considered it payment for him holding my excess stuff for so long.” Ben nodded. “Sounds good...but the people in this place are kind but...the curse of the Undead is a powerful thing.” Ben said as he looked around for anything. “I’m a Phantom in a land of the undead...this will be good.” Zeke said, popping his neck as he and The Maiden marched forward, Ben following. When they reached the door Zeke knocked. “Anyone home?” There was a loud thud noise. “That’s a YES!” He shouted, kicking the massive doors open, revealing a large, grotesquely fat demon wielding an equally large club/mace like weapon in his grip. “Oh ho ho. Hello Fatty!” “The courtyard Asylum Demon.” Ben said while raising his shield in a defensive pose. “Move around and stab it in the back as much as possible?” Ben asked, hoping it was just as standard in Demon Souls as it is in Dark souls. “Dibs!” Zeke said, rushing in, putting his greatsword away and disbanding his Keyblade. Before Ben could aid, he was held back by The Maiden. “Let him Fight, with my aid, his Phantom form is powerful, and it will be more so with a body.” When ben looked back, he saw the Asylum demon bring it’s massive weapon down...and Zeke CAUGHT it in his bear hands, pull it away from the obese creature, and using it to bash in the demons skull. “I AM KEEPING THIS!” Zeke declared as the demons head exploded in chunks of bone, blood and brain matter. “See? And still, this is only a shred of the power he chooses to withhold.” “As per usual.” Ben rolled his eyes. “Had fun there man?” He asked Zeke who just killed the Asylum Demon with ease. “Yup.” Zeke said, the demons corpse falling over as the light that was it’s collected souls entered Zeke. “And just like in Boletaria, the corpses don’t fade away in a flash of light...makes a messy scene… very messy.” Zeke said as he walked over the demon corpse. “Sorry for rushing in man, but lacking my light half I just rush in without a plan. Guess I know where my will to fight comes from...me...soul wise anyway.” He said with a light chuckle. “Yeah yeah.” Ben said. “So Maiden, we headed towards the Raven or finding someone here?” He asked, hearing the sounds of Hollows echo throughout the asylum. The Maiden looked at the fire in her hands, it’s flame leaning towards the Asylum. “The body is within, unlike the ones around it has their mind and heart, but their soul is gone, likely taken from them before they arrived here, whatever did that to them, devoured it likely.” She said, moving forward as Zeke and Ben followed. “So, how’s Joy been?” Zeke asked as they trekked through the dark and empty, for now, halls. “He's fine, went out to find my Council and is in the One Piece world.” Ben said. “He's gonna be there for a long time cause he was just flung to another island by Kuma...so he's about two years away from getting past the halfway point if Luffy decides on the two years.” “Damn, guess time does move differently between worlds. Wonder if he’ll be all grown up when he gets back?” Zeke questioned. “So, has he found someone yet?” “Council members? Yeah he found Genos, Vergil, Dante, Kat, Speed of Sound Sonic, and Brook. Joy is also a council member, as well as Luxu and Trixie believe it or not.” Ben explained. “I saw her on the ship and assumed.” Zeke said. “What’s her weapon?” “Fair Game.” Ben said. “And all I need to do is find the chainsaw guy from Black Butler, Captain America, Zuko from Avatar the last Airbender, and...someone who wields Way to Dawn.” He explained. “Huh, long list.” Zeke said, the trio beginning to hear...crying. “You hear that?” “Tis is your body Zeke.” The Maiden said. “They are ahead.” As the trio walked ahead a bit further The Maiden stopped in front of one of the still sealed jail cell doors. Age and Rust long since consuming them, yet still they held. Inside, Ben and Zeke were shocked. There was a framilier mare there, even in a decayed looking state of being Hollow, her mane was still it’s light blue/grey, and her coat was dirty, but it’s blue still showing. What confirmed it, was the purple and white star pattern cape and matching hat. “Trixie?” Zeke said, trying to examine her closer. “I know the one on Daybreak Empire never returned when we brought the large population back but… this is what happened to her?” Ben examined her as well. Her clothes were dirty, ragged, but tears were minor, and light, her mane a mess. It was a sad, pathetic sight, one he felt his heart ache to see. “She's been here for a long time…” Ben muttered as he looked carefully. “Zeke, can you see a mark, a black hole on her body that seems to be smoldering?” Ben asked. Zeke examined, and nodded when he spotted it. “Yeah, her left hand.” The Maiden used some kind of magic that made the long since rusted doors swing open like the day they were made, and the trio walked in. “What can we do? Cause...that will be a problem.” “In Dark Souls lore there is no cure…” Ben shook his head. “But a good thing to do is get her some Humanity, just to reverse the physical effects and get her mind set a bit.” Ben explained while checking his Assistant just in case there was a way to remove the curse. Zeke moved his eyes from side to side in thought, before reaching into his pouch, and pulling out one of his Demons Souls. “Phalanx, be useful for something...cause your fight still sucked in real life as much as it did in game.” Zeke said, placing it in Trixie’s hand. Her body glowed, her skin became normal, no longer dried and shriveled like the corpse she walked as, even her mane became better in its appearance. “Oh thank god…” “Uhh…” Trixie moaned, moving her head up. “Agh! Trixie’s neck is very stiff- Wait… I remember getting shot by arrows… Wait I died!?” She said, jumping up to her feet suddenly and looking herself over. “I, but...huh?!” She said in confusion, not seeing a single mark of injury, but noticing the dirt and grim on her coat and clothing. “Where...what…?” She then saw the mark on her left hand, and the Trio. “Ummm...who are you three?” “The people who are getting you out of this hell hole.” Ben said simply. “There's a lot to talk about, but it's best if you hear it from the guy who brought you back.” He said while motioning to Zeke. Zeke cleared his throat. As he was about to speak, he and Ben both felt something. A powerful something appear nearby. They both know what it was, or rather, who. “Kexez!” They both yelped. “Kez-who?” Trixie asked. “Trixie, long story short, there are a lot of bad, very bad people we have to deal with, but even for as strong as I am, I need a body, as in...yours.” “WHAT!?!? Trixie will not loan you her body you pervert!” She yelled, trying to cover herself, despite having clothes. “Not like that! I am a phantom, like a ghost, and Ben here can tell you who we just felt arrive is BAD.” Zeke said. “You can help me stop them, end them, but I need a body to work with and since mine is…. Corrupted, yours is the only match that we’ve found.” “But, I...what?” “Look.” Zeke said, taking her left hand and showing her the mark. “This sign, this mark on your hand means you died Trixie, your soul is gone, the only reason your body is as it is again is because of us. It’s not permanent either. Trixie, if you let me in, I can promise you I can get that mark removed, but not if who is here gets to us first. Understand?” Trixie looked conflicted, surprised, and reasonably terrified, after all, finding out you were a walking soulless body is enough to do that, but that her soul was gone was...even more worrying. She pondered for a moment, feeling a lack of other options. “A-Alright, Trixie will let you...use her body… Is it...permanent?” Zeke didn’t speak, rather, he looked to The Maiden. “Zeke’s soul will replace Thin own young mare, and if your body and heart accept him, then yet, thin bond will be permanent. Not even I could remove you two.” The Maiden said, shock appearing on Trixie and Zeke’s faces. “I...I…” “Oh Zeke.” Kexez voice echoed from down the halls, sending a chill up Zeke, Ben, and Trixie’s spines. “Where are you my useless soul!” “Better hurry up, I'll go distract the bastard.” Ben whispered to the two before quietly running off to face Kexez to give them enough time to settle it. Zeke sighed. “It’s not ideal Trixie, but it’s better than both our alternatives.” “...Alright...so, how’s this going to work?” “Both of thee take one of my hands.” The Maiden said. “I will send Zeke within you, and keep watch till your body and heart accept him.” Trixie grabbed one of the Maiden’s hand, and Zeke grabbed the other. Ben ran, trying to lead Kexez off from where Zeke and the others were. “Now now, why run? Aren’t we FRIENDS?!” Kexez yelled, shooting a strike raid at Ben that he managed to dodge. “Friends don’t try to kill each other, and I'm pretty sure your mostly running off of Psychopath blood jackass!” Ben shouted back, swinging his shield as ice spikes shot out towards Kexez. Ben managed to lead Kexez back to the courtyard with the Asylum demon body. He readied himself, taking out Frozen Pride and his Keyblade. This was going to be a tricky battle, and he was hoping Zeke will burst in soon in Trixie’s body… ”That’s going to be weird…” Ben thought, it now hitting him this means Zeke will have swapped genders forever, unlike with the whole incident where he became female and was impregnated by a genderswapped Unum out for sexual payback. “Alright, time to deal with this bastard…” Ben growled as he casted all his buff spells, doubling all his physical and magical abilities. Kexez entered the room simply, a Starlight Keyblade in one hand, and… Core’s old Keyblade in the other. “Tell me, how do you see this playing out?” Kexez asked, stopping seven or so feet from Ben. “Me kicking your ass and that being that?” Ben asked simply. “Or are you gonna monologue about how your stronger than me because of some bullshit?” Kexez didn’t speak, rather, he lifted up Core’s old Keyblade...the top half shifting and showed Core, his mask broken, revealed body abused and missing an arm...his one eye showing. Human...and scared. It quickly changed back into it’s Keyblade form. “He discovered my alteration in motives, so, I decided to keep him around as something more useful. Like it?” He asked, showing it off. “It’s called One’s Core. A Keyblade made from ancient hearts. I wonder how you’ll look as one?” Kexez said with a sadistic smile. “Can't believe I'm going to be saving Core from a person even madder than him.” Ben frowned, the runes on his body glowed as it double his abilities again. “But do I like it? No, and your not gonna turn me into a keyblade because you said so.” The wolf growled. Kexez chuckled. “We’ll see, mutt!” Kexez charged, taking a slash at Ben who dodged it with half an inch between the blade and himself. He had to admit, even with his buffs and runes, Kexez was fast. Ben could only briefly cast a spell at Kexez before needing to dodge. ”Come on you two, hurry up.” Ben thinks to himself as he flicked his shield and a bolt of ice shot out towards Kexez as he readied to hit him if he dodged or blocked it. Kexez slashed the ice bolt aside, getting close to- “Mega Flare!” A voice from the side called, the giant ball of fire hitting Kexez and blasting him against the wall. Ben looked at the source of the voice, seeing Trixie stand there with her mane now mixed with blond, and one of her eyes was blue, rather than it’s normal purple. Her voice was slightly different. A tad lower than it was before...and she wielded the X-blade. “Sorry for the delay Ben!” Like that, Ben couldn’t tell if it was fully Zeke, but he was happy to have an ally regardless. “I had him on the ropes.” Ben said. “What took you so long?” He asked while looking at where Kexez was and ready to fight more. “Was reforging an old friend.” They said, walking up next to Ben. “The Maiden said this is how Trixie and I will look when I take over.” They said, Ben now knowing it was Zeke. “I can take a back seat and let Trixie be Trixie for a bit, but we have to better figure out this mess later.” Zeke said, readying the X-blade. “I have missed this thing.” “Glad to hear that.” Ben nodded. “Okay, time to kill a bitch.” “Heheh. You think…” Kexez said as he got up. “That body can aid you in killing me? Even with the X-blade it’s useless!” He said, charging at Zeke, the two deflecting one another's attacks as fast as they swung them. Ben took this chance to deal damage to Kexez, casting spells and slashing at the Nobodies back. Between the two Kexez knew he was in trouble. “Dark Matter!” He said, the tip of One’s Core flashing black as the whole area began to turn to ash and Ben and Zeke began falling from the sudden lack of ground. “Fly!” Ben shouted, giving Zeke the ability to fly as Ben bolted back towards Kexez. “Your not getting away bastard!” He barked at Kexez, thinking this distraction was to give him time to escape. “Not this time you-” “Dark Raid!” Zeke yelled, the X-blade cloaked in darkness as he threw it into a darkness cloaked strike raid. The attack hit Kexez...slicing the arm with One’s Core clean off. “G-grah!” Kexez yelled. “Die you mother fuckers!” He yelled, his Starlight Keyblade glowed and was cloaked in Nothingness thorns as he swiped a massive blow of wind at them, using the time to fall quickly into a DTD. Zeke quickly grabbed One’s Core, and he and Ben flew back to the ship. There, The Maiden was already there, Zeke’s gear from Bolitaria was waiting for him as she left, her task complete and was now off to fulfil her new purpose. Genos took off, and they now sat in the ships storage bay. “Well Kexez got away...but hey he lost an arm and Core is right there.” Ben pointed out. “I’d call that a win.” Zeke said, finally relaxing a bit as he began to get a feel for the new body. “Hang on…” Zeke said, quickly heading for the bathroom, and returned not long after. “...Welp, seems Trixie is a hermaphrodite…” He said with a bit of a shocked expression. “Didn’t see that one coming.” “HA!” Ben burst into laughter at that. “Oh wow, I was...I was gonna ask how it feels to be a woman again...but that's just too perfect.” Ben laughed. “Oh god, I'm sorry for laughing but...wow.” “Don’t apologize to me, apologize to Trixie.” Zeke said, closing her eyes as the mane changed back to Trixie’s full colors. When they opened their eyes, both were purple. Trixie walked up to Ben and smacked him, leaving a rather large handprint on his face. “Jerk!” She said, face red with blush. “I already said sorry, and I'm not laughing at you. Ya see Zeke there one time became a woman.” Ben said, calming down a bunch. “I know that, when we fuzed I saw some of his memories while he was fighting… Things...are really that bad then?” She asked, slumping down to the floor. “Wow...and here I thought having both sets of sex organs was bad...makes me feel like a bratty child now…” “Apparently you've never met Rune.” Ben said. “I saw his family in there too...including...Sparkle…” She said with a grunt. “She beat me pretty good at magic...all I’ve ever had was my magic. Back in my home town I was the best at magic, but I didn’t care for the schooling she got, I just wanted to perform, like my dad.” “And that's fine.” Ben said. “Living your dream is fine, and power to you...but I don't need to give a lecture about the other stuff your ego and revenge caused.” Ben shrugged. “But hey, now with Zeke you can go back to Equestria and start a new life, a happy one even though Zeke is kind of...um…” Ben frowned. “How do I say this without it sounding wrong?” He asked, hating how most of the things he could say would sound like an innuendo. “Goes with the flow?” Trixie offered. “I saw some of his more...sexy memories… That Rune is bendy...and kinky…” She said, her face red with blush again. “I know how bendy Rune is...and I'm still concerned about most of the things in that book.” Ben said nervously. “Yeah, she may be kinky...but she also concerns me with some of them.” The wolf shook his head. “But anything else you want to talk about from seeing Zeke's memories besides his sex life?” “Well...he really came from a family of criminals?” She asked. “Not only a family of criminals…” Ben said. “Can Zeke hear me? Cause...I've got some important things to talk about” He asked curiously. “He can, he's looking through my memories now too...It’s...so weird, I can feel him doing that, if I focus I can see him too. Guess it’s the best way to get to know each other.” She said with a sigh. “Looks like we both had rough lives.” “Yeah...so Zeke, here's a funny thing.” Ben started before explaining the memories of Zeke's childhood that he found in his mental journey, and gave the name of the group that might have been doing that shit. Trixie’s hair and eye changed, meaning Zeke took over again. “Nexus?” Zeke asked. “I think I heard my grandpa say that once, but he never talked about it again. And sorry but...I didn’t fake my death and run away before.” “From what I could gather Nexus is a group of super bad guys...that might have fucked with time.” Ben says worriedly. “Is this a Cript thing?” She asked, Ben finding it odd his friend is now female, while still male too. It was going to be a while before he got used to it. “Yeah basically.” Ben nodded. “So basically that may have been your life before they fucked with time...but then they talked about finding the right time...so they went all the way back and corrupted Core’s son, the first Ventral, with Psychopath blood. Cause apparently any time sooner than that made Zeke, the next Cript project, a failure.” “Wait, Wait, Wait, Wait, Wait, Wait, Wait, Wait, Wait, Wait, Wait, Wait, Wait, Wait, Wait.” Zeke said repeatedly. “Are you telling me Core, the jackass we spent the first many months of our time trying to kill...is my hundreds of great grandfather?!” “And his father is Yen Sid and Eve is his mother. Joy figured out all this out when he beat your Absent Silhouette.” Ben explained. “...Fuck my life…” Zeke said, falling on her back. “Cause why the FUCK not!?” “Yeah that's kind of what Joy said. He was shocked yes, but I'm pretty sure he also said ‘called it’.” Ben shrugged. “So, why don't we bring out the man in question so we can talk to him hopefully. Cause I'm not entirely sure he knew about...a bunch of what I'm talking about.” Zeke looked over at the Keyblade Core, sighing. “How can we free him then? I don’t even know how Kexez did it.” Ben took Keyblade Core by the hilt and took a deep breath and focused, trying to either turn him back to his human form, or at least hear him so he could talk. ”Hello?” Ben mentally called out to Core, hoping this will work as Nothingness gently enveloped his hand to try and help make this impossible thing work. There was no reply. “I think only Kingdom Hearts powers can talk to them?” Zeke questioned. “Well then have at it my friend, you should still be able to talk to Keyblades right?” Ben asked. Zeke shook his head. “I was able to do that because of what Kingdom Hearts did to my heart, and body, making me a human Keyblade. My soul is unaffected, and Trixie’s heart, while surprisingly is balanced, isn’t like my heart.” “Right. Well I at least know he can hear me, so don't worry old man, we’ll figure out how to get you back to normal.” Ben said honestly. “Can't wait to get home…” He said, feeling a little homesick from having been thrown out. “Same.” Zeke said. “There’s a lot I’m going to have to wrap up. If that clone you said Bara made is going to be an issue...it’s going to be weird.” “Bara said that if I told anyone close to you about the clone it would go on a complete rampage...and he also figured out how to completely shatter the crystal heart with a flick of his wrist…” Ben said bitterly. “Fuckers got things planned out…” He shook his head. “Plus he's teaching my family how to survive the keyblade war...and I also promised him he could see the kings Library because he really wants to learn about it.” “Hmm… He isn’t expecting me..or rather, why would he suspect Trixie?” Zeke questioned. “He's a survivor of the keyblade war, I'm pretty sure he'd sense someone doing the same thing as he is.” Ben said. “But true, he might not entirely suspect Trixie.” He said, wondering if Zeke could free Twilight from his hold. “Trixie, the last time they left off, still had a score with Twilight, so it wouldn’t be too far out of possibility that Bara would let Twilight deal with Trixie, when in fact when the time come, I can take over, having the whole thing appear as a trick to the audience while in reality I’ll be facing off with Bara, and if I can, remove his heart from Twilight. You promised him, but I made no such promise. I’m shattering his heart, then that clone and my family will discuss what to do next. If that clone is identical to me, we can work out something.” “Alright. But Bara told me that his heart is deep within Twilights, it'll be a bit of a bitch to figure out how to separate his from Twilights.” Ben explained worriedly. “I think I can handle it. I know my Twilight.” Zeke said confidently. She then looked at her hand, and summoned the X-blade. “I think I can head home, with this. Will you be fine dealing with Tempest on your own if she is there?” “Yeah I'm sure I can handle it.” Ben said. “Found the spells I needed to help stop her.” “Okay. I’ll be taking the time to catch up on Daybreak stuff...man, this is going to be weird. But, doable. My god I can see Rune having a field day with this.” She said, moving her hand up her body and down again. “And these...will also be an adjustment.” Zeke said, grabbing hers/Trixie’s easy D cup breasts. “Seriously… This is gonna be...an adjustment…” She sighed, grabbing her things and adorning her armor. “Thank god this was unisex.” She said, placing it on. “I’ll be back once things are mostly sorted out, alright?” “Alright, stay safe my friend, and remember this isn't the first time you've been a chick...just make sure Trixie knows there will be a lot of running in her future.” Ben joked with a friendly smile, raising a fist up for a fist bump between friends. “I'll make sure not to kill Kexez before you get your actual body back okay?” “...You didn’t hear what the Maiden said?” Zeke asked, putting the helmet on and summoning the X-blade. Ben frowned. “I didn't hear ‘permanent’ in her words my friend.” “She said exactly that.” Zeke said, opening the DTL. “Trixie’s heart and body accepted me as her new soul...she can’t separate us.” “I probably ran off to distract Kexez when she said that.” Ben shrugged. “Just promise me this,” Zeke started. “If we ever both get wasted and end up waking up naked with one another, you are paying child support.” Zeke laughed as she ran into the DTL, it closing behind her after entering. “Of course had leave child support on me…” Ben grumbled, shaking his head with a little smile. “Glad to know my friends back at least…” He muttered, hoping when he gets home things won't get worse.
Nobody does a lot of stuffWhen we landed back in Equestria the damage wasn’t bad. Some uplifted dirt, and only two buildings had damage, Sugar Cube Corner, which just had a small crack in the wall, and Sofa and Quills, which had a broken Window. When I got home though… It looked like it did before the remodel. Ruins… My kids all searching through the rubble, Cadence, and the babies were all with Den...who had a cast on her arm. “Oh, hey Ben!” Den called out. “Where did you get sent too?” “My original world.” I said slowly. “It's apparently been over a hundred years there...so where's the bitch that destroyed our home and attacked my kids?” I growl. “Gone.” Cadence said. “She left this.” Cadence said, giving me the slip of paper. I unfolded it. Mammam, Pater auxilium! amicus Scarry “The hell?” I frowned. “Wait…” I frowned, fearing this was a trap. Genos walked over, looking at the words. “It is Latin. The message is bizarre though.” “Don't read it outloud.” I tell him bluntly. “It’s nothing bad, just strange. It says ‘Mommy, Father, Help. Scarry friend’.” Genos said. “Like something a child would write.” “Now don't be surprised...but once I kick the shit out of Tempests guardian and kill it...I might be getting a new fiance.” I tell him. “Is that a common trend with you?” “No, the common trend is...bed room things with a woman mostly.” I shrug nervously. “Now sure this was after they decided they wanted to actually date me for reasons like ‘I'm a hero’, ‘I'm a prince of a country’, or apparently some old law that said if you get a royal woman pregnant your basically married.” I explain. “It makes no sense but hey, at least I have a loving family.” “I see. Well, it seems your residence has been demolished. My scans show no loss of life or danger within the area. Oh, wait, where is Master Saitama?” “Tempest threw him into the Realm of Darkness.” Den said. “She did it fast too, seems she knew he was too strong.” “Shit…” I said worriedly. “That's not good...that's not good at all.” “I am certain he will be alright.” Sonic said, appearing in a sudden haze. “It will take more than a land of monsters to kill him.” “I don't know how strong Saitama is...but let's just say there's worse things than Heartless lurking in the darkness.” I said, a tad worried about the guys safety. It was then a DTD opened up nearby, and out flew Saitama, landing on his face as it closed fast. “Well that was rude.” He said, getting up and dusting himself off. “Oh, hey guys. Can you believe those Heartless things kicked me out of that place? I was hoping someone there can put up a good fight.” I looked over and saw a very mad Invisible holding up a sign that said ‘Keep him out of our realm’. “Huh…” I blinked, finding that...rather concerning. “Okay then...didn't expect that to happen.” I frowned. “So...my house is kind of destroyed and Tempest is apparently scared of the suit of armor that protects here...things just keep getting better and better.” I roll my eyes at my random amount of shit luck here. “So, should you be like, house shopping or something?” Saitama asked me. “Cause it looks like your old place is… worse than mine becomes at times.” “I might be able to help.” Den said, standing up and handing me a small item… it was odd. It was what felt like a small wooden door with elegant designs atop of metal pole that ended as a drill. “It’s one of Cript’s prototypes. Just make sure you put it in a wide open field.” She explained. “Okay.” I said, remembering there was a big open field not too far from here. “And what, suddenly a house will form that's big enough for my family?” “I imagine. All he said was that it’s massive and best start it in a large open field.” “Okay then. There's an open field not far from here.” I say, holding the prototype thing. “Did he say anything like how to use it? Cause I don't want to just go off and then do nothing for five minutes wondering how it works…” “Just place the drill into the ground and wait a few seconds. He did say back up a few feet after putting it into the ground.” “Okay then.” I said, summoning my keyblade glider. “Well I'll be back, hopefully this thing works…” I said before getting on my bike and flying off to the open field. After about two minutes of flying I landed in a peaceful open field and hopped off my bike. “Okay Cript...let's see what happens…” I mutter before placing the drill into the ground and backing up. About fifteen seconds passed before the small door began glowing, then opened as metal began growing out from it, forming a circle around as suddenly blue lines began forming a cylinder, the lines growing chrome metal around, making a double door with a single step into it. It then had a blue screen come up, the words ‘Register owner’ appearing on it as did an image of a hand below the words. I took off my glove and put my hand on where it showed the hand. ”Maybe it's a DNA thing?” I think to myself, wondering how this works. “Ben.” I said, wondering if if also needed a name here. Some glowing lines ran across all directions of the screen at once, then- “Ow!” I yelped, taking my hand off fast as the screen pinched me. It then showed a loading bar before showing an image of my face, as well as other stuff I’m not sure what it was since it went by fast. It then showed me six images. One was a trailer house, the other a brick house, another a log cabin, one was an RV, another a small, one story house, and the last was rather...odd. It was like a detachable camper you hook up to a car or truck. “Weird…” I muttered, shrugging and picking the brick house. After I clicked it the screen changed, asking me to back up some distance. Once I did the cylinder began altering, those blue lines appearing again as it changed into the brick house, even growing a brick wall with a rather large metal gate for the entrance before the house. The house itself though wasn’t too big, at all. It was easy two stories, well made and looked nice but wasn’t big, big enough for his family at least… ”Then again, this is Cript.” I thought, figuring there was more to it than it seemed. ”Let's check the inside shall we…” I thought as I walked towards my new house. Passed the gate and inside the yard, it was nice. Small but nice. I saw there was a Key in the lock of the front door. I took it, looking at it as it seemed normal. I took a deep breath, turning the door knob and… HOLY SHIT!!! It was gigantic inside. I couldn’t see all the way up. Stairs and elevators everywhere as well furniture, and who whole place was...so well designed, elegant, classy, but also modern. “Hot damn…” I muttered. “Well...this is our new house…” I say, loving it a lot as I turned around. “Better go tell everyone.” I muttered before exiting and heading off to tell everyone about our new house and hopefully salvage some of our stuff. With a fair amount of our stuff salvaged it was a long move in, but when all the kids were in I picked out the new Bedroom for myself, my...other self? Body, whatever, and the girls. What made me pick it was that it connects to the room next door, which will be the nursery. The bed was very large and fluffy. Cadence took a room nearby, as did Den and my Council members each took a room also, though on lower floors. I just layed on the bed, feeling tired and...stressed. “God damn it…” I muttered, covering my face with my hands. “So much stress...but...hey at least my kids are okay…” I muttered to myself thankfully. “But...what to do now…” I needed a walk. I got up and left, but didn’t get far as I heard some crying. It was from Cadence’s room. Slowly I approached, and even slower I opened the door. Cadence was sitting on her bed, looking at a photo. “Shining…” She whined, trying to wipe tears away. “I just wished… you could have seen your foal, at least once...that I could have told you in time…” She broke out in tears again. There was so much regret in her voice. I looked down sadly, remembering how Cript gave me my parents back a while ago, and then remembering how I can bring someone back to life. ”Wait...maybe…” I think to myself, wondering if I truly could. ”I probably can't...god knows where this Cadences Shining is right now…” I think to myself bitterly, wondering if I should tell her about how he might be watching over her due to that weird tv thing Joy and others found a while ago. With a sigh I closed the door, and walked along. I was passing Den’s room and saw it open a crack. Walking inside I saw her setting up, a shrine I think. It was showing...an older, anthro Spike, or maybe just an older Spike. She lit up some candles and pulled out a small tripod thing, like for cameras. She pressed a button on it and it made a holographic screen inthe air. There, Photos of her, Cript, a Pony Twilight, Luna, Chrysalis, Lyra, and some kids. Two young griffons, a thestral, Scootaloo, and Spike to the middle right of the image. They looked like they were at a caravel. Den sighed. “Where did the time go… Feels like yesterday it was just a few.” She said, a smile on her face, though I could tell she was sad. “Mom?” I asked softly, feeling like I was intruding but I wanted to help someone at least. “Who...was that Spike?” I asked gently, not knowing anything about this but wanting to know just so I could help. She looked at me, smiling as she motioned for me to take a seat with her, and I did. “Spike...was the first real child Cript had, after Twilight joined his family. Twilight thought of him like a little brother, but Cript treated him like a son, and so did Twilight soon after. He didn’t know who he was, or what he was interested in, and Cript, he felt guilty for coming in somewhat late into his life, so, he spoiled him. So many video games, toys, and he had Spike go to school, something Twilight didn’t do since she would normally homeschool him. It was at school he discovered something he was interested in.” “What was that?” I asked curiously. “Wrestling, and later, Boxing. When he told Cript, Cript signed him up for them immediately. We saw every match, his wins and losses, and when he decided he wanted to fight like Cript, he began training. Physically, he grew up to about six or seventeen, but when he...passed, in reality, he was only fourteen. He grew to be so strong, so very strong. He was number one in the combat for a good long time, and on the fight where he regained that rank, he discovered, tapped into Humanity power, the first of all you kids to do it. Cript was so proud.” I nodded. “I understand…he was too young…” I sighed out, not believing he was only fourteen. “He was...so happy. That’s why he died though… Nexus...is always watching, how or from where we’re not sure. They feared Spike, because it meant he was the first in a long line of new threats to them, as is they fear Cript, another...made them change their tactics. They abandoned making Psychopaths...and are making themselves something worse. Deletes. Admins fear them, they erase everything, even an Admin. They were thought Immortal till Cript killed one… Spike didn’t know, none of us did at the time. Spike must have thought that...it was just a Nexus member, someone dealt with...he didn’t know what he became...or who it was…” She said, her voice dripping poison and anger. I raised an eyebrow. “Who was it?” I asked, thinking she knew this person and hated him to hell and back. “Andrew Vice. Nexus’s leader...and Cript’s father.” I blinked. “Oh...thats…” I start, trying to find the words to describe the sudden indescribable hatred I felt for this guy. “Huh...I can't find words to describe my rage for that guy…” I said, just knowing he was Nexus’s leader already made me hate the hell out of him, but knowing he was the one who caused Cripts pain just made me even more pissed. “He fathered all of Cript’s reflections, when he was born to Nexus, they knew he was pure evil. Soulless, a black heart that’s cruelty knows no end, and like Cript, doesn’t die easy. He would have been the perfect Psychopath, but they had him, used him to lead their actions, making them all crueler, and he was used to create newer, powerful Psychopaths. Cript fought him many times, each time Cript won each fight, but Andrew Vice comes back every time. If Nexus is ever to fall, he must die...but how...is a question Cript asks himself every time they fight.” “Im sure theres a way.” I said. “Unless he found a way to remove the fact he can die from himself I'm sure he can die.” “Who knows. Maybe he’s a fact, like Psychopaths, the fact of Evil.” She huffed. “Pray, you never see him. If you do, it’s you...or your loved ones...he’ll make you choose...if it’s easy for you...then he takes both.” I frowned. “Well that's not good…” I said. “Jeez...and here I wanted to help cheer you up...not talk about the multiverses biggest cock goblin.” Den chuckled. “Yes. He is that and more.” She said, wrapping an arm around me and bringing me in close into a half hug. “Cript went through so much to prevent just this… but like they say, no plan makes it in the battle field. So, what will you be doing next?” “That depends, cause I have an ass ton of things to do both here and in Zebrica…” I said, hugging Den as best I could. “There's...just so much to do...I know I can make clones of myself but still..” “A Hero holds the weight of the world on their shoulders, but only the hero chooses if others can share in that weight.” Den said soothingly. “Cript tried to share that weight, but finds it hard, when looking at the danger involved.” “I know…” I sigh out. “Sharing the weight is something I should do but...Im...I'm scared I'll lose my family again...and the nightmares aren't helping…” I said sadly, not fully understanding what Humanity meant by ‘understanding both good and evil will stop your nightmares’. “I don't want to lose my family again…” “No one does. I know that pain, it fuels me to protect what I have now.” She said, wrapping her other arm around me now. “Most everyone in this family, has lost so much, that now, we will do whatever it takes to protect what we have now. Just like you wi-” She stopped suddenly. I looked up, seeing her sniffing the air and listening. For what I’m not sure. “What's wrong?” I asked, worried something appeared near here. “... It’s…” Her eyes opened, fear in them deep. “An Admin.” I blinked. “That's...a whole bunch of not good...they shouldn't be here…” I said worriedly. “They must be looking for Cript.” Den said, getting up and looking down the hallway. “They’re inside the house, we have to find them fast. A lot of what’s left of the old Admins really hate Cript, he's an abomination to them. Purest assholes.” She huffed, heading down the hallway as I followed. “I hope to god they don't hurt my family…” I mutter, hoping this is a friendly visit and not one where I will get my ass handed to me because reasons. We made it to the long stairway/elevators. Den looked over the edge and jumped over. I ran and looked over, hearing a thud as she hit the ground but I could barely see the dot that was her still moving down another hallway. “Wonders.” I mutter, jumping over and flying down, trying to follow her the best I could. It took a bit of searching but I found her. We were in the main entry way. Den stood across from a woman dressed in all grey, her eyes a hollow white and hair black, looking wet, like she came out from a shower or swim. “You are...Kin to Cript the Admin?” She asked, her voice as hollow as she looked. “Are you going to attack me and everyone affiliated with me if I am?” I ask bluntly. “I'd love to know before answering.” I said, not sure why she's here and fearing the worst given what she immediately started with. “I need...His help.” She said, talking Den and I off guard. “Well...I am his kin...and why do you need his help?” I ask, finding that even more worrying. “A Delete has appeared. Cript is the only one of us to kill them. Please, it’s erasing Multiverses as we speak. My home will be gone entirely within a day your time wolf.” She explained. “Please, where is he?” I checked my assistant, hoping to call him and tell him about this. “I'm not sure...hold on…” I said worriedly. ”Please call…” I think to myself worriedly. ”We’re sorry, your call cannot be completed at this time.” Said my assistant as the call dropped. “Well fuck…” I frowned. “Can you get a hold of Cript?” I asked Den worriedly, already thinking of what to do here. Before she could reply that Admin was right in front of me. “You...you hold that same power as he.” She said, grabbing my face by the cheeks. “You have to help.” Before I could react, I felt… I felt like I was everywhere, blind but not, in pain but not, breathing...but not. When it ended I fell to the ground, my senses freaking out as I was suddenly in some broken down house. It was dark outside. “Christ, warn me next time lady.” I grumbled shaking my head and looking around, drawing my Keyblade and Frozen Pride just in case. “Welcome to my creation young wolf. This simple building is my home. As you can see, the Delete has caused great damage. No longer is the sky above us, nor even the sun lighting it.” She said, motioning towards the window. I took a look outside. It was a thick, large forrest outside with lots of bushes and...large spider webs and skeletons... “Oh dear…” I said worriedly. “And the giant spider webs and skeletons?” “Forgive me, I should explain.” She said. I turned around and she bowed. “I am Nergala. The Admin of Fear and dread. My reaction holds both fears of admins and creations within their creations alike. My worlds may try to harm you, and I apologize for that. The only threat never allowed in this world are Deletes, and Psychopaths.” “Well one somehow came here.” I said. “But...you say I have Cripts powers...I suppose that's because of Humanity?” I asked curiously. “Yes. Humanity, and Purpose. Older than Admins, and more powerful than Code. Where it originated is unknown, but it’s a power no admins can wield, unless they had it before they became one, like Cript.” “Purpose?” I ask curiously. “That's a thing as well?” “Purpose and Humanity are the two powers that keep all creations whole. Humanity, the power of free will and choice, and Purpose the force of placement, and order. They worked cooperatively, until the Admin war, which is why our numbers are so low today. Purpose became corrupted, and it’s power became that the Psychopaths use today. Purpose, to end all. Deletes are similar, but occur naturally within the voids, created only to keep admins in check, our infinite realities...minimize, or erased completely. Purpose’s greatest creation, tamer, smart, and stops when it’s orders are done. But, it’s still, at the core, a Psychopath.” I put my hand over my left eye. “Cool but...I still barely understand any of this. My Psychopath powers...I'm too scared to see if I could use and Humanity is random at best if I could use it…” I sigh out. “Funny that I got these powers like...maybe a month ago? And barely understand it even though I fought Psychopaths before…” “Whatever the case, you cannot waste time- Move!” She pushed me away as...a line came from nowhere. It went through the air, house, floor… her arms...and in a blink...it was all gone. A five foot line of the house across was gone… I looked down, where dirt and rock were under the house...gone. I looked up, seeing Nergala bleeding as both her arms from just before the elbows forward were...gone. “Gah!” She cried, clearly scared and...fear filled. “I made this place to hold fears...but fear of death… it’s too cruel even for I.” She spoke through tears. I moved over and summoned my Lexicon. “Hold on, I got you.” I said, starting to chant a healing spell to try and help the woman. “Your magic is useless here.” She quickly said. “You need Code to heal me, you need to be an admin for them to even have an effect…” She said, forcing herself up somehow and resting on a chair nearby. “Kill the Delete, and I can undo it’s damage, heal myself. But if you don’t end it soon...I fear I too will soon die.” That was a scary thought. “I'll do my best...let's hope it's enough…” I muttered before running off, trying to find the Delete as my left eye turned into a Psychopaths. ”Just gotta figure out how to have both Psychopath power and Humanity power at the same time while fighting for my right to exist...this is a whole lot bigger than just fighting a Kingdom Hearts villain…” I think to myself, not sure when and how I went from Core to Deletes. The forrest was no help in finding where the damned thing is. I ran, till I bumped into someone… Pennywise?! “Move! Run!” He yelled, shoving me aside and continued running. I frowned. “Funny seeing scary movie monsters screaming ‘run’.” I frowned, keeping alert as I buffed myself as much as I could and continued forward in my search. “For a being whose erasing existence you'd think it wouldn't be this hard to find it…” I spoke too soon as I had to stop abruptly as a sudden lack of existence in front of me. From as far as the eye could see, right to left, I could see… nothing. Nothing safe for the ten foot tall black knight walking atop the nothingness before me, a large greatsword in it’s grip. It stopped, then looked up to me. “Creation. Why don’t you run like the rest?” It asked. “Cause someone's gotta stand up and stop this senseless destruction.” I told it, Nothingness sparking from the fact this was a powerful creature of Void. “And I'm that someone.” “Nothingness? You are unique from the others that have fallen. Pray tell, what brings you here? I can tell you are from another Admin’s creation.” “The admin you're trying to kill wanted help, so I'm giving them help considering your powers are bullshit from what I've heard.” I said honestly. “Hmm...Normally I’d ignore you, but long has it been since a challenge has appeared before me.” He said, the ground around him for about fifteen feet or so came back. “A duel to the death then. Kill me and before I expire everything removed shall be returned. Die by my blade, and your realm will be next.” He said, lifting his large sword like it was a dagger. I took a deep breath, Nothingness swirling around me as I lifted my keyblade, my runes glowing bright. “Just to warn you, I'm a bit hard to kill.” I said, my left eye being the shade of a Psychopaths. The delete laughed for a second. “This will be interesting.” He said. I stepped onto the battlefield and he rushed me. I blocked, quickly side stepping and landing a hit on his side. My Assistant changed my view. I could see it’s HP bar, like in games. It wasn’t too long, but the amount gone from my hit was barely noticeable. I also saw its name. The Delete Rogel. “Rogel huh?” I asked. “Got a story you want to tell?” I ask, raising my Keyblade up as a bolt of lightning crashed down onto the Delete. “Like many before me to become Deletes I was born within the void.” He said, swinging his sword that I dodged by ducking down. “I came from the calmer area’s within the void, til I set out to find a place for myself within the Non Existence.” He slashed down, his impact on the ground knocking me down from the vibrations. “I battled and slayed many a foe and monster, but my place in my home was yet to be found.” He then quickly tried to punch me, which I jumped up and over him before slashing him across his back. “Grah! Haha! Then, my calling found me!” He said happily, spin kicking me into the air and then hammer fisting me back to the ground. “Purpose itself called me to become a Delete. I found my place within my home, and here I am today, sixty trillion eons later!” He said, lifting his foot up and then bringing it down on me. I rolled out of the way and got back up quick. “Many a realms and Admins have fallen to my blade. It’s never personal, it’s just what I was born to do.” “Yeah? Well apparently Purpose here thought I was supposed to be a Guardian.” I said, motioning to my left eye. “But I'm here for a much bigger reason…” I growl, thinking about my family and friends, trying to figure out how to channel Humanity instead of it being a random chance. “And that bigger reason is to protect people from bastards like you.” I growled, summoning Skysplitter and slamming it into the ground, a wave of jagged rocks shot out towards the knight. He was knocked back. I rushed him, knocking him on his back and thrusting my Keyblade into his chest. I saw on the bar it did a fair amount of damage, but he quickly pushed me off him. “A Bastard you say? Tell me this, would a bastard be a father, with a wife waiting for him to return with two children and one along the way?” He asked, getting back up. “I know not what life within your Admins playgrounds is like, but life within the void is simple, the strongest survive.” He said, spreading out his free arm and from it, a black shield with symbols that...just looking at them was difficult. It then spat out small blades around it’s edge, and they began moving fast, and silent. “By my family, I shall not lose this fight.” I looked at him sadly. “That's something I didn't want to hear…” I muttered, shifting into Master form. “Cause I also have a family, a really big one...with about twenty wives and over three hundred and fifty adopted daughters, several born children and an ass load more kids on the way.” I said, knowing this fight will make one family lose someone special to them. I smacked my Keyblade on Frozen Pride as a challenge, an aura of power surrounding me. “By my family, I shall not lose this fight!” I bark. We charged. In my head I could see my family. Luna, Twilight, Rarity, Pinkie. Braig, before and after. I remembered the good times, the bad, losing my parents, having them returned to me. I felt pain and happiness within me. I swung, he blocked my hit with his shield, and I saw my Keyblade was glowing with a swirling white and red aura. Frozen Pride was as well, right when I realized something… Sometimes evil is necessary. To save this place, and my family...I’d have to kill someone with their own family...and he was in the same boat. An act of evil...for a good result. “I’m sorry.” I said, using Frozen pride to back his shield away, and jabbed my Keyblade into his chest. I saw his hp bar drop to zero. I looked at the Knight, my right eye feeling a little different as I kept myself at the ready if he might still have fight in him. He dropped his sword and shield, then laughed softly. “Heh. As promised.” He said, raising his hands as in a blink...the forrest was back. The sky above was sunset, the colors making the forest look amazing. “Funny...how a being who is made to destroy can give back what it took.” I said honestly, finding the forest a whole lot better. “We take in a creation, and turn it into energy to make ourselves stronger. I had yet to turn it all into power.” He said, falling to his back, his helmet fell off… he looked...human. “The one thing I admit about Admins...Most of them make...beautiful skies.” He said, his body fading until all that was left was an empty suit of armor with a hole in it, his sword and shield. “Yeah...they do.” I nodded solemnly, walking over and collecting his armor, shield and sword. “It was...a necessary evil…” I mutter to myself, wondering if I should try to find Rogels family and give them his stuff, go home and make a gravestone for him, or put his stuff in my trophy room for my first big fight against a Delete. “I'm sorry it had to end Rogel…” I mutter sadly. “There, I killed him lady.” I called out to the Admin. “How can I get home?” I called out, hoping she could hear me. “The deed is done.” She said, appearing in a vale of sudden fog. Her arms were also back. “You have done me a grand deed, kin of Cript.” She said, taking my hand and placing something in it. It was a ring, rusted and aged in its appearance. “Take it. This ring will allow you to see the fears of all who fall within your gaze. Use it well.” She said, that same feeling from when she first brought me here taking over here coming over again, then I was back in the main hall, Den quickly taking me into a near suffocating hug. “Ben! Oh thank goodness you’re alright!” She said. “Don't worry mom, I'm alright...mostly.” I said. “So yeah, killed a Delete...didn't know they were basically Galactus but on a creation devouring scale...and I had to kill a father and a husband…” I sigh out, looking up at Den could see I had a Humanity colored right eye and a Psychopath colored left eye before they turned back to my normal blue eyes. “And...I don't know whether to find his family and give them his stuff, or store it away in my trophy room...but I am making Rogel a grave… it's the least I could do.” “What you do with the spoils is your choice, but to honor him with a grave is wise.” She said, petting my head. “So, you learned to wield Humanity and Purpose together then?” “Kinda?” I said nervously, unsure to be perfectly honest. “I thought of my family and friends yes, but I remembered all the pain I've been through...and thought about killing for a good cause...it was a one time thing, I doubt I'll be able to do it again for a while knowing my luck.” “You are progressing well. I’m sure you’ll master it in no time.” “Cript said he'd train me after I get my crown. And hey, I killed something and I'm not going crazy or hearing voices in my head.” I said, glad that my Psychopath part wasn't going nuts here. Den walked me back to my bedroom, and I hopped onto the bed with joy. Today was...an event. Den went back to her room, but before I could sleep the door was broke down. I jumped up, seeing Jenny, looking, and reaching drunk beyond belief. “Heya! You here p*hic*ops!?” “Jenny why the hell are you drunk?” I asked with a frown. “Because fuck you!” She yelled, throwing a bottle at me. I caught it, the bottle looked expensive and rather high quality...and it had at most a sip left. “I want *hic* my puppy! Where’s my puppy?” “Joys not here.” I said. “And from what I can tell he’s busy doing stuff on another world.” I told her. “Do you miss him?” She just stared blankly at me for a moment before she began laughing. “Hehehe. When did you get taller Joy?” I took a deep breath and pulled out my Lexicon. There was a detoxification spell to remove poisons, and being that drunk she might as well be poisoned. I cast it and for a moment she was still...before rushing to the bathroom, the sounds of her upchucking whatever alcohol was still in her stomach echoing back into the bedroom. “Who else drank heavily?” I called out to Jenny, standing up and I'm pretty sure Joys herd is also poisoned here. “Just me.” She said as another lurch of bile came back up. “The others stopped days ago.” “Why were you drinking heavily?” I asked simply. “Do I need a reason?” She replied, the sink running as she washed her mouth out. “Yes.” I frowned. “Like how you kicked down my door and asked me where Joy was, calling him ‘your puppy’.” “That’s our nickname for him.” She said, huffing. “Damn, I have to be the first Ventral in generations to find a ways of getting drunk.” “Okay then...but why were you drinking that heavily?” I ask again. “...” She was quiet, walking back into the room and taking a seat on the bed. “I had a dream...about my mom..before she became a baby…” “What was the dream about?” I asked curiously. “It was one of the few calm times we had. We went to a carnival. Dad had a picture with all of us, but… mom asked me to take a picture of just her, dad and sis… I knew why immediately…” She muttered. I gently put a hand on her shoulder. “It's alright, I'm here for ya.” I said gently. “Anything else about the dream you want to talk about?” “It’s what happened after the dream… I woke up, and left before the others did the same. I don’t even know how but...I found myself over her crib… and thought...it would be so easy…” She said, her fist clenched so tight her knuckles cracked. “She did so much to me, always under everyone's radar as much as she could… Ventrals have always been called monsters...but she was worse. So...much worse…” “Did you do anything to her?” I asked worriedly. “No...I’m not as cruel as she was… I just left...and that’s why I was drinking none stop. Every fiber in me wanted to just… I’m not going to pretend I’m not a monster...but I’m not evil.” “Your not...your my daughter, and I promised you I'd make sure your happy.” I said gently. “It's what a father...no, what a parent should do for their children.” Jenny hugged me, and I returned it. “I guess this is how Zeke felt all the time...fighting what your instincts tell you constantly.” “Yeah.” I nodded. “But hey, you're doing great.” I said gently. “For now.” She said, her tone of voice sad and painful. “You have a new family here. You have a loving boyfriend and many girlfriends. Think of the good in your life, cause trust me it helps.” I said honestly. “I do but… whatever’s in there...whispers a lot…” She said, falling asleep on my arm. I sighed out, knowing she had Psychopath blood in her so they might haunt her. “Don't worry my daughter, I'll keep them away from you.” I mutter gently. I decided to lay her on the bed across from me and covered her in the blankets. I then just sat on a nearby chair. Was gonna be stiff in the morning, but I didn’t care that much. Rather rapidly I let my wear and tear of the day lead me to slumber, wondering if I’ll be seeing a dream, or Nightmare? I was standing on my station of awakening, and Rejection was here...he looked better. “You have to save everyone don’t you?” He said with a sarcastic tone, but sincere grin. “Of course.” I said. “But glad to see your better, hope to see you back to full health instead of...before.” I said a little sheepishly. “Yeah, that sucked.” He said, scratching the back of his head. “So, nice new place you got.” “Yeah, glad I got a new house after Tempest ruined my other one...glad we could salvage a bunch of stuff though.” I said honestly. “Yeah, I should tell you that even in my mad state I could hear her heart and...that things heart.” “Jennys heart?” I asked curiously, wondering if he was talking about Bara awhile ago, Den because of who she is, or Jenny because of the fact she has Psychopath blood in her. “No, Tempest you thick headed idiot.” Rejection huffed. “Whatever Eraqus has become, I’m surprised he isn't a heartless yet. Anyway, her actual heart is asleep, almost cocooned by Eraqus’s. That being said it explains why she passed out when he left her. He is keeping her heart in a sleeping, coma like state to likely preserve it's light and her innocence. And since you can't figure this out yourself that also means the Tempest you fought is like a split personality of Eraqus, so he’s been with her for a long time if he developed that.” “Sorry, there's a just a lot of ‘hers’ here.” I told him. “But yeah, I kind of figured something was up when me and Zeke talked about it.” I explain. “So, question is, how old was she when Eraqus found her?” “Probably when she was a kid….and maybe before her horn snapped off.” I shrug. “But all I know is that I'm gonna kick Erequs’s ass when I see him again.” “True. So, what was the name of the world Zeke was stuck on til now?” “Bolitaria, the Demon souls world.” I said. “Why do you ask? I mean...the Dark Souls world was full of Void from what I could tell…” I said, wondering if Rejection had an idea for that world. “Well, when Zeke’s soul joined with Trixie’s body and heart, I could feel that new strength just oozing like an overfilled pool. It seems like a great place to train, and do some good all at once. Plus, since it seems everything there wants us dead, we can go all out without consequence.” “Not everything, there are friendly people there...hell if we go to Dark Souls I can gather some new allies that are bosses.” I said, remembering Seath the Scaleless and wondering if I could cure his madness to get a strong ally as well as many others. “But who knows...and I'd rather not blow up the planet on accident if my ‘all out’ is that big…” I said, not really knowing what my hundred percent would be. “I’m just saying It seems Zeke did very well there, and he was just a soul. Makes you wonder how much damage we could do.” “Yeah…” I nodded, thinking about this. “And maybe I could try and train my humanity and psychopath powers ya know?” “Then it seems settled. Let’s head on out when you wake up.” Rejection said, walking up close to me. “This is to just wake you up faster.” He said before slamming his boot between my legs. “Ah!” I yelped, not feeling that pain but feeling more of an after image of sorts. “Rejection your a douche…” I grumble to myself while getting up and stretching. “Dad?” Jenny spoke. I forgot she was sleeping with me...that won’t ever come out right… I turned around, seeing her getting up and- WHAT THE FUCK!? “Jenny...why are you naked?!” “Huh? Oh, this fur is really hot, so sometimes I undress to sleep better.” She explained, getting up while I covered my eyes and from the noise I assumed she was getting dressed. “Honestly, you of all people blushing at nudity?” “Your my daughter.” I told her. “That's a lot different than seeing any of my fiances naked.” “Whatever. I’m dressed now.” She said. I took a quick peak and thanked god she was. “So, what’s up? You woke up with a shock.” “Well Im going to another world to train and see what I can do without any limitations possibly. And Rejection, my dark half, decided to wake me up by kicking me in the dick.” I huffed. “Ha!” She laughed. “Classic. Well, good luck I guess, bring me back a souvenir.” “Alright…” I said before rolling up my sleeve and bringing out my keyblade. “Hey Jenny, want to see how cloning works?” “I know, you cut off a part of your arm or finger or whatever and like a starfish you grow a new one and a new you grows from it.” She explained. “Kinda creepy but cool all at once.” “Yep.” I said before cutting my arm off. Shit still hurt like a bitch, but I regenerated my arm and a clone me appeared, and hey it actually had pants this time. “Might as well keep one of me around home ya know?” I said, moving my new arm around and getting used to it. “Well I'll be off.” I said before opening a DTL to either Demon Souls or Dark Souls world as my third clone got some more clothes and walked right in. I came out on a bridge of sorts. There was poorly made barricades and abandoned wagons around and behind me was a massive closed gate, blocking the only exit/entrance. In the distance I could see people, well, they looked like Hollows but… not dead, just...malnourished? Some were right in the open, others were hiding behind the badly made barricades, and from what I could see they all had broken swords and wooden shields. “This must be the starting area...” I muttered to myself, bringing out Frozen Pride and my keyblade and walked carefully towards the group of undead. “Hello?” I asked, not knowing much about the Demon souls world and if it was different than Zekes. When I came across a part where there was a turn off, one of them came out from that small entrance off turn and three came from up ahead to me. I raised my shield and blocked, their broken weapons bouncing off like nothing as I did a fast swing, hitting them all as they fell, this white light escaping them and flowed into me. My assistant beeped. Obtained 60 Souls “Cool.” I said, knowing I'm gonna be here for a while grinding. “Okay, which way now?” I muttered, knowing From Software made way too big maps for these places. I decided to head the adjacent way, and was met my a firmly locked gate. It opened when I tapped my Keyblade against the lock, and once on the other side I spotted platforms and a few bodies with something glowing from them. I walked over to the bodies with the glowing things and looked around carefully, knowing this might be a trap. “Okay...anything hiding in wait for me to grab the stuff?” As if on cue, this red energy appeared and three of those malnourished things appeared, their bodies red like blood. They charged me fast, each hitting my shield I raised. ”Damn, these red ones are a lot stronger!” I thought, Taking the time to slice them, but unlike the other once, they didn’t fade instantly. I backed up as they lunged forwards, and cast Thunder. That seems to finish them off as they fell, leaving behind small glowing orbs of their own while their souls came to me. Obtained 50 Souls My Assistant announced. “Okay…” I muttered before collecting the glowing orbs, wondering what if holds. “Wonder what these things left here?” I wonder. When I grabbed the orbs the red ones left, they each revealed to be some kind of green herb or sorts. My Assistant beeped. Crescent Moon Grass. A medicinal herb named for the lunar phase. Recovers a small amount of the user's HP. The effect of moon herbs changes according to the condition they're in. Crescent Moon herbs are picked when they are very young. “Cool.” I said before looking around for another direction. “Wonder if I'll meet anyone here?” I grabbed the other orbs, they were orbs of energy, but I knew they were souls stored into a single form. I placed them away, and no sooner did I climb a short hill Five of those red things appeared. I cast Mega Flare, and it ended them all quick. They all dropped that Crescent Moon Grass stuff and when I saw an entrance of sorts, my nose caught the strong whiff of long dead rotting corpses. “Thank god my hood is also a gas mask…” I mutter before putting my hood up and zipping it up so I don't have to smell rotting corpses. “Now, time to see why there's long dead corpses there.” I muttered before walking towards the entrance. Right as I entered I saw the quick pass by of scratched and worn chrome, followed by the sound of metal hitting stone. I looked down and saw that axe Zeke had back on the ship, now wielded by another. She wore tight fitting leather, bandaged wrapped gloves, and her mask only showed a single blue eye. “My my, you are something new.” She said, lifting the axe from the small slice it made in the ground before me. “Hm, you aren’t human, but you don’t feel like a demon either. What are you?” “I'm a Dire wolf actually.” I said. “Just have my face hidden with my cloak ya know? And who are you if I may ask?” “I am Executioner Miralda, the kings personal Henchwoman. I carry out all his requests, kill those he tells me to kill, and dispose of their corpses down below. Even with him now being a demon, I shall remain loyal to him.” “So you won't do anything that goes against a demon that's slowly killing this world huh?” I asked her, a little upset the first talking person I meet I might have to fight. “All traitors to the king shall meet the blade of my axe. Will your neck be next?” She asked. “I don't know, do you want to surrender before I kick your ass?” I asked simply. SHe didn’t answer, rather she swung her axe, slicing my nose before I could back up. She held the part of her weapon that had some of my blood, lifted her mask up a bit, and licked it off. “Show me what you can do, wolf man.” I touched my cut nose and looked at it. “Alright…” I said. “If you insist.” I said, raising my shield up and a pillar of ice shot out at the lady. She backflipped out of the way, sidestepping then wall ran over to slam her weapon down on my shield. Crap, she can fight! I backed up outside, and she was behind me. I swung behind me but she slid to the floor, and spin kicked me down. I raised my shield over my head as she brought it down. “You fight well wolfman. It’s been awhile since a challenge came my way.” “You haven't seen anything yet.” I said, slashing at the woman as twilight thorns lashed out at her as well. It hit her, but she rolled forward and slashed up, slicing my coat and part of my chest. “Not bad. I felt that, a little.” She huffed. Playing it though? Damn, she is tough. “Okay then.” I said before swapping out my keyblade for Skysplitter. I took a deep breath and shouted, raising Skysplitter in the air as energy billowed around me as a powerful wind slammed into the ax lady. “Grave!” I shouted, earth spikes shooting out towards the woman. She sidestepped the attack, rolled forwards and then, spun, slamming her axe into my back, and kicked me off to unstick it from my bones. “You are something different, but special powers aren’t all that make the fighter in this world wolfman.” She said, stepping on my back and applying pressure, keeping me down as she showed me her axe. “Any last words before you expire?” I pulled out my Lexicon. “Body of Effulgent Baryl.” I said, my body gaining a green aura. “I'm not dead yet lady, activate.” I said, my body seeming to vanish from under her and appeared a little distance away. “Curaja.” I said, starting to heal myself by a lot. “More and more surprises.” She said, walking towards me. “And here I thought this world had little left to offer.” “There are many surprises you don't know about lady.” I said, casting buffs on myself before raising my hand. “Maximize Magic, Hold of Rib!” I shout, hundreds of spear like bones shout out towards the executioner in a large circle to try and impale her and keep her in place. She rolled herself back into the hallway. I chased after, only for her to pull and drag me down a bloody ramp, fall and hit several beams before landing in a shallow canal...blood and corpses made quite the pile that broke our falls. I got up quickly, disgusted by the amount of death her. She stood back up, and pulled her weapon from the corpse it impaled into when we fell. “You are the first person to enter this cannal alive. I’ll soon rectify that!” She charged, the two of us locking weapons. “Maximize Magic, Gravity Maelstrom!” I shouted, thrusting a ball of super condensed gravity into her stomach, knocking her back. “Grasp of Nothing!” I shouted, hands made of Nothingness rose from the ground behind her and tried to grab at her. They wrapped around her, and sliced her arms, legs and torso up badly, as she fell to the ground when it ended. She then forced herself up, and was breathing heavily. “I will...fight for my king.” She grunted. “And what if I said you can join a new king?” I asked her simply. “Your loyalty is sound, but even you must know your king has gone mad and is not the same person you once served with both heart and soul.” I told her. She chuckled. “My motives for my loyalty aren’t that simple. I’m not loyal to the king because he is the king. I’m loyal to him...because he lets me kill, let’s me do what I love, the only thing. I. LOVE!” She charged, before stopping as blood sprouted out from all her wounds. She fell to her knees. “Heh...heh… Blood loss. How...ironic…” She laughed, handing me her axe, a ring, and took off her mask...she was beautiful. Her blue eyes, even in this darkly lit place were glowing bright, her black hair was cut short, and her face was smooth, pale, and beautiful. “I can see them, the countless faces of those I’ve killed. They’ve come to drag me to hell. Hahahaha… It’s...beautiful...” She said, closing her eyes and falling face first into the bloody, dirty water. “Creepy…” I muttered, taking the axe and ring and checking if anything was special about them. Master’s Ring A ring made of straw rope Damage from direct hits increases while damage from all other attacks decreases. A ring from a faraway land known for its swordsmithing. Said to be imbued with a distinct spell. ________________________________________________________________________ Guillotine Axe An axe which is used for beheadings which has seen a lot of wear and tear. It's fat-handled, short and heavy, but can sever the cervical vertebra in a single blow. It is disdained as a beheader's weapon especially in Boletaria. “Right then.” I mutter, putting my two new items away. “Glad to know that. Now...where to next?” I wonder, looking around this dirty as hell area. I had to float back up, taking some glowing orbs on items that were a unique soul, called a Colorless demon's soul, as well as a full set of armor. I put them away and headed back up the stairs. There, I spotted her again….but she was red this time. She turned to me. She didn’t have her weapon, but she cracked her knuckles regardless. Even after death...she wanted to fight. I took a deep breath. “Something's not right here…” I muttered, wondering why the dead are red here. I checked my mana and saw I still had a ton left. “Okay, Triple Maximize Magic, Reality Slash!” I shouted, three blades that seemed to cut through reality itself rushed towards the red executioner. She sidestepped them all, tackling me down the stairs and when I got back up, I saw she snatched that demon soul from me, she crushed it in her hand, a green aura and souls flowed over her...she regained her body. “I’ll be seeing you, wolfman.” She said, jumping into the canal and running off. “Well shit…” I muttered. “Note to self, put everything but the allowed potions and ethers in my Assistant so I'm not pickpocketed…” I frowned. “Wonderful…” I rolled my eyes and went back up the damn stairs so I can continue on my day. Heading back to the bridge, I saw a large gate that was also closed, as well as a few pathways locked off, for now anyway. I came across an archer, shooting at me with a crossbow, but they took a long time to reload. I brought out sharp shooter and dealt with him, and the two others that were waiting. I went through some kind of barracks area and dealt with all the enemies. When I got to a hallway like area I saw a path blocked by those crappy blockades. I broke them and once I entered what looked like a blacksmiths area, I saw one of those malnourished people….though they weren’t attacking...in fact, they were kneeled down like sitting or something. “Hello, what can I do for you?” He asked with a fast, rough and high pitched voice. “I suppose your a blacksmith?” I asked curiously, not knowing much about this world and thinking because he was here he was a blacksmith. “Or are you just staying here for some reason?” “Blacksmith? Ha, now there’s a laugh. No, I’m just a simple thief, stealing from the dead to sell to whoever. The blacksmiths of this land left long ago after a fued. Anything of interest to ya?” “Well what do ya have to sell?” I asked curiously, wondering what this thief was selling. “Well that depends, what do you need to buy?” He asked. “That's...why I asked what do you sell…” I said, wondering why the thief just said something completely asinine. “Well on me at the moment I have some moon grasses, Crescent and half moon. Soldiers lotis to patch your bleeding wounds, and firebombs for those who want to set the world on fire. All I got for ranged weapons are some wooden bolts. Weapons I got short spears, clubs, long swords, light crossbows, wooden shields, soldiers shields and slaves shields. And, my most pricey item for sale, an entire set of plate armor, though each piece is sold individually.” He explained. I checked how many souls I had given I did beat a boss not too long ago. 11,456 souls My assistant informed me. I frowned, finding that amount quite high here. “Right then…” I muttered, wondering about armor considering I don't have keyblade armor or the kind of armor Joy somehow got fighting Eve that one time. “Hmm...decisions decisions…” “Take your time, it’s not like I’m going anywhere. Hehehehehehe.” “That's what they all say before appearing somewhere else with new items they…’acquired’.” I said. “But how much for the full plate armor set?” I asked, wondering if I should just save my souls to level here. “In total it will be 4,900 souls. 5,000 and I’ll throw in a sword for free.” “Eh, sure.” I said, raising my hand and a ball of five thousand souls appeared. “Might as well I suppose.” “Thank ya kindly.” He said, taking the orb as he got off the box he was on top of. He opened it, and handed me a set of plate armor, well polished and taken care of, as well as a sword. “As promised, the full set and a free sword.” “Cool.” I nodded while taking the entire set and sword and them all vanishing into my Assistants storage like the axe and ring. “Thank you, but mind if I ask what's going on around this place?” I asked. “I got a tidbit about a king turning into a demon and all, know what's going on?” “It’s quite simple. Long ago man was created, and embude with a soul, and there for wisdom and intelligence. On the next day, a terrible demon, a seed of evil planted itself into the world, as a soul devouring demon. It was called The Old One. It however, could not complete its task alone, so, it created and turned men into demons. A thick, colorless fog swept the land. When a demons kills a man, their soul is gone, eaten. But, when a human consumes a demon's soul, they are given power beyond imagination, and so, many a humans died trying to acquire a demon's soul. Then, special monks developed the soul arts, a means of using one's own soul to combat the demons, and thus, the world was saved, the monks becoming monumentals. Half living guardians of the Nexus, and the Old One’s prison where it sleeps. “They banned the soul arts, but the king, in foolish arrogance, revived the soul arts, and awoken the old one. Now, demons have flooded all that’s left of the world, our humble Bolitarea. There is this place, the Boletarian palace, Stonefang Tunnel south of here, The Tower of Latria, a church for those of god, and a prison for sinners and mad men. The Shrine of Storms. A place where the dead walk and the livin dare only trespass for it’s invaluable loot and legends. And lastly, the Valley of Defilement, a haven for those soul starved, sick or dying, a land of poison and illness protected by a maiden and her bodyguard. These places are all that’s left of this once vast world. Legends speak that a new hero will rise, to slay all the demons, and save this land...or aid the old one to slay it.” “Long and rich history for a man who's gotta kill an army of demons huh?” I chuckled. “Good to know, so I just need to go to these places, kill the demons, and maybe life will come back to this place?” “It’s not that simple lad. Only a man who was saved from death by the maiden of the Nexus can fulfill this prophecy, but you don’t know if the nexus will chose you...unless you die. Hehehehehehehehehe.” “Listen I've died once already, trust me it's not pleasant.” I said honestly. “But fine, how would I find this miracle person?” I asked. “Or at least go to the Nexus without dying?” “Well, without dying you’d need a shard of Archstone, they link directly to the nexus, or find the archstones themselves. A shard is hard to find, and the archstones, most of them are guarded by demons, most, not all. I know of one nearby unguarded.” “And by ‘unguarded’ you mean it's a trap for dipshits to randomly walk up to just to be killed by a demon?” I asked, knowing full well something like that would happen here. “No, not at all. When the old one was first put to slumber, the Monumentals gave archstones to the leaders of what was left to Bolitaria. Only the Giants didn’t survive this next awakening. There’s an archstone in front of the tall locked gate that blocks the entrance and exit of this palace. It’s a green stone with a sword stuck inside it. Touch the swords hilt, and be transported to the nexus. Simple as that.” He explained. “Cool.” I nodded. “Well looks like I'm off to the Nexus.” “Good luck to you, and, try not to die. I hate having to resell supplies I just sold someone.” He said with a wave. I had to backtrack to where I arrived, and as he said, there it was. It rested in a broken fountain, the whole thing made me wonder how I overlooked it the first time. As he said, I touched it’s hilt, and a sudden green aura covered everything, and when it faded, I was in a tall place. Standing atop a magic made floor in the middle of all this stone. “Pray tell, are thee a slayer of demons?” I was approached by that Maiden in black, the one that Zeke was accompanied with. Well, not that one specifically, this realities one. “Yes I am.” I said. “Its nice to meet you.” I nodded to the maiden. “So I was told about this Prophecy to kill all demons.” She looked me over, examining me like a policemen looking for an arrest. “The prophecy, is not specific to a single person. It can be played out by multiple people, no single person has to kill them all.” She said, even with the wax over her face, I could tell she kept a gaze at me. “Is there anything else thine wishes to know?” “Yes, I also was also told souls can make a person stronger. I believe I need to talk to you about such a thing?” I ask curiously. “Or do I need to do something to do such a thing?” “I...can. I can manipulate thins soul and imbue it with attributes of the souls thin has collected. However, I am sorry to say, but I can not help thee.” “Is something wrong?” I ask. “Is it because I'm not dead or because of a big thing that needs solving?” I ask, knowing this probably won't work at all but just wondering. “I cannot make thee stronger by manipulating thys soul, because thin has none.” She said. I felt my heart stop at that. “Excuse me...what now?” I ask, honestly shocked to hear such a thing. “I sense no soul within thee, aside from the collected souls on your journey thus far. Thin body is empty. You must have trouble with emotions, and trust. Am I correct?” “That's...up for debate in some cases…” I said nervously. “But what does that have to do we me not having a soul?” “Whether thee was born without one or lost it, was consumed by demons or even let it rott, I do not know. But you can not finish this prophecy, for only a being with a soul, can face The Old One. I am sorry, but this Nexus can not help thee, thou should return to thine own world.” She said, waving her hand as a...DTL appeared? “Many other worlds can use thine’s help, but not this one, soulless man.” She barely touched me, but it was like some unseen force threw me into the portal. I woke up back in...The Everfree...next to the old house…”MOTHER FUCKER!” I bark in rage. “Great, just fucking great! First I start with a half dead heart, it gets better yay, than Drezke being the little piss ant he is took out Rejection and him and some dumb cunt killed an ass ton of guards, then after that I am by all technical concerns a Psychopath, but hey Humanity helped that, now I don't have a soul!? What in the actual fuck world!?!” I ranted angrily. “Can I just catch one, oh so simple break from either losing something, gaining something that might ruin my life, or just randomly not have something!?!” I ranted in rage. I was breathing heavy. I didn’t understand. How can all this crap be happening to one person… why me...why me… “You don’t remember?” I turned around fast, seeing Rejection somehow was there. “Me dying that one time didn't count for me losing my soul. And no, the executioner lady didn't steal my soul, she stole that colorless demon soul I had in my pocket.” I frowned. “Heh, not that hard head.” He said, giving me a playful hit against my head. “Remember that day at the beach? The day that started your downward spiral into depression?” I took a deep breath, my shoulders shaking in barely contained rage. “So I lost my soul...all those damned years ago?” “Sorta. You drowned Ben...and that’s not a reference to a creepypasta either. You were legally dead for ten minutes. Then, somehow, paramedics revived you...I kept that memory away from you cause...you were young and...it was traumatizing. Here, time to know.” He said, placing his hand to my head. I remembered, swimming far into the ocean, diving underwater with some swimming goggles dad got me, then, when playing around with some rocks and trash that were under the water near a pear. The poles on it were littered with snagged hooks… My leg got caught, hooks all inside and trying to tear my skin off. I screamed, water filling my lungs...I couldn’t breath, just water, I wanted to swim away but the hooks hurt so bad… I passed out...and woke up in the hospital, a long tube down my throat and nose, a nurse taking some defibrillators away… I gasped, shaken from the memory of me dying… “Your light half took over the place of a soul, but, a heart...can’t replace a soul. That’s why it’s just me here every time.” Rejection said...we were in my station of awakening. “Your light half...gave up so much of itself that what’s left in your heart is barely enough for you Ben… Be grateful...he...would have made you a lot like Zeke if none of that happened…” Rejection said, looking mournful and...depressed. “Well...how do I bring him back?” I ask. “I've done the impossible before...I can do it again.” I said, believing killing a Delete, apparently being alive without a soul to begin with, and doing literally anything I'm doing right now as a basic impossibility. “I brought you back at least twice considering the situations.” “You’d need to do like what Zeke did for Trixie, find a compatible soul. That...would be hard to do…” “Asking a Death would probably be a bitch and a half to find my soul…” I frowned. “But hey...isn't this fucking fun? Having myself watch as I go through more train wrecks than...well...actually for once I can't find a suitable analogy for that.” I frowned. “First, half a dead heart, then you force me to know I'm actually a Psychopath cause yippee, now I don't have a soul cause life hates me. Isn't this grand?” I ask, smiling even though I looked tired and about 110% done with everything. “That Psychopath thing was more my fault than anything.” Rejection said, scratching the back of his head. “There...is one person you and I know… Well, two technically.” “Gee, I wonder who these mystical people are.” I rolled my eyes. “Joy, and Zeke.” “Zeke is taken and Joy has his own life.” I said. “I can't and won't do something to take away hid happy life. Plus he's apart of my council so there's that.” I said. “Great...I wonder what Cript or literally any of my infinitely expanded family would tell me about this shitty situation…” I sighs out, rubbing my temples and basically openly inviting someone to just appear and talk about the fact I don't have a goddamn soul. “...What about your Psychopath?” Rejection asked. “He’s you, a copy god made...he might have a soul that can also work.” “Except he's kind of chained up by Spoiled and apparently has his own family…” I frowned. “Plus I don't know what would happen if I let a Psychopath soul inside me when I'm already a Psychopath and also have Humanity…” I said. “Unless the bastard somehow escaped.” “...What if....no, it’s crazy.” “Have you met me?” I deadpanned. “Fair point.” He said, summoning my Lexicon and handing it to me. “Maybe...If Kingdom Hearts made Zeke’s heart like a mini version of itself, maybe the King of Nothing knows about souls and how to make one?” “That's...actually a good idea…” I said, opening my Lexicon and looking through it, knowing this book holds more secrets than it let's on. “There’s a spell in here that calls him, but it’s never been tested in the notes. Worth a shot?” “Worth a shot if it means I can be whole again I suppose.” I said, grabbing an Ether and using it to get my mana back up. “Okay...lets do this…” I muttered, my Lexicon glowing as I chanted the summon. The ground shook, and then, in a massive spire of Nothingness thrones, appeared...the king. “Holy mother of god that spell worked...I owe my mage so...much...munny…” He sighed. “So, what and why did you summon me here?” He asked, getting to the point rather quick. “I suppose you can tell I don't have a soul.” I started. “Know anything about how to make one?” “How to make one? Heh, well...yeah...it’s tricky though, the final phase is something to consider heavily.” “Does it involve killing someone I hold dear to me?” I ask. “What? No, that’s necromancy. Basically a soul is made from Humanity, Purpose, and code, admin code mind you. But, in order for it to work properly...you kinda have to be...reborn. I mean like baby reborn.” “And...that needs to happen to me and all my clones right?” I ask, knowing the real me is in Zebrica and ones at home. “Clones? Well…. No, I guess not since they will be you, just older. You have a mom or something that can birth you...cause yeah, that needs to happen. Your body has to be remade, soul goes in, and then your mama gives birth to you eight to nine months later.” “I can always ask Den...given their birth times are...a tad weird given Cript is involved…” “Oh you know she’d be up for that.” Rejection added. “Oh shut up you.” I frowned, shuddering at that horrid thought one time. “But yeah...she'd loved to...so I might as well give her a call. Is there anything else that I should know before going through with this?” I asked the King. “Just keep your baby self alive and well, it dies those clones die, also, it will be your true self from then on, so if something happens to it, like say, a crying fit or growing into powers, your clones will also be affected. How I’m not sure exactly.” I sighed out. “Well...as long as I bring back my light half and officially have a soul things will be okay I suppose…” I said. “Not to mention I might technically get that whole power up thing from officially being born into Cripts family but...eh.” I shrugged. “Isn't life weird?” “Yours, oh hell yeah. Well, bring the mother to be of yours here and I can get the other parts so we can get this thing started. Oh and, a warning up front, there is a fifty fifty chance you’re reborn as a female so…” He quickly vanished while Rejection was creating a glass pathway to what must be Den’s station of awakening. “Ugh...I hope to god I don't become a girl…” I muttered, really not wanting the problems that come with it. “But then there's the off chance I'll be born with both so…” I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. “Mother of fuck...god Den is going to be so confused…” I muttered, sensing my other two selves starting to tell the others about my new...situation and what's gonna happen. “I know Jenny's gonna laugh her ass off…” I grumbled, waiting for Rejection to get done with the bridge. “Look on the bright side.” Rejection said as the bridge finished. “If you are born a girl again, you can appropriately be called a bitch.” He laughed, running off down the glass walkway before I could slug him. “I'm gonna hurt you…” I growled before walking along the bridge so I can talk to Den about this. “God this is gonna be so awkward…” I caught up with Rejection of Den’s station of awakening, giving him a hard punch on the arm before we spoke with Den. “Is there something up Sweetie?” She asked, looking at us both confused. “Yes, there is something up.” I sighed out before explaining my problem and the solution given to my wolfmother. “So...you’re asking me to unbirth you or rebirth you?” She asked so simply Rejection hit the ground in shock and I think my jaw hit my boots in surprise at her casualness to the question. “I just want to be clear.” “Rebirth me…” I said slowly. “Ah. Alright. Knew there was a reason I didn't have sex this week. I’ll be sure to call Cript~...oh, and fix my birth rate, don’t want you born with three trillion siblings huh? Would be hell to find you in that.” “I think the fact I'd have a Psychopath eye and a Humanity eye when I'm reborn would be a good thing.” I explain. “Or the Nothingness radiating off of me...but oh well...just hope I'm not a girl…” “Alright I’m back.” The king said, appearing with a small bag. “I mixed them together already so now for the the event. This her?’ The king asked, motioning to Den. “This, this is my mother Den.” I nodded. “Ah. You know after I do this sex is immediately advised right?” The king asked her...I joined Rejection on the floor. “Yes I’m aware.” She said simply and with a smile. “Alright then, well...here goes nothing...no pun intended.” To say my face was red was...an understatement. Cript came at Den’s call after the king did what he had to do and...they didn't soundproof that room...and I explained what was going on to the kids and Cadence...who all were laughing on the floor before me…”Yes yes, laugh at me some more why dontcha…” I grumbled bitterly. ”I, I just, I just...HAHAHAHAHAHA!” Jenny howled...literally, she howled in laughter, clutching her sides. “Owe...it hurts...hehehe...owe…” “Yes, yes, laugh at the soulless man some more, I'm pretty sure once I get a soul it'll hurt even more.” I said, sitting down on a comfy chair and waiting for them all to finish laughing. “Sorry, sorry.” Cadence said, standing up and resisting more laughter. “It’s just...the lengths you go to… it’s insane.” “I saw you crying over losing Shining and thought of looking for Death to try and get him back.” I told her. “I barely do ‘normal’ lengths...and its all for other people to be honest.” “You...would do that?” She asked, taking a seat on the armrest of my chair. “Of course.” I said. “I'm a hero, I'm supposed to go above and beyond to help people in need...but sadly I thought about much of a bitch it is to find the specific soul of the specific Shining from this world.” “That...would be troublesome. Maybe-” ”AAAAHHHHH~~~~” “...it’s been two hours...how…” Cadence asked. “Plus the size difference…” “I spent an hour with Luna before all of this crap.” I said. “But...I had spells helping so...I don't know.” I said worriedly. “Well...if you do get my Shining back...I’m asking her for notes.” “Right then…” I muttered. “But...I don't know if I could do it...I'd need to beat Death at a game to do such a thing.” I sighed out. “But can't wait to know if my gender changed for whatever reason…” I muttered. “Even so, I imagine with parents like them...you’d be able to change it.” “Maybe.” I shrugged. “Maybe…” I sighed out, knowing it's still gonna be a bitch to find the proper soul. “But oh well, neither here nor their right at the moment…” I shrugged. “Well, guess we’ll see what happens in...however long it takes for a baby to grow in your weird family.” “It should be quick considering how fast my fiances got pregnant.” I said, before blinking and almost forgetting about the Mother Cript went. “Wait, where's the Mother that Cript sent?” I asked, remembering that the Mother was supposed to basically be the home of all the unborn children of a specific family. “Didn’t she go with the other you and your wives?” Cadence asked. “She’s with us.” Sweetie Bell said, finally calmed down from her laughing. “She wanted a calm place to watch some tv or something.” “Okay then, thank you.” I nodded. “Okay so...what to do now…” I muttered, knowing my other self is just getting to the Zebrica capital proper, while I'm waiting for ‘me’ to be born into whatever gender. “So, there’s a clone of you with the moms, and two clones of you here, and soon to be baby you born in a, likely, few hours?” Jenny asked. “So what, one of you two go to worlds just to train and do stuff?” “Well ones off on my travels around the world, most likely involving training cause why not. Then the one here...well I was either thinking of going off and training or staying here with my family and, ya know, actually being a father with over three hundred kids.” I said honestly. “But who knows...life is just really weird for me...especially since technically I'm not supposed to be alive.” I said honestly. I woke up feeling...different. I didn't feel bad, I was actually feeling… optimistic? Yeah, that was it. I woke up optimistic, feeling like whatever today had would be… manageable. This is all… new. “Why does positivity feel new?” I muttered to myself, wondering if I'm going to meet my light half soon. I entered the kitchen and… saw Den, bottle feeding four small pups. Two looked like girls, and the other two were males. “Morning.” Den said as she was watching the infants… which one is me? “Which one is me?” I asked worriedly, hoping I'm not a girl here. “That's...hard to answer.” Den said sheepishly. “It seems your new soul while incubating inside me, passed along energy to your new brother and sisters...or sister and brothers… they all emete Nothingness energy, so we can't tell which is you.” “Hold on…” I said, stepping closer to the kids and closing my eyes, focusing on which one was actually ‘me’ here. It was...fuzzy. The energy between them was equal. Try as I might I just kept linking to all of them at once rather than one specific. “Well...unless Cript does a thing I can only say my soul is technically in four people now.” I said. “Cript couldn't tell either. Souls are tricky, even brand new ones. Once made, even in a body they are a will all their own. It's why Reapers mainly collect them and rush to catch them before the person dies. Easier to identify when they are still in a living body. Cript did call in a favor and is sending someone here to try and evaluate this, not sure who though.” “Okay then.” I said. “Cause it would be strange if I was four people now...and be both boy and a girl.” “Well whoever it is should be here by tonight. Reapers are always busy. You should go out to kill time.” “Did...did you just make a pun?” I asked, the fact she was talking about Reapers and then told me to ‘kill time’ made it sound like a poorly made pun. “Or maybe it's just the irony of what you said that made me think it was a pun…” I sigh out, rubbing my temples. “I just woke up I'm sorry for saying stupid things…” “Eh, it's alright. Have some food before heading out though.” “That would be a good idea…” I agreed. “Maybe I should go see Medy and ask if he can train…” I muttered to myself, pouring myself a bowl of cereal and eating. “But are you enjoying your stay here mom?” I asked Den, hoping everything was going okay for the huge dire wolf. “Yes. Things have been rather plesant here. It's calm all the same as well, which reminds me of my youth...heh, now that was long ago.” She laughed, taking the empty bottle from one of the infants and picked them up to burp them. “Want to...talk about it?” I asked nervously, remembering what she said about her past and I didn't want to make her relive anything bad again. “That...would be nice.” She said, the infant burped and she then cradled them, rocking them slowly in her arms. “I was born on a world called Moonlight Viracia. A world that had a small, tiny sun, and a moon almost half its size.” “A tiny sun and an even tinier moon?” I asked, wondering how a tiny sun and moon could affect a world. “Yes. The planet itself was bigger than the moon, but smaller than the sun. It was rather far from the sun, but in it's core held a strong magic that let life flourish. Most of the world was either forrest and flatland, and the only seasons were a ten month winter and a two month summer. My people...our people, were split into two tribes. Those like me, who respected and highly valued our primal ancestors and largely stayed in our primal forms, and those like how I appear now, who left the woods for two legs and hands for tool operating. We co-existed. They made tools and magic, while my tribe hunted and traded meats for things like kindle for fire and medical needs. It was a simple life.” “And then everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked.” I said. Den laughed at that. “Not too far off…” She said, her tone going sad and mournful. “One day, an off worlder came. He said he just wanted to study our unique magic, and in return gave both tribes advanced medicines and new, longer lasting tools. He stayed to himself largely. Rarely did he leave his ship, only to gather samples. Then, one day it was like the land itself became tainted. Trees oozed poison where maple sap once flowed, prey attacked predators, and that coming summer lasted and never ended. We confronted the off worlder, knowing he had to have played some part in these events. He did not deny it, and unleashed a horrible gas that made us all feral, nothing like my tribe or ancestors… we became rabid, bloodthirsty monsters. I tried to protect the little ones… my first litter… As I changed I saw them change too, eating one another like cannibals…” I looked down sadly. “And...this is why I was a little nervous about asking.” I sighed out. “Sorry...” I said, feeling like I did a wrong for making Den think about a horrible time. “I made a choice, while I still had my sanity… let them suffer like this… or put them to rest…” She said, kissing the pup now asleep in her arms. “It was… both easy and hard to make… I knew what had to be done to spare them this hell… but It was a sin that I can never forgive… after that he rounded us all up, placed obedience collars on us, and sold us off as weapons. I don't know how many people claimed ownership of me, I was in and out of it a lot. Finally, I was ordered to enter a school, and kill four specific children. Cript’s. The second I entered the room, Cript was there faster than I could blink. He charged at me, knocking me aside like a rag doll while the kids evacuated. As he was ready to deliver another attack I made eye contact with him… His look of anger and rage turned to worry and sadness. “Having no control of my body, I ran for an attack. Before I knew what happened, I felt a sharp pain through my chest and back. He struck a glowing white sword through my heart. I thought I was going to die… until ice cold crystals grew out of me. It cocooned me, and I felt a pain like my own bones being ripped out of me from the inside. When it was over I was gasping for air, in shock. Not from the pain… but because I was in control of my body again. He kneeled down to me and asked where my ‘master' was. I managed to tell him and then Lyra took me from there, seeing if I was alright while he dealt with my ‘master'. She and the others cared for my safety… even though I almost harmed their children, they were worried for me. While waiting for Cript, Lyra told me Cript’s story, and I told mine, and later Cript. I stayed with them for two reasons. Firstly, because Cript saved my life, and I owed him it, and secondly, because I wanted to atone for what I...did in the past. We haven't found the off worlder who did that to my people and world, but most of my people have been found and freed. Many others are in the family now while others left to try and reclaim whatever they could of life before. As of my home world… it’s toxic now, and we all agreed it's no longer worth saving. After all that happened. As they say, life moves on.” I sat there, having finished up my cereal and was listening intently. “I understand…” I nodded gently, understanding that life moves on. “Well, you're all done then. Go have fun Ben.” She said, looking at me with a smile. I got up and hugged Den even as she cradled her new pups. “I'm sorry...but...your a wonderful mom…” I said gently. “I'm glad I can call you mom.” “I’m glad you are my son.” She said, giving me a kiss on the cheek. “Go on. Have some fun.” “I will.” I said before letting go and put my bowl away and exited my house, summoning my glider and heading to Manehattan to meet Medy in hopes he's free to train me. It was a quick ride, and I saw the City was starting to look like a city again. Roads were back and five more buildings were being rebuilt. I found Medy walking around where they were building something. “Hey Medy!” I called out, landing gently near the sitar player. “How you doing?” “Oh. Hey Ben.” He said, waving then turning towards the base of whatever is being built. “Like it?” “What is it?” I asked curiously. “They've started the base for your statue. Expect a photographer at your place within the week.” “Oh yeah…” I said. “I almost forgot…” I sighed out. “Anyways, I was gonna ask if you could help me train using my Sitar.” I said, hoping to learn how to use the thing as a weapon and as an instrument. “Oh. Yeah I can do that.” He said, brushing his bangs back. “Let's head over to my place.” He said as I followed. Not sure how long this would be, I decided to make small talk. “So how have you been doing lately?” I asked. “Good. Kids have gotten better thanks to that cure you got, and construction has gone well since some Daybreak suppliers began selling to us.” “That's good. How's your sister been?” I ask, remembering he had a sister after the time I saved him and other slaves from Knowhere oh so long ago. “She's good. She decided to move back to Atlantica with the family. Can't really blame her I guess. That whole slavery mess scared the hell out of her.” “I understand.” I nodded. “Have the people been nice?” “Yeah. Most are hard workers. Got a few slackers but what large project doesn’t. Those guys mostly just work on trask pick up. I think once all this stuff has settled I’ll open up a music shop.” “That would be good.” I nodded. “But...at least the people nice. Oh, I was told there was a Keyblade school being made here, is that correct?” “Yeah, it’s actually up ahead.” He stated. We arrived at what was once the docs, now they looked abandoned. Out in the distance I could see a massive...something being built, but on one of the piers was a simple boat house. “Welcome to my house, and that great big thing in the distance is the Keyblade School of Balance. At least that’s what they’re calling it.” “I should go check it out sometime...just to make sure things are going smoothly.” I said, wondering how good the school will be. “Go on. I have a few things I should set up here first before we can start.” Medy said as he walked up to his boat house. “Okay.” I nodded before flying over to the school being built. “Maybe I should ask Zeke for some teachers here…” I muttered, thinking Luxu wasn't enough to be a teacher for hundreds or possibly thousands. When I arrived, the massive school was...floating over the water. It wasn’t a boat, it was just floating, and had landing pads all around the outer area, likely for gliders. The building itself was...massive, in just the first two completely looking floors it was easy two miles long and I’m not sure how far back it goes. The design was reminiscent of The Land of Beginnings. “Hey there.” I turned around, seeing… Zeke’s clone. “Wondered if you’d ever stop by.” “Oh, nice to see ya.” I nodded. “How you doing?” “Yup. Bara is dead also. Z-” He stopped, quickly looking around and not seeing anybody around. “Zeke shattered Bara’s heart after he ripped it off of Twilight’s. As for me I’m doing good. In the family I’m known as Charlie, but to the public I’m Zeke, and Zeke is Trixie. We figured to avoid a panic we best keep this whole thing between the trusted few.” “I understand.” I nodded. “Well glad Bara’s dead. And glad to know you didn't go crazy from learning the truth as Bara threatened.” I said thankfully. “But what are you doing here if I may ask?” “Checking on the school. There’s similar on Daybreak but they teach more regular education and Keyblade classes are like gym. This school will be the first of its kind in, well, who knows how long.” “And this is just a straight Keyblade training school?” I asked curiously. “Yeah. It’s also completely optional in Daybreak since everyone there has Keyblades. Think of it like a collage. Not needed, but a good idea in the long run. Rather than a price per course we’d have students fill a weekly quota of say, heartless to slay, worlds to explore, things like that.” “Okay then.” I nodded. “Sounds good, I wonder what's special about this school besides learning how to use Keyblades.” I said, looking at the giant place. “But I suppose you're here to help train new keybladers or just here to say hi?” “I’m checking up on the place. I’m the Figure head while-” He looked around again, seeing some workers walking by, carrying some supplies. “While Trixie goes off and explores worlds. Right now she’s revisiting Bolitarea.” “I actually went to my Bolitarea...too bad there I figured out I didn't have a soul.” I said. “But I thankfully got better and got a new soul.” I told him simply. “Funny how life works huh?” “Yeah. Life for us is screwed up.” He said with a laugh. “Come on, I’ll show you around some.” “Alright.” I nodded, following ‘Zeke’ to see the school. “But I wonder who's training here...I hope it's more than just ponies…” I muttered, really hoping all the world is wanting to defend themselves like the Minotaurs, Griffons, Dragons and Diamond Dogs. “Well it’s not open yet. We plan on adding five more floors for now, and bigger plans later on. Right now the first two floors have four combat arena’s, seven hundred classrooms, and enough bathrooms to turn the ocean brown if all flushed at once. Don’t worry about that last part though, magic filtration and eco recycling makes the water clean enough to reuse for toilets and watering the gardens, while the actual waste actually fuels how this place is flying.” “That's pretty cool.” I said. “But how big did you want the place to be if it needs five more floors and more?” “Well aside from applicants from your Equestria and Daybreak, others from many worlds and reflections should be here, Eclipse, the Foretellers. This place is the first of its kind in untold generations. A hub for all reality to comune like they did before the original world was split into the worlds and reflections.” “Huh, thought Daybreak would have been the hub. Oh well.” I shrugged. “But works for me I suppose. I might need to ask Cript for some help on size cause of...certain reasons.” I said, thinking about all the kids I have right now and in the future. “True. You best figure all that mess out.” “Yeah…” I sighed out. “But not right now cause I got other stuff to do and this place isn't finished yet.” “Yeah. It will be a while til it’s finished.” On the walking tour, which we decided to be a general thing and not the whole building so far. The first ‘gym’ he showed me was rather normal looking, though it was set up with mats for fighting. We saw some classrooms. Most Charlie said were going to be history of Keyblades as well as whatever past X-blade weider's and well known Keyblade wielders between the time of the Original Foretellers, before them, after the war, and up to recent years. “You’ll be taught about here ya know.” Charlie told me. “They already interviewed your parents and family before you left on that trip. So we have most of your past, Keyblade, weapons, etc. So far you’ve filled up two chapters of a new series of history books involving Nothingness and its role in Balance among the worlds.” “Cool.” I said. “Glad to know people will know my greatness...and my many, many mistakes.” “Hey, think of it this way, you’re officially a legend when you're in the history books.” Charlie said as we came across...a shooting rage. “Sadly you can agree that Keyblades can only go so far against non heartless threats, same for Nobodies and Unversed. So, after some tinkering the lab made bullets from light. They don’t kill, but can hurt like all hell.” “Makes sense.” I shrugged. “I mean, Keyblades can also turn into bows or crap like that so…” “That we still are looking into, but most of that power stems from very strong willed individuals. So a normal wielder likely can’t pull that off, at least not without draining themselves. There’s a lot to Keyblades we still don’t get, but baby steps, right?” “Right.” I agreed. “So, is this place going to stay on one world or be it's own thing sooner or later?” I asked curiously. “We have an idea, the only issue with it is, well, making that idea work. We want it to be a world of it’s own, but the issue with that is two things. Resources and travel.” “Travel seems the easier of the two, but what's the problem with either?” “Well, Travel might be the wrong word. More like direction. With a school the size of a whole world, you can imagine getting lost and travel between classes will be a nightmare.” “Yeah, that would be a nightmare.” I said. “But this won't be for a long time.” “Hm? How so?” “Well just this being it's own world thing. It won't happen for a long time.” I said honestly. “Especially with certain...events…” “True. So, how is your family?” “My family's fine...Jenny...Jenny needs help, Psychopaths are whispering to her now…” I sigh out, not sure how to help her. “But Aqua...is sadly dead…” “Oh… well, that's news. And of Terra? I know they were an Item in your world.” “Don't know, I was sent to Earth, where its been a hundred years or so there, and I haven't seen or heard from Terra...but Aqua can't be brought back to life because...well she's a Keyblade now.” “I had, or rather-” He looked around again, not seeing anybody, but spoke quietly. “Kingdom hearts and X, through Zeke changed Eclipses Oathkeeper and Oblivion into ponies. It’s temporary, but somehow Zeke as is can become like before, it might be possible for Aqua to be human again.” “Really?” I whispered, thinking this was a great thing to hear. “Well...that's great to hear man.” “So, you saw Boleratea. How was it?” “Still destroyed...but should there be red enemies?” I ask curiously. “Yeah. Those are called Red Phantoms. They're tougher versions of enemies and typically in the game they appear depending on your world tendency, but I don’t know how it works in a reality setting.” “All I knew was that they either appeared randomly, or happen to be the thing I killed not five minutes ago.” I shrugged. “Like that Executioner bitch.” “Meralda?” He asked. “Huh, she’s got a unique story in that world. So when you killed her she came back as a red phantom?” “Yep, wanting to fight again. Sadly she tackled me and stole a colorless Demon Soul I randomly found.” I shrugged. “So she went back to normal, but I still have her axe and ring.” “In the game that’s what she is, guarding, if you wanna think that. Colorless demon's souls are used to level up unique weapons. There’s only like one or two in every world area, and until new game plus, can’t be found again til new game plus.” “Okay then.” I nodded. “Good to know if I ever go back there.” “I wonder how a new game plus works there...might not be a thing.” Zeke shrugged. “Well, if you have a soul now, maybe now you can go back and help? Who knows, just remember this. Spears for Stonefang, and The Valley of Defilement...is the biggest bitch you will EVER have to trek through.” “I can fly.” I said simply. “Still.” He said firmly. “So, when are you going to go back?” “No idea, I decided today was a good day to learn how to play Arpeggio here.” I said, summoning my Sitar. “I haven't trained with one of my weapons for a bit so why not.” “Fair enough.” He said as we climbed up some stairs back to a large landing pad of sorts. “I’m sure you saw these. They're for those who fly here via their natural abilities or gliders. Other than the classrooms there’s not much yet. See you later?” “See ya later my friend.” I said, flying off back to Medy’s house to start training. When I arrived he was setting up large bowels of water all around and some training dummies here and there. He waved when he saw me and grabbed his own sitar. “So, ready?” “Yep.” I nodded, holding Arpeggio. “Ready to go.” “Alright then. Now first thing to know is that water has reactions to things, music especially. Depending on the tune depends on how the water will aid you in combat. Understand?” “Of course.” I nodded, knowing at least something like that. “But just so you know…I have never played one of these things so please bare with me.” I said nervously. “Sure. Now then, to make water rise, play a simple tune, and repeat, like this?” Medy explained as he made sure I saw what his fingers did along the strings, making the water rise like snakes and float in mid air before stopping and the water fell back into the bowels. “Now you.” I took a deep breath and tried to relax as I did what he demonstrated, hoping I wasn't fucking up. I looked up and noticed the water was reacting like Medy’s, but a little shaky. “Well glad to know I'm doing okay…” “Everyone starts off shakey like this. The more you learn to play better the water will flow.” I nodded, continuing to play until the water seemed to stop shaking. “Okay…” I muttered, knowing my hands are gonna be murder after this. “Anything else?” I asked. “Try forming a thought to align with the tune. Think of what the water should do that fits the sound of the music.” I looked at Medy, the dummies, and the water. “Thoughts aline with the tune…” I muttered, trying to think of something as I played. I thought of it moving around, like a snake slithering and, a bit shakily, it began floating and moving around. “Good. Now, change the tune naturally along with the thoughts to make it attack the training dummy there.” I nodded, closing my eyes and starting to shift tune. As I played the music shifted from calm and nice to more...violent and bloodthirsty as the water snakes seemed to shiver for a moment before lashing out at the dummies and attacking them. “Good, now, try and make its ‘fangs’ turn them to ice. Increases how hard they hit and being able to shift from water to ice quickly can save your life. To shift water to ice, think about how say, a blade is sharp of in this case, a snakes teeth stings.” I continued to play, the snakes biting into the dummies with ice fangs, but as I played the violent tune the snakes seemed to shudder again like either the music was off or too much was being put into it. “Am I...doing to much?” I asked worriedly. “Or is there such a thing as ‘too much’ here?” “It’s more your mind set. If you aren’t angry, or have a fine control of your emotions, then the attacks won’t be quite there.” “Oh…” I said. “You’d think anyone who listens to music would know emotions are put behind it.” I frowned. “Well...okay then.” I said, starting to pour my anger into the tune, Medy seeing the snakes shudder once more...before they ripped the dummy to shreds. “Nice. Emotions and control make the attacks. Without them, you might as well just make water walls and clones cause your attacks will be crap.” I did my absolute best not to tell him about how his Nobody did literally the exact thing he talked about. “Okay then...sorry, just nervous about...well pouring anger into things.” I said sheepishly. “That’s where the controle comes in. Hand in hand, consider Emotions the force you can hit with, and the Controle how you hit. If you just have one or the other the results may be weak, or uncontrollable.” “Yeah…” I said. “It's an important thing…” I said, the tune going back to a gentle tone as I calmed down. “Now, you know most all life in the stars have water making up a large percentage of their bodies, right?” “Onto bloodbending already?” I asked curiously. “But yes, I do know most living things are largely water.” “Heh, while there is a means to use blood it’s highly frowned upon, and depending on where you are, you’ll be executed for using it. But this just uses the water either in the air, in a container, or your own body to heal wounds, even large gashes. Bones won’t be healed however.” “Okay then.” I nodded. “Sounds like a nifty thing to know.” “Now, doing this while injured is clearly difficult, so it's more ment to heal others, know what I mean?” “Yes I do.” I nodded. “But...could you heal while making water clones?” I asked curiously. “Nope. Try and you’ll find yourself bleeding from your ears. The magic it takes already requires a lot of magic and concentration, trying to split between two different attacks or healing at once can be very lethal to you. I tried it once, and I’m completely deaf in my left ear, and lost my right eye,” He poked a finger at it, an audible tap noise came from it. “Glass. Old one exploded. And that was just from trying to heal more than one person at a time. The rule of thumb here is one thing at a time, or the backlash will come back to bite you in the ass.” I nodded, not wanting that to happen. “Hey, maybe I can heal your injuries.” I said. “They eye...is probably outside my skill with healing spells but maybe I can heal your ear.” “Can’t. What caused it was magical, and nothing short of Trident himself could heal this ear. Doesn’t bother me too much though.” “Believe me, I've done the impossible...but if your Okay with it.” I said, letting go of the strings and stretching my fingers. “Yeesh, a bit rough on the hands…” I muttered. “You get used to it rather quick.” Medy said, shrugging. “Now, healing is linked to specific songs, not thoughts or emotions, as are some spells.” “Makes sense.” I said, trying to think of any songs that might heal. “Jeez...when you know so much music but your not sure if they can be used for magic...” I sighed out. “Often it’s trial and error. I do have a book of well known spells that are linked to songs.” “That would be good cause...well I have listened to at least a hundred…” I said nervously, hoping to have a good basis on what is and isn't magic here. “I’ll be right back. Take five K?” He said, getting up and heading back into his house. I sighed out, taking a seat and closing my eyes. ”Well, lets see if there's a new occupant in my head,” I think to myself, focusing on trying to talk to Rejection and my Light half. I woke up in my Station of Awakening and- “Haha!” I was suddenly grabbed by a white wolf version of me, he wore green robes and had very light blue eyes. “So there’s the scrappy kid I saved!” He said happily, giving me a noogie. “Long time no see Ben!” “Nice to meet ya.” I said. “A lots happened since you...well kept me alive. I bet Rejection was happy to see you again.” “I’ll say, he hasn't let go of my waist this whole time.” We both looked at Rejection, who had his arms wrapped around my long missing light half like a belt. “Anyway! Name’s Acceptance.” “Nice to meet you.” I nodded, before I heard someone walk up. “Who the hell?” Joy asked, seeing Acceptance here. “I...wanted to check up on you...but…” Joy looked so confused here. When I looked at Joy I immediately noticed...he was taller. “And what happened to you?” I asked curiously, seeing he was a bit older than before. “Oh you know, been training on a Keyblader island in One Piece world.” Joy said. “Okay then, but Joy, this is Acceptance, my light half.” I said, motioning to the older brother looking me. “I’ve been acting as Ben’s soul since he had that drowning accident.” Acceptance said ever so Casually. “No wonder why it felt a bit...empty sometimes.” Joy said. “But...if your here…” “I just...technically needed to be reborn.” I said. “Um…” Joy looked a little confused. “I'm both your big brother and little brother.” I told Joy. “... Your grounded.” Joy said with a sly smile as he broke out laughing. I chuckled. “Of course you would.” I smiled. “But yeah, I'm feeling a whole lot better...but come home soon. The girls, especially Jenny, really miss you.” I told him. “Yeah, I know.” Joy said. “Once I get back with everyone I'll drop by.” He said. “And...well looks like Rejection is happy about your light.” Joy laughed at how Rejection is holding Acceptance. “Yeah.” I chuckled, before looking around. “I wonder...if there are two or three others here…” I said, wondering if my subconscious decided to give Psychopath and Humanity bodies for whatever reason, and just the off chance my soul might also appear cause why not. “So, what now?” Acceptance asked. “Well, unless something else is missing.” I glare up at the Darkness around my station of awakening. “I am finally whole, and I can go back to training...and being happy with my family.” “Best get wasted to enjoy it best.” Acceptance said simply. “Listen, I'm not gonna get wasted, especially since I just got to the capital of Zebrica.” I said. “Can't wait to meet my next fiance.” I said with a smile. “But right now I should probably get back to training with Arpeggio.” “Alright then. Later Ben.” Acceptance said, waving his hand as a door appeared behind me. “See ya. Glad to have you here.” I smiled at Acceptance as I walked over and opened the door, ready to go back to the waking world. To be continued...
Nobody goes back to Rapture“Be warned, however. Among the new terrors, there’s a new threat made by both Lamb and Kexez.” As Brigid spke, this unholy, high pitched roar echoed throughout the whole area. “Shit! One is coming. If you two can buy me time to get the little ones and myself out of here, I’ll radio you as fast as possible on a safe pathway.” She said, closing the metal currents as the Big Daddy, Delta, if I remember, began to spin his drill. I cracked my knuckles, Thorns wrapping around my arms and legs as I made both gauntlets and grieves out of them. “Whatever this thing is, it's not gonna have a good time.” I growled, hoping it won't die too quic-”Whoa, calm down there bloodlust. I think to myself, knowing I'm beyond pissed but still. There was a moment of total silence, no sound other than the ocean outside. It was then that I heard something like light metal clanking against itself. “Okay then...wonder where that was…” I muttered, looking around carefully as my eyes flashed green to help ‘see’ where the thing is. It kept going till it stopped. Delta and I exchanged looks, before looking up. There, what looked like a female Big Daddy, wearing a thin, almost skin tight cloth looking suit with small bits of metal, one of those needle the little sisters used on some sort of arm gauntlet, and they wore this old school looking helmet, a dark blue light hid their face. They screamed that, maddening scream then jumped down at us. It dropped down, spin kicking both Delta and I across the opposite sides of the room before giving another whale as it landed. I lashed my hand out, thorns shooting out towards the thing. “The hell is that!?” ”Big Sisters!” I heard Bridgid talk through my radio. ”Lamb turned fully grown little sisters into Adam hopped killing machines. Don’t let that thin frame fool you, they are easily twice as strong as any Big Daddy and much, much more agile. They’ll drain you of any adam or whatever till you’re nothing but a husk. That blue lamped one was one of the first, and she’s the deadliest.” Delta got back up, tanking that Big Sister’s hits as I wrapped it around in Nothingness thorns and yanked it off As she was coming at me I raised my foot to kick it away, only for it to stab that long ass needle machine into my foot. “OW!” I barked, nothingness wrapping around the needle and trying to crush or break the thing. It jumped back, yanking the needle out in time before I could break it. I saw it’s needle thing grow a metallic thing and place it atop the red jar where it stored what must be adam and other… I then saw Nothingness thorns wrapped around its arm, over it’s chest, around it’s other arm, then raise it’s hand and fired some at me. I dodged, the wall behind me crumbling as that attack missed me. ”Shit, how much of that power did it get from that short amount of time?” I think, trying to figure out a means to deal with this thing. Fast. “Wait…” I frowned, thinking about what she's using now. “You use my power…” I growled, raising a hand and an authoritative force pushed onto the Big Sister. “Obey!” I barked at the thing As it was charging at me, it halted, looking like it was fighting that command.. It looked at the thorns around it, then me, then roared again, the high pitched scream making me lose concentration as it shot thorns into the ground, breaking the floor wide open as it fell into it, escaping. “Shit.” I growled. “But...at least I can maybe control it…” I said, worried about that thing getting into Kexez’s hands. “You Okay?” I asked Delta. Delta nodded, Bridgid coming in on his radio now. ”Alright you two, were safe. Thank you for that. The good news is, that thing is already far away, likely returning to Lamb. As promised, I have already found a means of getting you to where Ryan’s office was/is. That hole the Big Sister made seems to go down ten floors. Drop down two of them and there’s a walkway leading to a building that connects to Ryan's office. From there I’ll guide you. Just remember, save as many little ones as you can. I’ll have one of them drop off a special Plasmid, it cures the little sisters, well, makes them normal enough, that parasite will just be dormant within them. In return you’ll also receive some Adam. Please be careful, when Kexez and Lamb took over they disabled all but a few hidden Vita chambers so no second chances. Unless you’re lucky.” She explained as it cut off. “Okay then...can't be as simple as it could be.” I frowned, using the thorns to make a rope so I could just climb down the two floors instead of jumping. Once I was down Delta used it and slid himself down, and from there is was just fighting Splicers, heartless and Unversed til we arrived at the walkway. As we got to the end the doors opened and we were greeted by a little sister, a cured one, who walked up to us and gave us each a red vile. “Mama says these are for you.” She said with a smile. “Thank you.” I said with a warm smile, taking the red vile and gently patting her head. ”When i get home...I better spend some time with my daughter's.” I think to myself honestly. She giggled, Delta injecting himself with it as I reluctantly did the same. My whole body felt like needles where in every square inch of it as the Adam did it’s crazy job. Delta and I both fell to our knees for a moment. “Hm?” She hummed, looking to see if we were alright. Before she could get closer a Big Sister ran passed us, grabbed her and ran off FAST! That little sister screaming till she was too far gone to be heard. I tried to jump to chase, but the Adam was still working, and the pain kept me from moving. “No…” I groaned, anger rising with fear as I thought that abominable bitch stole one of my daughter's. “Get...back here...asshole!” I barked. Th adam finally stopped, the pain vanished and I managed to get up but Delta held me back. “Too. Late. Long. Gone.” He grunted as he stood up. “Payback. Later.” “That bitch kidnapped my daughter damn it!” I barked, before taking a deep breath and shaking my head. “Damn these different reflections…” I grumbled, knowing she's not my daughter but feeling like she was. “Come on...we have work to do.” I frowned, looking around to see which was the correct way. As we came across a Splicer that...was yelling at some large gun. We killed it and Delta took the gun, which apparently was some semi automatic rivet gun. Surprisingly, his drill came off, revealing another gloved hand and he grabbed the Rivet gun and loaded it with some rivets laying around. When we came across some Unversed, that gun had distance, and Delta has AIM! He shot a running flood from across the room right in the head, and downed a bruiser in three shots to the head with it. Needless to say, Delta can fight with more than just that drill. “Nice shot.” I said, honestly surprised at how good his aim was. “Programed. Whatever. It. Takes. Must. Protect. Eleanor.” He said, finishing them all off as he dumped the empty rivet mag and loaded up a new one. “I understand.” I nodded. “I need to protect my family…” We found the other walkway to the other side of the building and once we opened the door the one building of Ryans… Immediately Splicers and Heartless, and amalgamations of the two flooded out. “Of course…” I muttered, throwing out thorns towards the enemies flooding out at us. Delta unleashed many rivets into the horde and when they ran out he switched to his drill and began whaling on them. Still though, it was becoming too much as they began to completely cover him. I wasn’t fairing much better either. “God damn it.” I growled, slamming my foot down as Nothingness hands lashed out from the ground and grabbed onto the rushing enemies. “If I had one of my weapons this would be a little easier…” I grumbled, hating this so much as I tried to help Delta. I wasn’t going to stopped by this. No. Not here, not now. “I- GRAH!” My body began popping, I felt my bones, skin and muscles began to grow and my form change. What the hell?! When it was over, I looked in the reflection of some nearby glass I had to be ten feet tall, on all fours! Six feet wide across, and my mouth was long enough to bite a person's head, upper and lower torso off their arms and legs… This is like what Den did when she fought that Psychopath me. “Awesome…” I growled before fighting off the enemies in my new dire wolf form. My claws tore through armored bruisers. My teeth chomped Splicers to gore, which, oddly...tasted not bad...disturbing… and my body when I’d slam into them either killed them on impact or knocked them into the walls. This. Is. Amazing! “Wonder what my wives and kids would think of this?” I wondered, enjoying this quite a bit. Eventually with less and less of them being around Delta managed to get back up and helped clear out the last of them. Once they were all gone I shifted back to normal. Sadly my clothes where all torn up… shit… My Assistant flashed. Final Form Unlocked. Level Rank: 1/6 “Cool.” I said, checking to see how to level final form as I also tried to find some clothes that were fine to wear and wasn't ripped to shreds or worse. Luckily I had some spare clothes stored inside the assistant for emergencies. After putting them on we headed up an elevator, that, once we were up it, we were greeted with a skeleton, Andrew Ryan, and someone on the other side of his glass barrier at his desk...with MY Sharpshooters. “So you made it? Impressive.” This person said. He was in a cloak, Organization 13 cloak. He sounds...familiar. “And who are you if I may ask? Cause you sound familiar.” I said, preparing to fight this new person. “Awh. If I knew you’d I’d be hurt. Haehehehehe.” He said, taking off his hoo- Braig?! “Excuse me but how the fuck are you here?” I frowned. “But do you go by Braig or Xigbar?” “Well, Xigbar is the name I was given as a Nobody, but as is, technically I’m Braig. The you, you knew, is ten years younger than I am, twelve actually. You see, I’m from that little Reality Kexez made, he thought it fitting we each guard your weapons that we’ve used and mastered. Frankly I love the irony.” “Are you a Nobody at the moment?” I asked him simply, a bit pissed he decided to do that. “Not at the moment, part of Xehanort’s heart is within mine.” “And there's no way for me to get my weapons back without beating you all?” I asked, ready to beat the crap out of this Braig. “That’s right, though...good luck trying. Haheheheh.” He said, bringing up both as everything went grey/white and back to normal. The room got a bit larger, it was more like an arena now. He loaded both and jumped up and upside down. Hanging in the air and taking shots. I made a shield out of Twilight Thorns and blocked the shots, sending them back at Braig. “You sure you want to do this?” He side stepped upside down, taking another shot at me that Delta deflected with his drill. “Yeah, let’s see what you got little wolf.” “If you say so.” I said, dashing towards Braig, swinging a thorn whip at him hoping to grab one of his arms. He teleported out of the way. When he reappeared above Delta he took shots, the big daddy roared in pain as each shot made impact. He thrusted his drill up, hitting a bolt right as it fired and the ricochet knocked that one Sharpshooter out of Braig’s hand. “Owe! You little shit!” I jumped, grabbing the dropped Sharpshooter. It glowed, recognizing me as I took aim at Braig. I took a deep breath as Nothingness charged into the bolt. “Note to self...spend some time with baby Braig…” I muttered to myself, firing a powered up shot at Braig insanely fast. He teleported, but so did the bolt, and when he reappeared, so did the bolt, and it shot clear through his chest. “Gah!” He coughed, blood pouring from his mouth as he fell down, dropping the other Sharpshooter. “Heh...heheh-Blaugh!” He coughed out more blood. I walked over and grabbed my other Sharpshooter. “Good.” I muttered, pointing Sharpshooters at Braig. “Where's Jenny?” I asked him, knowing he doesn't have much time. “Heh...heh...sorry kid, I got here a week ago. I don’t know any J--jenny.” He said, his eyes closing as the floor became covered in blood. I checked his health real quick, just to know if he's actually dead. There was nothing. He’s dead, and honestly I got some flashbacks. Damn it… “Well...I got my first of fourteen weapons…” I muttered. “Brigid? Know anywhere we can go from here?” I asked, hoping she was hearing me. She came onto the radio, as if on cue. ”Yes. I don’t know if this is anything, but in one of the markets there’s some creature that looks almost out of pure fire. I’m not sure if this has what you are looking for, but it is best if you deal with it anyway. Would rather not have the city burn under water. That’s just irony.” “That might actually be one of my weapons.” I said honestly. “What direction is it in?” I asked curiously. “Just head back to the previous building, and go to the bottom floor. Also, there’s two little sisters with guardians watching them. Please uphold your part of the deal.” “I know.” I said. “I'm gonna save the kids...let's just hope they aren't too far gone…” I muttered worriedly, making my way back to the previous building and then going down. “But I'm gonna have to fight all the Organization here if I want my weapons back...hmm…” I hummed, thinking about what some of the bosses might do all things considered. Delta and I headed off, and not long back into the building we came across one of the little sisters. Her big daddy was part Invisible...that will be an issue. I attacked it first, the thing roared as it’s helmet lights turned red and ran. They are fast when they are angry. It has the sword in one hand and a rivet gun like Delta. “Well shit…” I muttered, putting Sharpshooters together and firing a charged shot at the thing, the arrow bouncing towards it. Delta managed to charge it, staggering it as the charged shot hit right into it’s helmet. It stood there for a moment before grabbing the bolt, and ripping it out. It’s mask broke clean off, and… It’s human head was half muscle, part skin, and the rest bone, metallic needles and small tunes where like vines under it’s flesh parts, it’s second head, the Invisible’s head, was the one hit by the bolt… two heads... “That is very not good…” I muttered, aiming for the second head. “This is so wrong…” I muttered, hating the damned experiments done to innocent people. It roared, charging again. Delta stepped forward, his drill spinning fast as he thrusted it into the other big daddy’s incoming skull. The drill ran through it’s head and into it’s neck, the thing falling limp quick as Delta shook it off his drill. “Okay then…” I said, moving over to the little sister hoping she was okay. “You okay?” I asked the little sister gently. She pushed my hand away, yelling “No!” And kept crying. Delta walked up to her, and she seems more drawn to him. Probably given what she is at the moment. He picked her up, distracting her as I activated the plasmid and cured her. Her body glowed a bright white as her skin turned less pale, becoming a healthy shade of pink, her eyes going from yellow to normal with blue irises. “Hello?” I asked the girl gently, not knowing if she's okay or will immediately pass out. “Hello! Who are you? I’m Cassidy.” She said as Delta put her down. “Names Ben.” I said gently, kneeling down for the little girl. “Do you know where you are?” “I’m in Rapture silly! Little Sister Subject C3498YTV7, fifteenth generation!” “I'm rather concerned.” I frowned. “But do you know where a girl named Jenny is?” I asked, hoping she knew where my daughter was. “Which? In my generation, there were twelve Jenny’s.” “Was there a girl with ears like mine, a tail, and wings?” I asked her, moving my wolf ears around for the little girl. “Hm… I’ve seen one like that before. Little Sister Jenny, Subject Trinity, eighth generation. Last I saw her she was going back to Lamb’s workshop because she was growing up.” “Do you know where Lamb’s workshop is?” I asked, hoping Jenny was okay. “Hm… Not really. Sorry, but maybe she knows.” She said, pointing behind us. We turned around and...that blue light Big Sister was back. I pointed Sharpshooters at the Big Sister, standing in front of Cassidy to protect her. “Stay close to me.” I said to Cassidy, not wanting her to get kidnapped. “So, why did you come back?” I asked the Big Sister, knowing it probably wouldn't work because of what she is. She backed up, almost hissing at us as she looked like she was trying to find an angle of attack. “Obey!” I barked my command, the same commanding force rushing towards the Big Sister. She twitched, trying to force herself to move, but I didn’t have any distractions. My powers even felt stronger now that I have Sharpshooters. “Not gonna scream now.” I growled. “Kneel.” I ordered it, thinking if I can get enough control over her then I might be able to either reverse some of the horrors done to her or have a good ally for the adventure. She was fighting it, but kneeled down before me, resting on both knees. “What happened to you?” I asked, hoping this things mind wasn't shattered to the point where it could only think of murder. Carefully, I managed to unlock her helmet, and when I took it off...I dropped it… She was older, scared, and half shaved. “J-Jenny…” Her eyes where that Little sister yellow. I gently put my hand on her head, tearing up as I tried to help her get better. I used that curing plasmid to try and help her. When it was over I about threw up red...that’s not blood...Adam? Crap, she’s got too much Adam inside her. That’s why she’s so fucked up. I...can’t take it all out. Least not all at once. “Jenny?” I asked, hoping she at least had some of her mind back. She didn’t hiss, or move much. I think she calmed down some now. She couldn’t talk though. “Brigid...I found my daughter…” I said shakily. “How...how long would it take to cure her?” I asked, tears filling my eyes as I stared at Jenny, sadness at not being able to protect her from whatever they did to her, and such unbridled fury that Kexez, Lamb, and whoever got in my way will wish they were never born. ”Curing a big sister? That would be a lot of Adam to remove… Hmm… Maybe… If you can get her to an old adam bank and rewire the deposit needles to run at max power you can drain her of enough excess Adam for the cure plasmide to work. You’d have to find one with a still intact tank, and Splicers from all over would smell the adam being drained from all of Rapture’s remaining buildings. It would be a war.” She replied from the radio. “I don't care...if it means saving my little girl…” I said. “Is there any working Adam banks around?” I asked, hoping there was so I could help her. ”Let me ask the little ones.” There was a few moments of silence before she came back on. ”Alright, one of them says there’s a working Adam bank nearby. A floor down with two tanks intact and empty. Best be careful, who knows what’s there.” “Thanks Brigid, I'll make sure no Little Sister gets hurt if they appear.” I told her, looking at Jenny. “Rise.” I told Jenny. She rose, fighting to no avail as she moved and followed us. “Don't worry Jenny...your gonna get better…” I muttered, heading off to the Adam bank and ready to fight anything coming against me. There where splicers, and two Big Daddies, one normal and the other… crawled on all fours like a dog… what was creepy was that it’s legs and arms were clearly massively deformed. They were all dealt with and the little sisters freed from their...mutations. The Adam bank had automated security, but thankfully Delta had this tool that hacked them to be on our side. Once in, Delta helped hook Jenny to both tanks extractors, and he drained all the adam I had from curing little sisters and my failed attempt to cure Jenny. “Alright…” I nodded, turning to face the doorway as Sharpshooters gained a blue glow. “Alright, time to see how many of these fucks I can kill.” I muttered, knowing the bastards are on their way. Delta started up the machine, and the machine seems to have a counter on it. One hour. I could hear them coming, rushing in. The automatic turrets started up and began opening fire. Several got through as I shot them dead. Delta fired when needed, but kept watch over Jenny to make sure nothing went wrong. Several of those bizarre oversized muscular ones tried entering, but with the automated turrets and a few charged shots they were downed fast. The timer was at half an hour now, but the tanks were already one full, the other half way. “Can't that thing go any faster?” I growled, continuing to fire at anyone that got past the automated guns. “Fuck this…” I growled, Sharpshooters glowing blue as I shoved them both into portals as thousands of portals opened up around the hoard and basically all the bullets rained down on them. It was like a hail of magical arrows, they littered the floor and turned anything in its way into swiss cheese or a pin cushion. “None of you will touch my daughter!” I barked angrily. When it ended I looked behind me. The timer still had ten minutes but both tanks were full now. Red flashes and a warning alert began to ring out as the tanks pressure built up. “Fuck…” I groaned. “Do you have any idea how to not make this thing blow up?” I asked Delta worriedly. He looked around, quickly taking on of the injection needles and injecting it into himself. The tanks pressure dropped as Adam was sent right into Delta. The timer rang as Jenny was ejected from the depositor and I used the cure plasmid. She glowed a bright, almost holy white. It faded, and when it did, she was out cold. I checked her pulse and made sure she was still breathing, hoping it was just because of the Adam she was out cold. “Please be okay…” I said worriedly. She began to stir some, and opened her eyes. “Agh...my head.” She groaned. Her eyes were normal. “Oh thank god.” I sighed out thankfully. “Glad to see your awake Jenny. How you feeling?” “Umm...Okay, I think… who are you?” My heart dropped into my stomach. “It's me...your father.” I said, scared shitless of the thought of her no longer knowing who I am. “I...Sorry, nothing’s coming to mind. Hey, you called me Jenny...that’s my name then?” “Your names Jenny…” I said, tearing up as I tried my best not to shake or cry. “You...sure you don't remember anything?” I asked gently. “Uhh...All I remember is waking up here. I literally remember nothing else.” “Brigid...explain.” I frowned, looking at my Assistant hoping Brigid could answer. ”Hmm. I’m sorry but this is alien to me. Curing little ones is one thing, but a big sister is new and unhear-” Her audio cut out...and Kexez came on.”I see you found Jenny. Impressed? No, you’d likely feel a mix of anger and despair.” “When I get my hands on you your going to wish you were in the deepest pit in hell.” I growler. “But what did you do to her?” ”It’s a side effect of what I turned her into. I can tell you they may or may not come back on their own. The only sure fire way they can return is a little visit to a place called Castle Oblivion.” “And I don't know where Core took it.” I frowned. ”And I do. I just require a little...favor of you, and I’ll take all this away from you, you’ll have your daughter, the Crystal Empire will be fine, and I’ll take you to Castle Oblivion to fix your daughter. So, what's more important to you? Her, or this world, or, illusion of, I should say.” “That depends on what the favor is considering you did a massive universal no no.” I said, really hating this so much. ”It’s simple really. I need a sample. A single strand of hair, skin or blood will do.” “Of mine?” I asked. “Cause last time this happened a super assassin wanted to have a kid.” I said, remembering that whole debacle and how she's now a bit stupid. ”No, not of you. I need a sample of your world’s Cadence.” “Why?” I asked. “Hasn't she suffered enough?” ”I just need a single strand of hair. I don’t require the whole mare. Just a sliver of DNA is all I ask. Or is that not worth her memories?” “And what are you going to do? Make a clone of her so it'll kill Cadence, and then you can basically do what the Changelings tried to do on one reflection or another?” I growled, hating how the only definite way of getting Jenny’s memories back was in...wait…”Well I'm fucking stupid, completely forgot Zeke made damn well sure he studied Castle Oblivion and memory stuff, I'll just ask him for help...I hope.” I think to myself, really hoping that’s how it works instead of doing what this bastard told me to do. ”So, what's your answer.” “Go to hell. I can get Jenny’s memories back without your help.” I told him. “So, are you going to give me the directions for my next weapon cause I’m pretty sure this was your idea.” ”Awh. Now why make it so easy for you now that you've backed out.” “Because your that kind of guy who believes he’s still better even if he tells his opponent where his stuff is?” I ask, thinking he would buy that explanation considering he’s a massive narcissist. ”You clearly don't know me.” He laughed as the world around us began… evaporating. ”To be continued another time then, I’ll be sure to take care of your weapons til I'm done studying them.” “How about you give me back my weapons and then I’ll beat your ass with them.” I frowned. ”And shorten the game? Nah. Besi- huh? This...this can't be right.” “Oh, something that isn’t right to you huh? I wonder what it is.” I roll my eyes, thinking this fucker is just doing some bull here. “Mind telling me what it is?” ”I still hold connections to Kingdom Hearts. Seems the father of Keyblades made one. A very powerful one.” “Maybe it’s because your absolute garbage and it wanted to do something to help stop you and your bullshit.” I said, not understanding what he just talked about but still. Kexes paused for a while… then laughed madly. ”A second! A second X-blade has been crafted and is wielded! If this is my doing… time to stop taking things slow…” The audio cut, and the world around us began fading. Delta too. “Goodbye. Friend.” He said, vanishing along with everything else here. I frowned, holding Jenny as the world around us faded. “Well...that’s not good…” I muttered worriedly. As everything vanished, the crystal empire began returning. Soon only Jenny, myself, and the empire where left...till Squirrel fell from the sky. “Gah! Shit! Landed on my keys…” He...didn’t age a day? “Okay so how the hell did me and Jenny just age ten years but you didn’t age a single day?” I asked. “You really should read the family abilities manual.” Squirrel said, getting himself back up. “We can control our physical age once we turn eighteen.” “Ah-” I was about to say before feeling the world shake. “Oh...that would probably be my clone...training with Lunatic...going absolutely fucking berserk…” I frowned, not liking that whole thing. “A galactic quake? Nice. Feels like a 4.3. Not bad.” “Not bad?” I asked, the sound of something really strong shattering like glass could be surprisingly heard. “Yeah...that would probably be that pure vibranium slab “Huh. Again, impressive. Well that vanished so… looks like I’m free.” “So Kexez is freaking out about there being a second X blade…” I said worriedly. “And I need to get Jenny to Daybreak to get her memories back.” “Mind if I tag along? I got nothing better to do.” Squirrel asked. “Sure.” I said, summoning Reunion thankfully and opening a DTL. “Want your memories back Jenny?” “Well, considering I can't remember you and have no idea what's going on. Might as well.” She said, walking into the DTL “Thank you.” I said while entering the DTL as well, hoping Zeke was there so we can solve this whole thing. “And that's a wrap. Til next chapter folks.” Squirrel said, following behind as the DTL closed. To be continued...
Nobody's return to BoletariaWe headed for Daybreak immediately. Zeke was nowhere to be found, but found Charlie, and he lead us to Castle Oblivion. “So Kexez did that? To Jenny?” He asked, pointing at her as she just followed us everywhere quietly. “Yes, yes he did.” I frowned, even though I still looked like I was in my early thirties. “And I don’t know what he fully did to her...but you’d have to take a back seat on fighting Kexez here…” “Like hell.” Charlie said. “I might be some clone of Zeke, but I still got his drives and determination. Kexez shows up, I’m gonna at least injure him before my head rolls.” “As long as he gets beat for the crap he’s done.” I sighed out. “So, mind if I use your Castle Oblivion? Cause...well Core stole it a long as time ago.” “Of course. Most of the labs and such are in the Basement so the upper levels are just for a mix of storage and sample gathering.” He said. We arrived at Daybreak’s Castle Oblivion, and he opened the door. Once inside, he motioned for us to head to the door. “Just have Jenny open the doors and memories of hers should form a world on the other side.” “Alright.” I nodded while stepping to the side. “Go on Jenny.” I said, motioning her to the door. She walked up to the doors, grabbing the handles and… pulled. The doors don't open. It was like they were locked. “Well...that’s new.” I blinked...only to face palm. “Oh please don’t tell me…” I muttered, fearing the worst here. “It might be...her not having memories she can’t open them, nothing to remember.” “Hold on…” I said, checking to see if I still had that radio frequency to Kexez. “This thing better not be trackable…” I muttered, knowing Cript gave this thing literally everything but still. ”Having troubles are we?” Kexez’s voice came on. ”I was expecting your call.” “What did you do asshole?” I growled. “Well, I’ll admit her memory loss isn’t natural.” We all turned around, seeing Kexez walk in, closing the door behind him. “Are you going to answer me or are you just gonna stand there while I beat the smugness out of you?” I growled. “Hm. If you had stayed around during our little event in Rapture, you’d have learned of my little game. Patience isn’t really a virtue of yours is it?” “Actually that part was your fault.” I said. “When I said something happened because it was your fault you laughed and immediately kicked me and Jenny out along with letting the Crystal Empire and all its people free.” I explained. “But patience is a virtue, it’s just when a cock goblin like you probably tortured my daughter, ripped away her memories and drugged her to hell and back she became a killing machine, that’s where I draw the goddamn line.” “Really? That is where the line is drawn. Still leaves so many paths to cross.” He said, turning around and crossing his arms. “I feel hurt. HA! I’ll give you her memories, or rather, you’ll have to find where I put them.” “You hurting my daughter, or family in general is where I draw the line. But what do you want this time you overhyped piece of shit?” I asked, thinking that Kexez is just overhyping himself hard at this point and just being an annoying douche. “Overhyped? Now that hurt. Go on then if you think yourself that much stronger. Hit me as hard as you’d like. I won’t even block.” He said, not even turning around, nor changing his posture. “I know you're playing me.” I deadpanned. “Given your Zeke’s Nobody you're probably oh so stupid strong and I can’t hurt you yet because, of course, your one of the final bosses and I can’t hurt you or kill you yet even thought I would oh so love to.” I said, not being some run of the mill angry idiot. “Mind telling me how to get Jenny’s memories back?” “You know, Nobody doesn’t quite fit me anymore.” He said, now placing his hands on his hips. “At least Nobodies have souls. I was born without one...thanks to a certain Maiden in Black… Still, that brings me to this little scavenger hunt I’m putting you on.” He said, turning his head to face me slightly. “I believe you are familiar with your realities Bolitaria, correct? I believe they kicked you out for not having a soul too if I’m correct. Heh, who’d have guessed that.” He said, turning and walking over to the nearest wall, and leaning against it. “So, on that world I have hidden five cards, each holding memories of Jenny’s. Just kill their holders, and claim them as your prize.” “And it’s just the five cards?” I asked, wanting to make sure it’s just the five. “Or is this only step one of ten?” “I made twenty, so this game isn’t ending that quickly my…old friend.” “Old friend…” I shook my head. “Zeke is my friend, you are only a part of him corrupted by Psychopath blood and on a whirlwind rampage to fucking everything up.” I frowned. “Heh. To each their own.” He said, waving his hand as a DTD opened before me. “Shall we begin?” “Might as well.” I said honestly. “At least now I’ll probably have some god damn stress relief here.” I muttered. We arrived in the Nexus. The normal amount of people from last time where here, meaning nothing’s really changed since I was here. I was immediately approached by the Maiden, who this time just nodded. “A strong soul Indeed you now possess. A powerful slayer of demons you shall become.” She said before moving along to tend to some candles. “Yep.” I nodded. “Now, I was told from an...acquaintance that there are five beings with a special item. Do you have any idea where any special people given special items would be?” I asked, thinking she was a good source of info on the world I haven’t been to for at least ten technical years. “Nothing much has changed here slayer of demons.” She said, relighting some candles with her long stall thing. “I’m afraid I do not know what it is you seek.” “Well...can’t say I didn’t try…” I muttered. “Okay...so mind if I ask what the major areas of this place are? Cause that’ll probably him me a bit in my search.” “The five archestones each linked to a single standing relating stone in their respective sections, Slay the demons blocking these other archstones and make your way to each lands head demon.” “Okay…” I nodded, that not answering my question but I suppose I’ll take it. “Now...where to start…” I muttered, looking around for the way out of here to start my search. “There is the Boletarian Palace, Stonefang Tunnel, Tower of Latria, Shrine of Storms, and Valley of Defilement. Bewarned each archstones’s unique threats.” “I will. Thank you.” I nodded. “Well, better get going so I can start my search.” I walked up to one of the archstones… not sure how to do this. I touched it, and was wrapped in this green glow of light. When it faded I was...inside this damp, dark prison cell that was missing it’s door. “Okay then…” I muttered, using my assistant in hopes of getting a map of the place just so I wouldn’t backtrack on complete accident. As I was checking it I heard a bell ring nearby. “Well...never played Demon’s Souls but I did play Dark Souls...maybe the Chosen got to the bell?” I wondered, not sure if the place already had a bell and I’m just mistaking stuff or what. “Let’s hope it’s just ambient noise…” I muttered, knowing that enemies would be appearing right about now if it was a bell to signify the next part of the game as I looked around worriedly. I was in...a prison or something. It went down...rather far. I backed away from the edge of this walkway against the wall… that’s a way to put fear into you. “Wait, I can fly.” I frowned, summoning Lindworm and seeing if I could do this cause of the world being different. Thankfully I was able to fly, and did. That’s when I saw what looked like a Cthulhu human thing with a lanturn/bell thing. It was shooting lightning at me. “Oh.” I summoned Foudre and throwing it into the abomination and hit it, the lightning attack it threw at me redirecting towards what was basically a magical lightning rod. It electrocuted itself, almost comically how it stood when that happened before falling over. I fired a shot from sharpshooter, killing it and landing myself back onto the walkway. “Okay then, that was something.” I frowned. “Hey, You! Yes You!” I heard someone calling. Below I think. Looking down, I saw a very blue, ethereal man in one of the cells. “Get me out of here!” “And if I do?” I asked. “But who are you if I may ask?” “Lord Rydell. As you can see I’m a Phantom. I need to take back an item from my corpse! Please, it’s urgent.” “And what’s the item?” I asked, hoping it’s something revolving around Jenny. “Come on man! I’m a white Phantom, I won’t up and kill you. Not unless I’m killed like this and come back as a Black Phantom. Besides the point, please!” “Okay, but mind helping me search for something as well?” I asked, ready to break the cell doors given I’m strong enough. “Yes of course. I always repay my debts.” “Thank you.” I nodded while walking over and using my enhanced strength to basically rip off the rusted iron door off it’s hinges. “My word. You must be quite the demon slayer. Come then, my body is this way.” I followed Rydell to his body, his corpse was mangled and long since decayed. He grabbed something, then held up a bow staff long since broken. “Damn, I really liked this weapon. Well, a deal’s a deal Sir… what is your name by the way?” “Ben.” I said honestly. “But have you seen anyone with a card?” I asked. “Card… Not a person, but an odd creature of pure darkness passed my cell some time ago. It had a blue card in it’s mouth. Is that what you are after?” “Yes, that is exactly what I’m after.” I said. “Do you know where it went?” “Judging from the path it took I’d say it went to the Fools Idol room. You see, this whole place is a Prison, and Church, though, the ‘Idol’ is a doll given life by the Old One. She lures them to her room, demons drag them upwards to the highest point, and another Demon called the Man Eaters devour them, then yet another demon, The Old Monk, Delivers the souls to the Old One. This place is basically their meat and soul factory. Nothing here but Soul Starved and Demons, well, save for Freke.” “Is he a friend or foe?” I asked curiously. “Friend, definitely. He’s a revolutionary in the field of spellcasting. His spells have protected and kept many alive in the early days of this mess. He came here to acquire demons souls to craft new, more powerful spells. Sadly I am unsure where he is being kept here.” “Well good thing I'm gonna be searching this entire damned place looking for where the that dark creature went.” I said honestly. “I can show you to the Idols room, but all the direct pathways are likely either guarded or collapsed/locked.” “Thank you.” I nodded. The way to the Idol was riddled with fights. We were at the lowest area, and here, where I saw what looked like a horde of these Soul Starved, bundled together in an unholy orb of bodies, walking, shooting a huge projectile of magic, and attacking with various blades when we got too close. “Well...that’s not fucked up at all.” I frowned, not believing someone did that. “In the depths of a corrupt church are just some of what Demon’s do with their power.” Rydell said, finishing off the thing with a swipe of his broken Bow Staff. We found some spare keys and when we climbed back up came across. “Freke!” Rydell said, running over to the locked cell door. Inside was a very old man, and behind him a glowing bright light. “Hello?” I said to Freke, wondering what the glowing light was for. “Hm. What? Oh, Visitors. Lovely to meet you both. I’m Sage Freke the Visionary, or so the Schools all call me. I don’t suppose you can get me out of here now, can you? Been locked up here for a while now.” “Don’t worry, we’re getting you out.” I said, walking over and ripping the door off it’s hinges again. “Why thank you young lad.” Freke said. “Give me a moment, I can return to the Nexus on my own from there, and, even at my old age, I can assist. Bring me a Demon’s Soul and I can craft a powerful spell for you to use along your journey.” “Thank you.” I nodded. “By the by, have you seen anyone with a card?” I asked curiously, wondering if Freke also had a lead on if another person with Jenny’s memories was here at all. “Hm… A few days ago, I heard someone, to my suprise, say that they were giving each of the demons here a special item to guard. Who was speaking and to who I am unsure. All I know is that it must have been a lady with how she laughed as they said that.” I frowned at that. “Spoiled…” I growled to myself. “Thank you, you sure you don’t need help getting back?” I ask, knowing he was a powerful sorcerer but wanting to make sure he was at least going to be alright when he gets to safety. “I just need a moment to let my old bones gather enough strength, then I’ll head to the Archstone nearby. I’m old, but not helpless. Here, take this as thanks.”: Freke said, handing me a long wooden stick. “This Catalyst will let you cast any magic that is intelligence based.” “Thank you.” I nodded while taking the Catalyst. We left, and came across an area connected to a long bridge, with a giant statue that opened up, and revealed rows upon rows of large...Crossbows, for lack of the proper word, all firing along the bridge. “Well, now how do we avoid that?” Rydell pondered. I thought for a moment. “Well…” I wondered, summoning Fair Game and throwing a card towards the arrows, making it increase it’s size so it was big enough to block the arrows. “I wonder if these can block arrows…” I wonder. The arrows all impaled the card, but didn’t go through. Using that for cover, we ran across the bridge, and once across Rydell found the switch that turned off the device. With that done we went along up a stairway, and found ourselves outside a long stairway towards a huge set of doors. “This is it, the Fools Idol’s Church.” Rydel said, waving an arm to ‘display’ it all. “Where poor fools are sent to death.” “Yeah, all the demons here.” I said, cracking my knuckles for what’s to come. We opened the doors, seeing Soul Starved all around, praying in a way. Once halfway in, the doors behind us shut, and from above this woman in dark clothing floated down, a book in grasp and a soft smile on her face. She then waved… a Blue card in front of us. “Is that it?” Rydell asked. “Yes, that is exactly what I need.” I said, drawing Reunion and Frozen Pride. “Okay lady, how do you want to do this?” I asked simply. “Do we do this the easy way, or the hard way?” She put the card away, spun around as two doppelgangers appeared next to her. They all vanished, and reappeared in different areas. “I’ll take that’s the hard way.” Rydell said. “Yep, she really wants to die.” I said. “So, let’s get started.” I said, looking at the three and seeing if I could get their health bars so I know how long this will take. It wasn’t that long. Question is, which one is her? We split up, Rydell taking one while I took another, and the third we had to dodge it’s spells. I moved quickly to one of them and slashed at the mage, hoping this will be the real one. It vanished, and the third unattended one shooting a bolt at me that knocked me down to the ground. It hurt...but not all that bad… This thing is weak as all hell! I raised Frozen Pride as shards of ice shot towards the third one. It impaled her, and I saw her HP bar fall to Zero as her body hit the ground. “That was all it took?” Rydell said, his copy vanishing with the real one dead. As I began to move around, dealing with the soul starved followers, A mad laugh came from above. High above, a soul starved glowed with a golden aura. “AHAHAHAHAHAHA! Fools Die! You will both fall to the Maiden's hand!” He yelled, the Corpse of the Demons rising as it glowed with a similar aura. She came back, this time though, that crazed man tossed down to her what looked like a poorly stitched sloth Kingdom Key. When she grabbed it, it flashed black, and looked metallic now. It looked real. “And here we go…” I muttered, flying after the crazed bastard so he wouldn't bring that bitch back. Before I got high enough she dragged me down, slamming her fake Keyblade into my spine. Rydell used his broken bow staff and knocked her aside, helping me up. “You okay?” He asked. “Yeah I'm fine.” I said, thankful for my defense and it not breaking anything. “Unless we kill whoever that was bitch over there isn't gonna stay dead.” “I don’t have a Bow or Cata… The one Freke gave you, let me see it.” Rydell asked. “Here you go.” I said, handing him the Catalyst. “Please tell me you got something up your sleeve here.” “Just need a boost.” He said, waving the Catalyst over himself as this yellow glow came over him. He then jumped...HIGH and caught the ledge of where that mad man was. “Enhance Agility. Never used it before but-” He pulled himself over, and knocked the mad man over, an audible crack in the air as he fell. “Never hurts to know as many things as possible.” “Yeah pretty much.” I said, looking over at the lady to see if she falls over. She didn’t, so, I summoned Skysplitter, running up to this Doll Demon and slamming it into her chest like a baseball bat. She was sliced clean in half, dying in a fade of white light as two things fell to the ground. A small grey orb. And the card. Rydell carefully climbed down, landing next to me. “A demon’s soul, and what you where after. Something tells me this is not the only one, is it?” “One down, four more to go.” I said, grabbing the Card and Demon Soul. “Well then, if that is all then this is where I part ways with you Ben. I’ll be in The Nexus, working to repair my weapon. You take care of whatever is ahead, alright?” Rydell said. “I will.” I nod. “And I might ask for your help if that’s possible...but just a quick note, if you feel the Nexus shaking, don’t panic it’s just me going into...well someone really pissed me off.” I said to him honestly. “I’ll keep that in mind. Till next time Ben.” He said, turning around and leaving. As he exited the doors he turned around, a...fog, covering the doorway. “Crap! Ben!” The fog covered it up, and I was stuck in here now. “Fuck.” I frowned, looking around. “Okay, who’s here?” I called out, knowing something’s about to appear with the fog door. In front of me I saw a black stone appear on the ground, and from it a red aura… till a person showed up. “Woah...it worked.” It was a woman, voice said it all, her cloak was… like mine? “Who are you if I may ask?” I asked curiously. “Huh? Oh! Hi...wow. Your like me!” She said, taking off her hood…. She was a dire wolf person too. Her eyes a deep green, hair same brown as mine, and fur a light blue/grey. “I’m Betty!” “Ben.” I said. “I have...several questions...like how a apparently you might be...the female version of me.” I said a little worriedly. “”Hmm...I don't see it.” Betty said, looking me over. “Hey, you got a cloak like mine! Copycat!” “Hey, I ain’t copying shit here.” I frowned. “From where I see this you’re copying me, cause Rarity made this for me.” I said honestly. “Well I asked… a friend for this so you copied them!” “My fiance made this for me.” I frowned. “And when did you get it?” I asked simply. “I uh...told you, I asked someone for this.” She said, clearly avoiding the question. “A friend huh?” I asked. “Or...is it someone you like?” “What, no. I met him… How to phrase this…?” Betty began thinking. “Do you know a place called...Earth?” “That would be my home world...that’s been long dead for the past hundred plus years.” I told her. “Wait, what?! I’ve been traveling for just the last few months by my count...God I should have asked for a phone with unlimited battery life and was unbreakable… So, you came from that mess too huh?” She asked, taking a seat on the floor. “Not the only one.” I said while sitting down as well. “Where do you want me to start?” “Well if earth is dead, no point in really wondering about it to be honest. How about you? What were you doing when that all went down?” “Well I was in my high schools library at the time, feel asleep, met God, then went to Equestria with powers.” I shrugged. “The hundred years passing was because time is a weird thing on different worlds.” I said honestly. “Huh. Where did you live?” “In Ohio.” I said honestly. “Huh, Country boy huh? Heh. I lived in New York. On 2012 I was just lazing about my place when I got the not-so-smart idea to try and see what all the noise outside was. I got hit by a Firetruck… Woke up in that white void place, talked with god. He made me a furry, which I was a hardcore one back on earth, and I always loved the Dusks from Kingdom Hearts, so I asked for an overcoat that made me look like one. I then asked for the ability to travel between worlds, and a sword. Girl’s gotta have protection. Been going from place to place ever since.” “Alright then, well I’ve been doing this for at least half a year if not more, I happen to have all Fourteen weapons the Organization uses, am the Heir to Nothingness and so much more...all on the basis of I was a ‘Nobody’ in my old life, might as well start off my new life as an actual Nobody.” I explained. “And that’s barely scratching the surface of what I’ve been through.” “Neat. I just got to this world a few days ago. Found this stones and was told one lets me invade parallel worlds. So I did. Didn't think it would work though.” “Well it did.” I said. “And now I’m stuck here until you leave.” I said honestly. “Heh...oh…” Betty said, scratching the back of her head. “Hey...mind if I try something?” “Your not allowed to hit me.” I said, having a feeling I know what’s gonna happen here. “But what is it?” “Just let me take your hand. I think I can use my ability to physically be where you are. I’ve only ever traveled worlds, not Parallel worlds, so this will be new for me. I wanna see if it works.” “If you say so.” I said while moving out my hand for her to take. She grabbed my hand firmly, the air began looking wavy, everything felt heavy and there were sparks of light appearing in and out of thin air. As I started to get worried everything shook, the red aura around Betty began fading. When it was all gone everything stopped suddenly and she fell to her knees. “Jesus that took a lot out of me…” She wheased. “But hey...it worked… Ouch.” “Hold on.” I said while summoning my Lexicon. “Curaga.” I said, casting a heal spell on Betty to give her some of her energy back. “Heh, thanks. That was helpful.” She said, standing back up wobbly. The fog fell. Rydell entering. “Ben. Oh...what happened here?” Rydell asked. “Just a new person here.” I said, motioning to Betty. “This is Betty, Betty this is Rydell.” I said. “Hi.” Betty said. “Hello.” Rydell replied. “Well, since it’s not what I feared, I’ll be off then. Later Ben.” “So, where you going next Ben?” Betty asked. “Well there’s four other things I need to find here…” I said, thinking of where to go next. “What are they?” I brought out a card. “Cards that hold parts of my daughters memories.” I said. “And the cockhole that did that to her has hidden five here, and fifteen somewhere else.” I growled. “Hm…” She pondered. “There are five Archestones and therefore, five possible bosses guarding them. Question is, did he put one in each area, or what?” “Knowing him he gave one to each boss in those areas.” I said honestly. “In that case, the next place, or boss is the Maneaters. You ready for them? The way to them is...creepy.” “I’ve seen creepier.” I said, remembering the time me and Joy fought a Void Knight in the diamond dog kingdom and how that weird face was a mix of a Mind Flayers, a Dogs and a human’s head. “Well then, come on.” Betty said, walking me to an alter of sorts. It was right then four demon looking things flew down, surrounding us before grabbing us and flying us high up, dropping us off on a ledge next to a stairway. “Can that be called an elevator?” Betty asked as she got herself up. “Originally those things were to bring dumb people up here to die.” I said honestly while getting up as well. “But now that that lady is dead...I doubt many will fall for the bullshit.” We walked up the stairs, and saw three tall towers, each connected by a series of long...thin...high up bridges. “...Afraid of heights?” She asked, looking over the edge. “I can fly. Are you scared of heights?” I asked honestly, having flown from both my glider and other ways my old fear of heights just kind of went away rather quickly. “A bit.” She said, looking around. “It’s those things I’m concerned about.” She pointed. In the distance, atop from statues and archways, sat the same demon things that brought us up here, armed and eyeing us. “Do you have a ranged weapon or something?” “Are you going to attack us!?” I called out to the demons, looking at them and waiting to see if they give me a signal of they are hostile or not. “Usually in game they attack when you get close enough.” Betty explained. “Can’t sneak from them so we have to kill them. Please tell me you have a bow or something?” I summoned Sharpshooters. “Yes, I do, and they never miss by design.” I told her. “Okay...so slow and steady then.” I said, staring at the demons and practically daring them to come attack us if they want to die. “Well, come on then.” Betty said. We ran down the way, immediately they began charging towards us. I fired walls of arrows at them, each landing and ending them, the demon things falling from the sky. Once inside the first tower, we saw a huge, pulsating flesh mass wrapped in cloth and chains. It took up the whole inside just about. “To this day, I have no idea what that thing i- DEAR GOD IT REAKS!” She yelled, covering her nose. I zipped up my hood, thanking god that it doubles as a hazmat suit. “Alright then, so here’s the demon that’s gonna die unless it starts talking and be friendly.” I said honestly, having a feeling this thing will want to attack us. “Higher up. We gotta break the chains keeping this mess up then the stairway up to it will be open.” She said, hand covering her nose. “How strong are the chains?” I asked simply. “Or do we need to actually activate something so the stairway will appear?” “Normally, but if you can break them here it’s a cheat working around running around this place.” “I can certainly break those chains.” I said, aiming Sharpshooters and firing at the chains, pretty sure my shots are strong enough to break the chains. I fired, the chains sending the mass crashing down to the floor below as we bolted above to the boss. Here, another fog wall awated us. “Just behind here is the Maneaters… God I hated this fight back on earth…” “If there holding one of my daughters memories…” I said, summoning Skysplitter. “There going to wish they stayed dead.” I growled, walking up to the fog door and putting a hand up to it. My hand broke it as I entered, and once through Betty followed. Once on the other side, the Maneater ran at us, swiping at me with it’s large talons. I smacked the thing with Skysplitter before it could touch me. “Yeah no.” I frowned. “Okay, given I heard ‘Maneaters’, where are the others?” I asked simply, ready to beat the shit out of these things. “The second one comes out when this one reaches about half health or dies. Usually.” Betty informed. “Sure.” I said. “That sounds like the Gargoyle fight in Dark Souls 1 actually.” I mentioned, drawing Sharpshooter and firing at the thing. My shots hit, but it was clearly tougher than the one before it. He then took to the sky, and roared doing flyby swipes. “That was not his ingame moveset!” Betty yelepd, ducking a swipe.” “Well then you probably haven’t fought this thing enough.” I said while blocking with Skysplitter and firing a charged shot at the thing. The charged shot imbedded itself into its skull,, and it fell into the depths below. Just then, the second one came out, landing on the bridge before roaring at me, it’s eyes bright yellow and...the card in its teeth... “You picked the wrong day to roar at me.” I growled, swapping out Skysplitter and Sharpshooter for Lunatic, my fur growing as rage started increasing my strength. “I’d...recommend not getting in the way.” I growled at Betty, not wanting to hurt her on accident but knowing Lunatic is pretty fucking strong something might accidentally happen. She backed up, and I swung Lunatic at the Maneater ran right into its swing. To a bit of a comedic surprise, his body fell over the edge, but his head hit the ground before me. “HOLY SHIT THAT WAS COOL!!” Betty screamed, the Maneater’s head vanishing, leaving the card, and a Squirming Demon soul. “That’s what it gets for facing the rage of a Moon surviving a supernova.” I said honestly, dismissing Lunatic and calming down as I collected both the soul and the card. “And my rage for holding my daughters memories.” “Well, next Demon is the last one for this area. It’s a bit off. It’s not the body itself, it’s the golden fabric wrapped around it. In game it summonses a Black Phantom to fight with since it’s body before now cant handle a fight, given it’s basically a mummy at this point.” Betty said. “So basically it can’t do much but it’s Phantom can?” I asked curiously. “Depending on who or what it summons and how strong they are, yeah, it possesses them. We kill the phantom, and it dies. It’s linked to whoever it possesses.” “Oh wait…” I summoned my Lexicon and sifted through the pages to see all the Necromantic spells I know. “If it’s a Mummy, that means it’s undead, and if it’s undead then I’m pretty sure I can make it serve me.” “No Ben, it keeps it’s host alive till it drains them, then moves on. It’s host looks like a mummy, but it’s just a powerful human kept alive by...a demon cloth… Huh, sounds less cool when said out loud.” “Oh, okay then. So kill it then.” I said honestly. “By killing whoever it summons to possess next.” Betty concluded. “Come on, just up this stairway.” She pointed, the end of the bridge showed an opening, and a single stairway leading even higher up. “Alright then.” I said. “But I wonder if I can break the possession...or the fact the summon will have to fight us either way?” I wondered honestly. We headed up, reaching the fog wall to this last bastard. Once on the other side, I saw whoever it was, wore a simple knights outfit, wielded a spear, and had that gold cloth wrapped around their head… “Looks really dumb huh?” Betty said. “So I just take the headband off?” I asked, feeling like that’s a lot better solution then killing him. “It can’t come off. That thing is alive, remember?” “Hold on…” I said, bringing up my Assistant and actually checking what the hell this is cause honestly this could just be a golden piece of cloth cursed by a demon. “Sorry, just a wondering...I’m also a hero so might as well see if I can save people if I can.” Bolitarea Lore: The Old Monk The original Old Monk was the husband of the queen of Latria. He left Latria for unknown reasons and returned with horrible demons in tow. This led to the fall of Latria. The monk is now nothing more than a black phantom controlled by golden robes. His collar bears the description: "Head wrappings that were once the golden robe worn by the old master of Latria and eventually took control of the then withered old man. It is whispered that the robe now seeks to summon those who offer their aid, and carrying out its wishes grants them the use of these odd head wrappings. Could the golden garb be seeking out a new vessel to subjugate…?" “Okay then, so the guy he’s possessing is the Old Monk...and apparently he’s a dick wad.” I frowned. “So let’s go kill this guy then.” I said, summoning Lindworm. “I really hope I can learn this weapon...I really like this.” I said honestly, raising my spears up and throwing them at the demon garments newest puppet. He side stepped them all, rushing towards me with rather unexpected speed. He then swung, nearly cutting my face as I backed up in time. He’s fast. Even with Lindworm’s Wind powers he was proving challenging. I only landed one hit so far. He didn’t land any though. “Guy’s fast I’ll give him that.” I said honestly. “How good are you with that sword?” I asked Betty, having a feeling I’m actually gonna need a little back up.” “...Eh…” See said, waving her hand like she was unsure. “Most worlds I visited I didn't need to use it.” She said, taking out from within a sleeve in her cloak, a simple straight sword. “You really need some lessons.” I frowned. “Do you have any combat experience?” I asked. “Well- LOOK OUT!” Betty shouted. I turned around just to see this guy stab his spear THROUGH my chest, only stopping when his hand hit my chest from where he held it on his weapon. I coughed up blood. “Well...nice hit.” I said, Lunatic coming into my hand without my say so as I went into a rage, snapping the spear in half and slamming Lunatic into him...til he waved his hand, and PARRY’D Lunatic. He then pulled his spear out, jabbing it into my stomach this time as he lifted me above him, and swung his spear, throwing me against the wall. I dropped Lunatic. “Ben!” Betty yelled, running over to me. “Shit, shit, shit…” She said, looking at my wounds. The sound of me growling could be heard as my injuries seemed to be stitching up with Nothingness Thorns. “This fucker...made a huge mistake.” I growled. He began walking closer, my wounds not healed enough… I then saw Betty take Lunatic, and stand in front of me. “S-stay back!” She commanded. I pulled out my Lexicon. “Haste, Protect, Draconic Might.” I said, Betty feeling like she could take a massive hit, felt a whole lot faster and a lot stronger. “There’s some buffs.” I said, casting a healing spell on myself to help myself. As I got back up, he threw his spear passed Betty, into my arm, pinned into my flesh and bones, and pinned me to the wall. “Okay, apparently existence doesn’t want me just waltzing through everything like I obviously can.” I frowned. He reached behind him, pulling out a shortsword that… Wait, that’s the same sword the Royal guard use back in Equestria? “Ben!” Betty yelled, seeing me pinned to the wall. “Wait.” I frowned. “Can you talk demon?” I asked. “Who are you possessing?” I frowned. It didn’t reply, rather, took a fighting stance then rushed Betty, who thanks to Lunatic’s size, blocked his thrust. “Ben, this guy is weird. I saw his neck. It’s all scared from… I dunno, a huge gash all around or something?” Betty said, blocking another thrust. “Try knocking his helmet off.” I said, having a terrible feeling about this as I grabbed the spear and broke it. “Christ this hurts.” I grumbled. “But...that better not be who I think it is…” I said, having a bad feeling Cadence is gonna hate me. Betty swung, the Demon dodging. Before he was able to swing when he got close, Betty reacted, lifting her sword in her free hand, stabbing them in the side. Taking her chance, she let go of her sword, and slammed Lunatic onto them, flattening them. Their red aura vanished, leaving their...body as the cloth seemed to deflate, life leaving it as it left its host. As the cloth unraveled, a Yellow Demon’s Soul fell out, as did another card. “I...did it. Holy crap I killed a demon! Can I keep this thing?” Betty asked me, pointing to Lunatic in her hands. I walked over and took the card and checked the body. “You sure did…” I said, too distracted by the many thoughts running through my head. “Could it…?” I muttered, taking off the guys helmet and wondering if this is really who I think it is. When I took the cloth off...it was. Shining Armor…”Damn it…” I muttered, summoning Fair Game and throwing a card to the ground with the Symbol of Death on it. “If any Death can hear me, can you please come here?” “AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” Was the sudden response from behind us. Standing there was… Grell? “Blast it all you brats and your summoning magic! Do you have any idea how much work I still have to complete in this world alone BEFORE the hour is up!?” “There’s a soul I need.” I said. “Shining Armor’s soul to be precise.” I said, “Oh, this pony person you mean?” He said, walking over Shining Armor’s body and looking his face over. “My, quite the looker. But aside from your request why should I break protocol for you?” “Cause.” I said, before Graceful Dahlia appeared and seemed to be floating around him. “Because your my new council member.” I said honestly. “Council Member? Of what? And where did you get this Death Scythe?! It’s devinly deadly!” Grell said, taking it. While it’s pole didn’t change form, it’s blade changed to a blood red, and grew teeth that spun, giving a light roar like a...chainsaw? “Oh my heavens! What beauty! What power! How sexy!” “You are now a council member to the Heir of Nothingness Grell.” I said. “And what you have there is called Graceful Dahlia, made from the bark of a Demon Tree on a destroyed planet.” I said honestly. “Demon Tree of a dead planet? How sexy… Crap, but what will my bosses say… Oh what to do…?” I sighed out and threw another card with a death symbol on it. “Paging Grell’s boss, mind if I have a word with you cause your now needed.” I said, hoping I can do this multiple times instead of just the once. From the card came the form of death itself, I turned to Grell, and saw him...terrified. “You-you-you-you-you-” He kept repeating. I looked a bit confused. “Is it wrong that I managed to summon your boss?” Before Grell replied, he grabbed Betty and I, forcing us both to the floor before bowing on all fours himself. “You summoned the boss of ALL Grim Reapers. The First Death.” Grell informed. “He’s only ever had three students, two started the Grim Reapers, the third, was Cript’s boss.” “You mean Lord?” I asked. “I met him actually. Nice guy.” I said honestly. “Is that what he goes by now?” Grell asked. “Who here summoned me?” The First Death spoke, his voice faint, but commanding. “Well I literally can’t say his name cause he deemed it that.” I told Grell while standing up. “I did sir. Sorry that I...well summoned you, your probably very busy but I have a...small complication here.” I explained. “Hm… Heir of Nothing. Ben, from Terra 877Y8. My condolences for your home world.” He said, motioning for us all to rise. We did. “It’s alright sir.” I said, showing respect to my elder here. “But since you know who I am, you can obviously tell by the Chainsaw Scythe Grell has that he’s now apart of my Council.” I said. “And originally I was just gonna ask how can I get a friend of mines soul back.” I explained, motioning to Shining’s dead body. “Hm. Grell, retrieve this dead corpses soul and resurrect him, I will inform the rest of the reapers of your...termination from the Reapers, but you will be allowed to keep your powers and Death Scythe.” “Yes, yes of course Death!” Grell said, vanishing in an aura of purple and red. “Now then.” Death continued. “I can tell you’ve spoken to my old student. I can see it in your soul.” “Yes, he goes by Lord now considering he said no one’s ever allowed to know his real name.” I said honestly. “Is that what he is going by? When I knew him he went by Jose. Being the creator of everything, he spend time throwing himself into his creation, powers locked and memories wiped. His version of playing. During that time, he had no idea what he was. Simpler times indeed.” “Well I wouldn’t know cause I didn’t exist all the way back then.” I shrugged. “But yeah, we talked, he showed me a future, that it’s probably a good idea to die before one goes completely insane…” I trailed off. “But knowing you being the Death, you probably know all of this.” “Of course. There are few throughout time I keep to reap.” He said, taking out a single, thin notebook, aged to, well, dead. “I’ve placed you in here as well, though, date’s changed now. Time is such a touchy thing.” “Time is one thing no one will understand.” I said honestly. “But mind if I ask...is there a way for Cript to...ya know…” I said nervously. “Die? Of course, he is my most anticipated soul to collect. It will be a LONG time before that however.” “Alright...good…” I said, remembering when I saw Cript having gone completely mad and not liking that future at all. “Good to know. But...thank you sir, I remember having been told I needed to do something to get a soul back for someone specific...or get the dragon balls.” “Hm? Oh yes, Grell should be back with it any moment now. So, Ben, I take it you have troubles on your mind? What ales you?” “I mean besides Kexez having stolen my daughters memories, the apparent abomination he’s trying to make with Spoiled...and the ever looming war on the horizon and how I, for the life of me, sadly can’t find hope in that horrid bloodbath.” I sighed out. “Yes, Kexez’s fate was a sad one indeed.” “The fucks gonna get his ass kicked when I get my hands on him.” I frowned. “But besides that...the war...is gonna claim so many lives…” I said, fearing for my family’s lives the most. “Do you know, how Kexez became this way?” “Well here’s the thing, when I think about why Kexez is doing this I thought it was because he had Psychopath blood in him...but then that’s bullshit cause Core kind of...stole all of Zeke’s Psychopath blood, I mean unless it’s less material and more immaterial that makes Psychopaths.” I said honestly, not knowing the full thing about those guys. “Not all of it was taken, so long as there was a single cell in his body, it would grow back. Zeke’s balanced heart and powerful soul kept it in check, allowing him to resist it’s tempting whispers. Without either though.” Death waved his hand, an image of Kexez, in Zeke’s clothing, before he became evil likely. “The whispers immediately got to him?” I asked honestly. “Watch.” Death spoke. Kexez was writing some notes down from books all over the long table he sat at. He sighed, scratching his head. “So many damn monsters on this world…” He said, then, his eyes quickly flashing from red to blue. “Ga! AHH!” He screamed, falling over as it looked like his body was… moving under his skin. “AHHHHHHH!” When his eyes changed to normal, he gasped, taking in a deep breath before shakely getting back up. “F-Fuck!” He growled. “No… I need more time…” “Oh dear…” I muttered worriedly. “That’s not good…when was this?” “A week after he escaped Purgatory.” Watching Kexez again, he stood himself back up, looking light headed. “Shit….” He coughed, summoning Starlight...and jabbing it into his free arm, almost slicing his arm in half as blood gushed out. He fell over, quickly casting several Cure spells on himself. “Please...please have spilled out…” He huffed, looking pale. “Oh…” I muttered. “I...kind of doubt I can get him back to sanity right now huh?” “His heart and Soul can cure his state. With both, Zeke will be back, and Kexez will become who he is.” “But...Zeke’s soul is in Trixie at the moment.” I said honestly. “Hmm…” “Do you have a plan?” “Well Zeke is the one who’s going to have to deal the final blow against Kexez.” I said honestly. “Then Lake is...I believe dead, but something tells me he’s not, and Drezke is going crazy as well.” “A balanced heart, like Lake and Drezke, are the few to partake in the fragile dance of light and dark. This means one cannot exist without the other. When one is gone from this reality, the other half can regrow them, as they are still the same being.” “Oh cool, that means Lake will be alive...and then Drezke will slowly regain his sanity...I hope.” I said honestly. “Not, if he continues to consume darkness to achieve his goal. Remove the excess darkness, and Lake will be reborn. You will need the right tool, however.” Death said, taking my hand, and placing a black and purple glove over it. “This glove latches onto the darkness in one’s heart, and removes it, against Drezke, it will cause him to expel all the excess darkness. After that, it is a matter of survival.” “I’ve fought a Delete and lived.” I said honestly. “Could it be worse than that?” I asked, putting away the glove knowing I’m gonna need it for when I meet Drezke...whenever that’ll happen. “He has consumed a total of nine worlds darkness, straight from their tainted Keyholes. The heartless born from that, will be unlike any you have ever seen before.” “So my average tuesday then?” I joked. “Quite the bravery.” He said, turning to Betty now. “Young one, great potential lies within your future.” “Oh, uh, hehe...thanks.” Betty said. “Let me see your sword.” He said, Betty handing Death her sword. He then traced his skeleton finger across the blade, and it began to change, it’s blade changing to a pure black, and it’s handle to purple. He then gave it back to Betty. “Etched into this blade I put in traces of Cures of Gore. A powerful curse that makes all slashed by this blade fall ill, then die painfully within the hour.” “...Sounds...Strong?” “Given that you now have a powerful curse enchant on your sword I’d say so.” I said honestly. “Especially in a fight when they grow in and die within an hour.” “I shall take my leave. Remember Ben, Kexez may be evil now, but he did not choose this path. Save him, by returning to him, his heart. The rest will be...quite the surprise.” Death said, vanishing just as he appeared. “I’ll make sure…” I nodded. “But I’ll need to find Drezke first…” I muttered. “I’m back!” Grell said, appearing behind us from nowhere. In his hand was...what looked like pure, sporadic energy. “Finding this little bastard in that whole pile was a heck and a half.” He said, kneeling down to Shining. He touched his forehead, his wounds and body now looking as if he was sleeping. Grell then opened Shining’s mouth, and the soul flowed down it. Once it was all in, he started breathing. “He’ll wake up in a few hours.” Grell said, standing up. “Alright.” I nodded. “So Grell, how does it feel having Graceful Dahlia?” I asked. “Honestly it feels strange, yet interesting. It’s like it’s begging me to turn the souls of where I stand red with blood, how sexy… but, it also is worrying, I mean, I like murder and mayhem as much as the next woman but this thing is a tad...obsessed.” “Said Demon Tree literally had a Psychopath in it so maybe that’s why.” I said honestly. “You’ll get used to it.” I said honestly, kind of surprised I haven’t been hearing the Psychopath whispers to be perfectly honest. ”Maybe it’s because I also have Humanity?” I think to myself, wondering about that thing. “Well, now that I’m under your employment what task do you want of me?” Grell asked. “As lazy as I would like to be chasing after all the pretty boys, I also know that under you I really can’t put off anything important.” “Right now would be go to Equestria, meet your fellow Council Members...and train, train until you can’t train anymore, then train some more...cause War is looming.” I told him, knowing since he’s a Grim Reaper he would know about the upcoming Keyblade War. “A war huh… Seen some of them in the past. One real nasty one back when I was still in training. EVERYBODY was called for that mess… What was it called again… Oh, the Keyblade War. If anyone took a second more to finish anything you where already late and WAY behind.” “Well a second one is coming.” I said honestly. “And trust me...just from what I saw through memories...it’s gonna be really rough.” “I saw the whole thing Ben sweetie. I may have just been collecting souls rather than fighting but I know what happened that day. It’s why my generation of Reapers is called ‘The Warborn’. Well, at least this time around I won’t be collecting the souls, so that’s weight off my expected workload.” “Yes, instead of doing the worlds biggest and morbid collectathon, your going to be doing a lot of murders during it.” I said honestly. “Most likely. Well I’ll be off, see you in the office boss.” Grell said, vanishing in a puff of smoke. I rubbed my temples. “So, Betty, how does it feel having witnessed a common occurrence in my life?” “Your life is awesome.” She said simply. “Come on, next boss area is another place entirely.” To be continued...
Nobody does a lot of thingsWith Betty’s help, we cleared Stonefang Tunnel, The Shrine of Storms and we were at the end of the valley of defilement. This place was horrific, wreaked of death and disease, and was just...truly a place abandoned by god. We reached the final boss area, and was met by a man wearing heavy armor, with a colossal mace/club thing. “Well...looks like we’re probably going to be fighting this guy.” I said honestly. He turned around. “Follow me.” He said, low toned, but commanding nonetheless. “Or not…” I muttered, following along but still at the ready in case something happened. He brought us down into the grimmy water blow. In the very back most of this cave thing, was a woman, the grim attached to her legs like vines and a she held this glowing orb. The armored man then fell...onto a pile of corpses, and rested. “Hello.” The woman said. “You two are not like the Demon Slayers of past, are you?” She asked. “That depends, why do you ask?” I asked simply, hoping this person was a lot more reasonable here even though it seemed she was...literally apart of this place. “I am Maiden Astraea, guardian of this sanctuary for those abandoned by god. I know why you have come here.” She said, taking out one of Jenny’s memory cards from behind her. “Take it, and leave this place in peace.” “What’s the catch?” I asked. “Cause while I would be oh so happy to just take the card and leave...it doesn’t seem that simple. Need some help or something?” “We live peaceful, humble lives here.” She started. “I use my powers as a demon to heal all I can, and even revive those left here to rot. Just leave this place, leave us alone.” “I understand.” I nodded, gently walking over and taking the card. “Thank you Maiden.” I nodded. “Thank you, and may the deviens grant you safe passage away from this place, and to wherever your goal will take you.” “And may you find peace taking care of those in need.” I said. “But...did the person that gave you this...did he mention who else had these?” “He gave one to each of the demons of this land.” She started. “I can tell. You have slane most of them, all that remains is the four waiting the Boletarian Palace. Be warned, The Old One’s most powerful demon resided within the Palace. Be safe.” “I always try to.” I nodded before turning around and heading off to the palace. The Palace wasn’t that hard, honestly the first boss was a joke, second was...a bit awkward but eh, and now, after making a friend with a knight from this place we where outside another boss fog. “This is the Penetrator. He’s fast Ben, so be careful.” Betty said. “From Software had to know what they were calling this fucker cause this things name can’t be by accident.” I said, shaking my head. “I mean come on, the Penetrator?” “Trust me...he’s not joke worthy.” We entered, and where created by one of those Fat Ministers, only for him to be stabbed through by a long, large sword as the boss entered from the other fog, and tossed the annoying lacky to the side like a rag doll. “Please tell me I can steal his sword?” I asked. “In game I know you can make it...but I dunno about reality...maybe?” She said, quickly pushing me aside as she backed away, the Boss almost screwing us both in one thrust. He WAS fast! “Okay one, rude.” I said, summoning Frozen Pride and trying to shield bash him. “And two...well we’ll figure that out when he’s dead.” Aside from thrusting his swings where also very fast. Frozen pride was able to block, but his force behind his attacks did make me skid back some feet each time. Betty, while it was busy with me, ran up and jumped onto the Penetrator, and jabbed her cursed sword under its helmet, into its neck. The curse began taking effect as he staggered back and fell over. I took this chance to steal his sword from his grip. “That...was cool.” Betty said. “It’s good to have back up sometimes.” I said honestly, channeling Nothingness into the sword and slashing with it, a bladed wave of Nothingness was sent straight towards the knight. The Penetrator was sliced in half, and from it’s fading corpse dropped it’s soul, and the card. “One to go.” Betty said. I took both the Soul and the Card. “Alright…” I muttered. “In game, did you ever fight the Old One? Or did it just die in a cutscene?” I asked curiously. “In game after slaying all the demons and kill the final demon who guards the old one, the old one is just a mass of light and energy, that the Maiden in black luls to sleep the the rest of time, and makes you the next Monumental, the guardian of the world. Why do you ask?” “Just making sure.” I said. “Cause if it was a boss then it would have the last card...but maybe it’s bodyguard has it?” I wondered. “Also...I’m pretty sure we could have gone to the Nexus and then leveled a bunch from all the murdering we’ve done.” I pointed out. “But how strong is the final boss?” “Honestly he’s a joke. His attacks are weak and he mostly flops around like a fish out of water. Kinda disappointing to be honest.”” “Okay then...wonder if that’s true in reality.” I said honestly. “Anything else I should be concerned about here?” “Well...Ostrava of Boletaria is up ahead, past that second dragon…” She started. “Of course.” I sighed out. “Well, let’s keep going and see how that’ll go.” I said honestly. After reaching past some heavily guarded places and running into some Black Phantoms, got some neat items from them. We came across the other dragon and I unloaded Sharpshooters at it. It dyed, making the way clear. On the steps sat Ostrava. “Oh, hello you two.” He said, taking notice to us. “Hello.” I nodded to Ostrava. “How are you doing?” “Honestly, not too well. I just saw my father… He’s become a demon...the rumors were true after all…” “Do you really want to die because your dad chose poorly?” I frowned. “Or do you want to take a moment and not kill yourself, then help everyone that’s still sane here?” “And how do you know that if I continue on, I’ll come out any better than my father. He was like me once, cared for his kingdom, but in his old age, he sought means of solving mans blight… I don’t want to become like him. You can’t truly escape blood, after all.” “Who the fuck said blood dictated what you did?” I asked. “Cause right now I’m seeing someone who’s doing a lot better trying to solve people’s problems than causing them. Just because he’s your father, doesn’t mean you have to end up like him. Choices are thrown at everything in life...and unlife in this case. Right now your choices are these, die and fail to help people like your father wanted to do before he became a demon, or live and help the people who are here without resorting to demons?” I asked bluntly. “...” Ostrava sat quiet, then stood. “Wait here. I’ll return shortly.” He said, taking off. Betty and I waited for about an hour or so before Ostrava came back. He had a pure white sword in his grip, and handed Betty the shield. “It protects mainly from magic, but it can stop most blades as well.” He explained. “If my father truly has become a demon, then I must use Demonbrandt to slay him. I can reclaim Soulbrandt and reforge our family’s strongest weapon.” “Thank you.” I nodded. “And we’re here to help in anyway, plus...I’m pretty sure he has something of importance to me.” We headed up, taking the elevator...thing up and were met with the fog wall. Traversing through it, we saw before a broken throne, stood the tall, elderly figure of the King. He appeared human, and wielded a sword that was half Demonbrandt, half another sword. “Northern Regalia. Demonbrandt, and its other half, Soulbrandt, fused together as they should. A weapon to slay men and demons alike.” Ostrava said, raising Demonbrandt. “But then...how does he have it, if Demonbrandt is here?” “How are they made?” I asked. “Cause the king is a demon, he probably has the powers to just make another one.” I said honestly, checking my Assistant to see if one was just a replica and the other was actually the real one. “No, they can not be replicated. All attempts in the past where either look alikes that held no true power, or caused whoever held them great sorrows. Demonbrandt and Soulbrandt must be fused together using a powerful demons soul, and ONLY Soulbrandt was missing from the mausoleum… He’s wielding a fake… HE is a fake.” Ostrava stated, pointing Demonbrandt towards the ‘king’. I checked my Assistant just in case. “You can remake Demonbrandt...but Soulbrandt…” I wondered, hoping my Assistant can tell me if I’m right and there both the real thing. Demonbrandt was a sword forged many years ago in a land in ruins. It can only be truly utilized by one with a pure intent, while it’s Counterpart, Soulbrandt can only be truly utilized by one with dark intents. The two swords counter each other, one to slay the demons that plague man, and the other to slay man themselves. Their whole form, Northern Regalia, can be wielded by anyone, man or demon. None of them can exist if one of the other is in existence. Northern Regalia can not exist while Demonbrandt and Soulbrandt exist, and vise versa, either the two swords must exist, or the one. How they were made is unknown. “Okay...that’s fine but that’s not what I asked…” I frowned, as I tried to actually figure out if both Regalia and Demonbrandt were both the real deal instead of one being fake and the other not. “Or I can just figure it out by smacking it really hard…” I muttered, summoning Skysplitter just in case. The king attacked, but before I could go forward, Ostrava ran ahead of me, crossing blades with what may, or may not be his father. “Ostrava are you crazy!?” Betty called out. “No, he’s not.” I said while summoning my keyblade and circling around carefully to the demons back so I could back stab him. The demon began to grow an aura of wind around him, before almost like an explosion, expelling it all, knocking Betty over. Ostrava stood his ground. I was staggered back, but before I could swing, Ostrava charged again. The demon...impaled it’s sword through him, all the way to the hilt. “Ostrava!” Betty cried out. Running into the fight only for the demon to side step and kick her into the wall nearby. Rage filled me. I could feel my eye turning. “THAT’S IT!” I roared, Lunatic appearing in my hand, feeling my other eye also turning as I was going to beat this fucker to save others. “I AM SICK OF YOUR SHIT!” I shouted, rushing over to the demon rather quickly and slamming Lunatic into the demon’s legs really fucking hard. The demon was knocked back, but not dead. As it got back up… I saw Ostrava grab the hilt of it’s weapon, pulling himself more along the blade and ramming Demonbrandt into the demons chest. “Demon...Brandt… R-reject...Darkness.” He managed to saw, the whole blade glowed with a pure light that… that’s Zeke’s power… the X-bades’s ability? The demon’s whole body began to cunvolce and twist, til finally it, and it’s weapon where no more, leaving it’s soul, the card...and Ostrava, a hole in his gut the size of a human head. “Fuck..” I muttered, calming down as I summoned my lexicon and tried to cast healing magic on the poor guy to save his life. It took some time, but his wound closed, finally, and he was breathing steadily, but unconscious. I looked at Demonbrandt, still in Ostrava’s grasp. “Weird…” I muttered, using my assistant to scan this thing. “This weapon...is it really?” I muttered, wondering if the twenty shards are actually still a thing after so damned long. Scanning… Scan complete. Detecting metals and ores not local to this world. Detecting magic not local to this world. Detecting slight temporal anomaly. “Okay, what are those things?” I frowned, trying to figure out more about this thing of what it’s made of, what the magic is, and why the hell time had something to do with this. “Hehe, surprised, aren’t you?” Ostrava said weakly, not moving but speaking. “Everything hurts… why am I not dead? Or a black phantom?” He asked. “You are not dead, or a black phantom. I healed you fast enough so you didn’t die.” I said to him. “So, how the hell did you get a piece of the X-blade?” I asked simply, knowing X has that ability to reject darkness. “X-blade? Heh, not sure what that is. When the kingdom was young, two shards fell from the heavens. One that wreaked of evil, and the other with a glow rivaled by heaven alone. They were the bases for Demonbrandt, and Soulbrandt, the other materials came from travelers from unknown lands. We have no idea from where they haled or why they agreed to help us forge them, but all she said was that ‘time was her plaything’. At least, it said so in the old texts.” I frowned. “That’s...rather concerning.” I said worriedly. “But Demonbrandt and Soulbrandt...are two pieces of a much grander weapon...a weapon that can either cleave worlds asunder...or put worlds back together.” I said honestly. “And the Regalia...that’s when two of the twenty or so pieces are put together. But what was this woman’s name and were there anyone else?” “The texts don’t say much, all I does say is that she wore a black cloak, with hourglasses decorating it’s sleeves and back.” “Oh no…” I muttered, checking my Assistant to see if it has anything on Mother Time in this case rather than Father Time. “Please tell me it’s in here…” I muttered. “You can relax.” I turned around, seeing the very cloaked figure Ostrava just spoke of appear. She was tall, taller than me, and her voice was...familiar. “This is all planned out.” “And...why do you sound familiar?” I asked. “And what do you mean ‘it’s all planned out’?” She held out her hand, and summoned the No Name Keyblade, quickly disbanding it. “Does that at least calm you down?” “Not really...but there’s only one person at the moment that I know has that Keyblade...so, are you Diamond Tiara or are you someone else?” I asked simply, remembering that Joy saw his Diamond had No Name. “Yes, and no. There where many of us to obtain No Name. We all came together, and began to moneter time. We also keep track on events that are meant to happen, and what can be altered for better.” “And two pieces of the X-blade being here is for the better?” I asked. “Well...actually yes that makes sense but still.” I said honestly. “This reflection needed Demon and Soul-Brandt. I also knew at some point you’d be here. Kill two birds with one stone.” She said. “Right then.” I nodded. “So...is X going to actually be reforged? Cause if two pieces are here...then the other eighteen will be around somewhere.” “Yes. While not in this world, they are on others.” “Of course.” I sighed out. “So, I presume you need to tell me something important? Cause while I can ask you questions all day here I doubt you’d want to answer cause time is a very weird and fickle thing.” “Honestly I only came to keep you from looking for answers not written on any texts.” “Right then.” I nodded. “So, about the part where there was technically two of each weapon?” I asked, finding that rather concerning. “This demon, and it’s weapon where fakes, made by the true king to fool his subjects and servants into his devilish biddings. A false king, in a sense.” “Heh, so my father is still a demon, and took Soulbrandt?” Ostrava asked. DT nodded. “Well, then when I am well again, we will find him. My guess is in the belly of the old one.” “And he’s probably holding the last card, and he’s gonna die painfully.” I said while taking the card and soul. “So, besides that...is there anyway this world can get back to some form of normalcy?” I asked curiously. “Slay the old one, the same way it is slaying the world. Consume it, and save this world. It can’t be that hard for you, after all, That’s what Zeke did, to keep the old one from reseting the world.” DT said, a blue clock with arrows spinning around appearing behind her as she entered it, and it vanished just as it appeared. “Okay then.” I said honestly. “Glad to know that.” “Let me rest for a while Ben, then, we’ll finish both our journeys.” Ostrava said. “I'm gonna have to make sure your spine isn't ruined.” I said honestly. “Never took a day of medical school but I'm certainly acting like a medic here.” I grumbled. The Zeppelin ship landed in the Zebra lands, and we were greeted by quite the royal reception. Guards and nobles of the land rested kneeled in two rows, leading to a palace made from stone and large wooden planks. “That took way too long…” I groaned, hating that we literally had to stop to help a dragon for a bit. “Can't wait to meet the royalty here.” Upon entering the palace, we were greeted by a small child...with cloth wrapped around her eyes. “Greetings, White Knight.” She said, bowing. “We have been anticipating your arrival.” “Sorry we weren't here sooner.” I said a little sheepishly. “Just...got side tracked is all.” “That is alright. Your presence alone is honor to the kingdom. Please, follow me to the King and Queen’s quarters.” She said, turning around and leading us down the halls. “Not to sound rude or anything…” I said nervously. “But um...the cloth wrapped around your eyes…” I trailed off, not wanting to sound rude to either a blind person or sound like an idiot to maybe a prophet. “I am the castle’s sage. Hollow Grove. I am forbidden from seeing anything, and so my eyes were removed at birth.” She said. “My position as such means all Zebrican spells are drawn from me throughout the kingdom.” “I...I knew the Zebra’s had a very different kind of magic but…” Celestia started. “Huh...that's interesting...and morbid.” I said honestly. “That’s quite a thing...and here I thought you were actually a Seer, someone who could see the future and stuff like that.” I said honestly, knowing it was cliche’d but still. Making it to the throne room, it was like the inside of a tree. The King and Queen sat atop a throne of stone and pillows. Everyone kneeled. The king stood up. “White Knight of Equis.” He spoke. “We’ve been expecting you. We are humbled to have a hero such as you in our lands.” I bowed humbly. “It is an honor to meet you your majesties.” I said honestly, wanting to make a good impression here as a person and prince and not as a hero or a snob. “I see you bring your broods with you… Zecora.” The king spoke up, the Zebra in question freezing up. “I had not expected you to be in this entourage. Normally, for your crimes you’d be thrown in the dungeon, but, given your...status and relationship with the White Knight it seems, I shall let it pass. Guards, escort the Knight’s Life Mates to their quarters while I speak with the White Knight alone.” As the guards came up to us I felt my Twilight grab my hand. “We won’t let them try anything with Zecora, okay?” She said, giving me a quick kiss on the cheek before leaving with the others. “I suppose I don’t need to tell you the ramifications if you hurt the ones I love?” I asked simply. “I am aware of your...temper. I cannot say some of the guards might try something, but if they do, I will deal with them accordingly. Now then, before I give you one of my daughters in marriage, there is something I belive you acquired for us from that accursed cave?” “Yep.” I said while pulling out the book in question. “One book on Nothingness is right here. Mind if I ask why you need it? Cause I only got a cliff notes on it.” I said honestly, remembering being told that it was an item to help fight against the heartless roaming around. “Come with me.” The king said, standing up as he lead the way down another hallway. Here we came across a door with...an Alicorn Zebra? “In times past, all races had their versions of the Alicorns, like your lives Luna and Celestia. Zebra’s had few, and when the Alicornien era ended, only one remained.” He opened the door, and there were wood carvings of...keyblades. Paintings of the Keyblade war...and an old, aged armor and Keyblade. Oathkeeper. “He carved these, the weapons of his fallen kin, and painted these images of a bloody war. He made that book, to help us after his madness became too much, and took his own life. It was stolen by the very beings it was written to help us fight. Now that it has returned, we can protect our lands from them.” “Damn…” I muttered honestly. “But...with the help of a friend we’ve been making a school for future Keybladers...and believe me...we’re going to need all the help we can get.” I said honestly. “That is good to hear. Many kingdoms forgot their rulers of past, butt he hold onto our past just as much as we embrace the present.” He said, picking up the old, rusted Oathkeeper Keyblade, and giving it to me. “Take this, a token of my, and my people’s trust in you. Upon your marriage to the daughter of mine of your choosing, you shall rule both Equestria, and the Zebra lands. I know, you cannot stay to rule any of the kingdoms, so, I will keep the lands in check til you are able to do so on your own.” “Thank you.” I nodded while taking Oathkeeper. “Been a while Oath.” I said honestly, wondering if my new wife will be their new wielder. “How’ve you been?” I asked, knowing keyblades can respond in different ways than actually talking. The Keyblade flashed, it’s body glowing white as all it’s age and rust vanished, and it looked like new. “This, is a sign of good fortune in our future.” The Zebra king said. As we were leaving the room I spotted the paintings, the Zebra alicorn fighting...with someone in a bear mask... “Aced?” I muttered. “Hm?” The king said, seeing what I was looking at. “Ah, no. That is Bara. He was an alien of the stars that was as close as Kin to our old lord. The two of them defended this land from the darkness for years… then, they left to fight this war, and only our lord returned. He said Bara had died, the darkness taking him. We honor his memory with a yearly Celebration we call the Bear Festival. It’s mostly contests of spellcraft and strength, free food and drink, and everyone wears a mask like his in memory.” “I suppose this was before he went insane right? Cause if we’re talking about the same Bara then that guy’s an asshole and most likely dead at the moment.” “Yes, his fallen form is like your Equestria’s Nightmare Moon. Dark Bara sought only information, no matter the cost. While the Bara we celebrate learned to help others. He helped write the very book you brought us. His last work before the darkness claimed him.” “Ah, that’s nice.” I nodded. “Well the Dark Bara is most likely all sorts of dead at the moment, but glad to know he was actually good once before he became a genocidal twat blast.” I frowned. “But thank you for telling me this your majesty.” I nodded. “Good to learn a bit of history that isn’t always bleak as hell.” “Yes, legends teach us more about who was in them, at times. Come, time for you to meet my daughters.” We walked back to the throne room. Five Zebra mares all stood before us, the youngest had to be at least seventeen while the oldest looked almost thirty. “Now then, choose which of them will be your wife, and unite our kingdoms.” “Choose huh?” I asked, looking over all of them. “Hmm...tough choice…” I said honestly. “Hmm...any of you know what a date is?” I asked honestly, feeling very wrong about just picking one and saying ‘my wife now’ without at least getting to know them. “That is not how our marriage customs work, I am afraid.” The king started. “A family with daughters eligible for marriage will announce so, any a male of equal status to the family will choose which to marry. If the marriage does not work out, then a divorce is allowed so long as both parties agree to it. After that it’s rinse and repeat.” I frowned. “Well that’s not fair at all, I would have loved to get to know each of these lovely ladies before making my choice.” I said honestly. “Oh dear...this is something I didn’t want cause now I’ll feel bad just saying ‘your my wife now’ like I’m at a goddamn vet picking out a new pet for my kids.” I frowned. “Can I say ‘I pick all of them’?” I asked nervously, the kings daughters seeing that I did actually care about who they were and not just here to say ‘your mine now’. “Hm…” The king thought. “While herd marriage is not common in our lands, it is also not against the rules. Looks like I owe my wife some bits then.” “What? Wife thought I couldn’t just pick one?” I asked honestly. “Yes. She’s good at gambling.” “She’d love to meet a master of mine.” I said honestly. “But yeah...I’m just too much of a nice guy to just pick one...and also the part of just picking one in general kind of also made it a little worrying for me.” I said sheepishly. “So ladies, what are your names?” I asked honestly, hoping to at least know their names. “I am Rotha.” The eldest spoke. “I am Kathem.” The second oldest said. “I am Ala.” The third oldest said. “I am Emerald.” The second youngest said. “I am Gra.” The youngest said. “It is nice to meet you all. I hope I can be a good husband to you all.” I said honestly. “So, what do you all like to do for a living?” I asked curiously, wondering if any of them will have something in common with my fiances. “We were raised and groomed to be perfect wives and princesses.” Gra said. “We are, whatever you want us to be.” I frowned. “Well that’s not right.” “Their teachers did some major damage.” The king whispered to me. “Turned out they were old fashioned sexists, their all pretty much brain washed… can’t even get them to garden without it being ordered to them. Was hoping you could...break that.” “Christ…” I sighed out. “I suppose you dealt with them?” I asked the king honestly, hoping he beat those sexist fucks for ruining his kids. “Personally. But their damage was done. Hopefully you can break their...programing and make them themselves.” “I will.” I nodded. “So ladies, which one of you actually has a fucking thought in those heads of yours?” I asked the five bluntly, hoping one of them will answer and the brainwashing isn’t that ingrained. None of them said anything. The king just pat my arm. “Good luck. Hopefully you can succeed where I failed.” “This is gonna be a problem...good thing I have Luna.” I said worriedly. “Christ...and here I was hoping things would have been simple.” I said honestly. “Oh well...but I better get these five to the others so they can be themselves...and hopefully it won’t take a while and you can see your daughters be who they were supposed to be.” I sighed out. “So, where would the guest rooms be?” I asked, not actually knowing the lay out of this place. “We will lead you husband.” All of them said in unison, walking in a row leading the way. “Good...luck…” The king said, taking off. I sighed out while following the five. “I sure hope Luna, Twilight and Brigid can do something about this…” I muttered, hoping to have these five fixed so I can see who they really are. “Is there anything about you five that you can tell me without it being because your brainwashed?” I asked, hoping there was something there. “Why, whatever do you mean?” They all spoke simultaneously...that’s getting creepy. “Because what you were taught is absolute dog shit.” I frowned. “Your not brain dead slaves, even if you had that beaten into you.” I said. We made it to the room. A large table with fruit was set out as well as some other foods set about. I sniffed the air. I smelled meat. Pork, Chicken, Beef, Fish, and...something else. What is that? “Ben!” Pinkie and Twin jumped me as I entered. “What took so long?” Twin asked. “Two things, one I need help getting my new fiance’s not brainwashed slaves, and two what is that smell? I smell pork, chicken, beef fish and something else I have literally no idea about.” I said. “Brainwashed? Hm, let me have a look while you check out the smell Ben.” Luna said. I got up and looked around the table. I found the abnormal smell. It was a stew, potatoes, carrots, mushrooms, the works, but the meat in it was… What is it? “What are you mystery meat?” I frowned, kind of worried about the smell and why I had literally no idea what was in it. I kept sniffing it. It didn’t smell bad, but every primal instinct I had said not to trust it. “Who made this?” I asked with a frown. “It was delivered with the rest of the food.” Celestia stated. Zecora walked up to the stew pot, taking a sniff then tasting the bizarre meat. “Oh….OH…. Ohhh….” She then looked at me worriedly. “Ehh… This brew is called Poor Man’s stew, and it’s meat is from… lower kin to you…” ...IT’S DOG MEAT! “Who delivered this?” I asked. “Cause this is one thing I am very opposed to.” I growled. “First we have sexist bastards brainwashing the princess’s into being mindless slaves, now we have some random fuck trying to feed the fucking dire wolf dog meat.” “Oh!” Twilight perked up. “I read about it, cause most meats have to be imported, the Zebra lands breed dogs for hunting, and when they get old use them for food. Culturally it’s normal here Ben. I don’t think they meant any harm, must have just been absent minded on the cooks part. While everything here looks fancy, the Zebra lands are one of the poorest nations out there. They do what they can to survive. Even if in other nations it’s a taboo.” “Ah…” I nodded. “Well good thing our nations are going to be together so we can start helping the Zebra’s where they need it.” I said honestly. “But yeah I’m...gonna not be eating that…” I said sheepishly. The rest of the day was rather simple. I ate the other meats, but stayed away from the stew… Towards night, after Celestia and Luna did their thing with the Sun and Moon, Luna came up to me about the Zebra princesses. “Well, I can’t do anything.” She said, taking a seat and slumped in her chair. “They were taught this all from their earliest years and know practically nothing else. All we can do is expose them to free thinking slowly til they accept it and that’s even IF they want to.” “How would ‘everything you know is a lie’ work?” I asked. “Cause I don’t know much about brainwashing but that sounds like something that might work...maybe.” “No, they would go into shock. I can’t suppress those memories cause that would be no different than giving them amnesia, slow exposure is the only safe path.” “Christ…” I sighed out. “Again, I thought this was going to be simple, not having to immediately do a slow debrainwashing process.” I sighed out. “Oh and yes, I did pick all five cause I’m both indecisive and because I already felt bad that I basically had to say ‘your mine now’.” “Our indecisive little pup.” Luna cooed. “So how long should we stay here?” “Restocking the ship should only take three days.” Celestia said. “So anytime after that.” “Right then.” I nodded. “So we’re gonna be here for three days, and that’s going to be three days of slowly getting five zebra’s to learn that everything they’ve been ‘taught’ and or beaten into was just a bunch of bullshit and sexist lies.” I said honestly. “Let the torture begin.” Luna said, taking a bite into a pineapple she levitates over from the table of food. “So, which way are we going next?” I asked. “Cause we have Yaks, Minotaurs, the Monster Princess…” I said, trying to remember all the races here. “There are also the Merponies...Deer if memory serves...are there cat people on this world?” I asked curiously. “Yes but they have no established kingdom.” Celestia said. “Okay then. So I still have at least five kingdoms left...oh wait Saddle Arabia, I almost forgot.” I said honestly. “God...just...so many things are happening right now…” I groaned, having both all the things on Boletaria happening, my training in the Realm of Nothingness, and so much more. “Lets rest up, tomorrow you can relax, take a tour of the city and we can work on these five.” Bridged said. “Alright.” I nodded. “Thanks for helping…” I said, thinking I’d be helpless in most cases without them. The next morning I was up early, ate something fast then headed out into the town. Outside the castle here was… very different. Houses were made of sticks and stones, farm looked alright, but the sun beating down was gonna make them wilt quick. The people walked around, minding their business with whatever they were doing. Eventually, I came across a bizzare, shopkeepers and buyers ran about in organized chaos. “Well at least the people are okay…” I muttered, but keeping my guard up in case of either thugs or thieving kids. “Hmm…” I hummed, wondering what’s for sale in this place. Gems, foods, fabletics, clothes. Lots of stuff was for sale here. Merchants were yelling out what they were selling. I almost tripped, seeing the culprit was...that cat...Cheese? I knelt down. “Excuse me but how the hell did you get here?” I asked the cat. “Thought you were in the Diamond Dog capital?” The cat meowed, then ran off. I chased after her, and ran into a building that smelled of...sandalwood? “Huh, wonder what’s in there?” I wondered, walking up to the building and seeing if the front door was open. “Hello?” I asked, knocking on the door to see if anyone was here. “A visitor, how fortunious.” Said a voice from the other room. I entered, seeing an elderly Zebra mare. She was in a bed, covered in blankets and held up by the mountain of pillows behind her back. “What is your name, young one?” “Ben. And what is your name Elder?” I asked politely. “Narufu. Sit, please?” She asked, motioning to a chair next to her bed. I nodded and took a seat on the chair. “How are you doing today?” I asked curiously. “Fine, fine. Tell me, from what land do you hail?” “Want the simple or complicated answer? Cause the short answer is I came from Equestria...the complicated answer is complicated.” I said sheepishly. “Hm… No, no, you came from Earth, didn’t you?” She said, catching me off guard. “And how do you know that?” I asked curiously. “Cause not many know that and I’ve kind of made sure to keep it that way.” “We are the same.” She said, reaching under her blanket, and pulling up an old photo, but the image showed a human girl, sitting in the driver's seat of a car. “That was me, before 2012. I asked God to start life over, in a humble, peaceful land. I got what I asked.” “Well this is now the second person outside the core group of friends I have that also came from earth.” I said honestly. “Glad to know there where many others it seems. In this life I was finally able to live life. I was terminal back on earth. Brain cancer. I was twenty five. Now, here I am, ninety eight, mother of five, grandmother of many. Great grandmother of more. Heh.” She laughed. “Sounds like a nice simple life.” I said with a little smile. “Glad to hear you got the life you wanted, while I’m here with twenty five wives, over three hundred kids, and am a world wide hero with cool powers fighting off evil.” I said honestly. “We all got what we wished for, but in the end, we got more than we asked for. I wished for a fresh start, a humble life, and life long health. I got experiences. I loved, Fell in love. Saw a few amazing lands. Modernized farming and breeding for this kingdom. I gave that credit to my son though, a gift from me to him. From a world...perhaps better left forgotten.” “Well right now it’s a barren hellscape so fucked people literally can’t die and either decay into madness ghosts or just stay as crazed undead.” I said honestly. “But that’s what happens after a few hundred years.” I shrugged. “Heh, sounds like we got what we deserved. The good got to live on, and the bad where punished. Guess, in a way, the bible was right.” “Except for the parts where God was the son of Yen Sid, our existence was generally apart of that old bastards imagination, and...well him dying.” I said honestly. “Heh, so god is dead then? Ha. Well, nothing we can do about that now, is there? So tell me, what was your life like before 2012? Before given a second chance?” “Oh god...it was terrible.” I said honestly. “Let’s see now...died as a kid, was brought back by my light half, did a bunch of fuck ups, both my parents were murdered, and then I proceeded to just not care so much my heart started dying.” I said. “So yeah...not really the best ten years after I first died…” “Hm. I was one of those privileged brats, born to money, and cared about nothing. Then, I fainted. Woke up in the hospital, brain cancer. Was terminal, even with what the doctors could do, I had a year to live ‘normal’ and after that a month in the hospital waiting to die. While my parents argued and threatened lawsuits, I just began realizing… I did nothing important in my life. All my ‘friends’ where followers on social media, I had no little siblings to think about. I never even had a boyfriend. So, I traveled, met people, had...fun… Heh. I ran with a Ventral once. My parents threw a fit.” “What was the Ventrals name?” I asked, curious to know if she met Zeke or not. “Sandra Ventral. She marketed drugs, not pot or coke, prescription meds. They called the Ventrals monsters, but what she did...proved otherwise. She’d steal from people who received meds from the dead, gave them to homeless who needed them more. What was left she did sell for profit. Mexican cartels need to keep their members healthy too. After that, I would just walk around town, take it all in. Memorize every detail. When I got to the last month, parents hired mercenaries to guard me, just in case the 2012 stuff was real. The gunfire was so loud. I was scared, alone in my room. Imagine my surprise when Sandra jumped from the air ducts into my room. She was the only real friend I made, and I was the only outsider she ever met that didn’t think her a monster. She stayed with me, til the Cancer took hold. I woke up with God, and the rest you know.” “That’s nice to hear.” I nodded. “One of my friends is a Ventral, and two of my daughters, one adopted and one...reborn technically are both Ventrals. Friend is Zeke Ventral, and my daughters are Jenny and Nancy Ventral.” I said honestly. “Hm. Sandra spoke of Zeke before. Said only his dad and grandfather could beat him, his father, because Zeke can’t go all out against him, and his grandfather, because he was cruel, and fought even dirtier. She said, she saw Zeke once shoot the cap off a beer bottle from a mile away. She thought he would have made a great leader.” “Well she’s going to be pleasantly surprised cause Zeke is a leader of his own world, even though he’s all ‘I’m not a leader, I have a council’ when everyone knows he’s the leader.” I said honestly. “Hm. Seems like in the end, we all got more than we asked for, huh?” “Oh yeah.” I nodded. “So much more than we asked for.” “I’m glad, seems like...everything worked out.” She said, taking my hand. “I named one of my daughters after Sandra. Everyone thought it was an odd name. The prince thought it was lovely.” “The prince? Well...there’s probably a lot of prince’s so…” I said, feeling like I’m doing a dumb here and missing something really fucking obvious. “The king, right now. His daughters are my grand daughters. I heard you are marrying them. Make them better, those teachers twisted them into mindless machines. I’m glad the king executed them.” “I will.” I nodded. “I’m going to make sure they are all safe, sound and happy...even though I’d love to tell them everything they’ve learned is a massive lie but Luna said that would send them into shock.” “The mind is a powerful thing, but also can be harmful to us. Sometimes, I wonder why we were made this way. Made to feel pain, emotions. If we didn’t have them, we’d all be monsters, less than we are in ways those like that think they are superior too. When I was in india, I heard something once. A soul to guide us, a heart to fill us. A body to experience. Without one, we are not whole. One alone, can not make choices, for what they choose, will be guided by outside forces.” “Makes sense.” I nodded. “Sounds like someone who understood some things about life.” “They where. Funny, I wanted to know more about life, when I was going to lose it. Now, I got to live long to a very old age. Grand kids think I’m going to out live them all. Heh, maybe. Doctors say I got a month. Talk about dejavu.” “Deja Vu indeed.” I said honestly. “But...sadly I don’t think I can get your grandchildren back to normal in a months time…” I sighed out. “It would have been nice to see you happy for the five of them when they are free and happy.” “As long as they do get better, I’d be happy. You best be going, my sons will be back from shopping soon, and they can be protective. I don’t want you hurting them.” She chuckled. “Alright.” I nodded. “It was nice to meet you Narufu, hope you have a good day.” I said with a smile before getting up and leaving the elder in peace. That was nice. Someone who lived a full, long life. Happy, and not complicated like mine. Wonder who else was given a time traveling rebirth. Only man who knew is dead now I guess. “So...what are you doing?” Celestia asked, seeing Luna having the five new additions to their family reading several books. “Having them read texts about Mare’s rites and freedom events in both Equestrian and Zebrican history. Introduce them to the idea, and have them slowly act on it once the idea is implanted.” Luna explained. “Smart. How are they taking it?” “The eldest seems unmoved so far, the younger two seem to be giving some raised eyebrows. Makes sense, they got less of those sexist pricks teachings than their older sisters.” “Where are the others?” “Touring the castle, out shopping. Rarity is buying special fabrics only made in these lands. Equestrian trade society banned them in Equestria cause they are made from a special spiders web that, if not cleaned right, can be as poisonous as their bite. But it’s softer and finer than any silks.” “Wonder what she plans to make with it?” “From what she told me it seems our relationship with Ben inspired her to try for new exotic designs. She’s used Guilda as a model and used traditional Griffon themes in it’s design.” “And what of you?” Celestia asked, taking a seat next to her sister. “Last time we were both here Zebrica was mud huts and farmers.” “Lot’s changed.” Luna said simply. “I’m sorry I couldn’t do more for you…” “I’ve accepted my mistakes, letting my anger and jealousy take over rather than finding somepony who would listen.” “I should have listened.” “You where busy.” “I should have made time!” Celestia shouted. “I just… Wish things turned out differently.” “We can’t change the past. All we can do, is move forward.” “Ben!” I heard the familiar call of Rarity behind me. She ran up to me, bags loaded with fabrics, and Zecora behind her, carrying just about the same. “Oh, hello.” I nodded. “Wow, think you shopped enough there Rarity?” “Oh Ben darling this is just what I wanted to carry, the rest are being shipped on to the Zeppelin so I can tinker with them later. I also took the liberty of stocking on some more exotic food stuffs Zecora here knows us and can make some delicious dishes with. Don’t worry though, none of it is dog meat.” “Thank you.” I nodded. “So, Zecora, how’s it feel being back here?” I asked her honestly, not sure if I asked her this when we got here. “Memories flood like a rushing river. I’m avoiding all those that are bitter…” She said, a mixed smile on her face. “I understand.” I nodded. “But as long as your having a good time here Zecora, that’s all I care about.” She nodded. “We were about to head off to a restaurant Zecora knew of before she left. They make this dish called Curry, that single dish can be made a million different ways. All varieties they make, served by itself, on rice, or in these cute little bread buns to eat with your hands.” “I know what Curry is Rarity.” I said honestly. “I may have never tried it but I know what Curry is.” I said. “But sure, I’d love to join...if I’m allowed.” “Of course, why would you think otherwise?” “Sometimes people go places and don’t want others around.” I said honestly. “I know that probably wouldn’t happen but still…” “Okay… well, come on then.” “I’m sorry I’m a pessimist.” I huff. “And half expect all of you to be doing a lot of things and not having planned things with me there cause I’m basically never around.” I sighed out. “But where to so we can actually have a good time and not have me ramble on stupid things.” “I shall lead the way, so we can enjoy the second meal of the day.” Zecora said, taking the lead. “Alright...so where the hell am I?” Joy wondered, having survived the last three days on this damned island filled with Heartless, Nobody’s, Unversed and Dream Eaters shockingly. “Kuma wouldn’t have flung me here if I wasn’t supposed to be here.” He muttered while moving some foliage. “Huh?” He wondered, seeing a town off in the distance. “Wonder who’s here?” Joy wondered, walking up to the town. As Joy walked he noticed the town seemed oddly familiar, from the architecture to the shops, to the massive...key symbol on the clock tower. “Excuse me.” Joy frowned, finding this very weird right now as he looked around and seeing many different races walking around, some looking at Joy and others not really caring. “Yes…” One of them spoke up, he was human, or so Joy figured. “Yes, mind if I ask about the giant Key symbol on the clock tower?” Joy asked. “And why there are a bunch of monsters around that really aren’t native to this world?” He looked Joy over, the man was red haired, green eyed, wore simple white shirt and blue jeans. “Let me see it.” He said. Joy summoned his keyblade he got from his fight with Zeke’s absent silhouette, the keyblade showing the faces of the many X-blade wielders. “Sure it’s a new one but it’s still a Keyblade.” He said honestly. “Hm… Welcome to X island. Not many off worlders come here, especially with Keyblades.” “Well there’s a lot of bad things happening off world.” Joy said honestly. “Do you guys have a leader or something? Cause I kind of have a lot to talk about…” He said nervously. “Yes. She’s up in the clock tower, but before we let you speak with here we’ll have to… restrain you.” He said. “Nothing personal, we just have rules and anyone who wishes to speak with our leader must have certain restraints on them beforehand.” “That’s...kind of weird.” Joy frowned. “What kind of restraints do I need?” He asked, having a bad feeling about this. “Chains of light, keep you from summoning any weapons Keyblade or other. Heart dampener, keep you from summoning anything Darkness, Nothingness, etc. and, full body chains. Keep you from fighting physically. Our leader is strong, but she can’t take a single impact of any kind, or in her state, she’ll die. We take every precaution to keep that from happening. She’s like a queen, or goddess to us. You understand?” “What sort of sickness does she have?” Joy asked, wondering how the fuck that’s a thing. “It’s complicated, but you’ll understand once you meet her. Come then.” The man said. Approaching the clock tower, leading Joy into it. Once inside, two guards, both with Master Keeper Keyblades stood ready. “Are you ready?” “This won’t hurt will it?” Joy asked honestly. “It’s harmless, but you will feel uncomfortable with the chains on you.” He said, the guards wrappen them both in chains of light, the light chains wrapped in a way that allowed them free movement, but Joy immediately felt his connection blocked to Nothing, Lindworm, and his Keyblade. The guards then placed the heavy chains on them, and they began walking up the stairs to this mysterious leader. “So, how long have you guys been here?” The dire wolf pup asked curiously. “Cause Rayleigh made it sound like you’ve been here for quite a while.” “This island has been here since before this world’s people took to the seas, let alone these seas.” He said. “Cool, and I presume you're all a government kept secret?” Joy asked. “Cause Admiral Kizaru seemed pretty surprised to know I had a keyblade.” “They know of us, and not to disturb us, or involve us in their worlds pointless disputes.” “Alright then.” Joy nodded. “What’s with all the Heartless, Nobodies, Unversed and Dream Eaters here?” He asked. “Sure I was just roaming around for maybe a day or two but still.” “This worlds Keyhole resided on this island. Heartless are attracted to us as Keyblade wielders, the Keyhole, and they attracted the rest. Dream Eaters where unexpected, but with all the darkness attracted to this place, the veil between Reality and dreams tear, and those things often spill into reality.” “Alrighty then.” Joy nodded. “I suppose this is also a great place to train for...a year or three?” Joy asked, knowing that Luffy will want the crew to wait for “If you and these friends of yours have Keyblades, we are happy to share our knowledge with you. Otherwise only Keyblade wielders are allowed inside these walls, and without them, your friends won’t last very long outside, or even on the nearby sea. Larger heartless swim out there.” “Right then.” Joy nodded. “But my friends at the moment are all around the world due to...reasons.” Joy said sheepishly. “The Paw Paw fruit is quite a thing when you want to go somewhere.” “I see. We are almost above to her quarters. Do you know what you want to say?” “That depends on what comes first to my head, cause I have at least one question...and a major warning.” Joy said worriedly. He stopped at a large double door, knocking. “Come...in…” Spoke a soft, fraile voice. “Well I’m kind of bound so…” Joy muttered, not really able to open the double doors given the person said come in. The guy managed to open the doors, and inside was an alter of sorts, lit by candles where a pure black skeleton sat on a chair. “Abraham.” Spoke the voice again, coming from the skeleton. “What brings this newcomer to our land?” “Excuse me...but...pitch black skeleton?” Joy asked worriedly. “Pardon my appearance, but this is all that remains of my corporeal body.” She spoke again. “Tell me, what is your name?” “My names Joy...who are you if I may ask?” Joy asked, now knowing why this lady can’t take a hit worth a damn. “In age long before the Keyblade war, when the world was whole, I was called Unum. I escaped the deepest depths of the realm of dark, where it and void meet. This is all I am left when I escaped, costing me my heart and flesh.” “Excuse me but an Embodiment murdered you...at least that’s what I saw…” Joy frowned, wondering how the hell she’s still alive. “So, you know my story, but not all of it, I am afraid. Abraham, leave us. This one you can trust.” The man, Abraham, nodded, and took his leave. “So, how much do you know?” “Wel I met your stepdad Yen Cid where he explained...quite a lot of things.” Joy said nervously. “How you died, and then I know your the mother of the entire Ventral line...but besides that and you being the very first X-blade wielder and a very powerful one at that...I don’t know much.” He said, the skeleton knowing full well Joy experienced some of her power first hand. “Yes. I knew all of the X-blades power, all I could do, and undo. My death was… well, not quite accurate. My whole body was compressed and mutilated, and dragged into the darkest depths of the realm of darkness, where it and void touch, and hybrid monsters are born. Kingdom hearts, and my heart kept me alive for years. I saw things the likes of which should never see in the realm of light. I finally escaped, but it cost me my body, my flesh, and my heart. I awoke in what is now known as the Keyblade Graveyard. The war had just ended. I saved a wounded man with what I was able to muster, and as thanks, knowing I was not a monster, he took me to this world, and gathered many other survivors from across all reflections. Aside from the dandelions of Ava, this land was home to most of the remaining survivors. Many here are descendants, most of the original survivors have passed, save for two. The guards you saw upon entering.” “Ah.” Joy nodded. “Makes sense…” He said honestly. “But...I’ve got a pretty bad warning...the next Keyblade war is coming.” Joy told the skeleton lady. “I know. I felt it, and at the hands of one of my own descendants. If I had my heart still, it would be broken. I can feel the new wielder of the X-blade. Come closer, Joy.” “Well...sadly it was a friend’s Nobody that caused it…” Joy sighed out while walking closer to the skeleton. “But hey, there’s things going on to try and stop the entire thing...hopefully.” “I know, my ascendant is incomplete, his heart, soul and body are all alone. They must be reunited.” “Ben has a way to get his light half and dark half back together hopefully, his body...well that guy needs those, and his soul is with his current family at the moment.” Joy said, standing close enough to the skeleton for whatever she wanted. “Ah, his soul is in another, similar body I take it?” Unum asked. “Technically? I mean, Zeke’s soul is inside a hermaphrodite mares body at the moment.” Joy said if he remembered that correctly. “Gender is irrelevant to a soul, all that matters is it’s potential, and heart. You must find the three Keyblades that symbolize the soul, body, and heart. Inner Self, the Keyblade of the soul. Balanced Desire, the Keyblade of the heart, and Porcorial Sensation, the Keyblade of the body. Use them, and they will restore Zeke, and keep this other whose body he shares alive as well, with their power.” “Well at the moment Zeke’s light half is kind of dead, Zeke’s dark half is trying his damndest to try and absorb literally all the darkness in existence and then kill himself with a keyblade literally made out of Void, and his Nobody is off doing a big universal no no with Psychopaths guiding him.” Joy said honestly. “But where can I find these three mythical keyblades?” “All three can be found in a world of beginnings. The first world before it’s reflections Came to be.” “Good...too bad I am thinking of the place that became Castle Oblivion.” Joy frowned. “Or is it someplace else?’ “This land was home to one of the strongest fighters in the the Keyblade war, I was told. A race of god like beings in mortal flesh. I don’t know it’s name, but when you find the specific world, find the original world, there, you will find them, resting under a waterfall of colors.” “Am I literally going to have to find a leprechaun?” Joy frowned, finding that strangely reminiscent to the ‘find a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow’ thing for Leprechauns. “Heh. No. Find this worlds prime, and then, you can save Zeke. How you'll find it, I do know of only one way. Zeke's Absent Silhouette. It will bend all reality to give what it's champion desires. The echo of the power of the X-blade, and Kingdom Hearts.” “Oh god damn it not again with that too many phases fight.” Joy groaned. “The first time I did that I figured out who Core’s mother and father were...still can’t believe that.” Joy sighed out. “Oi vey…” Joy said, but then thought of something. ”Wait, if Ben can multiply himself...can I?” Joy thought to himself, remembering Cript taught him how to do that so he wondered if he could do such a thing as well. “The price we pay for those we care for can seem unfair, but can be more than rewarding.” “True.” Joy nodded in agreement. “But mind if I train here for...two years? Given your probably prophetic you would know why.” He said, thinking she might know that Luffy will tell them all to wait two years and get stronger for the ‘new world’. “If that is what you desire, then all our techniques and knowledge are yours to learn.” “Thank you.” Joy nodded. “It means a lot to learn from you and others that...well actually know what they’re doing half the time.” “I will have Abraham inform the mentors. Whoever else you have need to aid, bring. Tis time to bring back the lost age to save the new.” “Alright…” Joy nodded. “I better go home real quick and gather some people…” Joy said, wondering if he should also find the others and get them here so they can learn how to fight against their future enemies. “But...I’m a bit concerned about bringing the crew I’m with here...even though I haven’t been to many worlds I always have this fear that I might do something bad if I mess with the main story of a world…” “Child. Balance between worlds relies not with knowledge, of flow of events, but in how its inhabitants act, to each other, and to off worlders. These laws you know of now exist because of fears after the Keyblade war, made by Ava’s Dandelions to attempt to prevent another war, some even hoped for the end of Keyblade wielders entirely.” “Ah…” Joy nodded. “I suppose that makes sense…” He said. “Learn something new everyday, and I’ve only been doing this for not that long.” Joy said honestly. I looked before me, the first of the boulders of Vibranium broken. “Rage is Lunatic’s special power.” I looked over to Grapth, who stood still behind me. “Instability. You are never more unpredictable than when you are filled with it, but already you’ve failed to control it.” “Well I blame the fact some jack hole tortured my daughter, experimented on her, and then proceeded to rip away all her memories and forcing me into some stupid scavenger hunt.” I frowned. “But how the hell am I supposed to control that when it’s literally a berserker’s frenzy?” “Simple. A handicap.” Grapth said. “Build your rage again, and I will suppress you.” “Build up my rage huh?” I asked, taking a deep breath. “That...considering all the bullshit…” I growled, feeling my rage spike. “That is simple.” I growled, my fur growing and standing on end as my rage built up and up. When nothingness aura began swirling, Grapth moved forward, poking my chest… I collapsed, my chest broken as I coughed up blood. “When pain is blinded by your rage, you have gone too far. When with Lunatic, you’d might as well be a Psychopath.” “Funny you should mention that…” I coughed, feeling my regeneration healing up my broken chest. “Fuck that hurt...so...pain is the limiter here?” I asked. “A regeneration factor. Cript’s family no doubt.” He said, pulling out a small tallon from his armor pocket. He scratched me with it...it wasn’t healing. What wasn’t healed from his first strike now made me fall over, crying as my ribs were still cracked, and muscles town, but not as bad as before. “There was a race long ago who’s talons carried a curse, the only thing that can halt Cript’s family regeneration. Only ones left alive are in isolation under his protection. They won’t last a generation. Too few numbers.” “Fucking hell…” I muttered, trying to get up again. “So I can’t heal...and I’m supposed to control my rage like this?” I asked, using Lunatic to help me stand up even though my chest felt like it’s half caved in. “Yes. We all learn best from pain, physical, and emotional. Fight with it, not passed it. Pain will guide your rage to a safer purpose, use. I was once told ‘we all have to die a little, in order to live.’ Without pain at all in our lives, we are not alive.” “Yeah, well I already died...twice…” I said nervously, building up my rage as I tried to combine it with the pain I was under. “And let me tell you...dying sucks when it’s not voluntary.” My rage was building up again. Before it got far though, my kneecaps blew off my bones. I fell to the floor. I was losing a lot of blood. “Fight with it.” He repeated. I growled, slamming Lunatic into the ground hard, mixing my rage and pain as I tried to fight with the fact my chest is caving in, I’m losing a lot of blood, and I just had my legs ruined. “Trying here…” I growled, trying to get back up again even though my legs are ruined. The second I managed to get up somewhat, both my eyes popped out of my head. Can’t see! “How much longer are you going to take?” “Gee, it’s not like I’m actually trying here, but my legs are shot, my chest is caving in, and I literally just lost my eyes.” I said sarcastically. “I really do wonder how long it’s going to take.” I sass, the pain being way too much and me not getting this in anyway shape or form is only helping in pissing me off more. “It’s pathetic really, no wonder you can’t keep your family safe.” “Take.That.Back!” I growled, Nothingness wrapping around my legs, digging into them and acting like a splint to make me stand up again. “I may not be able to see right now, but I’m gonna kick your ass if you don’t take that back!” I barked angrily. “I’m stating facts. A whole city, gone. Your daughter, mind erased. Braige. Killed before you, granted, you did save him in a way, how much of ‘himself’ will he be when he is all grown? Your Equestria’s human world reflection. A whole reflection, gone. You had knowledge of these future events, in some form. You could have visited, made sure all was well. You didn’t. Frankly not even your children are a ‘victory’ for you. The strongest are all adopted, and the ones to be born to your line will be… How to put it. Unworthy of their birth rights.” Even though I didn’t have eyes at the moment blue and red mist filled my eye sockets as I tried to smack the bastard as hard as I could. “DON'T YOU DARE TALK DOWN ABOUT MY FAMILY!!” “A family of mutts is all you treasure.” He said, standing back up. “You should go back to your flea ridden ‘family’ where you belong. Play hero with them. You are no match for what this reality has to throw at you.” I stepped forward and swung again. “You understand NOTHING ABOUT ME!” I barked. “I’m here right now, going through your bullshit so I can be strong enough to protect my family! Not be treated like nothing all because you fucking feel like it!” Grapth started laughing. Confused, I moved Lunatic from the side of him I hit. He didn’t move when I hit him...wait. I realized My eyes, body...I was fine? Grapth on the other hand...was missing his left arm. He only laughed harder at my realization. “Are you fucking kidding me?” I frowned. “And...the fact you lost an arm…” I said, not entirely sure I fully know what’s going on but when I threw my pain and anger at him...it seemed things went back to being fine. “Heheh. Pardon the offence, your highness.” He said...bowing to me. “To first understand Lunatic is to have your own weakness and struggles thrown at you. You see, while yes Lunatic was forged from a moon that survived it’s own solar systems destruction, Lunatic itself is a… What’s the best word for it. Funnel, for emotions. Happiness, Sadness, Anger...rage. While rage is Lunatic’s primary use, it’s just one part of the grander whole. For the moon it was forged from held no anger, but memories, of the life forms and planets is was created to witness.” “Huh...interesting.” I said honestly, looking at Lunatic. “You learn something new everyday.” I said honestly. “So...after that...what’s next?” I asked, wondering what’s next to learn from this. “Learn what each emotion makes Lunatic do. Rage is always the same, powerful blasts of energy. But others… vary. For the King, Happiness makes Lunatic a Terraformer, bringing life to lifeless worlds. Sadness allows him to alter the weather, for better or worse. For me, Happiness brings healing to all allies around me. Sadness freezes the landscape solid. For you, you’ll have to experiment.” I looked at Lunatic, thinking this was just a massive beat stick used by a berserker, but learning it was so much more. “Well that’s depressing…” I muttered, honestly sad that I didn’t know what this could actually do. “Lunatic is a weapon of personal experience. No two wielders of it technically get the same weapon. I trust you’ll learn fast and well, heir.” “That’s what I always do.” I said honestly, spinning Lunatic. “So much left to do...and technically I can’t learn my sabers cause I can’t use them while I’m near the king…” I frowned, having wanted to learn how to use those from him but that being a bit of a problem. “May I, make a request of you, heir?” “What do you need?” I asked curiously, finding it a tad surprising he wanted to request something from me of all people instead of the king. “Mind if I… hold onto Lunatic, just for a minute. I haven’t wielded the True Lunatic in eons.” “Oh...sure.” I said honestly, flipping Lunatic over and handing it to him by the handle, but my guard was up in case he decided to hit me for whatever reason. He took Lunatic, looking at it with what my canine side could tell was a mix of sadness and happiness. “Hello again, old friend.” He said, tapping the top against his helmet, keeping like that for a time. “My heir. Please, tell me. Do you know the King’s Saying? Our battle cry?” “I sadly don’t know much about any of this.” I said honestly. “What is the battle cry my friend?” “Live on. Even when everyone has forgotten us. We rule a Kingdom without citizens, a castle with no servants. We live in nothing, for nothing. We will never be remembered, and we shall not care. We will live on, when everyone has forgotten about us.” Grapth said, sounding prideful in his speech. “That’s...kind of depressing.” I said honestly. “Nice speech but...sheesh.” “That is Nothingness. Best left forgotten… Until it’s needed and remembered.” Grapth said, flipping Lunatic in his grip… and jabbing it’s ‘blade’ end into his stomach and out his back. He fell to his knees. “The fuck!?!” I yelped, summoning my Lexicon and flipping it open as I tried to cast a heal spell on him. “The fuck Grapth?” “Death is a fact Ben.” He said simply. “After our travels where done and we sat alone in this castle, I swore that I’d live to see the new heir take my weapon. I have fulfilled my purpose. I can finally embrace my long awaited death.” I wanted to do something...but I sighed out and closed my book. “Any last words to the king?” I asked honestly, knowing I couldn’t stop the death he wanted after so long. “Tell my king… to check his throne. I broke a vital rule, and it’s hidden there.” Grapth said, ripping Lunatic out, a large hole in his stomach as he fell over, and we were back in the church. “I am glad to know the next king, is one with understanding to allow me to do this.” “May you find peace in the land of the dead.” I said. “Thank you...it was nice knowing you Grapth...wish I had more time…” He did not respond though. Grapth was...gone. I just sat there, staring at him. I heard a noise, and looked up, seeing the archer across from me, on the other side of Grapth’s body. “So he’s gone.” He said. “Yeah...he fulfilled his purpose...and finally embraced his long awaited death.” I said honestly. “So all that’s left is me, and the king.” The archer said, Grapth’s body beginning to vanish into...Nothingness thorns. “Out with the old, and in with the new, eh new king?” He asked, handing me a shot of what smelled like very strong whiskey. “I suppose.” I said, taking the shot. “So, who are you if I may ask?” I asked curiously, wondering who this Archer was. “Hehehehehe. Rules are rules, new king or no.” The archer said, taking a shot of his own. “Part of being in this Nothingness gig.” He said, taking out his sharpshooter...and put it to his head. “No one will remember us. For who remembers nothing?” He fired… the bolt went through his head, blood splattering across the room as his now lifeless body fell over, fading into Nothingness thorns too. I blinked. “Um…” I frowned. “I GUESS!?” I said, completely flabbergasted about him just suddenly shooting himself in the head. “He wanted to be the last.” I looked behind me, seeing the King walk into the room. “Grapth wanted to see the new king, you, take his weapon. The Archer, wanted to be the last of my knights to die. Now, I am all that is left.” The king said solemnly. “That’s depressing…” I frowned. “Like...jeez.” I said a little worriedly. “They gave themselves purpose to carry on. Lord explained this to you already. Remember?” “I know.” I sighed out. “But Grapth told me to tell you to check your throne...he apparently broke either a vital rule or a vital role...not entirely sure.” I said, not sure if he meant one or the other after he had a big hole in his stomach. “Hm? … Did he now?” The king snapped his fingers, and we both were before a rather large throne, adorned with images of all the weapons. It was pure white, and held a blue pillows stitched into it for comfort. “I haven’t seen it in ages.” “Looks fancy.” I pointed out. “And sheesh this room is big...well I suppose it is the throne room after all.” The king looked behind it. The sound of tape being ripped off. He pulled out a rather large, thick book. “Oh that sneaky bastard.” The King said. “What did he do?” I asked curiously. “The rule about our existence is that we can not have documented events or anything about who and what we are. Yet, another rule is that any artifacts that should not exist in the normal realms of light and dark are protected upon entering the castle. This book...is of all of us, our adventures. By law, it should be destroyed, but by already being in the castle, it’s to be stored in the library… that sneaky bastard.”: The king laughed. I chuckled. “Well that’s one way to keep a history of your old friends without going against any laws.” I said honestly. The king handed to me. “Take it. I guess, a new king deserves to know who he is inheriting his Kingdom from. I guess in the end you’ll be choosing which of our laws you’ll keep, and which you won’t anyway.” “True.” I shrugged. “But you do know I’m gonna need your help learning Interdiction right? So please don’t go dying on me right now.” I said, not wanting possibly the main teacher for this weapon to die because of some things as I took the book from him. “My death will come after you have taken my crown.” The king said. “Til you master all and only Interdiction is left, then the final weapon can be mastered, and your crown shall be earned.” “Okay then...so I better go off to Radiant Garden and meet my masters for Skysplitter and Lindworm...but I’m not entirely sure about Book of Retribution…” I said, thinking about if Ienzo is old enough. “I’d ask if you know someone about that but...they might be dead at the moment.” I said nervously. To be continued...
Nobody's fighting Data X-bladersI was laying in bed. I couldn't get Grapth’s and the archers death out of my head. “Christ…” I muttered, taking the book I was given that Grapth made. “Well...might as well learn who these people are…” I muttered, opening the book to see what was written here. Time is a fickle thing. We have existed for countless years, in one reality, that is. To start at our beginning, there will be a rather long prologue. Thirteen of them, each one telling the story of who each of us was, and how we have/will all come to die. I will save the best for last. “Well at least I get to learn about who the others are…” I muttered, liking this little history lesson. Prologue Chapter 1: Number Thirteen. Number Thirteen. A Pale. A race of scaled skinned humanoids who live in space colonies. Their home world was destroyed by civil war. Our number is named Kerbachi. Female, and daughter of a farmer. Farming in space you can imagine is hardships. Kerbachi’s colony ship was named the Jumbo Kaliko. In their native tongue, means ‘Hollowed Dirt’. It was largely for the dead, those living on it either did as she, farm work, or tended the crematoriums and alters. We arrived on that very ship after a victorious battle. We traded, and spent a few days to rest. In that time we had caught Kerbachi’s attention. She had potential, but her colony lacked any real weapons. She lived a peaceful life, but was bound to them by her people’s gender biases and beliefs. So, we obeyed the law. Her people valued two things. Kiatron, a very flexible ore they utilize for their tools, and food stuffs. So, we traded two tones of Kiatron ore and three years worth of food stuffs, for her. They accepted, logically. After that, we began her training. Nothingness came naturally to her. Her ability with the Thorns progressed swimmingly. When it came time for her to acquire a weapon, she wanted a straight sword, but, we knew she’d require something more. We forged her a Keyblade. Duskblade, she called it, after the Dusk nobody that was it’s blade part. A keyblade whose form is that because of it’s wielder's heart being incomplete. “Hmm…” I muttered, finding this fascinating. “I suppose that’s where Duskblade came from...and then Reunion…” As a Keyblade wielder, she was honor bound to fight in the Keyblade war… She was a great fighter, but she was still so inexperienced. To aid her in the war, we gave her Reunion, a Keyblade of reunitment, and completion. Once a single Keyblade is created, copies are made and exist throughout the reflections. So we didn’t find it that strange when she saw others with her Keyblades. She never returned from the war, her body, and Keyblades lost to that Multiversal graveyard. She was the youngest, newest member of our group, and we can never replace her. We returned to twelve. For the time, we all knew, it would not be long for another one of us to fall, in battle, or at our own hands. “Oh dear…” I muttered worriedly. “That’s not good…” I put the book down. I could tell where it was going. “Well that didn’t help…” I muttered, wondering what to do right now. ”I mean...I could go to Radiant Garden and get that training done...but…” I sighed out. I turned over in bed, feeling odd. Eventually I got myself up, and began wondering what Zeke is doing? Just then, Reunion summoned itself into my hand. “What do you need?” I asked, wondering why Reunion just suddenly appeared here. “Want to lead me somewhere?” Like with Roxas in Kingdom hearts 2, it almost dragged me standing up, pointing itself outward as it opened up a DTL. “Okay okay.” I chuckled while walking into the DTL, wondering where Reunion wanted to take me to. When I exited I was… this is John’s world… I looked up… Zeke’s absent Silhouette… it pulsated before me almost monotonously. “This what you wanted to do?” I asked Reunion. I didn’t get a response this time… am I even ready for this? I know Joy beat it but…”Well, you never know unless you try…” I muttered, walking up to the Absent Silhouette. “If I’m not strong enough for this...then what’s gonna happen later?” I wondered worriedly as I tried to activate the thing. There was a flash of bright light, I covered my eyes and when I opened them… I was on Zeke’s Station of awakening. Here, there where… people. Trixie, Zeke, Unum...current/past X-blade wielders. “Right then…” I said while summoning my Lexicon and buffing myself a bunch. “Now, where is my opponent?” I wondered, feeling Haste, Protect, Shell, Draconic Might, and a dozen other helpful buffs coursed through me as I looked at them all. None of them moved. Strange… I looked behind me- Eclipse?! What’s he doing here? They weren't waving at all. What the hell? I looked at Trixie’s...wonder what she does? “Gee, so many…” I muttered. “Do I just pick one?” I asked, not entirely sure what to do here considering I’m expecting one of these fuckers to sneak up on me or all of them to start moving and jump me. Shrugging, I touched Trixie’s...illusion, as my hand fell through her, and there was another flash of light. I blinked, standing on...her station of awakening. It was Trixie, her image on the glass looking battle ground of her and Zeke back to back in an almost Yin Yang motion, each gripping onto the X-blade at one of it’s Kingdom Key handles. “Fancy.” I said, still feeling the buffs going as I prepared Reunion and Frozen Pride. “Alright...let’s see if this is what I think it is.” I said, thinking this will be like the Data Org in KH2. There was a flash of fire some feet before me, a small pile of ashes formed as the X-blade did also build up from the fires, the fire itself burning both the ash pile and the X-blade. “Oka~y?” I asked, confused on what just happened. “But...maybe…?” I wondered, stepping forward and walking near the bonfire, wondering if it was like the Bonefire from Dark Souls. I raised my hand over it, and that gold glow surrounded me. Looking on the other side of it, I saw...Trixie...hollowed… She looked up to me, her eyes black and lifeless. She stood, taking the X-blade as the fire began to burn her! She screamed, ripping it from the ash pile as her form returned to normal, and the X-blade on fire as her body no longer looked Hollow, and her clothes changed to a smaller version of Lord Gwyn’s from Dark souls, crown and all, only with boots that went up to her knees. “Alright then.” I said while backing away from Trixie a little bit with my shield raised. “This isn’t going to be pleasant I can just tell…” She took the first swing, her flaming X-blade leaving a trail of fire with each swing. The fire made Frozen Pride almost useless, the fire being the only thing not blocked with each hit. “Alright then, might as well be on the offensive.” I muttered, matching one of her swings with a parry. While her swing was parried, her free hand I saw held a cloth looking thing. From it though, sparked a bolt of lighting she nearly jabbed me with. A counter parry after being parried? She just broke the logic of Dark Souls. I growled and threw a snap kick and hitting her knee hard. “Counter parrying a parry huh? Bullshit...” There was an audible snap as she fell over… her knee was broken. The fire around her faded as she hollowed again, standing back up as he leg snapped itself back into place. When she reached behind her, she pulled out… a gold and blue Wayfinder, enclosed in a white stone. She tapped the ground with it, and fire erupted from the spot… Two giant half women half Spider ladies emerged from the fires, one with their own flaming sword, the other with small sparks of fire in her hands. “Well…” I frowned. “You can go fuck yourself.” I said while summoning Skysplitter and slamming it into the ground, pillars of jagged earth spiking up underneath them. They jumped quickly, their spider halves standing atop the jagged earth with ease as the pale with with fire in her hands slammed her fists into the ground, and pillars of fire emerged all around me. I felt a burning behind me- She burned my tail! Ouch! “You like to play with fire huh?” I asked while summoning Bonds of Flame as the two things started to spin, all the fire they created swirling around them. “Well here! HAVE IT!” I shouted, raising up my arms and throwing white hot fire towards the things, it being way above what normal fire they have. While I did see them burning, they acted anyway, the one with the sword thrusting it towards me as the spider half blew LAVA at me. I just realized they are both topless… The hell? “Excuse me...but have either of you noticed you’re not wearing anything covering your tits?” I asked the two spider ladies, wondering if in this place they can actually talk. Neither replied, but they jumped back, the one with the sword making a fire circle in the air while the other one shot a blue fireball into it… They made what looked like a portal, a monster with a grotesque face looked back at me… it was made of Lava. It roared, and fired off a massive blast of fire. I used Bonds of Flame to block, even with them the heat was still felt. “Christ…” I muttered. ”God I wish I could use these things to their full potential…” I thought to myself, knowing from what I was told they would probably nearly kill me at this point in time but I brought out Lindworm and, from what I remember Joy was doing with that thing, summoned up a bunch of lances made of wind behind the two and thrust them down into them. The two were impaled, like something for a horror movie. They faded into light, one gold orb on the floor and another white pulsating one floated. Trixie grabbed them both, almost hugging them as they floated into her, and her normal form returned. “God damn it.” I muttered, throwing a ball of bladed winds at Trixie, hoping to catch her off guard while she was busy with those souls. The wind hit her...but she didn’t flinch or move. The X-blade was also no longer on fire. She raised it up, and slammed it down, wind blasting out in all directions. I used Lindworm to disperse the wind rushing at me. “Grasp of Nothingness!” I shouted, raising my hand up as a massive hand made of Twilight Thorns came up and tried to grab onto Trixie and tear her apart. While it did grab her, it did not tear her apart. In fact, her skin was making sparks against the friction. I raised her up, and slammed her down to the ground… She got up like nothing. She was slower...a lot slower. I ran up, ready to block this one but when she hit Frozen Pride My arm broke, and I flew across the battlefield. “Ow…” I muttered, using Aerial Recovery and getting back on my feet as I summoned my lexicon and healed myself quickly, a runic symbol appearing as lighting shot out towards what I could assume to be an armored boss in Dark Souls. The Lightning seemed to damage her. She wasn’t done yet, she swung the X-blade, another blast of wind flying towards me. I casted a wind wall to block it. “Triple Maximize Magic! Call Greater Thunder!” I shouted, three very powerful bolts of lightning all hit Trixie, the damage maximized due to the modifier. That did the trick...though, what I saw was surprising. An ethereal iron being appeared in front of Trixie, falling down as it’s soul floated on the floor. Trixie grabbed it, her body hollowing as she let it float back into her. “Oh no you don’t.” I said while dashing forward with Foudre and ready to stab her before she could get to her next form cause of course there’s got to be a bunch of forms. To my surprise, she parreid me, her free hand glowing black as she jabbed it into my chest, forcing me to the ground as I felt her digging in my heart! She she pulled it out, I felt something missing...not my heart...something else. I saw in her free hand… Foudre, and they where not responding to me. She stole them?! “Oh come the fuck on.” I groaned, getting a tad bit pissed about all these new things people can fucking do, before I summoned Lunatic and slammed it into her legs. Unfortunately with Foudres powers she moved fast. Dodging before backstabbing me with them, and nearly kicking me off the edge of the arena. I stopped myself before I fell off and turned around, summoning Fair Game and scattering the cards on the ground and disappearing, a card clone coming out with Skysplitter and swinging swiftly at the bitch. Foudres speed made her a quick dodger. She was dealing with my clones with Pyromancy and backstabs. ”Don’t know if this is supposed to be difficult, or some higher power is an asshole.” I thought to myself as she stepped over a card and nothingness thorns grabbed onto her legs and dug into them as a charged Sharpshooter shot fired straight at her head. I felt Foudre return to me as I released her. She pulled out that Wayfinder again. Something felt off immediately. Trixie vanished, the arena gaining high stone walls. This actually looks like an arena now. “Oh great.” I muttered while reading myself for what’s to come next. For a bit there was nothing… I was suddenly on the ground, a massive greatsword pierced me from behind and embedded itself through me into the ground. I looked up. They had a bum left arm, broken and tattered chrome and blue armor… and was drenched in what felt like void… but off. Way different from what John uses… more wild. They grew a black aura before raising their sword, with me on it, and spun, throwing me off like a rag doll and crashing myself into the newly made walls. Fucking Artorius... I summoned my lexicon and casted a powerful heal spell. “Alright, Triple Maximize Magic, Reality Slash!” I shouted, three blades that seemed to cut through reality shot out towards Artorius. ”Triple Maximize Magic, Floating Master Mine.” I mutter almost wordlessly as three mines invisible to Artorius floated around waiting for their target. While the reality slashes hit, With his aura up Artorius might not have dealt much to him. He jumped high into the air, the mine’s going off as he came down to impact me. He still landed his blow, the mines only making him miss by mear centimeters. “BLACK HOLE!” I shouted, raising my hand up as a black ball formed in front of him as a powerful gravity tried to suck him in to his death. He didn't move. Rather his aura grew massive. Fogging up the whole arena. The spell wore off, and he was still there. All that void returning into him as he stood up straight. His bum left arm glowed with void as he moved it, taking his sword in it and grabbing a shield with the right. I groaned. “Yeah, cause why not.” I frowned. “Greater Teleport.” I said while teleporting about five hundred feet in the air. “Fly.” I said while feeling myself become weightless in midair as I downed some ethers to keep my mana up. “Alright. Maximize Magic, Hold of Rib!” I shouted, raising my hand as a ring of spiked bones shot out from all directions pointed straight towards Artorius. They fired at him. He moved FAST, a mix of shield and sword movements to block, slash, or deflect the bones fired at him. He emerged unharmed. Then, he held out both arms, and took a single step forwards. “Good, you can dodge.” I said honestly, having literally no idea what he meant by acting like this is a gladiatorial match. “Oh well, Maximize Magic, Shark Cyclone!” I shouted, a massive tornado suddenly swirled up and went after Artorius, literal sharks swimming in the wind ready to rip their prey apart. He was sucked up into it, he tried to slash at them, but there were too many, and he faded into a soul Trixie grabbed. “Oh no you don’t.” I growled while aiming Sharpshooter at her and firing, hoping to stop this wanton bullshit from going on any further. ”It may not work but damn it if I can stop the bastard from going to another phase I don’t care.” I think to myself. The arrow hit, Trixie falling to her knees as she began vanishing in a glittering white light. “Hey, it might have worked.” I said. “True Sight.” I muttered, my eyes glowing blue as I could see if she was just hiding in invisibility or not. I didn’t see her anywhere, but a bonfire did appear before me, and sitting next to it, a maiden with tattered clothing. “Victor you are yet not.” She spoke. “Is there another phase to this fight or do I have to go back and fight all the other bastards with too much health and too many forms?” I asked the maiden simply. “Cause I’m banking on both happening.” I frowned. “Light the fire. Burn as she burned to heal my world. Feel the agony of ashes.” “Cause you know, victory isn’t simple anymore.” I frowned. “Beat the boss that took forever? Good, now burn and suffer cause we hate you.” I said in a mock tone of the maiden. “If it is not what you desire, then there is no shame, in taking your leave.” She said, a large door appearing behind me, it was like from the beginning of kh1. “Not all, can bear the flames of life and light.” “Okay now you're just calling me a pansy for griping about bullshit.” I frowned while walking over to the Bonefire. “But...if it means helping those in need…” I said, my inner hero wanting to help those that needed it. “So, if I take the flame...what happens? Do I actually get to progress or do I die and have to start over because of the obvious trap?” “Follow the footsteps. Kindle yourself. Sacrifice of one for others. Who other than a hero?” She asked me. “Feel what she felt when she saved my world, and move on, as she did.” I took a deep breath. “You have no idea what I’d sacrifice for others…” I muttered while taking the flame, knowing that if I’m going to proceed and get stronger to protect those I care about, I’m gonna have to make some sacrifices. The fire crawled onto me… Immediately I felt the inside and outside of my body burning. Everything was in pain. It was like when Rejection showed me what the Psychopaths felt. Fear, pain, hatred, betrayal, love, loss, gain, trust. I felt EVERYTHING happening at once. All I could do was scream as the fire burned me. I felt deaths. Death by fall, drowning, burning, being eaten alive, being emotionally empty like a hollow, emotionally wrecked like a human… So many feelings, so much pain, pleasure… It was unreal. But, it was. All of it. I saw how everyone was born on that world, how they were all going to die, up till I saw Trixie kindling herself for the fire… Then I saw those Spider woman joining her, Artorius, a giant white wolf, and many, many others, burning with her. She didn’t burn alone… She wasn’t alone... As fast as I could move, I reached into my pocket, and pulled out my Wayfinder. “Come on...I know your all with me…” I said, bringing my Wayfinder close to my chest as I tried to call out to everyone I most likely have a D-Link to. “Please...I need your help…” I felt a hand touch me. When I opened my eyes… Luna? Twilight, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Silence, AJ… My wife's, my kids… Across from me was… Jenny, as she was as a human, giving me a smile as the flames burned us all. They were all...smiling...happy? “Heh...at least your all happy…” I said. “But...why are you all happy? Is there something on my face?” I joke, not entirely sure about this situation but at least I have my family here and they’re all happy. I blinked… Everything was normal, I was standing on the station of Awakening… Did I pass? I felt something in my hand. Looking, it was a...fragment. A fragment of a heart shaped Keychain? Looking ahead of me, there was a large and small chest in front of me. “Alright then…” I muttered, walking over and checking the chests just in case these fuckers were mimics cause Dark Souls boss fight leading into treasure chests. They seemed okay. I tapped the small one with Reunion kh1 style, and it popped open. My assistant went wild. 999,999,999 Munny 999,999,999,999 EXP LV up+15 999 Megalixers 999 Divine Blessings 1 Rite of Kindling 1 Pyromancers Flame 1 Soapstone 1 Dragon Egg “Jesus christ.” I said in surprise. “Let’s see now…” I muttered, checking my Assistant just in case I had any undue skill points to spend. Skills Available: 78 Skills Equipped: 4 “Okay...what are these new skills that I can equip?” I wondered while checking all the skills I had available and what skills I had equipped. Skills Equipped: 1.Scan 2.EXP Chance 3.Counter 4.Dual Wield Unequipped: 1.Defence boost 2.Combo plus 3.Blizzard Boost 4.Fire Boost 5.Dark Boost 6.HP Boost 7.Double Jump 8.Glide Plus 9.Drive Boost 10.Triple Wield 11.Quad Wield 12.Auto Nobody Summon 13.Magic Barrier Block 14.Aerial Combo Boost 15.HP Boost Plus 16.Special Reflect 17. D-Link Boost 18.Valor Form 19.Wisdom Form 20. No Form 21.Stun Lock 22. Critical Boost 23. Critical boost plus 24.Copycat Bonus 25. Nothingness Thorns Crit Plus 26.Limit Boost 27.Focus Gauge There was a LOT more, but that was just the top few… If I had half of these equipped earlier SO much more would have been easier. “Okay...let’s see if I can equip all of these.” I said, hoping I can do such a thing cause it would make life so much easier at the moment. Thankfully, I was able, with three ability ‘points’ left over. After that, I did feel a lot stronger… I jumped, then pushed my feet down fast. I know I was in mid air, but my foot hit something, and I went up MUCH higher, as Nothingness thorns sprung out like vines around me. A double jump with a built in AOE?! Where the hell has this been the entire time?! “Oh this is going to be so much fun.” I smiled like a madman as I gently floated down and checked the other chest. Tapping it, it flipped open. I felt someONE get thrown out, almost tackling me, followed by another. Ouch. “Ah fuck…” That...voice? “How hard did Core hit me?” Braig?! “Where...am I?” I got up...Braig...and LAKE?!!! “Wasn't I… where was I last?” He asked himself “Excuse me but how the fuck.” I said honestly. “Braig...and Lake...your Absent Silhouette is bullshit here dude.” I told Lake. “Literally bending reality...can you guys get off me?” The got off. “Ben...I’d you get taller?” Braig asked. “Also...where in the nine realms of hell are we? Last thing I remember was… Core hitting me from a sneak attack...after that it’s all blank.” “All I remember was helping Drezke take in Core’s darkness...then I’m here?” Lake thought aloud. “Okay...so first up, some explanations.” I said before explaining to the two all that’s been happening, and what happened to the both of them after it all blanked out for them. “So...I am a baby...yours...and I have a goddamn afro?!” Braig shouted. “If Drezke is this far gone… Oh no… But, how are we even here?” Lake asked. “Unless… Maybe… Well here’s a theory. Time is also believed to move through dimensions, layer by layer… This… Zeke’s Absent Silhouette must be able to take one layer of that and move it to another area. Meaning we both must have been taken mere moments before the events you know took place, but, because we were just a single layer of time, we did not alter it at all. So we can exist without problems. Interesting.” Lake said in thought. He clearly holds a fair amount of Zeke’s intelligence. “Okay one, you don’t have an afro...I wouldn’t consider Pinkie hair as an afro, and two your Absent Silouhette is still ridiculous dude.” I said to Lake. “But hey...I have this that Death gave me that will calm Drezke down a fuck ton.” I said honestly while showing Lake the glove. “And it’ll help you get back with him...and then get Kexez to calm his tits for a change.” “And, this about Zeke’s soul being inside another body?” Lake asked. “Yeah...he’s inside Trixie’s body at the moment...and then there’s also the fact that there’s a clone of Zeke…” I said sheepishly. “But don’t worry, he’s cool...and I’m pretty sure all your wives know about it.” “... Well, things will be...interesting if we can get Drezke and Kexez to reunite with me… still, that leaves the issue about our soul. Without him, we are not complete.” “What’s going to happen, as far as I know, is when you and Drezke get back together, Kexez will start to calm down, and then Zeke will waltz over and beat Kexez and then...something happens that will get you four back together into one person.” I said honestly, not really knowing how things are going to go. “So, the question is why us specifically are here?” Braig asked. “I mean, that's weird, right?” “It is weird…” I said honestly. “I mean...Lake here is someone I actually needed here...but Braig…” I thought, wondering why Braig was here. “Perhaps this thing reads your heart, and gives you what you want, and who, whether you know it or not.” “Alrighty then. Well I’m pretty sure I have six other fights here…” I said, looking around for the door back to the main area cause I’m pretty sure I’m gonna have to fight the rest cause this place isn’t nice. “Well, mind is we tag along?” Braig asked. “If I’m back from ‘death’ I don’t wanna be rusty.” “Sure.” I nodded. “Might as well get you two back in shape by fighting very unfun fights.” I said honestly. “So, who is next in this place then, Zeke or Eclipse? Or an older X-blade wielder?” Lake asked. “Hmm…” I looked at all the other people. “Zeke, why not.” I said honestly. “Never got to fight him before actually.” “Well, let’s see my whole self’s true potential then.” Lake said. “Alright.” I nodded while walking over to Zeke. “Alright you, get up and let’s fight.” I said to the absent silhouette. I activated Zeke. His heart was himself in standard Station of awakening pose, the X-blade in hand and Kingdom Hearts in the background. I saw the Silhouette slowly fall from above, then glow, forming Zeke as he readied himself. “This won’t be good…” Lake said. “Then let’s make it fun.” Braig said, taking out his own gunarrows. “Don’t worry.” I said while summoning my Lexicon and rebuffing myself and casting all my buff spells on Lake and Braig. “Buff’s are gonna come in handy.” I said, seeing Lake and Braig both had health bars and mana bars above my own. “Well, let’s get on with it.” I said, using an ether on myself. “Maximize Magic, True Dark!” I shouted, a pillar of pure darkness slamming down onto Zeke. He dodged, disbanding the X-blade before rushing us. He got Lake in the neck, sending him into a coughing fit before yanking one of Braig’s weapons and shooting both his feet. He’s stuck… He then ran after me, I pulled up Frozen Pride but he spin kicked, knocking me aside on the ground before hammer fisting his foot into my stomach. Who the hell thought… Oh right, crime family… I remembered. “Well...this is not good…” I muttered, my Lexicon appearing. “Slow!” I shouted, a clock forming above Zeke as it seemed to slow down to a crawl, our opponent being a lot slower than before as I brought out Foudre and grabbed his leg, stabbing into his calf and sending a powerful surge of electricity into him. With a Slow and Electricity in him, he still managed to grab my chest, using himself like a pathway for it to zap me. While with Foundre equipped it wasn’t as bad as it can be, it still hurt. His slow down ended, and he moved fast, knocking Braig upside his head and grabbed Lake’s arm, and threw him at Braig. “Crap! No Keyblade!” Lake shouted. Zeke then summoned Fenrir, clashing them with Foundre. “Crap…” I muttered, Lindworm appearing and trying to stab into Zeke. He side stepped, summoning Master Keeper and slamming it on Lindworm. He then kicked me back before slashing me with both of them. Without thinking, I moved fast, Lindworm in one hand and Foundre in the other, both hit him, electrifying him and knocking him back… Payback Fang...right… Abilities come in handy. “Yay for abilities…” I muttered thankfully, preparing myself before three Dire Wolf Nobodies leaped out of nowhere and tried to claw, bite and trip up Zeke. “Oh yeah…” I muttered, remembering my Auto Nobody summoning ability. Zeke had a bit of trouble with the Wolf Nobodies, and then Arrows pummeled him. “Mother Fucker!” Braig yelled, offloading his whole clips into Zeke. “Megaflare!” Lake shouted, casting the spell from his hands and striking Zeke. “You don’t have a spare Keyblade, do you?” Lake asked me. I thought for a moment. “Create Greater Item.” I said while a powerful magical sword appeared in my hand, before I reached into my pocket and grabbed the Shard of Yellow and put it on the thing, remembering that there was a thing about putting a keychain on non keyblade weapons turning them into keyblades of some sort. It changed into that Keyblade of Yellow’s variation of Memory Stealer. I handed it over to Lake. “Thank you.” There was a small flash of light. Zeke now had the X-blade split down the middle, holding each half by the Kingdom Key handles. “Ah crap.” “Okay then…” I frowned, not liking that before summoning Sharpshooters and shoving them into portals as bullets shout out at Zeke in a bunch of directions, remembering I had an ability that stopped the reflection of it’s bullets. He moved fast, blocking each rapid fired Arrow before charging. Lake clashed blades with him while Braig fired a charged shot. “Now things are getting better.” Braig said, rapid shooting/teleporting. “It is so much easier fighting with other people.” I muttered thankfully as I raised my hand, Nothingness thorns grabbing onto Zeke’s legs to keep him from moving around so much and crawling up his body and cutting him up in the process. Zeke broke free, jumping off the edge before rising back on… Rip off! He’s riding a Keyblade version of Lindworm’s dragon attack! Oh shit he’s attacking. “Shit!” I yelped. “Maximize Magic, Wall of Force!” I shouted, raising my hand up an a wall of invisible force appeared in front of me, Lake and Braig to block said attack. His Keyblade dragon fired off a mixed beam of light and darkness. Thankfully my barrier held, and when he landed, flashing a bright, white light before landing on the ground, his clothes a familier red color. He has a valor form! The X-blade in one hand and a Starseeker in the other. “Sure, why the fuck not.” I frowned. “Maximize Magic, Ray of Enfeeblement!” I shouted, raising my hand as a ray of energy shot out towards Zeke, hoping to cut his strength down by a bunch. I forgot how FAST you move in Valor. He dodged, dragging his Keyblades across the ground as he forced them into Braig’s chest, knocking him over before clashing one with Lake and the other with me. “Well okay then.” I said before using Lindworm to try and trip the bastard so we could hit him hard. He jumped, air comboing my head before delivering his final blow on Lake. My auto summon nobody activated. Three dusks appeared and wrapped themselves around Zeke, allowing me to impale Lindworm on him. “Wind Skewer.” I said as wind rushed through Zeke as bladed winds ripped into his insides. Since this was all… not actually him, all that flowed out was liquid light. His wounds healed fast before he jumped back, glowing again as this time his attire was Wisdom form blue. He jumped off the edge, and flew back up on three rings of flying Keyblades outside the edge and above us. “Cause why not.” I frowned while aiming Sharpshooters and firing them at Zeke. He cast reflect, bouncing them back at us before firing off those magic bolts at us. I opened up portals as the shots entered them and appeared behind Zeke. “Oh no, not falling for that shit.” I frowned, seeing the bullets going straight back at the bastard. He cast Reflect,the splash damage hitting me but my payback fang hit him hard, knocking him off the Keyblade rails and back to the Station of awakening. “Grasp of Nothing!” I shouted, raising my hand up as hands made of Nothingness Thorns rushed up and grabbed onto Zeke. They did damage as they strangled him. When that ended his Wisdom form had ended, and he switched to Master form, both the X-blade and Master Keeper in his hands. “Know what? Fuck you.” I frowned. Braig and Lake rushed in, distracting him as I hit him from behind with Lunatic, he immediately fell out of Master form from the force of the attack, and again, went into another form… this one was different though. His clothes looked old, torn and dirty, he floated, and had two wings made up of Keyblades emerging out of his back, connected by their Keychains. He also didn’t have any Keyblades in his hands. “Uh oh…” Lake said. “Why uh oh?” I asked worriedly. “Is this some unknown form I don't know about?” “This is like when an entire Keyblade graveyard took us over… he’s using literally EVERY keyblade in this form.” “Um…” I started. “I...think I have something…” I check what drive forms I had just in case I got something new. Valor Form Wisdom Form Master Form Anti Form Final Form Heir’s Valor Form “Um...let's go with that one.” I said while choosing Heirs Valor Form and wondering if it's any different than normal. I felt a surge of power. I felt…. Fast. Memed sonic fast! My attired was a light red, Reunion and Dusk Blades in hands as red Nothingness thorns sparked all around me. I looked above me, seeing SHarpshooter above my head, in an almost ethereal form while the Chakrams where behind me, spinning slowly like gears. This is...interesting. “This is gonna be fun.” I smiled before bolting off towards Zekes and seeing what my attacks can do. Each attack sliced him at blinding speeds, and when he blocked, summoning Keyblades around him like a wall, the Red Nothingness thorns phased through them, sticking him back. Oh. Hell. Yes. “This is amazing!” I laughed happily, moving one of my chakrams with my foot and slashing at the wall of keyblades to get them to get out of my way. Sharpshooter, not having a visual on Zeke, fired off it’s clip, finishing it’s clip off with a charged shot. “Can’t wait to learn the other forms.” I said with glee as I tried to get past the wall. Zeke made his wall expand, making me backup as he showed himself weilding a Kingdom Key that… looked like it had Starseeker color on it, before jamming it into the ground, the whole floor glowing as Keyholes started appearing everywhere… and Keyblades shot from them like bullets! “Excuse me but I call bullshit!” I shouted, using my insane speed to dodge all the keyblades, using Eternal Flames like roller blades to help with my speed as Sharpshooters shot at all the keyblades I might not be able to dodge as I rushed towards Zeke. It was fast, we suddenly locking blades as his barrage of Keyblades still was going on. His Keyblade wings flapped, a gust of wind almost knocking me back. His attack ended, and he flew up, ready to slam down as… the whole ‘sky’ was nothing but Keyblades pointed down... “Alright…” I muttered, revving up Eternal Flames as flames started to swirl behind me glowing white and getting bigger, red Nothingness Thorns swirling around my keyblades as Sharpshooters glowed blue, ready to fire everything. “Bring it bitch!” I taunted. Zeke struck, the pain was like getting stabbed on every cell in my body. Lake and Braig under a Reflect spell. With that over Sharpshooter fired at Zeke, and I body slammed him til he phased out of that form. He jumped back up immediately, hitting my jaw as my form dispersed. He then held his Wayfinder… and I felt...something. Nothingness thorns began pulsating from him as in his left hand he held… the Keyblade Greatsword Joy wielded when fighting Eve… In his other hand was a ball of Nothingness. “That’s bullshit…” I frowned, backing away and healing myself quickly. “That’s not good at all. “Got any ideas?” Lake asked. Just then, a Twilight Thorn rose from the darkness below, taking Zeke in it’s hand and opening it’s zipper, placing him inside as the Keyblade Greatsword appeared in it’s left hand. “I got a cyanide pill.” Braig stated. “We can split.” I frowned. “I hate this.” I said, trying to think of something to do to stop this real quick. ”Wait, didn’t Joy have reaction commands?” I thought to myself, wondering if that will actually come into play here. As if on cue I reacted, blocking it’s Keyblade as it tried to strike, reacting again and sending it off to the side as I then rushed it’s chest. Slamming it hard enough til it fall over partly onto the station out of it. “Quick Thinking.” Braig said, opening fire on the Twilight Thorns head. “Thank god for reaction commands…” I muttered while stabbing Foudre into the thing and pumping it full of electricity. “But D-links are kind of broken when you can do this shit…” I frowned, wondering if it’s just what these boss fights could do or if it was for anyone. “It’s the X-blade.” Lake said, slamming his Keyblade into it’s head. “His connection to it and Kingdom hearts means D-links not only give him his friends and more special abilities, but also their weapons, and power. In a way it’s like he borrows their heart.” Lake explained, the Twilight Thorn getting back up, slamming down it’s massive Keyblade on us before falling down into the darkness. “... You don’t think…?” Lake asked. “I wonder what’s next.” I frowned while recasting all the buffs on the three of us. The ground shook, and the floor tilted til Lake jabbed his Keyblade into the edge, each of us catching the other by the foot. There, we saw the Twilight thorn holding a ball of energy. “Shit, just like when Roxas fought it!” Lake yelled, the Twilight thorn jumping up as we all fell up, it ready to slamm that ball of energy into us. “Alright.” I said while dropping down, summoning Skysplitter and pumping a lot of energy into it as I threw it into the ball to see if it’ll work the same as in the game. The ball of energy exploded, sending us all crashing back to the station of awakening. The Twilight Thorn fell down the the ground, and we got up fast to deal damage. The Twilight Thorn died, Zeke falling out of it as I ran, slashing across him. He stumbled, and fell over. “Are you done yet?” I asked with a frown, hating all these damned phases. The X-blade appeared in his hand, only to glow bright, and now there was a blue haired Zeke next to the original. The blue haired one got up, taking Zeke by the wrist as Zeke transformed into a X-blade, looking much like the original, but with Kingdom Key D colors for it’s Kingdom Keys. X, I am assuming, then pointed it at me. “Oh fuck…” Braig said. “I call bullshit.” I frowned. “Are you kidding me? Five phases for phase one? You can suck a fat one.” I complained, summoning Lunatic and pumping in my rage cause this was just bullshit. I charged, only for X to deflect it and palm strike my chest, knocking the wind out of me before vanishing, appearing behind me and slamming… Zeke-blade into my back. Braig charged a shot, X deflected it. Lake managed a hit but was tossed into the air before being hammer fisted down. I growled, two Berserkers falling down and slamming their claymores into X as I raised Sharpshooters and fired at the bastard. X made quick work of the Berserkers, then spun his… Zeke-blade fast, deflecting every shot. I summoned Reunion and we locked blades, each time either I blocked an attack, or he blocked my attack, or we just crossed blades. Lake dealt another strike on him from behind, and that gave me a chance to deal damage. I clenched my fist, twilight thorns coursing through it as a gauntlet was made and I slammed it into X’s stomach. “Thorn Pulse.” I said as Nothingness Thorns shot into X and started to rip into him. It seems to deal a lot of damage. Guess the X-blade has little defence against Nothingness. X fell over, changing back into his Keyblade form as he and Zeke, both as Keyblades sat on the floor. “Are we done yet?” Lake asked, breathing heavily. “No, it’s not.” I frowned, still at the ready. “I know for a fact we’re not done yet.” There was a bright, blinding light and we...no, I was alone, in a large grass field with a bright blue sky. Before me I saw a kid, blue hair and golden eyes. He smiled at me. “Surprised to see you here.” He spoke. “Then again, your brother made it.” “Um…” I frowned. “What's going on? And which brother?” “Joy, of course. The first to beat this.” “Oh yeah.” I nodded. “Joy probably had so much fun doing this. So, I presume your Kingdom Hearts?” I asked curiously. The kid nodded. “So, have any questions?” “Why is this entire fight this damn long?” I asked. “And yes, I know I’m going to have to fight you next.” “Zeke is...unique. He can fight and keep on, and is the only person with bloodline linking them back to my X-blades first mortal wielder. Tainted as it may be from the Psychopaths, it’s still part of why he is so powerful.” “Alright...are you scared of the upcoming war?” I asked it curiously. Kingdom Hearts shook their head. “Blood is spilled every day. This war will be no different. But by it’s end, this multiverse will be as it was meant to. One world, one sky. And from what I know of Cript’s plans, the rest of creation will be the same.” “Oh boy.” I said with a frown. “So...what’s it like being connected to damn near everything?’ “Well, to me it’s normal. To you, it would be like knowing what everyone and everything is doing at once.” “That sounds like a pain in the ass.” I said honestly. “Give you can probably see the future...how long will the war last?” I asked. “If you act fast, a day. Less.” “How fast?” I asked worriedly. “That I can’t answer.” “Will I learn how fast after I beat you? Cause this entire thing somehow goes through time and space and gives you things, from people to history to items.” I said honestly. “Nope. But all you have to do, is hit me once.” “Okay then.” I nodded as I cracked my knuckles. “Triple magic, Meteor Storm!” I shouted, the sky darkening as an ass ton of meteors rained down towards Kingdom Hearts. He side stepped them all. “Try again.” “Okay…” I said while summoning Frozen Pride and throwing it like a frisbee, ice shooting off towards the kid as I ran behind it drawing Foudre and throwing daggers down at the ground to set up a trap. KH swung both Zeke and X, destroying it all. “Be careful, I gave Joy a wedgie when he fought me.” “Well I'm not Joy.” I said while throwing down Fair Game face down and disappearing, knowing Foudre was in place as I appeared used Sharpshooters to see if I can hit the kid. He wasn’t anywhere, until both X-blades where around my neck. “Getting-” I wrapped my tail around his leg. “... I forgot you had a tail.” He said, disbanding the two as everything became a black void. Looking around, I saw something in the distance. It was...one of the Mushroom thirteen...running at me. It stopped about ten feet away from me and tripped, sliding to a stop at my feet. “Hey little guy.” I said to the Mushroom. “How you doing?” I asked it, checking to see if a mini game prompt came up. It jumped back up, clapping as mini fireworks went off around it. It then did a backflip, vanishing as thirteen chests appeared, the last one was MASSIVE. Easy thrice my height. “Well fuck.” I said honestly. “And here I thought I would have gotten a cute Mushroom Thirteen friend.” I chuckled as I walked over to one of the smaller chests and opened it. My Assistant flashed after it opened. Limit Form Obtained. Heir’s Wisdom Form Obtained. Heir’s Master Form Obtained Heir’s Final Form Obtained Heir’s Anti Form Obtained Heir’s Limit Form Obtained Primal Form Obtained. “Cool.” I said, hoping to be able to test the new forms out soon as I stepped over to the second chest and opened it up. Rather than flash up, inside the chest was… a VERY familiar golden lamp… No fucking way… “Oh please tell me…” I muttered while grabbing the lamp and then rubbing it, hoping Genie was in here. It began shaking, violently so before, just like in Aladdin… he was coming out. “EEEEYAAAAA! OWI!” He yelled, his neck popping and his normal blue ‘skin’ color returning. “Ten thousands years, will give ya such a crick in the neck!” He said in his famous Robin Williams voice. “I can imagine. How you doing besides that?” I asked curiously. “Well aside from knowing for a fact this is not where I was last placed… not too bad. So, you the lucky lad who rubbed my lamp the right way huh? Hehehe, relax kid I am still part of good old homophobe disney. So, what can I do for ya?” He asked, shrinking to my size and I found myself on a rather comfy chair. “How much do you know about other worlds?” I asked curiously. “This isn’t a wish just so you know.” I added. “Well for starters I know about the Keyblade war, how it finished off world traveling for pretty much everybody and how the reason they were split up is because Core used that special move of his when fighting Lord Morse, an older wielder of the keyblade, and I know that all this information good old Nomura would likely make some other craziness up for. Anything else?” “What would you think of helping me out in future fights?” I asked curiously. “You hold the lamp kid, I’m doing whatever you are wishing.” “I know, but if I wished you free, would you still help or would you just go wherever you pleased?” I asked honestly. “Hm...Freedom? No one has ever offered… Well… I guess I would owe ya if you did that… Eh, what the heck. If you free me then I’ll just be a summon charm away.” “Alright.” I nodded. “Genie, I wish you were free.” I said simply. “Wait, what? Just like that?” He said, his golden bracelets breaking off, and his mist lower half turning to full on legs. “You...didn’t even use your first two wishes… Kid you are really something else ya know that?” He said, hugging me and I think my spine popped. “I’m a hero Genie, why would I not immediately try to free you?” I asked honestly. “And also...on a technical level you were wished free by Aladdin but that’s neither here nor there at the moment.” “Yeah but this is your AU, none of this is cannon!” He said, smiling as he gave me a noogie. He then put me down, grabbing his lamp and with a wave of his hand, changed it to a little summon charm. He handed it to me, then saluted. “I’ll be seeing ya around kid! Oh how rude of me! I am Genie. What’s your name kid?” “Names Ben.” I said. “And if you ever need a place to stay, you can always go to my Equestria, I’m sure my friend and family would love to meet you.” I said with a smile. “Will do kid! I’ll be seeing ya!” He said, a pair of suitcases appearing out of nowhere. He grabbed them, then vanished in a reddish pink puff of smoke. “Alright.” I nodded, still happy to help as I moved over to the third chest and opened it up. Obtained the Ultima Weapon. My Assistant said. “Um...okay.” I said while checking to see which Ultima Weapon it was, whether it was a specific Kingdom Hearts Ultima Weapon or if it was a different Ultima Weapon. After some searching it was a Keychain… It was the Kingdom hearts two version. “Cool.” I said while swapping out Reunion for Ultima. “This is definitely a boost.” I said while moving over to the fourth chest. Obtained x40 Fruit of Eden. “The hell?” I looked a little confused, checking my Assistant to see what the heck that is. Fruit of Eden. A magical fruit that when eaten, boots the eaters max health by 10 points. “Cool.” I said while bringing out one of those apples and eating it to get the HP boost. “Okay…” I muttered while opening the fifth chest. Ability Acquired: Thorns Boost. Nothingness Thorns now deal 30% more damage. “Sweet.” I said with a nod, going on my Assistant and equipping said ability before going to the sixth chest and opened it. Inside this chest was a deck of cards, they seemed normal. Taking them out, I took one out, and it broke, and I felt…. Like a thousand cups of coffee just was injected into me… I felt SOOOOO HYPER! “The fuck!?” I yelped, checking what the heck just happened. “Excuse me, but why?” I said, feeling way too hyper. Status effect Cards Each card delivers a different effect on the user. Use wisely. “Oh dear.” I muttered worriedly as I went to the seventh one and opened it. Obtained Keyblade reinforcements, and Evolutions. Vol 1-2,569 “What now?” I asked in confusion, checking what the hell those things were. “What the heck is Evolutions Volume...what now?” Keyblade reinforcements and Evolutions, is a long, ancient book series consisting of over two thousand written texts detailing Keyblades forgotten and often overlooked ability to be reinforced and evolve into higher versions of themselves. The only surviving tombs known are Volumes one through ten, after the world was split up into the stars and multiverse we exist in now. “That is very useful. Gonna need to read those when I’m not busy.” I say honestly while checking the eighth chest. “What is under chest number eight?” Limits Obtained. Strike Raid Reflect Raid Trinity Infinity Sonic Rave Last Arcanum King's Wrath Battle Ground No Man's Land “I wonder what those last three do?” I said, also noting that Ars Arcanum was changed to ‘Last Arcanum’. “Chest number nine.” I said while opening chest number nine. Obtained Kingsblade Keyblade. “Another Keyblade eh?” I asked, checking to see what the thing looked like cause that sounded cool. It’s Keyblade was...the Nothingness symbol, with a crown atop it… no way… I equipped it… and it was the very same Keyblade… The one Joy used against Eve...and the one Zeke used against me… “Excuse me but your supposed to be a greatsword…” I frowned, trying to figure this out while going to my Assistant and equipping Reunion to my Heir Valor and Ultima to Heir Master for the moment as I kept Kingsblade as my main one for the moment. “Okay...number ten.” I said while opening number ten. Inside where three small… clusters? No… hearts? Heart of Sora Heart of Kiari Heart of Riku. “Well...I may have the genderbent variants as Nobodies….maybe I can give them these?” I wondered, not entirely sure about that as I took all the hearts and hoped they would be safe in my assistant as I checked the eleventh chest. Inside this one was… a ps4? That’s rather random- WAIT! I checked the three games next to it… Kingdom Hearts 1.5+2.5 final mix 2.8 final chapter prologue… and Kingdom Hearts 3! “Sweet!” I cheered happily, glad to be able to replay this whole series and share a really good game series to my kids. “What’s in number twelve?” I wondered, putting the PS4 and games away in my Assistant and checking the second to last chest. Obtained 999,999,999,999,999 of All synthesis materials, healing items, and items. ...if this were an online game...I’d so get banned... “O~kay then.” I said a little nervously, not really sure what I’ll need literally all the things but I’m sure if I ‘donate’ Luxu all this shit he’ll figure out something. “And now for the huge bitch.” I said while looking at the giant ass chest. “What is in here…” I said while trying to open that. It was a struggle, but I managed to force the lid open. Inside this was… a crap ton of different Keyblades, organization weapons… and a crown? It was gold and grey, and held the Nobody symbol as it’s centerpiece. “Well....this is a bunch.” I said while taking the crown and putting it on, replacing the old silver crown Celestia got me all those...months ago...jesus it really hasn’t been that long now that I think about it. “Wait...didn’t I make those?” I muttered while grabbing a pair of gauntlets that radiated Nothingness. “Huh...interesting.” I decided to punch the chest with one of them after I got all the equipment out… MASSIVE nothingness thorns wrapped around the chest… and crushed it to splinters… Hell...yes…”I am keeping these.” I said bluntly, checking the name of these new kick ass gauntlets. Vice Splinter Att: 50 Def: 20 Mag: 0 While also dealing massive Physical Damage, anything hit with these gauntlets will be wrapped in Overgrown Nothingness Thorns, and crushed, or severely cut depending on variables. Special Ability: Critical- Every other hit is a critical hit. “I am keeping this, this is mine, and no one is allowed to take it.” I said to myself while seeing it vanish, being put into my roster of my summonable equipment as I put all the other equipment away for when I’ll need to basically arm an entire army. “Also...I wonder where the other twelve mushrooms are?” I wondered honestly, feeling a side quest brewing here. “Okay...so am I going to fight the other bunch of people or is that it?” I wondered, looking around for the exit back to the hub. After looking around I spotted something on the floor. Walking over to it, it was… the other half of that heart keychain thing. I put the two together, and they glowed, fusing into the whole heart. “Alright…” I checked my assistant for the new whole keychain. “What’s special about now…” I wondered. X-blade Keychain. Used to create a special variant of the X-blade unique to the person it it made for. “And I just got a new one…” I muttered while swapping my heir keyblade to my Heir Final Form and equipping my new X-blade, wondering what it looks like right now considering it’s supposed to be specific to the person. Holding the Keychain I- “Ow!” I yelped, dropping it as it...cut me… and was absorbing the blood… Okay~. “Um...okay…” I muttered while grabbing the keychain again, wondering if the pesky little bastard is gonna cut me again. It forced itself out of my hand, floating there for a moment before I was knocked over as MASSIVE Nothingness, light, and Darkness floated into the Keychain. It was so much energy… I felt nauseated… Finally it stopped, the heart Keychain turning from white to pink and gaining the Nobody symbol into/over it. It then began forming the blade part, Nothingness thorns creating those large designed parts between the crossed Kingdom Key parts. The Kingdom Keys were replaced by both Reunion and Dusk Blade. The two wrapped in Nothingness thorns as emerging from them was a Crescent moon, with a white silhouette of a wolf howling on the dark side of it just below it’s tip. “Sure…” I muttered. “It does look cool...but why the hell am I getting an X-blade, and two shouldn’t there only be one of you?” I asked with a frown, knowing I can’t actually hear the keyblade but I am all sorts of confused why I’m getting one and why there are multiples. I checked my Assistant. No Heart X-blade Att: 25 Def: 12 Mag: 12 A Keyblade forged with Nothingness. The first of its kind. It’s power flows between the realms of light and darkness, as Nothingness should. As a result, it’s power is based on the Balance in the area. Special Ability: Tranquility- Any Heatless that make contact with this blade will regain their true forms is they are an Emblem, if Pureblood, they will become a new life. Nobodies before this weapon, as it’s wielders command, regain their lost hearts. “Excuse you.” I said, being startled into a laugh just from how absurd this things ability is. “I will gladly take that.” I said with a giant smile. “Now...am I going to have to fight the other X-blade wielders? And will I maybe have to fight myself?” I wondered, thinking that because this was all about X-blade wielders that I would appear here somehow. Just then...I was dragged into a portal that appeared below me… Great… To be continued...
Nobody becomes KingBack in the Zebra lands, the girls and I where already packing up. While some of my new wives were at least somewhat… aware, for lack of a better word, they where still rather...stiff, for lack of another better word. The resupplying was going well. “I am happy to see you enjoyed your stay White Knight.” The king spoke. Him and I where walking down his castle’s halls. “It is a nice place.” I said honestly. “I’m just glad Zecora is having an okay time here considering...what she told me.” I said, caring more about my girls time here than my own. “Yes. This kingdom has been through, how would you say… the ringer, quite a few times, but we look forward to this new future for us all. Earlier, before you arrived, a man in black named Luxu said you where to be engaged into a war? Is this correct?” “Sadly yes.” I said honestly. “The second keyblade war…” I sighed out. “Ah. Then you have my entire forces at your disposal. We can offer potions, soldiers, and the land is rich with minerals for weapons and armor. Whatever you need, we will offer all we can.” The king said. “Luxu also said if you refuse to not take no for an answer as you have a tendency to… bite off more than you can chew, as he put it.” I sighed out. “Of course he would.” I muttered. “Well thank you.” I nodded, only for my Assistant to buzz like mad. “Huh?” I muttered, looking down at it and seeing...all the nines with money, items and all the synthesis items. “Oh…” I took a deep breath. “So anyways, what kind of minerals do you have?” “Aside from your standard materials, we are well known for Oricalcium, Power Stones, and High grade gems for enchanting. All we’d require are these Keyblades you mention. As Luxu explained only a Keyblade master can bestow them, and he wasn’t able to do so as he had the other lands to visit.” “Um...about that.” I said while scrolling down and noting that I now have an absolute ass ton of weapons and armor both for keybladers and for Nothingness troops. “How many soldiers do you have?” “On average, we get fifty new recruits a day, and here in the capital, there are sixty thousand soldiers, and more across the land. If I remember correctly from last checking, our total army consists of eighty five thousand males and females.” I looked at my assistant to see how much equipment I got, from keyblades to Nothingness equipment cause if memory serves I think I saw literally all of the keyblades and Nothingness weapons. “I think I can....give all of your troops a weapon…” I said, thinking I’m going to have to go through everywhere and just hand out an ass ton of weapons. “Really? That would be wonderful… What is that?” The king asked, looking ahead. There, floating as a Hologram was a moogle...but it had a black cloak over it… that’s weird... “Uh...hello?” I asked the cloaked moogle. It looked up. “Kupo. Hello, you ready to buy. Kupo.” It spoke. “What are you selling?” I asked. “And...why are you wearing a black cloak if I may ask?” “I was hired by someone called King of Nothingness. Kupo. He took me as a contract employee so I can sell wares never before seen. Kupo. This is just the uniform. Kupo.” “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “So, what are you selling my fine shopkeep?” “Take a look. Kupo.” A menu popped up and I selected the buy tab. Weapons Armors Munitions Raw Materials Recipes Battlements Plus.\ This was a sub-menu? That’s new. “Let’s go with Weapons.” I said while clicking on the weapons tab, wondering what’s in here. Starlight Keyblade Nothingness Longsword Nothingness Short Sword Nothingness Claymore Nothingness Bastard Sword Nothingness Curved Sword The list went on...and on…. And ON… Even with guns! And nothingness guns?! The heck does the king have in his armory?! “Um…” I went back to the main tab and went to armor, hoping there was less. I was wrong...so...very...wrong… All these tabs had at least a thousand or more different items and variations. Battlements plus was all Nobody gummi ships, which was cool… and tanks?! Giant robots, was this a goddamn Gundam?! “Fuck me…” I muttered, chuckling at the sheer absurd amount of of shit he want’s me to buy. “Um...how much could I buy with...literally all of the money?” I asked, seeing my balance and I’m not even sure I can count that high I see so many nines He looked at my balance… and is he calculating this in his head? “To make it an even number all around… 55 grand of everything I got. That leaves you with a solid fifty thousand left over. Is there anything you need in excess?” “I think you just armed this whole planet Ben…” The king said. I took a deep breath. “No, I think that’s okay.” I said while checking my Assistant in hopes that this thing didn’t have a storage limit. There was a loud THUD outside, and when the king and I looked outside...there was a huge...towering...crate just outside city limits taking up a LARGE chunk of unbuilt land. “... Ben, you know how to impress.” The king said. “Holy damn I think I overdid it.” I said slowly, blinking at just how fucking huge that crate was. “Fucking hell...um…what’s your synthesis shop look like?” I asked the moogle cautiously, not sure if I should just hand this stuff to Luxu so he can be happy creating so much shit or just dump it all on the moogles and get everything. “Depends, what ya got?” He asked. “King!” One of the zebra guards ran up to us. “There’s a massive-” “I am aware. That Luxu fellow from days prior to Ben’s arrival spoke truth, in that crate are armaments for our troops entering battle with him. As well as others from the other kingdoms.” “Oh...shall I have a team...uh...unload it?” “Yes.” The king noded. “Take any hammer and crowbar you can find to open it.” The guard nodded, heading off. “Be careful, cause if you can imagine a weapon and or a piece of armor, you will find it in that crate.” I called out to the guard. “God...here’s one planet and then some worth of gear...and I still have an ass ton to work with…” I said while deciding to give the moogle half of all the synthesis items I have. “That’s half of everything I have, what can I make?” “With all this?” He’s doing the numbers in his head again… “Nothing. You have no recipes saved with me.” “Huh...surprising.” I said honestly. “Kind of thought I had at least some…” I said with some thought. “Well...better get this stuff to Luxu then, he’ll know what to do with literally all the synthesis items.” “I have shops all over. Kupo.” The moogle said as we headed off. “So, before you leave shall we see what is brought out of the crate till then?” The king asked. “Might as well.” I said honestly. “Cause fifty five thousand of literally everything he had to sell, and he an absolute asston of things to sell...oh dear I think I overdid it.” I had the king take a ride on my glider, the two us us landing as the guards managed to pry open a corner. Inside was all sorts of smaller boxes with the name of what was inside them. One guard pulled out a Box called Overgrown Nothingness Hand Cannon. Inside was a large, one shot rifle of sorts made from grey wood and black metal with three bullets almost irradiating Nothingness. “Shall we test it?” The king asked. “Um…” I walked over and pulled out my lexicon. “I Wish for ten regenerating test dummies.” I said, my book glowing as I casted Wish, about ten feet from us ten practice dummies appeared in a row. “Well...there’s your test dummies if you want to test it out.” I said, still a little nervous about this. The guard, after a bit, managed to load one of the bullets into it, and aimed it at the dummies. When it fired it seemed like a normal….oversized gun. When the bullet hit… MASSIVE Nothingness thorns emerged from five feet around the target site, tearing up the earth, slashing up the dummies, and causing mass destruction til they shot into the air and pushed aside clouds, vanishing as I assume the attack wore off. “Now that's what I call a cannon!” The king said, excited. “Oh my god…” I said honestly. “That...is awesome.” I said. “You know I’m going to be taking one of everything right?” I said to the king, given that I was the one that bought all the shit. “Of course. You did purchase them. Now, what else is there?” He asked, another guard bringing up something else. This was what looked like a toy, but had some instructions on a piece of paper attached to it. Toss on ground at least two feet from you. “Stand back about five feet.” I said to the guards as I took the toy and tossed it the two feet towards the test dummies, and thankfully seeing the one that was ripped to shreds regenerate back to normal. It grew...and grew...and grew… It was a massive Twilight thorn looking turret… It took aim as the dummies… and fired… Everything was LOUD! Nothingness Thorns and heat went all around, each place they struck was singed as when it finally ended. There was a massive crater where it fired, Nothingness thorns still lingering for about a minute til that too faded. “That will be useful…” The king said. “But...but why though?” I asked, finding that massively excessive and cool. “Oh my god...this was both a great decision...and a terrible decision.” I said, shaking my head with a smile. “Such are the faults of any ruler Ben. Who knows, these may not even need to be used, or these could be our last line of defence, barely holding. Only time will tell.” The Zebra king said. I sighed out. “I just hope that these won’t ever have to be used...again.” I said honestly. “If I’m fast enough…” I muttered, having been told that if I act fast enough I can bring the Keyblade war down to a day and have it not be as bloody as possible. “Uh...King, White Knight?” One of the guards asked, gaining our attention. “You might wanna look at this one.” We both walked over the the smaller crate. Inside was… something humanoid looking. It had two swords in its...hands? I think, the swords just came out of it’s… where hands should be, it’s face that of a Samurai Nobody, and body color was a grey and black Nothingness thorns coloring. “It has a wind up key in it’s back.” The guard added. “Oh no…” I muttered, using my assistant to check if it’s exactly what I think it is. Tinker Bot This unique variation of ‘Robot”’ is completely controlled by gears and springs to move, powered by a wind up key. They actually function with magic allowing them to move, and obey orders, differ friend and foe, and perform whatever tasks they were constructed for. While the simplest form of bot to create, they are still the most effective. “That’s exactly what I thought…” I muttered. “So yeah, I know have my own wind up army.” I said, knowing there’s fifty five thousand of those bastards that I just bought. “Interesting. I remember a story from my youth with a similar character.” The king said. “Wind it up.” he ordered. The guards winded it up, and once it was done it came to life, looking at the King and I. “Uhh… show us what you can do. Attack those dummies.” I said. Immediately it spun around, and ran… FAST. Slashing the dummies into pieces at blinding speed before it’s swords began to glow red. It impaled the remains, a small circle of fire around it and the dummy parts as it erupted fire high into the sky. When it ended, the bot was there, the ground scorched to high hell...some of it I think was lava now… The bot then walked back over to me, bowing before taking a criss cross sitting pose. It’s key stopped turning shortly after, and it powered down in that pose. “Now that is amazing.” The king said. “Excuse me but what the fuck did the old man have in his armory?” I blinked, the dummies regenerating from the massive onslaught. “Cause...damn.” I said, not expecting a few things to be so powerful. “Well, what is next?” The king said. The next thing brought out was a pair of handguns, each with names engraved. One read Rapture, the other, Damnation. “These look very high caliber… where is the button to eject the bullet holder?” The king asked, looking them over for it. They didn’t seem to have any. “Mind if I?” I asked, knowing that these things are Nothingness weapons so maybe I could tell. “I’m attuned to these weapons on principle so I might be able to figure it out.” Taking the weapons. They didn't really feel all that special. I felt very little Nothingness energy from them, but I did feel something else from them that wasn’t Nothingness, light or darkness. Shrugging, I fired Rapture… The bullet left a massive energy wave behind it, ripping the dummy up into pieces, but strangely enough, the ground around that energy trail left… newly formed grass, and flowers. Damnation did about the same, it’s large energy trail red, melting the ground under and around it and completely incinerating the dummy it hit. “Yeah...I should have expected that from the names.” I said honestly. “So yeah, you now have fifty thousand guns that can basically turn this desert into a massive flourishing landscape, or turn it into a barren hellscape.” I said honestly. “I...accidentally figured out how to solve your farming problem…” “Heh. Impressive.” The king said, the next thing to come out was a really small box. Inside was… a tiny door. Just a small door. Confused, I tossed it to the ground and it grew into a normal sized door… Then it grew a ten by ten metallic wall of Nothingness behind it. “Instant housing or...other?” The king asked. I walked over and opened the door, wondering if it was an actual house. Inside was four cot beds, a small walled up what I am assuming is a bathroom, tiny sink and stove, and some boxes labeled food and munitions. “A bunker… or maybe barracks?” The king pondered, taking a step inside. “This is quite a thing. On the fly bunker in case you need it, or it could be a barracks depending on how big this thing can actually be.” I said honestly, finding this really good for strategy. “Cool...wonder what else is here cause this is getting more and more interesting.” I said. The next item was… It looked like a robotic eyeball. It was the size of a head so… the heck. I found the power button, turning it on as it dropped a small...phone looking thing in my hand… it then turned invisible, and I saw what it saw, in this case, the king and I, on the small phone looking thing it dropped for me. “The perfect spy.” The king said. “Yeah that’s one way to do it.” I nodded while seeing if I can direct it with the phone it gave. “Wonder if it’s true invisibility?” I wondered a little. The next few crates where Potions, eithers, Megalixers, standard KH items… even “armor” accessories and Hell yes Full Bloom plusses! “This is great.” I nodded. “So much here…” I said, checking my assistant to see if I had any accessory and armor slots that could help me. I did in fact, five armor slots, and three accessory slots. I grabbed three Full Bloom Plus’s, remembering in kh2 final mix these where OP as all hell and equipping them… Two where on one ear, and one was on one of my ears… these are earrings? “Didn’t think these were earings…” I muttered, feeling like my mana regen just went through the roof as I searched through to find five really good armor pieces. I found Grand Ribbons… a whole box full. I equipped them, two around each of my arms, and the fifth attached itself like a brooch on my cloak. I felt rather buffed with them. “Ah, that’s better.” I said with a smile. “What else is there?” I asked curiously. The next thing seemed to be… Paopu fruits? No, these are grey, and nowhere near as colorful as the ones from Sora’s island. “The hell?” I questioned, checking my assistant to see what the heck these things are. None Paopu Fruits. Long ago, the King of nothingness visited a world, and took a single one of it’s paopu fruits, and managed to grow a tree of it within the realm of Nothing. These fruits, rather than bind two hearts for eternity, in love and faith, will bestow visions of tragedy, and despair. Often these are used to help predict terrible events, then, avoid them. “Okay then…” I muttered. “That’s a thing. These things can see future tragedy’s…” I said honestly. “Interesting. What a terrible power.” The king said, taking one and looking it over. “I wonder if each tragedy is unique to each viewer?” He asked, take a bite. He dropped the fruit, his eyes glowing white and black for a moment before falling to his knees, painting heavily. His eyes returned to normal… he looked terrified. “What did you see? The entire world burning?” I asked. “Hybrid monstrosities roaming around subjugating everyone with psychic powers?” I asked, kind of miffed that I haven’t gotten around to playing Starcraft 2 yet. “I saw this coming war… I saw my own death.” He said, calming himself. He stood back up, shaking his head. “So much blood… At least, it seems we were fighting monsters, and not one another.” “That’s good…” I said. “I’m gonna regret this…” I muttered, grabbing a None Fruit and eating it. Instantly, I smelled smoke. I was in Daybreak… Heartless were swarming in mass, all and every kind. Ahead of me, I saw the crystal heart broken to shards. Gummi Ships evacuating people as other left via glider. I saw Zeke… no, Charlie, fighting off FIFTEEN darkside heartless. Zeke’s family house/gummi ship flying off. He looked up, smiling as he muttered something, his skin melting, his black, non human blood oozing before… He blew up… Daybreak was gone… When it ended I was on my hands and knees. “Fuck me…” I muttered worriedly. “That’s not good...how the hell could that happen?” I muttered worriedly. “Okay...um...how long was I out?” I asked, shaking my head and getting up. “Just a minute. What did you see White Knight?” The king asked. “I saw a friends world...being overrun by Heartless…” I muttered worriedly, before rolling up my sleeve and pulling out my new X-blade weapon. “Don’t panic, I’ve done this before.” I said while cutting my arm off. “Still...hurts a bit.” I muttered in pain, seeing my arm regenerate into a clone of me and hey look it actually has clothes on this time as I regrew my old one. “Well...good thing this one has clothes.” I said honestly, rolling my sleeve down. He opened up a DTL, and ran off to Daybreak. That vision…can’t happen… “Please tell me everything's okay…” Ben muttered to himself as he walked out of the portal to Daybreak. … It was like he saw. Nearby, exiting the portal near the heart, it was shattered, and heartless where everywhere. Three Neoshadows appeared behind me. Summoning Kingsblade, I dealt with them each with one swift swing. “This is so not good…” Ben muttered as Nobody’s were summoned due to his auto summon ability as Nothingness Wolves, Berserkers, and Ben’s pretty sure a new Nobody he’s never seen, this one looking more like a commander of an army more than anything, saluted to him. “Protect the people, try to save as many as you can and keep the Heartless away from any shuttles fleeing the world.” Ben told the Commander Nobody as it nodded and proceeded to guide the Nobody’s in the effort while Ben was busy doing other things. Looking off the edge of the rails, Ben spotted Charlie fighting off two Dark Thorns. Ben jumped down, impaling one of them as Charlie finished off the other one, both puffing into darkness. “Thank god you came along.” Charlie said, turning around in time to spin kick a shadow heartless into the wall of a building, killing it. “It’s gone to hell and a handbasket here.” “I can tell.” Ben said while slashing at a Neoshadow and killing it quickly. “How’s the evacuation going?” The wolf asked. “As fast as we can… Not sure how many already… perished.” Charlie said, hacking a Novashadow in two. “Don’t wanna think about that. Zeke’s family is safe, their ship is set to leave after as many castle staff as we can get on it. Ben, it was the Master of Masters. He broke into the hidden armory of his inventions. He took everything, even that giant fucking eyeball on the ceiling… Including the Void Key keyblade!” “Why the fuck did he cause all this?” Ben asked worriedly, raising his hand as Grasp of Nothing grabbed onto a bunch of heartless and killed them all. “Because Zeke’s Absent Silhouette is handing out X-blades like candy and he wants them, and us all gone. He might be planning something really bad come the war. He’s way too far gone.” Charlie said, backflipping as an Invisible appeared just in time for his false X-blade to hack it in two, and he landed right as it puffed into darkness dead. “Leon was here earlier, all reconstruction crews that could make it are out and those that couldn’t either flew off via glider or are dead. It’s mostly just Daybreak and whatever parts of old Equestria that were made habitable again left to evacuate. DTL’s are open where there aren’t enough gummi ships. We even had to shut down the permanent portals to the Foretellers world we had.” “Shit.” Ben muttered while he ordered the Commander to head towards places that might have people in it and to summon more Nobody’s to help out. “This isn’t good...also, don’t go overboard...cause you kind of explode if you do.” Ben warned him. “Say what?” Charlie asked, dodging the foot stomp of a Behemoth heartless. “Oh for fuck’s sake! I hated these guy’s in the first game!” He yelled, jumping on top of it to deal damage to it’s weak spot. I saw a group of people running down the road, two with keyblades, the rest all kids as Neoshadows and such were chasing them. “Oh no you don’t!” Ben shouted as he opened his Lexicon. “Wall of Force!” I shouted, a wall of invisible force appearing between the group of people and the Neoshadows, not seeing the things blindly ram face first into it. He opened up a DTL to his world. “Go, now!” He yelled, the people running in without question. “Thank you!” One of the kids, a little girl, cried out as she ran in. As he closed the portal, Ben saw it suddenly got dark. Looking up he saw… Three of the damned massive pirate ship heartless from the Port Royal gate in kh2… Fucking hell… Ben thought. “Well fine then…” He muttered. “Triple maximize magic, Gravity Maelstrom!” I shouted, firing three dense spheres of gravity at the things. The spell brought them crashing to the ground. Their mask flaps flipped up and I managed to slam the first one with Lunatic, one shotting it as I quickly ran off to deal with the others. Damn, those power boosts you really feel! I actually felt giddy and I'm pretty sure it was affecting Lunatic as I was super happy to feel this strong and rushing over to smack the other pirate ship heartless. A second gone as Ben managed to slam onto the third and last one, killing it as he took a quick breather. Looking up, Ben saw the Gummi ships evacuating… He then remembered they were evacuating in his None Paopu fruit vision. Turning around… he saw Zeke’s family gummi ship leaving orbit… and FIfteen Darkside heartless. “Oh no…” Ben muttered as he ran after the darksides, three Twilight Thorns appearing and slamming into the dark sides as well to help out. These darksides though did not go down easy, punching the Twilight Thorns back and ganging up on them. I saw Charlie looking up, seeing Zeke’s family well and out of here. He smiled… “If there’s an after life for me, I’ll be seeing you all there.” He said, a strong surge of energy came from Charlie. “DAYBREAK LIVES ON!” He shouted, and everything went white. I woke up feeling like I got blown up… wait… Charlie… you idiot. I managed to stand… and before me was rubble, molten lava, and bits and pieces of what was once the world… Daybreak Empire… reduced to space rubble… I was sitting on a small piece of still intact ground, grass and a tree next to me where the only things with me on this small bit of what once was Daybreak... “Damn it…” I muttered bitterly. “I...hope everyone made it out okay.” I muttered to myself. “I was supposed to stop that from happening...not help cause it...when I find that Master I’m gonna kick his ass.” I was wondering why Charlie would blow himself and Daybreak up… then I realized… Kexez. If they let it fall to darkness, all Daybreaks Resources would be his… better lost forever than in his hands I guess. “Well…” I sighed out. “Better it be in no one’s hands than in Kexez’s hands…” I muttered as I got up and dusted myself off. “I wonder where they’ll all go though?” I need to master my weapons. Fast. What do I have left again? “Lindworm...Skysplitter...my Lexicon...technically my fist weapons but I don’t think that counts…” I muttered. “And then the last one would be Interdiction. So yeah, looks like I’m gonna be heading to Radiant Garden to see if I can learn from them how to actually use these things…” I muttered to myself while drawing Kingsblade. “I hope they are masters of those weapons...actually wait who am I going to learn from with my Lexicon?” I wondered, cause I thought that the original person wasn’t old enough at the moment and was more of a scientist than anything. I headed off to my reflections Radiant garden, landing just outside the castle. There, I spotted Ansem the Wise, and that little kid whose Nobody was Zexion. Damn he’s so young. Ansem spotted me. “Ah, Ben. It’s been a while since we last saw each other.” “Yeah, it has.” I said honestly. “Question, do you know anyone that can help me train with this?” I asked while bringing out my Lexicon to show him. “Cause I had an idea on who it would be...but then I remembered that it might not entirely be possible.” “Oh, a Lexicon. I can help you there actually. Not many know that I have one of my own.” He said, taking out a very small, almost notebook looking lexicon. “It’s smaller than most, but serves me well.” “That’s perfect.” I nodded. “Do you have a space to train?” “There is no need to train young one. A Lexicon is not a weapon, but a tool, information and magic shared to all who own one. How to truly have master a Lexicon is simple. Enter in any information not already within their pages. You’ll know it does not have that information when the words glow, and become bound to the lexicon. I myself have managed to write in ten entries over my lifetime. Many lexicon owners get to write maybe one or two.” “What kinds of things?” I asked curiously, cause I have a lot of shit to write down. “Anything really. So long as it is truth. Spells are the most common additions. Perhaps your..unique abilities can surface, or, maybe something else unique about yourself.” “Do you have a pen and a place to write? Cause I have…” I took a deep breath. “A lot to write down considering I’m gonna be writing my life story here.” I said honestly. “Like...I don’t know if this thing has infinite pages but a crap ton of it is gonna be my life.” “Most lexicons if of high quality do.” He said, handing me a Pen. “Here, I must return to my research.” “Thank you.” I nodded while taking a pen. “But what are you researching if I may ask?” I asked curiously. “Crop developments. After finding out the research my last… student was leading me towards was for dark purposes, I figured something that benefits all rather than just my own curiosity would be best use of my time.” “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “Oh, question actually, how good are your two guards with their weapons?” I asked curiously. “I just want to know just in case.” “I wouldn’t have hired them if they were not the best. Why do you ask?” “Just making sure cause…” I summoned Skysplitter and Lindworm. “I’m gonna have to ask them for help as well.” I said honestly. “Ah then I will inform them. When you are done with the Lexicon, they will be at the front of the gates. Good luck young warrior.” “Thank you sir.” I nodded while opening my Lexicon to an open page and then just started to write as I walked over and sat down under a tree. “Geez...this is gonna take a while…” I muttered while continuing to write. I ended up just sitting on the floor, writing all I could think of and remember. When it was all done the words glowed a white light, then compiled into the pages as My Assistant flashed. Learned Spell: Life’s Judgement Huh… my story became a spell? Neat. “Now what does Life’s Judgement do?” I wondered, checking my assistant to see if i can get the spells description. “But...did that help me master the bloody thing?” I muttered, hoping it did. I looked at the book, the cover now having the masters symbol over it. Nodding, I looked for the spell’s description. Life’s Judgment Read the mind of those before you, and let their own deeds judge them. Each hit after cast on a guilty person will drain them of health and stamina for five minutes. Each hit stacks the amount drained and the time till it ends. “Oh that is going to be fun to use.” I chuckled while standing up and stretching. “Well there’s that down..now onto the next one.” I headed off to the gate. There, I saw the guards. “Hey, you the one Ansem told us to help train?” The one who’s nobody is Xaldin spoke. “Yes I am.” I nodded. “So, which one do I train with first?” I asked curiously. “I will test your metal.” Lexaeus human form said. “I am Aeleus. What is your name?” “Ben.” I said, summoning Skysplitter and resting it on my shoulders. “I only have the basics down with this and whatever I could come up with on the fly so…” I said a little nervously, not really knowing what the full extent of this weapon is. He nodded. “The Tomahawk, is a lot like any axe based weapon, it is just lighter and often...shorter…” He said, taking note at Skysplitters size. “They are meant to be moved fast, but, in your case, it seems to be more for direct attacks, not speed.” “Yeah, that’s what Skysplitter does.” I chuckled. “All about smacking things really hard, and earth based powers.” I added. “Yes, it would seem so. Question is, where does that strength come from for you?” “Where does my strength come from?” I asked. “Strength comes from a lot of places, but would my family be a good answer?” “Quite.” Aeleus said. “The strongest of us gather strength from things we would gladly protect with our lives, for that will never fail us.” I nodded. “Yeah...I’d give my life for them all and then some that’s for sure.” “Good. Then draw strength from that, and let it grow.” I took a deep breath, and felt power surging through me as I shouted and raised Skysplitter into the air, the surge of power bursting forth in a massive orange and black aura around me. “This good?” I asked. “More.” He stated. “Okay…” I muttered as more power poured forth, the aura getting bigger and bigger. I actually checked my assistant to see how far I could actually go with this without accidentally maiming myself. “More?” I asked him. He nodded. I nodded as well, the ground cracking under me as more and more power was pouring out of me. “How much am I pushing…” I muttered while checking my assistant to see if it can tell me how much I’m putting out and how much more I can go. “Not enough.” He said simply. “Not enough?” I asked. “How much would be enough?” I asked curiously, knowing full well I can go farther I just don’t know when I would get to the part where I start to actually hurt myself. “How much do you care about the ones you love?” “More than anything.” I said bluntly, more and more energy pouring out of me as the aura got bigger and stronger. “They are the one’s keeping me going...I don’t know what I would do without them.” “Then show me how much you care. Channel that power til it kills you.” I sighed out. “If you say so.” I said, feeling the power welling up before literally all of it burst forth from me, I wasn’t sure if it was me shaking or if it was literally everything else shaking but all I knew was that my strength only kept going higher and higher as I thought of my family. My body began to ache from all the energy. Agh! It feels like my- Spree! My skin burst as a mix of blood and energy spewed out of me. I collapsed, blood loss getting to me. I was breathing heavily, my healing factor healing slower than normal. I felt a hand on me. I looked up. “Congratulations.” Aeleus said. “You are now a master of inner strength.” “G-goodie…” I muttered in pain, my lexicon appearing as I tried to heal myself even if I was bleeding a lot right now. “Ow…” I looked at Skysplitter, the mastered mark appearing on it. “I take it I am up now?” The other one spoke. “Heal up. My name is Dilan.” He said, raising a lance over me. “Curega” He said. Man that felt good... “Thanks…” I said while getting up slowly. “Alright...Maximize Magic, Cure Critical Wounds.” I muttered as my book glowed green and I felt way better. “Alright then…” I said while Skysplitter vanished and Lindworm floated next to me. “Now then, let’s start with basic motions. I see yours are magic… so I take it that means you know nothing of the proper held techniques.” “Technically Lindworm is literally the wind.” I said honestly as I went into the exact same stance as Xaldin did, which wasn’t really something that felt right to me. “The basics start somewhere.” He said. “Now then, take one in your hand, and show me your thrusting motion.” “Alright.” I said, Lindworm not being my go to weapon so I wasn’t fully good here as I grabbed one of my spears and thrusting. “... that was… okay. Here.” He said, dropping something on the ground before a small dummy appeared. “The point of a thrust is to target vital areas. Here.” He pointed at the stomach. “Here.” He pointed to where the heart was. “Here.” He pointed at the neck. “And here.” He pointed at the eyes. “Easy kill spots, any those who survive it will be heavily wounded.” “Makes sense.” I nodded. “And if I only need to cripple, I’d need to hit the shoulders or thighs right?” I asked curiously. “Elbow or knee caps are the best.” I nodded. “Alright…” I said before thrusting into the stomach region of the dummy. I practiced these motions both one and two handed til I got them down to pretty much pinpoint accuracy. Dilan then had me dual wield lances, the curve was tricky but easy to get over. “You learn fast.” he spoke. “Yeah, I am a quick learner.” I said honestly. “Sometimes takes the fun out of learning but oh well.” I shrugged. Dilan nodded. “Okay then, now, try swinging attacks. Enemies too close will be knocked down with enough force, others within the blades range will suffer deathly.” Dilan said. I nodded, taking one spear and swung at the dummy strongly. “So, how did you two meet with Ansem?” I asked curiously. “I owed him my life.” Aeleus spoke. “My family was wandering the outer city walls, simple farmers. When those blue creatures came along some years ago, he took us all into the city walls before they got to us.” “For me it’s tradition.” Dilan said. “Father was a guard, grandfather, so on so forth.” “Makes sense.” I said. “But what did these blue creatures look like?” I asked curiously, wondering if they were Unversed. “Some were large, fat, some looked like strange birds, plants, a few even looked like boots. But they all had these symbols on them. They vanished completely around the time that new guy showed up.” “New guy?” I asked, wondering if that was when Terranort came here. “Yeah, called himself Xehanort. He left with some blue haired girl like what? Three months ago? Yeah, that’s about right.” “Huh...it’s only been three months since me and Aq-” I took a deep breath, remembering how Eriques killed Aqua. “Yeah...but those things that attacked you are Unversed, manifestations of negative emotions.” I explained simply, continuing to swing my lances at the dummy. “I see. Alright then, now, let’s see how many you can control in their natural magic.” Dilan asked. “This will be a first…” I muttered, taking a deep breath as I tried to form spears one at a time to see how many I could make without screwing up or doing something bad. So far I think there was...eighty… Dilan whistled. “Wow… not gonna ask where you keep them. Now, use them all, and strike the dummy. Not a single lance can miss. Understood?” “Oh boy.” I said before focusing and swinging with all eighty lances at the dummy. They each hit a piece of it, the dummy now shreds. “Good.” Dilan said, dropping another one. “Now, the same, but stab them all into it.” I did as asked, stabbing down with all eighty to make the dummy into a pincushion. He nodded. “Alright then. Now that the basics seem to be in order, time for range.” He said, taking his own spear and… I got knocked over from the shockwave of his throw. “Three...two...one.” He counted, stepping just to the left as the same spear stabbed the ground he was standing on. “When you can throw it all the way around the world, and make it return to where you launched with pinpoint accuracy, then you mastered them. Lances, spears. The designs of yours make them a hybrid between lances, spears, halebirds. A deadly combo design.” “Yep…” I said, wondering how I can actually do that as I got back up. I focused the wind around one of Lindworm as I took aim. I threw it. It went...rather far, but I know it didn’t go far enough. “Try using your magic, create a path you want it to follow.” Dilan suggested. “Alright…” I muttered while carving an x into the ground before grabbing a lance, feeling the wind slowly pick up and the lance in my hand glow green. “Gungnir.” I muttered, flipping my spear up and throwing it really fucking hard, the wind blasting into the three of us as Lindworm was sent flying way to fast. “Three. Two...one…” Dilan counted, Lindrom came back… Right into my foot. “Close, but not quite.” “Fuck me…” I muttered in pain, grabbing Lindworm and pulling it out of my foot. “Ow...that hurt.” I said, feeling my healing factor at least healing my foot quickly. “Let’s try this again…” I muttered, adjusting I threw it again, putting slightly less force as it launched. “Three...two...one…” Dilan counted again, Lindworm striking just an inch from the X. “Better.” “Well...at least it didn’t stab my foot this time.” I muttered, grabbing Lindworm and pulling it out of the ground. “Third time’s the charm…” I muttered, focusing as I threw Lindworm for the third time. Thankfully, it hit the mark. “Good.” Dilan said, pulling it out of the ground and tossing it back to me, the mastered mark appearing on it. “You really do learn fast.” “Yes I do.” I said honestly, feeling the wind and earth more solidly now that I mastered these two weapons. “Thank you...I just...didn’t expect things to go this fast, considering it took me days if not weeks to master some of my other weapons.” “The more you master, the easier it is.” I turned around, seeing… The King… wait, I’m… in his castle now. “You have done well. All that is left, is Interdiction.” “Why do I have a feeling I’m gonna have to kill you with it?” I said a little nervously. “Heheh. There can only be one king in existence. Not even retired, can I exist. That is the old rules… and one I will uphold. When you take my crown, you can build it.” He said, standing up from his throne, Interdiction in both hands. I managed to summon mine. “May the true king win.” “Alright...if you say so old man.” I said while firing a bolt of Nothingness at him and charging at him behind the bolt. He pulled a Xehanort move, vanishing and appearing behind me, striking me in the side. I countered, shaking his knees before double jumping, the aoe knocking him back as I impaled both Interdiction into him. He grabbed my wrists, and threw me off. “Hehehe. You are good.” “I learned from the best.” I said honestly, getting up and firing plasma balls at him like how Xemnas did it. We clashed several times, my auto summon bringing in five Berserkers that managed to distract him. I did Xemnas final move, plazma bolts all over him, firing nearly forever. He was like a pin coughing after it. I ran in for another attack, he managed to grab hy hands. I headbashed him, his helmet flying off… oh god… he’s mummified! He let go, but I grabbed his head… and summoned Interdiction...right into his ancient skull. He fell backwards. “Hehehe… my body died so long ago…” He spoke… he’s been a lingering will this whole time. “I kept on, to find the perfect heir. Looks like I did.” “Is this what you wanted old man?” I asked him calmly, staring at him as Interdiction pulsed in my hands. “Heheh. Cancer. Imagine it, a legend I was, dying from such an ironic way. I was a warrior. I needed a warrior's death, so, even with my body dead, I kept on. Finally… I can rest. Heh. The others are waiting for me, I can see them… it’s been so long.” His corpse then fell apart, turning to dust as his armor then aged to rusted, and it too, became dust. Nothingness thorns then began circling me, til then where wrapping around my head, or just above it, creating a floating crown of nothingness. I was...king... I took the crown and put it on my head. “I am the King of Nothingness!” I said, feeling my voice boom all across the vast space of the realm and to all Nobody’s. “If there is anyone who dares challenge my right, step forward so I can show you what pain truly feels like.” Nobodies of all kinds began spawning into the room, bowing before me. I motioned for them all to stand. “Repair my castle.” I ordered. “This palace will be made greater than it ever was, and it’s flag will be known for all eternity as hope for our people, and fear for our enemies.” Immediately,they got to work. One Nobody walked up to me… It was a Dusk in an organization robe. “Greetings new king.” He spoke?! “I am Consequence. The first Dusk. I shall be your advisor and keep you up to date on all your needs within your kingdom.” “Thank you.” I nodded. “Now...where’s my royal guard…” I muttered, only for a bunch of Nobodies I’ve never seen before appeared out of nowhere, kneeling before me. They were like mini Twilight thorns, only with shields, swords, spears. Bunch of weapons. “The castle royal guard.” He, Consequence stated. “Huh...I thought Paladin’s were apart of it...and Behemoths…” I thought for a moment, “Oh, they are, but these are the elites. Loyal, unwavering. And of course, confident. They do not accept failure.” “Cool.” I said honestly. “What are the classes of Nobody’s?” I asked. “Of the warrior classes, they relate to your Council sire. The elites here are such because they can perform acts and combat as each, much like yourself.” “Okay then.” I nodded. “But I was wondering cause I had this thought that there were basic nobody’s, elite nobody’s that were basically like leveled up versions of basic nobodies, then Organization level, then the council and king.” I explained, not entirely sure if that was a thing. “This...Organization level, are you referring to Nobodies with human like appearances still?” “Yes I am.” I nodded. “Are they actually called something, cause I only know them through...other means.” “The old king labeled them as Husks. Powerful bodies from powerful hearts. They rarely are made naturally like the rest of us, often taking a Keyblade to remove the heart of who they were before to create one.” “So that's why…” I muttered. “Well alrighty then. So, when will all of this get built up?” I asked curiously. “Not too sound like I want things rushed it's just...well a war is coming up.” “We are aware. The castle will be completed by day's end.” “Damn that fast?” I said in surprise. “So...I suppose I should bring my council here?” “As you wish my lord. You are in command. Just tell me what world they are on and I shall take care of the rest.” “A majority of them should be on Equestria...but I haven't found three others yet…” I said. “I shall acquire the ones on Equis then.” He said, a small orb appearing in his hand. “Acquire Equis.” He spoke to it, the orb floating high up. “There. Come with me.” He said, leading the way. “Alright.” I nodded while following along, wondering what he had for me to see. We came upon… holy crap this was all wrecked before… The castle is looking nice… dear god I am never getting Twilight out of that massive library. I then found myself at a balcony and… why is Canterlot under us? “Here we are my lord. The whole planet of Equis, teleported safely into this realm.” Consequence said, making my jaw drop. “This is the capital I believe so it fits to have your castle above it.” “Um…” I blinked. “That’s...a thing.” I said nervously. “Didn’t expect you to literally take a planet away and put it here…” I said, thinking this was a little excessive. “Why not? From what we already know you are going to be king of this whole world. Why not move your planetary domain to your universal domain?” “Makes sense.” I said honestly. “God...all my fiances are gonna be freaking out about why the hell Nothingness is literally everywhere.” I said honestly. “I shall acquire your known council members. If you’d like perhaps the locations of your yet-to-be discovered members is in order?” “That would be fantastic cause I need to find three of them…” I said, before taking a moment. “Wait, would I know where every single Nobody and any denizen of Nothingness would be?” I asked curiously. “Sadly no sire, but, if you would like I can have my lesser brethren conduct a senses of the lands below.” “It’s alright.” I said with a raised hand. “I’d like to know where my would be council members are to get that out of the way.” Consequence gave me three orbs, each with the image of the weapons yet to find their wielders. “Just crush them in your hands, and you will be sent to their area.” “Thank you Consequence.” I nodded while taking the orbs. “I suppose you can tell the people that might have questions about what’s going on?” “Of course. As you wish my lord.” He said, bowing to me as I took Interdiction orb, breaking it as Nothingness thorns wrapped around my vision. I then found myself in a temple with the Avatar Fire Nation flags all over the walls. “Huh…” I muttered, looking around. “Wonder I’m here at the temple?” I wondered, and hoping this isn’t before Aang learned firebending depending on the time period. “Zuko, have you seen Momo!” I heard the familiar voice of Aang call out from somewhere. “Yeah, he ran off into the halls. I think he’s heading to the kitchen!” Zuko’s voice called back. I walked towards the voices, hoping to get this settled before things got out of hand, and I’m pretty sure someone might attack me for just appearing out of thin air. “Well...might as well make a good first impression I suppose.” As I was turning the corner I butted heads… with the arrow tattooed baldie himself. “Oh, sorr- …” He looked like he had seen a ghost… “Okay… am I in the spirit world again?” “Last time I checked I wasn't dead.” I said honestly. “But no, you are not in the spirit world, I am real, and I’m here looking for someone for rather important reasons. “... Okay…” He said, clearly confused beyond belief. “So...why and who are you looking for?” “I am looking for Zuko because he has been chosen for something way beyond the scope of this world.” I said honestly. “I will explain everything when we find Zuko, cause it’s best not to do an explanation multiple times.” “Well, alright.” Aang said, walking me over to him. He kept checking to see if I was still behind him. Either to make sure he’s not seeing things or something along those lines. We entered a simple tea room, small, where Zuko and Iroh where chatting… then they saw me. Both dropping their tea and where slack jawed. “Uhh… Aang… did you bring a spirit into the physical world?” Zuko asked. “No, he didn’t.” I said honestly. “Thought technically I did come from a different world, just not one any of you would know.” I said honestly, sniffing the air. “What tea are you having? Cause I’d honestly like some tea right now.” I said. It took about an hour to get them to understand that I wasn’t a spirit and that I actually came from a whole other world. They had some good and simple camomile tea that I was having also. “So… you come from another world, and just recently became king of a WHOLE entire realm of creation between this… light and dark realms… and I am some kind of chosen warrior for you?” Zuko repeated, summing up the bulk of it. “That about sums up the bulk of it.” I said honestly. “Sounds crazy yes I know, but it’s the truth. If you have someone that can tell if someone’s lying then they can tell I’m not just making up crazy nonsense.” “I’ll trust you… but I’m also getting Toph.” Aang said, getting up and running off. “So… why me?” Zuko asked. “If this is all true, and this… massive Keyblade war is approaching, why me? I’ve never even heard of those kinds of weapons.” “I mean unless Iroh here has heard legends of it from traveling or something.” I shrugged. Iroh seemed to think it over, stroking his long beard. “I have heard many tails of legendary fighters, weapons, battles… but never has that kind of weapon been spoken to me before. Mind if I see one?” “Sure.” I said while summoning Kingsblade. “This is a keyblade, one of...millions, if not more.” “It’s...big.” Zuko said. “I can feel it radiating with power. It’s nothing like I have ever seen.” Iroh said. “And it’s one of millions?” “If there are that many, how come we have never seen or heard of one?” Zuko asked. “That is easy enough to ask, because these things are ancient weapons, and nine times out of ten most worlds, yes I did say worlds, either never knew about them or completely forgot about them after so long.” I explained. “Plus...well there are millions of Keyblades, but right now...those millions are currently rusting on top of their former wielders graves.” I said sadly. “What...happened?” Zuko asked. “The first war.” I said. “Lasted only a few days...yet it was the bloodiest in all of history.” I shook my head. “I only saw a vision of it...but…” I shook my head. “Hm.” Iroh said. “War, it seems, no matter what world, is sometimes unavoidable. And you say there will be a second one?” “Sadly yes.” I said honestly. “But...good thing is is that I can bring the war down to a day...the worlds worst day but a day nonetheless.” I said honestly. “Hm… it’s been a year since we imprisoned my father and ended the Fire nations hundred year war with the rest of the world. We have a lot of relations to mend, and that will not be easy.” Zuko said. “We nearly destroyed our own world… out of greed. This time, the Fire Nation will be defending it. We have no shortage of troops Ben. Our army, is yours.” “Thank you.” I nodded while Interdiction was summoned and floated around Zuko. “As for your weapon, the weapon chooses its wielder, and this weapon chooses you.” I said honestly. “Woah… So… is this a Keyblade too?” “No actually, that is a weapon made of Nothingness, the in between of existence next to Void.” I said honestly. Zuko took them. “They don’t have any grips… how are they just floating like I’m grabbing them?” “Their weapons of pure energy.” I said honestly. “Imagine it as fire, but in a solid form.” I said honestly. Zuko nodded, managing to move the blade into different positions of how one would single wield a sword. “Yeah… I’ve done something similar before with my fire bending. So, when will this war begin?” “Not sure.” I said. “But be prepared, and here.” I said while I snapped my fingers and a crate popped up in the corner from out of nowhere. “There's Keyblades and equipment in there to help you get started.” “I’ll be sure to give Aang and any of the others one when they get here. Most of them will likely join without hesitation.” Just then a DTN appeared on the wall next to us, opposite of the door… and Consequence came out. “Ah, I see everything here is taken care of. I shall leave this portal to the castle open then.” “...He with you?” Zuko asked. “My advisor.” I said. “Thank you, and if you ever need to head to my new castle that's there, and you can meet your fellow council men.” “Alright then. We’ll wrap up some things here and then head on out.” I nodded, entering the portal and- HOLY FUCK THE THRONE ROOM IS DECKED OUT! Aside from amazing paintings, design work, other visual aspects- IS THAT A STATUE OF ME?! Yup. It was me, posed with Kingsblade over my shoulder and my X-blade No Heart in my other hand. “It’s temporary, we will be making the full sized version within the hour.” Consequence said, looking over some scrolls. “Damn.” I said honestly. “This is quite a lot.” “We still have yet to even work on the flooring and lighting. But we have Nobodies for that.” I about laughed, taking out Frozen Pride’s orb and just like before, I was sent off. This time, I was inside a room filled with people… the Avengers… “Wolfman got tiny.” Hulk said. “I'm not that tiny.” I said honestly. “So, how are you all doing today?” I asked simply. “...I take it alien?” Tony Stark asked. “Invader?” Black widow asked, placing a hand on her gun. “Have any of you heard of Kingdom Hearts?” I asked curiously. “And if not...well I have a lot to explain then.” I said honestly. “My father spoke of such a thing.” Thor spoke. “Let the wolfman speak friends.” “Of course you would say that.” Tony groaned. “Alright, what is it?” I then went into great detail about everything. Thor, Hulk surprisingly, Black Widow, seemed to be following. Tony on the other hand groaned when it was over. “This is why I hate magic…” “Trust me...it gets more complicated.” I said honestly “Of course it does… So, you came for our help with this upcoming war then?” “Not sure sadly.” I said honestly. “But the war...what wars have you all been through?” I asked honestly. “Nothing as bad as what you have spoken of.” Thor spoke. “Come on Thor, don’t undersell us.” Tony said. “My father spoke many tails of the Keyblade war. Countless lives dies, an entire weapon art nearly died out, the multiverse itself was shattered durring it’s raging days. If there is to be another I must inform him. Tell me, who shall I tell him you are, young wolfman?” “Ben, the new King of Nothingness.” I said honestly. “But the Keyblade War...it was the bloodiest in existence, and it nearly destroyed all of reality if some didn't decide to run.” Thor nodded, heading off. “Well then, looks like the Avengers and S.H.I.E.L.D has their work cut out for them. I’ll make some calls… god, Nick is gonna scream for months for this one.” Tony said, leaving the room. “So, anything we can do to help you?” Widow asked. “Well first up.” I said while Frozen Pride appeared and circled around Captain America. “You sir are one of my council members.” I said. “And the others…” I said while snapping my fingers and a crate appearing. “There's items and equipment in there to help you all get started.” “Council member?” Cap asked. “Since when does a diplomat need a shield… and I already have one.” “This council is different, cause the council is basically my second in command for fights and stuff like that.” I said honestly. “Oh, then right up my ally… So… guess I can’t say no to this huh?” “Oh no.” I said, seeing Frozen Pride shift into a shield fit for the captain. “Well then, guess I’ll get used to thi-” Frozen Pride shot off an ice pike, penetrating the floor. “...Ice… oh I knew it would come back to haunt me.” He laughed. “Sorry for the irony, the shield just really likes ice.” I chuckled. “Also, I'd recommend finding the bad guys here and warning them of the coming war...I don't think they want to die horribly.” “Heh, somehow imagining Doctor Doom fighting with us...disturbs me.” Consequence opened up another portal back to the castle, leaving it open for them. I walked back and DEAR GOD THE ROOM BECAME LIKE FIFTY FEET WIDE AND A THOUSAND FEET TALL I CAN'T SEE THE CEILING! “God damn.” I blinked. “I didn't expect this to be this huge.” “We have just begun work on the city below sire.” Consequence informed. “So far we have uncovered at least sixty of the Noble houses dealing in illegal activities, such as, but not limited to sex trafficking, illegal organ transplants, slave trades, drug dealings and manufacturings, counterfeit currency and discrimination to their non unicorn pony kin. All have been rounded up, and are awaiting trial.” “Can’t wait to do literally all that paperwork and hear all of their bitching.” I groaned. “When do the trials start?” I asked, knowing this is gonna be apart of being king. “Whenever you are free.” I sighed, taking out The last orb and breaking it. I found myself in…. The hell am I? This place feels… This is one of Core’s old prisons in the realm of darkness…”Hello?” I called out, feeling my pocket being pulled by something. “Hmm?” I muttered, checking my pocket and then remembering...Sora, Riku and Kairi’s hearts…”Oh dear…” I muttered worriedly as I looked around for where to go. Turning the corner, I backed up back behind it. Fuck me that’s no kid… Looking again, I spotted a small child, no, an Embodiment. Wasn’t Eve. A different one. They were guarding that door. Damn it, think. No way in heck I can take one of them on by myself. I thought for a moment, before grabbing a loose rock and hiding, tossing the rock a little ways away to try and cause the kid to get distracted and come here so I can sneak past. ”God I hope this works…” I think to myself worriedly. Whatever that rock hit… a loud bunch of ungodly noises followed. “Oh for the love of…” The Embodiment groaned. “If you all started eating each other again, I’m killing you this time!” They yelled, heading off to the noise. I snuck into the room and Oh my god… Sora, Riku...Kairi? They are all...older. Much older than in kh 2. Each in one of those sleeping pods from kh 2, behind energy bars. “Okay you three…” I muttered while pulling out their hearts. “Time to wake up.” I muttered while letting the hearts rush off to their owners in hopes of them waking up. “I hope this works…” I muttered worriedly. They passed through the bars, and entered them. The pods opening up as the energy bars faded. Sora was the first to groan, twitching as he was getting up. “Ah… What...happened? Riku… Kairi!?” He became alert, looking at me then yelping. “AHH! Werewolf!” “Shh.” I said quickly. “There’s an Embodiment out there and I don’t want to alert it that you three are awake.” I whispered quickly. “I’m here to get you three out of here.” “Three? Riku and Kairi are here?” “Yeah, cells on each side of you.” I spoke quietly. Looking, the two were still unconscious. I picked up Riku while Sora carefully picked up Kairi. “Where...are we? Last thing I remember...Master Yen Sid was having me gather strength for when Xehanort returns.” “Yeah...about that…” I said nervously. “You three have been here...sleeping for god knows how long while things...kind of went to hell in a handbasket.” I said honestly while drawing Kingsbane and trying to open a DTN to try and get out of here quickly. “Seriously...what’s an Embodiment doing here?” I muttered worriedly. “What’s an Embodiment?” Sora asked as I got the DTN open. We entered and… why is there gold EVERYWHERE?! “Terribly sorry sire!” Consequence spoke, Sora almost going defencive/flabbergasted at the talking Nobody. “We were moving the treasury when… well, there was an incident. We will get this cleaned up quickly.” “...That Dusk is talking…” Was all Sora could say. “Yes, there’s a lot of things Yen Sid hasn’t told you.” I said honestly while pointing to my crown. “Like how there was a King of Nothingness, and I’m the new one.” I said honestly. “And tell me about the incident after we get back to my castle Consequence, cause an Embodiment is here and I’m worried…” I took a deep breath. “The kids right there isn’t he?” I asked, just knowing the fucker was standing there just waiting for the right moment to say something. Sora and I turned just to see the Embodiment seeing us. “What the-?!” Was all it said before Consequence grabbed us, pulling us all in and closing the portal before the Embodiment could react. “Well sire, shall I grab some medics to look over these two?” Consequence asked. “Yes please.” I said. “Cause I believe…” I muttered as a keyblade floated over Riku. “Riku is my final council member.” I said honestly. “That’s gonna be weird to explain…” We were led to the E.R… this castle has a full sized hospital… Where some Medic Nobodies looked over Riku, Kairi, and Sora, who was a bit weirded out his like two major game long enemies where now...aiding him. Riku woke up, almost Keyblade shanking his Nobody doctor. Kiari woke up startled, but not near as violent. I then explained to them everything. Answering questions, all that stuff. There was a lot of Questions. Reasonably. When it was all over the trio sat in silence. “So… our whole universe… exists inside a Keyblade this Kexez Nobody made from the Twilight Town computer, and he did it just to bring us three back to life?” “Then why lock us up and put us in Commas?” Riku asked. “For the right moment I suppose.” I shrugged. “But...what about our home?” Kairi asked. “If he still has it… we need to get that keyblade back, who knows what he is doing to the worlds, our families there.” “Sadly I don’t know where he is at the moment.” I said honestly. “But the one thing that worried me the most was...why an Embodiment of Darkness was guarding you three in one of Core’s bases…” I said worriedly, finding that very strange. “Well, it seems this Kexez and Spoiled completely took over Core’s old facilities. Maybe them and these Embodiments are working together?” Riku suggested. “I don’t think Eve would want to follow Kexez…” I frowned. “Maybe it’s just a partnership. The Embodiments are powerful, so what would Kexez offer them in return for services?” Sora asked. “That’s what I’m worried about…” I said worriedly. “But right now, I need to find Drezke and...wait I completely forgot about Braig and Lake…” I muttered worriedly, completely forgetting about them due to all this crazy crap. “We’ll recover here for a while, you go off and find these friends of yours.” Kairi said. “I’ll keep these two in check.” She assured. “Alright.” I nodded. “I’ve got a lot to do...and less time to do it sadly.” I sighed out before getting up. “Your fellow council members should be arriving soon.” I mentioned as I checked my assistant to see where those two were. Thankfully it told me the two of them where in Ponyville… oh, at my place… Did Kingdom hearts drop them there or…? “Well...okay then, they are a lot closer then I originally thought.” I said while opening a portal and walking into it, heading home to see my kids while knowing full well a clone of mine is still hunting after Jenny’s memories. “Hello?” I called out as I entered my house, hoping everyone was okay. Immediately I was swarmed by my daughters from Rapture. I said hi to many of them. Once that was done I found Lake and Braig sitting in what I think is either the library or some waiting room with books all over it. “Yo.” I said, still glad to see all my daughters were happy and healthy. “How you two doing?” “Well, that fight was...something. After beating X, we wound up outside your house.” Lake explained. “We’ve pretty much just been freeloading here since then.” Braig said, lazing on the couch. “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “Hope my house has been accommodating.” “Also Ben… A letter arrived while you were out...Daybreak world is...it’s really gone?” Lake asked. “Your family is safe and we saved as many as we could.” I said sadly. “The Master of Masters is apparently acting like such a fucking piss ant cause your absent silhouette is handing out X-blades like candy, and now he’s like ‘I’ll just take back all my shit because I’m such a fucking pansy ass about everything that I want to end existence’.” I said in a mock imitation of his voice. “Then, I can’t stay here. If what you told me about my Soul being in Boletaria for all that time, then I’m betting that’s where they had our family go in case something bad happened. I’m just a part of him, but I am still Zeke. I need to make sure they are all okay.” “Alright.” I nodded. “I’m just not sure where everyone else went…” I said worriedly. “By the by...do you know where Drezke is? Could you like...sense him?” “He is my other half. Of course I can.” “Where is he? Cause I think I can solve his darkness problem.” I said while pulling out the glove that Death gave me. “Death told me this will help get rid of all the darkness that Drezke has been shoving into himself in his bad crusade to get rid of darkness as a whole.” “Well, if you think it will help…” Lake said, focusing as he opened a DTL. “This should lead you to where Drezke is. Be careful, he feels...so far gone.” “Thank you.” I nodded, putting the glove away for the right moment. “I’ll be back, and I’ll be bringing Drezke back to normal.” I said while entering the DTL. To be continued...
Nobody's training and learning...again.We exited the DTL and… Shit… This place looked a lot like Hollow Bastion and The World that Never Was where mashed together into one. “The darkness here is so strong.” Lake said, kneeling down to the ground and placing a hand on the ground. “And yet...it’s heart is untouched. It’s...protecting it. Like a shield.” “Darkness is being used to protect the light?” I asked curiously. “I mean...makes sense but I doubt it's doing that of its own volition.” “Hard to tell. If Drezke is the one utilizing it, it very well might be.” Lake said. We looked up, spotting a massive tower, bearing a fusion of the Heartless and Unversed Symbol. “Yeah… that’s where he is…” Lake said. “Cause you know, just add neon lights that spell ‘come and get me’.” I said sarcastically. “So, walk through the front door? Cause I'm sure he already sensed you.” “If he’s not too far gone.” We walked the road, and noticed there where fillies and colts walking along the roads, few teens, fewer adults, all seeming to be okay with how everything went. I saw a filly, riding on the back of one of those Centaur looking heartless from Mulan world. The more I looked the more I noticed heartless and the ponies here where...co-existing...at least, Emblem heartless anyway. Not a Pureblood heartless in sight. “Well...the people seem to be happy.” I said honestly. “I..kind of hope when we get Drezke back to sanity...this won't end…” I said, really liking the fact people are living with what are dangerous creatures in peace. “He must have taken darkness away from them. Unable to give them their bodies back, but take away enough darkness the person’s heart can gain control. We theorized it as Zeke back when we were whole, but never got to put it into practice. We figured since some of the Equestrian citizens you and Zeke brought back where unable to move or operate properly, a higher functioning heartless body they can control would allow them a cure of sorts.” “That makes sense.” I said honestly. “Hmm...maybe the same could be said about Nobodies? Even if they don’t have their feelings they get their personalities back?” “Actually, we had a theory on that as well. All heartless gain higher functions, when exposed to DTD’s and when within the realm of darkness. Drezke is simulating the realm of darkness by having darkness coat this worlds heart, but not touch it. So, what if when within the realm of Nothing, some Nobodies can feel what they no longer have? They could act normal, live.” “Well it’s a good thing my Equestria is now in the Realm of Nothingness.” I said honestly. “Good way to figure that out.” “...Not gonna question that.” Lake put it. We approached the tower’s doors. It was unguarded. Opening them showed the halls looked the same blinding white as Castle Oblivion...cause of course they do. “Drezke was never very imaginative.” Lake groaned. “Christ…” I sighed out. “Well, let’s get on with this.” I said honestly. “So, how much do you want to bet this is a trap?” I asked, knowing if the place isn’t guarded then it has to be a trap. “He’s smart, but doesn’t think that far ahead.” Lake stated. “He’s more head on. This is all for show.” We ascended the stairs and when we opened the doors, Lake and I actually covered our noses and mouths. The darkness here was… Sickening, evil, putride… Pure… “Drezke...what have you done to yourself?” Lake said, through the gaging. “He fucked up massively.” I said honestly. “This is pure darkness...christ, I hope we’re not too late.” We walked in, the doors shutting behind us as we entered. “Long time no see, Ben.” Drezke’s voice came from… everywhere. “Hi Drezke...mind if we know what the fuck happened to you?” I asked worriedly. “Cause...it smells like a rotting corpse here to be perfectly honest.” “Sixteen million, four hundred and ninety eight worlds and over I have cleansed of darkness. And more so to heartless, letting their hearts gain control of their new forms.” He stated. “It’s but a matter of time now.” “So where’s your physical body? Cause I don’t think Lake here can handle all that darkness when he tries to balance things out.” I said honestly. “Lake? Lake is gone. There’s no meaning to us reuniting even if he was alive. Soon, I can waltz into Daybreak, and take the Void Key Keyblade.” “Yeah...about that…” I said nervously before explaining what happened in Daybreak, about the Master of Masters and how his family and a good majority of the world got off before it blew up. “What? No, no you lie.” I summoned Memory Stealer. “If you insist, here’s the memory’s I have of that time.” I said while spinning the keyblade down and stabbing the ground, me, Drezke and Lake were all sent into the memory’s of Daybreak on the day it was destroyed. “I may not know everything, but I know Memory Stealer has the memories of the world to show you.” “I…” Drezke sighed. “I know you have no reason to lie to me. I am so close, I just need one more powerful darkness.” “No, what you need is a swift smack to the back of the head to bring you back to your senses.” I stated bluntly. “Look outside, look at the people that are happy in Darkness, look at all the Heartless you’ve basically given a second chance to have a decent life, why are you so obsessed with destroying it all when that will only destroy everything else in the process?’ I asked bluntly. “Lake told me you’re not much of a thinker, but come on, are you going to ignore and forsake the people that are happy for your quest to get rid of Darkness?” I asked honestly. “I realized that long ago Ben. Light and darkness go hand and hand, like Lake and I did. So, I want to repurpose it. To do this though, I will need to take in the Embodiments just as-” “Ben.” Lake whispered. “I’m gonna do something stupid.” “Go right ahead.” I whispered to Lake as I listened to Drezke ramble. Lake summoned the Keyblade I let him borrow, and jabbed it into his chest. “DREZKE!” He shouted. “- L-Lake?!” “Purger!” Lake yelled. His light began to blind out the darkness. When the light faded Drezke’s form sat across from Lake. Drezke was crying, and Lake was holding his other half. His brother. “Lake… I-I was so alone.” Drezke said. “I know...I know.” Lake said. I made myself a chair out of Nothingness and sat down on it, letting the two have their moment together. “Just take your time.” I said to the two, hoping this will set off the proper actions for Kexez to get back to his senses. “I’m sorry… I’m so sorry…” “I know Drezke.” “You-You know...what’s coming next, right?” “Yes…” “I’m sorry.” Just then, that same putrid darkness began oozing from the walls, floor, ceiling. I got up, and watched as it swarmed and compressed around itself before us all. What emerged was a heartless. Pureblood. It was a purple haired, black skinned Zeke with Drezke’s attire, and those glowing yellow eyes. “Okay…” I muttered. “Now it’s either going to attack...or not…” I said while drawing my X-blade and Frozen Pride anyways just in case of the worst. My Assistant flashed. I saw it’s hp bar… big, but not a boss… It’s name was The Unbalanced. “The Unbalanced eh? Well we’re gonna have to fight it apparently.” I said, having a bad feeling about this condensed being of Darkness. It walked forwards, each step another one of itself appeared behind it. All it’s copies vanished as the first one stayed, summoning a Soul Eater sword and attacked. “Fuck.” I frowned, blocking the attack with Frozen Pride and trying to stab the thing with my No Heart. It countered, fighting a lot like Zeke does. Strike Raids, Reflect raids, Zantetsuken, it even would open small DTD’s other lesser Purebloods poured in from. “Yeah, this is totally fine…” I groaned while a Nobody Behemoth appeared and cleaved through the lesser Nobodies. “Thank you.” I said while raising my hand as Nothingness thorns shot out of the ground and attempted to wrap around him like spiked chains to hold The Unbalanced down so I can kill it. A foot was caught… and it did not hesitate to slice it’s own foot off, darkness flowing from the wound, creating stub for it to balance itself on. He then used a move that froze me in place… Time Splicer. When it ended I was bleeding all over, my healing factor kicking in to keep me from bleeding out. How many moves does this think know!? I pulled out my Wayfinder, and felt Luna’s heart touch mine as I used her moves for a bit, unleashing her final that knocked the UnBalanced over, allowing me to deliver a final, finishing blow to it’s chest. It puffed in a haze of darkness… On the floor was… one of those star things from Birth By Sleep that enhanced D-links, I grabbed it, and felt Luna even closer than before. I even...remembered her past memories? That’s… different. Her jealousy of Celestia, falling to her own darkness as Nightmare Moon… the one thousand years in the moon… “Oh crap…” I muttered sadly. “Well...do you two know where the other things went?” I asked Drezke and Lake. “Everywhere…” Drezke said. Lake sighed. “That much darkness created a new breed of Purebloods. Pureblood heartless with the powers of a Keyblade wielder.” Lake finished. “They likely headed off to the realm of Darkness to generate more of themselves.” “Cause fuck it why not.” I face palmed. “Christ...okay so now you two need to find Zeke and then get to Kexez to get him back in his right mind...and I have a feeling I’m going to have to hunt those fuckers down.” I sighed out. “Cause...you know, giving Purebloods the power of Keyblades is not a good thing.” “We will stay here. Figure out what to do about the Inhabitants and figure some things out.” Lake said. “Alright.” I nodded. “Your family is in Boletaria if memory serves in case you both want to see them...and now the worrying case of Kexez and if he’s starting to feel better with you two being here and both being in sound mind.” I sighed out. “Can you both sense Kexez?” I asked, hoping that’s possible. They both shook their heads. “Kexez, without our soul, will be hard to track, and is likely the only Nobody to be able to resist your commands now that you are king.” Lake said. “All Nobodies have souls. He does not.” “That’s not good…” I muttered worriedly. “But...at least with you two here it’ll at least start things off on solving all these problems.” “Hopefully.” Lake sighed. Back in the Zebra lands, the airship was all packed and we were off. The lands all around where a sight to see, tall mountains, vast empty lands and- “Stop the ship!” Twilight suddenly shouted, the whole Zeppelin stopping abruptly. “What’s going on?” I asked worriedly, wondering why Twilight wanted to stop the Ship suddenly. “It’s the Peaks of Peril!” She said excitedly. My attention was then drawn to the high up mountain with the only foliage for miles. “And it’s called that because…?” I asked honestly. “Also, wouldn’t a long lost Monster Princess be here?” I asked, not entirely remembering what Celestia and Luna said about her last known location. “I don’t know about that, but these mountains are said to be home to a mythical race, known as the Kirin, and the Nirik, once a peaceful, kind hearted race, the other a race of fire demons that set all around them a blaze.” Twilight said, teleporting a book before her. “No pony has seen either race since well before the founding of Equestria! The mountains are too treacherous for a normal pony to explore, and too high for a Pegasus to fly… but…” She then motioned over to me. “Hooray, can’t wait to marry the Kirin Princess and or Queen.” I said honestly. “And whatever the heck Nirik are cause they sound like fire elementals.” I brought up. “Whatever the case, this could be a chance for us to discover if they are even still alive!” Twilight was drooling with scientific excitement. “You’re drooling again Twilight.” Celestia said, making her snap out of it, blushing as she wiped it away. I chuckled a little. “So, the Kirin...are they friendly?” I asked curiously. “Oh yes, the Kirin are some of the most ancient and civilized races in Equis mythos. They were known for showing extreme compassion and understanding, while the Nirik where said to be a warfairing race. Nopony has seen either since they were said to have migrated to this mountain.” “Alright, so the Kirin will be easy enough to talk to and proceed to have another wife...and the Nirik...well it might be tough but who knows until we get there.” I said honestly, looking over the mountains, wondering where a town might be in this place. “So, mind if I tag along?” Gilda asked. “This sounds like fun.” “Sure.” I nodded. “I still need to take you all out on solo dates still…” I said, remembering that whole thing. “Who else is tagging along?” Silence raised a hand. “Alright Silence, anyone else?” I asked, wanting to know who’s coming with before just going down. There didn’t seem to be anymore volunteers, so I had Gilda and Silence hop on my glider with me and we headed off. Wonder which of these things I’ll reach first? Back in my castle, the me that was with Lake and Drezke went back to the castle to deal with some things Consequence already had a list of… First off, dealing with the nobles who were dealing in illegal activities. Sitting on this throne was...odd, to say the least. “Alright, so time to deal with the nobles.” I said. “Who’s the first noble?” I asked honestly. “Iron Clad sire.” Consequence said. “His factories typically deal in, as expected, iron mining and smelting, however, it was discovered he was utilizing slave labor. From the youth to the elderly. Stretching back in his family four generations, Most of the slaves in his hold never knew a proper meal, clothing, or even sunlight.” He said, the stallion in question entering the room, chains all over him as a ring over his horn prevented hagic use. “Okay Ironclad, do you plead guilty or do you plead death?” I asked the unicorn bluntly. “Cause I’m pretty sure you can’t lie when I have a lot of damning evidence against you.” “Not to much of a choice there king. Sounds like tyrants court to me.” He said, one of the guards, a Canterlot one, jabbed his lance’s blunt side into his gut, silencing him. “Unnecessary.” I said honestly to the guard hitting him. “And Tyrant court eh? And what, were you the shining beacon of pride and fairness to all the slaves you had?” I asked honestly. “All your money, all your status, and all your power can’t be used in this court, you are but a unicorn brought here to stand trial for the massive fuck ups he did. So, do I need to bring in the slaves to tell me all the bad shit you did, or do you want to just open up and tell me now so you maybe can get off a little lighter?” I asked bluntly. He chuckled. “Conquest is but a taste on your lips isn’t it?” He asked. “This whole world is yours to own soon, already you perform justice the like Celestia had not the heart to preform. How far will you go however?” He asked. “I admit, my family enslaved thousands of rescues from the Las Pegasus flooding four generations ago, and I also admit most all of them are indeed third and fourth generation born slaves. Their sleep, eating, work and even bathroom uses where under my command. I decided who fucked who and what their child did. Only I know who is who’s child in the end. I admit I was their god, and I savored every moment of that power.” I nodded. “Thank you.” I said simply while getting up and walking down to him. “As your punishment…” I thought for a moment. “Consequence, what would be a nice punishment for this bastard?” I asked honestly. “Irony.” He stated. “Four generations of slaves, some five where in his hold, so ten generations as the lowest rank Dusk, only existing in your domain to clean the scraps from the streets. No, better yet. As a dusk, make him work in his own mines. They will be transferred to you now anyways.” “That sounds wonderful. And that’s why your named Consequence.” I said while summoning Kingsblade. “Oh, and just so you know, all your memories will be used to help the people you tortured, and all your money will be sent to all the slaves that were tortured for generations on end.” I said honestly, using my keyblade to pull the guys heart out so he can be under his punishment. His heart flew into my hands, and his body morphed into that of a Dusks. He rose up, and without thinking, bowed to me. “Go to your old mines, mine them alone til every ore is gone. And if you finish within those ten generations, keep digging. Dig, and dig, until ten generations have passed. Then bury yourself. Til someone comes to...heh, save you.” I ordered, and they began walking. Consequence took his heart, placing it inside a wooden box and warping it somewhere. “That’s one in the vault.” I muttered. “Next!” I barked. “Next we have Alumare Clearfant. Nobel mare whose family specializes in fabrics. Her crime is her personal side business of counterfeit fashion wears.” This mare was only in handcuffs, ring on her horn and her dress red, same as her shoes. “So, you sell counterfeit fashion wears?” I asked the mare simply. “I...admit, I allowed the creation of imitation brands.” She said. “How bad did this get?” I asked simply, wanting to know if it'll need an iron fist or a soft hand to deal with the counterfeiter. “I am a seamstress.” She said. “Selling fabrics is a family business, but I prefered stitchwork. I wanted to know just how good I was, so I counterfeited well known designers and brands.Only a small handful where found out.” “So you counterfeited because you didn’t like your job?” I asked. “You...do you know that you could have done what you wanted to do without doing an illegal thing right?” “I’m not exactly...very creative… Copying others was the best I could do and telling my family I had no interest in the family business… isn’t easy...so I avoided it.” “And you couldn’t ask your parents to help you with learning creativity?” I asked. “Or found a professional and tried to get an internship? Did you really have to counterfeit when you could have easily asked? Also, mind if I see one of your works? I just want to know how good these counterfeits are.” “Well, uh… I know for a fact one ended up with Rarity's Carousel Boutique without her even knowing it wasn’t one of hers.” “Now that’s an eye for detail if Rarity of all people couldn’t tell the difference.” I chuckled. “So, Consequence...got an idea to punish this mare, who is apparently really good but just got lost really wanting to do something she enjoys?” I asked curiously. “Honestly sire I don’t see much reason for a harsh punishment. This is just a girl who went about her dreams the wrong way. One thousand munny, or in your case bits fee, a night in jail and after that I will have her train with some designers since Rarity is away on your Zeppelin adventure sire.” “That is perfect.” I nodded. “So, as stated, a thousand bits and a night in prison and then you get lessons to how to be creative with your stitchwork.” I said honestly. “T-thank you, your highness.” She bowed, being taken away. “Your welcome.” I said. “I...doubt many of them are like that…” I muttered. “Next.” I said, hoping to get more of these nobles out of the way for the hundreds of other things I need to do. Back on the mountain we made our way up rather quickly. We were just walking through the trees for a while til… “It’s...amazing!” Gilda spoke our thoughts. Every house was made from a tree or a tree house, or...wow. The Kirin, where easily twice as fluffy as ponies, and I mean fur, not...chest… they had a green patch of scales on their back and a single large stone/wood looking horn on their heads. There where a lot of them too. “They...are so fluffy.” I blinked. “But wow...this is really pretty.” I said, although I was admiring the Kirin’s beauty as well. We walked into town, none of them seemed to...take notice. In fact… all of them had frowns on their face? Not sadness just...dull expressions. “Hello?” I asked. “Is something wrong?” No one said anything. Fact is only a few looked at us, before looking back at their tasks. “Where’s your leader?” I asked the Kirins bluntly. “And can anyone actually talk?” They just tilted their head sideways, then turned around and walked off. “Rude, not even I’m that rude.” Gilda said. “Something’s not right here.” I frowned. “Dull expressionless faces, literally no one talking…” I muttered. “Crap, someone put a curse on them.” “I’ll try and find the leader figure, you...see if anyone here can talk.” Gilda said. “Alright.” I nodded. “Silence?” I asked, wondering if she’ll either help me or do something to help Gilda. She followed me and so far...not a single...damn, Kirin was talking… Actually, now that I think about it I don’t see any males either? “Weird to see now males here…” I muttered, blushing as the thought of me having every Kirin female here as a wife rushed into my mind...all the fluff... Silence gave me a light tap on the arm when she pointed towards the towns edge, and I saw it. Another Kirin, this one saw we saw her, then left. “Well...I suppose we go after her…” I said, following after the Kirin that left and wondering if that one was able to talk. “Let’s hope she can actually talk…” We chased after her, very much leaving the far ends of the village til we were only in forrest. We soon found ourselves bumping into her, her, Silence and I all toppling over and rolling down a small hill. “Owe… Bad idea.” Oh good she talks. “Yeah, it was.” I muttered. “So...you can talk. Who are you if I may ask and why are people not talking?” She got back up, the lot of us dusting off. “That is a long story…. So here’s all the details!” She said, going into beyond Lord of the rings detail on how her people came to stop talking… In short, Kirins are Niriks...how did I not noticed it’s their name reversed. They turn into them when very angry. They burned down their village, and their leader said no more talking, so they all took a dip in magic water that stripped them of all emotions, and ability to speak. “So that’s the WHOLE story, in every little detail.” The Kirin, Autumn Blaze, finished… IT’S SUNSET! “Christ lady did you really need to say every single little detail?” I asked honestly. “And...how do I help solve this problem?” “Oh, well I was able to talk again after drinking a tea made from a special flower I found. It completely reverses the magic in the water. But I only found enough for me. It’s a rare flower and I don’t know where it properly grows.” “Do you know what the flower looks like? What color was it?” I asked, bringing up my Assistant to see if I could find it with what she told me. “Also, where’s the Kirin leader?” I asked curiously. “Well, its blue, and it’s called foals-breath. It’s really hard to find, and grows in only patches of like one or two stems, and smells kinda like if you blended Strawberries and Blueberries together, and tastes like camomile.” “Right then…” I muttered while seeing if I could actually buy the plant we needed to help out or if I have to hunt for the thing. “Do you know anyone that might know of the plant?” I asked, hoping she knows someone to help make this a bit easier if I can’t just buy the thing. “Psst. Doubt it. I didn’t even know it was a thing til I found it and looked it up when I got back home. Had to, uh, borrow one of the leaders old tombs to find out what it was. Even is anyone back in the village knew I’d doubt they’d tell… no pun intended.” “Do you know where to find the leaders?” I asked curiously. “Well Leader, she’s not hard to miss. She’s the tallest Kirin in the village.” “Alright then.” I nodded. “But...she might know where to find the plants...oh, also...do you know who I am?” I asked, knowing that word of me has gotten around to damn near everywhere but not sure where it hasn’t. “Uh… a very fuzzy pony? A tiny diamond dog?” She asked. “I’m a Dire Wolf actually. And I’ll take that as a no.” I said honestly. “I suppose living all the way up here would close you off from...well literally any world wide news.” “We get no news from anywhere. Why? What’s happened out there in the world!? Tell me with extremely lengthy details!” She started shaking me… How long has she not had anyone to talk to!? “It’s going to take too long if I do that.” I frowned. “To make an excruciatingly long story as short as possible, I am the King of Nothingness, the king of the changelings, pony, diamond dogs, technically the griffons, and prince of the Zebra’s all through marriage, and right now I’m going wife hunting to unite the world...even though this world is in my domain of Nothingness.” I shrugged. “A lot of things have been happening, like a lot of things happened and are still happening.” I said honestly. “Ooooh! A King! How exciting! If the leader Rain Shin could speak she’d love to talk with you.” “She’d really love to know what the hell’s going on in the world if a King of at portion of the planet is here.” I said honestly. “Well if the Stream of Silence didnt turn off everyone's emotions and voices she likely would, otherwise it’s just a blank stair with a slight head tilt.” “Yeah…” I sighed out. “But did that tomb say anything about where the plants are?” I asked honestly. “No, just that it reverses curses and enchantments.” She sighed. “You know what? I probably have a spell for this.” I frowned while opening my Lexicon and sifting through it with the ass ton of spells I know. “I mean...Dispel is a thing...Esuna...several other spells that get rid of curses and enchantments…” I muttered while closing it. “Does it need to be this plant or could it be any spell that gets rid of curses and enchantments?” “I...I don’t know.” I took a deep breath. “God damn it…” I muttered. “Well...let’s get back to town and try this out.” I said, hoping Silence was still here because I was so busy talking to Autumn I didn’t think about Silence and if she had anything she wanted to do or ‘say’. We headed back to town and I spotted Gilda sitting at the pond in the center of town. “Hey Gilda, how you doing?” I asked her. “Hope we weren’t taking too long.” “Huh, oh. Well yeah, but look, Maybe we should, ya know, leave them as is…” She said. “Why do you say that?” I asked curiously. “Cause I have several spells that could get rid of the curse or enchantment.” “Well… I found out from some journal entries of their leader that since when angry they turn into those fire demons and burned their whole village down… And lots of very harsh words where said. Speaking from experience of harsh words being said...maybe it’s best they can’t talk so they don’t burn down anything opr hurt themselves.” “No.” I said honestly. “They need to learn to control their emotions, not get pissy at every single thing, and learn that it’s fine to disagree, not going into a blind rage for petty reasons.” I said honestly. “And this is coming from a guy who’s literally done what they did, and believe me, it doesn’t work.” “And still does.” “And still does what?’ I asked honestly. “Ben, when you get angry, you blow. Up. You ain’t exactly practicing what the girls and I have been preaching to you about patience and calming.” “Oh believe me, I am very patient. It’s just the fact that literally everything is straining it to hell and back.” I said honestly. “And let’s look at the list shall we. The ever growing family that I constantly fear I can’t be good enough for, scared that I can’t be a good father to the literal hundreds of kids we have at the moment, have to train a whole bunch to be strong to protect everyone I care about, literally being crowned King of Nothingness not a day ago or something and having to do some much of that long list of shit, all the other problems that keep cropping up out of nowhere, and then the Keyblade War that’s going to happen soon.” I explained. “Not to mention a bunch of this stress I literally can’t share with you all cause of several reasons. Training, literally all the problems I have to solve, currently solving, or just figuring out are problems, all the training, me just feeling like crap to begin with because, again I’m really freaking depressed here, and just so much other things that I’m having to have the entire world on my back.” “And that’s where you are an idiot!” Gilda said, jumping up. “We are your family, your wives for Stars sake! We are okay with sharing your stress! We saw you, baggage and all and hung around because we care, we love you and you can’t even trust us to open up about your worries without throwing a pity fit like a toddler! We want you to talk to us about your worries, your fears. Your heart may be whole but you keep it frozen like your freaky shield sometimes!” “Pity fit? Really?” I asked. “When have I asked for pity? Never. When do I actually have time to talk while either all of you are busy or I’m way too busy?” I asked. “When do I get to feel that actually talking won’t cause problems for others? When will I stop being depressed and fear everything will just disappear cause I’m in some idealistic fever dream? When will I get the images of you all dying out of my head? When will my constant screams for you all to be safe stop?” I asked. “Want to know why I don’t talk? Because I’m scared that it’ll be true, that I’ll lose all of you because of my own incompetence. You say I throw a pity party like a child, but that’s not it at all, I’m not throwing a god damn pity party, and I’m not a child...even though I died when I was a kid and then everything spiraled out of control from there.” “And what do you call this?! Why can’t you just say- Woah what’s happening?” Gilda and I were suddenly floating, immobilized by the Kirin’s really strong magic. They were taking us somewhere. “Oh no!” Autumn yelped. “They’re taking you to the Stream of Silence! That water touches you and you’ll be like all of them!” “Cause of course we are…” I growled. “Can’t things ever be fucking simple for once? Please?” “Do you ever make it simple for yourself?” Gilda asked. “I was told some stories, you tend to make thing harder than they need to be because of your anxiety.” “No, I have literally tried to make things simple as many times as possible.” I said. “But you know, life never wants that to happen.” “I dunno, was pretty easy to land you.” She said, chuckling. “Was that before or after I made you scream?” I asked with a cheeky little grin. “During.” She said, smiling. “Look, we don’t ask for much from you, emotionally anyway, heh… But we want you healthy mentally as well as physically, and emotionally. No one is flawless so all we can do is help each other hammer out the kinks.” “Considering nine times out of ten you want me hammering out other kinks.” I said honestly. “You know, when the times I actually said no you all still dragged me into it, as the running joke was during that time, when...to be honest I would have just liked to know how your days were.” I said honestly. “And you think we don’t wanna know how yours went? We keep the sex going cause at least you relax during/after it. You...rarely open up. Makes us feel like you are keeping secrets from us…” “I mean, I’m pretty sure the images of your deaths would be a pretty good thing to keep secret.” I said honestly. “And then...the fact I had to walk on your rotting corpses…” I took a deep breath. “Yeah this is some reasons why I don’t want to say things.” I said honestly. “But besides that...well it’s not like you all are open books either. Sure I don’t ask how your days are or what’s new but...normally your all so open about it I sometimes don’t think i actually need to ask.” I brought up. “Well, after what happened to Shining Armor, we’d be worried if you just...up and either never came back or...died coming home. We worry, you take so many life endangering risks like you have a death wish and when we try to help you in that you act like we’re a toddler surrounded with broken glass… We aren’t fragile, especially not Luna or me. You treat us like we are helpless when we’ve been training. Heck, before your clones thing the others went world hoping a few times while you were gone, got in trouble, but came out okay. We didn’t tell you that little trip because they figured you’d have a heart attack.” “I mean...I would considering the people coming after me.” I said honestly. “Cause you know, I’m not allowed to panic when my fiance's disappear and I have really powerful bad guys wanting to kill me.” “Who ever said you aren’t aloud to panic? Panicking is normal, we panic all the time over you, so you deserve a panic attack every now and then. Everyone needs to let their true feeling out in some way.” “True…” I said honestly. “But there’s more than just you girls world hopping around when I’m not around right?” “If we get out of this, you’ll get the whole story.” She said, smiling before looking worried, a stream was up ahead, with rocks around it with odd symbols on them that glowed. “Okay...are you bringing us here for me to reverse the stream or no?” I asked the Kirins honestly, looking at them all in hopes one of them will literally do anything just to say ‘yes’. “Hey Mutes!” They all stopped, all of us turning up to the trail behind us, seeing… Autumn Blaze? She was… a Nirik, skin like charcoal and fire erupting from all over. “Drop them. NOW!” Immediately they dropped us, backing up… afraid. Autumn ran over to us, a trail of purple fire behind her before making a small ring of fire around us as a barrier between her kind and us. She then quickly reverted back to her normal Kirin form. “Oh my gosh are you two alright?!” She asked, invading all kinds of personal space looking Gilda and I over, Silence jumping the fire and joining us. “Yes, we’re okay.” I said honestly. “Thank you though.” “Well, I couldn’t just let you two end up without your voices. I know how that feels.” Autumn said. “What about your Nirik form? Weren’t you afraid of losing control?” Gilda asked. “Well, at first but, then I realized I can’t let fear of what I can do govern what I can use it for, and if I hurt others by accident, I can atone and hope they forgive me.” She said. “Words only have as much power as we give them, and for a Kirin that can be a lot, but we should choose how to release that anger, be responsible with it.” “Some fire extinguishers could also be handy.” Gilda laughed. “Yeah just a bit.” I said honestly. “Or...well you know, magic could solve the fire problem.” I said honestly. “There are plenty of water based spells ya know?” “Yeah...we can’t do those spells… Kirins, Niriks, both really tied to fire so water magics our magic doesn’t agree with…” Autumn said, looking towards her fellow Kirins. “Girls… one bad argument over the past thousand years… is that really all it took to justify taking away our voices? Rain Shine,” She motioned to the tallest one- HOLY FUCK SHE’S LIKE TEN FEET TALL! “You used to sing the most amazing melodies, we all used to enjoy laughing, talking. Was one bad argument all it took?” Rain Shine looked ashamed, realizing her past decree was rather hastey, and not thought out. “I mean...it might have also been because of the town that kept burning down.” I mentioned. “But...well that’s neither here nor there at the moment.” We then spent the next two hours searching for the flower, it’s image shown to us by Rain Shine. I found a good bunch of them at the mountains base, far off any paths, and hard to get to. No wonder Autumn never found them after that first time. Everyone drank the cure, and voices, laughter, and even a few songs began upon the now vocal Kirins. Rain Shine walked up to us. “Autumn Blaze, you have reminded us that we choose how to let out tempers flow. And you three, if there is anything you wish, we are in your debt.” “Um...question, are there any male kirins?” I asked honestly. “Cause...so far I’ve only seen female’s and...all the fluff.” I said sheepishly. “Ah, well…” Rain Shine started. “It’s part of why we moved up to this mountain. Long ago, a deadly plague was claiming land that once was our old kingdom. It was odd, as it only affected the males of our kind. We escaped here, but the plague still pestered us. The last males died off hundreds of years ago. To keep our kind alive, we have had to use a special spell to, how to say...self impregnate, we are reborn exactly, our old, aged body dying after our new one has been born. It’s been hard, the rebirth leaves us with all our past memories, even within our infant state.” “Well...do you remember how Kirins...picked husbands?” I asked honestly. “Like ponies. Not gonna lie, we all have...experimented, over our many rebirths, but living this long is no way to live. Many chose to die rather than live on. Just we thirteen remain. Why do you ask?” “Well…” I sighed out. “It’s long and complicated but basically I’m going around the world trying to unite the world...by marrying all the female royalty to basically become king of the world.” I said, blushing brightly at this. “I’m already King of the Changelings, Diamond Dogs, Griffons, Ponies, and Prince of the Zebra’s.” I explained. “And...I would...well I’d like it if you would join ma’am...and if you work like ponies I suppose any other Kirin that would love to join my ever growing herd.” I said sheepishly. “I...know it’s sudden...but ancient laws are really weird like that.” Rain Shine seemed a bit taken back, then seemed to be thinking it over. “Hmm… It’s an interesting offer… and it’s not like most of us… Alright. The others can finally find mates, and I guess I can finally have foals and-” “I’m in too!” Autumn suddenly shouted, grabbing my face and planting a deep, heavy tongue kiss on my lips… I feel like she’s eating my face! “Heh, not surprised.” Rain Shine laughed. I gently pushed away. “Ladies please.” I chuckled. “Save it till we get back to the airship. I’m sure you two would just love the rest of my fiances.” I chuckled a little. “Oh and just a fair warning...one of my fiances will literally try to talk your ears off with questions.” “Talk!” Autumn said happily. “And now you have two.” Gilda laughed. Back in the Air Ship, I sat with all my wives and my two new additions. We all sat with snacks and drinks. This was it, we were all going to talk and get things off our chests. “Alright…” I sighed out. “How to start this…” I muttered, trying to think of a good way to start this. “Who wants to start first?” I asked. “Well, let’s start with something simple.” Celestia starts. “What exactly happened while you where down there?” “Well…” I started. “A lot of things happened...which involved Gilda telling me I need to talk to you all more in an aggravated way.” I said honestly. Most of them nodded. “Then let’s start talking, we ask you something that’s bugged us, you do the same. Sound fair?” Twilight asked. “Fine enough.” I said. “So, how much booze will I need?” I asked, knowing I’ll probably be drinking heavily because of this. “We will figure that out along the way.” Luna said. “So Ben, first up...why do you hide your nightmares from us? Back when they were daily?” “Would you like if I talked about me seeing you all brutally murdered while I couldn’t do a damn thing about it?” I asked. “Or the fact malformed abominations that Kexez made...were eating your rotting corpses?” Most of them shuttered, but Luna remained calm. “It would have been a good idea at the least.” She stated. “Keeping that nightmarish image to yourself must have tormented you.” “It did, and still does.” I said honestly. “Cause you know, not being able to do anything while you see your family get butchered is a hell of a thing.” “What else has there been?” Rarity asked. “What else?” I asked curiously. “Like what? Nightmares or things that have just been bugging the piss out of me?” “Either or darling.” “Okay well the Nightmares I just don’t care about anymore because they stopped thankfully.” I said honestly. “But things that have been currently pissing me off is Kexez and a bunch of other things. Sure I just got Drezke and Lake, Zeke’s light and dark parts, back together but then an ass ton of Keyblade wielding Purebloods went out and about doing something.” I said honestly. “Then there’s me being the king and basically doing literally what Celestia and Luna should have been doing, like going through literally all of the Royal Class and going through all the shit they illegally did and punishing them accordingly. Oh, Rarity you're going to have a new protege in tailoring.” I said honestly. “Oh, how interesting.” Rarity said. “...Oh thank the stars above.” Celestia and Luna said in unison. They seemed...oddly happy. “You two seem oddly happy.” I brought up. “Oh and her name is Alumare Clearfant just so you know Rarity.” I said. “Well, you see Ben,” Celestia started. “The nobel houses, we knew they were up to something illegal, the most of them anyway.” Luna finished. “But because of a rule from Equestria’s founding, before Luna and I took power, we could not investigate or put suspected nobles on trial with evidence because the law stated only Princess Platinum’s bloodline had that authority as the Kingdoms head of security.” “The last of Platinums bloodlines died off LONG before we took power, and since the law was tied by magic and blood if we tried we’d be… harmed, for it.” Celestia said. “So...why is my clone perfectly fine then? I mean technically I’m outside of Equestria’s laws at this point because Equis as a whole is now in the Realm of Nothingness so my word is law now but still.” I said honestly. “But hey, if that law doesn't mean shit to me than yippee for me.” I said honestly. “Because technically taking Equis into your Domain and ruling, you Concored Equis, claiming it as your own. All the old laws no longer apply when under a new regem.” Luna said gitty. “Finally, I want to find those old scrolls and burn them!” “But...does the old law I’m currently abusing still work in this case?” I asked nervously. “You took Equis, but only Equestria has freely taken your banner.” Celestia said. “Others will only take it after a unifying marriage.” “Alright thank you.” I nodded. “Good to know.” I said. “So I can still go around the world learning new things and marrying new women.” I said honestly. “God...still feels weird that I’m basically whoring myself out here.” “All you need for that is the right outfit.” Twin Pie said. “But we know you won’t wear that.” Pinkie added. “So, anything else Ben?” “Well there’s a bunch of things still.” I said. “Like Kexez being a fucking bastard and torturing Jenny and then stealing all her memories away that I have to play fucking scavenger hunt for cause the dick waffle doesn’t know when to actually just give me her memories when he knows I can kill him easily enough.” I growled. “Well, he is just a literal husk. No heart, no soul. How much power is in him? Even with all the darkness he has pumped into himself.” Twilight said. “Lake said he’s not that strong, just really smart.” I said honestly. “But then there’s the problem of him basically being controlled by Psychopaths but that still doesn’t solve that problem.” I huffed. “Didn’t Core drain all of the Psychopath blood from Zeke once?” Luna asked. “I remember his Luna telling me that once. Some kind of Trumpet looking item one of the other colored Core’s had.” “That’s exactly what happened, but when he split apparently that whole thing doesn’t matter anymore and he just got that Psychopath blood back, albeit Lake had more just rushed onto him so...there’s that.” I said honestly. “Why not speak to Cript about it? He might have means to remove it forever.” Coco asked. “His new job doesn’t allow him to do certain things...even though he has proceeded to still do things that he said before he wasn’t supposed to...and he’s probably got something planned for after the war cause of course it has to be after the war.” I rolled my eyes. “Hey… Didn’t he say after you mastered your abilities you two where supposed to do some special training?” Rarity asked. “Yes, that is also a thing.” I said, taking stock on all my clones. One was still hunting for Jenny’s memories, one was still going through an ass ton of nobles who did illegal shit, and my third and fourth were actually spending time with the kids like how a father was supposed to. “He’ll probably grab one of my clones that aren’t busy.” I said honestly. “Nope!” Cript said, appearing behind me. I jumped, falling off my chair and spilling my drink. “I need the original.” “Of course you do…” I muttered. “Well...I suppose I’ll need yet another clone.” I said honestly while rolling up my sleeve. “So,don’t be shocked you two, this is starting to become a normal thing.” I said to my two kirin fiances while cutting my arm off. “Ow…” I muttered, regrowing my arm as a fully clothed clone appeared rather quickly. “When do we start?” I asked Cript honestly.tly. “Hmm…. Now.” He said, grabbing me and everything went dark. I didn’t wake up in pain, for once. I did wake up in a forest of sorts… Wait, this is the forest outside Cript’s old Temple from his childhood. “And why am I here again?” I asked curiously while getting up. “Lesson one.” I looked behind me, seeing Cript leaning against a tree. “Lesson one?” I asked, wondering what lesson one is going to be. “Regret.” He said. He vanished in a trail of smoke as suddenly the whole forest began to catch fire. “The fuck!?!” I yelped, summoning Frozen Pride and Eternal flames and trying to put out all the fires by shooting a bunch of water at the fire’s. The weapons vanished the second I summoned them… None of them were responding to me. Even my cloak! It was replaced by just a simple pair of cloth shorts… I feel very naked here. Not even shoes. “Shit.” I swore. “Um…” I looked around to see if there was anything that wasn’t on fire and try to solve this...or run if need be cause so much fire. “There it is!” Someone yelled, an arrow barely missing my face. “Kill it!” “Excuse me what!?” I yelped, looking around worriedly at who just fired the shot. “Fuck this I’m out.” I muttered while running as fast as I could away from whoever just shot at me. “This is not good...not good at all…” I muttered, trying to use the burning forest to my advantage so I wouldn’t be hit. I was running. The heat made breathing hard, the smoke just made it worse. Not having shoes meant every little sharp rock and stick I hit I felt. I tripped, falling over a small hill into a pond. I got up, in the reflection I saw myself. Fur unkempt, dirty...blood soaked. “Why bloodsoaked?” I muttered worriedly, not knowing what the hell is going on and am just so goddamn confused. “What’s going on here?’ I howled, actually howled in pain when a pitchfork shot into the palm of my right hand. Looking up I saw three men, each looking like normal people, one with a bow and arrow. So that’s who shot at me. I pulled it out, and immediately noticed the pain was still there… no healing factor. I got up, running fast. “Die demon hound!” I yelped, an arrow hitting into my shoulder blade. “What the fuck are you all talking about!?!” I shouted in panic, trying to get away from the attackers that just attacked me for no reason. My hand was dripping blood. A lot of blood. I gotta patch this up. Acting fast, I tore some of my raggedy shorts and wrapped it around my wound. Thinking fast I ran ahead as fast as possible, then hid, the attackers heading forwards while I ran back. ”What the actual fuck is going on?” I thought to myself worriedly, not understanding what this was, why I was getting hunted, and why Cript said ‘Regret’. I ran. I need answers and maybe the- I stopped myself, finding myself in a burning village… blood and corpses everywhere. Young. Old. Men, women. All...dead. I took a step forwards… and felt something. Looking down, it was a...collar. Thick metal, the ‘name’ E44 engraved onto it. It was broken, the tip of an arrow still lodged into it’s lock. “I…” I muttered. “I…” I took a step back. “No...no this can’t be true…” My head began to rush me. I was remembering… things. Things I...Did I do them? Was this really me? I remember….Den, being a pup, growing up with her… being captured, this coller put on me… Forcing to turn Beastial. I remembered my first order… I threw up… I…. I ate Mom… They…. So much blood… So much death. So much murder… All I could do is watch. Trapped in my own body. “Everything…” I cried. “It’s...it’s all my fault…” I muttered sadly, sniffling as tears landed on the bloodied grown. “I...I’m sorry mom...I’m so sorry…” I was too busy crying to notice the person walking up behind me. Not until another collar was placed on my neck, followed by endless, high voltage shocks that made me scream. “Such a good boy.” A man said… The one who did this to me. “You left three alive, but overall a good job.” My body began morphing against my will. I became beastial, and I could not move my own body at all. The man wasn’t that much older than me. And he wore a blue vest over a white shirt, and a belt that… Oh god… Mom’s skin! I wanted to scream, bark, cuss him out, bite his head off, anything but I could not move. ”YOUR THE ONE THAT FORCED THIS ON ME!?! YOUR THE ONE THAT FORCED ME TO KILL MY MOM AND DO ALL THIS SHIT!?!” I mentally roared in rage. ”I WILL FUCKING END YOU WHEN I GET THIS DAMNED COLLAR OFF ME! I WILL MAKE YOU REGRET BEING BORN FOR MAKING ME DEVOUR MY OWN MOM YOU SICK SADISTIC BASTARD!” I mentally shouted, tears still streaming down my beastial face. “Have a treat.” He said, tossing me this large pill looking thing. Against my will's, my body moved, taking and eating the thing. It tasted like old leather, but my body felt...better. “We got one more village to target and those Nexus fat cats are gonna pay me bi-” Just then, a ‘Hello Moto’ ringtone rang from his pocket. “What the?” He asked, taking out… a flip phone? Really? “Hunter, what’s up?” ”Hunter?” I thought. ”And your working for the Nexus? You motherfucker now I will piss on your still living body after I flay it like a dead fish.” “New target?” He said. I can’t hear who is talking through the phone is saying. “Really? A school you say? Which students?” ”Oh fuck no!” I mentally yelped, trying to get some semblance of control against this damned collar. “The Children of Cript huh? That’s a messy job, I don’t wanna just barge in and- HOW MUCH!? You, you sly morally bankrupt fat cat have a deal. Yeah, same to you.” He hung up the phone, then looked over to me. “Good news boy, we got a new job. Five kids, fifty million rem each. Be sure to leave the heads, payers want this Cript guy to suffer.” ”Oh fuck me…” I thought to myself. ”I’m gonna die and it’s your fault you bastard!” He opened some portal and had me walk inside. “Classroom A113. Scare them all, and leave just enough.” He said, the portal closing. Every inch of me wanted to run away but I was moving, looking for the classroom… A109...A110… ”Stop! Stop please!” I mentally shouted, trying to figure out how the fuck to get my body to work here. A111...A112...A113… I froze for a while, looking at the wooden door. My body growled, and after backing up a bit, I charged in, smashing the door down and most of the walls around it. Time seemed to slow as… Cript was in front of me… though NOT like I know… This Cript was… female. Red hair, green eyes. She was looking at me like I was dead already… then her face went to something like horror, or realization… does she see… me? ”Please...run…” I mentally cried, my eyes still filled with tears. ”I’m sorry…” Time flowed back to normal, though I was suddenly pinned into the wall, something sharp piercing my stomach. I felt something, like ice, but not cold begin to crawl out from my new wound, right as it reached my neck, this female Cript grabbed my collar, and ripped it off like paper. I was then encased in crystal, and found myself in my own mind. ”Yay…” I muttered in my head. ”Thanks...can’t wait to stay dead if...if I did so many horrible things...oh god...I’m sorry…” I heard cracking, like glass as I was suddenly face first on the ground. Ouch. “Or...I’m not allowed to die…” I muttered while looking up. “Hi…” I said sadly. “You okay?” This female Cript asked, holding out a hand to pull me up. “No.” I said honestly while taking the hand and getting up. “You know...being forced to eat your own mother because Nexus hired some asshole to turn me into a psychotic killer…” I said sadly. “You know...I’m perfectly okay.” “Oh...you poor guy.” She said, giving me a hug. “Don’t worry, it’s over now. You’re free.” She said. My memories of this alternate life flooded me… Six years of that guy’s shit. I felt...free. I cried. “It’s...it’s so good...to feel free.” I said gently. “Too bad that...doesn’t excuse the six years of murdering I’ve done…” “It’s okay. There’s nothing more to fear.” She cooed. “No it’s not...I ate my mother and I was forced to kill for six years straight for those bastard Nexus…” I cried. “So much blood…” “It’s okay to hold onto Regrets, but learn from them. Don’t just morn because of them.” “I ate my mom...I think this is literally the first time I could literally morn about that.” I said honestly. “But...I suppose…” I sniffled, rubbing the tears out of my eyes. “This bites…” “No puns. No snark, just cry. It’s not a bad thing to cry, to let tears flow. It’s only human. No matter what race.” Even though I wanted to object...I just couldn’t as I curled up and cried, cried in front of an entire class I was forced to try and attack, in front of a female Cript, and just not caring cause fuck did everything hurt. I wasn’t sure how much time had passed. But when I finally stopped crying… I just felt… amazing. More relieved than I have ever known...ever. “Lesson one.” I looked up, seeing Cript there. My Cript, standing behind the other one. “Regret, learned.” “To regret, is to feel the pain of all wronged by you. Feel sorrow not just for those you care for, but for those you hate.” Female Cript said. “Feel sorrow for those I hate?” I asked. “Some.” My Cript started, “Are born evil. There is no hope, to reason to shed tears.” “But most.” The female Cript picked up. “Are created this way. Take your master, for example.” She said, the image of a young boy, beaten, starved, eating a rat. “Abandoned. Homeless, starving.” The image changed, the boy a little older, still thin was walking around, picking pockets. It changed again, this time… He…. he was… being raped? Wha, bu- wait… When it was over, the adult dropped...money… So young… selling himself… “Life, can give blessings to all, but some, some never get to know it’s kindness. Their hearts grow cold, freeze over, until it’s just a monter everyone else sees.” I couldn’t believe that the guy that made me do terrible shit for years...actually had a very shitty life...and something I didn’t expect to happen, but I cried for the poor bastard. “This is why I created this sword.” My Cript said, showing me the chrome blade with a black aura. “Salvation, for the wicked not born to their life, but created by their experiences. A weapon of true peace.” “Oh...that’s...that’s a thing…” I said, sniffling a little. “Lesson Two.” Female Cript said, my Cript handing me the Humanity blade. “Mercy.” I took the sword. “Um...so...mercy huh?” I asked. “I suppose I have to use this on the guy that tortured me for six years?” I asked. “What the sword does, varies from target to target.” Cript said. “But mercy, is essential. If I can forgive Psychopath for the Mars incident, my own dad for making my best friend turn psycho… you can forgive a man who’s life made him so cruel and cold hearted.” “I understand.” I nodded. “Well...better go find the guy…” I said, even though I would rather maul him for what he did...I think he deserved at least some kindness I suppose. Cript opened up a portal. The man was a distance. He didn’t notice me… I felt so much rage, but also sorrow. Half of me wanted to maul him, the other to save him. It was like I was at a crossroads. “If I’ve learned anything...it’s that some people deserve a second chance...even if you don’t want them to…” I muttered. “So...just stab him with this?” I asked Cript. “Yes, the blade will do the rest.” The portal closed. I nodded. “Well...here we go…” I muttered while sneaking up on the man. ”Let’s hope...this works out for ya.” I thought to myself before moving closer and stabbing the guy with the sword Cript gave me. “Gah!” He yelped, those Crystals forming all over him until they encased him. I removed the sword, a black miasma smoking from the crystal. “Well...I hope you can have a better life after this.” I muttered, wondering if I’m gonna have to kill the miasma. It was like this for a while, then, the crystals began breaking. The man was surrounded by a bright light… and I found myself staring at a child. No older than three. He was wearing worn, dirty clothes, and messy hair. “Hey little guy.” I said, kneeling down gently. “How you doing?” “I-I can’t find my mommy!” He cried. “What does your mommy look like?” I asked gently. “She-she told me to wait for her. B-but she never came back!” I sighed out while putting a hand on his head. “I’m here for ya. What’s your name?” I asked gently. “I… I don’t know. Mommy just called me her child and… that was it.” I sighed out. “Do you know where your mommy went? Do you have a daddy?” I asked gently. “No, and...I never met my dad.” “Oh…” I said. “Well...I can be your dad.” I said gently and carringly. I took the kid, lifting him up. He changed, turning wolf pup, gaining blond hair and wings. Heh, looks like Derpy has a Son now. “Alright...do you want a name?” I asked my new son honestly. “Yeah…” He said. “Can it be Hunter? I always like that name.” “Sure.” I nodded. “Hunter sounds good for you.” Cript showed up, placing a hand on Hunter as he vanished in a puff of light. “Sent him to Derpy with a note. I’m proud, you learn fast.” “Well I wouldn’t be here if I wasn’t a quick learner.” I said honestly. “And...the poor guy needed a second chance.” “Good to know. Your next lesson is something I feel is a bit overdue. It’s simple. History.” “Yippee…” I groaned. “History lessons...wonder if I’m going to experience it or have my ears talked off about it.” “Actually, this is a History lesson Den is teaching you. I recently remade her old homeworld to exact detail. You and her are gonna spend some time digging into your ancestral roots, and prove you’ve earned that necklace.” He said, pointing the warriors necklace Den gave me on my chest. “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “Funny how I also got a Primal Drive Form so...there’s that random thing.” I said honestly, putting a hand on my warrior necklace. “So, I suppose I’ll walk through a portal or you snap your fingers and I’ll be there?” “The later.” He said, snapping his fingers. I woke up laying under… the most beautiful night sky I have ever seen. “Wow…” I muttered, surprised to see such a wonderful night sky. I began to stand up and… HOLY SHIT I’M NAKED!! “And why the hell am I naked!?” I panicked, covering myself up in some way to protect my decency. ”Okay...so naked in the middle of nowhere...what is this the start to some bad joke?” I thought to myself worriedly as I looked around to see if anyone was around. I was suddenly attacked, and was staring at-MOM’S NAKED. “Hi Ben!” Den said happily. “Excuse me but why are we naked?” I asked, blushing brightly at the fact I was staring at my naked mom. “But...how are you doing?’ I asked. “Good. I am SOOO happy Cript did this for me! As for why no clothes, we are the Traditionalist tribe Ben, or at least I was before, so even in these forms we don’t wear clothes. But, lucky for you we will be in our primal forms more often than not.” She said, shifting. Her primal form was at least twice as big as mine was. “Alright.” I said while shifting into my Primal Form, stretching out a bit. “Gonna need to get used to this though...haven’t used it that much.” I said. “So, where to first mom?” “First… Run.” She said, smiling. “Which way?” I asked, not sure if this is one of those ‘run just for runnings sake’ or not. “Anyway.” Dan said, jumping around like a dog wanting to...play… “It’s tag after all.” “Tag huh?” I said with a little smile. “Well...sure.” I said while running after her to try and tag her. Mom was FAST in her primal form, then again, she has had more- “Ompf!” I yelped, tripping over myself and ramming headfirst into a tree… hey, that didn’t hurt? “Heheh. In this form your skull is nine times denser than in a human like form.” Den said. “Your only weak area is your underbelly.” “Why? Is it because of wolves really like belly rubs?” I joked while pouncing at her. “My wives would probably torture me with that…” “Hehe, probably.” She said, still a good distance ahead of me. I felt like if I was in my normal form I’d be really tired already but here… I feel amazing! “This is...really great.” I said, smiling as I ran after my mom faster than I normally would. I felt my speed gaining. Den saw this and smiled, leaping HIGH into the air, jumping up along the massive trees around us. “Claws and momentum. Don’t stop once you start, the fall will hurt a bit.” She warned, almost flying through the trees. “Simple enough.” I said while leaping after her, feeling the strength in my legs helping me do these great things. This was the best feeling. I think this is how Tarzan feels! I leaped easy twenty or thirty feet in one go after another. I was so close, almost grabbing Mom’s tail when- Swipe. She flicked it in my face, almost making me fall over. “Heh, nice try, but I don’t go down easy.” She said, leaping down to the ground and running on foot...paw. “Silly silly…” I muttered while leaping down and rushing after her. “This...is so much fun.” I was panting, the thrill of the chase was… amazingly fun. We came to a cliff edge… with a deep fall… and Den jumped it, falling to the ground and landing in a perfect roll back to her paws. “Wahoo! Just like old times!” I took a few steps before, before digging my claws into the ground and running and leaping past the cliff. When I landed I didn’t roll as gracefully as mom, but I did manage to avoid massive pain. Mom laughed. “Good job.” She said, jumping around with glee. “Whoo. I missed this so-” Mom stopped talking, taking a whiff of the air. “Oh...oh he didn’t!” She took another sniff. “He did!” She shouted happily, running off. I took a sniff of the air… there was prey nearby, and my instincts made me wanna chase it. “Well...alright…” I muttered while running off after the prey my instincts wanted me to chase. I caught up with mom at the edge of the forest. Before us was this… Really tall, giraffe elephant mix looking thing my nose was going wild over. “A Gloke. Their meat is amazing. Oh Cript is so sweet to bring them back too!” Mom said, licking her lips. She then tapped me. “Go on, this kill is yours.” “Is it as tough as an elephant?” I asked curiously. Mom looked over to me, smiling. “Sweetie, we were top predators on our world. Our teeth can bite through steel. Their hide is tough, but take out behind either of the front knees, then tear open it’s throat. Make sure it’s quick, it’s considered sinful to let it suffer through it’s death.” “Alright.” I nodded, taking the way to kill it to heart as I started to sneak up on it, not wanting to spook the thing before I swooped in and killed it. When I got close enough I immediately bolted and ripped into it’s front knees, skidding around and pouncing, grabbing onto it’s neck with my new powerful jaws and trying to rip open it’s throat to kill it quickly. It fell over like a tree, the ground making a loud thud when it fell. It was dead quick. I tasted it’s blood in my mouth and it’s skin between my teeth, and- IT’S LIKE HAPPINESS! IN FOOD FORM! Without thinking I began eating the creature, not even noticing when mom took a seat next to me and just watched. “Why is this so good!?” I asked happily, still wolfing it down, no pun intended. Den laughed. “It just is. It’s food from your homeworld. You may not have been born to my kind Ben, but you were born to be one of my kind.” She said, nuzzling me. “It makes me so happy to be able to share these experiences with you.” “I mean, technically I am born to your kind.” I brought up. “But yeah...I’m glad to be spending time with you mom...you want some or did I accidentally eat the entire thing?” “Heh. Yes.” She said, taking bites out of the creature. After we had out fill mom led me to a large cave, inside was dark, but she changed to umanish form and lit a torch on the wall. They were painted with...amazing designs, like old cave paintings. “Cript made this from my memories. This wall tells the story of our tribe.” She said, lighting the center bonfire and...the whole cave was beautifully painted. She changed back into wolf form, and curled up, still looking at the imagery. “Wow…” I muttered, looking at all the paintings. “Beautiful.” I said breathlessly. “Each one tells a story, about warriors of the past.” I looked at an image of a wolf, fighting another, the one Den was looking at. “Saber, the strong. He could jump so high up, and his bite was so strong, he decapitated the Gloke in one swift bite. He battled the Rabbids, a terrible tribe of old. He never returned, but neither did the Rabbids.” “I blame Rayman for ruining any sort of cool context for that.” I frowned, remembering the ‘Raving Rabbids’ from Rayman. “But...you probably have no idea what I'm talking about.” She chuckled. We turned to another, this one of a wolf howling at the moon. “Gizer the swift. Fast and agile, no other of his time could catch him in either form. He dreamed of running to the moons, and was always chasing it.” “Astounding.” I said. “Dumb question...did he ever make it?” I asked, not knowing how great her people were. “Yes.” She said. She lead me outside the cave, and we had a perfect view of the moon...with a wolf howling on it. “When he died, his image appeared on the moon, he and his home forever chasing one another.” “Wow.” I muttered, surprised and in awe at the stories. “What's next?” “Let’s have a look.” Den said, smiling. We headed back in. Looking around I saw close to the entrance was… a scratched up part of a painting. It was hard to make out, but it looked like… a black and grey wolf… and that’s all I can make out. “Black and grey wolf?” I asked curiously. “Who be that?” “That… was Goto. The first warrior…” She said, taking a seat. “Back then we were like rodents to another race, it’s deadly poisoned fangs ended many of our kind back them. Goto stood against them, and managed to kill their queen. Like a beehive, they quickly died off. We became the top predators, and knew many, many years of peace… But Goto, the peacefulness drove him mad. He was a warrior, and he did not know when to stop fighting. One day, he attacked his own. It took ten of the strongest warriors aside from him to end him. His teeth were taken, and they make up your necklace.” Den said. I felt the necklace, touching it with a paw. “Passed down from top warrior, to the next. As a honor, and a reminder. Fight for what you care for, but don’t live for the violence, for you end up the monster you have been fighting.” “Oh…” I said honestly. “That's...quite a lot of things.” I said honestly. “It’s why half the tribe after that day left, preferring to stay humanoide to avoid their primal instincts. But monsters...come in all shapes and sizes.” She said. I never felt so...honored, to be in a place so...sacred. So full of history. “This...this is astounding.” I said in awe. “Im...I'm so honored.” “We were a broken people. The few who survived the...capturing, live with Cript.” She smiled. “At least you can not deny our numbers have boomed.” She laughed. “It will be nice, to see home as it once was.” “Yeah…” I nodded. “I wonder what those people will think of me…” “I am sure they would be happy with the new wearer of the necklace.” She said, placing a paw over my chest. “Be sure to bring my grandkids here. This history needs to stay alive. So much has been either lost, forgotten or thrown away. At least, that’s what I learned during my time with Cript.” “Makes sense.” I nodded. “I'll make sure to have my kids see this all.” “Thank you.” She said, curling up like a puppy, and drifting off to sleep. Happy. “Night mom…” I muttered with a warm smile. I curled up next to her. Sleeping like this felt a mix of alien and natural. I just looked at the fire, and the paintings all around as I drifted off to sleep. To be continued...
Nobody solve's some problems and does some interviewsI woke up in the cave. Mom was still asleep, and the sun was barely rising. Sleeping like this was comfey. I yawned and got up gently, stretching out in my primal form. ”This is...really nice.” I thought to myself, finding the simpler life of a dire wolf was nice. ”Also I’m gonna need to get some of my family to try that elephant thing, that was really good.” I mentally added. I took a step outside, the morning air smelled so clean, so clear. I listened, hearing a stream with running water nearby and headed towards it. I found it, and tried drinking like this… how do dogs do this? “This is a little weird…” I muttered, licking at the running water thinking this was how dogs did it. “*Yawn* Morning Ben.” Mom said, walking up to the stream and drinking. I saw her tongue curved up when she was bringing it back from the water, making like a bowel. I tried that, and thankfully, that worked. “How did you sleep?” “It was really good.” I said honestly. “Being like this...is nice. It’s simple and free.” “Yes, this lesson isn’t about combat, or even really training. It’s to learn to enjoy peace.” Mom said. “Now come on, let’s go see if the smaller meat eaters left anything of your kill yesterday over.” “Hopefully.” I said honestly. “Cause I’m hungry.” I said, my stomach growling a little bit. “By the by...have you ever had any problems with food shortages?” I asked curiously. “Like...accidentally over hunted or a winter was too cruel?” Mom smiled. “That is the best part of this world, the prey reproduce fast, and grow up faster, and the Winter Time brings a new thrill and challenge to hunting. Never have we had an issue with food.” She said. “Huh, that’s interesting.” I said honestly. “Glad to know cause...well I would have thought that would have been a thing considering...several reasons.” I said honestly, knowing that sometimes nature or people just do a derp on complete accident. We ran back to my kill yesterday. It was all bones, some birds picking at the remains on the skull. “Aw.” Mom said. “Looks like they were hungry. Well, this will give you chance to hunt a new pray… and I have just the one.” She said, with a smile and a nod then running off, leading the way. I ran after her quickly, wondering what kind of prey she wanted me to hunt for right now. “What’s to hunt this time?” I asked curiously, wondering if it’ll be either a fast thing that you need to sneak up on or a tough one where I actually have to fight the thing before killing it. We came along a tundra like area where… giant turtles were walking around. “The Flaks. Hard to take down, tasty meat. Their shells are the few things we can’t bite through, and when we do kill one getting to the organs inside the shell. Ohh, so worth it.” “Alrighty then.” I said. “Wonder how tasty it is...even though I like turtles...but I’m a bit surprised I haven’t met a Turtle Sage.” I brought up honestly, not ever meeting an actual turtle person before. “So...sneak up on it?” I asked, not really sure how fast it is. “Yes. They see you, they retreat into that shell, and they can stay in there for a long time. Longest my father kept count on was nine years.” “Turtles sure have a lot of patience.” I said. “How long do these things live?” I asked, watching the things carefully and seeing if there was any blind spots on the thing. “We are not sure. We do not hunt them too often, but I know for a fact it’s between five to nine thousand years.” “Yeah, they live a long ass time.” I said, noticing that they do have a blind spot I can use, but looking around the area to make sure none of the other turtles are around to share that their being hunted. When I noticed none of the other turtles were noticing I stealthed my way up to the giant turtle, staying out of sight and using it’s blind spots to get close enough. ”And…” I thought to myself, feeling my muscles tighten up in prep to pounce at it’s throat. When the Turtle lowered it’s head down to eat some grass I knew it was time as I leaped up, the ground slightly cracking under me as I latched onto it, tearing into it before it could slink into its shell. It’s head flew off as I yanked on it’s neck. It’s blood was… rather good, reminding me of...Grape Fanta for some reason. I took a bite of it’s meat, and wow, it was good. Like bacon and KFC where the same thing! Actually, that would make a good menu item. “Wow, this is really good.” I said honestly. “Bacon wrapped KFC...yeah that sounds good.” I chuckled a little. Mom came up, giving me a loving lick before eating some herself. She let me...crawl inside to eat it’s insides and… Think Pancakes, cooked in bacon grease with syrup and sausages all made into an omlet. “And that’s just the throat!” Mom called from the neck hole I was in. “Excuse me but why are things here so damn delicious!?!” I questioned, about to basically become Pac Man and eat the entire damn thing. “It’s your taste buds Ben. All prey on this world we evolved to hunt and eat, so it makes sense their prey tastes amazing to you since you never had any before.” Mom explained. “Okay!” I called back while continuing to eat my way through the entire thing. “Jeez, this is so damn good.” By the time I crawled out of the almost husk of a shell my stomach had a noticeable bulge and I was so...so full. Mom laughed. “I see you had fun.” “Sorry if I-” I suddenly let out a loud burp. “Uh...excuse me…” I said nervously, my cheeks turning red in embarrassment. She chuckled, licking my face. “Awh, my boy is all dirty.” She said. I looked myself over and yes… I was dirty, and covered in blood… “Well...looks like I’m gonna need a bath.” I said honestly. “Um...this is gonna be new cause I’m used to actual soap and running water…” Mom smiled. “Come along.” She said. We arrived at a cliff side with a large waterfall, mom had me rub along this wet tree bark, then I let the water run along me. It worked out pretty well, the blood was gone and my coat looked clean, and shiny. “Ah, so good.” I said, feeling better now that I cleaned up. “Oh um...sorry I didn’t save any for you mom.” I said nervously. “Heh. I’m just glad you are embracing your newfound heritage.” She said, letting the water clean herself as well. “There is so much for you to learn… and who knows how much time to do them.” She said. “Yeah, I’m kind of expecting Cript to appear and start my Humanity...and Psychopath training.” I said honestly. “But...this has been so great mom.” “I know. So, until your father comes along, let’s make this great.” She said, giving me a warm smile. I smiled back, my tail wagging happily. “Um...is there any other sapient races on this world?” I asked curiously. She shook her head. “It was just our kind sweet heart. Although…” “Although?” I asked. “I mean...I know about that now extinct race but still.” “There are others of our kind, all with Cript, like me. I think I can make a Call.” She said. To my surprise, she began to howl, her throat and neck glowing blue as when her howl finished, an ethereal wolf flew from her mouth, and ran off into a portal. She looked over at me, slack jawed. “You will learn that later.” “Did you...just vomit a spirit wolf?” I asked slowly. She laughed. “No, it’s the Howls Call spell. Think of it like magic E-mail.” “I mean...you can still summon spirit wolves right?” I asked. “Cause seriously, howling and then summoning back up in case of a sudden fight is a hell of a thing.” “Yes, but at a later date.” Mom said, a portal opening nearby as five other Dire Wolf females and...like a hundred pups came flooding in! “Mira! Star! Filly! Nest! Moca! You made it!” Mom said, running up to the other Direwolves. “Well when we got your howl we had to see how well dear Cript remake our home.” The one, Moca, I think spoke. Unlike mom, she had patches of white in her coat, and yellow eyes. She took a look around. “Oh my, the bathing springs. Purrr. We should see how hubby looks as one of us and spend time with him here.” The group laughed. The pups all exploring and looking around. “Um...hello.” I said, walking up to the new Dire wolves. “How are you all doing?” “Ohhhhh! Den, is this your dashing son Ben you are on and on and on about?” Filly, I think asked. Her coat was like moms, but her ears where grey and eyes orange. Mom smiled. “Yup. The first of my litter to give grandkids.” “Aw, jelly!” I blushed a little. “What have you been going on and on about besides the fact I gave you grandkids?” I asked nervously. “That you are now a king.” Mira, I think, said. She had a completely white coat, and deep blue eyes. “That you have a pack all your own already. And it’s growing.” Nest, I think said. Her coat was a brown color with red eyes. “And that you still drink from her teats!” Star said. She was the smallest, easily, a lighter coat than moms and her eyes where the color of a sunset. I blushed brightly and fell down, putting my paws over my eyes and groaned. “Damn it...why did you have to tell them that?” I whined, my ears flat against my skull in embarrassment. “But...yes, I am a king and I am getting even more wives…” I said. “Well, while Den and us all get some girl time, you go play with your brothers and sisters.” Moca said, waving over to the massive flood of pups ranging from way younger than me to almost infants. “Well...it’s gonna be a heck of a thing…” I muttered. “Well, have fun mom. I’ll try not to have a heart attack from all the cuteness.” I said, already knowing the pups will try to be adorable as possible even if it would be on accident. “Well, I’ll be back.” I said while getting up and walking over to the pups. Not ten seconds stepping three feet towards them I was dog piled, them pups either play biting or just plain running all over me. I laughed, knowing they would dogpile me. “Silly silly pups.” I said. “So, what are your names?” I asked them, wondering if they did have names. Not many said, most were too busy playing or running around. This will be some good practice for my own kids. The Airship was off again. That talk I had with the girls helped me...a lot more than expected. Admitting my fears, my peeves… felt liberating. I was on the deck, looking at the night sky and wondering what else is out there for me. “There’s still so much…” I muttered a bit. “I still need to hunt for the other Organization Mushrooms...but then there’s just so much other stuff…” I stared at the sky, wondering what fate has in store. I often think everything is a joke for me to live out but… this feels like things are clearing up. The path is visible but not quite clear yet. “Well...at least things are going well so far…” I said, really hoping the future will be as clear and good as the night sky. I looked around, noticing a Keyblade glider approaching… who is that? I could see it was a mare, Rarity level white fur, beautiful blond mane. I gently floated up and flew over. “Yo!” I called out, waving down the random mare. “What do you need?” “Mind if I land?” She asked. We headed over to the deck and she got herself settled. “Heh, been riding for two days trying to catch up with you Ben.” She said. “And...you are?” I asked. “I’m sorry for not remembering but...just so many things tend to happen.” I said, trying to remember if I knew any blond mare. “But two days? What do you mean?” She chuckled. “I figured you wouldn’t remember me. Last time you saw me was when Cadence lost Shining Armor.” “Yeah...that was a while ago.” I said honestly. “So, still don’t remember me?” “I mean...I thought I brought all my fiance’s if your who I think you are.” I said honestly. “I...believe your the Mother Cript sent us because of...reasons?” She laughed, walking over to me. “My new name is Pureblood, but you knew me as Blue Blood.” I thought about it. “Yeah, now I remember.” I said honestly. “Sorry, it’s just...well we literally only talked once and then you just disappeared.” I said nervously. “I said I had some things to take care of. Ponyville general hospital is the only one of few to provide gender swap spells that hit your genetic code.” She purred. “That makes it a curse, hard to break, not that I want to change back…” She sighed. “I have been unhappy for a very long time, it’s why I acted so… well snobbish. Rarity likely told you about the Gala incident at some point…” “Honestly it’s both your faults.” I said honestly. “Rarity was trying to get in your pants because your royalty, and you were just an absolute dick bag to her. And you became a woman because what, you wanted to marry me or something?” I asked simply, having a feeling she had to be here for some important reason. “Well, I know Auntie would be happy to have her first and oldest lineage revived.” She said, face turning pink. “I just need time to decide if, well, you're the one for me. At this point I think only Rarity would be angry.” “That depends on how everyone else reacts.” I said honestly. “Cause while Rarity would likely be pissed, not sure about the others.” I shrugged. “Also this might be seen as your attempt at gaining power because...well the obvious.” I shrugged. “Legally I am already a prince of Equis, well, Princess now but it’s more honorary title than any real authority. I know I have no reason to...ask, or right, but just let me have a chance. Please?” “It’s alright. You’ll have your chance...oh and question, have you done anything severely illegal?” I asked, remembering I still have a laundry list of nobles to convict. “Would I be here if I did? All the nobles arrested for crimes are either punished or awaiting trial.” “True.” I said honestly. “So, anything you want to talk about before just going head first in this?” “Well, unlike your wives I’d like a few dates first.” She said, give me a smile...for once being a dude… why is she so cute? “The nearest town from here is the Yake City. Think at some point there we can go on a date there?” “I mean...I’m going there anyways...um, who are the king and queen if I may ask and do they have a daughter?” I asked curiously, not entirely remembering what Celestia and Luna told me about all the royals. “They have a prince, the only one. But from what I hear just for you they adopted a princess…just be wary, the Yaks are known to be...easily tempered…” “Can’t wait to sass them down to learn anger management.” I rolled my eyes. “It’s their culture. Doing that is like pissing on the princesses. You’ll have to find a compromise.” “I don’t know what Celestia and Luna are fully into cause I don’t want to ask.” I told her honestly. “But yeah...gonna have to figure that out...can’t wait for the upcoming shouting contests.” I groaned. “Good, cause that’s also part of the culture.” “Great…” I muttered. “This is gonna be a headache and a half. And I’m gonna be bitched at for following their customs of seeing who can argue like an italian better.” I rolled my eyes. “So, besides that...anything else about the Yak culture I should know?” “Not off the top pf my head. It’s fucking freezing here. The Yaks live well passed the north of the Crystal Empire, where snow was all you can see. Their kingdom was small, atop a large mountain with tall wooden walls surrounding it. We landed and where greeted by the prince. “GREETINGS WHITE KNIGHT AND WIVES OF WHITE KNIGHT!” He yelled. Jesus he can make anyone def! “WE HAVE BEEN EXPECTING YOU! I AM PRINCE RUTHERFORD.” “And can you kindly not scream each word?” I asked, uncovering my ears as I winced at the small ringing in my ears. He seemed a bit confused, then spoke, not yelling, spoke, through his regular voice was still rather loud. “I apologize. I thought the Princesses would love my take on the Royal Canterlot voice?” Celestia and Luna laughed. “You people are gonna give me fucking Tinnitus.” I grumbled bitterly. “But anyways, as you can clearly see I am a wolf, and our hearing is a lot better than most species so...thank you for toning it down a bit. I understand you people really like to shout but still.” I said. “But it’s nice to meet you Prince Rutherford.” I nodded. “Oh, apologies White Knight. Come, we have traditional Yak foods and drinks ready, and once meals are eaten, I will show you my adopted sister, and your future bride.” Rutherford said. “Thank you.” I nodded. “Can’t wait to try your traditional food and drinks.” I said honestly, wondering how good their food will be. “Now...is there anything I should know before just walking into the castle? Like if your dad wants to fight me for whatever reason?” “My father long dead. Mother died not long after.” The Prince said. I took a deep breath. “I...am so sorry.” I said nervously and sadly. “I’m sorry for...bringing that up.” “It is alright. Many moons ago that was. They were good yaks. Much louder and stronger than I.” He said. We entered one of the small tent areas where some pastry looking foods, mashed potatoes, and such were laid out. We all took a seat and, the food was alright. It wasn’t that good, but not lacking taste. “Well the foods nice.” I said honestly, liking the food even if it wasn’t the best...but well not many things can compare to Flak, god was that giant turtle delicious. “What kind of drinks are there?” “Here, this is Groat Vile.” The prince said, handing me a mug with a fizzy liquid. “Alright…” I muttered while taking the mug and taking a sip of it just to see how it tasted. It tasted alright. “It is Yak milk fermented in dead sheep stomach and aged for one month.” “Not bad. Taste’s nice.” I said honestly. “I don’t really know how to properly ferment drinks but still.” I said honestly. “All Yak foods invented with trial and error. Life this far north is harsh, food is food. Can not be too picky with what we have to work with.” “I understand.” I nodded. “But hey, I’ll do my best to make things better for the yaks if at all possible.” I said, already trying to think of a way to help the yaks even in their very snowy region. “Mainly Yaks need medicine. Not many herbs grow here, so injuries can be deadly.” “Oh yeah, medicine is one thing I can help with.” I said honestly. “I think there’s a way to build indoor farms for plants that need sunlight and some other things that can’t be done this far north…” I said, scratching my chin in thought. “Is there anything else besides medicine?” I asked curiously. “Water has never been an issue. Snow everywhere so that’s good. Wood is often hard to find, so we use leather and stone.” I nodded. “I know this place is on a mountain but are avalanches or the thought of the city literally sliding down the mountain ever been an issue?” I asked curiously. “The snow here is packed tight after the generations, and is partly frozen over during the fall and winter months. The idea is possible, but unlikely.” “Alright.” I nodded. “Is there any good ways for transportation to get here besides airship?” I asked curiously, not knowing much about the surrounding area besides it being the frozen north. “Hot air balloon and Zeppelin are the fastest. No trains come here and walking is almost a death sentence.” “Yeah, that’s reasonable.” I said honestly. “Are you happy about your sister being married to me?” I asked. “I know I’m not a Yak, and the only thing I have immediately is what you know of me as White Knight so…” “We all are. She is well known and being adopted for such honor has made her giddy with joy.” “That’s good.” I nodded. “I’m glad to hear that people are happy.” I said with a gentle smile, glad that even though people only know me as White Knight people are happy to at least meet me instead of either nervous or bitter because of some weird reason or another. “Yes. She is getting ready as we speak.” I nodded. “Can’t wait to meet her. So, how is everyone else enjoying this?” I asked my many fiances. “The food is good.” Rarity said. “The last time Celestia and I where in these lands was a thousand and a half years ago.” Luna spoke. “It’s much smaller than back then.” “Hm, yes. Time has been harsh.” The prince spoke. “Time get’s to everyone and everything…” I sighed out. “No matter how hard we try to fight it.” “Yes. It’s a sad truth, one many try to ignore of avoid. Nothing but failure for those fools.” Just then, a female yak walked in, and whispered something to him. “Ah. Your bride is ready!” “Can’t wait to meet her.” I said honestly while gently getting up. “Where be the wonderful lady?” I asked curiously. “Well, that’s the part I must explain first.” The Prince said. “Your wife is Yona, well loved within the village, but she is just a child. For this marriage her mother is marrying you in her stead til she is of age.” The Prince then sighed. “Yona’s father, you see...was not the… father type. We banished him from the kingdom years ago, and he has never been seen since.” “Um…” I blinked. “That’s...gonna be very confusing. So...I’m marrying Yona’s mother...and then her daughter when she’s of age…” I looked at everyone else to see what they had to say. “Anything you all want to say about this?” I asked, just curious about if they had anything to say about this sudden thing. “It’s...a bit strange.” Rarity offered. “It’s not that much in practice anymore.” Twilight said. “Twilight has a point.” Luna said. “Long ago some herd marriages with more than one stallion sometimes had the daughters marry the stepfathers, or other fathers. That was a LONG time ago however.” “Nowadays that is seen as taboo, at least in Equestria.” Celestia said. “I know for a fact this is still practiced and common in the Deer and Dragon Lands, the Lions used to do something similar but I am not sure anymore?” “Oh, there are lion people?” I asked honestly. “I...didn’t know that...there’s a lot of things I still don’t know.” “The lions long since integrated with the Zebras.” Twilight said. “The only pure lion cities are scattered here and there.” “Right...but do I still need to find the leader of the tigers or no?” I asked curiously, knowing somethings can’t be simple enough. “We’ll cross that bridge when we get there.” Coco said. “So, how’s about meeting your brides?” The prince asked. “Sure.” I nodded. “Let’s hope I’ll make a good first impression…” I muttered to myself. The prince lead me, and me alone, to the tent where the brides where. I could easily tell who was Yona, the smallest. She was in what looked like a flower girls dress, pretty Ponytails on each side of her head, and surprisingly big horns for her age. Her mother, well… she was Celestia’s height, the source of Yona’s eye color, and gifted curves and fluff that rivaled my new Kirin wives. Yona saw me… and Tackled me. “YEEEE! Yona been waiting for future husband! Now he here!” She said, having managed to knock me flat on the floor. “Yona, calm yourself.” Yona’s mom said, taking the young Yak off me. “Apologies, Yona is easily excited. I am Nona, Yona’s mother, and… well, you know.” She said. She was in a bride dress, though the design was less stylish. Rarity would cry. “It’s nice to meet you both.” I nodded while getting back up. “You look beautiful Nona.” I said with a warm smile. “And Yona...your just adorable.” I chuckled, finding the younger Yak’s antics very cute. “Yona make dress all by herself!” She proclaimed proudly. “Yes, took the better part of a month stitching it together.” Nona said. “She’s fourteen. At sixteen she will be you wife, til then I am to… be there and… well, heh. Sorry, I am sure the Prince told you about my last husband…” “All he told me was that he was terrible and was banished.” I said. “Yes, well, that’s the clean version of it.” Nona sighed. “Yona was too young to remember, and some people are best left forgotten.” She trailed off, shaking her head. “So, mind if I ask what you are like White Knight?” “It’s alright.” I said gently. “But what am I like? Well...that’s gonna be a long explanation but short answer would be I’m kind, caring, and I really want the people in my life to be happy and safe.” I said simply. “That is good.” Nona nodded. “I can be stubborn, but caring. Often times I am the party pooper and I can let my temper slip...often… but I never let that make me say something horrible.” “I understand.” I nodded. “But as long as you're happy that’s all I really care about.” “Thank you. I know it will be...strange, having Yona among the...adults, but trust me, when the adult fun starts, just show her the TV or a comic book and she’s occupied for at least an hour.” Nona winked at me. “I have enough kids to keep her distracted till she’s old enough.” I said honestly. “Heh. that is good. Not too many children her age these days.” “True, but I’m sure there’s a lot of kids her age she’ll meet.” I said honestly. “Anything else you two want to know about me before meeting your fellow wives?” I asked curiously. “Not at the moment. If anything pops up I shall inform you.” “Yona was told wedding cake would be huge.” Yona said. “Is cake going to be huge?” “I had a party thrown for me and a cake was about the size of my old house...which was an entire Castle.” I said honestly. “So I’m pretty sure it’s going to be even bigger than a castle sized cake.” “Yay!” Yona cheered, making her mother and I laugh… Wait a minute… I’m marrying Yona’s mom, making her my daughter… OH CRAP! Just then, Yona’s brown fur began turning a light shade of blue, dire wolf ears sprouting from the top of her head, between her horns, and her yak like nose became a bit more wolf like. “...What just happened?” Nona asked. “Shit…” I sighed out. “So...there’s this curse where any child I adopt or parent I marry...they become biologically mine.” “So...Yona is both your genetic daughter...and wife to be… Somehow that is not going to be the strangest thing I will ever hear, is it?” Nona asked. I chuckled a little. “It won’t be the strangest thing you’ll ever hear, especially since you have all my wives to meet still.” I said honestly. “But yeah so...Yona, your now half Dire Wolf.” Yona looked herself over, felt her new ears then looked into a hand mirror. “Yona look creepy, and cool. Yona like new Yona look.” Somewhere, in the Tumblrverse, I could hear the incest jokes circulating already… This is my first fourth wall break joke. “Well...glad you like the new look Yona.” I said, hating that there’s incest jokes circulating about me. Back in my castle, I was dealing with some more nobels. Taking a break from that mess, Consequence then brought me a few documents after some Dragoon Nobodies brought me a desk. “These are the new recruitment forms.” “New recruitment forms?” I asked curiously. “With the integration of the Zebra, Dragon, Equestria, and now Yaks we need diversity amongst the guards and staff. Can’t play favoritism.” He explained. “True.” I said honestly. “This is gonna be a bit complicated...oh, also start shipping medicine and herbs to the Yak kingdom, they really need it.” “Right away.” He said, bowing before vanishing in a swirl of Twilight thorns. I looked over the documents. Mostly they were profiles of candidates, physicals, qualifications, history. One guard from here in Canterlot caught my eye. Ephter. Ephter Class S guard Race: Unicorn Gender: Stallion Cutie Mark: Cross Qualifications: Classified Background: Classified Mission success rate: Classified. Confirmed kill count: Classified. Combat experience: Classified. Everything in his file was either Redacted, cut out or classified. I looked through and found nine more like him. I sighed out. “Alright, which one of you is already in here.” I asked, knowing that if there’s ten redacted to hell documents at least one of these bastards is gonna be in the room I’m in right now. “Cause if you wanted a chance to talk you could have just said so instead of sneaking in here.” There was no response. “Hm.” I hummed. “Consequence.” I called and he appeared. “Yes sire?” “Who are these ten people that have their credentials redacted to hell?” I asked, bringing out the ten very classified documents. “And is any of them either in this room or sneaking around my castle?” “Hm.” He said, looking them over. “Ah yes. In the Royal Vault there where these ten files. Each a member of a top secret organization that comprised of just these ten ponies. They dealt with monsters and beasts before Twilight and her friends found the elements. The organization was disbanded and all documents and buildings affiliated destroyed. Something about a creature they captured escaping and massacring a whole town. All that remains are these ten files, and the ponies in question.” “Bring them here if they aren’t already.” I said honestly. “I want to get to know these special ten.” I said, wondering what makes these ten special besides being monster hunters. “It shall be done, sire. Til then, I have some outsource muscle some of your Council members scouted out when searching for… unique talent to bring to your army.” “Thank you.” I nodded. “But how unique?” I ask curiously. “Well, first up we have Mr-” “SAXTON HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!” Someone shouting their own name to the heavens yelled as they crashed into my throne room. Short shorts, heavy boots, enough muscle to take on anything...and australia shaped chest hair landed in front of me. “Howdy! I’m Saxton Hale, owner of Mann Co, and your new front liner. Now, where is this war so I can start punching all the beasties?” He asked, looking around. I took a deep breath. “Okay...the war hasn’t started yet...and already I can tell your going to give me a massive headache.” I groaned, rubbing my temples. “So, how did you get here?” “I ran!” He proclaimed proudly. “He’s not joking.” Consequence said. “He just… started running after accepting the offer and made a hole in space time.” “Yep...this is gonna be a massive fucking headache.” I grumbled. “So, besides just doing...whatever the fuck you did, what else are you good at?” “I can punch anything into extinction! My weapons company produces the most expensive and powerful arms around! And the hats! Oh Everyone loves the hats and costumes! I also bring all my Mercs! Since Blue and Red Mann both died, and Grey Mann kicked the bucket I own them all! So They can do whatever if you want.” “Alright, those mercs will be given actual weapons that aren’t outdated by forty years.” I said honestly, remembering a friend talk about Team Fortress 2 and I did some little research and the actual game time line was forty four years ago by earth standards. “Well, the lab boys are yours to talk to, so go on then. So, what do I have to punch first?” “Nothing at the moment. So you can take your time and prepare.” I said honestly. “...Are you kidding me!? Are you Fucking kidding me?!?! I travel across all reality, time, space, and the bloody multiverse, just to be told to wait. Well Saxton Hale does not just sit on his ass and wait like a @#$# #$#%$#% @#$#$#$QW# $#$$%@%$!” Holy shit that was actually censored! “I’m looking for something to punch! Call me when ya need me.” He said, crashing through the floor. I checked the clock on the wall. “Sure he censored his words but...damn is he boring.” I said honestly. “Very over exaggerated character of an Australian.” “You should see his world… Compared to most… he is rather normal.” Consequence said. “Yeah, I know Consequence. I’ve looked into Team Fortress 2.” I said honestly. “Would you like to meet with these mercs? Interviews may be stressful, but recommended.” “Best to get them out of the way.” I said honestly. “Can’t wait to have all of them in the same room, they better not try to murder each other for petty reasons.” “One at a time it is then.” I sat across the room was Sniper, who stood with a sense of respect. “It’s nice to meet you both.” I said to both the Blue and Red sniper. “How are you doing today if I may ask?” I asked simply, wanting to break the ice with the two. “A tad awkward.” Red admitted. “Usually we are shooting one another.” Blue continued. “Yeah, I can understand that...but...mind if I ask why you two are literally identical?” I asked honestly, not really knowing any ‘in game’ explanations on why there are two identical people in the game. “Clones.” They both replied. “When...whichever of us were hired, we were put into a medicated coma for a while. Woke up with a color and a twin sporting the opposite color.” Red sniper said. “We have no idea which is the clone and which is the original. At this point we don’t care either.” “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “So, I’m pretty sure you're wondering where the price tag on this venture is correct?” I asked curiously. “We are Mercs.” Blue confirmed. “Alright, so what is your price?” I asked simply. “Cause I have way too much goddamn money.” I said honestly. “Not to mention I have better weapons and gear for you if needed.” “Well our old contracts paid us twelve grand an hour, and paid for housing, food, weapons.” Blue Sniper said. “Okay so thirty grand an hour and including housing, food and weapons.” I said honestly. “That sound good?” I asked, running through my head all the known money I had and knowing that amount would be paltry compared to all the nines I saw those three other god damn times, not to mention the allowance Cript’s family get’s whenever. “That’s more than enough!” Red sniper said. “Good. We’ll pack our stuff from Two Fort and be off.” Blue said, the two exited. The next two where blue and red Heavy. Damn, game did not exaggerate their size and build. “We are heavy weapons men.” Blue stated. “Nice to meet you both.” I nodded. “How are you two doing today?” I asked simply. “We do alright.” Red heavy said. “So, we are told you are new boss, this is true?” “Yes it is.” I nodded. “So, anything specific about payment?” I asked curiously, wondering if they have anything specific. “Payment of weapons and munitions.” Blue started. “And relocation of family. Homeland become too harsh, they deserve better. Safer. A place where bear meat will not be common.” Red finished. “That will be simple enough.” I said honestly. “Anywhere specific about where you want your families to be? Cause there’s a ton of places they can move to that’s safe in both weather and nature, and surrounded by a lot of friendly people.” “Just big house in safe, simple place.” Blue said. “Like small town, or in woods.” “That can be easily solved.” I nodded. “There’s actually a nice small town called Ponyville not to far from the palace.” I said honestly. “I’ll get some people working on the houses if there isn’t any and I’ll make sure they get moved in comfortably.” I explained, the Heavy’s seeing that I’m actually a caring person instead of the greedy bastards they tend to work for. “Thank you.” Red said. “That will be all.” Blue finished, the two leaving. Next up where the spy’s, the two pulling up chairs. “Hello, how are you two doing today?” I asked the two Spy’s. “Fine.” Red spy said. “It’s a pleasure to be speaking with what I hope is an intellectual boss.” Blue spy said, taking out a cigarette. “I assume you met Hale?” “He kind of bores me.” I said honestly. “I have no idea how he does the things he does but...I’ve lived through a lot weirder to be perfectly honest.” I shrugged. “But just so you both know, I’m not an idiot like your previous bosses.” I said honestly. “That is a grand relief.” Red said. “So, what will we be doing while in your employment? This war that was discussed seems rather out of our typical expertise.” “Yes, that concerned me as well.” Blue added. “Because I’m curious, how good are you at being Spy’s?” I asked curiously. “Both of you have good eyes for detail, how many of my guards are in this room right now?” I asked, knowing there’s at least three Assassin Nobodies and two Shinobi Nobodies. “Hmm…” Blue pondered, thinking back. “Four.” Red said aloud. “Three hidden…and yourself. You are no helpless ruler.” ”There’s five in here actually.” I said honestly. “But good eye, that’s something important cause I don’t expect you two to be fighting on the front lines. I’d like for the both of you to...well be Spy’s, gather info, report anything suspicious, all that fanciness.” I said honestly. “But now, onto payment. Anything specific?” I asked curiously. “Our usual fee from Mann co.” Blue started. “The basics, paid munitions, transport, supplies. And some upgraded tech. As good as our cloaking and disguise kits are, they do fail at the worst of times sometimes.” “That will all be taken care of.” I nodded. “And your tech will be improved by a lot, a lot of things can change in forty plus years.” I said honestly, knowing that, apparently, there are Blacksmith and Engineering type Nobodies they can make those things a lot better. ”Still surprised that Nobodies can be damn near anything…” I thought to myself. “Thank you.” Red spy said as the two left the room. These are going smoothly. Next up where the Demo’s. Both drunk beyond human possibility and they both promptly...fell asleep on my desk... I sighed out. “Of course.” I muttered while summoning my lexicon and casting a time spell that sped up their drunken sleep till they actually woke the fuck up. “GAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!” They both shouted upon waking up. “What just happened?” Blue demo asked. “I just sped up time so you both could wake up from drinking to damn much.” I said bluntly. “So, how are you two doing after your power nap?” “Not drunk enough.” Red demo said, taking a swig from his alcohol. “Can’t really have a proper interview if your blackout drunk ya know.” I said honestly. “But anyways, any questions about working for me or do I just get to asking what other things you want payment for besides food, housing, weapons and a lot of booze?” “Eh, sounds good.” Blue said, taking Red’s booze and drinking. The two then left, laughing while drinking “Okay...that really didn’t answer my question though…” I muttered, not knowing if they wanted anything else but oh well. “Next.” I said, wondering who’s next and hoping Soldier or Scout won’t be too much of a god damn hassle. Up next where the Engineers. The two taking a bow of respect. “Please, no need to bow.” I said with a raised hand. “How are you two doing today?” I asked, glad that Engineer was next cause this would be nice to talk. “Quite fin boss man.” Red Engi said. “We will be happy to help you deliver crafted automated destruction upon your enemies.” Blue stated. “Good.” I nodded. “What kind of payment?” I asked simply. “Double our normal wage, and funding to develop many more kinds of turrets and higher grade dispensers.” Red asked. “That is simple enough to do in both cases.” I nodded. “You’ll find all the new minerals in the blacksmithing area and all the new tech in the Engineering area’s if you want to take a look around there.” I said honestly, still needing to walk around this huge ass place to figure out all of the things. “Thank ya kindly sir.” They both said, leaving. Next up was Soldiers… who came in on a rocket jump and both smashed into the wall behind me. “Of course…” I muttered. I took a deep breath. “Front and center maggots!” I barked at the two like a drill sergeant. “Is this anyway you appear in front of your commanding officer? Rocket jumping in like a couple of sissy’s?” The two jumped up, getting into formation and saluting. “Wait. But, you are a king, not a general or commander?” Blue asked. “Aren’t they the same thing?” Red questioned. God these guys are dumb. “Are both of you piss ants questioning my authority?” I snapped. “Sir no sir!” They both said, standing at attention. “Good.” I said sternly. “So, how much were you pansy’s getting paid from Mann Co?” I asked simply. “Sir we do not get paid sir! We fight to kill!” The both said, again. Wait, they don’t get paid… why does that make sense…? “So you don’t get paid…” I started. “So, you don’t have housing, food, or money for munitions and better gear?” I asked. “Mann co paid for all that, but when off duty we are very much homeless.” Red said. “We, or one of us, used to live in Merasmises mansion, but, the Racoons burned it down, so I killed and ate them all, then found work elsewhere.” Blue finished up, Red laughing at the shared memory. “And I have a feeling you also purposely pissed off the Demoman if this has anything to say about it.” I said while bringing out both of their folders. “No, I believe at that time Demoman was living off his saved wages in the mansion he built for his mother’s basement. Talking with that haunted sword of theirs.” “Ah.” I said. “Right then. So, about payment here considering you both are still mercenaries to a technical extent.” I said honestly. “We will accept no less or more the the god blessed american minimum wage of three dollars and thirty five cents.” Red said. “Alright soldier, just so you both know your literally forty years in the future.” I said. “Minimum wage went up to seven dollars and twenty five cents, and believe me...that isn’t a livable wage, hell it’s barely a wage considering everything’s price kept going up.” I said honestly. That extra information was lost on the two at they both just looked at one another when I said how much it was now. “Seven whole dollars!” Red said. “And twenty five cents!” Blue added. “We’ll be kings!” The two then proceed to dance their way happily out of the room. “Well...I mean it was the sixties so…” I muttered. “Next.” I called out. ”Wonder who else is here besides TF2…” I thought to myself. Who entered next where the Pyros, who just handed me papers with their Mann co terms of services, with some clear edits, Wage increases, better grade equipment. Pretty standard really. I took the papers, signed it and handed it back. “How are you enjoying your time in Equestria?” I asked, remembering the Pyro had the ‘Pyroland’ thing which was magical and candy colored. “Ehph, e huh heh hmm.” Blue said… whatever it was. The two took their papers, giving a thankful nod as they left. Do they ever take those suits off? “Right then...Next.” I called out. Next where the Scouts, who, to my surprise, walked in like they were in trouble rather than full of obnoxious self pride. “So, how are you two doing today?” I asked curiously. “And why do you two look like your in trouble?” I asked simply. “Well, you see there sire, uh, your highliness...er…” Blue started. Red, sighing, sucked whatever it was up, then spoke. “We are willing to work for less money than what Mann co gives, so long as our ma and siblings get a cut.” Red scout stated firmly. I looked at the two, but then gave a warm smile. “How much did Mann Co give you if I may ask?” I asked curiously. “Well typically it was a set wage per job for us.” Blue started. “Ranging from a few hundred to a few grand. We’d send ma and the bros back home about half, more if they needed it, and we’d keep the rest. Usually two hundred or five. Enough to save or get...what we thought was collectables…” “That turned out to be worthless…” Red finished. “I understand.” I said before grabbing a piece of paper and writing down a bunch of things. “So, besides money to help your family, need any housing for them? Including any new weapons or things for you two?” I asked curiously. “What, you kiddin?” Red asked, that iconic bravado showing on the two of them as he flexed. “Look at these guns? Give us sticks and we’ll make whoever you tell us to hurt as dead as...uh, well dead!” “Yeah!” Blue cheared. I chuckled before finishing up what I was writing and putting it down facing the two scouts. “There’s your contract, and to be honest, your arms may not be strong, but your heart is.” I said. “And if you read that it’ll tell you your pay, equipment, and new housing for your family if they so need.” I said honestly. The scouts began looking it over. “Woah! That’s a lot of zeros…” Red said. “Yeah, and look at this! With funding for guns that’s this big, our scatterguns can get one heck of an upgrade.” Blue added. “You're not the only one who talked about family.” I brought up. “Both the Heavy’s wanted first and foremost a new place for their family to call home, and you may not be as big as him but you’ve got the same big heart if the thing your asking for immediately is to help your family.” I nodded. “I respect that.” “Ah man, your embarrassing us.” Red said, a light red on his face, but the two held happy smiles. They waved goodbye. The next ones in where the last. Medics. Both arrived in their signature lab coats. “Dah, good to meet mine new employer.” Red said. “Yes.” Blue added. “It is good to meet you two.” I nodded. “How have your days been?” “Grand. Just grand.” Blue said, Red coughing. Not a cough, an ‘my turn’ cough as blue nodded, and took a step back. “I would like to get to the point of this meeting, if you don’t mind?” Red medic asked. “Sure.” I nodded. “But I have a feeling you want a bit more than just payment, what you want your Medical License?” “Nien, such a thing is a moral and legal leash.” Red said, clearing his throat. “We will take the same as what Mann Co payed, but, we would like our own laboratory, with a monthly budget of no less than fifty grand for gathering materials and items to improve out research.” “Understandable.” I nodded. “Sure, but just to get this across, even though you don’t have a medical license both of you are in the boundaries of my law.” I told them both. “So I better not be hearing you two kidnapping people and doing sick experiments on them alright?” “Relax, we don’t kidnap. Grave robbing organs maybe, occasionally, but no kidnapping.” I nodded. “Thank you. Just so we can get this whole thing across cause I don’t want to have you two back here not two days later because you both did many illegal things.” I said honestly. “You both may be clinically insane, but your not clinically stupid right?” “Good sire, if we were, would we have developed the Ubercharge? These medi guns are of our own design, blueprints kept and locked within our minds. We might make questionable actions but it’s always been for the betterment of the team, or others.” “That is why we are doctors.” Blue added. I smiled and nodded. “That’s good.” I said while writing down a bunch of things on a piece of paper and then handing it to them. “Here you go, materials, your budget, new housing if need be, and a few other things.” I said, the Medics seeing that they were getting a bit more than they originally hoped for with what I wrote down. “Dah, this is wonderful!” Red and Blue medic cheared. “Quickly mine copy, let’s go practice medicine.” Red said, the two laughing as they left. “Well...glad to have helped.” I said with a little. “Anyone else?” I asked, wondering if my council members found anyone else besides the TF2 mercs. Right then someone entered I did not expect… “Hi Ben!” Grandma said… wasn’t she traveling the multiverse or something? “Grandma? Didn’t you say you were going traveling back when I went to Bioshocks Earth?” I asked curiously, really happy to see Grandma here but just curious about why she came here. “Oh that , well I was then I got bored, joined a few dozen wars, won a few dozen wars. Next thing I know I’m asked to meet with you about a job.” She said matter-of-factly. “Sheesh, sounds like you had fun.” I chuckled a little. “Yup. So, a king now huh?” She asked. “Made quite the name for yourself.” “Yeah well...a lot of things happened.” I said sheepishly. “But yeah, I’m the King of Nothingness, got it after I mastered all my weapons and...well murdered the previous king because he wanted his peace.” I said honestly “Awh. Just like a Brothers Grimm book.” She said. “Well I guess i’ll make my way to the barracks.” She said. “Hold on there, I still need to talk about your pay, and your new home.” I said honestly. “Honey, I traveled the multiverse. I’ve raided tyrants and mined world made from diamonds and gold. I don’t need pay.” She said, leaving the room. I saw her leave, knowing she went traveling and fought so much but...I hope she’s still the same loving Grandma I remembered. “Oh dear…” I muttered. “Alright...is there anyone else?” I called, wondering who else I have to interview. Back in Boletaria, we headed back to the Nexus, where the Maiden in Black was waiting for us. “Thou art powerful slayers of demons.” She said. “But art thou ready to face the old one?” “I’m ready, are you ready?” I asked my companion. “As ready as I can be.” She said, gripping the handle of her sword tight. “Alright, then let’s get going.” I nodded, readying myself for the upcoming fight. The ethereal magic floor in the center of the nexus opened up. She took both out hands, and dragged us down the long drop. We came too on… a beach, a single sand island, surrounded by some water, and fog. “Well...alrighty then.” I said while wondering why we’re on a simple sand island when we were supposed to fight a demon. “Come out now, don’t be rude.” The maiden said, standing in the water looking out towards the fog. The whole ground began to rumble as a massive...wood creature, as if it’s body was made from sticks and strange crucifixes pierced it’s body all over, including massive swords. “Come now, don’t be mean.” She cooed, the massive creature stopping as it’s ‘mouth’ reached her feet. She then turned to us. “Come now, the old king rests within, as does the Old One.” “Um…” I blinked, looking a bit confused here. “I...have several questions…” “Ask away.” She said as we entered the...thing. The whole of it is all wood. Sticks and branches bound together like a ingrown tree. “Um...what is the Old One if this giant tree thing isn’t?” I asked honestly, thinking that this was supposed to be the Old One, given how it was basically a mangled abomination of nature. “The old one is in itself, the souls it has consumed, a collection of the pained lost life's demons have brought to it. The old one knows only hunger, and it’s stomach bottomless.” “So this things that one fat fuck in the corner of a party always scarfing down food and won’t leave no matter how hard you try?” I asked, finding that a decent way to explain this situation. “So...how do I kill it?” “The old one is part of the world, to kill it is to kill the world.” She said, as we reached a fog wall. “The king guards the old one. Defeat him, and meet with The Old One.” “Well...okay then.” I said honestly. “But...how the hell do I actually save this world then?” I asked. “Cause the more I listen the more I’m thinking this is just a giant wooden tick.” Betty entered first, and then I did… the king was… a grotesque, slug like creature, flopping around in a shallow pool of water. “Fools. You should not have come here…” It spoke. “That’s what they all say.” I said honestly. “So, are you an actual fight or are you basically just a weak slug that can’t fight anymore because of time and other things?” “I will fight, and win.” He said, just...flopping. “He’s so far gone… he can’t even see what he has become.” Betty said. “Well...it would be a mercy to put him down at the moment.” I said while drawing Sharpshooters. I opened fire, shooting the old man full of arrows. “No! You fool! Mankind's existence is a joke. Death is mercy!’ Where his last words as he died, one of those special swords dropping from his corpse. Soulbrandt. “Well...that explains where this was.” I muttered while walking over and taking the sword. “But yeah, Death is a Mercy, but it’s also the cheap way out if you can’t handle it.” We passed the next fog wall… the old one… and the last card of Jenny’s memories… I took the card but the old one...that light… it’s… the worlds heart?! “Thou hast done thine job.” The maiden said, walking passed us, dropping her staff. “The Nexus bind all thee no longer. I shall lul the old one back to slumber.” She said, standing before it and...singing...softly. I took out my Keyblade and raising it up. “This...will actually be the first time I do this…” I muttered, seeing the light at the tip of my keyblade swirl with light and give a small flash, the sound of something locking filled the area but it was in a way that made it suitable for the singing. The old one glowed brightly, roots sprouting up around it and a Keyhole shape enclosed it. The light faded, and the job was done. “Makes you wonder which is the real demon.” I spun around… Kexez. “A world with it’s light in total control… and look what happened. This is why they locked up the hearts of worlds, after all.” “Are you feeling less insane at the moment?” I asked. “Drezke and Lake are both alive and okay...but yeah, you can’t have one or the other and expect things to be alright.” “Even with them both joined with me, our soul is still missing. Or rather, inhabiting another. I’d be in control...with X, now isn’t that a nightmare?” “So you're still not in control of yourself?” I asked. “Your still under the effects of Psychopath blood?” I asked, hating that it wasn’t done yet. “Since when is anything that easy?” He asked, tilting his head. “It would be nice if things were easy for once.” I groaned. “So anyways, why are you here if I may ask?” “Congratulating. I’m evil, not impolite.” He said, tossing me a pocket watch. I grabbed it. “What’s the watch for?” I asked, checking it over to see what’s special about it. “It’s a timer. You see, every so many years the realms are all on the same time, same day. For 24 hours. This day is the anniversary of the first Keyblade war. That watch counts down to when that day comes, and the second war begins.” “So how long is it?” I asked, looking at the actual timer to see if it’s an old pocket watch or if it’s a newer thing that can tell the year, months, day and time. I pressed the button, and it had several circles, each counting down. Starting from three years… The seconds counter was spinning, making the minutes turn, and so on. “Three years? Well that’s a relief.” I said honestly. “And here I thought it was going to be next month. Thanks for the heads up and practically all the time in the world.” I said, knowing he probably did this to screw with me in some way. “Yes but time flies when life goes on. How much do you think there will be when you look down at it and see you have only an hour.” He said, laughing as he vanished into a DTD. “Apparently he’s never watched enough anime.” I said with a frown. “And hey, I have clones so there’s a that.” I muttered. “Shit...I forgot to ask him about where the other parts of Jenny’s memories are. He did say her memories are on different worlds…” I muttered, looking at all the cards I gained from this world. I wonder what memories of hers they hold? “So, see you around?” Betty asked. “Got anywhere specific you want to go?” I asked curiously. “I’ll stick around here for a while, then warp out.” She said, exiting the giant wooden shell. I opened a DTN, and headed back to where Jenny was, here at Castle Oblivion. “Finally.” She groaned. “Only took you forever…” “Sorry.” I said while bringing out the cards. “But...you know, having to fight for these can take their time.” The cards flew out of my hands, each one jabbing itself back into Jenny. For a while, she sat slumped, her body glowing as her actual age was returned. She then woke up, yawning. “Shit I’m tired… Hey dad.” Jenny said. Thank god she remembers me. “Why...are we in Castle Oblivion?” “Remember Kexez?” I asked. “Yeah he took away your memories so...we have to be here for the cards.” “Oh...well shit. I mean, I feel okay now...am I missing any memories?” She asked. “I don’t know...do you remember everything?” I asked. “Any holes where your memories should be?” “I… don’t think so. Birth mom was a bitch. We first met when I tried to kill you. My mom is Gilda. Grandma has six tits… I don’t think I’m missing anything.” I nodded. “That’s good.” I said. “Well, want to go home and see the others?” “Yup. I feel like I haven’t slept in my own bed or even seen the girls in years.” She said, walking into the DTN. “So, did I miss anything?” “Um…” I started as when we walked through the portal we appeared near the house, and Jenny could see Canterlot Castle turned into a more Nobody themed castle as well as there being...pure white sky above my castle. “Yeah, I became King recently.” “Wow...I am so behind.” To be continued...
Nobody's HomeSpending time with mom and my new siblings, and other Dire Wolf moms was the best. I’ve been hunting, playing tag, chase, even tug a war with large sticks. It’s a blast. Fishing in this form is odd, but doggy paddling isn’t that hard to figure out, it’s catching the fast moving fish that’s the trouble. Den said in the deep waters there is three high value, and tasty, fish. The Glora Bora, an eel like prey with sharp teeth and slippery skin. The Fire Flasher, a slow moving fish with rock like skin and an ability to chew the rocks of the ocean floor and spew them out as molten projectiles. Thankfully though, if you can trick it to spit out that magma upwards, it can fall back down, and being so hot, even under water, the magma will fall back onto it, and melt through it’s own skin. Lastly was the Great Sea Monster. I giant manta ray fast enough to create whirlpools and, if enough of them are present, they can even make hurricanes. Their hide isn’t that tough, it’s their speed that’s the issue. They can break the sound barrier underwater. I’ve hunted one of almost every prey on moms… my ancestral homeworld. I feel proud to be this race. I was born to be this race, why I wasn’t originally I’m just gonna call a fuck up on fates part. “Ah….this is the life.” I said with a warm smile, feeling wonderful about everything. I was atop a very high, massive tree, it’s branch making the whole trees from Yellowstone look like twigs by comparison. Truly these trees have been here, most likely forever. I was enjoying the view, the landscape like a picture of nature's true beauty. “I...I can’t wait to bring my family here. They’ll love the sights and the beauty of this world...and all my pups will enjoy being here.” I said with a warm smile, knowing all of my kids will be of Dire Wolf lineage. “This has been such a massive gift…” I muttered, looking around over the horizon seeing all the things here. “Looks amazing, huh?” Cript said, he was in a Dire Wolf form surprisingly. Brown fur, blue eyes, and he was about Den’s size. He took a seat next to me. “It’s doesn’t just look amazing, it is amazing.” I said with a happy smile. “So much fun...I feel so free...it’s amazing.” “And this is just a copy.” Cript said. “Ben, it’s time for lesson three.” I panicked. “Excuse me, you can’t just say that and make me not think you’re going to burn this place to the ground.” I said worriedly, knowing for a fact I’m overreacting but i was just so worried about wording and all the training I have to do. “Heh, sorry for my wording. You see, while this is a legit planet, it is still a copy of Den’s home. Her actual home is still corrupt, and very much poisoned.” Cript sighed. “Lesson three. How far will you go?” Cript asked me. “On the original home world of Den’s, I placed something than can return it to how it was, just like this place. A Time Gem. Very rare. Find it, and break it. It will reverse time on the world to when it wasn’t a hellscape of poison and evil. But, going to this place as it is won’t be easy. Are you ready for it?” “Oh boy…” I muttered. “Well...when you say ‘how far will you go’...what do you mean?” “Ben. When I send you there. You will be as is. Just, a Dire Wolf. No weapons, no humanoid form, no Nothingness powers. You have seen the darkest moments of you kind in test one, and the joys and pride of their people before. To save their history, you must do it as one of them. Are you ready to charge head first into this hellscape?” “Well the Keyblade War is happening in three years, and I did train in that one warzone so...sure why not.” I said honestly, stretching a bit as I got prepared for what’s to come. “Alright. When you return, you’ll be pleasantly surprised.” “Hopefully…” I muttered as I got ready for heading to the original world. “Well, I’m ready.” “Right then.” Cript said. A portal opened under me, and I fell in. I landed on soil that stung just to stand on it. The whole of ‘grass’ was sharp rock like spikes with jagged, natural hooks to catch onto you and rip your paws up. “Yeesh, already this is gonna be rough…” I muttered. “Gonna have to tread carefully…” I muttered, trying to move without ripping my paws apart like an idiot. Walking on this ground is not easy, and I cut my paws up a lot. When I finally found flat ground blood was oozing from my paws like water. Grunting, I licked, literally, my wounds and headed on. I saw something in the distance. A field of ‘trees’ that where all black bark, purple leaves, and I saw vines squirming around them like snakes. “Well...that’s not good…” I muttered, going to hate going through an Assassin Vine forest. I looked around but the forest seemed to go for a long while on both ends. Grunting, I found what looked like the best path and ran. The vines all immediately reacting and wiping me, cutting my skin open and making me bleed. “Christ these things are fast…” I muttered, trying to dodge as many as I can so I take less damage. “Crap...and I have a feeling I’m not even close to being close to the time stone.” I managed to rush outside the other end of the forest, only to avoid being stopped by a giant mutated version of the first prey I ate, its size five times what it is normally and its body armored with metallic looking skin. “Holy shit…” I muttered, doubting this thing would taste good considering what this place has been so far. I managed to rush passed what was a herd of them easy, the footsteps just almost crushing me on many close calls. I made it into a forest where the trees weren't trying to whip me and ran into a cave, catching my breath. “Well...Cript was right about this place being a pain in the ass…” I muttered, looking around the cave in case I didn’t just either walk into something’s home...or walk into something’s mouth. As I looked around I stepped on… ashes and old wood… I let my eyes adjust, and saw I was in the same cave as back on Cript’s copy… it looks untouched. “Hmm…” I hummed, getting up and wondering if this place was truly untouched as I walked into the cave. It looked preserved, well kep- “Who are you?” I yelped, almost jumping and hitting the ceiling. Before me stood a rotten looking Dire Wolf. black and grey coat, but rotting. Older, and covered in battle scars. “Um...hello?” I asked the dog. “Who are you? And...shouldn’t you be dead?” I asked worriedly. “I was. For a long, long time.” He heaved. “The poison of this land brought me back as an undead. My will alone allowed me to keep my mind and personality.” “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “My names Ben, what’s yours?” I asked curiously. “Goto… I believe it’s my teeth on that necklace of yours.” I blinked in surprise, putting a paw up to the teeth. “Um...yeah.” I said gently. “It’s...probably a little weird seeing someone literally wearing your teeth isn’t it?” “Not as weird as waking up undead and seeing your homeland turned into poison. What brings you here young pup? Only ones like us around are undeads like me, only those mutts are far more violent and mindless.” “I’m here to bring this world back to normal.” I said. “There’s a chance of it going back to the beautiful world it used to be.” I told him. “Really? Pray tell young pup, what do you know that I do not?” “Well, I can start with your teeth being made into a necklace for the greatest warriors each generation.” I said honestly. “But how to solve all this...well there’s a special stone that can reverse all of this.” “Special stone? Ah, I believe if such a stone exists, it would be in the Badlands. Where I once lead battle against our highly poisonous foes from my time. The undead of all the warriors who wore my teeth around their necks as you do walk there, as if guarding something. Before they’d just run around like the beasts they now are. Now they roam around the old hive of my greatest victory.” “That’s...that’s not good.” I frowned, having a bad feeling about that. “I...suppose they’re drawn to the power of the stone, the poison of this world using their bodies to keep anyone away from the one thing that can stop it…” I took a deep breath. “Um...know the direction where the Badlands are?” I asked, wanting to at least know where to go instead of blindingly run. “Of course. I am more than willing to help, to restore my honor. My death was poisoned with the blood of my own kind, blood I spilled. I wish to rectify that mistake.” “Thank you.” I nodded. “That’s all I can ask for...and I’m sure my family would just get a kick out of hearing I fought alongside you.” “Not so fast young pup. I’ll help you, and restore my honor, but my primary means of combat,” He opened his mouth...right, toothless. “-Are decorating that charm of yours. If I am to be of any use in this hunt, I require them back.” “Seems a little ironic…” I muttered, taking off my necklace and holding them. “I was given these from my mom because she told me I was the best hunter of my generation...and I’m giving back your teeth, the best hunter of your generation.” I said honestly, moving the necklace over to the undead wolf. “I...kind of doubt I can do proper dentistry…” I said sheepishly. “No need for that. This poison has its perks.” Goto said, the necklace string coming undone as his teeth, glowed with a black mist and and flowed back into place in his mouth. Once the last tooth was in place, he ran his tongue around them. “Ah, now that’s better.” “Glad to see...that somehow works.” I said honestly. “Lets go.” Goto said, standing up and exiting the cave. “Keep up youngblood.” He said racing off as I followed. “So, how dangerous is this place besides the whip vines and serrated grass?” I asked curiously. “All the prey animals now hunt like we do, worse even. The Badlands is barren though, so when we arrive we will only have to worry about the undead hunters that came after me and before you. Last I checked there are five of them there.” “Alrighty then.” I said honestly. “Yeah, nothing like being hunted by a giant fuck off turtle to brighten your day.” “Oh don’t get me started.” Goto whined. We ran through deadly forests, evil paw shredding ‘grass’ and fish twice our size in a river too small for them. It was a lot of literal blood, sweat and hard work reaching the dry, dead dirt of the badlands. This whole place looks like a canyon or something. “Well...that’s a lot of space.” I said honestly. “Now...where would a powerful stone be…” “There…” Goto growled. In the distance was the ancient husk of what looked like a bee hive, it’s petrified shell looking like it was about to fall over. Outside I saw a large, undead Dire Wolf. My mind flashed back to Den’s story about Saber the strong. “Saber the Strong…” I muttered. “Well...that’s a good way to start.” “We will see if his story does him justice then.” Goto said. “We need a plan. I shall attack, you find pointed rock, use like club to bash skull in. Only way to end undeads.” “True.” I nodded while looking around for anything that would be big enough to bash his head in. I could hear the exchanged snarls and growls of Goto fighting Saber. Loud thuds and bashing. I saw… the bones of a massive Wolf/Bird/Snake creature. Jesus, this is just the head! It’s three times Den’s body and it’s just the head. “Jesus christ…” I muttered, looking around for a big enough thing to use as a club quickly. “If this is the thing’s Goto murdered...he’s pretty fucking strong.” Looking back at the things head, I saw one of it’s teeth fallen out and laid on the side. I grabbed it, and ran back over to them. “Alright...time to bash some undead’s head in…” I muttered as I moved fast to help Goto. “Let’s hope this works…” I muttered. Jumping over a rock, I saw Goto was rather beat, but not down as Saber had his own share of slices and bruises. Goto saw me and lured Saber in a way that his back was facing me. I raced, raising the tooth, and bashing Saber’s undead head in. I let go of the tooth, Sabers body turned to ash an ethereal version of him rising from the ashes. “Thank you.” Saber said. “Your welcome Saber the Strong.” I nodded. “Why are you here if I may ask?” I asked curiously, wondering if Saber has some time before he moves on to the after life. “The poison resurrected me, but while my soul was rebound to my body, I had no control over my form. You have freed me, Ben.” “Always glad to help.” I nodded. “Wait...how did you know my name?” “When we die, our souls roam the world, not as ghosts, but as energy, keeping the plants and animal life full and plentiful for those living, and we watch over the new pups, sometimes we are reborn, at our own choosing.” “And...what do you think of me?” I asked, thinking Saber wouldn’t see much in me all things considered. “I know I’m not all that special, even by Dire Wolf standards.” “You do our kind proud.” He said, bowing before me, then rising. “Save our homeworld. Restore it to its glory.” With those words, he raised his head, howling as his spirit returned to its proper place. I nodded. “Well...that’s one.” I said, having a feeling I’m gonna need to keep this giant club. “But...mind if I ask what that weird wolf, bird, snake thing I found to actually get one of it’s teeth?” I asked nervously. “That was our enemy in my time.” Goto hissed. “Ever since I was a pup they have been keeping us their prey, and they only targeted us. Devouring us by the dozens daily, we scrapped by in deep underground tunnels built over the generations. Not sure if they are still around now, but back then that was our only safety. I was barely growing my own fangs when my den mother and father where devoured. I was the only of my litter to survive. I swore I’d kill them all… and I did.” “Yeah...that’ll do it.” I said slowly. “But okay then...time to go deeper into this hell hole.” We entered the decrepit hive, the skeletons here where in massive pils. These ancient monsters and Dire Wolf skulls decorated the walls and floors like confetti. “I remember this battle. So many died, elders, mothers, children. Anyone willing to fight, fought.” Goto remonised. I noticed the differences in the bones size and age… some of them had to be...kids. “Dear lord…” I muttered. “So much death..” “No victories worthwhile come without sacrifice. If this battle had not been won, you might not be here.” “Ah...makes sense.” I said honestly. “Sorry just...never been much for murder in general...or mass extinction…” I said nervously. “All kills can be justified. Be it beliefs, or survival. These were kills for survival, when you hunt the preys you kill to eat, it’s not just beliefs, it’s also to live to the next day. We combined the two, to justify the death of our killed preys.” “Alright…” I nodded, looking around carefully to see if any other zombie wolves are close. As we entered a new chamber, both Goto and I where tackled, those twin looking undead wolves where our attackers. Goto managed to flip himself over, biting down on his attackers neck and ripping it’s head off before pulling mine off, and doing the same. “Right then...that explains where those two were.” “Ryla, and Gondugo.” Goto spoke. “They fought along me against the queen. They were good hunters. Good pups…” “Oh…” I muttered. “Well...maybe we’ll get to talk to them like Saber?” I suggested nervously. “They were hunters, not warriors. I only allowed them to join if they kept to the small fry… if it weren't for them disobeying me… I would not have won… a bittersweet victory. You have pups, Ben?” “Yes, yes I do.” I nodded. “And...there not old enough to fight...and honestly, I’d rather them not get into the fights I’m going to have to get into…” “You know your pups idolize you… if they fight with you… and are happy to die for you. Stupid youth… but that’s life. When they argue with you to prove their worth, through any means, it’s all for you. Some would say that’s how your young should act towards you… I say, it’s a good way to get them killed. Ben, if you want any stubborn pups of yours to stay out of your fights, then you’ll have to be their bad guy, even if they hate you for it. Don’t make my mistake.” Him saying that...made me think of Jenny… she wouldn’t… sigh, she would… “Except one of them just doesn’t give a flying fuck and will do it anyway.” I sighed out. “But...yeah, understandable…” As we headed in both our ears perked up, hearing something...someone running… running- “Gah!” Goto shouted, getting slammed into and flung through the wall behind… Gizer. He turned to me, and ran, I only managed to bite his after image. “Ah shit.” I muttered, looking around quickly to where he was. As I was looking, he ran up behind, grabbing me by the tail and dragging me THROUGH the walls before letting go… ouch… “Agh. Basterd can run.” Goto grunted. “Ben, I have an idea. Try not to die before I come back.” “Believe me, it’s a lot harder for me to die than one would think.” I said honestly as I readied myself for the things oncoming attacks. As I kept myself against the wall I saw him running this time, his after image lagging behind like a bad wifi connection. Growling, I saw him jump at me. I dodged, or so I thought. He has an after image in front of him?! He tackled me where I moved, knocking me against the wall before grabbing me by the scruff and bashing my head against the wall. “Bitch!” I barked, trying to claw at the bastard and getting out of his grip so my head wouldn’t be bashed in. I managed to scratch him, but being undead he didn’t flinch. Rather, he did stop bashing me, but hit harder...and hard- I howled, and growled in pain. He… ATE….MY….NECK SKIN! I looked up, seeing him slurp it like a noodle. Oh okay, you pissed me off now. I tackled the bastard and drove his head into the ground as hard as I could to kill it. “Now you pissed me off ass hole!” I shouted as I kept bashing his head into the ground. He moved fast...fast that I was suddenly hitting his neck scruff skin and my lower jaw on the ground… ewewww…”Fucking gross!” I yelped, spitting out that things neck skin. I looked around and saw my upper hand. His body is leaking undead blood, leaving a trail. I followed, and found myself in…. In… HOLY! Before me was one of those bug wolf monsters, it’s skeleton MASSIVE. Reaching the ceiling of this room with ease. Eggs long since dead laid scattered about and still attached to the walls and the skeleton itself… GOTO KILLED THIS THING?! It’s head was bigger than the cave the paintings are in. Hell it’s EYE is bigger than that cave. I did notice it’s left eye socket was...glowing... “Hmm…” I hummed. “That’s either what I’m looking for...or I have a feeling this planet’s even more fucked…” I muttered, moving around carefully to see what was causing the glow. As I entered the eye socket I saw a small, glowing crystal that just looking at it I saw time passed...heard it. There it is. I reached in to grab it, only to get yanked out by the tail, my undead assailant tossing be back and onto some dead eggs, shattering the aged shells and showing me the skeletal monster infants inside. Shit, each egg has to have like four or five in them. “Cause fuck this, can’t be simple right now…” I muttered while getting up quickly. Gizer was already in front of my when I got up, headbutting me before I could counter, bit my paw, hard. Then tossed me to the side. As I got up he was running again, before...tripping? “That hook like grass can come in handy!” I heard Goto shout, jumping out from a patch of dead eggs and as I got closer, Gizer was wrapped up a dug up patch of that fucking deadly grass. Goto gabbed Gizer’s neck, and snapped it clean off his body. “Yeah...it does come in handy.” I nodded. “Especially against this bastard.” I frowned. “Well, that’s done. Heh, like my handy work?” Goto asked, motioning towards the giant dead beast. “How in the name of hell did you kill this thing? Killed it from the inside or something?” I asked. “Clawed my way into its eyeball, than once inside got inside it’s head and ate it’s brain.” Goto said simply. “Yeah...that makes sense.” I said, limping given my paw was bit really hard, towards the crystal. “Well..let’s hope the crystal can solve all of this…” “Before you do Ben, there is… one last Undead you best take care of...heh, even though I did all the work.” “You want me to kill you?” I asked honestly. “Give you a warrior's death?” “Better that then let that thing do...whatever and bring me back. I don’t belong alive at my age.” Goto said, showing me his neck, a clean kill… “May my spirit join my fellow hunters and warriors.” I nodded. “It was nice meeting you Goto.” I said, moving fast and doing my job to kill the old wolf. I couldn’t afford to think, to hesitate… in a swipt chomp, Goto’s head came clean off. I howled for him, Den telling me this was our version of prayer. Our howl reaching them in the afterlife. With that done, I headed back inside, and took the crystal in my mouth, and bit down on it hard. After some resistance, it cracked, then shattered. Everything went white. When I woke up I was still in wolf form, but Den was with me. We were in the cave. She was crying, but she had the best smile. “You saved my home… our home.” Den said. “Yeah well...that’s what hero’s do ya know?” I chuckled a little. “I met Goto…and fought with him.” “Cript told me. He was watching you.” She laughed. “Both Cript’s copy and our home came to your realm. He wants to show you what he did. Said it’s his grand plan.” Looking at the cave entrance, I saw Cript in his wolf form sitting just outside it. “Well alrighty then.” I said while walking towards Cript. “Sup.” “Heh. Care for the view?” Cript asked, a cloud appearing before us. “Sure.” I nodded. We hopped on- Oh my god this is so soft… It flew up high. Really high. When it finally stopped… It was amazing. My castle stood where Canterlot Mountain was, its size absorbing Ponyville, Appaloosa, a lot of land within its walls. Outside them was Den… my homeland. The two/three worlds and colossal castle all merged into one world. “This Ben, is what I have in mind for all creation. No more dimension traveling, no more realms… all one world, one sky. For infinity. While life for all will be finite, the world won’t be, it and it’s resources will go on forever. Yours, Zeke’s. The Foretellers. You’ll all die, but you can take comfort in knowing no more worlds will ever perish, for you’ll all share the same infinite world.” “So that’s it? One unified world?” I asked. “And what, you’ll lose all your powers after me and my friends fight in the keyblade war?” I asked honestly. “While you all fight in the Keyblade war, I’ll face my father Vincent, and settle the matter. Once he’s dead, Lord and I will activate this. Everything is falling into place to unify creation as the admins of old should have from the beginning rather than wage war, birthing Insanities and Psychopaths. I’ll still be immortal, but I’ll be physically the same as everyone else. Just can’t age or die. To be honest it will be fun. Finally, things will be a challenge again.” “Alrighty then...then there’s the problem of all the wars that ill happen due to all the people not understanding certain things and freaking out...then there’s an ass ton of other problems.” I brought up. “A fact of life. I trust when the day comes you’ll work to establish friendly connections with those who’d shoot first over asking questions.” “Yeah…” I said, but I had this strange feeling in my heart. “Will...we lose anyone because of this? Not the war, but the whole...merging everything to be infinite?” “You’ll be with your families in your respective lands.” Cript said. “But as for your friends, I can’t tell how far apart your lands will be from one another.” “That’s simple enough, we already live in different realms to begin with…” I said. “I was talking...about mom.” I said honestly. “I’m sorry but...I have this bad feeling that she’ll be gone...after what little time we’ve actually spent together…” I sighed out. “I don’t want to lose another mom ya know?” “Only for a while.” Cript admitted. “Den and the rest of the wives will be fusing into one being. While mentally, Den will be there. They all will, Psychically they’ll all have the same body. Only two ways to split from that. That will be in their, well, our sacred place. Got that set up already, and with these.” Cript said, a small wooden statue of mom appearing before me. She was in both her anthro form and primal form. The two halves of her back to back, divided by a wall between them. “Face which form you want her to appear in, and she’ll be there. While I imagine lots of statues like this will appear, they’ll only appear for those who know them, the kids. Grandkids.” “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “Glad to know...I won’t fully lose my mom.” I said honestly. “Things are gonna change Ben, it’s how life is… Hey...is that Jenny?” Looking down, I saw a thin female Direwolf with the back paws like lions paws, tail included, though the tip was fluffier tip, and massive blue and brown wings running around like mad. “Maybe...I mean, it’s a Direwolf with lion parts and wings…” I said honestly. “Well, wondering why she’s running around here?” “Enjoying herself. She loved dogs, now can become a wolf, and for the first time, looks like she can act like a kid.” I looked back at her. Jenny was actually playing with the others. Not violently either. Carefully, calmly, and with caution so they where not hurt. I smiled a little. “Maybe...I could join her...you know, have fun as father and daughter.” I said honestly, so glad to see Jenny happy without any murder or violence. “Be a better dad for her…” “Well go on then. Enjoy the peace while it lasts. After that, your last test.” “I have my powers back correct?” I asked honestly. “Yup.” “Right.” I nodded before jumping down and flying down towards Jenny. After a few moments I gently landed on solid ground near Jenny. “Hey Jenny.” I said. “How you liking being a wolf?” “This is awesome!” She said happily, jumping around and flapping her wings. “Care for a race? Loser hunts dinner.” Jenny said, ready to run or fly. I chuckled. “Alright, but I know some really good prey to hunt and eat.” I said with a smile. “Race where?” “From here to your castle. Give some stuck up nobles still in Canterlot a heart attack while we are at it.” She chuckled. “Whatever nobles are still around after I’m done with them all.” I rolled my eyes. “So, ready?” I asked, digging my paws into the ground ready to run. “Ready… set… go!” Jenny shouted, and we where off. To be continued...
Nobody goes to warSpending time with Jenny like this showed me a side of her I've never seen before. Her childlike wonder and innocence. The race to the castle was fun. A few noble ponies did receive some frights, but where quickly assured that everything was fine. I lost, Jenny cheated. Dinner was awesome. The next Day I met Cript in my castles tallest tower. Here the statue of Den was placed on a small shrine, alongside texts Consequence told me where the old kings scrokbooks of his armory, Treasury, and detailed documents of all current known Nobodies. “How are you doing?” I asked, back in my normal form with my cloak on after having a joyous day with Jenny. “Good. Lot of texts you'll wanna read later on. So, your final test.” Cript said. “Yes, my final test...whatever the hell that is.” I said honestly. “What is the final test if I may ask?” “Your final test is in two parts. Diplomatic security. We'll see how well you handle these things. Lastly is the second part. Controlled War.” “Oh boy, a whole lot of talking and then leading into me playing an RTS.” I said. “Can’t wait.” “First we will handle your diplomatic relations skills. In a few moments your eldest siblings will be arriving to inhabit your newly added territory. I had them select two leaders, and while they build/creature comfort their respective territory. Your job is to figure out how Equis and this new land and species will coexist with their differences.” “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “This is gonna be interesting...and a pain in the ass.” “The war will be, depending on how your diplomatic part goes, easier or harder. An unspecified amount of Shadow Creatures, Heartless, Unversed, and Inhumans that I will spawn in will invade from all sides. No one will die, just knocked out. Keep them from breaching the castle and grabbing the statue of Den, for three days, you pass.” “Oh…” I muttered. “That’s...gonna be a thing.” “A leader must be able to handle both social, political, and situational issues with proper action. This will prove to those struggling to follow you that you can lead this world.” “So no matter how I do this I will have things attacking my castle?” I asked honestly. “Yes. A proper king is more than just an authority, they must be someone the people can, without hesitation, trust to keep them safe. If you want the citizens to know this, don't let the enemies even reach your castle walls.” “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “This...is gonna be a bit annoying to be perfectly honest...wasn’t good at RTS style stuff...I know this isn’t a game but still.” I said, taking a deep breath as I already tried thinking of the hundreds of ways to defend this place with my supercomputer level intelligence. “Your sibling diplomats should be arriving soon. Good luck.” “Shit…” I muttered. “Well...this is gonna be a nightmare.” I muttered, taking a deep breath and mentally preparing myself for this. “Later then. I’ll check in when you are all done.” Cript said, leaving in a blink of the eye. “Can't wait…” I muttered. “Consequence, where's Luxu? Gonna need my generals help.” I sighed out. Consequence appeared. “I shall inform him at once.” He said, vanishing again. I headed back to my throne room. The walk was long enough that Luxu was there already. “So, I like what you’ve done with the place.” Luxu said, looking around. “New castle, new realm entirely, and a extra two worlds fuzed into one. Gotta say this is pretty impressive.” “Yep, but the extra worlds were because of Cript and...I have no idea why Equestria jumped here to begin with.” I shrugged. “But glad you like it. So, I suppose Consequence told you why I needed you?” “Yup. And, I suspect it jumped because you are tied to this realm now that you are it’s king, and since you’ve spent...a lot of time here your influence has rubbed off on it. Should I also point out you didn’t bring this worlds sun and moon?” I blinked. “Uh...woop.” I said worriedly. “Well..actually that’s a thing, I didn’t bring this here, Consequence did...I think.” I said, not a hundred percent sure about all that. “Then...why are the day and night cycles perfectly fine?” “Fuck if I know? I’ve never even been to this realm until this world was hacked into it. Well from what I gather your Celestia and Luna are now cut from their celestial bodies, you know what that means!” He said as if talking on Blues Clues. “And why did you need to talk like your on Blues Clues?” I asked honestly. “Cause sarcasm. It means they are Mortal now. From now on they will age like the rest of you. Though they will still live a bit longer than your other pony wives, maybe by… fifty, seventy years? Somewhere around there. But, they can be injured, so, be careful on that.” “Of course…” I muttered. “I...should have brought up with Cript about my family and their lifespans…” I muttered, having a feeling they have extended lifespans but not sure. “So anyways, I presume your a master tactician considering your...longer life?” “Yeah. Back when my friends where alive I taught them how to organize mass numbers in their Unions. Why? Something up?” “Well...Cript said my last ‘test’ is two parts, diplomacy, and then war management. The war part is gonna happen either way but it’s going to be easier or harder depending on if I do or don’t piss off the people I’m going to be talking to.” I said honestly. “So I’m gonna need your help to keep the entire castle safe. Cript said that a good defense would basically make any oncoming attacks never even reach the castle walls but...well you know me.” I said honestly. “Ah. Got it.” He said, summoning his Lunatic. “I’ll prove my loyalty when who or whatever it is start attacking. I’ll go inform your other council members and Faust and Scarab. Also, check this!” Luxu said, raising Lunatic to my throne. It glowed almost like a Keyblade before shooting a beam of nothingness into my throne. It glowed, and before us raised a table, where a holographic image of THE WHOLE WORLD appeared, flat like a map. Every kingdom and notable location for viewing. Even my Zeplin with my other clone and wives. Huh. “That...is really cool.” I said honestly, looking over the huge ass map. “I mean, I shouldn’t be surprised the General can summon a world wide map in the throne room to be perfectly honest.” “Yeah. I can use this to most effectively set up defences and offences. Oh, and check THIS.” He said, taking out his Keyblade and tapping it. The world turned to a sphere. Then a see through grey orb covered it, then several other worlds… Wait… Foretellers… Ruined world… John… and chunks of rock...Daybreak… “It shows all the worlds you have a connection to. Even Daybreak, which is now space rubble… eh.” “Your bastard of a father did that.” I frowned. “I know.” Luxu said simply. “Had a silent alarm setup in that armory. Grabbed all the Gazing Eyes, and my friends robes. That was all I did.” “Let me guess...you know your the one who’s going to have to kill him?” I asked honestly. “I’ve been planning it for longer than anyone should even consider the thought.” Luxu sighed. “He changed, that Fear of the X-blade… I just don’t know why. If I at least knew… then maybe I’d pity him.” “I understand…” I sighed out. “How’s Time Belle? You two still a couple?” “Yup. She’s back in Ponyville. Started helping Cheerilee with her classes. Think she might stay with that job. I know Cheerilee could use the help.” Luxu laughed. “That’s good.” I nodded. “Glad to know you two are still a couple.” I said with a little smile, glad to hear a nice laugh considering the upcoming problems. “Oh, and also…” I said while pulling out the pocket watch Kexez gave me. “Three years…” I said, knowing I won’t even need to say what the three years are for. “That’s our time.” “Three… years… Should have guessed.” Luxu sighed… what does he know? “What do you mean? I just learned that the day this hits zero the day syncs up for literally everyone, is there something else you know?” I asked curiously. “The reflections all...have one day, a whole 24hrs where they are on the same day, same time, same year. That was when the first Keyblade war broke out. Ever since then every so many randomly seeming years they line up, on this day the barriers between then are damn near like paper. Easy for traveling between reflections.” “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “Anything else? Like...the Realm of Darkness, Nothingness and Void being able to seep into the world more easily or something?” I asked honestly. “Void, no. It follows its own rules. Nothingness was never part of the first one because back then it was an unknown area. Darkness… perhaps. It didn’t last time but in the years before the war Heartless reports where skyrocketing to all time highs, though that can be because of the negativity between the unions regarding the traitor. This new war will only have slight similarities to the old one. Cause as far as I can predict.” He said, waving Gazing Eye. “It’s a war unique to itself.” “Interesting…” I said. “Um...how long will it last? Cause I was told it would last a day if we're lucky enough.” “Depends. Even if we take out Spoiled, Kexez, Eve and her kin all in the first day, the amount of Heartless, and Ventral clones and god knows what else they have will be flooding the place. It’s the cannon fodder in this war that will be the one who makes the hours turn to days. Weeks even if possible.” “Oh dear…” I frowned. “I mean...we have armies as well but still...the war’s gonna suck I just know it.” “All wars suck.” Luxu said. “Just don’t sit and watch… like I did…” I was sitting in a meeting room, adorned with what I think is real gold and marble pillars. Looks so fancy. Food was set up all around, as were drinks. All I was doing now was waiting. “Well...I hope they enjoy the food and drinks.” I muttered, thinking about who might be here and what is going to happen here. The doors opened. Three Dire Wolf siblings of mine entered. Two women, one man. One of the women was in Primal form, the other in humanoid. The third was also humanoid, but in heavy armoring. Or...was it something else. It looks almost ceremonial. They entered, taking their seats across from me. “How are you three doing today?” I asked politely, wanting to start off simple. “Fine.” The armored one spoke. “It’s been exciting.” The other humanoide one said. “We understand you saved out ancestral homeworld.” The Primal one said. “I am Stria. The armored brother of ours and yours is Kelko. And lastly Nina here. Kelko developed his own version of the past two tribes, creating a third that exists as both the Evolved and Primal bodies by existing in the middle.” Stria said. “That’s right.” Kelko spoke. “As I am now my reflexes, smell and other physical attributes are stronger than the Evolved form, but not as good as the True Primal.” I nodded. “It’s wonderful to meet you three.” I said politely while motioning to the food. “Please, help yourselves to the food and drinks if you’d like.” I said, wanting to be a good host and get on their good sides without having the ‘savior of their world’ being the main thing about me. “Thank you.” Nina said, getting up and taking a water bottle. “So then, we decided on the way over here to speak of our issues separately, or rather one at a time.” “I’m here to help.” I said readily. “Who wants to go first?” I asked, wondering who will go first and tell me their problems. “If I may?” Stria asked her siblings, the two nodding. “The new Primal Tribe requests the land we held before the world became poisoned. The thick of the forests and the flatlands where the larger preys roam.” She asked. “And there’s our shared issue.” Kelko said. “We need the flatlands to build our towns and cities, and their woods would hold the best lumber. But we can’t touch those trees without a fight breaking out.” Nina nodded. “Tradition dictates the Evolved Tribes built their homes from stone.” Nina spoke. “But without wood for temporary construction, and tools, we’d be at a disadvantage.” “And their towns and cities in the flatlands would take up space and food/water sources the large prey need to continue to breed and populate.” Stria countered. “Do you need all the flatlands?” I asked curiously. “Or just a good portion of it? Cause the forest problem, while it might take time, regrowing the trees that are cut down would help keep the forests alive and well, cause again the towns and cities don’t need all the lumber right?” I asked. “As they grow it might become an issue.” Kelko said. “The bigger our population grows over time the more lumber we’ll need. While just one of the massive trees will do for now it won’t last us for too long.” “Yes, then we can switch to stone and mine the mountains like the past Evolved Tribe.” “Well, you’ll be doing that.” Kelko said. “The Third Tribe all decided simple huts for basic sleeping and that’s it.” “Yes, and you clearly didn't think everything through…” Nina rolled her eyes. Wow, they are so real siblings, fight like them. “This might sound a little weird but have you thought of building towns in the trees?” I asked honestly. “Keeps the flatlands open if all the buildings are either built on the side of the tree’s, or literally are the tree’s.” I said honestly. “Are the trees?” Stria asked. “Can you explain that?” “I think he means hollow them out as needed to make a house.” Kelko said. “Pretty much.” I said honestly. “I sadly haven’t been to the forests all that much but I know the tree’s are big enough to either hold living spaces, or the few really huge one’s actually being it’s own town or city.” I said. “How big are the biggest tree’s if I may ask?” “On standard the trees are five hundred feet thick and can reach up to four miles high…” Stria said. “If hollowed out, one can house hundreds to thousands of your tribe while co-existing with my own… Leaving the flatlands open for the large, important preys.” “And the wood we cut out can be used for tools and will be used accordingly.” Kelko said. “Yes… that can work out well, all of us in one area would also make for an interesting integration.” Nina pondered. “The flatlands is clear, the forest floor stays out of it and most of the wood is cut from higher up instead of the entire thing.” I explained. “Does that sound good to you three?” “That can work well.” Stria said. “Yes, we can make them more than fit to keep the young safe high up when this expected war hits.” Nina spoke. “Or dig far below to make bunkers.” Stria added. “That’s good too, the extra wood could make your cave homes or dug dens better suited to resist the rains and snow.” “I think this is gonna work out better than expected.” Kelko said. I smiled warmly. “That’s good.” I nodded. “Anything other problems?” I asked curiously. “Well I guess it’s just the need to tools.” “What kind of tools do you need?” I asked. “Saws, nails, screws. Mostly basic tools and some more high end tools.” Nina said. “That can be easily solved.” I nodded. “Is there anything else? Land and tools are taken care of...do any of you have problems with your new neighbors?” “I feel we can get along. The races seem diverse enough that a new one might not be an issue.” “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “So we have land solved, and I’m sure I can find someone that can help deliver the tools you’ll need to build our new home...um, do you need any help in building or are you all okay with that?” “We can handle that fine.” Kelko said. “After this war test of yours we would like to discuss trades for goods of course. We can deliver the meats from preys while you can trade… whatever.” “How maturely spoken…” Nina said, making Stria giggle. “Well spoken.” I chuckled a little. “But alright then...gonna need to figure out what to trade…” I muttered. “So, all three of you are happy with what’s been discussed?” “Yes, this was rather well done.” Stria said. “Glad to help.” I nodded with a smile. “But...now I’m gonna have to prepare for the war part…” “That is not for a few days so you’ll have time.” Nina said. “Really? I thought it would have happened...like right away.” I said honestly. “Cause knowing my luck...it tends to happen at the worst time.” “Well you have time to prepare.” “I think a week?” Kelko said. “Well that’ll at least give me some time to prepare…” I muttered. “Time to evacuate the people to safe places, prepare defenses…” “You go do that.” I was with Luxu, Faust, and Scarab in the throne room with the defence map out. “WIth the supplies you got in the Zebra lands and what I have so far taken into account in the armory the old king left for you, We can set up defensive towers and control towers in major areas in Equis and some in minor areas.” Luxu stated, several small towers appearing on the map. “As for the Dire Wolf territory We can build them on top of the trees and when this is over convert them into something more useful to them.” “Good.” I nodded. “Is there any position that might be weak or disadvantages?” I asked, knowing we’re on top of a mountain so we’re at a good defensible area but I still want to make sure. “Since we don’t know from where they will appear we will assume they will appear in mass in the open areas of the world, and in few but still concern worthy numbers in the populated areas.” Faust spoke. “As such ground troops will be deploys in numbers of a hundred troops in the open areas and in groups of twenty in populated areas.” “Our gathered aid from the first war will be on first defence.” Scarabe said. “Discord will be taking the North, Nora will take the east, Jupiter will be taking the south and Sonna will be taking the west. The others we found will be scattered between the points with this castle as it’s center.” “Which reminds me.” Luxu said, looking over to me. “Are you gonna, ya know, rename this place? Cause it don’t look like Canterlot anymore.” “Maybe...but I’m not good with names.” I said honestly. “But thank you...how many survivors have you found so far Scarabe?” I asked curiously “From the old days only ten, Discord included. Other Keyblade wielders however did agree to come here, most of them not even knowing what it was they were wielding. We also received word from Daybreak. Zeke is MIA and Lord Mors is assuming the lead Figure head as he is the only other living person to have ever wielded the X-blade. He heard of your up and coming battle and wanted you to know that while Daybreak the world may be gone, it’s people and power stand. He says to expect at least fifteen thousand extra fighters within the next two days.” Right, they don’t know about Zeke and Trixie sharing a body. Or Kexez. “I...have some explaining to do on some matters cause you've been gone so long…” “That can be told later.” Luxu said, three more towers appearing on the map, these ones around the castle. “We have no idea how big some of these enemies are. I know there are some big Unversed and Heartless, but these Shadow Creatures Cript said would also be appearing. Luckily, one of the new arrivals to replace the Direwolf race of old is a self studied expert on them.” Walking in from the hallway, came in a Dire wolf teen girl, large glasses and arms filled with notebooks and papers. “Krista here knows more than any of her siblings so she’ll be out expert.” “Uh, pleasure to meet you all.” She said, giving a nervous bow as some of her papers slipped out of her grip. “Please, no need to bow.” I said while helping her gather the papers that fell out of her grip. “Uh, thanks.” She said, taking them and then placing all of her works on the table. “Well, out of all the Shadow Creatures, the most dangerous variations are the different versions of the Titan Shadows. To our current records there are six different variations. The tallest of them being about three miles high.” She said, her Assistant flashing. Six different monsters, four or which wearing armor that looked like exoskeleton of bone. “Standard, only fifty to forty feet tall. Alpha. The mile high one. Omega, the two mile high one. Delta, the three mile tall one. Micro.” She said, the one unarmored one zooming in. “While only eight feet tall as it’s highest, it’s as strong as the standard. And lastly the Cosmic.” The final one was shown. This one’s skin looked like the night sky. “It’s three miles high, and can absorb whole stars worth of energy. Their only weak spots are their eyes and mouth, their inside skin and flesh very weak, and vulnerable to explosions. Their face armor though is the tricky part, while tough, like all their armors it can be broken. Fast moving projectiles can damage it enough to shatter it completely.” “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “That’s quite a bit...wonder what else could be thrown at us besides Titans.” “Aside from them the other variations are easier to deal with, firearms and strong blade and blunt weapons as well as magic can easily kill them. It may take a few tries depending on how powerful they are. Knowing dad it will be challenging but not unfair.” “That’s what they all say before unfairness kicks down your door.” I rolled my eyes. “Anything else I should worry about?” “The Inhumans.” She said, a human silhouette of a person standing on all fours appeared. “They touch you they will know everything about you. They’ll make themselves into your worst fears, and be your equal in terms of power and abilities. Best kill them before they ever touch you. They are also smart, and calculating. While they act wild they’re as smart enough to invade whole worlds.” “Well that’s just wonderful.” I sighed out. “Are there any subspecies of Inhumans I should know about?” “Thankfully no.” Krista said. “There are Subhumans but they are not of concern, they do their own shit out of everyone else's Realms.” “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “So Titans and Inhumans are both things...anything else?’ I asked. “Cause while I doubt Cript would do something like this I want to know like...what’s the worst things he can throw at us.” “Not sure. None of us have ever seen dad go all out before.” Krista said. “We did bring a lot of weapons, armors and special munitions from home, and we kept what we wanted to use, the overflow some of your Nobodies arrived and took them to your Armory and some excess Rem and other currencies were sent to your Vault. You might wanna check them both out.” “Yeah, I have a lot of things to check out still.” I said honestly. “Now a good question...would Cript have everyone be attacked at once or teleport an ass ton of enemies in the middle of town?” “Most likely they will spawn within random areas for a set time, moving around for the duration of this war before on the final day releasing a massive wave of strong enemies before closing.” “So expect at least some to be teleported into the city cause ‘random areas’ is pretty vague.” I frowned. “Hard to say.” Krista sighed. “Best course of action is to fortify large buildings to keep the general populace inside to keep them safe while heavily armed guards keep any invaders out.” “I was planning to get the people somewhere safe…” I agreed. “But...literally everything can go wrong if I’m just short on something…” “Then best to overstock.” Dante said, walking into the room. “Luxu asked me to show you the Armory, and you’d distribute what goes where. I tell you this now, you are beyond loaded on shit.” “I have a feeling.” I said honestly. “Is there anything else I should know before heading down to the armory?” I asked, wanting to know things before just heading off. “If there is we’ll let you know.” Luxu said. I nodded and followed Dante to a hallway adjacent to my throne room. Here stood a door without a knob or means of opening. He summoned Sharpshooters, firing a bolt at it as the whole door glowed white before moving back and sliding to the right. Down a stairway I was met with a small room and… that same moogle from the Zebra lands, and behind him a glass wall where I saw no limit to the stacks and stacks and stacks and stacks...and STACKS of all various weapon crates, armor stands and crates, Vechicals- Is that the Millennium Falcon from Star Wars!? “Excuse me but what the fuck.” “Oh, it’s you again.” The moogle said. “Hello again.” I nodded to the moogle. “Well, hello again. So you did become king. Well when I’m not selling the excess I’m your Armory Quartermaster. Need anything?” “How...many things are here?” I asked. “Nine point forty five Novemdecillion, that’s sixty zeros behind a one for reference.” I took a deep breath. “And...I have...basically every weapon, armor and vehicle here?” “And copies. Lots of copies. The old king was quite the collector. He collected weapons and things, and you seem to collect women.” Dante snickered at that. “Oh shush you.” I said to Dante. “So...I have literally everything...oh god how am I going to distribute it all?” I frowned. “I don’t even think there’s enough soldiers for even a sixteenth of this…” “Distribute what is needed. As quartermaster once you have bases set up I can ship out the needed supplies. Munitions, armor, vehicles. you will have to talk to the royal chef and Doctor for distribution of medicines and food rations.” “Right then.” I nodded. “Thank you...oh boy I don’t even know how many soldiers I have…” I grumbled. “And I doubt I have enough to move much…” “Now let’s head over to your Vault, which is ironically right next door.” Dante said, a door to the left of us opening out of the wall. It was a narrow, small hallway that lead to… When did I get to Scrooge Mcduck’s gold vault… To my right, was a Gambler Nobody, though like Consequence, he wore a Cloak. He sat at a desk, counting various currencies. Some I knew, some I have no idea what they are. “Hello.” I said. “Um...why do I have Scrooge’s gold vault and will he be mad at that?” He looked up, then looked down. “Greetings my lord. I am Greed, your Royal accountant and guardian of your treasures. This vault as well as your Armory exist in a specialized pocket dimension to accommodate the vast wealth and items of your inheritance. If there are any other questions feel free to ask.” “How much money do I even have?” I asked nervously. “Cause...if this is all in a pocket dimension…” “The vault itself is nine miles by nine miles squared and runs seventy four Tredecillion miles deep. That’s forty two zeros behind seventy four. The various currencies here amount to, in standard Munny, is a number yet to be named or recorded on any world.” I took a moment to even think of that. “Um…” I took a deep breath. “Good lord...I’m fucking rich.” I said. “And...you count literally all of this every day?” I asked nervously. “I’m still counting.” “Your still counting!?” I asked, completely flabbergasted at that. “Ever since I was appointed here sixty eight hundred thousand years ago.” “Christ, don’t you ever get breaks or something?” I asked nervously, knowing this guy is a Nobody but still. “I was given the option, but refused. Focusing on the task at hand is my chosen purpose.” “And...when your done?” I asked nervously. “I’ll count again. Best to double check and be sure it’s right.” “Alright then.” I nodded. “So...I have you and Consequence...is there anyone else like you two?” I asked curiously, having a feeling my accountant would know a lot of things. “Trigun, the Royal butler. Endon, the Chef. Oh, and Mulissa, the Royal doctor.” Greed said. “Alright then...wonder why I haven’t met Trigun…” I muttered, thinking I would have met the royal butler immediately. “Thank you Greed.” “Trigun comes when called. It’s as simple as that.” “Alright then…” I muttered. “Trigun?” I called out, wondering if that’ll bring the person to me. “Greetings Sire.” I jumped… A Human looking Nobody appeared, their skin silver and eyes glowing blue. He wore a simple butlers suite, the Nobody symbol was his tie. “What kind of Nobody are you?” I asked Trigun, not really having seen a Nobody like him. “I am a Hollow. A Nobody who’s heart no longer exists.” He said, giving me a bow. “So, what do you require master?” “Is...there anyone else like you?” I asked a little worriedly, honestly shocked about hearing someone’s heart no longer exists. “To my knowledge, no.” “Right then.” I nodded. “Hmm...is there any other Nobody like Greed and Consequence? Greed said there’s you, the chef and the doctor, do you know of anyone else?” “We are the only intelligent versions of our counterparts. While many can look like us, they will never truly be like us.” “How...were you made to be this intelligent?” I asked curiously. “We just are. No reason given.” “Hmm...interesting…” I hummed, finding that bit interesting. “Do you know the entire layout of the castle?” “It’s my job to know anything you need of me, my lord.” “Is there any hidden entrances to the castle? And if so how many are there?” I asked, thinking that I could use tunnels to do a bunch of sneak attacks against the enemies. “Currently there are fifteen thousand, eight hundred and six secret entrances, exits, pathways and rooms within the castle.” “Thank you.” I nodded. “I presume my General knows about all of these secret passageways?” “He is learning, this I know, but there are still many left for him to learn of.” “Right.” I nodded. “Um...I know there’s a blacksmithing area and an engineering area...are they both as vast as the Vault and Armory?” “No. The Blacksmithing area is no bigger than ten by either feet. The Engineering area is fifty by thirty feet but that’s all.” “Uh...interesting.” I said honestly. “Now sure I have more weapons, armor and vehicles then I know what to do with but...you’d expect those places to be bigger…” I hummed in curiosity. “If you would like, we can expand at any time.” I thought for a moment. “I’ll need to check those two places to see what needs to be included if I need expansion…” I muttered. “But that’s not something important right now, right now is the upcoming war I’m gonna be apart of…” “Anything I can assist with, my lord?” “How many soldiers do I have?” I asked curiously. “And how good are you at combat?” “Combined with your Nobody soldiers and new additions, 88.5 trillion soldiers, and I am as good at combat as you want me to be. My lord.” “Good…” I nodded. “You know the statue of Den in my castle?” I asked. “Yes, my lord.” “When the time comes for the war I want you to protect that statue with everything you have and more.” I told him. “No Shadow Creature, Heartless or Unversed are to get to it.” I said to my butler. “If you get hurt, hurt them back. If you die...walk it off.” I told him, knowing full well I was referencing Age of Ultron but I liked that quote. “Of course my lord.” He said, bowing. “What kind of butler can’t brush off death for their master?” I could tell his tone was sincere, and honest. “Good.” I nodded. “Thank you..how many of my soldiers can actually use vehicles, armor or weapons?” I asked curiously, knowing that the 88.5 trillion soldiers probably can’t all use weapons, armor and vehicles for some reason or another. “The Nobodies should have no issues. Some of your new addition soldiers should be able to learn fast.” I nodded. “How many types of Nobodies are there that I don’t know about? Cause I know the standard thirteen, the wolves, and the Medic nobodies, plus the royal guard, but is there any other kinds of Nobodies I should know about?” “On record we have thirty six hundred volumes each detailing a total nine hundred and fifty three variations of Nobody.” “Jesus.” I frowned. “I...didn’t think there was that many.” I said worriedly. “And we all are yours to command, my liege.” Trigun bowed again. “Nothingness for untold centuries has hidden it’s power and might. Am I to expect that to change under your rule?” “Within reason.” I said honestly. “I’m still new to this whole thing...so it’s gonna take me a bit to fully explore Nothingness for what it’s true power holds.” “Understood my king. Is there anything else I can do for you?” I thought for a moment, wondering if there was anything else I should ask Trigun. “Hmm…” I hummed. “I...suppose that’s it.” I said honestly, not sure what to ask next from the one that knows a lot more than me here. “Alright my lord, til this war is over I shall guard your statue.” With that, Trigun vanished. A swirl of Nothingness thorns covering him before evaporating like steam. I nodded. “Well...that was a good talk…” I muttered, still thinking everything over. “I’m gonna have to go to the library and read up on a bunch of things as well…” I muttered, trying to think of what else to do in this massive castle. Another day had passed, the bases were almost done, fast work, and the Direwolf village was going along smoothly. Construction on that was almost completely done. Troops were getting armed and began marches and routine checks on the areas. Guns, Keyblades, and all other kinds of weapons were at their disposal, and in terms of Vehicles flying ones were used to keep the ground unharmed so not to disturb the preylife of Home and wildlife of Equis. “Well so far so good…” I muttered, looking over the map yet again to make sure everything was in place. “Everything is looking good.” Kat said, walking into the throne room. “Some of your new Direwolf siblings brought something called a Mass Cropping and Husbandry computer. It digitalis plants, animals, and can grow and breed them indefinitely in seconds and just push out the finished product, raw meat, wheat, fruits. Forever. Just the three we got from them we’ll never go hungry ever. Punches out enough food to feed this city and nine more planets.” “Dear god.” I said honestly. “Didn’t expect that to...happen so suddenly.” “Yeah, the tech from that place is unlike any I’ve ever seen or could even think of.” “Well any new tech is good, especially if it’s basically pumping out food.” I said honestly. “Just hope all the people got to safety before things officially hit the fan.” “I’m sure things will always work out.” Kat said, tossing me an Orange. “From the newest drop off. They taste the perfect sweet and tangy ratio.” I grabbed it, cut off a slice from it and ate it, wondering how good it is. It...was...amazing. “Wow…” I said honestly. “This is really good” “I know right? With food this good trading with other worlds will be a steal.” “Oh yeah.” I nodded. “This will help solve a lot of issues.” “Also, the Kings, Queens of the Hippogriffs, Deer, and Saddle Arabians and Minotaur Guilds Guild leaders are here to speak with you. Guilds guild… how redundant.” Kat said, shrugging as she walked off. “Can’t wait to meet them.” I muttered while stretching a bit. “Ugh, this is gonna turn my fur white if I’m not careful…” I muttered while feeling my back crack. “Well...time to speak with the leaders...” As I entered the Throne room I was met with the respective royalty, who all bowed in respect before rising as I took seat on my throne. “How are you all doing today?” I asked politely. “I hope it wasn’t too far of a venture to come here to my...way too big castle.” “It isn’t hard to miss.” The Hippogriff queen spoke. “I am Queen Novo of the Hippogriffs. My daughter and I come here alone. While my daughter if of age, she is… not suited for marriage of yet… She can be so childish. So, being a widow I come to offer my hand in your marriage.” I nodded. “I’ll make sure to be the best husband you can ask for my Queen.” I said with a smile. The next to come up where the Minotaurs. Unlike a certain one I remember from when this was all TV episodes past, these two were rather short, wearing elegant clothing rather than other kinds of clothing. “Greetings, we are the Guilds Guild leaders. I am Cork, and my wife here is River.” “It is a pleasure to meet you both.” I nodded. “How are you both doing today?” “We are fine. Along with our own eldest daughter, we bring the eldest daughters of the top five guilds. The Hunters, Mages, Bankers, Traders and Farmers Guild eldest daughters are here for your hand. Being the highest guilds leaders daughters makes them all equal to Royalty.” I nodded. “Thank you.” I said. “Can’t wait to meet them all.” I said simply. “But what is going to happen to the Minotaurs though? Your people are mostly in guilds correct? No monarchy or anything like that?” “That is correct, as such each guild governs their own aspects of the land. Our guild is in charge of categorizing all the other guilds and making sure none of them step into another's territory. We also approve buyouts, mergers and deals between the guilds if it benefits the land and kingdom as a whole.” “I suppose you are all okay with being under one full banner or are you keeping the guilds even after this?” I asked curiously. “Cause I don’t want to cause unrest for the people if I have anything to say about it.” “We feel with the direction the world is taking, our guilds will help keep order in more than just the land we call home.” “I understand.” I nodded in agreement. “As long as the people are good with this.” I said, caring about the public opinion rather than only looking out for myself. They nodded. Next up was the deer king and queen. “Greetings king.” The king said. “I am Aspen, king of the deer. Typically we do not leave the sacred lands of our forest home, but, some of your Direwolf Kin found our home and we got along rather well. Our beliefs aligning and their new age philosophy mixing with tradition rang well with us.” “That...was fast.” I said honestly. “But that’s great to hear, glad my people are getting along with yours.” “Yes, our Co-existence is a welcome surprise. While I have no daughters of my own, I offer you my Kingdom, my people, and five of my kingdoms fairest women for your herd.” “Thank you.” I nodded “It’ll be wonderful to meet the lucky ladies, but you giving me your kingdom? I mean...I’m sorry I think I’m taking that out of what you truly meant, cause for some reason I think your just handing me your crown basically.” I said nervously. “You kidding. My wife, son and I plan on moving in with your kin, finally no more royal issues to deal with.” “Yeah, that’s what I thought.” I muttered. “Well alrighty then. Was gonna have to do this again but...I’m gonna need an advisor for your people considering...I sadly don’t know much and I don’t want to do bad things to piss them off.” I said nervously. “My last act as king will be to assign one then.” The final ones to arrive where the Saddle Arabians. To my surprise they were Earth ponies, but they were easy as tall as Celestia. “Greetings. I am King Boroko, and this is my wife Silver Crown.” “A pleasure.” Silver Crown said. “It is a pleasure to meet you two.” I nodded. “How are you two doing today?” “We are well.” Silver spoke. Strange, her husband greeted them but now he’s dead silent. “Forgive this but back in our homeland the males greatly outpopulate the women, so often a woman has multiple husbands. My other kings are in your lobby taking a tour… not sure why you are giving them out.” “Ironic considering Equestria has a female overpopulation.” I said honestly. “But what do you mean by ‘why you are giving them out’?” “Well, I understand giving out tours...but you charged? I mean no offence it’s just a bit strange.” I groaned. “Jenny! Stop scamming the royals!” I barked loud enough for her to hear me. “I’m sorry but that’s my daughter...doing stupid things.” “Oh, I know how that is, my own son is quite the little… and I truly love him, but he is such a pain in my ass…” She sighed, shaking her head. “Anyway. Since females are a rarity in our land we took a...different approach to bring you women for your herd…” ”Oh boy I can’t wait to hear this.” I thought to myself. “What is this ‘different approach’?” “Well, while it is true there are a lot of males over females in our country, we believe this to be because we are a melting pot of many races placed into one kingdom, we know for a fact many males also undergo a...magical transgender operation…” She said. “So a month earlier we made a sensus of those who would be willing and qualified… So Saddle Arabia gives to you four...hundred willing new females for your herd… All of various races from ponies to dragons, and others...many...many others…” I actually slipped off my throne like in anime at hearing such a thing. “Excuse me, did you just say ‘four hundred willing wives’?” I asked, getting up a little shakily. “Your popularity in my kingdom is well above that of Equis. Or any other kingdom. This is partly due to written novels written by a… Oh… I believe your Daughter is making money off your fame with possible false stories, the other half is because of the Changeling and Diamond dog nations… pornogrophy of you…” I face palmed. “Of course…” I muttered. “Hooray for Fanfiction...and of course Jenny is trying her best to profit off of it…” I grumbled. “So...anyways, four hundred wives correct?” I said, still shocked by such a high ass number. “Yes…” “I’m sorry for repeating that but....I thought there would be like one or two, not four hundred.” I said honestly. “But...okay so onto the actual ‘kingdoms’ part…” I said, trying to think of something to actually talk about besides me freaking out about the four hundred women I’m gonna suddenly have dogpile me. “Well for the remaining males I figured since even without gender ratio your kingdoms females still quite outnumber my kingdoms males. I am hoping for a merg of kingdoms so this issue can be settled, while the gender issue of my country will be solved by this the Equestrian gender ratio will be still a five to one males. Better than nothing honestly.” “Yes, yes it is.” I nodded. “I understand and I’ll help figure out how to get that whole thing settled. Is there anything else if I may ask?” “No I believe that is all.” “Uhh...Ben.” I saw Luxu peeking in from the doors. “You might wanna see this…” “Oh no…” I muttered while getting up and walking over to the doors. “What is it Luxu?” “Okay first off it’s not the enemy we are expecting… but Jenny already claims responsibility.” He said, walking me over to the nearest Window and… Is that a MOB of mares in brides outfits… “Oh...um…” I started. “Saddle Arabia has an overpopulation of males...and they do a special procedure to...make them female.” I explained slowly. “And...the queen said...there are four hundred of them...of differentiating race…” I said worriedly. “So yeah...those are four hundred new wives...just from Saddle Arabia...aren’t I just lucky?” I asked nervously. “Not exactly.” Jenny said, walking up to me from the other side of the hallway. “Notice all these mares are pony, and Diamond Dog, with a few changelings thrown in? Also some dragons, more Deer, a few siblings of yours who arrived recently…” She trailed off, this twisted smile never leaving her face. “What did you do?” I frowned. “Oh just figured a little thanks for giving me back my memories was in order…” “And...that would be?” I asked curiously. “With Time Bell’s help, I sent out a notice saying that before your wedding day, any eligible female can arrive in a bride's outfit and marry in.” “And...how many jumped at the chance?” I asked nervously. “Not sure, I know I started this out as a means of finding a few more gals for Joy, a good amount joined in on that bandwagon too, but I decided to see what would happen if I put your name on the notice. From every Kingdom, even the Badlands they were sent.” “Oh boy…” I muttered. “Um...can’t...wait to talk to all of them…” I said nervously. “God...the others are gonna freak at having suddenly a massive horde of women are joining…” I sighed out. “Okay...so there’s one more woman to find, and that would be the Queen of the Monsters that’s hidden somewhere…” “Well as far as I know some Badlands residents came here also, maybe you can ask some of them?” Jenny suggested. “Hopefully they’ll know something.” I said honestly. “Oh boy...this is gonna take a while…” I sighed out. “Well...I better go down there and meet them all…but you did hear me say stop scamming people right Jenny?” And… she was gone... “Of course…” I sighed out. “So...Luxu can you watch over things while I...do things?” I asked nervously. “Alright but if they start shooting bras and panties I am out.” He said, running along to do crowd control. “I’ll...try to make sure that doesn’t happen…” I said while opening the window and flying down to all the women. “Uh...hello.” I said to all the women. “How are you all doing today?” What followed was the mass screams of what I assume are my fans from all over this world… and a few bras thrown. “I’m out!” I heard Luxu scream off in the distance. “Can you not throw your underwear at me! Please!?” I shouted at them all. “Christ...okay who here is from the Badlands?” I called out to the hundreds of women. Several hands went up. A few Thestrals, one woman that looked like A dragon but I feel is not, and some...cat women people like the khajiit from Skyrim. Hey...Centaur people? “Do any of you know where the Queen of Monsters is?” I asked them. They looked among themselves, most shrugged while one raised her hand. One of the Centaur ladies. “I know that the Prince of monsters lives deep in the Badlands on Storm Mountain.” She spoke up. “Wasn’t there anything about a Princess of Monsters?” I asked. “I was told that there was a Princess that ran away for...some unknown reason.” I said, wanting to make sure that there is a princess here. “All I know is some dude making an army on Storm mountain is declaring himself King of Monsters is also calling himself the Storm King. I knew him from before...total loser. How he’s got others following him I’ll never know.” “Do you think he’ll be panicking about me at the moment?” I asked. “Probably. I’d expect is right hand to be arriving. Crazy pony bitch with a freaky sword and broken horn.” I frowned. “Tempest…” I growled. “Well, can’t wait for her to come here.” I said honestly. “And then kick her ass…” I muttered. “So, how many of you are here right now?” I asked honestly. “Did anyone decide to do a headcount?” “There was some freaky silver looking noodle person in a cloak counting everyone as they came in.” Another lady, this one a Thestral, spoke up. “That would most likely be Consequence.” I muttered. “How many Consequence?” I asked honestly. Consequence appeared, startling everyone around. “My lord. The total count of women here for you is an astounding two thousand, four hundred and sixteen. Including your current wives and the Monster Queen still missing. For Sir Joy five hundred and forty nine.” Because Anime apparently liked me today I fell over like an anime character at the numbers. “Excuse me!” I got right back up quickly. “Two thousand four hundred and sixteen? Why do so many actually like me?” “Majority seem to fancy you for your heroism, others for the stories, some for the porns made about you, and the others are looking for a mate and have no luck in their life due to lack of males or none where interested. Same case for Joy though there is no porn of him that I was told of.” “I’m glad there isn’t any of that about Joy.” I muttered thankfully. “Alright...well I’m gonna have to go face that bastard Storm King before he adds any problems to the upcoming war soon...and then I need to deal with Tempest…” I groaned. “And now I have to help the two thousand ladies here...ugh…” I groaned. “Christ...so much to do…” I muttered, trying to think of what to do in what order. “Sire, why not send one of us to deal with the issue?” Consequence said. “If you are still needed here one of us would happily take care of these roughiens in your stead.” “I’m new to being a king and having people able to do things for me…” I said. “Alright...so who would be a good group to capture the Storm King and all his followers and bring them to me?” I asked curiously. “Allow me.” Consequences said. “I promise it shall take no longer than a day or less.” “Thank you Consequence.” I nodded. “Bring them here alive alright? I have questions for the king, and I really hope his followers will see reason.” I said, hoping the people will see reason and not fight back. “I shall deliver your work swiftly, and effectively.” Consequence stood at the base of Storm Mountain. Airships, armed guards and machinery littered the ground and mountain itself. “Oh my.” He said, sighing. “They made a mess of the natural landscape.” As Consequence walked into the guards line of sight, two of them came up to stop him. “Halt, no one is allowed beyond this point.” One of them spoke. “Apologies, but there is nothing personal about what comes next.” Consequence said, casting a massive Sleep spell across the majority of the area. “There we go, now just to-” Consequence side stepped, Tempest's quick attack missing completely. She looked up at him, eyes wide at his speed. “Ah, Miss Tempest. If you would-” She slashed up, and Consequence dodged. “Please come along-” Another slash, another dodge. “Peacefully and I promise-” Slash. Dodge. “Then I can promise no-” Slash, dodge. “Harm will befall your person.” Tempest tried to cast Mega Flare, But Consequence grabbed her Keyblade. “If you insist on being difficult You give me no choice.” He reached his hand into her chest, wrapping it around her heart… “Oh, two hearts? This is unexpected.” Consequence said. “Nonetheless, this darker heart must be the reason for your lack of compliance.” Tempest gasped. The second heart she carried most of her life being pried from her body painfully. The shock knocked her unconscious, and Consequence dropped her to the ground. “Now then, I believe there will be no need for you.” Consequence said, wrapping the heart in nothingness thorns before making it vanish, sending it to the castle for his king to observe. “Now then, onto this king…” “Well…” I frowned, seeing the heart floating in front of me. “Ereques’s heart eh?” What to do with it? Too much darkness in it to likely reach him and I don’t have… I wonder… I summon my X-blade No Heart and, Like Zeke, jabbed into Ereques’s heart. Do I say what he always said? “Reject Darkness.” I said, hoping this will work. A powerful shot of light was ejected from No Heart and into Eraques’s heart. To my surprise a Samurai Nobody appeared at the same time, taking the heart into itself… Right, it’s passive ability. There was a bright flash of light, and then before me laid the Master, clothed thankfully before grunting as he got up. “Agh… what...where?” He asked, getting back up. “I...I have my body… My heart isn’t…” “Take a deep breath old man.” I told him. “What’s the last thing you remember?” “I...I remember… No...NO!” He screamed, pounding his fist to the floor. “I… I let the darkness overtake me… I killed my own pupil…” He broke down crying. “I became the very thing I was sworn to destroy…” I knelt down and put a hand on his shoulder. “Listen...there’s a lot to talk about...but right now, you have to apologize.” I said gently. “Terra will be furious...but he’ll understand all things considering...and Ven...well actually I haven’t heard from him after Joy helped him find his birth family.” I brought up. “How could I even face them? I tried to kill Ventus, I let Xehanort have his way, falling right into his trap… Even when I found that foal, a heart so pure with light… I thought I could atone by protecting her. All I did was manipulate and influence her. Because of me she’s that false king’s right hand. I was in control more than she was, for twenty years…” “Listen, does lying their crying about your failures fix anything?” I asked honestly. “Or does accepting that it happened and getting up and going out to fix said failures solve it?” “Child… you can never understand the depths of my sins. I betrayed everything I stood for, my own son…” Eraquis stood, summoning Master Keeper. “Failure to treasure those around me. From my simple act of taking, there where many hearts I ended up breaking. Return to my land I shall… for its walls were never mine to climb…” Master Keeper then faded away, in small shards of light till it was gone. “I have renounced my Keyblade entirely… it’s power no longer my own. My title, my life's purpose.. No longer for me.” I took a deep breath. “Are you fucking kidding me old man?” I asked bluntly. “You threw away your ‘life’s purpose’ all because you couldn’t bare the knowledge that you fucked up? Really?” I asked. “What were you Erequs, a wise Keyblade Master, or a Petulant Child who thought he could do no wrong?” I frowned. “Apparently the latter.” He said, his voice monotone. “If you find Terra or Ventus, tell them I’m on the first world I ever told them about. There, we can chat, or they can end me. Either way, I’ll accept whatever fate they place upon me.” He said, walking off. Wonder how he’ll get to this random world? I face palmed. “Cause why not…” I groaned while snapping my fingers, four Shinobi Nobodies appearing. “Find Terra and Ventus, tell them Erequs is on the First World he told them about.” I ordered them as they bowed and vanished in a puff of smoke and Nothingness thorns. Now that that mess is over, wonder when- THUD! I turned around. Consequence held Tempest Shadow and this Storm King Guy that looked like an ugly bigfoot. “Sire. The false king and his right hand, as well as his entire army arrested, their base of operations destroyed, and their Zeppelins blown to shrapnel. The rubble is being collected to be used in another matter as a part of your Scrap Metal initiative requested by the two engineers. They state they can recycle any scrap into something useful. So it was pre-approved since their methods seemed functional.” “Alright then.” I nodded. “So, how are you doing today prince?” I asked the satyr looking monster. “I am the Storm King! The- GAH!!!” Consequence proceeded to bend, possibly break his leg. “Agh! Okay look… I’m no king, not even close to royalty. My parents were Coal miners for stars sake. I managed to lie and cheat my way into some followers saying I was the long lost Royalty of the Monster Lands but I’m just some guy who spent way to much time reading old legends.” I sighed out. “So you have no idea where the long lost princess of the monsters is?” I asked curiously. “So besides that...what are you good for?” “I don’t know where the Princess is...but I know where her father is…” He offered. “Where is her father?” I asked simply. “Tartarus. His name is Tirek.” I took a deep breath. “Oh no…” I muttered. “Um...shit…” I muttered. “Great, I’m gonna need to get Tirek here...or…” I muttered while summoning my Lexicon and casting a spell, a hole appearing as it showed me the inside of Tartarus and seeing the weakened centaur in his cage. “Yo.” I called out, hoping the spell I cast worked. “Can you hear me?” I asked Tirek. “Huh, oh. Now this is new.” He spoke, his voice raspy and aged like an elderly mans. “A call through a portal. What would you be calling me for?” “My names Ben, I don’t know if you get much news in prison, but I’m the new King of this world, and the King of Nothingness.” I said. “I wanted to ask you about your family, considering a certain satyr lied about being royalty.” I said while Tirek could see the Storm King on the ground. “Heheh. False royal to mine and my brothers old thrones eh? Well I know for a fact that my brother died without any children or family to speak of, so you must want to know about my daughter then.” “Yes, you probably know about the ancient law of marriage correct?” I asked curiously. “Yes. How traditional.” He spat. “My daughter was left with her mother. A whore of an Equestrian mare.” “Was she? Or do you just hate her because she’s a pony?” I asked honestly. “Both, funny enough. All I know is that Discord took her before I was imprisoned here. He should know where she is. Assuming that old coot remembers.” I sighed out. “Well alright then, let’s hope she’s doing well instead of...well anything revolving around you.” I frowned. “Oh who knows for sure. Honestly I cared little for the mongrel. So whatever she is doing I could care less for.” “You suck as a person and a father you know that?” I asked. “Sticks and stones. Not all of us care for such trivials as morals and family. Distractions if you ask me.” “Says the guy stuck in immortal prison for not having those things?” I pointed out. “Setbacks. All simply setbacks. Immortality, even in this weakened state of mine has its benefits. Patience is one of them. I can bide my time for as long as I want. There is no rush on my part.” “Just know something Tirek...if you break out and attack the people…” I started. “I will make sure your life will become a living hell.” I told him, and Tirek could tell I wasn’t bluffing or making a hollow threat. “We clear on that?” “Hehehe. I look forward to it.” The spell disbanded. “Consequence, make sure Tartarus is properly guarded.” I told him simply. “Discord! I need your help here.” “Hey’oh!” The draconequus said, appearing in a poof of confetti and streamers. “Sup my lord! How’s the royal life treating you?” “Fine enough.” I said. “Hey...do you know where Tirek’s daughter is?” I asked curiously. Discord’s rather happy attitude suddenly fell flat. A frown appearing on his face. “Oh...yeah. I take it you are looking for her?” “She’s technically the princess of an entire race, so yes I am looking for her.” I said honestly. “Can’t go most of the way if I want to unite this world.” I said honestly. “From the looks of it it seems more like you’re marrying the world.” I blushed so hard my face turned pink. “In anycase yes I know where she is.” “Mind if I ask where she is?” I asked curiously, trying to get back on topic so my head doesn’t stay this pink. “She’s… back on my world…” Discord said. “And...where is your world?” I asked. “Cause I doubt you mean Equis.” “Well yeah. I mean look at me. Equestria is vast and magical but I am still the only thing on this candy coated planet that stands out like a sore thumb. In any case she is on my home world. Draconix… Ugh….not looking forward to this at all…” “Can’t wait.” I said honestly. “Um...should I know anything about it before we go?” “My people can all do the same magic and wildness that I am capable of... but they never use it for anything fun! They’re all…. “ Discord shivered. “Biographers… Once a Draconequus turns a hundred we get stuck in front of an orb that showed everything that is going on on a world and we write down it all...forever! It’s so boring and tedious…” “I mean...someone’s gotta do it to be perfectly honest.” I shrugged. “But it’s all they ever do! Since our world began writing its own history it’s all we’ve done. I got sick of it one day so I altered the events of the world I was recording. Got in trouble. I said to the court ‘Fuck this’ Flipped off everyone in the room, took a shit on the judges desk and turned the whole room into a banana split. I left after that and only went back to drop of Tirek’s daughter. And that was only a five minute visit…” “Oh…” I started. “I’m....pretty sure they took exception to that.” I said worriedly. “On the contrary. They are forgiving to a fault that makes Fluttershy look like Hitler. I mean no one knows how to hold a grudge or even give a proper punishment. You know the five minutes I was back they threw me a welcome home party...then a goodbye till next time party a minute before I left. I even got thoughtful gifts! Seriously...I’m embarrassed to be a part of their race…” “Are you sure they’re not related to Pinkie Pie here?” I asked worriedly. Discord stiffened up. “Eheheh…Funny story actually… back when I tried to take over Equestria I did have a fling with one of her ancestors… so that might explain her unexplainable actions.” “Cause of course you did.” I face palmed. “Well excuse me but the mare was as wild as me and had an ass that could cause an earthquake when she shook it. So forgive me for giving into to biology.” “Oh my god I didn’t need to know that!” I barked. “Hey, you’re fucking her so imagine how I feel when I realized my great, great, great granddaughter was riding your fuzzy butt!” I groaned and rubbed my temples. “Christ...this is a headache I didn’t want today…” I muttered. “Oh great, now Pinkie’s freaking out and wanting to throw a ‘Hooray for learning about my Ancestry’ party...how the fuck did she even hear you from all the way over there!?” I asked, really confused and worried about all of this. “It’s the Chaos magic in her. It works however it sees fit to benefit it’s user. Huh, wonder if I can teach her to use it actively rather than passively?” Discord pondered. “You know there’s two Pinkie’s on the planet right?” I asked nervously. “Huh, right that mirror portal world Pinkie… wonder if she is affected by it. Never went to that world so who knows… Anyway.” Discord sighed, snapping his fingers as a portal opened up. “This goes to my world…” Discord sighed, leaning so far back his head touched the base of his tail. “Let’s get this over with.” “Alright.” I nodded while entering the portal, wondering how well the people will accept me if they are basically Pinkie Pie. I entered. The place looked so...normal. Modern and a lot like earth. Discords race seemed to come in many sizes and such too. “Well...place looks normal…” I muttered, finding this a bit weird all things considered. With not much option I decided to ask for directions, I am pretty sure she will be the only Centaur on this world. “Um, excuse me.” I asked one of the passerby. Who stopped was a very short, chubby Draconequus who’s horns where that of a Deer's and a Unicorn… weird. “Yes my good sir?” He spoke… british. “How may I assist you offworlder?” “Um...I’m looking for a Centaur girl, Discord brought her here if that helps any.” I said to the chubby guy. “Do you know where she is or anyone that would know where she is?” “Ah yes young Isabelle. I am afraid she’s at work at the moment and no one is allowed in when someone else is on shift. Must maintain focus when on the job after all. I can point you in the direction of Discord’s parents house however, she lives with them. Raised as their own since their son left to dilly dally on the world he was meant to be recording it’s events on.” “Yes please, and thank you.” I nodded. “Right well take a left on the road up ahead and the red house with the number 44 on the door is the place.” He said with an affirming nod. “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “Thank you, have a nice day.” I said before heading off the house. “And to you as well young lad.” He said, the two of us taking leave. Discord was right his people are crazy nice. I found the house and knocked on the door. Who answered was...well, his mother. Rather hefty lady in a cooking apron, red lipstick and looked basically like him only without the bear paw. She has a tiger one instead. “Oh, hello there. Are you a salesman?” She asked. She sounds like a mother. “No ma’am.” I shook my head. “I wanted to meet Discords parents while I waited for Isabelle.” I said honestly. “Oh, are you a friend of my sweet Bumblebee?” ”Oh my god…” I thought to myself, trying not to laugh at the nickname his mother gave Discord. “Yes, yes I am.” I nodded. “Well...and technically his boss since he works for me.” “Oh! Well please come in, come in.” She said, letting me enter. The house was nice. Photos of Discord growing up and even Isabelle where hung on the walls. Isabell was black and red like her father, very small horns and blue eyes. Her hair, I think is dyed orange. She was also rather short. Must be from her being half pony. “So, how has my little boy been doing?” “He’s been doing well. He got past the...rather morbid trauma that haunted him, and he’s doing better because of it.” I said honestly. “Oh yes that Keyblade war fiasco.” She sighed. “Such dark entries across the texts. Many of us got sick when writing. Discords father always said Keyblade wielders could bring great destruction if left unchecked. Broke our hearts when we learned DIscord was in the bloody mess.” “It...would probably hurt you more to know that a second one is coming.” I said sadly. “What! But, he. I...uhhhhh…” She...she fainted… “Oh shit…” I muttered while checking to see if she was still okay. “Maybe I shouldn’t have said that….shit.” She woke up an hour later. After an explanation some ranting she calmed down, reflecting on things. “Not long after we found out our son was in the first war, his father died from a heart attack… nightmares about finding out he had died... “ She said, tea and sandwiches set out for us. “When Discord dropped off Isabelle , I told him. But he was so different. Half the pranking joy of chaos he was. He was colder, more stern. He wasn’t my boy anymore… he was his own man now...weather or not he was happy with it was his desiding.” I nodded. “I understand...going through such horrors can change anyone...have you...ever tried to talk to him about...everything?” I asked. “I send him letters, but he never replies. This is just one of those things he wants to sort out himself. He’s always been so stubborn.” “I understand.” I nodded. “It’s all tough...but Discord is strong and he has friends.” “Yes, I can thank that at least.” She sighed. “I often wonder what life would be like if he just stayed home.” “Depends.” I shrugged. “He could have tagged along and been normal, or he could have slowly made everyone see his joking point of view.” “It’s not that we don’t want to use our magic. Really, it’s just that our magic is very unstable. Too many of us casting spells at once and reality itself falls to ashes. We have to be careful, responsible. But Discord wanted to use his magic because it wasn’t fair. In a lot of ways it isn’t, but that’s the burden of our race. We hold back so others don’t get hurt, but we often risk more harm in not helping when we can. Our existence is a double edged sword.” “I understand. Chaos magic is a hell of a thing...but that doesn’t mean you need to hold it back to this extent.” I said honestly. “I’m sorry if I’m spouting nonsense, I don’t know much about Chaos magic, I can only guess at if it’s an actual living thing in magical terms…” “Like all magic is has a will of its own. It’s just more open to expressing it than most others.” “Then it can be used in used correctly, not just the ‘don’t use it at all’.” I said honestly. “Perhaps. For now though, save for Discord we are all happy with our lives. Well, Isabelle should be out of her shift in an hour or so. You don’t mind waiting a bit longer do you?” “It’s alright.” I nodded. “Oh good. That’s just enough time to bring out the Photo albums!” She cheered. Oh I am hanging this over Discords head for a LONG time. “I can’t wait to see all the pictures.” I smiled happily, already feeling like Discord is panicking at having me see his family photos. “And here is Discord when he was a little eighty year old.” She handed me the picture. Age for them is strange. But for being eighty it seems like Discord was in his late teenage years. It showed him sitting on a chair of ice cream. “He fell but first onto my chilli plants and got a few spicy ones toasting his buns.” “Oh my god.” I chuckled at that. “This is funny...but how did he burn himself on plants?” “A streaking prank during new year's gone wrong.” She chuckled. “Oh my god.” I laughed at that. “I’m pretty sure if Discord knew I was learning all this…” I couldn’t help but laugh at the mental image of his reaction. “And here is his fortieth birthday. His theme was faries, not the magical creature, the sexual preference. He went through a lot of phases with his sexuality.” “I have several concerns.” I said nervously. “Like...fairy is a sexuality? How and why?” “No, it’s a term meaning gay or Homosexual. Didn’t last that long as a term but I like it cause it’s not as up front in it’s meaning.” “Makes sense.” I said honestly. “Sometimes you’d just...don’t want to know things.” “Oh I know. I have no idea where Discord learned to be so blunt in his language.” “I have no idea.” I shook my head. “Learned it from somewhere…” “Mom! I’m home!” I heard a rather peppy voice call out from the front door. “It’s weird, the guy I normally record on that world was missing and the last shift guy doesn't know where he wen-” And here she is. About my height, Isabelle stopped dead when she saw me. “Y-y-you’re the guy! The guy I record at work!” She stuttered. “How the heck did you even get here!” “Discord.” I said honestly. “How are you doing today?” “Oh...well that makes sense.” She groaned. “So… what are you doing here? Connection went fuzzy before I got in and we missed some stuff.” “Well…” I started. “Okay to start, do you know your royalty?” I asked the centaur. “... I’m WHAT?!” “Huh...considering you record everything about Equis you’d think you would have known that.” I said honestly. “But anyways, you are the princess of the Monster race on Equis...and well...do you know the ancient laws of Equis?” “I only started recording recently when you appeared. Before that I worked on Traverse Town.” “Right then.” I nodded. “So there’s an ancient law in Equis that’s basically marriage can unite the planet.” I said honestly. “And since your the princess of monsters...well you can see why.” “B-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-” “Oh no, not again.” Discords mom said. “Last time she stuttered this bad was over her first crush.” “Oh boy.” I muttered. “So...how do I stop it?” “I got this.” She said, walking up to Isabelle and slapping her...hard. “Better?” “Y-Yeah. Thanks mom.” She said, rubbing her cheek. “It’s just that...Dude, I write everything you do on Equis. Everything, even your bedroom activities! The mental image came to mind and I...freaked…” I sighed out. “Cause of course you would…” I muttered. “Listen, I know it’s sudden, and I know it’s scary...I’ll take you out on a date first if you need it.” “T-that might help...at least I already know what to expect… regarding…” We both where beat red. “Okay um...can we please not...talk about that right now?” I asked nervously. “Yeah-yeah. That would be best…” She said. “So...I guess this means I move out?” “Not without me!” Discords mom said. “I am not staying here all alone. Besides, this will give me the chance to mother both my daughter and little boy!” “Well there’s always room at the castle.” I said honestly. “Oh goodie! I’ll start packing.” “When you went to get long lost princess I didn’t expect you to bring along my mother…” Discord sighed, rubbing his temples as his mom was doing some cleaning around the throne room. “Like I’d leave her alone there.” Isabelle said. “She’s my mom!” “She’s mine too! Not biologically but they were who raised and loved me, and from what I was told my real dad is best left in that cage in that underworld place.” “He’s gonna die if he breaks out and tries to hurt people.” I frowned. “And your mom was alone and was stuck at the house waiting for literally everyone. So suck it up and talk to her instead of bitching.” I frowned. “Cause I’m pretty sure you have a lot to talk about.” Discord sighed. “I suppose I do then…” With this wrap up my gathered family on the Zeppelin returned home. Regardless it was a surprise to them to see Canterlot, as well as it’s now CONNECTED branching town Ponyville, Appaloosa, and Trottingham where now connected with rather fast trains and roadways. “So, what do you think girls?” I asked all of them. “It’s like a dream.” Luna spoke. “I always imagined how some of Equis would look is it was more readily accessible to Canterlot, but becoming part of it? The development and construction alone is astounding.” “This place looks so COOL!” Autumn Blaze yelled out. “Oh. My. Gosh! Is that a park!” “Didn’t you live in a mountain forest?” Aj asked. “Yeah, but it’s like a mini forest… in a big city!” “Oh, then there’s the fact that two worlds are...also fused with Equis.” I said honestly. “Oh my...in just a month you’ve done quite a lot more than I have in a thousand years Ben.” Celestia said. “Well blame Cript for the part on fusing the two other worlds. But our new neighbors is the Dire Wolf home worlds, the worlds where...technically I came from.” I said honestly. “And...it’s a beautiful place, and the prey are just delicious.” I said with a wide, sharp toothy smile. Most of my wives rolled their eyes, the others chuckled. “So, what’s this I hear about over two thousand new additions to this herd?” Twilight asked. I sighed out. “Okay so...first up I talked to the other kings, queens and Guild Leaders, so it went from marrying five at least from the several countries to...four hundred from Saddle Arabia...and then Jenny gave me a thank you gift of sending out a world wide message about if any eligible women want to they have to appear at my castle...wearing wedding gowns...and two thousand of basically all races came…” I sighed out. “So yeah...and Joy also have an extra...like four or five hundred girlfriends now.” I explained. Twilight sighed. “Of course it was Jenny… So, are we gonna honor this or...what?” “While...obviously asinine as Royals we have to obey and uphold promises… made by the heads of castle or their children…” Luna signed out. “We have to honor it…” “I mean I was gonna honor it cause...well two thousand women appeared, either because of me being a hero, the many stories about me...or because they literally couldn’t find anyone else.” I shrugged. “I couldn’t say no to all those people that wanted to be with me...just glad that none of them wanted to marry me because I’m rich and powerful…” I muttered. “I..hope the two thousand women won’t be too rough…” I said nervously. “Depends, how will you even… organize them? Us...all of this?’ Chrysalis asked. “You’d be fucking a different female or groups every night and still have extra moving into the new year… Not to mention getting to know them and… wow this is gonna be tricky…” “I have at least five clones at the moment…” I said. “Wait...no, ten now...so this must be how Cript feels having way too many wives…” “Seems so.” Celestia said. “Guess you really are his son then huh?” She laughed. “Apparently.” I sighed out. “Getting all the women...cause why not.” I said honestly. “I’m not even that likable to begin with.” “Yeah I never got it either.” Cript said, appearing out of nowhere and scaring all of us. “How are you doing Cript?” I asked honestly. “Good, heard the news. Came to see if you wanted some advice on the matter.” “Yes, I would really like some advice on the matter.” I said honestly. “Cause...I thought twenty would be rough...by two thousand?” “Yeah...I went through something similar. So, went from twenty to two thousand. Yeah… Come on, I know a place we can talk.” I blinked… and we were in a Mexican restaurant and the windows show outside is a white void… “Um...where are we?” I asked curiously. “Deadpools Mexican taco shop.” Cript said. “Yo Pool! Two dozen tacos and two cokes!” “Got it!” A voice, I guess Deadpools, replied. “So then, initial thought?” Cript asked, starting to play with the hot sauce bottle. “My initial thoughts on having twenty four hundred wives? Um...that’s a lot.” I said honestly. “Like...a lot more…” I said honestly. “I’m not even that likable.” “Heh. Same boat. You wanna know a story. It’s how I went from my one wife Lyra to a year later having five… and it kept on growing from the…” Cript said in a tone that spoke for itself on how the memories where. “Sure...why not.” I said honestly. “But I think I got you beat cause I went from one girlfriend to five in about a week.” “Well, Lyra had been married for a month before I got my memories back. We first met when her wagon ran me over and gave me amnesia.” “I think you told me about that…” I said honestly, thinking about he story he told me of how he met Lyra. “Yeah. During our first full year married she spent a lot of time on her world as to not arouse suspicion. The excuse for me was that I was royal guard and was off on a mission. We went through so much… Eventually, I saved my friend Andy from Nexus controle and killed the Psychopath that was chained to me and my past lives. After that we rested on her world. It was so peaceful. Wanting to work a normal job stuff. I worked as a guard for Twilight’s castle. On her world Twilight got to Princess title and alicorn hood. I was the first and only guard the entire time. One day Lyra came along to deliver my lunch… we ended up having sex in the castle broom closet.” “Alrighty then…” I nodded slowly. “And...this lead to you learning she had a harem fetish?” “No, I already knew about that… this is leading to my second wife… Twilight walked in on us… and somehow, Lyra’s perverted silver tongue got her to join in for a three way…” “Oh dear…” I sighed out. “Not long after my retirement, or so I thought it was, we had Nyx and Blake, our first kids. Twins. You met them. Figuring we wanted some fun but with babies we needed a babysitter. At this point we were both living in Bon Bons house, this is including my friend Andy. We kept him close cause even after he was saved he remembered all he had done. We got an unexpected babysitter…” “And...who was that?” I asked curiously. “Chrysalis…” “Oh dear.” I frowned. “Well...maybe she wasn’t trying to cause problems?” “She wasn’t. Turns out her hive, after the failed Canterlot invasion revolted. So she left and we ended up taking her in… It didn’t take long for us to get into sex at the workplace. Mainly since she moved in too.” “Yeah...that explains it.” I said. “Cause you know, relationships stopped being ‘date over a few months or years instead of immediate sex’.” “Well from what I researched Due to the constant gender ratio being so skewed, majority of Equestrias populations evolved so relationships can be successful and move fast. Something to due with the way their magic works in terms of aiding the population reproduce.” “Alrighty then...didn’t know that.” I said honestly. “Each world has their own thing. For me though, I had an edge that...is mainly why I got WAY more.” “And that edge being?” I asked. “The Psychopath was bound to my soul because it took over an angel… an Archangel. Long story short turns out any rank of angel can become one… the one I had bound to me was a freaking cherub class… cupid, though the artwork is heavily creatively altered. So when they came back and I saved them… I became partly cherub, meaning that as a mortal I was able to find love in whoever… and Lyra milkes that to this day.” Cript said, his head banging on the table as our food and drinks came. “I remember one of my mothers was one but...I’m still confused on why it’s either a Cupid, a...very strange Angel, or a four headed abomination.” I said honestly. “Each world and culture has their own take on it.” Cript shrugged, lifting his head and taking a bite out of a taco. “After that everything became quite the clusterfuck. Bon Bon and us were already in… a strange ways… needless to say when Twilight and Chrysalis both came to us about loving me… that was awkward as fuck, Lyra suggested the herd… I ran to the nearest closet and hid. The very idea made me paranoid to hell, and I killed a Psychopath, fighting it without fear… and the thought of three wives sent me into a panic.” “Well...some people are different I suppose.” I shrugged. “It took an hour for Lyra and them to talk me out of there… Then Luna came into the mix. Why and how I honestly forgot but we clicked rather fast. She was a girl out of time and I was a guy with a time machine… you can guess how some of our dates went.” “Yeah I have a feeling.” I said honestly. “Things spiraled into craziness from there… and they are some of my fondest memories when I think back. As complicated as it can get the Starfish cloning ability, while at first useless and accidentally discovered by me, came into great use when spending time with all the girls. A me for all of them… sadly me being an idiot I didn’t think to use them till some time after I reached over a hundred… god things would have been simpler back then. At some point new wives to the family became a running gag with me. Hell Lord jumped on that bandwagon once...got me stupid good too....” “Oh my god.” I chuckled a little. “Yeah, I have a feeling that was quite the experience.” “You wanna know what he did?” “Sure why not.” I said honestly. “Okay so turns out he went through a few beta versions of the realms when he was making everything. Each version with people and such. He never ‘deleted’ anything just moved it someplace else… He loaded ALL of them into the realms… and dumped every...single...damn...woman...that existed in all of them, at my house… you know the song it’s raining men… it was raining woman at my house for a WHOLE Week…. And that was his take on the joke…” He slammed his head to the table again. “Jesus christ.” I couldn’t help but laugh at that. “Speaking of…” Just then… Jesus walked in… I mean bible described, cross and painting looking son of god himself just walked in and sat next to Cript. “Heyyyyy~” “Screw off…” Cript said. “Pay up.” Grumbling, Cript handing him a pouch. “Feels good.” “I’m missing something here.” I frowned. “And I have a feeling it involves me.” “No.” Cript said. “Holy boy here and I make bets on stuff. Mainly events that may or may not happen. None of it’s related to you but I lost the last bet on who would evolve first, the lizards or the birds and Jesus here is milking his first win ever.” “Hey, hey… suck it.” Jesus said, pulling out… is that a pot cigar? He lit it and began smoking. “Ah, life is good.” “For once for you?” “Oh shut up.” “Um...aren’t birds lizards on a genetical level?” I asked curiously. “Cause I remember birds evolved from Dinosaurs, which were types of lizards even though some or most had feathers…” I said. “So...wouldn’t you both be right and wrong at the same time, making the bet moot?” “Different world, different rules of evolution.” Cript muttered. “You could have just agreed and gotten your money back…” I muttered honestly. “Against this pothead? Yeah no…” “Well I’m off. Gonna freak out some atheists.” Jesus said, taking his money and leaving. “I mean...atheists can believe Jesus existed, just not that he’s some miracle child.” I pointed out. “He does it to see how many immediately convert.” Cript said, taking a sip of his soda. “At this point it’s anyone is allowed in so long as you’re not a total evil jackass. Really good souls can bring in plus ones just as a safe measure in case their loved one goes south before dying.” “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “Makes sense.” “Yeah, these days the afterlife is just a midway point to being born again into something else. Everything kind of lost that charm religion and books paint these things as.” “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “All I know about the afterlife is it’s apparently a waiting room for getting back to your normal body.” I shrugged. “That’s for my kids, IE you. Well, for now anyways. After my plan springs into actions death will become permanent. After all if everyone can live forever what's the point in creating a vast and wild world for them all to explore?” “Makes sense.” I shrugged. “Oh also, cause I don’t know if this is a thing but is Tirek immortal or just ageless?” “Ageless. Things in this new reality can be ageless but not immortal. THe new reality I’ll be remaking this one into. While there are certain exceptions to that rule it’s nothing permanent, everything is temporary. Save for like four or five, six things tops.” “Okay then.” I nodded. “So if Tirek were to break out and try to hurt my kingdom I can murder him still?” I asked. “Yeah but murdering your worlds Demon Centaurs, the name of his race, is tricky. Their magic is to absorb magic. Cast a spell at them, they eat it. Magical weapons, the spells will fail on them after one or two hits. Their sponges for magic, and sorry to say, but that included your nothingness. Best get him while he is still weak, or, surpass his limit. Everything has a limit, find his and he’ll explode in a fireworks show of blood and magic.” “Alright then.” I nodded. “So just shoot him in the head with a non-magical gun and he’ll be done?” “Go with fire. Or explosives. Just make sure there’s no chance Necromancy can revive him, so after you kill him burn him to ashes. Leaving his corpse won’t rot, perk of being ageless, and any magic to touch him can revive him.” “Alright then.” I nodded while having one of my clones order Consequence to do such a thing of making sure that when Tirek dies from a Sniper Bullet to the head to burn his body with none magic fire and make sure he can’t be resurrected. “Thank god for clones.” “So, you gonna make a clone for every girl? You’d be surprised how easy that hive mind mentality becomes. Each tends to their own girl, memories are accessible to all and even after this thing the clones will be alright. So, anything else you wanna know? Anything at all?” “Well…” I thought for a moment. “Given that you can see the future, how many more wives am I going to have?” I asked nervously. “It doesn’t work like that.” Cript said, taking a drink of his soda. “It only shows me things of importance to me and those around me. Usually things about to happen and only if needed things in the distant future.” “Can...you take a wild guess at it?” I asked nervously. “Just so I can be prepared for...literally everyone woman imaginable.” “Well, not sure if I can. But I know a guy.” Cript said, taping on his assistant before putting it down. Not a few seconds later a… monster… that’s all I can call it, walked in and took seat next to him, across me. “Hey Cronos.” “Cript.” The monster, apparent god of time, said. “Hello.” I said. “Um...are you who I think you are?” “Yes. I am Cronos, god and overseer of all time. Well, former. I gave that title to Cript some years back, then he fucked up the flow of time and space,” Cript chuckled. “So now it kinda does it’s own thing and neither of us can fix it. Even Lord took a loot at it and said ’the fuck did you do? How did you do this shit!?’ his exact words.” “The fuck did you do?” I asked worriedly. “You don’t wanna know.” Cript said, laughing to himself. “Anyways…” Cronos spoke. “What is is you want to know. Time may be fucked but I can still see events with accuracy.” “I know this sounds dumb but...how many wives will I have in the future?” I asked. “Since I’m related to him.” I said while motioning to Cript. “Ah, yes. So you have his...magnetism¶ for women then… Give me a moment.” Cronos said, waving his hand as a clock appeared before him. It’s hands moving rapidly. He gazed at it for a time, eyeing the device or spell, whichever, and finally they stopped. It vanished. “Not including the wives you have… two more.” Cronos said, surprising me. “Only two?” I asked curiously. “Wow.” “Yes. Surprising. I was expecting at least a few thousand.” “I mean...if I go out and about I might solve that.” I said honestly. “But...sheesh. You sure it's just two for this timeline?” “Yes.” “Surprising…” I said honestly. “Um...how long is the Keyblade war gonna be?” I asked. “That is easy. Five months.” “Um...I meant ‘this’ Keyblade War.” I said nervously. “I was told that if I did a thing it would go down to a day...not extend it to five god damn months.” “Yes. A day to eliminate the leaders of your enemies… five months to destroy the mass armies of abominations, heartless, unversed, and fuck knows what some of these monsters are.” “So...basically a day to end the war, and then five months on clean up?” I asked honestly. “Yeah, these monsters that will appear in this war of yours will haunt the new world, as a reminder to all that we bring horrers onto ourselves.” “Alright then...so it’s not as bad as I thought it would be when you said ‘five months’.” I said honestly. “Yes, in terms of wars it’s mostly all depending on you lot to end the leaders on the first day. After that the clean up is combat but against beasts like them is better than intelligent blokes.” “Oh yeah, it’ll be a lot better.” I nodded. “Well not too much longer now.” Cript said, leaning his head against the glass. “You’re army ready Ben?” Cript’s tone sent pure terror into my core… He suddenly sounded so hollow… so lifeless… “As...ready as they’ll ever be.” I said. “Um...can I actually fight in this war?” I asked, knowing my clones are there and I’d love to help fight to protect the people. “This test isn’t just about winning Ben.” He said monotonously. “It’s about being a leader. Kings have to make hard choices. Decide what’s more important to you.” “A king isn’t a king without his people…” I said, having a bad feeling about this. “When it’s over, just remember. If Lord did this same test...you might not even have a kingdom anymore.” He sighed out. “I hate playing the bad guy.” “Oh…” I muttered nervously. “That’s...not good.” I said while already having everyone at the ready for when the enemies hit. “Yeah… it is...cause I’m good at it.” I blinked, finding myself back home. “Crap…” I muttered. “I’ve...got a bad feeling about this…” Just then, sirens were ringing, as well as an announcement from Consequence. “Attention citizens and soldiers, monsters have begun invading. Please evacuate to your shelters and soldiers report to the nearest government base immediately.” “Aw shit.” I growled. “Not good. Council!” I barked, hoping they will all appear at my call. “Here.” All of them said, appearing around me. “Alright, so you all know about the the castle being attacked?” I asked honestly. “Of course.” Joy said honestly. “It’s pretty obvious the new kingdom you own would be attacked in less than a month.” Joy shrugged. “Don’t sass me Joy.” I frowned. “Alright, so we have an ass ton of Heartless, Unversed, and Shadow Creatures attacking the castle.” I explained. “Luxu, I believe you have a plan for this?” I asked, my head already working over time as I tried to think of something to help face against the monsters. “Yes.” He said, summoning Lunatic and his Keyblade. “Kill them all, let their makers sort them out.” “Yeah...not surprised…” I said while feeling my clones were out helping the soldiers. “My clones are out helping the soldiers prepare, I believe you were all told about the enemies you’ll be facing?” “Yes.” They all confirmed. “Good.” I nodded. “Now, go!” I ordered. “Defend the kingdom against these intruders! Leave none alive to desecrate this land anymore!” “Yes sir!” They all said, vanishing to take on their own groups. Taking out my glider, I decided to see how things were outside the city… All I could see is dark, purple, red, and smoke and spellcasting… so many...I can’t even see the grass. “Jesus christ…” I muttered, seeing my clones helping fight with the soldiers. “This is why I hate war…” To be continued...
Nobody ends a WarThe Violent Daughter Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom. Click, Click. “Dang it.” Jenny huffed, reloading her Sniper rifle. When the monsters began invading, she took position atop one of the castle towers and began picking off the monsters. While Heartless and Unversed took two or three bullets, these Shadow Creatures went down fairly easy, save for the occasional armored one. Overall it was a battlefield. Once the ammo was loaded, she took aim again, and fired. “Wonder how high this will rank up my kill count?” She pondered, taking out her Handgun and fiering behind her, placing a hole in the head of a small Shadow Creature. It’s body melting into a chrome liquid. “Hm. Wonder how long til my bullets run out?” The Knight Zuko was no stranger to war, while the war that he fought before was different, it was war all the same. Fighting with these blades of light was a lot like with his Firebending daggers or his twin swords. He was able to Firebend through them, allowing him to cleave through the hordes of monsters. Unlike with the other benders he fought before, he didn’t have to hold back here. No, here he could unleash the full extent of his inner flame upon these inhuman monsters. Part of him never felt more alive. Part of him was reminded of his sister, and felt the need to avoid such power. But while his sister let out all her power without reason, just to be the best at whatever, here and now, Zuko had reason. Purpose. As a Knight, this was his duty, and as Fire Lord, this was his responsibility. Hordes of these beasts arrived before him. “Heh, well this is going to be interesting.” Zuko said, letting his fire flood out, incinerating the creatures without mercy. The Paladin “Feels good to get back into the fray.” Joy said with a smile, impaling dozens of enemies with his spears and slashing at another with Hearts Guardian. “Especially when it feels like I’m playing Dynasty Warriors.” Joy muttered as he stabbed and slashed through the hordes of enemies. ”Hey Joy, did you know that Jenny got you more girlfriends?” I mentally asked him. ”Um...how many?” The pup asked nervously. ”I think the number was...four hundred and eighty something.” I mentally told him as his entire head turned beat red. “Damn it Jenny…” Joy muttered, ripping a Neoshadow in half in embarrassment. As Joy hacked A Dark Thorn, a new enemy appeared. It’s body was wolf like, claws like kitchen knives, teeth like misshapen daggers, and eyes black with blue pupils. “Right then…” Joy muttered as he fired a bolt of bladed wind at the wolf thing. “Wonder how strong this thing is…” The wolf dodged with blinding speed, charging Joy and leaving an After Image Trail. Before Joy could react the beast latched onto his arm, and drew blood. “Gah! The fuck!?!” Joy barked while trying to stab the thing with his lances and Keyblade. ”What the hell? Why was this fox so damn fast?” Joy thought to himself worriedly. All his attempts made the monster bite even harder, Joy feeling it’s teeth reach his bones. Managing to pry the monster off, it’s teeth littered with the flesh of Joy’s arm and it’s lips covered with his blood. “Ow…” Joy growled. “White Wind…” He muttered, a silver sheened wind encircling Joy as he was healed from the massive bite. “Bitch.” He growled while trying to imprison the speedy wolf in a cage of bladed wind so it wouldn’t move around. The trick worked and the beast was sliced, harmed, but not dead. Prey Hunter Level 98 Race: Shadow Creature This lethal Shadow Creature hunts and kills all it sees. They are resistant to all forms of magic, and can hunt in the harshest of environments. They were said to have once been an enslaved race of Dire Wolves turned into Shadow Creatures as part of the Shadow Creatures early years, experimentation, and creation. While these are not fully discovered to be true, evidence strongly supports this theory. “Well...that’s not good.” Joy muttered. “Well…” Joy sighed out as he pulled out a pistol and aimed it at the injured shadow creature. “Still gotta kill it.” He said while firing at the shadow creatures head. The bullet hit, the creature's head exploding and it’s corpse melted into a chrome liquid. “I have a bad feeling about that chrome liquid…” He said nervously. “But good to know bullets are still good to kill things…” The pup said honestly while looking around for where more enemies are. As he turned around...he was greeted with what looked like every Heartless boss from the Kingdom Hearts series… this was gonna be a LONG war… The Archer Dante grew up Fighting monsters, these freaks were easier, but their numbers were far greater. Still, numbers don’t mean much when you got good weapons and some kickass style. WIth his normal guns, he could fire forever, and put holes into a lot of monsters. With Sharpshooters, it was similar, but much, much more fun. “Eat it ya freaks!” Dante yelled, the whole street getting littered with the glowing arrows, all that remained of the monsters slain. Yeah, Dante was happy. The Defender “Hyper!” Steve Rodgers shouted, leaning back as his shield glowed in power. “Charging Star!” He shouted as he dashed forward, a massive barrier of spiky ice appeared in front of him as his shield as he bulldozed through a ton of enemies. War was apart of Steve’s life, way back during World War 2, to the Secret Wars with the Skrull, even now against all these strange creatures, War was a constant that Steve Rogers knew, and knew well. “Just like old times.” He muttered with a smile, throwing his shield and ice spikes shooting out at dozens of enemies. The Gate Guardian Vergil knew war. He waged on on the demons his whole life, but in his own way. Unlike his brother, he took an indirect approach. He rarely was on the front lines, and now, now he stood as the main defence of the castle gates. He knew they were already inside, but the bigger, stronger ones still wandered outside them, making their way towards him. He was never the berzerker type, but to his surprise this suited him rather well. “I made mistakes… I hurt the ones I should have treasured… This weapon, this position, and this gate are how I will atone for my mistakes. My sins… and none of you will get by it, or me!” Vergil shouted, swinging Skysplitter as a massive wave of energy slashed across litteral miles of enemies, hacking them all. “These doors have stood for untold years, and they shall stand forever more.” The Mage Kat wasn’t a fighter. She was a spell caster. Magic from her home was hard to perform, but with this Lexicon, and her skills… She was a fighter. She was a healer. She was whatever her friends and allies needed her to be. For once, she was being a hero, not just helping them. The Anarchist Years of upgrades, years of fighting, all culminating into Genos’s cybernetic body to be used as a tool for saving people, but today he felt much more than just his cybernetics reaching levels of heat that shouldn’t be possible as he spun Eternal Flames and burned all who got too close as he slaughtered thousands of enemies, he felt in his heart the burning passion of being a hero, of doing what he’s best at and fighting for the sake of others, and in the back of his head he was glad that he wasn’t immediately bitch slapped by something stronger than him that would have made him get fixed again by the good doctor. He was finally the hero he strived to become. The Bard Brook was many things, a great musician, a great swordsman, but courage wasn’t something that he really had all that often, but when he had to fight to protect the innocent he was willing to throw away his cowardice and fight. “Yohohoho!” Brook laughed happily, playing his new violin happily as swords made of water appeared and slashed at all the enemies as he danced around his enemies, feeling great as he remembered the times he fought with his friends back on the Thousand Sunny. “Who would have thought a skeleton that can’t swim fighting with water? I sure didn’t, Yohoho!” Brook laughed at the irony of it, how the devil fruit took away his ability to swim and now he’s fighting with music and water. The Highroller Trixie grew up around the card tables, roulets, acts of grand illusion and performances to blow the mind. She dreamed of doing the same. While her dreams fell flat, she never felt more alive. These cards, this power. She performed for her enemies, the acts of magic like a show, but she remembered what she was there to do. While she made her attacks looks spectacular, they were still, attacks. The visuals as deadly as they were beautiful. She may be a fighter now, but she is, and always will be a performer. The Death Seeker Grell was many things, but he will always be a Grimm Reaper. Death was what he was best at. Harvesting them, or causing it. This new job of his was one he could enjoy. It had action, violence, and death. He’s never felt more home. The Assassin Sonic trained his whole life in the arts of speed and assassination. Even now, with these special daggers, these newfound strengths and powers, he still felt less than his best. Saitama was still his primary adversary. These monsters were but one of many enemies to come. He would keep fighting, and fighting, until he and Saitama could clash, powers raging and stakes high. He would not know peace of any kind until his hands where soaked in that heros blood. This new job has done nothing for his morality, his ethics. He is still an assassin, and he will kill his target. The Key “When did this feel so...simple?” Riku wondered as he cleaved through many Heartless and Unversed. Even though Riku was asleep for basically twenty years he still felt strong, his natural talent and training still there as he fused his natural Darkness with the new Nothingness powers he was granted because of Ben. “I know it’s been years since I last fought but…” Riku frowned, finding this sudden shift to how he and Sora used to fight a ton of Heartless and Nobodies and having a rough time sometimes but now it’s just...really easy. “Wonder if Sora and Kairi are fighting as well.” He muttered as he side stepped a Neoshadow and cut it in half without even trying. The King “So many things.” I frowned while stomping down as hundreds of Thorns spiked up and impaled hundreds of enemies. “And so little time.” I said, already thinking of the many ways how this could swing the opposite way. Killing these simple enemies was easy. Harder ones though where, well, tricky. The Inhumans didn’t take to death so simply. Fact is, they seemed to fight it more than anything I’ve ever seen before. “Stubborn bastards…” I grumbled while cleaving more enemies down. “Seriously, I’m getting the feeling this is more of a Dynasty Warriors fight than a war…” I muttered, knowing I have at least three new clones in the castle just as a backup in case things went south. “But hey, at least everyone else is doing good…” I muttered, seeing the soldiers fight against all these monsters with all their might. KER-BOOOOM!!!!! That noise rang across the entirety of the freaking planet! Looking around all I could see was… a hand… a fucking MASSIVE hand crunching into the soil of the world. Looking up… Oh fucking christ it’s that world eating bastard... “Why the fuck is Galactus here!?!” I shouted. From his arrival I saw most of the turret fire redirected towards him. Thankfully I saw it was doing damage but that armor of his is still keeping this fucker alive… Christ Cript, what else are you gonna throw at me? “Fine then asshole!” I shouted as I channeled Nothingness from my realm and grabbed Galactus in a massive fuck off hand of Nothingness Thorns. “You’re gonna die asshole!” I barked as I crushed the bastard before he destroyed my home. And...I did. His blood and smaller flesh chunks rained to the ground while his larger chunks of his corpse floated there like moons… I JUST KILLED GALACTUS!!! HOLY SHIT!!! “Never once thought I would do that.” I said honestly as I stabbed a Fat Bandit in the head with my X-blade. “Oh yeah, I forgot this things ability...I could be saving people...and getting more soldiers I think…” The Fat bandit, at it’s strike, changed from a Heartless to a...Shark person. “Holy shit… that must have been some bad wasabi…” He grunted as I rushed him to a shelter. This is gonna be...interesting. Day Two I’ve barely eaten this entire time. Didn’t sleep either...so many of these guys...night and day, they keep coming. “Jesus christ you’d think there would be a break…” I groaned, hating this quite a bit especially since I also had to rush revived refugee’s to safety as I beat the Heartless with my X-blade. “Grash!” I was tackled by an Inhuman, the jackass trying to claw my sides open. “Get off me asshole!” I barked while literally punching a hole through the things chest and driving it into the ground, getting up and stomping it’s head into the dirt. “Damn it…” I muttered, fearing all the people fighting for me were getting too injured. “Hehehehehehe….” That’s a too familiar voice… “My, my...what Demons we have…” I turned around where that Inhuman was...and saw me, getting up. “You are one fucked up guy, you know that?” He asked me in my own snarky tone of voice...shit, these guys copy you if they touch you... “That’s not good…” I muttered. “That’s not good at all…” I growled as I prepared to fight myself. “Sins, regrets, and so much death.” The copy spoke slowly. “How did you not kill yourself years ago?” “I already did to be perfectly honest.” I said honestly. “Twice to be perfectly honest. You’re an Inhuman, so you probably know pain and suffering, how does mine feel?” I asked honestly, the Inhuman feeling a very crippling sense of self doubt, regrets, and a feeling that no matter what it did it wouldn’t do anything to anyone. “Like a sad little puppy. See, what I find most interesting about you so far, is that you have done a good amount of stuff for others, and yet you still fail when dealing with your own emotions.” “Eh, better to be with other people than deal with me.” I said while trying to kill the bastard with Skysplitter. To my surprise...he blocked with a Skysplitter. “DId you forget? I have all your powers and abilities. Weapons included. We’re equally matched, you and I.” “See, that’s where you're wrong.” I said as Joy stabbed the Inhuman in the head and chest with so many spears the Inhuman basically looked like a pin cushion. “Was this punk a bother?” Joy asked smugly, tossing the copy off his spears as it’s body rapidly rotted. “He might have been, but glad you're here Joy.” I nodded. “How you holding up?” “Wish I could have eaten.” Joy grumbled. “Did Cript tell you how long this would last?” Joy asked simply. “No, no he didn't. All he said was keep the statue of Den away from all these fuckers.” I said with a frown. “I hope this won’t last for too long...the soldiers can only handle so much…” I said worriedly, caring about the people risking their lives on this stupid game Cript threw at me and hoping none of them died. More and more of them just kept coming. The waves were so many. How many did I kill already? “So many of these damned things…” I growled. “There has to be a way to stop this bullshit war other than run a fucking time limit.” I muttered. “You know what, fuck it.” I growled while feeling my Realm thrum with power. “You walked into my realm.” I growled, walking into the massive hoard of enemies. “You attack my people.” I said, Nothingness pulsating as I walked things seemed to turn pure white like it wasn’t there anymore. “And you hurt the many, many soldiers and Nobodies all because of Cript wanting me to learn something that he probably either forgot about or didn’t even have a reason to begin with.” I growled, my King armor equipping itself to me as all the Heartless, Unversed and Shadow Creatures all seemed to be bound by something they couldn’t see, sense, or feel at all. “Well guess what, that’s going to end right here, right now!” I barked, raising my hand as it felt like I was going on autopilot here. “Prepare to DIE FUCKWADS!” “So do you think he’s okay?” That voice… Twilight? “His adult forms have been missing since he killed all those monsters, all we have here are the pups from his Litter Den left for us to look after.” That’s...Rarity. “I’m sure he’ll appear soon enough.” Luna? I blinked and looked around. ”Ugh, the fuck happened?” I thought to myself, trying to rub my eyes so I could see better and hopefully tell them I’m okay. ”God...they’re all worried sick…” I thought sadly, thinking I did something wrong even if I killed all those monsters. “Well, come on, which ever here is Ben they’re asleep. Let’s get Luxu and them searching for one of them again.” Rarity said as footsteps followed. ”What the?” I thought, opening my eyes and...why is everything so...big? Wait… I looked to my right...pups...to my left...pups...this was the litter… I’M A BABY?! I let out a loud yip in surprise at this sudden revelation. ”Oh my god why is this happening to me!?!” I mentally shouted in worry as I whined loudly and tried to find a way to get to the others. ”God...this is so demeaning…” I thought to myself. ”And I just became King not too long ago, and I need to prepare for my wedding! God damn it!” I thought in anger as I let out a, sadly, adorable howl in the realization. One of my siblings kicked me. “Arf.” (“Quiet down! I’m trying to sleep.”) I understood that?! “Arf.” (“Uh...how can I understand you?”) I asked in confusion. “Arf, arf.” (“I’m so confused!”) I whimpered, trying to find a way out of here to get to the others and solve this. “Arf.” (“You rarely talk bro.”) The one next to me on the other side said, sleepily and waking up. “Arf.”(“And of course you can understand us. We’re speaking aren’t we? It’s just the big people who can’t understand us.”) “Arf!” (“But I’m supposed to be one of the big people! I literally just ended a war from what my fiance’s just said.”) I told them all. “Arf arf.” (“And technically speaking we aren’t ‘talking’ like normal people, we’re barking and somehow that equals this…”) I gently put my small cute paws on my muzzle. “Arf, Arf, Arf.” (“Well if you are then that might explain why you never talked until now. Big people and feeder said something about other big person did a thing then all his cloons vanished after it.”) Cloons...Clones… “Arf!” (“That was me! What do you mean all my clones vanished?”) I asked worriedly. “Arf.” (“Wait, did you just call Mom a ‘feeder’?”) “Arf.” (“Well, aside from mommy, the Pink ones also feed us lots. As for that last thing, I dunno.”) “Arf.” (“Ugh...of course...so...um...what are all your names?”) I asked, sadly not knowing their names. “Arf, arf, arf.” (“I’m Jihero, That’s Mala, Gob, Sahra the sleepy one, and we have been calling you Sota. Least that’s what mama also called you since she didn’t know which of us was called Ben.”) “Arf.” (“Ah, well it’s nice to meet you all. I’m Ben.”) I said to them all. “Arf, arf arf.” (And right now I need to get to my fiances and...try to solve the fact I’m now a puppy...oh god this is gonna be so embarrassing…”) I whimpered, already knowing how much they’ll try to hug me and do a bunch of embarrassing crap all because I’m a puppy. “Woof.” (“Well, well well, look who’s on my new level now.”) That voice… I turned around… Jenny’s mom, Nancy, was in her crib across from ours, eeying us and laying on a teddy bear. “Arf.” (“I remember you Ben. I remember you killed me… then I’m your daughter...have to say, a very strange turn of events.”) “Arf.” (“Yes, I did, and I felt terrible for doing that.”) I said honestly. “Arf, arf.” (“And then Jenny told me you were a shit mother to her, hating her for being born while I truly cared about her...even if I wished she dialed back some Ventral things just a tiny bit.”) “Arf.” (“It’s blood all the same. I admit I didn’t...favor her as much as her sister and father did, but at least I didn’t abandon her like her whore mother. Payed that bitch a visit and ended her.”) “Arf.” (“While that is true...you could have at least tried to be a proper mother, and not just treat her like her life was a mistake.”) I told her. “Woof.” (“To each their own.”) She said. “Arf.” (So, stuck in diapers now huh? Heh, can’t wait til you need a changing. Oh that will be the best show!”) I rolled my eyes. “Woof.” (“Yeah yeah, laugh it up, but I need to get to the others and explain I’m me...and sadly I don’t know if I can use my powers or not.”) I frowned, wondering if I do actually have my powers or not. “Arf.” (“Well I know for a fact you can, but not like you normally do. According to dearly beloved Grandmother Den, Dire Wolf pups don’t manafest any forms of powers or abilities until they are six years old. So enjoy the road, cause once you learn to speak properly, we begin losing all memories of this point in our recently birthed lives.”) “Arf.” (“Well...alright then.”) I said. “Arf.” (“Trigun? Can you hear me?”) I called out, wondering if Trigun knew I was now a pup. Nothing. Shit, has to be english or something. “Woof!” (“Hey Ben! Why is there two of me?”) Braig! I turned to a Crib in the corner, Braig in that Crib, toys all shredded. “Arf!” (“Hey, why the hell did you rip up all the toys we got you?”) I asked. “Arf.” (“And why are there two of you? I blame Zeke’s Absent Silhouette cause...well that’s really strong magic…”) I said sheepishly. “Woof.” (“Ah, and I chewed up all my toys cause THESE are not toys. My weapons...THOSE are toys.”) “Arf!” (“Dude, your a puppy, not an adult. You’re not allowed to wield those things until your older.”) I huffed. “Arf!” (“Bite my ass dad! HA! So, you need a means of telling your girls about your current state of affairs and figure out a means around it? Well, in my old ship there’s a universal translator, even baby languages are translatable since they are, by definition, a language. Now if only I knew where my ships keys went…”) “Arf.” (“Wonders…”) I muttered. “Arf?” (“How can we call mom here? I’m pretty sure if we get mom here she can help out a lot…”) “Woof.” (“If you are talking about Den she ain’t coming. Remember, she’ll be gone for a long time. But, we can call your wives here and try something out.”) “Arf.” (“I have expected them to appear with all the barking, and my howling and whimpering.”) I said honestly. “Bark.” (“But apparently not...god they are going to flip when they see me like this.”) “Woof.” (“Well technically they see you all the time, this is just the first time you are in, well, that body. Normally that bod of yours just does, well, dumb baby stuff. Oh, and good luck writing, Motor skills are still developing.”) “Woof.” (“Of course.”) I sighed out. “Arf.” (“Wonder how they’ll react knowing I’m like this?”) “Arf.” (“Assuming it’s them who will be coming in three more hours.”) Nancy said. “Arf…” (“Of course it’ll be three hours…”) I grumbled. “Woof.” (“That’s when we get hungry. Baby bodies are weird.”) Braig said. “Arf.” (Also how much hair gel do you think it’s gonna take to keep THIS down?”) He asked, pointing to his pinkie style afro of anti-gravity hair. “Arf.” (“You have Pinkie Hair...it’s not gonna stay down if you’re at all happy in anyway shape or form.”) I told him honestly. “Arf.” (“I’m more annoyed, as always, but shit…. Eh, I guess I can just shave it later.”) “Woof.” (“If you two are done talking I’d like to nap now...freaking body, I haven’t needed so many naps when I was sixty so the fact I do now is both annoying and-”) And she fell asleep there and then... I couldn’t help but giggle at that, and yes it was a baby giggle. God this is so embarrassing...but I yawned as well. ”Crap, am I really that tired already?” I thought worriedly. The tiredness was overtaking me, fighting it just made me feel...angry, but I gave in, hugging Sahra as I drifted into slumber. To be continued...
Nobody's Wedding”That...was a good nap.” I thought to myself as I yawned, finally waking up from my nap. Before anything else I was swooped up, rather surprised. “Awh, aren’t you a cutie.” Autumn! “Awh, so cute, so tiny!” She then began tickling my feet...and I can’t stop laughing! ”Curse you child body being ticklish!” I thought as I laughed happily at this. ”Wait, they wouldn’t understand me, shit!” I thought quickly as I wanted to say something but couldn’t. “Autumn, stop. You don’t want the baby to-” Wisss… Did I just...pee my diaper? “That.” Nova? “Come on then, bring him along. I need to change...Nancy, yes. Woh. So many little ones to remember. Good thing there’s an army of us now.” Autumn took me over to a table, where Nancy was laying next to me. “Arf.” (“Front row seat… somebody up there must like me.”) She cooed sadistically. “Arf.” (“Oh ha ha, very funny. Curse being ticklish.”) I grumbled. The diaper changing was...humiliating… I can’t say any other words other than that to describe the embarrassment of it all. When that was done I was fed, and thankfully I was being bottle fed. I know I’ve done it before but sucking the girls tits as a baby is, well, you can imagine how… well...gah! I can’t describe it. With that done I was placed in a corralled off play area. Lots of the infants were here too. Nancy was placed next to me. Can’t walk… So I crawled around. God this...isn’t that hard. Dog like body so that must be why. ”There has to be a way out of here…” I thought to myself, needing to get to the girls and tell them I’m alright. ”Damn...my wedding was coming up to…” I thought, feeling bad that I was like this when I could have been apart of the best day of my life. “Arf…” (“Damn it...I know they’re expecting me to come back but…”) I muttered, feeling a lot more upset than normal about being like this and scaring my fiances. Sitting next to the edge I overheard Autumn and Nova talking. “Still haven't found him.” Nova sighed. “Maybe he got like, blasted into a higher plain of existence! Or, or maybe he was sent into an alternate reality!” Autumn began listing off possibilities. I barked to try and tell them that I’m literally right here. ”I hope they can notice me, damn, if only I could use my powers to at least tell them I’m here…” I thought to myself, barking again to try and get their attention. “Hm. The pup you picked for the day is quite the talker.” Nova said. “Heh, reminds me of my daughter. She was a crier for anything and everything when she was that age.” “Woah. Cool. I imagine you didn’t sleep much?” “Some nights I still don’t get a lot of sleep. She still hasn’t stopped talking much… you two would get along.” The continued their talk, ignoring me completely. “Arf!” (“Damn it, I’m literally right here and they can’t understand me! Ugh, this sucks.”) I groaned, trying to figure out a way to tell them I’m here. Just then I was hit in the back of the head by something. Looking to my side, it was one of those ball pit plastic balls. “Arf!” (“Oi! Who threw that?”) I barked. “Woof.” (“Who do you think dumbass.”) Nancy replied. “Arf.” (“They can’t understand you, and currently there’s no word or even giant letters toys around so stop prying like a stray and just, I dunno, grab a chew toy or something.”) “Arf.” (“Oh, I’m sorry that I want people to know I’m still alive and well and not just sit here doing nothing!) I barked at her. “Bark.” (“I want my family to know I’m alright, I want them to know I’m still here, that I’m not dead...and so they aren’t scared I left them…”) I said, still caring more about my family than myself even in the moments of me being a puppy. “Woof.” (“First off, you never died since that seems to be your true body, secondly they know one of that litter is really you but they are not sure which, and lastly…”) She got quiet, placing an ear to the ground. “Arf…” (“Oh fuck…”) “Arf?” (“Uh...what’s wrong?”) I asked worriedly. “Woof…” (“It’s the new girl…”) I then felt like...thuds as something ran over to us...and suddenly I was squashed under something...or one...heavy… “Yay! Play!” Wait, that voice...TEMPEST?! “Arf.” (“Yeah, something about when that dark heart left her body she mentaily reverted to the age she was last in full control. Physically she’s still an adult though so they placed her with the girls from Rapture. Mentally she’s about three. Maybe less, I dunno and honestly I don’t care. So long as she’s not squishing me into a pancake.”) “Arf!” (“Are you kidding me? How is that possible? Also halp!”) I barked. “Puppy!” Tempest said, now rolling on her side and hugging me...hard. “Who’s a fluffy!” “Woof!” (“Jesus why is she so strong?”) I complained while trying to get out of her pretty strong grip. “Arf.” (“If I had to guess she’s been a puppet, that other heart has been having her fight her whole life so there’s one, and the fact you are an infant also contributes.”) “Arf!” (“Can someone please help me get her off me?”) I barked in worry, not wanting to be crushed right now. “But I wanna play puppy!” Did...did she understand me? “Arf.” (“Wait, you can understand me?”) I asked, tilting my head to the side in confusion. She nodded, then squeezed me tighter. “Arf.” (“Can you please stop squeezing me so hard? It’s starting to hurt a little.”) I said worriedly. She let up, but still held me. “Something up puppy?” “Arf.” (“Yeah...everyone’s worried about me, wondering when I’ll come back and show them I’m okay.”) I told Tempest. “Arf, arf.” (“But considering that the great Ben, the White Knight, is now a puppy that can’t do much by himself...it’s both stressful and saddening.”) “Ben...Oh, that missing dog man. You don’t look like your pictures.” “Arf.” (“That’s because I’m a puppy. When I stopped all the bad people I...became like this.”) I said honestly. “Arf.” (“And...the people I care about know I’ll return, but they’re worried I won’t…”) “Oh...So what do I do?” I thought for a moment. “Arf.” (“Well...you can understand me so...tell them I’m Ben?”) I suggested, pointing my paw over to the two caretakers at the moment. “Arf.” (“If they know I’m me then...well it’ll at least get some things settled.”) “Oh...Okay!” She said, getting up, still holding me as she bolted. “Hey! Tempest!” I heard Nova call out as she ran out of the nursery to where I am assuming...yes, yes this is the way to the Bedroom. ”Hopefully they’re there…” I thought to myself as I was carried by Tempest to the bedroom. ”They may not believe me or Tempest...but I’ll at least try.” I thought. “Arf.” (“Do you know where the girls are?”) I asked Tempest. “They are in the big ponies bedroom. Been remodeling it to acc...acc… they are making it bigger.” “Arf.” (“I’m pretty sure it’s because of the many many wives I’m getting.”) I told her honestly. “Arf.” (“Thanks Tempest.”) “No need. This is fun!” She said, barging open the bedroom doors and… HOLY SHIT! The whole floor is a bed, areas where it cuts off with tile and...pools/hot tubs built in… massive piles of pillows and blankets...lot of lingerie being worn...as well as swimsuits, just plain undergarments and...not many else... “Woof.” I said, not meaning to speak any baby talk just...woof. I soon spotted Celestia, seeing her I leaned Tempest her way. When we approached Celestia looked surprised. “Tempest...why do you have of Den’s litter?” “Arf!” (“Celestia it’s me!”) I barked at Celestia. “Arf!” (“It’s me! Ben! Please believe us!”) I barked again, tearing up in fear that if Tempest told Celestia this she wouldn’t believe us. “Cause this is Ben.” Tempest declared. Even more confused, Celestia looked me over. “I know one of Den’s litter was Ben’s reborn body but… is he… Ben, if it is you...well you can’t talk then can you… Wait, Tempest, how do you even know this is Ben?” “He told me.” “He...told you?” She nodded. “I can understand their talkings. Dunno why.” “Well...there has been stranger… Ben if that is you… Hmm… Tempest, can you translate an answer from him if I ask a question?” “Sure.” “Alright then. Ben, what did you ask for when I asked you to pretend to be my husband bach when I was dating Chrysalis and didn’t want my mother to know I was a lesbian?” “Arf.” (“It was to compare your ass with Luna’s to see who’s was bigger...and then Twilight got really pissed and cracked my shoulder because of it.”) I explained. “He said it was to compare you ass with Luna’s! And Twilight got mad and cracked his soldier.” Tempest said, but didn’t say that last part right. Celestia then swooped me up into a hug...god between her boobs like this it’s like I’m being smothered by mattresses! “Oh Ben! You lovable pervert you’re okay!... and a baby… So when your clones all vanished… you returned to your real body, your baby one… well...the wedding will be a bit...strange… oh how to get you your right age…” I licked her cheek and nuzzled her, tearing up with a bright adorable smile. “Arf.” (“I’m here Celestia, and I don’t want to be anywhere else.”) I said warmly. “He said he doesn’t wanna be anywhere else.” Tempest translated. “Heh, between my boobs huh, not surprising.” Celestia laughed. “Oh, oh I must tell the others...and then figure out a way to get you the right age…” “I still can’t believe you are a baby Ben.” Twilight said, holding me after Rarity made me a mini version of my cloak. Pinkie and Twin where taking pictures...a lot of pictures. “What’s it like, being an adult mind in a foals body?” “Arf.” (“It’s definitely something Twilight.”) I said honestly. “He says it’s strange.” Tempest translated. “I would imagine. All of your motor skills you’ve acquired and mastered through growing up suddenly gone and starting from scratch. Oh the learning curve.” “Arf.” (“Yeah. But...sorry for just...turning into a child on you all.”) I said honestly. “He says sorry for turning into a puppy on you.” “Oh Ben, this was...unexpected. I mean you didn’t know this would happen. The power you unleashed when ending the war must have just been too much. Honestly this is a blessing.” Luna said. “If you didn’t have this baby form and return to it when your clones burned out you might have died. So this is a preferable alternative.” “Plus you’re so cute!” Pinkie said, picking me up. “And if you stay like this, well, I guess sex is off the table til you grow up, but nursing you can be fun!” “Really Pinkie?” Luna said. “I mean, sure but, Ben is a baby now, taking any kind of...pleasure sexually from that is just...wrong.” “Eh, mentally, he’s our perverted husband who we all enjoy and love. It’s just physically he’s a baby. Isn’t there something that can speed up the aging process?” I thought for a moment. “Arf.” (“Maybe Cript can help?”) I asked. “He said maybe Cript can help.” Tempest translated. “Hmm, but we haven’t found your Assistant either… Joy, he has to still have his!” “Hahahahahahahahhahaha. Ahahahahahah...haahahahahha.” Cript was laughing...and laughing. I rolled my eyes. “Arf!” (“Yeah yeah laugh it up. Can you help?”) I asked honestly. “Oh yeah, totally.” Wait, HE understands me?! “Arf.” (“Excuse me, you can understand me as well?”) “Yeah. Learned baby talk from Doctor Who. Dude had nothing better to do. So, I can change you back in one of two ways. One, I place you in an accelerated bubble where you’ll live life normally in there till you are your right age, living a whole new life and childhood, or two, I change you to an adult here and now. Your pick.” “Arf.” (“How soon is the wedding?”) I asked Cript curiously. “Well they scheduled it for tomorrow, since everyone who arrived to join in brought a bride's outfit, and your girls have them already.” “Arf.” (“Well shit.”) I frowned. “Woof.” (“So this magic will turn me back to my normal age?”) I asked. “Yes. You’re what, nineteen or twenty?” Cript asked. “Arf.” (“I was nineteen...then I became like thirty or something due to time frame differences when I was knocked out by Kexez.”) I said honestly. “Got it.” Cript said, a circle of runes appearing over his right wrist. He then waved it over me. “There, you’ll age one year every hour till you are thirty. Hey, I just realized you were reborn, so that body's a virgin one… huh, funny. Anyway, you’ll age up till you are thirty years old.” “Arf.” (“Oh great, can’t wait for the ladies to argue about who takes my newly acquired virginity.”) I groaned. “Arf.” (“Gonna be really weird...and good thing I’m not gonna experience puberty to be perfectly honest.”) “Oh you will, just accelerated.” Cript warned. “Woof.” (“Of course…”) I groaned. “Arf.” (“That’s gonna be rough…”) “Well, if that’s all I shall be going then.” Cript said. “Arf.” (“By the by, what was the point of that war?”) I asked him. “Arf.” (“Cause to be honest, with the many many waves of enemies...it seemed less like a war and more of an endurance test than anything.”) “You could say that. Frankly It was to see how much power you could channel out before harming yourself. Knowing you it wasn’t long till you did that. I wasn’t expecting you to use up so much power you burned out your clones and ended up in your infant body. But, when you access the full amount of True Nothingness that’s not too surprising.” “Arf.” (“That was True Nothingness? How the hell does that work?”) I asked curiously. “Energy...think of energy like a planet. It’s got layers. Nothingness Nobodies use is the crust, most common and accessible. Then there is Pure Nothingness, the hot, baking molten underside of the crust that is much, much more potent, but also more dangerous. True Nothingness is the very core of the world, the raw, untapped and unpredictable energy so powerful, i’m surprised you didn’t blow this whole realm to void.” “Arf.” (“Well...that explains a lot…”) I said nervously. “Arf.” (“Um...I thought I was supposed to own...literally everything about Nothingness? Not blow up because of it…oh boy.”) “You do, but harnessing and using that to that level of potential… that’s all up to you to learn.” “Arf.” (“Cause of course it would be.”) I said. “Arf.” (“A lot of things need to just be learned by myself...gonna take a while.”) I sighed out. “Arf.” (“So...thirty hours before I get back to being myself huh?”) “Yup. As for your learning energy issue...I might know a guy who can help. I’ll send him by some time after the wedding and honeymoon… Heh, good luck with that.” Cript said before vanishing. “Arf.” (“I’m gonna need it…”) I sighed out, feeling like when I get old enough I will be hounded by all my fiances. Ten hours had passed and now I’m, well, ten physically. “Well...I’m ten now…” I said, even though Pinkie was using my head as a resting spot for her boobs cause she wanted to cuddle with me. “And why the sudden cuddles Pinkie?” “I was worried. Growing up most colts didn’t, well, while they liked me none of them took me for a serious relationship… you’re the only one who ever went this far with me. I would have been super sad if you were gone…” “I would have never left any of you.” I said while cuddling up to Pinkie. “When I first woke up as an infant...I immediately panicked when you all talked about me not being around and I wanted to get to you all...hell...I feared none of you would have believed me…” “Well it’s a good thing you saved Tempest rather than killed her. Otherwise you’d been a baby, well not forever cause you’d grow up, but you’d still be young and might have forgotten things cause I don’t think babies remember stuff after they get older. Tempest was just that perfect age of childlike she she came too to understand you but also speak english.” “Yeah, that’s true.” I said honestly. “But...I’m so glad to be here with you.” I said while nuzzling my head into her big breasts. “Heh, so, how’s growing up super fast like?” “Weird but not that weird.” I said honestly. “I just...kind of don’t want to experience puberty at super speeds cause...that would be weird.” “Well, what’s the worst you are expecting?” “Um...a combination of my normal depressed state getting worse...and me trying to hump one of my many fiance’s legs because...reasons.” I blushed and looked away nervously. “First off, that sounds adorable, the humping part I mean, and secondly, you forget, I’m me! Once that frown comes around I’ll turn it upside down!” “I know.” I said with a warm smile. “I love that about you Pinkie...you’re always so happy and wonderful.” “Yes, and I can’t wait for you to- Oh my gosh I almost forgot! Um, can you, uh, move please. I need to get someone's really fast, alright?” “Get someone’s?” I asked. “As in...get something from someone or actually get someone?” “Get someone silly, well, not just someone. Three someones!” “Um...well alright.” I said. “But will there be more cuddles later?” “Much more!” She said, I got off her lap, yes at this size I fit on her lap, and she bolted. She then returned with three, dull coated mares...with chests and asses to rival her’s! “Ben, these are my sisters! Maud, the oldest, and then there’s Limestone Pie, and Marble Pie! Marble’s really shy, but she’s a big fan of yours. Limestone likes you but can be a bit grumpy, like you, and thinks nopony will-” “Okay that’s enough Pinkie!” Limestone, I presume, snapped. “And Maud really likes rocks.” Maud, the purple haired one with...a rather expressionless face raised a hand. “Hi.” She said, lazily bringing it down. “They wanted in, and since they heard about this marriage thing that Jenny started up, they figured why not, and hopped aboard!” “Welcome aboard then.” I said honestly. “As you can clearly see I am ten...but that is being fixed really quickly.” “Okay…” Marble said, her voice more a whisper than Fluttershy’s. “...Not gonna ask.” Limestone said. “Alright… What’s this castle made of?” Maud asked. “I…” I blinked for a moment. “Um...I don’t know actually.” I said honestly. “Never bothered to ask.” I said honestly, wondering if Consequence would know. “Okay.” She said. Wow, she doesn't seem the type for emotions. “Alrighty then…” I nodded. “How have you three been liking the castle if I may ask?” “It’s nice.” Marble said. “Gotta admit, I can get used to a place like this.” Limestone said. “It’s big.” Maud said simply. Another ten hours. I actually slept through it since it was a long day and it was late already. Woke up in my twenties. Oh thank god, slept through puberty. “Hooray…” I muttered happily. “Glad I slept through all that…” “Hm?” Twilight said, right next to me as she woke up. “Oh, OH! Ben...you’re...taller than me.” She said, making herself and I stand next to one another… huh, before I was an inch shorter than her, now I’m two inches taller. Neat! “Well, that’s good to know.” I said honestly. “Feels good to be in my twenties.” I said while stretching a bit. “Wow, wonder when Dire wolf males stop growing? I know Den said that it’s a few years longer than normal humans and ponies…” “Well I’m sure I won’t be like seven feet tall or something.” I shrugged. “But...today’s the day huh?” I asked. “Yeah, at Sunset. By then you’ll be full grown and...finally we tie the knot… stars, feels like yesterday when I first spoke with you in that hospital room.” “It was...what close to a year?” I asked, not really having kept track of time because of everything. “But...I’m really happy that this is finally happening.” “Funny thing, by my count… I first met you in that room today, a year ago.” She said, wrapping her arms around me and giving me a kiss. “Talk about coincidence huh?” I hugged her as well. “Yeah, but a happy one.” I said happily. “A very happy coincidence.” “Yeah. Well, we have some hours before we have to scramble to get ready...wanna fool around and pop that newfound cherry of yours, or wanna wait til after the wedding?” “After, cause it’ll be more special that way.” I said while nuzzling Twilight. “But...twenty four hundred plus wives...and I’m sure there will be more sooner or later.” “Maybe...at this point, so long as you are you, I don’t care.” She said, nuzzling me back. “Heh, remember when Luna barged into the room, half jumping your penis and digging her tongue down your throat? Was worried you would suffocate.” “Yes, yes I do.” I chuckled a little. “The moment I knew I wouldn’t be alone anymore...was with a hot lady jumping me.” “Heh. Ever wonder what things would be like if it was just you and me? You think we would have made it this far?” “I’m sure it would have just...maybe we would have just kept to ourselves in books at the time.” I said honestly. “Heh, maybe. So, after this are you gonna make a bunch of clones so each wife has their own or a group shares one of your clones?” “Most likely.” I said honestly. “It’ll help me be with all of you.” “Hm, that would involve a lot of...you know, arm or finger...slicing to make a new one. That’s gonna hurt.” “If it means the one’s I love will be happy, I’m willing to endure anything.” I said caringly. “Heh, okay. Yeesh, to make enough clones for one for every wife is gonna be...tricky. Well, take a long time.” “I make a clone of myself, and my clones can make clones.” I said honestly. “It’s starfish logic so it won’t be too hard.” I shrugged. “I guess. So, you have a few hours left as a ‘bachelor’ heh, what are you gonna do with it?” “Panic?” I asked sheepishly. “Heh, maybe have some guy time or something. Maybe that Dante or Luxu can help you have some fun for a while.” “Wouldn’t be surprised if they knocked on my door telling me we’re going out.” I said honestly. “Heh. Tropes. Well, you head off, we’ll be getting ready, and you know the old saying, it’s bad luck for the groom to see the brides in their dresses before the wedding.” “Well I saw two thousand of them in their wedding dressed cause of Jenny.” I chuckled a little. “But I’ll be back.” I said while kissing her gently before heading out to do some things before I got married. “Have fun. Try not to get too wasted.” She chuckled, giving me a peck before I left. “Don’t worry, I’ll make sure I won’t.” I said. “And even if I did...well that’s how I got Pinkie and Zecora so...that might lead to like...fifty more wives if I get drunk...oh dear.” I muttered nervously. “I'll make sure not to get drunk.” I said before leaving and wondering if Luxu and Dante will ‘kidnap’ me and take me somewhere. Surprisingly not, but after a quick breakfast I found Luxu in his office...apparently they all have an office now. “Howdy.” I said. “How you doing Luxu?” “Well, with that mess over with I’m mostly filling out the paperwork for the cleanups and insurance payouts to damaged property.” “Sorry about that.” I said nervously. “Want to skip paperwork for now and get a drink before the wedding?” “Well, might as well.” He said, setting them down and heading out with me. We entered the castle bar, still can’t believe this place has it’s own bar inside it, and we took a seat in a booth. “So, something on your mind?” “Besides the fact I’m marrying twenty four hundred eager women?” I asked honestly while ordering good booze. “Gee, I wonder.” I chuckled a little. “Honestly I thought you and a couple of others would have dragged me off for a bachelor party.” “Well, pretty sure Dante would have but with all this paperwork stuff we’re being kept busy.” Luxu said, a Dusk Nobody waiter giving us both a mug of beer. Eh, a bit early but whatever. “Ah...well time to fix that.” I said while snapping my fingers. “Yo, whoever wants to throw me a bachelor party you can put off paperwork for the moment.” I said, my words echoing to all those that wanted to have a good time and not want to do paperwork at the moment. “You sure that’s a good idea?” Luxu asked, taking a sip from his mug. “Didn’t ever figure you the party type.” “I have a few hours for the wedding, and Twilight did say go have fun.” I said honestly, casting some silent spells so I wouldn’t get drunk so easily even if I did several drinking contests. “Just have to keep it within reason...cause if I don’t I might accidentally add more wives from other worlds...on pure weird accident.” I said nervously, not knowing what I would do if I was drunk. “Hm.” Luxu hummed. “Well, while we are waiting for something, mind if you and I just chat? I feel I should tell you some things.” “Sure.” I said. “We haven’t actually talked in a while...last time would be...when I was checking in on the Keyblade school right?” “Eh, close enough.” He said, moving his mug aside. “So, as you know my dad is the one behind Daybreak’s fall...All his experiments… who he’ll be giving them to is hard to say. Like me Dad is without a real form, or even his body or heart, so hard to say who has what or where they are.” “Would I know where his body is?” I asked. “Or did time do away with such a thing?” I was curious to know if time got rid of that bastards Nobody. “Yes. His body rotted, but he kept on. His heart destroyed, but he kept on. Under that cloak is just a soul too stubborn to move on… or stay dead. I’m asking you, please...come this war, when he appears… let me kill him.” “I’ll make sure no one gets in your way.” I told Luxu. “That’s your fight.” “Thank you. It’s long overdue payback for my friends, for the unions, for making me believe he knew what he was doing when he began that first Keyblade war… I won’t sit and watch this time, I’ll fight. I won’t stop fighting till I destroy his Soul, his Lingering Will. Which leads me to this… I might not be here that much longer. Well, I’ll be gone for a while anyway. The Foretellers have to find my body. I finally tracked the Embodiment who has it. This will be their job Ben, not yours.” “Alright, but you better come back alive.” I said. “Cause I don’t think you want to die, have Time hunt you down and kill you for dying now do we?” “Heh, yeah. So, other than that I wanted to ask you about your X-blade.” “Oh yes, No Heart.” I said. “You’ll be finding the several hundreds of people that were brought back wondering what the hell happened to them if you didn’t know.” I said honestly. “What do you want to know about it?” “How did you get it?” “That would be from Zeke’s Absent Silhouette, apparently that thing is very powerful and can...basically give whatever rewards you want, it’s also one of the Organization Mushroom mini games believe it or not.” I said honestly. “All you have to do is beat one of the X-blade wielders, or more depending on the situation, in that dimension and you get thirteen treasure chests that are literally packed full of stuff.” “Huh… And when you got it, was it already like that or like something else? A Keychain or?” “It was a Keychain, it...actually stabbed me and took some of my blood, like it was a blank ready to transform into whatever given the specific person.” I said honestly. “And for me, well I got No Heart, an X-blade that can not only revive people who are Emblem Heartless, but can give Nobodies back their lost hearts.” I said. “Which...reminds me I need to get on that whole thing…” “Hm...That’s interesting. And aside from Zeke how many also have this their own X-blades?” “As far as I know Eclipse, and Zeke’s Trixie on a technical level.” I said. “Eclipse...don’t know when he got it, and Trixie was because she and Zeke are sharing a body at the moment due to...complications.” I said nervously. “Hm...And are you sure no one else has one?” “Not that I know of.” I said honestly. “I’m sure if you go fight in that world you’ll find the other X-blade wielders cause they show all of them, and I do actually mean all of them...but uh, be warned...you actually fight a physical manifestation of Kingdom Hearts.” “hm...Now that’s interesting.” “You can talk to Yen Sid about it.” I said honestly. “He apparently had a hand in it in someway.” “Nah. Grandpa has enough on his plate I imagine.” “Knowing him maybe.” I said honestly. “Anything else you want to know?” “No, that’s all for now.” The majority of my council came not long after that the redid the castle bar into a proper bachelor party...strippers included. That took my by surprise but the show was...kinky. Finally it was time for the wedding. I was dressed in a tux, white to compliment my dark coat and colors. I was standing at the altar, Consequence was the...guy who says the lines and others were all seated. The room was massive, for good reason, over two thousand women are gonna come walking in here. ”Alright...just gotta stay calm and be ready for all my wives.” I thought to myself, my heart racing as I was just so excited for this day. ”I...still can’t believe this is happening.” I thought to myself. THe doors opened, and I gulped. Walking in was… A single mare. She had this glowing gold mane, white fur that made Rarity’s look almost dark, and all attention taking blue eyes. Her dress bore a unique design. As well as looking stunning, the vail bore the designs of each and every Race’s kingdom’s flag. She walked up next to me. “Hello Ben.” She spoke...her voice was so...heavenly. I blushed. “Uh...wow.” I said. “You...look great.” “Meet your wives.” Cript said, somehow behind me, making me jump. Oh, he is wearing a tux too. “My wives?” I asked. “Like...they're all in one lady?” “Yup. I spoke with them all this morning while you were out having a bachelor party. They agreed a marriage to over two thousand would take like, a week or just under to actually get through. So, I offered this solution. Like this, they all know everything everyone of them is thinking, a hive mind in one body of sorts. They now know everything and more about one another in that form than they will talking to one another. Past experiences, emotions, everything each of them have been through in life is shared in there. I also enchanted their ring, allowing them to rejoin together, whenever, with whoever. Just incase the like being together like that.” “Alright then.” I nodded. “Sounds like a very good thing.” I nodded. “I suppose that'll also help with the cloning stuff.” I said honestly. “Well then, shall we begin?” Consequence asked. “Yes.” I nodded with a smile. “I would love to begin.” “Right then. Dearly beloved, we gather here today to join this man, the king of this land and realm, and this mare, whose body and mind is the resulting combined unity of all of the kings harem. My king, do you have anything you wish to say to your beloved...s.” “I would be rambling for hours.” I chuckled a little. “But all I can say is...I feel like the luckiest man in the multiverse to have so many women love me when...I'm not that great.” “Right then. And the bride...s. Do you have anything to say?” “We do.” She said. “Ben, the majority of us only knew you through the news, newspapers and rumors, but you won us nonetheless. For the ones that knew you personally, we would like to say that, at first we didn’t know where this relationship would go. You were a stranger in a land you didn’t know, with powers and abilities neither we nor you understood. And yet, your constant heroism, kept you noble. You self hate, made us care for you even deeper. You’ve healed, but we both know you have your demons. So long as you’ll have us, we’ll help you face them til the end.” “Thank you.” I said. “Thank you so much.” “Then,” Consequence said. “By the power within me, bestowed to me by the old king, I now pronounce you man and wifes, king and harem. Til death will you be binded, and may your children, the princess and princesses of this kingdom grow to become worthy of their birthrights, and may one someday grow to take the crown from you, sire.” Consequence said. “You may now kiss the bride...s.” I never thought I'd be here and hear that as I teared up and kissed my fused wives happily. ”I'm the luckiest man in the world…” I thought to myself happily. The next morning I woke up, next to my wives. Some split back into themselves, Rarity, Twilight, Celie, Luna, others I couldn’t name, but enough were still in one body that their unified body was still in bed… god sex must have been different for them like...wait is Yona in there… best not think about it. “Morning.” Twilight said, wrapping her arms around me as I felt her bare chest against my back. “Morning.” I said gently. “Had fun?” “That was something else. Heh, a married mare. I thought this was a fever dream at first...but it’s real.” She said, hugging me tighter. “You’re here, they’re here… for once everything seems good.” “That's great.” I smiled warmly. “I'm...so glad things are good for you all.” “Let’s hope this lasts, just for long enough before things get bad again… just long enough.” “I hope this lasts to…” I said gently. “I...I want this to last so much…” To be continued...
Nobody's simple dayThe next day I was spending time in the Nursery. Now that I know Nancy and Braig are, well, still in there, at least for now I need to see if I can talk with them. “This is gonna be a little weird…” I muttered, but remembering I have my Assistant so I can use that as a translator just in case. After searching through the app store, which felt like looking for a single straw of hay in a pile of them, I found a supposed translation app for infants to english. Yeash, nine hundred rem...better be worth it. After it installed and I activated it I tested it out. “How are you doing today?” I asked Braig to start things off, hoping this thing will work. “Board. Can I get my guns already?” YES! It works! And all I hear is what he means, huh. “No.” I frowned. “You’re still too young to be holding guns, but glad this thing works.” i said honestly. “Cool, so I can call you a #$%#$ #%#$#$ %##$% and you hear it?” Nancy said...did that app actually censor that? “You’re being censored actually.” I said. “And no swearing.” I frowned. “Children aren’t allowed to swear till their old enough.” “#%#$ You and the #$#$ who is my new mother.” She replied. “Better mother than you.” I said bluntly. “#$#$ you I raised three kids.” Three? I know Jenny and her sister...who was the third? “Who’s the third?” I asked. “And you kind of are considering Jenny, and then there’s the fact that back then you gave up your heart because you didn’t have anyone left, but apparently you had a third kid.” I rolled my eyes. “...I don’t talk about that #$#$#$ child, and I don’t mean Jenny.” “You’re going to tell me, you know that right?” I asked, knowing Nancy was smart enough even as an infant to know she was going to tell me anyways. “...Fine. His name was Jericho. I had him two years after Kristy. He was...different.” “Different how?” I asked curiously. “He preformed like any other member of the family but… he was skitzophrenic. He took all kinds of medications but nothing ever seemed to work for it. At one point on a job...he shot Kristy, my husband, and me. Ventrals may be monsters, but we look out for our own. He left us for dead. He was no Ventral, just some rabies riddled animal. I never saw him again after that heist.” “Maybe he was hallucinating? I mean the Psychopath blood in you probably made his schizophrenia worse.” I said honestly. “But...were there any different symptoms than just the standard?” I asked, remembering reading up on this and there were some obvious things. “Aside from the self mutilation, complete lack of emotions one moment ten rage or sorrow the next and extreme violence? Extreme for us anyway, no. He is the reason I never cared for Jenny.” “That sounds more like Schizoaffective Disorder, where instead of just being Schizo, he most likely was also Bipolar.” I brought up. “And considering you said that he had bouts of mania or sorrow at the drop of a hat...but the self mutilation? I...have a bad feeling that has to do with the Psychopath blood in you making it worse.” I said nervously. “Hmm…” I hummed while checking my Assistant to see if Psychopath’s can make mental disorders worse. Sadly, there isn’t much known about it in this wider multidimensional internet...odd. “So, you never noticed it with Jenny?” “Noticed?” I asked. “I mean...last time I was with her was when we were enjoying our time on the Dire Wolf homeworld...happiest I’ve ever seen her.” I said honestly. “Notice how she functions? Even by Ventral standards her ideas are rather extreme, so young and already so lethal. You never even noticed when she fights it’s not like any martial arts known, it’s either a broken variation or made up, her movements are inconsistent, and while effective it makes no sense combat wise.” “She’s a child.” I said. “The one time I fought her, we basically played a Card Game. Her ideas of combat come from anime, cartoons and video games, where things are disjointed compared to real life...even though...technically those things are real life now.” I said slowly. “But when they were not, she would fight like those cartoons she’s watch. Kristy even told me she said sometimes she sees what should be happening like in those shows. I saw the writing on the wall… and distanced myself. I wasn’t going to relive what happened with Jericho. So if that same moment ever came up again… better a bullet in her than another set of them in my family.” “Yet you’d happily see me take those bullets for our family.” I said. “Well the idea of you getting shot is both funny and entertaining, I know no bullets can kill you anymore...sadly.” “Glad you know you enjoy being apart of the family then.” I said honestly. “Even if you get a second chance at life, glad to know you still hate everyone.” I rolled my eyes. “Well for as long as I can. Once I start talking I’ll forget all I know now, brain can’t hold two lives worth of memories.” “You’ll still hate me when you get to that point or will you actually see me as a father?” I asked. “Who knows. By the way, while you and I were talking Braig seems to have learned how to use his teleportation from before.” I turned around...and he’s gone. “Oh god damn it.” I groaned. “That’s not good…” “Three...two...one…” BOOM!!! Consequence and Trigun appeared. “Sire, one of your infants somehow got into the armory and is managing to pilot one of your Mecha tanks…” Consequence said. Boom!!!! “Effectively too.” Trigun added. “Pinkie!” I called out. “Mind coming here for a moment?” I called out, hoping she heard me considering her specialness. “Okie Dokie Loki!” She said...Jumping out of my cloak...how in the... “Chaos magic…” I muttered. “So, Braig is being a bad child, mind helping me deal with him?” I asked. “Well, sure, he is my son after all…how are we gonna get him?” “I’ll distract him while he’s in the mech and you grab him out of the thing.” I said. “Stupid kid...kept asking for his guns but he’s too young...and now he just decides to go on a rampage in a mech.” I grumbled. “Gonna get himself and others hurt…” I muttered while heading off to where Braig was. After getting him out of that thing and rebuilding the buildings he destroyed, Pinkie and I sat with Braig in what the Engineers built, a Time out room. It was basically a simple room with just a chair and bed in here so they can’t do anything. Even powers are disabled in here, have to admit, even my own are a bit wonky in here. “Please, tell me why you just decided to blast a bunch of things in a mech?” I asked, having my translator app up for me and Pinkie. “Cause it’s fun! The feel of the trigger, the recoil of the bullets, the vibrations of the explosions. Come on Ben, I was a hit man before I turned into an infant and got stuck in diapers! I NEEDED that.” “It’s not very nice to break other ponies stuff.” Pinkie said. “Yeah but it was still fun, cause I am going stir crazy in there. Only other one I can talk to is Nancy and she’s not the best conversation, and the others are simple minded.” “So?” I asked. “You’re a baby, not an adult. You could have gotten hurt, as well as hurt a bunch of others.” I said honestly. “And don’t give me the ‘it was my job’ crap, you had to have done something else besides that right?” I asked bluntly. “...” Silence… he’s done literally NOTHING else with his life?! “Are you kidding me?” I asked bluntly. “You’ve done nothing in your entire life besides be a bounty hunter?” I asked, sounding really disappointed in Braig like a father should when hearing their child has done basically nothing with their life besides one thing. “Well what did you expect? My old family made their fortune being the best hitmen and bounty hunters in this and the next ten solar systems. I grew up with a silver bullet in my mouth and the golden gun to shoot it in my hands.” I shook my head. “They probably also did other things with their lives besides doing that.” I said honestly. “But this new life you’re going to be experiencing more things than just fighting. Trust me...knowing what to do when not fighting is a lot better than knowing only the fight.” “Look it’s not that I don’t wanna stop it’s just hard breaking a lifetime's worth of habits and learned behavior.” “Well good thing you have Pinkie as a mother now do we?” I asked. “Pinkie knows a lot about a lot of things so I’m sure she can help you learn things and break out of this dangerous habit.” I said honestly. “Eh, I guess. There is now two of me so I guess in the end the other me will still be doing what I always did, so I guess learning something new when I start to forget my past won’t be too bad.” “That’s good.” I nodded. “You’ll learn new things, grow up and be happy.” I said honestly. “And not blow up parts of the armory all because you’re bored.” I rolled my eyes. “Plus, you’ll keep your mother company a lot more.” “I guess.” “That’s good. And Pinkie? You okay with this?” I asked, wondering if she had any input. “Yeah, I can teach him baking, candy making, party planning,” “And I’m regretting this already…” “Hey, when you’re older you can help your mother with party themed explosives.” I rolled my eyes. “Especially the party cannon cause that’s a thing.” “...Alright…” Later that day I was with Applejack back in Ponyville, looking over her apple trees. Nothingness seems to have altered her Zap Apple orchard section. This is Equestria Applejack, not human world Applejack, she came asking Twilight for a favor and Twilight sent me since I’m the apparent expert...which I really should be. “Okay so...what’s going on here?” I asked curiously. “Well, look.” She said. We entered the area and...grey and black. Every tree was a grey and black pattern, nothing like from what I remember in the show. “They were fine at first but they changed to this a week ago.” “Huh...that’s odd.” I said while gently touching one of the new grey and black tree’s. “I wonder why this happened...they should be connected to the land, not the realm…” “Well maybe that’s the issue?” AJ questioned. “The land is now in the realm, so maybe this place’s magic is affecting the lands? Granny Smith always said nature is the first to warn when change is afoot.” “Maybe…” I muttered. “Alright you...tell me what changed…” I muttered while focusing, wondering if the Nothingness inside the tree will explain what happened to what would normally be the Zap Apple Tree’s. While I sensed it in there it was...different. Not like when I use it, it felt...primordial. “Hope you find out soon, don’t know if we can even harvest them, and their harvest season starts today.” “Primordial...wait.” I muttered, pulling back and checking my Assistant to see if I’m not going crazy about these tree’s. “Is this...really what it is?” Equestrian magic is old and very potent. It reacts differently to different kinds of magic, and changes itself to adjust to the magic depending on the new magics potency in the area. This can result in mutations in the land, animals, and even the inhabitants. “Oh…” I muttered. “Well...that explains it…” I muttered. “But what’s the tree now?” I wondered while scanning the tree to see what kind of tree it is. Zapp Apple Tree Warning: Unnatural magic mutation. Calculating possible mutations… “Let’s hope this is still edible…” I muttered, not wanting to have ruined some of AJ’s business because of this. Possible Mutations: -Advanced Development -Magical Side Effects -Rapid Growth And Mature -Colored Nothingness “Right so um…” I said. “The tree’s are fine but...they may have possible mutations, ranging from Advanced Development, Magical Side Effects...sadly don’t know what those side effects are, Rapid Growth and Maturity, and or...Colored Nothingness.” “I can take a guess at some of those but Colored Nothingness? That sounds a tad odd.” Applejack said. “Yeah...does sound a little weird.” I agreed while looking up what the hell Colored Nothingness was. While I opened up the Assistant Aj grabbed a Zapp Apple… only for once it was picked, to gain it's normal rainbow appearance, grow ten times its size, Aj had to hold it with two hands, and radiated faint Nothingness while… rainbow colored Nothingness Thornes ran around it. “Right...um...that is definitely a thing.” I said honestly. “Wow! We can make easy three or four jars of Zap Apple Jam with them this big!” “That’s if they all do that.” I said honestly. “But yeah...I’m pretty sure you’ll be making a lot more jam with all of that.” “Heh, well this harvest will certainly be our best ever.” “Well, at least things are settled then.” I said, having a feeling this will still be edible even if it changed. “So, anything else about your farm I need to look at our was the Zap Apple’s it?” I asked curiously. “No, this was about it. Thanks for coming over.” “No problem.” I nodded. “Just doing my job.” I said as I thought for a moment. “How’s the family been with the sudden changes?” I asked curiously. “Bloom's been finding the whole thing Exciting. Big Mac didn't seem to care much and when Granny first saw the sky she about had a heart attack, swore Equestria was ending.” She chuckled. “Believe me, if the world was truly ending...well then a lot worse things would be happening in the meantime.” I sighed out. “Well, wanna come inside? We got a lot of Leftovers and Granny wants to have the fridge empty for our Hearths Warming Party.” “Oh yeah...I forgot it’s getting close to that…” I muttered. “Wait...is there Thanksgiving in Equestria?” I asked curiously, wondering if they had that lone holiday as well. “I know it’s past November but...just wanting to make sure.” “Uh, what exactly is that Holiday for you?” “Thanksgiving is, in some cases, a harvest celebration, but in specific places it was also about giving thanks to many things, like family, friends, the harvest, and a bunch of other things.” I said honestly. “Which...is kind of redundant when it’s called ‘Thanksgiving’.” I muttered. “Well Hearth's Warming is kinda like that, lots of ponies, friends and family getting together, cooking, eating and just being happy. If you wanna Celebrate this Thanksgiving of yours you can, heck, I know Pinkie Pie won't mind a new Holiday for a party on her calendar.” “Well again, Thanksgiving was partly due to the Harvest season but eh. And Hearths Warming...well a lot of people have different names for that holiday. But...you know, I don’t think I’ve had Apple Family cooking before...weird.” “Heh, well come on in then. I gotta show the new Zapp Apples to Big Mac. Heh, he'll drop his drawers when he sees this.” She said as she lead the way back to her house. Once there she got out some leftover sweets for me to try while she went to show the massive Zapp Apple to her brother. “Sweet.” I muttered with a smile and happily dug into the sweets I was giving to try. “Glad to finally try this stuff.” It. Was… Amazing. The flavor was super rich and lasting on my tongue. “Good lord this is amazing.” I smiled happily and continued to eat the wonderful apple treats. I actually finished off the treats, Waiting for Aj to return. She came back some minutes later. “Heh, Big Mac about fell over when he saw this apple.” I chuckled. “Glad to hear that. Besides bills, what are you gonna do with all the excess money you’ll make from a higher amount of jam?” I asked curiously. “Also, these sweets are amazing.” “Heh, it’s part of why this farm stays a float.” She said. “Yeah that is true.” I said in agreement. ”I wonder...should I go to another world? Cause I don’t think I have much else to do here…” I thought to myself, thinking I can go off to another world just to actually explore more instead of wondering what the fuck to do. “Need anything else before I go?” “No that was pretty much it. You know, you should take a day off or something. Even here on the farm we take a day or two off, mainly in the slow season. Read a book or something.” “Thanks.” I nodded. “But yeah I should probably just head off and do...something with my free time.” “You can head off to the Library, been a while since you were there.” “Yeah, my original home before I had to move.” I said. “Well, better get going. Have a nice day.” I said before getting up and heading off to the Library to see how it changed. As I walked through town I noticed Ponyville was getting modernized. Paved roads, drainage systems, light poles, even vending machines were decorating the streets. Nobodies and those living here were working to modernize buildings and such all around. It was...nice, but it also felt strange, seeing this small town almost expanding within a few days or so. The Library was still a tree, still as I remember it at least. I knocked, Time Bell opening the door. “Oh, Ben. Long time no see.” She said. “Hey Time, how are you doing today?” I asked the mare. “Good. Library’s been good. Finally have modern checkouts so no more losing books. What brings you here?” “Eh, just wanted to see how my old home was doing.” I said honestly. “Mind if I come in?” “Sure.” I entered. The inside was different. It was more like a library and less like a home with lots of books. “Hey, it actually looks like a library here.” I said. “Looks nice.” “Yeah, it didn’t take that long to fix it all up. Very little was altered to the structure, mainly it was just standing shelves added.” “Right then.” I nodded. “I hear you and luxu are still together and happy right?” “Yeah. Even though he’s in your council he still comes here every night. So, anything of interest, the only things we don’t check out are in the Enchanted section. As in the books are enchanted.” “Right then.” I nodded. “Wonder why those books are enchanted…” “Dunno but if you want to look at them go ahead, we keep them in what was the Basement, not the Enchanted section so we can keep it locked at night. Some of them are pretty neat.” “Would be interesting.” I said honestly. “Actually...what happened to all of Twilight’s stuff down there?” I asked, not remembering what happened to all her science stuff. “She took it when you all moved out.” “Ah.” I nodded. “Well might as well see all the enchanted books.” I said while heading to the basement. Upon entering there was only four books each on a stand. ‘A Manifesto of Properties’. ‘Times and Life of The Modern Alchemist.’ ‘Evolution Steps Back.’ and lastly was ‘Harry Potter, the Complete Collection.’ That was funny enough the biggest book. “Okay then…” I muttered while checking the Manifesto and wondering what’s in it. I opened it up… and saw a little paper mache crane fly out. “Hello, I am Table of Contents, Contents for short, How may I help you today?” It spoke… right, Enchanted. “Hi. I was wondering what was in this book so I was going to read it.” I said, not really sure what to say to the enchanted book considering I just wanted to read it. “Right. This book can tell you how much any property on any world is worth with immediate updates.” “Wait, ‘any world’?” I asked, finding that rather curious it brought up ‘any’ world. “What do you mean by that?” “I mean any world! Radiant Garden, Hundred Acre woods! This very land of Equestria, even digital worlds such as Matrix or Tron. I can tell you the property and it’s current value of any planet.” “That is rather interesting.” I said, not thinking this book existed. “Hmm...what to ask...eh, why not Equestria?” “Okay then sire, what and where would you like to know the property value of?” “Um...the country of Equestria.” I asked. “That’s a big enough area.” “Calculating. The entirety of the country of Equestria has a net worth of 5.88 septillion Rem, totaling in resources, economy, and land values.” “God damn.” I said in surprise. “Didn’t think it was worth that much…” I muttered. “Hmm...Griffonstone.” “Calculating. The Country of Griffonstone as is with its economic depression and reconstruction at an agonizingly slow pace is worth 3.9 million Rem, mainly due to the mountain country's historical value and the mountain containing a fair sized mine of gold and gems.” “Yeah makes sense…” I muttered. “The diamond dog kingdom...um...what is it called?” “Diamond Dog lands. Calculating. Total worth is 9.75 Nonillion Rem, their booming industry in pornography and adult entertainment as well as a vast untapped natural resource under the soil of gold, gems, and valuable minerals.” “Jesus…” I muttered. “That’s quite a lot...Badlands.” “Calculating. The Badlands total worth is 9.55 Trillion Rem, while rich in underground riches, their lack of established cities and high pollution and dry, and lack of fertile land cripple it’s worth potential.” “Makes sense…” I muttered. “Yakyakistan?” “YakYakistan. Calculating. This small nation up in the frozen lands had a total worth of only three million rem, as it’s country had no major trades, resources or economy.” “Yeah…” I muttered. “The dragon lands?” “Calculating. 3.99 Trillion Rem. While no real economy or trade worth in total, the volcanic ash soil is the most fertile in the planet total and it’s rich minerals would make the nation worth much more, but the dragons would rather horde and eat them rather than trade.” “Right then.” I said, wondering about what other nations I could bring up. “Hmm…Saddle Arabia.” “Saddle Arabia, 4.4 Billion Rem.” “Right then.” I nodded. “Well I suppose that’s good enough I suppose…” “Till Next time then.” Contents said, floating back to the pages as the book closed itself. I nodded before checking the Time’s and Life of an Alchemist just to see how special it was. I opened the book, and the words on the page changing and then forming a face. “Hello, long time since someone opened my pages.” “Hi.” I said. “How you doing today?” “Eh, I’m a book so nothing much to complain about.” “So, who are you if I may ask? Cause I have a feeling your more than just the book.” I said honestly. “I am the Alchemist. My pages contain the recipes of over nine thousand, four hundred and fifty three of the most complex alchemical transmutations and potions from Era two to Era five.” “Era two to Era five?” I asked curiously. “What do you mean by that?” “An Era in the terms of the realms means the time between an apocalyptic event so massive life on every world in every reflection had to start over. This is Era fourteen.” “Jesus.” I frowned. “That long huh?” “Yes, but they range in how long they are. So yes, a lot more than what you would expect. So, need anything?” “Might as well see what all the alchemy stuff is from...twelve to nine era’s ago.” I said honestly. “Mind letting me learn you’re techniques?” “Sure, anything specific? Transfigurations, potions? You look like a fellow who could use a wide variety of invisibility potions, maybe a potion of elephant hearing? Hear from miles farther than you can normally? Take your pick I have quite the assortment.” “Well I don’t need hearing cause I’m a Dire Wolf and I can hear great...I have a spell for invisibility...hmm…” I hummed. “Man there’s so much I could think of…” I wondered. “Besides potions and transfigurations, what else do you know?” “Transfiguration isn’t potions my lad, transfiguration takes something and transforms it to something of equal material value. Quite frankly it’s possibly the more dangerous field of study within my pages.” “Oh yeah that.” I said. “Yeah I know of that...that would probably be a pain in the ass if I even tried…” “And dangerous. People use this information thinking they will be the acception. But when they seek Truth they learn no one is the acception.” “Yeah, I know...he’s an asshole.” I frowned. “Mostly because of what it did to Cript.” “Yeah but that’s him, he takes what you value the most. Well, technically it’s a trade, that which you value most for information.” “Yeah...that’s true.” I nodded. “So you only have Transmogs and Potions?” “Yes, and please don’t call them Transmogs, it’s insulting.” “Is it?” I asked the book honestly. “Yes. it’s like calling you a mutt, don’t you take insult to that?” “Okay there’s a difference between being racist and shortening a term.” I frowned. “Cause trust me, there two completely different things.” “Maybe to you, but when you literally exist to do nothing but teach what you were imbued with, you take it as racist.” “Okay okay.” I said. “No need to get your pages ruffled. So, let’s look at the potion selection and see what’s there okay?” “Fine, fine. So, what do you need or want to learn?” “Hmm...do you know any recipes for healing potions?” I asked curiously, even though I have enough to last me and my entire army a fucking life time I’d at least like to know how to make them. “I have two hundred and sixteen healing potion recipes.” “That’s quite a bit...what’s the strongest one you know?” I asked honestly. “Goldmines Brew is a good one, can revive the dead, so long as they have been dead for an hour or less.” “Right then...how am I going to make that?” I asked, having a good feeling about that. “Three pounds of Griffon Egg Shells, nine Phoenix feathers, brew in a black boil mushroom broth and after a three day brew over a low fire filter into bottle with a Glass size four potion filter tube.” “Right then.” I nodded, glad to learn that. “But that sounds...rather curious for ingredients…” “Griffon Shells when boiled brew a tea that heals bones, and Phoenix feathers when made into a tea heal the body completely, and can revive death. Together they form a potent potion. Healing the body completely, restoring magic. It’s ingredients hard to come across but worth it when gathered.” “Well good thing I have both Griffon wives and a wife with a pet phoenix so…” I said, finding that a bit convenient. “Alright then. So, anything else or will you be off then?” “Hmm...what kind of remedies do you know?” I asked curiously. “Depends, what’s your ailments?” “Any.” I said. “A cure all as it were.” “I have five, the most potent of them is called Witches Fiber. Brew a quart of witches blood with specks of gold flakes and mix in one vile of holy water. Mix til turns green then add in Pixie Dust and then pour into bottle with number eight bottle filter tube.” “Right then...that is a bit weird you need gold and pixie dust...and holy water of all things.” I said honestly. “Potion making is about the internal magic of the ingredients, and how they react when mixed together. The results can be nothing or extraordinary, this is no science, it’s merely how magic reacts to other magic.” ”So it’s completely nonsensical, got it.” I thought to myself. “But one more thing...are there potions that increase people’s physical and mental capabilities?” I asked curiously. “Yes. There are many, but I feel you want something that adds permanent additions.” “Yeah, that would be best.” I said honestly. “Then Demi-Gods Blood is for you.” “Demi-god blood...um...how?” I asked curiously, even though by all technical concerns I became a god not too long ago. “The Demi-Gods Blood potion will maximize your potential to it’s fullest, it’s rare and making it is as hard as you can imagine.” “Do you literally need Demigod blood?” I asked curiously. “Not quite. The potion takes a Devil’s skinned hide, an angels wings, the soul of an unborn, and the heart of a pure blood god. Brewed together in the purest of spring waters, they create the effects you seek.” “Jesus christ how did you figure this out?” I asked in very great concern. “I didn’t, the great Hero of Era three Caster Vergil did. He gathered them all together and made the first brew. He drank it and kept his Era going for two thousand more years until his death.” “Right then.” I nodded. “That’s...quite a thing to be honest.” I said honestly. “Probably not going to murder an angel, demon and god but good to know…” I said nervously. “But...I suppose that’s everything…” “Alright then, till next time.” The book said, closing itself. “Till next time.” I said while putting the book back. “Okay...onto the next book…” I said while taking ‘Evolution Step’s Back’. “I have a bad feeling about this…” I muttered, fearing what the title had in store for me. It opened… and the pages were blank… okay... “Right…” I muttered while closing it, fearing that if I tried to read it I’ll de-age for some unknown reason. Placing it down, I moved over to the next book. “And onto the most uninteresting, the entire Harry Potter series.” I said while taking the book and opening it up, wondering if this book literally does have the entire collection. As I read the first chapter, the words began to glow… oh crap! I dropped it, the light blinding me as everything went white. “Omph!” I groaned, falling into what feels like bushes. Bushes? “What the fuck?” I muttered, wondering what the hell is going on. “Where am I?” As I was standing up I was in...some kind of suburbs. It was dark, night time. Light poles lit as an elderly bearded man stood in the… Wait… Dumbledore!?!? He was lifting that thing, the light from the street lamps flying into it… I’m in the book. ”Mother fucker...well I have a good feeling I’m about to fuck something up big time if I don’t stay hidden…” I thought to myself, having a pretty bad feeling that if I make myself known something bad will happen. I watched as Dumbledore and then Professor Mcgonagall left Harry on the doorsteps. They rang the bell then magiced themselves away. I sat back in the bushes, watching as the younger version of his aunt saw the baby. She read the note, then looked at the baby… Then closed the door… I’m sorry, WHAT!?!? ”Okay things are already wrong here.” I thought to myself as I summoned my Lexicon and made a rune real quick that made me immune to stop effects as I slowly sneaked towards the child. ”Okay, so this book is a liar and isn’t doing what the book said.” I thought myself. As I went over to the infant Harry I saw the scar was fresh on his head, bearly scabbed over. He was sleeping peacefully. I looked over at the window, the Aunt and Uncle arguing, likely over what to do. ”Okay so maybe they’re deciding on if they should take care of Harry...and if this is the story they need to take care of him.” I thought to myself, staying hidden from everyone as I waited for what comes next. After a bit the Aunt opened the door, taking Harry inside. I listened in. “I don’t like it. I don’t like it at all. We are making ends meet barely as is. Another mouth to feed is the last thing we need.” The uncle said. “I don’t like it either but you know these freaks highly valued my sister and her husband. If we don’t care for him they might do unspeakable things to us.” The aunt replied. “Well why don’t we just leave the boy in an orphanage and be done with it.” “And risk making them mad? That’s suicide!” “Damn magical...freaks! Even the poorest of them are paid in gold, or so you’ve told me. If they lived like we’ve had to, even one of those gold coins would make this easier at least. Durdly just got out of diapers, oh those expensive diapers, and now we have to get them all over again!” The uncle said, taking a seat on the couch. “We’ll have to be even more frugal, if that’s even possible. I suppose I can work the Overnight Shifts, nobody wants them since they last a full ten hours, but at least they’ll pay more…” “Love, you already work nine hours straight. When will you sleep?” “Coffee.” “That’s not an answer.” “It’s all I got.” So they were broke when Harry came into their lives? That can explain some things…”Wait no, that doesn’t make any sense.” I thought to myself. ”They sure as hell were well off in the real story so what the hell?” I thought to myself, finding that a bit inconsistent from what I read and watched. Hmm… This is meddling, but the hell, I’ve meddled enough on other worlds to the point several in in the realm I am king of. I went into my Assistant, taking out out and placing about six thousand pounds as a starting before knocking on the door, and casting Vanish, making me invisible. The uncle opened the door, seeing the money and taking it. I then listened in again. “Well...I guess we’ll be good for a while.” He said, counting the bills. “This will be enough to get your… Harry some things, needed things, and maybe some real food on the table. Durdly is too thin for a boy his age.” That fat proker was thin? What kind of Harry potter book is this? ”Yeah this is definitely not the real Harry Potter series.” I thought to myself while checking my Assistant to see what Harry Potter story I’m actually in. World: Harry Potter, the Complete Collection World Type: Fictional Story Book Unlike normal worlds within the Multiverse, those residing within Fictional pages that can be entered and explored as if they were solid earth, can be drastically altered and changed. Once the story is done, however, while the pages read the same words, the inhabitants within remain changed. Knowing the real events that took place. ”That doesn’t explain what book I’m in cause sure there’s a time skip in between this I highly doubt this is it at all.” I thought to myself, liking how the Assistant to give me a bunch of info about things that it thought I was asking for when I was asking for something completely different. ”But whatever, looks like I’m gonna be stuck here for ten plus years...hopefully not…” I thought to myself. The next day I followed the Uncle to his job. He worked in an office building. It looked like he works in recites and billings, entering all the paperwork into boxes, copying it, retyping it all up. Shit that’s too much BS for paperwork. ”Well looks like he has a boring as piss job…” I thought to myself. As his day went on he had to have worked over at least a thousand or so papers. That’s a lot of papers. When he left the job he went to the part to think, to himself it seemed as he was asking himself questions on a bench all alone. “What to do… That money will help but not for long. Promotion might help, but that won’t happen. Too many fellows better than me up there. Besides, no one ever asks for anyone from my department…” He sighed. “I can try and find employment elsewhere but with the economy as is that isn’t a hopeful option.” ”Well at least he’s trying...even if he’s gonna be a fat bastard who raises a spoiled brat.” I thought to myself. As the next few days went along I began using illusion spells to make myself look like how I did as a human to others. This let me be able to watch thing play out from a public view rather than just from bushes. Makes this all much easier. One thing I knew for sure is that they are really mixed on Harry. They seem to want to take him in, but financially, even with the money I gave them, they worry. So sometime soon some event happens, I think, that causes them greater financial hardships. They must put all that worry and stress into anger towards him, then whatever happens after is what gives them quite the financial security. What those are though must range from possibly a job loss or something else. ”Still doesn’t make any sense why they continue to hate him after if what I’m looking at is right.” I thought to myself. This was just strange. “Greetings.” I about fell out of my chair… Dumbledore appearing in the previous empty seat on the other side of my table. “I’ve noticed you watching Harry… is your presence cause for trouble?” “No no, just…” I took a moment to think of how to explain it. “A traveler.” I said, not technically lying here but still. “So, how may I help you?” “Just wondering why you are observing young Potter and his guardians. I can tell you are using an illusion spell on yourself, hiding your appearance. May I ask why?” “Would you openly display your part Dire Wolf?” I asked honestly. “Part dire wolf? Were you an experimentation?” “Family Curse.” I shrugged. “Ah. May I?” He asked, holding out a hand. “Oh no, it’s alright. Besides...I really like my new Heritage...plus the Curse was...jeez not sure how to explain things.” I said sheepishly. “May I examine it at least? I know of many curses, but none that alter the body in such a drastic way. Potions yes, but those ware off.” “Sure, but it’s more of a...genetical curse.” I said while letting him examine the curse. “If that makes any sense to you.” “Hm. I shall see.” He said, I felt his magic flow over me, examining me and the family curse. “Hmm...very interesting. This curse does, infact target genetics, completely remaking them if need be and doesn’t lead to repercussions. Your old DNA is still there but your new added ones are made the dominant one, quite fascinating. I also notice you have far more power than I initially thought… fearfully much more. Pray tell, you don’t happen to be of another world, do you?” “And you’ve met others like me I presume?” I asked curiously. “Cause not many can say that without prior knowledge or experience.” “Yes. I am not as at a loss as some expect. You see, I know of other worlds, but I also know this world is just pages in a book. You see, the author of my book was a member of the old Dandelions, who imbued her works with life and childlike wonder, as a means to keep the light alive. We were scattered. I know for a fact we were in the old King of Nothingness Library. Then his castle fell and, I am unsure of our current location. All I know is that we are safe. Each book our author made has one character written to know of the truth of their existence, as a safety measure.” “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “Well funny thing really...I’m the new King of Nothingness, and right now you’re in a Library in a humble little town. And who would have thought J.K.Rowling was actually apart of the Dandelions.” I chuckled a little. “The more you know I suppose.” I said honestly. “But I suppose why I’ve been looking over Harry is...well the author never really gave an explanation of Harry’s early life, just jumped from the day he was put on the doorstep to his relatives then jumped to the few days before he was swept into a whirlwind adventure of magic, wonder and plot holes.” I said honestly. “Ah, well I can tell you that. Simply put, when Harry was just ten months old, he first used magic. The resulting spell of a young wizard can be very strong. As such, his cousin was harmed, breaking many of his bones. That made his aunt and uncle fear him, and so, they began to hate him. They spoiled their son to make sure he forgot the traumatic event of his youth. After all, nineteen fractures, ten broken bones and a concussion is a lot of damage to anyone, especially a young boy.” “Jesus christ.” I frowned. “That’s...a hell of a thing.” “Magic in the wizard and witches younglings stabilizes at age two, one and a half at the youngest, but it starts up at just four months old. Muggles are ill equipped to handle such affairs. The time between Harry’s magic manifesting and it stabilizing left their house and health in near ruin. That is why they hate him, because if he could do that to them at so little, they feared what he could do when older. So, they kept him in a position of fear and closed their hearts to him. Sad really, it’s why these years were never written. Only able to be witnessed by being inside the novel.” “Yeah...that’s a good reason.” I said honestly. “But then where did they get all the money? Cause right now they’re having trouble with money as is, minus the six grand I gave them just as a little help.” “Funny enough, it was a byproduct of when Harry’s magic harmed his cousin so badly. His uncle’s boss, while a busy man is a kind hearted man, and so, when he heard his employee’s son was so badly hurt, he promoted him, a big bonus and a large weekly check, so long as he kept the work given completed. And he did, throughout this story. In a way, if Harry doesn't do that event, then they never become financially stable, and they do learn to love him, Harry and his cousin grow to be more like brothers rather than a slave and master. But, this was not how this story was meant to be told. Such a sad fact.” “It happens.” I shrugged. “Life can be a great ball of shit sometimes...but we learn to deal with it in time and forgettable sequels.” “Not as… I would have said it but it works. So, I take it you want out of the book then?” “I suppose everything else is just the same as the other books or is there any differences?” I asked curiously. “There can be, but on the pages nothing will be changed, just… reset. You can pretty much do whatever, re enter and everything will be the same when you return, only anything you did will have never happened.” “Right then.” I nodded. “Thanks for clearing somethings up Professor.” I nodded. “The names Ben by the by.” “It’s been a pleasure Ben… may I ask a favor, if you’d listen?” “Sure.” I nodded. “What do you need?” “I’ve seen the events play out many times. It gets old. In each time I hate that out of them all Harry has to suffer over, and over again. I know anyone taken out of this world, when it resets it will just craft a new one, so can you take him? At least one Harry can live a completely different life outside of this cycle.” “Sure.” I nodded. “I’ll take him in...just uh...wonder how to make a solid argument besides I have all the money in the world.” I said sheepishly. “Just make sure he grows up loved.” “Now that isn’t going to be that hard.” I chuckled. “All the kids I’ve adopted have been raised with love.” I said warmly. “Good, good. Well, let’s retrieve the boy, and I will send you both on your way.” “Thank you.” I nodded. “Let us be off.” With a quick warp the the house and grabbing Harry Dumbledore sent us out of the book. I appeared in the library, back in Ponyville. The door was still open so I am gonna assume that time in the book was much faster than time in the real world. “Well...alrighty then…” I muttered while looking down at Harry, now having this kid as my new son. “Wonder who you’re going to be the child of…” I wondered, having a feeling it’s going to be Twilight because magic. His body began changing, Dire Wolf ears growing as well as fur...and that was it. I didn’t see any pony, dragon, or other race features… So must be one of the new Dire Wolf wives child. Huh, wonder who it is? “Well, good way to check…” I muttered while using my Assistant to see who’s mother Harry was under. Escarlata Age: 27 Race: Dire Wolf “Right then…” I muttered, glad to know who’s mother Harry’s was. I walked Harry over to the nursery. “Alrighty, time for you to meet all your other siblings…” I muttered while gently putting him down in one of the cribs. With that done I went on to find something to do. I entered the throne room, and Consequence appeared. “Greetings sire. Is there anything you would like to request?” “Um...yes actually.” I said. “Where’s the former King’s note’s and experiments on Nothingness?” I asked Consequences, thinking he would know where it was at so I didn’t have to search the entire damn place or the entire library. “Well his public records are in the main library, but his laboratory is in the very last basement.” “And...where would that be?” I asked curiously. “This way, my lord.” Consequence said, opening a DTN. “Thank you.” I nodded while entering the DTN, hoping to start learning about True Nothingness and all the things I can do with this unknown power. “Wonder what I’ll find…” To be continued...
Nobody's pissedI walked out of a DTN, just opening up one and randomly walking through to see what world I would be in, and...I was in Hawaii? “Well...better than some other places…” I muttered while looking around the place to see where I was specifically. The first Nothingness ability I used was Camouflage Zero. There’s a lot here. I thought while skimming over some of the mountains of notes and books here. Huh, this might come in handy. Camouflage Zero. This spell is rather interesting in it’s uses. It takes the true form of one of the Nobodies and makes you look like who they were. The spell seems to work by placing the casters body in a small side dimension and brings a random Nobody to then have the caster almost poses. It is definitely unique and as far as my allies go, only I seem able to cast this spell successfully. Strange. Huh… that could come in handy. “Alright...time to test this…” I muttered while looking over myself real quick to see if I noticed any changes or if it was only for other people. I immediately noticed...boobs… I’m a chick! Shit, the Nobody who’s true form this was is a woman… who sadly has knickers that rival Luna’s… well damn. I found a car and got a good look. While my clothes were normal I was now a Easy D cup, six foot woman, red hair, just the right amount of freckles, and green eyes… fuck with curves like this she must have been a model… damn… this is weird… ”Note to self...find this woman’s Nobody, bring her back...and marry her cause jesus christ.” I thought to myself, even though this was weird this woman was still pretty freaking hot...which is what I’m calling myself technically...fucking hell. ”Well...might as well look around town…” I thought to myself, wondering what I could do here. “Well, best head into- Fuck even her voice is sexy!” I said, speaking in her voice. It was a bit scottish. Shaking my head I headed over to town. As I walked through and around I came across some locals. I got some eyes looking at me… shit, right, woman's body… that explains all the guy’s I saw rubbernecking…”Christ...if my wives saw me like this…” I thought to myself while continuing to ignore the many people staring at me. “What to do…” I hummed, never actually been to Hawaii. Normal people would see the sights, but I’m not normal, and I came to see if there was anything to test out some abilities and spells on. I know my powers and weapons will be unaffected by this spell, and looking through there were spells that only certain weapons can cast. What to do. So far this place seems peaceful. As I looked around I spotted some missing dog poster- STITCH! I mentally yelled, taking a closer look at the poster… yup, that’s him, no mistaking it. So I’m on his world, so when I got his summon charm, he appeared with me… and I forgot to unsummon him… crap, he’s been missing this whole time! “Uh...shit…” I muttered while moving to a place where no one was. “Shit shit shit...I completely forgot...god Stitch is gonna hate me…” I muttered sadly, getting to a hidden spot before pulling out the Ukulele charm. “I’m sorry Stitch...but come on out.” I muttered while trying to summon Stich. In a small flash the little blue alien appeared. He looked around then at me. He looked confused at first, til he took some sniffs. “B-Ben?” He asked, his broken english managing to say my name. “It’s me little guy…” I said. “God...I’m so sorry...I...want to go back to your home?” I asked, Stitch seeing I was really freaking upset about forgetting him and not sending him back home. He then jumped up in panic. Did… did he forget also? “Of..” He said, proceeding to speak fast whatever language that was. Huh, not even that can be translated? Weird. “Stitch calm down.” I said gently. “But...do you remember this place?” I asked gently. He nodded. “L-Lilo!” He said, starting to walk out the alley, motioning for me to follow. “Alright…” I nodded while following Stitch, still feeling like crap for forgetting to bring Stitch home. “God Stitch...I’m so sorry…” “Egh. F-for...give and, for...forget.” He managed to say, leading the way still. “Alright…” I sighed out. “Let’s hope...they won’t be too mad at me…” I muttered, not knowing how long it’s been for Lilo on this world. After arriving at the house I saw it was at the time of at the end of the first movie, and how it was in the one where his cousins were introduced. “Well...at least the place isn’t destroyed…” I muttered, fearing that something bad could have happened without Stitch here. “Well...let’s hope they’re home.” I knocked on the door, Lilo answering. She looked at me, then saw Stitch. “Stitch!” She cheered, the blue alien tackling her and the two rolling in a hug as Stitch licked her, covering her in his green saliva. “He’s back!” That’s her sister, Nani if I remember. From the voice anyway. Yup, here she comes into frame. “Oh good.” She then noticed me. “Oh, um. Who are you?” “I’m…a friend.” I said. “I...have somethings to explain...mind if I come in?” I asked, still a little weirded out that I’m a sexy scottish lady apparently. “Oh, sure.” She said, moving aside for me to enter. “You a tourist?” She asked, closing the door behind me. “Yeah.” I nodded while entering the house. “First time here actually.” I said honestly. “But yeah...um...somethings to explain…” I said nervously, wondering where to start. “So where did you find him? Jumba, er… Lilo’s uncle, that is, helped her look all over the islands.” “On my world actually.” I said. “I’m just uh...disguised is all, you know to fit in without causing a scene.” I said, not lying but not entirely telling the truth. “Ah, well good to know, wish Pleakley knew this level of effort in his ‘disguises’.” She laughed. “Seriously, you could pass for some kind of super model. Is that tech or some crazy ability your kind can do… is that offensive to ask?” “It’s not offensive at all.” I said honestly. “But this is an ability and...sadly I forgot to actually have a form in mind before turning. You know, not wanting to cause a scene for one reason but causing a scene for a completely different reason.” “Heh, well if you ever want a date that body is the fastest way. So, how did stitch appear on your world? Did he fall out of the sky like he did for us?” “No actually.” I said while pulling out the Ukulele charm. “You see, where I come from there are these Charms that can…’summon’ people from other worlds for certain things. It normally isn’t very long and it normally summons the being in question when they aren’t needed for anything or are by themselves. Just uh...I...sadly forgot to send him back.” I sighed out. “Just...when he came by I was happy about it but...then way too many things happened for me to go into any detail cause that’s a whole different story…” I sighed out. “If that...made any sense to you, please tell me how it didn’t cause I’m pretty sure it makes no sense.” “Well, I’d rather not spend hours trying to wrap my head around how that works so I’ll just accept it. Well thank you for bringing him back. Actually… if it’s not too much trouble, can we have that?” She asked, pointing to the charm. “I know Stitch is a handful, and having something like that in case he is ever lost again would come in real handy. If you are willing to part with it I mean? Lilo would just be happy to have a means to keep Stitch out of anything that can hurt him.” “Yeah.” I nodded while putting it on the table. “It’s best if it’s kept with his family.” “Thank you.” She said, picking it up. “Knowing Lilo she’ll figure it out in no time. Well, if this was all, is there anything else you’d like to know about or see?” I thought for a moment. “Two things, what would you say is a good spot to relax, and have there been any...strange monster sightings? Like strange creatures that aren’t aliens?” I asked curiously, hoping Heartless and Unversed haven’t gotten here. “Hm… So aside from Stitch’s cousins, there is this new island across the ways north of this one. Just… appeared overnight. Police and navy won’t let anyone over to it. Sometimes on the beach facing it at night people swear they see it has eyes under the water. If that’s something you think is worth investigating go ahead.” “That is most definitely something I should investigate.” I said nervously. “Cause it could be anything...like say an island size Kraken...and no one wants that.” I said nervously. “But it’s north from here, and it only occurs at night, anything else if I may ask?” “Well none of the birds or anything want to go towards it. It’s all rocky and while it is barren, satellite photos make it looks like the formations form some kind of deep crater, like a meteor impact.” I frowned. “Well that’s not good…” I muttered, thinking what could have been there. “Well looks like I’m going to have to do some searching…” “Be safe.” “I will.” I nodded. “But uh...if you hear explosions...don’t panic alright?” I said while heading to the door. “Can’t wait to figure out what’s going on here…” I muttered. “I’ll be back.” I said while heading off towards the new island that magically appeared. Once there, the ground, for as far as I could tell, was regular rock. I used a simple spell to scanning spell to see if anything was abnormal. I did feel darkness… a lot of darkness. “Oh dear…” I muttered. “That’s not good.” I shook my head while walking around. “I know you’re alive, can you hear me?” I called out, not sure if this thing could understand or even hear me but I wanted to try at least. Just then, several MASSIVE Neo Shadows appeared around me… FUCK!!! “Well...fuck me…” I muttered while summoning my X-blade. “Alright, so you’re not a good host.” I frowned while preparing to fight. They attacked, but I was a quick dodger and managed to upper cut them. I summoned my new Gauntlets for that. I sent the giant Shadow Heartless flying up into space. “Who wants a good firsting?” I asked, cracking my knuckles and ready to fight. ”Jesus christ what did I just say in this sexy voice?” I thought to myself, thinking I just said something really dumb. “Hehe.” I heard a laugh… a girl- OW! I yelped, getting a bullet shot through my leg. The damage undid Camouflage Zero and I returned to normal… Fuck. Why isn’t it healing? “Well...fuck…” I muttered while summoning my Lexicon and casting a healing spell on myself, knowing if regen doesn’t work I might as well use a healing spell. “Who are you?” I asked the girl. Ten DTD’s appeared around me… and from them walked out… Jenny… Ten Jenny’s… each with a number Tattooed on them. 12, 44, 45, 67, 99, 7, 88, 754, 909, 151… Clones… Those clones... “Well…” I muttered. “This is just splendid…” I muttered. “Clones of my daughter huh? Kexez is gonna get his ass kicked for using them against me.” They all lifted out… rather strange looking handguns and aimed them at me. Then, creepy enough, they all began to sing. ”Into the depths of dark, where no light shall shine at all. The thorns of death decay, and give way to chaos and fear for all of our future days. With gun in hand and sword in heart, will shall all of the light die.” “Good.” I muttered while books slammed shut on all ten of them, sending them all to the land of Illusions. “Nice song, but no.” I frowned, thankful they decided to sing instead of actually hitting me so I could do that as I looked around ready for anything else. On cue, all ten books began to...bleed… okay. The pages flew open, blood and darkness spilling everywhere as the Jenny’s crawled out. ”For on that day, when light is gone, will Nothing fall with it too.” They sang, aiming their guns and shooting, beams of… I don’t know what gunning for me. I ducked down, but they hit each other in the crossfire and the explosion they energy made threw me easy fifteen feet away. Crap, what was that!? I don’t feel my Nothingness! “Well isn’t that just nifty…” I grumbled. “Wonder how long this sudden asspull lasts…” I muttered, hating myself for knowing full well there had to be a metal that negates certain things cause there always has to be like Carbonadium to Regeneration. Thankfully, at a ten second mark I felt my Nothingness return. ”So ten seconds?” I thought, dodging their other shots. So short, either imperfect, or because of my title as king it’s so short. I figured, pulling out the Chakrams and firing off… grey fire? Right, right, forgot. As King, I have noticed certain spells seems to gain extra potency from my excess of nothingness. For example, my ice spells turn the ice a shade of dark grey, fire light grey, and lightning looks almost like Nothingness Thorns. I figure this is side effect of my title, but a good one. Compared to the standard variants of this spell, my Nothingness enhanced ones can bypass all elemental resistances. Rather handy, and fun to kill a foe who is normally immune to Fire with fire. A very handy passive ability. I shall call it Infusion. “This is one ability I am super happy about…” I muttered with a little smile, glad to know my strengths now supersede all immunities. “Okay...so after that whole...thing, I suppose I should get back to dealing with the kraken now…” I muttered, still sure this thing is a giant kraken made of Darkness. Needing to deal with the Jenny’s… crap, I know I have to end them… but can I? They are a mix of her as she was human, and now. Must have gotten her DNA from the time in Rapture. “Are you all still alive?” I asked, really nervous about killing them even if they were evil clones. They were. All of them crawling on all fours grudge girl style at me… Nope! I summoned SharpShooters and began firing. I used a spell that I remembered only works for these weapons. Sharpshooters while ranking lower in power than my and my allies other weapons do have their use. Asking I notice a high rate of critical hits compared to my archer, as well as more spells I can use that he can not. Sadly. He’d make grand use of them. Such a spell is Zero Point. While the arrows fired are needle length and size, their strength lies in the fact the magazines of the weapon is able to fire much more. Ten thousand per magazine, and their critical hit rate if every shot. While low damage, the critical rate and fire, added to the amount fired each time, a calculated sixty darts a second, make this spell quite deadly in my hands. I should hope the Archer is not too jealous of this development. At least his aim is still better than mine. “Zero Point…” I muttered while firing as fast as I physically could at the clones, hoping the things will die if I turn them into literal pin cushions at this point. When the magazines were empty, all ten were bleeding out black ooze as they began to fade. What made it worse was that they all died with this… sadistic smile, all while keeping their eyes on me… that’s gonna give me nightmares... “Well...that happened.” I muttered worriedly. “Hooray for more nightmares here…” I sighed out. “Alright, so back to Kraken killing I think…” I muttered while looking around to see if there was a good spot to try and deal with this thing. “Still wonder if this thing can hear me?” As I looked around I found myself at the crater center. There, a pulsating bulge of darkness was resting. It looked kinda like those pods Sora was in at the Twilight Town mansion from KH2… only black. “Well...that’s not good…” I muttered while scanning the thing with my Assistant to see what it was before I poked it with one of my weapons. All that came up was that it was an incubation pod… for what? “Well…” I muttered while pulling out Lindworm and gently poking the thing with the blunt end of it to see if something bad happens. Something did happen… it began releasing this black myst from the top. Did I start this thing hatching? I backed up, watching as it opened. Inside was… a Dusk? No, no the colors are blue rather than silver and the sign on its head is… a Heartless? “What the hell…?” I muttered while checking my Assistant on what the hell I’m looking at cause this shouldn’t be possible. Before I could though it jumped me, wrapping around me like a rope. And getting tighter... “Cause why not…” I muttered. “Alright, fine.” I muttered while changing into my Heir Valor Form and using that insane strength boost to get the thing off of me. It ended up being weaker than expected as once I broke free it was killed. I then heard clapping. “Well done Ben, a test run well done.” Kexez... I took a deep breath, knowing full well it was Zeke that needed to kill Kexez. “And what are you doing here?” I asked, Sharpshooters aimed right as him while my X-blade and Skysplitter were in my hands, Eternal Flames at my feet as I oh so wanted to beat the shit out of him. “Observing. The clones were a test run and this… this was what I wanted to see in action.” He said, motioning to the pod. “A Dusk heartless. The Nobodies flexibility, and intelligence will come in handy. But since that’s your territory, I needed to work around that. Design wise, it acted just like a Dusk, tests on their intelligence will be conducted later on.” “You don’t understand what your doing.” I frowned. “Just be glad I’m not the one who’s going to kill you, even though I’d love to.” I said while firing a needle at one of Kexez’s knees to prove my point. To my surprise though, it bounced off. “You forget I’m still a living X-blade. Soul and Heart aside.” He said, walking around me. “So, Rumer among the Heartless say you know where my heart’s halves are.” “Going to kill them so you can stay yourself?” I asked. “On the contrary. I do plan on a reunion one day, but I need some more… fine tuning and grooming before that happens. Zeke will pay for wasting his existence.” “Oh boo fucking hoo. Zeke hates being overpowered and you know it.” I said bluntly. “That’s probably just the Psychopath blood talking.” I said honestly. “Maybe, maybe. But, the one reason he, and I exist he never took advantage of. Tell me, now that you have all this power, how much danger have you stopped single handedly? How many lives saved?” “That would be...maybe a few hundred? I mean I did turn a few hundred from being Heartless a while back, but then after that I literally have had no time to learn my new abilities, and I just started world hopping. So I think your point might be a bit of a miss for me when I’ve barely had this new power for...I’d say less than four days now.” I said honestly. “And yet arguably you’ve saved more in that short time frame then ever without it. Zeke believes power corrupts, and while true, you and I know him better. He knows he is stronger than it. Yet he caps the amount he uses, denying the destiny we were literally built for. Help me find my heart, and Ben, I can assure you the power Zeke will obtain will make it so no one dies pointlessly. You and I both know he is a fighter. As much as he will hate his power, he will use it for the right reasons. Is that not worth the sacrifice?” “Your right on the both of us knowing he’s better than that.” I sighed out. “But what’s to say that if I help you find your other parts you won’t put them under your heel and use their powers to try and murder everyone?” I asked curiously. “Without my soul I can’t even summon the X-blade if that is your concern. I would be able to store Keyblades within me, but I doubt my heart would let me draw them for the wrong reasons. Without my soul I can’t access their power. And with my soul I’d return to being nothing more than the body. Mindless and controlled by my soul, my true mind. I’d cease to exist, and we both know a lot of people would be happy about that happening. You included.” “I’m still sensing a massive drawback here.” I brought up. “What do you gain out of this? Cause right now you’re just bitching Zeke doesn’t want to be able to solve everyone’s problem.” Even though he had that mask on, I could feel him smiling under it. “Vendetta. But even you can agree, the good to come out of it will vastly outweigh Zeke’s feelings on the matter.” “Should I even bring up Cript here?” I asked curiously. “You know, the guy that can literally solve everyone’s problems but he doesn’t? He’s you, and as you can clearly see Cript is just like Zeke, so are you going to bitch about him as well?” “Heh. You forget I’m not expecting for Zeke to do anything with his power. I know him much, much better than you ever will. If he fights, then hey, easy win, if not, and I expect he won’t, well, it’s not like he’ll have much choice when his friends and family need saving. He won’t sit back and let them die. Cript doesn’t.” “So you’re going to force him to go one hundred percent when your whole?” I asked curiously. “Oh I won’t be in control. I can’t force Zeke to do anything… something else big and bad will later on. We both know once one threat is gone, another emerges. I’m just speeding along our predetermined destiny.” “Good to know.” I said. “Wouldn’t be surprised if Zeke actually does do that whole thing but...to be perfectly honest I don’t know where Drezke and Lake are at the moment. I know where they were but I doubt they’re there...even though that town was nice.” I said. “Cause you know...they might be hunting things that were spawned because of Drezke on...pure accident.” I said nervously, remembering those shadow creatures that spawned when Drezke’s darkness was leveled out. “A lead is a lead, outdated or not it’s better than nothing.” Kexez said. “Take me, and I’ll give you a reward. No tricks, promise.” Kexez said, hands raised up. “I’m still expecting when you find them to knock them out and strap them to a machine to give power to all your subordinates…” I frowned. “Cause you know, you found a material that negates Nothingness somehow so I wouldn’t be surprised if you did that.” “Nothingness, no. Those handgun negates nothing. It’s simply an altered variation of the stop spell, halting all special abilities and powers. Nothing was negated, just paused. I’m not a marvel comic writer.” “Or just a comic book writer in general.” I shrugged, thinking back to that town and remembering how the Heartless had their personalities back and worried Kexez would abuse that newfound knowledge. “Sorry if I’m not immediately saying ‘let’s go’, but you’ve done several things...like apparently create the world’s first Abomination with Spoiled.” I brought up. “What can I say, Zeke’s always had a kink for Milfs.” “Jesus christ.” I face palmed. “Except that Spoiled tried killing your family before, I know you’re a Nobody but come on man.” “No Heart for emotions, no soul for a conscience. Now then, on to my heart’s last known location?” I sighed out and opened a DTN to there last known location. “Come on...let’s hope this entire thing won’t end up backfiring like I think it will…” I muttered. “But let’s get going.” I said, wanting to follow along just to make sure Kexez doesn’t do something terrible. As we walked out, the place looked… better. Grass and trees were growing back. “I can feel them.” Kexez said. “They most likely know I’m here too.” “I’m pretty sure they do, and I have a feeling a fight’s going to arise from it so…” I muttered while summoning my lexicon. “Create item.” I said while making a white flag and handed it to Kexez. “Better wave this when we get close to any guards, just so they know you aren’t here for a fight.” I said, not wanting a fight between the three of them when life is starting to bloom on this world. Once we arrived at Drezke’s castle what I saw was… surprising. A heart, pulsating darkness but glowing with a bright, calming light… and was a shade of blue… They reunited. So this is what Zeke’s heart looks like. “Haven’t seen that in a while.” Kexez said. “So this is what your heart looks like.” I said, looking at it. “Surprising...it looks wonderful.” I said while walking close to the front door. “Hello!?” I called out, hoping they could hear me from out here. “Heh...look.” Kexez said, pointing at the walls. They were painted, crudely, but this is a world of only children after all. It looked like it showed Drezke, then Lake appearing, then the two turning back to their true form, then Zeke walking up, then Zeke with the heart over, I guess meant to be within, his chest. “Heh, kids drew a prophecy.” “Well glad to know some people had faith.” I said honestly. “Wonder if they also drew a prophecy about you coming here?” “Well, time to come back.” Kexez said, reaching out to the heart. When he touched it, the heart flew into him, so fast it knocked him over. His body glowing blue, white and black as it expelled all his darkness he had within to replace his heart The darkness dispelled in the air. Kexez then stood up. “Heh… wow…” “How you doing?” I asked, not wanting to draw a weapon but still concerned about him suddenly gaining his heart. “Feeling better?” “Hehe… It’s strange. I can feel it’s weight again… I almost forgot how that felt. I can feel it’s emotions. The pain and agony and guilt of my actions hitting… hehehe, and I just… I don’t seem to care despite my heart hurting. It’s so surreal.” “Well that’s why we’re going to be finding your soul soon.” I said, still thinking his ‘reward’ is a knife to the back. “Not just yet… I’m not ready to stop existing just yet. Just a bit more time… Now then, your reward.” Kexez said, standing back up. “Is it an actual reward or are you going to stab me in the back?” I asked. “No, not with my heart back I don’t think I can… But, I can give you something useful. Spoiled wanted to keep it, but I rather find it distasteful.” He said, tossing me a book. “This is the prison of your Psychopath clone from earth. He’s inside. Keep him there, kill him, use him. I don’t care, I think?” He said, opening a DTD. “I’ll be seeing you… maybe? God this is messing with my train of thought.” Kexez said, walking in the DTD as it closed. Leaving me alone with the book prison of my Psychopath other. I looked at the book and sighed out. “Well, might as well let him now.” I said while opening the book. “I summon thee my Psychopath version.” I said, not sure if it’ll happen. The book began bleeding, the puddle it formed out crawled my other… beaten, legs broken, and a broken X-blade through his stomach. “You...are… stupid.” He said, collapsing over. I blinked before summoning my Lexicon. “Well...can’t have you die before you start explaining things.” I muttered while casting a powerful cure spell on the guy, wondering how the fuck this all happened. ”Hooray, I probably fucked up a bunch. Go me.” I thought to myself bitterly. “I know you can survive this…” I muttered, honestly a bit scared on how the hell he got his ass kicked this much as I tried to heal him the best I could. The spells were keeping him alive, barely. “Kexez needed his heart. He needed a True X-blade, he and X are the only ones who share such a direct link to Kingdom Hearts.” “Okay, so far so many things I already know.” I said. “So, plain and simple, how hard did I fuck up?” I asked curiously. “Cause right now it mostly sounded like Kexez wanted to be back together, just removing limits on Zeke cause he’s a dick.” “Heh, first off, what did he tell you?” “He wants to be whole.” I said. “He specifically said that, but he said he wanted to…’fine tune’ his heart and body, which when he kept talking was just him sounding like a cry baby that Zeke isn't using his full power.” I said honestly. “Am I getting it right so far?” I asked curiously. “Heh, yeah. Sure he told you that without his soul he can’t use his hearts power, which is true, it takes a soul to access one's power, but in his X-blade form all that is passive. Without his heart, his X-blade form is just a big chunk of metal, with it, there’s power behind it. Kexez wants to recreate the event that turned him, Zeke into a living X-blade.” “Alright, so what...he wants to make more of himself? Or does he plan on removing any limiters Zeke would normally have when he becomes whole?” I asked curiously. “He wants more than that. It’s a backup. If he can’t figure out how to break the cap Zeke always uses, he wants to make it so the energy let out is far more potent. Imagine Zeke’s capped one percent of power he lets himself use, can end ten reflections? He wants to make others he can find with Balanced hearts into X-blades like he and Zeke, then, store them inside his heart. While power wise they’d be equal, Zeke’s heart is the oldest compared to whoever's he turns. He’s take them in, their body stuck as a X-blade and heart bound with his own. He doesn't want to just break Zeke’s cap he wants to make any restrictions he puts on himself pointless.” “Alrighty then.” I said with a nod. “I mean, Zeke getting full power was gonna happen anyway, that’s just how our stories go ya know? But yeah I don’t entirely want that to happen...actually wait, the Master of Masters will keep Kexez in check with that shit considering he’s a bastard who destroyed Daybreak because he’s scared of the X-blade.” I brought up, knowing full damn well that lingering bastard would do something against Kexez. “He can try, but he lacks his heart and body. Even with the Void Key keyblade there’s little he can do. Besides, Kexes has him on his list, he’ll meet a worse fate.” “Oh, so Kexez didn’t like the fact that guy blew up his home and nearly killed his family?” I asked curiously. “Well...makes sense, he may not have emotions at the time but he still has the memories of his family.” I shrugged. “Heh, that’s not why. Remember, Kexez has a machine, a Keyblade that holds within it a whole other reflection, and he can extract whatever he wants from it, items, people… Hearts and bodies. This list of his is people he plans on changing. He knows who is a perfect candidate, and who would just be some extra filler. You best keep an eye on everyone. He won’t stop at just one each, he’ll take all their reflections.” “Well shit…” I muttered. “Well, I better go find the bastard before he does something stupid in my world...cause if he targets my family...oh he’ll understand what true pain is.” I growled. “But...that won’t be for a little while...come on, let’s get you to a doctor.” I said while carefully picking up my clone. “No need for you to die when you still need a decent life to live ya know?” I said while opening a DTN back home. “Or are you going to try and fight me?” “I wouldn’t do that if I were you. Besides, I killed so many on your world already. Why help?” “You know me.” I said while looking down at him, my Psychopath other saw my eyes turn into both the black and red Psychopath and Blue and Gold eye of Humanity. “Everyone deserves a second chance, and I promised to figure out a way to save Psychopaths from their pain...if you can’t stop Facts from existing without taking a few million years, might as well make them more coherent and less omnicidal ya know?” I brought up. “Besides...you said you have a girlfriend right? Would you want to live a happy life with her, without anymore bloodshed?” I asked, even if he wasn’t me fully I knew myself well enough sooner or later I’d rather just stop fighting and raise a family with the one I loved. “Psst. Whatever. Don’t have that much of a choice either way, I go where that book goes.” I chuckled while holding the book as well as my reflection. “Yeah yeah, keep acting all tough.” I said while entering the DTN. “You’ll get your better life...I promise.” I said honestly. “And...you said you had a Ventral as a girlfriend correct?” “Yup. My sexy little sociopath.” While my reflection was recovering in the ER, I was going over some reports about Daybreak trying to contact us. Makes sense given my relations with Zeke… then my bathroom mirror rang like skype asking me to answer… “What is this Spaceballs?” I muttered while making sure I was decent and answering the call from my bathroom mirror. “Hello?” It answered and Lord Mors appeared. “Hey Howdy! Long time no see Ben. Was hoping this would work.” “Sup Mors, how you doing?” I asked curiously. “Hope everything’s been going well where your at.” “Well everything is calming down from the Daybreak Incident. Thankfully the amount of world’s in our unity made sure there was plenty of options for the refugees.” “That’s good.” I nodded. “And I suppose you heard the news about me being King?” I asked, wondering if word traveled to other reflections about thing really big thing. “Yes. Quite good for you indeed. I’d throw you a party but, well I seem to be a bit of a pickle.” “Ancient bad guy was summoned or something?” I asked, remembering some things about Soul Eater. “No, nothing of the sort. You know how my soul is bound to the city and because of that I am unable to leave it?” “Yes I do.” I nodded. “I have a feeling my powers are involved in this cause Nothingness is about the body and soul?” I asked curiously. “Yes, well, I am afraid it might be a lit late for that. You see, I believe our common enemy Kexez has, how to say, stolen all of Death City. He made sure there was enough time to evacuate others…. But know I could not. I am unsure of what he wants me for, but I just wanted to inform you. I need you to inform Zeke of this development. I gave Leon charge of Daybreak in my absence but-” There was a loud bang. “Welp, I’m out of time. Hope I see you later Ben.” The call ended, and I was looking at my own reflection. I opened up a DTN and a Clone of mine rushed through it to try and save Mors from Kexez while pulled out my Lexicon. “Greater Communication, call Zeke.” I said, my lexicon glowing as it used Nothingness to try and contact Zeke mentally. “Please let this work…” I muttered, hearing the ring. My clone exited the DTN and when I arrived in the Realm of Darkness… Core’s castle was gone? Wait, wha? All and any signs of anything that was Core’s or Kexez… is gone? “I have several problems with what I’m not seeing.” My clone said. “This isn’t right...where the fuck is everything?” My clone muttered as it summoned Eternal flames to help give my clone a light as it started to search around for any signs of...well anything really. Sadly as the minutes turned to hours… nothing. Aside from Heartless, there was no sign Kexez or Core’s stuff was ever here. What happened? “Okay, can someone with an actual brain come out and tell me what the fuck happened?” I called out in the vast Darkness. “I know someone’s here watching me, so mind telling me what’s going on?” “They relocated.” I turned around, a Nancy clone was there, the number 598 on her right hand. “Someplace inaccessible to anyone other than Kexez. He knew you and others would come try and save those he’d be taking, he’s no fool.” “Cause why fucking not.” I grumbled. “Great, is there anything else you need to tell me?” I asked curiously. “Like how many Kexez has already kidnapped?” “Now that, heh, you’ll have to find out for yourself.” I took a deep breath. “Give Kexez a warning from me, if he dares do this again to any of my people, my friends, or my family, I will make him wish he never left the shadows.” I growled. “Heheheheh. He knew you’d say that. He said not to fret, there are only twenty people he is after. And their reflections of course. Counting Mors as an addition, he now has two so far.” “Good to know.” I nodded. “But let me ask...you and your family of clones...I suppose you are all perfectly happy fighting still? None of you ever wanted to have a normal life?” I asked curiously, not knowing much about the whole clone thing on their side. “Hehehe. We are not like our original versions. We are stronger, faster, and more lethal. We have no ties to the emotions of guilt, sadness or worry you lot have. We are made to fight, and that is what we will always do. Fight until we die. It’s as simple as that. We were built strong, but also expendable.” “So your only dolls for others to puppet?” I asked. “If you see us like so, yes.” “Of course…cause why not.” I said bitterly. “Well good to know all of this...things only keep getting worse.” “They always do.” The clone Nancy said, vanishing into a DTD opening under her. “Crap…” I muttered. “Good going me...and here I was hoping it would...wait, no I think I know a thing.” I said while pulling out Skysplitter. “Wait...no, I was told he had that Matrix Keybalde...fucking bullshit.” I frowned while putting that away. “Well...should I go back to seeing new abilities...or hunt down the eighteen to ninteen people he needs and stop him?” Back home I kept watch over the world from the tallest tower. Who could these other people be? “He needs people of pure heart…” I muttered, thinking about all the people I would know and could think of that had it. “Tempest can’t cause all her darkness was taken away...Ventus can’t cause of some things…” I muttered, having told Zeke about the situation and well… “... Oh for FUCKS SAKE!!!!!!!!!!!!” He took it about as well as anyone would. “God damn it…” Sighing, I know Kexez would need people with balanced hearts. Thinking it over who has… wait, Trixie has one, the one Zeke is borrowing her body from… does that mean... “Fuck.” I muttered while sending a clone to where Zeke is to try and keep Kexez from fucking with her. “Okay….he can’t touch my Trixie cause she’s apart of my council, her heart isn’t balanced with light and dark to be forced into a Keyblade…” I muttered, thinking faster and faster about what people that could be targeted. “Shit...shit...um...the Master of Masters is somehow on that list...which doesn’t make sense cause he doesn’t have a heart or body and most of his reflections should be dead…” I then Remembered his Matrix Keyblade… that’s how he knew and why he’s on the list. Shit, he can just make them like a factory pumping out...something, fuck! “Fuck…” I groaned. “So I can’t do anything right now...wonders.” I muttered, really hating this at the moment. “And I wanted to test that new ability with Skysplitter...I really wanted to use that, that one’s cool.” I huffed a little. I ran over to where my Trixie was, she was in her office. Didn’t look like she does much since she was messing with her cards… what does she do? “Oh, Ben… what are you doing here?” “There are several problems going around and...what do you even do?” I asked. “I don’t really know the jobs of my council members...so I’m just wondering.” “Well given my past as a performer I got stuck approving or rejecting public events for the kingdom. So far there hasn’t been much in terms of submissions. So what’s up?” “Huh...you’d think Pinkie would have been hounding you with so much shit…” I said in honest surprise. “But uh...there be a problem.” I said as I explained what Kexez has planned. “Oh… Oh… so, what do we do then?” “Well first up he needs twenty people and all their reflections with balanced hearts, and given Zeke’s reflection of you has such a balanced heart I thought he would be targeting you as well...then there’s just a lot of shit running through my head…” I sighed out, rubbing my temple and not liking not knowing things here. “Well, can you check? See if I am or not?” “Um...I believe so.” I said while using my assistant to check if she had a balanced heart cause I wasn’t sure if I could do that by myself. Checking for Balanced Hearts: For a Keyblade Master to check and see if their ally, student, etc, has such a rare heart, raise your Keyblade to their heart, and say the phrase, ’Who holds onto light, and bathes in dark, who walks the line no others can, whose heart can guard the heart of all worlds Show to me it’s light, and also its shadow’ If they have a Balanced heart, their chest will glow with a bright light, and under them a large shadow will form. “Alrighty then…” I muttered while pulling out No Heart and pointing it at Trixie’s heart. Who holds onto light, and bathes in dark, who walks the line no others can, whose heart can guard the heart of all worlds Show to me it’s light, and also its shadow.” I said, hoping this works. Trixie’s chest glowed bright, and the floor became covered in a shadow. She then covered her chest. “Perv!” “Fuck…” I muttered. “Congrats Trixie, you have a balanced heart.” I said honestly. “And also I literally had to do that for this to work.” “Still feels weird… So, what do I do now then?” “Well...your going to have guards posted around to make sure you won’t get attacked by Kexez.” “Joy… there goes my privacy… Anything else?” “You’ll still have your privacy, I’m not gonna let the guards go that far jeez.” I said. “But...do you have any idea who might also have a balanced heart?” I asked curiously. “I have one, but that doesn’t mean I know everyone who might also have one.” “Any one person would help.” I said. “Anything at all would be the best right now.” “I got nothing…” I sighed out. “Sorry…” I said. “Well...good to know of this...just be careful alright?” “So what are you gonna do Next?” “Either continue testing my new abilities...or try and hunt down Kexez before things get worse…” I sighed out. “God...here I was hoping for a simple day.” “You should take your mind off things. Why not chat with some of your new wives? I know each has a clone of you but take some time for them. Princess Luna made a new garden in the castles garden area.” “I should probably go down there…” I sighed out. “Thanks Trixie.” I said, thinking I should head down to the castle gardens to see how Luna’s garden is doing. “Anytime.” I headed on down. The Castle Garden alone was twice the size of Ponyville, a large open place full of various plant life and even animals to give it a proper ecosystem. Lots of the wives were here, but Luna was by a… river, wow this place is big. She noticed me and looked up. “Hi Ben.” “Hey Luna.” I said. “How you doing?” “Good. I was just planting some Moon Drop Moss. It makes a very good anti infection medicine and tea. Has a mint and cinnamon taste to it.” “That’s good.” I said while sitting down near the river. “How is everyone else?” “Settling in well. So, anything interesting happen?” “I think I screwed up...a lot.” I sighed out. “As per usual…” I sighed out as I explained everything to her, hoping to at least feel better to get this off my chest to someone close. “Hmm, well Kexez definitely has a silver tongue and knows how to get what he needs even from his enemies.” “Or maybe because I'm an idiot…” I sighed out. “Ben, anyone would have fallen for that. He knew where to poke, and he took advantage of your hopes that this whole thing could be resolved quickly.” “I do hope it ends quickly…” I sighed. “Is rather this not continue and cost more lives…” “Well, one day such trifles will end. Maybe not forever, but long enough for the next generations of heros to rise up.” “True.” I said honestly. “Lets just...hope things will end well...and here I hoped for a normal day…” “Well, how about you take a small vacation?” “But I have so much crap to do…” I said. “Also uh...how many kids have I not been around to see born?” I asked, remembering a long time ago all my wives were pregnant. “Sadly, lots.” “Well...better see them all…” I said. “I'm...a bad dad…” “No your not. There’s hundreds born if not more born daily given your, eheh, the families reproduction abilities. You can’t be there for them all.” “I should be there for my kids…” I said honestly. “Even if they are...countless.” “Well, then take a break, spend time with them. Start with the first to arrive then move onto the new additions, then use that crazy app thing on your arm to speak to the infants.” “Alright...I will.” I nodded. “I just...want to be good for my family…” I said. “Be a good dad...be a good husband...even with all my powers...I fear I’m not good enough sometimes given how busy I am half the time.” “Well, clones. It’s your only real upperhand at the moment love.” “Yeah...that is true.” I said honestly. “Clones are a hell of a thing, especially when I have such a big family.” I said while laying down on the ground. “It will be good for you. Why not ask Cript for advice on it? He does the same thing, doesn't he?” “Yeah…” I nodded. “And hey, given we’re talking about him giving me advice he might just suddenly appear out of nowhere.” I said honestly. “While that does sound like him, he has things going on at the moment too, remember? Best not expect that to happen.” “That’s what he said the last four times.” I rolled my eyes. “Maybe I should ask Mom...sure I’m not a mother but it would be good to have some pointers…” “Do as you wish love. We support you either way.” “Thanks.” I said, really wanting answers but knowing I’ll have to find mom. “Alright…time to call mom…” I muttered while checking my Assistant’s contacts list to see if Den was available. Sadly, she wasn’t. So I decided to check to see if any of my other mothers were available just so I could get some advice on being a parent. Thankfully, one was. Her name was Kira. “Well...alright…” I muttered while calling Kira in hopes of getting to her. “Hello?” She picked up. There was no image, just audio. “Hello.” I said. “My names Ben and uh...mind if I get some advice?” I asked, hoping for some advice here. “Ben? Oh, is this Den’s boy?” “Yep.” I nodded. “Current King of Nothingness if that helps.” “Yes, that’s the one. Hang on, I’ll be over.” She hung up… then the castle shook… okay... “Uh...why did the castle shake?” I asked worriedly, standing up and summoning my Lexicon. “Greater Scrying.” I said, a small view portal opening up as I tried to see why my castle just shook. Through it, I saw… A giant… barbarian dressed woman… standing next to the castle. It then got dark over us. I looked up, and there she was. “Hi, Ben, right?” She asked. I blinked. “Uh…” I looked at her wide eyed. “Excuse me but...I’m sorry but how?” I asked, Kira most likely having been asked this before. “Uh...do you...know how to...ya know...shrink down?” I asked nervously, not wanting to be rude but also not wanting her to accidentally break my house. She rolled her eyes, a quick ‘pop’ sound and she was our size. “Seriously, every time.” She sighed. “So, what did you need help with?” “Sorry.” I said while scratching the back of my head. “But uh...I need some advice on...being a good parent.” I said. “Cause having an ass ton of kids is going to be a nightmare for me, even if I have clones.” “Well, what Cript and us all do is clones. Each child gets a pair of their parents, and all the attention, while also I get a clone of him and… well, no explanation needed. He manages that with pocket dimensions.” “Alrighty then.” I said. “Sounds too simple but…” I sighed out. “I don’t feel like I still good be a good parent, especially when I’m as busy as I am right now. I’m told ‘take a break’, but I doubt hero’s can take breaks half the time…” “The pocket dimensions also have a rather fast time setting. Once the kids grow to a certain age in there, for you it can range from a day to a month for them to grow up then at any age, say, thirteen, fifteen, they exit it, and do...whatever it is they want to do. In the family it varies. A good half of the kids go into hero works, others do normal stuff.” “Good thing I don’t know how to make Pocket Dimensions…” I sighed out. ”Now that I think about it, I have yet to learn anything special from being Cript’s son, cause I think you get powers and strengths from that...and I also didn’t get that humanity blade from that deal oh so long ago...oh well.” I thought to myself, knowing it was going to happen sooner or later. “But Pocket Dimensions are helpful apparently.” “Yeah. I’ll get Cript, wait here.” She said, vanishing then Cript appearing. “Dude, never ask her to shrink. She hates being small, well, small by her standards.” “I said I was sorry, and that was literally the first time I met her...or anyone like her.” I said honestly. “But hi, how you doing?” “Well, good. So, Pocket Dimensions, also, here.” Cript said, handing me a glowing silver sword. “Humanity blade. Anyone that can be saved, will be saved.” I grabbed the sword. “Thanks.” I nodded. “So, onto Pocket Dimensions?” I asked while creating myself a sword sheath with my Lexicon and sheathing it and putting it at my side. “Come, let’s find a place to set it up.” Cript said, helping me up and leading the way. “Thanks.” I said while following along. “But...how do you handle all of this? Being a good dad and all...clones and pocket dimensions just help with time mostly.” “Well remember, all your clones you are connected too. Omnipresent. You’re all of them at once, so when you want to, all their experiences with them are yours also.” “That saves me an ass load of time but...actually being a father is a whole different thing.” I said honestly. “I know I’m going to literally have all the time in the world but…” I trailed off, my ears flattening against my head in fear that I won’t be a good father to my kids. “Just...new to it all.” “No one is perfect Ben, there’s no such thing as the perfect parents, just so long as the kids grow up happy and grow up respecting you, it will all work out “I’d rather be alive to raise my kids…” I muttered, remembering my parents murders, but thankfully they were living happy lives after they were resurrected in my kingdom, still get postcards from their travels given how much money I gave them. “I just...want to be a good father to them all...even if I have a few million kids…” “Then time to teach you some things that will help you out a crap ton. Good?” “Please.” I said. “I’d really like to know.” “Great. First off, time to deal with your family needs. Ah, here we are.” Cript said, stopping at a large empty section of wall in the hallway. He placed a hand to it, and a doorway of swirling greys and whites began to form. “This part will take a bit.” Cript ended up creating a pocket dimension as the Nursery. Inside the girls could take the kids, and become sorta… well, hard to explain. Basically once they enter, each entered their own reality of their world, where they and their infant will raise them with a clone of me, then when the kids turns eighteen, they and the moms leave the pocket reality, where time is different in there. One year in there is an hour in reality, so in less than a day the kids are grown, and the clones send the kids full lives growing up from the clones perspective, all the combined experience compiled in my head. The initial effect gave me a headache, but I got used to it pretty quickly thankfully. “As long as I’m there for them…” I muttered with a warm smile. “Hashtag life hack.” Cript said simply, all the memories are mine. Flowing into me… such, precious memories. “Now, for your wives, because they have needs and while you got clones in the pocket reality you need them here. This is gonna hurt.” Two hours later. ...Ouch…”But...why though?” I groaned in pain. “As you know your Starfish cloning ability takes your own body parts, or some form of DNA to generate a copy. I made one for each of your wives, as well as made fifteen extra. Can you guess what these fifteen extra are for?” “Um...no idea…” I said. “What are they for?” I asked, having some idea’s but not sure. “Another life hack, of mine personally. While you are strong, there is no doubt about that, but you lack true skills in combat. Thirteen of your clones will each train endlessly with one of each of your weapons til your skills with them surpass any of their past wielders of the old king. The fourteenth will practice endlessly with special combat attacks, both known to you from when you saw Reality as fiction and a video game, and the fifteenth spells. You, will work with me one on one. This method will train you the fastest way possible while you are also with your family, there for your children, and satisfying your wives. I also included another clone who will do your duties as king. This way, you are everywhere at once and there is nothing left to chance.” “And what about True Nothingness?” I asked curiously. “That is what I will be helping you with. You’ve already tapped into it, but physically you literally killed yourself with it. I’m not gonna stand and tell you I know everything about it, cause frankly little is known about Nothingness in general, and anything that is known are in the old kings notes yet another copy is reading over. Four actually. There are a lot of those notes…” “Yeah, I tested a few of them but sadly I didn’t get to all of them.” I said honestly. “There’s still an ass ton of things I have yet to do with all my new found powers.” I brought up. “But glad for all the training cause...I’m gonna need it.” “Yes. What I will be teaching you is how to handle such energies slowly, working your body gradually.” “Alright.” I nodded. “So...where to start with this new training?” “First off, for these exercises you can’t use any weapons. Understood?” “Makes sense.” I said honestly. “Need to have my body know it without using any catalysts right?” “Exactly. While Catalysts such as your Weapons, Keyblades included, are helpful, in the long run they actually suppress your energy more by limiting the flow you can let out.” “Makes sense.” I said honestly. “Catalysts can only go so far for moving energy and such.” “Exactly. Growing up my teachers explained there is no better catalyst for energy than your own body, because it’s adaptable and have more if not the most focal points for the energy to be used and utilized in unique ways. Now then, you first need to know exactly how this energy acts within you, and along what pathways within the body it travels.” “Yes, cause I’d rather not blow up for instance.” I said honestly. “Correct. There are five basic ways energy travels inside the body when under your control. First and most commonly, is along the Nervous system. Traveling through all your receptors and such. Second and more rare, is through your blood veins, arguably the strongest means for the energy to travel as even is you lose a limb you can use the energy flowing through your blood to either reattach, regrow, or even create a new limb out of the energy. Third is with your muscle fibers, this means of energy typically means your energy is used in your body more physically, such as enhanced strength and agility. Fourth is along your bone structure. The most straightforward as the energy dense your bones so they can’t break, at least easily, and it can exit easy, through your fingertips for example. Fifth and the hardest to control on any level is that the energy is a mix of the four, traveling through all of these pathways but not all at once, it would be constantly shifting about.between them, so one outburst of energy can and will be different from the last one.” “Alrighty then...that’s a lot of things.” I blinked at that. “Yes, given you seem to have a more higher form of control, and from how your unique double jump ability works I’d give a safe bet your energy travels along your bones.” “So...my power goes through my bones…” I said, thinking about how this works and wondering if I could do something like what Luffy’s Gear forms can do. “Yes, it’s safe to say that since your Double jump ability also has a unique AoE effect, such an ability would actually fall under the category of attack or offensive power, and normally it would require focus, but when you use it, it’s passive. Such attacks and abilities come natural for those who’s energy travels along their bone structure.” “Cool.” I said. “But here’s a curious question, I remember Luffy was able to do fancy things with his blood, bones and muscle, ‘switching gears’ as he put it, can that principle be used for this stuff as well?” “Not likely, not unless your energy can naturally switch between the means of flow. Gaining control of where and when your energy can switch can lead to such possibilities. Since you don’t have that luxury, the runes I sewed into your body will give you some extra leverage.” “Yes, and I am still thankful I found a rune that makes me immune to stop effects.” I said while pulling off my left glove and showing said rune was on the back of my hand. “That will come in handy. Now then, you need to know something off the bat. You can’t just use certain parts of your body to have the switch on for their power, you’ll end up breaking your own body. The right means of learning how to measure how much of this energy you use is to have the energy flow into all of your body at once, but not at such a large percentage. You, for now, will need to learn to cap your power so you don’t injure yourself, or have a repeat of your last incident. Try turning the power on, but keep it at say, two percent for now.” “Alrighty then…” I said while taking a deep breath, closing my eyes and doing something that helps a lot, visualizing things instead of just trying to think of a number. I felt my power swelling up but I visualized it all as a single cup that was being drip fed water, and at the moment it felt like it was working, the power slowly rising at an even pace as I focused on controlling my new powers. “Alright...so far...so good…” I muttered carefully, feeling my power flow through my body as I kept my visualization to keep it under control. “This good?” “Yes. Now, raise it steadily until it begins to burn. Once you feel the power in you begin to burn you, then you know your limit. For now at least.” “Alright…” I said while visualizing the slow drip to a small trickle, letting it flow a little faster as I saw it fill the cup a little faster as I waited to see where my limit was. “Slow and Steady…” Everything seemed fine as I let the power grow, then I began to feel the burning. I stopped, lowering it back to a safe spot where the burning stopped. “Good, that is about sixteen percent.” Cript said. “Cool...sixteen percent...wonder how strong that actually is.” I said honestly. “One way to find out.” Cript said, raising his hand up as four pillars of various metals appeared near us, like, ten or so feet away. “Each pillar is various pure metals. I need you to shoot out a single Nothingness thorn from your fingertip to them. They are already in order from weakest to strongest. When you hit one that doesn’t dent, then we’ll know how strong you are.” “Alright…” I said while raising a hand up and firing a Nothingness Thorn at the weakest just to test things out. It hit, and the metal was ripped like wet paper. “Good. That was pure copper. Next onto bronze.” “Okay…” I muttered while firing another Thorn at the solid bronze pillar. Like the copper, shredded like paper. “Good. Next is Iron.” “Right.” I said while doing the same thing, wondering why I was attacking what is normally pretty flimsy compared to all the metals that we all have access to now a days, the thorn shooting out towards the iron pillar. Again, like paper. “Good. Now try steel.” “Okay...so we’re only doing normal metals…” I said while firing at the steel pillar. “Basic metals. Metals you knew of on earth, common, easily acquired. On your earth at least. I decided to start with metals you know, after Titanium, you’ll be entering metals commonly known on my earth.” “Makes sense.” I said while seeing the Thorn hit the steel pillar. Again, like Paper, same with Titanium. I now was facing a metal that I didn’t know what it was. “This is Calsifitrote. When at its melting point, it’s easily moldable, but it’s cooled off form makes it a very strong metal, typically we use this for Spaceship frames and even as high quality artificial joints and even bones since it’s not toxic to the human or most organic bodies.” “Cool.” I said, thinking it might be a bit tough to break since it’s used for spaceship frames as I fired a thorn at the thing. The metal tore, but not easy like the others. “Good, now onto Girosilphio. It’s the little brother of Vibranium. Easy to absorb energy, and makes good utility as a conducting adjent. It’s cheaper than Vibranium too so it’s used for riot gear and suppressors since it makes the sound near mute for even large calibers.” “That sounds wonderful.” I said while firing at it as well, thinking this metal can withstand my attack. The impact created a big explosion, but the result was rather than being ripped up, the whole thing was warped. “Impressive. Now onto Kelo Tridote. It’s a mixed metal blend of High grade Carbon Steel, Diamond and Vibranium. We use this metal to make shelters in the event of large scale atomic war, spaceship evacuations, and as the drills for large scale mining of hard to mine materials or as a means of quick mining since it can dig through most any materials.” “Um...an explosion caused it to warp like that...right then.” I said while firing at the new material that was really useful. “Yes.” Cript said as I hit the new metal. The result was another blast, but it only dented it. “Good. Given that info you likely can’t dent the next one. This means you're attacks are equal to the impact force of a nuclear warhead going off, but compressed into single shots. Not too shabby.” “Yeah, but having all that force put into such a small area is probably a lot worse then you say it is.” I said honestly. “Not as long as you keep a good control over it, you can keep the force but make it a lot less lethal by only using the force at a means of propulsion rather than for impact. For your training, you’ll have to get so used to the energy you have now that it becomes passive to you. Meaning you’ll have to use even higher levels of your energy. The best and fastest means to do that is non stop combat. I’ll be sending high level shadow creatures your way that should be around your strength so it won’t be too easy on you. And remember, no weapons. Find more unique and creative means other than just the Thorns to attack and defend. Understand?” “Oh wonders.” I rolled my eyes. “But yeah, I understand.” “Good. Now good luck, and remember, none of your weapons.” Back home, I was at the throne, looking over paperwork stuff when something came up. Something for Aperture sciences… isn’t that from Portal? It was a request to show off their portal gun to me… huh. “Um...sure why not.” I said honestly. “Didn’t expect Aperture to come up…” I muttered. “I presume we have a visitor because of this?” I asked Consequence while bringing up the Portal gun paper. “We have many, but this is the first to send in a form.” He replied. “Alrighty then.” I said honestly while reading the paper to see if there was anything else besides ‘test portal gun’. From how the paper was phrased it seemed to me marketing the device… huh, would come in handy I guess. I had Consequence bring whoever it was in, and they entered. Those two Robots from Portal two entered, one with the Portal gun, the other with a Screen showing… Glados? “Greetings.” Glados said. “Greetings.” I nodded. “How may I help you today?” “I am here to demonstrate the Aperture Science Portal Gun for use in your armies, or even construction.” “That would be useful. No iffy lifts.” Trixie said. My council was here mainly for advice and to help process the endless paperwork. “That is true.” I said. “Is there any known issues with said gun?” I asked curiously. “A few. Water causes the device to short circuit, and the portals it creates must be on a still, unmoving surface. Any movement will disrupt the portal. While there are exceptions, such as the surface material, it all depends on the stability the portal has on the surface it is opened on.” “Is there anyway to fix those pretty glaring issues?” I asked curiously. “With time and funding definitely. Would you care for a demonstration? One portal was left open at the Aperture science labs cafeteria, where when we open the new portal here, will link the two, even through the dimensions.” “Any objections?” I asked curiously to my council just before I say something. “Sounds useful. And a means of transport between this realm and others other than DTN’s would be useful.” Dante said. “Yeah, and the uses are pretty multi.” Trixie added. “Then we will begin.” Glados said, the robot with the device pointing it at the nearby wall and fiering, the blue one opening, showing a kitchen filled with cake. “Please. Have some.” Glados said. “Dibs!” Trixie said, rushing over to the portal. When she entered it, the portal closed, and the portal gun vanprized to burned metals and scrap. “That was easier than Kexez expected.” Glados spoke, sparking some anger in me. “Excuse me but mind if I ask what you did, and why I shouldn’t rip you apart piece by shittily made piece?” I growled. “These bots are expendable, and I am safe and sound in Kexez’s new lab. He needs that reflection to complete his work. It’s nothing personal, just, a mutual partnership between us. He did want to tell you something however. He wanted to say ‘Not even your realm is safe.’ Already he is taking the other here on your world that has the proper heart. What? Did you think Trixie was the only one?” I magically pulled out a Script and flipped to the proper page. “Oh, so Kexez can do literally whatever he wants without challenge and we can’t touch him at all because bullshit pocket dimensions?” I asked. “Well goody for him, if he wanted to tell me I couldn’t do anything to stop him why didn’t he just say so in the first place, at least then I wouldn’t be absolutely fucking livid about it.” “Cause he knew you’d capture him. It’s all about mental strength now, like chess.” “There’s a difference here.” I said honestly. “The difference being chess can actually have someone be challenged, this is going over the line of Fuck About at this point.” I frowned, having a lot of clones of mine looking for the person Kexez might kidnap here so I can stop him from getting closer to his goal. “Is it? It all varies on how far ahead you prepare compared to your opponent? Tell me, King of Nothing, how far ahead are you of-” The sentence was interrupted by Luxu smashing the screen and bots. “That was getting on my nerves.” Luxu grunted. “Ben, the enemy just gloated before you, in your own realm, in your own castle. Shall I make a suggestion?” “Find them and torture them for their insolence?” I took a wild guess. “No. More strategic. We are already going into a Keyblade war… Let’s begin preparing for it, faster, and with extreme prejudice. The next time Kexez shows his face, we’ll be ready. Just tell me, do you want him captured, or killed?” I sighed out. “The main problem is that if Kexez dies I don’t know what’ll happen to Zeke’s Spirit and all that crap…” I said, still hating that little tidbit of unknown. “Capture, cause I don’t want to damn his Soul, but I will personally find the breaking point on the X-blade’s Durability.” I growled. “Now...onto the how here, cause we’ve got the why.” “So what’s our first move then?” Vergil asked. “Well Glados oh so happily told us Kexez is either preparing or moving out to hunt for one of my citizens, which I sent out clones of me to search for as fast as possible.” I said while thinking for a moment. “Do I have any suggestions on how to start?” I asked curiously, trying to come up with anything to help and hoping the others had any ideas. “It might be risky but we should warn them.” Zuko spoke up. “While it might cause chaos, or worry, it’s better than them discovering we are hiding this information from them, leading to distrust in you and us as their leaders.” “That’s a start, get the people to help out in the search.” I said honestly. “Anything else?” I asked, looking at the others for help. “Posters.” Kat said. “We know what Kexez looks like and we know no normal Heartless can enter this realm, it might be possible to have the people and social media help identify any abnormal Nobodies or people acting strangely. After all Kexez sent Robots here, so it’s safe to assume he is either sending another or has already sent someone here to search for this other person. Putting up informational posters both in the streets and in social media will give citizens the information needed to identify anything suspicious.” I nodded. “Alright, welI better get the presses on that…” I muttered while still thinking of what to do. “We’ve got the people…” I hummed, knowing the people are one of my strongest allies here but still thinking of someway to beat him at his own game. “It might be extreme, but what about a full kingdom wide curfew? It would limit the nightly activities and therefore give us better chance at discovering who this rat is when they move to acquire their target.” Vergil voiced. “Might cause a bit of a stir but I’m sure people would understand when there’s a bad guy hunting down people…” I muttered. “But what will we do in the meantime while the people are acting as our eyes and ears?” I asked curiously. “Ready the troops.” Rogers said. “Keep them in the streets, even as patrols it will give the people a means of security, the enemy a leash, and a force to act when the enemy does. All in all we will have the streets covered. We should also keep one or two aboard plains and other travel systems as a precaution. Can’t give the enemy any wiggle room.” “Better make the patrols unpredictable, cause if they learn the routines then they have time in between to strike.” I brought up, scratching my chin in thought of what else to do. “That would mainly leave figuring out just who this target is and where they are.” Zuko spoke. “We can’t go one by one testing the citizens for who this person might be, even if we do find one, it might not be exactly who they are looking for.” “They are looking for twenty people…” I muttered, thinking for a moment. “There has to be another way to see who has a balanced heart…” I muttered, pulling out my X-blade and using my Assistant to see if it could let it talk. “Alright, can you talk?” I asked, hoping my Assistant could work in helping keyblades talk considering they all have their own personality. “The Assistant can do many things...please let one of them be letting a Keyblade talk…” Sadly that didn’t work. “Let me try.” Luxu said, walking up to me. “Speaking with a Keyblade normally requires years of practice and a clear, calmed mind. I might have a means to bypass it for you though.” “Please.” I said. “I’d really like to know...cause I’m pretty sure at least one of my keyblades is annoyed I haven’t been hearing them.” I said honestly. “Alright. This will sting though.” Luxu said, touching my X-blade and from it’s Keychain a string of light grew. He then too the the other end and jabbed me in the chest… ouch… “There, you should be able to hear him now, though, hurry, this won’t last too long. Ten minutes at most.” “Alright…” I muttered. “Can you hear me?” I asked my No heart, hoping this worked. Yes, and for once you can hear me. Spoke a voice almost exactly like mine, only… older, more mature. “Sorry, don't know much about this to begin with.” I said. “So, given your an X-blade, is there any other way to know who has a balanced heart besides saying the magic words?” I asked curiously. Well, being I am a Keyblade of Nothingness I can’t actually feel the hearts… but I can feel the body, and in the few times we were near Kexez, I got a pretty good feel of how his is, and I can find one similar. “Excellent.” I nodded. “Feel any close by?” I asked curiously. Define close. It’s a she, and she is way off out in the edge of Equestria’s borders. “Close enough.” I said while summoning Foudre, knowing the speed boost will help a lot. “Question, how can I talk to you without forcing it like this?” I asked curiously. “And the other Keyblades?” Well aside from turning into what your pal Zeke is, meditation. Lots of meditation. “Oh goody.” I muttered. “But...Question, what happened to Zeke's Trixie? Cause I have a...bad feeling about that.” She’s like Zeke now. A living X-blade. “Fuck.” I muttered while getting up from my throne. “Well...better get going before Kexez manages to get to her.” I said while casting Haste on myself to increase my speed. “Anything you want to talk about before I run off?” Not that much at the moment. “Alrighty then.” I said while lightning arced off of me. ‘Well, let’s get going before Kexez gets there.” I said, vanishing from pure speed as I bolted towards where No-Heart told me where the person was. “Let’s hope I’m not too late…” As I arrived I found myself in… a rather strange village… everyone here had smiles that were just...creepy. “Okay…” I started. “Who’s the mayor of this town?” I asked. I was lead to a mare named Starlight Glimmer. No Heart informing me that this was the pony in question before whatever Luxu did wore off. “Welcome, what does our little town owe the honor to the worlds new king?” “Well a few things.” I said. “First of them would be what did you do to the people?” I asked curiously. “Why, what do you mean?” “The creepy, fake as fuck smiles, the slight grey discoloration on everyone but you, and the sense that people don’t have their actual cutie marks.” I said honestly, seeing a whole lot of equal signs on people’s shirts for some reason. “Oh that, well it’s just the town policy. If you want to live and experience True Friendship, then taking away those pesky Cutie marks is the way to go about it.” “So take away individuality for false friendship right?” I asked curiously. “Let me just start with how that doesn’t work.” I said. “Or should I start asking if there’s some underlying problem you aren’t willing to face?” Over the next few hours I chewed this crazy mare a new one, then when she actually tried to attack and escape I knocked her out. I managed to find where she had everyone's Cutie marks and returned them. After that, I had her tossed into a dungeon cell. “Yeah, that’s not going to happen.” I frowned. “And what’s funny is that she could have just told me what was bothering her mid way through my rant.” I said honestly. “But...when she wakes up I better explain things to her...before she tries to do something stupid.” It would be a while before she wakes up so I headed back out to oversee some things. “Fucking hell!” The guard yelled, throwing a younger man into a cell. “You’re a real piece of work ya freak.” He said, leaving. “...heh. Well that was easy.” He said, getting up. “Now then, this is D-6. My target is in D-18. Even’s are on the side I’m on already… might as well do a little spring cleaning for the guards.” He said, placing his hands against the stone walls and the stone itself began rotting. “Such a bizarre case.” Consequence said aloud. “What is that?” I asked curiously. “I believe it’s one of the new prisoners?” I asked curiously. “Yes, taken into the castle dungeon just a few hours ago. A tourist it seems, out of the blue began breaking peoples arms and nearly killing them. No cause for such an event according to witnesses and victims, he just began doing so.” “How has he been injuring the people?” I asked, having a bad feeling that I just allowed someone in to hunt for someone. “Standard cracks and fractures, though there is one case where when he grabbed the victim paramedics reported it was almost as if the victims arm began to rot in the shape of the attackers hand grip.” “And was his jail cell rot proof?” I asked. “It is stone and steel… do those rot?” I looked at him. “Where...where’s the dungeons?” I sighed out. “B-below the castle. Floor D cell 6.” “Thank you.” I said while teleporting down to the specific cell given this was my domain and my castle. “Excuse me.” I called out in the dungeon. “I presume you're trying to break out with someone here?” I asked curiously, looking around the place for the bastard. The cell was empty, cells 6, 8, 10, 12,14, 16… and 18, Starlights, were broken into. The stone cracked and like sand breaking apart. “Cause apparently Kexez can only go unopposed against me for some reason.” I frowned. “He either goes completely unopposed because bullshit, or he loses everything against me...fucking wonders.” I rolled my eyes, finding it a lot more annoying that I have a bad guy that can only go unopposed or else things for him fall apart. Kexez has allies, allies that he can use to negate his own weaknesses and shortcomings… Fucking hell… I later found out the guys name was Tomura Shigaraki, a villain from another world who can decay anything he touches… figures. I sent more guards and began working on stronger security for this to never happen again... “I might need to head to that person's world just to make sure of some things…” I muttered. “Plus I still need to find a replacement for Trixie cause fuck hard work.” I rolled my eyes. “Fucking hell...not to mention I still have yet to train with all the new things and see what else Nothingness can do…” I took a deep breath. “Can I just get a fucking break for once?” I sighed out while pinching the bridge of my nose. The days passed. I was taking a break from it all for a while before needing to get back to it. After just enjoying the gardens No Heart summoned itself in my hand. “Yes?” I asked my No Heart. “What do you need No Heart?” It… actually pulled me. It PULLED me up right, and opened a DTN before me. “Alright alright fine.” I said. “Better than just doing nothing…” I muttered while entering the DTN. To be continued...
Shit happensFrom the dull light of the DTN Ben emerged, and upon exiting into the rain, saw two things, Zeke, or was it Cript? The clothes were like Cript’s but it was Zeke’s face and hair color, and next to him, Kexez. The current bane of Ben’s existence. “And why the fuck is he here?” Ben asked while pointing to Kexez. “Cause I’d like to know before breaking him.” Ben growled. “Ben…” Zeke started. Ben noticed how Zeke was looking. Something he’d seen in himself before often, but never in Zeke. Broken. “I’m done.” “And why are you just suddenly giving up?” Ben asked with a frown. “Ben, I couldn’t stop him from taking two people! He’s already fused all of the Trixie’s together! Not even Eclipse wants to help! He called basically called defying this a lost cause! Eclipse said this! All I’ve wanted for as long as I can remember is to be normal, be unimportant… but look. My own BODY is fucking against me in this…” “Wouldn’t you be considered normal though?” Ben asked. “I mean, when you look at it our little group are all really stupid powerful.” He brought up. “I remember Syndrome’s words from the The Incredibles, and I quote ‘If everyone’s Super, No one is’.” Ben said. “So...wouldn’t that same thing apply here?” “Ben, not even you can do what I’m now having to hold more so back. Eight percent… Eight FUCKING percent, and that’s enough to erase multiple realities… Is that normal?” “Honestly?” Ben asked. “Yes. Yes it is. Also I haven’t fully explored Nothingness, not even close so that point is mute at this time. Also do you have any idea what fictional writing has made? I mean, you saying an arbitrary number can blow up multiple realities...that’s just normal when you think about it.” Ben explained. “Come on, I want you to name at least five characters from any source material that could destroy multiple realities without much effort, I’m pretty sure there are plenty.” Ben said honestly. “Can you?” Zeke asked. “Look… I’m done trying to defy this…” “Actually your being here does come of convenience.” Kexez spoke. “To start with Zeke, Dark Phoenix, a literal universal constant given physical form, The Presence which is literally DC universes God, I would say Superman but there are like dozens of variations on him, The Beyonders which are stupidly strong in the Marvel Universe and could easily destroy realities, and lastly, I can bring up either Deadpool or Batman because the both of them don’t have stupidly insane powers but they’ve destroyed universes.” Ben explained. “So there you go, and what do you want Kexez? Want to go more unopposed to piss me and a bunch of readers off or no?” “Hehe. Since when were you a fourth wall breaker? Heh. No, you see, in order for what comes next to be complete, we require someone's missing soul, and I understand you have a grim reaper in your group.” “Yes, not to mention I own the place you originally came out of.” Ben said to Kexez. “And when did I become a fourth wall breaker? When did your story become nothing but unopposed bullshit?” Ben frowned. “Even you must know this is getting retarded right?” “To a degree I suppose. So, what do you say? Once this is over, it’s just Zeke, the twenty so people who will be fused into him, and I will fade back to brain waves and nerve endings. So, want to put an end to me, this is your chance.” “I want to know what the hell is going to happen to my Trixie, since there’s the ever so small detail of she’s apart of my council and I lost one not a month in of my reign.” Ben frowned. “Seriously, do I just have to find a replacement now or what?” “Oh she’s still in there. It’s just a bit of a mess in that head of hers at the moment. She’ll awaken or find her way out in time, as for her job, well, not sure how you’ll pull that off.” Ben groaned and rubbed his temple. “If it’ll get this nightmare done with…” I grumbled. “Grell! Get out here.” Ben barked. Emerging from a DTN…extremely seductively, came the Reaper. “Why yes boss?” “Please...don’t do that again.” Ben said slowly. “But I need you to find a Trixie’s soul.” Ben said. “If you need details ask them.” I said while motioning to Zeke and Kexez. “Hm, Trixie… that Show Pony mare in the council, a reflection of hers no doubt. I’ll see what I can do.” He said, vanishing. About nine minutes later, he returned, rather beaten. “Crap. Did not expect it to be inside that curse reality. Well, here you go.” Grell said, handing Trixie’s soul over to Kexez then leaving. “Perfect.” Kexez said, a DTD opening next to him. “Come on Zeke, we have work to do. You wanna come Ben? I imagine you’ll enjoy seeing my end.” “You have no fucking clue.” Ben said. “But I’ll tag along to see what the hell happens.” The wolf said as he followed after the two. When they exited Ben noticed they were on a gummi ship, which to a degree made sense but the scale of this one was massive. He followed them into a room where nineteen different X-blades… nineteen different whole reflections worth of the same person fused into a single being and X-blade were resting. One spot was empty in this pattern, and then the center. “Okay, so first, we get you back inside your rightful body, aka, me, then just placed Trixie on the empty outer space, and stand in the center holding the X-blade. After that the remaining Embodiments, Eve included will appear here for their final fight, make it good for them, or make it quick, your call.” Kexez explained. “Sure.” Zeke said, emotionless. “So let me get this straight...you first need to become whole...then you can skip literally everything else after that?” Ben asked. “So you can literally skip parts of the problem here and make the problem a non issue anymore?” “The Embodiments can be and are to be dealt with today and here. Their Darkness must be set free to become whole with Kingdom Hearts, once Zeke takes in all this power, they will rush to him, and Zeke will become the long lost Admin of this Reflection, he will still be himself, but that title and rank will be his, as well as the power to back it up. Come the war, it’s just Spoiled and the clones and other experiments you’ll be dealing with. So take this as good, cause the primary threats will be gone, making this second Keyblade war more of simple fight for you all.” Kexez said. “But you just made the worlds biggest loophole here.” Ben said. “You are doing this on faith Zeke will continue to do what you planned, when he can just as easily say ‘fuck this, I’m out’ and completely ignore what you had all planned out.” The wolf explained. “And Zeke, are you telling me when Kexez literally gave you the worlds biggest out on getting power, your not going to take that out?” “I’ll use it.” Zeke said. “Kexez made one thing clear, when I fight for myself… I lose, and look where we are now… when I fight for others, I win. I’ll fight when or if I need to intervene… but I won’t use this power all the time.” “Then don’t take the power for your family, your friends. I know we all couldn’t give a single ounce of deep fried shit about how strong you are, but would you really want to have so much power you can barely be with them to begin with?” Ben asked. “Ben… How long has it been, on Daybreak, compared to your world?” “What do you mean?” Ben asked curiously. “The time. How long have you been on your world in your reflection compared to mine?” “Only a year.” Ben said honestly. “I have done both so much, and oh so little in only a year.” Ben said. “Only a year, huh?” Zeke sighed. “It’s been three on Daybreak.” Zeke said coldly. “In that time, I haven’t aged, and the infants, they're barely a year Physically. I and my kids are Keyblades Ben, the kids half. I don’t age… my kids, while they age, it’s slower. I was gonna outlive them all either way…” “So am I, and none of my kids are keyblades.” Ben said. “I’m the King of a universal constant, I’m basically immortal at this point. And even though I’m supposed to be like twenty normally I’m physically thirty years old because of that fucker.” Ben pointed at Kexez. “Not to mention I have millions of children, all of which I spent eighteen years of their lives because magic is just oh so wonderful. Age...it means literally nothing at this point. It’s fine to mourn for the deaths of those you’ll outlive, but does the time, energy, and experiences you spent with all of them mean nothing compared to that?” Ben asked honestly. “I’ll be living forever regardless. After this I’ll be home majority of the time. So at least I’ll be there for most of the time, seeing them age, grow up… die. At least I guess you’ll be there too then. So not that lonely.” “And so will the Foretellers, Eclipse and John.” Ben said. “A friend of Cript’s actually let me see the future...and you die peacefully, I don't know how strong you were but you died on your own terms.” Ben said honestly. “Not a hundred percent sure if I'm supposed to say this but fuck it, time is weird thing to begin with.” He said honestly. “And you think that’s all still the same. While the info I died was at least comforting, does that future include this event?” “No idea, I just saw parts of the future...like one where I'm the last one of our little group alive and then went insane and had to be killed by Cript.” Ben said honestly. “... Either way, maybe by then, I’ll be different. Who knows. Fate may be set in stone for me, but time is always altered.” As he spoke, Kexez began placing Trixie’s soul back in her body, the result made Zeke change to Trixie as a white light was pushed from her body, into Kexez, who fell to their knees while Trixie was out cold. As Ben was walking up to them, Kexez… Zeke, raised a hand, standing up. “The sooner I get what fate wants out of the way… the sooner I might have a chance at my own freedoms.” “You have your own freedoms right here, right now.” Ben said. “If you take those X-blades, your giving what Fate wants, if you leave right now you have all the time in the world.” Ben told him. “Do you take what Fate gave you? Or run back to your family and be happy with them?” “I’ll have to come back here at some point if I do run Xin.” Zeke said, Trixie’s body changing into it’s X-blade form, two crossed Starseeker Keyblades with her signature hat and cape on them. Zeke picked it up, and placed it in its place, the circle on the floor began to glow. “Better to get it over with now, than just run from it knowing it’s gonna come either way.” “I call bullshit.” Ben said. “This!” He motioned to all the X-blades. “Isn’t for you, it’s just Kexez trying to pull some bullshit out of his ass. For the first time in your life, you literally have a chance to tell Fate to go fuck itself and leave, this won’t ever come back. This is all Kexez, Fate has nothing to do with this. So please, do it for them.” Ben said while motioning to the twenty X-blades. “If you take them, your being selfish. Leave now, and let them go. Those are twenty people that didn’t ask for any of this, are you going to harm them because of selfish reasons? Or are you going to let them all go and save them?” “True...but then, what bout them?” Zeke motioned to the twenty. “I’m hearing, seeing his memories Ben. Kexez made them like this… and they can’t be like they were before… Their bodies are X-blades now but not like mine. At least as me, they CAN have a body. As chaotic as it may be, it’s better than stuck like that for all eternity.” He spoke, walking to the center. “Oh no you don’t.” Ben said while grabbing his arm before he got to the center. “There has to be another way to solve this. You have all his memories, he must have put a way to reverse this right?” Ben asked. “None that I’m seeing at the moment. Though, for some reason there’s one thing that keeps popping up since I took back my body.” “And what’s that?” Ben asked curiously. “Dunno, I think it’s a name or something. Anathema?” ”Passcode accepted” “Oh fuck.” Zeke and Ben both cursed as one metallic claw grabbed Zeke while the other grabbed Ben and tossed him out the door, where all the remaining Embodiments stood around him. “You would be smart to stay down.” One of them spoke. “Go fuck yourself.” Ben said while getting up and readying himself for a fight. “Ben.” Through them, came Eve, standing before Ben. “Now, you’re being selfish.” “Bullshit.” Ben frowned. “What part of any of this is me being selfish? I’m helping a friend damn it, and if your saying this because you want to die, then what stopped you before?” Ben asked. “Me and several others have X-blades if that’s supposed to be some hidden requirement here for whatever damned reason.” “Because when we could have died before… we would have never been whole. Dead, yes, but whole… no. Ben, we are Kingdom Hearts Darkness, if we had died before now, we’d die without realizing that we belong someplace… One of us is dead yes, but he is with us.” Eve said, one of the others carrying a black orb of darkness. “We just want to return to where we came from, but for that,” She looked into the room, the X-blades now entering Zeke's body. “We need a body.” “Cause...fuck it why not.” Ben sighed out. “Christ, fine, whatever. Not like I wanted my friend to not be seen as perfect for fucking once.” Ben grumbled. “Is Lord Perfect? Is Cript?” “Pretty much yes.” Ben said. “And if they aren’t then they could easily make themselves that.” “Heh, then you still know so little. You look at them in terms of power and see them as without flaw, but even the oldest of us are still different.” Eve said, looking back into the room. “You may want to hit the floor now.” She said, Ben looking around and it looked like Zeke was gonna explode. “And you missed the part where I said ‘if they aren’t they could easily make themselves that’.” Ben brought up as he just did not care. “Plus, ‘perfect’ can be seen as a lot of things, like having everything go there way like when Spike magically came back to life because Deletes mean basically nothing anymore.” Ben said, remembering when Cript’s Spike was somehow reborn when Deletes are supposed to be just that. “Or just being too stupid strong that everything becomes a Non-issue. And hey guess what those two can do.” Ben said honestly, putting up a quick shield spell just in case. The explosion made Ben’s ears bleed. His healing factor barely able to keep up with the force of the explosion. “Ow…” Ben muttered while casting a healing spell on himself to heal his ears. “Everytime with the ears…” When it ended, The once glass looking view into space was now shuttered closed,and the Embodiments, missing. Looking into the room Zeke was in, he saw… darkness. Purest darkness blocking the doorway. Then from behind, he felt and saw a familiar light. Despite the shutters closed, this light bled through. “Uh...you okay there?” Ben asked worriedly. Suddenly, the shutters were ripped away by the light, revealing Kingdom Hearts as it’s source. The Darkness flowed passed Ben, and he saw it dragging Zeke with it to the giant heart. Zeke seemed unconscious from the event, the darkness then set Zeke a drift between it and Kingdom Hearts, and the darkness formed itself into a heart shape as well. “Well…” Ben took a step forward. “Zeke’s gonna be super pissed when he learns he can’t ever have character development anymore.” The Dark Heart and Kingdom Hearts then collided, this energy sending, no, shooting code, light, darkness, and grey in all directions. The event blinded Ben, and when the event seemed to pass, he looked out. Zeke was afloat, his hair now a mix of blond and a glowing gold and blue. Ben rushed to grab him, and when he did, saw a single crown tattoo on his forehead, and chain tattoos running from his wrists up to his arms. From there his clothes blocked the rest. “Well...congratulations, life really doesn’t like you.” I muttered while summoning No Heart. “Hey, say hello to your new dad...I think.” Ben said to the X-blade while holding up Zeke’s unconscious body. Zeke then opened his eyes, a bright, blinding blue light coming from them. “AH CRAP!” Zeke yelled, falling out of Ben’s grasp. “Too bright, fucking hell!” He shouted, rubbing his eyes to try and stop their glowing. “She blinded him with Science!” Ben said in fake shock, making a reference he’s pretty sure Zeke wouldn’t understand. As Zeke managed to get his eyeball spotlights turned off, Ben noticed Zeke’s eyes weren’t red, or blue. They were now an emerald green. “Fucking hell, you’d think that wouldn’t affect the person doing it.” Zeke muttered. “So, how does no future character development feel?” Ben asked. “Cause you know, you now have the power to make everything a Non-issue?” “Well for starters… I can literally feel and see everything literally EVERYONE is doing… WAY too many people watch porn…” “Hey when you have the free time.” Ben said while helping Zeke up. “So...your now Kingdom Hearts huh?” “Ugh, seems so- Holy FUCK! Your wives are horny, and Unum in EVERY reflection is sex mad… Oh god I see and FEEL them having sex with your clones! Ugh! That’s an image that’s never going away.” He said, rubbing his eyes and walking. “Have fun watching all that with over two thousand wives...and I’m pretty sure I’m going to get more when I world travel cause why not.” Ben laughed. “And if memory serves, my Unum is a blackened skeleton from what Joy figured out.” “Oh Gee, thanks!” Zeke said, giving Ben a punch in the arm… that snapped his whole body in two. “Oh FUCK!?” “Well fuck you to then.” Ben said while magic was oh so helpful and got him back up fully healed. “So have fun never touching anyone ever again.” Ben said honestly. “Note, I did try to stop this, but...well it was too late.” “Fuck… I’m gonna need to learn how to better utilize this crap… Jesus… this is so weird… You let your wives pull your tail to orgazim?” Zeke said, bursting out in laughter. “I fucking hate you.” Ben grumbled. “Hey Cript, I know your there, mind helping Zeke here learn his new powers?” Ben called out, knowing full well he’s there. “Also, again, have fun making everything a Non-issue.” “Heheh… maybe this won’t be so bad.” Zeke said, finally stopping his laughter. “I mean the ear biting I get but the tail? Seriously?” “Sh-shut up!” Ben barked with a massive blush. “You probably do that for some weird reason as well…” He grumbled. “I don’t even have a tail, and even when I did rooming in Trixie’s body I didn’t let it get pulled to achieve bliss.” “Yeah well you’ve done some freaky shit for no reason.” Ben huffed. “Hehe. Can’t lie there. Man this seeing what and feeling what they are doing thing is weird… That includes Keyblades.” Zeke said, noticing the chain tattoos around his wrists. “What’s with this?” He asked, looking around his arms, legs. That chain tattoos going all along his body. “Weird.” “A little, but that just means your chained down by bullshit.” Ben said honestly. “But hey, are you happy now?” “I’m a little happy I can literally embarrassed all of you whenever, so that’s something to look forward too. Other than that… no. No I feel like there’s not enough booze in this reality I could drink to get me buzzed.” “Ask Cript, I’m sure he’s got something.” Ben said honestly. “But yeah...this all happened.” “Hmm…” Zeke thought, looking over his new tattoos. He summoned X, and to his and Ben’s surprise, the X-blades Keychain was linked INTO Zeke’s arm, right over the Tattoo. “Oh… well that’s weird.” “Oh...I get it.” Ben said. “You are literally connected to all keyblades now...and that includes their keychains.” “...Well fuck.” Zeke said, dropping X as the weapon dangled from it’s link into Zeke’s arm. “What’s weird is that doesn't feel as heavy as it should.” “Again, you have the strength to make literally everything a Non-issue.” Ben said. “So weight doesn’t mean much.” “Still… So… what now? Oh right, house dad… gonna need to learn to hold back on this scale… you already called Cript?” “I called out physically, thinking he was already here but,” Ben said while taking out his Assistant and calling Cript through that. “Let’s hope he’s free, I mean he should be because of this.” “Cript appeared next to us. Yawning. “I was sleeping, what’s up?” “Zeke here is the new Kingdom Hearts, tell him what he’s won.” Ben said while motioning to Zeke. “Hang on, let me wake up more.” Cript said, taking a deep breath. “Well, you’ve won a one way ticket to no more exhilarating fights, total alcohol immunity, and all consuming depression.” Ben wanted to bring up something more about this but didn’t because he thought that would be a bit too much. “Yeah...that’s what happens when you become that strong.” He said honestly. “Fuck…” “That’s a surprisingly good coping mechanism.” Cript said. “Oh… good to know?” Zeke pondered. “So, mind helping me… figure all this out?” “Dude, we’re the same person. Once your body adjusts to itself your powers can be as less or as much as you need on command.” “I mean, after the crippling depression sets in.” Ben brought up. “I’d say four days or so and your abilities will all be set in. Here.” Cript said, placing an Assistant on Zeke’s arm. “This will come in handy.” “Guess I was gonna get one sooner or later.” Zeke said, looking the device over. “True.” Ben said honestly. “Better everyone has an amazing computer on their wrists at all times.” “So what do I do for four days til these abilities and such set themselves in?” Zeke asked. “Well you do have the combined Reflections of Twenty people who match you in terms of Balance, plus an Admin. You could sleep/meditate for four days to pass the time and speak with them.” Cript offered. “I guess that would be smart.” “That would be for the best.” Ben nodded. “Good, enjoy the sleep.” Cript said. “Wait, wha?” Zeke said, Cript snapping his fingers as Zeke fell over, asleep. “Sleeping spell. Welp, enjoy the calm, cause it will still be awhile before your next ‘storm’.” Cript said, picking up Zeke. “I’ll just drop him off with his family.” “Alright.” Ben nodded. “But...can’t wait to see how stupid strong he really is.” “You might not get the chance.” “Why do you say that?” Ben asked curiously. “As an Admin, Zeke can’t fight in certain events within this realm, which is now his domain. He’ll know automatically and his body will immobilize him if he tries to defy it. All he might do come the second Keyblade war is reform all your realms into one and make them one world again.” “I thought you were doing that?” Ben asked curiously. “I’ll be reforming ALL of creation, not just this realm.” “Right then.” Ben nodded. “But yeah that Admin rule? Yeah I’m just gonna call bullshit real quick on that.” Ben said. “I don’t know much about Admins but the ‘rules’ you people have are either vague or nonexistant from what I’ve seen and heard.” “Heh, Admins didn’t make those rules. There’s always bigger fish.” Cript said, opening up a portal and walking into it, Carrying Zeke. “Point still stands though.” Ben said while opening up a DTN. “Well today was a bunch of...things.” Ben muttered to himself. "Well that was a debacle and a half..." I sighed out. "Whatever..." I muttered while opening the door to my wine cellar which was fucking huge. "Might as well have a drink." I muttered as I walked in and closed the door behind me. To be continued...*hic*
Nobody is told Hard Work is for the weakI ran out of the portal,to Bolitaria, but Zeke or rather the one in control when I called, Clementine, wasn’t here. Her friends and Zeke’s family in the castle didn’t see where they went. I was back at the bridge where Clementine’s friends last saw them, some of them were surprised to see me, their reactions to Zeke’s family equally as it seems they are new to world hopping. Damn, where is he? I thought. “Fine…” I muttered while summoning No Heart. “Help me find Kingdom Hearts cause when he actually has a physical form you can find him right?” I said to him, knowing Keyblades are connected to Zeke so my X blade better be able to find him. “There’s no need for that.” I jumped, turning around and seeing Lord standing behind me. “Your friend is safe, what’s happening is expected, and to be honest I’m surprised this didn’t happen sooner.” “What happened to him?” I asked curiously. “Eclipsa took him away for now, but what’s happening is that he has twenty different people all with the same heart as his, but with different minds, not to mention an entire afterlife and unborn hearts all awaiting their birth and rebirth, his mind is finally processing that part, both dead and unborn residing within him, his mindscape is adjusting to it. It’s to be expected when he became Kingdom Hearts.” “Of fucking course...and it was literally when I was going to ask Trixie if she wanted to quit from being apart of my Council because of this shit.” I said honestly. “Want my advice?” “Cause I still can’t find the rest stop between here and the fucking point half the goddamn time.” I frowned. “But please, I’d like some advice.” “Replace her.” He stated bluntly. “Right now all those reflections of each of the twenty are also merging, first the most similar, then the different ones, and the final product will be a being of many different personalities, memories, and past experiences all within one body and mindset. While one can argue your Trixie is just part of a greater whole, one specific set of memories in that mess is hard to bring up, in fact the Trixie that ends up there as the ‘finished product’ of this whole thing might even have different personality entirely, not even I could calculate that odds.” “Well...alright.” I said while holding my hand out. “Sorry Trixie, but your fired.” I said while trying to summon Fair Game back to me from Trixie. The card deck appeared back to me, it’s color slightly duller now that it no longer has a welder. “Now then, onto something I wanted to speak about.” Lord said, kneeling down to my height. Damn he’s tall. “So, you’re an Admin now, there are some things I’d like to help you with.” “And will it involve this being a handout?” I asked curiously. “Or am I actually going to work for it like a normal person?” “You’ll have to work for it.” Lord said. “Unlike Cript, I don’t give handouts, at least, not without some extra terms attached.” He said, standing up. “Your connection to Nothingness means your Code will be rather Unique. I’d like to take you to someone who can help me examine its nature.” “Sure, why not.” I said. “Gonna need to learn how to use Code to begin with, and I need to find a replacement for Trixie.” I said honestly. “Not to mention I’ve been watching a lot of Youtube and reading up on history...I have a lot of new Nobody’s to create.” “Come then.” Lord said, a portal opening to my left. “This will be where we start then.” I followed him and where we ended up was… is this… the Underground? “Wait, why are we in the Underground?” I asked. “I brought all the monsters from my universe to my Equestria.” “You’re right. This isn’t even my Universe… this is a different place altogether.” Lord said. “Now then, where is he.” Lord asked, looking around. As we were looking we came across an… odd looking person. Red hair, grey skin, and a black and red striped shirt. “There you are.” “Hm.” They said, looking over to us. “Oh, hello Lord. What brings you to this place?” “Him.” Lord said, pointing at me. “His code is unique. I wish to study it.” “Ah, so is this the favor I owe you then?” “Yes.” “Ah, then let me see.” The ‘kid’ said, vanishing in a trail of pixels before appearing in front of me. Their eyes were just red slits. “Uh...hi.” I said nervously. “Um...who are you if I may ask?” I asked, not knowing who this person was or how he could help Lord learn what I can do. “Do you wish to know who I am, or what I am?” He asked, “...Yes.” I said slowly. “Well, I’m not an Admin, but not too far off either.” He said, looking around me. “What I am and where I come from I left when I became what I am… everyone calle me Player, as for what I am, well, simply put.” They said, a smile crossing their face as their eyes went black, the red slits still there. “I’m a dirty Hacker.” “Huh...that’s interesting.” I said honestly. “Who knew Hackers existed like this.” “Player here somehow entered this reality from his original, not even he is entirely sure how, but what he did is one of a kind. In exchange for helping him achieve his wish, he owed me a favor. Despite not being an Admin, his understanding of Code and how to apply it is a match for my own. It’s quite impressive all things considered.” “Well Hackers are supposed to get past code and do things it wouldn’t normally allow.” I said honestly. “Makes sense, so he can tell me how special my Code is?” “Yes, he can copy it and from there we can understand its nature under different circumstances, after which we’ve learned that we can test and see how well they effect and act outside of simulation and calculations.” Lord said. “Honestly...even though I haven’t been out to other worlds much...it feels awfully convenient he’s here “ I said, not knowing why it felt that way. “But hey, as long as I can train with Code.” I said honestly. “So, how do we begin?” “First, I make a copy.” Player said, a sequence of floating grey ones and Zero’s appearing in his hand. “Secondly, we monitor it’s nature and compare it to other known variations of code.” He said, the code floating up, and dozens of other colored codes appearing around it. “After we gather the this data for a baseline we begin testing.” “Cool.” I nodded. “Can’t wait to start screwing around with this...god I wish I learned more about computers before all this happened…” I muttered. “Okay, so while we wait for that let’s go over some things.” Lord said, facing me. “First off, do you know any of your own or your realms ID tags yet?” “I literally just became an admin not five hours ago. Do you expect to me to know...literally anything about this?” I asked curiously. “Heh, fair enough. Well, to start off with think in terms of Video Game logic, everything from characters to items and even rooms and maps have some form of an ID for them. As Admins we have access to popping in and out of these locations and items simply by remembering their ID tag. For example.” Lord said, raising their hand as… No Heart appeared in their grasp. I summoned mine… two? “I can see your X-blades ID tag and copy it, same stats and everything. Though doing this to another admins creation, is considered rather rude.” He said, grabbing the copy’s tip… and breaking it, the second No Heart breaking off into light and Nothingness like dust in the wind. I held No Heart away from the guy. “Well...cool, that’s good to know.” I said honestly. “So I can basically recreate anything if I know the ID of it?” I asked curiously, wondering if that was the case. “Yes, this includes places and people, but again, it’s often considered rude or taboo outside your own realm of creation. For now though I’ll allow it since this is training.” “Cool.” I said simply, hoping to learn how to do this well. “Here.” Lord said, taking out a notebook with a pen attached to it. “The first page has two things, one from my realm/Cript’s, and a second from yours. Everything else you’ll then have to discover it’s ID, then learn to use it. Alright?” “Alrighty then.” I said while opening the notebook. “Gonna have to learn all this someway...gonna be a nightmare.” I opened the book, seeing the Id’s of whatever they were. //>ADM9935823>GiveItem>28923843947893092049548573920902948478583928489294893249832389498>QUT>1 //>User>GiveItem>2843948395493852954993587865939>QUT>2 “Uh…” I blinked at seeing all that. “Yeah um...wut?” I asked, having a feeling this is the ID of something but not knowing what I’m seeing here. I could feel Lord roll his eyes at me without even seeing them. “I told you, think Video Game logic. The first one is how to get an item from my realm, specifically, a wooden mallet.” THAT'S JUST FOR A MALLET!?!? “And the second one, yours, is for two gold Ingots.” “Okay…” I said, rubbing my temple a little bit. “Oh dear...this is gonna be a pain…” I muttered while trying my best to make a wooden mallet first from what I have in front of me right now. “You’ll need to remember each number of the ID as well as the proper order it comes in, otherwise you’ll summon something else.” “Well that’s scary…” I muttered while thanking god my mind was a supercomputer as I remembered everything from what I read and tried to use said thing to get the mallet. “Let’s hope this works…” I held out my hand, something appearing in the ones and Zeros and… it’s a paper crane… “You were three numbers off.” Lord said. “Well it’s better than accidentally summoning a monster…” I said nervously while putting the paper crane on a table gently and trying again to summon the mallet. Again, I was summoning something… only this time it was a brain… that I immediately dropped. Gross! “Nine numbers off.” Lord said. “Jesus christ...please tell me I didn’t just accidentally kill someone…” I said worriedly. “Relax, just a bodiless brain. Could be a copy of anyone's but no one died. That’s not how this works.” Lord said. “You keep thinking like a mortal, not an Admin.” He said. “You need to open your mind more.” “Gee, I fucking wonder.” I rolled my eyes while trying to ‘open my mind’ to this weird crap when it’s a lot different to casting a spell to create something. “Third time's the charm hopefully…” I muttered while focusing on the ID of what the mallet was to try and make it. Something was summoning and it was… OH GOD! “Seven off.” Lord said… that’s a fetus… oh god! “Jesus fucking hell…” I muttered, not believing this and not knowing what to do now cause honestly this just went from bad to worse. “I just killed an unborn child! Fuck!” “First off, again, not how this works.” Lord said, taking the fetus from me. “This fetus didn’t exist until you put in that wrong item code, it wasn’t unborn or even developing, just nonexistent. You can’t kill what wasn’t even real until you bring it into reality. Secondly, here.” Lord said, taking the fetus and summoning an orb of… flesh, and he placed the fetus inside it. “If you’re that scared this will incubate the thing til it’s ready to be born in, given that stage of fetus, I’d say seven more months. THEN, it will be a person, and now, it’s an unborn child.” He said, handing me the flesh ball. “This is going to be harder than I expected.” “Again, didn’t get this power until five hours ago.” I said while gently taking the ball and holding it carefully and protectively. “While thinking of it like Video Games is one thing,” I said while summoning my Lexicon. “I have several spells that do the exact same thing without needing this complicated crap. I know this is basically computer code stuff, but come on.” I said honestly. “Also, blame Cript, he explained to me literally nothing about this when he was basically handing me this power after I murdered Gideon.” “That’s because he doesn't know I’m training you.” Lord said. “Alright, first off, while those spells do work to an extent they are still limited ot mana, this method is limitless, and it’s tradition. Hmm… There has to be a missing piece here.” “I can think of three things, one being fuck tradition.” I said honestly. “The second might be the Code I use is different, and the third...well the third could easily just be ‘why can’t code act like spells?’, cause if Mana can do just as much as Code without this,” I motioned to the notebook Lord gave me. “Then there might be a problem with how people actually teach Code, figured out how to use it, or people who discovered new things with Mana have a better idea on how to make things than just a string of random fuck off numbers.” I explained. “Seriously, if people figured out how you can do things with a limited source of energy...you’ve got a problem.” I explained. “Or Cript did a thing I don’t know.” As Lord was thinking, Player came up to me. “Having trouble?” He asked. “Yes, cause I have tried to make a wooden god damn mallet three times and failed, the third time I basically now have a new kid to raise.” I said while showing the orb with the fetus in it. “Lord thinks I’m missing something, I’m calling Code a pile of shit when Mana can do what Code does but better when it’s limited.” I said with a frown. “Please tell me you can help.” “Hm.” He began pondering. “When I was first getting ready to leave my old self behind, I studied code for years, up til I, well, died. Memorized every number, line, and ID code and what it goes too, but, I did think of a possibly simpler method.” “And what would that be?” Lord asked. “Well, a Script.” Lord was silent for a time, then facepalmed. “That would make it easier in the end actually… and it would be basically the same thing since all a Script does is run a line or lines of Code…” He grumbled. “Oh yeah, Cript did a thing like that to help keep me out of your bullshit for a while.” I said honestly. “Yes, typically Admins use Scripts to govern things like the day and night cycles, growth and decay, the more… complicated stuff, on worlds and etc. It’s basically the rules and the numbers and activators and events, etc for anything, normally they are used for that and are, for Cript and I, even Player here, rather easy to make once you get it working right, but making one with just a single, maybe two lines of code to run would make them more like a…” “Consumable item?” Player asked with a smile. “Yeah...that.” Lord said. “And since you’d be making them and summoning it would basically just run the cod it has on it, it would just summon the item or whatever rather than the script itself, which in a sense is still the same thing.” Lord said. “Yeah, then Ben only has to remember the //give and such commands to apply it simpler.” Player said, taking the notebook lord gave me from me and writing a few things down. “There’s a ton of different ways for these items and ect to go about, but this is how they all start out.” He said, finishing and giving me the notebook back. I took the notebook and looked at what was written. “Let’s hope it’s simple…” //User>GiveItem>(ItemID)>QUT>1 User = You, GiveItem = Give Item(Ability, Health, Spawn Orb, ETC) QUT = Quantity or Amount ADM = Admen(Admin’s ID) (Yes, Even Admins have them but you can not use code lines to copy an Admin, you just get an Error message) //User>GiveItem>S0001>QUT>1 “Okay so…” I muttered while trying to do what Player wrote to me, hoping this time it’ll work instead of it coming up wrong again. I summoned...whatever it was, what I was summoning taking a bit longer than before, but what appeared in my hand was… A Wooden Mallet. YES! “Yay! It worked perfectly!” Player said. “Huh, guess that would be easier.” Lord admitted. “In that case, we just need to list and Script everything in your realm and every location and link it to a Script with an easy ID for you to memorize.” “Oh boy, that’s gonna take forever.” I rolled my eyes. “But yay, it works.” I said thankfully. I actually pocketed that damn mallot. Keeping the damned thing. Lord went over code, making Scripts and writing in those Script’s ID’s for me as something simple to use. “Alright, I have his Codes nature.” Player said, walking over to us. “What is it?” I asked curiously. “Well, to start off your Code acts much like a virus, but only if you allow it. For example, you can inject your code into corpses and revive them as Nobodies, same with animals.” Player stated. “Huh, that’s cool.” I said honestly. “Interesting on how that works.” “Yes, and it’s not counted as Necromancy either.” Player added. “Next is how your Code interacts with other code. It seems rather passive, watching the new code, and if hostility is detected it acts like an anti virus and contains and if needed eliminates it.” “That’s good to know.” I said honestly. “Anything else?” “Yes, your code can also become parasitic, but not in a harmful way. It can exist symbiotically with the code of whoever it is attached to, be it Admin or not. What it does though I’m not sure.” “I have a feeling it either works with the person if I make it that way...or it could literally be a parasite to those I just hate.” I said honestly. “But who knows.” “We will have to see later on.” Player said. “Lastly your Code can seem to… replace a heart? I’m assuming this has something to do with the realm you originate?” Player asked Lord, who nodded. “Well it seems when infecting someone of another realm, mainly corpses and Undead, and making them Nobodies, your code can create something akin to a ‘heart’ to replace what’s missing, or rather what never existed for this person in the first place.” “Huh...that is very interesting.” I said honestly. “Who would have thought I could do this stuff.” “It makes sense given where he comes from.” Lord said. “Now then, we now have a baseline for your code. Now summon it.” “That part shouldn’t be too hard.” I said, thinking it was just summoning a ball of magic as I held out a hand and tried to summon my Code. What appeared though was magic. Not code. “Think of summoning your code more like summoning forth your own essence.” Player said. “Can’t just be like Magic now can it…” I grumbled while trying to summon my code by thinking of literally bringing out a piece of my soul. That did it, grey aura of numbers appearing in the palm of my hand. “Good. Now try and utilize it by channeling it through a weapon.” “Sure.” I said while summoning my X-blade since I was more used to Keyblade’s than most others, even if one of my clones was getting personal training by Agamemnon. “Alright No Heart, let’s see how this works…” I said while focusing and channeling my Code into my X-blade. “This better not blow up my weapon or so help me god.” The code flowed over my Keyboard like an aura, quickly changing its look to pure black with grey numbers moving in all directions. “Good. It took to the code flawlessly.” Player said. “I mean, it is me technically.” I said honestly. “So why wouldn’t it?” I asked honestly. “Well it was from another realm with different code structure so it might have glitched.” “What do you mean?” I asked curiously. “Cause I got the Keychain from Zeke’s Absent Silhouette, and when I grabbed it it stabbed my hand and drained some blood from me.” I explained. “It's nothing too much to worry about.” Player said. “Now, here.” He said, getting up and walking across from me. “Let's see your damage output. Hit me.” “Well...if you say so.” I said while smacking Player with No Heart. Comical nines appeared over Player, at least a line of ten nines, but he didn't seem phased. “Hm. Not bad but you need to hit me harder.” “Alright.” I said while smacking him harder. Seven more nines on this comical line of them and Player still seemed unphased. “Good. But you can't hold back any more. Hit me like I just killed all your loved ones and realm.” Player was actually sent into a wall as I hit him as hard as I could. “I will end you if you ever touch my family.” Player appeared in front of me. “Good. You managed to break through my defense and deal damage to my hp. But remember, you are an Admin, you can't just fight to get stronger. Admin combat is different from normal fighting and getting stronger.” Player said. “I doubt that.” I stated bluntly. “Besides, I’m still not strong enough normally, I’m not going to have this glorified hand out be all I can do. That would be retarded.” “Hellsing Abridged much?” Player asked. “Anyway while Admins don't get stronger by levels like normal creations. At least most normal creations Admins get stronger by using their code to buff their stats, the more code you can use and harness the better your stats and therefore strength, speed, you get the idea.” “Okay, so there’s still the problem of I haven’t really maxed out level wise normally.” I said honestly. “Not to mention I haven’t really ‘mastered’ my weapons so there’s an ass ton of things I have to do with that, so you saying ‘buff spells are the only thing I can do’ isn’t really a thing at the moment.” I said honestly. “It goes a bit beyond that. Code makes up everything, and as such you can use it to 'cheat’ to learn all you need. This includes things like magic, combat, weapons, people and places, simply by copying something or someone's code and placing it within your own.” “I’m not going to be a bitch who’s too scared to actually work for their powers.” I frowned. “Unlike some people I have some respect for myself, what little of that respect truly is is up for debate but my point still stands.“ I said, not wanting to be Zeke or any of the Admins and being given fucking everything under the sun because ‘I was made that way’. “Sorry, but this is how Admins work. At least In this-” Lord looked up, his armor audible enough to make Player stop talking. “Buff spells can only go so far.” I frowned. “And I’m not like all of you, and who just appeared for me to fight cause that’s obvious going to be the thing here.” I said, knowing full well because I just started learning about Code someone appeared to try and fight me. “So come on, who’s there, we don’t have all day waiting for you to grandstand.” Player and Lord looked around, nothing happening. “Someone has issues.” Player said, Lord shrugging. “Who was it?” I asked curiously. “Cause I was expecting someone to appear and try to fight me to prove your point that buff spells mean more than actual hard work.” “The buffs, so long as you keep code flowing to it are more than temporary. So long as you can maintain them.” Player said. “Are you honest?” Lord asked. “Am I honest?” I asked. “Honest about what?” “About wanting to work for your strength?” Lord asked, still making the shortcut scripts for me. “Yes. I’m not Cript, I’m not Zeke, I’ve worked for my powers but then Cript didn’t tell me my Copy ability was always fucking active when I was ‘training’.” I rolled my eyes. “So excuse me for feeling a bit mad about doing so much only for one ability to make said hard work mean nothing.” “Well, If you really feel that way, what do you want then?” “What do I want?” I asked. “What do you mean?” I asked curiously. “If you really want to work so hard for your skills, then I can help you there. If you want to get stronger, faster, worthy of the power you now hold, then I can help you there.” “Hooray, actual training.” I said honestly. “Or do you have a different way to help?” “Training takes all forms. Mine are hard, but effective.” “That’s a good start.” I said honestly. “So you wish to train under me? I can guarantee while the results will be worth it, you will regret accepting, and likely hate me for it afterwards.” “When has that stopped me or you before?” I asked honestly. Shrugging, Lord stood, holding out a hand. “Then do you accept?” “I’m used to dumb decisions so sure.” I said while taking his hand. “Let’s hope this doesn’t interfere with the many other things I have to do and want to do.” “It will.” Lord said. “As of now, you have one goal I shall give you. This one goal, when you acquire it, you will no longer ever doubt you have the skills or power you have already.” “Except for the other goals I have because of obvious reasons.” I rolled my eyes. “And I will doubt cause that’s just me.” “Come then.” Lord said, opening a portal behind him. We walked through we were in what looked like an arena. The sky was dark like storm clouds blocked the sky. “I call this place Casem. I believe it to be my hardest challenge yet.” “What actually makes it hard?” I asked honestly. “You'll see.” Lord said, turning around and grabbing my face. I backed up, and suddenly I was… looking down at my own body. “With each of your victories, a part of your power will be restored. Till then, you start from below rock bottom.” Lord said. I suddenly felt ill, like I was starved for months. Severely thirsty, cold and sick. I fell to the ground from the hard weakness. My body was human but basically skeletal with paper thin skin and no muscles to speak of. “Survive. Then reclaim what is yours.” Lord said, everything going black. I woke up somewhere cold. The pain from just breathing was hard. I could not focus on anything other than my aching stomach and dry as sand mouth and throat. “Well...fuck…” I grumbled while trying to get up. “Nothing...like the writers hating me for actually wanting to get stuff from hard work...oi vey…” I grumbled while getting up and looking around, wondering where I am specifically. It was really dark. All I could do was crawl to move, and at a snail's pace. I think I was in a cave. The floor was uneven Stone and dirt. As I moved my hand forward to drag myself more, I felt something. Not Stone or dirt… softer, light… it's a snail. I'd recognize the shells feel. It was then the stomach pains from starvation hit me... I gently picked up the snail. “God...this sucks…” I muttered. With weak movements I moved the snail to my mouth, and ate it. It's slimy body and crunchy shell tasted horrible. With labored effort I swallowed it, still wanting more. Or anything really. “Well...it’s a start…” I muttered, trying to move forward with what little energy I have. I found more snail's, a spider, even a patch of moss. I ate them all. Just to subside the hunger. At least a little. Eventually I heard .. water. Still unable to stand I crawled towards it, finding a small stream and drank deeply. With each handful I felt small fish swimming. I caught three, eating them raw. I felt better, but still weak. I can't even stand, at least not on my own. I'll need something for a crutch. Or cane. “Alright...where the hell to find something…” I muttered while looking around for something. My eyes adjusted to the dark but I still couldn't see much. Finally after all my crawling I began to feel a draft, and see light up ahead. “Head towards the light, gonna need more symbolism here.” I rolled my eyes and crawling towards the light. As I reached this caves end I could smell fresh air, hear leaves blowing in the wind. Finally I was in daylight. Getting a good look at myself I realized how… bearly alive I was… he really meant starting from beyond bottom. “Jeez…” I muttered. “But thank god I’m in daylight...christ this sucks…” I muttered while trying to get up. “Come on...not gonna get stronger just by crawling…” I muttered. “Wonder how I can get stronger...cause this isn’t like back home…” I grumbled, remembering my time with Den. “Wonder how to continue besides crawling...” My legs were really weak, I don’t think I can stand without something to lean on… at least I have some rags on. Damn it, wonder how this is all gonna go. Now, there has to be a stick or something large enough for me to use. “Has to be something somewhere…” I muttered, having a feeling Lord took away my powers so I couldn’t cheat here. “This bites…” I muttered while looking around for something to lean on. Just to get an effort to stand I climbed/leaned on a tree, my balance feeling almost nonexistent. Eventually I managed to at least move from tree to tree, eventually smelling smoke? A fire? No, I would see a forest fire by now… campfire maybe? “Social interactions...hopefully…” I muttered while continuing towards the smell and still glad I’m a Dire Wolf here. As I arrived at the source of this fire I saw a man, dressed in mostly leather armor, makeshift from the harsh stitchwork, a thick cloak hood covering their face. They sat against a tree, gazing at their small fire, large claymore strapped across their back. “Hi…” I said weakly to the hunter. They looked up at me, then spoke. “You… you’re no Mad One, are you? No, just a starved wolf.” He said, looking back to his fire. “You can join if you wish, I won’t be here far too long. Have to stay ahead of the migrations.” “I’m new here, and ‘Mad One’?” I asked worriedly. “I have a feeling I’m missing some crucial things here.” “Heh, must have been under a rock you.” They spoke. “It’s a plague. As you age, you begin to lose your own mind, it starts at age thirty, and by the time you’re forty, if you’re lucky, you’re mindless. You attack anything with even a hint of sanity and the older you get after turning mad, the more deprived and mutated you become. Any settlements here all have an age limit of thirty, after that, you either kill yourself, get killed, or leave. Though lately those are few and far between, since the Mad Ones began migrating in swarms of thousands.” “Oh dear...that is quite a thing.” I said honestly. “How far are they behind us at the moment?” “Two days walk, one for the fast, larger ones. Was going to head out in an hour and scavenge the High Wells ruins nearby. Some stuck Mad Ones are there, likely, but that place fell recently, so not expecting too much in terms of resistance or fighting.” “Mind if I tag along? I know I literally look like dead weight but...better to be with someone that actually knows what’s going on and the area rather than wandering aimlessly and getting myself killed right?” I said. “Whatever suits you stranger.” He said, reaching behind him and tossing me a small pouch. “There’s a small bean in there. Eat it, you’ll at least have your health about you. Was saving it for a dire moment, but you could use it more. It’s an old magic one. They stopped growing them when the Madness began appearing.” “Thank god for Senzu Beans…” I muttered while gently taking the bean out of the bag and taking the bean and eating it. “Sorry for taking your last bean…” I felt like a million bucks after eating it. My muscles and body restoring before my eyes. “It’s a loss, but if luck favors it, I might find more. We can find you a weapon in the High Wells ruins when we arrive. That city was once known for their Keyblade warriors and craftsmen, only rivaled by New Daybreak Empire.” “I wonder…” I muttered while trying to summon any of my weapons or powers now that I actually feel normal again. “But how do you know about Daybreak if I may ask?” Nothing, nothing came. So Lord stripepd me down to nothing huh… he did say I’d hate him for this later… “New Daybreak was a Keyblade capitol, one of many, but one of the most influential. While New Daybreak held to more traditional keyblade laws, High Wells was revolutionizing the craft and art, techniques and magic never before thought of. Key armors and armaments of all kinds. The city did well especially since they were built into a still being dug mine, rich with ores of all kinds.” “Yeah, sounds like a good a place as any to start making all that new stuff.“ I said honestly. “But the names Ben if names matter anymore.” “Steven.” They replied. “So, from what lands do you come from?” “Well...you’d probably not believe me even if I told you.” I said honestly. “And I’m not entirely sure how to describe it given everything that’s happened to it.” I said honestly. “Nothing like having your entire domain start having more and more worlds fused into it to become one world again.” “Hm.” He said, standing and kicking dirt into the fire, putting it out. “Follow then, we’ll have to reach High Wells before dusk, Mad One aren’t the only ones to worry about.” He said, taking out a compass and finding his direction before walking, and I followed. “So, what caused the Mad One’s to come about?” I asked curiously. “Hm, they are the result of this era, Good and Evil have a unique balance in this world, an era of good where evil loses, an an era of bad where evil wins and, well, we have situations like the one we live in. They say in the kingdom of Connection, where the lords of good an evil reside, there is a clock that counts down to the end and beginning of each new era. But many think this kingdom a myth.” “Well there had to be a starting place for the Myth’s.” I said honestly. “Can’t just make up a Kingdom if you didn’t have something to at least use as a frame, or even it being completely true.” I said honestly. “Who knows.” Steven said as we traversed the forest. I think three or so hours passed of nonstop walking passed by until we arrived at a large hole, and a stairway leading down into it. “Here it is. High Wells.” “Oh...that’s not good.” I muttered worriedly. “Jeez, what happened?” “I told you, the city was built INSIDE a still active mineshaft, the actual city is five hundred feet below us, underground.” Steven said, starting to walk down the steps into the underground city. “My father once told me that this city, despite being underground, was so big and massive that it was sometimes hard to tell if you were underground or above it. Wonder if that day and night magic still works.” “Who knows.” I shrugged. “But let’s hope the place isn’t full of bad things…” I said. “Have you heard of any other survivors?” “Yes, but these days if you aren’t on the move or in a defensible settlement, you’re either a Mad One or Dead. Most all of us just keep on the road, hoping to survive till the end of this evil era, or just to live without seeing a Mad One. Or at least the swarm we are all trying to outrun.” “Well that sucks.” I said honestly. “How long do these era’s last?” “The longest was seven thousand years. The shortest was two hundred years. No one is sure how the lords of good and evil choose the length of these eras, or maybe it’s something else that ends one and begins a new one. No one knows.” Steven said, grabbing a torch off the wall, lighting it with magic as we kept downwards. The deeper we went the more I saw that along with metal and even wood to reinforce the little stations that looked like checkpoints or guard stations, gummi blocks were also used as reinforcements and structure working. Steven lead us into a checkpoint area. It was mostly bathrooms, benches, and broken, long since looted vending machines. Thankfully with a quick flip of the switch the lights came on and Steven put out the torch for a later use. “Keep an eye out for whatever is useful.” They said, searching the front desk area, an old pc with a busted screen sitting on the desk, collecting dust. “Alright.” I nodded while searching around, wondering what could be useful here. Aside from old litter, I didn’t find much. A candy bar, some shoes that thankfully fit, and an old newspaper that was surprisingly still holding together. “Well so far so nothing…” I muttered while checking to see if the candy bar was even edible. “There has to be something…” I muttered while continuing to look around. The candy bar was passed the date, but something tells me a point in time like this isn’t something to throw out away expired food that can still be eaten, even if it’s stale. As I entered the mens restroom I did see along rotten skeleton… oh… They were an adult, anthro equine… it’s skin and flesh long since gone and their bones black with age and rot. I can’t tell how they died, but there was a handgun still in their bone grip. I carefully moved over and tried to take the gun, hoping it still had ammo so I can use it to defend myself. I got the gun, though the skeleton’s hand and arm… fell off… I noticed the handgun had a Keychain on it, and there was no eject button for the ammo… weird… What kind of gun is this? “Hmm...Steven did mention this place was good with making Key Armaments…” I muttered while looking the gun over some more just to make sure it was fine enough to use. It seemed unphased by however much time had passed since it’s former wielder passed here. “Well...gonna need to tell Steven about this cause I don’t want to see how strong this gun is…” I muttered while continuing to search around for something. We didn’t find much, aside from Steven finding a keycard. Before we were going to leave though, we both heard this groan. “Glllllughh…” It was a mix of a tired, bored sigh. Steven readied his claymore, single handedly. “Is that what I think it is?” I asked worriedly while readying my new gun. “Yes… a Mad One…” Steven said, slowly a person came into view, their skin ash grey, their blood veins black like night, their hair was wet, like oil was soaking it, their eyes were black and their pupils red. They were holding a… a Keyblade? “Something’s not right…” I muttered. “They sound bored and tired...not like any possessed beings I know, undead or otherwise.” “Who said they were?” Steven said, charging in as that Mad One and them clashed blades, Steven’s claymore range gained him the advantage as he slashed the arm it was holding the Keyblade with. Blood spilled out like a facet, and sprayed the wall, roof and floor. “Die!” The Mad One said, grabbing it’s slashed arm, still holding the Keyblade, with its other arm and trying to attack. Steven took the time to back up, then thrust, piercing it’s heart. It was still, it’s body almost… returning to normal… to human. “T-thank...you…” They said, sliding off his blade lifeless. “Well...that was...a thing.” I said worriedly. “But why the hell could they still wield their keyblades?” I asked curiously. “Shouldn’t they...you know, vanish after some certain things happen?” “Keyblades, while seemingly unaffected by the madness, link themselves to their wielders heart, not their mental state. Madness affects the mind, not the heart.” Steven said, the Keyblade vanishing now that it’s wielder is gone. “Let’s hope there are not more of them.” He said, taking leave as I followed behind. “You know full well there’s more.” I said. “Cause whenever you find one...there’s always gonna be more…” I sighed out. “Cause nothing can ever be fucking simple…” I grumbled, now just thinking about what the fuck Lord wanted me to do here so I won’t spend an asston of time twiddling my thumbs like a jackass. As we headed down We came across a lift that took us the rest of the way down. When I finally saw the city… it was like something from a fairy tale. It looked… well, untouched by the hell above, and intact. As if preserved. “You said this place was in ruins…” I said honestly. “Looks pretty untouched to me.” “Ruins aren’t just broken down buildings. It’s government broken, citizens dead or Mad, and culture likely lost forever. It’s a ruin regardless of appearance.” “So no one’s here because corpses?” I asked curiously. “Or are there actual people here?” “Corpses and Mad Ones are all we will find here.” “We’re all Mad down here.” I joked, knowing it was in very bad taste but needing some uplifting thing here. When we got off we were med with a large...blood soaked street. Buildings that were once shops and roads once walked covered in long dried blood, bones of all races and animals scattered about in the slaughter. Steven walked through it all like nothing… I couldn’t stop looking. “Sweet jesus…” I muttered, not believing all this shit. “What? Did the people do this to themselves or the Mad Ones?” I asked, cause if this was all sane people’s fault I was going to be kind of mad that all this life was wasted because they all acted fucking retarded. “When the Mad Ones appeared, the elderly, all of them turned. Who could defend or even kill their beloved elders? Many did not escape, the people killed by their mad elders.” “Alrighty then.” I said honestly. “Makes sense I suppose…” I said honestly, trying to think of what I’m actually supposed to do here. “Wait, I forgot to ask this, but what year is it?” I asked curiously, thinking about when he talked about New Daybreak like it was a full fledged thing instead of it being an up and coming thing from when I visited there not too long ago. “The year or date in general?” “Either or would be grand.” I said honestly. “Just so I know because of...certain events.” I said, remembering the watch Kexez gave me that told me the time the Keyblade War will happen. “It’s April fourteenth, era ten, year four thousand, two hundred and six.” I blinked. “Oh...so I’m in the future…” I said. “I...suppose that makes sense…” I muttered, thinking about this a little more. We walked through the city some more and I came across a statue… of Zeke? “And...why is there a Statue of Zeke here?” I asked curiously. “I mean, he is mister special man but still.” “He and the others that reside within him founded this city.” Steven said. “After the second Keyblade War, Zeke and his family left to find a peaceful isolated land to settle, and when Zeke discovered the land they rested on was rich in Keyblade related resources he began digging, he and his others each swapped out when tired, and after just ten years they dug deep enough that the sunstone light could no longer reach down. Others came from all around, and began digging, and soon a whole city was being built. They named it High Wells because climbing out back them was like climbing out of a well.” “Huh...makes sense...wonder why they ditched Daybreak?” I wondered. “Who knows. But High Wells and Daybreak became different places completely. Daybreak with high authority on the traditional, and High Wells in revolutionizing the art, weapons and craft.” Steven said as we searched through the town, entering residential areas, the scene not much better here. “That’s...a little weird considering Zeke founded Daybreak...and then New Daybreak…” I frowned, wondering how it was so split when the two places were founded by the same person. “So there are a lot of weird things that happened in the middle that I have apparently not been involved in…” I frowned. I wonder… is there anything about Nothingness? “Question, what happened to Nothingness and it’s King?” I asked curiously, wondering if I was still alive or something. “Nothingness? That kingdom, and it’s king vanished. Two era’s ago.” “Who was the king at the time?” I asked curiously. “Erik, the sixth king so I hear.” “Who was his dad?” I asked curiously. “Or do you even know?” I asked, trying to remember my countless kids and trying to remember if one of them was named Erik. “Their father was unknown, their mother though was Jenny, the Archer and King Ben’s daughter.” “Oh, Joy’s kid became king? And wait, Gilda became my Archer? I thought Dante was my Archer?” I asked, confused on that whole thing. “I...know I’m asking things you probably don’t fully know about but...what?” “You who do not know history shall fail and repeat its mistakes.” Steven said simply, taking a look around a corner. I did too… a HORDE of those Mad Ones. “Oh...um...just to point out...none of this happened in the past, or even was thought of…” I muttered worriedly while readying my gun in case the horde rushed us. Slowly, reaching into his back pocket, Steven pulled out a slingshot, taking a small rock from the ground and fired at a wagon across the horde. They react, quickly and violently rushing and attacking the wagon. We quickly made it passed them. “Well...that was worrying…” I muttered while still keeping my gun at the ready. “Wonder why there was so many?” “They like to have numbers. Makes taking out people like us easier.” “Right then.” I nodded. “Is there anything else we need to find here?” “For you, a proper blade, for myself, Zeke Ventral.” “Zeke’s still alive?” I asked curiously. “Oh wait, no he’s still alive, he’s Kingdom Hearts.” I rolled my eyes. “Yes. Many years back he discovered how to choose his wielder, and therefore, he who wields him, controles his power.” “Oh dear.” I muttered. “Can’t wait to meet him...he’ll probably wonder what the fuck happened to me.” I sighed out. “Gonna be a bitch…” “Zeke Ventral is likely in the bell tower, as for you, you should be able to find a Keyblade in one of the shops that will take you on as their wielder.” “Well…” I frowned. “Probably talking to Zeke about this would also be good for me…” I said, thinking Zeke could help me out here to try and figure out how to get my powers back. “Cause he might know how I can get my powers back...he normally knows things not many would know.” I ran into the shops, Keyblades and arms decorated shelves and such all around here. Okay, which here… like me? Is that how it goes? “Seriously, two of the many Keyblades I have are literally me...the fuck.” I muttered while looking around for a keyblade that would be good for me, or if they just openly leap out to me like puppies up for adoption. “Okay...which keyblade is here for me…” I muttered, trying to find one. As I searched through the store, there was a lot of Keyblades but as I was looking them over, I heard this… metallic tick, like one of them moved. I looked around, and found that a Divine Rose one was out place among the others. “Oh?” I asked while moving over to Divine Rose. “You seem active.” I said while opening up Divine Rose’s case. It moved again. A little towards me. “Howdy Divine Rose.” I said to the keyblade, knowing it was there. I took it out of it’s case, and as I held Divine Rose it glowed, accepting me. Nodding, I looked around a bit more, finding a few potions and an exixer before heading out, looking for Steven. “Alright, where be the Steven…” I muttered while looking around for a Bell Tower. “Where be the Bell Tower...cause he’s most certainly going there.” I found the bell tower. It was one of several piller like buildings reaching up to the massive roof, a large bell at the top center of it. I raced inside, seeing Steven as he was climbing the… Oh god why is it all stairs!? “Gonna kick Zeke in the dick because of all these goddamn stairs…” I groaned while starting to head up the stairs. “And if Zeke can hear me...well then he’ll be glad to see I’m here.” Steven and I began the climb up. We took a few breaks… my legs feel like jelly… Finally after FOUR HOURS! We got to the top… Damn it Zeke. “I’m...gonna...kick Zeke...in the dick…” I groaned. “Too...many fucking stairs.” I whimpered, hating my lack of flying abilities. “Here we are.” Steven said, a large double door before us. I walked up to the door and knocked on it. “Alright Zeke, open up. You need to answer for four hours of climbing stairs dude.” I frowned. Steven pushed them open. Inside was a large room, empty, but bright, simple in it’s looks… and a light blue cloak wearing person in the center of the room, their cloak having golden semes and other details adorning it. I walked in without a single care in the world. “Alright you, you need to answer for four hours of stairs.” I frowned. “Seriously, who the fuck does that?” I asked, my legs killing me because of that crap. “But let’s see, who’s the face right now, Zeke, or one of the many others?” I wondered as I walked closer to the blue cloaked person. I reached for their hood, but… my hand phased through? What the- Pain, I felt like my spine was snapped as someone dropped from above, slamming me into the ground. I looked up, they were in Keyblade armor. A mix of Master Eraqus's and No Hearts from birth by sleep, their helm also a crown. They got off me, then kicked me all the way back to Steven who caught me. Crap, I… I can’t move. “Two hearts enter this room.” Yup, that’s Zeke’s voice. “Which can prove worthy of wielding me?” They said, summoning X, and Trixie’s X-blade form, as well as the others within them, each floating around them. “Bitch.” I frowned while trying to move. “What did I do to deserve having you damn near break my back Zeke? And what? Can’t tell I’m Ben due to many years of this shit?” I asked him with my normal amount of sass. “Fuck that hurt…” Steven rushed in, clashing with Zeke, the two trying to push passed each others force. I took a potion, the feeling in my legs restored at least. I raised my gun and aimed it at Zeke, using my training with Braig to actually know how to aim properly and fired my gun at Zeke, wondering what will happen if I do this. The shot hit their head, bouncing off their armor and into a wall. I got up, grunting as I did so. “Shouldn’t be surprised bullets wouldn’t work...but you’d think a Keyblade Gun would do something.” I frowned, thinking the Keychain on this thing is just for show as I fired at Zeke’s legs, knowing the force would at least do something to shift his weight at all. When I hit the back of his knees he fell back, Steven taking the opportunity to give Zeke a sword to the gut… breaking his sword. “Normal blades do not work on me.” Zeke said, ready to swing at Steven, then, there was a pause… Steven summoned a X-blade… It’s form like… Eclipse’s… This X-blade went through Zeke’s armor, and body. “That better?” Steven asked. “Wait, your Eclipse’s kid?” I asked while moving over to his side. “Or at least, one of his descendants?” I asked, readying Divine Rose against Zeke knowing full well he’s not done in from something that simple. Steven took off his hood, showing his face… He was equine… partly, the other was dire wolf, I could tell from his ears and some sharp teeth. “I am Steven, descendant of Admin of Grey Eclipsa and Admin of Nothingness Ben, their grandchildren were my parents. You will let me wield you, and restore both their kingdoms.” “Well...that’s good to know…” I said honestly. “Nothing like...seeing my great grandson being a badass apparently.” I said honestly, surprised one of my grandkids married Eclipse’s kids. “Also wait, Eclipsa? When did he get turned into a girl again?” “Heheh… you did well. Your ancestor was my first welder.” Zeke said, taking Eclipsa’s… apparently, X-blade out of his side, his body and armor healing. “Can you even tell who I am?” I asked Zeke honestly. “Just curious here since...it’s most likely been forever.” Zeke looked over at me. “Heh. So this is what Lord ment all those years ago.” Zeke said, walking over to me. “Hello, Ben.” “Yes, Lords an asshole.” I frowned. “But how you doing my old friend? Keeping busy nearly breaking your friends spines?” I asked honestly. “Heh, well the last time I saw you, you were eleven feet tall, all grey fur from old age… and in a coffin…” “Excuse me, how the fuck did I die of old age?” I asked with a frown. “I could have sworn I would have lived as long as the others just to make sure you all knew my great brand of humor.” I chuckled a little. “But let me ask...does grey fur make me look cooler?” I asked curiously, always finding grey or silver on wolves cool. “Well, you looked wise.” Zeke said. “But, yes. You died from old age. Only certain people, like myself, are ‘immortal’ since my heart/existence is basically the afterlife, or at least one of them. These days it depends on your religion.” “Alrighty then...but there’s the big problem of I’m an Admin, so the actual hell?” I asked honestly. “Yes, you are, but your title and even Adminhood could be passed down to whoever you choose to succeed you. Which you chose, after that you just lived a long life, really long. Cript made sure that anyone who could not die from their title can pass that on and then die/age normally. As part of how he remade creation. I’m an exception since I am a X-blade and Kingdom hearts, even without being Kingdom Hearts, I would still have been a X-blade and would have been ‘immortal’ regardless.” “Ah, alrighty then.” I said honestly. “Better than staying alive long enough to go the unfun insane.” I said honestly. “So...mind helping me figure out how to actually...you know, do whatever the hell Lord wants me to do? Or is he being a bitch and keeping you from talking?” “All he told me was that when I see you again to follow your descendant.” Zeke shrugged. “Speaking of.” Zeke remembered, giving a hand to Steven. “Well, you earned me, plus you’re the grandkid of two of my best friends, and your grandmother was my first welder. I’m interested in how you will utilize me.” Zeke said. Nodding, Steven took Zeke’s hand, and Zeke changed, his Keyblade form like X’s, but like a Kingdom Key-D version. “So Steven...what do you think of all this revelation stuff?” I asked curiously. He looked over at me. “Doesn't matter. I still have my goal, who you are and your relation to me does not matter at all.” He said, wielding Zeke and Eclipsa’s X-blade in both hands and begins to head out. “If you are going to follow me, you can, but don’t expect too much in terms of our familial bond.” “I can imagine family doesn’t mean much to you considering everything that’s happened…” I said while following along. “But believe me...family is important, it’s not something you should just openly dismiss or hate.” I said. “Cause when in doubt...your family will always be there for you.” I said while motioning to Eclipsa’s X-blade as an example. “Like Eclipsa for example.” He looked over his grandmothers X-blade. “I had to. Otherwise, I would not have been strong enough to get where I am.” “Family is a hell of a thing...even beyond the grave.” I said honestly. “I may not know your story...but maybe I’ll at least help you relearn the joys of family.” “When this is over, then you can try.” “What is your goal if I may ask?” I asked curiously. “Restoring my family kingdoms.” “Both kingdoms?” I asked curiously, wondering if he meant to bring back my old kingdom and Eclipse’s kingdom. “Yes. Yours vanished. And grandmother's was overtaken.” “Overtaken? Overtaken by who?” I asked curiously. “Or what in a possible case.” “A hex. Long before this era began, the Grey kingdom was hexed, and all its people were petrified. Like statues.” “Jeez, Kid Icarus much?” I asked honestly, remembering the story where Medusa petrified every Angel in Palutena’s domain except for Pit because he couldn’t fly. “And...nobody decided to help why?” “Any who enter, petrify as well.” “That makes...no sense when you think about it.” I said honestly. “Like...what, did they literally curse the ground people walk on or what?” “Hm.” Steven said, putting his good back up. “I was told stories about you. At least, the man you are to become. Kind, understanding, compassionate. Looking at you now I see many of what I was told about you, you yourself have yet to learn. If you continue to overthink, then you'll never know true happiness. You'll always be too mad that it doesn't make sense.” Steven said, leaving the room. I followed after him. “Well I’m not old like my dead self here.” I said honestly. “I’m glad I have a happy life but there are still plenty of problems, like the main issue of people never getting to the point half the time.” I said, having noticed there was a pretty bad issue with people and getting to the point. ”Looking at you Lord, I know you can hear me.” I thought to myself. “I hope that is false. I'd hate to think that you were such a kind person just because you'd gone senile.” “I’m a nice person, don’t get that fact wrong, just…” I sighed out. “Just way too much shit is happening right now…” I rubbed my temple a little. “Still processing a lot of things...and just really mad that I don’t know what the fuck I’m supposed to do cause the douche canoe that sent me here doesn’t know how to actually talk like a normal fucking person.” I said, getting real mixed messages cause it sounds like Steven is okay with me being a nice person but also really doesn’t like that for whatever reason. “Whatever your issues are, I can at least tell you that they will be resolved. I remember once asking grandmother Gilda how you dealt with it all.” “Oh? And what did she say?” I asked curiously, wondering what Gilda’s wise words told me. “She said you swallowed your pride, and asked for help.” I took a moment and thought about that. “Yeah, that makes sense.” I said honestly. “Even if I’ve done that...several times actually.” “Name once?” “There was an asston of things in between the two but...one time was when my small number of fiances at the time all went out to another world, causing me to freak the fuck out and have a panic attack because back then I was younger, still new to harem life styles, and just honestly wasn’t really good at bottling up too many things at the time.” I said honestly. “I asked for their help...cause I just could not at the time.” I shook my head, remembering that horrible sad moment I had. “What exactly happened?” “God...it’s been a while…” I sighed out. “So...this was back when I was training to become King of Nothingness...so one morning after I made a promise to the small amount of fiance’s I had at the time, which was like ten or something, but I decided to head out first thing in the morning to get back to training cause I was…very depressed at the time...and then when I got back home they were all gone...Jenny told me they argued about why I left...and then they left.” I explained. “So...I was rightfully panicking and feeling like complete and total shit until Luxu basically told me where they went...and when I got to where they were...I only let the voices in my head get to me and tried to push them away so they could train by themselves like they apparently wanted...then I was knocked out by Luna because of magic and we talked in my head...then I just cried like a child pleading for them not to leave...that I couldn’t live without them…” I muttered sadly, tearing up a little. “But thankfully...Luna told me they weren’t going to leave...and the others helped me feel less like shit...all because I asked for help after my talk with Luna.” I explained. “It fucking sucked...breaking down thinking everyone would leave me…” “And did you ever uphold that promise?” Steven asked. “They promised you they'd never leave you. And you promised to train them. I remember when grandmother Luna spoke of this event. You never did train them. You asked them to help you get over yourself, but you also took away their chance to become self sufficient in a fight, something they wanted so you would not have to worry. Yet, in the end, you never upheld your end of the promise. You asked for help yes, but it was for selfish reasons. Reasons that only benefited you.” “Thank you for pointing out the fucking obvious.” I said honestly. “I’m already an emotional wreck, I have literally everything going on, and so much other horse shit that just won’t fucking end. Everytime I would oh so happily be with them, train them, do anything with them, something always comes up.” I growled in pent up rage and grief. “Hm. Guess we are related then. So, you dislike a hero's life?” “I wouldn’t have any of my wives if I wasn’t a hero.” I said honestly. “But that’s the main problem, I live a hero’s life, but there’s also moments, and this has happened several times, where I have literally had nothing to do, and it would have been a simple day, but something normally fucking happened cause life just really likes to shit on me sometimes.” I said, remembering several times that happened. “Like one time when I took Brigid out on a date on her home world, had to immediately have a bunch of other things happened like going to the Center of Bioshock’s world to stop a Psychopath from doing bad things and...kind of stopping his daughter from breaking reality kind of? Same thing with Coco, took her on a date to Destiny Island, but hey guess what? Needed to get Sora, Riku and Kairi’s Nobody’s for some fuck off reason, people from the Left 4 Dead world, and I’m pretty sure some people from Insidious.” I sighed out. “Well, that's quite the date.” “Both of them said they really liked the date, spices things up a bit.” I said honestly. “But again, stupid shit like that happens that only makes me bottle up more of my grief and rage just so I can keep a smile for the people I rule, and for my family.” “Ever think that bottling that up is what led to Rejection despising you so much? Why you're even compatible as an Insanity?” “Oh I am full Psychopath, and I also have Humanity so there’s that.” I said honestly. “But Rejection hates me anyways, Rejection is my dark half that has just been really fucking lonely cause my Light half was keeping me alive for basically my entire life until maybe a month ago.” I explained. “Glad to just have him be happy for once…” I muttered, glad my dark and light half were happy again. “Is he? You still hate yourself, so how can he be happy when you keep putting all that self loathing and hatred on him, just to falsely reassure your loved ones?” “I mean, that’s just Depression and a lack of Self Confidence to begin with so…” I said honestly. “Your the admin of an entire realm, the king of nothingness and have a harem of over a thousand women. What is there for you to be lacking confidence about?” “Being good for the two thousand women I married, and the literal millions of children I’ve had with them.” I said honestly. “No matter how strong I am, no matter what titles I have...I’m always scared I’m not good enough for them, even if I can, technically did to some extent, and will move worlds if not entire Reflections for my family.” I said honestly “Zeke could tell you that exact same thing, I know you can hear him, Zeke isn’t one to stay quiet to his new wielder.” “So in other words. Your impatient and childish. Despite what you have done you still consider yourself unworthy. There's humble and then there's you.” “Impatient? Not really, I’d actually like a moment for patience but no one wants me to, and childish? Kind of doubt that all things considered.” I said honestly. “But oh well, not gonna change your mind cause your related to me and Eclipse, two really stubborn people.” I chuckled. “Not to mention Jenny’s own stubborn streak.” I smiled to myself, just glad to I have such wonderful family and friends. “Jeez...if there’s one thing I’m glad about...is to have a wonderful family I can call my own.” “Hm… you lie.” “Which part?” I asked curiously. “The part where your stubborn, me actually enjoying having a family? Or what you said about me was wrong?” I asked curiously. “You say you enjoy having your family yet you keep saying that you do not deserve them. Hypocrite.” I only rolled my eyes at that. “Whatever you say.” I said honestly. “I can’t really say stuff cause I don’t know much about you, this world is hell, and I’ve had this same conversation with several people. Just like with Fluttershy, you can’t solve a deep rooted problem so easily.” I said, thinking Steven at the moment is trying to be like me who’s blunt as hell for me to crack. “Is that why you are here then? Which problem are you solving then?” “This?” I asked. “Well that would be a combination of mine and Lords fault. Lord for being a vague fuckwit and telling me literally nothing about what I was going to do, my fault for not asking questions like a smart person and agreeing to whatever the hell he wanted to do. And all of this stemmed from being told ‘When your an Admin, Hard Work means literally nothing when you can just give yourself all the powers’.” I said. “So I took exception to that and told him I’m not someone who takes all the handouts.” I said. “The ‘problem’ is I wanted actual hard work for powers that Lord kept telling me I didn’t need to do, so Lord took away all my power, threw me into a possible future with no context, and expects me to figure out what the fuck to do when I have literally no idea what’s going on, where I am, or what to actually do.” I explained. “So yeah...I rant a lot.” “... So you don't yet know that becoming an admin locks how much stronger you can become without buffs? Admins can't get stronger because they are considered the strongest, it's like getting to Max level in a video game mixed with cheating all at once.” “I think there’s a major disconnect here.” I said honestly. “Being an Admin basically says ‘I now have all the cheat codes’, but cheating like that isn’t fun, it’s not worth it if all I can do it just tell everyone ‘I can do this’ and immediately do it. Also I was nowhere near max level before I got admin powers, I still have a lot to learn about my weapons, powers, and a bunch of other things that Lord so blatantly disregarded as ‘mortal problems’. I may have been an Admin back in my time, but as I told Lord, I was only like that for basically two hours.” I said honestly. “And rather than wait and listen more on how being an Admin is, you threw a fit and called bullshit on a world, species, and culture you know nothing about?” “I was cheated hard work with Copy because I wasn’t told it was a Passive ability, I actively didn’t want actual hard work that could help me improve both physically and mentally be taken away from me again because of what I became.” I said bluntly. “Imagine already having self doubt that you can’t do anything by yourself, so you constantly try to do things by yourself so others wouldn’t see how fucking insecure you are, and then learn after everything you’ve done to get to a certain point it was basically handed to you when you didn’t even know that was possible.” I said. “This...honestly is less about power at this point, and more just...knowing I can actually do something with my own two hands.” “Then why did you just say that to begin with and leave out your ranting ignorance/denial of your new abilities?” I took a step up and put my hand on his shoulder, the half breed seeing a very wide and honest smile on my face. “Cause I’m fucking retarded.” I said simply. “That has been a common thing with me no matter what I do. I can’t shut up, I ruin things because I can’t shut up, so I normally just have to go in a massive fuck off circle to finally say what I had in mind.” I said. “Remember when I said I don’t know many people who actually get to the point? Yeah, I’m not one of those people that know how to get to the fucking point sometimes.” “So because you're retarded you make your own life harder than it needs to be…” Steven said, turning around. “You won't last long in this world.” He said, jumping off the edge of the stairs down. Crap! I looked down, but he was gone… he ditched me! I sighed out. “Goodie...can’t keep your fucking mouth shut…” I muttered bitterly. “Literally the only person here that doesn’t want to openly murder me in god knows how long...and they leave because I can’t shut up...christ it’s like Earth all over again…” I muttered while seeing if I could summon a Keyblade Glider so I can fly around and not get attacked by the Mad One’s. Thankfully I was able… and when I got out I sat and wondered… what next? Steven ditched me, and I have no idea what to do, or where to go… “Well that went horrible.” I turned around. Player? “Took me a while to get here. Lord's work is good, almost too good.” “How are you doing Player?” I asked curiously. “And what are you doing here?” “I got worried. Knowing Lord how he is I know you'd be in trouble. Though it seems your mouth did you worse than your current weakness.” “Thank you for the obvious.” I sighed out. “So, can you help point me in the right direction of what I actually need to do?” “Sadly, no. I don't want Lord knocking on my door pissed. I'm not suicidal. But I can help with that mouth of yours. Sorta.” “Lord can suck a dick for all I care...I know I was the one that asked for this, to actually know by my own goddamn hands I’m strong instead of outside crap ruining everything for me...how can you help?” “Well it seems more likely your mouth and ranting is the issue… always. Time you listen more than speak. In short, I can 'curse’ you so you can only speak so many words a day, so you'll have to choose wisely what you say and listen to others before you cut in and rant.” “That would be a massive problem for me…” I said honestly. “Christ…” “Well it’s your choice. Give up talking and likely get along better with others or keep talking and piss everyone off. Your choice.” “How long will this last?” I asked, knowing this will only help me at the moment. “Til you regather your strength. So however long you take finding all you need to fight.” “Good to know I don’t know what the fuck I have to fight though.” I frowned. “Lord really needs to tell people things, not be a cryptic bitch.” “That's never gonna happen. So, you accept?” Player asked. “I...honestly just want to go home right now…” I sighed out. “But that won’t happen cause people hate me.” I muttered. “Fine, whatever…” “Alright.” Player said, passing a finger over my neck. “There. Now, you can only say twenty words a day.” I nodded, knowing this was probably for the best. I made some hand gestures to be like ‘where do I go from here besides in circles?’. To be continued...fuck Lord Author's Note Sorry for this chapter taking a while and the chapter just not being good
Nobody trains Part 1Meanwhile “Alright.” I muttered while hefting Skysplitter again. “Still kind of sucks I don’t have anyone to train with, that normally makes things a hell of a lot easier.” I muttered while swinging my weapon again, a massive shockwave launching through the grassy plains Cript made for this one clone to train. “Especially when I’ve just swung this thing an asston of times...now sure that does count as training…” I muttered, wondering why I’m even talking to myself to begin with. “Even after so long with you weapons, you know very little. King of Nothing.” A voice suddenly said. “Okay first off, I have barely been doing this for a year, and second who are you and why are you giving me a massive migraine?” I asked, seeing my Nothingness spark and crackle like mad. A tall knight like figure stood a bit away. “You have already met my Emperor before, you should be able to piece it together Ben.” He said. “Okay, again who are you?” I asked. “Cause knowing you work for Max is one thing, knowing who you are in general is another.” I stated. “Fair point. I am Agamemnon The Overseer. The Void King of Knights. Master of All Weapons.” He said. “Nice to meet you Sir Agamemnon.” I said, wanting to at least be respectful to the Knight that might be able to kick my ass. “What brings you here to my realm? Max wanted to laugh at me getting my ass handed to me or what?” I asked, knowing full well he's really strong. “Hehe. Oh Ben. Not even Zeke at his current lvl can beat me, but I'm not here to fight.” He said walking a few feet closer. “Well anyone trained can beat someone who normally brute forces things because of all the handouts their forced to take.” I rolled my eyes. “So, if your not here to kick my ass, then I suppose you're here to show me what Master of Weapons actually means?” I asked, knowing I have 13 weapons and a few other powers. “First, it's Master of All Weapons. I didn't earn that as a handout, and Two-” he said before looking at….Skysplitter in his hand?! “-Max felt I should help you in regards to your Potential.” “I mean, that depends. You mean the potential normally or the admin powers I got after I murdered that sick fuck Gideon?” I asked. Agamemnon just waved Skysplitter in the air, and what felt like the whole world shook. The ground from miles around broke apart and floated above us and form floating islands. Water from even farther flowed up to them forming lakes on them. “The potential you can bring out with you weapons. This is just a small taste of Skysplitter real power.” He said. “Uh…” I blinked. “Um...how ‘small’ is that for you? Cause your ‘small’ and my ‘small’ are two completely different things….” I said slowly, not believing what the hell I just saw. “Jesus christ Skysplitter is fucking strong.” Agamemnon held up one hand towards the islands. “All you weapons are capable of similar if not greater feats then this. You just need proper guidance on them, and this is small...compared to what Skysplitter can do. My small...well there would be a new planet above us, but my power is still far higher than yours.” Agamemnon couldn’t tell if I was a puppy dog super giddy for it’s first walk with their new family or a child that just got a mountain of presents on Christmas, but all I know is that I was bouncing in the air in absolute giddy joy. “Are you telling me I get to actually do all that and more?” I asked, feeling very giddy about this now. “Hehehe. It's been awhile since I saw such excitement. Yes. You just need to truly master your weapons. That mark they got was just to open the Door. You need to step beyond that. Skysplitter can move, or split, planets with a single swing and create them as well. You just never had someone to properly show you.” Agamemnon said handing back Skysplitter. “Show me how you hold him” I took Skysplitter and held it before getting into Lexaeus did in the games, my feet in a solid grounded stance, Skysplitter resting on my shoulders but looking like it was ready to snap out at an enemy, and my free hand out ready for anything else. “Wrong!” Agamemnon yelled. He grabbed Skysplitter. “That style worked for that wielder, but you aren't him. That style doesn't suit your build nor Skyplitter’s weight in your hands. You might as well just drop it and slap your enemies.” “I mean, my physical strength is through the roof for several reasons.” I said honestly. “But how so? It feels fine enough to me.” “That's because of your Copy ability. It's a passive ability that copy's just about anything with exceptions. It's how you were so fast in gaining those marks. You just copied your old teachers styles without truly working for them.” Agamemnon said. “You know, to be perfectly honest I thought that ability had to be activated for what I wanted to copy, not just it always being on even when I thought it wasn’t on.” I said honestly. “How else do you explain your rapid growth? Not even the best of prodigies move that fast. Your ability basically handed you your teachers progress. Without it. It would have taken years to master even one for most beings.” Agamemnon told me. “I mean, I’m the Protagonist of this story so bullshit protagonist powers?” I asked. “While that helps somewhat you still progressed faster than reasonable. Not even Protagonist move that fast without cheat like abilities that help. Like those with a Gamer power. Which you don't have.” Agamemnon explained. “I’m sorry but I thought it was an active thing, not a passive thing.” I said honestly. “But to be perfectly honest the old man really wouldn’t have liked waiting years to be perfectly honest.” I said, talking about the old King of Nothingness here. “I've been around before he was even thought of, being inpatient leads to problems. Problems that could be worse than death. Nonetheless. It's not your fault for not knowing. Cript never explained how that power really works. Let me turn it off for now.” Agamemnon said. “Oh thank god.” I said. “Cause honestly, I’d like to learn without having everything be handed to me to be perfectly honest. I’m not Zeke, I don’t take handouts...unless it’s an important handout.” “Hold still...this will make you wish it only hurt.” Agamemnon said. Before shoving his hand...into my chest. I felt like someone was playing with my soul. I couldn't even think or move from what was happening. After what felt like an eternity he took his hand out. “There now. It's off for now.” “Fucking ow!” I barked. “Jesus, couldn’t you have done something besides fisting me right in the soul?” I asked. “Jesus that sounded horribly wrong.” “Perhaps, but that would require raising my power more, and it's even more dangerous if your unconsciousness. Don't want to accidentally shatter your soul while your asleep.” Agamemnon said. I literally lifted my arm and showed my Assistant. “And you couldn’t have done something like this? Using a thing to basically open a menu for all my skills and turn it off like that? You know full well real life involves Video Game logic for...whatever reason.” I said honestly. “But...alright then...just a little surprised this world isn’t shaking from how close we are.” I said, knowing Nothingness and Void are just like Light and Dark. “That shows both your lack of control of your powers, and my control over mine. If I let my power run free this land would be atomized by our powers reacting.” “Again, I have been doing this for only a year, even with Copy and other bullshit stuff I have barely worked on...basically anything besides getting into actual fights.” I said nervously. “Yes, you and the others don't really have a lot of battle experience. You mostly been making a harem to try and bring peace to your world. You all have so much to learn.” Agamemnon said. “That would mostly be me, mainly because of an ancient law that really hasn’t been taken away yet. But yes, I have plenty of combat experience cause it has...basically been none stop fighting against people for this entire damn year.” I said honestly. Agamemnon snapped his hand and we were somewhere else. There was a lake close by. Is this one of the islands? “I'll correct your stance with Skysplitter for now.” He handed back my weapon. “Now, the position of your feet before were close. Move them a bit closer and bend them two degrees more. To help spring into action and carry the weight and momentum better.” He started. I nodded while getting into the stance again, slowly moving to fix it properly and bending my knees a bit so it fit what he described. “The new position should feel different and your knees should have a greater strain then before. That's ok. Your adapting to a new stance and it'll take time and practice to get it down. Just try not to slip back into your old stance.” Agamemnon advices. “The strain on your knees will help build them up to take greater pressure. If your knees buckle from an overhand strike you blocked it could mean death. This stance will help train them to better take the pressure.” I gently bobbed up and down, mostly trying to feel how my new stance felt, and while it felt weird it was a bit more compact. “Hmm...well the stance feels a bit more compact that’s for sure.” I said, my combat experience at least helping me know how my body feels with a new stance and such. “Next. Bring Skysplitter to your right side for now. Blade facing away from your body. Hand your right hand grip the handle near the top, and your left hand about one hand hold away. Skysplitter is two handed currently for your size. Both hands will not only help stabilize the weight, but add to the momentum and power of your swings.” He said next. I nodded while moving my hands up to how he explained, knowing this thing is bigger than what a One handed weapon be for me but my strength helping me one hand it either way. “So, your teaching style...is it about being a perfectionist, where I need to do every tiny thing right?” “Perfect….in all my time there is no such thing. Everyone has their own version of perfect. My teaching is to help bring out the best in my students.” Agamemnon said. “What I'm teaching you now is to help. Later on you may adapt and modify your style to better suit you if need be. After all. We are all constantly growing.” “Makes sense.” I said honestly. “So, before you appeared...well you probably saw I was just swinging it repeatedly.” I said, knowing that’s one way to practice but not entirely sure if that was good for Agamemnon here. “Yes...I saw, and if Skysplitter could come alive and form a body it would pile drive you through the planet. While “swinging” a weapon helps improve ones body. If you swing properly, train or spar, it will also build muscle memory that could one day mean the difference between life and death. What would you rather have then, a random swing with no real power, or a train practice swing that's hits it's mark?” Agamemnon said. “Hits its mark, but knowing it would pile drive me into the planet would make me think it does care about me.” I joked. “Of course it cares. Otherwise it would have simply killed you.” Agamemnon said with a chuckle. “Now as for now. You need to practice swinging in that stance. Use both hands, swing slowly. Skysplitter's weight will make it difficult to control if you swing at top speed. I'll form a knight to spar with you. It'll be using a weapon of similar weight. Practice with it for about an hour for now. This will help you adjust to your stance and Skysplitter's weight. While I know you can hold it one handed. It's entirely different after swinging it around for a while.” Agamemnon instructed while summoning a suit of armor that moved on its own. About as tall as myself while wielding a copy of Skysplitter. “Alright...let’s get going then.” I said while digging into the ground and dashing forward at a slow enough speed, feeling quite a difference between my new stance and old one as I grabbed Skysplitter with my second hand and swung down slow and carefully so I don’t fuck up royally. “Since your swinging at a slower speed you should notice that you have to use your strength to not only swing, but to slow it down as well. Putting a bigger strain then normal. My knight will easily keep up even at your best speeds. Also the strain will become noticeably worse as time goes on.” “This is gonna hurt like a bitch won’t it?” I asked, the knight having blocked the attack without much issue and pushing me back. “What's the term, ‘No pain, No gain’?” Agamemnon said it what sounds playful. “Yeah, makes sense.” I said as I tried to swing at the knight again, but this time it dodged like a bitch. “Hooray, actual fucking hard work…” I muttered while swinging at the knight again, knowing this isn’t a test to actually hit the thing but to learn how to swing this. “Remember, if you miss you have to stop the blade and get ready to defend. If you let a miss drag you like it almost did just before it could mean either your death, or an innocent life lost from your own attack.” Agamemnon told. “That’s not good…” I muttered worriedly while I blocked the test dummies swing. “One thing I hate about being too strong...is that you can easily hurt everyone without even trying.” I said worriedly as I knocked it back and swung back at it. “That's another reason why your starting with slow swings. To learn how to control the momentum and power of your swings with Skysplitter. Once you have that down it should become much easy to move, block, counter, and attack in the heat of battle without losing momentum from your swings. Enough control and you can turn a miss into a momentum powered block or counter.” Agamemnon told me. “Makes sense.” I said, trying something new, as when I saw the knight try to slowly swing at me I actually pushed forward and shoulder checked the knight, moving my leg and twisting my body as I slowly swung Skysplitter, the position and action making it look like a slow baseball bat swing. The knight blocked it, and Agamemnon spoke. “Don't leave your stance so casually, while using your shoulder is a good move to get the drop on an opponent who isn't expecting it. It'll only work at least once on an opponent. You also leave yourself open should it fail. That swing was for something much lighter than Skysplitter. The momentum was off and had less than a quarter of the power it could have had.” “I suppose Baseball swings aren’t really good for a weapon like this huh?” I asked while backing away from the knight, panting and actually feeling the strain from this. “Even if I was sure I did the motion right.” I said, knowing the swing had to do with the momentum of turning your entire body into the swing. “Maybe, but for a different class of weapon altogether. If the swing was a little closer to your body and if you grip was a bit tighter if would have been correct. The weight difference is what made the move wrong. As well as the shape difference. Even the smallest of detail can make a difference in weapons.” He said. “Makes sense.” I said, getting back into my stance. “Jeez, this is pretty tough.” I said while moving forward and swinging again at the knight. And this went on for the next two hours, me moving and swinging at the test dummy, and Agamemnon giving me advice, tips and tricks to make what I’m doing better, fixing faults in what I’m doing, which were plenty. It was really tiring, stressful and sweat inducing, but to actually feel like I’m getting better with my own two hands felt a lot better than having Copy solve all my problems. “Hard work feels so much better than having things be handed to you…” I sighed out with a smile. Agamemnon nods. “You're doing well. Training like this will not only improve your fighting, but increase your battle stamina. What good is power in war if you run out of steam in the first few minutes?” “True.” I said honestly. “No need to become weak after so little time passes.” I stated. “Currently it is unclear who out of you and the others has the most, but John during his mark of Mastery was forced to fight basically a horde mode in the realm of darkness with only his keyblade. No void, and just his one arm. He even forgot he had keyblade armor and fought for hours against all kinds. Can you do the same with such handicaps?” Agamemnon asked. “I...actually did.” I said honestly. “When I was training to Master Eternal Flames, my Chakrams, I had to fight Horde Mode of Shadow Creatures.” I said. “And tell me, did you have anyone there incase things went wrong, or did you tap into another power like humanity during it?” Agamemnon asked. “I mean...that kind of happened.” I said honestly. “I remember I was doing it for literal hours, my master completely fucked off for me to master it, and then...Humanity happened for a split second and then...well I was apparently sent to a ‘Respawn Room’ because of Cript...still not sure how that works.” I explained simply. “So using humanity for what's probably your first time sent you there. John was lucky, he ended up tapping into it twice, once against a decaying light that was still Pycho, and against his inner rage. He damaged himself greatly, Mobutu his next part put him right on the line of death.” Agamemnon told me. “Huh, that’s interesting.” I said honestly. “Good to know me and John are...basically going along at some sort of same pace all things considering.” I said, blinking as my eyes changed into both Humanity and Psychopath colors. “So you know he is a Psychopath?” “That…” I actually took a moment and thought about it. “I honestly didn’t know. For some reason I thought I would have known but now that you mention it…” I scratched my chin curiously. “He has been one since he was little back on earth. Your earth. He did everything he could to hold them back, unlike Zeke though. To be blunt, with his Void. Had he not held back. Core wouldn't have survived that battle last time. Even with his Pride form.” Agamemnon told me. “From what Max tells though. John is letting the gates to his Psychopath open. Which he used to kill a former admin. Unlike you, since this was a former admin, he only got his weapon and a powerful ability.” “While I got all the other powers that only make it sound like worse Magic in context.” I frowned. “Seriously, what power makes you have to remember every number, every clause, and force you to remember a table of contents just to make a god damn wooden hammer?” “You would be surprised. Now for the next step with Skysplitter. It's raw power feature.” Agamemnon told me. Snapping his finger again and we were on another island. “A change of scenery to help.” “Oh boy.” I said while holding Skysplitter. “Can’t wait to see how this fully work’s.” I said, wondering what the special ability could do. “At basic. It's just a power boost, but it can turn the tide if you know how to use it.” Agamemnon said. “That disk behind the blade there. You see it.” He said pointing at it. “It’s...a gauge or what?” I asked curiously. “Oh wait...it’s a valve right?” “Actually, more of a storage unit that's connected to its user. It can hold twice the amount or more of what you can hold. Example, you use the power to boost yourself about fifty times, the disk, for a short while, will add a hundred to it.” Agamemnon explained. “So...what? Do I take it off or spin it?” I asked curiously. Agamemnon just looked at me, like if he was debating if he should check my head for something. “No. You take that off...then you basically destroyed Skysplitter. You tap into it and absorb the power it holds to temporarily give yourself a massive boost. Let's give an example. On a certain world their is a power that boost the user almost endlessly. So if say, they had a power of 1 and was facing a 100. If they survive long enough their power would eventually double enough to surpass the 100. The disk is similar to a technique of the power called explosion. Which for a short time massively boost their multiplied power. Understand so far?” “Sounds simple enough.” I said honestly. “So...gonna have to learn how to control that power?” “Yes, because at the moment you absorb 100% of the boost with nothing going into the storage, basically increasing you power by 5 times every time, while not bad it's still a waste. Know why?” Agamemnon asked. “How so?” I asked curiously. “I suppose it’s because it’s too small?” “No. Like I said your getting the current max boost you can get till you train it more, but it means you have nothing in reserves in case you need it. If you did and were in a struggle where your opponent was slightly stronger than you. Those reserves would mean the difference.” He explained. “Yeah, that is true.” I said while taking a deep breath. “It's also a little trump card incase your opponent underestimates you. Pull it and overwhelm them before they know what happened.” Agamemnon said. “Alrighty then.” I said while the Aura that normally benefits this weapon surrounded me. “So...how to proceed with this?” “After taking the full process in for so long this will be a bit tricky. All I can say is meditate on how much power your taking in, and how much you can put away. As for the elemental portion, that's something you must learn yourself. I can't hold your hand throughout the entire weapon. That wouldn't make it yours then.” Agamemnon told me. For the next hour you'll power up slowly and see if you can separate the energy, do this till you can one day get about fifty fifty and it.” “Alright...sounds simple enough.” I said while doing exactly that, my Aura growing and shrinking before leveling out as I imagined it going to two different vents to myself and the holder. “Gonna take a while…” I muttered while focusing my power. “Do this when your practice this power. We'll do this for about an hour before moving on to another weapon.” Agamemnon said. An hour later and this practice was really hard to get down. Separating the power was very difficult. At the end it felt like barely any progress was made, but Agamemnon told me I had separated 0.05% from it. Which apparently was impressive since this is a hard technique to do. “Now. The weapon will be Sharpshooters. Why their named that I'll never understand, but there have been worse names.” He said “That is perfectly understandable.” I said while swapping Skysplitter out for Sharpshooters. “So, besides these things being able to control gravity, what mystical thing can they do that I obviously don’t know about?” I asked curiously. “Show me what you can do first, since their guns there isn't really a lot on stances to work on especially since these things have so little recoil. Show me how you use them both separately, in their sniper mode, and in their GreatBow mode.” He said. “Wait, Greatbow form?” I asked in confusion. “Was that from Kingdom Hearts 3 or something? Cause I still have yet to play that.” I frowned, really needing to get to doing that. “If Xigbar never used that before when either training you or during those ‘games’ was most likely because he didn't think you can handle that forms power yet.” Agamemnon said before taking Sharpshooter. “It's like this.” He said before combing the two into a bow just a bit taller then myself. “That’s just cool.” I said. “I always wanted to learn how to use a bow to be honest...really liked them to be honest.” “They take more discipline and training then any crossbow. But make up for it with their precise aiming and range. This one in particular, can generate about ten times the power the sniper form can. As well as its own trick shots.” Agamemnon explained. “Oh boy.” I said. “Can’t wait to learn all of that...this just gets better and better doesn’t it?” I asked with a smile, so glad to learn new things. “There is much to learn about all your weapons. Unfortunately even though I know them you yourself have to learn them. I can't show you every trick your own gear has. As for this one.” He then pulls back on the string as a huge arrow appears. “Watch.” He lets go and the resulting gust of wind actually nearly blows me over. I turned and saw the arrow...annailate an island and soon past it increasingly fast. Not once dropping from its trajectory. “Jesus christ…” I muttered. “First, Skysplitter can just make new land masses...and now Sharpshooters can just blow them up without much problems…” “And this is just the beginning. With enough practice you can even control the arrow for precise targets. Example, someone is holding one of your kids hostage and you don't have a clear shot in front of you. Just fire in a different direction and make the arrow come at them from a blind spot.” He says. “Wouldn’t one of the auto homing mods of the weapon help with that? Or does the bow form turn off those things?” I asked curiously, remembering there were some mods to help make Sharpshooters better. “You do know that while crossbows can shoot more than one arrow, but a bow would at most only shoot one before you have to draw another right?” He asked. “I mean...depending on the person they can probably fire a bunch of arrows rather quickly.” I said honestly. “That's still one arrow. Just shot and reloaded and shot again extremely fast.” Agamemnon said. “Even if you notched more then one the accuracy drops depending on how many you notched. That's why learning how to control the arrow or arrows motion comes into factor.” He explained. “Makes sense.” I said honestly. “Even then it’s mostly one at a time, while Sharpshooters can fire...millions from my own personal experience.” “The gun mode has the speed to overwhelm the target while the sniper mode has the precision to nail even an opening the size of a papercut. The bow...has the power to pierce even some of the toughest hides to armor in a single shot. Sharpshooter is a versatile weapon in the right hands.” Agamemnon said. “I suppose that’s why it is both insanely difficult to make, and costs a metric fuck ton to buy…” I said honestly. “The more you know I suppose.” “With your current Strength you should be able to handle the bow at low power, it can compact or grow depending on the power you might need. Its currently in its GreatBow form. You can handle its compact form.” Agamemnon said as the bow shorten a bit before handing it back. “And to give an example of its power again. A full power shot from the compact form. Makes a nuke look like a firecracker.” “Honestly, when you have magical weapons of unknown strength literally anything that should be scary isn’t really that scary anymore.” I said while taking Sharpshooters back. “Like Nuke’s for example, supposed to be one of the most dangerous weapons in human history...and then you have these things.” I said while raising Sharpshooters up. “Funny how that works isn’t it?” “It is. Now you won't make an arrow yet. For now just practice pulling the string, aiming and letting go. Hold the string back as long as you can to help build strength and stamina. Because the opening for the shot can take awhile. Every Hunter knows that they might even wait hours for the shot.” He said. Making a target in the distance. I nodded. “Yeah, I’ve done some hunting before, just without weapons and it normally takes a while.” I said while taking a step back to get my footing as I raised my bow and pulled the string back, taking aim at the target carefully. This continues for about an hour. Half way through he made me switch to the GreatBow and the difference was very noticeable. Couldn't hold the string back even half as long as the compact mode, but when I let go the gust of wind definitely shows the power. “Now go back to compact. We will now begin making arrows. Unlike the gun, you must use your magic to make them, and it cost more on your reserves to make one then it does to make over a hundred, and that's not counting the GreatBow arrows or trick arrows.” He said. “Oh boy.” I said while shrinking the thing down and pulling the string back, focusing my mana to form one arrow and I could feel the mana poured into the actual arrow. “Jeez...that’s a lot of power…” I muttered, taking aim at the target again and holding it, feeling the difference between just holding the string and having an arrow there as well. “This right?” “Correct. I've made the target very sturdy. So unless you end up using an arrow that somehow has a thousand time more power then what your current mana pool can give you won't break it. Doing this has three benefits. One, it'll help you get the feel of forming the arrows to allow quicker making. Two, it will help your control to make making these arrows as well as high cost spells more efficient on magic then before. And three, this will help increase your mana pool.” Agamemnon said before looking at the sun. “Once we're done with sharpshooter we will have enough time to do one more before nightfall. Then we use Lunatic as its power mainly draws from the moon, especially the moon phase it's in.” “I was explained that Lunatic, while being forged from a Moon that survived a SuperNova, don’t ask me how that was at all possible, that the Claymore is actually a lot more than just a rage weapon, that it actually works with the full spectrum of emotions...I wasn’t entirely told about the moon phases though, just thought that was a little...metaphorical?” I asked, wondering if that was the right word for the whole ‘Moon’ theme Saix had given that he was a pair of ears away from becoming a full Werewolf. “True, but it's ties to the moon are much more important. Emotions are one half of its power. Like half of the moon if you will. The moon provides the other half. Especially a Lunar Eclipse.” He said. “Oh?” I asked curiously. “What, is it like Inuyasha where Lunatic goes full berserk or where it can literally do nothing?” I asked curiously, randomly remembering that old anime. “A new moon provides no boost, but still have the emotion part. A Lunar Eclipse on the other hand. Provides it's full power. Tonight in this world is a half moon. So you'll see a taste of its power. As for why the moon survived the SuperNova. Is because that wasn't an ordinary moon. You see only three types of moons can survive that type of explosion. Moons that were altered and trapped in the Void, which this wasn't, Moons that have survived the era of admin when they first started, again not this one. Or...Moons that have escaped Nothing.” He said. “But we will continue this another time. Now. One hour. Or try to last as long as you can.” “Huh...well isn’t that just a sudden twist of irony.” I said honestly while aiming at the target and firing one of my arrows at the target. “Escaped Nothingness...only to be forged into a Nothingness Weapon…” I said while drawing my bow back and summoning another arrow. “You know…” I said while firing another arrow, hitting the target again. “It’s gonna suck when we have to fight you guys...if given my past experiences mean anything of becoming King of a Fact of Reality is anything to go by.” I mentioned, drawing my bow again and summoning another arrow. “We aren't allies. Let me make that clear now. Max has...plans. For what will happen after Cript makes his Utopia. Cript either doesn't realize or forget a crucial fact about something. Max won't begin it immediately. He’ll let you rest from that ‘war’.” Agamemnon said. “I know you and your fellow King’s follow Max but…” I fired another arrow and hit the target again. “Can’t we just...you know, not do that obvious crap? Being friends and not trying to kill each other is a lot better...unless you and the other’s are just tired from however long you’ve lived and just want it to end like the old King of Nothingness.” I said, not knowing their full stories but having a feeling there’s something like that there as I drew my bow and summoned another arrow. “If we die then so be it. We all have come to accept that, but we each have our reasons for both following Max, and continuing what is to come. If it were possible then we could have been friends, but such a world doesn't exist. And if what Max has planned comes to fruition. Then even if Cript and Lord team up. They wouldn't be able to stop.” Agamemnon said. “Now let's continue this. If you want to be ready for this ‘war’.” I could only sigh at hearing that. “Jeez...when Reality was opened up, it felt like there was infinite possibilities...yet it’s still so damn limited sometimes.” I said while firing another arrow, this time hitting the dummy in the head. This continues for the rest of the hour. Making these arrows are taking a good hit to my magic, and it's getting exhausting. But I push though. I continue to hit the head while missing a few time. Though those misses hit the body. Before I know it the hour is up. “Alright...that’s an hour…” I muttered while pulling out an Elixer and chugging it, feeling my stamina and mana go back up. “Ah, that feels better.” I said. “Now…” I looked up, seeing the sun was still up. “Well we still got time, which one next?” I asked curiously, wondering which of my nine other weapons could work since Lunatic was waiting for night time. “Next Interdiction. Remind me who created those if you know?” He asked. “That would be the Previous King.” I said while summoning Interdiction. “He told me...he made this weapon with his own Heart, which is why it’s really strong and has Nothingness as it’s basis of power.” I explained. “True. He was deserving of his title. To master thirteen weapons as powerful as there are takes true dedication. Did you also ever wonder where lightsabers got their base from?” He asked. “Um…” I looked a little concerned. “I mean, I doubt talking about Star Wars is a good example…” I said sheepishly. “But...I know normal Lightsabers are made of plasma and not light that’s for sure.” “I meant he once used them in a battle long ago and the creator of Lightsabers was inspired. So in a way. The old King was the first Lightsaber master.” He said before summoning one with a purple beam. “Such weapons are truly remarkable.” “They are really cool.” I said honestly. “But I read up that these things have a special ability of...being really really good at murdering Abomination’s of Balance, I have a feeling it’s tied to either it’s name or the fact this was made from a person’s heart?” “That is something you'll have to learn. I will tell you it's somewhere in his archives. Just know it's nowhere. Also. Interdiction can also be held like a Lightsaber, but forming the hilt is an advanced form. Remember...ah remember that hidden boss for birth by sleep that had similar weapons to Interdiction?” He asked. “That guy can eat a dick.” I frowned. “Seriously, bullshit fight...even if his attacks were cool.” “Those range attacks that had your character constantly rolling are also part of Interdiction. So with enough practice you can use his techniques as your own. Though it is puzzling how he had the mastered version of Interdiction while Xemnas only had the adapt version.” Agamemnon said. “Time Travel.” I said. “That was Young Xehanort, where he had No Name to just openly go to whatever time he wanted cause Nomura needed to add Time Travel to that whole convoluted story.” I rolled my eyes. “So yeah, Time Travel is a hell of a solution.” “Not what I meant but we’re getting off schedule. Since Interdiction is basically weightless. You'll be doing the stances you were taught, since unlike the others the king actually taught you a stance that works for you. I'll weigh your clothes and personal gravity to make this harder, and I want you to take it slow like with Skysplitter. This will teach accuracy over speed so when the time comes you won't miss and either die or kill and innocent.” He said before I suddenly felt extremely heavy. I nodded while taking a deep breath. “Damn, this is heavy…” I muttered while looking at my new sparring dummy. “Alright…” I said while trying to see if I could lift my arms up normally, cause even with my massive strength this was really heavy. “Now for one hour. When that is done you will then try and maintain a hilt for Interdiction for an hour, and after that. You'll repeat the first step only with the hilts. Fore handed for the first half hour then back handed. Once that's done its should be night time for Lunatic.” He explains. “Alrighty then.” I said while taking my stance and with lead hand to start and took this slow to get used to both the weight and gravity as I fought against the test dummy. “The hour has passed.” He said as he removed the weights and gravity. I rolled my shoulders, feeling so light now. “Jeez, feels like I can barely stay on the ground.” I chuckled a little. “You got use to the higher gravity, it also help make you faster as well as built up your endurance. Like it did with Goku after his trip to Namek training. As a bonus your body being tougher should let you use more True Nothingness than before since you can handle it. Now, we will begin with forming a hilt.” He told me. “A hilt?” I asked curiously. “Like what? Turning this thing into an actual sword or putting the two together to for a double bladed staff?” I asked curiously, knowing that what Mysterious Figure did with Interdiction I could do. Agamemnon held out his hand as a hilt similar to what the Mysterious Figure had formed. “The hilt like I said is an advanced form of Interdiction. Although Xenmes didn't use it, that dome he made proves he was a master of it. You must picture the hilt in your mind. As this is advanced you probably won't get it right away and when you do the concentration to hold it and form the blade would take its toll. Just the blades would take almost no concentration.” He explained. “Alrighty then.” I said while taking a deep breath and focusing, trying to form a hilt for at least one of the blades on Interdiction. “They don't have to look like what he had or what I had. The hilt can be a simple sword hilt if you want. You chose the hilt.” Agamemnon said. I thought for a moment, before an idea popped into my head as I slowly formed a hilt for Interdiction, the two lightsaber blades growing basket hilts in the shape of wings that covered up my hands, the two actually having an angel wing and a bat wing...and good lord was this a bitch and a half to form. “Christ...even with the full image and focus...bitch and a half…” I muttered while continuing to focus and create the hilts for my weapon. “Like I said, the toll on you mentally is more than you ever had to use. Unlike John's Void Construct ability creating things like this is mentally tasking. John's ability not only has a much wider array of creation but the mental toll is almost nonexistent. This should also help prepare for mental attacks that's supposed to hurt.” Agamemnon said. “True...but that’s not until I figure out how to do...basically all of that.” I said honestly. “Seriously, barely know half of what Nothingness can do, and have yet to fully go into all that crap…” I sighed out. “Then this training as well as the others will help prepare you. Now continue.” He said. “Alright…” I said while taking a deep breath and the hilts finally fully formed. “So...is the symbolism too blunt given the origins of this weapon?” I asked curiously, gripping the hilts tight as I kept up my focus to keep the hilts there. “It doesn't matter. If those are the hilts you want then go ahead. I'm surprised your starting with two instead of one at first.” He said. “I just...had the idea honestly.” I said. “Just popped into my head...wanting to see if I could do it...and apparently I can...if I’m only doubling the trouble…” “It's fine. How you start this is up to you. At some point you should be able to make a two handed hilt that while not as fast would strike with more power, but not for now. Making two is taking a big toll as it is.” He said. “And I’m dumb enough to try to take leaps instead of steps for some dumb reason…” I said, trying to keep it as long as I can. “So...can I learn who your fellow Kings are...or am I going to figure that out when one of them appears to actually try and kill me?” “It wouldn't matter if you did know and Max doesn't care so sure.” Agamemnon said. “You know of me already. The Void King of Knights. Not only am I best with Weapons, but I'm faster than the others bare Max. Then there is the Void Berzerker King. Broly.” “Uh...excuse me, did you just say ‘Broly’?” I asked, my eyes widening at hearing that. “Okay wait, I have a feeling I’m thinking of a completely different Broly right now...but honestly just the thought of Broly with Void powers...that’s both awesome and extremely terrifying.” “If you meant the non-canon one well Max had him and his canon self fight….canon won without even transforming.” Agamemnon said. I don’t care if this broke my concentration but I could only jump up in joy at hearing such an awesome thing. “Okay, what movie was this new Broly in? I need to know.” I said with a giant ass smile. “Dragon Ball Super: Broly. It happens after this tournament called the ‘Tournament of Power’ that had a few fighters close to or even surpassing Gods of Destruction. And Broly is in the upper tier even though he wasn't in the tournament. He isn't alone with us. This friend of his joined as well. Max let her because she can calm him down better then we can. Though Max could knock him out this is a better way.” He explained. “Holy crap, Broly has a Girlfriend.” I chuckled a little. “But I really have a lot of Dragon Ball to catch up on apparently...I am just so happy to hear this even if he could apparently easily beat a lot of people.” “His raw power is higher than the other kings with Max being the only one with more. There was a reason he was trained by Cript. He and to an extent John have a massive amount of potential. Should I also mentioned when canon fought non-canon the non-canon had void while the other didn't?” He asked. I imagined that…“I’m sorry, but the Hype Train can only go so fast.” I said, just having a stupid ass smile at how awesome that sounds. “Never before have I been so happy to meet someone that can just as easily murder everything without much thought.” “Oh this Broly is more chill then the other, but his anger and rage when set off makes him a terrifying opponent since he still learns as he fights. As for the next king. There is the Void King of Sorcery. Madoras.” He said. I thought for a moment. “I’m either imagining an old man who’s so good at magic any word he says holds power...or Raiden from Metal Gear Solid 2…” I said, not entirely sure why that came to mind. “He was once the ruler of his own kingdom that spanned half his world. He was of course the evil one and had a war with the other kingdom. He eventually made these giant suits of armor called Knights that are almost like mechs really. Powerful magic in his world, but when he was losing he made a spell and sealed himself in one of these Knights. After ten millennia he returned. Only to be defeated by the former pactmakers and an artificial knight. He was once known as the ‘Dark God of Destruction’. His magic power is only surpassed by Max. And I'm not even counting the power he gets from his own knight.” Agamemnon explained. “Well that sounds nifty.” I said honestly. “Hmm...that sounds weirdly like Xenogears mixed with Final Fantasy now that I think about it…” I said, finding that just a bit weird. “Next is the Void Paladin King. Ardyn. He is actually from a Final Fantasy world. 15 I believe.” He said. “That...name sounds familiar for some reason.” I said, thinking back. “Maybe Joy played Final Fantasy 15 in his spare time? Hmm…” I hummed. “You, him, and the main character of that world share one thing.” He said. “You each have a multitude of weapons to summon and use, but while you have thirteen. They had fifteen. Not as powerful as yours but versatile nonetheless.” “Makes sense.” I said honestly. “But those fifteen weapons probably have some mystical super power locked away behind something or another.” “That will be learned later if you ever meet him. The final King though. The King of Champions and the second command to Max. Her name is Frisk.” He said. “That’s...a completely different Frisk than the one Joy’s dating right?” I asked nervously. “Unless she is blond, has seven souls, and has a god complex as well as sadistic when she feels like it. Then probably no.” He said. “Okay, cause Joy is dating...Storyshift Frisk if I got her worlds name right.” I said with some thought. “But I’m...curious as to why that Frisk has...all those things.” “She is different then all the other Frisk’s. Her power is something fierce. As the Champion while she can't beat me in speed, Broly in raw power, Madoras in magic, or Ardyn in combat. Her balance of them all and with how close each category is to us means none of us could beat her even if we fight her at once.” He said. “Max is the only one that can beat her, easily to, and the only one she truly respects. She acknowledges us but she practically loves him. And before you say something like age being an issue. One, she doesn't care for any of that, and two. She has an adult form. Just prefers her kid form.” “I would be shocked if she didn’t.” I said honestly. “I have a feeling she flirts constantly though…” “You have no idea, but do my numbness to such things, Broly’s innocence, Ardyn not caring about that stuff, and Madoras being questionably gay or something. It doesn't work much. Although Max might be affected a little even if she doesn't know it. His mask hides it.” He said. “That’s probably for the best...given I know full well how both Frisk and Chara flirt due to Joy.” I rolled my eyes. “Well she tries her best to get him. Even using her adult form and other tricks. Max knows if she does affect him and learns it. She will be much more aggressive.” He said. “Although Max is the only one that didn't shiver when she tortured someone at base...it wasn't pleasant at all. Madoras even thought of heading to Gideons realm to get away from that.” I tasted bile. “Please...let’s just skip right past that right now please.” I said while trying not to throw up at that mental image if Gideon was more pleasant than whatever that Frisk did. “She actually has a bone to pick with you for that. She wanted a new ‘toy’ to play with before you killed him, and I meant him not whatever he had in his realm. Max also hated him, but do to him being a delete to someone else he couldn't really make a move till he finds a way past that. Gideon was worse than trash, but was actually smart enough not to do anything to summon a delete into his realm as he didn't want his...you know what's possible damaged.” He said. “Well Max can thank me later for killing him.” I said. “Seriously, Gideon saw me, he could have done something...he just stood there as I beat the ever loving shit out of him.” I said honestly. “...do I need to explain what the opposite of sadist is to show why he stood there…?” He asked. I raised a hand up...before walking over the side and throwing up. “Hate you...hate you so much...for that thought process…” I groaned. “Max does send thanks. Although Frisk is still pissed. Trust me with what she would have done. He wouldn't have like even an atto second of it. She is good at what she does.” Agamemnon said. “Good lord…” I grumbled while taking deep breaths to try and settle my stomach so I can relax. “Fuck...but hey, at least Max is okay with what I did...even though he’s probably going to be Cript and Lord’s Delete if I’m good at seeing obvious fucking details.” I said. “I mean, when you think about it, Cript and Lord trying to make everything one world out of all the reflections? Someone’s going to stand up and kick them back down right?” Agamemnon was silent for a minute. “....Max told me to tell what would happen if you guessed that. Though he figured you might.” “He’s a Delete...and from what I was told Deletes are supposed to be there to keep Admins in check right?” I asked curiously. “Correct. Max won't start right away. He’ll give you all time to rest and enjoy your win.” He turned towards me...did he get taller? “There will be another war.” He said walking closer to me. Am...am I shaking? I really hated that I was on the side of this island’s cliff. “Uh...yeah...I was told there was going to be two or three more after this...this one brings the worlds together...the next one...or the last one...kills Kingdom Hearts…I was told this...a long time ago.” I said, not remembering when I learned that. “Hehehe.” He chuckles as killer intent came off him. “This isn't a keyblade war. Max doesn't consider those even a battle.” He said. “I mean...neither do I cause this will be a glorified boss rush, after that it would be clean up that’ll take months.” I rolled my eyes. “Stupid how Power Creep works doesn’t it?” I asked, trying to bring a lighter mood to this even if it might not work. It didn't work as he came closer. My instincts yelling at me to run. “This isn't like that. You think you stand a chance?” He asked as he got two feet from me. Looking down on me. “....you already lost.” “You never know.” I said, gulping down my fear and trying to stay strong here. “We have three years till the war starts...and then we have however much time we have until you decide to make your move...so a lot can happen in that time.” “Yes...so do we. And maybe even more. Frisk can create alternative dimensions that go on a different time stream. And Max prepares, plans, and backup plans. There is not a thing you can do that he won't to an extent be able to predict and counter.” He said. “So why even bother helping?” I asked. “If your all going to win anyways, why not just do it now and save yourself the trouble?” “Because, Max wants there to be some challenges for us. Just Cript and Lord won't be enough for him.” “There’s just...one tiny detail Max might be overlooking here...and that would be John and his Kings.” I said honestly. “Cause if I know anything from personal experiences...John and his Kings are going to replace all of you.” “You learned how to use code and see the ID of everything right? Check mine.” He said. Making me pause at that. “You cheating mother fuckers…” I muttered while my eyes flashed white, noting...there wasn’t anything. “I call heavy sets of horseshit cause that should be physically impossible, mostly because other you’s exist so how in the high hell?” “There are no other me’s. Nexus made sure of that. And did you think your admin code, Nothingness Code, was the only unique code? That Max couldn't have gain one?” He said. “Um...I know he trained under Cript but...aren’t Delete’s supposed to...you know, be the Antithesis to Admins? So shouldn’t that also be impossible?” I asked, finding this both very informative...and very confusing on how that works. “What, did he figure out how to mix what he learned from Cript and his Delete powers to...basically make a Virus Code?” “You guess his second, or third Code well. Max is very persistent. And patient. Took him over twenty millennia in Frisk’s dimensions.” Agamemnon said. “Goody.” I sighed out. “Cause that’s what I want to know...also sorry for guessing so much about Max’s plan...past experiences and me just being a book nerd help cause that.” I said honestly. “He knew you would so it's fine. He had one last message though. ‘Let's start’-” Agamemnon held out his hand as...I couldn't see it clearly, but that shape...it..couldn't be. “-’ the X-Blade War’.” “No...that...that can’t…” I muttered while turning into my Heir Final Form, dashing away as all my weapons floated around me. “This can’t be fucking happening...and here I thought this was just going to be a good training time...not having me get murdered immediately.” I said while holding No Heart at the ready, all my other weapons at the ready as well. “Don't worry.” He said as he not only put his weapon away, but powered down as well as stops his killer intent. “This is training. That war won't happen for some time. Now are you going to keep up this act, or are you going to resume your old training?” I sighed out. “Maybe don’t scare the shit out of me for one…” I sighed out while floating back onto solid ground and deactivating my drive form. “Christ...alright so after all that nonsense…” I said while looking up, wondering what time it is right now. “About an hour till moon rise. So we’ll alter the training a little, half an hour keeping the hilts stable, and then practice with them.” Agamemnon said. “Alright…” I said while summoning Interdiction again and making my hilts again, focusing to keep them stable. This continues till the half hour mark. I've been able to keep them somewhat stable. Wishing I didn't start asking questions for two reasons now. Now I'm going through the first training only with the hilts. The weights, gravity, and the concentration all together made this much worse than I thought. Soon though the moon is up and time is done. “Well done. Now bring out Lunatic so we can begin.” He said. “Alright…” I said while summoning Lunatic. “Once we’re done with this you'll take a break and rest. No arguments, but even admins need rest now and then. Now, while like the last one the style with how the weapon is suits you, and you already have a good grasp on the emotion side. You just need to learn how to tap into the moon side.” He explained. “Hold out Lunatic, and try to feel the moon inside it. Feel the power that sleeps within, that only the light of a moon can bring out. Don't use emotion or you might draw in the other source.” I nodded while holding out Lunatic, focusing to feel the light of Lunatic’s Moon. “Alright...time to feel the moon…” I muttered. “If we had a full moon or a lunar eclipse it would be easier, but this is good since it would give you something to find.” Agamemnon said. “Yeah, that’s true.” I said while sensing the light of the moon. “I mean...this should also be simpler given I’m a Dire Wolf…” I said while taking a deep breath, trying to follow more of the moonlight to see what strength it could give. “Your blood as it is now would make this easier then for most, but that still doesn't make it easy.” He said. “Yeah...cause even if it makes it easier...nothing’s ever easy.” I said honestly. “But...I can feel the Moon…” “If that's true. Then don't lose or forget that feeling. Hold onto it, and pull it in.” He said. I took a deep breath. “Moon shine down…” I muttered, feeling the light of the Moon being pulled out strongly. “Jeez...even a half moon...this feels pretty strong.” “Your not there yet. Tap deeper. Your nearly there.” He said. I did and tried to go deeper. I felt like something was blocking me from it. “Something’s blocking me…” I said, finding that a bit curious. “You mean your blocking yourself. The intensity of Lunatic’s power is one of the highest in your arsenal. Your subconsciously walling yourself to protect yourself. Break those limits, and prepare for it.” Agamemnon said. “Alright...if you say so.” I said while taking a deep breath, pulling down my limiter on Lunatic and pulling more of the Moons power into me. “Almost…” I muttered, making sure my limiters are down as I felt more of the power pour forth. “That's it.” He said, and then suddenly. Like a dam breaking. I...felt a rush of power. Like an uncontrolled ocean running free. It was….was...intense. I barely noticed the strain I was suddenly on. “Holy damn...and this is just a half moon?” I asked, gritting my teeth as I tried to reign in this ocean of power so it didn’t do something bad to me. “That's why you needed to feel this now. Under a full moon or even worse a Lunar Eclipse you would most likely have been put into a coma. While True Nothingness is more intense this will help prepare your body for pressure like this. Learn to regulate it and control it. It will intern allow you to access more and more of its power. Now try and keep it under control, but don't force it. Guide it. Show it the path it needs to go so it doesn't ravage your body.” Agamemnon explained. “Alright…” I nodded while taking a deep breath and directing my power through my entire body and towards Lunatic especially, using Lunatic as a Ground for all this power, seeing the Claymore go into it’s ‘unleashed’ form as it glowed a pale light. “Alright...I think I’m getting the hang of it…” I muttered hopefully. “A little, but that's to be expected. Continue this for half an hour. Then after that we will stop for the night. Even Admins need breaks once in a while, and this isn't up for debate.” Agamemnon said. “That’s fine...cause seriously this has been one hell of a workout…” I said while continuing to direct the currents so it wouldn’t rip me apart. “Kind of wish I knew all these things before…” I muttered to myself. “Many have said the same thing.” He said. “And many more will say it in the future…” I sighed out. “It’s only going to get worse from here…” I continue for the half hour. Many times the strain nearly knocked my out, but I held on. It's getting a little easier, but still far from controlled, and this is just a half moon version. “Alright...that’s half an hour…” I muttered. “Now...how to stop this before I do something stupid…” “Just relax, and let the moon go. Slowly now. Don't want it to drag your own magic with it.” He said. I nodded while taking a deep breath and slowly letting the moon’s power go, feeling it slowly leave me. “Just...let it out slowly…” “Slow. To fast and at best you'll drag your magic with it and exhaust yourself. I don't think I need to say what the worst is do I?” Agamemnon said. “No.” I said while feeling the power slowly leave at a gradual pace. “Good. Your doing well. Once your done we’ll stop for the night. You'll need your rest for tomorrow. I won't stay for the entire duration of your training. I'll help show you the path, but you must walk it yourself. As for what Max is planning. That won't happen for some time.” He said. “Yeah...but it’s a little weird…” I said. “Is he trying to find something out of all of this? Cause while he hates Cript and that’s fine...why bring everyone else into it?” I asked curiously, feeling like there was something else involved in this. “Or...is it a someone?” I asked, finding revenge to be a bit petty for Max all things considered. “ ‘sigh’ There….is something out there in existence. Something that shouldn't exist yet does. Something as old as Admins themselves, and has the power to effortlessly...kill both Cript and Lord despite what they are.” He said. “Cause...of course…” I sighed out. “And let me guess, that’s how you don’t have an ID? Max has been trying to become...whatever the hell that is?” “Close. He wants to surpass it. You see after Max killed, or at least thought he killed, his Cript he first headed to the place souls go to find those he last to Cript...only for that place to be barren. Cript doesn't know...but that thing was there. Now….nothing can bring them back. Not even Admins. Because how can you bring back something...that erases Deletes themselves.” Agamemnon said. I blinked. “That...should be literally impossible but...I suppose when you kill enough of a certain thing…” Agamemnon was about to speak when a...small portal made of void appeared and a letter came out. He read it and chuckled. “Well now. That's interesting.” “What? Did I call how...whatever the hell that thing was was formed?” I asked curiously. “That was close. When the Deletes first formed with the admins not much was known. After a bit of time they decided to basically have a Royal rumble to say. One...was left standing, and became something that can't by any current means can be killed. Not even that new sword that Cript made to kill Facts themselves can kill it. I wouldn't be surprised if he tried anyway. Max has ideas and plans that could stop it, but…” Agamemnon said. “Excuse me, did you say Cript made a weapon that kills Facts?” I asked. “Good lord…” I sighed out while all the extra moon power left me and I took a deep breath. “Yes he did. Also Vincent is dead now.” He said. Like it was just the weather he was talking about. I face palmed. “God damn it...and here I thought he would have been an important part of the upcoming war or something after that.” “Nope. Cript's adventures when it doesn't involve you or the others is basically off screen, or off page in this case. Not like Vincent was an actual threat nowadays. At least not to Max.” He said. “That actually raised some questions, Cript made him seem like a massive problem for literally everyone, then Max struts in and makes him his bitch...seemed a little weird.” I said honestly. “Max wasn't anywhere near as strong as he currently is back then. Vincent played him. Although because of that Max learned a large portion of his power was held back by mental barriers that formed after what his Cript did. He went to work to not only remove those barriers, but to gain more power than ever. He made sure we weren't lagging behind as well.” Agamemnon explained. “Now after all this he is at the very least close to even Cript's strength, and that's not even counting Virus.” “Oh boy, sounds like a wonderful time.” I said while using Lunatic as a crutch cause I was shockingly tired from everything. “Jeez, didn’t expect to be this tired...even after popping an elixer.” “Lunatic is more taxing thAn most of your weapons. So it's to be expected. That's why that's the last one for tonight. Also the letter wasn't about what you guessed. Max has informed me the Zeke and Eclipsa has entered a special dimension made for Admins to go all out. Zeke lost, but has gotten stronger.” He said. “It’s weird...I’ve never actually fought Zeke.” I brought up. “Honestly I thought I would have been the one to knock Zeke down a peg since I couldn’t give a shit about his place in reality...but it’s good Eclipsa did it.” “He has learned that he isn't nowhere near the limit. He can still grow and improve. That makes him a bit better than that Nexus Spawn. Get some rest now. You'll need it.” Agamemnon said before walking over to a tree a couple meters away and sitting underneath it. “Alright…” I said. “Well...good to know some good things happened…” I said before falling over, Lunatic disappearing as I clonked out on the soft enough grass under the calm night sky. Before I completely clocked out though. I heard him say one last thing. “You and the others are his last resort….should he fail to destroy it.” “Don’t worry….we will….” I muttered before falling asleep. To be continued... Author's Note Thank you DeathWatch456 for helping me with this chapter
Nobody does...things?”God it’s weird not talking all the time…” I thought to myself. ”Which might be my fault cause I seriously can’t shut up...twenty word limit...oh boy I was walking still here in High Wells, I needed to catch up on much of what’s apparently happened. So I’m camping out here in the library and studying. Most of what I started reading was history books. I don’t know how much of this might happen, so I’m keeping notes of significant events. Mainly events about Zeke, Eclips...a? Me, and the Foretellers. There wasn’t much on John oddly, it’s like it was either never recorded or erased? “Wouldn’t be surprised if John did something to make himself not be apart of history…” I muttered. “Max probably knows how to-” No more words came out, my mouth shut itself… Crap, already went to the limit…”God damn it…” I mentally grumbled. To see just how many times I go over, I kept tally… It’s been six days since I arrived here… I have six tallies… I need to learn self control… Finally after marking tally number six, I found the book I’ve been looking for. Key-Armerments. The difference between your Keys. Huh, written by Twilight Sparkle and Moon Dancer. Neat. ”Wonder who’s Twilight and Moon Dancer…” I wondered, having a feeling one of my wives was Moon Dancer but having to remember over two thousand can be a bit of a hassle sometimes. ”But let’s take a gander at what these two bookworms have to say about these weapons…” I thought to myself while opening the book to read it’s contents. ”Let’s hope things are well explained here…” Key-Armerments: The Basic Information Key-Armerments, much like Keyblades can be summoned whenever their wielder needs them. Unlike Keyblades however they are very limited depending on what weapon or even item makes them up. For Example, a Key-armerments that started off as say, a toy, can be limited to a max damage potential of fifteen where as one that started off as a simple hammer can have a max damage potential of fifty. ”Well that’s something.” I thought to myself honestly. So if I has a gun that happens to be such a thing...must be pretty strong.” I mentally hoped. One of the earliest Key-armaments consisted of a Bow, A battle Axe, a Scythe, A Spiked Gauntlet, and a Charm. Comparing the Key-Armaments made with Firearms and the Bow Key-Armament, once wielded by Queen Luna of Nothingness, we can determine that things like the weapons caliber do not actually determine their damage potential, just their starting base damage. What this does determine though is how fast you can attack, for obvious reasons. A bolt action fires slower than a Fully Automatic gun. No Key-armaments can change into a glider. Multiple tests have all failed, this is specifically a Keyblade trate. For what reason though we are unsure. ”That’s interesting to know.” I thought to myself, finding this very informative even though this was the first and maybe only Key-Armament I’ll use. There are admirable Keyblade/Key-Armaments Hybrids. Two so far, one is wielded by Daybreak Council leader Lion, his former Gunblade, not a Keyblade/Key-armament. The other is within the laboratory of High Wells Light and Darkness Research facility for testing. So far these CAN change into gliders, and do everything that is unique to Keyblades and Key-armermants. This is believed to be because of the fact it is part blade, something about blades allows for the Keyblade part to be utilized and work. We are unsure as to why, but both Lions and the one within High Wells testing facility can both change into gliders. Also something interesting is that Lion’s hybrid blade works in perfect sync for him, but with another tester worked less effectively. It can be passed along like any Keyarmerment, but apparently with a wielder it prefers, or maybe even chooses like normal Keyblades do, it works better with them. An interesting mix for these Hybrid Key weapons. ”Oh? Hybrid Key weapons?” I thought to myself curiously. Something unique to Key-armerments is their ability to be passed on to another, regardless of preference. Key-armaments seem to have no preference to wielders, or even if they have them at all. Anyone can be given a Key-armament and it becomes linked to them so long as their former wielder is accepting/approving of the passing, or the former wielder has passed. ”So that’s why it didn’t vanish when I found their dead body.” I thought to myself. Key-Armaments also can be used with most spells, not all of them however, and some sadly do not work as intended without practice. For example, the Fire, Ice, and Thunder spells all work but each is different. For example, Fire works like any other Keyblade spell but Firaga, being that is creates an AOE that typically spins around the casters body, instead spins around the Key-Armerment itself, and the casters hand, harmlessly of course, meaning that this spell means you’d have to make some form of Physical contact with your target for them to take damage, making your Key-Firearm into more of a gauntlet. While yet you can use them as a ‘Keyblade’ by hitting your target their blunt damage is half their ranged damage shots. ”Alrighty then.’ I thought to myself. ”That’s interesting to know.” Spells that are unique to a Key-Firearm can vary, there are spells and modified versions of existing spells for them, but one common unique spell is Ricochet, a version of Reflect raid in which up to ten shots can be fired and all bounce off and home in on the tartet fired at, by bouncing off the air itself. This is a very effective and easy to learn spell, the spell itself is in Key-Armaments: Firearms. A List of Spells and Attacks Specific to Them. A three volume set of books, each volume contains different spells of ranging difficulty. Volume three holding the most difficult and powerful. ”That’s interesting.” I thought. ”Can’t wait to relearn all this crap…” I mentally grumbled. ”Are the volumes here though?” I mentally wondered.. I got up and started searching for those spell and attack volumes, finding them and opening Volume one. This Volume contains fifty special Key-Firearm attacks and one hundred and Twenty Key-Firearm spells and modified spells. The book’s first words were on page one. ”Oh boy…” I thought to myself. ”This is gonna take a while...” The first off shall be attacks. First, Dark Tracer. If you harness your own darkness and fire it towards a target, while also dealing darkness the target his shall be traced by a visual dark aura clinging to them for five minutes, and if the target and attacker are within a mile of each other, the attacker can feel where their target is up to a minute after the dark aura has faded. Att Type: Physical/Dark Damage: 20-105 ”Cool…” I thought to myself, good to know some attacks that could do some damage. ”I should test these after I read through all this…” Attack two, Chain Whip. This attack shoots out a continuous chain of light from your Key-firearm but stops after ten feet, the attacker can then use their weapon in a whip like fashion and deal physical damage for as long as the attack lasts, up to ten minutes, or wrap the chains around the target and subdue them. Att Type: Physical Damage: 10 Standard. 80 Critical. ”Wonder if I can use that like a Grappling hook?” I wondered to myself. ”But let’s see...what else is in this book…” I read through many other spells, each looked interesting, and some were simple. I began my patroles, dealing with any Mad Ones who got a bit too close to my location. I grabbed a few more food items and headed back. I need a direction to go… What about my weapons? Where would they be? I thought for a moment before bringing out Divine Rose and raised it up, taking a deep breath and letting the blade fall in the direction it wanted me to go. The Keyblade began tugging me towards the backmost area of the Library. Once arrived I was in the Biographies. ”Oh? Wonder why they wanted me here…” I thought to myself while looking through the Biography section, wondering what might be super special here. As I was gazing them over, I found something framilier… The Life of Nothingness Royalty: Queen Luna. ”I wonder what Luna thought of me…” I thought, thinking she thought crap about me as I pulled out the book.”I’m sorry...I wasn’t good enough…” I thought to myself sadly, already having low expectations of her innermost thoughts of me. Introduction: I was born into this world an Alicorn, back in that time, we were near immortal. Time used to not be a worry, but now, time is. I’ve aged, I’ve lived, and I sit here, writing this book of my life, an old, shriveled mare who loved and enjoyed the life I got to live, regardless of the mistakes and sins of my past. I, like all my fellow wives was a mother to many children, more than any sain mare should, heh, but when you love someone, you take what you received, and never complain. I’m sad to say I have more children than I can even remember, and that troubles me. I first met Ben, my husband, while he slept in a Manehattan hospital before it was obliterated by a Titan Shadow. He saved not just my sisters star pupil, and Co-wife, but also Rarity, aspiring fashionista, and later, another wife, another love. Herd marriages for the pony race were once so common, and we were one of many who began the trend, and returning to those roots aided our kind in ways we thought impossible. He was injured, shot with high caliber bullets in non-lethal areas, but was at a heavy blood loss. That was how I first met him, days later when he awoke I met him awake, and, in a mix of youthful glee and desperation, quite literally jumped him on the bed. I remember stealing many kisses while he laid there in what I assumed was shock and maybe even enjoyment. ”Ah yes, I remember mentally screaming at that.” I thought to myself. ”Back in a simpler time…” I thought sadly as I continued to read. ”But good to know I only got to date Luna because she was desperate…” Chapter 1: The Early Years Dating Ben was the highlight of my life, with him, and my co-wives I felt safety, security, love. Everything was just so precious. When the fighting was finally over, and we were allowed peace, Ben and I, along with some others would govern our kingdom in this eternal world. It was peaceful, but, life is meant to be enjoyed, and should not be so extensive. This was the law of the new world we lived in. As such, different cities developed different ideals on death, others stayed the same. Ours was a simple acceptance and Celebration. Celebration of a life well lived and enjoyed, by their family and loved ones. And, the day came when we had to act on this new ideal and culture our kingdom developed. It was a surreal thing, the ‘wake’ of Dinkey, by then a mother to many and wife to Joy. ”Dinky...was the first one to die?” I thought to myself. ”Poor Joy…” I thought, knowing how hard it is to lose the ones you care about...even though Joy also does cause he was in my head for a long time. She was a daughter, mother, and grandmother at the time of her death. We all age a bit differently, but we all still die, by age or other. Sadly, Dinky was ‘other’. After the new world Dinky decided to work, like any other. Many did. It was a means to keep busy and pass the time of each day. She worked in the water plant, and sadly, fell into the filters. By the time they shut it down, water forced itself into her lungs, drowning her instantly. While there were tears, we all tried to remember the fonder memories. Her mother Derpy took out all kinds of childhood pictures, and her family took out for their own, and everyone shared stories, her favorite foods all over for all to enjoy. Joy, while mourning her death, kept a smile to make sure that while we were hurting now, this pain would fade, but not her memory. I believe the saying was ‘so long as we are remembered, we never truly die.’ If I recall. To honor her, Ben left his Lunatic, the original, in her tomb. She always loved the Rainbow Skyfalls, so her tomb and his weapon rest there to this day. And hopefully til times end. Hehehe, or at least long enough to be forgotten. Time now goes on forever, but we can’t live as long as time. Not anymore. ”Alright...good to know.” I thought to myself. ”Good to know that we were okay during it.” I thought, wondering what else Luna had to say. Before I continued, I looked for a world map book, searching the entire place for this Rainbow Skyfalls place. I didn’t want to… but I’ll have to… to open her tomb to get Lunatic... ”Is it wrong that I’m going to rob my own daughters grave?” I thought to myself. ”Yes...yes it is...but because Lord is a vague fuck I don’t have a choice…” I mentally grumbled. ”I’m sorry Dinky…” I found the Rainbow Skyfalls, it’s a mountainous area about…. 5 Sextillion miles from here… I don’t think even a glider can get me there fast enough… Crap… ”Well...at least I won’t be grave robbing today…” I thought to myself, not wanting to do something horrible to family. So… I know where I need to go, first at least… Now how to get there in a reasonable amount of time? I began looking through the city, finding travel areas and looking for something that won’t take too long. In my readings, DTL’s can now only take you to places you've been to before. Visited at least once, no longer can they just take you where you want without ever being there prior. However, gummi ships can still work for fast travel/living accommodations. They can cover such distance so long as I can keep it fueled up. I need to find one, and stock it up for travel. This is an all Keyblader city, I’m sure Gummi Ships were still a thing here. ”Let’s hope the Gummi Ship won’t take for fucking ever.” I thought to myself while I roamed around, looking for a Gummi Ship. ”Still hope I can maybe tame a giant monster...never got to do that and it would probably be a good idea given I can’t solve everything by myself…” I packed my stuff and headed off into the largest market area. Thankfully this place is hardly visited by the Mad Ones, they typically stick to the entrances. I found a gummi ship market. Huh… Dragon Ball Capsules… useful. Now, which is the best for what I need? ”Which one is the fastest but fuel efficient?” I thought while looking around at all the gummi ships. ”Cause if it’s fast but chugs fuel faster than a fat person at any food eating competition then that won’t help, but if I have a ship that uses not that much gas but is about as fast as a snail then it’ll just take forever…” I thought, trying to think of what would be the best one for my needs. I found one that was the classic gummi ship design. Electronium engines so it self recharges when they empty, and can run continues for two months before needing a week long recharge. It’s rooms were spacious and had an autopilot. Not including when I would have to stop to find food, so how long would it take me to get there. Oh, there’s estimations here. Well that’s handy. Let’s see… from here to Rainbow Skyfalls will take me… seventeen months… a while, but doable. ”I know this is magic but Christ.” I thought to myself, wondering how fast I'm actually going in this thing if it takes 17 months. ”But let's get going then...still hate Lord for all this shit…” I chose a grey color for it then headed off. Gathering some food then using my glider to make it out of the city. Once I spotted the sunlight in the first time in like, days, I opened up the Gummi Ship, loaded my stuff and some nearby fruits then headed out. I set the autopilot and let it start. When it got going all I could see through the windows was white. Must be going crazy fast. I guess now all I’ll do is wait then... ”Christ...this is gonna be so fucking boring.” I mentally groaned. ”I know I asked for this but fuck if this isn't just a massive waste of time.” I thought, hating that just to do something I honestly really don't want to do i have to wait 17 months...this blows.I’m lonely... ”Fuck me I’m bored.” I thought to myself, having traveled for god knows how long at this point. ”Why am I even doing this anyways? I’m not going to actively graverob my own daughter for fucks sakes, even if it means I get a weapon and a lot of power.” I mentally groaned. ”Basically just going there to see her grave at this point...seriously there’s a difference between ‘hard work’ and ‘figuring out what the fuck your supposed to do’.” I mentally groaned, still hating not knowing what I’m actually supposed to do and doing jack all to stop that. As I just waited I wondered what exactly I needed to do, I began looking into more of the books I brought for something to do. Most were facts about the world now, notable locations, weapons, items, dungeons, things of that nature. As I was reading I began looking over the Dungeons and their magic. So far the majority of known dungeons are all spawned in with the world, however, Mothers have informed that dungeons can be created, during a shift from an era of peace to an era of evil. This can be cities, townes, any once populated area. Not just places of living, there are some dungeons where spawned in with Undead enemies, and have a natural Necromancy magic within them, often times these undead even when slain will reform after several minutes to an hour or more unless a specific item is destroyed within the immediate area, or, in rare cases, the dungeon boss. Most of the time the Dungeon boss in these areas is an undead necromancer, though other times they are massive stones of Necromantic energy guarded by one or many strong guardians. Other dungeons follow a similar pattern, many floors descending, or ascending to a major boss with high valued items. All dungeons respawn after a year, or under a Blood Red Moon, or a Crying moon. ”Alrighty then, this is good to know...but what the hell is a ‘Crying Moon’?” I mentally wondered. I bookmarked that page then looked through the other books, skimming through til I found the Crying Moon. Crying Moon- A random Event where the Skystones above project the Sun and Moon in the same place, creating an eclipse that causes the whole sky to rain liquid mana. This event lasts for at most Ten hours, and dungeons that respawn under it gain their foes back weaker to magic, but stronger in terms of Physical attacks. Mage based enemies gain no benefits. ”Well that’s good to know.” I thought to myself. ”This world must have been filled with a lot of good things...wonder why the hell it went downhill?” I mentally wondered. ”I know I have clones back home but...I miss everyone…” I mentally sighed out. I kept reading, apparently each dungeon tells you how long/deep/tall it can be at the entrance. A symbol on the door or door frame. A Circle with an X in it means expect four floors. Or four miles if it’s a horizontal one. ”Good to know.” I thought to myself. ”Too bad I’ll never know cause I’m too busy…” I mentally grumbled. Time passed I finished reading all the books I brought and my food and water supplies were damn near out. I had the ship stop and it landed me near a river. I needed a stretch anyway, pretty damn claustrophobic in that ship after ten days. Thankfully I was able to shift into my primal wolf form still and with that, I began hunting. ”God it feels good to be like this again.” I thought to myself happily as I carefully searched for my prey. ”May not find anything as tasty as those animals back home but food is food.” As I ran I made myself a mental perimeter so I didn’t lose my ship. I found a large field of rabbits, some I ate then and there and the rest I took back to the ship, making ten rabbits. Heading back out I found two male deer. I figured that was enough meat, so I looked for edible plants. Nothing too much, an apple tree, wild onions, mushrooms that my nose informed me was safe. Oooh! Truffles! I smelled and began digging up. ”Can’t wait to have truffles, they’re always nice.” I thought to myself happily. I managed to get twelve truffles, each rather large. Happy with that I took them all back to the ship, slicing up the prey to fit the ships fridge and freezer. I left the bones but kept the skin to tan into leather. Might as well, it will keep me busy. Once that was done I got the ships hose out and began filling up the water tanks and dumping my, er, waste. Advanced tech and you still have to dump your crap out like it’s an RV. ”Well so far things have been...too quiet.” I thought to myself, even though the sounds of nature was still around and it was pleasant, not hearing much else was a bit concerning. Back in primal form, I began swimming. The deepest area of this river thankful at least was able to go to my neck when sitting. I managed a few fish. They were plane. Not too tasty at all. I let my nose take deep sniffs of the air, looking for anything that could be worrying nearby. It was then, I heard something… a loud cracking in the distance… is that a tree falling? ”Well...that doesn’t sound good.” I thought to myself while looking to where the tree’s might be falling. ”If this is a giant monster...god please let me be able to tame it cause I am really fucking lonely.” I thought to myself, thinking having a buddy would help alleviate the growing feeling of being alone in this place. I headed over to the noise, finding… a robot? It was slicing up trees… and from the looks of it behind it, it’s been doing it for a long time. Must be automated. ”Weird...wonder who turned it on and left it?”” I mentally wondered.”Wonder what I could do here…” I mentally wondered, slowly moving towards the robot to get a closer look. It didn’t have any Logo on it, in fact it looked hand made, dented metal, rusted body, and most of its parts looked like they were from other machines. It took the tree it cut down and began moving out. I followed it, some miles til I came across this farm house near a waterfall. Crops long since overgrown the area, lot’s of grapes, corn, potatoes, wheat. Score! Looking around more I saw the Farmhouse was long since abandoned… til I went inside. Inside was three skeletons, an old fashioned shotgun, and rotted into the wall was the sentence ‘Mothers have Mercy’... What happened? The smallest skeleton had to be no more than ten, way too young to go mad… unless they bled out when one of them did go mad and attacked... ”Either something bad happened here...or someone killed them…” I thought to myself worriedly, investigating around and kind of hoping my words per day stacked given I haven't said anything in ten days. ”But hey, good to know this place has an ass ton of free food...but the robot is something to consider…” Looking outside I saw the robot dropped off the log among a massive pile of others near a small outside shack. Investigating there was some lumber work being done, and a set of long worn and faded blueprints for something. Guess they just needed wood and this thing was left on. Wonder how it stayed powered this whole time? ”Well...let’s see if I can make out what they wanted to make…” I thought to myself as I looked over the blueprints, wondering if they’ll be useful. ”Maybe I could repurpose the bot maybe? Would be better for it to be used for something progressive rather than being stuck here where everyone’s dead.” I thought while rummaging through things, hoping to find something helpful about the robot as well. Trying to make out what was on the blueprints wasn’t helpful. They were long since decayed and sun bleached, whatever was on them, if anything was on them yet was lost to time now. I did find a Pc in the house that seemed to control the robot outside. There was pre-set instructions. ”Hmm...wonder what the preset instructions are?” I thought to myself as I tried to find out what they were. MultiBot Preset Instructions: -Lumber Collection -Repairs -Water Fields -House Defence -Create Custom Preset ”Alright...seems simple enough.” I thought to myself. ”I doubt i can just turn it off...if it did it would probably fall apart…” I changed it to repairs, the machine stopping for a bit then it’s saw arm swapped out for what looked like a nail gun as it began scanning the house. Huh, that’s cool. ”Alright...that should help keep the building alright…” I thought to myself as I wondered what to do with the robot next. ”But if I can’t think of anything then...well I can keep this place as a checkpoint cause of food.” Taking a look around, I just grabbed a few veggies and fruits then left to the ship, flying over the farm and locking in the location. With that stuff collected I I went back to my designation… Wonder how long this will take. Two Months Later ”SO FUCKING BORED!!!” I mentally screamed/ ”Seven months my ass...I’m gonna go fucking stir crazy if I can’t actually have any interactions with anything!” I mentally groaned. ”Still hope I can be a monster tamer here cause there must be some monsters around here that aren’t mad ones...just something to do~.” I mentally complained, hating not doing much through these two months. As I was at this point laid on the floor in boredom I heard the ship make a beep sound then a notification came up above me. Dungeon Detected! Status: Prior Explored/Loot & Enemies respawned. Threat Level: 9/10 Type: Tower Name: Heavens Stairway. Floors: 957 Engage?: Yes - No. ”I’m fucking bored, so let’s do this.” I said while clicking ‘Yes’ on the ship’s computer. ”And hey, I’ll be leveling up a shit ton because I’m basically level one at this point...even though Level’s haven’t really mattered at all at any given time as far as I’ve noticed.” I thought to myself while slowly flying towards the tower. As I got closer I realized two things… One, this tower’s ‘floors’ are as tall as a New York Apartment building, the whole tower itself was at least the size of canada… around… and just all in all… THIS WAS HUGE!!! ”Well...good to know this will take for fucking ever…” I mentally grumbled. ”But it’s better than nothing right?” I landed outside the front entrance. Pushing open the large doors and taking out Divine Rose. I had some food, and remembering how DTL’s work now, I should be able to leave and return whenever. Upon entering this floor I realized it was a maze. The pathways large and many. Thankfully there was a lot of hanging crystals that gave off plentiful light. Traversing my first path I came across some rather large white rats, two, ready to attack me. My Assistant flashed to life, their levels, health… Okay this is BS. Albino Rat, Level 50, att 33, def 23, and their bites give me an infection… Oh yeah, and HP 500! ”Well...looks like I’m gonna have to play sneaky and cunning…” I thought to myself as I looked to see if this thing was weak to anything as I prepared to either run or set a trap with all the spells I learned for my Key Armament and just normal spells I knew. Thankfully I did manage to see it hated fire, so I used that a lot against it. Finally killing one while only taking a few hits… each hit nearly killing me. Finally though the other died. Their corpses burning up in the fire. ”Ow...but yay, two dead…” I muttered while looking at my own stats to see what happened to my own stats and levels since stats might matter. I leveled up… to level ten. At least that’s better than one. ”I mean...murdering two level fifty’s at level one shouldn’t just give you nine levels but...maybe there’s some exp thing when you murder something too high level…” I thought to myself while feeling plenty stronger just from the levels. ”Alright...this is gonna be a nightmare and a half...but let’s hope for the best.” I figured sneaking might be my best option. So, I did just that, casting Vanish whenever it ran out to help me stealth by. I did find a few random loots and such around. Mostly it was potions, Rem, and HOLY FUCK! This chest I opened was large, larger than others I came across. Opening it was the sword that Link carries in the Zelda games. Sweet! ”Alright cool, I have the Master Sword.” I thought to myself while grabbing the Sword. ”Wonder how good this weapon is…” I mentally wondered while continuing through the dungeon with my new wonderful sword. I found the stairway up, and on the second floor- Did I end up outside? I’m in a forest? Huh, each floor must be different. Cool, wonder what’s here. As I walked through the trees, I was pounced on, a giant silver wolf snarling over me. I growled back, shifting into my primal form and knocking it off of me as I got up quickly, getting ready for a fight against the wolf. The wolf looked at me, confused now as it sniffed me. I sniffed it. This was the first time I ever smelled another wolf. Male, old, not enough to go Mad, but possibly not too far off. Likes fish, that smell is all over him. ”Well...better than fighting I suppose.” I said, not entirely sure if barking counted as talking but I just let body language of ‘why did you attack me?’ was kind of obvious to the wolf. ”Let’s hope I can at least understand the wolf without much trouble…” I thought as I relaxed a little. ‘Territory. This floor is mine. Then beast arrived.’ ‘Who’s the beast?’ I ‘asked’ the wolf. ‘And...why do I smell female?’ ‘Beast massive. Takes up half this floor, or so. Appeared when Madness happened.’ ‘What does the beast look like?’ I ‘asked’ curiously, tilting my head in wonder at what might be that big. ‘Massive Behemoth, making her claim over by this floors largest river. Large horns atop it’s head and glowing red eyes.’ ‘Excuse me, did you just say ‘Behemoth’?’ I asked, shocked that a monster like that was here. ‘That’s actually a pretty strong monster...wait, what color is it? Did it have any markings on it that doesn’t look like battle scars?’ I asked, wondering if this was a regular Behemoth or a Behemoth King variant. ‘Many, deepest looks like it should have been lethal.’ I thought for a moment. ‘Interesting...well, looks like I’m gonna have to search for the lady if I want to continue.’ I shrugged simply. ‘Wouldn’t be the dumbest thing I’ve done. So where’s the large river she’s staying at?’ ‘Just head a ways deeper. Beast takes up the whole major hunting grounds.’ ‘Not surprising, heard Behemoths can get really big.’ I said honestly. ‘Oh, do you have a name?’ I asked curiously, wondering if the older wolf had a name or if he didn’t have one. ‘I was known as Pond, no one has called me that in a long time however.’ ‘It was nice to meet you Pond, my names Ben.’ I nodded to the wolf. ‘Ben, well, it was nice as well. If you die, what is left over I shall retrieve and bury.’ ‘And if you start hearing roars and howls...don’t entirely expect it to be from fighting.’ I said, knowing my current track record with women has been ‘trying to kill me’, ‘good friends’, or the ever wonderful ‘became wife through rigorous pelvic thrusting’ as I headed off to find the Behemoth. Trekking through this forest floor in primal form was rather easy. As I stood atop a rather large hill I was wondering why I didn’t see it yet and why is this hill moving? Oh crap! I yelped, sliding down to the ground, then was face to face with a face the size of Twilight’s Library house… Just its face. “Uh...Hi.” I said to the Behemoth with my actual voice. “How are you doing today?” I asked the giant lady, not entirely sure how many words per day I have left. They turned their head, looking at me a bit confused. Then, there was a purple fog that covered her body, it smelled like steam. When it cleared, standing over me was… to put it bluntly, what looked like a battle scarred horned amazonian woman standing over me and Dear lord those knockers just gave Celestia a run for her money. “Who are you?” She asked, eyes still a glowing red, giving her a bit of a demonic appearance along with those horns. I shapeshifted back to my hybrid form and rolled my shoulders. “I’m Ben. Who are you?” I asked politely, blushing a little at how hot she looked. “I have no name. My kind were bred to conquer kingdoms, when the Madness happened, we were set free, or escaped. I wondered. Unlike most beings, my kind lives much longer, so the Madness affects us differently. Twisting us after we are about three hundred years old rather than forty years like you smaller short lived lots.” I nodded. “Sounds rough.” I said honestly. “And lonely.” I said, mentally wondering if these Behemoths are different than the Final Fantasy Behemoths now that she explained some things. “Those with longer lives like myself typically are always among our own, but many in my kingdom I was born too, went mad when it happened. I came here, after wondering for many years. I only take this smaller second form to enter the area, or speak with small ones like yourself.” She said, leaning in more… and my torso is getting crushed under her massive knockers… “What brings you here? Treasures? Safety?” I could only think of saying something retarded. “Love now that I met you.” I said without thinking. ”Well fuck me…” I mentally groaned, blushing brightly at my own stupidity. She looked at me even more confused. “So, you wish to breed me?” She asked… does she not know what love is or can she feel my boner… or both? “Do...you know what love is?” I asked curiously. “It is breeding… right?” She asked. “My kind were bred for larger and stronger versions of us to be born.” “Um...you're not technically wrong.” I said. “Love is an emotion...you share with someone special, that you deeply care about.” I explained, trying to figure out how to explain this important thing...before just mentally going ‘fuck it’ and just kissing the sexy Behemoth on the lips cause I’m an idiot. She didn’t break the kiss, rather letting it continue til I stopped it. “Oh, you mean the emotion love… We don’t have that, my kind I mean. We have some other emotions but Love was literally bred out of us. That part of our brain is bred to be so small it can’t work. We can like one another but love… nope. But we do just breed with one mate for life, mainly cause our biology makes us incompatible with any other after we are first bred.” “Ah…” I said. “Can...I teach you how it feels then? It’s not too late.” I said honestly, thinking it was a bit sad they couldn’t experience something nice and heartwarming. “If you mean can you breed me, yes actually. I was meant to be bred before but then the Madness happened.” She said and OH FUCK SHE'S on top of my dick. “Woah. that’s interesting.” Four Days Later “You satisfied?” I panted, cuddling up to the wonderful Behemoth lady. “If I’d known that was what Breeding was like, I’d have been a bit more pissed about missing out on it for so long.” She said, still in her humanoide form that was twice my size. “So, I guess this makes us mates for life, as now I can’t breed with anyone other than you.” “Cool.” I said honestly. “Oh um...do you know what a Harem is?” I asked sheepishly. “Yes. Often many of the breeding males had more than one female to breed with. It’s just us female that can only breed once with a mate, the males can breed with many.” “Alright...then you wouldn’t mind if I had...say twenty five hundred other mates?” I asked curiously. “Including you of course.” I said while nuzzling the loving lady. “But...you said you don’t have a name...do you want one?” “A name would be nice I guess. And I’m fine with other mates of yours, we all are bred by the same male so we all at least have that in common.” “Alright.” I nodded while trying to come up with a name for the loving lady. “What kind of name do you want?” “What would you like for me?” “Hmm...how about… Ashe?” I asked honestly. “That will be my name then. Ashe.” I nodded with a smile. “A strong name for a strong woman.” I said with a warm smile.”I hope Lord or someone that’ll take me back to present day will also bring Ashe with me…” I thought to myself, hoping to have Ashe be with my whole family so she can learn what love is again. A few days passed, and while finding clothes for Ashe’s human form is proving… impossible, she helps a lot when covering this dungeon. She gets them weak enough for me to kill them off, letting me both learn to handle them as well as gain some exp in the fighting. The Teamwork combat also is good practice. “Thanks Ashe.” I said. “Don’t know how far I would have made it in this dungeon by myself.” “This is fun.” She said, her makeshift clothing made by large leaves held together by glue like sap. It at least covered her up. “If I’d known fighting this small would be fun, I would have shifted to this form sooner.” She said, crushing the skull of a giant that tried to kill us. “It is.” I said honestly. “Better to give an honest fight then just accidentally stepping on it right?” “Much. They used to teach us not to bother with anything small, but this is much more fun than just stomping on our enemies.” I smiled. “Glad your happy.” I said simply, just glad to have someone here with me again. We reached the third floor a while ago, this place more like large planes with giants roaming and other large and deadly wildlife. Most loot was in animal dens and giant camps. Something in a giant camp must have something for Ashe, so we attacked one. Well Ashe did most of it, I just made sure any that hit the ground didn’t get up. ”Alright...now what loot is in these camps?” I mentally wondered after making sure all the monsters from the camp were dead. Looking in their tents and large sacks was mostly raw materials, large hides, raw ores, some makeshift weapons made from giant trees with large boulders attached to the top. We did find some cloth clothings too small for a giant. Maybe a baby one? They were still a bit large for Ashe, but with some needlework, and such, we got them to fit like a worn dress of sorts. Covered more than the leaves. ”So far so good.” I thought to myself. “Alright...now another nine hundred floors to go...” As the day went along I realized something. I was way over twenty words a day, though, maybe it did stack? Even so, a few weeks stacking twenty a day can’t pile up that many words… Wonder what’s up? I gently rubbed my throat, wondering if there was any marks on my neck. ”Either something happened or that guy stopped caring.” I thought to myself. I didn’t feel anything and went about with Ashe, some more looted camps and a few level ups. We were now on the next floor. This was neat… looked like hell... “Well...this looks peachy.” I said nervously. “Ooh. This looks like a good place to find some strong weapons or magics.” Ashe said. “That would be good.” I agreed. As we walked through the area the only thing that I could describe as Demons popped up. They were dealt with easily by Ashe and finished off by me. We then came across one with a massive battle axe. The demon itself looked like half Minotaure, half Scorpion. “Ohh. Nasty looking one.” Ashe said, looking eager to fight this one. “Hold on.” I said while checking my assistant to see what kind of demon that was. “Cause I’d rather you not get poisoned by Demon Scorpion venom.” Before I could check though it attacked, swinging it’s massive Axe which Ashe caught between her hands. This demon put more of a fight than past enemies for her, actually able to deliver her a challenge while they fought. I did a few pot shots at it’s eyes, managing to blind it in the left eye, letting Ashe deliver a punch to it’s jaw, snapping said jaw off on impact. Despite the mutilation it suffered, it still attacked, now using it’s lower half pincers and tail in combination with it’s axe for AoE attacks rather than precise ones. Ashe grabbed me, and got us both out of it’s range. “Wow! I haven’t had this much fun in years!” “It is fun.” I said honestly. “But the things hurting, we know that...but there’s something up...I’m sure there’s something else special about this thing other than minotaur and scorpion…” “Does that matter?” She asked, taking on of the Giants hammers from the floor below and arming herself. “Never used a weapon before. Wonder how this will be?” She pondered, blocking another swing of this things axe. “Gonna have to train you how to use weapons, cause weapons are special.” I said while raising my gun and firing two flaming boa’s at the scorpion, one wrapping around it’s pincer and another around it’s stinger, the thing igniting and starting to burn the thing. As it tried to break the chains Ashe slammed the Giants hammer atop it’s skull, smashing it into thousands of shards. It dropped the Axe, Ashe picking it up and slicing it’s Minotaure half off it’s scorpion one. “I think I prefer the sharp ones.” She said, looking over the axe that seemed big even for her. “Alright.” I nodded while cutting off the things tail. “Hmm...I wonder.” I said with some thought as I looked at my Key Armaments keychain, Divine Rose and the huge tail. “I wonder…” I muttered while seeing if I could take off my Key Armaments keychain so I could attempt to give it to the scorpion tail. Sadly nothing happened, but I did keep the tail just in case. We went along after that, finding a chest. Inside was a glove, with a small fire in its palm, though the glove did not burn. “Wait, a Pyromancy Flame?” I asked in a little surprise, gently grabbing the glove carefully and curious as to why this thing was here. “This is a little curious.” I checked it out in my Assistant. Pyromancy Flame A form of Magic, Fire based spells have been a part of magic for as long as mortal life has crafted fire, but, simple magic catalysts or spells bare no match to the power of a proper pyromancer, armed with a flame of ancient fire. With such an item in possession, the possibilities expand drastically. “Cool, exactly what I’ll need.” I said while slipping the glove on. “Can’t wait to use this.” I said while clenching my gloved hand and opening it, seeing a small ball of fire appear in it. I tested it out, so far I can only do fireballs but it was better than nothing. We headed up to the fifth floor now, the whole place was like mountains and dragons flew all around us. “This place looks risky.” Ashe warned. “Dragons...a whole lot of dragons.” I muttered. “Gonna have to be extra sneaky because of those things…” As we walked through, careful to avoid the Dragons we came across a treasure chest… surrounded by dozens of massive eggs. “Can we reach it?” Ashe asked. “I probably can…” I said. “But...it’s about as obvious of a trap as you can get really…” I muttered, not sure if we should just skip the obvious trap or just say screw it and go for it. “Hmm…” I hummed, carefully moving over to the eggs and using my ears to learn if the things are even alive and waiting or if they’re asleep. I didn't hear anything, but slowly I managed to get to the chest. Opening it, inside was a sword, it's metal did not look like metal… more like… bone? I checked the assistant. Dragon Bone Sword. A dragons bones and scales are so tough only magic imbued forges can melt them like ores, forging the strongest of weapons that lack their own magic. Att: 5000 Def: 300 Mag:0 Cuts through 90% of enemy defence. “Oh...well that’s a thing…” I muttered while taking the sword. “Unless my assistant is lying to me...this sword is really fucking strong.” I muttered while trying to carefully get out of the ring of eggs. “So far...so good…” I muttered. We headed off the pathway to the next floor was decorated by two large stone statue of dragons. I noticed something. On their chest, decorated we're designs of… eternal flames? My chakrams? “Wait…” I muttered. “That...doesn’t seem right. Where are we?” I asked, finding the more we went through here the more I’m feeling like this entire dungeon is just filled with Dark Souls related stuff. I checked my assistant but didn't find anything… then went back to the book with Luna's life story. I remember when Ben's council began to fall to age and time. The first to go was Dante, the Archer. Killed in duty to his king. Then Rogers, died from age. Cat, from heartbreak of losing Dante, and a possible miscarriage. Genos… Genos left. A cyborg can not die, not naturally, but he suffered a far worse fate. He went to the Heavens Stairway dungeon, and on the fifth floor, lived with it's dragon who's fire he felt kinda with. Unfortunately he spent too much time their, and he became part of it. Now he is just a boss, reappearing after every respawn period to fight those who want to pass the fifth floor. While not mindless he can not leave the dungeon either, so he made Ben promise to return to the dungeon every time he would respawn, and kill him again, and again, so he could at least have a temporary peace of death til the dungeons magic revived him. “Well that sucks.” I muttered bitterly. “Genos…” I sighed out. “Ashe, I’m gonna do something really stupid...don’t panic.” I said before taking a deep breath. “GENOS!” I shouted, my voice echoing throughout the mountain region. “YOUR KING CALLS FOR YOU.” The doors to the next floor opened. Genos was taller, long hair reaching to his feet, armor cracked and withered, and flames came off him with a volcanoes heat. He was still cybernetic, but it was clear his body was a mix of magic and machines. “My king.” He spoke, taking a step. “You are late. I had assumed you passed.” “Well...yes and no.” I said honestly. “Technically speaking, in this time, I’m six feet under, but given certain...events I’m here with literally none of my powers.” I said while looking over Genos. “You look awesome...but you really need a haircut.” “It’s a price to pay for waiting.” They spoke, Eternal Flames appearing in his hands. “I will always be your Anarchist, but these dungeons, their magic is far, far surpassed Lord's and admins, built to last forever as the world does and adapt, as such, it adapted to keep me bound to it, and nothing can change that, I am afraid. So please my king,” Eternal flames became engulfed in flames that reached fifty feet above us all. “Keep your promise while you are here…and kill me again, so I can be at peace, even for a short time.” I looked at Genos, feeling really upset about this. “You...do know I’ll try to find a way to break your curse right?” I asked while preparing myself for the upcoming fight. “I do. And I'm sorry.” Genos said, readying his pose. “But you died trying.” “Well...looks like I’ll just have to walk it off.” I said, having a good feeling Cap told us all one time ‘If your hurt, hurt em back, if you die...walk it off’. “So...a horrifically under leveled me...versus a boss that’s one of my best friends...yeah this isn’t emotionally depressing.” I chuckled a little before dashing forward and swinging my Dragonbone Sword at Genos. “I am aware my king. You mentioned something like this would transpire for me someday on your very last visit to stay me. Why else did you think I left that sword for you.” Genos rushed, fire melting the ground under him as he sent them out in massive AoE attacks. Melting the very rock and soil while also making the air itself evaporate it's own water. Seiring hot steam filled the area. “I’ll save you my friend...even if I have to rip the magic out of this place barehanded.” I said. “And...you’ll finally get your long awaited rest..” “I applaud your determination.” Genos said, slashing at Ben who dodged by the hairs along his nose. “But look at the facts. This is the future, and you are from the past. You will return to when you came from… and yet nothing here has changed.” Genos said, tanking a swing from Ben’s dragon sword. “While time travel is a possibility, this I know, and you will learn in time to come, time that has passed, such an action creates a paradox, and they will not let those happen.” “And they can eat my ass.” I frowned. “I’m not going to stand by and watch my closest friends suffer like this.” I stated bluntly. “And I don’t even know who your talking about so unless they want to make themselves known to me now would be a good a time as any before I literally ruin a lot of things for them.” I said honestly. “And you know full well I can do it.” I said before dashing in and slashing at Genos swiftly and strongly. “And yet, here we still fight.” Genos said, the two clashing, Genos’s obvious stronger power made Ben get pushed back to a wall. Ashe tried to land a hit, only to get spin kicked away while Genos tried another attack on Ben on the spin around, missing as Ben rolled away. “That’s kind of because your the boss to the next floor.” I said honestly while pulling out my gun and firing two dark seeker arrows to distract him. “But I’m going to save you and whoever else needs saving. I’m not going to abandon you all even if I’m only from the past.” “I’m sorry, my king. But I accepted this long before you first even received word of my situation.” Genos said, Ben dodging another kick but managing to slice the sword up Genos’s leg, breaking it and crippling Genos, who despite the handicap now kept himself a float with the jets from the palms of his hands. “I’m pretty sure I would have taught you people not to give up on yourselves because of bullshit situations.” I said honestly. “No one should have to endure this crap for the rest of their lives.” I said while moving around carefully, now seeing the jets and not wanting to get burned by those. Eternal flames spun around Genos, acting like projectiles controlled mentally, Genos himself switching to large area spinning attacks using his jets and one good leg. “If there is one thing you will learn my king, it’s that you can not do everything. You are just one person.” The area on this spin, Genos increased the flames, the resulting explosion sent Ben flying back, burning off part of his clothes and face fur. “King, Admin. Everything has limits, has something not even they can accomplish.” “Then some people haven’t met me yet.” I said while planting my feet into a wall and dashing back towards Genos. “Cause if there’s one thing about me, is that I don’t entirely listen to ‘impossible’ things when it involves my friends and family.” As Genos was about to attack again, they froze, everything around me was frozen in place, dragons in the air, the fire itself… everything and everyone but me… must be this they Genos mentioned. “Perfect.” I said while looking around. “Nice to meet you whoever the hell you are. Mind coming out for some proper introductions?” The air, no, reality itself began warping around til someone walked out of the disruption in reality, a person in a plain and simple Organization 13 cloak, but there was the design of a blue hourglass on the front, arms, and back. “Nice to meet you.” I said honestly. “Who are you?” I asked, wondering if it was one of those Diamonds. They didn’t speak, rather, summoned a No Name Keyblade, and aimed it at me. “Okay, let me ask, are you a Diamond Tiara?” I asked honestly while getting ready to move away from most likely getting attacked. They lifted the hoodie off, showing it was… but… their face was scarred all over, eyes milky...blind, ears torn, and fur a mess. “It’s been a while dad.” She spoke, voice raspy with tired experiences. I looked at Diamond in fear. “Oh...oh god…” I muttered while taking a step forward. “Diamond...my Diamond...what…” I was at a complete loss for words at how beat up and tired she looked. “What happened?” “Time. It’s our job to stop paradoxes, and certain events from transpiering. None of us are without scars.” She said, putting her hood back up. I couldn’t stop myself as I just moved over and hugged her, tearing up at this. “I’m sorry…” I said sadly, sadly knowing she’ll just stab me cause it’s her job to deal with stupid people like me. She didn’t stab me, but, she disbanded her Keyblade, hugged me back, then raised her hands to my neck, prying me off and began choking me. “It’s nothing personal. You have to learn… You can’t save everyone. You can’t do everything.” She said, tightening her grip and I was at my knees now. “You need to accept when you lose.” “Your...right…” I muttered while looking at her. “I...let...my daughter...go through hell...without help…” I said through being choked. “I...could have helped...not get...you hurt...I’m sorry.” I said sadly. She sighed. “That’s not the lesson. That’s not what you need to learn. What you need to learn is…” She said, grabbing the sides of my neck, then, I was looking behind me, I fell over… “You need to learn, to accept what happens, accept the outcomes good or bad.” She said, foot atop my head, applying pressure. “You need to know when a fight will make you lose more than what you could earn.” I really couldn’t do anything given Diamond literally just snapped my neck. ”I’m sorry my daughter...and I’m sorry everyone else...for failing you…” I muttered while my spirit started to leave my dead body. Tiara kept the pressure up. While I couldn't feel anything I could tell from the change in perspective, my skull was getting crushed. Everything went dark… “Well that could have gone better.” I turned around… I was alive… and Lord was in front of me. We were in a black void. “You are too stubborn for your own god damned good…” “Says the guy that expected me to know what he wanted when he literally told me nothing about anything.” I said bluntly. “Also, ‘I need to learn to accept good or bad outcomes’? Bullshit, you and Cript and quite a lot of people get off scott fucking free-” “...What’s sad is you think that’s true.” Lord interupted me. “I am one of the oldest Admins, I have lived so long that at some points I erase my own memories, living as someone random in my own creation just to forget my past, and I’ve done it so much I don’t even remember it. All I can recall is a promise, a girl, and a burriel. Anything before that is lost to me, where I truly came from, partners, siblings, friends… Everything I do, for ever one bad guy I kill, I have to watch something else worse come along and kill more. For every time Cript saves someone, it’s more time his own family is without him. You should know those Starfish clones while helpful are still not a perfect solution. For every victory Cript archives, for all his power, he feels less, and less. His own emotions are dying off. His compassion, his love, his sense of justice. He only acts out of knowing right from wrong, he can’t feel it anymore. For everything we all do, there is a consequence. I made a promise to someone once to keep on, to stay alive for us both, and my price? I can’t even remember their name, face, voice. Nothing. For all of Cript’s actions, he wears a facade to keep others happy, when inside, he’s dead, hollow. We live with those consequences, and do nothing to change them, because we accept them.” “I mean...that part might be because you two are fucking ancient to be honest.” I said honestly. “But let me ask...you must have met someone that actively did what I just sprouted right?” “Many times. Too many. Each time, the consequences drove them mad, or worse. Cript did, does, but he’s no longer human emotionally, physically, or even in how he thinks.This is why in order to keep this from becoming an issue, this infinite reality, will be devoid of immortal beings without a purpose. Longevity is one thing, immortality is the only true sin in this or any reality.” “I like how I just wanted to let Genos finally rest forever instead of being stuck there.” Ben said honestly. “Like...just wanted to point that out. And I’m one of the people dumb enough to actively do it. Let me ask, what problems would arise from Genos being set free from his own eternal hell?” Lord waved his hand over, and it was the arena Genos was in...only… Jenny… “Genos left because Joy had just died, and Jenny and he shared a kiss. If he didn’t leave, Jenny would have had this fate, too stubborn to leave a challenge… and stayed… forever bound to it.” “Okay so...first, Genos stayed here instead of Jenny...and uh...what’s between Jenny and Genos?” I asked worriedly. “Loss, comfort, a kiss, and while Genos doesn't know it. A child.” Lord explained. “Joy’s loss hit Jenny the hardest. She was weak, Genos was already mourning Saitama's death, now his friend and fellow council member. Weakness leads to mistakes.” I sighed out. “And yet another thing I couldn’t help my family through…” I grumbled. ‘I know I was probably long dead before all that happened but still...and...I’m at least a little glad Jenny enjoyed her life with Joy...but wait, wouldn’t the many kids Joy and her had have tried to comfort her?” I asked honestly, finding it a little weird that her kids would be missing in her time of need. “While Jenny, Joy, and many in your family were given longevity after creation becomes one place, but many did not, living normal life spans. Joy died after three hundred years… many of their kids only lived to be sixty to eighty.” “I kind of call crap on that, given that back on Earth the average lifespan was a hundred, and that didn’t involve any longevity.” “How long does a dog or wolf live normally?” Lord asked. “Which, animal years or actual human years?” I asked. “Cause there’s a major difference, also are we talking about the actual animals or anthros?” “Hm. Still trying to fight. Well, either way, you’ve lost this. I’ll send Ashe to your place so don’t worry there.” “What?” I asked, tilting my head in confusion. “I lost? What do you mean? I asked a legitimate question.” I said, wondering where Lord found this sudden leap in logic. “You’re dead. You’ve lost. There’s nothing more you need to ask or even know about what you could have learned, experienced.” “Yeah, ‘learned and experienced’ when I was literally dicking around moving aimlessly for over five months wondering what the fuck you actually wanted me to do.” I stated bluntly. “There’s a difference between teaching someone something, and just throwing them into the middle of nowhere expecting to make a utopia out of a post apocalyptic event.” I said honestly. “But thank you for bringing Ashe back to my home...out of everything I’ve done...loving her was at least something positive out of it.” “Good. Don't think your Admin training is over though. I'll have Player training you from now on. You will have full power and abilities restored. Now, I am going to have a nice laugh at your expense.” “Hey, I’ll actually be trained this time.” I said bluntly, implying Lords version of training is shit. “That is kinda the point.” Lord said. “I don't like training people so I just set it up so they train themselves. Now, two last things. Fuck you and goodbye.” Lord said with a clap. It was all black… and I felt like I was... kissing someone… no, two someone's… I opened my eyes and...Zeke...Eclipsa… three way kiss… is this a wedding?!?! ”Well...shit.” To be continued...
Nobody becomes a chick cause that's original (please don't hate me)“Seriously, fuck Zeke.” I said to myself while actively attacking a test dummy. “You mean you want to fuck him...her?” Jenny said appearing out of a DTN, Joy behind her. “Zeke can take however long he wants, that's fine, but to actively be a cunt about it all is not right.” I said bluntly. “Well what did you expect? You first off saying plain up that you're the man and Zeke is gonna be a woman for the rest of his life cause you say so? Kinda rude and arrogant of you.” I took a deep breath. “And here I just wanted to openly vent to myself without someone being all ‘oh hey, you were an asshole while Zeke get’s a pass for actively being a douche’.” I rolled my eyes. “Did you or did you not state you were the male full time, implying In order to even love/make love to Zeke he had to be a chick?” “Never really implied anything.” I said honestly. “Me saying ‘I’m the guy’ was more like...setting ground rules to the new thing? Cause out of the three of us I haven’t done...literally anything as a woman like those two.” “Well did you explain it that way to Zeke?” Jenny asked. “I know him well and from how we lived we often Interpret normal things with more selfish or vemeanings. Mainly cause that's how the people we spoke with have them. 'just force of habit.” “He said ‘he likes to play with fire’, but when he actively gets burned because of it he blamed me for his own fuck up. There’s a difference between ‘teasing’, and active molestation as he did several times.” I frowned. “Well…consider our role models growing up? Flirting and borderline rape were almost the same thing for them.” “I would like to, but Zeke has actively shown he’s better than that.” I said bluntly. “How can I, one of his friends and now husband, believe Zeke is actively worse than what he’s displayed so far?” “You forget, majority of the time you and Zeke spoke and interacted there was an event of significant, well, trouble. Zeke takes times of pressure and high stakes as, well, normal. Hell it took me nine weeks to stop waking up and immediately punching the others in bed.” Jen said as Joy nodded. “It's just how we were raised. Now things are calm and Zeke has no idea what to do with all the tranquility.” “I’m pretty sure I’ve interacted with him several times when things were calm and not when things were bad.” I said honestly. “Yes, but it never lasted long or was after a different major event. That rush and pressure was still in his system.” “Uh...what?” I asked. “No seriously, in context that makes literally no sense how Zeke is an actively better person that understands basic social skills when under pressure, but when not under pressure that’s literally thrown out the window.” I said honestly. “Think of it like soldiers with PTSD. They were normal before service, and after, witnessing those horrors their mind adjusted to the violent horrors as a normal. So when they return they can't process a non violent society. They don't act right or normal.We grew up knowing only violence.” I took a deep breath. “Alright, but again...Zeke knows betters, I can point at Daybreak to show how much he knows better.” I said honestly. “To Zeke it was no different that building an effective hideout. Hell I could have done just as well. To him daybreak was a base, we don't get attached to places because we know or expect it to not last long. It's why you don't see him shedding tears or moping about it.” I rubbed my temples. “You know...I expected to just beat up a test dummy and vent to myself, not have people tell me ‘hey, your the one that fucked up’ for no reason.” “Well you didn't know exactly. On the front you can't really notice it. Just try and remember Zeke processes stuff differently when it's been peaceful for too long. If it helps next time you see them give them some purpose. Something to drive them and bring out the Zeke we all love.” “Well Eclipsa would probably have that settled.” I said honestly. “But…” I sighed out. “Still a little hung up on why he thought I would ever think Eclipsa and him were whores...like, what the fuck? That’s not right, and I never would.” “Well he is both genders now, so maybe both male and female hormones are conflicting? I mean you don't see an angry pregnant woman being reasonable.” “I mean...technically Eclipsa is pregnant and she was perfectly reasonable.” I said honestly. “Yes but, a, she has been a woman long enough to adjust to those hormone changes, and B she is in early stages of her pregnancy. Give it time. She will have her moments.” “Fine fine.” I said simply. “But I kinda doubt that given he’s Kingdom Hearts and that shouldn’t be a factor anymore.” I said honestly. “But he’s also been married long enough, he should know sex is a wonderful and sacred thing, not just quick flings that mean nothing.” “He has also been on the 'inserting’ side of sex as long as you have. Now he'll have to be used to 'receiving’. And you don't want to at least meet him halfway so he has at least someone who knows what he will be going through or go through it with him...her...need a proper label for this.” “He has both though, and he has most likely gotten used to the ‘receiving’ given what Unum did to him.” Ben said honestly. “But here’s a thing, I have only been a woman for...like, not that long. So even going half way will be weird for me and...honestly I’d rather not be apart of the running trend here.” I said nervously. “Are just scared of pregnancy and childbirth?” “Well I’m scared of having kids with Eclipsa and Zeke cause I’d rather not die.” I said honestly. “Cause when Spoiled and Kexez had a kid...well I nearly died because of it. So it’s a bit less than me getting pregnant with at least ten or so kids and more…I don’t want to hurt those I care about…” “Well take it from a woman who has given birth… a lot. I got like a lot with Joy so far. Besides, you're an admin, king of nothingness. It's not like you can't heal yourself either or have like a million medics with you for it. But childbirth is… a painful but pride filled moment. If you ever want to feel pride in yourself about anything, having a child holds no higher honor.” “It wasn’t because of some outside force, it was literally my own power not liking what happened.” I said. “ “Yes but Spoiled is evil and Kexez was an ass. I'm sure a wanted union would be fine.” “Alright alright.” I said honestly. “But did you come here of your own volition or did someone ask you to come here?” I asked curiously, finding it a little odd that she suddenly just came here. “Oh, and did you meet Ashe?” “Seriously, where the hell did you find a Behemoth lady?” Joy asked. “Met Ashe, she's nice. Huge tits,and came of my own Volition. Heard what happened from your Luna who spent some time with Zeke and Eclipsa through the door. Time passes differently though. Like a day here is a few hours there.” “Not surprised.” I said honestly. “Time is a weird thing.” I said honestly. “So...because I like driving segways off a cliff, do I have to actually...be both?” “Sure. Besides, it's fun. I should know.” Jenny said, dropping her pants, to Ben's absolute horrors, revealing a three inch limp penis and golf ball sized testicals. Ben staired in horror for a while. “Already knocked up Sweetie.” She said, pulling them back up. “Plus the orgasms are so much better, seriously if anything the orgasms are worth it.” I looked at Joy, who just blushed but shrugged. “Christ…” I muttered. “I’m...still certain I’ll be dragged off somewhere if I turn into both…” I sighed out before taking a deep breath. “This is...gonna be weird.” I said before using my powers to...make myself both genders. I was now taller, felt arguably heavier in the pants… and saw as EIGHT tits grew from my chest to my lower belly. “Damn! Grandma Den said eight tits were rare!” Jenny said in surprise. “Oh no…” I said, my voice having changed as well to...a pretty lovely voice. “I became both...and I became bigger in every way…” I covered my face in my fluffier hands...also yes, I did just become fluffier as well. “Lol.” Jenn chuckled. “Your hair is lovely.” Jenny said. Joy brought out a mirror big enough to help me see how I changed. My hair was longer, but not further than my shoulders. It felt a lot like Mom's hair… soft and silky. “So uh… gonna take motherhood lessons?” Joy asked. “I am positive your wives would be okay with it.” “At the moment...I just want to get used to this…” I said while seeing my tits. “Christ...eight...how big are these things anyway!?” I asked, trying not to laugh at the absurdity of this. “Taking a guess…” Jenny pondered. “Your top set of knockers are small D's and your middle set are C's, and the last two sets are large B cups… huh. Cool. Biggest on top, lowest on bottom.” “They feel bigger than that though…” I said worriedly. “Rarity and Coco are gonna flip…” “Dire wolf sizes are measured differently.” Jenny said, actually walking up and grabbing my third row left boob… why does this feel so good and embarrassing all at once?! “A Dire wolf C cup is more like a standard human D cup.” “Oh so there about a size above?” I asked while blushing brightly. “Fuck me this is so weird…” I said before raising my hand and Thorns shooting out and crushing a camera Joy brought out of nowhere. “Oh! Your tail is longer too!” Jenny informed me. Looking back, my tail was two feet long! Very fluffy, and while heavier, but also somehow easier to move. “Literally everyone’s going to flip…” I muttered. “If anything of this will make you know how Zeke is feeling now.” She said, releasing my boob from her grip, an after image feeling of sorts left on it still had me feeling it for a while. “Also I came to ask you something.” “And...that would be?” I asked worriedly, not even knowing what I’m doing with my life anymore. “I found out my… first dad is alive.” “Want to go meet him?” I asked. “Also...I’m not gonna be like this when I tag along...too many questions will arise...that I don’t need at the moment.” “No uh… Look I love him, really… but I know him too well. He's in hiding cause he can't stop being bad… doing bad. In his words it would be like 'I've lived long enough to be set in my ways.’” Jenny quoted. “So if you find him… and you can't capture him… can you… kill him?” “I will my daughter.” I said gently. “I’m...still proud of you ya know?” “Thanks… I just wish he wasn't so… stubborn. He's like you in a lot of ways but… you know… murderous.” “It happens.” I said honestly. “Sometimes stubbornness can work out...other times...well weird shit happens.” “Yeah. Also it seems like having both genders is gonna be the new norm for us. Eh, I don't mind. I mean, children don't care who or what their parents are, being both means you're both mother and father regardless.” “True.” I said honestly. “But Eclipsa and Zeke are going to be so confused...and I’m pretty sure the writers are gonna get some serious flack for this.” I said worriedly, having a feeling fourth wall breaks are gonna be a bit more common cause of my marriage to Eclipsa. “Well Eclipsa already does Vore pretty much but if there's an excuse for it that makes sense all they can do really is complain.” “Alright.” I sighed out. “Well...time to face the music.” I sighed out. “God...this is gonna be so weird…” I muttered. “Oh, actually there’s one thing before hand I forgot...was there a new Council Member for Fair Game?” I asked, remembering sending it out to find the right person. “After some talk we decided the best candidate was the only other magic card user here. Officer Dorlu.” Joy said. “He is already experienced with magic cards, trained you with them and already services the city very well.” “To be honest I was still half expecting my council to be the somebody versions of the original Organization thirteen.” I said honestly. “Well one out of thirteen isn't bad.” Joy laughed. “True.” I said while looking around at the training area being big enough. “Alright…” I muttered while sending out a call for my family and my council members to meet here. “This is...going to be so weird…” When they arrived there was a share of some laughs, but overall acceptance. They reassured me that they loved me as both genders or one. Now, it was time for actions to help me, adjust to this form a bit more. First was clothing. Rarity wanted to redo my entire outfit and...undergarments… Then a lesson on how my female body parts work from the dire wolf wives, Since I am a Dire Wolf. After that Luna was going to help me with Sensitivities… meaning things that is they rub me a certain way would trigger certain things to happen. Then Twilight was going to help me learn hygiene with these new parts. Then Rarity again was going to show me how to ‘accessorize’ which I am not going to enjoy… and lastly we were going to have a long talk about what I am ready for in terms of Sex, and what I would rather wait for a while to try out. So...First up was Clothing. I had to be… naked for this for Rarity to get proper measurements of ALL my assets…. This is so freaky... “God...this is so embarrassing…” I whined while trying and failing to cover myself. “I know you’ve seen me naked hundreds of times but...this feels different…” I said while my entire face was beat red. “Seriously...why?” I asked nervously. “A simple fact darling is that most women either feel weak and exposed when naked or are not confident in their looks. For you it’s most likely the new body you are not used to and being nude with it around us. Honestly I like it, I’ve always wondered what it would be like to measure Den for a dress or bra, so this is pretty close to me knowing.” She said, a cloth measuring tape around my second set of knockers, a bit tight but not too much it squeezed them. “To be honest I wish I had your legs, slim legs are nice but I’ve always enjoyed how ladies with thicker thighs look. They really pop in the right dress.” “I looked at myself in a mirror and...BBW Amazon is what came up at the moment…” I blushed at that. “Jeez...I’m glad all of you are so accepting...but good lord…” I said, still not believing how I looked. “Well when you are not around for some loving we do entertain each other~” Rarity cooed, taking notes before moving to the lower set of my tits. “We’ve all learned to love not only you, but one another just as much as we love you. Just because we can only have children with you at the moment does not mean we make love to only you. I am sorry if it sounds offensive, but that’s how it is. I do wonder how this will change things in the future. I mean, Jenny and Sweetie are already having a kid separate from Joy. Oh I wonder how they will look?” “Still a little surprised at that to be honest.” I said honestly. “From what I heard it was spur of the moment when Jenny heard what Zeke was doing.” Rarity informed, taking her measurements then onto my lower breasts, the cloth measuring grazing the side and making me shiver from the light touch. “And besides, Joy will love that child regardless he is the biological father or not. I remember Princess Cadence once said Gender and Blood mean nothing in the face of true unbiased love.” “I know.” I nodded. “Also...is it me or did certain...parts get bigger?” I asked, not entirely sure if it was just because of my tits or something else that made my lower regions feel a little heavier. “Why yes. From my own...experiences measuring your hips in the past, I’d say your hips and derriere are about an inch and a half wider than when you were just a male. I must say if it wasn’t a tad offset by your eight breasts, they’d make your figure pop in the right pants.” “Maybe.” I said honestly while looking at my fluffy ass in the mirror. “Jeez...you can bounce bits off these…” I muttered. “Don’t tempt Rune.” Rarity quipped, finishing up the last of her measurements on my breasts and now onto my legs. “Though to be fair we have all tried that at some point with each other. Unsurprisingly Celestia and Pinkie Pie bounce them the highest when they hit.” “Not surprised.” I said honestly. “Seriously, asses bounce like nobody’s business.” I said. “Also...little concerned about...the fact I can lactate…” I blushed even brighter, Rarity seeing small little drops of milk coming from my new breasts. “Oh that? It means you’re coming into heat.” She said simply, not measuring my tail. “Your Dire Wolf wives informed us that it’s part of their biology when going into a heat, a first sign before the rush. You’ve have about a week until it fully hits you. But this can work, as nursing young ones can reduce the force of it.” “Oh no…” I muttered worriedly. “Yeah...that’s what I needed...an entire week of being an even bigger horn dog around you all…” I grumbled. “Both metaphorically and literally…” “Relax Ben, Zecora is working on a potion so you don’t have to endure it THIS time. We do expect this means we can see you feel as we do when heat hits us.” “I felt what you people go through in bed…” I said. “This is...gonna be so weird…” I sighed out. “But hey...I’m bigger and fluffier so...I’m even better at cuddles now.” I said. “And cuddles are always nice.” I said warmly, being a bit of a cuddlebug. “With pillows like that on your torso expect a lot more to come~” Rarity cooed/ foretold. My measurements were finished and she placed me in a bathrobe and sat me in a chair. “Now then, time for fabrics!” She said happily. “I just thought of...when I dry off after a bath I’m going to be a literally fluff ball…” I said honestly. “Like..even more so than normal.” “Oh don’t be like that. We all have fluff issues once we exit the bath.” Rarity said, levitating a roll of fabric over to me. It was a simple white color. “This is called Cotton satin. Despite the name it is as soft as silk, durable, and perfect for some panties. What do you think?” Rarity asked, letting me feel it. It was… very soft… how come male clothes aren’t this soft? “Why aren’t male clothes this soft, like what the fuck?” I pouted. “It’s mostly for gender reasons. Males are meant to be hard and rugged and females are delicate and dainty, so we get softer clothes but they do have their downsides. For example, panties are soft and feel amazing, but they are thin, as are most all female clothes. Get wet and you see everything, and when it's cold out they are often so thin and even tight that the cold just goes right through you.” Rarity said, something clicking in her head. “Oh my.” “Did you forget I still have my junk?” I asked. “And there could be the ‘make the fabric thicker’ solution ya know? Don’t need it to be paper thin.” “Yes I was just thinking that! One moment. She said, running off to her closet before returning with a pair of my boxers. “Now then, this is male undergarments. Often looser for their genitals, and female panties are a bit tighter, often able to slip on and off with complete ease and no extra space for what is not between the legs. I am going to try and mix them, make enough room for your genitals while keeping that gentle hug feeling a females undergarments have.” “That would be amazing.” I said with a smile. “Cause seriously...having this soft fabric down there would just be wonderful.” “Exactly. I could revolutionize undergarments! I just need… one more measurement…” I blushed a little. “Um...wouldn’t you...also need to take two other measurements as well?” I asked, thinking she might need to redo my dick measurements based on the new underwear she’s making. “But...oh dear, this is gonna be awkward…” “Yes perhaps. I will need to measure the size of your testicals and your penis both limp and erect.” “And then you need the...third new measurement…” I said nervously. “Uh...do I need to...lay back?” I asked, not sure about having my brand new vagina touched yet, and not entirely sure if my breasts will hinder those measurements. “Standing would be best as it would help there. I am positive just me, heh, well, fondeling your testicals will give you you an erection, and I will try and avoid touching your vagina as much as possible.” She said, helping me up. “Are you ready?” I stood up. “Ready as I’ll ever be.” I said. “And hey...it’ll help me get used to...certain things.” I said sheepishly, not entirely knowing how a female actually feels when aroused. “Right.” Rarity said, getting to her knees and having me hold the robe back… God I did this a lot back when I was only a dude but this is just weird now… “Oh my!” Rarity said in surprise. “What?” I asked worriedly. “Is something wrong?” “Um, no. No not at all it's just… well I've seen you limp before love and… it has never hung this low before…” I took a look. Limp my… penis used to be average… I think… now it's like five inches without any blood flow to it. “Jeez...what did he grow an extra half a foot?” I asked nervously, only wondering how it was when fully erect. “Well, time to work.” Rarity measured my limp penis first, not touching it to keep it that way, then, she finally placed the measuring tape around my testicals. “Owe!” She yelped as my penis went hard immediately and I felt it… poke her. Looking down at went from six… to eleven… even the thickness was larger… “Oh...my…” “Okay yeah that’s longer and thicker…” I muttered, remembering at full it was about a foot long and about two or three inches thick because of me being a Dire Wolf but...it was longer than that...not like another foot...but damn near a half a foot in length...and another inch in thickness. “Good lord...why the hell am I bigger as a chick?” “Must be the hormones.” Rarity said. “I remember reading in a medical magazine a female with male genitals that produce testosterone have two possible effects.Either enhanced strength and physical prowess, or enhanced features. The male testosterone supercharging certain aspects in puberty, including the penis and testicals themselves. Several studies we're done on it, one even by Twilight, or at least a quick memo for a health magazine.” “Right then...so uh...yeah I’m guessing...half a foot longer and...at least an inch thicker…” I guessed. “The others are going to be shocked by this…” I muttered. “Uh...to uh...change the subject a bit...what do you think of Ashe?” I asked curiously, hoping to help Rarity focus on work instead of...other things. “She’s nice.” Rarity said, refocusing and went back to measuring my testies. That was quick though and now she was measuring my erect dick… “Looks like you won't be nutting anyone without a potion of stretching.” She said. “Stars this would wreck anyone unprepared.” “S-sorry…” I said nervously. “But uh...what’s the average for a pony? I...don’t actually know if this is too big normally or what…” “Oh. Well average if I recall is seven inches. Largest I've heard of is thirteen. Most mares can only take up to twelve. Though I hear earth ponies can take more, something to do with the soils and fertility and all that.” I gently scratched the back of my neck nervously. “Oh...so uh...this is too big huh?” I asked nervously, not wanting to hurt the ones I cared about because of this. “Thickness wise any mare who takes this is in for a shock. Lengthwise you could have them practically pole dancing on it. We are going to have to find a solution to that of course.” “Sorry…” I said sheepishly. “Like...did my Dire Wolf wives even say what the average is? Cause...even for a Dire Wolf it feels a little big…” “It depends really. I think your dire wolf wives, the larger ones can take this, but the smaller ones would have to shift to their feral forms to handle it's size. As for the rest of us… hmm… There must be some spells or something. I bet Twilight can figure it out.” Rarity said, wrapping the robe back on me, my erection still was poking out. “Oh… so, how long till… that, goes away?” “Uh...no idea…” I said worriedly. “But uh...I have...an idea to help get it down…” “Hmm… Well in any case I have an idea.” Rarity said. “Uh...what’s your idea?” I asked, wondering what her idea would be before I said my silly idea. “Well. About two years before we met, I had a customer come in from Trottingham. And she needed a special bra. Her breasts were massive, and only from milk! Since her first heat they never stopped producing it. She made a career out of it though, but maneuvering in them on her super swollen days was… difficult. So I made her a bra and managed to enchant the fabric to shrink her assets when worn. She went from a cup size that I believe has yet to be named to a C cup with that bra on, and when she took it off, they were normal sized again. I can do the same for your undergarments and bras...bra? I'll figure that out. But it won't take anything away. Just conceal the majority.” “Oh yeah, Milky Way. I’m pretty sure she’s one of my many many wives.” I said honestly. “But...that would help...my idea to just get it to calm down was...well...I have breasts it can reach…” I blushed brightly. “Yeah...it’s a dumb idea…” I muttered, my idea being just give myself a titjob cause it could reach...god this is weird. “Oh .. well at least masterbation will be something to experiment with then.” Rarity said. “I'll get started on the undergarments… if you do masterbation please do it in the toilet.” She said, rushing her sewing machine. “I think I’d need to do it in a full bath to be honest...if another thing didn’t also get increased…” I muttered, fearing that I could ‘produce’ more than my male form. “Well, if you do please clean the mess love.” Rarity said as she started making the garments. the scene below is pure clop/fetish fuel, read at own will.(first attempt...please don’t hate me) I sighed out. “Alright…” I said before going to the bathroom. “Good thing all the doors are big enough…” I muttered while entering the bathroom. “Christ...can’t believe I’m doing this…” I muttered while taking off my bathrobe. “Well...this will certainly be an experience…” I muttered before sitting down in the big bathtub and carefully moved my raging stiffy in between my fluffy breasts. “Oh...wow…” I muttered, always loving a boobjob so my soft, fluffy breasts just touching my dick was a pleasant feeling as I gently started to put my hands on the pair of breasts my dick was mostly in between and started to rub it slowly. “Never...ever thought I’d...be doing this to myself…” I muttered, the sensations of grabbing my sensitive breasts and rubbing my hard cock was all around really good. I saw my breasts leaking more milk given I was horny as fuck, and being the person with a lactation fetish...I decided to move a hand up and move one of my big breasts to my mouth...again, today is literally filled with firsts as I started to drink my own breast milk, moaning loudly as so many things just kept feeling amazing. ”Too many things...feel so good…” I mentally grunted as I kept up my self pleasure, going faster as my dick twitched more as I got closer and closer to that sweet release. My moans and whimpers kept growing as I started to thrust my dire wolf cock between my tits, rubbing my sensitive breasts and enjoying my breast milk that it all just got too much, I let the tit that I was suckling on fall as I howled in pleasure, feeling myself cumming finally, and glad I closed my eyes cause I came quite a bit,the ropes of my seed shot out onto my head and the top of my tits...and it just kept cumming as my head was covered in my seed as well as down to my second row of breasts...damn...pretty sure that increased to. “O~kay…” I moaned softly, panting heavily at the wonderful time I had. “Well...better clean up…” I muttered as I...also tasted my own seed, which strangely enough tasted like a whole bunch of fruity flavors...not entirely sure why but I have a feeling it involved all my wives. Clop scene ended, resume regular reading(god help me) I turned on the shower as I waved a hand, a few towels appearing neatly folded where I could grab them when I was done showering. “Well...better get cleaned up.” I muttered while checking the dozens of shampoos and soaps Rarity and several others made sure was in all the bath’s. Shampoo was already an issue when I got all this hair, but all this extra fluff is making me use up a bit over half a bottle to get it everywhere I can… I don’t know how to scrub right in this body either... “Jeez...am I about to even ask to help bathe myself?” I muttered to myself, really hating how little I know here. I ended up just making the water go full blast and just hosed it off. “Gonna learn hygiene later…” I muttered, having a bad feeling my fluff will be too much for some reason. With what I could see hosed off, I dried off then put the bath robe back on. Heading out I saw Rarity and Coco at the sewing room. “Hello.” I said to the two. “How are things going?” “Rarity called me over when you left for the bathroom to masterbate.” That coming from Coco turned my face cherry red. Her voice is just so...innocent sounding for those words! “Came in when you seemed to cum if that howl was any indication and started helping her sew the bra while she did the Panties.” “Your too innocent to say those words…” I said. “But...thanks Coco.” “Come on. I’ve got the bra halfway done.” Walking up there I saw the bra was the same color blue as my fur, the upper cups seemed done while only four more needed to be made attached to the frame already finished. “Once it’s done Rarity will be enchanting the fabric, that’s why the cups are much smaller than your boobs. Your upper six will be in order, by standard cup sizes, D, C, B, then A which is the last two.” “Alrighty then.” I said honestly. “You two would know a lot more about clothing than me...especially now.” I said with a little blush. “Well it is quite the thing to be making a bra and boxer-pantie hybrid undergarments for our husband, that alone is a sentence I never thought I’d say, but it helps me figure out how to custom make fabrics much better.” “There’s a lot of things people didn’t think would happen...like me being both for instance.” I said honestly. “Also...yeah cleaning up is a pain to deal with given all this fur…” I said while I was really fluffy from my shower. “Yeah, I can already tell you didn’t clean right. No offence but dry semen has this stink and it’s kinda coming off you.” She said. “I’ll get Luna so she can bath you properly, and show you how.” “Yeah...I mean, Twilight was going to teach me how to clean...but I was too nervous to actually ask for help…” I said nervously. Coco chuckled. “Relax. To help you get used to it we are having a public bathroom made here. And I mean a BATH room. Giant pools of nice hot water and artificial waterfalls to wash the soap and such off. I saw the plans for it. Looks amazing.” “I...kind of wanted to make a hot spring type place but never got around to it.” I said honestly. “Always wanted to go to a hot spring...must be nice.” “It will be done later today so once it is, we can enjoy the waters. I’m sure we can also find a place to enjoy such things too.” “True.” I nodded. “But...yeah I have a feeling I’m gonna smell like this for a bit...but uh...random question…” I blushed a little. “What do I...taste like?” I muttered, beyond embarrassed to ask such a thing. “Oh… heheh.” Coco started to blush now. “Um, normally it’s kinda like a slimy salt candy, with a strong musky smell of course… and sometimes it’s kinda plain. Though Pinkie and Twin swear it tastes like vanilla. Then again they are always covering you in icing beforehand…” “True...but uh...to me for some unknown reason...tasted like a massive cocktail of...all of you…” I said sheepishly. “All of us?” Coco asked. “I’m...not entirely sure how to say this…” I said nervously. “But...yeah, tasted like all...of you...I’m sure Rarity would...kind of understand what I’m trying to say because I’m being a pansy about it…” I sighed out. “Hehe. Well at least you can always remember our taste when you are away~” She cooed, my tail wagging enough to make a light breeze. “Done!” Rarity cried out from her sewing station. “Uh...cool.” I said, my entire face was glowing red at this point. “Jeez...today is going to b a day…” Rarity walked over to me, holding in both hands undergarments that looked like small boxers but were white, looked soft, only slightly thinner than normal boxers and looked like they were panties in the crotch area, and had a… moon print design. “Sorry, it was the only pattern of this fabric I thought would go well with your fur color. It’s a tad childish but we can work on that later.” She said. “Now for the spell.” Rarity said, her horn lighting up and magic covering the undergarments. A few seconds passed then it stopped. “And done! I made it a bit extra strength so while you won’t feel your penis and testicals with them on, they are still there and will make themselves known when you pull them down! That is the first time I have ever said that…” “Today’s full of firsts.” I said honestly. “Thanks you two, they look great as usual.” I said honestly. “But...I might need help with the bra cause...never put one on…” “Don’t worry love. We have time before it is ready. Coco how is it coming along?” “Almost done. Just four more breast cups to go.” Coco replied. “Excellent! So while Coco does that I will show you how to put one on, then we will help you with the new one.” “Alright.” I nodded. “I just had to be one of the lucky ones with eight of these…” I sighed out. “From what Den and your other Direwolf wives have told me it’s a sign of extreme fertility. A natural born Den Mother. Like, well, your mother. Actually surprised you are not around her height.” “I probably still have room to grow...but I’m also surprised mom hasn’t appeared yet.” I said honestly. “Remember...this is day one on my ‘both genders’ experience.” “Well she did say she can’t actually appear. Only through a statue of her… why not make one? That way we can see if it works!” Rarity thought. “Oh yeah...that’s true…” I sighed out. “Well...might as well make one...but what material should I make it out of?” I asked. “I want to make it special...like mom.” “Start off simple. Wood, then something more flexible and better later.” Rarity said, levitating over a large bra. “Now then, there are a few ways to actually put on a bra.” “And...I have a feeling it depends on how it stays connected?’ I asked, knowing some are together by hooks, others straps and so on. “Yes, and no.” She said. “This is a hooked bra. The most common type. It’s simple and sometimes if you have it in a rough fabric or a size too small, uncomfy, but this looks your exact size. Anywho. We will be starting with slipping it on first.” She said, helping me slide my arms in through the straps. “How’s that feel?” “Soft.” I said, given the material of the bra was supposed to be soft and comfortable. “But uh...is there a problem with not wearing one of these?” I asked sheepishly. “You’ll have them sagging down to your feet in your late twenties if not.” Rarity warned. “Alright alright.” I said honestly. “I believe you.” I said while moving sure it stayed on my top tits. “Jeez, add in a special mesh to the bra Coco’s making and it might as well be a bulletproof vest.” I chuckled a little. “Feels like that when you are first putting them on.” Rarity said. “Now, you’re going to want this frame under your breasts, so you will have to lift them up and slide this under, then place them inside to keep it there.” “Alright…” I said while moving my breasts to help fit them into the bra cups better. “Like this?” I asked, hoping I was actually doing it right even though the cups were very supportive. “Proper support always feels nice…” I said honestly. “Yes like that.” Rarity said, helping me move my arms to the back hooks. “Feel the hooks on the right and hoops they grab onto on the left?” She asked, motioning my fingers to them. “Yes.” I said while getting my hands onto the hooks. “Now...should just be a simple hook right?” I said, trying to hook the bra so it can stay on me. “Yes. Not too sharp but an old bra hook can scratch you.” She said, pulling my arms back a bit for the hooks and loops to meet. “Now this is the tricky part. Just hook them into the proper loops.” “Alright…” I muttered while trying to put the proper hook in the proper loop. “Still don’t like trying to do things behind my back...annoying with aprons, annoying with this…” I muttered while managing to get the hook into the loop. Four more hooks later it was done and I let go. The support was… nice, felt less heavy weight hanging on my chest. “Perfect!” “Ah, that’s better.” I said honestly. “Feels nice to.” “Yes, some women hate them and for good reasons, but for women like myself with a little extra baggage on the top it’s a lifesaver.” Rarity said, looking me over. “In fact, seeing you in this attire is quite… sexy. If you could… pose a bit?” I blushed a little. “I’m...not entirely good with poses.” I said while striking a pose I hoped look nice and not silly. “I...hope my pose is okay…” “Hehe. It’s a bit off. Try leaning forwards with your arms under your top breasts, oh! And stick your rear in the air, tail curled a bit...please?” I gave Rarity a deadpan look. “Really?” I asked honestly with a knowing smile. “I’m sorry and you have how many like that of us in your Assistant?” She countered. “I know I know.” I said while doing the special pose she wanted, even though my face was beat red I gently put my arms around my top breasts to accentuate them, sticking out my fluffy butt and gently curling up my tail. “How’s this look?” “Oooohh… Now I see why you like us doing that…” Rarity said, snow white fur turning cherry red. “I am going to enjoy making you langeree~” She said with a perverted smile I’d never seen on Rarity before… I am both happy and scared at once. “Well...glad your happy about that...please don’t go overboard…” I said worriedly. “Oh Ben, I’m only going as far as you made us go~” She foretold, making me a bit worried now... “I am the scared…” I said worriedly. “Done!” Coco said, walking over with my multi breast supporting bra It looked more like a shirt than a bra, save for the breast pockets. “This was the only design that would support your four sets of breasts.” “Good enough I suppose.” I said. “Thank you Coco…” I said, even though I was still in that pose because I was too worried about what Rarity was saying. “Oh, and Ben, that’s a pretty good pose. Though any lower and I’d call it…doggy style you’re after.” She made a pun, making Rarity chuckle. I got up and pouted cutely. “How dare you.” I huffed. “Bad pun.” “Couldn’t resist.” Coco said, helping me take off the bra Rarity helped me put on then helped me put the one she made on. “Now this one has the hooks on the left side and some velcro straps for extra measure. Rarity, if you’d please?” “Yes of course.” She said, casting the enchantment then they helped me in. This was a lot easier to put on since was closed up from the side, and it worked. First off, I can see my toes again passed my breasts, and it felt like below my now magic boob shrinking bra it felt like I had a stomach again and not just boobs from neck to waist. “It’s perfect!” Rarity said. The colors was a plane black. “Now, we can work on your cloak.” “Take three on the cloak.” I chuckled a little. “Jeez, here I thought I would only need the one…” “Well aside from altering your cloak, then making you some extra pairs of bras and panties Coco and I will be busy for a bit. Days even. Til then I do have something you can wear… and sorry if it’s not to your liking.” Rarity said, coming back with… a long, pink night gowned. “I made them for your other Dire Wolf wives. This should fit since you are now taller and none of your old clothes will fit you at the moment love.” I waved a hand and changed it’s color to a greyish blue. “There, better.” I said. “Even as a girl...still not a fan of pink.” I said honestly. “Fair enough… though Pink would look good on you! Complement your darker colors so well.” She said as I slipped this on… it was thin, like tissue paper. But covered, and only went til just above my knees… this is like a skirt...so weird. “Seriously, this needs to be a bit thicker...tissue paper thin is not good for anyone.” I said honestly. “It’s meant for comfort and, well you can guess quick access to the lower areas. Something to keep you covered after sex so you aren’t just naked under the sheets.” “I understand.” I said honestly. “But still…” I sighed out. “I’m just gonna have to get used to this huh?” “At least till we make you better clothes.” Rarity said. “Now then, two of your Direwolf wives are waiting in the medical wing to give you an in depth introduction to your new biology.” “Alright...time to go there.” I said. “Thanks.” I said while giving my two lovely seamstresses a hug before heading to the medical wing. “More weird things are gonna happen…I just know it…” I muttered while bringing out a block of wood and a knife while starting to carve a statue of mom while I walked to the medical center. I got halfway done then made it to the area. This place was nice enough as a medical bay goes. I was met by Donna, the only blond dire wolf, not from hair dye either. She had boobs the size of… mine… damn… only she has six like normal. “Hi Ben.” Donna said, giving me a smiling wave and smile. “Love the night gown.” She said, pulling out her claw and trailing it down between my breasts. “Can’t wait to tear it up off you when you’re ready for it~” “Well...this was all Rarity and Coco had on hand.” I said sheepishly. “But how are you doing today?” “Looking into weather to bend you over with a dick of my own or a strap on.” God she’s as bad as Rune sometimes… but a literal degree in Dire wolf history and biology means she’s my teacher now... I took a deep breath. “So...Rarity made mention about a few things…” I tried to start, not entirely sure where to start here given who this lady was. “Right. Anything specific then? Mating habits, social circles, mating, Den making?” “Well, Rarity made mention because I have...eight breasts I’m actually going to be a great Den mother...is that true?” “Yes.” I was suddenly in a school desk and she stood in front of me, projectos on a tall chair displaying images on a white screen...how? “Now, in the past our race acted and still do, act much like ponies on Equiss, one or many males with a lot of females. Males protected and guarded territories while females and males would go out and catch prey.” She said, a cartoon picture comic strip of what she was saying flowing along as she talked. “But some females needed to stay to take care of and guard the young. We learned early on those born with eight breasts were not only the ones who birthed the largest litters, but also produced enough milk to feed their and many others young when they left for huntings. So, they were largely the Den mothers. However during our homeworld’s destructans many of them were killed with the young they cared for and guarded, and as such it was left to genetics to see if one would pop back up. Your mom, Den, became a Den mother mainly because she was vicious towards anything to the young and her breasts produced more than enough milk for several litters. So you’re the first ‘natural born’ Den Mother since our world was toxified.” “Right then.” I said. “So...Rarity made mention that she was surprised I’m not as big as Den...will I keep growing or am I stuck at this height?” “Yes!” She said, the images a picture now one of me and Mom standing side by side. Me as is now and an easy four feet smaller. “As you see Den is eleven feet tall, and you are seven. A Dire Wolf female that is a truly devoted Den mother in both humanoid and feral forms grow larger than even the males as a means of shielding their young. This does not happen though until you first give birth, their bodies producing an overflow of growing hormones to increase their size. It also allows them a form of control over their own breasts. By this I mean they can control how much milk to produce at a time. This is so they don’t harm them when needing to escape or when traversing harsh terrains.” “Makes sense.” I said honestly. “Um...considering I have both...um...how does one part get affected by all this? Cause Rarity did measurements and...it’s a half a foot bigger already…” “In your case we have no idea. There has never been a Dire wolf of our race like you on record so we have no clue. That’s something we will figure out when it happens. If it happens.” “Mind taking an educated guess?” I asked nervously. “Hmm… Either it grows even larger than it is now, of like the breasts you can give yourself boners on command… that would be cool in all honesty.” I sighed out. “And Rarity was already talking about how I was too big for most of my wives.” I said honestly. “I don’t want to hurt my wives cause my dick can now count as a bludgeoning weapon.” I said honestly. Donna laughed. “True, but that can be an easyfix you know.” “Magic?” I asked. “On either me or my wives?” “Well you made yourself a female, right? Can’t you just make your penis smaller by will?” “No idea…” I sighed out. “I mean...from what Rarity said a foot is about the high end for ponies, and as far as I know a foot is kind of average for Dire Wolves.” “Well if you learn to resize it at will, I’ve tested myself to handle fourteen inches long, and three wide… so when you do, wreck me.” She said, her nose against mine. “Now then!” She said, back to the whiteboard. “So anymore questions?” “How many kids would I have if I...you know, got pregnant?” I asked honestly. “On average a Dire wolf like myself can have up to ten puppies at once, but on record a Den mother like yourself as full size can have almost thirty at once and immediately conceive again after birth. In short, Ben, love, you’re a bigger baby factory than Eclipsa.” “Christ…” I whined. “So...how much stronger am I than my normal male form?” I asked, having been told Den Mothers are stronger. “Strength wise right now it’s not too much difference. No noticeable strength growths happen til after your first litter is born, then you can easily dig tunnels into mountain sides in your humanoid form and leap over our world's tallest mountain, MT. Evermore, easily twice your earths Mt. Everest, in nine leaps.” “Well...that’s surprising.” I said honestly. “Well...hmm...there’s still so much I should ask…” I said, trying to think of something to ask. “I mean...am I attractive by Dire Wolf standards?” I asked sheepishly. “Ben, love, if the males out in your kingdom were in front of you right now, you’d be getting raped, no question about it. To our race a Dire wolf like you is not only important to our Den culture, but also is a sign of fertility and prosperity. You’re borderline a fertility goddess.” “Oh dear…” I muttered. “That’s...not good. I’d like not to get raped thank you very much.” I frowned. “Oh relax, it’s just an exaggeration. Though many would beg you to bear their litters.” She added. “Anything else?” “What’s special about Den Mother’s milk besides making as much as they want?” I asked curiously. “Well for one it has healing properties the likes of which rival most healing potions.” She started. “When fed to young they grow faster, are stronger and their bones in our records and excavations are as strong as Adamantium and skin tough as Steel. That is, if they drink it even in adulthood, otherwise while they will be tough they’d be like the rest of us, strong, hard to kill, but still killable on the underbelly. This is key when it comes to a Den Mothers breast milk like yours.” She said, showing me her belly. “This is the thinnest, most easily harmed area on our race next to eyes and genitals. A cut deep enough here severes three arteries. We’d bleed out in seconds. ONe raised and continuing to drink Den Mothers milk has this area constantly reinforced, able to withstand normally deadly attacks.” “Well...that’s...not good…” I said nervously. “That...makes me a little nervous on the belly rubs…” I said worriedly, now knowing that’s a dangerous spot and not wanting to do something that could hurt them that badly. “Well...that’s good to know...thought the breast milk was something from Cript but apparently not...okay personally, which of my wives or husbands would be the first one to knock me up?” I asked, wanting at least a little guess as to who before I fully go through with things. “Most of the money is on Luna, your first Love, but Rune is planning on something. Also the money is tied on it being Zeke or Eclipsa.” “I...wouldn’t be surprised if it would be those two.” I said honestly. “But I’m...still concerned about all of that...not to mention I have to be concerned about not hurting those two.” “Oh, how so?” “A combination of size and...our powers not entirely liking it in general.” I said honestly. “Well the only way to see if it works is to, well, do it. Can’t live life having never tried anything. Can’t live life without a little hurt on you, or your loved ones.” I looked down sadly. “I try not to have my loved ones get hurt…” I said, still remembering Diamond breaking my neck because I’m stubborn. “But...well Zeke’s going to laugh and Eclipsa...yeah Eclipsa’s just going to drag me to bed cause of how I look…” I said, having a good feeling Eclipsa would do that. “Hope not… my money is on Luna…” “Eclipsa doesn’t have a dick...but she might get one because Zeke decided to go down the middle and I decided to go down the middle as well…” I said. “But who knows until I actually go back to see them.” “I guess. So! What do you want to know next. Any question is on the table.” “Will I be a bigger cuddle bug than I already am?” I asked honestly. “And...how bad will my first heat be?” “Given you have never had a heat before,being male before, and you are a natural born Den mother, your first heat will not hurt per say, rather your body will produce massive amounts of adrenaline and hormones basically making you a walking rape machine to anything with male parts. After that your next heats will be more manageable but even the slightest sight or allure of sex will be like resisting your own instincts to run from danger.” “And...I also have male parts so shouldn’t I also be plowing my wives a bunch?” I asked. “Cause...it shouldn’t just be a one way street right?” “Hmm...Given that you have both parts I see three outcomes. The first I told you, the second that if your own wives, us, are in any kind of heat also you’d also likely screw them on sight, and third you somehow literally screw yourself and impregnate yourself. Though how I have no idea.” “Clones.” I said. “A lot of clones.” “Possibly though in that case is that considered masterbating? Incest? And our self made infants… clones?” “I don’t know...and I don’t want to know.” I sighed out. “So...I have a feeling I’ll be more of a cuddle bug then I already am?” “Yes, you’re already a cuddler, but between hormones and if you’re like some of us where we like to hug solely to feel the pressure on our boobs, then yes. Yes you will. It all depends on you.” “I like cuddles.” I said honestly. “So...yeah I might be a bigger cuddle bug. But let’s see...how many more people will try to join my herd because of this?” I asked honestly. “Hard to tell really. That’s something for the future to see about.” “Wonders.” I said. “So...anything else I should know about? Cause...not entirely sure on what to ask right now.” “Yes. When you see your infants… you will instinctually try your damndest to feed them. Good luck with that.” “Well...need to make sure the pups will be happy and healthy.” I said honestly. “Gonna be a little weird…” “You’ll get used to it. Actually Derpy is gonna teach you that stuff.” “Well...good to know.” I said honestly while pulling out my little totem and continuing to carve into it. “Anything else before I go see the next one?” “Yes, and this one is a bit personal to talk about. It involved what Eclipsa does and your dislike of it.” I sighed out. “I know...but why do you bring it up?” I asked curiously. “Want me to indulge her so she’s happy to share something she enjoys?” “Actually I think I know why you dislike that but might find what she does enjoyable. Tell me, what do you know about Vore, or at least that’s basically what she does, in general?” “From what I know about Vore is...literally eating someone whole, and...to some they think it would lead to very fast digestion which is just gross and weird…” “Yes but how Eclipsa and her race in general seem to have literally evolved to do it is, from my research. Yes, I research fetishes. LONG before I met Rune.” She chuckled. “That is what we would call non-fatal, meaning if she had an anus they’d plop out there, but in this case she just swallows them and they stay there. One stomach of hers actually heals whoever is inside it, another just holds it, like storage, and the third does digest but they are built so they don’t digest someone when they swallow, they end up in either that they sit in til they are pulled out. It’s actually normal for them to swallow their own young for safety as her scales are about as hard as, well, bullet proof. While digesting someone for them is possible it takes a potion and is extremely taboo unless certain conditions are met by both parties.” “Oh...well...that’s a thing.” I said honestly. “Interesting, didn’t know that.” I said, now kind of knowing why Eclipsa liked it. “Yes. It’s their culture and way of life. It’s so intuned with their kind that anyone who doesn’t is looked at as… odd. Plane and simple. That aside, I believe you, given your dislike of the idea initially might have to do with mentality. In this, there are two kinds, prey and predator. Some have both, others stick to one. From what I hear Eclipsa HAS been swallowed before, a sister from Cript’s family from the world her mom came from moved into town, gave her the experience, so she can be both, but you I believe might be more suited for the predator mentality. Now tell me, what factors make people enjoy such actions casually or sexually?” “I don’t know why people think a lot of things are sexual.” I said honestly. “Couldn’t really tell you to be honest...also there’s more of a…’personal experience’ part that makes me not like it besides my natural dislike of it.” I said, still hating that time Den did that. “A common reason people get into Vore, in any form actually has to do with past experiences. Studies show those who actively seek this particular interest all have something in common. Aloneness. Feeling lost, alone, having lost others in the past, being swallowed or swallowing makes them feel that the person they are participating with will never leave them, filling that sense of solitude and abandonment they have had their whole lives. Another showed that it is related to non-fatal and it being considered relaxing. The breathing and heartbeat of the person you are in, or the feeling of holding someone inside them bring out more… primal feelings, for being inside it’s about a time before birth, when you were inside the womb and the world's problems were nonexistent, and for consuming it’s about a paternal feeling of carrying life within you.” “Oh…” I muttered. “That’s...pretty special.” I said honestly. “I...didn’t expect it to be that important and special.” “On the surface not many do, but when you get into the psychology of things you find everything has meaning.” “Yeah.” I said honestly. “That makes sense.” I said honestly. “I...suppose that’s kind of how I see sex as a whole...a union of love...to show two people how much they care about each other.” “Exactly, and in terms of Vore, there is no greater form of trust between two or more people then letting one swallow you alive in what should be a dangerous situation.” “Makes sense…” I said. “Well...I suppose I should...at least give it a chance.” “Now while there are those who treat Vore as nothing more than a sexual kink that let's them dominant another by consuming them whole the proper method to that with digestion has also its own meaning as there are also many ways to go about that, but since none of you will likely do that for fear of endangering loved ones you can all just stick to the standard.” “Alrighty then.” I said honestly. “Uh...curious question...is Eclipsa even...big enough to fit all of me? Cause before I could say yes but I did just grow a foot taller and a few inches wider.” “Yes. In a book I found on their species their Jaws unhinge to swallow this game up to three times the initial size of their mouths, their skin and flesh can stretch like a balloon and their stomachs and outer tails and such all do the same. She'd have no problem swallowing you or blowing you.” “That’s...both cool and...a little terrifying.” I said nervously. “If you want to test how you feel about it, given your race try being the predator first. Learn the safespells so you can stretch and not digest whoever you swallow, or in some cases shove in your boobs, ass, or womb, depends on preference, that actually includes those testies and dick mind you. But that's a whole other book of kink spells. However you want it, do it. But safeguard spells so they don't digest and can, ya know, breath in there. Also rubber spells. Not like the ones to prevent pregnancy, ones that make you stretchy and able to swallow them. Then either hack them up or let them pass through you till they pop out the rear. It's all about preference really.” “I’m...still not entirely sure about all of this…” I said sheepishly. “Still just...feels a little gross ya know? Maybe it’s just me being a germaphobe or something.” “So is sex. You think it's fun for us to clean out the excess jizz you blast in and on us? Nope, but we go along with it cause we love you, each other, and it's part of marriage.” “Sorry.” I said sheepishly. “But...true.” I said honestly. “Well, that covered everything I guess.” Donna said. The classroom set up vanishing as fast as it appeared. “Sorry I haven’t been...well ‘more open’ to certain things you all might have wanted to do...just...a little nervous about it all I suppose.” I said sheepishly. “But thank you.” “It's alright. The point is that now you are willing to try them. Everyone has different likes so as long as you at least experiment with them once or a few times to get a feel on if you like it or not, it's alright.” “Alright.” I nodded. “So, who do I have to meet next?” I asked curiously, having a feeling I can go see either Twilight, Derpy or someone else at the moment. “Luna. She's in the main bathroom. Same as Twilight, both figured they'd give you a dual lesson given the topics.” “Makes sense...not to mention I need a bath if you haven’t noticed.” I said nervously. “Noticed. And honestly, dry cum is not a nice smell.” “Yeah…” I sighed out. “It’s really not...good thing the castle has some built in air fresheners just in case something like this happens.” I said, outside of my general area smelt clean and fresh while I still reeked. I got up and headed for the bathrooms. It was next to the bedroom, a large place for us all but had communal showers… this is where I found Luna and Twilight...in a shower...naked...making out… and boner is back… thank you Rarity for this magic underwear. “Uh…” I muttered. “Excuse me…” I muttered, so glad my underwear was magic or else my boner would hurt a bit. “Om? Oh! Ben!” Twilight said, breaking their make out session. “We were waiting and got a little bored so…” “No no, continue. I was enjoying the sight.” I chuckled a little. Luna chuckled. “Maybe later. For now you smell like dry cum… why?” “Um…” I blushed a little. “Well...jacking off with my new female body let me know a few things...like my breasts being pretty sensitive, soft and fluffy.” “Hm.” Luna said with a grin, circling me. She then grabbed my gown from the straps, and yanked, the whole thing sliding down like butter she she wrapped her arms around me, one on my panties/boxers, the other groping a boob from the bra… oh god~ “I like this look. Can't wait to see you in your birthday suit.” “You’d...be shocked.” I blushed brightly. “But...still thankful for her and Coco’s clothes…” “I can tell, but for this lesson we need you bare and wet… and sadly I don't mean sexually.” Using her magic Luna teleported off my bra and pantie-boxers, and kept grabbing my boobs. “Wow. With tits like these and an ass like that you're giving my sister and I a run for our money~” “I mean...I’m not even at full size yet.” I said nervously. “Cause Donna said...well after I have kids I’m going to be...about as big as Mom.” I said while my foot and a half long stiffy was still present. “Woah...looks like we got our work cut out for us.” Twilight said. “Come on Luna, stop groping Ben and let's get to teaching them.” “Please…” I muttered. “Even...though it feels nice…” Luna lead me into the shower, the water felt...nice. Really nice, the trickles down my body over my tits felt… good~ “Lesson one, the most sensitive place on the female body that is immediately available, is the nipples.” Luna said. “They are super sensitive, pinch too hard and it’s the same as when they are pinched as a male. The only difference is that when touched gently, and lightly pinched, especially when your breasts have milk, it can feel amazing, and sometimes just tit play alone on some females can lead to orgasem without even touching the really fun area~” Luna said. “I uh...kind of noticed when I…’tested’.” I said sheepishly. “These things are sensitive…” “Yes, now onto some other things. For example,” Lune then hugged me, the pressure of our breasts against each other felt both hard, her softness against my newly acquired softness was… so amazing… and our tits rubbing was… well yeah. “When against skin, your hormones kick in, as now you feel the skin of another, you’ll immediately notice how much better the experience is.” “I like hugs and cuddles already.” I said while hugging her happily. “This won’t help my cuddle bug tendencies...it’ll only make it worse.” I chuckled a little. “But it does feel nice.” “Now~” Luna said, giving me a lick on my neck. A shiver went up my spine and tail as she began kissing it… is she hickeying me… woah~ She stopped. “Proper affection like that is always wanted,:” She said while smiling. “It really gets a girl turned on.” It was at that moment I felt something inside me was wet...not my skin… am I...horny there? “Oh dear…” I muttered a little, my dick twitching as if to tell me ‘yes, your getting about as wet as a waterfall down here’. “This...is gonna need some...getting used to.” “Now any graze or bump there can turn you on immediately, it’s a very sensitive area, even washing it sometimes can give you an orgasem. Washing it out after sex just makes your legs feel more like noodles than they could already after sex.” “Wonderful…” I sighed out. “I mean, not surprising but still.” “Oh yes you do not want to accidentally tear your vaginal skin.” Twilight spoke. “That can lead to infections and some really bad pains till the bleeding stops.” I whimpered and closed my legs. “Listen, I’m already concerned about one thing down there…” I said worriedly. “I don’t need to be even more concerned about another thing at the moment…” “It’s okay, it’s just a fact of having a vagina. So long as proper lubrication, natural or from a bottle is used then the only way to tear the skin their is if you’re masterbating with something sharp.” Twilight added. “Now, onto hygiene.” She said, Luna letting go of me so I could better face Twilight. “First up, it’s not too different from cleaning as a guy, but you now have the underside, top and depending on, nipples to scrub, and since you have a fluffier coat than most, some strong shampoo to penetrate to the skin under it all, and conditioner to keep it soft.” “Can’t wait to run out of shampoo and soap a lot faster than normal.” I grumbled. “But I’m going to be so god damn fluffy when I dry off…” “Yes, but now it’s onto the… lower area.” Twilight said. “If you’d please…?” I grumbled while spreading my thick thighs apart. “Fine…” I muttered. “Jeez...could crush a watermelon with these…” I muttered. “Um...mind moving the boys hanging there too?” “Alright…” I said while gently moving the boys out of the way carefully to expose my female parts. “Jeez...this is embarrassing…” I muttered while blushing brightly. “Alright.” She said, taking my free hand and looking at me. “Now, I am going to trace the area around your vagina. This is where you need to clean whenever you clean, the inside will clean itself naturally.” She said, slowly tracing my fingers around it… I learned two things, my vagina is as big as My whole hands length, and that area made me a waterfall down there. “Okay.” She said, letting go. “Just clean this area with soap that has no perfumes in it. Otherwise the perfume in the soap will give you a rash.” “Well that sucks...too bad it’s a literal waterfall down there.” I grumbled while finding the right soap “That is normal, the more you’re...well, horny, to be blunt, the wetter it gets. It’s the natural response, a sort of way of it telling you that you are ready to have it...inserted.” Twilight explained. “Now, let’s clean you up proper on your breasts then send you off back to Rarity to see if she has some proper clothes for you and to accessorize. Her idea, not mine.” “It’s alright. But yeah it would be best to get cleaned up.” I said. “But also...not gonna like having to use like...four or five different soaps and shampoos…” I said, so used to only using two at most. After that shower and some time drying, my fur felt amazing and was much more flurry. Luna and Twilight gave me a kiss then I headed back to Rarity. When I arrived Coco was gone and Rarity had an array of things on a table, bracelets, earings, necklaces, purses...high heels… Oh my cloak! “Like it?” She asked. It was for my me when I have the magic undergarments on, the uh, breasts that are present enough, mainly my top two pairs, had holes so my cleavage was exposed, it seemed able to fit my figure to a T, and the pants were now a skirt, boots were still boots, but more feminine, and had a high heel design, and zippers placed in...erm, embarrassing areas but at closer inspection those were just for decoration...thank god... “I love it...but can I...you know, not wear skirts and high heels? Both are nice for people like you who wear them on a semi regular basis but...no, high heels are impractical and look uncomfortable...and I’d rather not have a stiff breeze show things repeatedly.” “Oh darling, you think I didn't plan for that? The skirt has a few support stitches to the back of your cloak to prevent that and your boots while they have high heels, are enchanted to changed into… blegh, cargo boots, for combat and running.” “Hey, cargo boots work, they’re comfy, and I don’t have to relearn how to walk.” I said honestly. “I know you want me to be more feminine...but really? I’m pretty sure women can still be feminine and wear things that aren’t feminine.” “Oh, darling. Don't let looks decide so easily.” She clapped, the attired shifting to armor reminiscent of a Dusk, almost like Keyblade armor. “Fashionable, functional, and honestly my best work so far.” “Looks amazing.” I said in awe. “How did you do that?” “Zeke's Rarity came over and gave me some instructions. Blueprint and a base armor to use. It was surprisingly easy.” “I can imagine given it was you that made it.” I chuckled while gently leaning down and nuzzling Rarity happily. “Thanks Rarity, your the best.” “Happy to be of service darling.” She said. I looked at Rarity...and only looked down sadly as I remembered something. “I’m sorry...for never keeping my promises…” “Pardon?” “I promised so much for all of you...and yet I never actively acted on them.” I sighed out sadly. “Or...am I just being silly at the moment?” “Well, if you really feel bad for it, make a list of these promises and then one by one act on them. Now, what shall you accessories with?” Rarity said, looking over the jewelry. “Hmm…” I looked over all the jewelry. “Let’s not go overboard here.” I brought up. “I know. Too much accessories are more tacky. Something simple… ah! Here! She said, showing me a pair of earrings. The design was a heart with the Nobody symbol within it. The colored were swapped. The Nobody was simple the heart color pink and the heart a metallic grey. “That looks nice.” I said. “But uh...wouldn’t it hurt the first time since...I don’t actually have a hole in my ear?” “Not to worry my darling.” She said, moving her fingers, showing that they were clip ons. “Thought ahead of that.” “Cool.” I said with a little smile while looking around at the other jewelry. “Hmm...a good necklace would fit…” I said, not really being into fashion but knowing good earrings always needed a good necklace. “Has to be something here…” Looking at the Necklaces I spotted one that was reminiscent of Sora’s crown necklace. It was smaller, held a gold outline with a silver inside, and the chains were chrome. “Sure.” I said while picking up the necklace. “I like this one.” I said before checking to see if it was just a normal slip on or if it was a specific clip. It was slip on, once I got it on and settled I looked at myself in a hand mirror, Rarity having clipped the clip on earrings just below the middle of my ears… why does this look so...good on me? “This looks nice.” I said, before looking up a little and noticing I still had my crown I got so long ago from Celestia...even if it’s still crown and crooked to the right...it fit the look so much. “How do I look?” “Fabulous! If I didn’t know better I’d say you looked like a punk rock popstar.” “Not entirely sure if that string was still complimenting or not.” I said, knowing the first part was a compliment but then the punk rock popstar part was a little weird. “But thank you.” I said warmly. “It was a compliment. Now, time for the final topic of the day… your sexual restrictions, for now, and what you want to start with and what we would like you to try with us. Okay?” I sighed out. “Alright.” I said. “This is gonna be weird...surprised Rune isn’t here given the topic now…” “She provided a...rather detailed list of activities and we immediately crossed out those we feel you would reject immediately given their nature and… such.” Rarity said. “Come now, Twilight, Luna, Celestia and I want to discuss this with you then inform the rest.” “Alright.” I nodded. “Can’t wait for this to...just be a weird thing...also Donna said that...if my Dire Wolf people saw me like this...they would be begging me to have their kids.” I said sheepishly. “Well to be honest love if I decided to have my own… set of parts I’d adore seeing you pregnant with our children. You aren’t the only one with a pregnancy fetish around here. Just wish it didn’t ruin my figure. Selfish, yes, but in my line of work it’s largely needed.” “I’m not that pretty…” I said sheepishly, blushing brightly at this. “I’m just...me. I’m not some Goddess of Beauty that Donna was talking about…” “No lady ever feels that way about their looks love, and those that do either take it like I do, or go too far and put themselves on a pedestal.” Rarity said. We were now in the Living Room, the girls and Rarity were on the couch and I sat between them all. “So… What would you be willing to try first, off the top of your head?” Celestia started. “Um…” I blushed a little. “I...did it with Gilda, Ashe and...some of the other wives that could handle it but…” I muttered. “Dom...and Sub...where I’m the Dom…?” I asked worriedly, my question and actions seeming to be very at odds with each other. “I’ll...try not to be too rough..” “Well with a member like that it may have to wait til Twilight and I can work on a spell to… make that possible.” Celestia said. “But we mean things we can...do to you. For example… would you try… toys?” “I mean...I was going to have to learn that anyways…” I said nervously. “So, what would you want to try first?” Luna asked. “Simple dildos? Vibrators? Other… such toys?” “Let’s...start simple I suppose.” I said. “No need to...go to fast with this stuff...I’m...now back to being a Virgin here.” “Hehe. True.” Twilight started. “Alright… now, what about what Donna recently told us? You are… willing to try what Eclipsa does?” “I want to...at least try with Eclipsa...just to know how it feels and be a little closer to them instead of...trying to distance myself.” I said honestly. “Even if...it’ll be a little weird.” “Okay.” Twilight said with a nod. “And, what about some other things? Like...pregnancy? I’m not expecting you to be ready for that in a few days, none of us are, we just want to know… how would you handle that? We’d support and help you but it is something you might have to go through...depending on things maybe more than once.” “Knowing my sex life maybe.” I joked. “But…” I put a hand on my stomach gently. “Not...not right now.” I said gently. “It’s alright. We didn’t expect you to jump at the idea/fact anyway.” Rarity said. “Now, I have to ask if… if I make you some...sexual articles of clothing… would you wear them for us? We’d have some on too of course! It’s just… Something I think we’d all like to see.” Steam started coming out of my head. “I mean...sure but...I doubt I’ll look good in it like all of you.” I said sheepishly. “Now, onto something we all do and wondered if you’d be up for.” Celestia started. “As you know we all breastfeed, or have a milking machine to bottle feed the young… would you want yours… milked or feed them through nursing?” “Fed through nursing.” I blurted out without thinking about it...only to realise what I said and pulled my hood up to cover my face. “I...uh...I didn’t….oh~...” I whimpered in embarrassment. “Hm, looks like Donna was right about that Natural born Den Mother part.” Luna gave a chuckle and wrapped an arm around me. “It’s alright. There’s nothing wrong with wanting that. It’s actually a perfect way to bond with the young. We mainly bottle feed those teething. Teeth on nipples hurt… a lot…” “I can imagine.” I said. “These things are really sensitive.” “Would you mind learning some… sexy dances?” Twilight asked. “I mean, Rarity and I learned how to lap dance for you so… a little return courtesy would be nice…?” “Um...well...I suppose?” I said nervously. “Would be...interesting...even though my thighs are thick as hell.” “Would show you how to use those hips.” Luna said, making me blush harder. “What about...Roleplay?” “That...depends.” I said. “While I’m not opposed to it I’d...still rather it not get out of hand like I keep fearing…” I said nervously. “But Roleplaying is fine.” “You mean sheep and wolf?” Twilight asked. “Well...that was a while ago.” I said honestly. “I...hope I didn’t go overboard back then.” “Well, then why not reverse that role then~” Luna said. “I’m sure you’d look cute in white fluff.” “Well I’m about as fluffy as one.” I said honestly. “What about us...um...sampling you?” Rarity asked. “You mean eat her out?” Luna asked, Rarity blushing, and slowly nodding. “I was going to say you can start with the breastfeeding so I can...uh...get used to the feeling but...I mean...I’m scared you’ll get lost in how fluffy and big my ass is at this point.” I said nervously. “It’s alright. Though we might just be admiring the view.” Celestia said with a cheeky smile. “Now, about sleeping… actual sleep.” Rarity clarified. “Would you mind if we… used your extra cushions as pillows? You always do it with us and we’ve done it a few times with each other so… I was wondering how yours would feel being big...soft and fluffy.” “I’m gonna miss doing that to you all.” I said honestly. “You can still do it.” Celestia said. “It’s not like one of us can’t be your ‘body pillow’ or rather ’boobie pillow.” She said with a chuckle. “We can just take turns is all.” “I mean...I also have clones that can still be...my male self so there’s that.” I said honestly. “But...I understand. But don’t be surprised if I’m more cuddly...cuddles are nice no matter what gender you are.” “We won’t mind at all.” Luna said as everyone agreed. “Now...what about anal?” “Not right now.” I said. “Gonna...need to get used to a lot of things...my ass can wait.” “Alright. That does take some preparation beforehand anyway, otherwise it’s just a mess.” Luna added. “What about… makeup?” Rarity asked. “While it would mostly be for show or special occasions for you, it’s still something that can enhance experiences. We did always love seeing all the lipstick markings we put on you.” “I mean...maybe?” I asked nervously. “I won’t do it all the time, makeup looks fine on all of you but...it might ruin my fur.” “I guess that is it for now.” Celestia said. “Till you are more comfortable with what we have and are going to try and are more confident in your new body, we will hold other other requests.” “Who’s keeping Rune away from me at the moment?” I asked. “Cause I’m pretty sure Rune isn’t happy here. “Donna and the other Rune from Zeke’s reflection. The things those two do are...hot, but also a tad worrying.” Twilight said. “Though I suppose she couldn’t resist. Not everyday someone with your litteral exact same list of fetishes comes along and is willing to do them all.” “True.” I said honestly. “Now...the bigger part is when I go back to meet Eclipsa and Zeke...god those two will flip at this.” “I imagine Eclipsa will kiss you and Zeke might not say anything, or just not have much to say? I don’t know. I can’t read that guy sometimes.” Twilight said. “I’ll have to ask his version of me what she sees in them.” “I still don’t know Zeke...goes from being an actual decent person to...whatever the hell is happening.” I said honestly. “But...I hope Eclipsa’s doing some good for him at the moment...and I do have a feeling Eclipsa will do something along those lines.” “I'm sure she is.” Luna said, taking my hand. “And I know you will too. Zeke needs both you and Eclipsa, and vise versa. You three just click.” “Maybe...but me and Zeke aren’t really good with each other, given that me and Zeke are at two opposite sides of the spectrum here.” “Not as much as you think.” Looking at the doorway, stood Unum, Pink floral Pj’s adorning her. “Sup. Was exploring your place before bed.” “Hey Unum…” I said. “So...uh...as you can clearly see...I’m a thick amazon right now…” “I noticed. also your Rune told mine, who told me while, well, not gonna say what she was doing when she told me.” She said. “You and Zeke have something in common. You both seem to doubt and hate yourselves for the dumbest reasons. Zeke learned to be silent about it and keeps it all bottled up, you express it. That alone makes you mentally healthier than him.” “Mentally healthier? I kinda doubt that all things considered.” I said honestly. “Think about it, by saying your issues out loud, at least you’re letting others know. Zeke keeps it all inside and can’t seem to let it out. He makes everyone truly believe he’s fine, when he’s not...she? Still think we should make up a word for this.” “Either or.” I shrugged. “But I understand...we all have problems.” “Yup. Oh and I passed the nursery when coming here. Derpy said if I see you to say she’s ready to give you some motherhood lessons. Mainly nursing, changing and washing the infants.” Unum said as she took her leave to explore more of the castle. “I mean...I did learn how to change the infants with Cadence a while back but...not on the washing parts...and nursing is...gonna be interesting.” I said sheepishly. “Well, you get along then. We will meet you in the bedroom.” Luna said, all but Rarity getting up and leaving. “I hope you find being both genders is to your liking… and, I hope things go well between you and Zeke.” Rarity said, giving me a quick kiss on the cheek before taking her leave as well. “Hopefully.” I said honestly. “But...might as well meet Derpy...oh and Unum...did Joy tell you about uh...yourself in the One Piece world?” I asked curiously, having a feeling he probably made mention to her...living skeleton. “Yes...Core’s… She’s alive and whole now. I don’t know how Kexez did it...but he revived her. She and Core are together and happy now… Feels a little weird.” She admitted. “Well, can’t dwell on the past, no matter how much it hurt you.” She said, waving goodbye then leaving. “Sorry…” I muttered before getting up and heading off to the Nursery. “Well...that could have gone better…” I muttered. “Let’s hope Derpy will be kind to me…” I muttered, wondering what Derpy will have in store for me here. As I arrived most of the infants were all asleep already. Derpy had two in her arms, Karla, my first kid with Chrysalis. Changelings birth fast. And...Nancy… Oh boy. “Hey hun.” I said. “How are you doing today?” “Good. All the little ones asleep, save for Karly and Nancy. I will be showing you how to bath and nurse them.” “Can’t wait for Nancy to laugh…” I sighed out. “Or to bite me out of spite.” I frowned. “Even as a pup, she still kinda hates me.” ’Put your tits anywhere near my mouth and I will bite them off…’ Nancy growled in her baby babble, but my assistant app translated it for me. “I was actually hoping you’d do this with Nancy, you two need to bond more as it’s unhealthy for an infant to harbor this much hate for a parent so young.” Derpy said. ’Oh F***.’ I looked at Nancy with a saddened expression. “Were you...so content with death?” I asked her gently. “Never once...did you ever wish to have a better, happier life? That...this was your chance to be better than who you were?” I asked the pup. ’I did, and while I do plan on taking advantage of that I should be entitled to a grudge of my murderer. You also have my daughter as your maid, the best bank robber and sneak assassin in all Australia and Northern canada… as your maid… and...the other, having sexual relations with who should be her uncle, so pardon my lack of positivity.’ “Now here’s my counters to what you said...it’s fine to hold a grudge...but you literally gave me no choice in the matter so that’s kind of your fault. Your daughter, as far as I’ve seen, has been perfectly happy and content with her life as a maid with her new child, so her previous occupation means little to me if it means seeing her and her child smiling and living a life where they aren’t having to run every other minute...and Jenny...well Jenny grew male bits and knocked up one of her fellow herd mates so I think her dating her supposed ‘uncle’ means little at the moment.” I explained simply while gently taking Nancy from Derpy and cradling her in my big fluffy arms. “It’s fine to be mad...but when everyone’s already moved on...when people you care about are happy...should you be holding onto the past? Or looking forward and seeing a bright future you can live in?” I asked gently. ’I don’t even know what my future- what are you doing?’ She asked as I began unzipping my cloak. “What do you think?” I asked honestly. “You’ve been in danger all your life...having to do so much just to make sure your family is safe…” I said while continuing to get one of my many breasts out to breastfeed her. ’Oh dear god no…’ “Listen, your going to be breastfed by me, and that’s final.” I said, finally getting one of my breasts out and even though Nancy was against this a lot her instincts told her she was safe in my arms, and that breastfeeding was very needed. “I know it’s weird...but please...you have to take that step towards a better future.” I said gently while raising her to my breast. “Just once...you don’t have to be mad...you don’t have to be defensive...you can let it out…” I said, hoping this will work and help her feel better instead of tense, defensive and angry. ’Mrfpf. Gah!’ Nancy made noises, trying to defy her instincts. Though finally she lost to them, gumbing my nipple and sucking til milk came out. I saw some tears, a little blush, before she began calming down and was nursing as a steady pace… and this was a weird feeling. I mean it was embarrassing, empowering, maternal, protective, bonding… so many others I can’t even begin to explain or comprehend all at once. One that stuck out though was...pride. “She’s a fighter.” Derpy said, already feeding Karla, while she feeds on the love Derpy has for her while nursing, she can still digest the milk to make her chitten stronger as she grows. “How’s it feel?” “I’m...proud.” I said gently. “But...I’m just...happy to have this little moment...to feel close...and help my daughter feel better.” I said lovingly. “Is...this what you all feel?” “For me it makes me feel responsible. Like what I am doing it just right.” Derpy said, looking down to Karla. “I remember doing this with Dinky when she was just a newborn. Heh, I’m just glad she came out so good.” I nodded gently. “I’m...glad I got to be with you all...share so many experiences…” I said, gently moving a little hair from Nancy’s face and just smiling in joy. “Heh. So am I. Not many mares breastfeed their young these days. What was once common place became a bit of a topic in parental circles. While we breastfeed the kids and even drink each others milk as, well, food, something ponies have done since our earliest recorded years, these days it’s like a dying culture. Some still do it, but nowhere near the amount as before. Sometimes I wonder if we all had a reset button so we could all return to that simpler, less socially complicated time. Back when things were hard, but simple and you didn’t have to consider the many options to feed your young like there are now. Or even how to raise them.” “True...but there should always be this...special connecting.” I said gently. “But...breastfeeding isn’t bad...it’s never been bad.” “For most it’s also a worry on if they can properly feed them. If the mama isn’t healthy, their milk can’t keep their little ones healthy. Plus it can be hard to switch them off the teat and onto a bottle or soft foods. Dinky didn’t want soft food at all. Had to milk myself and make her sleep it and eventually I managed to get her off my milk when she was almost a year.” “Well…” I shrugged gently. “It happens I suppose.” “So, how often do you see yourself doing this?” Derpy asked, gently rubbing Karla’s back. “I don’t know…” I said honestly. “As a Den Mother I’ll be doing this with all my kids...but as a Den Mother I don’t care about age...just like Mom, if my family wants to just enjoy it for a little bit...they can.” “Well, as they say, a mother's job is never done.” Derpy said with a smile. She then took Karla off her teat, helpt her so she could pat her back, the Wire wolf/Changeling hybrid letting out a burp as I did the same with Nancy. ’Urp! … This changes nothing…’ “You know it does.” I said gently. “But...if you need help wondering where you’ll go in life...I’m here to help, as well as all your family.” I told her lovingly. “Come on now, time for their bath and then put them to sleep.” Derpy said, the two of us getting up and to the connecting bathroom of the nursery. Here we placed them in small tubes just right for their small size. “It’s important that when washing a newborn or any baby to use special soap so it doesn’t sting them if it gets into their eyes, as well as making sure it’s safe and trusted. An off brand may look just the same but one ingredient can mean the difference from a happy bath and an allergic reaction of any kind.” “I had a feeling.” I said honestly. “Also...I don’t know if all kids enjoy it, but bubble baths always was a little fun for me.” “Depends on the child. Karla here likes them, Nancy there is a bit indifferent about it.” Nancy thankfully didn’t put up too much fuss, her small frame craving sleep so when the bath was over she was out like a light and wrapped in blankets. We placed them down gently in their cribs and turned the lights off. Small night lights lit up parts of the room. Part of me didn’t want to leave… part of me was begging...no, demanding I stay here but… I didn’t know what to do. I love my kids but this… this just feels like so much more… is this part of being a Den mother? “I...need to be with them…” I muttered, wanting to make sure I kept them safe even when I knew they were safe right now. I ended up curling up around Nancy’s Crib. It...still wasn’t right! I ended up lifting her, careful not to wake her up as laid with her on the floor, shifting to feral form. It was bigger than normal, and my...erm… breasts in this form were all still hanging. I kept her close to me, the small reborn child unconsciously cuddling up to me from within her blanket. I smiled gently. “Better…” I muttered to myself as I cuddled up to my daughter and keeping her safe. I felt something touch me. Immediately I looked towards it, growling, then stopping that when I saw it was Luna and Derpy standing next to me. “Derpy said you didn’t want to leave. So cute!” She said in a hushed squee. “Mind if we join you? I still want to use those pillows of yours… and in that form I should use them as blankets~” I took a deep breath to relax. “Please...be careful next time.” I said, not wanting to feel territorial or aggressive at my own wives. “But...sure.” Derpy and Luna took rest against me, leaning against my massive chest and curling up between my brests… it felt nice, not unwelcome or awkword at all for some reason. I curled up with the three of them all in my embrace, and drifted to sleep quickly, the sound of Nancy’s light small breathing in my ear all night, comforting me. “Eherm!” Someone coughed, waking me up. Grogley I opened my eyes. I felt… like I was covered in… with something. Looking up, I saw it was Twilight who made the noise. “Heh… taking to it like a fish to water aren't you?” Looking I saw… all the babies were around me, or on me, some already suckeling off me, and even off the still sleeping Derpy, though Luna was wide awake, eyes wide. “This is the most adorable and terrifying way I have ever woken up ever.” Luna commented. “I...don’t have much of a problem with it.” I said gently. “As long as my children are happy.” I said gently and lovingly. “As touching and heartwarming this is, your Council does need you at the moment Ben, some issues have come up and you need to be present.” “But...my kids…” I said worriedly. “And...what about my clones? Aren’t they free to help?” I asked, my ears flat against my head as my instincts just wanted to be here and help my babies. “Yes but they are all still male, for now anyway. We need to let your council and your people know about your new appearance and...gender? Anyway, it’s just something that needs to be seen, not told, and this is another part about being a parent, mother specifically… having to leave them when you really don’t want to. It hurts but otherwise they might never learn independence.” I only looked a bit upset and whimpered a little. “Fine..” I said, knowing I had to deal with going against my instincts cause of so many other things. “God...it’s going to be so weird seeing everyone’s reactions about...this.” “Hey, once it’s all out there you can shift all your clones and...huh, actually, that gives me an idea.” Twilight began thinking. “You head off and do your work, the others and I will make sure when you are back it will be a perfect solution to some issues we had last night.” Twilight said, helping me up as I shifted back into my humanoid form. “Alright.” I nodded. “But...I’ll try to make time to work on my promises to you all…” I said to them as I headed off to my throne room to show the other council members my new form. As I arrived there was an assortment of responses from my council. Dorlu, Dante and Speed of Sonic all laughed, others were confused. Grell was jealous of my curves… it was a thing. Once it all calmed down though it was time to address these issues that have come up. “Okay so...any questions?” I asked once they stopped laughing. “We've had our laughs.” Sonic said, still chuckling a bit. “In terms of the incident that lead to Dorlu replacing Trixie, border security measures have been drastically increased. We are also planning on issuing and acquiring special passports for all visitors and traveling residents. Each passport will have a tracking spell on them so we can see who is in the country and who is outside it.” “Cool.” I said with a nod. “Gotta keep up security and all that.” I said honestly while my throne was thankfully resized to fit my...new body. “So...any questions about me right now?” “We'd prefer to keep this business as usual.” Vergil spoke. “There are some cultural issues arising with the Dire Wolves and Equins.” Dorlu spoke. “And what would those cultural issues be?” I asked. “And I’ll get your proper opinions later, I’d rather not have my people fighting each other at the moment. So what are the cultural differences?” “The equestrian weather factory is requesting permissions to tame the wild nature within the Dire Wolf territories,and their denials have the nearby pony towns and cities worried about their 'wild weather's’.” “Oh yes, it’s back to the question of ‘Why are ponies scared of Nature’s most basic functions?’.” I rolled my eyes. “Seriously, never fully understood that...okay, are there any representatives I need to meet about both of their arguments?” I asked, having a feeling the ponies and dire wolves would send me someone to talk this out. “Yes. Weather factory is sending Rainbow Dash and the Dire Wolves are sending Hunter Frost to argue. They will be here within the week.” “Alright, so given you all might know why this started...are ponies actively trying to move into the Dire Wolf Territory? Or are they trying to do something else?” I asked curiously. “It's part of the integration attempts between all the races. Since they are all United as one kingdom the only thing that truly divides them is their culture and species. So far there is a healthy grab bag of success and failure.” Dante said. “Wonders.” I said. “Oh uh...just a random thing, how are the Monsters doing in New Manehattan? I presume King Papyrus is still doing his thing or did something happen?” I asked curiously. “The monsters in New Manehattan are fine. In fact they seem to find a peaceful solution for the whole thing. Every race of creature we sent to live there have had no real issues. Just some litter and a few thefts, nothing of true concern.” Dorlu replied. “Alrighty then.” I said honestly. “Good to know their doing good. Oh uh...Joy, have Asgore and Toriel ever visited?” I asked curiously. “I don’t know if they...got back together or are still split but are they still checking up on Chara, Frisk and Asriel?” “Asgore is nice… I still have the burn marks from Toriel…” He grunted. “They are still divorced.” “You’d think in a new world and some actual talking those two might have gotten back together.” I said honestly. “But whatever does it for them. So, anything else?” I asked curiously. “Yes. There has been a string of murders in Vanhoover.” Kat said. “Forty six dead in three days. Same weapon… a Keyblade…” “Any reports on who the culprit is?” I asked. “What Keyblade is it? Anything.” I growled, for some reason my Den Mother instincts kicking in as if my people are like my children. “No leads. All we know is that it is a Starlight Keyblade.” “Cause of course it is…” I grumbled. “How many people actually have a Starlight Keyblade?” I asked. “Let’s start narrowing it down.” “Starlight Keyblades are given to all and every new student at the Keyblade wielders academy, and by the second year they all begin to discover their true Keyblade, unless the Starlight is their true Keyblade, so roughly five to seven thousand total. WIthin the area these murders took place, it’s five hundred, and forty seven exactly.” Dorlu said. “The pool is too big and we have too few leads to filter it.” “Was there any video cameras near the scene’s of the murders? Is there literally anything for us to go on besides having to look for one guy with one keyblade?” I asked. “Cause I will hunt this person down for hurting my children if I need to.” I growled...before blinking at realizing what I just said. “Uh...sorry...didn’t mean to say that.” There was some smirks, some chuckles. “Sadly any cameras in the areas were found destroyed. Video showed nothing. All murders seem to have taken place between nine in the afternoon and one in the morning. No spells seems to have been used at all, so Keyblade DTL’s are not their means of transport, or normal equestrian magic.” “Well...there’s a pattern at least.” I said. “What do the victims have in common?” “Mixed couples. Griffin and pony, pony and Dire Wolf, Minotaur and Changeling. Seems like a terrorist trying to ignite a race war or someone with strong dislikes of mixed race couples.” Kat said. “And how many of these people are there?” I asked. “And should I get Jenny in case she actually knows who this group is?” “There are four groups that emerged after Equis united under one kingdom, rejecting the ideals of a united kingdom, and they became more active after the Dire Wolves appeared.” Dorlu said. “The Purest pony group, Lead by former tax agent Scrub Brush. The Griffon Purest group, lead by Grandpa Gruff. The Minotaur purists group, lead by Iron Will, and lastly the Zebra purest Group, lead by Widow Tree. All of their members seem to range from late tens to elders, so a rather large pool of members.” “Bring those four here…now.” I growled. “I have plenty of words for them.” “We can’t.” Dante said. “They fled world and realm before the security enhancements were made. We have no idea where they are hiding, speculation and possible realms and reflections yes, bot no exact location.” I brought out my Lexicon and flipped a page. “Greater Commune, call Zeke.” I said, knowing if there’s one person that could know where people who have flew off the map it would be him. “He better fucking answer…” I growled. There was a cloud above the book, an image there and OH GOD THEY'RE IN THE SHOWER- IS THAT HIS CELESTIA!?! “What the- Woah!” Zeke slipped, causing his Celestia to bury them in her rather larger body. “Well aren’t you two having fun.” I said, my own anger and instincts not giving a single fuck about the situation there in. “Can I get some help here? Or are you to busy?” “And just who are you?” Zeke asked, moving aside his Celestia’s large boob to view me. “What matters more are people actively murdering my people because they’re all racist fucks.” I growled. “And we can get to that part later, I need help finding people and getting some god damn answers.” “... Ben?” Zeke asked, eyes wide in realization. “You… look good.” “Yes, thank you.” I said, glad he didn’t start laughing at the moment. “Now...about that help finding people? Your literally Kingdom Hearts, you probably know where everyone is at any time.” “Through their hearts yes. Can’t see them in your realm though. Your Nothingness covers that track.” “Glad that the four I’m looking for are not in my realm.” I said. “I’m looking for four people, Iron Will, Scrub Brush, Grandpa Gruff and Widow Tree, the leaders of four different terrorist organizations based on outdated and horrifically racist values.” “Outdated huh? Hmm… Being in your realm for so long they must have absorbed some nothingness so I can use that to select them apart from others. Alright, give me a moment.” Zeke said, closing their eyes, then opening them, they were glowing blue. “... hi.” His Celestia said with a small wave. “Sorry to interrupt.” I said. “How are you doing today?” “Was planning on some simple shower sex then light reading later…” She replied. “Sorry...but you know, sometimes fun has to take a back seat when your people are being murdered for being happy.” I said honestly. “I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t the first time…” She said, the shower water still hitting them both, Zeke’s eye glowing faded til they were normal. “Got them. Each one is on a different reflection of Equestria. Unsurprisingly each reflection they are on has their preferred race already having overtaken the entirety of their world. Egotistical much?” “Okay, good to know.” I said. “So then I can drag the four of them back here and…’ask politely’ who they are making murder innocent people.” I said, beyond furious that I would openly have a public execution for these assholes...but the more sensical part of my brain didn’t entirely think that was a good idea. “Sure. Good luck though. Now, can I resume pounding this lovely sun goddesses ass?” That was...rather unlike Zeke...though I made a mental note of that to speak with Eclipsa about that. “Sure.” I said. “Have fun you two.” I said while closing the book, having a good feeling my council will know where these fuckers are. “I’ll contact Daybreak to help locate these specific reflections. If they value our trades and co-existence, then they will.” Dorlu said. “I’ll be back in an hour. Move onto the next issues all til I return.” “So while that is being taken care of, there is one final issue.” Joy spoke up. “Does it actually involve what I look like?” I asked honestly. “No. In fact it relates more to the later topic sadly.” Luxu said. “Oh dear…” I muttered. “Can’t wait to hear more about it.” “In short majority had children. While many found care in families of the victims others are orphaned.” That… is a bit weird… kill the parents, not the kids? I mean, thank God the kids are alright but… it doesn't make sense for a terrorist perspective to leave the young alive. “Okay...so someone’s openly caring about the kids.” I said. “The orphanages are currently at max capacity and while the Dire Wolves are openly accepting to letting these young into their dens, many are counter arguing about the ethics involving their predatory nature and pony prey cultures. So far the whole thing is become in a political shitstorm, and all the while the kids are all cramped in places unfit to properly care for them, physically and phycology.” “And...would it be wrong if I openly adopted all of them?” I asked. “Sir, with all due respect while funds and space are no issue these children have severe mental issues after witnessing their parents killed in front of them, staying it was someone is a red hoodie and jeans and nothing more. While it would give them a home it won't fix their issues. Legally these kids can't be adopted til their mental health is cured first, otherwise they could murder the foster parents when under stress.” Cat said. “All we can do at the moment is renovate buildings to accommodate their needs and then we can discuss their housing and legal guardianship.” “While that is true.” I said. “At the moment they need people to be there for them, show them everything’s going to be alright...be there for them.” I said, my council knowing full well it’s my Den Mother instincts kicking in. “All of them need a family...they won’t get better if they’re alone, even if their in an orphanage...” I said. “And this isn’t just because of my Den Mother instincts...I’ve been in their shoes as well. My parents were murdered...and I went downhill fast…” “So what’s your move then?” Luxu asked. “All we can do in the end is advise, it’s your call in the end.” I got up. “Like I said before, I’m going to adopt them. They shouldn’t feel helpless and abandoned, and I’m going to make damn well sure whoever did this to them pays dearly for hurting my children...god damn it I said it again didn’t I?” I groaned. “Den mother Mentality meets leadership. You’re having issues keeping the two separated, or, perhaps it is natural?” Rogers said. “Remember...this is day two of my entire thing so…” I said nervously. “But I’m gonna need to get used to this...finish up my totem of mom and maybe she’ll give me some advice.” I said hopefully. “But this will also suck because...this will basically be my public appearance as the new me.” “Well, guess it’s a good thing when you aren’t pissed about something you naturally seem approachable.” Zuko said. “You have a natural caring look in that form, so it at least makes that factor an ace in your sleeve.” “And I didn’t before suddenly?” I asked Zuko with a frown. “You looked more...grumpy before.” Rogers admitted. “Like an old dog who found out their owner got a puppy.” Kat added. I pouted. “Whatever. But I’m gonna need an ass ton of money for all the orphanages to be properly renovated and funded to help out more children.” I said. “Also...it’s weird that people are arguing against children actually having a family and being happy...seriously, what the fuck happened?” “I think it’s more about the differences in their races. Some seeing it as worrying, others seeing it as scary. Ponies are naturally prey, Dire Wolves are predators, seeing one of them around a child would sent primal worry into their minds, doesn’t matter how intelligent a species or race is, genetics enslave us all in some form or another.” Rogers said. “And yet if I were to walk down there and openly adopt them all no one’s going to bat an eye.” I said. “And I doubt it has to do with me being the King and or Queen here.” “Actually it does.” Zuko said. “You’re a known warrior, married to all this worlds royalty, and people both respect and fear you. No one would speak against you doing this, because of that respect and fear. It’s an edge when it comes to politics, but that edge can go dull very quick.” “I barely understand politics…” I grumbled. “So because I have actively done things, people respect and fear me, but if I keep actively doing things to help people, like a proper king or queen should, people will stop caring?” “More along the line of if you flaunt your title and power at them they won’t like or agree with it.” Zuko corrected. “The populus will always have opinions of their leaders, good and bad, both sides can swap opinions at the drop of a hat based on your actions. Perhaps a compromise to this can solve both your issue with and wants, and the people’s opinion on the matter.” “And what would that be?” I asked, trying to be a smart leader here even though my Den Mother instincts were screaming at me to help the children. “Your castle. The lower floors hold largely empty rooms, more than enough to hold every child yet to have a home. We can renovate them into a version of Celestia’s boarding school to house, heal, and allow you to directly oversee their health and happiness. The people will be appeased for now, and adoptions will be available to any child who is fully healed mentally.” “That could work, and give us time to both resolve the issue of the children’s state of living and see into the Dire Wolves adoptions getting more approval from the masses.” Kat said. “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “Well, time to send word to them so the children can be helped...and then soon I have to...show everyone I’m now a chick.” I said nervously. “Slash dude.” Joy added. “Yes.” I nodded. “God...everyone’s going to be so confused and concerned...but..” I sighed out. “I just hope I can solve this before it gets out of hand…” I showed myself to the people… there was a lot of questions from reporters and such, but all I could answer was that it was part of my new Admin status… which can be considered true, though I left it at that as I didn’t want to go into full details. I also announced the plan Zuko had and it seemed to agree with everyone. “Thank you.” I called out to all the people, so glad people were actively agreeing with me. With that done Nobodies and workers alike began remodeling the empty lower parts of the castle. WIth that done Joy pulled me to the side to offer some options. “So, are you going to fight tits swinging around like that?” He asked. “Really?” I asked. “Rarity gave me a magically enchanted bra to keep it all from hanging out like that. But why do you ask?” “It’s just, A, I came from your heart, so what you think and feel I do if I don’t tune it out… and B, fighting in a female body is going to be different than your male one. I don’t know this is already weird enough for me. I mean, we’re the same person but not, we treat each other like brothers but if you’re talking technical you’re my dad, now mom, Jenny is my niece this whole thing is just… hard to wrap my head around. Our family has always been… bizarre, but now it’s even weirder.” “Has that stopped either of us at anytime during literally any of this?” I asked honestly. “But I understand...it is a bit weird.” “We’re already rather...taboo, all things considered. It’s like those old tales about gods who had kids with their own siblings, sons with mothers, brothers and sisters, all that crap and somehow those kids mostly come out alright. Mostly… Yeash…” “True, but at least we have a wonderful family here to support us through it all at least.” I said honestly. “Yeah…” “Joy?” Jenny’s voice called out. “Meep! Hide me!” He said, rushing behind me. “And...why are you hiding from Jenny?” I whispered curiously. “She’s gone a bit… well she’s knocked up Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo now… in short I’m next…” “Have you all tried talking to Jenny about this?” I asked worriedly. “We did, we agreed that to be fair we would all have at least one kid by one another… I mean I look likes dude but I do actually have my own hole down there now. Decided to keep the male look but also have female parts… and well, I’ve SEEN what she can do with that thing now between her legs. It’s both hot and scary.” “Ah.” I said. “Well...makes sense I suppose. But sooner or later your gonna have to go to her and suck it up...I’m gonna have to do that sooner or later.” “I know… but A, you only saw hers limp… and B, when hard… well I’m jealous and she somehow uses it better… I’m beginning to ponder if she was somehow practicing before all this?” “Joy?!” Jenny’s voice called out again. I sighed out. “Oh dear…” I muttered. “Well...tell her you can’t do it right now okay? Can’t be a pansy about it now can you?” “Can’t say no to it today either. Don’t ask.” Joy said, yelping as suddenly he was yaked by the tail. Turning around I saw Jenny- Nope! That’s my daughter, and that outfit is...is…. Nope! “Help me~” Joy whimpered as the stringy lingerie wearing Jenny literally carried him through a DTN… DId not need that image in my head...nope...not at all... “What the actual hell…” I sighed out. “Oi vey.” I muttered. “Hope Dorlu finds something about those fuckers...cause if there’s one thing I’m not going to let stand is what these assholes are doing.” I growled to myself while thinking about who could have done it specifically. I needed to relax. I headed back to the nursery where I spent time with the little ones. All my clones now also shared my new form so most of them were here overlooking the infants also, their mom's and such here also. I found Nancy, and in feral form began… licking her… not sure why. ’... Why are you licking me?’ Nancy asked. “Um...maybe you needed a bath?” I asked nervously. “I don’t...actually know...it just...feels right I suppose.” 'You gave me a bath last night.’ She said. 'So, gossip among the mom's is that you will be trying this swallow thing or something? I have to ask… is this about that snake woman you just married?’ “Um...yeah just a bit.” I said nervously. “I want to...ya know, share something special with her.” 'Yes… nothing says romance like swallowing one another whole and alive then spitting them up like living vomit later… I know you are big enough in that form to pull it off easy but how would you even prevent them digesting? Potion? Spell? Extra strength antacids?” “Well it’s a special thing about Naga’s.” I said honestly. “Eclipsa said it was a nice thing...and Donna explained more about it all so...for Eclipsa she has three stomachs, one filled with a healing fluid, the second being a...storage space, and the third actually being her stomach and...yes that part still sounds gross.” I explained. 'Well to each their own. If there is anything a Ventral can't do it's judge another's way of life, public and private.’ “And considering what Jenny is doing to Joy at the moment...yeah.” I said honestly. “But...glad to be here with all my kids…” I said gently with a warm smile. 'So what's your endgame in all of this?’ “What do you mean?” I asked curiously. “What endgame is there?” 'The point of your whole middle road of genders and typical parental roles. If you are both then you have to be a father and mother to all your kids. Sounds a lot harder than one or the other if you ask me.’ “It’s...better than me not being there to begin with…” I sighed out. “But right now...this is to maybe help me understand Zeke and Eclipsa a bit better...just want to make sure I’m doing things to make my family happy ya know?” 'Meh. So, any reason in particular you've begun to stick to me like glue since changing gender?’ “I’m a Den Mother, I care about my kids a lot.” I said. “And...maybe it also involves me...wanting to make sure you know that...you have a bright future ahead of you, a future where you can just...be happy with life.” ’I’d be happier if I was old enough to have a smoke after sex again….’ “You’ll do that when your older.” I said honestly. “But right now, you have your entire childhood to look forward to.” I placed her under my neck, she struggled but gave up, the softness of my fur making her sleepy. I began to sleep also. Cuddling her as sleep took us. I was in a large field. Grass everywhere. I was still in feral form, and nursing on me was five pups. Three had a dirty blond fur coat, two had…snake tails. I looked up, seeing sun blinded silhouettes of Zeke and Eclipsa, each holding kids also. I didn't speak, but was smiling as I felt their smiles too. I woke up, Nancy still under my neck…”Were those…” I muttered, thinking about my quick little dream. “Those kids…” I muttered, feeling like...they were my pups...maybe...they were all three of ours? The pups were obviously apart of me, the dirty blonde was from Zeke cause he had the same color and the two naga’s were Eclipsa...they were so happy...we were all happy. I kept thinking about that dream for a while. It just...stuck with me. The image engraving itself in my head… maybe I'm more like Eclipsa than I thought. Maybe I was never happy because I wasn't born as I was meant to be? Doesn’t really feel right cause I was perfectly fine being a guy, maybe it’s just all the hormones screwing with my head...but this is probably day three...I should mention this to those two next time I go there. I gently pulled out my finished wood totem of mom and put it down. “Hey mom...it’s me.” I muttered gently. “I hope you can see me….wherever you are…” I felt something touch my nose. Looking up, I saw her little totem was now looking like her...only tiny…. Like six inches tiny. “Hi Ben, my… the first true Den mother since… I'm so proud.” She said, tears in her eyes. I teared up a little. “Hey mom...how you doing?” I asked gently, so happy to see and hear her again. “Well at this point it's All a waiting game. Plenty of time, plenty...plenty of sex so can't complain much. So, what brought this change about?” “Well...I married Zeke and Eclipsa on...pure accident and then was...kind of explained why Zeke was kind of being an insensitive jerk...and then I was suggested to be both genders like Zeke is at the moment...and well...this all happened.” I said honestly. “Hmm… you're troubled.” Mom said, now taking a seat on my snout. “What's bothering you?” “Well...a combination of things.” I said. “Like if I’m thinking the same way as Eclipsa...my job...and that dream I just had...so short and yet it won’t leave me anytime soon…” I sighed out. “One of my council members brought up how it might be a problem if I keep blending my den mother instincts with my actual job...I screwed up and said something that involved like like three times.” “Honey,” she said, kissing my forehead. “It's natural. The Den Mother, like yourself, is considered born royalty. Like a queen bee. The best of the best of the den come from her, from you, it's natural to feel even those not born to you or your den are yours regardless. You are a king, an Admin, and now a Den Mother. In the end they are all the same thing, leaders, pillars that your domain, your den, relies on.” “But at least four groups are actively murdering each other in some blind attempt for ‘purity’...so many orphaned children…” I teared up, thinking it was all my fault. “Yes, children. Any mother worth their tits, especially a Den mother can't help but feel the overwhelming need to care for them, to feel responsible for their troubles. It's sad that we can not ever truly build or live in a perfect world. There is always some who suffer.” “I know...I know…” I sighed out. “But...that random dream I had...I was in a lush green field with five pups...most likely all five of them were a combination of me, Zeke and Eclipsa...those two covered by the sun but...I could tell they were smiling...has that ever happened to you?” “No… that is a Den Mother's true power. To see the young of hers that will be born. When is up to her, up to you. No others of our race aside from true Den Mother's like you can see that.” “But...the question is...I have both sets so...would that still count if hey were mine from a different mother?” I asked curiously. “Donna didn’t know much about both given...this never happened before…” “It's a possibility. Anything in this world is possible, so it's just as likely you are to see the young of those to be born from you but birthed by another.” “Was still breastfeeding them though.” I chuckled a little. “This is all...just so new ya know?” “Yes, new is often scary, but it can also be exciting. It's why I… did what I did that one time. Unbirthed you. Remember?” “Yes, I remember…” I shuddered. “Why...did you do that again?” “It's a way for us to be closer. I didn't conceive or birth you. I felt you might feel… distance if we didn't have a birth between us. Unbirth is the closest way for a mother and child to reconnect, for you are returning from where you first came from. Old surroundings and a sense of security and warmth not felt since before your birth return to you.” “And then I was actually born from you after a while cause of the whole...well me getting my soul back to begin with.” I said, remembering that when I had to bring my light half back. “But...I understand…” “I see you have your own worry with you.” She said, eyeing Nancy. “Yeah...Nancy is a handful...but uh...why am I kinda clinging to her though?” I asked. “Sure I wanted to be a better parent so she could be raised right but…” I said, not fully sure about this. “Just a little curious…” “It's normal. A pup that has a stubborn streak and a dislike of their mother is often the most watched. After all, if they grow up with that hate in them, they could turn on their den.” “And that’s not something I want.” I said bluntly. “I want her to be raised right...happy and carefree.” I said. “Not raised like how she originally was...always scared someone would be there to take her in...or kill her.” “Well, there is one way to fix a stubborn pup.” “And what would that be?” I asked curiously. “Cause right now...she’s losing her fights with her instincts.” “It's as hard on her, and it will be hardest on you.” “I really hope it doesn’t involve something super bad…” I said worriedly. “If she believes herself better off without her den… her family… show her what it is like without you all. Show her the fear and loneliness that not having your den with you can bring.” “Wha...but…” I wasn’t sure if I should even be able to do that. “I...but...I can’t just leave her…” “If she truly feels this way, you set her free and she won't return. If she can't handle it, she will return humbled, and likely injured. It's a hard thing to do, but it's the most effective.” “She’s just a pup…” I said worriedly. “And she’s only stubborn to me, no one else...I don’t want her to feel abandoned by everyone again.” “Then when those feelings surface again, her true desires will also reveal themselves.” “Should I...warn her?” I asked worriedly. “I...she should know at least right?” Mom shook her head. “If she knows it's a test, she won't take to the lesson or realization that she needs, and wants you.” I teared up. “God..this is gonna suck…” I muttered. “Any...place I should put her?” “The Forest of our people. She will see first hand how harsh and unfamiliar her new life is. She will realize she needs guidance. Plus, you can view from your Lexicon to watch her. You have that advantage over others.” “I know...I know.” I sighed out. “God...I’m so sorry Nancy…” I teared up, really hating this and not wanting to to do this. I opened a DTN, and carried her out into it. I placed her in the grass. As I was about to close the DTN… Nancy jumped back in, clutching my leg, crying. 'Please… please don't… I already lost one family…’ I teared up and nuzzled her. “You...have no idea how hard it was to do that…” I cried. “I’m sorry Nancy...I’ll always be here for you.” 'And I'll stop being a brat… I can't stand being alone…’ “I’m sorry...I’m so sorry.” I said while nuzzling her again, just wanting my baby girl to be okay. “But...your here now...I’m here for you my daughter.” 'thanks… dad...mom… this is already very confusing…’ “Either or is fine.” I said gently. “As long as you’re happy...I’m happy.” I said, hoping to never do that ever again even though she was literally gone for about five seconds. 'I'm pathetic huh?’ “You are not pathetic.” I said gently. “You’ve suffered through things...you lost your family once...the thought of losing your family again...I can understand not wanting that to happen again.” I said gently. “I should probably be called pathetic...this was literally the hardest thing I’ve done so far.” ’... It wasn't the first time…’ “The first time?” I asked worriedly. “What do you mean?” 'When I was little. Six or so, I had a family. We were poor, but happy. One day, some people broke into our home, and said they'd take the most valuable thing here… we had nothing of real value.. save for me, and my parents. Mom was...sold into prostitution, dad… killed and gutted for organs… and I was sold off into a… different kind of brothel… lost my virginity the same day I arrived. Abortion a year later… for my whole childhood, til I got older, and was sold again to an adults brothel… where I met Jenny's father five years later. They said I wasn't for sale… and he killed them, every last one. He helped me track down the scum who stole my parents from me… and killing them made me feel free for the first time ever.” I could only hug the poor girl and nuzzle her again. “I’m….oh god I’m so sorry..” I said, not knowing she had such a shitty life. ’I guess my past kept me from enjoying this second chance. I never even gave this a real chance, believing nothing would change.’ “I mean...you had some rights to given...some of the obvious things.” I said nervously. “But right now...you have a new family...a family that loves you and won’t abandon you...alright?” 'Thank you...uh...dad...mom...Moddy?’ “Either or.” I said gently while nuzzling her again. “It’s all good now.” 'Er...um… I'm kinda hungry…’ “Oh, sure.” I said while unzipping my cloak and fixing my shirt and bra so she could drink my milk. She latched on without argue or resistance. It felt nice, seeing her so… calm. I could only smile at how calm she was, also happy she was just feeling better in general. “This is nice…” Some others came and nursed. Including… ehehe…. Luna... “And...what brings you here as well Luna?” I asked her honestly, not fully minding but just curious. She popped off my teat with an audible smack of the lips, a drop of milk trailing down her lips. “I wanted to sample your new taps. You've done it with us enough that I had to try your vintage~” “Okay okay.” I chuckled a little. “What do you think?” “Sweet, thick like cream, warm, not hot, and has a faint vanilla aftertaste. All in all, an award winning brew.” She said, giving my boob a light slap, it's jiggle and bounce from the impact made me blush hard. “Please don’t slap those.” I said nervously. “They’re sensitive.” “You’ve slapped, squeezed and slept on ours. A little courtesy is in order.” She replied, a finger tracing around my tits… making my blush go redder. “Fine fine..” I said. “So...did I miss anything?” I asked curiously. “Twilight decided to move the infants to the bedroom, so we can all always be with them til they get older, and wants to convert the nursery into a little… baby factory~” Luna cooed. “Privacy, fun, and sex whenever we walk in. Sound fun?” “Oh boy…” I said. “Can’t wait for that to be a whirlwind thing…” I said honestly. “So...how soon would that whole...renovating part be?” “Dunno. Soon I hope. Oh, Zecora almost has that potion ready and Twilight wants to ask a favor of you.” “Cool and I wonder what the favor is.” I said honestly, wondering what Twilight would ask for. “Can’t wait for my first heat to...not be terrible, and I presume Twilights with the orphans?” “Her lab actually. She's still such a self learner.” Luna said, fondling the breast she was sucking from. “They're so soft yet so firm. No wonder the little ones all flock to you.” “Yes yes I know.” I chuckled a little. “Glad you like them Luna.” “I now understand how my sister was a lesbian for so many years. Of course being bisexual means more fun when it's present. Well, I guess you should go see Twilight right now.” Luna said, releasing my boob and picking up some kids, giving them all a big hug. “I will look after these little monsters. Rawr!” She said, the infant giggling at Luna. I could only smile in joy as I got up and fixed my clothing. “Alright, thanks Luna.” I said, leaning over and kissing her cheek as I headed off to Twilights Lab. On the way I wondered what Twilight wanted. She's never asked for anything before so this was going to be interesting. I arrived, her lab was very...sciency. She was in normal clothes though. Looking as pretty as ever. “Hello Ben.” Twilight said. “Hey Twilight, how are you doing today?” I asked politely. “I'm doing good. I wanted to bring up on something Donna said about this whole swallow and all that other stuff.” She explained. “Did she have to tell literally everyone?” I frowned. “Yes she did. Be glad I'm not Rune.” Twilight giggled. “You see, in your form that resembles humans, our race of ponies, etc, it's impossible to swallow another whole unless a spell to make you rubber or a spell to shrink the swallowed is available. But your feral form could easily pull that off.” “Listen, it was going to at least be a one time thing with Eclipsa…” I frowned. “Just to know if I actually like it or not...not have it be something that I’ll be bugged about by basically everyone.” I sighed out. “I know. But you can't lie, it's interesting, which is why I am offering you a practice trial.” I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Sorry, but no. I wanted to at least do it once with someone that has actively tried suggesting it, I.E. Eclipsa, I don’t plan on doing it anymore than that. I know you find it interesting, and ‘practice’...but no. Also the only reason why it would work with Eclipsa is because of her Naga biology, so there’s that.” “I know. And that's why I said practice.” She said, a flash of purple making me blink. When my vision cleared Twilight… Was like Eclipsa… a Naga. “I met with their Twilight and as it turns out transformation spells mixed with alteration spells makes me biology wise have the same inborn abilities as her.” “Did I not just say no?” I asked honestly.. “But you look very pretty as a Naga Twilight...well you look pretty no matter what race you are but still.” “Oh you are such a stubborn wolf.” She said, hand on her...hip? “How am I stubborn when I literally gave you a good reason as to why I don’t want to?” I asked honestly. “Would you rather I have this ruined for me before Eclipsa gets a turn, or would you rather I have it be a pleasant surprise if I do enjoy it my first time?” “Fine, but what about after. You seem sure you won't want to do it ever again.” “I don’t know if it’ll be a one and done thing yet cause I haven’t experienced such a thing yet. Have you ever actually done this before?” I asked curiously. “Also, that’s why I said I don’t plan on it.” “... once.” she said. That was surprising. “Spike once ate a titanium ring of my moms and it got stuck in his belly. I shrunk, cast some protective spells, and went in. No surgeon can break dragon scales. It was odd but… also kind of nice in there, in a squishy, slimy way. Kinda like being on another bizarre world. His heartbeat was, at that size, a thunder of sound and actually didn't worry me. Getting out was easy, a teleportation spell got me out without issue. Never did it since then, but this just brought up some old memories.” “That is very interesting.” I said honestly. “But…” I sighed out, Twilight knowing full well I’m trying to find the right words to say so I don’t either hurt her, pussy out and just agree with her, or just going with the simple ‘no’. “I mean...I can bring up Eclipsa has had more experience with this...but I think it mostly boils down to I’d rather not have ‘practice’ ruin it all if that makes any sense.” I said honestly. “This is a brand new thing I’m willing to try, and Eclipsa brought it up, and given how she really wanted to do it, to her two new husbands...ugh, I’m just rambling at this point.” I sighed out, my ears flat against my head as I was just honestly upsetting myself at the moment. “It's alright…” Twilight said, shifting back to her normal body. “I guess I expected this… was just hoping for a surprise for once… even with the threats and all, life has been getting… predictable.” I was mentally screaming at how literally everyone I know constantly guilt trips me, curse you my big heart. “Is there...anything else you want to try?” I asked, Twilight hearing the sad whimper in my voice as I felt like crap for upsetting the ones I care about. “Hmm… there's one thing I'd like to try with you… aside from what I just tried…” “Literally anything so I can stop feeling like crap and being guilt tripped please.” I said. “You know I love you all till the ends of reality…” I sighed out. “Okay… then can I place some...vibraters in you...analy…?” “That...I can at least do.” I said. “But let’s...at least draw a line...nothing too overly big cause duh, and...let’s try not to play ‘how many vibrators can my amazonian wife/husband can fit in her ass’. Are those two things okay?” I asked honestly. “This is a first for me, don’t want it to get to outlandish scales.” “Yeah. I just planned on using some egg vibrators, they aren't too big… and it will make that ass shake really well.” I rolled my eyes. “Is my ass really that great?” I asked honestly. “I know you can probably bounce bits off of it but seriously.” “That's an idea for later.” She said, hugging me. “And at least try and have fun with something you don't think you'll like. You never know what you might truly enjoy til you try it and embrace it.” “I’ll give it a try.” I said. “Let’s all be glad I’m willing to try instead of saying ‘no’ a lot.” I said honestly while hugging her back. “Love you Twilight.” “Love you two.” She said, grabbing my ass and squeezing my cheeks, making me jump, to which she managed to support me as she kept gripping my rear. “Huh, now I see why you like us in this pose~” “Excuse me, super strength when?” I asked worriedly. “Cause seriously, I must weigh a ton here…” “Yes but I still have some Naga strength from the spell. It will wear off in an hour, till then you are as light as a baby to me.” “Ah...so...to the bedroom I suppose?” I asked sheepishly. “Sure,” she leaned in close to my ear. “If you are up for it I got a strap on to use on you while those vibrators are inside your tail hole~” She whispered in a hot tone of voice. “I’m still working through a lot of things...let’s not do two new things at the same time…” I said nervously. “I’m sorry, but...not fully used to it being there yet.” I said sheepishly, blushing like mad. “Hmm...fine, but at least let me taste you down there.” “That...I’ll allow.” I said sheepishly. “It’ll...be something...” “Good~” She said, lightly biting my lower lip and pulling gently. “I’m looking forward to seeing you shutter~” “Glad your happy Twilight.” I said lovingly. I was panting heavy. Those vibrators long since came out and my new baby tunnel still soaked from orgasms. Twilight laid back proudly as I cuddled up to her. Female orgasems...are WAY better than male one...so...much...better… My ass is still shaking even. “Had fun?” Twilight asked, wrapped an arm around me. “It was something...that’s for sure.” I panted while nuzzling Twilight happily. “But I had fun.” I said while hugging Twilight happily. “Now you'll know how we feel after sex. Imagine when there's someone filling that hole~” She teased, poking my nose playfully. “Jeez...your all going to abuse this new power aren't you?” I asked. “As much as we can.” Twilight admitted. “So, how's afterglow feel?” “Feels great.” I said. “But...let’s not go overboard alright?” I asked nervously. “hehe. For now.” She said, kissing my forehead. “Now, what next~” she asked, embracing me in a tight hug, purposefully shoving my head between her knockers. “That’s up to you cause...my first thought was dashed because of my size…” I blushed a little. “Hmm.” She purred, petting me… dang it tail. “Well, how about if I figure out a spell we can all use, so we can screw properly, how about an old fashioned orgy?” “That would be nice.” I said with a smile. “Got to make sure I’m still the head guy...being a woman is nice and all, but I’ve still got some small amount of pride in me being a guy darn it.” “I believe as I was eating you out you did call yourself a 'thirsty doggy’ right before you orgasemed?” “That doesn’t count, and I was literally experiencing my first female orgasm so shush.” I pouted. Twilight gave a chuckle at my expenses. “Well you are a girl now also. Besides. Gender doesn't matter in the end anyway.” “I know I know.” I said while nuzzling Twilight. “But...I should probably check on the orphan...make sure they’re all alright.” “Hi.”Twilight and I jumped, Looking over and seeing Player floating just a foot from us away. “Took a while to find your realm.” “Uh...hi.” I said sheepishly while using a big enough blanket to cover the two of us up. “So...why are you here?” “To train you with code still. Also why are you covering up?” “I mean...we’re both naked.” I frowned, which was true given the fun me and Twilight had. “But cool, someone actually wanting to train instead of wasting everyone’s time.” I said, still thankful about Ashe and the little tidbits I learned but seriously that entire thing was a waste of time. “Oh? That? I don't have a gender so I typically look passed those things.” Player said. “Nudity, sex, male, female, all just parts of the physical.” “Well...alright.” I said. “But I should...probably wash up and get dressed before going with you right?” “If you want. Makes no difference to me. I'll be in your training room.” They said, leaving in a string of code. “Well...that happened.” I said while getting up from the bed. “Good thing I learned how to wash up properly…” I muttered while grabbing my clothes. “Thanks Twilight.” “No problem. Next time let's make it a three way~” “Can’t wait.” I said before heading off to the showers to get cleaned up before my training. Washing off felt great. Somehow a shower in this body just felt… better. “Don’t know why everything feels better...but eh...oh well.” Once I was cleaned and clothed I headed to the training room where Player was. “Alright. Unlike Lord, I am going to try a different approach.” “Actually being a teacher and teaching me how to do things instead of making me waste months doing literally jack all wondering what he wanted me to do?” I asked. “As you can clearly see I will never get past that fact.” “I am going to pull what I like to call a Cript.” “So three things..actually being trained, which he never did when I learned Humanity and Psychopath powers which might not matter at all anymore, have it handed to me, or I fight an unknown amount of enemies while using said ability to try and learn it...so which one?” I asked. “I will implant the information into your mind. From there you can practice with it without issue. As for those, well Cript was training Eclipsa at the time so he did not have the free time then.” “To train me with Code or to train me in Humanity and Psychopath that I’ve had for god knows how long?” I asked. “But sure, that sounds...a little annoying but hey if it means I won’t accidentally blow myself up cause of it than sure.” I said honestly. “Alright. Now I do warn,” Player said, raising a hand up. “This will hurt.” A small beam of his code his me in the head… and my brain, skull and flesh was begging to tear open, pressure the likes of which the ocean depths held no candle too. Things I didn't even know existed, so much information sent into my brain. It was like I could see everything down to it's tiniest detail, and then some. I hit the ground, clutching my head and screaming. Blood tears flowed from my eyes. “Why does this always fucking happen?” I muttered in severe pain. “Seriously...fuck, can’t this shit ever be painless for once?” I groaned, wondering why practically everything like this always has to hurt like a bitch. “No one ever said power or knowledge was painless.” Player said, my head suddenly felt better...normal. I looked around, and everything I saw had… numbers. So many number… but, I understood them all. Like seeing everything and everyone for their base foundation and structure… “So, you see it all now?” “Jeez, am I a Master Builder from the Lego Movie now?” I asked honestly while making a rag and wiping the bloody tears from my eyes. “But yes, yes I do.” “Good. You already crafted a cloth without thinking.” “I mean, I’ve made random things with magic before.” I said honestly. “Seriously, original explanation of Code makes it sound like worse Magic.” “While magic can do much, only code can transform an entire realm effortlessly. And keep it all stable, even if it what you are making has no sense.” “Can’t wait to literally never use this ever.” I said honestly. “Cause when you have so many powers, you just forget you can do certain things.” I said honestly. “So, now I can actively use Code without having to remember at least eighty different things...now I just need to learn what the hell it’s used for.” “Everything.” Player said. “Allow me to demonstrate.” They said, raising a hand and formed a small solar system, and enclosed it within a glass sphere. “A whole solar system, three planets teeming with life, all within this glass sphere.” “Cool...and now I need to figure out what my specific brand of Code can do, cause that’s the general part.” I said honestly. “Cause you said I have a special thing with my Code that I have no idea about.” “Yup. Now then, I will say the name of something, or someone, and you will be crafting it, or rather, spawning it in with code. Understood?” “Sounds simple enough.” I said while getting up. “So...what first?” “First. Toxins scrubber.” “What kind?” I asked. “There’s plenty of them out there.” Player smiled. “Smart. Do you see my head, see how there is a single line of code streaming through it that does not belong? That is the one I am imaging. See that through the code and spawn it.” I looked at the code he was thinking of for a moment, before raising my hand and out appeared the specific type of toxin scrubber he wanted. “This it?” Player nodded. “Next, a person…” They grinned. “Andrew Ryan.” I looked at him for a moment. “But uh...he’s...kind of dead? Wouldn’t that cause some problems?” I asked nervously, remembering my first visit to Rapture with Jenny. “You are an Admin. Death, life, they are just different displays and stages for which life exists. To you, they mean as much as a mosquito to a hurricane. It's easily changed, erased, or reworked.” I looked a bit concerned. “But...death is a thing people can’t stop, even Admins right?” “While admins can die, anything in your realm, within your reach here can be immortal if you wanted. With just a snap, all the misery of the world wiped out, evil people become the humblest and kindest people and for as much as they know, that is how they have always been. To be an admin is to be above the common death, pain and suffering from within a realm. Because yours will always be much worse.” “Can I at least ask the person if they even want to come back or if they want to stay wherever the hell they are?” I asked honestly. “Cause just...bringing back a dead person can be pretty rude to those that wanted their rest.” “Up to you. You can bring them back and they and all around them would have no memory of their death to begin with. If you want to do it that way, go on.” I looked a bit concerned. “Well...I was there when he died...he said he had a long run so…” I said, Player knowing I’m still new and thinking reversing death to those that actively wished for their final rest to be disrespectful or worse. “Then ask.” Player said, waving their hand as heavenly gates irradiating a calming light appeared. “Heaven, hell, any afterlife if under your domain as an admin. Everything and anything within your realm is yours to control, change, alter and master at the flick of your wrist. The powers of an admin are rivaled only by Deletes. And Belief.” “Oh hey, something new.” I said honestly while looking at the gates. “But it sounds like ‘Belief’ is something new and special instead of what might come to mind.” “Hm… mortals pray to God's. God's pray to Admins… so what do Admins pray to?” “Ah, I can see how that might happen.” I said honestly. “Good to know...so just...walk up to the gates and knock?” “Spin kick them down for all you care. What's the afterlife going to do to you?” “Have people actively attack me?” I asked. “I’d rather not piss people off ya know.” Player rolled their eyes. “No pride as an Admin I see. Well that might be a good thing at least.” “You know, I’m not a person that actively believes he’s above everyone because he can do everything, that’s retarded and gets you people that can and will want to actively murder you.” I said honestly. “But people already want to actively murder me so what the fuck do I know.” I shrugged before walking over and just knocking on the golden gates. “Hello? Anybody home?” “...You do know...nevermind, these aren’t the actual gates of heaven, just a quick thing I made to make a point.” Player said, snapping their fingers as the false gates vanished. “Sorry, but personal experience has taught me, when someone who is very very strong makes you a door, it normally leads somewhere you have to go to.” I said honestly. “Happened with Cript, Lord, the old King of Nothingness...you get my point?” “Fair enough. Next up, is something a bit more interesting. Create your own, original Nobody, something that is yet to exist or does not exist period within your realm.” “Well...that would be a bit weird cause I don’t fully know all the Nobodies cause I’m pretty sure some are still hiding from me.” I frowned. “But...if you say so.” I said before turning to my imagination, which is bad to some extent, to try and come up with a thing that wasn’t just stupid. I thought about all the Nobodies that existed, and started to think about all the things that didn’t exist...before something in my head clicked for a moment. “Wait a minute…” I muttered before thinking harder about it, Nothingness started to form as...something appeared. It was humanoid in shape, but it didn’t have any defining features other than Nothingness Thorns were wrapped around it’s entire body like mummy bandages. “Hmm…” I said while summoning a Dusk...only to see the thing shapeshift into the Dusk perfectly...then I swapped it with a Berserker, and it copied it as well. “Right...so I have made a new Nobody that hasn’t been made before.” I said while dismissing the Berserker and seeing it go back to its original form. “Now...what to name you…” I hummed. “Well...your a doppelganger...not sure to what extent at the moment so…” I tried to think of a name for this thing. “Why not Echo.” I said as the thing bowed at me. “Good enough. Now, something a bit simpler.” Player said, leading me over to a window. Down below there was some of the city around the castle, and a noticeable empty slot of land. “Lookout passed your world’s edge. Can you see the edge of your world?” “I mean, I’m already noticing the empty slot of land.” I frowned, looking around for the edge of the world. I spotted it in the furthest distance, a literal towering wall of Nothingness thorns rising from the ground so far out there. “This is your realm, your world. Now, make it bigger.” “Um…” I muttered. “If you say so…” I said while taking a deep breath, slowly trying to push the boundaries of the world outward. “This is gonna be a little rough…” “Think of the landscape you want. Mountains? Deserts? Frozen forests, vast deep oceans? What divides them? Connects them, what lives there? Grows there, is there? It’s all up to you.” “I know...but I already have problems with crap like that to begin with.” I said. “Took me a bit to even make a doppleganger for christ sakes.” I muttered while slowly making more space, thinking of doing this with one piece at a time as I slowly went in one direction, making a mountainous region, filling it with creatures that could both live on all elevations, to filling it with plant life natural to the area’s and even new plants that were able to survive the harsh upper regions because I let my mind drift on any finer details as I just envisioned the beautiful mountain range. “Good. You have a decent hang of it.” Player said. “Now, something a but more… interesting.” “Interesting?” I asked, half paying attention at this point to make sure nothing bad happens. “Admins have a very different way of getting to know one another. Rather than speak, often times they read the others code, and it will tell them everything Important about them. Their ideals, their hopes, their goals, their memories, and their intentions.” “Oh boy, can’t wait for that to have awkward connotations.” I said, given my current form it would be rather strange for others that wouldn’t normally have context. “Even if they can see my memories...it would still be a little weird.” “I will be your example. Read my code, and see what kind of person I am.” I looked at him, my eyes glowing a faint green as I looked at Players Code, wondering how the hell I’m going to learn so much from so little. As I was looking, seeing his code, The world around me went dark. Suddenly I was in a darkly lit room, a computer screen as the primary source of light and the silhouette of a person working on it. I saw they were playing Undertale, pacifist run, the scene changing to them watching others on different route, AU comics, the game and it's world forming into a total obsession for them while the figure grew more and more hollow. The scene changed, the silhouette reading books on dark magics while also reading books about the brain. Then, them working on a chair. It was akin to an electric chair, strange symbols and handmade electronic parts mixing together in it's design. The chair was then finished, hooked up to their computer through many wires as they crafted from pixels an off color version of Frisk… players body… they opened Undertale, sat in the chair, then, turned it on. Their body twitches and spasms with the high voltage, the symbols glow as do the wires to the computer. Finally it stops, the silhouette limp as the pixel body on screen begins to move, then, starts the game. I was back in front of Player now, breathing heavy. “Well...that was...something.” I said. “So...all of this...because Undertale?” “I became what and who I am now because of my obsession. Lord found me, and I learned what I really dropped myself into.” “That’s definitely something.” I said honestly. “Glad to know all of...that.” “We all have our stories. Written or not. Now then, that is the important stuff. The rest is easy and will come as natural as breathing to you in short time.” “Cool.” I said. “Now it’s mostly just practice.” “Yes. Lord always wants others to learn the hardest way. Well, I'll be off. Good luck.” Player said, leaving in a wave of code. “Cool…” I muttered. “Can’t wait…” I sighed out. “Shit...I’m gonna need to retry all the crap Agamemnon taught me in this new form...well...at least I know what I need to do for a change.” I rolled my eyes. “So...what next on my to do list…” To be continued... Author's Note So uh...yeah, this happened. As the title said please don't hate me, this is a new thing me and Bio are doing please don't hate me, criticism is still fine.
Nobody does some heart searchingI was overseeing the development of the orphanage and the school, thankfully it being a lot bigger than necessary for all the kids but I thought that was fine. “I hope all the kids will be okay…” I muttered, fearing if I went out to help the kids someone will have a problem with it even though my instincts as a Den Mother were screaming at me to be with them. “Looks like all we will need now are teachers and some security.” Luxu said. “Yeah…” I said, still concerned for them all. “Jeez...my instincts as a Den Mother is making me slightly freak out for them all...Mom...when I finally got to talk to her...she said that my Den mother Instincts and being a King were practically one and the same based on Dire Wolf Culture…” I said nervously. “Hmm… I guess I can see that.” Luxu said. “Kings, good ones, care fiercely for their people, mothers care for their young, and even the young of others. Yeah, I can see it.” “Yeah…” I sighed out. “But when I believe everyone of my people are my children...well it can get a little weird.” “At least with that mentality they will know you care. So, any thoughts on how to resolve the public's opinions on the dire Wolves adopting equin children?” “I mean...I can literally just show them a good majority of my family and kids.” I said. “Like...I am walking proof that all the races can be happy together.” “While true we did do some digging and it seems the primary issue is the living conditions. Most of the dire Wolves wishing to adopt are from the Primal tribe, which live more in caves than actual homes lacking running water and other such modern essentials. They believe the simplicity of their races Homeland better than modern conveniences.” “Ah…” I said. “That might be a problem. What about the Modern Tribe? Aren’t they open to adoption?” “They are but not many, even in humanoid form they can have many in a single litter so most with kids either can't afford or hunt for the needs an extra kids brings. The Primal tribe can have dozens of young and still hunt and gather the needs for themselves and moreso.” “Right…” I said a little worriedly. “That makes sense...I suppose that’s just what happens when you live in a modernish time, hard to go back to amish country ya know?” “A healthy mix or middle ground would be a miracle right now.” “Well...again, I’m open to just adopting them.” I said honestly. “Or am I not allowed still?” “It would be political suicide. While yes you have resources out the ass, adopting all those kids with no blood ties to you will just make the nobility in title alone. The kingdom just got rid of the old nobels, we don't need more that wants to make fortunes any way possible.” “I know...I know.” I sighed out. “Still glad the ‘nobility’ is gone.” I said honestly. “But...is there anyone else that wants to adopt these kids or is it just the Dire Wolves?” “Even with all the other races willing to adopt it only puts a few hundred of the thousands of kids in need of homes in homes. The dire Wolves would take in the vast majority “ “Gonna have to get a representative from the Primal tribe to talk it out…” I sighed out. “Not to mention I have to talk to Rainbow and a Dire Wolf representative to basically have it be ‘nature is a thing, deal with it’.” “Nature for them is practically built to be controlled. It's in their genetics, their magic. They can't ignore the need to control it any more than you can ignore the need to protect children.” “While that’s all fine and good...they can’t control it everywhere, nature is a thing that exists.” I said honestly. “So question is, where is the middle ground going to be?” “I’d still like to know why they’re trying to claim they can do this to Dire Wolf Territory to begin with.” I said honestly. “What, are they trying to move there?” “While yes it is the Dire Wolves territory you unified their whole world as well as the Direwolves world, territory or no, this is all one kingdom. Legally they can get authorization to control the weather, but only if residing residents agree.” “And so far the residents don’t agree.” I said. “And now here’s a good question, are the ponies actively trying to move there? Cause if so then there might be a middle ground, if not then that won’t help Rainbow’s case.” “They do in fact. We have plans on mixed race villages of Equines, griffins, deer, Minotaur, ect. Our goal is to get the races together all in accepting and open minded villages so proper total Integration of all races can be achieved.” “That’s nice.” I said honestly. “But…” I sighed out. “I don’t really know to be honest. If it was just simple pony towns I could say that only the towns in that general area could mess with the weather...but then there’s this and...well actually not all races actively screw with the weather.” “True. Actually your Twilight and some others are digging deep into Equin history. We believe a minimal weather control for crops of long drought periods could be a decent middle ground.” “That would probably be for the best.” I said honestly. “Now...I might have...a lot of personal bias against messing with nature given both my original world and my new homeworld so…” I said sheepishly. “We will figure it out.” “Yes we will.” I said while still overlooking the construction. “Have you found the leaders yet?” I asked, hoping they found those Purity bastards. “Yes but with their numbers and somehow even Keyblades it makes acquiring them difficult.” “You’d think things would actually be simple for once.” I said while rolling my eyes. “But do I need to send out clones to help the search? Cause I can.” “Even with clones, you are still one person. Stop trying to brute force your problems.” “That hasn’t stopped other people from doing it.” I said honestly. “But fine fine.” I said honestly. “I presume you’ve met Echo?” I asked Luxu, talking about the new Doppleganger Nobody. “Yeah. Pretty weird.” Luxu said. “So, think this murder is going to strike again soon?” “Yes, I’m pretty sure they will.” I said. “But...I still do not understand why people are doing this shit. Like...they’re fine with me being King, they’re fine with me having literally every race under the sun as my wife, but when other people do it it’s apparently wrong.” I said. “Like, I know I’m strong and would kick the shit out of them but what the fuck?” “What makes you think they are fine with you?” Luxu questioned. “If they are attacking the public they want your attention. Likely as a distraction, and this many murders so close together is a way to distract.” “And the distraction is...what? Wanting to actively murder my family?” I asked. “Listen, if they want me to publically maul them that’s fine...well I mean, the ones that are actively trying to beat people, not the kids or elders.” “That. That is why you can't work on this case. You don't think on their level you just want to kill them and that's that. Look, Gods forbid but even if they do harm one of us, we have to bring them In. ALIVE and unharmed. We have no idea how many agents they might have in the City, or even in the castle for all we know. Last thing we want is them proving their points right by having their deaths have their sick and twisted meanings met.” “They are killing my people for no reason.” I frowned. “They at least need to be punished for their actions.” “And they will. But for now this case is highly political. Our actions can and will shape how the people see us as leaders. Last thing we need is to show bias. If we are to catch them, it's alive and preferably together. They want to start a mass multi race war by first placing fear into the people. Their next move will likely be to have to go more military, and regrettably be racist in our actions towards the people who are specifically affected by their actions towards us. They want to make us mad… and desperate.” “Well they got at least me upset.” I said honestly. “But what do you think we should do my General?” “I doubt they'd risk their own agents to make these murders. Most likely it's a third party. Disposable, they don't have to explain anything to them, and they won't ask questions.” “Wonderful…” I muttered. “Well...let’s hope there’s at least something that can help us learn who the hell these mercenaries are.” “Well they have Keyblades. Worst case scenario they are rogues from Daybreak.” “And I will have several problems with that.” I said. “Like...all the problems.’ I frowned. “Well whatever the case when we manage to find them we will have to wonder and ask how they vanish without even leaving a trace of magic.” “It better be a good reason.” I frowned. “Cause if it’s not then I’m just gonna be more pissed.” “If they're mercenaries then their only reason is the money. We could actually try and buy them out of their current contract if they are greedy enough.” “And given how much money I have most likely.” I said honestly. “And...the fact I can just actively make money.” “Try not too. We need an stable economy.” “I won’t make money if it’ll hurt it that bad.” I said. “But I’m sure they should be acting soon…” “As much as you will hate it, but perhaps some bait is in order?” I really wanted to tell him no...but I knew he had a point. “And...who would...be the bait?” I asked slowly, trying my best to follow this even though i didn’t want to. “The fastest source is Dorlu and his wife. A mixed race couple, so we know Dorlu can keep her safe. We just have to make sure they fall for it.” “Alright...Dorlu might not like it though…” I said honestly. “But...let’s hope this won’t end poorly.” “Dorlu’s reflexes plus with Fair Game in his hands, I’d be more worried for these hired thugs.” Luxu chuckled. “True.” I agreed. “Dorlu.” I said, my voice holding the order of summons for my Gambler. He appeared in a flutter of cards. “My king… Heh, these cards make my old ones feel like Sticky notes.” He said, juggling several cards of Fair game. “So, what do I owe the honor of a direct summons?” “Sorry to ask this my friend, but...Luxu came up with the idea to...use you and your wife as bait to find the criminals.” I said sheepishly. His cards as well as him all flinched, the cards falling down as he failed to grab them, then raised a hand as they all floated back to him into a perfect pile. “I assume this plan is to catch the killer, or killers of the mixed race couples?” “Yes.” I said nervously. “And believe me, we have utmost faith that whoever is doing this will get their ass beat by you with Fair Game but...I can’t help but feel terrible for asking this…” I sighed out. “While I admit it’s a good idea, it’s risky and, heheh. A Gamble. What makes you think they’d target my wife and I Luxu?” “They have a pattern. First off is the fact each murder happened within their own homes, while the children were in bed. Secondly we know that if this is for political and public instability, then they would likely try and take out a member of our group, both to show their employers they are capable of taking on larger targets, likely to earn a higher pay.” Luxu explained. “Makes sense…” “But we will make damn well sure that neither you nor your wife will get hurt.” I said. “The moment they appear, we will apprehend them.” I said to Dorlu. “Alright. I want to tell Crystal at least.” Dorlu said. “I have a feeling she won’t be happy about this.” I sighed out. The set up was simple. Dorlu and Crystal would be within their home, the living room, to make it easier, or more tempting for these criminals they left a window open and made sure their kids were asleep. Luxu and I, I came cause damn it I want to catch these guys, while Luxu and I watched from three building rooftops down, having a good view of Dorlu and his wife through the open window. “This better work…” I muttered in hopes this will work. “These bastards need to be stopped…” “It likely will. I don’t doubt they can see us.” Luxu said, resting casually on a small tools shed on this roof. “That’s what will bring them in. They are fast and confident. Seeing we are watching the bait will make them want to test their metal.” “Hopefully their that dumb…” I said. “God...this is so wrong…” I muttered sadly. “It’s not a matter of intellect, it’s a matter of pride. When they see we are calling them out on their skills, they will come to try and correct the issue.” “Alright…” I said. “But...I hope nothing bad happens.” I said, hoping to god nothing stupid happens that’ll ruin it all. “Hmm… They’re taking it.” I looked back at Dorlu and Crystal quickly, hoping to catch the rotten bastards. I heard a metallic clunk as I turned around again, Luxu using Lunatic to block a strike from a woman in a red hoodie with a Starlight Keyblade. “So there is two of you.” He said calmly as loud noises and a good side of Dorlu’s house wall was blown off, he and a male with a Starlight Keyblade and a matching set of clothes to the woman were in combat. I wasn’t entirely sure who to help first, my fists clenching as I literally had the two right here. “Who are you?” I growled, baring my teeth ready to beat the shit out of the lady here. “Marry. It’s nothing personal, never is. Just business.” She said, managing to match Luxu blow for blinding blow. “What are you being paid?” I asked. “Four million a head, ten if we take out one of you higher ranking lot.” She said, side stepping all of Luxu’s thrusts. “Fuck you’re good.” Luxu said, genuine surprise in his voice. “It’s a lifetime of practice.” Mary replied. “Who’s paying you? Poor people?” I asked. “I can double that rather quickly to stop all this crap.” I said bluntly, but the scent from Mary was...familiar for some reason. “Hmm...Have proof? My husband and I don’t take up a job without proof of payment first.” I literally pulled out a bag that was, from what my code said, at least double what they were paying the two after all the murders. “Right here, I know the exact amount, you can spend a while counting if you call of your husband...and you smell familiar for some reason.” She stopped fighting, actually making Luxu trip backwards to his ass. “Woah. Not bad. You speak the criminals language. Cash.” She said, walking over to the edge of the building. “Hey Barry! They’re paying us like Triple to stop! Cash is here!” “Ah hell yes!” Barry yelled, warping up to his wife… he smelled familiar too. “Okay seriously, both of you smell familiar...like someone I know.” I said with a frown. “But who were your previous employers?” “Bunch of purist groups. They each were chipping in to pay us to cause you some hell.” Barry said as Marry was counting the money. “Cool.” I said. “So…” I started while noting they both had brown and blonde hair that I could barely note. “Why would two Ventrals take up petty crimes like this?” I asked, having a feeling if Marry was keeping up with Luxu of all people they had to be someone special. “How did you know we are Ventrals?” Marry asked. “Three things.” I said. “First up, you two kept up with two of my council members, no average merc can do that.” I said. “Two, your scent is way to familiar for you not to me a Ventral given two of them are my daughters and one of them is my new husband and the other is my new wife...and three, Jenny made mention that Ventrals really like money.” I said honestly. Marry dropped the money, suddenly shaking me so hard and quick I could feel the whiplash on each shake. “OHMYGODDOYOUKNOWWHEREMYSONIS?!?!?!” She said in a loud, fast passed tone too quick to properly make out. Thankfully I’m married to two Pinkie Pies so I knew full well what she said. “Lady please calm down. Yes I know where your son is, I know Zeke, he’s a good friend, and I just got married to him a few days ago.” She stopped, looking me over. “... Well now… now this is rather awkward.” “Crap we were against Family!” Barry cursed. “It’s Maryland all over again.” “I mean, you already were given I’m both the father and mother of both Jenny and Nancy.” I frowned. “Wait...what?” They both asked, tilting their heads in unison confusion. I then began explaining everything to them… by the end it was scilence from all parties. “So… My son is now also half female…” Marry started. “My brother Josh is as well, had a son, now daughter who our son is also married too…” Barry continued. “And now you married them on total accident and my step sister is also your infant while my niece is also your daughter…” “Great, now we’re the Micongals.” Barry said. “The who?” Luxu asked. “Crime family like us, only heavily inbred…” “I was going to say I have video footage of the wedding Jenny obviously took.” I said honestly. “But yes, all of that is correct, and because of..certain things, inbreeding isn’t a problem.” I said honestly. “Oh thank god.” Marry said. “So… did God save you as well then?” Barry asked. I summoned a Clone that was my male self to help give some context. “Yes, God saved me a long time ago, and gave me wonderful Nothingness powers because I asked nicely. Then through trials and tribulations I’m not the King of Nothingness, this used to be my male form...but now I’m a Den Mother Dire Wolf because of a curse that happened.” I said honestly. “I can take you to him after I’m done dealing with the Purity people that actively hired you.” I said, thankful Code helped me read minds so I know full well who specifically hired them. “Okay then. God saved us too.” Barry said… wait what? “We were caught off guard too, but his only rule was not to partake in the chaos that day, and along with Zeke, Marry and I were bunkered in a little getaway house. Then this tank driving madman comes out of nowhere and blasts us to hell… or so we thought.” “God came to us, offers us powers and a new place to go. We asked for powers to make us the greatest thieves. Leaving no trace wherever we go, able to pop in and out of anywhere.” Marry continued. “Got these Keyblades as part of working for those Purists.” Barry said. “Reminded us of those games Zeke liked so much so we accepted.” “And I can’t wait to round them all up like the racist bastards they are.” I said. “And Zeke is going to...be a bit happy knowing you two are alive and well. But your actions here...well that might not be good.” “Oh Zeke will understand.” Marry waved off. “It's what we do. He...she… they should know. It's what we do.” “Pillage, steal, murder and torture all for the money.” Barry said proudly. “Crime pays, and our fees are the best around.” Marry added. “And yet your family has been actively moving on with better lives.” I said honestly. ”You two must have wished for something outside of all of this right?” I asked, hoping to just end the line of murder and crime for this family who had a second chance. “Hmm… I'd want to be close to it though… maybe a gunsmith.” Barry thought aloud. “Translator.” Marry said. “I already knew twenty different languages from earth and nineteen more since all this.” “That’s perfect.” I said. “Something, anything to stop all the crime...this isn’t Earth anymore, you don’t have to continue doing all the crimes and running from everything anymore.” “Awh but it's so much fun.” Marry laughed. “You’d think, but it’s not.” I said honestly. “Second chances don’t come often...and I’m pretty sure Zeke would be happy to know his parents aren’t running anymore and living the lives they wish they could have.” I said. “And believe me, I’ve been told enough how Ventrals wish they could have a better lives rather than having to run everywhere and do bad shit just to get by.” I said, having Jenny, Zeke, Nancy and I’m pretty sure some others told me about it. “Guess it would be nice to be able to actually settle down and not have to keep a gun under the pillow and barricades on the door.” Barry thought. “We could finally have real pets!” Marry added happily. “There’s a lot of things you could be doing.” I said. “And all you need to do are a few things.” I said while pulling out a contract. “Cause if Jenny has taught me anything, always have things made in Writing.” I said while handing it to them for them to look over. “The contract is a lot of things, but in simple terms you two will have a better life, but you will have to serve under me for the community service cause duh, telling me who specifically hired you both because also duh, and a bunch of other things that basically benefit you...as long as, if you do still want to do criminal acts, you have to follow the Payback clause.” I said. “The payback law is...well basically like Sly Cooper, where a criminal actively hunts down bigger and stronger criminal organizations and either steals all their shit and throws them to the local authorities, or beats the shit out of them and drags them to the local authorities.” I said honestly. “Sure.” Barry agreed. “Sounds Interesting.” Marry said. “Cool.” I said while pulling out a pen for the two of them. “Just sign on the dotted line.” I said with a smile. They signed, handing me back the contract and pen. “So I take it our first task is to hand over our prior employers?” Barry asked. “Oh yeah.” I said. “All of them. Straight and simple, and if you want to help me hunt them down that’s also fine, but they all have to be alive and mostly uninjured.” I said. “Alright.” Marry said, standing up and stretching. “Be back in ten or so seconds.” She said, warping into thin air. Seven seconds later she was back, the purist leaders all knocked out on the ground before her as she reappeared. “There we go.” “Cool.” I nodded. “Thank you so much, now I have a feeling you want to know which world Zeke is on?” I asked curiously, knowing they would love to spend some time with their son. “That would be nice, yes.” Barry said. A door appeared close to the group. “Right through that door is the world Zeke is on, and if anyone asks how you got there, tell them Ben sent you.” I said with a nod. “Oh I hope Zeke finally gave us grandkids.” Marry said. “About...well he’s adopted a lot of kids but actual birth kids? Well...I’d say about…” I thought for a moment. “Twenty or so with all his wives before me, Zeke and Eclipsa got married.” I said honestly. Both parents froze. “How?” Barry asked. “Zeke has like...I don’t know, ten or so wives just to his name?” I asked. “Equestria has Herd relationships...or just Harem’s for human terms.” I said honestly. “And...well technically at least two of the kids are his when he was a woman due to...one of his wives doing things as punishment.” I said honestly. “You’ll have to get the story from him, it’ll make more sense.” “... THAT'S MY BOY!” Barry screamed, kicking down the doors and running through them. “...Oh he is going on be impossible now…” Marry said, facepalming before inspecting me up close. “So… you and my son then… have you two… shared each other yet?” “No, we have not.” I said. “Zeke is...going through some things at the moment. Being told he has to work through a lot of PTSD.” “Hmm… well I'll give you this.” Marry started. “If he as a female is anything like me… just be careful. The only reason I had three kids is because Barry has a pelvis of titanium...literally…” She said, following her husband through the door. “Well...didn’t know that.” I said honestly. “But...that’s already happened before with my thousands of wives.” I said honestly. “But cool, Luxu, let’s get these four bastards to the castle before they wake up.” “On it.” Luxu said, placing all four on his shoulder and opening a DTN. We Interviewed each and when they got troublesome we had the Bard, Brook, enter, doing what he does best as they spill their guts before he did. They had in total fifty agents in the city. Each was quickly arrested and we began to plan assaults on the world's they escaped to that held their own armies. “Alright, so we have four worlds to deal with. What are the statuses of each of them?” I asked curiously. “I know both Red and Blue Spy, as well as Echo are doing well gathering info on them all.” “Armed, surprisingly well trained, some heartless controllers.” Dante stated. “Now, we have three courses of action.” “I’m gonna take a guess.” I said. “Either make more Echo’s and replace their commanders with them and surprise them all in a trap, have me waltz in and beat the shit out of everyone because I’m that stupid strong, or use a special spell to cage them all in Nothingness?” I asked curiously. “Well that depends on one thing. Do you want these people captured, or slaughtered? It's your choice.” “What is the status of any of the other races on those worlds they’ve dominated?” I asked curiously, that being the key factor here in my decision making. “The pony Purests and Minotaur Purists use the other races as slave labor mostly. Other uses include decorum or entertainment. The griffon and Zebras do pretty much the same save for one difference. The Zebras experiment on the other races like lab rats, and the Griffons… use them as an alternative food source.” Luxu explained, a sour tone in his voice at the end. I took a deep breath. “Well..” I said. “Do you truly believe they should all be killed? Or should we...split them in half?” I asked, wondering if I should just go down the middle and capture all that surrender and kill the rest. “First step first we have to save all the oppressed races on the world's. Moving them here while possible and not actually difficult we lack proper housing and farm space to make up for it. Also we imagine mass mental and physical traumas to be present so we also lack sufficient mental and physical doctors.” “For as big as this world is it's awfully small in the grand scheme of things.” Dorlu said. “Good thing I can just actively make the world bigger.” I said honestly. “And...I’m pretty sure I can literally make doctor's that can help them out both physically and mentally.” I said with some thought. “Hmm...this is quite a thing.” “Well, why not grant their wishes?” Dorlu asked. “They want a race war. I say once we save all the oppressed and untainted young from these places throw them all onto a single world and let them kill each other. Winner gets the world all to themselves from behind a planet wide cage.” “Perfect.” I said with a nod. “Just got to make a world that can fit them all after saving all the people…” I said with some thought. “I suppose you have people already at the ready to save the innocent?” I asked curiously. “Sonic and Genos are awaiting orders. Genos will take on their firepower solo, nothing he can't handle. While Sonic saves the slaves and takes their young.” Luxu said. “While morally kidnapping children is wrong I feel in this case we can make an acception.” “The parents...they would want their children to be happy in an untainted world.” I said, being a father and a mother. “Their parents believe their twisted ideals best.” Dorlu pointed out. “Not always is a mother and fathers ideals best for their young.” “Shit…” I sighed out. “Well...let’s hope for the best for the children.” I said. “Genos, Sonic, go in the name of your King, save the innocent and burn all who oppose you.” I gave the order the two council members felt even if they weren’t in the room. Genos and Sonic were successful. Sonic's speed allowed him to get all the slaves and untainted young here in just a day. Genos had burned down so much of each world that from space they looked like giant balls of charcoal. Finally I threw all the surviving Purists on to one barren world, letting them keep their weapons. As predicted they immediately began killing one another. I locked the world away behind a barrier of Nothingness, and Luxu placed a Reflect barrier. They even tried to escape the Reflect barrier will implode the planet. I immediately began crafting a new many sets of towns, cities, villages… and at some point… everything got mixed together. What came out is best described as organized chaos. The world was a mix of close together and even mixed terrains, Forrest, cities, flatlants… but somehow it worked. Even the Dire Wolves who lived in the caved found the chaotic mix of nature and modern cities quite pleasing. This meant that also the wildlife of both worlds was everywhere, fast adapting. Needless to say many of the Primal Dire Wolves found a sudden job of keeping them at bay and acquiring plenty of food for themselves or markets. It seemed… to just work. “I am...so glad that this all worked.” I sighed out thankfully. “This should not have worked…” I said, now thinking about my upcoming meeting with Rainbow and the Dire Wolves about the weather. “Maybe this was needed.” Luxu said. “To quote Time Belle, 'Equestrians lost a true connection to the world when we began using our abilities to control it all rather than what was just needed.’” “Yeah.” I nodded. “Can’t wait to hear Rainbow’s argument and then immediately tell her I have a better idea.” I said honestly. “Rainbow would probably be upset because of that.” I said, not really having met Rainbow on a casual setting. “Oh speaking of which, how is she, Spike and their kid?” I asked, remembering Spike and Rainbow had a kid and that Spike’s actual mother went out to probably hug the hell out of him. “Last I saw Spike and Rainbow Dash were both living in Cloudsdale still, visiting the castle and Twilight's old library for chats and memories.” Dorlu said. “Cool.” I said. “I have a feeling they’re also showing their kid around the place, telling them about old stories.” I said with a little smile. “Wish I could do that with my kids “ Dorlu said. “I mean...I don’t know much about your past besides what happened on Knowhere.” I said honestly, remembering my first encounter with him and then remembering Rejection basically burned the place to the ground. “Well. To put it simply… my world is gone. Went out much like Daybreak did.” Dorlu said solemnly. “Oh...well that sucks.” I said worriedly. “I’m sorry to hear that…” I sighed out. “I was little when it happened. I only remember bits and pieces. Nothing to mourn really.” “My Lord.” Consequence said, appearing. “Miss Rainbow Dash and Dire wolf Endreguars are here for the meeting.” “Thank you.” I nodded. “Well...let’s hope those two won’t be arguing when I get there…” I muttered while heading off to the meeting room the two will most likely be in. I arrived and the two sat across one another at the table. Rainbow was...different. her once rather short and messy hair was now long and we'll brushed, she wore a pink top shirt that said 'MOM’ on it and a skirt. The dire wolf Enderguars was as expected, in Primal form and sat up properly. “How are you two doing today?” I asked politely as I sat down in my chair that was thankfully big enough. “Good.” Said Rainbow. “I am well.” Said Enderguars. “Shall we skip the idle chatting and get to the point?” “I vote Yes.” Rainbow answered. “Alright.” I nodded. “So, who wants to make their argument first?” I asked curiously. “We've actually changed our original arguments.” Enderguars said. “Yes. Given the new arrivals and new... geography… we've reached a certain level of agreement.” Rainbow added. “Oh?” I asked curiously. “What have you two figured out?” “Simply put, food is at an all time high. We need more farms for both crops and livestock.” “Our territories forests hold the most fertile land readily available.” Enderguars said. “Even the flatlands while all a jumble, hold invaluable fertility for plants and creatures. We are willing to allow something we are referring to as Artificial Nature Farming to transpire.” “Basically we plant mass crop fields and help raise the wild life like livestock to better produce for the people, including weather for proper watering and ideal conditions for max output.” “And In return the ponies allow us to adopt their orphans so long as we have at least one section in our caves with modern conveniences, and we are allowed to keep the prey we hunt as well as free roam of the lands to keep traditions alive.” “Perfect.” I said with a smile. “My original plan was for the weather to take its natural course, but if there was something like a drought or something you could have actively made it rain to help out.” I said honestly. “With this course of action both and all races can more easily integrate so long as each has some dependency on the other, and food sources are a good motivation.” “Yes, food is very important.” I said. “I’m glad things won’t escalate badly.” I said honestly. With that taken care of rather well I found that our public bathroom, as in for bathing, was done so I decided to take a dip and oh god this feels amazing… Twilight said she actually had minerals and such imported so it felt like a natural hot springs. “Aw~, this feels nice.” I sighed out, loving the bath after a long few day. “Nothing like a nice warm bath after a long time as king.” I said happily, not needing to be half female to know how good warm baths are. “Mind if I join?” Looking up I saw Joy… blushing hard as they had their whole body wrapped in a towel. “Sure.” I said. “How you doin Joy?” “A bit embarrassed…” They said, climbing into the bath. I could see their breasts were already swelling with milk. “I uh…. Said some stuff…” “What did you say?” I asked gently, having a feeling this was a sensitive topic. “And hey...your pregnant already.” “Yeah… what I said wasn't bad just... embarrassing.” “Did you say you enjoyed it?” I asked curiously. “Enjoyed is an understatement…” the placed their face in their hands. “I uh...kinda screamed for Jenny to make me their whore then let her… basically screw me every means possible…” “Oh…” I said slowly. “That’s...that’s a thing.” I said. “You see, this is...kind of why I don’t entirely want to...ya know, do that cause of that part.” I said nervously. “Maybe it’s a matter of pride, maybe I’m just scared I’ll be treated less...fuck if I know.” I said honestly. “No but that's it. I knew what I was saying, I wanted to say it! It's a whole different experience on the...erm, receiving end. It's like I know and feel I can trust her enough to say and mean what I said, and let her have her way with me...and I did… and while I am not gonna ever speak of what happened… I can say proudly I have no regrets about it.” “That’s good Joy.” I said. “You have more trust in others and yourself...I am sadly still missing trust in myself.” I said honestly. “I mean I would not say no to anything she did to me. Ben when it was over I could not walk, my everything felt both pure Bliss and sore as all hell and there was so much Cum on me my fur was soaked and sticky and I LOVED it!” “I think your...maybe going a little overboard with the descriptions I don’t want to know about.” I said honestly. “And not helping me to be perfectly honest.” “The point is.” Joy continued. “That I never expected to enjoy what I just went through so much. But I guess since I loved and trusted Jenny I felt alright in the end letting it happen. Actually had a lot of fun. I still identify as a male, but with both sets I can have a broader view of things than if I was only male.” “I know I know.” I said honestly. “It's something special you shared and new things can be nice.” I said while patting his head. “Har har.” Joy said, swatting my hand away. “You said you didn't trust yourself, so just trust them. You can do that at least.” “True.” I said honestly. “But...just don't want to be...ya know, treated any different given...what I might say in the heat of the moment...cause one thing could lead to weird things.” “Ben, people say stuff when having sex. When Jenny and I first did it, she said 'redden my rump’ and that meant, spank her on each thrust. I did. Still doesn't mean I don't fear her at times when she's in a mood or horny.” “I understand.” I said honestly. “I know it’s something special and I need to learn that...maybe I’m a little scared I don’t know.” I said. “But the heat that I’m hopefully going to pass through won’t be too bad…” “Well Zecora is making you that potion.” Joy added. “So, how did that meeting go?” “Shockingly well.” I said honestly. “Given how...the entire world has changed and it all somehow worked in that jumbled mess...they figured things out.” “That is good. So, when are you planning on visiting Zeke and Eclipsa again? Been a bit already. Figured you two should try the hardest to make this work, right?” “After the bath.” I said. “And something to eat, I’m starving...and yeah I know...but Eclipsa’s gonna flip when she sees this I just know it.” I chuckled a little. “Bring her some of homes meats to try. That might stave her off long enough.” “Might as well bring a gift...oh but what meat should I get them? All of them are too good.” I huffed, not sure if I should go fishing or hunt down the giant turtles again. “Try a sampler platter and let them choose what they like the best.” Joy offered. “That’s true…” I said honestly. “I do have all the meats ready if memory serves…” I thought, hoping they’ll like my cooking. “I have been practicing my cooking...hopefully it’s good.” “You've been cooking? Since when?” “Har har.” I rolled my eyes. “But I’ve been cooking, I’ve kept it a secret because...well I wanted to surprise everyone.” I said. “You know, a family dinner that I made for them all...it’s the least I could do for being a shit husband and father half the time…” I sighed out, even though Joy knew full well I was both an excellent husband and father to all my wives and my millions of kids given we sometimes share memories. “You are way too hard on yourself.” Joy sighed, slipping to their chin into the water. “So, how's your boarding school/orphanage coming along?” “It’s getting along great.” I said with a warm smile. “The kids are feeling better thankfully, all the renovations are getting finished and...I hope they all get better soon.” “Same. At least this way we can ensure they are all raised properly.” “I might...go a little overboard. Being a Den Mother is hard sometimes when you think everyone’s your kid sometimes.” I said honestly. “I know. I heard your speech in between ninth and tenth orgasem with Jenny.” “Um...I’m not entirely sure if that means you came when I talked…” I said sheepishly. “Proper wording is a hell of a thing.” “I mean I just had the ninth orgasem when you had your speech, and watched while getting rutted the tenth.” “Alrighty then.” I said honestly. “So...what do all the other girls think?” I asked curiously. “I have a feeling Frisk and Chara were...a bit touchy feely because of your sudden change huh?” “Chara laughed her ass off. Frisk was okay with it and Asriel was supportive given they went through the same thing.” “Makes sense.” I said. “And what of the other girls? You have like...two hundred right?” I asked. “Heh, most didn’t care, some found it odd and others were a bit speechless. All in all a healthy mix I guess. So what’s your plan when visiting Zeke and Eclipsa and the initial talk and such is over?” “No idea.” I said honestly. “Its...gonna be a thing that's for sure. I'm sure Eclipsa would try to jump me cause of...obvious.” I said honestly. “Heh. Maybe. Hey, remember that game you used to play when you were three? You’d ask yourself what would you do if you got what you wanted most, normally a toy or candy?” “Yes I do.” I said honestly. “Why do you ask?” “Well, let’s play. Pass the time and stay in the bath a bit longer.” Joy said, closing their eyes in thought. “So, what do you want most, and what would you do with it?” “Well....I already have everything.” I said honestly. “A loving family, godly powers...what would you do?” I asked curiously. “I would want to live old enough to be a grandparent, then embarrass my kid and in law with stories from when they were young and silly.” Joy laughed. “That would be funny.” I said honestly. “So, you been trying to catch up to some game series since we have pretty much them all or so? I’ve been trying to play the original Fallout… it’s hard…” “Been playing Kingdom Hearts 3...and fuck Xehanort being a 'misunderstood good guy', he openly murders people and tries to murder people just to be god.” I frowned. “Heh, well it is an E rated game series so can’t have the bad guys to completely bad. Remember Maleficent helping in Kingdom Hearts two, granted it was in a cutscene, still.” “Fine fine.” I said. “But there are a lot of games I still have to play.” “After Fallout I plan on trying out some games I never even heard of.” “There are many.” I said honestly. “I should also try that Sekiro game. Heard it was good. “It’s made by the people who made Dark Souls, good luck.” Joy chuckled. “Been playing Tf2, so much craziness. Seems anyone with internet in the multiverse can be in a match.” “Simple games are fun.” I said honestly. “Yeah. So, want to watch some transdimensional TV?” Joy asked, taking their hands out of the water and clapping, a TV descending from the ceiling before us. “Wonder what's on?” I wondered. “Hopefully something good.” “Voice activated. Just say something. It’s multiDimensional so literally anything will and is on.” “Ah…” I said. “Um...how about Regular Show.” I said, hoping to finish that good show. The TV flashed on, and showed a list of Many...many...MANY shows all bearing that name. “Some are alternate universe versions of it. Saw one once where they were all human. Was the same thing, just humans and the world was all the same. Wasn’t too bad, but didn’t have the same charm.” “Okay then…” I said. “Where's the Original Regular Show here…” “They are organized by Realm and Reflection ID’s. Just look for Any starting with Af9, that’s ours, yes they had the one God made too, and reflection number 4480.” “Alright then.” I said while looking for said thing. I found it and started a random episode, the short, rather plan into scene starting before the show. “Remember when this show first aired? You didn’t think it was gonna be any good.” “This was a good show.” I said. “First episode was a bit meh but it was great.” “It got better as it went on.” Joy said. “Shame most shows didn’t get the same treatment. You know, if everything we thought fiction is a real world, then isn’t this show also a world we can just visit whenever?” “Yes...yes it would.” I said honestly. “That would...be a bit weird.” “Eh, that’s life I guess.” Joy shrugged. “So, King of Nothingness, Admin of Nothingness… and now, Den mother to a world and spouse to Kingdom Hearts/Admin of Hearts and Admin of Grey. Expect any new titles to pop up?” “Worlds best dad mom?” I brought up. “That might happen.” I said honestly. “What would you think would be a title I might get?” “Dunno. Frankly I just wonder what Exactly Spoiled is up to? We don’t exactly know what she is doing or what she is capable of right now… what’s her plan?” “Does it really matter?” I asked. “Hello, this 'war’ isn't a war. Its gonna be a one day one sided beatdown unless something happens in three years.” I said honestly. “Spoiled is gonna die, if we wanted Zeke could just point us in the right direction and we can be done with the whole thing.” “Yeah...then why aren’t we? What exactly is stopping us? Thinking about it, it should be easy but… for some reason we’re just putting it off?” “Maybe because were too focused on our own lives to care? We wanted to prepare for it...but now we over prepared for it.” I said honestly. “So either someone bigger is making us wait, or something that's actually bad.” “Still, so what is Spoilds endgame? We know Core taught her things for some time before he was killed, and now is back but on our side, and then there’s that Kid she and Kexez had… where is it? We haven’t sensed anything along it’s presence since it was conceived.” “Now that would be bullshit if someone stopped us sensing it.” I said. “Unless it’s masked? What could mask that much power?” “What could mask a part of reality not knowing about a thing that openly exists in it?” I asked. “I have a feeling some bullshits being pulled and whoever is doing it is sneaky enough...so maybe the Nazis cause you can write those fuckers doing anything and no one cares.” I said, not knowing who's stopping us but knowing they are basically a none issue cause of power leaps. “Still, what’s the kid going to be like? A mix of Kingdom Hearts, Nothingness, and the Purest Darkness… what do you even call that?” “No idea.” I said honestly. “But...oh wait, Zeke can just find the guy cause you can't hide someone's existence.” I said honestly. “Or they can and at that point why even bother anymore?” “Dunno. Does it even have a heart? I imagine it’s birth would be something we all feel, so I guess it’s not born yet.” “Maybe. Who knows right now.” I shrugged. “There's a lot of questions that I'll ask Zeke when I go see him soon.” I said honestly. “Think Zeke can answer any of them?” “He can answer some things.” I said honestly. “But what things I don't know at the moment. “What about Eclipsa?” “I hope she knows something.” I said honestly. “But I should also meet some people, like the Foretellers or John given I haven't officially met him.” “True. Hard to believe we rarely know our allies huh? … Hey, so Zeke never took Cript on that offer to join in the family huh?” “Does he even need to at this point?” I asked. “Even though he is technically a part of his family by me and Eclipsa.” I said honestly. “True, still kinda wonder. Yours was a Dire Wolf, Eclipsa’s was a Naga… what would Zeke’s mother have been?” “No idea.” I said honestly. “But I made a totem of mom. She's happy with who I turned out to be.” “Oh cool. Where’s you put it. I wanna talk with her sometime.” “Well she's just a small totem, but she's in my cloak. I'm curious if she'd have liked to take a bath with us…” I wondered. “Given were all female at this point.” “Maybe but if it fits in your cloak she can’t really soak, mostly she’d be swimming just to keep head above water.” “True.” I said. “I should make an actual statue of her...she deserves it.” “Might take a while but will be worth it.” Joy agreed. “If she’s basically possessing a statue of her image can she eat or feel?” “I have a feeling she can at least feel.” I said honestly. “And if she can eat...well I hope she'll like my cooking.” “If she can do as she is when she is here then I wonder if that means majority of the time she can be here? Would be nice for everyone to meet her properly.” “That would be wonderful.” I said with a smile. “Den would be so happy to meet them all.” “Yeah. I do owe me even having a body to her anyway… you’d think Cript would have done that but she was able...kinda wonder what else she can do?” “What do you mean?” I asked curiously. “Remember? I was just in your head and heart, and when mom found out she gave me a body, with just a wave of her hand. Pretty sure that is not a normal Dire Wolf thing.” “Oh yeah.” I said. “That is true...wonder what she could also do...and what do you want to do to make it up to mom?” “I don’t know what I can do to repay her… What would be the best way of saying ‘thank you for bringing me back to life and giving me my own body’?” “Uh...no idea…” I said honestly. “Maybe we could ask her?” I suggested. “No, then the meaning behind it isn’t as good. It’s like finding the perfect gift… what can work… what can work…” “Spend the day with her? You know, go out to our home world...wait no the world is so changed it might be weird…” I sighed out. “Hmm… Well, I am pregnant now… I could name a pup after her? I know if the girls ever named a pup of ours Joy Jr, I’d about cry... “ “Out of joy or out of embarrassment?” I asked curiously. “Bit of both. I mean, giving your kid your name, while kind of odd, I think it’s meant to show expectations, like handing down a torch to the next generation or so?” “Well I’d rather not have my kids have the expectation of being me of all people.” I said. “They can do better than that.” I said honestly. “But...kids are and will always be my pride and joy.” I said, knowing being a Den Mother made my love for my children go through the roof but I still cared about every single one of them. “That and the nickname of a kid named Ben Junior would be Bj.” Joy snickers. “That’s also not going to happen.” I huffed. “None of them will be called Bj.” We shared a laugh and watched three more episodes before I started to get out. Thankfully a full body sized hair drying got me dry and fluffy. Rarity had some pajamas for me, not like the nightgown from before, rather a part blue and purple set of Pajamas with the Nobody symbol on them. Putting them on I went over to the bedroom, and what I found made me...really happy. The infants were all here also, sleeping with us, ontop of us, or in small cribs next to us. “Like it?” Luna asked, holding Braig. “Twilight moved all the infants here, something about old hard managed often having one large bed to share with family and a seperate room for more… adult needs of sleep. That’s what she is renovating the old nursery into. Figured this would be best so both you and the kids can sleep well given this mornings waking incident.” I smiled happily. “I love it.” I said warmly. “And hello little Braig.” I said lovingly, not fully sure if Braig saw me like this. ’You broke Nancy, now she’s all nice.’ He said as I took him. “I didn’t break her.” I said. “She wanted to be with her family, and she’s finally happy to show it.” I said honestly. I snuggled between Luna and Rarity, who was sleeping with Nancy on her arms as I helped Braig. I felt so happy like this. When I laid my head down it rested on a Belly, looking over I saw it was Pinkie’s. She gave me a wave before resting her arms behind her head. This was nice… more families should sleep like this. “I love you all...my wonderful wonderful family…” I muttered, tears of pure joy falling down my cheeks as I was just so happy. “We love you too Ben!” Pinkie said, huddled next to Twin.Luna got a large blanket to cover her, Rarity and I all up and Pinkie and Twindid the same, slipping it under my head so I could still rest on Pinkie’s belly. This was so Comfy...so peaceful. I was falling… Darkness was around me...then I saw it. My Station of Awakening. My Male and Female form back to back with one another both Gripping No Heart. I landed softly at my feet. “Huh...wonder why I’m here?” I looked around. “Maybe my light and dark halves want to have a talk about my sudden change?” I wondered aloud. “Hello?” I called out, hoping someone would answer. Someone walked seemingly into existence out of thin air, almost examining me. They wore a dull blue hoodie, jeans and boots. I couldn't make out gender. “And...who are you?” I asked curiously. “What are you doing here?” They said nothing, still examining me from afar before summoning a Starlight Keyblade. “Cause of course…” I sighed out while summoning No Heart. “What do you want?” Still saying nothing, they raised their Starlight into the air, light forming at the tip as a Keyhole formed above us. “Excuse me I have several problems with what I’m seeing here!” I said in a panic. “That’s not right! How can Keyholes be in people’s hearts the fuck!?!” I looked at the keyhole above us. They shot out a beam of light, the sound of a lock turning echoing as immediately pathways of stained glass shot out in all directions into the surrounding darkness. “Are you going to tell me what the fuck is going on now?” I asked in a panic, fearing what’ll happen to my entire person based on this sudden event. Still saying nothing, they turned around, the large decorated doors from KH one appearing before then. They opened them and entered. “Cause you know...let’s not explain who the hell you are or what the fuck you did…” I said while following after him, not entirely caring about what’s gonna happen but I really need some answers cause I’m confused as fuck. I entered the doors and… was in my castle? “Okay, cause this is what I need, my dreams to be filled with more concern and confusion than my normal day being awake.” I rolled my eyes. “Seriously, the fuck…” I muttered while walking around my castle. “Hopefully there will be people here to help explain…” I muttered. I arrived in the kitchen where… myself as is now, and my male self sat across one another at a table. The two...me's, were still, unblinking as they looked at one another. “Um...am I interrupting something?” I asked nervously. The looked at me, moving in uniformed unison. “Which matters most?” The female me asked. “Pride?” The male asked. “Or acceptance?” The female finished. “And why can’t I suddenly have both?” I asked honestly. “And what’s with this sudden event thing? Am I missing something or are you going to not tell me anything?” I looked at them both. “Please, I’d like a little context instead of just randomly answering questions that make no sense.” I asked. “Also who was the person that just...unlocked my heart or something? Seriously the fuck is going on?” Can the mind answering questions the heart wants answered? A voice spoke in my head… it sounded like… old king? “Excuse me old man, your supposed to be dead.” I said while looking around. “And how the hell am I supposed to know that? I have no idea what’s going on, and I’m expected to just know things?” I frowned. “While that’s basically all the time, now’s not one of those times.” I said, still so confused on what’s going and only being more confused and concerned as time went on. You walk a fine line between your reign of Nothingness and the heart of light and dark you carry in your chest. This line is strained more so recently. “Good to know me actually being happy for once only causes problems.” I rolled my eyes. “Cause I can’t fucking win ever apparently.” I groaned. “So mind asking me why the hell this is suddenly a problem now?” Unification. Never has Balance and Nothing shared this level of bonds. While Your body and theirs can handle each other's powers, your heart's lack such durability. So, they will be rebuilt, these questions you must answer carefully, for failure here, will cost your unborn their existence. You three must unify perfectly, less the unborn suffer. I growled. “Don’t you fucking dare hurt my children!” I barked angrily. “Even if they’re unborn they did nothing wrong damn it!” I growled, wanting to beat the crap out of the old man for even daring to threaten my children...even though they weren’t born or even thought of yet. “Also again, what’s wrong with having pride and being accepted at the same time?” [i[I am not, the culprit in this situation. Your powers are all so different, without a means to ensure they can be utilized also by one another, no kin or young of the mix can even be created. It's a matter of connection, not violence. “And yet Spoiled can have that happen and get off scott fucking free.” I frowned. Her child holds no heart. Balanced or no, Kexez and Spoiled are still Nobodies. That child will be born, for all it's possibility and abilities, without a heart. “Cause of course…” I sighed out. “Alright...so again, why is Pride and Acceptance mutually exclusive here?” I asked. “For a first question that seems a little weird don’t you think?” To rebuild your heart, certain traits must be determined worthy, and worthless to you. Which do you value more? The Acceptance of others? Or Pride in who you are? “Well...I wouldn’t be who I am without others...and I literally wouldn’t be here without others.” I said honestly. “Like seriously...if I were alone I’d either be dead or have gone insane…” I said, knowing full well that...I wouldn’t be at all happy as I am now a days or even alive. This was hard… and what does this even mean, pride or acceptance? Is it which I prefer or which I want or value more? “I really hate how you give me literally nothing to go on. It’s either acceptance of something I don’t know about, or pride in something that I don’t know about.” I said. “Can shit stop being vague for once and actually have some context for once?” I frowned. “Seriously, what’s wrong with both? It’s like having your birthday party but your parents are holding your cake and friends hostage telling you ‘which do you want, cake or your friends?’.” I frowned. You overthink things, why is that? Does everything have to make sense in order to accept it? “When it’s actually something important like this than yes.” I frowned. “You can’t just say ‘hey, if you get this wrong you can’t have the children you actually dreamed about’.” I said honestly. “I’m a mother and a father...telling me that I can’t be happy with those children with Zeke and Eclipsa is pretty worrying to me.” The mind of a parent is a worrying one. A mind that carries both worries of each is forever burdened with fear. These Questions will be, simply, inform each other, and yourself what kind of person you truly are. A Balanced heart belongs to a person who knows the kind of person they are, what they will do, what they can do, and can read others to know what they are capable of. “Well that’s great.” I said. “But again...why is acceptance and pride mutually exclusive here? A balanced heart would have both right?” In quantities. Here, you Pride yourself in your masculine male status, but you want the acceptance of all because of your new feminine form, the two wage war within you. If you can not make middle ground between the two, one must be tossed aside. “I’m not tossing anything aside anymore.” I said bluntly. “But both of them are pissy? Well let me hear it from their own mouths what they have a problem with.” I said while staring at the two. “You declared yourself the head male without even consulting Zeke beforehand.” The male me spoke. “You find peace and love in bounds in this body, a kindness and love deeper than you knew prior...and yet, you worry about the opinions of others over your own choices.” The female me said. “Okay cool.” I said. “So for you.” I said while looking at my male half. “I did, but then after some talks with Jenny and a lot of things happened so...I decided to give this a try.” I said while looking over at my female part. “I always worry about the opinions of others based on my choices. I’m an idiot, I do dumb things, and I’m scared I’ll push them away because of my decisions.” I said honestly. “But here’s the thing, I’m still half male, so I can still be the head male of that group, and I enjoy the love and affection I got with my family because of this.” I said honestly. “Both are important to me, I can’t have one without the other.” I said. “Pride.” The male me says. “Tell me, what pride did you ever have without others? Before God? Before your loves? Before your children?” “How much did you worry about others opinions before God?” The female me asked. “I didn’t have any pride, and I gave zero shits about what other people’s opinions were because I was a hundred and ten percent done with everything at that point.” I said honestly. “Cause when you blamed yourself your whole life for your parent’s murders for a long ass time...and a lot of other bad shit that happened...well you tend to lose things as your heart was slowly dying.” “A strong heart accepts others in their roles.” My male self said. “Zeke, like you, and Eclipsa, are still fathers, and soon, shall also be mothers, by claiming head male, tell me, do you know what such a claim would be?” The female asked. “Honestly, I don’t know what ‘other meanings’ it could have but when I said that I meant it with the intent of being the one that would be in front of them when something bad happened.” I said. “I would be their guard, I would protect them from whatever’s to come...protect their smiles.” I said, both halves of me knew full well I would rather die than see any of the people I cared about hurt. “You've read Equestrian history texts, surprised you can't recall?” The male me asked. “I have a million and one things to remember all the goddamn time.” I frowned. “Sometimes I can’t recall things, sometimes I can, I’m not perfect.” I said honestly. “And also, I’ve read this Equestrian’s history texts, it could be different in other realms.” I pointed out. “Then let us remind you. A Head male, in a herd, claims the children as their own, legally, would you take their family names away?” The male me asked. “No.” I said. “Also, to be perfectly honest, I’m pretty sure we can actively throw out that rule cause of the fact I am married to literally eight different races.” I said honestly. “So your point is...kind of moot at this point when you truly think about it.” I said honestly. The two looked at the table, a soft smile on each of them. “What's in names? Why do they hold power even among Admins?” The female asked. “I mean, do you want me to get philosophical or point you to Ancient Egypt where they had ‘Secret Names’ be one part of your soul?” I asked honestly. “Things only have power when we give them power.” The male me said. “Names are the purist example. What power does your name hold? Zeke's? Eclipsa's? To take a name is to take its power, and family names hold more so, because they grow with each person who it is given to. What will be your new family name?” The same and female me faded out like ghosts. You three have a task. A name for your bloodlines. What benefits you three? “I’d like to know why I’m suddenly being blamed for things when I’m actually happy for once.” I said honestly. “But I’m gonna have to talk to Eclipsa and Zeke about that.” Happiness can be found even in the bleakest of situations. It's your heart that needs to be corrected, not just for this union, but for this happiness. A life of misery and sorrow has made it weak, emotions still so distant from you will return, without a rebuilt heart, your emotions could do more hard than good. “Which should have happened ages ago.” I stated. “You know, when a lot of things actually were happening that were rebuilding my heart and emotions, but I suppose some people just completely skipped that.” I said while looking up at nothing in particular. “Jeez...barely been with Eclipsa and I think her fourth wall breaking is rubbing off on me…” I muttered. “So, what next after that weird questionnaire?” Identity. “Wonders.” I said. “Can’t wait to hear ‘oh your not yourself cause you made a decision that made you happy for once.’. Can’t wait.” I rolled my eyes, knowing full well there is something special about this whole thing but just aggravated that no answers were being given and I’m being treated as the bad guy here. “So...where do I need to go now?” I asked while getting up and heading off around my castle to see what room I need to be in for the next question. To your throne room. “Alrighty then.” I said while walking towards my Throne Room. “Can’t wait to be told what I’m doing wrong next when I’m actually enjoying life for once.” As I arrived I saw Jenny, Baby Braig and Luna with a large round belly standing there. All three hold closely to your heart, of them all, who holds potential for wonder? “All three of them.” I said bluntly. “And don’t you dare say that’s not true cause it is true. Luna carries a child that can be a wonderful person, Baby Braig still has a life to grow up in and be happy, and Jenny, even though she’s still young, she still has so much room to grow and achieve so many things.” I explained. “Now, tell me I’m wrong. I dare you.” I growled while looking around for him. You hold truth in your words, now then. The three vanished, and three adults appeared, all dire Wolves, one in a single sundress and hat. The other with blood soaked battle armor and barbed sword, and the third warped twisted and broken. Which of these three is your child? I looked at these three dire wolves, tearing up. “Does it matter?” I asked. “Just like Jenny...even though she wasn’t born my own...I treat her like she’s my own. These three...even if their not mine I would treat them like mine...and if they all are...I’m sorry something drove the armored one to fight and...the last...I’m so sorry…” I said sadly, not even needing to be a female to know I would feel like crap if two of my kids were either going through some bloody hell or being so twisted and broken I...feared I couldn’t save them anymore. “I’m...at least glad one of them looks happy…” I said, hoping the sundress one was having a good life. A unique answer, and we'll said. The three vanished. Finally, which is you? Which is who you want to be? My male, female and human forms appeared before me. “Why don’t the two just kiss and make up?” I asked honestly. “I know it’s weird, but I’m me. I am who I want to be, I’m not going to be forced to pick one or the other when I can and will show you I can do both and look amazing while doing it.” I told the old man. Confidence in your current form then? Well done. Lastly, one final test. “Cause that’s what I need.” I rolled my eyes. “Okay, am I going to have to fight whoever did that weird unlocking thing at my Station of Awakening? Also who the hell was that and how did they do that?” This is the first time ever a heart has had to be reconstructed. So, the Keyblade Starlight was given the task of opening your heart to rebuild it. The Starlight Keyblade is the Keyblade of beginning, it's tasked to read and understand the heart of who it wields til it decides if another is best suited for their wielder. But it's true power is the alter hearts, but only if needed. This is the first time it has done this in its entire life. “Well wish it appeared sooner when I only had my light half keeping me alive instead of my soul.” I said. “Where was it then? Or is the soul too far away from the heart?” While similar, souls and hearts play vastly different roles in the body. “I could be really sassy at the moment but mind telling me how?” I asked honestly, feeling like me being a sassy bitch to him wouldn’t help much. The heart holds memories and let's you express emotions, the soul carries those memories forever, and the stronger, older the soul is, the more power and will you can gather in both combat and in stressful situations of mental fortitude.[/i[ “And given that I haven’t had it for over ten years is a hell of a thing.” I said honestly. “But good thing I have it now.” Yes. Now, your final test. The room went dark, before me was Spoiled, and in my hand was No Heart. How far will you go, to protect? “Are you asking me if I’d kill her to protect my family?” I asked honestly. How many would you kill? How many corpses of those who'd attempt to bring harm to those you are for would trail behind you? How many mountains of the dead, dead by your hands would you make for those you'd love? “Honestly, it depends on the person really.” I said honestly. “Cause there have been those that have tried to hurt my family but became friends...but for Spoiled in this case she actively wants to see everything burn because she wants it.” I said honestly. “Let’s look at Core for instance...or the old ‘Suicide Queen’ that became my wife after she...kind of actively lost who she previous was because of magic.” I said honestly. So enemies become allies, and if that fails, death befalls them? “Not all the time I’m sure.” I said honestly. “There are some that can become allies after a certain amount of time and bugging the shit out of them for a long time...but then there’s also the people that just want to watch reality burn.” Then put your words to action. Will you spare her, or kill her? “If you say so.” I said before flicking my wrist with No Heart in it as a bladed shockwave rushed at Spoiled, knowing full well Spoiled has done nothing to prove she’s anything but a person that would rather see the world burn for her own pleasure than any actual reasons. As I saw her cut it half by my original swing I bowled over and slammed down on the illusion just to make sure she stayed dead. Your heart is nearly complete. One last action. Take Balance, and Grey And give Nothingness. And truly become unified with your partners. Two orbs appeared. One black and white, the other grey. “Alright…” I said while taking a deep breath and taking the two orbs gently, Nothingness slowly wrapping around the two gently and caringly like I was holding a part of Zeke and Eclipsa. As Nothingness flowed into the orbs Grey and Balance flowed into me… and it was quite the… influx. Balance felt like both nothing mattered and everything held importance in life, the whispers of darkness and the warmth of light. Grey made it all much more stronger, I felt my own Nothingness felt even more potent. “Cool.” I said. “And now...where’s the sudden side effect?” I asked, knowing there had to be something to make this less enjoyable. I also felt...Zeke, and Eclipsa. I felt them as if they were next to me... “Well...that’s also nice.” I said with a gentle smile. “Good to know it feels like they’re here with me...unless they suddenly are somehow.” I began to hear voices…. So many. They were...the hearts of others, and Keyblades.. All of them talking...many of them my wives...woah...woah… Oh god that’s Rune! “Excuse me there are somethings I don’t want to know.” I shook my head quickly, fearing what I’ll hear from Rune. I managed to tune that out, thanking that it was easier than I expected. I began to feel it all settle in, I felt both darkness and light, my nothingness and grey all danced with one another in harmony. Pondering something, I snapped my fingers, three Shadow Heartless appearing next to three Dusks… Sweet! “Alright this is going to be wonderful.” I said honestly. “Now...is that everything?” I pondered if I could also summon any Keyblade… I raised my hand, and a Fenrir appeared… In another Flash, Way to Dawn replaced it… Gonna need to learn things from Zeke on this. “That’s gonna be a pain to learn…” I muttered while thinking of all the other things I could do. “Hmm...so many things…” I remember once Zeke got a Heartless to hold a Keyblade… Smiling, I summoned a Samurai Nobody, and tossed Way to Dawn to it, it Caught it. Then proceed to swing it around a bit… Okay now that is cool. “This is gonna be fun.” I said honestly with a smile. I tried to flow some Grey into the Samurai… and it grew, now seven feet tall, dressed in authentic Samurai armor, and had six Katanas strapepd to it while wielding the Way to Dawn… Hell… Yes... “Oh I am going to have so much fun with this.” I said with a smile. “Now...what should I call you my newly promoted Nobody?” I wondered, feeling like this was a completely different Nobody at this point. The only word that seemed proper and came to mind was Shogun. I wonder if it can keep that Keyblade? “I’ll call you Shogun.” I said, given that the thing was a lot bigger and had the authentic armor and all. “Sound like a good name?” I asked. “Also...can you summon and dismiss your keyblade?” I asked curiously. It looked at Way to dawn, shrugging… Well that’s new. “Good to know.” I said honestly. “But glad to have you here my friend.” You three now share the powers of each other, a True unity between you three, Your hearts bound to one another, and one day your bodies will be shared. Your futures are unknown now. “That’s what they all say before I thrown into the future again.” I said honestly. “And our bodies will be shared huh? Lewd.” Hehehehehe. Enjoy your life, Betty. I woke up...Did the old king just call me Betty? Yeah no. “My names not Betty...dumb old man…” I grumbled while looking around to see where I was. I was in the bedroom, kids and loves cuddled up to me like a living blanket. It was heavy, but warm and rather comfy. Looking at a clock nearby it was four in the morning. Only been asleep for five hours or so. “Well...little bit of sleep is fine…” I muttered to myself, still happy to be my family here. I managed to wiggle out of that and once I was out, without waking anyone I headed for the training room. Grey and Balance, we all share one another's powers now, meaning whatever they can do, so can I… the only question is who’s moves should I try out first? “So many possibilities…” I hummed curiously, not really knowing any of Eclipsa's moves but remembering Zekes from his Absent Silhouette fight. I know Zeke can summon forth the Dark Guardian… I should be able to do that. “Well....lets try that.” I said while taking a breath. “Come Guardian.” I said while channeling my new powers to summon a Guardian. I let Darknes flow out of me, slowly the Dark guardian began to emerge behind me. I FELT it’s lower half like a tail wrapped around my heart. Wonder what it can do? Zeke can make it have Keyblades… can it wield my weapons?!?! “Hmm…” I summoned Lunatic and handed it to the Guardian, curious if it could wield it. “Can you wield this?” Nodding, it took Lunatic, covering it in a dark aura as it swung it, a dark shockwave sent all the training equipment in front of us flying into the wall, dark auras covering them making the leather melt and metal rust instantly… cool... “Okay then…” I said while raising my hand, thinking I could use light to reverse the effects or if I just had to get new stuff. It didn’t work, in fact all the light did was remove the aura, but the equipment was destroyed. Sighing, I wondered how this could be used in combos? If Guardian wields two weapons and I weld two that’s four of my thirteen weapons out at once wait… can Zeke and Eclipsa wield my weapons now… can I weld X… I can I wield Zeke? “So many questions.” I muttered. “But I have my drive forms to do this but a bit better...wait.” I frowned. “Can they also use my forms? Also how the hell do I get that Greatsword Joy used? The fuck.” I frowned, just randomly remembering that little bit where Joy got the Old Kings Greatsword and Armor and I haven't yet. There’s a lot of questions now… but first thing’s first… I grinned, holding out my hand and trying to see if I can summon X. “If I can then cool...even though I have my own X blade.” I said honestly, hoping this will work. It did, the original X-blade appeared in my hand… it felt so different from No Hear- ”AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! What the fuck!?!?!” I heard X’s voice scream in panic in my head… Agh! The headache!! “Dude can you shut up for five seconds?” I asked while rubbing my temple. ”How...In the fuck...did you summon me?!” “Because magic.” I said. “Also because I have Zekes powers cause...I married him.” I said honestly. ”That is not enough… Your… you Eclipsa and Zeke marged your HEARTS?! Oh...ouch, oh it hurts just seeing it, ach…” “Oh don't be such a baby.” I scolded the keyblade. Omph… Okay, okay… so, do you know what has just happened to not only you, Zeke and Eclipsa, but also your Realms?” “I know I have their powers and that our realms are connected but not fused together.” I said honestly. ”Look out the window…” I looked out the window. “If our realms were fused without my knowing I call bull.” I frowned, even if I was asleep I would have noticed someone fucking with my realm. The one thing my realm didn’t have is stars...there’s stars. ”You three by merging your hearts, merged your realms. Light, Darkness, Nothingness, and Grey, for untold amount of time had barriers to divide them… by merging your hearts, those barriers have been shattered like a rock through glass.” “How?” I frowned. “It shouldn't be that flimsy, and why didn't I sense this before?” "You three are ADMINS! It was weakened by your marriage, and shattered by your hearts merging. B, you were at the center of it when in that little dive to the heart to remake it.” “And what of Zeke and Eclipsa? I doubt they would have wanted this sudden thing to happen.” I said honestly. ”It’s an Admin thing, so unless you want to DIVORCE “How about no.” I growled at the thing. “Christ...Zeke and Eclipsa are probably not going to like this.” ”Yeah. I don’t either… now I have three wielders… Great. So do Better Half and No Heart… great…” “Hey its better than being in twenty pieces right?” I asked. ”Oh please twenty or whole I can still reform myself when a wielder well suited for myself appears.” “Either way.” I shrugged. “So yeah...this is a thing.” ”Yes… can you disband me already, you holding me is weird.” “You do know I can make several jokes right?” I asked honestly. “But fine fine.” I said while disbanding the weapon. Sighing I leaned out the window, looking at the stars… I missed these, the only downside to my realm was that it had no stars. “The stars...I'm glad to see them again.” I said with a little smile. “When was the last time I saw them?” I muttered in thought. It was nice to see them. I wondered what constellations I could see? “Lets see…” I muttered while looking through all the stars in hopes of finding the constellations. I found one in the shape of a cat, I think, another was definitely a boat though… I don’t remember doing this before, even with my parents before. “I should teach my kids about constellations.” I said to myself. “The sky has always been nice...gonna suck when the sky is basically just a massive hunk of rock.” I wondered the castle for a while, finding a quiet place in the library. Here I found…. Hey, this is Luna’s journal from the future… It’s still here? “Well...it doesn't really matter cause that futures done in but…” I muttered while taking the journal and opening it, wondering if it changed at all. As I was about to read it, a hand covered the pages, looking up… it was one of the Tiara’s… “Don’t.” She said. “Hello there.” I said. “And why can't I finish what I was reading before?” “It was history then, it’s yet to exist now, if at all. This book is now a paradox.” She said, taking the book. “The courts will decide what to do with it.” “It's basically a book of a possible future, like a prophecy. How is it a paradox?” I asked honestly. “As the future changes, so does the written words of any texts from it. The future can only be written if it’s a prophecy, not history. For it to exist in the past.” “Alright...but its not like it'll tell me something groundbreaking like me going insane or something right?” I asked honestbuss “What the future holds is not the business of those who live in the present.” Tiara said, vanishing in a tear through time, it closing as she entered. “Rude.” I said. “But okay then...that happened.” I said. “So...what the hell to do now?” “Can’t sleep?” I looked up, seeing Celestia in her cloudy sky pijamas. She took a seat next to me. “Oh you know, just an experience where my heart is now connected to Zeke's and Eclipsa's...so yeah, no sleep.” I said honestly. “Oh my, should I be jealous?” Celestia asked with a chuckle. “Stars… I missed them. Nights here looked strange without them.” “I know. The stars are nice...and also mine, Eclipsas and Zekes realms fused because of this little thing...don't know why though.” I said honestly. “Hm. Well, guess that’s something special you three share.” “And I want to share it with all of you.” I said. “Cause it wouldn't be fair...I've already screwed up enough for all of you…” I sighed out. “Well how would that work out? We aren’t Admins like you three.” “I wish I knew…” I sighed out. “I’m sure an answer will come. Someday.” “Hopefully.” I said honestly. “But...what do you think of me Celestia?” I asked. “Since I just like asking what the people I cherish dearly think of me.” “Well, speaking as a lesbian for the last several hundred years, I am proud to say your ass is something that keeps making me stare, and those breasts I’d enjoy my face in.” She said, making me blush hard. “Speaking as your wife and newfound mother, I have to say, you’ve become the best of both my preferred sexes.” “That's...good to know.” I nodded sheepishly. “Still need to get used to this...and I'm only going to get bigger as time goes on…” “Now I’m getting horny thinking about it.” Celestia laughed. “Lady...I don't want it to hurt.” I said. “You were told how...big I am right now right?” “Yes, doesn’t mean a whole body job, boob or even a several member tongue job isn’t possible.” Thank you Rarity for these magic undies…. “Still…” I blushed brighter at the thought. “I'm surprised none of you are...a little upset at it for being too damn big.” “At first some of us were, but when Twilight said she’d craft a spell to either make your...package the perfect size or make us more like basically living rubber, the majority of us were relaxed, others are a bit impatient and are humping sex dols of you. You can blame Rune for that existing.” “Good lord.” I sighed out. “But...sorry, i probably was too big before though…” Celestia chuckled. “Worst case senario Twilight can use that spell on us she made to change her species, imagine us as Dire wolves like you? I imagine I’d still be ivory white.” “So.Much.Floof…” I said while I got a little more bleed from the thought. Celestia chuckled. “Ben, what was your world like? You never talk about it.” “That's because...well it's not really full of good things.” I said sheepishly. “Mostly the things that happened to me...but what do you want to know about Earth?” “Well, what was it like? How did your people get governed? Was there any religions or such?” “It was fine normally. If you want to Bioshock worked you'd get the main gist of how the world is but...well my Earth had literally no magic in it. Nothing extraordinary like here. The people were governed in my ways throughout history, from chiefs of tribes, monarchies, dictatorships, councils to Democracy.” I explained. “And religions..well technically mythology was religion...but that's a bit of a rough question.” I said sheepishly. “Hm, if they lacked magic how did you all advance? Build large structures and keep pests away from crops or even protect yourselves?” “That would just be straight up enginuity.” I said honestly. “When you don’t have magic to solve all your problems, all you had was your ideas, your hands, and some good ol hard work and determination.” I said honestly. “Hm. Impressive. What about other nations? Were they other races or different groups of your kind?” “I mean...technically?” I said nervously. “Cause for some reason human’s believe that skin tone and any ‘noticable’ differences in your body makes you a different ‘race’.” I said honestly. “It’s silly I know.” “Like how ponies were once the three tribes, Pegasus, Unicorns and Earth ponies. We were all the same species but thought each other different because of wings, horns or none.” “Except there’s a lot more to that than literally just skin tone or how your face is.” I said honestly. “There are fundamental differences between the three races even if their all Equine in origin. Pegasi can fly, control the weather to a certain extent, and other things. Unicorns are all magical and can do a lot of things. While the Earth Ponies are the most ‘grounded’ as it were, being the closest to Nature. The ‘race’ for humans is basically saying Pinkie and Applejack are different races because their fur color is different.” I said honestly. “Oh, well that is rather silly.” “It really is.” I said honestly. “But humans are silly as you can clearly tell given I was originally human.” I said honestly. Celestia chuckled. “Ben, I had a thought… About Zeke.” “And...what would that be?” I asked, not sure why I’m scared about something that won’t happen. “Well, Zeke’s heart is Kingdom Hearts, where all hearts come from and return to, right?” “Yes.” I nodded, having a weird fear squashed. “Why do you ask?” “Well, if something were to happen to us, does that mean you can still be with us? Through Zeke? Our Hearts at least. In a way through them we won’t ever leave you, not even in death huh?” I gently grabbed her hand. “I’ll always be here for you...all of you…” I said. “I….I couldn’t imagine what I would be...without any of you.” “Depressed?” Celestia offered, giving me a playful poke. “So, a X-blade war huh? That’s Max’s goal? Well, wonder if that means he will take one also?” “Depressed yes but…” I said worriedly. “I fear it would be a lot worse...and who told you that?” I asked. “I...don’t think I told anyone besides Zeke, Eclipsa and Cript about that.” I said worriedly. “But...I don’t know if that’s his final goal…” I said nervously. “But...right now, I’m just glad to be here with you all.” “You talk in your sleep love.” Celestia said, petting me. “It seems like our world was once big… then just kept getting bigger. Really makes you think, wonder how big everything around you is really, and how small you are compared to it.” “Basically you are but a speck in the infinite lands of reality.” I said honestly. “At least, that’s what some philosophers think.” I shrugged. “And...I talk in my sleep what?” “Sometimes. Mostly it’s mumbles, sometimes you can hold up a full conversation, unfiltered thoughts. Asked you once what your thoughts on a three way between me, Zeke’s reflection me and Chrysalis disguised as me would be, and you said ‘Shut up and let me knock you three up already’.” Celestia said laughing. “I was flattered, and quite surprised on that.” I blushed brightly at that. “Uh...did I...really say that?” I asked worriedly. “If you want proof, ask Rune, she has all those conversations recorded.” “Oh my god…” I groaned and covered my face in embarrassment. “What...what else have I said?”. “You told Twilight her anus is her best asset, Rarity her tits look as white as snow and her nipples are like blueberries on vanilla ice cream, Told Luna you’d wish after sex you two could continue sexing in your dreams, Told Pinkie and Twin Pie once they had a child with you that you’d keep their ‘foal ovens’ constantly at work, and told Chrysalis that her tongue could give the best blowjobs, you just worry about her fangs.” I only whined at all that. “Why me~...” I whined at all the embarrassing things I wouldn’t normally tell people. “And...what were the...other’s reactions?” “Twilight blushed but has been training her anus, Luna is making plans for a wide variety of dream sex, Pinkie and Twin are trying to plan out all those birthday parties, and the ‘safe period’ between their births and next pregnancies, Rarity is looking into more tit and breast enhancing lingerie to show off, and chrysalis is trying to practice only her teeth to shift so they are not sharp, so far that’s proving harder than she expected.” “Oh my god…” I muttered. “Well...glad to know they’re all happy about it…” I said sheepishly. “Twilight has actually gotten really good with her rectal muscles. Managed to stuff a large Mango up there and take in thirteen of a fifteen inch long dildo in there. Also squeeze hard enough to crack walnuts. Wonder how she managed that one?” My nose was bleeding at that thought. “Jesus christ…” I blushed brightly at that. “Hey, you should see how Pegasi do it. They can use the lips of their vaginis for that. Commander Hurricane could do that as well, it’s considered a very attractive trait in pegasi mares.” “Well...that’s a thing.” I said honestly. “Each of the tribes has traits in the opposite sex that is highly desired. For Pegasi mares have the nut trick, hehe, still can’t believe that’s the actual name for it, and for males a mare would find a stallion with long feathers attractive. For unicorns a mare with thin, small frame is attractive and a stallion with a broad chin and long horn, as in the horns on the head, is considered handsome. For earth ponies it’s actually interesting. They find large body mares the most desired while smaller bodied stallions are considered attractive to the mares, a large body stallion is the most common, so if they are smaller it’s considered attractive, mainly because it is different or rare.” “And yet you were stuck with me, starting off as a skinny human that wasn’t handsome, to a dire wolf that was kind of cute but not really...and then turned into a goddamn sex goddess at this point.” I said. “From an earth pony point of view, your small frame is handsome, and from a general point of view you gaining a full body fur coat made you more attractive, and in this body, well if you were more confident in it, I’d be groaping you right now.” “What’s stopping you right now then before?” I asked honestly. “Cause confidence aside all of you have given me a quick grope or two.” “Yes but you aren’t quite comfortable in that form just yet. We want to give you a bit more time to gain some confidence before we do anything… well, some of us. I know Luna already did that.” “Yes, yes she did.” I said honestly. “And I understand...thank you.” I said with a warm smile. “I just...hope things will be okay...Eclipsa...I wouldn’t be surprised if Eclipsa dragged me to bed because of how I look.” “Well that's her. Wonder what else life will throw at you three? Hopefully more funny things like this. Keeps things interesting.” “Let’s hope it’s just funny and good things…” I said, my words to one of the Tiara’s about me going insane in the future kind of bugging me. “But we won’t know until then...right now I just have to be thankful for everything I have right now.” “Yes. So, you going to visit Zeke and Eclipsa later today?” “Yes I will>” I said honestly. “Gonna need to talk to them about...well what’s happened currently.” “I imagine they might be freaking out a bit.” “Most likely.” I said honestly. “Let’s hope they aren’t freaking out too much...still don’t fully know why this happened. I know the three of us are admins but that shouldn’t have caused this.” “Maybe it's just meant to be? Like a cutie mark.” “Who knows at this point.” I sighed out a little. “There’s just a lot of weird and random things now a days.” “Maybe. Either way one thing's for certain. Life will never be dull or boring.” “True.” I said with a warm smile. “And I’m glad to have this life with all of you.” “Same. Thanks to you I can become a mother again. Luna found a love she's needed for years, and thanks to you there is now a lot of peace in the world, and now all the races are beginning to integrate with few issues.” “Thankfully.” I said honestly. “I really hope I’m doing good for all the people…” “Polls seem to largely favor your effectiveness. You get things done and have results to show for it. Even I had trouble doing that.” “Alrighty then.” I said honestly. “Not to sound rude but I get up and actively solve problems instead of grabbing six random people and saying ‘save the world because you have magical mcguffin now’.” I said, feeling like crap for saying that to her. “Heh, well it worked til the heartless arrived. If not for that things would have gone a very different route.” “Yeah...a lot of things would have been different…” I said, having a feeling if I didn’t save people from that Guard Armor my first day...I wouldn’t have anyone or anything compared to what I have now. “Like...me not having any of this...especially being happy part...that would have never happened.” “And who knows what would have happened to Equestria.” “It would still be here, I would have made sure of that.” I said. “Being a hero is one thing...having all of this is another.” “True.”Celestia said, wrapping an arm around me. “Life sure is strange. Oh, Cadence is visiting later today. Maybe I can send her with you to visit Zeke and Eclipsa.” “That would be good...how is she doing?” I asked, hoping she’s doing alright cause...even if it’s been a while since Shining’s death it must still be a bit hard for her. “Starting to show her pregnancy. Ruling the Crystal Empire solo has been hard, but she's determined, and stubborn. She's a lot like you in that regard.” “Well...I’m here to help her if she needs it.” I said. “No one should rule an entire kingdom alone, it kind of sucks.” “Hm. True, though you should take your own words to heart. Let Luna and I help, we know a thing or two about ruling a kingdom.” “Yes, yes you do.” I said honestly. “I am also so glad about not having to do so much paperwork...god that was annoying.” “Tell me about it.” Celestia sighed. “If I'm honest my fireplace in my office had a secondary purpose than just decorum and warmth in winter.” Celestia chuckled. “Paper is really good material to burn.” I said honestly. “Especially when it has nothing but complete and total bullshit on it.” “Makes great kindling for marshmallow cooking.” Celestia laughed. “Yes, yes it would.” I agreed. “This is nice though...just talking and all that.” “It is nice to just sit and talk.” “Yeah…” I said honestly. “Don’t normally do it often cause I’m so busy.” “Makes times like this all the more special.” “Yep.” I smiled. “Makes it all the more special when I get to spend time with my special people.” “Hmm” Celestia hummed while smiling, leaning on me. She was still a bit taller than me, but if what all I learned about my...special form is true that will change someday. “Love you.” I said while nuzzling Celestia gently. “Love you too.” She said, her chin resting on my head. “Can’t wait to be taller than you for once.” I said. “But it’s still nice.” “That will be new. Aside from Den I never really met anyone taller than me.” “I have a feeling when certain...things happen I’ll be either as tall or taller than you.” I said honestly. “But either way, it’s still nice to be here with you Celestia...and with everyone else…you know I’d be nothing without all of you…” “We know. Rune also got that confession recorded.” “Excuse me?” I asked. “More of your sleep talk.” Celestia chuckled. “What other sleep talk did I do?” I asked worriedly. “Cause at this point I’m scared I said even more dumb things…” “Nothing too bad, though you did say you wanted to, heh, well, if that offer is still on the table I have no problem decorating myself up like a cake and letting you partake~” She said, scratching my chin. I whined in embarrassment even though the chin scratches felt nice. “Why do I say things…” “Pinkie thinks it's because you still repress a lot of your own sexual desires. Frankly I agree. Most of the sex we do is pretty vanilla compared to what you've asked for while asleep.” “Either a combination of don’t want to do things none of you are okay with or...because I’m nervous about such things.” I said sheepishly. “It's something to work on.” “Fine fine…” I said gently. “But when things are solved...I’ll...at least try?” I said nervously. “If you want.” “Of course. I'm up for anything with you because I love and trust you with my life Ben.” “Alright.” I nodded gently. “Gonna...be a bit weird to try and do all those things after so long of not doing it…” “Hm. We'll take a slow pace. Makes it easier for you.” “Thank you.” I nodded while cuddling up to my wife happily. To be continued...
Nobody's fight on Two FrontsI emerged from the portal, my surroundings not what they expected. All around me was calm Forest, and before me a mountain trail leading to it's top high above the clouds. “You know...I shouldn’t be surprised when ‘Belief’ and ‘The Mother’ are here…” I muttered. I walked the trail for a while, eventually finding a tall wall made from trees and vines intergrown together with a large stone gate closed shut that the path leads into. “Excuse me! I’ve got a gift from Cript and I want to talk!” I called out, expecting the gate won’t open until I beat the Guardians. "Shhh!" Someone from… somewhere shushed me. “Hi.” Ben said to whoever. “How are you doing today?” "Shhh!" They shushed again. Looking around I found who it was. They were… a very old man, long white beard and tattered clothes hiding in a bush to the left. He was looking passed me. Looking to where he was I saw… is that a rabbit-cow? I raised an eyebrow and made a gesture of ‘who are you and who is that?’ given the old man didn’t want me talking. "Tonto. Guardian of the tenth door." He whispered. "And that, is my supper." “Well I’m here to meet Belief and The Mother, so mind letting me pass?” Ben whispered back. “I have something to talk about and to deliver something to them.” "One moment." Tonto said, taking a breath then exhaling rapidly, the small half rabbit half cow animal suddenly shot, a small hole was bleeding from it's side. He killed it with his breath? Tonto then jumped from the bushes. "Soups on!" He cried out, snatching up the dead creature and began making a fire pit. “So...what, you can use your own breath as an air bullet or something?” Ben asked curiously. "More like a bullet." Tonto said. Using Flint to spark some branches and kindling on fire. "My full name is Tonto, Admin of the Breath. I crafted lungs, gills. If it breathes something I developed it's respiratory system." “Interesting.” I said honestly. “But you probably know who I am given your the guardian and your probably ancient since you literally invented breathing.” "Nope, who are you?" They asked, looking at me and tilting their head. “Ben, Admin of Nothingness.” I said. “New to this whole thing but I’m a quick learning and full of surprises.” "Neat." Tonto said, attention on the cooking creature. “So, how do I pass the gates if I may ask?” I asked while sitting down next to the fire, wanting to just talk for the moment before the fight. "Simple. Land one hit on me before I finish eating. If ya don't you'll have to wait til tomorrow or later, depends on what makes it's way up here." “Does it have to be a full blown hit or does I have to actually touch you?” I asked curiously, still staring at the fire and feeling it’s heat. "Doesn't matter to me." “Alright.” I said before the very heat of the fire lashed out at the Admin. Tonto inhaled, breathing in the fire. "Did you think it would be that easy?" They asked, taking a bite of their meal. “And the attack magically disappeared how?” I asked honestly. "I breathed it in. I told you I made every type of respiratory system there is. And everything breaths something." “Uh...no?” I said slowly. “Heat is just molecules going faster, there is no ‘breath’ to that...also there are several things that don’t need to ‘breath’, like Gargoyle’s for instance.” "Ah, to be young and ignorant the facts. Kid, different dimensions have different laws, this includes how physics works in them. So other dimensional beings breath accordingly to those laws. Make sense?" I wanted to argue that that’s not how shit works...but knowing better cause this shit has happened before. “Alright alright fine.” I said as Nothingness thorns spiked out from underneath him as spikes of earth also shot out towards him. With a quick exhale of his nose, a blast of Gale force winds blasted my attack ascue, and sent him to a safe distance away. He took another bite. "Just because I invented breathing doesn't mean I don't know how to weaponize it. I didn't survive the Admin war for nothing." “Alright alright.” I said, before vanishing and swinging No Heart down towards the guy, baiting him into using his ability again. He sidestepped, holding his breath as he dodged. He then exhaled, hitting my last foot. I barked in pain and my bones were shattered in my foot… wait, why isn't it healing? "Healing factors only heal damage up to a certain tier. That's the one where you're healing factors is at its limit Currently." He said, a soft smile as he took another bite. “Okay I call bullshit.” I frowned before Nothingness thorns lashed out at him again rather quickly, waiting for the right opportunity. Tonto proceeded to exhale, blasting himself high into the air and above the thorns that turned upwards to attack him. "Not bad on your timing, but you have a clear tendency to underestimate your opponent. You're a thinker aren't you?" As Tonto was talking, he felt something very so slightly cut his lip as he took a breath. “Says the guy that underestimated me.” I said while Lindworm was around me. “Your not the only one that can use the air as a weapon, just needed to wait for the right moment.” Tonto smiled, landing back to the ground. "Ah, my mistake. I should have been breathing another material other than air to avoid that." “I mean, I could have just controlled the air around you and hit you before, but I thought you would have seen it coming.” I shrugged. “So just needed to wait for the right moment.” I said. “So, does that count or do I need to get a bigger hit?” "Guess I'm just rusty." Tonto said, the doors opening behind him. "Here." They said, breathing slowly at my broken foot as it began healing. "You'll need that for the next guy." I moved my foot, my CopyCat ability helping me learn a lot of things from Tonto like being able to breath different things, as well as the healing and projectile stuff from air that I didn’t fully think about, but being an Admin I have noticed I didn’t really need to breath to begin with, even with Nothingness added to that. “Thank you.” I nodded. “Got any advice on what’s next? Or at least a name?” "Their name is Hector, Admin of Art." “Oh boy, that’s not going to be a nightmare and a half from what I can immediately imagine.” I groaned. “Um...question, just in case I do manage to make it to the end, what are The Mother and Belief like? Just so I don’t step on any toes on pure accident.” I said sheepishly. "Don't know. Never met them myself." “Well that’s a little interesting. Your guarding the two so I kinda thought you would have.” I said honestly. “Oh well, better to ask before hand.” "Asha has spoken with them though, she's your best bet." “How far down is she?” I asked curiously. "She's the last guardian. The Admin of Death, the first of our kind to die. She was the one killed, which sparked our dive into understanding our abilities and code, and unfortunately, the war." “And Jericho wants to make another one happen.” I frowned. “So that’s going to be fun…” "WHAT?!?!?!" Tonto said in shock. "That sociopath is back?!" “Yes, cause Cript decided not to do...let’s say the dozen’s of ways to actually make him not ‘live’ permanently, he just decided to imprison him for two years inside himself.” I explained. “Seriously, Cript’s lived forever and he can’t come up with a way to make immortals brain dead?” "To be fair, brains are also optional. Anyway, if Jericho is back then fuck! Oh shit what am I going to do?" “Let me ask...does The Mother know Jericho’s True Name?” I asked him. “Where his Shade is? Anything.” "That is his true name. What did you think our names are fake?" “Not his given name, his ‘True Name’.” I said again. “True Names, at least in Egyptian Lore, is the culmination of your entire being, all your experiences, all your power, everything about you. And whoever holds that True Name, they can gain all that power...but considering none of you ever think outside the box I’m pretty sure Jericho doesn’t know about it either.” "Kid this isn't Egypt, those rules were made up by wackjobs high off incense. I gotta tell the others!" Tonto said, rushing through the doors. “Cause of course having actual things to solve a problem means fuck all…” I groaned. “And it’s even more bullshit cause the Egyptian Gods are actual fucking people.” I frowned as I walked towards the door. “If the Egyptian Gods are real people, then that means their Lore is real...but apparently not I suppose.” I ranted to myself as I took another step and bolted through, knowing I have enough time but wanting to do something instead of ranting to myself for an hour straight. I arrived at the next door, paint was everywhere, esals, sketchbooks, carved marble, everywhere. And Tonto was talking with Hector. "Shit that's bad." Hector, a rather skinny fellow, wearing paint stained over all's and boots said. "What do we do?" “Well first I’m going to need to pass.” I brought up. “Also I need an explanation on somethings, like how Egyptian Lore, and most likely everything else, is completely real, but is also a crock of horseshit?” "It's only real if they want it to be." Hector said. "Think of it like this. God's are a step under Admins, if they want this rule to be true to them, then it is, if not, then it's crap. It also depends on their reflections, worshipers, etc, etc. Besides, if you are seriously applying egyption lore to Admins then you have a lot to learn." “I mean, I was going to literally use Jericho’s Soul, everything about it and everything he has, against him.” "Admins Don't have souls. We're code dang it! The only reason we even have physical bodies is because we made them!" Tonto said. “Well I’m one of those that weren’t just ‘born’ an Admin.” I frowned. “Also Lord suck ass at explaining shit, and Cript barely explains important things or even tells us before hand sometimes.” I rolled my eyes. “So anyways, I still know how to permanently deal with the fuck, but it’s dwindling by the second as I’m being told things.” I said. “Also, can I pass or do I still have to fight considering the situation at the moment?” Hector seemed to be considering the situation. "Shit I have no idea…" “Well considering Tonto left his ring…” I muttered while taking a deep breath, Tonto noticing that I was using one of his abilities. “HEY EVERYONE! MIND HELPING US FIGURE OUT HOW TO STOP JERICHO FROM CAUSING ANOTHER WAR!” I shouted, my words echoing far towards all the other Admins, and I wasn’t fully sure if I would have my words reach The Mother and Belief but if possible they should know as well if they didn’t already know. Shortly after the last eight arrived. They were, in order of closest to farthest, Graw, Admin of Blades, Shinsu, Admin of Plants, Carth, Admin of Water, Haru, Admin of Childhood, Fann, Admin of Speed, Soc, Admin of Biology, Bensu, Admin of Language, and lastly Asha, Admin of Death. "So Jericho is back?" Graw spoke. "That devil will be the death of us all. What is Cript doing about the matter?" “Fuck all cause he’s ‘Retired’.” I rolled my eyes. “Also, Asha, given that your the Admin of Death...let me ask, for Admins is there a way to make them effectively ‘dead’ without killing them? Cause Cript and Jericho both can’t die because reasons.” "I specialize in complete death, brain death isn't my territory, if it has a pulse, it's none of my concern to know." Ashe said. She had slightly decayed skin, long black hair, and her clothes looked like they were soaked by water. I wanted to say something about Ashe’s look but decided against it. “So anyways, Jericho wants to start antoher Admin War, but he won’t start it any time soon cause he wants it to be a ‘fair fight’, where everyone is an Admin and someone or everyone is as strong as him and Cript...how much you want to bet he’s bringing back dead Admins?” I asked honestly. “Where’s the Admin of Gambling, I’m pretty sure they’re laughing their ass off with all the new bets rolling around.” "Died in the war." Tonto said. "I still owe him sixty digits." "To reverse Admin death is impossible." Ashe said. "Once we die, our code is wiped clean and returned to the mother. Even if our specific code is retrieved our personally, knowledge, and form are blank as paper." I opened my mouth to say something...but then I remembered a ‘twist’ in KH3 and face palmed. “No, I know how he’s gonna do it…” I sighed out. “Okay, so Time Travel is a thing for all Admins yes?” "Yes, but we rarely do it." Hector said. “Replica’s.” I said. “What he’ll do is make bodies strong enough to hold the past Admin’s body’s, minds, code and so on...cause Kingdom Hearts still needed to be brought into this even well after the Canon was shot to hell for us…” I sighed out. "To make a body able to hold us… a physical body… he'd only need to clone his own." Soc said. "His and Cript's biology is a highly flexible and adaptable one. They are as strong as they are because their bodies can adapt to the power so fast, if he clones his body, but leaves it a husk, he could place a dead admins code in it before it gets wiped, and the code would reshape it accordingly." "Wait, so we might see all our old friends again?" Haru asked. “Sure, if you like seeing them all forced into serving Jericho.” I said. “Cause he’s not dumb enough to just bring all the Admins back and not have them all under his control in some way or another.” "That's not his style." Ashe spoke up. "Jericho would likely set them free to do whatever, and win them over. Stronger bonds, less Hassle to keep their loyalties if they give it to you rather than force it." “Now the better question is...what’s ___...wait, I thought I said ___.” I blinked, all the Admins knowing full well who I was talking about even though the words were beyond me. “Well...what about ‘them’?” I asked. “Here, I’m just gonna call the fucker Null.” "That creature has slept since the war ended. If it does make an appearance it will likely not end well." “Well given that Jericho wants another Admin War...okay so I was told that the bastard was made during a Free for All of Deletes...how bad is it truly? Cause I can already imagine how scary the bastard is when ‘it deletes Delete’s’ is already off the top of my head.” "We'd have to evacuate everyone here. Only safe place." Tonto said. “Really?” I asked curiously. “Even Null can’t get here?” "You… Don't know where you are, do you?" Hector asked. “This is where Mother and Belief live, that’s literally all I was told by Cript.” I said honestly. “I brought up that this is the center of Existence, but he said it was ‘too easy’.” The admins all looked at one another, then to me. "The Null, as you call it, can swallow all of existence." Ashe said. "That, existence." Hector said. "Much like how realms have reflections where things play out either similar or different, so does existence. This is another existence entirely Ben, one where the Admin war never happened." Tonto said. “Oh so this is basically the Dandelion’s bunker from the Keyblade War.” I said honestly. “At least, comparatively.” "There are many, but we only know of here and the existence we come from. Admins here can create freely and have no worries of the unstable code issues the youngest back home have. It's a paradise. Only Cript, us, and now you have ever been here from home." “I thought Lord also came here?” I raised my eyebrows. "He did, but he didn't stay long enough to learn the truth. Cript told him after the fact." “Alrighty then.” I said honestly. “Well I still have to give Belief something from Cript and...I’m not leaving till I fight all of you because I need to be strong enough to last, cause if Cript said him and Lord were having trouble here, then this would be a good test.” "So before or after you speak with them?" Tonto asked. “Before, cause I have something important to talk about with them and I still have to give them this.” I said while holding up the thing Cript wanted me to give Mother and Belief. “He said he owed them this and since I was heading here then might as well.” "Well then, we'll head back to our gates then. You reach us the hard way." Asha said. Everyone but Hector returning to their posts. “I said before…” I facepalmed. “Fuck…” I muttered while putting the bag away and bringing out my Lexicon. “Alrighty then, so how do I get passed you?” I asked Hector. "One sec." Hector said, turning to his door and taking out a brush and paints, and rather quickly, and impressively, painted a very lifelike image of me, that then walked off the door, gaining three dimensions and taking out Frozen Pride and No Heart. "This copy is exactly like you in power, speed and durability. Beat my perfect replica, and you pass." “Oh, that all?” I asked honestly. “I have a feeling it doesn’t have my wonderful personality though.” "Be warned, it has all your abilities and tendencies." “Then it’ll be even more predictable.” I chuckled a little. “Is there a time limit or something?” "No. Just destroy my copy. Shame, imitation is such a grey area for the artists." “It’s alright, it happens.” I said honestly before spell circles appeared behind me and fired a bunch of spells at him, from fire to lightning, ice and gravity as I prepared my magic for another thing. They cast reflect, teleporting behind me and shooting out Nothingness thorns. A wall was brought up that blocked the thorns as spikes of earth shot up from underneath my clone as I continued to channel into my spell. “Here, let’s give you something interesting…” I muttered while shadow clones appeared and dashed around the wall to fight him as I backed up and continued to channel. They sliced their hand off with No Heart, making their own starfish clones to deal with my shadow clones as they charged me, their No Heart glowing with a red aura. “Oh, well that’s rude.” I frowned while backing up quickly, Nothingness Thorns suddenly popping up from my steps and lashing out at my clone. ”Come on, just a little longer…” I thought to myself as I felt my spell getting closer to being done. It tanked the incoming damage, swinging as it's eyes changed to red like mine do, that swing blasting the red aura everywhere as I was knocked back, I felt dizzy and nauseous being in this red miasma. “Fuck…” I muttered while a sudden gust of wind appeared and blew back the miasma as I tried to focus fully on the spell. The copies eyes shifted to white, their No Heart gaining a white outline as they suddenly began slashing at me with speeds I only made when training with Foudre. ”Now!” I thought to myself as I raised one of my arm’s and blocked a hit with is as I slammed my lexicon into him. “Balanced Emptiness…” I said before the clone Hector made, as well as the Starfish clones, suddenly went stock still as all their strength seemed to sign wave uncontrollably between the group, the starfish clones dissolving from the sudden actions as the main clone was heavily weakened as all it’s powers felt ‘balanced’ but also really ‘hollow’ for some reason. “Alright…” I panted as I summoned Eternal Flames as grey and white flames flared from it. “Damnation Flames.” I muttered as a single ember flew over and touched my clone, setting the clone completely ablaze so hot and deadly it could even burn Void. “Alright...so after those two things…that should maybe be it…” The copy, however, emerged from the raised dust and smoke, beaten up but still moving. "I said it was as durable as you are." Hector said as my copy summoned it's own Kingsblade, rapidly hacking at me before slamming down on me hard with a Grey boosted hit. I skid back, taking some pretty bad damage. “Alright...so maybe it won’t be that simple…” I muttered before taking a deep breath. “Let’s try another thing…” I muttered while I went into my True King drive form, but instead of just having it by itself, I decided to add Grey to it...and let me tell you the sudden extra power from that and the fact it was increasing as time went on was a bit scary. “Oh, okay yeah that’s...a thing…” I muttered, seeing that Grey was also around my armor, my wings going from a Dragon like wings to...more Angelic as Grey made it look like it was covered in strong and beautiful feathers. “Alrighty then, this will help a lot.” I grinned while summoning Kingsblade and No Heart. “Alright fucker, let’s dance.” I said before taking a step...only for me to appear like...a mile away from my clone. “Uh...woop, too fast.” I said sheepishly. “Okay so...probably can’t reign this in so…” I muttered while just raising my sword and swinging at my clone...only for a massive fuck off energy wave of Nothingness and Grey shot towards the bastard insanely fast. “Okay sweet jesus!” When the attack ended I didn't see the copy, but suddenly it emerged from my own shadow, in Primal form. It was twice as big as Mom, teeth inbedding themselves into my leg bone as it tossed me aside. “Okay yeah cool.” I said while correcting myself in mid air with my wings. “Didn’t know I could do that, that’s really cool.” I said before vanishing and appearing near the primal me as I swung at them up close. In a haze they countered, their No Heart in their maw clashing mine… I didn't even think about using my weapons in that form... “Learning new things everyday.” I muttered with a hidden smile, the primal getting pushed back as the Grey in my True King Form helping increase it’s power by a shit ton rather quickly and as far as I could tell it won’t stop. The primal glowed, fur turning Grey as Grey began irradiating from them, Lindworm appeared above them, and they shot it at me. I dodged the attack swiftly. “Hey Hector...how ‘correct’ are the clones thoughts and actions?” I called out curiously. "About… hmm. Mentality is something a bit harder to copy, part of why it can't talk so… I'll say it's fifty-fifty give or take." I nodded, having probably the worst possible idea ever as I disbanded my armor, which caused my clone to be rather confused at the action as I started to strip down. “Alright, so let’s see if what I’m going to do is even functional for the clone.” I muttered. “Who knew ‘go fuck yourself’ was such an apt term for the situation…” The copy turned bright red, either unable to process what they are seeing… or having the same idea. “Alright you.” I said while fully naked and strutting over like a sexy boss. “We’re gonna have some fun.” I grinned before tackling my clone to the ground. “For all the people under the age of eighteen, cover your eyes.” "... You fucked yourself…" Hector said in Disbelief as I was now clothed and my clone was also clothed but hugging my waist rather… sluttery. “Yes, I asserted my Dominance.” I said with a smile. “Damn...I am rather tight…” I muttered with a grin. "Stop. Please… bad enough I had to hear that I don't want details…" Hector said as his door opened. "I never did like perverse or nude arts. That's something you mortals all made. Always with the sex…" “Not my fault I am a horny son of a bitch. Also bullshit, you are the Admin of Art, literally every form of Art you invented.” I said honestly. “But what about the clone you made of me? What’s gonna happen to them?” I asked while petting their head like a good dog. "I invented the base concept of it and expanded upon it as you all began developing and learning what I gave. As for your copy it's as flesh and blood as you… as powerful too so… there is now two of you…" “I mean, technically there’s a few ten’s of thousands of me that are all the same strength.” I said honestly. “Starfish Cloning, learning it from Cript, always nifty.” I smiled warmly. “So just need to help...me talk and gain more mental facilities as you said it’s not fully there….albeit I’m not fully there either but oh well.” I chuckled. "They can't talk period. Normally they either defeat those who make it here or are defeated and turn back to paint or ink… so I don't normally add in vocal cords…" “Here…” I blinked my eyes as they glowed green as I learned some of the things he knew from Copycat. “Alright...so let’s try…” I muttered while at least learning some basics on creations from him outside of my own testing as I gently put a hand on my clones throat and took a deep breath, trying to carefully create vocal cords for them. “I might as well know if they want to be someone knew or stay as me ya know?” "I can...talk?" The copy said. Their voice wasn't like mine, it had, for some reason, a hint of Irish in it… I like it. “Yes you can my sweet.” I said gently. “How are you feeling?” "Aside from plowed like fertile soil, pretty good." Damn that accent is sexy… wait, why does she have that hint of Irish in her voice anyway? “Uh...why do you sound Irish?” I asked curiously, knowing full well my family didn’t have irish roots. “I’d expect maybe a russian accent or something…” They shrugged, and we turned to Hector. "What? Your code and genetics place you at roughly twenty to thirty percent Irish." He said. “Huh...that’s a little interesting.” I brought up. “I was told from family I was of Russian Hungarian descent but didn’t expect Irish to be there.” "Would explain your stubbornness…" Hector said as the doors opened fully behind him. “Alrighty then.” I said. “So..do I bring her with me?” I asked while patting my clones head. “Also...do you want to be called something else? Cause I have a feeling, even though you are me on a lot of levels...you might not be me fully.” I asked gently to my new clone. "I guess. I know I have some of your memories, not all of them, just enough to know your attacks and such…" "You can take her if you want but only you can face the rest " Hector said. “Alright, so why don’t you head on home and meet the others.” I said gently while taking her hand and putting a wedding ring on her ring finger. “You’ll know what to say...hopefully.” I said sheepishly, trying to think of a name to give her since she’s basically a new person. “Here...let’s call you Fenris, why not.” "Fenris… I like it." They said, giving me a kiss. "Kick ass." They said with a wave as a portal to home opened up as they walked into it. Once the portal closed I headed onwards. “That was fun.” I said with a warm smile as I prepared myself for the next battle. The next area was torn up completely. Almost like a lawnmower was a bit too low to the ground. The gate here was all stone and held deep scratches across it also. “Well then…” I blinked. “This is a place…” I muttered while drawing my sword just in case. As I was getting ready for anything, suddenly I was slashed down my back, screaming as my tail flew off its proper place and hit the ground. I was then kicked into the door so hard the wind was knocked out of me also. I turned around, and saw Graw. "I am Graw, Admin of Blades. Anything that holds sharpness, calls itself a sword, blade, or cuts, I know their exact design." “Dick…” I groaned. “Could have at least said hi first…” "Not my style." They said, raising a colorless version of Reunion. "Keyblades. Such an interesting weapon, able to shift between blunt and sharp instantaneously. The former Admin of Hearts did me proud when he consulted me on designing them." “Cool…” I muttered while grabbing my tail and putting it back, using some healing spells to keep it there. “Alright...so what, do I need to land a hit or do I need to make you yield?” "One minute. Survive." They said, countless weapons of various types appearing all around us. "Survive. You can not Dodge, you can not block. Do so, and you fail. This is a test to determine your resolve." “And I’m only allowed to use the weapons around us?” I asked curiously. "I didn't say you could attack back." They said, raining their Reunion through my gut and pinning me against the door with it. "Resolve comes from deep within, if you die, then you are not worth seeing Belief of Mother, give in, you are not worth the flesh you are made of." “Well then you better try harder than that.” I told him bluntly. "That is what I like to hear." They said, suddenly thousands of Blades began slicing me, piercing me, cutting off limbs, dragging out organs. My healing factors bearly helping as the pain left me unable to speak. Especially when my tongue was sliced off with my lower jaw. At some point my mind went blank, my healing factors null at this point as the blades sped up. Finally one pierced my head. I was still alive. It was a minute but felt like an eternity. Finally… it stopped, my body healing finally. When I got back to me, I took in air like I had never breathed before. "You pass. Cript held up better, but you pass nonetheless." “Yeah well...Cript had how long as an Admin before doing this?” I asked. “I’ve been doing this for...less than a few months.” "If I remember, about two years. His healing factor is unlike any I have ever seen, which is both impressive and worrying." “His healing factor is ‘he never dies’.” I said. “You probably were told this but he literally had his Death taken from him by Truth, so he can never die.” "Yes. I remember over hearing part of his fight with Ashe. Such wrath. Such self loathing." “It’s a combination of a lot of things that I don’t want to get into at the moment.” I rolled my shoulders to get some of the stiffness out. The doors opened. "Here." Graw said, giving me a simple looking stone. "One of my personal sharpening stones, one slide across any weapon will repair and increase their damage to its fullest potential." “Cool.” I nodded. “What’s the duration on it?” I asked curiously, knowing that sharpening stones sometimes grow dull with repeated use. "Unlimited." “Cool.” I said nodded. “So who’s next after this?” I asked, knowing all the admins but not fully sure on the order. "Shinsu, Admin of Plants." “Listen, I better not be getting into anything weird or I’m not gonna be happy.” I frowned, remembering Shaman King and how one of their characters beat a plant based boss. "Relax, Shinsu is not perverse nor violent. His test is a simple, but time consuming one." “What, do I have to fully grow an entire crop by hand?” I asked curiously. "..." “Did I guess it on my first try?” I asked honestly. "Pray he gives you a fast growing plant." I sighed out. “Well, thanks for the warning.” I said while heading off through the door. “This is gonna take a while…” Once on the other side… it was beautiful. Flowers, trees bearing fruits of all kinds, vines and bushes with berries of many varieties and shapes. It was amazing. Shinsu was not next to his door, rather tending to a smaller sapling. "Figured you be here sooner." Shinzo said, tending to the saplings soil. "What took you?" “Um...that depends on when I was held up cause I only took a minute for Graw…” I said, not really sure I should bring up what I did in Hector’s ring. "Tell me, have you ever grown a plant from a seed?" I stopped myself from saying something dumb. “Um...not that I can think of.” I said with some thought. “So, what plant am I going to be growing?” "Hmm… I have just the one. Come." He said, getting up and leading me deeper into his garden. Here I found- Is that tree growing… meat? "The Consolvie tree. Used to be on your races homeworld, but your ancestors ate them into extinction." He said with a laugh. “I...can kind of see why…” I gently moved over and sniffed it to make sure it was the real thing. It smelled just like… everything mom helped me hunt. Shinsu took a piece of bark off, underneath it's bark was a small, black and red seed. He then handed it to me. "Grow this. Plant it wherever you wish, and when it has bared it's first harvest, enjoy the 'fruits' of your labor, and then plant it back on your home world." “Plant it wherever I want here or…?” I asked politely, cause ‘wherever’ can mean a lot of things. "Anywhere in the garden." “Given that this has been extinct for god knows how long...mind if I know a few things about it? Like what area’s it grew in and what climate?” I asked curiously, knowing tree’s could be damn near anywhere because of how stubborn they are. "It's like most plants. Water, fertile soil, sunlight, a moonlit howling at, and plenty of insects." I nodded gently while holding the seed gently in my hands as I walked around the garden, looking for the right spot that felt good. I found a decent clearing and planted it fairly well enough… now just wait… how long am I going to be here? “How long does the thing normally take to grow?” I asked curiously. "On average. A year to mature, a month to bloom, and another month to harvest your reward." “So I’m going to be stuck here for a year and two months...great.” I said while making a comfy chair and sitting down in it, pulling out a book. “This is gonna take a while.” One Week Later Thankfully it sprouted, at this point I had a small hut to stay in while watching this thing. The time I had for reading was nice and I found myself reading to the plant… for some reason my Den mother instincts made me very attached to the plant. Shinsu for the most part checked in daily and often was tending to other plants and harvesting what needed to be harvested. What does he do with all that food anyway? I never see him eat. “Hey, what do you do with all that food? Do you have some man eating plants or something to feed?” I asked curiously. Shinsu smiled. "Come." He said, leading me to his door next to it on the right was a tree that's roots wrapped around a pool. Looking in the pool I saw… people… hungry looking people. Shinsu took an apple, and dropped it in the pool, the apple appearing next to the hungry looking people, and as he poured more into the water more appeared around the people, til everyone had three or so apples. "No point in keeping so much food for one's self, especially when I don't even eat." “Alrighty then.” I said honestly. “And...it’s also just a tad bit weird that my den mother instincts are kicking in for the tree...acting like Applejack at this point to be honest…” "Hehe. I'll explain that in time." Shinsu said with a wise looking smile. One Month Later. The sprout wasn't much bigger than when it first emerged, but it had leaves now, which made me… prideful, for some reason. I was prideful and happy to see it was growing tiny adorable little- did I just call it's leaves adorable? “Curse you motherly instincts~.” I whined while pinching the bridge of my nose. “Oh well…” I muttered while reaching into my pocket and pulling out my little statue of mom. “Hey mom...don’t know if you can hear me from all the way out here but...just wanted to say hi and tell you I’m doing well…” "I can see that." Mom replied, her little statue coming to life and taking a seat on the grass. "So, how goes things?" "Nothing much. Just waiting for the tree to grow." I said honestly. "Did you know there was an extent tree that literally grows meat?" "Yes. Only legends though. We called it the Hunting Tree. Some say the meat that it grew was from prey it too caught and killed, but would give to us instead. That's only legends though. Fun food for thought though." "Funnily enough its actually right there in saproling form." I pointed at the saproling. "And there's even one here actually." "Really? So why are you growing an extinct tree?" “To get to the next room.” I said honestly. “I need to meet Mother and Belief to talk to them about Jericho...and the Admin of Plants wanted me to take a year and two months to grow this tree, and then plant it back home.” I explained. "Oh. A test of patience and compassion." “Pretty much.” I shrugged. “So...how have you been?” "Good. It's nice to be able to relax and not have to wonder about the next bad guy. I know about Jericho, and all that… it was a mess when he first popped up… Cript was hurt to learn his true goals when he did. They were good friends for a while." “Glad you won’t be apart of this, but Cript just had to retire when he showed up and tell us to go fuck ourselves when it comes to Jericho…” I groaned. "We made him Ben." Mom said sadly. "We know Cript can do a lot for everyone with how he is, but we know he can still help, and not have to leave our side." “I mean, he was doing that exact thing while not retired though..” I brought up. “Clones are a thing that he’s been using for how long?” "Hehe. He has a bad habit of when a fight occurs, he disbands them all. He does it absentmindedly." “That’s...a bit weird.” I said honestly. "There's a lot about him that is. But nobody's perfect. So, aside from bored, what's it like being in this garden?" “There is literally every plant you can imagine and more.” I said honestly. “Also a lot of the food that’s grown here is given to hungry people.” "Awh, that's nice… say, wanna know one of Cript's secrets? It's actually kinda funny and related to you~" “Oh boy, I wonder what it is.” I chuckled a little. "It's about his Admin Title. First, tell me what you think it is?" “I don’t know really.” I said honestly. “Never told me if memory serves.” Mom was giggling a bit now. "Okay so you know how Cript had a Psychopath bound to him that was using an angel as a host, right?" “Yes, yes he did.” I nodded. “And how he hasn’t gotten rid of that is beyond me.” "Oh he did, long time ago, before I joined his family even. But guess what class of angel it was?" “I don’t know, Seraphim?” I asked, knowing those are like, the highest tier of Angel out there." "Nope. Cherub." “And then he fucked her.” I said honestly. "After a lot of fighting and making the first humanity blade, yes, but they were bound to him for several reincarnations, and with the body he has it took some of that Cherub powers and abilities. It's largely why he, and now you have an ever growing number of spouses. He became part cherub, and you. Becoming part of the family received some of that." “So...I’m not just all Dire Wolf?” I asked with a raised eyebrow. “Cause I kind of thought it was mostly just my heroism that caused most of my family to appear...” "Cherubs special way of having others fall for one another has to start with a spark, if interest and some Sparks of love are not already present then nothing can happen. The cherub part of you and Cript help Kindle those emotions the longer you are with others, til it becomes true love. This means so long as someone has some level of romantic, even friendship levels of affection for you it can become love. That's why Cript is the Admin of Love." “So...their feelings for me isn’t a load of crap?” I asked. “It’s not just because I’m magically part Cherub?” "All the cherub part does is aid those sparkling emotions, if they decide they don't like you it can't do anything about it." “Alright.” I nodded gently. “I’m still hunting down Jericho and my kids...he kidnapped them...I have honestly never been that furious before…” "I heard about that. I wish I could help but I don't know where Jericho would be hiding. Cript obliterated his realm after trapping him the first time, and I doubt he'd risk making a new one, that would be easily noticeable." “Well he’s going to regret ever being born for touching my sweet little angels.” I growled. “They had no part in this, and it’s not my fault Jericho’s skin is about as thick as a strand of hair when ‘edgy cript’ pisses him off so much.” "Heh. Well all I know is that while they will be safe, Jericho will find some way to use them." “And then I’ll make his life even worse.” I frowned. “No one touches my babies and get’s away with it, and if he tries to hurt them...if he tries to hurt Nancy after I got her to accept me…” I teared up at that. “I won’t just kill Jericho...I will torture him until the day existence burns to ash…” I growled in anger and sadness. "Spoken like a mother." Mom said with a nod. “I’m also a proud father.” I said while rubbing my eyes to get rid of the tears. “And I would still do the same thing against the bastard.” "Well, looks like your plant is cold." I snapped my head over to the plant, moving over to it in hopes it wasn’t cold or anything bad was happening to it cause motherly instincts are weird like that. “Oh no, my baby can’t be cold…” I said worriedly. "Hm. Looks like a sapling this small needs more warmth. I know they are planted late winter, early spring so they grow best, and without worry." I shifted into my primal form and curled around it, hoping my fur and body heat was enough to keep it warm. “Well...I hope I’m enough…” "I'm sure you will be. So, how much longer do you have? Before it's fully grown I mean." “A year still.” I said. “It’s only been two months.” "Yikes… heh, well patience is a virtue and all that." “I need to have it fully grow, bloom and bear ‘fruit’ as it were...and I doubt I can just make time go faster and have it grow faster.” I said honestly, knowing it couldn’t be that simple. “Unless I’m told ‘hey I could have done that two months ago’.” I said while looking around for Shinsu. I didn't see him around. He's likely by that pool. “Well either way…” I muttered, not wanting to leave my plants side. "Hmm…" Mom said, looking at me as I curled with the sapling. “What?” I asked nervously. "Heh. Nothing, just reminds me of myself when I was training to be the Den Mother." “Really?” I asked curiously. “That’s interesting.” "Yes. Before Den mothers when born could do so naturally, I and many others needed to be trained to be so. We were picked solely because we are the biggest of our litters. The Den Mother was always the largest in the Den." “That is rather interesting.” I said honestly. “Then...what, am I a natural born Den mother?” “Yes. Natural Born Den Mothers are, from what I’ve heard, the strongest and largest in the pack, and their main job is to feed and defend the young, as well as birth them. They only leave the Den when no young are present at all, their job being to hunt the largest of prey to feed the Den, until the next litter Arrives.” “Alrighty then.” I said honestly. “But...I suppose I’m just a little nervous about that whole...giving birth thing given how long I’ve been a guy…but that makes sense I suppose…” “I know it’s a change for you, not everyone adapts so easily to changes like this. I’m guessing for you it’s a ‘your mind tells you one thing and your body says another?” “Well it’s the fact that my mind and body are split between the two, one being my motherly side wanting to take care of my kids and have an asinine amount of them...and then there’s my male side that’s...basically the same thing as when I was just a dude to be perfectly honest.” “Male, female, two sides of the same coin. And in your case it’s all one side now.” “Yes...yes it is.” I said honestly. “Now a bad thing is that...I was told that if I have kids...I’ll get even bigger than what I am already...and how does one even get bigger than this?” I asked while motioning to myself. “I remember a legend my mother told me about the first Den Mother. She was so big as a pup she was the only pup of her litter, and grew to be the size of a mountain. It’s said her first litter was also her only, and those pups became our first and earliest ancestors, making our race the most populated, and dominant race of our homeworld.” I blinked at that. “Uh...oh boy...I don’t think I’ll match that but...given that well...I’ll get bigger but not horrifically so.” Mom shrugged. “Hard to say. So, what are you going to speak to the Mother and Belief about?” “Well I have to give them something from Cript and...well try and see if I can make all my wives Admins without any...problems.” “I’m sure they can, they created Admins after all.” “I was told that...which begs the question of why they were being talked about now instead of way back when this whole ‘admin’ thing started.” I wondered. “When you met Equestrians did they immediately bring up their god? Or you yours?” “Good point.” I conceded. “The Admins here, as well as Cript are the only ones who’ve really met them. Seen them.” "And I'm going to be the next one to meet them." I said honestly. "Wonder how that whole interaction be…" “Cript said that The Mother, just being around her made him feel completely passive. Even when activating his Psychopath blood he could not feel hatred or rage, just love and compassion. Belief he said felt like being in the eye of an all consuming storm with how it’s raw power was.” “Right, so basically what their name suggests.” I shrugged. “Basically. So, what else are you going to ask them? You have a rare opportunity to get some answers.” “How to deal with Jericho most likely...and then some other things that might come to my mind.” I shrugged. Mom nodded. “Well, I guess it will come to you when it does.” Two Months Later The Sapling was now two feet tall, growing on three and had many leaves. It held a faint smell of… is that pork or… Either way it looked healthy. Shinsu was here helping me make mulch using the old leaves and such. “A good constant source of mulch helps them grow faster. I made plants able to consume not just from the soil, but from things that decay, able to recycle themselves to stay alive. A feature I was quite proud of.” Shinsu said, tuning a bucket of dead leaves and water. “So you made Fungi.” I brought up. “Like mushrooms and stuff like that.” “Yes. Fungi were quite the impressive thing. Myself and Asmith are the two who basically created nature and ecosystems.” “Asmith...is that who I think that is?” I asked honestly. “If you are thinking a very small grey brainiac yes. He’s the Admin of Genetics, DNA and all that. He crafted it all, then crafted a race as equally smart as himself to work with and, with Lords help, learn to invent technology. Heh, those were the days.” “You do know that cheeky Galvan made literally the most overpowered items in history right?” I asked honestly. “Yes, the Omnitrix, his greatest invention, and his greatest failure.” “And then the seven other variants that are better than it in every way shape and form.” I rolled my eyes. “Did he now? I haven’t heard much about him in over sixteen million years, so my information is a bit outdated.” Shinsu laughed. I snapped my fingers, and a bookshelf filled with literally every single episode of Ben 10 from all it’s seasons or iterations was in there. “As much as I know of Asmith and all his shenanigans is in that tv show I have now gifted you...sure you might not have a tv but still.” “Ah. Interesting. Lords work without a doubt.” Shinsu said. “I’d expect nothing less from the Admin of Imagination.” “For the Admin of Imagination...he’s not very imaginative from what I’ve noticed and learned.” I said honestly. “Heheh. Time has been hard on him. He’s forgotten so much, lost much more.” “Even then.” I said. “Forgetting things is one thing, literally being able to make literally everything with nothing but a mere thought is another.” I said. “Imagination is literally a bullshit overpowered ability...like, there is literally no limits to is.” “There are many variations to it, it’s why so many can gain that power also. After all, that man you knew as God had it also.” “Yes, and then he died before Core could get his powers and be an actual problem...and then looking back on it from this point of view Core and God were not that scary even with those powers…” I brought up. “God did make a multiverse...but his imagination was limited to what he knew in some cases.” “And what he knew came from Kingdom Hearts, who basically copied Lords worlds. Heh, not all of us are all that creative.” “And creativity is the one thing that makes that power so great and so limiting.” I shrugged. “So true.” Shinsu laughed. “After a certain point the well begins to dry up.” “A bit.” I shrugged. “So, can I use time magic to speed this up or do I need to wait the allotted time?” I asked honestly. “I thought of it for the past few months but wasn’t sure.” “You can, if you want, but then where’s the lesson? Where’s the experience and revelation?” He asked, picking a leaf off my sapping as I stood up, snarling. “I see it’s there, but you haven’t gotten it quite yet.” “I’m a Den Mother, mind telling me something my instincts aren’t already making me feel about the thing?” I frowned. “Or is this somehow some weird exercise in telling me ‘just get pregnant already’?” “You were born a male originally, right?” “Yes, yes I was.” I said. “Now I’m a herm so...I can understand something’s.” “You experienced being a Dire wolf, right?” “Long enough.” I said. “I’ve been a Dire Wolf for...god knows how long at this point to be perfectly honest.” “Have you experienced being a female Dire Wolf, and a natural Born Den Mother at that?” “For all of maybe a week or two.” I said honestly. “You need a proper exercise in your newfound biology. Learn to accept and adapt to your instincts. To mature one of your kinds takes up to five years before they can even leave the den, if you can’t raise this tree into maturity, then what hope do you have in properly raising your own pups?” “I have done that actually, given that Cript made pocket dimensions with each wife having a clone of me.” I said. “Now sure that was me just as a male so that’s different but still.” “Any male can be the father of a child. It takes courage, patience, and resolve to be a mother.” “I know.’ I said honestly. “But...just another ten or so months…” “Yup.” “Alright...just another ten months of doing basically nothing.” I rolled my eyes. “Even if it’s to teach me about being a mother...even though I was already doing that with Nancy and other kids…” I muttered, Shinsu and many of his plants suddenly felt a surge of rage, sadness, and power come from me as I remembered what Jericho did. “Hell hath no Wrath like Woman Scorned.” Shinsu said, pouring some of the mulch for the sapling. “I remember the day that phrase was invented. Pretty sure it was Lords father who said it first.” “Makes sense.” I shrugged. “But yeah that term is aptly put for me at the moment, even though I’m hunting down my children to bring them back home.” “Heh. So, what is it you want to ask me? I’m sure I can answer some questions.” “Mostly just the time thing but…” I thought for a moment. “I know the war was a reason to come here but...it feels like there’s more than that to why you all came here.” I brought up. “What was it?” “For me, it was sanctuary. We all have one thing in common. Our realms were obliterated.” “From the war or from something else?” I asked curiously. “Jericho…” Shinsu said. “He cost us nearly everything…” “Well good thing I’m coming up with ways to deal with him permanently.” I brought up. “Nothing like scattering his entire being so thin he can’t even have his own consciousness or even subconscious anymore.” I said. “Even if someone were to try and collect his power...they kind of can’t.” “I don’t believe that to be so easy.” Shinsu said. “We are the oldest Admins still alive, and Asha is the most powerful of us all… and if it were not for the Mother, Asha would be a battery for him, and we’d be dead. It’s like something about he and Cript were meant to hold this limitless power they possess, for what though maybe Mother knows.” “And that’s going to be one of those questions I ask.” I said. “But if there’s one thing Jericho and Cript have told me, it’s that Jericho wants a fair fight so he’s going to make damn well sure he can have someone as strong as him kill him.” I said honestly. "Kill? Somehow I doubt that. Someone as strong as him maybe, but killing Cript or Jericho is like saying you're trying to kill pure energy." “And people have killed Pure Energy, people have also killed parts of a literal Concept, also Cript just killed a literal Fact of reality. So your argument is thoroughly invalid my good sir.” I deadpanned. "Hehe. Nothing can be truly destroyed, just reshaped to form something new. We turn our code into matter, matter makes atoms, atoms make up the bases of all things, in most realms anyway. Our code comes from Belief. It's said Belief takes and returns his energy from creations that have fallen." “Well that’s going to be an interesting conversation when I bring him Jericho’s corpse.” I frowned. "Heheh. Pride is good in moderation." “Not really about pride at this moment when he kidnapped my babies damn it.” I growled. "And not a clue to where to look huh?" “That’s because he probably ran off to Nexus, but when I find whoever the traitor is I’m going to get some damn answers.” I growled. “I...I don’t want to lose my babies…” “Haven’t found them yet? Surprised, they’re so obvious.” Shinsu didn’t even see me as I tackled him to the ground. “Where are they!” I pleaded suddenly, just wanting to know where my babies are so I can save them and keep them safe from Jericho. “I meant the traitors. I don’t know where your kids would be if Jericho has them, but Nexus agents I can spot a million miles away.” He said, pushing me off so he can sit up. “Yeash.” “I also know about their mark, and they can’t hide it cause A, I’m an Admin, and B they are literally in my own realm where I am literally their God. But...do you know who the traitor is?” I asked. “Traitors as in plural. Three of them. Could smell that Nexus mark on ya like a ripe strawberry.” He said. “And they can hide, they do it all the time. It’s their trademark next to making...their little projects.” “I know of the blue mark on their hand, I’ve been searching for it on everyone in my realm.” I said honestly. “Starfish clones are a hell of a hunting party that’s for sure.” “The marks can be hidden, you’ve likely already cleared them without even knowing it. One thing that can’t be hidden though is their loyalty. Here.” He said, crafting from a cotton plant a flag with the outline of a hand with a blue dot in it. “Make an audience with everyone, and burn this before them all. If there is one thing I know Nexus hates it’s to see their pride up in flames.” “Sure…” I said while taking the cotton plant and it disappearing into my inventory, and then was immediately grabbed by one of my clones who made the declaration. “Alright, there we go.” “Heheh. Show those assholes some hell.” Shinsu said. As angry as I was I suddenly felt…. Calm. Happy… why? “Oh, guess she’s visiting. Word must have reached her.” Shinsu said happily. “I have a feeling Mother is here?” I asked while looking around curiously. By a nearby green apple tree, I saw her… She looked easy nine months pregnant, outfit was leaf pattern but hugged her like silk, and her long brown hair reached well to her feet. She was...amazing. ”No, bad thoughts aren’t allowed here. Just because she looks amazing doesn’t mean that.” I immediately thought to myself given that trend hasn’t really ceased yet. “Uh...hello?” I asked to the nice lady. She looked over at me, smiling and I felt… so happy she smiled at me. “Ben, it’s good to meet you again.” She spoke softly and sweetly… wait, again? “Wait, again?” I asked. “What do you mean ‘again’?” I asked worriedly, wondering if that weird ‘future self’ thing happened here before I actually got here. “I am not you, if that is what you worry about. You know who I am, or rather, was. I can’t explain for my own reasons.” “Yeah, because literally no one can ever just explain things and not have to be cryptic.” I rolled my eyes.” It’s like me and Eclipsa are, like the two most open people as far as I remember...still need to meet the Foretellers and John...hate that…” “Heh. So, I fail to remember why you are here… I should have better memory of these things.” “A few things.” I said. “First off, how do I...permanently deal with Jericho?” I asked, wanting to get the big question out of the way. “Ah. I am sorry to say, but Jericho, like Cript have a destiny that will be fulfilled come the Admin Wars end, for this is why they can not simply be dealt with. I can promise you all will be well come it’s end, and you can finally have your life of peace with those you love.” “Cause it can never be simple…” I muttered. “Well that’s good.” I said honestly. “Now, second question…” I muttered, trying to think of something that wasn’t just immediately ‘hey, can you make my wives admins?’. “Hm?” Mother asked. “I was wondering if you could make all my wives Admins?” I asked, not thinking of something at the moment. “I was wondering cause Cript said that you and Belief would be able to without the complications of becoming an admin in other ways.” “Of course.” She spoke, looking around til she found a Dandelion, and picked it. “It’s time the Admin Race regained their population. Does this include all of Zeke’s and Eclipsa’s also?” I was about to say ‘sure’, but then I remembered the Traitors. “Who...who are the traitors?” I asked worriedly. “I expected you to ask that. I won’t tell names, but each traitor is mother to children from each of you.” The sound of something cracking could be heard echoing through the realm. “H-here…” I stuttered, trying to compose myself. “G-give me an item for the t-traitors...and if....if they want to stay with us...they can have it and gain the powers...if...if they don’t…” I clenched my fists so hard it drew blood as I tried not to just cry at hearing that. “I can not place this power within an item. I have to give it directly, if placed within an item, the energy would weaken drastically, and become useless. Either I bestow it to them now, or not at all. I am sorry, but that’s just how this primordial power works.” “I’m going to politely tell you, ‘no’.” I said, the passiveness making my choice of words a bit limited. “Seriously, Power, no matter what form it takes, can be contained in something. It’s happened with Void, Nothingness, Light, Dark, even all the powers I don’t fully remember or can’t think of off the top of my head. But the point is, it can be contained and not diminish into nothing, and I should know, I’m literally the Admin of Nothing.” “So you expect me to take your word over my own experience?” Mother asked, sounding a bit offended, which worried me. “No, I just...expected people to think outside the box sometimes.” I said honestly. “Especially with the person that should literally know anything and everything.” “It’s not like I’ve tried.” Mother spoke. “Every artifact I’ve tried to forge, breaks. The longest lasting a day. Only sentient, organic beings can contain the powers of an Admin, some object have said power, but they themselves are Admins, who change their form to that of an item for one reason or another. Mostly it’s because they can not use their powers properly. If I leave it within an item out in the open, it simply returns to me or Belief.” “Alright…” I sighed out. “Great...well mind if I wait on that part then? I’m currently holding a big meeting to everyone, including Zeke and Eclipsa’s family’s, as I burn Nexus’s flag right in front of them.” I explained, needing time to think about this and to who might be the traitors so I don’t accidentally give them superpowers if they actually don’t give a fuck about us. “If they do, even if they are caught they’d cause havok before hand, how many of your family would be hurt or killed in their retaliation? If I don’t change them now, then they won’t survive then they make their move.” “They are in my Realm, I make the rules their.” I said. “Nexus can’t stop the one that owns the very land they step on, the very air they breathe. Unless they magically do then in which case what’s the point of owning a realm at this point?” “Their miniscule code abilities allow them slight alterations to the realms they travers. While they can’t change or break your rules, they can work around them. They are trained from too young an age to do so.” “Damn it…” I sighed out. “Well then...let’s give them all the powers then I suppose…” Nodding, Mother blew on the Dandelion, the white floaters shifting into something… powerful. I nearly fell to my knees with how that sudden surge felt, and it flew into a portal it made. “They will gain the full powers of an Admin when it reaches them, adapting their bodies as needed.” “Alright…” I said while pulling out the bag Cript gave me weakly. “This is...for either you or Belief…don’t fully remember given all that’s happened.” I said, trying to stand up after all that sudden power. “Oh. I remember this.” She said, taking the pouch and opening it. Inside was a small ring. “Hehe. Je- I mean Belief will want this back.” “Wait, can you please repeat that?” I asked, looking over the Mother more closely. “Who did you almost call Belief?” She chuckled. “Nothing you need to worry about. This is just something they gave me so long ago.” I thought for a moment, before blinking as things started to click together. “You cheeky fucker.” I said in a non aggressive manner. “No wonder why you said ‘again’...and why you seem a bit familiar.” I said, Mother knowing full well what I was talking about. “Cript did mention that this,” I motioned to Mother. “Happened before with you all right? So…” I groaned. “I know who Belief is...why him of all people?” “Why spoil something about to happen?” “Because it’s how we get there that matters more than the destination sometimes. Like a standard cliche of ‘good guys win’, it’s about the journey, not the destination.” I explained. “So Cript and Mom...again, why Jericho?” I asked. “He’s an asshole and he kidnapped my babies...why is he Belief?” I asked, having a bad feeling a lot of the admins here will freak the fuck out about this sudden revelation. Smiling, they took a breath before speaking. “Jericho’s ideals were born from admiration. Admiration for me. When he heard of me and my deeds, he found someone who he looked up too, but in learning of my, at the time, lack of actions, he realized I was lacking challenges my battles. He wanted to provide that, provide me with the challenge he felt I deserved. Fights one on one for him, he thought, were not enough. So wanted something he truly believes I wanted… a war.” “And that wasn’t what you wanted.” I said. “Not by a long shot right?” “No. He took it as his admiration and value of me being rejected, so he sought to change my mind. And now, here it is again, this cycle repeating like always.” “And…” I sighed out. “Let me guess, no one can break this cycle?” I asked honestly. “It changes from repeat to repeat, but once Jericho and I become what we are now, then it’s a time of peace, for seemingly eternity.” “Until everything resets or something?” I asked. “Or is it one time per Universe? Also Je-I mean, Belief, might not be entirely happy to see me at this point considering what I...might have done to him.” “I won’t say anything, other than that time works exactly like how you see a clock, at some point, it all returns to midnight.” “Alrighty then…” I said. “But...let me ask, my Future Self...are they from this reality...well it probably can’t cause those...memories…” I sighed out. “Not anymore. The second they came back in time to kill you, they made this timeline change from their own.” “Well...I only got brief flashes of their life but...what happened?” I asked worriedly. “Eclipsa died.” Mother stated. “Zeke and the others within him were in conflict, and given his nature is Balance, such conflict nearly killed them, so they ran, ran to try and restore their balance.” “And...that’s why my future self thought he abandoned me…” I muttered. “But...there had to be something else...abandonment issues...that might be enough but...it feels like there’s something else…” “By that point you’d all already suffered so much. The world that comes after the war is one of wonder and unlimited possibilities, but also holds it’s own dangers, dangers that can be avoided, but you three and your family faced head on. Many were lost due to many reasons as time went on. When Eclipsa died… it was just you three left.” “Alright yeah that’s...that’s probably enough for me to go back in time and stop whatever the fuck happened.” I said. “And...yeah Eclipsa dying...that was my fault...let me guess, the spell I cast that should have killed Jericho actually helped him become Belief?” “Oh no, that happened WAY after that. At least it did in the last timeline, this one might be different. Sometimes these repeats are exactly like the last or different in small or large ways.” “Um...does any of them involve Jericho...not being able to be Belief?” I asked curiously. “No, we exist in every reset because without us, everything will truly end. Only we can both remake and survive the complete end. Myself as the architect of it all, and Jericho as the ‘battery’ of it all.” “Then...what was that one possible future where you literally ended everything?” I asked curiously. “I...can kinda remember it, you were called ‘The Last’ or something, barely had two health bars but...literally everyone was dead and it was a sea of pitch black nothingness. “That was the outcome of a reflection, not Creation as a whole.” “Okay thank you.” I sighed out. “But...good to know it won’t happen...right?” “You’re good.” They said. “Do you wish to continue with these trials? You’ve completed what you have sought out for.” “Might as well. I’m gonna need to be strong enough to deal with Jericho’s crap down the line and...I want to see how strong I am through these trials plus this…” I motioned to the growing tree. “Is helping me learn a little bit of things.” “That’s good.” “But I still have like...ten or so months to go for this trial.” I said honestly. "You eventually get the hang of patience and self restraint." “That’s good to know.” I said honestly. “I mean, I’m getting the hang of self restraint already so it’s still good.” “That’s a lie and you know it.” “Not entirely.” I said honestly. “But self restraint is a bit hard when you still have to deal with traitors that are people you’ve known for god knows how long and even had kids with as well as having your children kidnapped…” I sighed out. Meanwhile, back home once everyone was gathered and I had clones at the ready I brought out the Nexus flag. “Hey guys, who want’s to see me burn this to ash?” I asked while immediately setting the flag on fire in front of everyone. For a time it seemed like no one was budging, till the flames reached the blue dot, then in a haze I saw, eyes wide at the three culprits. Scotch, Rune, and...Coco. “How dare you…” Rune spoke first, her normal higher pitch sluttery voice now cold and empty, her tone lower and hollow. “Damn it…” I muttered while hundreds of my clones immediately jumped the three swiftly to stop them from escaping. Scotch got next to Rune, who’s arm glowed with Symbols as suddenly several dozen portals opened up, out from each poured what appeared to be machines that began attacking Ben’s clones. Despite Ben’s power the machines held many numbers and with each destroyed the pieces kept moving to reconnect to fix themselves. “Alright, this is getting annoying.” I muttered while my clones started to literally disintegrate the machine parts. “So...let me ask you three...why?” I asked the three. “I’m protecting my children…” Scotch said with spite. “I’m in it for the heck of it. Finally putting my pathetic race in it’s place.” Rune said sadistically. “I… It’s my job…” Coco said, not looking Ben in the eye as Rune’s arm glowed again, the portals now pouring out what looked like… people… Their outfits were all white save for the black visors of their helmets, and the Nexus symbol was across their chest. “Test the bullets now!” Rune ordered as they all began shooting at Ben’s clones… they were not healing from the bullet wounds. “Perfect.” “Oh, so bullet’s that stop regen?” I asked. “Well that’s totally never happened before.” I rolled my eyes. “Not exactly.” Rune smiled, my Body suddenly aching. “Bullets that delete fragments of code with each shot. You’ll be crippled with a proper magazine full in your gut.” Rune grabbed Scotch and Coco, rushing through the charging Nexus army. Too bad for them as the hoard of Nexus soldiers were suddenly either ripped apart, caught in something, or occupied by the armies that I owned and all the stronger Nobodies I’ve been creating or ‘leveling up’. “You forget...this is my world.” I said to them all as Nexus was woefully unprepared for this sudden incursion. “Now give me back my wife!” I barked while running after them. “Drop dead mutt!” Rune yelled, body glowing with symbols as more portals opened up, this time Psychopaths rushing out. “Yeah, cause that’s what we need right now…” I groaned as my Clones clashed with the Psychopaths as I ran past them all. “More cannon fodder to try and distract me…” I muttered. “Coco please! I just want to talk!” I called out to her, knowing she wasn’t like Rune who was a complete cunt or Scotch who...might have good reasons but I wasn’t fully sure about that thing. Coco looked back towards me, but Rune yanked her more ahead. “No second thoughts. We’re Nexus till we die. Got that?” Rune asked as she summoned her Keyblade. “Hope Zeke feels this.” She said, the Keyblade glowing with a haze of dark energy as she tossed it back towards me, the blade cracking and then, exploding like a tactical nuke. I could hear Zeke screaming from here. I snapped my fingers, what seemed like time reversing itself for the keyblade as it reformed as if the dark energy didn’t blow it to hell as Zeke also felt a soothing energy flow through him. “Okay, don’t care.” I muttered before vanishing and appearing right in front of the three. Coco yelped… Void Key appearing in her hands. She swung in a fit of panic, not like her actual trained attack. Nothingness and Grey coated my hand as I blocked the swing with my bare hand, Void Key trying to devour my power but it couldn’t cause of how much Nothingness was around it, in its user, and in me that it was damn near poisonous to it. “Coco please...I’m here to help.” “I-I…” Coco tried to speak, choaking on words as Rune and Scotch backed up. “Pathetic. Worthless equines.” Rune hissed, a portal of Code opening behind them. “Thanks for the Admin powers, will come in handy.” Rune said with a mock salute as she and Scotch entered, it closing immediately behind them. “Those two are so fucked when they get back to their handlers…” I muttered, having a good feeling Nexus will torture and experiment on those two with sadistic glee. “But...Coco…” I looked into the mare’s eyes as I silently cast a Zone of Truth spell around us. “Please...do you still love me?” I asked, knowing that she wouldn’t have hesitated or looked away if she didn’t. “I-i...I do. At first it...was just a job, like always… I ended up falling for you, I had fun with everyone, with you.” I sighed out thankfully. “So...your staying with me...and with the family we have?” I asked gently, hoping beyond hope she’ll say yes. “I want too… but…” Suddenly, her whole body became wrapped in these black tattoo like tendrils and her eyes became inverted in their colors. She just flinched her wrist and I was sent into a nearby building. Looking back up she was looking her arms over. “Strong, weak willed… yes, this is my vessel.” Coco’s voice was distorted, almost demonically so. “Why be wielded like common weaponry when wielding the wielder gives the best advantage.” “Oh no you don’t…” I muttered while getting back up and walking over to them. “You are not taking away my wife you piece of shit.” I growled while walking towards her. “So either you get out of my wife or I’ll make you regret ever being forged.” Void Key raised… itself? At me. "Try me mongrel." “Alright.” I said while appearing in front of them and putting my hand on Coco’s chest. “Let’s take a quick stop to the Station shall we?” I asked while using the Balance power I gained from Zeke as me, Void and Coco all delved into her Station of Awakening. Upon arriving at her station was… cracking. Rising from the cracks was a dark silhouette of Coco, with Void Key's eye taking up the entirety of her head. "Such deep rooted Nothingness. Disgusting. I'll have to shatter this heart. It's the body I need, the heart and mind are worthless to me." “You won’t hurt a single piece of Coco’s heart you got that fucker?” I growled while donning my True King armor. “I know you can hear me Coco, fight the growing darkness, I know you can do it.” I called out to her. “I still believe in you, please help me take down this asshole.” I said as I pulled out my Wayfinder and brought it to my chest, hoping the D-Link that I haven’t used in forever still works and if it’ll work with Coco. The light activated and surprisingly… I felt a strong connection to void energy, it over took my Nothingness as all I felt was void, and No Heart itself changed as a result, pitch black with it's design that of two crossed Skeletons welding broken Kingdom Keys… I know this is Coco's D-Link. I can feel her with me… so why? "Heheheh. Foolish king." Void Key spoke up. "Coco is my host because her body can handle Void energy on par with that of Hollow. Nexus built and engineered her with that idea in mind. Why do you think she is my vessel!" Void charged as we clashed. "Let's see how you fight using your opposite!" I looked at Void Key. “Want to know how I can fight with it?” I asked. “Well...it’ll take some getting used to, but I think I’ve copied plenty.” I said while a Void Tendrel suddenly slammed into Void Key’s stomach from my own body and knocking him back. “I’ve been doing my research, as well as having the Old Man’s research helping me out…” I said, Void energy crackling around me. "Former King of Nothingness. He left you a library of research… heheh. This will be fun." Void Key said, suddenly turning into nine as each charged me, three hitting, four blocked and the rest I avoided. “It’ll take some getting used to...but funnily enough.” I said while grabbing one of the Void Key clones by the head. “Void and Nothingness abilities are pretty close, just one keeps things in a state of stagnation, keeping life going until Light and Dark can get off their asses and do something…” I said while Void energy pulsed inside the clone as it’s color shifted to hold a more blueish tint. “While Void corrupts and causes changes.” I said while the blue tinted clone of Void Key lashed out at the other clones. “Knowing both sides can help wonders.” I said before I raised my hand, ‘Nobodies’ appearing from Void energy as they all looked pitch black and morphed into more grotesque abominations of sinew and strength. “Go.” I said while the Dusk’s, who opened up their heads and pulled back and showed a demonic visage flew through the air, their hands going from thin lines to thick boney hands with deadly claws at each end. Void keys clones fought with my Void Nobodies while it and I clashed. I have to hurry, the D-Link is getting weaker… meaning Coco is in trouble. I took a deep breath, and noticed the Void Key clone I corrupted to my side dealt with one of their clones and out popped a D-Link item. “Maybe…” I muttered while breaking our clash as I kicked them away, dashing over and grabbing the D-Link item. Using it, everything around me changed. I was… in a classroom? All white walls, kids crayon drawings lined the walls, and a group of kids of all… OMG Coco as a filly is adorable! "Now class." The teacher spoke."What is the key principal in warp drive engines?" "Time manipulation through light acceleration?" One kid asked. They're like five?! "Correct." The teacher said. “Excuse me, I was too distracted on Coco being absolutely adorable, are these kids learning how to work Warp Drive Engines!?” I asked incredulously, not believing what I’m hearing. None of them replied. Guess they can't hear me. The lesson went on and WAY over my head until the Bell rang. "Now class remember for the exam you are going to build a warp drive engine. This is a pass or fail test and counts for fifty percent of the years total grade." The teacher said. I saw Coco run along with some other kids, talking about cartoons and the class… this is not what I expected from Nexus? “How the fuck…” I frowned. “Okay...so I can imagine that they’re acting all friendly and giving them a childhood to start...to gain trust at a young age…” I took a deep breath. “But it’s when they get older is when this facade goes away…” The memory ended and I was back to clashing with Void Key. "Damn you mongrel!" I noticed Coco's arms down to her elbows on his figure were free looking. “Not my fault.” I said while pushing the fucker away. “Okay, so that’s how this is gonna work huh?” I muttered while taking a brief and quick survey of the arena in case I need to jump in to last hit something to get another piece of Coco’s memories. “Alright...so kill the clones and get her memories...seems simple enough.” I muttered as I vanished and appeared behind one clone that was distracted by my Nobodies, using Void Heart, which is actually a pretty nice name, and stabbed it into the clone’s chest. I grabbed the item and another memory. This time Coco was at least… ten or so, and this looked like Equestria. Manehattan exactly. Coco was playing in a park with some other kids. “And she’s still adorable…” I said thankfully. “But...what’s special about right now?” I wondered while looking around to see what else was special about right now. “But this is a nice day...sweet and warm and full of fun.” Coco was playing along the monkey bars when suddenly some older kids, likely fourteen or so came up to her. "Hey squirt, where's your mama?" One of the trio asked in a mocking tone. "Shopping." Coco said. “I...have a bad feeling about this.” I said nervously. One of the others grabbed Coco by the wrist, and threw her down as the other two began circling her. However, to my shock, she quickly spun kicked them all off their feet, and proceeded to tackle the one that threw her down into the monkey bars she was thrown off, making a… rather large dent in it. "The hell! No earth pony is that strong!" One of the ones she kicked down spoke as they got up. “Surprised by how strong she is...but earth ponies not being that strong? They would be shocked to meet Big Mac or any of the Pie family.” I said honestly. The one that spoke charged at Coco, who FLIPPED him over her and on to their back hard enough to send them into a coughing fit gasping for air. The third took out… a knife! "Little bitch!" They yelled, charging at her. Coco sidestepped the armed attacker, taking their wrist and twisting it til they dropped the knife then tossing them head first into their fellow flunkies. The trio scrambled up and ran. "Very impressive." Spoke a… human guy, I think. "Your combat training is paying off well child." "G-General Krot!" She bowed. "Why are you here?" "Observing the world. This is your reflection specific one yes?" This General guy asked. "Yes." "Hmm. I feel it will be getting quite the excitement in the future. Stay close to it." “Well then…” I muttered. “Good to know.” I said honestly. “Now...which one would be her ‘handler’?” I muttered, thinking it would be Krot but he’s a general. The two talked for a time until… I think that's Coco's parents came over. "General Krot." Bowed Coco's mom. "Knitted Cloth. It's been ages. And Strap Belt. What's the daily grind like?" Krot asked. "The usual. Not all of us can get a promotion with a desk Krot." Strap Belt said with a laugh. "What brings you here old friend?" "Received word from the Prophets. This world will be getting a surprise to it many years From now." "What is it?" Krot had Coco run off to keep playing while he spoke privately with the two. "Information Currently is limited, but it seems an heir to that King of Nothingness will appear here." "The king of nothingness? I didn't even know he was alive?" "Alive is a stretch but yes, he's still around. This heir could give us invaluable data we've been lacking on that man since he first appeared sixty thousand years ago." “I suppose I gave them that and hindered them out the ass given the old man’s dead.” I muttered. "He's expected to arrive within seventeen years time. I think Coco could handle gathering data on them." "She will be twenty almost thirty by then." Coco's mom thought aloud. "Will it be safe though?" Strap Belt asked. "When is anything we do safe? Besides, by then Coco will have at least ten years experience under her belt and confidence to pull it off. It's just data gathering after all, observe and if able to sample what she can. DNA, scans, the usual." Krot spoke. “Yeah, I think she got plenty of samples.” I chuckled a little at how much ‘sampling’ she did over the course of our love life… wait, how many did she end up sending to Nexus? “Okay never mind that’s actually worrying...wait, that means they either made clones of me...or made kids...oh those fucking assholes!” I barked in anger at the possibility of them using my DNA to either make clones of me, or abusing my children because they’re assholes. "We are hoping for data specifically relating to the Kings little yes man, Consequence." "The first Nobody?" Strap asked. "Yes and no. The first Dusk Nobody. We want to know what makes him retain his personality and intelligence compared to his lesser brethren." "Have fun with that, even with me going through the notes its not really clear at all how or why, plus he's not the only one." I brought up. I began to realize… Coco is playing… how am I? I looked around, and spotted Coco hiding under the Bench Krot was sitting on, a playfully sneaky smile on her face. Hehe, cute. "How are her studies at the Nexus weekend school going?" Coco's mother asked. "Very well. The bioengineered generations really show vast improvement over ours. Intelligence and power limits far exceed where we were at their age." "Yeesh. I remember all the controversy. It all worked out in the end, it's extremely hard for them to contract illness." Strap said. "Unlike me, I used to get sick every month." "I remember, I was always the one to bring you your homework." "Am I suddenly supposed to sympathise with crazy people?" I frowned. “Sure some might be actual decent people but the whole is still a bunch of fucking psychopaths.” The memory ended and I was back into the fire. Literally, Void Fire was everywhere as Void Key had somehow shifted into some kind of Void Valor form, only rather than welding another Keyblade it wielded a blade made from pure void energy. “Oh, you can spawn fire?” I asked with a smile as I summoned Eternal Flames. “Well can your fire burn fire?” I asked while Eternal Flames spinning fast as well as black fire spawned, burning hotter and hotter. “Well bring it!” I shouted with a smile as I threw two Fireballs hot enough to literally burn away the Void Fire Void Key spawned. Void Key slashed along Eternal Flames as I threw them at it, redirecting them across into the abyss below. It was faster, making after images of itself that made it hard to tell where it really was. Three of the after images, clones, rushed me, each on their own Void Valor form but wielding only the pure void energy swords. “Well isn’t this just a whole bunch of fun.” I said with a warm smile. “I know you're in there Coco, if you can hear me please help me stop this thing!” I shouted as I swayed side to side as, to Void Key, thousands upon thousands of after images seemed to appear, all with the intent of striking it. “Welcome to my Speed Hell, First Step.” I said while bull rushing through him with Void Heart and Reunion. I impaled it through, grabbing the D-Link item And jumping into another memory. This one Coco looked easy nineteen or so, and she was… in a warfield. “Well that escalated quickly…” I muttered worriedly. Coco was stationed between two sandbag mounds, a MASSIVE sniper in hand as she was taking aim at something down in the battlefield. "Target spotted." She said. “Cause of course she’s also a sniper…” I muttered while looking out to see what she was aiming at. “What more can her memories hold?” Using Sharpshooters I saw in the distance some troopers, all dressed in the typical army get up, only their weapons were… rather high tech looking. One had what looked like a smaller version of the Tesla Cannon from Fallout, the others all had some kind of gun but it looked like a black aura came from the ammo mags. “Okay...that’s interesting…” "Taking shot." Coco fired, but it wasn't a bullet that was fired, rather some weird energy that once it hit the guy with the Tesla Cannon a small… black hole appeared, suching them and their comrades inside it as well as their weapons and some surrounding debris before the black hole faded away as it it was never there. "Target neutralized." “Well then…” I blinked at that. “That is a thing...but why...am I seeing this memory?” I wondered curiously. Coco put the bizarre rifle down, taking a stretch before pulling out a soda and taking a drink. She then leaned back and looked thoughtful. "Five more years then I'm on the Heir of Nothingness mission. I'll have to settle in back home. Been a whole year. Wonder what's changed?" She spoke to herself as she drank her soda. “A lot probably…” I muttered. “But don’t sound too enthused to meet me...I know I’m not fantastic but still.” "Wonder what they are like? Tall? Wish those damned Prophets would give more details." "Does crap like that matter?" I turned around… Zeke's Rune. Her attire was completely blood soaked, hair cut short, and a very nasty looking sword was in her hands. "It's data gathering, simple as that." "Says the lucky Sociopath who got the Cript Project case." Coco replied, tossing a soda to Rune. "Why do we hang out again?" "Because you don't completely irritate me." Rune hissed, popping the soda open. “Says the cunt that hates her race with a burning passion for some fuck off reason.” I frowned. "You know they have pills for that temper of yours." Coco said. "I happen to think my temper is my best feature." Rune stated proudly. "Keeps me focused… ruthless." "Yeah yeah. Your reflections Equestrians are the worst, so you keep saying." "They fucking are! Stupid, racist, ignorant sex hounds the lot of them. 'oh know a Zebra, run!' oh no my sister's an evil demon, to the moon!' seriously, it's always the fucking moon. Our whole history is either banishment or some artifact that saves our asses. Completely useless on their own." "So are most all Equestria Reflections." Coco added. "I know… and the 'royal guard' what a joke. Can't even handle a proper perimeter sweep or properly detain anyone." "Yeah their training is pretty bad…" "If you call that joke of a boot camp training then I'm the slut of a princess Celestia…" “Ironic given that’s kind of exactly what happened.” I chuckled. “So she’s pissed because...ponies don’t know their neighbors that much and believe random lies because of no information...pissed that Luna was stuck in the moon because that’s just what happened...and the last part really isn’t a complaint cause that happens with damn near anything that involves artifacts, not just Equestria.” I said to myself with some thought. “Right then, to each their own I suppose...but again, ironic she brought up being a slut of Celestia’s cause that’s what happened to mine…” "I swear once I save up the rem I'm getting race transformation surgery." Rune stayed bitterly. "Isn't that crazy expensive?" "I got half of what I need. Once I get that, not even my inborn magic or genetics will be equine anymore. I'm thinking dire wolf." "You got a bite to match that bark." Coco said flatly, barely seeming to be paying attention. “Bitch wouldn’t know what being a dire wolf meant…” I growled. "So, how much you get for this job?" Coco asked. "Sixty grand." Rune said. "You?" "Fifteen grand." "How come you never charge more?" "I get more offers by charging less." Coco said. "Besides, converting it to bits for back home I'll still be sitting pretty for a long time." Coco finished her soda, tossing the bottle as an audible slashing glass noise came from where she threw it. "And unlike you I'm not saving for special surgery or the down payments of some fuck massive giant house." "Meh. I like spacious houses." The two talked for a while until someone new appeared. They were… odd. Humans, clearly, tall, easy six foot seven inches, wore a long black… wait, that's… that's Andy from Cript's memory. "Oh look, the puppet came by for a visit." Rune said sarcastically. "Watch yourself mule." Andy growled. "I received word from your commanders. You two will be sent back for debriefing on your next assignments." "What assignments?" Coco asked. "The Cript Project and Heir of Nothingness. They're arriving earlier than expected." Andy said. "Fuck." Rune hissed. “What, were they expecting us in twenty ninteen or something?” I raised an eyebrow at that. "I'll handle things here. Besides, there is another reason I'm here." Andy said, countless Titan Shadow creatures appearing. "I need to test Cript's resolve and power. You two best not be here for that." Coco nodded while Rune rolled her eyes as they left. “Well...alrighty then.” I said. “That’s a thing…” The memory ended and now Void Key managed to.land a hit across my left arm, the gash wasn't healing and I was losing… whatever it is admins bleed when they're cut badly. I did notice though it's movements were... slower than before. “Rude.” I said before casting a healing spell on my injury. “But looks like Coco’s fighting back against you Void, why don’t you just leave Coco’s body and run while you still have the chance.” I growled. "Just as your stubbornness keeps you from backing away, my pride keeps me fighting." Void said, appearing behind me suddenly as we clashed blades. “Fine fine.” I said honestly. “Well let’s get on with more memories I suppose.” I said while using one of my wings to knock him away as I prepared to kill another one of his clones that he still has around. “I hope I’m getting closer…” I muttered while vanishing and cleaving one of Void Key’s clones in half and collecting the item again. The memory was… Coco, in normal clothes, leaning over a building tops edge. "Any moment now." She muttered to herself anxiously. “This...feels like the day when I originally came here…” I muttered. “Well...time to see her first impression of me…” A few minutes passed and a DTD opened up, and out ai shot like a rocket, slamming face first into the wall and falling into the open dumpster. Coco cringed. "That had to hurt…" She said, pulling out some kind of what I am assuming is a data gathering device as I crawled out of the dumpster. “Yeah...that’s a good start as any…” I grumbled, remembering this day quite well. “Alright...so she sees me immediately faceplant...wonder what she’ll think about me about that…” The device she has beeped, then she read aloud the data. "Male, human, age 18, blood type B-, hair color brown, eye color blue, genetically prone to type two diabetes and stomach cancer." “Neither of those things my family had or suddenly caught.” I frowned, not knowing if that was true but not knowing any of my family who had cancer or even diabetes. She followed me into the Library, making audio logs every so often and taking pictures. Man I did not notice her at all. Was I that oblivious or was she what good… likely both “Knowing me it was probably both…” I muttered. “Coco might be a little confused on me complaining about a war on cheese at the moment…” I muttered. Suddenly screaming started… right the heartless. She followed me out and watched me deal with it. She made an audio logs. "Entry Number seven. Subject clearly shows zero prior combat experience or skills." She then saw when Core and Josh appeared. After I was shot and unconscious she made another audio logs. "Entry Number eight. Subject made contact with Core and an unknown person. Subject was shot, vital signs show unconscious, no lethal injuries." “Ah yes, I remember getting shot by Josh...still need to smack him upside the head for that.” I frowned. Coco watched as Paramedics came and took, and when she saw Rarity climb out of a nearly crushed charreit, she rushed over. "Rarity!" She called out, helping the fashionista put along with Twilight. "Are you two alright?" "Yes dear we're fine." Rarity said. "Thank goodness I learned my brothers shield spell. Would have been a worse outcome if not." Twilight added. “Well...glad to know she was prepared.” I muttered. “Alright, so Coco knew about them long before I met her...good to know.” "So, is it like this all the time or?" Rarity asked. "No, this is the first real major attack. Most have been much smaller monsters." Coco said. "These creatures are so strange. They don't follow the normal flow of magic or even seem to acknowledge it." Twilight thought aloud. "That hooded figure was able to beat it so easily though." "Define easily…" Coco muttered to herself. “Being able to murder it to begin with might be a good start.” I rolled my eyes. “And another would be being able to kill one single handedly when I was told it took like ten soldiers a while to kill one heartless.” "Hope he's alright. I heard the gunfire and was so scared." Rarity added. "We barely heard what they were talking about. Sounded so weird." Twilight said. "So, where were you when this happened?" "Oh in the library, just looking up some books on classic stitch work patterns." Coco said without even a flinch or flaw in her lie or appearance. Must have had lots of practice. "Alright...good enough lie to be honest." I muttered. "At least everything worked out in the end." Rarity said. "Looks like the insurance companies will be having fun with all these claims…" Coco giggled at that. "Glad I work with fabrics and not paperwork." "What's wrong with paperwork? It's fun." Twilight said, making both Rarity and Coco laugh. I laughed too. Classic Twilight. “Only Twilight would think Paperwork is fun.” I smiled gently. The memory ended and I was-oh fuck! I dodged, Void Key now the size of a Dragon… and was one, mouth breathing out pure void as well as geotesc creatures oozing off their skin... “Okay...what the actual hell?” I frowned. “I look away for ten seconds and suddenly you're a dragon?” Void Key's reply was a swift Tail flick, nearly breaking me in half as the impact tossed me into it's claws, which they proceeded to crush and slam me into the ground with. “Rude.” I said while Grey suddenly burst out from me, me pushing against the claw holding me as I grabbed Void Heart and stabbed the dragon’s wrist hard. It roared, blasting me with it's void Breath as Tendrils emerged from its wound and began healing itself while also attacking me. “Alright…” I muttered while dodging the breath and attacks. “Let’s see...where are the other memories…” I muttered while taking stock of the area while dodging or parrying it’s attacks. I didn't see any of the clones. Must have took the rest back already. It receded a bit over the edge, and breathed fire onto the arena. I felt my code…. I felt afraid for a moment, emerging from its void Breath was… a Delete, female, clad in what looked like leather armor and held a metallic bow. "Filthy Admin…" She growled. He can summon Deletes? “Okay I call bullshit.” I frowned. “You can just...summon Delete’s? The actual fuck.” I frowned. “Fine, hi lady.” She attacked me, using her bow like a blunt weapon and managed to make me kneel as I raised Void Heart to counter. She's tough. "Speak in fear Admin." “No, I won’t.” I frowned. “But who are you? Your armor looks...familiar.” I said, feeling like I know something about her. "I am Creeth. Delete of Hunt… and you killed my husband." She said, swatting Void Heart away, drew back her bow, and pulled, her single arrow suddenly became thousands and each impaled me directly. "Unlike my husband, I won't hold back." “Wait...he was your husband?” I asked. “Certainly seemed fine with dying though...if he didn’t just immediately kill me for whatever reason…” I groaned while getting the arrows out of me. "He held Honor as his Mantle. He was foolish at times to do so… but that's what I loved about him." She spoke, drawing her bow back. "Because of you our children cry to me wondering where he is every day… You will die for the sadness of our children." I took a deep breath and walked over to her. “Lady…” I started. “I’ve already died for the sadness of children...my children to be more specific…” I told her. “So...how about instead of fighting here and probably getting yourself killed...you return to your family and try to be happy with them…” I said, my words coming from one parent to another and not from an Admin to a Delete. She was still for a moment… then, an arrow pierced my stomach, impaling me to the ground as she fired again, the one arrow becoming ten and each pinned my legs, arms, even tail down… "Sympathy. Honest or not, in combat, is a dirty trick. Apologies, honest or not, create hesitation, self doubt." She said was walking over to me. "Happy with my family? Without him, we can not be happy. There is a hole in our very being that will forever be missing, because of you…" She said, stomping on my chest, making two of my breasts bleed from the impact. "Vengeance, kind gestures, nothing will bring him back. All I can do is what we exist to do." She said, drawing her bow right over my eye. "Kill Admins. The fact that you killed him… is just the cherry on top." "You won't do anything else but try to kill me will You?" I asked her honestly. "Even if it means losing the chance to have your husband back?" At that she jammed the end of her bow into my mouth, slicing my tongue and breaking some teeth. "Don't lie to me. Admins can't do anything about Deletes. You can't revive him, no matter how strong you are, we are not code like the things you make. We do not kneel to your wills like the toys you craft. You can't do anything to help me." The Delete only saw in my eyes the actual truth that I wanted to help, even if she was giving me literally no choice. My eyes told her 'I'm sorry' before Lunatic and Foudre in combination smacked her faster than she could react. She felt her face, not feeling blood but a rather hard bruise as she raised her bow. "Till death then." She said, the fight beginning. I rubbed my jaw and my tongue and my teeth came back. “Not my fault you’re literally giving me no choice lady...even though I’d rather not do something like that...you need to be with your family...is killing me really more important than your own children?” I asked bluntly while getting up and preparing myself. "As a mother and wife, no… but, when in loss, you don't properly prioritize what's important, do you?" She said, firing off nine arrows, each splitting into ten that managed to get my tail and left leg. I knocked all the rest away. “Lady, please. Just...just go home, back to your family...be happy. From someone that’s both a parent and married...revenge really isn’t worth it, and leaving behind your children because of petty revenge won’t solve it. Also, how dare you disgrace your husbands honor like this.” I stated. Rage filled her eyes as her bow bled void, changing into a larger, sharper design. "Hypocrite!" She yelled, shooting a single bolt that exploded on impact… and cracked the arena .. Coco's heart! "What about you and Jericho?! He takes something you love and you hunt for him blindly and if you even managed to find him then what?! Die a losing battle?! Talk to me about my husband's honor when you have your own!" She forced again, the bolt becoming nine and the explosions cracking the arena even more… it can't handle another hit. Tears started to fall against Coco's heart, the cracks gently healing as I couldn’t stop myself from crying. “I’m sorry…” I muttered as I vanished and put a hand on her head. "I’m sorry....Gone with the Wind…” I muttered sadly, Book of Retribution in resting gently in the middle of Lindworm’s spears and wind as the Hunt Delete felt her entire being pulse. “If there’s an afterlife for you...tell your husband...I’m sorry…” I muttered as I saw her crumple to the ground "There's nothing, you ignorant bastard." She wheezed. "Infect." She said, grabbing my leg as I suddenly felt like my body was shutting down. I hit the ground, unable to move. "heheh. Enjoy it it's going to hurt." She crumbled to ashes and I was screaming. I felt my Code… being erased. This is WAY worse than becoming an Admin. I started to… forget… what am I forgetting? “Cause...of course…” I muttered while trying to stop whatever’s doing this to me. “Fuck fuck fuck...no, I need to remember...I need to remember everything…” Memories I could no longer recall left me, I don't know what I'm forgetting. It stopped abruptly… what did I forget? Did I forget anyone? Luna, Twilight, Coco… yes I'm remembering this… what did I forget? As I stood back up… I saw Void Key, laughing softly at me. A sly grin on their face. “What did she make me forget?” I asked, knowing full well who I fought before Void came here. As void charged me to tried to summon Void key ...nothing. Frozen Pride… nothing… she erased my memory on how to summon them! But I was able to just… call them before. Wait, how do I… She made me forget how to use them… I remember them, know what they are, but how to summon or use them… she made me forget how to fight! "Fucking horseshit!" I barked before transforming into my Primal Form, leaping forward as instincts lead my claws and teeth. "Yeah, somehow forget to do something so instinctive it might as well be breathing, that makes fucking sense…" I mentally growled, hating how she just magically could do that. Shockingly I remembered how to still fight in my Primal Form, which caught Void Key off guard given he probably knew full well what was happening to me as I managed to get a swipe into him with my claws...but for some reason I still felt slow, and a strange buzzing like noise in the back of my head like something was reacting slowly. After Void took a step back from the sudden attack he took a good look at what I am given I’m now a Void Dire Wolf Den Mother, and what he saw was actually really scary. Given my Den Mother Primal Form was damn near twice my original Dire Wolf size could be intimidating to some, the fact that it looked like some of my bones were jutting out like some weird bone armor was a bit unnerving, my muscles were pulsing and if I didn’t have fur he’d probably be able to see them, my claws hissing with Void Energy as they were even sharper and deadlier, my tail moving more like a spiked bone snake rather than a wolf tail as my fur seemed to just bleed Void Energy. As I began charging at Void Key I bit it's tail as it swing it at me. Upon biting it, it grew sharp spikes. Slicing up my upper mouth, tongue, and even breaking some teeth. I let go, spitting blood out as I began getting pissed. I growled, feeling my tail lash out and smack into Void Key rather hard as I tried to claw at him, wondering where the next memory for Coco was to help her come back. “There’s either one or two more…” I muttered, my teeth and tongue getting healed rather quickly because of the Void I was constantly making. I then realized… Void Key was half off the edge… his back! I began racing towards his tail trying to bash me away but I was quick enough to dodge. “Alright, so what I’m doing is working at least…” I muttered, slashing into Void Key’s back with my claws as I started to remember things slowly, not entirely sure why but thanking god I’m remembering my weapons. The first that came to mind… I grinned. Sharpshooters. Shifting back to normal I summoned them, the design was heavily altered. While I was still able to list them their design was that of a skeleton morphed into a cannon with void pulsating around them… fuck the hell yes! “Oh you are fucked.” I laughed before aiming and firing at the fucker’s back. The bolt that shot out exploded, and Nothingness thorns wrapped around Void Key, binding him down and tearing away at his back, and out popped a memory orb. “Thank you.” I said while grabbing the memory orb quickly. The environment shifted and I was…in a train. Coco looking outside the window… this was just after Manehatten… She sighed. "I'm gonna miss this city. Won't be the same after the cleanup and rebuilding." “I know…” I sighed out. “Always gonna be one of my crowning regrets even though I could do fuck all back then…” She was in a private passenger stall. This was a more fancy train than normal ones. The door opened and entering came Krot, though he did look much older now. "Coco." He said, taking a seat. "General." Coco said with a nod. “Oh?” I wondered. “Wonder why he’s here…” "I have important news to discuss with you." Krot said, taking out some documents. "Your reports on this subject have been rather helpful. We've managed to reconstruct all his weapons successfully." "That's good." Coco said. "Even Skysplitter?" "Yes. Surprisingly." “Oh…” I frowned. “That’s not going to end well for them gihat those weapons are Nothingness based so I own them…” "We managed to alter them to work solely off of code and other energies as to avoid any… unwanted unpleasantries when used in combat." "You mean him taking them away?" "Yes." “Cause that just always needs ot fucking happen.” I groaned. “Still not as strong as the original...and certainly not as strong as the King’s that’s for damn sure.” I rolled my eyes, knowing these would be cheap knock offs to be perfectly honest compared to the originals. "How strong are they?" Coco asked. "Simulations say the D series should rival that of the Council copies, and E series should be able to rival his own." Krot answered. “Why do I even fucking bother…” I muttered, pinching the bridge of my nose. “Well good to know that at least…” "So how many have you manufactured?" Coco asked. "Of the A series, 7.9 trillion, B series 9.8 million, C series 4.6 million and the D series about 2.5 million currently of each weapon." "That little?" "Sadly." I was...honestly speechless at the pure bullshit that I just heard. “Trillions...of replica weapons...that are somehow on the level of my own weapons...is ‘too little’?” I asked. “Oh no, I just have a few trillion dollars to spend on whatever the fuck I want, I’m so fucking poor.” I rolled my eyes at that. “Fucking why not, Nexus is said to do whatever the fuck they want, so why should I be surprised?” "So what's the endgame here for this then?" Coco asked. "As usual. Copy, learn, replicate, store. Then, one day, when all of creation is destroyed, be it Lord Vincent or another's doing, we rebuild. As it was but better." Coco chuckled, then looked a bit sad. "I hope it's not us who…" "I know Coco, I know." “Oh? You mean you want me to be sad for these fucks that want to commit existance wide genocide just to build it up like a fucking Nazi empire?” I frowned. “I’m sad for Coco for having to deal with all this shit but no, Nexus is going to lose and end.” "What… is Lord Vincent like?" Coco asked. "Completely insane." "Oh…" "I know but he fits the founders prophecy to a T. That's why he's in charge. So, we'll have to be the bad guys from now on." "I was afraid of that…" “Oh so now there’s a prophecy? Well fuck me why did I even question things here?” I asked sarcastically. “Alright...I’m gonna have to talk to Coco after all of this so I can at least get some better understanding here…” "I know it is not ideal. Many of us dislike the idea, but with Vincent in control, there is little we can do. From experience I can say confidently our organization is split in itself. There are we who hold the ideas of our founders to heart, and those who follow Vincent's cruelty like biblical decree. Unfortunately unless Vincent is killed there is little we can do. Even then the result would most likely be civil war. Split between the new leader and the followers of Vincent." I was about to say something to myself, but then I remembered what Agamemnon told me about Vincent being killed. “Okay...so either one of their higher ups took main stage or Cript took over...let’s hope it’s the latter.” I muttered, a bit surprised to hear that Nexus was split that hard between people actually giving a damn and a ton of evil douchecanoe’s. "We've survived since before the Admin war because our founders believed cooperation was the only way to ensure the best future, I'm not surprised it became twisted over all these years by those with more selfish desires, but even as we are, how many families, friends, everything would be torn apart. Our entire population would have to choose sides…" Coco said sadly. "It's why even though we don't agree with the direction we are going we follow it. I'll freely admit to the blood on my hands and sins I carry for it, but I keep hope for the old days to return. Before Vincent was born." “Maybe...this is why Coco was kind to me?” I muttered. “She had hope?” "How many are like us?" Coco asked. "That I know personally… fifteen. I'd wager it's either am even split or others favor more Vincent's leadership. It's hard to determine really. Maybe I can rig the next census to give me a rough estimation." “Well let’s hope there’s enough…” I muttered. "So, nervous about living so close to your target?" Krot asked. "Kinda. I've watched him from afar for so long, meeting him in person will be… kinda nerving." "How so?" "I think I...like him?" “Oh?” I hummed. “Wonder what she has to say about me here…” "Really? Well it's not uncommon to feel this way, we call it Stalkers syndrome. Spend so much time gathering data on someone, learning about them you develop a bond to them without ever even meeting them." Krot said. "I know. Maybe it is but… I kinda want it to...go somewhere." "Hehe. Just like your mother." "Hm?" "They never told you? Your father wasn't born to Nexus he was enrolled, or something like that. Your mom gathered data on him for two years, accidentally bumps into him buying coffee, a year later you come along." “Well then...that’s a thing.” I said honestly. "Oh my." Coco said. "Yeah. She told him everything, and he was okay with it. He got the palm mark and a crash course in Nexus life." Krot said. "Hard to imagine." "Most of Nexus in the really old days married in. Who knows, if anything happens with you and Ben maybe he'd be okay joining?" "Dunno. Ben's a wild card with a temper and sailor mouth so… not likely." “That’s probably for the best…” I muttered. “Nexus…” I growled, remembering oh so long ago when, for Humanity training, I was a Nexus slave...it was terrible. "If not then that's gonna be one awkward conversation when it gets out." Krot said. "Yeah…" Coco said sadly. "I want to tell him… but I don't know what I'd say. How would he react to that?" "Poorly given how you've described him." "...Not helping…" "Look, all I can say is that if he does love you when things get out in the open then he'll accept you, and the part of Nexus that you and I and the others all keep alive. The original, and not this new age evil Nazies bullshit." “Two things, A. he’s right, and B. I fucking called it.” I said honestly. “I knew the evil part of Nexus was just Nazi’s.” Coco laughed. "Yeah… you're right…" "Good to know. Means I haven't gotten too old yet." Krot jokes, chuckling at himself. "Well as much as the please tried have been…. I didn't come here solely for that." Krot said, speaking in a sadder tone now. “Either getting reassigned...leaving...or dying.” I muttered. "What's wrong?" Coco asked. "You'll have to be strong here." Krot said. "I'll be sent over to a new project as it's overseer. I won't be your general anymore. Rune will." "Rune? When was she promoted?" "This morning. But I know you can handle her. But… this project is a bit complicated. I can't explain everything to you but I will say it involves you're bio-engineering." “Oh dear, that’s not good.” I muttered. “Also Rune being Coco’s boss? What crap is that?” "Every child before birth and for a month after are biologically altered, thanks to those born with the CopyCat ability. Yours were part of a small test pool for Void based alterations." "Void? Isn't that forbidden?" "It was. Vincent has damn nearly completely rewritten the rules. Because of that, he managed to acquire some special DNA which he had placed within you and these others." "DNA from what? Who?" Coco asked. "I don't know his true name but I know he goes by John Corvo these days. Lives on Equestria Reflection AZK-87." "Isn't that whole Reflection infected by void?" "Yes. How fitting. From what I dug up the DNA they extracted and placed in you is related to his impressive ability to store and use ungodly amount of void." "But, why?" "I don't know. I really wish I did but the rest was too encrypted for me to make out. All I know is that it can't be good." “I mean...he’s gonna be the King of Void sooner or later...and I suppose that’s why she’s so strong…” I muttered honestly. "This project involves some very bizarre circumstances." Krot said with a sigh. "I don't even fully understand it, but just promise me if you end up obtaining any void, try not to use it." "I'll... I'll try General Krot." “And then she used it and...now I’m trying to save her life from it.” I brought up. “Well...kinda hope Krot isn’t dead...Coco trusts him so...maybe I could as well?” Everything shifted back to the battle, now Void Key as just covering Coco’s head, but Tendrils across her skin wrapping on her arms and legs were still visible. “You are a stubborn one aren’t you?” “You’d think people would know that by now.” I said, feeling my memories come back a lot faster and my sluggishness was ebbing away given the time I’ve been given from the memories. “But come on Void, you know full well you lost, so get out of my wife and run back to your owners like a good little bitch.” “Hehehehe. Tell me this, how is it I have lasted this long against you when the wife and mother you slaughtered recently only took one attack to end?” “Cause of two reasons, A you are an X-blade so your already pretty tanky, and B Coco has had genetic modifications done to her using John’s DNA, the guy who’s going to be King of the Void sooner or later.” I said honestly. “There’s that, but don’t classify me with Keyblades or X-blades. I’m artificial down to the void flow through my hosts.” “I will classify you as those because you are literally a Keyblade.” I said. “And ‘artificial void’? That doesn’t sound entirely correct.” “Doesn’t it? You saw my true form, back in daybreak when I was looking down on you all from within that accursed Armory.” “Now that makes zero sense when you and that giant eye thing are two completely different objects.” I frowned. “We all saw you staring at us yes, but we also saw Void Key as it’s own thing. Mind explaining how that works?” “My body here.” Void Key raised itself up. “Is like any Keyblade, but rather than light and darkness, I funnel void through it, my consciousness and energy existing within the eye, and power and influence stretched through this. I was forged to be the delete of this realm, my maker crafted me well, but I do see I’m at a loss, after all, I don’t have the combat experience you all do, that is where I am at a disadvantage.” “And that begs the question of how he managed to do that because, at that point in time, no one even knew about all this shit.” I frowned. “You forget, that Keyblade of his and Luxu’s hold his eye, he always knows the outcomes, and plans ahead. My maker is quite the genius isn’t he?” “I’d say he’s so horrifically lucky at that point cause Gazing Eye was never around when Delete’s were brought up, Gazing Eye was never used to watch over things for all that shit, and even then how would he even know how to do all that shit with just ‘oh hey, this is a thing’? Also the fuckers literally one of twenty in Kingdom Hearts, why the fuck would he want to murder himself?” I asked honestly. “He had hoped to destroy it before it happened. Sadly it seems his luck has run out.Oh well.” He said, his artificial void energy flooding out from him. “time for the final round.” “Now here’s a small problem with that.” I said while Void Energy started to pour out of me as well. “D-Link’s are a funny thing you see, and one of their special things is a Super Move. Want to know what it is?” I asked while raising a hand, the energy I was producing formed a pretty cool looking Bo Staff, the details on it showing a mixture of Nothingness and Void circling each other in perfect Harmony. “Cause I’m sure it’s going to be a fun time.” I said while spinning it with ease and stomping down into my stance. “Hehe. Who said I’d be attacking you?” Void key asked, turning it’s keyblade part around, and stabbing itself through Coco’s gut, the Void exploding on impact as her heart began to finally break apart. “NO!” I shouted before putting one of the ends of my new Bo Staff onto the breaking Station. “Coco, I know your still in there, please...please help me.” I muttered before I chanted ancient words that even Void Key didn’t know about. “Balanced Sacrifice…” I muttered as Void and Nothingness shot out all around everyone, myself screaming in pain as I poured my own energy’s into it as Coco’s station was starting to repair itself. “Your not going to kill Coco! You hear me!” I shouted, pouring my love and power into making sure my wife’s heart didn’t shatter because of this bastard’s actions. “Hahahahaha! We will meet again King of Nothing, this I swear as YOUR Delete!” Void Ke declared as it vanished, Coco’s injured form falling atop the ground as the final memory orb appeared. I panicked and rushed over, grabbing the memory but also checking to see if Coco’s alright. “Please Coco...please be alright…” I pleaded, hoping I wasn’t too late in healing her. I took the memory, and inside it was Coco, alone in the living room, somehow some kind of Holoscreen came from the blue dot on her palm, and displayed the image of Krto, looking worried and tired. “So much as gone to shit Coco.” Krot spoke with weighted breath. “After Vincent died both factions began fighting. First politically then violently. I’m taking as many like us as I can to the Safe Haven. You remember it, right?” “The one under Manehatten, yes.” Coco said. “If all went well your parents should be there, but they were at the capital when this all started, so I can only pray.” “Well...that’s a start…” I muttered. “But under which Manehatten?” “How many do you have with you?” Coco asked. “A few thousand. the others were all given instructions on where to go. Gods, forty nine trillion of us and in just a few days reduced to a mere few thousand. We only ended up making up five percent of our total population! We were outnumbered from the start!” “Krot, please…” Coco begged, her worried expression saddened me. “I know Coco… I know. Look, I need you to keep playing Dumb, I know Rune will suspect yo-” Coco’s palm was closed by Rune, who walked up without either of us noticing her. “So, you’re one of those old fashioned bleeding hearts?” Rune said, fiddling with a dagger. “Rune! I-” “Spare me. I heard everything. Let me make something VERY clear here Coco.” She said, placing a hand on her shoulder and the dagger against her face. “If when the time comes for us to jump ship arrives and you’d rather sink than jump, I’ll be sure these survivors Krot spoke of will each die painfully and horribly.” “Y-You’re a Psychopath!” “Sociopath, actually.” She said, removing the dagger from Coco’s face as well as her hand. “I can still feel emotions, but they’re mostly hatred. I can fake my emotions so well! I got Eclipsa’s trust, Ben’s DNA sample easily, don’t think he could even tell the difference between his perverted slut and me, and then Zeke. Those little keyblades of his and mine, he can keep them, I already got all the data I needed from them.” “I’m gonna fucking murder Rune.” I said honestly. “I don’t care if Zeke want’s to shank her like mad, I’m the one that’s gonna kill her cause she abused my love, she abused my wife, and she deserves to burn.” I growled. “So, hat do you want from me then?” Coco asked. “You’re Bio-Engeneering. You were given the ability to hold and store in void. I need you to use that. There’s a weapon, called the Void Key. Mad by some fuck called The Master of Masters. Used a lot of time altering stuff to gather the information and supplies needed to forge it. It can resist if not destroy Nothingness, a feat no normal void being can accomplish. I need you to summon it when it appears to you, and use it. Ben thinks he’s hot shit, well we’ll see about that when suddenly his entire realm is gone in one fell swing.” When I awoke and saw Coco was still asleep, I tried to wake her up, but nothing. She was breathing, but that was it. I rushed her to the castle where the Medics and Nobodies looked over her. She was hooked to life support, while it wasn’t much, since she could breathe on her own, she needed fluids and a means of nourishment for food badly. Finally Consequence came up to me. ‘Sire.” He bowed. “Those fuckers in Nexus know.” I said, not really needing to explain what they know but I trusted Consequence to know full well what I meant. “Also, I need all the best medics to treat Coco, now.” “They have and, I’m sorry to say but the issue is more… abnormal than we expected.” Consequence said. “Well get to explaining.” I said bluntly. “And where are my medics damn it.” “Sire, while it seems the Void Key has left her, it’s influence still remains. Her Void genes are now active and acting like a catalyst for this remnant energy. While you did repair her heart, it’s cloaked in this unique void. We’ve tried but it’s not responding to our normal removal procedures. It’s resistant if not immune to Nothingness. I’m afraid miss Coco is comatose until it is somehow removed or if the delete that placed it over her heart is slain, she can’t wake up.” I just stood there, staring blankly at this. “Check...Manehattan...underneath it...to see if there’s any refugee’s we didn’t know about…” “Sire?” Consequence asked. “Oh no, I’m fine Consequence.” I said, my voice hollow as I felt like an absolute failure in saving one of my wives...and one that even after learning this still honestly loved me. “I’m just…” I muttered as Consequence felt millions of copies of myself suddenly appear and disappear rather quickly. “I...hope this works…” I muttered before pulling out my Wayfinder and trying to call upon Coco again. Nothing. Not even a glow. “Yeah...kinda thought that…” I muttered. “Consequence...tell me, what are you?” I asked. “And no bullshit vague hints, tell me, what makes you so special that Nexus would want to replicate you?” “What makes me special?” Consquence asked, I felt almost a smirk come from him as he bowed to me. “My Will, sire. In life, I was the first king's right hand man, his butler and servant. While I was not adept in combat, I did my best. Even in death, it’s no reason to stop serving my lord. So, here I stand before you today as I stood before he oh so many eons ago. A hollow shell who’s will keep my true self alive even without a heart.” “So...your a Lingering Will?” I asked, my voice still hollow but honestly intrigued by it. “The very first, in the end, that’s what Nobodies are, we just have our bodies still, unlike the ones you’ve encountered in the past.” “And they somehow might have figured out how to replicate you.” I said. “I’m kinda glad I’m hearing my Future Self is binging and purging Nexus…” “Oh my. I feel so violated.” Consequence said, trying to lighten the mood. “So...besides a literal army of myself hunting down Nexus…” I took a deep breath, my voice kind of coming back but not really as I finally noticed I was crying like a child at the moment. “I’m going on a walk…” I said while standing up, not even having realised I was on my knees. “I’m going to find people...I’m going to make them even stronger than what they originally were…” I growled, all of my powers circling in a maelstrom of power that seemed to have no end pulsate from me. “And I’m going to make all those people, that used and abused me, my family, and everyone I care about, wish Existence was erased to end the pain.” I growled. “Tell me, have any of our scouts brought up anything weird, like people leaving their reflections somewhere, meeting strange and powerful beings? Anything at all?” I asked, knowing Jericho is probably acting like a door to door power sink for any bad guy who would give him the time of day. “I was hoping to file a full report when it was completed but… yes. It’s been happening… Everywhere. Every planet, every reflection, Every realm even some one, multiples of someone, mass Reflections of people and even entire planets… vanishing. As if they were never there to begin with. Our last report was of a world who’s large majority of reflections, were all taken also. We call this world Psycho, apparently this world has a computer system able to read the likelihood of one committing a crime.” I felt a bit sick at hearing that. I remember that world... “Oh yes, the world that had Thought Policing and actively thought it was a smart idea.” I growled. “Alright, if Jericho want’s to pull that then we’re doing the same. Consequence, I want half of my scouts to start tracking down any and all worlds, reflections, anything that would stand against Jericho and his growing Hall of Evil, and you, with your massive amount of experience, go help my clones research literally anything and everything about literally everything, cause I’m also going to be making a shit ton of new Nobodies and monsters.” I said before explaining everything I wanted to do to Consequence. Consequence took a bow. “It would be my honor, sire.” “Alright.” I said while I started to gain some confidence back. “Jericho and Nexus wants a war? Well Jericho and Nexus are going to get a fucking war, and neither of them will enjoy it.” I growled, my mind racing through billions of possible things that can happen and how I can cause more and more death and destruction to my enemies. To be continued...
Nobody talksMy sapling was now nearly full grown. It was about the same size roughly as the other one, and had beautiful leaves showing. Yet still none of the blossoms. Soon though. Soon. “Soon it’ll be fully grown…” I muttered. “Let’s hope the next trial won’t take forever…” As I rested next to the tree I began thinking back to my fight with Void Key… with Coco in a coma because of it… they know we can hurt them but they can't truly hurt us without targeting our family. We can't hurt them that way because A, we are not monsters like them and B, they likely Don't have any to begin with. So what can we do right now? “God I hate this…” I muttered. “Well...they can target our family but our family is getting stronger...maybe we can target all their production and powers?” I muttered. “Production, probably, powers, hell no cause Jericho is just handing it out like candy.” I groaned. “The fuck am I supposed to do against these fucks?” The more I pondered about it the less I could think of. Cript likely won't help anymore, maybe Lord? He's an asshole yeah but someone like him has to have a few tricks up their sleeve. “Maybe someone here could help?” I muttered curiously, wondering if they would even bother at this point. “Maybe Belief and Mother could help me out a bit more cause seriously I need help…” "Never thought I'd hear you ask for serious help?" I looked up, seeing Player there… how did he? "I'm a Dirty Hacker, remember?" He asked with a sly smirk. “Yeah well, either way.” I said. “So, I suppose you’ve heard all the wonderful things about Jericho and all the shit he’s been doing?” "Yes. And I have to say he's a lot more tactical about it than his first attempt. He's definitely learned from failure." “I can imagine…” I muttered. “So, you know full well I need help, and I have a feeling you know what I need help with correct?” "Allies mostly, as well as a means of increasing their, and your own strength correct?" “Also what their main weakness is because currently they have the worlds biggest crutch of targeting my family…” I sighed out. "Hmm… for Nexus that's likely their Water supply. Unlike normal water, Nexus filters theirs through the Cup of Code, an Admin who was very weak with their code, so they shifted themselves into a cup, allowing those who drink from it to use code for a short while." “So either destroy the cup, or fuck with the water enough that it can’t work anymore right?” I asked. "Something along those lines yes. Another thing that can help us is some of the things from Cript and Lord's armories. A surplus of Admin tier weapons could even, if not tip the scales here." “And how much you want to bet Lord isn’t going to give it up?” I asked honestly. “And now that I think about it, given that I’ve actually faced a Delete using their abilities...how many of them did Lord fight?” "Not sure. Supposedly none were ever killed before Cript, but I find that highly suspect. Every Admin has a delete, even when the Admin passes away the Delete remains, but there are very few Deletes just like there are very few Admins. It doesn't add up." “There’s probably something there that we don’t know.” I said honestly. "Most likely. Whatever the case that's irrelevant to our current issues. Shall a clone of you join me to ask Lord this favor or shall I go alone?" "I'm doing trial stuff at the moment." I said honestly before just making a new starfish clone. "So take a clone." "Alright. Off we go then." Lord's home was… interesting. It was a white void for as far as the eye can see, an old school Western town with all kinds of random odds and ends laid or floating around. Lord himself was at a desk in the center of it all. Which was very very strange. "Well then...this is interesting." I said honestly. "And a bit strange." "Lord." Player said with a nod. Lord looked up, a large set of incomplete blueprints on the table. "What you need Player?" Lord asked. "The keys to your armory." Player stated bluntly. "Oh. That? I gave the keys to Cript the other day." “Cause of course you did…” I muttered. "He said he was going to train soldiers. I just told him not to use what's locked up in the black vault door. Shit in there can hurt us and kill the one using it if not ready." “Well I was going to ask to do...basically the exact same thing because Jericho is being a douche.” I frowned. "Cript has my keys so likely he is already in the armory. It's that building over there." Lord pointed over to a saloon looking building. “Um...you sure it’s the saloon looking building?” I asked curiously. “And are you sure you didn’t accidentally give him the keys to your wine cellar?” "I don't drink. I hid the armory. Your response justifies its camouflage." “Alrighty then.” I said while heading off towards the saloon in hopes Cript is there. Upon entering we were now in a room with white, green, blue, purple, orange, red, and black doors. The white door was the only one open still. “Alrighty then…” I muttered while walking into the white room given it was open. I walked into a massive warehouse that I can't see the walls or even the ceiling of. Just shelves in lines towering with crates each with something in them. I saw… Mother? No, her hair is longer and has a pregnant gut… Cript? They were female, short hair and wore they're same outfit from when Jericho appeared. They look just like the Mother. I shook my head. “Cript, why do you look like a chick?” I asked honestly, trying to make the distinction between the two cause that shit hasn’t happened yet. "Wives wanted a way for us to bond even closer. So we all fused into one body. Den's in here too. She says you're even more beautiful than from the figurine point of view." Cript answered, looking through a list of sorts. “So...your already starting that transformation then?” I asked honestly, Cript probably knowing but I’m not fully sure. "Seems so. Though in all honesty this isn't the first time we've done this, though we do plan on it being the longest. So, what brings you two here?" Cript asked, turning to look at Player and Myself. “I’m here to get all this and train people so we can maul everything Jericho throws at us.” I said honestly. "Can you even handle the stuff here? And far as I know this place has no ceiling, or walls. Just goes on for about forever." “Have you really checked if it goes on forever? Also I’m pretty sure I could given all the crap I can do and have done.” I shrugged. "I have and never found a wall or ceiling. Saw some neat stuff though. So, I heard Nexus finally broke into civil war. Took that time bomb forever." “Yes, and apparently a shit ton of the ‘good nexus’ part is being slaughtered and Coco is in a coma cause Void Key did something to her heart and I’m furious, depressed, and I really just want to start doing something to make Nexus and Jericho pay for every little transgression...also I still haven’t found our kids and I’m very emotionally enraged and upset at the moment.” I ranted as tears formed in my eyes. "Clearly." Cript said. "I should check on Krot and the others at their safehouse." “Which Manehatten are they under?” I asked honestly. “Cause...I went through Coco’s memory’s trying to stop Void Key from controlling her...and learned a lot about that.” "Yours. Duh." Cript stated. “Kinda thought that.” I muttered. “Well...I’ll make sure they are also protected…” "So Ben, do you know my relationship with Krot?" “I barely know the guy.” I said honestly. “I only know tidbits from Coco’s memories, nothing much else besides that.” "He's my Uncle, on my mother's side." “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “Good to know.” "So, anything here you want before checking on them?" “As much as I can.” I said. “Plus I have clones to check up on the people in Manehattan, cause I have been using, and kind of abusing, that starfish cloning you taught me oh so long ago.” "Clearly. Well anything specific?" I took a moment. “Does ‘everything here’ count as specific?” I asked. "Again, you don't even know what any of this stuff does, and this is just the white room." “Well then what would you recommend cause this is literally my first time here and I was just going to grab as much as I could.” I said honestly. "Here. Try this." Cript said, taking a small handgun looking weapon and tossing it to me. "Shoot it." I pointed it up and fired the gun, wondering how it would work or how strong it would be. The bullet that shot out was somehow the size of a cannon ball, and the recoil broke.both arms of mine. I fell on my back from the kick. "Huh. Thought you could handle that." Cript said, the bullet hitting something and exploding with the force of a hydrogen bomb. “I call bullshit on me not being able to handle it, but I suppose the writers just like to sign wave on my durability harder than a schizophrenic on five kinds of crack.” I said bluntly while my arms healed from that. "Considering, You only ever shot Sharpshooters before, an energy weapons with no recoil, I'm not surprised." “It’s Great Bow form has an ass ton of recoil.” I said honestly. “Also, durability isn’t that fucking nit picky, it’s a general thing, not just ‘hey, you didn’t do this so your not durable to it’.” I frowned. "Maybe in your realm’s, not in Lord's. He has very specific rules set here. As a visiting Admin, you have no control here so your code abides by his rules automatically. Normally your real stats are in a mass general of a few sections. Lord's has a stat measurement for everything. It's worse than World of Warcraft and SAO." “So yet again, it’s a ‘fuck you’ kind of deal right?” I asked honestly. “Seriously, it’s getting a little annoying that, even without Code boosting me, which I have literally never done, I’m having shit say ‘no, your not as tanky as you are and or should be so piss off’.” "That's Admin life for ya. You can do whatever in your own realm but enter another's with different rules applied and you're entire style needs work." “Oh no, it’s been a consistent thing both in my realm before I became an Admin and after I became an Admin.” I said honestly. “I can understand if I was constantly using Code and going into another person’s place Code wouldn’t do much, but the fact of the matter is that I barely use Code for any self buffs, I have mostly been doing what I’ve normally done with the powers I have, no Code involved.” I brought up. "Then there is your problem." “No.” I said, honestly confused by that. “That’s not my problem, I know I’m breaking the fourth wall a bit much here, but again my durability as a whole has been inconsistant as fuck no matter what I am.” I told him. Raising an Eyebrow, Cript took a look at my stats in my assistant. "Huh… let me see." I looked at them and…. That's a LOT more than what I normally see. Lord's realm adds THAT much more?! It's sixty pages long! “Didn’t fully expect there to be that much…” I muttered. "Lord loves an excuse to grind." Cript muttered. "If it's damn near anything it's here." “I can imagine…” I said. “He may have overdone it to be honest…” "That's all he ever does." Cript said. "See look, there is even a sex stat. Yours is at eighty out of a hundred and fifty! A fertility stat… that you maxed out… and a sexual attraction stat!" “Okay I call bullshit on the sex stat being that low, but the firtility thing maxed and...jesus my sexual attraction stat is also maxed?” I said nervously. “Jesus…” "Okay here is your resistance stats. Let's see. Blunt force, blade strike, pyromancy, frostimancy, bla, bla, bla… Recoil resistance. Sixty out of a hundred and thirty. Let's check something else… Joint strength. Super human. Now let's check this weapons stat requirements." Cript said, holding the weapon as the same sixty pages opened for the weapon. "Required recoil resistance one hundred, joint strength, Adamantine. That's a rank up from yours currently." “Cause that makes sense, go through fight after fight and bullshit after bullshit, your only ‘superhuman’. What, did all my progress through literally everything just garner one level?” I asked. “I know this isn’t the same thing as my world but...come on.” "Consider this. You don't always fire Sharpshooters in it's great bow form, otherwise you would have a higher recoil resistance, and Joint strength." “Okay cool, what about literally all my other weapons that actively need me to have this shit stacked to hell?” I frowned. “You don’t just swing Lunatic or Skysplitter really fucking hard with paper thin joints or muscle, especially when the fuckers block it.” I brought up. "Remember, the laws in your realms work different. You can probably shoot this gun fine in yours but as shown, not here. Same could even apply to your current weapons here, as they will shift to requirements here, and shift back when you go back to yours." “But...my point would still stand against that though…” I brought up. “Wait, what’s with the asterisk near the Durability tab?” I asked curiously while pressing the tab. Subject is under constant fluxuations of strength. Several causes are listed below -Reflections -Own Power -Mental State “Huh, that’s curious.” Cript said, looking over it. Reflections and Own Power can be intermingled, either from Subjects own Reflections are causing his powers to rise or fall due to outside interference is questionable, and Own Power can also be attributed to other Reflections being too similar and causing it to panic and choose. “And...I can already tell by Mental State…” I muttered while clicking on that as well. Subject’s Mental Health can also affect his powers, when he’s strong, confident and sure of himself Subject’s powers are at what Subject’s powers should be, while the opposite can also affect his powers, if he’s upset, depressed or other negatives his powers diminish, or increase depending on the negative emotion. “Not surprising…” I muttered I looked over to Cript, who was now at a table having Coffee with Player drinking Coffee. “So what do you think our main issue is then?” Cript said, taking a sip. “It could be any of the three to be honest.” I said honestly. “Ever consider therapy? I hear Eclipsa and Zeke both speak with a therapist.” Player said, adding some more creamer to their drink. “Does it look like Therapy can help this hot mess?” I asked honestly. “Maybe? You've experienced a lot of trauma in life, Zeke was raised like a living weapon and seen enough death to scare Hitler so…” Player said, taking a sip. “I’m just saying, actually TALKING about things with someone trustworthy can help. Helped me.” “Maybe…” I sighed out. “But well...none of you have actually died and then had half of your life completely cut off from you, and then it just spiraling out of control from there.” Both Cript and Player gave me a plain stare, I then remembered who I was talking too… Player killed himself to come here and Cript… went though a lot of shit… “Yes yes I know.” I sighed out. “In any case I’ll see what the issue is. Now you will feel a numb sensation across your entire body.” Player said, raising a hand to me as he...hacked me. I felt… I think this is the Admin equivalent to Rape considering I could feel him scanning around all my code… and I did indeed feel numb all over. After about two minutes he stopped. “Well that’s interesting.” He said, creating a tablet of sorts and looking over it. “Never do that again please…” I muttered worriedly. “And what’s interesting?” “According to this you have one Reflection whom you and the share over Ninety six percent of your entire code structures. this means your code as an Admin and Nothingness, given they also have the same Nothingness, are confusing the two of you as each other. This is likely why you’re defences and resistances fluctuate dramatically.” “Is it just that or is it more than that?” I asked. “And how do I solve this?” “If I’m reading the data correctly, then this also states that unlike you, this reflection is extremely suicidal, has no Joy whatsoever, and actively tried many times to end themselves, failing because when he does, both your codes swap, meaning he gains your healing factor as the moment of impact, surviving. This is likely some kind of failsafe in your own Code as a means of keeping you from killing yourself, likely programmed by KH when the first King of Nothingness emerged, looks like that Admin wanted him around for a long time.” “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “So...what, I go out and help the poor bastard not try to kill himself and get him help or something?” “You're kidding, you two are so similar just touching him would cause your code to fuse, you’d both become one person and frankly I don’t think you and HIS emotional baggage. You’ve got enough as is…” “Well I can’t just let this keep happening ya know?” I said. “And it’s not like I haven’t worked through those things before.” “I highly advise against it, but if you insist. He’s in a reflection within Zeke’s part of your combined realms. Reflection ID:000R5U7, World Equis #334Y6… Did you even understand that at all?” “You literally could have just told me where he was without the numbers.” I deadpanned. “Excuse me for trying to help you utilize your code to travel specifically.” Player grunted. “I’m sorry, but to be honest besides making my world bigger and making my doppelganger Nobody...and maybe when I was Infected by a Delete...I haven’t used my Code for literally anything.” I explained. “Oh, actually I should probably bring up that I can negate a Delete’s Infect ability.” “Neat. Finally figured that out?” Cript said. “That is invalubal- Wait what you knew?!” Player yelled in shock at Cript. “I don’t think we’re talking about the same thing.” I said while raising my hand as what looked like little bugs made of numbers appeared in my hand. “I think it’s because of my Code that can do it...like an Anti-Virus or something, not whatever you do to stop it Cript.” “Eh.” Cript said. “Here, take this.” Cipt said, tossing me a flyer. Come one come all to the Tournament of Champions! Heros and Villans from all around gather for the chance to win Admin Cript’s Soulblades Darkest Hero and Biohazards Curse! “I’m retired so I don’t really need them.” “Wait.” I said while pulling out the Biohazard Keychain. “I thought you gave me Biohazards Curse.” “I have several. The ones I’m giving here are my originals. Much stronger. check the stats on the ones I gave you, and check the ones I have.” Cript sid, summoning both. Looking as Darkest Hero… it looked a lot like Void Key, only more tendrils and looked...sad? “It looks sad…” I brought up. “I know. I used to hate this weapon… and then, it became my best friend.” Cript said with a tone rich with nostalgia. I checked the stats on the one I had. Biohazards Curse (Remake) Att: 50 Def: 30 Mag:25 Grants complete resistance to diseases and chance status effects instead affect opponent when equipped. “Cool.” I said. “Can’t wait to enter a tournament to get the real ones and make sure Jericho doesn’t get his grubby little paws on it…” “Now check the originals.” Hesitantly, I checked the real Biohazards Curse. Biohazerds Curse. Att: 5,980 Def:3,650 Mag: 1,790 Total resistance to diseases and status effects, any diseases infected with in or outside of battle will be cured and white blood cells can be extracted to create anti-viruses. “Well then.” I said. “That’s...quite a lot stronger really.” “Now check Darkest Hero.” Cript asked. “Alright…” I said while checking Darkest Hero. Darkest Hero Att:??? Def:??? Mag:??? This Soul Blades base stats will always Equal that of your opponents current stats in battle, stacking with your own. “Well that’s not broken at all.” I rolled my eyes. “Yup. Care to see how it feels?” Cript asked, raising the grip of it towards me. “Um...sure.” I said while taking the hilt carefully. I felt a SURGE of power the second I took it, the stats changing on my Assistant. Holder: Ben Opponent: Cript Att:999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,9999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,9999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,9999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,9999,999,999,999,999,999, 999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,9999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,9999,999,999,999,999,999, Needless to say, I never did see when Def popped up... “Excuse me what the fuck.” I said honestly. “Too many fucking nines.” “As it said, equals your opponents current stats, plus stacks with your own.” Cipt said, taking it back as I felt that power leave… I fell to my knees… shit that was intense… “It’s also Unbreakable, a special hidden ability of it.” “Okay so literally no one is allowed to have that…” I said. “Even if I get it...well maybe I would use it, but only under very, very dire circumstances cause that’s just cheating.” Cript shrugged. “Eh. Tournament is in a month, bring Eclipsa and Zeke with You too. I’m curious to see how they hold in this.” “Alrighty then.” I said honestly. “So besides having to hunt down literally every hero in existence, need to also train a lot...deal with those trials, hunt down Void Key so Coco can get out of her coma...find my other self and calm him the fuck down for like, ten seconds, and then a lot more shit that just keeps piling up…” I groaned. “I can have Someone help you and others train, as well as Player here can actually help you more with Code stuff.” “I wouldn’t mind.” Player said. “Now then, before you take off to find your other you… care to see my armory?” Cript asked. “Sure.” I said. “Might as well, even though I have clones nearing the billions at this point...why not add more to the laundry list of shit I have to do.” I said honestly. “My armory consists of things not sold on the market, which contrary to beliefs, is a lot.” Cript said, tossing me a small box with a button. Pressing it made a single backpack appear. “My entire armory, within a pocket dimension inside that backpack.” “Unlimited cosmic power...itty bitty living space.” I said while opening the backpack. Inside was like looking into a literal twister of… stuff. Everything was floating about and the first thing I reached for was what looked like a bo staff. “That is called Kurth. Wood fibers infused with Dark Monofilament gives it flexibility and strong durability. Unlikely to break, and acts as a repeater. Place energy inside it and it will hold, and amplify it so when it’s released it gives quite the kick.” “Cool.” I said while putting it back, knowing full well I can’t just take whatever I want as I reached in to grab another item. This one was a suit of armor. It looked like recon armor from Fallout but had a glowing blue chest piece with special sections reaching across the torso and limbs. “Well then, what is this thing?” I asked curiously. Cript saw what I had, then looked saddened. “That… was, Autumn’s Armor.” He said, teleporting it to him. “The strongest armor I ever crafted…” “I have a bad feeling about the backstory to this…” I said worriedly. “It was a long time ago. She just… gave up.” Cript said with a sigh. “Here.” He said, handing it back to me. “It’s best if it gets some use after all. It automatically adapts to the wearer, and can change its appearance to whatever for blending in.” I gently took the suit and nodded. “I understand, thank you.” I looked through the bag one more time, this time pulling out a revolver that glowed with a blue energy, much like Autumn's Armor chest piece, and seemed to look like any normal revolver but clearly was designed with some advanced technology hidden within. "Electronium shooter. One of my higher grade prototypes. Anything not wearing an inch thick rubber suit gets quite the electrical shock to it." “Cool...so I suppose it’s Electronium that’s used for the suit?” I asked curiously. "Yeah. Special cycle system built in the suit, powers it, all the features, a city if you wanted and never needs a recharge. It also sends special signals into your body, allowing for faster healing, speed, etc." Cript said with a solemn tone. "It's got a built in AI that can react faster than you. It'll keep you safe as best as it can, if needed it can pilot the suit if you are unconscious to fight or escape." “Cool.” I said honestly. “That is rather interesting...now question...is there anything I should know about what Jericho could use that I haven’t seen yet? Or are you just gonna have me figure that out for myself?” "Nothing I say would help much. I do know for a fact Jericho won't be after my Souls Blades, but he won't stop anyone he recruits to try and claim them." “That’s gonna be a pain...got a list that Consequence hasn’t tried making yet?” I asked curiously. "Sure. This is everyone who's gone missing from every realm and reflection." My Assistant beeps after Cript tapped on his...and I got a ten million terabyte sized Document file…. “Jesus christ…” I muttered. “And...it’s only going to get bigger, isn't it?” "Most likely." “Crap…” I muttered. “Well...at least I’ll have a start in my search based on all these fuckers…” "I'll update it as news reaches me. Also I'll be sending three of your Siblings to help you and others with training, and one specifically to help you, Eclipsa and Zeke learn and deal with some of the field stuff you will be facing in the near future." “Alright.” I nodded. “So...given your plan of fusing all reflections together...does the Jericho thing put a massive wrench in it?” "Not really." “Really? Even though we’re about to destroy a lot of everything?” I asked curiously. "Can't rebuild when nothing gets broken." “I mean, wasn’t it going to be ‘rebuilt’ because everything’s being put together or something?” I asked. “But...understandable I suppose.” "So, if that's all there is one last thing I want to show you." Cript said, standing up. He lead me over to a doorway near the entrance. "Haven't been here for a long time." “Oh?” I asked curiously. “What’s behind the door?” Cript actually began chuckling. "Heh. Oh you are about to find out." “Well then open the door.” I said. “Unless I’m the one that’s gonna have to.” Cript opened it, and I walked inside, it was a weapons shop… and I was greeted by an overly beefy guy that looked like Doom Guy and The Terminator had a kid. They wore a buzz cut, suit with no name tag and Jacky jeans. "WELCOME TO TORK! WHERE YOU'LL DIE IF YOU DON'T MEASURE UP" He then hit my head with his forehead, gashing both his and mine. “Yes, hi.” I said. “The actual fuck was that for?” "ANYONE WHO DIES OF FAINTS FROM MY HEADBUTTING IS IMMEDIATELY KICKED OUT! YOU STAYED AWAKE, YOU GET TO BROWSE OUR SELECTION OF DEATH BRINGERS!" He then walked over to the register and stood motionless. “Um...sure…” I muttered, honestly confused here as I started to look around the shop. Walking around I saw everything here was expensive… but also very, very cool. Also everything here explodes… really. Every weapon and armor has an explosion feature for attacks or counter attacks. Even something as small as the Swiss army knives explode on contact with something! Cript was chuckling. "Lord found this place way back, no idea who owns it or where these weapons came from but it's not a bad place to get good gear, if you can afford it." “And how much do these things cost to begin with?” I asked curiously. "The cheapest thing here is one trillion rem… and you're holding it." Cript said… I'm holding a tiny switchblade... “I have problems with the price tag.” I frowned. “Each one has an Explosive enchantment to it that I could put on for a literal fraction of the cost.” I said honestly. “Then what’s super special about it besides the explosions?” "Each kill with these weapons evolves them into stronger versions of themselves. That switchblade for example as max evolution looks like this." Cript pulled out theirs. It looked normal… til he flipped the blade out and a Dark Souls Ultra Greatsword popped flaming ICE fire covered the blade as I swear it was growling. "No weight, perfect balance from.any point along it, and for a sword this big it's speed is on par with a chainsaws rotations per second." “Well then…” I blinked. “That’s...still gotta take forever to make...oh also, quick question I forgot to ask, how the fuck does Copy work? Cause honestly it feels like my Copy ability hasn’t really done much even after everything.” "It levels up ridiculously slow. It's only five levels to it and most people who do have it die before maxing it out. Either from old age or combat related death." “And how does it level?” I asked honestly. “Cause I have the time to level it.” "Copying abilities. Duh." “Okay fine, how many things does it need to copy to level?” I rolled my eyes. "To reach level two… 9,000 I believe." “Isn’t that a little...no more like extremely excessive?” I asked honestly. "Not my rules. It's just like that." “Alright, and they all have to be through combat or what?” I asked curiously. “Instead of me just copying literally anything and getting past that part?” "Copy any ability and level it up at least once. If it can level up, if not it's automatically a single point of exp towards leveling Copy Cat." “And how many things would I need to copy to fully max this thing?” I asked. “Cause funnily enough I could probably solve that problem in my search for hero’s.” I asked curiously. "To level two is 9,000, to level three 20,000, to level four is 50,000, and to level five it's a wapping 100,000 abilities. So in total 179,000 different abilities." “Well..thankfully that’s not a big enough number all things considered…” I said honestly. “And what can each level do?” "Well level one is just the abilities. Level two allows you to completely change a weapon you have equipped into one of your opponents. Temporary. Level three lets you copy special energies of your opponents. Level four lets you near perfectly imitate their combat style. Level five let's you give the base version of your copied abilities to another, maxes out automatically all copied abilities, allows you to craft a superior replica of their armor or weapons, and perfectly replicate their energy and combat style. Basically at level five is the most overpowered thing ever." “And Jericho has all of that...wonderful, can’t wait to see how that backfires on him.” I rolled my eyes. "There are some abilities it can't copy though. Mainly Generation, and Amplify. You already know about Generation, and Amplify is it's other half, a booster that the more energy made by Generation the more it boosts and amplifies it." “Okay, so can the bastard copy the fact I own whatever Nothingness Power he’s handing out to people at the moment?” I asked. "Yes but copied energy not like copied abilities. It's bound to the person, meaning if I used Nothingness you wouldn't have the power to command it because it's bound to me." “Um...that’s not really how it works when, again, I am the King, and literally own that power, even if it’s ‘bound’ to someone...it still falls under my jurisdiction right?” I asked, not really sure how that makes any sense. "Before you came along there was just a king of Nothingness, not an Admin of Nothingness, and before there was a King of Nothingness it still existed without ownership. One can not claim ownership on energy, but can claim right to said energy if it comes from them, which is what you are, but only the energy that comes from you, which in your realm is all of that, but in mine is none." “But...I’m sorry I’m just trying to understand.” I said honestly. “But their copying my power, so wouldn’t that mean I’m still in the right or no?” I said. "Think of it like this. Your nothingness is like your kids, it has your code, or DNA in it, but they copied only the energy part, not the DNA or code part, apply it to another and their Code/DNA takes your place." “They already kidnapped three kids, you don’t need to remind me.” I frowned, not sure why my fragile motherly instincts immediately rushed to that but still. “But...I’m not gonna get anything for trying to make a point against it…” "I've told you before, these things don't always make sense and rarely seem fair, but it's just how it is. Accept it or go insane trying to get an answer that suits you." “And we aren’t insane already?” I asked in mock surprise. "You keep wanting answers so, clearly not." “Not my fault that people are either too scared or too blinded to ask questions.” I said. “Not my fault I actively try to figure stuff out instead of just having the answer thrown at me all the time...even though that happens all the fucking time…” I sighed out. “Sorry just...small peeve of mine…” "Seems like it's more of a Trigger than a peeve." Cript chuckled. "Word of advice for Copy Cat, abuse Starfish Cloning until it gets scary." “I have nearly a billion starfish clones at the moment, and that number isn’t stopping.” I said honestly. “The moment I got that power, I have slowly went from zero to absurd at a very scary pace.” I said. “One ability I have used and abused to hell and back, and I won’t stop.” "Heh… You know, if You, Eclipsa and Zeke all had the Generation and Amplify abilities you could possibly be on par with Jericho." “I’m sensing there’s a ‘you can get that power but’ coming.” I said honestly. “You gave Copycat freely so…” "I can give it to Eclipsa and Zeke also, but those two… they can be extracted from someone who has them, and knowing Nexus they might have some pre-extracted." “And they magically haven’t done that to you why and how?” I asked honestly, given this new development it was needed. "They need a corpse first." “As in they need to kill the user or they just take the power from a living host and shove it into a corpse?” I asked. "Kill the prior owner. Old school method of taking an ability but still effective." “So what’s the problem?” I asked honestly. “While that is a good thing to be concerned about...do you really expect me, Eclipsa or Zeke to die suddenly?” I asked honestly. "No, Nexus already killed prior owners, they have vaults for high value items like that. Find where the vault is and you three can get each and whatever else is there." “And where would this high value vault be?” I asked. “And has my future self not already burned it straight to the ground?” I asked, feeling like my future self would have done bad things to Nexus at this point. "Unlikely. They keep it in a very secure place. Where I'm not sure, never actually bothered looking for the thing." “Of course…” I muttered. “Well...do you know where they get all their water?” I asked curiously. “Might as well start with fucking with their water supply right?” "Pure aqua Crystals. Just one can fill an ocean and overflood a planet. Depending on needs it can give fresh or saltwater forever." “Pure Crystals?” I asked curiously. “That sounds like an interesting thing to know about.” "Huh. I guess you've rarely been in my realm so you'd likely never have known. Here there is a large… how to put it… each reflection in this realm has multiple of itself, each bound to a specific element, of which there are too fucking many in my opinion, and in them exist these special crystals. They are an infinite source of that specific element. For example Electronium is energy/electricity. Most crystals can only be used for a set amount of time before they lose their 'charge' and have to self recharge to be used again. You know that happens when their colors turn into a shaded darker than normal time and, obviously, they stop working. Pure elemental crystals are very rare and never lose their charge, so they can be used without rest." “And...can you make them?” I asked curiously. “Like, turning the metric fuck ton of elemental crystals I have at the moment, and turnign them into Pure Elemental Crystals?” "Your realms Synthesis stuff? I don't even know if they can. You're talking about items from two completely different realms here, and not all of them even exist in yours." “You said that they are pure elemental crystals.” I said while bringing out a Fire Crystal. “The way I think of it is...well, ‘purifying’ them as it were, getting rid of all the imperfections and making it what those Pure Crystals are ya know? Would make sense given that, as far as I can think of, they are the same material just a different quality that let’s it do what you talked about.” "Yes but my realms do this " Cript said, pulling out a red glowing crystals the size of my hand and as it glowed and fire covered his arm. "And yours can't." “Okay, but I can make it do that if I know how to actively make it.” I said honestly. “Would take a while to learn the process but I have time to research it all and then make them.” I shrugged. “They maybe rare naturally, but…” I chuckled. “Literally Nothing is saying that I can make Pure Crystals.” I said, finding that little saying a little apt and funny considering who I am. Cript rolled their eyes. "Alright but between all the elemental crystals, their color variations and mutations… that's 720 in total for all the pure crystals." “Jeez that’s a lot.” I said honestly. “And I wonder how long it’ll take before I can figure out the right process to do it all…” I hummed, my mind already working through all the possibilities. "Your clear lack of a social life." Cript said in a monotone voice. "I'll have some expertise help you but if you want to ensure this process you want to invent works best do it in my real, yours might not even work." “Alright.” I said. “And how long did it take you to figure that part out Cript?” "Never bothered. I can do this." Cript said, a bright red gem with a blue glowing center appearing in their hand. "Because my realm." “Well I mean you figuring out my clear lack of a social life.” I brought up. “Also lucky, you can just make shit from thin air, I have to do it the old fashion way of hard work and a lot of trial and error.” "So in other words you want to do this to prove yourself?" “Either that or get a thing that Jericho would obviously have because the fucker already has a lot of shit why not give him some more things.” "Eh. Again, your ego. so, let me guess. Clone for weapons, clone for research, clones for gathering allies." “More like thousands for each of them and millions doing other shit like taking care of my family, making sure my world is safe, hunting down Nexus, my kids, and Void Key, and a whole host of other laundry based bullshit I still need to do.” I sighed out. "So you just want to do all the work yourself? What about Zeke and Eclipsa? You don't want their help?" “At the moment…” I sighed out. “I need to break the news to those two about Rune and Butterscotch…” I sighed out. “Yet again...I’m trying to distance myself so I hold all the problems so the ones I care about don’t have to worry…” I muttered. “I’m not Atlas damn it, even if I’m god knows how much stronger than him at this point.” Cript slapped me. "You're an idiot. Besides they already know. They were in the crowd of your family. They saw everything." “Sadly wasn’t focusing on where they were in the massive crowd...and how long did it take you to figure out I’m an idiot?” I asked honestly, rubbing my cheek a little from the slap. "Same day I met you." “Then you should have already known I would do something stupid.” I said honestly. “So...I’m gonna have hundreds of clones try and help those two out emotionally, as well as all their wives/husbands…” I sighed out. Cript slapped me again. "They don't need clones dumb ass. They need you. I gave you the Starfish Cloning Ability to help you train and do small tasks, like this research. Not to do everything for you, because you are learning what you need to. You can't actually spend time with loved ones when your mind is stretched between all of the clones." “I’ve kinda got a hive mind going with the clones actually, figured that out off screen and while it’s a bit of a bitch sometimes it’s been working out fine.” I brought up. “But that’s not important. What’s important at the moment is that I have too much shit to do, and no it’s not ‘sending clones to do everything for me’, I’ve been doing things to, a lot of things, but the shit I have to do keeps piling up.” "And where is it said or written you HAVE to do everything at once? I'm going to give you three options. Either disbant all but three clones, meaning there are only four of you at the current time, use them as this ability was meant to be used for. Give up the ability and learn how to deal with things one at a time as ASK for help. And lastly, if you refuse both I'll make you." “Can’t fully make it just three other clones cause I have a shit ton of clones hunting Void Key and my kids, and no I’m not going to give this power up cause honestly it’s helped me do a lot for my family...you know, actively spending some fucking time with them while I’m off doing shit...like I should have done originally but oh no I’m always fucking busy…” "Then it's option three?" Cript asked with a raised eyebrow? “Hold on, just doing some math in my head…” I said while thinking through everything. “It can’t be three clones, I would say...maybe three thousand, a majority of them would be for literally all my wives and kids, so that would be about twenty five hundred, then the other five hundred would be for literally everything else like research, training, making sure my realm is still running, and a lot of other things. Sound better?” I asked honestly. “I’m trying to compromise here.” "Three clones, or I take the Ability away." “You said this is to help me mentally…” I said slowly. “But it’s not if it’s only three...I already failed my family twice...I can’t fail them again…” I choked back a sob. “I know you want to help...and billions of clones won’t help me…” I sighed out, knowing Cript won’t budge on this. “You won’t budge no matter what I say will you?” When Cript shook his head I took a deep breath. “Yeah...of course…” I muttered, feeling my clones start to fade away, except for five left of me, myself and four clones since one of them I can’t really get rid of cause I’m still busy with that trial in Mother’s domain. “There, I’ll get rid of the fourth one when it’s done with all those trials alright?’ "Alright. Make any more clones until I say so and I'll eliminate it." “You do know this will make my paranoia and fear worse right?” I asked bluntly. "Then seek help, you clearly can't carry this burden alone Atlas." “Well are you going to help my researching clone out?” I asked honestly. "I'll have my expertise on the elemental crystals help you. They made a lot of books about things involving their magical and atom structure." “Alright.” I said. “Well…” I sighed out, rubbing my temples. “Den mother instincts already shouting at me for not being with my kids...still don’t know where my kids Jericho kidnapped are...I hate you for making me go through this...and no, asking help for other things won’t really help my mental state.” "Hate me all you want, but get working on what you can do now. It's not everything but it's still something." “And if bad shit happens that I could have stopped I can easily blame you.” I brought up. “So, anything else I should know about before...doing whatever at the moment? Cause right now the laundry list I had is still there.” "No. Go on." “Wait, actually that fourth clone is needed, training Code with Player.” I brought up. “Just...randomly thought of that. So anyways...how do I actually get home? Cause this is the...what, second or third time I’ve left my Realm to another’s? So it might work differently.” "Use your DTN, but infuse code with it so it opens up." “Alright…” I said while opening a DTN, but also trying to infuse Code with it to get me back home. After a but the DTN opened and lines of code ran up along it. "Good." “Alright...now to drown my pain in ice cream…” I muttered while entering my DTN, knowing I’m going to need something to calm myself down. When I got back home I immediately wondered which one of my wives would appear and question everything. To be continued...
Joy visits NexusJoy was riding along his glider to Manehattan to find the Nexus safehouse. Ben came back after all his clones suddenly vanished, and they explained everything, Rarity had to translate given they had a mouth full of ice cream. “Ben really needs some fucking help…” Joy muttered. “Like...I understand his problems but still…” He muttered as he flew down towards the streets, not fully knowing where the safe house would be and having a bad feeling asking around would cause problems. Where would this safehouse even be? The sewers might have been undamaged in the attack that destroyed it, maybe it’s down there? A bit cliche but effective. Joy Pondered, finding a Manhole cover and opening it. Hopping into the sewer and taking out a flashlight. “Alright...now to go through this massive thing…” Joy muttered as he started to walk in a direction, not really knowing which way to go but might as well start walking. Looking around there wasn’t any sludge or anything of the like, all dried up. Joy figured they didn’t fix up the system yet. Or are making a new one. Looking around Joy found a small maintenance room with an old map and notes from employee likely long since dead. The map helped and Joy found an anomaly there was a pathway to the right that according to the map, does not exist. “Well...let’s hope these people are friendly…” Joy muttered as he walked down the hallway that shouldn’t have been there. Walking down there lead to a dead end, or so it looked, there were three hand outlines drawn on the wall.This has to be some kind of puzzle. “Oh?” Joy muttered while looking over the hands, wondering how the puzzle should work. “Well...maybe?” He muttered as he tried to press one of the hand outlines. Upon touching one it glowed blue, touching another it glowed but the other shut off… a pattern? “Okay…” Joy muttered while pressing the one and then pressing the other one. After trial and error Joy managed to get the proper Pattern and a doorway opened in a flash of blue light to the right.a “Cool.” Joy said while entering the new door that opened up for him. This hallway was very high tech looking. All metal, and sifi looking. “Well...alrighty then.” He said honestly while seeing this all. “Wonder how long it’s been here…” Joy finally reached an auditorium area…… SWEET MOTHER OF! Joy couldn’t see the ceiling! Or the walls! It’s massive! “Well...shit.” Joy muttered. “This is...not what I expected…” He muttered. “Hello?” Walking around for a whie I found a guide post, and according to this there was someone in the dinner. “Alright…” Joy muttered while heading to the dinner, wondering who might be here and hoping there wasn’t just one person. Upon finally arriving at the first booth next to the kitchen door sat a roughed up older man, dozens of beer bottles just tossed about like dust. Joy walked over to the man, and he looked over at Joy. “Come to finish me off? Make it quick, before I’m sober.” He said drunkenly. “I’m not who you think I am.” Joy said. “Who are you?” “I’m former General Krot. Nott that that title matteres for shit now. Fucking hell…” “I’m sure to Ben and Coco they would think otherwise.” Joy said honestly. “What happened?” “Ambush. On our way here they came out from the other portals leading to and out of the Main Base, he killed off the last of us… everyone but me.” He said, taking a swig of beer. “It’s just me… I’m all that’s left of our founders beliefs…” “Coco’s still alive.” Joy brought up. “And who’s ‘he’?” “Jericho...and all his little lackeys he’s gathered so far.” “Why am I not surprised…” Joy muttered. “Well anyways, your work isn’t done yet, Ben would like to talk to you about everything.” “Yeah? Like what?” “Everything you know.” Joy said. “Anything to fight against Nexus and wake Coco up.” “What can this old fool even do?” “Help.” Joy said simply. “You can help us fight against Nexus, and bring back what it was supposed to be.” “What would I know that could help you?” “Literally anything and everything about Nexus?” Joy brought up. “Fine then. Ask away.” “First up, where’s the main water supply of Nexus?” Joy asked. “Cause we were told to cripple their water supply to start off.” “It’s in Cofrothes. A Realm entirely made by the founders, endless sea of all the fish of every ocean on ever world, and also endless water. Cup is somewhere sunken at the bottom over two million miles down.” “Cool.” I said. “Next question, how else can we cripple Nexus besides their water?” “Resources they have to gather from a world called Intret. Whole planet formed within a black hole, and somehow filled it, the entire place is one massive mineshaft of every resource you can imagine. Take that and the’ll be scarce for resources.” “Cool.” Joy said with a nod, writing down the second one down. “And where would those two places actually be?” "Safeguarded. The only way to each is guarded by Abominations. A failed attempt at making Admins. About as strong as one but as wild and unpredictable as a Psychopath bull." “So basically their easy to deal with?” Joy asked honestly. "Hardly. Basterds can tank a big bang sized blast. They were made from extracted bits of code from of the most feared Admins of the Admin war. Kro, the Admin of Berzerkers." “I think we got way past the ‘big bang’ levels of power a while ago.” Joy brought up. “And a Berserker admin? Well that just makes them pretty predictable to be honest.” Joy said honestly. "You say that. You want a demonstration there's a simulation deck ten floors below us. You can see what they are like." “That would be interesting.” Joy said. “But I think that could wait until we talk more, especially for me to lend an ear to your plights so you don’t drink yourself into a coma.” Joy said simply. “Especially when Ben is going to ask you to be his General, need you to be in top form instead of being a sad drunk.” "Spent most my life a field agent like the majority of us. Becoming a general basically means you're too old for field work, so they put you in a desk and if you don't adapt to it they put you in some automatic retirement home where even going to the bathroom is done for ya, doesn't matter how healthy you are." “Well that’s not how General’s work for us.” Joy said. “Your still young enough to drink more than a goddamn fish and still be conscious, what’s stopping you from being the General for us and being what you really are, a fighter who helps others in need.” "I want too… I really do. But like you said, Coco is in a Coma and I'm the only one who remembers our founders true goals. People these days don't want to hear it, but our reality is harsh, and not what it's meant to be." “And when someone is actively putting out a hand to help you? That same person that saw Coco’s memories and believes there’s at least one person still left to help fight the good fight?” Joy asked. “You don’t have to be the only one who remembers the founders true goals.” Joy said while bringing out a Memory Card from Castle Oblivion. “You can teach people your founder’s dreams and goals for a better future.” Krot sighed, contemplating his next words as he took another sip. "Alright. On one condition." “What would be the condition?” Joy asked curiously. "You. I want you to learn the ways of Nexus. The True Nexus. We are quite literally at the edge of extinction, a person of your influence might save what we once we're." “True.” Joy said honestly. “So, how to start?” "Follow me." Krot said, standing up and then nearly falling over, Joy catching them. “More like you point out which direction.” Joy said while keeping the poor guy up. Krot pointed Joy towards a room some ways down a long corridor. The room was small, oddly, and held a small statue of three arms each holding onto each other's end. “Oh? And the statue is supposed to be?” Joy asked curiously. "When our founders died, all that was left of them was three arms, latched onto each other with a grip that never faltered. We keep them back at the Capitol, it's a religious thing really." “I get it...a solidarity between three people, never letting go and never giving up.” Joy said. “Right?” "Pretty much. They marked their brother and sisterhood with a small blue dot imbedded within the palms of their right hand. For them it was just symbolic. For us today it's the equivalent to those fancy wrist devices you have." “Assistants?” Joy asked. “Honestly we don’t see these as symbols...more like portable menu screens to be honest.” Joy said honestly. "To each their own." Krot said, managing to stand on his own and walked over to the statue. "Place your hand in the center, and let them speak to you." “Alright…” Joy nodded as he gently put his hand in the center. Suddenly Joy found himself in a dark room, three hooded figures around him. "You seek knowledge?" The one in front of Joy asked, their voice deep and commanding. "You seek our teachings?" The one to the back right of Joy asked, their voice feminine and wise. "You seek answers?" The one to the back left of joy asked, male also, a younger voice than the other two. “Yes.” Joy said slowly. The environment changed, the group, Joy Included now atop reflective water, like standing on a mirror. "Which of us do you wish to speak with first?" The three asked, now in front of Joy. “Well...let’s go with you.” He said while pointing to the feminine voiced one first. "As you wish." She said, holding out a hand. Joy wasn’t fully sure but took the ladies hand nervously. She grabbed him by the wrist, fell back and dragged him down into the water underneath. As they got deeper until the water was it's darkest, everything was dark, only white/grey people appearing all around the two. "My earliest memory, waking up. It was just us all, where we woke up, never moving, never doing anything. How could we? We did not know what we were, or what we could do." She began speaking. “Okay then…” Joy muttered. "Time had yet to exist, so we have no idea how long we just existed like this. Days? Years? Eons?" “Makes sense.” Joy said honestly. "Then, one 'day'-" There was a sudden explosion in the distance, Code flowed out in all directions as everyone began moving towards the source once it does down. "Death. One of us discovered our Code, and the other discovered we could die. Our first two discoveries." “Oh?” Joy asked curiously. "Suddenly, as if the floodgates were opened, we began creating. Languages, art, mortal beings, souls, hearts. We finally discovered our purposes. As we built and built, we began to divide, some wanted to build together, others alone. In our infancy we began arguing, fight after fight over how we'd even make these places that would one day be called realms. And in eons to come, a new word, and our final discovery would be made." Suddenly, everything, the void itself and entire realms all across the vastness were broken, burned, and blood soaked. "War." “Yeah...that’s a thing.” Joy said worriedly. Armies of Admins marched across the void, each slaughtering one another in a grand battle. Each summoning code enhanced weapons and armors, hacking away at each other until they no longer healed or moved. It was an endless battle across creation and void. He'll didn't even come close to describing what Joy was witnessing. “Jesus…” "Our group, we dubbed Nexus, we stood for coexistence and compassion. We were ten thousand Admins strong, and at the war's end, it was just us three." “Well then…” Joy muttered worriedly. "We flew to our own realm, we named after our Group, Nexus. We stood for what we all believed in, a single creation devoid of separation by reflections and barriers. The Mother appeared to us, and gave us a task, told us a secret." “Oh? And what would that secret be?” Joy asked curiously. "She was created, not made. Each time she makes us Admins, was after she had been created in a different creation altogether, transforming the old into something marvelous, our vision of a unified reality. She told us we were the ones to build and create here in this creation, and so we went to work, spending so much of our lives trying to create her. But we quickly realized we lacked something we could never have, but our offspring could. Potential. Admins have no higher limits to break, no higher mountains to climb, but mortal life does. Your kind has always intrigued us with how resilient and resourceful you all can be." “Well then…” Joy said, not really sure what to say given all the news he’s getting. "We bred with the mortal creations we made, and in time, we died, defending them from those who went mad after the war. It pains us to see our life's work and defendants largely lead by such a false shepherd, but we do know it was to be expected. The mother told us the day one of our own was born from pure evil, our goal would be close at hand, but it would be up to the course of fate to decide if the new her would be like herself, or like the evil that would spawn her." “Well…” Joy muttered, not really sure what to say about that. "Now that you know this, what will you do?" “I mean...besides what we were going to do to begin with?” Joy asked. “Doing the same thing you wanted to...just with less of a horrific backstory.” "Then will you help rebuild our society, our people?" “You can read my mind, do you really need to ask?” Joy asked bluntly. “Also, would I be here if I didn’t want to do that?” "Then raise your right hand, and swear on the mark I shall bestow upon you, that you will fight only to obtain Mother's goals, create the her, and rebuild this creation as she had hoped." “Some people might stab me for this…” Joy muttered before raising his right hand and pledging to help. As Joy raised his right hand a blue glow emitted from the palm. "I, Dia, Admin of Justice swear in this Dire Wolf known as Joy to the True Nexus, our family helps its own, and now I will give the one gift of your choosing." “Gift?” Joy asked curiously. “What kind of gift?” "A gift of myself. A gift of Justice. In our time trying to craft Mother ourselves, we created many of the abilities you know and even use today. I can gift you one of these three." They said, waving a hand as three multi colored balls of light appeared between she and Joy. “What are the three choices?” Joy asked curiously. "To your left is known as Karmic Justice, to those who have sinned and done wrong additional damage is dealt, eating away at their very being. In the middle is Clairvoyance, enter the minds of the guilty to view their memories and pass Judgement. Lastly is Console, bring forth the death the wrongdoer has slain to fight at your side for some time." Joy blinked at those three abilities. “I’d say I want all three but you will only give me one...why not Console, that sounds cool.” Joy said, thinking that it would be hilarious to see Nexus suddenly have to deal with something it can’t deal with by just numbers alone. Nodding, Clairvoyance and Karmic Justice vanished as Console floated over to Joy. Taking it Joy felt the Ability flow into him, and merged with the others. "Thank you for aiding this Noble cause young one." “No problem, it’s what heroes do ya know?” Joy said with a smile, still a bit thankful for his and Ben’s mental connection so Ben could know what’s going on as well. "May we meet again, young one." With a nod, the Admin of Justice vanished as well as the area, the white void clearing back up into the room with the statue, Joy looked at his palm, and there was the blue dot, though now, Joy saw it looked a bit different. How he couldn't tell, it just did. "I see you did accept after all." Krot said, walking up to Joy, sober some. "Which founder did you speak to?" “I mean...I was expecting to talk to the other two given they asked ‘who first’.” Joy said, a little confused why he couldn’t talk to the other two. “Unless I have to go back and talk to the other two right?” "If you want. You can take their tests and trials to gain more gifts." Krot said. "After that they can give you information, tasks that are vital in one way or another to the final goal." "Well sounds about right." He said honestly. "So I'm gonna be spending a lot of time with this, unless it was barely two minutes here." "Five hours." Krot said, surprising Joy. "Oh boy." The wolf said. "And I was just told things and given a...pretty stupid strong ability from Lady Justice." "It's to be expected. They are echoes bound to this world, this creation by their determination and will alone. What felt like at most half an hour for you was much longer in reality." “Question, couldn’t Ben figure out how to...you know, fully bring their bodies back?” Joy asked. “I mean, we have their genetics, their conscience, and Code actually given these hands still hold all their powers…” Joy said with some thought. "Funny you mention that. They should have been able to bring themselves back, got enough code in their arms and such to do so easily. But they don't. I think they might be waiting for something to happen before making a grand reappearance." “Like when the fighting actually starts?” Joy asked curiously. “Possibly, maybe. Hard to say.” “Might as well ask them.” Joy said while putting his hand back into the center of the three. This time though… nothing happened. "You can only visit them once a day, such efforts like this exhaust them." Krot informed. “I doubt I could just...pour an elixir on their arms and have that work right?” Joy asked sheepishly. "Your enthusiasm is appreciated but ill placed. Come, time to show you what this base holds and can do." Krot said, leading the way. “Alright…” Joy said while following Krot. The tour was impressive. Krot showed Joy the armory, which held some of the Nexus made Replicas of Ben's weapons, mostly the lower tier versions but a few hundred of the newest ones were here also, enough munitions to put a million bullets in every being on Equis, a complete food conversation room, converting both matter and antimatter into food resources, a training deck that made the castles look inferior, and enough vehicles to completely cover Equis's surface. "I wasn't sure how many of us there were, I managed to make twenty thousand of these bases in my career, each well stocked and fit to build up armies and rebuild Nexus. The True Nexus. Pocket dimensions are very useful." “Well then…” Joy blinked. “This is...quite a lot to be honest.” Joy said. “Jeez...Ben’s gonna get a kick out of sending all his soldiers here…” Joy muttered. “So...question, why the hell are the teachers in Nexus teaching children quantum mechanics?” "While other Admins realms life was barely learning to use rocks and sticks for weapons, we were already taught all, at the time, current sciences and magics, many most realms still have not learned all what we were taught in our beginnings. We learned more as more developed and by the time the first cities emerged within other Admins realms, we already had colonized many other worlds within the realm our Founders made for us." “Yeah, nothing like getting the special treatment while everyone else was living like normal people…” Joy muttered. “I can imagine it was difficult but still.” "Now then, the final room on the tour." Krot said. “Can’t wait to see what it is.” Joy said, wondering what the final room could be. After a long elevator ride, the door opened to a single hallway with one door at the end. "I am sure you are aware of the Abilities vault yes?" Krot asked as the two walked to the door. “No.” Joy said. “What do you mean by that?” "You think Cript and all the other Experiments have those powerful abilities naturally? Nexus has stockpiled such powers since their earliest. It's our most safeguarded location. The powers in there are many and various. I wasn't able to get the Class B abilities and up, but C-E abilities can be useful and are a lot more common." He said, opening the door and for as far as Joy could see, glass canisters each holding some form of glowing energy lined the walls. "It's not much but should help out." “That depends on what all the abilities are.” Joy brought up. “Cause it’s not the strength of the ability that matters, it’s how you use it...also to be perfectly honest, yes, I did expect that cause it’s pretty easy to naturally get abilities when your creating new things.” "Hehe." Krot laughed lightly, walking over to a green glowing canister and picking it up. "This is a class D ability, known as Pressurize. You use Lindworm, right?" “Yes I do.” He said while summoning Lindworm. “What, can it create a pressurized zone of air or something?” "You can do that with Lindworm Naturally, but the Data Coco gathered states that the densest you can make the air is about as hard as steel. Maybe a diamond if you damn near kill yourself doing it. With Pressurize added not only will your wind currents be diamond tough naturally, given it's both an active and passive ability, you can make the air so dense it forms its own gravity." “Mine.” Joy said bluntly. “Even if I could just train and have my abilities be on par with that, I want to double up on the kind of crap I can do with it.” Chuckling Krot handed the Canister over to Joy. "Open up the top, and keep your hand inside until the energy completely gets absorbed into it." “Alright.” Joy nodded, kind of expecting this to hurt as he opened the canister and shoved his hand into it. It didn't hurt, in fact it felt more like putting his hand inside water and feeling it drain away. Once the ability was completely absorbed by Joy, he checked it out in his Assistant. "It has three levels, the first is basic pressuring, secondly allows for pinpoint precise pressure placement, the third is the fun stuff." “I’m gonna have fun with this.” He said with a smile. “By the way, can it also take away pressure?” "Yes, at level two." “Cool.” Joy said with a smile, already knowing how to use this ability in a lot of fun ways. "Well if that's all here then go fetch Ben, I'd like to speak with them and honestly I'd rather not leave this place alone." “He is...currently eating a boatload of ice cream...because he thinks he himself believes he’s failed his family twice in the same week…which is technically true given that his kids were kidnapped and Coco is in a coma…” Joy sighed out. "I see. I wish I could help but for all I know most Nexus must have changed already with Jericho in command so most of the facilities I know of might have different uses now." “Okay who’s the current leader of Nexus? Cause honestly this civil war thing isn’t just because Vincent died off screen right?” Joy asked honestly. "Well, according to law of the founders the next leader of Nexus should be Cript. While all the experiments of his classification are related to Vincent, Cript is the only one directly made by him, sexual wise I mean. However Vincent was rewriting the laws, trying to ensure the next leader was his own council, and that's where the infighting began." “And so Cript just...left Nexus to implode without doing anything?” Joy asked. “He literally owns Nexus, why didn’t he start doing something to stop their mad ravings?” "You'd have to ask them that. I couldn't tell you if I wanted to." Joy sighed out. “And did he even help evacuate or was it after he helped?” "I haven't seen him since he was a newborn so I don't think he helped any. Though it's not impossible to say he does still have a plan, what though is hard to say." Joy wanted to tell the guy who Mother was, but decided against it. “Well I’m sure when his plan does come full circle you’ll probably be questioning a lot of things.” "Likely. Now then, let's get some life into this base. It's creepy in here with only two people." “Ya think?” Joy asked before clapping his hands, several Shinobi Nobodies appeared and were kneeling to Joy. “How long have you been here?” Joy asked honestly. “Since you entered my lord.” One of the five shinobi’s said simply. *Impressive. Do they remember who they were in life, we, when they had their hearts I mean?" Krot asked. “Our Lord has given us all the choice of remembering our past selves.” The head Shinoi, which Krot noticed was a lot different than the other four and also how the being seemed to be there but also not was interesting. “To some of us we agreed to remember, to others they felt their past was their past.” "Interesting." Krot said simply. “So, need more people here? Cause I can just give some people a call and get people here.” Joy brought up. "Alright then." Krot said. "Get calling. Time to put it to use. When Ben is ready to talk I'll see him, till then I'll be making maps to the other bases like this one." “A lot of people coming up.” Joy said while pulling out a phone and calling people to get here. To be continued...
Nobody goes to the Void“I hate not having clones helping me with all this fucking paperwork…” I groaned, looking at a massive stack of papers I just got done. “Even with my four other clones I’d rather be doing something productive, like going to that new bakery and ordering their entire stock…” “That would be the fifth bakery you bought out.” Luna said while thankfully helping me. “So?” I asked. “In two days.” Twilight added. “...I’m still helping the people…” I muttered with a pout. “Yeah, I heard those bakeries were able to open two extra shops because of your orders.” Rarity said, filing away the papers to the outgoing and rejection sections. “We know your upset Ben, but come on.” Luna said. “None of you were complaining about it before when I got more ‘padding’.” I rolled my eyes. That earned a chuckle from Luna. “True, but that is sexy padding, and if it wasn’t for the fact I think you being an Admin makes you immune to health issues, I’d worry about your cholesterol.” “We’ve seen you angry, depressed, but this is beyond even what I do when sad Darling.” Rarity said. “And I once ate Fifty tubs of ice cream and nine dozen donuts over a miss shipment of fabrics.” “And how long did that take you?” I asked honestly. “... about two...hours…” “Jesus christ…” I muttered. “Look, how about you leave the paperwork to us, I know a lot about governance and so does Tia, as well as Chrysalis and some of the others, so we can all take this over while you go to those meetings with Krot and some others you’ve been putting off.” Luna said, pulling me up and placing my sideways crown back on proper. “You might like how they go.” I sighed out. “Alright alright.” I said while getting up off my chair. “So...besides Krot...how many other meetings do I need to go to?” “Consequence.” Luna called, the Nobody appearing. “How many meetings does Ben have today?” “Forty, the build up has been expected.” Consequence said. “Cause Cript is all ‘hey, you shouldn’t have millions of clones doing exactly what you normally do’.” I rolled my eyes. “But who’s first?” “First is Krot , he seemed a top priority, then a meeting with the current leader of Daybreak Empire Leon and his second in command Cid. And so on and so forth.” “Alright...so Krot first.” I said. “I believe he’s still at the Compound?” “Yes but once we send word you are ready he will arrive here within minutes.” Consequence informed as he and I walked to the Throne room. “Well...I’m ready whenever he is.” I said honestly. “I shall send word.” After taking a seat in my throne and fixing myself up a bit, Krot arrived. “Your highness.” He said with a bow. He was well cleaned up, suit a bright white with many medals and patches meaning many things I imagine. “General Krot.” I nodded. “How are you doing today?” I asked politely, wanting to make a good first impression. “Good. Many of your own Kingdom and others, including your own brother Joy have agreed to join our foundation, abiding by our founders original ideals and not of the ones Vincent created and Jericho abuses.” He said with a nod. “If I may speak, I’d like to first discuss where I believe we failed as an organization, leading to this current group we face today.” “I mean...besides letting Vincent take over cause ‘the prophecy said so’?” I brought up. “That is the main cause yes, but after much consideration and research, in simple, we failed because we never truly had a leader until Vincent arrived. You see, before Vincent claimed the title of King of Nexus, there was no king, General and Noble were the highest ranks received, we were largely a foundation ruled solely by those old enough to obtain the Nobility rank and they counseled the rest. When Vincent came along his knowledge of our ways and the Prophecy lead him a means to persuade the council into making him king and soul ruler, and by having never had a true ruler before we were easily lead astray from our true goals, after all, having a king was new to us, and nobody dares question their ruler.” “I mean...in hindsight you could have just asked your Admin’s for guidance, you literally had a way to talk to them if Joy’s experience meant anything.” I brought up. “We did, but they refused to speak on the matter. I believe in order for this new Nexus to achieve what the old failed we must exist under a proper king. Somebody we can trust who can both organize us and lead us, and know how to hold us at bay if things start to sway to a negative direction. From there within any kingdom they rule we’d be more along the side of Knights or something akin to that.” “Okay...but that makes no sense when one of them is literally the Admin of Justice...wouldn’t she have been furious at all the shit Vincent did and expected Justice to be brought down upon him?” “One would think, but she especially was silent. Perhaps they were aware of this failure, and perhaps this was needed in order for our true goal to be realized. whatever the case from this day onwards we are no longer simply Nexus, we are The Nexus Templar, serving our king without question.” “Alright.” I nodded. “So anyways, besides all that, I presume you’ve already sent your new Nexus through the wringer?” I asked, expecting the General to have immediately started training. “Yes, many of your own citizens show great promise, though they are nowhere near combat ready just yet. Now then, can you point me in the direction of Zeke?” “Why do you ask?” I asked, not trying to sound defensive but considering how those two felt during Rune and Butterscotch's betrayal...it just came out. “I am afraid I didn’t get to that part yet. You see, when I referred to serving our king without question, I meant Zeke, not you.” “Again. Why do you want to see Zeke?” I asked. “He’s...getting better but...telling him he’s King? You do know he doesn’t want a ‘Ruling Role’ right?” "Yes, which is why he is perfect. As the Admin of Hearts he is also the King of Hearts. He is the only other one of the Experiments to become an Admin and holds both vast tactical wisdom and leadership skills. He feels the loss of Equis/Daybreak was always unavoidable, so he took precautions to avoid a mass loss of life when it did, and he succeeded in that. He may not want the role of King, bit he was quite literally built for it." “He will just tell you to go to me right?” I asked. “But…” I sighed out. “If you want to...head to My Hero Academia, that’s where they are the moment and...it’s a pretty good place just from what I’ve read up.” I said, planning on going there sooner or later. "Thank you." Krot said with a bow. "Now then, about the other bases I constructed." "What about them?" I asked curiously. “Want me to do some pest control in case our enemies found them first?” "There is the likelihood they have but unlike the one here, the others are safeguarded both by the world's natural terrain and defenses of my own design. The only way to shut all of them down is via the primary control room. Thankfully all these bases share the same layout, however the rooms are switched around randomly. I recommend while dealing with the defenses a small Infiltration team breaks in while mass assault squad keeps the base defence AI busy." “How much you want to bet Jericho has just waltzed in and made it his?” I asked honestly. "We have few reports on Jericho but from.what we do have I have a strong feeling he will not if rarely be in direct contact with combat until his desired war is upon us. He sees everything as a chess game, our pieces and his, he will want to see how our pieces measure up." Krot informed.” “Well he can’t really compare when one of the pieces that’s supposed to counter him has currently fucked off.” I sighed out. “And when I brought up ‘oh hey, why don’t we just get the ability to make us on par’, Cript said ‘I’m scared you’ll die and get it taken away’ like he thought we weren’t good enough or something.” "Perhaps…" Krot said quietly. "Once my first assault teams are ready and my king gives word I'll contact you for additional fire power in the form of groups we can take this first base on list." “Would be rather simple.” I said honestly. “But do you need actual big fire power or sneaky fire power?” "I feel we can handle the sneaky factor, we'll ask you provide heavy firepower to keep the defense AI busy." “Sounds simple enough.” I said. “That’ll happen whenever your fully ready.” "Thank you." Krot said with a bow, leaving. “Alright…” I muttered. “Next!” Walking in now came Leon, his attire much the same, save for a few medals and Cid, standing next to him. "Ben." Leon said with a nod. “Leon, Cid.” I nodded. “How are you two doing today?” I asked politely. "Paperwork coming out our asses." Cid grumbled. “Believe me, I understand.” I grumbled in agreement and shared pain. “So, what would you two like to talk about?” "As you know Daybreak Empire has suffered many blows recently. With Zeke and Mors gone and our primary world now obliterated, while our people are largely adjusting governance wise we are sadly weaker." “Wait, so you don’t know?” I blinked, a little surprised by this. “Zeke and Mors aren’t dead...I kinda thought you were there when me, Eclipsa and Zeke got married.” "What?!" Cid and Leon both yelled. "How? We recovered Zeke's corpse?!" Cid yelled. “That...was Zeke’s clone, Charlie.” I brought up. “Jesus...I have way too much to explain…” I sighed out. “Consequence, did Twilight make a Schedule for all my meetings?” I asked him. "She's tried. But I handle your scheduling matters." He replied. “Well...mind pushing my next meeting a little back? This is gonna take a while.” I said nervously. "Of course. I shall inform them immediately." I spent a good two hours telling Cid and Leon about everything that happened when Zeke was split, his Nobody, sharing a body with Trixie, and all the recent events. Needless to say, they were pretty speechless. “And that should be the long and short of it.” I said honestly. "But why didn't Zeke come back? Daybreak Empire needs his leadership now more than ever, especially now that his is the Admin of Hearts and Keyblades!" Leon shouted. “Let me ask you something, have you actually ‘needed’ Zeke being a leader?” I asked. “Cause I’m pretty sure Zeke made damn well sure you all can think and work things out by yourselves.” "That may be so but the people look towards him for safety, he is the wielder of the X-Blade and now he himself is Kingdom Hearts, a symboles, a person like that gives hope, and hope is something the people need!" “They look towards him for safety...so what, did all his hard work mean nothing to make you all strong and independent?” I asked Leon curiously. "Our strength isn't the priority here, we can survive without him, but Zeke made everyone, every world that joined us so much better. Now tell me where Zeke is." “‘We can survive without him’.” I repeated to Leon, staring Leon dead in the eyes. “I can tell you where Zeke is, but at the moment your acting like a child crying that his father isn’t there to make the bad things go away.” "I wouldn't expect you to understand." “Oh really?” I asked. “Tell me, what don’t I understand, I haven’t lived with Zeke as long as you have, so I’d really like to know.” I said in a patient and understanding tone. “And Cid, you can help elaborate if you want.” "Er, uh what Leon here means to say is that Zeke has done a lot for us. We went from having lost our world to having not only it back, but also made it possible for us to help others in the same situation. We went from being damn near helpless to being able to defend and save others. When Zeke founded Daybreak Empire over the old Daybreak town we knew only good things could come from it. And it did, all that lost knowledge helped us and others in ways the traditional Keyblade ways would have kept secret. He broke the old rules and created new ones that were fair and just. We know Zeke tried to downplay his role but in the eyes of everyone in Daybreak he was a living legend." Cid tried to explain. "He built up Daybreak and the world it evolved into from nothing and many others as well. You inherited your kingdom and had land appear here with magic and your Nobodies. In short Zeke is just a better leader than you, and given his abilities would make a much better king." Leon said with a tone of venom. I stood up and walked over to Leon. “Oh? So because I was handed a kingdom, I’m not a good enough leader?” I asked simply. “Because I worked hard to gain what I have now, I’m worse than Zeke?” "Your realm only exists because of Light and Darkness clashing, a small hairline border between the two. You may have earned that crown but so far you have not shown you deserve it." Leon said, looking me head on in the eyes before starting his leave. "Now if you don't mind, I have to find my Admin." "Awh shit kid…" Cid sighed. The door remained closed to Leon. “No no, we’re still talking.” I said. “Even if you walk off after basically spitting in my face, I still have information you need, both for Zeke’s whereabouts, and to a lot of other things. And I’m sorry for being a little...on the fence with telling you, see...Zeke is still recovering from Rune’s betrayal.” I said to the two. “He’s been getting better...and even though another person is already heading off to make him their king...it’s still hurting a lot.” "Zeke has always suffered." Leon said, turning around to face me. "Since Daybreak Empire was founded, how many wars has Zeke told you about?" “Please, continue.” I said. “I don’t know how many because I didn’t get married to him until...maybe a week or two ago? Time is really weird to be perfectly honest.” "Sixty. And in each Zeke has lead us, commanded us and seen horrors that haunt us both. Infants and children dead in our arms because we arrived just a bit too late! Not every world was perfect when we arrived, so many were in their own wars and had their own horrors. We ended it for them, we suffered so they didn't have to anymore." “Zeke knows death and bloodshed...but how does having someone you love, your own safety net, betray you to your own enemy...as well as never even loved you to begin with?” I asked. "Such an event would crush any man, but where Rune was a liar, the one false love, he still has so many, now including you. If there is anything I know about Zeke it's that he can see the brighter side of a situation." “I know...didn’t make his hollowness any worse…” I muttered sadly. “So anyways, you want to know where Zeke is, and honestly I don’t even need an apology because you still don’t know a lot of things.” "Well that's as good an ending as we hope for." Cid said. “Yeah, I’d like to show you two what Nothingness truly is...but I doubt one of you even cares.” I brought up. “So, ever heard of ‘My Hero Academia’?” "Hmm… sounds like Super Powers." Leon muttered. "We know where it is." “Start there.” I said while passing him a note on which world it specifically was just in case. “And also, do you want to know what Nothingness truly is?” "I'll learn when you learn what a true king is." Leon said with a smirk. "Your greenness shows like a house plant." “I haven’t really been a king for all that long to be honest.” I brought up. “I was working my way towards being able to rule, Zeke, at the time being a god amongst men for several reasons, was kinda handed it.” I brought up. “But I mean, when your hero of a world that tends to happen sometimes.” Leon and Cid left, and I began wondering how I can be a better ruler. Without clones… like what Zeke did. No clones just a bunch of people and Keyblades... “Didn’t I already summerize this as ‘do what I’ve already been doing but with a fuck ton more paperwork’?” I asked myself curiously. “Helping people, making sure things are running, I have been getting better at leadership...also why am I comparing myself to Zeke when he was literally made to be a leader?” I frowned. “Whatever, something else to think about, Consequence you can bring the next group in.” The next group was a group of people from the list of people whose world's bad guys vanished. Funny enough it was Hercules. "Hi there." He said with a wave. “Hello, how are you doing today?” I asked politely. "Pretty good. Actually things back home have been great save for the fact all our evil people are gone. Not just Hades, the Titans, Medusa, and many others. Just up and gone." Herc said with a frown. "The peace nice but it's still concerning." “It is concerning…” I said nervously. “What do you know about other worlds if I may ask?” "Not much. Just bits and pieces from Daybreak really." “Alright.” I nodded. “So...to put it simply, someone a whole lot worse than what you’ve faced from another world took them all to add to his ever growing army.” I said, knowing Hercule was going to learn this sooner or later. "Yikes…" “But that doesn’t mean all his hopeless.” I said. “Cause you are the world’s greatest hero, Hercules, and with a lot of hard work and determination, they won’t stand a chance.” I said honestly. “So...might seem pretty forward, but I’ve never really been one to be subtle, want to join my cause in fighting against this growing threat? I know it’s forward, but so is having all your villians being taken away out of nowhere.” "Of course I'll join. Can't be a hero if I'm not helping." “Good man.” I said with a nod. “Now the training will be a lot more difficult than what you’ve previously experienced, so a quick question is do you want to train back on your world or here?” I asked curiously. “We have everything you could ask for in training equipment and expertise and more.” "Back home would be better. I know some people who can help." With that I had some people go with him to make sure everything went well. The next person was… Ceil Phantomhive, but he had this orange streak along his normally jet black hair. "Ben." He said simply. “Earl Phantomhive.” I nodded, not knowing what’s new or special about this Ceil. "That's not my title anymore." He muttered. "Clearly you are failing to see the larger picture of who I am and why I am here." “Oh, I am sorry.” I said. “I sadly haven’t been keeping track with a lot of things given that I’ve been having to keep track of...well a lot of things.” I said sheepishly. "Looks like I'll have to spell it out for you then. I'm the help Father sent you." “I mean...you could have just started with that.” I said. “I don’t really know many of my family from Cript’s side cause...well I have only met you people twice.” "Clearly. I am here to help you have a better understanding of the type.of field works you'll be experiencing come this war and help you learn some manners. An argument in your own court should have been silenced swiftly, not allowed to escalate to volumes unfit for indoors." “Do I look like the kind of person that would keep ‘indoor voices’ in any situation?” I asked honestly, motioning to my entire self "As a king and mother you must lead by example, and so far all your examples have been in poor taste." “Hey, I represent that.” I said in a joking manner. "I can see I have my work cut out for me." Ceil said. “Well then where to begin?” I asked simply. “Cause I have a lot more meetings to attend and even more things to do after the fact.” "First off I can tell you that since it appears obvious you don't even know how many or with whom you are meeting with you should start from there." “Well I was told I had fifty meetings.” I started simply. “And I do know who I’m meeting, I would be dumb not to know.” "Well I'm going to have to set up shop somewhere. I'll send for.you once I've set up." Ceil said, taking his leave. “Alright.” I nodded. “Next please.” The next arrival was actually a surprise. Lord. "Your meetings are shit." He… insulted. “I don’t open up with insults when I meet you Lord.” I said simply. “But what brings you here?” "As you know we need allies who are on our level. Admins. I have a few who I know will aid us but this one in particular I do not want to speak with alone…" “Oh? And who would that be?” I asked curiously. "Asmith, the Admin of DNA. I know you have heard of him." “Oh him? Well I’ve heard of him from Ben 10 and all that jazz, but I haven’t met him officially.” I said honestly. “But I would like to talk to him if it’ll get us a strong ally.” "Past. Strong, that's not how I'd described him. Anyway, come on. I want to get this over with fast." “Mind putting my other meetings on hold till I get back Consequence?” I asked the Lingering Will. "I can have Joy take over in your place for a while." Consequence said. “Yeah that would be true.” I said. “Let’s hope Joy’s not too busy with what Krot might be putting him through…” I muttered while clapping my hands. “Joy? You there?” “Go to hell…” Joy muttered as he walked in, looking tired as hell from all the crap Krot has put him through. "Come on." Lord spoke up, next to a portal of sorts. “Alright.” I nodded while following Lord to where Asmith was. We were on what looked like a fortress of sorts, and we're immediately assaulted by green robots. Lord just put up a barrier and deflected all the attacks effortlessly. "Really? Just show yourself you old bastard." “Come on Asmith, you know full well Jericho is back and probably has any number of Vilgax’s abusing your tech. How about you get off your high horse and show yourself.” I called out. After a bit the robots stopped and after a bit the small Galven walked up to the two. "You have five minutes." Asmith said. His voice sounds like from.his first appearance in the Ben ten movie. So Ben should be Ten then. At least in this reflection. “It’s gonna take a lot longer talk than five minutes, but we need your help.” I said. "I know. Jericho is back and already he's causing trouble and stealing my technology." Asmith said. "So will you help or what?" Lord asked. "Perhaps. Will you finally Admit I'm the better inventor." "No way in hell." “You two are better in different ways from each other, can we not have this dick measuring contest now?” I asked. "He's just all kinds of upset because I invented the Omnitrix well before he was able too." Asmith said smugly. "I would have gotten it if I managed to figure out the codex rewrite." Lord grumbled. “Oh boo hoo.” I said. “He made it first, doesn’t mean it’s super special anymore when it’s mass produced to hell, including all its variants.” I brought up. “Plus a fucking Crab with a shitty accent made the exact same thing but with all those aliens Predators, you can still make something that’s better you know that right?” Asmith just smirked. "Not the original." "Piss off." Lord hissed. “And you decided not to one up him and make something better?” I asked Lord honestly. “But what’s so special with the Original than? Cause I’m mostly going off of all the shows lore at this point so I don’t know everything.” Asmith gave a slight laugh. "The omnitrix seen in that show is a heavily, downgraded version of the original." “Still an overpowered piece of shit.” I deadpanned. "The original, allows any who wears it to gain the powers and abilities of every Admin that was around before, and even after the war. Your Code is there too Ben." "I still call Bullshit that you were able to make that." Lord said. "What can I say, I'm just the smarter man." Asmith said, earning a glare from Lord. “While I won’t call bullshit on the Original having that capability I will call bullshit on it having my Code when it just came into being not...what a month ago?” I asked honestly. “And where would this ‘original’ one be? I sure as shit hope it’s not in Jericho’s hands.” I brought up. "Relax. The original is right here." Asmith said, lifting up his shirt, the iconic symbol attached to his belly. "To ensure its safety I embedded it into my own body and code. I got your Code and DNA added to it via my collection bots." He said, a small fly whizzing past me. "They have come in real handy. Just a skin or hair sample is all I need." “Alrighty then.” I nodded, understanding the concept. “So, again, are you going to help us? Or is being told that your better than Lord in one situation is more important than having everything get destroyed?” "I'll help, on one condition." “What would that condition be?” I asked curiously. "I need a sample of Cript's code." "Ha! Good luck." Lord said. I took a moment, before taking a deep breath and some of my bugs crawled into my hand, holding small pieces that both Asmith and Lord could tell was Cript’s Code. “Is this enough?” I asked curiously. “Or does it need to be a complete set?” Asmith took it, looking it over. "Hmm… this is part of Cript's code, but it's barely thirty percent, the other seventy or so will be needed." “Ah.” I nodded. “Good too know, but I’m pretty sure Cript would just hand over a small bit of it considering he just doesn’t care anymore about things.” I shrugged. "If you can ask him for it then. With Cript's code added to the storage Chambers, this device could be the key to victory." “Question...what’s stopping Jericho from just...making your Original Omnitrix?” I asked worriedly. “As I said before, Jericho is basically an Edgy Cript so...he can do damn near anything.” "Nothing really. He's smart and resourceful, but he lacks what I have. The code sequences of past Admins. The first generations like myself are the strongest." “Isn’t he capable of just...remaking first generation admins though? He has all of Cript’s abilities...and from what I was told about Generation and Copy Cat...along with the Starfish cloning…” My voice trailed off in understandable concern at what Jericho could do. "Admin code can only be copied from.the original sequences, like the ones here." He said, tapping on the original Omnitrix. "The only way to bring them back is to either somehow have The Mother do it, or gain the help of The Admin of Time." “And where would the Admin of Time be?” I asked curiously. "No idea. He's been in hiding since the war ended." “Wouldn’t be surprised if Jericho somehow tracked the bastard down…” I muttered nervously. "That is a worry for later. Right now get me that code Sequence from Cript, and I'll arm each of you with one of these." I proceeded to tap on my Assistant to call Cript, hoping he was available instead of me having to hunt him down. "What?" I jumped, Cript appearing behind me and startling me. “Yes hi, mind if I take a small bit of your Code for Asmith here?” I asked. “His help against Jericho..kinda has the stipulation of completing his work.” "Sure." Cript said, plucking out a piece of hair. "Wait, just like that?" Asmith asked. "You never asked." Cript replied, handing the hair to them. "Bye." They said, vanishing now. Asmith looked over the hair, and tapped on the Omnitrix. "Unknown DNA and Code Sequence detected." The Omnitrix spoke, scanning the hair and then absorbing it. "Catalogued. Upgrades required for transformation." "Approved." Asmith said, the Omnitrix began glowing now. "I figured that would happen." “I mean...it is Cript after all.” I said honestly. "This should only take a few minutes." Asmith said. “Alright.” I nodded. “And how long would it take to start making those things?” "Once this is done I can get started." "Great. I'm gone now." Lord said, leaving. "Sour puss." Asmith said. He leaped all the way to my left shoulder. "If you want to see my lab, start walking." “Well...might as well.” I said while heading off towards Asmith’s lab. “So, how does it feel knowing you single handedly made one of the most overpowered objects in existence?” "Boring. How do you top it, simple, you can't. Makes all other works near meaningless." “Maybe you shouldn’t have set the bar that high.” I said honestly. "I set it high because I never expected to reach it." “When you have literally all the time in the world and no one can stop you, there is no wall in your way to halt your progress.” I said honestly. "Yeah. Take a left." I nodded while taking a left. “So, out of all the reflections of users of your own tech...which one were you more proud in?” I asked curiously. "None." “Really? Not even impressed on how much good it was used for?” I asked curiously. “I invented that version of the Omnitrix as a means to help life forms better learn about each others way of life and cultures, a measure to avoiding misunderstandings and even cultural and genetic barriers. But all they could think of was means to use it against one another as weapons. Even in the hands of someone using it for good, they are still using my work to hurt others. I didn’t make a weapon, I made the ultimate answer for understanding.” “It’s funny how you also made the ultimate answer for destruction.” I said. “I understand your reason to make it...but to be honest you kinda should have seen that coming. But honestly your tech can do that still, but it can still be used to save and or destroy people’s cultures.” I brought up. “Like...in one of the episodes of Ben 10 Alien Force, sorry I don’t know the actual alien races names so please bare with me, but it took Chromastone to help bring back Diamondheads home world and civilization back, your tech can do a whole lot more than just be the universe’s best Rosetta Stone.” "Perhaps, so long as it's in worthy hands. Sadly that won't be the case for the mark two's. The mark one though, well I'll have some hope for." He said, the Omnitrix stopped glowing. "Upgrade complete." It said, giving a single flash. "Perfect." Asmith said, leaping down and readying it. "I haven't used this devices in eons." “It’s just like riding a bike.” I said. “Once you get back on it’ll come to ya...also mind if I ask about literally all the other iterations of the Omnitrix you made besides the main one I know and the Magnum Opus?” "Well, time for a test run." Asmith said, punching the dial down. There was a bright flash of green light. When it faded, I was looking at… me?! "Hm. Code sequences stable, outfit, standard." The me he turned into was wearing a jumpsuit of sorts, and the Omnitrix symbol was over the right shoulder. "Abilities." Asmith said, actually summoning No Heart. "Weapons too. Good." “Well then…” I said. “Didn’t fully expect it to be a complete replica...kinda thought there would have been some differences.” "Code works different than DNA Ben, yet at the same time they can be near identical in terms of function." Asmith said, reverting back. "Alright then, let's get started." “Where do we start?” I asked curiously. “Or are you just going to clap your hands and make them all in an instant?” "I may be one of the first Admins but my abilities with Code are admittedly quite pathetic. While I am the Admin of Genetics I can only make the first and earliest forms of single celled organisms and mutated them to evolve and survive accordingly to each world, and that takes several thousand years each world. Once I know they survive and start multiplying and evolving on their own I let them work it out. It's why when machines and technology came about I took to it. My intellect is of my own study and research." “Surprising to be perfectly honest.” I brought up. “Why couldn’t you just make machines that amplified your code and abilities? The Omnitrix is one thing, but why didn’t you make anything like suits, nanotechnology, or things along those lines?” "Code has a will of its own. While we control and create it, one can not simply make a machine that amplify it. Even the first Omnitrix, while I transform into another Admin I am still limited to the creation and code strength of my own code, borrowing mostly just the abilities, strengths, and weaknesses of the Admin I transform into. The only ever successful method of strengthening code is with the Amplify ability, but only three exist in all of creation, and two are in Nexus's Abilitity storage vault, and the other resides within young Zeke." “Wait really?” I asked in surprise. "Oh yes. I find it funny really. Cript has Generation, and Zeke amplify. Two abilities with such interesting origins." Asmith said, the door before us opening as we entered a rather large laboratory. “Alrighty then, but wait doesn’t Cript also have Amplify or something?” I asked curiously. “And jeez this place is big.” "Haha. Nope. Cript only has Generation. You see, back when we were all still developing our code, and therefore everything, two Admins wanted the title of Admin of Abilities. They were quite competitive. Their crowning achievements was Generation for one, and Amplify for the other. Both abilities made to outdo the others, but together create something of unimaginable potential. Alone if Zeke were to gain some more strength and utilize Amplify I wouldn't be surprised if he could rival Cript." “Well okay then.” I said. “Can’t wait to see if those two things can be Copied because CopyCat is kinda busted.” I brought up. "Afraid not. Copy Cat can not copy Amplify or Generation. The admins that made those two abilities made it so they could not be replicated by that ability." “And yet it can be freely given to people.” I brought up. "Not exactly. You see, Generation is not like other abilities. It has to be given to one at birth or conception, to allow the body to adjust before it's even activated. Amplify while it can be received by anyone, if the user is not capable of holding all the increasing potency of it, will explode like a suicidal Delete." “And Grey doesn’t work like Amplify?” I asked curiously. “Cause it kinda sounds like it does given what Eclipsa showed off.” "Grey acts like a mix of the two abilities, but it's an energy, able to endlessly replicate itself and amplify other energies, however the potency and speed of it is drastically cut because it's an energy itself, not an ability." Asmith said, starting to work on something. “So basically it’s both but kinda nerfed?” I asked curiously. “That doesn’t sound scary at all.” "Put bluntly yes." Asmith said. "For an example for the time it will take Eclipsa to form an ocean of Grey one with Generation would have formed of Galaxy of all other energies at once, and with amplify a drop of grey is like a matchstick, and Amplify is a… rocket thruster. For lack of a better way to explain it." “Eclipsa was definitely faster than that…” I muttered, remembering our time training before bad things happened. “But okay then, still sounds pretty fucking scary.” "It is. It's why only three of Amplify exist, and five of Generation exist. Across all timelines and realms." “And then those abilities are just going to be given to people like fucking hot cakes.” I said. “I’m sure of it.” "Only if they learn how to forge them. But the method of even making Abilities was lost with their Admins after the war." “Jericho.” I stated as if his name was an answer enough to explain how those things won’t be lost for much longer. "While his threat is great not even he or Cript has ever made an Ability. The art is long lost Ben." “I’m pretty sure it’s not gonna be lost for much longer to be honest.” I said honestly. “A lot of things are being brought up that should have been lost.” "Perhaps. Only time will tell." “Alright.” I nodded. “But let’s get to work on these things right?” "Yes. I'll need the basic items… maybe I could if I calibrate it right… hmm… can you grab the Dial Sequence selector and Genetic Encoders in the storage room over there?" Asmith motioned to a door at the other side of the lab behind him. “I have a feeling I’ll know what the hell those things are just by looks alone?” I asked nervously. "The circle that shows the alien and the black band that latches to the arm…" He said bluntly. “Thank you.” I said. “Need to know, I don’t know the technical names of things.” I said while heading into the room to grab the items he needed. Opening the door it took a bit of looking but I found both in some trays that were packed with them. I took them to him and he grabbed one from each and began linking them together. "Hmm." He hummed as he was messing with the Dial. “Oh?” I asked curiously, wondering what he’s humming about. "This is my newer model, I'll need to manually install the needed parts to make it work as I'm calculating. Where's that lazy assistant of mine?" “Um...that depends on who your assistant is and...what Time Frame we’re going on here.” I said. “Cause at the moment...I’m getting a ‘Ben 10, Race Against Time’ feel where Ben and Company are heading here as we speak to stop the Omnitrix from nuking this universe.” I said honestly. "That? That was four months ago." Asmith said. "At least in this reflection." “Alright thank you.” I nodded. “Then I wouldn’t know where she is.” "Knowing her she's likely in her personal lab working on one of her little projects." “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “Don’t you have a communicator with her or something? You know like a phone or something to call her?” "And have her constantly bug me with unnecessary questions? No thanks." Asmith said, walking over to the edge of the table, opening the drawer underneath and taking out some wires. "Her personal lab is four doors down on the left." “Alright.” I nodded. “And that’s kinda your fault with ‘I don’t want to be bugged but I need my assistant around’, need proper communication and stuff like that.” I brought up honestly. "My flaw is that I want to be alone but hate doing all the work myself. I'm man enough to admit that." Asmith said. "Now go get her." “Gonna have to work on that.” I said while heading off to her personal lab. “Let’s hope she’s there…” Heading to that area her lab, Myaxx if I remember, her lab was much smaller than Asmith's, but just as cluttered. She was wearing some kind of goggles, while messing with a machine on the table in the center. “Uh, knock knock?” I asked while also knocking on her door. "Huh?" She questioned, taking off the goggles and looking at me. "And you are? Wait, dire wolf Den mother from planet Fortusha… Ben, right?" “Yes I am.” I nodded. “Asmith needs your help with work.” I said honestly. "Of course he does." Myaxx groaned. "What is it? Calculations? Schematics?" “Didn’t tell me what he needed but I have a feeling it involves making multiples of the Original Omnitrix.” I said honestly. At that, she dropped her tools. "You… you're serious?" “I have a feeling you’ve heard of Jericho right?” I asked. "Yeah. Only bits and pieces though." “Well a big ass Admin War is gonna happen and Jericho has been taking all the villains and boosting them to hell and back.” I brought up. “So, gonna need those things to help even the odds a bit, or tip it in our favor.” "Ah… well then, guess I got a lot of long hours ahead of me." Myaxx said, turning off the things in her lab. We them walked back to Asmith's lab. "So what do you need old man?" "The schematics for the Sequence compressor and Extender, and the Codex Module." Asmith said. "Got it." She said, walking over to a computer and began typing. “Anything I’m gonna need to do or should I let you two get to it?” I asked curiously. "If you can, Fetch a Mater Conversion production facility." Asmith asked. “And...you expect me to know the names of things why?” I asked slowly. "A Mater Conversion production Facility is exactly how it sounds. An entire facility that is one machine that both produces matter and items from raw code and concerts produced matter into whatever you program in. It's very old Admin tech." Myaxx said. "Some Admins trusted their realms inhabitants enough to use them responsibly, and some did. Others not so much. Most were cast into the void, no matter there or code so the whole thing is useless there and therefore to Deletes." Asmith added. “And you expect me to know where this thing is how?” I asked. “You said it’s very old admin tech, and I just became an admin not a few weeks ago.” "I don't expect you to know where it is, I expect you to search the void for one and bring it here." “You...do know who I am right?” I asked. “And...you do know that Void itself won’t really take kindly to me being there.” "If you don't want to be useful then leave, I'd you do, find that facility." Asmith said bitterly. "Besides, think of it as a training exercise for the war." “Cause...that would be good at the moment.” I sighed out. “Got a way there I could take? Still not fully used to just...Admin abusing my way everywhere.” "Yeah, and I thought my skills with code were pathetic. Just say Enter Room Zero while activating your code." “More like I’ve just started using Code.” I brought up. “But thank you.” I nodded while taking a deep breath, my code starting to appear. “Enter Room Zero.” Everything went green and black… and stayed black. I felt myself and l… right, void… no light here… no anything here… “Well let’s change that.” I said while summoning Eternal Flames and setting them both on fire. The light was minimal, but enough for me to see at least a few feet in front of me. I began walking. “Surprised one of the higher ups here aren’t like ‘hey the fuck you doing here?’...” I muttered to myself, knowing I could make this shit brighter than this or I could just give myself an item that can help me ‘see’ but I’m gonna do it the hard way for some reason. As I walked I felt the ground under me… dirt? Looking down I was on dirt, odd… maybe an old Admins realms debre when destroyed or something? “Seriously where the hell am I?” I muttered with a frown. As I kept walking I could hear… growling. Something big and deep was nearby. “Okay maybe I should just drop some pretense.” I said before dumping Grey and Light into Eternal Flames as the light burned ever brighter and giving me more room to actually see things. I saw for a moment a large claw before it vanished back into the darkness out of range of Eternal Flames. “Yes, hi.” I rolled my eyes as I kept moving along. As I kept along I began hearing… footsteps? “Hello?” I called out. “I can hear you, it would be best if you just come out instead of stalking me.” "What makes you think you can come here with that?" A ragged voice spoke. "Yes, that, that." Another higher pitched flemy voice added. “What, light?” I asked while moving it to try and see who’s following me. “Or something else?” I asked, wondering who the hell was here. “But who’s there?” “Stay back!” The flemy voice spoke. “Turn it off!” A new voice shouted. “It’s hideous.” Another, female voice spoke, followed by what sounded like an entire crowd of people, screaming and pleaded for me to put out Eternal Flames. “Please, just calm down.” I said. “But I’m not from here, I can’t really see without this, unless any of you can help me do that without anything bad happening.” I explained, at least letting the lights dim a bit. They all went silent. "Admin." The first voice spoke. "ADMIN!!!!" They all suddenly screamed, pounding or stomping at the ground Screaming Admin at an unholy volume and making the whole area shake. “ENOUGH!” I shouted as Eternal Flames shown brighter. “I am not an Admin! And even if I was, why the fuck would I be here when all of you would rather see me dead?” I growled, bringing up a pretty decent point if they were dumb enough to believe it. "Lies! Admin Lies!" The flemy voice shouted. "Bring forth Judgement!" Another yelled. “Um...how about no.” I said before leaving all the crazy people, knowing they won’t get close enough to me given they all hate the light Eternal Flames was giving off. “So where the hell would this thing be…” I muttered. “Also what the fuck does it even look like?” I muttered with a frown. Walking along all I know is that Asmith said it was a facility. A building then… where? “Given that no one’s going to help me I’m gonna me walking around everywhere…” I frowned, before taking a deep breath and exhaling slowly, a pulse of energy echoed out as I tried to ‘see’ everything else that my flames couldn’t let me see. Some things appeared in my mind, rocks, monsters... those people… god they look terrifying. Wait, is that… a pirate ship? “Why is there a pirate ship?” I frowned while heading towards the Pirate Ship. Upon arriving there were a lot of Skeletons, old bottles, fuck tones of treasure. Cool. “Just gonna…” I muttered before slowly taking all the treasure. “Yeah…” I muttered, thinking no one would have a problem if I took all the treasure. As I looked around I saw… "Well well, what do we have here?" That voice… who is this? “Um...nothing’s wrong here.” I said nervously. “I totally wasn’t trying to take treasure nope, not me.” "Like I care about worthless gold." They said… sounds like they're walking around me. "You're Ben right? Jericho talked about you." “Now a lot of people can say a lot of things about people...but one thing’s for sure, that fucker needs to return my kids damn it.” I frowned while preparing myself for an obvious fight. "Your kids? Heh. Wonder how that will work with them, considering Nancy's first words to him was 'Daddy'." He dodged my blast, and again. "Dog sense of hearing, accurate but you're still shooting blind." I growled before I used all my other senses, and found the bastard. “If any of you hurt any of my babies I swear you’ll regret everything.” I told him as I turned to face the bastard. "Hehehe. Why would I hurt my favorite aunt?" They said, shooting out void fire from their hands. "Did my baby brother not tell you about me? How like him." “He told me there were only two people I can freely kill. One of them I’m sure Zeke dealt with...and then there’s you, the prodigal asshole himself.” I frowned. "The name is Dillen. I was everything everyone wanted Zeke to be." He said, taking out a Void key Keyblade and clashing with me. "I hear he is an Admin now, heh, always the family favorite." “Funny how I’m hearing ‘woe is me, I’m always second best’.” I tried goading the bastard. “So are ya gonna do something or keep complaining?” Dilen backed up, slowly side walking around me. "Since he was born I've been under his shadow. I wouldn't expect someone without siblings to know what it is like when a younger brother upshows you, and doesn't even care." “I mean, it’s not my fault that he hates you for being a fucking crazy person.” I said while letting Eternal Flames float by me as I cracked my knuckles. “Plus I don’t need siblings to know what it feels like to have everyone else be better than you. That’s just a fact of life.” "Admitting faults?" “Not really.” I said honestly. “Just bringing up facts..” I said, bringing my hands up and getting into my fighting stance. "As fun as a fight would be, Jericho has a different Job for me." “And what would that be?” I frowned. "A deal, of sorts. The second we noticed Lord searching for allies among the existing admins we knew at some point he'd contact Asmith, hence your being here, correct?" “And what of it?” I asked honestly. “Is there a problem with this that Jericho can’t solve for some reason?” "An opportunity really." Dilen said, disbanding Void Key. "Since my brother cast me out to this place I've memorized a lot. Time here is non-existent, meaning the next time we meet, for you might be a month, week, year, for me could be seconds or centuries. In short I know you are looking for the Mater Conversion Facility. I know where one is, but at a price." “And why do you expect me to agree at all?” I asked honestly. “But what’s the price since I might as well ask.” "Jericho needs a sample of your Nothingness. For just whatever you put in this jar," He tossed a rather high tech looking jar at me. Catching it, I looked it over. Seemed… secure. "And this facility is yours." “I’m not seeing enough of a ‘fair deal’ here.” I said. “Plus, what would happen if I’m literally in the facility itself? It’s just not turned on yet?” I frowned. "These things can't run inside the void, no matter to convert, no code. I can open a portal out of it and you can take it from there, but taking you to the facility is all Jericho asked of me, and unless you do decide to foolishly use your code and have every Delete from every end of this section on you at once, I'll require some payment for the portal service." “And you're expecting me to just...give you something Jericho already has?” I asked honestly. “Or is he suddenly not able to do literally anything?” "While he does have a copy of your Nothingness a Copy is not the best for running experiments." “You do know that you’re being led by someone that can literally do everything right?” I asked honestly. "Yes… everything, including returning Nancy." He said, purposely turning his back to me. "Play along, and we'll return her safe and sound." “And Nyx and Eclipsa Jr.” I stated bluntly. “I know I’m falling for your bait...but my family’s more important…” I sighed out. "I'm getting to them. Jericho's rules are simple. Three deals, this is yours, They will get theirs soon enough, and after the third Deal of 'Jolly cooperation' you'll get your kids back. Jericho is a lot of things, but when it comes to kids well, he's not that heartless." “And what? Is this ‘fair compensation’ for us having Asmith on our side or something?” I asked curiously, my den mother instincts tell me to just take the deal to get my kids back. "Beats me. Jericho didn't tell me all the details. I'm not one of his inner circles, I'm just a messenger." “I hate you and Jericho so much…” I sighed out. “But...when will my daughter come back?” "When all three deals are completed. When the next is I don't think it will be that far away, all depends on what the boss man says. If you want proof she's fine though, here." He said, throwing a folded piece of paper at me. Inside was… scribbles… crayon scribbles that had Nancy's scent all over it. “I hate you all…” I muttered while opening the canister. “I know I’ll regret this...but your a Ventral...and from what I’ve been told, even the most cruelest of Ventrals still believe family is important…” I said while putting a tiny tiny piece of my Nothingness in. “I know I’ll regret this later..” "Don't we all regret something?" He said, walking over and taking the jar from me. "Follow me, and Don't fall behind, the ground sometimes shifts around speraticaly without reason." He said, jumping off the edge of the ship. I begrudgingly followed. “I’m gonna regret this more…” I sighed out. “Cause handing bad guys power isn’t really a good thing...but family is more important than Jericho’s fucking hard on for Cript.” I grumbled, having been told a bit about Jericho’s past from Mother. “And if Jericho want’s to come down personally and tell me ‘it’s not like that’ I am all for it, but until then I’m seeing it like that.” I muttered. “So...mind if I ask why you are still a crazy person when all the others finally have the chance to be safe and happy?” "I never cared about normal things like they all did. All said I took after Grandpa. Gonna have to pay Zeke back for killing him… Tell me, what have you always wanted to be?" “What have I always wanted to be?” I asked. “Well...me. Everything I get for being me is just a positive.” "Don't lie. You've always wanted to be someone, something. What was it?" “No seriously, why the hell would I have the bar set way too high?” I asked honestly. “What did you want to be?” "Something simple." He said nonchalantly. “Like what? Best assassin in the world?” I asked honestly. "I've wanted something simple, something achievable, something everybody can feel fear towards. I wanted to destroy the world." “So you just want to watch the world burn and not care about anything else?” I asked curiously. “And if you wanted that then it already happened.” "Burning a world leaves Ashes, ashes cultivate and feed surviving foliage, which in turn feeds surviving wildlife. No, I want to eradicate life, coming here, even in the void Life exists, in a twisted deadly fashion yes, but it's life regardless. No, I'd like to watch Everything die, from the soil to the very air itself. Then no Gods or even Admins can repair what I leave behind, if anything is left at all." “Sorry to say this but that’s never going to happen.” I said honestly. “Even if you win that’s not going to happen like, at all.” "Oh I wouldn't say that. Seems anything and everything is possible these days. We can both agree that we didn't see this in our futures back on earth." “That is true, but unless you want to do something to cause that chain of events, we’re on a completely different set of tracks from what you want.” I explained. "Oh, something might come up. Just have to search for my opportunity." “Well have fun with that.” I rolled my eyes. “Not gonna get much during that.” "We're here." Dillen said. We were standing above a cliff. Over the edge what looked like an old stone building sat atop a… is that a Spider Web… a Massive Spiders web? "And that is the Facility." “And why is it sitting on top of a spider web?” I asked nervously. "Deletes long time ago set it up there as a trap for Admins. The Spider itself has been hibernating, or whatever it does, for nine eons. Only thing that will wake that fat bastard up is a nuke to the ass." Dillen said, looking over the edge. “And let me guess, the moment I go down their to get the thing your going to wake it up?” I asked bluntly, knowing there was some catch to this entire situation. "Once you are there. Inside I'll open your ticket out of here, but first, my payment." He said, handing me a large envelope. "Give this to Zeke, he'll know what it means." “Zeke’s probably gonna flip knowing your still alive and that I gave something to Jericho…” I sighed out while taking the envelope. “Alright, time to make sure I don’t accidentally fuck up and wake the thing…” I said while bringing out my Lexicon and casting Fly on myself as I flew towards the thing I need. “Let’s hope it won’t wake up…” I muttered while getting closer to the Facility. Upon landing on it the web shook a bit. Thankfully nothing happened. Looking inside it was all metal inside, a terminal of sorts and a conveyor belt leading out of it around it's back was all that was in here. I waved to Dillen and a portal of some energy unknown to me appeared above me. It floated down. Once it passed over me I was damn near blinded by the sudden reappearance of actual sunlight. “Gah fuck!” I yelped as I closed my eyes from the sudden light. “Jesus...that’s not a good thing...hopefully the bastard sent me to the right place…” I grumbled a little, blinking as my eyes adjusted to the light. I was outside of Asmith's lab. He and Myaxx both walking out. "Good thing you found it." Asmith said, rushing over to the terminal and hopping on it. "The outside is rough but looks like all the internal hardware and code structure scripts are fine." "Honestly didn't expect you back so soon." Myaxx said. “Well...I had to make a slight deal with someone.” I sighed out. “In exchange for getting this out of the Void...and my children...I had to give a tiny part of my Nothingness to Jericho...how bad of a fuck up was that or am I overblowing it to hell?” "As your allie, I am both disappointed but understanding in your actions. From a parental point of view, you did what you felt you had to, nothing more to say." Asmith said. “Yeah…” I said while bringing up Nancy’s scribbled paper. “Family...family is more important than whatever the hell Jericho wants.” I said, knowing full well what Jericho will become and why but still not liking it. Asmith turned on the console, the thing flashing to life and a simple line of text appeared. 'Input material" "Perfect." Asmith said. “So what, this thing will just mass produce whatever?” I asked curiously. "Basically. Just have to let it boot up, scan this realm, and now…" He typed in something in a language… the Assistant didn't, or can't, translate. The conveyor belt began moving, and soon out rolled one Omnitrix after another. “And these are all the Originals?” I asked curiously. "These are the mark 2's. I'll have to make the originals from scratch. Speaking of, Myaxx." "Oh, right." She said, taking out a simple looking Omnitrix badge. "Here. The first of many replicas of the original, ten Admins and Ten aliens." I gently took the Omnitrix badge. “Thank you, but what are the ten admins and aliens if I may ask?” "My tech my rules." Asmith spoke up. "More will be unlocked over time, till then this is to not overwhelm you with the total amount." “Okay...that didn’t answer my question though.” I brought up. “Or what, your not gonna tell me because of your rules?” "Exactly." Asmith said bluntly. "Don't argue. You'll be here bickering about this while this reflection dies out." “I am good at bickering.” I said offhandedly. “So, this thing works just the same as I think it does or is it different in some way?” I asked, just making sure so I don’t do something dumb. "Here. Place it somewhere on yourself. Like the wrist or back of your hand." Myaxx said. I nodded while putting it on my wrist that didn’t hold my Assistant. “Alright…” “Test it out, Push the Selection button once for Aliens, twice for Admins.” Asmith informed. “Alright…” I said while the thing connected to my wrist as I tapped the selection button once to see what aliens I have. “So, does the transformations compound on natural or magical abilities or is it just ‘you have this things abilities’?” I asked curiously while looking through the ten aliens. “You gain both strength and weaknesses, but you should still have your own abilities as the aliens, weapons, magic, etc,though with the Admins you’ll get whatever they have.” “Alrighty then.” I said while looking through the ten, hoping for some I recognized. So far I saw Four Arms, Wild Vine, Heatblast, XLR8, and one of the newer ones, Feedback, but the rest were unknown to me. “Well...let’s go with one of the new ones…” I muttered while going over one of the aliens I didn’t know and selected it and pushing the dial in. The green energy flowed over me and my body began changing. From a Direwolf I shifted into something much smaller, and more...scaled. I actually felt okay during the process, like I just had a long, good stretch. When it was over I was roughly… three feet, small claws along my feet and hands, my spine barbs were sharp to a razortip and I Think… I’m seeing in thermal vision… cool! “The hell am I?” I asked while rolling my shoulders and trying to get used to the new form as a lot of info rushed into my head about what this alien can do. “The race is called Arconnlis.. Their homeworld is basically a large dessert with only about a few dozen oasis locations. Go ahead, get a running start, then tuck and roll.” Myaxx said. “I’m Sonic the Lizard aren’t I?” I asked while hopping in place for a little bit before getting into a running start, before tucking and rolling. I actually curled up into a ball and started to spin like mad, I felt the spikes on my body get longer slightly as I bolted around rather quickly...only I felt the ground getting sliced to hell instead of it just being roughed up. As I made a turn It wasn’t at an angle, it was a direct right turn, learly throwing me off balance with how fast it was able to turn. I could...see, somehow, feeling the vibrations from my slicing the ground and saw the outside wall of Asmiths lab, and the second I hit the wall I began going up at a direct ninety degree angle, stopped and jumped off half way up and landed back down as it timed out. “Well that was fun.” I said while landing on my feet. “I still see there’s a timer on this thing…” I muttered while seeing if it was recharging right now. “That’s a default setting, goes away after built in AI registered an experience timeframe of at least three hundred hours as fifty diffrent aliens, or you figure out the Master Controle code.” “I have a feeling the Master Control isn’t something I can just look up on my Assistant huh?” I asked curiously. “And I doubt you will tell me what it is.” “I would but I’drather not get fired.” Myaxx said. “There’s an input code for every alien and Admin transformation. Alien Transformation time limits are determined by the Ai, as are the Admin Transformations. They will vary depending on it’s observed situation.” “Alrighty then.” I nodded while I noticed the red light slowly turning green. “Well gonna have to deal with the timer...that’s gonna be a pain.” “It should be no more than five minutes, a minute at least.” “Cool.” I nodded. “Can’t wait to test this out more, gonna be fun.” I said honestly. ‘It will also send me data after every transformation back to me for analysis to see if you are using the aliens or Admins correctly.” Asmith said. “Do take care of the device.” “Don’t worry, I will.” I nodded. “We’ll contact you once we have a better arsonal of Omnitrixes and proper welders for them.” Myaxx said. "Alright." I nodded while opening a portal back to my world. "Anything else before I go?" “That should be all for now.” Asmith said. “Myaxx, go fetch a wagon, these Omnitrixes may not be fragile but they are cluttering up the place.” Asmith said as there was a rather large pile of the watches. Myaxx groaned. “Later. I got work to do.” She said as she waved me by before heading off. "Alright, stay safe." I said before heading off back home. When I arrived back I learned Genos had taken some personal time to conduct some personal matters back on his homeworld. Something about what Dillen was saying kept ringing in my head.Anything these days was possible. I know he knows something but clearly isn’t speaking. “I know for a fact that it’s not going to happen...right?” I muttered, knowing one of my clones was still doing all of Mother’s trials and stuff like that so maybe she would know. I sighed, taking a seat on my throne and looking at the scribbles Nancy made… At least they are being taken care of. “I should be taking care of her damn it...she shouldn’t have been kidnapped…” I growled, hating myself more than anything because of this. As I was staring blankly at the scribbles something popped into my head… Cript has Generation, and Zeke apparently has Amplify… I know most of Cript’s clones likely have something along those lines… right? But like Cript Zeke gained a lot of power...really fast, even by our standards... “Wait, weren’t Cript and Zeke made identically?” I raised an eyebrow. “How come those two have different abilities?” There was only one person I think I can ask about this… Wheres Krot? “Consequence, where’s Krot at the moment?” Consequence appeared. “Currently overseeing the new recruits at the Nexus Templar base under Manehattan.” He spoke “Well...let’s hope he’s not too busy.” I said while a screen appeared in front of me as a dial tone started as I tried to call Krot. “Come on...I know he can answer me.” Finally he picked up. "Ben, what's wrong?" He asked. “I’m curious, why does Cript and Zeke have two completely different abilities when they were supposed to be identical?” I asked curiously. “Oh… I’d prefer to speak of this topic privately… in person. I’ll be over in a few minutes.”He said, hanging up. I nodded while closing the call. “So, how was Joy with all the meetings?” I asked Consequence. “He handled them well, then left to attend to other duties.” Consequence informed. “Thank you.” I nodded. “Now to wait for Krot to get some answers…” A few minutes felt like hours, but Krot arrived after three minutes. We went to a private conference room and sat down. He looked disheartened. “Tell me, how much do you know about the C.R.I.P.T. Projects?” “They wanted to make the most overpowered person in existance to literally murder everything.” I said. “Bluntly yes.We began them before Vincent had arrived and taken control. They were the most promising attempt at our original goal, creating the Mother for this Cycle so the next can begin.” “Would you believe me if I said that you were successful with our Cript? And would you also believe me that Jericho is Belief?” I asked, not wanting to sass Jericho when this is supposed to be a bit serious. “You mean… we were successful after all? Oh that’s a miracle if one has ever existed…” “Yep, heard it from the man turned woman themselves.” I said honestly. “But...there might be a...slight problem with that possible plan.” I said sheepishly. “Being?” “What do you know about Delete’s?” I asked honestly. “Everything I can, part of the job before recent events…” “Have you heard of a thing called Null?” I asked curiously, the name making the room feel quite a bit colder and I noticed Consequence...went stock still at the name I gave it. “Quite...Quite.” Krot said. “Yeah so...that thing exists and someone would be oh so happy to find that fucker and let him loose so to speak…” I said worriedly. “That would be the only problem and...sadly Jericho is being a dipshit and would probably cause the thing to become active with how many fucking Admins he’s making...or going to bring back.” “Christ…. The only one who can kill him is Cript, but they both are destined for something else… Unless…” “Unless what?” I asked curiously. “Cript and Zeke are extremely identical, in fact the only difference between them in life experience, and their Primary Abilities.” “Most likely.” I said honestly. “What, are you saying Zeke becomes Mother or something?” “Perhaps not quite. We might be able to do something else, something different. But first we will need a few things.” “What would that be?” I asked curiously. “Full access to the Abilities vault, you lot to reach at least level Kry, and Cript to get out of retirement.” “How, what, and I doubt that.” I said honestly. "I'll start with what exactly level Kry is. In short, it's made up, a number we invented once Cript surpassed centillion, the highest number count on a vast majority of world's and realms. Reaching a million alone is hard, anything higher damn near impossible, Centillion was never expected to be reached…. Above that, well, that's what we required given The Mother." “And you're expecting all of us to get to that point?” I asked honestly. “Zeke I can see, the rest of us? Probably not…” I sighed out. “Do you have a plan for that?” "Cript and Zeke. If Cript Absorbs Zeke, and gives them and the twenty within him bodies with Starfish, Generation and Amplify under their use, the same process can be repeated and thus, in a sense, cheat your way to Cript's level of power. Because unlike Cript Jericho still has his Death." “Except he can’t die.” I frowned. “I don’t know much about this whole thing, but do you want to know what would happen if Belief can’t be made?” "That's why you won't be killing him you'll be trapping him like before, but with the combines Key level powers of all of you he'd be imprisoned Indefinitely. From there Cript could force the shift from just Cript and Jericho to Mother and Belief." “And you won’t see this going wrong how?” I asked curiously. “As well as...wouldn’t Jericho know about this coming or something?” "That's the best part, he would embrace it because it means he has his challenge! He has a possibility of losing!" “So...let me ask, what’s the point of this war when we are all as strong as Cript and Jericho? Cause as far as I know Jericho can’t make his side as strong as himself or Cript.” I brought up. "He can, but not in the same way. Vincent's personal study had all the Blueprints to Every Cript project ever made. He can apply them to his allies easily, and with Admins like the Admins of Abilities resurrected, as prisoners he'd have no shortage of the required ingredients." “Of course.” I sighed out. “Why am I not surprised.” I grumbled. “So, what special ability can cause this to actually happen when Cript did that and failed?” "It's not a fact of what ability, rather, more of a how much power. You see, when Jericho was imprisoned, the both of them have Generation, Jericho while inside of Cript kept generating power non-stop, and Cript the same. When Cript retired, he slowed down his energy Generation, and unintentionally gave Jericho his means of escape." “So...why did Cript not care he had another man inside of him of equal power?” I asked curiously. “And no, I won’t stop with the gay conotations because it’s at least some funny to me and it’s pretty apt.” "Because likely given the lack of events at the time he likely knew this moment was approaching, something every Cycle has happened. The second Admin war, but without Jericho, the event can't happen and the Cycle breaks." “And that whole event couldn’t have happened without the war?” I asked honestly. "Don't know. Impossible to know for sure." “Wonderful…” I sighed out. “Can’t let things be simple huh?” "I remember asking my dad that same question. He told me 'if they were, life would be no fun'." Krot said with a light laugh. "So, it's this or bust. What do you prefer?" “I’d rather not bust.” I said honestly. “So let’s go with that plan because it’s at least something. Oh, also I’m getting the Original version of the Omnitrix mass produced by Asmith.” I said while showing the Omnitrix on my wrist. “Both aliens, and Admins will be on these things.” "Oh, I didn't even know there was a version like that, so that means likely Jericho and Nexus don't either. This is good." Krot said with a nod. "Now, the hard part should be first." “Jericho likely knows, Nexus probably not.” I said. “So, the hard part of getting Cript out of retirement…” "Yes… question is how? What could convince them to do that…?" “Tell him everything will get fucked if Null appears?” I brought up. “Death loss or not I have a feeling that fucker can kill the literal unkillable.” "I doubt blunt truth would work… hmm, tell me, you know Zeke pretty well, and the two are near identical in personality reasoning. What would convince Zeke to go all out in a fight?" “Well that depends...cause even though I’ve been getting to know Zeke, he never…” I sighed out. “He just keeps standing there, waiting and listening. Not doing anything until it’s either too late or it somehow suits him.” I rubbed my temples. “So...it’s a bit of a bitch to fully know what would help get Cript to actually do something but...being blunt is an obvious thing, can’t really do much against the truth whether he wants to deny it or not.” "I have a feeling it's not about denying… or perhaps it is?" “Denial is most likely it cause honestly his whole ‘retirement’ is too fucking coincidental for literally everything.” I frowned. “So it’s either ‘be blunt’ or figure out whatever the hell is going on in his head.” "Perhaps we can kill two birds with one stone?" Krot spoke aloud in thought. “Oh?” I asked curiously. “What do you mean?” "Cript and Zeke share many things, including a love of combat, but do not engage for different reasons. Zeke fears his full power, and Cript doesn't think there is anything to challenge him anymore." “Well Jericho’s back so Cript has a challenge.” I rolled my eyes. “And Zeke...well he’s gonna have to get past that fear soon or bad things will happen.” "Why not see them fight?" Krot asked. "Each other." “What, Zeke and Cript?” I asked curiously. “But if those two fight...well, at least Zeke would actually fight instead of just standing there.” "Zeke is an observer, learning about others through their body language and verbal communication, a useful skill for diagnosing your enemy, but because he fears his own power that information is often useless. Cript never had such fears, in fact it's mostly just boredom why he doesn't fight anymore. Like Jericho he craves a challenge." “Well Zeke doesn’t need to be fearful about his powers since we’re basically on par at this point, and Cript...well his challenger just burst from his body so there’s really no excuse for that.” I shrugged. "Is that what you think?" Krot asked. "I guess given you don't know about the former Admin of Balance you wouldn't know what Zeke can do." “Oh I can already think of a lot of things Zeke can do that he and Dillan hasn’t shown.” I said honestly. “Zeke is Observant yes, understanding people, but no one remembers the overanalytical person who does too much fucking research on things or just has an overactive imagination.” I explained. "Have you ever seen his level compared to yours?" “I only fought his Absent Silouhette once, where it was literally everything he could do way before we were Admins, where Zeke was, point for point, stronger than me at that time.” I said honestly. "At that time. Yes. Check now." He asked, motioning to my Assistant. I did just that. “I won’t be surprised by what he can do...or the numbers cause honestly things have just gotten too fucking far at this point.” I said while looking up Zeke on my Assistant. Zeke Ventral: HP: 70,650,987 Level: 407,632 “Okay, just so we’re clear, does Zeke and Cript have some other bullshit ability I should know about?” I asked honestly. “Cause as far as I know, Zeke shouldn’t be this level. I’m not surprised at all, I just want to make sure.” I said, wondering both how his level is so fucking high and why mine was actually a lot fucking lower than it probably should be cause of all my training. “As projects for the mother we as a stockpile of the more controversial and rare abilities, most apply to Experience boosts, stat boosts, you name it, a vast majority of them went into Ten specific Cript projects, of which Cript, the Cript we know, and Zeke were two of, the others are either dead, Psychopaths, or MIA.” “Yeah cause I’m the start of fights but people don’t bat an eye to Zeke having literally everything handed to him.” I rolled my eyes. “So while Zeke is just doing nothing but is stupid strong, I have to break my back to do literally have the shit he’s capable of, that’s fair.” I grumbled. “We were trying to make the Mother, the most powerful being in, well, ever. Vincent wanted to make the perfect weapon, he took advantage of the blueprints we had...and made his twisted alterations…” “And how do you expect us to just be as strong as that?” I asked honestly. “Cause right now literally all the ability vaults Nexus has would probably be guarded to hell.” “Exactly, but before we even try to take them, we will need to manage a way into Vincent's Private office, there we can download the Cript project Blueprints and apply them to you all. If we get Cript out of Retirement and Zeke using his full power, we’d only have to provide cover for the two, not that I’d imagine they’d need it.” “Question...have there been any...rumors of someone appearing out of nowhere, destroying a Nexus base, stealing everything and disappearing without a trace?” I asked Krot curiously. “Hmm… I didn’t handle incident reports, not unless Cript was confirmed to be there. I do remember overhearing a base was leveled, staff slaughtered but only one thing was taken when clean up crews did inventory.” “Oh? What was stolen?” I asked curiously. “Data, records and information, most notably on your Council and current possible threat levels. Was mostly foot notes and pictures of you, them, and some of your family who were there at the time the photos were taken. Nothing too noteworthy, it was an old file already at the time.” “Well looks like...I’m already doing a great start.” I said honestly. “Leveling bases and taking all the info the base holds before leaving without a trace…” “Whatever the case, we need to get Cript out of retirement, and Zeke to duel them.” “That’s gonna be a bit of a pain…” I sighed out. “But alright then...and your not going to question how I said ‘I’m already doing a great start’?” I asked honestly. “I have a feeling I'll know about it soon.” “You...probably will.” I said sheepishly. “So, where do we start here?” “I’ll start with Zeke. You speak to Cript.” “Alright, let’s hope he’s available…” I muttered while bringing up my assistant and giving him a call. “I’ll go speak with Zeke in person.” Krot said, taking his leave. “You called?” Cript said, appearing just as Krot left the room. “Yes I did.” I nodded. “So, straight to the point, I’m gonna have to ask you to step out of retirement.” I said bluntly. “And I can go into detail why if you try and tell me ‘no’.” “Wouldn’t have stopped you talking if I did either way.” Cript replied with a sigh. “Hey, at least now you have a challenge.” I said honestly. “But we both know that Jericho is too much, so me and Krot had some idea’s...and one of them involved you getting out of retirement and starting off dueling Zeke so he can actually fight full force.” “See Zeke fight full force? That would be interesting. Why should I though?” “Cause apparently Krot has an idea to lock up Jericho until he becomes Belief.” I said. “Like how you’re feeling the call of being Mother correct?” “It’s not so much a call, more a mandatory action.” “Alright...but you do know that this whole situation feels a little too convenient right? You retiring and then suddenly Jericho appearing?” “That was planned.” Cript said, code summoning a Soda and taking a drink. “It’s our final jobs before the last ‘promotion’.” “So I can easily blame you when everything gets fucked right?” I asked honestly. “We are following the same path the others all did, so long as nothing unexpected happens, have enough of that with you lot here.” Cript said, taking another sip of soda. “Null is a good start.” I said honestly. “Cause from what I was told from Mother, they don’t exist where she is, so Jericho’s war might accidentally cause the thing to move.” “You worry too much.”Cript said. “This war, has happened in the same way countless times, each ending with Null appearing, being slain, then that’s where Jericho and I come in and make everything just like The Mother’s Creation you saw. A reality where Admins, mortal creations, etc, all life fairly peacefully. I say fairly because being assholes or jerks is just part of how some people are.” “Alright.” I nodded. “Sounds simple enough, wonder how this is all gonna fuck up cause I just know it’s probably gonna happen.’ “The only thing different about this cycle from the others is that you lot are here.” “Really?” I asked curiously. “That’s it?” “Pretty Much. In other Cycles Nexus dubbed Zeke a failure after the first timeline reset, since he and Marcy found each other again. In the time God and all that stuff appeared for you all Zeke and Marcy just chose Equestria as some OC’s and lived their lives happily, you chose the same path as now only became king of Equestria the kingdom, not the world, John took Hollows place, The Foretellers did a mix of keyblade stuff and Highschool/life stuff, fairly normal. This is the only reality where they, you all, met up or even found one another, all because Zeke was alone this time around and chose the X-blade as a weapon over just a simple life on a peaceful world with his love.” “Okay then.” I said honestly. “A lot can change apparently.” “Surprising how not meeting Marcy, lead to all this.” Cript said, taking another sip of Soda. “This time he kept her from being born, but her soul found another body, Eclipsa, they found one another again. Kinda strange, I know each time there is some slight difference between some events in each cycle but never this large scale.” “A lot can change when you find the love of your life…” I said honestly. “But good to know.” “I kind of like your unexpected appearance, almost feels like something completely… Different.” “Well, shit happens.” I shrugged. “Hmm… Every cycle has typically minimal differences, gender of people, names, location of planets, but this… You all met up, became Admins… Something that never happened in prior cycles.” “So either this is some weird coincidence or...something even worse is going on.” I said nervously. “Unless I’m just overthinking it…” “... I’ll need to consult others first… but something is off here.” Cript said before vanishing. I sighed out. “Just one more problem to jot down…” I grumbled. “Hey Consequence, I got a question.” I called out for the nobody. He appeared Next to me. “Yes sire?” He asked. “Do you know anyone ancient enough to...Notice Differences?” I asked, not really sure how to explain this to the dusk. “Like say...knowing what Events should happen but being apart of something completely different?” “Temporal anomalies?” He asked. “No, not that…” I said while thinking about it more. “Well...technically this could be considered that. But instead of just like...knowing if someone time traveled, I want to know if there are people that would know the time stream is horribly off track.” I said honestly. “And if you know any of them or if you could point me in the right direction.” “Hmm… I remember once, back before your predecessor was even king, and it was before he, a few of the first councils and myself, before I even became this way, we stumbled upon an orb of sorts, any question asked it could answer, it’s what set him on the path that leads to all of this.” “Where is that orb?” I asked. “And...that sounds normal but...something’s still off here…” “The orb is still within the Armory. He called it The Eye of Father.” “I haven’t fully went through the Armory...mind leading me to it cause I would probably spend too much time looking for it.” I sighed out. “Yes Sire.” Consequence said, opening a portal. We entered and was within a seemingly endless hallway, items of all kinds were on stands and on display. As we walked we quickly came across a purplish black orb, pulsating in place. “Here it is, the Eye of The Father.” “Yeah...this isn’t scary at all…” I muttered before walking over to it. “So, I just put my hand on it and ask a question?” “Yes.” “Alright.” I nodded before taking another step forward and putting my hand on the orb. “So...let’s start off...what’s changed in this cycle?” I asked. To be continued...
Nobody's busyMy little sapling had grown so tall, so large. It's leaves flush and healthy, and from its branches grew the 'fruits' of my labor. They were almost ready. "Must say, you did better than I expected." Shinsu said. “Of course, I wouldn’t be a proud mother if I didn’t do good.” I said, puffing my chest out in pride. “So, I take seeds home and proceed with the rest of the trial?” "You take the tree and seeds once the fruit is ripe." He said. "Then off to the next one." “Alright.” I nodded. "Should be any day now I'd wager." Shinsu said, looking over my sapling. "I remember making this species of tree for your world. It actually started off as a joke, plants that grow meat, but some of my fellow Admins liked the idea so much I ended up making a lot more than this one tree." “And a lot of races would like this tree since it grows food.” I said honestly. "True, those types of plants would help a lot… come with me." Shinsu said. He lead the way to the door, where nearby an Oak of sorts. “This is the door to the next trial or is this something else?” I asked curiously. "Something else." He said, tapping the tree, the trunk opening like a door. Inside was a small shelf, and on it was what looked like a small box. He took it. "This garden holds barely a tenth of a percent of all the plant life I ever created. The rest, is all here." He said, giving the box a shake. “So...what? It’s literally a Genesis in a Box?” I asked curiously. "Only Asmith knows about all my creations. Time I told another." He said, placing the box in my hand. I felt…. Information, cell and code structures for… Everything. Every plant, plants I know, countless I didn't or never even could imagine was pouring into my head like a waterfall. When it ended, Shinsu took the box back and put it away. I was on my knees, my head… I was flipping through them all like a menu in my head. There's so many…. And I know them all. "This box is known as, well, you'd know it as a USB drive, but we called them Code Relays. They hold copies of all an Admin knows how to create, every detail." “Damn that’s a lot of plants…” I blinked, shifting through all of them. “Also...a lot of sentient plants…” "Asmith has those also, was a bit of a grey area on who would claim ownership of that, so we split them. He and I claim ownership, or at least claim we made them." Shinsu said. "So, give it a try." “A try?” I asked curiously. “What do you mean by that?” "I gave you the information to make everything I can. Make something." “Oh...well…” I muttered before thinking of Graceful Dahlia...before I brought out my hand and a Pink Rose like plant appeared in my hand. “Huh...this...feel’s like Graceful Dahlia…” "Your scythe right? Should, this is the sapling of an Elegant Demon Tree. My advice, plant that on a world you despise, it eats all sentient life on that planet until mature. Was one of many darker works of mine during the war. Anything made of it's wood also repairs itself so long as blood touches it." “Alrighty then...good to know.” I said honestly. "There are many that are equally as useful or deadly. I'm trusting you with them." “You...are trusting me with literally all of this knowledge?” I asked, going through my head and finding there was at least two hundred different humanoid plant people just from a quick glance. “You...have made a mistake...not because I’ll abuse this...but because you basically gave me two hundred or more wives…” "Heh. Perverted. Hikshu would have liked you." “Hikshu?” I asked curiously. "An old friend, Admin of The Hunt. He was a good Admin, and friend. Perverted even at the worst of times." “Admin of the...wait...I just...killed the Delete of the Hunt...are they both connected or something?” I asked nervously at just randomly thinking of that. "A delete with a title like that is a high ranked one. But no, there is no relation." “Well...I killed her husband first...and then her...and now I’m scared their kids…” I sighed out sadly. “I tried telling her to be with her kids...that family was more important than petty revenge...didn’t fucking listen...now I have to probably kill two children who could have just been happy…” "Deletes are many things, but they often prioritize the thrill of the kill or revenge over family. That's void for ya. Once it latches on to the emotions you fight till either you die or win." “But...couldn’t I have used my powers to...have them calm the fuck down?” I asked honestly. “I don’t fully know everything I can do yet but...I just want to help…” “Only way to know is to train. I don't know anyone personally who could help but maybe someone else does.” “Do you know anyone?” I asked curiously. “And who would they be?’ "Personally no, but there is someone I have heard of." “Anything would be good.” I said honestly. "He goes by Altris, or so I heard. Some rumors about him have floated about throughout the years. Nothing I can confirm." I pulled out my Assistant and checked the name just to make sure if anything came up. Thousands came up. Need something more specific. “Anything more specific you can tell me about him?” "That's all I know sadly. Maybe one of the others might know something." “Thank you, I’ll keep that in mind.” I nodded. “Thank you Shinsu.” "Think nothing of it… there is, however, something I think you might want to look for." “And that would be?” I asked curiously. “There are a lot of things I need to keep in mind.” "A library." “And what library would that be?” I asked honestly. "Back before the war, the Admin of Knowledge was not like the rest of us. They enjoyed learning about what we all were making. Before the war began they finally built something. A library containing every once of knowledge not just from us, but from all the realms that existed at the time. With all that knowledge I know for a fact they are still alive, and that Library is still around, where though is the question." “What is this Admin’s name?” I asked curiously. "She never made one for herself, but we always called her Books." I saved the name Altris on my Assistant for later as I typed in ‘Books, Admin of Knowledge’ and hoped for the best. Nothing. Can't be that easy. “Cause of course…” I muttered. “Someone else will know I’m pretty sure…” "Maybe." “Hey Dinky.” I said while knocking on her door. “You wanted to see me?” "Come in Dad...mom… parent?" She said confused. Like Jenny Dinky grew up in those pocket dimension universes. She was now twenty five, had her mother's figure, and my tail. While her coat was dire wolf thick it kept her Normal coat colors. Though she did have fangs now. Opening the door I saw she was at her desk, looking through some books from my library, the one the old king left me. “Either or is fine.” I said with a little smile. “How are you doing Dinky?” "Good, wanted to tell you about some stuff I found." She said, waving me over next to her. Once I was she started talking again. "I was going through Volume 742 of the old Kings journey and found something cool." “Oh? What has my smart little girl found?” I asked curiously. She gave a smile at hearing me call her smart. "Here on page 751, 'As I place to rest a fallen Comrade yet again, before their grave upon the final shovel of earth, appeared their memory in physical illusions. An Absent Silhouette of my Bard.'." “Oh? That’s interesting.” I said honestly. “Where would the silhouette be?” "The book says his bard fell at the Battle of Shellsho. A bit of research shows Shellsho is a world from Cript's realm, long since deviated by war and five years ago re terraformed into a habitable planet again." “Well...how about we go there?” I asked honestly. “Spend some good ol father and daughter time on another world ya know?” "Sure! I kinda… already bought it anyways…" She said shyly. I smiled warmly as I gently headpat my daughter. “But...why did you...most likely buy the planet?” "Freak Inc. terraforms planets all the time, no sentient life so the entire planet is sold as single property, they can even make you a custom planet. Planets terraformed after their prior owners have… died off don't sell well so they go dirt cheap. Only costed 20,000 rem." “Jeez…” I sighed out. “Who knew people can just buy and sell planets.” "Makes sense though. Growing populations and cross reflection travel means land for farming, housing and business placement has to be made or found somewhere, lifeless planets remade into life sustainable ones are the best options. Most gas planets are just harvested for certain resources. They say their Scientists are working on something to make all resources infinite. Oh man, when Zeke's Dinky told me this stuff I was skeptical as hell but this is just plain cool." “Sounds like you and her have a lot in common.” I said honestly. "We should, we are the same person." Dinky said with a laugh. "Come on, I already got a teleport location too it after my perchance was authorized." She said, bringing up her own assistant. “Alright.” I nodded. “Let’s get going to meet the old Bard.” The portal opened and we entered. The planet was… like a Forest. Tall trees were everywhere, grass and Moss covered the ground like carpet and the air was so… pure. So fresh. I could hear some prey animals around, deer, bear, goat, some others I have no idea what they are but they smell tasty… trying hard not to chase… “Curse you dire wolf instincts…” I whined. “So much prey...want to chase…” I groaned, my tail wagging of its own accord to show I wanted to. Dinky laughed. "Come on, according to the book the bard was buried in a cave near the battle she fell, and the battlefield should be Ten miles west of here." “Alright.” I nodded. “How do you want to get there? Glider, teleport, or just running?” I asked while shifting into my feral form. “Cause even if I’ll get sidetracked by prey...running is always nice.” "A simple hike." She said, checking for West and began walking. "Gives us time to sight see and talk." “Works for me.” I said while following along, enjoying the nice fresh air. "So, female and male. Have to say, surprised you did that." “You get used to it.” I said honestly. “Not to mention...well...it’s helped me quite a bit, even though I have to make sure of like...a hundred other things just from my body alone which is annoying sometimes.” I sighed out. “Seriously, need to take three times as long in the shower just so I could look like an even bigger fluff ball than I already am.” Dinky chuckled. "Hows feral form feel? I always wondered." “Wonderful.” I said. “Strong and agile, free and fierce.” I said with a warm smile. “You should give it a try sometimes.” "Heh… I wish." She said, rubbing her arm. "Tried a lot in the pocket time place. Doctors said my Equine DNA is still dominant, I can't shift into a feral form." “Well...I can...maybe give you the ability to shift into a Feral Form.” I said honestly. “I am an Admin after all...but only if you want it.” "I accepted it a long time ago. In fact I'm happy we got this time to spend together since I'll be leaving soon…" “What do you mean?” I asked worriedly. "I had it checked a lot. Even at your level, I wouldn't be very powerful at all. In short I'm smarter than I am strong, so I submitted an application to an Internship at Freak Inc.'s sciences department. I got accepted, room and board all paid in full and all that fancy stuff. I'll be gone for two years." I swapped out of my feral form and grabbed Dinky in a big hug. “Oh I’m so proud of you!” I said happily, so happy to hear Dinky got into her dream job. “I’m so proud of you Dinky.” "Heh, it's just an internship. I won't have a solid job until they evaluate my performance and strengths during the internship. Freak inc.'s many mottos. There is a job for everyone and anyone." “Well I’m still super proud of you my pup.” I said happily while nuzzling Dinky happily. "Thanks dad." She said, hugging me back. “But...I will miss you in those two years…” I said honestly. "Same. I'll send Emails and such when I can." “Thank you.” I said gently before putting her down and shifting back into my feral form. “Wanna...ride on my back? For maybe the first time ever if I didn’t do that already?” I asked, knowing I helped tend to Dinky growing up because of clones and pocket dimensions but sometimes it’s a pain to remember everything. "Nah, i'm good walking." She said, walking along as I followed. "I'll be leaving Next month. Everyone has said their good luck and such. Joy is obviously upset but understanding." “Why was Joy upset?” I asked curiously. “Just curious.” "I entered his harem late, we've mostly been dating and haven't done much from there so between that and the fact he/she is now pregnant their emotions are everywhere." “Yeah, I can understand that.” I said honestly. “But...well knowing Joy he’s probably gonna try something during the month before you leave.” "Maybe. Other than that I've just been researching some stuff from.the old Kings library." “What else have you found if I may ask? Cause I’ve also been trying to go through it all...until Cript told me ‘no more mass amounts of clones’.” "To be fair that was… getting creepy seeing you around every corner." “I’m sorry for being paranoid and trying to keep up with all the things I had to do.” I said honestly. "Heh. Well I found a few things. Some unique items to synthesis, special variations of health items." “That’s good.” I nodded. “Gonna need those sooner or later.” "I also found a page that was encoded. The key for it was Nothingness, only for half, the other half was Nobody. Guess what it was?” “What?” I asked curiously. “I wouldn’t know, so please tell.” "The recipe for making Lindworm." “Does one of the ingredients involve a literal Wind Dragon’s soul?” I asked curiously. "That's one of three main ones. Wind Dragon Soul, a bottle of life's final breath, and Acritem." “Oh? What would the Acritem be?” I asked curiously. "A very rare metal, it's actually lighter than air itself and the largest amount ever found was roughly two feet in diameter." “Well then.” I said. “That’s surprising.” I said honestly. “And...finding a bottle of life’s final breath would probably be a pain in the ass to get.” "I looked it up, and it's...pretty dark. You have to kill someone, then with magic catch their last breath as it leaves them and place it in an enchanted bottle." “Yeah, that makes sense.” I said honestly. “Wouldn’t be ‘life’s final breath’ if you didn’t actually steal it from someone.” "Yeah. There were other pages but I haven't had the time to decode them." “Thank you for telling me this Dinky.” I said honestly. “Just...been so backlogged on crap I need to do...it’s hard to find time for family...especially when…” I trailed off sadly, Dinky knowing I was talking about Nancy, Nyx and Eclipsa Jr who were kidnapped. "You'll find them Dad. Jenny told me all about her mom, Nancy, and she's sure she will be fine. Baby or not." “I’m still scared…” I sighed out. “We...we just got close enough for Nancy to...to treat me like her father...or mother, whichever one comes first honestly.” I shrugged. "Which ever she sees you as really." Dinky said, the hike going pretty well. We came across a large river in the way. I took a look at the fish inside… they were as large as Dinky… "Hard to believe these animals all were made by a mixture of magic and science." She said, kneeling near the water. "A once lifeless world Is now so full of life it's hard to imagine this place was once barren." “It happens.” I said honestly. “If there’s one thing I know...is that Life finds a way. Want me to get some fish before we get to the Silhouette?” I asked curiously. "Sure. Fish this fresh has to be good. You catch one or two and I'll start a fire." “Alright.” I nodded while gently moving into the river, feeling the water rush past my powerful legs as I took a deep breath and waited. Waiting during fishing was a really good thing Mom taught me as I caught at least three big fish that strayed too close to me and they were now on land. “Got three big ones.” "Fire is almost set up." She said, tossing some broken branches and sticks into a pit she dug with some fair sized rocks around it. She then summoned her Keyblade. "Fire." She cast, the spell igniting the wood. "Alright, bring them over, I got a few kitchen stuff in my Assistant." I nodded while going back to my anthro form and picking up the three fish and bringing them over to the fire pit. “Alright, now do you want to cook these things whole or do you want to gut them first?” I asked, having honestly gotten used to eating certain foods from a successful hunt. "Gut them." She said, making a few taps on her assistant as a large table with some knives, a scaler and other useful kitchen tools appeared before her. "I'm still more Pony than Dire Wolf, can't handle raw meat that well either." “Alright.” I nodded while taking the items and starting to properly gut and descale the fish, preparing them for the fire with professional skill. Once that was all done Dinky seasoned them a bit and set up an overhang rack to place a skillet on, some fish was cooking over the fire directly, others she was cooking on the skillet. It all smelled amazing. “Aw, nothing like a nice fire cooked meal with family.” I said happily. "I know. It reminds me of the camping trip mom took Me on a year before you showed up." Dinky said. "Grandma and Grandpa were there too, so it was great." “How are your grandparents doing? I hope they’re okay.” "Busy as always but they have good health. Owning and managing the whole of the weather factory keeps them active and young." “Oh really? They own the weather factory?” I asked curiously. "Yeah. Mom is supposed to inherit it when they retire, but now that she is married to you she can say that her inheriting it means it's the crowns, and can pawn off that pile of work and mess onto someone else." “Couldn’t you have just done that before given that Derpy still wins like...one lottery every other week?” I asked honestly. "She's equestria's luckiest mare alive." “And apparently I’m the luckiest Dire Wolf to have managed to date her.” I said honestly. "Given her luck that was bound to happen regardless." Dinky chuckled. "Once she took us out to eat, and she forgot her purse. When the bill came out of nowhere a sack of sixty bits came flying in out of nowhere. More than enough for the bill, and no one claimed it as theirs. Mom still has that pouch." I blinked. “Okay that’s...a lot less ‘luck’ and more ‘terribly convenient’ when you actually think about it…” I said nervously. "Eh, stuff like that always happens around mom. In fact the only bad thing to ever happen to her was… my birth dad." Dinky said sadly, taking a bite of fish. “That’s...gotta be a troubled story.” I said nervously. “Want...to talk about it?” "I don't remember much about him, and mom doesn't want to talk about him. Grandma and Grandpa told me he was an abusive bastard, married mom for her money. When I was barely one, he got real angry at mom and slammed her face into and through the wall. It's how she got her eye the way it is, doctors said the impact broke some mussels and a few nerves needed to keep it in place properly. No surgery can fix that. Two months after that, he died from a heart attack. Mom and I were the only ones at the funeral." “The bastard deserved worse for hurting Derpy.” I frowned. “She’s amazing, funny, happy and beautiful, fucker should have been lucky to even be with her to begin with.” I growled. "Yeah. Don't even remember his name. Don't care too. None of his family seems to have even tried to contact us, so either they are just as bad as he was or they just don't want to bring up old wounds." “I understand.” I nodded gently. “But…” I sighed out. “I was going to say ‘am I good enough?’ for you and Derpy...given all the crap you’ve been through.” "Trust me dad, you are a stars sent gift for mom and I, even with your quirks and flaws, you care. More than what I can say for that jackass." “Thank you.” I said while eating my fish. “I just...you know, want to make sure the family I have...is happy and healthy.” "I'm happy, very healthy, and off to one of if not the most scientific Haven's in the realms. Life is good." “That’s good.” I said with a warm smile, glad to know I’m doing good for my family. “Everything...everything is still going okay…” We finished our meals, put the leftovers away in Dinky's Assistant and put the fire out with dirt and water for safe measure. Once that was done we headed off. We talked about stuff and just had fun. I rarely get this kind of one on one time with my kids. After a while we arrived at the prior battlefield… it was… hard to describe. It was covered in life and beauty, but it covered in rusted and bloodstained weapons and armor, vehicles of war now Moss covered bird perches and skeletons with roots and vines wrapped around them held them together and in place. "This is both amazing and disturbing." Dinky said. “As I said...Life finds a way.” I said honestly. “So...where would the Silhouette be?” "According to the book a cave nearby." She said, stepping over the long dead skeletons. "Should be close by." I nodded and continued forward. “Jeez...not one proper burial for any of them?” I asked sadly. "No one to bury them." Dinky said. "According to the book this was the last bunch of them on the entire planet, the rest were all dead from an outbreak. They were fighting over the very scarce resources at the time. According to Freak Inc. records, the virus died off a long time ago, they even scrubbed the surface and air before terraforming it." “Thank god.” I sighed out thankfully. “Better the disease stay dead forever then appear again and cause problems.” "Yeah." Dinky said, seeing inside of one of the vehicles was boxes of ammunition. "Wonder if any of this stuff is still usable?" She asked aloud. “Depends on how long they’ve been here and if any of it hasn’t been destroyed by age.” I said honestly. Some walking later we finally came across a cave. Entering we found in the back most of it a single… body? A fairy, dressed in silver robes. She was pretty, and had a large hole in their chest. The absent Silhouette floated above them. "The old Kings bard… was a fairy? Their bodies are so magically infused they never decay or age even after death." “I mean...that sounds about right.” I said honestly. “Not just her not decaying but...the bard being a fairy to be honest.” "So… should we bury her Properly? Leaving her like that isn't right." “We should bury her properly...but there’s also a ‘how do we properly bury a Council Member’...cause I’m pretty sure there’s some special process to it…” I said, not wanting to accidentally do something wrong to the fallen. "Didn't find anything about that in my readings." Dinky said. "We bury here proper now, and if we find out their is a special process, we come back and do it right." “I mean...we can just go in and ask her.” I said honestly. “Cause...even if she’s an Absent Silhouette...this one feels different.” I said while staring at the orb that held the Bard’s weapon but with fairy wings behind it. “Like...her mind is still there, waiting for the right person to set it free…” "One way to find out. I'll be here Dad." She said, stepping aside to give me more room if needed. I stepped closer to the Silhouette. “Alright you...let’s see if it’s a fight or not.” I muttered while touching the orb to see what’ll happen. In a flash I was atop The battlefield of a marble looking pillar, the Nobody symbol on the ground. Floating some feet before was the absent Silhouette, that then shifted into the fairy we saw, they pulled out the sitar, it was smaller for them than it was for me. “Okay, so before we start this fight.” I started. “Who are you?” I asked, my authority as the new King resonating out to see if the fairy still had some of her mind if any at all. She placed the sitar aside, taking a bow. "I am Elenanor. Fairy Queen of Hithrowtha." “It is a pleasure to meet you Queen Elenanor.” I said with my own bow of respect to the queen. “My name is Ben, and I’m the current King of Nothingness.” "Current? So… King Edward is no more?" “That’s his name?” I asked honestly. “The old man never actually told me it. But he’s been put to rest for...god maybe a few months to maybe a year? Time has been...really weird for me considering all that’s...been happening.” I said sheepishly. "I see. Has thou found a new holder for Arpeggio?" “Yes, I have found new holders of all the Weapons.” I said honestly. “The current holder of Arpeggio is a humble Skeleton named Brook.” I said while waving my hand as an image of the happy Skeleton from One Piece played the violin version of Arpeggio with joy. "Ah, Arpeggio likes them, to shift their form so tells just as much" “Oh really?” I asked curiously. “I just kinda...let the weapons find their wielders...is that different from how it was before?” "Before the king chose us. He gave us the weapons." “Okay then.” I said honestly. “Makes sense I suppose.” I said honestly. “So, a question I wanted to ask was...is there any special burial rights I give to Council Members? Cause...I couldn’t really give them to the previous King, General and Archer cause...well one snapped his neck, one shot himself in the head and...the King forced me to kill him…” I said worriedly. "Into Nothing we enter and Nothing we are in life and Death, we exist against laws and so our bodies be cast aside as the winds choose." She said. "Our oath for death, we do not care what happens to our corpses, be them buried with respect or tossed aside like something less than garbage. We don't care where we rest eternally." “Okay so proper burial it is because I respect the dead.” I said honestly. "If that is what you wish. Your command is our preference." She said with a bow. “So...what’s been keeping your Silhouette up?” I asked curiously. "A promise." “Oh?” I asked curiously. “What would that promise be if I may ask?” "To fight. To defeat my silhouette is to release my soul from the living lands. But, like us all I swore an oath to the king. Here." She said, tossing me what looked like a stone version of her Silhouette. "Summon me for battle, so long as my Silhouette here is not touched or I am victorious in battle, I shall be at your side, as I was for Sir Edward." I grabbed the stone and nodded. “Thank you. But...mind if I ask...about the other council members? Like...who they were or something? Cause I barely got to learn anything about them, even with the records.” She smiled. "We were each of different Races, different worlds. But we all.had a reason for being where we were. That reason was King Edward. He had this… confidence about him, it was infectious. It was that infectious confidence that drew us to him in the first place." “Well I couldn’t see that cause he was tired and old.” I said honestly. “But anything else? Who were your fellow council members?” "That, I am afraid, is information you yourself must search for. But I can tell you this, their names are forever etched into their weapons." She said, in beautiful calligraphy appeared her name across Arpeggio's spine. “Cool.” I said honestly. “Wonder what the other’s names are…” "Now… how are you going to… get out of here?" She asked. "Normally you have to either win or lose against me to leave an Absent Silhouette, so…" “You can just allow me to leave you know.” I said honestly. “This is your world, or I could just leave.” I said before opening a portal out of here. "That works." She said. “Alright.” I nodded. “It was nice meeting you Queen Elenanor.” "Same, new king." She said with a bow. I left the Absent Silhouette, appearing back in the cave where Dinky was waiting. “So, how was it?” She asked. “Went well.” I said honestly. ‘She’s nice, an old Queen of the Fairies and...well we can give her a proper burial.” I said honestly. “Plus she told me something interesting about learning the old council member’s names and who they were.” “Really?” “Yep.” I said while summoning Lunaitc and focusing on it. “Show me your old wielder’s name.” I said to the Claymore, hoping it’ll work. The names of both my current General and the former lined the spine, both taken equal space and were written elegantly in calligraphy. “Cool, it works.” I said with a smile as I checked to see who used Lunatic before Luxu. The name Charalse, appeared along the grip, as well as Luxu, only there names were not as Elegant as on Arpeggio, no this was deep bold wording, imprints that screamed of anger. “I mean...you are furious...but I know you hold more emotions than that.” I muttered gently. “So...Charalse…” I muttered while using my Assistant in hopes of learning something about him before going more in depth with it. Many names came up. Huh… “Okay seriously, the actual hell.” I frowned. “How many people have this very exclusive name?” “A big multiverse/realms?” Dinky offered. “Maybe if I get a little more specific…” I muttered while typing in ‘General of Nothingness’, hoping that’ll work and to at least have a start as to where I should start looking if I want to do my research on these people. Only one file came up… a wanted poster? Charase, General of Nothing, wanted for… Regicide? Reward, 7.9 trillion Rem. This wanted poster is dated over two thousand years ago… in Cript’s realm… who were you…? “I...have several concerns.” I said worriedly. “But...good thing I have a clone in Cript’s realm...at least there I’ll ask what the hell is up with Charase...cause this does not sound right…” I said worriedly, wondering how either the old man or Charase got to this realm without any problems. The me in Cript’s realm was researching in the lab he let me use. These two scientists he offered were...twins, kids, only fifteen maybe? But holy shit are they smart. “Okay so question.” I said while doing more calculations on the Pure Crystal’s. “Do either of you know about Charase?” “Charase? GIven who you are I assume you mean the former General of Nothingness?” The male twin, Kile, said. “Charase was a war criminal over two thousand years ago, loyal only to his king, your predecessor, and personally dealt with kings who could rival him, his total death count was rumoured to be around six thousand rival kings killed, all brutally, no resurrection possible.” The female twin, Gala, said. “Then why did he let me live?” I asked curiously. “What, is it because I was the actual successor or something?” “Correct.” Both said in unison. “We theorized that given the king himself chose you, Charase allowed you to live.” The male said. “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “But...who was he besides...well a crazy person basically?” “Unknown.” Both said in unison again. “Little is known about the king and his original council and even less on the kind of people they are, we have been able to collect together a formation of possible races they were.” Gala said. “Oh? Mind if I know what those races are?” I asked curiously. “And I can give names if that’ll help.” “According to rumors, old sightings and texts, His Knight, we suspect was a Etheriu. His Paladin, a Drake hybrid, his Archer, a human, the Defender, a Goblin, his gate guardian, a Giant, The Mage, a Technomite, the bard, a fairy, the Highroller, a Dynamo-Sapient, The Death Seeker, a Fox-man, The Assassin, a Wood elf, and the Key, unknown.” Kile said. “That is rather interesting.” I said with some thought. “Wonder what I’ll find just with their names…” I muttered, thinking about that while doing quick math to try and get the Pure Crystal formula right. “So...question, given how smart you two are have you...noticed anything wrong going on? I have a feeling you know about the Cycles right?” “You refer to which cycle?” Gala asked. “Water, planetary, energy?” “Just...something completely different. But onto a better question, how is all this research coming along? I hope it’s coming along well cause...honestly this is a bit of a nightmare for me…” I sighed out, not used to all this research, testing and a bunch of other crap that was mostly just words and not actual physical practice. “For a beginner, it’s acceptable.” Kile said. “That’s good.” I nodded. “Better to have an acceptable start than a bad one.” "It's Also pretty clear that about sixty percent of the equations required for this research are new to you, you are having to learn them as well as the research you are currently conducting, overworking yourself.” “Well then I wouldn’t be working if I wasn’t ‘over’working.” I chuckled. "Let him work brother, we still have the engine project to complete." Gala said. "Yes, of course sister." Like replied. “Engine project?” I asked curiously. "It's none of your concern." Gala said, she and Like leaving this lab. “And now...I’m pretty sure I’m going to be doing this by myself...yay…” I grumbled, trying to stay busy so I can just...do some good for others. As I was going over notes my mind wandered, wondering what else was going on in this building? It's an entire building devoted to science and stuff… wonder if this is where Dinky will be interning? “I hope Dinky will be good here…” I muttered while putting down all my notes and getting up. “I...might as well stretch and look around...overworking won’t really help me here…” Getting up and cracking some joints I looked around here. There was a lot of equipment here, and I only have a vague idea of what some of them do. Looking around some I did find something neat looking. It was a terminal, but the keyboard and screen were coming out of this glass looking ball on a stand. “Well...I really shouldn’t touch stuff I don’t know about…” I muttered while checking my assistant to see what it was, just in case. Mark 12 Glass Maga Computer. Unlike the prior models this model can in fact perfectly simulate and emulate digital universes. This model is also used by Freak Inc mass farming companies. “Well then, that’s rather interesting.” I muttered. Slowly moving over I checked it out. There was a lot of files here, and a program running. 'Resource Mine 437.' “Oh?” I muttered curiously, wondering what was going on in Resource Mine 437. I opened it up, and saw a small antenna appeared out of the glass ball, suddenly like Jumanji I was getting sucked in… shit... “Damn it…” I muttered, not really knowing what’ll happen here. Once my body was sucked in everything looked… like a rainbow hurricane for a moment before I was suddenly… standing on a platform, another terminal here with what looked like the way out was ready. Looking around I was… in a mine… a massive mine going far. Taking a sniff I smell… copper, gold, silver, lead, diamonds… and other ground dug things I never smelled or could identify. “Well...that’s a lot of materials…” I said honestly. “I wonder if anyone else is here?” As I was walking around I heard something… is that… a train? Rushing towards It I saw a bullet train rush up to a small stop, the doors opening as people walked out, all kinds of races and all dirty. "Man I found the biggest deposit today, you're crazy." One guy that looked like he was a small giant said. "I dunno, I'd say I found the biggest." Another, elf looking guy said. ”Well then...this is rather interesting.” I thought to myself. ”Not...fully sure if I should be here now…” I thought to myself nervously. "Hey, new girl!" Someone yelled at me. Turning around I saw… what looked like a yellow Ultron throw a yellow hat with a light on it, some overalls, boots and a really cool looking pickaxe at me. "Get suited up and off to section 39, just got word of another gold deposit, estimated five clicks large!" “That is a lot of gold.” I said while grabbed the pickaxe and putting on the mining gear, might as well play along with this for the moment. I found where section...39 was after a fast train ride and some walking. It was a small hole in this large mine where only five others were at currently. They had pickaxes like mine too, and each swing against. The ore caused a flash of magic, and where they hit a solid brick of gold fell. Enchanted pickaxes… sweet! “This is gonna be interesting.” I muttered as I noted all the experienced miners actions and proceeded to do that, thinking the technique and strength put into it wouldn’t cause a cave in. As I began swinging and gathering bars of gold I wondered… picking one up I discreetly used some code to scan it. Once that was done I used my code again, and formed a gold bar… from code… I… did it. “I...actually did a thing…” I muttered in pure joy. "New girl!" One of the miners yelled at me. "Get back to swinging, we got a quota to make." “Yes sir.” I said with pure joy, the miner seeing that I just dropped the pretense of holding back and just moved fast and hit hard in my own blissful high of actually doing something right. I don't know when but at some point the lights went out. "Holy hell, check out the new girl!" Someone else yelled from… far away? Turning on my lamp I saw I was in a small self made tunnel within the gold deposit, gold bars littered the floor and I didn't even notice it until now. I blinked. “Uh...sorry, I think I lost myself for a moment.” I said sheepishly. "Don't sweat it, you just made the whole sections quota for the next two days." A female miner said. "Alright off to lunch!" She yelled as everyone dropped their tools and headed off to the train station. “Lunch already? I’ve barely started.” I said honestly. "Kid you were mining non stop into that little tunnel of yours for three hours." An old minor said. "Wish back in my youth I had vigor like that." “Three hours? What am I slacking?” I joked with a happy smile. As everyone else walked to the station I stayed behind, seeing the gold I made… and made more… maybe too much…. Wonder how else I can abuse the hell out of this… can I do this outside of this place? “Hmm...I wonder if I actually could…” I muttered. “I mean...Admin’s are supposed to be able to do this outside of this…” I then had a thought… admins… deletes… code… is out there… just another computer, but on a massive fuck off scale? “And why would people let me just abuse this to hell?” I muttered to myself. As I began pondering this I figured I should test this outside this computer… this computer… Once out I managed to perfectly make another gold bar. Good, so I can still do this… now, what else to test. And how is this so much easier than before? “I am a bit confused…” I muttered, wondering why this was so easy all of a sudden. “Hmm...I wonder…” I hummed as I tried to visualize another bar of metal, this time iron since it was a normal simple metal. A bar appeared and it looked like iron… but it was iron colored gold, I could sense that in it's code… wait, I scanned that gold with code before copying it… could I have used Copy Cat with code? “Wait…” I summoned Skysplitter, this weapon being the most unknown weapon to me...and then I scanned it with Code as I tried to figure out what it was made out of and if I could replicate it. Once what it was made of came through, I got sick, actually throwing up as I backed away from it… souls. Melted down souls. “The fuck Skysplitter…” I coughed. “No wonder why your Earth based but your name is ‘Skysplitter’...” I muttered. I'll look into this more… the old king said he found this… so who made you… and why, why use souls? “You know what?” I muttered before closing my eyes and focusing hard, trying to ‘feel’ Skysplitter and try to see if any of the souls that made this thing were either sentient, ‘alive’, or if they’re screaming in eternal pain with no mind of their own. “Come on...I know you can hear me…” I could feel… three, three souls here. All were very powerful. "Who are you?" a deep, female voice spoke. “My name’s Ben, and I’m your wielder.” I said to the trio. “And...who are you three?” "I am Sandra of the giants of Mega." “Giants of Mega?” I asked curiously. “I’ve...never heard of them.” "I am not surprised. It's funny how such a small hard to find world holds the most powerful variation of Giants in the realms. “So...you and two others are Skysplitter? Why?” I asked nervously. “And...where is Mega if that’s the name of the world?” "The other two are… were, Gunther and my children, barely a year the two. Gunther was the one I loved, married, and forged my and our children's souls into this form so we could continue to be with him while he served his king." “Oh jeez…” I muttered sadly. “I...I didn’t know...but...when was the last time and place you last ‘connected’ with him?” I asked gently, not sure how much she knows. "If you mean do I know if he has passed, yes. Little over a thousand years ago actually." “Would have liked to have known him but...well I got here a thousand years too late apparently.” I said honestly. “But...mind if I ask where your home world is?” I asked politely. “Just to...understand your people and...figure out how this was even possible.” "Summon me to the copy of you out and about searching, it will be a detour but I will lead you there. “Thank you.” I nodded while disbanding Skysplitter from this body as the one that’s out and about searching, and having been successful on a lot of things thankfully, summoned Skysplitter to get directions. Summoning Skysplitter was easy, having it suddenly tug me at rocket speeds off to wherever was… like a weird roller coaster. Eventually we hit dirt, ouch… but did not make a massive crater. “Jeez lady, did you need to try and pull my arm off?” I asked while getting up and dusting myself off as I looked around to see where we were. … Holy shit… these buildings are MASSIVE! Just one is the size of my castle!! "Welcome to Mega, home to the biggest and strongest variation of Giants in all the realms." “Good lord one building’s the size of my castle…” I muttered. “Good lord...where to start…” "For starters my house. It's just a few houses down from here." “Right…” I said while flying up and moving around, looking for the ladies house. “So...world of Giants...how tall can you get?” "I am a fully grown giant, an easy two and a half mile’s up.” “That...is a lot of woman I can just imagine…” I blinked in surprise as I flew off towards her house. “So...how long have you been...watching me and...Vergil now?” I asked, remembering DMC Vergil had Skysplitter, but when I played Devil May Cry 5 I was...horribly disappointed with the Vergil I got. “SinceI appeared to you and then him… I picked him because he...reminds me of Gunther. Not their personality...they look so much alike…” “Alrighty then.” I said honestly. “So...given that this might happen due to trends and me just being me...how does Mega Giant’s actually...date and stuff?” I asked sheepishly, the giantess fully knowing about my weird chick magnet powers. ”Nice try, but we are immune to the cherub angels, we pick our own mates, for life. Gunther might be dead but even after their death, we love no one else.” “I mean...I wasn’t pointing it at you though.” I brought up. “I was just curious cause of literally any other lady that I might come across. But thank you for telling me about that.” I said honestly. We came aross her house and inside… holy fuck… stone…. Statues? ”These are our bodies, when we die, or in our case, take out our souls, they return to the ground we come from. In my case though I can return myself and our children to our bodies easily. They Will return to flesh and blood. This is why I was happy you decided to come here, I wish to ask you a favor.” “Will Skysplitter lose all it’s powers if you three leave?” I asked honestly. “And what would the favor be?” “If I leave, yes, if my kids do, no.” “So...what? Want me to go over and try to put your kids back?” I asked honestly. ”I can place them back from here, then you take care of them. A little over a thousand years they should be almost fully grown by now and their bodies and souls have remains that of younglings since I took us all in here. Their bodies are in the basket, on the table.” “Oh I can do that.” I said honestly. “I can totally take care of...children….” I trailed off, before taking a deep breath. “So what are the kids names?” I asked, remembering that I’m trying to keep myself busy so I don’t break down. ”Grain, and Brut.” “Thank you.” I nodded. “But...I’ll make sure to take care of the kids…” I told her, now just wanting to...probably get drunk at one of this world’s bars and still probably end up with a new wife cause that’s what happened the last time I was drunk. ”Thank you, now, atop the table, I need to be close to them to do this.” I nodded while flying up to the table near where the two kids were. “Alright...work your magic ma’am.” Skysplitter glowed, two… me sized orbs left the weapon and floated over into the basket, so ...crying filled the air, my motherly instincts rushing over to them… they were big, easily the size of a large Rv… but they were...perfect. “It’s alright, it’s alright.” I said gently to the two perfect little babies. “Mommy’s here.” I said, which was technically true as I tried to calm them down so they weren’t crying. Once they were calmed down I managed to send them with the other infants… that was going to be a challenge but they deserve a life. “Okay lady...where’s the nearest bar with the best booze around?” I asked honestly. ”The other side of town.” She said. “Thank you.” I said before leaving the place and heading to the bar. “By the by...how the hell was Skysplitter even made? I know it would take the soul of a giant but...besides that I have no clue how it was made.” ”We Unlike most other giants can create special metals by infusing pressure from our hands and magic from our bodies into soil, this metal I forged this Tomahawk out of is known as Skyfelium, metal capable that, when wielded by a powerful giant can tear apart the sky, and shatter suns. Hence the name, Skysplitter. The metal acts as a funnel and an amplifier for our own magic, but by placing my own soul into it, it doubled the power Gunther could use, the reason I was shattered when you used me against that void woman is because without a giant, I only have the strength of one giant, myself, and whatever you were placing into it at the time.” “I mean...that can also explain why you can just...make a new planet given the right strength…” I muttered. “But right now, considering I’m an Admin, does that mean the limits are off or something?” I asked curiously. “Or do I need to be a Giant?” ”Sadly that knowledge is beyond me, my race never knew about Admins, nor does it now, the only reason I know is because of you. Though I Suppose using such power as my races and infusing it into your own might not be that hard with proper training. I have been wanting to ask though, what are your plans for this war?” “Oh you know, making sure it doesn’t get out of control, win, and hopefully deal with any fucking stragglers that might try and restart hings.” I said honestly. “Or I could bore you for literal months talking about everything I can think of about this war.” ”Prefer if you did not. We are a race of doers, not thinkers, even if it's an impossible battle, we fight with all we have. Doesn't matter the opponent.” “Fine fine.” I said honestly. “Doesn’t mean I’m not a thinker...which I’ve been doing for ages and a half.” I sighed out. “How good is the booze here? And how much crap do the barkeeps take before throwing people out?” I asked honestly. ”I was never much of a drinker, but Gunther seemed to enjoy a brand known as The Singing Fairy Ale. And there is no need to worry about money, we do not have currency here.” “Okay, given that when I’m drunk I would damn near have no inhibitions...how far does one have to go to get kicked out?” ”Oh Gunther and even myself lived for when someone gets drunk enough to start a fight, nothing called for a party like a good old fashioned bar fight, gets out all your stress and worries and gives you and others a lovely story to tell and reflect on.” “And what would happen if it just devolved into me sobbing like a bitch in front of everyone?” I asked honestly. “After the fight I mean…” ”We are a very community based race, if one of our own, or even a visitor is harmed or sad, we all gather around to give advice and listen. How so may races just keep to themselves and don’t help out the hurt was never imaginable to me until I placed myself in this weapon and traveled with Gunther.” “I don’t know...that’s a whole lot of talking and philosophy that I don’t want to deal with at the moment.” I sighed out. “Right now, I’d rather just get drunk, probably start a bar fight, cry a fuck ton...and knowing from past experiences, even if my Cherub powers don’t work I’m proabably gonna get a Mega Giant girlfriend knowing my luck.” I said honestly. While the other me was getting Drunk on Mega, I was helping Dinky finish burying the old Bard. Weather sealed off the cave for good measure. “So, wanna sight see?” She asked. “There were a lot of recommended places to see when I bought the place.” “Yes please.” I said with a smile. “I’d like to do some sight seeing, where would you like to go first?” “Well when going through the recommended sights list there was this one place I saw was called The Crying River. It’s a river that flows UP a mountain! How cool is that!” "That is rather cool." I said honestly. "It's on the other side of the world though… so… Keyblade gliders?" She asked, summoning her Keyblade. “Sure.” I nodded while bringing out my Keyblade as well. “Let’s get going then.” I said while summoning my Glider, which was a bit bigger and way cooler than my old one. We rode along high in the air, enjoying the view. "I was wondering what to do with this place. Whole reason I even bought it was because of that book." “Well...you can either have people live here and it is a normal planet, keep it like it is and let Nature take its course, or you can use it as your own personal testing grounds for anything and everything you want to test if you can’t do it in Cript’s realm.” I said honestly. "I dunno. I was thinking of using it like a warehouse of sorts for…" “For what?” I asked curiously. "Well, with this war coming up, it would be good to have a large stockpiled warehouse of resources. Food, medicine, weapons, all that stuff. Freak Inc. is already running drills and all that stuff." “That would probably be for the best…” I sighed out. “I...still need to do a lot of things...too much to do, too little time…” "Then let us help you. You think we like sitting around watching you about near kill yourself over your worries and failures, faults? I and the others are your kids and my mom and the others moms are your wives, this kingdom is as much our worry and responsibility as it is yours. You may hold the Kings crown but I am your daughter, and holds a Princesses crown, my brothers a Prince's crown, and our mothers a queens crown. Let us help you." “I know…” I sighed out. “I’m just...scared is all…” I said, Dinky being smart enough to know, even after some time I...was still on the verge of breaking if I’m not keeping busy. “I know all of you want to help, and believe me I want help…” I struggled to find the words here. She began descending. Confused I followed, the two of us now on a shore with a great view. Dinky took a seat and I sat next to her. "I don't remember much about my birth dad, but I remember his funeral. Remember being… happy, seeing him dead. Even at that age, I knew it wasn't normal, and for a long time, thought I was a bad person for being happy to see them dead… then, mom found out, and said she was too. She and I were feeling the same way, and we both thought we were terrible ponies for feeling that way about his death… we cried all night, old pent up emotions finally let out, and we felt better after words." Dinky said, turning to me with a small smile. "We can't become stronger if we don't break first dad. And I know you're struggling to stay together, so it's okay for you to break down, because you'll be stronger afterwards." “I wish that was true for me…” I said, looking out into the distance as I sat down. “I...I need to stay strong...I need to be the hero everyone sees me...I can’t...I can’t let down everyone...not again…” I took a shuddering breath, trying to keep myself together. "How do you expect to save and help everyone if you can't let us save you first? You got your Joy back, but you've forgotten that sometimes, sadness can be just as important. Can't let all your emotions die now can you?" “All my emotions died once…” I muttered, clenching my fists as I tried to keep my tears down. “One clone is drinking heavily...just to try and drown the pain…” I muttered sadly, my shoulders shaking as Dinky could see...I was one more push. "Drowning in booze doesn't really suppresses the emotions. I don't want to see you drowning in your suppressed emotions. I don't want to lose the only father I have." “You’ll never lose me…” I muttered, my tears finally falling as the thought of losing all my children...everything I cared about because of my own actions...I just broke and cried. “I don’t....I can’t lose you...I can’t lose any of you...I already failed to protect my children...and I failed to save Coco...I...I can’t have another failure…” Dinky patted my back, letting my tears and fear finally flow. "And WE will get them back, and fix Coco. It will take time and effort, on both parts. You have to let us help you, and we will." “And I just got done clearing out like...a good third of all the bakeries back home…” I joked through my tears. "Heh, you and Celestia both." Dinky laughed. “Well...one of my clones has...well, my one clone has now turned my bedroom into a massive cuddle pile…” I sniffled, trying to salvage something of myself here as my tears kept going. “Sorry for...ruining our special day…” "Oh this was planned. Two birds with one stone, found the old bard, and you got some emotional baggage taken off." I chuckled a little. “Yeah...I should have seen that coming.” I sniffled. “But...all my emotional baggage isn’t gone...gonna be a while before all of it’s completely gone…” "I did say some, not all. Now then, off to the Crying River." She said, getting up and helping me up. I nodded and got up. “Alright...let’s get going to the actual river instead of me crying one.” I joked while getting back on my glider. To be continued...
Nobody does more trialsMy seedlings 'fruit' was delicious… I ate it all… "Now that's what I call an Appetite." “I can’t help it...I need some comfort food damn it…” I whined, burping rather loudly. “Excuse me…” I said sheepishly, my cheeks reddening in embarrassment. "Well a pass is a pass." He said, snapping his fingers as my now tree vanished. "Planted in your castle garden, seeds already picked and in a bag to plant." He said, walking me to the doors. "Have to say I'll miss the company." “Well...why don’t you spend time with other people than?” I asked honestly. “You can literally make people to hang out with.” I brought up. “Or are you stuck here?” "I am free to leave as I choose, but I swore an oath to protect our Mother, so I stay. Besides, the plants help." “Alright.” I nodded. “I understand, so where is the next door?” "Past my door is Carth, admin of water." Shinsu said, reaching his now opened doors, showing what looked like a vast ocean on the other side. "Hope you like swimming, or can make a boat." “Or I can fly.” I said while floating up. “Or I can just use this.” I said while bringing out Arpeggio. “Cause that’ll help, playing a water based instrument with a person that literally invented water.” "Heh, he's going to like you." “Cool.” I said while strumming Arpeggio as I started to play my sitar as I started to glide across the water straight into the new circle. “Wonder what Carth will be like here…” I wondered to myself. As I flew around I noticed as I played… the water was dancing, not like how Arpeggio normally makes it dance, this was different. "Ah haha!" Suddenly, a figure emerged from the water, Carth, looking like nothing more than Water In a humanoid shape. "Such rhythm and vibration! I feel it in every droplet!" They said happily. “Well you sound very happy.” I said honestly. “And glad you like it, I’ve been practicing with Arpeggio for a long time.” "Sound and song go along with water more than people realize. My simple creation is a base foundation to over 76% of life existing in any realm, even the void and all it's tainted horrors uses my masterpiece simple, effective, useful, and above all," They said, splashing a large bunch of water into the air, making a rainbow. "Multi purpose!" “Yep.” I nodded with a smile. “So, what’s my trial going to be Carth?” I asked curiously. "Trial? Oh right." He said, stopping his and the waters dancing. "I see you use a tool to control my creation very fine tuned. But how much do you know about water?" “As much as a person who didn’t invent the thing would know.” I said honestly. "Water, like what drinks and thrives from it, is alive, each drop of it a unique identity and personality co-existing with the bigger picture. One can be deadly." He said, suddenly a small cut on my arm that was not there before was bleeding a little, floating around Carth was a single drop of water. "And in large numbers, devastating heavy force." Massive wave appeared behind him, and held in place. "Your trip young wolf is to find the drop of water that sliced you." He said, the drop floating around him joining the standing wave, and then it all fell back into the ocean below us. “Well...that’s gonna take a while.” I said before taking a deep breath and strummed Arpeggio, a long ripple flowing through the water. “Dance Water Dance!” I chanted as I started to play with vigor, closing my eyes as I focused on all the water droplets that started to dance to my will. “Even with trying to find a specific grain of sand in a desert...there’s always that one special rhythm…” I muttered while focusing hard, trying to find the one that cut me that would have a different rhythm from all the other droplets. As I began playing, feeling the rhythm of each, Code slipped in and in each drop I could see each line of code running along, making them them… now which of you is not like the other? I focused, trying to find any small bit of myself on the droplet, no matter how small to try and get to it. “Come on...I know your here.” I muttered, focusing hard to find the thing. I found something. A microscopic line of code… me. Using Arpeggio I made the single droplet rise from.the ocean. Carth clapped. "Well done! Smart using code to locate it. Same way Cript did." “Oh really?” I asked curiously. “Didn’t think he did that.” "Oh yeah. Cript found out that tiny bits of code stick to anything that hits or even touches one another, like bacteria and germs traveling. This was fun." “Cool.” I nodded. “Good thing I had Arpeggio to help here...kinda doubt I would have figured that out by myself to be honest.” "To each their own." He said, a set of large double doors rising from the ocean and opening. "Onto the next." “Thank you.” I nodded while flying off. “Have a nice day.” The next area was simple grass field. Haru, Admin of Childhood, was playing with a kickball against the next area door. “Howdy.” I said politely...before my motherly instincts started shouting at me to pick up and hug the crap out of the adorable child in front of me. "How long?" He asked. “How long?” I asked curiously. “What do you mean?” "I'm the Admin of Childhood, it's nothing like the others. It's more like I can tell when someone still has that wonder and innocence from childhood. You haven't had it for a long time, longer than what's normal. How long ago did you lose it?" “Maybe the day when I died and came back without my light half?” I said honestly. “Either that or when my life started to spiral out of control after that.” "How old were you?" “I..don’t remember..maybe like eight or something?” I said nervously, barely remembering that whole event and I would rather not remember it to be honest. "And you still blame yourself?" “I mean...if I actually listened to my mom and not gone into the ocean, or made sure my dad was watching me so yes, my death technically was my fault.” I said honestly. "You didn't drown accidentally." Haru said, snapping his fingers. Suddenly we were… this beach? "Mom! Dad I found a crab!" I bolted around, seeing little eight year old me messing with this angry crab. "Don't let it pinch you!" Dad said, picking me up and using a stick to toss the crab away. “Okay seriously, this is now the second time I’m being told ‘hey, your original traumatic event was a lie, here’s how it actually happened’.” I frowned. "This cycle is different, too much so." Haru said, looking rather… serious, for a kid. "The others haven't noticed. I have." “So I was right…” I muttered. “You must know who caused this sudden event’s right?” I asked curiously. "About to see who." Haro said, pointing behind me. "Be careful in the water Ben." Mom said. "I'll be watching him him." Dad said, watching me splash the water around. As I was splashing the water around, I noticed the sand behind him was… moving a little… footprints? “That’s...not right.” I said. “I was hit my some douche surfer that made me drown...who the fuck is that?” Dad looked as his arm suddenly, looking like he was trying to see if someone touched him… then went still, not quite paralyzed, more like dazed. The invisible person walked passed him and into the water. From how the water moved they walked over to me. I looked around a bit, then suddenly I was pulled under. “Okay who the fuck is this guy…” I muttered, casting a True Sight spell on myself to see if I can see whoever the hell is doing this crap. "Ben!" I heard my mom shout as Dad snapped out of whatever he was under. He rushed into the water, doing CPR and panicking at my lack of response. The invisible figure left the water, the spell working til… what the? Me… Psychopath me? "Objective complete boss. Onto the next one." “Oi, the fuck.” I frowned. “Psychopath me shouldn’t be here yet...and who’s his boss?” "Don't know, but how he got here could be part of many things that went wrong. Far as I can tell, Everything that went wrong with your life, wasn't even your fault." Haru said, those words hitting me in the chest like a bullet. “But...what about everything else?” I asked, putting a hand over my heart. “I caused my parents so much problems...and even though I later figured out they were murdered...it still sucked…” "One way to find out." Haru said, snapping his fingers as we were in my families old apartment. I was sneaking out for that party… the day the cops brought me back and a bunch of fines. “Ah yes, this memory where I snuck out during a ‘mugger’ sighting and then immediately blamed for it for no reason.” I frowned. As young me was walking the route to the party, someone ran past me wearing… my exact clothing… I remember that, but didn't think much of it. "Stop!" A cop yelled at me, then grabbing me and tossine against the wall. The double was around the corner with a purse, them tossed it. They then grew… taller. Him again?! "Second objective complete." He said into an earpiece. “What the actual hell…” I frowned. “Is all this just ‘hey, let’s fuck with me for some reason’?” I frowned. “Oh I’m going to ask that bastard so many questions.” I growled, thankfully having the book to summon him whenever I want as it was basically his leash. "As I was suspecting. Someone knew who and when to alter specific events to some ulterior desire? Who though?" Haro asked aloud. “Either someone that can time travel, or someone’s doing a Xehanort.” I frowned. “And...the only person I can think of that might have been able to do this just from what I’ve heard died off screen like a bitch.” I said, remembering being told Vincent was the Fact of Evil or some crap so it would make sense but Cript killed the bastard. “So either there’s some fourth dimensional chess going on...or someone’s doing a Xehanort here…” "Whatever the case, this is something you should speak to the mother about when you reach her." “I should.” I nodded. “So, what’s my trial besides fighting off the urge to hug you?” I asked honestly. “Den mother instincts...always a wonder.” "Your trip is actually pretty easy." Haru said, Everything shifting back to the grass field it was at first. He walked up to me, poked me. "Tag you're it!" He yelled before rushing off with incredible speed “Oh you cheeky bastard.” I chuckled before running off after him with my own incredible speed. “Just going to play tag?” "Yup. I am a kid, and it's pretty boring here." “Well I am a Den Mother and I have been trying my best not to just hug you and act like a mother for like...ten seconds.” I said honestly. “So just play tag for how long?” "Til you tag me." “Alright.” I nodded, shifting into my feral form and running even faster after him. "Wooo." Haru said, dodging my swipes and tackles with expert skill. I chuckled, glad he was having fun...but my own actions were being bogged down by thoughts of actually having fun with my own kids…”Damn it…” I muttered bitterly as I pounced at the kid again, thinking more about Haru’s fun than being run down by my own failures. As Haru ran around, myself chasing him, suddenly, he was tackled. Stopping I saw… a little girl? Blond hair, blue eyes, easily ten or so. “Excuse me who?” I blinked, wondering who that was. "So you are the Admin of Childhood? Wonder how such a thing was made, and by you." She spoke, sounding her age but… mature… cruel. I immediately grabbed the girl and got her off of Haru. “Yeah how about no.” I frowned. “So who the hell are you?” I frowned. "You're Ben, Admin and King of Nothingness. How redundant." She said, yanking herself free from me. What? How did she? "Either way you're not of my concern. Oh, and pardon the rudeness, but my name is Tanya. Tanya Digurachaf." “Okay so two things...what are you and how did you get here?” I asked with a frown, preparing for a fight. “Haru...you might need to run.” "I was sent here by Nexus. I'm one of the… special new recruits. We are made and recruited specifically to deal with you." “Okay so basically this place isn’t fucking special anymore.” I said. "Oh it is, took longer than I thought." She said. "Those other admins were a lot more challenging than I was informed. But I only needed to reach you." “Why did you need to reach me?” I asked honestly. “And...really? Their sending children after me?” "Children we may be, but we have our strengths. For example, against normal admins this tactic would be ineffective, but against you specifically it's effective." I summoned my Lexicon. “So, they send children...ruining their lives just to fight me…” I muttered while my book glowed. “Here...let me just show you a little something.” I said while the little girl felt something pull her in. “In my Book World…” "Ruining our lives? Surely you're joking." She said, a twisted, monsters smile cloaked her face, scaring me actually. "I chose this without hesitation, and without regrets. I was already a general in my world's military, over five hundred confirmed kills." “So...what? You were reborn into a ten year old?” I asked, the girl looking like...how she was before. “I don’t know where your from, but your Soul shows me something completely different. Cause right now, you look more like a boring salaryman.” "I'm impressed, you discovered that quickly but then again beings like you can sense these things easily. My original goal in life was to climb the latter's placed before me until I could live leisurely, but things don't always go as planned. In my new life, this new form, that Being X kept getting in my way, then Jericho showed up, and showed me even God's can die. It was then I realized, do all God's and beings above them die? I really want to find out." “Alright, so let me ask...the fuck are you doing here?” I asked honestly. "Under orders from the top. I'm here to inform you of our existence is all." “So...what...you weaponized...children?” I asked. “Even though you are not a child by any standard...am I getting that right?” "Mentality Wise I'll admit I'm no child, but physically, age wise, biologically, I am. And to use that against your Den Mother Biology is all that it takes." “Oh...so that is a thing…” I said, Tanya sensing way too much power spike way too fucking high, and the look of someone so pissed it would even scare them. She backed up a bit, looking scared before laughing. "Just as I thought. No difference between you and Being X. You both use fear and suffering to impose your opinions and way of thinking. As impressive as a scare as that was… it just proved my point. All God like beings are the same. They all need to die." “Okay, first up that is literally not why I’m mad.” I started. “You said you wanted to fight me as a child because my Den Mother instincts would stop me, well my Den Mother instincts are making me Absolutely fucking Livid because Jericho is low enough to weaponize fucking children!” I shouted in anger. “You, your not a child, even if you try to pull biology shit, but other kids! They were innocent! But no! Just gotta put them through shit that they shouldn’t!” "Hm. I don't know what's more hysterical. Your lack of leadership and sense of communication, of the fact you think Jericho made this idea? He picked me up, yes, but this group… was all my idea." She said with that twisted smile, vanishing in a puff of code. “The fuck does leadership and commincation have to do with anything?” I asked, honestly confused about that. “But I’m probably going to figure out who else is behind this cause jack wipe couldn’t have just done it all by themselves…” I grumbled while looking over at Haru, wondering why he didn’t say or do anything. He was backed up against the wall, fear filled his eyes and he was hyperventilating. “So what...your afraid of me?” I asked honestly. “Even though you’ve probably seen scarier?” I asked, even though my motherly instincts are telling me to make him feel better and not be scared I had a feeling it wouldn’t help given how scared he was. "Y-your anger. I felt it." Haru said, shaking. "I've only ever seen anger that pure once before…" “Oh? Mind if I ask what that was?” I asked while sitting down, wanting to hear what the child had to say. "The… the Delete Hunter…" “The...who?” I asked honestly. "Everyone these days thinks Cript was the first to kill Deletes. He isn't. Not long after the war, when Deletes began popping up, one Admin lost everything to them, his wife, his child, his realm. He was the first to kill Deletes, and they feared him. His anger and rage could be felt all the way here when he spotted a Delete. For nine million years I… we would sense that pure rage and anger just about every day, for hours if not years in itself." “Well...that’ll do it yeah.” I said honestly while gently getting closer to the child while he was too focused on talking. “Is the person still alive?” "Don't know. Their… aura, if you can call it that, stopped appearing a long time ago. Don't know their name either all I know is that they wore this… armor." “What kind of armor?” I asked curiously, wanting to make sure it didn’t involve me. "I don't know what it looked like, but I've heard… it was forged from Delete corpses. Immune to their attacks and void. A perfect defense against them." “Well that’s...rather concerning.” I said nervously, before leaning over and gently poking his nose. “Boop.” "Heh." Haru said, leaning over on me. “Tag.” I said gently. “Your it.” I said gently. "Heh… I had hoped to never feel that level of rage ever again… and… you showed it to me at point blank…" I gently picked up Haru and cradled him. “Am I really that scary?” I asked gently. “Does this fluffy good looking lady look scary?” "An angry adult is always scary, especially to kids. Doesn't matter how well you know them, anger has a way of changing you." “Oh yeah?” I asked while starting to sneakily tickle the child. Haru started laughing, trying to get me to stop. After a bit I did and he calmed down some. "Heh. I wonder if this is what it's like to have a mom?" “I mean, go spend time with Mother I’m sure that’ll help.” I said honestly. “But mother’s can be scary sometimes...but they...should always love their children.” I said gently, nuzzling Haru caringly. "I know Mother is, well, the one who made us, but she doesn't spend a lot of time with us. Visits every now and then but I think that's because of what she is." “Well she should spend more time with people, she can make clones of herself she can make it work.” I said honestly. “So anyways, want me to spend some more time with you or should I get going to the next trial?” "You should move on. The quicker you get this done the quicker you can go home." “I am also at home cause I have Starfish clones.” I said honestly. “But alright Haru...maybe I’ll come and visit.” I said gently while putting down the child. “So, where’s the door?” "Just over there." He pointed, a tall tree with a single door was against this wall in the back. "Fann is next. He's weird, but nice." “Well I’m used to weird all things considered.” I said honestly. “Take care Haru.” I said while heading off into the next room. “So...what is Fann’s whole thing…” Entering the next room… is this a… dirt bike race track…. Combo… what? Any sport involving anything fast moving is all mashed together in this… track? “Gee, I wonder what this guy’s all about.” I rolled my eyes. “Hello? Fann? Are you going to burn some physics books like they did in Fast and the Furious or what?” "Shhh!" I heard someone tell/ shush me from… somewhere? Huh, deja Vu. “Okay so where are you?” I frowned while looking around. Looking around I saw… these stands set up on the side and he was watching a TV. Huh… “Okay...hi.” I said to the admin. “What’s up?” "Watching Nascar." Fann said. “I wonder, are they making a left turn?” I asked. "No this is zero G Nascar, it's like a mix of normal Nascar and a demolition derby." “So F-Zero.” I stated. "Eh." Fann said, taking a swig of… wait Duff beer… tempting. “So anyways, what’s my test here? Or can I just pass on by while...I get too many red neck vibes here…” I muttered. He tossed me a Duff, then sighed. "I am the Admin of Speed. And I am bored…" I grabbed the beer. “Well than what do you want to do? Cause I doubt you want to actively do Speed.” I said, bringing up the drug actually named Speed. "Har har. I've done and seen a lot. Frankly I wish I could leave this place." “You do know you can right?” I brought up. “There is literally nothing stopping you from taking a vacation. You are on guard duty sure, but you can just as easily go out, do your own thing, and be back before anyone noticed. You invented Speed so literally nothing can be faster than you.” "I would know. Frankly I'd… hmm…" “What?” I asked curiously. "Nah you won't go for it." “Well at the moment I have to do a trial to proceed to the next room.” I brought up. "Well there is one thing I have never done…" “And that would be?” I asked, getting a little nervous as to what this guy wanted. "I'm a… sure you can take a guess given you're...figure." “You just wanted to get laid?” I frowned. "Well my normal thing is an obstacle race, normally for my own amusement but that got old fast. No pun intended there. And hey, sex sounds interesting. Or so I hear." “Even though I’m a perv, no.” I frowned. “Your an admin, you can literally make yourself a woman to plow.” "It's not just sex." He said, standing up. "I've envied the beings we create. Short life spans, families, real passion for what they do. We admins don't have that privilege. We'll outlive all of them sooner or later and death for us is borderline non existence, at least they can be reincarnated." “Okay...so should I just...go to the next trial then?” I asked. “Sorry that I don’t understand your pain...but what, your just lonely or something?” I asked honestly. "Honestly? I just want a family." “And you...didn’t start one way before this?” I asked honestly. “You still have time to go out and find a girl, just ask Mother or Belief for some time off, I’m sure someone would be happy to be with you.” "... If only it was that easy." “It...actually is.” I said honestly. “Your an Admin, if you can’t find your special someone...than you can just literally make your special someone. Relationships are difficult yes, but dating and finding someone you can honestly love, through the good and bad, isn’t that hard...but who am I to talk given that I have over two thousand plus wives.” I rolled my eyes. “And counting…” I added. "Heh. And yet here you stand before me, both genders and the clear worry of when you will have kids of your own to birth and if you will be able to care for them." “I mean...it’s just more kids to the millions I have...fucking Cript Curse…” I grumbled. “But that’s mostly just me being a pessimist. You on the other hand are probably an optimist.” "And pray tell, what keeps this fear inside of you of convicting children of your own? The gender you were born as? The life you lived? The worry you won't be good enough? Hmm… no, it's not that you fear having them, you fear the one, or perhaps ones you want to father these children, you think you are not worthy of their time nor love." “Gonna have to be more specific cause I don’t think I’m worthy of anyone even after all the shit I’ve done.” I shrugged. “But why are you pointing this towards me when you could have gotten a girl a long while ago?” I asked honestly. “Personal interest. Some entertainment at least. In the end, once you’ve lived as long as I have, anything at all to break the never ending silence of eternity is welcome.” “Well sometimes you have to break that silence yourself.” I said honestly. “Can’t have others breaking the silence for you, that’s just boring.” “Either way, this is my trial then.” He said, taking a seat again. “Tell me, why you believe you don’t deserve anyone? If I think you are lying, then you won’t be allowed to proceed.” “Funnily enough, from an outside perspective, I have literally no right to believe I don’t deserve anyone.” I said honestly. “I have saved worlds, saved lives, and done so many great things as a hero...but on the inside I’m just a mess.” I sighed out. “A depressed mess that doesn’t even know his own past, feels like he can do so much more but everyone tells them to stop doing things and relax, and so many other things that I’d basically spend an hour going off on too many fucking tangents that I completely missed the central point.” I frowned. “But truly?” I asked while looking at my big fluffy paws. “I’m a failure...even if people tell me I’m not supposed to do everything and not be perfect...I failed the people I cared about so many times…” “And you see yourself as a failure, no matter what, is that correct?” “I have several pieces of evidence to prove it if you want.” I said honestly. “But I doubt that’ll mean much when you can already guess I shouldn’t be complaining.” “The path of the king, you walk blind, the path of a knight, you walk with too much worry and fear of failure. Are you sure you ever wanted to fight? To become king? You were placed on this path, yes, but is it the path YOU wanted to walk?” “As an optimistic Pessimist once said, when going into things you are either proven right, or pleasantly surprised.” I said honestly. “But what path do I want to walk? Well it’s a little late for that to be perfectly honest, but I just go where the road takes me, it’s not like the authors have fought over which way I should go ever.” I joked. “Okay seriously I think Eclipsa’s starting to rub off on me...damn it that sounded wrong…” I groaned while facepalming. “If you can’t change your path, then change your purpose.” Fann said, taking another beer. “If you can’t handle the stress of a king, pass along the crown, if you can’t stand the fear of a warrior, put down your sword, if you want to keep both, but fear the stress, then become what you already are, or rather, what you are afraid of being, despite it’s a natural fit for you.” “Little late on just dropping things at the moment, and become what?” I asked curiously. “Isn’t your specific type of Dire wolf you are known as a Den Mother? You can still fight, still rule, but rule where you are needed, and fight when your family is threatened before you. A simple, but still noble purpose to fit the path you have walked so blindly.” “So basically what I’ve been doing?” I asked honestly. “Are you with your children now? Nursing the young and carrying unborns? No, I can tell, one in another realm, one out drinking in sorrow, one here.” “One is actually doing just that.” I said honestly. “Cause while you sense three, I have five selves out and about. One is with my family, one is spending time with one of my daughters, and the other two are correct.” “Then tell me, where are your Unborns?” “Unborns?” I asked honestly. “Also the hell are you talking about?” “Oh, you have not remembered yet. My mistake then.” “Oh no, your not dodging that, you’re going to explain what you mean.” I frowned. “Am I pregnant or something and I didn’t notice?” “Not my place to tell, and if you can’t smell or feel your own pregnancy, you are one crippled wolf, but no, you aren’t. Not now, befo-” A hand covered Fann’s mouth. “That’s enough Fann.” Cript said. “My part and yours was already done, let Ben remember on their own.” “No, I want answers.” I frowned. “I’m already having a bitch of a time remembering what actually caused my past to happen, I don’t need more cryptic bullshit!” I barked. “But considering your here, the fuck did you do to me Cript?” “Nothing you didn’t ask me to do.” They said. “You’ll remember, in time.” They finished, vanishing. “No, get back here and answer me cause I didn’t ask you jack shit.” I growled, not knowing what he’s talking about, what I needed to remember, and just really hating this sudden new bout of cryptic bullshit. “Jesus, Marcy and Zeke weren’t thi-” I blinked. “Wait...what?” I muttered, wondering why I said ‘Marcy’ like that when I should have said Eclipsa. “Well this became ever the more interesting.” Fann said. “What the hell’s going on?” I frowned. “You’ll remember. Sooner or later. Til then I’ve been entertained, go on. Door is always over there.” Fann said, motioning to a finish line at the end of this track. “Thank you.” I nodded slowly , still confused on things as I headed off to the next trial. Entering the next area this place… is this a Lab? “Sample?” I jumped, seeing a woman in a lab coat, large glasses and holding a cup was next to me. “Uh...hi?” I asked nervously. “Sample. Now.” She said, shoving the cup in my face. “Sample of what?” I asked with a frown while pushing the cup out of my face. “Also rude.” “Spit, urni, fees, blood, any of that.” “Alright.” I nodded while I took the cup and spat in it to give them a sample for whatever reason. She took the sample I gave her and walked over to a machine she placed a little bit into a machine and began looking over a screen. ”Ugh, this is worse than when Dad tried to prove that…” “Wait what?” I blinked, confused on what I just thought. “I mean...dad tried to prove something but...I feel like...that’s something completely different…” I muttered worriedly. “I see.” The lady, the Admin of Biology I believe said, snapping me out of my stuper. “Fascinating. Complete genetic immunity to it, such a rare trait in a race.” “Complete immunity to what?” I asked curiously. “Genetic inbreeding.” She said so casually I actually fell over. “You could screw your kids and then their kids/siblings when they are old enough and no genetic abnormalities. Amazing.” “Well...thank Cript for that little chestnut.” I said sheepishly, even though I wouldn’t do such a thing...and for some reason I thought of ‘if they actually consented’ which kind of surprised myself.”Okay...that’s a little worrying...but at least it was with consent and if there isn’t any complications…” I thought to myself. Shaking my head, I walked up to this Admin. “Yes?” She asked, still reading over the screen. “So, what’s going to be my trial here?” I asked her. “Given that I’ve had one for every one else so far.” “Trial? Oh yeah, that...hmm… Samples.” She said simply. “Well you already got one…” I started. “What? Do you want…’others’?” “According to this I can get at least six more samples from you. Just one of each will do. And if you wait until my research is done, I can tell you the results.” “And how long would the results take and...what other samples do you need?” I asked nervously. “A sperm cell, an egg cell, feces, urin and breast milk. Oh, and a blood sample.” She said. “Okay, two of those are a bit gross…” I said. “But the other three are fine...breast milk...sperm and an egg cell.” “Bathroom is over there.” She said, pointing to a door in the corner. “The egg cell I’ll have to remove myself.” “You sure that’s safe?” I asked nervously. “The...taking one of my eggs part.” “I’ve done it lots of times, besides, I’ll be putting it back.” “Well...if you insist.” I said sheepishly while heading into the bathroom. I provided the… samples. A cup of urine, some...shit, and a little too much sperm… Once I was out and she took out some blood it was time for the egg… I was on a...special table for this, legs wide open as she… was looking directly into my womb... “Yeah...this isn’t weird at all…” I said sheepishly. “So...what? Have to go elbow deep or something?” I asked before I blinked and found it a little weird I said that. “No, simply put I’m going to put a very small vacuum tube with a camera in your vagina, through the cervix, into the uterus, through the fallopian tube and into the ovaries where I will extract one Egg Cell, it will flow through the tube, into the machine then once it’s analyzed I will reverse the tubes flow and place it back, just as I first took it.” “Well...that’ll definitely feel weird.” I said honestly. “You will feel a ticklish sensation.” She said, placing it in. I tensed up. It felt like when Twilight did...stuff but… a lot deeper and...not as stretching things. It reached my womb...and once it went in I about orgasemed, and I did make a scream of pleasure. “Okay...that...shouldn’t...have happened…” I groaned. “Your nerve endings in here as a Den mother make this area the most pleasurable area interact with. I mean seriously, just breathing in here can give you an orgasm after a few hard breaths.” She said, I felt that thing enter deeper and...woah… hurts but also feels good… damn biology… wait... “Okay seriously no, this is not okay. I should not be getting off to this. Also ow.” I groaned. “Just a bit more. Reaching the ovaries and here we are. Check them out.” She said, the screen on her machine nearby flashing to an image of a reddark place…. My ovaries, and countless clear round orbs. “Each one of those is an infant yet to be conceived. One thing’s just about every sexual reproducing species has of the female gender is this. Not all of them get to be born though, few races can have that happen.” “Okay...cool.” I said. “But seriously, I should not be getting off to this, even if Den Mother biology makes me more...sensitive.” “Discovering new kinks?” She asked, I heard her flip a switch and after a bit flip it again, then began pulling out the tube… that feels WAY too good~ “And done. Results for all will take some minutes. Put your pants back on and clean up.” “Seriously, that’s not right.” I shook my head. “And no, that’s not a ‘new kink’...I at least hope...and even if it’s new, I’m not doing it again.” I frowned while putting my pant’s back on. “Seriously, that was not okay…” “Look your body your pleasure areas, just wait somewhere and I’ll give you the data in about three minutes. Till then, I dunno, think or something.” “Alrighty then…” I muttered while walking off and immediately doing some code magic and making myself not have that weird pleasure thing anymore cause that was not okay. “I don’t care...shouldn’t have found it that good when it was weird…” I grumbled. “Seriously...the hell…” I muttered, before sitting down and waiting for the three minutes. As time passed I was wondering what was going on with my memories, and what was this thing Cript said I asked them to do, but I don’t remember doing anything… Fuck I hate when nothing gets explained right away. “Even if it’s not right away I’d like some idea what’s going on instead of ‘you’ll figure it out’...” I grumbled. "Okay, results are in." She said, gaining my attention. “Oh? What are the results?” I asked. "Regarding your breast milk, in short you're a walking health potion factory." “That I already knew about.” I said honestly. “Knew that a long time ago, both from my mother, and from…personal experience.” I said sheepishly. “Anything else?” "It accelerates the growth rate dramatically to maturity and even helps.slow down if not stop the aging process afterwards. While it's still in their system mind you." “So...my girls are literally the fountain of youth?” I asked honestly. “Wow...that’s something.” "In a sense, while it does halt the physical aging process, or slow it depending on the drinkers metabolism. Their life span clock will still be ticking." “Alrighty then. That is good to know.” I said honestly. “So, anything else after my breast milk?” "Your sperm seems to not only immediately fertilize an egg cell but also will actually wait for an egg to be available. Rather… rather odd. Your eggs are actually very fascinating." “And...what’s special about my eggs?” I asked. "They seek out sperm cells. Like a sperm seeking an egg they do the same! Not only that but it seems yours compared to other dire wolves I have on record actually will Multiply itself unfertilized to allow excess sperm cells to fertilize! If your blood work was right then your body not only could hold and support over a million infants but also CHOOSE when to birth them!" “Oh that? That would be the Curse Cript and his entire family has...which I am apart of.” I said honestly. “Weird hearing something you already know way too much about from someone that didn’t know about it.” "Lastly is a more… concerning matter. This involves your Den Mother Biology. It's a match for others so you might know this already." “Might not, what about my Den Mother Biology?” I asked curiously. "First off, I'm not sure how accurate this might be given you are both genders but here it is. Normal Den Mothers of your race go into heat at maturity and are, well, impregnated. And stay that way. If they are not knocked up immediately within a year of giving birth well… they die, their bodies overflow constantly after a first conception and stay that way with needed magics and essentials for the infants. But a Den Mother who is not impregnated after first heat, will still live, but will become infertile. Their inborn magic having not become active by an impregnation leaves them… unable to conceive." I...wasn’t sure I heard that right. “But...I’m an Admin...right? I can just...forgo that part right?” I asked in a rising bout of panic. "Yes, you are, but not like I am or the others here. You were a creation first. You can change your looks, gender, but at your core you can not change the rules you were built and born into to follow. This is part of why many Admins see creation born Admins as you as… inferior. You can't change your own code like we can, doing so for you leads to instability in it's flow and structure. Best case scenario you end up not being an Admin… worst… is worst." I wanted to say so many things about how being an Admin and all this code crap was a fuck ton worse than magic, but held it at bay. “So...what? I...I can’t have kids anymore?” I asked sadly. "Noticed from your bloodworks you are taking a special potion to hold your first heat away, this gives you time but your body is adjusting to them. Another month, month and a half and they won't work anymore, shortly after that your heat will kick in and… either choose to always be with and have kids… or never again, it's likely your male parts will be affected also so… I'm sorry to be the one to tell you this, but better than finding out when it's too late." I took a deep breath. “Good to know now...cause I wasn’t told that yet…” "It likely was forgotten. From what I remember Den Mother's on your races homeworld went extinct long ago, so they made due with designated ones. Worked but was not the same. You are tied to children, bringing them into existence. Heh, I remember the day Haru suggested females be the ones to do that. Everyone laughed but he made a point about it being easier than us having to make new kids for them every time a couple wanted one. He single handedly convinced us all to create reproduction, and, well, sex. " “Well he had a good idea.” I said honestly. “So...gonna have to get pregnant...or else...I’ll never have a kid again…” "I know it's a lot to think over, but I feel there is another thing I should bring up while we are on that topic…" “Yes?” I asked honestly. “What would that be?” "While examining your blood and everything I see you have the Starfish Cloning Ability. You don't by chance have clones out currently do you?" “Four others yes.” I nodded. “And I’ve had this ability for a long ass time, and if suddenly there’s some mystical draw back…” I grumbled. "Your inborn magic is all shared between them. Meaning once one of you gets pregnant… so will all the others, and any others you make from that point onward." “Oh...well that’s gonna be a hell of a thing.” I said honestly. "Other than that all your urine and feces samples told me was that you have a hell of a good set of Kidneys and liver." “Good, I’d be upset if either of them weren’t good.” I said honestly. "Other than that everything physical is alright." “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “So...just head on through then?” I asked, already knowing the clone that’s with all my family has probably told them about...my new condition. "Yes. That was all. Any new data is always welcome. My specialty is researching biology, not making it really." “Alrighty then. So where’s the door?” I asked, not knowing if it’s hidden behind something or if it’s just out in the open. "Of it's behind my research vault." She said, walking us over to a rather fair sized floor mounted safe. "Now… how do I move this thing?" "You...forgot how to move it?" I asked. “Well I put it here since the only ever person to make it this far was Cript and that was about forever ago. So… I didn’t actually think I’d even need to keep the door open…” “Wonders.” I rolled my eyes as I grabbed the thing. “You don’t mind if I just rip it out of the ground right?” “And activate the self destruct? No. The tools are around here somewhere.” “And this is why you need an assistant to help you make sure everything is where it is.” I rolled my eyes. “Need some help finding it?” “Check the underside cupboards, I’ll look at the top ones.” “Alright.” I nodded while heading around to look for the thing to get the safe out of the way. After about an hour of looking we found them and got the safe unhooked. Moved it elsewhere and rebolted it. WIth that I continued on. The next place was… heaven… a giant library! “Am...am I in heaven?” I asked, looking around at everything as my inner nerd and bookworm just went insane. “No, just my Library.” Said a… wow. This is new. He was tall, very thin, like how people draw some aliens, eyes were like looking into the stars at night and he wore a long blue cloak. “My name is Bensu, Admin of Language. As impressive as my library is all these books hold is the alphabet of every language and how to say each and every word from their vocabulary. Many languages here in these texts do not even exist anymore. Sad really, they sounded so beautiful, but simple english is by far the most flexible and expanding.” “Even though English as a whole makes absolutely no fucking sense when you think about it.” I shrugged. “But understandable, so what? Do I need to learn some really hard language to pass your trial or something?” “Not exactly. This trial is more for your education than to prove anything. Tomb one, two, three and four, all volumes.” He said, four sets of five books floated from out of sight over to me. “These texts hold the lost language of your race, every vowel, word, spell, everything. Your race spoke a very complex language, simple sounding noises holding vast and deep meanings behind each. But most importantly, they hold history and power. For example, the difference between one type of howl of power and another is something as small as a note of volume or the emotion behind it.” “Uh...that is...rather interesting.” I said. “I...wonder what the wolves back home will think if I use this…” I wondered while taking a book. “So...I just read and learn this ancient language?” “It should come naturally to you, like the hunt.” “Now that works.” I nodded while opening up the first book to read. “How ancient is this language?” “Until the end of Den Mothers was this language spoken. They primarily spoke these words, especially from Tomb fours volumes.” “It’s gonna be hilarious when I start breeding god knows how many den mothers because of my fertility curse…” I chuckled while reading the book with invested interest. I started with tomb ones volume. It went over basic communication, pronouncing, as a book on another language should, but also went behind how each word came to exist in the language. Who first spoke it and how it got popularized… this is a history lesson for each word. Is every book here like this? If so cool. “This is gonna take me a while...and I am perfectly okay with this.” I smiled. To Be continued...
Nobody's dayThe next morning I was clogging the toilet. Fun fact, as an Admin, not always does vomit come up. Sometimes it’s nothingness thorns, sometimes a Creeper Nobody, one time one of Foudre, and then some other random stuff. A bottle, a pack of ciggarettes, one time a fucking TIRE, and most recently, exactly sixty munny. Morning sickness can go fuck itself! “I hate everything!” I whined rather loudly. “Please...can someone end my pain?” “Welcome to motherhood Ben. We’ve been expecting you.” Luna said, rubbing my back as something else came up in a coughing fit. This time it was just vomit. “Motherhood can go fuck itself with Morning Sickness…” I groaned in pain. “I asked Lord after he arrived last night, and after laughing his ass off for the last three hours of the night he finally said for Admin Morning sickness typically it will last about an hour and a half.” Twilight said, a large notepad in hands. “So about thirty more minutes, said these things were pretty exact on timing. After that it’s cravings, and they can be anything and to prepare you a… mountains worth of… everything, followed by some mood swings then some normalcy after that and sporadic code creations. Depending on the Admin these can be every day all day or once every other day, best case scenario he has seen is with Cript themself who only gets like this once a month.” Twilight informed. “Well whoever made these rules need to get kicked in the dick really fucking hard.” I groaned. “I don’t have time for this garbage…” “It’s from research, not rules someone made.” Twilight said. “In any case thanks to our now Growing resources thanks to this… rather odd marriage with Cript and Zeke… which reminds me… what are you going to do about Jericho? Zeke said he will be part of this given what happened, and he did have our kids… how do you feel about all this?” “Jericho wasn’t going to die, we all knew that.” I coughed. “But Vincent is a cock sucker who has a hard on for his own son turned into a psycho bitch because Belief died one time.” I brought up. “Also, fuck Vincent being back, he died off screen like a bitch, he should have stayed dead like a bitch. Also Jericho is going to give our kids back I’m sure, Jericho isn’t retarded to just keep leverage he doesn’t need anymore when we’re on the same side basically.” I explained before coughing up a solid gold brick. “Seriously, the fuck is with this shit?” “He appeared with them.” Luna said. “Cript threw him through a portal here. He had all our kids, Nancy is so happy, but she actually looks healthier than when she was taken, actually gained a few pounds. And not from normal growth, just some extra fat. Makes her look so adorable!” “Well...she might be something special then.” I brought up. “Cause...I doubt she would be a Den Mother…but maybe she’s either something new or something that hasn’t been shown in forever…” I said honestly. “Or she just ate too much.” Twilight offered. “Eclipse Jr. and Nix were the same, a bit overweight. In fact they seemed to miss him. If any of my research about babies tells me anything it’s that they know a good person from a bad one. Despite everything… I think we can trust him to be an ally.” “As long as my babies still care about me, Zeke and Eclipsa I don’t care much…” I coughed. “Oh, what did you think of-” I threw up again, this time a Dusk. “Seriously, fuck off morning sickness.” I groaned. “Two giant kids and new giant girlfriend, what did everyone think?” I asked, having gotten one Mega Giant as a girlfriend because she cared enough about me after I ranted, raved, cried and fought in the bar, plus besides the lady in Skysplitter she was the only one to help us know how to take care of those two. “She’s nice. Thanks to a member from Meliodas’s world, one of the people who were fused with Zeke, she can shrink to fit in the castle. As for the babies, I always enjoyed cuddling with them, but being a life sized plushie was...different.” Luna said. “Not too bad, they were gentle, but still, kinda weird.” “Cuddles are always nice.” I said honestly. “Now here’s a good question...what’s gonna happen with all the fuckers Jericho recruited to his side when he’s immediately coming to our side?” “Likely they will side with the next figure of their power and ideals, Vincent and this Void Mother…” Luna said, still rubbing my back as this time I vomited up a… wait is this a slipper? Great, Morning sickness has jokes... “I don’t chew on shit, why did I vomit a fucking slipper?” I groaned. “Kinda glad my clones don’t have to deal with this garbage...cause if they all did I would never be able to get anything done…” I sighed out. “So...how has everyone been?” “Pretty good. Been training with Unum, both of them.” Luna said. “Been researching on these Firearm based Key-armerments with Starlight. Their very different from normal Keyblades.” Twilight said. “I’m sorry…” “For what?” They both asked. “Remember when I promised or talked about me actually helping you all train and learn to fight and either forgot about it or never fucking bothered?” I asked. “Yeah...just wanted to point out that fuck up of mine along with the laundry list of it...even though I’m one fuck up away from doing something pretty bad…” “Even with clones Ben, you are one person. Besides, this gives us a larger library of attack patterns to work with.” Luna said. “If you really want to help that badly we can work on a training session for us all?” Twilight offered. “I promised to help do a lot of things and yet have never done any of them cause I’m fucking retarded…” I grumbled. “And sure, why not.” “I’ll work on it with Consequence.” Twilight said. As Twilight left, calling Consequence and they appearing next to them. “So, what’s on your schedule for today anyway? I heard there was a Photo session?” Luna asked with a sly smile. “Yes, but not for lingerie or anything like that.” I said. “Just some public things, being all ‘hey, look at me I’m so cool basically being demoted from King to poster lady’.” I rolled my eyes. “Even though that was me before this entire thing happened but still.” “Well, hope that goes well. I heard some of the others might get called in for scenes so… that sounds interesting.” “Sounds like fun...and here Zeke was complaining about me wearing nice shoes that weren’t heels...seriously, fuck heels.” “Agree with you there, though the only pair of heels I have ever worn was made by the royal blacksmith for over a hundred years before my banishment. Battle ready and elegant enough to wear to any gala. If only they didn’t get ruined…” Luna sighed. “Well, maybe one day.” “I’m sure you’ll get another pair for your weird battle ready bondage kink.” I chuckled. “But...Rarities are gonna be so happy about all the dresses I have to wear…” “As long as I get to see you in something sexy I’m happy.” Luna said with a laugh. “Show off all those cleavages… that… are they bigger? Oh right pregnant. Yeah they were already milk makers so how much more are they going to make?” “I have a feeling both the kids, and all of you will make sure to test that.” I rolled my eyes with a little chuckle. “And yes, I will probably be wearing something sexy don’t you worry.” “Good. Also… I should warn you, but the Pinkies and your Rune are making a… special industrial milking machine for you… given how much you are likely going to be producing…” “Yeah, that’s what I need, those three selling my milk to keep people feeling young...and to just get really good healing potions cause my milk is super healing and other good things.” “Actually Cript’s company, Freak Inc, says that on open market your milk alone would fetch a five thousand Rem a bottle, more for a refined version that focuses on healing over the other stuff, and a lot of companies under Freak Inc hire races that produce milk in massive amounts to sell after some careful sanitation for safety. Have to admit… they sell just about everything and well, kids need milk.” “Well...another way to make an assload of money that we don’t ever fucking need.” I said honestly. “As Admins no we don’t really need money at all but not everyone is an Admin so a market still needs to exist.” Luna pointed out. As I was about to speak, before something else came out, this one a… Hammer? The fucking hell… Wait… I took a sniff at the air, and another and more. Someone here that smells...familiar… someone who hasn't been here for a while… Den! “Wait, Mom’s here?” I asked. “Why didn’t anyone tell me?” “You mean Den? Is she here?” Luna asked. “I just arrived.” Mom said, entering the bathroom. “Hi Ben.” She said, teary eyed and kneeling next to me. “My goodness. You’re bigger than I expected. You’re about my height now, though given what I am seeing and smelling, that’s likely to change in a month.” She chuckled. “Yeah, and from what Twilight told me I’m not going to like it...bitch and a half with morning sickness to begin with cause that makes sense. I’m an Admin, can’t just ignore all this stupid crap…” I grumbled. She pet me, and I felt a bit calmer. “Well you won’t be alone in this… As you know, things have changed… dramatically from what we expected.” “Why? Because you have your own body this time and being here instead of needing a statue for it?” I asked. “That’s part of it.” She said, helping me upright and then placing an herb in my mouth, it tasted… flavorless, but my stomach ache from the vomiting was already feeling better. “Nurtur herb from home, or rather, here. Heh. Helps with Morning sickness, but only for an hour or so.” She said, petting my face. “As you know, Cript is marrying Zeke to help gain power for everyone and this realm, this one and his will become one after this and all that. Before then though he is going to make us all the best of what we all are, all us mothers, wives of his, then make us Admins also, meaning soon I’ll be like you, a proper Den Mother. Cript offered before but I didn’t think it was needed, so at least you won’t be the only one anymore. But, by rules of marriage both this Kingdoms, Cript’s realms and Admin rules, this will make us all wives too… meaning I won’t just be your mom.” She said, drying off my face. “So...should I make mention that I have a mom kink?” I asked nervously. “But that’s great to know...also I’m learning the Dire Wolves long forgotten language...which apparently exists.” “Really? Oh Ben!” She said, hugging me tightly…. Squishy… “You’re rebuilding a once great place. But that is not all Ben.” Mom said, looking me right in the eye. “This war… is going to be worse than Admin war, meaning some rules of reality in this and many realms will have to change in order for us to have a chance. I don’t know exactly what Cript plans to do, dealing with someone as powerful as them, MORE powerful than them, but one thing I do know is this… For a while the Afterlifes will be… empty. Cript thinks the best way to make sure we have enough numbers for armies is to revive all the dead of the past. At least for his realm, I don’t know about here, but something tells me Zeke would be okay with it.” “So basically the rules can start making sense for once?” I asked. “Heh, likely not. All I know is that things will be getting… crazy from here on out. Especially now that we have a front lines set up…” Mom said sadly. “Where Jericho was hiding, his old hideout, was where Cript faced Vincent again and then saw this Void Mother… There are these monsters there, not Deletes but something just as bad… more mindless. More aggressive. He has some forces there but at the moment it’s just a stalemate with these monsters. For now anyway.” “Can’t wait to have them all fall over cause, funnily enough, Nothingness can do a lot of fancy shit against Void from what my studies have shown.” I said honestly. “Hopefully.” Mom said worried. “These aren’t like Deletes Ben, their void is… much more pure. Then if the intel is to be believed supposedly those who were originally recruited by Jericho are there, sometimes just showing up, they look… the same, more or less, but… that void stuff is on them like a tattoo or paint. Whatever is going on is not good.” “Can’t wait to make their little power up a moot point.” I said honestly. “Cause that’s what good guys do, they see the bad guys getting buffed up, so they do the same and outclass them in most cases.” I shrugged. “So...next up is my mood swings sadly…” “Heh, the first pregnancy is always the worst, after that it’s pretty simple. Some morning sickness, not often, and some cravings. For me it’s always Kiltch, this lizard up in the north, meat is not that good but the bones… oh stars the bones are the best.” “Well I don’t know what mine will be cause Twilight and the rest got me...a mountain of everything.” I sighed out. “I saw, one things good about Cript’s company is that is always made sure that progress had no negative drawbacks.” Mom said, feeding me another one of those Herbs. She then handed me a bottle. “Fresh is always best but these capsule pills are just as good. Just take three, one every hour in the morning and you should be able to bypass any morning sickness troubles. As for cravings, I have no cure for.” “I’ll hopefully figure something out…” I sighed out. “But thank you mom...also seriously...you technically being my wife...as well as all of Cript’s wives...good lord…” “And Cript themself.” Mom added. “No technically about it, Harem rules, when one harem marries into another all wives and husbands can share in each other… though if you want anything I expect a good date first.” Mom said giving me a light boop, making my blue fur glow bright pink in blush. “I always try mom.” I said sheepishly. “God, some people are gonna flip about this…” “Yes, but they have their opinions, but our race evolved so these… relations were alright genetically. Part of how we breed so fast and become the dominant race of our world. If there is no genetic concerns then it’s all on the one judging and their opinions. Ethics is in the eye of the viewer, what’s ethically good or bad is different for many places and people across everywhere. I learns pretty quickly that none of that matters and so long as both are happy and consent you can make the best of life.” “Actually did a little research on that...did you know that if you married your cousin that’s perfectly fine on a genetic level?” I asked. “God, before incest would be weird but...now incest is perfectly fine and no one cares.” “Ethics change with time, sometimes for the better, sometimes not. WHatever comes after all of this will really be… something different and unique.” Mom said, giving me a kiss on the cheek. “I have to go, but I’ll be back soon, with an extra set of juggs and likely be taller than you if I’m to be made one of many of the best Dire Wolfs I can be.” She said, standing up. “Likely I’ll be back tomorrow for the wedding.” “Alright, see you tomorrow.” I said with a gentle smile. “Oh and...mind if I ask...how does Cript do that whole...fusing with his wives thing?” “Hmm… It’s hard to describe, I guess the best way I can describe it is like placing data from different storage drives all onto one, and making sure they don’t get mixed up or corrupted. When we fuse or I fuse with another it’s like, I still feel I’m me, but I also feel I’m the one or many I’m fused with, but we also feel like someone different, someone new. If that makes any sense.” “Good to know, but I asked ‘how’.” I said honestly. “You’d have to ask them that.” Mom said with a smile. “Well he’s probably gonna walk in right now.” I rolled my eyes, knowing trends are a hell of a thing. Nothing happened. Mom chuckled. “He’s likely ‘upgrading’ the others so I best head over there.” “Alright.” I nodded. “Best you be off while I...deal with things.” “Alright. See you again soon.” After a nice shower and taking one of the pills mom gave me for good measure I headed off to this Photo shoot. I arrived in Rarity’s, or rather Rarities studio where I was immediately placed on a chair and shown many rather beautiful dressed… except this one, yellow and pink? What am I, a pastry? And with this coat colors? Nope… Wait, when do I know fashion? “Okay, let's start with the problems I’m...somehow mystically seeing.” I said before listening them off to the Rarities. “Yes, that color is so not you.” My Rarity said, rocking a sexy loose hair look. “But if their hair had the right sheen and grooming the colors would complement each other, giving a youthful spring time gal look.” Zeke’s Rarity said, hair in a, ironically, ponytail, and glasses on her face. Oddly… I can see that thinking it over? Still don’t like how puffy it is. “Can we make it less...puffy or poofy though? This isn’t a royal ball two hundred years ago.” I brought up. “I’ll make some adjustments.” My Rarity said. “Thank you.” I nodded. “I’m already fluffy enough, no need for my dresses to also be it.” “Now then it’s time for the Photos!” Zeke’s Rarity said with an eager smile and a clap of the hands. “Photo Finish, three, all three of our realms them are in the garden with scenes and such set up, let’s get moving!” “Oh boy, this is gonna take a while…” I sighed out. “Well, let’s get going then.” We headed out to the gardens and All three Photo finishes were there with cameras in tow and several little sets made up for me to pose in. Actually some of my wives were here too. Even the kids- Nancy! I immediately scooped up the little girl. Wow, she did get fat. “Oh my god I am so happy your back.” I said happily. “And look at you, what have you been doing, eating all day?” She blushed. "I er… Jericho had this baby formula stuff that he said was a liquid form of some of the more sought after preys on my home word, which I honestly didn't know what that meant but what I do know is that I not only finished every bottle I also demanded seconds… and thirds… and fourths…"* I giggled and gently tickled Nancy. “I understand my little girl. The food is really good.” I said honestly. “But I’m so happy your here.” "Time for photos!" All three Photo Finishes said in unison. I gave Nancy back over to Pinkie and began getting dressed. This was a picnic scene so I was dressed in a sky blue dress with a long skirt that showed off a fair amount of my girls, but not enough to be considered indecent. I was sat next to the basket, the food was all fake but what do you expect for a photo shoot. Pinkie and Nancy came here also, Nancy was holding a toy rattle that looked like Lunatic… okay that's cute. “Oh my god, that is just adorable.” I said honestly. “What, are all my weapons turning into toys for all the little ones?” "Yup!" Pinkie said. “Oh my god that is so adorable!” I squeed...yes, I just did that with how adorable it is. The photo session went on for over five hours… I changed outfits a lot. But finally that was over. I didn't know I could be exhausted just posing. “Yeesh, too many poses.” I sighed out. “But that is that...unless I have to do more photo shoots.” "Not until tomorrow." Pinkie said holding Nancy. “Wonders…” I muttered. “So anyways, what’s next on the things I need to do?” I asked, feeling like I’m supposed to do other things today. "Next is a meeting with Kingdom Talk, a TV show that's been around since before you arrived. The host's name is Penny Tree." “Well let’s hope the host isn’t a bitch.” I brought up. “Nothing can ruin someone’s attempt at a good start than someone who’s so willing to just completely ignore basic facts.” "It's mostly random topictopic talks and some questions from viewers." Rarity said. "They keep it very PG." “I’m probably gonna make that a PG13 on accident to be perfectly honest.” I shrugged. “But I’ll try to keep it down.” "Good." Pinkie said. "We will be watching!" Pinkie said. “No pressure.” I rolled my eyes. I can't fucking do this… A stage audience of at least five hundred, a good quarter are all kids, and damn it the host is that mix of sexy age grey hairs that is just… sexy. "So Ben, a question on everyone's mind these days is your title. Are you still going by king or do you also accept queen?" Penny Tree asked. “Eh, either or is fine.” I said honestly. “Given my current...physiology, I can go either way with certain titles.” "Okay. So Queen Ben, how does it feel to be in this new Grand Crown? Multiple Kings, multiple Queens, yourself included, does the paperwork still pile up or is it pretty evenly distributed." “All I know is that I’m not doing any of the paperwork, and that is a wonderful thing to know.” I chuckled. “And how does it feel? Well...I’ve already been a king for a while, sharing it means I’ve got less of a workload so I can focus on other important things than the mountain of paperwork that I used to be forced into doing.” The audience seemed to agree with that. "Okay, now then. Your weapons. Replicas of them made from plastic and foam being sold in the market as toys. Now this decision was made by King Mors who wanted it as a means for the young to know both the crown and the weapons you use to defend it. How do you feel about that?" “I actually didn’t know about it until a photo shoot I had with the three Photo Finishes, and my daughter Nancy was holding a Toy Lunatic, and I thought it was just absolutely adorable.” I said with a smile. "Yes, my own son has a foam replica of your Frozen Pride shield. So, Admins. Can you give us a little more Insight as to what exactly they are and you are." “I forgot, how far has video games progressed while I wasn’t paying attention? Cause it’ll help me give an example.” I started, wanting to know how things have progressed and if I can even make this analogy. "Currently with this new merger with Freak Inc VR is not only possible but items brought from this virtual world can be made a reality here. And vise versa." “So you know the Server Admins for these games? Able to do basically anything they want because of ‘Admin Powers’?” I asked honestly. “Yeah it’s basically that, except like...fifty times more convoluted than what Game Admins have to deal with.” The audience laughed. "Well that's an idea at least we have on it. Now, onto something a bit more serious. This war that is said to be approaching, now, from what is known it is actually said to be even worse than expected. Does the crown have a plan of action?" “I mean, besides winning?” I asked honestly. “But right now...several idea’s are being passed around, trying to figure out more and more things…” I looked over to all the kids. “But…I don’t think we should talk about that in front of the kids…” "Right. Sorry. Onto a lighter topic, news leaked from a source within the castle says that you are expecting. Is that true?" “Was it Jenny?” I asked. “You can tell me it’s Jenny, I’m pretty sure she would have very quickly told everyone.” "Actually this leak delivered it within my morning cinnamon bun so I am going to assume it was Queen Pinkie Pie and not Princess Jenny." “Yeah...I’m pretty sure Pinkie would have been too excited not to share it with the world.” I chuckled. “But...yes, yes I am. And to all the mothers out there, first pregnancy is not fun and I now fully understand it.” There was some laughter in the crowd. "Amazing. And pray tell, who is the father that deflowered you?" “Zeke actually, and while Zeke was probably pregnant with Eclipsa’s kids...well he’s certainly going to be pregnant with my kids that’s for sure.” I chuckled. "Interesting and that brings me to another hot topic on the public's mind now. You and Zeke and Eclipsa all have both genders anatomy and some people wonder, was this a choice or a means of stating that being a being of your power and status that one's born gender is unneeded or in a better word, not a base to which to base one’s identity and sexuality. So the question is do you find being one gender better or both and why?" “That is a tough question.” I said while thinking about it. “Well to start, this really isn’t about ‘oh, I’m powerful I can do whatever I want’, it was more of a...understanding thing between me, Zeke and Eclipsa.” I explained. “And to the broader question, neither is better or worse to be honest. I’m...trying to figure out a more PG way of saying this...but if you want to be the opposite gender then that’s fine, you can do it as long as your not being a jerk about it.” I said honestly. “It’s fine if your still you, even if your a boy or a girl or both, but it’s not okay to be rude to everyone because you changed genders.” I explained. "I see. So, now onto some audience questions. Uh, yes you there." A mare, young, yellow coat and green mane stood up. "Um, yes Queen Ben. First off, hi, and secondly a lot of us are wondering just how old you are exactly, because ever since you first appeared on Equis it's been a debated question." “Time is really weird to be honest.” I brought up. “Cause when I originally came here, I was eighteen, then maybe a year or so past and then I was nineteen...then a certain event happened where I was stuck in a coma in a pocket dimension for thirty years…” I explained nervously. “So...I’d say I'm in my late forties? But given I’m an Admin I can look however young or old I want honestly.” "Oh, wish I could do that. Then again so does every woman." “What? Look young and beautiful?” I asked honestly. "Yes. Age often takes away beauty, energy, all that. So, we have officially reached the halfway point of the show and I would like to say that Ben, there is a movie in the making about you, actually." “To start, I can easily point to Penny Tree here to prove that age doesn’t take away beauty and energy.” I started. “I mean come on, the grey hairs actually make her more beautiful, and she’d need a lot of energy for this show to be honest.” I explained simply. “And what about a movie about me?” "First off thank you for that complement and secondly yes, a full movie about you is in the works." “What? Is it going to be about all the good things I’ve done or something?” I asked honestly. “Hopefully it does well cause...well my life isn’t that special to be honest.” “We got all the details we could from whoever we could about this movie and sources say your sibling Joy, Mother, Father and Grandmother were all interviewed to get as accurate as a story as possible. There likely will be some creative licence using here and there but as long as it’s mostly the same as the true story the citizens won’t mind too much.” “Oh then it’s probably going to be very sad.” I said honestly. “But can’t wait to see if it’ll do well.” I said honestly. “So, any other questions?” “That’s all for now. Next up on our guest list tonight is Sapphire Shores to talk about her new album.” The crowd applauded and I was kindly escorted back home. Once there I saw my office, mostly just images from the photos I took were there for preview and only a small files worth of documents. Better than a stack. “Well quite a bit of photos…” I muttered while moving over and checking the documents to see if they were anything important. It was mostly approvals for further photos and payments for the Photo Finish’s. The only thing here that was not related to the rest was some report about the War Front. Report: {Redacted} For Queen Ben’s Eyes only. Report states special operative {Redacted} has retrieved sample of one of the Nexus replicas of Lindworm. Base materials match the originals but they have been infused with three unknown materials. Sample sent to Kingdoms Science and Arcane research division for further examination. Front holding strong. “Hopefully they don’t know Lindworm takes a Wind Dragon God’s soul...which I’m gonna need to actually talk to the thing sooner rather than later…” I muttered. I held on this document and began to think things over. “Okay so...what could be the three unknown materials? Plus they would probably have to come up with other ways to simulate what my weapons can do but at a worse output, even if it’s ‘perfect’ in their eyes, the originals are special with how they were crafted, made and used.” I hummed with some thought. As I pondered over this I began to notice the sun was setting. I got up, and headed to the nursery. “Let’s hope the kids are okay…” I muttered, all my other clones either doing stuff off world, with Zeke and Co, or doing other things. I sat with some of the other kids, feeding some and fixing up the hair of others. “So many kids...and I’m just happy you're all here.” As I settled in snuggly I saw one pup sniffing around. Awh, so cute. “What are you sniffing for?” As they crawled around oh so adorably, they eventually dug into a small pillow pile, and emerged with a tennis ball… No, no, it’s theirs, not mine… why… why with Tennis balls!? The pup walked away happily with their toy and I sighed. Damn Canine instincts. “Hi.” I turned, seeing Jenny sitting next to me, belly rather large. “Hey Jenny, how are you doing?” I asked. “Craving cow bones and strawberry yogurt.” She sighed. “Joy’s in the Hospital now actually. Giving birth already.” “Oh my god, congratulations.” I said warmly “Hopefully it’s not the millions of kids I...wait no, you and Joy are also under Cript’s curse so yeah, have fun with your own little army of cute.” “Heh. Call it millennial insight but as it turns out while the Cript’s family curse is unable to be removed, it can be edited via~” She tapped on her assistant. “While he is also knocked up for life his body will give birth to six or eight every seven months… forever… Heh. Unless we hit pause.” “I can also just teach him how to make Clones, cause even then it would only be to the one clone that got pregnant.” Ben said honestly. “EIther way.” Jenny said. “Joy has about six, I’ve got nine in here. All girls too. Surprisingly.” “That’s wonderful.” I said honestly. “Kids...kids can help make people better.” “Yeah. So, how’s the new job going?” “So far so good I suppose.” I shrugged honestly. “Photo shoots and talk shows are good so far.” “Heh. If you told me my life was ever going to be this...nice, I’d have shot you.” Jenny laughed. “I’m a little worried though.” “About?” I asked curiously. "Well… I'm still a Ventral dad. Of the kids ever for one reason or another kill someone… Killing Mood activates. And if they have red eyes like Zeke it's even worse." “Oh that?” I asked, closing and opening my right eye to show it was a Psychopath’s eye. “I already know...full well what they want...but, there is another.” I said before closing my left eye and opening it, showing the gold and blue of Humanity. “Humanity, Psychopath’s opposite. Keeps me balanced and has this parasite happy for...some reason.” Ben said while pointing to his black and red eye. “That doesn’t mean the kids will be like that…” Jenny said. "I mean, there's also the Guardian, where the host and the damn parasite are both cool with each other. Honestly Jenny, Psychopaths haven't been a problem for like...ever, and will not be an issue, especially when there's medical stuff to get rid of the psychopath permanently from your blood and any kids you would have." “How many have been Admins?” Jenny asked. “I just worry. I mean, when Zeke had his removed he went blind!” “And then he either got prosthetics or he got better.” I pointed out. “Also I’m pretty sure, a long time ago, they took out the Psychopath blood in you. Like, way long ago.” I said honestly. “Unless you double checked that.” “Don’t need to. Every Ventral after their first killing mood just sometimes hears this voice… tells us how to kill or where a target is. Do you know what I did when my killing mood hit?” “What?” I asked. “Also I’m pretty sure Trinity got rid of it…” I muttered while checking my Assistant if Jenny is Psychopath free. “I slaughtered… I don’t wanna talk about it now…” She said, rubbing her belly. “Let’s just say… If you haven't changed it, it wouldn’t haunt me like it does now.” I nodded. “Believe me...I understand.” I sighed out. “But trust me...it’s not going to get to that point, okay?” I told her softly. “Besides, I’m pretty sure Cript knows a way to train them...which begs the question of why haven’t I been trained in either Humanity or Psychopath powers...that was just kind of skipped over to be honest.” “Maybe there isn’t a way to train?” “Well let’s ask Cript.” I said honestly. “He’s the one that brought that up, plus he himself is a Psychopath technically.” “Call them then.” Jenny said. I nodded and gave Cript a call. ‘Let’s hope he’s not too busy.” A short bit later Cript arrived. “What’s up, Jericho just barely woke up. Eclipsa really did a number on him. He hasn't been injured that badly since his fight against the fifty imperials when he was ten.” “I’m...not going to question that.” I started. “So, Jenny has a concern...and this concern also stems to me I suppose. Can you train people to control their Psychopath power? Cause Jenny here, who might not even have psychopath blood in her anymore, is concerned for her kids...and given that I am a Psychopath as well even though Humanity is a thing, will my kids also have a bad time with this?” “Hmm… well that’s tricky. You can learn all their abilities, master their blood techniques, but train? No, it gives you a power or ability when it feels you have gained the strength to use it, all you can do in the end is ether co-exist with it, or keep out of the hive mind. Not many can return from that once they fall in.” “So what you're saying is that it’s pretty easy to deal with having another voice in your head?” I asked. “Or is that just me given that I’m just completely insane.” “Funny enough in order to live with it, you have to be insane. A mind that can flex between normalcy and complete insanity.” “Or having Humanity?” I asked curiously. “And honestly, with this family...insanity isn’t really that hard to have.” “Humanity is harder to have.” Cript said, crafting a quick little potted plant with Code, then another. “Psychopath power just required a drop of blood, and the right host. It’s died to blood.” He said, slicing his finger a little, dropping a bit on one plant, and it shifted to a razor sharp thorn covered thing with teeth as petals. “Humanity on the other hand can’t reside in a body without Psychopath power.” Cript said, a small drop of humanity formed in his palm, falling to the other plant as it began to grow, then quickly died. He put another drop on the Psychopath plant, and the plant began reverting to normal-ish, but kept a few thorns. “Two sides of the same coin, but one can’t survive without the other, but the other can.” “Right then.” I nodded. “Good to know...now question, is it even a wise decision to talk to the damn thing?” “How so?” “I mean actively mentally talking to the Psychopath Parasite in you.” I said. “Like how I can talk to spirits in some of my weapons, like Skysplitter, my keyblades, or Lindworm.” I said honestly. “You can try, but it’s not quite a parasite, more like… a mix of magic and genetics. Every living thing already has one in them, but like genetics it’s either vary dominant or not active, dorment.” “So basically it’s that whole ‘this is your evil half’ thing?” I asked honestly. ”In a sense. Without Psychopath you can’t kill, in a dormant state one can kill, feel regret, in a fully active state you kill and crave more. But it changes as the host does. Like Jenny there. Before, she didn’t care who died, now, she regrets it all.” Cript pointed out. “Her gene is more dorment now. Active enough to allow her to kill if needed, not enough to make her not care.” “Okay then.” I nodded. “Good to know.” “So, anything else?” “Here’s a thing, remember when you told me you’d train me in how to use Humanity and Psychopath powers? Yeah when did that stop being a thing?” I asked honestly. “When many things started happening. But you’ll be ready to train when you can do this.” Cript said, his hands becoming coated in Psychopath and Humanity… a lot like what happened to Zeke earlier today. “I would like to do that, but how can I do that when I have literally never trained with it and the only time I can remember was a fluke against a Delete?” I asked honestly. “There are no flukes, just possibilities.” Cript said. “One of my old teachers used to say that.” “I know I know.” I said honestly. “Good to know though. Anything you want to ask him Jenny?” ‘’Not right now.” Jenny said. “If that’s all I’m heading back to check on Jericho.” Cript said. “Alright.” I nodded. “But good thing Eclipsa figured out how to do that.” “Now she just has to learn how to control it.” Cript said, taking leave. “Better not play punchies with Eclipsa anytime soon.” I chuckled. To be continued...
Nobody spends time with MomAuthor's Note Note, there is a bit of porn here and it is bolded where it starts and where it ends Nobody spends time with Mom The next day, Den showed up, a now Den Mother, the extra breasts showed enough. She was also much taller than before, even with my new heights she was now about as tall as I saw her when I first met her. “So, how’s things been Ben?” Den asked, nursing some kids in her Feral form. “Oh you know, same old same old.” I said honestly. “And even now, your still taller than me, like when we first met.” I said honestly. “How have things been for you?” “Well, these extra teats are both helpful and odd. Just not used to them. Though being able to feed this many children at once it helpful.” “It’s always helpful.” I agreed. “But you get used to the extra sets honestly.” “I know… Cript already is used to them~” She chuckled. “And so is all of my wives.” I rolled my eyes. “Seriously, they all really like my breast milk.” “Heh. Well can you blame them?” Mom asked. “Got’s taste and is very useful.” “Oh you have no idea.” I chuckled. “Cause not only is it some super healing potion, but it can keep someone young which is a little surprising.” “Such is us.” She chuckled. “So how do you feel about a Den Mothers role in the tribe?” “It’s nice, but now that I’m pregnant...really glad I have clones that aren’t.” I said honestly. “Just so I can take care of kids...and still go out and do things.” “You’re talking about that Mother being Cript made right?” Mom asked. “A bit.” I said honestly. “This clone is pregnant as you can clearly see.” Ben said while motioning to their growing belly. “But the other clones...hopefully they don’t also get pregnant so I literally can’t do anything but sit here and have kids...while that’s fine for my Den Mother instincts...for the rest of me, that’s a big ‘no’...” “Well to each their own.” Mom said. “If I need to, I’ll do as you are, but I’m familiar like this. Content this way. So are many of the others.” “I know.” I nodded before taking a moment. “Wait, others?” “What? You thought I was the only Dire wolf wife of Cript’s? Like me they all are also full Den Mothers.” “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “I kind of knew he had multiple dire wolf wives but...didn’t think they were also Den Mothers.” “Well they weren’t. Not by birth or title, I was only a Den Mother by title. But now we are all Den mothers by genetics, they prefer to be in a more… traditional environment.” “Oh?” I asked curiously. “Traditional environment?” “Caves. Like the old days. They just prefer them over houses or castles, though they keep the pillows and blankets.” “That’s because pillows and blankets are nice.” I said honestly. “But to each their own.” I said, accidentally speaking it in the long forgotten dire wolf language. “Oh...uh...woop.” “Woah. I haven’t heard that language since my grandmother was still around… Going to be nice to see them all again.” Mom said. “Well I’ve been learning the entire language thanks to Bensu.” I said honestly. “I know a few.” Mom said. “A spell or two, and a few words. Grandma was already… pretty on her way out when I came about. Could hardly move at all.” “And...how long ago was that?” I asked honestly. “Cause Bensu said the language was ancient and lost...I don’t know the max age a Dire Wolf can be but it sounds like that was two hundred years ago or something.” “Depends. The average male could be about a hundred, females two, Natural Born Den Mothers given their body and such five, six hundred, and if all the members of the den drank their milk also their lifespan was often extended. Grandmother’s mother was the last Den Mother born to our den. She was six hundred years old.” “Okay then.” I said, doing some math in my head. “So...roughly about sixteen hundred years ago or something? If your grandmother was six hundred years and your mother was only two hundred.” “About.” Mom said. “I’d...say that’s about long enough to say it’s ‘long forgotten’ and ‘ancient’.” I shrugged. “Same.” Mom said. “So, I can help teach you all the language if you want me to.” I said honestly. “Help bring back old ways that have been long forgotten?” “That sounds nice.” I nodded. “Alright, so where to begin cause...it’s actually a bit tough given that every word can mean something completely different based on tone.” “I was told.” Den said, sitting more upright now. “So, where to begin?” “Well, let’s start with what you already know since you said you do know some words.” I started. “I know the howling spell for healing, barrier and sleeping. Words I only know basic hello and love, Kin and young, and goodbye.” “Alright, good to know.” I nodded. “Good start...hmm…” I hummed. “Well let’s go with trying to say your name. Sounds simple enough.” I said honestly while saying her name in the old language. Mom was decent, her pronunciation was good but her tone needed to be a bit more casual, her ‘Den’ sounded more like ‘Dig’. Or ‘Door’. “We’re getting there, but it needs to be more...casual. Your word sounds more like ‘dig’ or ‘door’ at the moment, but we’re making progress.” I said with a nod. “Oh this is so much fun.” Den said in excitement. “So, more casual huh? Hmm…” Mom said, trying to figure out how to make it sound more casual to mean her name. “It’s a little weird I know.” I said honestly, repeating the word again in that ‘casual tone’ I mentioned to her to help her understand it. A few more attempts and mom got it down perfectly. Practicing it a few more times until it was just right. I nodded. “That’s great.” I said with a smile. “You got it.” “Oh this is so nice. Grandma wanted to teach me a special spell before she passed. I don’t know what it was though. All she said is that it was passed down from all the Den Mothers in our den.” “Well...I do know a spell…” I started. “It’s some ancient spell that lets you call upon an ancestor to talk and such. Nifty little thing if you need some advice or something.” I said honestly. “Want me to call her down?” “That… would be nice.” “Alright, what’s her name if I may ask?” I asked. “So I know who to actually call.” “Donna.” Mom said. “She wasn’t like the rest of us, she had… red fur. A rare color for us.” “Alright.” I nodded before closing my eyes. “I call upon Den Mother Donna.” I said in the ancient wolf language, casting the spell in a mixture of pitched growls. Forming in a circle between myself and mom, rose a ghostly red figure of a much younger dire wolf in feral form. A Den Mother. “Ye- Holy shit Den is that you?!” The ghostly Den Mother said. “Yes! Hi Grandma!” “You’re… You’re like me! My god you’re huge. Even as a pup you were huge.” “Heh...Granny…” Mom said, rubbing the back of her head. “Grandma, this is Ben, my… daughter, and the first Natural Born Den Mother since you.” “Hi.” I nodded to the wolf. “But to...kind of elaborate on the ‘gender’ thing...you can probably tell I’m both...if the spell let you do normal things like if you were alive.” I said sheepishly. “It does. I smelled you the second I appeared, know all I need to… if you were my pup, I’d have grounded for life for having such a piss poor attitude about life.” “Not my fault my life has been such a train wreck I am always expecting the worse.” I countered. "So was my sister's life. Husband dead, pups died from disease, and she still had reasons to smile and look on the brighter side." “At least she knew who she was.” I stated bluntly. "Grandma." Den spoke up. "What was the spell you wanted to teach me before you passed?" "Oh yes. I remember." The ghostly dire wolf said. "It's the Lullaby spell." “For the kids?” I asked curiously. "No." She chuckled. "It's more of a curse." “Cause that’s what we need to know.” I chuckled. "It Is a… rather harsh spell. Once cast, all the young of a rival den, come to your Den, and completely forget their birth family. It was used to save the young of dens who's dire wolves were… less than ideal." “I understand…” I said. “But...family is really important, especially for Dire Wolves.” "I know… but there are exceptions to every rule." “To save the lives of the young.” I said honestly. "Grandma… how do you know that spell?" Den asked. "Taught to me by my mother, and her before her." “Sounds about right.” I nodded. “I just...hope it’ll never be used on me cause...fuck if that wouldn’t be crushing.” "No mother should ever have this spell cast on them." “No one.” I agreed. “Mind if I ask...what your life was like?” I asked my great grandmother honestly. "My life? Well, I became of age, had my first litter, became a full fledged Den Mother, raised and had more litters." “Sounds simple enough.” I said honestly. "It was. A Den Mother's job is a simple but important one." “Yeah…” I said while putting a hand on my growing stomach. “It’s...very important.” She taught both Den and I the spell. After that she went back to the afterlife. Sighing, Den looked at me. "Ben… if you could, would you go back?" “What do you mean?” I asked honestly. “Would you go back to what?” "I know about your time as Diane. Would you...go back to that life, if what happened never did?" “Well to start I’d like to know who the fuck I am for like ten seconds.” I frowned. “Can’t really be all ‘would you go back?’ when you don’t know who you are and what your going back to ya know?” "The happier life then." “Oh, then fuck no.” I said honestly. “I have literally never been happier with what I have now, even if my memories of being Diane show that I was happier, that pales in comparison to right now.” I said honestly. "I see." Den said. “Why do you ask?” I inquired. “Seems a tad random if I’d want to go back to my old life as Diane.” "Just a question. Most people would give anything to go back to such simpler times." “Well then they don’t understand that life is really unfair most of the time.” I said honestly. “But it’s understandable that they want things to be simpler when nothing makes sense anymore.” I said. “So, mind if I ask...how you’ve taken care of all those kids for so long?” "Starfish clones help, that pocket dimension thing Cript made was also an amazing help. But mostly it was just learn as I went." “Sounds about right.” Ben said honestly. “How does it feel to be a full fledged Den Mother?” "Not all that different from normal really. The extra cleavage isn't that noticeable anymore." “It’s noticeable to literally everyone else that’s for sure.” I chuckled. “God...it’s weird how I’m technically married to my mom…” I said. “I probably already asked you about that to be honest.” "Yeah. It is strange but in our homeworlds culture it's fairly normal." “Wait…” I started. “As in...marrying your mother is actually normal in our culture?” "Normalish. It only ever happens if powerful Hunter of the Den has not selected an equally powerful mate from his own or an allied den." "Alrighty then." I nodded. "That's ...good to know." “Yeah.” Den said. “Just what develops depending on all that happens over the years.” “Yeah, a lot of things can happen over the years.” We talked more over time, mostly about our experiences so far raising kids. “You know, Jenny could be a Hunter also.” Den said. “Her personality, power, she could easily become one of the legendary ones from the wall back in my old den.” “Of course.” I said honestly. “But that’s up to Jenny if she wants to do that.” I pointed out. “I know. It always is, but it also depends on if the Hunters of the past call her to that path.” “Well at the moment she’s pregnant so maybe they won’t call at the moment.” I brought up. “Never know.” Den said. “They called me once.” “Really?” I asked curiously. “I didn’t know that.” “I was young, before my first litter.” She said, remembering those early days. “They call us in our dreams, we dream of ourselves, hunting with them in grand battle against the ultimate prey. The Silver Bears.” “Excuse me who?” I asked. “The Silver Bears. Our version of Demons of hell.” Mom said. “Tall as mountains, as powerful as an exploding volcano, and as plenty as rabbits without predators around.” She chuckled. “And...how good do they taste?” I asked curiously. “No one knows. They are a prey for the dead.” Mom said. “Only the legends of the den hunters get to hunt them in the afterlife, traversing the depths of our version of hell, the Deep Abyss, to find them.” “Well then...that’s an interesting thing.” I said honestly. “There is still a lot about our culture, I haven’t had the chance to explain… but I do now.” Mom said, getting up and curling up next to me. “Our relationship is… bizarre, but in the end, we are still family. And finally I can spend much of it with you, telling you all that has yet to be told fully.” “And that is wonderful.” I said happily. “Spending time with family is always a wonderful thing.” “Yes. So, have you considered a name?” Mom asked. “One of these days you will have to give birth to your very first, well, first born. Then many after that. What will you name your first born?” “I’m bad with names...I don’t know.” I said honestly. “Plus...it’s still a long time before I’ll give birth to my first litter…” “You have a clone here, you, solely for this purpose. You have literally no reason to wait for it.” Mom countered. “I’d rather not pop out a kid every day when I, as a Den Mother, need to be pregnant for eternity.” I said. Mom simply chuckled. “Well, when you are ready.” “I mean, do I also have the whole pregnancy thing from that curse?” I asked. “Or do Dire Wolves just have kids rather quickly?” “You also have the curse, meaning you already have… let’s see…” She took a deep sniff of me. “Zeke then Eclipsa… Roughly six million already ready to pop infants in you. Despite you don’t look at it, you do. Normally for even a Den Mother it takes five months for our kind to grow a child but with the curse it’s pretty much instant.” “Alright.” I nodded. “Well that’s a lot.” "Come on." Mom said, standing up. "Let's go out for a bit." She said, shifting to anthro form and snapping her fingers as clothes appeared on her. “Alright.” I nodded. “Where to if I may ask?” "Just to eat." Mom said, waiting for me to get dressed. I was already dressed given I never turned into my feral form. “Ready when you are.” "Oh. Wear these." Mom said, handing me a pair of sunglasses. "If we want a real fun time, the illusion spell on these will keep anyone not wearing a pair from recognizing us. Given you are now the kingdoms poster girl I figure some special time without paparazzi would be nice." “Alright.” I nodded while taking the sunglasses. “Hopefully this will keep everyone from following us.” Placing them on and mom her own pair we headed out. Walking down the walkaways was different now. Last time I did this people stopped me for every and any reason and bought me stuff. With these no one seemed to actually recognize me. Nice. We arrived at a burger place, and we're waiting in line for some food. "This place using meat from the Animals from home." Mom said. "Plus the portion sizes are good." “Hopefully they can handle our appetites.” I chuckled. Mom ordered a large meal platter and I the same… these burgers are MASSIVE! No normal human can eat these… good thing I'm technically not a human anymore. The drinks were in cups the size of beer kegs and the fridge in something the size of an Easter basket. "Alright that's two large meals. That will be twenty six rem." The cashier said. Mom paid and we looked for a seat. “Well, you weren’t kidding.” I chuckled. "Not surprised why it was so cheap?" Mom asked as we took our seats. “Either because it’s normally cheap or because the shopkeep can tell.” I said while tapping my sunglasses. "The prior." Mom said, taking a bit of her frise. "You know about Cript's computer simulation worlds that are for mining raw ores right?" “Yes I do, and he’s done that so there’s practically no shortage of food.” I said honestly. "Yup. His, now also this realm, the elemental crystals when arranged in a circle and spun clockwise at a near light speed makes them generate pure raw matter. Hooking them up to a machine that is built to encode matter into data, by having it extract raw matter from the machine to a data object with no matter originally encoded with it allows the machine to make it reality. Cript figured out how to Admin before he was an Admin." “Cool.” I nodded. “Sounds good to keep certain materials up and devalue an asston of other materials.” "It was a necessity." Mom said. "Feeding not just one universe but a whole realm was bound to require something that should make an economy cry. But it doesn't for one reason." “And what mystical way is that?” I asked. “Cause common economy would say otherwise.” "Conflict." Mom said simply, taking a larger bite of her frise. "A lot of worlds have a lot of monsters, undead, Shadow creatures, Heartless and Nobodies." She said, eyeing me when she said Nobodies. "Freak Inc started off as a Weapons company, and people no matter the world or realm all have flames in them that desire some form of conflict. Rather than each other, Cript figured these mindless monsters would be the best alternative, and they have. As well as honorably dueling." She motioned to a hanging TV across from us, the TV showing a live dual between a male mage and a female barbarian lady. "Tournaments like this are very popular and do pay, modern day wrestling with swords, guns, and magic. Spells keep both from actually killing one another, only rule is you have to bring your own weapons and gear." “Cool.” I nodded. “Didn’t think that was a thing...wonder why no one’s tried to challenge me yet either from some weird confidence or sheer stupidity?” "You have to register as a combatant." Mom explained. “Ah, so how many people would actively try to fight me if I did sign up?” I asked honestly. "It's all automatic. No one chooses unless they are in the top ten." “Okay then.” I nodded. “Wouldn’t be fair if I joined all things considered.” "There are other competitions." Mom said, now taking a bite of her burger. "A popular one is Survival Arena, Game Show, Capture the Flag and my personal favorite, Quiz Shows." “Well then, that’s a lot more than just fighting.” I said honestly. "Heh… not completely." Mom said, taking a sip from her soda. "They all have combat in some shape or form. Oh! That reminds me." She said, rummaging through her purse. "Where did I put it?" “Oh?” I asked curiously. “What are ya looking for?” "I got you something. I know you like Magic the Gathering so I got you some cards, enchanted of course." “Oh sweet, I’ve been keeping up on the normal earth side, I don’t know how far it is outside that.” I said honestly. "Very." Mom said, finally finding the deck and handing it to me. "It's a simple starter deck. Rules to actual Magic the Gathering magic card game are on the blue card." She said. “Cool.” I said while taking the deck and looking through the deck to see what was in it. “Thank’s, and you said these are enchanted right?” "Yes. Think of it like… Yu Go Oh meets Pokemon… of something equivalent to that." Mom said. “Oh so I can actively summon monsters or cast spells with these?” I asked curiously. "Yes but only in a card dueling arena. Doing so outside one is a fine." “Alrighty then.” I nodded, double checking all the cards and it looked like a Blue White Control deck. “People are not going to like me when I figure out what else is out there…” I chuckled. "There is a lot to find. I looked up and there are about sixteen thousand cards now." I thought for a moment and did some calculations on how many cards there were back in 2012 before it all went to shit. “Huh, that’s double the amount back on Earth when it got blown to hell.” I said honestly. “So...there’s about eighty sets if each one was two hundred?” I guessed. “Jeez that’s a lot.” "I guess." She said, drinking more soda. “Not really interested in me nerding out?” I asked. "I'm not my for card games honestly. I prefer Dominoes." “Now dominoes are fun, especially with what some people have done with them.” I said honestly. “They had a lot of time to do all that.” "Yup. So, gonna start a card collection?" “Given how much money I have...might as well restart a hobby.” I said honestly. "Having hobbies aside from children is good. Aside from Dominoes I read and help Lyra sort her ever growing porn collection." “Now I’d like a hobby I can share with my kids, not lead them into crippling hentai addictions.” I brought up. Mom shrugged. "Most of the kids participate in the Family Arena." “I don’t like how you segwayed ‘Lyra’s growing porn collection’ into ‘kids participating in the family arena’...” I pointed out. "You would rather I keep talking about Lyra and her porn?" “I just wanted to point that out.” I said sheepishly. “But what about this arena?” "It's basically the same as all the public games and such but strictly for the family only. The only difference is no powers allowed." “Sounds about right.” I nodded. “Keeps things from getting too escalated.” "Basically." Mom said. “So it’s good for just some much needed venting or something?” I asked. "Not exactly. The public arenas are a display of raw power and ability, the family arena is a test of pure skill. Anyone with the power can go through the fights and mow down competitions. It takes true skill to do so without any power at all." “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “Good to know ...can't wait to hear ‘your challenged to a family match’ out of nowhere.” "It's either invitation or optional." Mom said. "You can deny the invite." “That’s what they all say before it’s a ‘you can’t deny it’.” I rolled my eyes. Mom chuckled, eating more of her fries. "So, are there any questions about Cript's realm or anything in general?" “There are a lot of things that I’d like to know, like what the hell is the main rules of it given I have been told ‘things are different in different realms’ a lot.” "Rules huh? Any specific rules?" “Anything.” I said. “Like...very noteworthy rules that I would need to know.” "Hmm… one rule, or set of rules, that are different from Cript's realm compared to your own is time travel." “Which has been an absolute mess at this point from my personal experience.” I said honestly. "Time travel from your realm works like this. One can traverse forward and back in time, but once they return they can not keep the memories of what they experienced. Only ones heart can travel time, not their body. A vessel would be needed. That correct so far?" “Point for point from what I learned in Dream Drop Distance.” I agreed. "In Cript's world the concept of time is more liquid than that. One can traverse time freely, body and all, and time itself will be unchanged. No matter the alteration." “Makes sense.” I nodded. “If it’s more like that then it wouldn’t really change much.” "There Is a downside though." Mom said. “And that would be?” I asked curiously. "If a person dies outside of their time, or an item of extreme importance is destroyed or vanished from its timezones, then and only then is the timeline altered. Creating multiple alternative timelines to exist outside the initial original timeline." “That sounds interesting.” I said honestly. "This means while the timeline was altered it was also reset, these alternative timelines existing as… pools made by a splash, for a comparison." “Well then, that’s a curious thing.” I said with some thought. "What this means is that all around us are reflections of time that, while able to be traversed continually multiply, unlike realms reflections that are admin made, these are made by altering choices and events in time. They are the one thing Cript can't fuse so they still exist here, because time is something only the Admin of Time can alter or edit, as time in itself is borrowed from them." “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “That is very interesting and...kind of circled way back into what we’ve already known for...some reason.” I blinked. "Anything else?" Mom asked, eating more fries. “Any other important things I should know besides time?” I asked curiously. "Hmm…" Mom thought, sipping more soda. I realized I haven't even touched my food and began eating before it got too cold. "Perhaps about Soul Blades. Cript's realms take on your Keyblades." “Oh yes, the things that can be so outrageously overpowered.” I said. “Like the two that Cript was about to just put up for auction.” "Well. Unlike Keyblades, Soul Blades are a physical representation of who you are. It's designs and power saying what kind of person you are. As well as what your potential is." “So…” I wanted to point out the Soul Blades sound like Stands from Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure but I doubt Den would know about it. “Never mind, I was going to try and bring up a comparison...only to realize I’m a weeb and others are not. But how do I get a Soul Blade? Or is my Greatsword my Soul Blade?” "From what I know to call forth your Soul Blade you have to basically rip out your own soul, manifesting it into a physical object. That object, your Soul Blade, returns all but a chunk of your soul back, that chunk it keeps remains within blade, forever linking you to it." “Well it’s a miracle I have one again.” I chuckled. “Let’s hope it won’t break and I’ll have to get a new one.” I rolled my eyes. “Also...Nothingness’s entire thing is Souls so...my jurisdiction I think?” "Hard to say." Mom said. "There are several kinds of Soul Blades. Single, Twin, and Returning." “What?” I raised an eyebrow. “I can imagine that ‘single’ and ‘twin’ are just if you have one or two soul blades, but Returning?” "You see, typically a person dies and so does their soul blade, but some persist on after their owner has died, and live on. These are the most powerful ones." “So Nobodies basically.” I pointed out. “Fun.” "I guess?" Mom said questioningly. "Both Cript's Biohazards Curse and Darkest Hero were made from his own soul, Darkest Hero was his first… but he never really used it until many years later, he stuck with Biohazards Curse for most of his life." “So he had a Twin Soul Blade?” I asked curiously. "No." Mom said simply. "Twin Soul Blades are made from a single chunk, those were made from two different ones." “That...shouldn’t be right given what you explained.” I said honestly. “Like, his soul wouldn’t be big enough to hold two different ones separately right?” "It was risky but necessary." Mom sighed. "This was long before I joined the family, before he even met Lyra. He was still a child." Mom started. "The monks that raised and taught him helped him forge his first soul blade, Darkest Hero, but there was an unexpected result. It wasn't just part of his soul that went into it… it was also part of his Psychopaths. The first time he used it, it nearly woke up and Cript about nearly killed everyone." “Well then.” I started. “That would kind of suck considering what I am…” "The monks helped him forge Biohazards Curse a year later. Making sure not to touch his Psychopath." “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “So I suppose that’s why he used that more.” "He didn't start really using Darkest Hero until it kept appearing. Every time he'd try to summon Biohazards Curse, Darkest Hero would appear. Eventually he used it to dive into himself, and faced that monster. He won, and since then Darkest Hero has been his new main choice and most reliable weapon." “Cool.” I nodded. “So...what are the types of Soul Blades again?” "Single, Twin, and Returning." “Okay, so what are they?” I repeated. “Cause I can guess what Single and Twin is unless their different, so what’s Returning cause you haven’t really told me what they are.” "Returning is a Soul Blade that lives on after the one who made it has died, they are like ghosts. They still have work to be done and will not leave, or rather, pass on, until their mission is complete." “Okay then.” I nodded. “Good to know.” I gave a thumbs up to that. “So, now how to actually make a Soul Blade for later…” "I don't know. Cript or Andy would though." “Andy?” I asked. “I...don’t think I know who that is.” "That's another story for another time." Mom said, finishing her burger. "Want to know anything else then" “I mean, there’s probably a lot of things I still need to know but ‘what do I need to know’ isn’t really helpful…” I sighed out. "Just think it over." Mom said. "it will come to you." “What differences are there between our realm and Cripts?” I asked. "A lot." Mom chuckled. "Mostly Cript's is a bit more… chaotic. Not in a.bad way though… but there are some darker places there…" “Good to know, any differences that I should know about between the two besides the time travel thing?” I asked curiously. "The land of the dead In Cript's realm is an actual place. Been there. Very… odd." “What do you mean?” I asked curiously. "Well for starters all the fruits and veggies there appear in the shape of bones. The dirt is dry and not good but can grow a tree fine, the 'water' there is poison but only when you drink it outside the realm of death is it deadly. And it's also where Grim Reapers are born and trained." “Alrighty then. Good to know.” I nodded. “Anything else of note?” "Not that I can think of off the top of my head." Mom said, finishing off her fries as I just finished my burger. “Alright.” I nodded. “So, I presume you’ve been spending time with my wives?” I asked curiously. "Yes, getting to know both my daughters in law and new fellow wives. Gotta say, Celestia knows how to grope a girl right." Mom chuckled with a blush. “Well she was into women before I came along.” I said honestly. “She...probably told you her story as to why that was?” "Yes. In all honesty it's not hard to see why. But with a family like this immortality just means more time to expand and enjoy the family." Mom said. “Yeah, cause that’s what we need.” I chuckled. "Hmm…" Mom hummed. "Cript might get mad if I show you this but I'm going to anyway solely because It's both funny and Lyra will love it too. Finish up and I'll take you to it." “Oh boy.” I said. “I wonder what it could be.” I said as I started finishing up my food. After Mom and I finished everything she led me outside and used her Assistant to Teleport us someplace. Where we were was what looked like a workshop. "Now where did he put it?" Mom asked herself while looking around. “That depends on what you're looking for.” I said honestly. "It looked kinda like a large vending machine of sorts." Mom said, moving some clutter along the walls. “Simple enough.” I said while helping her search for the thing. After some searching Mom found it. It was a large weird Vending machine with a screen and a large sliding door that opened to let out… something huge? "Okay guess what this is." Mom said, looking a mix between excited and about to laugh. “Uh...the hell?” I asked while looking over the huge thing. “What is it?” I asked. "Okay so not long after Cript became an Admin he let Lyra make something with code… and she made this. A vending machine that gives you custom wives. God that mare has a harem fetish." Mom said. "She used it for about a month before Cript took it away from her." “Gee, I wonder why.” I rolled my eyes. "Wanna use it?" Mom asked, playfully elbowing me. “Might as well make one…” I muttered while walking up to it. “So...how do I use it?” I asked, given this wasn’t a normal vending machine. "Tap the screen, select genders, body type, other details~ then hit make." “Alrighty then…” I nodded. “Can’t believe I’m literally making my own wife…” I muttered. “Does it also involve races?” "Of course." Mom said. “Cool…” I said, starting to think of what to choose. As I thought I randomly stumbled upon a thought. “Hmm...I wonder…” I started as I looked for the ‘Hydra’ race on the thing, wondering if it’s actually a thing. It was! God these body types range from BBW to Loli. “I know what I must do.” I said, Den seeing that I had a nose bleed already as the thought of the lady in question was forming in my head. So I punched in ‘Hyrda: 3 Heads’, ‘BBW’, ‘Height: 7’9”’, “Wings’, ‘Lightning Breath Weapon’ cause apparently that was also a thing, ‘Personality: Middle Head: Smart Leader, Left Head: Tomboy, Right Head: Derp’, ‘Breast Size: EE’, ‘Breast Set: 2’, ‘Naturally Lactate: Yes’, ‘Gender: Female’, ‘Scales: Silver’. “I just hope she...will be happy with me…” I muttered as I double checked everything and made sure there wasn’t anything else I had to check on. “Oh…” I muttered, ‘Naturally Magic: Yes’, ‘Tail: Yes’. “I think that should be it…” I hummed. "You forgot two." Mom said, skidding the screen all the way down to two tabs. Love(s) and Fetishes. “Oh?” I asked. “Loves and Fetishes? So...I have to also point out who they love and what their into?” I asked curiously. "It's optional but there." Mom said. "They are being newly made into reality, as an admin you have the power to do this to anyone really. But that's morally wrong. This is the accepted grey area." “Alright.” I nodded while typing in my name first and then other names like Eclipsa, Zeke and many wives that I can name off the top of my head. “She’ll also learn to love others naturally as well right?” I asked. "Of course." “Alright.” I nodded while looking at fetishes and thinking hard about that. “I’m...a little worried that if I type any fetishes in it’ll get out of control for...some reason.” "Trust me… Lyra has done WAY worse." Mom laughed. I sighed out. “I can imagine…” I said as I thought more about this...accidentally typing in ‘exhibisionist’, then ‘Foot Fetish’ cause apparently I’m weird, ‘Roleplay’...cause fuck me all my wives really like to role play in bed…’Anal’ cause her ass would be outstanding…”God...why am I doing this?” I whined, steam coming out of my head as I made sure everything was alright and fine. “Alright...so everything’s fine?” I brought up again, Den seeing the laundry list of a Hydra I’m making with this thing. "Seems so." Mom Said, looking it over. “Alright…” I nodded. “Time to do this…” I muttered while pressing the ‘enter’ button, hoping this will work. The sliding door flashed and then opened. Out popping my four breasted sexy Hydra lady. "Hey there sexy~" all three heads cooed as she walked over towards me, pressing her chest against mine. "It still works!" Mom said. “Howdy ladies.” I said sheepishly, before blinking as I forgot to give them names. “Um...what are your names?” I asked, hoping they automatically came with names. "Call us what you want." The right head said, her long Hydra neck moving down, slipping between my lower boobs. "I don't care." The left one said, kissing my neck. "We're all yours~" The middle one said, planting a kiss right on my lips. "I'm taking this back to Lyra." Den said, starting to move the machine. “Oh boy.” I muttered. “So…” I hummed while looking at the three girls. “Middle is Samantha, or Sam whichever you prefer, left is Tanya, and Right is Kim. Sound good?” "Sure." Tanya said from between my lower boobs, now suckeling a tit, the sudden sucking made me jump. How does that feel so different from feeding the kids? “Feeling feisty already?” I asked curiously. "I could go for a good fuck about now." Kim said, rising up to my cheek and giving me a light lick. She then went to my ear. "We can blow you, eat you out and suck on your tits while groping you all at once. Does that sound nice" She asked. “Yes, yes it would.” I cooed softly. ”Best, decision, ever.” I thought to myself happily. “So...how do you want to start?” "Lay down." They said, already trying to undress me. [Sex scene. Skip if you wish.] “Alright.” I said while helping get myself undressed. “This’ll...be my first time with a hydra...this’ll be fun.” I chuckled as I laid down as well. They undressed me, about ripping my dress and bra off before slipping down my undies. As my member emerged erect and ready they began rubbing it with their tail… wow. "You like?" Sam asked. “Yes…” I moaned softly, their tail, even though scaly, was soft and felt wonderful. They grabbed my breasts, roughly groping them but it just felt great. Kim sent her head down and began sucking from my tit, I felt the milk getting sucked out and it was nothing like how I feed the kids. Tanya and Sam went lower, Tanya moving under my balls and tasted my female parts, making me gasp. Sam stopped stroking my dick with their tail and now began licking the tip. I felt the tip of their member, half my length start poking between the middle and upper breasts of mine as their tail began inching from my butt side to my anus. “Many heads work miracles apparently.” I moaned happily “Also, how are you so good at this?” "Does that matter?" Kim asked, moving from my tits to my face. "Are you ready?" She asked. “Yes I am.” I nodded, my dick throbbing in anticipation. At that, Sam wrapped her hips around the head of my member and began going down… and down… and down… Tanya then stuck her tongue inside my female parts, the shock made me thrust up, sending all my member into Sam's now bulged throat. Sam went up and down the whole length of it, each time her throat stretched and it's tightness was felt squeezed around my member, while Tanya went wild on my female parts, soaking that area and her own face. “Holy~.” I moaned loudly, not expecting all of this suddenly. “Good lord...so good~!” Grinning, Kim joined her other two, taking a lick of my balls, then grabbed them in her mouth, right as they slid their tail inside my ass. The sensation was very different from when Twilight played with it. Not bizzare like last time but more like… a different type of filled. “All the spots at once...almost...feels like cheating.” I moaned and panted, feeling my peak climbing rather quickly from the three headed hydra’s ministrations as my dick throbbed in pleasure in Sam’s throat. As My total lower body was being bombarded by pleasure I began to thrust a little, enjoying this so much I wasn't focusing on anything else. I began sweating from trying to hold back my dual climaxes. Holding back as just one gender is hard, from both is a losing battle. I came. Sitting up, accidentally nearly shoving Tanya's whole head inside my nethers, adding to the climax at the sudden extreme stretch, I had grabbed Sam's head and kept it down, pumping all my cum down her tight throat as my female lower half was being licked rapidly my Tanya's trapped head, all the while Kim kept sucking my testicles like jawbreakers. When it was done and I fell back Tanya freed her now soaked head, Kim released my balls from her mouth and Sam slipped off my member with an audible pop, and they removed their tail from my ass. "Did we do good?" Sam asked, lips still covered in some excess cum. [sex end] “You did amazing.” I panted heavily. “Fuck…” Smiling, Tana licked the cum off of Sam's lips, giving her a deep kiss before they stood up, helping me up and giving me a hug. "Thank you for creating us." They said in unison. I hugged back lovingly. “Your welcome my loving hydra girls.” I said warmly. "I can't believe you got it back for me!" Cript's Lyra, in a very human form with her only pony thing being some ears on her head and her signature hair colors. I cleaned up, let the new girls meet up with the others and caught back up with mom, who was with Lyra in what I think is Lyra's personal room. The wife machine was here already. "I knew he had to have put it somewhere. You know Cript can't say no to you so when he took this I knew he didn't destroy it." Mom said, wrapping an arm around me. "Ben here even made himself a sexy Hydra wife." "Oh really?" Lyra asked, eyeing me with a smile. “Um...y-yeah…” I blushed and scratched the back of my head. “It still works I guess.” "That's great. I have been wishing I had this thing back. After I made it first I completely forgot how to make it since I was working on the rescue projects." “Just don’t go crazy with it.” I said. “Even if I just added more to my Harem before I married...there has to be limits here.” "Nope." Lyra said simple, looking the machine over. "I wonder if my user history is still here." “I’m scared…” I said worriedly. "Run…" Mom said, she and I bolting as Lyra made the machine glow. "It is!" We heard Lyra scream in joy before suddenly there was quite literally a tidal wave of women flooding the hall behind us… "Lyra!!!" We could hear Cript screaming from somewhere. "Not again!" “Why did you give that to Lyra?” I whined to Den quickly. "Fun fact about Lyra. She would have learned how to remake it eventually, might have well gotten it over with." Mom said. To be continued...
Nobody talks to MotherAfter completing the books, I told Bensu and he gave me a test. After passing he gave me a Library card to his whole library on languages. He lead me to the door. "Be careful with Asha. She has been known to be… harsh, to put it mildly." “She’s the Admin of Death, why wouldn’t she be?” I asked curiously. "She's not always like that. Most often she's kind." “I wouldn’t know that since I’m just meeting her...also, there’s now a lot of things I need to talk with Mother about…” "Once you pass Asha's trial, you can speak freely to Mother." Bensu said, opening the door for me. ”Cool...can’t wait to face Death…” I muttered while heading out. I entered a cemetery. Seemingly endless as I looked along the tombstones. Names of many were written along them. “Gee, I wonder if I’ll be fighting the undead…” I muttered. As I walked along the path I found the last doors. Asha was sitting against them. "So you made it? Figured you'd give up way earlier." “Than you have no idea who I am.” I said honestly. “But it’s nice to meet you.’ "How long, do you think you have to live?" She asked, fiddling with her hair. "It's funny. People think there is a set time, but it fluctuates constantly." “No idea.” I shrugged. “I’ve seen one future where I die peacefully as an old man, and I’ve seen my Future Self that’s still alive.” I told her. “If it happens it happens, like how it happened before but I’m still here.” "So many get to live. I died when creation was made. I never got to live. I've always been dead." ”Well then you must not get out much.” I shrugged. “Cause apparently some undead have more of a life than what your viewpoint says.” "Other admins can create at least. I can't." “I don’t know about your powers, so I wouldn’t know how something that fundamentally creates can’t for you.” I pointed out. "Death is decay and rot, in a basic sense. That's all I can do." She said, placing a finger on a nearby tombstone, the thing immediately collapsing to dust. "The only thing I have ever touched that did not rot or decay was Mother… and Cript." “So...what? You just need a hug or something?” I asked. "Do you want to die?" “Well then what’s your trial if it wasn’t ‘survive the touch of Death’?” I asked curiously. "Simple. Nothing." She said, shifting in her seat. "I offer no trial, so this door can not open." “Well that’s not fair.” I said. “Are you just lonely or something? If you want to talk I’m here to listen if you let me pass.” "Allow me." Cript said, appearing behind me and again nearly giving me a heart attack! "Also you are in so much trouble for helping Den give Lyra back that machine…" “That’s where your wrong kiddo.” I said while snapping my fingers into finger guns at Cript. “I did nothing to help Den take it back. Sure I helped her find it but Den taking it to Lyra was her own fault, plus I didn’t know it would lead to all of...that.” "Did you seriously just call ME kiddo?" Cript asked, about ready to laugh. “So before we get completely off track, can you help me with Lady Death here? She won’t let me pass, I think she wants a hug or something.” I said honestly. "I can and will. Good thing I keep this on me." Cript said, taking out from his Assistant a… reddish glowing heart that was beating still. “Uh...excuse me what?” I asked worriedly. "This, Ben, is my heart. Well, not my heart, another timeline version of me whos body was completely destroyed. If this can't make Asha alive then we're fucked." Cript said, handing the heart over to Asha. “Wait...so your heart can...bring someone back from the dead or something?” I asked curiously. "Oh that's not even the surface." Cript laughed, placing the other timeline heart over Asha's chest, it flowed into her, she then began screaming, her skin gaining color, her hair changing from black to brown, her eyes becoming normal and the graveyard itself shifted to become more… lively. “I have...several questions.” I said worriedly. "She has never had a beating heart before Ben, it's a whole new experience for her." Cript said, Asha now looked… alive, moving shakely. "I feel...warm…" She said, looking at her own hands. “Wait, she never had a heart before?” I asked. “I know she died before but...what?” "Before the explosion caused her death and the admins code to really activate, all the admins were not actually alive just yet, like suspended animation within the void. She was killed before her heart even got to beat." “Ah...well okay then.” I nodded. “Thank you. That helps explain...a lot of things.” “My chest… it’s moving?” Asha asked, standing up. “That’s called breathing, or a heart beat.” Cript said. “How does it feel having a pulse?” I asked Asha curiously. “Weird.” Asha said, looking at her hair. “How do you all exist like this?” “You get used to it.” Cript said. “Now then, if you enjoy what I do next, can we enter?” “Do...what?” Asha asked, a little scared. Cript merely put one finger on her head, and suddenly she, given from the smell and stains… just orgasemed all over herself. A face of pure joyish daze. “I’m pretty sure she liked it cause damn.” I pointed out. “Lyra… had me practice a lot with my electronium abilities. Since any flesh body has nerves, all the works, now that hers are alive and working, I used one of those things Lyra had me make… instant orgasem… I didn’t even amplify anything that’s her first normal grade climax.” Cript said. Asha half dazed tapped the door as it began opening. “I need to talk to her.” Cript said. “Also… why a Hydra… I mean… that’s kinda random in all honesty.” “Because I was curious...also have you seen her? She’s sexy.” I huffed. “Well, yeah, I’ll admit that, that’s just a new one for me, and you are talking to the guy who Lyra has gotten a Slime girl, a Flower girl, a SPIDER women, and I’m partly arachnophobic, and an android girl… and I have kids with all of them.” “Sounds about right.” I said honestly. “But now for me to talk to Belief and Mother...about the many obvious things I have to tell them and maybe some other things.” “Same here.” Cript said, following me through the doors. Once on the other side they were in a long hallway, a forest around them and fog covered the place. “I would have done more of a Cave hallway.” “Well either way.” I shrugged. “Wonder what her response to ‘you want yourself and your husband dead’ will be.” “That sentence was… weird.” Cript chuckled. “And I’ve heard my fair share of weird sentences.” “But it is appropriate considering the circumstances.” I said honestly. “I guess.” Cript shrugged. “So, you and Den have fun earlier, before the swarm of a million women flooded the hallways and at the moment are starting to make it to the middle castle floors. Yeesh Lyra missed that thing.” “I had nothing to do with Den’s...really retarded decision.” I pointed out. “All I knew was that Lyra made it and that it could make people...I didn’t know Lyra would go about as overboard as the Titanic bull rushing a glacier.” “You don’t know Lyra.” Cript laughed. “It’s her sole mission in life to expand my harem eternally.” “Well that’s not gonna be fun.” I sighed out. “But Mom might have had a point...Lyra would have figured it out sooner or later and did it again.” “Yeah...only bigger, faster and, and I quote, ‘bustier’ than ever.” He laughed. “She’s always been fascinated with herds back when she didn’t know me. Now that after words about a year after we’ve been married, she adds three… and it has not stopped since.” “Yeah...that’s kind of a pain when someone just won’t stop.” I said honestly. “Honestly, I kind of don’t want her to.” Cript said smiling. “She’s energetic, does what she says, and doesn’t stop til she achieved her goal. If she stops before that… then she’s not being herself.” “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “Mother and Belief might also be really confused on...literally anything we bring up.” “Maybe. I have a work around for it though.” Cript said, the hallways was about halfway through. “So, how’s things been?” “Eh, fine enough.” I said honestly. “Things are going well thankfully...but I’m just worried about the Foretellers and John…” I sighed out. “Been a while huh?” “Yes, yes it has…” I sighed out. “Fuck...I don’t even remember the last time I’ve seen them…” “Hmm… Me neither. So, aside from that how’s the whole ‘married to your parents’ thing going for you?” “It hasn’t really been different.” I shrugged. “Whether married or not...their still family.” “Question is how will you deal when… well… at some point we all kinda have to date… then…” “Well it would be interesting but...I’m fine with it.” I shrugged. “As long as everyone’s consenting and there’s no drawbacks.” I said honestly. “Yeah.” Cript said. “Yeah?” I asked. “Nothing else to add to that?” “That about sums it up really.” Cript said, sighing as they shoved their hands in their pockets. “Ever just want to go someplace to be normal for a while?” “It would be great if that could actually ever happen.” I said honestly. “Lyra and I have tried a lot. It always ends with either something popping up that I have to deal with or I just end up seeing that the people around me need help and I do. I can never just take it slow for all that long. Longest I ever had was some years back, a solid week on Equestria just being normal ponies.” “Sounds nice.” I said honestly. “By the by, Mom talked about a special Arena thing that’s for everyone...is there something in the Arena that can help alleviate a fuck ton of pent up rage that can only be quelled by bathing in the blood of my enemies?” I asked curiously. “...Therapy?” “Violent Therapy.” I said. “Cause seriously, talking it won’t will not help in this situation.” “Well in the family arena there is a Horde Survival mode. Basically massive unending waves of however many X enemies you choose come after you at at max 90% of your total stats and level and you, well, just try and survive for however long. Record last I checked is four days.” “That record is going to get blown out of proportion by an asston I can tell you that.’ I said, Cript having a bad feeling that whatever I’m holding inside is a lot scarier than just my need for therapy. “So, wonder where Mother and Belief are...” “Likely waiting for us to finish our conversation before they stop making the floor move with our footsteps.” “Rude.” I started. “You can come out now.” I called out. The floor itself stopped moving and we finally reached the…. Most perfect place I’d want to live ever… A small hidden oasis within a rocky walled hole, waterfall with lovely spring next to a small house, plants fall colors were decorating the place. A single tree stood on the right side of it all, offering shade with a stone bench under it… now this is a place to vacation in peace. “Well...certainly now a good vacation spot that’s for sure.” I said honestly. “Hello?” “Over here.” I heard Mother's voice, and that familiar sense of calmness started affecting me. It came from the spring. Mother and the...the...hunk~ “Hi Ben!” Mother said happily as Cript had to push me forwards… Okay Belief/Jericho here is… HOT… Damn female hormones! “Hold on a moment.” I said while turning myself into a guy so I didn’t have that part of my mind bothering me. “So anyways, how are you two doing today?” “We were enjoying a bath.” Belief said… god his voice is masculine and oh fuck he’s still hot! “So we have something to discuss.” Cript said plainly. “Did you know that you want yourself and your husband dead?” I asked Mother, getting straight to the point. “...What?” Mother asked, flabbergasted. “I know, I was thinking the same thing hearing that.” Cript replied. “So to clarify, we have a real threat here. The First Mother is the one who created the Void, and her Belief died, causing this.” “The first Belief died…” Jericho said aloud. “Shit. I knew that would happen to one of us eventually but… still.” “Well congratulations, now that will literally never happen ever again.” I explained. “Cause Jericho is now Deathless, also, does Nothingness have literally anything to do with the whole ‘First Mother making Void’ thing?” I asked curiously. “I don’t know.” Mother said. “Hmm… It might be possible, it’s been around as far as any of the Mothers or Beliefs can remember. But if this Mother has gone mad, given their age and power, this is likely going to be a fight we can’t beat alone.” “I mean…” I brought out a piece of True Nothingness...and to all around it felt way too familiar. “What would happen if it has something to do with Belief? Nothingness is the Antithesis of Void but...from my research, it ‘cleanses’ them more than anything.” I brought up. “Hmm.” Belief hummed, taking the Nothingness and looking it over. “Hmm.This energy, it’s similar to how mine is structured. There are differences, clearly, this is more… decayed.” “Decayed?” Cript asked. “Like a plant half dead refusing to die.” “Wait…” I blinked. “I know this is risky...but can anyone here summon some Pure Void?” I asked, my mind rushing through many possibilities at this point and it all seemed to point to two possible conclusions. “No one here can… All though…” Mother pondered. “The Void Conduit can.” “And who would that be?” I asked curiously. “Cause if it’s John then...well that’s going to be an interesting thing to talk about after the entire fucking Glossary of crap I need to explain to him.” I groaned. “The Conduits are people so linked to certain aspects of creation they might as well be made of the energy.” Cript explained. “I’m the conduit for Origin Magic, and the Void Conduit in my realm passed, but there are two, a backup that exists as a precaution. Who that is though, I’m not sure.” “So we’re going to have to find John...unless someone knows anyone else?” I asked, just wanting to make sure there’s no one else. “Hard to tell… But Hollow might know something.” “He would probably know...but I have no idea where he is or where to begin...plus I don’t know where John is...fuck.” I sighed out. “I do.” Cript said. “Now then, onto other matters.” “There are many things to talk about.” I agreed. “To start with we need to merge Creations.” Cript started. “I understand this is something that has never happened before, it won’t be like merging realms.” “I can just imagine how much of a bitch that’ll be.” I brought up. "It will not be easy at all." Mother said. "But it's a task we have to complete." “Aren’t there other Mothers and Belief’s? Or do you just hop from one plane of existence to another?” I asked curiously. "There are others." "A rough count puts that number at surprisingly reasonable Two Hundred and fifteen." Belief said. "All things considered that's a low number." "Which means each mother and belief are stronger as they are older than the last." Cript said. “Which then leads back to the strongest, and the most batshit insane.” I sighed out. “How many do you think are still alive if Void Mother has been up and about trying to kill people?” "Entering the other Creations for her will be easy, Void reaches everywhere, finding them however is the tricky part." Belief said. "Entering the other Creations, even for us, won't be easy… unless we catch a ride." "You mean get the Void Conduit to help us hop from creation to Creation using their void as a bridge or portal?" Cript asked. “Couldn’t I do the same thing?” I asked curiously. “Nothingness is just like Void so wouldn’t the same thing apply?” "We still don't know just how far Nothingness reaches compared to Void or even if this dying other me could explain anything." Belief said. "Best bet is to find both this first me and the Void Conduit so we can have a back up or multiple portals." “Alright, so I’m already doing both of those things.” I said, sending one clone to find John and the other to go straight into the Heart of Nothingness. “But where’s Hollow? He may give me a clue as to where John is.” "He lives along the border between Creation and the void, a mix of the two, chaotic but safe and stable." Cript said. “Cool.” I nodded, the one clone that was going off to find John headed off to where Hollow was. “Thank god for Starfish Clones. Helps with searching.” "So now all that's left is to figure out the effective, preferably fast means to merge this creation and ours." "Belief and I can work on that." Mother said. "If you two want you two can explore it and see the sights." “Sure.” I said. “Might as well get a lay of the land ya know?” "I'm up for an adventure." Cript said, patting my back. "Come on Daughter-Wife, let's fuck some shit up." “Let’s get going then.” I nodded, ready for an adventure. To be continued...
Nobody has an adventure“Well...didn’t expect it to be this big…” I said while looking up and up...and up...jesus this Arena is fucking huge. "Welcome family! It's time for another round of the Family Arena Games!" A loud announcer said as the crowd cheered. "Today is a Newcomer, Ben, who will be fighting an endless horde of Shadow Creatures, all variations selected and max difficulty has been selected. Weapons allowed, no powers, magic is allowed. Arena type… Destroyed City!" suddenly the plain flat arena became a giant destroyed city, myself standing atop a broken Skyscraper now. "Record is Four Days, time to see how this kid goes." I cracked my knuckles as I started walking towards the destroyed Skyscraper. “If anyone has a weak stomach, please don’t watch this.” I called out. “Cause this is not gonna be pretty for anyone.” When I brought out Sharpshooters and teleported to the top of the Skyscraper I took a quick look at my surroundings...or at least, I would if it wasn’t for the fact that literally every scare inch about ten miles away was just filled with god knows how many monsters. “Well this is going to be interesting.” I said as I took a deep breath, and exhaled as I felt the rumbling of Shadow Creatures rushing towards me. I took another deep breath and exhaled, the judges sensing I took off some obvious strength limiters on myself… I opened my eyes rather quickly to see...the entire destroyed city was flattened to the ground and like...a three miles of Shadow Creatures in all directions were dead. “Uh...sure.” I said. “Uh...you know I didn’t use any abilities right?” I looked up at the camera’s worriedly. ”Yes, we have seen this happen before. For those of you who don’t know our contestant has taken off limiters that decreases all forms of power and energy output, to make sure day to day life is a lot simpler.” The announcer called out. “Okay cool.” I nodded as I put Sharpshooters together into it’s bow form...and then increased its size so it was a Dragon Slayer Greatbow and lifted it up towards the sky. “Raining Hell.” I said as I pulled back the bow string and fired, the sky grew dark as trillions of Dragon Slaying arrows descended down, impaling trillions of Shadow Creatures straight through their vital areas. I brought out my Lexicon and it flipped through it’s pages, glowing brightly as the trillions of arrows glowed softly. I snapped my fingers and each individual arrow exploded causing a massive chain reaction that looked like one massive explosion way too big. I looked at all the explosions, all the howling of pain and death from all the Shadow Creatures, as a low chuckle started to build up. I started walking towards the oncoming wave as one creature tried to ambush me, didn’t get a good look at it as I grabbed it by the head and crushed it’s skull, raising my arm and slamming it into the ground so hard it caused the ground to crack for several hundred feet. My chuckle slowly grew more into an honest to god laugh as I pulled out Lunatic and Skysplitter, Skysplitters energy aura bursting forth from me as Lunatic’s Emotion Ability amplified Skysplitters ability to god knows what end. “All the people in the audience! Cover your eyes.” I laughed as I vanished, the creatures all flying into the air in either pieces, blood splatter, or other unmentionables as my laugh turned into a howling cackle that everyone could hear. ”Did...anyone else find that scary?” The announcer asked. [The next day in arena time] “Come on! I thought you were supposed to be tough!” I shouted as I cleaved through thousands of Shadow Creatures with Graceful Dahlia, the blood it drained from all my enemies giving it more power as it feasted on the blood of my enemies. A massive behemoth of a Shadow Creature tried sweeping one of it’s massive claws at me, only for me to cut off it’s arm and shove Frozen Pride into the stump. “Ice Age.” I said, the entire thing becoming frozen solid in an instant. “Hail Storm!” I shouted, slamming my shield into it as millions of ice shards shot out and impaled themselves deep into the surrounding beasts. A monster managed to hit my back, but honestly I didn’t notice as I smacked it’s head off with my tail. “Come on!” I shouted as I summoned Eternal Flames and slammed both of them into the ground, the ground shaking heavily as suddenly geysers of Lava erupted and started to burn every monster that wasn’t fire resistant or proof. [The next day in arena time] “Come on!” I shouted from on top of the literal mountain of bodies I’ve made, the entire landscape changed drastically from what it originally was, going from a destroyed city to a barren molten hell scape that had floating islands everywhere as well as frozen patches that slowly turned to water. “I’m right here!” I shouted as I kept picking off everything with Sharpshooters. The creatures climbed over their fallen comrades to try and get to me, which I quickly answered with No Heart and Foudre insanely fast. “Drive Forms are allowed right?” I called out. ”Drive Forms yes, King Drive Forms no.” The announcer called out. “Thank you.” I said as a few monsters got close to me, only for energy shards to go right through them as I went straight into my Valor Drive form, holding No Heart and Skysplitter as I dived head first back into the sea of monsters. [The next day in arena time] The landscape changed very heavily in the last twenty-four hours, besides the insane amount of corpses littering the entire place, several parts that aren’t being trampled on or me having destroyed started growing fertile from both the cooled down lava and the corpses that have decomposed into the earth. “Ah, the wonders of life.” I hummed happily as I shoved my fist through another Shadow Creatures chest and ripped out it’s heart. “You know, fighting for three days straight has made me hungry.” I said before grabbing the closest living Shadow Creatre and bit it’s head off and tried to eat it, before spitting it out. “Blech, tastes awful.” I frowned as I changed into Wisdom form and skated around with No Heart and Book of Retribution, firing off spells like a Gatling Gun and seeing everything die rather quickly to my onslaught of spells. “Seriously, is this on max difficulty or not?” I asked with a frown. [the next day arena time] I slammed Skysplitter down as thousands of earth spikes shot up and impaled shadow beasts. “First off, rude.” I said while picking an apple from an apple tree and ate it. “I’m trying to eat here.” “The actual hell is going on?” A spectator asked in confusion. “Is Ben...building a farm during Horde Survival?” Another spectator asked. “He’s only using magic right?” A judge whispered to another. “As far as I’ve noticed, everything that isn’t coming from his weapons is magic.” The judge brought up. “Who would have thought I could have made a nice plantation with just my weapons.” I said warmly, finding it nice how I’ve built a farm full of life in this entire arena of bloodshed. [The Next Day arena time] I clashed with a Shadow Creature in my Feral Form, causing a shockwave that knocked away Shadow Creatures as I pushed it back. “Jeez, so many visitors.” I said as I moved to the side, making it stumble from the lack of support as I ripped into its midsection. “I’m a little curious as to how they keep spawning you...wait, no they have infinite mob spawners...hmm…” I hummed as I tried to sense if there was any monster spawners around. When I did sense them there were sadly way too many for me to actively rush after. “Oh well.” I said as I kept mauling monster after monster. [The Next Day arena time] After super cultivating with special magics I learned from the Admin of Plants, I created three plant people, one was a Dryad with pure white bark and red eyes, it’s leaves a mixture of red and pink that was currently fighting against several Shadow Creatures alongside me, while two others were tending to my growing farm and keeping it safe. “Your doing great honey.” I laughed, ripping into more and more shadow creatures. “Thanks dad.” The female tree girl said happily, stabbing one of her wooden weapons into a monster and draining it of it’s life force, getting stronger. “Who would have thought I could combine a Demon Tree with a Life Giving Tree to make a Balanced Tree.” I chuckled. ”...well...this went from pretty creepy with all the laughter...and now it’s weirdly hopeful.” The announcer said. ”And...I don’t know what to say about this…” [The Next Day in arena time] ”We’re on day eight of Ben’s Hoard Survival, and so far he’s been...building a village somehow in all this chaos.” The announcer said, the camera’s showing a growing village of plant people in a humble village as I continued to cleave through monster after monster with my new Balance Treefolk. “Sheesh, who would have thought I could have done all of this…” I said, all the Shadow Creatures being too focused on me given their current directive. “Hey, did you know that these things give loot?” A Vince Falcon told me. I blinked, before looking down and seeing...I was standing on probably a good three feet of loot and all sorts of currency. “Uh...mind doing a little time skip?” I called out to the writers. [One month later in arena time] “Seriously, this was not okay.” I laughed as suddenly the humble village I started became a bustling city in about a month of the arena’s time, my plant’s working hard and diligently through so many things, but given the insane amount of money and loot they keep getting from the endless supply of monsters, it was literally a dangerous money farm. “So, in conclusion, I think I have figured out away to make overrun worlds habitable without being an Admin.” I laughed. “Okay, I think that’s enough.” I said softly as I looked up. “You can stop the monster spawners. I’m done.” I said, feeling so light and better now that I got so much off my shoulders. “Cause seriously, if this goes on any longer me and my people will be getting to the monster spawners and destroying them.” The shadow creatures stopped, despawning as did the corpses. My city and plant people were teleported to Dinky's world to live on and I, feeling much better, wondered what to do next? “Hmm...I feel like going world hopping.” I said with a smile. “What world haven’t I gone to…” I thought for a moment. “Well I haven’t been to a power rangers world…” Opening a DTN to a random world, I entered. “I still say RV’s are cool…” Cript grumbled. We took a spaceship because it’s fast, and I won rock-paper-scissors. “I know I know.” I said. “But this is faster.” “Not as cool though…” Cript said, laying on the ground as the Ship’s autopilot was doing the driving. “So where exactly are we going? The only city I know of in this place is about six thousand miles the other way.” “Somewhere.” I said honestly. “I have no idea, we’re just going to have fun heading off into uncharted territory.” I said with a shrug. “Did you want to go anywhere specific?” “Not really.” Cript said, forming a Gameboy and turning it on. “Did you know on some worlds this was as far as videogames ever got?” He said, shaking the hand held. “That’s weird…” I said. “Video Games are a cornerstone to a lot of things.” “Different worlds, different scientific priorities.” Cript said, the audio from that game was clearly an older Pokemon game. “I remember visiting this world too. Caught a Torchic.” “I should go to a Pokemon world soon...that place was my childhood.” I said honestly. “Wish I could say the same. Heh, I remember first entering the city. First time I saw a car I about lost my shit…” “Really?” I asked honestly. “You almost lost your shit on a car?” “I grew up in a temple learning magic, within a magic forest. My bathroom was an enchanted tree that ate the shit once it hits the bowl. A car was completely alien to me at the time.” “Um...please tell me the tree didn’t actually talk or anything right?” I asked. “Of course not.” Cript said. “Oh thank god.” I sighed out. “Cause if that were the case that would have been really weird.” “Yeah. Comparing my childhood to so many others I had a weird one, but I wouldn't have changed a thing.” “And with my childhood I would have changed it so I actually know what the fuck actually happened and not have my parent’s be dead.” I brought up. Cript chuckled. “I wish my life made as much sense as yours.” They said, playing their game as well. “Speaking of, how are your parents?” “Their doing good.” I nodded. “I visit them sometimes. They couldn’t be more proud of who I am, what I’ve done, and so much more...and my dad brought up me being so outlandishly rich was just bonus points for them living a happy life.” “Heh. Wish I could have heard mine say that.” Cript sighed. “I mean...you can meet your mother in the afterlife right?” I asked curiously. "My dad, killed her with a knife that erases their entire being from existence like how a Delete does. I wish I could but I can't." “Now that’s just not fair.” I frowned. "My life has never been fair. But… Lyra made it something to fight for." “At least the ones we loved help us when we needed it.” I said honestly. "Yeah. Yeah they do. Heh. I remember when Lyra said her world's Luna, Twilight and Chrysalis should join our marriage. I freaked out, and bolted to the nearest place to hide… a closet…" “I have heard that before” I said honestly. "It was the most embarrassing moment of my life." “It couldn’t have been that embarrassing that it has to be the most embarrassing.” I pointed out. "It was. Being talked out of the closet by your wife and the mares she wants you to add to your marriage. It was… heh. It was Lyra's first win on me." “Listen, you came out of the closet to tell people you really like fucking four women at the same time.” I said. “I got more of my harem by getting drunk...several times.” "I remember their pregnancies. I made them these fish crackers to eat." “You made them fish crackers?” I asked curiously. "Yeah. Monks taught me how to make them, easy means of having fast food for long travel." Cript said, crafting one, it looked more like toast of sorts. He floated it into my mouth. "The key is sea salt and a slow bake." “Sounds nice.” I nodded. Eating the cracker and woah… this is good. "Came in handy." “Comes in handy indeed this is very good.” I said honestly. "Recipe dating back nine hundred years on my world. All in all its really the only good recipe." “Really?” I asked curiously. “The only one?” "Others are either tasteless or burn easy." “Well that sucks.” I said honestly. “Would have been nice if those two things didn’t happen.” "I know." “Alright.” I nodded. “So, how much did you know about the whole...Mother and Belief thing?” “When I arrived here for the first time I heard about it, Lyra, Luna, Bon Bon and I were here in a bar back in that city I mentioned. More like Agraba in all honesty. They mentioned her and all this high and mighty god stuff. Figured we’d see what it was about… Once I saw she was guarded by Admins I sent them home for safety. Called Lord over and, well, when I reached her… I honestly wasn’t that surprised.” “Alrighty then.” I nodded. "Looks like that is kinda not completely the case anymore." Cript said, not getting up and sitting at the table across from me. "Wonder what we will run into first out here?" “Well…” I looked out to see if there was anything of note outside. “Let’s see if there’s anything special outside now.” "We are moving at a quarter the speed of light. It will all be blurs." Cript laughed. "Should have asked for a map." “We probably should have.” I said nervously. "Welp, there's extra fuel in the hold so let's just keep going until the fuel runs out and we have to put more in." “Okay then.” I nodded. “Sounds simple enough.” "So, hungry?" “Yep.” I nodded. “What do you want to eat?” "I'm in the mood for pizza." Cript said, snapping their fingers as Fifty inch pizza boxes suddenly appeared all around us. He opened the one on the table, a single slice was as long as his arm, and began eating it. “Sweet.” I said while taking a slice and eat it. “Haven’t really had pizza in a while.” "Me neither. Because I don't need to eat, I forget so when I do the flavor is a nice reminder." “Makes sense.” I nodded. “Even though I’m told Admins don’t need to eat...well it’s better to eat cause it gives energy and other important things.” "For me it's largely towards my magic which because of Generation I don't even need to worry about." “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “And considering I also have Amplify and Generation because of everything that happened.” I brought up. "Yeah… so… is this considered a date or am I just overthinking?" “Could be, I don’t know.” I shrugged honestly. “Oh, by the way did you hear what I did in the Family Arena?” "Yup. Shattered that record." “I think I may have given people nightmares with my first day…” I said sheepishly, barely remembering much on the first day as I was just cackling like mad wolf. "Not the worst it could have been." Cript said, taking another bite. "Surprised you made a city. Your first civilization. How's it feel?" “It felt good, building something even in dire circumstances...although literally being able to beat what’s supposed to be an infinite mode on pure accident was just funny to me.” I chuckled. “Like seriously, after a certain point me and the city could have just went out and destroyed the Shadow Spawners.” "It all would have been reset anyway when either you were down fifty hp or called for it to stop." “And literally only the later could have happened.” I said honestly. "Either way. So, feel better after that?" “You have no idea how much better I feel.” I said happily. “I really needed that.” "Heh. So, aside from pizza need a drink?" “What drinks you thinking of?” I asked curiously. "Depends. What's your poison?" “You really want to drink booze right now?” I asked curiously. "Only if you do." “Nah, we need to stay coherent in case something happens.” I said honestly. “So let’s go with Mountain Dew.” "MLG much?" Cript laughed as an ice cold bottle appeared on the table. “Nah, I just like it.” I said honestly while picking up the bottle and opening it carefully just in case. "I prefer root beer honestly." Cript said, giving themselves a cold bottle of soda. "So, what TV show did you love growing up?" “Oh god, so many.” I said while thinking back. "Name one?" “Courage the Cowardly Dog.” I said honestly. “Now that was a good show filled with possible childhood trauma.” "Huh… weird." “Oh?” I asked curiously. “What do you mean?” "I just never got horror stuff." “Have you ever watched Courage the Cowardly Dog?” I asked curiously. "I saw a few episodes after getting my company. Didn't like it." “Then you don’t understand good kid’s shows.” I said honestly. “Sure it’s creepy, but it’s more on perseverance and facing your fears even if your scared shitless.” "Eh. Just not my thing." Cript said, finishing his slice then downing his soda. "Ah… I'm gonna take a nap." “Alright, I’ll make sure things keep running smoothly. “I said while taking a sip of my own soda. “Wonder if anything will happen…” Cript left for the bed quarters and I just ate some more pizza and finished my soda. Checking on the autopilot and seeing all was fine and the fuel was still quite high. “Well...maybe there’s something on the scanners…” I muttered while checking if the ship even had something to make sure it knew what was around it instead of just blindly going forward. According to the scanner it was just trees and flatlands all around. Nothing of interest. Sighing, I mostly started watching YouTube on my assistant for a while. “Well this is gonna take a while…” I muttered, scrolling through videos to see what’s to watch. Some hours passed and I was getting more bored. It was getting kinda late too… I wonder...I got up and quietly snuck towards Cript’s room. As I gently opened the door to Cript’s room I took a quick peek inside to see if he was sleeping. He was. Sheets covering them and they were cuddling a pillow. I found that cute, Cript apparently being so used to cuddles that he’s cuddling up to a pillow. Sneaking in I didn't turn on the lights, pondering if I should scare them or join them for a nap. I was bored and tired at this point. I turned into my feral form and used some magic to silently pull him out of bed, and as I laid down into a ball I gently put Cript where my wives always loved to sleep whenever I’m like this. Covering them with my paw and some fur, I laid my head next to them… then noticed something I didn't before now that my eyes adjusted to the dark… Cript sleeps in JUST his boxers. ”Don’t care, wives normally sleep naked even when we’re not plowing like rabbits.” I thought to myself… then again, I am still his kid too… such a confusing family. I suddenly felt Cript hugging my arm. "Hi Den…" They said sleepily. ”Well crap…” I thought to myself, forgetting that he’s asleep so he’s probably thinking I was Mom. Do I say something or do I play along? “Hello.” I said gently, not sure if I should be playing along. "Hmm. Glad you're here." Cript said, hugging my leg tighter and shifting more against me. “Well...you wanted cuddles, so I came to cuddle.” I said gently. "Heh. So used to cuddling someone can't sleep without hugging someone. I just wish we can stay like this for a while." They yawned. “Well...we can be like this until you get a nice long rest.” I said softly. "Hmm…" They hummed, now pressing their back fully against my chest while hugging my arm. I chuckled a little and nuzzled Cript gently. “Good night.” Three Months Later. I woke up feeling...both really happy and pretty stiff. Cript and I were still in the same position. Yawning, I wondered how long we were sleeping. I checked my Assistant to see what time and date it was...three months!?! Did we hibernate?! “Uh...the fuck?” "Hmm?" Cript said, starting to wake up. "Huh… Ben?" “We’ve been asleep for three months.” I said worriedly. "Oh. Really? That was short." Cript said, climbing out from practically under me and stretching. "Den and I once slept and cuddled for half a year. Was nice." “Alrighty then.” I said while getting up and stretching. “Ah fuck, that was a good nap.” "I have to say, didn't think you'd cuddle up to me so quick." “Meh, I was bored and tired, and you looked lonely when you were just cuddling a pillow.” I said honestly. "Heh. Well thank you. It's kinda lonely for me sleeping alone. I just don't know how to pace this relationship." “I don’t even know what a paced relationship is.” I said honestly. "Heh… well, I guess whatever happens happens then." Cript said, getting dressed… and I was watching them the whole time… like Zeke, got nice curves. "I think we stopped already?" “Maybe.” I said, turning into my anthro form and heading to the main room to see what happened. Walking to the pilot room we saw were were parked. Opening the door and seeing a setting sun. We were in a jungle of sorts on the top of a cliff. "Well. This looks like a good place to explore." “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “Time to go out into the jungle.” "Let's go… that way." Cript said, taking the lead and just walking without a real sense of direction. I nodded and followed along. “Actually, should we be heading out into the jungle when it’s gonna be dark?” "Yup. Best monsters come out in the dark. Best creepy places show up at night." “Right then.” I nodded. “Can’t wait to see what kind of life is here.” As we walked about we saw some amazing flowers, cute smaller animals, and some massive trees. We found what looked like a massive temple long since abandoned. "Think there's loot?" “Depending on the kind of temple it is.” I said honestly. "Trapped likely. Maybe some monsters, a golem or two." “And they would be literally nothing compared to how strong the two of us are.” I brought up. "Oh I dunno. Things here are older than back home, more powerful. Might be interesting." “Maybe. Who knows?” I shrugged. We entered, some simple skeleton undead waiting for us. "Awh. Hoped it would be cooler." “Well...is it sentient?” I asked curiously. "Likely not." Cript said, the Skeleton adorning armor and swords. “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “So...just kill it or leave it?” "Only way to the end is through." Cript said, summoning Dusk Blade. "Mind if I borrow this?" “Sure.” I nodded. "Great. You wanna kill it or shall I?" “Have at it.” I said honestly, raising a hand to let him at it. Smirking, Cript held Dusk Blade backhanded before rushing towards the skeleton, Dusk Blade suddenly coated in white flames and Cript decapitated the undead, it's whole body becoming cloaked in the white fire as it burned to ash. “Nailed it.” I nodded. "Holy fire spell. It's funny I used to suck at holy magic but once I fixed my Psychopath issue It just clicked." Cript said, the ash pile forming I to a jagged curved greatsword. "Cool." Cript said, picking it up. “Sounds about right, and hey, loot.” I brought up. “So looks like we’ll be making a lot of money from this.” A door began opening, showing a descending stairway. "Oh I love dungeons." Cript said, disbanding Dusk Blade. "Shall we?" “We shall.” I nodded while heading down the stairs. The next floor was covered in bones, dirt and old weapons. Walking through it and finding a chest. "Real or mimic?" I grabbed a bone from the ground and gently tossed it at the chest to see what it’s reaction would be. Nothing. "Guess it's real. I took the skeleton. You check the chest." “Alright.” I nodded while moving over to the chest carefully. I placed my hands on it and threw the lid open, and inside was… a war hammer. It was thin but looked made out of bronze… no, no it looked like bronze but this metallic scent is new to me. It looked like a mix of mayan and Norse designs. “Well, I found a fancy thing.” I said while picking up the War Hammer and scanning it with my Assistant. Injustice. Att: 6,790 Def: 5,755 Mag: 90,745 Code: 22,507 A Hammer of Admin Warfare. One of the first Admin of Wars personal arsenal. I blinked. “Wait...the fuck is this doing here?” I asked. “This is a different realm right? Where the War never happened?” I asked. "Different realm, same history. Sorta." Cript said, looking it over. "In this era, the war happened but ended quickly. There was an Admin of war here, but like in ours Jericho killed them. This loot must be randomized… let me try something." Cript said, closing the chest as he waved his hand, a clock appeared over the chest, moving rapidly before disappearing. Cript opened it, this time it was just a few potions. "Respawning too… this kind of dungeon is exactly what I wanted for my realm." “Cool.” I said. “By the way, what’s this ‘Code’ Stat? Also, why is this a War Hammer in shape when it should be a Rod based on it’s magic stat?” I asked curiously. "Admin weapons have a unique code stat. It means the more code flowing through you until attack makes impact the more it multiplies your damage and defenses by the weapons stats. As for why it's a Warhammer, must have been for a mage tanker." “Maybe.” I shrugged. “This is gonna be nifty to use later on.” I said while looking over the Warhammer. Continuing on, the duo found a large arena, the center holding a chained statue. "Ten rem says that statue has at least three phases." Cript said. “Unless we just break it before it can do anything.” I brought up honestly. The statue began shifting, standing up and breaking its chains free, using the still hanging ones as metallic whips. “Well then…” I started. “This’ll be interesting.” I said honestly as I summoned Skysplitter. "Ladies first?" Cript offered. “Fine fine.” I said while walking over to the Statue. “Wonder how durable this thing is?” I wondered as I moved closer and then hit the thing with Skysplitter. While the impact cracked the arm it did managed to punch me, throwing me back over to Cript. "Oh this thing has a spirit." Cript said, readying his sword. "Looks like the will be more fun than I expected.” “Thing can’t hit for shit though.” I said while while appearing in front of it as slamming Skysplitter even harder than before. More cracked and broke off… revealing a fleshy under to that stone. Cript joined in, stabbing it in the exposed flesh. It roared, the entire arm broke free from its stone shell and in a rapidly unexpected motion, grabbed Cript. "Oh fuck!" “Okay so what the actual hell is this thing?” I asked. “Cause normally living people don’t just stay living inside solid stone.” I said as I slammed Skysplitter into the arm that was holding Cript. "Learned long ago not to question it. Saves a lot of headache!" Cript said, rapidly tossed and sent into the wall some ways away. "That hurt…" “Well let’s see what the hell this thing actually is.” I said while casting Scan on it to see what it was and other such important things. Floor Guardian#65301747592746591077482. Type: Demonic. Phases: 5 Dungeon Type: Ancient Dungeon Level: Hair of Code Level range: God-Admin “Okay...good to know this thing is damn near Admin Level Demon…” I frowned as I tried to find any weaknesses to the thing. “This is going to be interesting…” I muttered as I bolted towards it and swung Skysplitter into one of it’s legs to try and cripple it. As I tried to hit it's leg, it's chain whip wrapping around Skysplitter and it yanked me around like a kid who can't use a yo yo. “Dick.” I frowned while aiming Sharpshooters and firing at its eyes as I disbanded Skysplitter and floated in the air. The shots impacted it, starting to crack the skull shell. Cript got back up, delivering their own blow to the demons other arm. "Have to say, been a while since I had a challenge." “Says the guy that could have just killed it in one hit.” I brought up as I continued to try and crack the thing’s shell. “So let’s start with getting rid of it’s shell, then we can start maybe doing more damage to it.” "That will also make it faster though. Making it harder to hit and dodge." Cript said, taking a deep hit to the demons exposed arm. “I know I know.” I said as I shot a bunch of arrows into it’s exposed arm, the arrows moving past Cript and hitting straight into the arm due to several of the mod’s on it. Cript, taking advantage also, cast Holy Fire along his sword and sliced the arm off, the demon screaming, it's other still shelled arm breaking free, and it began pounding its chest. "Shit, it's trying to break its shell!" I moved over and hit the thing’s shoulder with Frozen Pride, even with it’s stone shell it’s entire arm before frozen solid in an instant. “No, bad Demon. No breaking your shell.” I scolded it. The ice began to melt, the side with the sliced off arm began exploding in fire and magma. “Oh, cool.” I said as the fire and magma immediately froze and was rushing straight into the Demon’s inside. “You need to Cool off.” I said, hoping the Demon would stop for a second at my very shitty pun. It did not. The fire erupted from cracks in the ice as suddenly the whole thing exploded. Shrapnel of ice hitting me and Cript as this magma flaming demon was now a few phases further than expected. “Welp, he’s mad.” I said as I donned my Armor. “Alright fucko, let’s dance.” I said while summoning my Greatsword and No Heart and prepared myself for any of it’s attacks. It reached into it's molten chest, pulling out magma greatswords from within itself, slamming them down as the whole room began to heat up. "Shifting the environment. It's making itself stronger by making this place literally as hot as hell." “Okay, sure.” I said while placing Frozen Pride on the ground. “Winter’s Fall.” I muttered, all the heat the demon was producing in the area was suddenly being sucked away as ice and snow started to form in the area rather quickly, going faster as it continued to eat up any and all heat the Demon was making or trying to make. “Let’s see how you handle something that can freeze Hell.” I growled. Roaring, the demon charged me, slamming both it's magma greatswords into Frozen Pride. “Not a smart move.” I said as ice krept up the greatswords as I brought out Arpeggio and plucked one of the strings, the snow suddenly turning into spikes and impaled themselves into the things back. “It’s funny how I have the two things that counter this things abilities.” "Show off." Cript said, using his sword to shatter the demons. Cript and I then backed up a bit. "Demons have more than one heart, I sense fourteen in this fucker so… one big blast to obliterate it's torso." “Alright.” I nodded while pulling out my Lexicon and Injustice as I channeled a strong spell and plenty of Code into it. “Maximize Magic, Ray of Light!” I shouted, a small ball of pure holy energy forming at the tip of my War Rod. Nodding, Cript raised their hand up. "Amplify." Thy said, the ball of holy energy growing and not stopping I looked at saw that the ball of light slowly grew and was rainbow in color. “Perfect…” I muttered before taking a deep breath. “Taste the Rainbow Mothafucka!” I shouted as I let loose the spell, which completely engulfed the Demon in a massive beam of rainbow death. When the light faded the demon was gone, and a chest was in its place. "Nice." Cript said. “Okay wow...that was a lot stronger than I originally thought it would be…” I said honestly. “But yay, loot.” "And they will just keep getting stronger with each floor." Cript said, walking over and kicking open the chest open. Inside was… a flood of gold coins. Some weapons, potions, and books. “Perfect.” I nodded. “Now to check what the hell these weapons and books are.” I said while using my Assistant to check on the weapons and books. They were some pretty powerful Weapons, none Admin tier though. The books were all spell books and thankfully one Atlas/map book. Perfect. “Sweet.” I nodded. “Good to have a map for this place hopefully.” "Well let's check it out." Cript said, opening the book as a magical image of this dungeon appeared. The floor layouts and rooms appearing with labels of treasure, trap, secret and boss rooms all exposed. "According to this there should be a hidden room for recovering after a fight or preparing for them just down the hall." “Cool, we should probably rest up after that.” I brought up. Arriving there, there was a stone beds, a pool/fountain, lots of small chests, and a nice fire going. "Cozy." “Looks good enough to relax in...hopefully it’s not a trap.” I said honestly. “Good things almost never come for free…” Cript took a seat on one of the stone beds, I tasted the water from the pool/fountain and it was good. I took a seat by the fire, taking out some meat I had saved in my Assistant and began cooking it. “Thank god Assistant inventory keeps things fresh.” "Turns matter into digital code. Digital code can't rot." Cript said. "Basically replaced the entire house in a sense.” “Yeah.” I nodded. “By the way, have you ever had cooked meat from my home world?” "Yup. Not bad." “It’s delicious.” I said happily. “I thought eating prey raw tasted great, but cooking it is just even better.” "Yup. I have rarely been in a dire wolf form. Gotta say, kinda nice." “Well I’m biased since I’ve been a dire wolf for...long enough.” I shrugged. "Ya know what?" I heard Cript say, followed by… paw steps? Looking I saw Cript was in a feral, Den Mother form, walking over to me. "How about we just be dire wolves for this, some more bonding?" Oh no they're so busty!! “Jesus christ, Rarity is going to need to make more of these special bra’s…” I sighed out, still thankful for mine cause last I checked they all grew a cup size. "Lyra put a hex on me that every time I shift into a new form as both genders my body gets more… bimboish…" Cript sighed. "Yet another one of her fetishes…" “She has a Bimbo fetish?” I asked curiously. "She's bisexual so yes… I regret showing her the internet…" “The internet is a very dangerous place for the people that want to learn.” I shrugged. Nodding, Cript dragged me by my scruff under them, a warm, comphy, sexy cuddle as they wrapped around me. "On the bright side, life has never been boring." “Yeah.” I nodded. “Even though a boring day would be nice sometimes...better it not be boring ya know?” "Yup." Cript said, giving me a lick/kiss across my head like mom does. I chuckled and nuzzled Cript. “This is nice.” "Yeah. Let's stay like this for a while, then continue on. Hopefully not for three months this time." “Yeah, let’s hope it’s not that long.” I agreed, trying not to think of lewd things. Cript laid their head on me. "One thing Den wishes she could have done was to wrap around you, keeping you warm and protected like the pups." “If only that could have happened…” I sighed out. "It can." I looked up, seeing Mom here. She was also in feral form and curled up on the other side, me in the middle of this Den Mother sandwich of love and… sexy… "Cript called me here." I blushed brightly at this. “Well...it’s nice to see you mom.” I said, trying to keep myself from doing something silly. "Family adventure. Thought it was a good chance to bond and get to know each other." Cript said. “That would be great.” I smiled gently, nuzzling mom as I’m trying my damndest not to think lewd things with how sexy these two are. "This will be fun. But, can I ask a favor Ben, it won't be permanent, I swear." Mom said. “And...what would that be?” I asked curiously. "Can I… make you a kid, just for a few hours, so I can enjoy this more?" “I’ve...seen enough hentai to know where this is going.” I said sheepishly. "Not that." Mom said. "I just want to really feel like your mom, hug, cuddle and nurse you for a bit. What I never got to do." “That would...be nice.” I said gently. Nodding with a smile, Mom licked me, and I started Shrinking. I was about the size of a five year old now, and instinctively began nursing as both Mom and Dad rested a head on my now tiny body. ”This is nice…” I thought to myself warmly. “Alright, so what Power Rangers am I in?” I asked, deciding to disguise myself as a normal human instead of strutting around as my Den Mother form as I walked around the town. As I walked around I heard people screaming. “Well...that’s a good start.” I muttered while jogging up to where I heard the screaming. When I got around I saw...the fuck? “Haha! Yes, fear me!” A monster laughed haughty, the thing looks like a weird mix of a frog and a tree. “Well...maybe Jungle Fury?” I muttered as I walked up to the monster and all it’s grunts. “Uh, excuse me, do you know what city this is?” I asked. “What? A human not afraid?” The monster asked in shock. “Why aren’t you afraid of me?” “I mean...your not scary.” I said honestly. “How dare you!” It shouted as it tried to swing one of it’s large hands at me, and when it connect some piddly looking sparks came from me and I felt literally nothing. “D’aw.” I said while grabbing its arm. “It thinks it’s people.” I said with a warm smile. “Wha-let go of me!” It said, trying to get out of my hold as the grunts didn’t know what to actually do. “So what? You harness fear or something for your master?” I asked. “Y-yes?” He asked. “And who are you working for?” I asked curiously. “The Master of Dark Magic.” It said while breaking off it’s arm and hopping away, regrowing a new one. “And he will cover the world in darkness!” “God it’s been absolutely forever since I last heard that.” I chuckled as I walked over to it. “Well, good to know that I’m in Mystic Force’s area, did you know that there’s a bunch of other Power Rangers still alive and kicking in this world?” I asked. “Uh...no?” He asked nervously while I raised my hand. “Well you won’t be needing to know that now.” I said as I flicked the toad monster with my middle finger, electricity sparking from it suddenly. “H-how…?” The toad monster said breathlessly as it fell over and exploded. “Well that was fun.” I said as I put my hand back in my pocket, all the grunts suddenly disappearing in shouts of pain. “Wonder if the-” I was about to say but I heard five distinct footsteps running towards me. “What the heck?” One of the five colored rangers called out in shock. “Sup.” I said with a nod. “How you five doing?” “Who are you and...what happened to the monster?” The Red Ranger asked. “Well I killed it.” I said honestly. “It was a simple matter really.” I shrugged. “Who are you?” Red asked. “Names Ben, and you five must be the Mystic Rangers.” I brought up. “Yes we are…” The Red Ranger sounded a bit suspicious. “So how did you beat that monster?” The yellow ranger asked. “I just flicked it in the head and it exploded.“ I said honestly, before looking up and spotting a certain purple knight standing on a rooftop. “Looks like someone’s interested.” I said, sensing magic spike as I turned around and saw the monster turn giant. “Uthe Mijor Catastros!” I heard the knight chant. “Ulthe Mijor Ultimas!” “Come on guys!” The red ranger said as an announcer said ‘Galwit Mysto Unios’, as the Rangers formed their Titan Megazord. “Well that’s not fair.” I started. “Let’s even the odds.” I said while flying up. “Galwit Nihil Prifior!” I shouted, seeing a spell circle filled with Nothingness appear as I donned a much sleeker version of my armor, more in tune with what the Power Ranger’s world would allow which was pretty nifty. “Alright.” “What!?” The Rangers shouted in surprise. “Impossible…” The Knight Wolf muttered, before raising his dual blade as I clashed with him with a normal Sword I brought out. “Let the rangers deal with the monster.” I said while motioning to the rangers fighting the toad monster. “Who are you?” Koragg asked. “And how do you know of that kind of magic?” “There’s a lot more to me that you’ll probably never know.” I said. “But let’s take a step back shall we?” I asked while grabbing him and teleporting to some ravine. “Teleportation huh? You are strong stranger.” Koragg said before bringing his weapon up. “But it won’t be enough. Dark Magic Spell Seal. Hya!” He shouted as he swung, his power amplified by Darkness. “Oh that’s cute.’ I said while I stopped the swing with one finger. “Strong swing, but not strong enough.” I said as my helmet seemed to open up as I literally ate the dark magic that infused his attack. “Impossible! You ate my dark magic?” The knight said in shock, taking a step back. “Grape flavored...huh.” I hummed. “Now, for a little thing about you, let’s see who you are.” I said while moving over and gently tapping a finger on his head, leaving a small bit of magic to help guide him through. “I won’t give you all the answers, but I’ll give you a little seed for you to grow. Remember your family.” I said before vanishing from sight. “Alright, so next up…” I muttered while walking around the wood’s where the Rangers hideout is. “Hmm...I’m a little surprised people know about Nothingness here…” “And what are you doing here stranger?” A woman asked, Udonna showing herself to me in a flash of magic. “I mean, you might be curious as to what the Rangers told you about me.” I said simply, keeping my hands in my coat pockets. “And why do I sense Nothingness surrounding you?” The Snow Witch asked curiously, looking defensive like I might attack. “Peace Udonna.” I said. “I’m not your enemy. Believe me.” I said while bringing a hand out as a sign of peace. “But considering you know what my powers are, I have a feeling you know of other worlds?” “There have been rumors in the magic world yes.” Udonna nodded carefully. “Alright.” I nodded. “So, mind if I ask what current General your fighting?” I asked curiously. Udonna looked confused at that. “Well...at the moment it’s Koragg and Morticon.” The mage said. “Alright, thank you.” I nodded. “Good to have a bit of a time frame…” I muttered. “Mind if I come in? I’m sure the rangers are curious as to who I am.” I said simply. “Yes, the rangers are rather...intrigued on how you manage what you did.” She said, still massively on the fence about whether or not I'm friend or foe. I nodded while following the ice witch into their Hideout. “Fancy.” I said while walking in, keeping my hands in my pockets. “Howdy.” I said. “What’s he doing here?” Nick Russel, the Red Mystic Ranger, asked curiously. “How did you do...any of that back there?” Charlie Thorn, the Yellow Mystic Ranger, asked with nerdy interest. “How did you keep Koragg at bay?” Madisson Rocca, the Blue Mystic Ranger, asked. “He’s pretty strong, sometimes we have a hard time fighting him." “Who are you?” Vida Rocca, the Pink Mystic Ranger, asked the real question. “What’s with the cloak? Are you a Ranger as well?” Xander Bly, the Green Mystic Ranger, asked curiously. “I mean, your Titan Form was pretty sleek, but I’ve never seen anything like that.” “Now in order of Importance.” I started. “My names Ben, this cloak was made for me by two of my wives, I’m here to help, I’m Magic, and because I am so unbelievably stronger than literally everything and everyone.” I explained. “How much stronger are you?” Nick asked curiously, crossing his arms, not believing the hype. “You don’t want to know.” I chuckled. “At least not yet.” I shrugged. “But what kind of magic do you use? I haven’t heard of ‘Nihil’ before.” Madisson brought up. “Ah, that is because I use Nothingness.” I brought up, my cloak seeming to suddenly have greyish black Nothingness Thorns crawl around it. “A force so unbelievably ancient your Good and Evil magic are nothing but infant’s compared to what actual Light and Darkness can do.” I said, my words echoing with knowledge and experience that all the rangers looked at each other in nervousness. “Well...you learn something new everyday.” Vida said sheepishly. “So anyways, I believe that thing is reacting.” I said while motioning to the book. “Saved by the book.” Xander said as Udonna walked over and opened the book. “It says…” The snow witch started before gasping. “It can’t be…” “What’s wrong?” Nick asked worriedly. “The Gatekeeper will be forced to open the Gates.” Udonna said. “Who’s the Gatekeeper?” Charlie asked curiously. “First, a little backstory.” I brought up. “Correct…” Udonna sighed out as she explained how Morticon and his army were first sealed during the Great Magic War, and then who the current Gatekeeper is. “Now a good question is, where is Claire?” I asked curiously, knowing how this will play out and not wanting to interrupt it too much until the time is right. “I’ll go find her.” Udonna said. “I know where she’ll be, you five make sure they don’t bring an attack to the city, and Ben…” She looked at me carefully. “I won’t do anything wrong.” I said with a knowing nod. “And I’ll help the rangers if need be.” “Alright.” Udonna nods before teleporting away to find Claire. “So…” Xander started. “What do you do when your not kicking bad guy butt?” “Oh you know, spending time with family, training, games, traveling, you know. The simple things for a hero.” I shrugged. “By the way, did you say your ‘wives’ made you this cloak?” Maddison asked. “Oh, well…” I said sheepishly. “That is a whole other story that would be better left for later.” I said sheepishly. “What games do you play?” Charlie asked, interested in what games I play. ”Need to remember this is technically 2006…” I thought to myself. “Oh you know, Melee, Ratchet and Clank, Metroid Prime. The good games.” I shrugged, remembering those three fondly. So on we talked, mostly me answering questions that I could easily answer like ‘what’s my favorite console’, ‘what’s my favorite music’, ‘what’s my favorite place to travel’ and so on and so forth but Nick seemed a tad insistent on asking questions that I really couldn’t talk about yet like ‘How are you so strong’, ‘how ancient is Nothingness’, and other things that I really couldn’t talk about at the moment. “Why are you so evasive on Nick’s questions?” Xander asked, honestly curious about that. “It’s not the right time to talk about those things.” I said, before an alarm started. “Especially right now.” I said, mentally thanking the alarm for getting me out of a very touchy topic. “Alright, let’s go guys.” Nick said while the rangers all ran over to the walls and grabbed their broomsticks before leaving through special choots on neat looking gliders. “Okay…” I said while bringing out Arpeggio. “Ready to rock the house buddy?” I asked, gently strumming my Sitar as the water in the air hummed in joy. “Cool.” I smiled, teleporting off to where the rangers were heading to. When I arrived after taking my sweet time I appeared near the rangers getting saved by Claire. “This is gonna be so nifty…” I muttered with a smile. “Back off Necrolai!” Claire shouted as she looked at the tiara in her hand. “My mother’s spirit lives on in me!” She said as she put on the magical item and became the Gatekeeper. “Power of the Shining Moon! Behold, the Gatekeeper!” She introduced herself, her voice amplified by the sudden power as she raised her hand and engulfed the Vampire Queen in magic, quickly siphoning the added power the vampire had. “My new powers! Their gone!” Necrolai cried out in worry. “Alright!” The rangers cheered for Claire as Koragg decided to appear suddenly. “Alright everyone! Together!” Claire said as she raised her hand, a pretty fancy looking staff appearing from thin air as she grabbed it and channeled magic into it. “Hya!” She shouted as she fired a beam of energy at Necrolai, causing the vampire to backpedal from the sudden hit. The rangers were quick on the follow up as they all leaped up and dive kicked the crap out of Necrolai. “You will still lose Rangers!” Necrolai shouted at them as she got back up quickly and took flight, back to wherever the hell she could pass between the gates. As Claire and the Rangers were celebrating their victory, Nick got his telepathic message from Koragg, telling him that Koragg will fight Claire or else Udonna gets it. “Just a little longer…” I muttered as I vanished to where Koragg was to be a spectator. When I arrived at the destination before Claire, Koragg looked over at me. “Your not the Gatekeeper.” Koragg started. “Don’t mind me, I’m just a spectator.” I simply said, bringing out a bag of popcorn. “I won’t interrupt this duel.” I said simply as Claire appeared. “Alright Koragg, I’m here.” Claire said. “So it was you…” The Knight Wolf said, standing still as Claire fired two bolts of magic that missed on purpose. “I want Udonna back, now!” Claire demanded. “Not until I get to see the legendary magic of the Gatekeeper.” Koragg said, prepared for a fight. “As you wish.” Claire growled as she got into a battle stance and charged at Koragg. “A little bad that I know what’s going to happen.” I chuckled a little as I ate my popcorn. “But it is fun watching this again.” I said to myself, watching the fight unfold as it was a pretty even fight until Claire decided to bust out the Megazord form. “Finally, a real challenge.” Koragg said as he flew up into the air. “Uthe Mijo Ultimas!” He shouted as he combined with his mighty steed Catastros. “Centaurus Wolf Megazord!” He shouted as the two clashed. “I wonder what song I should pick…” I muttered while checking my assistant, looking through some songs to try and find something to show my stuff. “Besides that demon I never really got much practice with Arpeggio, wonder if I can work it…” I hummed as I heard a massive explosion. “Well, that’s Claire down.” I said while finding my song and bolting towards where the others were. I was ‘too late’ as Claire was captured by Necrolai as the Rangers distracted Koragg. “Now, by the power of the Gatekeeper, let the Gate rise up!” Necrolai commanded, Claire screaming in pain as her magic was forced to bring up the Gate. “Oh no!” Red shouted. “Oh no!” Blue shouted. “Oh no!” Green shouted. “Oh yeah!” The Kool Aid Man appeared out of literally nowhere. “The hell?” Yellow questioned. “Is that the Kool Aid man?” Pink asked. “Nope.” I said while making the glass bastard disappear as I tried not to laugh. “That was nothing but your imagination.” So then it devolved into the Rangers trying to fight a Sentinel as they accidentally broke the gate a tiny bit to let Morticon out. “Hahaha! I’m free! And your world is now doomed!” The undead shouted in pride as his army’s started to rush through the gate from the opening. “And that’s my cue.” I said as I took a deep breath. “Galwin Nihil Ranger!” I chanted as Nothingness thorns surrounded me, forming my ‘Ranger’ King Armor, the Dragon Motif it kind of had was now more apparent, the wings more full instead of looking mechanical, a dragon design plastered on my chest plate, my helmet being a more dragon head shape, my visor not really looking like one thing as Nothingness thorns seemed to solidify into what looked like dragon teeth but were also constantly moving. “Galwin Nihil Prifior!” I shouted as I jumped up high to be Megazord size. “Who are you?” Morticon demanded. ”Your worst nightmare.” I said as I summoned Arpeggio, as I started playing the song. Little Boxes on the Hillside, Little Boxes made of Ticky Tacky As I played Arpeggio and sang in a calming and soothing tone, water started to form into four cube’s, one large one for Morticon, and the other three small that stayed in front of all the other enemies. Little Boxes on the Hillside, Little Boxes all the same. As I continued to sing I channeled Nothingness as I started to form a special surprise for all these bastards. There’s a Green one and a Pink one. A Blue one and a Yellow on! As I sang that all of the box’s actually changed color to match, the big one being green, then from right to left being pink, blue and yellow. They're all made out of Ticky Tacky and they all look just the same… As I trailed off Morticon apparently didn’t want to play along. “That’s enough!” The undead with half a machine head shouted as he took a swing at the box, thinking this is some stupid attempt to distract him. And then that’s when all hell broke loose as I continued to play, getting more aggressive as I shouted like a punk rocker. And the people in houses, who went to the University, they all got put in Boxes, and they came out all the same! Before Morticon could make contact with the green box suddenly a large paw appeared from it and blocked the swing swiftly, as each water cube dispersed to show four new Nobodies. Morticon saw what looked like a very feathery looking bear, it’s feathers colored white with grey tips, it’s body bulky and strong, it’s claws razor sharp and the eyes of a predator. “What!?!” Morticon shouted in surprise. There’s Doctor's and Lawyers, and Business Executives, they’re all made out of Ticky Tacky and they look just the same! The other three boxes held other Nobodies, the three of them looking like other mythical creatures, one was a Seraphim Nobody, it’s eight wings covering it’s entire body as it radiated power and grace, the next one was a powerful Demon of the same calibur of the Seraphim, a Demon Lord. The last one was something completely different, as it looked like a simple man wearing a trench coat and a detective hat, holding a rapier and a .44 Taurus Revolver, but no one could make out any of its features. “What in the world!?” Necrolai shouted in surprise at the sudden monsters appearing before them as all their grunts tried to attack them, to absolutely zero effect as whenever any of the mooks tried to get close they died instantly. And they all play on the golf-course, And drink their Martini dry, And they all have pretty children, And the children go to school. The giant Nobody growled as it slammed it’s claws into Morticon, causing the undead to back away in pain. “Impossible!” The bad guy shouted. “What the heck is going on?” Nick asked in concerned confusion. “Well whatever’s going on, Ben’s certainly showing them who’s boss.” Vida said as she saw all my Nobodies kicking the everloving shit out of the Master’s army. And the children go to summer camp And then to the university, They all get put in boxes They all come out the same As I continued to sing and play, my Nobodies cleaved through all of Morticon’s army and was pushing the undead back heavily. “This is impossible! How can someone call creatures this strong!?!” The undead shouted in rage as it channeled dark magic. “Dark Magic Strike!” He shouted as he used his most powerful attack on my Nobody, who took the hit and sparks flew from it. “Ha!” He shouted in triumph, before the thing screeched/roared in anger as it’s feathers grey tips seemed to envelope it’s entire body as it radiated power. “I think he pissed it off.” Xander said worriedly as the Nobody swung at Morticon, the general trying to block it but his sword broke from the powerful swing. And the boys go into business, And marry, raise a family, And they all get put in boxes, Little boxes, all the same. I shouted as the Owlbear roared and raised it’s claw up, Nothingness pouring into it as it struck down Morticon. “Impossible!” He shouted as he crackled with electricity before exploding. “Retreat!” Necrolai shouted as the vampire queen fled quickly. “Retreat!” Yeah a green one and a pink one And a blue one and a yellow one And they're all made out of ticky-tacky And they all look just the same. As I finished the song a beam of light appeared from the sky and closed the gate, sending it straight back to the depths. “And that’s that.” I said. To be continued...
Nobody has a bad dayWhen I woke up I was full size again, still cuddled between Cript and mom… I then noticed this pile was now… bigger? There were two other Dire Wolves here now. Both like me, they smelled… different, familiar but different. Do I know them? “Uh...what?” I muttered, confused as to who the other two were. With a yawn, Cript got up, stretching and allowing me to get up and get a better look at these two newcomers. One was the same color as me/mom, but the fur on her head had this...familier polish brown color, and the other, has a lighter take on the priors hair color, but their whole body was that color. Looking I saw Cript shifting back to anthro form, dressed and cooking some eggs. “Um...who are these two?” I asked nervously. “What? Don't recognize the hair color?” Cript asked half awake. “I believe before God picked you up you called THEM Mom and Dad.” “Wait, these are mom and dad?” I asked in surprise as I looked at the two again...and I’ll be damned...they actually are my parents. “They wanted to have some family time also.” Cript said, yawning again as the smell of Frying eggs began filling the room. “They’ve been like this for… about five months. Den and the others have been helping them adjust to their new forms, and learning a few things about you as well, things they’ve missed since they were dead, and needless to say they were worried as all hell. So, figured kill two birds with one stone. One large family adventure.” “Sounds great.” I said warmly as I gently nuzzled my mom and dad. “I’m happy they’re here.” “Moning.” Mom-Den said, waking up next and Mom and Dad began stirring awake. “I smells eggs.” “Cript is making eggs.” I said honestly. “Also, morning...maybe?” I asked, not sure if it’s morning or something. "Sorta. It's five in the morning here." Cript said. “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “Good tok now what time it is cause...well we’re in a dungeon so I don’t know.” "Clocks." Mom-Den said, humming, sitting next to Cript while in feral form still. "Time to get up." Mom… said getting up. She looked at me with a big, warm smile as she gave me a lick. "Hi sweetie. Surprised?" “More than surprised. “I said while hugging mom. She hugged back… the squish between us made me blush so red I temporarily turned ginger. "Wow. You have your aunts boobs. Large and soft, yet firm and symmetrical." And now my blush might be permanent…. “Mo~m.” I groaned. “I don’t need you talking about my tits like that...I’m worried you copped too many feels in my sleep.” "Nah." Mom said, breaking the hug. "So, wow… not exactly the life I imagined for you, but I can't complain with your success." “Is it because your son basically let you both live in the lap of luxury?” I asked curiously. "Actually it's all the grandkids." Mom said sheepishly. “All of the grandkids.” I chuckled. “Now, mind helping me get your father up? With this body he spends hours hugging his own breasts and while sexy it’s where I know you got your perversions.” Mom said, Dad was indeed faking sleep to hug their own cleavage. “Listen, it’s not my fault that titties are always nice.” I said while picking up my dad with one hand. “Alright you, wake up. You can go back to fondling your breasts later.” “Kill joy.” They hissed. Getting up, already i anthro form and getting dressed… my dad should not be that hot… so wrong… maybe? “So, from what I got you beat a giant skeleton and some kinda demon thing. Whats next?” “Floor three.” Cript said, serving Mom-Den, Mom, Dad, myself and themself. “A giant F-off maze with about six Minotaurs roaming it. Found some info on this place after having my Assistant search for frequencies that give information.” “Yay for a maze.” I said. “So are the walls strong enough to not just punch through?” “This time yes.” Cript said, raising their Assistant up as a floor plan of this- Seven Hundred Floors!?!?! “Each floor gets harder, stronger, tougher, this place was built to give people like me a challenge, from the next floor onwards, it will be a challenge, injury and even death for Your moms and dad there is a high possibility.” Cript said, looking at me. “I can’t die, and you’re link to me make you the same, but Den…” “I trust you love.” Mom-Den said, giving Cript a kiss on the lips. “If I can’t handle it, I know to run.” “I’ll make sure to keep you both safe okay?” I told my parents gently. “Ben, we came here not just to be with you.” Mom said, taking my hands. “We also came to prove ourselves.This power, this fight is not just yours, it’s ours as well. Your father and I want to back you up on the battlefield when shit hits the fan.” “Yeah, can’t let you have all the fun.” Dad said, wrapping his arm around my neck and giving me a noogie like when I was four. “Gotta show my own son up somehow.” He laughed. “I know I know.” I chuckled a little, my heart swelling as I teared up. “God...it’s...it’s been forever…” “Eat up.” Cript said, he and Mom-Den finishing their food. “This maze might take a while.What I hear though it’s got a lot of good loot in it though.” they said, pulling out Darkest Hero… then tossing it to me. “Just in case Ben.” Cript said, taking out a strange handgun for themselves. I took the weapon. “You sure?” I asked Cript honestly. “I’m used to fighting things that can match or are stronger than me, did a lot before I picked that thing up full time. It’s just a loan though, once we clear this maze I’ll want it back.” They said, checking their ammo. “I also gave your mom and dad there some weapons also, they’ve been training with them also so, don’t be surprised.” I saw Mom-Den was sharpening her nails. “We’ll be fine Ben.” She assured. “I’m gonna need to learn how to make a Soul Weapon to be honest.” I brought up as I swung Darkest hero gently and away from the others to get a feel for it. “I’ll show you in the next rest area.” Cript said, the door opening as we began heading out after rapidly scarfing down our meal. The Door to the maze was a large, metallic gate and inside the maze I smelled… Death… I smelled a lot of death. Entering the door closed behind us...then vanished as a wall was now behind us. “Figured.” Cript said, sirking. “No turn backs, gotta find the exit now.” “Yippee…” I sighed out while taking a deep breath. “Okay, so every maze should have a certain pattern, even if it’s magic.” I said as I already tried thinking of god knows how many kinds of patterns this thing could have. “Let’s get going.” Mom said, we moved in a close group, looking both ahead and behind us for safety. We all caught the scent of bones. There was a split. One was strong with the smell of bones, the other smelled of… what is that? Bugs? “Which way, left or right?” Mom-Den asked. “The smell of bones, or the smell of bugs…” I hummed as I took out Sharpshooters and fired an arrow down both paths, checking to see which one locks onto a target sooner. The side that smelled of bones just hit a wall, the other… hit something… and it roared… and there was suddenly a lot of hard, fast paced thumping. “Oh I don’t like that.” Cript said, taking out his gun as Mom-Den readied her claws, Mom pulled out- … Is that a Rocket launcher? “What?” Mom asked. “I like things that go boom.” Dad had… a baseball bat? “Oh this is going to be… ‘fun’.” He said. “Well...alrighty then.” I said while bringing out Darkest Hero and No Heart and donned my King Armor. “Alright, so depending on how this goes, we will probably have to run the other way.” As what was rushing towards us came into… view...Spiders… thousands of… car sized spiders… “Nope!” Cript yelled, bolting the other way, and the rest of us followed. “Nope!” I shouted as well. “All sorts of nope!” We all bolted down the other path, the Spiders still in hot pursuit, Mom shot off two rockets, the blasts didn’t even make them flinch?! “I hate fucking Spiders!” Mom yelled. “If the blasts didn’t even affect them, they must have a fire resistance on top of impact resistance.” Cript said. “Ben, mix Frozen Prides ice, Eternal Flames fire, and Foundure’s lightning to deep fry them.” “Alright.” I said while I skidded to a halt and turned around. “Let’s go.” I shouted as I slammed Frozen Pride into the ground as ice rocketed towards the spiders, throwing massive fireballs from Eternal Flames, and hundreds of daggers from Foudre rained down. “Thunder Clap.” I said as I snapped my fingers, each Spider suddenly feeling electricity spark from their bodies as a massive bolt of lightning slammed into each of them with insane power. They fell to the ground, twitching for a bit before finally they began stopping dead. Cript walked over to me, placing a hand on my shoulder in pride. “Nice work… hate Spiders…” He shivered. The spiders bodies now faded into ashes. “They had to have been guarding something… wanna check it out?” “Alright.” I nodded. “Let’s go check what they were possibly guarding.” Walking back to the split, we headed down where the Spiders came from. Needless to say, there was a lot of webs… wrapped up bodies… And a single chest in the center of it all. “Yeah, that’s not suspicious.” Dad said. “Yeah, that’s an obvious trap.” I frowned. “Not seeing a trip wire.” Cript said, walking around the chest. “Must be rigged from the inside.” “Like when you open the chest the wrapped up bodies will burst out showing they were actually creatures waiting?” I asked. “I’m thinking more along the lines of a bomb.” Cript said tapping the chest. “Or, or all we know it’s not even a chest, it could be a mimic.” I took a bone and chucked it at the chest to see if it reacted. Nothing. “Okay so it’s probably not a mimic.” I said. “Well, one tried and true method.” Mom said, walking just a bit away from the chest, then kicking the lid open with her leg. We all immediately got on the defensive. After a good minute of nothing happening, we looked in the chest. A...book? “All that for a book?” Mom asked. “That depends on what the book is.” I said while checking the book to see what knowledge it held. Nothing… Not a single word here. Not even a sign ink touched these pages. “A blank book… that can’t be right…” Cript hummed. “Let me see.” As I was handing the open book to Cript, when he grabbed it, before I could let go the pages suddenly filled with words. “Oh… now what’s this?” Cript asked, looking the words over, when I let go, they vanished. “Huh… only appears when two people hold it… interesting.” They said, having me take one side while they grabbed another, and the words filled the pages again… it was… names. A list of names that kept going. “Now what’s this about?” “Um...how many names do you recall from this list?” I asked curiously. "None." Cript said. "But I wonder…" He took the book, walking over to my parents and had them hold it, A single name appeared… my name… "I thought so. This book lists the name of every child you will ever have." "We're not going to have more than Ben?" Dad asked, looking at the book. "Can't we have more though? I always wanted Ben to have a little sibling." Mom said. "If you do choose to, then more names should appear." On cue, more did, now filling the pages like how it did with me and Cript… wait… oh… oh wow… "And like that, Ben's a big brother… sister… eh." “Now the better question is...who’s the father?” I asked. “Cause I’m dumb and immediatly thought of…” I trailed off, not wanting to finish that statement. "Don't know. I'll have to examine this book more so to see if it can give us that answer." Cript said, putting the book away in his Assistant. "Well, if that was all, off we go then." We all headed back to where we were, finding the room of bones. All of them were smashed to shards. "And Minotaur number one must be near…" Mom-Den said. "Wonder how strong they are…" I hummed, preparing myself in case one of the does appear. "Is It Right to take this stuff?" Mom asked, pointing out all the dead explorers items scattered about. "Up to you really." Cript said. I was looking around the items, finding most of it kind of neat… Then I saw some bones that were familiar. Alicorn bones. "Wait...Alicorn bones?" I asked in concern. "Why...are Alicorn bones here?" "This reality takes place in what should have been our realms future after the Admin war, or so, so Alicorns must have repopulated." Cript said, checking the bones. "Judging from the structure of these bones it was a male." “Well...okay then.” I said honestly. “Good to know.” Looking, I saw they were still holding onto their sword. A weird thing about it was.. it was wrapped in chains? “Why is their sword wrapped up in chains?” I asked curiously, looking over the weapon. "No idea." Cript said. "Take what you can carry or what's useful then. Minotaur isn't here… yet." I took the chain sword and put it in my Assistant, wanting to look at that later as I continued to search for whatever loot was hopefully useful. Some throwing knives, potions, dried and canned goods, a spell book or two. Once all that seemed to be taken we headed off, another long hallway. As we werae walking Cript and Mom-Den stopped us. "You see it?" Mom-Den asked. “See what?” I asked, looking around for what their seeing. "The floor. The brick pattern is different there." Mom-Den pointed out, the floor bricks were in a different pattern. Normally they are in this odd X pattern, these ones are completely diagonal. “Okay so...maybe we’re in a different part of the labyrinth?” I asked curiously. “Or this is a pitfall trap?” "One way to find out " Dad said, tossing a baseball onto the floor above. The floor opened up, revealing a slide down into a darkness below. “Well…” I brought out Eternal Flames and sent a small flame down the slide to see where it leads. It kept going… and going… and I can't see the fire anymore… "That's concerning." Dad said. “Yes...yes it is.” I nodded in agreement. “So who wants to go down first?” "I don't think we should…" Mom said. “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “So, that leaves us with what direction now?” "Over." Dad said, the hole the slide was in went down was only a few feet long, the other half of the floor on the other side. Walking back a bit, then shifting to feral form, rushing then taking a jump, wall run then landing on the other side. "Easy." They said, shifting back to Anthro. I literally walked on air over the chute. “You could have just asked for a levitation spell you know?” I asked honestly. “But that was cool.” "Show off." Dad said with a chuckle. Both mom's jumped over the hole, and Cript just walked along the side of the wall defying gravity over. "That was fun." Mom said. “Alright, onward through this maze.” I said. As we walked along I kept feeling… happy. My family wasn't just whole again but… better. Definitely larger. We came across another chest, this one just had a few more potions but for Stamina… keeping that for a… other use…. Then we came across something odd… a slot machine? "Oh wow… didn't expect to see these things again." Cript said. “A slot machine here?” I asked curiously. "Not just any, they give some.of the most insane winnings. Not just munny." Cript said, putting in five Rem amd pulling, landing on three cherries. Suddenly an ice cream truck appeared. "Completely random!" They said, opening the car up and checking on the frozen treats. “Excuse me, what the hell.” I started. "Like I said, random prizes." Cript repeated. “Apparently.” I said honestly. "Let me try." Dad said, putting in a single Rem, pulling. Landing on clovers, suddenly ten bottles of Irish ale appears around him. "Heh, just like Vegas." “I don’t even want to know.” I said while putting in ten Rem and pulling. Three… are those wings? What kind of… and suddenly, I got sixteen roasted… is this sixteen whole ostriches? Roasted and wow that smells good… ”So...who wants to eat?” "Guess we can take a short break." Mom-Den said, putting in seven rem. She got three hearts, and suddenly appeared a can of… spray? "What the?" She asked, reading It aloud. "True love in a can. Spray your love and they will love you as well, good for six uses, six lovers, never wears off. Huh…" “Interesting.” I said honestly. “I don’t need that because I’m a walking chick magnet for...whatever reason.” "My boy!" Dad said proudly, making me blush. Now Mom put in some Rem, getting three gold pots. She was suddenly buried in gold coins. "I am not Scrooge McDuck!" She declared, trying to climb out from under the pile. I helped Mom get out of the pile of gold. “All I can say is...never give this to Derpy, she would basically get anything and everything she wanted.” "Heh. I'll try." Mom said shaking off a few coins. After the meals and ice cream was gone, Dad put away the rest of the ale and mom put all that gold into her Assistant. With that done we headed off. A few small enemies were in our way. Goblins, a bear, and a very… very annoying mole thing. “Well so far things have been simple enough.” I pointed out. "That's worrying." Cript said. "Those Minotaurs should have shown up already." "Maybe they're dead?" Mom asked. "Not likely." Mom-Den said. “Maybe their guarding the gate out of here?” I guessed. "Would not surprise me." Dad said. “But the lack of minotaurs...even their scent is worrying.” I said nervously. "Yeah." Cript added. We continued on, finding another resting room. "Okay then." Cript said as we entered it. "This is here so boss, and those Minotaurs must be up ahead." “And as far as we know it’ll be all six of them.” I said honestly. “And who knows how smart and fast these things are…” I said, thinking that pissing them off wouldn’t lead to an easy victory as they kept charging at nothing. "There are five of us. So how are we gonna do this?" Mom asked. “Either me or Cript takes two at the same time or I make a clone to make things even.” I said honestly. “Cause I kind of thought of trying to split them up so they wouldn’t have any coordination if they are a party instead of just singleton’s.” I explained. "There might be a way. Though it in all honesty just adds to the running gag." Cript said. “That depends on if their women.” I pointed out. “How many of them are women?” I asked curiously. “Cause we know six of them so...I hate how, again, a problem of mine is going to maybe solved with sex.” "Not exact." Cript said. "Even if some aren't that spray Den got from the slot machine will work on them. I can add that to a special spell matrix that will give them intelligence. If they aren't already. In short, I can make a love bomb." “Wonders.” I sighed out. “Well...that’s six more to the tally…” I said while bringing out a notepad with a pencil and flipping it open, writing down ‘six minotaurs’ and closing it. “Well, let’s get on with it then.” "I'll start making the thing. You all just relax then." Cript said, sitting at a table with the can and began his magic ... literally. Mom and Mom-Den were talking about their experiences with me and such, so I figured this was my chance to talk with dad about everything I was never able to before. “So dad…” I started. “How have...things been for you?” "I got boobs and a vagina, still got a dick and I'm alive. I'd say things are going well." He chuckled. “Glad everything’s going well.” I nodded. “But…” I sighed out. “Jeez, the one time I’m with my dad after god knows how long...and I don’t know where to start…” "I did die a long time ago so it's understandable." Dad said with a nod. "Take your time. I'm listening." “So many fucking things happened…” I sighed out. “So...let’s start with the simple thing of, what do you think of your son having a harem?” I asked curiously. "Son… you are living my fantasy… which now I am technically a part of… heh." “Which part? Me being alive and well, being a king, having more wives that I love more than anything, too many kids, or what?” I asked curiously. "The harem part." “Yeah.” I chuckled. “Kind of thought you would be happy I was lucky on that.” "Yeah. So, anything else?" “Well...anything else your happy about me doing?” I asked. “Like...probably everything you heard what I’ve done?” "I think the only thing I'm not proud of is the fact you are still… so sad. I can see it son, don't play it off." “I will play it off cause it doesn’t matter that much.” I shrugged. “I mean seriously...shouldn’t really be depressed but it’s still there even after basically everything went my way.” "And yet, it's still there why?" “Because I’m a pessimist and there’s a bunch of other things that I feel like I’m failing at…” I sighed out. “As a father...as a husband...hell, even as a son…” "You have no reason to feel that way. You need to learn to stop forcing your wounds open and let them heal." “I mean, it’s been healing for a long time.” I said honestly. "Then stop ripping them back open. Ben, I know about all the stuff that lead up to both my and your mother's Death, your other life as Diane, all the pain and suffering in your life, was done to you by someone else. None of it was your fault at all. It was Nexus that did this to you, if you want to hate anyone, hate them and them alone, not yourself. This whole thing with the Void Mother, Nexus, Coco… you don't have to carry the burden alone, and more will we let you." “I have several things to blame myself about...and Coco is one of my failures…” I sighed out sadly. "But who set Coco on the path that leads to this?" Dad asked. “Who was the one that couldn’t save her from a blatantly obvious thing?” I countered. "You are so much like me at your age." “Oh, that’s still another bit of bullshit I have. Technically I’m not even me, I’m someone completely different, and even then if I was only me I don’t know fucking shit about what actually happened in my life that it’s like ‘well then who the fuck am I?’.” I growled in irritation at that. "You are you. Ben, Diane, someone completely new. You choose your identity." “Eclipsa already told me that.” I brought up. “But it’s a bit hard when you thought you had things understood, only to be told things are randomly worse and also your someone completely different.” "Well, take her advice. Nothing worthwhile comes easy." “Nothing literally came easily to me.” I pointed out. "Save for the ladies." Dad said with a smirk. “Hey, I’m just lucky they gave a damn about me to begin with.” I said honestly. “Seriously, Luna liked me because I’m the hero, Twilight just tagged along because she was dating Luna...and then the rest was due to a lot of random things.” I said honestly. "And you say this Derpy is the luckiest?" “I mean, she wins the lottery like once a week.” I shrugged. “I’d call that lucky...also she has too much porn of me…” "Oh a Stalker now? Tell me more?" “Stalker? No.” I shook my head. “She was a super fan more like it.” I said honestly. “All the memorabilia I didn’t know that existed she had...the first time she met me she literally went faster than the speed of sound to her room after she...kinda came.” I said sheepishly. “Yes, she literally looked at me, came, and then bolted to her room...hurt like a bitch cause my ears were bleeding and I think I went deph because of that before the wonders of magic healed my ears back up.” "Ha. Nice… I never told you how you came to be born huh?" “No, you never did.” I said honestly. "Back before you were born I…" Dad called forth his Baseball bat. "Was scouted for the state Baseball league. I was their rising star. Rookie with promise. Your mother got pregnant with you halfway into the season. But she was there for every game, traveled with us. We lived in an RV at the time. She gave birth to you in the game that would have took us to the major leagues. I could not get out of that stadium fast enough to catch her getting loaded into the ambulance and to the hospital." “So you were a major league baseball player and yet we lived in a humble middle class.” I pointed out. "Ha. No. No we were going to become major league. I had some cash from my games, enough that I could have gotten a real nice place, but hospital bills are the biggest bitch. Heh. Just covered it and there was just a few grand left after words. I spent it getting us home and our little craphole. Got a job at the bread factory and never looked back, know why? I took one look at you and knew, no amount of money or career was worth being away for so many games in other states for weeks." “Well then.” I started. “Good to know you’ve been a better dad than me.” I sighed out. "Heh. Your mother thought otherwise, said you and she would have been fine. Maybe. Point is Ben, nobody is a perfect parent. There's just good choices and lucky choices. And unlucky ones. So long as your kids grow up fine that's all that matters. You grew up good, and your kids better. You're not a failure, you're just not perfect, and that fine with everyone." “Problem is, you stopped what you were really good at, giving up a dream of being in the major leagues for me...and I have given up nothing as it feels like I’m just ignoring them constantly…” I said sadly. “Dream? Heh, I was just talented, Baseball wasn’t my dream.” Dad said with a sigh. “No… my dream was to screw a thousand women. But, I met your mother and my first lover was the one I stayed for. Though we did have some three ways every now and then.” “Good lord…” I chuckled a little. “Well congrats, I took your dream and then doubled it.” “And that makes you the best son ever!” Dad said, giving me another noogie. “Yeah yeah.” I chuckled. “Look at me being all special.” “So...about this… whole thing though…” Dad said, letting me go. “You do know that us being this was because we… joined Cript as… spouses… Should I be worried...expecting something… or…?” “You should expect literally anything at this point.” I said honestly. “Like how incest in this family means fuck all about genetic defects.” I brought up. “Cause you know, for some reason a five way just popped into my head...then I remembered the six minotaurs I’m probably going to have join my harem...good lord.” “Hey… OUR Harem… I’m riding my own sons harem… know what, I’m okay with it.” Dad said laughing. “So you’re okay with the thought of me probably plowing you and mom?” I asked, wanting to double check here. “I mean, we’re all adults, genetics mean fuck all at this stage, an so long as we’re all equally awkwerd about it/horny enough to not care I guess it’s to be expected. Though when I give birth, if it’s your litter, I will bite you, and I plan on breaking bones.” “Rude.” I said. “Why are you so hostile if it’s mine?” “Despite having the parts you clearly have not given birth yet. When your mother gave birth to you, she broke my hand, then my wrist… then my lower arm… just to get something to grab and squeeze to distract from the pain… I was in a cast, for almost two years. I want some form of payback for that young herm.“ “Okay so let me start with how, back in the human world, that should be physically impossible.” I started. “Never underestimate the power of an adrenaline filled woman giving birth who did weightlifting in high school. Women could bench press ME back then.” “Yeah...of course she also was a weightlifter.” I said. “There’s a lot about us you don’t know.” “I mean, you two died before you honestly could explain when I was older.” I brought up. “I know. And we will tell you now that we can.” “Alright.’ I nodded. “So, besides you fondling yourself pretending to be asleep, how are you handling being a dire wolf?” “The fur is… less hot than I expected. Not sexy wise I mean general heat wise, even in the sun I’m not as overheated as I expected. Night vision is cool, wish I had that back on earth, would have made all those nighttime bathroom runs a whole lot less toe stubbing.” “Yeah, that was always a bit of a problem.” I shrugged. “But that’s good to know.” I nodded. “Anything else?” “Aside from the obvious boobs, fine ass and triple X sized dick? The ability to sniff and know exactly what it is, is pretty cool.” “I mean, the boobs and ass are nice.” I brought up. “And the nose knows ya know?” “Heh, yeah. The only thing I hate is the amount of shampoo I go through and how hard as hell it is to dry off all the hair.” “You get used to it.” I shrugged. “Plus, the floof after washing is both a blessing and a curse.” “Heh. Nice. So used to having short hair, all this long head hair on top of all the body hair is… interesting.” “It is, but the only problem I had adjusting to this is that women use too many kinds of shampoo. Like come on, you don’t need like six to do what two can do.” “Your mom would argue the opposite.” Dad laughed. “And I would argue against it, and add that panties are a terrible form of underwear.” I brought up. “Seriously, even if I didn’t have a dick in this form, panties would be uncomfortable.” “And that came from where when we were talking about shampoo and hair a moment ago?” “Sorry, just bringing up stupid stuff that my wives tried to explain but honestly couldn’t.” I shrugged. “Heh. Well your issues. So how was your first few weeks when you got sent to Equestria?” “Oh you know, normalish.” I said. “Even though several times I got my ass kicked.” “Well, we never were able to get you those Fencing classed your mom wanted to get you. She thought it would look good on a college application.” “Wait, mom wanted me to learn fencing?” I asked curiously. “Since you were born, it’s something she would watch your grandpa do while she was growing up.” “That sounds nice.” I nodded. “I would have loved to learn that...but given that all my weapons are not fencing weapons that might not have helped.” I said honestly. “Alright, almost ready.” Cript said, holding the spray can glowing in magic. “It shouldn't affect any of us, just the minotaurs. Hopefully.” Cript sighed. “And...why the ‘hopefully’?” I asked curiously. “This shit is pure lust in a can I rigged into a bomb, give me some credit I didn’t blow it up while making this thing.” Cript quipped. “The mist won’t go far, so we have to make sure they are all within fifteen feet of the bomb, just a whiff and they’ll be… well, you can take a guess.” “Alright, so it won’t affect me correct?” I asked curiously. “Cause I have a dumb idea.” I said. “And that dumb idea is to basically take the bomb, run right into the six of them, and then set it off.” “It shouldn’t, but in all honesty I have no real idea.” Cript said. “Alright.” I nodded. “So...best not to take that risk...I’ll try to clump them up, you said fifteen feet correct?” “Yes.” Cript confirmed. “Let’s head out.” Heading out, the walk to the final area was pretty uneventful. We arrived at the doors to where these Minotaurs should be, only for Cript to stop us. “Wait a minute… Something’s not right here…” “How so?” Mom-Den asked. “The door open a crack…” “Okay...so something, or someone, is fucking with us.” I frowned. “Or ahead of us, either or.” “There shouldn’t be anyone ahead of us, none of the other bosses before hand were dead.” Cript said. “This feels bad…” He said, taking out Biohazards Curse and pushing the door open. Inside were the Minotaurs…. Dead… “All of them slaughtered?” I went to check the corpses, but I sniffed the air and caught someone’s scent...and I know that scent…”Oh hey, it’s the Cunt.” I growled. “I know your here, you can come out.” I said, fully prepared for her to appear out of nowhere. There was clapping, Rune herself walking from behind the corpses. “About time you used that nose for something other than sniffing the cunts of your sluts.” She said. “How’s it been? Coco still comatose?” “Like you cared to begin with.” I rolled my eyes. “So, what? Your here to die before you can hear Zeke’s speech to win your heart back?” I asked curiously. “Heart? You act like I had one to begin with.” She said, pulling out a Void Key, her body suddenly covered in black moving lines. “Looking for this guy?” She asked, shaking Void Key. “He says ‘come and get me’.” She rushed in, clashing with my No Heart, the blast from the impact tossed the corpses against the wall. Dad charged in, trying to get a hit on her back but getting a Void tentacle arm smacking them against the face and into the wall across the room. Rune and I clashed repeatedly, every hit I tried to make she clashed in perfect pre-calculated predictions. Cript joined in, he and I switching out to try and throw her off but she kept up with impressive speed and agility. “She’s good.” Cript huffed. I didn’t say anything, taking a deep breath as I prepared myself, I pulled out Darkest Hero and pointed it at Rune. “Alright, let’s see how she handles this.” I said, feeling the power of Cript’s Soul Blade crackle to life as I vanished and swung both No Heart and Darkest Hero at her. She ducked, kicking me in the gut and slamming my head into the floor. She’s fast… “So much power, so little experience.” She taunted, Dad and Cript now ganging up on her while Mom-Den shifted to feral form, preparing a howling spell. “Alright…” I muttered while I put Foudre on both Darkest Hero and No Heart, Darkest Hero now adding Rune’s speed to my own, Foudre’s natural speed boost stacking along with my own insane speed. “Alright, that’s fixed.” I nodded before drop kicking Rune before she could react. “Hooray, I’m fast as fuck.” I managed to get a fast, multi hard hitting combo on Rune, Dad and Cript also getting a lot of hits in while she was staggered and Mom getting a Missile launcher shot right into Rune’s face. Rune has some injuries now, making her smirk. “Finally. Some fun.” She said, taking out black colored replicas of my Foudre, then stabbing them into her arms. Their electricity and metal bonding with her flesh, boosting her speed. “You aren’t the only one with fun toys~” She cooed sadistically, rushing off with a Flash style trail of purple lighting. She gave a hard gut punch to Mom and was now after Dad. “Oh? You can do that as well?” I asked while Foudre embedded themselves in my body, as lightning crackled through me. “Let’s see what happens.” I said before clotheslining Rune out of nowhere again. “Come on, it’s like your moving in slow motion Rune.” “Maybe you’ve been moving too fast.” She said, rushing up the wall to the ceiling, jumping at a fast speed down as Void Key crackle with Void and… Code?! She hit the ground, the impact shattering the floor and blasting everyone, myself also, back against the walls. Grunting as I got up, she was pulsating Void and Code. “Can’t do that now can you?” “I mean...kinda?” I said while pulsating Nothingness and Code. “Just replace the Void with Nothingness and it’s basically the same thing.” I said, taking a deep breath as I also added Grey and Generation to the mix because I apparently want some overkill. “Doubt you can continue with what I’m doing here right?” She smirked. “Oh I don’t have to. Just need to take away another loved one.” “Gah!” We all turned around, seeing someone with this purple aura around them had punched Mom in the side… and her back should not bend at such a narrow angle. “Awh, was hoping she had tougher skin than that.” The newcomer said, stomping on Mom’s leg, breaking it, making her scream even more. It was… a kid! “Hi there Ben, Name’s Deku, Tanya has told me a lot about you-” “Bastard!” Dad yelled, swinging his bat at the kids head. Deku caught it, shoving it back into Dad’s face and breaking their jaw. “Now, didn’t you ever learn it’s not nice to interrupt the one speaking in a room?” I saw what happened...I knew I could have stopped it all...my eyes turned into both Psychopath and Humanity...Amplify was also being turned on as all my powers went haywire as my Den Mother instincts tried to fight against the oncoming wave of rage that...honestly I just felt numb. “Do you...know how much you fucked up?” I asked, my voice monotone and hollow. “Oh? Heheh. Just like Kachan always used to say to me.” Deku laughed, putting a foot on Mom’s barely moving chest. “But, tests have to be run, data collected. Like the new Nomu.” Deku said, looking a bit to the right I saw Mom-Den and Cript were fighting these… amalgamation monsters, keeping it even between them and the monsters but the monsters numbers were keeping them there. Dad was out cold from the hit to the face. “Now then, what happens when I kill her?” Deku asked, starting to press his foot down as his purple aura began growing. “I normally only kill if it’s my last option, but…Tanya was rather interested to learn what your choice would be? Who’s blood is going to be spilled first here?” I...honestly don’t know what happened. My mind just went blank as all I could feel was warm blood on my fur, bones breaking, flesh being torn off with my teeth...but nothing mattered at that point...the only thing I had in my mind was ‘save your family’...and that’s what I did...in such a display that it would even make Rune queasy. As I came to...the entire room apparently was completely covered in blood, bit’s of Nomu here...bit of Nomu there...and as I looked down...I saw Deku...his face in a look of shock and fear...as his head was literally the only piece of his body that was whole…”What…” I muttered, looking around as I got a closer look and...there was supposed to be a dungeon here...why do I see the sky? “Hehahahahaha!” Rune’s laugh echoed through the rubble as she tossed off debris from where she was. “So there is a killer underneath all that Heros Morality you flaunt so egotistically.” She said, breathing heavily and badly beaten. “This has been educational. Don’t worry though, that wasn’t our only Deku.” She laughed, slipping into a Void portal and was gone. ”Just woke up, the fuck happened?” I heard a voice in my head. ”Go to sleep.” I heard another voice in my head say as the first one agreed and went back. I looked at my hands, which were covered in blood and bits of flesh and bone...I can taste all the abominations I devoured…”What...what…” I muttered, panicking quickly. “Mom! Dad! Cript! Den!” I called out quickly, panicking and looking around in fear, hoping they were okay. “Here.” Cript said, looking and seeing a glowing barrier under some rubble. Tossing the large rubble aside, and letting Cript disband that barrier. Mom-Den was healing Mom and Dad, dad looking better but mom was still… pretty banged up… “I had a point nine trillionths of a second to grab Den, your mom and dad and form that barrer. You now know why I never go full power Ben… You don’t even remember what you did huh?” “Rage…” I said. “That...was all I felt...and...protect my family…” “There’s nothing wrong with that Ben, but that much power with an unstable mind… Ben this Dungeon was seven hundred floors down, sixty million miles deep and everything below us is rubble now. I never go full power cause this power should not even be allowed to exist. We’re lucky you didn’t blow up this whole Creation.” “Only reason...it’s special...is because it’s super enchanted.” I panted, not sure what to say...before looking down at Deku’s scared face again… “Oh god…” “You blacked out, didn’t you?” “He nearly killed mom…” I muttered. “And while I can understand the reason you had for killing them, you blacked out, the power drove your actions… you… kinda ate him… then went after the Nomu…. Then just tore up the dungeon.” I felt my Assistant buzzing, and when I looked at it my level went up a veritable ass ton as well as all the loot that was destroyed somehow went straight into it...but I really couldn’t tell with how numb I felt still. “The fuck…” I cried, falling to my knees and sobbing. Cript pat my back, staying next to me as I cried. “That much power… takes away your mind, your soul… your identity. We’re the ultimate weapons, the ultimate fighters, but if we use too much of this power, we can’t differentiate friend from foe, innocent from guilty… I never go full power because this very thing you just experienced right now, has happened to me too many times.” “If...I was in my right mind…” I shivered. “If...I didn’t just go numb with rage...I could have...seen something…” I said sadly. “You should be glad though...killing them in your right mind… might have left a scar on your soul forever. But this will happen again… and next time, you can’t lose control like that again… you’ll have to kill again… and remember it all.” “Yeah, something I really didn’t want to do again.” I sighed out. “But...I killed a child…” I said sadly. “So have I.” Cript said, taking Deku’s head. “Granted, I was just a kid too.” They used Code to male a hole, placing Deku’s head in it then began making dirt to put over the head… a barriel. “His name was Cameron. He was about as fucked up as you could imagine. I just founded my company, and my first mission from Lord, long before I was an admin, was to kill this psychotic bastard of a kid. We were the same age, fifteen. I didn’t want to stain my magic with blood so I took a gun, was new to them at the time. He was winning, sliced my shotgun in half then… I reacted. Stabbed the broken barrel in his chest and pulled the trigger. It was… my first kill. First of many. It taught me one thing though… not everyone is worth saving, worth the effort, no matter the age, gender, past. In the end, he chose that life, they all do.” “You weren’t a den mother at the time.” I deadpanned. “No, I was a child. A child who grew up loving the passafict life of a mage, was tortured and experimented on by my best friend for a year, witnessed a scuicide and gained a company, and was thrown into conflict.” Cript said, once Deku’s head was buried, formed a tombstone for him. “I have this policy. Everyone I kill, I bury. Helps to ease my mind somewhat.” “Difference is...you were literally born for this...I’m not, plus...you can kill with a decent enough conscious...I just feel like a failure to my very being because of this…” “I think this is one of the reasons Lyra is obsessed with eternally expanding the harem.” Cript sighed, still rubbing my back. “She thinks all the sex and lovers will be a good enough distraction. She’s half right. The other half. Even for Admins, souls are hard to make. We take a lot from the afterworlds to be reborn. I like to think the people I have to kill… get a second chance in my family. I don’t know when or who they will be born as, but there are open arms in our family, past be damned.” “I know but…” I muttered. “I failed as a Den Mother…” Cript sighed. “Can’t say otherwise there. Just means you have to atone for this sin. One way or another.” “Really can’t…” I muttered sadly. “How can I atone, as a Den Mother, for killing a child?” “My guess…” Mom-Den said, still healing mom with some magic. “Children. Lots of children. Take a life, a young life, so bring as many as you can into this world. That’s what I’d do.” “Didn’t Eclipsa do something similar?” Cript thought. “Taking care of kids, orphans on her world after killing that one pregnent Ventral?” “Yup.” Mom-Den said. “Do the same I guess. Two people atoning for taking a child's life by forever having and caring for children. Sounds fitting.” “I doubt it’ll help…” I muttered sadly as I got up. “It’s better than nothing.” Cript pointed out. “This is still all my fault…” I said sadly, looking over at both of my injured parents. “Could have just killed Rune and stopped everything from happening...but no, I thought ‘oh hey, Zeke still needs to talk things out’...but no, this is War, I shouldn’t give a fuck about the damn plot and actually do what’s needed.” I growled angrily. “No taking back sins now.” Crips said, standing up now. “Only atonement.” “There is none…” I said sadly. “Especially for me…” I shook my head. “I could have done something...anything to stop this, I had the power to...but no...I just stood there like a fucking idiot…” “Look… Nothing I say will help you. We make mistakes, and we have to live with them. It was him or your mom, and even though she’s pretty banged up, she’s alive. That’s the right choice in my book.” “I’m supposed to be a hero…” I sniffled. “Not let this crap happen…” I sighed out while walking over to Den and my parents. “How...how are they doing?” “Your dad will be fine.” Mom-Den said. “Your mom has a lot of broken bones. But she’ll be fine, some healing treatments and bed rest for a week and she’ll be all healthy again.” “Good way to spend a family adventure huh…” I sighed out sadly. “This should have been a fun day with family…but...at least they’ll pull through.” “They’ll be stronger for it.” Cript said. “They got a taste of what we’re up against. We all did. We’ll be better next time.” “We will.” Mom-Den said. “Because now, we know what they want to do, at least at the moment, is break us. Now they know what we can do.” “Yeah, making me feel like garbage…” I sighed out. “Christ...can’t things just be simple for once?” I grumbled, feeling like a failure because I didn't do anything to stop this. “Does anyone know a good therapist?” I asked honestly. "So, what brings you to my office today?" Lyra, Eclipsa's Lyra, asked. She was sitting in a chair while I sat on a rather fair sized couch. “Where do I even begin…” I sighed out. “Well to start, I ate a kid in a fit of unholy rage.” "Oh. And this child… what caused this? Were they the cause of this rage? What did they do?" “The child that did this was ‘Villian’ Deku, an evil version of Deku from the My Hero Academia world...and he...nearly killed my mom, not Den Mom, but my earth birth mother…” I explained. "I see. I understand you lose her once before, before Cript revived her, such a reaction would be expected. Given your Biology, eating them was likely pure instinct at the moment, as in moments of pure adrenaline fueled rage ones higher brain functions often shut down." “Yeah, I couldn’t tell when I accidentally destroyed seven hundred floors of a super enchanted Dungeon and didn’t know how I did that.” I said honestly. "I see." She said, writing down some things. "Now, given you are a Den Mother I take it you feel even worse about this situation?" “You have no idea...I mean, I already feel like shit for killing again...and a child at that…” I said as the memory of Deku’s cut short scream surfacing. “Oh god...this is all terrible…” "Suppressed memories are one method the mind protects itself, most of the time they surface with time or under specific conditions. Other times, they never do. Now then, as a mother and as a person such an act requires both punishment, and redemption." “Both of which won’t be enough.” I sighed out. "People in your situation will believe that whole heartedly. But acting to make up for it is better on the mind and soul over doing nothing about it." “Kind of hard when I feel like anything I do won’t solve it…” I sighed out. “And to be honest...that’s not the worst part of this all...that would be ‘why did I stand there like a jackass and not do anything to stop literally everything that happened’.” I frowned. "Simple shock." Lyra said. "One at your power thinks, you're invincible, nothing can harm you, you can protect everyone and no one can do anything about it… then someone does. That mentality shatters and you realize that even if you out power someone, they can still outsmart you, surprise you, hurt you. All your power and you fell for a simple sneak attack. It pains you to think you fell for such a simple tactic that ended up being far more effective that you would have expected." “No, I mean literally, I could have just killed Rune before this entire thing started, and then when my Mom was on the ground injured by Villain Deku, I could have just simply knocked him out before he knew what had happened.” I frowned. “There is no ‘shock’ to this, I stood there, and did nothing to solve the immediate problem both times. When my mom was hurt, I could have stopped Deku before it continued, but no, I stood there and watched my dad also get hurt. There’s a difference between ‘shock’ and ‘standing there like an idiot’.” "Many think that." Lyra said. "They just don't want to accept it. You might be an Admin now, but you were human first Ben." “Yes, I know, and even if I was a human first, I would have seen that I could just solved the problem immediately instead of putzing around like an idiot.” I frowned. “This is War...I shouldn’t give a shit about my inner bookworm knowing Rune’s going to be begging for Zeke’s forgiveness after they have a talk and he beats the shit out of her.” "You think that?" Lyra asked. “As a smart person? I should. As a character in a story whose authors constantly fight about what I can and can’t do? No.” I said simply. "Same fourth wall habits as Eclipsa. But people are harder to read the pages in a book." “I know that.” I said honestly. “And sorry, I think she’s rubbing off on me...uh...that came out wrong.” "Knowing you two, no it did not." She laughed. "All in all, what you need is something that can make you feel like you are writing the wrongs in your life." “Well I’m gonna have fun with that.” I rolled my eyes. "Question is, what do you feel would work to satisfy you?" “Fucked if I know.” I said honestly. “I just go about day by day doing whatever, trying to ignore literally all of my problems.” "And that there is your main problem. Ignoring ones problems leads to… this." She gestured to all of me. “What? Ignoring problems leads me to talk to someone about my current problem?” I asked. "It leads to more problems. Negativity attracts negativity. And Don't say some science stuff about that being wrong." “If Negativity attracts Negativity then why the hell do I have literally everything I have at the moment?” I asked. “I don’t need ‘science’ to disprove that...I can have personal experience disprove it.” "Hmm." She said, writing some more stuff down. "You have everything Physically, but mentally, why do you still feel like you have nothing?" “Because, even though I have my heart, light, and soul back, I always doubt myself and am a natural pessimist.” I said. “I’ve screwed up enough to be scared things will fall apart, so there’s always that one little thing that might ruin everything for me.” I explained. "Everyone has that, no one is exempt from fear Ben." “Okay…” I said slowly. “I...already knew that though…” "Have you accepted it though? You admit you have fear, but have you accepted this fear?" “Does it matter at this point?” I asked honestly. "It always matters. When you accept your fears, you accept part of you that all of us dislike." “And what? Is that all of me?” I asked curiously. “Cause I’ve gotten to the point of ‘I’m okay if people just hate me for me’...I’m not really a good person in all honesty.” "You may think that about yourself but others would sing a different song." “Your right, they would actually sing that song really well while I’m tone deph without Arpeggio.” I rolled my eyes. "Joking to hide pain, another coping mechanism." “Not really.” I said. “I’m honestly being serious here.” I said. “Like, I can’t sing for shit without Arpeggio.” I said while trying to prove my point...only for my point to fall flat as I could actually sing well. “God damn it.” "Sometimes a little self confidence goes a long way." She said, sifting through her bag next to her. “Oh?” I asked curiously. “Pulling something out?” "A suggestion." She said, taking out a flyer for the kingdom itself. "We all know you are the face of the crown and kingdom. Fluffy, adorable, and drop dead sexy. I recommend you focus on that to help build your self esteem up. I also want you to research this Deku fellow. The one you killed, see what kind of person they are, were, and decide for yourself if they were worthy of redemption or life in general." “Listen, most people can get a second chance...a child especially…” I sighed out. “But...fine, and thank you for the compliment.” "My pleasure. Please come back in two weeks for an update." She said with a nod. “Alright.” I nodded gently. “I...really should go see John or the Foretellers...I hope they’re all okay…” I sighed out while getting up and heading out. Once out I headed to my office. Taking a seat I began thinking… focus on my job, and research Villain Deku… Personally I'd rather do just the later…”So...Villian Deku’s world I go I suppose…” I muttered. Sighing, I opened up a DTN and headed there. The world seems silent. People walked around and minded their own business. Where to start? “Maybe…” I muttered. “Um, excuse me sir.” I said politely. “Do you know where the Pro Hero Association Building is?” I asked curiously. "Come to pay respects also? Down the road East." They said solemnly, taking their leave. “Respects?” I blinked. “Oh no…” I muttered while heading off quickly down to where the Hero Association should be. Once there… there was just a closed off rubble pile. A plaque read, Here lies the Hero Academia, a once proud school now gone. All 3,598 students were killed by one villain. All the teachers fell to the same fate. “Well….fuck.” I started. “Who...who did this?” I wondered worriedly. "Who do you think smart ass?" Turning around, I saw… Bakugou, wearing one of those time cloaks. "It was Deku." They said, walking up to the plaque. "Killed everyone. Me as well. Had I not already had this Keyblade I would have been dead permanently." “So...murdering him was fine apparently.” I sighed out. "He was a monster… I'm the one who made him like that though." Bakugo sighed. "When we were little, I'd hurt him, make him cry because he couldn't fight back. He was quirkless. I found out he… took my advice… tried to kill himself. He was found not by heroes or a passerby. The League of Villains found him. A group of murderers, crooks and thieves… healed him. Treated him better than I or anyone else ever did. One day, in the middle of the semester he walks into the school with this purple aura around him… massacre is an understatement. I found out after he killed that version of me that, he killed his and my parents before heading to the school. Then, went after All Might." “Okay never mind, he was treated like shit and then lead down a terrible path…” I sighed out. "He chose that path…" Bakugo said. "He chose it because I, no one believed he could be a hero… so he became a villain instead. Killing him should have been my burden… I can't undo what I did, rules and all… I can't take any of it back either. I'll just be stuck living with the monster I created." They turned to look at me. "I'm sorry, you were the one to end his misery… I wanted to be there when he showed up but… I wasn't allowed." “He deserved a second chance.” I said. “No one believed he was a hero...the only ones that believed in him were villains...if I just…” I sighed out. "You didn't know… I just wish… if I could… I'd go back and undo everything." They summoned No Name. "Funny… I can… but I can't." “You can’t…” I started as I summoned Fair Game, Code sparking on it. “But I can.” "This isn't your mistake, Ben." They said, disbanding No Name. "If you make a mistake then jump back in time to undo it, you will.make something worse happen. Time has a way of punishing those that try and alter it." “Well then I’d like to meet Time.” I frowned. “Cause I have been through time twice, and nothing happened.” I frowned. “What’s so special about Lord sending people through time that I’m not allowed magically?” "Judgment. Time knows what's meant to happen and what should not." “Convenient.” I rolled my eyes. "Pre-calculated is more accurate. Look, Deku is my burden to bare. Let me carry that sin around. You just focus on the one you already have." With that, Bakugo vanished in a light blue flash. “Wait...what?” I asked. “The...one I have?” I wondered. “What...do I have to go to another MHA or something?” I asked, legitimately confused on what Bakugo wanted. Heading home… I didn't know what to make of what they meant. More confused than I liked… I looked for Zeke. As Diane he did often have good advice so... “He better be around…” I grumbled, looking around for Zeke cause he’d probably know what the hell Bakugo meant by ‘you just focus on the one you already have’. I found Zeke in the Library reading over spell books. He looked up and noticed me. "Oh. Hey Diane." They said, sitting up a bit. “Hi.” I started. “Do you know what ‘just focus on the one you already have’ means?” I asked. "Depends." They said, raising a brow and closing their book. "What's the context?" “I ate Villain Deku in a fit of ungodly rage, and his Bakugo told me to not feel like shit over it...as I’m still feeling like shit over it.” "... Okay, that's a new one." They said, shaking their head. "So, they were…?" “They were what?” I asked. "What did they do that brought this up?" “That brought up Bakugo telling me that or what did Villain Deku do to make me eat him?” I asked. "The last part " “He nearly killed my Mom…” I said. “Not Den mom but...earth mom.” "Hmm… that would do it. I don't know much about the situation around them, but in short, did they even want redemption? Did they care?" “No idea, they were raised by Villains when he tried to kill himself, like Bakugo wanted, and then he got Void powers and then...murdered his parents, Bakugo’s parents, and then literally every hero on that world.” I explained. "Murdered his parents, he cut all emotional ties off. Murdered Bakugo's parents, incase Bakugo survived, they'd have no one. Murdered the Heroes… personal payback. They ensured there was no going back before the larger scale plan. They were ensuring redemption was an impossibility for them. They wanted to make sure no one could save them." Zeke said aloud in thought. "How is your mom though? Is she alright?" “She’ll get better…” I sighed out. “But me on the other hand...not so much.’ "This is going to haunt you no matter what huh?" “I’m remembering his screams...the taste of his flesh...and the haunting bit of his face frozen in terror as that was the only thing I didn’t eat…” I sighed out. Zeke motioned for me to sit next to them, and I did. "That would haunt anybody. For as powerful as we are, we still get afraid, we still make mistakes. In this was this… won't be the last time a twisted child fights us. But one thing I know is that everyone on that enemy line, wants no redemption. They just want blood." I sighed out. “Cause of course they do…” I sighed out. "What did you expect? Misunderstandings and happy endings?" “If your Rune is going to get a fucking redemption when you have to fight her yes.” I frowned. "... She doesn't want that… and neither do I." Zeke said, looking down. I gently put a hand on Zeke’s shoulder. “She will be redeemed, and you’re the one that’s going to do it. I know I’m just basing this off of my vast knowledge of how stories go...but it’s going to happen. And you know that.” "I know… how Rune really is now. This is ending in blood." “Now I would have killed her when I saw her, but I thought ‘oh no, I have to let Zeke deal with this’...like a fucking retard.” I rolled my eyes. “If I just...didn’t stand there and do nothing, none of this would be happening.” "Don't blame yourself… for a long time… she was one of us. Someone we cared about…" “No, I’m going to blame myself for not just killing her when I had literally all the chances.” I frowned. “But no, I was like ‘she’s Zeke’s fight’ when we’re at war and I shouldn’t give a half ounce of deep fried shit at how the plot should progress.” I shook my head. “And she was long for you, that Rune fucked up and is now dead to me…” "She Is my fight Diane." Zeke said. "But… I'll understand if you're the one that kills her. It's personal for me, now it's personal for you." “And when I see her again she’s dead.” I growled. “Honestly, I don’t care if it’s ‘your fight’ at this point, she’s dead.” "Just don't underestimate her or anyone else from now on." “I don’t.” I said simply. "Thanks." Zeke said, giving me a peck on the cheek. "Because now they know what we, or at least you can do fully. They can prepare properly now. Which means we need to prepare counter measures. I'll talk with Xehanort and Pecator." “I mean…’what I’m capable of’ is destroying seven hundred floors of super enchanted and super reinforced Dungeon that was supposed to have creatures as strong or stronger than Cript at specific points...and killed them all without even knowing it.” I explained. “Just...now they know I will kill children that try to fuck with me.” "They know how powerful you are, we are. Now they know how much stronger they need to be to kill us." “They don’t know we literally can’t be killed though.” I said. “We’re Deathless remember?’ "Nothing's impossible." Zeke said. "Even if they end up unable to kill us, that doesn't mean we can't be trapped." “Kind of doubt it.” I shrugged. "I'd rather not chance it." “Better to be safe than sorry ya know.” I nodded. "So, what have you been up to?" “Nothing much honestly.” I shrugged. “I mean, I had a clone of mine go to the Power Rangers world, happened into the Mystic Force side of things, and I got to show off with Arpeggio.” I smiled. “It was a grand time.” "Sound fun. I've just been avoiding my parents really." “Why are you avoiding your parents?” I asked curiously. “When I met your parent’s the first time and mentioned you they were super worried about you.” "Says the people who taught me to drive when I was six, add the police snipers and road blocks. They worry about the Lineage, and what I will make of it. Promised me the world since I was born but I don't want a world drowned in blood and buried in bullet casings." “Currently they’d probably just want to be with you and just hang out.” I said honestly. "Hanging out for my parents is the same thing as walking into a deathtrap to see how it works. Eclipsa's Assistant showed she's with them on a very dangerous world, as I expected, camping. My definition of fun and hanging out and theirs has always been dramatically different." “Alrighty then.” I nodded. "Being around them just… reminds me of things I want to forget." “Sometimes you just have to deal with it.” I shrugged. "Someday." Zeke sighed. "But not today. Today it's spell books and such." “Why? Not good with magic?” I asked curiously. "I was only ever able to use it with Discord as my second hands Keyblade. After Bolitaria I managed to finally use it, but I'm still not the best with it. Out of all my stats my MP one's are the lowest. Ironic given Cript grew up primarily with magic and is best at that." “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “But if you need help I’m your wolf given one of my weapons is a magical super Tomb.” "That did sound helpful." Zeke laughed as they reopened their book. "My main issue is that I put too much MP into my spells. Discord used to do that for me since they had their own MP but I… have no idea what happened to them…" “Which is weird cause Discord’s a Keyblade so you should know where they are.” I said honestly. “And to be honest, your MP thing is...kind of an easy thing to solve when you think about it.” "Eh. As for Discord, you are right, so why can't I?" “No idea, Discord’s weird.” I said honestly. “All I can say is raise your hand, focus, and then tell the old man to get his key shaped ass over here.” "I've tried. Nothing. I know he isn't shattered he's just… gone. He was with Drezke last I knew but he told me it was all a haze on what happened after Lake was killed." “Well…” I started. “Discord, mind coming down here?” I called out, my voice resonating to one of my followers to come here. In a poof of, surprisingly nothing impressive or random, Discord appeared. Clad in some very sweet armor. "Yes, my… queen?" “I have a feeling you weren’t around for…a lot of things.” I said sheepishly. “But question, do you know where your Keyblade version is? It was in Zeke’s Reflection and so far he can’t find him.” "Hmm… where was he last?" Discord asked. "With my dark half, Drezke." Zeke said. "Hmm… I have a theory…" “And that would be?” I asked curiously. "Keyblades like Discord, that Discord, were people forged into them. While they are now stuck that way, their forms still react like how a person's would, meaning a heartless or Nobody version of them is entirely possible." "But calling them should have at least summoned a heartless." Zeke said. "Hmm… was there anything, anything at all that could have happened to make an alternate outcome?" "Well… Lake and Drezke said that for them to be whole again, Drezke had to purge out all his excess collected darkness. Some unique variation of heartless was created as an outcome, I've tried but they don't reply to me at all. They are wild." "If they came from you, their creation would have given them the ability to use Keyblades." "You think one of them has Discord?" "It's a possibility." “Oh yeah, those things.” I said. “But wait, he’s Kingdom Hearts, he doesn’t have to care about if people own it or not.” "They were formed from my heart Ben, my dark half, they would be pure dark replicas of myself, even as Kingdom Hearts, they'd be dark replicas of how I was back then, at the time a miniature version of it." “Okay...that didn’t...really answer my question though.” I said. “Even if he’s from a normal person, Zeke doesn’t have to care because he’s Kingdom Hearts. Unless he was split apart because of this, I don’t see how Zeke isn’t able to just call him through sheer force of will alone.” "Perhaps the Keyblades they are using are refusing, trying to keep these things at Bay. What I find most interesting though, is that so far, these Heartless have not shown up on any world's, they're basically off the map." Zeke pondered. "The only thing I can think of is that they might still be linked to me in some way…meaning my current power… would also be theirs… they might even have intelligence." “I mean, they technically are your kids.” I shrugged. "If they are linked to you, they must be leeching power as well as information from you." Discord said. "How do we track them though? And how much of a problem will they end up being?" “Probably a lot, and most likely they would have an obvious trail leading to them even if they try to hide it.” I said honestly. "If they have any of my level of knowledge in hiding and covering one's own tracks, then it's not as obvious as we might want. We'll start where they were born, the World Drezke colonized. From there we find whatever might be of use." “There’s one thing that they can’t cover, and that’s their connection to you.” I said honestly. “Both as Keyblade Wielders, and as being’s to begin with.” I brought up. "Question is, how do I weed them out?" Zeke asked. “Take a moment and focus.” I said. “Follow the omnipotent trail you have to Keyblade and Darkness...well actually you could also have Heartless just target the bastards, using their keyblade energy and special energy as a homing beacon.” I pointed out with a frown. "No, that won't be enough, it has to be specific…" “How specific do you want to be?” I asked. "... I might have an idea but I don't like it." “Be live bait for them?” I asked curiously. “Or what?” "No. We need help on this one… and if these things are like me in any sense… there is only two people in creation who can actively track me down no matter where I hide." “Your parents?” I joked. "Yes…* “Sounds about right.” I nodded. “But currently they are camping with Eclipsa maybe.” I said. “And I don’t remember if they have Assistant’s or not…” "Hmm… Well, there is one other option." Zeke said, summoning a small Shadow Heartless. "Go fetch Pecator." He told it, the heartless vanishing into the ground. “I mean, I could have just sent a message to Eclipsa telling those two to come here.” I pointed out. "Over my dead body." Zeke muttered under their breath. A few moments passed when Pecator finally arrived. "What's this about then?" "We need help." Zeke said. "Thought your all seeing eye would have informed you." "It only showed me the future when I want to see it. I take it that is why you called me then?" “I mean, how good are you at hunting down literal Darkness Children of Zeke’s?” I asked curiously. "Darkness children? You mean those wannabe Embodiments?" "I guess." Zeke said. "Look, I can see where they are but only where they were, not where they are or will be." “Well knowing where they were is as good a start as any given Zeke doesn’t want his parent’s help here.” I shrugged. "Good call." Pecator said. He pulled out Gazing Eye, holding it's eye up to his own, a blue light shot out from the Keyblade's eye into his own. When it was over, he blinked a few times disbanding Gazing Eye. "Alright, five ugly mugs found and possibly located. One is on Radiant Garden in the sewers, the other is at the Badlands of the Keyblade Graveyard, another is on the Enchanted Domain, one is roaming the lanes between, the last is at Traverse town, where though I couldn't tell." “Good to know.” I nodded. “So, which one do you want to go after first?” "I'll hit Traverse town first." Zeke said, opening a DTL. "I'll be back when they're all dead." “Alright, stay safe.” I said gently. "No promises." Zeke said. "You just keep those photo shoots going. I hear the next ones are all bikini~" Zeke said, entering the DTL then closing it. “Oh boy, can’t wait.” I chuckled. “Everyone’s going to love them.” I muttered. “Wonder what else I’ll do today…” To be continued...
Joy start's the WarJoy was sorting papers. A boring task but not without reason. General Krott and the new Nexus Templar had been reconning all sorts of still functional Nexus bases, picking the best one to strike first. Removing the enemy from the home front would ensure safety. “God there are a lot…” Joy muttered while sifting through more pages. “There has to be one here that we can hit without it being too much of a hassle…” As Joy sorted them out his mind began wandering. Now that they are like Ben and all them, gender wise and appearance, Though Joy had to admit the advantages this from had were, for reasons, mostly for self enjoyment. They could not stop thinking about their kids. It had only been a week since they had them, and already they hated being away. They were not a Den Mother like Ben, but the sadness was there. Jenny was due in another month and the others sooner. Joy knew his life would be interesting, and never normal, but at least they had their family. "And family is important…" Joy muttered to himself as he sifted through some papers. "Hmm?" Joy hummed, seeing something about Full Metal Alchemist in the papers. A Nexus Storage base is located on the world Amestris. This storage base primarily holds old files on discontinued projects and supply caches for use later. The base itself is located in a region the locals refer to as Ishval, once a warzone now once again a thriving desert nation. The files it holds contain data on discontinued C.A.T. projects as well as the short lived D.R.E.A.M project. The supplies are largely food based with some older artillery and mech-assault suits. “Well...I know Ven is there with his family hopefully…” Joy muttered. “Well, I know where I’m going now.” Getting up, Joy called General Krott to his office. The general arrived within half an hour. "Yes Joy? Oh, and congratulations on the babies. Didn't expect to become a mother before you became a father huh?" He wasn't wrong. Body wise Joy was a much smaller version of how Mom-Den was then they first came into his and Ben's life. The other difference aside from size was that Joy only had four breasts, not six. Yet Jenny did have six now… they can not understand why that made them envious... “That’s besides the point.” Joy shook his head, not wanting to get distracted. “Anyways, Amestris, has a pretty big supply base, know anything about it?” Joy asked while handing him the paper specifying the place. “Like what all the discontinued things are?” "Hmmm… the C.A.T projects. Critically Accurate Target Takedown. They were meant to be a one person takedown of high profile enemies. They worked but they craved more, and eventually killed high profile Nexus members. They were destroyed, and discontinued." “And now we’re going to fix that bug and then send them out to kill our enemies.” Joy said honestly. “Also, did you know that if you had Ben have literally all of Cript’s power and went all out it’s scary and traumatizing as shit?” "It's the power of the one who is to become the Mother. Nothing is stronger, but to anyone other than Cript that power is all consuming, Cript is built to handle it, Ben is not." “Except they literally have the same body.” Joy said. “Did you completely miss their wedding ceremony?” "Yes, body, not their mind." “Then why did Cript mention that it sucks for him as well to go full out?” Joy asked curiously. "Cript and Zeke share many things, the want for challenge in a fight and a wish to be normal, to have the same restrictions and problems as everyone around them." “Me and Ben share memories, Cript specifically stated that, even for him, you lose yourself to that power. So how is Cript exempt from this suddenly when he himself said going full out was bad even for his health?” Joy brought up. "He has not yet… evolved, to become the mother, for lack of a better word. Once they have though, they will be able to use it without fear. It will just take some time." “Cause of course it’s ‘their not ready’.” Joy rolled his eyes. “So anyways, before I do a Ben and complain about how the wonder children, what’s this Dream thing?” Joy asked curiously. "D.R.E.A.M… that was… a dark, dark project. It was hell." “And why is that?” Joy asked. "Where to begin? It started off as a form of… elevation. We wanted to know, is there a state of existence and being above that of the Mother's? What is there passed her? In short… yes… yes there is…" “Oh boy, and you immediately scraped it cause it was even more horrifying than what terrible shit Nexus was doing at the time.” Joy rolled his eyes, already knowing where that’s going. "Scrap? We couldn't even go near the lab when things got out of hand. It was genocide what happened there. Six thousand scientists, fifty thousand guards, fourteen thousand employees there in total… all slaughtered, mutated and… ascended. It was one of the few times we were happy to learn that Cript went there and managed to destroy it. That place changed them. Whatever they saw there, I can tell you this, it was something no one should have learned." “So how much you want to bet their trying to bring it back?” Joy asked honestly. "Ha! My brother is insane but not stupid. That project put a fear in him, I've never seen before. Trust me when I saw everyone involved with the D.R.E.A.M project wants to forget it ever happened, Vincent included." “Yeah well Void Mother doesn’t give a rats ass, or any of her more insane devotees.” Joy pointed out. “So, how likely is it some crazy assholes would sooner reopen that project for Void Mother even if Vincent was heavily against it?” "If they didn't know what he and I do… it's a likelihood. We need to capture that base and destroy all those records. That damned nightmare can't happen again." “Either way.” Joy said honestly. “So, anything else there from that base I should know about?” "Just old arms really. Weapons and food supplies." “Alrighty then.” Joy nodded. “Well, we better get going then.” "I'll gather the forces. I'll meet you there. It's coordinates are in the file." “Alright.” Joy nodded while double checking the coordinates. “I’ll be off then.” Joy said while opening a DTN and heading off to the compound. The first thing Joy did was evacuate the people, this place was barely United with the Grand Crown, so there was confusion. Abled bodied people stayed to fight. Many of the Grand Crowns soldiers were here. After a bit Krott showed up with the Nexus Templar soldiers. "They should know we are here." “Wouldn’t be too surprising.” Joy said honestly as he summoned Lindworm. “So, how many entrances and exits are there to this place?” "One." Krott said, taking out a sword. "Time to declare war." He said, waving his arm as the sky lit up with symbols. The symbols glowing and forming a massive circle, the energy it built up finally shooting down into the sandy earth. When the light faded the base was visible, and the hole showing it was walked by newly made glass. "Ready?" “I’m always ready.” Joy said while preparing for the oncoming fight. “So let’s get going.” "Charge!" Krott commanded as everyone began the charge. The Nexus base began shifting, flying out were Nexus soldiers and even piloted robots climbing out from the hole. Bullets, magic, and missiles began flying. Joy was in their first war. And Joy barely noticed the difference as the very wind itself cut through his enemies, the young dire wolf kneeling down as energy pulsated around him. After a moment he vanished high into the air, above the fliers as hundreds of wind spears appeared around him. “Dragon’s Descent!” Joy shouted as he and all his spears fell from the sky, impaling each one of his enemies with pinpoint accuracy. “This is going to be fun.” Joy growled, the air dispersing as Joy donned a brand new set of Nothingness Armor, the entire set was designed as the Dragoon Nobody and it looked sleek and cool as hell. “Time to give this baby a test drive.” He grinned, dashing into the fray. Flying through the sky, Joy landed several kills on the enemy. It was a strange sensation, his predator side enjoyed the sight of the blood, but this was not the same as hunting a prey, this was a conflict, internally, but one Joy knew mattered not. This war was unavoidable, and blood was to be spilled. As they were targeting Nexus Ranged shooters, suddenly Joy was slammed into, the impact hurt, and regaining their balance in the air showed them their attacker. They were a Mech pilot, their machine a large version of something from a Power Rangers show, though the colors were far more plain. It’s design was so much more streamlined yet judging from the built in firepower, was meant to dish out and tank damage. “Well then.” Joy said while rolling his shoulders as he grabbed two spears. “Ready for me to tear apart that tin can of yours?” Their right arm opened slightly, showing panels that released a blade of dark energy, the other morphed into a rapidly spinning shooter. “Well then…” Joy started. “Good thing I brought my armor…” The wolf muttered as a sphere of bladed wind surrounded him as he flew forward fast as hell and tried to stab at it. Using their energy blade, the Nexus tanker clashed with Joy, pounding their shooter arm into Joy’s arm then kneeing them. The pilot then latched their arm around Joy, trying to raise the blade to Joy’s neck as they were resisting. “Rude.” Joy groaned as he willed the wind into the mech’s arm joint as it started to rip apart the delicate instruments that kept it actually working. When Joy felt it start to let go Joy teleported away from the mech and looked it over. “Hmm…” Joy frowned, bringing up one spear as it glowed a bright green. “Gungnir.” Joy muttered as he twirled it in his fingers before grabbing it, Nothingness pouring from the spear as he chucked it as hard as he could, the spear speeding towards the mech with a crap ton of force. Their bladed arm, broken and barely functional, the pilot dodged barely, using their shooter. The bullets were magic, and would curve and turn towards Joy as they tried to avoid. “Magic bullets eh?” Joy said. “Well let’s do this. Reflectja!” The wolf said as a sphere of scale like mirror’s appeared around him as they blocked all the bullets. “Alright...so let’s see how to break this thing open…” Joy muttered as he casted Scan on the thing to see if there was any other weaknesses besides the joints. “Thing hurts like a truck though…” Assistant Scan Assist Spell activated. Joy saw flash across his vision. “What?” Joy asked, wondering what that meant. Quickly gazing at his arm, he saw his Assistant was glowing… looking around, he saw everyone here who had an Assistant also had theirs glowing. The flash was fast, and no longer was the Assistant on his arm, rather a tattoo symbol was imprinted on their wrist. Also in their field of vision was a small Icon. Focusing on it, Joy was Text Appear. Welcome to the Assistant V 9.5784 Final Upgrade! Features include: Genetic binding so now they automatically pass along to your children. Advanced and simplified system storage Party Member information Shared inventory between spouses Automatic information scanning and display Hud customization in both display and appearance Active level progression reports Party member stats displayed Simplified, but still customizable personal stat display hud information. Enemy Automatic scanning and information display Weapon durability, stats, and upgrade menus openly available Enemy weapon stats, durability, available with scan Read +7,000,000,000,000,000,000 new features/Prior Upgrades! With that closed, Joy saw his own stats. Displayed as several bars in the top left corner. Health, MP, Stamina. On the bottom right he saw Lindworms Name, it’s Durability a red bar, showing it was actually a quarter of the way down. It also has a small green bar under it. Looking back at his own stats, the same small green bar was under all his stats. ”Experience?” They pondered, also seeing Lindworm was only Level one, which confused them. Looking back at their stats, Joy’s HP was halfway, their MP still high and stamina regenerating from a quarter of the way gone to full. “Well...that’s really cool.” Joy said with a growing grin, the wind around him sparkling as he glowed green, the young wolf seeing his HP goes up. “Thank god for Silver Wind…” Joy muttered as he grabbed two Spears. “Alright, after that, let’s get going.” Joy said before bolting forward and stabbing both spears into the mech powerfully. The Pilot’s stats appeared. Nexus combat Mech Model X7Y3 V.5.6 Durability 5,634/6,000 Att:8,500 Def:10,000 MP: 4,000 Pilot: Level 255 Att:97 Def:103 MP: 305 “Well then…” Joy muttered. “That’s really good to know.” Joy muttered as he stabbed the mech quickly and strongly. The mech Durability dropped a hundred points, emerging from the Mechs arm, a small shooter fired off into my thrusting arm, Joy’s Hp dropped into the yellow, and his armor durability also fell. Joy growled, backing away quickly as he raised a hand, the air his armor was producing due to his MP started to siphon off as green spears appeared around the mech. “Hell’s Impalement.” Joy growled as he closed his hand into a fist, all the spears shooting down into the mech from all directions. The impalements dropped it’s durability down greatly, two thousand points, bit it crackled with Electricity, shocking Joy hardly and making his Hp drop to orange. “Ow…” Joy muttered as he healed himself again quickly. “Rude…” Joy muttered as he noticed pieces of it were either cracked or small holes were made in it’s armor. “That’s good.” Joy muttered, seeing some spots he can attack when the time was right. Backing up some, the mech pilot shifted it’s shooter arm back into a hand, and began tearing off some of the broken ones paneling, rewiring it from the inside. It’s bladed arm moving easier now, then it raised it, the blade came back out, now easily three times as large and was pulsating. “Well...if you wanted to compensate for something that’s one way to do it.” Joy said honestly, preparing himself for the things attack as he healed himself again, going back into the green. The mech stilled for a bit, suddenly it’s boosters glowing fast as they suddenly charged Joy, seeing this, Joy raised to defend, the clash sent a shockwave out around the two. “Ah, there we go.” He said, using one of his armor’s special abilities and moving like a Dragoon Nobody would, as he slithered up it’s arm like a snake as he tried to stab and slash at the thing quickly. As Joy was stabbing at the pilot, they slashed off their helmet… a woman?! “Damned Wolf!” She cursed, shoving her shooter back into his chest and firing a hale of exploding bullets. “You know...it’s not nice for a lady to swear.” Joy said while the explosions were also hitting the mech due to how close she was to it. “You’re one to talk bitch.” She huffed. “At least I get some while you’re signing your own death wish.” Joy countered. “Like you’d care.” She muttered, the shooter arm glowing as she took aim. “Echo Shot!” Her shooter fired, the bullets fired glowed blue as they emitted sonic explosion, causing the wolf's ears to bleed. “You could always stop fighting and join our side…” Joy said as he packed off and drank an Elixir quickly, having all his HP and MP get back to full as his ears healed thankfully. “Ever hear the phrase ‘you were born with a purpose?’ We know ours from birth, you may despise Nexus but it’s my home and family, I am not betraying that like Krott did.” “Do you even know what your fighting for?” Joy asked honestly. “Honestly, do you know what your ‘family’ is fighting for?” “Destruction. The destruction of creation itself. All of them.” “And your just okay with that? To blindly head towards a goal that would lead to you basically killing yourself?” Joy asked honestly. She smirked. “Look around. Look at this battle. Look at all the dramatically different power scaling all around us. I’m weaker than you, yet this machine I wear keeps me equal to you, if not just under. This world, all of them are uneven and broken, unstable yet keeps existing. To erase it all is to finally level the playing field. To begin again, in a new world that makes itself without any fragment of the old!” “I mean...that could have happened before but with your answer…” He said while he took an idea from what Ben did as while she was talking bladed winds went into her. “Sadly your kind of done.” The wolf said as the lady felt like her entire insides were thrown into a blender on the highest setting. As she was coughing up the gallons of blood, she suddenly smirked. “Bloody echo bombs.” She said, splattering blood onto Joy as the explosion happened. Her blood exploded in a cloud of red smoke, blasting off the armor on Joy’s right arm and deeply gashing his arm. His HP was in the red, and the Assistant gave a warning. Health low Critical damage to right arm Blood loss risk: 72% “Ow…” Joy muttered while pulling out a special potion that he found in his spare time, an even better version of the Elixir named Gaea’s Tears. As he downed it he felt his arm healed up, his blood that was still on his arm flow back into his body and produce a bit more as his health maxed out again. “Thank...god I found this.” Joy muttered. “Ten million Rem well spent…” He muttered, seeing it was half full as he put it away quickly. “Little sad that my armor’s broke...but thankfully…” Joy said as he looked down, seeing nothingness thorns slowly reform the armor. ”Sadly takes a bit, even for an arm this would take about...maybe five ten minutes? Better than it not being able to regen at all…” Joy thought to himself as he flexed his healed right arm. “Alright...so there’s probably someone else here that I should worry about…” Joy muttered as he looked around carefully for anyone of interest. As they flew around, helping those struggling and taking out from heavy hitters, As they soared above they felt a sudden shift in the wind… a familiar shift- “Gah!” Joy hacked as something sliced through their leg. “Bitch!” Joy shouted as his leg healed up as he looked around for who just attacked him. Soaring some distance from them was someone wielding… Lindworm. The coloring was a purple red blend but the design was the exact same still. This person was dressed in something like Combat armor but designed like a Samurai. “Okay...so we have a copy cat here…” Joy frowned as he prepared himself. “That’s good to know.” Joy muttered as he checked the bastards stats and the like to make sure what he’s getting into. Nexus Agent: Tony Andrews. HP: 64,573 MP: 18,547 DEF: 9,300 Weapon Equipped: Lindworm V-71.5 Weapon Level: Max Weapon Upgrades: 20 Weapon Skill: Par. Att: 5,324 “Good to know…” Joy muttered as he rolled his shoulders, his armor back in top form as he prepared himself. “Alright faker, show me what you got.” As this Tony person soared around Joy, they noticed the air around then suddenly grow thin as suddenly ten Spears of his appeared, three struck Joy, the others missed, but they had a purple aura that gave Joy a sudden Poison status effect that was eating his health fast. “Poison?” Joy frowned as he used the air bubble his armor produced to cast Silver Wind on himself, healing him and the poison was going as well. “That’s not fair, I don’t have status ailments.” Joy said as he dashed swiftly towards Tony and put two spears together for extra range as he swung at him quickly. Tony raised a single finger, a Spear flying to meet Joy's attack. "Impact Shatter." Tony said, the tip of his spear glowing a bit struck between the two blades, breaking them back into two and slicing off Joy's left pinkie finger. Tony then moved their hand fast in seemingly random directions, their Spears forming a circle as magic symbols and matrixes filled it. "Dragons Wrath." They said, a spear shooting through the spell and emerging as a dragon, nearly biting off Joy's leg. Joy teleported away and panted. “Jeez...for a copy he’s kind of good.” Joy muttered as he saw his pinkie reform and his leg slowly heal. “Alright...let’s do something nifty.” Joy said as the air around the two seemed to get colder. “Four Winds: Boreas of the North.” Joy said, his Lindworm seeming to shift from it’s normal green glow to a harsh blue, Tony and his Dragon feeling as if the very air around them were freezing. “Icicle Crash.” Joy raised a hand as what would normally be bladed wind’s were actually paper thin ice shards flowing very fast towards him and the dragon, Tony noticing one of the ice shards passed right through his arm like it was nothing as cold pain shot into him and his dragon as more were on the way to meet him. "Is this your best wolf man?" Tony said, gripping him hand into a fist on his injured arm. "By the right of my Bloodline I order thee, slumbering Dragon, awaken." His dragon's body started becoming less magic and more physical. It's head now flesh it breathed out a bright blue fire that warmed the air to boiling and melted all of Joy's ice shards. "You think I'm the copy cat here? My family has been using Spears since before even your King existed. You have firepower, I'll give you that, but in terms of knowledge I outclass you." They said, their dragon now completely flesh. "These Copy Nothingness Spears are new to me, but their ancestors I know all too well. A spear is a spear, as is any weapon the same as you and your Kings council's weapons." “Sounds about right.” Joy said as his body seemed to...shift. “Four Winds, Eurus of the East.” Joy said as all his spears seemed to shrink and look more dagger like, the wind around the three seeming...off somehow as Joy moved in very weird ways. “Come on buddy, show me what you got.” Joy said with a grin. Raising a spear, Tony stood atop their dragon as it flew fast towards Joy, the Dragon’s mouth began to glow as blue fire made its way from its gullet. “Oh no you don’t.” Joy said as he bolted towards the dragon, Tony seeing Joy looked more like a drunk in his movements as he kicked the dragon’s jaw up to close it before the fire could escape. “Drunken Style combat? Is that your counter?” Tony asked, the Dragon opening its wings as a large Spell Matrix formed in front of them. It flapped, and spit it’s fire, the wind from the flap fueled the fire more and spread it out wide before Joy. “You apparently don’t know who Eurus is.” Joy said in a laid back tone, the air around them acting weirdly, the wind not spreading out like it should be and seeming to act like it was drunk itself. “He’s the God of the East Wind in Greek’s Realm...but in Greece, that apparently means bad luck.” Joy said as his fire ‘accidentally’ hit Tony and the Dragon as the spell tried to make heads or tails where to go as Joy leaped up and swung his shorter spears at Tony swiftly. “Luck? Is that the dragon god inside your spears?” Tony asked, deflecting the spear, but a slice across his cheek still. “No, it’s someone much older.” Joy said while he continued to swing in very awkward ways. “I can do a thing and show you if you want.” Joy said before floating away. “Too late.” He laughed before his armor seemed to glow. “Alright Old Man, have some fun.” Joy said as the armor seemed to fuse with Joy’s body, his entire body growing in size and mass, Joy’s body turning more into a dragon covered in Nothingness Armor. “Ah, that’s better.” The dragon’s voice hummed, it’s voice echoing with power as it stared at both Tony and his Dragon. “Well, a Blue Fire Dragon God...wait…” The dragon moved over to the young dragon. “You're the First...even though your a Third Generation Dragon…” The ancient wyrm chuckled. “Well, try to hit me. I want to see how well you and your new rider work.” “Big talk for a drake so old. How many parasites reside under your scales before you were shoved into your weapon?” Tony’s drake spoke in a low tone of voice, but it echoed with a deep seeded hatred. “I was known as Karseal, first born Dragon of Blue fire and hatred, first son of the sin of wrath.” The ancient dragon clapped. “I’m impressed, they actually gave you a name.” The old dragon taunted with a cheeky grin. “But given we’re introducing ourselves, I might as well tell you mine.” The dragon said. “I am Tempest, the First Wind Dragon, Born from the Admin of Breath and Admin of the Wind.” The dragon said simply. “And you two…” The dragon said as the air, even the air inside their own bodies, trembled as he bared his fangs. “Are fucked.” As Tony and Karseal struggled for air, Tony began to slice his hand, his blood hitting the drake as both of them seemed to have stopped breathing, making Joy raise an eyebrow. ”Okay so Ben and the Admin of Breath should be the only two that should be able to do that…” Joy mentally brought up. “Eh, would have been too easy.” Tempest said simply as he rolled his shoulders. “Alright, come at me, show me what the son of Wrath can do.” ”We’ll do one better.” Both Tony and Karseal spoke in the Psychopaths voice. ”My my, how much you have changed, little pup.” ”Wow, you people actually still exist.” Joy said in honest surprise. ”It’s been forever.” “Psychopaths huh?” Tempest hummed. “Well this’ll be interesting.” The dragon said simply. ”It’s been a while, since any of us got to make a move. Host after host, corpse after corpse. We’ve been getting transcended. After all, Vincent still upholds his deals.” They said, blood oozing out from both of it’s hosts as blood portals formed. ”So, let’s see just how much blood, stained those ancient claws.” Flooded out the portals was a melting pot of bloody covered beings, all whom Tempest remembered from prior battles. Friends, and Foe alike came at the old drake. The dragon looked around, seeing all the people that he killed and only shook his head. “I mean...if you want to see what I can do.” He said simply. “But shockingly, I’m stronger than in my Prime, thanks to my many wielders.” The dragon said simply as the dragon raised his claws at the ready. As the blood covered enemies charged at Tempest, the very ancient dragon stood there as several of them were cut to pieces from the very air around him, the dragon pouncing quickly and grabbing one of his old enemies, ripping it in half as he went straight for the Psychopaths, having learned from Joy and some personal experience that their blood constructs will keep coming if the main psychopath’s lived. Many tried to push him away from their spawner, some even managing to get hits in but with the First Generation Dragon’s power amplified by Joy’s and Nothingness, he shrugged it off quickly and continued to shred through his old friends and foes. “I haven’t had this much fun in years.” The dragon laughed, whipping his tail and cleaving through dozens of his enemies. “Let’s take a page out of Joy’s book. Njord’s Raging Storm.” The dragon said while a massive storm suddenly rippled across the dragon’s battle field, creating a sphere of bladed winds, soccer ball sized hail going at Force Five Tornado speeds, and other very terrifying storm like conditions ravaged everyone but Tempest inside. As the attack shredded or beaten several of his ancient enemies he rushed towards the two Psychopaths who were being shielded by others so they wouldn’t die as a translucent green mist formed in the dragon’s mouth, before he opened his mouth and a massive beam shot out and punched through the wall of constructs and hitting the Psychopath’s hard. “Come on, enough of your petty tricks, fight me yourselves, unless Psychopaths became cowards after these many many eon’s.” He said, looking over to see if Tony and his young Drake were still alive from his breath attack and the oncoming bladed winds and hail hammering into them. They shredded Tony and Karseal, even as Psychopaths the impact held enough force to tear apart their host bodies. Karseal faded back into their spear, the weapon cracked and breaking. After a bit, it broke, and Tony fell to the earth below. ”Well...I...didn’t know you were that strong…” Joy said worriedly. “There’s a lot you still don’t know about me young wolf.” The dragon said while staring down at the fallen enemy. “But your going to learn from this one battle...war isn’t going to be pretty.” He said while flying off towards where Krot is. With the battle finally over The survivors were split into groups, mainly one entering the base and the other picking up the bodies of their fallen comrades. Joy and Krot stood overviewing it all. “I have seen and been in many battles in my lifetime. This one holds a particular bittersweetness for me.” “What do you mean?” Joy asked, having reverted back from his shared form. “I hated what Nexus had become, hated what Vincent had twisted it into, but on the other hand it was my home, where I was born, my family. I can’t tell you how many former friends I saw on this battlefield alone today, killed by our troops or myself. The realness of this conflict has finally hit me, and I know now, I’ve lived just too long. To live long enough for my friends and family to become my enemies. What cruel fate.” “Time can do that to anyone.” Joy sighed out while looking at all the injured. “How...many did we lose?” “Roughly three forths.” Krott said. “A large loss, but this battle was won.” Joy sighed out. “It...should have been less…” Joy muttered sadly. “The dead should be respected at least...even our enemies.” Joy said. “To show that...if there’s any of your friends on their side see’s we actively give a damn about them...maybe they can side with us?” “I doubt it. Loyalty runs deep in Nexus. But thank you Joy. Now then, Let’s head inside, see the spoils of victory.” “Let’s hope they didn’t turn on that Dream thing…” Joy said nervously. “So...lead the way my friend, since you know the lay out and stuff.” Following Krott inside the building, they searched the archives room, finally finding the D.R.E.A.M Project files. “Here it is... “ Krott said, plopping four large boxes of papers and audio logs onto the table Joy was at. “What should we do?” “Well I’m going to take a gander at what all this H.P. Lovecraft crap is going on with this from what you explained.” Joys aid while going through some of the papers and reading them to figure out what went wrong. Entery Number: [REDACTED] Subject six shows early signs of the metamorphosis. Their flesh has begun to molt, replaced with the unknown substance of Subjects four, two, and one. Subject six so far still holds their identity in hand, though memories have begun fading rapidly, their name and family members have already been forgotten. Subject six has has their skeleton replaced with Code infused crystalized Plasma, this seems to have at least given their body a frame to move with the new substance replacing their flesh. Subject six has spoken of seeing the other side, seeing the same as the others, white walls and a single door. They speak of this other place as looking like that described in insane asylums. They speak of the person whose eyes they see though screaming at them, threatening them to leave their body and never return. Communication of this degree is so far, normal. Subject six’s diet has also changed, once a race that ate mainly omnivore diets, they now have the same cannibalistic desires as the other subjects. Subject six alone eats Ten fully grown humans a day. When exposed to more of the serum, Subject six embraced it, stating the burning calmed them. “I mean...what?” Joy asked, making sure he read that right. “Okay so...blank walls and one door, while a crazy man is screaming at them...uh...” “I told you, what data was collected is all nonsense.” Krott said. “The whole thing was a loss and a nightmare.” “Well...let me ask, were the subjects anything special? Like any powers or status? Or were they just normal people?” Joy asked curiously. “They all had one thing in common. Their ancestors. You see, there was a group long ago who roamed creation, discovering everything this reality had to offer. They often spoke of their home, a place above this reality. They vanished as suddenly as they arrived, but left behind families and children. Their names were never known, not even time travel has revealed that.” “Hmm...ancient travelers…” Joy hummed. “So...wait, Nexus tried to go to their Creation?” Joy asked with a frown. “I mean...this is sounding more like the Beyonders from Marvel at this point…” “Wherever it was, it’s unreachable to us.” Joy took a moment. “But...you haven’t had someone like Ben or me go there.” Joy brought up. “Hmm.” Krott huffed, searching through files before finding something and handing Joy this file. “That’s what happens after injection one.” Joy looked at the photo… and threw up… a lot... “The fuck!” Joy barked in disgust. “The fuck is that!?” “That was Subject six. Twenty four year old male, human, average across the board.” “Average...that’s what I’m kind of getting at here.” Joy coughed. “Me and Ben aren’t normal, or average in anyway shape or form...so something different can happen.” Joy brought up. “Either way, not risking it.” Krott said, sparking fire magic in his hand then igniting the boxes. “The only remnant of that project was Subject Zero, and she’s been missing for twelve years.” He said, making sure it all caught fire. “Who’s...Subject Zero?” Joy asked. “I’m just...curious.” “Subject Zero was a skitsofrenic female, age fourteen, and the best one of results. She broke out and, well, not long after the project was scrapped. All photos of her were erased, no name was ever recorded, she’s just… gone.” “And yet you know her name.” Joy said. “So please...what’s her name? Cause for some dumbass reason...either me, Ben, or one of our merry band of Keybladers know who she is.” “The only name I knew her by the one time I was at that Mother-Forsaken place was Sandra.” Joy thought for a bit, wondering if he heard that name before. “Well...I don’t know the name, but I’m sure someone would know.” He said honestly. “Or something’s cause ancient item’s could just ignore ‘destroyed knowledge’.” Joy brought up. "So...let's check everything else out." “On your own time. Right now we need to catalogue the rest of the stuff.” Before Krott could take his leave one of the Templars came running in. “Krott! Sir! There’s something you need to see!” “Oh boy, wonder what that’ll be.” Joy said. “Nothing can go wrong from hearing that.’ Krott and Joy rushed following the Templar down to the storage area. Here they found what the fuss was about. It was a small dark chest, special locks covered it all around. “By the Mother…” Krott said, walking over towards the chest. “How?” “Okay so...a smaller black box…” Joy started. “Yeah that doesn’t bode well if history has shown what black boxes can hold.” “This could be very, very useful.” Krott said, looking it over. “We just need to figure out which one it’s linked too so they can open it…” “Okay so I don’t know what this is, all I know is that this is probably something very important.” Joy said. “And who’s linked to this?” “This, is a blueprint box for one of the C.R.I.P.T. projects. Once one is made the blueprints are locked and linked to the project person, and only they can open it. These should all largely be in Base Majesty.” Krott said. “And yet someone…” Joy took a moment and smelled someone...familiar. “Wait…” Joy moved over and sniffed the box. “Ben?” Joy blinked in surprise. “But that’s...wait…” Joy muttered, bringing up his new Assistant and showing a new hologram window for everyone as he tried to write down what the scent...seemed to tell him. It showed four weapons, a spear, a bow, a sword, and a shield. “Shield Hero?” Joy asked. “Huh...I mean, I heard the new seasons are coming out…” Joy said, one of his many mates were really into Anime and Manga so he heard about it at least. “Well...we might have a general area, but time and position is beyond me.” “This was left here on purpose. How and who we can talk about later, right now all I know for certain is that this must be one of the more powerful projects. This box is very similar to Cript’s.” “Well...we better not make it too obvious we have some info our enemies don’t want us to know.” Joy said. “So I suppose this might be a solo mission unless you already have super spies already searching that planet?” “First we have to figure out which. Once we hack into this bases computers I can run a DNA scan across all those worlds versions. We’ll get a world and general location based on the DNA signature that chest is giving off. After that it’s a matter of searching on foot.” “Sounds good.” Joy said while looking at the box again. “Why is Ben’s scent on this?” He muttered. “Huh…” Krott said, feeling along the box. “Nothingness has been left here, it’s Ben’s but… older, stronger.” “Future Ben?” Joy wondered. “I mean...I learned some weird things from his own memories but…” Joy scratched the back of his head, so confused on why this was a thing. "Question is, are they an ally or enemy?" “Well we better find them before the bad guys do to make sure he’s a good guy.” Joy said simply as he headed off to find Ben to help him search. To be continued...
Nobody meets new people“Okay, so your saying Future Me handed you a box?” I asked Joy as the two of us were waiting for Krot to come back with his DNA test. "More like placed it." Joy said. "It was just there, no other signs he was there other than residual Nothingness and a Scent left on the box." “Well...I mean the main reason for them to have traveled back is kind of pointless because of what happened here so…” I said, trying to think of what their next move might be. “Maybe they want to help?” I asked sheepishly, not really knowing what they might do. "The future they came from no longer exists, yet they are still here. I remember reading something about that, something Speedsters can do, Time Remnants, versions of them that stick around to ensure specific events take place as to not alter time. They have to have know even just arriving here would have altered so much." “And yet that is also incorrect because those timelines can still exist.” I brought up. “We just went down a different channel in the massive river of Time...nothing said that their future doesn’t suddenly not exist.” "Still, up to a certain point the flow of time here should have affected them up until a certain point when their future is no longer yours. So… likely they have their own No Heart, most likely is a Den Mother also… we can't trick them though, anything we do here now, especially with you around they will remember. Whatever they are here for we can't fight them to figure out cause they'll remember everything you did." “There entire thing was keeping Eclipsa...alive…” I said as I slightly panicked. “I...I hope to god that’s not the case…” I muttered worriedly, fearing what my mind just immediately went to. “But...sooner or later, we’re going to have to fight them...even if their on our side...they need some fucking catharsis and maybe some push to lead to something that’ll make them go home...cause seriously these random splitting headaches and memories are getting a little annoying.” "How much of an overthinker do you have to be to call out the BS on your future most self being here?" Joy asked with a cheeky smile. "Either way, we'll need an edge." “You need to be fucking Batman level’s of overthinking, and trust me, I do that.” I said honestly. “And an Edge? Well currently the fact that Eclipsa’s still alive and can’t die through normal means.” I started. "Do we ever experience anything normal? Speaking of, when are you… gonna have your first litter?" “Soon…” I said with a little shrug. “It’s still a...weird thing that’s coming up ya know?” "I already gave birth so trust me, I know. Ever since Jenny talked me into this whole both genders things I've been seeing things in a new light but also still liking my typical likes." “I know I know.” I said while gently patting Joy’s head. “God...so many things are happening...” "Yeah. But hey, at least we aren't alone facing it all. I also have a MUCH deeper respect for women now cause birthing… hurts… like seriously, your Kidney stones were like a pin prick by comparison." “Just be glad I took something instead of actually having to get rid of a bigger one.” I rolled my eyes. “That still sucked…” "Yeah… Man I already miss them a lot. I had five… as a start…" Joy said with a blush. “Well already then.” I nodded. “Glad your happy with it all Joy.” "Heh. Weird being a mom and a dad but hey, it teaches you a lot." "Finally got it." Krott said, entering the room. He handed me a tracker. "This is loaded with their DNA signature. The world and area has been found." “Cool.” I nodded while taking the tracker. “Now we just need to head over there and make sure the bad guys don’t get to him first. Is there anything about this Cript we should know about before heading out?” "Other than the fact they are old." “How old?” I asked curiously. "From carbon dating the DNA and box itself I'd say little over a thousand years. How they are even alive is beyond me. This C.R.I.P.T isn't immortal." “I mean...there is a thing called ‘Ageless’ ya know?” I asked. “They can die from everything else but Age.” "Somehow I doubt that." “Well it’s at least a possible answer.” I brought up. “So anyways, let’s go find us an old Cript.” I said while opening a DTN to the correct world and area the guy was in. Upon arriving we were in a Forest. Seeing the tracker was leading along the road we kept to it. “I really need to watch a shit ton of anime...I’ve just been too busy.” I sighed out. "When Jenny isn't screwing or off on a hunt she's binge watching anime with the others. I think she's watching One Piece at the moment?" Joy thought back. “Did that ever end?” I asked curiously. “Cause last I checked it was still going back in 2012.” “No… No it has not ended…” Joy huffed. “Multiverse, when one realities version ends she hops to another's where it kept going.” “Oh dear lord.” I chuckled. “She’s really into it isn’t she?” “Especially the Hentai version…” “Dear lord.” I sighed out. “Now...Robin maybe best woman in the show but still.” “Either way I did see a few episodes of the anime this world is based on. First up, oldest Princess is a bitch, king is an asshole, and Shield Hero is best hero because the others are all seriously lacking common sense. Also expect to be racially hated cause a lot of people in this world hate anthros.” “I mean...we can turn back into a human and not cause a panic or I can just throw the ‘I rule you’ at them...probably gonna have to go with the latter though…” I sighed out. “They likely have no idea, even if they do that king and church are such assholes they are keeping that fact under wraps.” “So where’s the Queen? Cause so far it sounds like the King and many others really need Adult Supervision at this point.” I brought up. “Show never says exactly, King’s royal fuck up left her to fix up diplomatic issues all around their allies, so she’s away long enough for this plan to nearly succed. Nearly, arrives just in time and epic kill the bad guys. Well the church nut at least.” “And hey presto, the entire church is burned to the ground because their entire faith has been proven wrong by two people.” I frowned. “Can’t wait to laugh at how everything falls apart because we’re here, also...why do I have this weird feeling that there’s still something...important about this world?” “Dunno, haven’t read the manga and the Anime is still in development.” “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “Gonna have to keep that in mind...cause normally my ‘bad feelings’ normally lead to something.” I shrugged while we got closer to the capital. “Ten bucks said they immediately point weapons at us.” “No doubt but ten more says you immediately start flexing you’re powers just to show off.” “If you say so.” I said honestly while the two of us walked up to the front gate where guards were. “Howdy.” I waved to the guards. “Halt.” The two guards said, blocking the pathway. “What’s two demi-humans doing here?” I pulled out a scroll and handed it to them. “I am here to check up on the King and Queen of this country, because I’ve heard rumors one of the countries I rule over is under attack by these ‘Waves’.” I said honestly. The guard took the paper, looking it over. “Huh… The Queen is away on diplomatic business, the King is here, however, you can discuss your business with him and letters will be sent off to the Queen.” “Sounds simple enough.” I nodded. “Thank you, may we pass now?” “There’s a toll for entering the capitol, business or pleasure. Fifty gold.” The other guard said smugly. “Is extortion illegal here?” I asked while using my upgraded Assistant to check the Laws of this country. “Pay up.” Joy said, tossing a large pouch at the guards as he dragged me through them. “Have to flex, have to dive into the issue and make it worse.” Joy chuckled.. “So a legitimate question count’s as ‘flexing’?” I asked seriously. “All I’m saying is that you can never just play along, never let anything slide, if it bugs you you poke at it until it it’s shape or answer suits you. No matter how trivial.” “Hey, not my fault they were both being racist and actively breaking the law and damn near trying to start a war with their ruling court.” I explained simply. “Yes, that’s the point, not your fault, not your issue, if they want to be dicks, then show them up by following their rules. They were not expecting us to have the coin, you clearly didn’t see their faces, plus they have to explain that gold to their superiors.” “Dude...I literally only asked ‘is extortion illegal’...” I said slowly. “So...who’s making this an issue when I didn’t know the laws here?” “The guy who should guess given my earlier explanation basically says this place is completely corrupt.” Joy countered. “Better to know how corrupt it is besides the whole ‘it’s corrupt’.” I said honestly. Joy rolled their eyes, the two of us looking around as he took out the scanner. “So this guy should be around here someplace.” “Let’s hope it’s not far, because this place is pretty big.” I brought up. “So where to before people start getting pitchforks?” “Depends on if this is during or after what’s out in the Manga/Anime.” Joy said. “Something tells me someone from the show is going to be involved somehow.” “Does it involve hearing someone shout ‘attack the shield hero’?” I asked, the two of us hearing a commotion from a very bitchy lady. “I think I know this episode…” Joy said, the two of us rushing off to the source of the noise. We arrived to see a young girl scolding an older bitchy lady, and a man with a Spear. Joy took out the locator. “It’s… pointing at Spear Hero?” “You sure?” I asked, looking over the Spear Hero. “He is very...underwhelming in a lot of ways.” “Also, all the other Cript’s looks like each other. He doesn’t, but the Locater is pointing right at him.” Joy said, the little girl and Shield hero leaving, the Spear and bitch left grumbling, or rather, Spear was grumbling while Bitch was ranting. “Can we knock them out please? And maybe that thing is broken because I’m not getting any ‘Cript like’ vibes from the blonde...but his Spear on the other hand…” I frowned. “What’s special about his Spear?” I asked. “I only know from a quick glance four weapons are magic, but not how magic.” “The show doesn’t really know either. A shopkeeper used a spell to analyze Shield Hero’s shield in the first episode, he got nothin off it at all, other than some unidentifiable magic. But as far as he could tell, nothing impressive. From what I know they all have the same basic abilities. Copt other weapons, absorb parts from items and monsters to make unique versions of their weapon, craft items, etc.” Joy said. “As for how they work or even how they were made, it’s all still unknown.” “Sounds about right.” I nodded. “So...you want to do the honors of shutting her up or should I?” I asked curiously, getting honestly rather pissed at her bitching. “By shutting her up you mean keeping her asleep right?” “Honestly anything that can shut her up would be for the best.” I sighed out. “Honestly, people actually take her seriously?” “I have an idea that should work. Just hope she doesn’t get pissed…” Joy said, taking out a No Name Keyblade. He raised it, the hourglass began to spin as everyone and everything slowed down to a halt. I noticed Joy was holding my hand. Once the hourglass stopped he let go. “There, we got two hours. Well, two hours for us compared to everyone.” “Cool.” I said. “And thank you for shutting her up...seriously, how does anyone not think she’s just a raging thunder cunt?” “Royalty in this world has all the princesses/Queens have the authority, the king is more of a figure head, whose power is only minimal to none and heavily limited. Princesses are second only to the queen, her status of royalty and this kingdom total respect of women makes her personality or even ethics makes her only undermined by her sister, that little girl and the one to inherit the crown, and her mother.” “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “So let’s figure out if her whipping boy is Cript or not.” “Fun fact, rape is punishable by death here.” Joy said, walking over to Spear Hero. “They respect the hell out of women here. Earth could have learned… everything given it’s history.” “Oh don’t be all Feminist on me, as you can clearly see this is one of the many downsides that that shit can cause.” I said while pointing to the red head. “And let me guess, she accused Shield man of rape when she jacked all his shit?” “Breaking the fourth wall or just a guess?” Joy laughed. “You literally brought up rape is illegal, and she tried to have one hero that’ll save the world attack the other...gee, I wonder.” I rolled my eyes. “The reason is not fully known though, which is odd.” Joy shrugged. He placed No Name atop Spear Hero’s chest as his body began to glow. “Once he’s with us, we’ll lose an hour, but it will be enough.” ”Alright, but I have a feeling that the guy will be so confused...or try to hit on us...or both.” I frowned. Once the glow completely covered him, he took a fast, deep breath then looked around. “What-where?! Who are you?!” He said, jumping back, spear drawn. “Relax blondie, we’re not here to fight.” I said. “My names Ben, and this is my brother/sister Joy, mind if we ask who you are? Because currently we’re searching for someone and we’re being led to you.” “Well, I mean I am a hero after all.” He said, his fear/anger replaced with bravado as his posture relaxed. “Is there something some rather uniquely lovely ladies like you need?” “Hey, how did I know whipping boy would try and flirt with us.” I rolled my eyes. “Have you heard of the name ‘Cript’?” I asked simply. “Cript? Is that a monster or a bad guy? Name sure sounds like it.” Spear hero said, looking confused. “Cript… It does sound familiar.... I think Mine read that name in a book at the castle library. Yeah, yeah! That was the name of the original Spear Hero. Cript the Piercer.” I opened my mouth to say something...then closed it...then raised a hand to try and say something again...then lowered it as I sighed out, not sure how to respond to that title.. “Joy...point the locator at the Spear…” I pinched the bridge of my nose in annoyance. Joy did just that, the machine going off like an alarm. “Can we see your spear?” Joy asked. “Can’t.” He said, lifting the spear horizontal, opening his hand, and the spear sticking like a magnet. “Can’t take our weapons off, none of us can. They stick to us like glue.” I put a hand on the spearhead as energy slowly entered it. “Alright you, time to wake up. We’ve got shit to do.” I said, focusing my power to waking up this Cript. The gem on it began glowing a bright green, suddenly, emerging from the light, clad in light padded leather armor came out… asian Cript? “Fuck… Who hit me?” They said. Hey! They sound just like Ling from Full Metal! “I swear if it was Sword I’m tossing him off the church again…” “Welcome back to the Awake World, you’ve been a Spear for god knows how long.” I said. “So we have a lot to talk about.” “Huh?” He said, looking over at Spear hero, who looked surprised. “Oh shit, I was replaced?” “Wait! The king said the old heros were dead! If you’re alive then… how was I summoned?!” Spear asked. “You said I was in the spear’s gem… Who are you two?” “I’m Ben, this is Joy.” I said while motioning to Joy. “And yeah we have...several problems, so let’s start with who you are, if I may ask, because so far I know about two Cript’s, Cript himself and Zeke.” “Oh, Cript was my Hero name, the real names Krite.” He said, pointing a thumb at himself. “I got the name Cript by killing an entire Krypt of Undead. Course if Sheild wasn’t there I’d have died then and there.” “Wait, you and the old Shield hero were… friends?” Spear asked. “Hell yeah! The four of us were always friends since infancy. Grew up in the same orphanage, ran in our own guild for a while then we got our weapons. Hey speaking of.” Krit said, looking over to Spear and raising a hand, the Spear leaping from him over to Krite. “Looks about right.” I nodded, not surprised the Spear went back to its original owner.. “So, want to know how this country apparently really hates the Shield Hero cause religion?” I asked Krite. “What? Don’t tell me those nuts actually founded that Three Hero’s church? Fucking hell those assholes…” Krite sighed. “Man, I know Sheild wanted to be hated but god damn.” “Wait, what?” Spear asked. “The first Shield hero, my friend. Out of all of us, he was the strongest. He might not have had damage but damn if anything could break his defence it’s not of this world. He kept us safe and alive in the most deadly of battles. But, he hated being liked. He acted like a jerk all the time despite that’s not how he was, and he did things that while in the long run good he knew would bite him in the ass later purposefully. He always felt the world should hate him, so he made sure it would. The only ones he was ever kind to was the Demi-Humans. Which, makes sense.” “So would you hate the church and this lady more that, and I quote,” I started as I looked up the Shield Hero Wiki. “Myne, a princess of this country, stole everything from the current Shield Hero and falsely accused him of rape, a crime punishable by death, but kept him alive out of a combination of ‘he should help save the world and out of spite while the other hero’s blindly agreed to the outlandish lie’.” I explained. “I might have done some hyperbole but that’s basically what happened.” “Oh, those fuckers are gonna pay for that.” Krite said, cracking their knuckles. “And you can start with her whipping boy here.” I motioned to the current Spear Hero. “I mean, the story is actually a lot worse when you dig deeper but I kind of thought ‘Day One’ events would do the trick.” “Well then, what should we do with him then?” Krite asked, looking over at Spear Hero. “I can tell just by looking at him he’s just an arrogant pretty boy with a hero complex.” “Well I just want to ask.” I started while turning to the Spear Hero. “What in your right mind caused you and the other two to believe the literal walking trash fire that is that lady?” I asked while pointing at her. “She’s the princess! Why wouldn’t I have? We were here for barely a day or two when it all happened, hell we’re not even from the same version of earth, we didn’t know each other or this world, only one we trusted was the one in charge since that’s all we could do at the time.” Spear said. “You do know that she’s not even the rightful heir, plus the king is just a figurehead right?” I asked honestly. “The heir part I knew, the king part… no, no one ever told me that.” “Yeah, the Queen was off doing diplomatic stuff because the King fucked up.” I said. “Also, you had the power to stop this, you three did because you, sword and bow hero’s are treated as literal Jesus Figures, your word would have stopped all of this. If you just took a moment and agreed with the guy that was falsely accused for something terrible. Don’t need to be from different worlds to be a decent human being and defend someone being falsely accused.” I frowned. “I should know.” “Given what we heard about the first Shield hero, it was kinda hard to know what or who to trust when the accusation came up.” “Fair enough…” Krite said. “So because ‘Man has Shield’ equals ‘he’s literally Satan’...” I took a deep breath. “Where’s the church? I have some...choice words with the head priest about this…” “Just look for the huge fancy building made of gold. Can’t miss it.” Spear said. “Sorry, normally that would describe the actual castle.” I said honestly. “Where are the Sword, Bow and Shield hero currently? Cause right now the other three need to be here to hear the massive explanation.” “No idea where Bow is, he’s been all over the damned place is the rumors are to be believed. As for Sword he’s in Loot village, from what I heard he’s gathering some information on the price of property in the different towns, as for shield, he’s here in the capitol. You can find him in the Adventurers supply shop a block away from here typically.” Spear said. “Thank you.” I nodded. “Now just remember...this is real life, not a game.” I told him ominously before looking to Joy. “Joy, go get Bow and Sword, given you know more about this world than me, I’ll go talk to Shield about all this...better to have the Hero’s know what’s going on before me and Krite decide to destroy an entire religion.” Joy managed to find Bow and grabbed Sword, I met up with shield hero and after some blunt words, to which he actually respected me for being blunt over formal, we all broke apart the church, destroyed that false versions of the weapons they wanted to use to kill the heroes with, killed the pope, got the Queen back over here, then threw the king and Myne into prison cells for, well, life. I don’t know how the queen can still care for them… then again, family… part of me understands, and part doesn’t. “Well, that was fun.” Krite said. “Now what?” “I’m curious.” I said while looking towards the four heros and the queen. “While we were cleaning up, I decided to do more digging...why are their humans in the Waves?” I asked curiously. “That’s simple.” the queen said. “We are not the only world experiencing them. The waves are… tears, between worlds, the violent energy the tear produces while open spawns those monsters, on both sides. How to stop them, at least on our side, is to have the four heroes battle them, each wave is to be won by them.” “So basically Hell is trying to take over?” I asked. “And...humans on another world have somehow figured out how to travel with the Waves?” “I’m unsure. How they are made or even how they open is unknown. All we do know is that it has something to do with negativity.” “Well...might as well check…” I said while my Code flew up and brought up the worlds ‘Elements’ like from a computer as I started to check through things. “I know it’s around here somewhere…” As I was searching, suddenly my searching was stopped, my ‘screen’ suddenly flashing red as the words NICE TRY were plastered across it. As well as poop emojis… “I just wanted to know what caused the waves...asshole.” I frowned as I closed it. “Well apparently there’s something more here than I thought.” ”It’s not that hard.” A voice echoes from somewhere, it was...familiar… ”But I know coding, and hacking much better than you ever will.” “Again, just wanted to know what the cause was...douche.” I said while preparing to fight whoever was that. “But who are you?” ”Oh, now is that any way to talk to me, Diane?” “How do you know that name?” I asked with a frown. ”Oh I know everything about who you were. How could I ever forget. I remember you and your sisters little ‘activities’, meeting Zeke, your pregnancy, the warehouse you held up in after your mother and father kicked you all out. Your death at Zeke’s grandfather's hands.” “Alright, who are you?” I growled. “Cause all of that...you shouldn’t know about.” ”Awh, struck a nerve? You always were such the… touchy type. So much rage and worry, fear and bravado, what a mixed bag you were.” “They’ll be needing a bag for your corpse after I’m done with you.” I growled. “Show yourself!” ”Show myself? how can I? I don’t exist anymore. Nore can I ever again.” “Who are you then?” I asked with a frown. “Cause...you sound familiar...but I don’t know who you are…” ”Do I? Well, at least I still have my voice then. I’m surprised you don’t remember it either. Oh well, I’ll give you a hint then. Go home, home to earth. You’ll figure out who I was. And if you still have your analytical brain, you’ll remember who I was.” “I have literally two people’s worth of memories, and Earth is, last time I checked, still a destroyed barren wasteland.” I frowned. ”Then search the remains. pick at the skeleton of your former home.” The voice stopped, and suddenly the sky turned red. “A wave?! It’s early!” Shield said. “Why didn’t we warp!?” “Why would you need to warp...when your already at the Wave…” I said while drawing No Heart. “We need to evacuate now!” I barked, not sure what this Wave might have in store but fearing for the populace. “And don’t be all ‘the boss is my kill’, cause if you treat this like a game your not worthy of holding your weapons.” I growled at the bow, sword and spear heroes. “I like this wolf.” Shield said. “Well, time to get some practice in.” Krite said, taking a guards Spear, then, the gem on his glowed and the guards spear became a copy of his. He tossed the copy to Spear hero. “That is you’re replacement.” Krite said, charging out of the castle. “Didn’t really know that was a thing but sure.” I said. “Neither did I.” Spear said. “Alright, I’ll go check on the market.” “I’ll nest atop the castle.” Bow said. “I’ll guard the gates.” Sword said. “I’ll go lead the people to the castle for safety.” Shield said. The four leading out to their locations. “Yeah, after someone gives them a reality check they actually work together…” I chuckled. “Sounds about right, Joy?” I asked, looking down. “Know what to do?” “I’ll fly around and deal with the ariel enemies.” Joy said, summoning Lindworm and taking off. “Good.” I nodded. “Queen Melromarc? Know how to fight or are you going to try and direct your troops?” I asked the, honestly pretty hot, Queen. “I shall send orders, and I’ll meet the rest of your outside once my armor is worn.” She said, getting up and heading off. So she fights too… best Queen ever. “Lady after my own heart.” I chuckled while opening the window and looking outside to see how bad things are. “Wave is early...and it’s at the capital...who the hell is that girl…” I muttered, trying to sift through all my memories of Diane to see how I remembered that voice. “After this....I’ll head to earth…” I muttered, bringing out Sharpshooters and firing at monsters that tried to attack civilians. The battle was… good. Though, from what Joy told me it’s typically Undead and demons that are in the waves, not Shadow Creatures and other various offworld monsters. Krite downed a diamond scaled dragon in one blow. That was cool. the fighting lasted three hours, and sadly… a few hundred people did die. The queen, against my personal ideals, gave the former king and Myne more luxury in their cells then they deserved. But, her family, her prisoners. What or whoever this voice was, has to be something akin to, or is an admin, given they blocked my code. I sighed out. “Well...better to figure it out than just stand here doing nothing.” I muttered while opening a DTN back to Earth. “Joy? Mind talking to the Queen about...everything she’s probably missed?” “Sure. You head off and figure this stuff out.” “Thanks.” I said while kneeling down and hugging Joy. “Thanks...for being here with me bro.” I said gently before letting go and heading back to Earth, hoping to figure this out before it becomes a big problem. Here again. Back on earth, walking through my Colorado hometown… from Diane’s life. It was pretty well intact. Most of the buildings still stood, and some cars still had ‘skin’ on them. Not much ever happened here. “It’s been hundreds of years...I’m surprised shit hasn’t been turned to dust...but plant life is certainly brightening things up.” I said, seeing that what used to be just barren and dead, I saw patches of green slowly growing over buildings and cars. “Alright...where to start…” I muttered, trying to remember where to go. The best placed seemed to be… home. “Well...let’s hope the place is still standing…” I muttered as I flew off to find Diane’s...my old home. Finding it, I saw it looked almost untouched by time. Paint was gone, barley flakes, windows cracked but holding, and the door was boarded up… and Dad’s favorite car was still parked in the drive, covered with its cloth protector… I wonder… I gently moved over and took the cover off the car, wondering if his old car was still in working order. The once shiny metal was now faded, rusting in some parts. It looked good still. Battery and gas have to be gone though… Lifting the hood up, I managed to use Foudre to give the battery charge, then bought a few gallons of gas from my assistant, the canisters appearing before me as I poured it all in. the key was still under the drivers seat. After a few struggles the engine roared, I could tell from memories of dad working on this thing it still needed a lot of work… but it lived. This already antique car was alive way later. Smiling, I checked the glove compartment for those sunglasses he always kept in here and inside was… a note? “Oh?” I hummed while taking the note. “Wonder what this could be…” I muttered while opening it and starting to read. Dear Diane, Marcy, I know you two must hate us, we kicked you out over your life choices and love interests. You have every right to want us to never see you, and after what we said to you two, I don't blame you. I have left my Will unchanged, Diane, this car is yours. I know how much you loved watching me work on it while you played in the front yard, and Marcy, the house is yours. And, well, Zeke already has you two, but tell him my grandfather's old revolver is his. Live a normal, happy life, as normal as you can, and keep out of trouble. I love you both, my little princesses. -Dad. As I was crying I knew… this shouldn’t be here… I wasn’t Diane when…. how is this here? “Dad…” I muttered while looking at the house. “Mom...what the hell...this isn’t right…” I muttered while heading into the house. “Maybe...something in here will answer something…” As I entered I noticed even more wasn’t… right. Photos of Marcy and I are decorating the wall, our room was here, all our old things, covered in dust and times age. Hey, my old doll. I picked up the old toy, the toy so aged it looks as if it is going to fall apart, it’s red dress still bright, brown hair still curly, button eyes still the bright blue. “Jesus...what the hell is going on…” I muttered while gently casting a spell to fix the doll, wanting to...bring this back for my family. I started looking around, seeing my parents room, the bed made nicely, clothes set up for the day, what is going on here? “Everything is wrong...none of this should be here…” I muttered. “Seriously lady, who are you? And what did you do to bring this all back?” I asked, continuing to search the house for any other clues. As I was heading back downstairs I began smelling someone… someone very, very familiar. " You're getting me, so many things, lately," That… that voice… I rushed to the nearest window. They were wearing torn up clothes, carried a backpack as Dusty as they were and was dragging a wagon full of stuff… Marcy?! She noticed the car's cover was off, then drew out Grandpa's gun. “Marcy? Wait, but Eclipsa’s back home, what the fuck is going on…” I muttered in panic, moving down the house and trying to get to her. I shapeshifted into Diane to maybe show I’m not a threat as I exited the house. “Marcy?” I asked. “What are you doing here?” She dropped the gun, rushing up and hugging me tightly. "Diane! Oh thank God I thought it was just Zeke and I!" “The hell are you talking about? You should be back at home with Zeke and the kids.” I said in confusion. "Kids? Diane, you were the one who was pregnant, speaking of where were you? Do you remember anything? Last thing I remember was Zeke and I decorating the warehouse and then… I woke up in the house and Zeke was in the backyard for some reason. Oh my gosh wait till he comes back! He's out hunting right now, he'll be back in like an hour tops!" “Marcy…what are you talking about?” I asked. "I guess you wouldn't know." Marcy said, taking a seat on the yard furniture. "I don't know what happened but, one moment Zeke and I were just decorating our new home. Then we were here. Mom and dad's house but, the whole world was… this. Dead. Mostly anyway. When we woke up it was just Zeke and I. That was a week ago." “And that should be impossible cause you and Zeke are back at the Castle, with Cript and Jericho and our...billions of kids…” I explained. "... Did you hit your head?" Marcy asked. I was about to say something...but took a moment. “Wait...what day was the date before you woke up here?” I asked. "July sixteenth, twenty eleven?" Marcy said confused. I took a deep breath. “Okay...I know the problem...let’s wait for Zeke to appear cause...I have a lot of explaining to do…” "I think I can call him." Marcy said, heading over to the garage. She opened it as it revealed many, many… many boxes of weapons. "There was a flare gun here somewhere. Thank God Zeke's family hid armories everywhere." I raised a hand and shot a flare up into the air, using the ‘Signal’ spell to help give Zeke a call. “There, that should get his attention.” I said. “So...have you and Zeke met any undead?” "Those ghosts and stuff? Some. There's more heading into the city but there's only like, five here and they stick to their places… also… how did you… what?" “There’s a lot of things you don’t know about...and even fewer things are about to make sense.” I said honestly. "...What?" I brought both hands together and spread them, the words ‘Magic’ appeared in the middle as it sparkled. "... What?" “So yeah~.” I finished my explanation to both Marcy, and Zeke who just got back with food as he was still currently holding me in sheer joy. "So… you're Diane but also not?" Zeke asked. “I guess.” I said sheepishly. “It’s still really weird but...yeah, I’m Diane, but also not, like how Eclipsa is Marcy but also not Marcy...which is why I was confused.” "So to be clear you and I died… time got reset but we were born as different people, you from Diane to Ben, and Me from… me, to this Eclipsa… then how are we here?" “No idea, all I know is that a familiar sounding lady told me ‘go back home, you’ll figure some stuff out’.” I said honestly. “Unless it’s so blindingly obvious I might accidentally cause problems with the writers.” "In… any case." Zeke said. "So what do we do?" “No idea.” I said. “But...Marcy said you’ve been here for a week right?” "A week by our count. Why?" “Well I’m glad you didn’t stay here long cause I want to bring you both back to my place, where it’s...literally everything you could ask for in more ways than one.” I said honestly. "If it means Working water and electricity, count me in." Marcy said. “And so, so much more.” I chuckled a little.”Now just a small problem...who the hell is in my head...cause I have a feeling it’s blatantly obvious but...not fully sure.” "Aside from your own insecurities?" Marcy deadpanned. “That’s a whole other can of worms that I’d rather not talk about...again.” I sighed out. “But you two head out, I still have some bitch to deal with cause apparently talking isn’t good enough.” Marcy and Zeke took their things, stopping before rushing off, Marcy handed me something. "I'm gonna try and find the other me and see what she likes. Zeke will do the same. But here. Once Diane is here too, we can all be like before. Only… different. Eh, see ya." Marcy said as she left with Zeke into the DTN. Looking at what Marcy had given her, Ben blushed. It was her dog collar Marcy had her wear for pet play… what made it so much more embarrassing was her name, Diane, was engraved on the tag… she did wonder, would this even fit on her as a dire wolf? I sighed out before seeing the DTN close as I stood up and walked out of the house. “Alright Diane, you can come out now.” I called out. "I'll do what I can." She spoke through Ben as, walking out of their body an Ethereal, ghost like version of Diane stepped in front of Ben, turning around, Nothingness thorns and code covering her, making her body solid as Ben's old cloak appeared on her. "Not bad for my first time." She said, looking herself over. “Alright, so you're somehow bringing back an old dead Timeline...I don’t know how honestly.” I said honestly. "Dead is relative second life." Diane said. "Just because we don't walk on that timeline anymore, doesn't mean it still isn't around. Time is like a river with layers, crossing into and, in this case, merging into a single stream. A good example are reflections. One could say those are another version of alternative timelines." “Alright, so Nothingness probably has something to do with it since that and Code were basically the only ‘reset buttons’ I can think of.” I said honestly. “So onto the main problem, why are you here?” "I'm always here Ben. You are supposed to be my next life after all. I was asleep for so long. Then… God gave you those Nothingness powers, and I started waking up. I finally managed to stay awake when you met Zeke. Why do you think you and him took to one another so quickly as friends? You didn't remember, but I did. It was enough, and he didn't remember, but he still found me. Found our sister. I could do nothing but watch as you waltzed around like you knew everything based on story book tropes and could Beat anybody based solely on unconfirmed technicalities or theories. Yeah, you proved a lot to be true but bravado only goes so far without proof." “Okay...so far things are fine...now why are you just now acting like a bitch?” I asked curiously. "Because you have it all. All my dreams and desires, all my wishes came true for you… and yet, you are not happy. You're not satisfied or content, hell you're not even understanding, just stubborn and thick headed. You worry about losing it all, I did lose it all, but I knew it might or would come because of how Zeke's family was! Do you remember how we felt when Zeke's grandfather shot that slug round through our three month pregnant gut before rushing to find Zeke?" “I didn’t know when I originally saw the old fuck shoot Marcy, cause that was an entire trip and a half, but yes, I do remember that.” I said. “So basically you're pissed that I’m scared that everything can be taken away from us without fanfare?” I asked curiously. “Splendid…” I sighed out. “So, you know you being pissed with me isn’t going to solve anything right?” "It be has. But that never stopped you from getting even or getting payback." “You do know that I don’t know who I am and that my life on earth was literal hot garbage right?” I asked. “Like...seriously, my ‘past’, whatever the fuck that is anymore, showed me that anything can me taken away from you...and there’s nothing you can do about it. So how can I be content when ‘the plot’ is literally the only thing keeping my family safe?” I asked her bluntly. "To put it in words of a protagonist, it's a mix of faith and acceptance. Something you know nothing about it seems. I do wonder, why don't you put blind Faith in anything given you know there is nothing you can do, everything is out of your control yet you aggressively reject faith in anyone… even your own friends and family." “And yet I’m still here, yet I still have my family and friends.” I said. “I don’t ‘aggressively reject’ anything. That’s just natural depression and pessimism that’s been there since my parents died.” I said honestly. "And despite them being back, proud and completely accepting of what and who you are, you still have no true Joy." "Joy's off having his own adventure." I brought up. "But apparently there are some things you haven't noticed in my life...not surprising given I tend to show too much sass." I shrugged. "What I would like to know I why you keep forcing your wounds to bleed? How masochistic are you to actively remind and keep yourself in such pain willingly?" "Because it reminds me of why I fight, why I keep going...and honestly, it helps make sure if anything bad does happen, I won't be surprised and it'll hurt less...depending on what it is honestly." I said honestly. "Numb yourself to fear, you'll numb the happiness. You can't experience one without the other." Diane smiled, tilting her head as she began circling me. "Being without a body for so long I had lots of time to learn things." "Lady you understand nothing about being numb to things." I said. "And let me guess, you know all my techniques and stuff?" "Quick to call the tropes. But I also know things you don't. Things you have yet to learn or even discover you can do. Tell me, what am I at the moment?" "Me." I said honestly. "But after that, most likely a Nobody, a Ghost from a long dead timeline." "Nobody is more on the dot. When I woke up I had nothing but my memories. Yours slowly flowing in over time. I want my life back. I want my identity back… and more importantly… I want my family back." Diane said, No Heart flashing into her grip. "You have It all… and left me with nothing…" "And yet your here now, with Marcy and Zeke from your timeline. You literally have the family you want, but apparently I'm somehow in the way. Notice the problem with your plan here?" I asked while summoning Interdiction. "Because I'm still dead!" She slashed at me, the shockwave created obliterating the house and shoving me back ten or so feet. "I was the first one to die before Marcy, before what happened with Zeke! I can't turn it back to before I passed… I can bring them back… but not myself. Because by then my heart and soul was already dumped into you!" She slashed again, Ben blocking but skidded back out of the town, Diane floating across from them. "I can't bring myself back because you already took my existence away." "Well then boo fucking hoo." I said bluntly. "Also, horseshit, I literally died and lost my soul, so why aren't you also long gone? Sure I was reborn so I got my light half back but what the hell." "Echoes of a person, memories just lingering by sheer will. Sound familiar?" "Of course…" I sighed out. "Just what I needed. But anyways, apparently you don't understand that life just sucks even if you have things going your way." I frowned. "Things aren't perfect, nothing will ever be perfect." "I know. But at least I know how to treasure it all. And, at least I know who I am." Diane said, summoning Memory Stealer in the other hand. "No…" I only shook my head. "You honestly don't…cause let's take a step back shall we?" I asked while Fair Game appeared. "Is this...anything that Marcy or Zeke would want? Eclipsa and Zeke? I understand your pain, trust me I do…" I sighed out. "But fighting isn't the answer, you have a body right now. Go be happy with the Marcy and Zeke you pulled…" I said. "I don't have my heart… I don't have my soul, and despite all my attempts these bodies aren't able to have kids… I lost the one child I was ever barring… you complain about not knowing who you are, but look at Marcy. Different body, gender, hard life his like you… and she's herself. Is it really that hard for you… to accept you were me, and you still are? Still part of me, part of your identity?" Diane began crying. "How can I be happy when you cry about something so obvious!" She slammed No Heart and Memory Stealer together, the flash showed the two fused. Castle Oblivion's cards floated around it's now marble White color scheme as she raised the weapon. "If you hate me so much then… just stop remembering your pain… let me erase it all." "I don't hate you, I never once said anything about hating you." I said. "Why do I remember the pain? Why do I always keep it open for people?" I asked while the scene shifted, showing a room that Diane knows full well about. "Because it helps me understand what I'm fighting for, it helps me know that there will always be problems that can't be fixed...and it helps me treasure everything I have even more." I said while moving around, looking at all the items from dates me and all my wives had, photos of joy I had, and so many other things that showed just how much I cared. "Diane...you are me, we both know this...but ending it doesn't solve anything ...cause if it did...neither of us would be here." I explained while looking up at the ceiling, showing an entire painting of me and our massive family. "No!" She screamed. "Bullshit! You complain about being me when you forgot you wanted to be me in the first place!" She screamed, the scene changing to when I was talking with the Admin of Speed… My wanting what Zeke and Eclipsa had… Cript appearing. "You wanted to be me… you wanted to have what Zeke and Marcy did… and now that you have you complain about it…" "First up, never said I wanted to be you, I said I wanted to stop being a third wheel to them. Cript told me a different timeline of me asked for that and I was confused on why Cript was being...well cryptic. And me complaining? Maybe it's because I didn't know who the fuck I was before you came along, and then you being me as well didn't help me figure out who I really fucking was." I frowned. "And I never, fucking never, complained about being you. I was happy to share something special with them! But no! When I bring up a complaint I had before its suddenly the [I]only fucking thing to focus on!" I barked. "You only wanted to be me to escape In General! I know how much you hate yourself… I was just your vacation…" "That's not true and you know it." I frowned. "This isn't a 'vacation'...cause apparently when I can be happy there's an excuse as to why that is." I frowned. "What part of any of this is an excuse?" I asked while motioning around. "Tell me! Cause I'm fucking tired of fighting myself just to be happy for a goddamn change!" I cried. "Because you chose to forget by being someone else… by being me. To forget your past, to forget everything, before it even happened!" "Chose to forget what?" I asked honestly. "Yourself… you'd rather have been someone else…" "That...was never a thing though." I said. "I'm still me. Just because I'm also you doesn't mean anything bad. Sure it helps me feel closer to Eclipsa and Zeke, which is nice, but I'm not going to just be someone else...besides, how can I be someone else when I dont know who I'm am to begin with?" "Ask our sister. They found a middle ground between all their craziness. Ask the answer that's been in front of you…" "Okay seriously, I didn't want to be one or the other. I never asked to be someone completely different, I asked to be apart of what Zeke and Eclipsa had...I didn't want to be one or another...we can be both...also this doesn't help how this is literally the first time we talked." "Little hard to talk to someone as dense as diamonds." "Listen, if I was that dense I wouldn't have been married yet." I said honestly. "But talking is better than fighting, and sometimes it's not my fault people think they need to not tell people what's up." "Speaking of…" Diane said, counting down from three… "Where's Eclipsa?!" I shouted in panic. "Honestly do not know. Go looking. I know she'll be fine, but you panic too much. To be continued." I picked up Diane bridal style and opened a DTN. "Yeah you're coming with to help." I said before bolting into the door to find Zeke. To be continued...
Nobody takes his time“Alright, so you said you wanted Therapy correct?” Ben asked Diane as the two walked through the halls of the castle. “Yeah. Something I’m surprised you never did back on earth given… everything.” Diane said, the two heading to Lyra Heartstrings office. “Honestly therapy wouldn’t have helped back then…” I sighed out. “Like...how are you supposed to talk about ‘hey, so my dad burned to death and I saw my mom’s brains blown out and I thought it was my fault for at least six years’...plus there was also an asston of other complications about my past that’s just...really weird and I don’t understand, plus there might be more things that I don’t know about which also pisses me off…” “You’re an idiot.” Diane said as the two saw her office door was closed, a sign saying there was a session going on. So the two sat at the chairs, flipping through the magazines and books there. “How… are you so good at these photo shoots?” Diane asked, showing me the Bikini pictures. “Because I’m just that damn sexy.” I chuckled, still in my den mother form. “You went from being extremely hesitant about the whole gender mix thing to being able to take pictures like this and sell it… kay, respect.” Diane said with a nod. “Getting all that hair wet has to suck though.” “It does, but the wives love the extra floof after I dry off.” I shrugged. “Wives tell me it feels like being on a literal cloud...and some of them can actually prove that since they can literally lay on clouds.” “Huh. Surprised you can even sell the image of the kingdom. Aren’t you… not very social?” “Hey, I’ve gotten better.” I pointed out “Looks like. So what are Marcy, Zeke and I going to do then? In regards to all of this… and how am I going to get myself my own heart, and my soul back. You kinda lost it.” “Well that would involve...doing what the old man told me, Den and Cript...which is literally put your being into a newborn child...and then time is sped up so you can get back to normal.” Ben explained. Diane looked me over. “I don’t think I could handle all that hair…” I shifted into my old human form. “Given your going to...technically be both me and my daughter, you have plenty of powers to shapeshift and stuff like that.” I said before turning back into my den mother form. “But you get used to being a Dire Wolf and all the fur after a while.” “I dunno… it’s all kinda weird. Plus having all those… jugs on must be killing your back.” “Actually no.” I said honestly. “I mean, I also have strength beyond comprehension, but even then I don’t feel any back pain.” I said simply. “Also the wives love to use them as pillows...yes I did just say that.” “I remember how Zeke looked at mine~ Heh… I used to hate my breasts until he made me like them. You remember? We thought they were weird. Big yeah but not very firm and kinda flopped all over the place just by walking.” “I remember that, but for me...well Eclipsa already said I had a BBW kink...so big boobs are nice.” I said sheepishly. “Must be why you developed them. Remember when we first… Kissed Marcy? Way before we met Zeke?” “Electrifying.” I chuckled. “Also...I now blame you for my incest kink…” I muttered with a blush. “Well, to be fair we didn’t kiss back till after she kissed us first.” Diane laughed. “I mean, we always knew she was hot… hotter than we were. But she always did care for us… especially after that dance…” Memories of the event played through Ben’s head. A girls choice dance, a boy who said yes, a brand new dress… and a ruined night when the date they chose dropped Vinegar all over her. A PG version of Carrie, but just as messed up. That night after a three hour shower to get the smell out Marcy kept reaching out to us… then kissed us. We kissed back and then cried into her arms until we both passed out. "Okay first up...the fuck is Carrie?" I asked. "Cause seriously...what the hell was that comparison, and who the fuck dumps vinegar on a person, and who hates to date practically an amazon?" I asked in quick succession. “How do you not remember that movie? It was a great horror movie. Bit cheesy at the end but good over all. And Amazon? Seriously you’re memories of my life have to be messed up.” “I myself have actually never seen that movie.” I pointed out. “But Diane, even back then you were six feet tall, built like a fucking buff super model, and you basically carried Marcy on fun runs because she was, and I quote, ‘too tired to run’.” I brought up, the memory surfacing and showing Marcy acting all cute and being all ‘I can’t go on, please carry me’ like some damsel. “Now sure...sometimes people are intimidated by your build but...to do that to you? Er...us? Even if we were told...I’ll never understand.” “Hm… You and I share a lot. We both spent a lot of time in libraries and alone at the lunchrooms. We were the outcasts, the difference is that you were because of depression. I was by choice.” “Another difference is that you worked out a lot.” I pointed out. “Like seriously, being able to bench press three hundred pounds is rather impressive, and being able to run miles while piggybacking Marcy is also good, while I...well Karate was a thing but it wasn’t to that extent.” “The strength thing just came naturally, and you know Dad was the one to get us into regular exercise. Figured I'd be a good female boxer.” “Which would have been true, but our growing crippling hentai addiction was getting to us.” "That was you. My crippling addiction was our old bed post and video games." “Video games were both of our crippling addictions honestly.” I said while looking up to see if Lyra’s door was open. "Moreso mine than yours since half the time you didn't have the will nor energy to play, masterbate or even go outside. If I recall you mostly just played YouTube in your room with curtains drawn, lights off and a large bag of snack chips at your side." “I also did other things besides those things.” I said simply. “But yeah...that was a thing.” "Most of your things." Diane said with a half laugh. “Yeah yeah.” I said while double checking to see if Lyra was open to help us. “Let’s hope Lyra is here, because while this talk is nice, I’m a bit worried it’ll get off track if Lyra isn’t here.” "I remember Eclipsa speaking highly of her. Wonder if she really is that good?" “She’s good with talking…” I said, trying not to mention what this Lyra is also good at. “But she should be finishing up about…” (Thirty minutes later). Finally the door of Lyra's office opened, showing, to my surprise, Eclipsa's Celestia strolling out. She didn't say anything to us and teleported away. "Next." Lyra's voice said simply from within the office. “Um...okay then.” I muttered as I put down the magazine and walked in with Diane. “Hello Lyra, how you doing?” "Sit." She said simply. Her mane done in a ponytail, glasses on her face and a notepad in her magical aura. She motioned to the large comfy couch in front of her. The office gave off the typical therapy vibe from movies but mixed with the books on the shelf was movies, even video games, comics and a few little collectable items. The office felt both professional and carefree. It made me, and Diane, feel more comfortable than we expected. I sat down on the comfy couch with Diane. “So...where to start…” I sighed out. She wrote a few things down before looking up. She took a breath and spoke. "From the bare bones of what Eclipsa told me in a letter before you two arrived it seems Diane here believes you Ben are, to put it in a censored phrase, idiotic for having such fears and allowing said fears to ruin and get in the way of enjoying your loved ones. Is this accurate?" She asked. “It doesn’t really ruin, but yes, that is true.” I nodded, having a feeling I shouldn’t try to explain why the ‘ruin’ part isn’t right. “Can I explain why it doesn’t ‘ruin’ it? Or should we just get to the next part?” "Please do. Any little bit of information is needed, unless you are uncomfortable revealing it at the moment." She stated professionally. How is she a reflection of Lyra? Cript's is a total one-eighty. “Okay, so while yes it is true that my fear can get in the way of enjoying my time with my loved ones, it never ruins it.” I said honestly. “Fearing for your family’s safety is always going to be a thing, no matter who you are...it’s just…” I sighed out. “Because of whatever the hell my past is...I was shown how easily family can be taken away without you knowing it...and how easily you can blame yourself for a life that wasn’t your own most of the time.” "Hmm." She hummed, writing some things down. "As a Den Mother how protective would you say you have become of said family? Moreso or the same?" “On a scale of one to ten, before I was around eight...but with me being a Den Mother than went to about eighty.” I said honestly. "Hmm." She hummed again. "Diane, when Ben feels this protective need, can you feel it? As I understand you are currently akin to his Nobody?" "I am but I don't feel much. Most of my emotions if they aren't grief or anger kind of… fade as fast as they arrive. Normal Nobodies can remake a new heart to replace the lost but I don't have a soul and from what I learned while Ben researched that in the old Kings notes the soul is what gathers the needed pieces to make the new heart. Ben has our heart and their is only one. It's his now, not mine. I can feel… bits and pieces but like I said, it's brief." Lyra hummed again. "Ben, knowing that, what do you think?" “I did tell her how to get a new soul and heart, and it’s still on the table.” I brought up. "Really? And what is stopping you Diane?" "Partly the fact I'll be looking like Ben, partly because… I wouldn't be me." "How so?" "I'd have a new soul… a new heart… as is, my existence is tied to our shared heart. If I get a new soul and heart… am I even still me? Everything about me would be blank." “I had half a heart and no soul.” I brought up. “I only had my dark half as my light half was acting as my ‘soul’....and I’m still me.” I explained. “Your still you, even if things aren’t there...we might still share a heart though.” "But when you went through it you still had your heart. A source of memories. I'm a hollow shell. In every way, the only reason I'm not like Kexez is because of the fact that I only exist mentality here." Diane said, jabbing a finger over my heart. "It's not even my heart anymore. I only woke up because you became an admin and my life, my existence was able to be remembered by you. I don't want to become someone different, I just want to be me…" “You know…” I started while pulling out Memory Stealer. “You just gave me an idea.” I said while gently putting Memory Stealer on her chest where her heart would be. “I don’t know if I can do everything, and I don’t even know if this’ll work...so please bare with me.” I said while closing my eyes and focusing, Diane feeling a sudden rush of energy flow through her as...it felt like her soul was coming back. “Jeez...that...was a bit hard…” "I… I can feel it." She said, mouth agape and hands over her chest. "Our… my soul. How did you?" “I don’t know if I can also make you a body and heart, given that I also control Grey and Balance, so I’ll just have Eclipsa and Heart fix that when we get to it.” I said honestly. “Feeling better?” "A little." She admitted with a smile. Lyra have another him, catching our attention and seemingly unphased by the spectacle I performed for Diane. "Back to topic." She said, firm voiced making me, on instinct from hearing that tone from Grandma for years, sit up and proper. "Ben, have you seen your children in action since this merge?" “The only one I’ve seen in action was Dinky and her new planet.” I said. “But besides that I’ve been legitimately busy doing way too many things.” I said honestly. “Running the kingdom, all the interviews and photo shoots, searching for allies to help us with the coming war, studying up on how to make those Pure Crystals and other things...even with help, I’ve still got a lot on my plate here.” "I see. Then let's review some of your children's recent accomplishments… and some lesser touched on events." She said, making me a bit worried. Popping the remote into her magic she turned on the TV, the image showed what I could make out, barely, as Braig, afro hair now tugged down as a pony tail, wearing basically their suit from before, but younger, both eyes and a pair of upgraded arrow guns in their hands. "Braig has been quite the Bounty Hunter of late. Sixty seven confirmed arrests, sixteen of them brought in dead. How do you feel about this streak so far?" “Who were the ones he killed?” I asked. “And...has he always tried to make sure it’s nonlethal?” "He uses an upgraded version of the standard Gun Arrows based off your own Sharpshooters, they are only lethal when set to kill. The normal function is just an electric pulse through the targets body that triggers the pain receptors to respond as if it was a lethal shot, but it's not. Typically the target is knocked out so his kills were either accidental or planned. So far those he has killed consist mainly of Drug Dealers and one Weapon Hacker." “And how has he taken the deaths?” I asked. “Cause...we all know that on that road there’s a chance…” I trailed off, not wanting to bring up Psychopaths. "The first few he has taken them hard but after a while it's become more distant. Given his past self this is not surprising." “I’m gonna have to make sure he doesn’t falter on that tight rope…” I sighed out. “If it’s not too late...what about the others?” "Majority do well. However…" she said, flipping the channel showing… Jenny… "Jenny has been what we call a Legalized Operation. She is making contract deals with large companies and while the terms are met, no one ever reads the fine print, so she ends up owning the entire company. She so far has ten. Three toy companies. One tv station, a Soap Factory and five fast food chains." “Why am I not surprised.” I chuckled. “But uh...is there a growing problem with this? Cause I’m still worried about hearing the ‘there’s also this’...” "While it's not damaging to people directly it is damaging the stock market as she becomes sole owner all stock owners lose thousands to billions of rem in the companies. She is, in a way, legally stealing their money." “I should probably…” I sighed out. “Even if I told her not to, she’d probably still do it. But I’ll try to talk to her about it if others haven’t already.” "Given her criminal past it's not surprising but more so impressive. Now, onto lighter topics. Recently Dinky has earned a Nobel Peace prize before even graduating. Her study on the elemental crystals that make up Cript's original realm show how to customize them." She said, flipping to an Image of Dinky holding said prize happily. “That’s great news.” I said proudly. “I knew she could do it, always so smart.” Humming again, Lyra then flipped to an image of Gilda. "Gilda has proven quite strong. Here she is lifting condensed dark Matter that is her size, but far, far heavier." The image showed Gilda lifting a ball about her general size, a scale reading the weight just endlessly counting up. “Damn, that is quite a feat.” I said. “And my griffon wife is still sexy doing it…” Diane rolled her eyes with a laugh. "Also, they have changed their name as well. They are now using Names of a Nobody. So Gilda is actually going by Aldixga." "Well alrighty then." I nodded. "Good to know. Will help keep tabs on who's who I suppose." "Next up is Luna, or rather Alxun, has been honing her inborn darkness affinity, and last I knew was going to study under King Core. So far her control over lesser heartless is fine and she has a few useful darkness abilities." "Cool." I said honestly. "Hopefully things are going well for her." "Many others have taken up a call to arms as well. So far this war is bringing out strength they never expected to have." "I know…" I sighed out. "Doesn't mean I'm not worried about things." I said honestly. "Many want to complete a Mark of Mastery before heading to the front lines or even just deployed to other locations. How does that make you feel?" "Proud at how far they've gone...and scared of what will happen when they are out fighting…" I sighed out. "That is a natural fear, and reasonable. But Ben, you should know that in this war, they might die. I know you know this too but it's important for you to express the grief healthy." "Listen, I'm surprised that all our bad guys haven't just up and killed everyone I cared about yet." I said honestly. "Core could have done it, Spoiled could have done it, Jericho and Vincent, hell why hasn't Void Mother just appeared and made the entire realm collapse?" I asked. "That is avoiding Ben. It's not my place here to answer these questions. It's my place here that if or when misfortune strikes you can handle it in a healthy manner. This goes for you as well Diane." "Wait what?" Diane asked. "You yourself while at peace in your mind with your own passing and the others, clearly this was not the case given your actions towards Ben." Lyra explained. “I mean, you yourself have said ‘you have everything, but your not me’...when you are me.” I said honestly. “So it’s a bit weird how we’re the same person, but you yourself don’t believe we’re the same person and have the exact same things.” "I think we aren't the same person because I am here, and you are there." Diane said, waving a finger between herself and I. "We share memories, powers… but I know which life was mine." “And yet Marcy and Eclipsa are all hunky dorey knowing that’s not true.” I frowned. “And your ‘I’m sitting here, your sitting there’ argument doesn’t work because of your actions.” I explained. “Or did Marcy turning into a Naga when she shook Eclipsa’s hand not mean anything?” "I honestly don't know what anything means anymore." Diane sighed. “Join the club.” I said honestly. “But if you need some more clarification, we can go see our kids...and I mean all of them, cause that was one sticking point I’m pretty sure you won’t drop.” "Back to the main focus please." Lyra said. "Ben, if or when something happens to one of your family, how do you know you will react?" “That depends on what happens.” I said honestly. “Cause if it’s my family dying...well then you're probably not going to see me for a while…” "Now is that for grief… or for revenge?" “Probably both, mostly grief.” I said honestly. "Now Ben, if this does happen I want you to focus only on the mourning of the lost one. Revenge won't bring them back, nor would it satisfy them either. If you later on come across their killer and want to take the opportunity for payback I'm not saying don't take it, what I am saying is don't go after them blindly with an injured heart. Give yourself time to mourn and accept their passing. As an Admin you will be experiencing this in one form or another often. So it's best to learn how soon, otherwise you could do something drastic." My thoughts wandered to Future me wandering about somewhere ...”Technically...it’s a bit too late to say that.” I said sheepishly. "Either way, you need to learn to accept they are gone, and to forgive. Eclipsa told me of your habits. I'm going to say some phrases to both of you, alright?" Diane and I looked at one another. “What’s the worst that can happen?” I shrugged worriedly. "Ben, it's not your fault." Lyra started. Confusing me a bit. “Um...okay?” I asked nervously. “I mean...what’s not my fault?” "Diane, it's not your fault." Lyra said. "Huh?" Diane asked. “The only thing that isn’t her fault was caring about family...her trying to murder me and blaming me for stuff that’s just her fault.” "It not your fault they died Ben." Lyra said. “Until I’m suddenly told ‘yes, it is your fault’.” I rolled my eyes. “I know my parent’s death’s aren’t my fault...but how can I know that’s true when I got the story wrong three times?” "It's not your fault they are gone Diane." Lyra said. "Who…?" “Is this it? Just...going to tell us it’s not our fault and expect us to cave?” I asked. "Often times loved ones can't make it click to one who always blames themselves. This is an unhealthy barrier, one you two share." Lyra said with a nod. “Okay…” I sighed out. “But...it’s not my fault my parents died...I know that…” I said honestly. "But have you accepted it?" Lyra asked, looking me in the eyes. "It's clear you have not. You have the unhealthy habit of blanking yourself even when something was beyond your control." “It helps deal with the crippling amounts of trauma I still have.” I said honestly. "And we need to rectify that. I have several treatments in mind and I'm telling you as a doctor to try them all. Not all at once, mind you, but to do them in the order you feel comfortable with." “Well...one thing I was planning on doing was bringing Diane to meet our kids, cause you know...I always feel better when the kids are around, and that’s a fact.” I said honestly. "That will be part of one of the treatments, yes." “Cool.” I nodded. “What would the other treatments be?” "It would be best if I make a list first. Given your situation… it's quite extensive." She said, and Beganbegan writing writing them down. "I've also told Eclipsa about this. She will be getting a copy to ensure you complete these treatments and continue them. Am I clear?" “Yeah yeah.” I rolled my eyes. “Don’t really need a babysitter but if you think it’s worth it.” "I've profiled you well Ben. I KNOW this is necessary. It is extreme but you are an extreme case. I am sure your first treatment will in fact anger you greatly." “No, the first treatment we’re going to do is meet our kids.” I said honestly. “Cause honestly, I haven’t checked on the kids in a while since Cript is being really anal about how many clones I can keep up and all of me is too freaking busy.” "Relax. This ties into that pretty well. Your first treatment is to from now on, avoid fighting, no fighting or participation in this war whatsoever until you have learned discipline, how to follow orders of others, and know when and where to pick your battles." “Okay that’s going to be physically impossible.” I frowned. “Like...even with the ‘discipline’ thing...I’m going to have to fight in this war whether any of us like it or not.” "At some point yes but until said day, you King Ben, are Benched on medical leave. I will allow you to train and spar, as well as compete in combat based tournaments, but if it involves the current war in anyway, this will be a violation of your treatment." “Yeah, sure.” I said, Lyra knowing full well I could have told her how wrong she was from past experiences but not wanting to have this take even longer. "Now to ensure you follow this simple treatment, here, put this on." She said, handing me a small necklace. It was simple, silver chains and a sapphire as its main centerpieces. “What is it?” I asked simply. "It's a redirection necklace. It senses when a person, specifically you, are going to engage in conflict and redirects your attack, summoning, this includes your weapons and Nobodies, and instead teleports you to the last place you slept." “Yeah I’m just gonna...hard pass on that.” I said simply. “Cause, you know, I don’t want to be magicked away back to bed when I’m trying to stop someone from doing bad things or having to protect myself from things outside of my control.” "This isn't an option, it's mandatory. The longer you reject it the longer we are going to stay here. And you clearly would be anywhere but here at the moment." “I was completely open to talking, and other things, but I don’t need a collar telling me my enemies can now do as they please while I physically can’t do anything.” I frowned. “Even though I, myself, have made damn well sure every single bit of security is so airtight not even Existences best escape artist can get out of, our enemies can still somehow manage to get in.” "That's why you are required to wear this. You need to trust in your own damned security measures, and trust that there are in fact OTHER people who CAN handle these issues." I took a deep breath, trying to keep myself from bursting out. “Fine...just to keep people from arguing.” I grumbled as I took the necklace. Once I placed it on, I saw the gem glow for a moment before stopping. Nodding, Lyra gave me one...three… ten… pieces of paper with all the treatments, and then copied it via magic, and sent the other one to Eclipsa also via magic. "You can go now." “Fine.” I said while taking the papers for our treatment and getting up and leaving. "Well, that went… better than expected." I looked up at basically nothing and stared at two people, knowing full well if I say something, it'll just be problems. “Yeah…” I sighed out. “So anyways, let’s go meet the kids...cause I need a hug…” I grumbled while heading off to The Garden. Heading to the room in question, the sudden sound of… infant crying could be heard. "Is that… normal?" Diane asked. My eyes widened in panic as I immediately bolted off into The Garden. “Kids! Kid’s what’s wrong!?!” I asked in a massive panic, wondering why all my children were crying. I saw Coco, and she was trying to calm them down. "I came in to feed some of them and they were all crying!" She said, also in panic. A lot of the children stopped crying and looked over to me...as I was then being dog piled by damn near every kid as they cried and hugged me. “Kids please...what’s going on?” I asked worriedly, scared out of my mind as to what caused this to happen. 'You scared us!' Nancy yelled out from the pile. 'You showed us stuff and made us sad!' ‘You were sad and hurt…’ A naga wolf hybrid, Yuma, cried. “What? But...when did I come here?” I asked, trying to figure out when and how. “And...what did I show you all?” 'You showed us your loneliness… and our graves…' Nancy said. “What!? But I’d never show any of you that.” I said in a panic. “All of you...all of you mean so much to me…” ‘That’s...what you said in the song…’ Another child said sadly. “What?” I asked worriedly. "What the hell happened?" Diane asked. “I...have no idea...they’re saying that I made them all sad...but I know for a fact I didn’t come here in awhile…” I said worriedly. ‘You...said you came back to see our smiles…’ A child sniffled. 'you sang a pretty and sad song.' Nancy said. “What...what was the song?” I asked worriedly. “Coco, can you bring up any camera footage?” I asked. "Yes… oh and also its Oxocc now. Nobody names and all." She said, pulling up her Assistant and flipping through the footage. After a bit there was the image of a cloaked figure with my height and body type… “Oh you…” I muttered as I continued to watch it, seeing all the children rush up to them like they were me...and the song…”Oh god…” I muttered, feeling the same pain as them as the song ended and they vanished as the kids tried to reach for them. “Oh god…” "Ben...was that?" Oxocc asked. “That…” I took a deep breath. “That was a...Future Version of myself...apparently they came here to stop Eclipsa from dying in a fight with Jericho...but with the song they...clearly don’t know what to do anymore given everything is so different…” I explained. “How they got here...I don’t know, but...what they said is...sadly all true…” I sighed out as I tended to the innumerable amount of children. "If that song says anything, whatever the outcome they clearly knew this was a one-way trip." Diane said. “Either that...or they’re lost, wondering where everything went right and wrong...and if coming here was even worth all the trouble…” I sighed out. "So what do we do about them?" Diane asked. “They are me from a possible future, at the time, where everything just went horribly wrong for them...honestly, that me will figure things out, cause if I had untold amounts of years to train, practice, and learn...not only would I be practically impossible to find...but also hard enough to beat in a fight, whether fair or unfair.” "Well… enough on that." Oxocc said, putting the footage away and calling down the rooms TV. "Let's watch something to cheer us all up." She said with a smile, tuning into the infant's TV show. Blues Clues was on. “Okay...thankfully we have a show that I watched when I was a kid…” I sighed out thankfully. To my surprise, it was also an episode that I watched as a kid. Memories from both Diane and I flooding back from our younger years. While Diane seemed unable to hear the kids they all seemed to enjoy the show, even comparing me to Blue a few times. That made me smile. With a sigh I took a short look at the first few treatments in that list. Spa treatments of choice. Beach Vacation Steam Sona. Huh. Those seem fun actually. I remember once Rarity dragged me to the spa for a mineral bath soak. Was nice. I'll have her take me there to decide what to get. “Are...are you all feeling better?” I asked gently. There was a some yes replies, nodds, others were either too engrossed in the show to answer or fell asleep. I chuckled a little at some of them feel asleep, thinking they tired themselves out from what happened. “Alright…” I said gently while gently extracting myself from all the kids that were ontop of me still and getting the one’s that fell asleep to bed. “Ready for a nice spa day Diane?” "I think I'll stay here for a bit. Remember, I was practicing for Zeke and I'd first kid when… I just wanna stay here for a while longer." She said, her tone sad, but there was hope there. All she needs is a heart. “We can go see Zeke first to get you your heart.” I said gently. "Don't you mean Heart?" “It’s been barely a day, I already have to relearn all my wives names, and I just dealt with a minor panic attack as to why my kids were so upset, please back off.” I sighed out. “Plus...it would have sounded weird to say ‘Let’s get Heart to give you a Heart’.” "Heh. I'm good… For now anyway. Besides, I might not need him for that. As a proper Nobody now, I have a body, and a soul. Soon my soul will collect the needed parts to make me a new heart all my own. It will take a while. If those books you read were right about a year or more depending, but I think I can wait for it. Besides, you need a spa day. Go floof up that hair." “Oh it will most definitely be floofed up.” I chuckled a little. “Alright, gonna need to check in with Rarity to find that one spa place again…” Meeting up with Rarity, or now rather, Yitxrar, she more than happily took me to the best spa in our shared realm between mine, Heart's, Eclipsa's and Cript's. Unsurprisingly it's from Cript's realm but my God this place is huge and impressive. Once Rarity found out I was here under Therapists orders, she insisted on the twenty four hour head to toe pamper treatment. A literal full day of being relaxed and doted over. The price for it was surprisingly cheap, only a few hundred rem, and we began it off with a deep lavender oil massage and God my knots in body areas I didn't even know I had muscles in just began untangling. “Sweet god almighty that feels nice.” I moaned happily, glad to feel the sore spots going away. “I didn’t know those places existed…” "Never underestimate a massage darling." Yitxrar said. The spa kept all staff treating their customers the same species as the customer, so Yitxrar had an equestrian, and I had dire wolf lady. Her claws got deep under my fur and onto my skin. The were very generous with the oils. The smell also relaxed me. “Hooray for getting past all this fur.” I sighed out happily. “So...given that this is twenty four hours...how can I be pampered for that long?” "Don't think love, just enjoy~" The next treatment after a two hour massage, I nearly fell over when it was over I became so loose. It was a coat/hair wash. I was in a large clay tube being hand scrubbed with some special shampoos and soaps. Needless to say yes I was naked and even my genitals were getting scrubbed… yet somehow these ladies managed to pull off scrubbing sexy areas without making them react in the expected ways. “You people are miracle workers if your making sure my perverted mind away from that stuff.” I sighed out happily. "We've had lots of practice hun." An elderly dire wolf lady that was scrubbing my back said. "I've been working here for thirty years. I've seen and scrubbed it all." “I can only imagine how weird that could get.” I said honestly. "You get used to it." A younger dire wolf staff lady said. She was scrubbing my breasts. "I've only been here a few weeks and I'm used to it." “Alrighty then...just hope I’m not ‘too’ big in area’s.” I said sheepishly. "Honey, you fine but you ain't no giant if that's what you mean." “How…’small’ am I then?” I asked, honestly curious as to what they meant. “I mean in both male and female bits.” "I'd say you're pretty average." The elderly one said. "Types like you ain't as rare or uncommon as you think. Save for the being a Den Mother part." “Hey, why am I not surprised?” I said honestly. “Why am I not surprised at being told ‘I’m average’?” “Maybe because your so tense as hell that you probably look down on yourself.” A young wolf said while scrubbing my feet. “True.” I sighed out. “But...might as well not be too big for my wives...people can only take so much of a good thing.” I chuckled. "Amen." The elderly one said, all of us sharing a laugh. The next treatment after that hour long bath was something of a dire wolf exclusive so Yitxrar was sent elsewhere. This treatment had my teeth special cleaned and fangs sharpened. Apparently I also have a few cavities. “How was I supposed to know-ow!” I yipped in pain. “How was I supposed to know I had cavities?” I grumbled as my teeth were worked on. "For dire wolves it's not exactly easy to see." My apparent dentist said while scraping some nasties off my teeth and gums. "Our teeth are stronger than most races, second only to dragons and Giants, but cavities like this are not uncommon. A cleaning and Volum nectar will make it alright." She said “I blame Pinkie...all of them…” I grumbled. "Consider yourself lucky. Unchecked you could risk losing a tooth." She said, flossing my teeth with expert movements. "So, how long?" “I’m an Admin, I can just regrow teeth, and how long what?” I asked "Until your birth?" I nearly jumped at hearithat. I mean, I am pregnant but I don't show it. “Well...I can do it whenever I suppose.” I said nervously. “I’m...still not sure all things considered given...past things…” I sighed out. "I only asked because of your front teeth." “What about my front teeth?” I asked curiously. “A newly expecting dire wolf mother’s front row of teeth between their primary upper and lower jaw fangs shrink and dull as to not harm the infants once born. So they can pick them up by the scruff with their teeth when in feral form.” “Ah, that makes sense.” I said honestly. “But...I didn’t notice honestly.” I said honestly. “So...anything else about my teeth?” “It’s a small change.” “Good to know, but anything else about my teeth?” I asked curiously. “And what about my claws?” “Teeth wise you’re good. As for your claws… Hmm… How long ago were you impregnated?” “Um...maybe a month ago?” I guessed. “Why? I’ve used my claws to still cut through things honestly.” She dialed for another to arrive, whispered something in their ear before they smiled and nodded. “Interesting fact about Den Mother Tire wolves when they are newly pregnant. Their body undergoes some rather overlooked changes.” She said, the new lady taking one of my feet, rotating it around a bit as if massaging it, then quickly moved my food forwards, then back and I yipped as I felt a sudden cut. Looking back… The back of my foot has a wolverine claw! “Such as retractable claws in the feet, elbows, and spine.” “Excuse me but what the fuck?” I asked while flexing my right arm and...lo and behold a wolverine claw appeared from it as well. “Uh...what about my spine? Also, I thought this was all just a Void Dire Wolf thing?” “No, Den Mother Dire wolves biology changed as you are pregnant, and actually, each new pregnancy can give new changes, all for defending the young.” The new lady then moved my shoulders down, and I felt like my whole spine popped after being stiff. It felt great, and when I looked I had SIX sharp barbed spikes out of my back… oh wow I can move them! “Okay...so while this is really cool...why is this happening? Cause pregnancies shouldn’t give cool powers that basically makes me turn into Cannonbolt with spikes…” “It’s the inborn magic.” The new lady said. “For a Den Mother pregnancy is something far more than just the importance of the Den’s population and to care for all the young. It literally empowers you, each pregnancy giving you newfound abilities from physical to magical.” “So...if I pop out kids and then get pregnant again...I can get stronger to...protect my family?” I asked, gently poking my elbow blade and seeing it was really freaking sharp as it cut my finger with ease. “Yes. The role of a Den mother is to birth, care for, and protect the Den’s young. For if all the hunters fall, the Den mother is the last, most powerful line of defence from the Den’s extinction. This is one of the many reasons Dire Wolves like you are so rare, sought after and valued to our people.” My dentist said. “So that’s why literally every male and female dire wolf wants to plow like rabbits…” I muttered. “Well...the more you know I suppose.” “This type of alteration is common.” The new lady said, showing me how to retract it all back. “The most common ones are the hidden claws/spines, Extreme growth, extra teats, and even the sudden appearance of a second womb. But that last one is a tad more rare.” “But because I’m a rarity to begin with...what’s like...the rarest of abilities that happened?” I asked curiously. “Given that I’m technically the first natural born den mother in...a fuck long while?” “On your world yes.” The new lady said. “Remember this place is all the multiverses and such, but yes, your rarity is still very high. In recorded history across all the worlds with Dire Wolves species that have Den Mothers on them it’s still only totals at five hundred. Across the whole Multiverse and many planets, that is of course still an extremely rare occurrence.” “At least until Cript and those others made those other Dire wolves Den mothers also.” My dentist added. “Yeah but they’re not natural born so I don’t think it counts.” “So what’s the rarest mutation?” I asked curiously. “Cause so far you said this was normal, feats and other stuff was kind of normal and a second womb was a bit rare, I’m just curious.” “Hmm… I guess it would have to be the same for all of them.” The Dentist lady spoke. “The legends of the first Den Mother. It’s the same on all planets, all dire wolf culture. The size of a mountain and single handedly birthed the worlds Dire Wolf population.” “Some people say its the same Den Mother, given even across the multiverses genetically we’re all so near identical.” The new lady said. “Most likely might even be an admin.” “Maybe.” “Well...that is very interesting.” I said honestly. “Very interesting indeed…” I said with some thought. “Can’t wait to figure out if there’s anything else.” “Now then.” The dentist said, taking out a large toothbrush and applying toothpaste. “Say Awh.” That ended after half an hour. I was now taking a hot rock massage. I have to admit, with the fur, this feels not that hot but still nice, makes my back ache less. Helps the joints. Yitxrar was here also, enjoying one herself as we lay belly down on seperate tables next to one another. “Hot rock massages are so hard to find in Equestria…” She moaned happily. “Never fully understood this to be honest, but now actually experiencing it it feels wonderful.” I sighed out happily. “Oh, also, I figured out that Den Mothers get kick ass power ups...for getting pregnant.” She chuckled. “That’s new. Tempted now are we?” She asked, lazily looking over to me. “Maybe...I…” I sighed out. “I still don’t know, I know I can be a good father and or mother...but...I’m just scared...scared that even after all my work, after all the blood sweat and tears I gave for all of this...it can just be taken away in an instant…” “That’s the risk of parenthood love. Nancy being my first child was unexpected, but I learned quickly I have much to learn, much to sacrifice, and much to lose. It honestly gave me flashbacks to when Sweetie Bell was born.” “I mean, I also have that crippling phobia because of my parent’s murders but please, tell me about your flashbacks to Sweetie Bell.” I said. “And no, that’s not sarcasm, I would really like to know.” I said with genuine intent to learn. “Heh. When she was born, I at first didn’t like the idea of a little sister. She’d cry and whine about everything, though thinking back, yes that made her my sister. One night she was crying and Mom and Dad were so tired they didn’t notice. I tried food, diaper, play, nothing. Eventually I gave up, collapsing on the floor with her in my arms. I was too tired and too young for that. I didn’t even notice my holding her stopped her crying and we fell asleep like that. I woke up with a wild mane, drool on the floor and my baby sister in my arms, still sleeping like nothing in the world was amis. I ended up each night taking her to bed with me in my room to sleep like that. At some point I realized I hated myself for ever hating her. I never wanted to lose her after that.” “And I would never have known that cause I never had a sibling...unless my backstory somehow changes where I had a long lost sibling somewhere.” I said honestly. “You already do. The same applies to your own child. The second you see them, you never want to take your eyes off of them. Zeke’s Rarity said that after their first kids were born Zeke would stay up all night watching them out of concern.” “I would be ten times worse with having too many kids, and never leaving their side for god knows how long.” I said honestly. She chuckled. “That’s the hard part. Learning you have to at some point, give them their space, independance, and one day let go. As much as we’d like they can’t be our babies or children forever. They will be adults someday, and we will have to accept that, but to us they will always be our babies.” "I'm a Den Mother, that's impossible." I said honestly. "They will...I just...hate how 'letting go' would probably be them doing in this dumb war." "I wish it was under better circumstances too. We all do." "Where did everything go wrong?" I sighed out. “Nobody knows. But, as parents we should at least enjoy the time we have with them. Their childhoods and then pride them into their adulthood.” "Hopefully…" I sighed out. "I just...don't want them to be apart of my mistakes ya know?" “I can understand that.” "And believe me...I've made too many mistakes because of fear and other reasons." I sighed out. “That fear is justified but hopefully after all those treatments, you will be able to face them in a healthy manner.” "All we can do is hope for the best." I said honestly. With the hot rock massage over we were now onto the edicures. They gave us hot out of the steamer body robes, then those face masks and cucumbers. It was odd having my nails both fingers and toes done but it was kinda nice, I guess. The music was very relaxing and the smell of sea air made me feel like I was at the beach. "Being pampered is nice." I sighed out warmly, glad for all of this even though my mind was trailing off to many other things. It was quiet, peaceful as just the music played slowly and my nails were made nice and cleaned. I'm not sure how long it was but finally they had me sit in this reclining chair while the Polish dried on them. Yitxrar next to me as we just enjoyed the calmness. “I think after...the many things to help me get past all this, I’m just gonna be blunt with everyone about…a lot of things that are bugging me…” I sighed out. "Uh huh." Yitxrar said, her tone relaxed and blissful. “You probably just want to relax huh?” I asked honestly. "That's the main point to all of this, is it not? I showed you this place but the relaxation is meant for you love." “And your just along for the twenty four hour spa treatment huh?” I chuckled. "Perks." She said with a light laugh. “Yeah.” I said. “But this day has been going well so far, feeling relaxed and learned something neat.” "That's good. I learned there are so many variations of seaweed wraps. It's amazing. This place might end up my second home." She laughed. “Only you would treat a spa as a second home.” I laughed. “But...how’s the clothing business going?” "Between myself and the other and the Others from Zeke's family and Cript's it's going so well. We all for the most part think on the same level. It's so amazing, working with people who think just like you, basically because they are you." “Yeah…” I nodded. “Must be great...” I said slowly. “While you and every other Rarity are damn near the same, as far as I know I’m so wildly different from my other selves that I might as well be my own person...even though I don’t even know who the fuck I am at the moment to be honest.” "It's good for work but that's about it. We always confuse each other for one another, and we do often gossip the days away without realizing it." “I mean, you tend to do that even if you weren’t with yourself.” I said honestly. “But I understand.” "The point it that not always is a good thing good." “Like me for instance.” I said honestly. “I have a feeling all of you think I’m overbearing to hell…” "At times." She admits. "But everyone is flawed darling, and nobody is an acception. I myself while generous, the element of generosity, can and often times act selfish or even ignore others needs above my own. The point is that I know I do this and I try to either avoid being that way or correct my mistakes. A person can't change overnight." “And yet I’ve had…” I stopped for a moment. “Actually...how long has it been since I first came here?” I asked curiously. "Hard to tell. We honestly lost track and with the merger, well, can't figure it out." “Sounds about right.” I said honestly. When the Polish was dry they removed the masks and damn… the nail polish rarity got was the same purple as her name, and mine was a bright near white grey that looked real good with my darker fur color. The next treatment, a full body fur coat brushing. Needless to say this was a bit more painful for me since my fur is longer and I had a lot of knots in it so... “Careful!” I yipped as a knot got tugged on. “Christ...I can literally tank the Big Bang with no problem, but knots in my fur being pulled still hurt…” I grumbled. "It's always the littlest things that hurt the most." My groomer said. “Cause of course.” I grumbled. “Um...random question, when the twenty four hour spa thing said ‘we’ll do everything to make our client’s refreshed’...do you mean ‘everything’?” I asked curiously and a little nervously. “Sorry, I was only here the one time for...maybe an hour or two if I recall correctly.” "There is a sex version but that's a request only option." She started. "The standard version is it starts with the more routine and ordinary treatments before moving onto the exotic and abnormal, but very effective ones. We also keep each visitor on record so we know what they like, don't like and have experienced already." “Alright, just making sure.” I said honestly. “Don’t really know much about this place since it’s my first time.” "The rules here are simple. Just pay upfront, there is no changing service once it's selected and paid for, and any pregnancies of staff or customers are to be disputed in court." “Um...sure…” I said slowly. “Well then I’m...probably never allowed that cause I’m part Cherubim...and as far as I know, no protection can stop...that from happening.” I said sheepishly. "Most stick to the standard." “I understand.” I nodded. "Once this brushing session is over you'll be so fluffed up. Would you like to keep the shedded fur?" “I mean...I’m pretty sure Rarity could use the fur for some clothing or something if she already hasn’t.” "Alright then." The brushing session was over after three hours and now it was dinner time! A buffet wrapping all around the planet was here and the food ranged from my world, earth, Dire Wolf world, and stuff I swear comes out of cheesy cartoon sci fi shows. “Uh...how much am I allowed to have?” I asked curiously. "It's endless Ma'am." One of the chiefs said. "There is no limit, though any vomit that might happen the cleaning service for that is added to any extra expenses you might ask for while here." “Um...alright.” I said slowly as I immediately dug into the massive buffet. “How soon until the next part of the spa day?” I asked curiously. "Up next will be the sleeping treatments, after that the morning wake up treatments then the last few hours of your choice of the more exotic and abnormal ones." “Alrighty then.” I nodded while going back to just eating to fill the void in what has been becoming a bottomless stomach and maybe some emotional part cause while everything was relaxing and wonderful, my mind kept wandering, which was never a good thing. As I began to eat I did a double take, seeing some people taking large plates with plant PEOPLE on them! That's… unexpected… and weird. I began to realize how much of the food here was still alive… and questioned how much was sentient… “Uh...excuse me...I seem to be literally eating people alive...I’m scared.” I said worriedly. "Oh don't worry, this is our job." One of the plant people said on my plate. "We are paid to be food. Everyone on the menu here has the unique power via race biology or magic to be eaten and survive. For my kind, Vimultru, so long as a piece of us is kept in soil we won't die, this body dies and we grow back from the planted part, memories and all. For some of us it's a kink, for others it's just work. Pay is simple and this "work" is simple. Pays bills anyway." “Um...sure I guess...whatever pays the pills and...whatever gets you off I suppose.” I said sheepishly. "It's just a job for me. I'm told I taste like Cabbage." She said. “Alrighty then…” I said while biting her leg and eating a bit of it. “Uh...yeah, you do taste like cabbage...huh…” "It don't hurt sweetie. This is kinda funny. You're a dire wolf who I assume has killed prey before eating them but act all shy eating me." “Okay for a few reasons, even though I hunted prey I ate animals...not sentient people...and I normally made sure they were properly dead before eating…” I said sheepishly. “And then uh...the only time I ‘eat’ sentient people is...well you can already guess.” I said sheepishly as I bit off her entire leg this time. "Look, nobody is making you eat me, nobody made you pick me. If it's not your thing, it's not your thing, but you are trying so that's okay. Consuming sentient life is only for folks like me that can come back or won't get digested down there, like a lot of races. Or spell, but existence, lot of possibilities and ideals. Just don't focus on the bad." “I know, I know.” I said honestly while eating her other leg. “But it is still good though.. "Thank you. Not many folks talk while eating. Though I can never tell if it's a manors thing or they just consider me their meal. Have you had any Experience in this before?" “Uh...literally eating a person while talking? No...eating one of my wives out while also trying to talk? A...few times, yes…” I said sheepishly. She chuckled. "Not exactly that, I mean eating someone whole as a kink or out of curiosity? They say it's a strong show of trust when people do that. Some races evolved to eat one another and not digest them." “I know Naga’s do that...and I do neither cause...even if Eclipsa and Zeke are perfectly okay with it, and I might maybe try it...it’s just a little weird to me to be honest.” I said honestly. "I can see that but in my experience at least trying to see the appeal it makes for stronger bonds. Be it family, friends or just a one night stand deal." “Alrighty then…” I said honestly. “I’ll...give it some thought.” "That's all anybody wants. Since you mentioned Naga I imagine one of the two you mentioned is said race?" “Eclipsa is.” I said honestly. "Which planet?" “Which planet?” I asked curiously. "You know. Vopu, Analx, one of any Earth's, which world?" “Um...Eclipsa is from earth originally and...uh…” I explained what Eclipsa’s naga formed looked like in case she might know what kind of Naga she was. "Hmm. From one of the Equestria's then. There's a lot but that does help. This sounds like a great way to bond with her. I can imagine slurping her like a long noodle." She laughed. "Eating one another is so common on her world both culturally and biology. I bet she'd love getting to try that with you." “Listen, if one part tastes like a Paopu Fruit, I’m pretty sure the rest of her will...and that doesn’t sound right...like at all…” I said nervously. She shrugged. "If she doesn't care of mind why should you?" “I do not know…” I sighed out. “Own personal feelings I suppose?” "So long as you try I know she will appreciate it. Now then, are you going to finish me off or are you going to keep talking cause trust me, the sleep treatments are what made this place famous." “Fine fine.” I said while picking up the rest of her body and just devouring her rather quickly. With a final swallow her head went down… and part of me enjoyed that. Pretty sure it's the predator part. This is always a fight between biology and mentality with me… I looked up and to my surprise saw her walking out a kitchen door a few minutes later. She smiled and waved as she took seat on a tray waiting to get selected again… huh… interesting… “Alrighty then…” I said before yawning. “Jeez...it’s been a long day of pampering...I’m surprised I didn’t fall asleep sooner…” Munching on a few more things before bed I was escorted to the testing area. Here was… not exactly what I was expecting. I got to choose how, where, what conditions and all that. I was given a recommendation and took it. I was promptly stripped nudez asked to enter feral form and once i did was taken to a room. Here there was… a very...very… large Dire wolf lady here resting and feeding others my size… "Enjoy your rest." My Escort said before leaving. Jesus this lady is three times Den's size! And she's not even a Den Mother! “Jesus…” I muttered. “How are you...seriously, how are you so huge?” I asked the giant dire wolf. "My world." She spoke, her voice soft but her size gave it a powerful volume. "We evolved from your size to mine, the biggest took town the large prey and killed the rivals easier, simple genetics." She almost cooed, picking me up by the scruff, not hurting at all, and placed me near a tit. "Drink if you wish, but sleep soon. As I understand you still have more treatment tomorrow." She said, giving me a motherly lick across the top of my head before laying her head back down. I whined a little at the motherly lick as I immediately latched onto her tit, sucking on it wondering if the large dire wolf had breast milk given she probably wasn’t a den mother. She did in fact. It was pretty good. I drank for a while before stopping, snuggling myself under her massive breasts to be warmer. The heat felt amazing as I began drifting off to sleep. “Night…” I muttered, hoping I...won’t have more nightmare’s again. My dream had me in Traverse Town… I was in Diane's body though. “Okay so...the hell is going on?” I wondered while looking around Traverse Town to find anything of note. As I walked around I saw some posters showing a festival. I did eventually find people outside of a large tent downtown. “Hello?” I called out to the people outside the large tent. "Hi." One kid said. "Here to see the festival?" “Um...what is the festival about?” I asked curiously. "It's the festival of smiles." An older girl, likely her older sister. "Basically it's all kinds of games and contests, as well as a circus act in the tent here." She motioned to the large tent. "It's also a good chance to find your Dream Eater." “Actually...I never thought about Dream Eaters...that would have been…” I sighed out. “The Foretellers forte...shit I should really go see them sooner rather than later.” I muttered. "The stalls are down the next street. Main event still doesn't start for another few hours." “Alright.” I nodded. “Thank you.” I said before heading off to the stalls, wondering what this ‘festival of smiles’ is about and if this isn’t some trick hiding the actual nightmare. “Hopefully...this isn’t a trick…” Arriving at the stalls there were lots of people and stalls. The first one I walked up to was one of those ring toss games. "Toss the ring and win a prize. All prizes random!" The stall person announced. “Oh, so it’s literal rigged carnival games…” I muttered while deciding to just wing it as I took a ring and tossed it. Surprisingly the ring went over the bottle. "And you miss win," they said, taking the bottle and pulling out the paper inside. "You win a Dream Eater Recipe!" He said, handing me the paper. It was for that Lion one. “Oh, cool.” I said while taking the dream eater recipe. “Thank you.” "The smile festival is all about happiness ma'am! All prizes are guaranteed a smile!" They said with their own smile. “Well...I suppose that’s true.” I said honestly. “Thank you.” I said while looking around the other stalls. “Well...so far I’m not being lied to given how happy everything is…” The next stall I tried was a balloon pop one. The prize it gave me was an enchanted book. The Magic School Bus. “Oh yeah, just like the Harry Potter book I have…” I muttered honestly. The next stall was for a pet goldfish. I won three and named them Tony, Fredrik, and Tom. “I wonder if I get to keep everything I get here…” I wondered. As I made my way around I found a raffle game. I got my ticket then moved on to some shops. There were people, moogles, even a robot! I got the parts for the Lion Dream Eater and crafted it with the moogle. I named them Simba. “Alright you candy colored fluff back, let’s go find more things to do.” I said with a smile as I continued through more stalls, hoping I get to keep all of this. As I was walking through the stalls I looked up, people were sitting on roof tops, stargazing or looking at the festivities below… wait is that… Luna? She's pony so not mine. Eclipsa's maybe? “Hmm…” I hummed while flying up towards her. “Hello?” I called out the the Luna flying up. “Um...which Luna are you if I may ask?” "Huh?" She looked over to me, then smiled. "One you would have called Mom before this marriage got weirder." She chuckled. "I was Cript's third wife." “Ah, alrighty then.” I nodded. “Well then that would...probably have been me honestly...even if my current form is different from my usual.” "It's not strange. It's the way the sleeping realm works." She said as I took a seat next to her. "By their nature the realm of sleep places you in a form you have the happiest memories in. Some of the people here are not even children in the waking world." She said, waving over all the people below. "Some of these children are in their elder years in the waking world, the realm of sleep comforts all who enter it." “Except for me nine times out of ten cause I’m pretty sure life just hates me.” I said honestly. "It explains why you appear like this." Luna said. "Your life's fondest, happiest memories are as this person, and not yourself." “Yeah, cause apparently I can’t figure out who in the hell I am.” I rolled my eyes. “It’s infuriating, and Diane dropping by didn’t help when I was already being told everything I knew about my life was a lie for the third god damn time.” I sighed out. "And what drives you to such anger?" “A lot of things honestly…” I sighed out. “First not knowing who I am...all the goddamn nightmares...everyone thinking that I should just drop half a decade of trauma...and no one besides me and maybe Eclipsa that...everyone’s safety, everyone’s lives, are protected by such a thin line that our enemies can’t cross...even with everything I’ve done to make that line bigger...it’s still paper thin at this point.” I sighed out. "I understand that." “And it’s not like I don’t trust my family, I want to trust them with so much...but it’s hard to when everything can just fall apart around you at a moments notice...and everyone telling me ‘just relax and trust in everyone else’ doesn’t help…” "Have you actually tried taking their advice? Truly?" “Honestly? Yes, yes I have.” I said. “It’s always been off screen sadly, but I’ve tried to, doesn’t make me any less paranoid about everything...especially when my Luna almost lost an arm fighting a strong heartless, Twilight nearly being split in two by a very powerful Invisible Variant and other things that, again, happened off screen.” I sighed out. “But what’s worse...is the many...many nightmares I have that are more ‘future visions’ than anything…” "Have many came to pass?" “Fucked if I know, cause apparently Nothingness is now a recycling bin for Time itself as far as Diane told me and has shown so anything could happen.” I sighed out. “Nightmares constantly...about what could happen, only for me to have to sort through everything to see what is about to happen...right as it’s happening.” "Hmm. The universe plays no favertisem. So what will you do about all these bad rolls it has thrown at you?" “Same thing I’ve done for the past god knows how long...keep moving forward with...with what life has given me.” I said honestly. “Trying my best to help my family anyway I can...and making sure they all have the life that they deserve...which is a happy one.” "And will you move forwards alone, or surrounded by the friends and family you want to protect?" “Even if I try to move forward alone, I…” I sighed out. “I always know my family with be there for me, giving me all the hope and love any person could ask for and more.” "Would you stop them from helping?" “Couldn’t stop them even if I tried to be perfectly honest.” I said honestly. “And sometimes...I did try to...too bad that in those cases I immediately had their help, like when Gilda helped me lift a mountain sized heartless, Pinkie teaching me how to cook when I wanted to have it be a wonderful surprise...or just in general where they always support and love me...even if I’m a screw up.” I said while putting a hand over my heart gently. "So then despite the hardships ahead, will you always let your worry ruin these precious moments?" “No.” I said bluntly. "Then go have fun." She said, giving me a pat on the arm. “What’s going to be the main event for this carnival if I may ask?” I asked curiously. "A Freakshow." She said. "You'll be surprised as to who is in it." “Oh boy.” I chuckled. “When does it take place? Cause if memory serves dream time is a bit different than normal time.” "Time between dreams and reality is bizarre, not even I fully understand it. But it's in three hours by the realm of sleep’s time." “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “Thank you...so three hours left of just having fun with carnival games?” "If you want. I enjoy stargazing here. The stars here are not like the stars of the waking world." I looked up at the star filled sky. “The stars are nice here…” "The stars here are the dreams of children, each light a spark from a child's dreams." “That’s nice.” I nodded gently. “Children...deserve to dream happy dreams.” "Yeah." I went back to playing the stall games. Ring toss, bean bag toss, water guns into the clown face, ski ball, all of them I won something. At the ski ball managed to get enough points for an Oblivion Keyblade keychain. “Cool.” I muttered while pocketing Oblivion’s Keychain. “So much to do still…” I hummed while seeing so many people having fun, so many children of many different ages and races just playing and being happy. I walked up to whack a mole game and after hitting about half of them. Huh, my power is different here than in the waking world? Not near as fast. I won a stuffed moogle plushie. After a few more games I went about to the main event. The lights hitting on a small briefcase on a table in the middle of the arena. “Oh?” I hummed while carrying a bag full of all the goodies I got from all the fun games. “What is this?” The case burst open and unfolding from inside it was a suited man, human as far as I could tell but folded and contorted himself in an impossible manner. Once he was unfolded I saw he had on that sad face opera mask. "Welcome one and all to the Ventral family Freak Show!" They announced. Ventral!? Zeke's family? "Be prepared to witness the impossible and inhuman abilities of the Ventral Family Freakshow chapter. Our displays will amaze and might scare the faint of heart. Anyone with children under ten or weak hearts we ask you to please leave now." “What in the hell?” I muttered to myself, seeing some children leave, grumbling as they wish they could watch and others that were of faint heart. "Without further adieu, I present, the Ventral Freakshow Extravaganza!" They said, suddenly melting into a pile of what looked like blood, save for the still beating heart that proceeded to vouch itself out of here, earning some laughs from a few people. The first act had a woman wearing a smiling clown mask crawl her way up from the dirt, her head spinning around all the way like The Exorcist, she then jumped herself out of the hole, reaching down her own mouth and pulling out a trail of linked sausages. The display earning a few grossed out laughs. When she yanked out the end there was a key on the last one, taking it she then showed a keyhole in her skull to everyone. “Uh...I came to see Ventrals...not Cenobites from Hellraiser…” I said nervously. She tossed the key high into the air, keeping her head up properly to she caught it inside the keyhole. Once it landed in, she turned it three times, and suddenly she split in half, her half's changed into cloth as they fell showing a yet to bloom flower emerging from.where she was, and growing to an elephant size. “What the fuck?” I muttered to myself, legit confused and kind of creeped out by this but also finding it rather interesting. The flower bloomed, cherry blossom petals flying all around as the clown mask girl was now back, now with her was a man about as buff as the Rock and wearing his own clown mask. The man picked up the clown girl and tossed her high into the air, looking up we all saw her catch herself on a unicycle that was on a tight rope suspended near the roof of the tent. She, somehow, flipped herself and the unicycle upside down on that wire, them both staying on the rope and she began pedaling along the rope like that. “Okay...so this is...definitely a thing…” I muttered. The rest of the show was a mix of gross humor and hard to figure out stunts that I admit looked cool. The best part was when they brought out dream eaters and they were all in a conga line. That was pretty funny. When it was over everyone gave their applauds and left. I did too, leaving and figuring I was gonna wake up in a bit. My assistant was still on me so I stored my stuff there and hoped it would be there when I woke up. “Okay...so why the hell were Ventrals here and...the fuck did I just watch?” I asked no one in particular. “While it was cool and I liked it...the fuck.” I woke up feeling… so refreshed! I have never woken up this good in any of my lives. Waking up and stretching I was given a robe to wear and I was taken to another bath, where like last time I was scrubbed by hand in all the places, this time though I was given a blow dry and a brush that now that all those knots were out from last time felt amazing. It was now time for a light hair cut that just trimmed some excess strands I'm areas and shaved it off in the sexy areas. "So what's the special thing in the morning?" I asked curiously after the shave and trim. "Next we are going to offer you a variety of new kinds of treatments for you. You will select the ones you want and we finish up your twenty four hour treatment with one last massage." "Alrighty then...so what are the choices?" I asked curiously. She handed me a list. Tentacle cleansing Fire Salts Skin Rub Milk Bath Alrezken Goo Bath Bake Sweet Sona Night Shadow Oil Rub "Um...I can guess two...but mind explaining them all because I'm pretty sure two of them are poisonous." I said worriedly. "The tentacle cleansing is just as it sounds, a staff member basically does a colonoscopy of your insides with their tentacle but scrapes and cleans out your entire digestive system. It only lasts about five or so minutes. The fire salt skin rub is a type of rub that uses special salts that burn with the heat of the sun. When crushed up and applied in oils the salts don't burn the skin but rather burn away fat and tighten up skin. The milk Bath is self explanatory but it's filled with Dire Wolf breast milk and other herbs boiled into it, cooled so it's like a milk Bath hot tub. The alrezken Goo Bath is a bath with over ten thousand Alrezken goo bugs from the planet Dirag, while creery and slimy their goo has amazing fur and hair rejuvenating properties. The Sweet Bake Sona is actually new. We rub in special herb oils onto you then place you in a special Sona/oven where as they sweat off of you and into the air the scents relax and calm you and your skin absorbs the oils, further softening the skin underneath and cleaning pores. The night Shadow Oil Rub is perfect for expecting mothers as the oils are known to attach to pregnancy hormones, and on birth activate, allowing the skin and womb to stretch while numbing the pain, but it's also used to rehydrate skin." "While all of that is cool…" I muttered while putting a hand on my stomach. "I...suppose the Night Shadow...cause I might as well get it over with…" She nodded and brought me to the area. I was laid down on a massage table and they masseuse got to work, using claws to ensure each area of my fur was soaked into the oils so it reached my skin underneath. Even my boobs! As they rubbed them into my skin I felt pretty good, all and all this spa place was a good choice. When it was over I was asked to wait and rest while the oils were absorbed before my next treatment of choice. "I hope this works…" I muttered while putting a hand on my stomach again, feeling a little kick. "I know I know…" "Next treatment miss?" They asked me. "Oh, yes please." I nodded. "What's the...final few things?" "Tentacle cleansing, Fire Salts Skin Rub, Milk Bath, Alrezken, Goo Bath, Bake Sweet Sona." She said. "Wait, I can choose multiples?" I asked. "I thought it was just the one?" "You do still have seven hours left on your twenty four hour treatments ma'am." "Ah. Alright." I nodded. "Um...let's try to fire salts next." Nodding they brought in the fire salts, grinding them there in front of me then mixing in the oils. They then began to- Hot! I yipped as the heat was spread across my body. The blazing fire soon began to calm through into something more… warm and comforting. Like taking a hot shower on a cold winter day. I began to relax with this, feeling like the sun itself was giving me a hug and it was great. "Okay...that's nice." I sighed out happily. "Didn't expect it to be this nice." "After the initial shock calms down the heat has been compared to a warm hug from a lover." The masseuse said, rubbing the salts deeper under my fur. With all these massages my muscles are gonna be so loose and relaxed. "Well...it does feel like I'm being hugged." I said honestly. "That's the salts. As the skin absorbs the oils the salts recrystallized and fuse back together, making a thin layer of fire salt over your skin. A hot shower gets them off quick and easy, water at any temperature breaks the salt apart like wet paper." "Alright." I nodded. "Thank you, good to know it's easy to get off after a while." After a bit I received that shower, feeling less warm than the salts themselves. But it was nice. I think I did lose a little bit of belly weight though. At least I think I did. I know for a fact my butt is much firmer now. "Next treatment? Five hours left." They told me. "Well...let's go with that tentacle treatment...i'm technically over forty." I said honestly. They took me to the place. The staff person with the tentacles had me lay down on my back or belly as she began inserting her slimy, naturally lines appendage into my rump. I bit my lip holding back a moan of guilty pleasure. This felt a lot like when my Hydra wife used her tail on me like that… but WAY deeper... "God damn…" I groaned. "That's… pretty deep." "It will be over soon ma'am." The tentacle lady said. Each movement she made up there felt like a micro orgasm inside my intestines. Her tentacle stretched me insides a bit but it did not hurt, it just felt nice. I eventually felt her reach my belly, the bumps sheadenin there set off something primal in there as my blush went full cherry red and my… member could no longer be hidden. She didn't seem to care or acknowledge this. Is it normal for this to be a common reaction to this treatment? Eventually she began sliding it out and with an audible wet pop I shivered, clutching out some of her slim as they gave me a towel to use. "You're insides are incredibly healthy, clean and not a single sign of forming blockage or other unwanted health issues." She said, washing her tentacle off in a large sink nearby. "Al-alright..." I said sheepishly. "Thank you and uh...sorry." I said sheepishly. "It's alright. Not the first time and it won't be the last." She said with a smile. After cleaning off and discovering a likely new fetish, I had to choose the next treatment. Still a lot of time too. "Let's try this milk bath...sounds nice." I said honestly. I was taken to a large area filled with pods that when opened the air hit heavy of the scent of warm dire wolf breast milk and various herbs. I was aided inside and felt the seats under the creamy warm milk. Taking a seat the checked the amount in there only went to my waist so the opened a valve that poured more in until it reached my neck. My neck! They advised me not to taste the milk as the mixed in herbs make it taste bitter. I was then left listening to calming piano music, the warm milk Bath felt amazing, not quite like the fire salts rub but a good second. I had enough space here to lean back and just relax. "This had been...really good." I sighed out happily, enjoying the milk bath. The scents helped ease me more so as I almost fell asleep a few times. To my surprise though someone did end up checking on me. "Is there anything you'd like to eat while down there miss?" One of the dire wolf staff said. "What is there to eat?" I asked curiously. "Just about anything and everything." She said with a smile. "Uh...can I get some meat from a...dire wolf world?" I asked. "Sure thing! Would you like it cooked or raw?" “Cooked please.” I said with a nod. Nodding, she left but came back quickly with a large platter she sent down via a mini elevator so it hung just above the milk. This gave me a way to eat without using my hands, since that would get the milk bath stuff on it and ruin it. The food was very good, well seasoned and a lot I managed to recognize despite usually having it raw over cooked. “God, so good~.” I moaned happily at how good cooked food was better than just raw. “Wonder how Diane is fairing…”. I had two of these plates before getting taken out of the bath. My whole bodies fire felt lighter and I noticed the colors while still dark shined brightly. Once I was dried and rebrushed I looked like a proper supermodel! I was given my final treatment, a massage but also asked for some makeup for a change of pace. Needless to say, I gave myself a boner once I saw how good I looked. “God damn it...why do I have to be so sexy?” I sighed out. “Alright...so the hell am I supposed to do next?” "Darling!" Yitxrar said, catching me by surprise and jumping into my arms with a hug. "By the stars look at you! You look beyond fabulous!" She looked real good too. Her coat had the same bright shine as mine, her coat being white might have made it brighter, her mane was in a straight brush down that lead to individual curls, her make up was expertly worn and her teeth, like mine, were as bright and clean as a polished pearl. She also wore a new dress, a midnight blue that complemented her mane and coat well. "I barely recognized you. You look like a new person, almost." “Believe me, I barely recognized myself as well given how sexy I am.” I chuckled while hugging Yitxrar. “But you look gorgeous as always.” "Why thank you love." She said with a smile, giving me a peck on the lips. "This place surely will keep my business. I suppose we should head home now. I imagine the second Photo Finish and her reflections will see you and be dying for more photos." “I’m pretty sure everyone would be dying for photos...and a lot more honestly given how hot I look after all of that.” I chuckled. "Well then, let's return home. You have some work and that list of treatments ahead of you and I have some interviews to attend to." “Alright...so what is my next thing…” I muttered while pulling out the list of things Lyra wants me to do. “Beach vacation?” I asked, curious about that. “Um...is there any good beach resorts? I...honestly don’t know.” "Sadly I have never been to many beaches. Wish I would have loved to sport my bikinis. I suppose that's what the Assistant can be of use. Now come on, let's return home before I change my mind and try to live here." She chuckled, taking my hand as we headed home. The assistant gave me a lot of locations of highly recommend beaches and beach resorts. I figured I could debate on which one to go to while also getting some paperwork done. It was a mix of a few minor field reports of nothing and fan mail from the magazine covers. “So...much...fan mail…” I groaned while tossing yet another into the ever growing pile. It was sweet, but yikes. I sighed, finding a non fan mail envelope and opening it. Tournament of Royals! An all skills tournament royal where the common folks of the kingdom can prove their skills in a pre selected ten round tournament! First prize is 6,000,000,000 Rem and a Noble title and status of a Duke! Second is 24,000 miles of prime land and a tank and title of Baron! Third place received 4,000 shares in stock of Freak Inc and a title and rank of Astphar! View on TV or in person by 10/15/xxxx If I remember correctly, this was something done by the Grand royal crown thing Heart did. The highest titles of nobility were Kings/Queens. Then Prince/Princess, Duke/Duchess, Baron/Baroness, Astphar, which he made up to sound alike something new, then Marquette, Viscount and Earl/Countess. Anyone who desires nobility now has to prove it by earning it either through tournaments like this or if they inherited it, a yearly test to see if they still are worthy of it. That's what a Astphar does, tests all the Noble ranks under and at their level while the direct crown tests the princes, Princesses, dukes, etc. It ensures the least amount of corruption possible by nobility and that only those who deserve that nobility receive it. As well if anyone wants to marry into the crown here they must make a declaration of intentions to the crown and state why. They also have to be at least an Astphar in Noble ranks and title to even make such a declaration, unless someone from the crown wants to add them. They can bypass a lot of steps that way but still have to earn their place in the family. “Well...I suppose I’ll have to watch over this just in case…” I muttered. I turned on the TV and found the tournament. There were a lot of contestants and they were going to announce the first tournament round. “Wonder who’ll be up first…” I muttered. “Also thank god I basically culled my nobility before all this happened...a lot of them were just dicks or misguided…” I didn't recognize any of the competitors, so they were all likely first time participants. Watching the tournament, I saw it was clearly rigged. But In a good way. The first match was meant to test patience and anger, self control and that weeded out a lot of undesirables. The second round weeded out the clever and creative. All in all this works be exploiting the negative traits of people first and eliminating them for it. That said everyone shows these negative traits but those that can work with it or keep them in check are the ones moving on. An hour later the three winners were named, ranked and handed their titles. That was interesting. I flipped channels to the news. The usual was on, weather, politics and all that. "In surprising news there appears to be a new hero in the city, who however is the question." The anchorwoman said, showing a file image of the hero in question. They were in an all white jumpsuit, complete with mask. Female, seemed human. "The internet has exploded with this new hero's appearance, calling her Angel Strike. In the span of one night she uprooted and delivered to police officials thirty six underground gang members hiding within the city. Police state they suspected these gang members to be transporting illegal substances under the guard and crown's noses by exploiting and using the old Crystal Caverns underneath various Equestria's Canterlots. Guard and police officials have since confiscated and disposed of the substances and plan to renovate these caverns as a tourist attraction given their natural beauty." "Now that should be impossible cause I made damn well sure every fucking blind spot was taken into accoubt." I growled. "But again, plot has to progress...so let's go see who this Angel Strike is…." I muttered while listening to the news to see if they have any info on where they are or might be. "As the security and safety of the kingdom goes up the underground has been getting more and more crafty and clever to work around or under the crowns guard and local police. While the kingdom itself still have extremely low to near non-existent crime rates, other worlds that have yet to or denied the crowns flag as an alliance or political control have become Haven's for these criminal organizations. While most of them are sticking to simple robberies and thuggin, many fear the enemies in this war might be somehow funding them, however these are just rumors as of now. King Leon S Kennedy spoke publicly about the issue, stating that while world's not under the crowns flag are to be treated as their own world and governing power, that they are still working to form a neutral agreement to take down this multi world and government threat." "I wouldn't be surprised if our enemy was funding these fuckers, and I'm surprised our enemies haven't just immediately tried to barge down our doors with this little tidbit that is getting rectified immediately." I frowned. "Okay...so far criminals are somehow getting past security and Angel Strike is a thing…" I hummed while checking the web about this Angel Strike to see if anyone got a clue who they are or where to start looking. Most of it all was just photos and videos of her work. But this does give me some info on her. Strong clearly, she managed to knock out a Cryptonian. Fast but not super speed fast. Resistant to bullets and most blunt hits, tanks them even. No clear sign of magic use either or weapons. "Alrighty then." I muttered while checking for more info. As far as I could find there was not enough to track her down. Then again why am I bothering? If she's doing a good thing then she should keep at it. "Wait…" I muttered while their seemed to be videos on other heroes cropping up. Dynamo, Arachnid, Centaurs Guardian… superheroes are becoming a real thing? I know some existed from tv and such that are real on earth… so anyone can join in on that game? “Hmm...Consequence, mind coming here real quick?” I called for my royal advisor. "Yes my king." They said as they materialized next to me. “Mind if I ask when heros were on the rise?” I asked curiously. "From what I know, shortly after your earth fell, the survivors who god did not pick up the first time around learned to gain and harness various powers and abilities for work or fun. This evolved into new culture of hero work." “Is there a way for me to contact these new heros? You know...I’m paranoid and I’d like to know who these people are as...well people, not as the heros.” "Afraid not my liege, while they are doing good for the crown and it's people once someone Dawn's their hero attire they perform an oath to keep this identity secret and secure." “Fine fine.” I nodded. “As long as they keep to the rules and some form of good morals…” I sighed out. “I hope everything has been going smoothly with the kingdom while I have been...doing many other things.” "The kingdom is doing fine my king. There is no need of worry at the present time." “What is your...personal opinion about a future me roaming around?” I asked curiously. "He seems quite distraught lately. Not the same anger as when he first arrived, more of a mourningful sorrow, and lost to an unfathomable degree.” “Have you spoken to my future self? Or have they kept out of even your ancient sight?” I asked curiously. "They have personally summoned me multiple times. You are you, and they are you. I serve the king of Nothingness, both of you share that crown, so if they call I answer." I nodded. “Have they shown you any of their followers they might have brought along?” I asked curiously. “Or is it just them?” "They arrived alone, well, mostly alone at the very least." “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “Thank you...is there any important reports you have or is this everything?” "I do know a location they frequent. Shall I give it to you sier?" “Sure, then I can find myself a nice beach to relax at.” I nodded. "The area they frequent is a special cliffside in the Keyblade Graveyard. It is paradoxically the only spot in that world that is different between each and every reflection." Consequence told me. "Thank you." I nodded while getting up and opening a portal. "Jeez...it's been so long since I've last been there…" I muttered while heading off to the graveyard. "Ho damn that's pretty." I said while exiting a portal, looking out the cliffside to a very pretty sight, the sunrise shining over the barren landscape in a way that seemed like there was some hope for this world. "Why are you here?" I heard someone say bluntly. Looking behind me I saw… the future me. Cloak ragged and torn, bigger, taller than I am now. "Just...want to talk." I said honestly. "Like...what are you going to do?" "I came here to prevent Eclipsa's death. To save so many… yet somehow along the line you did that without me. While you all progressed I took out Nexus bases. I had hoped it would bear fruit, but all I did was nothing important." "Well your doing more to stop Nexus than us to be honest." I said honestly. "It didn't matter. The bases I leveled and lives I took were not the heads of the monster I came here to slay. Imagine my surprise when that monster, was on your side." "Hey, not my fault Jericho literally couldn't die unless Existence ended." I said simply. "Also, you would have needed to go after Vincent and others." "Even at my power. Vincent is just out of reach. Whatever he is, it's beyond the word evil. Or as you'd put it, bullshit." "That's because his time travel abilities are bullshit." I frowned. "Or maybe he doesn't, I don't know, Nothingness is weird and shows me things that could happen but tend not to." "In the void time is like sand, some places it's hard as stone, others it's easily sinking. The realm of Nothingness is something similar, holding things no longer existing. Things and times that could have or did come to pass, now forever in eternal purgatory." "Yeah, except Vincent's time travel is he can go back to before anyone of us were born and killed us if that past timeline meant anything." I said honestly. "But I'm not here to talk about that asshole, I'm here to talk about you." "You, as I did once, overthink. Can't see the plan before you clearly. But fine, what about myself does the past wish to know?" "Why you're still here?" I asked. "You came back to keep Eclipsa from dying, now Eclipsa can literally never die." "This trip was one way from the beginning. Her death has been avoided, but I can not leave this place. As you know, only a heart can travel to and fro in the timeline. Yet I am here of flesh and blood. How, if you can guess?" "Either because Nothingness let you bypass that rule, or you found something else to go back in time." I said honestly. "I sent my heart back in time, but a vessel was needed. So I sent my body back within the heart of another. What happened after that I did not expect." "And ...that would be everything that has been currently happening?" I asked curiously. They shook their head. "I took another's heart to traverse my body through time, but for you see, this person held no ordinary heart." They said, lifting up… I felt nauseous. My heart sank and stomach shifted… that's Keychain… she used Zeke! "I was so angry at them. They couldn't even fight back they were in such imbalance, so I took advantage of that. Their body followed because they are a Keyblade in the end. They follow their wielder, and with Eclipsa gone and my handiwork with their heart… with the heart of all hearts I broke them. They don't speak or even shift to human form." "What the fuck…" I muttered. "Seriously...was saving Eclipsa so important that you'd kill the only other that suffered just as much as you?" "At the time, I thought they had abandoned me… but after everything changed so suddenly, it gave me the time and reason to sit and think." They said, clutching Zeke's keychain to their chest. "I have a lot of regrets in my life. Zeke here and all those within them, are perhaps my biggest. I was so focused on who I lost I did not think about their emotions, their thoughts, all I saw was them running and I… felt like I had lost everyone. When the reality of what I did hit me l, I cried for weeks. Zeke was all I had left, and I should have clung to them and never let go… but in histaria and rage I ended up just about killing them… if not something worse." "Well...there's a way to fix this." I said gently. "I know there is...were walking proof of it ya know?" I told them softly, putting a gentle hand on theirs. They grabbed my hand, taking it off. "People like us believe wholeheartedly that mistakes this grand can not be undone, not forgiven. We are the same, would you forgive yourself for this?" "Zeke and Eclipsa would...and so would Cript who's probably been listening the entire time." I said honestly. (Meanwhile, with Cript.) Cript sat in the dining room, eating soup, abruptly stopped. "Little bitch." (Back with Ben) "How is your Cript by the way? For me, he has been dead for sixty thousand years." "Okay first up, that should be impossible and all of Creation should have been fucked." I said worriedly. "Not if he passed the power onto another. His daughter Nyx." "Oh really? Then...who did Jericho give his power to?" I asked. "To Amanda, his daughter with Cript. A risky move but it let them pass on. My timeline is so different than this place." "I can imagine." I said while gently putting a hand on the keychain they were holding. "I...I know I can do something…" I muttered while trying to figure out how 'shattered' Zeke's mind was. "You have no idea the magnitude of regret I feel for my sins." "Oh no, I can imagine." I said honestly. "Take my advice, do not speak on which you have no knowledge of. tionImaginaand reality are far different. Don't let our youthful pride guide us like I did in this second chance you gained." "Yeah well we're stubborn." I said honestly. "So how about we get off this depressed train and figure out how to fix this like everyone's wanted for us for a long time." "Can I ask, a single favor beforehand?" "What would that be?" I asked curiously.. They stood up, walking to the cliffs edge. "There is so much I can teach you. So much you can learn and learn right. I want to… to be happy… to be with them… to remember what it feels like to live again… prove to me," She said, summoning her No Heart, but it's design was… admittedly way more badass than mine… "that I deserve it. Prove to me, my mistakes won't become yours." "How about you put down the cool version of No Heart and step away from the cliffs edge." I started while slowly moving over to my future self. "I need proof that you won't become me." She said, turning fast. One swing sent a blast of air towards me. I blocked, standing my ground to my own surprise, but looking around saw the cliffside weI was once on was now a single tall standing Rock structure, and for miles behind me, the damage of that ancient war became flattened wastelands. "Simple strike me, that will be proof enough." "Cant cause I have this thing." I pointed to the necklace on my neck. "Lyra told me if I were to attack I get teleport off to where I last slept." I said honestly. "Also why? You look like you need a hug more than a smack to the head." "Hmm… very well then. We share the same kinks… if you can catch and kiss me, then I'm yours~" She said, blowing a kiss at me with such well rehearsed perfection and sultry tone of voice my face went cherry red. "I'll still be attacking though." "How dare…" I muttered while leaping after her. "You know full well how this all end right" I chuckled. "That depends, can you catch me?" They asked, taking off their hood… I look so hot… Den I know that sexy genetics came from you and thank you! They swung again, and I dodged quickly. "I'm gonna catch you and you will know cuddles!" I said while chasing after her quickly. The entire chase was...honestly kind of fun. Even though my future self was actively trying to attack me all I could do was dodge and pounce at her even though she dodged, and honestly I blame Lyra for making this infinitely harder because she was vague enough to the point I didn’t know if I could use any of my powers to maybe inconvenience her to give me some opening. While I wasn’t noticing this barren hellscape seemed to start...growing life in our fun, like the mere fact a positive emotion was combating against the torrential poison deep in the ground. After what felt like hours my future self just couldn't help but start laughing as I managed to tackle her to the ground and managed to kiss her full on with passion and love. When I broke the kiss I panted. “Gotcha you sexy Milf you.” I panted, having been kind of injured from the massive play chase. "Now, is this considered Incest or masterbation?" They asked, holding me tightly around my hips. “It’s called ‘I'm gonna pound your ass’ that’s what.” I said with a grin as I started to take off my older selves tattered cloak. As I did I noticed from feeling along their body off patches of fur. Long since healed scars decorated her body, hidden by the fur. I counted at least twenty. Even across her breasts. She blushed. "It's been a long time…" She whispered. "I just… I'm worried." (Clop be beyond this point) “I’ll be gentle.” I said softly. “But...how do you want to start? Foreplay or just straight into it?” "Back when… we've done literally Everything. So I'm not picky." They said, tail wagging against mine in anticipation. "Can you promise me something?" “What is it?” I asked while slowly taking off my fellow dire wolves pants. "That… that even if they don't… accept me… I won't be alone…" “You’ll never be alone.” I said while nuzzling them gently as I got their pants and magical underwear off. “But...I think you don’t want foreplay, you just want to know what it feels like to feel full of cum don’t you?” I growled. "About as much as I want to fill you with it~ remember, oh wait, you guys haven't made that rule yet." They said, feeling along my back. “What rule?” I asked curiously as I got my own raging stiffy out of my pants and prodded my future selves nethers. "It was a few simple see rules we made to keep it all fair. Rule one, both parties get to stick it in, and cum inside. Rule two, if you indulge in a fetish you don't like, but they do, they have to do the same. But at this point I've lost all concerns involving what I dislike. It's all sex now to me. Last and most important, if our kids ever… join us, while they are a spouse they are still our kids first. It has happened… way more than you'd think." “Sounds about right.” I said before gently pushing my dick into the experienced dire wolf’s cunt. “Let’s see...if you can take it all…” "Oh please, I once… heh. Nevermind. You'll find out sooner or later~" They cooed, giving me a sexual lick along the neck and groping my ass. “Alright, here we go.” I growled before pushing more of my eighteen inch dick straight into her, feeling how damned tight she was even after what could have been a long ass time of fucking. “Jesus...how are you still so tight?” "Practice, Yoga, a few well made spells, and a lot of… special exercises." She cooed, giving me a kiss and pressing our breasts together. Her own stiffer poking from underneath out bottom nipples. “Well...they all worked wonders.” I groaned, before starting to hump my future self. “Even if they don’t accept you, you are mine.” I growled while keeping a strong pace for the older dire wolf. She chuckled. "Den Father mentality." “Whatever it is, I always try to give happy new lives to people that need it.” I groaned as I continued to pound into the tight sexy woman. “But...seriously, how did I grow up to...be so sexy?” "Den mother's technically never stop. Each pregnancy and birth keeps us young physically, but we still show some aging." “And yet your bigger by...a lot.” I said, moving my hands under her and grabbing her fat fluffy ass. "There is a lot you don't know that I had to learn the hard way. I hope you don't mind but I do have a far more…. Selfish reason for this." “You want to see if you can still get knocked up?” I asked while squeezing her ass. “Jesus...your ass is huge…” "Oh I know I can still have kids, I was thinking I can heal Zeke… my Zeke but…" “I’m sure you can heal your Zeke.” I said while starting to ram into her faster. “But we won’t know until I fill you up.” "That's actually part of my idea." She said, taking out Zeke's Keychain and placing it over her belly, and it sunk into her like her skin was water. "I am pretty sure this will effect your Zeke as well so… but if heals them…" “We won’t know until we try.” I growled, our breasts continuing to rub against each other, which was super sensitive and felt amazing by the way, as I continued to jack hammer into her. She started holding both hands over her belly, looking more wishful than in bliss. She's got a lot on her mind. As I was thrusting into her female half, her male half poked up between my boobs… all the way to the top two and under my chin. Wow her member is hot. “Alright you, I know you have a lot on your mind but…” I muttered while doing something that only we would know to stop myself from thinking and just go into sexual bliss. I blew hard into her tunnel, I never felt the end of her pussy but I know it's flooded now. She blushed hard, rubbing her belly as it visibly distended by quite a bit. As I started pulling out I saw her belly glowing, a familiar blue. “Well...I know that blue glow anywhere.” I said with a warm smile. "I hope Zeke doesn't mind. That egg I placed them in was… special." She cooed with a motherly smile. “I’m sure he wouldn’t mind.” I said while softly nuzzling my counterpart. “Now...I wonder how tight your ass is…” I muttered while pulling on my future selves tail, just like how...I tend to like it. She yipped. "Heh… cute, you think it's still your turn." She said, suddenly I found myself back against the ground, arms pinned by her… crazy strong grip. She was giving me a smile I've given to so many others. "Only fair." She said, teasing me with her tip. “I know I know.” I chuckled. “To be honest...we’re probably gonna be here for a couple...days…” I said sheepishly. “Don’t know how insatiable you’ll be after...god knows how long without getting some.” "Unlike you, I know how to get it all out of me in one go~" She whispered into my ear, making me shiver as she stuck it in. It slid deeper… and deeper… and deeper… then it hit the end of my vagina. "Barely half of it. Not quite as big on the inside as I am I see~" “You know nothing…” I blushed brightly. “And I doubt that you’re ‘one and done’ here…” "Like I said, I've learned things~" She cooed, pulling out and, with enough force to crack the ground under us, rammed into me. My brain was immediately sent to cloud nine. Each trust they sent inside me caused Every muscle in my body to tense up, each thrust breaking up the ground under me into sand. All cognitive thought at this point was gone, replaced entirely by primal bliss and a feeling of fullness. This lasted for all I knew days if I kept track of time. Finally, they slammed in, and came. My belly expanded to an exaggeration, the weight of all that cum felt heavy inside me and I loved it, drooling at the lips in afterglow. (porn stops) I woke up as the small spoon, future me cuddling me tightly. My belly was still so huge… I can't even move like this. “Good lord…” I muttered, looking at my large stomach. “That’s...gonna take a while to get down…” I muttered while looking up to my future self. “Better?” "It felt a lot like old times. Told you I could get it all out in one go~" they cooed, kissing my cheek. "Do you know what was special about the egg I am healing my Zeke in?" “No, I do not.” I said honestly. "At some point we got into… fusing. One body, mind, it was a surreal, lovely experience. That egg was the last mixed egg of myself and Eclipsa." “Oh…” I muttered. “I...I understand.” "It felt right… plus, remember, this will be affecting your Zeke also. So I guess this makes Zeke now… your and Eclipse's child/lover. That is not the first time something like this has happened to me." “Sounds about right.” I nodded. “But uh...how are we going to explain this to everyone else I wonder…” "I don't know." They said, snapping their fingers and both of us were dressed, though while they wore their normal clothes I was put into a night gowned that did not cover my enormous belly. "But I just hope everything goes well." “I’m sure it will.” I said while nuzzling my future self. “But...the only way to find out is to head off.” "Can you stand?" They asked me as I managed to roll to a semi sitting up position. “Uh...maybe?” I said sheepishly given my mid section was...really full. With some help I managed to stand, but my sense of balance kept leaning… forward. Man, is this how nine month old pregnancy feel? Whole extra layer of respect already. “Good lord...well I can kind of walk…”. "Heh. First time getting this big then? Trust me, it will get bigger." She said. "Lastly I guess a name for me to go by. Already have Ben and I saw Diane is here also so…" “Well...Ophelia?” I asked curiously. "Ophelia? Huh… not too bad, better than bothering at least." “A little bit yeah.” I nodded. “So...let’s head home.” "Home… heh, yeah." She said, feeling her still glowing belly. I nodded as I opened a portal back home. “Let’s hope for the best…” As we arrived home we were met by Cript, on one side was Diane, Marcy and Zeke who now looked like a bright blue fire fluffy half Naga Den Monther Dire Wolf! And to the other was Eclipsa and Heart, who looked near identical to Zeke. "Care to explain?" Cript asked. “Uh...I can explain…” I said worriedly. “But...it would involve my...older and sexy self…” They all saw Ophelia. "It's uh… it's exactly what it looks like." She said, patting her own and my bloated bellies. "I figured." Cript sighed. "So, that will fix your Zeke up in likely a month." Cript motioned to Ophelia's belly. "I'll just call them Ezekiel. Sounds cool and it's the original name Zeke comes from anyway. Now then, it seems to me that this is all going to become very confusing, am I correct?" “When has it ever not been confusing?” I asked honestly. "Now then. Heart you stay that color, Zeke," Cript snapped their fingers, Zeke's colors suddenly now a mix of dark blue and purple. "That works now If I remember when nobody told me, Ophelia," Another snap. "Your Ezekiel will have a mix of blue, white and grey colors so at least that won't be too confusing. I recommend you two look up what you can do in your assistants and learn from your respective spouses which technically we all are so just ask around. Now that the immediate issue is resolved now onto something else." “Yes, like how Ophelia is currently hugging the shit out of Eclipsa.” I started while everyone saw Ophelia hugging Eclipsa and crying in pure joy. "Saw that coming. Now then, onto other matters. Clearly fusing each multiverse and our respective realms wasn't enough. The other timelines, active and dead all seem hell-bent on joining." "And all of this...stemmed from me." I sighed out. "This may become a blessing in disguise however." Cript started. "We need more Allies and information on one thing. Why? Why haven't they attacked yet?" Cript asked as some shrugged and others began pondering it as well. "Because the Plot?" I asked honestly. "Ben, do me a favor and don't break the fourth wall unless it's for comic relief. But the reason, or rather, two reasons are standing in this group. Well, I suppose it's more five, maybe six depending on factors. Can anyone take a guess?" "Eclipsa?" Heart asked. "Half right." Cript said. "Ben and I?" Diane asked. "That's the other half. Yes. You see, in all the other timelines and reflections your god had in his mind, there was a grand total of near countless Marcy's, Diane's but only one Colon Ventral, turn Eclipse, become Eclipsa. And, there are only two Ben's born naturally in this reality as well, but out Ben was born AFTER his life as Diane, the timeline Nexus erased. In short, Eclipsa and Ben are anomalies. And if there is one thing I know about Nexus it's that they fear two things. Losing Data, and not having data. They aren't attacking because they have no idea about the full extent you two can do and frankly neither do I." "Oh...uh." I said honestly. "That's a thing…" I said nervously. "This is why they don't attack. They take every calculation into consideration and they can't calculate for you lot. This is why the base you raided had no reinforcements, the Nexus members in our creation here, are basically trapped. This includes their ever so valuable vaults." "I raided over twenty of them, you only knew of the one." Ophelia mentioned. "Oh...that's uh...that's a thing." I said nervously. "So...basically me and Eclipsa can do whatever we want and no one can argue against it?" "Not exactly." Cript started. "They have no data on you two. You both going out and doing stuff would give them said data. Then they'd be getting bolder and bolder." "So we just do nothing?" Eclipsa asked. "I didn't say that." "Vincent can travel through time without any drawbacks. Why didn't he just kill all of us before we were born?" I frowned. "Think about it, they tried to do that when you were Marcy and Diane, yet here you two are. The timeline was rewritten to erase you and you two are still here. So it's a pointless effort." "So make sure we were never born is a waste of time...that doesn't make much sense given that ruined my Earth life in three different ways." I frowned "That is interesting because your Psychopath copy actually has yet to be found. Question is why? Off topic, we know at least so long they don't have data on you they won't make a grand scale attack. This gives us the upper hand." "I have his leash...but either because the writers just remembered he existed or he died from something...and yes, yes it does give us an upper hand cause Ophelia here has been cleaving through Nexus bases about anyone knowing." I pointed out. “So now, let’s take something else into account. There are now, three versions of Ben, two of Eclipsa, and three of Zeke. I say, we even this out to nine.” “What do you mean?” Ophelia asked. “Diane’s messing with her old timeline to merge it into this one was, and coming from me this is a complement, a complete shitshow. But, it worked. If I can make a stable… can any of you follow what I’m saying or do I need to dumb it down?” Cript asked. "So basically we can have all the timelines fuse and have all the help we can have?" I asked. “Yes, and no. While this will gain us invaluble allies, it will also create issues as well, think of reality and all existance as the biggest fucking RPG in...well, the universe. Timelines are the alternate gaming routes one can take while ‘playing’ so there is most definitely versions of us who are good, but also those like us who are equal in power to us, but also have far more… villainous intentions. This is why timelines are often harder to traverse than Reflections.” "Okay...so what? We get good versions of our bad guys?" I asked curiously. “And bad versions of us.” Cript said. “So… what’s the verdict?” Heart asked. "What's the point when it would do...basically nothing or maybe fuck is over?" I asked honestly. “If there are evil versions of us that would show up as a result of this then maybe all at once isn’t the right way to go.” Zeke thought aloud. “One at a time would allow us to more effectively sort out enemy and allies.” “True.” Heart said. “But, what if these bad guys were rendered… powerless?” “Extracting their powers? It’s possible, but...maybe…” Cript thought. “The three reflections of the same guy all having tactical thoughts.” Marcy said jokingly. “Tell me about it.” Eclipsa said. "Now counterpoint, I've had many, many nightmares about how other timelines went before ending somehow...and a lot of them involved our own powers either being stolen or dumped down by something or another." I pointed out. “This can be useful.” Ophelia said. “It’s how we as king of Nothingness can sort through all that resides within our domain. Timelines mainly. I can teach you to hone this so we can find the better timelines so we can better prepare for the bad ones.” “That can work. With some work I should be able to make a spell version of my Consume ability to transfer out all the bad guys power from them into something else, either another person or even us or a container.” Cript said, popping into reality a pen and paper and started working. "Now problem...if other me's are as paranoid as me...they might have figured out how to negate things...cause I sure as shit know I've been figuring things out in a place not even Nexus would know." “Between the two of us, we can handle it.” Ophelia said, assuring me with a pet. “We’ll be fine.” "That's what they all say." I said with a roll of my eyes. "Now...I'm gonna finally do what I've been putting off for a while…" I sighed out as literally everyone in the room could tell… My water broke. To be continued
Nobody finds a LibraryThank god I had that spa day cause if I didn't this might have hurt like a bitch. I didn’t specify my body on how many kids I was gonna birth at once… Twenty nine pups, some could change into a keychain form, others were part naga, a few were purebred dire wolf pups. All in all… Yeah I’m not leaving this spot… nope. Not moving. “And I thought I was bad…” Heart said, giving me an ear scratch. "I'm a Den Mother, this is my job and I will be darned if I left my kids sides." I said simply. "They are my kids...my very fluffy kids...and I couldn't be happier." I said, even though people saw during the kids birth I grew quite a bit in many many ways. “So… how will?” “It’s alright.” Ophelia said, resting next to me. I was about her size right now. "Yes, everything is alright." I smiled warmly. “So, what am I exactly?” Heart asked. “Cause this… is weird.” They motioned to all of themselves. “And you haven’t just changed back to your human form why?” I asked honestly. “Your an Admin, you can shapeshift.” “Why haven’t you? At this rate I’ve changed species, if a Keyblade can be counted as a species, three times. Human to Keyblade, Keyblade to Admin… now… whatever I am now. At this point I don’t completely care anymore but I don’t think what I am even has a name.” “Hybrid Naga and Dire Wolf...is new yes.” I started. “But why haven’t I? Because technically I was born as a Dire Wolf to get my Soul back so this is my base form...even though I was originally born male but that’s not the point.” I said honestly. “So...right now you and some of my kids are half naga half dire wolf...would they be Dire Naga’s? Floof Noodles?” I asked. That last one made Heart chuckle. “Cute. So… what are we gonna do next?” They asked, managing to lean against me and pet one of the pups. “Well I would have went to a beach to have a nice day off, but I’m not going anywhere right now.” I said gently, gently brushing some hair out of the face of a dire wolf keyblade. “Hm. Well, if anything you staying here with the kids would work to our advantage. Keeps Nexus and the rest blind to what you and Eclipsa to an extension a mystery.” “Plus I can train her in the more practical uses of our abilities.” Ophelia said. “That is also true.” I nodded. “Cause nothing like learning from my future self.” “Huh. Well, wonder what that leaves me to do?” Heart questioned. “No idea.” I shrugged. “You have a lot of things you can do while I’m here tending to our kids.” “That’s just it… I don’t know what to do. I guess I’m just not as good at… adapting to this kind of stuff as you guys.” “Honestly, I’m surprised you haven’t already gotten used to this already.” I said simply. “You and Eclipsa never had extraordinary lives. You live for all this wildness. Me? I basically get handed the ultimate weapon, and resurrect a city… and I didn’t want it. I’ve spent my whole life wanting what you two already had, harsh or not I wished for just one day of the lives you two lived.” “Basically you wanted a day where you don’t know what the fuck is happening?” I asked honestly. "I wanted a day to feel like everyone else." “I was never ‘like everyone else’ to start, you know this...and Eclipsa was literally reborn into a kid with Oath and Oblivion...neither of us had a ‘feel like everyone else’ moment. And honestly feeling normal is...kind of boring.” "Boring is better than being taught step by step how to hide the corpses." Heart sighed. "So what's it like… being a Dire wolf? Given I'm now… half one I guess some perspective is in order." “Boring let’s your mind slip and get distracted.” I started. “But being a Dire Wolf? Um...hard to explain, but it’s basically being a Wolf except bigger, faster, stronger, and a fuck lot more magical.” "Huh." Heart hummed. "I sometimes wish I wasn't…" “Wish you weren’t what?” I asked curiously. "Wish I wasn't me." “Okay, first up, stop being a baby.” I frowned. “For the past god knows how long, all you’ve done is complain about who you are when both me and Eclipsa have no idea who, or what we truly are, and Cript even proved that more.” I frowned. “So how about you take a good long look at yourself, and actually be okay with who you are, because you are so far removed from the bog standard factory made Zeke’s your so scared of being compared to.” I frowned. “If I, the most paranoid person in this realm, is more accepting of myself when I don’t know who the heck I am, then you should as well.” I said while making sure my tone was soft and not angry so I didn’t either wake up or upset my pups. "... Maybe. I just don't know how." “How I do it is that I look at all the accomplishments I’ve made, look at the absolute bonker’s size of my family...and just take a deep breath and feel like only I could have done this, no one else.” "Hmm…" “Yes?” I asked while a few of my children woke up and immediately started to drink my breast milk straight from the tap. "Why not take a vacation? Reflect?" Ophelia said. "For us… myself, Eclipsa and I would take special vacations when we were extremely stressed." “I mean, Lyra told me to go to the beach for a vacation, but I can’t since my kids.” I said honestly. "This vacation was… different." Ophelia said with a smile. "It was just us three and we actually only had to have one of us be under the… conditions." She chuckled. “Well either way.” I shrugged. “I need a vacation cause Lyra said so, Heart need’s a vacation because of his own reasons.” "What kind of Vacation is it?" Heart asked. "We called it a Childhood Vacation." Ophelia said. "I think I get the picture." Heart said. “Oh?” I asked curiously. “As in...literally going back to being a child again due to...that reason?” "You'd be surprised on how effective it was." Ophelia hummed. "And it lasts as long as we wanted." “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “But I have these twenty nine wonderful pups to take care of.” "Then play the role of the mamma." Ophelia said, looking over at Heart and I. "Wait… you want me to be the kid in this?" Heart asked. "It would give you something you've never had. A childhood." "... Is it wrong that I am considering it?" “Not really.” I said honestly. "It’s something that can help you. Why wouldn’t you want to take a chance to get help?” "I just…Will I remember?" "Only if you want. But once the vacation is over you will change back and remember everything." Ophelia said. “I mean, I remembered everything when I was reborn just to get my soul and light half back.” I said honestly. “Come on, the worst can probably happen even though Nexus doesn’t know what to do at the moment...or at least, until Spoiled clones are involved.” I sighed out, remembering that I have a mental connection to all the people that were connected to Heart. "Hmm…" Heart thought it over for a time. “You’ve been humming a lot lately.” I pointed out to Heart. "Heh. I guess I have… alright, a week and I'll want to remember stuff." Heart said. She then placed a kiss on her finger tips and blew it at Heart, a strong pulse of magic followed as in a puff of cool steam, Heart was now…. Puppy. My mind semi blanked seeing the now baby Heart as I unconsciously added him to my litter. “My puppy.” I said while gently nuzzling Puppy Heart. They were still half Naga, half Dire Wolf, but so damn small! He's half snake and still smaller than the solely Dire wolf pups... “He so smol, he so cute.” I cooed happily. “Is this what normally happens?” I asked Ophelia. "Yeah. Seems like Heart was just always a small baby." Ophelia said with a smile. Day 1 As the rest of the day was getting started, Heart mostly just seemed to nap. It also seemed that moving in the baby version of their body was harder than the adult one. They moved around almost like a worm. “And here we see the legendary floof noodle try their best to walk.” I said in a makeshift animal documentary voice because honestly this is just adorable. They didn't seem to mind my narration, still trying to move to no real avail. With me here, Ophelia took my work for the past few days, though the kingdom was absolutely ecstatic at hearing I gave birth apparently and thousands of letters and reporters wanting photos of the newborns arrived. “Listen, I know everyone’s so happy about me finally giving birth but do I literally need thousands of letters?” I frowned. "You have fans." Alxun said, aka Luna for those who can't tell. "It's a big deal." “I know I know.” I said. “But there too young and all the attention might scare them…” I said worriedly, not wanting my kids to be scared by the paparazzi. "Most likely." “This is gonna be a little annoying I just know it…” I sighed out. I sighed as I saw Baby Heart crawling around, well, inchworming around. I wonder how much an infant Biology is affecting their mentality? For me it was mostly just being tired a lot, finding the stupid little toys interesting and a natural instinct tot feed when hungry. “How are you feeling right now Heart?” I asked, having the ‘baby talk app’ open so I can understand if Heart is talking. 'feel… kinda cold actually.' They replied, still inchworming around. “Uh…” I frowned. “Either because your a naga and your cold blooded...or something else…” I said nervously, trying to recall if Eclipsa’s race were cold blooded and warm blooded Dire Wolf would do something about that. I got a copy of that guide book Eclipsa had on her race and opened it up. Flipping through the pages until I found something. Infant Naga's while warm blooded thanks to our evolution, does not yet generate enough body heat alone until they are a month of age, as such, the mother or family members swallow them into their storage or healing stomach for warmth and protection from the elements. While inside either belly their inborn magic creates a sort of parasitic relationship to the host so they do not require food or water, while the bellies natural oils and biology gives air. This parasitic relationship does not harm the host at all, and works akin to normal pregnancy “They could have said it’s ‘symbiotic’ instead of ‘parasitic’...” I muttered while gently picking up Heart and cradling him, my fur warm enough to hopefully increase his temperature so he wasn’t cold. They yawned, falling asleep as I was warm enough to keep them as such with just the fur. This was nice. I've rarely seen them so calm. “This is nice.” I muttered with a warm smile. “How have you and the others...reacted to me finally having kids?” I asked Alxun. "I lost sixty rem to Twin Pie…" She laughed. “Even after all this time people still bet on me…” I sighed out. “What did you bet?” "I thought you'd give birth in a year." “Alrighty then.’ I nodded. “But I take it everyone’s happy about the twenty nine new kids?” "Very." Alxun said with a nod. "If not for all the work they'd be here too." “Honestly...I just want a day where none of us are working and just...spend time as a family.” I said. “When was the last time we did that? Everytime people have just been busy, tired, or having planned other things…” "Pain of running a massive kingdom. The bigger it is, the more work there is to do." “Even though that everything we’ve done we can honestly let the entire kingdom run itself for a while without any problems.” I said honestly. "If I know anything, it's that there is always work, mundane or of grand importance." I sighed out. “And this is why I hate working…” I muttered. Smirking, Alxun cuddled up next to me and yawned. "I hope you don't mind, but we were setting up a room for you and the other Den Mother's. All the babies and you all. Figured the best way to keep the kids, you, and all that together and safe. Plus it will be hidden so no way Nexus will find it." “Yay.” I smiled while nuzzling Alxun. “Thank you.” "Thank Cript. He had a point. So long as you and Eclipsa remain a mystery to Nexus the kingdom won't have to worry about grand scale attacks. Plus it keeps you relaxed and with the kids so, win win." She said smiling. “Until Nexus gets so upset at not knowing things they actively attack us.” I sighed out. I received a light flick to the snoot. "Don't think, just enjoy." She said, placing a puppy on my muzzle. I pouted. “Fine fine.” I said while gently taking the pupper off my muzzle and cuddling with my wife, Heart, and one of my kids. Later that day I was moved to the room. It was actually kinda cool. Cript modified his Radist, that weird TARDIS ship of his to hold us all in, and camouflaged it as something I didn't expect. The air. This makes it, thanks to my Nothingness, impossible to locate and can only be opened from the inside. My parents, Den and many others were here, including… wait. "Hello again Ben." The Mother said. She looked like a Den Mother… like the legendary first Den Mother… just as big too. “And...what are…” I took a moment. “Wait...what happened?” "Allow me." Cript said, walking up to me as a Den Mother also. What the? "You see, Max… killed her protectors… while she wasn't in danger this did give me an idea. You see, Den Mother's are in every reality, the best mother's. Loyal, fearce, so, after speaking with her, we decided to move her here, taking up a Den Mother form along with the other- oph!" Cript yelped, tackled by a rather green fur colored Den Mother. "Lyra!" "This is fun!" Lyra proclaimed. "Yes… as you can see everyone here either is a mixed Den Mother along with their normal forms, or just a pure den mother, but the kids they birth while The Mother is here are not all going to be born solely Dire wolves. Ponies, Naga's, Centaures, etc. This room is basically the family baby making/raising room. Completely locked off from all of Creation, and thanks to your Nothingness, the Void as well, keeping all here safe. This includes the grown up kids as well." “That...is really cool.” I said. “And who said my paranoia into figuring out how to make people completely untraceable wasn’t a good idea?” I chuckled. “And good thing I figured out how to reverse it to find our enemies if their trying to hide.” I mentioned. "Glad this thing is getting some use too." Cript said, knocking Lyra off of them. "Haven't used it in so damn long, I had already ripped out the timedrive so it's already a regular space ship with an infinite pocket dimension. Also food at will. Pizza." They said, in a flash a simple cheese pizza appearing before them. “Sweet.” I said happily. “This is amazing...all the kids will be safe and happy with those they love.” "And I am going to be a bit more lenient on the Starfish clones rule, but I also feel I should mention that while you can have sex out there the babies will always be born and sent here, so incase you croak as a Starfish clone out there, you and they are safe here. But be careful if you see Max… Don't confront him. Something about how he killed those Admins was off and I don't like it at all." “John’s gonna beat him that’s for sure.” I said honestly. “But I’m sure Max will do something that will involve all of us.” "Likely, but not anytime soon. He likes to prepare… but, one issue at a time and this seems to solve our safety issue. Now, for something I've been waiting for, for a long time." Cript said happily as I saw The Mother nod. “What?” I asked curiously. "With the Mother of another creation here, we can merge hers and our creation together, making both a much more fun existence and a bigger, more defensible one. More Allies in the fight and more various information and such. A foot up from Nexus." “Except that foot up would be a foot back because Nexus would also be getting allies from them...also wouldn’t Void Mother be absolutely pissed Belief is back?” I asked curiously. "She has long since lost her own emotions, pouring them all into the blackness that is the void today. She might not care. Besides, she can't do anything." “Why can’t she do anything? I thought that the moment she exits whatever hole she’s in all of existence kind of stops…” "While true she would immediately taint all around here, much like how I can pacify anyone no matter how the rage they feel burns, I also can no longer fight. This rule, still applies to her. It's why she gathers followers. She is bound by the rules of the Mother, because she founded them. Even corrupted she follows them, in a twisted way." “Alrighty then…” I nodded. “That’s...something that seems easily broken to be honest.” I said. “But as long as they don’t actively just destroy everything…” "They are not. These rules make up what we are as The Mother. Should she break them, she would become killable. Her immortality is tied to her following these rules." “Wouldn’t killing herself be the answer to what she wants though?” I asked honestly. “She breaks the rules, she then kills herself, and then existence ends right?” I pointed out. “Or is that just what Vincent wants?” "Her death would only lead to the end of void. Not existence. If a Mother dies only the reality we made and sustain will die, so her here, it will only be the void that goes." “And then Nothingness goes and then Light and Dark goes and then everything goes in a massive chain reaction cause one of the key parts of reality just ceased to exist.” I said. “I’m glad our enemies are too brain dead to realize that but still.” "Not exactly. If she is to die that does not mean the rest of reality does. So long as there is at least one Mother, and one Belief, existence will live on." “Even when a literal piece of existence just isn’t there anymore?” I asked curiously. "While the void has proven… unique, in its newfound form it was originally energy like magic or life energy. This void is just corruption at its purest. Without her it would all begin to revert back to its original forms." “Okay then.” I nodded. “Thank you...good to know that Vincent was just lying then…” "He might not have known. As smart as he is this information is little known." “And yet he can time travel without any consequences.” I frowned. "There's always consequences." Cript muttered lowly. “Not from my one nightmare.” I frowned. “This nightmare showed me that Vincent planned for you to kill him just so his past self could make some grand entrance as Zeke’s brother, just so when we finally get to fight Jericho the fucker swaps bodies and then kills himself as Jericho.” I frowned. “His future self and past self even talked about it...which is how do I know this? Because myself in that timeline found an orb that told me everything.” "... I hate the fucking forth wall…" Cript groaned. “There is no Fourth Wall, that was just Nothingness showing me a possible timeline that stopped abruptly.” I said. “Remember, Nothingness has a special hold on Time itself...as Diane puts it, it’s the ‘Recycling Bin’ for all Timelines that either never happened because of events or was destroyed due to Nexus.” "Either way. So, looks like you have to learn to hone that power so we know who and where to get the most aid from." Cript yawned. "From there we help the good guys there deal with the bad guys they have then get them to help us." “And that’s where Ophelia comes in.” I said honestly. “Given that...she’s probably sixty thousand or more years old given what she said about you being dead.” "It will go quicker once you have some training as well." Ophelia said with a nod. "It will let us sort them out from best to worst timelines." “Alrighty then...even though I have constantly trained as much as I could, sadly off screen yet again, right now actual training would help…just need this stupid thing off.” I said while pointing to the necklace Lyra forced me to wear. “Relax. This isn’t combat, this is using Nothingness to witness what no longer exists through the you that walks that timeline.” Ophelia said, placing a paw to my own. “We will explore that world through their eyes, but there is one downside. While we… possess, for lack of a better word, we are restricted to the powers and abilities they have. This connection sends our minds and not out power. Once we have analyzed it, we can determine its value in reaching first or save it for later if it is bad.” “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “This is going to be a nightmare and a half...I just know it…” “Let’s try a timeline that is peaceful then. We can determine which is bad and which is good. I’ll guide you to the peaceful timeline, then you can try it alone once you explore it, alright?” Ophelia said. “Alright...so let’s try to do this without me being flung into whatever timeline Nothingness wanted to throw me in…” I sighed out. Ophelia allowed the Nothingness to completely cover her, flowing it over me. Closing my eyes, I felt Ophelia and myself soon dive into Nothingness itself, the energy felt stagnant, but at the same time flowing. I began seeing the multiple countless streams of nonexistent timelines. Some flowing calmly with no worry, others chaotic and shifting violently. I could feel Ophelia guide me towards the calmer ones. Soon she let go as I fell into it. Once I woke up I noticed something was odd. I was… a pony? Fully equine? “Uh...sure, why not…” I muttered while looking myself over to see who I was. I had an eggshell white coat, dark grey mane and a Thorn Vine as a cutie mark. Thankfully moving like this is a lot like my feral form. I was an adult, as far as I could tell. Looking out the window I was in… what city is this? Manehattan? “Okay...so far there’s Deja Vu with me starting a journey in Manehattan…” I chuckled to myself while looking around to see if there was any other distinct things about where I was at the moment. I tried summoning my weapons. Nothing sadly, not even Nothingness. Ophelia was right then. Looking around I noticed two things. One, I was an earth pony, and two, for an earth pony I have a lot of arcane books. “Hmm...that’s interesting…” I hummed while trotting over and picking up one of the arcane books. Most seemed to be on ancient spells and theoretical magics. Though one here made mention to something I am familiar with. By fifth Discordian era the two sisters were faced with dire choices in their battle against the spirit of chaos Discord. In their battles it was said they turned him to stone first in an attempt to force his very essence to sleep eternally so his physical body would become hollow and motionless. That sounds like what happened to Ventus, when his heart went to rest within Sora’s. “Well that’s a curious thing…” I hummed. The Princesses were said to accomplish this using an ancient relic recovered from an unknown land far within the badlands. The relic did not work however, so they turned to the elements of harmony, and victory was achieved. The next image displayed the relic in question. There was clear alterations, but this was a spot on match for a Starlight Keyblade of the Keyblade Graveyard. “Oh damn...that’s a thing.” I said. “Wonder how they found that thing...and if the Keyblade Graveyard is somehow apart of the Badlands…” There was a sudden knock at my door. “Wolf Thorn! You there?” Someone’s voice called out. Wolf Thorn? Is that my pony name here? Huh… not bad. That voice though… it sounds familiar. “Uh, one moment!” I called out while putting the book down. “Sorry, was just doing some light reading.” I said while trotting over and opening the door. I was met by a Pegasus… who kissed me deeply… they were also a stallion. “Morning lovely~” They cooed to me while using their wings to hand me flowers… Wait, that mane color… those red eyes… ZEKE, er, Heart?! “Miss me?” Looking more at them… yeah. It was them. Their cutie mark was even a bullseye target. “Even your kisses always hit the mark.” I chuckled, trying to see if I could ‘remember’ this pegasi’s name from Wolf Thorn’s memories. … I could not. Need to learn that soon! Glancing quickly at the flowers I saw a note. ‘Happy three year Anniversary, Heart Shot.’ Oh thank god… Wait… Anniversary? “I must have been reading too much...but Anniversary?” I asked, playing the ‘forgetful nerd’ card here given there was a lot of arcane and history books here. He chuckled, smiling at me. “Silly book worm.” They pat my head. “This day three years ago, I bumped into you at Magic Point Park waiting for the new Daring Do book and had our first date. Tonight I was thinking museum trip first, check out your favorite exhibits then the Archery Team’s practice then end it all with a lovely picnic as Princess Celestia lowers the sun and Luna raises the moon.” So Luna isn’t Nightmare Moon here. That’s good. “And by ‘archery team’s practice’ you mean ‘showing off’ again right?” I asked, having a feeling that, given this is Zeke, he would do some showing off in front of his stallion. “Not my fault I’m that good Besides, I know you’re little pervy mind constantly thinks of how lewd it can become.” “Not my fault you got a nice plot.” I chuckled. “So anyways, shall we get going or you need to get something?” "Just picking your hot self up." This version of Heart seems… so happy. How different were their lives? He took me to a nice dinner for breakfast before we headed off to the museum. “Ah the museum.” I sighed out happily, enjoying the history that was within the building. As I was looking around I remembered when I went to a museum with Twilight. As we looked around I saw something. It was an old piece of armor… not equine. That's Keyblade armor. Looking up this exhibit hall was labeled "Mystery of The Badlands Far South." Here pieces of Keyblade armor were on display. Even… the Starlight Keyblade. It was heavily rusted over. There was one piece of attire here that was whole and fairly clean… a Unicorn mask. Is this Equestria and the Keyblade Graveyard the same world? “Something’s...not right…” I muttered to myself, thinking about all the possibilities of what this could mean. "I never understood why you liked this wing so much. All this stuff creeps me out." Heart Shot said, looking over a half broken gauntlet of Keyblade armor. “That’s because this is ancient history, of civilization and of a race long forgotten...or…” I looked at the Unicorn mask and all the rusted weapons. “A civilization and a race that killed each other for some...unknown reason.” "Either way they had weird fashion sense. Plus isn't it weird that if they did kill each other, why isn't there a single bone or fossil?" “I don’t know...but it has to do with this weird weapon.” I said while pointing to Starlight. “It’s unlike any weapon we’ve seen, and it’s unlike any magic anyone’s ever seen.” "How? Doubt it has any magic left given the story about the Princesses and Discord." They said, looking over various other items. “And yet both princesses believed it held power, even in it’s rusted state…” I said. “And their both Alicorn’s, so if they could sense long lost magic in these items then they should still have power...I just don’t know how to bring it out…” I sighed out. "You really should have been born a unicorn." Heart said with a half laugh, hugging me with their wing. "I heard they added a new piece to this exhibit, figured you'd go crazy over it." “Wait really!?” I asked in surprise. “Where is it?” "Should be at the end of the hall. All I know about it is that it is apparently huge." “Well then let’s get going.” I said while practically dragging him off to the new exhibit. “Can’t wait to see what huge thing is here.” As I dragged them down to the new exhibit, upon finally seeing it… my heart sank. There is rusted, dust encased glory was… The Lingering Will… "Okay… that's cool." Heart said. “The Lingering Will…” I muttered, seeing it still in that same position. "Hmm." Heart hummed, not hearing what I said and looking at the plack before it. "This statue was discovered atop The highest rock tower within the location of the Badlands. It is hollow and seems to give off faint unidentifiable magic. This figure has been dubbed 'Hollow Knight'." “I mean...their technically correct.” I said, gently reaching out to the armor. “There’s...someone still in this Armor…” "It says it's hollow." Heart said, looking at me. "You alright?" “It also says it gives off faint unidentifiable magic...yet look at it, it’s stuck in this pose like...it’s waiting for someone.” "What? Like a golem or something?" “No...like a Lingering Will.” I said. “Damn not being a Unicorn…” I grumbled as I put a hoof on the ground. “If only I could channel some form of magic...maybe I could do something to unlock these damned these secrets.” I growled and stomped on the ground. "Why not ask your boss?" Heart asked. “Today is our anniversary…” I said while looking at him sadly. “I don’t want to get caught up in work on our special day…” "Awh." They cooed, kissing me with a hug. "And you say you can't be romantic." “I’m not really.” I said honestly. “Sorry for...getting a little overzealous with work.” "It's kinda cute when you do that." “Oh yeah?” I asked curiously. "Yeah. You're little nerd outs are always cute. So, now that we saw this thing how about we head off to the other exhibits." “Sure…” I said while looking at Lingering Will again. “I don’t know who you are, but I know you're in there.” We began exploring the rest of the museum. It was all fairly standard. But fun. “Well this was fun.” I said warmly. "Glad you like it." Heart said as we exited. "Now onto the archery team for a bit of practice and show off to you, then onto our picnic." “Alright.” I nodded. “Sounds like a plan.” I said, kind of hoping Wolf Thorn was going to remember all of this. We took a trolley some ways downtown to the archery teams training area. A community center. I sat in the benches with some other viewers while Heart and the others took practice shots at moving targets a unicorn was moving around. Like my Heart, Heart Shot had impeccable aim. His teammates were doing good too. “So, how’s it going Wolf?” Looking to my left, I saw a thin earth pony mare was now sitting next to me. She had the same coat color as me, but a dark brown mane and her cutie mark was a sword in the stone… huh. "Oh nothing much. How about you...uh…" I tried to think of her name. "Sorry, too many things on my mind…" She gave me a fairly good whack across the back of my head. “Oh let me guess, did Heart rutt your brains out again? It’s me dummy, Stone Thorn, your sister.” She said, rolling her eyes. … I have siblings here?! "I'm sorry sis, I just got done with seeing the new exhibits at the museum." I said sheepishly. "And no, he didn't do that." “Huh, surprising.” She chuckled. “I got back from seeing that too. I can’t wait for my night shift tonight. I’m gonna run every examination test on that statue to try and identify that magic, but that’s not all I came here to tell you.” She said, looking around real quick. “I just got word back from the crew at the badlands that the statue was not all they found!” She said in a hushed whisper yell. “They found bones! An intact skeleton that was next to the statue! They’ll be shipping it out here by next week.” "Really?" I whispered. "But...the armor felt like it still had someone in it. You sure?" “Hm? Well yeah, check it out. I got a sketch of the bones and their still intact attire and weapon!” She said, fetching a letter from her saddle bags and showing me… The skeleton was human… and wore Terra’s old clothing… even the Gazing Eye was still in their grip. “They’ve already sent the weapon but it’s in research still. They want to examine it before displaying it to the public. It’s in AMAZING condition!” "That's… really interesting." I said honestly. “If you want, just say the word I will get you in the lab tonight. I’m sure you and Heart will be done by midnight, just show up around then and I’ll let you see them.” She said, placing the papers back into her bag. “You have to apply for a send out there someday bro. I know you don’t want to be so far away from Heart Shot but it will be totally worth it.” "I know I know..." I sighed out. "But I'll try to be there by midnight." “Great! Happy Anniversary, and happy future!” She said, taking off. After about three hours of watching Heart Shot make some rather impressive trick shots, we headed out for the picnic. The part was fairly lively but now crowded. The blanket was set, food and wine poured. “And, enjoy.”Heart said, feeding me a sunflower sandwich… huh, not bad. Pony tastebuds. "I am enjoying it." I said warmly. “I’m glad. Been planning this for a while. It’s not that big but I know you’re not that big on the extravagant.” Heart said, munching on their own sandwich. "As long as it's with you it's more than enough." I said lovingly. As we ate we watched as day shifted to night, began stargazing and just had fun. Part of me wondered though… is this considered cheating? I hope it doesn't, I'd rather not have taken Wolf Thorns boyfriend away. "Stargazing is nice." I said warmly. "So love, I've been thinking… your apartment is kinda snug and my place is… big enough for two…" "Oh?" I asked. "Are you..asking what I think your asking?" "I mean, we've been dating for three years. Most ponies are already married at this point in a relationship. I know you want to take it slowly but I want to know that this will… lead to something more." "Trust me...I want to take the best step." I said gently. "But it's gonna be a nightmare getting all my stuff out of my place and into yours." "First challenge as a committed couple?" They asked nervously. "A challenge we'll both get through." I said warmly. They happily tackled me. Nuzzling into my neck. Hmm… Just how different did this Heart live compared to mine? Maybe some questions are in order will also give me needed into on my apparent boyfriend… hard to believe at one point I identify sexually as straight. "Love you." I said while wrapping my hooves around my boyfriend. The night ended lovely. Heart said that if I left them a key they'd start packing some of my things. Once we parted ways I made my way to the museum. It was eleven thirty. "What was the point of me being here again?" I muttered to myself curiously. "I know I was supposed to check other times but...where's the end point?" I walked over to the museum, seeing my… sister waiting for me. "You're early." She said with a nod. "Better to be early than late." I said honestly. "Come on, the tests are just starting!" She said happily. "Hooray." I said happily while heading into the museum with my sis. Inside the Laboratory, I saw the Gazing Eye Keyblade laid out on the table. Several magical analyzers looking it over. "So what have they figured out so far?" I asked. "It has an extremely complex inner spell matrix. It's unlike anything in all the world's libraries and best schools. We can't even rub it's surface that's how complex it is! It's metals are unknown by any of the known magic or standard ores, and most interesting of all is this." She took out a small box with a lock on it, tapping it against the Keyblade and it opened immediately. "Any lock magic or not unlocks with just a touch." "So it's a Key...blade?" I questioned, acting dumb cause I knew what it was. "Cause while it's a key in nature, its design looks more like it's used to fight." "That's what I theorized!" She said. "given the armor and everything I am curious as to why this weapon is in such remarkable condition…" She looked over the Keyblade before a machine, looking up a fax machine, started printing. "Oh! It's here!" She said giddily. "Wonder what it'll say." I said curiously. "It's the Badlands team. They finished carbon dating the bones!" She said, looking over the paper. "Wow! This is amazing! According to this the normal armor and artifacts there date back to before the Alicornian era, but these bones and that statue date back to just 50,000 years old!" 50,000… that much time since… "So it's been that long? Then why does it feel like...the armor still has someone living inside them?" I asked. "You could tell as well that that armor was...waiting." "Well if it's a golem like we think maybe. Perhaps it's a trigger word? Spell maybe?" Trigger word? Huh…. "Maybe...if we mention the weapons name, maybe it'll do something?" I asked curiously. "Oh! Maybe. Let's try before the boss shows up!" She said, almost pushing me towards Lingering Will. "If this works the boss is gonna flip." I said while heading over. "No kidding, but I'll be damned if Curator Rune is gonna stop this chance!" Wait… my boss is… Rune?! But… is she like mine… or Hearts…? We arrived and Keyblade didn't work. Nor did some other words Stone Thorn tried. As she was pondering in the corner I was gonna try some I know have to work. "Xehanort…" I muttered to the armor. It shifted. Suddenly, there was a blast, knocking me and stone back quite the distance as all their rust and dirt came off. They looked like new… an pissed… "X...Xeh...Xeh...an...Xehano... Xehanort… Xehanort!" The Lingering Will screamed. "It talks?!" Stone said in panic as we both hid from it. "Xehanort!" It shouted as someone crashed in the museum. "Oh buck me we are so fired…" Stone huffed in fear. "Wait here." I said as I made my way closer to it. "Whoever this Xehanort is, he's dead." I called out to Terra's Lingering Will, knowing he'll react if he heard the old mans dead maybe he'll calm down. "Its been fifty thousand years, the persons dead!" "Xehanort…" He seemed to be calming, then his Keyblade flashed. "Xehanort… his heart lives… I will shatter it!!" He screamed, slashing again and destroying millions in irreplaceable artifacts… yeah we are so fired… His heart- Gazing Eye! That must be why it was so pristine! "Aw shit…" I muttered while rushing off to find Gazing Eye before it was too late. "Need to get to Gazing Eye before it's too late…" As I was rushing back to the lab I saw the Starlight Keyblade here, it's rust cracked off, showing that underneath it was still alive. It's colors bright and vibrant. I tried to pick up Starlight. "Gonna need your help here…" I said worriedly. Taking Starlight in my mouth, cause no hands or horn sucks, and it flashed, it's long caked on rust and grime gone. “Thank you.” I said with it in my mouth as I prepared to face off against Lingering Will. “God this is gonna suck…” As I ran off towards Lingering Will I noticed everything got… quiet… too quiet. Finding an odd sight, I saw Lingering Will, frozen still, unmoving. Neither was the debris still floating in the air. "Wow. Not bad." Turning, I saw Ophelia walking over to me. "So, how's it going from your perspective?" “Uh...I’m kind of messing up?” I said sheepishly. “I don’t know…” "It's better than it could be." She chuckled. "Do you know why I picked this timeline for you to practice and experience first?" “Because I had the highest chance of screwing something up like getting poor Wolf Thorn fired?” I asked. "Because In this reality you, and Heart, both asked to be reborn, without the weight of your past lives memories. You two found each other, found happiness, and you can't lie, even though it's an alternate version, you do love them. Right?" “Of course.” I said. “That hasn’t changed at all...but I’ve...noticed a distinct lack..of Eclipsa…” I said sadly. "You don't have to look that far." She motioned towards… Stone Thorn… she was running out the door. "You were both siblings in this timeline, but both forgot by choice, but wanted to remain siblings. The two of you here never formed a spark of love, but you held a strong fire for each other as brother and sister. You see, in every but a very minute group of timelines, you three are always together in some way, shape or form." “Alrighty then…” I nodded. “That’s...good to know.” "The point of this was to show you that even in the near endless timelines, you three belong together. I lost faith in that when Eclipsa… passed. I want to make sure that no matter what happens you don't make my mistakes." “I mean, so far that wasn’t going to happen.” I said. “Even though I would have went bonkers if anyone of my family died…” "I just want to make sure. I mean, I am you still after all, wiser and more mature… more sexy, but still you, so, still paranoid." Ophelia said with a chuckle. “Well either way…” I said, keeping lewd thoughts to myself .”So...currently things have gone to shit...how do I fix it?” "Of course. Do you think this timeline is worth us adding it and fixing it's issues?" Ophelia asked almost knowingly. “You already know the answer, I’d say yes.” I said honestly. “Oh but uh...does Wolf Thorn remember what...I’ve been doing?” "Yes and no. They will remember things you did as if it was them doing/saying it. But your inner thought/certain words and such you'd rather not say or have anyone in the timeline know about he will forget about completely. Now then, time to merge." She said, taking my hood as all began to glow with an almost rainbow of colors. I woke up and… was still hugging Heart as a baby… "Time difference." Ophelia said, still next to me. "In the realm of Nothingness, time holds almost no true meaning. You were there for a day, here is was barely a minute." “Sounds about right…” I nodded while nuzzling Heart gently. "It will day a whole week for all of that timeline to merge here successfully." Cript added. Still here with his Lyra laying across their back. "Also, Ophelia." "Hm?" "As I promised myself, if I can make anyone's life better, I will do it no matter how much or who it might piss off. Fuck sad ending I prefer the happy ones… so…" "Hi Ben… or is it Ophelia?" Even I froze at that voice… that lovely, heartwarming sexy voice… Ophelia and I both turned. It was… Eclipsa. But she was easily twice or even three times her normal size, both in body and bust… she had a few streaks of gray hair, and even a few grey scales across her snake half. "H-h-how?" Ophelia asked, crying as she jumped into the Naga's arms. "Like I said, I only do happy endings. I found out your timeline still had a Mother, so I just paid her a visit and what was a minute for you all was about six hundred years of my figuring out how to truly revive an Admin from death after they have returned to their Mother." Cript stated matter-of-factly. "Well...that’s quite an accomplishment and hot damn is older Eclipsa hot as hell…” I blushed. "Call me Grey." She chuckled, hugging her Ophelia as well. "I also see you used our egg to heal Ezekiel." Ophelia blushed. "I did… I made a lot of mistakes when you…" She kissed Ophelia. "My wolf. You never really change huh?" "The rest of your timeline will take a good two weeks to catch up with you Grey." Cript stated. "Since yours is technically of the future I had to do a lot of extra work to allow it in here and the Time Walkers are pissed at the excess labor and paperwork." “Hey Grey, look at Heart as a Floof Noodle.” I said while holding Heart up by his armpits like one would with a cat. "That's adorable. So is that how Ezekiel will look when they are healed? Cute!" She cooed, petting Heart. “Most likely yes, and yes they are absolutely adorable.” I said with a warm smile. Day 2 With the Starfish clone limit thing now not as harsh, I was in my office while also doing a photo shoot while also with the family in the hidden safe baby room and a lot of other stuff. Man it feels good to have Starfish clones all over the place again. Today was a bit different through for me in the office. I was helping Leon S. Kennedy established some pittishioned laws. I never really spent a lot of time around the others from Zeke's little fusion thing so this was new. "Lastly the Factory district wants a mandatory vaccination of all employees, as to keep both product and employee health from becoming compromised." Leon said. “Okay, that should have just been standard procedure to begin with.” I said bluntly. "You'd think but this world is made up of both Cript's main world, as well as yours and Eclipsa's Equestria's, who to their blessed luck never really needed vaccines since majority of their illnesses could be cured via magic. With the mixing of all these races and other worlds a whole new potential outbreak crisis is at risk of hitting the equestrians." “Yeah, that is true…” I nodded. “Well better get those vaccine’s out to the people before an actual crisis occurs.” With a signature and a send off the law was legal. "That about covers them all now. Shall we talk about the front lines or later?" Leon asked. “Might as well get it done now.” I said honestly. “So, what about the front line?” "So far they have begun using Void Beasts. The results are regrettably effective. However thanks to Nothingness infused weapons and spell casualties are being kept at a minimum. Cript's Freak Inc is looking through more ways to weaponize it. This includes having sent out Nobodies to help deal with the void beast. So far it's lately the same stalemate." “And it’s going to keep being a stalemate with more and more lives lost unless we do something…” I sighed out. "The enemy has the advantage of being in the void. For us to enter it is suicide. We can't navigate or explore it. For all we know all of void is their territory." “We know it’s not, and sadly I haven’t found John yet to give us an edge in this…” I sighed out. "If we could at least somehow get eyes in the void, news of some kind then we'd be able to better prepare and defend." “I...sadly have...wait…” I took a deep breath. “I need to kill Void Key first...fuck, I had an idea that involved a...D-Link with Coco, but she’s still in a coma and I don’t know where the main body of Void Key is...damn it…” I growled. “Cause when I tested that, apparently I went full Void with Coco’s D-Link and...even made Void Nobodies.” "That's… interesting… were you able to control it still?" “Yep.” I nodded. “Full control, basically my D-Link with Coco swapped all my Nothingness with Void...it was a little surreal to be honest.” "Do you think there is a way to form that Void Nothingness outside of a D-Link?" “I doubt it because I don’t have any Void abilities, and I haven’t gotten any through family like Balance and Grey.” I said honestly. “Unless...I forgot about something.” I said while checking my character screen with my Assistant to see how many abilities I forgot to equip and many many skills I might not know about. What the? The skills list was all different now. It looked more like a mix of Skyrim and Shield Heroes leveling skill system. There was a lot of categories too. “Jesus fuck…” I muttered while also noting...HOLY HELL! That’s a lot of Skill Points I need to put down. “Uh...okay fuck...sometimes I completely forget that game logic still works here…” I said with a frown. “Hey Leon...ever had that feeling you were unknowingly crippling yourself in several ways?” "Only when I realized/discovered Magic was real. Before that, not often." “Magic being real, and then the crippling alcoholism you suffered for a while.” I said honestly. "The only good side to what happened to me is that I can't get drunk now. Though that's also kind of bad since hangovers are what dulled my brain from the paranoia." As I saw the Dire Wolf and Den Mother Dire wolf categories, of which I found off those were different, I saw there was more than one type of Dire wolf, most I had unlocked but there were some that were still locked. One looked interesting. All I got off it was the title. Void Wolf. Next to that though was Nothingness Wolf, which was unlocked and ready for Upgrades. “Alrighty then…” I said while dumping so many points into all of these skill trees I was finding and unlocking damn near everything I could with all the skill points I have neglected for god knows how long. Needless to say, I felt… way better, not like I wasn't feeling good before but I felt great. I was looking over the Nothingness Wolf skills and abilities when I noticed a guide book option. Yes please., oh and there’s a Void Wolf guide book option? Fucking sweet, this is gonna make this a hell of a lot easier as Leon could immediatly tell my own power was going through the god damn roof. “So many skills...so many buffs...holy hell this is gonna take a while…” He began doing the same. Turns out this didn't just apply to me. As I tried to look up on void wolf, I got this. Access Denied. Refer to General Leveling Guide Book for learning to unlock skill branches. “Well then what’s the leveling guide…” I frowned while trying to find the leveling guide book. “It better not be I’m locked out of certain paths…” I grumbled. As ai found the General Leveling Guide book, I flipped to the first page. Welcome to your Freak Inc. Assistant Skill Leveling Trees! The Skill Leveling paths are decided into different branches, these branches can intersect, creating new mixed branch pathways. You unlock these with Skill points, earned for using skills a certain amount of times. There are two ways to earn these skills, passively or Actively. For example. To gain a single skill point by jumping, you must jump a minimum of five hundred times. This is an active Skill Point Grind. A passive skill point grind is like using passive abilities, such as HP UP, active, and leaving it so for one hundred thousand hours. This earns you a skillpoint passively. To unlock a skill branch, there are various ways or limitations depending on race. (Does not apply to Admins, Admins need only sample a code of another race to unlock their skill branches) So that's it. I need to sample the code of a Void Wolf and I'll be able to use that branch skills… and hopefully, achieve that mix branch for the Void Nothingness. “Alrighty then...so where the fuck are Void Wolve’s?” I questioned while bringing up another tab and searching for Void Wolves. Void Wolves. This long lost tribe of the Dire Wolf clans was said to have once ran between the Void and Creation freely as a means to hunt in every reality, and every plain of existence. The full extent of their powers is unknown and one has not been seen in five hundred thousand years. Many theorize they are extinct or even just still running through the void itself “Well...shit…” I sighed out. “Okay...so who in the hell would know about the Void Wolves…” I muttered. “Can’t be Den cause she’s not old enough, Cript might but he’s probably busy making sure Ophelia’s timeline is still…” I sighed out. “Jericho, mind answering a question of mine if Ophelia hasn’t kicked your ass yet?” I called out, knowing the guy can hear me and would probably appear like Cript does if he’s not busy. "Void wolves?" They asked, kicking open my office door. "I know a bit. Old Admin of war used them to hunt down game… people… or would just hunt them for fun." "Asshole." I frowned. "But...are...are any left?" I asked worriedly. "There was a few when I took over. I sent them back into the void to be free. Wild there should be a few dens. I know of one but it's not exactly in the nicest place, by void standards that's saying something." "Well hasn't stopped me before." I said honestly. "I just need a bit of their code and I can start doing stuff...or maybe get their help whichever comes first." "Knowing you, likely both." Sighed Jericho. "But we need their help because we don't have any vision in the void...and so far that might help push this stalemate into our favor." I said. "Stalemates can only last so long before a side cracks." "True. You can't navigate the Void without a special compass though. A Blind Man's Eye, they call it." "Ironic all things considered." I said honestly. "But if we have beings that can see in the void without the compass then that would be a massive boon." "But to find said being we need it." Jericho said. "The only issue is they are not exactly easy to find." "So where can I find one? Black market? Dangerous world no one has traveled to in ages?" I asked curiously. "I have no fucking clue." Jericho sighed. "Know anyone who might?" I asked curiously. "The outsider maybe. I know he can make a few artifacts but better to find one as making them requires… less than tasteful items." "Anyone else besides the best artificer?" I asked. "No one that comes to mind. Maybe one of those Nexus bases has one?" "Maybe Ophelia knows." I said. "Cause I still cant fight." "Huh. True. But if I recall she is spending time with Grey… Krott then." Jericho said. "I guess I'll leave then." Leon said, still allocating skill points and leaving. "Sorry Leon." I said sheepishly. "But Krott would probably know, let's go find him if he's not on the front lines…" "Pretty sure he's in his office." Jericho said, motioning to… across my office. Yup. That's Krott's name… how have I never noticed that? "Well okay then…" I sighed out as I knocked on the door. "You in there Krott?" "Come in." They spoke. Opening the door I was met with a war room rather than an office. "Yes?" Krott asked. "Do you know where I can find The Blind Man's Eye?" I asked curiously. "Hmm. That's a void artifact right?" He asked, flipping the table top screen from battle plans to a search log. "The Nexus base we took over held an extensive collection of artifacts, as well as lists of other bases warehouse storages. Hmm… I remember Nexus in all it's lifetime had only even found six of those Blind Man's Eye artifacts. And it looks like… ah! There they are. There's two in the Agnumie base." “And where would that be?” I asked. “Cause I’m gonna need that to find the Void Wolves.” "It's on Agnumie. Quite the interesting world. Only one like it in all the multiverse or Cript's realm. No identifiable sentient life, but lots of artifacts from world's light-years away just, show up there. It's like the Multiverses lost and found." "And Nexus hasn't been abusing the shit out of it, why?" I asked. "They were more fascinated by the 'how it does this' rather than 'what is there'. Very rarely did they actually take an artifact from the planet. Only if it was of interest or it's function held value." “Little did they know, they were about to have hindsight bite them in the ass so goddamn hard.” I said honestly. "So I'll break in and you loot the item?" Jericho asked me. “More like break in and take the entire planet.” I said honestly. “If possible cause honestly it would be wonderful to literally have Existance’s Lost and Found world.” "True." Jericho nodded. “Is there a way to bring it into our realm so Nexus doesn’t get their hands on it?” I asked curiously. “Or is it's own thing that can’t be ‘taken’?” "Did you forget yours and Cript's realms are already fused as one?" Jericho asked. “No, I didn’t forget. Sorry I thought this thing was…’outside’ anyone’s realm technically because of how special it is.” I pointed out. "Okay so you loot and look around and I'll deal with Nexus. Sound like a plan?" Jericho asked. “Sounds like a plan.” I nodded. “But uh...have you and Ophelia…’met’?” I asked sheepishly. "Yeah. And?" “I’m surprised to hear that Ophelia didn’t kick your ass…” I said honestly. “I kind of thought that would have been one of the first things she did after seeing you to be honest given her...experiences.” "She knows I'm not her timelines Jericho. Besides, she actually could care less now that her Eclipsa, er, Grey, is back and alive." “I mean...her entire point of being here was to make sure this timeline’s Eclipsa didn’t die from...killing you.” I said honestly. “But alrighty then, good to know that didn’t cause problems…” "Alright, let's go then." Jericho said, opening up a portal to this unique world. Once we exited I nearly tripped over… socks… a lot of them. "Where is that base…" Jericho hummed, not caring about the landscape socks around us. “Is this literally where everyone’s lost socks go?” I asked honestly, seeing that there was a crap ton of socks...and why were a majority of them lefties? "Don't care that much." Jericho said, looking around. "Must be where the more rare lost items get dropped. If I remember that's more north of here." Jericho thought aloud. “Alrighty then…” I said, continuing to follow along. “I can only imagine what’s been lost here…” "I'll go hit the base. You explore, have some fun." Jericho, snapping his fingers as a chunk of dirt broke free from the sock ground and he rode it north. I was left alone in all this… but… I snapped my fingers, bringing Baby Heart here with me. This will be fun. “Alright my little Floof Noodle, let’s go find us some lost treasures.” I said with a smile. 'You are enjoying this a lot aren't you?' Heart asked as we began looking through stuff once we got out of the socks area. “I’m going to enjoy it more with you here.” I said honestly. “Cause now we get to loot Existance’s lost and found world.” 'That's kinda cool.' Heart said, tail half wrapped around my arm as to not fall off. “It really is.” I said while flying up to find a good spot to start searching in what might be an infinite space. “See anything Heart?” 'Aside from a lot of junk, no.' “There has to be something here besides junk, if an ancient Void Compass is here than there has to be something special…” I said honestly. '... Like that?' Heart asked, pointing towards… hey, isn't that part of The World That Never Was? One of the buildings? “Huh...wonder what that’s doing here.” I said while flying towards the building. “I mean...I don’t think the city should exist because The World That Never Was was made by Xemnas and the Organization right?” 'While working as the Daybreak Scouts leader there was lots of that world around. Some artificial, others that were always there.' “Huh, interesting.” I said honestly. “I sadly never got out much because I was too busy on my Equestria...I think I only world hopped about...maybe eight times?” 'After a while, I stopped visiting world's. Got kinda repetitive.' Heart said, the two of us looking over the chunk of building. It wasn't a building, just made to look like one. The inside was all computer hardware. 'Oh my God…' “I feel like I’m missing something...but what’s all this doing here?” I asked worriedly. 'I remember a few of those world's we destroyed since the data they had stored was… not legal, so we destroyed it so it could not be recovered. Might be one of them.' “Well...alrighty then.” I nodded. “Since I don’t know what the data here is... 'It all varied from what I remember. Mostly it all centered around Nobodies like Organization 13 and the sparks of new hearts they were forming to replace the lost ones grew and solidified. Among other things…' We looked around more, and found a few interesting things. Even a few Keyblades that were lost it seems. “Well...this is all interesting…” I said honestly. Heart was mostly just watching. As we looked around I sometimes heard an explosion in the far north. Jericho dealing with that base here, I guess. There was mostly random things but also the occasional treasure chest. “So what did Eclipsa think of your...current form?” I asked curiously. 'I shifted mid battle with one of my heartless copies so… she was taken by surprise. Thankfully Erin showed up and helped us out. Those things are getting dangerous. This one used Code!' “Well that’s not good…” I said worriedly. “Looks like those copies can even get the same power boosts you get...that’s not good.” I sighed out. “Plus what Core...figured out…” I grumbled, given that Core was apart of all of us so we shared memories. 'It didn't shift like I did, so they are also becoming their own beings at this rate.' “So we need to kill them before they...get too far in their progress.” I said honestly. 'Yeah. That one didn't have Discord though. Just Way to Dawn. But there are only two left.' “Where is your world’s Discord anyway? I...tend to have an asston of things to think about so I kind of forgot.” I said sheepishly. 'He was turned into a Keyblade by Bars and one of these Heartless copies has him now.' Heart sighed. 'There's the one in Traverse Town left and one that's wandering the lanes between.' “So one’s in Traverse Town and the other is god knows where...wonderful.” I grumbled. 'At this rate Discord is likely with the one roaming the lanes between. How in the fuck are we going to find it though?' “Remember, while Nothingness can hide something away even the likes of Nexus can’t find…” I started. “Nothingness can also be the best tracker for those that hide from Light and Dark, it’ll take some time though.” I said before a small portal up as a dart made of Nothingness was formed as I threw it into the lanes between. “There, that Dart will hunt down it’s target till the end of existence and when it connects with its proper target we’ll know where they are.” 'One worry down at least. Also, on a side note, when I'm no longer a baby, uh, how in the fuck do you get used to this many boobs on your entire torso?' “Mostly just time.” I shrugged. “But the magical bra’s that Rarity and...Coco made help a bit.” I said, trying not to feel regret just by saying Coco’s name. 'Hey, once we get that compass and you get help or something from those Void wolf's, we can use it to try and track down Void Keys real form.' “And I’m going to shove every single copy of it’s damned Key form into that giant eye as I take great pleasure in hearing it’s screams.” I growled. “But side note before I let Psychopath wake up...check your Skill’s, you probably have a metric fuck ton of skill points to put into things.” 'Can't exactly access my assistant as a baby…' “Well when you grow up at weeks end.” I said honestly. 'So biology wise… how bizarre are we going to be if we took a DNA test?' “Honestly, does it really matter?” I asked curiously. “We’re Admins so we can technically be whoever we want, and because of Cript’s curse any inbreeding means fuck all.” I explained. 'Yeah… Yeah this is all quite… different than what I had planned originally. Figured I'd just have my family and eventually stop Core after I stopped screwing around and losing.' "Don’t you mean ‘throwing the fight’?” I asked. “Cause honestly the only times I saw you losing in my dreams of possible timelines was like...six, and two of them involved me and the rest of our merry band of Mayan Survivors.” I said. “Christ, remember when that was actually an important point in our lives?” 'Heh. Once upon a time.' “Yeah...it’s been forever.” I said honestly. "But I just wanted to point out two of your ‘losing’ timelines involved you throwing a massive hissy fit...like jesus dude, I can go into more detail if you want to give some proper context.” 'Sure.' “Okay so basically you were on some weird depressed ‘quest’ about ‘power corrupts’...completely missing that you were being corrupted by power, and in one version of this tale you beat us all then we soundly kicked your ass, which makes no sense in context of it all, and the other is we all kick your ass in several different ways, then when we all wanted to help you you beat us all, only for you to realize in the end what you were doing was rather retarded and the exact opposite of what you set out to do.” '... None of that made much sense. In any case I know at this point I should be happy and accept that this is my life, but I just don't know how to. It's like having the 10,000 piece puzzle complete before you, but there's that one centerpiece that's always missing.' “I can probably guess that centerpiece is Acceptance.” I said honestly. “Cause while you may have everything else sorted out, you yourself still can’t accept everything as it is. I should know, even after everything I still fear acceptance cause if I do, something bad might happen.” 'I don't think I can accept myself because of my family. I mean, yeah I love them… I think…?' “Which family?” I asked honestly. “Cause you have more than one family.” 'My original, the Ventrals.' “Does it matter at this point?” I asked curiously. “Cause seriously, none of you are the ‘bad guys’ you used to be now that you have another chance at life.” 'That doesn't exactly make my past upbringings and their rather forceful methods of trying to make me the new head of the family justified.' “And does any of that matter right here, right now?” I asked honestly. “You are so far away from what you used to be that I’m surprised your having a problem with moving on. And I’m the guy that wants to know who the fuck he is.” 'It's kinda hard to just move on from something that was nineteen years of my life.' "So everything you've done so far is still overshadowed by your past on earth?" I asked. 'To me it is at least. It's just really personal.' "And here I thought I had problems moving on." I said simply. 'Aside from my issues, wonder If there are any lost books and such here?' "There should be." I said while continuing to search. "There should be damn near anything in this world that's been 'lost'." 'That include my childhood innocence?' Heart joked. "Oh your getting your childhood innocence here." I said honestly. 'Heheh. Hmm… I wonder…' Heart hummed though as a baby it came out quite adorable. 'Would places also be here? Like Atlantis or locations like that?' "Maybe." I said honestly. "Want to find out?" 'Sure. If I connect to this worlds Heart, assuming it has one given this came from Cript's realm, I should be able to get a general idea of where locations are here.' "Alrighty then. Let's go find this heart then." I nodded. "Know where to start?" 'Kinda small so… you'll have to summon X for this.' "Alright." I said while raising my hand and bringing out X. "Hey X, how ya doing?" "Bored mostly but eh, that's life. So why did you summon me?" "Can you help us find the heart of this world?" I asked curiously. "Also look at Heart the Floof Noodle." I said while bringing Heart up. "Yeah I knew that already. As for what you are asking this actually gives me an idea for something I've been wanting to try." 'What?' Heart asked. "Well what's the thing you want to try?" I asked curiously. "I've been thinking. Once, Kexez managed to change into their X-Blade form, and Heart was able to do so also. Ever since they became the new Kingdom Hearts, Keyblades, myself included, have been getting stronger and even unlocking, no pun intended, abilities, powers and transformations they never had before. And their wielders have also been unlocking and far exceeding their expected potential and limits. In short, I might be able to shift into a human form." "That's cool, so where are you getting at?" I asked curiously. "I'm saying that, A, this could apply to all Keyblades and shows that there is still lots to uncover we didn't even know about." "I wonder what your human form is X." I wondered. ”Place me in the ground and I’ll figure out the rest. From the time Heart did it I should be able to do the same.” "Okay." I said while taking X and stabbing them into the ground. "Let's hope this works." There was a short period of just X flashing white and blue. Finally the blue light covered them as their form began to morph. Soon they were human, human looking. They looked like Heart when they were human, but eyes were pale as if blind, and hair glowing the same blue of Kingdom Hearts moon. "It worked!" X said, they even had clothes, simple white pants and shirt. "So this is what a human form feels like. Reminds me when I'd take over hearts body to talk." They said, looking over their arms. "Alrighty then." I said while looking over them carefully. "Glad to see you in a human form." ‘Okay… why do you look like me though?’ Heart asked. ‘Or rather, how I used to look?’ “Must be because while technically Ben, Eclipsa and those others can wield me, I was forged by your Balance heart.” ‘That makes enough sense.’ "Sounds about right." I nodded. "So, what can you tell us about where the heart is?" “Let’s see…” X said, lifting a hand as they pulsated a wave of blue. "Reveal yourself to me, the lock that hides this worlds heart. Show yourself before me, the key that sets all free." X said, the keyhole of the world forming above them til it began to shine a bright white. X shot a beam of light from their hand to it. While there wasn't the typical lock noises that often accompany, it did shoot a beam back to X, who grabbed it as it began to take form. A fair sized book. The keyhole vanished. "Oh?" I asked curiously. "What is that?" "This worlds Almanac. Maps of every place and even every building." 'And you never told me this because? That would have been helpful information!' Heart huffed. "You never asked. Besides, raving the map to everything of a world takes the fun out of exploring for Keyblade wielders." 'Wait… so every Keyblade wielders can do what you just did?!' "Only once they have been made a Keyblade master." X said. They opened the almanac. "So, where to first?" Sighing, Heart simply said. 'A library I guess.' "Hmm… there is one way South of this planet. Oh. Oh! So that's where that went…" "Where did what go?" I asked curiously. "Back when all the world's and reflections were one, there was a library the first Kingdom Hearts made. It held EVERYTHING. Everything in their realm at least. When the world's were split and the reflections formed it went missing completely. It's had many names, we knew it as The Truth Texts, others have called it the Arcanum, Or The Library of Babel." "Holy shit it's the Library of Alexandria!" I said in excitement. "We need to go find this place." ‘I remember some vatican scriptures that mention it back on earth.’ Heart said, gaining a look from myself and X. ‘My family broke into the vatican quite often. It’s mostly just some old texts, the cross and iron spikes christ was crucified with, the body of Adam, Eve, Noa, Christ, a few angels, the ten commandments, and a few other things.’ “Excuse me what? Are you saying the Vatican literally held the corpses of major religious beings?” I asked in surprise. ‘Yeah. Their bones when ground to powder then made into bread or drink cured all diseases. And Christ’s body still bled. why do you think my family was able to keep doing the shit we did for up into our eighties? Drop of savior blood keeps you young for about… fifty years. A cup is immortality, well, longevity, can’t age after a cup but can still be killed. While the Psychopath blood was a likely factor, that shit was some magic shit. We just never told anybody cause of a deal we made with one of the popes I forget which.’ “Oh...well I suppose Dracula had the right idea when he had kegs of Christ’s blood in his castle...and you probably don’t know what Castlevania is do you?” I asked. ‘Bits and pieces but he was there too. Worked as the janitor. Nice guy, Metallica nut.’ “Cause of course he was a Metallica nut…” I sighed out. “And who said that Earth wasn’t full of magical crap?” ‘Who are the people who hid all of it?’ Heart asked with a sarcastic raised brow. ‘Where are the dragons? Ventrals killed them. Mermaids? That was also Ventrals. The actual magic and spells from earth? Burned by Ventrals, all magical texts. Merlins corpse, ashes. Excalber, my dad has it.’ “I hate your family more now cause they ruined all the cool shit that could have happened.” I frowned. ‘Hey, kings and world government paid us to hide or destroy all that shit. Jobs are jobs. Blame them, we were just the labor.’ “That’s not really what the World Government would do to be honest...they would have either used and abused the fact that magic exists and tried to make it wide spread, or done other things with it...now King’s I can understand but...still.” I frowned. ‘You’d think but no.’ Heart shrugged. ‘So off to that library!’ A short DTN later, we were all in front of what looked like a simple, small stone and marble building. ‘This is it?’ Heart aked. “This is it.” X confirmed. “You said that Earth was magic, so of course the place is going to be bigger on the inside.” I said honestly. ‘Doctor who much?’ We opened the doors… and saw nothing but towering, endless rows of bookshelves. “Ah, I haven’t seen this place in eternity.” X said happily. ‘Point Ben in the direction of the porn.’ Heart joked. “You don’t understand Heart…” I shook my head as I looked at all the books here. “This place is ancient...holding so much history and tech that it’s not even funny...and it’s all right here…” I said, Heart and X noticing my tail was wagging so god damn hard I might accidentally become Tails from Sonic the Hedgehog. ‘...Again, show them the porn.’ Heart repeated. “Visitors!” Someone… somewhere screamed, suddenly a… an elderly lady appeared before us. “It’s been so long! Would you three like a library card?” “Cat!” X said, hugging the lady. “Gods it’s been eternity!” “Wait… X is that you! Haha! Oh good to see you again.” The elderly lady said, hugging them back. ‘This is...Cat? Who is cat?’ “And can I please get a Library Card from her cause it would be a god send to have one.” I brought up. “But uh...yeah who are you ma’am? I can tell you and X are friends but uh...we don’t know.” “Heart, Ben, this is Cat, the Librarian. Also, the Admin of Written text. Anything that is written down by anyone at any point in time ends up here in her library.” X said. “Oh I started off recording all of the others progress but a few special scripts here and auto run programs here and I had my code do that work for me. Spent my time building this place where I read and keep it all up to date.” She said with a nod. “Will you marry me?” I asked, only to shake my head. “Oh god, I’m sorry…” I said sheepishly. “Just uh…” I trailed off, not sure what to say to fix this. “Cute, but no.” She laughed. “I can do you a second best, and get you that card.” “That would be perfect.” I nodded with a smile. “Right this way then.” Cat said, leading us all to an office room. She took our photos then printed out the cards. “these cards let you check out books from here for up to sixty two million years, if you lose them the card can locate them for you and if they are damaged it’s a small fee of ten code strands.” She informed. “Code strands?” I asked curiously. “Don’t...think I’ve heard that one before.” “Oh you must be new then. Code strands are the equivalent to money for Admins. Each strand of code rather than financial value has actual power. I use this to repair the books and expand the library further.” Cat stated. “Well go and look around then. Just think of what kind of book you want or need and pull one off the shelf.” “I...legit don’t know where to start.” I said honestly, Cat seeing I was more like a kid in a candy store with all these books and knowledge just waiting to be read. ‘Show them the porn.’ Heart chuckled. Cat nodded, walked up to the shelf and pulled out a book, and tossed it to me. ‘All the uncut, unedted detailed sex scenes removed from Life of a Nobody’ The book was titled… ‘Huh. Do not show that to Lyra.’ I blushed and flipped all the way to the back of the book to see how many pages there were. “I’m...a little nervous to see how much unedited stuff is here…” ...463,973,321,090… pages… ‘Looks like our retirement is an endless orgy…’ Heart said. “I mean...is that a problem?” I asked sheepishly. After a while I began to look through books that detailed features of my weapons, their upgrade abilities and even a book on Void locations to help determine where the Void Dire Wolves are. X was reading up on how to forge and enhance Keyblades with all the metals in every existence. Heart was reading The Hunger Games. “Now...The Hunger Games trilogy is a good book series...but really?” I asked Heart was he was reading in my lap cause why not have a cute scene. ‘Eh. I mean, it’s kinda… seems pointless to me. It’s useful sure but all the knowledge ever will get old fast.’ Heart said simply. “Not really.” I said honestly. “You just need to know what to look for, and knowledge can never get old fast, there’s always something new to learn.” ‘Hmm…’ Heart ummed, slithering up to a shelf then grabbing a book. For their size they sure can lift stuff well. Then then tossed it on my lap. The book was titled, ‘How much Kingdom Hearts (Formally Zeke Ventral) Gives A Shit.’ There was one page, and one word. ‘None.’ “Rude.” I frowned. They tossed me another book. ‘How other, ruder means Kingdom Hearts (Formally Zeke Ventral) Could have addressed their point.’ “Don’t you sass me.” They tossed another book. ‘Sassier ways Kingdom Hearts (Formally Zeke Ventral) Could have sassed you.’ ‘I can do this all day.’ Heart said. I immediately grabbed them by the tail and pulled them into a hug. “You know I can’t stay mad at you my dear little floof noodle.” I said while nuzzling Heart. ‘Affection! It burns!’ Heart joked. “Oh you love it.” I chuckled. “But I managed to find something on Void Dire Wolves if your interested.” ‘There's actually something else I want to check out…’ Heart said, slithering back over to the shelf and taking another book. They shook their head at the title and proceeded to read through it. They skimmed through the pages until they found what they were looking for. ‘Oh… Okay then.’ They hummed, slithering back up my arm to my shoulder. “What is it?” I asked curiously. Without warning they shoved their entire upper held down my throat. Instinctually I swallowed, slurping the rest down… I picked up the book they were reading. ‘Floof Noodle facts and biology.’ “Heart the fuck?” I groaned. “I am not okay with that…” They page they were reading said this. Dire wolf Nagas, often referred to as Floof Noodles, due to their soft fur coats that cover their hard scales, have many unique biology traits of their species. Like a naga, they can be safely swallowed not just into a storage stomach, but also one that digests, the stomach acids there actually can both soften their fur more so, as well as be eaten by them when young as an alternative to milk. When inside they release a natural magical aura that boosts the ‘hosts’ body health wise as well as their base states, this makes mothers of floof noodles who swallow them almost triple their natural abilities and combat stats. The floof Noodle can either come back out through the anus or back up the throat, which is the most common method. “Slightly gross but also interesting…” I said. “Still not...a fan of this to be honest…” I sighed out. “Can you hear me in there Heart?” ‘Yes.’ Their muffled voice spoke through my belly. ‘Your stomach is… bigger than I expected. Also your stomach acid tastes like Cucumbers.’ The did not make much of budge at all, but I did feel them move around in there a bit and… While creepy, it’s almost like feeling a baby kick in the womb. I put a gentle hand on my stomach. “Alright...didn’t really need or want to know that but okay…” ‘Ophelia’s fault I’m this now. You have to suffer as well.’ Heart declared. ‘Now I am going to nap cause surprisingly… It’s cozy in here. Like taking a nap in a hot bath.’ “It’s also your fault for not just changing back into a human like you could have and like I pointed out three other times.” I said honestly. ‘Did you when you became a Dire Wolf? Or Eclipsa when she became a naga? Nope. So I’m not either.’ “You do know that counter argument holds literally no grounds right?” I asked honestly. “Like me, I was literally born a dire wolf when I got my soul back.” I said honestly. ‘And future me is getting born as yours and future Eclipsa’s kid. Point? And correct me if I’m wrong but didn't you cum into Ophelia to fertilizes that special egg DAD/MOM?’ Heart pointed out… Shit. “You yourself were not ‘reborn’ as this, hell I still don’t even know why you changed like this to be honest.” I said honestly. ‘Well I changed, and I am going to embrace it like you and Eclipsa did. End of argument because I have never embraced anything before!’ “Okay okay fine.” I said. “Just calm down in there okay?” ‘Hence I said, taking a nap.’ Heart said, finally settling down. Huh… They have a point. Fought their Ventral family destiny, fought becoming Kingdom Hearts… Maybe they just need to accept themselves as something. “Well...you finally have something to accept about yourself…” I kept on reading, almost forgetting Heart was in my belly after a few hours. I found a possible location where the Void Dire Wolf's might be. A place called the Forest of Roots. The book states that there are a lot of sightings in that area. "Hey." Jericho said, showing up and falling into the chair across the table from me. “Yo.” I nodded. “How was your trip to the Nexus base? And did you get it?” He slid over to me… a still flesh covered open eyeball in its eye socket, bone and all like it was ripped off the face of someone. The markings for North, South, East and West were tattooed around the eyeball socket. "got it. All of those Nexus assholes are dead and I called Krott to take the rest over." “Cool...and is it wrong that I thought this thing wouldn’t actually be a person’s eye?” I asked while picking up the Void Compass. "Void artifacts are almost always made out of living flesh and bone." Jericho said. “Yeah...makes sense.” I nodded. “So, now I’m off to find the Forest of Roots...whatever the hell special thing that place is.” I said. "Where's Heart? I felt you summon them?" “In here.” I said while pointing at my stomach. “You know, Naga genetics and stuff given Heart is now a Floof Noodle.” "That's a cute name. So they're accepting themselves?" “Starting to hopefully.” I said honestly. “It’s a start at least...and thanks, I made up that name myself.” "That's an issue damn near every Cript has. It takes something special to break this bad habit of theirs." Jericho said. "For Cript it was Lyra, as wild and kinky as she is, their love is true and pure. For Krit it was a sense of duty to the kingdom and his friends. For Zeke from the lost now returning timeline, it was you and Marcy." “And yet it feels like there's a fourth Cript that either you don’t know about or is somewhere not even Nexus knows about.” I said, having this weird feeling that there’s a missing one. "Stop reading ahead." Jericho laughed. "Huh… so every book or written text is here right?" “So says the Admin of Written Text.” I said honestly. “And honestly I couldn’t be happier to be here all things considered.” "Then perhaps we should take advantage." Jericho said, walking up to the shelf and grabbing a book. He placed it on the table. 'All Nexus Cript Projects Blueprints and Locations.' “Yeah so basically we have free reign to just know everything.” I said honestly. "Let's add to it then." Jericho said, grabbing another book, and placing it on the table. 'How to Make Void' “Yeah that won’t be difficult as hell considering who I am.” I said honestly. Jericho thought for a moment, snapping their fingers as they grabbed one last book and handed it to me. 'Where to find the first Belief, source of Nothingness.' “I’ve been meaning to find the bastard, but either he’s literally everywhere or he’s so far deep into Nothingness I haven’t gotten there yet.” I said. “And no, I’m not reading ahead with that one.” "Heh. So, where should we start then?" “Well...I can do both finding the Void Wolves and helping you find...yourself.” I said honestly. “So which one do you want to do first?” "The first to be honest." Jericho said, grabbing another book and placing it down. 'So you're exploring the Void for the first time and you and your Allies are Admins but good news, you have Nothingness! A safety guide to traversing the Void.' “Well that’s...oddly specific.” I said honestly. "Did you already forget where you are?" Jericho asked with a smile. “No, I’m just thinking the book titles are about as ‘on point’ as an Isekai title.” I frowned. At that moment, Cat walked by, pointing up. I looked up. A sign. 'On the Dot book titles section.' “Yeah well...why is that?” I frowned. "My system. My library. My rules." Cat said simply. “Fine fine and fine.” I nodded. “So...where to start…” To be continued...
Nobody in The Hero's Tomb Part 1Floor 1 The first floor. Even with the tea, it was pitch black here. Only a few torches lit the halls ever so faintly. Skeletons of all variety of creatures littered the floor, walls and ceiling. Their weapons and equipment scattered about like shrapnel from an explosion. "Appropriate." Kexez said simply. I brought out the newly evolved Eternal Flames and swung the both of them around at all the torches, replacing the dim fire with it’s own bright blue fire that lit up the room by a lot. “There, that’s better.” As we were walking I heard something...rattle. There was the ever familiar sound of a blade piercing something...someone. I turned around, seeing one of the skeletons was up, pulsating void as they stabbed a sword through Kexez's arm. "Was that meant to hurt?" They asked, placing a hand on the skeletons head. "Back to the dead with you." There was a flash of Nothingness and suddenly, the skeleton was just ashes. Kexez pulled out the sword, the wound healing quickly. “The Void here is strong enough to puppet the Skeletons huh?” I wondered. "Void Necromancy." Jericho said. "Void tainted magics are way stronger than their standard counterparts. Typically it's used to prevent a death, but to reanimate the dead, the longer it is undead the stronger it becomes." “I wonder…” I hummed while bringing out Book of Retribution and it’s new counterpart the Staff of Leniency. “Let’s try something out...Maximize Empty Magic, Grand Revival.” I said while pointing my staff towards a small pile of skeleton’s, trying to either raise them to some form of sentience or at least make some decent skeleton soldiers. Nothingness flowed over them, flowing into the bones as suddenly, along the skulls, the Nobody symbol appeared on them as they rose up, picking up weapons. "Undead Nobodies… that's an oddly good Halloween gimmick." Jericho said “If memory serves...Halloween is actually coming up back home.” I said honestly while checking the new Nobodies stats to see how strong they were. Race: Nobody Name: Skeletal Undead Att:14 Def: 9 Mag: 20 What they lack in defense they make up for in large numbers. Skeletal Undead's are second only to the Sorcerer Nobody in terms of magic power. “Hmm, that’s interesting.” I hummed. “Says here their strong in numbers as well as second to Sorcerer Nobodies in terms of magic.” "They can be stronger." Kexez said. They then handed me a book. It was a simple grey with the Nobody symbol on it. "The Void Mother has her own library. I swiped this among a few others." “This...should be some First Cycle lore on Nothingness…” I said while taking the book and opening it. “Or at least something ancient if it’s from Void Mother’s library.” "Actually, this was cataloged with the Second Cycles material. Nothingness didn't exist until the second cycle." “Which begs the question why she didn’t see an obvious parallel here.” I frowned. “I know grief is a hell of a thing but jeez.” "Because it wasn't the only new thing. The second cycle. Grey, Heartless, Shadow Creatures. Each new Cycle added more and more onto what was there from the prior. And, here we are now." “Well that’s interesting…” I said honestly. With that in mind the new Nobodies helped a bit in some of the random encounters… like the Void Spiders whose bodies were made out of baby corpses… or the swarms of Void hornets that sting like someone sent the full force of the big bang into their stingers! Or the literal shit golem that tried to drown me in it's own shit… needless to say we stopped for a good shower real fast after that one... “This is fucking gross and everyone knows it…” I grumbled. “It took me three hours to get cleaned and I still don’t feel clean…” "Same…" Jericho shivered. "Reminds me of that bar scene from that old movie Dogma." Kexez said plainly. "Just way uglier." As we explored we did find a few neat items. I got a Void Shield. Jericho found Void Shard, good for synthing apparently, and Kexez kept this one creepy looking image of those Void Spider corpse things… We did find, to my complete surprise, a Rest area. Huh, a lot like the ones from the dungeon Cript took me to. As we rested up, there was a book here. It was bound to the podium it was displayed on but talked about this floor. Giving, thank God, a map of this floor and details on its enemies and even the boss. “Okay so we thankfully have a map straight to the boss.” I said honestly. "Is there anything else of note there?" Jericho asked, the fire pit here actually was pretty good. Void food was weird and not deadly. Thankfully. “Well let’s see…” I said while looking over the map, trying to find if there was anything about hidden rooms or anything. There was a secret room with what would either be treasure or a monster, a door to a back dungeon area. Apparently that is an even more dangerous version of the floor you are already on, but while it is more dangerous, it also has far more rewards, and a lot of them are rare. “So we have a secret room, but I don’t know if it has treasure or a monster, and apparently there’s a door that leads to a ‘Hard Mode’ version of the specific floor we’re on.” "Best not risk it." Kexez said. "Any information on this floor’s boss?" ”Well let’s see…” I said while checking to see if the book had anything on the upcoming boss. “Hopefully it’s in here…” It was. Isabel The Loyal Once a proud hero who stood for Alliances and defense against the monsters of the land, met her end at this very tomb, where she now resides as the first floor guardian. Level: ??? Weapon: Shining Spear “Alrighty then...we have Isabel The Loyal, a lance wielder with the weapon Shining Spear and...even with how high all of our levels are, her level is still unknown.” I said. “Said she died in this very tomb before becoming it’s guardian…” "Sounds about right." Jericho sighed. "If she is a Spear or Lance user, Frozen Pride will be very useful here." Kexez said. “Yeah, besides Frozen Pride just evolved a bunch of times so it’s god knows how much stronger...plus I haven’t tested out all my weapons yet so this will be a good test run.” I said honestly. "If she has the same general long arm attack patterns you could block for us while Kexez and I fire off long range AoE attacks." Jericho thought aloud. “I know this Dungeon is supposed to bring back anyone even if a Delete killed them…” I said before bringing out Second Chance. “I need a fair explanation on who should use this to bring Isabel back. Cause it’s either I give it to Kexez as a sign of good faith, or I give it to Jericho cause I know he can do it…” I explained. "Does it matter?" “A little…” I said honestly. “While given it’s a keyblade, it would be logical for me to use it, Jericho likely has dealt with more spear/lance type fighters than I or Heart ever has. He is more likely to land the saving blow.” “Yeah...that’s true.” I said honestly while handing Jericho Second Chance. “Please don’t break it…” “Relax. It’s in good hands.” Jericho said, giving the weapon a light shake in his grip. “Let’s prepare and get ready for this boss.” “Agreed.” Kexez said. “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “Well...I’m mostly going to be buffer and healer for you two honestly.” Heading back off to the Boss room, with a copy of the map, we ran into a few monsters, but nothing we didn’t deal with prior… and avoided the shit this time. Entering the Boss room, there was a large coffin sat in the center of this massive room. The doors shut behind us, and the coffin lid blew off like it was nothing. “Right then.” I said while I brought out my Lexicon and Staff and started casting literally every buff spell I knew onto Kexez, Jericho, and my two hundred strong Skeleton Nobody army, as well as adding in some Code to boost all the buff spells. First to emerge the coffin was the spear, then the arm, and soon, Isabel was out. Her eyes hollow, skin pale, and hair pitch black as the void. She readied herself, pulling her arm back for an attack. “Alright...let’s test the waters.” I said while sending two Skeleton’s towards her to see her reaction. She thrusted forwards, an energy wave splitting off into thousands of mini spears obliterated the Nobodies, my shield held up as they bounced off Frozen Pride. That got a Howl ready. “Set the howl off, we’ll add to it.” Kexez said. “Alright…” I nodded while raising Frozen Pride. “Howling Wrath!” I shouted as the sound of a Dire Wolf howling was heard as a massive sonic blast shot out towards it, several Skeleton’s raising staff’s up and firing their own magic attacks to add in. The Howl staggered Isabel into the wall, allowing the skeletons magic and the volly of Jericho’s and Kexez’s spells to land, dealing damage. Jericho took the moment, accelerating fast til he was behind her, Second Chance at her neck. “Assassin's Silence.” Jericho said, slicing her neck. But rather than blood or Void, Code and Nothingness flowed out from her wound. Isabel dropped the Spear, gasping for air as the Nothingness mark grew larger Soon covering her chest and head and soon her whole body. There was an eerie silence as it cocooned her, and slowly the light faded away, and an infant's crying could be heard. I rushed to them, and on the cold ground crying, was a small baby girl. “It’s alright, mommy’s here.” I said gently while picking up the crying infant. “Mommy’s here, no need to cry.” I said in a soft motherly tone. They calmed down, taking comfort in my warm fur. I had one thought, unconscious and instinctual. My Baby. That was all it took, Family curse activating, and behold, another Floof Noodle. Thought not like Heart, only the single pair. “So… how are we gonna keep the baby safe?” Jericho asked. “One of two ways, and something tells me Ben knows what I am referring to.” Kexez said. “Well…” I said nervously. “I’m not sure which one...cause right now I’d want to bond with her...but what are the memories you got from her Jericho?” I asked curiously. Looking at the Keyblade, Jericho held a hand over it, pulling out a Castle Oblivion card. He then handed it to me. “Some insane thrusting tecniques, and I mean the kind for fighting not fucking.” They jokes. “So how will we go about this then?” Kexez asked me. “Well…” I looked down at my new Floof Noodle, wondering if I should send her back to all the other kids are, or have her...sit in my stomach. “What do you two think?” “Dunno… Can you even…Stomach a hundred kids?” Jericho said, earning a punch from Kexez. “Even I knew that wasn’t funny.” Kexez said. “Biologically, I’d be able to hold them all, and feed them, Heart read that book and our link let me learn it all too. I’d have no issue, and with these buffs and the natural biology I’m almost a walking tank… Though, there is the other option of sending them to the home, but some creature of void might enter there, and that’s the last thing anyone would want.” “And I just got used to being a Den Mother...now I might need to turn into a Floof Noodle myself…” I sighed out while holding my new daughter close. “I know you're right…” I pouted, not sure what to do with my new baby girl. “I was recommending something more… unique.” Kexez said. “As I am still a Nobody, and you the king of them all, you can in a sense, ‘imprison’ me, and from there gain my abilities without actually changing your own body. Something akin to fusion but not, and when it’s over here just let me out and with me, all those new kids. I’d just be in the back seat, no real control aside from speaking. Even that you can take away.” “Kinda like how Cript had me imprisoned them.” Jericho added. “I know I know.” I said honestly. “Sorry for making this difficult...um...how many kids can I hold in my stomach as a Den Mother? Just so I know.” “Given certain races and the curses random choice of spouse and such… maybe ten, twenty if you include your womb and other organs.” Jericho mentally calculated. “Imprison it is then?” Kexez asked me. “We’re going to need your help, plus I can’t fight so…” I sighed out while handing her over. “You have her...the bonus will be good for what’s to come…” “Hmm… This will be new.” Kexez said, taking the baby. I did flinch a bit as I saw them open their mouth, but to my surprise the baby slithered down their mouth and down on their own. “Huh… yeah. Feeding belly. Woah! Okay… that’s oddly sensitive…” “You get used to it.” I said honestly. “Now...let’s check this spear…” I said while picking up the Shining Spear Isabel dropped. “Wonder if there’s any other loot…” I muttered while checking my Assistant on the stats of this Spear. Shining Spear Att: 5,000 Def: 2,000 Mag:500 Ability: 50,000 Deadly Piercing Spears. Shoot out all your energy from the tip to unleash a halestorm of deadly mini spears. WARNING! VOID CORRUPTION DETECTED! -1,000 HP per second to non void beings wielding. I checked my HP… Yeah, that’s going down. Kinda slow but it shows. “Yeah let’s solve that.” I said as Nothingness Thorns wrapped around the Spear. “Void Purity.” I said as the Thorns stabbed into the Weapon and started to siphon out all the Void Corruption in the Weapon. Slowly, the Void inside it was expelled. Soon the spear lost it’s pitch black color, and changed into a bright beautiful chrome spear tip and blue metallic body. “Neat.” Jericho said. I gently spun Shining Spear in my hand, feeling how lightweight it was but it felt strong and durable. “This will do nicely.” I said honestly. The doors behind the coffin opened. Slithering up to it, Kexez looked inside the coffin. “Huh.. you’ll want to see this.” Jericho and I looked into it… That’s a lot of loot… weapons, gold, void artifacts- IS THAT A SEXY ANTHRO EEVEE!? “Hey there stud~” She cooed at us. “... This is weirder than I was expecting…” Kexez said. “This makes sense for a top tier dungeon Cript would make. Loot of various types all depending on who beats the boss… Void Mother is still Cript in that department…” Jerisho signed. “I don’t care.” I said, having already been hugging the sexy anthro Eevee. “She is floofy, sexy, and I really like her.” She gave me a playful kiss on the cheek. “Make me a mama~” She cooed at me. Jericho facepalmed, Kexez rolled their eyes. “Alright, into the storage belly she goes.” Kexez said, their tongue… that’s a long tongue, wrapping around the Eevee and swallowing her as well. She gave a very lustful eep at that. “This is going to really stretch me out.” “Lewd.” I said. “Save that talk for bed.” I joked. We sorted through all the stuff. This coffin was way deeper than expected. That also wasn’t the only Anthro Pokemon there...There was also a blessed busty Gardevoir, Charzard, and Deoxys… Needless to say, I was happy. Everything else was about six tons of Gold, over sixty trillion Rem, enough weapons, Void and other to fill out countless armies, a few random books, and… what? We all kinda sat looking at the box. The small box with the words ‘Ben’s Childhood’ written on it. “I’m… not sure how to reply to this…” Jericho said. “Is it even real? And if so...how?” Kexez asked. “But...that’s impossible.” I said while slowly picking up the box. “But...this shouldn’t...how?” I asked while slowly opening the box. Opening the box, there was a flash of light… and it gave of display of a first person perspective of… My second birthday party? “Oh… it’s just memories.” Jericho said. “From Ben’s perspective. Up til adulthood likely given it says Childhood.” Kexez said. “But how did Void Mother get these? Where did…” I trailed off. “In any reality… it’s Cript, don’t question it.” Jericho said, getting up as he began helping store all the other loot. I frowned. “That...doesn’t explain it really. Plus...this was from a loot pool from a First Gen Hero…” I said, finding this very strange. “Can’t just be coincidence…” I muttered, thinking this box held something that explained who the hell I am. Floor 2 With all the loot collected we headed off to the next floor. The next floor looked… actually, this looked nothing like the first floor… It looked like a typical castle set up. “Well this is different.” I said honestly. “Wonder what we’ll find in here.” “... Hey Ben.” Jericho said. “Yes?” I asked curiously, kind of worried as to why he said that. “Mind if I make a copy of Second Chance then edit it? I have a feeling I found the perfect method to cheese this whole dungeon in the weirdest way ever.” “Yes, you are allowed to.” I said honestly. “Now tell me how you can cheese this dungeon?” “Give me a moment.” He said, then summoning code to his hand, waving it over Kexez’s tail then sifting through the code he collected. He then made the copy of Second Chance, and began altering it, replacing a strand of code there with the one he copied then wrote some new code, and proceeded to alter the Keyblades physical appearance. It now was a ton of pink hearts in a metallic mist looking frame. “I give you, Love Struck. One hit, anything...anything, should change physically into a love struck bimbo.” They said, holding back laughter from crying. “I’m going to regret making this…” I took it...and changed it a bit so they were more of an actual person than just a bimbo. “There, better.” I said honestly. “This is still going to be so weird…” Jericho chuckled. “You owe me…” Kexez sighed, knowing they would have to store all those new ladies. “Well… time to test it.” Jericho said, pointing towards a Void Knight walking towards us with a halberd. “Listen...if this works...I blame you, and I also thank you.” I said as I cast a spell on Love Struck, letting it float around on it’s own. “Go.” I said as Love Struck flew over to the Knight ready to strike. It impaled the knight through, returning to me. The knight was still for a moment, then there was a flash of hot pink. And suddenly, this hollow knights armor was now, in order, busty, bouncy, still metal looking so… weird but eh, and it’s halberd was also now, sexually themed. Their eyes were also a glowing hot pink. “Take me~” They said… why is that voice so hot? “It works…” Kexez said. “Oi, I changed it so they would be more person then...that, the fuck.” I frowned. “While I’m fine with this, there’s a point where it starts getting weird…” I said nervously. “And I don’t want it to get weird.” “Must still be developing a...brain…” Jericho pondered aloud as Kexez stored them away with the Poke-Women. “This is my role in life now? Huh… Eh, could be worse.” “It shouldn’t...but sadly things are happening right now…” I sighed out. “Again, I don’t want this to be weird...Love is sacred, and I make damn well sure Love is treated right.” “You also forget Cript is the Admin of Love… so all kinda apply I think?” Jericho pondered aloud. “Plus your cherub effects… and now we all share a technical body and all that so… huh… I don’t know anymore.” “One down, no god will know how many more.” Kexez jokes. “I hope this won’t get weird…” I sighed out. “If it hasn’t already…” As we made our way through this floor, I noticed that Love Struck did various effects to those it struck. If they were already of flesh and blood, they had more of a personality on them, and the ones, like Knight, a Golem, and things like that, started off more… dumb. Guess Jericho had that whole brain thing right. We made it to the Rest area. This place had some nice stuff as we rested. I also wanted to see how much more developed these new girls are. First up, the first comers. Eevee. “This is still weird…” I said as I saw Kexez regurgitate the Eevee out of their body. “But hi, how are you doing?” I asked the Eevee. “Burr! It’s so cold now!” They said, shivering as I made them some clothes and dried them off. “Better.” She said happily, dressed and warmer now. “So, what’s up? Oh! What’s your name by the way? My only memories are seeing you after that coffin opened up.” “The names Ben.” I said gently. “But...just wanted to talk ya know?” “Sure. What about?” “Anything really.” I said honestly. “Want to know anything about me?” “Sure. What are your hobbies?” “Reading, taking care of kids, traveling, stuff like that.” I said warmly. “Cool. Mine are cooking, napping, and drawing.” She said happily. “What about favorite shows?” “There are too many shows, I honestly don't have a favorite.” I shrugged. “I like Adventure Time. Sad it ended though.” How does she know about these things though? Didn’t she just say her only memories were looking up at me and the others when the coffin opened? “Oh actually, rumor has it that it’s coming back.” I said honestly. “So far there’s been rumors of five one hour specials.” I said honestly. “Oh Cool!” “Yep.” I said honestly. “But...I thought you said you didn’t remember anything before the coffin, how did you know about Adventure Time?” “Huh? Oh… Oh! Am, am I the first girl you’ve won in a dungeon?” She asked me, quite giddily. “As well as the Gardevoir, Charmander, and Deoxys.” I nodded. “Oh my gosh! Okay, so this is how it works. The dungeon loot in any reality, world or whatever, if it respawns, it comes from a place referred to at the ‘Loot Room’ this is where I, and those others, come from. It’s in a sense a factory of sorts that makes the random items, or in my case, people, for these rewards. I don’t remember the place exactly, but I know I came from there, and while I didn’t see anything per say, I could watch things like from a TV, this is how I watched Adventure time, learned how to cook and, the most common thing to do, nap. Once we are won, we wake up in our bodies in the reward chest.” “Huh...that’s rather interesting.” I said honestly. “But what was with you...uh…” I trailed off, not sure how to word it. “Oh, the sex thing?” She asked with a blushing laugh. “Before we are won, we get a very general info dump on the person who wins us. No names or anything just their likes and dislikes. At the top of your likes was sex, so I figured hey, might as well open with that. Well, that and I did see a lot of porn.” “Oh...I mean...I suppose that sounds right…” I said sheepishly. “But you know I care more about the person than just sexy right?” “Well, yeah, but like I said, it was a general list of likes and dislikes. Nothing much else.” “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “Have you talked to the others in Kexez?” “Yeah. We have some interests, made out a little, sleep. All in all they are nice girls aso.” “That’s good.” I said warmly. “Now...what would you say about being apart of...an infinite Harem?” “I don’t mind. Majority of the time, people like us, rewards in dungeons, are, as you can tell,” she motioned to her rather gifted body. “Are for harems. Not just women either. Males too, but you have to want that one or just be a girl.” Eevee said simply. “Alrighty then, but I’ll make sure to treat you properly, not as just some reward I get for beating a boss.” I said honestly. Eevee nodded. “That’s great. And thanks for the clothes. First time I’ve ever worn clothes.” “Thanks, those clothes are made by the best Seamstresses I know.” I said warmly. “Hey Ben.” Jericho said, catching my attention. He was by the info book. “You might wanna look at this…” Eevee motioned for me to go, heading back over to Kexez and back into the belly. “What’s up?” I asked curiously while walking over to Jericho. “Look.” Jericho said, motioning to the book. Eevee the Spry A lady from a world of unique beings, and she is one of the most unique, won as a prize of a king long forgotten, ventured into the Tomb to retrieve her lost love. Att:209,000 Def: 34,000 Mag: 100,000 Weapon: None. “Tell me, that doesn’t ring something off.” Jericho sighed. “Okay that is just too convenient…” I said while looking over to the Eevee already in Kexez. “Kexez...can you ask Eevee if she’s this...Eevee the Spry?” I asked nervously. “Or if she knows of them?” “How? You heard her, she’s literally ‘fresh off the line’. How would she?” Kexez asked. “I know just…” I sighed out. “Something’s not right here...and I have a feeling we’re going to figure it out We rested up again, and I was wondering something… which will I use on this… this Eevee? Second Chance or Love Struck? “These people suffered enough in this hell hole...they need a Second Chance.” I muttered to myself, wanting these people to have a brand new happy life instead of...whatever Love Struck does. I had Jericho give another edit over, making sure they at least had a proper mind when they were altered. We used it on a Golem enemy. She got a hot body, looked less like rocks and more like clay now, and had a proper brain. Not surprising they knew a lot on Gemstones though. “Alright, that’s better.” I nodded. “How close are we to the boss?” I asked while getting more and more undead soldiers and some Nobody Golem’s that weren’t hit by Love Struck. "Close." Jericho said, there was a chest in front of the large double doors. "Huh…" “What?” I asked curiously. "Weird placement for a chest." Jericho said, tapping it. It opened up, showing a single piece of paper. “That’s...curious.” I said, not sure if the chest is a mimic or not as I carefully took the piece of paper. “Wonder what’s on here…” I wondered curiously. Inside the paper were words… I think? It looked like a Spell Matrix, but nothing like I've ever seen. I can't even tell what this does. Jericho couldn't make heads or tails of it, Kexez was equally clueless, amd even the Assistant couldn't identify it. “I’m scared that...this might be used for a trap.” I said honestly, trying to figure out what language this Spell Matrix was, at least it would be a clue. "Whatever it is, Cript should be able to decipher it." Jericho said. "Magic expert." We pocketed the odd spell and then opened the doors. Like before, a large room with a single coffin. The doors closed behind us as the coffin lid flew open. Climbing out was the spitting image of Eevee, but her fur was a dark blue, tainted by void and eyes a lifeless black. “Alrighty then…” I said while buffing everyone up as much as I could just like before. “Let’s see how tough the Golems are…” I muttered while sending one of my seven golems over to test the waters. Eevee fought with bare fists, punching them. Thile they held, it was her speed that surprised me. Her punches speed wise we're as fast as me with Foudre. So her specialty is speed, and likely agility. "Ben, can you use any kind of time magic?" Kexez asked. “Yes, yes I can, I already casted haste on all of you.” I said honestly. “So...let’s try this.” I said while tapping my staff down as a Slow Spell acted as a wave rushing towards the Eevee. It hit, but even with that slow down, she was still fast. "That's more manageable." Jericho smirked, raising Second Chance. "Any attack that would finish them will save them. So…" They took a large breath, A large spell matrix and multiple matrices covered Second Chance. "Atlas Demolition. Obliterate my target in the name of my kingdom." She said, readying to swing. "Rain Fire." They swung, white flames taking up everything In front of us all, the heat I could feel… made Eternal Flames happy. All the white fire suddenly was compacted into a small ball in front of the singed Eevee, and then blasted out, the explosion knocking her into the wall behind her and explosion force nearly knocking us all over. We saw the Eevee slowly stop moving, and suddenly become covered in the same Nothingness and light as Isabel. Soon… there was an egg… wait? Oh, right, all Pokemon hatch from eggs. I walked over and gently picked up the egg. “My egg.” I said lovingly. To my surprise… the egg began to hatch! The glow soon faded as a little Eevee with Dire wolf… Den Mother dire wolf features, was now wiggling around in my arms. She's so tiny. "Even I will admit, that's cute." Kexez said. “She so smol and cute.” I said happily, nuzzling my new daughter happily. With a kiss I gave the little one to Kexez, who swallowed her away into the feeding belly of theirs. "Only you can walk into likely the most dangerous dungeon outside of creation and expand the family." They said with a smirk. “It’s not my fault that...I want to give people a second chance.” I said honestly while heading over to the coffin to see what loot we got. There was no women this time. But there was a lot of rare Void Synthesis items. Some weapons, a few neat armors, and of course, lots and lots of gold and rem. More than the first floor too. God we are going to be beyond loaded at this rate. More than I already am. There was also a… is this? It was just like it. Exactly. But pitch black and Void altered… No Name. "What is that doing here?" Jericho asked. The time based Keyblade rather out of place. “Huh...this...honestly shouldn’t be here.” I said honestly while picking it up. “This shouldn’t be here...what is with this place…” As I was examining the Keyblade, I didn't notice as Kexez placed a hand on it. I looked over to them, then was speechless… they were crying. They took the Keyblade from me, and held it tight. "Shh. It's alright… it's alright…" They muttered to the weapon. “Uh...Kexez?” I asked nervously. "It remembers. Remembers so much pain…" They muttered, tears not stopping as the hugged the weapon ever tighter. "Such misery… It can't forget. It can't move on…" “Can...Second Chance take away the memories of Keyblades?” I asked curiously. Jericho shook their head. "No. It wouldn't work. The only thing that would is if it found a new wielder." “Well...why don’t we find it a new wielder?” I asked curiously. "It's Void altered. Meaning… meaning there is a Void corrupted version of Heart here… otherwise it would just be a hunk of metal in the shape of a Keyblade…" Jericho said in realization. I frowned. “That’s...that should be...impossible…” I said slowly, thinking about this some more. “Come on...my hunch might be proven if we go deeper in…” Floor 3 The next floor was… hang on… this architecture… this is Canterlot Castle… at least, it looks like it. The architecture looks identical, but the layout is completely different. “I’m...I’m not liking how close we’re getting to me being right…” I said worriedly. “Finding the book on the boss...god I hope I’m wrong…” This floor had some unique ones. There was the void filled royal guard suits, which when hit with Love Struck turned into these almost like ghosts wearing the armor. There were also stone golems that looked like alicorns, but not enough detail to look like Alxun or Celestia. They were a lot like the prior golems, but unlike them had more mentality immediately rather than over time. The last enemy here was Void Corrupted Thestrials. Jericho used Second Chance on all of them… they were actual people stuck here… made into common floor level cannon fodder… that wasn't right… We found the resting room. This one had a bed big enough for a giant that we all sat on. There was a library here, all these books I took, and then the floor book… I felt my blood go cold as… as I read this floors boss… Alxun The Dark Lightbringer. Princess of a land of magic with power over the moon, turn queen alongside the king of a force of creation. Her power over darkness and the dreams of others allowed her to save those lost in the dark. Weapon: Keyblade (Star Swirled Magic) Att:7,000 Def: 500 Mag: ??? "Alxun is training under Core to master Darkness… right now…" Jericho said as he and I shared a horrifying realization.. “Jericho...you know about...the other cycles right?” I asked. “How...how did they end?” I asked slowly. "It's only supposed to have been… only the one with the Void Mother. There is only supposed to be roughly twenty to thirty other cycles since then… unless…" "An even bigger cycle." Kexez stated, still holding onto the No Name Keyblade. "Repeating to that battle against her… and losing… over and over, and over…" “So...the ‘twenty to thirty cycles’...could be the twenty to thirty that haven’t...been apart of this or the Void...oh god…” My eyes widened in horror. "Or…" Jericho said shakily. "She starts it again… for fun…" "If that's the case, then she'd know about what, or rather who Nothingness comes from originally… so why then?" Kexez asked. “This...entire Dungeon is supposed to be Void Mother’s Womb...but...what would happen if that isn’t the only thing she ripped out?” I asked worriedly. "Her Heart." A voice echoed, from… me? I jumped as suddenly a Silhouette of Nothingness, wrapped in Nothingness thorns like bandages suddenly emerged from me… the first Belief. "She ripped out her heart, so her pain could no longer be felt." "Holy…" Jericho said, surprised. “I...was going to search for you...but apparently you can just appear out from me…” I took a deep breath. “So how are you doing today?” "Awake. First time in several eternities." They spoke. "So long as someone holds Nothingness, I can go to them. So, you've discovered the secret. The Repeats." First Belief said. “The Repeats?” I asked curiously. “You mean...all of this?” "Every twenty to thirty cycles, these exact events take place, and each time, the same result. Stopped counting after around sixteen trillion. All I can do, to keep everything from ending, is restart everything from the second cycle onwards." “Oh…” I started. “That’s...uh…” I was legit speechless at that. "This isn't the first time, nor will it be the last you come here, take the artifact… prepare, prepare and prepare, and lose. You, Heart, Eclipsa, all of you… perish fighting. Your family that barely scraping by in the void after she claims it, coming here to bring you all back when she places her womb back here… and each time, they fall, returning to this place as it's guardians again. I've tried, but to no avail. So long as she is Heartless, literally, we can't win. Take that how you will, go down fighting or wait for death, I've seen it all, too many times to care." “So then you know where her Heart is.” I said honestly. “Cause right now, it’s her Heart that’s her one and only weakness...so where is it?” "With her. Under her watchful eye. She knows so long as it's near her, anyone who tries to harm her, take from her, can not. Void or not, she is still, A Mother." “But that ability can also be used against her.” I said simply. “Or...something only you can do Belief. It’s either a Mother gives Void Mother her heart back, or a Belief somehow manages to do something to get it back...or we could just grab it and yeet the fucking thing so hard into her chest all perceeding cycles will have a heart shaped birth mark.” I said honestly. "I can not go near her. In her garden, where Void is the purist, not even Nothingness can prevent the corruption. And I lack a body." "... What did all the other Repeats use her womb for?" Kexez asked. "Same as you all. Rebirth your lost allies, family." "Only allies and family?" "Yes… why?" "Because if it can bring back our allies, family, it also brought back the past repeats as well, and it can still bring them back. Not to mention that rather odd Keyblades of Ben's, Second Chance and Love Struck. Bring back not only every bygone repeat, but also those she has taken, those dead by Deletes hands, those from across all and every fallen existence." "That would require more power and energy then even Void Mother possesses. How would you pull that off?" "Have you met these idiots?" Kexez motioned towards myself and Jericho. “Oi!” I pouted. “But I...have an idea on how Kexez’s idea might work...all we need to do is find the Mushroom 13.” I said, and for some reason the room we were in shook ever so slightly, like it didn’t like that name. “I’m...just going to ignore that...so who here knows about those 13 things?” "The Mushroom 13. Unique beings. Not Heartless or Nobodies." First Belief started. "Void Mother, back before, made them as the ultimate prize givers. Tied to time itself… any prize can be won by them…" “Did...did I just bring up how we get Void Mother’s Heart?” I asked. "No, not her heart… too powerful for them… but something… someone, just as useful. Our Ace in this war…" “Oh? And who would that be?” I asked curiously. "Void Mother herself. Or rather, her from before she went mad after the accident." “Oh...well yeah that might work.” I said honestly. “Now the only problem is...where are the other twelve?” "The time walkers would know." "Hold up, accident?" Jericho asked. First Belief sighed. "It was a few eternities after we became Belief and The Mother. Nothing like us ever existed before. We didn't know what we could do… where our limits were. As time went on, it was always the two of us, we kept each other happy. One day, I was testing out developing new energies. Powers… Nothingness." He said, looking at me. "I didn't know what it could do, what it was, but I didn't realize how… different, it was compared to prior powers I had created." “So when you made Nothingness it killed you?” I asked. "Not quite. It could take a body, a Hollow shell, and keep it alive, revive it even, make a new person from the shell of another. Like Kexez there. But it needed fuel. Fuel to burn and blossom into what it is today. My body, was the perfect firewood." “And it has been burning for this entire time huh?” I asked curiously. "If it stops, Nothingness will fade, and then nothing can stop The Void Mother." "Second Prize." Kexez said. "A perfect replica of your old body to use." “That is also true.” I said honestly. “So, now the main question is...what are the ramifications of shoving Void Mother’s heart down her throat?” I asked curiously. "Void itself will unravel, and fade. Everything it has destroyed will return." First Belief said. “I thought Void was a piece of Creation, if it’s gone, what’ll happen to everything else?” I asked curiously. They shook their head. "There was no Void in the first cycle, and technically the Void is still the first cycle. If the corruption is gone then it will return to it's original state. But Void as an energy and power will be gone." “That...didn’t answer my question though.” I said honestly. “If Void is gone, now technically the power and energy, if that’s gone, what happens to everything else?” I asked. “Cause you can’t have one without the other, and Nothingness is Void’s opposite.” "Nothingness was made before Void. I do not see why it can't persists passed Voids end." “But...wait, wasn’t Void the Start of everything?” I asked curiously. “Cause that’s...conflicting information from what I’ve heard.” "In the first Cycle, there was just… Code. From that Code, masses of consciousness began to form, and began to manipulate the code around the, the first cycle Admins. When The Mother and I came around, we made those Admins, and a reality for them to thrive in. The second Cycle. But, halfway through it. My accident and her madness, forming the void, altered things. For the third cycles the new cycles Mother and Belief created the new cycles admins, and placed them into the void, to create on their own. And that's how every reset has started since I began using them." “Alright, thank you.” I nodded. “So...since you probably might know how many floors does this dungeon have?” "A hundred. This is the third floor." “Alrighty then...this is going to be a pain in the ass.” I sighed out. "Likely. I can not aid you all in combat, but I can tell you this. Ben, as you know Nothingness and Void create a primordial code, blank code, correct?" “Yes I do.” I nodded. “What of it?” I asked curiously. "Allow me to show you." First Belief said, flowing some Nothingness into me. In a flash of memories, I saw how to absorb Void auras and taint, and recharge my own Nothingness and Code while doing it. "This method will help you keep your strength in this place. Sadly, it only works on the environment or lingering auras. Not on people. But you have the tools for that already." He said, motioning to Second Chance and Love Struck. “Yeah...that works.” I said while taking a deep breath as the air...honestly smelled cleaner somehow. “Huh...the air smells...cleaner now.” "You will absorb Void passively for a slow recharge, but it's not enough for combat. Far from it. It will help with risks of Void tainting though." “Which will help a lot.” I said honestly. “Thank you.” "I forgot how it felt to have hope. I can not aid in combat Physically, but I can help you learn abilities and moves all your prior incarnations knew. Anything to aid the fight." They said, fading back into me. “Thank you…” I nodded gently. “Cool...so that happened right?” I asked. “That wasn’t just a figment of my imagination?” I asked, just wanting to make sure this place hasn’t gotten to me. "We saw it." Kexez said. "The stakes grow ever higher." “Right…” I said honestly. “Can’t wait..this is gonna be a pain.” We made our way through the rest of the floor. Soon finding the boss room. Entering, it was the same gimik, except that, this room was basically the throne room from my Equestria. The coffin in the center of it burst open as the room gained a dark tone, and looking I saw Alxun, looking quite like Nightmare Moon, her Keyblade in one hand, and Scythe in another, she even wore a Keyblade armor version of the Nightmare Moon armor. She spoke no words at seeing me, just readied herself. Ready to strike. "I'm sorry my love…" I said while budding everyone up and sending my golems at her, with magic attacks from the skeletons backing them up. Now when abilities aren't actively one shotting these bosses, they are objectively very difficult. Alxun was powerful, fast...and even after everything, still beautiful as she hammered away at all my Golems, the only reason they weren’t just rubble right now was because of all the buffs I used. I continued to watch her dodge and parry the Golems attacks and the magic’s my Skeleton’s were throwing out at her, but even when this was a previous Alxun, she still had the same ticks. “Now!” I commanded as several Skeletal Mage Nobodies tapped their staves on the ground as skeletal hands suddenly grabbed onto her ankles after she swung her Scythe at a Golem. “Right Gigante!” I commanded my Golems, the five of them rearing their right arms back as their arms doubled in size. “Grand Impact!” I commanded as Nothingness swirled around their now massive arms and hammered into Alxun. She managed to block all of them but she seemed to struggle against the massive force from all five. “Fire!” I commanded as several mages fired off spells that hit Alxun and caused her to buckle and fall underneath the force of the Golem’s strikes. “Combine!” I shouted as the five Nothingness Golems started to fuse together into an even bigger and much stronger golem. “Create Grand Item.” I casted as the golem reached up and grabbed a massive Nothingness Hammer. “Now, Megaton Press!” I commanded, the Nobody raising it’s hammer up as it slammed into the grounded Alxun, the ground shattering like glass as she was flung into the air with all the debris, the Golem leaping up as the Hammer glowed with power as it slammed into Alxun’s torso and driving her straight back down into a massive explosion of force. “Jericho.” I said to him, telling him to land the finishing blow. Taking the shot, he rushed behind her, like with Isabel. His slash hit, and she fell back, covered in light and Nothingness, then it fades, leaving a tiny, adorable, crying baby alicorn of Alxun's colors. I was swift again and picked up my new baby girl. “It’s alright, mommy’s here.” I said gently, cradling baby Alxun as I made sure she was okay. “So adorable…” I muttered happily. She, too, shifted. Part, what I believe is Minotaur, and of course, part wolf. She did keep her wings, horn, all that. Kexez put her away carefully and we examined our loot. Like before, money, weapons, various other items. Some new girls… a new GUY… god that six pack… “Okay didn’t expect the guy…” I muttered. “Okay so...three floors down, ninety seven more to go.” "That's like almost ten girls and one stud." Jericho added. "Thank God everyone here is bisexual." Kexez said, having placed the guy away into their own belly. “Yeah…” I said honestly. “But hopefully one of these rewards will be a map to all the Mushroom area’s...it’s gonna be a nightmare to find them otherwise.” I sighed out. Floor 4 We headed off to the fourth floor. This place looked like a… a city. A large city, but no people. No doors were able to be opened, and the 'sky' wasn't as tall as it should be. "Well this looks interesting." I said honestly. "Wonder who is here?" Jericho asked. “Dangerous things most likely.” I said honestly. "I mean, who is the floor boss." Jericho clarified. “No idea…” I said. “But so far we have Isabel who was in some Silent Hill based floor...Eevee was in a Castle, and Alxun was in Canterlot Castle...maybe there’s a correlation between the area and who’s here?” I questioned, wondering if this area looked familiar in any way that might bring up someone specific. "Would make sense, but… how?" Kexez asked. "Unless… hang on, is there already an Isabel in this family? Cause Eevee just got here. If my hunch is right then these floors might also tell about their futures based on how Eevee's was." “Um...not sure…” I said while pulling up my Assistant to see if there was anyone if our family that fit Isabel without just pointing to the Isabel in Kexez’s stomach. There was. Isabel Age: 22 Race: Human Ethnicity: Latino Class: Caster Weapon(s): Wand Of Hellscape Witchcraft, Shining Spear, Greatsword of The Hell Knights, DoomBringer Gauntlets. Aliases: Hellfire Witch Isabel, Demon Hunter Isabel, Isabel The Loyal, Hell Walker Isabel. “Fuck…” I said. “Yeah...it’s a perfect match, down to her weapon, race, even her alias…” "This could prove useful." Kexez said. "We can learn how and why the topic matters, and for the ones we don't know yet, how they got there and what to train them in. And, what to add onto." “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “So...got any ideas?” I asked while we continued forward. “Anything about this city that looks familiar?” "Hmm… Not really." Jericho said. "Looks like your standard city." "Too bland. No signs or words to at least give us culture or Location, just skyscrapers." Kexez added. "This place was made to look as generic as possible. Why?" “Maybe to throw people off?” I asked curiously. “Cause if it’s so generic then there’s either hidden crap throughout the place that we can’t find, or something else completely.” I shrugged. At hearing me say that, Kexez looked up. "Seems so." He said. We all looked up, seeing the roofs of these buildings all had glass domes on top of them. “Hmm…” I hummed while flying up to see what was in the buildings given they had glass dome roofs. We saw inside was what looked like a portal. "So, we jump in through the glass?" Jericho asked. "One way to find out." Kexez said. “Right then.” I said while trying to see if there was an opening in the glass dome before we just break it open. There was no door. So, we broke it open, and dropped in. There was a moment of darkness before we were all suddenly falling into a… is this a dungeon cell? The door was open and there was what looked like a knight slumped against the outside of the cell, and a head should not be turned around like that. “Uh...this...is a thing.” I said nervously. "This seems familiar…" Kexez said. "I'm not sure why though?" “Got anything Jericho?” I asked curiously. "Yeah. Corpses." Jericho said, looking outside the cell. My… size, made getting out the door hard but outside was a trail of dead bodies. Knights, all with broken necks, then some with gash marks through their armor, deep through their chests. “Well...someone certainly likes murder…” I muttered before sniffing the air. “Wait...why is this scent...familiar?” I wondered, noting a powerful scent over the smell of corpses but couldn’t tell who it was. “Does anyone know that scent?” Kexez took a sniff. Them being two kinds of predator. "Smells like… family." They said, slithering ahead. We exited this dungeon, built under a church. Topside was worse. The church burned, people killed, and outside this charred church, was a man, a broken, bloody sword in hand. They were young, Latino, ragged clothes… and Ventral red eyes. “Well then...that’s something.” I said honestly. "No way…" Kexez said. “So who da fuck is that?” I asked curiously. "Gabriel Ventral… the one who drank the potion from the witch… the one who put the Psychopath Blood in the Ventral family." Kexez said. Gabriel looked up at us, suddenly, their skin shifted to nothing more than blood, as they readied their broken sword. "This was the night he was meant to hang, after the church killed his father and brothers." “So we literally have to fight a Psychopath...but...there’s something up, I don’t remember a Psychopath literally turning into blood to fight.” I said nervously. "No time to debate." Jericho said, taking out Second Chance. I buffed everyone up and sent in some mooks to test out the boss before Jericho or Kexez got involved. “Let’s see what he can do…” Gabriel ended those Nobodies… fast. Faster than I expected. Those they didn't slice and dice they ATE! That's… nasty. "This is bad." Kexez said. “You think? He just ate my Nobodies.” I frowned. "Well, let's see if this works." Jericho said, aiming Second Chance. They began charging an attack. "Hellfire Cannon!" They shot off a powerful blast of white fire at Gabriel. While he was burning… he was not shifting back into a baby. Rather the blood body evaporated, and everything went white. Blinking, we were back in the city… the building we entered was now gone, replaced by a small park, chest littering it. "Okay… that's weird…" Kexez said. “Wait…” I muttered. “You said that you didn’t know why he turned straight into blood...and with Second Chance not working...what if...what if we’re not fighting a ‘person’ so to speak...what...I don’t know if this is right but what if we’re literally fighting your Psychopath Blood?” I asked Kexez. "If that's the case, can second chance even work on them?" Kexez asked. "I genuinely have no idea." Jericho said. “Well we won’t know unless we tear down each building...but the weird thing is, why are we fighting your Blood? I thought this was supposed to be about people?” "I have no clue… but…" Kexez pondered. "Core had Hearts Psychopath Blood for a while before I first arrived. It came back when I escaped Purgatory. He might know something." "Maybe…" I said while seeing if I could contact Core with my Assistant. The call went through, but it was audio only. Must be this dungeon and the void. "Hello?" Core's voice came through, no picture. "Yo." I said. "Can you hear me?" I asked curiously. "Barely." They said. "Good enough. Can you tell us what's special about Ventral Blood? Cause we just fought a Blood Construct of the first Ventral Psychopath." I explained. "Huh. Well, in my studying it, aside from the fact it has a complete infection rate, it's got a memory of its own. Kinda like instincts but learned and saved overtime. Comparing that to the few samples of Psychopath Blood I've had before, this was unique. Each prior red eyes Ventral it learned how far it can enhance, push and mutate them without harming them. This is why they are immune to nearly any poisons, gases, Don't get drunk easily, and can pull off physically impossible feats. This also seemed to be how they are such naturally gifted fighters, it encodes these moves and skills into their DNA." "So...what your saying is that their own blood is alive?" I asked curiously. "It has a symbiotic relationship with the Ventrals. In exchange for a host to test on, the Ventrals unknowingly have been feeding it generations of combat experience and information." "So Jericho did something special with Memory Stealer, turning it into Second Chance and...is it possible to give a Psychopath a Second Chance at life?" I asked curiously. "Like turning it back to when it was originally born without its previous memories?" "...I have no fucking idea." "You studied these bastards, plus you have Cripts records of them. Isn't there anything? Even an educated guess?" "Look, these aren't like normal code born beings, they were born from the first act of murder. They don't even have their own body, hence why they require hosts. Best case scenario, maybe it lives but not without inhabiting something biological, worst case scenario it dies." "Or it somehow loses its connection to the hive mind and can become it's own being somehow." I said honestly. "I don't know how. Maybe? If it's been recording and encoding memories from every red eyes Ventral since the first, then maybe it picked out key personality traits and just added to them to form its own consciousness. Whatever the case it will still need a body of it's own to stay alive and even act on those acquired personality traits to properly develop." "So what you're saying is that there's a chance." I said honestly. "Likely a slim one. As in slim to none, but it's there." "So it's damn near going to happen great." I chuckled. "Thanks Core...god remember when we were trying to kill each other?' "Yeah…" I then heard something on the other end, or rather… someone… "You done yet~" Mom?! "Bye!" Core then hung up. "Uh...is Mom plowing Core?" I asked nervously. "He and Unum must finally be exploring with others in the family then." Jericho said casually. "Good for them." "Good for them. They deserve some joy after all the shit the both of them went through." I said honestly, having gotten their memories as well through our mental link. "Still surprised it was Eclipsa of all people to push Core into asking Unum out." "Eh. Well, so long as everyone is having fun." "Wonder how they will all react to me?" Kexez pondered. "Gonna flip but probably will take up your 'whoring out' when you grow a heart." I said honestly. "That's actually something Heart holds back on doing also. Their shyness stems from a lack of a confident self image." "Oh horseshit." I frowned. "I think you're mistaking Heart for me on the confidence part." "No. He genuinely does not see what makes themselves attractive to others. I should know. I am his Nobody. He may play it off or hide it, but it's been there ever since he found out he was in an issue of top ten hottest celebrities. Odd they put him there, considering he was a criminal." "Hey, sometimes people like that." I said honestly. "But what rank was he?" "Third if I recall." "Cool." I nodded. "I can see why." "Huh… well let's get these chests open then rest for a bit, and take out these buildings." Jericho said. "Alrighty then. Let's get to looting." I said while heading towards the chests. "Oh, who wants to bet this Dungeon is an Organization Mushroom Game?" I asked curiously. "A what?" Jericho asked. "Like Hearts Absent Silhouette, how when you beat the trial a Mushroom appears and gives you a prize." I said honestly. "So...what if this Dungeon is just like that?" "So, beat all the towers, and the real boss shows up." Kexez said. "Most likely." I shrugged. "Each one will be a Red Eyed Ventral." I said honesty. "How many is that?" Jericho asked. "A few hundred." Kexez said. “So we should probably split up…” I sighed out. “This is gonna take a while.” "Best not. We will do just as well together." “So...we have to do one hundred towers...wonders.” I rolled my eyes. “This is going to be the longest floor here.” "At least each one downed rewards us." Kexez motioned back to the small park filled with chests. “Yeah.” I said while starting to opening up the chests. “Wonder what we’ll find in all these chests.” It was all fairly standard loot. Potions, items, food even. We ate and drank for a while, then got to work. The second Ventral boss was female, and used a bow and arrows. She was dealt with and we actually got the bow and arrows. The loot from that one was also standard. The rest could be summarized as Rinse and Repeat. "Okay… Hearts family is related to some fucked up people." Jericho said. "Black Beard surprised me." Kexez said. “I’m not surprised about Jack the Ripper…” I said honestly. "Okay so, one left… wonder who this is?" Jericho asked. "It's likely Hearts Grandfather." At hearing that, horrid memories from Diane flooded back. Seeing the old bastard dropped from above out makeshift home, shoot our two month pregnant belly… seeing out unborns remains flow out as we died… "He was the last pure red eyes Ventral before Heart." I immediately grabbed the necklace around my neck and took it off. “Sorry Lyra...but this is some Therapy I can’t have your stupid necklace interfere with.” I growled as I sent it into my Assistant, not wanting to just crush it here. “But after I’m done ripping apart that old fucker, I’m pretty sure the true boss will appear. Look.” I said while pointing over to the river of blood that’s been slowly moving towards a central spot. We hopped in. I felt my blood go cold. This was… where I died… where Diane died… and here she was. I was breathing a big labored, seeing this… reliving this… I heard that haunting noise, the shotgun that killed me, held by the man who killed me. Killed Diane. They turned to me, their skin shifting to blood like all the others. I growled as I cracked my knuckles. “Alright you old fuck.” I growled as I pulled out No Heart and the heavily evolved Skysplitter. “Your going pay for every little thing you’ve done...and especially for my child!” I shouted as I slammed Skysplitter into the fucker and knocking them through a wall. “The following is going to contain severe amounts of Gratuitous Violence, Viewer Discretion Advised.” I growled. The Psychopath immediately aimed at me with their shotgun, only for me to grab it and snap it in half. “Your not going to hurt anyone else ever again!” I roared as I cut off one of the Psychopath’s arms, even though it reformed rather quickly I immediately grabbed it and ripped it right off, even if it’s body was pure blood it still had some solid mass before falling apart. “Damn you and being blood, I wanted to beat the shit out of you with your own severed arm.” I growled as the Psychopath tried to attack me in several ways a trained Ventral would with Psychopath powers, which was predictable as all hell. Kexez and Jericho saw...a lot of torture that I legitimately didn’t want anyone to know about, which were firsts for both of them as I laughed in sweet sweet catharsis and relief, and when I came back from my more non-violent senses I saw that the old fucker wasn’t there anymore, and a small river of blood was heading out of the house. “Fuck...whoever said this wouldn’t be cathartic...cause it sure as shit was.” I panted heavily while looking back at Jericho and Kexez. Kexez looked impressed, Jericho was promptly hiding via… they… they just shoved themselves down Kexez's throat. How was this guy once both a major bad guy and is the Admin of war? "Well, looks like you scared him." Kexez said, rubbing their throat from the sudden forced swallow. "How the fuck can Jericho have been a major bad guy and an admin of war if hes being a pansy half the time?" I asked. Kexez shrugged. The blood from all pools soon collected in the center, creating. A massive pool of blood that soon began to rise. My eyes widened as I saw three figured forming… Zeke...Marcy... Diane. I was confused… til I remembered, Core said the Psychopath Blood also affected a spouse… that's how Eclipsa and I got Psychopath Blood… from Zeke… the three forms then hit the floor, shifting to blood bodies before splashing into one another, twisting and morphing into a single being. "Um...yeah cool, mind cutting the theatrics or does it run in the family?" I asked the blood person. The blood them summoned it's own versions of My Thirteen Weapons, and took the blood version of No Heart and Frozen Pride. "Rude." I frowned. "Alright ...let's see what he can do…" I muttered while grabbing No Heart and Frozen Pride and dashing forward and swinging at him. When we clash, an explosion of energy and blood shook the room. What worried me was that I was getting pushed back… "Damn your strong…" I muttered, noting I still had time before redoing my buffs. We broke the stalemate, clashing again as a similar blast happened. Kexez tried to restrain them, only for their tail to phase through it's blood body. He was knocked across the field by its blood Frozen pride. Jericho finally popped out and had Second Chance equipped as they reached over next to me. "So...plan?" They asked. "Well it's a Psychopath so...Humanity?" I asked. "Do either of you know how to use it?" "Only Cript." Jericho said. Kexez managed to slither back behind Jericho and I. "God damn it." I groaned. "Well..looks like it's up to me." I said while taking Second Chance as my eyes shifted to my Humanity side instead of one being psychopath the other being humanity. Eyes glowing white, the energy flooded into Second Chance. I readied an attack, swiftly and quickly dodging this Psychopaths attack, moving Kexez and Jericho as well. I jumped up, swinging Second Chance. "Salvation." I said, the white light engulfing the Psychopath til it was a white and red Silhouette, moving in unnatural sporadic movements. Finally, after a few good minutes, it came to a stop. The silhouette shrinking until it was now a crying baby. They looked human, and didn't smell of much else. Their eyes were odd though. Pure white, with single red pupils. “Another first…” I muttered with a smile as I gently picked up the baby. “It’s alright, mommy’s here.” They didn't change, surprisingly, and Kexez placed the baby away. The remaining blood formed up into a large door. "Well, let's see the rewards." Kexez said as another large chest appeared before the door. “Let’s hope for something good.” I said while walking over and opening the large chest. It was a lot of money mostly, some more weapons, powerful healing potions, a few more womenwomen… some more husbands, though in this family gender is out the window so… that won't last too long. All in all a fair mix. Oh? Looking at the bottom I spotted a book, bound in leather. It was a spellbook for Humanity! “There should be…” I muttered while looking around the chest again...only to find a book. “Oh?” I hummed curiously while checking to see what the title was. 'Humanity and Psychopaths'. “Is this going to be a history lesson?” I wondered while I opened the book to see what it has to say. Psychopaths. The physical manifestation of murder, typically their power comes from the blood spilled by those who kill, justified or not. Humanity, a power stemming from the act of Mercy, and willingness to save all. Once, these two energies were thought polar opposite, but we're found to be two sides of the same power, this power is Choice. The choice to save or end a life carried with it on both sides great toll mentally and physically, and those who utilize the power of Choice can utilize both Psychopath and Humanity to their fullest. These beings are rare, and while a race has existed, known as The Scales, they gained power from both sides of the coin, and could be grand healers or invaders. The choice of what to use and who to spare, who to kill, is on them. Some beings, even fewer, have achieved this artificially, but little is known. The following information is all the known powers and abilities able to be utilized by The Scales, and the price each power costs to unlock. “Well then...that’s new.” I said honestly. “The Scales huh? That is rather interesting…” I decided to leave the rest of the book for when we reach an actual safe room. So many more floors, so many secrets to discover… and that artifact is ours…. Floor 5 The fifth floor. This one was a large cave of sorts, torches lit the path, and over all, it was almost a typical dungeon type experience. Save the monsters. Werewolves tainted by void. Not the Void wolves I needed to meet though. Giant frog looking nasties. And even various Undead's or other creatures. All of course, void tainted, but half got Second Chance, half got Love Struck. We were in a rest… camber, a smaller cave area with a makeshift camp set up, flowing water, the Info book, and ect. “Alrighty then...let’s check who the boss is here…” I hummed while checking the info book. “Which also raises the question of...why the hell these things are here?” "Cript always loved history, lore." Jericho said. "Be it made for the dungeon or forced here, he always did want everything to have some form of a story." Gilsha the Dragoness Raw strength was an understatement for this female dragons raw physical power. It's said the only one to meet her strength physically was The Mother herself. “Gilsha the Dragoness?” I wondered while checking my Assistant, wondering if she was apart of our family or if she was someone completely different. Gilsha Race: Dragon Age: Unknown. Gilsha was a floor mini boss for the secret files and spells of Cript's former masters temple, the door to the secured room required the person enter an infant cave dungeon maze and find the exit. Gilsha was made as part of the maze to end Intruders who would misuse the information. She fell for Cript when they caught her punch without a flinch or stagger. A hard fear considering she can punch through three feet thick Dark Monofilament Slabs. "Oh...well then that's…interesting." I said nervously. "Shes gonna punch the shit out of us…" "Hope your Shield can hold up to her." Jericho said. “Um...not sure when it’s said she can punch through three feet thick Dark Monofilament Slabs…” I said nervously. "So what's the plan then?" Kexez asked, honestly looking a tad… swollen at the moment. "She's a dragon so scales will protect against most or all physical attacks, and depending on type magic as well." "So we're fucked." Jericho said. "Maybe not." Kexez said. "If she is anthro, then she can only have two weak spots… and if she is wearing armor, they will be covered." “You okay there Kexez? You’re looking a little...swollen.” I said nervously. "Between all the infants, new females and males in my stomach’s, did you expect something else?" They asked. "You still have that book?" “Yep.” I nodded. “I still have the book.” I handed the book over to Kexez, who read through it quickly, finding what they were looking for quickly. "Here we are. One moment." “Oh?” I asked curiously. “What did you find?” "You'll see." I glanced at the book, since it was still open from where Kexez left off. A unique feature of the Floof Noodle is their ability to grow their lower snake half larger, without the need to swallow themselves like Nagas do. This only affects their lower half, and can be done a few times. The Mama Noodle however, can do this until they are up to a mile in diameter. This lets them grow more stomachs for storing/feeding young as well as the elderly and sick/Injured. A mile...In Diameter!! “Jesus fuck…” I muttered. “Maybe...being a Floof Noodle might be advantages after all...hmm…” Jericho and I watched as Kexez soon began to grow, well, just their snake half did. Patches of fur and scales splitting up, new fluff and scales growing in the forming gaps. Soon, Kexez's lower half was now longer… and larger than Eclipsa's. "That didn't hurt like I was expecting." Kexez said. “Right then…” I said. “That is...most definitely a thing.” I said simply. “So how do you feel with your bigger body?” "Got some weight but I'll adjust." “There is nothing wrong with that.” I said honestly. “So anyways...we have a dragoness to fight…” Getting ready, we came up to the boss room. Opening the door, was like all prior rooms, save the psychopath one, and the coffin lid flew open as a tall, black scaled… goddess of a Dragoness came out… she was about my height, armor that sexy revealing they make for perverted mods in games or anime and was just in every way… hot. "Focus lover boy." Jericho chuckled. “I am focusing.” I said honestly. “Focusing on all the right things…” I said while trying to find the two weakpoints on this lady. “I’m totally not distracted nope.” "Well you will be." Kexez said. "Weak points on her are under that lower half of her bikini armor." "Wait, you mean…" Jericho asked. "Yup. Only parts of a dragon race not covered in scales like hers are the pussy and anus." "Oh we are going to hell for this boss fight…" “Except for her throat.” I said while pointing to her neck. “Even on other races, there’s always a small little sliver of a weak point there...just so we don’t have to shove Second Chance right up her ass.” "Yeah, you'd rather shove something else up there." Kexez jokes, making Jericho laugh and me blush. “Yeah well...shut up.” I pouted. “We need to fight her, not plow her…” I said while preparing myself to fight. “So who wants to go first?” "I'd say ladies first but that kinda applies to all of us." Jericho said, swapping out Second Chance for a battle axe made of pure lightning. “Fine then.” I said while walking over to her with No Heart and Frozen Pride. “Let’s get this over with.” I muttered. “Alright lady, bring it.” I charged at Gilsha, she throwing a punch at my Shield… I blinked, suddenly a few feet inside the cave walls. “Ow…” I groaned. “The fuck…” Climbing out, I saw Frozen Pride was still in good shape. Jericho was avoiding where he could and getting hits in where he could. “Bitch is gonna get a Second Chance so far up her ass..” I growled while rolling my shoulder. “Fucking hell that just sounds weird…” I charged back in. Kexez was summoning Nobodies as a destruction while managed to get a hit in on her arm. There was an impact shockwave of Nothingness… she promptly grabbed my arm, nearly ripping it off as my bones broke from her grip as she tossed me… INTO THE SAME WALL HOLE!! “Okay, fuck you.” I said with a frown as I brought out Sharpshooters and opened a small portal, firing a shit load of arrows straight into the Dragoness. They bounced off… HOW STRONG IS SHE?! “Seriously how strong is this bitch?” I asked while getting out of the hole. "We need to find this neck weak spot or break her armor." Jericho said. "Your choice." “You two know where the adam’s apple would be on a guy? It’s there on her.” I said while trying to shoot Sharpshooters at that specific spot, not sure if the boss would try and block it. She did… actually taking off her… top armor to tie it around her neck… dragon tits…. "Focus." Jericho said again. "We need to break that armor. Think Skysplitter can do that?" “Maybe…” I said honestly, finding her dragon titties nice as I pulled out Skysplitter and immediately leaped over and swinging it down hard. I managed to get a hit on her armor, cracking it. Maybe two more hits should- Yipe! She grabbed me, body slamming me. “Rude…” I growled as I tried to stop the Dragoness with my upgraded Foudre. I used this to dodge, finding a perfect speed to deliver the final two strikes to her makeshift neck guard… and about Six to her panties one… oh, she's like us when it comes to genitals… actually that's a good looking member she's got. “I’m top, not a bottom bitch…” I growled as I grabbed Second Chance and tried to drive it straight into her throat. She was good at dodging. I had to reequip Foudre to get the advantage, finding a thin hairline crack along her neck. Bingo. With this speed on my side I hot the hairline mark with Second Chance. She glowed the now iconic white, and then it began to Shrink. Soon… there was an egg. Right. “My egg.” I said while picking up the egg. Like with Eevee it hatched after I said that, an adorable little wolf dragon now crying needily in my arms. "Well, that was a fight… gonna plow the version of her back home when we're done then?" Jericho asked me. “You know I’m more than just horny all the time.” I frowned. "As a Den Mother I kinda doubt that." Kexez said, taking baby Gilsha and place her away. "So, let's see what and who- gah!" Kexez gasped, falling to their arms while clutching their chest. "Shit you okay?!" Jericho asked as he and I ran over to Kexez. “Getting a heart shouldn’t be this painful right?” I asked nervously, checking over Kexez to make sure they were alright. "It is when you are me." Kexez said with a grunt. "Remember, Zeke, Heart, and now myself all are Kingdom Hearts. My forming a new one it's linking me to Heart… to everyone. I got hit by a wave of emotions. They'll keep happening as my heart forms, merging and becoming one with the others Hearts. Yours, Eclipsa's, Heart's. All of you." "What emotions did you feel?" Jericho asked. "Regret. Regret for what I did to all those people… and love…" “Sounds about right.” I nodded. We helped Kexez up, they got their balance back, shaking off the dizziness. "Back to the loot then. Let's just hope this doesn't happen often." The loot this time surprised me… a C.R.I.P.T. blueprint safe. "Holy shit!" Jericho said. “Oh boy...wonder who’s this is…” I muttered while checking to see if there was anything special about it to tell us.… Heart… This was Heart's blueprints… everything Nexus has planned and built about them… here... “I mean...technically I’m Heart so…” I muttered while trying to open the thing to see what they had on Heart. It.. didn't respond. So it's smart then. Either I wake them up or… Kexez should be able to open it. “Okay so...Kexez you open it.” Nodding, Kexez placed a hand on it. The lid popped open, showing a Holo screen with near countless files. "Okay… so what now?" Kexez asked. “We look through all the shit that Nexus has on Heart.” I said honeslty. There was… a lot… the abilities, the stats each power up, level up and even when they would become an Admin… HOW they became an admin even! Everything in Heart's life was detailed and here… up until Eclipse became Eclipsa, and remembered Heart, and vise versa. After that it's no longer accurate. Their goal for Heart was to have him become the Admin of Hearts, shift into a Psychopath so they can use that power and connection to all hearts to make a multiverse army of the things instantly. Wait, according to this at the time Zeke split and made Kexez… he was… he was strong enough to control people's hearts already. He's never even used that power. “Cause of course…” I sighed out. "What should we do with this thing then?" Kexez asked. “Does Nexus still technically have this?” I asked curiously. "Possibly." Jericho thought aloud. "If this came from the same place as everything else we've won then yes they do." “Damn...but it says that Nexus’s plan went to absolute shit because of Eclipsa…” I said honestly. "They must have something else in mind then." Kexez said. "A means of salvaging this plan, or at least parts of it." “Well I’m sure it would be written in here…” I muttered while sifting through everything. I was looking through files when I found a video file… is that… Hearts mom? Log Date: 6,590. The project is completed. As of this entry, Madaline Ethil Nexus will be no more, my memories and life here erased so I can raise this project as a proper mother. The memories of the family have already been altered, my new memories will be implanted once my current ones are removed. I will become Marry Ventral. Wife of Barry Ventral and mother to the project and two other children I and my new husband will know as ours. My only proof that Madaline ever even existed will be this audio log, as Nexus will erase all records of me to ensure no lose ends. That said, I leave for the process in an hour… I'm scared. I never imagined King Vincent would choose me to carry this project, raise them. I know I won't remember any of this soon but… I never wanted to bring a child into the world like this. Not as a weapon, not as one of those… psychopaths… it's bad enough he picked my sister for the special C.R.I.P.T project he was overseeing personally. I guess at least I'll luck out not remembering this, but I wish my child didn't have to be born into this… my sweet Zeke… I'm sorry… No one could form words... “Oh…” I said slowly. “That’s...uh…” "So that's why Zeke had a mom." Jericho said. "No other Cript's had mother's, none they could remember." “Maybe...but jesus…” I said nervously. Kexez didn't say anything, just closing the blueprints up and putting them away in their own Assistant. "We'll tell, show Heart, and Mom… in time." They said simply. I held my belly, Heart still out cold in their own personal hibernation in there. He's not… even a real Ventral… “I’m sorry Heart…” I sighed out sadly. The rest of the loot was the same. Money, potions, weapons. The usual. Floor 6 We came to the next floor, the theme here was… this was… this was home. This was my castle! Our castle! "Okay… so either you… or…" Jericho started. “What the actual hell…” I muttered. "We got company." Kexez said, from around the corner three Void corrupted Dusks, their mouths vomiting void as they charged us. “I’m gonna...question my sanity later.” I said as I hit all three of them with Love Struck a few times, wondering what would happen to the Dusks. While they still looked like dusks, they were given gorgeous bodies. And actual hands. They then moved over towards me, rubbing me… sweet Lord… "Hello our king~" They all said. “Note to self...keep this thing as far away from Lyra as possible…” I said nervously. [Meanwhile] Lyra was enjoying a nice picnic with Alxun, when her ear twitched, held out a hand, and summoned Love Struck. "I already have a copy." She said, much to Alxun's confusion. [Back with Ben] “I jinxed it didn’t I?” I asked worriedly while the three Dusks were shoved into Kexez’s mouth. "So, now sexy versions of your own Nobodies? Horny dog." Jericho said while laughing. Going along we came across the usual line up of Nobodies, one Iady while here even, and some new one I didn't know about yet. Assassin's, Snipers, Dragoons, the works. Some as babies were both cute and epic looking, the ones as girls… a mix of both cool or straight up hot… especially the Dancers. We finally found the resting room, taking a breather and seeing the floor boss… I felt my heart drop again. Joy... “Joy...what happened…” I muttered while trying to figure out what happened. Joy the Advisor Advisor and brother to the king of a long forgotten era, they fell to The Heroes Tomb like their family before them. “Joy...you goddamn idiot…” I teared up. "Well… this will be interesting." Kexez said. "This Lindworm is obviously Void Altered, the question is, who's void. Void Keys, or Void Mother's?" “We won’t know until we find out…” I said while wiping away my tears. "This might play into our favor if it is Void Keys Void." Jericho said. "We could finally learn just how to counter it's resistance to your Nothingness… but that raises another question. Why doesn't Void Mother exploit that?" “Because she doesn’t know what I am and thinks I’m just playing around with Void Key. Cause even without Nothingness I kicked the shit out of Vilgax, his right hand man with no problem.” "In any case, this will be an interesting fight." Kexez said. “This is gonna suck…” I sighed out. “Let’s hope for the best…” "Yeah…" Jericho sighed. Before we left, kinda thankfully, Kexez got another twinge of pain from their forming heart. "Almost. It's closer to being whole than I anticipated." Kexez said, taking the hit better this time but still needing a small breather. "I felt lost… remembering how I first felt when the echoes of emotions I had when I was first born finally faded… and Happy, knowing what I want to do from now on." "How many more times will this happen?" Jericho asked. "At this rate of growth, maybe two, three more times before my heart is formed and one with all yours." “Well let’s hope it never happens during a boss fight.” I said simply. With that we headed off to the boss room. I was hesitant to enter, but swallowed my fear and walked in. The coffin here was larger than the others, and when the lid blew off, in a haze of Void… Joy rushed out, his own weapon, Lindworm, impaled through them, covered in a thick slime like Void as long dead looking versions of Void Keys eye covered it. So it isn't connected to the current Void Key, but it's void is still strong. Joy was in feral form, snarling at us with a foaming mouth as if rabies had taken them. It hurt to see my baby brother this way… "We gotta get those Lindworm Spears out of him before we can use Second Chance." Jericho said. “I’ll...I’ll try to get them out of him…” I said as I summoned my Lexicon and Staff and buffed us all to hell, sending in my golems and skeletons I have been collecting to try and stall his movements so we can get the spears out. It proves quite fruitless. They still had control over wind and would blast the Nobodies aside, howling and making mini tornadoes that were actually EATING the other Nobodies as he ran after to bite at Kexez, who dodged then slammed their large tail into Joy, sending them a bit across the room. There was a trace Void aura around Kexez's tail for a bit before Nothingness appeared and canceled it out. So it's just the weapons infected with Void Keys void then. I looked at Joy again, only seeing Void Key’s actions hurting those I care about again. “That…” I growled as I shifted into my Primal Form, even bigger than Joy’s Primal Form. “That is enough!” I shouted as I lunged at Joy and tackled him rather quickly, biting one of the lances and ripping it out of his back. “You took my wife you damned thing! Your not taking my baby brother!” I howled in rage. As I bit another Lance, their dead eye turned to look at me… looking smug. "I… already did… they… and so many...many more...oh so long ago… they spoke weak and with an old voice, laughing just as weakly. I shifted back and picked up Joy by the neck, a clone of myself appearing behind him. “I’m going to find you, and I’m going to enjoy watching you beg for death when I torture you till I see fit Void Key.” I growled. My clone ripped out the rest of the Spears as I hit Joy with Second Chance, holding them as they were shifted back, into a tiny little puppy. I hugged them tightly, crying with them. Jericho took the Lances, placing them all in a cage of Nothingness that was holding them. They then stored it away in a strange puzzle cube thing, then into the Assistant. “I’m here my baby...I’m here…” I cried, nuzzling baby Joy. They didn't shift or change, part of me was really happy about that. I wanted to keep holding them, but that could be done later. Kexez placed them away inside with the others, and we looked through the loot. The usual was there, but this time… there were so many Nothingness ores, weapons and armor, a few thousand tombs on Nobodies and Nothingness, recipes to Make Nobodies… and most surprising… a book on how to make Nothingness Keyblades, independent from Kingdom Hearts… hell yes. I also will need to expand the vaults and armories at this rate. “Okay...so…” I took a deep breath. “Let’s continue…” Floor 7 With that, we headed for the next floor… this was different. We were under water, sorta. It was an aquarium of sorts that had amazing sea life all swimming around us. "Woah… this is amazing- is that a Kaltupa!?" Jericho yelled, running right as the glass. The fish he was looking at was about half my size, yellow, green eyes, looked like its fins were made from seaweed and had two mouths. “Is it good to eat?” I asked curiously. "Oh no, they are extremely poisonous. But their bones when ground into a powder can be used to substitute damn near anything for repairing weapons at a forge." Jericho said, eyeing the fish. "They were so damn rare back in my realm." “And now there’s probably a fuck ton of these bastards arounds.” I said honestly. "Which begs the question… know anyone who was huge on fish and water?" Jericho asked. “Not...fully sure.” I said honestly while scrolling through my assistant on who this might be. There were a few possibilities, but I won't be able to tell until we are at the resting room. “Alright so we won’t know till we get to a resting area...but we at least narrowed it down.” I said honestly. Exploring this room, there was mostly a lot of… mechanical enemies. Aquatic themed robots and such. Love struck and Second Chance both worked on them, sexy robot ladies and adorable little robo babies. The deeper through this floor we went the more fish seemed to swarm the glass around us. Finally we found the resting room. It had a fishing area Jericho immediately started using to try and catch a few. Meanwhile Kexez tried to see if that heart pain would happen before heading off, and I checked the boss into book. Quata the Ocean. The fallen Admin of the sea, from the first Admin War, revived by time itself in the age of war against the Void Mother. Wait… fallen… so she's dead now… but will be revived by time… so this is someone new. “Well that’s not good…” I muttered. “But...revived by Time Itself? What does that mean?” As I skimmed through the book, Kexez had that heart pain again. It was a lot softer than the prior ones. Jericho caught those fish he was lookitat, and some others. Still wonder why the enemies here are all aquatic based robots rather than just fish monsters… as I pondered this I took into account this dungeons theme, the large glass tubes and rooms with heavy metal and bolts… oh… She's a steampunk... “Well then...that’s interesting.” I said honestly. “This is a Steampunk area.” We headed off, dealing with the last of the robots here and finding the boss room. The lid blew off, and out in a flood of black water came Quata, levitating the void poisoned water and shaping it like spikes. “Alright, looks like someone needs some detoxing.” I said before pulling out Arpeggio and plucking one of the two strings, the water around me clearing up slowly but surely. “Let’s hope this can work.” I muttered as I plucked another string as Arpeggio drew in water, making a water clone with a piano of all things that started to play, clearing up more and more water as Arpeggio turned into a Guitar and brought up a Microphone as more of the band was brought in, a bass, drums and another guitarist who all had their own microphones. When the days close in, and Shadow’s drown the land I sang out as water clones started to form up around my own little island of clear water that tried to rush forward to fight, only for the Ocean Admin to bring up her trident and two Void Tentacles appeared and grabbed them, crushing them rather quickly. Where the shore of the ocean recedes,To melancholic spaces More water clones appeared as they cleaved down the Tentacles, which sadly was only like seven out of a few dozen as they were all knocked back. It was the darkness that swallowed the beauty of day - The darkness comes closer - All visions and dreams left away, Hand in hand we can find our (way) back home When the other band members chimed in the water around us started to clear up a little faster as Eternal Flames appeared and flew high into the sky, spinning as they started to slowly make the light of the sun, causing the Ocean Admin to hiss and tried to send her SteamPunk fish to attack me. Let's fly high over the rainbow And along to the emerald skies Let's find the key of salvation You're receiving an answer to life As we all sang a massive water dragon appeared and roared behind us, diving forward and ripping into the steampunk fish, knocking away the Void Tentacles as the Boss slammed her Trident into the water’s surface, causing it to ripple and create her own Void Water Dragon, roaring a challenge causing a massive water dragon fight. See the glance of dawn A flaming romance And the shades of the ardent sun Leave sentimental graces As my water dragon was fighting, more water clones were made and fighting against the growing hoard the Ocean Admin had to offer, but Eternal flames had this nifty ability one of it’s evolution’s gave it where it could coat allies in a sort of fire armor that wouldn’t hurt the wearer, so the makeshift sun that was growing brighter gave down ‘Armor of Heavenly Fire’ as they started to push back against the Void Forces. - And the darkness comes closer - It was the sadness that darkened the glory of day - The darkness comes closer - All visions and dreams will come true Hand in hand we will find our (way) back home As we repeated the first chorus the flames grew brighter and stronger, the water growing cleaner and cleaner as the boss was losing ground, the Admin raising her Trident and summoning...HOLY SHIT! THE FUCKING KRAKEN! “Alright! Bring it on!” I shouted as I slammed my foot into the water's surface, causing a ripple effect as ancient magic Arpeggio learned rushed through as the entire area shook as I summoned The Mother Fucking Leviathan. Let's fly high over the rainbow And along to the emerald skies Let's find the key of salvation You're receiving an answer to life As we sang the Chorus the Kraken and Leviathan clashed in Titan levels of power, the water dragons having multiplied into the hundreds as Void Tainted Water and Nothingness Purified Water clashed in a massive spectacle that I really hope someone was recording while I shredded through the Guitar Solo. Let's fly high over the rainbow And along to the emerald skies Let's find the key of salvation You're receiving an answer to life Me and my growing water army sang out as the Void Admin was pushed back, a water Replica of myself grabbed Second Chance and immediately bolted towards the boss, clashing against her, causing everything to ripple and break all the smaller water constructs, the two clashing in massive swings that looked more like two massive Hurricanes clashing against each other. Let's fly to the end of the rainbow On our quest for eternal life Tap at the door to a place called salvation And you'll find the right way to go I sang out by myself as the music fully swelled as my clone managed to land the final blow with Second Chance, the Admin and all the water glowing brightly as I moved swiftly over the water and grabbed the crying infant that was the Ocean Admin. “It’s alright my daughter...you have found Salvation.” I said gently. I gently cradled her till she fell asleep, them Kexez placed her safely with the others. Have to admit, that whole Naga bellies thing comes in handy. The loot here for once had no money, but a lot of sea themed weapons, armor, items, fucking boats, submarines, spellbooks on sea magic, all forms of sea life, and basically a lot of things. “Well that’s...a lot of cool things.” I said honestly. “But uh...hopefully I didn’t go overboard…” I said sheepishly. "Eh, who cares." Jericho said as we packed the last few things. "So this is the first person we meet that's new. Huh. Well, fight." Kexez said. “I’m sure we’ll meet new people down the road.” I said honestly. “Now, onward to the next floor." Floor 8 This floor was all… lightning. Lightning formed walls and general… everything. The enemies were all also so fast… a Speedster, I figured. This floor was for a Speedster. I used Foudre to be able to move fast enough to see them… they were people, their eyes and mouths gushing out void as they ran, never stopping. I used Second Chance on all of them. “Jeez, the fuck are we the Speed Force?” I asked honestly while handing a dagger to Kexez and Jericho so they could move fast enough. “Also this gives me a good chance to practice with my newly evolved Foudre.” "As far as I know Cript doesn't actually have Speedsters in the family." Jericho said. "... I can think of one person. But I want to be sure." Kexez said. “Alright, we better find the safe spot before more of these bastards appear.” I said honestly. As we navigated this place more and more of those Speedsters showed up. Thanks to Foudre we managed to move fast enough to make the fight even. I used Second Chance on all of them, they were people damn it. As we entered another area we were met by one with White Lightning, they sped around just as fast as the others, but seemed to be trying to avoid being caught, unlike the others who all just charged us in attack. “You know an annoying thing? We should, by default, be this fast, but we’re not somehow.” I frowned. "Only one who could have answered that was the Admin of speed, but he's dead." Jericho said, managing to loop around and hit this white lightning run away Speedsters with Second Chance. Another baby, another place away in Kexez… huh… actually, I wonder what's like in that feeding belly? As in what does it look like. Has to be a bit gross but also weirdly cool. “I mean, that Cycles Admin of Speed is dead, this Cycle’s Admin of Speed might not.” I said honestly. “Who knows…” We finally reached the resting room. Kexez looked through the book. "I was right." Nathen Race: Human Weapon: None. A human from earth who gained the powers of the speed force from a higher god. His speed reached new heights after becoming the new Admin of Speed after the old was ended by a Delete. He gathered Every Speedsters across all Cycles and multiverse to fight the Void Mother, and in the end, fell to the Heroes Tomb after their best friend and lover fell fighting The Void Mother. "He becomes the new Admin of Speed then? Good for Nathen." “Who’s Nathen again?” I asked curiously, trying to remember people’s names in the god knows how many I need to remember. "He's a friend of Heart's from earth. My link to them showed me Nathen and Heart met back up while he was hunting down those Heartless, now Nathen and Eclipsa are hunting the last one down." “Cool.” I said. “So we’re going to have a second Nathan then.” I said honestly. "Did not expect them to end up with us." Kexez said. "That's the gag." Jericho shrugged. “Cause of course it is…” I sighed out. We left behind the safe room, Kexez having another heart attack before we made it to the boss. This one hit them hard though, they were breathing heavily. "Fuck." Kexez cursed. “What happened?” I asked worriedly. "One more. One more and I'll be whole. It grew faster than I expected." “Sounds about right.” I nodded. "I'm feeling the slightest touches of emotions… and instincts. The two are similar, yet so different." They huffed, still breathing hard. “Need a moment?” I asked gently. “Cause we can wait here before we enter the boss room if your not feeling well still.” "I'll just need a bi- Gah!" They fell down, their chest glowing a bright blinding light that began to shift to the framilier blue we knew. It finally ended after a while, and Kexez was left breathing heavily on their backs across the floor. “Oh shit, you okay?” I asked worriedly, rushing to their side and checking to see if their okay. They were breathing heavily, as I was trying to help them up, suddenly their tail wrapped tightly around me… and they began deeply kissing me, hugging me tight with their tail and arms as well. "Uhh…" Was all Jericho said. “Well...someone got their heart back…” I muttered. "I feel everything… I feel how much your family loves you. Love each other." Kexez said, kissing me again. "All that love. It's so strong!" They said, kissing me again. I kissed back as I pulled back. “Glad to hear your happy finally...I have a feeling you want to go back to the safe area for...reasons.” I said sheepishly. [Here be impromptu porn] Oh!... Maybe not… when did they take my pants off? "Why bother with privacy?" Kexez asked. I noticed their eyes, they were… Heart shaped… oh dear... “For safety reasons?” I asked nervously, not wanting them to get hurt while we were doing the dirty. “And...you’re just going to ignore me, aren't you?” She was thrusting herself on my already hard member the whole time I was talking. Soon tops were off and she then, somehow, pulled Jericho between- wait how did she strip them so fast? "So this Is a sandwich then?" Jericho asked, muffled by both my and Kexez's cleavage. “Sure...why not.” I groaned. “Christ your tight Kexez…” "I'm half snake. Our bodies are largely muscle… and I have excellent muscle control~" they said softly in my ear… and suddenly it felt like my penis was getting rammed through a narrow tube of tight squishy wet rubber. I am now so close... “God damn it…” I groaned before moving Jericho to the side and tackling Kexez to the ground, starting to ram myself into her as fast and as hard as I could. "Yes! Yes! Rut me! Own me!" Kexez said oh so sluttery. I then felt the sudden sensation of my own nethers getting rammed. Jericho, not wanting to be left out, joined in. I rutted Kexez as Jericho rutted me. I bit Kexez’s shoulder, not hard enough to bleed but enough to leave my mark on her as I slammed into her one last time, shoving my knot into that oh so blissfully tight cunt as I came, giving what the slutty bitch needed as their stomach bloated rather quickly, making her look like she was pregnant with two litters at the same time, my own cunt clamping down on Jericho’s dick as well. Jericho, the sly fucker, yanked my tail hard… my weakness! My nethers gripped their members hard, and they came inside me. I didn't bloat out, but I felt perfectly full given the limits of my wombs walls. [porn ends] We all now rested in a lovely afterglow. As I was starting to come back to earth I realized I wasn't in the hall… and my environment was. Squishy… "Hi Ben." I looked up, seeing Eevee and the other people we've gotten out of the rewards… Kexez swallowed me. I moved, seeing Jericho was under me. Their gut rather… bloated. "You screw… in your sleep…" They said, tired and halfway still in an afterglow. “Jesus did...did I plow everyone in here?” I asked nervously, looking around at all the adults in hopes I didn’t do everyone. "No, you came down screwing Jericho there, came, then slept for like, an hour I think?" Eevee said. “And yet you said I screw in my sleep, and you look like you just had some fun time as well.” I said honestly. "I was masterbating." She said. Looking around we were all naked. This stomach was also very roomy. More so that I expect. I couldn't stand but I could sit up. Everything was slimy but it didn't smell. The belly walls were also… so soft and smooth. It's like Silk meets Egyptian cotton. "So, I take it all the ruckas we went through was a nice sex?" Eevee asked. “Yes, yes it was…” I said. “I hope it wasn’t...too bad.” I said sheepishly. "Eh. Not that different when you all fight." Eevee said with a shrug. "So, wanna see the rest of the place?" “Sure, why not.” I said honestly. Walking on hands and knees Through the almost tunnel like belly, I met back up with all the girls, we chatted and talked before Eevee took me to these small little holes in the flesh wall. "These lead to the other bellies. The one with the guys, the babies, and some others that are vacant right now " She said. "They stretch so don't worry, the muscle move you from one to the other so don't fight the pull." “Alrighty then...sounds about right.” I said simply. “So, how has everything been in here?” "Cozy." Eevee said, leaning against the fleshy wall. "As weird as it might sound this belly feels really safe." “Well, Kexez is a hybrid of a Dire Wolf and a Naga, so the Naga part like this helps.” I said honestly. “Still can’t believe ‘Floof Noodle’ stuck…” I chuckled. "I like that name, makes their rather intimidating form seem less scary." She said. "Go check the babies, they're so cute." “I will.” I said while heading to the second with all our children. “There are so many kids to check up on…” The pull was surprisingly strong, but still gentle. It kinda massaged me as I passed through. Soon I emerged from the stretchy tube into the Feeding belly. This was… weird. It was literally all lactating breasts tightly next to each other all around the size of this belly. It was also much shorter than the others. Made sense though it is for babies. I had to crawl through this one, finding the babies all around, either sleeping or drinking. Each boob I moved alone was both super squishy, leaking from the pressure of my body weight, and firm as they didn't sink or move that much from my being on them. “This is nice…” I muttered warmly, seeing all my children happily sleeping or eating. “I’m glad all of you are safe…” I smiled warmly. I got a few to feed off me as well, though I tried some of the milk Kezex made. It was thick, like a rich Vanilla cream with what I swear was a tasty hint of cinnamon. At some point, I began to sleep again. I was happy, and for the first time in a long time… I just felt safe. I slowly opened my eyes and yawned, feeling something on top of me...or a lot of something’s as I noticed a lot of our kids were cuddling up to me as I smiled. “This is nice…” As I was hugging all the little miracles I felt something touching my face. Opening my eyes I saw… a tongue. A long, long tongue. It felt around my face a bit before suddenly wrapping around my whole body and actually managed to pull me out from all the infants and back out up Kexez's throat and out into the world. I immediately felt so...much...colder. I might as well have been naked in the Frozen North. Well, I am naked but still. It's so warm and cozy there. Huh, Eevee was right about that then. We were in the Safe Room, Kexez curled up around in their own tail, looking at me lovingly. "Hi. Sleep well?" She asked with a prideful smile. “It was warm and cozy in there, why you bring me out?” I frowned. "You can go in whenever you want Sweetness~ but we still have a boss to fight. How's about a nice nap in there for a while every floor safe room~?" Woah! Kexez is… flirty with a heart… hang on… their eyes are still heart shaped. “So...this is the second time when someone changed they become a fucking ditz…” I sighed out. "Rude." She spat. "First up, I am right fucking here. Secondly, I can finally feel my own emotions. Between that and biological instincts, pardon me for not knowing how to filter." “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to sound rude, but this thing happened a long time ago when...the Suicide Queen had to have something done to her to make sure she didn’t become a living ticking Void Bomb.” "If I recall that happened because the Void mark on her was unstable and removing it was going to have side effects regardless. Would you have honestly preferred her smart enough to betray you later on?" “Even though she specifically stated she didn’t want to fight anymore when she had a kid. But I expected some of her smarts to stay honestly.” I said honestly. “Again, sorry for sounding rude…” I sighed out. “Was just...a little worried that when you got a heart you became someone outlandishly different.” "Well, I prefer acting outlandishly different. Before I was just monotone, and remembering it two things come to mind. I was rather boring, and I had no ambition aside from keeping Heart happy. That's still my main goal, but my secondary goal not after getting hit by that wave of memories and emotions is to be the family whore. Well, maybe whore is a strong word, but I am going to act on every sexual desire Heart is too nervous too, Then drag them along with me." “I would say less ‘boring’ and more ‘cold and calculating’.” I said honestly. “Smart, cunning, strong, not the outlet for all of Hearts sexual fantasies.” I said honestly. "My life, screw you… oh wait." She chuckled. “More like I’m going to be screwing you most of the time.” I chuckled. "Speaking of Heart… mind if I see them? Last time we talked was when I… forced him to become the Admin of Hearts…" Kexez sighed, fiddling with their hair now. “Their still asleep in here.” I said while gently putting a hand on my stomach. “He’s been asleep this entire time actually.” "X must be making him train again." Kexez sighed. "Not sure why I remember but Everytime Heart sleeps X took them to the realm of sleep for subconscious training. He won't remember when he wakes up but it keeps him sharp since he only ever wants to do paperwork in the waking world." “Actually, I read the book on Floof Noodles and they can hibernate for up to a month when they’re inside their mother.” I said honestly. “But that’s also probably true…” "Must be taking advantage of that." Kexez sighed. "So, you okay with them there or can I take them?" “I’m okay with them there.” I said honestly. “It...feels a little right, here if I’m not a Floof Noodle.” Kexez nodded, then eyes went wide. "Oh shit I forgot to pull out Jericho." They said, after a few Moments Jericho was hacked up. "Shit it's cold…" They shivered, using magic to dry off their body and become immediately clothed. I sighed but did the same as Kexez got a new shirt. We explored the rest of the floor, saving the rest of the Void Corrupted Speedsters. There were two that gave us hell. One with Red lightning, he other with Blue. They were fast, somehow faster than Foudre, but we finally got them too. We then made our way to the boss room. The lighting of the entire place shifted into a massive Dome as the coffin flew off, and speeding out MUCH faster than I expected was Nathen, their appearance made them look like a speeding corpse with black Void corrupted speed force lighting. Even with Foudre.. he was faster. "Use ice!" Jericho said. "Speed and freeze are pilot opposites!" “Sounds about right.” I said while bringing out Frozen Pride as Ice started to form around me as I started bolting around, creating more and more ice and using Frozen Pride’s new ability, as Nathan passed over any ice or even got close to it his energy was siphoned off rather quickly, the more ice he ran near the more it siphoned off. They had issues running along the ice, then, doing the total bullshit move, began running ON. THE. AIR. "Bullshit!" Jericho and Kexez called out as they worked Frost and ice magic. “Oh, perfect.” I said as Frozen Pride glowed and the very air itself started to Crystalize around him. “Yeah, no matter how fast someone is, they can’t outspeed this.” I said as the temp dropped by an ass load as the very air started to freeze, siphoning off the speedsters energy by a fuck ton. “Frost Coffin.” I muttered, my breath clearly visible as it trailed along the air, wrapping around Nathan as his entire body started to get covered in ice rather quickly. Taking the opportunity, Jericho took he hit, Second Chance slicing through Nathen. Within seconds the room temperature rose back up, and Kexez caught the falling baby Nathen. She cooing them. "There there. It's alright, your Ma-pa's are here." I pouted. “Nuu~, I want to hold him.” "Ma-pa's?" Jericho asked. "Mama-Papa. Given we're all both genders it fits pretty good. I guess Pama can also work? Up to personal preference." Kexez shrugged, letting me hold baby Nathen now. “Eh, either way.” I said while cradling our new son. “And our special boy is joining us now.” Giving Nathen one final huh, Kexez took them back, swallowing them into that comfy feeding belly. I am definitely going back in there… something a while ago I was extremely nervous about doing I am now pretty much fine with… huh. The loot box here was mostly standard. The part that wasn't were these small injectors filled with Speed Force. Jericho said one will make anyone a Speedster for life. Huh… “Well...alrighty then.” I said honestly. Floor 9 This floor was neat. It's entire theme was a Forest. Every fiber of my Dire Wolf biology made me run through it, Jericho hitching a ride and Kexez doing the same. The enemies here were all various types of Void tainted predictors. “Maybe we’ll find Void Wolves here?” I wondered as I just enjoyed running around. "So far we haven't run into any." Kexez said, slurping down the now baby Nagas. "Actually, you aren't wrong there." Jericho said. "Tigers, Bears, Lions, all forms of predators, but no wolves." “That is interesting…” I hummed. “But this forest is making my instincts go up...I doubt it’s just because it’s a forest.” I said honestly. “So, who do you think the boss will be?” "Clearly a predator." Kexez said. "But… in an entire Forest filled with predators, there hasn't been a single pray based species here. So… it might be a predator that hunts other predators?" Kexez pondered. "Won't know until we find that safe room." “Survival of the fittest…” I muttered as we continued to search for the safe room. The further along we went, we soon found more types of predators. Nagas, Dragons, even demons and spirits. Finally, we found the safe room. Kexez had to grow themselves again, this floor proved very… fortunate for picking up family. Once that was done, they could barely fit through the door, then swallowed Jericho so they can nap in them while they and I read the book. “Alrighty then, let’s see what boss is on this floor.” I said while checking the book. Spoiled The Darkness. Race: Equestrian Weapon: Graceful Rose Once a powerful demon, obsessed with power, she was saved by a hero from a time long forgotten. Her ties to Darkness altered her when she was reborn, still keeping her a demon, but raised to use those evil powers for good. She could feel emotions again, she was human where it counted. “Are you kidding me? Spoiled is redeemed?” I frowned. “I know you wanted to redeem her but...the fuck.” "We must use Second Chance or maybe even Love Struck on her." Kexez thought. “Sounds about right…” I said honestly. “Hmm...still hate her though for causing a lot of crap…” "Hm. But why with all the predators though…" Kexez said, flipping through the pages. At the dawn of her marriage, Spoiled tested her love and metal against an attack by The Void Mother. A beast crowned as King of Beasts. With help from her family she slayed the beast, taking its form and renaming the title, King of Predators. This act established the Dire Wolf and Floof Noodle races as Predator royalty across creation "Oh… that's unexpected." Kexez said. “Interesting…” I hummed. "Looks like we'll see what she looks like now soon." Kexez said, looking at me. "Now, you nap." They said, mouth opening wide as I was sent down for a quick nap with the others. When I arrived, I was near Eevee and our newly acquired Bear lady. "Hi again." Eevee said. Woah… this place is even bigger now. It makes sense, she grew herself more but I can actually stand in here now. “Hi, and sheesh this place got bigger.” I said honestly. "I know. And check this!" Eevee said, pushing against the belly walls… it went onwards a fair amount, and she laid down along the Newly formed spot. "Beds! It happened a bit ago and we found out by total accident. I swear the bigger this place gets the cooler it gets." “Alrighty then. That is rather interesting.” I said honestly. Eevee gave a cute, happy laugh before making her bed bigger. "Come on, I wanna cuddle!" She proclaimed. I grabbed Eevee and got onto the bed with her, cuddling up to her happily. “Cuddles are nice.” We squished up next to each other, and I went into a blissful sleep. I woke up with Eevee nuzzled happily in my chest. We laid like this for a while longer before getting up. I stretched, feeling so well rested. Honestly the slime and such doesn't bother me much. It doesn't smell and I think it's making my Floof fluffier. I think Kexez is still asleep. “Alright so...everyone else is asleep…” I muttered to myself. I decided to read that book on Floof Noodles again. Just how… interesting can Kexez's insides get? Floof Noodle biology is perhaps the most magic based of all races. By growing their lower bodies larger each increase in size actually enhances their magic, but most interesting is that their bellies on the inside are bigger than on the outside, by the third growth become pocket dimensions connected by their other organs. By the time a Mama Noodle reaches, if they ever, the mile diameter their insides can actually hold an entire world. Interesting enough once they reach the mile diameter size they can shrink their lower half back to a standard size, but the inside will still remain large enough to house a planet. They can grow more bellies at will, each able to house a world as well and they can eve use their magic to make it seem like the inside of their bellies isn't flesh, but ground and skies. This is not limited to their bellies however, their wombs, breasts, and lungs can do the same. A Mama Noodle at this level of growth can't even cast spells, their magic completely used and focused on the many worlds hey can house within themselves if they ever do this. Oh Eclipsa is so going to want that. “That is very interesting…” I muttered honestly. When a Mama Noodle is at this stage they actually give birth internally, inside their bellies and sometimes the offspring grow and live their whole lives inside their mama, never even knowing about what's outside the internal world of their mama. If their young do this, they don't actually die, rather are absorbed back into the womb and reborn, only carrying the faintest memories of their prior life. The Mama Noodle can do this with all races they allow to reside inside them, not just other Floof Noodles or their young. This has given the Mama Noodles the nickname of The Rebirthing Mothers. “Well...alrighty then.” I said honestly. “That is really interesting.” I think Ophelia and I made the most OP mothering race in existence with this. Heh, oh well… huh… I checked my Assistant, qualities and abilities for Floof Noodles were in fact unlocked, I just needed to allocate skill points to activate them… do I? I won't change form so I don't have to worry about that. “Eh, fuck it.” I said. “I already have more skill points that I know what to do with, and I’ll have enough for Void Wolves.” I said while putting points into Floof Noodle tree as far as it could go. Stomachs wise I am now at Kexez's level, which makes sense they are likely who I am copying these abilities from. I also got scales under my fluff now so that will help me tank hits from now on. They even formed on my boobs, but they feel so soft, and are more like skin than scales. Also my rear… boobs and womb can also store people but I won't try that for a while… though I do have a feeding belly now too so… hmm… using the long tongue ability I felt it go down my own throat, kinda a cool feeling, and feel around for Heart. My level of tongue control is Insane. This is gonna make both kissing and sex so much better. I found them, had a bit of trouble wrapping it around them. Finally got them and blindly found the feeling stomach. I did use my tongue to make one of those boobs In There leak, tasting my own milk. It was thicker than Kexez's, which made me happy, was just as sweet and had a faint aftertaste of honey. “Oh boy…” I muttered. “This is a whole bunch of new…” My Assistant alerted me, suddenly. Looking at it there was a new ability in Floof Noodle. Hm? Kexez doesn't have this? Ability: Gone No Longer 14 Skill Points to Unlock. This ability allows you to bring back eaten and digested sentient life forms as your own offspring. … I can bring back that Deku... I started sifting through the Floof Noodle book to see how this was possible. Floof Noodles, unlike Naga, species typically don't eat once they reach adulthood, consuming magic over actual food. This however does not remove their stomach for digesting food. In the event of accidentally eating a sentient life form, the DNA of said being stored in fat cells can be used to revive them body and soul, as an infant however. This ability shows just how magical the Floof Noodle race is by comparison to others. This ability has fallen under the category of blessed abilities as it in no way uses magics typically used in Necromancy, and the soul of the person returns to the newly reborn body pure as the day it was created. They can recall bits and pieces of their former life, typically Names and places but nothing more. I immediately rushed to gain that ability, still having god knows how many skill points so I can just rush to get that ability. “Please...please tell me I’m not too late…” I suddenly felt my skin kinda… move, like worms of something moving to my… my belly! It kinda hurt for a bit before it suddenly didn't. My Assistant beeped. Sentient being body restored. Soul returned. Memories of former life 97% missing. Name: Izuku Midoriya Rename? Yes? Or No? “I...won’t rename him…” I said gently while pressing No. “I hope this works…” I felt a shift, a strong spike of magic pulsate inside my womb. It honestly made me a bit… wet. The Assistant beeped. Congratulations! You are now the proud soon to be Mother of Izuku Midoriya. They will be born within 7 months. “Oh thank god…” I muttered in pure joy. “They deserve a second chance…” As I sighed, I began pondering things. Mostly how it feels like anyone could be saved. That comforted me a bit… I wonder? My clone back home rushed to the Hospital wing of the castle, almost breaking down the door to Coco's room. It still always hurt to be here. Her body began to atrophy a bit, not moving and all. I pulled out Second Chance… and activated my Void consuming power First Belief taught me. The Sparks of resistance from Void Keys Void were immediately visible. Only the smallest drops were being taken. Converted and purified. What am I missing? What is the missing Key to helping you?! "Fear." I blinked, eyes tearing up as I saw Pecator at the door. "The voids code is based on a foundation of misery, loneliness and hatred. Void Keys is based off of Fear… my own Fear. Nothingness is founded on Concern, Worry and the will to keep persisting. Opposite of The Voids foundation. What is the Opposite of Fear?" “There are...several things that are the opposite of Fear honestly.” I said honestly. "And what's the strongest? Bravery." He sighed, handing me a vial. It was Nothingness… but different. It's energy was… so, so strong. "It cost me a pinkie finger, enough for one use. Use it well." They said, leaving me with Nothingness, made from Bravery. “Don’t worry Coco…” I muttered while taking off the cork and pouring the Bravery on my hand as I put it on her heart. “Alright fucker, you will no longer haunt my wife any longer.” I growled, feeling my hand slowly pass through her chest as I felt something down there. “Found you.” I growled as I grabbed hold of Void Key’s Void, grounded myself as I pulled out Void Key from Coco. "Bastard!" It hissed, Void Keys Void and the Bravery Nothingness both now faded and gone. Coco immediately began coughing, eyes opening as she struggled to move her arms to rub her eyes. "What… happened?" She asked. Coco felt a fluffy warm breast on her head, a nipple right above her mouth. “Don’t talk, just drink...it’s all going to be okay.” I said gently. She was confused, blushing red as a cherry but drank. Once she caught the taste she drank more and faster. Soon she was just sucking away like how the babies would. Her body began to heal, atrophy repairing and when she finally stopped she was breathing deeply. "Ben? What… happened? I remember… our talk, I had Void Key… then, then… it just goes blank." I pulled my breast back as I grabbed her into a big fluffy hug, crying in pure joy. “It doesn’t matter...I’m just happy your back my love.” She hugged me back. "I'm just happy you don't hate me for being Nexus." She cried into my bosom. After a while Krott came by, basically having the same reaction as me. We told Coco about what Void Key did, what was currently happening and how long she was out. She gave a heavy sigh. "So Scotch and Rune are still out there?" She asked. "Yes. Scotch we might have a location for, but Rune is still in hiding. You know how she is." Krott said. "All too well." Coco sighed. “So...what do you think of all that’s gone on?” I asked. “I’m sorry I didn’t save you sooner...or figured this out sooner…” I sighed out sadly. "I'm just surprised I was out for half a year… Ben, I'm going with you." She said suddenly, getting up and looking through her Assistant. “Are you sure?” I asked. “You just woke up, and your still weak even after my breast milk...are you really sure about this?” I asked worriedly. "Yes. You are in the void, I was literally engineered to use the Voids power. Void Key did that to me because they are different, but in there I can be of invaluable use." "As much as I don't want to admit it, Coco has a point." Krott said. "Her Abilities could prove invaluable within the void itself, add that to your Nothingness you'd have close to no troubles while there." “Do you know where Void Key is? Cause so far Kexez told me that only Vilgax knows where the bastard is.” I said simply. "No. I don't remember anything while out cold. But I don't care. I'm Void Keys perfect host. He'll send someone after me, likely Vilgax so we can use that to our advantage." Coco said, dawning quite the impressive suit of armor. It kinda looked like a mix between Iron Man's armor and Doom Guy's armor. “And when we find Vilgax, we’re going to get every little bit of info out of him...and then Void Key will beg for death.” I growled. "Not without more of that Bravery Nothingness." Krott said. "I'll talk to Pecator and get him, as much as the magi-science research departments and even Cript on it so we can produce more of it. Hopefully a stable steady supply." “I’ll help out as much as I can as well.” I said while looking at my hand that held Bravery. “If it means nothing like that will happen again, I’ll do anything.” "Alright then. Ben, may I see your Assistant?" Coco asked. “Sure.” I nodded while bringing my arm up. “Got something for me?” She looked through it, chuckling. "Floof Noodle?" She asked me. “It was a joke name that the Writers liked too much. It’s not my fault.” I huffed. She did something…. Then opened my mouth and jumped down my throat. Krott and I were both equally confused. I looked at what she, wait, cross branch abilities? Floof Noodle + Starfish Clone Linked Clone Bellies: Activated. … Clever girl. Back in Kexez's belly, yeah, still here, Coco crawled out of my mouth. "Surprisingly roomy in there." She said. “It really is.” I said honestly. “But hey! Coco’s back!” I said while hugging her again happily. She hugged me too. "So… where or what are we in? And why are you naked?" “Eh, just napping and all.” I said simply while getting dressed. “So, right now we’re on Floor 9, going up against...Spoiled.” I sighed out. "Huh. And… whose stomach is this?" “Kexez.” I said honestly. “They got their heart back after I gave them a Soul.” I said honestly. "Oh… neat." She said, seeing the naked, napping Jericho, Eevee, other women, some of the men too. "I see you've been expanding the family." She laughed. “This is just rewards and some of the enemies we beat, the actual important stuff is here.” I said while helping her through the tunnels and into the Nursery in Kexez. “And here we have all the infant's Second Chance helped bring back.” "Awh! So adorable! How many?" “Um...not sure.” I said honestly. “All I know is that there’s going to be at least one hundred kids from the hundred floors...and then as many as we want given Second Chance...but Jericho decided to make Love Struck and make new wives…” I said simply. “But you know during one of our breaks I am going to take you on a wild ride right?” I asked flirtatiously. "You mean sex?" “Listen, I haven’t had that special time with you in over half a year...I’m sorry if I’m coming off a little forward here.” I said sheepishly. "I don't mind. To me it was just yesterday so, my perception of time is kinda off at the moment." “I know, but still.” I said. “It...it means so much that your here Coco.” "I'm happy to be here." She said, cuddling up to me. Her armor kinda making the cuddle a bit uncomfortable. Finally after ten or so minutes Kexez grabbed us and yanked us up. "Oh. You… how?" They asked me, pointing at Coco. “Bravery.” I said. “It is a magical thing...and honestly I’m just happy that she's here...oh she also mixed the Floof Noodles stomach ability with Starfish Clone so...they are now I, and most likely others, are now walking hub worlds.” "... Awesome!" "Magic Biology is always a wonder." Jericho said, drying off and getting dressed. "Hold up." Coco said, walking up to the wall. Her hand closed black for a bit as suddenly the Void within the wall began to get drained into her. The Void tainted tree changing color, growing tall and even now bore fruits. Coco let the void cover her hand for a bit before disbanding it. "Alrighty then, got some fuel in the tank." “Oh...that happened.” I said while looking at the tree. "Hmm…" Jericho hummed, tapping Love Struck on it. To everyone's surprise, it worked. Sexy tree lady. Her fruit comes off her leaf hair and tits… huh. "Okay that is cool." Coco chuckled. “Cause this is what we need...tree titties.” I said honestly. "This if going to be fun." Coco said, Kexez putting the tree lady to safety. “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “Well, we’re getting close to the boss door...oh, also Coco, where is the Forest of Roots?” I asked Coco curiously. "I don't know." She said happily as we left the safe room. "I was built to use void but I've never been here before, and the times I have used void was just for tests. This is the first time I get to use it in a fight." “Do you know someone who would know where it is?” I asked. “Cause I need some Void Wolf Code to unlock the Void Wolf Skill Tree...also to have some inside help against the Void Mother.” "Hmm… back when I was testing my Void abilities I learned how to absorb Void from Void Mother Hair strands. I learned how to shoot out Void, absorb it from the area, and to cloak any weapon I have in Void so I could use it to melee. But I also saw places. The hair showed me a volcano. Maybe if we find more of those artifacts I can see this Forrest?" “That would be interesting.” I nodded. “Well we’ll figure that all out after the dungeon.” I said simply as we all made it to the boss door. "If we find and Void Artifacts like ores and such I can drain them for new powers and abilities too. Think… Conduits from Infamous. That's basically what I am. Only artificial, not like the actual Void Conduit. That chick must pack some power." “Wait, who?” I asked curiously. "The Void Conduit. How to put it. Basically like before, think Conduits from the Infamous games, but she is the conduit for Void, these are Prime Conduits, people born with this ability to control and use energy and even materials at will. I'm an artificial Conduit, made to use void, not born with that ability. The Void Conduit from what I remember was a woman and her Abilities with Void were second only to the Void Mother, for obvious reasons. She's the Prime Void Conduit, and no one has seen or heard anything about her in so long, most assume her dead." “I’m pretty sure she’s not dead all things considered.” I shrugged. "Do you have any Void ores? I really wanna abuse the fact I'm here as much as possible." “Oh, sure.” I said while handing her a couple of the hundreds of Void Ores we won. "Oh...fuck...yes…" She said with a giddy grin, sucking out the power from all of them. She glowed with Void, floating for a bit before falling back to the ground. "Okay… this is gonna be fun." She said. We came across some more enemies, Coco knocking them out and even pulling the Void out of a bear. The now normal bear for Second Chance and it's now a dire wolf bear cub. All I will say is that it's a fluff ball and I love it. The more enemies we found the more Coco was enjoying herself. It was almost like she was a different person, then again, The Void is a part of her she's never really gotten to use, just tested so Void Key could puppet her. She finally was free. Her coolest move so far was shifting into a liquid void form to appear behind a foe and yank their Void out from behind. That got us our second little dire wolf bear fluff ball. "Wahoo!" Coco cheered. "I haven't had this much fun in years!" “Glad your having fun my love.” I said warmly. "Have to admit, Pony is a badass." Kexez said. "Four of us makes this too easy. Lower levels must get harder." Jericho said. "I hope so!" Coco said. “Yeah so that Merchant fucking lied to us with that memory.” I frowned. “Maybe we should have taken the side route to Hard Mode…” I hummed. We came to the boss room. I breathed deeply as we entered. The coffin lid flew open, and first there was a giant wolf hand like mine… then a long...long… huge snake tail, soon she came out… holy fuck… she's a Floof Noodle taur… also she has a massive scythe made from a giant tooth… "That is cool." Jericho said. "What would you call that?" Kexez asked. "Dibs on the scythe!" Coco yelled. “You know, when she started with the wolf hand and snake tail, I thought she was trying to look like Typhon, the Greek Father of all Monsters.” I said honestly while preparing to fight. “Think you can handle this Coco?” I asked while buffing all of us up to hell. Coco had already yanked that Scythe out of Spoiled hand, the void in it and her radiated quite the aura. "Let's get us a new whatchamacallit baby!" “Um...sure…” I said slowly, checking my Assistant to double check if we’re actually in the Tomb of Heroes and this isn’t just a massive lie or some bullshit Ghouls and Ghosts trick. We all tried to deal with Spoiled here, but her tail was able to deflect us from behind, her being on four paws gave her a lot more speed than I expect for her size, and despite no longer having her scythe she could perform some damned impressive magic. Our biggest issue was her size. Even my feral form is smaller than her. “Oh hey, an actual fucking challenge. Who would have guessed.” I said. “Let’s finally test out what I thought I’d have to constantly use.” I said as I decided to use my Drive Form, my True King Form. As the glass sphere shattered I floated in mid air, holding a No Heart version of my King Greatsword, my armor pure white with Nothingness Thorns visibly moving across the massive white void my armor was, as the actual design looked like a mixture of the Black Luster Soldiers armor mixed in with a more Wolfish form. “Hot damn...this is a lot…” I muttered, feeling all my power’s going through the goddamn roof. “Let’s go…” I growled as I...accidentally tackled Spoiled into the ground. “Oh shit...uh...I’m not using Foudre the fuck…” "This is why we train!" Jericho yelled, pulling me off Spoiled, Grey and other energies flowing through their legs as they kicked her clear into the wall. "Gonna listen to me next training session?" “I didn’t have the time to try this out remember?” I asked simply as I raised my No Heart Greatsword and...fired off a Charge Shot from Sharpshooters what!?! “Excuse me what!?” I shouted as the thing bounced around Spoiled like a snake waiting to strike. "... Noob." Jericho sighed, taking out a worn battle axe. The energy along it spiked at my level. "Warlords Strike!" They sliced the air, the impact blasted Spoiled into the wall, she coughed up Void and air. "We are so training you when this is over." “And yet why do I have the feeling this isn’t even an eighth of this forms power that you just casually threw out.” I frowned as I took a single step and appeared near Spoiled with Second Chance. “Fine, let’s end this.” I growled as I slashed at Spoiled swiftly. The hit went through her, making her regress to an infant and be cured of the void, but also made a fifty foot gash in the walls behind her… I grabbed the baby Spoiled, this form they have is… odd, but also cute. Awh, wraps her tail around my arm like the other Naga babies. “She’s adorable, and she’s my new daughter...hopefully we can raise her right.” I said gently. Her form didn't change, and Kexez placed her away with the others. We looked through the loot. Some more girls, guys, Void items, money, the usual. "This is cool." Coco said, checking her Assistant and skill trees. I did the same to see if anything was new. “Hmm?” I hummed as I noticed Nothingness Wolf had a branch as I moved over to it. Become Nobody: Transform into one of your Nobodies and use their abilities and skills. 13 Skill Points Required. Thorned teeth: When in Feral Form, your teeth when you bite or bark leave Nothingness thorns that linger and deal damage to your foe. 10 Skill Points Required. Admin of Nothingness: Access pure Nothingness to attack your foes. Requires: Activated “Sounds about right.” I said while putting points into the three abilities cause I have too many skill points from not using them for god knows how long. I looked over at Coco, she seemed to enjoy her new abilities. I decided to look into the Equestrian Skill Tree. It branched off into four main branches. Earth Pony, Unicorn, Pegasus and Alicorn respectively. Hmm. “I wonder…” I hummed as I decided to try and put points into these skill trees if possible. I was actually able to Max them all out, which was cool. “Wonder how this affects my stats…” I muttered while checking my stats. The Earth Pony tree gave me boosts to Strength, Endurance, Stamina and made it so when I eat fresh food it triple restores my health. The Pegasus one made my flying incredibly faster, lets me now walk and move clouds, and boosts my agility. The Unicorn tree upped my magic stupidly and cut all spells cost per use in half. The Alicorn one gave mini boost versions of the other three, stacking with the other trees and and the prior boosts. The final branch boosted my mana and stamina pools by triple and… I now have wings… and a horn. It's not as big as Alxun's or the others, but it's there… just barely in my upper line of sight… Yeah I'm physically a Dire wolf but now more a mutant at this point. Then again we all are so… eh. “Eh.” I shrugged. “This is a little nice.” I said simply as I fluttered my huge wings. My wings when completely open were twice my height each, the feathers reached down just below half my height and when folded up were small enough to fit under a shirt. The feathers we're huge, though, and most importantly, as fluffy and soft as me. I have to admit, feeling along and moving them is super alien to me. It's not that hard to get the hang of but for now I have to split focus on them to stay airborne. Landing is another issue. Also I can not fly with Lindworm if I am flying with my wings. The windforce they make knocked me against the wall. "Well either way…" I said while waving my hand over my head and hiding my horn cause honestly, while wings work, Unicorn Horn doesn't. Floor 10 This floor was like the Psychopath one. A massive City, we checked and no rooftop domes but there were a lot of monsters around. Werewolves, Vampires, Zombies, fucking mummies. All the classic monsters as well as some other neat ones. Like the giant hydras, Big Foot, Mole Men. "So who's is this then?" Coco asked, subduing a Wolf Man and using Second Chance on them. Jericho made copies for us each of Love Struck and Second Chance so we didn't have to pass them around. "I dont know...dont remember who had the Classic Monster motif…." I said while double checking the family for anyone that might fit the bill As I was browsing the others made fairly quick work of the other monster enemies. More babies and wives then. Kexez had to grow again but thankfully a look at their skill tree showed they could have the Size Matters Ability. Size Matters: Your tail lower half will be the normal size from now on, but your insides will continue to grow and expand your insides without expanding you on the outside. This applies to your whole I side body. Requires: 30 Skill Points. We got it for them. Now they were normal sized but able to still grow and keep the new arrivals safe. I looked, and turned out I activated that ability on me already when. I first put SP into the Floof Noodle/Naga race skill trees. I helped Coco out with the skill trees area too, she got her Earth Pony tree maxed, since she is one already, and so far half of Unicorn and Pegasus, but Alicorn was still locked. Must need to Max out the other three beforehand. "Cool. Now things should be a little easier for you." I said to Coco after finishing up helping her tree. "I hope so. I just hate I don't have that many Skill Points as you. Weird but maybe Void Key had something to do with that… hey." Coco said, pointing out one of the upper tabs. There was Abilities, Race Abilities, Weapon Abilities, Mixed Abilities, and Guild Affiliated Abilities. Guild Affiliated? I checked that one also. Turns out Guild Affiliated means if you are part of a special group or worship special gods or Admins, completing certain tasks can give you even more abilities and such. That's kinda cool. Coco currently had three. Nexus Templar, Nothingness, and Cript's Family. I had Cript's Family, and all of the Nothingness one maxed. Makes sense given I am both king and Admin of Nothingness. Let's see what Cript's Family one can offer? Oh, here is something. Forge Your Own Humanity Weapon. Reward(s): Humanity Weapon and Humanity Targeting. Humanity Targeting allows you to see who is able to be saved without needing to test the Humanity Weapon on them beforehand. Avoiding unwanted deaths. "Okay that's cool." I said while taking that ability rather quickly. Error! Guild Abilities require completion of tasks to obtain, not Skill Point. Please complete action in order to acquire rewards. “Bitch…” I frowned while checking the requirements for it. I just needed to make a Humanity Weapon then… and Cript likely knows how. He did invent them...and the bastard also keeps forgetting to teach me Humanity and Psychopath powers…”Well looks like I’m gonna need to be talking to Cript after this…” I sighed out, but decided to call him just so I could see what I needed to do about forging a Humanity Weapon. He didn't pick up. I shrugged, must be busy helping to make Bravery Nothingness then. As I checked it said Coco was an Admin, but there was no title to it. I wonder what she will become an admin of? As we made our way through the city, suddenly… cards? Pokemon cards, Yugioh, Bakugan, Magic, all kinds… wait… no… no please don't tell me! I rushed through the rain of magic cards, finding the safe room here inside a hospital here and immediately reading the book. Jenny The Player. “No...no please anyone but her…” I teared up. “Damn it Jenny…” I muttered while reading why she’s here. Daughter to a king, Jenny The Player used a unique wide variety of magic playing cards in fights after becoming the Admin of Cards. It is said when her father fell, she picked up their special deck of cards and charged into the Heroes Tomb, and never left. “Damn it Jenny…” I muttered sadly. Kexez and Coco both comforted me… Jenny… who else is trapped here? There’s a hundred of my family here… who else has been stuck here? Died here? I sulked for a bit. First Alcun, then Joy. Others who will join our family, others who are here already, and I haven’t even met those ones yet. “Everyone died because they fought Void Mother...or came here...what the fuck…” I said sadly. "We need to break this cycle of resets." Jericho said. "Like Kexez said, we need to bring back everyone, every cycle, every reset. It's our best bet for victory in this war." "This will be nightmarish." Kexez sighed. "All war is." Coco said sadly, scratching the back of my neck. I hugged Coco sadly. “When did things get to this point?” I muttered sadly. "Likely leading up to the fight with the Void Mother." I sighed out. “Well...we better get moving…” I muttered sadly as I let go of Coco and looked for the boss room. “Only time will tell if this gets even worse for me...than it already is.” The boss room appeared in the form of a house of these magic cards that rained down earlier. The coffin made of cards turned back, flying around into a whirlwind… and inso Jenny's hands, who was using Void tainted Fair Game. “Well...got to stick to a theme…” I said honestly. She tossed out three more cards, they shifted into clones of herself, they each had a deck as well, and each used a card to shift into a replica of one of my weapons. Lindworm, Frozen Pride, SharpShooters and Inderection. "Well...that's interesting." I said honestly. “Wonder how strong the clones are.” I hummed while sending some of my infantry to test them out as I buffed everyone up. They shredded them. The Jenny with Interdiction hacking them like paper, Jenny with Lindworm impaling six or seven at once with a single lance, the Jenny with Frozen Pride was tanking all received damage, then blasting it back in a shockwave of absolute zero ice magic, and the Jenny with Sharp Shooters, whenever one got in close for a hit with the others, shit down the Nobody in a single shot, right between its eyes, each time. "Cool…" I frowned. "That's a thing…" "That's Jenny for ya." Kexez said. "Looks like it's four V four. Which one is real though?" "Well..only way to find out." I said while summoning Interdiction and immediately clashing with Jenny's interdiction clone. I saw Kexez summon Sharpshooter, dueling with the Sharpshooter Jenny. Jericho summoned Lindworm and fought the Lindworm Jenny, and Coco summoned Frozen Pride to deal with the Frozen Pride Jenny. Seeing them all using my weapons I felt… kinda proud. The weapons themselves are all happy to be out at once in a fight. "This is fun…" I muttered with a smile as I swung at Jenny swiftly. "But...it still sucks you came here Jenny…" I muttered sadly, hating how she lost herself in this damned place all because I was killed. As we all fought, I saw Jericho managed to pin their Jenny opponent down, delivering the final blow with Second Chance. A puff of cards. "Shit!" They huffed, moving in to help me. "These card copies are strong." They said, managing to distract my Jenny for a bit. "Yes, yes they are." I said while slashing at her back while she was distracted. "I'm surprised shes only done Card Clones at the moment…" The one I fought puffed into cards. Jericho went to help Coco and I went to help Kexez. "How you holding up?" I asked Kexez while deflecting arrows back at Jenny. "She's as good a shot as I am." Kexez said. "Think you can distract her with a fake out attack?" "Simple enough." I said as I sent what little of my army I had left to go to one side as I moved to the other side to pincer her in a distraction move. She moved both Sharpshooters in our directions, shooting vollies of energy shots at us. Kexez used this to shift Sharpshooter into its bow form, using Second Chance as an arrow and firing. Jenny blocked but Kexez had aim, it shot between her raised arms. A puff of cards. So it's the Frozen Pride one then. "Alrighty then...let's go finish this…" I muttered as I vanished after the real Jenny. They brought up Frozen Pride, the impact sent a shockwave when I hit , but against all of us they were hit by Jericho… cards?! A puff of cards fell the ground when Jericho swung. "What?!" Kexez asked as suddenly the walls and floor all began to crack, forming perfect patterns for Fair Games look, the cards all flying and moving about each card about our size. We were each standing on a floating card in this dimension of empty space and Fair Games cards. We saw Jenny a fair distance away on her own card, jumping into it and suddenly there was FIFTY of them, all with varying weapons. "Oh...shit…" Coco said. "Well that's not fair at all." I said simply. "Looks like she can do more than you figured." Kexez said. "This is going to be hell. There has to be a way to see who's the real Jenny here. Or at least which card she might be hiding in." Jericho said. "Hiding…" Kexez thought. "I might have an idea." "So the game is Hide and Seek?" I asked curiously. "But what's your idea?" "Ventral cardplay." They said, disbanding Sharpshooter and summoning Fair Game. "Hide your best cards in your opponents deck." They said, taking out a card that had Jenny on it. The card flew out of their grip, and Jenny came out, her copies disbanding as she wielded the Void corrupted Fair Game. "Alright Jenny…" I muttered while preparing myself for the fight. We charged in, Jenny was fast, using the cards like Shields, projectiles and large swords. "Jeez, didn't think she would get this strong and fast…" I said as I slashed through a card quickly. "You are assuming the war is right around the corner with the Void Mother." Jericho said, driving a hit into one of her card Shields. "We don't actually know when the battle will happen. She could have been thousands of years old for all we know when the war started." "If that's the case then Jenny was training as hard as the rest of us." Kexez said. "I am going to try something, I'll need a clear shot at her though." Coco said. "We'll try to give you that shot." I said as I used Foudre to increase my speed and try to get Coco that opening. With this we managed to make just enough happen, Coco quickly reaching a hand at Jenny, grabbing her hand as there was a sudden rush of Void between the two. The card reality quickly fell apart, and suddenly Jenny and Coco were blasted away from one another. I panicked, not sure whether to check on Coco or go after Jenny. "Damn it…" I growled as I leaped over and tried to hit Jenny with Second Chance. I got the hit in, Jenny reverting to an infant as I picked her up then went over to Coco. “I got our girl Coco.” I said gently. “Are you okay?” She was breathing heavy for a bit, calming down finally and looking at Jenny. "I… I saw it… her memories. The fight… she saw you…" She cried, latching onto me tightly. “What do you mean?” I asked worriedly, scared of what she meant by that. "Jenny… what I saw. She was running to the front lines… where you and the others were…" She trembled. "So many dead… she saw you, dead." Coco broke, crying into my chest now. "You were just tossed aside, all of your weapons just… damaged. Your crown was INSIDE your head! Your chest was just gone and…" “It’s alright...it’s alright…” I said gently. “I’m right here...I’m not going to make the same mistake twice.” Coco didn't respond. She wasn't up for fighting. Not for a bit. I decided to place her away with Heart. Inside me. She didn't resist. I looked at baby Jenny, so small and innocent… what horrors did you see from before? I looked at Second Chance, remembering that it still had it’s Memory Stealer abilities as I let it float as a Memory Card floated out of it. “Alright...what horrors did you see my daughter…” I muttered while taking the card to see her memories. Her breath was rapid, lungs were burning, body ached, and clothes were soaked in blood. Jenny was running. She was going fast, and all around her, she saw her home, creation falling into The Void, the sky's going black, bodies littered the floor like grass. She was even running over them. I saw so many familiar faces. Zeke's parents, impaled by a giant tooth, Krott's head just outside the teeth of a giant beasts decapitated head. The smell, a smell that haunted her. Mom and Dad, they were charged bodies off to the side. Each step she saw more and more of our family, gone. Bloodily and brutally slain. I saw mamma Den, her feral form half gone and the other half oozing her organs and blood. I saw Lord's headless body collapsed before a trench. Inside the trenches I saw Pinkie, Twin, Rarity, All of them… paled and red eyes. A foul odor of poison hung heavily here still. All around her as she ran, people we loved, slaughtered, massacred. The sky became ever darker as it sank ever deeper into the void. She saw Joy, impaled by Lindworm but moving, running away. She wanted to stop, but Joy ran too fast, and that look, fear, complete and pure. Jenny ran faster, finally finding…Me. My torso had a massive hole in it. My organs missing and ribs broken, a clear view of my spine and inner body flesh. My head was smashed in, my crown mangled inside my own skull as my brain was quite literally hanging by the stem. Finally, Jenny fell to the ground. My weapons were tossed about, broken, all of them, but whole. At arm's length, she spotted Fair Game, taking the cards, crying to the sky, as the last bits of light, faded, and all became Void. I blinked. “Oh…” I said slowly. “That’s...going in the No Bin…” I muttered. "That bad then." Jericho said, leaned against a wall. Kexez was curled up in their own tail. “Everyone...killed in growingly savage ways…” I shivered. “Everything was falling into the Void...and there was nothing I could do about it…” "... We have to get this artifact, and the Mushroom 13 altogether." Kexez said. "We know one already at Hearts Absent Silhouette, so where, maybe even when, are the others?" “I don’t know....” I sighed out sadly. “Even when I had millions of clones going around the worlds I didn’t find anything about them…” "Then we have to make a deal with the Time Walkers. They are the only people who would know about their whereabouts." “I’ll send a Clone to contact them, hopefully they’ll listen and just give us actual answers.” I sighed out. "Hopefully." Jericho sighed. "Let's take a breather then… this was more than we expected." “Alright…” I sighed out. “And it’s only going to get worse.” I said sadly. I curled up with Kexez, who wrapped around me, almost in a means to constrict, but didn't go to tight. It was more like a whole body hug. Jericho went inside Kexez and we just napped like this. “Damn it…” I muttered to myself, wishing I could do more for my family even if I’m doing my absolute best. I wasn't getting much sleep. It felt like hours but I knew it wasn't really that long. Kexez, even though asleep was keeping their tail wrapped around me firmly. It was a nice, safe feeling, but my thoughts didn't let me enjoy it. I just tried to sleep, letting Kexez's embrace slowly lull me to sleep. Floor 11 We woke up finally after a day I think? I wasn't sure. Coco was a bit better, but still kind of down. The loot was standard. Money, weapons, items, women, men, the usual. The next floor was… unexpected… It's a giant theater… huh. “Okay so...the hell is going on in this place?” I questioned. "It's pretty." Coco said. She wasn't wrong. The design and architect of this place was amazing. "This place would easily get away with charging a few hundred for so for tickets." Kexez said. “Sounds about right.” I nodded. “Wonder who this place was made after?” "Well, we'll learn that soon." Jericho said. “Alright…” I nodded, trying to focus on what’s happening and not on my previous thoughts. Walking through the theater, the enemies here were all either instruments, Fire Works, or even hats and capes. Second Chance nor Love Struck seemed to work on them. So we just straight up destroyed them. Curious I used fire spell on the fireworks enemies and not all that surprising they blew up, in a really pretty manner. “Anyone got any guesses right now on who’s the boss?” I asked curiously. "...Trixie?" Kexez said. “Now that would be my first guess but I don’t know if there’s anyone else that’s ‘Theatre’.” I said honestly. We traveled through this massive place, finally finding the safe spot. It was like a snack store for...some reason. I mean, every kind of candy, sodas, tea, popcorn of all flavors, ice cream, and other and any kind of snack food to eat during an event was here… oddly though, not Void tainted, which was the weirdest part. "This is extra weird." Kexez said, munching on popcorn. “Well...this is something.” I said while already eating a crap ton of ice cream. "Here they are. It is Trixie." Jericho said, looking over the book. Trixie the Performing Fire. One of the original twenty to create the foundation of Kingdom Hearts. She tested her metal and made her mark by burning to the fire of a dying world's heart, reigning it for all time. “Well then...that’s a thing.” He said honestly. "Well… This will be interesting." Kexez said. "Ever since she lit that fire on top of her natural illusion magic Talent her skills in pyromancy and Merical based magics has gone through the fucking roof." “Alrighty then...this is going to be an absolute fucking nightmare…” I sighed out. "So, stock up on snacks and food then?" Coco asked, eating a Dalokohs Bar… wait isn't that a TF2 item? “Yes, yes we will.” I nodded. "Veg out!" Kexez said, promptly placing a sudden bed on the ground before eating more popcorn. “Are you sure we want to just Veg out?” I asked curiously. "To be fair we haven't eaten anything since coming here. We don't have to eat but a break just to pig out might help moral after… last floor." Jericho said, drinking a large cup of soda. “Listen, I’ve already eaten a shit ton of ice cream, you don’t need to remind me…” I sighed out sadly. “Besides, only me and Coco have seen Jenny’s memories...and it’s not pretty.” "Then eat more." Kexez said. "Besides, I have a small village in me, they do need food." “Besides the food that you’re constantly making for them.” I said honestly. “Also, your Living Magic at this point.” "Potato, patato." Kexez said, swallowing all the chips inside a rather huge bag of chips at once. “So we’re going to be here for a while…” I muttered while eating more food. "Looks like." Coco said, taking a seat on the bed Kexez was on, still eating that candy bar. “Alright.” I nodded while sitting down on the big bed and continuing to eat ice cream. We just ate, napped a bit and just were lazy for a while. Though part of me wondered… Kexez said they had a village in them, I know that they were likely just referring to all the people… but given what I read… did they already grow to Max size? Hard to tell with that special ability of theirs, stay the same size without growing more… wonder how I'll make use of it? “So many questions...so little answers…” I muttered to myself. I pondered a lot of things, mainly just how we could pull this Merical out of our asses. Hopefully those Time Walkers are not assholes. How does a time travel organization have a waiting room where it still takes forever to get your ticket called?! I huffed, since Tiara let me here I've been waiting to meet with someone. My number is forty seven, right now it was forty five… for the last hour!! “Seriously, whoever designed this ticket system deserves to get shot.” I frowned. “It’s been an hour what the fuck…” After ANOTHER hour, forty six was called. At this point I just watched movies online for the next four hours till I was finally called. I was taken into an office room. Here I was face to Face with the Time Walkers, well, one of them. “You know, for being Time Police, you suck at waiting times.” I said with a frown. “So anyways, I need your help.” "With?" They asked. I did not know the voice under the cloak. “I need help finding the other 12 Organization Mushroom members.” I said honestly. "For what reason would you need all 13?" “To get a winning chance against Void Mother.” I said simply. “Or do you want another Cycle falling to Void?” "Do you have proof of a temporal rest having taken place or future knowledge of this claim?" “Tomb of Heroes.” I said simply. "Proof WITH you." I rolled my eyes while pulling out Jenny’s Memory Card. “Right here, as well as many others.” I said while bringing out Joy’s and other people’s memories of Void Mother consuming their Cycles. Theyy examined them, wrote some things down on paper and send the letter and cards, into a mail tube. A few moments later a response. "The High council has approved your request." They said “Cool.” I nodded. “Why can’t shit be this fast in the waiting rooms?” "They will be delaying a Paladin Walker to aid you in retrieving the other Mushroom 13. Is there anything else you would like?" “How...how many times has Void Mother won?” I asked. “Belief, the first Belief, said that it restarts at the second Cycle every twenty or thirty Cycles...how many have happened?” "Currently, we have no idea. If we could get a sample of contained Void we might be able to get an age off of that, then get an estimate." “Sure.” I said while bringing up my Assistant and giving them a sample. “Prize pools are very nice in the Tomb.” They wrote something else down and sent it through the tube again. A few minutes or so later, a response. "Hm." They said, looking the paper over. “Anything special?” I asked curiously. "What would you call a number higher than the largest number we've ever named?" They asked. “Oh...that’s...that is not good.” I said nervously. "This will be interesting." Looking back, I saw another cloaked person at the door. "Hello there Ma'am, I am your Paladin for this mission." They said. “Nice to meet you.” I nodded. “But am I allowed to know who you are?” "Only if we see fit." They said. "Just call me Paladin, keep it simple and all." “Alright.” I nodded. “So, where to first?” I asked curiously. “I know where one of the thirteen are, and that’s on John’s world.” "Yes. Number four if I recall. Let's start from the bottom then. Let's head off to Number one." They said, summoning No Name and opening a portal… is that… sniffing the air, smelling Forrest… a large Forest from that portal. "Shall we?" “Huh...this is an interesting place.” I said while heading into the large forest. "New world, fourteen eighty four. Earth 77A5K." They said, exiting the portal as well. "Mushroom number one is somewhere is these woods that will someday become Georgia." “Huh, that’s cool.” I said honestly. “Didn’t think we were in Georgia...looks so different.” "That's America before settlers." They shrugged. "We should check for ponds and such." “Alright.” I nodded while sniffing the air, checking to see if I could smell anything of particular interest before just walking around aimlessly. I smelled a lot...and lots… and lots… of prey… "Wanna go nuts and hunt?" “I’m scared I’ll accidentally make things go extinct…” I said sheepishly. "Eh, this earth dies to nuclear war shortly after the cold war starts. Go nuts." “That’s still in like five hundred years or so...eh.” I said while shifting into my primal form and going nuts hunting Earth prey. Wild pigs are amazing. The deer here is Divine. Squirrels are tasty and- (Hi.) I heard… someone say? Looking around, I saw… it was a fox! (You're huge.) “Oh uh...hi.” I said to the fox. (You're new around here. You from the West or north?) “Um...who are you?” I asked curiously, trying to deflect the question. “And...are you actually talking?” (The others all call me Small, because I'm the runt. And I am talking. Just not like how you are.) “Right…” I said slowly. “Um...have you seen a weird cloaked Mushroom creature around here?” I asked curiously. They tilted their head. (The weird Mushroom person that torments the ducks?) “Torment’s the ducks?” I asked curiously. “What does it do?” (Chase them. Pet them, scare them. Sits on their eggs. It's weird. Doesn't talk either.) I imagined the mushroom doing all of those things and...just found it adorable. “That’s weirdly adorable. But where is it exactly?” I asked curiously. (Ten miles east of here. But we don't go there this time of year.) “Why is that?” I asked curiously. “Something wrong with that area this time of year?” (The bears hunt In The river we'll need to cross to get there. They don't like trespassers.) “I am physically bigger than anything here, do you really expect them to not piss themselves in fear?” I asked curiously. (Maybe? I dunno.) “Alright, so let’s go find out.” I said simply while heading off towards the lake. Running in feral form felt so good. Small had some issues keeping up. She was, of course small. We arrived at the river bears were dotted as far as ai could see. They all took a look at me and began roaring at me. I barked once, the force of the sound uplifted a few trees and for a moment cut a path through the water like MosesMoses. They all quickly ran for the hills. (Wow! Nothing ever scares those bares.) Small said. “They’ve never met a Dire Wolf before.” I said honestly. “So, this is the lake correct?” (We need to cross the lake to reach the pond that Mushroom is at.) They said, crossing the river. I followed and then we were off again. We arrived at a fairly large pond, water clear, ducks sat and swam at the top, and the Mushroom 1 was hugging a duck and sitting on a nest of eggs. (There they are.) “Okay why is that adorable?” I asked while gently taking a step forward. “Um...excuse me.” I gently called out to the Mushroom. They said nothing, not even moving aside from petting the duck. I sighed out. “Fine, I challenge you to your Game.” I declared to the Mushroom. … Nothing. What? Wait… are they seriously just waiting here until those eggs hatch?! “Okay so...let’s see if those eggs are even alive…” I muttered as I closed my eyes. “Life sense.” I muttered as I opened my eyes, my eyes glowing red to see if the eggs were still alive. They were indeed alive, and halfway to hatching. “Oh, just a little more time then…” I muttered while sitting down. “Just a little more time…” We were still just munching out on food, napping or watching movies. I was checking out my skill trees. There was even a branch for my fur! One did seem interesting though… Fluff Safety Speak the gentle whispers of a Den Mother, and make yourself, your pup's, or allies, world. Your allies will shrink and compared to you, you are planet sized, your own body mass acting as gravity keeping them on you no matter the speed or event you go through. That's definitely a thing. Though for some reason makes way too much sense? “Jesus, am I gonna be Capone from One Piece now?” I muttered, thinking about how my ability could basically make me a walking fortress just on that. I then thought about all the advantages that would have… add my mini universe bellies… huh… I can see this working out. There were others, most involved keeping others around me warm, able to at will grow my fluff outwards to act as a blanket for others, keeping us all warm in below zero temperature. Even branches for my hair's durability and resistances. “Good lord there is a lot...I’ll take everything.” I said as I gained as many as I could if they didn’t have any restrictions. “It’s fun to have so many skill points because you’ve been unknowingly crippling yourself.” I said simply. My fluff immediately became so soft, longer. I also wanted to test out that mini Fluf Safety ability. Jericho went into my fluff. Some time passed. I could not see them, or even feel them. After a while Jericho popped out of my fluff. "Okay, A, that place is cozy. B, I made a single follicle a pretty nice house, and C… how do you not have any dandruff? I looked from head to toes and yes I passed over your stuff while there. Was… odd but eh." “Listen, the better question is how we still have any form of soap left given how much I’m forced to use because of all my fur and because I’m a woman.” I sighed out. “Still bullshit that I have to use three more soaps just to make sure I don’t chaff.” Jericho shrugged. "Also, I made a milk bar in one of your tits." "Talk about fresh from the tap." Kexez said, chuckling. Coco chuckled at that also. “Cause of course you did…” I sighed out. "At some point, someone was going to." Jericho said with a laugh. "Looks like your Den Mother and now Floof Noodle/Mama Noodle mixed Abilities gave you moldable flesh like Kexez's insides." "Cool." Kexez said. "So, how much longer should we goof around?" “Probably not longer than this cause we need to get going.” I said honestly. "Fair enough." Coco said. We grabbed some stuff for the road, then headed out. Finding this boss room was… a bitch. We've been looking for HOURS!! and nothing! "I feel like we're missing something obvious." Jericho thought aloud. I facepalmed. “Either one of two obvious things are needed...an announcer...or a ticket.” I sighed out. “And it’s probably the ticket…” "So where do we buy them?" Coco asked. “Maybe the ticket booth we’ve been passing for the past few hours.” I said while pointing to the ticket booth that had a Void Creature that looked actually upset like how could we have missed it. "How did we miss that?" Kexez asked. “Because we probably thought it was just the aesthetic of the floor?” I pointed out while walking over. “Four tickets please…” "Rieicjfduwofhcdkdud" It… said? "Hmm. May I?" Kexez asked. “Sure.” I nodded while stepping aside. Kexez slithered up to the place, placed an arm on the small tray… then jabbed Love Struck through the glass, into the void creature, and… wow. Wow… wow! It's like a sexy cat, bat lady. "Four tickets love~" They chuckled, handing Kexez the tickets then jumping into their arms. “Right…” I said slowly. “But...hot damn.” I said before taking the four tickets from Kexez who was holding the hot cat bat lady. They began to swallow them, placing them away with the others. "Well, she's hot." "Very." Coco nodded. “Alright, so we got the tickets…” I said as I noticed the tickets floating out of my hand and glowing. “And now...the proper fight might happen…” There was a quick flash, suddenly we were on a massive stage, the coffin in the middle. The lid blew open, and out came Trixie, Void corrupted, her chest had a black heart image over it… and she had X, black strings flowing from it as suddenly, at the end of each string appeared puppet versions of us all. "Well… creepy." Jericho said. “Right so...that’s a thing…” I said nervously. “Um…” I sent an undead towards her to see how bad it might be. The puppets of us slaughtered the Undead, now the puppet me had strings from them come out as a puppet version of the Nobody was now there. "I don't remember Trixie using puppets?" Kexez said. "I have a strong feeling that this is a multi staged fight…" “I mean, if we don’t just jump past the puppets and smack her hard.” I said honestly. "Something tells me that won't work." Coco said. “Then we aren’t trying hard enough then.” I said simply as I grabbed Skysplitter and Lunatic. My puppet did the same. We charged at one another, the clash sent out a whirlwind of air and energy. The others all did the same. This puppet… They were matching my hits and moves completely. It was the same issue for the others. I immediately pulled out Sharpshooters and tried to fire a bolt at one of the other puppets. “Let’s see if that works…” I muttered. The Kexez puppet took the hits… "Gah!" Kexez wheezed. The puppets wounds appearing on their body. "Okay… Don't do that again…" Kexez huffed, casting cure as well as the puppet imitating them. I frowned at that. “Hmm…” I muttered as I took a step back, trying to see how ‘close’ they copied our movements. When the puppet took a step back, I decided to reach around and act like I was cutting strings...and the thing proceeded to cut it’s own strings. “God damn it…” I sighed out. “Guys, just cut behind yourselves.” I said while making my puppet counterpart fall over unable to move. The others did so, then, the Puppets began to radiate Void, suddenly changing, looking like clown face paint, colorful suit and I variations of us. Each one had a wide ear to ear smile. "... Creepy but I love that suit the other me is in." Kexez said. “Um...right…” I said slowly. “The fuck…” The lights suddenly blacked out, a spotlight in the distton our doppelgangers, each in unison looked up and raised a hand. "Welcome to our home, how do you do?" they… sang… and in good rhythm too. "We up here were made to kill you, and that's exactly what we shall do." They each brought up pure black versions of our weapons. They rushed us, the me here clashed with Me, they had a pure black copy of No Heart, clashing with mine. "How is your stay my kind reflection? Have you felt pure deviation?" The copy me asked… sang. “And this is just getting even creepier…” I frowned as I pushed them back. “God I hate clowns…” "Oh how cruel, you don't like me. But then again look who is speaking, after all I was made be me. Be us. I know everything you hate about me. About us, two of a kind." they sang, kicking me square in the gut a few feet back. “Yeah yeah, same thing I’ve heard.” I rolled my eyes as I brought out Sharpshooter and fired two bolts, both of them going into a portal and appearing right at their knees to cripple them. In a swift twirl, they somehow dodged/dance avoided them. "Oh how sad, the crown you wear and what you rule. Hollow shells devoid of feeling, still fitting since your heart lacks any beating." They sang, rushing in a quick motion to clash with Sharpshooters. "Let's be clear, your crown, your gear it was never yours. Given to you by an old man, just so you can run off playing pretend." I immediately grabbed the puppets head as I switched into my Heir Valor form, Eternal Flames at my ankles, Sharpshooters floating above my shoulders, and Red Nothingness Thorns flowing around my cloak. “And I’ve had about enough of this so~.” I trailed off as I slammed their head into the ground so hard it caused a three ring crater. “Fucking puppets…” I growled as I stomped on the puppets chest as Eternal Flames revved up and spun like mad into it’s chest. They flowed, to my surprise as I was blasted off of them. Looking back, they were in their own version of my form. "Oh please, how sad, you forgot again. I was made to kill you, I know everything about you, about we, two of a kind. I know everything about you, down to your lack of retorts." They said, clashing with me again. I frowned. “I’m bored.” I countered as I pushed back again. “Your supposed to be entertainers right? Then why am I not entertained?” I asked simply, hoping my taunt will work against Trixie who was most likely controlling these fuckers. "Oh how sad, your skill with words lacks any nerves. If only you equal sharp Wit, or your confident fragile egotist." we clashed again, she was good. All my moves so far she's either thrown back at me or dodged. And that smile… it hasn't left their face. “So why are you happy?” I asked simply. "Because unlike you, I have my identity, as temporary as that may be." They replied, sending out several slashes at me of Void Thorns. “No...you actually don’t.” I said simply while blocking the Thorns. “You’re entire thing is about ‘we’, you are me, and yet you say you have an identity? That’s kind of hypocritical when you think about it.” I said simply. “So, what are you besides a puppet pretending to be me?” "I am you and I am me and I am her. I am everybody that I need to be, for the stage of my Lady Trixie." A Void corrupted Mega Flare was sent rapidly at me. “Cool.” I said while using Eternal Flames to redirect the Mega Flare...straight into the stage where Trixie was. “Yeah...maybe giving a fire attack wasn’t a good idea…” I muttered to myself remembering Trixie gave herself to a Worlds Fire. … It phased through her?! "Oh my, how sad, look like you know little about your own comrade." They sang, the Trixie above fading as several dozen more appeared all around the upper stage. That really didn’t stop the Mega Flare from blowing up and destroying the stage. “Uh...yeah cool...illusions...I’m just gonna…” I brought out Book of Retribution. “Greater Dispel.” I said as I cast a spell over the entire area. The lights were gone, the stage was in ruins… and I did not see Trixie anywhere. The other me clapped. "Bravo, Bravo use that brain of yours, but Trixie still has a trick up her sleeve." Her copy of No Heart shifted… into Trixie's X-Blade form. It was tainted black, chipped and cracked, so… broken, barely holding together. The copy of lifted it up, it's glow faint but still so strong as suddenly, the copies of the others all shifted into grotesque, almost Heartless versions of them, and so did mine. “Oh...that’s nice…” I said as I took out Second Chance. “I’m not sure if this’ll work...but let’s hope.” I said before dashing forward and swinging down at my puppet copy. They used Trixie to block… it did nothing to her in that X-Blade form. Why though? The Heartless looking me then began hacking at me with blinding speed, the others copies doing the same as we tried to figure out a plan. “Anybody got anything?” I called out to the other three, blocking and dodging the attacks I could. “Just double checking before I do a thing.” "Not sure." Coco said. "Kinda blank." Jericho said. "Second Chance won't work on Trixie while in that form." Kexez said. "We have to force her out into her living form." “Sounds about right.” I said as I jumped back. “Alright fucker, come at me.” I taunted them, already coming up with an idea on how to force her back. "If we can get a direct hit on their keychain, they'll revert to living form." Kexez said, shooting off Mega Flares. “That is also true.” I said simply as I fired Sharpshooters at the Keychain. The copies blocked, using their own speed buffs to keep themselves attacking while the copy me kept a distance to protect Trixie. “I’ve got an idea, I just need to get close to my copy.” I said to Jericho, Kexez and Coco quietly enough that only they could hear me. They nodded, and began executing the plan. The Clones matched their movements as per usual, deflecting and blocking as they knew we were going after Trixie, and as I dashed in between the clashing groups I swung with No Heart, my Clone blocking swiftly. ”Direct approach won’t-” They started, before slowly looking down, noticing that their weapon was gone. “Funny thing really.” I said while taking a step back and showing Trixie’s Keyblade form was in a Fair Game Card. “I actually figured out that Card Trick from Trixie, basic Sleight of Hand and Misdirection.” I said as I flipped the card to show it’s back, only to flip it around and show Trixie in her Anthro Form. “And now.” I started as I let go off the cage, Trixie plopping down on the ground as she tried to shift into a Keyblade again, only for me to stab her in the chest with Second Chance before she could. “Yeah, I don’t think so.” I said bluntly. She was covered in light, and soon she was a baby. Quickly Kexez and I scooped her up, cooing her gently to sleep as he placed her away… then we heard the clapping. The other copies were dissolving… all but mine. "What a show, what a dance, you four had us on the fence. But this display is far from over now, take a trip, take a dive, see the horror in your eyes, as you watch as everyone...dies." With that, they faded. “Um...that wasn’t ominous at all…” I muttered. “But...alrighty then…” As we went to check the loot box, Jericho backed up from it. Kexez peered in, then did the same, the shared look of trauma on their faces. “Well I’ve already seen it once, it won’t matter before.” I said while looking into the loot box. I wasn't expecting that, this… bodies… all of the others… “But...why though?” I asked in confusion. “This isn’t a prize at all…the fuck?” "Trixie." Kexez started. "Her powers over pyromancy are based on the world she burned for, it's fire keeps the dead alive… she must have tried to bring them back…" "And failed…" Jericho added. “So...why is the prize box filled with burnt corpses?” I asked simply. "...A Second Chance…" Coco said. "I'm not sure if it can work on corpses...but let's try." I said while stabbing one of the burnt corpses with Second Chance. I saw as Nothingness flowed into them, the thorns and silver/grey energies merging over the flesh as I could FEEL the void around us trembling a bit, Nothingness fluctuating haphazardly until the corpse was completely engulfed by Nothingness, glowing brightly as the glow fell apart in almost bandage like Nothingness thorns. Soon, before us stood… Rarity… my Rarity but… she was missing her heart, she was a Nobody, I felt that presence strong from her. They didn't speak, hardly moved, blinked slowly. "Holy shit…" Jericho said. “R-Rarity?” I asked in shock. “B-but...how?” "So much to learn." Just then, the first Belief flowed out of me again. Kneeled next to Rarity. "I told you, in its infancy, Nothingness was just an energy that kept a body alive without the use of Necromancy. Reviving a corpse is a trivial matter. In the end most people could argue that Nobodies are the living dead, but we all know they are far more than that. The strong lucky few like Rarity here, Kexez and others can reforge their lost parts, or still, reclaim them. As time went on, I learned the soul played a vital part in Nothingness's power. The soul, after all, is eternal, link that to the physical body, and Nobody, is born. Nothingness stores the souls, makes them. Hers was one of, so, so many just like her. Are her. But her heart, gone. Trixie was and typically is always the sole survivor. Only Heart can create a new heart immediately. Recover lost memories. A step closer to reviving the dead, but what will you choose next Ben? Let her become a new person, or recover who she was, and all the pain that comes with it?" “She deserves a second chance...unbound by her past and any horrid memories she would remember…” I sighed out. They nodded. "Then by all means, let her fall in love again, or, raise her?" He said, tapping Second Chance, then leaving. “Alrighty then…” I said as I hit Rarity with Second Chance again. I felt the Nothingness from her fade, a heart filling her chest once again as she was soon reverted to infancy. Even as a baby she has some style about her. “One daughter down...the rest to go…” I muttered while starting to bring back all the others. As I was doing this, Kexez placing them safely away, I got an alert on my Assistant. Weapon: Second Chance Upgrade Tree Unlocked. “Huh...that’s interesting.” I said while pulling up my Skill Tree and looking at Second Chance’s Skill Tree. There was only one skill available. Pained Sorrow. In the event the reborn child is in a situation of extreme pain or trauma, they shall be guarded. “I mean…” I said while taking the skill. “Why wouldn’t I take it?” Though… what does it do exactly then? It's pretty vague. As the final last of them was saved and reborn, it's taken a solid week… I think. Lost track of the days. We got them all out… my parents were there too. Mom, Dad, Den… it hurt. This was everyone who did not end up here and it was literally all of them…All but the hundred who ended up here… "I feel like a living womb at this rate." Kexez said, massaging their throat. “You’re insides are probably the size of a planet.” I said honestly. "So glad I maxed them out and altered the feeding belly." They sighed. "Wait you what?" Jericho asked. "Once I Max out my insides I can alter how they are. I did so with the feeding belly cause I didn't want the little ones to accidentally hurt each other." “I understand.” I nodded. “But are you having trouble with it?” "No. Once I've altered it, it's fine. I did a weird take on how the changeling cocoon works though." "... I'm scared to ask, but how?" Coco asked. "First, after maxing my insides out, I am able to have a version of myself in there, kinda neat, second, I make a cozy little pouch, like kangaroos, place them in there, it seals up, a tendril acts as an umbilical cord, attaches to the baby, feeds and does what a baby in the womb would get with an umbilical cord, pouch fills with breathable liquid I make that keeps their skin healthy, and muscles from atrophying. It also puts them to sleep but mentally has them dream of things to keep happy. Like baby tv but in their heads." “So basically you made another womb...neat.” I said honestly. "Yes and no. Giving birth the first time is actually a traumatizing experience for infants and the cord had to be cut, mine pops right off and they come out rested, happy and with even softer skin, and fur, or scales, depending, than when they were first born." “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “That sounds nice.” "Want try it~" She cooed, tracing the tip of her tail from my ass to my ear. "It'll be relaxing~" “I’m good.” I said simply while pushing her tail away. "Boo." Kexez pouted. Under all of the former dead bodies of loved ones, was more loot. Actually loot. Mostly money, some gemstones and even a few enchanted books and card games… including Jumanji. “Well that’s interesting.” I said honestly. “Didn’t think we’d get Jumanji.” "Not playing." Kexez said. "Knowing us we'd walk out with the GAME itself as a wife…" "Or break it." Jericho added. "How much money have you gotten so far from all this?" Coco asked me. “Too much.” I said honestly. “And I have too much money as is…” "Inflation!" Kexez laughed. “Not really.” I shrugged. Floor 12 This floor is so Twilight… Books… Everywhere… “If this isn’t Twilight I’ll be surprised.” I said honestly. "Gonna take every book?" Jericho asked, seeing that you could pick up each and every book here. “What?” I asked while I had two clones already taking every book that wasn’t locked off. “Sorry, I was having some clones take every book.” "That's a meme." Kexez laughed. The enemies here were varied. Some looked out of fantasy novels, or rather, real life at this point, and other historical figures. I was about to- BANG!!! My ears!! The loudest gunshot rang out from behind. We all turned to see Kexez… shooting Hitler… with the largest rifle I have ever seen…”The fuck!?” I shouted as I cast a healing spell on my poor ears. "What?" Kexez asked, shooting the already destroyed corpse of an enemies Hitler. "Tell me this is not on your bucket list?" “No, why would I?” I asked honestly. “Also, why did you need to damn near blow my ears out?” "Gun. Shot Hitler. Guns are loud." They said simply, resting the massive weapon across their shoulder and moving along. "A gun isn't that fucking loud." I frowned. "Have you ever even shot a real gun before?" Kexez asked. "Not counting Sharpshooter, those are more like energy crossbows than a gun." "Yes, I have. Guns aren't that loud." I frowned. "Then you've never shot a real gun." Kexez says cheekily as we went along. As I was taking books I glanced at the titles. Most were either biography on people I didn't know or science and magic theory books. There was fictional books but they were either historical fiction paranormal stuff. Mostly just the same old same old. Then, I found this. 'War, the first Psychopath, by: The Catalogue' "Bullshit, Cain was the First." I frowned as I started to read the book. The first cycle was the birth of many things. Existence, Admins, Mortal life, Death. The first many things were created within this bygone age. But War, the Admin, was by far, the most influential. Before they were the Admin of War, they were known as Alcress, the Admin of Blacksmithing. They forged weapons to hunt, to defend, a noble effort. A noble life. His downfall began in the middle of the six thousandth year of creations existence as a whole, when the Admin of Beauty caught his eye. How could she not, after all. Her heart, however, belonged to another. Enraged, he took his masterpiece, the first battleaxe, and ended her and her lovers lives. This act was the first murder by another sentient being Creation had ever seen. Alcress laughed over their bodies, taking them and all their spilled blood back to his forge. His rival in romance was made fuel for his forge, and his love, melted down into his axe, and to ensure he could never feel regret for his actions, carved out his still beating, bleeding heart, creating Carknox, the Blood Axe of War. "So basically what happened with Hephaestus only without him being chucked off of Mount Olympus." I said with a frown. "Simple enough I suppose…" Unpowered by the spilled blood of his newfound axe, Alcress gained power by flowing the blood of his axe into the flesh of mortals, empowering them by the blood, and twisting their minds to share his. They felt pain when the living were near, and felt sweet release from it once they were slaughtered. Alcress became the Admin of war, the first Psychopath, and for sixty seven million years, waged an unending war within his Dominion. Then, a being born of mortals raised to power, confronted Alcress on the battleground, and slaughtered them with their own axe, their own bastard child, Jericho. "I'm pretty sure you didn't know Alcress as your old man right Jericho?" I asked curiously. "I did, doesn't mean I saw him as it. He never was." Jerichos said, summoning a large chrome rusted battle axe. "And it's not like anyone is missing the old jackass." "True...so why the shit is your old man's back story basically 'Hephaestus if he didn't get thrown off of Mount Olympus'?" "Every story has its origin." Jericho said. We kept on moving, finding the safe room here and yup, it was Twilight… Hearts Twilight. Twilight the Librarian. No amount of knowledge could have prepared her for this tomb, the war before, or the horrors of the Void. Weapon: Lexicon - Magica Alce Gu. "Alrighty then…" I said. "That's worrying…" "So, what's the plan?" Jericho asked. "Well...not sure if we can cause her to freak out on something…" I said with some thought. "They have their skills, but most likely everything about their personalities is gone." Coco said. "Well we'll find out soon enough." I said honestly. "Her spell based abilities likely make her weaker on defense, unless she casts buffs." Jericho said. "Meaning we'll have small windows to deal in the damage needed to use Second Chance. If she is using a Lexicon over her Keyblade then she'll have unlimited Mana usage, but still have to recast them, assuming she didn't somehow obtain the Infinity ability." "Cause of course that exists…" I sighed out. "I know that ability. Merlin of the Seven Deadly Sins has it. Once she casts a spell, no matter the Mana requirements or cost it's activated for as long as she desires and can only be canceled by her when, or if she wants." Kexez said. "Meliodas says it's her most powerful ability." “Twilight has it...I hate you both.” I frowned. “You just had to remind me of that show...and world...I also forget that Meliodous is apart of us...god I forget a lot sometimes…” I grumbled. "Man up. The is a counter to these kinds of buffs and protection magic. Hexes." Jericho said. "Those are a double edged sword though." Jericho said. "A very risk, reward usage. If we're going with a glass cannon strategy, then we'll have to make sure we end it before we break." “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “Hopefully she’s not immune to hexes…” "There will likely be some resistance but nothing we can't power through." Kexez said. "Ben, does your Lexicon hold any Hexes?" “The better question is, what doesn’t it hold?” I asked while bringing out my Lexicon. “Ever since I upgraded it to hell it’s just like ‘oh hey, I have every spell ever’.” ”Your damn right.” My Lexicon agreed in joy. "Then let's pick some hard hitters with the minimal recoils." Coco said. “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “Let’s get this started.” We quickly studied up on some of the safer but effective hexes, then began to head off. “God this is gonna be a nightmare…” I muttered while readying myself to fight against Twilight. “You ever meet Heart’s Twilight?” Kexez asked. “I believe so...but there’s so many people I’ve met it’s hard to sort through.” I said honestly. “She was one of the first Heart met after arriving, kinda like you.” Kexez said. “Keyblades fascinated her, she’s largely responsible for reviving lost keyblade knowledge and improving upon all that was revived when The Crystal Empire turned out to be Daybreak Town.” “Sounds about right.” I nodded. “Only Twilight.” I chuckled. “Heh. So, how is your Twilight? Same, different? Has a numbers fetish?” “She’s still Twilight through and through, but…sadly yes, she made me think Numbers were sexy for some reason...even though she was dressed as a sexy teacher...god that was so long ago…” Kexez chuckled. “Hearts would have them solve math problems to see who was smarter. Finding out she was only five points shy from Heart’s score kinda, surprisingly, turned her on. She was never outsmarted before so it was new, and gave Celestia a gut busting laugh.” “Why am I not surprised.” I chuckled. “What about your Celestia? She and Heart were especially close.” “She first started out saying ‘I only like women’ for a good year or so. Then after she was...kind of forced to get pregnant with my kids, she finally opened up that she was scared her immortality was going to ruin any relationships that wasn’t with Chrysalis, given that she’s also immortal...but then I stepped in, and she has been so much happier as far as I’ve noticed.” “That’s nice. Hearts was pretty straight forward with what she wanted, a caring male, and a large family. And an excuse to gain weight, which he didn’t mind, made her a softer bed and improved some assets. Pretty sure she used magic for that though.” Kexez chuckled. “And yet he thought it was weird I had the exact same fetish.” I frowned. “But anyways...why bring up the wives?” “Curious. It will be the first time I actually meet them when we are done here… and given what they know about me, I’ll need to make a really good impression on them. I have all of Hearts Memories of them, but I want them to know me, the me I am now, and to make my own memories.” “Well,” I said while putting a hand on their shoulder. “Have fun with that.” I said simply. “I’m sure they’ll care still.” “Hopefully. I mean, they loved Charlie just as much even after Heart came back, in Trixie’s body granted but, still. Speaking of, I wonder how we’ll bring them back?” “We’re not.” I said. “Not everyone needs to be brought back...he died on his own terms protecting everyone, bringing him back wouldn’t be a good idea.” “Eh. Time will tell, though, would it really be that bad?” I just shook my head. “Never mind…” I muttered while moving forward. “To be fair, aren’t we going to use that Mothers Womb items for basically the same reason?” Coco asked. “She has a point, prior versions of us, from all kinds of cycles. Might as well bring them all back, hell I’m here to bring back someone I care about.” Jericho said. “And that’s fine.” I said honestly. “And we’re doing this to stop this war from killing everyone...but what’s the point of dying when it means literally nothing now?” “So, Dragon Ball?” Kexez asked. “There were limits to that.” I countered. “That were ignored since there was like, two diffrent kinds of Dragon balls?”Coco asked, earning a look from everyone. “What? Nexus, Multiverse TV shows. Never short on cartoons.” “I’m sorry for bringing this up...I know that bringing people back is going to help us end this war...but I’m just thinking about after everything ya know?” “Would you rather everyone be dead?” Jericho asked, we reached the boss room doors… Twilight. “They won’t be back forever Ben, they will end up dying again… hopefully… old, in a bed, with family.” “That’s what I’m more hoping for instead of it meaning literally nothing…” I muttered as I pushed open the doors. As we entered, the doors closed behind us, the large coffin blasted open, Twilight floating out, in her Keyblade armor as she pulled out her Lexicon, casting protection and buffs as various tracking spells and attack spells began to activate immediately. “Time to use those hexes.” Kexez said. “Alright.” I said while bringing out my Lexicon as it fluttered up, my Staff appearing in my hand as I raised it high and chanted all the Hex spells that were safe enough against Twilight quickly. Her defenses were broken with them, Jericho countering her attack spells as Coco and Kexez started sniping her with Sharpshooters and Lindworm. “This is a little too simple…” I muttered worriedly as I kept up my Hex spells just so she wouldn’t rebuff herself suddenly. As we were dealing some damage, Twilight cast a summoning Spell, ghostly versions of the Four Horsemen appeared, charging at us. “Right then.” I said while casting my own summon spell and sending out my own version of the Four Horsemen to meet them. “Gonna need to rest after this…” I muttered while trying my best to support the others. As the Hexes, spells and Horsemen were all fighting, countering and going off, Twilight summoned again. I was ready to copy the summon, until they saw who it was. Adorned in a silver cloak, and holding a replica of my own Lexicon, was Twilight… my Twilight. The two now spellcasting, giving them an advantage. “Oh...well fuck.” I started. “That’s...not good.” "Shit, what now?" Jericho asked, deflecting a fire spell from themselves. "I have an idea." Coco said. "Ben, your Lexicon should be able to Eat their magic if it's void corrupted, that will give us our opening." “Alright.” I said while closing my Lexicon. “Alright buddy, have fun.” I said as I tossed my Lexicon into the air, the book glowing as it opened, it’s pages flying out and forming into a goddamn Managorger Hydra. ”Om nom nom motherfucker’s!” Book of Retribution shouted as it started to bite down on the magic the Twilight’s were producing and ripping it apart and devouring it. “Well then…” I said. “Didn’t think you’d turn into that of all things…” I said nervously, remembering that this specific race of Hydra’s were specifically made to devour mana and get stronger because of it. Using this chance, everyone managed to get strikes in, Coco managing to actually save Ben's Twilight that Hearts summoned. This though, caused Heart's Twilight to retaliate, summoning her Keyblade and starting to attack directly. "We gotta break her armor." Kexez said, having rapidly put the other Twilight away fast. “And how are we going to do that?” I asked curiously. “I don’t know how strong her armor is…” "Then we rip her helmet off." Jericho said. “Fine fine.” I said while shooting at Twilight with Sharpshooters to try and distract her. “Let’s hope she doesn’t have something else up her sleeve…” She was good at deflecting them, even activated Ghost Drive, so hitting her was not easy. “Oh boy, Styles…” I grumbled. “This is gonna be a bitch.” "Well, if you can't hit em," Kexez started, Ghost Drive activating for them. "Mimic them." “I haven’t really used Style’s…” I said honestly. “Little weird all things considered.” “Surprising.” Kexez said, managing to land a hit on Twilight as they warped away. “Here.” Kexez said, handing me a Donald Fizz Ice Cream. "Oh yeah, Ice Cream gives instant Style gaugeDrives…" I muttered as I ate the ice cream quickly. Ghost drive activated immediately, and it was a rush. Moving I was teleporting when I was trying to dodge or rush in for an attack, and this gave us an even playing field with Twilight as we were able to each land hits on her. Her gauge would either activate it’s final attack or run out sooner than ours. "Just a little more…" I muttered while noticing her armors health bar was getting dangerously low Finally, I gave one last teleport, appearing behind her and striking her head with Second Chance. Her helmet broke as the keyblade made contact with her head, and she began to revert. Soon she was a baby also. I hugged her gently as the fight was now over and Ghost Drive deactivated for us all. “It’s alright my child.” I said gently. “I’m here for you.” With a smile and a sigh, Kexez places her away, and we began looking through the loot. Money and items here were normal, but I did see a Pokemon Egg! Daw, cute… it feels cold… "Why did you put the egg between your boobs?" Jericho asked “Because the egg is cold, and my chest fluff is warm and soft.” I huffed. “So don’t judge me.” "You are now the first ever nine breasted Den Mother." Coco said with a chuckle. "That aside, how long will it take to hatch?" “No idea.” I said honestly. “But I know it’ll hatch soon.” I said gently. "Can you even fight with that precious cargo?" Kexez asked. "The ones I'm carrying are protected by every defense spell I know and my newfound natural scales as an added bonus. But that egg is right between your top knockers love, sure it will be okay?" “Did you forget that I literally just got an ability that lets my fur be its own fortress?” I asked, which when the three looked again the egg wasn’t there. "Well, alright. Wonder what kind of Pokemon it will be?" "No idea." I said honestly. "But I'm sure it'll be special." Floor 13 This place straight up terrified me. It was a Forest, clearly, but was making every instinct of mine scream of danger. It was pitch black here, and reeked of decay and...and… something familiar? "Again with something familiar…" I grumbled. "What's so familiar about it?" Kexez asked as we made our way through the Forest floor. Soon we came across the first enemies… wolves. All kinds, all but Void Wolves, looking like… mom's homeworld...before I... “Mother fucker...I know why this place is familiar…” I sighed out. “I think I know who the boss is...and it’s not going to be fun.” I groaned. “We’re on the Dire Wolf Home World...only before I cured it of it’s corruption…” "So who's the boss then?" Jericho, everyone using Second Chance on all of them. “I have two guesses...either Den...or the greatest Dire Wolf hunter in history.” I said honestly. “I’m pretty sure it’s either of those two all things considered…” "One way to find out." Kexez said, swallowing the new batch of tiny dire wolf pups into her safe insides. There's a lot of phrases I would have never even imagined saying before. As we continued on, finding loot, more various wolves, we also found Foxes, Coyotes, even Hyenas and Lions, Tigers, even some I have never seen before… so more than just wolves. Who is this? “Okay so...maybe I’m wrong but...why are we on the Dire Wolf Homeworld then?” I questioned, finding this really weird. "Well… the Dire wolf home world is basically a world filled with prey to hunt right?" Jericho asked, typing on their Assistant. “Yes…” I said slowly. “Why do you say that?” "Cause, according to this there are near countless other planets fitting that criteria for all forms of feral life forms and other Predator based life, even some for prey based and hybrid. Across all reflections and realms. Look, here." He said, showing a planet with a healthy mix between nature and modern cities. "This is called Kalstro. It's homeworld of Floof Noodles… but we both know they didn't actually exist until Hearts change after you knocked Ophelia up, I can't say that and understand it even with context." Jericho sighed. "Anyway, this Floof Noodle Homeworld has been here for as long as the others, how?" "An Admin." Coco said. “A Floof Noodle Admin...that has been here before...so we’re going to be facing that fucker…” I sighed out. “Good to know.” "Not just a Floof Noodle Admin. Wolf Admin, Tiger Admin… I think this is the Admin of Life." "The Admin of Life? Even in the war, she was a rumor." Coco said. "Nexus looked for her or signs of her constantly, but never found a single trace of evidence aside from rumors." “Oh boy, this is gonna be fun…” I sighed out. “How do we stop Life itself in a fight?” I said honestly. "Well, if the stories are true the Admin of Life was, is, different from normal Admins." Jericho started. "When the first Admin of war, killed, therefore created, the Admin of Death, there first had to be life in order for her to die. They say in the moment of impact, the Admin of Life was born, it is said she herself can not die, but like the Phoenix can only ever be reborn." “Alrighty then…” I said honestly. “Can’t wait to see who they are.” "Think it's someone we know?" Coco asked. “I doubt it but...I wouldn’t be surprised if we do know her for some reason.” I said honestly. As we explored, finding more and more creatures I spotted the safe room hiding behind a thick wall of vine plants. In here, it felt like home. It felt safe, and oh yes the meat plant! Oh and also that book. “Alright, so let’s see who this mystery person is…” I muttered while heading to the book and opening it up. There was one line. Admin of Life "Well that was the best anti climax ever…" Kexez said, swallowing meat whole off that plant. Cool, it grows back immediately! I frowned while double and triple checking in any other way that might reveal anything hidden on the pages. Nothing. No hidden ink no spell for unblocking something hidden, no nothing. Just a single line in this whole book… this book… what if… I took out my library card, and used to make a checkout/return window, where the Admin of Books herself greeted me. "Hey Ben, what's up?" “I need some help, I know for a fact this book has something else, but it won’t give it up.” I said while handing it to her. “All it says is ‘Admin of Life’ and I can’t figure out why it doesn’t say anything else.” She looked at the book, flipping through it. "Ah. I see. Yes, it does have something else, but it's under a genetic code lock. Only a child of the admin of life can unlock the rest of the story here. And no, you don't count. It has to be a direct child she conceived and birthed." “And...who would that be?” I asked nervously. "No idea. After the Admin war I hid away in the library, wasn't able to make family trees." “Even though your library grabs every book in existence?” I asked honestly. "Hmm… I might be able to make something. Give me a moment." She said, leaving the window real quick. “Well...let’s hope this works.” I muttered. She came back, a new book in hand. "Okay, so using the most advanced genealogy spell backwards and a shit ton of paradox spells and simulation spells, this book should have every admin that has ever existed and their children. Ready?" “Alright, I’m ready.” I said honestly. She opened the book. Inside was countless names. Even Mine, Eclipsa and Hearts were here. We found the name that just said Admin of Life, clicking on it showed an image of the admin of life… she's so hot… inappropriate thought but it's true. As well as… All of our blood ran cold, seeing her 'husband' … Vincent. “Impossible…” I frowned. “Just...no, what the fuck?” "How can that even be?" Kexez said. "Look at their kids…" Jericho said. The names Cript repeated over, and over again… "All the Cripts… were conceived by her, but birthed by others…" “So basically...Vincent kidnapped and...systematically raped her to bring all these Cript’s into the world?” I asked slowly. "The question is… where is she now?" Coco asked. “Well if we look at Vincent’s history we’d know.” I said honestly. “Cause only he’d know at this point…” "In that case, he'd keep her close at all times." Kexez said. "Growing up, I never once in the news or announcements saw Vincent accompanied by any woman." Coco said. "Not even guards, never needed them. Maybe Krott knows something?" So I decided to call up Krott. “Hopefully he’s not busy at the moment…” "Yes Ben?" Krott picked up fast. “Hey Krott, so about how Vincent has probably been systemically raping the Admin of Life, do you know where she is?” I asked curiously. "The Admin of what? Okay, back up and explain." “The Admin of Life. We’re about to fight her in this Dungeon and we were just told that her ‘Husband’ is Vincent...some fucking how.” "Husband… I know one woman Vincent dated, Cript's mother Madaline. She was a sweetheart, the other side of Vincent, who we all know is pure evil. How they ever found love was always beyond me. Married and dated in secret. Never saw Vincent smile genuinely until she came along." “So the bastard was actually happy to have someone in his life that he wasn’t using and abusing? Well I’ll be damned.” I joked. "Yeah, but that all ended after Cript was born. She fled with him, hiding him with those monks that raised him. When Vincent found her he killed her for the betrayal, though she knew more of what Vincent was planning than I did. So she must have known what he wanted Cript for." “Alright…” I said. “But uh...it says she’s still alive, and from the rumors it says she’s basically a Phoenix so...what the fuck?” "I don't know. Another mystery for the ages huh?" “Wonderful.” I sighed out. “But then how does Vincent know who she is after she dies repeatedly? Cause it says here that each Cript was conceived by her but were born by different women.” "Huh...well, if it's reincarnation maybe she jumps from baby to baby, reborn as a different person each time. Course Don't know how that could work, Zeke, or Heart rather, was born from her sister." I blinked. “Wait...she has a sister?” I asked. "Yeah, twin. Same name as her. Only thing that was different from the two was that Zeke's mom had her genes altered to have blond hair over the brown she was born with. She was a scientist on the Cript projects. Come to think of it, she was selected for the Cript project as a birthing mother not long after Madaline was pregnant with Cript." “That’s...rather concerning…” I said. “But...oddly convenient.” "How so?" "The supposed Admin of Life happened to have an identical sister, as well as making a Cript as well?" I asked honestly. "Don't you find that rather convenient that both of them birth Cripts, and Heart was born after Cripts mom died?" I asked, having done some major history checks on people when I had the time. "I don't think I follow?" "Hearts mother is most likely the Admin of Life." I frowned. "What?" Kexez said bluntly. "How?" "They're twins, she's a Phoenix, do the math." I frowned. "Where would the title and powers go when her sister died, but she still has made Cript’s?" I asked while looking through the book to see if Hearts name was there just to double check on my madness. And lo and behold...Heart’s name was here. “Yeah...that’s what I thought.” "So, what? How would we even get her to remember if she can at all?" Jericho asked. “Sadly I have no idea…” I sighed out. “Cause this is literally the first time I’ve heard that the Admin of Life even existed.” "To be fair, everyone expected her to be a myth. Guess in our reality all myths have facts somewhere." "Too true." Coco said. “Sometimes I forget that none of you have been raised believing that literally everything that I have experienced was just fantasy.” I frowned. “Well, except for Kexez since he’s Hearts Nobody.” "My own existence should be impossible so I'm inclined to believe anything." Kexez said with a nod. "Well, whoever she is, we'll have to see it for ourselves when we face her." “Alright.” I nodded. “Anything you want to bring up before we head off Krot”? "Yes actually, if possible, can you find a Origotho?" "A what?" Kexez asked. "It's a rare Void Beast, body like a lion, head like a wolf and legs and tail like a dragon." “Well...that’s interesting.” I said honestly. “I’m sure we’ll find it...hopefully.” "What do you need it for?" Coco asked. "It has a unique power, the ability to replicate all magics thrown at it. Pecator thinks this ability it has would be a valuable component to making the Bravery Nothingness to fight Void Key. Copy Cat and Generation can, yes, imitate it, but first Bravery Nothingness has to be a self sustaining energy like Void or normal Nothingness for it to generate it. It's like trying to make a copy of something from memory alone. This beast can replicate it once and we'll need it to do this to have at least a small supply without sacrificing limbs. “Alrighty then, so can’t wait to have it join the harem and then...we all get it’s natural ability.” I chuckled. Krott ended the call and after a bit more resting we set back off. This floor so far was much larger than the others. I was keeping small mental notes, knowing the other floors so far were all around two or so miles in size, this one so far is five. “Well...this place is huge.” I said honestly. "Wonder if this is even bigger…" "Bigger typically means there should be more here we haven't or can't see yet until we are further in." Jericho said. "Alrighty then." I nodded. "How much you want to bet this Void Beast is guarding the lady?" I asked curiously. "Even if it's Void born, it's still a Life ya know?" "I kinda doubt it." Jericho said. "Wouldn't be the weirdest thing to happen." I shrugged. As we were looking around, we came across a locked door, on the door ad a riddle. I speak without a mouth and hear without ears. I have no body, but I come alive with wind. What am I? “So there’s riddles now? Well, it’s different.” Jericho said. “An Echo.” I answered quickly, liking riddles alot. The doors gave an audible click as they began opening, showing more of this floor… Oh god the shit monsters are back! “Why are these fuckers back!?” I whined. After killing them with the longest range attacks I had at my disposal, we continued on. A small loot box holding a large emerald. Like, the size of Coco’s head big. Into the vault then. As we kept along, saving more monsters, not those shit ones… just no, we came across a LARGE chest in the middle of this room that had a bunch of bat-monkey things in it. “That’s different.” Coco said. “Ten rem says it’s a trap.” Kexez said. “I’ll take that.” Jericho said, showing the money as did Kexez. “I mean, I have a spell for that.” I said while pulling out my Lexicon. “Greater Trap Detection.” “Kill joy.” Jericho and Kexez said as I opened the untrapped chest. Inside was… A… Big… Fucking… Arrow Gun… Scratch that, Cannon. It was half my size, radiated with energy, was held like a mini gun and when it fired, the kick knocked me over as the bolt blew five holes through five walls. Mine. “This is Mine.” I said. “There maybe many like it, but this baby is mine.” I said while holding it with a giant smile on my face. “Holy Shit!” Coco said, looking it over. “I thought it looked familiar! This is the ARMO Energy Cannon! These things are illegal in sixty five million reflections.” She said in awe. “Well they can suck it, cause this RHYNO on Super Steroids is mine, and I will happily use it to blast things out of existence.” I said giddily. “I know this too.” Jericho said. “Anti Reality Matter Obliteration Energy Cannon. Doesn’t just destroy the target, reduces it to just their code. Only an Admin can survive a hit from these things, and even then it would hurt like truck.” “Not even Nexus could get their hands on these things.” Coco said with a laugh. “Only three were ever made, Freak Inc. owns two, and the third is with the inventor.” “And who was insane enough to invent this thing?” I asked curiously while hefting the thing up. “Lord.” Coco and Jericho said in unison. “Why am I not surprised?” I asked curiously. We continued on, finally finding the boss room. We entered, and rather than a coffin, a wilted flower. Finally, we can see the Admin of Life’s face. As the petals fell, one by one, soon falling to the ground in a graceful stance was the Admin of Life… DINKY!?!? “Wait, what?” Kexez said. “Either I’m high… or the Admin of life, every Cript’s biological mom… was reborn as Dinky?” “Guess Jericho really did kill her. Scumbag.” Jericho hissed. “Wait…” I muttered while cycling through my memory at all the names of the Admin of Life had...and I sadly remembered that...one of the names that popped out...was Dinky’s. “Fuck...can’t wait to break that news to her...or if it even happened yet.” I said worriedly. “Is it weird that it makes sense given Dinky was, at least your Dinky Ben, bad at magic and just generally lacked it, yet was smart beyond her years.” Coco asked. “Their powers regarding life are completely passive, she doesn’t have to know about who she really is for them to work, as for that intelligence thing, must be subconscious memories from past lives.” “Yeah...that sounds about right.” I sighed out. “Especially in Biology or anything revolving around it...she argued way too many times about things that she honestly shouldn’t have known about certain things…” “So… how do we do this? Hit her with Second Chance or…?” Kexez asked, The Admin of Life, Dinky, just standing there, not moving. I looked nervous as I gently took a step forward. “She’s the Admin of Life...I doubt she’ll do anything to bring death…” I said as I walked nervously towards Dinky. “Maybe she even has enough of her mind to talk...I hope…” The others all looked at one another. “Worth a shot.” Jericho said. “Hopefully…” I said while taking a deep breath. “Dinky? You in there?” I asked cautiously, still moving towards her without Second Chance just in case having a weapon might cause something to happen. She didn’t move, looking down as slowly, flowers just began blooming off her dress… There was no Void in those flowers. “Your...not Void Tainted?” I asked in shock and confusion. “Can...you talk to me?” I asked. “Life… heals, adapts, always finds a way. We always find a way to keep on.” "True…" I said. "But...why are you here? What happened?" I asked. "Was Vincent involved given...who I'm just realizing something very important about him..." I facepalmed. "God damn it...why him?" I asked Dinky. “When War, killed Death, we were born, two forms of life, I, the loving, caring, the beauty of it, and he, the twisted, harmful, deadly side. We are two sides of the same coin, existing to create life in all its forms. Each life, we are reborn and find one another, an endless cycle of death, rebirth, searching, love, betrayal, order, and revenge.” “Revenge?” Jeriho asked. “In each life, we find each other, fall for each other, but I see what he is doing, see what harm, hurt, and so, I remove the tool of his cruelty, be it a weapon, or a person.” “Cript.” Kexez said. Nodding, Dinky continued. “In each life, we have kids, sometimes one, sometimes many, but a child of our always rises up, to kill him after he kills me, and then, the cycle repeats.” "I should have seen this sooner." I sighed out. "But...there has to be a way to break this cycle right?" She smiled, shaking her head. “It’s needed, required. Good and evil cannot exist without one another. We always are reborn, and always repeat.” "But Good and Evil aren't always clear cut...there has to be a way, even if Good and Evil stick around…" I said nervously. “This is my, our fate. And, our choice, our duty.” "Well as your mother I say No." I huffed. "Or father cause I'm both…sometimes this is confusing." “As stubborn as I remember, but not everything needs to change, this cycle, has been our duty. Create the bad, and the good, it’s what we do.” I sighed out. "Your not going to budge on this huh?" “I am content.” I sighed out and moved over, giving Dinky a hug. “Even though it’s probably been an Eternity for you...I’ll say this again...I’m so proud of you Dinky.” “As am I.” She said, returning the hug. “Before you save me, I have to tell you, there are others. Others like me, still in our right mind “ “How many?” I asked as I drew Second Chance. “That I can not tell, but the next floor, I know for a fact, holds one. I can sense it, survived solely on his Will Power and experience. These dungeons… they can provide, if you are willing to fight for it.” “Yeah, we’ve gotten more money, items, and...new family members than I can count right now.” I said sheepishly. “Before I am returned to infancy, dad, there is one thing I can tell you, a warning.” “Cause that’s what I need...a warning after I stab another family member…” I sighed out. “It’s about Spoiled, and that child. To save her, and therefore the child, you must find her heart. She has hidden it away, deep where Darkness and Void touch.” “Cause why not make things more difficult…” I sighed out. “So, that leaves about...god knows how much wiggle room she shoved her heart in, got anything more specific?” “It stands guarded by her strongest clone. You can’t miss it.” “And then I’ll miss it a lot cause I’m me.” I chuckled. “I’ll see you, dad.” “I’ll see you, my daughter.” I said as I stabbed her chest with Second Chance. Her body glowed, soon the little baby was in my arms, whimpering as I comforted her. “It’s alright Dinky.” I said gently, softly nuzzling her to comfort her more. With Dinky safely placed away I and the others all sorted through the loot. Sticking with Pokemon theme, Pokeballs. Oh, there’s pokemon in here? One for each. Opening mine, it was a Turtwig. Coco got an Oddish, Kexez got a Cubone, and Jericho got a Houndour. “Cool.” I said with a smile. “I always liked Turtwig. Best of the Gen Four starters.” “Well, onward then.” Jericho said. Floor 14 This place was weird. It was all clouds, a gentle breeze hitting out faces as we walked, looking around it looks like we really were walking on the clouds. “This is kinda cool.” Jericho said. “Well...this is interesting.” I said while taking in every detail. “This place...kind of reminds me of Cloudsdale...oh and who else figured out Vincent was Life’s opposite before I did?” I asked honestly. “Litteraly no one cause fuck forth wall breakers.” Jericho sighed. “That aside, this place does look kinda familiar.” Coco said, looking around. “It does look familiar, but honestly there isn’t any fourth wall breaking here when you think about it.” I said honestly. “We had enough clues.” “Nerd.” Kexez said. As we were walking through the hall, suddenly, something zipped by us, looking ahead it… looked like an angel, but, it’s wings were charred and smoking, eyes hollow and bleeding, skin ash grey, veins a glowing purple, and mouth was just this bleeding hole lacking teeth. “Well...that’s a thing…” I said nervously. “Oh my god…” Coco said, taking a step back. “That’s a Celesrtian.” She said. “More like was.” Jericho said, readying their axe. “You know what those things are Coco?” I asked curiously. “Celestians. A humanoid race of angellike beings that live in the clouds above Electron from Cript’s realm, they’re a strong race.” Coco said. “Well that’s...interesting.” I said. “So why the hell are they here?” "Their Queen is a member of the family." Jericho said, the twisted looking thing keeping a distance, like it's studying us. “So…” I pulled out my Assistant and immediately tried to research this Celestial lady. Yup. There she was. Celestia, funny enough name… wow she's a looker. Bodyguard… huh. Nate. “Okay cool...well the name is kind of on point.” "I think we have more pressing matters." Jericho said, taking a sniff I smelled more of these things nearby… a crapton more. “Uh...yeah that is a problem.” I said while preparing myself for a fight. “Dinky said that there was a survivor in here...wonder if it’s Nate, and I wonder where he is?” Soon, we could see the others here. It was like the walls were bleeding the fuckers out, there's so many, way more than any other floor so far. “Right~...” I said slowly. “Uh...how the fuck are we going to stop the infinite spawners?” "Well, I've survived just as bad. Just keep fighting, and hope it ends sometime before you pass out of exhaustion, but after your muscles are jelly from overworking them to stay alive." Jericho said. "Sounds about right." Kexez said, pulling out key arms, a shotgun. “I mean, I managed to make an entire civilization of Plant people during an Infinite Spawning battleground...doubt it would work here…” I said nervously while pulling out Second Chance and Sky Splitter. "Don't bother." Jericho said, pushing down Second Chance in my grip. "We won't have time to save anyone let alone ourselves." "They're smart." Coco said, her back against my side with her newly acquired Scythe in hand. "Their noises are a language, they're talking." "Planning." Kexez said. So what I did was totally justified when I pulled out the ARMO. “Fuck your plans I have an ARMO.” I smiled as I aimed it at the growing hoard. “Mind keeping me from falling over?” Kexez and Jericho got behind me, they used themselves as a brace as I began firing, and all hell broke loose. The swarm now flew all around us, their weapons scratching us, but nothing deep, though seeing each others HPs, it was slowly munching away at us. Even as I blasted forty, Jericho slashing twenty at a time, Coco getting hits here and there and Kexez shooting down all in his sight, we were so outnumbered, and they didn't seem to show signs of lessening their numbers. “Have I ever mentioned that this thing is amazing?” I asked while continuing to literally mow down thousands with the ARMO. "Less talk more kill." Jericho said, hacking one that nearly got me behind the ears. "How many are there?!" Coco yelled. "Too fucking many." Kexez said. My ears flicked up as I heard something else in this massive amount of carnage. “Does anyone else hear that?” I asked while putting my ARMO away and bringing out Graceful Dahlia and Lunatic and cleaving through hundreds of them. “Like another fight is going on or something?” "Protegat-Innocentes-Salutis!" Someone called out, there was this flash of a slash that passed through us, small bubble barriers formed over us while all of the swarm around us were slain instantly. Their bodies falling to the ground. Looking, we saw someone walking up to us, a sword made from Dark Monofilament, heck black wings and hair, sky blue eyes, and wearing a very worn set of armor. They looked up at us. "Well, it's about fucking time." “Ow...the Edge…” I said slowly. “So hi, how are you doing in these trying times?” I asked while Graceful Dahlia was devouring another Celestial. "Who in the hell are you?" They asked, our bubble shields disbanding. “Names Ben, Admin of Nothingness, and these are Jericho, the Admin of War, Coco, my loving Void Conduit Wife, and Kexez, a Floof Noodle who used to be a giant douche canoe.” I introduced us all. "Oi!" Kexez said, whacking me in the back of the head with their whole tail… and basically RKOing me in the process. "Not an actual conduit, but close enough." Coco corrected. “I said used to.” I frowned while getting up, perfectly fine. “So I believe your Nick?” "Yeah. Come on, they'll be back in a minute." He said, leading us right to the safe room. The safe room here was heavily lived in, filled with various odds and ends from the normal chest rewards here. "So, what brings you poor bastards here?" “We’re going to do the Impossible.” I said. “And that’s ending this damned Cycle of War that’s been going on for...way too long.” "Does it look like I care?" Nate asked, popping a large wine bottle open and drinking some. "I only ever wanted to do one thing in life, protect my charge. First Autumn up and vanished on us all, then the Queen died here. Been stuck here since." “Well it’s better than being Void Corrupted into being one of this damned Dungeons Bosses.” I said simply. “Like your Queen has most likely become given the area.” "Think I don't know that?" “Considering your out of the loop on a lot of things, maybe.” I shrugged. “Now, about this girl named Autumn that I only know because of Cript’s memories.” I said honestly. “Who is she and why do I feel...really sad about it?” "Oh, that's a story. Hope you got time if you wanna hear that one." Nate said, drinking some more wine. “We have all the time in the world.” I said simply. “So I would like to know who she is...and why she’s also stuck in a cage…” I said, trying to dig through Cript’s memories and most of what I was getting was a girl in a cage. “Also I’m surprised you haven’t said anything about me having Cript’s memories.” "I saw the ring. Same one my queen wears." Nate took a deep breath. "Long ago, a girl woke up in the woods, a small forest where the tree leaves glowed bright with a soft blue light. In these woods, was a mansion. Secluded, and unkempt. She had no idea where she was, where she came from, or how she got there. All she did know was that she was not from this world. She wandered the Forest, found a city, and saw a young monk, failing to steal fruit." “Hmm…” I hummed, wondering who the monk was. "As she aimlessly wandered the Forest she had the misfortune to fall off a short cliffside. There's she met Zach, my brother. He saved her, and gave her a special Artifact. Aurora's Amulet. The purest Electronium crystal ever mined from Electrons soil. It never loses a charge, and could power this entire reality alone. Only the electron royal bloodline was capable of using its power, and Autumn, was the lost heir." “Cause randomly waking up in the woods must make you something along the lines of ‘Heir’ or ‘Chosen One’.” I said simply. "No, DNA and the fact she could use the thing without incinerating to ashes from its power proved she was the heir." Nate said bluntly. “I’m going to stop myself before going further with that, but please, continue.” I said honestly. "She, Zach, and later a scientist named Alex, a Monk named Cript, and myself eventually all came together, forming a haphazard band of Do gooders. We traveled, saved lives, killed Shadow Creatures, life was… okay." “And then everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked.” I said. “At least, not the Fire Nation but it sounds like something bad happened afterwards.” "We headed for Electron. Autumn's ancestors Homeworld. We arrived with one goal, destroy the Darkness. Little backstory there, back when Autumn's grandmother ruled, Aurora, she was given the crystal at her coronation, and she rules for ten fortunate years, having a child and a peaceful kingdom… but, the royal scientist, the fellow who originally cut her crystal to shape, kept the cuttings, knowing with their power, so much could be done. With them, he formed the Dark Crystal, the first dark Electronium crystal. It's potent evil infected his whole island, the Electronium in its soil, the plants, ocean life nearby, and what spawned from this pure evil, was the Shadow Creatures. They attacked the castle, and Aurora and her child went into hiding. Only autumn was living proof they escaped alive. A hundred or so years later." “Well...that...yeah that was a thing that happened.” I said nervously. “So that’s where Shadow Creatures came from…” "We attacked… and we lost. I don't remember the finer details but all I do remember is waking up in a hospital bed, five years later. Cript became, well, who he is now, Freak Inc and all that, Autumn and Zach were alive, turns out, he scattered us, screwed with our brains so we'd forget then tossed Aurora's Amulet to the stars. Cript ended up killing him. Everything was so different. Then, one day Autumn just… went to sleep, and never woke up. No explanation, no doctor or mage no nothing could explain it she was just… coma, out of nowhere. Bro left back home, I worked as the Queen's guard, Alex fucked off back to his mansion in the forest, and last I knew he and Cript were not exactly on standing, or speaking terms with one another." “Well...that sucks.” I said. “So...that’s the end of it? She’s just stuck in a coma for god knows how long?” "Pretty much. Cript tried everything, but nothing ever worked. So, he kept her safe, on a prayer she might wake up on her own." “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “So...what brought you and your Queen to this god forsaken place?” I asked curiously. "She's one of Cript's wives. Started off mostly political, but they grew to love each other, which makes sense, he is the Admin of Love. She came here like the others, trying to take the Void Mother's Womb, and fell here." “And so far we have been told this is the worst dungeon to exist, and yet it’s been piss easy so far.” I said honestly. “Now I’m sure it’ll change sooner rather than later but still…” "This dungeon is a combination of the five levels of dungeons Cript wanted for creation. Level one, easy, beginners stuff. Level two, harder, a challenge, level three, a harsher challenge, level four, you'll need more than luck for them. And lastly level five. Now that's an Avengers level threat." Nate said with a laugh. "Fifteen level one floors, Twenty-five level two, three and four, and ten level five floors. The lower you go, the harder they get, and once you pass floor fifteen, expect the easy part to be over. This and the next floor will give you a taste of what to expect." “Can’t wait.” I said. “An actual challenge would be fun.” "Heh. Sure, the day the sun shines in this beyond damned abyss is the day what rests deeper in will be fun." Nate spat. “Either way.” I said. “So...what would you say would happen if we turned her back into an infant?” I asked while pulling out Second Chance. “Cause this is what we’ve been using to rescue hundreds of people from this damned place.” "I'd say God save the queen." Nate said, sitting up. "You lot that suicidal?" “It’s not suicidal if we know we’re going to succeed.” I said honestly. "Confidence like that is a handicap, you should never underestimate anything just because it's easy." "I'm not saying it'll be easy later on." I said simply. "I just know that we'll make it to the end...cause someone's been waiting for us to clear the way." I said, having had a feeling someone's been watching us since we started. "Don't know who...but someone has been watching us since we entered this damned place." "How you tell?" “Because one of them feels familiar…” I said. “I know I’m the most paranoid one here but come on.” "Well, what's your plan then?" “We just keep going.” I said. “They’ll probably show themselves when we’re about to get done with this entire Dungeon sadly...so all we can do is just move forward and keep clearing the floors...which begs the question if the rooms behind us ‘reset’ or if it doesn’t until the original people are done with it…” “The common enemies and chests in this place, like any other, do, reset daily, but bosses and boss chests don't reset until a year later." “So we’re basically clearing the way for them, got it.” I said simply. “Good to know...so, any tips on how to fight the Queen?” I asked curiously. "One. Cut her wings. They're her perfect offensive weapon, block anything and on top of being able to weaponize her feathers, a strong enough gust of wind from her can create tornadoes. She can spellcast and has a fancier version of the sword I have. Dark Monofilament too." “Cool.” I nodded. “But how strong are her wings?” "Their only weak spots are the joints connecting them to our spines, but they're armored." “How armored?” I asked curiously. "Standard Monofilament braces. Breaking them is pretty much impossible, but the clamps keeping them on are made from Acrothis Dragonhide, cutting that won't be easy but it's possible." “So something I’m pretty sure any of us can break.” I said honestly. "Don't be so sure." Nate said, tanking another chug of wine. "While Monofilament is the strongest metal in existence, Acrothis Dragons breath fire hot enough to melt the damn metal. We're talking hotter than a blue sun. It will take more than one cut to break them." I summoned Eternal Flames. "Honestly, not impressive when I've had these things for the longest time, and given that they're also evolved...yeah I don't think we have a problem." I said simply. "What color is their fire?" Nate asked simply. “Yes.” I said while one of the chackrams started to rev up and became a fucking rainbow of fire, and even some colors that the Celestrian had never seen before. "Heh. Either way, same story, best hope you make it to the final boss of this place." “I’m pretty sure we will.” I said honestly. “Chapter wouldn’t continue if we got permanently stuck on this floor.” "Be off then." “Your going to need to help us, cause you have a Queen to save.” I said while pulling out Second Chance. “Second Chance, a special Evolution of Memory Stealer, able to revert someone back to the day they were born, completely free of all memories from their mind, heart and soul to give them a Second Chance at life.” "Gonna jab that up the Queen's ass now?" “Well...yeah kinda.” I said honestly. “And while I would immediately grab her and claim her as my daughter...I’m pretty sure you’d love to still protect her right?” "I've been killing corrupted versions of my people for a few years longer than I bothered counting. I've been alive here for one reason, not devote loyalty, but because I am good at one thing. Fighting. After the loss against the darkness and waking up years later in a hospital, I'm not fighting for anyone again, nor will I lose any fight ever again." “Well now you can fight for someone again, and you won’t lose a fight again.” I said honestly. "Read. My. Lips." Nate said, looking me dead in the eyes, eyes I remember all too well, the eyes of a man who doesn't care anymore. My eyes, so long ago. "I. Don't. Give. A. Fuck." “You know...I used to be like you.” I said. “Someone who just gave zero fucks about everything...don’t just fall like this, trust me...it’s not worth it.” "Then you should know, talk is cheap, and actions are lies." Nate said, finishing off the wine bottle. They stood up, sifting through the piles of stuff in this safe room. "You look like crap, so that likely means you don't know about everything else the Safe Rooms or the way these dungeons work." He said, throwing a book at me that I caught with ease. 'Dungeon Basics 101.' “Okay…” I muttered while taking the book and opening up. “Also, that’s kind of bullshit.” I managed to send Nate out of here, DTN's work here perfectly it turns out. He wanted it open in a bar. The book was helpful, how there are items specific for dungeons like entering back floors, for harder challenges and richer rewards, but they don't have a boss persay, just an optional mini boss that drops rare items. I have a few items like this. A backroom Key, used in the Safe Room to access the dungeon backroom. Also a means of having a Merchant here to buy or sell stuff from. That requires a reusable rare item called a Merchants stall, a little model of a stall. Out of all the loot so far, I had one. So fairly rare then. I used it and… "Well hello there lass." That Merchant said…. "Cool...and I still think we should have used Second Chance on him…" I sighed out. "He shouldn't have to be like me…" "Let him find himself on his own." Jericho said. "He doesn't need a second chance, he needs a reminder on who he is." "So, how does this work?" Coco asked, motioning to the merchant. "We barter lass." The merchant said. "What would you like?" "Well what do you have to sell my fine merchant?" I asked curiously. "Weapons, armor, items, whatever you need." "Alright." I nodded, the merchant having not even answered my question. "What do you guys want to buy?" "Tacos." Kexez said, the merchant actually putting a fresh hot plate of tacos on the table. "Trade you a high potion." "Agreed." They made the trade, and Kexez ate away. “Alrighty then.” I said honestly. “Sounds about right…” I said with some thought. "What about a map of this place? List of names?" Coco asked the merchant. "Ah. Yes, I have that." They said, placing a book on the table. "It will be pricey though." “How pricey?” I asked curiously. "Well, what can you offer me that's equal to it in value or worth more?" The merchant asked. “That...didn’t answer my question at all.” I said simply. “Normally merchants have a price tag, not ‘take a wild guess’.” "I barter lass, money is worthless in the void, trade is done with items, not currency." “A barter system still has a ‘price tag’ though…” I shook my head before putting down a vial. “My own design of a Nothingness Elixir, works just like an Elixir, but is capable of curing Void based Afflictions. So far it can cure minor to medium curses, poisons, and other such things of the like.” I said as the clear vial showed the fluid slowly moving like it was made out of Nothingness Thorns but in liquid form. "No sale. I'm void born lass, you're basically handing me poison." "What about this?" Coco asked, holding out her hand, showing her Nexus mark. "Oh, well now." They said, taking her hand and looking at the small dot. "That's a powerful, old admin code matrix you have in the palm of your hand." “Excuse me what?” I asked with a frown. "Our marks we have on us, the mark of Nexus, we're born with them because they are code Matrixes made by the founders, they are how Nexus can… keep tabs and track their members." Coco said. “Oh...that’s...a thing.” I said honestly. "I can remove it lass, but it will hurt." The merchant said. "I'm okay with that." Coco said with a nod. Nodding, the merchant waved a hand over hers, void seeping into her palm as he spoke in a language I could not… hear. Coco began screaming, crying as the small dot was slowly lifting from her palm, blood and code following it as the merchant grabbed both into his hand. Once he gripped them, closing his hand, he released Coco's hand. She was clutching it, blood still dripping from it as the merchant placed her Nexus mark and it's code into a small box. He took the book, and handed it to me. "Fair trade." I grabbed the book as I also tried to heal Coco’s hand. “You okay Coco?” "It just stings." She said, wiping the tears away as her palm healed. The blood stopped but it left a small scar on her hand, that no matter what I could not heal or remove. "Feels kinda good to have that gone now." “Alright.” I nodded gently. “I’m glad your okay...the hell happened?” "A void spell, akin to how Deletes destroy, consume code, this spells turns the chainsaw into a scalpel, allowing it to slice out the code matrix from her entire code structure, a painful process given the way it was created, imagine ripping out specific muscle fibers one at a time." “I...sadly don’t have to imagine it.” I sighed out. "Now then, is there anything else?" "Hmm…" Jericho said, looking through the map real quick, finding the final floors boss. "Oh shit…" “What?” I asked while looking at the book to see the boss’s name. Lyra Heartstrings. Cript's Lyra. “Oh…” I started. “That’s...uh….” I blinked. "We're boned." Jericho said, tossing the book. I immediately grabbed the book that Jericho unceremoniously tossed. “I doubt that.” I frowned. “She can’t be that strong can she?” "Let me explain this to you." Jericho said with a sigh. "Cript, is the Admin of Love, and Lyra, is the Admin of marriage. Much like how in your domain of Nothingness, you'd be all powerful, Cript gains extra power the more the family loves one another or, the more love there is in general in their life. Lyra gets power the more people marry, and commit to it. She's not just constantly growing the family just because she's kinky, the more people marry in, the stronger she also becomes the more love is made, the stronger Cript becomes. You do the math there." “Ah…” I said slowly. “So...how the fuck isn’t Lyra somehow single handedly winning this war due to our shenanigens?” "The reason Cript isn't, tying up loose ends and making sure nothing is left to chance." “I...said why isn’t Lyra winning this fight by herself if she’s basically the strongest person ever but that also works…” I said slowly. "Alright, how about this then. Why aren't you, if you're the strongest Nothingness user here, why haven't we claimed more enemy territory from the front lines?" "Because I've been told not to be on the front lines, I've been busy doing other things, and because Nothingness is still full of shit I don't know about " I explained. "All of which are factually correct." "The same can be said about Lyra's Marriage power, and Cript's love power. How exactly do you use those in a war?" "I wouldn't know because this is the first time I'm hearing Lyra was an Admin to begin with." I said honestly. "You're the one saying we're boned against Lyra here." "Yes. Because part of her admin title and powers as the Admin of Marriage is that she can utilize the full extent of our abilities. We have not reached that yet, and this Lyra is from the last cycles war, when we have, so yeah, kinda boned." "Well we won't know until we get there." I said honestly. "Hmm… this might be a good thing though." Kexez said. "How so?" I asked curiously. "Considering those things out there outnumbered us like crazy and we're able to pick away at so much of our health despite each doing little damage, we might need to grind for a while. Floor fifteen is the last 'easy floor, so before we head off to sixteen and lower we should train here while we can, what better place to train then a place that has unlimited cannon fodder daily?" "I mean, you all know I've been accidentally crippling myself...which I have been making damn well sure to rectify." I said honestly. "But if you all want to do some cannon fodder murder then that's fine with me. Would help me figure out my weapons more." "That is a good plan." Jericho said, looking at the book again before smiling. "And the dungeon respawns once a year… once it's cleared, so long as the last boss isn't killed it won't respawn the stuff after a year, but common enemies, backroom enemies and minibosses, and loot will respawn." "Cool." I nodded. "Can't wait to cleave through another endless wave...for the third time in my life." "This isn't going to be random cutting down for fun, this is training and honing abilities and powers. Properly." "Alrighty then." I nodded. "So, let's get started then." I said while stretching a little. "But just a warning...I don't take responsibility if I somehow manage to stop parts of the place from spawning enemies." To be continued...Christ this is gonna take forever Author's Note So yeah, this chapter is by far the largest me and Bio have made, and there's still 76 More Floors to go. I'm not sure if we'll do another 15 Floor Chapter but it'll still be several Floors...so yeah this will take a while
Nobody learns Code CraftingI was a tad annoyed, wanting to train when suddenly my weapons were for some reason, absent. I was in a resting area in the Heroes Tomb so at least that was good. All that appeared when I tried to summon my weapons was a note from Lord and Cript saying they took them for tune ups and upgrades. "Okay…" I muttered while opening a DTN and heading through to where Lord and Cript were. "Hello?" “Here.” Cript said from a nearby building. Inside I saw he was doing something with Eternal Flames in a strange flow of Code, and Lord was doing the same with Lunatic. "So...what are you two doing with my weapons?" I asked curiously. “Upgrading.” Lord stated simply. “In short, yes, your weapons are strong… strong as all hell. But they need to be stronger if we are gonna deal with the Void Mother and the last of Old Nexus.” Cript said. "Ok so…how the hell are you upgrading them and why do you need to upgrade them? I've barely gotten used to the Evolved Versions yet." “It’s more like… software updates.” Lord said. “As you remember, when Eclipsa used all that power combined, had she built up the amount she did sooner, her body would have disintegrated. Physically, the bodies you make can’t hold the full extent of Cript’s and Jericho’s powers, by upgrading your weapons to Admin Weapons, as well as a few extra tweeks, you should be able to harness the amount of power Eclipsa used then and there with not too much issue.” “Eclipsa managed to generate roughly… fifteen percent of our total full power, Grey boosting it even more so even after she unleashed it, hurting Jericho badly. This will help you more rapidly adapt to that power and grow overtime, a lot like how Keyblades adapt the wielder to magic and abilities over time.” “Alrighty then...but to be honest, the more I’ve studied Grey, the more I think Eclipsa would have actually been a lot more fine than what originally happened.” I said honestly while studying what they were doing to my weapons. “And she can be, but, remember, physically she’s not accustomed to that level of power just yet. It’s like… giving a keyblade to someone who has never used one before, and then trying to teach them Megaflare right out as their first spell, it’s possible, but messy and will put them under intense straining. Eclipsa lucked out with what happened. She might be able to handle that now, it depends on if she’s constantly building up grey and it’s influence over other energies as well as its own yet to be understood potential.” “From what I’ve looked at, yes, she is constantly building up Grey...and Grey with any Energy has been acting weird...not a bad weird but...whatever energy I put Grey with, the type just get’s a fuck ton stronger.” I said honestly. “Grey is full of mysteries...and I plan to figure them out.” “Ever the puzzle solver.” Lord said, giving Lunatic a spin as the code around it flowed into it. “That aside we also noticed something interesting about you three so far.” Cript said, doing the same to Eternal Flames. “While you and Heart have the largest selection of artillery, or armaments rather, Eclipsa does lack in that department.” “I mean, Heart lacks Variety in his arsenal, I have all of it honestly.” I shrugged. “But yeah...Eclipsa only has Oathkeeper, Oblivion, her X-Blade Better Half, and Grey.” “How does Heart not have variety?” Cript asked. “Objectively, all Heart is Keyblades and Balance.” I said honestly. “Key arms too, in the shape of guns, bows, swords, Keyblade versions of your own weapons, cannons, battleships, yes but there’s just the one. No idea how that happened either.” “None that he even uses.” Lord pointed out. “As Lord pointed out, he doesn’t really...use any of them. He sticks with Keyblades, while I myself use thirteen weapons that are incredibly special for all they can do...and believe it or not, I’ve found the Old Man’s blueprints for new Nothingness Weapons in the same vein as my Thirteen weapons.” I brought up. “I’ll take that.” Lord said with a snap as suddenly all those blueprints and books of schematics/recipies were on a desk in the back. “His armory is bigger than yours, if he doesn’t have it, he’ll make it.” Cript said, rolling their eyes as Eternal Flames finished absorbing the code around them. “Oi! I haven’t done all my research on those yet.” I frowned. “But looks like Eternal Flames is done…” “You’ll get them back when I’m done.” Lord said as Lunatic finished absorbing the code around it. He picked it up, and tossed it to Cript. “Strain test it.” “Yeah yeah.” Cript said, funneling power into my weapon. As it grew and grew, I began noticing Lunatic’s Matrix work became visible, the hidden old magic that made the weapon work now able to be seen as Cript kept filling it with power that was… All kinds. “Holds good at the fifteen percent.” “Double it.” Lord said. “Sure.” Cript said, more power rushed into the weapon, now glowing bright with a powerful blue and black aura that moved like fire. “You know, I know a better stress test than just dumping all that power into Lunatic...also how in the hell?” I asked nervously. “Reaching thirty.” Cript said, suddenly Lunatic’s colors began brightening to a pure white form, Nothingness thorns now sparking around the weapon, rotating around it rapidly like saw blades. “Holds good… How far should we go?” “Let’s give it forty.” Cript said, now holding it in both hands, soon the weapon seemed to elongate, making more of a Claymore form, and soon, there was a small moon floating above the blades tip as the whole thing vibrated rapidly. “Okay, anymore and it’s breaking.” “So anything above forty will break it.” Lord said, looking over to me. “Once you can handle that, reach that, I’ll improve it more.” He then raised a hand towards Cript. “Now, hit me.” “Hold on, mind if I do it? I want to double check a little combo of skills, is Skysplitter up and ready as well?” I asked curiously. “Not yet. As for weapon fusing, sorry, but that’s a test for a bit later.” Lord said. “Besides, at most, you’d be able to handle… sixteen percent and can’t generate the power Cript is into it yet. We still need to set up it’s passive draw into it. Besides, Cript hits harder.” “Relax, you can play in a bit. Til then… stand behind me.” Cript said with a nod. “Fine fine.” I rolled my eyes and got behind Cript. “I’m not some delicate wallflower…” I grumbled. “Ready?” Cript asked. “Ready.” Lord replied. In that, Cript swung, the blast broke the windows but oddly did not break the building. All my hair was being blasted to my back as with wide eyes I watched as Lord was simply unphased by Cript’s attack as he stood there, hand stretched out tanking it. The attack was hitting but from checking his HP… did not take anything more than five hp. As the attack finally died down, the room looked unphased also, the windows self repairing too. “Good, it held.” He said, Lunatic back to normal, and still intact. “Right…” I said slowly. “But that was it?” I asked curiously. “I was gonna bring up a better stress test...but that little damage what?” "There is a reason Lord and I don't dual." Cript said, swinging Lunatic over his shoulder. "That armor of his isn't for show." "I built this armor to perfectly tank Cript at even his strongest." Lord stated. "It's my masterpiece." "Right then…" I started. "Didn't know that." I said simply. "So...what was the point of this?" I asked curiously. "I know it's a stress test but…" "But?" Cript asked. “What was the point to half of this?” I asked curiously. “Like the charging up part? Cause you could have just swung it really hard and done the same.” "You have never used a charged attack, have you? Think of it like this, Skysplitter is strong on it's own, but when you use it's natural power up ability, it becomes even more powerful, right?" Lord asked. “I have used a Charged attack...I was actually going to do a charge attack…” I said "Yet not on the scale Cript can. At least, not yet. Charging it with all that energy shows us how it reacts to that power and where it's limits are. Charging it with raw power is the easiest way to determine this." “Fine fine.” I said simply. “So, you said these were like software updates...how is that? I thought they already did when they evolved like six times?” "Upgrades that have physical changes are more along the lines of Hardware upgrades. Which we also kinda did but not noticable." Cript said. “Fine fine, so what are all of my weapons able to do now?” I asked curiously. "Well, they aren't done, but we can let you try out Lunatic for a bit. It's the most well along." Cript said, handing me my weapon. “What’s the most durable thing here that isn’t Lord?” I asked while grabbing Lunatic. “And is Skysplitter ready?” "No, and not much." Lord said. "Shift into Valor form." "Which Valor? Normal, or Heir Valor?" I asked curiously. "Normal for a start." "Alright." I nodded while shifting into Valor Form. "Why do you want me in Valor form?" Immediately I noticed. Lunatic was now more or a large curved Greatsword or Claymore. It's curve looking akin to a Cresent moon as it glowed the same red as my Valor form, looking like a large katana from the handle. “Alright...that’s cool.” I said honestly while grabbing the hilt with my other hand, even though I knew Valor form could let me Dual Wield. "It's three times faster on the swings, has a passive reflect spell when blocking, your AoE attacks now rather than impact based are swing based and travel up to five miles, and notice your rage meter slowly filling in the corner of your eyesight," Lord then gave me a bit of a hard whack, taking out an eight of my health, but that same hit also halfway filled the rage meter. "Getting hit refills your rage meter faster and getting hit while in rage mode also guarantees critical hits and doubles physical Damage while halving damage taken for a minute, per hit, and it stacks." I looked at Lunatic, then at Lord. “You...do know that, with a combination of basic skills...I can probably cleave damn near anything in half right?” I asked. "That's the idea." “I wonder if it can even keep together with that?” I wondered. “Seriously, the more I looked into it...god it’s the raw power asinine.” "Also the point." Lord added. “Alright.” I nodded. “So, what about my other weapons?” I asked curiously, cause while Lunatic was really cool, I want to also know what cool things my other weapons can do. "So far that's about as far as we have it. We plan on making each weapon able to hold the power I generated into Lunatic earlier, as well as a unique form for each of your drive forms." Cript said. “Alrighty then...mind if I help?” I asked curiously. “Also, are you upgrading my Greatsword?” I asked curiously. "Yes. It's why you can't summon any weapons, and no. The method we are using to upgrade your gear is… not for a novice of Admin Artifact Crafting." “It’s not my fault that I have no solid basework to study off of.” I frowned. “Either most of it is destroyed, there all hidden somewhere, or you two keep telling me no.” I frowned at Lord and Cript. "This case it's more of a… lost art. Lord knows the basics but anything above that was lost many cycles ago. Not even that Library has records of it." “Okay, so both of you can still teach me how to at least do the basics yes?” I asked curiously. "That will take time we don't have, but I know a guy." Lord said. “Is it Belief or Player?” I asked. “Cause both of them could be correct.” "Neither." Lord said, actually taking out a flip phone and began dialing. "If it's who I think it is, Lord I swear." Cript said with a huff. “Please tell me it’s a Construct that took up the mantle of its creator, which happened to be an Admin.” I said in high hopes it would be something cool like that. Lord spoke a few words, hanging up before opening a portal. Walking through it was… a guy in a lab coat, young looking, long light brown hair, glasses, dark blue eyes. "Hello Lord." They spoke, looking over at Cript. "Cript." "Alex…" Cript said, not hiding their visible annoyance or anger at this Alex person. “My expectations are dashed…” I muttered. “Hi, name’s Ben, it’s nice to meet you.” I said simply, wanting to at least try and make a good first impression. Cript and Alex kept their tense eye contact for a bit, Cript giving a huff before leaving. Alex fixed up their glasses, looking over at me. "I've heard a lot about you King Ben, I have to say, the data I've recorded so far seems to match you exactly in person." They said, a somewhat emotionless expression on their face. “Oh? And what does your data say about me?” I asked, already expecting him to belittle me after some minor praise, if any praise at all. "Varying from the sources, physically you are a top tier subject, mentally tough, many have described you as irrational, but I can tell your just logical and practical. Traits I prefer." “I can tell we’re going to be fast friends.” I chuckled. “But uh...what was with Cript if I may ask?” "I would prefer that remains out of further conversation." Alex said simply. "Long story short, Cript and Alex used to travel… with the girl from the cage. That's all I feel at liberty to tell." Lord said. “Oh...wait.” I blinked. “Your the guy that that Black Winged Celestial talked about, Nate.” I said honestly. "Ah yes, Nate. An informative subject. Black wings are so rare among Celestials. One in 5.7 million chance." “I started with ‘Ow, the Edge’ when I met him in the Tomb of Heroes...but he’s a decent guy if...his Lady didn’t succumb to the Tomb.” "Hmm?" "Alex." Lord spoke up. "We need you to give some basics on crafting Admin Artifacts." Lord said. "What do I get in return for my services?" Alex asked. “Making sure Existence doesn't end...again for a start.” I started. "I could care about reality." "You'll get a book from the library of Alexandria." Lord said. "Hmm… alright." Alex agreed. He cares more about a book than existence ending? “I’m sorry, I love books as much as the next person, but...a book is more important than Existence ending?” "You are a person of intellect Ben, surely you know everything is made Finite. Life and this reality is all gone sooner or later. As a scientist, it's not my job to interfere with data, less it be incorrect." “While that is true, sometimes a scientist needs to be a bit more ‘hands on’ to figure out the data is correct.” I said honestly. “Need to make sure all the data is correct in practice am I right?” "Ben, I think you'll find that at the end of the day, all Allex cares about is the data, and nothing else." Lord said. “Fine fine, I won’t try to force it.” I said with raised hands, knowing I could argue with Alex all day about it but I’d rather hold off. “So, where to begin with learning Admin Artifact Creation?” "Is there a workshop we can use?" Alex asked Lord. "Next door should work." Lord said as I followed Alex out. “So how difficult is learning how to make Admin Artifacts?” I asked curiously. "It depends on your skills with Code and Code Script Matrixes." “So this might be a massive pain in the ass…” I sighed out. "If you know little, then yes, it will be quite difficult." “Well...I do know some bit of Code Script Matrixes, haven’t fully worked it out cause I was busy studying other things.” I said with a shrug. "Do you have issues with studying? Or focus?" Alex asked as we entered the next door building. It was a lot like the other one we were just at. “Neither actually...well I mean, if hyper focus is an issue.” I said sheepishly. “But even if I can bend time to my will, there’s still so much time in the day, plus I also practice with my weapons, spend time with family, delegate my kingdom, be apart of talk shows and other gigs, so much stuff that even with Starfish clones, it’s a lot for a Den Mother to handle.” I explained. "I see. So mainly you lack the ability to delight yourself to a single task at a time?" “Yeah pretty much.” I said honestly. “Even with Clones, can’t really stick to a single task half the time.” "I see. I'll update my data on you then." They said simple, having me sit at a table. "Now then, a Code Matrix is basically a more advanced Spell Matrix, just replacing Mana with Code. Simple enough in spoken words but less so in practice." “Can’t be too hard if it’s just substituting one energy source for another in a medium that’s designed for fluid energy transfer right?” I asked curiously. “Simplified, yes. The first means to working with these matrixes is to set it up., I assume you know about the normal spell matrixes?” “Yes, several different versions actually.” I said. “But I suppose the basic spell matrix is the best for this scenario.” “Some customizations are in order.” Alex said. “Firstly, make a one by one foot metalic slab forged from condensed code on the table here.” “Sounds simple enough.” I said while putting my hand down on the table, Alex seeing small insect like creatures made of Code come out of my fur by the hundreds and form the one by one foot metal slab. “It still feels a little weird that my Code act’s like insects...but it kind of makes sense given what it’s capable of.” “Actually, it’s more attuned to your passive power obtained from the Admin you killed to gain this power. Giddion, if I’m correct, the former Admin of Rape. He had a unique but not unheard of power to control the insects, even those of the microscopic level, he was believed to become the Admin of Insects, but his lust got the better of him.” “I...was going to say my Code...acts more like an Anti Virus...but thank you for reminding me of that guy and making me feel even more creeped out about my powers...now I need a shower…” I grumbled. “I suppose that is a theory also.” He said, looking over the slab. “Hmm… Good. I’ll make the Matrix.” He said, his finger lit up with some code also, surprising me as as he began using it to engrave symbols into the metal. “Runes?” I asked curiously. “Or something else?” “Something like that. These symbols predate any other language. It’s Admin based and sadly not even I have been able to translate them, but thankfully simply copying them works well.” He said, finishing his engraving. The matrix was… complex… and yeah, that’s cool looking. “Now, to activate it.” He said, a single line of code flowing from his hand into the matrix. It glowed to life, the symbols now moving, rotating and crossing over one another in fast, rapid motion until soon, lines of code flew upwards a few feet in the air. “Cool.” I said while looking at all the runes. “But...is there a cipher or something? Like the Rosetta Stone for Ancient Egypt?” I asked, using that old piece of human history as an example. “If there was, do you think we would know close to nothing about it?” Alex asked, basically giving me the feeling that I asked a dumb question. “Now then, there are two kinds of means to crafting Admin Artifacts. Raw materials, or from an existing item. We will be making them from existing items.” “Which would either be something you bring up, or my weapons.” I said simply. “Which one do you have in mind?” He reached into his pocket, reaching his arm… oddly far down for how small they look, and pulled out a simple coin. “This.” “A simple coin is a good enough start as any I suppose.” I said simply. Alex tossed it into the flow of code, the coin now floating there. “Now then, put your hands around it, and feel the code within that coin, and access it.” “Seems simple enough.” I said while taking the coin in my hands and feeling the Code within it, trying to see if I can access it cause I don’t know how complex or simple the code work was. As I was focusing on this, feeling the code inside this coin, I could feel it’s build, the information that makes up this simple thing as I finally began pulling it out. It was slow, and after a while, it all came out. The code in just this coin was surprisingly large, but once it was out, the Admin part of me felt like it… Woke up. Seeing that code made complete sense, and I don’t know why. “That feeling that Rush of power, that sense of knowing, that’s your code, reading and processing the code from the Coin. Absolute knowing, the ability to learn everything about anything and everything simply by reading it’s code.” Alex said, gaining my attention. “So many of the Admins waste that invaluable power.” “So...basically reading the fine print means I can understand anything and everything about something?” I asked curiously. “Once you open up it’s code yes. The only exceptions to this power, are other admins, Admin artifacts, and of course, the Void.” “What about Light, Darkness, Nothingness and Grey?” I asked curiously. “Pure energies? Harder, but possible. Calculating the risk reward, a bare minimum of four Admins can process all that code within an hour or two.” “Cool, that’ll make my studies fly by a lot faster.” I let out a sigh of relief at having a new way of learning things I couldn’t normally or figuring out things I wouldn't normally learn. “Seriously, you have no idea how much this helps.” “Of course I do. I use it constantly.” Alex said bluntly. “Now then, taking the existing code, alter the section that holds abilities or powers. Notice how there is none. Pull some of your own to add something.” “Um...sure.” I said while I pulled some of my code and started to alter the section that held the Powers. “So I just...give it an ability?” “You have to program it in. It’s akin to giving an item an enchantment. For something easy, make it that when tossed, heads gives you, or the one who called heads, 100 Rem, the loser, of course, gets nothing.” “Sounds simple enough.” I said while writing in the simple action into the Coin’s ability. “And...that should be it…” I muttered while feeling my code fill in the blank with what I wrote in. As I closed the code back into the coin, the code floating around the coin also flowed into it. Once the last lines of it flowed in, the Coin gave me a sense of another Admin, only weaker, a bit faint, but noticeable. Taking the coin, I tossed it, getting heads as my assistant beeped. 100 Rem Added to Account. “Cool, it works.” I smiled. "Indeed. Now then, shall we continue?" “Yes please.” I nodded, happy with a good start. “What else is there to learn?” I asked, very interested in learning this ancient craft. "Next let's try a weapon. Hmm… perhaps a demonstration is in order here." Alex said as they reached back into their pocket, pulling out a small dagger. Well, maybe not a dagger, more of a large knife. “Oh?” I asked curiously. “Upgrading a knife?” "Cript showed you what happens to weapons when you channel raw power into them, right?" “Yes he did.” I nodded. “Well, to test, not like an actual ‘oh hey, here’s what happens’.” I said honestly. "Well, this will be your example. Power that knife with .7% of your power." "Um...sure." I said as I took the knife and tried to put .7 percent of my power into the thing. I was extremely careful here, and it payed off. Immediately the knife changed. It was now the length of a short sword, glowing with a faint power of Nothingness and even seemed to have faint Nothingness thorns trail around it. "Good. Now, try adding one more to that." I did just that. And it exploded, the shrapnel actually managing to cut into my hand. I helped at that, seeing my healing factor easily pushing the shrapnel out if my flesh. "The weaker one is, the weaker the weapon they can charge must be. Too much power put into a weapon not properly upgraded or modified will backfire horribly. Higher tier Admin Artifacts Don't have this issue, but for now we can make at most tier two Admin Artifacts." "And how many tiers are there?" I asked curiously. "When it comes to found Admin artifacts, tier seven is the highest found. Sadly data on if that is the max or not is unknown." "Good to know." I nodded. "Now then, Time to attempt this properly." He said, taking out another knife and places it on the slab. "This time, you fuel it. Simply flow code into the matrix." "Sure." I said while putting a hand on the matrix and flowing Code into the slab at a small but steady pace. Soon, it burst to life like before, the knife now floating there in the code. "Now, like with the code of the coin, open it. Read it." "Okay…" I said while taking the hilt and reading the code in the blade. "Let's see how this got improved…" Like with the coin, everything about this knife was known by me once the code from it flowed out. From how long it took for the metals to form to the method it was forged with. "Now then, looking at the code, you need to start to separate it line by line." "Oh, kind of like tailoring?" I asked, having watched Rarity and Coco way to much and thinking the Code as a type of silk. Carefully I split each line of the code one at a time. A total of sixty two lines of code now floated before me. "Now, the hard part. Conversion. This is similar to how people become Admins, but easier. Each line now, you must take into your being one at a time, let it flow into your code and drown in it, become consumed by it, and then, once you sense it is no longer simple code, but code of an Admin, release it." "Um...that makes no sense but okay." I said as a Spider appeared on my wrist and started taking in one line of code at a time carefully. "And they say I think too literal." Alex said, the spider taking in the line of code into me. There was a moment of intense pressure as it went into my skin, into my code. It was strange, code that didn't belong there now present, like… a boat in a calm sea. I was the sea, and this code began to sail across it. Following as what Alex said to do, I forced the waters, my code, to thrash around, tossing and turning the foren code around, finally, sinking into the ocean that was my code. It tried to resurface, but I dragged it down, further and further down as it tried to surface. Once I had dragged it to the bottom, I held it there, where with time I felt it begin to change. Shifting from the code of that blade, to code that felt like an Admin pulsating inside me. It's power grew and it felt like there was the faint presence of an Admin within my code. I now let go, letting it resurface as it now began to flow out of me. Compared to the other code it came from, it now was radiating raw power, dim, faint raw Admin power. “Well...that was...certainly an interesting feeling.” I said while looking over the knife, seeing if it changed at all besides the raw power. "You'll need to convert each line before there is any real results." Alex said. “Alright…” I nodded while taking another strand and doing the same thing another sixty times...this is gonna take a while. It took about two hours, and with the last one for Alex had me fit them all back together. Once that was done I let it all flow back into the knife like with the coin, and when it was done the knife gave off the faint presence of an Admin, just like the coin. "Now, funnel power into it." Alex said. “Um...sure.” I said while grabbing the hilt and slowly funneling power into it, not wanting to go overboard since this was the first attempt. “How much power did you want put into it?” "Start at one percent, and go up one percent til it begins to vibrate violently." I did so, reaching twenty percent, the knife now a claymore of sorts now glowing with power. It also began to violently vibrate now. "Twenty percent of your power. Not bad for a first time attempt." "Well then…" I said honestly. "This is something…" I said while lightly swinging the weapon to feel it's weight and power. It didn't have much weight to it, and power wise would definitely pack a punch. Cutting the power it returned to normal as I placed it away. "That is the basics." Alex said, turning to the door. "I'll go retrieve my reward from Lord then." "You have no idea how much this will help me." I said with a warm smile, turning to face him… and he's gone…"Ah...right then…" I sighed out. "So...now I can maybe help Lord and Cript with what I know." I got up, heading off as I saw Alex walking through a portal Lord had opened up, sighing as it closed. Cript still was nowhere to be seen. "So, it went well?" Lord asked me. “Yep.” I said while lifting the knife. “First attempt, twenty percent.” I said honestly. "Not bad. Cript only got to ten on his first try." Lord said, examining the knife. "So, what's your take on Alex?" “Cold, Calculating, a decent guy to be honest.” I shrugged. “He’s a Scientist who takes his job too seriously...or decided to just throw himself into the deep end after some terrible thing happened. "I don't know all the details. Only Cript does really, but he won't talk." Lord said, placing the knife away. "Mind go fetching him? He still isn't back." “Cause of course he is…” I muttered. “Where would Cript go after...that if I may ask?” "Where he always goes. Top of the Freak Inc. Skyscraper in Connection City. He likes the view." “Alright.” I nodded while opening a DTN. “I shall be right back.” I said before heading to the Freak Inc Skyscraper. It was night time here, for some reason, the moon full and shining down, and the busy sounds of a lively city hit my ears suddenly. The view was nice from here. The city, it's borders the Forest beyond that, and a mountain in the distance. Cript was sitting on the edge of the building. The distance between and the ground made seeing people below difficult. “Sup.” I said while sitting down next to Cript. “How you doing?” He just sighed, not saying anything as he looked off at the view. “You can talk to me, holding it in doesn’t really help.” I said while looking out at the view as well. "Are you really one to talk about not holding in feelings?" Cript asked, his tone sad, but was also joking and slightly sarcastic. “Yes actually, cause I can at least talk about shit that’s really important.” I said simply. “It’s all the tiny shit I keep bottled up at this point.” "Either way, I never wanna see that selfish bastard ever again. Upside to being immortal, you'll outlive your backstabbers." "What happened?" I asked curiously. "Cause the only backstabber that involved you is kind of dead." I said, thinking back to the person who took away Cript's th.Death "... She won't ever wake up again, because of him." Cript said, at first that confused me, until I remembered… the girl in the cage. “How did he do that?” I asked curiously. "I don't know. Spent close to sixty thousand years in a time bubble, trying to reverse it. Nothing. No progress, not even a hint as to what he did." “Everything in Existence is made of Code right?” I asked curiously. “Cause if that’s true...I might be able to figure something out.” "Ben, I've tried everything. Besides, Autumn… Autumn isn't, wasn't like us. She was… different, unique. Not from this existence." “Like you?” I asked honestly. “I mean...seeing Alex, and having more talk about Autumn, which I finally have a name for, it kind of started to piece together, especially from some of the other tidbits I’ve learned over the years.” "... Vincent made me, this body, to be his ultimate weapon. What I was born, was, to him, a happy accident. Course, the me born here and the me born there shared a strong moral compass. But, in the end, it still should have been Autumn." “Either way, I know there is a way to bring her back.” I said honestly. “There’s always a way.” "Even if their was, it wouldn't be her, it would be… the her that body was born into. The Autumn I knew is gone Ben. Simple as that." “Well...looks like it’s time to move on.” I said honestly. “I know that sounds a bit harsh, but would she, the Autumn you knew, want you to still be sulking about her after god knows how long?” "I know she wouldn't. She just up and left us. Not even a goodbye. I just… wanted to know why. Why did she leave?" “Sometimes we’re not lucky to know why some shit happens.” I shrugged. “Even if we try to look for the answers...we both know that no matter how hard you search, some answers can’t be found.” I said softly. "I know… I just hope that, wherever she is in her true home, she's happy." “I’m sure she is, and I have a feeling she’s trying to find that Spark to come back and tell you what happened.” I said honestly. “Everything will be alright.” I said as I put a reassuring hand on his shoulder. "Ten years is a long time to try to find a spark." Cript said, standing up. "Well, guess we best finish those weapons of yours." “Yep, especially when I managed to make my first weapon at twenty percent.” I said with a smile. "Not bad." Cript said, helping me up. To be continued...
Nobody goes to Sinnoh“Okay seriously, why is Heart still asleep?” I muttered to myself, checking my status screen and showing that baby Heart is still indeed sleeping inside me, now given that I maxed out Floof Noodles Racial Tree he’s fine but it’s still a little worrying. "Maybe they are in the Realm of dreams?" Consequence offered. “Maybe, I should probably talk to Luna cause the Realm of Dreams isn’t really my jurisdiction...god I really need to go check on the Foretellers one of these days...so much shit’s been going on.” I sighed out. As I checked them again, I noticed a small tab bar next to Hearts page. Tapping it, it showed me two status screens. One was a baby Heart, the other, a current age Heart, awake, and off world apparently. “Oi, when the hell did he make a starfish clone?” I frowned, assuming Heart made a clone instead of something else. "Where are they sire?" I double checked Hearts status and their current Class status is...Pokemon Breeder? “Oh you cheeky bitch, I wanted to go to a Pokemon World for ages.” I frowned while checking which pokemon world he was in cause there were several. I found it, the location was the Sinnoh region. Opening a DTN, I was off. Upon arriving I was warned that this world was apparently not part of the kingdom, so to not be mistaken for a Pokemon, I switched to my Diane form. “Hmm...would it be believable if I can use Aura powers…” I muttered while bringing a hand out and producing a blue sphere of energy. “Yeah, I’m pretty sure it’s fine…” I muttered while the ball disappeared as I put my hands in my pockets and looked around to see where I was specifically. The route I was on looked like a basic pathway between cities or towns, Forrest's of trees on each side, and various pokemon scampering about. It was cute. As I was walking, I checked my Assistant, seeing that Heart was close. Looking ahead I spotted a large hill with a wood log building sticking out of it. “Wonder if he built this...or if he’s just biking around the Pokemon DayCare house at Solaceon Town…” I muttered while heading to the house. “Hello?” I asked while deciding to turn myself into Ben and give myself a more appropriate outfit for the world just so Heart wouldn’t get confused. As they opened the door, Heart looked like they did when they first went to both genders. “Ben? How did you find me?” Heart asked. Their clothes was a long skirt that went down to their ankles, white shoes, a green top and small pink bonnet. “Because stat screens help, but I was also worried about you.” I said honestly. “You’ve been asleep for a while, I was scared you were hurt or something.” "Takes a lot to hurt me. Physically anyway." Heart said. “Well I was still worried.” I said honestly. “But how are you doing?” "Mostly okay. Settling in here was fairly easy. Wanna come in?" “I would love to.” I said with a warm smile. “But you stole my travel to the Pokemon world, how dare you.” I pouted. Inside the log cabin part was just the shop/entrance. It looked links like a pet store. Poffins, berries, some pokeballs and Pokemon eggs were all on display. "Like the set up?" “Looks like the inside of the Day Care if it wasn’t top down all the time.” I said honestly while looking through everything. “So how many shinies hatched?” "A few. Actually." “Cool.” "I'm not gonna lie, I have been using my Admin powers a bit in certain departments." They said with a smile, walking behind the desk and leaning on it. "I went back to earth and managed to find my old Pokemon games, cartage and Roms. I used code to bring them to life and basically did that to start up my business here." “We only got to Gen 5 back on Earth, and I’ve played up to Gen 8 right now...god X and Y was disappointing…” I sighed out. “But why did you pick Sinnoh if I may ask?” "It's my favorite region." “While I do like me some Gen 4, Gen 5 is honestly better.” I shrugged. "Eh." Heart said simply. “Fine fine…” I said while humming for a little bit...only to wave my hand as a Pokeball appeared. “Ah yes, my personal favorite, and my pride and joy.” I smiled warmly. “Mind if I let him outside?” "Sure. Who is it?" “Come on out Silver!” I called out while tossed my Pokeball, and out popped up a Shiny Metagross. “My pride and joy of Pokemon, Silver.” I smiled happily. "Cool." Heart said, patting the Metagross on one of it's legs. "What's their gender?" “It’s Genderless.” I said. “Several pokemon, that aren’t legendaries, are actually genderless, Claydol, Metagross, and Ditto to name a few.” I said honestly. “And yet they can all breed...don’t know how…” “That’s the video games Ben.” Heart said, looking Silver over. “In reality, all pokemon have Genders, but some can only breed under specific cercumstances, conditions, or are Asexual, like Lugia.” Heart said, now walking over to a display with collars. “Oh no, Lugia was specifically stated, even in the Anime, as being Female.” I said honestly while gently patting my Pokemon's head. “But given that Metagross is, at its core, four Beldum fused together, it really doesn’t have a gender.” “Not every world in the multiverse follows the same rules as the anime or games.” Heart said, now with a small pink name tag in their hand. “And this world says your Metagross is a girl.” “Well...that’s interesting.” I said simply. “Who’d a thought…” I muttered while rubbing my hand against the smooth steel that was Silver’s body. I put them back in the pokeball, looking at all the eggs on display here. They had timers for when they will hatch, what Pokemon they will be also. Two Caterpies, Eevee, Riolu. “So are these for clients or something?” I asked curiously, ever so tempted to take the Riolu egg. “Not every trainer who leaves their pokemon here for Daycare want the eggs that pop up when breeding happens. They, like other abandoned pokemon I’ve taken in, are up for adoption.” I proceeded to take the Riolu egg. “This is my Riolu, there are many like it, but this one will be my sunshine child.” I said, which the wording wasn’t supposed to be taken so literal as the egg glowed softly as it got claimed by my magic words. “Damn it…” I sighed out. “Well...now it literally is going to be our sunshine child when it hatches…” “I’m just wondering how I’ll be filing the paperwork for the adoption of that egg now?” Heart pondered. “Well, wanna see the rest?” “Sure, and just say ‘given to husband as gift’.” I said honestly while carrying the egg lovingly. “Yeah… I built a second life here. Can’t say that on the papers. EIther way, this way.” Heart said, leading me into the dug into parts of the daycare. It was a nicely decorated bunker. “There’s the Nursery, where the eggs that are laid are kept and incubated, scanned for what Pokemon they will be and given a timer for when they will hatch. Next to that is the breeding room. Some of the other rooms are for the Pokemon here for Daycare, the others are for the orphans. And then there’s the Clinic.” “Do the pokemon speak english for you?” I asked curiously while heading to the Clinic, worried about what the pokemons conditions would be. “You know, since your magic and also part Pokemon because of my shenanigans in the Tomb of Heroes?” I asked, having taken several Pokemon eggs as my kids. “I can hear them because of the Assistant. Slash connection to hearts. Pokemon hearts and people's hearts are very similar. Only a few differences. You… sure you wanna go in there?” Heart asked as we stood outside the clinic door. “Listen, if I immediately go all MD here...just make sure I don’t go overboard okay?” I asked sheepishly. “Also yes, I have at least seven PHD’s in Medicine for at least a hundred Races of People, so I know my medicine...I was bored, don’t judge me…” “Okay then.” Heart said opening the door. Inside was fair sized, a Lucario, missing an arm and leg bandaged on a bed, a Turtwig bandages on another and a Geodude with a large crack down it’s right arm on the last bed. “That Lucario is that Eggs mother.” Heart said, rubbing the egg I was holding. “She wants them to have a nice home. She lost those limbs against a trainer that wanted to catch her. Keep her from her egg. Geodude there, his trainer made it fight til it’s body cracked. Just left him along the side of a road. Turtwig there was lost. I actually found them while looking for wild berries. Had some bad burns.” I gently handed the egg to Heart and walked over to the sink and started to wash my hands. “Aura can be used as a healing ability right?” I asked calmly. “I doubt you want me to use...those abilities here.” I said simply while making sure my hands were properly disinfected and dried before tending to the injured pokemon. “I doubt you want me using magic or other powers in this world, I can tell this world isn’t apart of our Kingdom.” “I kept it independent because it was so pure. Worlds, like this one, they have their darkness, yes, but… it’s a light rivaling the balance of my own heart. An untouched paradise. Not all paradise’s are perfect.” Heart said, looking at the pokemon here. “But neither are gods.” “Even though the four Gods are of Space, Time, Anti-Matter, and just the literal God himself of this world.” I said simply. “But you didn’t answer my question...even if I can’t do one thing I want to, I can at least help mend some of the injuries.” I said. “Honestly I don’t know. I do have some prosthetics coming in the mail. She’ll be able to walk and pick stuff up, but in terms of fighting she’s not going to be doing much. She agreed to help with this place though. She and Sparkplug.” At that moment, a Luxray came into the room, a small tray on it’s back. Heart gave them a pet. “They were one of my best back in the Platinum game.” "I do like Luxray." I said while gently moving over to the Geodude and softly putting a hand over the crack, my hand glowing a soft blue as the pain in the crack was going down. "I'm not sure if I can mend the crack...but I know I can stop some of the pain." “I managed to talk with Nurse Joy in Veilstone City, she says she can repair the damage but the materials need to arrive first. Once she has them she’ll be here soon to she has them. Turtwig just has some burns. They’ll heal up soon enough.” "Well I'd at least like to stop the pain...it's at least something I can do…" I sighed out. Heart gave a nod as I went to work. Healing up the Lucario some as her injuries were less painful. Same for Geodude. Turtwig’s burns were more healed, mostly it was just the top layer and some scarring now. "Well...that's the best I can do with what I'm allowed…" I sighed out. "It's alright." The Turtwig reassured, nuzzling my hand gently. "Any little bit helps mister." "Heart tell you that?" I asked while petting the grass turtle. “Few If any humans here can understand pokemon, and few Pokemon can speak English or know how to bypass it with telepathy. I tell them stuff, some want to see it someday." "Alrighty then." I nodded. "But I mean, we can teach them English right? Pokemon are naturally smart enough to do it." “Yes, but from what I’ve learned it effect;s their abilities to use moves. They lose their power in exchange for a higher intelligence. Evolution at its basic.” “But humans are technically pokemon.” I said honestly. “Which those legends have been in this region actually, as well as the legend of human and Pokemon literally marrying each other.” “... Never heard of that, and wishing you never even said that.” Heart said. “Are you kidding? It’s in the same town where you have the Darkrai Event.” I said honestly. “Also, Chuggaconroy and Game Theory talked about it...one from an LP and one just to talk about Pokemon theories.” “Nerd.” Heart laughed. “Anyway, so, aside from adopting an Egg into the family… what are you gonna do here?” “Spend time with you.” I said honestly. “Cause we haven’t done a one on one in a while.” I shrugged. “I guess.” Heart said, their Sparkplug giving cups with water to the pokemon here. “I’ll be back later guys.” Heart said. I followed them to the daycare room. Here there was a lot of pokemon, all in beds of sorts what have a Pokeball on a shelf near them. “And this is where they all sleep?” I asked softly, looking over at all the pokemon in the room. “The ones who are left for Daycare or Breeding. This is the boys room, the girls is down the hall.” “Well...I probably shouldn’t go that way cause...well Cherubim DNA and all…” I said sheepishly. “And it’s technically beastiality… don’t be the dog you look like is what I mean here Ben.” Heart said as they closed the door. “For the most part, my daily routine is the same. Wake them up, feed them, put the breeding ones in the breeding room, let the daycare ones play and use the Pokemon Gym, and the orphans mostly play and practice their moves.” “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “Also, there are plenty of humanoid Pokemon that is a very fine line when you actually look at it.” I said. “Looking at you Lopunny…” I muttered. “... Right…” Heart said, heading back to the front of the place. “For the most part, the pokemon manage themselves and all I really do is keep them fed, healthy and whatever else their trainers or owners ask of me.” “Sounds simple enough.” I said honestly. “But how much of...our world did you tell the pokemon if I may ask?” “Nothing much. Magic and that was kinda it. As far as the Code and stuff we do, if they see me doing it I tell them it’s new tech from the Pokemon PC’s. Given it literally converts them into data while inside a Pokeball.” “Sounds simple enough.” I said honestly. “I was just going to hold myself to Aura powers, but is there some wiggle room for magic?” I asked curiously. “Low level types of magic, like the basic Cure spell could pass for a Pokemon move.” Heart said with a shrug. “Simple enough.” I said honestly. “I mean, if I knew that then I...well maybe not healed the Lucario so much, but I could have mended Geodudes crack if that was allowed.” I said honestly. “Nurse Joy has that covered once that materials she needs arrives.” “Alright.” I nodded. “But has anything...weird happened when you were here? Also how long have you been here?” “No, not really. And since we were at that Library. When I threw a book at your face I bit the tip of my tail off and tossed it under your desk. It grew into this clone body and once the first me dived down your throat, and you left, I came here.” “Could have at least told me.” I said honestly. “You got me worried something bad happened when you fell asleep.” “I know, but I just wanted to be alone, live a normal life without worrying about war or politics or to even see another Keyblade for a while.” “I understand.” I nodded. “I’m the one that’s supposed to be doing everything like that right?” I asked, Heart knowing full well that, even though I liked the work, I was also tired of all the bullshit that’s been going on. “We are all the rulers, that was the point of the Grand Royal Crown, but even with the workload divided, it’s a lot.” "Well I still do a lot of crap given I'm the face of it half the time." I said honestly. "And for taking all that attention away from me, I thank you." Heart said, giving me a peck on the cheek. "All I can say is, as a Den Mother I can rock any outfit." I chuckled. "And it's not just the chest fluff?" Heart asked slyly. "My chest fluff is silky smooth and you love it, even if it didn't also have the big titties." "It's your most notable feature though." Heart said, smiling as they went behind the desk and sorting through some stuff back there. "So, you're gonna wanna explore the place?" "A little yeah." I said honestly. "But...had any of the Legendaries dropped by sensing your power?" I asked curiously. "I'm good at hiding it. And aside from the few I took from my games, no." “Well I’m sure someone is going to notice two holes of power…” I said honestly. “Wonder if it’ll be Arceus...wonder if he even knows about half the shit we do considering he’s this worlds Creator.” "Don't know, don't care." Heart said, pulling up a small bag. “Fine fine, what’s in the bag?” I asked curiously. "Well, Don't Tell me you don't want to go out and see a Pokemon world, right?" They asked, placing three pokeballs on the table. "Pick one." “I mean, I have Silver, but am I allowed to know what’s in each ball?” I asked curiously while looking at the three pokeballs. "It's a starter, but they are each from a different region. Besides, popping out that giant shiny calls too much attention." I took all three and tossed them all out in an open area. “Come on out you three.” I called out while seeing the three pokeballs open up for the three starters. The water type was Squirtle, the fire type was Torchic, and the grass type was a Snivy. I immediately took the Torchic pokeball. “Yeah, there’s no way I wasn’t picking my favorite starter of all time.” I said honestly. "Well, name them." She said, pulling out a collar with a pink name tag. “Moegami.” I said with a smile, writing down the name on the name tag. "Enjoy your Moegami then. She already knows ember as well as scratch." “Sweet.” I smiled warmly while giving Heart a quick peck on the cheek. “Best wife ever.” "Head off then." She said, putting the other two away as she handed me the bag, about ten more Pokeballs in there in a different pocket. "Those are all empty." “I’d say come join me...but your busy with the DayCare.” I said honestly, a little sad about that little fact but knowing it is what it is. "Yeah… I'd rather not be a trainer either." “Why is that?” I asked while letting my Torchic hop onto my arm and then to my shoulder. "I'm good at fighting, battles, but I don't like them." “I understand...but here, battles don’t have to be something that you hate, it’s just a simple thing of skill and the bond between yourself and your Pokemon right?” I asked. “That’s how it’s always been for Pokemon.” "I know. But, I finally get to live my life, my way." “I understand.” I nodded. “I won’t push it, you do you...but give me a message about when Nurse Joy gets here, and I’ll get here as fast as I can, might as well learn how to take care of Pokemon while I’m at it ya know?” "If you want." Heart said. “Alright.” I nodded. “Well, I’ll be back, just...call me if you need me alright?” "Okay." I gave Heart a quick hug. “Love you.” I said gently. “But...what town are we closest to? Like...how far from the first gym?” "It doesn't work like that here Ben, they check your pokemon and pick which ones are at your level for the battle. Keeps it fair so there isn't a real order." “Um...what would they think of Silver then?” I asked nervously, having planned to take Silver with me as well on my little journey. "I dunno. But to battle gym leaders you do need to register first as a trainer." “That’s going to be a little tough, don’t really know where to find a trainer registry.” I said honestly. "It's all online or at any Pokemon center." “You’d think they’d still do mostly paperwork all things considered…” I pointed out. “But you got a PC I can use for this?” "Yeah, but that's only for Pokemon storage system access." “Fine fine.” I nodded. “So gonna need to head to a Pokemon center...wherever that is.” I said honestly. “Seriously...where’s the closest Pokemon Center?” "Valestone city to the East of here." “Oh, that’s where the Fighting Gym leader is right?” I asked curiously. "Yeah." “Alrighty then, might as well get going to Valestone to get my trainer license.” "Good luck then." Heart said. “Alright.” I nodded. “How long of a walk is it to Valestone from here?” I asked curiously. "Four hours by foot. One or one and a half by bike." Heart answered. “Eh, walking never killed anyone.” I shrugged simply. “Hopefully this’ll be a nice fun day.” "Should be. At least the radio says it should." “And that’s when the creepy shit happens.” I chuckled. “Seriously, Pokemon has some weirdly creepy easter eggs if you know where to look.” "Like the abandoned mansions? Or some Pokemon enteries?" "Yes." I said honestly. "Or the ghost people...cause that's also a thing." "Yeah… well, have fun." "I will." I nodded while heading out. "See you later." "Later." As I began my walk east to Valestone City, I decided to have Moegami with me walking. “So, what do you think of my wife Moegami?” I asked my Torchic buddy. “She’s nice, keeps us happy and fed.” The Torchic replied, walking along next to me in an almost march type walk. "She is a wonderful person." I chuckled warmly. "Has she told you anything about if she traveled?" I asked curiously. “No, far as I know she’s always been at the Daycare, only ever leaves to shop in the city or find wild berries.” “Alright.” I nodded. “So what can you tell me about yourself? Like favorite food or stuff like that?” “I like sweet foods.” Torchic said. “I also hate Zigzagoons.” “Why do you hate Zigzagoons?” I asked curiously. “When I was a wild Pokemon, there was a pack of Zigzagoons that always stole my food.” “Ah.” I nodded. “That sounds annoying.” I nodded in sympathy. “I was caught by a wandering trainer chasing them off. Got traded, the next thing I knew Heart had me. Guess the trainer who traded for me here in Sinnoh didn’t like me that much.” “Sounds about right.” I nodded. “But don’t know why, only known you a little bit and I can tell your a great pokemon.” “Don’t know. I didn’t even get to meet her. I came out of my pokeball two days later after the trade at Heart’s Daycare. She said a trainer came by and dropped me off, just put my ball on the desk and left before any paperwork could be filled.” “Well that’s not nice.” I frowned. “Abandoning a Pokemon isn’t good...even if they’re left in good hands.” “I don’t mind, it was a real surprise being from Hoenn my whole life and suddenly I’m in Sinnoh.” “Yeah that would be quite a surprise.” I shrugged. “I like it here, no annoying Zigzagoons, and all the Bidoofs make me laugh. They’re all silly.” “Yeah, they are silly.” I chuckled while seeing some Starly’s flying through the sky. “The world is a very big place.” I sighed out warmly, just enjoying the fresh air on this bright sunny day. “I wonder if anyone has ever seen it all, every region and every Pokemon?” Moegami asked. “I’m sure someone has.” I said honestly. "What about you? Do you want to see it all?" “Of course.” I said honestly. “Seeing it all would be very interesting and fun.” "I'd want to fight a Legendary Pokemon. Like Ho-oh or MewTwo. That way, I could become one." “Really?” I asked curiously. “Is that how it works?” "I don't know, but if I can fight them and win, then I would at least be acknowledged as one, right?" “Sounds simple enough I suppose.” I shrugged. “A simple but good goal.” "What's your goal? What do you dream of doing or becoming?" “That’s...quite a difficult thing to say…” I said honestly. "How come?" “Because I have a lot of things in mind for what I want to do in life…” I said simply. “But the simplest one I can say...is being with my family and make sure they’re all happy and healthy.” Nodding, Moegami and I after a good walkade it to Valestone City. It was better than the games and even the anime. So lively and vibrant. I found the Pokemon center easily, Nurse Joy behind the desk. “Hello.” I said while my torchic hopped onto my arm and stood on my shoulder. “Mind if I ask how to get a Trainer Card?” I asked politely. "Certainly. You're over ten right?" Nurse Joy asked. “Yes I am.” I nodded. “A little late to the game but you know...helping the love of my life with her DayCare can do that.” I chuckled. "Oh? Are you Heart's Boyfriend? I didn't even know she was dating." Nurse Joy said, taking out a form from behind the desk. "Fill this out and I'll fax it in." “Yeah, she didn’t want to talk about me given I tend to spoil her.” I chuckled while filling out the form. “Also I tend to be out and about looking for stuff for the Daycare so I’m not fully there…” "Ah. Lost and hurt pokemon then? How nice. Oh, that reminds me." Nurse joy then placed an Ultra Ball on the desk. "Someone left this here for treatment two days ago and hasn't come back. I asked around and apparently they earned the gym bag then left town. I was going to send it to her, but if you'll take them or at least pass it over to her." “Oh? What Pokemon is it?” I asked curiously while picking up the Ultra Ball. “Can I bring them out or are they too big for the building?” I asked curiously. "It's a Pichu, but this Pichu is a tad… different." She said as I took them out. It had a spiky ear. "I tried grooming the fur on its ear but nothing I did kept it down. I don't even know where they could have caught it." I looked at the little Pichu, finding this Pokemon strangely familiar. “Hello there.” I said while kneeling down. “How are you doing?” I asked the Pichu. The Pichu looked at me for a moment, then pointed at me. "You smell just like them! Like Celebi!" They said, though only I heard them as they now ran in joy in a circle. "Awh. They like you." Nurse Joy said. I blinked at hearing that. “Excuse me, did you just say...Celebi?” I asked the Pichu, even as I held my chest at how adorable the Pichu was acting. "What was that?" Nurse Joy asked. Right, she can't hear them. “It’s nothing.” I gently shook my head while managing to catch the excited Pichu. “Hi there.” I said to the pokemon. “How you doing?” "I'm so happy! I haven't been outside of my Pokeball in a while! Save for when Nurse Joy feeds me and lets me play." "Did you finish the form yet?" Nurse Joy asked me. “Yes I did.” I said while showing her the finished form in very neat handwriting. "Okay." She said, taking it. "Once I fax this in I'll need a photo for the hard license, but if you want a Pokedex you'll have to travel to Professor Rowan's lab for one." She said, taking the paper and heading to the back. “Thank you.” I nodded while looking back at the Pichu. “So...about that Celebi?” "Huh?" Pichu asked, looking back at me. "I said you smell like Celebi. Not completely but similar." “Why do you say that?” I asked curiously while walking over to a chair to talk to the Pichu. "Because you smell like them." “How do you know what Celebi smells like?” I asked curiously. "We used to play a lot together. We were playing when I got caught." “Where was Celebi?” I asked nervously. “And no, I’m not going to catch Celebi...just making sure they don’t get caught.” "We were playing in a large Forrest back in Joto. It's where we always played." “Ah...that’s very far away.” I said honestly. “Right now we’re in Sinnoh...no idea how you got all the way here...” “Me neither.” Pichu said. “Well I’m sure I’ll figure out how to get you back to your friend.” I said honestly. “Or maybe my wife if we go back to the DayCare.” “I hope so. I miss Celebie.” “Don’t worry, I’ll get you back.” I said while picking up the Pichu. “I’m sure Heart will know something.” I said honestly. “It’s ready. We just need your Photo now.” Nurse Joy said, calling from a side door next to the desk. ”Cute lady telling me to get into a side room...I know it probably won’t happen but...really?” I thought to myself at my thoughts on her wording and place as I stood up and headed into the side room. The room was a simple office, a large plain background with a camera set up a foot or so away. “Just stand by the wall there.” Nurse Joy said. I nodded while letting the Pichu down and Moegami off of my shoulder as I stood in front of the camera. I gave a smile as she took the Photo, then went to her PC as she then printed out my Trainer Licence. “And here you go, and here is your Badge case. This ID will work in any region league just show it to any Pokemon Center for a new badge case.” She said, handing me the ID and badge case. “Cool.” I nodded. “Thank you Nurse Joy.” I said with a smile. “You’re welcome.” Nurse Joy said with a nod. “And Maylene, the gym leader is out for the time being. Someone broke into her gym last night and wrecked the place.” “Do you know who would do such a thing?” I asked nervously, finding that rather strange someone would vandalise a gym. “Don’t know. Her Pokemon tier vault was pried open, but she takes them home every night. She has some pokemon of various strength depending on how many gym badges the challenging trainer has. It’s a rule of Gym leaders so all fights are fair.” “Um...is there any laws against anyone looking into the event?” I asked curiously. “Like any Good Samaritan stuff?” I asked, hoping that saying also applied here. “You’d have to talk to an officer, but without at least two gym badges they likely won’t take you on as a civilian consultant.” “Right then.” I nodded. “Good to know that.” I said, already having a feeling I’ll just do my own thing to find the Culprit, but also thanking god that my Cherubim side wasn’t affecting anyone. “Thank you Nurse Joy, you have a wonderful day.” I nodded while taking my two pokemon and heading out. “You as well.” Nurse Joy said as I headed out. So, someone wrecked her gym… what for? Doubt it was an angry trainer. I headed over to the gym to get a look. Outside it was alright looking, inside was a mess. Some burns, broken punching bags and heavy weights twisted. Definitely Pokemon were used. “Hmm…” I hummed softly while looking around, seeing if there were any other clues that the Officers missed. ”Scan…” I thought to myself as my eyes glowed a soft green as I scanned the entire area for anything of importance. I blinked a bit, seeing all kinds of footprints, the code aiding my scan. Ten pairs of police shoes, seven trainers, the gym leader herself. Not a single foot or boot print that isn’t a ten year old. Psychic types. Only thing that makes sense. I know they can be powerful, but no psychic residue. Must have faded already. “Hmm…” I hummed while sensing the code and trying to find each file of the trainers cause I know the officers wouldn’t do this and the Gym Leader wouldn’t have either. With that acquired, I read through each file. Maylene has seven trainers in her gym. According to these files these trainers are meant to train here and act as challenges to trainers who are not strong enough to beat her. The strongest, Danny, has a Machop and an Infernape, and is in line to take over when Maylene retires and often coveres as the gym leader when she’s off elsewhere. Her pokemon respect and obey him just like here. So far the other trainers are either local kids that didn’t want to leave home for a Pokemon journey, or adults with some skills for part time work. “Well...might as well double check on Danny because he’s the only one with a fire type that could cause this…” I muttered to myself while leaving the Gym and trying to find where Danny was. After finding his house, a small apartment that was downtown. I knocked on the door. Danny opened. He was about my height, brown hair gelled back and wearing a black shirt and sweatpants. “Who are you?” He asked. “Hi, my name’s Ben.” I introduced politely, Danny seeing Moegami on my shoulder. “I heard what happened to the Gym and was wondering if you or Maylene knew anything about it.” I said, sounding more like a new trainer asking the second in command about what happened and when the Gym was gonna come back up. “Psst. I wish. If I knew I’d have beaten the snot out of the punks.” He said, punching the door. “Maylene is adored in this city. If those rumors are true then I swear.” “Rumors?” I asked curiously, finding that a little interesting. “Yeah. While ago I heard news that Team Rocket was seen in Snowpoint. Plasma was seen in Twinleaf Town of all places, and Galactic was seen running again, took back their old buildings. That I know for a fact. Their old building here in town is back up and running. Under renovations.” "Well...that's concerning and...rather weird." I said honestly, wondering what Rocket and Plasma are doing in the Sinnoh Region.n "Tell me about it. Word around is that either they are teaming up or about to fight for territory. Either way it looks like a lot of towns and cities are going to be in the middle of it if it's true." “Well that’s not good…” I said worriedly. “Is there anything anyone can do to stop it before it gets too far?” I asked nervously, silently putting four more of my favorite Pokemon in their pokeballs in my bag. "So far while they have been seen nothing criminal has been seen, unless you count the gym being trashed, but there was no leads there from what I heard." “Really? No leads?” I asked curiously. “Cause it looked like a Fire Type trashed the place considering all the burn marks on the place.” I pointed out. "Yeah, heard about that. Police said the physical Damage had to be a psychic type though. Can't really think of a Pokemon who is Fire and Psychic though. Actually, come to think of it it was strange that only one area had some fire damage and not even bad damage either." I blinked. “Uh...have you heard of a Pokemon called Darmanatan?” I asked curiously. “Red fur, ape looking pokemon, fire for eyebrows?” I asked curiously. "I usually stick to Sinnoh pokemon. I don't know all that much about the other regions." “I mean, it would be good to brush up considering Team Plasma, as far as I heard, is from the Unova region.” I said "Huh, good point. Well I wish I knew more, but I don't. Maylene and some detective called Looker were talking when I arrived, so you can talk to Maylene for more info or if ya can find Looker." “Thank you.” I nodded. “Where is Maylene when she’s not the Gym leader?” I asked curiously, even though I knew full well might as well play dumb for now. "Usually having a jog or at her place working out with her Pokemon." “And her place is where?” I asked, wondering why some people thought just saying ‘at her place’ was answer enough even if I’m playing dumb. "It's on the other side of town. Building is called Text Apartments. Can't miss it, massive fountain entrance." “Thank you.” I nodded. “Well, have a nice day, hope all this doesn’t escalate further.” I said, honestly hoping that it doesn’t escalate before I get a chance to stop it. I rushed over to Text Apartments. Maylene was here, her apartment also basically a smaller gym. "So, what reason are you looking into my Gym's incident?" Maylene asked, chugging a water bottle. “I mean, besides wondering if people are okay?” I asked curiously. “But besides that, it would probably be the rumors of Team Plasma and Rocket about to have a Turf War in the middle of your city, and Plasma probably destroying your Gym with a Darmanatan.” I said honestly. “And how I know that? I help someone important to me with her Daycare, get all sorts of Pokemon.” "Heart's Daycare?" “Yep, she doesn’t talk about me much but…” I said while looking down at our wedding ring. “She means the world to me.” I muttered, before shaking my head. “I’m sorry for derailing the conversation, talking about Heart isn’t why I’m here.” "She's a good daycare person. Saw that poor Lucario she's looking after. Was thinking of adopting her. Well, as for the gym I don't know. I told the police everything and the cameras were smashed." “Have you ever seen a Darmanatan before?” I asked curiously. “Unova Pokemon, ape looking, fire for eyebrows?” I asked curiously. “Know anyone that might have one?” "Uh… yeah. Kinda fat too right?" “Yes.” I nodded. “Know anyone that might have that thing? Cause there’s only 3 pokemon I know that can do Psychic and Fire attacks like that, and one of them is a Mythical and as far as I know rumors haven’t talked about anything from Kalos.” I explained. "Well, there was this one guy I remember seeing outside the gym. The park across from the gym. He just sat there all day with the Pokemon out. But it was weird looking. It's flames were black and fur almost ashy. Right out of a nightmare. One of my trainers got this picture while out there for lunch." She said, looking through her phone before handing it to me… Cript? No, this one has dark hair, black, with green eyes. The pokemon beside him did look right out of a Creepypasta. I frowned at seeing that. “That’s...weird…” I said as I looked closely at the picture, secretly trying to find the Code of the two just from the picture cause this was worrying. “I’ve never seen a Pokemon like that…” "Me neither. About make be choke on my lemonade when I saw it." Maylene said. I wasn't able to get code off of it… but I did find Void. Faint but there from the image of the two. ”I thought Heart said this world was free from this shit?” I thought to myself worriedly. “Either that is the cause...or something else...and I’m very worried about what this could mean…” "I showed that to the police. They couldn't find him. Think he's the jerk who trashed my gym?" “Either that, or he’s responsible for the growing turf war somehow…” I said nervously. "Yeesh. Don't remind me." Maylene sighed. Suddenly, the whole building shook. "Yeep! The heck was that?!" She yelled, getting herself off the floor. "Felt like an earthquake." I got up, heading to the window. I saw someone down below, a Crystal Gravler by their side. “The shit…” I muttered while opening the window. “Come on out Salamence.” I said while tossing the pokeball, out pupping the red winged dragon as I hopped onto it. “Get everyone out of here, I don’t know how strong this thing is, so best be safe.” I said while flying down towards the Crystal Gravler. “Yo, the fuck!?” I called out. "Stay out of this." He said, the crazy Gravler looking at me, and then fired off a massive Shadow Ball. Yeah that's not a move it should know. “Salamance Flamethrower!” I commanded as the Salamance breathed a stream of fire that collided with the Shadow Ball and caused a small explosion. I quickly tapped my Assistant and called up Heart. “Please pick up…” I muttered worriedly. “Excuse me asshole, mind explaining all of this?” I asked while looking down at the guy again. He wore a black suit, blue hat and had green hair with blue eyes. "Like I said, it's none of your business!" The Gravler's hands glowed, suddenly Salamance was brought crashing to the ground. Gravity too?! “No, it is my business.” I said while tossing out my second Pokemon. “Let’s go Golisopod!” I called out as a Samurai looking insect appeared and let out a battle cry. “Use First Impression.” I said, the pokemon glowing slightly before blurring in front of the Crystle Graveler and slashing down at it with a crap ton of force. The Gravler was pushed back, but it also bounced back, giving a swift Revenge punch to my pokemon, sending it flying back into a building. Golisopod got out of the wall, still awake before going back into the ball and out popping Silver. “Good enough.” I said honestly. “I’m going to ask this again, what the hell are you doing? Cause yes this does concern me and it is my business cause you attacked me.” "Only because you got in the way." They replied. “Who are you?” I asked, hoping to god Heart will pick up as I saw the ‘calling’ symbol on my HUD. “And what did you do to your pokemon?” "It's not mine. New boss gave it to me." He said, the thing using Earthquake, some buildings cracking and the ground broke in four. "Said it needed a field test." I was flying up on Salamance after Gravity wore off and Silver used Psychic on itself to float above the earthquake. “Okay yeah, screw hiding.” I said while hopping onto Silver and putting a hand on Metagross. “Use Brick Break.” I said as Silver raised it’s arm up as it glowed, only for Nothingness thorns to wrap around it as it slammed down into the Graveler, causing the thing’s body to twitch at the sudden introduction of it’s opposite before getting sent straight into the ground hard, causing a small crater to form in the ground. "Tsk. Well, guess it's better to see what this thing can really do. Mutate." The Gravler shot out of the hole, it's body shifting from a crystal color to pitch black, cracking and breaking, shifting until it took a… glitchy… familier form. That is fucking Missingno! “Excuse me, how the fuck did you get a Missingno!?” I asked worriedly. “Who are you, and who are you working for?” "Do I look like a dumb grunt to you? Hyperbeam now!" He yelled, the Missingno shooting it off right into Silver's face. Even with the type advantage that hit him hard. “Well, you can give a little bit of a fight.” I said while pulling out another pokeball, Nothingness softly wrapping around the ball. “Come on out Gallade!” I called out while throwing my pokeball, the psychic fighting Pokemon coming out with a battle cry, it’s arm blades glowed a soft white. “Use Psycho Cut!” I called out as it’s arm blades glowed before chucking two blades of Nothingness infused Psychic energy, hitting Missingno hard as well as causing it to flicker a bit more from Nothingness affecting it’s Void. “Salamence use Dragon Pulse.” I said as Salamance breathed a stream of Draconic energy, Nothingness thorns trailing along the pulses as it sped towards the glitch pokemon. “Reflect!” The trainer commanded, the wall of energy appearing and bouncing the Dragon Pulse off it and back at Salamance. “That’s not how Reflect works.” I frowned as Salamence dodged it. “Reflect, in this world, decreases physical damage, not reflecting attacks.” I explained. “I don’t care if it’s Missingno, it still follows the rules of the lands.” “Rules can break.” They said; the glitch suddenly at the center of a large portal. Void dripping from the thing and soon, emerged a large skeletal abomination. “Of course…” I muttered before getting off of Salamance and floating in midair. “You really want to continue?” I asked, the trainer having a feeling he was getting way over his head right now. ”Jesus christ Heart just pick up!” I mentally yelled as I still saw the ringing symbol in my HUD. “Heh.” The trainer Smirked. “It’s what the boss wants. Rune’s Order-Gah!” I blinked, suddenly seeing Heart standing behind the trainer, X through his torso, and soon appearing and impaling themselves into him were many other keyblades, his blood gushing till the stain of blood was all that remained; Heart standing there, still gripping X, emotionless. “Don’t mention that name.” They said, finally. “Finally, I’ve been calling you for five minutes.” I frowned while a Shiny Scolipede came out of the building with all the people from the ruined apartment on it’s back safe. Heart said nothing, but Disbanded their Keyblades, then snapped their fingers. We were back at the Daycare now. “Everything’s fixed. Memories wiped, portal closed.” “Cool.” I sighed out. “Could have answered though…” I muttered. “So, with that ‘fix’, did it involve Team Plasma and Rocket from spreading...a lot farther than they should?” “I didn’t touch them. I try and not to get involved unless I have to.” Heart said, getting back behind the counter.” “Alright.” I nodded. “But from what I heard they sound like their gonna have a turf war in Town soon.” I said honestly. “But I’ll try and break it up before it escalates too far.” “If you want.” “Alright.” I nodded. “But...Nexus here?” I asked worriedly. “Let’s hope that was the only guy here…” “Doubt it.” Heart said, resting their arms on the desk then head on their head down also. “This is the ninth incident since I got here.” I sighed out. “I think it’s time we bring this world in if this is the ninth time. Either they think something weird is going on with this world, or they know your here.” I said as the two of us felt a strong presence just outside the Daycare. “And I guess that’s our cue to meet Arceus…” I sighed out. “They know I’m here.” Heart sighed. “That other Cript and… Rune walked into the Daycare day one of it’s openings.” “Well that’s not good…” I sighed out while walking over to the door and seeing the God Horse itself, Arceus. “Hi, welcome to Heart’s Daycare, how may I help you?” I asked politely. “You know full well why I’m here.” Arceus said simply. “May I come in?” The God asked. “Heart? God wants to know if it can enter.” I called out to Heart. “Sure. Why not.” Heart sighed. “Then please, come in.” I nodded while stepping aside, letting the legendary Pokemon in. “How much do you two know?” Arceus asked simply, his words not really pointing to one thing but me and Heart could tell what he truly meant. “How much do we know about Keyblades and the war?” I asked curiously. At the Pokemon nod I sighed out. “Well to start, Kingdom Hearts is standing right there.” I pointed to Heart which caused the Pokemon’s eyes to widen. “B-but...how?” It asked in shock. “Long, poorly written story.” Heart said. “Your story is better written than mine.” I rolled my eyes. “But after that, I’m the King of Nothingness.” I said while the God took a step back. “I...tried to distance myself after the War...it lasted for so long...why now?” Arceus asked worriedly. “Spin the wheel and win an enemy.” Heart said. “If it’s not one thing it’s another and it never fucking ends.” “So...what are you going to do now?” Arceus asked. “Cause...if they have tainted Missingno with Void…” He trailed off worriedly. "I'm not doing anything." Heart stated. "This place was supposed to be MY sanctuary from this BS. Let the king who does it all himself clean it up, proved his self worth he constantly questions." I looked at Heart. “What?” I asked slowly. “What does that...have to do with what’s currently going on?” "I'm pissed, it doesn't, emotions are not my strong suit." “You say this is supposed to be your sanctuary...but you said this is the ninth time Nexus has done this…” I said slowly. “So...what does this magically have to do with me?” I asked, pretty sure the ‘king who proved his self worth he constantly questions’ was directed at me. "Because… I can't deal with Rune." Heart said, bashing a hand against the desk. "Day one, she walks in here, I had the perfect, PERFECT, chance to kill her… and I choked. I killed my own grandfather for fucks sake and if my brother was here I'd kill him too… and I couldn't kill her." “That’s because you still love her.” I stated bluntly. “With your brother and grandfather, you and many of your family members would happily skinned both of them alive, but with Rune? You’re emotionally attached...hoping there is someway to bring her, the Rune you originally loved, back into your loving arms...even if she’s a backstabbing, cold hearted cunt, you still hold onto hope she’s still the same Rune you love…” I explained softly. “Is that all true or am I just massively over reading it?” "It is… and you don't have to wonder too much on where she got the Missingnos…" “Either she used Void to collect them...or you just handed her them in some vague bout of ‘I hope she can read between the lines’.” I said honestly. “Which one’s true?” I asked simply. "Close. I had a copy of Pokemon Blue I fixed the save battery so it can save. I glitched it for items, New, and when I got them all caught a Missingno cause, yeah, you can catch that thing. After she left that other Cript person must have slipped it from my room." “And who is this new Cript if I may ask? Did Rune give anything about it?” I asked curiously. "No. Between my emotions all hitting at once and her… outfit~" Heart said, face turning red as they started staring off. I facepalmed. “And you call me a horndog…” I muttered. “Listen, I know you wanted this place to be somewhere you can calm down and ‘be a nobody’, but…” I sighed out before putting a gun on the table with two bullets, one’s bullet glowed a soft pinkish white, while the other was a blackish red. “You either put a bullet in Rune’s head and be done with it...or you put a bullet in the heart and spark something. I don’t even need to tell you what each bullet does...but it’s either you do what you need to, to either end her or save her, or she ends you…” I said sadly, hating to have to force Heart into this situation. "I can't Ben. She mothered my kids, I can't kill her." “It’s either I try to do this as tenderly and bluntly as I can...or Rune forces your hand.” I stated. “At this point, it’s all up to you...even if we both want to save everyone…” I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. “There are just some that can’t be saved, either because of who they are, their own choices, or because you won’t take the most simple, yet hardest step forward.” "If it was Coco, could you do it?" “Who do you think was the first to act against those three?” I asked. “Coco hesitated when I took that step, showing me that she still honestly cared...what will Rune do when you take that step?” I asked. "We share memories Ben, I saw what you saw in Coco's memories and when you ran into Rune in that dungeon. We both know she's doesn't care." “But one thing she will care about...is her control over your emotions.” I said. “Did she get a kick out of you being unsure about everything?” I asked curiously. “Just by her standing right in front of you?” "I don't know. I couldn't read her. She mostly just… flaunted her chest at me." “And you call me the horndog.” I huffed. “But...my point still stands. It’s all up to you at this point Heart...I know you’ll do the right thing.” "What even is right anymore?" “Your heart knows.” I said honestly. “But it won’t happen right now, or soon...but it’ll happen, and I know you’ll do what you think is right.” "Well, whatever the case, so much for my safe place. So, should I crack open the vault?" “That’s up to you.” I said. “But what I do know...is that this world is either going to be taken over by Nexus, or it’s going to be under our care, and right now Arceus is the one that needs to answer that.” I said. “I’ll...need to talk to all my children, the many Legendaries will want to hear of this…” Arceus said as he vanished in a small flash of light. "So… you even gonna ask what the vault is?" Heart asked me. “What is the Vault then?” I asked curiously. "Well, I'm a hacker. I hacked my games often. Pokemon was always the most fun." “So you have all Pokemon at max level, max iv’s and shiny?” I asked curiously. "Shiny, non shiny and each evolution form for those who do evolve." “Cool, and I’m going to bring up all the pokemon I’ve gotten through the many, many games.” I said honestly. “Sure their all not perfect like yours, but they are max level and great at what they do.” "I only did that after I got a little bored." "Sounds about right." I nodded. "So how long do you think Arceus will take with all the important Legendaries?" I asked curiously. "Dunno. So, wanna see them? I've got an Idea." Heart said, heading to the back as I followed. “Sure, I’d love to see them.” I nodded. “And what’s the idea?” I followed Heart down the back and to a closet, opening a hidden trap door down a fairly long ladder down to a… big bunker. "Old Habits." Heart stated as I followed them through it. “Trust me, old habits are sometimes a good thing.” I said honestly. “So, are you’re super strong Pokemon are in this bunker?” "Yup. Among other things." Heart said. We entered a room filled wall to wall with Pokemon cartridge games, in box and out. "One of the few things I admit to stealing." Heart said, seeing that indeed a Pokemon Blue from the loose cartridge boxes was missing. "If they're using Void Corrupted Missingno from my collection, then let's fight fire with fire. Or rather, fire with water." Heart said, picking up a Pokemon Red as the flowed Nothingness into it. “This is going to end well I just know it.” I chuckled. “Also...if Missingno comes out as a hot chick...I blame you.” "Which reminds me. Seriously? A Keyblade that turned anything it kills into a… Healthy woman? The infant one I get but… seriously?" “That was Jericho’s idea, not mine.” I said with my hands raised in a ‘I didn’t do it’ fashion. “I was the one that dumbed down the...first version cause seriously that seemed a tad too wrong.” "Either way." Heart said, soon code flowed from the game cartridge and out before us. The glitch Pokemon itself now before us, pulsating Nothingness. "Your territory from here." “Alright…” I nodded while putting a hand on the glitched pokemon. “How are you doing today?” I asked the thing simply, hoping to get a response of some sort from it. It didn't actually talk at all. From what I can read if it's code, it was just… a haze. Like there was countless minds with not a single one knowing how to properly operate their body or even thoughts. “Here…” I said while closing my eyes and gently helping the Pokemon, using my power to help...streamline the minds in it to start working together instead of unsure of what to do. “This maybe weird...but let’s hope it works…” As I was working on it's mind, I realized that this glitch was a heavy amalgamation of the original 150 Pokemon. Using this I did some sorting, fixing. The glitch now carefully taking form something like Rattata, but kept the glitch colors. "A Rattata?" Heart asked. “I had to sort through 150 minds, and this was the form it decided to take.” I said honestly. “Feeling better?” I asked the Rattata. It nodded, seeming to move around fairly well. It them sneezed, cute… sneezed a Rare Candy. "Ha." Heart laughed. “It’s sneeze was cute...but my sixth item was a Rare Candy?” I asked curiously. "Doubt it." Heart said, picking it up, suddenly the one candy split into a crap ton that covered the floor. “Well then…” I started. “That happened.” I said simply. "I think I know what happened here. By stabilizing its code it can multiply and select items from it's original game. It's endless items like it was normally but now it can choose items to multiply." “That’s interesting...wonder if I can do it to the other 149 pokemon…” I hummed with some thought. "Maybe." Heart said, sweeping up the candies. "That aside, now let's get started." “Alright.” I nodded. “This is going to be a fun day.” To be continued...
Nobody talksLord and Cript were still much better at this than I was, but I was at least able to help in small parts. Cript actually ended up borrowing an idea from the Shield and Spear Heroes world. To add to that my weapons all now also came with similar gems to theirs on their weapons. "This spell matrix is unbelievable." Cript said with a smirk as he was working on Frozen Pride. “Oh?” I hummed curiously. “What do you mean?” I asked curiously, looking over at what was special about Frozen Pride. "Well, for starters these gems on the weapons aren't just rare, they're straight up raw code condensed and forged into a solid form. The weapons themselves are actually nothing special, it's all the gem. It's like putting a jet engine on top of a Model T car and somehow it works. An Admin made these things clearly. It's basically an early version of my Assistant device." “I don’t know if I should feel insulted by you saying my weapons, the thirteen items that’s a Key Stone to Nothingness itself...or be impressed at how good those gems are.” I frowned. "I was talking about Spear and Shield Heroes weapons." Cript said, adjusting Frozen Pride a bit. "The fact there are four, a bow, Shield, sword and spear gives us four perfect blueprints on how to modify them to your other weapons." “Sorry, thought you meant my weapons.” I said sheepishly. “But that is interesting...wonder who designed these things then.” I said while picking up the stone and looking it over, using my new Code Reading ability to see who actually made it. "Someone with talent." Lord said, working on Sharpshooters. "And coming from me, you know they must have been good." "And he hardly ever complements another's work." Cript said. Looking at Frozen Pride, it's design wasn't all too different, just the large green gem in the center some inches inside the Shield itself. "This will completely change how weapons are used." "And make you a profit extra?" Lord asked. "Side bonus." Cript laughed. “The one time I need to know who the hell made this…” I muttered while looking over one of the gems closely. "And… done." Cript said, hands raised from Frozen Pride. "Now, for the field test. If this works then we can have a real viable means of dealing with the front lines." He then handed it over to me. "Oh, I also wanted to give you something...well, someone technically." Cript said, raising his Assistant. "Izzy, register new user Ben." "Registered." A voice coming from both out Assistants said. Suddenly in my party menu, in a small side menu under mine popped the name Izzy, no HP or anything. "Hi. I'm Izzy." “Hi.” I said while taking Frozen Pride. “And...what are you if I may ask?” I asked curiously. "That's a bit of a story." Cript said. "After… the whole Andy and Mars incident, I was roaming Connection Cities streets when I saw some Shadow Creatures in an alleyway. Killed them but they killed someone already. Thankfully her nurel Sonic flash drive scanned her brain waves before she died and I uploaded that, her, to a PC. Izzy has basically been my Assistant inside the Assistant." "Thanks to how the Assistant device works and my primary installation to the Freak Inc quantum computer mainframes, I can help you identify, locate, learn or research whatever you ask in seconds." Izzy said. “Hmm…” I started. “What’s the current stock value of Freak Inc?” I asked curiously, just having that off the top of my head. "A single stock in freak Inc currently costs 7.9 Quatacools. That's a Centillion with fifteen times the normal Zeroes, but Cript in showing good faith with partners and child companies, offers then up to five stocks free as a show of good faith and strengthening bonds. It's how he has grown the company to what it is today." “Cool.” I nodded. "It's never failed." Cript said. “Good to know.” I nodded. “Izzy, given that I’m using Freak Inc resources, how soon do you think I’m going to officially prove Cript wrong with my Pure Crystals?” "Given your current rate of progress, am estimated five years. Three if you accelerate the process via Alchemical matter alterations." Izzy said. "Well shit." Cript laughed. “Oh, I actually forgot Alchemy was on the table.” I said with a smile. “Thanks Izzy, that’ll help. Also ha! Told ya.” I said in triumph at being proven right. "Har har. Now try out the upgrades already." Cript said, rubbing the top of my head and messing up my hair. "Oh, to utilize the crystals properly I did have to alter the shields stats… So check that." I nodded while double checking Frozen Pride’s stats, thinking it wouldn’t be too different than what it normally was with it’s heavy defense, special defense and magic stats. Att: 0 Def: 60 Spe Def: 60 Mag: 70 “Seems...weirdly lower than I thought.” I said honestly. "Actually that's based on percent it adds to your attack damage, or other stats. So it's more like zero percent, sixty percent, ect. Your current physical attack damage is 508. So that's the damage the Shield can do physically since it adds no damage. But, only some shields can have physical attacks, Frozen Pride here can at most bash, which deals half your physical Damage." ”That’s why Frozen Pride is more Magic Based than anything.” I said honestly. "Yes but, magic damage is still affected by physical Damage unless it has a stat for magic damage on it. So Frozen Pride, much like Shield Heroes Shield, can mostly be used for healing and defense, unless you use curse magic. But that's a double edged sword, or Shield in this case, since it does double your physical Damage on the target, but costs Mana AND HP to cast. The really powerful curse attacks can and often kill the caster." I blinked as I raised Frozen Pride and an Ice Cage surrounded Cript. “You do know that Frozen Pride’s whole thing is that it’s Ice Magic right?” I asked. “I understand what your getting at, and that’s cool...but you made it sound like Frozen Pride magically didn’t have what it could normally do.” "Oh it can, but it can't do damage." He said, breaking the cage open. “You sure about that?” I asked, Cript seeing on his hud that he actually took some damage from just the cold of it. “You forget, this thing was made by a magical ice rock in the middle of space. Not only can it freeze damn near anything, it’s Ice Magic does damage, puts dots on things, and other suck fancy crap.” I said honestly. "Passive damage must not be affected then." Cript thought aloud. "But that aside, I've preloaded a few selections, alternate shields, Shield types, ect. Check them out." “Um...sure.” I said while pulling up a small window to see what he did with the shield types and alternate shields. Frozen Pride was my Shield, but now, thanks to this Gem, it was one of several categories. Mainly small, medium, large, which Frozen Pride was filed under, and Greatsheild. Small Shield had… oh my God. I clicked it, now holding Goofy's Shield, the game still on the Shield and in the center of the Mickey Mouse icon. "Like it? I had a feeling that would be perfect." “It’s amazing.” I said while swapping it to Save the King. “Save the King is still just a bit better shaped than Frozen Pride.” I said honestly. "As you can guess this gem is solely used for shields. Finding shields in a dungeon or buying them the gem absorbs the weapon to add it to the list. Selling them is as simple as telling the gem to eject the Shield to sell. Absorbing a second Shield you already have actually gives you one of two options. Either save it as a backup in case you break the first, or combine it with the first to boost it's stats by one point each." “Cool.” I nodded. “So, now onto all my other weapons since we’re using the gems.” "Not done just yet." Lord said. "Frozen Pride was the easiest as it was basically a copy and paste job from the Shield Heroes weapon, with some modifications. Sharp Shooters here are similar but still vastly different from a bow, but Lunatic and Lindworm will be done soon." “Hopefully Lindworm wasn’t being rude, the old Wyrm is still a little iffy on changes if it wasn’t from evolution.” I said honestly, having tried to tinker with it only to get hissed at. "We actually had to extract him to begin the modifications. But I think he doesn't mind." Cript said, counting down from three. Once he reached Zero, The Wyrm himself flew over us, accompanied by an elegant light blue Wyrm. "I think he's currently happily distracted." “I mean, he’s probably happy to finally get laid after god knows how long.” I said honestly. "We actually plan for you to at will summon him out of the lance for up to an hour a day. In combat." Lord said. "You can summon him whenever outside of combat, cause he likely will want to be with his lady friend. You'll still be able to use the Lance's just fine without him in them as they will still draw power from him, but also have to draw half that extra power from you to make up for him not being inside the weapon." “Sounds about right.” I nodded. “Good to know.” I nodded. “So how strong can Frozen Pride and Lindworm hold?” I asked curiously while double checking the code on Frozen Pride at least to see if I could make any small tweaks. "Actually, this gem has a unique power that We didn't know existed." Cript said. "Judging from the way it was made, the craftsmanship and skill, this was a cycle two, maybe even Cycle one admin artifact." Lord stated. "And there was just four of them on that world, not counting their reflections respectively, meaning there is a cycle two or another cycle one Admin somewhere in hiding that made these." "Thankfully we can replicate it by having the originals." Lord said. “I mean, we can go to Shield Hero world and find the original gems, I can figure out how they were originally made, then we can just make a ton of them.” I said honestly. "Already ahead of you." Lord said. “Cool.” I nodded. “But...do either of you know what Null is?” I asked curiously. "We share the same memories Ben, yeah." Cript said. "Seen one before. Only time I've been worried." Lord said. “Alright...so why the hell does the one that showed me how a Cycle ‘ends’ looked exactly like one of my children?” I asked. “Specifically Jenny...her face wasn’t there, and the cloak was really good at hiding her body shape...but the fact she got past all the security I made specifically to make sure shit like that doesn’t happen, her scent...and even her tone of ‘shh’ tipped me off…” I said while looking between the two. “Who would have sent my own child to give me that little lesson on what Null does to the End of a Cycle?” "Fuck if we know." Lord said. "We've known about them but never really spoken to or encountered one. As for why it looks like Jenny, also no idea." Cript said. I sighed out bitterly. “Of course…” I muttered. “Only more questions than answers with that crap..” "Well who ever said knowledge comes easy…" Cript said, a thoughtful look on them. I stared at Cript with a deadpan expression. “Really?” "I might actually know a way to learn something about the Nulls." “Oh?” I asked curiously. “How so?” "I'll have to look into it first, but if I am right then we can at least learn something." “Can I have an explanation on how you can learn about them?” I asked honestly. "Next chapter." Cript said. “Cause of course…” I grumbled. “Alright...so what new things are we going to do with my weapons?” "Next chapter. This feels long enough." Lord said. "Fine fine..." I sighed out. To be continued...
Nobody find's NullTake a moment to stop for a while on my weapons, Lord and Cript began walking with me through a very… odd portal. “And...where are we going?” I asked the two curiously. "We throw around a lot of words like Admin, Hacker, Code, Deletes. For two reasons." Cript said. "It's the best words to describe what they are in modern tongues. And, it's much more litteralliteral than you'd think." Lord said. “Alright...that didn’t answer my question though.” I started. “I asked where we’re going, not what words mean.” I said, not sure if this is one of those ‘explain the words first then to where we are’ or just them completely ignoring my original question. "What's a good comparison… how's this, we are exiting the matrix. Give you an idea?" Cript asked. “Could have just said that the words meant where we’re going.” I pointed out. “No need to be all cryptic when there isn’t any reason to.” I rolled my eyes. "Well considering you are only the third person to ever come to this place, it felt fitting." “And you know Jericho hasn’t been here why?” I asked honestly. "That." Cript said, Pushing me down as he and Lord ducked, almost taking an axe to the head. It was some kind of ugly almost oger looking thing that looked like it was glitching as computer parts were randomly sticking out of it. Cript then grabbed me by the scruff and jumped high. Getting a good look weird things like that one were here, flying about in what I can only describe as an infinite and giant computer. "Those things can two shot ME. So, yeah." Cript said. “And when has that ever actually been true?” I deadpanned, having heard that before and it being not true in several regards. “So...this is a thing.” I said while looking over the Computer. "Welcome to the whole of creation. Or rather, the machine that we live in." Lord said as we all landed on what looked like a mega sized ram card. "And yes they can two shot Cript. These things keep us out of here for a reason." Lord said as we began walking through the place. As I looked around, I had this weird feeling we were being watched, and not just by what I could only guess as the ‘Guards’. “So...who else is feeling watched by a third party?” I asked curiously. "That would be who we are looking for." Cript said. "You've actually met previously. Kinda." “Met previously? What do you mean?” I asked curiously. "You'll know when you meet them." Lord said. “Alright...so why are we here?” I asked curiously. "This person knows everything. We are going to ask about the Nulls." Lord said. “Cool.” I nodded. “Wonder who it is…” "Well well well. Hello again you three." That voice. We all turned around. That silhouette form, Truth, now lined with a circuit board pattern stood behind us. "What brings you three to my home?" "Hey there Truth. Long time no see." Cript said. “Wait…” I blinked. “The fuck are you doing here?” I frowned. “Shouldn’t you be in FullMetal Alchemist World?” "So naive, so young." Truth said. "Truth isn't bound to one world Ben. They are the sentient consciousness of this whole machine." Lord said. "Blunt as ever I see." Truth said, that smile growing ever larger. "I devided myself to each world and even individual, not that hard as I'm the reason you all even operate. Running and managing all those endless code calculations that are 'passive'. It's all me." “Alright…” I said slowly. “So...mind answering some questions I have if that won’t cost me everything but the kitchen sink?” "Ask the question and I'll determine the price. Simple as that." “The hell is Null.” I started. “And...who are they working for?” I asked, knowing full well Truth knows what memories Jenny gave me. "Ah, the Nulls. I'll need payment upfront before I disclose that little secret." “And what Payment is that?” I asked, already having a bad feeling about this. "I'll need three things. One from each of you. To sweeten this deal, Lord and Cript can also get something from me in exchange. Sound fair?" "As fair as you can be." Lord said, almost hissing. “And we came to this thing why?” I whispered to Cript and Lord. “So...what do you need?” "From Cript, heh, he knows what I want. From Lord, I'll be taking that Armor… and from Ben. I'll take either your name, or your heart. Your choice." "More like you can kiss my ass." I frowned. "This ain't 'equivalent exchange' time, this is not having Creation End time." I frowned. "And it's probably been more than once…" "Many. But to know the whole story, a choice must be made. This isn't about equivalent exchange, it never has been. This is about sacrifices. Lord's armor is the only thing he has from the old days, the long since bygone days. And Cript, well, like I said he knows what I want. So what will you sacrifice Ben? Or Is your home not worth the loss?" I growled. "Are you threatening my family?" I asked pointedly. "I don't threaten, I state facts, truths, information long since forgotten I can recall it all. I'm simply stating that either you accept the offer and pick what to sacrifice, or leave and learn nothing. Choice is always yours." "So do I completely remove any and all character development I've gotten through these years, or finally have the 'who am I?' crisis?" I frowned. "That's a lot more than just 'heart or name'." I frowned. "Is having a heart all that important to the king of Nothingness? Is holding onto your name, your sense of Identity that important? Collin Ventral, went by Eclipsa Sparkle, now Eclipsa. Zeke Ventral changed too, going by the name of the power that resides in their chest." "You're given Ben an easy out with asking for his name, aren't you?" Cript asked. "Why?" "Because, in reality, he has little I'd see fit to accept as a sacrifice. Without his heart, his title as king and Admin of Nothingness will allow him to keep his emotions, and his name, well, like I said a name is just a word, letters, easily changed. No, Your Armor Lord, it's like your skin, and I want to see you remove it. And Cript…" "Yeah yeah I know." Cript waved off. "And Names magically don't hold power?" I asked curiously. "Only if you want them to. Take the offer, or don't." Truth said. "Fine…" I sighed out. "Take my name since it's so special." Nodding, Lord actually, and I almost chuckled, T posed, suddenly the back part of his armor unfolding and unlatching. Opening up like a shell as suddenly, walking out was… he was about my old height, Latino, dark black hair, wore a black shirt and black jeans with sneakers. So that's how Lord looks under the armor. "There's my armor." Waoh! Sudden thick Latino accent… Truth then held out a hand, suddenly from my head, my three letter name floated out from me, and into their hand. Inhaling, Cript walked over to Truth. "Deal." He said, shaking their hand as suddenly, there was, something different about him now. He seemed the same but, now, there was something off still. As he walked back over to us, I saw it. His Nexus mark was gone, but in its place, a small symbol of sorts. "Now then." Truth said, a wave of their hand bringing Lord's armor over to them. "The Nulls. They are my safety net. A backup and failsafe all in one. One can argue they are like, the OS of creation. I'm the hardware, they are the operating system, and you all are part of the software we run and oversee. They don't mean harm, in fact they prevent it. In such a big program errors are commonplace, but big ones that end reality and defy the set rules, well, that's when Nulls are called in. If they can't correct or eradicate the issue before it spreads, a hard system formating and reset is required. It has happened only about sixteen times." "So...they're your Firewall?" I asked. "But where would they all stay? If an entire group of those things are out there, wouldn't everyone be able to sense them?" I asked curiously. "Not if they blend in. Remember, they are the OS, the Firewall, as you put it. They can appear whenever or wherever in a physical body but they are always everywhere, in the background of your realities code and void. Like myself they watch and observe, looking for any faults to correct. The one thing about them is that, unless you are detected as harmful, they won't let you sense them. But, I do know of a place they frequent, if you wish to speak with one for whatever reason." I looked at Truth and blinked. "That...sounds strangely familiar…" I said slowly. "Not like Agent Smith from the Matrix but...something else." I frowned, wondering why that sounds familiar. "What is this place then?" Lord asked. "The place where all the lesser glitches get tossed. The Recycle Bin." Truth said. Opening another odd portal of sorts. "I'll give you three access to it. Might come in handy." “Alright…” I said worriedly. "Come on then. Let's see what this mess looks like." Cript said, leading the way. As he walked, I got another quick look at the symbol on his hand where his Nexus mark used to be. Something about it seemed… so strange. Both worrying and comforting, oddly. "So what should we call you know since we can't even say the name --- to refer to you?" Lord asked. I still can't quite get over how he looks outside the armor. “No idea.” I shrugged. “But Cript...seriously, the hell did he do?” I frowned. “That symbol on your hand is both worrying...and comforting somehow and it’s bugging the shit out of me.” "You don't have to worry about it. It's nothing bad." Cript shrugged. "Also, I have a name that you might like. How about either Dire, or King? Dire cause obvious, and also obvious for king. Sound good or?" “King sounds better and less threatening.” I shrugged. “But...does anyone else feel Grey?” I asked curiously. “Like...small bits of it here and there?” "Little bit." Lord said. "Kinda." Cript agreed. "Nothing impressive, but odd at the very least." “Grey is a...very special energy.” I said while continuing through this weird place. “So...where the hell are we?” I asked, looking around the place. "Like Truth said, the Recycling bin. Obvious guess is they put shit here that harms our reality, then once it's full they recycle it, break it back down to base code and remove the glitch in the process." Lord said. “So...is that why I see a weird Zombie in a cage?” I asked, seeing in a very well sealed see through box with a person that...had Void Corrupted Nothingness thorns pulsing on it. “Just like my nightmare…” I muttered worriedly. “Shit.” Lord said. “This place makes my code stand on edge.” “I mean...that’s what happens when your looking at things that are just...wrong.” I said worriedly. “So..where to find Null’s…” "Well, in my experience if you want an all powerful beings attention, you just have to make some noise." Lord said. "Bar fight?" Cript asked. “Can we not accidentally set these things free?” I frowned. “Cause I don’t know what you two are planning, but I’d rather not have any of this shit free.” I frowned while motioning to all the damned things here. "They can't escape this place unless we or a Null pulls them out. Besides, we're just gonna speed up this places natural process of killing them." Cript said. "Though it will take quite a few hits, glitches are pesky like that." “I mean...alrighty then.” I said while pulling out Lunatic and Skysplitter, both of my weapons shifting into their sixth evolved state. “So, just smack something really freaking hard?” "How hard can you hit at the moment?" Cript asked. "This can actually be a good test. King, kindly funnel as much power as you can til your body starts breaking under the power and hit one of these things. This is a good way to measure how much of my power you can handle." “Oh I’ll show you much more than that.” I said while getting down into a runners starting pose. “Might want to step back a bit.” I warned them as I started pumping raw power into my weapons as my fur started to rise and spike up. “Wraths Moon." I growled, my fur turning pure white, Frost Fire forming on the tips of each spike as more and more Raw Power got pumped into it all, going higher exponentially by the mass Rage skills that Lord and Cript saw. “Skills...Power Attack...Grand BullRush...Leap Attack...Pounce…” I growled, my entire body and weapons full of Pure Raw Power. “Skill...Tireless Rage...Enduring Rage...Moon’s Guidance...Gaea’s Song…” I muttered, all the skills trying to counteract all the bonuses from the skills I was compounding together with all the Raw Energy that finally felt like I was going to break. “Which cage?” I growled, thankful for the change so I wouldn’t go completely blind "Let's try…. That one." Cript pointed towards a massive cage with what looked like a glitched Titan Shadow Creature. I grinned. “Alright…” I said, my body having grown maybe three feet taller as all the energy was waiting to get set forth. “Grand Skyfall…” I muttered as I took a single step, before leaping towards the cage and eight swings from both Lunatic and Skysplitter. The first swing shattered the cage, the second swing cleaved off the things arm as it tried to defend itself, the third swing slammed it straight into the back wall, the fourth punched it straight through the back of the cage, the sixth cut straight into the things torso, the seventh cleaved through any healing factor it had...and the eight cleaved it straight in two, killing it faster than an instant. I landed on the ground, panting heavily as I looked at my arms and my weapons, my weapons were still fine thankfully...my arms on the other hand had cracks in them...couldn’t even feel the pain even if I was still able to move them. “So...how was that?” I panted heavily, my HUD having massive errors telling me even though my skills were keeping me alive were being pushed with my outlandishly good healing factor. "Impressive." Lord said. "But… weren't you supposed to pull power from Cript, not stack rage skills and abilities like a junkie?" "Regardless, you did reach about sixty percent of what I can use. So good all in all." Cript said. "Though Lord does have a point, those rage power stacks make it a bit harder to determine how much you pulled on your own." I weakly raised my arm and showed them a screen of my stats of when I was charging. “I...always make sure to save my peaks.” I said, showing that indeed I did use sixty percent of Cript’s power, and all the Rage stacks tacked on another twenty percent just from all the multiplicatives. “So...in raw power, I can only go to sixty, but with additives….I can get to eighty…” I panted heavily. “Just...have to make sure I set it up right…” "You're just as reckless as Eclipsa." Cript chuckled. He lifted my arms. Looking at them, I saw they were scabbing over. "This won't heal, not like other wounds. These will scar over, and never heal right. Will likely also mess up the way your arms fur looks when it regrows. You proved you can survive my power, but Don't do that again until you can HANDLE it. Okay?" Cript said, looking at me not like a teacher, or a partner… like a father. “Had to...prove all my hard work wasn’t just talk.” I said honestly. “Nothing’s worse...than being told and shown everything I’ve done means jack all…” I said gently as I looked over my scars. “I’ll...figure out how to make them better…” "So this was too prove it to yourself?" Cript asked. “And...to you and Lord.” I said while clenching my fists, wincing slightly but the pain wasn’t bad. “To prove that I’m not lying or faking, that I can stand with you and others…” I said honestly. “I’m...sure I’ll figure out a way to heal this...not the first time I figured something out that doesn’t normally have an answer…” "Then… your further behind us than you think." Cript said, looking me dead in the eyes, a sad, mournful look on their face. "King, Lord doesn't give much vocal praise, or acknowledgement. And I always knew when the time came, you could reach where I stand, and maybe even go higher. You are smart, clever, and now powerful. Even if you weren't, do you think that would have mattered to me?" Cript said, placing a hand over my wounds. "There is a way for these to be healed, but it's something I've had happened to me, and I don't want that for anyone else." “Then I’ll figure something else out.” I said honestly. “It...can’t be that hard right?” "..." Cript sighed, standing up as he took Lunatic from my weak grip. The weapon immediately changed to that of the moon at the tip of a claymore, but this time, chains linked around the moon and blade bound them together. "There are two secrets, too harnessing all my power, properly, and it comes at two heavy prices." Cript said, walking passed me and to the edge of where we were and the field of cages. "First, is to be immortal. In no way, shape or form King, can I die. But you can, a concept you seem to struggle understanding. And secondly." They said, my instincts and Assistant alerting me that running was the only option, as Cript began to flow out so much power. "It's to take the pain it causes you," he said, suddenly a slash across his back, ripping his trench coat as a mix of blood and power spewed out. "Every torn muscle, every one and zero in your code screaming from the excess power," another slash, fishing blood and power from his back, his coat now falling off as I began to see something peeking out his wounds. Soon, more appeared along his right arm, forehead, ears. "Take all that pain, and scream Screw It, from the top of your lungs." Suddenly, from Cript's back emerged three sets of wings. The top, an angelic white that glowed with a calming warmth. The bottom, demonic and ungodly. The middle pair, a mix of the two, black feathers where some were and patterned in every other part was either a feather of scales. They turned to face me. Their right arm now split into tendrils, several of which held small blades along them as his bloody skeletal hand still gripped Lunatic between them all, and his forehead held a third Eyeball, akin to a Psychopaths. "I gave up, my ability to cap, to keep my power below max. For what it was worth, it was because, my full power," they grew taller, from there pants an almost reptilian like tail shot out, a metallic set of Barb's as their gets shifted to something like from a dog's, but armored. "Will change me forever." Finally, over their head, appeared an orb that radiated pure Mana, and many, many different kinds of powers, and from his chest, in the center, an Electronium Crystal emerged, it's power felt like millions of Foudre crackling. "He gave up a lot for you." Lord said to me, pulling me up. "True power, given physical form." I sighed out. “Alright alright...we already got enough attention as is…” I said while looking over to see all the Null’s gathered around. "Looks like." Cript sighed, handing me back Lunatic. It shifting back to base form. "Looks like it holds out at max then." He then placed a finger on me, immediately my body felt amazing and I could stand on my own. "So, care to guess what each part of my new look means or later?" Cript asked as we walked over to them. “I’m going to have to double and triple check that wall of text just to make sure…” I said. “But I can already guess the third eye is for your Psychopath part.” "Yeah. Oh wait." They blinked it, now it glowed the white of Humanity. Another blink sent it to normal. "That's a weird feeling."” “Eh, you get used to it.” I said while blinking and showing my eyes of Humanity and Psychopath, before blinking again and it going away. "Not that, the three eyes thing." “Eh.” I shrugged. “So anyways…” I said while looking around. “Hi, how are people doing?” "We are not people." One of them said. “By the definition of ‘people’, yes you are.” I started. “So uh...sorry about breaking some of your stuff, needed to get your attention somehow.” "Like we care about these pesky little insects." One of them said. "What do you want?" Another asked. "They're with me." That voice. Walking through the crowd, Jenny, older, but her. “Jenny…” I started, not sure how to start...but decided to keep it simple. “Are you okay?” I asked, even if she is one of these things, she’s still Jenny...my daughter. "Long story." She said, suddenly a giant Null slammed her across the way into a nearby cage. She didn't seem phased as she pulled herself out of it. "What gives you the right to bring these codeborn beings here!?" The one that smacker her yelled. "Because I'm tired of letting you sorry sacks of garbage sit back and watch the same series of Resets happen. Since I joined there has been fucking Six million, half of that I had to reset, and so many more before that. This shit needs to stop the fuck now." Jenny asserted. “Wait wait wait, you motherfuckers had to do that how many times?” I asked in honest shock. “And literally none of you did anything to actually fix the problem?” "They know the issue, but are too lazy to find an answer." Jenny spat. "Because it's an impossibility." Spoke another, Female Null. "Have you met these people?" Jenny motioned to us. "Let me leave, and I'll prove you wrong." "Ha. There's a laugh." "How about a little bet then." Jenny said. "If I manage to correct the issue before the next End Glitch, I call the shots. If I'm a failure, reset me with the rest of creation." "Heh. Sound like I've already won. Fine, deal. I'll see you at the reset." The female Null said, the rest of them all vanishing, just us, the glitches and Jenny left. “And apparently they hasn’t learned or realized you're stupid good at betting.” I pointed out. She turned to face me, giving me a smile. "Which is why I'm banking on you three pulling off a Miracle of beyond impossible feats." “Don’t worry, you know we will.” I said with a smile. “So...a Null huh? How’d that happen?” I asked curiously, looking over Jenny to see how she changed. "Heh…. Believe it or not… before I became a Null I was… The Mother, for about three years… then the reset happened and… given some luck they saved me, made me a Null… never agreed with their ideals or job. Which reminds me, care to take a guess at what causes the End Glitch?" “I mean, I do have my guesses but why don’t you tell us cause I sure as hell could guess for hours and probably not get close.” I said honestly. “As you said yourself, it’s happened six million times...and that’s six million times I’ve tried to stab Void Mother and only gotten a massive hole in my chest.” "So million since I became a Null. It's happened WAY more times before I became a Null. But, that aside, the End Glitch happens when the storage fills. Basically our Existence gets too big, too much data and it can't be stored anymore. So all of reality glitches. And it keeps happening sooner and sooner each reset from what I've seen." “It’s because Void keeps what it takes.” I said. “Even after each reset...the Void always keeps what it holds, I’ve seen it myself…” I sighed out. "Actually… no. The void Also gets reset… it's actually...Grey, that's taking up all the space. Roughly at the moment… half of what our storage drive holds." I blinked. “That’s...not right. I swear, I saw tons of things before this Cycle right?” I asked, turning to Cript. “You’ve seen my memories, you’ve probably been to Void more times than I have…” I said, scared at what this might entail. "While true Cycles and Resets are different. A reset cleans everything, and a cycle created a new reality from the ruins of the old. If grey is not getting erased in that, then countless resets worth of Grey from each of it's discoverers and such… has just been piling up endlessly." "And given its nature of, expanding, growing even without a king or owner of any kind." Lord added. “And what?” I asked, already seeing one possibility this is going with. “What’s going to happen to Eclipsa? What’s going to happen to her if this is all Grey’s fault?” "That… I have no idea. But, I have an idea as to how to fix it. We need to find, or make, a new storage drive." "Both will be torture hell itself would Ban." Lord sighed. "But it's our only options. If Grey can't be deleted then we'll have to move it." "That could work… which means…" Cript and Lord shared a look. "The fucking Ethernet." “Couldn’t we just…make Grey itself into its own Storage Drive?” I asked curiously. “Using itself in a loop of fueling itself to power the storage, but also it keeps itself contained as it is it’s own storage space?” I suggested. "We can… but, doing that inside the storage drive we live in is risky as it's something never done before, and one mistake could format is all again, or worse, break it and we are all screwed then." Cript said.aid. “And no one has decided to do this...why?” I asked curiously. “Like...seriously, if I could come up with an idea to solve the problem in less than two minutes, how come the ‘higher ups’ haven’t figured that out in an Eternity?” "Because they are assholes who, in their words, 'exist only to eliminate glitches after they appear, not to prevent them from appearing.' Bunch of lazy pricks is all they are." “And...there’s no one else to either keep them in line or actually thinking of answers?” I asked, wondering how the hell Truth could run this entire thing. "Nope. Truth runs the calculations and all that crap, and they mostly just self govern themselves." “Well then he sure sucks at his job if he couldn’t think of that simple as shit answer.” I pointed out. "Simply said, yes. In practice it's not easy. Which is why we best try both options." Lord stated. "Meaning we'll need to talk… with all of you." Cript said. “Oh boy...can’t wait to tell the others this…” I sighed out. To be continued...
Nobody finishing up Pokemon(Meanwhile, before meeting Truth) The duo of Heart and Ben worked to make the entire original Pokemon Red Pokedex out of the Missingno glitch Pokemon, now finished with the crafting of MewTwo. “Well that went by quicker than expected.” Heart said. “That tends to happen when you have help.” I said honestly. “Or having some inspiration for something.” “Eh.” Heart said, placing the Pokemon Red game back onto the shelf. “So, what now?” “Well one of the things we need to do is get back with Arceus on if this world is going to join our Kingdom for it’s protection...seriously, six times and you didn’t think it was a growing problem?” I asked simply. “It’s not like I didn’t know…” Heart said, leaning against the wall now, shifting back to their original form. Their floof noodle body taking up most of the room. “I just wanted to ignore it.” “You do know you can shrink down to fit better right?” I asked. “Not saying I don’t enjoy the floof, it feels soft and amazing.” I said simply. “But...well ignoring something can only go so far...and the sixth time is too much to ignore.” “I know… I just wanted to feel normal for a change. Guess when Rune showed up… I just chose to ignore her… and I can’t, I know I can’t… I want answers, I want to know if she really felt nothing from what I thought we had…” “I’m sure you’ll figure it out when you finally meet her again.” I said honestly. “Then there is one way to ensure she shows up.” Heart said, in a flash of code a Nexus flag appearing. “Same way you weeded her out the first time.” “Let’s set it on fire.” I smiled. “I know just the place too.” Heart smiled. “So… that’s Kingdom Hearts?” Dialga asked. “Looks like my ex.” Giriatina said. All of this worlds Legendary Pokemon appearing at the small Daycare, not a single one missing. “Should I question why you said that Giratina?” I asked worriedly. “Don’t.” Palkia cut in. “Trust me, it’ll be all day with him.” The legendary rolled his eyes. “So, being the youngest of us all, or one of them… what’s going on here exactly?” MewTwo asked. “I’ll explain it all later.” Jirachi replied. “What we are all here for.” Arceus spoke up. “Is that our world, our very universe is in danger. Some of you know the… dirty details, others don’t. All that matters now is that everything, People, Pokemon, and the world's themselves are at risk of mass destruction.” “Yup.” Heart said simply. “So…” Yveltal started. “What you’re saying is, we’re fucked?” The Literal End of the World asked. “Not necessarily.” Celebi, the Time Traveling Pixie, started. “If we join Ben and Heart’s Kingdom, then we’ll have a fighting chance against the enemy.” She stated. “Yeah pretty much.” I said honestly. “I’m also the King of Nothingness, which is just as important as Kingdom Hearts here.” I pointed out. “You know it would be a little more impressive if you weren’t still cuddled up to the giant fluff snake.” Landerous, the Earth Djinn, pointed out as I was indeed cuddled up to Heart in all her fluffy goodness. “Pretty sure if they wanted they’d start humping my tail.” Heart chuckled. “Nah, I’m perfectly fine. Just enjoying the fluff.” I sighed out happily. “Basically we don’t have many options.” Mew, the first and original Pokemon created said. “Guess we best join-” They ducked, dodging an Ultra Ball. “Not this guy again…. Be right back.” They said, quickly flying off as Red themself ran passed all the other Legendaries after Mew. “Well, guess someone’s still stubborn about Mew.” I chuckled. “So anyways, back on track.” I started. “Yes, and that would be whether we join you or risk dying.” Reshiram, the Yang half of Kyurem, asked curiously. “Pretty much.” I said simply. “I thought the outer atmospheres looked off recently.” Rayquaza, the Dragon of the Sky, spoke up. “A lot more space activity than usual. Lots of entries and departures.” “My race, as well as the Clefairy’s have been...rather put off by the sudden onset of other races suddenly appearing.” Deoxys, the Bio Alien, pointed out. “It’s...rather shocking to know that even space is bigger than one once thought.” “Way bigger. And it doesn’t end at the void.” Heart sighed. “I’m sure some of you have heard about these abnormal Pokemon Popping up, darkened and altered. I’m sure the grapevines reach you all?” “I’ve seen one.” MewTwo spoke up. “A pitch black Noctowl, flew right passed me on the way here; a trainer on them. Both of them just felt… evil. If not for my speed being faster than that Noctowls, that’s a fight I might not have left.” “Mother fucker…” I sighed out. “So...who here has heard of Missingno?” I asked curiously. No one seemed to know of them. So just the games then, or not in this world then. “Well…” I started before a Missngno Chancey came in with drinks for all the pokemon. “Uh...Chancey’s are normally pink…” Moltres the Fire Bird pointed out nervously. “The hell happened?” “Um…” I tried to think of how to explain it. “Is it kind of like Ditto?” Ho’oH, the Phoenix, asked curiously. “I mean...that makes more sense than what I was about to bring up.” I said sheepishly. “Just a...very special kind of Ditto, where not only does it look different, but it can use...basically any move.” “Okay enough dancing around it.” Heart spoke up. “Where Ben here and I come from originally, we knew every single one of you as Trading cards, cartoons, and video games where the majority of you could all be caught, others had to be gotten at events. These Missingno Pokemon are a glitch Pokemon from the first generation version of the games that were made of your world. The people likely making these altered Pokemon stole one of these game versions from me, and we made these Pokemon from a spare I have.The only difference between you all here and from the games, shows, ect, is that you have genders. About 95% of you all were genderless with a small handful do having genders.” Heart took a breath. “In short, it’s my fault this is all even happening… They stole that game from me, and I chose to ignore it, chose to not do anything and just clean up the mess they made after the fact… So not anymore. Join us, well find these fuckers, and KILL them. This is war, not battle; to prove to them we aren’t going to take their bullshit, blood WILL spill. So, either join us in the war, or hide away like you all know how to do. Choice is yours.” “I’m not going to let my child die.” Lugia said swiftly. “Oh, that’s nice.” I muttered to myself. “I can’t take care of Nature if the world ends.” Shaymin, the grass hedgehog, pointed out. “I hate how you are a walking Pun Shaymin…” I frowned while looking at Arceus. “Seriously? A walking hedgehog?” I asked. “Don’t look at me. Mew shifted into a lot of-” Suddenly, there was a large blast of blue fire, Red and his black charizard getting blasted off like Team Rocket. Mew flying back over. “That should give us a few hours.” Mew said nonchalantly. “Right…” I said slowly. “So uh...should I be the one to bring up…’it’?” I asked Heart nervously. “The what?” Heart asked. “Fuck it, should I talk about the Harem?” I asked. “Also, I’m still shocked that half the pokemon haven’t tried to jump me because of me being part Cherubim…” I grumbled. “Excuse me, did you just say Harem?” Palkia blinked. “Yes, yes I did.” I nodded. “That’s a long...long story…” Heart sighed out. “As you can tell,” Heart took the moment to wrap an arm around me. “Ben and I are a couple, but we have many other spouse's… lots of spouses. Apparently, since our current Kingdoms laws are based on a mix of the worlds we’ve taken in and such under our banner, to establish a firm trust of peace between the world and us, one of every intelligent race is married as a show of good faith. And some other legal junk.” “... That’s basically one of every Pokemon type if you include each Pokemon species as a different race… more if you include Evolutions…” Arceus said. “And that’s why I shall bring up this little thing, and that’s...going to be either a good majority, or all of you joining us.” I said honestly. “Would piss off trainers that they can’t catch Legendaries, but it would make it simpler than having to marry over...a thousand pokemon at the moment.” I pointed out. “And there’s still more being discovered by the humans of this world.” “...Well I’ve fucked weirder.” Giratina said. “You would say that…” Palkia groaned. “If Life is too prosper, then I’d agree.” Xernias, the LIfe Tree Deer, said in an elegant female voice. “But...some of us are dudes.” Zapdos, the ThunderBird, pointed out. “And we’re shemales.” Heart said bluntly. “Comes with the marriage.” “Wait, you mean your both…” Zygarde, the Cell Serpent that’s in it’s 100% form...which looked like a goddamn mech, trailed off. “Now I’m convinced you’re my ex.” Giratina said. “The fuck wait?” Palkia said in surprise. “Now was it two or three thousand years ago when I chose a female form?” The mech “Well… That’s unexpected.” Arceus said. “That’s basically my gender.” Mew said bluntly. “Wait, what?” MewTwo asked, the clone Pokemon having many questions now. “You are a lot more innocent than you were in the movies…” I frowned at Mewtwo. “So anyways...you might also become Anthro...like humanoid versions that look sexy as hell cause reasons.” I said honestly. “I mean...is that a downside?” Victini, the Victory Pokemon, asked curiously. “If it means free boobs I’m in.” Giratina said. “I… How do I reply to that?” Palkia asked the distortion pokemon. “So, in terms of gathering other Pokemon for this, that shouldn’t be too hard.” Groudon said. “But a human… that might be tricky. Humans don’t have proper leaders here, not including Gym Leaders and those Champions.” “Maybe we can find The Pokemon Master.” Kyogre pointed out. “Which? It’s kind of a regional title.” Arceus asked. “I think she means The Pokemon Master.” Dialga said. “As in, the one lone person who has seen, battled, and captured every Pokemon that wasn’t a legendary?” “Oh yes, her.” Darkrai grumbled. “And what do you mean ‘captured every Pokemon that wasn’t a legendary’? She captured every single one of us, and then set us free.” He pointed out. “Oh yeah…” Dialga frowned. “It’s been forever, I have too many time streams to look into now.” The dragon of time grumbled. “Who now?” Heart asked. “So uh...funny story.” Hoopa, the Genie pokemon, rubbed the back of his neck. “There’s this one person, a woman, who was one of the first ‘Trainers’ way back when. She traveled this entire planet, and I do mean the entire planet, and has seen literally everything, done everything, and is basically the Best Pokemon Trainer to ever exist...and still exist.” Hoopa said. “And she just let go of each of you? The most powerful pokemon on this world… why?” “Every Pokemon that she captured, besides her Main Six, were all released after she was done gathering any and all notes on us.” Cresselia, the Good Dreams pokemon, said. “She especially knew that us Legendaries being held in ‘captivity’ would upset the balance of the world, that’s why even if we are captured, trainers seem to have this weird urge to set us free after a while.” “So...where can we find this lady?” I asked curiously. “Cause it sounds like she’s still alive even if this all sounds like it took place ages ago.” “Was it me or you that...accidentally gave her immortality?” Ho’oH asked Hoopa nervously. “And she’s immortal too.” Heart said. “No wonder she’s done everything. Has all the time in this world to do it, and did.” “And I think she’s just enjoying her time on an island resort somewhere in the Alola region.” Tapu Koko, the Thunder Totem pokemon, pointed out. "That aside, looks like there is a lot to do." "Yes...like the fact I can already feel Pinkies making a 'welcome to the Harem' party…" I sighed out. "So, where in Alola would this trainer be?" I asked. "She's at the very top of the Battle Tree." Tapu Lele, the psychic totem, said honestly. "She likes the open air and the view." "Seriously, what's with trainers and high places?" I frowned. "Symbolism." Lugia said honestly. "So who's going to go get her?" Heart asked. "I'll go, cause if I stay here then none of us are leaving." I said while getting up and shifting back into my Den Mother form. "Being human is nice and all, but being a Den Mother just feels right." I smiled warmly. "Holy…" Solgaleo, the Sun Lion, said breathlessly, wide eyed at how beautiful he thought I was. "Oh you're too kind." I chuckled before opening a DTN to the top of the Battle Tree. "I'll be right back " I said while heading in to find the lady. It was just a few minutes before I walked back through with the trainer girl. She looked mid to late twenties, bright silver hair, and kind of looked like Dawn. "So, this is new." She said, looking at Heart and all the Legendaries. "What brings you all together in one place?" "Well...a lot of things." Dialga started sheepishly. “Basically, you are the only one to fully be the ‘leader’ of the human race as you, and every legendary, joins me, Heart, and a lot of others in a massive marriage to protect your world from outside forces.” I said honestly. "... That sounds like a bad harem anime plot." She replied bluntly. "Kinda but that's our laws when bringing new worlds into our kingdom." Heart said. “I mean, it’s also based on old laws from several different countries and worlds.” I pointed out. "That aside, I'm sure you've noticed some bad things and not right pokemon about, right?" Heart asked. "That… I have. News and online videos of people with Pokemon that aren't right. Not natural." “And those bastards are wanting to destroy the world.” I said honestly. “If we don’t stop them soon.” "Well then." The Champion said, raising a Pokeball from her small side bag. "Let's get hitched, and have a kick ass honeymoon." "You'll all have the best." I said warmly. "I get to have big boobs like those supermodels?" Latias asked curiously. "Sis please…" Latios groaned. "Yes, yes you will." I chuckled. "Like I said, comes with the marriage." Heart said. "Sexy female looking forms that are humanoid, both sets of genitals below. Basically the norm for us at this point." "Giratina can finally go fuck himself." Palkia said. "Yes I can. And you as well." Giratina replied. "Both of you stop." Dialga sighed out. "Also, if you are related, like brother and sister, than the incest clause doesn't actually exist due to...a lot of reasons." I brought up. "Well, if it wasn't awkward enough before it is now." Mew said, all eyes on Latios and Latias. "What?" Latias asked innocently. "Love is love." "Latias is a cinnamon roll...an innocent cinnamon roll." Latios sighed out as he softly nuzzled his sister. "So we're all in an agreement then?" Heart asked. "Seems good enough to me." Tornadus said simply. "You know...I didn't expect this to happen after waking up…" The sword wolf Zacian said honestly. "Neither did I…" the shield wolf Zamasesta shook his head. "Right then. Let's get to work." Heart said. Two Days Later. After Truth Deal. “Everyone used to their new bodies?” I asked all the Legendaries curiously, hoping they got used to their new forms in the last two days in a special ‘testing grounds’ pocket dimension. "I'm good." Giratina said. Their new form was a lot like a centaur of sorts, even if their shifted form they kept the centaur look. They now also had a large pair of jugs, as their actual size was not changed from their new bodies/gender things. Now also having arms they rarely were not groping their own chest. "This looked slightly different in my head." Mew said. They mostly did grow, getting to a five-seven height, and while they looked like a pink MewTwo, they were different enough. “I mean...it’s not so different as that one timeline…” Dialga muttered while looking in a mirror and groping her massive ass for...the umpteenth time. “I’m a Dragon Steel type...my ass feels like a cloud…” “This body feels more like a mother…” Lugia muttered, looking over herself as she was pretty much the definition of ‘MILF’. “Are you sure I can’t have fun times with King yet?” Latias asked, the young dragon looking absolutely adorasexy...and how that’s technically a proper word astounds me. “Well...so far everyone’s doing well.” I nodded. “What do you think Heart?” "After we deal with Nexus." Heart said, a flurry of Keyblades appearing, each one finding a Wielder with the new family members, as well as Key armaments. "Now let's see how your moves work in combat." “Wouldn’t our forms be a little...weird for fighting?” Zacian asked, the sword wolf holding his signature sword plus the keyblade as he tried to move with his more...gifted female form. “Seriously, wouldn’t you smack yourself in the face with your tits half the time?” “While Anime logic is involved, Anime titty logic does not.” I said simply. “So no, your tits won’t get in the way, but if your scared then you’ll just need some magic clothes to keep it all in.” "Or armor." Heart added. "Now then, you all have a move that is specific to you. Let's see them." “Alright…” Dialga started while holding her new Key Armament tightly. “Roar of Time.” She hummed as time itself seemed to flow into a ball of energy in front of her mouth, collecting more and more power...as it was funneled straight into her Key Armament. She gathered enough energy before swinging her weapon down hard, causing a massive shockwave of Time Energy to lash out in a direction. “That...was a lot stronger than my original…” Dialga said nervously, remembering it could normally level a mountain but...that felt like she could cleave a planet in half with no problem. "Good. Now, the rest of you, same as Dialga." Heart ordered. The rest nodded, the one’s that actively had a signature attack while the others lined up to throw their strongest known attack, and each used their new Armament to amplify their powers and let loose their strongest attacks. Needless to say Arceus’s was the strongest as I actually had to mend a small hole in our pocket dimension, but each one was leagues beyond what they originally were. “Hot damn, is this what you guys normally do?” Zapdos asked curiously. “That and so much more.” I chuckled. “Anything else you want them to do Heart?” "Yes." Their said, raising a hand. There was a pulse of darkness that filled the little pocket dimension as DTD's opened up, swarms of powerful Heartless began to emerge from them. Some looked new, others were clearly buffed up versions of already powerful Heartless. "How long can you last?" I gently brought out a bag of popcorn and another one for Heart. “Want some while we watch?” I asked, the Legendaries all readying for the fight. "No." Heart said, closing their hand into a fist. The Heartless Attacked, and the fight began. Two More Days Later. "That's enough." Heart said, finally disbanding the heartless as all the new additions to the family all immediately fell over from exhaustion. “Go...fuck...yourself…” Thunderous groaned in pain. “Did we really need to fight for two days straight?” Arceus panted heavily, keeping themselves up with their Key Armament. "The Heartless are strong,.but the war we are fighting, and the battles to come will make this training exercise look like child's play by comparison. You can destroy worlds? Level mountains? They can eradicate this entire universe. And that's not even their strongest fighters. To kill this beast, we need to cut it at the heads, and to even reach that we have to become stronger." "The hell happened between the first War and now?" Arceus asked in fear. "Too much…" I sighed out. "You can all rest now. And eat." Heart said, snapping their fingers as a massive buffet of food, from this world to homes appeared all around us in a flash of code. “I...am so glad we’re marrying you two.” Palkia said in awe at all the food. As they all began to eat, Heart just sat on a large chair, clearly thinking about something. “What’s up?” I asked Heart curiously. “Your clearly thinking of something, what is it?” "How this fight against Nexus will go down. Whatever they are planning here, it's not going to end well. Even when they lose, they always have a victory of some sort over us." “Trust me...they will lose, that no victory will be attainable by them.” I said simply. “Because they think that after we win, their touch can still harm the world, that there will still be those would rather see the world burn than enjoy life.” "Their will be though. Even if Nexus is gone, ideals and desires like theirs don't just stop. At the end of it, people keep those ideals alive, for better or worse." “And they can keep those ideals.” I said. “But what’s the one thing Nexus hates more than losing?” I asked simply. "Fucked if I know." Heart sighed. “Being treated like a joke.” I said. “They want to be respected, feared, worshipped, and being able to do whatever they want. But when we burn their flags, show them that they’re full of bullshit, and laugh at them? That’s what would tick them off. Because their not being respected as villians, their not being hated like they want...all their power just goes away when their treated as a Joke, and with that causes them to over extend, make mistakes, just to prove they aren’t a Joke.” "Ever notice, it's only the foot soldiers who run to the flags aid? You don't see Vincent rushing to save the bases we've claimed, or stop us from burning their flags." “That’s because Vincent gives zero shits about anything.” I pointed out. “But my point still has ground when you think about it.” "We'd be taking out the claws. Just have to worry about the teeth once they're gone." “Yep.” I nodded. “But what do you think of my point on Nexus not wanting to be seen as a Joke?” "I'd say it's a good way to take it down. Just not Vincent, and those he's working close with. We can cut the body from the head easily with your idea, but the head is still the most dangerous part of it." “And that’s why I’m searching for the Organization Mushrooms to get Belief a new Body to help out.” I said honestly. “Plus any other goodies along the way.” "And the long grind begins." Heart said with a clap, getting up. "King. How much do you know about my X-Blade form?" “Not much sadly, oh, that reminds me.” I said while bringing out No Heart. “Mind letting me Evolve No Heart?” I asked, Heart seeing the ‘Evolve x6’ icon on their HUD and ‘permission needed’. "You do know No Heart isn't like Keyblades right? It's a X-Blade. And not under my banner anyway so go ahead I guess." “Said I wasn’t allowed to until you said so.” I said before Evolving No Heart. After six brief flashes, No Heart went from having Reunion and Dusblade crossed together, the X-blade now looked like it was completely made out of Nothingness Thorns, with Memory Stealer and Second Chance crossing. "Well, as you know I am a X-Blade as well. When I shift, I actually have no control over what powers I use, my Wielder does though. I also had, for ease of use, Lord and Cript put this on me." Heart then speed open their shirts top a bit, giving me a nice look at their top cleavage, then moved some of the fluff aside. In their skin was the same gem as what now rests on Frozen Pride and soon my other weapons. “Oh, that’s interesting.” I said honestly. "See, since my X-Blade form requires a Wielder to use my power, I don't know what I can do in that form. This gem can help, and will, but I still need a Wielder to see the powers and if they differ from my normal stuff." “Alright, so who’s going to be that wielder?” I asked curiously. "You. Duh." “That was my first thought but I wasn’t sure.” I said honestly. "So, while they eat and rest up, you see exactly what the heck I can do, okay?" “Sure.” I nodded. “I’d love to know what you can do.” "Same, so, should we make another pocket dimension or just give them a show. And I don't mean sex." “I think we can give them a show.” I said while gently taking Hearts hand. “May I have this dance my love?” I asked politely. "...My shifting doesn't work like that, you know?" “It’s not just the transformation I’m talking about.” I said honestly. “You said put on a show, and I’m going to.” I said. “Ever heard of Blade Dancers?” I asked curiously. "No." “Well then, I’m going to demonstrate it.” I said honestly. “And it’ll be amazing.” "Okay, should I watch or are you going to lead?" Heart asked. “I’ll lead.” I said. “Plus it would be a good demonstration of your abilities...plus I don’t think we’ve ever had a dance before.” "...No, no we have not." Heart said, taking my hands. "So, how will this work with my having no legs?" “We’ll figure it out.” I said gently. “And mid way through the dance you’ll just be shifting into your X-blade form anyway, then I’ll take over from there.” "Sounds like Steven Universe Fusion meets Soul Eater." Heart laughed, the first laugh I've heard in a long time thinking about it. Heart had gotten much better at moving with a tail for their lower body. Our dance while felt perfect likely just looked like a worm trying to attack a ball of hair. Still, Midway, on cue, Heart shifted. Their X-Blade form looked different, slightly. It was still black where's X's where white and had two crossed Kingdom Key D's, but where they crossed, was now a hole, and inside it was a softly light blue glowing heart. Right where the hand guards of the two Kingdom Key D's met below the heart was the gem. “Cool.” I said simply at Heart’s new form. “Class shift, Blade Dancer, Dervish.” I said as I glowed softly. “Ready?” I asked Heart. "Was… that supposed to do something?" Heart asked as their form didn't change or shift any. “It’s a class change.” I said while Heartless spawned in. “This is where I show you what blade dancing is.” I said simply as I summoned No Heart as well, and started taking measured steps towards the Heartless. The entire fight was, to the onlooking Legendaries, ‘beautiful and deadly’, as I cleaved through dozens of Heartless in a special form of Ballet, moving gracefully and with purpose, both No Heart and Heart acting like an extension of myself as I danced through all the Heartless in a graceful whirlwind of blades. "While cool, not exactly what I had in mind." “Well I wanted to dance.” I said. “And everyone else seemed to like it.” I said simply. With my dance over I finally got to checking stats. Heart was… a bit odd. First off, they have five forms. The fifth is locked. The other four are Darkness Form, Light Form, Balanced Form and Nobody Form. That aside there is something here that's linked to the Race Tree, Feed Tree, it's called. "What does the Feed Tree do?" Heart asked. “Hmm…” I hummed while looking into the Feed Tree. “First time I’m seeing it…” Feed Tree: This is a standard ability for all Weapons Equipped with an Alteration Gem. Feed the gem random fodder from beasts to weapons and such and with each fodder unlock new forms for your weapon and increase these new forms to Master Level by using their specific skills or feeding the same fodder that unlocked it to your weapon. Forms do not change weapon stats, just weapon skills/type affiliation. Oh, so it is like when Shield Hero feeds his shield stuff then. "Basically if you feed yourself fodder you can change into different weapons with different abilities." I said honestly. "Oh. So, like what then?" “Um…” I brought out a Steel Greatsword and put it in front of the Gem. To my surprise, it was fed, dissolving into particles and into the gem. An alert in my hud showed two new branches were unlocked. Kingdom Hearts Greatsword Form, and Kingdom Hearts Steel Form. “Cool.” I said while bringing a shield and see if it could be fed as well. “Wonder if this also works.” As I tapped it on the gem, but was met with a message on my hud. Incompatible Weapon. To make comparable requires a new Form Slot. “New Form Slot?” I asked curiously while double checking this whole Form Slot thing. After a quick search I found what I was looking for. To allow a new Form Slot of a different weapon type than the original, you must reforge the original weapon with the Alteration Gem attached and mold it into the desired weapon. Once finished the weapon can freely shift between weapon forms as well as absorb the new form weapons. “Ah, alrighty then.” I nodded. “Good to know.” "The hell you're gonna reforge me." “Nah, that’s up to you if you want to do that.” I said honestly. “I’m just learning something neat.” I said honestly. “So, how else do you want to display your abilities?” "Well, from your memories, you funneled Cript's power into your weapons, try pulling mine." “Um...sure.” I said while taking a deep breath and feeling the flow of Heart’s energy, as I started to gently direct the current towards me. The energy began to fuel into me, it wasn’t like Cript’s, but it was potent as I soon began feeling all of it flow in. My fur shifted from dark grey to a bright light blue, my claws shifting to a longer darkness. Once I felt it was all inside, I flowed it back into Heart. Their X-blade form shifted, the hole where the heart grew larger as did the heart, and while it kept glowing a bright warming light, but the outer blade cloaked itself into a darkness, shifting to a design much like Way to Dawn or Soul Eater. ”Okay THAT’s a rush.” Heart said, this full powered form of ours now stable. “Hmm…” I hummed, ever so lightly swinging Heart to feel the weight of the full powered form. Connection reestablishing… … … Connection Reestablished. “Yeah let’s save that for the front lines…” Heart said, the two of us finished repairing space, a little bit of time, and many other things that were obliterated from that gentle swing. “I practically moved my arm ever so slightly, the actual hell…” I said nervously. “On the bright side…” Heart said, moving next to me. “Looks like I’m right right as to not hurt you power wise. Now, mind if I act on an idea?” “Oh? What’s the idea?” I asked curiously. “Just… grab this.” Heart said, a DTL opening up above me. Falling through was… is this a Keyblade Graveyard Keyblade… wait… “It worked!” Heart yelled happily. I lost about four hours, now sixty percent of this world has Keyblades. “Now you’re also part X-blade!” “Could have warned me.” I chided. “I mean seriously...dumbing an entire Graveyard on top of me out of nowhere?” “It was just the one Keyblade… it was the reaction you had given… stuff that I still am not quite sure I understand that ended up having you possessed by them, then I managed to get that heart alteration thing done. Bright side, Nexus knows we’re here. Bad news… I wanna see you shift into a X-blade.” “Fine fine…” I sighed out while taking a deep breath to feel how to chance into an X-blade. The shift wasn’t too bad. My X-blade form was different. It was the two Interdiction blades crossed, surrounded by Nothingness thorns, the thorns pulsated around, making up the outer blades, and handgrip. “Not bad.” Heart said, holding me. Being held by the grip like that felt a lot like holding hands actually. Huh. ”It feels like we’re holding hands actually.” I mentally told him. “I know right! I expected it to be the first time to feel like I’m being wrapped around the waist, but it’s more like holding hands. So, in this form you can’t use your powers, at least not normally. I have to be the catalyst this time… Hmmm… I have an idea, care to hear it?” ”What’s the idea?” I asked curiously. “Tanks up front, archers in the rear, healers dotted but protected.” Heart said, pointing me towards the old Team Galactic building where Nexus was hiding out at the moment, one of them at least. “Let’s go say hi.” ”This is gonna be fun.” I chuckled. Knock, Knock, knock. “Hm?” The nexus lady questioned. She then went over to check the door, only to have it slammed on top of her. “Hello!” Heart yelled, swinging me at 5% power, blasting a few holes below us and the upper levels collapsing. “You’re worst nightmares are here.” They looked below, seeing the struggling Nexus lady trying to crawl out from under them. With a wave of their finger, Second Chance impaled her, and she reverted back to infancy. With another flash she was sent back to the home. “Let’s show Nexus that, if we’re going to beat and end their entire organization, killing the body by saving them. Now that will piss Vincent off.” ”And that will be funny.” I chuckled. ”Now let’s go save a bunch of people.” Being the weapon is a very different experience. For starters my pov somehow is not in a sort of second person, seeing things from just over Hearts shoulder, right or left I can switch between freely. Blocking or hitting things feels kinda odd though, like it's either a tap or a pinch depending on how strong or hard the thing I hit or block was. Needless to say though with Second Chance and the new family members all also carrying one, we saved everyone here. Babies that were once our enemies here, now innocent and pure. Once they were all safe and secure back home… is when she arrived. "Looks like someone grew a spin." Rune said, decorated in some sort of armor that had blue glowing outlines around it. "Miss me that much?" I felt Heart starting to tremble a bit, their grip on me shook some. ”Sup Slut.” I called out to Rune. ”Ready to get your ass beaten again?” "Oh, is that you ---, huh? Oh, looks like someone sold their name. How desperate must you have been?" ”Like you for cock? I’m not that desperate.” I told her. ”Besides, it’s just a name, everyone else has had a name changes. So it doesn’t bother me much.” I said while I tried to get Heart to calm down. "Heh. So, this I your plan? Insults and reverting staff to infancy? Since when do you two care about if there is bloodshed? Question is, will you kill me today?" "Obey." Heart murmured, a pulsation sent out like a shockwave was sent out. Once it hit Rune she clutched her chest. "Ooh. About time you got rough." "Obey and be silent." Heart said, this time with volume as Rune could no longer talk. Hearts crown appeared over their head. ”Alrighty then…” I started. ”What are you going to do now that she finally shut up?” Heart said nothing, raising a hand. "As king of hearts, by my command reveal to me the truths unsaid, the memories locked away, and the buried sides you hold under lock and key." Suddenly, An eruption of light came from Rune's chest, her heart flowing out as what looked like lines of film began floating all around. Her whole life playing through before us. There was chunks missing, her time with Heart. "I see then." Heart said, placing their hand into Runes heart, and pulling out a smaller heart. This one once it was out reliced film also, showing Runes time with Heart. "There you are, Rune." Heart sent the smaller heart back into Rune's body, and the larger one, they gripped it tight, and it shattered. ”Uh...the hell?” I questioned. ”I know about the whole two hearts thing cause...well it’s happened before many times, but the hell was that specifically?” "I can tell when someone is lying to me. I could tell Chrysalis wasn't Twilight when we first met. Rune does love me, but there was two of her. Rune who was built and raised by Nexus… and a second, created solely because the Rune Nexus made can't fake love, so they made one who can feel love, and that is my Rune." Heart said, slithering over to Rune. Rune was crying, tears flowing like rivers. "I couldn't stop her." Rune said. "She could just take over whenever, and All I could do was watch…" Heart hugged her tightly, crying also. "I'm just glad you're back. And she can never hurt you again." ”This is nice.” I said simply. ”Glad things are okay…” “I brought coffee and-” A Team Galactic grunt walked in with a Machamp holding a lot of coffee and donuts. “Uh…” ”Well...donuts and coffee wouldn’t be bad right now…” I said honestly. To be continued...
Nobody finishes up SmithingIn the workshop Lord outfitted me with one of those Gems too since I'm now also part weapon. It didn't hurt and was in the same place as Hearts when they were in normal form. “Alrighty then...onto the rest of my weapons right?” I said, wondering if my other weapons were done or if we still had work to do. "Yup." Lord said. "Good news, Lindworm is done, and that female Wyvern joined as an alternative lance, so in the form menu she is attached to her own weapon form. Also their egg in out back." “That’s wonderful.” I said happily. “So...which weapon next?” "Lunatic and Interdiction are almost done and Sharp Shooters just needs some tweaking and it will be ready. The others since they don't have similar structures to the other weapons. And for Foudre we have to make a special gem for it given its small size." Lord said. “Cool.” I nodded. “So then let’s get started.” I said simply. “But what do you think of my weapons Evolutions?” "They look nice." Cript said. "They work and that's all that matters." Lord said. “Even thought it went from sixty percent of Cript’s max to being able to take Cript’s max.” I pointed out. “And they still have four more evolutions.” "Either way, let's get this out of the way so we can start the Ethernet stuff." Cript said, taking out SharpShooters. To my surprise each own had a gem on it. He quickly went to work tweaking it as Lord was working on Lunatic and Interdiction. “Alrighty then…” I muttered while going over and starting to fiddle with Book of Retribution and Staff of Leniency. “So...this Ethernet thing…” I started, not knowing much about it besides what the common internet talk would be about it. “What is it?” "Basically another Multiverse. But WAY more random." Lord said. "We've only explored a few places there. One is basically YouTube, the other is a place where the Admin War Never happened, but the Admins there don't even know how to use code. They think it's magic." Cript said. “I mean, I told you two that Code is an overcomplicated version of Magic a long time ago.” I said honestly "Either way, this time we will be looking into their machines. Maybe even gaining help along the way." Cript said. “I’m sure Jenny will help out in someway.” I brought up. “She probably knows the Ethernet better than either of you at the moment considering...who she is.” "Maybe." Cript thought aloud. “Alright.” I nodded as I continued to work on my weapons. “Oh, not sure if you noticed but we added a new world to the Kingdom.” I mentioned to Cript. "Saw. Pokemon huh? Also saw the new influx of family." “Yep, all the legendaries and the greatest Pokemon trainer on that world.” I said honestly. "Huh." Cript said, now closing up Sharpshooters. "And done." They said, tossing them over to me. I took SharpShooters and looked them over. “Let me guess, you made these stronger than that giant Admin Cannon I found in the Tomb of Heroes?” I asked. “I...sadly forgot the name, but it’s basically the RYNO from Ratchet and Clank.” "It's up there, and given they are the same class of weapon it's a form it can shift two. Their base form as well as switching between evolutions, the giant cannon you mentioned, and an extra I added solely because it was funny." Confused, I looked into it. Base form, Cannon Form… Casual form? Selecting it turned them into cartoon bike horns, a large loop between the 'triggers', being those rubber balls you squeeze to pump the air for the noise through, and the fiering barrel, being the horns end. I looked at it...and then I looked at Cript. “Why?” "Funny." They said simply as I shifted them back to base form, final upgrade form. "Having versatility is useful, you already have a fair sized armory at your disposal, but even if the weapons are diverse, is what they can each offer you in combat just as diverse?" He asked, not expecting an answer as he began working on Book of Retribution next. “Alrighty then.” I said while stepping away from Cript to do his work. “I was just checking all of it’s stats and abilities before I fully messed with it.” Class: Ranged Mana Armorment Ammunition: N/A Type: Collectable Att: 75 Def: 40 Mag: 120 Name: Joy Horns These collectors weapons ignore 50% physical defense and 100% magical defence. They improve attack damage the happier the shooter is. It's bullets scatter, each dealing split damage overall. “Well then…” I started. “That’s...interesting.” There was a tab for additional info. I clicked it. Spawn Rates: Level 1: 0% Level 2: 2% Level 3: 40% Level 4: 45% Level 5: 47% Values: Buy: 64,000 Sell: 36,000 “Um...what?” I asked curiously. “Spawn rates and price tags?” "You didn't notice?" Lord asked. "The Mother we already met with merged with our cycle already. As well as like nine others." "In short, Dungeons exist now. Easy ones are level one amd hardest are level five, meaning Admins or equal to in power only." Cript said. “Um...alright.” I said honestly. “So...what, is the Tomb of Heroes level 5 or something?” I asked curiously. "More like or something." Lord said. "It starts at level one difficulty and going down to level five the further down you go." "Sounds about right." I nodded. "Bright side, they are great training grounds." "Yes they are." I said honestly. "Especially when an entire floor is an infinite mob spawner." "Varies from dungeon to dungeon." Lord said. "Or depending on room to room, cause I've gone through thirteen and the Celestial one is the only one that's been an infinite spawner." I said honestly “Huh. weird.” Lord said, finishing up Lunatic as they gave it to me and began finishing Interdiction. “Weird?” I asked curiously. “Why weird?” "Normally the dungeons spawn in certain amounts of enemies a day, triple on Blood Moons and double on Pulsating Moons, but bosses respawn once. Year. Same for their loot. Floor loot will respawn daily. Void must have fucked with it's respawn clock." "Either that, or that's just how the floor works." hrugged. "In any case, these dungeons will become invaluable for training not just the soldiers, but the family as well." Cript said. "Teams for the best odds and to help build trust and all that." "I smell a Guild happening." Lord said with a laugh. Cript gave a chuckle. "Maybe." "You mean Guilds haven't been cropping up left and right?" I asked, honestly a little confused as Consequence told me dozens of Guilds were forming to help the kingdom where it couldn't get to half the time. "They have, but we mean turning the family into a guild itself." Cript said. "Well...that'll be interesting." nestly. "Regardless, let's keep existence from ending first then we can consider what comes next for us all." "Yeah, I'd rather existence not end thank you very much." I said simply. After a few days work all my weapons now had gems on them and a few had special new forms. "Alright then, time for the Ethernet." Cript said, stretching. "I'll go look for the Storage Drive then." Lord replied. "Hey King. Here." Cript said, tapping their Assistant as a new app installed on mine. "Oh?" I hummed while checking the new app. Mission Tracking. "Mission tracking?" I asked curiously. "As of today, this family is the Crowned Guardians Guild. Royalty that protects the land and the people it's banner reaches. Only ways in are birth, marriage, or adoption. As an official Guild the Mission Tracking app is a must to keep tabs. It's basically a to do list but with detailed information on stuff. Completing missions gives various rewards but always ensures more skill points are earned. The Lowest being one and the most being twenty." "Cool." I said. "What kind of missions do these Guilds do besides fetch quests and monster hunting?" "Investigations, alerts about tournaments and such." "And, currently exclusive to us, Front Lines Missions." Lord added. "Our objective, reach the Void Mother and various other things." "But we have one mission on there for you that will tie into the Void Mother mission… finding Void Key. Luckily this app is… unique. It's programming and processing is done by reading Code itself and basically translating it's expected paths. So, you have a lead." Cript added. "Oh I am going to enjoy hunting Void Key." I said with a predatory smile as I looked up my lead. Mission: Find Void Key. Search Coco's Heart. “Alright…” I nodded. “Good thing I’m with Coco at the moment in the Heroes Tomb.” I said simply. “By the way...what would happen if someone…’broke’ a dungeon floor?” I asked curiously. "Broke how?" Lord asked. “Now before I kind of...blew up a dungeon in a fit of rage…” I said sheepishly. “I was just wondering what would happen if you either start breaking the actual Floor, like cracks or pieces start disappearing.” I said sheepishly. "It will self repair all damage within a day, no matter how severe. But if you are talking about digging straight to the bottom floor, that's impossible." “Well...alrighty then.” I nodded. “Good to know that it’ll only take a day...well that floor is going to be ruined to hell…” "What floor?" Cript asked. “Floor 13, where I found Shadow the Celestial.” I said, accidentally forgetting his name but knowing what he looks like. “And going to save the Queen of the Celestials.” "Queen of the Celestials? You mean Celestia?" Cript asked. “Yes, yes I do.” I nodded. “That’s the lady that I have to beat to progress after all.” "... She's not in the family though…" “I...didn’t mention her being part of the family.” I said slowly. “I said I was going to save her from being a boss in the Tomb of Heroes…” I said. “Uh...actually that raises a question, what would happen if someone were to...take away the Boss from a Dungeon floor? Like say...using Second Chance to turn them into infants and then bring them home?” "Good question." Cript thought. "Also remember, everyone in the Tomb of Heroes was part of this family in the past cycle, so… guess that means I best give her a call…" "Given how the tomb of Heroes was built and operates, most likely they were always saved, but by cycles end… respawned, meaning they went their, died on their floor, and starts next cycles, same story basically." Lord said. “Oh…” I muttered sadly. “Good...to know...so uh...how much of a bitch is it to fight Lyra again?” I asked. “Cause she’s the final boss...and Jericho said she’s probably the strongest person to exist at the moment…” "Hmm… a lot like fighting me I guess." Cript thought aloud. "But Lyra had always had better speed." “Oh boy…” I sighed out. “So it’s going to be a nightmare.” "All the best bosses are." Lord added. "Either way, you head off and finish up the Heroes Tomb, Lord and I will get busy here and hopefully make some progress." Cript said. “I’m already there.” I said. “You forget, starfish clones. I’m with Coco, Jericho and Kexez at the Tomb right now.” I brought up. To be continued...
Nobody becomes DeathlessKnowing what I know now. I have to clear this place as fast as I can, but to get stronger, I still have to take it a bit slower. Coco was laid on the bed. I told her what I was going to do, a dive to her heart. Most likely there has to be some leftover memories from when Void Key covered it. Coco's station of awakening was nice. It was her, the background a green field, and images of me, Rarity, and others in the family were here. “This is nice.” I said warmly as I started to look around for what I needed. “Alright memory of where the fuck Void Key is, where are you…” I muttered while searching around. “Or...maybe there’s still a fragment here I could track...whichever comes first.” I dived into her memories, arriving in what looked like… a kid's room? Must be in her childhood. "Would you like Assistance?" Izzie's Voice suddenly spoke in my head. “Thank you Izzie.” I nodded. “Can you help me find where Void Key would be in Coco’s memories? Either it’s location or if it has any remnants left?” "Judging by surrounding and location in her heart, you landed in her childhood from age ten. To safely reach your destination of where Void Key related Memories are located, you have to find the memory of each time Void Key was mentioned to or around her in her memories. I detect one in this memory sequence." "Cool." I said while starting to search for Void Key in this memory. Looking around I found that touching certain things seemed to trigger memories. A cute pink dress showed me memories of Coco in a school play. An equestrian version of Rapunzel. Finally though, a pair of bracelets showed me what I needed. Coco was easy seven, they were in a doctor's office/Laboratory. The lady checking her was human. "Okay Coco, you know what you have to do, right?" She asked, the young filly Coco nodded, holding out her hands as a small amount of void began forming. "Good. Just hold it until I get back, alright?" She asked. She then took leave outside the door. There, I caught a quick glance at something worrying and disturbing. Void Key, with a host. Needless to say I followed the doctor. "How is the little vessel?" Void Key asked. "Coco, is progressing well." The doctor said. Glad she's not evil then given she used Coco's name. "The artificial Void Conduit Gene seems to be holding strong and working perfectly." "Perfect. Out of all the hosts Nexus has made for me in these last sixty thousand years, she will be the crowning achievement." Void Key said with a laugh. “Of course.” I growled angrily. “Also, how the fuck did they get Void Key? There’s no way in hell...Void Key was with all those other weapons in Daybreak?” The room glowed, now it was a workshop of hers from Manehattan. The view was nice. "I detect two memories here." Izzie Informed. “Alright.” I nodded while flying around to find the memories. “Got any locations for those memories?” I asked considering we’re in Manehattan. "I detect one twenty feet left of you." “Thank you.” I nodded while moving twenty feet to the left to see what memory is here. It was her desk, many assorted threads, needles, fabrics and all that were here. One thing that stood out was a photo of Coco and her family. Picking it up, showed me the memory. Coco was in the Laboratory again. This time asleep and hooked up to monitors. There was a lot of people here this time. "Wasn't the Time Burner supposed to be here a while ago?" One of the doctors asked. "They're time travelers, all of history and the present at their fingertips and no actual sense of time themselves." The same lady doctor from.the prior memory spoke. She was much older here. Suddenly, there was a red electrical crackling at the back wall, a Time Walkers portal opened up, but with a dark red theme over the normal blue. Out from it walked someone in a red high-tech jumpsuit and mask, holding a bloody No Name Keyblade. "Sorry to keep you waiting, damn fucker just did not want to die." They said, dropping the Keyblade. The female doctor looked quite repulsed, but cleared her throat. "So that's the last ingredient then?" She asked. "Should be. According to Void Key." "I'll begin the experiment." Another doctor said, taking the No Name Keyblade and placing it in Coco's unconscious hands. Once they returned to their seats, the scientists all began typing on their computers, machines began making noise as Coco began generating void. "Void Gene activated. Switching to Fear Based Void." The void she was generating changed, now it was Void Keys. It began cloaking No Name in her hands soon it covered it, warping it's form and shape...it was now Void Key. "Conversion successful." One of the doctors said. “Cause of fucking course it had to be.” I growled. "Next memory is a floor up." “Alright.” I said while heading up a floor. “But of course Void Key just had to suddenly take over No Name...cause what else would be fine for that sack of shit…” I growled. Heading to the next floor up was clearly where she ate and slept. The memory here was triggered when I found a small ring. In this one, Coco was working in the same workshops that was below where I just was, sewing away. Suddenly, the sunlight vanished. She looked out her window… this was the day the Shadow Titan attacked. It smashed into her building, inches from her face when suddenly… Coco was now elsewhere. It almost looked like… the bottom of a well. She backed up against the wall, in the center before her was a Void Key Keyblade, and The giant eyeball itself. "Can't have you dying on me now, can I?" It asked. Coco blinking again as she was now under some partial rubble being removed. “It’s weird...Coco could have taken that hit even back then...I know it...but Void Key saved her…” I muttered. “Well, not ‘saved’ her, more like ‘moved host out of the way’ cause he certainly doesn’t give a half ounce of deep fried shit about her.’ The next area was the old castle home. This brings back memories. I found the memory fast. This one was Void Keys, because Void Key itself seemed to be here. It was that well again, Void Key attached to a wall of sorts. Vilgax was here too. "What's my mission Master?" "The Coco host has been freed from my influence. That mongrel managed to remove me from her heart. It's time to work on the backup. Fetch me the Admin of Fear." "With pleasure." “Well...looks like I’m going to have to visit her again.” I sighed out. “But I’m probably way too late on that...but better late than never.” I said as I felt one of my clones head off to find the Admin of Fear. With that I left Coco's heart and now, the grind begins. "Oh shit!" Coco dodged a monster Celestials spear attack, and I impaled it with my new lance form from Lindworm. This new wyvern lance has ice abilities. “You know what grinding sessions need?” I asked honestly while cleaving through a few hundred Celestials rather quickly. “Some kickass music.” I said before pulling out Arpeggio and plucking one of the cords to start it. “God, haven’t heard this song in a while.” I sighed before pulling out Lunatic and Skysplitter before leaping into a massive crowd of the Celestials and cleaving through them swiftly. “Come on guys! The fun’s just getting started!” I said as I cleaved through hundreds of Celestials that just kept spawning. Since exp was no longer a thing now, SP, or Skill Points, were the new exp. For me, killing 700 of these Celestials monsters earned me five. 100 earned Coco two, 700 for five also for Jericho and Kexez. I had spent nearly all mine surprisingly raising base stats, HP, att, all that, and those cost a fuck ton the higher you make them. “So my weapons are now based on my stats instead of level?” I asked curiously. "Looks like." Kexez said, borrowing Sharp Shooters for this grinding session and shooting up storms of these things. "I'm already at six hundred. You guys?" "Fourhundred and ninety." Jericho said, using his own axe and cleaving through these things. "It looks like Level was also changed. Now it's a class rank." "Seventy. And neat." Coco said, she's also borrowing one of my Weapons. Interdiction. “Uh...two thousand.” I said sheepishly, continuing my ever widening, and explosive, cleaves through the hoard. “I forget that I keep making massive aoe attacks every time I swing.” "So wait, killed two thousand or earned two thousand SP? Cause we were talking about kill count." Kexez said. “Oh…” I started. “Um...somewhere around...ten thousand already.” I said sheepishly. "And you call Heart Boy Wonder." Jericho laughed, hacking up three more of the creatures. “I mean...he is.” I said. “But I keep swinging and causing explosions to happen.” I said while swinging Lunatic, cleaving through one enemy and then causing a blue fiery explosion that killed twenty more. “And I’m not even trying right now…” "Those upgrades paid off then." Kexez said, shooting off both magazines into a wall of the things. “I mean...this would have also happened before the upgrades Lord and Cript did.” I said honestly. “And honestly, I’m not even using any of these things abilities to make this easier which is...something.” At that moment my Assistant flashed a message in my hud. Cleared Dungeons contain optional challenges that greatly increase the rewards given. This is a detected Cleared Dungeon, Cleared 999,999,999,999+ times. Each challenge offers chances at otherwise nearly impossible loot. Browse Heroes Tomb Dungeon Challenges? Yes / No “Dungeon challenges?” I asked curiously, wondering what the dungeon challenges are. Selecting yes brought up various many selections. Each from weird to fun to strange. One looked interesting. Crippled Combat. Reduces your stats drastically, making easy enemies hard but also increases their rare loot drops and each one kill counts for three. “Well...that’s interesting.” I said honestly. “Hey, who wants to start doing some dungeon challenges?” "Not much for competition. Heart and I share that dislike of them." Kexez said. "What's available?" Jericho asked. "Anything interesting?" Coco asked. “Well the first one is all our stats are drastically reduced to make these enemies difficult.” I said honestly. “One kill counts for three and they have a better chance at dropping rare loot.” "As cool as that sounds I don't think I'm ready for that." Coco said. “That’s alright.” I nodded while checking what other challengers there are, smacking away a bunch of other trash to continue looking at what’s possible. Seriously some of these are weird. Defeat floor seven using only a butter knife. Clear floor seven backrooms with only throwing weapons. Almost any kind of challenge no matter how insane was here. Hmm… Oh, here’s an option. Collect 1,000 Celestial Wingtip Feathers. Reward: 7 Sp, 1,000 Rem, .7043 Glock Cannon. “Ah, there’s some collection challenges, one of them is to collect a thousand celestial wingtip feathers.” I brought up. “Sounds simple enough right?” “Sure. What’s the rewards?” Coco asked. “Seven SP, a thousand Rem and a .7043 Glock Cannon...whatever the hell that is.” I said honestly. “Uh… what is that?” Coco asked. “The glock I mean.” “There are only two other companies that rival Cript’s.” Jericho said, using a powered attack to hack sixty of these things. “Mutation Tec, and Cowles Highpower. They do almost everything that Freak Inc does, but aren’t as diplomatic as Cript. That glock is made by Mutation Tec.” “Well that’s interesting.” I said honestly. “Well, this is a simple enough quest.” I said while taking the quest. “Now I don’t know if we literally have to take them off of the wing’s or they just get dropped…” I gave it a quick lookup. They have a 1 in 10,000 rate of spawning, but it’s still not a guaranteed drop. Apparently brewed into a tea that acts like a complete restore potion. Removes all status effects, and gives a short double hp effect for ten minutes. That’s useful. Apparently they can only be collected on a Celestials corpse, the feathers have no power when they are alive. “Alright, so better not blow up the corpses…” I muttered. “Or maybe it’ll just drop…” I said while looking down at the ever growing pile of loot we were just walking on. “Well, better than nothing.” Coco said. We all began on out challenges. As I attacked these things with the crippeling challenge on… wait, that did HOW MUCH LESS!!! Back in the safe room… I only did barely a tenth of their hp in damage with this challenge activated. And they hit me for nearly half! Bright side… The loot I got from their drops were impressive. I also got ten of those feathers. Coco only found two in all her kills. Jericho found six and Kexez found one. “You know, when I saw it, I thought that my stats would be a third of what it is...not having it take the enemies stats, cutting it in half, then putting it on me.” I said honestly. “Cause even at a third I would still be able to handle a couple of them fine…” I frowned. “Hey, at least it builds your speed and stamina.” Kexez said, breathing heavily and drying off their sweat. “I know I know.” I said while drinking some water. “I can still complain though.” “Heh. At least there’s now a means for us to experience challenge in combat.” Jericho said. “So, looks like those feathers are as hard to get as they say. Moreso I think.” “I mean, I’m pretty sure that we could have found an ass ton of them considering there’s like...a foot of loot out there that we were all walking on.” I said honestly. “No.” Coco sighed. “The challenge gave me a temporary ability to magnetically receive any nearby me. What we got and what I got was all that’s out there.” “Shit, seriously? That must be some tea then.” Kexez said. “That’s...outlandishly improbable but okay.” I shrugged. “So anyways...want to know some news outside this place?” I asked curiously, wondering if any of them noticed the new things happening. “Spill it.” Jericho said. “I’m ears.” Kexez said. “Yes please.” Coco said. “So...from good news to bad news…” I started. “So, a Pokemon world has now joined our Kingdom, all the legendaries and apparently The Pokemon Master, I mean the person that’s seen and done everything in that world, all joined our harem which is...over a hundred.” I started. “Shit.” Kexez said. “Yeah, that only happened cause Heart decided to sneak out with a Starfish Clone to said pokemon world...and then get caught by Rune and proceeded to do fuck nothing about it until I got there.” I explained. “So second good news, Heart finally grew a pair against Rune, ripped out both her hearts, and destroyed the heart that was the selfish bitch.” I said honestly. “So Runes back thankfully.” “Wait, she had two hearts?” Coco asked. “Huh… that would make sense. Can’t fake emotions around Heart, so cover her lack of emotions with a crafted personality that can.” Kexez said. “So yeah.” I said. “So after that...my name is now officially King, cause I needed to...give Truth my name, while Lord gave up his Armor, and Cript...gave up all his suppressors, and magically turned into what I can only describe as if Doomsday from DC had a kid with Godzilla and was tested on by a lot of crazies.” “Oh… So, should we all stop holding back also?” Jericho asked. “If his suppressor is removed, it would show us all how we look without holding back.” “I’m pretty sure in Heart’s and Mine’s case we’d be X-blade amalgamations.” Kexez said. “I mean…” I started before showing the cracks on my arms that are still healing. “This is just me doing eighty percent of Cript’s power, and that was after he gave up his suppressors.” I said honestly. “So...I figured out what Nulls are...and Jenny is one of the lazy bastards…” “Huh.” Jericho said. “You know, that is depressing.” “What? That the beings that are supposed to kill Glitches and make sure Cycles happen are lazy bastards? Or that Jenny and...a lot of other family members are apart of it?” I asked curiously. “Both.” Jericho said. “So, what’s on the agenda then?” Kexez asked. “And that leads me to the more...bad news.” I sighed out. “So...apparently what causes the End of a Cycle, is because Grey get’s...too big, and has only been getting faster and faster...as well as Eclipsa getting kidnapped by Scotch after something happened in the Realm of Dreams.” “Shit…” Jericho said. “Yeah...and what’s even worse is that I figured out how to solve the problem in less than a minute upon hearing the problem.” I said. “And that’s using Grey as it’s own storage space, kind of like how certain imprisonment spells work. It uses its ever growing power to fuel it’s ‘containment’, but it’s still apart of Reality and won’t cause stupid shit to happen.” I said honestly. “How some people haven’t figured this out in god knows how long is beyond me when it’s brain dead simple.” “They just don’t care it seems.” Kexez said. “Clearly.” Coco said. “Which is weird because they have said it is an ever growing problem that they believe ‘can’t be stopped’...” I sighed out. “But whatever...oh, actually, before I forget.” I said before turning my arm into a part of my X-blade form. “I’m an X-blade now...and if you didn’t feel it, me and Heart kind of...maybe accidentally broke Reality for a hot minute with me ever so gently waving my arm at a hundred percent of Hearts power.” “Oh I felt that one. Heh, welcome to the club.” Kexez said. “There would be only one way for us to go to a hundred percent, without risk of death… Cript would be pissed though.” Jericho said. “Become Deathless?” I asked. “Like I originally thought we all were because we’re all the same person.” “Yeah.” Jericho said. “There are two beings who can take someone's Death. Truth, and Vincent.” “So we have one option.” Kexez said. “Yeah, only one option.” I said honestly. “I…” I sighed out. “Is it wrong that I’ve thought of becoming Deathless for a while?” “For selfish reasons, yes. But for what we’re up against, it might be mandatory.” Jericho said. “And by ‘selfish reasons’, you mean me wanting to protect my family forever?” I asked honestly. “No, Selfish means for dumb crap, as in soley for the power or the pure immortality.” Jericho said, standing up. “So, shall we get started?” “Those two things are not apart of what I want.” I shook my head. “But…” I sighed out. “Should we really do that? Cript sounded like we shouldn’t do it at all.” “Because of one reason. The long lifespan. True immortality means at some point, you start to forget the important things. Take Lord for an example. When he was the Delete Hunter, he did that for so many years because they killed his wife. All this time later, he doesn’t even remember her name, face, nothing.” “So that’s why he always smelt like a Delete…” I muttered. “But Lord forgot what he was doing because he lost sight of what he was fighting for...me...I would never lose sight of what I care about...never…” I said, bringing a hand up and holding onto a small locket I made to make sure I knew who I was fighting for. “Well, time to put your money where your mouth is.” Jericho said, snapping their fingers as the Human Transmutation circle under me. “Ready?” “It’s not like I have a choice.” I said honestly. “Alright then.” Jericho, placing hands on the circles outlines. The circle activated, and all went white. Well, here I was, the two doors. Mine was decorated by wolves, silhouettes of my weapons. The wolves howling to the moon above them was, funny enough, Kingdom Hearts, a Keyhole in their center. “Well, didn’t expect to see you here. At least not so soon.” Truth said. Turning around they were in my white silhouette body shape. “What brings you back so soon?” “Being Deathless is probably going to be a necessity sadly.” I sighed out. “Even though Cript will hate me for it...just...let me ask, can Deathless kill Deathless?” “Hehe. There is one way for that to happen, how though, I won’t tell; but I will tell you this. if you and Cript fight, you two could tear each other and the whole of creation apart in the fight, and still not die.” “I’m not surprised.” I shrugged. “But I’m pretty sure I’ll learn it and whatever else you’ll give me in exchange for my Death...I mean, besides your amusement because I’m pretty sure you like to see people be tortured by their own decisions.” “No purer form of entertainment. And I doubt you will, but hey, be happy.” They said. I hit the floor suddenly, my insides turned as I felt something getting pulled up from out of me. Soon, following a spit of blood was the small black pearl, my death. It rolled into Truths hand. “You can finally, have answers. Not all of them, but enough.” The door behind me opened, that Eye that reminded me of Void Key opening as those small hand/tendrils reached out and gripped me. “Know this...I will find a way to stop all this madness.” I growled. “And we won’t be needing you ever again.” “Oh? I look forward to seeing you struggle to that goal.” Returning here made my head hurt… like way worse than when I drank that Asguardian ale for the first time. Needless to say, this info and shift was felt by the family. I know a lot more now, including basically finishing a lot of projects I’ve been wanting to work on or finish this whole time. “Well...besides the splitting headache…” I groaned. “I now have finished...a lot of projects and...yeah, that stalemate is going to be long gone and none of us have to step in…” I said while getting up carefully. “Oh yeah...I also threatened Truth...that when I’m done, we won’t need him, or any of that bullshit ever again.” I brought up. Jericho sighed, helping me out of the circle and taking my place in it. “That was dumb. Truth doesn’t see that as a threat,” He kneeled down, putting hands to the circle and activating it. “He sees it as a promise.” There was a bright flash. In just a second, less or so, But I felt that same shift as before, and Jericho was back. He looked about as bad as I felt, and likely looked. “And he’ll expect you to keep it.” “Don’t worry.” I said. “When I say something like that, I mean it.” I said, Jericho seeing the flames of determination in my eyes. “Kexez? Coco? You want to do this as well?” I asked. “You don’t have to…” I said, honestly only having wanted myself to endure this pain for others but knowing that’s just a dumb idea. “I’m in, good luck convincing Heart.” Kexez said. “Okay. Hopefully will make this whole thing easier.” Coco said. “It’s not easy…” I sighed out sadly. “It’s never easy.” I sighed out. “I know you two already said so...and I already know better, but you two don’t have to, you don’t have to bear this burden…” “Like we’d let you two, three including Cript bare it alone.” Kexez said. “Immortality is only a hell if the people you care about are getting left behind.” They said, helping Jericho out and taking place inside the circle. “I know…” I sighed out. “I just...wish it never got to this point...:” “Hey, don’t worry about it.” Kexez said, giving me a thumbs up. “Like I’ve told Heart, I’ve given into our fate, a long time ago.” Giving a nod, Kexez without words told Jericho to activate the circle. Jericho did. A flash. A sense of a shift. And the flash died down. Kexez was back, they looked tired. “Shit, that’s a rush. And I thought escaping Purgatory was a pain in the ass.” “Yeah...becoming Deathless is a bit of a bitch.” I said honestly. “I guess it’s my turn now.” Coco said, helping Kexez out and getting in the center. “Alright.” I nodded. “Hopefully things keep going okay…” "Okay. I'm ready." Coco said. This time I activated the circle. My newfound knowledge on every aspect of Alchemy coming into play immediately. A flash. A shift. The flash ended. Coco was on all fours. She seemed okay, and overall just got hit harder than us. “You okay Coco?” I asked gently while helping her up. "Yeah. Just way more taxing than I expected." “I understand.” I nodded gently. “Hopefully...I won’t get yelled at and shunned because of this…” "Well, this gives us the perfect advantage now." Jericho said. "Only thing to worry about is imprisonment spells." “And those mean nothing when you know every counter spell known in existence.” I said honestly. "True." “So, are we now exempt from ‘losing’ the dungeon?” I asked curiously. “Or are there rules still on it?” "While losing, not really but we can get stuck. Use too much power, the Pain could paralyze us for a bit, not used to the pain that comes with it; or if the enemy is too strong, could get stuck for a while getting 'killed' before we even get a chance to attack." Jericho said. “You do know that will just turn into a battle of attrition that we’ll always win right?” I asked curiously. "Yeah but it will suck before that." “Eh.” I shrugged. “It happens...but we’ll get used to it.” "So, what now?" Coco asked. "Now." Kexez said, shifting an arm into their X-Blade form. Just the arm. "We go break some bones." “This is going to be fun.” I said while cracking my knuckles. Nine and a half days later. Yup…. That's every bone broken. Fuck. Even the healing hurts. “Why must I still feel pain?” I groaned. "Reminder." Jericho said, snapping their own jaw back into place. "Without pain, we also can't feel pleasure. Physical senses dull, emotional ones end up going soon after. Keeps us sane." "At least you all get to go all out." Kexez said, popping their arm back into position. "I have a planets worth of women and children in me." "And I thought Nexus's physicals hurt." Coco said, pulling a blade out from her back. “Well...right now, we’re back and recovering so...that’s at least a plus.” I said while fixing my arm. “And hey, it only took nine and a half days.” "Bright side, I got all the feathers." Coco said. Her challenge now complete she got her rewards. Including that Glock. It looked like an arm mounted cannon. The bullets filled MY palms. And that's without the cases. "Start brewing that tea then." Kexez said. “Let’s hope that Tea is worth it…” I sighed out. There was plenty here to have a small pot with a feather in it. Once it began to boil the feather seemed to melt into the water and it glowed with a dim purple light for a minute. Soon it faded and left behind a pale brown liquid. "Doesn't look as I was expecting." Coco said. “Cause of course it has to look pale and brown…” I sighed out while taking some of the tea. “Let’s hope it actually tastes good…” It didn't. It didn't have much to any flavor actually. Even the taste of water was somehow missing. But the effects were instant. My HP maxed out as my bones healed twice as fast as normal. The pain was still there but they healed so fast it was quick and only lasted a few seconds at most. All in all, once it was done I felt great again. “Ah, that’s better.” I said honestly. “Weirdly it has...no taste.” "How is it even considered a tea then?" Kexez asked. "It's just weird." Coco added. "Well, back to it then. Bit more grinding and we can head for the boss room." “Alright.” I nodded. “Back to grinding.” To be continued...
Nobody starts an Admin GameI wasn't surprised when Cript had me come to their office. Their new form was now at least female looking. While also quite intimidating to anyone who didn't know them. "So… you, Jericho, Coco and Heart's Nobody are like me now?" Cript asked. “Sadly it was more of...necessity than anything.” I sighed out. “But...I’ll get all of our Death’s back, and make sure Existence doesn’t need that fucker again.” I said honestly. “Cause you know me, better threaten a ‘God who Laughs’ to make sure they know their bullshit isn’t needed anymore.” "King… there's a reason I didn't want you to become like me. And that THING is why. King, it isn't like Vincent or the Void Mother, it's the consciousness of the hardware that runs our existence. You can't just make it unneeded." “I can, and I will figure it out.” I said bluntly. “And you’ll help me, cause you want your Death back, and to see that bastard get what he deserves. "I can't King. My death is already gone. I got it back to forge a weapon, remember? When I first thought I killed Vincent?" “Oh yeah…” I sighed out. “I completely forgot about that.” "Besides King… I don't want to die. I can't. I made a promise. A promise that, if no other hero can defeat the evils that will rise up in the future, then I will. And I can't do that if I'm dead now can I?" “Certainly better than going mad right?” I asked, sadly remembering a future where...Cript ended the world. "Lest you forget I tend to break the futures images quite often. Besides, there are means to staving off Madness like Lord has all these years. Sleep, mainly. Be surprised by how short a two million year long nap can feel to an Admin. Explore. Fun thing about infinite realities, always something to see. Have someone to be with. Like Lyra, she also traded her Death away, just so I won't be alone for all eternity. And lastly, most common for Admins, the Admin Game." “Admin Game?” I asked curiously. “Oh, I also found a lead to where Void Key is...and that’s the Admin of Fear...which begs the question on how Void Key didn’t die before I beat that Delete…” "Hmm… Pecator said Void Keys Void is based on a foundation of pure fear. The Admin of Fear must be the next best vessel since his artificial conduit one is now safe from them. Question is which Admin of Fear?" “There’s...more than one?” I asked nervously. “Cause I only know the one lady…” "Two. The lady, Scree, and her dad, the original Admin of Fear. You'd know him as Pennywise." “But...Pennywise was running away shitless from the Delete along with everything else but Scree.” I frowned. “That...doesn’t make much sense.” "He's old. Survived the war. Got hit by some Delete attacks. Power wise he's not there anymore." “But he’s still strong enough to make Void Key his host?” I asked curiously. “Void Key is constructed from Fear, all his hosts likely are in some way or shape related to fear as well, meaning the Admin of Fear, the guy who made it, or the girl who currently embodies it, yeah, they would be more than strong enough.” “Christ…” I sighed out. ”So...I have to murder both Admin’s of Fear or rip Void Key out of them?” “Assuming they are taken already. Their realm has a lot of places to hide. Strong beasts to protect. Is Void Key himself going after them?” “More like he’s already have.” I sighed out. “Cause from Coco’s memories...Void Key has been with Nexus since she was a kid, which was many years before I even got here...which should be impossible because he was locked up in Heart’s Equestria, but then he magically also took over No Name...seriously, that’s some fucking dog shit.” I growled. “Fucking retconned one of the most overpowered weapons in existance actually being out and about for years, and have him doing nothing with all that time? The fuck?” “... No, no that… We don’t know how Void Key is forged, Pecator’s memories on that are still missing somehow. Just, poof, gone, but… what if a No Name Keyblade is a key ingredient? Coco was meant to be his perfect vessel because with it’s void, she could convert a No Name into a Void Key without the other required ingredients.” “I’m pretty sure Void Key stole the Pecator’s memory about how he forged it cause you know, making something more sentient than standard Keyblades is always a fun idea.” I rolled my eyes. “Also, if it’s a No Name, then why hasn’t it, ya know, done anything?” I asked simply. “I said No Name is likely a Key ingredient. They are not made, but… Duplicated. Time traveling to duplicate the original which no one knows how it was made. Most likely becoming a Void Key removes its temporal abilities, which is a good thing. Otherwise we’d be a whole other level of screwed.” “Okay, so let’s step away from the No Name part, and ask why has Void Key not done anything when Void Key has been out and about for as long as Coco remembers, plus however long it’s been running loose beforehand?” I asked. “Why hasn’t it done literally anything then?” “No idea. Fact is we’re blind on them and they may or may not be blind on us. We have no way of knowing until we can somehow push the frontlines into their territory, which when talking soldiers, even with all of us there is almsot tactical genocide. We need an edge of our own. I’ll see if Hollow might be able to help in someway there. Tactics done, you wanted to know about the Admin Games?” “Apparently you missed what I’ve currently done…” I muttered. “But that’s for another time. Right now, Admin Games, what are they?” “Right, well, they’re basically a self imposed RPG. You can alter your form or even life, memories or not and live a life. Rules are simple, if you keep your memories, your new life self has no connection to your powers other than Code, but you can only use Code twice a day and never for anything big, small things only. No memories just powers are kept under lock. Rule two, No one can know who you really are, this also only applies if you have your memories. Telling someone breaks the rules and ends the game. Rule three, when this life's persona dies, game over, and you can’t contact them, at least, you can’t tell them who you are to them.” “And if you win, because of course you can win, can you tell them after?” I asked curiously. “Cause...I have an idea on where to go, and that would have a definite end considering I could stop the fourth game from happening.” I thought out loud, thinking about the place I would like to try the ‘Admin Games’ on. “Sorry, got sidetracked. But is to tell them after I win?” “You win when you die of old age or after a good life.” “And with the win, I can tell them who I really am and all that crap?” I asked. “Cause...you know, the world I’m going to probably isn’t part of the kingdom…” "If you want I guess, also the only way to be born into a family like how Eclipsa was reborn as Twilight's brother. But that requires approval from the Time Walkers." "Okay then...so let's get their approval." I said honestly. "But will this affect my clones?" "Not at all, just the one copies body. I can submit the request. We'll hear back from them yesterday." Cript said. They took out a form papers writing some things down. "so, what world would you like to be reborn on?" “Sly Cooper world.” I said. “Reborn...as Sly’s younger brother…” I said sheepishly. "Heh. Taking a page from Eclipsa then?" Cript asked. “Yes...also, is it possible to be born with that worlds magic? Given the Cooper line already has magical roots and the world is probably teeming with it.” I brought up. "Yes, comes with the territory. Can't access your powers other than what's learned or used in your new life. So, no weapons, no Keyblades, no Nothingness." They said, filling out the form. “Is it wrong that I feel like I’m ripping off of Dressed to Steal?” I asked nervously, remembering reading some very good stories, one of them was with Sly Cooper. "That fanfiction? Been there, fun place, nice kid." Cript said, folding up the paper and slipping it into a small time hole. They then pulled out an envelope from their desk. "This came yesterday.” “Cause when you control time, you can always get something yesterday.” I chuckled. “So what did they say?” "Approved. Just click this and you'll be on your reborn way." Cript said, handing me what looked like a garage door opener. “Weird that it looks like a garage door opener but okay.” I said before clicking the button, ready to start a new adventure with my memories. I wasn't sure what happened, but I know I'm wrapped in a blanket… so sleepy… "Welcome home Kite." A soothing voice spoke. I realized quick I was a baby, so exactly like how Eclipsa went about it. Opening my eyes, the room was bright. I saw her, the never seen before Mom. She was… beautiful. Like Sly and his dad, a shade of light grey and dark blue fur colors. She wore a simple dress, nothing fancy really. "I can't believe it. Two children." "You're telling me." A male voice said… Sly's dad… my dad. "Cooper's rarely ever have two kids. Hope this little guy and Sly get along well." He said, old but clearly fit as any soldier. He brushed my hair a bit. ”Well...I have my memories.” I thought to myself, also glad to finally know Sly’s dad married a racoon...even though I’m pretty sure all the Coopers have a Fox kink. ”Let’s hope things go well enough…” I thought to myself as I felt even more tired...gotta get used to being a baby again... This time I woke up in my little bed. It was dark but looking around I saw the room was a kid's room. I noticed the young 2 year old Sly on the bed across from me. I saw one of his hands was out as he was sleeping as I gently put a hand in Sly’s, having been an only child so...having an older brother felt nice. As I was about to fall asleep again the door opened… Mom, came in. "Daw." She said, picking me up and holding me close. "Looks like someone already seems close to his big brother." She cooked quietly to me, taking me to the kitchen. "Must be getting hungry." She told me. My stomach agreed with her assessment as I started to tear up and whimper at being hungry. "Shhh. It's alright. I'll warm up a bottle." She said, taking out an already in bottle milk from the fridge. She placed me in a high chair as she began heating it up in a pot of water. This let me look around. There were lots of photos of Mom and Dad, a Photo of Sly as a baby, even a photo of Dad's team. Wait, above it was a Photo of Mom… was she a thief too? The two next to her make it look so. ”Okay so two things, one your supposed to be breast feeding an infant so they get proper nutrients lady, second...is she a thief?” I thought to myself, making a baby noise and pointing to the pictures, seemingly interested in their stories. ”But...maybe it’s good milk for infants to grow…” I thought to myself. "Hm? Oh, recognize your momma huh?" She asked with a chuckle. She walked over there, picking the framed photo off the wall. " This is me, and my friends Kaytlin and Snow." Kaytlin was a brown rabbit and Snow was a Deer. "They're also part of my squad on the force." ”Okay so...all Coopers have a Uniform fetish...good to know..” I thought to myself. ”Still might have a thing for fox’s, but I don’t know.” I thought while looking at the pictures and smiling, before I pointed at pictures of dad with an inquisitive baby noise. "Hehe. You like hearing me talk huh?" I couldn’t help but nod and giggle happily...even though I knew they wouldn’t be here for long. Smiling, she grabbed Dad's photo. "This is your father, Conner, and his friends and team, M and Jim. They… have skills for certain jobs that sometimes help mama in hers." I looked at all three, seeing dad smiling with the family cane across his shoulders, Jim McSweeny the Walrus looked a bit more fit than when I saw him in the opening of Honor Among Thieves, and Dr. M the Mandrill didn’t have that weird plug in his head and actually looked a little happier in the photo. I smiled at seeing the two pictures side by side, seeing dad’s gang and mom’s crew together as I looked up to her with starry eyes like I wanted story time...but my stomach again growled wanting food. Mom placed them down, checking the bottle and then giving it to me. It tasted good. "We met on my first day. Heh. A rookie cop and I catch Conner Cooper. Course, he got away, and that began a pretty long game of cat and mouse between us. Was fun sometimes, less so others." ”Oh? That’s interesting.” I thought to myself as I gave her an inquisitive look. "Then, one day we both got in over our heads. Warlord in the south of the Amazon. We got captured and thrown into a stone pit. Barely enough food for the two of us. All we could do was talk, and we ended up really close. We only escaped because his team and my squad joined up and saved us. Your brother Sly was born seven months later." ”Okay so it’s 1986 given he looked about two years old...and that is rather interesting...wait, Coopers are both magical and psionic, how the hell did they get stuck?” I thought to myself. ”But...at least it ended well…” I thought to myself as I smiled warmly. "Your dad and I got married a little while after Sly turned four months. Course, he uses a false name, had to. We were not expecting you though." She rubbed her nose against mine. "You were quite the surprise Kite." I smiled warmly, my eyes full of love for my mother happily. ”Well...at least I’m a good surprise.” I thought to myself, also hoping that there was that ‘no trace’ cooper ability in this world like in Dressed to Steal. ”I mean...that can be a minor tweak with Code I suppose...but not now.” "These days your dad helps me catch the big bads, doing the things a cop can't. It's helpful, and he only takes enough to cover his half of the bills." I smiled warmly, knowing that Coopers will always steal from other thieves and just happy that these two are in a happy relationship. "There's so much your father and I want to teach you two. I just hope you two don't grow up too fast while we do it." I raised my arms up, wanting to hug her and show that no matter what, I’ll always be her little boy. Once I finished the bottle she burped me, then took me back to the crib, tucking myself and Sly back in. "Goodnight my angels." I yawned and cuddled up to my older brother, hoping this life will be okay even with the problems I already knew about. A month has passed since this new life began. Being a baby confined me to baby proofed playpens and cribs. All in all, it wasn’t that bad. I got a lot of Sly’s old baby toys, and even both Mom’s squad and Dad’s team came over to see me. M even made me a toy rattle that he said when I was older he could modify into my own special cane. Of course Mom was leaning towards having me be a cop, but it was up to me, mom and dad agreed. All in all M said it could also swap to a blaster form like mom’s shock gun. Mom’s team knew dad and his team were thieves, but they didn’t care, made each others jobs easier. Jim was borderline Murry. Down to the appetite. Course, he and Kaytlin would compete for who could spoil me more. Either way, I, and by correlation Sly, had a fair sized mountain of toys. Sly and I got along great. Of course, he took after dad a ton. Down to swiping the cookies from mom. Granted I have no teeth yet, so he’d make my milk chocolate for me. ”This is nice…” I thought to myself gently. ”But...I know something bad is going to happen sooner or later…” Today was like many, Dad, being a thief, was actually largely the stay at home type. Since he normally worked nights, which worked out since Mom worked mornings to mid afternoon. M and Jim were both here as Sly was helping me play with those wood block toys. "I'm telling ya pal, your kid Kite there is much smarter than the average infant." M said, wearing a Hawaiian shirt and shorts. "There's this look in his eyes as he understands everything we say." "It's called innocence. Something all babies have." Dad laughed off. "Sure glad he and Sly get along. Me and my brothers never did." Jim added. ”Well...M is a lot more observant than I originally thought.” I thought to myself as I continued to play with my older brother and just having a good time. "So, you going to be ready for tonight's heist?" M asked Dad. "Always." Dad said simply. "What are we looking at so far?" "Usual. Armed guards, cameras, tall walls." "Child's play then." "Wonder if they're talking about the Diamond Heist...cause if memory serves that was his last job." I thought to myself curiously, wondering when certain events happen that would make dad retire and cause M to go...well ape shit. "So what's the target?" Jim asked. "Not what, who." M said. "A Russian noblemen's daughter was taken by Chinese terrorists. He hired us to save her." "Gotta say, Merc work isn't our usual thing, but he's paying good and is offering the location to our biggest target." Dad said. "Clockwork…" M hissed. ”Clockwork!? But...Clockwork isn’t supposed to be a big thing until years later…” I thought to myself worriedly. "About time we get a shot at the metal beak Psychopath." Jim said. "Did this Russian guy give us any info in good faith?" ”Wonder who this person is that is just giving up where Clockwork is?” I muttered, continuing to play with my older brother even if I was lost in thought. "Once that demon is gone I know Kite and Sly can grown-up safe. I won't let them go through what I and all the other Cooper's have had to endure under Clockwerks evil." Dad said, pure determination in his tone and eyes. I looked over at dad and gently raddled the toy M gave me, trying to call him over because I was...honestly worried about him and what he was talking about. "Careful with that Kite-" M said, suddenly my rattle grew an electric bolt shaped like Dad's cane on it. "Darn safety keeps acting up." M said, gently taking it from me and messing with it. I looked at the impromptu Cane and M with wide eyes. ”Dude! You’re giving that sweet thing to an infant!?” I mentally cried out, but look of pure awe at what he was able to do kind of convincing him that I was just an innocent baby racoon who doesn’t know better. “Cool!” Sly clapped his hands happily. "I thought you said that feature was turned off?!" Dad yelped. "It was! The tech is still new, not all the bugs have been worked out yet." M replied, the electric cane now a normal rattle again. "Well, that's what I get for buying electronics off Thieves Net." I couldn’t help myself as I clapped and giggled happily at how cool his present was. "Well he seems to like it." Jim said. "Glad about that. Since Sly is the oldest and is to inherit the family came, I didn't want Kite to feel left out." M replied. "Just make sure my son doesn't taze himself, or Sly… or us." Dad said. ”Dude, if that Cane is able to shoot lightning like Mom’s shock pistol, I will be so happy.” I thought to myself happily, before raising my arms up towards dad to be picked up. Dad grabbed me, then Sly, placing us on his knees. "For us and my family, Clockwerk has to die. Because of that monster Sly and Kite will never know their grandparents. The curse of Clockwerk on this family ends by the months end." ”No...no it won’t…” I thought to myself sadly while I cuddled up to my dad, scared of what the future holds for this family given it might have changed from the base games. One Year Later. Dad's little adventure into Russia and against Clockwerk gave him a sense of relief and calm that meant he was successful, which was both good but strange. ”Okay so...that should be impossible. Clockwork is functionally immortal with the Hate Chip, and Connor, and everyone else doesn’t know that until Sly 2...something’s not right here…” I thought to myself worriedly, but was happy that dad got some relief from the fight. Being a year now, I was physically able to speak a few words. Nothing in a full sentence. Sly and I got a sweet tree house in the backyard. It was here that, given how it was built, Dad set it up as a test. The wall crawling, rope climbing, branch jumping. A child's playground turned into skills training. Granted I can't do what Sly is able to yet, so I mostly just watch him jump across the thing. “Yay!” I clapped happily, seeing my big brother go and do good things around the tree house. "Sly, Kite, your Babysitter is here." Mom called out. Ah yes, our Babysitter. A Tulip Fox, who brings her daughter, a six year old Carmalita Fox, with her while watching the three of us playThis honestly makes too much sense. They're obvious to everyone but each other that they have a crush on each other. I couldn’t help but giggle at how cute the two were acting, even if I was a one year old physically, mentally I could have easily told someone big bro likes Carmalita. "So, what should we play today?" Sly asked. "Cops and robbers." Carmalita declared. This was too weird, honestly. Apparently Carmalita dreams of being a robber, a master thief like the Coopers, who she has no idea we are, and Sly wants to be like Mom, a cop. So the roles here are swapped. ”This is...really weird...especially when Carmalita is the fourth generation of Police Officers and...Sly is supposed to be a master thief…” I thought to myself, wondering how the hell this life is going to work. As Carmalita and Sly got to playing, I got up and headed inside. I saw Dad and M talking. "Come on Conner, one last job and you can take retirement forever." M said. "That's what you said about the last five jobs M. With Clockwerk dead I honestly don't see a reason to keep doing this. Sly wants to be a cop, I say let him. Our family legacy of stealing can be kept alive but on the legal side of the law." "Like any officer will hire a Cooper." "I know, but I want them to choose their dreams, not follow the words of a dusty old book." "At one point that book was your Bible." M stated. "Look, even so there is still your family vault, Generations spanning back to the earliest civilizations in there, all stolen, what about that?" "As far as I'm concerned that vault can be forgotten about." "Conner please, you want to forget that vault, fine, but to truly give freedom for your kids, one last job and you'll have enough cash to wipe the Cooper name from the history books. Set all of us up for life." "... Fine. But only because I swore to never touch a coin in that vault. I promised that to Violet." Violet was mom's name. "What's the job?" "The world's biggest diamond. Was stolen from the team that dug it up, we take it back and make millions in one night." ”Maybe I should have specified which world cause...this is pretty backwards…” I thought to myself. ”But...it is interesting...and even if the old man wants us to be free...then I’m going to continue the Cooper line...the ones that bring criminals down where the law can’t.” I thought to myself, sadly believing I would be going up against my own brother if he fully made it into being a cop but...knowing it’s for the best. It was late at night when I heard it. The door burst open. Mom rushed, gasping. "Conner!" She yelled, pained cries from Dad could be heard. Sly didn't wake up, bro can sleep through a tornado. "What happened?" "It was a trap." M said, tone filled with rage. "That fucking bird is still alive!" "H-how?" "That's what I wanna know." Dad grunted. "I dropped that metallic demon into lava so hot it might as well have been the sun, and he's still alive." "He wasn't alone either." Jim huffed. "Had four others with him. Dunno who they were, but they could fight." ”How!? Sly should be Eight and I should be six before the Fiendish Five became a thing!” I mentally panicked, having snuck out of the room to find out what the pained cries were before Mom burst in. Dad was… really beat up. His leg was bandaged but bleeding, arm and body cut up like crazy. M and Jim didn't look any better. "M… Take this." Dad said, handing him the cane. "Head to the vault, and sell the Crimson Ruby. It's value it equal to or even more than that stupid diamond." "Conner… that was your father's biggest score." M said. "Sell it! We have to vanish before he finds us. I will not let my kids grow up orphans like I did!" Dad yelled. I've never seen him scared, or heard him yell. “We help.” I crawled into the room, shaking my rattle and it turning into that taser Cane again. “I help...no big...but help.” I said, the look of Cooper determination in my eyes. “Big bro help to...no sell.” I pouted, using my Cane to help me stand up strong and proud like a Cooper...only to slip and fall on my butt cutely, kind of both hurting and helping my point. “Heh...just like when you were a kid Connor.” Jim chuckled. “Even got the same determined look you have.” Dad sighed, patting my head and taking my rattle. "One day, you'll understand when you are older Kite… Let's start packing. No doubt they're trying to track us. Meet us at the usual Hideout M, after that, we'll all have to go our separate ways." Three Years Later Daycare sucks. Long story short, they sold the gem and got whole new identities for us all. Even mom. While we are still called Sly and Kite, our new "legal" names are Billy and Franky. I hate it, so everyone mostly calls me Kite. That's my actual name after all. Mom got a job as another police officer thanks to some old favors, and dad works as a locksmith. Fitting. I haven't seen M or Jim since that night though. And living in London compared to France sucks. At least Sly can make friends here, and by friends I mean enemies. ”God...everything’s wrong.” I thought to myself while thinking about how this version just kind of went to hell in a handbasket way too soon, but...with my growing magical powers I got two years ago it helped a lot to learning new things. “This is wrong…” I muttered to myself, wondering how Murray and Bentley were considering we were long gone from France...even though we’re still two years behind the first game. “I miss France…” I sighed out, finally having gotten past the rattle as I twirled my Thunder Cane between my fingers. "Franky, your mom is here." The daycare lady said, walking me to the front and bringing me to mom. "Hi sweetie. How was today?" She asked me lovingly. “It was fine.” I said, mom seeing the same expression I’ve had before when I was upset about several things. "Awh. Well, it's gonna be better. Guess what came in the mail today." She said, appearing from her purse and in her hands were four Library cards. The London Library was massive. "And we're going right now." No matter the life, I'll always love books. “Yay.” I said happily, but then got a little sidetracked in thought. “When are me and big brother gonna read Dad’s book?” I asked, having seen dad reading the Thievius Racoonus several times before but wasn’t sure if I should try and ‘borrow’ it. “Or is it still too early?” I asked, mom knowing full well what book I was talking about. "Oh sweetie. You'll have to ask your father on that one." She said, giving me a kiss on the forehead as she took me to the car. Sly and dad were already in there. Since moving here Sly picked up gaming. Pokemon was a thing here which was surprising because it’s 1992 but just replace the human characters with the anthro animals we all are. He got Blue and I got Yellow version. Once at the library Mom and Dad took us to the kids books area while Dad went and browsed elsewhere. Mom nabbed a book from a shelf before we got here. "We'll be here til six, alright? So be respectful and quiet in the library you two." Mom said as she sat at a desk. "I'll be right here and try and stay where I can quickly see you." "Yes Mom." Sly said, nodding, heading off to find a book. “Yes mom.” I nodded. “But I need to ask dad something first.” I said while scurrying off to find dad before he probably disappeared in the library. Rushing back through the library, I couldn't see Dad around, not until I looked up. Dad was in the second story and… hey, is that… M and Jim? In the worst disguises ever. They were heading off. I'll need to catch up fast. I huffed, before seeing the blue sparkles only a Cooper can see on several places, most of it just climbing and swinging. ”Let’s hope I can get to him quickly…” I muttered, using my natural born acrobatic skills to climb swiftly to the second floor, and thankfully my Thunder Cane had an off switch to it’s ‘electric’ properties so I didn’t accidentally taser someone or do something bad to electronics. ”Thank god for the cooper abilities.’ I thought to myself, not really needing to use any of my magic to help boost me up as I continued up towards Dad and his gang before it was too late. Once I was here, I hid on top of a bookshelf next to them. "Thanks for meeting us." Jim said. "It's been a long time, but my gut tells me this isn't a friendly meeting." Dad said. "Sadly." M said, placing an envelope on the table. "This arrived at your old house." The envelope was blank, dad looking on the front and back before taking out what was inside… inside was a chrome feather. "What… what happened to the people who are living there now?" "Dead. House went up in smoke but coroner's report says their flesh and bones were broken and shredded by metal matching this feather. Looks like Clockwerk was angry it wasn't you there." ”Okay, to be honest I’m pretty sure the other four are now scared shitless of Clockwork...cause besides the frog, Muggshot, Mz. Ruby and Panda King are all good people deep down…” I thought to myself, not liking this more and more. ”God...what about Carmalita? I hope she’s alright, Sly would be devastated if she was hurt…” I started to wonder what spurred on this time frame jump from the original games to now, cause even if this world was different this seemed off. "Thankfully our mutual friend who got you these new identities left a dead end and cold trail. Shouldn't have any problems." Jim said. "Shouldn't and won't are different things. What's the part you two aren't telling me?" Dad asked. "That, sadly, is that we identified these people who are working with Clockwerk. It's not good." M said. ”Um...if it was just the Fiendish Five...they wouldn’t have said that.” I thought to myself worriedly, wondering what the hell is going on with this world. “First up is Sir Raleigh the frog. Rich playboy turn sea piracy. Got bored of luxury and went over to grand sea piracy. Has a nak for building complex and advanced machines. Second is Mugshot. Runt of his families litter, grew up watching too many gangster movies, literally worked out til he was built enough to throw a truck. Pure muscle strong enough to even, as we saw, badly harm Jim here. Then there is Mz Ruby, when it comes to dark magics and everything affiliated with it, she knows everything. No one else on earth is like her, such an impossible talent for the dark arts has never been seen before. Then, Panda King. Poor born kid grew up to make fireworks for the nobles, they denied him entry because of his ragged clothes. Took revenge on them, weaponizing his fireworks and developing Flame-Fu, heavily matting the fur on his hands with gunpowder and igniting it, and fighting with the fire.” “So an explosives expert/Pyro, Witch Doctor suprime, Mad Scientist, and self made gangster.” Dad summarized. "So far that's the fiendish five...hopefully they still have a good heart in them or else something bad might happen." I thought to myself worriedly. "We do know that someone is funding Clockwerk and this Fiendish Five he's founded, who though we haven't been able to find out." Jim added. "So, that just leaves the worst news then?" Dad asked. "It seems the Five are buying up property and business for some reason. From Ireland to Egypt. Mass evictions of residential areas… including yours." Dad placed a hand to his eyes. "So, trying to weed us out?" ”Okay, something most definitely is going wrong.” I thought to myself. ”God...wish I had my Assistant so I could try and get at least some more info than what I’ve heard from them…” I thought to myself bitterly, hating how little I know about the current situation. ”Damn it, if they own Kane Island then it’ll be a fucking nightmare to get there...not to mention what other crap the games forgot to show.” I mentally grumbled, hating how much can, and already has, gone wrong here. "So what's the plan?" M asked. "I don't have one." Dad sighed. "He doesn't know where we are, explaining the massive property buyouts. So that's good. Anyplace not in their reach?" "He seems to be targeting large cities and several rural towns. I'd say let's get him but last time we barely escaped." Jim sighed. "I do have one place though." Dad gave Him a curious look. "My grandpa owned a cabin deep in the Colbert forest back in France, place is well hidden, built inside a cave." "We'd basically be off the grid, but I can't do that to the kids or Violet." "Not entirely. It's in the address books, so your kids can still go to school and Violet can still work, just hope they don't mind the five Mile Walk to the road." "And we don't have any other options?" Dad asked M. "The only truly safe place would be the island of your family wealth, but that's no life for your kids on a deserted island." M said sadly. ”Okay first up, I wouldn’t mind going off to Kane Island to see how it was before M got a hold of it...and secondly it is the safest place on this planet at the moment.” I thought to myself bitterly. ”There has to be a way…” "At least in the woods, it will be easy to lose people who might be following." Dad sighed. "How much is left after the Ruby was sold?" "Ten million." M stated. "Okay. Violet will be mad, but she knows how bad Clockwerk is. I just hope Sly and Kite won't be too upset. Sly made a few friends, and Kite just got his Library card for here." ”Cause of course we’re going to move immediately…” I thought to myself bitterly. ”We just got settled...damn it...what do I do…” I thought to myself. ”Also...wouldn’t those three have noticed I’m here, or mom noticed I disappeared?” I thought to myself curiously. "Maybe not just so soon." M brought up. "If you leave now, it will be easier for them to track you. If you wait for them to buy the land and banks and evict you along with the rest, that's tens of thousands of files to sort through and people to get lost in, many I imagine will travel everywhere, France included." "Huh… good point, waiting it out and hiding among the uplifted crowd will be the safest bet, and gives us a year or so still to be here and prepare." Dad thought. "Good. Gonna clean up the old place anyhow." Jim said. ”Well...at least we don’t have to move now…” I thought to myself. "Alright. In the meantime… I guess it's time to teach Sly and Kite a few tricks from the Thievius Raccoonus." Dad said. "Even Violet." ”Learn a few tricks...and then I take the book and read through the damn thing too many times cause...well that’s just me.” I thought to myself. ”Let’s hope this change in events isn’t going to lead to even bigger problems…” I thought worriedly. Two Years Later This cabin is cool. Roomy, and set up for sneaking already. Dad trained Sly and I to rope climb properly, wall sneak, and vent crawl without making noise. Climbing all the trees was fun and the walks to school and back helped us become great runners. Dad always have us visual lessons, and hid that book pretty damn well. I know where it is, but not how to get into the small wall safe. Sly and I were reading, mom making dinner and dad flipping through a crossword puzzle book. Dad's ear twitched, and he jumped up. "Conner?" Mom asked. Dad quickly peeked out the blinds of the window, backing up as he almost threw Sly and I into the closet. "No matter what happens, Don't make a sound. Like I taught you." He said, closing the closet door as the sound of the front door breaking echoed to us. ”Oh no…” I thought to myself as this was the day...and I couldn’t do a damn thing about it. Please...please let at least some of the Fiendish Five be okay people…” I mentally prayed as I looked through a crack in the doorway to know what will truly happen. I saw Mz Ruby, Panda King and Mugshots backs, before Sly pulled me in, hugging me tightly. "You have been a hard racoon to find Conner Cooper." The mechanical, psychotic voice of Clockwerk spoke, Sly and I actually got chills from it. "How the fuck are you alive!? I saw you fall into that lava! You should be fucking scrap metal!" Dad yelled, mom's whimpered crying could be heard but not much else. "Hatred isn't so easily destroyed. You and your team put up a good fight, nearly had me, so when I crawled out of that volcano, I knew the key to ending your lineage, was the same teamwork you and so many others of your ancestors practiced and perfected.“ ”What the hell…” I thought to myself worriedly, thinking that all three of them with their backs towards us either meant they didn’t know we were here or that they were covering for us. “I...think those three are...protecting us…” I softly whispered to Sly, making sure it was just between us. “Shh.” Shy shushed me. “Leave her alone Clockwerk! She’s innocent in this!” Dad yelled again. “Now, we both know I can’t do that. After all, this brood of yours could be carrying your child, and we both know-” There was a moment where mom was screaming, a sickening, gut twisting audible metallic snap accompanied by a grotesque crunch and tear nose as moms screaming stopped suddenly. “I can’t have that now can I?” “I’LL KILL YOU!!!” Dad screamed. “Like your father yelled, before I ate him too. At least you can see your brood and kin again soon Cooper.” Before Anything else happened, there was a puff of some kind of powder in Sly and I’s faces. A sudden heavy sleepiness came over us, and we blacked out. “Uh...what...happened?” I groaned, waking up after someone shoved sleeping power into mine and my brothers face. “Brother?” I muttered, opening my eyes groggily as I tried to find Sly and my Cane. Once my eyes were opened wide, I realized… This wasn’t the cabin. This wasn’t home. We were in a room filled with lots of other kids, beds all lined in rows from wall to wall. A small trunk at the beds end and on mine, and Sly’s, who was next to me, were small bags. Memories of… of… Clockwerk... “Lord…” I muttered while getting out of the bed and looking through our stuff. “Wait...did dad give Sly his Cane?” I muttered to myself, trying to remember if dad pushed us into the room with the family cane. I looked over at Sly, thankfully the family cane was on his bed next to them. He was still out cold. I opened my bag, finding my rattle/cane, a few toys, clothes, and my old pop up book of Fiddler on the Roof. “God...where are we?” I wondered, grabbing my cane which was in rattle form, shaking it once and turning it into my Thunder Cane as I decided to explore the place, hoping to find an adult to find out where me and Sly were. As I was walking to the door, I jumped at the loudest snore in history. Looking at the source was a small, well, young, hippo. Murry. A quick glance showed me Bently, whose bed was a mess of scrapped electronics and such. Good, right place at least. ”Alright...so far things are kind of back to normal…” I thought to myself. ”So...we’re at the orphanage...tomorrow I should at least try to get Sly to hang out with Bentley and Murray to start the gang...hopefully it’ll work.” I thought to myself while looking around the place carefully, not wanting to wake the other kids up. Exiting the room, the hall was fairly long. The other end seemed to lead to a large makeshift classroom, and the downstairs area had a large kitchen, play area, and a small library, but all the books I’ve read already read. The backyard held a small playground, and all around was a large stone wall with metal spikes at the top. Outside was two security guard rent-a-cops walking around. Must be for the night shift. ”Certainly is more...beefed up than the flashback Sly had in game…” I thought to myself while slipping back into the shadows, back to the bedrooms. ”Okay...so step one, get Sly, Murray and Bentley to become good friends, step two, try and form the Cooper Gang even if Sly might still want to be a cop...hopefully Carmalita is still okay.” I thought to myself, even when we moved back to France two years ago we haven’t seen hide nor hair of the fox. I crawled back into bed, knowing I have to keep on track with this worlds history. Right? “So, how goes it?” I know I am dreaming, I’m in a steam room in my normal body, a towel that actually covers me on and Cript across from me in this small steam room. Also wrapped in a towel. “So everything’s...kind of gone to shit.” I said nervously. “As far as I know events are happening very quickly and differently from the games, more so than what would normally happen…” I sighed out. “But the worst thing...I mean, hearing my parents get murdered and then getting knocked out by Mz. Ruby before I could hear them get eaten...someone’s funding Clockwerk’s schemes...and god only knows who else.” “What did you expect?” Cript asked, sitting up, clapping their hands and showing a holo river of sorts. “Each worlds timeline flows in either chaotic or steady ways, but it’s typically unchanged. The Admin Game, by inserting yourself so close to a primary being of said world.” There was a small rock placed in the holo river, altering the water. “You change how time is flowing and the chain of events, solely by being born when you should never have existed on that world.” Cript said, the holo image poofing away. “This world and any others you plan on going to in this way won’t ever go how you know them as because you do what you’re doing now.” “I mean, at least the time of events were happening correctly technically.” I said honestly. “But seriously, M and McSweeny told dad about how someone was funding Clockwerk and just buying places out...mind looking into that? Cause for some reason I...have a bad feeling someone outside it interfering.” “Can’t. At this point in time I’m still in training at the temple that raised me, the only reason we are talking here is because time in the sleeping worlds operates with no effect on the physical. And I am not time traveling again. Been there, it sucked, created a paradox on some stuff and it’s mainly why I was only a god of time for less than a year.” “Wait...I went that far back in time?” I blinked in surprise. “Yup. Physically, you are also still a toddler on the earth in your God’s head.” “Huh...that’s...interesting.” I said honestly. “So I suppose that’s why you said ‘don’t tell people who you are’? Cause you technically don’t exist yet?” “One reason. The other reason is that it ends the game, and the time walkers WILL kill this persona you’ve been reborn as. Once you turn thirty is when the YOU from God’s head pops into this reality, then short wait later you can have won the Admin game.” “Ah.” I nodded. “Good to know...so when I win the Admin Games...does that version of me still exist?” I asked curiously. “Cause...even though that persona of me is currently trying not to have a breakdown cause parents are dead...again…” I sighed out, having now experienced my parents dying a second time. “Well, that’s where things get interesting.” Cript said. “You actually get a choice here in whether you absorb this persona’s memories and body back into, well, you, or you let them keep their body and such, even identity and they can join our family. Perks of our unique marriage.” “And...that would involve Sly and whoever else joins in the ‘Cooper Gang’?” I asked, Cript seeing the same ‘I don’t want to leave family behind’ look in my eyes like always, even if it wasn’t from a Den Mother’s perspective. “Only if they agree to be in this family, as weird as that seems…” Cript said. “Also, some rules on what is allowed and isn’t to be reborn as.” “And what would those be?” I asked curiously. “For starters, you can’t be reborn as your own sibling, or relative, cousin, uncle, aunt, etc. This also counts towards people you know, like Heart, Eclipsa, myself and such.” “Sounds simple enough.” I said honestly. “Would be weird to be reborn as your own sister wait…” I trailed off as the fact me and Eclipsa were technically sisters through Marcy and Diane was still a thing. “Exactly. Confusing as all hell.” Cript said. “Secondly, you can’t use a bypass, say, the never existing child of your neighbor or something and leave messages and such for yourself in the future, also no stock market crap, that’s typically how world wars on many worlds have started because of Admins not following simple time travel rules.” “Sounds simple enough.” I nodded. “Any other rules?” “Yes. You can ask to be reborn as yourself to relive your childhood. When doing this there are of course many things you can change about your history but also a lot you can’t. In this case, your parents dying, choosing Nothingness as your pick from God, and so on.” “Fine fine.” I nodded. “Good to know that...I still have to make sure I live through that crap if I want a doover…” “Sadly. And lastly, if you do take the do over, you have to play out your progress and such in the same manner. Every victory and loss.” “Yes, let me repeat sleeping in a test tube on Rapture for thirty years because Kexez was a prick…” I grumbled. “It sucks but it’s the Time Walkers rules. That aside there is one interesting thing of note about the Admin game now that the Time Walkers oversee it. A time walker watches over you, making sure you don’t screw things up. That being said, they can’t help you, like with information and such, but there are a few things they can do.” “Like making sure outside interference isn’t a thing?” I asked, having a feeling Nexus could be involved in this crap as well. “No, more like can, in this case, sell items and you buy them from them. Basically a personal merchant. But they can also hold a few things for you.” “Okay cool.” I nodded. “Don’t really expect Thief Net to have certain things I would need...but uh...why do I have a feeling the Admin Games is a perfect excuse for the Time Walkers to let Heroes do their work while their too busy with paperwork?” “Fun fact about that. While yes it’s a good excuse, since the Time Walkers work on a bureaucracy system, as you saw, when we mailed in the response it was back the day before we even filled it out, but in their offices, it would have taken half a day. However, it’s not easy for them as Time Walkers themselves are paradoxes. So they can have millions of members, but if those millions are all time remnants of the same person, only one can be in the timelines at, well, a time.” “Gee, would you look at the time.” I joked. “But yeah that sounds really interesting...but when you brought up reliving a life, certain events would still happen, does that mean if you went to a game world the events of the game would still take place? Or would it be different because of time shenanigans?” “Depends. Things like Sly’s, and now yours, parents dying, will always happen, but things like, say, forming the cooper gang with Murry and Bently, can have never happened. Remember, originally Sly was alone when he went to that orphanage, but now he has you, and likely won’t socialize with the others since he still has family, you.” “Unless I do something to make sure those events still happen.” I brought up. “Cause even if we have each other...just the two of us still ain’t enough…” I sighed out. “We need Murray and Bentley...the Cooper Gang still needs to be a thing cause that’s a key piece in everything else.” “Exactly. These are things you can take control and alter or prevent the events from happening. This includes a certain turtle’s legs getting crushed.” “Or a certain mouse from just handing time travel to a skunk cause of...dumb reasons.” I said honestly. “Actually that has to happen.” “But it can be less ‘Penelope and Bentley losing each other forever’ right?” I asked nervously. “Like...I talk to Penelope, and she’ll realise she did a dumb...and try to fix it even though it’s too late?” “Yes but AFTER she’s beaten as the black knight. Also, you are allowed to have relationships in this life.” “Damn…” I sighed out. “But...now I need to double check marriage laws in that world so I don’t accidentally do a dumb...too used to polygamy right now.” I said sheepishly. “Alright...so first, I’m going to need to help Sly get into the family business of thieving...hopefully Carmalita is okay cause seriously, those two need to date I mean god. Can they both be anymore clueless?” I complained. “Normal people, huh?” Cript asked with a laugh. “So, also to call the Time Walker watching over you is simple. Just find a pocket watch and rotate the hands to read either midnight or noon.” “Sounds simple enough.” I nodded. “This is gonna be a nightmare...especially if I can guess who’s been funding Clockwerk…” “Well, just remember if you screw up exponentially, it’s permanent.” “I mean...I’m not going to die any time soon so…” I joked. “That aside, there’s still some hours before you wake up. And I can’t leave until you do… what are we gonna do?” “The same thing we do every night Cript.” I said. “Wait...we don’t take over worlds, I’m using that reference wrong darn it.” Cript just laughed. “You know, out of everyone, we haven’t really bonded that much, and given our… unique relationships that’s probably not a good thing.” “We really should get to know each other more.” I said honestly. “Considering the writers derped and an entire chapter of me getting to know your backstory was never published...we need to fix that.” “What’s left to tell? I was born an experiment of Nexus, apparently one of their strongest, mom took me to a safe place to hide me from Vincent, who killed her for it, raised by monks, left to travel for a year, in that year met Autumn and the others, went back home, best friend was turned evil by Nexus, tortured me for another year, stole my death away, escaped that after unwillingly murdering an entire planet, founded Freak inc. Got stuck on a Equestria world for another year, in that time lost memories and fell in love with Lyra, everything between that and meeting you all can be summarized as fight, fight, a boring company meeting, fight, fight, fight, and oh yeah, fight.” “I know I know.” I said honestly. “But...we really need to bond ya know?” “Yeah. Well, I guess this can count.” Cript said, walking over next to me and resting themselves against me. “Heh, even wet your fur is still soft.” “I always make sure my fur is soft.” I said warmly. “It’s one of my best parts.” “Heh. So then, got time to kill, so how about some simple questions. Which of your thirteen weapons are you most partial too?” “I’m not a partial person.” I said honestly. “I make sure to use all my weapons, especially when I need to be diverse against my opponents.” I said honestly. “Your use time table begs to differ.” Cript said, snapping their fingers as a display of how many times and how long I’ve used each of my weapons popped up. Lunatic held crown. “I mean...is it ironic if I mostly used the weapon Moon themed when...I’m a Wolf?” I asked sheepishly. “Nah. Just a little funny I guess.” Cript chuckled. “My most used weapon is between Biohazards Curse and some Little Shot pistols I keep on quick summon.” “Sounds about right.” I nodded. “So...what’s your favorite hobby?” “Second to sex is honestly just going through books and such, reading about some bullshit the characters are going through, scan the multiverse for the exact world going through what I’m reading on the page, then fixing it. Same for movies, anime, ect.” “Yeah, that sounds about right.” I nodded. “I would have loved to do that but...well I got stupid busy in life.” “Heh, sounds about right. So, what’s the best pizza you’ve ever had?” “When you’ve had so many...it’s hard to say which one’s the best.” I said sheepishly. “Mine would be a Clatico Pizza. It’s this Mirror Reality pizza that has thick crust, heavy on sauce, little cheese but heavy on the toppings.” “Sounds delicious.” I chuckled. “Hmm...favorite fight you’ve been apart of?” “One on one fight against Superman. Yeah I broke his whole arm on complete accident.” Critp laughed. “Congrats, you injured one of the most overpowered characters in fictional history cause Superman is...pretty dumb power consistancy wise.” I pointed out. “Heck yeah. Then again so are we.” Cript gave a sigh. “Favorite song?” “Okay just going to point out, I never have a favorite. I’m just one of those people that can’t choose.” I sighed out. “But my most listened to...don’t know why but it’s Colossus from BlueFoxMusic...cause it’s just good.” “Mine always changed. Lately it’s Let it Burn by Citizen Soldier.” Cript said. “What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever seen?” “I mean...besides that bastard I killed to become an Admin?” I asked. “I said weird, not gross. For example. The weirdest thing I’ve seen, Lyra, Lord and I all went to the Fire Elemental realm mainly to explore. We find out everyone there lives in underground cities. We find one of these doors and opening them, we were greeted by the entire city, cleaning up and singing Winter Wrap Up in perfect harmony. Didn’t even notice we were there until they finished.” “The weirdest thing for me then…” I started. “Would have been...oh god the weirdest thing I’ve seen, which would be one of my ‘alternate universe’ dreams cause those are a thing and either fun or terrifying...would have been...oh god this is just weird and kind of funny.” I chuckled. “Basically the Foretellers, still need to check up on them, decided to step in and demand that we finish this war with a musical...yes a musical, and while everyone looked at them like they were crazy, they kept it up till we were all singing and dancing like we were on some old timey vaudeville act, funniest part was Void Mother, Mother, You, Belief, Nothingness Belief and Jericho all doing the CanCan dance and wearing the proper dance outfits. It was so weird I just...woke up laughing.” “That is just priceless.” Cript laughed. “So, you sure got used to being both genders. Let me guess, the tits helped?” “A bit yes...me being Marcy also helped I suppose.” I shrugged. “But seriously, with how I look...I’m surprised I wasn’t busy groping myself like mad...like my dad was when he first became this if memory serves.” “Heh. Yeah I remember. Pretty sure at this point God tier beings and up become both genders automatically. So, how’s the Heroes Tomb been going?” “Me, Coco, Kexez and Jericho are all just grinding mobs at the moment, doing some dungeon challenges as well for better loot cause when you already have more items than you could ever need in life, why not get more?” “You know you can sell them, or give them as prizes if you build your own Colosseum Dungeon. Know about that? Actually, do you even know about the other Dungeon types?” Cript asked me. “Do you think I know a lot of things?” I asked. “Even if I research and look around like mad, there’s still a lot of things I don’t know about.” “Heh, fair enough. Well there’s several types. The most common, like the Heroes Tomb, tower Dungeons. These go either under ground or to the sky and up, but can also go both down and up, it all depends on random spawn factors. Colosseum Dungeons, while they do spawn naturally, they can be made and are exactly as you’d think. The owner can set the thing up for anything from sports to fights and even spawn in enemies like Heartless or Shadows Creatures, ect, depending on how popular their dungeon is. Arena Dungeons are a whole other ballpark. Run into what looks like a fucking wrecked space shit the size of a moon or a long fucked city over run by SHadows, Zombies, demons and other, that’s an Arena Dungeon. There are no level limits, meaning the first enemy you run into could be easy or one shot you. These also have the best look and highest loot chances out of all other dungeons, but are also the most riskey. Lastly I should bring up isn’t exactly a dungeon but also has threats. Space. Space between worlds discovered and not can and do spawn in dungeons of all types. This makes just getting to a new world hard at times, which is why teleporters are oh so useful to avoid that nastiness. You know, once someone gets to a new world and sets it up.” “Well then...that’s cool.” I said honestly. “Quite a bit of stuff to think about…” “If it keeps people from waging war against one another for the really stupid crap like colors, race and religion, then it can be hentai tenticals from space for all I care.” Cript sighed. “Seen the people of so many worlds just kills each other, for stupid reasons. I founded Freak Inc to stop real monsters, not wars of people against people.” “Well...that’s just what happens.” I said honestly. “That’s kind of why there’s an entire planet filled with those special brand of assholes that are too busy killing each other...or have probably killed each other already I don’t remember.” I said, remembering the four ‘Purity’ groups that tried to kill so many families. “Purity groups?” “Yes...I remember Minotaurs and Ponies...but I don’t remember the other two, they all claimed their race was superior on their own and disowned anyone who would dare marry some other race...but thankfully we got Heart’s parents on our side.” “Each world has them to some degree. For mine, they didn't like aliens, anyone with magic, hell not even the miracle medicines I created, saving thousands, to them is was all evil. They had two types, one was some modern day amish group that isolated themselves, not even bothering with the rest of the world, the other went full on terrorist. You can imagine how that went for them.” Cript sighed. “How anyone can willingly teach their young that ignorance and hatred is beyond me.” “Honestly...no idea.” I said simply. “Even if I were to try and find justifications...it all falls flat when you think about it.” “Yeah. Okay, how about… favorite… candy?” “Wow, we are running low on questions.” I said honestly. “But Skittles...even though I like candy as much as the next five year old, Skittles is my favorite.” “Heh. Same. I’m more towards salty or tangy candies than sweet. Favorite movie?” “Oh boy…so many good movies…” I groaned. “Top five in no particular order, Avengers Endgame, Robin Hood: Men in Tights, The Lego Movie, Kung Fu Hustle and Hot Fuzz.” I said honestly. “For me, Surf Ninjas, ZombieLand, Also Endgame, and The Never Ending Story.” “ZombieLand is a good movie, heard it got a sequel, The Never Ending Story is also nice and...I think I’ve heard of Surf Ninja’s but don’t remember if I watched it or not.” “It’s one of those older cheese ninja movies that despite the title, has little to no actual surf. Still a funny movie though.” Cript said, giving a content sigh. “Saw it at the temple. Didn’t grow up completely without tech.” “Wouldn’t want to be completely amish now would you?” I joked. “Heh. So… what do you think we should do to push the front lines? I don’t want to bring up office talk but I’m running out of topics.” “I can think of a lot of ways.” I said honestly. “With how my research onto those pure crystals went from a few years to a few months because of...Truth.” I sighed out. “Well that’ll jump start things...plus how many other things I’ve gotten in the works that’ll push the front lines in our favor.” I said simply. “Plus, the moment anyone of us takes a step out there...well we’re going to be winning that fight rather quickly.” “The moment we do though, Vincent and the others start actually fighting. In short, we’ll need all the help we can get. I have an idea but it’s crazy and quite out there.” “I mean, I’ve been pulling timelines from Nothingness to help out in our cause, but what’s your idea?’ I asked curiously. “Your Second Chance Keyblade. I can modify it to purge only those of evil back into infancy. After that, we take them into the family, raise them right. Some of these worlds have true Monsters King, raising them into heroes, then, as much as I might not want to, pull in my one favor with the Time Walkers to have time. Time to train all of creation into fighters.” “Well...that is an interesting idea.” I said honestly. “Kind of what we’re doing in the Heroes Tomb honestly.” “Which reminds me, mind swallowing Kexez so we can pull them into the bedroom and get all those babies and wives here, then once their starfish clones and such are made, back down and out but back in the tomb. Will make it easier for them to fight.” “That is true, I’ll ask them.” I said honestly, relaying the message all the way to Kexez. “That ability is so helpful huh?” “So very helpful.” I nodded in agreement. “Oh...the new skill trees are also very helpful.” “I was proud of that when making it. Works better than just the long ass list, this way they are better grouped and ranked as you grow the tree.” “Yeah, keep’s it clean and organized.” I said honestly. Kexez finally slid down in and out my other clones mouths. The long ass noodle took a few minutes to go down and out. Cript and I kept talking for a long time. This steam room was nice, warm and comfy. "This is nice." I said warmly. “Can never go wrong with a steam room.” Cript sighed. “One of the many things swapping genders has taught me.” "I can agree to that." I nodded. "But...I probably have to head back soon...got a lot of work to do and...ten years to do it all." “Heh. Enjoy it, it’s not just some mission or anything, this IS your life now also King, remember to enjoy the fun times, and mourn the bad ones." "I will...just gonna be stealing a whole lot more." I chuckled. "Or 'reclaiming lost goods' as some people say." “EIther way, those skills will be useful. So, same time tomorrow night?” Cript asked me. "Same time tomorrow." I said, nuzzling Cript warmly. To be continued...
Nobody continues the gamesThe next morning Sly and I were informed about what happened to our parents, but no details at all were given to us. Breakfast was quiet, at least Sly was. The room itself was loud and busy with the other boys in the orphanage going about their morning. It was then I noticed a certain Pink Hippo walking back for… Forths was it now? ”Well...might as well start this off…” I thought to myself. I got up, telling Sly I was gonna walk around as I followed the Pink Hippo. “I swear kid, you got a never ending appetite.” I heard the lady giving out the food say as she gave Murray another plate full. “Heh, just a big eater is all.” Murray replied, happily taking the plate. “As long as it isn’t going to waste.” She said. Murray was walking back to his table, and I took this moment to say hi. “Hello.” I said politely. “Hey.” He said, looking at me. “Hey, you’re the new kid, and your brother right?” He asked. “Yep, the names Kite.” I said politely, not wanting to reveal my last name in public. “And your...Murray correct?” “Yeah...How’d you know that?” “I hear plenty of names, and your’s is apart of them...mostly because some kids say you can out eat anyone.” “Heh, guilty as charged. So, if it’s not too hard to talk about.. How’d you and your brother end up here?” I looked down sadly. “It’s...a long story...and I don’t want to talk about it yet…” I sighed out sadly. “So...not to bring down the mood, how have you been?” I asked honestly. “Good. Fat. The usual.” They shrugged. “Not fat, just well built.” I corrected. “But I’m glad your doing well.” “Heh, Please. I know I’m fat, I’m a hippo, if I wasn’t fat it would be a health problem. So Kite, how’s your brother holding up?” Murry asked, looking passed me. Sly was barely eating, just sitting there mostly. “He’s…” I sighed out, Murray seeing my slightly struggle to keep my emotions in check. “He’s taking it hard...um...want to meet him? And...do you know anyone else here that...I could talk to?” I asked, not wanting to sound imposing but just want friends. “Lots, but you look like a bookworm, right?” “I didn’t know books had worms.” I joked. “Sorry for bad joke, but I do enjoy a good book from time to time.” “Heh, knew it. Then you’ll wanna talk to Bently over there, the turtle with the huge glasses. Shy type but helps me out on the school work and I keep the Rat Group off his back.” Looking across the lunch table, the Rat Group only had one Rat kid, the rest were a labrador pup, a skunk, and a porcupine. “They’re not nice kids. I hear their parents dropped them off here because they were too much for them. Thankfully the Rat, Pepper, has a bizarre fear of large stomachs.” Murray said, slapping their large gut. I chuckled warmly. “Alright. I’ll go meet with Bentley...and I know it’s a little weird, but can you say hi to my big brother? He...needs someone while I’m not by his side.” “I will, but later. I’ve seen that look on a few of the kids here. It’s best to give him a day or two beforehand. I doubt he’d even talk to me if I did right now.” With that, Murray headed to their seat. They might be right, Mentally, I’m much older, for reasons, but Sly… Sly is still just eight, physically and mentally. He’ll need time, and help. I can give the help while the time part takes care of itself… speaking of, gotta find a pocket watch somewhere. ”Well...first up, better meet Bentley.” I thought to myself as I started heading towards Bentley carefully, not wanting to spook the turtle. As I walked up to them, I noticed Bently was looking between a book and a notebook stuffed with notecards, sticky notes, and other papers. “Hello?” I asked politely in such a way that wouldn’t spook the turtle in the middle of his work like when I said something to Twilight when she was in ‘research mode’. “Huh?” Bently said, turning and looking at me. “Oh, hi there. You’re the new kid, the one that came with his brother right?” “Yep, the names Kite. Murray told me your name is Bentley correct?” I asked, before looking over the notes quickly. “Oh, yeah. I help him with school work and he keeps the Rat Gang off my back. Most of the time Murry is quite timid, but he has his brave moments, and against Pepper that’s a life saver for me. I swear that rat has a vendetta against me… I mean a Grudge.” Bently tried to quickly correct his wording from advanced lingo to common lingo. “It’s alright, I know what you mean.” I said with a raised hand. “Book’s are a wonderful thing when you have the time.” “Agreed. So what brings you here, to my corner of solitude.” Bently said, showing that his corner indeed was just him. “Oh you know, not wanting to be over at the corner of doom over there.” I said, motioning to the Rat Gang. “Plus...well I was curious as to what you were doing.” I said, Bentley knowing full well I was just trying to give another reason besides ‘I need a friend’. “Oh, just some self studying. The classes we get here are only four hours a day, after that we’re free so if any adults come by and are looking they can actively talk to/interview us to make a choice. I study by myself as often as I can.” “Sounds interesting.” I said honestly. “What subjects are you good at?” “Oh you know, history, math, science, literature, been tinkering in Physics and computer sciences/robotics. Whatever I can find I read and take notes on frequently. I often head to the library a few blocks from here since they’re more well supplied than the one here.” “Oh? Got any favorite books?” I asked curiously. “Like Sci-Fi, Fantasy, what? Cause Sci-Fi and Fantasy are always a favorite of mine.” I said, hoping to spark a good conversation with books. “I mostly prefer non-fiction, but I did enjoy Moby Dick.” “I’ll get that White Whale if it’s the last thing I do.” I quoted in a not half bad impression of the captain. "Heh. So you are smarter than the average six year old. Say, since you do show higher than expected intelligence like myself, mind helping me with this?" Sitting up to the table, Bentley showed me what I, even without Admin powers recognized as code, or coding. C++, all hand written too. "I'm trying to make my own operating system for a PC I'm building out of junkyard scrap parts, and so far it's installing this but not booting." I looked over all the notes curiously, finding his work fascinating for what a six year old can do. “Is there any specific problems with it booting up?” I asked curiously. “Like does it just suddenly shut down after installing or what?” I asked curiously, wondering what I can do to help. "It's mostly once I try and get it to register an internet connection it just shuts down, even with offline installing a web browser, still nothing." I hummed, looking over the dozens of notes. “So it’s booting up fine, it’s just whenever you want to make a connection or install something…” I hummed, sifting through the pages to see if there was anything amiss since, in my spare time, I decided to learn damn near anything I could about computers, even before becoming an Admin. After a quick look over, I saw the issue in the 40,000th line of code. “Ah, found it.” I said while putting it down and motioning to the specific line. “Notice anything wrong with it?” "Oh. Oh! Yes I see here. So it was Device Manager miss-installing the files with the booting sequence. I'm impressed you spotted that." “Oh it’s nothing special.” I said sheepishly, scratching the back of my head in embarrassment at the compliment. "Well, with this fixed the orphanage can finally have its own computer for the orphans. Maybe more if it works out. Thanks Kite." “No problem.” I nodded. “But uh...when my brother feels better...want to hang out with me and Sly? Murray told me he would join as well after he...comes back.” "Oh, sure thing. If Murray trusts you then I do too." “Thank you.” I nodded. “We...really need help…” I sighed out sadly. "Sure thing." The rest of the day was uneventful. The school session was only four hours and barely taught any of its subjects. While others were playing or just messing around, I was with Sly, who still kept pretty quiet. We were in the bedroom. Sly just laid flat on the bed. “Big brother?” I asked him gently, hoping he’ll at least say something. "Hm?" He said. Sorta. I sighed out. “It’s not good for you to you to just...not do anything. You’ve barely been eating…” I said, not sure how to do this properly. "Kite." He said, sitting up. "Mom and Dad are dead. We HEARD that… that thing kill mom… how can you not be like me, or worse right now?" “Because at the moment, I want to make sure you’re eating and not fully breaking down.” I said, tears filling my eyes. “I’m younger...but I want to see my big brother happy again...it hurts so much...but I need to be strong like mommy and daddy...like you…” I said sadly. “We’re Coopers...dad told us some stories of our family...and how strong they were even in the face of danger…” "... You're right. Right now, we aren't strong… but we can be. I have an idea. Still have Uncle M's 'rattle' bro?" I brought it out and gently rattled it, bringing out my Thunder Cane. "Always have it on me bro. Oh also, later I want to introduce you to two kids that I'm sure you'll be fast friends with." I said with a smile. "Huh, alright then." He said, shaking it as it turned off. He then twisted it open, showing the inside components. "M told me if something ever happened to you, me, mom or dad, just press this." He then pressed a small blue button on the circuit board, a small light bulb next to it blinking… a transmitter. "I guess now we wait." He said, closing it back up. “Yeah, uncle M would make sure there was a way to find us in an emergency.” I said honestly. "Not sure how long til he gets here. We'll stick together just in case. This building has two stories, right?" Sly asked me. “Yes it does.” I nodded. "What about a basement or attic? Crawlspace?" “Um...pretty sure there’s an attic, basement and crawl space I’m not sure.” I said simply. "Let's find out." He said, taking the lead. At least he had a smile. I followed, looking at the beacon in my 'rattle' as he lead us to a vent. "Dad told me all the older buildings in France had basements built for emergencies back when there were wars, the attic and crawlspace was used for storage. We gotta keep hidden until Uncle M gets here. A hideout like one of those will be perfect." “Sounds about right.” I nodded. “And what about the two friends I want to introduce you to?” I asked curiously. "You just met them today, how can they already be friends?" Sly asked, popping the vent cover off as he and I slid in. This vent system took us to Attic, Crawlspace, and a basement. Basement seems to have been sealed off, there's a cellar door in the far corner but it's chained from the outside. The crawlspace was neat, not much floor or light but there's plugs, and a secret door to it from the laundry room. Lastly the attic. There's a way up here from a window by climbing this big tree outside, as well as the drop ladder. “Well we’re not friends yet, but I’m sure we’ll be great friends.” I said honestly. “They’ll remind you of two people we know.” "How so?" Sly asked, the two of us largely pondering which of the three locations would be a better hideout. "I'm liking the attic, but the basement does have the boiler in it, so we would keep warm at night, granted the noise." “I think the Crawlspace works out.” I brought up. “It maybe dark, but it’s next to the laundry room so we’ll keep warm, there’s plenty of plugs for things, it’s easy to get to.” I pointed out. "And well hidden." Sly added. "We can decorate it. Wonder how though?" “I’m sure we’ll figure it out.” I said honestly. “But one of the kids I want you to meet, Bentley the Turtle, has been taking trips to the junkyard to get stuff and make some pretty neat things. I’m sure he’ll have an idea on how to decorate it.” I said honestly. “And maybe Murray the Hippo can help carrying stuff with us...that’s the other person I want you to meet.” "Huh. What does this Bentley build?" “I mean, he’s the one that single-handedly invented the way our computers work.” I brought up simply. “I only pointed out a small thing he overlooked, but look at how his work been going.” I explained. "How do you know so much about computers?" “I don’t know much.” I lied convincingly. “I just showed him what I thought looked wrong. Trust me...he had so much work it was all confusing for me...but when something feels wrong it tends to be.” "Fair enough." Sly said. "Stuff from the dump could be useful." “Yep.” I nodded. “As the saying goes, one mans trash is another man’s treasure.” A week went by, Sly opened up to Bentley and Murray, our little hide out in the crawlspace was nice. Sly and I were at the Junkyard with Bentley and Murray, Those two off sorting through old computers and Sly and I looking at some old blankets. "Sly, Kite?!" We turned around, M stood there dressed in a lab coat. “Uncle M!” I cheered at seeing him again. “How have you been?” "Worried mad!" He yelped, holding us both. "I heard about… are you two living in this junkyard?" “No, us four are in the orphanage.” I said. “That’s Bentley and Murray.” I said. “Their our friends.” "Glad you two made friends." M said, not letting us go. "An orphanage huh? Can you two do me a favor?" M asked, kneeling down to eye level. "I need to go find Jim, it will be a few days, by then we will be back for you two. Understand?" “Not without our friends.” I said quickly. “I don’t want to lose them...they’re helping us with…” I said sadly, M noticing Bentley talking a bunch of technical jargon while Murray was lifting up a lot of stuff that was way too heavy for any normal eight year old. “Plus...they reminded us of you and Uncle Jim.” "Heheh. Such strong bonds, and so young. Alright. Jim and I will be back before week's end. Stay safe till then, alright?" M asked us. “We will.” I said with a smile, hugging Uncle M happily and just glad him and Jim were still alright. "Heh, now head off you two, you four." M left and we met back up with Bentley and Murray, heading back to the orphanage. Along the way there we saw there was a car at the front. "Uh oh." Bentley and Murray said in unison “What’s wrong?” I asked nervously. “Who owns the car?” "Social Services. Means a new kid just arrived." Bentley said. "That's not good." I said worriedly. "I...wonder who it is…" I muttered. "Let's go see." Sly said, the four of us picking up the pace. Once inside we saw this kid was still in the Orphanage ladies office with the social worker. We waited around the corner to see who they were. "I...hope it's not someone we know…" I said worriedly, fearing it might be Carmalita or someone else we might have known. As the door opened the Social Services lady thanked the Orphanage lady, leaving. The Orphanage lady was called Ms. Basil, A Beaver lady, saw her off. "Ms. Basil…" I said politely. "What's going on?" I asked cutely and innocently, acting like a young six year old that just saw something worrying. "Oh, we just have a new arrival Kite. She's… actually a lot like you and your broth-" "Kite?" Part of me froze, hearing that voice that I haven't heard in a few years. Turning I could see the eleven year old Carmalita Fox, two large bags beside her in Ms. Basil's office. Her eyes teared up at seeing me, then rushed in, hugging me tight as she sobbed loudly. Sly, seeing her, ran over, Sly and Carmalita adding to the hug that seemed to be giving Carmalita hope, cause she looked as bad as Sly did. When we first got here. I...couldn’t stop myself before I just burst into tears and started sobbing, too much shit having gone wrong, me experiencing my parents death again, and Carmalita also being in the same position as we did? That was too much… "I… I heard what happened on the news." Carmalita said. It was night now and she, Sly, Bentley, Murray and I were all in the crawlspace hideout. "I'm sorry." "What… happened to your…?" Sly asked. Giving a shaky sigh, and gulp, Carmalita spoke. "Well, dad was...was a cop. After you two vanished it was like crime in the cities just… skyrocketed. Like in those movies that show crime filled cities. Dad got sh… shot. Mom's work place caught fire in a riot." “Oh…” I muttered. “Well it’s...better than what I feared happened to them...what happened to our parents…” I shivered slightly, still nervous about talking about it. "News said the cities are basically falling apart. Says it's organized, all over the world. Cops and police stations globally are being targeted. Heard the US declared a nation wide Marshal law just to have pockets of states kept somewhat safe." Carmalita sighed. "I'm not the only one that's gonna be arriving here. Heard that social worker saying that they were gonna move kids here by the buses since the cities aren't safe anymore." “They’re moving way too fast…” I said worriedly. I looked at all the people in our little hideout and sighed. “Big bro...should we tell them about...who we are?” I asked. "I already know your Coopers." Carmalita said. "Dad told me. Heh… it's actually the main reason I wanted to play with you two at first when I was little. The Cooper's on paper of the legal system are criminals, but you protect more than you harm. That’s what dad said about you. Helping from the darkness." "Wait, Cooper as in the legendary thieving family the Cooper's?!" Bentley said in shock. "Holy cow… wait, so if your parents are… oh… that actually might explain these riots." Murray said. "Your family has kept the worst of the worst in the shadows for generations, and helped toss them into jail when they overstep. With your parents gone… they think there is no one to stop them." "For now anyway." Sly sighed. "Our Uncle, M, will be here in a week to "adopt" us out of this place. Kite wants to bring you two with us. And Carmalita, that offer extends to you." "You don't have to ask. I'm in." Carmalita said. "Same!" Murray said. "Most definitely." Bentley said. “Now onto the hard bit…” I sighed out. “So while the Coopers are a good thing with keeping the actual bad guys, not criminals, bad guys down...we can only do so much outside the law, we still need the Police to actually arrest them.” I said. “Just like how mom and dad did it, cause Mom was a successful interpol agent.” "Heh. In case you haven't noticed Kite, cops are quickly becoming a dying breed... literally." Carmalita sighed “I know…” I sighed out. “But...what I think, is that there isn’t a proper leader, a rallying point for the police...and there’s only one person I know that can be that rallying point.” I said while looking at Carmalita. “And from what I’ve experienced...it’s you.” "Even so, how?" "We'll cross that bridge when we get to it." Sly said. "For now, we wait for Uncle M and Uncle Jim." “Yeah, those two will know how to help us start fixing all the problems the bad guy is causing.” I said honestly. I was back in the sleeping worlds, my real form and all. This time Cript and I were having a nice meal. Every night we'd do something. It was a way to bond and get used to each other as spouses, given that's what we are. "So what's going on now?" Cript asked. We were both dressed quite nicely. “Carmalita is orphaned because Clockwerk is somehow causing criminal activity to skyrocket...her father got shot, and her mother burned alive during a riot…” I sighed out. “Doctor M and McSweeny are coming to pick me, Sly, Murray Bentley and Carmalita up at the end of the week and hopefully things can start working out for us to start cleaning up the criminal activity...seriously, even with me being alive, Clockwerk shouldn’t have caused this amount of garbage to happen...” "Hard to tell really. Each version of each world can play out differently. Doubt the Time Walkers will tell us that worlds original timeline." “Cause of course they wouldn’t.” I sighed out. “But...let’s just hope we can learn stuff about thieving so we can start knocking down criminals...not to mention I need to find a specific law to keep me and the others from getting arrested because, even though Coopers are thieves, they have helped the police way too much.” "Technically you're Vigilants, which is also against the law despite the good you do. If you were government sanctioned however, then you'd be able to work, funded by the law." “Everyone keeps forgetting that ‘Good Samaritan Laws’ exist.” I said. “Unless those don’t exist where I’m at...also I...wait no, the Government would be like ‘holy shit your Coopers! We still follow the banner of Coopers!’...would be hilarious if that happened.” "Would be, the main reason Good Samaritan law doesn't apply to the Cooper's is because while you take down bad guys, you also take their loot. Stolen loot. If you leave the loot, you'll only be Vigilant, not Thrives." “We’re not stealing, we’re just resposesing.” I corrected. "Lest you forget the loot you steal from master criminals is stolen from the innocent. Perhaps a Robin Good type run is the best approach." “Sounds about right.” I nodded. “I mean, we’ll still be taking more of the important stuff for the Cooper Vault and stuff, but there will still be enough back to the people.” "That can work. I guess." “Either way.” I shrugged. “Let’s just...hope this all works out before anything else bad happens…” "Well, once you catch up time wise to the present day, we'll rush over, okay?" “Well...present day is a little weird when you think about it.” I said sheepishly. “But please...I’m gonna need a lot of help if Nexus is apart of this somehow...seriously, fully expecting Nexus because I haven’t heard or seen any other world hopping bad guy groups try to take over worlds.” "True. So, that all aside, how's the fish? Given your biology I wasn't sure if you liked it raw or cooked so I went medium rare. Hard to pull with fish." “Okay, even though me becoming a Dire Wolf makes it a lot easier to eat raw food, and even enjoy it, nothing beats cooked food.” I said honestly. “Also, the fish is delicious.” "Glad. I enjoy these 'nightly' dates." “They are nice.” I smiled warmly. "A nice way of relaxing from a lot of the bullshit huh? Should have used the realm of sleep much sooner for relaxing." “True...but Dream stuff is with the Foretellers and all that…” I sighed out. “So it felt like I was being rude to them even more so than me not sending them a message at least.” "While the domain of sleep is theirs, what and how we choose to dream is not. Besides, as of the marriage on top of me already being their dad/mom you are now also their mom/dad. So we can ground them." Cript said with a chuckle. “I’d rather not pull that even if my den mother instincts would want me to just take them all and cuddle and try to dote on them as a massive apology.” I said sheepishly. "Heh. So, including myself you've had four sets of parents as of now, right?" Cript asked. "I've been looking into the Timeline Diane is from and so far I think I found them. Your 'first' parents." “Diane’s parents...my parents, you and then Sly’s parents...so far three out of four have died, either by being murdered, or being Ravened…” I sighed out. "At least they can live again, King. Perks of how I bring people back. Was the only thing I bothered learning in my less than a month of being a God of time." “So...they can come back?” I asked. “Both Diane’s parents and...Sly’s parents?” "Of course. I brought back yours, Eclipsa's mom from earth, Eclipsa from the timeline she died in the future you is from. All I need is the timeline and I can bring back anyone. The only rule is that it has to be within ten seconds before they died. So when I brought your dad from earth back I spammed the healing spells." “Yeah...that makes sense.” I said, still glad to have my parents back and...honestly know they are proud of me again. "They always have been. So, Lord and I began working on the Supercharged version of Second Chance and mixing it with the Humanity blades power. After than a large ass use of code will gather up the new babies. Instant world peace." “Hooray.” I said warmly. “World peace is nice.” "After that, I'll call in my favor. And things really get started." “Things are...really speeding up.” I said worriedly. "Yes and no. If, and they will, go as expecting, we'll have a fuck tone of time. It will also royaley piss off Vincent and his True Nexus." “And if I know anything, pissing off those people are very needed and enjoyable.” I said honestly. "Truer words have never been spoken before." Cript laughed. "So, wanna know my plan? Assuming you don't already know cause you break the fourth wall." “I don’t break the fourth wall when you come up with this. I just use deductive reasoning and a healthy dose of guessing.” I said simply. “But mind telling me what your plan is?” "To make a long story short, I'm gonna fuse all the different timelines, then shatter time." “Wait...isn’t that what you wanted to do before?” I asked curiously. "Sorta. Fusing the timelines, yes, breaking time. That's the new part." “So...why do you want to break time itself?” I asked nervously. "It will cause a… soft reset of reality. People and places will be the same, unaffected but time itself will be blasted back to year zero. Cycle one. Postponing the glitch event for quite a while. Plenty of time to train an army and fix our current predicament." “Well then...that’s interesting.” I said honestly. "It's a risk, but one that will pay off. Time takes up more space than physical reality it seems, breaking and resetting it to day one will, ironically, buy us time. At the cost of erasing history." “Sounds simple enough.” I nodded. "Yeah. Simple on paper. A bit harder in practice." “Everything is harder in practice.” "At least it's a plan. Better than nothing." “Here here.” I nodded in agreement. "So, after this little after dinner meal, what should we do next?" “Um...not sure.” I said honestly. “What do you want to do?” "Dunno. We can do whatever really. Beach, spa, camping, hunt, limits the imagination." “Wonderful.” I muttered. “Sorry if I don’t immediately say something up just...have a lot on my mind.” "New life or something?" “All the things happening in my new life yeah...cause in a while, I’m gonna have to tell Uncle M and Jim to adopt Carmalita as well...then I need to find all the laws that could help the Coopers not constantly have police after them...as well as having Sly 2 just not happen in general cause Neyla can go fuck herself.” "Well, if memory serves Sly two happens mainly because the Klaww Gang steals the Clockwerk body parts. That will still happen, right?" “That’s how it would happen, but I’m not going to let those pieces go into a goddamn museum, seriously who the hell puts a mechanical owl’s corpse parts in a god damn museum?” "To be fair he is damn near what, half a million years old and successfully changed his body from flesh to metal and machines before any kind of modern means even the idea? It would make sense for his corpse to be in a museum as both a fossil and a historical wonder. Besides, Sly two patches the way for Sly three, so it does have to happen." “Damn it…” I grumbled. “I don’t like that...I really don’t.” I sighed out. “So...all four games have to happen no matter what I do, huh?” "Pretty much. So, stressed?" “A little.” I sighed out. “But...there’s at least some things I can do to make the impact...less harsh I suppose…” "True… so… in respect of taking things slow, wanna cuddle?" “Please.” I said while grabbing Cript and turning into my feral form and cuddling up to him. “I need cuddles…” They gave a laugh, our dinner area shifted into a nice bedroom where we kinda spooned, Cript being the small spoon. "This is kinda weird for the two of us huh? You and I typically get into relationships fast with others, and we're taking it slow with each other." “Mostly because we both don’t...really know what to do half the time with each other.” I said honestly. "Our relationship is kinda weird like that. Ironic since…" “Ironic since…?” I asked curiously. "You… aren't the first child adopted in/born in when we did that thing to return your soul, who became a spouse. Not even the second actually." “Well...I mean, my future self said it was a common thing when she came from.” I said honestly. "I know, but it's kinda awkward for me." “Listen, I had to get used to that when I married the Queen and Princess of the Yaks...have I mentioned how big and fluffy Yak’s asses are?” I asked honestly. “Cause seriously...they gave Celestia and Pinkie a run for their money.” "That's some fluff. Course given my… location I'm pondering on who cuddles better, you or Den." "Well cuddles are nice." I said honestly. "No matter who it is." "True. Though am I even fun to cuddle? I've edited this new form to look… less demonic but I still look weird, right?" Cript did edit that new form they're stuck in now that they can't hold back power. Taking a more female form, they are less tall, slimmer, wings shrunk and look almost cosmetic but they can grow them at will. Their crazy arm thing looks normal or tentacles like with bone hand and such at will. They still have three eyes, and an almost dark elf look to them, and while their hair is the same color they keep it at a shortcut, just above the shoulders. “Well...you look better.” I said honestly. “And cuddles are nice...I was about to say ‘no matter who you are’ but some people and things don’t deserve cuddles.” "Some, yeah." Cript sighed, moving more into my breasts/embrace. "We'll have to act fast once soft resets. Cause after it breaks, Everyone who has ever lived or was going to live will appear in the present time, including past and future versions of us. Downside to breaking time." “Oh...that’s not good.” I said worriedly. “That is...a lot of not good the more I think about it.” "Yeah, no kidding." Cript sighed. "Lord and the time walkers will work on a way for second chance to affect these… displaced time versions of us, future and past, but they don't think all of them will be caught in Second Chance's sweep, most though. 97% hit, the remaining 3% is still a wildcard factor though, no idea who will be in that 3%." “Sounds simple enough.” I shrugged. “Better than nothing I suppose.” "Hopefully." Cript sighed, pressing further against me. "Sorry if I'm getting too close or something, when Den and I do this she's typically on top of me, and I'm kinda used to that already. Always liked having some weight one when sleeping." “When you live with a lot of women...you tend to like having them on top.” I chuckled. “But it’s alright, whatever makes you comfortable.” "So, what was your first, well, time in a relationship like? All I know is that you started with Luna and Twilight and it just grew from there." “Given that Luna and Twilight were the only time I was ever in a relationship...I’d say it was nice.” I said honestly. “Too bad it was filled with me being cripplingly depressed half the time.” "Well, now it's only sarcasm and slight hints of narcissism." Cript laughed, now taking a front leg of mine and hugging it like a body pillow. The size difference between us with me in feral form was indeed that big. "Sleeping in the sleeping realm, feels like that should be impossible huh?" “It does...but for people who just like to sleep it is a miracle.” I chuckled. "Heck yeah." The week went by quickly. Uncle M and Uncle Jim came by to take us out of here, it took all our skill and will power… to not laugh. Jim in crossdress looks like Mrs Doubtfire. That voice was a close match too. When it was over, Sly, Bentley, Murray, Carmalita and I were on a private plane flown by M to KaneIsland. "We have a nice house and such a set up for you kids." M said. “Really?” I asked curiously. “But where are we heading?” I asked, pretending not to know anything about Kane island. "It's a secret location that's been known primarily by your family and a select few others, Like Jim and I, for generations. Kane Island. The secret hiding place of every Cooper's loot and biggest scores throughout your family history Kite, Sly." "It's also the perfect place to hide you two til you're of age." Jim added. “So...we’re going to learn to be like daddy and you two?” I asked cutely, wide eyes filled with stars of wonder as I genuinely found the task of learning to become a Cooper was exciting. "As best we can." M said sadly. "We're no Cooper's. But we can teach you what we know from our time… watching your father." “And you can teach Murray, Bentley and Carmalita stuff as well? More to your skills?” I asked, M and Jim having noticed the similarities in their skill sets with the young hippo and turtle, and Carmalita could use some training that they saw from mom. "Most definitely." "M, Jim… Do you know who killed Mom and Dad?" Sly asked, instantly making all of us silent. "...Yes." M said hesitantly. "Good. We'll know who to go after then." “Not yet.” I said to Sly. “They’re very dangerous...it’ll take us a long time before we’re ready.” I said, Jim and M remembering about my little adorable stunt as an infant when they were talking about going into hiding years ago. "I know that bro. I know." The island was nice. Looked just like the games, only less military and fortified and more a lush uninhabited island. There were several cabins all built one for each. Even Sly and I got our own cabins. They had some food stuff and thankfully M had the Foresight to set up a salt water purifier for plumbing and such and even a farm with veggies, and… animals? Huh, normal cows and such exist here. Then again dad's favorite pizza was sausage and Pepperoni. So… nice. There were other cabins, storage, school house/planning room, workshop, supply room, bathrooms, with Carmalita being the only girl who got her own private one, showers included, and various other cabins for many uses. Even a special underground training area, reminding me of the one for tutorials on Sly 3. "And that still didn't make a dent in your father's trust fund for us." M said. “How much money did daddy have?” I asked in honest surprise, even though we’re coopers the lion’s share normally went into the vault. "Your father thought that for our help and friendships, every time we scored anything, big or small, we'd split the wealth. To our surprise though, after… After he died we were approved by members of the Swedish Underground, Bakes for thieves. Your father left Jim and I sixty million even between us, and you two were left something as well when you both turn eighteen, but he kept his biggest wealths in the vault, as Cooper Tradition dictates." M said. "We got enough to live here comfy forever, but comfort is for suckers, we're Cooper's, by honor and by blood." M said, looking at Sly and I with a smile. "We're not sure how much he left you two, guess you'll have to find out once you're old enough." Jim said. “I hope we can live up to dad.” I said, hoping to be just as good as dad and all the other coopers. "We will bro. Even better." Sly said. "So, how did you get all this stuff here if I may ask?" Bentley asked. "A friend in the Russian Nobility, he owed us a favor. We bought the supplies and he bought the submarine." Jim answered. "Submarine?" Carmalita asked. With a nod, Jim pulled out a set of car keys, clicking them as across in the ocean, the water broke open, a large submarine emerging from the water rises up. "It's special for transporting cargo secretly, cloaking and can hold a lot of stuff, and for it's size it's fast too." "Then why did we fly here?" Murray asked. "I am… claustrophobic." M said shamefully. “That’s fine. Your a Mandril, your race enjoy’s wide open spaces and forests right?” I asked. “At least, that’s what a biology book I found at the library said.” "Speaking of, we also have a library, but that is in the vault." M said. "But yes, among my race Claustrophobia is a common fear." “And the vault is where?” I asked curiously, looking around curiously as there’s been many mentions of a vault yet I haven’t seen it. "Atop that mountain." M said, pointing to the only mountain on the island. "We'll show you it later. For now, go check out your Cabins, there's plenty to decorate and mess with." “Alright.” I nodded with a smile before running off to the cabin, wondering what is inside the Cabins if anything was in there, or to see how big it was. I ran up to the cabin with my name on it. Like the others it was two stories, wood and bamboo walls with a straw ceiling. Inside was more modern looking than the outside. It had a small kitchen area with a living room and a small bathroom on the bottom. The second story had a bed already… toys… familier… "We kept all the old receipts." I turned around, seeing Mcsweeny at the stairway. "Got as many as we could find from your old room.” “Really?” I gasped in surprise. “That’s...amazing.” I said happily. “Thanks Uncle Jim.” "Hey, you're the reason your dad, M and I even were still a team." “Really?” I asked. “But...what about mom and big brother?” He asked nervously. "I'm not going to lie. Your mother did test him, patience wise. Their little back and forth play was tolerable but once Sly was on the way he went full dad mode, driving us crazy. Almost left the team when he was born. But then your mom had you, and he was worried about protecting you two and if there was enough about how to raise two kids as Cooper's. So, he stuck around, for advice and for fun. Stealing was his mental vacation from his irrational fears." “Okay.” I nodded innocently. “I hope I can help like I wanted to...before this…” "You will. World is going to hell, but you and the others will be the ones to put out the fires." I smiled while shaking my rattle and turning it into my Cane. “Just like daddy and you and Uncle M.” I said happily. To be continued...
Nobody finds the Mushroom 13I've been waiting here with Small the fox for two weeks and finally those eggs hatched. Mushroom 1 jumping up and clapping happily. “Thank fuck!” I cried out in sheer joy. “I have been waiting! For two weeks!” I whined just like Loki did in Thor Ragnarok. “And this is just adorable…” I said, finding the mushroom jumping and clapping adorable. The mushroom then looked over at me, walking over before booping my nose and vanishing off. "One down, eleven more to go." Paladin said with a sigh. "So, what about your friend?" He asked, pointed at Small, who was currently under me. "Well...what was my prize for waiting?" I asked. "Normally the game gives a prize unless the boop was it…" I said while gently petting Small. "As for Small here...want to come home with me?" I asked the fox. (Yes please.) They said, tail wagging cutely. "Alright…" I said, before thinking a little bit. "Um...do you want to stay as who you are or...like me?" I asked curiously. (Like you how?) "Well, like this." I said while motioning to my anthro form. "On two legs, can speak common, and a bunch of other things." I said simply. (Sure.) With that, I did what Mama Den and Lyra showed me. Small was now just shy of my height, but had my figure and six well sized tits, a fine ass, and the curves to draw eyes. A quick ring on her new finger gave her a member also shy of mine. "And just like that I'm bisexual." Paladin said jokingly. "Oh wow!" Fox said, speaking. My assistant also flashed. Race Tree: Fox; Aquit “Cool.” I said as I checked what skills the fox race could give me. “So, how does it feel Small?” "I feel ready to breed." I chuckled while giving her a quick kiss. “I know you’ll love this family.” I chuckled, not sure if I’ll have to immediately take care of the sexy fox. Knowing I had other things to do, I first explained to Small how the linked Bellies ability worked, and sent her down. She was skittish but seemed to enjoy it. Once she was in I brought her out in the bedroom and she got settled. Paladin opened another portal. Exiting this time we were in like a castle of sorts. "America, 4009, earth 99K74." Paladin said. “Okay that’s the...second earth a mushroom is on.” I said honestly. “So...why are we in a castle?” "This Earth invented the wheel a few… thousand years too late. So despite this being the 'future' it's more like the sixteen hundred." Paladin said. "And the reason why is stupid." “Oh I would love to know how stupid it is.” I said honestly. "Follow me." Paladin said, leading me a bit down the hall. All too familiar scents and noises became present to me… and when we turned the corner, a massive orgy was before us. "Sex was apparently extremely well liked." “Okay so...I’m not seeing the full problem here.” I said simply. “Is it just because they fucked too much or what?” "Yeah. You know that thing in your mind that when someone asks you if you wanna fuck and you can have the option to say no, yeah they didn't develope that here. Getting laid on this world is as easy as asking anyone if they wanna fuck. This world is actually taken into your family by Lyra, like the whole world." “Cause of course she would.” I chuckled. “So yeah...this place is going to be a fun time when I have off. So where is the mushroom?” I asked curiously. "...there…" He pointed, the poor Mushroom 2's head… stuck up some ladies privates but how is she stretched that big?! “Jesus how does she stretch like that?” I winced, finding that just a tad painful. "Genetics. The stretchier the hole the more sex they have… apparently." Paladin sighed. "Mind pulling them out, I'd just prefer to not touch anything while we are here." “Sure.” I said while moving around the people carefully and grabbing the lady and pulling the Mushroom out of her, pulling out a toy and immediately shoving it into her before she could complain. “Hey little buddy, need a shower first?” I asked the Mushroom curiously. The nodded, clinging to me thankfully. I showered them up and we were off again. This time we were on… the fuck are we? "Dimension -7753, the pulsating Space." Paladin said, this area various swearls of pink and yellow blobs floating around, and pulsating. “I mean...I can tell it’s pulsating but where the fuck are we?” I asked honestly. “I just told you. Dimension -7753. Not every reality or dimension out there has life." “I know that.” I said simply. “But I’m not saying ‘where are we’ to what dimension just...never mind.” I shook my head. “So, where is the Mushroom here?” "If I was to guess…" They said, taking a look around. "There." They pointed at one pink blob above us, the Mushroom 3 floating in it. “Cool.” I said while flying up to the mushroom. “Hey little guy, want to get out of here?” They happily float spun I'm a circle before giving a nod, and Poof's to the others. The next area was another large… different Forrest. "Earth! 16,000 BC earth KJ9978." “Well then...this feels different.” I said honestly. “But it’s also still huge.” "This world died in the asteroid strike. So go hunting." “Um...sure.” I said while rushing off to both hunt and find the Mushroom. As I searched around for mushroom 4, I got a few nice snacks. Along the way, they were tasty. "Well...at least the food is good.” I muttered, continuing to search for the fourth mushroom. After looking for a while I found the Mushroom, sat snuggly between five large eggs. “Oh please…” I muttered while gently moving over. “Uh...hello?” They waved at me casually. “Want to head out or are you waiting for the eggs to hatch?” I asked the mushroom curiously. They pointed up, showing that there was a massive fucking bird thing flying above us. “Ah.” I said, “Don’t worry, that won’t be a problem.” I said while gently moving over and picking up the Mushroom, careful to not disturb the eggs as I also made sure to keep an eye on the bird. As we made our way into a small forest for cover, the Mushroom got off me. Gave me a nod then vanished off. "That was interesting." Paladin said. “Interesting?” I asked curiously. “What do you mean?” "Just that, I've known these guys tend to get into trouble when not all together, but this is… more than what I was expecting. Especially the next one." “I’m more surprised about not having to do any mini games. Seriously, did they just decide to do a scavenger hunt this time around?” I asked curiously. "Those mini games are actually trials. But that's besides the point. This next one is actually in a sensitive temporal area. Are you ready?" “Sure.” I nodded. “Let’s get going.” The portal opened, and we entered. This forest… I've seen it. "Earth 9732, November 8, 2002. The Mana Forest. Last Ministry of Magic." “Wait, the last ministry of magic? But...I’ve been here before...or at least seen it before.” I said nervously. "That's because, you've seen this temple, but as ashes." Paladin pointed behind us, a massive Temple of blended cultural designs surrounded by a tall cobblestone wall and powerful magic… This is the temple Cript was raised in. “Oh...so that’s why.” I said nervously. “But...what’s it doing here?” "They do as they please. It's annoying." The sound of large doors opening echoed by us. Paladin and I looked around the corner, and saw a woman who looked a lot like Hearts mom, holding a small brown haired kid, who was clutching a teddy bear. “That’s...Cript and his mom?” I whispered to Paladin. "Yes. This is the day she left him here… and the day she is killed. We need to find number five fast." “Alrighty then...so where is Number Five?” I asked, not knowing where it is as I need a guide to find these mushrooms. "Not in a convenient place." Paladin looked up. Mushroom five was walking along the top of the temple in a circle. “Convenient enough for us to not be spotted.” I said as I flew up to the roof of the temple to get to the mushroom. As I was about to land, a jolt of magic hit me, knocking me back and over to Paladin. "Did you really think it would be that easy?" Paladin asked. “Yes, especially when that jolt of magic shouldn’t have done anything to me.” I stated simply. “But nope, plot needs to work.” "Did you forget this is the place that hid Cript from Vincent for ten years, a place Vincent could not enter at all? Those monks aren't just monks, they were Admins." “Cause of course they were…” I muttered. “So...how the hell are we supposed to get up there when we need to hurry?” "We have to wait for Cript's mom to leave, then we can Ask to come in. Okay?" “Alright.” I nodded. “So that’s gonna take a while maybe…” It wasn't that long. Half an hour and Cript's mom was back outside, crying. She took four steps… then... "Gluck." She coughed, Vincent appearing behind her, a knife in hand and shoved into her back. She collapsed, and Vincent turned to the temple doors. He placed a hand on them and was bit back by the same jolt of magic that hit me. "Crafty old bastards. As expected of the Admins of Rebellion. No matter, that child will be heir to my legacy, and this flawed, broken reality can finally end properly." They said, vanishing in a blink, as did Cript's mom's corpse. “Well then…” I muttered. “That happened…” "Hope you kill that guy." Paladin said, walking over to the front door. “He’s gonna die.” I said honestly. “But he might come back again and again cause why not…” Paladin knocked on the door. One of the monks, or apparently, one of the Admins of Rebellion, opened. "Ah, a Time Walker. What brings you to our sanctuary?" "Mushroom number five is on your roof." They said simply. "Ah, the little trouble makers. Come in, you and your associate are welcome here. Just knock next time." The elderly man said, looking at me on that last part. “Hi.” I said sheepishly. Paladin and I walked in, the older man leading us inside the temple. Three other older men were present here, one I remember from when I fought that Lingering Will of them in the future. "I shall fetch the little one, you two wait here." They said, taking leave as the other three walked over to us. “So...how are you all today?” I asked the three walking over to us. "As well as we can be." One said. "I can tell you are an Admin too. That power was used by a former student of ours, so long ago. How is he?" The other asked. “Um...that depends on who your former student is? Cause I’ve been...around.” I said sheepishly. "He currently goes by the King of Nothingness. Self made in title and power. As all royalty should." “Oh...well uh…” I looked over at Paladin to see if I was even allowed to tell them. He nodded. “Well uh...he’s kind of dead.” I said sheepishly. “Wasn’t my fault...old man didn’t give me a choice…” "Passes the crown in death, to his heir. Understandable." “Yeah...it was a thing.” I said honestly. "Here is the little one." The first old man said, back and holding Mushroom number five. They jumped over to me. "They like you, it seems." “I mean, I have found five of their siblings?” I asked, not sure if they’re related or anything as I gently patted the thing’s head. The mushroom gave me a nod, then poofed off to be with the others. "Such powerful beings. The first Mother's greatest creations." "And with their help good things will happen." I said honestly. "Let's go." Paladin said, opening a portal. This time we ended up on an island of sorts. "Alternative Earth 97890, April 6th, 1857. Kane Island." "Excuse me?" I asked. "Did you just say Kane Island?" I asked nervously. "Yes." "Okay so...is this the Kane Island I'm thinking of or another Kane Island?" I asked, thinking this was Cooper's family island. "Same island, different world version. Very different world version." “How different?” I asked curiously. "Swap the Cooper's and Clockwerk." “Oh…” I blinked. “That’s...not good.” I said worriedly. “So...where is the mushroom?” "In there." They pointed. Turning around I saw the Cooper Vault, or rather, the Clockwerk vault, the image of an owl rather than a racoon. Cane lock was still there. "Keyblade time." “Yep.” I nodded while pulling out my Keyblade and gently tapped it, the vault door unlocking itself and popping open. The door opened and inside I saw the loot of generations of a Clockwerk family version of the Cooper's. In the back I saw number six swimming in the gold coins like Scrooge McDuck. “Well...they seem happy.” I said while flying down to the Mushroom. “Hey there little guy, having fun?” The dived into the coins, bursting out and giving me… a Keyblade Keychain. The one from Port Royal from kh 2. Recognize that Madaline anywhere. They then poofed away. “Huh...wonder where Clockwerk found this…” I hummed curiously. I pocketed the keychain, closed and locked the vault backup and we were off to find number seven. We arrived on… "Minecraft dimension! No idea what year it is, time here is fucked." Paladin huffed. “Huh...this is a place.” I said, as it was as blockey as it was ingame. “Now to find the Mushroom here…” As I walked around, finding that even as an admin, I need to rapidly punch these things to break a block, I began having a little fun. As I explored I found a small dirt hut. Mushroom seven was in there, waiting by a furnace that was cooking, or smelting something. “Hello.” I said to the Mushroom. They didn't respond. Touching their furnace showed me the menu in my HUD, they were cooking 64 steaks, of which five were done, and had six coal blocks fueling it. “Want to make food first?” I asked politely, not wanting to interrupt their cooking time. I sat next to them as we waited for the food to get done cooking. It didn't take long and when the stack of steak was done, he gave me half, ate his half in one bite, somehow, he didn't even have a mouth, then poofed off. “Alrighty then.” I said while starting to eat some of the steak while heading outside. “Next?” Number eight was in Spain, 1515, my old earth. I was about to grab it when. "What a strange Creature." I ducked, seeing a man that… that… Nicolas Ventral. Hearts Ancestors and Core and Unum's second child. He looked around the Mushroom number eight. "Hello there is a strange one. What manner of God made you?" He said, looking over the not quite heartless. ”The hell is he doing here?” I thought to myself, not remembering this time period being where he was as I stayed hidden from Nicolas. ”So...better wait until he leaves…” I thought to myself. "Hmm?" He hummed, seeing the number eight numerals on it's back. "Eight. Are there eight of you?" To Nicolas's surprise, and mine, the mushroom shook it's head. "Oh, you can understand me? Fascinating. So more than eight? Ten perhaps?" They shook their head. "Hmm… thirteen?" The mushroom gave a happy nod. "Thirteen of you? How interesting. And what an oddly specific number." ”God damn it…” I thought as I transformed into a human male with proper attire of the century. “Hello.” I said as I got out of the shadows and acted like I was walking by. "Oh, hello!" Nicolas said, quickly getting in front of the Mushroom number eight. I raised my hand gently. “No need to hide the being...I was actually looking for it honestly.” I said simply, not sure if I can really talk about the mushroom’s to the very first Ventral. "Oh? Really?" “Yes.” I nodded. “They tend to enjoy games, and right now they are playing a sort of...hide and seek game.” I said, not really sure why they haven’t tried doing any trials yet but thinking this was ‘trial’ enough for this scavenger hunt kind of thing. "Games? Are they like children then?" “They are excitable like children...but from what I’ve learned through my years, they are anything but children.” I said honestly. “And...games are a bit of a stretch the more I think about it…” "Well, what are they. It seems to say there are thirteen of them?" In the background behind Nicolas I saw Paladin shaking his head rapidly. “Honestly, no idea.” I said, which wasn’t really a lie now that I thought about it. “All I know is that I need to get all of these beings home.” I said while gently moving around Nicolas and putting a hand on the eighth mushroom head. “Time to go little one.” They looked at me, then Nicolas, then kicked my shin and ran over to them. That little…. "Awh, he likes me." Nicolas said, Eight running around them in a circle. "I wonder why they are shaped like Mushrooms?" “No idea…” I sighed out, looking over at Paladin with a pleading look given the little bastard now has practically imprinted on Nicolas. Paladin looked around, finding a rock. They threw it at Nicolas, only for in a flash, Mushroom eight grabbed and flicked it back at Paladin, an audible clunk as it hit his head and he fell over… seriously? "What was that?" Nicolas asked, oblivious to what happened. “Nothing.” I said quickly. “God I wish these things could talk sometimes…” I muttered to myself while looking at the Mushroom. “Listen, you need to get back to your family, they're worried.” I said to the Mushroom. “Please?” It smacked me than ran off. "Hey, wait up!" Nicolas yelled, chasing after it. "If the village sees you they'll think you a demon!" I panicked at that and rushed after the Mushroom, a little pissed at how it’s acting but hoping the village won’t get pissed. ”So Time Walkers are about as fragile as wet tissue paper...wonderful.” I mentally groaned Nicolas and I chased the little brat towards the village border, Nicolas catching them just before they ran into town. "Such energy. Hopefully my children are more tame." “Children can be a handful no matter what.” I said honestly. “I just...don’t know why it’s being so stubborn…” It wiggled from Nicolas's grasp, jumping to the floor and shaking, and In almost a sneeze like motion, tossed a… Starlight Keychain to Nicolas. "What's this?" Nicolas looked at the keychain with interest. "A pendant?" ”Are you fucking kidding me!?” I thought to myself incredulously. “Okay cool...now can you please head home?” I asked the Mushroom. I swear it blew a raspberry at me and threw a rock at my head. I caught the rock before it actually hit me in the head. “Rude.” I frowned. “And so far you have been nothing but rude this entire time.” I frowned. "Perhaps he just wants to do something before going?" Nicolas offered, kneeling down to the Mushroom. "Is there something you want to do little one?" It nodded, pointing at a large cathedral. "The church? If they see you they'll burn you alive. What could you want there?" I thought for a moment, thinking about the last few Mushrooms and how they just...randomly either were doing something or just hanging out. “Do you need to obtain something or return something?” I asked curiously, wondering if it either wanted to return an item to the church or if it wants to get something from the church. They pointed at the Starlight Keychain in Nicolas's hand, then with a foot, drew a keyhole in the soil. "A lock?" Nicolas asked. I pinched the bridge of my nose. “So that’s what it is…” I muttered. “I know what it wants...either of us to do. Do you have any items on you that aren't clothes or jewelry?” I asked curiously, having a feeling the Mushroom would want Nicolas to do this. "Some medicinal herbs, this strange pendant, and this." They moved their shirt, showing… a Wayfinder, Pure orichalcium+. "It's all I have from… where I come from. The church found me in the streets, still needing my mother's milk, and yet not one around. Just myself and this strange necklace." I nodded...knowing full well who that Wayfinder belongs to. “Alright.” I said while sneakily crafting a sword without him noticing as I held it still in its sheath. “May I try something?” I asked. “I’ll need the pendant as it’s...special from what I’ve gathered over the years.” "Oh, sure." He said, tossing it to me. As I tried to place it on the sword, Eight kicked my shin again and took the sword, tossing it to Nicolas and then proceeded to act like a feral cat to my head. “And that’s about as much dog shit I’m willing to take.” I said while grabbing the thing by the head and getting it off my head, holding it at a distance by its hood. “Cause of course I needed this garbage today…” I growled. “Put the chain part on the sword, just like I was about to do.” I said, keeping a solid grip on the Mushroom to let it know it’s not going anywhere fast. The second I said that, they stopped acting out. Confused, Nicolas did just that… and nothing happened. "Was something supposed to happen?" Eight got out of my grip, taking the sword with the keychain attached, shaking it like a dying flashlight. How come nothing happened? “Now...don’t panic.” I said while trying to bring out Reunion as No Heart would probably cause him to panic. “Let’s hope nothing weird is going on…” I muttered, hoping my powers would still work. As I felt myself pulling Reunion to me… nothing. In a panic, I summoned Foudre, that somehow worked perfectly. Why are Keyblades not? "That aside, how are we going to get this little one into the church with our heads attached?" Nicolas asked. “Uh…” I thought. “How much do you know about magic?” I started slowly, reaching into my pocket to put on that Angel Armory Ring Trinity got me a long ass time ago. "Just that the church burns anyone who is believed to practice it." Nicolas said. “Um...what god do they believe in?” I asked curiously. "God, this is Spain my friend, there is no other, and any who say so are, as expected, burned at the stake." “Ah yes…” I muttered, remembering that this was way before what happened. “That God.” I said while staring up into the sky accusingly, having a feeling Keyblades not working is because of his crap. "It's best if we wait for night to try the church. I'll be back with a wagon to hide him in. My father in law is quite the eccentric, so he won't inform the church about our new friend. Oh, speaking of. I am Nicolas. Nicolas Ventral, and you are?" “Names...Kite.” I said, using my Sly Cooper name instead of my actual name cause being called ‘King’ in this day and age would just be a little weird. “And it’s nice to meet you.” "Kite. What an unusual name." They said, taking leave into the village, leaving me here alone with eight. Eight was just… wait when did they get a fire pit made and… is that rabbit stew? “Alright you…” I sighed out. “Why are you acting like this if I may ask?” I asked while sitting down at the fire pit. They didn't say anything, steering their stew and waiting. “Is it because he got to you first?” I asked curiously. They shook their head. “Well then...what’s wrong?” I asked honestly. “Is it because of how I look?” I asked curiously. They shook their head. “Then what’s wrong?” I asked honestly. They didn't speak, rather, used their foot and Drew an X in the dirt. “An X?” I asked curiously. “What do you mean?” They shook their head, finding a small stick and drawing a heart, a keyhole inside it, and a line connecting the x and the heart with a keyhole in it… not and x, a Key. “So you want to either...lock or unlock this world’s heart or a person’s heart?” I asked curiously. They nodded. “Ugh… Fucker can throw a rock.” Paladin said, walking over to us and sitting down. “Already informed about all this, perks of time based abilities.” “So do you know why Keyblades can’t be summoned?” I asked curiously. “Yeah. This reality is made similar to how Admins do, but uses the sleeping worlds as it’s foundation. Powered and made it’s own by his heart, and his rules. And he ruled No Keyblades. However, certain things still have to exist no matter the world, and multiverse and Keyholes on each world to it’s heart. Without Keyblades though it’s impossible to access them. So, this little punk wants to unlock it?” “Yes he does.” I said while looking up into the sky. “I doubt I can just call God and he’ll drop down to say hi right?” “You were saying?” I jumped, seeing the old man, well, yeah still old man standing behind us. He looked more like how the bible says, old man, long white robe, long white hair and beard. “What are you two doing here?” “Because of this little guy.” I said while pointing to the Mushroom. “And because he won’t leave until we either lock or unlock this world’s heart.” “I locked every worlds heart here when I created these worlds, why would he want to unlock it, that would cause an explosion of light and call forth darkness. Heartless and many other things I keep out of this place will enter, and Keyblades will become usable here. Is this because of Nicolas?” God asked, Mushroom eight nodded. “Why? Why? Unum wanted him safe, and away from his heritage.” “Well he’s going to learn about it sooner or later.” I shrugged. “He is never supposed to know about it.” “Well he’s going to have to learn at least something cause this guy won’t leave until he unlocks the Keyhole.” I frowned. “Paladin here can deal with all the timey wimey bullshit that that whole thing causes.” “Ugh.” Paladin huffed. “If I have to, mass memory wipes and rebuilding. Not fun but oh well, this job isn’t always easy. Bosses gonna drown me in paperwork after all this.” “To be honest, your work sounds like it’s bogged down by too much needless work.” I said honestly. “And this is coming from a King, your jobs should be more hands on, not bureaucratic bullshit and too much paperwork.” “We’re our own kingdom. Tell me, King, a kingdom does not thrive without laws, rules and regulations. Those who inforce and those who govern, and those who do both. We’re our own society because we are not applicable in time. One of us, ten of us, hundreds of us can die, and yet you’ll see us still, after watching us die. We are all Paradoxes, our existence is needlessly complicated, so our lifestyle and government should be also.” “I didn’t say you don’t need laws, I’m just saying that it’s getting bogged down from what you people actually need to do, which is make sure time isn’t fucked eight ways from sunday.” I said simply. “But I understand your point.” “I do not approve of this in the slightest.” God said. “If you didn’t, then why let Nicolas keep that Wayfinder?” Paladin asked. God kept silent. “... It’s not just a Wayfinder… It’s all that’s left of Unum. A shard, a hairlike shard of her heart, with him at all times. It’s also what keeps Keyblades from working within a fifty mile radius of Nicolas, so long as he keeps it with him.” I looked at Paladin, wondering if I can tell him that Unum is in fact alive in the One Piece world...just as a pitch black skeleton. Even while under the hood, Paladin didn’t need to speak, or shake their head. I can’t. “So that’s why. Oh… Oh, that’s how you gave Heart his X-blade, so many centuries later.” “Zeke Ventral, yes, so, he goes by Heart when I set him free?” God asked, looking over at me. “My reality, my timelines, mine to watch and know. Sadly I can only see up to then, and after that it’s a mystery.” Paladin laughed. “You used her Heart Shard to MAKE his heart balanced, to hold the X-blade.” “Better in his hands than in others.” God huffed. “True.” I shrugged. “But let me ask...if this actually happened, why wasn’t there any Keyblades or Heartless when I was born?” I asked curiously. “In this reflection, their… CAN be, but I can control it. Think of it like this, the reflections I created are in a circle, divided like slices of pie, drawing power from my heart to even exist. Lay the circle over my heart, you can see that the ways the reflections play out correlate with their location on my heart, this one resides along the lines where the light and darkness in my heart meet, but the dark side is less than the light, not a perfect split. There is more light than darkness here, but darkness nonetheless. If the Keyhole here is unlocked, Heartless and all that comes with it, Unversed, Dream Eaters, Nobodies, all flood this reality, and break Unum’s last wish.” “Sounds about right.” I said, “So why does this little guy want to open it?” I asked while motioning to the Mushroom. “Mothers Rules.” We all looked, seeing… Eight can talk?! “Monsters to battle man, so man does not conflict against man. She hates war, so war with beast, monsters, puts views and ideals into perspective.” “You can fucking talk?!” Paladin yelled. “When the fuck could you, or any of you, talk!?” I complained. “We can. We just don’t like to.” EIght said, still stirring the stew pot. “The others, forgot what life was like back then. When Mother came to power, there were no wars, none with bloodshed at the hands of fellow life. Monsters to kill, prizes to earn, it was enough to keep people of all races working and living together peacefully. The wild untamed lands ripe with victories of slain monsters people by the hundreds would come together to slay, win the prizes, and deaths were mourned without the hunt of the murderer.” “Also...because you sound exactly how you all act…” I muttered to myself. “But that sounds...very intriguing. And I’m going to help make sure that you remember the joy back then, where people can enjoy life and win...not busy hating each other.” “So that’s why.” God sighed. “The wars, the bloodshed, you came here, saw it, and hated it.” “Who wouldn’t? Vincent sure did.” “And then a lot of other assholes throughout history…” I sighed out. “What do you mean Vincent did?” Paladin asked. “Vincent is older than you all think. Counterpart to the Admin of Life, and a Cycle one Admin. Beings like me from that long gone era can recognize each other without a second glance.” “And...you let him have a full range of time travel why and how?” I asked simply. “In the end, he is a brother to us as the rest of my kind. A Dying race. Could you kill your own family? Even if they could kill you and not care?” “I mean, technically Vincent is my father in law, and just for Vincent yes, I would make sure to use his skull as a personal wine glass.” I stated bluntly. “Then you don’t know the love one can have for someone you’ve known since this reality first came into existence.” Eight sighed, dropping the spoon into the pot. “I guess you have some questions now, right?” “A few, yeah.” Paladin said. “Why yes, I do have several questions as we completely segway past ‘Vincent is an irredeemable douche canoe’.” I said simply. “So...just for my sake, why are you and the others not hosting your ‘Trial mini games’? One of you is in a special place I’m not allowed to say in front of him.” I motioned to God. “But why not the rest? Bored or just wanted to play hide and seek?” “Mother created us each, unique and able to give rewards for those who perform admirably in our trials, some small some fortuitous. Thirteen, was different. Our little brother gives prizes one's Heart desires, the rest are either useful things to come later in their life, or filler. As you saw first hand, he brought back Lake, Heart’s light half, the same way Cript brings back others.” “Time plucking. Five seconds before they die is where he has his window, but in that window, hundreds of seconds of that person to save.” Paladin said. “Yes. When we are all together in the same trial, the prizes we offer aren’t just mere prizes, impossible items that either no longer exist or are impossible to get we can gift to the victor. I can see your desire King, you seek Mother's heart. Yes?” “Either that or Beliefs Body.” I said simply. “Either of those things can hopefully end Void Mother’s rampage before it’s too late…” “Even so, there is still the threat of Vincent and his grand plan.” “What, his true Nexus and some C.R.I.P.T’s?” Paladin asked. “Ah yes, going back to that plot line of ‘Vincent murders someone too important and all of existence just ends’.” I said, “No resets, no nothing, it just all ends am I correct?” “No. That’s all just how he distracts from the grand plan. I was there the day, the day he looked at our world, our home, and saw that even with Mothers hard work, people still killed one another, took advantage of the life they live. He was sickened, and so for countless years he worked on a way to end it all truly. This reality, even if the next cycle Mother and Belief die, is built to reset and correct the original event that lead to it. Life goes on, as they say. So, he built something that resists the resets.” “No… No…” Paladin said, sitting up. “Well I have a bad feeling about this, Paladin mind explaining?” I asked. “There is only one thing that can resist a Reset, a Null reset… Grey.” Eight nodded. “Vincent created Grey. And for all these countless years, let it build and build, so when it fills the storage drive, the reset fails, and the machines will fry. And that will be the final end for us all.” “So, when you talk about the FIRST Cycle… you mean, the litteral, first Cycle.” Paladin said. “Day one when this all turned on.” “Yes. Each time the glitch occurs, Vincent lets… some of us, seek safety in the grey. Somewhere he still cares, however little. Maybe he just does it so we can bear witness, whatever the case, we are grateful for it.” “Maybe because…” I sighed out. “Maybe it’s because of Life herself...he keeps you thirteen around and several others because Life is the only joy he’s found in his damned existence so...why not help some of the people who he sees would support Life, like the Mushroom 13 or several others...but that begs the question on why did he try to murder Eclipsa so many times if she’s the physical embodiment of Grey?” “It’s not like he can kill her anyway. Eclipsa, Marcy, Collen, Aurther, Kira. Names they’ve taken over the years. He did not expect his creation to gain sentience, but in the end it played out to his advantage. The more grey they use, the more they also create, and the faster the storage drive fills up. In a sense Vincent is also their father, their maker.” “Cause that’s what I need, Vincent pulling a Bob Ross and ‘making a happy little accident’.” I rolled my eyes. “So, considering you know a lot...would making Grey it’s own storage space be a bad idea? Considering your one of the few beings that’s probably lived through all this garbage.” “Hmm… It could be possible. Convert the energy into physical addons to the Storage Drive. But only Truth would know for certain.” “Ah yes, that asshole.” I frowned. “And one of the things the fucker omitted from the ‘oh hey, you’ll learn everything I deem fit because you became deathless’.” I rolled my eyes. “Either way, only they can have that answer. So, figure out what to trade.” “I’d rather stab the fucker in the neck than go back there.” I frowned. “Besides, I don’t need Truth to know that this can work, it’s been done before several times through...well I was about to say ‘fictional history’ but it’s more ‘history’ considering our circumstances.” “There is… one option, I believe can be of use.” “And what idea is that?” I asked curiously. “I am sure you know of the Ethernet, correct?” “Barely, and Cript and Lord are already on that little bit.” I pointed out. “It’s a pathway to other machines, other creations. With luck, they can have more than one, or even better, one that’s already dead, you can study and replicate. And then of course, there is also the Non Existent. Their access to this… other side of the coin can help in some way.” “Ah yes, things that you’re saying and expecting me to know about.” I said, “The fuck is a Non Existant? Besides the obvious by name.” “The beings the Dream Project Vincent worked on tried to replicate. Capable of traversing this side of the coin and the other. Only one of their kind. It was the Nonexistent who built the machines, so one can fix them.” “Oh, you mean Sarah?” I asked curiously. “If memory serves, Eclipsa mentioned something about her when she...passed through the Dream Gate as it were.” “Artificial as she is, she still has the same powers as one. Find her, not even Truth can deny her orders or modifications.” “That’s useful.” Paladin said. “So about the parts where Project Dream either let you go to the real world or become an eldritch abomination?” I asked curiously. “The fuck is with that?” “No one knows how the Nonexistent work, how they do what they do, all that’s known is that they are a league above even Mother.” “I mean, I learned some of that when I did my own digging into the project after Joy burned it with Krot...who knew trying to go past the fourth wall was such an achievement.” “Such a place is not meant for beings like us. It controls the big and small of our reality, all working in an organized chaos.” “Sounds about right.” I nodded. “Breaking the fourth wall in words is one thing...actually going past that is a completely different story.” The mansion Nicolas lived in with his wife and father in law was… big. Reminded me of when we lived in the castle of the two sisters. “Father.” Nicolas said, greeting a large fat man in gold and silk clothing. “Nicolas, the doctor who keeps my heart pumping and my bloodline going!” He said with a hearty laugh and smile. “How was the search for herbs?” “I ran into someone and their… unique friend.” He moved aside, showing my and eight. “A stranger in my home… and their equally strange creatures. How fun!” He said, lifting a large bottle and taking a drink. “I’ll hear this story at supper. Till then, take one of the guest rooms strange man and beast, my home for today is yours.” “Thank you sir.” I said with a small bow of courtesy. “I’ll endeavor to be a good guest.” “Then best get drunk.” They said, walking up to me and handing me their bottle. The strong scent of wine coming off of it. “A good guest is a drunk guest in my house.” They said, giving me a pat on the arm as they headed off. “As you can see, my father in law is very eccentric. If it wasn’t for his donations the church would have kicked him out of the village years ago.” Nicolas said. “Come, I’ll lead you two to the guest rooms.” “Thank you.” I nodded while following Nicolas to the guest room. As Nicolas showed me to the guest room, I saw his wife, Sofia, pregnant, largely so. “Triplets, has to be for being only three months and so large.” Nicolas said, pride in his tone. “For never having a family of my own, I’m glad to have this chance to make one.” I held back my worry about the future considering...what I’ve learned about Ventral’s history. “Congratulations, I hope your children live happy healthy lives.” “Same.” Nicolas said. Supper was tasty, the in law of Nicolas can eat. Once night fell Nicolas, myself and eight headed towards the church. Arriving and sneaking in was easy. Once higher up we came to the rafters area, where I spotted it. In the cracks of the wall, shaped a misshapen keyhole image. “That’s… an interesting crack formation.” Nicolas said. “Weirdly misshapen but...that’s a Keyhole alright…” I muttered. “Now the only problem is...how the hell we’re going to get a Key for it when it wasn’t working before.” Eight began jumping and slapping the keyhole. “Hm, perhaps something is missing?” As I walked over to the Keyhole, a tad frustrated, I hit it lightly… there was a click… Wait, Right! Heart made me a living X-blade too… Duh! The keyhole began to glow, surprising Nicolas as suddenly a beam of light hit Nicolas, his necklace wayfinder glowing before an image of Unum appeared. “Woah!” He said, backing up. “Hello, my son.” Unum’s image said. Is this… a message? “If you are seeing this, then your life did not turn out as I had hoped. It means the dangers of your true home have reached you, and my efforts were in vain to save you. Once this message is over, what I have passed onto you, will be yours to keep and use. Please, I… I am sorry, I gave you up. You and your brother. Please, despite what the world will hold for you now, keep what makes you happy close. The light of your heart and your love will give you strength. I love you, my child.” Unum’s image faded out, Nicolas’s necklace glowing as the silhouette of a Keyblade. It’s shaped like golden and marble columns, the grip shaped much like Kingdom Key. “What… was that… mother?” Nicolas asked. “You have a brother?” I asked slowly, never hearing anything about this especially when I remember Joy physically living through Yen Sid’s memories. “But...yes, that was your mother…” “And… this?” Nicolas asked, picking up the Keyblade. My hud scanned it. Keyblade: Mothers Love Att:8 Def:5 Mag:5 Special Ability: Critical Clash - Every time you deflect a strike, your next strike is always critical. “That’s...interesting.” I hummed to myself. “So...that’s...a lot of things to unpack at once…” “What is this thing?” Nicolas asked. “That is a Keyblade...an ancient weapon used to ward off Evil…” I said while thinking for a moment. “It’s...basically an angel’s sword, but shaped like a Key cause it can also do Key things.” “My mother was an angel?” Nicolas asked seriously. I was about to explain how that was not true, but there was a sudden boom. The stained glass shattering towards us. Rushing over to the hole, Heartless began running around. All kinds. “What are they?! Demons?!” “Technically?” I said sheepishly, not really sure what to say. “It’s...basically their darkness inside a person’s heart given physical form. It’s really complicated, it makes no sense, and how good are you at wielding a sword?” I asked as I was thankfully able to summon No Heart after Unum’s message. “I have some skills. Church raised me, but not well enough.” Nicolas said, looking at their Keyblade. “Let’s hope you are a fast learner then.” I said while jumping out of the window and stabbing a Wyvern Heartless swiftly and killing it. “Come on.” I said while a card platform appeared near the window for him to hop on. “So much for sorcery being the devil's acts.” They said, jumping on the card with me as we landed. “Which is weird cause Angel’s are just as magic as Demons but religion says they are not.” I said while putting on my Angel Armory Ring. “Now a nifty thing I figured out. Descend my Einherjar!” I called, raising my hand up high as holy light started to appear from the sky, dozens of angelic constructs descending on alabaster wings, shining armor and swords covered in holy flames and Nothingness thorns. “Cleanse the Heartless from these Lands!” I commanded as the angels flew down in formations as they started to due battle with the growing number of Heartless. “That’ll help stop any that get out of the area, so mind if I start training you to actually use that thing?” I asked as we both got to the ground. “By God’s true name!” Nicolas said. “That is my true name.” God said, appearing between us, scaring Nicolas who immediately bowed down in respect. “I hate when they do that.” “I mean...you are literally God.” I said honestly. “I’m aware of the irony.” God said, pulling Nicolas up and summoning his own Keyblade. It looked like Start Seeker, but held gold and black over blue and white on it’s primary colors. “Come on, Paladin will need time to get the memory wipe spell ready. After that I can repair all the damage.” “I presume you saw Unum’s message?’ I asked curiously while cleaving a Defender in half even through the shield. “I see everything here… Yes.” He said, spinning and cleaving an Invisible in half. “Use that Keyblade right Nicolas, for your mother and father's sake.” “My father? DId you know him?” Nicolas asked God. God just grinned. “Sure do, dumb ass is my brother.” God said, heading off at a Horde of flying Heartless, leaving Nicolas to short out mentally at that information. “Trust me...it makes about as much sense as you’d think.” I said nervously. “Uhhhh….” I sighed out. "Listen, do I need to slap you to get you back under control?" The battle went about largely uneventful. Nicolas fought pretty good actually, even did an accidental Strike Raid. Once they were all clear God locked the Keyhole back up and Paladin wiped the memories. With a Thanos snap God fixed all the damages. Eight went back to the others, their mission done. Nicolas and I stood outside his home. “So, I come from a place filled with… demons but not exactly demons, the powers of divines are within grasp of man, god is my uncle, and this is what my mother left me?” He asked, summarizing all of it up and showing me his Keyblade. “It’s...a lot more complicated than that, but an extremely long and convoluted story short, yes.” I said honestly. “She...honestly hoped you didn’t have to be apart of this...but sometimes wishing for the best doesn’t really work sometimes…” “Hm.” They said, looking at the Keyblade, then to me. “You come from her world then, don’t you?” “I...can’t really explain much, but yes I do. So did Eight and God.” I said honestly, the damage was already being done so why not. “Hm. Here.” They said, handing me their Keyblade. “My mother didn’t want this life for me, so I will honor that wish. Return this to your world, her world. It belongs there, not here.” “Well I’m gonna have to check with your uncle to see if Heartless won’t just appear again.” I said honestly. “Yo, so no Heartless or anything will be dropping into this world again right?” I asked God curiously. “None now that the Keyhole is locked again.” God said with a nod. “Alright.” I nodded. “But...are you sure you want to give up your mother’s gift to you?” I asked curiously. “Her gift to me was this world, without monsters or men with the powers of god. She left this to me in case the worst happened, and thanks to you, and God himself, they are gone, and will no longer be a threat. This weapon will just collect dust in my hands. Yours though, it can slay the evils it was made to hunt. Please, as my wish, take it.” I sighed out while taking the Keyblade. “Alright...I’ll respect your wish.” I said gently. “Thank you, even if we never see one another again, may we keep one another in our memories.” Nicolas said with a bow. He headed back inside. Paladin opened a portal. Number nine was on a dead earth, year 7098. Whole place was messed up from a solar wave that roasted the world. Nine just sat at a cliff's edge, a large view over the burned landscape. “Howdy.” I said while sitting down next to the mushroom. “How are you doing?” They said nothing, looking at me then nodding. Poofing off. Mushroom ten was on Earth 99432L, year 2002. Overall it was just like my earth and Hey! Kingdom Hearts in stores still. Oh yeah, it did launch in 2002. Wow, they have merch and such to go with it already. “God I feel so old…” I muttered. “Sure it’s been...thirty plus years for me but it’s only been ten years since kingdom hearts one came out before I went to Equestria…” Needless to say, I bought it all, and a new ps2… among other games. Mushroom ten was atop a shopping mall, happily eating a hotdog and slurpee. “Enjoying your food?” I asked the Mushroom curiously. They nodded, offering me the rest of their hot dog. “Nah, I’m good.” I said with a raised hand. “Enjoy your food.” They nodded, finishing their food before poofing off. Number eleven was on the sun itself back home… for some reason… Being able to walk on the surface of the sun is such a strange experience. Thought kind of cool. The SUN has colonies and dungeons too. Neat. “Oh, hello King!” I turned seeing Genos here… huh. “What are you doing here Genos?” I asked curiously. “Training! The hottest fires forge the strongest of metals! And fighting fire with fire in this place puts me at a disadvantage, meaning the more I fight and win the hotter and stronger I become!” They declared proudly. “Sounds about right.” I said honestly. “So where’s the Mushroom Eleven?” I asked curiously while looking around. Paladin pointed… a wood outhouse on the sun… not gonna ask. The door then was thrown open. Somebody once told me-! “No!” I shouted while the music cut out quickly. “None of that!” I shouted as I stared up at the sky and pointed at nothing accusingly. “Shame on you.” I frowned as I walked towards where the Mushroom should be. Mushroom eleven blew me a raspberry in anger, then poofed off to the others. Mushroom twelve. This one was… Back home. In my throne room actually. It sat on my throne and waved at me. "Hey there little guy. What are you doing here?" I asked curiously. He nodded, suddenly there were two of him… then five, then ten, then sixty… Alert!: Challenge Entered! Slay 1,000,000,000 Mushrooms in one minute. “Seems...oddly specific.” I said while drawing my weapons. “But very needed.” I said as I vanished and cleaved through thousands of Mushrooms in barely any amount of time. This was kinda fun. A few got away from me but overall all I got the billion in forty seven seconds. Back in the throne room, twelve clapped happily and poofed off, leaving me a treasure chest. "Cool." I said before opening the chest. "I wonder what's inside." Inside the chest was- "Ouff!" "Ouch!". I took a moment to register the two hot den mother dire wolves before me… recognizing them and their colors as Rejection and Acceptance. My light and darkness. "So that's what a physical body feels like?" Acceptance said, getting up. "Yup, that's it." Rejection said. Shape wise and looks they were basically my triplet sisters, color wise Rejection was pitch black fur and Acceptance was snow white. "Well...this is...something." I said slowly. "Why?" "Don't asked us." Rejection said, getting up and helping Acceptance and I up. "One second we're resting in your heart, next we're here in… some seriously sexy bodies." Rejection said, getting a good look at themselves. "Perhaps it's a message." Acceptance offered. "All hands on deck for the wars to come, yes?" "I mean...I suppose." I said nervously. "But why would my light and dark half need to be physical for this?" "Extra hands? I dunno but a fighter is a fighter in my experience." Rejection said. "Yeah, that's about right." I sighed out. "So how do you like your new bodies?"asked. "I'm enjoying the Assets." Rejection said, squeezing their own boob and giving a slap to their own ass. "If it works it's perfect. So I take it these mean we are in the family and Like you?" Acceptance asked, showing they and Rejection has rings from the family on their fingers, and gems on their chests. "Yes and yes." I nodded. "Alright...so now to do Hearts Absent Silhouette again….cause that wasn't a pain to begin with." I frowned. "You mean that?" Rejection said, looking outside the window. Outside, floating above the castle itself, was a small floating shrine of sorts pulsating with the energy of an Absent Silhouette. “Oh…” I frowned. “When the hell did that get there?” I asked bluntly. "Ten seconds ago." Paladin said, walking up to me. "The long forgotten Arena of Honor. The Mushroom Thirteen's original stadium. On top of fighting them you have to fight all of their champions. Or rather, their Absent Silhouettes. To get Void Mother's Heart, you have to beat them all." “And Nothingness Belief’s body?” I asked curiously. “Cause from what I was told Void Mother keeps her heart under lock and key.” "Same. To get the impossible, you have to beat the impossible. Those Silhouettes will be just shy of the real deal at full power, but still powerful." “Alrighty then, sounds about right.” I said, “Well...I suppose I’m going to have to stay there for a long ass time…” "Good luck." Paladin said, taking leave. To be continued...
Nobody does the fusion dance...a lotWe completed a lot of challenges, even managing to boost our base stats and such some. Not by much but enough. We all could slay these things easily by the thousands, and Coco has grown to meet us. While she is still weaker than us, she is strong enough to now take a few hits from us. With this progress, we reached the boss room. “Alright, boss time.” I said while readying myself for a fight. “God it feels good to actually be back at full strength and not under that challenge.” “Heck yes.” Kexez said, popping their joints. “By the way, remind me to let you swallow me more often. Your tongue gives a good boob massage~” “That doesn’t sound weird at all…” I muttered to myself as I opened the boss room door. “Alright, so now that we don’t have the limiter on...this boss is probably gonna get one shot.” Entering the boss floor, it looked like we were high in the clouds, clouds passing by us as the coffin lid was thrown open, the lovely daylight look it had shifting to night as Celestia raised up, her wings unfurling. Decayed and rotten, she lifted a large Claymore and the fight began. “Alright.” I said while grabbing Second Chance and started moving towards the queen carefully, not sure what she’s capable of and I didn’t want to get caught off guard. Her wings opened up to full span, their length easy fifteen feet. She flapped them down, the gust of wind mixed with decayed feathers that stung but did little damage, though they did poison, surprisingly. She then spun around, slashing her sword and the shockwave of wind lifting all members into the air. “Alright, so that’s a thing.” I said before bringing out Lindworm. “Let’s see how you handle this.” I said before raising my hand as wind lances shot out towards the queen. With elegant movements she deflected each spear thrown, spinning her sword as lightning and fire burst along it’s blade. Kexez went in for a ranged shot, one she deflected before charging him at high speeds. Kexez managed to block it, but the impact sent them against the wall, holding her back. “Bitch has a kick.” Kexez grunted. “Alright.” I said slowly, looking over the lady. “Well let’s start burning her.” I said while bringing out Eternal Flames as flames sprouted forth as I threw them both at her. Kexez dodged in time, Celestia becoming engulfed in the fires. This however, while damaging her let loose a dense poison miasma into the air. Coco kept coughing, Kexez grew Dizzy, Jericho and I were the only ones unaffected, but the density made scent or sight impossible for me I rolled my eyes while pulling out my Lexicon. “Greater Remove Poison.” I said, the tomb glowing as the poison started to dissipate at a steady rate. “Alright, where did it go…” I muttered while looking around for her as sight was becoming clearer. In a sudden blur, Jericho was hit, sent into the wall but crawled out before Celestia could impale him. She then flew high up above them, wings spread open as she started to charge energy, and released it suddenly. It rained down white fire, the air becoming thin as the oxygen burned away fast. The heat along did damage to my group, the fire when hits dealt some damage to me. Nothing horrible, but it stung like hell. “Okay okay, you had your fun.” I said, as I vanished and appeared near Celestia and swung Second Chance swiftly. Using her wings, blocked it, a rapid twist to yank it out of my grip and simultaneously spin kick me up into the ceiling. “So the scailing was a fucking lie.” I said as I lifted my hand and Second Chance appeared in my hands. “Don’t you just love it when you actually train and it means fuck all?” I grumbled, vanishing before appearing behind Celestia and grabbing the base of her wings. “Sorry lady, wings are pretty and all,” I said as I pierced through the metal that was protecting it. “But these have got to go.” I said before starting to rip them off at the base. She let out a high pitched scream. Suddenly, the entrance doors began to bang, shaking as something wanted in. "That… can't be good." Coco said, the door bursting open as all the Celestials rushed in blindly and by the thousands to aid their fallen ruler. I stabbed the Queen with Second Chance right in the chest, having dealt the final blow so that should both make her an infant and stop the floor from doing stuff. To my surprise, it started a chain reaction. Every Celestial here proofing into infancy also. All floating down to the ground. "Okay you are helping me with this one King." Kexez said, half buried under the infants. “Huh…” I said slowly as I picked up baby Celestia. “That’s...interesting.” I said while gently nuzzling my new daughter. “And this is going to take a while…” "Down the hatch and to the nursery." Kexez said, starting to swallow them here, and take them out in the nursery back home. This will be a while. “I’m sorry I didn’t know that this would happen…” I said nervously while helping Kexez out...and even with my new biology and me having gotten used to this still felt slightly weird. When it was done and all the babies were in the nursery, it definitely gave me an experience. The rewards were the usual loot. And a ton of those feathers. “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “Now that that’s done with, let’s get to the next floor.” Floor 15 This floor was nice. Looked just like… Destiny Islands… who the heck could this be? “Well….anyone got a clue who this could be?” I asked curiously. "Nope." Coco said. "No." Jericho replied. "Nothing that comes to mind." Kexez sighed. “Hooray…” I sighed out while continuing down the path. “Let’s hope it’s someone we know at least…” "Safe Room then." The enemies here were all Heartless Surprisingly. None seemed to obey my orders, my command over them shared with Heart seemed to mean nothing to them. This dungeon must be the reason. There were all kinds and of all strengths but over all easily slain. We came over to a few random chests with typical Kingdom Hearts game loot in them. The safe room was actually the main area of Destiny Island. I was about to head to the book when. Something fell on me. Turning I saw… Kexez naked and enjoying a soak in the 'ocean' water… what fell on me was their clothes. "I'm not a clothes rack." I frowned while dropping there clothes on the ground. Checking the book, I got a bit worried. Eve, Embodiment of Darkness. "Why the hell is she here?" I asked worriedly. "Cript's plan IS to break time, that could be how?" Jericho offered. “That doesn’t really explain how Eve is here when she’s apart of Kingdom Hearts in...most likely every timeline all things considered…” "Hmm emotions." Kexez spoke up. "Like Rejection was your Joy until you reclaimed him, and he gained a true body. The parts of your heart, light and dark are made up of emotions, negative and positivepositive. Eve must be a primary Negative emotion in Heart's heart now." “I guess…” I said, “Oh...also I found all thirteen Organization Mushrooms and...number twelve decided to give my light and dark halves bodies...don’t know why but they’re part of the family now.” I shrugged. “Oh, also their Arena is now above the castle....don’t know how, but it’s there.” "Sounds like fun. Now you're gonna take a soak or what?" Kexez asked, the waves half burried them and their upper half elevated by a sand chair. "This is basically my first time at a beach as me, and I'm gonna enjoy it." "And you'd prefer a nude beach?" Coco asked. "Your choice. Not like we got swimsuits anyway." I rolled my eyes. “Well...I haven’t been to a beach in a long time.” I said while taking off my cloak. “I don’t see the harm in it.” We all undressed and had some fun. All the views were nice. Kexez mostly just sat half in the water and sunbathed, Coco and Jericho crafted a leather ball from some items we got from random loot, and played a makeshift Volleyball. I brought out my Lexicon and did some reading, like Kexez, half in the water and semi sunbathing. In the back of my mind I could see this as a perfect photo op for back home. Granted we'd need swimsuits on but still. At some point I allowed Coco and Jericho to half bury me in sand. I didn't mind, it felt nice, even if they didn't purposefully keep my breasts uncovered and set up to look lewd. They did the same to Kexez who also didn't mind. It amazed me how content they were to just lay there still without doing anything. I know they aren't asleep, their eyes are wide open. “Is it because your part Naga that you just enjoy sunbathing?” I asked Kexez curiously. "No. In a way, it reminds me of back when I didn't exist. Back when I was just Heart's body and not Kexez. I didn't have my own awareness, or will, or anything. All the memories I have from them I look back on now and realize I've been staring through someone else's eyes. Never being alive myself. Looking through my own eyes now, as my own person, I wonder how I ever lived like that." “You get used to it.” I shrugged. “It’s a weird feeling, but you get over it kind of quickly.” "Heh… yeah. Heads up." Kexez kicked their tail end up, flicking a fish right into my open mouth. Not bad. "Sweet! We can fish here!" Jericho said, bringing out a fishing pole. "This floor is the best one out of the whole dungeon." Coco said happily, sunbathing now herself further on the beach. “That’s neat.” I said honestly. “So are we going to be stuck here for another week or two or will we actually keep progressing?” "Just a few more hours. Just long enough to have a nice sex scene." I chuckled. “Alright alright.” I said simply. “Let’s blow off some steam real quick before continuing.” "Let's make it fun then." Kexez said with a smile. In a flash of magic the sand on us was gone. Their tail talking Coco onto me, laid on her back, To then Jericho on top of her, and then they got up, squishing them between our assets as they began kissing me passionately. I could feel Coco and Jericho get comfy between us as certain members began rising. I couldn’t help myself as I just hugged all three of them happily and kissing Kexez back lovingly. I felt myself reach full mast and blindly found myself a certain Floof noodles inner tunnel, thrusting in. Kexez moaned loudly, breaking our kiss and thrusting upwards a little. This caused Coco to moan loudly as I could feel the bulge Kexez's member made inside her. Seeing her and Jericho between us, Jericho took a ride on Coco's shaft completing out little orgy as the movements began, causing a chain of pleasure between the four of us. “I love you all…” I said to all three of them happily, thrusting into Kexez a little more strongly as I reached around and grabbed Jericho’s dick, not wanting him to feel fully left out and started to rub it with my soft and silky hands. "Oh wow~" Jericho moaned out. The heated session of passion lasted an hour first to climax was Coco, her already stretched insides pressuring harder on Kexez's member. Her member also released inside Jericho, the result created a similar result, and Jericho came on my upper breasts and face. Kexez and I finished together, Coco swelling like a balloon and Myself pumping it all inside Kexez. When he slid off of us, the sweat and musk was heavy. Suddenly I felt a familiar wetness wrap around me. Kexez's tongue wrapping around all of us as they began swallowing. Back inside, Kexez's belly was now back to how it was before. Makes sense as all the new additions are home. Snuggly we were, Coco and Jericho between my breasts and myself and them inside Kexez. I felt them coil up, hugging us through their scales. “This is nice.” I said warmly. "A quick nap then." Jericho said, using a breast of mine as a pillow. Coco did the same, her currently bloated form looking pregnant with a litter of pups, or Floof Noodles, rather. Out of a mix of desire and mothering I licked Coco and Jericho clean, myself where I could reach and set them back to where they were as we drifted off into a light slumber. Waking up Coco no longer looked hyper pregnant. Kexez let us out and gave us each an affectionate kiss. That tongue about deepthroated me. We discovered though the last few floors made our clothes a bit dirty, even mine to my surprise. We washed them off in the water real quick and used Lindworm to rapidly dry them. And we headed back out. “Alright, so after all that, we’re ready to beat Eve.” I said, ready to find Eve and kick her ass. "Wonder how she will be? Didn't Joy fight some version of her?" Kexez asked. “Yeah, Joy fought a version of her as some weird bone armored Darkside.” I said honestly. “God that was a long ass time ago…” "Well, this will be the real deal. Time to see if she lives up to the hype." Jericho said. “I’m pretty sure she will be given she’s the physical embodiment of Darkness and wife to Yen Sid…” I said honestly. As we traveled through this floor, slaying a lot of heartless and getting lots of fun stuff, we came across what looked like a mirror. Coco made the mistake of looking at it, and walking out of it was a silhouette version of herself, weapons and all we had to take down. Beating that thou gave us each a Soul Eater Sword. Apparently it's not considered a Keyblade. “Well that’s interesting.” I said while looking over the sword. “Surprised this doesn’t count as a Keyblade.” "Looks cool though." Jericho said, pocketing the weapon. We looked around more and eventually found the boss room. Inside was the final battleground of Destiny Island from the realm of darkness. The coffin lid flew open, and out came Eve, her Adult form, dressed a lot like Ansem possessed Riku. "Alrighty then." I said while firing a charged shot from Sharpshooters at the lady. She deflected it, raising her own Soul Eater as massive pillars of Dark Tides rose up, each sending hundreds of Shadow Heartless around as she charged at me. Pulling out No Heart our clash echoed out, altering the dark tides and shifting them into one Heartless tornado, much like in KH 3 as it rained heartless. "Well isn't that nifty." I said before forming my Sharpshooter bow. "Let's make it rain!" I shouted as I aimed a purple arrow upwards, letting it loose as the ground cracked beneath me as the arrow flew high above the tornado, and then it split into billions of charged arrows at the Demon Tornado. While my attack did it’s work Eve split into four copies, each clashing with us. Coco and her fought at the heart of that Demon Tornado, Jericho and his Eve clashed in the air, and Kexez and I fought ours back to back on the ground. She was even able to stop Lunatic, she is tough. "Alright. Your tough I'll grant you that." I said before breaking the clash. "Moon Shine Down!" I shouted as I floated in the air and went into a rage. "I call Upon the Pale MoonsLight!" I shouted as Kexez, Jericho and Coco each got an Enraged Lunatic, felt the massive rage boost, as I dual wielded enraged Lunatics. "Bring it!" I roared before good clubbing Eve into the sky. Each quickly reached into their own mouths, sickening cracks and breaking bones as they ripped out their own spines, cloaking them in darkness and shifting them into swords as their backs now broke open, black tendrils whipping around as more powerful Pureblood heartless spawned from the leaking darkness. "Oh...cool." I said while flying after them and swinging both of my Lunatics at the bastards. Weet in another clash. This was going to take too long if she can keep doing this. I thought, pulling Power from Nothingness and Cript. It was a little, barely 25%, but the pulse in extra power pushed her back, and in a rapid speed boost I sliced her copies, and before Eve could counter, Jabbed Second Chance into her. The heartless all around dispersed, the area now looking much like the safe room. Eve's body went up in a blast of darkness as she was regressed, but not to infancy. To young childhood. She was easy four or five. "Wait, why isn't she a baby?" Coco asked. "She's still one of the first children Kingdom Hearts made, remember? Babies didn't exist back then. It was just children." Jericho said. “Well...alright.” I said while picking up the child and nuzzled her gently. She began to stir, waking up and looking at me. "Who… are you? Who am I?" The confusion and loss in her eyes and gone was as plane as night and day, but she didn't seem afraid. “I’m your mother, and you are Eve.” I said gently in a sweet motherly tone. "Mother? What is a mother?" “Well…” I thought for a moment, trying to think of a way to explain it. “Jeez...there’s so many things I can say...but all I can say is that a Mother is a person who takes care of their family.” "What's a family?" I looked over at Jericho, Coco and Kexez worriedly, not sure how to describe such a thing. "That's… well…" Jericho tried. "Family, are people, or even just one person you care about, and you could never live without. People you can always forgive and love." Coco said. “Yeah, that’s about right.” I nodded. Eve seemed to think this over, looking tired suddenly as she fell asleep in my arms. I watched as she shifted from her normal self to a little Den Mother dire wolf in my arms. I gave her a kiss before casting a spell to make sure she didn't wake up for a bit as Kexez took her, sending her home and right into the childhood orb, Kexez and I were her parents now. The loot was actually really good. While the normal stuff was here there was enough Keychains for us to have one of every Keyblade and a drop guide as to which heartless drops which items, a Google Shop summoning Crystal, and a few spouses that were sexy Neoshadow Girls. They could talk and we're not mindless like their beastial counterparts. “Sexy heartless wives...sure.” I chuckled. “Now onto the next floor.” Floor 16 This floor was pretty large. Actually, it looked like a ruined version of Castle Oblivion. Their bright blinding white walls and floor and such dull and dusty, cracking and falling apart. "Creepy…" Kexez said. “Well this is Castle Oblivion for ya.” I said simply. "Who could this one be?" Coco wondered aloud. The really uneasy part of this dungeon… there was not a single enemy here. No loot, no enemies, just… empty. The safe room here was like many others before. The book made us all double take. Kexez the Complete “Uh...that’s a thing…” I blinked, surprised to see Kexez was here of all places. "Woah… so, that's trippy, or is it just me?" Kexez asked. "No that's some meta shit right there." Jericho said. “Probably not but who knows.” I shrugged. "But why are there no enemies here?" Coco asked. “Not sure...maybe Kexez still has some of their own thoughts in here?” I wondered. "Doubt it." Kexez said, half jokingly. "I have an idea, but let's find my coffin first." With that we headed off, finding the boss room and entering. We waited for a while, but the lid never came off. "I knew it." Kexez said, slithering up to the coffin and pushing the lid off, just bones of Kexez were here. "Huh, so that's what my skeleton looks like." “How the hell?” I frowned. “That’s...impossible.” "No, it's entirely possible." Kexez said, pulling the lid back over. "Everyone we fight here is in a sense, an undead. Undead that are filled with malice and anger at the war they died in, where they lost everything. Those emotions are the key ingredient in any form of necromancy. Regrets especially. I died with no regrets. Because I was happy, to just exist as me." "Makes some sense." Jericho said. “Well...alrighty then.” I said honestly. "So, this is just your tomb then." Coco said. Kexez nodded. We headed off, letting the old Kexez continue to rest. Floor 17 This floor was… "Manehattan…" Coco said, looking around. Suddenly shadow creatures began appearing. "This floor… it's mine." She said, taking out her weapons. “How do you know that?” I asked worriedly, pulling out my weapons as well. “It could be anyone.” "That is likely a dead giveaway." Jericho pointed up. In the sky all the clouds were in the shape of the Nexus insignia, the hand with a blue dot. More and more Shadow Creatures began appearing around us in the massive area, and the massive shakes showed those Titan Shadows were here, one knocking over a building as it found us… Not this time fucker. “I’m going to feel way too good about this.” I said before jumping high in the air before swinging No Heart once, cleaving all the Titan Shadow’s in half. Revenge! The shadows that were smaller spawned often and the Titans and their variations spawned every hour or so in groups of four or six. The items they drop very drastically from okay to WTF. The safe room here? Coco's apartment. The book here confirmed it was her floor. Needless to say seeing her old home brought back memories for the mare, who happily walked around it with dreamy eyes. “This place looks nice.” I said honestly. "It was home for a long time." Coco said, looking around. "Nexus education only lasts till we're ten, then it was easy finishing up school on Equestria, and I got this place right after moving out of my parents house." Coco said. “Sounds about right.” I nodded. "Reminds me of when Heart lived Ina rich New York pricks apartment for a week without them knowing." Kexez said with a laugh. We headed on out finding the boss room was the main Park area, Coco's coffin lid flying open as her undead self crawled out. "So, so creepy." Coco shuttered. I thought back to the Eve fight, pulling power from True Nothingness and Cript again. This allowed me to save Coco the undead in one hit, cause as it was this was uncomfortable. Also OH MY GOD! Baby Coco is so freaking cute! “You are absolutely adorable.” I cooed happily while holding Coco’s baby self. Coco scratched the back of her head. "I've always been cute and small I guess." She blushed. Cute and small is right, Coco as a baby fits in my hand with enough room for two more of her! I quickly began feeding her. “Well I’m happy with it.” I said warmly. After baby Coco was fed and burped Kexez took her and sent her along back home. So adorable. The loot here was a mix of the normal stuff, the weapons Coco has now, which she took, and a lot or rare and exotic fabrics and clothes. Just this one bundle of Caluthrian thread seemed to go for seven trillion rem on the Freak Inc Shop. The others around that same ballpark. Coco was almost drooling at seeing all those fabrics. She picked them all, happy to use them when this was all over. “Well looks like I’m going to be modeling soon…” I chuckled. "Model now!" Coco yelled, tackling me and taking measurements of me, crawling around me like a monkey almost. "Someone is excited." Jericho chuckled. “Yes, yes she is.” I chuckled. “And...I’m happy she’s back and happy.” "Hmm… looks like using Cript's power and Pure Nothingness together gives us an advantage. Wanna try something different?" Kexez asked. “How different?” I asked curiously. "Well, remember how for your wedding thing all the others fused into one person?" "I remember that." Coco said. "It was like I was me but also not but also me but my identity was part of a whole other person. Was weird and interesting." "Well, wanna try that out? King has never fused like that before with anyone and frankly I'd imagine the outcome to be quite overpowered and sexy." "It would also give us each a better understanding on how our powers and abilities work." Jericho thought aloud. “Except me, Jericho, Cript, Heart and Eclipsa have already done that fusion thing, we’re just in clone bodies to keep hinsg "Not like that King, we mean also on top of fusing our physical bodies, we also fuse our minds." Kexez clarified. "also that fuse thing you talked about applies to everyone in the family that has a ring on." "Alrighty then...that sounds interesting enough." I said honestly. "So is it like Steven Universe rules or DBZ rules?" "More like Steven Universe but no need for the dancing." Jericho said. "So, ready then?" "Yup." Coco said, climbing off of me. "I'm definitely gonna enjoy this." Kexez said with a nod. "Well...majority rules." I said honestly. "Let's do this." "Ugh. My… our head? Our head? No, my head?" I got up, my body familier and also not, my existence new but also old. I, we? I have King's general body and torso, but… six, six arms, the fluffy tail now a snake, long and thick too. Memories and… identities… mine but also not… What a strange way to wake up. “Well…” I started. “This is a thing.” I said while stretching myself, feeling how my body moves. “This is interesting…” I muttered, deciding to feel myself up as I groped four of my breasts and my ass...oh hey there even bigger than King’s. With that done I summoned King's Lunatic, Jericho's war axe, Coco's scythe she got from the fight with Spoiled, and Kexez's Starlight. That's two free hands still. My, our, no, no, definitely MY. My coordination was both good and bad. Good cause if I use just two arms at a time I attack fine, but all six or even four is a bit more hectic. My tail is very strong though, able to lift me up effortlessly, smash stones and likely other hard things. “Well this is all sorts of interesting…” I muttered. I headed to the next floor. Just from my walking I could tell I was taller than King alone. This next floor seemed to be all ice, Frozen and below zero. Thankfully the coat that comes from King And Kexez helps a lot here, hardly feel it. Enemies made from ice appeared, largely golems and such. Thankfully Eternal Flames works perfectly here. Looking at myself in the reflection of the ice I could see Kexez was right. I am sexy. I noticed where my ears were, they were Pony rather than wolf, likely from Coco, and my eyes were a mix of theirs, Coco, King, Jericho and Kexez. Like a kelidescope almost. I practiced a lot here, while the enemies weren't hard I had to practice using more than one set of arms. While Melee was still a work in progress, having either Sharp Shooters or other ranged weapons in my second or third set of arms helps deal with pesky snipers. I ended up finding a nice set up. I dual wield whatever weapons at the top two, in this case Coco's scythe and Jericho's war axe, the middle two, one holds Frozen Pride, shifting into a Greatsheild form since it's normal size isn't really covering me, and the other arm holds a gauntlet of Kings. Lastly the bottom two hold Sharp Shooters so I can take out ranged and behind opponents, when my tail is busy with other stuff. This set up gave me enough confidence to take on more than three or two opponents. I could easily handle ten or so of the golems, so more shouldn't be too hard. I found the safe room and the family member here is Elsa. I summed that up to Cript or Lyra acquiring them. In the safe room I got a better look at myself… naked. Surprisingly all their clothes fused into one also. I had the eight breasts of King, but larger nipples, I had TWO penises and a rather large entrance to my vagina. Surprisingly, my, there assistant's fused into one also, making my own. According to this I am an unknown race and have four different wombs by default and seven stomachs also by default… huh. Makes sense though one womb per person and given King's skill tree choices and Kexez's race that's the four main bellies then the three Kexez has along their body. Cool. "Well this is cool." I said honestly. "Work out the kinks and it's all good." I enjoyed my body… my body. The thought made me remember I'm the fusion of four people, and they will have to unfuse soon. And… what will happen to me? This question scared me… but I remembered, King is a stubborn one, and they all will remember what I do here as me. If they just make spare starfish clones and fuse them to make me, permanently, then I can exist and so can they! I was happy with this plan. This idea makes me wonder about all the others who can exist from fusions becoming their own people through these starfish clones and all that. The idea excited me, and I almost can't wait for them to unfuse and act on it. “Ah yes, nothing like making yet another race out of thin air just to spite people.” I chuckled while double checking my stats, wondering how strong I am compared to all of the individually. “Might as well double check stats...already checking enough stuff about me anyways.” My HP pool was massive, all four of theirs combined. My stats however, seemed to be averaged out. A bit disappointing but I guess the authors had to draw lines somewhere. Hey! My first fourth wall break! "Cool...but now Kings thoughts are like 'oh hey, what's the point in fusing when it's just more hp?'." I sighed out. "Which is...a valid point...but I'm their new child so who gives a shit." I shrugged. Shaking that off, I decided to experiment a bit more. Using Coco’s void was… so different from King’s Nothingness. I could feel it’s misery and Loneliness from it’s foundation. Summoning Nothingness while using Void cancles both out. I also can’t seem to use void with any of Kings weapons, which makes sense since they are made from Nothingness. "Alrighty then...so now onto the boss." I said, wondering how easy the boss will be given myself being a fusion even if I'm about equal to everyone else normally. As I headed out, getting out my set of weapons and headed off to find the boss room. Finding it I entered. The coffin was also ice. It’s lid flew off as Elsa emerged out in a mist of frost and ice, snow and hail flying everywhere. I swapped out Sharpshooters with Eternal Flames, blasting the heat immediately and melting it all. Elsa tried to raise ice spikes at me, but the heat from Eternal Flames made them melt before they reached. I summoned Second Chance, throwing it into a Strike Raid at Elsa. The hit sending her against the wall and back to Infancy. I grabbed her up fast, her size compared to mine was so tiny, so so tiny. “God, why is everyone so adorable when they are so small?” I muttered. I kissed her, holding her as I sighed. I have to let them be them now, and hopefully, they’ll do what I planned, and let me exist at me. Kexez sent Elsa home, and we all looked at one another. “So, a whole finger or just blood?” Jericho asked. “Just blood will do.” Coco said. “That’s all that is really needed at this point.” Jericho said. “Yeah, Starfish clones are very special.” I said honestly while pricking my finger and letting a drop of blood fall, turning into a Starfish clone of mine. The others did the same. The clones looking at us with a nod and they, we, fused. Before us now was our fusion, looking at us all happily. “Thank you.” She said happily. “Your welcome.” I said warmly. “Hopefully you’ll enjoy your new life Queen.” "Queen… I like that. So… who's swallowing me to send me home?" Kexez and I looked at one another. Queen was HUGE compared to us. Seriously the double doors to enter a boss room for her look like they are normal sized… "I guess I will. But I'm shrinking you first." Kexez said, casting the spell. It shrunk Queen to about the size of Coco. Kexez let go of a breath before sending her down and over to home. "Okay, now for the others." “As in the other fusions?” I asked curiously. "Yeah. Think we're gonna stop there. Plus Lyra will already be doing this with literally everyone else back home the nanosecond she sees Queen so, might as well get a head start." "That is way too true and exactly like Lyra." Jericho confirmed. “Sounds about right.” I nodded. “So...who fuses with who first?” "Well, keeping one out of these fusions at all times, cause otherwise we'll just make Queen again we'll all get six fusions. Six two person fusions, say King and I, and three three people fusions, King, myself and Jericho for example. As for who goes first… let's have King go first. Personally I wanna see how the forms these fusions take turn out." Coco said. "I guess I'll fuse with them first." Kexez said. "already partly dire wolf anyway so I'm expecting to either they look more wolf or just a bigger Floof Noodle." “Either way.” I shrugged. “It’ll still be fun right?” "Oh heck yeah." Kexez said, slithering over to me. "Ready?" “Ready as I’ll ever be.” I nodded. “Let’s get this fusion train rolling.” I woke up feeling… Fluffy. Really Fluffy! I sat up, startling Coco and Jericho. I was higher up than them just sitting down. Wait, am I sitting? In the ice all around I took a good look at myself. Ten, I got ten boobs! Four arms, a long wolf tail but my torso keeps on going to a snake body passed my hind legs. Oh wow, I can walk or slither. Cool! "Even more nipples… should not be surprised." Jericho chuckled. "You're so fluffy...Kinx." Coco said. “Can you maybe not call me that? That sounds...a little weird.” I said sheepishly. “But yes...I am now super fluffy.” "I doubt you could come up with a better name." Jericho said, walking over and looking at me. "Huh. Two tails. One snake, the other wolf, but way bigger than. King's." “King isn’t good with names you should know this.” I said honestly. “But...how do I look besides ‘fluffy’?” "Pretty damn hot." Coco said bluntly. "Definitely boosted on Den Mother stuff. Floof Noodle too. Extra pair of jugs, meaning you are likely a better baby maker than King alone. Hm." Jericho said, pressing into my fluff. "Your fur while soft also feels thicker than King and Kexez's." "Like armor or for extreme colds?" Coco asked. "Most likely." Jericho said. I couldn’t help myself as I just grabbed the two into a hug, letting both fully know the softness that was my extra fluffy fur. “I’m sorry...but both King and Kexez like hugs...so I like hugs even more…” "Heh, that's fair." Jericho said. Coco nuzzled into the breast I squished her against. "You're so warm too. Like a thermal blanket or a cozy fireplace." "Definitely this for is perfect for freezing areas. Heck I can't even feel the chill of this floor against you." Jericho said in agreement. "But, how much Floof Noodle do you have Kix? I removed the N. Any better?" “No idea…” I said while checking my assistant to see how much Floof Noodle I was. "Heh. There is a better option." Coco said, crawling up to my face. “Yes?” I asked while looking at Coco lovingly. She gave me a kiss on my nose, and I opened my mouth. At this moment I realized my tongue was Floof Noodle like as I wrapped it around Coco, pulling her in and swallowed. So that's what that is like for me. Suddenly I got a call from my Assistant. It was Coco. I picked it up. "Okay, so far feels and looks normal." She said, "I take it you can feel her in there?" Jericho asked. “Kind of yeah.” I said honestly. “Are you okay in there Coco? Nothing weird is going on?” "It's a lot more oily here than in Kexez or King's belly, so that's different. I'm gonna crawl further in." I felt Coco moving inside me. The movements felt oddly comforting and pleasurable as she moved further in. I felt her pass through a tight section I wasn't expecting. "Woah! It's another belly. A lot dryer in here, more like Kexez's storing belly." "Must be what that is." Jericho thought. “I mean, should we really be surprised when I’m King and Kexez?” I asked curiously. "Correction. You are Kix, while King and Kexez fused to make you, you are your own person, not just the two of them." Jericho corrected. “Yes I am.” I said, “And Kix demands cuddles when Coco get’s back...cause cuddles are nice.” "Hey guys. There's a fork in the road." Coco spoke. "I have two options here. Left or right?" “Go right.” I said offhandedly. I felt her do just that. I did not expect to suddenly feel her crawling just under my breasts. "Woah! You got boobs under your boobs? This belly, I think it's a belly, has breasts and nipples. Ten just like outside you. Hey there's another thing here." Coco put a hand in there and in pleasure, jumping upright and feeling her hand touch my wombs insides… wait I birth internally? "What was that?" “I...uh...think you just touched...my womb…” I said nervously. "Oh… oh!" Coco said, pulling her arm out. That gave me another jolt of pleasure before I calmed down, and laid on my back again. "So, you birth and feed I internally. That's a good safety tactic for protecting infants in harsh environments. A well made mix between how Floof Noodles and Den Mother Dire Wolves care for their young." Jericho said. “That’s great.” I said warmly. “But...I wonder if this is a new race or an upgraded race…” I hummed while checking my assistant to see if this was a new race or not. Race unknown. New race. Huh, surprising. I felt Coco head back up the first path and now into the other. She slid into my tail. Oh so like a Naga or Floof Noodle I also have those in there. "This one is a bit more tight than the last but it's like silk in here." Coco said. “That’s...interesting.” I said honestly. I felt her crawl to the end of my tail. I actually lifted it up to my face, giving Coco a kiss through my tail. That made her slide back down though. "Woah. That was kinda fun. It looks like you are all stomach, save “I’m all stomach?” I asked curiously. “So many new things to learn with fusions.” I said with excitement. "Makes sense. Like Floof Noodles who while they have stomachs don't need to eat as they are sustained solely on magic. You must be the same in that degree." “Sounds about right.” I said honestly. “So besides that I’m basically a walking talking igloo of fur from what Coco said...do you think Rune figured out that fetish yet?” I asked, considering that people could mate with me inside my body was...a little weird but not entirely wrong. I checked and actually it's inside and out. Huh… "So, if you have Floof Noodle parts, you reach your tongue in and pull me out?" Coco asked. “Um...sure.” I said while trying to do what Coco asked. Swallowing my own tongue was oddly each if not a bit weird, but using it to feel inside. A bit weirder. I found Coco, wrapping my tongue around her and pulling her out. "Woah! That's fun. Hmm." Coco said, hugging my tongue. "Remind me to see what OTHER things this tongue can do~" She said as I brought it back to my mouth. “I’ll make sure to show you all the wonderful things I can do with it.” I giggled. "Well, this is fun. Shall we then?" Jericho asked, holding one of my hands a small needle to it. “So...you need King, Kexez, or me?” I asked while gently pricking my finger and creating a clone of myself from a drop of blood. "King and Kexez. Once they split, your starfish copy is you either way." Jericho said. "You know it's true." Myself said, cuddling up next myself. “Cuddles are nice.” I said warmly. “And I still get my cuddles, yay.” I cheered as I started to split off between King and Kexez. I was cuddling Kix as tightly as I could. Kexez doing the same. "That's adorable." Coco said. “It may be adorable...but cuddles.” I said simply. “So, who’s fusing next?” "First, I'll head home." Kix said, giving me a kiss. And their tongue just deepthroated me. Kexez cast the shrinking spell again and sent them home. "Okay. So keeping with King, I'll go next." Coco said, jumping up to me in a hug. “Yay.” I cheered while catching Coco happily and hugging her. I feel strong. Like, so strong! "That's adorable!" Kexez said, picking me up. Wait, I'm small? I looked at my reflection. I was just slightly bigger than Coco, only have four boobs, pony ears and face but wolf claws, tail and teeth. "Surprised you're so small...Kico." Jericho said. “I’m strong.” I pouted cutely. “Just because I’m small doesn’t mean anything.” "It means you are cute." Kexez said with a chuckle, hugging me tightly. "I have to admit, this is unexpected." Jericho said, looking me over. "Strength is a natural aspect of both Dire Wolves and Earth ponies. Combination of the two might mean your natural strength is more than Coco or King." Jericho took me out of Kexez's hug, setting me down. "Here." They said, handing me a solid two inch thick bar of what smelled like Dark Monofilament. "Let's see just how strong." I took the metal bar...and then bent it like it was a paper towel roll “Uh...should that...happen?” "Dark Monofilament is the strongest metal made naturally in world generation. Most admins can't bend it easily." Jericho said, impressed. "Hmm… on top of strength Earth ponies and Den Mother Dire Wolves are extremely fertile and productive. Odd though you'd only have two sets of breasts rather than more given that fact." “Maybe it’s a size thing?” I asked curiously. "Maybe?" "I got it!" Kexez said, yanking my shirt off and placing breast pumps on all my nipples. The pump was connected to a twenty gallon empty tank. "Let's see how productive you are then." They turned it on. “At least warn me next time.” I blushed brightly, not having had a chance to cover myself when Kexez suddenly pulled my shirt up. “So...why?” I asked, blushing even harder as the milk machine did it’s work on my four breasts. "While unexpected King can produce ten gallons of milk an hour out of just one of their breasts. A normal earth pony mare like Coco, while small can still produce a gallon an hour while pregnant or breastfeeding. I guess this will see if-" Crack. We looked at the tank. It was already full in barely three minutes and cracking. "She's gonna blow!" Kexez yelped as it broke open and soaked us all in my milk. “Uh…” I muttered. “That’s...a lot of milk in a short amount of time.” "Talk about big things in small packages." Kexez said, licking the milk off themselves. "Thick and creamy." "Well, that's impressive." Jericho's aid, shaking the milk off. "What else can you do then? What about Void and Nothingness?" “Uh...not sure.” I said while trying to call on either Void or Nothingness Void and Nothingness came out fine… when one at a time. Trying it together they cancel each other out. But using Coco's Void powers are cool. Using King's Nothingness is neat too. I can swap between the two instantly, almost using both at a time but still having to cancel one before activating the other. “Alright...so at least that’s consistent.” I said simply. "Impressive. Extremely productive, strong and fertile while also so compact." Jericho said. "And adorable!" Kexez said, wrapping around me in a tight full body hug. "Kico you are you are quite the unexpected treasure." Jericho said happily. “I’m a little over six feet...I’m taller than Jericho yet I’m being seen as smol.” I pouted. "To be fair you are smaller than Kexez or King." Jericho said with a chuckle. "So, ready? I honestly look forward to seeing you at home." “Alright.” I said, “I hope...all the wives don’t just glomp me saying how cute I am.” I blushed in embarrassment at how that entire interaction might be. Kexez let me go. I pricked my finger, creating my body that will be mine forever as I unfused. Coco gave Kico a kiss and I was hugging her. "Okay okay I love hugs but come on." She said with a laugh. “Your so smol! I can’t help it.” I pouted, nuzzling Kico. “But alright, I know everyone back home will enjoy meeting you.” I said warmly. "And I'll enjoy plowing you." Kico said. Jumping in my mouth. Oh okay I'm sending her home then. While she did most of the work I moved my head to let Gravity help her down. While I still felt weird about that, being Kix gave me a broader perception on the whole swallowing thing. I'm more comfortable with it at least. "Cool. So that just leaves you and I." Jericho said. "Then It's the three way fusions." “No, then it’s a combination of you three.” I said honestly. “Double fusions of you three, then we’ll get to the three way fusions...or do you not want to do that?” "Is it?" Jericho thought to themselves. "Fair enough. Let's do this King." “Alright, let’s do this.” I nodded. “Wonder what our fusion will look like?” I wondered. "Given the trend, sexy likely." Jericho said. Power… such burning power. Looking at myself, I was more human looking than King, a human-like face with mix patches of skin and fur. I kept the eight breasts, and their height. My claws were longer than King's, my eyes a hellish red. In short I could be classified as a monster girl. "Woah. You look great." Coco said. "And sexy." Kexez added. “Christ...all this power…” I muttered while looking at my hands, scared if I did anything I might accidentally break something. I was looking at my claws, every calculation , method and depth I saw how they could be used to kill, torture or intimidate people. Their various rates of blood loss, pain levels and odds of survival, death, infection, how they will be disabled after the fact… This is what Jericho must see, the every outcome of an action in war. And then combining that with King’s tactical knowledge, always thinking about everything and being over analytical to the point where he puts even Batman to shame...I shivered in worry. “So uh...I’m made to fight that’s apparent…” I gulped. "True." Kexez said. "But your body tells me you should also be built to mother. You do have a Den Mother's assets." I looked at my breasts, then felt my ass… so round. "Oh! Try summoning a weapon." Coco said. “Uh..sure.” I said while bringing out Lunatic. “Hopefully I don’t break something…” To my, and everyone's surprise, Lunatic was different. It's shape similar to that of an Axe, it's moon visible, cracked like it was smashing into a planet and oozed with power. The calculations and variables here were, felt endless. "Cool." Kexez said. “God...too much power…” I said, my den mother instincts warning me about the damage I could do...but my war instincts telling me everything about how to kill. Thankfully there was a saving grace. Looking at Kexez and Coco, I didn't see how to do all those horrid things… I saw two sets of things. How to mother them… and how to breed them/with them. I felt my whole body burn bright red in blush. “I...didn’t think those things were even possible…” I muttered to myself while disbanding Lunatic and gently hugging the two, trying not to hurt them with my strength. “I’m...glad I can still hug you two...even with all this power.” "I knew you could." Coco said happily. "Same." Kexez said, wrapping their snake half around a pair of my lower breasts then suckeling on an upper one. I smiled gently. “I love you both.” I said warmly. I figured that if I can focused this calculation ability I seem to have in a variety of ways, mothering for the kids, and when I just wanna mother the loves, and the sex one of course for the loves. Honestly I'm looking forward to breeding King… and as for my war based one. I'll focus on where it Belongs. The front lines and Vincent. They deserve that much and more. Kexez slurped into my mouth like a noodle. A Floof Noodle… heh, puns. Stomachs wize I am no different than. A human. One belly, other organs, ect. Kexez did decide to slide out the back which… felt way better than I thought it would. "That was fun. Kinda snug but fun all in all." They said, drying off their scales. "Gross." I shook my head. "Don't care if I liked it...gross." "To each their own… Kiro." Kexez said. "Is that name good?" “Yes, I do like the name.” I nodded. “Short and simple.” "So, Kiro, you seem to be the last of the fusions with King and us. What do you think of your siblings?" Coco asked. "At least, the last of the one plus one fusions.” “I’m glad they exist for starters.” I said honestly. "Fair enough." "So, you ready?" Kexez said, finishing off their drying. "I think I can swallow you without shrinking you." “You sure?” I asked curiously. “Don’t stress yourself when you don’t have to.” You're only a few feet taller than King so it won't be much. Now then, onto meeting your makers? King and Jericho I mean… that sounded better in my head." Kexez said, handing me the pricing needle to make my starfish clone/perma body. “Could have sounded worse.” I said honestly while pricking my finger and making a clone of myself. “Hopefully those two won’t be...too nervous about me.” I said sheepishly while feeling the fusion start to end. "Finally you get what I see all the damn time." Jericho said to me. They aren't wrong either. "And no I am not alone!" They said, pointing to Kiro and hugging them. “That’s good.” I nodded gently. “But...that slightly begs the question of why we didn’t see any of that when we were Queen.” I pointed out. "To be fair that was a lot going on in one body." Kexez said, starting to swallow Kiro's feet. Watching this was almost like watching a worm inch across the sidewalk. Not to say Kiro didn't think or feel it both good and awkward all at once. When it was done with Kexez was quote bloated, that bloat soon shrinking as they took Kiro out from their body at home. "That was harder than I expected…" Kexez said. “They did say not to force yourself.” I said honestly. "Should have resized your belly like before." Coco said. "Good point. Okay so who is next?" Kexez asked. "King's down now next up is either Coco, Jericho, or myself." "I vote Coco mainly because it's just myself and Kexez, since she already fused with King, Kico is their shared one already." “Well...I do wonder what Coco fused with either of you would be.” I said honestly. "I'm okay with that." Coco nodded. "I wanna fuse with… Kexez, cause I'm interested in what being a Naga-like creature like you is like." "Fun and sexy." Kexez said with a laugh. “Wonder if it’ll be just like our fusion.” I said, going to need to keep track of names even though I need to keep track of so many other names already. Coco and Kexez went into each other's arms. These Fusion experiences have helped us bond a lot, and our fusions living as their own people make us feel just… closer. Like, we can still feel that feeling of being them, which we are, but we are also us still. The fusion started. It's a lot like how Steven Universe shows it. Glowing bodies turn white and merge, but also no gemstones shown cause, we don't have those… save for me now come to thing but it but that's a topic for later. The form looked Naga, or Floof Noodle like. Their colors were brighter blue than the typical grey Kexez was, their hair a mix of Coco's and Kexez's. They had four arms, ten breasts, pony ears. They opened their eyes, the color a bright pink surprisingly. "Woah. I'm existing!" They said happily, all four hands feeling their body in excitement. "Check me out, this ass is made to fuck." They said, giving an Audible smack to their butt. "Damn…" I said slowly. "I mean… they aren't wrong about biology speaking. Yours and Coco's, Kico, was small but surpassed your fertility by a large margin. Floof Noodles, even not a Mama Noodle like Kexez, which is weird they aren't considering Heart is, are just as or better than a Den Mother Dire wolf and Coco being there means the earth pony additions. I think the only one who can surpass them in the fertility field is Kix." “Good lord…” I said, “Coco adds...quite a bit.” "Gotta say, I can feel that raw earth pony strength… and stamina~" They said, winking at me. "Hmm… Zeco?" Jericho offered, thinking of a name. "That works." Zeco said, in a rapid motion got Jericho and I in their tail's coiled grip. "Hello there cuties." “Yes, hi.” I said simply. “How are you doing Zeco?” "Good. How are you doing? Notice anything?" Zeco asked, lowering their shirt so a bit more cleavage showed. "Either Coco hides a lot of her lust or this form brings out both Coco's and Kexez's sexual desires to the max." Jericho thought aloud. "Either or sweetie pie." Zeco said. “We still have a lot of things to do...even if it would be nice, we have more fusions and floors to go through.” I said, “But your scales and fur are soft and nice.” "Your fur and skin feel soft and," Zeco felt along my torso, not touching my breasts but teasing it. "Squishy." “I mean, those are my tits…” I blushed. "Yeah but they block a lot of this curvy figure. Damn near a perfect hourglass figure. I'd almost say those cheeks of yours are bigger than mine." She purred, grabbing my butt under her tails grip and pushing me into her breasts. While she did have an extra pair over me it was quite the… feel of her chest pressing into mine like this. “Well thank you.” I nodded. “I make sure to keep all this how it is, even if I eat...a lot.” "Oh? So jealous." She said, giving our breasts a bit of space as she slipped her tongue down to my top nipples, giving them playful licks. “Save it for later Kico.” I chuckled while patting her head. “Still got a dungeon to deal with.” "Just taking a sample of what I'll be enjoying later~" She said with a playful smile, giving my tits one last lick across before letting Jericho and I go. "That's definitely... wait…" Jericho felt along their pants. "Where's my underwear?!" Kico simply spun the panties on her tail tip, whistling innocently- wait… When did she take mine off?! “Excuse me I’d like those back please.” I said quickly, Kico feeling everything that wasn’t held inside the bag of holding that was my underwear. She smiled, tossing us back our undies. "Hehe. I look forwards to draining that meat stick of yours King~" “And people call me the horn dog…” I muttered. “Well, that’ll be for later Kico.” I said while handing her her needle. "Daw. Bored of me already?" She asked, taking the needle. “I can never be bored of any of my family.” I said lovingly, giving her a quick hug. She hugged me back tightly, giving a squeeze and slap to my butt. With a smile, she pricked her finger, her perma body forming as the first split back into Kexez, and Coco. "That was… fun!" Kexez said "I've always wanted to be more like that." Coco said with a smile. "I'm all that and more gorgeous." Kico said, giving Coco a hug that made her breasts consume her, only a hand out of the cleavage. “Uh...you okay in there Coco?” I asked sheepishly. "It smells like Pineapples in here." Her semi muffled voice called back. "Oh? That's actually unexpected." Kico said, sniffing her own cleavage. “Why though?” I asked, actually a little confused as to why it smelled like Pineapples. Jericho pulled Coco out, the mare stretching now that she was free. "Hehehe. Alright then love, open wide." Kico said to Kexez, who did just that as she slithered herself down their throat. Once she was down, Jericho headed over to Coco. "Guess it's just you and I then." "Heh. I guess." Coco said. "Shall we?" “Wonder what your fusion’s personality is going to be?” I wondered curiously. "Guess we'll see." Jericho said. Jericho and Coco fused rather quickly. They looked more like a taller Coco, but also fairly sexy. The main thing I can see from Jericho aside from height is the eyes. "Hmm?" This new being said, looking themselves over. "Choco!" Kexez declared. “I’m sorry, when you said ‘Choco’ I thought you wanted to say ‘Chocobo’...which makes me want to go to a final fantasy world and get a Chocobo damn it.” I huffed. "Ha." Choco said, looking over at us. "Well, so far I'm not a horny mess." "Hey!" Kexez snipped. “Thank god.” I sighed out thankfully. “So...how do you feel?” "Over all pretty okay." Choco said. "Huh, fairly normal then." Kexez said. “Thankfully things can be normal.” I said honestly. "Hmm. So far I can see the paths of violence Jericho sees all the time… but I can also see… alterations? Like either decorations or fortification. Something like that." “That’s nifty.” I said honestly. “I saw the violence, but also the mothering when I was Kiro.” "Huh. The difference must be based on who is using the power or something." Choco said, walking over to me. "Hm, heh, so fluffy." They said, grabbing my face and giving me some ear scratches. “Curse you…” I muttered while enjoying the ear scratches. “Why must I fall for the pitfalls of most canines?” "Cause you are one." Choco said with a smile, scratching my ear til my leg started shaking unintentionally. Kexez slithered up to and around her. "Ya know, for being the most normal so far I'm pretty sure you'll just have something interesting yet to be found out." "Most likely." Choco said. "If anything using the powers of War with Coco knowledge in fashion and intermediate knowledge of defences from her time with Nexus I could draw up armor and security measures." "That would be very useful." “Well….a second opinion is always good.” I said honestly. *In any case I guess that means it's time for me to head home." Choco said, a single flick of her finger making a sewing needle that she pricked her finger with. Their pera body forming from the blood as they unfused. Coco and Jericho seemed happy. "We look forward to seeing you Choco." Jericho said "We should sew sometimes." Coco said. "I'd like that, and I look forward to it." Choco said, letting Kexez send her home like all the others. “So how did it feel?” I asked curiously. "It felt nice. Makes you feel closer to each person you fuse with." Coco said, leaning into Jericho a bit. Jericho blushed, scratching the back of their head with a smile. "Definitely opens your eyes on some things." Jericho said. "So just Kexez and I, and that's all the two people fusions right?" “Yep.” I nodded. “Let’s hope it’s not super horny...again.” "Seems to be a trend." Kexez said. "I wonder why…" Jericho said sarcastically. Taking hands, Jericho and Kexez fused. The result was a fairly larger Floof Noodle, four arms, looked a fair bit like Zeco but without the pony parts. Different from her through, her tail had barbed spines along from their upper half a back to the single large claw at the end of their tail. "Hmm. Interesting." They said, looking at themselves. “How do you feel?” I asked curiously. "Pretty good… Huh. Sixty seven… that's concerning." "Sixty Seven what?" Coco asked. "Sixty seven ways you two can die in this empty room… fifty if those admittedly low to impossible chance but still…" “How the fuck is there sixty seven ways to die in an empty room?” I frowned. "It must be her… let's call her Cerex, take on the war ability. While not exactly, Kexez is still more tuned to Kingdom Hearts hearts in general than us. Combine that with the Wars normals ointment for seeing how to kill, she can see just how the environment alone could kill someone. So With tha-!" Coco didn't get to finish as Cerex swallowed her in one gulp, turning to me. "Must keep safe!" She said, mouth wide open and sending me down. Well… at least she's protective.” “Rude…” I huffed. “I didn’t want to get shoved in here yet...but might as well see how different it is in here.” To my surprise I didn't see Coco, and this stomach was built for… one? "King?" I heard Coco's muffled voice through the belly walls as well as a faint movement from the other side. “Hey Coco...I don’t know if I’m stuck in here or not.” I said, hoping she could hear me. "I think we're inside individual stomachs. The second I slid in here the the esophagus closed and I can't feel it." I felt for that too, not finding it either. Damn, are we stuck here? “Okay so we’re probably stuck here.” I frowned. “Jeez...Overprotective much?” "This coming from you?" Coco said with a laugh. "Say, is it me or are these stomach linings thicker than Kexez normal stomachs?" I felt and after a bit, pushing out and such they were way thicker. Easy two inches or around that. Why so thick? “Jeez, is this fusion’s insides a bunker or something?” I wondered. "... that might be it." Coco said. "We know she can see apparently every possible way for someone to die, even in an empty room, her outside had Barb's along her spine, and I think her scales were larger and thicker than normal for a Floof Noodle or Naga. Given Floof Noodle biology adds the War power, she's a living fortress, strong outside and inside." I decided to check her stats, the fusion showing up as a party member and Holy Fuck that's a lot of HP and Def. Kinda crap attack though. Magic was okay. “You have a point...their HP and defense are through the goddamn roof. Can’t physically hit something worth a damn but their magic is good enough.” I said honestly. "Hey, check our stats." Coco said. Doing that I saw we were both under a regeneration effect, a rejuvenation effect, and about near every healing effect you can think of. Even buffing effects that were building up to last literally hours. My HP is already double what it was. "Must be what being inside her does to us, hence the still decent magic." “Decent? Do you know how many healing spells and enchantments are in here? You could put a person that’s near death with all four limbs blown off and a few internal organs either gone or damaged, and they would be back good as new in like...ten minutes.” I said. "Makes sense. Both Nagas and Floof Noodles have stomachs that specifically heal. Woah the heck is that?!" Worried, I saw what Coco was concerned over in the stomach I was in. The walls moving outwards as like a tube or something stretched out at me. It bloated up at the wall, the bloat moving up the flesh tube and reaching the "mouth" and what came out was… is that… a whole fried chicken? How is it hot?! "A tube just threw up a Hayburger at me… how is it still hot?" Coco said with equal confusion as me. “I’m confused…” I said, “Uh...hello? Mind explaining things?” I asked the Floof Noodle we were currently inside. I didn't get a response, the tube merging back into the walls. "I guess… food? … Tastes good though." “Well...alright.” I said while picking up the fried chicken and eating it. “Well...it is good.” I said honestly. "So how long do you think she's gonna keep us here?" Coco asked me. “No idea.” I said honestly. “But I hope it’s soon….” Soon was about three hours. I kept track of time before the esophagus opened above me and sent me up and out. Same for Coco. I was going to rant at Cerex for that stunt .. then noticed the whole room looked… baby proofed. Excessively baby proofed. Before I could get my train of thought back Cerex wrapped around Coco and I and began feeding us their milk… damn it tastes amazing… I looked up at them accusingly, gently popping off their breast even if it tasted amazing. “Excuse me, what the hell.” I frowned. “We literally can’t die remember? Why do you need to baby proof everything?” "I can't help it." Cerex said, popping her tit back into my mouth. "Everything I see looks like you could get hurt. I care too much to even see you get a paper cut." She said, large worrying eyes only a mother could make. I knew that look all too well...and I couldn’t say no to those eyes so I just continued to drink her milk. Happily seeing Coco and I drink from her, she began to sing a soothing song. The song I knew, and it somehow relaxed me enough to drift to sleep. I woke up not sure how long later, Cerex was still holding Coco and I to her breasts. She was awake, looking over us lovingly in the room she made safe for even the most clumsy or fragile of people. “How...long were we out?” I yawned. "Nine hours." She said happily, kissing my head. “Wow...a normal amount of sleep for me...that’s nice.” I said warmly. As I tried to get up… I flipped over. My stomach was bloated to make it look like I ate a hippo. "You kept drinking while you were asleep. Coco too." Cerex said, Coco's belly looked like she was nine months pregnant with ten kids or more. She grabbed me, placing Coco and I in her coiled grip gently. "Best to rest it off." “Jeez...I need to stop just doing things in my sleep…” I muttered. She hugged us gently, keeping us as warm as Coco and I had to sleep this off. God I feel like a newborn puppy. Coco and I ended up falling asleep again. We woke up a whole day later. Our belly's back to normal. I had to stop Cerex from trying to feed us again. "Are you sure?" She asked sweetly. “Yes, we already spent a day and a half with you babying us. We need to continue the dungeon.” I huffed. "Oh, but what if you get hurt? Get hungry? Maybe I should stick around." "No no, no offense Cerex but we need Jericho and Kexez. You are a wonderful mother, but we are adults and will be fine." Coco said. "It doesn't matter if you're adults, even Cript gets hurt from time to time." She countered, wrapping around us again. "Yes but he gets back up again. Besides, wouldn't you rather take care of actual babies?" "Well, actual babies would be adorable .. so small… so helpless!" She said in worry. She pricked her finger, made her perma body, split back into Jericho and Kexez and jumped down Kexez's throat. When she went down Kexez coughed a bit. "Barbs and spikes are not fun to swallow…" They wheezed. “So...that happened.” I said honestly. "Now I want to spend more time at the nursery." Jericho said. "She's a worry wart but useful given she can tank a crap too." Kexez said, still coughing." "She's more mothering than King." Coco said with a laugh. “Oh shush.” I pouted. “I’m sorry I like to be a good parent...” "Heh. Well, now for the three person ones." Jericho said. "Start back with King then." “Alright, so who wants to start with me?” I asked curiously. "Me!" Coco said. "Alright, let's see what this hot mess will be." Kexez said. “It won’t be a hot mess.” I chuckled. “So let’s get going.” I said while taking Kexez and Coco’s hands. Hello world! I bounced up, coming into existence like a ball of energy. I'm fifteen feet of fine ass, hot ten breasts and oh hey four eyes, that's new. Hmm. I have a large snake tail, large and makes it look like a wolf version of MewTwo. My six arms are long and perfect, my legs can catch anyone's eyes and these hips can make anyone drool. “I’m sexy and I know it.” I sang happily as I spun happily. "I'll say." Jericho said with a laugh. “So what do you think Jeri? Like what you see?” I asked while striking a sexy pose that was honestly too adorable given my energy. "I think you are a fireball of energy." They said with a chuckle. I couldn’t help but giggle at that. “Well glad I’m making a good first impression.” I said happily. "Given the snake tail I guess I'm the only one available to go spelunking inside you then?" I picked up Jericho, who fit in the palm of my hand. “You're so tiny.” I giggled. “Well, want to have a fun ride in my insides?” "More for study than fun." “Oh trust me, you’ll have all the fun.” I giggled. “Well, bottoms up.” I said before flicking Jericho up into the air easily and swallowing him whole without much issue. “Just remember, if you start seeing acid, you're going the wrong way.” I told Jericho inside me. "I doubt there's acid here given your Floof Noodle part." Jericho said. I took a seat while they explored. "Huh, so far looks like how Coco described Kix's insides. " They said, going through my entire torso and tail places. Once he was done I used my snake tail to yank the tiny man out if me. "All in all a similar set up to Kix but with more space for holding and feeding young and even the sick in the tail." “Cool.” I said honestly. "Now then… I can't think of a good name that mixing all three so we'll call you Spitfire… which I bet you could actually do with some spells " “Sounds good to me.” I said simply. “And spitting fire? That sounds like a good party trick.” Jericho shrugged. "Well, best make your perma body and send you off. Pretty sure Pinkie or any of the hyperactive others will be dying to meet you." “I can already imagine all the wonderful things we’ll do together.” I giggled warmly before pricking my finger and cloning myself. “Albeit I will need to shrink down for Kexez...hmm.” "Gonna be honest, I was not expecting a party girl." Coco said, Spitfire shrinking herself to a much smaller size, allowing Kexez to send her off. "Was a surprise for everyone I imagine." Jericho said with a nod. “Yeah...like how the hell do the three of us make a party girl?” I asked. “Also, the better question is, how the hell do any of these fusions personalities make sense considering who we are?” "Don't know but hey, they're people and alive." Kexez said. "Alright, this time Coco you stay behind while I fuse with Kexez and King." Jericho said. "Two at once. Nice." Kexez said. “And I have two more to go.” I said honestly. “Well...let’s hope it won’t be too weird.” "I don't need anymore milk!" Coco said, fighting the nipplie I'm trying to feed her with. She's too small, she needs food. Lots of food. Need to keep the small ones safe. I'm large, thirty feet on all fours, look a lot like my siblings Kix but bigger. I came into being with one thing already on mind. Protect little ones. And feed them. Burp. All that. “Even if I’m acting more like Cerex...I don’t care, I need to tend to little one’s.” I said softly, my voice warm and motherly. “King might complain about another mother...but I need to be a mother.” I had her wrapped in my tail, pressed against my breasts so she'll feed and grow big. I also curled up around her so to make sure she is safe for anything this room might suddenly have happened. "My guys are already twice the size it was when Cerex fed me…" She said, She's not wrong, but if she can get that big and now bigger, then she isn't eating enough. “You aren’t eating enough, you need to be big and strong like me.” I said honestly, Coco having noticed I randomly had a soft Russian accent. Before she could protest I placed my nipple back in her mouth, having to squeeze more milk for her. [One Week Later.] "Is a tongue bath necessary?" Coco asked, naked as I was cleaning her. Her belly was still large with milk, but the poor dear only grew an inch. “Yes, yes it is.” I said simply. “Now please hold still.” Just then as I was getting at her ears, a single piece of plastic gently flew down, it's holding tape breaking off the ceiling as it gently floated down… Danger! I gulped the little one down fast. She'll be safer inside me. Using my tongue I placed her in the feeding belly. Now I can clean her and make her eat! [One month later] I needed to see how much my little one has grown. From what I feel with my tongue she's grown at least a foot, but I need to see for myself. I pulled her out, carefully placing her before me. “Ah, you’ve grown so much.” I said warmly. Coco has gained a whole foot and a half In height, but that wasn't all. Her breasts are now almost a full cup larger and thighs, hips and butt grew to match. "Wow. I actually do look pretty good." Coco said, looking herself over. "Yes. Yes you have. But not grown enough." "Oh come the-!!" I swallowed her back in, giving her another bath while also feeding her. “How long has this been?” I wondered to myself, looking at my assistant for a timestamp as well as all my stats...it’s been over a month...oh… more time won't hurt. “I need to do this to King, Jericho and Kexez, they are big but not big enough.” I huffed. [Time in the void is not consistent so for the sake of this joke and clarify one year passed in the void but in the realms only a month has passed] Coco has grown so big now. A full year of constant feeding and cleaning has made her grow large enough to make my giant self look pregnant and ready to birth. I'm so proud. For the first time in a year, I pulled her out. It was a little hard but I stretched enough. She was now my size if not bigger, the body of a goddess and so big now. "I'm huge…" Coco said, looking at her new, Amazonian thirty foot tall body over. “And now you're big and strong.” I said with pride, pricking my finger and making a clone of myself. “And now onto my other little ones.” I said in the warm russian accent I had. "Maybe let Kexez take you home, that way you can work on ALL the others, at once if you want, not just already adults like me, but babies too. Such tiny babies." Coco said, trying to convince me. It worked. “I know you're playing me sweet..and it’s working.” I said simply. "Jesus Coco!" Kexez yelled at seeing her. "Send me home." Mama Russia, out of memories from out time as her, Coco started calling her that because of her abnormal Russian accent, said. She shrunk herself down. Kexez sent her there. "So… giant then." Jericho said. "Yup." Coco said. “Well...that’s...certainly a thing…” I said honestly. "Damn right." Coco said with confidence, giving a hard smack to her thighs. The bounce and jiggle turned me on. "I'll shrink back to normal size but keep the figure. I'll also save this size as a drive form I guess. Feels neat being so huge for a change." “Can you please smother me with your thighs…” I said breathlessly and without thinking. "Hehe. Later, for now, there is something else I want to do." Coco said, smiling wickedly as she picked Kexez, Jericho and I up. "This is partly me wanting to know how it feels, and partly payback." She said, tossing Jericho up and catching him in her mouth. An audible swallow as she then kissed Kexez's head, then slurping then down like a noodle. Heh, noodle. She then looked at me. "Your turn sexy." She then tossed me right in, swallowing. The first part of what she said and not doing this explains a lot about some of her fusions. "Ouch, hey." Kexez said as I landed in Coco's belly with them and Jericho. I landed on their tail and they moved so I wasn't on it. "I had a feeling she was into this before we even were doing it." “I mean...we did hold her hostage for a year…” I said sheepishly. “But it’s more payback than anything...” "That smile and tone she had while doing it says otherwise." Jericho said, arms crossed. "So, how long will we be stuck here?" “No idea...hopefully not too long since we already wasted a year…” I sighed out, "A year void time." Jericho stated. "that's about a month or so back home. So… we may or may not be here for a while." "Lot of vore this chapter." Kexez said. "Gee, I wonder why…" Jericho said sarcastically. “And I legitimately hate Vore.” I said honestly. “Only reason why I’m actually a little fine with it is because of Floof Noodle, and Naga biology where it actually has things to do besides being fucking gross.” I frowned. “Sorry for ranting but...seriously.” "So basically unless it has a better purpose than just a fetish you hate it?" Kexez asked. "Like my healing bellies or how Mama Russa clearly showed how the use it as a means of parenting/raising kids, you're okay with that but not just cause?" “A little yes.” I said honestly. “I already got the entire argument from Heart a while ago about this whole thing but…” I sighed out. “I’m getting over it, but still...it’s just weird.” "Well, at least it's not THAT bad. There are way worse fetishes." "True." Jericho said. That lasted just an hour. Coco's now figure still looked amazingly bouncy even at a normal size. “Alright...so now me, Jericho and Coco.” I said "Yeah. Hey King, back in Coco's belly… so you don't like it when I swallow you after sex?" Kexez asked nervously. “After sex it’s fine.” I said with a raised hand. “It’s just the fetish that’s...weird.” I said honestly. "Oh. So just not during or before, just after and no sex inside the stomach then?" “Pretty much I suppose.” I said honestly. “It’s sometimes really hard to describe why I don’t like a thing…” "Okay cause now that I know this know now why when you were Kiro you looked disturbed with my… exit. What about you Jericho?" "Was unexpected but I'd be willing to do that every so often." Jericho stated. "Alright, good. I just don't wanna offend you all…" I sighed out while moving over and hugging Kexez. “Don’t worry Kexez.” I said gently. "I shouldn't but I do. Makes me feel… like the main thing I can do without fail, swallow heal people or just let them rest in me… you don't like it. I know everyone is entitled to their likes and dislikes but I've done it so so many times already and… it's personal now." “Listen, I’m not saying anything bad about what you do...I just find the sexual aspect of it weird. That’s it.” I said honestly. "So… no testing out the… variations with you then?" “I’ll give it a try, cause I have to get used to it sooner or later...I don’t want to make you upset because of it.” I said gently. "Yay! Wait, so if I swallow you after sex but then start having sex with someone else while you are in there is that a no?" “That’s fine cause I’m not apart of the ‘sexual vore’ thing.” I said honestly. “Plus your stomach is a literal planet.” I pointed out. "Only when I want it to be, but I guess I can make one like that for you so I can have sexy find you dislike and you not even notice it. Oh! That gives me a lot of ideas. Thanks King." Kexez said, giving me a deep kiss. "Now then, go and fuse you three." “Alright alright.” I nodded gently. “Also, it’s when we both decide cause that little world is connected between the two of us remember?” "Sure." "Well, Time to get going." Jericho said. "This will be fun." Coco said. “Hopefully we won’t be here for another year.” I said honestly. Waking up I began drawing. My body is of average height, I have six arms, four breasts, a good figure and ass, but I began drawing. Schematics. Blueprints. Improvements. "Woah…" Kexez said, looking me over. “So if I carry the two and factor in the density of dark monofilament on the atomic level…” I muttered to myself, scribbling and muttering to myself as I kept thinking of new and different ideas. “Wait, I just figured out how to fix some of King’s plans!” I said as I slammed a hand onto the ground. “Izzie? Are you there?” I asked the AI in my Assistant if it was there. "Yes...User." She said, not knowing what to call me. “I need you to forward all of this to King.” I said before listing off an assload of technobabble that would help King’s research and experiments to him. “Also, call me Brain since compared to most of my siblings, I’m the smartest of the bunch.” I could hear my siblings taking offense from here. I then pricked my finger, making my perma body. "Wait, that's it?" Kexez asked. “I have way too much work to do.” I said honestly. “Especially when I literally just figured out how to make that barrier strong enough so Void Key actually has to try instead of just walking up and breaking the barrier like it’s wet tissue paper.” I said simply. I then heard King take offence on how much work he put into the blood thing. “But at least before then.” I said before getting up and giving Kexez a hug. “I may be smart...but thankfully I still have emotions…” I said gently, hugging him with all six arms as I was thankful to feel the warmth of the hug and warm feeling of joy with hugging family. "Aww. Okay then. I'll see you around." Kexez said, swallowing my perma body as I unfused. All that smartssmarts and I feel like I have the worst hangover right now... “Ow…” I groaned, rubbing my temples gently. “Why must smarts hurt…” "I feel like that was meant to be a joke from something." Kexez thought aloud. "Anyway it makes sense. Between the way Jericho's War powers work, Coco's knowledge on many things Nexus likely kept to themselves in terms of math, science and magic, and your own needs to research, study and analytical mind, Brian was going to be smarter than the rest." “Yeah...just a bit.” I said honestly. “Doesn’t mean all that knowledge doesn’t hurt...as well as her telling me my barrier is wet tissue paper.” I huffed. "That's the you in her talking." Jericho said, while in the same headache boat as Coco and myself they still laughed. I hated how it was likely true too. "So just Coco, Jericho, and myself then. This will be fun." Kexez said happily. “Yep.” I nodded. “That’s the last fusion pairing.” "Given how Kexez and I and Kexez and Coco's fusions are split I'm honestly a little worried for you when you put all three of us together." Jericho said. “Well...considering all my fusions and how different they all were.” I shrugged. "Well, Jericho does have a point…" Coco said. “Well we won’t know until you fuse.” I said honestly. The three joined hands, merging together as the result was… small. Smaller than Kico. Like a foot tall small. An extremely tiny four armed Floof Noodle. “Um...that’s...different.” I said while bending down. “Hey little one, how are you doing?” I asked the tiny Floof Noodle. They jumped. Fast and right into my mouth, forcing my swallow reflex as I gulped them down. “Gah! What the fuck!?” I panicked, wondering why it just forced itself into my throat. “The actual hell was that!?” "Hi there. Sorry for the scare." A voice spoke in my head, my stomach shifting as… they moved around in it. "Just getting Adjusted." “Uh...what?” I asked nervously. “What are you doing in there?” I felt this person suddenly link into my body's muscle, nural, reproductive and every other bodily system I have. "Much Better." I heard them, clear as day despite being inside me. “Wait...you're a Symbiote?” I asked. "I suppose." They said, and for a moment I lost control of my body as they moved my arms, legs, head, even made me blink. "You have a lot of organs that your body doesn't actually seem to need anymore. Strange." “That’s because of a lot of reasons.” I said honestly. "I'll remove them." My guts felt warm for a moment… and suddenly I felt like ten pounds lighter. “Oi, the hell you doing in there?” I asked worriedly. “There might be something I actually need in there.” "No. I checked. The only organs you make use of still are your physical heart, womb, vagina, penis, testicles, large intestine, breasts, tongue, throat, esophagus, and stomach. Most of those all for either sexual pleasure or caring/healing. Everything else no longer was of use. So, I linked the large intestine to your womb and stomach, removed the small intestine, and increased the size of the remaining organs given most of these are for sexual pleasure. In the case of your breasts, I added in the case of your breasts your Lobus have been merged into one large one per breast, maximizing your breast milk production and output." “Well...that sounds about right.” I said honestly. “So besides you taking away a bunch of my organs what else can you do?” I asked curiously. "What do you need me to do? Would you like some examples?" “Sure, let’s see what you can do.” I said honestly. “As you can see, I can take full control of your body in the event you pass out or need assistance.” They demonstrated this by making me jump to the ceiling, using my claws to hand from the ice. “I can create new limbs for you temporarily or regrow any you lose faster than your current regeneration factor.” They demonstrated this by making a new pair of arms grow, from my back, latching into the ice with them then letting me drop, still in control they landed me perfectly. “I can summon your weapons.” They summoned in Sharp Shooters, and Interdiction in my current four hands, disbanding them and removing the new arms at the same time. “I can reinforce your skin.” My skin seemed to grow a natural armor over itself. “And, given it’s a large part of your own enjoyment, sexually pleasure you by using your own body.” My legs gave, my neithers having their hardest climax ever… seriously, ever, and I was banged by my future most self for a full day. “I can also regulate and have you self impregnate your own eggs, and even place in my own fertilized eggs into your womb as well as fertilize your eggs.” "Well then...that is very interesting." I said honestly. "Now, what to call you… Symbi. Short for Symbiote." I said honestly. "Well this is also a first cause I've never had a Symbiote before…" “Not much of a spouse or lover if I’m stuck here inside everyone. Though… Can you create an empty, blank body for me? Nobody or not doesn’t matter.” "Sure." I said while waving my hand as a blank body appeared. "There you go Symbie." In a jolt then a slight lurch she came up my mouth and into the blank body. The empty shell shifting and changing. Her new body now had a mix of fur and scales, pony ears, a small snake tail out the back, and four arms. “Perfect.” She said, looking over at me. “This will work perfectly. Now then.” Symbi said, walking over to me, kissing me deeply… I gulped, feeling her go back down again. Clever girl. “There, now to-” Symbi jolted a bit, the original coming out and splitting. Once Coco, Jericho, and Kexez. She kissed them all, similar gulps heard from each. “Now, I’m with all of you and can help.” “I have multiple stomachs which did you go into?” Kexez said. “I can make a personal space for myself inside you all, leaving your stomachs as good empty for your own uses.” Symbi said. “That works.” Coco said, wiping off some spit from her large swallow. “Alright, so now we all have a Symbiote inside of us.” I said honestly. “It’s Symbi.” Symbi corrected me. “This will be useful. You were an unexpected Symbi, but a welcome addition to the family.” Jericho said. “Can that body get pregnant?” Kexez asked Symbi. “The physical body here yes, but all my children would either be partly symbiote or mostly symbiote. Either way they will need someone to live inside. Guess in this family there’s plenty.” “Creepy… but kinda cool.” “Alrighty then.” I said honestly. “Good to know.” “Well, off I go then. Hehe. Down Kexez’s mouth a second time.” “You know it hottie.” Kexez said, sending her home. “We have a weird yet neat family.” Coco said. “And I would like maybe some semblance of normalcy but I’m happy with the family.” I said honestly. “Okay, that’s all our fusions. Now what?” Jericho asked. “We continue the dungeon of course.” I said honestly. "Well that's the obvious, but I mean like, how should we go about this now? Make it harder on us or just blow through it and have some laughs?" “Honestly I’m surprised we haven’t just blown through it.” I said honestly. "It's also long as fuck so… there's that." Kexez said. “I know.” I said honestly. “So let’s keep moving and get through this place.” Floor 18 This floor was massive. It looked like… TARDIS? Wait… I think I remember Cript saying he had a Time Lord wife. This must be her floor. “Did Cript ever mention having a Time Lord wife?” I asked while checking my assistant to see if that was true. I found her. She's the only one too. Galicia of Gallifrey “Hmm…” I hummed. “Galicia of Gallifrey, good to know.” I said honestly. “Wonder how her fight will be…” I wondered while moving forward through the floor. The enemies here were all Daleks and CyberMen. As well as other classic Doctor Who Villans. We made it to the safe room here and I read up on this one. Galicia was a Gallifrey High Ranked Scouter. Her TARDIS, the RADIST, as she called it, was the newest and latest model made before the war broke out. When Gallifrey fell, she received a false SoS from outside of the universe. It was a trap, and to keep them from stealing her TARDIS, she locked it and broke the key. Years later, Cript arrived on this TARDIS Graveyard, finding her old vessel buried under rubble in perfect shape. He fixed the key and made it his. Some years later while making engine repairs, Cript discovered hair stuck on the Temporal Radiation pipes. When the temporal radiation leaked, Galicia was revived by a pure Miracle, Regenerating from just those few hair strands. “Well...that’s interesting.” I said honestly. "Pretty neat though." Kexez said. "A Time Lord scout. Interesting." “A Timelord Scout is interesting.” I agreed. “Wonder how she fights if she’s a scout…” "Well, typical Scouts In any region use mid range weapons and long range given they are typically sent in for recon or to investigate." “Alright...but wonder if she’ll have any time powers given she’s a Time Lord.” I wondered, never really having watched Doctor Who but knowing at least the basics of it’s lore. We made our way through to find the boss room. I found myself a Sonic Screwdriver. Needless to say I had some fun with it for a bit before we headed off. We found and entered the boss room. The coffin here was a pillar of light as its energy shifted to form Galicia, a brown haired woman. Dressed in a gold and red jumpsuit. “Right then.” I nodded. “Looks like a scout to me considering the jumpsuit.” I said while preparing for the fight. Galicia's hands glowed with Regeneration energy, shooting it at us. Well that's neat. “Well that’s a nifty trick.” I said while blocking it with Frozen Pride. “Let’s see if she can take a hit.” I said while bringing out Sharpshooters and firing two charged shots at her. Raising her hands she caught it in the energy , the bolt now moving backwards at me. “Sure.” I said while knocking the bolts back at her. The others managed to have us circle her. Symbi, through all of us, grew us each extra arms and hands for her to use, taking our ranged weapons out to distract Galicia. I pulled out Interdiction, always wanted to do this. Rapidly I circled her, the area around her going dark as the light darts appeared all around her in this dome and I let loose, sending them at her faster than she could counter. When it was over I quickly rammed Second Chance into her, the Time Lord glowing in a show of light and time radiation as she reverted to infancy. "Always wanted to do that." I said while scooping up my new daughter. "That was cool. Thanks Symbi." Coco said. "No problem. Oh, also I should bring up something else I removed from all your bodies." Symbi said. “What did you do?” I asked worriedly. "Given you are all Admins, Coco and Kexez included, this alone makes many of your bodies organs useless and just for show, save for what you all use for pleasure or such. But given you are not bound to your bodies either your brains were also rendered unneeded, so I removed them and took residence inside your skulls. A much more stable connection to the entire body from here and your cranial cavities are more fit and less likely to shake me around than inside your torsos in a pocket someplace where your lungs used to reside." “And...what if we just magically lose that special Admin power?” I asked honestly. "Given my location and link to your bodies I'd become your new brain. I can easily fulfill that role in a pinch, and in that event your deathless bodies will regrow your other missing organs." “Alright.” I nodded. “Sorry just...worried about a change like that...even if I technically don’t need it because of several reasons.” "Huh… I remember learning about that." Coco said. "All admins are just clusters of code held together mainly by their consciousness and special strands of code unique to each. When an admin dies it literally breaks these special strands and disbands their consciousness so they are reduced to the code they formed from. Mortal beings like we all were before are the same but we are held, or were held, by our physical bodies, soul, and Hearts. A more complex but easily destroyed set up." “I have heard all of that a long time ago...don’t remember how long ago.” I said honestly. “What about you Symbi? What if our head gets blown off or shot through?” Jericho asked. “In that event I do keep a spare piece of myself attached to your blood and some bone marrow so I can regrow myself at the same rate you’d all regrow your heads.” Symbi said. “I know this anime I just can’t remember the name.” Kexez said. “Parasyte the Maxim.” I said, “That’s the anime your thinking of, Parasyte the Maxim...it’s a good anime but also a little weird.” “Well, at least we got all that understood.” Jericho said. “Well, let’s go then.” To be continued...
Nobody and the Gang in: Blinded with ScienceAs the days went by here it was clear the world needed help. From the antenna M set up for us to hear and see news going on in the outside world it seems Crime Lords really are making it big. Mugshot has already claimed all of Mesa City and is expanding his territory. Sir Raleigh already has his storm machine up and operational. Panda king has completely overthrew the Chinese government, placing himself in power over it all, which was a different outcome from the games where he just held some territory and threatened villages. The only two with little to no news on were Mz Ruby and Clockwerk. All we did know about Mz Ruby is that she did return to her home in the swamps of Haitian Jungle, and Clockwerk is back in Russia. While governments in both locations have attempted capture of these two seemingly less active members, all who went after Mz Ruby were found a few days later in a trance like state that lasted a month. Clockwerk’s victims weren’t so lucky, many found with either the talon marks sliced through them or, the weirdest, gunshot wounds. Clockwerk doesn’t use guns so that alone raised flags for me. Over all the mass majority of the world was on its knees, only Africa, Europe, Mexico, Canada and South America were in a stable condition government wise and left trying to aid their allies or cutting ties in all forms of trade, closing borders and leaving the citizens in a panic. All in all this was a massive world war. M and Jim both thought we should focus more on our studies, and we did. Uncle Jim helped Muray develop muscles, their natural strength and large size helped in teaching Muray not only how to use his weight and size in combat but also when applied in a sumo style of combat proven Muray’s potential. Uncle M realized Bently’s intelligence from day one and they, myself on occasion, partake in special studies on more advanced topics. M teaching Bently and I both how to hack, create hacking programs and untraceable wireless communication devices. Sly mostly stuck to the physical aspects, recalling from memory everything dad was able to teach us from the book and practicing them till well into the night. I often joined him for as long as I was able. Being the youngest and also smallest Cooper my body can’t handle that much stress. Neither should Sly’s in all honesty but he is pushing himself hard. Carmaleta took to using a Shock pistol and thanks to M and Bentley they now fire much faster than a normal one. Granted given her age and size the basic ones are a little hard on the recoil for her, so M built her two custom sized child ones to work with. While they don’t have as much power or range as the standard they fire much faster and are easier for her to handle for the time being. Things were going well. To make it feel like a normal childhood M and Jim even had planned holiday weeks off from learning, weekends off, just like a normal school. Today was a weekend, Saturday and I was just at the beach with Carmaleta making sand castles. One of the perks of living on a tropical island. “This is nice.” I said gently, enjoying the nice summer day. “Just a nice normal sunshiny day.” I said warmly. “I have to admit, never imagined I’d be living on a beach.” Carmalita said. “How’s Sly doing? I saw him at two in the morning working on climbing up your house.” “He’s been...really adamant on honing his skills.” I said, “I mean, I also have been doing everything I can to not only keep up with big brother, but also help Bentley with all that technical stuff...I just hope he doesn’t overwork himself.” I said nervously. Carmalita and I looked over to the Cain Obstacle Course. It was based off what M remembers dad training on, Sly using Dad’s cane to maneuver it, trying to pull off moves M told us dad did when he was using the cane. Failing horribly as despite the natural talent he still needed to be older and bigger. “Tell that to him…” Carmalita said, finishing her small castle. “We need the family book to fully learn the abilities.” I said, “That’s what mom and dad said at least...just being told how someone saw it doesn’t have the finer details in it…” “It’s not stopping him.” Carmalita said with a laugh. She looked over out into the ocean, then stood up. “Kite, look.” Looking out, we saw a large ship in the distance. What kind it was I wasn’t sure but it was worrying. “I’ll go tell Sly, you go find M or Jim.” She said, rushing over to my brother. “There shouldn’t be any ships around here…” I muttered while pulling out the prototype Binocucom Bentley me and Uncle M were designing, trying to get a good look at the ship before I went off to find Uncle M or Jim. All I could tell was that the ship was military, which in itself was concerning. More so than a ship being here at all. I found uncle M in his cabin, telling him as he peered out his window. The ship got closer but now anchored some miles away from us still. He pulled up a radio, tuning it in. “To the unknown sea vessel off shoar, state your business and identity.” M said into the mic. ”My friend you wounded me! Is that anyway to great a comrade? Replied to a thick russian man’s voice. “A friend?” I asked curiously. M looked surprised, talking back into the mic. “Sacha is that you?” ”Indeed comrade Cooper Gang! I found you with the sub I sold you some months back. Figured it might come in handy and save my ass.” “Wait you tracked the sub? How?! Your company buil-” ”My company is built, yes! Only a few top in company know how to track them. Sadly they do not make it. May I land so we can discuss further?” “Of course!” M said, hanging up the radio. “Sacha, what do you know that we don’t?” M said to himself as he got up and walked to the beach. I followed him, asking questions. “He said he was the one that gave us the sub...but who is he?” I asked curiously, never having actually heard his name or how big his company is. “His name is Sacha, some years ago, back when you could barely walk we did a job for him. FIfty million to save his daughter from some people that kidnapped her, and information from his underworld informants. His company makes Military grade stealth cargo vehicles, hence the sub. He’s sold to every government, and privately both to the rich and the underworld rich. He’s the reason some years ago we believe Clockwerk is gone for good. Sadly we could not have been more wrong…” M sighed bitterly. “He’s been a good friend. Kept us up to date after Clockwerk resurfaced.” “That’s really cool.” He said with a smile. “But...what race is he? I could tell he was russian because of his accent but...didn’t hear anything denoting race.” I said, M knowing that certain races tended to have a certain ‘tick’ in their words to show what race they were. “Tundra Wolf.” M stated. “Oh.” I said, “That’s interesting. Where did you meet him?” “He contacted us. The grape vine in the underground can lead you to specific people. He reached out to us, we met, discussed the job, prices and the rest was history.” M said as we reached the beach. A small motor boat arrived at shoar as we arrived. The large Tundra wolf holing out. “M my friend! It's good to see you.” “Same.” M replied. “So, what’s the visit about?” “The flying mechanical devil himself. Clockwerk made his move.” “What… what happened?” “It was a normal day, snow was high, coffee was hot, then birds made from metal like the winged demon himself swarm from the skies! They breath fire, shoot lasers, shoot bullets! Family and I barely sail off in time. They did not cross the water, not sure why. Just my wife, daughter, and some trusted men who I sailed with personally. That and… my guests who escaped with me.” “Guests?” M asked. “Yes. Good customer. You know her.” I blinked. “I….thought Clockwerk was the only one and...he didn’t do any of that…” I said, doing my damndest not to show how panicked I was at what was happening right now. “Who are you… No, no that-'' The words he said in this form for now I'm too ‘young’ to know but in short he called this lady a real demonic whore. That’s the short version. “Why is she here?!” “She is a good customer of mine, and was discussing purchases with me when the whole thing began. You and I both know she has invaluable skills and resources. America may be falling to Mugshot and his gangs, but she still has contacts and resources there.” “She’s a demon in a skirt!” M yelled. “Who?” I asked innocently. “Matilda…” M said. “You called?” Both M and I jumped, a light yellow Bat lady standing between us. “M, good to see you again.” “Go...to...hell.” M growled. “I didn’t know Rouge the Bat had a sister.” I said at seeing Matilda. “Ah, this must be Kite Cooper, such a small yet, clearly intelligent child.” Matilda said, looking me over. “Touch him and I will kill you.” M hissed. “Oh M, you wound me, come on, our last encounter wasn’t that bad.” “You left Conner, Jim and I stuck on a sinking cargo ship off the artic shore!” “Not my fault you can’t fly.” “In any regards.” Sacha said, breaking the two up from their banter. “Matilda here can help. She even brings peace offerings.” “Her own jail cell?” M asked. “A single page.” Matilda said, handing Jim over an aged paper sealed in an evidence bag to him. “This is… from The Thievius Raccoonus.” M said, looking at it. He handed it to me. The page held partial information on Dian Coopers Knockout Touch technique. The finer details were absent, but with this I felt I knew how to at least pull it off to render someone unconscious for a short amount of time. “My agents in Mugshot’s gang managed to slip that single piece out from his vault in Mesa City. He keeps it under heavy guard so a single piece is all I could nab.” “Well it’s better than nothing.” I said, “But...have the bad guys been doing anything terrible? Besides Clockwerk?” I asked Matilda, wondering if the three of the five were still decent people. “Aside from Mugshot’s conquest for America, Panda King’s conquering of China and Raleigh’s ownership of the seas growing and now, Clockwerk’s terrorizing of Russia. The only member of this Fiendish five not in any large scale operations is Mz Ruby.” “But no one’s getting to hurt right?” I asked. “Besides what Clockwerk does…” “Well, Raleigh’s operations have drowned many people. But in Mugshot’s and Panda King’s operations Panda King only killed a select few government officials and took power after than fairly easily. His display over firepower gained him that position of power. Mugshot as far as we can tell hasn’t personally killed anyone, his growing gang though has had some fatalities in their conquest across america. But aside from that Clockwerk still has the highest kill count, and he just started two days ago.” “This is grave news indeed.” M said with a sigh. “I’d rather see you burn in hell but for the time… cooperation is required.” “Agreed. Now then, let’s start helping Sacha here offload his ship.” “I managed to hop my cargo ship of imports and exports!” Sacha said happily. “Well...I hope they are nice people even if they’re doing bad things.” I said honestly. “And from the sound if it...three are avoiding doing major damage, while two are actively supporting causing as much destruction as possible.” “Yes. It would appear that way. Intelligent doesn’t do this child justice.” Matilda said, patting my head. “I’m smart, but hope is what I’m using mostly.” I said, “I want to hope that...those three are good people and helped hide us from Clockwerk that day…” “Hm.” She said, giving me an almost knowing look. Sacha’s Daughter, Lada, was nice. She was just a year older than Carmalita. The supplies Sacha brought varies but was 70% food. Which I don’t mind, plenty of food and even candy. The non food stuff was a mixed bag of vehicles and other electronics. Muray and I were exploring all the cool vehicles when… “Check it out!” Muray said. I headed over, seeing a large… blue van. “This is cool!” “Amazing.” I said with a warm smile. “This van looks pretty sturdy...I wonder if there’s anything special about it?” I wondered while putting a hand on the metal, wondering if there were some special metals made into it or something else. Muray and I looked inside, seeing the walls were thin but bulged so it seems there were some reinforcements put here. What I wasn’t sure. There were two main seats in the front, one set of four side seats on the left side and one seat with a table next to it on the other Seats seven, and room for some supplies. “This reminds me of my dad.” Muray said, walking around the Van. “What do you mean?” I asked curiously. “As in he’s built tall and strong, or that he was a mechanic that built cool things like this?” “Mechanic. Mom… Mom died when I was born, dad raised me all by himself. He owned a mechanic shop, but he made money on the side in street races. Made enough to keep us both fed, and the shop paid bills. He’d do on call jobs, had a big blue van that looked just like this. Only he had way more tools, heh, and pizza boxes.” “Sounds like a good man.” I said honestly, gently putting a hand on the hood of the Van. “Maybe...never mind.” I shook my head. “Just a silly thought…” “Heh. Dad always said the only silly thoughts are the ones unsaid.” “True.” I said, “But...I had this thought that...your dad, somehow or someway, made sure you had a van just like his.” I said, not knowing if Murray’s dad’s van was gone because of how he lost his father. “But I’m probably just being weird thinking all that.” “Heh, maybe. Dad always said when you’re gone, heaven or hell you look out for your family, in some way helping them. He always told me that is what Mom was doing.” “Sounds about right.” I nodded, clutching my cane a little tighter. “So, who do you think will teach us to drive this?” I asked curiously. “You kidding.” Muray said, opening the door on the drivers side. The keys were taped to the steering wheels. “My dad taught me to drive when I was in diapers.” Muray said, taking a seat, his legs not reaching the pedals just yet. “Heh, I’ll need some sticks.” “One moment.” I said while heading off and gathering some sticks, two planks and some duct tape. After fiddling it for a few minutes I managed to make not bad stilts for Murray as I went back to him and the van. “Think these will work?” I asked while showing my handiwork. “Perfect.” Muray said, starting the van up. He was a good driver, driving the van out of the ship, down the ramp and next to his cabin. “Just like riding a bike. Or, driving a car.” “Everyone’s gonna flip when they learn you can drive this good.” I chuckled. “But I can tell our little group and this van are gonna go on some crazy adventures.” I smiled warmly. “Heck yeah, I can see the road trips now.” Needless to say M and Jim were impressed by Murray’s driving skills. We all managed to gain a lot more skills. Lada joined in on a whim, Sacha proud at his daughter in wanting to help. She also seems to have a good set of skills. For example… “Yah!” Lada yelped, Sly pranked her with a toy spider then she proceeded to punch a hole in the stone next to her. “Huh…” I said, “That’s...something.” “She takes after her mother.” Sacha said proudly. “Does...she get her beauty from her mother as well?” I asked nervously. Sacha’s maw bit right in front of me, making me fall over. “Touch my girl and you can learn your ancestors techniques personally.” “Papa yield!” Lana yelled, pulling her dad off me. So he’s protective. Given he almost lost her twice, first when Dad saved her and second when escaping Russia from Clockwerk’s attack. Still… damn. “I’m sorry...I just thought she was pretty.” I said nervously. ”Christ, he’s like Filthy when Joy started dating Diamond…” I thought to myself. “One thing you should know about fathers and daughters… The father always becomes protective of them. Especially over when they encounter boys.” M said. Carmalita nodded. Over the next few days Jim helped Lana work on honing and practicing her strength, same with Muray, the two often wrestling for practice. While Lana had raw strength Muray had weight and size to counter it so they were pretty fair fights. News was pretty much the same. Mz Ruby was still an unknown, Matilda using satellites she had access too to see the region she was in. So far it showed them caging that giant snake but that was about it so far. I mostly kept busy with a mixture of...well a lot of things. Tinkering with Bentley and Uncle M, practicing all my techniques with Sly, trying to stay fit and strong with Lana, Murray and Uncle Jim, and in my own time trying to figure out how the hell to use magic in this world. “Oh come on…” I groaned, panting in exhaustion as I kept trying to figure out how to bring up the mana I know full well I had, like it was a small current I could just feel...even though this island felt like I’m walking in the goddamn ocean because of the magic here, it was still annoying I couldn't’ even do a basic levitation spell. “Having trouble short stuff?” I looked up, seeing Matilda sitting atop a palm tree. “With things that are probably not in your field of study yes.” I sighed out, using my Cane as a crutch so I didn’t fall over. “But...what do you know of Magic?” “Lot’s of things.” She snapped her finger, the tip glowing with a small bit of fire. Like a coin she tossed it into the air, catching it as it died in her grip. “Bat’s are one of the most heavy magic connected races on earth. Topping the list is the Wolf, then my race, then Alligators, then… Racoons.” “Well...from what my dad said, the Coopers are extremely magical...and well…” I said while swinging my cane and a bolt of electricity lashed out into the sky. “Oh yeah, it actually works when it’s convenient for it.” I rolled my eyes. “And no, that wasn’t some special thing Uncle M made for the cane...that’s pure magic if you could have guessed.” “I know. Ulga Cooper had a similar technique.” She said, dropping down to me. “I may not have read your families little tomb of history, but the world has kept records of your family, and I made it my job to do my research wherever I could find the information.” “So...you know how important my family is?” I asked. “And...you can train me to use magic? Please?” I asked, holding my cane in an adorable way as I gave her the best puppy dog eyes I could for a six year old racoon. “You’re cute.” She said, patting my head. “But you’re also a bad liar. Remember that test I gave you guys yesterday? Yours held a problem only someone with-” She flashed her hand out, a Way to Dawn Keyblade appearing. “Outsider knowledge can know. So, who or what are you kid?” I blinked, seeing her Keyblade and not believing it was here. “How...and why do you have that?” “So you do know what it is. Good, the Coopers are a lot of things, but I know for a fact Keyblade wielders are not one of the things they are. So, who are you really, cause my mother, my Master, taught me a lot. And this heart.” She tapped my chest. “While old, does not act like an old heart reborn into a new life. Not one… that’s forgotten it’s old life.” I took a deep breath. “Rules.” I said simply. “That’s all I can tell you, and considering you have this.” I gently poked Way to Dawn with my cane. “You know full well how strong Rules are and those that enforce them.” I said, my tone sounding a lot less childlike and innocent and more old and experienced. “Tsk. Know your Keyblader Ways. Very will, a mutual understanding then? After all, I am this world’s Keyblade wielder, its guardian, but as you can see, I can’t fix all this by myself. You and those others can, and will be helping me. In exchange I can teach you magic natural to this world. Seeing as that’s the magic you are having trouble with.” “This deal seems a bit one-sided, you train me, and I do the thing I was already planning on doing.” I said honestly. “Fine enough for me I suppose. Thank you.” I said politely. “So now…” I looked up at her. “Tell me how magic works here? I’ve been trying to figure it out for years but nothing happens.” I pouted cutely. “First off, stop trying to actually control the magic. Mana here is more feral than mana of most other worlds.” She cupped my hands together. “It’s wild, to tame it takes time. First, let it take your scent, and gain your trust and then you can guide it to act as you desire.” “Well...might as well give it a try.” I said while grabbing my Cane and taking a deep breath, sensing the magic within myself. “This is gonna take a while…” I muttered while trying to interact with the magic without it deciding to bite me. I stood for a while, keeping my mind blank as I let this world's magic reach me. Primal and wild, it felt like it was smelling me or something. ”Hi there.” I mentally said to the world's magic. I didn’t get a reply, but I felt it graze me, like getting a feel for me before vanishing off. “I guess the Coopers are closer to magic than most Racoons.” “I mean...from the stories dad told me, not only could we turn invisible...but a technique he managed to teach us was where we leave no trace, either through heat...or DNA.” I said honestly. “If that’s not magic then I don’t know what is.” “Mostly magic, mostly skill. All the same in the end though.” Over the next few months Matilda taught me and Sly some magic. Nothing much and each lesson M and Jim kept watch over her. They really don’t trust her. “Okay, what’s wrong?” I asked both Uncle M and Jim. “Only heard one thing bad about her from Uncle M and after that it’s just been passive aggressive from you two. What’s wrong with Matilda?” I asked the Mandril and Walrus as I was kind of tired of having the two be this upset. The two looked at one another, sighing before having a seat with me in the cafeteria. “It’s not what she did to us so much. We know that’s all work, hazards of the job.” M said. “It’s what she did to your mother…” Jim said. “Matilda ran a… off the books black ops organization in America, as far as anyone knew, it didn’t exist, didn’t even have a name. Your mom for… a good solid year, worked for her.” “Matilda knew she was married to a Cooper, the whole reason she hired her in the first place. When Sly was born Matilda tried to… convince your mom that, your father would leave her, when in reality she was trying to make Conner leave your mother.” “Bitch.” I swore. “Where did you learn that word?” I stared at the two with a deadpan look. “Right…” M sighed. “She had Conner wrapped around that boney wings of hers, almost had him convinced to leave, and take Sly with him. She used Clockwerk’s tradition of killing the Coopers to convince him to leave her and manage to keep Sly safe, and well trained, both by a master thief and a special operations agent. Thankfully we called her out on it, your dad hated himself for years after that. That’s why we hate her, we, Jim and I, actually stopped her from trying to do it again when you were born. That… I don’t know what her infatuation with your father was, we are just worried she might imprint that same infatuation onto you two.” I sighed out. “Alright, good to know.” I nodded. “Um...quick question, are there any other magical races here? Matilda told me Wolves, Bats, Alligators and Racoons were all magical, is there any other races that are naturally magical?” I asked curiously. “Well, yes. Technically every race can use magic, but magic prefers certain races over others. Any race can learn magic, it’s just harder for others and easier for the lucky few.” "Alright. Just double checking." I said with a nod. "Always good to double check in any line of work." I said honestly. "Gonna have to ask Matilda why the hell she wanted to split mom and dad up...seriously the fuck lady?" I thought to myself. “True, especially when pulling a job.” Later that day I confronted Matilda. “Sup Sweetie?” She asked me. "Lady the actual hell were you doing with my parents?" I frowned. “Oh, Jim and M tell you about that?” "After I asked them what the passive aggressiveness has been about yes." I nodded. "Seriously lady...twice you tried to split my family up?" “Hmm… I’m not gonna lie, in researching the Coopers, I’ve learned a lot about your family, even partel details of your family tomb’s secrets. I grew fascinated by your family, it’s bloodline. Did you know your family has been Royals, Kings, Queens, Knights, and simple sales men, mailmen, your family has been all over the class system. I grew… attached, obsessed. I can admit that confidently. When I first met your father Conner… It was like I was awake for the first time, alive. I’d never felt that way about anyone before, not even my own family. I needed him. But, he had a son, and wife. But I knew the Clockwerk Curse your family is under. I could have protected him, saved him.” She summoned her Keyblade. “We both know I could have. I was so close… but it faltered.” She disbanded her Keyblade. “I tried again when you were born, but Jim and M kept me away. I was at their funeral. Like his father and all your ancestors before you, they buried empty coffins.” “And you didn’t just openly tell them this...why?” I asked. “It would have been much simpler to just say ‘I love you’ ya know that right?” “I did, but he was loyal to your mother. He knew Clockwerk always kills his prey. And like it or not, I might not be able to save this world as my duty as a Keyblade wielder, I will, save you two.” She said, kneeling down to my eye level. “Or die trying.” “You're not dying.” I said bluntly. “No one is going to die here.” “This is war sweetheart. It’s not without casualties. Right now the world is paying theirs… and when we enter that battlefield… one or more of us will pay that price.” Five Years Later The island changed a lot over these five years. In that time Carmalita and Lana both grew cloth, The only girls on the island so they needed to bond together. Carmalita is now 16, Lana 17. Sly, Muray and Bentley are 13 and Im 11. Today is gonna be a fun day. “Alright everyone, gather.” M said, the lot of us all on the beach. “Today, we begin helping the world. Ending the Fiendish four’s reign.” It was five. In these whole five years, still not a single word or even display of Mz Ruby. In that same five years though, Mugshot now owns all of America, Canida, Mexico and HALF of South America. Panda King took over Japan for the fish, or so it goes. Clockwerk took over all of Russia and most of europe. Only Africa, and Antarctica are still free countries. “We take supplies and the sub to Africa, there is a rebel base there who fight against Panda King and Clockwerk’s forces. Jim, Matilda and you all will be on that sub, myself and Sacha will stay here to keep radio contact and oversee the island.” “We’ll make contact with the rebels and then set sail in teams. Sly, Carmalita and Kite will head to the Hiation Jungles in the sub to check and see what is the issue with Mz Ruby and her lack of involvement in the original group. The rest will set up and organize the rebels into a proper fighting force.” “Wouldn’t it be better if Murray and Bentley came with us?” I asked curiously. “It would make sense to get some teamwork and field work in at the same time...plus it helps Murray test the van in different environments right?” “They’ll meet you all after your mission is complete and head into Mexico.” “Alright.” I nodded. “Let’s just hope things work out…” Once we were off and made contact with the rebels, Nice people, Sly, Carmalita and I were sent off to check in on Mz Ruby. The jungle was exactly like how it was from the game, only bigger, which made me happy. Course not knowing how to use the rail walk or rail slide, we had to take alternative routes. Still we did manage to find a safe surprisingly. "Well didn't think we'd find this so soon." I said honestly. “Why put a safe out in the open like this?” Carmaleta asked. “It’s a traditional show of power, Keep some of your valuables out in the open in your own territory to show your enemies that you own this place and can keep what’s yours wherever you want.” Sly answered. “How do we open it though?” I looked at my ‘cane’, thinking for a moment before activating it as I tapped it against the safe. The tip phasing through. Curious I swiped the hook through the whole safe. In its hold, a page of my family tomb.’ “Holy shit!” Carmalita said in shock. Sly chuckled. “You’re a wizard Kite.” He said, making both a reference and joke, That book was just as good as on any world. "Yep." I said with pride while looking at the page. "Wonder who this page is from…" The page was complete, detailing greatly Karin Coopergina's coin magnet technique. Needless to say this would be useful. Sly and I practiced it a bit with some coins we had and even Carmalita was able to learn and use it. So literally anyone who reads the pages CAN learn and perform the techniques written. "This isn't concerning…" I muttered to myself. "But good to know…"…" We headed back into it and found the main area, discovering some Voodoo monks, Mz Ruby's brutes, patrolling about. "So, should we pass them by or knock them out?" Carmalita asked. "I mean...not sure if I can knock them out given their Voodoo Witch Doctor's…" I muttered while sneaking up to the guy and using my KnockOut Touch ability on the witch doctor. Surprisingly, it worked. Acting fast Carmalita tied and gagged them so when it wore off they couldn't alert anyone else. We also tossed their Voodoo stuff aside so they could not reach it. "Cool, it worked." I said honestly.honestly. "Won't last too long since it was just a partial entry." Sly said. "Let's head in deeper." Heading to the center area, we saw Mz Ruby's big skull home high up, but there was a few things missing. While the giant snake cage was still there, the rest of the fortifications were missing. I also felt this… warmth nearby. "You feel that Kite? That warmth?" Sly asked. "Yes I do...that's a little concerning given where we are…" I said nervously. Sly and I felt it coming right from Mz Ruby's skull house. How to get up there. Carmalita pulled out her Bonoc-U-com, taking a look. "I see Mz Ruby. She looks like… she's having a meal or something. She's talking to someone but I can't see who." She said, placing them away. "Well whatever the heck is going on we need to get up there." Sly said. "Well…" I looked around to see how to get up there. Looking all around, I saw the best option was a tall tree in the snakes cage, another option was- "Hey!" We turned around, seeing one of the guards running up to us, but they halted and raised their arms after we raised our weapons. "Woah woah! Hey, I'm not here for a fight." “Then what do you want?” I asked defensively, still prepared for anything this witch doctor could throw at us. "Mz Ruby has been expecting you. Kite and Sly Cooper, she has been preparing to speak with you two for the past five years." The guard stated. I blinked at that. “And...this isn’t a trap?” I asked nervously. “Cause...while I have my suspicions that Mz Ruby is a nice person at heart...there’s still the fact she helped Clockwerk.” "A partnership she regrets." The guard said. "She knew you'd need to speak someplace safe and private from Clockwerks eyes and ears. Why do you think she never began her rampage as the rest of the five? She made herself a target of interest for you both. Suspect enough to investigate personally." “I mean...it is curious as to why she just hasn’t done anything in over five years.” I said honestly. “So...how do we get up there if we need to talk to Mz Ruby? Cause I don’t see any stairs around here.” Slowly, the Voodoo guard pulled a pouch off his belt, tossing it to Sly. "It's powdered magic. Useful in many things, including entering Mz Ruby's home. Simply toss a handful on the waters below her home and it will grow you a stairway." “Well...thank you.” I nodded. “Let’s hope this talk will be more...civil then I’m expecting it to be…” I muttered to myself, hoping things won’t end poorly even if I’m expecting it. Cautious, we headed to the waters below her house. Sly tossed the powder and forming from roots was a spiral stairway going up into the skull. Carefully we headed up, the feeling of… warmth hit Sly and I again. It was comforting but also agonizing at the same time. We didn't know why but we're on guard. “Well...who would have thought thieves would be taking the front door huh?” I tried to joke through the tension. "Hello there young chillies." Mz Ruby's voices echoed towards them. Entering the main room with her, it was a kitchen/Dining room mix. Mz Ruby was alone, but there was tea and snacks set for two. "You two have grown." “We have…” I said slowly, wondering why she’s set things up like this. “But...I presume it was you that knocked me and big brother out on...that day?” "Yes. You two must have so many questions. I guess I'll start at the beginning. Clockwerk recruited me roughly ten years ago. While he dislikes magic in any form, he did need a magic expert to learn certain basics. The… first time we confronted your father and his team, I just watched and maintained the barrier keeping them there. He said we were just going to force him into retirement. But even after that day, he made us search." “Stubborn Owl.” I growled. “So...what were Mugshot and Panda King’s thoughts on this? Cause the three of you kept me and Sly hidden while Clockwerk...did those things.” "While Mugshot was okay with hurting your father, he did admit it suspicious that Clockwerk wanted to search for him after the beating. Panda King was against it from the beginning, a father himself, he could see how such injuries would affect you both. When we found you again, Panda King knew Clockwerk was planning something vile. We created a plan. And you two were spared your parents fate, thankfully. That powder I hit you two with didn't just knock you out, it also sent you to a safe place, where we picked you up and hid you in that orphanage later that same night. "Clockwerk took us to his hideout for victory, and that's when I made my move. While Mugshot and Panda King distracted the bird, I found his… trophy room." “What? Is it comically evil where it holds the skulls of all the Coopers he’s slain over...however long he’s lived?” I asked. "Stuffed actually. His… your parents were recently placed in a bin to… for him to work on later. I took who I could, and for three full years worked my Voodoo in ways I didn't even know it could work. The result was…" "Sly, Kite?" Sly and my blood ran cold. We gave one another a look before turning… our mom, stood behind us, a thick scar across her neck. “M-mom…?” I stuttered, not believing what I’m seeing. “But...how? I...I didn’t think magic could work like this…” "It's not perfect hun." Mz Rudy said. "She's alive, yes, but she can't feel, physical touch I mean. Can't sleep either. Necromancy is nasty like that." Sly walked over to mom shakily, hugging her tight as she returned it. "I might not feel this hug… but I can still feel love." She said, hugging Sly back. “Did you...bring anyone else back?” I asked. “You...said you took who you could...was it just one or...others?” I asked slowly, tears in my eyes as I couldn’t believe this was happening. "I tried. But… I couldn't bring them back. I don't know why either. The spells I used could pull a soul from hell or heaven back to the land of the living, but they didn't work. So I buried them properly in the cemetery some miles from here. A better resting place than Clockwerks nest." “I...suppose it’s because their souls were at peace?” I suggested. "I don't know. Voodoo is many things, but clear on reasons for an outcome or failure it is not." She then pulled out a large envelope. "These are the pages I kept, there are others I kept in safes hidden around in different areas. They're what my guards watch over." "So they aren't just roaming around for random trespassers?" Sly asked. "No, they're all actually students of mine. My Voodoo is the strongest anyone has seen in centuries, after Clockwerk and… when I was able to bring your mother back I began healing with it. Soon folks wanted to be around me to learn, and I taught. A step to atonement." “Well...can you teach me and big brother how to use magic?” I asked. “We have a magic teacher but...she probably doesn’t want to teach us a lot.” "I can do better than that." Mz Ruby said, she walked over to a shelf with various Voodoo artifacts. She took an old branch, a bone inside it that the branch clearly grew over and handed it to me. "This staff was grown over an old Voodoo priests grave, it can better funnel out your magic and in regards to teaching you both, I will comply, as a prisoner." "Why would you want to be a prisoner?" Carmalita asked. "Despite my lack of hell raising and compliance, I still took part in a murder. While I didn't spill the blood, I was an accomplice nonetheless. Mugshot told me about a former black ops named Matilda that still has some pool in certain governments still standing. Take me in not only ensures you keep me as a teacher but also shows this group can be taken down, start up resistance in their own territories." “That sounds about right.” I nodded. “But...will Mugshot and Panda King come as cleanly as you? I’ve only heard some stuff about the two, but Mugshot sounds like a Mafia Boss running a Racket and Panda King...well he sounds too honorable to just stand down.” I said, Mz Ruby noting how little I mentioned the frog as if I either didn’t know much about him or didn’t give a rats ass about the spoiled bastard. "No, Don't get me wrong, they also regret everything, but they needed to keep up the front, less Clockwerk head after them. He never did me cause even though I knew I was the disposable one of us all. Clockwerk's love-hate relationship with magic and old school sexism present and plain as the chrome of his body." “Well that’s just not nice.” I frowned. “Your strong, tough, and a magical genius, and also pretty.” I huffed. “You deserve respect.” Mz Ruby chuckled. "That's kind. You best get the rest of them pages. I'll be here." Sly and I rapidly got the rest of the pages from our family tomb from Mz Rubies safes. Putting them all together with the ones she had in the envelope, we had a lot of studying to do. We called in this development to Matilda and within hours she and the Africa rebels came via helicopter to pick up Mz Ruby. Mom acted like Uncle Jim and M towards Matilda, who honestly looked rather shocked to see Mom alive, back from the dead literally. Can't blame either of them here. Bentley and Murray met up with us in our van, Lana was with them as they felt this would be a good chance for her to properly test her skills. While on our way to Mexico to deal with some of Mugshots local gang members, we all ended up reading from the pages. There were so many. The first one we all managed to read, memorize and successfully pull off was Slytunkhamen Cooper's Invisibility technique. Arriving in Mexico this proved invaluable In sneak attacking the gangsters and for once the local jails began having inmates. Police quickly began picking their guns, cuffs and tasers up as we began dropping off on average ten gangsters a day, and we were still in southern Mexico. “Well so far so good.” I said, “We’re clearing this out a lot faster than I first thought…” "This is fun. I get to punch people." Lana said happily. "I can't believe Mugshots gang stretches this far." Carmalita said. "Once we reach Mesa City and take him down the large majority will dispatch, small pockets will stay organized but local law should be able to handle that." Sly said. As the days passed on We mastered Huckleberry Cooper's modified Invisibility technique, this let us better life out and sneak attack. After that it was Ember Cooper's Ignition technique. According to the pages she was a natural pyro, often creating small dumpster fires as cover for her thefts, using soot, Ash and charcoal to ignite small controlled fires to remove obstacles like security cameras and even knock out guards with a special blend of burned wood ashes. Needless to say once we made it, Bentley managed to make knock out bombs with the ashes, proving useful in taking out the larger groups of gangsters. “Well...looks like setting things on fire is a viable strategy.” I chuckled. “Hmm...do any of you think Uncle M could mix these two together?” I asked our little gang curiously as I held up my Cane and the Staff Mz Ruby gave me. "I'm sure something can be done." Bentley said. "I'd be happy to, but M's technically is still a bit above me, and the magic in that staff is unknown to me." “I’m sure you’ll learn a lot about magic with us.” I pointed out. “And also a lot of other things no normal thirteen year old should learn.” Our trip through Mexico took us to a small town called Corazon del Aqua. Apparently this town's local Mugshot gang members are doing a bit more than the normal robberies and drug/weapons shipping. Slavery and even experimentation on people from some mad scientist who is paying good cash to have his seat with this local gang. Needless to say we figured this would take more time than normal so we set up a temporary base. Our first really, Inside a cave just a mile away from the town. “Alright, so who here thinks Muggshot has literally no idea about the Slavery and Mammel Experimentation?” I asked curiously. “Cause if I’ve learned anything about Muggshot, is that he takes the Mafia very seriously, and the Mafia doesn’t do this kind of crap.” "It's all likely this scientist fellow. Whoever he is, he knows these idiots will listen to cash over Mugshot anytime of the day." Carmalita said. "Luckily Matilda gave me accesscess to her organization's secret high tech spy satellite. From what I can see it looks like the old town prison is where they keep the people who are both sold as slaves and experimented on, but the laboratory is the old hospital downtown. As helpful as it is, the satellite can only do so much. In order to make a proper plan, I'd need photos of inside both the lab and prison to formulate a strategy here." Bentley explained. "Well it's a good thing me and you added the camera feature to our Binoc-U-Coms not too long ago." I mentioned, given that me, Bentley and Uncle M were now focused on getting the namesake down some features needed to be done after the fact. "True. Sly, you take photos of the prison. Kite, you take the Laboratory, and Carmalita, if you can gather photos of main town itself, guards, locations of notice and just anything that seems a tad of interest. With your stealth abilities you three can easily snap the pictures we'd need." "Breaking into a prison? Why do I feel like this won't be the first time I do that?" Sly asked. "You can count on us Bentley." Carmalita said with a firm nod. "I'll make sure to get the equipment's good sides." I joked.ed. We left and got to work. The citizens here all in there homes already or up and left. It was mostly the guards around and they were easy to avoid. Making it to the former hospital, now Laboratory, I snuck in through the vents. Here I got ceiling view photos of people put into medicated comas, the security, and the doctor himself it seemed, as well as his main office and workplace. He was working on a serum of sorts, that I could tell. Whatever it's meant to do can't be good. There was one area where vent access and the doors leading to it were dense with reinforced bars and the works. Something tells me that serum's results are kept in there. After snapping whatever photos I could, and some extras, I made my escape. "Hey, the fuc-" A guard that spotted me was about to tell. The knockout touch coming into play here. I noticed among his other valuables there was a pocket watch. Time to call my Time Walker. "Cool." I muttered while sneaking off to a hiding place and summoning the time walker the way Cript told me. The whole world stopped, shifting to a pale grey color scheme save for myself and the watch. In a flash of blue, my Time Walker arrived. "You called?" "Yes I did." I nodded. "So first question, what does calling a Time Walker in an Admin Game do?" I asked, wanting to make sure Cript didn't forget anything. "Stops time for while I am here for starters. Second, I can buy and sell things like a merchant for you but only items from this world and within reason. I can also hold items for you like storage." "Cool." I nodded. "So what are you selling if I may ask?" They showed me a list of some things. Most of these were powerups, Lucky Horseshoe though looked useful. I had enough for one from that guy, so I got that. "Anything else?" They asked. “Um...mind if I ask what points have to happen?” I asked curiously. “Cause Cript mentioned that some points in time need to happen...but I’m just wondering what has to happen and what can be stopped.” "Clockwerk parts have to be put in that museum and stolen, Nyla must become Clockla, Bentley has to end up wheelchair bound, and Paradox has to screw with time… I hate when time travel screw ups have to happen just to unhappen. Makes zero sense." “Just be glad that all the time travel did was take away pieces of the Thievius Racoonus instead of causing so many paradoxes that your paperwork would be tripled.” I said honestly. “But really? Bentley has to be cripled? That’s a bummer…” I sighed out. “But...considering Magi-Tech might be a thing in the near future...maybe Bentley can have his legs back?” "If he wants it. Timeline here has already been heavily changed just because you were born. Penelope also has to betray them but that's just to start off Le Paradox's crap. Once you nab her you can work on helping her back to your side. If by chance she doesn't turn on you guys, then I'll have to do my job." “Well...I think it would be more of the ‘oh hey, I already sold it but I just wanted to get a second opinion only to realize I fucked up’.” I said honestly. “While I’m trying my best not to rip off Dressed to Steal, sometimes things overlap.” I shrugged. "Don't give the authors ideas." They said, pointing over to the time Frozen scorpion man walking by the alley. “Oh you gotta be kidding me…” I said worriedly. After that little event I headed back to the hideout, Sly and Carmalita arriving at about the same time. After talking to M and Matilda, Bentley pulled up the photo slideshow. Our first planned job. Sweet! "Okay everyone, after all the analysis and talking with Uncle M and Matilda I've discovered exactly what exactly is going on and just how screwed up it is." Bentley started. “Umbrella Corporation stuff going on?” I asked, given that Resident Evil did in fact come out last year. "Uh, no." Bentley said, the slide of the scientist I took the photo of appearing. The Coyote is visible. "According to Matilda this man is Professor Paladeco. Wanted by all world governments for creating illegal super soldiers, organ harvesting, illegal cloning, and bio weapon fabrication. To say he is dangerous is an understatement." "So these prisoners are his lab rats…" Sly hissed. "Definitely. Now, thanks to Sly's and Carmalita's photos, the prison has been discovered to have an old body dump tunnel back during the days of the plague. The exit leads off into the desert two miles out of town. It will be easy to set up an evacuation vehicle out there. However to get this operation to a perfect success, both the laboratory and the prison have to be taken out at the same time." “So we have to split up then?” I asked curiously. “Two teams to take down both at the same time without causing too much commotion to rouse suspicion from the guards?” "Yes and no. To start we have to deal with all the Mugshot goons gone awol from the main gang. Thankfully thanks to Mz Ruby we have the recipe to create an illusion of Mugshot. Those still terrified will get the heck out of Dodge. Thankfully the recipe items for such a spell are all within the town and dessert." “And thankfully I also found this.” I said while bringing out a page of the Thievius Racoonus. “Nothing says ‘master of disguise’ like a perfect voice mimicking.” I said in Matilda’s voice which actually wasn’t that far off. “Thank you Ronn Cooper.” I said with a smile. "Perfect. Now, once that is done we will have to deal with the guards weapons. They have some heavy firepower, but thankfully all their spare ammunition and guns are kept in three guarded houses. Tomorrow is going to be one of the hottest days of the year in town, so Lana and Carmalita will play Ice Cream sales girls-" "How…?" Carmalita asked slowly. "Matilda called in a favor with the prior towns police we helped. Anyway, while they are doing that I'll send in some prototype RC cars inside once they are all out. They will be outfitted with Nitro Bombs so all their supplies will be blown sky high." “And given we have a mad scientist to deal with...what are the odds that one of the weapon facilities has something with a little more kick when it blows up?” I asked curiously. "If that is the case, the RC cars camera can scan anything of note. If there is something either too explosive or useful in them, Sly or Kite can easily rush in and grab it while the guards are busy buying and eating ice cream." "Wait, we're actually gonna sell them ice cream?" Carmalita asked. "Yes. Helps sell the truck and gets us a bit of funding. Once all the weapon warehouses are gone, we'll need to cut the Laboratory power and water supply. This will force Paladeco to run on generators to keep his serum machines going, and buy water by the truck load. We use this to sneak into the lab and bug the place with micro cameras and set up a remote detonation bomb on the generators. With the power out the automatic security is useless." “Hopefully we can do most of this without raising too much suspicion, cause there’s nothing to suggest Wily Coyote here hasn’t brought any of his Super Soldier experiments here with him.” I said honestly. "That is a high possibility. Thankfully there is a solution. Matilda says the only weakness of his super soldiers is a high voltage shock of electricity. Not like what you'll get from getting a shock from a power line, bigger. Thankfully Uncle M found a person on ThiefNet selling a special Arc Nine battery clip for the shock pistols Carmalita has, and he is willing to make a bargain." “And what’s the bargain?” I asked curiously. "He wants to discuss it with one of us at the meet up at a local taco stand in the town. Lastly is breaking into the prison. The whole prison and it's cells are not modern, old school. So we'll need to steal the keys off the goon playing Warden. Thankfully, Matilda looked him up and he has a strong fear of snakes, and the local wildlife has plenty. Even the harmless ones will work fine. Sly or Kite can then sneak them to his office in the vents and let a few loose. He'll run in a panic and either drop or leave the keys behind." “Sounds good.” I nodded. “Anything else we should know about?” "Yes. The locked area you could only photograph the door of must be where the current super soldiers that were created are. Once we have the the Arc Nine clips for Carmalita's shock pistol, she can knock them out in a few hits. This will be rather chaotic when it goes down but in the end, prisoners will be freed, town saved, and when all is said and done one good shot from Carmalita to knock out Paladeco and he'll be in the same jail he held those poor people." “Sounds like a plan.” I nodded. "Well, let's get to work." I headed off to the edge of town, calling up Bentley on the Benocu-Com to get the list of ingredients. "Okay Kite, Mz Ruby said the ingredients for this spell are four cactus barrel fruits, a clay bowel that is a bare minimum hundred years old, a purple dessert scorpion venom pouch, and a dead man's wisdom tooth." “So do you want me to pick you up shell wax and a carton of milk while I’m at it?” I joked given that, even when things are different, heists still sound like a grocery list. "Har har. I've marked where to find each in your mask GPS system. Something M built based on what he had for your dad when he was on the job. You will be able to find it all. Once you get them all call me back." The cactus fruit was easy, every other cactus had one here, the bowel was inside an abandoned house, as well as some other older items worth a few on TheifNet. The purple desert scorpion poison sack was a bit tricky. There were only a few in the area and they liked to hide inside their underground tunnels, but I got it after a while. The dead man's wisdom tooth was actually in an old mineshaft abandoned years ago. The took came from the skull of an unfortunate miner, but I did find his forgotten and left behind stash of gold and silver. With them all I called Bently back. “Well I didn’t find any shell wax, but I did find a bunch of gold and silver.” I said while putting down the ingredients and the sack of gold and silver from the Miner. "Impressive. Now, take all that to the roof of the town bar, that's where most of the thugs hang out. Mix them all together then wave the Voodoo staff Mz Ruby gave you. Keep a mental image of Mugshot in mind then the illusion spell will activate. Then stroll into the bar, give your best Mugshot impression and to really sell it, break a chair or table or something. The spell will last about ten minutes so try and be fast." "From what Matilda's told me and shown about Muggshot, I think I got it." I chuckled. "How's everyone else doing?" I asked curiously, just wanting a quick update on their progress. "Sly is cutting power and water to the Laboratory as we speak. Lana and Carmalita are getting the ice cream truck ready. Once you're done there head back so we can begin Operation Brain Freeze." “I have a feeling you’re gonna be making up stellar operation titles.” I chuckled. Once at the bar I performed the spell, waltzing inside with my best, angry Mugshot voice and managed to use my cane to break a chair and table. Needless to say about 70% ran shitless, spreading word through the streets and piling into cars to drive out of here. "Good work Kite! That's sixty percent of the rogue gang gone now! Head back to base, Carmalita, Lana and I are just about ready for the next Operation." Bently said through the communicators. “By the way...what’s Murray been doing?” I asked curiously. “Given that we’re all been busy, I haven’t heard you say anything about what Murray’s doing. Is he helping get people out with the Van or something?” "Yes. Muray and the police from towns and cities we've helped already are at the tunnel existing guarding the escape vehicles." “Alright.” I nodded. “Just making sure Murray wasn’t being left out.” I said while heading back to our hideout for the next phase of the plan. Sly and I arrived back at the hideout at the same time. "Take a rest little brother, you'll need the energy for the big job later tonight." Sly said to me. “I can still…” I said while feeling a little woozy. “Huh...didn’t think that spell took that much…” I muttered. “So...maybe some rest will help…” "Get some sleep. We'll wake you up once everything else is set." Sex Scene Ahead. Please skip if your not a fan. In all my time as Kite Cooper, just about every night Cript came by for a visit. Usually we had a date or something and cuddled or just talked. All in all it was nice to spend time like this. "Big heist?" Cript asked, the two of us enjoying a nice massage in a dream replica of the Ponyville Spa. “Well less ‘heist’ and more ‘stopping a mad scientist from doing super illegal bullshit’.” I said honestly. “Seriously, super soldiers, cloning, and a lot of other bad shit.” "Wow. What kind of madness is your little self getting dragged into?" “I mean, considering Muggshot has taken over all of North America and Panda King is taking over China and Japan, as well as a Bat Keyblader being my magic teacher...we weren’t supposed to be taking down the Fiendish Five until Sly was eighteen, not thirteen.” I said nervously. "To be fair you're all likely going to reach that age over time fighting the five and various other crime organizations along the way." Cript said. “Well four, Mz Ruby quickly defected after having seen what Clockwerk did.” I said honestly. “Muggshot and Panda King are also apparently equally against Clockwerk, but they're just doing bad things to keep him off their back.” "Maybe not just that." Cript said thoughtfully. "At least, Panda King maybe not. You said he only took out specific government officials, who not make a bigger grand statement by up and killing them all? And to rise to power after killing just those specific officials? Sounds like the footings of a bigger plan in my opinion. Actually it almost sounds like he pulled off a one man revolution." “And Muggshot is probably just holding a massive Mafia Racket given he based his entire criminal stuff off of the Godfather.” I said honestly. "Heh. Maybe." Cript laughed. "So… hot tub?" “Hot tub.” I said warmly, lightly groping Cript’s ass offhandedly. "Yipe!" They yelped, surprised but we both climbed into the hot tube. The waters mixed with some herbs and salts to make it all the more relaxing. "Heh, that caught me off guard." Cript said awkwardly. “Sorry.” I said sheepishly. “But...haven’t had any for eleven years, puberty is coming in fast and there is this very pretty russian wolf girl…” "Heh. Ironic since you're an adult here and all…" Cript said, taking a deep breath. "Like I said, when someone who was brought in or born, reborn, all that, as a child wants to be a spouse, it's always more awkward for me. I know the whole thing about it all isn't an issue and as the Admin of Love I admit I don't believe love itself has limits, just what we place on it and if it grows from there. I'm rattling on…" “It’s fine, I tend to do that constantly.” I said honestly. "Well, guess it's time to let it grow." Cript said. Their size in height and body growing equal to mine. They then leaned into me, planting a kiss on my lips. I kissed back lovingly, wrapping my arms around Cript and grabbing their big butt again. They moaned softly, kissing deeper as they now sat on my legs. Kissing and holding someone my size is a nice change of pace. Cript kept their arms wrapped around me, pressing into my back. My top knockers and Cript's pressing against each other in tender squished hug. I moaned softly at my sensitive breasts squishing against Cripts, Cript feeling my growing stiffy rub between their shockingly soft thighs considering there...new form. Cript felt my stiffer growing. Passing their own set that to my surprise wasn't stiff at all yet. Feeling it rising between us, Cript moved themselves in regular small movement, these movements rubbing against my member, causing it to reach max length faster. Cript's skin was so… soft and tender, not just from the touch of my hands cupping their ass, but from them rubbing their belly against my member. It was like silk, and it was heavenly. Once my tip reached out squished breasts, sprouting between them, Cript broke the kiss, face rather red in bluch and breathing heavily as they looked down at my erect cock. A smile on their face as they gently licked the tip. I jolted, that one lick about triggering every pleasure receptor from my tip to my testicles. So this is how screwing an Admin of love is gonna feel. I knew then and there I was going to blow many loads. "God you are magical." I moaned happily, trying my best not to blow too quick. soon. "Perks of the job." They said, giving a little space between us as they began using their tongue, sliding it from tip to base of my member, each second they taste it felt like I was in a losing battle. They were paced well, licking across every side and exposed skin. Pre cum leaned out like a faucet leak, Cript's tongue catching it close down and giving it a healthy lick, slurping off the top of my dick clean of pre. "I'm going to be doing a lot with you King. First I please you, then you please me. Sounds fun?" “I mean, I’m going to be pleasing you a lot when I pound that sweet ass of yours.” I chuckled. "I expect you too, but I do have more experience, and to out sex me hasn't been done yet. So when my turn to rutt you comes around, we'll see how well you keep up." “Is that a challenge?” I asked with a cheeky grin. "If you want it to be. Just one question first, shall I go gently on you, or hold nothing back?" “Well...given this is our first time together, let’s start gently to see how things work.” I said honestly. "Alrighty then love~" Cript purred, mouth opening fairly wide as they sucked on my cocks tip, and slid down it. Their throat was tight, so so tight, wet, and hot. I felt tingles of pleasure and, and electricity across every inch of my ride Cript gulped down. To my surprise they reached the base, giving my balls a wet licks before starting to suck, bobbing up and down halfway of my rod. “Jesus hell…” I moaned at how skilled Cript was, biting my lip and trying not to blow in his throat. As they bobbed their head, wet sexual slurps and sucking filling the air, they groped my testicles, the large cum sacks gently groped and massaged in a way I didn't ever experience before. It was getting harder and harder to hold my load back, I even had to cross my legs, keeping Cript lower and more against my crotch than before, their bobbing now just a few inches of the base of my dick, the length they could move their neck back and forth. Still, while less it was just as thrilling. “Getting...close…” I growled, slightly thrusting my hips to meet their bobbing motions. In the shortest time I've ever had, I blew my load. Down Cript's throat. Not a single sperm cell leaked out their mouth as when I finished, Cript slowly pulled my cock out, making sure to take every drop of cum before reaching my tip, giving a strong suck before popping off. Their stomach wasn't even bulging. "Impressed?" Cript asked. “Damn…” I panted. “That felt amazing.” I said, my cock still up and twitching, ready for another round. "Glad to know." Cript said with a smile, squeezing my still twitching tip between their knockers. My girth alone pushed them apart. At seeing this Cript squashed their breasts together, they milkers wrapped around my member, Cript getting on top of me a bit as they placed their whole body against my member, tip still happily squished between Cript's breasts as they moved them up and down my cock. They didn't move them far up or down, but they did rub their belly and thighs along the rest of my rod, and to the tip gave passionate kisses and licks. “Your tits feel amazing.” I moaned happily. “Also very soft given...your new form.” "I was worried this new form would be an issue, but thankfully Lyra has quite the imagination and skill for modifications." They said, continuing to massage my cock with their entire body. "It felt nice sucking your dick King, tasted rich and meaty~" ”Well Lyra certainly knows what she’s doing.” I chuckled. “And glad you liked it...uh...do you...lactate?” I asked sheepishly, wondering if that was a thing. "If I didn't I wouldn't be a mom. Everyone in the family does. You wanna taste it?" Cript asked, pressing hard on their breasts as small leaks of milk began to drip out their nipples. I blushed. “Well...I’ll be sucking on those when I’m fucking you that’s for sure…” "You can suck them now, and when you blow I'll happily clean you up~" Cript said, circling my tip with their now drooling tongue. “Um...sure.” I said while gently lifting one of Cript’s breasts up and latching onto their nipple to taste their breast milk. It wasn't as thick as I expected, but was still like a rich French vanilla cream with a hint of… swear it's got a hint of strawberry. I suckled happily away, feeling pressure start to build up again as Cript's body massage of my Cock began to speed. "It feels so hot touching my skin. I bet it will feel like fire inside me, like it did in my throat." They huffed lustfully. I moaned happily, sucking on the mutants tit harder as my dick twitched telling Cript I was getting close again. Cript moaned, reaching a hand to hold the back of my head while I drank from them. Passionately they kissed my tip again. Pre flowing out that they happily licked away with lustful greed. I moaned happily as I came again from Cript’s lustful antics, covering Cript and a bit of myself in my seed. Happily Cript gave themselves a tongue bath, shifting their tongue like a snake and cleaning my Jizz off them completely before slurping the spill on me from my cock, making it stuff again in the process before cleaning off my breasts and face. Each lick was a small tingle of joy and happiness. Once I was cleaned off Cript gave me a kiss before taking a sample of my own breast milk. To Cript my breast milk doesn't taste too far off from Den’s, being the same creamy milk from a Den Mother, the only difference was that mine had a slight hazelnut taste to it. Cript happily drank for a time, then happily popped off before giving my nipple a kiss. They lead me to the bed this dream version of the spa had, setting on it on all fours, their legs spread wide as I saw their butt and vagina in full gorgeous view. "Mind plundering my back door before the front? A little partel to Anal." “Don’t mind if I do.” I said while walking over and putting my cock between the mutant’s asscheeks, rubbing myself in between the mountain of an ass. “Lyra sure knows how to make a fine ass.” I said while squeezing the plump cheeks happily. "Shove it in me King, and don't stop til you're base slams my ass." Cript moaned. “Oh I will~.” I said lovingly before lining myself up with Cript’s tight ass as I started to push in, starting slow just to make sure it wasn’t too tight. With a sloppy pop, my tip slid in. Pushing more in Cript moaned as every inch slid deeply inside them, their face deep red with a lustful smile plastering their lips. My base hit against Cript's cheeks, making a light slap noise. It was so tight, tighter than their throat and so hot, yet so fitting as there anal walls tightly gripped my cock, feeling like it did not want to let go. The same electric tingle came across my whole member inside them, Cript pressing their ass harder against my base. "Rutt me. Please!" They begged. “Don’t worry.” I said while smacking their ass. “I’ll give you what you want.” I growled before ramming myself into Cript, each forceful thrust causing their mammoth of an ass to jiggle like jello as I jackhammered into them. Each thrust made Cript moan as their tight ass kept a strong grip on my pulsating member. The pressure was building again, precum leaking and lubricating their insides, letting me slide in faster, pound harder. Cript kept their head and arms firmly placed around a pillow, biting it in bliss as I rutted them. Their ass cheeks turned a shade of red from my slapping it and ramming it. I took pride in that as I felt my cock ready to blow again, like down their throat and in their face, I knew Cript wasn’t going to waste a drop. I growled in pleasure, thrusting faster and faster as I was reaching my peak. “Want your ass filled?” I growled, wanting to hear Cript beg for it. “Like a water balloon King baby~” Heart purred as they arched their back in anticipation. “Just what I wanted to hear.” I said warmly as I slammed my dick as deep as I could inside Cript’s ass and came hard, flooding her insides with even more of my seed, and this time Cript’s stomach actually bloated just a little bit. Cript gave a lustful hiss of a moan, feeling their bloat and smiling happily. I slid out, surprisingly not a drop of cum on my dick nor did any spill out from her ass once I pulled all the way out. She fell to her side, holding her bulge happily. “Every drop someone who will be born. You know how many people won’t be born every time someone climaxes? Millions of possible people, lives, never happening because it’s only ever one cell and one egg, save for the occasional unexpected multiple children. I thought that was so unfair, so, I changed our biology, so every person who could exist will.” “Yeah, I know that full well.” I chuckled while moving close to Cript and rubbing my cock on their pussy. “Want to have kids?” “Already do. Each load you blew.” Cript said, shifting a bit. “Of course, the fastest way into the womb is the old fashioned way.” They purred. “Sometimes I forget half of the races in our family could have biology like that.” I said honestly as I slowly pushed my dick into Cript’s cunt. “All actually. A little mutation ability Lyra and myself made. Unlike regular Abilities, Mutation Abilities soley work based on genetic alterations.” They said, holding their hands above their head and grabbing the bed rails. “But enough talk, start humping.” “With pleasure.” I smiled before thrusting deep into Cript’s snatch, loving how tight they were as I started to get back into a lovingly fast and hard rhythm. “Ooooh~ Harder please~” “If you want.” I said while fucking the mutant even harder, moving forward and latching onto their breast and sucking on it as I continued to fuck them hard and fast. “Yes! Just like that!” Cript said, arms latching around my neck and legs around my waist. I continued to ram myself into Cript, my hips a blur as I fucked my Mutant as hard and fast as I could, wrapping my arms around them as I continued to moan in bliss. I felt Cript use their toes to latch onto my tail. Hands pulling on my back fur and their face buried in my neck. Each thrust slapped my balls against their ass. Each thrust making Cript’s snatch leak more and more fluids. I felt the pressure building again. My stamina draining. I had to keep on. I growled and bit down on Cript’s neck, not hard enough to draw blood or hurt but enough to leave my mark as I pounded Cript harder and faster than before, wanting to breed my mate and make sure she was pregnant with my pups. With a final thrust, I came, blowing my final load deep into Cript’s womb, their bulge now noticeable. With one last weak hump I fell on them, burying them under my many breasts as I cuddled them. They cuddled me back, enjoying my embrace. “That...that was…” I panted, softly nuzzling Cript. “Wow…” “And that was going easy with my sexual enhancers~” Cript cooed, nuzzling under my chin. “Going easy?” I asked curiously. “That tingeling you felt when you stuck it inside me. Electronium has many uses once you master it. I kept the wattage low.” They said, sitting up and stretching, their bulge now gone but they kept rubbing their belly lovingly. “So, ready for my turn?” “Just...a minute.” I said while continuing to cuddle. “I haven’t gotten to cuddle all that much…” “Okay, but I’m taking a drink.” Cript said, latching onto my nipple and drinking away. I smiled gently as I gently rubbed the back of Cript’s head, letting Cript drink my breast milk as I continued to cuddle. We cuddled for a good while. After that though Cript was ready for their turn. “So, what should I do first?” They asked me. I got a good look at their members. It wasn’t as girthy as mine, but just as long, and still human looking, save for the color matching the rest of their skin tone. “It’s your turn, you pick.” I said lovingly. “Hmm… Well, let’s feel those boobs of yours then~” They said, touching their own tip. I got into position, wrapping my cleavage around their cock. It was at this moment I haven’t done this particulare type of sex myself. Had it done to me, yes, lots, done it to others, not really. “Well...this is my first time doing this.” I said sheepishly while wrapping my top pair of tits around Cript’s cock and starting to gently rub them against it. “The key is pressure. Keep them pressed against it good, and of course, some tongue play or kisses go a long way~” Cript said, my wolf tongue getting their whole tip in one lick. “Alright.” I said while squishing my tits around Cript’s member a little tighter, managing to lick the tip every time I brought my tits down to his base and started to get into a smooth enough rhythm, my tits feeling warm soft and wonderful. I have to admit, the taste of their cock wasn’t what I expected. Slightly musky, yes, but tasted like salt with a clear meat taste. “Oooh. Yeah, that feels good.” Cript moaned. “Glad you're enjoying it.” I said warmly, starting to rub my tits faster and holding it a little tighter. “Was a little worried my first time wouldn’t be...all that good.” I said sheepishly. “With fur and skin as soft as yours? While it does need work your fluff and skin make up for the lack of experience.” “They better, I make sure to keep my skin and fur silky smooth.” I said simply, rubbing a little faster again. “So...what do you think of the fusions?” I asked, even though I’m in the middle of giving Cript a titjob might as well do some small talk given I’m not good at this. “Mama Russia is the best one in my opinion. She’s funny, but also sweet. She’s basically owning the nursery at this point. Spouse or baby, she’s taking both inside her for feedings, cleanings and safety.” Cript laughed. “Maybe we should give that a try sometime?” Cript offered, now thrusting a bit between my boobs. “Have you seen what her antics did to Coco?” I asked curiously, giving a loving lick to Cript’s cock tip every time he thrusted up. “Her giant form?” Cript said with a moan. “You should have seen her stats in that form. Match her size.” “And if memory serves, Mama Russia is planning on doing it to everyone...also can’t wait to fuck her just sweet hell is she sexy.” I brought up. “Honestly neither can I… Though surprisingly your dad, earth dad, kinda… got to her already. Surprisingly really. Then again your mom from earth and Den both already did it so… huh.” “Lucky bastard.” I chuckled. “But glad they are all adjusting well.” “Your dad especially.” Cript laughed. They grunted, thrusting a bit harder as their pre started leaking. Licking it… was amazing. Salty, musky yeah but had a surprising sweetness, almost like… saltwater taffy? No… not that but something akin to that. “First your milk tastes like strawberry french cream, now your cum tastes weirdly like saltwater taffy…” I hummed. “Hopefully my milk and cum didn’t taste bad…” “Your milk was amazing. Your cum tasted a bit like country gravy. I don’t know why, that mutation ability is random for everyone.” Cript said with a laugh. “And yes, flavored cum is a mutation ability everyone has. Lyra made it.” “Well that’s interesting.” I said honestly, squishing my breasts against Cript’s cock in a fluffy vice grip. “Oooooh~ Hehe, you’re leaking.” Cript said. I then felt the milk in my top breasts now leaking out a bit. “Well…” I blushed a little at my tits just suddenly leaking. “I’m excited.” I said as I rubbed his cock in the vice like grip I had him in. “Eager to be rutted now? Heh, you sure have changed from the day I first met you. In a good way of course.” “A lot has changed in my life.” I said honestly. “And I’m glad those changes happened.” “Be surprised how often a new form, biology and all that can show and open up who you really are on the inside. I remember when Den told me about your first time out hunting on that replica homeworld I made for her. She was so proud of you. And when you became a Den mother, she cried she was so happy for you.” “Glad to have made her proud.” I said warmly. “Can’t wait to fuck her though.” I said, given I’m mostly thinking of sex at the moment. “Her girth and length are on par with yours, so get ready for a- Ah!” Cript yelped, a massive flood of cum hit my face, still flowing onto my breasts and down my body. “Oooooh~ Hehe, that look is hot on you~” “I knew you would like it.” I chuckled Cript saw my tongue work like a snake as I cleaned myself up. “Now, onto the main event?” “Gonna blow me? I wanna see how skillful you are with your tongue~” Cript said, the last of their jizz licked off me before I began sliding their still hard cock into my mouth. Even though I haven’t really done this much, I have eaten out all of my spouse's way too many times so the same rules applied as Cript was honestly surprised at how good I was doing with my mouth. “Ooooh~ This feels great. Your throat is amazing King.” Cript said, thrusting their cock in and out of my mouth and throat. I used my tongue to lick across their base and balls, enjoying the taste as they gently rammed themselves into my drooling face. I moaned softly, letting him thrust down my throat as I continued to lick everything that wasn’t inside my mouth. I could feel Cript leaking pre already, sliding down directly inside me immediately. Cript took my head, holding it gently as they began picking up speed, their cock determined to blow right into my stomach. Their balls slapping against my chin with hefty impacts. Finally, they came. The feeling of all that jizz pumping right into my belly was like drinking a lot of liquids at once. My belly bulged a bit. Not by much but noticable. Cript pulled out. I gave their dick one last lick and a quick kiss before they raised me up, planting a kiss on my lips before placing me on my back. “Onto the main events then?” Cript asked me. “Onto the main event.” I said lustfully. “Mind if I prepare before hand?” Cript asked, a sly grin on their face as they pulled out what looked like a small leather sleeve, and the grip part of a butt plug. They slid the leather strap over my still hard cock, surprisingly I watched as they covered it, my massive rod vanishing til it reached my base and he tied the sleeve there. He then held up the plug end, my missing rod there. “Portal sex toys. I wanna make you blow when I cum inside you, and I don’t waste cum.” They said, teasing my tip across their ass. “Mind if I...also add a thing?” I asked curiously. “It’s not too weird, but it’ll be...interesting.” “You’ve met Lyra, not much is too weird to me.” Cript said, placing my portal displaced dick onto the bed, and sitting on it, sliding it back up their tight ass. I moaned, as did Cript, my whole cock sliding back in there and stopping once the end of the plug stopped it. “And now...a little something new.” I said as I snapped my fingers, Cript feeling a certain hard piece of meat start to push into their snatch as well. “Ho~kay...that’s…” I trailed off as I moaned happily. “Oooooh~ Oh if you wanna play like that, then try this.” Cript said, from the base above their cock they placed their finger one, raising it up as a second, slightly longer dick grew out magically. They then grabbed both, and their girths grew to match mine. “Ready sexy?” “I’m always ready.” I said with a lustful grin. “Now come on, I’m not gonna fuck myself.” I teased. Aligning both cocks to their respective entrances, Cript thrusted in, a single fast pound that shoved both up my ass and snatch. I howled in pleasure. Grinning, they began thrusting deep inside my holes in a rapid, pleasing motion. Their movements making my portal displaced cocks shifting and twitching inside their holes. “Hot damn…” I moaned. “This is...amazing.” Panting, Cript grabbed my legs, pushing them up and against my body. My feet were next to my head now as they rapidly pounded me deeper and faster. Taking this close opportunity, Cript began kissing me, the rapid motions making our breasts flap around wildly. I kissed back passionately, wanting to wrap my arms around them but I was kind of pinned in the position as I just let Cript hammer into me and me into them given Cript’s movements. Cript moved my legs so my feet were pinned by the back of my head, never breaking the kiss they then greedily groped my breasts, squeezing roughly but I enjoyed it, and switching between breasts after each squeeze. I moaned happily into the kiss, loving every minute of this wonderful experience as I was pinned. Cript began thrusting faster, harder as I began to feel the electrical tingles along my snatch, ass, and my portal displaced cocks inside Cript. He kissed me harder as the tingles began to intensify the faster and harder they began thrusting into me. My brain quickly lost higher cognitive thoughts as only pleasure seemed to process. All I could do was moan and kiss Cript passionately as I let him fuck me as fast and hard as they could, my instincts wanting to breed and be bred given my dual physiology. I wasn’t sure how much time had passed and in all honesty I didn’t give a damn. Cript was slamming into me with enough speed and force that I just knew I was gonna be walking with a limp with all my starfish clones. Finally, their electrical pleasure tingles hit, targeting every inch of my insides, cocks and across my whole body as I blew my load just as Cript did. The resulting orgasm hit me so hard I passed out with a giggling smile on my face out of pure euphoria. I woke up sometime later. My legs felt permanently spread open, I was back to one cock, I felt that much and looking at my belly I was bloated so large, if I tried to stand I’d fall back or forwards, and if I fell forwards my belly would keep my legs up in the air. I felt happy, rubbing my massive belly, noticing Cript was not next to me, partly squished under my bloated belly like I was and clinging to me left arm lovingly. “Well...this is nice.” I muttered softly as I cuddled to the best of my ability to Cript. “Hmm… Remind me to… teach you electronium stuff.” Cript said sleepily. "I'll remind you." I yawned as I nuzzled Cript softly.. Sex over, back to main story now. Waking up back in the hideout, my fun in the Sleeping worlds with Cript put me in a good mood. I got a quick snack and woke up just in time it seems for Sly and the rest to come back. Carmalita and Lana tossing their Ice Cream aprons. “I can’t believe how much they cashed out for that cheap ice cream.” Carmalita said. “Easy eight hundred coins.” Lana said with a laugh. “Morning Kite.” "Sounds like I missed out on some fun." I yawned. "How're you doing?" "Everything went according to plan. Even got a few items to sell." Sly said. “Sweet.” I said while stretching out. “This just leaves the clips for my shock pistols and the prison ‘warden’.” Carmaleta said. “Correct. Sly, you can quickly gather the harmless snakes and Kite and Carmaleta, you two go meet with the dealer about the clips. Hopefully they’ll just ask for the cash.” Bentley said. “Lana and I will set up the final stage and rig up the false water truck. For tomorrow morning.” “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “Let’s hope there aren’t any sudden hoops we have to jump through for those clips…” I muttered to myself as I was fully warmed up for the day. Carmelita and I headed out. The taco stand was nice, smelled amazing. The seller was a hooded bird man. “You are the buyers?” He asked us. “We are. What’s your price?” Carmaleta asked. “A Trade, something I need that cash can not get me.” They said, pulling out a photo. It was of what looked like an old record disc. “I collect rare vinyls. This record is a rare first edition of Kalia Conodonto. It’s in the larger fancy house up town, owned by a smug disco jack off who doesn’t know what he has and just keeps it for decoration. Get me that record and the clips are yours.” “Sounds simple enough.” I said simply. “We’ll get on it then.” Carmaleta said. We found the uptown house. Seeing all the… bad art… oh god don’t tell me. Sneaking in up the gutter drain and to the second floor, we saw the record… and a younger Dimitri painting… wow he really did use a rope and swing around to paint. “That’s… bad art.” Carmaleta said. “I mean, he’s at least trying something new.” I said simply. “With encouragement and a better direction I’m sure he’ll figure it out...better than just having the same soup can be painted in different colors.” I shrugged. “But...now the question is, do we try and steal the record and have him pissed at us, or try and make a deal where he gives us the vinyl for some advice?” “I have a better idea…” Carmaleta said, tossing a knockout ash bomb inside. The ash hitting him, leaving a perfect silhouette of his form on his freshly painted artwork before passing out from the blend. She then opened the window as we walked inside. “Easier.” “He’s probably gonna get inspiration just by how perfect his silhouette is.” I said honestly while following along. We nabbed the record and headed back to the seller. Once he had the record we handed us the clips, Carmalita inserting them into her shock pistols immediately. “Good. Now you go meet up with Sly at the prison. He should have the snakes by now.” Carmaleta said. “I’ll pick up dinner here, food looks too good to pass up.” “Alright, stay safe.” I said while heading off towards the Prison to find Sly to continue with the plan. I met up with big bro atop the prison roof. “Hey there little brother.” Sly said, tossing me a hissing moving bag. “Bentley said this vent here leads directly to the warden’s office. Once there we let the snakes loose, get a small laugh at his expense and then nab the keys.” I grabbed the bag quickly and carefully. “It’ll be funny to see him run around like mad. Well then let’s get moving, these snakes don’t sound too happy.” Sneaking into the vent together and heading down to the floor vent area. We saw the self proclaimed warden sitting in the chair smugly. Sly and I set the snakes free and the ‘Warden’ screamed like a five year old girl, jumping around, dropping the keys then running out like the road runner. Sly and I snuck out, fist bumping with a laugh as bro picked up the keys. “And that’s mission complete. Hm?” Sly and I took notice of the small safe on the floor. “Think your trick can work on a floor safe?” “Well time to test it.” I said while bringing my Cane up to the safe and trying to do the same thing I did back in Mz. Ruby’s area again. Thankfully it did. I was rewarded with the Prisons old and updated Blueprints, and a log of all the current people placed here. We got out and once back at the hideout sent the info to uncle M and Matilda. We rested up, ate some rather tasty tacos, and rested up for the big job the next morning. Back in the sleeping worlds Cript and I were still snuggling. I was no longer so bloated either. I hugged them tightly, looking at them in a new light now. “Yay for snuggles.” I smiled gently, softly nuzzling Cript. Cript nodded, moving more into/against me, arms wrapped around mu]y back and belly. “So, how’d the jobs go?” “So far so good, stole something from a young Dimitri and...yes, he does actually use a rope swing for his ‘kinetic aesthetic’.” I said honestly. “Hehe. That’s amazing. Hey… guess what~” They cooed in my ear. “Big butt?” I asked as I softly grabbed Cript’s butt. “Nooo~ Perv.” Cript said, laughing while they sat up. I then saw, in their arms, a small three eyed dire wolf pup. “Our first born pup, born from me anyway.” Cript said as they handed the small puppy to me. “They look adorable.” I cooed happily, cradling the three eyed pup. “But three eyes?” I wondered curiously. “Hello.” Cript said, motioning to their three eyes. “Hehe. His name is Adam.” “And let me guess, when our daughter is born she’ll be Eve?” I asked with a little grin. “Rebecca actually.” Cript said, taking Adam back and nursing them. “First of their kind. Mutant Dire Wolf. Won’t be for long though, a lot more along the way from both parents.” “Cool.” I said warmly. “Wonder what each kid’s mutation will look like? As well as...well how strong they’ll be when they grow up.” I said honestly. “I… do have the Foresight ability. I could give us a small glimpse. But remember, this glimpse I show is a future without things like worrying about the glitch or the war, so won’t be completely accurate.” “Eh, it’s alright.” I said honestly. “Better to know possibilities than being completely clueless.” Nodding, Cript held my hand, and I saw Adam grow, get into some typical boy trouble, learning to use their own version of Frozen Pride, adventuring through dungeons, stopping monsters from harming people, finding love, having kids… die old in bed, photos of his life and family around them, a smile on their face. I felt a tear fall down as I looked back at them. Cript was tearing up too. “Let’s make sure that is their future King.” Cript said. “I always make sure things are going towards that end.” I said warmly.
Nobody learns a lotWaking up early the next morning, we packed up the temporary base and headed off. Sly, Carmelita and I were in the fake water truck. Carmaleta and Lana drove while Sly and I were in the empty tank. Our goal was to reach and destroy the back up generators, take out the guards, beast of a Super Soldier which Carmalita would take care of, and then we knock out the ‘doctor’ as we wreck the place. “Feeling okay baby bro?” Sly asked me. “We’ll be doing a full on assault this time, different from our normal route.” “I'm good big bro.” I said while spinning my cane between my fingers. “Just...antsy given this is going to be the hard part against this guy...so many things can go wrong.” “I know. Maybe after this job we let Matilda and the rebels help out Mexico for a while and we take a break back home. I miss the island, and I wanna spend time with mom.” “Yeah, so do I.” I said honestly. “I...still can’t believe Mz. Ruby brought her back…” I said gently. “But...I wonder if she’ll teach us magic? While Matilda knows a lot, I wonder what a Voodoo Priestess could teach us.” “Nothing mom would approve of obviously.” Sly said with a laugh. “So it’s perfectly fine if we learn.” I laughed as well. “So, how have you and Carmalita been doing?” I asked teasingly, Sly knowing full well what I was talking about. “Good. All in all we seem to get along.” “I mean, besides how horrible you two are at hiding you like each other?” I asked curiously. “Heh…” Sly said, scratching the back of his head. “I mean, she looks amazing and… I do like her, but she’s a lot older, and we have a lot to think about right now, Mugshot won’t go quietly like Mz. Ruby and frankly… I can’t stop thinking about Clockwerk. We got lucky that night Kite… Dad tried to end him and failed… How do you kill something that evil?” “If we can’t kill him we’ll just have to make sure he doesn’t get back up.” I said honestly. “But alright, after we beat Clockwerk, you ask Carmalita out on a date alright?” “Heh. If we beat Clockwerk and I’m at least eighteen, I’ll propose.” Sly said jokingly. “I will keep you to that.” I laughed. “And if it’ll make you feel better...I’ll try and ask Lana out on a date.” I said with a blush. “Even if I’ll have to beat her father in a fight...again.” “Heh.” We arrived at the laboratory, once in Sly and I snuck out and found the generators and destroyed them. The plan played out without issue. Carmalita was able to knock out the Super Soldier Turtle and we then gave the ‘good doctor’ a painful dose of his own medicine. After that we got all the imprisoned people out, through the tunnel and out to a safe town where they all receive proper medical treatments. With just about half of Mexico free from Mugshot’s thumb and a small hoard of loot, we all headed home for some much deserved RnR. Being back on the island felt great, and having mom here just made Sly and I so happy. She didn’t just mother us, but also treated Lana, Carmalita, Bentley and Murray as her own too. Carmalita enjoyed having a mother figure again, as did Lana, and Sasha was glad for that as well. A few days passed and uncle M and Jim had a surprise for us. “So what is the surprise?” Carmalita asked as we all headed towards the vault entrance. “And what are we doing at the vault entrance?” I asked curiously, finding us at the vault was a little strange. “Jim and I felt it was time you all became proper Coopers. Not every member of your bloodline has been by blood, bonds of family run far deeper than that. So Jim and I set up your own Loot Rooms inside the vault. One for Kite, one for Sly, one for Carmalita, one for Lana, one for Bentley, one for Murray-” Uncle M started. “And one for me.” Mom said, jumping from a coconut tree top to in front of us in perfect motion. “Conner taught me a few useful tricks, and while I am only a Cooper by marriage/Name, I’m watching you kids the best I can. Conner can’t be here to do so himself, and I’m more than willing to help you kids.” “Awesome!” Lana shouted. “Sly, if you’d please?” Uncle M asked, motioning to Sly’s Cane. "I wonder what the inside will look like?" I wondered. Sly opened up the vault. Walking inside it was nothing like the game… It was WAY bigger. The oldest Cooper loot room here was in the entrance here was Slytunkhamen the second. First built to hide his spoils from the Pharaoh's wrath, it became a place for all Coopers to hide their accumulated wealths. Uncle M and Jim helped us by showing us a secret way around the obstacles we were not quite ready for yet. Our Personal vault rooms were all next to one another. Looking inside, the rooms were all so… massive. In mine, there was a small red backpack, leg strap pouch, and… the staff Mz. Ruby gave. The top was modified with… I looked back at M, who nodded as I grabbed the staff, setting my cane rattle into it. My personal cane. Looking inside the bag, it was empty, but the leg pouch held quite a few Cooper calling cards. Everyone else got the same thing, surprisingly, Carmalita, Lana, Murray and Bentley, even mom all had their own variations of the Cooper family cane. Mom’s was a lot like the original Sly has, but was all metal from the hook to the staff. Bentley’s was clearly usable as a cane, but also held some of the more advanced experimental tech uncle M had built. Hacking multi tools, knockout gas, mini remote destination mines that attach to anything, and the cane part shifts to something like a crossbow rifle. And it was very light weight. Lana and Murray’s were pretty identical, larger and club-like with the main difference being Murray’s was more blunt while Lana’s was sharper and spiked. Carmalita’s took some inspiration from mine, able to electrify using Shock pistol clips to turn into a taser, and could even arc out the electricity for a taser shot. “This is gonna be fun.” Carmalita said. “I’m gonna need to work on my arm strength…” Bentley said. “I’ll help ya there little buddy.” Murray said. I spun my cane, feeling magical power spark from it as technology and magic seemed to be getting along a lot quicker than I’d first thought. “This is amazing.” I said happily. "I'm surprised at how fast magic and technology are getting along." I said honestly. "Energy is energy." Uncle M said. "Once you learn how it works it's not that hard to adapt it to work with other energies." "There is one last surprise." Uncle Jim said. "Sly, Kite, Violet, you three will want to see this." They walked us all over to… Dad's treasure room. A half burned painting of dad with Sly and myself on his knees. "Conner…" Mom said sadly. Opening the doors, piles of artifacts, cash from around the world. There was also l, placed on a table in front of it, a TV with a vhs hooked up to it. "Well...guess dad wants us to watch the VHS?" I asked.d. "He made it before we went after Clockwerk." M said. "Just in case the worst happened." Sly turned the TV and VHS player on. Dad appeared on screen. "Sly, Kite… if you boys are watching this… then I failed. Clockwerk is not only alive and… and I'm not alive anymore. If it's come to that then there are a few things I need to say first off. Firstly, the family tomb. By now I imagine you have read all it's secrets and pages. The pages within the tomb anyway. Fact is there are plenty of secrets and techniques that were never written within their pages, and all of them are here in this vault. The old notes and texts of left out abilities. Secondly, it's typically tradition for a Cooper to make their own technique and once they retire place it within the tomb. I have not done this, as I am not retired just yet… hopefully after this job I will be. In a box underneath this TV stand is my technique, Light Walk. Much like Tennessee Kid Cooper rope walk and rail slide, With this you will be able to walk atop and slide on high power security lasers. Sly, Kite… Violet. I love you, never forget that. The VHS ended. “Dad…” I muttered, tearing up as I felt my heart ache at losing my father. Mom and Sly were crying too. Everyone comforted us and when the tears finally stopped we picked up Dad's Light Walk technique. Both the technique and notes from when he was making it were here and it ended up also teaching us Rope walk and Rail slide techniques, given its main descriptions and operations were written in the notes repeatedly. “Kind of sad we couldn’t...read Tennessee’s notes on this stuff but...better we learned from dad.” I said gently, glad to have learned so much from dad. Over the next two years, yes two whole years back here Mom, Sly, Bentley, Murray Lana and I all trained in full. Matilda with a now stable fighting force rallies Mexico law and citizens to take back the entirety of the state and began work on South America. While keeping Clockwerk's forces out of Africa they did manage to invade Europe, but thankfully their military is holding fairly strong. His mechanical army weak to high frequency EMP waves, and M built the best weapon against them. Sadly the components and needed materials to make them are still largely in Russia, so there isn't enough to start an invasion into Russia to dethrone Clockwerk. “Alright, so next up we’re going to be clearing up America?” I wondered, twirling my staff as lightning magic twirled around it in little balls. “Also, I am so glad I figured out this ‘Ball Lightning’ spell.” I muttered to myself, the spell itself being nothing more than a combination of a few things, a spell to form the sphere, a kind of complicated tracking spell to make sure it knew where to go, a command spell that let me tell it to be on ‘standby’ or ‘attack’, and finally the lightning came from my original Cane given it weirdly had a very long electric charge. "No. Sir Raleigh the frog." Mom said. We were all inside our special build debriefing room. "Over the last year, the storms have decreased, and ships are passing somewhat safely. We're going in to find out why and destroy the storm machine." “Cause out of all the Fiendish Five, Raleigh is just spoiled douche canoe.” I frowned. “So let’s go find out why he stopped killing people for funzies and see what’s been going on with him.” "Might be less concerning than we thought." M said, placing down a file. "Apparently, Raleigh's parents drowned in a shipwreck caused by his own storm machine. Might be more regretful, but still, we can't let this opportunity slide." “Yeah...that’ll do it…” I muttered sadly. “So...onto the Welsh Triangle?” "Post haste." Uncle M said. "We don't know how long this window of opportunity will stay open, so we best hurry." We hopped into the sub and off we went. Sailing under the worst of the storms still going on. Once there we got in the van and drove to a location just outside his base entrance. The entire area was near identical to the game, only bigger and more guards.ded. “That’s quite a bit of security.” I said honestly. "Given his tech is one of a kind it makes sense." Carmalita said. Right now it was Sly, Carmalita and myself. We were gonna deactivate the security then drive up to his hideout so scope the place out. "Group it or split up?" "I say we split up." Sly said. "Bro, you check out those freshly washed up shipwrecks by the shoreline. Carmalita you take out the guards and I'll deactivate the security lights and alarms. If I need help I call Bentley." “Sounds simple enough.” I nodded. “But remember...he just lost his parents, who knows what mood he’ll be in once he catches wind of our antics.” "True. But til then, treat this just like our other jobs in Mexico. We'll meet back up by the van once we're all done." With that we split up. The freshly wrecked ships all still filled with cargo crates with a variety of goodies. Food, computers, oil, and a lot of safes. Each safe is held within either money or stocks in various businesses. This is going in my loot room. "Well this is a good start to my haul." I muttered with a smile as I started grabbing everything I could without slowing myself down. "God...if I was part dragon this would be hilarious…" After nabbing everything I could, knocking out some looting guards and placing the rest in a haul for when Matilda's forces get here, I was about to head back when I spotted Mom rush by. She didn't see me and I followed. She snuck around along a climbable section of the back wall. "What's mom doing here?" I muttered to myself, following along quickly as I climbed after her. I followed her, watching as she dodged every guard and security measure before making it to Raleigh's hide out. Once here she actually made her way around the boat, and just behind the hideout was a small government grade boat. Where Matilda waited. “The hell?” I muttered while sneaking up onto the two, trying to get as close as possible to hear their conversation but not get noticed. "So you sure you can fly us up there?" Mom asked. "Center of the storm, and the storm has weakened. Definitely." Matilda said, flapping her wings real quick. "I hope Mz. Ruby's theory holds truth." Mom said. "Given how Voodoo and other magics work and the evidence we do know, it's likely. But if it is true, it's not gonna be fun when we reach Clockwerk." "If it is true I will personally melt that demonic owl into bad art." Mom hissed. "Preach sister." Matilda said, taking hold of mom as she flew the two of them straight up into Raleigh's hideout. “Damn it…” I growled, not knowing a way up there without anything to help. “What the hell is going on?” I muttered while heading back to the Van to find the others. I saw Sly and Carmalita waiting outside the Van already. "Hey Kite. Thought you'd be here first." Carmalita said. “Well I got...distracted.” I said nervously. “Like say...finding Mom getting taken up to Raleigh’s hideout with Matilda...both of whom are way beyond schedule here.” "What?" Sly asked. "Uncle M and Uncle Jim told me what happened way back, and when Mom came back her reaction to Matilda was quote verbal. Why would they be working together. Did you hear them say anything?" “They hope Mz. Ruby’s theory holds true, they have the evidence to prove it correct, and that mom will melt Clockwerk into bad art.” I said honestly. "Well the last part was the only part of that to make sense." Carmalita said. "There's something going on and whatever it is mom either will tell us or doesn't plan on telling anytime soon. Either way if they are already up and confronting Raleigh, then this gives us something else to do." Sly said. "Being?" Carmalita asked. "Full frontal attack. If Mom and Matilda are fighting Raleigh right now then the guards will or are already noticing if he hit an alarm. This gives us the perfect chance to break in and wreck the rest of his operations set up." "It's risky." Bentley said from inside the van. "But this is definitely something that we need to look into."” “And then proceed to steal everything that we can carry without being slowed down, and any and all pages of the Thievius Raccoonus that he has in any safe in the areas.” I said honestly. "Yeah! Let's crash into something!" Murray declared. So we did just that. Crashed the Van right onto the ship hideout deck and knocked some poor guys out cold for the next week. Once out Lana and Muray made quick work of all the deck guards. Carmalita, Sly, Murray, Lana and I all then split up to gather keys that are actually needed! This felt so great. I of course took the Library area, bringing Bentley along. "Are you sure I should be in the field Kite? I can barely do a pull up." He said meekly. “It’s not what you can’t do that I care about.” I said while walking through the place with him. “It’s what you can do that I need. Your the brains of the group, I may be smart but nowhere near you, also, you can immediately tell what is actually wrong with this picture.” I said while motioning to the obvious trap in the library. “Also you help me figure out which of these hundreds of books is worth a crap ton.” "Heh. True, I have kept a list of rare books both of historical value and personal value- Oh my gosh!" Bentley said, rushing over to a shelf. "This is a copy of all of Nicola Tesla's designs signed by the man himself! Most of these were lost to history." "Sounds like your going to have fun reading all of that." I chuckled. "So one book down, hundreds more to go." "Oh I will. Hmm… those globe's are clear traps… I think I can clear the way with my Cane's dart shooter mode." Bentley pushed a button, the cane shifting to a crossbow like design. He took aim, fiering as it broke the globe and dart shooter. "Wow. That's some flimsy security device." "And apparently those were dart guns." I mentioned, motioning to the destroyed dart gun inside the globe as I pointed my Cane as one of the small lightning balls rushed over and destroyed the globe. “This’ll be a lot easier than I thought...a lot easier than the scientist, we actually had to plan that thing out.” “Well we had to be sneaky for that. This time we’re just on a full on assault. Less prep work for the endgame. Especially since at this very moment your mom and Matilda are dealing with Raleigh ahead of schedule. Let’s clear this place out fast then meet back up with the others.” “Even if Raleigh is terrible...I hope they don’t kill him.” I said nervously. “They seemed...pretty pissed.” “I doubt your mother is capable of such an act… Matilda though, while we have known her long, we still don’t completely know the real her. Let’s just hope we can reach there in time.” Bentley and I cleared this place fast and easily. Nabbing any and all books collectable or of historic value we could find along the way. We nabbed the key and I raided the safe. Inside was a page from the Thievius Raccoonus. “Alright, so we’re good on our end, wonder how everyone else is doing.” I wondered as I double checked the page to see if it was different from the game or it was the same. The page detailed yet another unknown from the game cooper. Lord Jet Aphe Cooper, his special technique was unique. Living in the high end society, he knew who and where his less than nobel fellow nobleman kept their wealths, and managed to develop a technique that allowed him to view the fingerprints, turns and impact from touch along buttons in all kinds of safes and passcode vaults, essentially, just by looking at a code pad or turn dial, he could see it’s code for unlocking them and accessing them. “That’s rather interesting…” I muttered to myself while memorizing the page and carefully putting it in my bag. With that page in hand and some loot in our bags, we rushed back to the others. Each had a page and Carmalita got some Blueprints of this place. The next area we got the remaining keys and pages. “Okay, since only Sly, Kite, and Carmalita are able to use the Light Walker Technique, I’ve taken liberty of building these.” Benley said, taking out two large flashlights of sort. “They produce lights just like what you are able to slide and walk along. With these you can cross along or up anything. They’re still just prototypes so, be careful. Their batteries are unstable. Should last you a trip up and down though.” “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “This is quite an invention Bentley.” “It is impressive.” Sly said, setting up the first light trail. Sly, Carmalita and I walked up the light and into the machine. Where we entered was a lot different, more machine and less that mechanical pool thing. “So it’s true then…” We heard mom’s voice echo. “That way.” Sly said as we swiftly bolted. We hid around the corner. Raleigh was beaten purple and blue, mom and Matilda standing in front of him. “Yes, Clockwerk commissioned me to alter his original Blueprints. Why I don’t know, all I do know is that it was urgent.” Raleigh said though labored breathing. “How long ago?” Mom asked. “A month after… after he killed you two. How are you even alive? I remember him biting both your heads off…” “Yeah… I do too. Fun fact, when decapitated, the brain still works for about a minute or so. I saw everything as that monster ate my head, and was conscious long enough to see Conner’s head join me in that metallic box of a stomach Clockwerk has.” She said, shaking. “Do you at least regret it?” “Honestly? No. My only regret is this accursed machine. How can I hold regrets for the death of someone who I had no ties to?” “Yet you hate your own machine for killing your parents?” Matilda asked coldly. “Aiding in your husband's death Violet, that doesn’t even keep me up at night. Never has, being the cause of my own family's death, that is a sin I can feel weigh me down. In the end, your husband was no different to me than the crews of the ships I sink, a stranger.” “And that makes killing easier for you!?” Mom shouted. “Yes. Ignorance and Anger are… two very useful tools when murder is in your job.” “You’ll rot in hell…” Mom walked away, Matilda cuffing Raleigh, injecting him with something that knocked him out. “Come on Violet, your kids will be here soon.” Matilda said, carrying the frog like a sack. “I know… How… how am I going to tell them this…?” “... I dunno.” “Well you can start explaining.” I said while walking out of our hiding spot. “Cause it sounds like you need to explain a lot.” Mom and Matilda both froze, mom keeping her eyes to the ground as she turned to face us. "How… how much did you hear?" “That, as well as you two talking about Mz. Ruby’s theory…” I said while looking at both of them. “What’s going on? We’re a team...and…” I trailed off, not wanting to add what I could only guess how Mz. Ruby’s resurrection spell worked. Mom sighed. "When Mz. Ruby brought me back, she used a very difficult spell. One that is guaranteed success. Unless… unless their soul isn't in the afterlife." "But… dad is dead. How can his soul not have passed on?" Sly asked. “Either Clockwerk still has dad’s soul somehow, or his soul is somewhere wandering around wanting to murder Clockwerk.” I guessed. "More the… prior." Matilda said. "Even if he was a ghost, his soul would have been pulled by the spell. It requires two key things, the body of the dead, no matter how decayed, and a sacrifice from the caster. In Mz. Ruby's case, an Overly, life for a life. She then told me that… when she got my and your father's heads out of there, he was hollow… his brain was removed.” "We had an idea but, we needed to be sure. Raleigh here is a tech wizard, and he confirmed it. He modified Clockwerk's own mechanical body blueprints so…" "All the mechanical shell would need is the brain to function." Mom finished. “So your saying...he swapped his brain with dads?” I asked worriedly. Matilda walked over to me, holding a photo. It was half blurred, but the image of a chrome colored Racoon with blue glowing eye and lights trailed across their body was visible. "That was taken back in Russia a year ago. Rumors say there are at least three, this one included. Clockwerk only ever ate the heads, your dad's brain was missing from his skull, and now this, after Raleigh admitted to altering Clockwerk's body's design to be more… compact. Our theory is that this, or one of the other two, is Conner Cooper, and possibly others Clockwerk killed, preserving their brains would be child's play for him. He revived them, to torture them. Stuck in metallic bodies, unable to sleep, eat, feel. Watching but likely not in control." I stared at Matilda, slowly blinking as a storm started to roll in out of nowhere. “So...you’re saying Clockwerk is torturing dad...even after killing him and who knows how many others?” I asked slowly and carefully, my Cane crackling with magical energy. "Yes. It would explain why Mz. Ruby's spell failed to revive Conner in the first place. In magic, the brain is the link between the body and the soul, so spiritually and physically, your father is alive. My guess, killing your family wasn't enough for Clockwerk, he wants to force them to break their, your, codes of honor. Destroy their souls, their minds, and the world they protected from the shadows. It fits Clockwerk's twisted mindset perfectly." Matilda said, speaking in a low hiss. "I'm sorry Mom, you're going to have to wait on fighting Clockwerk." I growled, Matilda sensing a crap ton of power from me in my rage. "I know…" She said shakily. "But when that day comes… that bird will forever regret having heard the name Cooper." "Oh he well." I growled, thunder booming in the distance. "He will." I growled. “Who are we going after next? Muggshot or Panda King?” "For now you all are benched." Matilda said. "Right now we can easily break into America and what's left of the European government has agreed to join forces in fighting back Clockwerk's forces. You all just got a massive bombshell dropped on you, for now, you just need to process this revolation. I'll work on getting you guys close to Mugshot, Panda King, and then Clockwerk." “It better be quick…” I sighed out. Back home on Cane Island I didn't sleep much. I was wide awake trying to plan out every conceivable way to break apart Clockwerk. A lot of it I would just be using my normal powers, but here, I'm limited to what I can learn… then again… Matilda has a Keyblade, and if I can…maybe my powers aren't as far from reach as I think. “Well...let’s hope this works…” I muttered while getting out of bed and heading off to find Matilda. “Hopefully she’s awake…” I got up, not bothering to sneak as I made my way to Matilda's cottage. Hers was more up the mountain than the rest. Once here I saw her room light on. I walked in and up to her room, seeing her at a desk going over files and photos from several piles of boxes. "Not even trying to be sneaky?" She asked. "You can easily tell where I am from my magic considering I'm not really hiding it. But I'm surprised no one questioned me summoning a storm in pure rage." I said honestly. "So I gotta question...can you give me a Keyblade?" I asked "They think that was all the storm machine. I can, but why should I? Not that I'm picky but giving a Keyblade to an angry kid isn't exactly a smart idea." “Because I won’t take the Keyblade and immediately rush towards Clockwerk.” I said honestly. “I may be mad, but I’m not blinded by rage.” "Even so. Why do you want a Keyblade anyway? They're powerful yes but what are you even planning?" “You know I’m more ancient than I look but I can’t tell you why. So right now it’s that Keyblade’s will help me move...outside the abilities I know and could learn at the moment, and with a Keyblade I can do so much more.” I said honestly. "Are you fucking stupid? You do know there are rules to this kind of shit." “To let another person wield a Keyblade? Yes, yes I do.” I said, considering I was Kingdom Hearts technically I knew all the rules about it. “I don’t want to travel to other worlds, I want to have more at my disposal considering what we’re up against.” "That's also against the rules." She said, "But… you actually don't need to have a Keyblade to learn most of those spells and techniques." “Fine fine.” I rolled my eyes. “But I’m still limited with just this and the magic of this world.” I said while spinning my Cane. “Even if the magic of this world is pretty strong, I don’t know what Clockwerk has to offer.” "True. Between that and these clear off worlders helping him." Matilda huffed. “What off worlders?” I asked quickly and nervously. She tossed me a file. Inside were satellite photos of clear space ships and humans moving cargo in and out of Clockwerk's Volcano base. "I don't know who they are or how they even got here, but what Info knows is that they are the ones who backed up the Klaww Gang and are still backing Clockwerk." ”Motherfucker it is Nexus!” I thought to myself in a panic. “Well...that’s not good.” I said worriedly. "From the photos I got there are a few people of this world working from them. Interestingly enough they were all labeled as dead or missing and assumed dead. This group gives Clockwerk pure gold to use as money and in exchange they get some ores from the area and people he captured as slaves." “That’s not good…” I said worriedly. "No, not at all." “And you still can’t give me a Keyblade because of this sudden revelation?” I asked curiously. "Explaining how you can suddenly summon a giant Key shaped sword isn't exactly ideal… unless…" She pondered. “I mean, we’re all learning about magic so are you telling me that ‘magic’ isn’t a good enough explanation?” I asked curiously. “Also ‘unless’ what?” "I have a crazy idea that might work. And can easily pass for your own magic evolving." “Oh?” I asked curiously. “What do you have in mind?” "I know the location of a Keyblade forge, I can turn your cane into a Keyblade. It will blend in with the world and hide well." “And it’ll still be Cane shaped right?” I asked curiously. "Course. Might gain a hand guard but still stays the same shape." “Sweet.” I nodded with a smile. “That’ll help me a lot.” "Alright then. Off to Wonderland… God I hate this world…" Matilda groaned, summoning her Keyblade and opening a DTL. “You hate this world or you hate Wonderland?” I asked curiously. "Wonderland." We entered the DTL and fell down a tall grass area. We were easily ant sized. "Shit. Gonna have to walk all the way there." “Says the person that could fly us around?” I pointed out. She looked at me, picking up a small rock and throwing it high into the air, suddenly a massive bird flew by above us, snatching the rock up. "Can't fly in this area. I'd prefer not to become bird food." She said as we began walking. “Sounds about right.” I nodded before following along. We walked for a while before reaching a pond, at this size it was massive. She summoned her Keyblade, shooting off a beam of light into the water. The water bubbled up as a white quartz walkway came up, and in the center of the pond was the glowing Keyblade forge. “Lady in the Lake much?” "Better hiding place than the Sky and Moon forges in Skyrim." She said as we walked up to the forge. ”Oh god that takes me back.” I thought to myself, remembering when me and everyone else went around doing stuff and Heart grab the two pieces and take them back to Daybreak. "Alright then. Your cane?" She asked. “Alright.” I nodded while dispelling the ball lightning spell on my Cane and handing it over. Matilda carefully placed it inside the forges fire, the gentle pulsating darkness and bright shining light merging into my cane. She then took a ring that was resting on a side holder and placed it in. She reached in, and took my cane out. The design didn't change much. The only noticeable difference was the keychain that was attached to the base of where my cane and the staff part met. The keychain is a greyish version of the Cooper calling cards. I gently took my Cane, and even though the forge glowed with light and darkness, I still felt the gentle thrum of Nothingness as I spun my Cane. ”Ah, that feels so much better.” I thought to myself warmly. “Thank you Matilda.” I said while giving the bat a quick hug. "Don't thank me just yet." She said, looking behind us. "We've got Company." “Oh?” I wondered while looking to where Matilda was looking, wondering who or what was here. "Well well well, well well." That… that voice! "So this is where that forge has been hiding." Emerging from the tall grass, that familiar blank face mask and purple robe… Core! "About time I finally found one of these again. Started thinking they were all already picked clean." “Who are you, and how did you get here?” I asked, even though Core could oh so easily tell I am not who I first appear to be, I still had to play by the Time Walkers rules. "Oh, just a Heartless man who requires that forge your using. Hmm?" He looked over at me. "Have we met? There is something about your heart that-" Suddenly, he was in front of me, darkness flowing over his hand as he rammed it inside my chest. Yup! Memories! "That feels familiar?" "You let him go!" Matilda yelled, Core easily dodging her attack and tossing her into the water. "You call yourself a Keyblade master? Skills like that you'd barely pass for a trainee." “Leave her alone.” I said coldly to him. “This is between you and me right now...and before you ask, Rules.” I stated before rushing over to see how Matilda was doing. "You act like I should care about those rules, made by those insects who once called themselves masters." Core said, looking at the forge. "No matter, I only came here for the forge. Yellow, send them packing." Matilda and I turned around, seeing Yellow, Unum, there. Memories… "Yes Core." She said, grabbing Matilda and I by the scruffs and tossing us into a DTD. It was a rough landing, but Matilda held onto me so I wasn't hurt. "You okay?" She asked. “Are you okay?” I asked worriedly. "I've taken worse hits." She grunted, the both of us getting up. "Well, at least we didn't get thrown into the realm of darkness." She said, looking around we were in a city of sorts. “But we probably aren’t back home.” I said worriedly, looking around to try and find anything familiar. ”Seriously, the fuck was Core doing there?” I thought to myself worriedly. Looking around I realized this place was… this is The World that Never Was… “So about not being in the Realm of Darkness...I think we’re somewhere just...a tad bit worse.” I said worriedly. “Well, let’s just get home before anything else happens.” She said, summoning her Keyblade and trying to open a DTL. Nothing happened. “What? Is this world cut off or just too dark?” She pondered. “This is...a special world.” I said while looking up into the sky, wondering if I’ll see the fake Kingdom Hearts and the Castle or not. I saw the castle, but now the fake Kingdom Hearts. So they might be here… hmm I wonder, would their versions obey me? ”Well, would they obey me when I have my powers…” I mentally corrected myself. “So about that symbol, know what it is?” I asked while pointing at the Castle symbol. “Hmm. No, it doesn't look familiar. To be honest though until recently I haven’t seen or dealt with much off world threats, still though, it’s hard to tell if that is not meant to be here or is just part of the world?” She said, looking at the giant castle. “Well...how much do you know about Nothingness?” I asked curiously. "Kid, I don't even know where we are let alone what you're talking about." “Jesus Christ whoever taught you either knew jack all or wanted to keep you away from a lot of things…” I muttered to myself while heading forward. “Hey!” She yelled. “Well now.” Oh fuck that’s Xemnas’s voice. “Where did you two come from?” We turned, seeing Xemnas, though he wasn’t wearing the Organization cloak, he was actually wearing something a lot like Young Xehanort from the KH3 cut scenes, but larger for his build. “Um...hi.” I said sheepishly. “We kind of got...thrown here by some bad people. Do you know the way to leave this place?” I asked, cause I’m pretty sure Xemnas knew about other worlds and the like. “There are two ways of leaving this place, the first is not just yet ready, and the second is utilizing DTD’s. Why should I help you, however?” “Well, what do you need?” Matilda asked, standing up. “Maybe we can work a deal or something?” Xemnas seemed to be thinking it over. “I do require assistance, in a project I have been working on. Can either of you use magic?” “That depends on how strong a magic you want.” I said while demonstrating the Ball Lightning spell I’ve developed, which to Xemnas’s trained eye there was a lot into such a spell considering how young I was. “I just need raw mana for a weapon I am forging. The other twelve replica weapons are complete, but this one has proved difficult.” “Replica weapons?” I asked curiously. “What are you replicating?” I asked, lying so convincingly it was actually kind of scary. “That is not of importance. If you allow me to extract your mana, and help complete this weapon, I will open a DTD to your home world… Then again, perhaps not. Most can’t traverse that Darkness without protection. I could supply you with one of our spare Gummi Ships. From there I’m sure you can navigate the lanes between.” “That can work.” Matilda said. “Thank you sir.” I said politely. “This way, and stay close. This world holds… dangerous inhabitants.” We followed Xemnas into the castle. We followed him into a laboratory of sorts that held a lot of high end electronics, eleven of the twelve Nothingness weapons rested along the wall, and the Lexicon, set up on the table with strange wires inside it hooked into some kind of what almost looks like a blood pressure machine. “Well...that’s interesting.” I said honestly. “So how do we help with all of...that?” “Place your arm into the machine there. Once I turn it on, it will extract 80% of your magic and place it into the lexicon to complete it, if one is not enough, the other will take the place of the first and hopefully that will complete it.” “Sounds simple enough.” I said while walking over to the machine. “This won’t hurt right?” “Your arm will get numb, and you will feel exhausted afterwards, but no physical pain during or after the process.” “Alright then.” Matilda said, placing an arm into the machine. Xemnas nodded, pressing a button as mana flowed from Matilda, and into the Lexicon. It was a few minutes before it ended. Matilda did look tired, even yawning as she pulled her arm out. “It needs more sadly. But you did manage to get it nearly complete. It should not take much more.” Xemnas said. “Good… god I feel like I need coffee.” Matilda said. I place my arm into the machine now. “Alright, let’s see how much mana it needs from me…” I hummed. Xemnas turned it on. I did feel a bit tired from this, but it ended fast. Xemnas looked at the Lexicon, taking out the wires and placing it on a small shelf next to the other weapons. “Thank you. Just draining my own mana was taking far too long, and with my other work and resting after sessions, that would have delayed recruitment.” He said, pulling a desk drawer open and taking out a set of keys, tossing them to me. “Heal.” He said, casting a Curiga over Matilda and I. I felt better and Matilda looked much better. “I’ll take you to the hanger, from there you two can take off and leave. Just do me one favor.” “Don’t mention any of this to anyone?” I took a shot in the dark. “Or ever come back. That ship is already pre programmed to delete the location history.” “Sketchy… but alright. Not many options.” Matilda said. After getting to the ship and Flying off Matilda was able to open a DTL for us to go home. Once home she parked the ship where no one would find it, then we went back to our cabins. I collapsed on mine… I forgot how hard some shit could be… “Oh sweet comfy bed…” I sighed happily as I just enjoyed how soft my bed was after all that crap happened. “God...today has just been one thing after another…” I grumbled while wrapping myself in my blanket and drifting off to sleep. In the sleeping world… I think? It didn’t feel like it but eh. I looked at the room we were in. Cript and I were in what looked like a Studio of sorts. It was decorated nicely. And Cript was in my arms, the both of us under a nice fluffy blanket. “Adorable…” I muttered with a smile. “Hm?” Cript asked, getting up a bit. “Hey there lovely.” They said to me, “How are you doing sleepyhead?” I asked warmly. “Good. So, you see Lyra’s new project.” Cript said with a light laugh. I noticed they were wearing Pajamas. “Yeah, this one is… actually interesting.” “Interesting how?” I asked curiously. “How to put it.” Cript said, stretching as they got out of the bed and into the kitchen area. “You know that Childhood sphere? Where we raise the kids in after they get old enough to eat solids. Well, This is similar, but mainly for pairing or grouping. Depends really.” “Oh?” I asked curiously. “So it’s the same thing basically or is there something new to it?” I asked curiously. “Well, rather than raising kids and all that, I mean there is also that and all, it’s more a means of getting to know the whole family. There’s still the massive bedroom where we are all in, and then some like this where it’s you and I, or me and Lyra, or Jericho and Coco, fact is it pairs or groups everyone as to both get to know each other even better, and of course, cause it’s Lyra, sex. In short imagine every possible pairing or grouping for everyone in the family for us, and there is a room kinda like this, or bigger, that does it. This includes fusions of course. Which Lyra immediately began working on. So yeah, this one is just you and me in an apartment like setting. Cozy to me at least.” Cript said, walking over to the kitchen area, starting a coffee machine. “Ah, that makes sense.” I said honestly. “Well we’re going to have infinite amounts of fusions just so you know given how exponential growth works.” “Which Lyra is happy about… God.” Cript said, laughing a little as they began pouring coffee. “Well, that’s something for exploring. Anyway, this one is just you and me to do… whatever really.” “Sounds about right.” I nodded. “So uh...status update on my adventures, so currently Clockwerk is...currently torturing people in new robot bodies for the fuck of it, I had my Cane turned into a Keyblade, I met Core, and then met Xemnas at the World that Never Was and helped make Book of Retribution.” Cript nearly did a spit take of their coffee. “Well shit. You’ve been busy.” They said, walking over with a cup for me. “Yes, I have, and when I hit the bed I was oh so thankful for how comfy it and my blanket was.” I chuckled while taking the cup. “So it’s been...very busy for me, oh and Nexus is in fact helping Clockwerk, and is apparently helping the Klaww Gang...which is going to revolve around the second game sadly.” “Shit. Shouldn't be surprised but damn. So, putting ‘work’ aside, how should we spend our time?” “Cuddles and TV?” I asked curiously. “Couch or bed then?” Cript asked. “Bed, cause it’s really comfy.” I said honestly. “Fair enough.” Cript said, chugging their mug of coffee before jumping back into the bed next to me. They clapped their hands, blinds closing as a TV floated at the foot of the bed and turned on, showing a documentary on… Is that a giraffe turtle? “A giraffe turtle?” I asked curiously. “What’s the documentary about?” “They’re called Galturkles. They’re basically the penguins of this one world filled with weird combination animals.” Cript said, cuddled up next to me. “That sounds silly and kind of adorable.” I chuckled. “Yeah, well when an entire multiverse’s worth of tv is available to watch, we can always find something interesting to watch.” “Sounds about right.” I nodded while sipping some of my coffee and cuddling up to Cript more. “I have to admit, as far as ideas this is one of Lyra’s more wholesome ones.” Cript said. “Normally they’re all sex related. While this one is too kinda, it’s nice to just be able to enjoy the company of one another.” “Yeah, while the sex is fine someties I’d rather just spend time with someone like a normal person.” I said honestly. “Heh.” Cript smiled. “So, wanna keep watching this documentary or see what Multiverse TV is like. And FYI, there are some that are a lot like how Rick and Morty showed it.” “Well, I wouldn't mind watching the rest of this, I’m curious about other races and animals.” I said honestly. “Thinking about Hunting?” Cript asked. “Den actually is working on something for those in the family, spouse and child, to train about hunting.” “That sounds nice.” I said warmly. “Hunting is really fun.” “Well, once it’s ready she’ll tell you. Actually, from how this world works, or whatever this is, there should be one or a few with just you and Den. Wanna spend some time with her for a bit, I mean, starfish clones you already are, but you know, story perspective for the readers.” “Sure, I’d like to spend some time with Den.” I said with a warm smile. “Shift perspective then.” This room is a lot like the one with Cript and I, but this time, I was holding Den. I have to admit, this family and relationships are strange, but nice. “Morning pup.” Den said warmly. “Morning.” I smiled and nuzzled Den. “How are you doing?” “Good.” She said, sitting up. Her pajamas were a bright pink. Ithen realized Iwas wearing some two, a light blue set. “So, what brings you here, heh, then again you know how Lyra set this special reality inside the safe zone up, Cript told you.” She said, giving me a lick across my head. “Because I wanted to spend some time with you.” I chuckled. “I’ve spent a lot of time with Cript, and now it’s onto you.” “And others of course. So, wanna do anything? Questions?” “Well...even though I’ve already heard you were really happy and proud of me...what do you think of me being a Den Mother?” I asked curiously. “I’m just wondering what you truly thought about it.” “Well, the extra boobs are nice. Heh, and all in all, it’s not too different from how I was before, just larger and more fertile mostly.” “Sounds about right.” I nodded. “What do you think of the Fusions happening right now?” “I think you just gave Lyra a new set of ideas and all that involve new family members and such. Mama Russia is nice, a woman I can relate too in priorities.” “Even if she’s going a tad overboard with making everyone like...a good foot taller and at least two sizes bigger in places?” I asked curiously. “King, as mothers, Den mothers especially, I could do the same without question or regrets, I don’t because I only have so many tits, and none inside a special holding belly.” “Okay okay.” I said, “I understand...even though technically you could get that special holding belly because of racial traits. Seriously, the new skill trees are wonderful.” “Oh? Thanks for the tip, I forgot about the new Skill Tree system.” “Yeah, it’s how I have a bunch of other racial abilities from Equestrians, Floof Noodle, and many, many others.” I said honestly. “Impressive. Well then, got any questions about my little project?” “Well, is it just a single world with many different area’s or is it multiple worlds to hunt in?” I asked curiously. “Well… It’s sorta it’s own Realm, I am an admin after all. It’s a replica of each world, form each of its main areas with endless spawning prey, and other such animals to hunt. No sentient life, and each world is connected via bridges. Though there are also alternate dimensions and such that are linked via portals in each world. It’s a massive, endless hunting ground. It will be fun.” “It does sound really fun.” I said with a smile. “I haven’t really done a full hunt in a while, so that’ll be a nice change of pace.” “Thought so. It’s not done just yet. Cript helped me with the general coding and such, just waiting for it to generate. Should only take a week.” “That’s cool.” I nodded. “Can’t wait to explore that new Realm.” “Yeah. Best part, it’s here in the safe zone too. Cript learned you can create an entire realm within a pocket dimension. Since the RADIST is basically a Pocket Dimension, making another one inside of it isn’t hard, and all in all it takes up about the same space Storage drive much. Actually, did you learn about how the Storage Drive holds data? Cript told me about how Lord learned how it stores the data.” “I have been trying to figure that out but sadly nothing much besides how it would normally work for a computer.” I said honestly. “From what Cript said, that’s not so far off. Lord learned it stores all this complex data and physical reality by storing it and generating it in a special compressed format he calls LINE Format. Things like the code itself, us, the reality, and time are all saved in this format, and he says that even someone with a complex data and file set as Cript, in computer terms, it’s about a four Bits, the smallest data size from way back when computers were made. He says the largest file saved is actually Time itself, about roughly sixty two thousand Terabites. Compared to everything else, Time itself takes up much more space, almost as much as Grey.” “So why hasn’t anyone just decided to upgrade the storage space again?” I asked curiously “From what I understood, Cript and Lord both said an Admin can not upgrade the physical hardware, just the in storage data. Hence Cript’s idea for breaking time. It deletes the data but keeps the people, places and all that data, which will drop to barely five gigabytes.” “Jesus hell that’s small.” I blinked. “Yeah. Apparently time is stored but still in use, it’s what makes time travel possible still. It’s like… a VHS tape, you can move forewards and back, cause it’s all already pre generated. Actions, scripts and of course it’s existence all there, but if you remove the audio, effects and keep just the pictures, it’s much less of the original tape. By removing time you remove the biggest and more space consuming data, but in that same boat, you lose time travel.” “Sounds about right.” I nodded. “So how soon will the whole...breaking time happen for Cript?” "Not sure honestly. Lord did find something interesting when investigating the save information though. When he found how Grey is saved, it's a whole different format. He called it MFP. Dunno why that is, but he said Grey acts like a program, a lot like how creation works." Den said. "Well...that makes sense given what it is." I said honestly. "Still, if it's a program like this reality, it has to be making something other than just energy, right?" "Sounds about right." I nodded. "Everything's got a purpose." "So… what is it making aside from energy?" "Data." I said, "Given were inside a computer, it makes sense everything would be data."" "True, but Data of what?" Den wondered for a bit, then gave a sigh. "Guess it's one thing at a time first. So, wanna watch TV or play games?" “We’ll figure it out later.” I said honestly. “But what games do you want to play?” "There's a bunch, and I've only really ever played Minecraft and Duck Hunt." “Den, I am going to show you the mystical wonders that is video games.” I said with a smile as I clapped my hands as an NES appeared. “And we’re going to start all the way back to the original Super Mario.” 9 Dream/sleeping/time displacement days (2 ½ hours waking world/stable time) Later “Alright, so now onto the Gamecube, Playstation 2, and Xbox.” I said while bringing up those three consols. “As well as the Gameboy Advanced.” I said, “Also...I forgot how many JRPG’s I played as a kid...I thought there were like four or five...not like six or ten.” I said sheepishly. "Heh, well there are a lot, and each one is in some way and shape a world out there." Den said, several books of notes at her side. "I remember the ps2 had a ton of games for it." “Honestly it has too many.” I said honestly. “So, which one do you want to start? I’m partial to the Gamecube cause a lot of my favorite games are on there.” "I don't know really-" There was a sudden, audible Ding noise. "My realm is done!" Den said happily. “Oh, that’s great.” I said happily. "Let's send some clones over." She said, a small portal opening before us. Den pricked a finger with her own claw, dropping the blood in the portal as I did the same. "We can go hunting and gaming here." She said happily. I nodded while pricking my finger and letting a clone of myself off with Den to hunt happily. “I’m sure the hunt will be fun.” Den's realm was amazing. From the view I could see the other worlds, the bridges connecting them, and all they prey and huntable animals all around. Den was happily attacking a T-rex, the giant beast losing horribly as Den now feasted. I was facing down a Triceratops, who proceeded to charge at me only for me to leap up, bite one of it’s horns and proceed to flip it over and slam it into the ground, diving on top of it and feasting to my heart's content. I ate all the meat, and bones. Symbi with her modifications to my body allowed me to digest it all as fast as I ate it. My body doesn’t need food or even mana at all. So she converts the matter and energy from what I eat into some other raw materials that get placed in my storage. After this Triceratops, I got sixteen Calcium Ores, basically bones but in ore form, and Blood Stones. Self explanatory. “Well this is a little interesting…” I hummed, curious as to why she decided to add a loot system to this Realm. I ran along, finding a bear and chowing down, a giant Salmon Fish and ate it all happily. As I ran along, finding a hippo, I was about to pounce, but didn’t, someone else jumping at it first… Hey, is that… Jenny? “Jenny?” I asked curiously. She looked up. Jenny’s Feral form was… I haven’t seen her in a feral form before. Her griffon wings were large and folded on her back, back legs like a lion, front like a massive bird, and body and head of a Dire wolf… A Den Mother Dire wolf. “Dad?” She asked, looking at me with a hippo leg in her mouth. “Yeah, that’s you.” I chuckled while walking over and gently nuzzling Jenny. “How are you doing?” “Good. Two things, one, this place is cool, and feral form is also cool. Also, Joy, myself and the others are all in this thing with you, so… guess you’re my daddy hubby~” She said, elbowing me with a laugh. “I know I know.” I chuckled. “I’ll still need to get used to some of these things but you're still my wonderful daughter.” I smiled with pride. “Til you bend me over, rutt my insides into my head and I birth your first litter while Joy and the others watch in the corner.” She said bluntly “Don’t tempt me.” I joked. “But I’m glad you're doing good Jenny...been pretty busy with a lot of things I haven’t gotten around to more family stuff until now.” “I’ve mostly just been screwing around, literally and in the sense as I’ve not been doing much.” “Sounds about right.” I nodded. “How’s Joy and co doing?” I asked. “Joy, since becoming a Den mother also, has been glued to the nursery. Sweetie Bell, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo since gaining Alicorn features have been messing with those, Gabby helps with Griffinstone and all that, Lovely has been learning all about Conduit powers from Delson. All in all going pretty well. All I do in my spare time aside from sex is snipe at the front lines.” “I’m a little surprised you haven’t been forcing the Front line in our favor.” I said honestly. “I know you are strong enough to do it.” “Yeah, fighting for an army is different for me. Normally I’m shooting at the government, not for the government. But Nothingness infused bullets from a cannon rifle that gave Seras Victoria an orgasem from looking at it helps deal damage to the bigger Void Beasts.” “Bitches love Cannons after all.” I chuckled. “That she does, and so do I. I even shot that Ben Ten bad guy Vilgax. Asshole dodged but I got his leg.” “Please tell me that bullet can be traced.” I said hopefully. “Sorry, I don’t use Tracer bullets.” “Damn it.” I growled. “I need to capture, and promptly torture every single bit of information out of him, and enjoy it way too much so I can find Void Key and make him wish he was never created to begin with.” “Huh. Well Vilgax, and sometimes his clones, walk around the front lines often. Mostly his clones since I shot him.” “Oh he has clones?” I asked. “Yup. Spoild’s work, Numbers tattooed along their body. I know I shot the original though, lately her clones all wear the same white jumpsuits, numbers either on the clones skin or the suit, and this Vilgax wore what he wore from classic Ben Ten show.” Jenny said, finishing the leg and not biting into the head of the hippo. “And from what I remember, Spoild’s clones probably wouldn’t know anything, even if I could come up with something that gets me to Vilgax proper.” I sighed out. “Capture a few anyways, I just want to torture the fucker since he’s Void Key’s right hand.” “Huh, guess I can try out those capture bullets then.” Jenny said, scarfing down half the hippo’s head. “Thank you.” I nodded. “Seriously, even if I’m getting the proper directions from the Quest...I still want to murder Void Key.” “Given what he did to Coco, not surprised. So, wanna head back to hunting prey? I think I saw Heart up by the river.” “Yes please.” I said happily. “I haven’t hunted in a while, so this helps me get some well deserved stretching.” As Jenny finished and snagged another Hippo, I headed up the river, finding Heart as Jenny said. While they were, actually, they were naked, but I guess they don’t have a feral form. They were spring attacking the water, nabbing fish and adding to a fair sized pile they had already behind them. “Hello there my fluffy snake.” I said with a warm smile. They looked up seeing me and smiled. “Hey King.” They said, coiling up to sit on their own snake half body. “This place is cool, and from what I read about Floof Noodles from that book we got from that library, I thought I’d give hunting a try.” “How’s hunting working out for ya?” I asked curiously. “Well, according to that book, Floof Noodles mainly hunt in two ways, spring out like I was doing for fish, and crushing strangulation for larger prey. I’ve mostly just been trying the spring thing.” “So either act like a springtrap for fish, or act like a Boa Constrictor huh?” I hummed curiously. “Well that or slither up to/along their body and start eating them whole and alive. Floof Noodle/Naga jaws are meant to unhinge, not chomp down, at least not hard. While mine can more easily break bones trying to do that to something bigger in my bite will force my jaw to unhinge. Also, naked because everyone else is.” “That’s because everyone else is in their feral forms.” I said honestly. “Well sadly floof noodles do not have feral forms.” At that moment we saw Mama Russia jump from someplace into the water, pulling out a giant fish from deeper in the water, compared to her size though it was more like a large puddle, and ate it. “She’s also very nice.” Heart said, pointing at Mama Russia. “I mean, she really is.” I said honestly. “Still don’t know why she has that russian accent though…” “Hmm, she’s part Kexez right?” “She’s me, Kexez and Jericho.” I said honestly. “What? You're saying your part Russian or something?’ “My family is literally from all parts of the world. Yes I am. I’m part every race back on earth. Speaking of, where did Kexez go?” Heart asked, looking around. “I came here with them for some bonding and a lot of talking.” “No idea…” I said while looking around as well. “They shouldn’t be too hard to miss…” A bit of looking around I spotted Kexez in the water, swimming around and attacking Crocodiles. “Huh, that’s impressive.” Heart said. “Impressive indeed.” I said honestly. “Oh, did you see the giant Battle Arena above the Castle?” “Yeah I saw it. Surprised to see it. You know, I used to hate hunting, now it’s kinda fun. Granted, I’m not eating that raw.” Heart pointed a thumb at their pile of fish. “Taste wise it’s okay for me, I just prefer to cook.” “Yeah, nothing beats cooked food, but raw...well it’s been weirdly good ever since I got like this.” I said honestly. “Eh, biology I guess.” Heart shrugged. “Symbi is fun to talk with. Kinda nice knowing I’m not alone, when I go anywhere alone.” “That is both nice...but also creepy when you say it like that.” I said honestly. “Heh. I actually did ask her if I fused with Jericho and Coco would that fusion be a Symbi too, she said likely. Gonna try that fusion thing out at some point.” “Yeah so just by exponential growth we have a literal infinite amount of fusion combinations…” I brought up. “And then there’s the fact that, even if we’re all technically fused together...some fusions are just downright stronger in every way possible…” “Heh, well it’s definitely something. I’m gonna start making a fire now. If you hunt anything you wanna cook, let me know.” “Alright.” I nodded while nuzzling Heart happily. Heart gave me a tight full body hug. Once they did I ran off, sniffing around then rushing up along one of the bridges to the other worlds. The world I ran onto must be Equestrian, because there was Ursa Majors and Manticores and the general terrain was the same, just minus the buildings and all that. “God...it’s been ages…” I muttered while just enjoying the landscape of Equestria. “After everything that happened...god it’s been a while…” I was kind of at a loss for words at how nostalgic it felt to be in a simple Equestrian environment after all this time. As I walked around, enjoying the local magical wildlife, some of the fruits and all that too, enjoying everything. I came to the area where Ponyville would be, lots of bears, rabbits, deers, all that tasty meat. “I know this is a Hunting Realm but...I wonder if any Equestrian residents are just hanging out here?” I wondered to myself. I ran around, sniffing and searching but found nothing. Not a single pony, griffon, zebra, or even yak. No life that would be of intelligence on an Equestrian world though. Either way, I continued my run, hunting the smaller prey and enjoying all the new tastes and smells. “This is nice.” I said happily. I ran along to the next world over the bridge. This one was a thick jungle filled with strange animals I've never seen before. I nabbed this flying… thing and it tasted a lot like a bear but mixed with fish. “Okay this world is...weird.” I started. “Foods good though.” I hunted here for a while longer, finding this world had animals made plants. They were interesting, like veggies, or fruits, mixed with various meats. This one flower bear thing had a taste I've never had before. It's not bad, kinda tangy. “Well, this is interesting.” I said honestly. “Wonder if they have anything to do with the plant people I made a while ago?” As I happily ate away, I heard the bowel of someone else. I didn't quite recognize them. Running along towards them I saw a Dire wolf, like all of us, a Den Mother, eating at this… Elephant… turtle… monkey thing. Wait… Memories from raising her in the Childhood time bubble came back… Nancy. “Dear lord how you’ve grown.” I said warmly while walking over to Nancy. “How are you doing Nancy?” She looked over at me. No longer the angry pup who hated me. Even so, once she turned one her memories from her life as a Ventral, but she was now just Nancy, my daughter and skilled fighter. Despite being part Equine from her mom Rarity, she was more dire wolf, only her ears looked pony, though she did develop a natural hair streak of color from Rarity along her head and tail. She walked over to me, nuzzling me happily and placing that… was that a heart? She placed it down. "Hi Papa." She said happily. “How’s my wonderful daughter doing?” I asked lovingly. "Papa, I'm the same gender as you. But I'm doing well. Mostly I've been studying and all that." Right, heh, just like her old life, she wants to be a baker. "Making pastries with the milk this family makes, they might as well be potions I swear." “You still call me papa even though I’m both genders.” I pointed out. “And yes, baking in this family has blurred the line between ‘are we just making pastries or ambrosia?’.” I chuckled. "Well, my earliest memories you were still only a male, it just feels right. And yes these "pastries" range from believable to up right cursed I swear." “Cursed? I don’t remember them being cursed.” I said honestly. “You’ve never baked using Mama Jericho’s milk then.” “I have barely baked to begin with.” I said honestly. “Well, one muffin baked with Mama Jericho’s milk turned Mama Derpy into a… Well, let’s just say we have few… trillion new asteroids in space now. They were all lifeless worlds, thankfully.” “What?” I asked slowly. “Yeah apparently for kids, it’s harmless, but for adults it makes your Lunatic Berzerk mode look like a temper tantrum. That said, here.” From her Assistant, Nancy pulled out a basket of muffins. “Something tells me you can make better use of those nukes in pastry form.” “Um...sure.” I said while taking the basket and putting it into my Assistant to hold. “That said, there’s others that were just funny or made sense. Mama Twilight’s milk when baked into a pastry boosts the eaters intelligence by a crazy ammout, as well as their mana reserves, Mama Rarity’s milk increases ones attractiveness to the opposite sex, or in our case, all sexes. Yours actually boost milk production in pregnant and nursing moms.” “Well that’s interesting.” I said honestly. “Yeah. Yours and Twilights are my best sellers so far.” “Yeah, that sounds right.” I nodded. “Hopefully everyone else’s milk is fine enough to use.” “Most are, actually a lot of people just wanna buy the milk bottled. As such I’ve been… heh, building a milking farm for everyone…” Nancy said awkwardly. “Basically a massive building, lots of starfish clones of everyone, massive tanks for the milk for each, and a lot of breast pumps. When I sold a bottle of your milk Papa, they legit paid me over ten thousand rem for one bottle! Then they wanted mine. To be honest it’s all kinda weird but eh, people have their tastes and fetishes.” “It’s not really a fetish cause this has been a thing way before any of this started. Back when I first got to Equestria, people were using breast milk instead of cow milk cause Breast Milk was, and I suppose is, a more ready source.” “Well either way, I spoke with Cript, since they actually cover the kingdoms market and they did say if the crown sold its own milk, given popularity of individuals and all that, would be a bestseller, and since we produce endlessly, can sell it for super cheap. So while the milk barn gets built back in the safe room my little pastry shop is making due with like ten clones of myself working 24/7 and milking each other for sales. Heh, at least business is good.” “I’m so proud of you.” I said while nuzzling Nancy happily. “Aww thanks papa.” Nancy said, planting a kiss right on my lips… right, this is normal… still, awkward. “You’re welcome my daughter.” I said warmly. “I’ll see you around papa, and stop by my shop, pretty sure if you showed up business would go crazy.” With that we went in different ways to keep hunting. As I ran along, Isaw this flash. Surprised I headed towards that way. I found… Dinky! Dinky… right, I remember… The Hero’s Tomb… she’s the Admin of Life, Vincent’s other half, and doesn’t even know it... “Hey Dinky.” I said while walking over to her. “How you doing?” She looked over to me, still in her pony/wolf form. No feral form. “Hey dad. Sorry I didn’t say I was home but I’m mostly here for studies. When Mama Den made this and brought back a lot of extinct life, I'm here to catalog and study them.” “That’s good.” I nodded with a warm smile. “How’s work been?” “Pretty good. I actually met someone.” “And...who would that be?” I asked slowly. “His name is Conner, a bit older but really smart and kind. He’s actually a sinor.” “That’s...great.” I said, not sure how to explain it to her given what I know. “But if there’s anything weird with him, come to me okay?” “Heh, the only thing weird about him is his hair color choice. Seriously, dyed Camo Blue. Heh, has no taste in fashion.” “Well then...when am I going to meet him?” “I have some vacation days coming up in a month, maybe then? Though it’s a little soon dad, we’ve only been dating for two months… or is it late? First boyfriend so I’m not really sure when soor and late are…” “I’d say that’s a little late.” I said honestly. “Is there any noticeable quirks about him besides his fashion sense?” “Not really, aside from his intelligence. But that makes sense, this school isn’t exactly one any rich kid can cash out to enter, you either have the brains for it or not.” “Yeah that makes sense.” I said honestly. “I met him in my Advanced Biology class. He forgot his books and we just shared one and copied one anothers notes. He realized that despite being a freshman I had the smarts of a sinor, and I was interested in his applications into Biotech for reviving long since extinct or dying animals. Hence why I'm here, plenty of data and DNA samples to construct with.” “Cool.” I nodded. “I’m sure your research will lead to great things.” “Heh, that’s the idea.” Dinky said with a smile. “So… can you not… hunt around here for the next few hours? I’d rather not lose valuable specimens.” “Alright, I won’t hunt around here for a bit.” I said honestly, gently nuzzling Dinky. “I’m glad you're doing well in your studies.” “Glad to be studying. Heh, sound like such a nerd saying that.” I left Dinky to her work, still worried about this Conner is Vincent. Even so, I’ll have to ask the Time Walkers, assuming they tell me anything. Oh shit I gotta wake up now. “Bro… Bro!” Sly yelled in my ear. “No need to shout…” I grumbled while waking. “Just give me five more minutes…” I groaned while rolling away from Sly. “I’m too comfy…” “Uh… I can see that…” Confused, I opened my eyes… only to find I was in Matilda’s arms, my head resting just below their breasts. “Do I even wanna know or…?” “I fell asleep in my own bed without her here…” I blushed brightly. “Uh...why is Matilda here?” I asked nervously. “That’s what I wanna know… and before mom gets here.” “Hm?” Matilda said, waking up and stretching. “Wait… I swore I…” Her face then blushed bright when she saw me and that this was my cottage. She then bolted out the window. “Well… what was that about?” Sly asked. “Now listen...I’m not saying I can’t at least try to get two girlfriends.” I said slowly and nervously. Sly just gave me a deadpan look. “I’m gonna pretend I did not just hear my baby brother say that. In any case, at least I’m not the only one who woke up in a girl's arms.” They said, blushing as they scratched the back of their head. “How fluffy was Carmalita’s tail?” I teased. “Well, wait, no no no, I was a gentleman about it. She came into my cottage to check on me and… I Was just crying after… yesterday's discovery. She ended up with me all night and in the morning. Nothing happened, just some cuddling. Though we did agree to try it again. That being said, it’s almost mid afternoon baby bro, and you are lucky I Showed up here and not mom, she’d have strangled Matilda if she found you two like that.” “We were just cuddling after...yesterday…” I sighed out. “I couldn’t really go to Lana cause her dad would have snapped at me...so Matilda was here at least…” I said while getting out of bed and stretching. “Heh, well in any case I guess it helped both of us a bit, though if mom finds out she will kill you both.” Sly said with a laugh. “Also, you are still chasing after Lana, I don’t think she’s into you.” “Well...it’s either me, or I help Murray get a girlfriend.” I said honestly. “Given how those two are around each other and they’ve basically trained the most together.” I pointed out logically. “True, given they are both heavy lifters.” Sly said. “Well, it’s the afternoon already, best head on out and maybe later on you and Matilda should have a talk. Given what just happened.” “Really should…” I said nervously. “So, we heading to Muggshot or Panda King next?” I asked curiously. “Not for a while first. For now, we let Matilda and the rebels do their thing, and once they are close we get sent in. Hey, give us time to do stuff.” “Like train, hang out, and a lot of other things.” I said honestly. “And date, well, yeah and date.” Sly said with a chuckle. With a laugh we headed out. I was starving and most of today was spent training and thinking. Though later I did sneak back over to Matilda’s to see why she was in my bed and all that. She was in her cottage, like last night with paperwork at her desk. “So…” I started while entering her cottage. “Mind uh...explaining why you were in my bed?” She stiffened up. “Heh… well… With all that happened at Raleigh’s and then last night with all that… it was a lot to process and I wanted to make sure you were actually asleep and not doing god knows what with your new Keyblade. I saw you were sleeping and just… I remember thinking you looked a lot like Conner, your dad. After that… I guess I fell asleep there.” “As long as you didn’t do anything weird to me in my sleep.” I said simply. “N-No no no! Nothing like that!” She said, panicked before sighing. “I really did love your dad. And I know what I did to your mom and such was… is unforgivable, I’ve made my peace with that… still, thinking about Conner just… it hurts. I always wanted to tell him properly how I felt, but after what I did he hated me as much as everyone else, and he was justified in that. I’ve kept these emotions buried ever since he died, and now I see that… I guess I finally reached my breaking point.” I gently moved over and put a consoling hand on her shoulder. “I understand…” I said gently. “But...I’m at least here, and hopefully mom won’t snap at me…” “Heh, she’ll snap at me before you. Even so, you’re so young. Fuck I’m old enough to be your mom and even though you are aparently older than you say, or whatever or however you are works, all I know is that now, you are a child, and you are Violet and Conner Coopers son. It would not be right regardless.” “We’ll work through it.” I said simply. “It doesn’t have to be now, but it’ll happen later. I’m my own person who can be with whoever I want.” “Heh, you’re sweet but no. I promised I’d keep you safe, nothing less… and nothing more.” She said, taking my hand off her. To be continued... Author's Note Alright so quick note. I will be going on Hiatus after this to give some time to make a lot more chapters, as well as give people time to work on their stories to catch up after a long time of not working. Also it'll maybe give me a chance to work on some other stories I've been putting off for a long time...probably not but I can at least hope.
Nobody hangs outAfter my talk with Matilda I went to bed, waking up back with the family at home. Today I was spending time with Coco, she and I in our personal room in the safe room. She was in an adorable blue onesie and I was in the same PJ's as the other rooms. We ate a nice breakfast before checking the TV, both on the couch watching tournaments on TV. “This is nice.” I said softly, loving my time with Coco. "Yeah. Thanks for watching these with me. I normally don't like sports but combat tournaments are always something I can enjoy. See those two?" Looking at the TV, there was Hearts Doom Guy, I knew it was his cause of his Keyblade, and a female dressed in similar armor to his. "Gutz and Glory, or so they go by. They've been dominating the Survival tournaments for the past month." “You know, they could just say she’s Female Doom Guy.” I said honestly. "Yeah, but Gutz and Glory sound way better as a team name. Besides, as far as anyone knows Glory isn't actually a reflection or female version of Gutz at all. Fact is she popped in out of nowhere with him and they've just been owning the tournaments." “That’s not concerning at all.” I said nervously. “Like...a person that just magically appears out of nowhere and isn’t their reflection is a tad weird.” "Well, kinda but these tournaments perform background checks and everything. If she wasn't someone to trust then they would have never allowed her into the tournaments. Only thing anyone does know about her is that, like Gutz, she rarely ever takes the helmet off, and is human." “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “Good to know that there isn’t any other weird thing about her...maybe, who knows.” I shrugged. "...You wanna investigate, don't you?" “I mean...I don’t have to, given that she’s already seen as a good enough person...sorry.” I said sheepishly. "Heh. Mama to the family and citizens I see." Coco said with a laugh, opening her assistant up. "If it helps all the Pinkie Pies are in charge of kingdom entertainment, including the tournaments. I can ask one of them to get her file for us to ease your mind." “Thank you.” I said gently. After a hot minute Pinkie sent over the file, as well as a dozen cupcakes. While eating one I read the file over. Glory's real name was Rebecca Alitone. From Cript's realm, served ten years in Freak Inc military in the peace keeper section in hell itself, helping the current King of hell Adam properly establish his rule way back when freak Inc was young. Explains why she and Gutz are a team then, mutual hatred of hell. “Alright, that sounds interesting.” I said honestly. "Heh. And you were worried." Coco said, leaning into me. "So, wanna snack? We got every option." “I worry about a lot of things.” I said honestly. “And yes, I want to snack a lot.” Coco pulled out a good sized buffet of junk food stuff and we ate and watched the tournaments Carnage. Apparently the record is still held by me, so these two are going after it. “I still need to rebeat my record, albeit it’s kind of cheating when I basically made a self sustaining city in that crap.” I said honestly. "It is. But they kept it there as only people in the family could have pulled that off and it was in a family tournament." Coco said, sipping a slurpee. "I hear the rewards this time around are really good." “Oh? What are the rewards?” I asked curiously. "First prize is your own custom planet. Second is a Kelvolte spaceship. Those are the newest models, fast, armed to the teeth and outfitted for nearly every occasion. Lastly is a wish card. One free wish of your choice, within reason." “Cool.” I nodded. “And where does all the loot that appears when you kill the Shadow Creatures?” I asked curiously. “Cause last time I was in the arena, I...accidentally melted a good chunk of it all when making that habitat.” "Drop storages. Just holds them till you win or lose. So even the losers leave with something." “Cool.” I nodded. “Still wonder how long I could have let it go before ending it.” "Knowing you, likely forever." Coco said, taking a bite of cake. "God the best part of this crazy family and crazier bodies is being able to eat like shit and never gain a pound." “That is also true.” I said while scarfing down chips. “And even if we did gain weight it would probably just go straight to the right places.” "Or the babies. Never would have guessed being forever pregnant would also be enjoyable." “Yeah, it’s a nice thing.” I said honestly. “And this is coming from a Den Mother who always prides themselves in bearing children.” "Heh. Yeah." "Plus...Mama Russia has been making everyone a lot bigger…" I said sheepishly, before that fusion I was about as tall as Den, maybe a little shorter, and stacked and thick as hell...and Russia made me a good foot taller and even more stacked. "Like seriously, I grew an extra foot, went up a cup and a half for each set and I'm pretty sure my ass can now cause small earthquakes…"…” "You're talking to the girl she turned into a giant. Trust me, I know. Though I can't deny, her insides are nice. Soft, almost silk like and molds to your body perfectly. Makes sleeping so freaking easy." “Yes, it is stupid comfy in there.” I agreed. "Hmm. Don't tempt me to see how yours is for a while." Coco said, laying across my lap now. "Being a mutant admin is the best. And fuck those Puritens for saying otherwise." “Okay seriously, given how everything’s been going I’m surprised there’s still people like that out there.” I said honestly. "Big reality, lots of idiots." Coco said, curling up against me. "Already from what Leon says they founded their own kingdom separate from ours. We're keeping eyes on them, it's likely Nexus will try and reach out. As is though they just want isolation for now." “Well, let’s just hope Nexus doesn’t get to them...giving them space is fine, but they better not try to be those assholes…” I growled. "Hopefully it won't go there. So, aside from wife's and such, how many of the kids have you met? You are both a wife and child of this family after all." “There are still so many…” I sighed out. “I haven’t met all of them, and I’ve had a good amount of my clones spending time with each of them.” "Even Ciel?" Ah yes… Ciel. The one who actively tries to avoid me like the plague. “He keeps trying to avoid me like I’m the plague for some reason and I don’t know why.” I sighed out. "Do you even know what he does at least?" “Not really.” I sighed out. “I think I was told one time but I don’t remember sadly.” "If you really wanna know, talk to Adagio Dazzle, she's his biological mom when he joined the family." “Alright, I’ll give it a try.” I nodded. “Let’s just hope she also doesn’t try to avoid me.” Adagio and I also had our own private room. But she was nice, as expected loved music and was helping me work on vocal notes when using Arpeggio. “So uh...mind if I ask a question?” I asked in between our singing practice. "Hm?" She replied. She wore more… housewife attire. A simple dark blue blouse that reached her knees. Her hair was also brushed flat and back. “So uh...why is Ciel keeping away from me like I’m the plague?” I asked curiously. "Oh? That. Heh, don't take it too personally, he keeps just about everyone away. Only people he really opens up to are Ceiot and I. For the most part I think he does it because of his work." “And what’s his work? Is it back from his original world or something else?” I asked curiously. "Basically. Keep’s the underworld in check. Don't know why he went back to it, never told me why." “Maybe because of his past?” I suggested. “But...It’s a little understandable why he does it with you, given your Ciel’s mother, and Seba-er, Ceiot.” I corrected myself on that demon’s name. “I’d like to know why but he keeps brushing me off…” "Funny enough he doesn't even use Sebastian anymore. Not since Cript took him in, and Sebastian, making them both half demons. These days Sebastian is still a Butler but working for Cript. Heh, his house is flooded with cats." “And..now I’m slightly confused...I thought Ceiot was Sebation’s new or real name…” I said nervously. "But now he prefers Sebastian." “It is a better name.” I said honestly. "In any case his office is at his estate. His world is a part of this one. I can give you the coordinates address, if you want?" “I wouldn’t mind...just want to learn more about the family instead of being avoided…” I sighed out. She gave me the location address and we went back to practice while I also went to go see Ciel. His manner was just like the anime. Not all that different aside from some modern features here and there. I entered. The inside was a bit different. Most of the paintings were all gone, replaced with either maps or bounty's. Many crossed out in red paint. "What are you doing here?" I turned, Ciel was dressed in his typical suit, a dark black color. "Just to talk." I said simply. "Can't be too busy to talk right?" They sighed. "Seeing as you went through the trouble of coming here. Fine. Follow me." I followed Ciel into a library like room, tea, snacks and such were all set up. He sat on one chair and I sat in the other. "So, why did you trouble yourself in coming here?" “Why do you trouble yourself with avoiding me and everyone else like we somehow contracted the plague.” I countered calmly and professionally, "Simple. Just because we are family doesn't mean we have to speak to one another. That, and I find your courses of action in dealing with the kingdoms crime rather pathetic." “I mean...being family does kind of mean we have to talk to each other so I don’t know where you got that from.” I started slowly. “And to be honest, the only reason why I’m not doing what I actually want to do to deal with crime is everyone else telling me ‘no, don’t do that’.” I said simply. “Even if you did, it would only make the heads of the snakes wiser to the mouse biting at it’s tail. Even with all the measures you have placed in, all it’s done is make the lessers of society smarter and wiser. Two things always find a way, life, and crime. Can’t eradicate one and keep the other.” “You say that, but I’m pretty sure one can be without the other.” I said simply. “But how would you do it?” “Simple, let the vermins be, and when, and some always do, cut off their heads when they step out of their sewer. That’s how I've been handling it, and given your venture as Kite Cooper, you can understand that line of work.” “Yes, yes I do.” I nodded. “Good, at least we can agree on that.” “Alright, so back to you being anti-social as hell.” I started. “Adagio said it’s because of your work...but from what you immediately told me, it sounds like you just don’t like people.” “Keeping distance from people makes my job easier. Most people are either just inconvenienced or wind up dead. You saw the bounties on my walls, yes?” "You...do know what our family is right?" I asked honestly. “Of course, but tell me this, for all your photo shoots and tv appearances, would the public keep their love of you when you are drenched in blood? You keep the kingdom happy and I keep it’s underworld in order. Simple as that. They know the rules and any who defy them, I correct. I keep the blood off your hands, it’s as simple as that.” “Well how about I prove you wrong then.” I said simply. “By getting blood on your hands? Or by taking a stroll in the shadows?” “You have no idea how much I’ve done of both.” I said simply. “But either or is fine. Got a job?” “I am working one now. How much do you know about Shadow Drugs?” “I know a lot about it, but mind giving me a quick refresher for the readers?” I asked politely. "If you don't remember then say so, you'll sound less like an ass than." Ciel said, taking a sip of tea. "Shadow Drugs are the blood from a still living Shadow Creature placed into an injection device. The injectors are unique and quite easy to spot but these days they are smaller and easy to transport. They first appeared forty years ago and even with all Cript's efforts some still find their way into the markets. Normally Shadow Creature blood evaporates within seconds once exposed to air, but the Injectors prevent that. Once injected into a body the shadow blood mixed with any air from the blood of the junkie and evaporates within the body. The raw vapors rapidly merge with the host body, mutating their body to take on some physical appearance of the Shadow Creature the blood came from. This is semi permanent as if the host engages in combat, rapid adrenalin or anger the changes will most likely become permanent. Typically the 'high' lasts for three to five minutes, after which if they are lucky the person will revert back, severally crippled with possible brain damage but alive." "Yeah I remember hearing about that from Jenny." I said honestly. "So who's the distributor you're targeting?" "A man named Flyn Calbile. A well known substance distributor, but Shadow Drugs is where both Cript and I draw the line. You see it came onto the market over forty years ago, well before any of our times. It's become Cript's white whale, the creator of the injectors, and the drug. Ever elusive and out of reach. Not even the distributors know who their supplies come from. Long chains of distribution all leading to dead ends each time." "And you're thinking this guy might know?" I asked. "Or do you just want to take him down?" "He doesn't. All we can do til any form of lead is picked up is to eliminate distributors." “I...have an idea.” I started slowly. “Cause while dealing with this guy and other distributors is a good idea, more and more will just keep coming out.” "Obviously." “So, I have this nifty little ability that I learned as King of Nothingness, and that’s Chameleon. Simply put, it’s an ability that let’s me become someone completely different, in powers, biology, everything. So my idea...which is a huge gamble all things considered, is for me to send a chameleon clone and...sadly become a Distributor, cause from what you said is that each distributor gets delivered the Shadow Drugs, now it could be the originator, it could be one of his lacky’s, but the point is, if I can get one of those bastards, then I’m sure we can start hunting for the originator.” "If you want to waste your time and do that, fine by me." “And you have a better idea?” I asked simply. “Cause right now, you’ve been helping Cript run in circles, so what’s wrong with my idea?” "You don't just become a distributor of Shadow Drugs by asking. From what the captured sellers say the crates just appear in their Warehouse as if they had always been there. No magic, temporal, or special remnant signals to tell how it got there, and no fingerprints, or DNA on the crates at all. Just a box full of Shadow Creature blood appears." “I never said I would just be ‘asking’.” I said simply. “But thank you, that’s something you didn’t bring up before. But right now, we have a dealer to kill.” "Or arrest. Frankly it all depends on if they surrender or not." “Alright.” I nodded. “But I still suggest ‘insider info’, even if it might not be as good as you say it is given how people get the crates, it’s better knowing the inner workings than just guessing half the time.” "If you believe you can stomach it." Ciel shrugged. I rolled my eyes. “Even if the writers say otherwise, I am used to this garbage by now.” I stated bluntly. “I never sit idly by when work needs to be done...and to be honest, I’ve thought of worse…” "And there it is. Why I hate you." “Thank you for actually saying it instead of being a passive aggressive bitch.” I stated simply. “Now tell me, why do you hate me? Is it because I actually want to do my fucking job? Is it because I don’t sit on my hands waiting for others to do shit I can do? Tell me, I’d love to know what thing I can add to the list that I already don’t tell myself.” "It's exactly what you said. Rise from nothing and now look at you, basically perfect. I hate perfect things. And when said one thing, you counter, you always have the quick whip tongue at the ready, and the answer to everyone's prayers. You have your cake and eat it too happily. You are everything I despise because you defy everything I have ever known as truth." “And yet when you think about it...our journey’s started the same.” I said honestly. “We both started out in loving family’s, you with a loving fiance and rich as can be, I was just middle class but still was happy...then everything changed when some asshole decided to fuck with us, getting our parents killed. How we reacted differed greatly since you thought of summoning a demon to deal with those that wronged you, I blamed myself and nearly became a Nobody because of it.” I explained. “So how come I, who started with nothing, got to where I am, while you who started with everything, feels like he’s been holding himself back?” "Do you know why I joined this family? This family where my every wish could and would be granted?" “Please, I would like to know.” I said simply. "To keep fighting. I could have gotten my parents, home and life back, but then what was the point to everything I'd been through? The person I am now can not live as the person I was. If you spoke to yourself at the beginning of your journey, would you recognize the person standing in front of you?" “Honestly? Yes.” I said simply. “And I can give you an explanation on how I can say that without batting an eye?” Ciel just leaned back on their chair. "You are either the worlds best liar or it's biggest fool. Either way, we're all entitled to our beliefs, and nothing you can or will shake is mine." “And that’s fine.” I said simply. “But you need to learn to move on. That’s what I did, and look where it got me. You can keep fighting, that’s fine, but if you're just going to keep acting like how you did in Black Butler, it’s only going to hurt you in the long run.” I said simply. “But I can’t tell you how to live your life. If you want to live ‘second verse, same as the first’, then that’s on you, but if that’s the only way to describe yourself...then have you really changed from how you started?” "I'd like to think so." “Not needing Sebastian is a good start.” I said simply. “But besides losing Sebastian...what have you done differently that your past self wouldn’t?” “For starters… Elizabeth has moved in…” They groaned. “We are still betrothed after all.” “You two are honestly adorable together.” I chuckled. “But...why wouldn’t your past self be inclined to do that if I may ask?” “Because my past self was a dead man walking. Soul to be eaten by a demon. Now, here I am, demon out of hell, given half my humanity back and the power to finally stand on my own two feet.” "And yet you still stood proud, ready to face what came next." I said honestly. “True. Back then I held onto anger and hatred because it was all I had left. Now, it’s more like… I revel in the hatred of those underworld monsters. I find their anger entertaining.” "I just want to point out you had a lot more than just anger and hatred, but I understand. Also why do you find it entertaining? Think it's because of your demon half or how they let their anger lead them down that path?" “I find it entertaining because of their struggles to evade me, like mice in a maze with no exit. Pointless their attempts and the more they try, the more their anger grows, and that’s when the fun starts.” “Yeah that makes sense.” I said honestly. “So how is living with Elizabeth? A lot more colorful or what?” “Thankfully she has grown out of most of that. While she does still love decorating she’s far less...pink about it. So, how’s my mother?” “She’s doing well. Helping me learn to sing, and even if I keep telling her I’m tone deph, she thinks I have a natural talent for it.” I said honestly. “She would. After my adoption I inherited her vocal talents, but I don’t put them to any use.” “I’m sure Elizabeth would love to hear it.” I said honestly. “Never. Not in a million years.” Ciel said fast and blunt. “Afraid of singing or afraid of her badgering you about it every other ten seconds?” I asked curiously. “Or scared of all the praise from her?” “I inherited a SIREN’s voice. I am a half demon/Siren. You do the math on all the chaos that causes. First and last time I sang, I opened sixty five portals to various locations in hell… half those demons that broke out I’m still hunting.” “And that’s where practice comes in. Cause that sounds less like you just singing and more you not being used to your powers. Look at Adagio, she’s a Siren, but has she shown she can sing normally as well as use magic while singing?” I asked curiously. “That’s because she lacks her pendent. But that’s something I’d rather not get into.” “All you need is practice.” I said honestly. “But how is the others doing? Mey, Fin, Bard and Tanaka?” “Mey finally got those glasses fixed, far less clumsy, Finny has been doing well, and Bard took some actual cooking classes for a change, so his food is at least edible. As for Tanaka…” I then looked next to me, the old man back to mini Tanaka sipping tea from a cup labeled ‘Hot Water’. “Ho Ho Ho.” They said simply. “Tanaka is being himself.” “Good to know they're all doing well.” I nodded. “Seriously, how the hell did Sebastian find a lone surviving soldier, a russian super soldier project, and a stupidly good sniper?” “I ordered him to find three of the most inhuman humans on earth that would be loyal to me and protect/care for the manor. He did just that. The how of it I frankly don’t care about. I was just happy Tanaka was still around when I first came back.” “I am moved sire!” I turned, Tanaka was now a full sized old man. “Truly your heart has grown from one that pumps hatred and wrath into one that allows compassion and love to-” Poof. And he’s back to Mini Tanaka. “Hmm…” I hummed while my eyes glowed as I scanned Tanaka, wondering what has been with his mini form and when he just grows up as I mostly took it as a ‘lack of energy in his old body’ but wasn’t fully sure. To my suprise… that was exactly it. According to this he was born with a fast metabolism. In youth he’d just eat to make up for the rapidly lost energy, but in his old age lacking the ability to rapidly digest food, now lacks energy for long periods of time. “Huh, always thought there was something more to Tanaka, but nope, just him having a fast metabolism and not being able to keep his energy up.” I said simply. “Have you ever asked him if he wanted to have his little...condition fixed?” I asked curiously. “He is actually okay as he is. He enjoys watching the little things here and there and frankly, seeing him like that can put anyone in a good mood.” “I mean...that’s just true.” I said honestly. “Like having a grandpa you just enjoy being around, even if he doesn’t say anything….just him being around is good enough.” Ciel and I talked for a while more but he had work and I left him to it. This shadow drug thing was something I’d talk to Cript about later. For now, I went back to the bedroom(s) to see how all the others are doing. Time to see Alxun. “Hello there.” I said softly to my Luna. “How’s my beautiful moon doing?” She wasn’t in my arms. Looking she was sitting on a chair… painting me. “Don’t move! I’m so close to finishing. I haven’t had the chance to paint in forever.” “Well I hope your getting my good side.” I said with a warm smile. “That would be all your sides… especially your backside~” She cooed. About ten more minutes and she finished. God she made me look so sexy. “Well, that’s done. Now then.” She then jumped on top of me, the both of us embracing each other in tight loving hugs. “I’m sorry for being so busy my moon.” I said while nuzzling Alxun “Hey, at least with this set up Lyra made we can always be together, you can be off fighting, paperwork, whatever, and also be here at the same time.” She said, giving me a kiss. “Now pull and keep me in that fluff of yours, I demand the best cuddles.” “So my princess askes, so she shall receive.” I said while giving her the best cuddles in my wonderful fluff. She gave a happy sigh, getting comfy against my chest as I held her close under the blankets. “I hope I keep a special place in your heart King… heh, after all, I was your first love making in Equestria.” “You will always be my first.” I said lovingly. “No matter what.” I said while kissing her lovingly. Our little make out session lasted for a good five minutes before it broke, she nuzzling under my chin as we rested happily in each others arms. While now I am bigger than her, she was still tall enough to not be lost in my hug. Twilight and I were both being nerds. Twi resting on my body, reading while I read on the holo screen above my face. “Ah yes, how much I enjoy just being a nerd with my nerd wife.” I said warmly, softly nuzzling Twilight. “I dunno, you look more the wife these days.” Twilight said, playfully elbowing one of my breasts she was resting between. “But your still my adorkable wife.” I said lovingly. “But how have you been doing lately?” “Mostly been studying, working in the Royal Library and going through various books. A whole Multiverse of books and I’m amazed how many of them are actually basically cheap reprints.” She said with a sigh. “That aside, I've been doing well. It’s nice to relax like this.” “Eh, it happens.” I shrugged. “At least it’s still good reading material.” “Eh, some of it. The fact there are books with only one word repeated over and over again, or no words at all is just… just raises too many questions.” Rarity and I shared a room that was a tad different. Rather than the simple studio, it was much larger, fancier, large, actually endless closets, and of course personal spa for the two of us. These robots give an amazing deep tissue massage. “Best decision in my life was marrying you… and to think, if you hadn’t accidentally destroyed my house, it never would have happened.” She said, “I said I was sorry...also I’m sorry that Time kind of...fed Unum your cat.” I said sheepishly. “Yes… that I was pissed about, but I’ve mostly gotten over it. Frankly at the time it didn’t really process until after it was all over. A lot was going on. In any case being able to live like this… it’s more than divine.” “I mean, it is super fancy and stuff.” I said honestly. “But I hope I’ve been a good husband throughout all of this…” “In all honesty, yes. Frankly I’m just wondering if I’ve been a good wife. To be honest I never actually expected to find anyone, let alone marry. So I went into this blind.” “You’ve been wonderful.” I said lovingly. “And I’m still thankful you’re here.” “Hm. I’m glad for that, sometimes it feels nice to just be one on one with you.” “Yeah, I’m very thankful for these rooms because...well I can spend time with each of you...and I couldn’t be happier about it.” “Me neither. Plus gives me a chance to see how all the new dresses I made for you look on you!” “Oh boy, a whole lotta dress up and modeling.” I chuckled. “How many are normal outfits and how much is lewd or fetish attire?” I asked curiously. “Hmm… twenty percent lewd/fetish, the rest are normal. Sexware is not my normal cup of tea to work on.” “Alright.” I nodded. “Good to know, haven’t really modeled much...lewd outfits, like those playboy bunny outfits or uniforms made to be lewd.” “I see the appeal of them, but they are more of a pain to make than you’d believe. Normally the materials used to make them are difficult to work with. Latex and… leather… Latex alone is a pain, and leather, well, never cared for it.” “Okay to be honest, I kind of expected you to be into...well bondage and stuff, so leather would have been your thing.” I said honestly. “Oh hardly. While it’s fun sometimes I’m not into it like Eclipsa or Pinkie. Frankly I prefer some lewd attire or none at all. Though I also enjoy Pregnancy I find.” “Don’t we all?” I giggled. “Well, after our message, why don’t you start showing me which dresses you want me in?” “Gladly.” I was inside a stomach here… hm, large, roomy, internal breasts, OH this is Mama Russia. So this is what’s inside her. Huh. So this was Coco’s room for like a year in the void. Nice. “Should I make a ‘Mother Russia’ joke or should I not?” I wondered. I was honestly amazed by how… big it actually was in here. I mean I know she is huge but it’s also huge in here. Well lit too which isn’t the weirdest part. The Worst part is the fact there is furniture made from her stomach lining. Bed, couch, a… TV? Does that actually work? If so being mutants is a whole new level of cool. “Kind of wished I could talk to Russia…” I muttered to myself. “But this is cool.” To my suprise, the TV turned on. Cool! As I was getting comfy on the ‘bed’ here I saw something enter here… Mama Russia? Only slightly bigger than- Oh shit! She then jumped on top of me, despite the size I was she was still bigger than me and curled around me as best as possible. “Double safe.” She said simply. “You are still a huge lady…” I said with a light blush. “Better to keep you safe. You are safe inside me, now I am inside me to keep you extra safe.” She said. Licking my head and body. She was tongue bathing me for a while before making me feed off her. I gently pulled off her breast. “So, how is it being with everyone else?” “Everyone else is small. Well, most everyone. Giants are all good but some could be better. All with me are like you, inside me with me also inside. Keep all safe, feeding to grow, and room to grow.” “Alright.” I said while kissing Mama Russia. “Thank you.” “Drink, you need to grow more, can conceive, hold and birth more babies once bigger.” She said, making me feed again. I’m a tad scared here… I’m with Lyra… Cript’s Lyra. She was asleep, pony form, and frankly knowing what I know about here… kinda worried. “What sort of fresh hell am I going to endure here…” I muttered worriedly. I remember talking to her a few times, she was nice, but still, how will this be? Does she have… activities planned? "Well...let's hope nothing bad happens…" I muttered while softly nuzzling Lyra. She began stirring awake. I stiffened a bit as she woke up, yawning. "Hey there King." She said, stretching. "How you doing?" I asked curiously. "Pretty good. I've replicated that wife vending machine so that's got it's own factory. Rooms are being made here as fast as everyone is trying out new fetishes and sex stuff, and the children are being concived and born just as fast as everything. All in all, life is good." "Cool." I said honestly. "So, how goes your stuff?" She asked, hopping out of the bed and over to the fridge. "A lot of stuff to do, but it's coming along." I said honestly. "That's good." She said, looking through the fridge. "So, how many kids you got already?" "I...don't think the numbers go that high." I said sheepishly. "You been fucking? You fucking with other with other Starfish clones this very moment constantly? Then yeah, numbers are high." She said, using her magic to pull out a container filled with what looked like jerky. She then climbed back up, opening it. The jerky was yummy smelling and she then gave me half. "Yeah...I do it a lot." I said sheepishly while eating some jerky. As we sat and ate the really tasty jerky, she laid down on her back. "So, what are you expecting of me?" She asked. "I don't know but I'm concerned about what might happen." I said honestly. "That depends, what do you think I'll do to you?" "I don't know and it worries me." I said nervously. "Knowing what I do know about you...you can see why I'm nervous." "Heh. Don't worry, you will enjoy it. I can confidently say that much." Lyra said, growing a small smile. “And...what is that?” I asked nervously. "Everything. Well, most everything, there are some fetishes I don't touch because of the obvious. Some I invent my clean alternative to play with." “And then there’s what I don’t want to do.” I said simply. "Oh King sweetie, if I did only the things you want to do to you, then I'd only be doing like… five, six things at most." “Let’s not get too weird at least please.” I said nervously. Sixteen hours… she did so...much… for sixteen straight hours. I'm not sure how but she did get me to enjoy all of it. And yes, it did get weird but never extreme weird at least. Needless to say, I'm soaked in sweat, lube, sexual juices, and various food products. I can't feel anything and while I am laying on my belly unable to move she is resting her head on my side with a happy smile. "So, ready for round two?" Lyra asked. “Bitch that was sixteen hours of everything you could think of.” I frowned. "No, that was sixteen hours of not getting too weird and stuff you would not put up too much of an argument against. Besides, I have yet to cum." "Lyra?" Cript asked me, while I clutched them in our personal room. He saw the look on my face and took a guess. “Never again.” I shivered. “Seriously, the fuck?” "Didn't get her to cum?" "Sixteen hours of stupid crap that felt good...then she wanted round 2." "Heh, yeah… Lyra can hold back her own need to orgasm very well. Like self imposed cum denial. The trick with Lyra to get her cumming is to be rough. And King, when I say rough I mean don't just use your body weight in your thrusts, don't just clench on her when she is thrusting you, put actual power into it, like all of it, don't even worry about breaking her hips or clenching her dick off, you won't. And above all else, make sure to bite her ears, and again, don't worry about breaking skin, just but like you're biting Vilgax's head off. She also likes it when you rutt and put fingers in her mouth and open hole, set your body's semin rate to max, she loves that, and if you really want to prove to her you can make her cum, use some l, no, use all the Electronium skills I know you learned off screen to trigger her whole body's nervous system into an overdrive of pleasure sensations. Like what I did to you when we first screwed. Do that and she will be cumming well before you blow a load." "So...half of my fetishes to the extreme?" I asked. "And the rest AND all of what she did to you, do to her. No holds bars, give her back what she gave to you and all the extra you can add to it." “Sounds...simple enough.” I said, “Good to know…” "If you told me you were gonna do it with Lyra beforehand I would have told you this sooner." “Would have loved to know I was going there to begin with, but the writers just wanted to do that for funsies.” I sighed out. “Hey, at least you know what you got into with her now.” Moving along to the others I found myself in the tight, coiled body of Heart, who was wrapped around me very tightly. “Well hello there.” I said gently to Heart. “Hey~” They said. The way they were wrapped around me left just my toes and head outside of their body, the rest was tightly kept in their wrapped hug. And Heart still had enough length left to be able to lay atop me while wrapped up. “Like the full body hug?” “I always enjoy a full body hug.” I said lovingly. “Paperwork sucks.” They said, They laid down in front of me, their grip on me not loosening as they looked bored. “I mean, I used to actually enjoy it! Used to… make me feel normal, but now that I’ve actually accepted myself and my life… it’s boring…” “I mean...you’re just weird for finally realizing paperwork is boring.” I said honestly. Heart blew me a raspberry. “Anyway, once that was over I went into some of the dungeons we have here in the safe rooms. Yes we have that too. Hunting realm, Dungeons realm, many bedrooms/sex realm. AKA where we are now. Plainly, and found out something cool about how I can summon weapons.” “Oh? How can you summon weapons?” I asked curiously. “Well, aside from the normal, like this.” Heart showed me as the tips of Keyblades emerged from their arm, three, an Oblivion, Pumpkin Head, and Stroke of Midnight tips. “But… it’s not limited to Keyblades.” They then made a fist, three of Fondure’s knives appearing out like Wolverine’s claws. “Okay, that’s cool.” I said honestly. “Wonder if I can do that...I know I can do it spikes with my Den Mother ability…” I said in thought. “Well in any way I can have Sky Splitter and Lunatic at my tail, Frozen Pride across my back, and Foudre along my knuckles and fingers. Not sure about the others, I was actually hoping you could teach me to use them so I can find where along my body and in what combinations I can bring them out in for the best results.” “It’s going to take me a bit to teach you everything cause...honestly there’s still plenty of stuff I don’t know about.” I said honestly. “But I know we’ll work through it all.” “I’d like that. So, Eclipsa tell you about our pet play and her… ‘special’ cage?” “No and no...sadly we haven’t talked as much as I’d like.” I said sadly. “Oh, so you really didn’t read that chapter then.” Heart said with a shrug. “I skimmed it. I’ve been busy with a lot of things.” I said honestly. “You know, one of the things being finding time lines that can help us out, even if Cript’s plan is to do my job but instead of cherry picking he’s just throwing a sledge hammer through a wall made of glass.” “Heh, sounds about right. So, skipped the sex scene then. That explains it.” “A little.” I said honestly. “Sorry, but I did find an interesting world in my time traveling, but the Time Walkers told me ‘no’ for some reason.” I said honestly. “Huh. Odd. Well, I’d offer you to check out Eclipsa’s special cage, but Kexez told me about your things with vore so I won’t unless you want to.” “I know I know.” I said honestly. “And even though I may ‘enjoy’ whatever the fuck Lyra forced me to do, it’s still not my cup of tea.” I shivered. “Seriously, Lyra makes Rune look Vanilla…” “Heh. Well if you warm up to it, just ask. Again, if, not, not forcing stuff. That aside, find any really weird timelines?” “Did I tell you about the timeline where the Foretellers made everyone do a dance off to settle the war?” I asked curiously. “That was weird.” Heart laughed. “God. That’s just… wow. Any fucked up timelines?” “Every glitch…” I said slowly. “The one where people became Void Corrupted Nothingness Zombies? That was the best outcome...but there was this one timeline...one that I hope to god stays dead…” I sighed out. “So you know how I’m basically the Batman of our group?” I asked Heart. “Hmm… Don’t see it.” “Being the smartest person in the room, hyper paranoid, having plans and contingencies for damn near everything?” I pointed out. “... Nope, You don’t have a cave, a crazy smart butler, your own special car, you’re wolf themed, you have weapons but no actual gadgets, I’ll give a pass on the super computer as it’s on your arm/in your head. I mean both your chip X and Symbi. And lastly, you don’t have an alien rival you either hate or have competitions with depending on incarnations.” “Okay now your just getting into semantics at this point.” I brought up. “But anyways...the timeline that I don’t want to happen...is the timeline where I just don’t care anymore…” I said sadly. “Everyone...either long since dead, turned into Deathless and tortured for Eternity, always doing something new to make the pain never stop...or worse…” "Ouch." Heart said, looking at me. "Well, that's not this timeline. Besides, if we all end up deathless, at least, us here we will always have each other." “Yeah…” I sighed out. “But mind if I talk about some Timelines the Time Walkers don’t want me adding to this realm?” I asked curiously. “It’s actually interesting.” "Like?" “Both timelines have people like us, the whole ‘Mayan Test’ thing, brought to Equestria by God with powers.” I said honestly. "And the catch is?" “The catch?” I asked curiously. "Well, there has to be more of a reason other than just that as to why they would not want that added to this timeline." “Well one is that both worlds don’t have Keyblades, like at all.” I said honestly. “Discord explained that it’s more of a ‘wall of reality’ type deal with one of the universes, and the other I haven’t looked too much into it sadly, but it’s less ‘wall of reality’ and more...I’d say a select portion of the Void?” I guessed. "Are you making a reference?" “A reference to what?” I asked curiously. "I dunno. My fourth wall breaking doesn't reach that far." Heart shrugged. “Eh, either way.” I said honestly. “But yeah, both worlds look like they could join, but the Time Walkers have barred me from doing anything with it...I suppose that’s for the best now that I think about it.” "Eh. So, explore any dungeons? I got to explore some from a video game I remember fondly as a kid with Eclipsa. Was fun." “Sadly I haven’t, given I’ve been trying to do the Heroes Tomb mostly.” I shrugged. “Had to spend months because of the fusions.” "Huh. What was yours and Kexez like?" “That would be Kix.” I said honestly. “She’s nice, nowhere near as big or ‘motherly’ as Russia, but she’s sweet and a bit of a cuddle bug.” "Heh. Cute. What about us then?" “No idea.” I shrugged. “Want to fuse?” "Well, yeah. Sounds fun. The king of Nothingness and the king of Hearts fused into one being. Sounds like fun." “Alright.” I nodded with a smile. “Wonder how well it’ll work…” Heart uncoiled around me, and sat me up as we had a passionate kiss. Woah… woah, okay, okay… this is neat. Let's see here. Four arms, snake half, no legs, fair enough. Still eight breasts, oh hey. I'm blue and grey along my fur and scales, nice. Heh, heart shaped nipples, kinda funny and cool. Definitely huge, this room feels kinda small now. Also broke the bed… nice. “Well someone’s going to need to fix that.” I said while stretching out. “This is nice.” I felt relaxed, happy over all and kinda lazy. “King of Hearts and Nothingness, super happy but lazy...sounds about right.” I said while groping myself to see how big I was in the front and back. Unlike Heart I do have an ass to fuck, definitely way bigger than King's, and front wise I got two. Not as big as King but big enough. Overall I was big and busty. “Big and busty, just how I like it.” I purred happily. The room started to self fix and expand itself for me to fit comfy in here. Now even the bed was large enough to hold me uncoiled. “Nice.” I said with a smile. “That’s pretty handy.” I lazily fell back on myself. I noticed my Assistant beep. Blood Sample Acquired. Generating new rooms and Starfish clones. Editing current room Occupants Suddenly, Heart and King fell onto my mattress sized breasts. "Wow that is cozy." Heart said, coiling up to hug one of her massive boobs. “Yes it is.” I said warmly. “I’ve always liked this, big soft titties.” "Happy to oblige." Our fusion said, grabbing us each in their hands and pressing us a bit more into their boobs. Not that Heart or I minded. She let us go, moving us both between her top cleavage. "So, what should my name be? A good mix between King and Heart?" "How about… Ring? R from my name, and Ing from King." Heart offered. "I like that actually. Ring. Ehehe. So what's a giant girl like me gonna do to a bunch of tiny hotties like you?" Ring asked playfully. "I can think of one." I said while groping one of her breasts. "Hmm… Well, I guess this is our room, so I can Indulge in something I know you have been wanting, King." She picked us up, placing us in the bed before dropping herself chest down on us. Squishing us under her massive breasts. "Hehe, enjoying that?" She asked, moving in small rotations but never getting us Heart or I. “This is nice.” I said softly. “Nice big boobs.” As I enjoyed being squished under massive Cleavage for about a good hour, Ring eventually got off of us, resting on her side next to us. "So King?" She asked me. “Yes?” I asked curiously. “Is something up?” "Just wondering, given your thing with vore, if you want to, what variations would you wanna try first? I'm part Floof Noodle after all and being part you my own… thing is a tad odd." "Sounds about right." Heart said, who was laying belly down looking quite relaxed. “What do you mean by ‘a tad odd’?” I asked curiously. "Well, being part you makes me feel a bit awkward thinking about it. And being part Heart/Floof Noodle makes me wanna do it. Conflicts of mentality and biology I guess." “You do you, you are your own person.” I said honestly. “So what did you have in mind?” I asked, wanting to help them with their whole thing even if I’m not a fan of it. "Well my existence is based on you two as a foundation. Anyway while I am okay with normal stuff, ya know, swallowing, I wanna try something different. Not too crazy though so… care to get inside my boobs?" Ring asked shyly. "I wanted to make a joke... but I lost it." Heart said. “Sounds about right.” I nodded. “So...we breast vore...haven’t done that yet.” "Neither have I. I mean, I unbirthed Eclipsa and threw in Tentical umbilical cords for fun, and it was. That's her Good Girl cage by the way. But breast vore is a new one." Oh so that's what they did. “I’ve been unbirthed once, and not doing that again...and then the other thing...no.” I shook my head. "Firstly, at least give unbirth a second chance. No umbilical cord tentacles MR. Vanilla." Heart said with a laugh. "Secondly, if you do, I won't go that far with you." “Alright alright.” I said honestly. “So...we're doing this now?” "If it's not a bother?" Ring asked. "Not like we're doing much else at the moment." Heart said. “Alright, so onto feeling the inside of someone’s titties.” "Hopefully nice." Ring said. "And milky." Heart added. "So, who's first and through which nipple?" “That sounded weird...but I’ll go first…” I said. “And whichever one is the bigger cause...well my size.” "Well, compared to you my breasts are mattresses to you...hmm." Ring then felt each of her breasts, all look and appear to be the same size. She grabbed me, holding me up to her left nipple on her top set. "Ready." She said. “As ready as I’ll ever be.” I said honestly. "Oh so you saw Tangled too?" Heart asked. I gave a laugh before carefully placing a hand over the small hole in the large tit. Milk flowing from it already in a trickle. “Alright, so just gotta fit myself here…” I muttered while trying to fit into Ring’s breast. My hand went in easy enough. This also made the milk spill out much faster. It was a little tight but once my arm got halfway in I felt an opening, my hand sloshing in the milk within Rings boob. Talk about from the tap, this takes that on steroids. I slid my other arm in. So far so good. Soaked in milk but that's not bad. "Doesn't feel bad. Tingles a bit but thankfully doesn't hurt." Ring said. "It's kind of like that time in the spa when I was in that milk bath." I said honestly. "Sounds relaxing." Heart said. With both arms in and hands holding the admitably slippery inner walls of Ring's breast, I rapidly shoved my head in, and in a rapid motion pulled myself inside. Once in I was met with a small stretchy opening filled with milk, not even enough for air, then again I don't actually need air, or to breath. It was a lot like being underwater, only all white and I actually can't see anything because of it. So I did the only logical thing, and drank. Swallowing mouthfulls of milk til there was enough room for an air pocket. Once there I opened my eyes. In a way, this was not that different than a belly, only filled with and endlessly producing milk, milk that seemed to drip from the very walls from what I can see. "How is it?" I heard Heart call from above me outside the breast. "Fine." I said honestly. "Lots of milk?" "All the milk." I said honestly. "It's nice in here." "Cool. I'll slip in the other nipple then. Guess we'll stay there a bit then." "If you want." I said honestly. I had to admit, this wasn't bad at all. Nicer than being in a stomach actually and Kexez has made me see those as pretty damn comfy. The milk was nice, above warm but not quite hot, smelled, and tasted, fantastic, and above all taking a nap in here was easy… when Ring wasn't moving around too much. In a belly, it's more stable when they move l, only really feel it when they move really fast, in a bouncy, squishy boob, every little movement tosses me around and splashes the milk around. Walking seems fine, or slithering, in Ring's case, but to be honest I didn't mind that much. Was almost like a bounce house. A milk flooded bounce house. "This is nice." I said softly. Some hours passed and all I did while in here was nap, drink milk, and relax. Wonder what the spa's take on this would be? Do they even do this as a spa treatment? Likely. "Wonder who I'll meet up with next?" I hummed. I decided to stay there for a while as it was surprisingly therapeutic. The next family member I was with was Celestia. Not mine, nor Heart's, and definitely not Eclipsa's, she isn't even in this family. This was Cript's, one of Cript's Celesta's. I've seen her around too. Anthro, really sexy body, but I always noticed her horn and wings were missing. “Hello.” I said gently to the pony. “How are you doing?” She woke up. Her attire wasn't typically pijamas, it was closer to a typical blouse. "Hey. We haven't had the chance to meet properly have we?" She asked me as she sat up. “Not yet.” I said honestly. “But how are you doing?” "Good. Heh, I'm sure you can guess, my name is Celestia. You're King, right?" “Yes I am.” I nodded. “Um...I’m sorry to ask but uh...where’s your horn and wings?” I asked sheepishly. "Oh, that? Heh, everyone asks that at first. Don't feel nervous about it. But to answer that question I have to ask you a question." “Ask away cause...honestly this isn’t the first time I’ve seen an Alicorn without their horn or wings.” I said honestly. "Well, you ever hear of this short lived porn comic called Fall of Equestria?" “Say nothing more.” I started. “I’ve already found like...three of those worlds in my travels…” I growled as I hugged Celestia closer to me protectively. "Heh, I've largely moved on. Mine might have been just as or worse than others. Cript found my world while traveling. Took us all in after what can basically be described as a gender genocide. Erased all the children's memories and all of us were taken into the family. We healed here… and stayed. Home wasn't home anymore and frankly, even if I did go back, I can never look at the place the same again." I softly nuzzled Celestia. “I’m still sorry you...had to endure that horridness…” "Hey, I can at least have sex without PTSD, So that's a win. All in all it reminded me of something I was told when I became an alicorn. I never truly realized what it meant until those days." She then looked over at me. "No being of flesh and bones, no matter how strong, can truly be a God." “But you’re just as beautiful as one.” I pouted. "Har har. Either way, I'm happy with my life here. I spend a lot of my free time either with the kids or helping Cript with his projects." “I wasn’t joking, and that’s good.” I nodded gently. “But that doesn’t stop me from cuddling you a lot...even if you already passed it all...no one should have to deal with that crap…” "Yeah. So, wanna know a pastime Cript does. Kinda relates to the conversation." “Sure.” I nodded. “I would love to know.” She them pulled out some paper and wrote down address coordinates. Some place in space it seems. "Cript will be there. Bond there, bond here. Now then, let's watch some movies." The location Celesta sent me too was an unmoving asteroid. Around it were a crap ton of planets, and Cript was here looking at them all. "You met Celestia?" They asked without looking at me. "Yes, yes I did." I nodded. "So...she told me to come here for some reason." "These worlds. All of them, share one thing in common. Guess what that is." "What would that be? Cause I could take a guess from who sent me here." "Yup. All of them. Not all are Equestrias, but all share that same theme. Figure it's time to both get rid of them, but also test something out." "Oh Jesus…" I muttered. "But how are you going to purge the world's?" Cript summoned a weapon, tossing it to me. It was close to Second Chance, but had a different design, a mix of Second Chance, something else, and… Darkest Hero, yeah, the eyes along the blade match Cript's famous Soul Blade. "I call it Salvation. A combination of Second Chance, Love Struck, and my soul blade Darkest Hero. Yesterday, Heart went to the front lines, and we had a quick talk about how best to piss Vincent off." "I thought we weren't allowed in the front lines?" I brought up, carefully swinging the blade to test it's weight. "But yeah I remember hearing about this." "In short, Vincent doesn't care about the death toll his side takes, ours either. So, rather than kill, we saved. Yesterday Heart and I, using Second Chance on Nexus agents, even Spoiled's clones, two thousand new babies. Void beasts and even machines, Love Struck. Six hundred and twenty two new additions to the family. Could only imagine that call on the radio." "Oh boy that's hilarious." I chuckled. "Was fun too. After that, I began work on that with Lord. It works. Small tests but this will be the Grand test to see if it will hold up for when I break time. Give it one… full powered swing. I'll hold the barrier up from turning everyone here into babies or sexy ladies." Cript chuckled. "Alright." I said while taking a deep breath and charging all the way up to full power. "Grand Cross…" I muttered before raising the weapon and swinging as hard as I could towards all the world's. The way it felt to release a full power blast like that was… indescribable. The blastwave went off faster than my eyes could see. The only sign it even happened was all the planets glowing faint pink before dying down after a while. Once all the residual energy of it died down, Cript checked their Assistant. "Heh. Worked. 98.6 Centillion new children. 908.4 sextillion new wives. And the special ability worked too." “How many worlds were there christ…” I said in surprise. "Honestly, no idea. I ran a Script to gather up every world like, well, Fall of Equestria and various variations, so not sure how many actually. Either way, the ability worked. That was the important part." “Well...alright.” I nodded. “Well...good to save all those people.” "Yeah. The tool for my plan is working." “Which is a good thing.” I nodded. “The more lives we save the better.” "And piss off Vincent Royally." Cript said with a laugh. They took Salvation. Using code and making a copy, tossing it back to me. "Keep it. I'm gonna send one for Heart and Eclipsa. If you do want to fight on the front lines, head up to my workshop, got something I'm giving to you three each." “Cool.” I nodded. “And I’ll be there quickly cause I would like to fight on the front lines for once...but again, isn’t going to the front lines what they want?” I asked curiously. "To kill, to slaughter. Now, we will save… dad let his title as one of the Admins of Life rott. Be it Salvation or Darkest Hero, I will shove a blade through his heart and make sure he never gets back up." “Oh so uh…” I sighed out. “I’m pretty sure Vincent is trying to date Dinky...don’t know how when the bastard’s still alive and old.” I growled. "Wait… where, how, and who?" “He’s a senior in the school that Dinky goes to, his name is Connor and...I have no idea. I’m probably overreacting by an asston but…” I said nervously. “From what little I’ve learned about the Admin of LIfe…” "Not Vincent's style to hide that way." Cript said, checking his Assistant. "I think I found him, if his social media has anything to say, yeah this is him. Hmm… I'll need to see it for myself. Follow." Cript said, opening a portal. The other side was a kinda dirty college dorm where the person Dinky described sat at the books. Cript flicked the back of his head, and he was out like a light. "Alright then Conner, who are you?" “I’m so sorry if I’m just overreacting…” I muttered, hoping this won’t lead to Dinky hating me or anything. Cript tapped Conner's unconscious head. Code flowing up as he analyzes it. "Hmm…" “What do you see?” I asked nervously. "Well, it's Vincent's code. Code and genetics work very similar, but at the same time the section for identity has been overwritten. Vincent is there, but Conner has been placed in charge. Like Reincarnation… Vincent had to have… died for this to happen. Oh my God… King, you know what this means?" “Vincent’s been doing time travel shenanigans cause while he’s still alive, you killed him a while ago?” I asked. “Or that whenever a new Admin of Life appears, there always has to be an Admin of Evil near their age?” "I… thought I didn't… I figured it was a Starfish clone… but, if it was a Time Remnant, that could explain it also. Which also means… as of now there are three Admins of Life. Conner, Dinky, and Vincent. There can only be two. So if Dinky and Conner still hold those Admin titles… what does that make Vincent now?" “I don’t know...and that sucks that I don’t know.” I said worriedly. "If this Vincent is a time Remnant, then… does Nexus have Speedsters in Nexus?" “I’m pretty sure they do.” I sighed out. “Given Nexus has been doing this crap forever they must have damn near anything at their disposal.” "In that case yeah, a Remnant isna high likelihood. If I did kill Vincent and he was reborn as Conner, then the Time Remnant took up where Vincent basically left off. In that case killing this Vincent… he can't reincarnate. That's why he isn't leaving the Void Mother's protective field. He dies, no second tries." “That’s great news.” I said honestly. “But...even though I’m being way too hopeful...can Connor be a decent person even if he’s Dinky’s opposite?” "That's it, their code is… not opposite, they're identical. There are differences in certain aspects but I can't make heads or tails of it. It's almost more like they're literally two jigsaw puzzle pieces kept apart from one another." “Huh...that’s...concerning.” I said nervously. "It makes sense, but why did they come into existence like that anyway?" "To keep balance in life?" I wondered. “Cause right now Dinky didn’t have her ‘other half’ cause Vincent’s either too old or technically died.” "Maybe. Either way, this gives us something to work with." “Well...let’s just hope for the best.” I said. “But the moment he tries to hurt Dinky, I swear…” I growled. "He won't. Not if Vincent isn't part of this life." Cript said, looking through his assistant. Once they found it, I saw it was what looked like a glass sphere of sorts, but I could tell it wasn't. I felt my very code go on edge. “We will never let Vincent touch Connor right?” I asked. "We'll never let Vincent get out either. Or never give him the chance." Cript said. Conner's code still open and visible, he placed the orb over a line of code that was well faded. The code started getting drawn into the orb, Conner shook a lot til all of the faded code was gone. Cript then closed it all up. "Reincarnation for Admins is a lot like for normal people it seems, memories and Personality of the prior life is just saved as data. This orb holds Vincent's memories and Personality. Now, we just uncode it. Never imagined I'd put this thing to use." “Before you do…” I started. “How about we look at every single little detail that bastard knows, and then use it against him and Nexus, cause he’s basically Void Mother’s right hand man in all of these Cycles right?” "Likely yes. And what do you think I meant by uncoding it? This is an old Admin Artifact. A code prison. Thankfully it's highly customizable. Still, only two of these are left in existence, Lord has the other one and I used this one. Can't replicate them either. Lord's tried, one of the few old trinkets above his skill level." “Until you break time and we find the Admin of Artifacts.” I said honestly. “Seriously, I’m pretty sure when you break time we’ll find the person who made all the Admin Maguffins.” "There were a lot of Admins who all made various artifacts. So we don't even know who made this. Come on now, off to my workshop." “Alright, let’s get going then.” I nodded. To be continued...
Kite's DayAs Kite Cooper my day was sadly filled with some school work and such. All this stuff I already knew so for once I could be the cool smart kid of the class. “God I’m bored…” I muttered while having already finished all the work in record time, my mind trailing off onto many things that are going to happen in the future...sadly one of them involved another thought of when I accidentally saw Matilda naked in the shower. ”Can I please not think of her naked while at school?” I thought to myself nervously. Needless to say it wasn hard getting that image out of my head. After the school work was done I did obstacle course training with the others in the family vault. Mom's skills are all reaching and quickly surpassing ours. She spent a lot of time in Dad's section of the vault. Along with all the gold and such just about every Cooper family member had a space for personal treasures. In Dad's case, a copy of mom and his wedding album, baby photos of Sly and I, even the ultrasounds of us before we were born. And of course, photos of himself, Jim and M from their prime on jobs and such. We all spent some time there every now and again, but mom did so daily. Whatever Clockwerk did to him, he will pay. I spent my free time thinking about the happy times, and wishing I could have done something to prevent this all. I needed to talk to someone, so I talked to my Time Walker. “Is mom safe?” I asked. “Like...is she actually under her own control? Or is there something else?” "Yeah, she is. The spell Mz. Ruby used while Voodoo was not evil in itself. There will be no negative side effects." The Time Walker said. “Okay thank god.” I sighed out thankfully. “So, when does Nexus get involved in all this?” I asked curiously. “Cause I know Nexus is funding the Klaww Gang and Clockwerk.” "Shortly after you were born." “Well I mean, when will they start attacking me and my family?” I asked. “Also did the whole Core thing happen in my time or was that just a ‘oops’ kind of thing?” "The first thing is classified. The later thing is meant to happen. But only because you chose to be born as Kite Cooper." "Oh...so how screwed is myself or others because of this?" I asked nervously. "Can't say." "Of course…" I sighed out. "Uh...cause I forgot to check, is having multiple wives illegal?" I asked nervously. "Cause...my track record with women.", are harems a thing?” I asked sheepishly. “Cause I’ve been busy with other things.” “Depends on things such as race, culture and region, yes.” “Makes sense.” I nodded. “Oh, quickie question. Can I use Nothingness if I was given the powers or am I not allowed to use it at all?” “If you can somehow get them in this form, yes but it’s not likely. The only ways you can obtain that power is if you were labeled the King’s heir, which would then not label, well, yet to arrive here you gain replicas of the weapons or make them which is also extremely hard, or becoming a Nobody.” “Sounds about right, and I’d like not to become a Nobody thank you very much.” I said honestly. “Well, those are your options. In any case, anything else to ask?” “Um...how long has Matilda’s family been the Guardian of this world?” I asked curiously. “Two Hundred and four generations.” “Hot damn.” I said honestly. “Didn’t expect it to go that far back.” “All the way back to the days of the Keyblade war, when her ancestor left with the Dandelions.” “Huh, didn’t think she originated from a Dandelion.” I said honestly. “Many of the current Keyblade wielders who keep the blades and culture alive do. 70% actually. The other 30% are Keyblade war survivors or descendants of.” “Interesting.” I said honestly. “Can’t wait to hear about that...as well as figure out way, way more about the Cooper line cause good lord there are a lot more the games never talked about.” “A lot yeah.” “God only knows what other weird crap the Cooper line has done, either scientific or magical.” "True. Now then, is that all or is there anything of request?" “Um…” I thought, wondering if there was anything I should ask or request of my Time Walker. “Could you see about buying maybe?” “Well what do you have to sell?” I asked curiously. "Within reason, some raw materials, blueprints to some buildings, and ect. Lots of meds and some restock for your gear." “Well...do Ethers work in this world?” I asked curiously. "Yeah but they call them Elixirs here. Same thing overall. I can sell you five at a time." “Sweet, that’ll help a lot.” I nodded. “How much are they?” "Ten coins each." “Sure.” I nodded while handing him thirty coins. He gave me the three Elixers and I pocketed them. With that being all I sent him off as I went to relax on the beach. “Just a nice relaxing day on the beach…” I muttered while just relaxing, or at least trying to consider all things.. As I stayed relaxed on the sand I read through this world's take on Harry Potter. Largely the same. Harry is apparently a Labrador in these books. “Even if these books are fine...this book series has a lot of problems…” I muttered to myself. "Hey Kite." Murray said, walking over and taking a seat next to me. “Hey Murray, how are you doing?” I asked curiously. "Pretty good. Uncle Jim was teaching me on how to make fast repairs to the van and what to use for what issue, so we have a small kit of supplies for that in there now." “Cool.” I nodded. “How are you and Lana doing?” I teased with a little grin. "Heh. Well we can't make anything official until I'm eighteen at least, but for now we stick to simple stuff." “That’s good.” I nodded. “Glad you two are enjoying being a couple.” "Yeah. I am too. Hopefully things go well." “I’m sure things will go well.” I nodded. “I’ll make sure of it.” "Gonna be a wingman or something?" Murray asked with a laugh. "I had to for big bro so why not?" I shrugged. "Heh. True enough. So, how are you holding up?" “Holding up the best I can given everything that’s been going on.” I said honestly. “Especially when Matilda and I have...come to a bit of an understanding.” "Oh? What happened there?" “Well...after when me and big bro kind of...learned what Clockwerk’s been doing to our family for god knows how long and that whole ‘me and Matilda in the same bed’ incident...I decided to ask her for just a quick little trip to get somethings off her chest.” I shrugged. “Honestly...getting past all the ‘sexy thief’ persona...she’s just alone.” "Makes sense given how she was with your dad and her job and all that. Finding someone has to be pretty much impossible." “So I’m deciding to give her a chance...just make sure not to tell my mom cause I’m pretty sure she’ll rip her own arm off and beat one of us with it…” I said nervously. "But isn't Matilda like Way older than you? I mean, she is as old as your mom." “Now listen...there’s nothing with being into older women.” I said with a small blush. "Dude, there's being into older women and then there is being into women old enough to have raised you as her own… wait a minute, Kite… are you into MILFs and cougars?" "Now listen…" I started. "Shut up…" I said while hiding my beat red face with my tail. Murray didn't tell anyone but damn was that embarrassing. Regardless as the days went on life became more normal and all that. Matilda gave me magic and Keyblade lessons. While I knew most to all of the Keyblade stuff there was a few cool tricks she taught me I didn't know before. This age thing was a massive bitch and I hated it… age… age is all about time… I wonder… "I wonder…" I muttered while pulling out my pocket watch. "Let's hope he knows…" Summoning the Time Walker, I asked them if they could age me up or Matilda down. "Normally it would be a no on that request, but…" "But?" I asked. "I know it's weird but...well my tastes into MILFs is betraying me." "Not that. As you know Cript is going to break time in your future my one hour from now. As such we have been authorized to be more lenient on certain things. While you won't even notice it, once it does happen what kinda is set up to replace time itself will allow us much more freedom, and therefore you, as well as allow us to repair "damage" much faster." "Well...didn't expect that to happen so soon." I said nervously. "Well, soon for us still a whiles away for you." The Time Walker shrugged. "So, how you wanna go about this then?" "No idea…" I sighed out. "Cause right now, it's still a 'no' on either aging me up or aging Matilda down." "Well, aging down is actually easier, but I'm asking do you wanna make it flashy or just have it happen with no reason you can see? Or they can see rather." "Well...it would be weird if everyone saw Matilda suddenly saw her my age out of nowhere." I shrugged. "Cool. So now I have an idea, you just get everyone on the beach for, I dunno, a cookout or something. I'll handle the rest." "Oh boy, can't wait." I said nervously, wondering what shenanigans will happen. Once Time started again I left to gather everyone. They all liked the idea of a cookout, even Matilda. We all went to the main beach, cooking fish and other foods. An hour or so passed and then it happened. "The hell?" Sly said. We all looked and I nearly choked on my food. The Time Walker was just there, standing on the water like a Kingdom Hearts secret boss. "The fuck?" I panicked while getting up and readying myself for whatever the hell this person was about to do. "Who, why is that?" Uncle M asked. The Time Took a few steps, walking atop the water till he reached the beach. He then summoned his Keyblade. Needless to say Matilda was surprised. “God...what the hell…” I muttered to myself nervously while preparing myself for whatever the hell he’s going to do. “I don’t know Uncle M...all I know is that he’s very powerful.” I said, being magical I could easily lie about ‘sensing someone’s magical energy’ even if I could actually do such a thing. "Which of you is Matilda?" The Time Walker asked. Grunting, Matilda stepped forward. "I am. Now who are you?" She said, about ready to summon her Keyblade. "No one of importance." They said, there was a flash and they slashed Matilda, sending her flying into the woods. Mom, the Uncle's and everyone tried jumping him, but he was faster, knocking out Mom, the uncle's, and Carmalita and Lana. He then cast Stop on Sly, Bentley and Murray. He then walked over to me. "Well that was fun." "Dude, not cool." I growled while shooting a Fireball at him for attacking my family. He deflected it easily. "Relax. They aren't injured. They'll be sore, but not hurt. Besides, physical contact is the only way to apply the age reverse spell." "Alright but still." I huffed. "Could have been at least gentle instead of knocking them out like that." "Well, I made it flashy. Need me, know how to call me." They said, vanishing. "Ugh… my head." Mom said, walking back from her crater… what the hell? Mom looks… young. Like early twenties young… oh… oh he… Wait… he did, didn't he? The next few hours were filled with a mix of panic and worry. Matilda, Lana and Carmalita we're now all our age. Mom and the uncle's and Lana's dad even were all now early to mid twenties… well then. "So…that happened." I said sheepishly. "How though?!" Carmalita yelled. "Must be some kind of magic. I'll contact Mrz. Ruby. She might know something." M said. His young self looked great. "Doubt it…" Matilda mumbled. “I doubt Mz. Ruby knows something about Time Magic given that’s kind of what happened.” I said honestly. As the days went on Mrz Ruby didn't know how they got changed or if it was temporary or not. It's not, cause I know it's not. Regardless the others adjusted to their younger ages quite fast. Murray and Lana now we're an official couple, Sly and Carmalita didn't mind at all. All but Matilda seemed to be well adjusted. She kept working like nothing happened, only reminded when not busy or occupied, so she was burying herself in work to stay distracted. "Okay Matilda, you can stop working for five seconds." I said to her, finding her still stuck in work. "No." Matilda replied. She looked like hell. No sleep, barely eats, no shower, for three days of this.. "You've been at this for three days." I snapped. "Boo fucking hoo if your younger, doesn't mean you need to damn near kill yourself because of it." She snapped, looking me dead in the eye. "Maybe you don't care but I have responsibilities, I have armies on both sides of the world fighting and by the skins of their teeth keeping those lines, and maybe you had good parents, but to be honest, I'd rather have watched them die like you did rather than living through their hell!" She yelled, summoning her Keyblade but also throwing it out the window. "That's what happens when you take such a responsibility. Just know your not alone anymore, so stop pushing people away when they are literally right here to help." I frowned. "Mom can help, Uncle M and Jim can help. They may not be able to help with Keyblades specifically, but you're not alone anymore…" I said softly. "You don't get it." She sighed, dropping back on the chair. "My childhood was hell. Dad was the Keyblade Wielder, mom was a drunk. So dad raised me like a warrior. Normal five year olds got dolls, dad gave me a machete and four months of hand to hand combat. When I received his Keyblade when I was fourteen, I thought the hell was over. It wasn't, just got worse. Took me to the worst worlds, two years moving between nine if the darkest worlds in our Stars and about died sixty five times. When he died, I finally felt free. Being a child again rushed all that crap back. Everytime I look at myself, I remember the girl my dad would bloody and bruise the tears and cries out of just because I wasn't strong enough." "And want to know what I see?" I asked. "I see a pretty girl that just needs a hug and good things told about her." I said bluntly. "I don't… I just need to sort some things out." She said, calling back her Keyblade but dropping it once it returned to her. "I can't afford to be a kid with all I have on my plate with the world still falling apart." "You have me." I said, moving over and putting a gentle hand on her shoulder. "You're not alone anymore Matilda…" "How?" “How are you not alone?” I asked honestly. “What? Did all this time you thought you were still alone when you had us? Or did you forget that we were...slowly gaining something special?” Matilda chuckled. "Special? Kite, I like you, really, but you forget, you are fourteen, and I'm a forty seven year old woman stuck in her fourteen years old body by some cloak wielding Keyblade Wielder. Even if physically we are the same age I'm not mentally… wait, are you? I know you said some stuff about being reborn and some other stuff that honestly went a bit over my head." “I mean...that is true.” I said while thinking a bit. “Honestly, I don’t remember how old I am cause I was like...in my mid forties or something? Maybe early fifties before I got ‘reborn’ as you put it.” I said honestly. "Did you die or something?" “That might be getting a little too close to things I’m not allowed to say.” I said nervously.. “But either way, I’m mentally about as old as you.” "Huh. Even so, you're still Violet and Conner's son. The only thing that could even possibly change my mind is if your mom would be okay with it and I think we both can agree she will never agree to us." “Well how about she answers it herself.” I said. “Cause I have a feeling she’s been watching us this entire time.” “I have.” Mom said, jumping in from the window. “And I’m with Matilda. No.” “And I don’t care.” I said while picking Matilda up and wrapping an arm around her. “She needs help mom, she’s alone and anyone that was her age either didn’t give a crap about her, or treated her less than who she is.” I frowned. “Kite, you have a good heart, and I know you mean well… but even so, this JUST happened to us a few days ago. Carmelita and Lana adapted faster because they are younger, now here Matilda is blasted back thirty years in her past as a kid, she is still an adult legally, even if she is a teen physically.” “Thank you.” Matilda said. “Listen, I’m also sad that Matilda went from…” I took a deep breath and stopping myself before saying something dumb. “But you're missing the obvious point here. Carmalita and Lana have Sly and Murray...Matilda doesn’t have anyone.” I frowned. “Can both of you stop ignoring that for like, five seconds?” I asked. “Cause who here actually cares about Matilda? Not you cause you would rather rip her head off for trying to steal dad, Uncle M and Jim hate her cause she did stupid stuff to them before...everyone else just finds her nice but don’t really care like how Sly and Carmalita care about each other. Am I wrong?” I asked. “What about Bently? He’s single.” Matilda pointed out. “Then you haven’t seen him quickly closing his laptop from Thief Net Forums.” I said. “I thought that was just porn?” Mom said. “Nope, while they are keeping things anonymous through very secure private channels and screen names, I can already tell those two are sweet on each other.” I said honestly, having seen ‘Techy Girl’ on Bentley’s Laptop every now and then when he doesn’t know I’m looking and all the message patterns lead straight to Penelope. “So honestly, it’s me that’s single...and honestly I just want to see her smile a real smile...not that fake smile to hide away all the pain in her eyes when she looks at us…” “Hmmm…” Mom hummed, looking between Matilda and I. “I’ll only allow it if you answer me honestly about something. I mean you Kite.” “Wait what?” Matilda asked. Mom walked up to me, getting on her knees to look me in the eyes. “I overheard a lot… so what, or how much about this other life do you remember? And about those Keyblades.” Matilda went stiff as a board, clearly panicked. I was about to say ‘I can’t’, but then I remembered how the rules are now a bit loose. “Okay so yes, I was reincarnated, but I can’t tell you certain major things because of how I was reincarnated.” I started, giving a good enough buffer to be able to not explain a lot of shit. “So...which do you want to know first, how much I remember or how long and outlandishly convoluted and stupid Keyblade history is?” “All of it. M always said you were too smart for a baby, so I guess you never forgot your old life, and I guess I can understand why you never talked about it, I mean, who would believe it? So, start from the beginning I guess.” “Okay so I still can’t tell you that stuff, cause again that’s a whole other thing.” I rolled my eyes. “But...what I can probably tell you is how...is how Multiverse Theory exists, and not just ‘oh hey, worlds we thought were just fantasy land are real’, but ‘each version of our reality has a reflection of it with minor to major changes’.” I said simply. “So there’s that as just a start...then I have sadly witnessed the memories of a war that caused this massive reality fracturing, and then a whole lot more crap that would go way over your heads if it hasn’t already.” I shrugged. “The Keyblade war?” Matilda asked. “Trust me, whatever your father told you about Keyblades...is both correct and horribly wrong.” I said nervously. “And also...whatever things he said about the Keyblade war...Clockwerk’s shenanigans is like a sunday walk through the park.” I shivered. “And what are Keyblades exactly?” Mom asked. “Well, if we’re breaking rules.” Matilda said with a sigh, summoning hers. “This is a Keyblade. They are weapons forged from light, darkness, crafted to combat things normal weapons can’t defeat or even hurt.” “And then there’s also Nothingness and Void.” I said. “That’s kind of why I said your father sucked, because he only gave you such a super coddled explanation of the world of Keyblades it’s not even funny.” I said while bringing out my Cane. “Also he sucked as a father and a teacher. But my Cane right here has been reforged as a Keyblade cause that is a legitimate thing that can happen." "And how did you two do it? Reforge it I mean?" "A slightly complicated process that I don't want to get into cause of...past occurrences." I said sheepishly. "Is there anything else you know about?" "I mean, I know a lot." I said simply. "Like...way too much and a good amount of it I can't say." I shrugged. "So what do you want to know?" "Well, what can you say?" “Well I can explain stuff about Keyblades.” I said while heading outside real quick before tossing my Cane up in the air and summoning a Keyblade Glider, but this one being the HoverBoard variant. “I can talk on and on about the actual fundamentals of the world Matilda has been living in that her father didn’t know about, and teach you a lot of things about this mom.” I said simply. “But one thing that I must make clear…” I trailed off as I walked over and hugged mom. “Is that just because I remember my past life...doesn’t mean I stopped caring about the one I’m living right now mom…” "I'm glad to hear you say that Kite." Mom said, hugging me back. I smiled warmly, so glad to have mom back. “I’m glad you're here mom…” "Now then." Mom said, looking me in the eyes. "I still don't approve, or like the idea you want to date Matilda, but as your mother there is only so much I can't keep you from doing. But In the end it is Matilda's choice to date you, even with context that's weird to say. But for a while, let her process Kite." "Alright alright." I said gently. "I'll wait for Matilda." A few months passed by, and Christmas time arrived. Enough of Mexico and some of the USA, Mainly Texas, California, and New Mexico we're now liberated from Mugshot. Africa and the parts of Europe that are in conflict with Clockwerk's army were still in a draw, and China, completely under Panda King's rule, remained in isolation still. We set up bases to travel to and between in all the liberated areas. And we were all spending Christmas in Texas USA. Matilda seemed to be better, but she often acted like a kid, catching herself and all that. Her teenage body and adult mind seemed to still be at conflict, despite her having accepted her new reality long ago. I told Mom and Matilda what I was allowed, mom took the Keyblade oath but it hasn't yet appeared. “From what I remember it normally takes a bit before a Keyblade chooses you.” I said honestly. “But uh...should I mention any of this to the others?” I asked. “Sooner or later...I have to tell them…” "For now, let's enjoy the holiday." Mom said, Matilda and I at a dinner table while the others all ran around the arcade/pizza buffet we were in. "We can tell them at New Year's, assuming nothing happens." "Don't jinx it." Matilda sighed. She did not like having to wear age appropriate clothing. In this case, a pink top, blue jeans, and black sneakers. She was more a suit and heels woman. “Let’s hope it wasn’t jinxed…” I said while taking a sip of my drink. "You two should go out and play. There's lots to do, and frankly I was eyeing that candy crane machine from when we walked in." “Well, haven’t played a crane game in a while.” I said honestly. "Aren't those normally rigged?" Matilda asked. “They might, but when you're both magical, and learning to be a master thief, then it’s about fair.” I said with a shrug. "Fair enough. I wanna see this then." Matilda said, she and I getting up and over to the crane game with the expensive prizes. “Alright, let’s see how cheating this machine is.” I said while cracking my knuckles and pulling out a coin and putting it in, wondering how this thing will try and cheat me. It was like any other, the claw was too weak on the grip. Loose screws it seemed. So, using some light magic, I tightened them. Next go I grabbed a rather heavy looking pair of headphones, and it picked them up without issue, dropping them in the prize drop. "Impressive… you know, machines rigged or tampered with like this are technically stealing money from people. Shall we claim the prizes and return the money?" Matilda asked. “Of course.” I said. “While you play the claw machine, I’ll pick the locks on it.” Matilda nodded, placing in another coin while I worked the locks. “Jeez, who made these locks?” I said in disappointment as I picked the locks with ease. Once it was open I took the coins out and rewired it to be free and auto return coins. I then began sneaking the coins to others. Putting ten to twenty per pocket. “Nothing like being a good samaritan…” I muttered to myself with a smile. Once all those coins were returned Matilda and I checked in on the other games. Only the claw machines were sketchy, the rest were fine. Though we did take a look behind the machines. This area is a walkway to unplug machines or just pass through. "Wonder where they keep the spare prizes?" Matilda asked. “No idea, but they're probably somewhere.” I shrugged. "Hope they have more electronic stuff." Matilda said. Eventually we managed to find both the spare prizes room and the lost and found. “Alright, so time to start looting the place and distributing it to the masses.” I said. The spare prizes ranged from stuffed animals to some electronics. Once Matilda and I had a fair sized amount collected, we used the various cables and wires along the ceiling to drop them to everyone. By the time employees and such noticed, The family was all heading out the door and back to our base here in Texas. It was a simple house, but rebuilt on the inside. First floor looked normal, but had four hidden subfloors where gear and other such supplies were all kept and hidden. “Well that was fun.” I said warmly. "It was. So, does your family do any traditions? From before I mean." “Uh…” I thought for a moment...and then blushed brightly. “No, we don’t do anything, nothing that involves sexy women, nope, nothing.” I said quickly. "... I meant before Clockwerk…" “You could have been a bit more specific than ‘from before’.” I frowned. “But nothing much really.” "Huh. Surprising." “I mean, when you’re the son of a Master Thief and a Police officer, sometimes normal things take a back seat.” I chuckled. "I guess. So, get something for everyone?" “Yes, yes I did.” I nodded. “Why wouldn’t I have something for everyone?” "Just wondering. Normal kids can't afford to buy gifts, then again you are in no way or form of the definition, normal." “You make it sound like I was going to buy their gifts.” I chuckled. “There’s tons of stuff I thought of getting them that’s in the possession of Mugshot or other thieves.” "True enough." Matilda said with a nod. “Yeah…” I nodded. “But did you have fun?” I asked curiously. "I did. Always wondered what a Cooper clan job was like." “I mean, really wasn’t a Cooper Job, that was just some light fun.” I chuckled. "Potato patato." Matilda said with a wave of the hand. “Eh.” I shrugged. “But did you get anyone anything?” “I managed to pull a few items from old agency safehouses that I figured everyone would find useful.” “That’s good.” I nodded. “Let’s hope things go well on Christmas morning…” “Hopefully. Lines here in America are expecting to reach Mesa City soon, likely by mid january. We can then take out Mugshot and really work towards freeing America and Canada. Without the head the big bad gang will dissolve into lesser crime groups. More manageable and for a while in the chaos.” “Sounds about right.” I nodded. “According to MZ. Ruby, Mugshot will put up a fight for Clockwerk, so expect that.” “Well he needs to keep up the facade so he doesn’t get targeted by Clockwerk, same with Panda King who’s been...weirdly silent all things considered.” “It has been.” “Well...let’s hope Panda King hasn’t been doing anything weird there.” I said nervously. “Hopefully. Not even satellites can tell us, all we can see are hundreds of new warehouses where people are working. Roughly eight hours of the day. Not sure what they are all doing. Knowing Panda King we suspect high grade illegal fireworks and artilleries. If he has been making and mass producing this many on this level, well, it’s not good.” "Or he's been given a shit ton of people new jobs." I shrugged. "Panda King is too honorable to just mass produce illegal fireworks when his entire reason for becoming a criminal was to prove a point."" "Maybe. Whatever the case, after Mugshot we will be heading there. Have to travel by land though." "Good thing we got the Van." I said honestly. ”It’s durable enough to go from England to wherever Panda King is based.” "You are still fourteen." “And that stops me how?” I asked curiously. "Heh. Well, either way, I just hope things go smoothly with Mugshot." “I’m sure it will.” I said honestly. “Let’s just hope whoever’s been supporting Clockwork isn’t around…” I said nervously. "Intel has still been scarce on them. All we do know now is they are still having the same relationship with Clockwerk as before." “Alright.” I nodded. “Let’s hope they don’t do anything else…” As Christmas came we all got gifts. Carmalita got me my own shock pistol, in case my cane is unavailable. Not a possibility but it was nice. Murray got me boxing gloves. Bentley got me a special hacking tool. It was a simple USB, but once inserted it would break through most firewalls and copy all data to a secure thief net cloud system that Bentley could access immediately or later. Sly got me my own blue hat, like his/dad's. Mom got me an encrypted cell phone. Basically unlimited everything on data and such by hack linking to any and all cell towers. Uncle Jim and M gave me some spells they managed to find from their net Hex Casters. Nothing bad but useful. And Matilda got me a thermal upgrade to the Binocu-Com, so I can see people who are warm blooded behind walls and such. “Alright, and now onto my gifts.” I said with a smile as I tapped my cane on the ground as smoke puffed out in front of everyone as their presents appeared. “I made sure to get something everyone would be able to use, or just something for...sentimental reasons.” I explained. “ “For Sly and Carmalita.” I started while the two opened their gifts, showing matching silver bracelets fitted with gems and in the center was a small sphere that held a strand of their fur, Carmalita’s fur in Sly’s bracelet, and vice versa. “With the help of Matilda, Mz Ruby and...certain parties that would rather be left anonymous, I made you two bracelets that act as a sort of...protection. It’s heavily enchanted, and only you two can use their magic. The common stuff is basic defense magic, a heavy durability enchantment so it doesn’t break under most circumstances, and a special enchantment both of you will notice when you put it on.” I said with a warm smile. "This is cool." Carmalita said while putting her bracelet on. "How did you… do I wanna know?" Sly asked while putting his on. As the two had their bracelets on, they felt a soft little tingle in their arms that raced through their bodies, the two of them feeling like no matter how far away they were, they would always be with one another. “I’m sorry if I’m going overboard with the presents here, but that tingling feeling you probably just felt is a special spell I developed...think of it like a two way beacon that only you two can feel.” I said simply. "Useful." Sly and Carmalita said. “I’ll figure out how to add other enchantments later like telepathy, that’s a little out of my range right now.” I shrugged. “Now, onto Murray and Lana.” I said while seeing the Hippo and Russain Wolf opening their gifts, both showing a knuckle duster for the both of them fitted for their dominant hand and fitted with small markings in a weird language as Murray’s had a strand of Lana’s fur and Lana had a tooth chip from Murray given he neither has hair nor fur. "Sweet! This will knock out a lot of bad guys." Murray said. "This will indeed make many people lose teeth." Lana said happily. “So I have the same enchantment that Sly and Carmalita have on their bracelets onto yours, as well as a few other nifty things.” I explained. “Put them on, but be ready cause I heard it’s a bit of a rush.” Nodding, the two did just that, feeling the rush of magic flow into them. “So this special enchantment shares your physical strength, sadly I could only manage whatever you punch through the knuckle duster based on my own magical abilities and my knowledge on Rune words, but considering you two are the power houses, might as well have it be like their getting hit by two instead of one.” I chuckled. "You really know your stuff, Kite." Murray said, impressed. "You have the wisdom of man three times your age." Lana said, earning a smirk from Mom and Matilda. “Just well read.” I said honestly. “Even if Bentley might sass me on this, reading fantasy books helps a lot, especially Dungeons and Dragons.” I chuckled, which was honestly the truth both in this scenario and even back home. “So now onto Bentley.” I said while Bentley had two boxs in front of him. “You can guess as to why there’s a second box, and who it belongs to.” I said with a knowing and teasing grin. "Kite…" Bentley groaned, face turning red. “It’s not my fault that I couldn’t get ‘Techy Girl’ here before Christmas.” I teased. “But I can explain what your gift does or you can wait until we find her and you give it to her.” I said. “But for that I would need a piece of your shell and a strand of hair from her." "Given your trend I have an idea." Bentley said. “Alright, so I’ll explain it when we find your lucky lady friend.” I said before turning to Uncle M and Jim. “While I couldn’t really think of gifts to help you two on the field, I did find something special.” I said while seeing my Uncles opening their gifts. “I remember you two talking about one thing you wanted but never could find even if you were master thieves going around the world, so I found them for ya.” Uncle Jim held a Gameboy. A copy of Pokemon Ruby inserted. And Uncle M received a deck of Magic the Gathering. “Also I know you two are wanted criminals but...really?” I asked incredulously. "I've always had a soft spot for video games." Jim said with a laugh, turning the Gameboy on. "I've always thought of card games with strategy to be more fun than just chess." M said, looking through the deck. “Then the three of us need to have a wonderful time gaming and card games.” I said simply. “And now onto you two...the more difficult of the bunch.” I said while looking at Matilda and mom. “Mom...open yours first. I’m sure you’ll like it.” I said while she opened the small box. Inside made her tear up. From memory I recalled as best I could her wedding ring. And I found and had to steal this one. Apparently dad proposed to mom with a ring that was a set of five. Only two are purchased officially. The other three were stolen. This one ended up in the vault of goods from a warehouse of Mugshots gang here in Texas. “It took me a while, and I had to go by memory but...I tried getting you your wedding ring.” I said gently. "Where did you find this?" Mom asked, slipping the ring on, fitting perfectly. “Found it in one of the vaults from a warehouse Mugshot owns.” I said honestly. “And I wanted to make sure it was the one you had so I checked with Uncle M and Jim, and thankfully they’re good at keeping secrets, especially when you looked a bit mad.” I said sheepishly. "Heh. I always told Conner that if he was to give me something stolen, it would only be once. He made it count." Mom said, holding the ring on her finger, smiling as tears fell. "Thank you Kite." “Your welcome mom.” I said while giving her a quick hug. Now, onto Matilda's gift. “Now for you...well it was a bit difficult.” I said simply. “I had to scour quite a bit but I think I finally got you something that’ll work out.” I explained, Matilda opening the box and showing a simple hard backed book with the Kingdom Hearts Symbol on it. "What is it?" She asked, opening it. Once she skimmed it's contents, her eyes widened. "Oh. Thank you." She said. "What is it?" Sly asked. "J-just a book I remember from when, well, this age I am physically I guess. Can't believe Kite found it." "Resourceful little racoon aren't you?" Carmalita said with a chuckle. “What can I say? When it comes to those I care about, I’ll move the world.” I said with a kind smile. The holidays came and went faster than I would have liked. It was officially January first, meaning Mom, Matilda and I were going to tell the others. As much as I was allowed anyway. This morning I woke up with a killer headache. “Christ...what’s with the sudden headache?” I groaned in pain. "That would be our bad. Sorry." I jumped. My Time Walker was standing there next to my bed. Good thing we all have individual rooms. “Okay so what the hell are you doing here?” I asked while rubbing my head, trying to get rid of the headache. "Like I said. Our doing. Side effect of breaking then replacing time with a new system. One that works without filling up the storage drive." “I thought you said that wouldn’t happen until much much later?” I frowned. "For you in the present time. Well… hmm. Hard to explain it really. It's like it both happened already and hasn't happened yet. Hard to explain, like I said, but this brings with it some good news, including your talk you are about to have with your family today." “So I can tell everyone everything or something?” I asked curiously. “But what about the Admin Games?” "Well… hmm… how to explain this new system." The time Walker thought. "Remember those books that hold worlds within them?" “Yes I do.” I nodded. “Also right now the thing is a Schrodinger's Cat kind of thing?” "No. You see, the Grim Reapers society and the Time Walkers both watch over time. Time Walkers watch over time as a whole. Grimm Reapers watch over for the end of someone's time, but time for everyone has to end, and with time broken, it can't. So, what's the solution? Simple. Books." “So people’s stories end and when they do they go off outside the books?” I asked curiously. "Not exactly. Hmm… The Grim Reapers already had books that contained the life of everyone, being written as their lives are happening. With the Help of us and Cript, we created three forms of special books. Biography, an individual person's life, Atlas, the world and it's population life all written in one book, and a Grand Destiny. A book containing all the names and stories of everything and everyone in existence, past and future. You can imagine the size of our library to hold this all." “Alright.” I nodded. “So...what can I tell my family here now that this has all happened?’ "Well, anything really." The Time Walker said. "But, when it comes to your powers, there is a way to use them. Here, say 'Display Hud Menu." “Display Hud Menu.” I said. “But aren’t the rules of the Admin Games still in effect or are they just no longer matter?” A HUD appeared, it was my normal Skill tree, but there was a new branch. Identities. Taping it showed me Kite Cooper and even Diane. Taping Kite, there was Skills relating all I've learned now, and a new branch titled Parent Branch. Taping that showed all my normal Abilities, but according to this… I don't have spare Ability points. "When with a new Identity, Like Kite, they receive their own skill tree and earn their own point separate from you as King. And no, you can't give or spend some as King in Kite. You, like Diane, are different yet the same person all at once." “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “So about the rules of the Admin Games, does that just not count anymore?” "Not really. They're more guidelines now. Optional. Since this new system removed any and all possibly of Paradoxes, you can do whatever, it's up to you if you should though." “Well...I’ll keep who I truly am hidden, but I’ll still talk about the whole reincarnation thing and a lot of other really important things.” I said honestly. “Gotta keep some surprises.” I said simply. “But now I need to see how I can get skill points.” "Say, Open Quest Menu. We'll update this later. Most likely able to have your assistant but Invisible to others." “Alright, so now to tell them damn near everything cause at this point it’s probably for the best...now should I even mention Nexus? Or do those fuckers already know?” "Well, we can't tell you everything. Mainly cause it's no fun that way. We can make you work for it in exchange for the information and ability points though." “Well looks like I’m going to have to do it myself.” I said honestly. “So is time stopped right now or is it just early in the morning before people woke up?” "Well, it's not really time stopped anymore. More like… motion paused. This new system isn't exactly time, but a good replacement. Our meetings like this are, the bookmark getting placed." “Alrighty then.” I nodded while getting out of bed and stretching. "Well, til next time." The time Walker said, 'time' getting set back in motion. “Alright, till next time.” I said with a yawn as I headed out to the kitchen to get some food and some pain killers. I took some simple headache relief medicine with my bacon and eggs. Before I told everyone the news I figured I'd tell Matilda and Mom the update. Including the Time Walker. Reasonably they were surprised and even found some of it hard to believe, but thankfully I could at least summon a few Nothingness thorns as proof enough, even summoning the Time Walker. “A lot more things have changed and...well it’ll mean quite a bit when I fully explain things.” I said sheepishly. "That's… both insane and incredible all at once." Matilda said. "So, you chose to be reborn then?" Mom asked. “Well...it’s very complicated.” I said sheepishly. “And I’d best explain it when everyone else is here cause...it’s weird.” "Does that mean you didn't die?" Matilda asked. “I’ll explain it when the others get here, no need to do it twice when I’m going to probably have to anyways.” I shrugged. "Fair enough. But, given there is time travel involved, when are you from?" “The future actually.” I said honestly. “Cause apparently the me that did this would be in reality when I was in my mid thirties.” "I did not understand any of that." "Me neither." Mom said. “And you’ll continue to not understand even as I lay it out to you as simply as possible cause timey wimey bullshit.” I shrugged. "Language." Mom said. “Out of everything you’ve heard so far, language?” I asked. "Yes." Mom said. “Whatever.” I rolled my eyes. “So anyways, shouldn’t the others be awake by now?” "They are. Let's head off." Matilda said. “Alright.” I nodded while finishing my breakfast and heading out. “Can’t wait to see their reactions to all of this.” Needless to say… it was quite the clusterfuck. The whole day spent answering questions, displaying powers and all that jazz. When it was finally over Everyone went to bed with their views on reality broken, rebuilt and half hazardly staying together. "Well, that was more than expected." Matilda said, rubbing her head. “You get used to it.” I said while twirling my Cane lazily between my fingers. “But it gets worse when...you know that certain events have to happen, even if you don’t want them to.” I sighed out. "From what I get, you don't have to anymore, right?" “Well thankfully yes.” I nodded. “So I can make damn well sure the Klaww Gang won’t steal Clockwerks parts, Bentley won’t be crippled, and other things...now the only problem is Nexus or whatever other weird crap will happen to take it’s place.” I said worriedly. “Cause it could either be something simple like a new gang rising up...or worse…” "Little I do know about stuff like this is that often something will replace what is stopped. Hopefully it's nothing serious." “Knowing my life...it’s going to get worse…” I sighed out. “But hey...at least I’ve been preparing what I can to help make it less bad, even if it’s just from the gifts.” "In that case, can we learn or do anything you can?" “Certain things, no.” I shook my head. “Like you, you can’t learn Nothingness like I can because of how I am before.” I said honestly. “But with the others...well they’ll need Keyblades for that.” "Well then… best get to work." “Yep, time for even more enchanting that took me literal god damn months to work on cause this body's magic reserves aren’t as readily handy as my old body.” I groaned. “Seriously, I needed to find each gem of a specific cut, get all the other pieces necessary to make things, figure out that rune magic is actually different in this world and it was a massive headache all around.” I complained. "I might be able to help you with that. Anything magical my organization collected and hid in caches and warehouses all over the world. In the US here we have one per state. This includes anything I found relating to Keyblades. Even Moogle Holo Crystals." “Oh god Moogles are here…” I chuckled. “That’s going to be help out a lot later on...but right now, I hope my explanation didn’t do anything too bad to everyone else’s mental health…” "They'll just need to process. So, shall we head off to the Cache?" “Sure.” I nodded. “Let’s go get some magic items.” Matilda and I geared up and headed out. Running along rooftops and electrical wires thanks to the rubber coverings. Extra grip and friction plus electric shock proof. The Cache was under a slaughterhouse. Owned by a company owned by the government for basic meats for schools and such, used for hiding government stuff off the books. Once inside, switching the lights showed it was… empty. "Shit!" Matilda huffed. "No way Mugshot could have known about this place." “Is there anyone that might know of this place?” I asked. “Anyone against you?” I asked while trying to find any clues as to who stole everything. "Just me and a small handful of my own hand picked loyalist. Most of them are dead or off fighting with the other rebels in Africa." “Then it would probably be a third party…” I sighed out, still trying to find something, anything that could link to who might have done this. "This isn't good. There was Gummi Tech here. Last thing I need is Gummi Ships armed to the teeth flying around. Hopefully the important stuff is still hidden." She said, feeling along the walls. “Damn it…” I growled, before helping Matilda search for the secret switch to the more hidden stuff. She found it, pressing it showing a hand scanner. Once it scanned her hand a pannel opened up, showing a shelf with a single book… Is that… a Book of Prophecy? One of the ones The Master of Masters made. "Thank God it's still here." She said, taking it. “And where the hell did you find that?” I asked nervously. "It's been in my family since the Keyblade War. Master Ava's copy given to her trusted second hand to guard. This is one of those things that if it went into their hands would be beyond bad for everyone." “Even though that book is nothing but a massive self fulfilling prophecy that he started?” I pointed out. "That section yes, but that's not all it holds. Detailed information about all Heartless types, weakness, how to even summon them. But, it also contains the information on how to create a Keyblade forge and turning basic metals into magic materials and ores to make Keyblades and other such items." “Well that’s interesting.” I said honestly. "Well, there is one other place but it's just tech and weapons. No magic stuff. Wanna see if it was hit also?" “Yeah, cause if it’s this clean a second time I think I know who might have done it…” I said, hoping it wasn’t Nexus jumping the gun here. Heading to the other cache, under a college oddly enough, we got to the secret entrance, Matilda opening the passcode locked door. Inside was all the weapons, ammunition, tech, med supplies. Enough here for a small army. "This was untouched. Why?" Matilda asked. “Because this seems less important than actual magical stuff…” I hummed. "You got that right." Matilda and I readied our Keyblades. From behind the crates, emerged Mugshot. The big muscular pitbull was wearing a suit surprisingly. "l would put those fancy keys and sticks aways. I have been the president of this country for the last three years." “Through racketeering and other bullshit?” I asked simply. “Yeah, what a wonderful president you’ve been.” I rolled my eyes. “And you don’t even know what either of us could do.” "I knows. I knows plenty. But, I'm not here's for threats and whatnots. I come with peace offerings." "What happened to the other Cache?" Matilda asked. "Clockworks orders. Dunno how he knew about them, said he wanted all of what was in them and the rest was mines. Never touched what he left me's." “You know Clockwerk is one hundred percent butt fuck insane right?” I asked Mugshot simply. “You know that old bastard getting magical artifacts is bad news for everyone right?” "I knows I knows, but I had to hand them over. He's gots me in a corner. If I break outta line, I'll be his next meal." I sighed out. “Alright, so what’s this peace offering you talked about? This entire compound or something else?” "You can take whatever is here's. But my peace offering is information." “And what’s the information?” I asked curiously. Mugshot reached into his suit, pulling out a file folder and handing it to me. Inside were photos and documents of all kinds. "I wasn't Ables to a name of this group funding Clockwerk, but I was Ables to get names of some of the people, and they were the ones who tooks the magic stuff from those caches. Dunno much but I was also able to gets some information on his… robot Cooper's he's got running around slaughtering." “Thank you.” I nodded while checking the file to see all the info Mugshot got for us. Of all the photos three had names. A Hippo named Wilson, A human named Maxwell, and a Lion named Ruger. All seemed Nexus. Photos of them loading people and raw materials onto their ship were taken, and then the section about the Robots named only one as confirmed. One of them was Tennessee Kid Cooper, as well as a partel photo of the Blueprints used to build them. Tennessee was made different it seemed. Modified with many built in weapons and a replica of the family came when he had it. His robot body kit with orange and blue lines. Likely to better tell them apart. According to this he has a confirmed sixty five kills since going online. “Christ…” I muttered. “Coopers aren’t meant to kill…” "Sorry it couldn't be more good. I understands you're heading towards my main Headquarters in Mesa City. I'll be there's. Make it a good show, cause Clockwerk will be watching." “And we’ll make sure not to beat you up too much.” I chuckled. “But how’s being president been?” "Good. Good. Turns out running a country and running a gang ain't so different. Word of advice though, don't worry non abouts Panda King. When you meet, you'll know why." “Alright.” I nodded. “But is Panda King treating his people well or what? Cause all we know is that he’s making factories and giving people jobs for maybe illegal stuff.” "He runs his country no different than mines. Maybe less brute Force but he does goods by the people as best he can." “That’s good.” I nodded. “Glad to know Panda King is doing good for the people.” "As am I. I tooks it over by sheer brute Force, yet I bets you didn't notice the quality of life isn't so bads. Turns out old uncle Sam had more money than they wanted to admits. How is Mexico doin?" “Better now that Wily Coyote is out of commission.” I said honestly. "Heard about that. Hear I has you to thanks for that thorn in my side getting pulled. Thanks for that. I best be off now, Clockwerk's satellite will be passing over in a bit so now's my openings to leave." “Alright, stay safe.” I nodded. “We’ll be after ya in a while, just need to make sure everything goes right here.” When Mugshot left Matilda and I left and she sent word to collect the arms and supplies. After that we went to bed, and waking up the next morning we got everyone ready for Keyblades while Matilda and I switched between studying over the book and helping the others train for when they appeared. “Come on, the training is not that hard.” I said honestly, even though I didn’t have to do it and the training for Keyblades was actually a little harder than the other training they’ve done. "How are any of these even possible?" Sly asked, heaving and drenched in sweat. “Because they are, and are the simple parts of Keyblade training.” I said honestly. “I mean, Keyblade training is a lot more basic in terms of what you need to know, but the raw physical and magical power they can hold...well you’ll need to be prepared.” "I guess that makes sense. Still, damn this sucks." Carmalita said/agreed. “Eh.” I shrugged, while falling down from my perch above them, grabbing onto a hook with my cane, flipping in mid air and swirling down on my Keyblade Glider hoverboard. “Now I know this will never replace the van, but Keyblade’s can turn into Gliders which are very handy if you need to fly around or forgot a parachute.” "Useful." Sly said. "Kite! Bentley and Uncle M passed out again!" Murray said. Yeah those two are gonna have a lot of work ahead of them... “Alright, take them to the infirmary and make sure they didn’t overwork themselves.” I said to Murray. “I know they are not physically active as the rest of us and more thinkers but christ…” I muttered while scratching my head, wondering if I should tone back the training. A month passed. While Uncle M managed to work up more muscle Bentley was still on the weak side, going from toothpick to at least average in terms of physical fitness. Murray and Lana blossomed, as well as Uncle Jim. Mom, Matilda and Sly were able to well keep up with the training and such. Thankfully Mom got her Keyblade. Oathkeeper. Just Oathkeeper. “Cool, you got your keyblade.” I said with a smile. “And Oathkeeper at that, sounds about right.” "It's beautiful." Mom said, looking it over. “Yeah, she is pretty.” I said honestly. "She?" Mom asked. "Keyblades have genders?" “I mean, kind of yeah.” I said honestly. “Oathkeeper and her brother, Oblivion, are two of a kind, while Oath here is a bit of a stickler for the rules, Oblivion is kind of a butt as she would say.” I chuckled. “Isn’t that right Oath?” I asked, given that Time didn’t exist anymore and Keyblades had one mind between all of them I was half expecting Oath to do a little something to agree. No answer. Huh, guess Kite Cooper isn't a Keyblade master yet. Only human X-blades or Keyblade Masters can normally hear their voices. “Well I suppose I’m just not good enough yet.” I shrugged. “So anyways, now that you got your keyblade, let’s test it out shall we.” "Okay." Mom said as we began testing her skills with it. Spells wise she knows Blizzard and Fire, and all in all it was basic stuff. Which was good. “Well so far so good. You’re getting the basics down well.” I nodded. "Basics are at least a start." Mom said. Later that night I went out, calling my Time Walker to earn skill points to access my normal powers. “Alright, now onto skill point farming cause that’s gonna take forever.” I sighed out. "I got a few missions." The Time Walker stated. “Alright, so what are those missions?” I asked curiously. “Oh also...how bad are my ancestors in their machine bodies?” "Bad. Suffering horribly." They said casually. "So, first one is worth fifty SP. A simple steal." “What’s to steal and is there anything I can do to save them besides...well bashing their brains in?” I asked. "Later. For now the item in question is this." They handed me a photo. On it was a soft glowing white gem about the size of a quarter. "It's a Time Gem. While time itself isn't a concept like it used to be, these gems are still out and around. Same abilities too. Makes for instantaneous recovery on things like MO, drive gage, anything that takes time to reload or recover, ready to use just by keeping it on your person or within range. When ground up and eaten can reverse ageing and keeps the Grim Reapers off your back for a while." “Sounds about right.” I shrugged. “Good to know, so where is the Time Gem?” "Texas Art History museum. Was embedded as part of a statue from two hundred years ago. Just pick it off and replace it with this replica." They handed me an identical version of the gem. "I'll meet you on top of the museum roof." “Sounds easy enough.” I nodded while heading off to the art museum, knowing this will be a quick and easy job all things considered. The security was basic. Laser alarms I was able to walk along, security I hacked easy with the tool Bentley gave me and with a little magic I grabbed it easy then put in the fake. As I made my way to the roof the gem started blinking. “Hmm?” I hummed curiously. “Wonder why it’s blinking...maybe a signal?” "Yo." The Time Walker said, walking over to me as I got on the roof. “Howdy, got you the thing.” I said while holding up the gem. "Thank you." He said, taking the gem as the fifty SP we're given to me. I put them to letting me summon my weapons, but they are like when I first got them. Seems about right. “Cool.” I said warmly as I switched between my weapons. “It feels great to have my old weapons back.” "Good to hear. Ready for another or job?" “Sure.” I nodded. “What’s the next job?” "We'll have to head elsewhere for that." He said, opening a portal. "You'll be back in time. Heh." “So many time puns.” I rolled my eyes. “Well let’s get going.” We went through the portal and we're in Paris. Nowhere near where home was but over what looked like a bank. "As you can guess these job's we'll have for you all revolve around Time Gems. This one is in a safety deposit box. Part of a ring. Here's the replica." He then tossed me the ring. This gem was smaller than the last, but embedded in a gold ring. "Deposit box is number 873. Lucky you this back has a single air vent leading in there. Just small enough for you to get in and out." “Convenient.” I said while I headed inside, wanting to make this quick before anyone noticed. “Actually…” I muttered. “Haste…” I muttered, casting a haste spell on myself and feeling faster already. I quickly, and quietly, rushed through the vent, Seeing a single camera and used the hacking tool to loop the feed. I found the safety deposit box and opened it. Inside was the ring. I grabbed the original and left the replica. Back on the roof I gave it to the Time Walker and got my fifty SP. "Good job." The Time Walker said. “Two simple jobs.” I said simply. “And a lot of profit from it.” I said while looking through what I could get from the fifty SP. I ended up grabbing Valor form, which took all the SP. "Got one more job. Will not be as easy as the other two." “Well I got Valor Form and can now stretch what magical abilities I know.” I said honestly. “What’s the job?” "Bounty hunting. While time isn't like it was the books everything and everyone now resided in, future, past, present all in the books pages being written, has been written and can be changed. So In a sense time travel is still possible but not like before. Therefore this Time Runner can still do his job. Something we can't allow to happen. I will be helping you take her down. You know what a Time Runner is right?" “Not really, I don’t know much about your organization or what they do.” "Let's put it this way then. A Time Walker, like me, as of the new system, watches over time with controlled Paradoxes and minimal effect. While Paradox's are not possible that does not mean the pages can't be damaged by getting rewritten too many times. We repair them if this happens. Time Runners are Speedsters and other rogue elements who run and break the pages as they wish, in a sense while they can't do permanent damage they do risk a lot by repeatedly breaking the tearing of the pages of time of the worlds storybooks and the invaluable persons story books. A lot of maintenance and repair on that end. Worst case scenario we have to completely rewrite a world and/or person's storybook and we can't get every detail correct if this happens. Understand so far?" “You could have just said ‘they run around causing damage to time’.” I said honestly. "That would not have been as accurate given the current/yet to be state of time. In any case when they arrive I can match their speed. You can't. I can take it away and once that happens we confront them." “Alright, let’s get onto finding this thing.” I said honestly. "They'll be here soon." The Time Walker said, tossing up and catching the two time gems. "We have what they will be after." “Using them as bait huh?” I asked. “Clever.” "They'll be here right about…" They said, in the distance flashed a red streak of Lightning passing the roads some miles away. "Here." “Did the Flash want to join the party or something?” I asked nervously. "Time Runners are largely Nexus made Speeders. Utilizing a Negative Speed Force rather than the one the Admin of Time made." “Sounds about right.” I said honestly. “Well, let’s get ready to kick this guys ass.” "Girl." They said. In a flash of red the Time Runner stood before us. Dressed in a black and blue jumpsuit with a mask that is largely a visor. "Well, a Time Walker, and a trash picking Raccoon. You guys are using temporal natives now?" The Runner mocked. “Oi, I am a Trash Panda thank you very much.” I huffed. “And also your one to talk, that jumpsuit with that visor? What is Nexus letting you work the bargain bin or something christ.” "It's old tech, admitably, but more advanced than anything this backwater world will ever make." “For now.” I said while two balls of lightning lashed out towards the speedster. She zoomed around them, throwing lighting at me. The electric shock hurt like a thousand needless shots into my bones… and I felt angry. Just an overwhelming anger. It faded once the pain did. “Okay...that hurt.” I grumbled. “Alright, let’s try this again…” I muttered while bringing out Skysplitter and slamming it into the ground, causing the terrain to shake under her. In a red flash she ran up and along the cracking ground, zipping passed me and hitting the Time Walker, sending them against a nearby building and then rushing back to me. In a swift motion they broke my wrist, making me yell and drop Skysplitter before vibrating her hand and phasing it into my chest. My blood ran cold. "Just give me the gems and the kid lives." She said, hand still phased into my chest. "Okay okay!" The Time Walker yelled. The Runner smirked, taking her hand out of me then punching my throat. Breathing was possible but hard as I heaved and coughed. "Smart mov-" BANG. SPLAT. THUD. To my and the Time Walkers surprise a bullet shot the Runner in the head, killing her. "Sometimes a simple gun is in order." Able to breath and stand now I saw as Matilda flew down. "I mean, while that's true, she was faster than literal lightning." I frowned. "And last time I checked, lightning is faster than a bullet." “Not when they are distracted.” Matilda said with a chuckle. “So, what and who was that?” “A lead… was.” The Time Walker said, walking over and kicking the corpse. “That’s where you're wrong kiddo.” I said simply. “Cause you know, it’s very easy to just tie her up so she can’t even phase through it and reverse the damage?” “Three, two, one.” There was a puff of void energy and code… and the corpse was gone. “New measure on the Time Runners. They die, activating a code format that literally erases their code from reality. Guess who’s idea that was.” “Cause of course…” I grumbled. “This will piss you off even worse. She knew where Spoiled was located… and Spoiled knows where Vilgax is located, and you know the rest.” The time walker sighed. “Well, best hunt the next in line on their ranks…” My right eye twitched. “Cause….you know...why the fuck not.” I said slowly. “Just...rub salt in the ever growing wound I have…” “Who are Vilgax and Spoiled?” Matilda asked. “Long story.” The Time Walker sighed. “This time travel related?” “Yeah kinda.” “... Say, I didn’t get what you meant by broken time and all, yeah I heard that, but… won’t people from your time still be the same as they are in this time?” “Well… yes and no. Yes they will be the same people but any major alterations to their past will alter their future and split the Vilgax we know now from the one here as a different timeline version.” “So keep it minimal. Can’t you just put a tracer or something on him now, and it still be on him in your time?” “While that is true, you have to remember that they would have to go through literally an infinite amount of Vilgax’s just to find the fucker at this point given Time isn’t really a thing.” “... Then we tag the one we know for a fact is. Not Vilgax. Spoiled.” I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Alright, so what is that Spoiled doing specifically right now?” I asked, still outlandishly pissed at Matilda. "Currently on her Equestria. Almost to term with Councilor Diamond Tiara." The Time Walker said. “Alright, good to know.” I said. “I’m still pissed at you Matilda.” I frowned. "Well next time loop people in." She snarked back. “Since you’re the pinnacle of keeping people in the loop.” I rolled my eyes. "Hi pot, I'm kettle." I shook my head. “You will never understand…” I growled. “But the fuckers dead, the Time Gems are still safe, am I still getting that reward?” I asked the Time Walker, not wanting to stay pissed at someone who’s ignorant to everything I know. "Yeah. Goal was to stop her. Dead or alive doesn't matter. It's one less Runner out there." “Alright.” I nodded. I got my hundred SP and got myself Heir Master form and the ability to summon Nobodies again. “Okay cool.” I said while testing my summoning ability, wondering how tough it’ll be to summon something. It felt like those early days. The stronger Nobodies took a toll, but Dusk's and Creeper Nobodies were easy. “Alright, cool.” I said with a smile. “This’ll help a lot.” "Creepy." Matilda said, looking at the Dusk move. “They are the bodies of people that have lost their Hearts.” I said simply. “Something your father should have mentioned but well...he kind of sucked at his job training you.” "Rumors yeah. But did they lose all their bones too?" “Do Heartless lose their bones?” I asked honestly. "That's different. It's just the heart in a body made of darkness. That is a former person who became a living jelly dressed in silver spandex." “Again, you know literally nothing about Nothingness.” I said simply. “Which is why I’m disappointed at how a video game series explains things better than people who have actually lived through it.” I frowned. "In any case, what now… cause Time Guy left and we are back in Paris." “Well…” I started. “We’re in Paris so...why not a date?” I suggested. "Thought you were mad at me?" “I am, but it’s better we do something to stop being pissed at each other and get along.” I shrugged. “Better than having another person that wants to rip your head off.” "We actually take this date, even if your mom says it's my choice she will be in the distance pissed as all hell." “And she’s gonna have to get used to it.” I shrugged. "Heh. Well, why not then. Hear this is your hometown, know anywhere good?" “Oh so many.” I said while taking her hand and leading her to any nice place that comes to mind. To be continued...
Nobody's dayI was with Ciel in a place I didn't even think was still a thing. The kingdoms FBI department. I legit did not think this was even a thing anymore. Guess I was wrong. "I'll need to speak with my informant. She'll get you more up to date on what we know and what we have." “Cool.” I nodded. “Now onto me completely forgetting that this was a thing when I needed to remember a million and one things every day.” "Many worlds had departments like this. So rather than replace and move people around the FBI was kept, keeping largely to what they've always done but focusing more on research and intelligence on inner kingdom threats. Here's her office. And please, don't say anything." I was confused, looking at the name on the office door it said Fluttershy. A Fluttershy working in the FBI… huh. Ciel and I entered and my jaw dropped. I saw the bustiest, thickest, most yes please sex appeal humanoid Fluttershy in my life. "Hello Ciel." Oh My God that voice is amazing. "Mrs. King, a pleasure to have the Crowns face in my office." “It’s a pleasure to meet you too.” I said politely. "They'll be working with me on the Shadow Drugs case. We'll need to get them up to date." Ciel said. "Alright then." She said, looking through her desk and pulling out two files. One looked about empty and the other was more full. "Officially, we only have the known information. The crates appeared with no trackable signatures of any kind. Each case holds roughly a hundred shadow drug injectors all full. We also know the materials the Injectors are made of and sadly it is all too common for us to pinpoint any one or few locations." Even though Ciel told me ‘not to say anything’, I couldn’t help myself. “Are the injectors just plain looking or do they have any physical distinctions from any normal one’s you can find on the market?” "The only difference between these Injectors and the normal ones used in the medical field is that these are not made by any manufacturer. They are machine made, we know that, but they are not from any licensed facility." “Hmm…” I hummed. “Well at least it kind of narrows it down.” "It's still a needle in a multiverse sized haystack. Now then, time to discuss the unofficial information gathered." Ciel said. Fluttershy nodded, opening the thicker file. "Unofficially, as far as we can tell Shadow Drugs came onto the market first in Connection City 2010, September Third. Five years to the date Cript avenged the Non-existent Autumn by killing the Darkness, the creator of Shadow Creatures and Dark Elemental Crystals such as Electronium." “And why do I suddenly have a feeling the guy who’s selling this is either Darkness itself having come back somehow, or one of his ‘children’ as it were.” I frowned. "Not likely. Powerful as he was at the time the Darkness was still mortal. As for children long-term exposure to corrupted elemental crystals creates infertility in all who keep them in use for over a period of a month. And from the records we have of him before he had no lovers or family to speak, so no kin. We do believe whoever is behind this however was either an admirer or is utilizing his old bases equipment. However no one has been able to get close enough before or after the changes to reality to inspect." Ciel said. “Until now I presume?” I asked curiously "Not even." Fluttershy said. "Before, the amount of dark Electronium on that island fortress of his was toxic and endless shadow creatures. Now, it's still the same size. The building anyway. After the mass multiverse and such timelines it's guarded by a level five arena dungeon, the things that spawn there are as strong as you can imagine and as expected all that dark Electronium just sitting under that place would make a sun exploding look like a fire cracker." “Sounds fun.” I said simply. “But I doubt I’m here to be Demolition Man in the Dungeon right?” "You can't. It's a level five. Meaning even Admins like you, like Dad, would have issues getting to the base, which is in the center of that mess." Ciel said. "The base is still untouched. Satellites tell us that much. So we expect whoever was there went in and took only the Darkness's research and left. This had to have been done before the dungeons and mass fusion. We also do believe whoever this person is to either be human or Electronian." “Oh boy, that sounds interesting.” I said honestly. “About these Electronian’s, I haven’t heard about them before.” "They're the inhabitants of Electron. A planet on a parallel orbit of Earth. At least, it used to. Since the fusion the planet and all reflections have merged with us and the kingdom. They are typically about seven to nine feet in height and are basically giant anthropomorphic ferrets. They evolved alongside Electronium crystals which their kingdom/world has been known for across all reflections. As such they have the same basic powers as that of one wielding an Electronium crystal. They are intelligent, strong, all in all quite a formetable race. The Non-existent Autumn was the last living descent of their former queen Arora. As such they have been ruled by a council, then Cript killed the Darkness and they let him and Freak Inc. rule their kingdom. Now they actually have a crown and royalty again. They went from over a hundred and sixty years with an empty throne to having so many royals they are ecstatic." “That is very interesting...also they must look absolutely adorable.” I said, thinking about giant anthro Ferrets and how adorable normal Ferrets. "Some." Both Ciel and Fluttershy said. "In any case, we can't get to the base to explore it. Even so we are expecting it to be empty or trapped. We just have no idea what is actually in there, even so, King, dungeons nullify teleporting and even in the fastest flying transportation it would take over six years. It's that big of a dungeon." Fluttershy said. "And that's well passed light speed including." Ciel added. “I mean...I’ve moved faster than any of that.” I said honestly. “In some worlds, people move maybe...a few hundred billion times the speed of light? Yeah a lot of us are just straight faster than that.” "Even so, go too fast, the dark Electronium explodes. It's stupidity unstable. The only 'safe' means of traversing there is to fight, melee only, cause guns and other firearms and such can also set the stuff off, a trip that would take way too damn long." Ciel sighed. "As far as I can tell it's barely an option. So we go after the next best lead we can find." Ciel said. Fluttershy handed me a photo. It was a pony. Humanoid. "His name is Guider Fire. Well known supplier on the black market. Keeps his own hands clean and on or off wire never says anything self incriminating. Everything he does is through disposable thugs for hire." She said. “So you want to either capture him or just have someone talk to the guy?” I asked curiously. "We need to trail him. He has been known to distribute Shadow Drugs but because of his methods we can only hold him for so long. Bluntly we need to set up a buy. Something he will want to deal with personally." “Sounds simple enough.” I said honestly. "What's the object?" Ciel asked. "Hacked Freak Inc weaponry and technology. Illegal by every account. Get caught with it, life in prison." “So you want someone to openly ask to sell the thing to him?” I asked curiously. "Buy it from him." Ciel stated. "There are only two groups capable of hacking Dad's tech, Nexus, and Rothmire." “I forgot, who or what is Rothmire? Cause I know I heard it before but...don’t remember.” "Rothmire is an underground hacking organization. They're your typical Hactivists, but hacking Freak Inc. Tech put them in our top ten." Fluttershy said. “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “Alright, so the job seems simple enough.” "Will be risky though. Thankfully your various forms and shapeshifting capabilities will get us the perfect 'buyer'." Sounds about right.” I nodded. “Need me to take a premade identity or just make one up?” I asked curiously. "Premade." Ciel said. Fluttershy typed on her PC, then turned the screen to me. It was a woman. Shaved, human. Green eyes. "Her name is Kaytlin. Well known terrorist. Dead now though." Fluttershy said. “Cool.” I said while using my Chameleon ability and shifting into the dead terrorist. “No one will question seeing a dead chick around right?” "It's the underground. People often don't stay dead for long." Ciel said. “Sounds about right.” I shrugged. "We'll set up the buy. Will take a few days." Shy said. “Alright, let’s get this show on the road.” I nodded. While I waited the few days it would take for the meeting to get set up I headed on out to some dungeons. Wanted to see what all the hype was about when it came to level fives. “Alright, so let’s just take some precautions.” I said while taking a deep breath, summoning my Lexicon and Archmage Staff and casting every single buff spell on myself as possible, then downing an Elixir to get all my MP back. “Alright...so fifty percent with all the buffs shouldn’t be too much…” I said while raising my power output to fifty percent. I cracked my knuckles and neck as I felt ready for the dungeon. “Alright, floor one, let’s get started.” This was a tower based one going up. The first… enemies… were all Common Shadow Creatures. A fuck ton of them. Normally these weaklings are nothing… in here. With all those buffs they hit me for two thousand health each AND it takes nine hits at fifty to kill them. Full power was half that and at some point I high tailed it out of there. So those are bullshit, in every way imaginable. But… not gonna lie, the ones I killed dropped some epic rewards. “Alright, so looks like I’m gonna need to go full out here.” I muttered to myself. So I did. All the buffs, Max power, and headed in dual wielding Lunatic and Skysplitter at Max power. It was still a bitch. Room one, cleared, two shot everything but their numbers were still crap. Next room fucking Dragon Shadows, nine Litch fuckers, black knights and suicide bombing giant rats. I got out of there on four health and seriously pissed off. So, I left to rant to Cript in their office. “So yeah, about level five dungeons being bullshit.” I frowned. "How so?" Cript asked. “So, every single buff I knew I had on, going at a hundred percent, even Dual Wielding Skysplitter and Lunatic, I barely made it to the second room.” I frowned. “I know level five is supposed to be difficult, I’m not denying that or going to rant about that part, what I am going to rant about is it being that difficult where you can barely beat a single room.” "Then it's doing its job." Cript said. "King, Level five dungeons aren't meant for normal people, not even normal Admins. They are meant for Deathless like us." "I know, but I could barely beat the first room even with being Deathless." I said honestly. "That's the whole point King. I've seen many timelines, many Deathless Cripts falling to Madness. Many other Deathless suffer the same fate. And I've discovered that those who can always find purpose and challenge last the longest. To this day even. These dungeons, the level fives, are made this way to always provide us a challenge, and stave off Madness." “I never said I disagreed about it being difficult...but that kind of difficult.” I said. “It’s okay to have a challenge, that’s fine, but when even at a hundred percent, and every single buff I know helping me, just barely being able to beat a single room in that dungeon seems less ‘challenge’, and more ‘trying to see how long you can keep your hand in a blender on full blast’.” "That's because of the radar settings. For normal people or normal Admins it's set to the lowest settings and stays there. For Deathless it auto reconfigures the enemies to get harder and stronger, adding buffs just tells the radar to make it all stronger." “Cause of course that’s how it works…” I grumbled. "You telling me you can't figure out how to clear the first floor? Want some basic specs on how level five dungeons work?" “Sure, I’d love to know.” I said honestly "The first floor will hold anywhere between two to six thousand rooms. Each room can be between seven to ten thousand miles big at all angles, and they get bigger and the rooms double or triple the amount of rooms each floor." “Oh goodie.” I rolled my eyes. “Let’s just play Dynasty Warriors while we’re at it.” "And the amount of floors range between fifty thousand to over a million." “Sounds repetitive.” I said honestly. "Not meant for the faint of heart or even the sane of mind. Clearing a Level five is basically the ultimate goal of all adventures." “Sounds about right, but still…” I frowned. “If a single room is that big, and there’s way too many floors, it shouldn’t be ‘barely beat one room’ kind of difficult.” "Hence the fun of it. Lord and I can make some tough ass things. Besides, there is an alternative motive to them." “And what is that?” I asked curiously. "Clear a level five, you can take Vincent in an unfair fight." “Sounds about right.” I shrugged. "So, gonna take it on?" "I mean, I am cause I'm stubborn." I said simply. "Heh. Good luck then. Furthest I typically get is floor five, after that the Starfish clone body gets destroyed beyond the regeneration capabilities. Beat my record and I'll reward you." "And what's the reward?" I asked curiously. "That depends. Got anything in mind?" "Not sure at the moment." I said honestly. "Oh, but I also need to beat the Mushroom 13 Coliseum to get Belief's body back…"’s body back.” I said honestly. "And Void Mother's heart I assume?" Cript asked. “Also that if possible.” I said honestly. "Well it looks like there is a lot on your plate then." “Then there’s also me hunting down Vilgax and Spoiled to get to Void Key, helping run our kingdom, helping Ciel deal with Shadow Drugs, and a bunch of other crap that’s honestly getting a little annoying when I have to ‘be the face of the Kingdom’.” I frowned. "Well, in regards to the Shadow Drugs case those have been a thorn in my side for a long, long time. But I might have a means of helping you in this in the form of advice." “Go right ahead.” I said honestly. “Any information helps.” "Make a team. Teams, work with them and stop doing it all alone." “Sounds about right.” I said honestly. “And working with others does help sometimes…” "Including yourself, keep it to three. Basic, functional, ect. That aside, there is someone I'd like you to meet." “Oh? Who’s this new mystery person?” I asked, intrigued by who Cript would want me to meet. "Well, you still have your gauntlets as a weapon but you have not mastered them. So I found you the perfect teacher. You remember Adam, the current King of Hell and now member of this family." “Funnily enough,” I started while bringing out my Gauntlets. “I had a place in mind to learn how to use these...but then I completely forgot about it cause I’m normally too busy.” I sighed out. “But yes, I do know about Adam.” "They'll be teaching you hand to hand combat along with Spike. Between the two of them you'll more than learn how to handle yourself, gauntlets or not." “I already know how to handle myself in a lot of ways.” I said. “But alright, let’s get going to meet Adam.” Cript took me over to where Spike and Adam were. Once I was with them Cript took off. "So you're King?" Adam asked. “Yes I am.” I nodded. “And you must be Adam, I remember you helping Joy out with Diamonds family curse.” “Yeah. And this is Spike. The one who died and came back cause Cript says fuck you to the rules.” The purple and green drake in question chuckled. He looked well built, dressed in an orange vest and white shorts. “Glad to finally meet the new kid who got as strong as dad through sheer stubborn will.” Spike said, shaking my hand. “Yeah, I think I remember that...you saved me, Eclipsa and Heart from Max a long time ago...certainly pissed Max off that’s for sure.” I said honestly. “Heh. A simple passion for wrestling turned me into the family’s top fighter. Least til I died.” They said with a shrug. “I was one of the first kids adopted by Cript, back then it was just me and Scootaloo. So then.” Spike said, holding up an open hand. “How hard can you hit?” “I can hit pretty hard.” I said while equipping my gauntlets. “I know how to punch at least, so how strong do you want me to punch?” I asked while stretching my arms real quick. “First, off.” Spike said, pulling my weapons off. “Before you cover your fists, hit the stone against your skin to break your bones.” “So...punch your hand with a bare fist?” I asked, not entirely sure what the hell he meant. “Yeah basically. Got that from my middle school coach. Just sounds cool mostly.” “It took me a moment to figure out whatever the hell you meant.” I said. “Also, your coach is weird for making a saying that sounds like Buffalo Bills ‘put the lotion on the skin or else you get the hose again’.” I said honestly. “But how strong do you want the punch?” “Don’t hold back. Relax, I can take it.” “Dude.” Adam said. “You know what I meant, perv.” Spike spat. “That’s for later.” I said honestly. “But if you insist.” I said while taking a deep breath as electricity crackled across my fist. “Thunder Punch!” I said as I threw an extremely powerful punch added with the lightning attribute. I hit Spike’s hand. A shockwave of energy and wind speed blew up everywhere. When the dust faded Spike was gripping my fist. “Not bat at all. Lots of power but you need to keep it straight and more firm… less…” They said, pushing my hand back and dislocating my wrist. “Could also be worse but for not, let’s help you learn to keep it straight.” Spike said, popping my wrist back into place. “Fine fine.” I said while shaking my hand a little bit. “Alright, so how to start learning to punch.” “Here.” Spike said, stepping to my side. He took my arm, holding it by my fist and elbow. “Keep your first tight, arm firm, and in one straight motion, move.” He said, moving my arm in the motions. “Same applies to the other arm. Firm, straight, and apply the force in the swing, not in your hand and you’ll get way more bite for your buck.” “And don’t forget to put your hips into it.” I said simply. “From fists to swords, it’s all in the hips.” “True.” Spike said. We practiced keeping my first and arm straight in the swings for a few hours before Spike had me speed it up. “A fast and strong punch is key in a fight, you got speed and power, but the faster you swing the harder it is to aim them and you can miss. Now, punch this.” Spike said, a snap of his talons and this… ragdoll looking thing appeared before me, standing up of its own power as it looked at me with a stitched in smiley face. “Be fast and accurate.” “What? Not going to throw a high level enemy at me or something?” I asked. “Or...that’s Agamemnon’s whole thing...never mind.” I shook my head as I took a deep breath to focus myself. “Alright, so head and chest…” I said while throwing two punches swiftly, one hitting the head and one hitting the chest. “The torso and head are good areas for good damage, but an enemy that can’t punch back is better. Hitting the right areas on the arms can dislocate, or break their arms. Same applies to kicking, which in hand to hand combat is also an important part. Now, given your legs as a Dire Wolf, normal kick styles won’t work well with you. I know you can shapeshift and all that, but let’s stick to your current form. In the case of the legs you have, you’ll be focused on more direct front and back spring kicks.” “Yeah, even though I had normal knees for a long time, I had to adjust quick to these.” I said while gently hopping on my legs that were more like werewolves where the knee was inverted instead of out like a normal person’s. “Yeah. You have strong power from them, so kicking with all your force will be easy.” “Yep.” I nodded. “Legs are powerful, even if they all went to my thighs…” I said while looking down at my thick thighs, and even though they looked lovably squeezable they had strong toned muscle underneath it and the fluffy fur. “Training, not showing off.” Spike stated firmly. “Enemy isn’t gonna be admiring you, they’ll be trying to kill you.” "They haven't done both?" I asked curiously while snap kicking the dummy in the solar plexus. "Trust me, they haven't." "Their loss." I shrugged. "But either way, onto more training.” I said simply, wanting to master my Gauntlets. "I will be teaching you hand to hand combat and Beastial Fighting as well as something else dad wanted me to teach you. Once I've taught you everything Adam will step in to teach you how to apply it to gauntlets and other fist based weapons." Spike said. “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “Well, let’s get started then.” Day One. "First, to make sure you truly know how to handle both yourself and your power, let's see if you can shift into the Ultimate Race form." Spike said. “Ultimate Race form?” I asked curiously. “Like what Cript turned into?’ "Exactly. But there is a catch to it." “What’s the catch?” I inquired. "You get stuck like that. Like dad, and while it's useful the learning curve is pretty hard at first when it comes to it. While you can alter the appearance you can't alter the form itself. Like how dad did. Illusion spells and such can work and work well but they are still just illusions." “Well...I can’t really do that since I’m the face of the Kingdom.” I said, already having images of how I’d look in my ‘Ultimate Race’ form. "Maybe. Maybe not. Up to you really, but something tells me with Lyra's help in tweaking it you can keep that face of the kingdom thing." “Well then...let’s test it out.” I said simply. “So how do I do it? Cause I thought it would be using a hundred percent of your power, but that doesn’t really work.” "Well, in short even at a hundred percent, you Max out at a hundred. You have to go over a hundred and break your Max cap. From there, power and such has no limits anymore." “Alrighty then.” I nodded while letting my power go up to a hundred percent. “Any specific way to get past a hundred percent?” "When it feels like your cells and code are gonna explode, keep going." “Oh, I remember that feeling.” I said honestly. “But should I do it with or without all those rage abilities?” I wondered as I tried to force myself past a hundred percent. "Without is faster." “Alright.” I said while pushing myself deeper past my limit. “Let’s...get past one hundred…” I growled, trying to keep myself together even if every fiber of my being was starting to feel like it was going to explode. So the entire thing felt...weird to say the least. My entire body felt like it was going through a massive evolutionary jump from where I stood, my body shifting to accommodate the new changes. So the changes I could actively feel was that I grew about a foot taller, I felt a third eye growing in my forehead, my fur felt like it was getting more thick and dense, my claws and teeth grew sharper and serrated, and an indescribable amount of pain as it felt like my body was actively making an exoskeleton, bone creaking as Spike could see what looked like a tribal bone armor formed underneath my fur, while a wolf skull helmet grew out of my head and fluttered ancient dire wolf shaman ornaments. "God...that fucking hurt…" "Looks like it did yeah. Lost your boobs, but that's one of the few changeable things." "Cause that makes sense, the Ultimate Den Mother loses her ability to be a Den Mother…" I grumbled while looking myself over. "I don't think you lost it, more it just changed how it works." Spike said. "We don't know a lot about how the Ultimate Race works. And yes while Cript's version is human and yours a wolf they are actually classified as the same race." "That's...weird." I said. "I thought this would have worked like Ben 10's ultimate alien forms. Where each was just a hyper evolved version of the race, not a completely new one." "Well It's new to us anyway." "Not to me." Spike and I turned around, the tiny Admin of Genetics, Asmith, walked into the room and up to us. "I haven't seen this race in years. An eternity actually." Asmith said as he stood before me. "Hey Asmith." I said while raising my arm, only for a four inch blade shot out from my elbow on accident, the material looked similar to Dark Monofilament but...weirdly didn't feel like it. "Uh...sorry, don't know why that happened." I said sheepishly. "It's fine. And I know why, I designed the race your body and Cript's now are. Ultimate Race, heh. They're real name is The Godhood Race, and with good reason. Only race born with the power to match an admin. Part of why I never actually gave them a World or even let them evolve into existence." "So...why can Admins turn into them by going past their limit?" I inquired. "Frankly I'm as confused on that as you are. I can only assume the lack of a limiter Cript, and now you have achieved, triggered the transformation. But this is good, as this new body you now own is beyond anything of any other existing race." "He's right." Symbi said. "This body and its functions are unbelievable." "Hope it isn't too much for you Symbi." I said nervously. "But...now I'm as strong as I need to be or something?" "That's the thing about the Godhood Race, they can always get stronger. Despite being one of their makers not even I know their full potential. But I can help you with what I do know." "Anything can help." I said honestly. "But...why the third eye for starters." "You haven't noticed? Take a good look around with all 'three'." "If you insist…" I said while looking around with all three eyes of mine, wondering if there's a difference here. It took me a while but I noticed something. I saw well above my normal field of view. Well above my, even somehow below me. "Well….I can certainly see more things." I said honestly. "A wider field of view-" I saw something falling towards me in the edge of above my filed of view. I grabbed the small rock. "Means a faster more noticable chance's to protect and counter incoming attacks. On top of that each eye can view in multiple different visions. Heat and cold vision. X-ray, inverted, night vision, all of them. Sense of smell, all of it, but, and this is something you might enjoy a bit more, how to best customize the Godhood Race. Their physical appearances are all largely the same in eyes and colors, but shape can be different." "Cool." I said honestly. "Good to know I can keep my previous look...but the bone armor might need some getting used to." I said, even if the bone armor was fitted like a second skin it still needed some getting used to. "The form is more adaptable than you'd think. Rather than the normal shapeshifting which completely alters your DNA into that of the desired form, the Godhood Race has all other species DNA within their complex networks. Many unlocked already by you and the others, it's more a matter of gene suppression and dominance. A feat admitibly harder but much more stable than typical shapeshifting." "But King can't change certain aspects?" Spike asked. "Correct. The color, three eyes and such can never be reversed, as for the exoskeleton skull, making wolf less dominant to shift your form to that of another's will remove it, but your bone density will remain the same. That Symbiote in your head, Symbi, I am sure if she herself also becomes her Godhood Race form can rapidly aquire a better and faster understanding of the body she resides in as hers will be the same." "That could work. Sorry for the headache this will cause." Symbi said. She was right, that headache sucked. Five minutes though and I felt, everyone felt Symbie become a Godhood Race. "Hold crap this has way more features and abilities and everything than I was expecting! Good news with you and I working this it will be easier. For example King." I nearly got kicked back a bit as suddenly my boobs came back in like car air bags going off. Gone for a short while, but I missed the milk maker girls. "This is beyond amazing." "I created them originally as soldiers for the Admin War, but my fellow life admins and I all decided that to create something living for war alone was to stain what we stood for, so the race never saw the light of day. But, perhaps their kind can see the light of day again, in you all." Asmith said. "As they can now see the world in a view that isn't war and death." I said honestly. "But question, for Godhood, aren't they the ultimate of each race? Why do they reduce something that a race has, like Den Mother's and that whole thing?" I pointed out "They were, originally, crafted for war. Something they still have use for but it shall not be their, your sole purpose. Hence why I pointed out to Symbi to turn herself into one. So it can be easier for the two of you, and most likely more to come. You, Symbi and Cript make three of all the shapes of the Godhood Race, I'd even argue that perhaps that race is the form we Admins should have taken. Perhaps, but that is for us each to decide. Now then, any more questions?" "What's with the Dire Wolf tribal ornaments? I know these things are ancient just on their magic but I'm not sure how ancient." I said while softly touching the ornaments made of fur, bone and claws.. "Sadly, I don't know. We never brought them into existence, so we don't know what they would have developed. The only ones who would know are Diva and Vincent." "Who's Diva?" I asked curiously. "Vincent's other half, her first name and life. Diva and Vincent, the Admins of Life. Those days are so, so long ago." "Well right now it's Connor and Dinky, and well...Cript already made sure none of Vincent's personality stayed in Connor, while Dinky is still fine." I said honestly. "But...should I bring up their past lives or no?" "Another time. For now, it's time to really ensure the royal family you have created is the rulers and heroes all of creation needs. I shall speak to Cript about matters. Best get certain things over with sooner than later." Asmith said, taking leave. "So… should I turn into a Godhood to properly teach you or?" Spike asked. "Way ahead of you." Adam said, already a Godhood. They had wings, each half demonic half angelic, a broken Halo over their head and horns. Three eyes and ash grey skin like Cript and i, but also their eyes looked more like how a demons would/should, and they also had the classic devil tail. “I’m not surprised you have a demon and angel motif.” I shrugged. “But I wonder…” I muttered while going into my skill tree, wondering if there was a new racial skill tree. "Guess that's a yes. Well, this will be interesting." Spike said. His change wasn't all that much actually. His scales changed color, grew a foot taller, got the third eye, grew a fancy pair of wings, but other than that nothing too different. "Huh. Kinda underwhelming." Spike said. “I mean, even if you're an Admin, True Dragon’s are still considered one of the strongest races in all of Existence.” I said simply. “How do you ‘Ultimate’ the second to third, give or take, race in all of Reality?” "I know, but still." Spike said with a shrug. "So, ready?" “Sure.” I said while stretching my arms. “Let’s get to it.” I said. ”God, John and the Foretellers are gonna fucking flip with how much we’ve changed…” I thought to myself worriedly, hoping those six were all okay due to all this crazy crap. "Alright, so you know how to swing and hit properly as well as the basics of kicking, so now onto an actual fight. Against a monster mind you." “Just what I was hoping for.” I said with a smile. “Time to also test out my new strength.” "Great. Izzie, run combat simulation number 88, equil stat numbers." Spike said aloud. "Yes Spike." Izzie said from seemingly everywhere in the room. The entire area was replaced by what seemed like a large open grass and dirt plain field. Before me spawned this Shadow Creature that looked like a six armed boxer. No head at all and was all muscle. "That's called a Combo Shadow Creature. The simulation is rigged so it will be equivalent to you in stats and strength, so we can get a good view on what you can do." Spike said, giving me and this Combo space for the fight. I cracked my knuckles and neck. “Well then, this is gonna be fun.” I said while getting into my fighting stance. I charged at the Combo, it's many arms and fists impacting mine, the burn of pain from a challenge felt like a fine high. God I did miss a challenge. This thing hit hard but so was I. I was able to block most of the hits and counter others. “Now this is a challenge!” I laughed, dodging a punch and throwing a snap kick into the Comob’s leg, just above the knee and hearing a solid ‘crack’. “Not some bullshit skill ceiling like in a Level Five dungeon, but something on par that can take hits as much as dish them out.” I laughed in glee. As we hit each other, the both of us try to slaughter one another. I lost two teeth so far and grew them back and loved it. With a hearty swing I uppercut the monster into the air, jumping high into the air and spin kicking it back down to the ground. It died on impact. “Woo!” I cheered happily. “That was fun.” "Good job." Spike said. "I'd say you scored about an above average." “Good enough start considering I don’t know how strong my body is now and also being a bit new to hand to hand combat...oh, Symbi, didn’t you say you could give me multiple arms or something?” I asked curiously, trying to remember what my Symbiote spouse could do. "Yes and easy. " She said. "Now that we have a good spot on you for hand to hand combat, let's do beastial combat." “Now when you say ‘bestial’, do you mean in Feral form or less ‘precision’ and more ‘raw power’?” I asked curiously. "Feral combat is different than bestial. We stay on two feet for one, but focus on using our feral qualities. Claws, teeth, tail for me." “Sounds simple enough.” I said honestly. “Plus it’ll help me with these.” I said while showing the spikes coming out of my legs and elbows. “Though I do wonder what these are made out of, cause they look like Dark Monofilament but...not.” "Huh… strange. Well, best way to test them out is by cutting something apart… you will like this. Izzie, Fun Combat Round number seven." "Yes Spike." Izzie said. The room changed again. Now it was a large and colorful funhouse type thing. And before me was a beast made of… various… delicious… plump meat in a tall bipedal form. "That is a Feast Beast. Have fun." I was drooling at the delicious looking beast, before shaking my head. “Wait, I have it all to myself?” "Yup. Settings are still set to equal you, and regenerates fast. So cut it, bite it. Eat it. Have fun." “Yay!” I cheered while leaping towards the beast, my beastial urge to devour such a delicious looking animal taking over as I started to carve into the thing with reckless abandon. As I used my claws, teeth and tail as best I can to carve it up and eat it up, it's body growing as fast as I cut it. My elbow sliced up parts of it too and My tail basically made what I hit into ground meat. All in all getting ahold of Beastial style combat was easy, my body felt natural when doing this. “Hmm, this tastes so good.” I said happily. After a While I got a real good hang on this beastial combat style, mixing in some normal types of hand to hand to make a few unique attacks. Just as I was about to bite this things ham-turkey-beef head off again it vanished as I was about to Chow down. Spike ended the fight and the room was blank and normal again. "Not bad at all. You pick up quick and hit a lot of lethal areas." "Well I've learned a lot of Dire Wolf fighting over the years." I said honestly. "Good. Let's spar and practice all that more then Adam can take over." Day 2 Spike was a good teacher, and this whole thing was a good brother/sister bonding experience, as Spike made it clear he only saw me as a sister, mainly cause of my looks which I was fine with. Being a herm meant what comes out comes out, guy, girl, eh. "You really improved your reflexes a lot overnight." Spike said, he and I stretching after a four hour spar. "I've always been a fast learner, even without copycat." I said honestly. "Pretty sure I've taught you what I can. The rest you can find other teachers and review texts and videos like I did. So, Adam's turn." "About time." Adam said, he and Spike swapping. Alright, time for the gauntlets. “Alright, now for gauntlets.” I said while equipping my Nothingness Gauntlets. "Hm. Not bad." Adam said, looking over my gauntlets. "Well made, potent energy." “I got this a long time ago, and have made sure that they’ve stayed about the same upgrade wise as my other weapons but I haven’t used it...like at all.” "I can see that. They are sickly clean and polished." “No need to sound disappointed.” I frowned. "I've fought with brass knuckles since I was five and gauntlets since I was seven, if they aren't stained with dents, scratches and blood, I take offense." Adam said. “I’m sorry I haven’t had the time to use these things.” I frowned. "Well, better late than never." Adam said, their arms flashing in fire as two bright glowing red gauntlets irradiating Hell's Heat. "Put em up." I got into my fighting stance. “Alright, lets get it on.” I growled while dashing forward and throwing a lightning fast jab at his head. They sidestepped it, delivering a hard slug to the gut. I got skirted back a good five feet… I can feel my breast milk boiling… ouch… that things heat is potent. “Alright, so those things are hotter than I first thought…” I muttered while taking a deep breath, before rushing in again, this time weaving from side to side as I threw out a precise haymaker towards his jaw. To my surprise they tanked the hit, jabbing up into my arm I hit them with, then uppercutting my jaw with their other gauntlet. I was knocked up and back two feet. "Sometimes taking a hit let's you dish out your own. Remember, tank hits and dish them out twice as hard." “Sounds about right.” I said while rubbing my jaw. “So let’s try another thing…” I muttered while Nothingness Thorns softly wrapped around my gauntlets as I threw out three jabs, nothingness thorn’s shooting out from my Gauntlets and towards Adam like a bullet. Two blocked with his own gauntlets and the third got his leg. "Not bad. Try mine." They hit the ground. Lava and fire cracking from the ground, at first none hit til the lava began exploding in molten shrapnel, lots of little bits burning through my clothes… damn it. Oh, fuse with Rarity, make the best and preferably indestructible outfits. Gonna get on that asap. “Well, at least I came up with an idea during that.” I muttered. “So lava pillars...sounds about right given your gauntlets.” I said. “Let’s see…” I raised my fist and punched the ground, my Gauntlet pulsating as the ground slowly cracked before Nothingness Thorns burst from the ground and tried to skewer Adam. As they got close Adam he slammed both his together, the shockwave disrupting them. "The best uses of gauntlets rely on their AoE attacks when range is required in combat." “Right…” I muttered, sending out more Nothingness Thorns as a Feint as I bolted behind them, enough Thorns to hide which way I was going to come in for a right straight. I managed to get in a clean hit but as I did Adam got me square on top of my head, the two of us hitting the ground hard. "Heh. Not bad at all." “Still got a ways to go.” I said while getting up quickly. “Ow…” Adam jumped up, clashing their gauntlets. "Let's try something different. Impact Damage. Know it?" “I mean, besides what the name says?” I asked. “But what is Impact Damage? Cause it sounds like there’s more than just the obvious.” "It is basically as the name says. Small point of impact with maximum damage. We charge up power in the swing and in the gauntlet and then we hit. Perfect for creating large-scale explosions and area of effect attacks. " “Sounds about right.” I said simply. “So is that going to be the next thing I’m learning with these?” "Yes. It's an easy to learn, borderline abusable move every gauntlet fighter with their teeth should know." “Sounds about right.” I said simply. "No best way to practice it than with a good, old fashioned mountain." Obliging without an order, the room spawned in a Mountain easily the size of MT Everest. "Deliver an Impact Damage hit to the base, the goal is to level the whole thing." I thought about how I could do it, given that just a single full on punch isn’t really what Adam was looking for...but then I remembered something from Ruroni Kenshin. “Oh yeah, I almost forgot about that ability.” I muttered to myself as I raised my hand, softly knocking the stone and feeling how tough it was. “Alright...here goes nothing.” I said while I punched the base of the Mountain, Adam noticing my punch seemed a little light, before I clenched my fist and the entire Mountain was leveled and...quite a distance away from it. “Wow, that has a lot more kick to it.” I blinked in surprise. "Not bad." “I remembered this technique from an old Anime, the ‘Mastery of Two Layers’.” I said. “The main concept is that things have resistance in some way shape or form, so you effectively hit something twice with one attack to punch through all that ‘resistance’.” I explained. "Cool. Speaking of resistance, show me your Shield." “Um...I don’t think your talking about Frozen Pride here right?” I asked nervously, not entirely sure if he means my actual shield or something else. "Yeah. This is also an important move to know." “Alright.” I said while pulling out Frozen Pride. “Is this another armor piercing ability or is it how to get past a shield?” "One of two ways, yes." “Alright, so what do you need?” I asked, preparing for him to do something. "I'm going to demonstrate a rather mama heavy use of bypassing shields. Phasing Punch." “Nifty.” I said honestly. "Ready?" “Ready as I’ll ever be.” I said while preparing to get punched as I held up Frozen Pride at the ready. I saw Adam's gauntlet look almost ethereal as he swung it. It phased through Frozen Pride, my hand and punched me right in the boob hard. Hard enough to force out a good gallon of milk from it… ouch that made my nipple more sore than the punch... “You punched me in the boob.” I frowned. "Given your torso I can't punch your body anywhere torso wise without also hitting a boob." Adam countered. “Still hurt…” I muttered. “So that’s a nifty ability, how much MP does it cost?” "Half. Doesn't matter how much mo you have, always half." “Damn.” I blinked. “That’s...quite a bit.” "Yeah, sucks but eh. Next one takes no magic though, and I promise I will fix your Shield." “You better.” I frowned while preparing myself for the attack. Nodding, Adam punched, his gauntlet glowing with unfiltered power, and I felt a part of me die inside at hearing an audible crack…Only for Adam to stop his attack as his gauntlet fell off his arm in pieces, Frozen Pride unscratched. "That's one tough Shield… cause that attack has never failed before." “Okay so...what the hell did you try to do? Just brute force it or something?” I inquired. "Overclock Pierce. It breaks even dark Monofilament." “Wow, so this is even stronger than Dark Monofilament huh? That’s incredible.” I said happily. "Looks like I'll have to upgrade my gauntlets then. Well, that embarrassment aside, looks like you understand more than enough on hand to hand combat. Both armed and unarmed." “Good to know.” I nodded. “Always a fast learner, but always glad to learn new things.” "Well, you're good for now. Head off, go have fun, fuck someone, we're done here." “Really? That’s it?” I asked curiously. "Spike taught you hand to hand, using gauntlets is just a few steps up from that." “Alright.” I nodded. “Thanks for the help, but I’ll need to look for others to learn more about hand to hand I suppose cause I know there’s a lot to it.” "All sorts of styles and all that yes." “So I’m gonna have to do some world traveling after this...like normal.” I shrugged. "Have fun with that." With time to kill I decided to have some fun and payed Heart a visit in their office. Show off the new look and all that. "Woah… that's different." Heart said. “Yep.” I said while striking a pose. “If you felt a massive headache before, then that was Symbi going through a similar transformation.” "Ah. So, care to talk while I do paperwork? “Sure.” I said simply. “So, want me to start with what the hell I am?” "First." Heart said, snapping their fingers as I felt magic flow over me. I was shrunk to the size of a Barbie doll and Heart used their tail to snugly tug me between their top cleavage. "Okay, go on." Heart said with a smile. I chuckled. “Well to start, me, Symbi and Cript are all now a ‘Goodhood Race’, something Asmith made that rivals Admin’s in power...but the only thing that confuses all of us is how Admin’s turn into these after going beyond their limits…” "Huh… that is weird. And there is no clear connection?" “Not as far as Asmith said. And he created the race.” I said simply. “But all I know is that there is now physically no limit to my power...and yet it feels natural.” "Cool. How's having three eyes feel?" “Well I can see more things, and can see in many, many different ways.” I said honestly. "Cool. Oh, by the way, Eclipsa is down there too. If she starts to blow you, just let it happen." “I want a cuddle though…” I huffed. “Blowjobs are nice, but sometimes a wolf just want’s a cuddle.” "Eh. Hence why I keep her in my bra. Sexy cuddles. Course she has starfish clones too so she does all her normal stuff too." “Alright...I should spend time with Eclipsa sometime…” I said while resting in between Heart's breasts. “So I learned a bunch about hand to hand combat from Spike and Adam.” "Cool. Who are they again? Late to joining this family and I don't know much of anyone." “Spike is Lyra and Cript’s first adopted son, the one that Max...killed and then came back cause death legit means nothing half the time.” I said. “And Adam, the first Man, is the current ruler of Hell.” "Ha." Heart laughed at the part about Adam. “Yeah, it is kind of funny.” I shrugged. "So, enjoy being tiny?" “I mean, is it any different from when I’m normal size? I mean...sure I did grow an extra foot but eh.” I shrugged. "Well you can't fit between my boobs when you are normal sized." “You still shove my head between them every chance you get.” I pointed out. “But I think I should shrink down like...two feet, cause at the moment I’m like, nine, ten feet tall at this point.” "True. That is a tad massive. Oh, and I spoke with Lyra, our little… daybut, is scheduled. People in attendance are expected to be close to a few… thousand. Course they think we will be shapeshifters, so you best get that new look of yours in the public eye so they don't suspect." “Already on it.” I said honestly. “My new look might cause a few head scratches, but it shouldn’t be too bad.” I said sheepishly. "People find you sexy regardless." Heart said, grabbing more papers. "So, excited your fantasy fetish is gonna happen in a few days?" “Well...hope I don’t get too excited.” I said sheepishly. "Heh. It's gonna get views live, live streamed, recorded and then sold in a video. DVD and digital. Gonna feel some dirty pride from that?" “Whoever’s gonna be with me is probably not gonna be moving around for a while.” I said sheepishly. "That will be yours truely." Heart said with a giggle that made their breasts and me jiggle a bit, making me sink deeper into their soft mounds. "I did promise after all." “Well then have fun not slithering about for a day or two.” I said sheepishly. "Oh I have a good resting place in mind, just make sure to give the girls and my throat equal attention you'll be given my cunt." “Oh I’ll be making sure everything is filled.” I chuckled. "Ooh~ some days I wish Floof Noodles had asses. Anyway, that aside, do anything else?" “I tried out a Level 5 dungeon, it’s bullshit.” I said simply. "You call a lot of things bullshit. Care to explain in a paragraph long rant?" "Not really a paragraph." I shrugged. "The main problem about it is that level five is said to be challenging, not 'can barely get through the first room'." I frowned. "There's a difference between the two." "You ever play a dark souls game?" Heart said with a chuckle, making me sink more between their breasts. "Or Flappy Bird?" "I have, and neither of them are difficult, or unfair with what they are doing." I said simply. "Now that is bullshit. At least the part about Flappy Bird. So, if you sink completely into my chest flesh, what ya gonna do?" "Well I'm not going to." I said while starting to get out of Heart's cleavage. "But what's the point you're trying to make?"trying to make?” I asked curiously. "No point. An offer though." Heart said, putting a finger to my head and pushing me back in a little. "Care to listen?" “Alright.” I nodded. “What do you have to say?” "Well, I have a strong feeling you'll be keeping a starfish clone at the porn studio to endlessly endulge, correct?" “Maybe?” I thought. “Who knows.” "Well, in keeping fairness I figured we can all endulge one another. As you know Eclipsa enjoys being the submissive pet, especially in a good mood like she is now, her date with Shy went great and they're going on another one later in the month. So, how's about you and Eclipsa can be my pets, and in the same boat Eclipsa and I can be yours, and I'm sure somewhere we will both be Eclipsa's while also enjoying all we can do with one another. Sound fair?" “Even if I get off on being dominant...I’ve never been a fan of that cause...it feels degrading to me, either being the pet, or being the master and...I don’t fully know why.” "I mean, in the end it's all roleplay, no different than our little teenage romances back on Earth. It's all about trust with roleplay. And sex, of course." “I know I know.” I sighed out. “Just wanting you to know, alright?” "Fair enough. And hey, we won't go too far for you to handle alright? The same better apply to me with your public sex thing. I better be Invisible and sound canceled to all but you if we do that throne room bit you fantasized about." “Don’t worry, I won’t go too far.” I said with a raised hand. "Until I'm ready at least~" Heart cooed, giving me a kiss that shoved me back between their breasts, this time all that was out was my head. "If you're willing, this can be your first submissive pet play role. Sit snugly between my breasts while I work." “Fine fine.” I said while enjoying the soft furred breasts. As Heart worked I enjoyed the soft, fluffy/fleshy embrace if their breasts, wrapping around my body like a blanket. Heart just read and signed or stamped away at documents as I began to doze off." [He] I woke up unsure when but still happily wrapped in Heart's boobies as they were still writing and stamping away at paperwork. “Jeez, how much paperwork have you been doing?” I yawned. "Pretty much endless. You've been out for about seven hours by the way. So, how's it feel being a bra stuffer pet?" Heart asked with a grin. “It’s fluffy in here.” I said warmly. "Warm too I hope." “Yes it is.” I said happily. "Now then, how did you sleep?" “I slept wonderfully.” I said happily. “A good sleep after a hard day’s work.” "Well send another out there for work and keep your sexy, tiny ass there and you can be relaxing all you want in what I consider the most comfy place in the multiverse." “I mean, you should have a racial skill that let’s your fur act like it’s own demi-plane.” I said honestly. "Probably, just lazy to check." “I mean, you have a lot of things to check with your skill tree’s.” I said honestly. "Likely. So, going to enjoy your stay in my breast fluff?" “Of course.” I said with a smile. "Need a drink?" “Yes please.” I said politely. Nodding, Heart magiced in an ice cold large cup of soda, placing it between their boobs in front of me and handing me the straw. "Enjoy." They said with a wink. “Thank you.” I said while magicking a straw and drinking the cold soda. "So how's the others?" “Gonna need to be a little specific there.” I said honestly. "Jenny, aunt Nancy… is she still my aunt?" Heart pondered. "Just the others in general. Or have you met anyone new in the family?" “She’s technically a new person since she lost her old memories for new ones.” I said honestly. “Jenny’s doing fine, joked about me bending her over and dominating her cause of course she would.” I rolled my eyes. “So many people to meet and I haven’t finished meeting all of them…” "Well… are you?" “Am I what?” I asked, wondering what Heart meant. "Are you gonna have sex with Jenny?" “Um...maybe?” I said nervously. “I don’t know really.” "Well, as her cousin, all I can say is it will likely be as awkward as it was for me with Eclipsa the first few days. Given from earth we were cousins." “Sounds about right.” I shrugged. “But as long as it’s all consensual I suppose.” "True. I mean hell, technically speaking I am both yours and Eclipsa's child and we fuck all the time." “Yeah, that is true.” I shrugged. "So, got any plans by the way? While prepping Eclipsa for her date with Shy the other day she mentioned the lower district has amazing smokehouses, lower meaning Underground, central means on the ground and upper means up in the air. God this kingdom is cool." "It is. But I don't really have much planned. I still have to finish the Heroes Tomb with Coco, Kexez and Jericho, I have Kite's whole thing, and a whole lot more." I shrugged. "Think you can squeeze in a date night with Eclipsa and I at a smokehouse then?" “Sure, I can do that.” I said honestly. "Great. This is gonna be a great date." While a copy of me stayed with Heart and Eclipsa eternally in Heart's office as a mini bra pet, another me went into research about Shadow Drugs in my own office. In short I was hitting the same dead ends as everyone else. “Jeez...even though I have eyes damn near everywhere, how do I know nothing the FBI doesn't already know?” I muttered with a frown. All in all I can not find anything about it's point of origin, no known factories, no known anything, just the dealers all sharing the same proven story, the crates just appeared and that was that. “How the hell have they been doing this for so long without any leads?” I was looking through the lists of all known dealers who actually sold what was given to them. One of the earliest were random terrorist and purest groups, but one, a human named Cameron Savves, had a history with Cript, the two having clashed from well before he was all powerful and these days Cameron occupies a cell in a prison called The Vault. “Well...I should be able to go there…” I hummed while deciding to head off to the Vault to figure this shit out. The Vault was two hundred miles underground, ready to blow at any escape attempts notice and guarded to the teeth.. “Well...this place is...something.” I said while I carefully moved over to the receptionist to see if I can talk to Cameron. "Oh, hello there Royal King, how may I help you?" The receptionist asked. “I’d like to see Cameron Savves please.” I said. “I have some questions I need to ask him.” "Oh? Very well, I'll call a guard up to escort you." “Thank you.” I nodded. After a bit, a guard came and took me. Four elevator rides, nine security checks and fifteen ten foot thick locked doors later, we arrived at Cameron's cell. The man was thin, tall with a shaved head, sporting a prisoners orange jumpsuit behind bars and a wall of energy. "Been a while since I had a visitor. What's the occasion?" They asked, not even standing up from their small spring bed. “You knowing something about Shadow Drugs is a good start.” I said simply. "Shadow Drugs? I know they sell well, forty thousand rem an injector, got a killer side effect. What do you think you can pick out of me cops and Cript himself couldn't already?" “I’m just curious as to how you obtained them. Because from what I heard they just magically appear out of thin air.” I said simply. "They do. Went to bed in my hideout, woke up with a crate of them in the corner of my bedroom. There something familiar in that sentence?" “It’s the same thing I heard, but I know you know something about them.” I said simply while turning to the guard. “What am I allowed to do to him if I may ask?” "Nothing Royal King. Nothing goes in or out aside from his meals and the tray." “Alright.” I said while looking at the convict and blinking, my eyes glowing green as I scanned him and his very code, looking into what this bastard truly knows. I saw all the crimes he'd done and they all made me wanna kill him. Scanning his memories leading up to that day he sold some weapons and such to random buyers behind an alleyway. Looking at the crate when it appeared it was simple wood. When he opened it inside were the drugs and a note, typed and it said Sell. And he did, sold to many people… looking between who bought weapons and who bought the drugs, one face was the same person who bought both. An Equestrian. “So who is this Equestrian that seemed to be one of your favorite buyers?” I asked curiously. "Gonna be specific or am I gonna have to guess?" “Someone that always bought your drugs and weapons, a very common buyer from what I can see.” I said honestly, also giving a quick description of the Equestrian. "Heh. Don't know his name, just that he pays in cash always, like all my customers. Started off buying guns then bought an Injector, and mostly bought ammo after that." “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “Well I have the looks of the Equestrian, so now I can start going off of that.” "Have fun with that." “Don’t worry, I will.” I said simply while taking my leave. Searching the databases of names and such, looking for the face that belongs to this equine was taking forever. “Jesus hell it shouldn’t be taking this long, especially with the supercomputers we have…” I frowned. The main thing that was taking so long was that this equine face seemed almost generic. As much as I would hate to admit this, if not for their unique colors and hairstyles Equestrian Equines would look a lot alike. "Find anything?" Ciel asked as he stepped into my office. “Well, I’m trying to find literally the most generic Equestrian I have ever seen in my life because Cameron Savves apparently had a pretty frequent buyer of his, especially when he started selling Shadow Drugs.” "Hm. Can I see the photo?" I brought out the photo of the Equestrian in question to Ciel. “Know them?” "Hmm. No, but I know why you can't ID them. See the nose area and lips? They're slightly fuzzy, and not in the means of hair. It's an image inducer, everyone from celebrities to people in witness protection use them for public outings to be undetected." “Would have loved to know that before…” I grumbled. "There is a way to bypass them, even from a photograph, but we need a TechnoMage." “And where would they be?” I asked curiously. "I know of one who works with the Grim Reapers, others do largely freelance work across the kingdom." “Alright, so let’s go meet the one you know.” I said simply. "If you insist. I'll send him a message to see when he can arrive." Ciel said, sending a message via assistant. “It’s at least a lead.” I shrugged. "True." “Even if it’s just a buyer, the buyer was around Sevvas way too much for it to be a ‘regular’.” "You believe him to be either the distributor or linked to him?" “Either he’s linked to it, or he knows something about it, cause no random Equestrian would just have an image inducer, even if they were buying shit off the black market.” I said simply. "True. They are expensive to buy. And as far as I know they don't get dropped in dungeons below level fives as a boss drop, so anyone aquereing one that way is unlikely… it might be hand made and if that is the case we may have a possible lead." “Hooray for a lead.” I said happily. "The key item in making the circuit boards in an image inducer is Kioltrian Crystals, and within the kingdom there are only four dungeons that drop it as an item. If we scan their entry data from over the years and before Cameron got the drugs we can see who has frequented them all as the crystal is a one in ten thousand drop chance and only from floor bosses." “Perfect.” I nodded. "I'll message dad about sending us access to the dungeon records." “Alright, so we got stuff to do to figure out where these bastards are cool.” Ciel and I got the records and began searching through them all for anyone who made very frequent trips. We had three suspects, all Equestrian. Sunburst, to my surprise, Holly Sunflower and Daisy Day. “Well, that’s curious.” I said honestly. “Didn’t think it was one of these three…” "You should never have expectations when it comes to the underworld. So, how should we go about this then?" “Just visit them, nothing too special, just casually head into their work and I can do a quick scan of them. Simple.” I shrugged. "I doubt that." "Why do you say that?" I asked curiously. "These people have gone through incredible leaps and bounds to not be detected, I doubt a scan of their code will be enough or even bear fruit if they are trying to keep hidden." “I doubt they even know I can look into someone’s code.” I pointed out. “Plus, considering how things are, it’s now just ‘pick the liar’, two are innocent one is guilty. That’s why I said start off casual.” "How? Royals like us can't exactly be casual around normal people, and citizens of the kingdom. And if one of them sees a pair of royals arrive at their doorstep they'd bolt. And from what I gather you can't hide in that form, can you? Or rather, shapeshift like normal in that form." “The only thing that stays is the third eye and my new skull helm.” I said as I shapeshifted into a being that Ciel knew had three eyes. “I can shapeshift freely just as normal, and the race I chose to hide as has a history of shamanism, so the wolf skull with ornaments won’t be too out there.” I shrugged. “If you insist. I will take an Image Inducer of my own.” “Alright.” I nodded. “Well, let’s get going then...now which one should we see first?” “Sunflower, she seems the lowest profile and from appearance she seems the least likely.” “Alright, let’s go meet Sunflower.” I nodded. Ciel and I went over to Sunflower’s house. She lived in a loft in a nice neighborhood. We knocked on her door, Ciel’s Image Inducer made him look like a blonde haired green eyed teen with tanned skin. "Alright, according to Izzie, Sunflower's daily routine should place her at home about now. We'll be fast and quick." “Alright, fast and quick.” I nodded. We knocked on the door, Sunflower was a pegasus mare, bright yellow hair with acorn brown body fur and. “Yes, may I help you two?” “Hello.” I said politely, my eyes glowing green as I scanned over Sunflower. “I was told you were one of the two most well known Equestrian Herbalist’s am I correct?” “... No, I’m a professional Adventurer. I kill monsters and sell the loot I don’t use or need. Mainly from dungeons.” She answered. “Sorry, must have gotten the wrong address.” Ciel said. My scan was done and we headed off. “Kind of thought she would have been into plants given the name…” I muttered. “Equestrians all have names based on their special talent…” “That’s Equestria, this is our Kingdom. For Equestrians they do still have Cutie Marks and special talents, but it’s not much related to their names anymore given the endless possibilities.” “Alright, that’ll be a thing to figure out…” I sighed out. “But I got all her info, now to check if she’s clean or not…” Reviewing all her memories and code, she was. Her trips to all those dungeons were for business. Requests for a weapon or item or just for fun and profit. So, onto Daisy Days. “Alright, so Daisy is probably also an adventurer…” I muttered. “It is a fairly common and easy to acquire job.” Ciel said. “Let’s get going.” “Alright, hopefully we’ll figure this out soon…” I said worriedly. Daisy Days lived in a house, blue paint and white fence. Two kids playing in the yard. “Don’t get sidetracked.” Ciel said as we walked up to the house. “So we’re probably going to get side tracked.” I said. “I mean the children. If she is the culprit, don’t let the kids deter you. Family or not, if she’s our target, don’t let her being a mother affect your choices here.” I closed my eyes. “You’re making this a little too hard for me just on that alone…” When the kids saw us they ran inside, Daisy Days walking to the door. “Hello? Who are you two if I may ask?” I scanned Daisy quickly. “Hi, I’m going door to door sales person on King’s new book about Mothering.” I said while pulling out a book I did legitimately make. “All sorts of tips and tricks that you didn’t know were there to help with taking care of kids, no matter if it’s your first or god knows how many cause King lost count.” I said as that was the main tagline of my book “Heh. No thanks, I’m good. Books are good but parents help way better. Are you selling anything else?” “Actually we can ask you that.” Ciel stated. “We heard you are a professional Adventurer?” “My husband and I, yeah. We swap every week or so. You looking for something?” “Well what do you have?” I inquired curiously. “My husband focuses on the big sellers, armors, potions and weapons. I grab those too but I focus on raw materials.” “What kind of raw materials are we talking about?” I asked curiously, wondering what raw materials she found in her adventures as my scanning was closer to getting done. “Basic stuff mostly. Iron ore, gold, copper, diamonds, the usual. Sometimes get a few rare things, that is where the money is for raw materials.” “Well what are the rare items?” I asked, my scan complete now but just curious as to what she found. “Rarest thing I ever found was Kioltrian Crystals. Those got me ten grand each.” "Care if we buy one if you have them?" I asked curiously. “Little late on that pal. My whole lot was bought by someone a year ago. Haven’t gotten to find another yet.” “Did they give a name?” I asked curiously. “I sold it online. Pretty sure I can find the address I shipped them too, might be able to hope they still have one to sell.” “Alright, thank you.” I nodded. “Any information is welcome.” The address we followed was that of an apartment building. We spoke to who was there and they were not who we needed. Records and their code say that the prior renter moved out months ago. We checked records of who rented the unit from before and got two people. Guess who was roommate number one… “So it looks like this Sunburst is our man.” Ciel said as we saw the same Sunburst on our to check list was one of the prior renters. “Well...let’s just hope he won’t take this too hard.” I said nervously. We headed to where Sunburst lived, in a loft in a small town area of the kingdom. “Wonder how he’ll react to all of this…” I muttered. "If he is our guy he'll run. If not then we are back to square one." “But it’s at least something…” I muttered as I knocked on Sunburst’s front door. There wasn't a response. Ciel and I gave each other a look. All I needed to do to unlock the door was touch it. Still being a living X-Blade and all. Inside I was startled to see Sunburst was dead, a single gunshot to his head with a note on printed paper saying 'No Loose Ends'. "God damn it… we should have come here first." Ciel huffed. “So about me making this a none issue.” I said while pulling out my Lexicon and Sage Staff. “Grand Resurrection.” I said as I casted a very powerful revive spell on Sunburst as his head wound started to patch up and Ciel literally saw Sunburst coming back to life. As Sunburst's body moved his eyes… still looks lifeless. "I was worried as such." Ciel said, grabbing Sunburst by the jaw and examining his eyes. "His soul was taken, but not by a Grimm Reaper. But… the heart holds records too. Care to put Heart's powers to the test here?" “Sure.” I said while focusing on using Heart’s powers. “Cause even if his soul is gone, his heart is still here, and also his code so I...don’t really know what they thought would happen here…” I said slowly. "Hmm… either they don't know you are with me, or it's a trap of sorts?" “You mean you aren’t fully expecting this to be a trap?” I asked curiously while starting to get his heart's memories as well as scanning his code cause, even though he’s dead, his code was still all there. His memories of his death were corrupted, but his memories of getting those crystals were clear. He and his roommate seemed to have made them into the computer parts they are needed to make, then sold them online. Thankfully the address is nearby. Guess he just makes parts out of the raw materials. “Well alright, our next lead is nearby actually.” I said honestly. "Good. Lead the way."” “Let’s hope they’re also fine…” I muttered while heading off to finding the next person quickly. We got to them and they lead us elsewhere. And that led us elsewhere and repeat until we somehow looped back to Sunburst. I am not sure when or how that even happened but it was then we realized this trail leading in circles was the trap. We were back at square one with no leads. "Well that was a waste of time." Ciel sighed, the two of us back at his place. "Well, did you get any messages from your friend?" I asked curiously. "Not yet. Sometimes it just takes time, but with luck he will send the news tomorrow. If anything we found hunt down a few black markets and take at least illegal weapons off the underworld markets for a while." "Alright." I nodded. "Sorry for getting us caught in a loop...could have sworn it was something…" "So, how does it feel, knowing that who we have been chasing made you Chase down your own tail without you realizing?" "I'm going to torture this bastard for making us waste our time." I frowned. "I'll join you." To be continued...
Nobody deals with stuffThe days as Kite flew by like a dream sometimes. Mom and Matilda got along a little better but tension was still clear, more of Clockwerk's Cooper Bots began running around Russia, making ten in total so far. Everyone got their Keyblades and for the most part were all adept at them. Overall things were going well, and finally the day came. Time to take Mugshot. “Alright, time to take down Mugshot.” I said while stretching a bit. “About damn time though…” "On top of his gang Mugshot also has trained the army and secret service patrolling Mesa right now. Getting in will be the Ultimate test of stealth if we do it without setting off alarms." Matilda said, gathering her gear together. “So a simple walk in the park right?” I asked simply. "Don't get too cocky, we may be using Keyblades and other powers of yours on top of what we have so far of the thievius raccoonus, but that doesn't make it automatically easy. If he is using government issue tech and security it will be difficult just to pass the city limits." “While it is nice to doubt, I doubt they have tech to see through true invisibility.” I said simply. “Nothing like being able to now use my powers and the Cooper techniques to start having some real fun.” I chuckled. "It's called thermal vision visors." “Yeah, True Invisibility gets past that and a fuck ton more things.” I said simply. “Magic can do wonders, especially when you're mixing it with natural abilities.” I said honestly. “But while being unseen is one thing, not setting off laser systems is another.” "I just believe it's best to put more stock in planning over abilities alone." “Why do you think I’m still here?” I asked simply. "To show off and be the distraction." “No, that would be Sly trying to impress Carmalita.” I joked. “But I’m still here cause I know how good a plan is, and also to explain anything that all of you might still not know about for said plans.” I said honestly. "Well, what are you gonna do? You sound like there is something you wanna add." “All depends on what everyone else is going to do.” I said simply. “Cause I’d rather not…” I sighed out. “I’d rather not just do my own thing and get everyone hurt...or worse…” I said sadly, knowing that from experience. "So long as we stick to the plan it should go all well. Come on, Bentley has to have it ready by now." “Alright.” I nodded while heading off to the debriefing room. Once there we all took a seat. "Now then, the time has come to head to Mesa City. First things first is the point of entry. Mugshot has beefed security up to twenty, and even with all our new skills and abilities it will be a challenge. First up, there is only one entrance and exit from Mesa City, and that's Highway 907, but thankfully there is another, just as dangerous but undetected way I'm and that is through the desert and over to the ruined bridge that once connected the city to highway 85. Once we arrive, we will have to embark on foot into the city." “Sounds simple so far.” I nodded. "Once at the broken bridge we can use the Light Walker Technique to get across to the other side and from there we deal with armed guards, more lasers and cameras than fort Knox, auto turrets, highly trained bite to kill guard dogs and military grade fortifications." “Like a walk through the park.” I chuckled. "We'll have to deal with all of this before getting into Mesa City, so begins Operation Battering Ram. Kite, you'll be heading to the main power supply and using those crazy knives of yours to fry out the main power grid for the area. Sly and Carmalita will then Light Walk up to a radio controle room to knock out the guards, it does have a backup generator. Lastly to be fast Matilda and Violet will fly over on gliders to cast large sleep spells to knock everyone else out. Murray and Lana will get the van across with their gliders." “Sounds about right.” I nodded. “I’m gonna have fun with Foudre.” “Isn’t that french for lightning?” Carmalita asked. “Yes it is, the naming convention for them was on point.” I said honestly. "Once the van is across we head on in, and recon out for phase two." "Sounds about right." I said simply. "But...let's be careful, Clockwerk has been making more Cooper Bots and Mugshot has been doing this crap so that bastard owl gets off his back." I was brought up. "There haven't been any reported in the states, most are all still located in Russia." Matilda said. “Key word is ‘most’.” I said simply. “Now I doubt Clockwerk will send any to Mugshot...but I’m paranoid about minor chances.” "You're paranoid about everything." Sly said with a laugh. "Remember when you were six and swore up and down the island was gonna get hit by a tidal wave when we had that week of storms?" “And you think that a week-long storm, on an island, wouldn’t cause at least something bad to happen?” I asked. "Nothing aside from that cold you got from trying to keep at a safe height level by camping up atop the mountain for the whole of it."” “Not my fault I was prepared.” I said simply. “That’s what we’re supposed to be right? Prepared for anything?” "There is prepared for anything, then there is self harming paranoia." Matilda stated. "Whatever." I rolled my eyes. "So back on topic." "Well so far that is all. Once inside we can set up shop in one of the many abandoned buildings in town and begin recon to plan out for phase two. And if need be phase three." Bentley finished. “Alright.” I nodded. “Let’s get going then.” We drove off up to the destroyed bridge, Matilda and I on gliders removing any road obstacles in the way. Once to the bridge's end Bentley set up the light lasers and we ran across them to the other side. Bentley wasn't joking. The amount of cameras and guards here was ridiculous. Thankfully we slipped by all of them and managed to play our parts properly with the only hiccup being when the radio tower door was locked from the inside. Thankfully my Cane did the trick easy to open it up. With that final part done we were just waiting for Murray and Lana to fly the van over the cavern below. “Hmm…” I hummed with a frown. “They should have gotten here by now…” "Who?" Mom asked. “Murray and Lana, shouldn’t they have come to the rendezvous point after getting the Van in a safe place?” I pointed out. "The van is heavy and their Gliders should only go so fast when carrying it. Last thing we want is for the van to fall into a Canyon." Bentley said. “While that’s true, they have done heavy lifting rather fast if it’s the two of them…” I said honestly. "Ten bucks says they stopped to make out." Carmalita said with a chuckle. "I'll take that bet." Sly added with his own laugh. I brought up my binocucom. “Murray, Lana, you two okay or are you sucking face while we’re not looking?” I asked the hippo and russian wolf. "We're fine Kite, just taking it slow over this ravine. The van is heavier than expected, could use a little help if you'd please." Murray said as they answered. “Alright, I’ll be right there.” I told them while bringing out my glider. “I’ll be right back, gonna help Murray and Lana real quick.” I flew up and over to the ravene. Murray and Lana we're about halfway to the other side when I arrived. I used chains of light to wrap around the van and helped them fly it across faster. "Thanks Kite. Darn van ended up being heavier than expected for two gliders." Murray said. "Thank you for the assist." Lana said. “No problem. And I wonder why the van’s heavier, normally you two would be able to carry this thing no problem…” I hummed curiously. "Bently and uncle Jim added some new armor to it, making it like a tank. Heavy like one too." Murray stated. “Cause when you need your get away van to be bulletproof but also go a couple hundred miles an hour.” I chuckled. "Let's meet up with the others and head into Mesa City." I hopped into the van with Muray and Lana and we picked up the rest and began driving into Mesa City. On our way into a tunnel I got a bad feeling, and it came to light when someone jumped in front of the van. A large, massive Cooper Bot, eyes glowing blue as it punched the van all the way back out of the tunnel and onto its side. As we got out and I got a better look at the thing. The Cooper Bots all were generally shaped like their old Bodies. The size of this was made clear. Robert ‘Ancor’ Cooper, or to Sly and I, Grandpa. Dad's, well, dad, was unlike most other Cooper's, he was built like a machine, famous for brute Force thefts over stealth ones. Clockwerk killed him was dad was just six. And now here he is, his mind and soul stuck in a body he can't control. “Well I sure hope somebody picks up that phone.” I started. “What?” Lana started. “Because I fucking called it.” I frowned as I got out of the Van. “Get the others out of here. I need to have a...heart to heart with grandpa.” I told Murray bluntly as I shifted into my Valor Form, holding Skysplitter and Lunatic at the ready. "We aren't leaving." Murray said as he got out. "Not in a million years." Sly said as he and Carmalita got out. "Always wanted to meet your grandpa." Mom said, pulling Matilda and Lana out. "I'll stay here." Bentley said. I shook my head. “Just stay back alright? I lost enough family, I don’t need to lose more…” I said. “Especially given who we’re up again.” I growled as I prepared to fight the cooper bot. "Well I'm not losing my brother because he's got a hero complex." Sly hissed as he ran up next to me. “If you say so.” I said while slamming Skysplitter into the ground, the ground cracking as a weirdly shaped spike of earth rushed at the bot. He tanked it like it was pebbles and began charging. I would have used Lunatic to clash with his fist had Sly not pulled me out if the way, the swing from his fist hitting air making enough force to blast the air, and us, into the wind. "What did uncle M always say about powerful opponents?" Sly asked once we landed. “Gonna need to be a little specific on that one bro, cause he said a lot of things.” I said honestly. Sly rolled his eyes. "Observe first, attack later. We need to run, all of us." He said, grabbing hold of my arm tightly to enforce his point. "And research this thing. See if it even has an exploitable weakness. Remember, we are thieves, not heroes. We can choose to run from a fight." “Why do you think I told you to run?” I frowned as I swapped Skysplitter with Sharpshooter. "That thing tanked your strongest weapons attack, what will those do?" “You think that was my strongest attack?” I asked him while firing several arrows at the bot’s joints. “You have a lot to learn still.” The bolts bounced off the bot. "Yeesh you're overconfident." Sly said, rolling his eyes. “I shot at its joints…” I frowned while getting out of Sly’s hold. “That’s it, I’m getting really fucking pissed.” I growled as Lunatic glowed brighter as my fur stood on end and crackled with energy. A pain filled my hands, one I never felt before when using Lunatic. Shit, my body can't stabilize the Lunatic like it did before… why? “Can’t even use the basic rage this stupid thing gives me?” I asked, only infuriating me more. “So remember when I told you all to start running? What did you think I was going to do? Show off that I could take on a Cooper Bot by myself like an idiot or be smart about this?” I asked them all simply. "Knowing you, the prior. Remember your first attempt at the Cooper Vault obstacles? And the ninth? And the fiftieth?" “You mean actually training to better myself?” I frowned. “And to that, I tell you that it’s the latter.” I told him. “But no, I’m only allowed to do things at face value…” I shook my head. “Just get to the rendezvous, I’ll distract him long enough and record what I can, and when you all get to safety I’ll get to you alright?” "How will you get away from that thing?"” “We’re thieves, we always have an escape plan.” I said simply. With that I used their warp ability to move out, Sly sneaking through to gather our family. When I got in close I warped out of his swing and placed a camera in some nearby rubble. “Alright.” I stretched a little bit. “Let’s see how durable you really are, old man.” I said while equipping Foudre and vanishing from the speed boost I got and swung Graceful Dahlia at the cooper bots legs. It jumped, nearly swinging at me but with Foudre’s speed I dodged swiftly before rushing back in, taking a swing at it’s torso. It then caught the tip of Graceful Dahlia before impact, pushing it and me backsome before it’s right arm and wrist shifted, looking like it was melting til I saw it was changing form to take shape into a large hook shape. His Cane. “Well...that’s interesting.” I said while swapping out Graceful Dahlia with my Cane as I twirled it steadily. “Alright grandpa, let’s get on with it.” I said as I spun my Cane faster and faster as balls of lightning spawned from it as I swung my Cane, sending them all towards him. With his cane arm he swiftly and rapidly caught each ball in his hook, slamming them all down to the ground and making a massive electric based AOE. While it hit, I wasn’t hurt but I heard my earpiece and Binocucom spark out. Shit, he made an EMP. “Note to self, figure out a way to make these things EMP proof…” I muttered, thankfully the EMP was a short range so it didn’t affect the camera I had hidden. “Alright, punchies it is then.” I said while rushing forward, a ball of fire formed in the center of my cane as I flung it at the ground in front of the bot, before a plume of blue smoke rushed up, distracting the bot even with it’s machinery. ”Thank god Cooper techniques can work with magic.” I thought to myself as I went to the side to try and trip it while it was distracted. I slid over and hooked it’s ankle, pulling… did nothing… How much does this thing weigh?! It yanked me in then kicked me in the face. I tasted blood and… yup, yup that’s a tooth gone… christ mom and Sly will be hounding me for this. I cast cure, the major damage healing but sadly cure can’t heal missing teeth. I pulled out Eternal Flames. Let’s see if it melts. “Burn Baby!” I shouted as Eternal Flames spun wildly as the ground erupted in flames, rushing straight to the bot like snakes ready to strike. “Salamanders Rage!” I shouted as pillars of fire erupted underneath the Bot at high enough heat to literally melt rock. It sunk into the molten earth below it. As it’s head sunk in I took a breath in relief, until it burst back out, seemingly undamaged save for a red hot glow and part of where it’s mouth would be located melted slightly. "Okay so your not completely fireproof." I started. As I am still weaker with these things I can’t melt him. I pulled out Frozen Pride, blasting him in an absolute zero ice spell that froze it solid and it’s molten submerged feet, locking it in place. “So it’s not ice proof.” I muttered thankfully. “But how long it holds is the question.” As I observed the thing I got a good look at the materials. Making sure I was hiding it from the cameras I scanned the metal it was made from with code in my eye only. The entire body is built with nanobots made from a fusion of Vibranium and Monofilament, but the face is oddly just made from only Adamantium. “Well that’s...very worrying.” I said worriedly. “I know Nexus was involved but jesus…” I muttered, while looking over the bot more. “Hmm…” I hummed while bringing out my Lexicon. “Telepathy.” I casted the simple mental communication spell. ”Can you hear me?” "A voice? On top of weapons and skill you have great magics above the norm. Hehehe. Looks like Conner did well." ”Yeah, that’s me Grandpa.” I mentally chuckled. ”Sorry for nearly melting your face and then freezing you, gotta keep you bound so you don’t crack my skull open ya know?” "It's fine. Not the first time I've fallen in lava and got Frozen solid. Listen, I'm not sure how much longer we have like this, We can control our bodies but only if we are in a complete deadzone. It's Clockwerk that's been controlling these mechanical bodies he shoved us into. Just put us here for torture and his sick twisted amusement. Thankfully this gives us an advantage." ”So Clockwerk has put up control towers to keep his influence over you?” I mentally asked. ”Well...if I figure out what magical or physical links are tethering you and the others to his will then I might be able to reverse it.” "I dunno the science or magic behind it, but Tennessee Kid Cooper does. Because his mind is nine kinds of crazy he can sometimes gain control from Clockwerk, though they keep tinkering with him to stop that. Last I knew he was gonna be deployed to China to go see Panda King. But that's besides the point, the point is Clockwerk forcing himself to control so far twenty seven bodies is putting one hell of a strain on him. In short, controlling us means he can't move his own body less it breaks the link to us, he's also going quite screwing forcing himself to be in twenty seven bodies. Twenty eight if ya include his own. ”We better get to Tennessee after we kick the crap out of Mugshot. So while Clockwerk is running himself ragged, he’s vulnerable as long as he’s trying to control all of you?” "Yup. And going mad doing so. If it's to make the Cooper's suffer he'll put himself through hell, and that is how we can finally end him." ”And hell we shall put him through.” I mentally told him. ”So...should I tell the others you’re still kind of sane?” "If you'd be so kind. Glad to see in our time of need you came along, the Cooper's have always had the-" There was a sharp noise as suddenly Grandpa's eyes turned red and his voice silenced. "Hello there young Cooper." The robotic demonic voice of Clockwerk came from the body. “Sup you crotchety old rust bird. How are you doing?” I asked. "Alive, more than your entire ancestry." “Says the dipshit that’s been keeping all of them alive with powers outside your control or knowledge for hundreds if not thousands of years.” I frowned. “Seriously...you have no idea who you’re dealing with, either from the one’s your facing, or the one’s that are humoring you.” "Nexus and I have our agreements, as do you, King of Nothingness. Time Runners while barbaric are useful for information. You are the whole reason Nexus is even on my planet." "They were here way before Time stopped being a thing." I said honestly. "So my main question is...why?" I asked. "This can't just be because you're jealous of the Coopers right? Your too old and smart for such petty reasons...or did you forget in your blind hatred?" "One can never forget their true reasons for hatred. Such short lived rodents as yourself could only ever forget, you all forgot the reason I do this, to make you suffer. Hehehe. But soon, all too soon you can hear it from the theaving ancestor who cast my curse upon your family name, and understand why I shall devour your bloodline each generation. Just the one. Question is, I only leave one Cooper spawn, so, who shall I let live? The false Cooper, or the destined one?" “Okay so you're just a petty bitch, got it.” I said simply. “And you're not going to kill anyways, and I’m going to make damn sure about it.” I growled. "You couldn't stop me from killing your father, or your mother. And from what I hear, you couldn't stop your first life's parents deaths either. When it comes to family, we are both destined to fail them." Clockwerk said, laughing as the Cooper bot broke free, the shockwave knocking me back against a rolled over car. “Ow…” I muttered. “But...okay, good to know that you failed a family…” I muttered while bringing out Eternal Flames and my Cane. “Alright, I think time’s up on this shit show.” I said while I threw a fire ball towards the bots feet and created a massive smoke screen as I drank an Ether and teleported to where the Camera was and grabbed it before teleporting out of there. I arrived back with the others, we found a good hideout for us and rested while Bently looked over the footage. "You lost a tooth?!" Mom said as she saw my missing Chomper while looking over me. “I can grow one back, I just need to remember a Regen spell.” I said honestly. “So if you’re wondering why I was just standing in front of a botcicle for a good minute or two it’s because I was talking to Grandpa, thankfully he’s not a gibbering mess mentally like I feared.” "From what I've read your grandfather was considered the strongest Cooper, mentally and physically." Matilda said. “And he told me that our next target is literally the craziest of the bunch, Tennessee Kid Cooper.” I said honestly. “Who is currently being sent to China to check up on Panda King.” I was brought up. "So we better move fast then." Carmalita stated. "Alright, Sly and I will scope out the area while you all rest up for a while." With that Sly and Carmalita rushed out and I took a seat on what I hope is a couch without any lice or bugs that would become a major issue. "Alright...so onto an important bit." I started. "Clockwerk has 27 bodies, and given he's trying to use them all at once he's running himself so ragged he can't move his original body." "Meaning he is vulnerable." Mom said. "But heavily guarded obviously." "Yes he is." I nodded. "But hopefully the other coopers are sane enough to help…” "How do we get their help if they are being controlled by him?" Lana asked. "There has to be a recovery in them that takes control away from their brains so Clockwerk can control them. If we can either block it or rip it out they would gain full control." Matilda said. “Grandpa said Tennessee would know how to deal with it.” I said honestly. “But right now we need to beat Mugshot and take back America.” "Once Sly, Carmalita and Bentley get back, we will." It was three hours before Sly, Bentley and Carmalita got back and once they did things prooved as bad as expected. I even recognized this tech as Nexus made, far too advanced for this world. And so a day passed just planning Operating Fire Hydrant. Thankfully the keys collecting aspect was the same, but just harder. The first area Lana and I took. This area was the one where normally Murray had to run for the key and the player keep them safe via a turret, but here Lana and I are just destroying these goons. While they had heavy firepower and numbers we had raw strength and magic. It was an unfair fight for them. "With all their numbers and tech, they are still outmatched." I chuckled. "Magic is good." Lana said, using her cane to slam a large great Dane goon into a wall and out the other side. “Oh yeah, it is.” I said while a ball lightning shocked another dog as I knocked out the goon. As we made our way up we found some loot and once up we saw the key. “Sweet.” I nodded. “One key down.” As Lana and I snatched the key and we headed back, we ran into one more goon, only this one's attire was Nexus. “And the fuck are you doing here?” I asked the Nexus grunt, a bit nervous about why there’s one of these bastards here. "I have one job." The female voice spoke from their visor covered helm. "Examine you." She said. Materializing in her hand was a rifle she began firing. Lana and I went for cover but whatever energy that gun was shooting was eating the rock we were behind. “Lana, I’m gonna try to distract her, and when you get the chance get back to the others.” I said to the wolf. “Just our luck...first a Cooper bot and now Nexus?” I muttered under my breath. I jumped out and shot out with Sharp Shooters, the Nexus lady dodging as Lana made a break for it to get help. We kept up our shoot out, each one of us just barely missing the other. Shit, when you aren't overpowered to hell Nexus agents actually are a challenge. “Why are you working with Clockwerk?” I asked bluntly. “What does this world have that you would want? Cause as far as I know you were here before Time got fucked.” "Classified." She replied, charging her rifle up more before shooting off a larger bolt of energy. I ducked, the thing flying over me and hitting an old trolly cart and exploding into what looked like an enclosed nuclear explosion. “You said you were here to examine me, not kill me.” I frowned while firing off a charged shot, flying towards her quickly and bouncing around unpredictably. "Yes. Examine your corpse. King of Nothingness." She said, shooting off a volley of those Exploding shots. I used Sharpshooters short range teleportation ability a lot during her volley as the charge shot from before bouncing and nailing her in the leg at least. “There’s got to be more than that. Why hunt little old me when you could be doing something better with your life?” Her suit held up from that blast, getting up she switched back to her normal shots. Sly and Matilda came around with Lana. The Nexus lady looking between us before running off a cliff edge. We raced to see, but she was gone already. "Who… or what the hell was that?" Sly asked. “So remember when I mentioned Clockwerk had…’outside help’?” I asked. "Oh so it's those guys. Shit, whatever gun that was, I want one." Matilda said. "Yeesh, definitely not something to get shot with." Sly added, looking at the area's damage. “Yeah, so that’s just one of Nexus’s normal grunts.” I said nervously. With that we headed back to base. In total we have four keys, and with that were able to get into Mugshots Casino. Security here was half tech, half armed guards, Bentley hacked the turrets and cameras while using the Sleeping touch technique got us to a room in the casino to examine the rest. Mom and Murray managed to find two pages of the Thievius Raccoonus. Page one detailed a technique from Grandpa. Focused Power. Basically with proper mental training Gramps could turn off pain from his body, and force out adrenalin to keep fighting and ignore damage from most physical attacks. Granted, it had its toll, making him starve and even pass out for up to a month depending on how much he did. Have to be careful with this one. Page two talked about Annabelle Cooper's… Shadow Punch Technique. One of our more magical ancestors, Anabelle could actually use other people's shadows and any cast by buildings to warp her fists out to deliver quote the right and left hook. Apparently she's one of the few siblings in the Cooper family, Tennessee Kid's younger sister actually. “Huh, well that’s interesting.” I said while testing out the Shadow Punch technique to see how it actually worked. Punching into my own shadow an almost DTD like portal opened, but small, and by Murray's leg and shadow the other end opened up and I hit him right in the ankle. "Owe!" Murray yelped. “I didn’t mean to punch you Murray, sorry.” I said nervously. "It's fine, guess this means I should switch to boots or something rather than sneakers." "Alright, Lana, Kite, you two rest up. We'll get the last few keys and wake you when it's time to face off against Mugshot." Mom said. "No, I'm practically the only one who can deal with any of the 'outside help' mugshot is getting."." "You also did a lot between fighting Robo Gramps and that woman. You need rest Kite. It's just three more keys, we can handle that." Sly stated. "I know but still…" I said, feeling tired from everything I've done but not wanting to let the others deal with something they don't know. "If something comes up we'll open a DTL, okay?" Matilda said. "Alright." I nodded. "Just...be safe okay?" "Duh." Sly said as they all began heading out. I hit the bed and calmed myself, getting comfortable in the dusty bed. I haven't actually been to the sleeping worlds as Kite before. This world was still my own, Still Mesa City but far nicer, more like it's hay day. "Well...this place looks actually nice." I muttered. Looking around this place was basically Las Vegas but smaller. I saw the Casino Mugshot took over here. Looks like that big fire hydrant was always there. As I was looking around I heard something drop behind me. Turning, I was shocked to see a Shadow Drug Injector. “Oh no...how the hell?” I muttered worriedly while moving over and looking at the injector. It was still full, surprisingly. Looking around I saw atop the casino someone standing over the edge, looking down at me. “I see you…” I muttered as I summoned my Glider and flew up towards the guy on the roof. Getting a better look and landing on the roof a few feet across from them, they were dressed in a leather cloak, outfitted the hood to look like a mangy stuffed wolf head. "So, been looking into Shadow Drugs then?" Looking the figure over, they were tall, easy six feet seven inches, and missing an arm from a hollow one arm sleeve hung loosely. “And are you the mystery maker of the drugs?” I asked simply. "I am. Been waiting to converse with you for so, so long King. I suppose you have no idea who I am, do you?" “No, you have been a slippery bastard from what I’ve heard.” I said simply. “So it would only be polite of you to introduce yourself.” "Oh we have met, not so long ago for you but a lifetime for me. You're proud of your intelligence and perception, let's see how long it takes for you to figure out who I am, and who I am to you." “Well…” I started while taking a step closer to the being, trying to focus on any detail about them from their voice, posture, and many many other things. I didn't see or notice anything familier. “Don’t know why but I’m drawing a blank here...you look and sound nothing like someone I know, and I know a lot of people.” "Oh, you'll remember, sooner or later." They said, turning around to walk away. "I'll give you a hint, you saved me once." With that they walked off behind the fire hydrant, rushing after them they were already gone. “God damn it…” I grumbled. “Well...might as well tell Ciel and others about this…” "So many years in hiding and the cocky bastard speaks to you to start a game? Well, aren't you the popular one." Ciel said. “The luckiest…” I grumbled while sifting through the massive list of people I’ve saved through my life. “And I need to find a needle in a god damn haystack just to figure out who the ‘one I saved’ is, cause there’s a lot of people I saved once.” I frowned. "Hmm. Perhaps it's how you saved them?" Ciel asked. "Like saving them over their family?" “I doubt it...I mean, I could look at a list of people that went back to crime after I gave them a second chance.” I said honestly. “Or people that either vanished.” "That could still be a large list. Was there anything unique about him at all we can go off of?" “Besides the stuffed Wolf head, no.” I shook my head. “And I didn’t notice anything odd about the wolf head either. "If it's a wolf head then it means he is likely using it as his symbol, or reminder. Somehow this is so personal to him, they'd wear around someone akin to your image as this reminder." “It looked nothing like me for starters.” I said. “But besides the wolf head, he had a missing arm, which narrows it down but there’s still like, oh I don’t know.” I started while adding a few things to narrow down the list and I flipped it around to Ciel showing that I still have about say twenty quadrillion people at minimum. “This is what I get for being a hero to dozens, if not hundreds of worlds because of this.” I grumbled. "Any idea on race? Aside from humanoid?" “Nope, just a normal one armed human.” I said honestly. “Which...seems a little weird cause the amount of humans I saved that have one arm actually isn’t that many, and he didn’t look, smell, or sound like any of them.” I said honestly. “As a Den Mother, I remember all of those details.” "Hmm… what if they weren't human before you saved them? Something close to human but not?" “Well…” I started while going through my searches on who might have changed races in some way, and thankfully that narrowed it down to about...a few hundred...and that number is ever so slowly growing. “Well...it’s a few hundred, with it slowly growing.” I sighed out. “Okay, now time to find out who might have a vendetta against me, cause that’s sure as shit going to be helpful.” I said, knowing these bastards would want to gun for me even after I gave them a second chance at life, and thankfully that narrowed it down to about five...albeit three of the five makes no sense. “What do you mean Delete is a race?” I frowned. “Deletes more of a Template than anything.” "Huh?" Ciel asked, looking at me confused. "Talking to someone?" “I’m just complaining.” I shook my head. “Alright...so why does it say that Deletes are their own race? I thought it was more like a Template, like how we have Celestial Creatures, or Half Dragon’s.” "Hmm. How best to explain it. Well, what makes a race it's own aside from physical aspects also lies in its abilities, magic, or code. For example, you are a Dire wolf but your race comes from a whole other world, can shift to a humanoid and feral form at will and has magic. Compare yourself to the ones from my world that went extinct and all you share is the name. But, strip away the magic, the ability to shift, and strand you on earth in your feral form, you are almost no different, maybe bigger but you'd be my world's Dire Wolf basically." “That...sounds like a Template though…” I said. “Like...let’s take Spike and Rainbow Dash’s daughter for example, she’s a Half Dragon Pegasus, she is a Pegasus with the Half Dragon Template right?” I asked. “I’m sorry for not really ‘getting it’, but it just seems a little weird…” "Well, in any case, what were you getting at King?" “So I narrowed down my list even more, and here’s five people that would personally hate me for some reason or another.” I said while showing Ciel the list. “And there are three that are Delete’s turned normal because of my powers.” I pointed out. ”That’s why I was confused on race and template.” "Huh. Well this list is a good lead, but the issue here is that most of these kids and such are too young. Shadow Drug has been in the black market for a little over ten years now, even with the childhood rooms, how would they pull this off?" “Well…” I sighed out. “These kids...most likely the oldest, figured out I...killed their parents.” I sighed out. “Both were Deletes, and both of them didn’t give me a choice in the matter…” "Revenge is a possibility. If we are dealing with time travel, then it's out of our hands, and falls to the Time Walkers to handle." “Cause of course.” I frowned. “Well...time to call up the Time Walkers again.” I called them up and informed them that it seems the maker of Shadow Drugs was a time traveler. This must also mean odds are they… they're family, my own child. “I’d rather not believe that my own kids would want to hunt me down…” I muttered worriedly. “So...I better check on these five people…” My first stop was Jackson, a former child delete I saved now works as a cartographer. Explores all sorts of places and maps them to detail. “Hello?” I called out to Jackson, hoping they were around. “You around here Jackson?” "One minute." They called out. Their homes was quite the mess, papers and maps, half made and finished scattered and pinned up about the place. “Jeez, this place is kind of a mess.” I muttered, not entirely sure how to move around without causing papers getting stepped on or falling to the ground. Jackson came out. They had blue hair, yellow eyes, and a robotic left arm. "Hey dad, what's up?" They asked, arms full of more papers. “So I was wondering...do you hate me?” I asked honestly. “I know it’s a sudden and random thing to ask but...well I think someone’s doing very illegal shit just to spite me.” "That is pretty random. Why would I though? You got me out of that shit show in the Void. Besides, not like my life before ending up there was any better, before that place I was working in mines, lost my arm and got thrown into that place." “I’m just making sure.” I said with a raised hand. “Cause the person I’m hunting down said I saved them once, but just immediately went to doing something outlandishly illegal.” "Ouch. Well can't all become heroes I guess. Or rather, can't really save them all. Like they say, you can save their life but can't always save their soul." “I know…” I sighed out. “But how have you been? I see you’re taking cartography rather...seriously.” I said while motioning to the massive mess of papers. "Heh, well making maps in the void is near impossible and reading them is just as hard. Maps and all that here are far more easier to read and make. It was always so easy for people to get lost in the void." “That is true.” I said honestly. “The void is a pain to get around if you don’t know what your doing.” "Pretty much, only the Void Wolves and Void God's can perfectly traverse the void without issue." “And I still need to find the Void Wolves…” I sighed out. “Just been busy with other things that I haven’t been able to find them…” "From what I hear a lot is going on and shit is really starting to hit the fan. But that's typically when the best ideas to solve it come into play." “Oh yeah, that does tend to happen.” I said honestly. “Let’s just hope those idea’s don’t come up too late…” With that I headed to the next kid, Adam, red hair, green eyes and worked in an animal care shelter. "Hey dad, what brings you here?" Adam asked as I entered, a dog-monkey animal clung to their back. “Random question, but do you hate me?” I asked. "Uh, why would I? I get to have pets and only half the animals here will try to kill you, back in the void even the fly's tried to kill you, here a large majority of animals are all friendly and kind. And they come in all kinds of shapes and sizes, not just mangy and blood soaked." “Okay good.” I nodded. “Why I ask that is because...well someone really hates me and even after I saved them they decided to be apart of something very illegal just to spite me.” "Yeesh. Sounds like a prick." “They are…” I sighed out, as I was wracking my brain for who might have done this. “Um...question, did you have parents back in the Void?” I asked curiously. "None I can remember. Died when I was barely a year. Grew up in that shithole you rescued me and the others in. It's amazing how in nor all realities Deletes are extremely dangerous yet in the void are just as hard to survive as everything else."" "Sounds about right...so...I think I know who might now that I think about it…" I started. With a sigh I headed off to Jason. The eldest son of the two Deletes I killed long ago, him and his brother were part of the reason I even ended up saving all these others to begin with. His place was back at the castle, he spent his time doing research on Void Artifacts I've collected from the Heroes Tomb. Mostly he finds out how they are made and if Nothingness can be used to craft it's own variation. “Hey Jason, you around?” I called out. "Over here." He called out. Jason's lab was filled with cloning jars each having some organ needed for making Void Artifacts, the artifacts themselves, and what I could sense were Nothingness artifact prototypes. He was looking at a PC, left arm not replaced, right one typing while he looked over the data the PC held. "Yes dad?"?” “Do you hate me?” I asked. “You can be honest…” "Hmm. Hate, no. In all honesty I've just felt pretty indifferent. I know you saved me and my brother from that Pitt, but even after raising me, giving me a life there's always been something keeping me from actually accepting you. Then I found out of course." “Found their graves?” I asked, having made two proper graves next to each other for the Knight and Huntress. "Not quite. But I have, and do visit." He types something on his PC, two videos begin playing, and I fight against them. My perspective of it. "So many praise you for these fights, but no one bothers to remember they had kids, they were a family… they were loved." “And that’s why I didn’t want to kill them, that’s why, in both fights, I’ve told them to stop and focus on family.” I said while we got to the parts where the two denied it, the Father denying it because of his nature, and the Mother denying it out of rage. "Deletes are a stubborn bunch, pride and honor fill them much like the void itself. But now we get to the part where you ask me, why Shadow Drugs, and how have I time traveled. You wanna know, right?" “I would love to know yes...even if you hate me for your parents deaths that were outside my control...why all of this?” "I don't hate you, like I said, it's an indifference. As for why all this, it's simple really, leverage." “Leverage? Leverage for what?” I asked. "You didn't think Shadow Creature Blood was all that was in those vials, did you?" “That was literally the only thing I was told was in them so I was expecting other things.” I said honestly. "You should have examined them personally then, you'd have noticed they held a little gift from the person you hate most." “So you have Leverage over Void Key?” I growled. "From Void Key, over you. I just need to think it and the 7.9 million Shadow Drug users and comatose former users, become his newest bodies to host. I have one, simple request, and all those lives can be saved." "And what is that request?" I asked curiously. "Revive my parents." Jason said simply. "People are one thing, but we both know reviving Deletes would be a whole new field of necromancy and exploration. One as an intellectual I imagine you'd be vastly interested in, but you can discover the full potential of such a field when so many lives are not at risk." “You do know I’ve been researching that right?” I frowned. “Given all my knowledge I got from Truth, I know how to do it...I just need a little something from you to finish the ritual, and then I’m going to need you to do something for me.” "Being what?" “Giving me all your memories on Void Key and this entire incident. You won’t remember ever being a part of Void Key’s plan, and I’ll get a whole host of info on where the fucker is.” I started. “Sure, many people would want to either see you locked up or killed...but I wanted you to have a better life, as well as all those children from the Void, so you’ll have a clean slate, while I can pin this all on Void Key.” I said. “Also, your ‘indifference’ sounds a lot like ‘I royally hate you’ all things considered.” "You think I know where he is? Heh, sorry to say but I don't. He showed up in my lab shortly after I figured out how to pull Shadow Blood out of the beasts without letting it evaporate. They showed up, asked me if I wanted you to really feel rage, to feel betrayed. They then gave me a vial of their void which I distilled just the smallest drop into each injector and linked them to a trigger I implanted into my head. But, I've yet to explain the how of it, and frankly it's fairly simple. I replicated Fair Game." Jason said, the deck of cards appearing in its base form in his hands. "Was easy actually. And as for your offer, I'll pass. I want everyone to know about this once it's all over." “Alright alright.” I said while raising up my hands. “Now, onto what I need for the resurrection spell.” I said simply. “Want to know what it is?” "Blood? It's a common necessity for spells of this nature." “Oh no, Blood is much too weak.” I shook my head. “While blood is a part of it, I will need something much greater from you.” "Hmm… hehe. Let me guess, memories?" “Bingo.” I said honestly. “And only I know what kind of memories will be strong enough. So, let’s go to their graves, cause their items will help with the resurrection.” "And you have proof this works? I'm not gonna let you go messing around in my head for memories without knowing this isn't a trick or was never going to work." I brought out my Lexicon and flipped to the proper page of necessary ingredients for the spell and showed him. “If there’s one thing I don’t skip out on, it’s the details. You should know this.” I frowned, the ingredients did indeed have ‘Memories of power equal to those brought back’. "Hmm." They hummed, placing the paper under a device that scanned it, their PC now running a simulation and calculated 98% chance of success. "The odds are in your favor. But a simulation isn't the real deal. So, how's about a trial run beforehand? Then we can get started." “Alright, do you have anyone in mind?” I asked curiously. “Or do you want to be the guinea pig?” "Not exactly." They said, flipping their replica Fair game cards around until one Blue card came up. They then tossed it at me. The image on the card was of a delete, female. "She's no one to you but was someone I once knew. She had no weapon but-" the card then spat out a finger bone. "A piece of her corpse should do well enough." “Alright, that should be enough.” I said while my Lexicon glowed softly as I put a hand on his head. “Memoir of the Dead.” I muttered as I plucked some key memories from Jason, memories of his Aunt and who she was as it fueled my spell. “Arise, Jessy.” I said as the bone glowed softly, magic and code sparking from it as the single finger bone started to branch out and regrow into the being it originally came from. “Take your new chance at life.” I said as Jessy came back in her full glory, Jason seeing a small wisp flow down into her body and a heart glow in her chest. "She's human?" He asked. “Yes, yes she is.” I said while seeing Jessy look over herself after just coming back to life. "So you bring them back but not as Delete’s. They are without their void." “I mean...yes, why wouldn’t I?” I asked simply. “I mixed Nothingness into the Spell so they can be brought back as human instead of as a Delete, is that not okay?” "I should have expected this. How can you bring back something you yourself always undo and erase. You can never understand what void means to a delete." “You know there’s this mystical thing called ‘talking’ right?” I asked. “It’s really simple, and stops you from threatening seven million people’s lives because you’re ‘indifferent’.” I frowned. "But then I'd have never Acquired a sample of Void Key's void, or developed the cure for Shadow Drugs, or your edge." "My edge? And you...made a cure for the Shadow Drugs?” I asked. "In the world of bio terrorism, making a product without it's counterpart is just bad business. Watch." He said, on screen showed a simple Shadow Creature within a cage. Then a fog of sorts was pumped in, and immediately the Shadow Creature died. Another video popped up, showing a person with Shadow Drug in the cage this time. The same fog was pumped in and their mutated parts began reverting. After a short minute they were human again. "I find gas based dispersals most effective, but liquid or even pill based works just as well." “Alright...so now the question is...are you actually going to cure these people if I bring your parents back...or do you just hate me that much.” I started. "I am a man of my word, as are you. Or, Herm of your word, heh. But I figured In case this wasn't enough I'd sweeten the pot. Remember this?" They reached into a drawer, pulling out a vial with a single small strand of Nothingness Thorn, but this variation… this energy… Bravery Nothingness. "The only thing that can harm Void Key, while his help has been appreciated I do find his existence as distasteful as you. So, I created this." A new image appeared on screen. This one was an arm, Nothingness grey colored with a heart beating, taking in Normal Nothingness, and pumping out bravery Nothingness clenched in the arms grip. "I call it the Heart of Justice, tacky but fitting. Unfortunately it can only make so much and it has to be placed in a container lest the Bravery Nothingness break apart and fade, but it can be forged into weapons once enclosed." “Alright, while I am glad you keep your word...but the main question is still here.” I started. “Do you hate me? Cause while the Bravery testing and the cure I am ever thankful for...working with Void Key and distributing Shadow Drugs to gain something that you could have legit asked me about is...worrying.” "If I had asked then where would we be now? More than likely it's one of two scenarios. Either their pride gets them imprisoned, or you use that Keyblade on them, and my parents become my younger siblings. We both know my parents, especially mother, will take their first breath back in life with a battlecry." “Or the third option where you and your parents went back into the Void.” I said simply. “You make it sound like I want the Void to stop existing.” "Considering everything there and everyone wants you and this reality dead, how could you not?" “Because without Void I wouldn’t be here.” I deadpanned. “But besides that obvious thing, what do you think will happen when your parents are revived?” I asked, wanting to know what Jason thought would happen when his parents came back. “Either as Deletes or not?” "Both try and kill you, you imprison them, cover it up, void beings who manage to enter here could sense them in some way, some small mistake, word speeds they are alive and then the neutrals in void chase after them and anyone in between on sole principal." “So your entire thing...is to get them imprisoned or killed again…” I said slowly. “What?” I asked simply. “Let me ask...how honorable are Deletes? Cause your father seemed pretty honorable while your mother showed the pride of a Delete even in her rage.” "We are a people of combat and murder. I know, the second they are revived, they'll have targets in their back from now til someone kills them again… But I need to see them again, my brother deserves to know they didn't abandon us." I shook my head. “I understand...but it’s going to be a bitch and a half for the idea I have…” I sighed out. “No idea where Hollow is...been searching for the bastard for months, as well as John…” I muttered. “So how soon can you release the antidote?” "It's airborne as well. Once in the air the winds will carry it everywhere." “Cool.” I nodded. “Alright...so let’s go check on your brother...cause he needs to know about them ‘coming back’.” I started. To be continued...
Nobody's normal lifeAfter that whole ordeal I am taking personal time. Starting with a calming meal out in the kingdom. I have to admit, the camera flashes and looks from all around me as I ate were not even a bother, used to the attention I guess. ”Well...could be worse.” I thought to myself while entering one of my favorite diners around. A healthy course of soups, salads, and meats of course. It was all delicious. With my meal done I left, deciding to check out the shopping districts. So many open shops, massive malls going hundreds of floors up and below. So many stores and so much cash and time to burn. “Hmm...where to start first…” I hummed while just walking around and looking things. Toy shops, game shops, electronics, jewellery, oh wow, authentic candy shop. Hey a GameStop. Wonder if my membership will still ring up? Think I still have that card. “Alright, time to go to the game equivalent of a pawn shop.” I said while walking into Gamestop. “Wonder what’s here though…” I muttered to myself while looking around carefully. It looked largely the same to a normal GameStop, just bigger. Games and consoles ranging from ones I knew to multiversal off brands and holy fuck fifteen whole walls of pornographic video games ranging from 'joy stick' to VR. Huh… "May I help you?" One of the staff asked me. “Just looking around...haven’t been here in a long time.” I said honestly. “It’s...certainly different.” "Well, accommodating such a wide variety of former different universes and such gives us quite the extensive stock. Is there anything specific you need or are looking for?" “I’m just looking around.” I said honestly. “Seeing everything here is...kind of surprising when I remember it looking more humble and...being a bit more like a pawn shop more than anything.” "We're Still that, just bigger." “Sounds about right.” I nodded while continuing to look around the place for anything. I did find various alternate versions of games I like, Sly Cooper but as humans. Designs aren't too bad. Jak and Daxter but with guns from game one. Even the original beta version of Kingdom Hearts before they added Disney and Final Fantasy characters. “Well this is all very interesting…” I hummed happily. “Wonder what I should buy?” After a lot of browsing odd alternative titles and some original ones, I was looking through the bargain bin and nearly did a double take so hard I about gave myself whiplash. The Coopers and the Gang in Honor Among Thieves. That's… that is me, Kite… huh. "Uh...excuse me, where did you get this?" I asked while picking up the game I was in. "That? No idea. We get a lot of random games from people and shipments from other locations." The clerk said. "Been here for a good few months though. Looked through the database and saw there are two before that game and one after, but none of the other stores have them. Apparently they're pretty rare. Can get the digital copies online though." "Um...okay." I said slowly, trying not to be either proud that my life's story as Kite is rare or upset it's in the goddamn bargain bin. "Well...can I get all four please?" "We only have that hard copy game at the moment, the rest like I said are available on digital on all consoles and PC. About ten to twelve rem each or so." "Alright, that's quite a bit cheaper than I thought." I said honestly. "Pretty sure it's because there are so many variations of the Cooper Games across the former multiverse. If you'd like you can still buy the hard copy and anything else you'd like. We sell everything from the games to you replicas of all video game items. Save for things like potions, they're all either empty glass or plastic bottles or soda's." “Sounds about right.” I said while grabbing my live version of Honor Among Thieves. “Huh, didn’t know they remade Final Fantasy 7…” I said while grabbing a pretty big game case of the FF7 Remake, apparently it was the entire collection. “How many disks are in here?” "One. Has all the games on it though." “Sweet.” I said honestly while adding it to the slowly growing list of games I’m going to be taking home. By the time I hit the check out. Membership was renewed and got a new card and Jesus Christ GameInformer Magazine is as thick as the Phone books now. With all that placed safely in my Assistant I headed on out spotting a pet shop… They are selling Pokemon Eggs. And dragon eggs. And… Lottery Eggs? “The hell are lottery eggs?” I muttered while heading inside. “So...how many pets am I allowed to buy…” "As much as you can afford normally King." The pet store clerk said. "Anything of interest?" “Um...first, what are Lotterly Eggs?” I asked curiously. “I don’t remember those being a thing.” "Oh, they come from Dungeons. A loot drop in boss rooms. They look like any other egg but are magic, and can hatch into anything. Dragon, Pixie, T-Rex, or just a chicken. Completely random." “Hmm…” I hummed as I took three lottery eggs. “Alright, so while I’ll take these three...what kind of pets do you have here?” I asked curiously. "Everything. Ranging from the basic to the exotic and other." “Other?” I asked curiously. “That sounds...rather specific to just say ‘other’ after ‘exotic’.” She simply pointed to a section of the store with massive cages. Inside them ranged from… humans, mermaids, Nagas, Equestrians… "They aren't sentient if that's your worry King, all of them come from worlds/realities where physically they evolved like the rest but mentally they're still… animals. Basically." The clerk said. “Doesn’t mean I don’t find it a little uncomfortable.” I said nervously. “So uh...let’s go to Exotic shall we?” Heading over there I saw Hydras, Dragons, HellHounds, Gargoyles, Pixies, a rabbit with bat wings, snakes tail and dog ears, what the? Looking into the next cage I spotted… that's a shadow Creature. I've never seen one so… calm before. “Uh...why is there a shadow creature here?” I asked nervously. “And...why is it so calm?” "Oh. It's been Cleansed. You see, Shadow Creatures are made from, well, pure darkness, kinda like Heartless and such, but they have a unique reaction when injected with pure light. Some gain intelligence, others like this one here don't but make nice house pets, like cats or dogs." “I thought they were made from Void?” I asked in confusion. “I’ve fought these things for a long time...if they were beings of Darkness, I would know.” "There are different kinds of darkness King, each with their own source. Some stronger than others." “Alright.” I nodded. “The more you know I suppose.” "This little guy has been here for about three months. It's pretty rare for anyone to want one as a pet let alone go through the trouble of capturing one to purify." “What kind of Shadow Creature is it?” I asked while kneeling down and looking over the thing. "It's called a Crimson Echo. They are a… morbid one. If any negative energies of someone who died violently are around in the area they spawn in, they will copy the dead’s voice and even learn some of their memories. Some go as far as to slaughter the dead’s killer, be them animal, human, or even other shadow Creatures. If successful they hunt for more negative ghostly energy to use to find a new victim." “Well...that’s...interesting.” I said honestly. "Comes In all kinds, Shadow Creatures." “I can imagine.” I said honestly while thinking about if I should take this little guy home with me. “Hmm...how smart is it?” I asked curiously. "About as smart as a dog. Watch." The clerk said, opening the cage of the Crimson Echo as it got up from it's slumped over sitting position. It was like a large doll almost. Large X eyes, wide smiling pointed teeth, small arms with hands that end in large dagger-like claws and armored feet and legs. It looked about the size of a four year old. "See the ball?" The clerk said, pulling out a red ball and making it squeak. The Crimson Echo tilted it's head at the sound. "Fetch." She said, throwing it. The Shadow Creature ran fast, faster than I expected as it jumped the five feet in the air the ball was, catching it carefully in it's claws. It fell back to the ground on both feet, carefully holding the ball as it walked back to the clerk. “So I didn’t really get a good look but...yeah I can see why this would be nightmare fuel in any other circumstances.” I said nervously. "He's really a sweetheart. Guy who sold him said he came from a level four dungeon, so he is pretty strong. See." She tapped on a caller it was wearing. On a hologram display it showed it's stats. HP: 96,770 Def: 406,663 MP: 7,980 “That is pretty strong.” I said honestly. “I suppose I’ll take him.” "Really? Heh." The clerk picked up the Shadow Creature. "Hear that little guy? You're getting a home." She said it happily as we walked over to the desk. "Alright, that's two thousand rem and he'll need a name." “Alright.” I said while putting down the three lottery eggs as well as I started to think of a name. “God, I’m not good with names…” I muttered. "Take your time." Some minutes passed and after a while I came up with Ganon or Klaud. “Fine, Ganon it is.” I said while signing its name. My hud flashed. In the party member list, appeared a second Column, Beastials. Ganon's name and HP and all that appeared there. Huh. “Well...that’s new.” I said honestly. I turned over the money and took Ganon with me. The little guy sat on my shoulder like a bird. With that I kept looking around at all the stores. I saw the clothing shops all had some form of Rarity's works in them, that gave me a laugh. I saw a hunting shop, Bakery, another candy shop, Quills and Sofas. “Ah yes, your one stop for nothing but quills and sofas.” I muttered while heading inside Quills and Sofas, wondering if it literally was just quills and sofas in there. It was. All forms of Sofas, all forms of Quills. Only those two things. “Good christ, how has this place still been in business?” I muttered to myself. Heading off I saw the food court and the smells hit me like the moon smashing into the planet. Delicious. “Well...I am a bit hungry.” I said while my stomach growled lightly. “Wait...damn, I should have checked what food you can eat…” I said to Ganon, forgetting to ask that as I went through his stat screen to see what he could and could not eat. Food: N/A “Cause that makes sense…” I grumbled. “Whatever…” I muttered while heading off to get something to eat. They had every restaurant here. Serving all kinds of food in all kinds of servings. “So many things to eat…” I muttered, having a hard time deciding whether I should just go to one place or go to them all. The first place on my stop was Big Mike's Bigger Bites. An all meat shop. Next to the register was a sign that read 'No Vegans, Vegetarians or Hippies allowed.' That gave me a laugh. “My kind of people.” I chuckled while waiting for the receptionist to appear at the front desk. The lady came up. "Welcome to Big Mike's Bigger Bites where we are not liable for any collateral build up, obesity or heart attacks you may/will receive while dining with us, may I take your order?" “That sounds like several health code violations right there.” I pointed out. “And yes please.” "What would you like?" Looking at the menu, they had whole cooked pig, cow, goat, lama, shark, ect in fried, baked, boiled, soup, ect. Wow. This looks amazing. “Well...this is quite a selection here.” I hummed while looking through the entire list. “So much to choose...so little time.” I ended up getting a whole deep fried Turkey, a bladder buster cup of soda and a fifty pack of chicken nuggets. “Hopefully I won’t look weird wolfing this all down…” I muttered to myself while taking a seat at a booth waiting for my food. Once it arrived I tried not to stuff myself. It was all really good. I could have easily eaten this all in less than a few minutes but gotta keep a public appearance so I ate like a normal person. Taking well over two hours to finish all the food. “Hmm…” I frowned, finding that took way too long to eat. “Yo! You got an eating challenge?” I asked, not really caring about public appearance at the moment as I was still hungry even after eating all of that in two hours. "We have several, any specific ones?" A waiter asked. “Hmm...what are your challenges if I may ask?” I asked curiously. "We have the Drowning Soda Challenge, the Big Mike's Big Bite challenge and Big Mike's Final Bite Challenge." “Hmm...the final bite challenge does sound interesting.” I said honestly. “Let’s go with that.” "Okay then…" The waiter said as the staff all ran to the kitchen. “Alright...that doesn’t look concerning at all.” I chuckled. "You do know why it's called the Big Mike's Final Bite right my King?" A woman sitting in the booth next to mine asked. “No, this is literally my first time here.” I said simply. "Well, you see the restaurant founder, Big Mike, died after trying this challenge. Literally exploded food and blood and… gross." “Well I’m not like him.” I said honestly. “I know I can do this.” I said, not many people knowing I have multiple stomachs from the many racial traits, plus a lot of other things that would make this easy. "Would you like the tube or to chew ma'am?" The waiter asked. “Well I’d like to see what I have in store before I make that judgement.” I said honestly. "Right. Bring in the first course!" He yelled out. A cartoonishly long table packed to the brim of various all meat meals rolled up to my table, and from where I could see I could not yet see it's end. "So, chew or tube miss?" I started to slightly drool. “Uh...huh…” I started slowly. “So um...mind not letting the world know that I’m basically gonna be pac-man for the next...god knows how long?” I asked nervously. "I mean, typically this challenge is filmed for proof so… no." “Right~...” I said slowly. “So…” I started. “You might need to blur some of this out...it’s gonna get messy.” “That was delicious.” I said happily while patting my full stomach. For the first time since these mutations and all that jazz my stomach was bloated from food, and I felt stuffed. I know eating is optional but the last time I felt this good was when Den was teaching me how to hunt. "And that only took four days. Beat the challenge and Big Mike's old time." A different waiter said. “Would have been faster if you brought them out faster.” I said simply, burping loudly in triumph. “Excuse me.” I said sheepishly. "Well, now that that is done I'll fetch your prize." The waiter said, taking leave to the kitchen. “Alright…” I muttered while looking at the crowd that weirdly stuck with my four days filled with eating. “So uh...about that...” I started sheepishly. “Your jaw...unhinged like a snake for a good five hours straight…” One of the crowd members started. “Um...yeah…” I said sheepishly. “I hope I didn’t mortify you all…” "I mean, I did throw up at one point but that aside not really." Another spoke. "How did you even do that? Not even people with vore based abilities can pull that off." “Well, racial abilities are nice.” I said honestly. “From Naga and Floof Noodles I managed to gain like...six or so extra food stomachs, along with the many many stomachs made for other things, then with Den Mother variant I’m allowed digest food rather quickly to add to energy or making my breast milk stronger, and a lot of other things.” I explained. "Woah." Was the collective response before everyone began taking photos and posting online… i hope this turns out okay. Personally I am not sure how to feel about this result. Royal King, in discovery of their many abilities that include those related to the fetish of Vore has caused an explosion of interest in the area from the sexual to the casual. That was the news headlines when I got home. "Wow these people will do anything they see you doing huh?" Heart said, they and I were in our room together. “I...honestly didn’t expect this to happen...but the prize was neat.” I said honestly. It was a gigantic spatula, a weapon with one very powerful fire enchantment I made better. "I find it ironic that this now makes you the sorta cover girl for it huh?" Heart said with a laugh. "Especially considering you don't even really like it." “That’s kind of why I’m confused since I was just eating.” I shrugged. “I was hungry, even if I didn't need to eat.” I said honestly. “So how was your day?” "Pretty good. Mostly just playing Breath of The Wild." “Sounds about right.” I nodded. “Oh, so apparently my life as Kite is playable.” I said honestly. “And also, I got three lottery eggs and...well apparently a Shadow Creature as a pet.” Heart looked over at Ganon, who was seated on the floor playing with a ball of yarn. Then to the table and looked at the three eggs, placed on a large fluffy pillow on the coffee table. "I see. Well, wanna spoon, grope and make out til they hatch?" “Cuddles.” I said while cuddling up to my floofy love. “Cuddles till they hatch.” "Fine, but you go here." Heart said, growing in size just enough to stick me in their cleavage and then began hugging me as he laid us on the couch. “Okay fine.” I said with a warm smile. With a happy nod Heart kissed the top of my head and turned on the TV, The Rugrats was on. "Heh. I pirated this whole show once." “I remember this show, it’s great.” I said honestly. “God, there are so many shows from childhood that are still so good.” "The reboot wasn't though." “The reboot of which show? Cause there’s at least three reboots that failed.” "All Grown Up." “I wouldn’t really call that a ‘reboot’ as a ‘sequel’.” I said honestly. “Sequel’s take place after the main show, reboots try to go back to the beginning and make it different, for better like the 2016 ThunderCats, or absolute dog shit like ThunderCats Roar.” "Never saw any of them. Grew up on, well, drugs and violence." “You grew up the Bender way, with BlackJack and Hookers.” I chuckled at the Futurama reference. "Heh. Almost. Was more murder and robberies." “Sounds about right.” I nodded. “So I have all day of nothing besides...a lot of things going on at once.” I sighed out. "Heh. Need a distraction?" Heart asked, nuzzling my head that was barely out of their top chest fluff. “I’m already distracted enough with this.” I said warmly. “Thanks for being here Heart…” "No problem. So, enjoying my milk beds?" “Yes I am.” I said warmly. “The milk beds are wonderful. So did you know that Final Fantasy 7 got a Remake?” "I only know final fantasy from Kingdom Hearts, so no I did not." Heart said. “Right...so I’m gonna need to give you a wonderful course through video game history cause I forgot you know basically nothing about it due to outside reasons.” I said honestly. "Eh. So, been with Den… that weird for you? I mean I was… with Den. So… just wanna know." “I mean, if you're talking about railing her, I did that maybe a week ago?” I said while thinking back. “It’s fine...even though this is all still a tad weird, as long as people are fine with it I suppose.” "And Your birth mom… and dad… and grandma… yes she is here too. I've just been super bored and just went around screwing and next thing I know, I went through your family, Eclipsa's, both earth and Equestrian, and… Christ." “Sounds about right.” I nodded. “You really need to get out more if you’ve gotten through banging that much family.” "Well, I know I should but I kinda don't want to. Part of me worries if I go out there and get serious again I'll fall back on old habits." “Look at me, I’ve been out and about the longest and I haven’t gone back to my old ways.” I said honestly. "Yeah well you're you." “Yes I am.” I nodded. "In any case I still wanna stay off the battlefield for a while." “That’s alright.” I said simply. “You don’t want to fight after...well all of this, so I understand.” "Yeah. So, that aside been debating on turning like you and Cript, join in and all." “Oh like the Godborn?” I asked curiously. “Oh, don’t forget Symbi, there's also one.” "True. Fucked her too." "Best not to think on how." Symbi said with a giddy tone of voice. “I’d...rather not to be honest.” I said honestly. “But the process is...kind of simple honestly.” "How so?" “All you need to do is go past your limit till you feel like yourself and your code is about to explode.” I said honestly. “It’s how Spike explained it to me.” "Huh. I'll give it a try later on." Heart said, yawning as they hugged me tightly and curled us both up in their body as they began to nod off. “Alright, get your rest.” I said while cuddling up with Heart and nodding off myself. “Alright Diane, where the hell are you?” I wondered while walking around the castle, trying to find my old timeline self. I finally found her in one of the castle's many bars. She, Zeke and Marcy all seated at a booth. “Hmm…” I hummed while moving over to the booth. “Howdy.” I said to the three. “How are you three doing today?” "Hey King, doing well." Marcy said. "Been questing mostly." Zeke said. "Joined a guild." Diane added. “That’s good.” I nodded. “I’ve been busy myself, you know, saving the world, having a new life as a Cooper, you know, the usual.” "Neat. So what's up?" Marcy asked. “Eh, nothing much. Just wanted to check up on you three to see how you were doing.” I said honestly. "Mostly making our own lives. Finding something to do outside the castle and inside. I work with Heart in dealing with the Scouters paperwork." Zeke said. "I oversee fundings for schools and make sure equipment is updated as needed." Marcy said. "I work in the Conversions Lab." Diane said. “Sounds about right.” I nodded. “I’m...a little surprised none of you had an identity crisis here...especially Diane since she was the more...aggressive of you three.” "Eh." Zeke shrugged. "Meh." Marcy said. "I'll never live that down…" Diane sighed. “But you're doing your best to fix it.” I said honestly. “And that’s what matters.” "So all this aside, wanna join? In the drinking we mean." Zeke said. "We got done with a quest and each time we come here for a drink." “Hmm…” I hummed while looking around the bar, only to find a piano on a stage just sitting there waiting. “There’s a piano here?” I asked curiously. "There's a piano everywhere for anyone to use." Zeke said with a Chuckle. “Alright.” I nodded. “Just making sure.” I said while thinking about if I should take that piano to spin. "So, anything you wanna talk about?" Diane asked. "Well...how's life been?" I asked curiously. "Pretty good all things considered. Been playing with Zeke's new body a lot~" Marcy cooed, making Zeke blush. "Been debating going Naga myself." "Sounds about right." I nodded. "Being another race does help give you a new perspective on things." "Sounds like. So, when was the last time you were human or a different race?" Diane asked. "Well I'm currently a Raccoon named Kite Cooper going through." I said honestly. "True, but what about when you were ---? Right, you traded that name. Well, you know what I mean." "Uh...when I was testing out my chameleon ability? I turned into a woman and was just hanging out on Lilo and Stitches Earth...then found a literal island sized Leviathan heartless and dealt with some...unwanted company." I said simply. "Huh. Weird." "So what do you do in your free time?" Zeke asked. “What is this ‘free time’ you speaketh of?” I asked in a ye olden times accent. "Har har." Diane said. "So, what are you doing right now?" "A lot of things." I shrugged. "Hanging out with family, doing important stuff. The usual." "Ever been questing?" Marcy asked. "I'm currently on a quest that's been...kind of going nowhere." I said. "And that's hunting Void Key down." "Yeah that would go nowhere." Zeke said. "Isn't there anyone from the void you can ask about it? Like Hollow or something?" Marcy asked. “I have been hunting down Hollow and John for a while and still haven’t found those fuckers yet…” I grumbled. “But...maybe there are two that can help that I’m...bringing back.” "Nothing like using a little Necromancy to get information." "That was the original plan, but then...things came up." I sighed out. "In any case that can work, or, maybe something else?" Zeke offered. “Depending on how things go, I won’t have to bother with Necromancy.” I said honestly. “Cause the way Cript brings people back is a lot easier, and I can do what he does a fuck lot easier.” "Hm. Well, good luck with that then." I would have to get to that later. Right now I am enjoying a spa trip, the same spa I went with Rarity too. I am enjoying a hot milk bath up to my neck. “Still as good as the first time.” I said warmly. I sat in the hot liquid happily as soothing violin music played around me, making me wanna sleep but I stayed awake. Once that was done I got out and enjoyed the steam room, private so I could be nude and enjoy the silence. “Nothing like a nice normal day at the spa to ignore all the bullshit in life.” I sighed out happily, happy to just let my anthro body be free of any clothing. “I just...slightly hope my exhibition fetish isn’t a medical concern…” I muttered worriedly, having done some research into that and it could be seen as a mental disorder. While I was here I decided to watch some videos off my Assistant. Mostly some anime and other things I've been wanting to watch. “So many anime’s, so little time…” I muttered. “All of which I could literally visit as they are basically in my backyard…” As I was watching them I saw the door open, nearly panicking til I saw it was Celestia, Cript's, walk in. "Hey there." She said, wrapped in a towel as she took a seat near me. "I heard you were here, figured you'd like some company." “Well…” I said while covering myself up nervously. "Please, nudity is nothing new to me." Celestia chuckled. "So, how's the photoshoot going?" “Oh you know, the usual.” I shrugged. “More people going crazy over me, a new phrase cropping up since I became this is ‘She’s Thick with a capital Damn’.” I chuckled. “One of the funnier responses but aptly put.” "Heh. Enjoying the attention then?" “I mean, yes…” I said nervously. “Especially when I...have to hide things constantly.” I blushed a bit. “Maybe I’m enjoying it too much…” "There is always a fine line, but sometimes urges and desires pop up and are difficult to suppress. The best advice I can give is to indulge them in a way that is healthy." “Well...there is that one place Heart booked for me.” I said honestly. “Hopefully I won’t be...too enthusiastic with it.” "The first time or two you will, there's no sugar coating that, but trust me, it curbs the desires and urges, and then it becomes a regular thing, be it once a day or week or as needed to keep the urges from strongly affecting your daily life or thoughts." “Alright.” I nodded. “Let’s hope for the best I suppose.” "That aside, how has the spa been for you? I typically only ever come for these steams. You?" “It is wonderful, even though I’ve only been here once before, it’s just as good as the first time.” I said warmly. "It does have excellent service. It's the best spa in creation." “Sounds about right.” I nodded. "So, if it's not too personal, what was it like? Going from male to suddenly being both and now the face of a kingdom and one of the many faces of beauty in the royals?" “Really fucking weird to be honest.” I said honestly. “Like...hoo boy, that was all just insane.” "Sounds about right. But you got used to it then embraced it huh?" “I was certainly embracing something that’s for sure.” I chuckled while giving my top breasts a little squeeze. "Sounds like a dream come true then." Celestia said with a laugh. "How is having eight breasts though? Must be different to move." “It was different for a bit, but I got used to it.” I said honestly. “The only few things that made me confused, and still confused, is how women over complicate crap when it comes to personal hygiene. I understand to a point that you need maybe one or two extra things, but not a literal laundry list of things.” "Most of it is either about appearance or other health related things. Though makeup while optional when done right can makes you look so much better. Even just lipstick can do wonders." “I’ve never been a fan of make up.” I said honestly. “Doesn’t really mix well with fur, and even the one’s that are made for fur...still don’t work for me.” "Not even lipstick?" “Nah, honestly it feels like extremely picky chapstick if you get what I mean.” "Huh. Well, what about things like hair dye, bows or clips?" “Never thought of changing it when my hair looks fine, bows I’ve actually tried in some of my shoots, some were fine others were not good, and clips are the same like bows just a bit less finicky.” "Hm. So, your opinion on this new trend, your little eating challenge started?" “Oh that was everyone overreacting about that.” I said simply. “I didn’t do it for some ‘new trend’, I did it cause I was bored and hungry.” I shrugged. “They questioned how I could eat that much, I gave them an answer, and magically I’m the poster girl for something I don’t like.” "That's the internet and people's mass assumptions. Can't exactly change that. So, gonna ignore it then?" “I sadly can’t cause when people start asking me about it I’ll either have to be blunt with them or lie about it.” I said honestly. "Or maybe see if you can get them to place it onto someone, or a group of others in the royals who would better to embrace/embody it? I can think of six off the top of my head, and knowing Lyra she likely gathered a lot from worlds where Vore was always a thing. It's every fetish with that mare, well, almost, there's like a small handful even she gives a hard no to." “I know, I’ll try to find the right one for that.” I said honestly. “Hopefully it doesn’t spiral out of control where people start guessing what fetishes we like.” "They already are, I've seen the tweets, posts and subreddits. Not that I'll ever confirm it but they did get all mine already… and gave me a few to experiment with." “Oh god…” I muttered while deciding to check what fetishes people thought I was in. "Lot of nice fanart though. Range from wholesome to pornographic. But all nice all in all." “Sounds about right.” I said honestly. “That’s what fan artists do.” "So, your opinion on nerfed replicas of your weapons on the market?" “Within massive reason that I have been overseeing personally.” I said simply. “I have also been making sure this shit doesn’t go to the black market or other unwanted places with things of my own design.” I said simply. “Even if they are nerfed, they are still very powerful weapons.” Celestia laughed. "You sound like Cript. I wasn't part of the family at the time but I was told the day Cript found out one of his weapons was reverse engineered and modified for the black market, he completely lost it. Used some of the most powerful seeking spells to find sellers and manufacturers, destroyed as many as he could find and the culprits were scared so bad they were sent to asylum prisons." “And how did that work out?” I asked curiously. "Sadly the modified design is still out there, some others have as well. Even with powerful protection spells and spells that destroy the weapon if tampered or examined, somehow so far six weapons have black market modified designs." “We’re talking about Cripts stuff and not mine right?” I asked nervously. "Yes, but my point is the stronger the weapon the more they'll wanna make their own. We know that Vilgax has weapons in the shape of yours, but even with these nerfed designs, if they learn how they are made it will be bad, hence all the safety measures. But don't expect them to never get put on the black market. It takes one flaw for them to extort and learn what they want." “Why do you think I’m overseeing it?” I asked honestly. “I have spent countless amount of time in a demi plane where time doesn’t exist to test and retest every known method from the black market, some that are completely unknown to most, and even some I’ve come up with.” I said. “There’s a lot of things about me, but skipping details is not something I do, whether it’s for something tiny like a picnic, or for plot reasons.” "Even so, nothing is perfect." “I know.” I sighed out. “But...it’s better than nothing.” "Hm. Ever try the other weapons Cript has made?" “Sadly no, I’ve been very busy with the fifteen weapons I have right now.” I said honestly. "Heh, fair enough." Celestia stayed in the steam room while I went to the next part of my spa, a massage. It felt great, got the knots out and relaxed me a lot. With that done I was done with the spa for now and left to my own personal place. Back to the bedrooms, with Heart. I was still cuddled in their chest and wrapped in their body coils. “This is nice.” I hummed happily. "Yeah." Heart said, cuddling me tightly. "It's nice to enjoy these simple pleasures." “Yeah.” I nodded. “The simple things are great.” "Had fun at the spa?" “Yes I did.” I nodded. “It’s good to know I’m going to the best spa in reality.” "Is that really so enjoyable?" "A bit yes." I said honestly. "Huh. What's your favorite treatment?" “Honestly, the milk bath is nice.” I said honestly. "Milk bath huh? What kind of milk?" “I think the milk is actually breast milk from a dire wolf, I know the consistency, mixed with oils and minerals to help soothe the body.” I said honestly. "Huh. Neat. Wonder what other treatments they have?" Heart pondered, pulling up a list of all the spa offers on a list. "Woah that's a lot." “Yes, that’s kind of why you didn’t see me for like...four days the first time I went.” I said honestly. "Heh. Surprised you and Rarity don't keep clones there full time. Hey, is that baby me still in your stomach by the way?" “Yes, you never left.” I said honestly. "Huh… I wanna ask something but… it might be weird. I dunno." “What’s stopped you before?” I asked honestly. "Heh… well, you know how I don't exactly have… many fond memories from my childhood. I've always wanted to be normal and a large part of me still does. I accepted I can never be normal but I still wanna know what that "normal" is like. So… I was thinking, think you and Eclipsa, or Ophelia and Future Eclipsa, think we named her Grey, could… raise me?" “Of course.” I said happily. “I would love to give you a normal childhood, and so would the others.” I said honestly. "I know but… I don't want to remember who I am while having it. I want it to be blank. No memories, no powers, just…. Normal I guess. Is that selfish or wrong?" “I mean, that would be the Admin Games right there.” I said honestly. "The what?" “I know I told you about Kite Cooper right? The new life I’m in?” I asked. “I thought I told you about it…” "Yeah. You did but I didn't know it had a name, you mostly just went 'I'm a Cooper!' then binge played the Sly Cooper games for a solid two days." “I did not.” I frowned. "Kinda did." Heart said with a laugh. "So, think the Admin Game is a good idea for this?" “I don’t know, you might have to ask Cript about the finer details.” I said honestly. "Well, let's go then." "Actually yeah, that's completely possible and even safer." Cript said, Heart, Eclipsa and I in their office. "It's as simple as making a pocket reality, make a world and all that, populate it and build it how you'd like then submit the paperwork via mail to the Time Walkers and you three will be off." Cript said. “Sounds...simple enough.” I said honestly. "Sounds fun." Eclipsa said. “So, a whole lot of paperwork...just what we needed.” I grumbled. "Actually I can handle the paperwork, you three just make the world." Cript said. “Alright...so while you deal with the easy annoying stuff, we have to do the hard part.” I said honestly. "Is there anything you won't complain about?" Heart asked. “No, and you don’t want to know how long my complaint list is.” I said simply. Heart and Eclipsa laughed. Once they stopped Heart flowed out some code and made a small snow globe of sorts, inside a tiny planet, moon and sun. "Now then, what should be on it?" “Do you want the basic stuff or something special?” I asked curiously. "Well, special I guess." Heart said. "Culture wise how about a mix between my race world and King's, both my race if Equestrian Nagas, King's Dire Wolves, so A, odds are you won't be the only Floof Noodle, and B, King and I won't stick out like a sore thumb." Eclipsa said. “Sounds about right.” I nodded. “Works for me.” "Same. What about you two, powers or?" Heart asked. "Probably no powers other than what's normal for us race wise." Eclipsa said.id. “Alright, sounds simple enough.” I said honestly. “So what’s going to be the natural world like?” "Hmm…" Cript pondered. "Keeping historical events in check and with merging both your worlds into one I have a fairly good idea what it will be like. May I?" “Sure.” I said honestly. “Have at it.” Cript nodded, flowing out a bit of code from his hand into the snow globe. "There we go, a good mix of your two worlds' histories. You three ready?" “As ready as we’ll ever be.” I said honestly. "This is gonna be so cool!" Eclipsa cheered. "Well, second round of childhood here I come." Heart said. This world was… amazing. History wise things played out like this. Long ago each race held their own kingdom. Griffons, Equestrian Nagas, Dire Wolves, etc, they all coexisted fairly well, but threats of both worlds loomed, the giant wasp like bugs from my world, Sombra, Discord, ect from Eclipsa's. A massive war broke out, kingdoms fell and many lives were lost, kingdoms fell and a few of the original races even went extinct. When the battles were done all survivors of the war went to the only two kingdoms still standing, The Dire Wolf, and the Equestrian. Both kingdoms merged and became known as Di Questria. One kingdom and the only left in the world two thousand years later. While the world healed and life across the land flourished again, some threats still lingered. Those damn wasps are around but nearing extinction, Sombra lives and works as the wasps dark mage, while they don't have a kingdom, it's a kingdom of evil, their hive. Celestia still rules, alongside Luna and all that including a queen chosen by the dire wolves. A kingdom of three Queens. Oh yeah, everyone here is a Herm also, so yeah, there's that. That aside, Eclipsa and I live out in a nice house, half magical grown tree, half cave, and she's pregnant with Heart so we can better learn this world before raising them in it. I work as a Hunter, catching prey and selling the extra on the market, and Eclipsa makes potions. “What a simple life.” I said warmly while enjoying the clear sky and warm day. "I know. It's so nice." Eclipsa said, mixing a potion up. "I haven't done this in a while but it's still simple. Heh, gonna give birth to Heart in nine months, this is cool." “Yes it is.” I said as I raised a bow up into the air and pulled an arrow back. “So what kind of food do you want? Cause I’m seeing a pretty big bird up there.” I said, the bird I was talking about was from my world, practically a chicken that can fly as high as a hawk but five times the size. "Hmm. Fried or raw?" Eclipsa asked. “Well do you want it fried or raw? Cause I gotta shoot the thing down first.” I brought up as I fired, the arrow flying straight up into the air as it hit the thing square in the head as it dropped down a little bit away from where we were. "Heh. Looks like enough to try both." Nine Months Later. In the past nine months Eclipsa and I have pretty much fully adapted to this world, made friends and made this place home. Finally the time came for Heart to be brought into this world, for a proper childhood and life. Eclipsa's labor was a hard one, typically her race has no less than three, any less and it takes a lot more for her body to push out such a small thing. Finally though, after seven hours of labor, well into the late night, Heart was born. So small and so adorable. “If it wasn’t for the little tail poking out, you’d think he was a Tribble.” I chuckled as Heart looked more like a living ball of fluff with a tiny naga tail poking out of all his floof. "They're perfect." Eclipsa said, smiling as they held our little fluff ball. “Our little fluff ball.” I said warmly while gently brushing Heart’s fur with a finger, wondering if we were holding them the right way. We were as a tiny little hand peaked out of the fur and grabbed onto my finger. Once everything at the hospital was done we took Heart home, the little Floof sleeping soundly. Trying to put them in their crib made them cry out, so Eclipsa or I had to sleep with them against us at all times, not that we minded. “This is nice…” I muttered to myself gently as I took watch over Heart. The little Floof Noodle happily and innocently snuggled in my warm chest fluff. Normally Eclipsa watches over them and swallows them as the norm for a Floof Noodle infant. I while am able to, prefer not, so I stuff them in the next warmest place, my chest Floof. Eclipsa was out at the moment to sell some potions so it was just me and the baby in the bed. “This is nice…” I said warmly. “Tending to my new child...what am I going to start teaching you when you grow up? Hunting? Gathering? God I wish there was video games here so I can teach you about that.’ I muttered. Baby Heart didn't reply, aside from a soft steady breathing. “I’ll have to talk to Eclipsa about this...but let’s hope for the best my little bundle of fluff.” I gently nuzzled the floof ball that is Heart, making sure to take pictures and making doubly sure Heart saw them when they were older. As I took pictures of my sleeping child it allowed enough time to pass for Eclipsa to come back. "Awh, how cute." She said as she saw me basically taking selfies with baby Heart snuggled in my chest fluff. “Heart is adorable.” I said gently. “And I’m already taking pictures to give Heart to see how flustered they become.” I chuckled. "Heh. Nice. So, while I was out I got some spices and fruits." “Cool.” I nodded with a smile. “What kind of spices and fruits?” "Spices we needed mostly, pepper, Harley salt. And some fruits I think you'll love." Eclipsa said as she pulled out what looked like raw meat, but I knew better, these are what grows off that special tree I helped grow and bring back to life in my home world. “Ah yes, the wonders of learning to tend to plants and the Meat Tree.” I chuckled. “See, I told you meat does grow on trees.” "Oh hush you." Eclipsa said with a chuckle. She rapidly put everything away before scooping Heart out of my cleavage. "There's Mama's little Noodle! Best head back inside now." With that Eclipsa swallowed Heart, stowing them safely inside her. "The first month a Floof Noodle baby should be inside the mama or spouse to keep their body temperature from dropping too low before they grow to maintain it themselves." “Hey, my fur is warm enough.” I huffed. “Just be glad I didn’t hide them "I know, but still." Eclipsa said. "So, what should be for dinner? Or are you gonna see what's on the plains to hunt Tonight?" “Got an idea for dinner?” I asked curiously. "I'm thinking something with pasta." “Sounds good with me.” I nodded. “So, about raising little Heart there, what should we do to raise them? Cause I’m trying to decide if I should teach them to hunt, gather, or start playing games, either cards or video games.” "Heh, maybe preschool?" Eclipsa offered. “I mean...Heart will need a social life yes…” I said nervously. "King… are you worried about sending Heart to preschool?" Eclipsa asked, slithering up to me with a Sly yet confident smile. “I mean...I’ve been antisocial most of my life.” I said honestly. “I just...don’t know if they’ll be happy ya know?” "I'm sure they will King, tell you what, first day of Preschool you go in with Heart just to be sure, alright?" “Alright, I will.” I nodded. “I’d rather not have them be unhappy...even if they would need the social interactions.” "You worry too much." Eclipsa said, giving me a quick kiss. "Come on then, help me make dinner, and maybe we can fool around a bit if we have the time~" “Alright, I have been watching a bit too much Food Wars so...I might over do it.” I said sheepishly. "Hun, I'm a Naga, and you are a Den Mother Dire Wolf, lots of food is all we eat." “I know I know.” I chuckled. I got up and began helping Eclipsa cook, the pasta was a lot. I made it in our biggest pot and it was delicious. Eclipsa took Heart out to feed real fast. Floof noodles can't eat solid foods til they are four months, then they can start swallowing food while learning to chew after their teeth come in at eight months. “It’s gonna be a little sad when we stop breast feeding them.” I said honestly. “Den mother instincts do be like that sometimes.” "Heh, well, Heart does have siblings from earth. One weird one and one trying to kill us, so, why not give them siblings here? They'd go from youngest child to oldest." Eclipsa said, craddeling the little Floof Noodle feeding from her teat. “That would be nice.” I said warmly. “But...his one brother, I haven’t seen in a while...hope he’s doing okay, and his ‘other brother’ was a young Vincent pretending to be the fucker.” I rolled my eyes. “But let’s get past that, and you want to have some fun Eclipsa?” "When Heart is sound asleep and snuggled away in my belly, sure." Eclipsa said with a nod. "Maybe if we get a sitter we can work on giving Heart siblings, till then, hand and boob jobs mostly." “Sounds simple enough, and nice.” I said warmly. “I’ve been getting better with the girls here.” I said while smooshing all my boobs together. "My dick will be the judge of that." Eclipsa said with a laugh. “Is that a challenge?” I asked with a seductive grin. "Normally, yes, but can't, might get carried away and make Heart fussy inside the tummy, and a fussy baby in the tummy is not fun." “I can imagine.” I said honestly. “A fussy baby in general is always no fun.” "You wanna feed them for a bit, I wanna take a shower and Heart doesn't like being inside there while I shower." “Sure.” I said simply. “I would love to breastfeed them.” Eclipsa gently took Heart off her nipple, the little baby about to get fussy as they wanted more. I quickly pulled my own out and once I had them in my arms let them latch on, and they began drinking away, calming down too. "Be back." Eclipsa said, slithering off to the bathroom. I always enjoyed the breast feeding part of being a herm the best. Makes me feel so important. “Don’t worry Heart, you’ll grow big and strong.” I muttered warmly, knowing Den Mother milk does wonders for making people of all ages stronger and healthier. As Eclipsa showered I just sat on the couch, letting Heart feed. Heart was finally full and I burped them before tucking them between the very breasts they drank from. “Good night my little floof noodle.” I whispered, gently kissing their forehead and putting a stuffed animal near them. After a while Eclipsa came out, taking Heart and swallowing them to bed. "Alright then, so, who gets to rub who first?" "Well, you had to deal with child birth for a Naga so...you get rubbed first I suppose." "Cool," Eclipsa said, slithering up onto the bed and letting her shaft rise, all thirteen inches of length and inch and a half of girth. "Let's see how those big bouncy things feel now~" Eclipsa cooed to me. “Oh trust me.” I said while letting my breasts free, the wonderful fluffy titties bouncing in freedom. “They’ll feel wonderful.” Happily I got on my knees, playing around with Eclipsa's cock first. I took the meaty shaft in my hands, stroking up and down with one hand while using the other to rub one of my tits against the tip. Eclipsa moaned in pleasure as I had my fun teasing. After a minute or so of that I got to work, slipping her shaft between my milk bags. My breasts swallowed her cock. Giggling with excitement I used my arms and hands to move my breasts up and down in a slow rhythmic motion. Eclipsa purred in delight, my soft fur and skin tingling every nerve on her dick as I moved my juggs up and down her shaft. “How do you like my tits?” I asked warmly, continuing to rub my fluffy breasts against her dick. "It's exotic~" Eclipsa purred, groping her own breasts in pleasure, slight and subtle hip thrusts into my breasts as she let a small trickle of pre leak out. “I’m glad you like it.” I giggled, gently licking the tip every time it poked out between my breasts. “And you...still taste like Paopu fruit…” I brought up. "Heh, if I do, I'll consider sucking myself off more often~" Eclipsa sighed hotly, not taking her hands and grabbing my top pair of juggs and squeezing them. “I’m just a little surprised you still taste like paopu fruits.” I said honestly while continuing my titjob. “How many do you eat?” "If I'm honest it's the majority of what I eat. They're just too darn delicious." She cooed, panting as I felt her now struggling to hold back. "I'm really close now King." I nodded as I started to squish my tits against Eclipsa’s cock to make it a tighter feel as I started to rub faster. “Come on, cum for me my sexy naga.” Moaning, Eclipsa jerked forward, her cum erupting from her cocks place between my breasts, painting my face white with thick fertile jizz that kept coming out, leaking down my breasts. When Eclipsa finally stopped I greedily cleaned her shaft off before using my magic to clean myself off. Eclipsa helped pull me up to my feet and planted a passionate kiss ripe with tongue play. When she broke it she sat me on the bed and slithered down to my own meat club. It was the same size as always, so I got to keep my special undies, special undies that Eclipsa tore off savagely, letting my eighteen inch tall, two and a half inch thick club of a cock out, my balls ready to me milked. "As much as I'd like to swallow it all, sadly I can't. You okay with me washing it off or when I jerk you off you wanna give me a tongue bath too~?" “You make it sound like I wasn’t going to to begin with.” I chuckled. "Good to know~" Eclipsa chuckled, starting me off with a hand job that she then used to slide my shaft between her breasts. My cock taking pleasure in Eclipsa having to force her breasts to wrap around it. Once it was though Eclipsa began the labor of going up and down my mighty shaft. While not as fluffy as mine her skin was so soft and silky, giving her pair their own exotic feel. “That feels nice.” I moaned. “Silky smooth and nicely soft.” "Girl's gotta take pride in their body." Eclipsa said, rapidly stroking my cock with her breasts, from tip to base in rapid motions that made a slapping noise each time she hit against the base and my balls “Believe me, I understand that a lot.” I moaned softly as my naga lover continued to work her magic. Many long minutes passed as Eclipsa massaged my cock with her breasts, pre of mine began leaking out, lubricating her efforts and making it easier for her to slide her milk juggs up and down. I began to have to hold back the pressure, it building up and I was ready to paint her white with cum. “I’m getting close…” I groaned, trying not to thrust my hips and throw Eclipsa off her groove. "Well, don't hold back on my account, soak me in cum then lick me clean and make me enjoy it~" Eclipsa purred. “If you insist.” I grunted as I came buckets worth all over Eclipsa, lovingly coating her in my hot thick baby batter. Once I was done I admired my handiwork, Eclipsa's entire torso and head was soaked in my cum. “Alright, time to get you cleaned up my love.” I said, even though this wasn’t really something for me, I did promise Eclipsa and I wanted to make her happy. So I did, cleaning her off almost like when I either clean the pups or eat ice cream. Each lick across her body seemed to excite her, and so after a minute or two, Eclipsa was cleaned off and we embraced each other in a naked cuddling. “Did you enjoy that Eclipsa?” I asked gently. "Very much. Can't wait to find a sitter so all that cum can go where it really belongs~" She cooed, kissing my snoot. “Oh yeah, it’s going to be a lot of fun.” I smiled. “But uh...just a quick forewarning, I’m not really into the...eating bit. I can try it if you want just...it can get a little weird.” "I won't ask why but I'll remember that. So, wanna nap or talk for a bit first?"?” “What do you want to talk about?” I asked curiously. "Well, while I was in town I saw an empty building for sale, thought maybe we can buy it, make a shop. You hunt enough to keep meat in stock and with some TLC and magic we can grow everything here needed to make a farm/alchemy garden. Could make a nice little general shop there, it's going for twenty thousand bits though." This world uses bits still, not rem, and twenty thousand is a lot. On average Eclipsa and I make about a hundred between her potions and my sales of meat and hide combined. Even now, we only got about a thousand saved up from being here nearly a year. “Hmm...I’ll have to look into some hunting contracts to make up some extra funds…” I started. "If you find rare ingredients bring them, potions I can make from those can easily go for a hundred or more bits." One Year Later A whole year has passed since Eclipsa and I came here, brought Heart into this world and have been living out beat lives. I worked my tail off hunting and doing contract work while getting Eclipsa those supplies she needed for potions. Thankfully though our hard work finally paid off and we got our Shop in town. It was a good two story shop, already fit with the basic shop requirements and thankfully we can use the upstairs part for storage. Heart was now a year old. Not really talking yet but eating and only ever went inside Eclipsa's stomach to sleep at night. The road from ouR house to the shop was a good two mile walk but all in all not bad. Eclipsa was setting up her potions on shelves while I salted and smoked meats in the smoker here to sell. Heart was on the floor, happily playing with a toy dire wolf we got for them before they were born. “Adorable.” I muttered with a smile at seeing Heart play with their toy. "The shop is really coming together." Eclipsa said, looking at all her neatly placed potions on the shelf. "Still needs a name." "Ba!" Heart said in baby babble, Eclipsa scooping them up. "Ba!" Eclipsa chuckled, nuzzling Heart. "Hopefully you can grow up working here when you're old enough Heart." “I’m sure they’ll want to go out hunting.” I said honestly. "Or brew potions, or tan hide, or whatever they want." Eclipsa said, holding Heart up. "Whatever they wanna do when they're older!" “They’ll be wonderful no matter what they do.” I said happily. “As long as it’s not illegal.” "Preferably." Eclipsa said with a laugh. With the shop mostly set up and a small stock at the ready Eclipsa opened up. "I'll stay here with Heart and run the place, you go check on the farm back home and hunt for some more stuff." “Alright.” I nodded. “I’ll be back soon, stay safe.” I said while heading off to the farm. The garden was lovely. Everything grew big and rich, sadly it was not quite ripe yet. Few more days though and not only will we always be in potatoes, carrots and cabbage but so will the store, as well as everything else growing. Hopefully we'll expand that as time passes. With everything here good I headed to the Forest for some easy hunts. A deer, some squirrels and a bear, but nothing too fancy. As I was walking I ran into a group, two Dire Wolves and an Equestrian Naga. "Hey there." The Naga said. She had an amber colored coat and scales with a lime green mane. The dire wolves looked a lot alike, only difference being one had patches of silver hair in their normal dark blue and the other had patches of brown. “Hello there.” I nodded. “How are you three doing today?” "Fine. You an adventurer too?" The Naga asked. “Well I’ve taken some hunting contracts.” I said honestly. “But besides that I’m just a humble hunter.” "Really? Could have fooled me with muscles like that. The name's Garv. These two are my friends since childhood, Huff and Puff. Huff is the brown spots, Puff is silver spots. Their parents had a real sense of humor." Garv said with a laugh. "I still hate dad for that." Puff said while rolling their eyes. "If you're just hunting you might wanna leave then. This area might be dangerous." Huff said. "Someone spotted one of Sombra's Necromantic abominations in this area." "Huff is right, you best take what ya got and head back to the town, thing is supposed to be huge assuming the witness wasn't exaggerating." “I’m sorry...but do either of you blow any houses down?” I asked the two dire wolves. "You wanna taste the business side of my war hammer?" Puff asked. "Please Puff that's hardly the word one-" Huff was saying before a demonic screech echoed from somewhere. "... You good with that bow, hunter?" Garv asked, taking out her sword while Puff readied her war hammer and Huff a battle axe. My ears twitched as I started to hear the tell tale rustling of the beast. “I’m okay at it.” I said while drawing an arrow and firing it straight towards the beast even if it was out of sight. The beast jumped out, the arrow getting knocked aside as we saw it. It was a centipede, body made from various sewn together corpses, various arms and legs made up it's many legs and a head of stitched together faces. It wrapped itself around the nearby tree about seven times and looked at us. "Good, cause your life depends on it." Garv said. The monster roared against, breaking the tree it was wrapped around and swinging it at us. Huff got hit but the rest of us dodged. The thing was fast for its size. I shot another arrow at it, the arrow hitting one of it's Frankenstein limbs but it seemed unaffected. "Look for the crystal, it's most likely on it's underside!" Garv said. "I'll give us a look." Puff said, speaking in the Dire Wolf magic tongue as her war hammer glowed. She slammed the ground, making the earth side up and fly the beast into the air. On its midsection, embedded into its rotting flesh was a pitch black pulsating crystal. "Shoot it now!" Garv said. “Got it.” I said while grabbing two arrows, this time with specially made armor piercing arrow tips as I fired them both at the black crystal with pinpoint accuracy. The beast flipped over mid air, my arrows going in but not deep enough to hit the crystal. It landed then began spraying out an acidic liquid that was setting fire to the trees and floor bush. "Shit, we need to put this out. Huff!" Garv called out. "On it." Huff said, getting up from where she landed and speaking in the Dire Wolf Magic tongue also. She breathed in, and blew out a freezing cold blast that put out the fire and froze a good chunk of the Forest like it was winter. The beast got stuck in the freeze and Garv took the chance to rush up and slice it in two. The upper half rushed back around and flung Garv back. "So long as that fucking Crystal is whole that thing will stay alive." She growled as she got up. “Well it’s a good thing being with a potion maker.” I said while opening up my bag that I sneakily made into a bag of holding, as I dipped an arrow into one of the many vials I had stored up and shot it at the monster near it’s crystal, it’s body starting to sizzle and decay as the acid in my arrow started to eat away at it’s flesh and bone to get the crystal in view. “I don’t know if this thing can regenerate, or if it can regenerate from acid, so hit the crystal now!” The three adventures quickly got up, throwing their weapons all at once, Puff's war hammer knocking the head half away, Huff's axe cutting into and pushing the lower half up, exposing the gem, and Garv's sword hitting the gem, shattering it on impact. The beast gave a sickly cry as it collapsed, desolving into a pile of bones ranging from wolf, Naga and various other creatures the thing was made from. "That was a nasty one." Huff said, gathering their weapons back. "You did good for just a Hunter." Garv said as she slithered up to me. "When you hunt big game you need to be good." I said honestly. "Gotta admit, that was some skill." Puff said. "So, does the hunter have a name?" Garv asked. “Names King.” I said politely. “Co-owner of the new Eclipse Alchemy and Hunting store.” I said, coming up with a name on the fly that sounds pretty bland the more I thought of it. "Store huh? Hmm. Care to make a partnership?" "That depends." I said. "What kind of partnership are we talking about?" "First let's collect our reward from the guard, then we can talk the finer details with your mate present." Puff grabbed the shards of the gem as proof of completion and we headed back. The guard gave us each two hundred bits as payment. With money in tow we headed to my shop, where Eclipsa was waiting with Heart coiled around her head like a hat. "Hey Hun, back so soon?" “Yeah, I did bring back food, and some customers.” I said while heading to the back to put down the few animals I managed to kill before the giant monster interrupted my hunt. "So you're King's mate? You have taste." Garv said. "Married, but thank you." Eclipsa said with a giggle. "In any case, about the partnership." Garv said with a deep breath. "As you know the guard can only do so much, mainly protect the town's and capital, that's where adventures come in, hired help who go out to deal with the issues out of the town's and even passed the kingdom's borders. As such ,Huff, Puff and I receive payments of all kinds. Money, food, weapons, ect." “Sounds about right.” I nodded “So what, you want to have this place be a guild hall or something adventurer’s go for supplies?” "Basically." “Well...what do you think Eclipsa?” I asked curiously. "Would help bring in business, travelers and adventures would carry more bits, could end up turning the town into a nice trade hub between here, the other towns and the capital." “Sounds about right.” I nodded. “So do we need to talk to someone higher up in the guilds about this?” "Town mayor maybe, Traders guild definitely." Puff said. "Need a Blacksmith for certain jobs, none in this town though." Huff added. “Alright...I’ll try to set up a meeting with the mayor and you try to set up a meeting with the traders guild.” I nodded., One Month Later The meetings with the mayor and the traders guild went over well, the shop was doing incredibly well, supply and stock were going about as fast or faster than we put it on shelves. We even had to hire help, which was nice, give Eclipsa more time at home to be with Heart and tend to the garden. Heart still wasn't talking, which I thought was odd. Should be talking something by now. “Hey, has Heart said anything yet?" I asked Eclipsa. "No, I'm getting worried about that. They should have been saying something already, at least basic sentences." Eclipsa said. “Yeah...that is worrying.” I said nervously. “Where’s Heart?” Eclipsa patted her tail half. "Napping." “Alright.” I nodded. “When they wake up we’ll try to see if they can talk for real.” Some hours after Eclipsa and I finished in the garden Heart woke up and came out, playing with their toys. “Hello Heart.” I said warmly to the floof noodle. “How are you doing?” They said nothing, but looked at me and smiled. “Can you talk?” I asked curiously. Again, they didn't say anything, but leaned forward, and was now nomming on my snoot. I pouted. “Okay you, I know your smarter than this.” I said while patting his head. "Maybe he just doesn't want to?" Eclipsa said. "I remember when I was little I didn't talk til I was two." “Alright.” I said while getting Heart off of my face. “Just seems a little weird…” I hummed as I cradled the adorable little floof noodle. "Give him time, I'm sure Heart will talk when they are ready. Oh, speaking off I've been meaning to tell you, Since Heart and Garv get along so well I asked her if she'd be able to watch over them a night or so and she said sure, so I was thinking maybe tonight or tomorrow we get to giving Heart those siblings we talked about giving them." “Oh that’s going to be very fun.” I chuckled. "Both of us this time though." “Okay okay.” I said as I gave Eclipsa a quick little nuzzle. "I'm sure Heart will love being the older sibling. Are we mama, papa, or what? There a word when you can be both? Are both?" “No idea, no idea, and no idea.” I shrugged. "Mama?" Eclipsa and I looked down at Heart. "Mama?" They said again, looking between us. "Oh now you speak." I chuckled. "But Mama's are here." "Where papa?" "I'm your papa." I said gently. "And your mama...Pama?" "Pama." They said, booping my nose. They then looked to Eclipsa. "Mapa?" Eclipsa laughed, taking Heart and giving them a kiss on the cheek. "Yup. Definitely Mapa." “Cool.” I nodded. “Figured out a proper name for this...even if it’s a little silly.” "Such a smart little baby~" Eclipsa cooed to Heart, who laughed happily as they hugged her. "So, tonight or tomorrow?" “When do you want to do it? Cause I can do it whenever you want.” I smiled. "Hmmm." Eclipsa said, looking at Heart for a while. "Tomorrow, tonight I wanna see how much Heart does know and if he knows what certain things are called." “Yes, cause we just learned they can talk, so let’s see how adorable they are at naming things.” I said warmly. And so, the rest of the day was filled with seeing things Heart knew names too or what they called them. Hilariously enough they call our breasts food, which isn't entirely wrong. They also know Book, spoon, bowl, water, bath, towel, and soup. They call Cheese Spoosh, dirt dlt, and soda sopa. Cute all and all, so Eclipsa and I spent the good chunk of the night teaching Heart the proper words for things and such. Night came and as it got late Heart got sleepy and fell asleep, Eclipsa and I wrapped around them protectively. “Well this was a productive and adorable day.” I whispered to Eclipsa warmly. "And many to come King. Heart can finally grow up with a child's wonder and innocence, and siblings who will look up to and adore them. Gonna be a really full house. Good thing we got the money to expand and improve the house." “Oh yeah.” I nodded. “And with our business being a guild hall we won’t be worried about losing business.” "Heart's, and all out to come children are gonna grow up loving this world. Part of me almost wishes it could be this way forever, just forget the war and stay here." I sighed out. “I wish the same…” "Let's enjoy this not just for Heart, but for us too." Eclipsa said as they began to nod off. “I’ll make sure…” I muttered. “I’ll make sure you’re all safe...no matter what…” Four Years later I was working the farm again. The fields are bigger now with the demand of both the shop and the family. Heart has twenty six siblings, all Floof noodles like them. The field work was- yipe! In a fast motion I was now on my back on the dirt. "Attack!" The childish voice yelled out as I was suddenly covered in the tiny bodies of my children. "Victory!" I laughed happily. “Oh no, you got me!” I said in a playful tone as I wrapped my arms around all the children. “How are you all doing?” "We're great!" Nasha, one of my litter, having her Pama's colors said. "We knocked you down!" Gyro, one of Eclipsa's and also with her colors said. "Told you it would work." And there they are, Heart. Now five and very smart, they fell in love with their siblings when they were born, taught them a lot and is basically their leader as the oldest. "That's good." I chuckled. "So, what do you all have for me besides giving me a hug?" "We're gonna dig a tunnel!" Karla said, one of mine also with my eyes and colors but Eclipsa's name. "We need shovels." Heart said. "Why are you going to dig a tunnel?" I asked curiously. "We're making a base!" Tyler said, one of Eclipsa's and had my exact eye color and fur colors. “Why are you building a base?” I asked curiously. “And why underground?” "We're making a guild!" Gyro said. "And Mapa said we can't use her stomachs." Heart added. “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “But all of you are too young to make a guild.” "Mapa said we can as long as you watch us." Tyler said. “Cause of course…” I muttered to myself. “Well, let’s go get some shovels.” I took the kids all in a massive wagon we had to get to carry the kids in so Eclipsa didn't have to hold them all inside her. Once in town I headed to the tools shop and bought all the spayds needed for the kids. Once back home I watched the kids work with surprising efficiency began digging a small hole into the dirt slowly taking form of a tunnel. “All of you are too young to be this coordinated…” I chuckled. "Kids! Love! Dinner!" Eclipsa called from the house. All at once the kids left in a stampede inside. With a laugh I followed and headed in too. Eclipsa fully dived into motherhood, hair long but up in a ponytail, a lovely pink and blue top that was long enough to cover some of her lower body half passed her anthro half. She looked happy, content, and relaxed. With all the kids in she greeted me with a kiss. "Hello love. Kids didn't bury themselves alive at any point?" “No they didn’t, they seemed rather coordinated for a bunch of four year olds.” I said honestly. "Heart kept them in line, then, good. Well, come on, we got Pokogo Bird Fried with mashed potatoes and white gravy." “Yay.” I cheered happily. “Thanks hun.” We sat down to eat at the table, the long long, long long long table. The house had changed a lot. The cave half had been dug so each of the kids now had a room. The tree half mostly became extra food storage, we go through food like crazy sometimes but that's life. Kids sometimes drink from us and while Heart gets embarrassed by it Eclipsa and I just share a laugh. When dinner was done and plates washed the kids went to their playroom I carved out of the cave for them, a room with toys, small books and the like. Basically an indoor playground. Eclipsa and I stay at the table still, enjoying the peace. "So, Heart is gonna start Kindergarten next month. You worried?" “Of course I am.” I said honestly. “Right now I’m worried he might get more kids to join his ‘guild’.” I said nervously. "Well, that's what we get for letting Huff, Puff and Garv tell them their adventure stories for bedtime stories." Eclipsa said with a laugh. "But I thought you wanted to teach Heart how to hunt and fight? Wouldn't wanting to be in a guild be the best chance for you to do that?" “He’s five.” I started. “I know I should be starting early while he’s up for learning so much but….” I sighed out. “I don’t want to do something to...hurt his childhood ya know?” "Spending time with you and I will be more than enough. I know they won't stay a child forever, but we should at least help them learn if what they want as a child will be what they want as an adult. Remember last month when he 'battled the ferocious racoon by the garbage'? You and I had a heart attack and Heart was just sitting there with a proud smile on his face for chasing it off with his toy sword." “Yes...I know that very well.” I said honestly. “And yes, we both nearly had a heart attack when he said that...I’m just glad he wasn’t hurt.” "They are our child, plus… not sure how much of… Nexus's programming might actually be there. And that scares me." “Honestly, we would have seen something about that by now.” I said simply. "Like being able to organize a small army of four year olds and take on a possibly rabid racoon without a scratch?" "I see your point." I said nervously. "I'll talk to Heart later about it… hopefully it's nothingbad happens…"." "Yeah. Hopefully." Later that Night while Eclipsa was checking on the alchemy herbs I sat with Heart to ask some questions. “Alright you, let’s start with...why the guild?” I asked curiously. “I know this is your idea Heart.” "I wanna fight monsters." They said simply and innocently. “Why do you want to fight monsters?” I asked curiously. "Cause you fight monsters." “Well, sometimes I do, but other times I do it so we have food.” I said honestly. “But is it just because you want to be like me?” "Auntcle Garv," That means Aunt/Uncle. Word for everything. Also fitting for a world of herms. "Told me you all met when you all fought a big ugly monster in the woods." “We did yes.” I nodded. "Auntcle Garv said that was the closest a monster ever got to town. I wanna keep those big uglies out of town." “And you're gathering your siblings to help you with this?” I asked curiously. "Yeah. Garv says a good guild has two things. Numbers and trust. We have both!" “I mean, that is true.” I said honestly. “But your five and your siblings are a year younger than you.” I said nervously. "We'll get bigger! And older!" “I know.” I said honestly. “But...looks like I’m gonna have to start training you all to fight.” I said honestly. "Yay!" Heart said, jumping up and hug-coiling around my head. "Thank you Pama!" “Your welcome Heart.” I said warmly while gently patting Heart’s head. "Do I get a bow?" “Maybe.” I said honestly. “We’ll see what you’re good with later on.” "Will Auntcles Huff and Puff be there?" “Unless they're busy.” I said honestly. “But I’ll see if they can come over.” "Can I get a pet?" Should have seen that one coming. Been begging for the last two years. “Not yet.” I said honestly. “We have to take care of you and your twenty plus siblings.” I said honestly. “And if you want to continue, go ask Mapa.” "Awh…" Seven Years Later I was nervous, standing against this tree just waiting was complete agon- Whoosh! Yipe! I moved, the arrow having hit the apple that rested on my head just a second ago. "Good job Heart." Garv said, they and Heart only thirty feet away, Heart with a bow. "Again!" Heart cheered. “Can you not again?” I asked with a frown. "Hey, kid's got skill." Garv said. Heart is twelve now, their siblings eleven and all are exploring various skills and such for their guild dream. “Was that before or after he kept hitting me accidentally?” I pouted, everyone knowing about the cartoonish amount of bandages I have on me because of that. "Hey, it's a new bow, gotta get used to it somehow." Garv said to Heart's defense. "Besides, if you had made that training dummy last week like I asked before we started this, we wouldn't have had to improvise." "Can I go see Mapa now?" Heart asked. "Stick to the road." Garv said as Heart was off. “I have been really busy.” I frowned. Garv giggled, and once they saw Heart was already a distance down the road, coiled their lower half up and sat on it. "Sit, I got some news." She said, patting to the empty patch of her own tail like it was a bench. “Alright, what do you got for me?” I asked while sitting down next to Garv. "In a few months Huff, Puff and I are gonna be heading out. Got a contract directly from the Queens themselves." "Sounds important." I said honestly. "What's your target?" "Not so much a target but a quest really." Garv sighed. "The Hornets and Sombra's abominations have been sighted lurking too close to our borders, the Queens want every able bodied soldier and Adventure there to fend off an expected invasion." "And yet I have a feeling there is a catch here." I said honestly. "Like it's a bit too obvious for a simple invasion." "Hard to tell, but… Here." Garv reached down her mouth, pulling out some slimy keys. She shook them off real quick. "In case they break through, the country sides here will be unsafe. I have a house in the capital, safest place to be. Head up there when I leave, pack the farm and family and relocate." “I’ll...I’ll talk with Eclipsa about this.” I said gently. ”Yeah there’s no way in hell I’m gonna let you all march to your deaths.” I thought to myself. Later that night though… "What powers do you have here King?! We're normal here, no powers no nothing, you join or try and attack first this army you'll die and join them!" Eclipsa yelled at me. “When did we agree to not have our powers in any capacity?” I asked. “I know we said something to Cript about seeming normal, but just being average people? I don’t remember that.” I said, honestly not remembering that tidbit. "I added it. We promised Heart to give them a normal, healthy childhood, and that would be kinda hard if their mom could turn her alchemy garden into forest and their father summon thirteen mystical overpowered weapons as well as armies of hollow bodied latex suit people." “Not...really?” I asked. “To be honest...you over thought that bit hard.” "Ironic given who I'm talking to." Eclipsa said, crossing her arms. "Look, I don't like this either, believe me, I'm in the same boat as you but you forget, in this place, you and I can die and what about the kids? Missing one or both parents because we have hero complexes?" “More like I’m confused on why you think we legit can’t have a normal life with powers.” I started. “And yes, thank you for explaining something I am fully aware of, and telling me something I wasn’t aware of since you apparently did it last minute.” I frowned. “So at which point do you honestly believe Heart will listen to us and drag all our kids along with him?” I asked bluntly. “Cause you know, him and all our kids were going to make a guild and have been, oh I don’t know, training to fight monsters for a good six plus years?” "They're kids, what kid doesn't want to be a knight and kill monsters? Look, Huff, Puff and Garv are amazing fighters, back home they'd be elites in the army. You've seen them take out a lot of big and nasty beasts. They'll be fine." “At the moment, I’m not scared about those three dying. At the moment, I’m scared about the literally tunnel system we gave our children.” I deadpanned. “And hey, guess what they're gonna try when they learn about this?” "They are kids! Look, we'll take Garv's advice, pack up and move to Canterlot, odds are they'll shift to scholar over adventure after a few years. We can make a new or move the shop and the mountains that Canterlot are built on are ripe with game for you to hunt, they breed way more than our races." “And those same kids could do exactly what I’ve been saying.” I frowned. “But whatever, we can go back and forth on this for way too long.” I rolled my eyes. “Preparing for the obvious? The fuck does that mean?” I muttered to myself as I headed off to talk to the kids about this. Eclipsa sat by the table, a heavy sigh. "First argument… heh, guess we are a normal couple now." As I left the room, my ears twitched and heard a slight movement. “You can come out Heart...I know you're there…” I sighed out. Heart slithered over, sadness in their eyes. “Why were you and Mapa fighting?” Heart asked worriedly. “We weren’t fighting Heart.” I said gently while kneeling down. “We were just...talking is all.” I said gently. “Come on, I need to talk to the others.” I said while gently picking up Heart and heading off to see the kids. “Are we leaving?” Heart asked worriedly. “Sadly that might be the case.” I sighed out. “But I’ll explain when we find your brothers and sisters okay?” (five minutes later) “What!?” One of the floof noodles said in shock. “Why are we leaving home?” “Cause it’s getting dangerous here.” I said honestly. “We can fight Pama! We’ve been training for years.” One of our daughters countered. “This is for adults.” I said sadly, not wanting to argue with my kids. “Why do we need to leave home?” Another child asked. “Aren’t the adventurer’s going to stop the bad guys?” “It’s...a little more complicated than that.” I sighed out. “But we can help. They need all the help they can get right?” Another brave child asked. “We know we can fight.” I teared up, seeing all my children so brave and ready to charge off, not wanting to crush their dreams of being hero’s but...not wanting to see them die because of our mistakes. “Listen, I’m sure you can still be adventurer’s, just...not right now okay? This is something not for kids.” I said while looking back at Heart. “Heart? What do you think?” One of his siblings asked. “You helped all of us be better, helped us know being hero’s is real.” I could tell Heart was thinking, conflicted given what they heard between Eclipsa and I just earlier and their siblings and their own dream of a guild of Adventures. "I… I uh…" “It’s alright Heart, just speak your mind.” I said softly. "I just… I don't want you two to fight…" “We won’t fight Heart.” I said while gently patting their head. “But what do you think?” "Well, we can still be Adventures even if we move." “That’s correct.” I nodded. “I’m sure there’s Adventurer Guilds up near Canterlot.” “Are you sure big brother?” One of his sisters asked. “We worked hard on our guild base…” “Will we ever be back?” Another child asked. “I’m sure we will…” I said gently. "Yeah. And we can dig it deeper and bigger!" Heart said, faking confidence but it was passable enough for his siblings. “Yay!” The children cheered. “Remember Heart...just because things change, doesn’t mean you should give up on your dreams.” I said gently. “I know it’s scary now, but with family...anything’s possible, okay?” Four Years Later That war was a shit show. After we moved to Canterlot and the kids enrolled in school, I was contacted by the royal guard to participate. Originally I was gonna decline, but a five grand contract isn't something you pass on, and to buy a new shop here, we needed every bit. Thankfully I was set up in a snipers tower a fair distance from the fight, me and the other archers were to take out stragglers that got past the initial combat zone. I downed sixty hornets and easily a hundred of those necromancy monsters of Sombra's. Sadly though, war always has losses on both sides. Huff and Puff… didn't make it. We keep their weapons above our fireplace as a reminder. Couldn't have a proper funeral, there weren't any bodies left when the fighting ended. Speaking of that, after the war ended I and many others were contracted with an extra two thousand bits to search for survivors on both sides, and it was an extra hundred bits per person alive. That was when I found Garv. Their right arm was grotesquely mutilated to the point pieces of it fell off when they moved, a good chunk of her tail was just as bad, and her eyes were sliced out. How she was alive was nothing less than a miracle. When we got home it had been about a year, a whole year away. Thankfully the house Garv gave us had plenty of space. Kids all had to share a room but they didn't mind, also had a personal well for water, despite the city having plumbing, and a yard large enough for Eclipsa to regrow her alchemy garden. With that over we tried to settle back into normalcy, Garv living with us given her newfound disabilities. She didn't mind, would talk the kids ears off about the battle and such. “Well...the kids still seem invested in the stories...even though Garv is putting a massive ‘heroism’ spin on it…” I said to Eclipsa. “So have the kids tried building their new base?” "They wanna wait to buy one. That or til they can head back to the farm and turn it into a base." Eclipsa said with a sigh. Thankfully the village and farm were spared in the fight, but it's now right next to the new borders, so it's still rather dangerous. "At least a good thousand of those damned bugs are dead." “Yeah…” I nodded. “Still searching for other survivors...I know the kids are happy to see Garv alive and their stories...but how are they holding up normally? I haven’t had much time with all the new contracts I’ve been getting.” "Adjusting to being one armed, they adjusted fast, blind, doing well. Despite all that Garv seems… calm, in a strange way." “Yeah, they seemed rather...okay with what happened when I found them.” I said nervously. “But how are the kids? How are they holding up from this?” "Heh, if anything they're more driven. Heart is spending days and nights at the libraries going through every text on the Hornets and Sombra and their monsters. Page, Tyler and Hannah are apprenticing with a Blacksmith. You can only guess where that will lead. Speaking of though, mind fetching Heart? They said they were going to the library again… last night and are still there." “That’s not good.” I started nervously. “But glad the kids didn’t give up their dreams...looks like we were both right here, they didn’t give up their dreams like I said, but are expanding to other things like you said.” "Just be sure to drag them back here. They're probably starving." “Let’s hope not.” I said honestly. “But I’ll be back.” I said while giving Eclipsa a quick peck on the cheek before heading off to the library. Canterlot was different from back home. Adapted for the Equine Nagas and Dire Wolves so it was a very healthy blend of nature and buildings. The library was made from a massive tree with stone and parts if it's trunk carved and set around it as for support and decoration. In here I found Heart at one of the desks. They've grown a lot into their body the past four years, not quite near their adult body but getting there. They've caught several eyes over the last two years but they never went on second dates. “Hey Heart.” I said to my child. “How are you doing?” "Hm?" Heart said, looking up and around. "Oh, hey Pama." They said, looking back down at their book. “What are you up to?” I asked curiously, looking over their shoulder to see what book they were reading. "Studying." They replied. The book they were reading was on anti Necromantic enchantments and potions. “Wanting to figure out how to fight against the bad guys?” I asked curiously. "Always. These ingredients are gonna be a bitch to find." “What kind of ingredients are you looking for?” I asked curiously. “Cause I’m sure Eclipsa might have some.” "Nope." Heart said with a sigh. "These ingredients I know Mapa has never had in their garden or stock. They only grow in the old Crystal Empire ruins. Assuming the cold didn't kill them all." “I have a feeling the ingredients are a little tougher than you might think.” I said honestly, looking over the ingredients just in case I know them, which I should since I have all of the Admin of Plants knowledge on plants. "Hopefully. Even just the roots would be enough to regrow them. Though that would take a lot of time and magic." “You’d be surprised how little it takes to spark growth in plants. Eclipsa has shown me quite a bit on plants.” I said, which was technically true. "Well, life finds a way as they say. Finding the ore for holy enchantments might be easier." “Considering some of the ore can be found underneath this very mountain, I’d have to agree.” I nodded. “Had to take some contracts for guarding some miners when certain prey got a little too close to the mines.” “Yeah but there is one one type that’s more effective, one that with luck could even fatally wound Sombra themself. Moonlight silver. Comes from only one place though.” Heart said, tapping an image of the moon in their book. “NIghtmare Moon’s armor was made from it but after she was defeated it was destroyed as a result so unless we can send a non alicorn to the moon safely, we aren’t getting any.” “I’ll try to talk to the princess about it.” I said honestly. “Considering all I’ve done to help the kingdom, I’m sure I can get an audience with them.” “Heh, if you say so. So, why are you here again?” “To bring you home.” I said honestly. “You’ve been here for an entire day, you must be hungry.” I said honestly. “I’m good, drank an illusion potion last night so my body will think I’m full, besides I still got…” Heart looked up at the clock, then eyes went wide with worry. “Oh fuck.” Needless to say a very hungry Naga will eat whatever, and whoever, is nearby. SO yeah, after I finally got out we also had to pay for all the food in the library’s snack center. When we got home Heart was still needing food and I needed a shower. “I still can’t believe you took an illusion potion to make sure you don’t eat.” Eclipsa said, Heart munching a whole roasted pig. With a hearty swallow Heart ate the entire pork. “I needed to study.” Heart said with a huff. “You need food and sleep, don’t make me swallow you like you swallowed King, cause I will also down a sleeping potion, then you and I can enjoy a nice two day nap.” “Okay okay Mapa I’ll go sleep.” Heart groaned, slithering off to their room. I got out of the shower, drying off my fur and and dressed in my favorite nightgown. A sky blue color with little wolves howling to a moon. "Alright...time to send a letter to Celestia and Luna." I muttered while heading to my study and starting to write down a letter in need of an audience. "Think you can get this Moon Silver?" Eclipsa asked. "I'll at least try talking to them first about this, hopefully they can either get it or tell me how to get it." I said honestly. “Hopefully.” Over the next few weeks after I sent that letter Heart kept trying to get out of the house to pull all nighters at the library to study. Eclipsa ended up having to ground them via swallowing them. Needless to say Heart was… more than a little pissed. Their siblings tried to argue for them outside of Eclipsa but… “Urp… Dang it kids…” Eclipsa groaned, her lower snake half bloated to the size of the bed as all our kids had to get swallowed. This was her limit, without powers or anything. All she could do was lay down on the livingroom floor, too swelled up to move at all, too heavy. “They got both our stubbornness…” She groaned. "Don't push yourself." I said gently. "Jeez, didn't expect the kids to be this upset about not letting Heart pull all nighters." “Welp, considering they are yours and my kids it’s like trying to keep you out of a library to study something important added on top of my determination, so this is the only way to keep them all in one place… Urp!” Eclipsa sighed as I got her a pillow. “Christ… Heh, haven’t had them all in there since they were so little.” "I know." I sighed out. "We're gonna need to talk with them about this. Cause while stubborn determination is one thinghing, starving yourself cause your focus is another.” “Yeah. Speaking of, almost lunch time. Mine cooking it… and dinner, I can’t move. I’ll have to send the kids food down, ugh. Not letting them out til they are at least a week well fed and rested in there.” “Looks like I’m gonna have to be doing...basically everything for a solid week.” I said sheepishly. “Thanks hun~” “Hooray for no sleep.” I slightly whined as I headed off to make lunch and dinner. “I hope Garv can help a bit...even if they are crippled as hell.” I muttered to myself. Garv helped as much they could, though she was slow with chopping and such. As this week went about the kids didn’t even bother struggling and mostly when it was real quiet we could hear them planning, talking, sharing notes. Meal times were harder on Eclipsa as she had to swallow their food for them, then them all eating swelled her up more. A lot of lotion and such was used to ease her. Eclipsa and I mostly just talked or cuddled on the floor where she was stuck. I didn’t mind much at all, it was kinda nice. “I remember when my Mapa or Pama would swallow me for grounding.” Garv said, seating on the couch nearby. “Longest they kept me in was three months. That was for setting the garden on fire.” “Well...that sounds about right.” I said honestly. “Why did you set the garden on fire?” “Heh, normal kids played with toys, read books or learned housework. I made arrowheads and would start fires cause I enjoyed camping. Better than having to get shoved in Mapa or Pama’s stomaches every night. Small house, and with thirty six siblings, our bedroom was just their bellies. Well, fire didn’t die off like normal one night and folks woke up to a burned garden and me somehow safe from it all.” “That’s...interesting.” I started. “You were perfectly fine even in a fire?” “I camped in this spot we keep empty and dirt to keep the baskets we’d throw the wheat and grapes into. Guess I was just curled up so much I didn’t get touched. As for how it spread… I always figured one of the wheat got blown too far down in the wind and caught the edge of my fire.” “Sounds...a tad convenient to be honest.” I said simply. “But at least your okay.” “Heh, yeah.” When the last day of their grounding came about Eclipsa finally tried to get off the floor. Garv and I helped her up, dragging her across to the bedroom and with a heavy lift and heave from Garv and I Eclipsa finally made it onto the bed. “Oh sweet bed. Sweet, sweet soft bed.” She said, sighing in relief. “Is it weird I wanna do this again?” “Kinda.” Garv said. “Heard lots of stories of Nagas or Floof Noodles who just live inside others' bellies cause it’s either cheap rent or it makes them feel safe. Or they’re minimalists.” “Also let’s not do that again.” I frowned. “Even with Garv’s help I have barely been getting sleep with doing my contract work, running the shop, tending the gardens and a lot of other things.” “Awh, wanna sleep soundly hun~” Eclipsa said, rubbing her already massive belly. “Always room for you~” “I’m good thanks.” I said while getting on the bed and cuddling up next to them. “I’d rather be right here in a soft bed cuddling with you.” “Awh, you killjoy.” Eclipsa pouted as she got relaxed. “I ain’t a killjoy.” I huffed. “Besides, you need a break from that.” “I’m a naga hun, taking a break from that is like you taking a break from hunting, or off screen grinding.” “Of course.” I said honestly. “But a break is a break.” “I’ll take a break from that when you take a break when you take a break from work in general.” Eclipsa said with a laugh as she began to nap. “That didn’t make sense…” I muttered as I started to fall asleep as well. Later that night, the kids grounding was over and Eclipsa was trying to let them out… Trying being the keyword. “Damn it.” Eclipsa said, trying to use either her tongue or push the kids up to no avail. “This is new…” “I think I might know what’s happening, but I gotta reach down. King, little help?” Garv asked, who was in the living room. “Anything to help the kids.” I said nervously. I brought Garv to Eclipsa’s side. “Alright, now I’m gonna shove my arm down there to feel around, if it’s what I think it’s no real issue.” Garv said, Eclipsa nodded and opened wide. Garv’s arm slid down and they felt around for about ten seconds or so. “Yup, I figured. Tied Pathway.” They said, taking their arm out. “Tied pathway?” Eclipsa asked. “Yeah we have multiple stomachs all linked via… I guess you can call them mini esophagus to a central chamber. Well when one belly gets too big and stuffed their center inside us can get turned slightly and that makes it hard to push out anyone inside. Or anything, depends.” “Alright, so how the hell do we fix this?” I asked nervously. “Well, we just gotta roll her to a side where the tube isn’t twisted.” “And which side is that?” I asked curiously. “Let’s see.” Garv said, their arm back down Eclipsa’s throat. “Hmm… To the left.” With thankfully less effort than it took roll Eclipsa than it took to get her on the bed. Thankfully it was the right way so she was now able to get the kids out. “Now go to your rooms…” Eclipsa said as they all listened. Once all the kids were out she began to cure her tail for a while. “Shit that made me stiff.” “I’ll go talk to the kids while you rest up alright?” I asked. "Fine fine." Eclipsa said, still coiling and uncoiling her tail. "Alright." I nodded while heading off to find the kids. "Kids? We need to talk." "About?" Tyler asked. "About your actions that caused you to get grounded." I said honestly. "And the point in going to make is, there is a difference between working hard, and overworking to the point of illness." I frowned. "It's good to work hard to help others, it's another to literally starve yourself studying, especially when it was on purpose starvation." "Hey lot, we're kettles. Guess what?" Heart said sarcastically, getting a laugh from their siblings. "You sure you're a good example of that Pama? Remember the Igabu hunt two years back?" “Do you know what ‘Persistence Hunting’ is?” I asked simply. “See, it’s one of the oldest, but still well known hunting strategies, where the hunter follow’s their prey for miles on end, tiring out their prey so they couldn’t run anymore. And when you have to hunt something that’s really sturdy and has a pretty good healing factor through evolution and magic I’d say Persistence Hunting is a good idea.” "Ugh, again with hunting history." Heart said with a roll of their eyes. “It’s to prove a point, Heart.” I frowned. “What I did was not over doing it, I was making sure I always had energy while my prey was running itself ragged, while you are trying to run yourself ragged and starve yourself, while Sombra is keeping his strength and making more monsters.” I explained. "Sombra gets their strength by killing us. Every life they take every soul they swallow down is someone suffering a fate worse than every level in hell at once! So long as Sombra and those Hornets live our world just like our people are headed for extinction." “And you starving yourself pulling all nighters is going to help?” I asked Heart simply. “Is any of you working yourselves to the bone, getting sick from overworking, is that helping anyone?” I asked my kids, looking at each child with a serious gaze. "At least we're learning how to kill these bastards. Most others our age just wanna join the guard to find a mate faster." “Nice way to ignore my question.” I said honestly. “I ask again, are you helping anyone by making yourselves sick from work?” I asked bluntly. “I’m not asking about ‘learning to kill’, and I’m especially not bringing up anyone else. I’m asking all of you if you think getting yourselves sick helps anyone.” They remained silent. Mostly just looking between each other while Heart kept a death glare eye contact at me. It felt… painful to see them look at me with… such anger. It wasn't just a parents' emotions I was feeling, what we are, they may not remember but I do…it hurts. I think this is the first time Heart has really, genuinely hurt me. "Whatever." They huffed, slithering off back to their room. I sighed out while looking at all the others. “Listen, I’m not doing this because I don’t want you to work or anything like that...I just don’t want you all getting sick, hurting yourselves because you feel like the world is on your shoulders.” I said gently. “There is a major difference between hard work and determination...and just hurting yourselves thinking you're doing what’s best...I should know...I’ve done it many times before I met your Mapa.” I sighed out sadly. “Do all of you understand?” They all nodded, not really wanting to talk given the prior awkward conversation. With that done I sighed, and headed back to Eclipsa who I immediately brought into a tight hug. "Something happen?" She asked me. “Heart being a teenager.” I sighed out. “But...even as I tried to tell him what he’s doing hurts him more than helps...all he did was look at me with such hatred…” I teared up. “It hurts to see him like that...not just as a parent…” "I can't even imagine." Eclipsa said, patting the side of my head. "I figured this life wouldn't be all sunshine and rainbows but… yikes." “But at least the other kids understood...hopefully...I should probably go check on Heart in a bit...make sure he didn’t sneak out or anything.” "Might be best." Eclipsa said. After five or so minutes I got up to check Heart's room. Not saying anything I opened the door. They were sitting at their desk. My inner parent was about to say something when… I heard him talking. "Yes I know that… Yes I know how hard it is to find." I was confused. No cellphones or anything close to that exist in this world. "Pama. Yes, a solid week inside Mapa. Whatever, just figure out your end of our deal, you get to stretch your… tail, and Sombra and those Hornets will die." It was then Heart turned their head a bit. My blood went cold at what I saw… their eyes… Psychopath. "What do you mean take a smell?" I left quickly at that. "King?" Eclipsa asked as I ran back into the bedroom. “So…” I said while my left eye turned into a Psychopath eye. “Guess who Heart’s talking to?” I said while tapping my left temple carefully. "No… no, how?" Eclipsa asked in a panic. “No idea...I can already feel the bastard in Heart.” I growled, one thing that I was glad about being half psychopath was being able to tell who was and wasn’t one, while my Humanity half kept the Psychopaths away from my mind and kept the pain away. “But they’re both talking about killing Sombra and the hornets...they just need those materials.” "Did they say anything else?" “Talked about being grounded, working the Pscyhopaths ‘end of the deal’ and...weirdly, ‘take a smell’...that was a little weird.” I said honestly. "My God… what kind of deal did they make? We have to stop this somehow." “I know we do…” I sighed out. “I...god, what would Heart think if I showed them this?” I asked while showing my Humanity and Psychopath eyes. "I dunno. This is really delicate… what… what if we find a way to have Heart suppress their Psychopath power." “I mean, currently they're talking to the rat bastard so...they’re already doing something right.” I said honestly. “But...what’s stopping Heart from doing shit like that to begin with? Cause he doesn’t have Humanity, I should know.” "Love. Cript told me before he discovered and obtained Humanity they used Love to suppress Psychopath, love is very similar to Humanity in its ability to fight them off. Remember back home Heart was getting to know all the others, and having sex with them." “I kind of thought it was because he was bored and even hornier than me.” I said honestly. "Well that too but it's a good… treatment, so to say. We can't be their mates here, despite I would love to blow their teenage body, we need to find a mate for them in this life and world… and I might have just the potion." “Oh yeah, I think I heard you talking about it one time. Teleports their ‘true love’ to them or something like that?” I asked curiously. "Yes. It will be a bit chaotic with a random Naga or Floof or Dire Wolf showing up in their bed but if it shuts that bloody fucker up then it's worth it. I have most but I need two more, two that only grow in the Queen's personal garden… think you can steal what I need?" “Even if you said I have no powers, the Cooper Techniques don’t count as ‘powers’.” I said simply. “I’ll head off tonight.” "Gonna use that Cooper Cane you had commissioned? Yes I know about that. You keep it wrapped up in the attic." “Of course.” I chuckled. “What would a Cooper be without their Cane?” "Gonna use your outfit too?" Eclipsa asked with a laugh. “You know me.” I chuckled. “Besides, I made sure my outfit wouldn’t give away who I am so there’s that.” "Head on off them, potion only works when both are asleep, so hurry before Heart falls asleep." “Alright.” I nodded while heading to the attic to get my gear and head off to the Queen’s gardens. After gathering all my gear and making sure I was prepped I snuck my way towards the Queen’s Gardens, which was a good ten minute rooftop running as I climbed up the castle walls, and into the castle proper. Now the funny thing about my experience is that I’ve dealt with modern day security systems, and while the Castle’s security isn’t anything to scoff at, it was so easy to sneak in and past all the guards I thought I was cheating for a bit. The guard rotations were easy to get past, the traps that were attached to warning bells were painfully obvious, and there were so many grapple points to hide during semi busy intersections in the castle, and with all that I waltzed into the Gardens without much issues. Now the gardens were actually a lot like original Equestria’s gardens, just with a lot more fauna and the like made for alchemy. While it did look pretty, I still had a time table to work with so I moved swiftly and quietly through the garden, snatching up one of the plants, the first one being a fern that was in the shape of a heart which I found pretty apt for what potion this is used for. Now the other one was a tad bit tricker given that the Queen of the Dire Wolves decided to take a little nightly stroll through the gardens, stopping by the second ingredient I needed to get, a flower that looked like it had a galaxy on each individual petal. ”Cause of course the queen is here...” I mentally grumbled while sneaking closer to the flower and queen, careful not to make any sounds or arouse suspicion. “Hmm?” The Queen hummed, her ear twitching as she felt the air subtly shift like someone was there. “Is someone there?” She asked while looking around carefully. ”Well...this is the queen after all.” I thought to myself as I used one of my Cooper Techniques to turn Invisible, as it wasn’t actually a magical ability given Bentley could do it and he was one of the group that didn’t fully produce magic naturally, he was able to use magic through a specific medium like his crossbow or cane, but not through himself. I mentally shook off that weird little mental tangent as I went back to watching the queen search around for me, knowing that someone was there but not being able to see them. “I can tell by the shift in the air you are around here.” She called out. “But without the guards being alerted, or the smell of blood, you either must be a skilled thief or a new monster Sombra made.” She said as she got up and prepared herself for combat. “Oh come now my Queen.” I said, giving a little tonal shift in my voice so it didn’t sound like me given I have actually talked to them before on contracts, sneaking behind her and taking one of the flowers. “I’m not some abomination that bastard Sombra makes, he ruins business.” “So a skilled thief it is.” The queen said while trying to find where the voice was originating. “And prey tell, what is it you are looking for? Money? Jewels? A hostage?” “Oh nothing like that.” I started, the Queen turning around just to see me with a slightly cheeky smile as I kissed the Queen expertly.I let my expert kiss linger for a good ten seconds before breaking it and smiling. “Just a humble kiss from a beautiful queen.” I said as I bolted off, the Queen so shocked at the sudden kiss “W-well…” The Queen blushed brightly, her tail wagging like mad as she saw me leaping up towards a spire and off into the distance. “That’s...wow…” She swooned. "So, mind telling me why the entirety of the royal guard is searching the streets for a thief who stole the Dire wolf Queens first kiss?" Eclipsa asked as I snuck in through the window. She didn't even look in my direction. But I could tell she was smiling. “Wait, first?” I blinked. “Uh, I mean, what do you mean? I totally don’t know what you're talking about.” I coughed to try and cover up my bullshit as I put the two plants near Eclipsa. “But I got you your plants, how’s Heart doing?” "Still awake. Not sure if I should be happy about that or not. And don't worry love, was gonna be taking those three into the family once Heart got their memories back. They set it for age twenty five. In any case, I need one more thing." Eclipsa said, taking the two plants from me. "A bit of Heart's hair. Care to snatch one while I make this?" “Sure...also jeez, another ten years of the queen hunting me down? Seems a bit rough...should I try to visit her just to make sure she doesn’t feel like it was a one and done thing?” "Teach me to sneak like that and we can both play with the Queens so when the time comes they will swoon into our arms oh so willingly and horney." “To be honest, this is going to be the first time I’m a thief stealing the heart of a queen...I kind of expected my time as Kite to happen first, but this is good practice.” I chuckled. "Gonna be fun. Now go get Heart's hair." Eclipsa said as she began mixing the potion. I slowly opened Heart's room door, they were still at their desk, writing something down. Slowly and invisible I reached out for a single strand. Suddenly Heart turned around, grabbing my snoot as my invisibility broke. "Pama?" They said confused, letting me go. "What… are you wearing?" “My Nightmare Night costume, remember?” I asked sheepishly. "... No, what are you? Some… sailor?" “No.” I said honestly. “More of a thief.” I said simply while plucking a strand of hair from Heart. “Just need this for Eclipsa, said she needed it for one of her new experiments.” "Mapa making a new potion? Please tell it's not a hair dye one again I still find pink strands when I shower." “But you looked adorable in pink.” I chuckled. “But don’t worry, it’s not another hair dye one I can promise you that.” "Good." Heart said with a sigh. "...Look, Pama… I know you keep my best interests at heart… but If I can't suffer through a day's worth of hunger, or a sleepless night, then how can I make it through a war? I remember you once telling me you and Garv didn't eat or sleep for three solid days and nights because of all the monsters and Hornets. If I can't push myself to that and further then how can I expect to kill Sombra and that Hornet Queen." “Because you don’t have to, or need to.” I started. “You overworking yourself only hurts you more than it helps you. Why me and Garv were able to do it is because we’re used to not eating due to our professions, you're still a teenager, you’re still growing, you shouldn’t have to starve yourself just to help us.” I said gently. “You’re doing the best you can without doing something like that, and your help is great…” I sighed out. "I'm not torturing myself for you, I need to prove to myself that I can overcome these challenges. If I can't then… then nothing will change. There used to be over two hundred and sixty three intelligent species on this planet. Now only the dire wolves, Equestrians and Floof Noodles like me are the three primary ones. All the others are either extinct or a generation from going extinct. How much longer til even our numbers begin to decline. The only reason we haven't is because of our birthing capabilities, but that alone can't save a race." “Okay, thank you for the history lesson that I already knew about.” I said. ”And thankfully this won’t mean anything after Eclipsa finishes that potion.” I thought to myself. “Listen, in war, you need to use your energy properly, not overwork yourself to the point you become a liability. You know that right?” "It's why I'm trying to learn that now so I'm not a liability in war." “There is no ‘learning’ it.” I frowned. “Just trying it is a stupid thing in general. But if Eclipsa’s right...then it won’t matter anymore.” I said honestly. “Also, sooner or later...we’re gonna need an important talk.” "What do you mean it won't matter anymore?"?” “It’s nothing.” I said while gently patting their head. “Just don’t overwork yourself okay?” "Following your example." Heart said with a laugh. “There is a difference.” I said, as I picked up Heart and gave them a quick hug before heading back to Eclipsa to give her Heart’s hair. "How'd it go?" Eclipsa asked, a small vial in her hand as I got back into the room. “He somehow spotted me even though I was both invisible and not making a sound, but he told me that the reason he’s trying to starve himself is because me and Garv did it once during the war.” "Well, given how many you were fighting, not much time to eat really." “Well he thinks he has to do the exact same thing to prove to himself that he’s good enough.” I frowned. “Which, to be honest, me and Garv did ‘eat’, we had to keep our energy somehow, just...bugs are not tasty.” "Well depends on type and how or if you cook them." Eclipsa said as she took the hair and placed it in the liquid within the vial. It changed color from clear to a hot pink. "Now to get them to drink it. Preferably without them knowing…" "Why not make them one of their favorite drinks?" I suggested. "Does any liquid dilute it or something?" "No, but it just needs to hide the flavor. It's extremely sweet." "So something stupidly bitter...I'd say coffee but I doubt that…" I frowned. "Actually… that might work. Heart's favorite is the Feathers Festive Frapachino from StarfishBucks." I still can't believe a multiverse copy brand of Starbucks exists here. "Well, off to buy Starbucks then." "Hurry up. Also get me a Caramel Moca on ice." "Cause of course you do." I chuckled while heading out to find an open starfishbucks. Finding an open one was easy, a walk and a few bits later I brought both drinks home. Eclipsa took hers off to the side and then grabbed Hearts, pouring the Potion in and mixing. "And I shall deliver." Eclipsa said as she went to Heart's room. "Alright." I nodded. "Let's hope this works…" Eclipsa and I didn't sleep much that night. Worried and waiting til morning, hopping this would work. As the sun came up… "Aaahhh!!" "Aaaaaahhhh!" Thunk! Crack! "Fuck!" Was what we all awoke too. “What the hell is going on here!?” I snapped while barging into Heart’s room. I saw… the last thing I was expecting… Sombra themselves, on the floor, horn broken, bleeding out from the wound, and Heart, as against the wall as they can be holding a slightly bloody stone Warhammer. “Huh...that...happened.” I started nervously. And the next two days were just as bizarre. With her horn broken Sombra was powerless. The guard came and arrested her, and the kingdom praised Heart for subduing Sombra… somehow. No one knows how or really cared. And so the crown rewarded Heart with… Sombra. Their horn completely removed, and male parts taken out, leaving just their vag and womb. She was Heart's slave now. Skin burned and tattooed in obedience runes to ensure they obeyed. Needless to say this was ... weird. And here we are. Us all on one end of the table and Sombra seating across the other end, clothes were basic cloth. "... Are they still there?" Garv asked. “Yes. They are still here.” I said. “Now...burning them with obedience runes is one thing...castrating might have been a little much.” I said nervously. "If wanted I am… Master's Broodmare and a Broodmare needs nothing if a penis and testicles." Sombra said, voice dripping in hatred and poison. I had to admit… Sombra was hot. Like… Christ, so hot… "I uh… just… how did you end up in my bed?" Heart asked. “Uh...should I explain it?” I asked Eclipsa nervously. "Please?" Eclipsa asked beggingly. "Alright." I started while blinking, showing my psychopath and Humanity eyes. "So to start, do you know who you are talking to Heart?" I asked simply. Needless to say everyone, even Sombra, jumped back…Save for Eclipsa. Okay, might have been a tad extreme to just drop that bomb without warning… “What the?” Heart asked. "I'm sorry for just dropping this on you all suddenly, but its kind of important." I said honestly. "So, why I needed your hair Heart, it was to make you a love potion, so you wouldn't go through a deal with your 'buddy'." I frowned. "The potion teleports your true love to you in your sleep...we just didn't expect it to be Sombra of all people." I said honestly. "And it was to stop your little...friend in your head Heart.” "... I uh… I need to process… all of this." Heart said, heading off to their room. After they did that Sombra got up. That made us all on edge, but they slithered over to Heart's room door, and sat outside it on their own tail. "Alright, so why do you think you were picked Sombra?" I asked the former wizard. "I do not know. What potion did you use exactly? You said love potion that teleports. What was the name?" They asked, not looking at us. "Distance No More." Eclipsa said. "Ah, one of Late Queen Cadence's final works. In that case the Potion worked as expected. You see, it's two main ingredients, the Starry Sky Rose and Sweet Desires Leaf when mixed not just find the drinkers love, but even if they know not one another, or like me, hold no such emotion in their heart, will be brought to them. In a way, it tells my future." "Well...they don't call her 'the princess of love' for nothing." I said honestly.estly. "How come the Queens didn't just kill you?" Tyler asked. "Simple, I'm an endangered, intelligent species." Sombra answered. "Bullshit." Tyler responded. "They're right." Eclipsa said with a sigh. "Sombra is equine yes, but like Pegusus, Unicorn and Earth Ponies, she's a variation. Umbrum. Shadow Equine. Born from darkness. Back well before the first war the Umbrum were prisoned under the crystal empire, Sombra was sent out using the power of all their race as an infant." "You know your history." Sombra said with a sigh. "Yes. And I failed in conquering the Crystal Empire. Twice. My people died off slowly, painfully. I was banished to the ether by the elements of harmony. Then the Hornets found one piece of me, part of my horn and revived me. They knew the fate and cruel death my people suffered, and offered me justice." "And by 'justice' you mean 'commit genocide on a planetary level'." I frowned. "After trying to enslave everyone under an iron fist twice." "The enslavement of the Crystal Equines was to ensure a lack of unwanted resistance when I was to free my people. As for world wide genocide, well, the Hornets planned everything, I just provided them the replaceable foot soldiers. Without me there they have no means to renew their pawns." "Are they afraid or something?" Eclipsa asked. "Deathly." “I’m sorry, but did you try talking to people instead of trying to take over?” I asked simply. “But good to know those bugs are now scared shitless. Either they’ll start to attack more frantically, or piss off.” "My people were like me, ripe with dark magic and necromancy. Much like how the Hornets wish to feast on the world, my people wanted to ensure it was home to only the undead and those who would embrace the darkness." "And you? Sounds like you grew up with us Equines, do you share that desire?" Eclipsa asked. "Honestly? I do not." “So then why did you help the Hornets if you didn’t want to do the obviously bad thing?” I asked curiously. "With my sins? Doubt I'd be given a second chance by anyone else." “You could have talked when you tried to take over the second time.” I frowned. "And say I wanted to free my people who wanted to raise the dead to rule the world? What sane person would even consider that?" “Rule the world? Hell no.” I shook my head. “But learned how to raise the dead enough for visitation with alive relatives, not only would they hold their own kingdom, but they would be seen not as monsters, but as a race that can help bridge the gap between life and death to give either some closure on lives that were lost too soon, or at least to give kind updates on how life is going.” I said simply "You know nothing if you think my people would have ever wanted a life like that." “I only know their history, that’s it.” I said simply. “But isn’t it surprising how I thought of a way for you all to live peacefully instead of doing something stupid?” Eclipsa lightly elbowed me, telling me to stop it as Sombra just sat there in thought. Over the next few days it did not get any easier having Sombra around. While Heart had them do the simple stuff, dishes, laundry, sweep, it was all just strange having them around. The few times they were outside someone was throwing rotten fruit or rocks at them. We understood why but that didn't make it any less wrong. The first thing we learned about Sombra was that, they don't sleep. Apparently sleep is optional for Umbrums. On top of that they can eat normal food but also safely digest rotten flesh, toxic plants, and full on poison and not get affected. Oddly though, or rather, not too oddly, Rock Salt and Silver do harm them, in context gives them almost acidic like burns. Sea salt and normal table salt don't do this to them however. Sombra didn't try anything, well, anything sexy like with Heart. If anything the two kept their slave and master relationship almost professionally. As professional as that kind of a relationship can be. "Okay you two, a literal love potion brought you two together. You could at least go on a date." I frowned at Sombra and Heart. Sombra didn't react, but Heart was just waving arms at her. "How can I go about dating… that?!" "Considering you already own me dating seems trivial." Sombra said. "You can treat them like a normal person for five seconds for a start." I said honestly. "And no, Stockholm Syndrome doesn't count."t." Heart face palmed while Sombra rolled their eyes. The next few weeks were more of the same stuff. Sombra kept distance either out of spite or not knowing what to do and Heart kept distance out of anger and awkwardness. Frankly Heart being a horny teen and Sombra being… stupidly hot, Eclipsa and I figured Heart and Sombra needed an edge to push them off the cliffs and into the pit of a proper relationship.. "So...Heart sees Sombra naked in the shower or something?" I asked Eclipsa. "Or too obvious and cliche?"." "I'm thinking more booze. But Heart still has the Ventrals alcohol tolerance and Sombra given their immunity to poison might not get drunk either… maybe a potion?" "Sounds about right. What do you have in mind?" I asked curiously. "Well, there is only one I can think of that will give immediate results but I'm not so sure about it." "What's the potion?" I asked curiously.ously. "Well… remember that episode where Twilight made her old toy doll magically desirable and it made everyone in town chase after it obsessively?" "Isn't that a bit excessive?" I asked. "But...what would the duration be?" I asked y.curiously. "Well, every other potion I can make using what this world has Heart and Sombra can break on Willpower alone. And it would last about six hours." “Alright.” I nodded. “Let’s hope this doesn’t get out of control…” Making the potion was easy. Getting Heart and Sombra to drink their halves of the potion was the part that took a bit of labor. Literally. With the other kids out and about with jobs or just messing around Eclipsa and I had some work for Heart and Sombra. Sombra helped Eclipsa with all the housework Eclipsa could find or make. While Heart helped me in the garden and even went hunting for a while. When it was all done Eclipsa gave us all a cup of ice cold sweet tea, spiking Heart's and Sombra's. We stood next to each other as Sombra and Heart drank their cups. About five seconds after they did, Heart's and Sombra's eyes glowed pink, the two then looked at one another with wide lusty smiles as they then embraced one another in a deep tongue filled sloppy make out while literally ripping their clothes off, groping one another wherever they could grab til Heart pinned Sombra on the ground and began pounding inside her cunt without restriction or worry as Sombra begged for more. "Well, that's hot." Eclipsa said, sipping her tea. “Will they remember all of this?” I asked curiously. “And will they be mad about us basically drugging them?” "Oh yeah." Eclipsa said with a nod. “Wonder how mad they’ll be when this ends…” I said nervously. “Cause...I mean we are basically drugging them just so they can stop this passive aggressive crap.” "Depends. How good you think that sex is?" “Well Heart is a horny as shit teen who’s finally getting their first time while Sombra might have a fuck ton of experience...so it evens out I suppose.” I shrugged. "That's a big IF on Sombra's end. So, wanna fuck in the room til they're done or just wanna keep watching?" “What are you feeling like?” I asked simply. "Dunno. Feeling horney but not all the way there just yet." At that moment Heart came, They and Sombra steamed in bliss as Heart then began shoving their… hey why is that bigger than back home?! Anyway They're having Sombra blow them now and Sombra is sucking it like air is coming from it… actually is she even breathing? Yeah, yeah she is. Alright then. “Okay yeah there gonna be here for a while…” I said. “Should we...move them to a room before the kids get back?” I asked nervously. "I mean, there is one other option that will hide them and really get me in the mood." “Oh boy.” I chuckled. “What do you have in mind?” "I swallow them, they'll just be screwing while in there and you and I can screw. Kids won't know and when the Potion wears off I can keep them in there all night so those two can talk things out." “Sounds about right.” I nodded. “Kills two birds with one stone.” "Besides, gives a chance to sneak a taste of Heart's cock." Eclipsa said, licking her lips. Eclipsa, given Sombra was still blowing Heart, started at Hearts head and went down. I saw she did sneak a taste of Heart's cock when passing over Sombra's head, who was still blowing Heart, and began getting Sombra down. With the both of them down and only the occasional bumps from their unfiltered love making appearing on her tail, Eclipsa grabbed me and led me to the bedroom. "Shall we?" “We shall.” I said with a warm smile. “Want more kids or keep it at this number?” I asked curiously. "Well, given Sombra is likely gonna get well knocked up, best give them a good example of how experienced Mama's do it~"” “Well we better get started.” I said lovingly. "Who gets to be bottom first though?" She asked as we reached the foot of the bed. “Hmm…” I hummed. “Who bottoms first indeed.” I said honestly. “You want to bottom first?” "I'd rather see how hard I can make your gorgeous juggs slap your face first if I may~" “You know they won’t.” I chuckled. “But if you insist.” I said while stripping down and getting on the bed. Eclipsa lifted her shirt off, ripping off her bra as I did the same to mine as I laid on my back, laid out exposed and spread open. My cock getting hard and rising as was hers. They took hold of my bottom squeezing firmly. With slow but firm force she slid the tip of her cock into my wet and ready cunt. "Just as soft and warm as always Hun." Eclipsa purred. “Always for the ones I love.” I said warmly. Taking hold of my legs Eclipsa began rapidly and rhythmic pounding into me, putting a lot of force into each thrust. Each movement made me clutch just ever so tighter and caused little spasmic jolts across my whole torso. Blissfully enjoying the rougher treatment I grabbed the head of our bedframe and forced myself just down enough for Eclipsa's thrusts to really hit those sweet spots hard as I clenched onto her cock, and tightened my grip on the bed frame to keep me in this spot for maximum pleasure. “Loving this Eclipsa?” I asked in between moans. "It gets better every time." Eclipsa huffed. She let go of my legs, pushing herself on top of me and groping my many breasts without pattern or restraint. Milk leaked out with every squeeze she gave me. She then wrapped her arms around me, kissing me with a powerful passion as she kept her rough thrusting up. I grabbed her back, feeling her soft smooth back and rear. While she doesn't have a typical ass her rear side is just as soft and squeezable as one. The two of us enjoyed the rough euphoria as Eclipsa cam, her hot jiz making my cunt squirt in bliss of relief as every drop was pumped into my needy womb. I moaned loudly, happily milking Eclipsa for all they were worth. “I can agree...it feels better every time.” Eclipsa gave me another kiss before flipping me on top and her on bottom. She pulled out with an audible sloppy pop. "Care to give me the same treatment?" “Oh you know it.” I said while prodding my dick against Eclipsa’s pussy. “So just be rough and strong?” I asked, just wanting to make sure that’s what she wanted. "Make me scream love." She purred. "You said so." I growled as I grabbed a hold of her hips and thrust into her waiting cunt strongly, ready to make my Naga scream.ream. Eclipsa purred as I pounded her pussy, her soft wet rubbery cooch clenching and sucking my cock with each thrust. She squirted a lot, my dick filling and stretching her made her spasm a lot. Her tail reacting as it swung around, I could just faintly hear Sombra and Heart moaning and screaming in pleasure as their love making was likely made better by Eclipsa's spasms. Passionately I began giving Eclipsa a hickey, squeezing her breast so tight milk shot out like a water balloon with a hole in it. Eclipsa panted heavily, like a dog in heat. Her eyes begged for more, listed for it. I gave it to her. I threw my full body weight into her cooch, Eclipsa screaming in bliss and pleasure, our bed frame broke and as the mattress hit the floor I came, one last pound got my tip inside Eclipsa's womb, pumping every drop of cum and sperm cell directly into her womb. Eclipsa screamed in pure bliss as her womb began to swell and the pressure pushed my cocks head out and the last of it trailed out as I pulled out of her. "That was amazing." I sighed out happily. "Ooooooohhhh~ I am so knocked up it will be days worth of birthing~" Eclipsa said, eyes glowing with afterglow and hair in a lovely mess. "Well, let's hope the kids don't mind having younger siblings." I chuckled. "Or becoming Auntcles~" Eclipsa moaned, the muffled sexual cries of Heart and Sombra from inside her tail still going. "Think we can pull a round two?" “Sadly the preceding rounds are going to be me filling you up like thanksgiving turkey.” I growled in dominance. "And I'll do the same to you." Eclipsa said with a playful smile. Needless to say Eclipsa and I screwed for the full length that potion kept Heart and Sombra screwing. And then some… both us and them. A full two extra hours after the potion wore off Eclipsa felt Heart and Sombra still going at it. Needless to say when the kids asked we told them Heart and Sombra left for the woods, Said something along the lines of Heart wanting to duel them. The next day Eclipsa let them out, clearly savoring their coatings of sweat, cum and vaginal juices as she let the two out. To say Sombra looked wrecked would be an understatement. Sombra's entire body was wet, sticky, her vaginal lips were still spread wide open and you could see the cum still in there, her breasts were so roughly handled they had bruises in Heart's handprints, and she had one eye stuck shut from dry cum and other juices, and you could still see a lot in her mouth. Heart wasn't all THAT better either. Each one of their breasts had bruises in some shape or form, also a lot of handprints. Their hair was stuck to their neck, mouth and tongue so sore they couldn't close them right, and their cock was red as if carpet burned and vagina also wide open still as if fisted endlessly. Likely was. “So did you two have fun?” I asked the two simply. Neither spoke, but gave cherry red blushed nods as they slithered off to the shower. The same shower. "I say we did a good job in catapulting that ball into final base." Eclipsa said proudly. “I think it’s safe to assume that the ball is now firmly in a crater somewhere.” I said honestly. "So, how many are you expecting this litter? I'm expecting to set a record." “All things considered, I’m surprised we haven’t already.” I chuckled. "How many do you expect Sombra to have? Ten bits it's at least twenty or so." “I’d say that’s about right.” I said honestly. “Considering how hard they were going at it.” "Guess we'll see in a few months." Eclipsa said, giving me a kiss. “Wonder what all the kids will think about them finally getting past their anger.” I wondered. "Depends. Might convince them all to look for mates too. I won't complain about that if it does." “Ah yes, the wonders of learning that all our kids are just as much ladykillers as we are.” I chuckled. “Which reminds me, I better check on the Dire Wolf queen tomorrow, just to make sure she knows the ‘thief’ is still around.” "I'm coming too. I wanna tease the fuck out of Celestia and Luna." Over the next few months Eclipsa and I did indeed tease the hell out of the dire wolf queen, Aglow, was her name. As well as Celestia and Luna. It was super fun and their security 'upgrades' were fun challenges. Sadly it has to go on hold due to pregnancy. And when the royals found out Sombra was also pregnant they acted on it like with the other endangered intelligent beings. A lot of free bits, free healthcare and all that. Sombra has a whopping sixty two confirmed babies. Heart about had a heart attack. I have forty seven and Eclipsa had a record making seventy four. Well, she did sneak a fertility potion, so that explains that. Though that fertility potion was way above the normal grade for baby making. Regardless we're five months in, swollen like beach balls and so are our milk making bursting breasts. To help the kids and Heart are all taking special potions so they can produce milk and feed the new arrivals. “Maybe I should have suggested I not get pregnant since I have the more…’active’ job.” I said nervously. "You forget the free bits the crown is giving us because of Sombra's pregnancy?" Heart asked as they were making dinner. "Seven thousand bits a month is way enough to cover expenses before and after these babies are born." "Sixty two…" Sombra muttered again. They found it hard to believe they had that many babies inside them. “And more to come given that Heart is a horny teenager.” I chuckled. "Hey!" Heart yelped. "It's nothing to be ashamed of Hun, in fact your work on Sombra is Very impressive." Eclipsa said, happily knitting many baby onesies. "T-thanks?" Heart said with a blush. “Your welcome.” I smiled. “So, excited to be a parent?” "Nervous." Heart said. "Sixty two…" Was all Sombra said. “I know it’s worrying the first time Sombra, but trust me, it’s worth it.” I said honestly. "Sixty two…" “Heart, can you get Sombra out of her child stupor?” I asked. “Cause she’s been like this for...days.” "Well they have just gone from being the last of their race to gonna give birth to a small village of them. Pretty sure that's something that takes time to adjust." Heart said. “Yeah, that is true.” I said honestly. “Good to know that our races can bounce back from near extinction quickly.” "Speaking of, word is they're gonna March an assault on the Hornets nest." Eclipsa said. "They asked me about that place a lot." Sombra said with a sigh. "They took it from the Changelings, killed and ate them all. Well, almost all." “Almost?” I asked curiously. “What do you mean?” I asked, trying to remember if there were any changelings in the kingdom. "Chrysalis was kept, they had me imprison her in crystal. Believed if their queen died I could force her into shifting into a Hornet Queen and keep her that way. The Hornets Queen only exists to lay the eggs, they're pretty mindless. It's the Males, the King that's the smart one." “Cause of course…” I grumbled. “Well, given that the Hornets are scared shitless at the moment, they will probably panic when they’re raided.” "Definitely. Without me they can't break Chrysalis out of the crystal, so she is safe at least. As are the other prisoners." “How many prisoners are there?” I asked curiously. “And what races?” "One per race they devoured. Trophies." “Well uh...they are sure gonna repopulate fast when we save them.” I said honestly. "They will be half breeds like my own, but I suppose that doesn't matter in the long run." "Actually… I think I can help there." Eclipsa said, sitting up. "I know of a Shapeshifting potion but the ingredients are hard as hell to find… However if Chrysalis is freed and willing to be friendly we can just as easily learn their magic on shapeshifting and do that." "So either way it's a lot of sex… not surprised." Heart said. "Or a potion I might be able to make to ensure the babies born are a pureblood of their mothering race. Might take a bit though." “Now remember, if it becomes legal to have wide spread public orgies...it is neither of our faults.” I said simply. "Feels like you two would make it legal anyway…" Heart said with a bit of worry. “And considering how hard you two were going at it I’d say you two would as well.” I said, not wanting to bring up that it was legal even before our Kingdom was made. "Well drugging us with an obsession potion does that." "And the two extra hours after it wore off?" Eclipsa asked. "Hate sex." Both Heart and Sombra said. "Though it was nice." Sombra added. "Fucked out all my anger." Heart also added. “So our points are proven though.” I said honestly. “Even if it was hate sex, two hours is two hours.” "Shut up." Heart and Sombra said. After a few more hours there was a knock at the door. "I got it." Heart said, slithering over. When they opened the door, to our surprise, Celestia, Luna, and Aglow came into our house. "What a nice house." Celestia said. "Indeed." Luna added. “It’s nice to meet you my queens.” I said with a polite bow. “What brings you here to our humble home?” "Several things." Aglow said. "The first matter is about Sombra. You see, given their… newfound state of being my fellow Queens and I felt it only fair that in aiding her races return from extinction, we have arranged to restore her testicles and penis. Secondly, because of her knowledge on the Hornets give and their prisoners within, for giving this knowledge freely and after confirming it, we have given her a pardon from their war crimes, but not for their use of Necromancy. Third, in light of these new found races having survivors the Hornets keep as trophies, we are sanctioning your family as part of the repopulation efforts." "Wait say what?" Heart asked. "They're telling us we're gonna bone a lot of people to save their races." Eclipsa stated bluntly "Not you, just young Heart here." Celestia said. "Say what?!" Heart yelled. “I’m going to have to step in here my queens.” I started. “First, why just Heart? Isn’t that, you know, a dumb idea to just have a sole person to do everything by themselves, especially on a biological level? Two, me and my wife have the world record for most children conceived so why not ask the two of us? And three, why just Heart when there’s twenty five of us all with kind of equal amounts of virility?” I asked simply while crossing my arms. "Because we know it has been you two teasing the hell out of us as the two Thieves sneaking into the castle and messing with us. So we're gonna make you suffer like you made us suffer sexually." Luna stated as she left. "Next time just stay long enough to screw." Celestia added as she left. Aglow just gave a blushed wave goodbye as she left. "... Huh." Eclipsa said. “So…” I started, before shaking my head. “No, they need to get back here.” I frowned while walking after them. “They have several things to answer at this point considering what Luna just said.” "Okay… there something you two aren't telling me then?" Heart asked. "Lots." Eclipsa said with a satisfactory smile. “Alright you three.” I started at the three Queens before they fully left. “You have plenty of questions to answer. Like how you knew it was me and Eclipsa that were the thieves, I made sure to make good disguises.” I started. “And two...did you really need to sound that rude? We all know you enjoyed it so...why sound so spiteful?” "Your mate dreams of we five in an orgy and sexual frustration." Luna said as they continued on their way. “How long did you know? Cause if you knew for a while...why didn’t you just drop by and ask?” I frowned. "Two months and paperwork/planning the attack on the Hornets nest." Celestia said. “One at a time at that point.” I frowned. “Or when you were done with the paperwork. I’ve had to help Eclipsa with a lot of paperwork because of either Contracts or to help with the shop.” I said simply. “So what I’m trying to get at is, do you want it right now or what?” "We want it like you stole my first kiss. In the dark of night and with no one to witness." Aglow answered. “Is that a challenge?” I asked simply. “Cause depending on how things go...no one may witness, but people might hear.” "Surprise us." The three Queens said as they left my property and off into their carriage. “Oh you will be in for one hell of a night.” I said while heading back to the house. Two more months passed and I was thankful Eclipsa and I went and screwed the Queens that night cause now we can't really move at all now. Shortly after that we were taken into the royal family because Celestia, Luna, and Aglow are all pregnant now. So yeah we're all royalty now too. Aglow has forty two, Luna with… seventy six, and Celestia has a new record breaking…. One hundred and five. Eclipsa demands justice and is currently working a fertility potion that will make her even more pregnant next litter than Celestia. Fun fact, Alicorns are also considered endangered intelligent species because they are the only two Alicorns. This reality Cadence died in the Hornets attack on the crystal empire and Twilight lived and died a thousand years ago. Technically the future yet does not feel like it. Huh. In any case the attack on the Hornets nest proved successful. The only thing left of the hornets is a single egg, one the best mages working on the grub inside so they don't grow up into another monster like the others of its kind. Sombra helped get the Hornets trophies out of their crystal prisons. Needless to say they all need therapy but are adjusting and hopeful for their species. Right now I look ready to pop yet still have a few months ahead of me as does the rest of us. Sombra got their cock and balls back and promptly used them on Heart. Who now has twenty four kid pregnancies. Needless to say, this is gonna be one hell of a birth. “I feel a little sorry for the doctors and nurses who have to help deliver so many kids.” I said sheepishly. "Even more so once Eclipsa makes this 'ultimate fertility potion'." Sombra said with a laugh. “At this point it’s mostly going to be Eclipsa getting knocked up...but I’m still concerned she might be going a little overboard…” I said nervously. “I don’t want people to get hurt because of this.” "Mapa has to make childbirth a competition, why?" Heart asked. “Well...we’ll have to ask her.” I said honestly. “Cause it is a little weird.” "I shall be the most fertile. I shall!" Eclipsa yelled from here corner where many ingredients and various high strength fertility potions were set about as she brewed another. “Eclipsa, I think you have a slight problem.” I said nervously. "To be fair, her work will bring back so many from the brink. All of them really." Celestia said. “I know, but...don’t you think she’s been a little too competitive for the world record?” I asked sheepishly. "If it undoes the damage these Hornets caused I say go at it." Luna said. “Oh she’ll be going at it alright.” I chuckled. “So, how have you been holding up after our...night of wonders?” "Oh we're going at it again til Alicorns are the majority race." Celestia said. "Agreed." Luna said. "Puppies…" Aglow said warmly as she rubbed her belly. “Good to know.” I nodded. “I just hope that people aren’t getting hurt because of all this. Dire Wolves and Naga’s are naturally attuned to having a lot of kids but...this feels a little egregious for other races.” I said nervously. "To be fair, with the Hornets gone we can expand well passed the borders and make countless more cities, villages, the world is once again ours. Even the animals out in the woods and nature have felt the shift. This spawning season has the most ever we've seen in a single season. This whole world is built to breed." Aglow said. "So it's going to be a world wide orgy huh?" I chuckled. "Please don't." Heart said. "It's gonna happen and you know it." I said honestly. "No." Heart whined. "It's not all bad." I said while patting Hearts "It just seems weird is all. How are you all even so casual about this?" “How is it weird?” I asked curiously. "I just don't know how you two can talk about it so casually." “You’re still young so that’s understandable.” I said honestly. “But when you’re older and you’ve talked about it, and done it a lot, and I do mean a lot, it’s just a casual thing.” I shrugged. "I guess." Three years later To say the kingdom prospered was an understatement. In the past three years old villages were reclaimed and being rebuilt. We even moved back to our old home and village. Given many of our neighbors from those days either died in the invasion so long ago or had settled well elsewhere. As such this whole village became ours, ours and our… to date… four hundred and ninety six kids… Eclipsa perfected that fertility potion. That aside, Eclipsa’s alchemy garden survived, took over the whole place and really flourished. Walking back into the old house felt so nostalgic. A few of our old things we left were still here. An old bow of mine, bottles for potions Eclipsa left, a toy sword that was Heart’s. It was so emotional and tear jerking. As you can imagine having this many kids and no Starfish Clones or major magic to help in raising/feeding them makes meal time quite the event. All I’m gonna say is having a big ass family like ours eating at meal time is insane. Thankfully mass farming and taming of normally wild creatures we'd hunt now have variations we farm for food given the massive population boom. “I have a bad feeling we might accidentally have an overpopulation problem soon.” I said sheepishly. "Well, we're one year away from Heart getting their memories back and from there we won't have to worry." Eclipsa said to me as we were sitting on our new swing bench addition I made last year. “Thank god for the demiplanes in everyone’s house.” I chuckled. "So, how's life been for us here? Feeling so… normal these past twenty years." “I’d say it’s been good.” I said honestly. “Could have saved some hassle if someone didn’t sneak in ‘absolutely no powers’ when some of it would have been okay.” I brought up. "Well, this world already has magic. Just wanted to enjoy it as is while we could." “I know, but still.” I sighed out. “But...it’s all gonna come to an end soon, cause all good things must come to an end sometime.” "Not really. Once Heart regains their memories and powers, and we get ours back, this world will just get better. And with these memories, experiences, it will be so precious to us. It will drive us to fight harder in this war." “Not from a lack of trying…” I muttered to myself. “But I understand...let’s hope things won’t get too weird after everything’s said and done.” "It will. Heh, Heart is never gonna look at the two of us the same again. They'll see you more as dad and me as mom over their lovers. Heh. Gonna tease them a lot." “I’ve already been teasing the hell out of them with all the photos I sent them.” I chuckled. "You dog." Eclipsa said with a laugh. "Still, gives me an idea for a pre birthday gift for Heart. Night just before his birthday, we shaft them, and once they remember, see how they react with everything that happened. Sounds like a plan?" “That sounds hilarious.” I chuckled. “And I guess all the ‘of age’ kids will join in on our birthday fun?” I asked curiously. "Maybe. First it will just be the three of us. Been a long time since it was like that." Eclipsa said, nuzzling into my arm. “Yeah, it’s been a while that’s for sure.” I said honestly. “And we’ll make our time wonderful.” "A year left til it's back to the norm. What should we do til then?" “Just enjoy it while we can.” I said honestly. "Yeah. We will." One Year Later "Uh, Mapa, Pama, where is everyone?" Heart asked as they came inside. Tomorrow was their birthday, and Eclipsa and I have a surprise for them. We managed to get everyone else to work on a party in town so tomorrow morning we'll take Heart there… so Tonight it's just us three. “It’s just gonna be us three here Heart.” I said gently. "Weird. For once It's quiet." Heart said, blissfully ignorant of what Eclipsa and I have planned. "I think it won't be for long." Eclipsa said as we got closer to Heart. "So, got anything planned for my birthday?" Heart asked. “All sorts of things.” I said simply. “Food, games, and a bunch of other stuff.” I said, keeping the conversation away from our plan. “But tonight, me and Eclipsa have a...special gift to give you.” "Really? Neat. I actually have something for you two also." Heart said, slithering over to their room. Eclipsa and I shared a look, heading over as we saw Heart there, two boxes on their bed. "Pama, this one is yours." Heart said, handing me a long flat box. "And Mapa, this one is yours." Heart said, patting a larger box on the bed. “This is our birthday gift to you, not the other way around.” I said sheepishly, wondering what’s in the box. Opening mine… it was a bow. All metal, the string thick wrapped Mana Iron, and the body was pure steel and engraved into it were spells in the dire Wolf magic tongue. Eclipsa's box had a specialty potion brewer, these were made so even weak ingredients could be used to craft powerful high quality potions. "Heart… where did you get these?" "Heh, well I made them. When researching on how to be an adventurer I found a lot of tool and weapon smithing books, and since Gyro now has their own forge it was easy to make these. Materials were the hard part though." Heart said. “Well...thank you Heart.” I said honestly, not entirely sure what to say about the gifts. "Try the bow Pama, trust me, it's got a kick." I did just that, drawing the bow back as the Mana Iron string glowed, forming an arrow of pure magic. Letting go, it shot out through the wall, making a small hole and flew for many miles before vanishing. I looked at Eclipsa who looked at her potion brewing stand. "My fertility potion is gonna be way more potent now." She said, carefully taking the stand to the kitchen. “Eclipsa please…” I whined. “We need to give Heart their gift, not focus on your fertility potion again.” "But my birthday is tomorrow. What gift would I be getting a day early?" “A very special time with the two of us.” I said simply. Eclipsa slithered back into the room at that moment. "That's right, very special time with us." "Okay?" Heart said, looking a tad confused and worried. I carefully snuck around Heart and softly gropped one of their breasts. “And we’re going to make it feel amazing.” "Wait, wait what?!" Heart said in shock as Eclipsa wrapped around Heart and I, and herself and began kissing Heart deeply. The look on his face was pure WTF and it was hilarious. After a bit she let us go but still clung to Heart. "Okay, is this what all those pictures were about?! I thought you two just kept leaving your flirting photos for each other to find and I kept finding them!" “Honestly, it was kind of for all of you kids, but mostly for you.” I said honestly. "Bu-but I mean come on, incest is legal yes but isn't it also fro-" Heart was cut off by Eclipsa kissing them again, this time she rubbed their cock and it began to get around and emerge. "We know. And we don't care baby." Eclipsa said, voice filled with lust and lust alone as she forcefully locked lips with Heart again. Heart clearly wanted to fight it but Eclipsa's expert hand jobs made their body betray them as they reached full mast. “Don’t keep them for yourself Eclipsa.” I said while starting to squeeze and message Heart’s tits more. “I’d like a turn kissing our wonderful Heart.” Eclipsa let go, moving to suckle one of Heart's tits as I now took their mouth. Heart was cherry red with blush as Eclipsa and I both jerked them off slowly and expertly. Heart was muttering something through our kiss but ignored it as I could see them ready to give in. "I need it." Eclipsa moaned, moving down to Heart's cock now. "I've needed this for so long." She breathed hotly, kissing the tip. This looked near ready to send Heart over the edge as she opened wide, devouring Heart's cock to the base. Heart moaned out loudly from our locked lips as their eyes went lidid with pleasure. I slowly rubbed my own stiffy against Heart, loving every moment I spent with those I loved and the growing scent of lust and sex in the air. “How does it feel to have your mapa suck you off?” I asked Heart seductively. Heart covered their mouth, fighting back an orgasm and trying not to end up saying anything embarrassing. As I got into position Eclipsa moved herself as well, forming a sixty nine on Heart, her leaking vaginal lips and cock against Hearts face, giving them a full view and drowning their nose in her musk. Smiling, I slid inside Heart, their nethers wet but not soaked, tight in their grip. I began thrusting into them as Eclipsa kept sucking them off, Heart keeping their hands over their face. I smiled, taking their wrists and holding them apart. Eclipsa began trying to get Heart to suck her off as well, eventually sliding her head in as Heart began giving in, trying to resist the work of art that was Eclipsa and I pleasuring them simultaneously. “Damn your tight.” I growled, starting to go into a good rhythm that was just heavenly to Heart. Heart said nothing, but I could see and feel them begin to loosen up. I checked the clock, about fifteen minutes till Heart regains all their memories. Time to get wild. “We got fifteen minutes Eclipsa.” I whispered to her. “Time to have at it.” I said while throwing my well practiced rhythm to the wind and started to hammer into Heart’s cunt, making sure they felt all the pleasure in the world. Heart gave up, taking the pounding I was giving them as they now willingly sucked Eclipsa off. Heart came on my cock before I got to drop a load inside them. They blew their load down Eclipsa's throat, Eclipsa greedily drinking every drop she could suck out of Heart's cock. Eclipsa and I kept going at it. The fifteen minutes ending right as I blew my load right into Heart's stretched cunt, Eclipsa blowing it down Heart's throat into their stomach. As we pulled out I felt a rush of familier power. Holding out my hand I easily flowed out Nothingness thorns summoning Lunatic, Eternal Flames. Eclipsa flowed out Grey, summoned Better half. Powers were back. Heart sat up, licking their lips from Eclipsa's messy blowjob. "You guys are dicks." Heart said with a laugh. They were back. "Oh you know you love it." I chuckled. Heart scooped us both up in a swift grab of their tail and hugged us both. "You two do know I am never gonna look at you two the same again right?" "Cause you see us as parents now too?" Eclipsa asked. "Yup. And… thank you two for doing this." “No problem Heart.” I said gently. "It was nice being your Pama." Heart laughed. "To be honest, even with my memories back you two still feel more like my parents than my first ones… I prefer you two over them." "Im sorry, but to be honest it's not that hard considering your history." I stated. "Yeah. But they do care." Eclipsa said. "I've spent time with them, they do seem to care." "Maybe, but it's a little too late for them. Besides, I have you two." Heart said, giving us a tight hug. "The best parents… and lovers… know what, not gonna overthink that." They said as they cuddled up to us. “Best not to.” I said while hugging Heart lovingly. “So, how freaked do you think your brothers and sisters are going to be about all of this?” "Given how life has been til now… a lot." To be continued...
Kico has a turn yay!Floor 20 was the first of the start of the level two dungeon phase, and was on fire. Not really all of it was on fire, but brimstone, oozing flesh and blood all around and various nasty void corrupted demons. One such we came across was twice my size, one arm with a grotesquely infused cannon in one arm and the other held a massive axe. One horn broken where a void tendril whipped around like mad, mouth holding a corpse half eaten in it's jaw and chest riddled with oozing wounds of bullets and blade slashes. "Not it." Jericho and Coco said. "Nope " Kexez said. I rolled my eyes. “It’s like partying with a bunch of five year olds…” I grumbled. “I’ll deal with it, don’t you all worry.” I said while walking over carefully, not really knowing how strong level two dungeons were. The demon saw me, roaring savagely as it raised it's cannon arm. Fiering. I took the hit to see the damage. 2,500 of my hp. About a small sliver worth my health so it can hurt me but not too badly. “That tickled.” I said, all the damage I took healing up in a split second. “Time to test out my new God Race status.” I said, appearing right in front of the Demon as I punched a hole straight through its chest. The demon backed up from the impact, void and blood spilling out as the void it was bleeding out began reaching out towards me. “Aw, you think you can do something.” I said while cleaving it down the middle with Second Chance. “Let’s hope Second Chance can work with these things…” Sadly it doesn't. And to make it worse the void from these things healed the bastard, but now there were two. "Need help?" Jericho asked. “Mind giving me a little cliff note on what this thing is?’ I asked. “Because so far, Second Chance didn’t work and it doubled.” I frowned. "If memory serves, that's a Gartrophu Demon. Modified given the arm cannon… but the doubling thing is new…" "Hmm… might be a void parasite, like Symbiote, gotta destroy its core. It's a small marble looking thing!" Coco yelled to me. “Oh, that’s simple.” I said honestly while using my Scan ability to see where the damned thing was. “Alright uglies, bring it.” The one on the left, the one with the arm cannon had the core in it. Right in the left eye. With break neck speed I was at its face, jamming my hand in it's eye and ripping out the small marble, crushing it in my grip as both collapsed as their void faded and died from the corpses. “Alright, that’s one out of a few dozen to go through.” I said while cracking my knuckles. “Wonder what loot we’ll find here?” "Hopefully something good." Coco said. We rushed off down the hall. This layout was far, far larger and more complex. Rather than the normal flat rooms and halls set up there were stairs going up and down, locked doors with keys that were either in chests, in enemies, or were puzzle based. And this one was parkour with an activation lever for the door to the next area. “What is this, Doom?” I asked with a frown. "Clearly inspired by. Then again, hell is hell no matter what reality you live in." Kexez said. Coco took on the challenge. Parkouring up to the top of this course with a fair bit of ease. "Holy shit!" She yelled from the top. “What up?” I called out curiously. Coco vanished for a second before popping back over the edge, holding a large double barrel shotgun in hand. "It's a Super Shotgun!" "Oh Guts is gonna be pissed." Kexez laughed. “Oh yeah he is going to be pissed.” I chuckled. Coco flipped the switch and we headed off. This next room held a single, giant face grown into the wall. "Gross…" Jericho said. “Gee, I wonder if it’s the boss door.” I frowned. "Not the boss you seek, but, a boss to defeat." The face spoke… sounds about right. “Alright.” I nodded. “So is the boss you or are you in front of the boss?” "To fight this Knight, clad in armor made from Fright, show me now, Heavenly Divine Light." “Um...sure.” I said while showing the door Heavenly Divine Light. The heavenly light burned away the giant face, revealing a larger arena behind where a knight, my size rested on knees holding a massive Claymore. Their armor seemed to pulsate as an energy I could tell was akin to Void Key was in it; Fear. Armor made from fear. "Well then." I started. "Cathartic amount of ass kicking? Thank you." I said,walked forward towards the knight. The eyes in the knights helm glowed a bright red once I got close enough, and a barrier kept the others out and the knight and I in the arena. "I am the Hell Knight of Fear, Goatrir. If you wish to fight my king, then take my head if you can." They got up, holding their claymore one handed and got ready for a fight. "It's a pleasure to meet you." I said simply. "But your armor reminds me of someone I want dead so.." I trailed off as I punted the knight straight into a wall so hard it made a multilayered crater in it before the knight could react. "You are going to be my punching back for the next hour or so." As I held a hand over their neck, squeezing tight I pulled a fist back, swinging hard into their head. Only… it wasn't the knight I hit… it was… Coco? Coco's face was largely brushed, teeth fell out as she spat out blood. "King… why?" She asked me weakly. I let go, backing up as the Knight returned there, laughing lightly. “Wh-what?” I stuttered, looking back at Coco worriedly to see if she was okay. She was fine, looking at me more with worry now. I turned back to the knight. "To fight me, each blow will show the injury, even death of a loved one. To kill, you will witness the image of all of them meeting the same fate, at your hands. I am the Hell Knight of Fear for a reason wolf." The knight said as they stood. “And here I thought it was specific to each person, not just a ‘general effect'” I said, trying to get some snark back instead of being scared shitless of...my literal worst nightmare coming true. "Come, claim my head." The knight said, raising their claymore to me. "I wonder who you will see get beheaded." I looked down sadly, before taking a deep breath. “I am going to make you regret ever fucking with me..” I growled as I slammed my fist into his head, sending him flying back into the same wall. As they hit the wall I saw Luna slammed into the wall, blood splattering all over as she looked at me with fear. I almost raced to her only to suddenly be impaled by that fuckers sword, and swung off into the barrier blocking the others from entering this fight. My injury healed instantly, even a hell knight’s attack couldn’t push past my stupidly high healing factor. “Alright...this is getting dumb.” I growled as I got back up. “I just need to take your head off...simple…” I muttered, even though I was mentally panicking, not wanting to hurt my family. I pulled out SharpShooters, firing a bolt right into their helm… only to see Joy, falling back, the bolt in their eye, out the back of their head and looking at me with terror. I called out his name in panic, then felt the pain of something hold into my neck, tearing flesh as reality set back in. The knights sword could command this demonic chain that impaled into my neck, and from the feel, around my spine. They yanked, pulling me at them and then kicked me back like some fucked up paddle ball, the chain snapping my spine as it hit resistance from its length hitting my body weight. The injuries healed, not surprising but that image of Joys eyes still haunted me. “Fine!” I shouted as I grabbed the Knight’s greatsword and snapped it in half. “You want to know how I’ll react when I take your head!? LET’S FIND OUT!” I roared in rage, grabbing the knights head with both hands and ripping it off of his shoulders as I was just so pissed at my own ability to face my own fears. "King, what are you doing?!" Celestia's face and form was shown, her skin stretching from the neck as I pulled from what I could see was her mane. I did my best to ignore, tears flowing as I continued. "I thought you loved us!" Now Twilight's face and form took place, a tear in their skin spraying me with blood as she screamed. "What did I do wrong?!" Pinkie cried as more of the head was ripped off. "I hate you!" Eclipsa… her bodiless head in my grip. The illusion held for a few more moments before it was just the knights helmet, and the knights body on the floor. I got on my knees and started to literally bash the hell knights head into his corpse, sobbing at what I just witnessed. “I fucking hate you…” I cried, all my family’s words haunting me even after I was in a crater six feet down with what could only be described as ground meat and metal at this point. "King." Coco said, pulling my arms back. The head and helm, surprisingly had no damage, but the body was not even a body anymore. "It's over." She said, hugging me. Kexez joined in as Jericho took the head from my grip. I hugged both Coco and Eclipsa tightly as I just cried. “I’m sorry…” "It's okay. It was all fake." Kexez said. "Indeed it was." The knights head spoke. That scared us about shitless. "You fared better than most. Three more heads to claim and we can unlock Adam's chambers." "The hell…" Jericho said. "How are you alive?!" "My head is a key item. Literally, my head is a key." "That's… Dark souls three I swear." Kexez said. I grabbed the head and immediately kicked it straight into the wall like a soccer ball. “Fuck you ya prick!” I barked angrily. "Ow." Was their reply. "Well… that went from depressing to weird in five seconds." Coco said. "Let's… just find these other Knight bosses and head off to Adam's chambers." Jericho said. "Do not forget to collect your reward." The knights head said. Looking around I saw a large chest that was not there before. “Alright…” I took a deep breath to compose myself as I walked over to the chest and opened it. Opening the lid, inside was… a Big Fucking Gun. As in THE BFG from Doom 2016. Oh hell yes. I picked up the weapon. This did not make up for the trauma, but was pretty damn good compensation. I'm gonna modify the hell out of this thing. “Okay...while not worth the mental trauma, but I’ll take it.” I said honestly. I even got to test it when we opened the hall door out of here. Easy fifty two demons all reduced to piles of gore. I bought all the ammo I could, or rather, wanted for the thing before looking through what modifications that were available. “There better be good mods for this thing, cause if there isn’t I’m gonna be massively disappointed.” I muttered. There were… a lot. Not as much as I might have liked, but fifty six was still a fair selection. Sadly the gun could only have two or three mods equipped at a time otherwise they mess with each other. First mod was an extended clip. It's normal amount was three. This gave me ten shots. Most that was available. Second mod was a 'net shot' shooting a wide linked net of energy that had a larger range of reach. As if this thing didn't have a big enough one. The last mod was Monofilament wiring. It made the weapon charge up between shots sixty times faster and added a little extra kick to the attack. “Well...those are some decent enough mods.” I muttered. “Might as well.” "Guess given your size that gun isn't too heavy huh?" Coco asked as we walked along. "It's a lot lighter than it looks." I said honestly. "But it's gonna be sweet to fire this thing." "You should send it back home for Military grade upgrades." Jericho said. "I should…" I hummed, thinking of all the upgrades it could have. "Sure." I said while sending the gun to our R&D center. "Wonder what they'll do with it?"?" "Make it better." Kexez offered matter of factly. "Don't you also have a body copy working at the R&D labs?" Coco asked me. "Of course, but I'm in the middle of other things." I said honestly. "A lot of other things…" I sighed out. Coco chuckled. "Hey King, stand still?" She asked as I did. She then jumped onto my side, climbing to my head where she now sat. "Onward!" She declared. "Really?" I asked the cute mare. "Yes!" She stated. I laughed and continued on, giving Coco a ride on my head. The next few rooms we came across I cleared in a single shot each with my modded BFG. It was epic. We came across another chest, this one wrapped in chains with a single lock. Kexez just touched it and all the locks came off. Inside was a helmet. Sleek and thin. I could not tell the metal. Kexez put it on, and suddenly their whole body, was covered in an almost iron man like armor, but chrome and allowed them perfect movements. "Okay this is cool." Kexez said from inside the armor. "Doom Guys armor huh?" I brought up. "Yeah, this is Doom alright." "Like I said, hell is hell and that guy is in all of them." Jericho said. Continuing on I came across the oddest thing. A tiny toy me, holding Lindworm in both hands battle ready. "Awe, how cute!" Coco said at a tiny plastic me figure. “Um...not sure if that’s supposed to be a little collectable or if it actually wants to fight…” I said while kneeling down. Picking up the tiny figure, it was no bigger than my primary finger and didn't seem to be able to change pose. Scanning it with the Assistant showed it was a collectible. Freak Inc Collectable Figurines. This was one of currently 97 different kinds. “Well...that’s interesting.” I said honestly. “I got my own little collectable figure, that’s neat.” "Gonna find them all?" Kexez asked. “If you want.” I shrugged. “We’re already way behind in this dungeon as is.” "Off to the next mini boss then." Coco said. "Two lefts, three rooms down." The head said. "You are… oddly helpful." Jericho said. "It's my job." The head replied. “You’re still a dick.” I frowned. “But thank you, let’s get going. So who wants to take on the mini boss this time?” "Dibs!" Coco said. "I wanna try out the shotgun." “Are the others Fear Knights?” I asked the demon head curiously. "No. The others are Rage, Lust, and Mercy." "That's an odd combo." Jericho noted. “Ah yes, we start off with Fear, then Rage, Lust, and then just start begging for Mercy.” I started. “That makes no sense at all.” "Gotta have some patterns." The head said. Following it's directions we came across another Face Wall thing. "To fight the Knight who reigns over Rage, deliver to me, proof of pain." “So a shotgun shot to the face would work?” I asked curiously. "I think it means proof we have sufferd pain." Jericho offered. "Correct." The head confirmed. “Oh…” I said while grabbing the head and chucking it at the face wall. “You have no idea what pain that fucker caused me!” I snapped. “I know it might be a running gag here, but seriously, fuck you.” The face wall began melting, and behind it an arena where another knight stood, a massive crossbow in hand. It looked up at us. "I am the Hell Knight of Rage Kalio. Claim my head to- oh hey Goatrir!" "Sup!" The head replied. "Fight now, chat later." Coco said as she walked into the arena. "Right right right." Kalio said. "Claim my head and face my king, if you can." "Alrighty then." Coco said, loading the Super Shotgun. I watched as the two went at it. Coco's new gun did a lot of damage but that knight was fast and his crossbow reloaded magically so it made him fire faster than a normal crossbow. Like the prior one there was a barrier keeping Coco and that knight in and the rest of us out. “So what’s his gimmick?” I asked the Goatrir curiously. “Is he gonna go berserk at some point or something?” "No. She will. The longer they fight, the more her rage will build, and the stronger her rage the more she will mess up, and when she does Kalio will fire upon her a volley of void poisoned bolts." “But...she’s a Void Conduit, wouldn’t she be immune to that?” I asked. "Oh? Then yeah Kalio is fucked." “Also, I don’t know if she modded that, but wouldn’t-” I started until the sound of a massive explosion coming from the room came as Coco apparently fired rockets from her Super Shotgun. “Yeah...she modded it...poor bastard.” "Huh. Well only chances Kalio has now are if they use those new bolts." “New bolts?” I asked curiously. "You know about the systems of code that manage the loot Dungeons have right?" Goatrir asked. “Not really, cause I’ve tried asking and no one gave me a proper answer...or an answer that agreed with others.” I said honestly. "Huh. Well, that same system makes and tells mini bosses like Kalio and I our roles. You see, we are not the original Kalio and Goatrir, but replicas made from their memories and copies of their code. We exist here for one reason, test/challenge the Adventures. As such the system can and often does give us Updates." “Well that’s slightly cheating.” I frowned. "The updates are varied. Not always do they make us stronger, that only occurs if the dungeon itself ascends a level. Typically it just either puts us in rooms like here, allows us access to more than one version of a weapon. I fought you with just one of the claymores I have access to. Recently however we received an update, one that expanded our arsenal. Most of the new weapons were restricted for our level four and five dungeon locations. Kalio however received a new Bolt Type. One the system deemed allowable for this level two segment area." “Sounds about right.” I nodded. “I just hope Coco will be alright…” "Depends. Odds are Kalio might not even use it. We typically experiment with the new stuff before applying it in a fight." “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “So I’m sure Coco’s got this.” The fight kept on, Coco getting really pissed, but also real close to Kalio. She then rammed the super Shotgun right into the neck of their helm, nearly cutting it off from the force alone before she fired; Shotgun decapitation. “Well, that’s one way to get a decapitation.” I said honestly. The barrier fell and Coco happily walked over to us, tossing Kalio's head to Jericho. "That was fun." Coco said. “Glad you had fun Coco.” I smiled. “Hope the rage didn’t get you too much.” I said sheepishly. "Well, if anything it did relief a lot of stress I guess I had built up." "Do not forget your reward." Kalio stated. Nodding, Coco went over to the newly appeared chest. Inside was… was… what is that. "Oh, that's one of the new items." Goatrir said. "Looks like. Neat, new item just days after the update. Nice." Kalio added. The object itself looked like a coin, but was blank save for three scratched in tally marks on one side. “Hmm...wonder what this coin is for…” I hummed while looking over it carefully. "It's a DeathWish." Kalio said. "Think of the Death Note but as a coin. Hand it off to someone you hate and they die instantly. Has three uses." “Well that’ll come in handy.” I said honestly. "How?" Jericho asked. “I’m sure there’s some way to have this used properly.” I said honestly. With two heads we continued on. I was asking these two more about this self run system that runs all the dungeons. “So how does the self run system work from your experience?” "The system works in parallel to the system that makes the world terrains and environment, think Minecraft here. The dungeon system actually makes the dungeons and chooses their themes and type. From there based on the rules of how dungeons are meant to operate and the special rules for each type and level chooses layout, how many floors, and spawn rates for the more basic enemies." Kalio said. "Mini bosses like us are made by copying beings of interest or in other cases the system makes one up all together to either roam the floor or floors as an optional challenge or as a guardian for keys or more rare loot." Goatrir added. “Sounds a tad more like Terraria than Minecraft to be honest.” I said honestly. “But I can understand that.” "From there once the layout, mini bosses and type and level as well as the floor count have all been set, the system pulls loot from the look generation system. A whole dimension where anything that can be made is and placed into the dungeons. Chests are actually empty unless opened, the items placed in right as the lid opens up." Goatrir continued. "This is so good based loot isn't, well, rotten." Kalio added. "Now, floor based bosses are a slightly different matter. Whole most often they are completely made from scratch, very rarely will the system actually take in a being to be a floor boss. But only if they meet the requirements. Firstly, they must have no worldly ties, no family, home or kin to speak of. No reason to leave. Second, they must meet the dungeon strength requirements, being a certain level of power. Third and last they must be willing to accept employment in the system. No real pay to speak of but they get a room to rest and sleep and eat in that is generated with all they would need or want. When beaten in battle, or they win the battle they just spawn back in that room, and when a fight is approaching they spawn into their boss room. Mini boss beings like us have these kinds of rooms too." "Save for these dungeons main bosses…" Goatrir said with a sigh. "This dungeon doesn’t operate like a normal onet. This was hand crafted, not system made. It's bosses are placed here once their… other versions try to reach here." “Void Mother made this dungeon.” I said honestly. “This is the second place where people can get what they want, the first being the Eternity Arena the Mushroom 13 made not too long ago.” "That's about all we can say about the system." Goatrir said. "Well, all we know really." Kalio added. “Hmm…” I hummed. “Good to know.” I said, thinking about how little info they actually had about their respective dungeon. "Next should be Hog, Knight of Lust." Goatrir said. "Ugh." Kalio huffed. “Gross.” I frowned. “Who’s smart idea was it to name a knight of lust Hog?” "Her own. Demons pick their own names. Though, given we are just copies it's more just part of our given roles." Goatrir said. “Okay so it’s a female...and yet why do I have a feeling expectations will be soundly ruined?” I asked curiously. As we walked about, slaying demon enemies and such. We finally came across the next face wall. "To face the Knight who embodies lust, the first one must show the bond of trust." The face said. “So who wants to go this time?” I asked curiously. "I'll go, wanna check my armor." Kexez said. "Bond of trust?" Jericho wondered. "Hmm…" I said while raising my hand and showing my Wedding Ring. "Does this count?" The face wall melted away and behind it was… not what I was expecting. The Knight Hog was… the exact opposite of what I was expecting. She was… almost divine. Thick long blonde hair, stunning blue eyes, a figure that matched Coco but with the height of Alxun. In short, she was ideal in looks. “I am Hog, Knight of Lust. I see you already have Goatrir and Kalio’s heads.” “Fuck you.” Kalio said. “What he said.” Goatrir added. I noticed these two’s abnormal hatred of her, so clearly something was up here. “Alright, what happened?” I asked simply. “You’ll see…” The two heads said. Kexez slithered up to the hell knight, the barrier forming as they pulled out their Starlight keyblade. “So, what are you?” “Hog, hell knight of lust.” Hog said, black void fires as soon a massive greatsword made from bones and flames appeared in her hand. “Daughter of Hell Lord Garthatum.” I looked up on my Assistant of who that was. Hell Lord Garthatum. One of the original first demon lords of hell from its inception, Lord Garthatum spawned many of hell’s knights and rooks. His powers made him second only to the first king of hell, and over the years his demonic energy seeded into the realm of hell, and the magic crafted from it makes up over half of the power for hell's spells and technology. “Huh, that’s interesting.” I said honestly. Kexez and Hog began their fight, Hog’s speed was unexpected. Not even I’m that fast when using Lunatic, or am I? Honestly I guess I never really tried and figured that out. Add it to the list. Kexez was able to keep up the defence well and thankfully with their new armor took little damage if their hp on my allies stats list anything to go by. Kexez gave a swing of darkness from their weapon, the AOE attack knocked Hog back but she kept her footing. Smirking I saw as void now pulsated from her blade. Now, Kexez let Nothingness flow around his keyblade to counter. “So far so good.” I said honestly. “What’s her gimmick?” “Exactly as her title suggests, lust. Even the slightest sense of attraction to her and your genitals melt inside you as your eyes forever burn with hellfire til death.” Goatrir said. “The fact Kexez isn’t even going through that I guess says a lot about them.” Kalio said. “That’s...not what lust is but sure, whatever helps you sleep.” I started. “Like...seriously, that is nowhere near what lust is or actually how it works...so I’m curious as to why Kexez isn’t hurt, given how...active they tend to be.” “Dunno, surprising to me.” Jericho said. “Maybe they can turn it on and off?” Coco thought aloud. “Well...I suppose.” I shrugged. “We’ll ask them after they soundly kicked Hog’s ass.” Kexez and Hog’s fight lasted a good while. While strong Kexez was still, admittedly the weaker of us. Even Coco was stronger than them. But Kexez, like Heart, had determination and quick thinking. Kexez managed to get the upper hand before she nearly cut off their tail. In a swift slice of Nothingness Hog’s head flew off in an unceremoniously fast act. “Nice job.” I nodded. “Not as flashy as Coco’s or...brutal as mine, but still.” "Eh, mostly just had to predict her movements." Kexez said as the tosses the head to Jericho. "Don't forget your reward." Hog said. “And let’s see what the reward is?” I wondered. Kexez walked over to the chest that appeared. Opening it, inside was… bullets? They weren't normal. They were for all kinds of calibers, but what they were made from I couldn't tell. They looked metal but I sensed a power from them I can't seem to identify. “Alright.” I said while checking it’s code to figure out what it was instead of being confused about it. Alkihenitanite. An Admin made metal from the first cycle, it surpasses Dark Monofilament by 9,865% and can cripplingly injure Deathless Immortals, causing their heal time to take months rather than seconds. “There we are.” I said while picking up the bullet. “I was wondering when we would find an item that can hurt Deathless.” "Hurt, but not kill." Jericho said, looking the bullets over. "Question is… do we test it first?" “Not on each other that’s for sure.” I said bluntly. "Well, there's no immortals we know of we can shoot at." Coco said. "Unless I missed something while I was out cold." “Okay fine.” I said while pulling out a Smith & Wesson revolver, put one of the bullets in the chamber, and then shot myself in the arm. Pain. I haven't felt pain like this in a long time. The stinging hiss of pain irradiated from the bullet wound. It was just a flesh wound, but it kept bleeding, not healing like normal. I even drank some of my own and Kexez's milk, nothing. Healing potions and spells… nothing. Only time can heal this metal's damage. “Cause that makes sense, it only describes going against their natural healing abilities, but it magically also affects healing potions and magic.” I frowned. “Thanks Code, once again proving to me why you’re basically worse than magic…” I grumbled. “But at least I know how to make it now…” I grumbled while wrapping up my wound in clean bandages. "Who even made this metal?" Kexez wondered. “An Admin from the first Cycle.” I said honestly. "I mean what kind of admin. War, metal, death, which and why?" “Didn’t say and didn’t say.” I said. “Even though I literally looked at the damn things Code, things can either be helpful or absolutely useless sometimes.” "Well, guess we'll put this away." With that Kexez stored every bullet into their Assistant. "And now onto Mercy." "Fuck that guy." All three heads said in unison. "Any reason why?" Coco asked. "He's broken as all hell!" Goatrir said. “Thank you for not explaining literally anything.” I said honestly. “So let’s go find this bastard and see what’s special about him.” "They have an ability." Kalio stated. "Equilibrium. They perfectly match their opponents strength and stats." "Well… that can be an issue then." Jericho said. "Guess it will be tough to fight basically me then." “So his gimmick is only that?” I asked curiously. “There has to be more than that.” "Uh, King, Mercy and Death are the same thing in demon." Jericho stated. "Funny enough their word for actual Mercy and Submission are the same. A demon submitting to you makes them your slave." Coco added. “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “Good to know.” "So that means this is more the Hell Knight of Death?" Kexez asked. "Yup." The heads all said. “Well that’s false advertising then.” I said honestly. "Demons." The heads stated. “Well either way.” I said honestly. “Let’s go see the last knight.” As we made our way out to the last knight we found the safe room. We checked the book. Yup, Adam. As we rested here I licked my wound, literally, pondering on some things mentally. ”So many things to think about…” I thought to myself. ”Don’t know who made this metal, so gonna need to look into that, don’t know how Jericho is gonna beat the knight...Adam is gonna be a bitch and a half to fight…” I mentally sighed out. “Why does crap always have to get complicated…” I took a nap, cuddling with Kexez as I relaxed before the final two fights. I had a weird dream, nothing concerning but I dreamed I was nursing a sapling into a tree… though that did make me wonder what my milk would do to plants if used instead of water. As I got up and still had Kexez coiled around my body like a massive scarf, I began cooking some food. “That was a...weird dream…” I muttered. "Dreams aren't always normal." Kexez said sleepily. "Better than a nightmare, right?" Coco asked. “True, but...it was still weird.” I said honestly. “So how was your sleep?” "Good. Was in the dream realm. Messed around in Traverse Town." "I didn't dream." Jericho said, rubbing their neck. "I dreamed I was sleeping." Kexez said. “I was nursing a sapling.” I said honestly. "Miss your little meat tree you raised?" Coco asked. "I remember you told me about that." “It wasn’t that.” I said honestly. “But...it did bring up what would happen if I used my breast milk instead of actual water.” I said honestly. "Ten rem says something along the lines of the trees from Yellowstone." Jericho said. "Thirty says bigger." Coco countered. "Deal." Jericho said as they shook hands with Coco. “Well remember, those trees were getting their nutrients from a fucking Super Volcano so let’s not think my milk is a miracle worker here.” I said sheepishly. "Isn't it?" They all asked. “It’s not.” I said humbly. As we ate and woke up more we finally headed out. The path to the next knight arena was guarded by puzzles, hordes of demons, traps, and lots of fire. “Jeez, did they need to make this floor any longer?” I frowned. "Well, this is level two so guess it means they only get larger and more complex once we reach level three, four and finally five." Coco figured. “We’re massively behind on progression here though.” I said nervously. “But...I suppose…” I sighed out. “Alright, where’s this door?” Most of the puzzles were easy. Find key, key parts, break fleshy demon things to unlock doors, ect. But this one puzzle… this puzzle… it had become my white whale… fucking math. "Who makes a door linked to a physics equation?" Coco asked as I kept writing out the steps to solve for a black hole. “Cause reasons.” I said honestly. “I honestly should have figured this out by now though…” I muttered. "Weird." Kexez said. Finally I figured out the math issue. My reward was ironically black hole grenades. Create a black hole for five seconds that sucks everything and everyone not bolted to the ground into a pocket prison dimension where if they don't die from the landing they die from the other shit that's been put there… cool. “Well, this is neat.” I said honestly. With that in tow we kept along and finally found the face wall. "To fight the Knight who embodies Mercy, mercy must be shown before me." “That depends on your definition of ‘Mercy’ here.” I said honestly. "I think they mean the demon version." Jericho said. "How do we do that then?" Kexez asked. “Kill the door?” I asked curiously. "Can we do that?" Coco asked. "Well, one way to find out." Jericho said, pulling out their war axe and hacking the face wall in two. “Well, that worked.” I said honestly. The Knight if Mercy stood before us all. A single sword drawn in one hand. "I am Delgato, Hell Knight of Mercy. Claim my head, if you can overcome your own strength." Jericho stepped forward, the barrier forming up as Jericho pulled out their War Axe. "We'll see." “Let’s see how well this Knight does compared to Jericho.” I muttered. In a flash, Jericho and the Knight both rushed each other, their clashing blades creating Sparks and blasts of energies as Mercy's ability matched Jericho's stats and power. The two danced but Jericho's skill and title as the Admin of War won them the battle in a spectacular display of a fast slice to the knights neck as the head flew off high from the impact of he cut. Jericho claimed his prize, a crusable sword. "So, how's Adam gonna fair?" Coco asked. "Not good likely." Kexez said. "Guy is strong, might be way tougher than we would like. Might be able to get an edge though." “All things considered, Adam isn’t going to be too tough.” I said honestly. “We’re all...honestly way stronger than we should be for this level.” I said honestly. "You learned how to fight with gauntlets from them didn't you?" Jericho asked. “Them and Spike, and I outdid them both in hand to hand Combat.” I said honestly. "Did you ever win against him?" “Yes, I did.” I said honestly. “That was my ‘final test’ for the two.” "Can you win, while minor, you are injured." Jericho said, giving a small pinch to my bandage. It gave a small thing of pain but not bad, just a light sting. “And I’ve fought strong opponents with worse injuries.” I said honestly. "Even so, there's something I don't like. This has been too easy." “What do you mean?” I asked curiously. “If you're meaning the dungeon so far, it should be because we are massively overleveled for these parts.” I said honestly. "It just feels like something isn't right here. Admin of war, I can smell traps." “Ah, well if it’s not because of the dungeon, then yes, I am very thankful someone else noticed it.” I said honestly. “It’s been bugging the shit out of me for the past four rooms…” "Either way, something isn't right." “Let’s hope we figure it out soon…” I said nervously. "Let's hope so." “Alright, so where the hell is the boss door…” I muttered, wanting to get through the dungeon fast before whatever trap is sprung. As we headed into the last few rooms. It was here we came across something we haven't seen before. A coffin. "That shouldn't be there." Mercy stated. It wasn't like the final boss coffins, nowhere near as big or regal, but looked brand new, and made from unscorched wood. "Trap." We all said at once. "Cause of course…" I growled as I pulled out Sharpshooters and fired a dart at it, fully expecting something bad to happen. It made a crack, void began leaking out as, against my weapon, all of ours, just… disbanded instantly. I felt a familiar wave of pacifism and got worried. The lid opened up and walked out was… the Void Mother. Her hair wet, her skin a dead pail and eyes coldly white. A corpse; Void black and her chest and lower torso with gaping holes oozing void in an endless flood. "My my, I've been wanting to meet you." “Fuck you.” I said while going through my assistant and unlocking the ‘Mother’ abilities we all had on me as my own wave of Pacifism against her. “Thank god that is a thing…” I muttered. "Clever, but unneeded." She said, stepping around us. None of us dared move as she walked around and between us. "King, I remember you from the first cycle, my version. Good heart, ever the troublemaker." She then turned to Coco. "Coco, amazing how such a simple being has been remade." Then turned to Kexez. "Hm." Was all she said about Kexez before turning to Jericho. "And there's a face worth looking at." Jericho turned away. "Why are you here?" "Simply put, interest." Void Mother said as she kept walking around and between us. “What? Too preoccupied with other things than realizing all this shit’s happened before?” I asked simply. "Cycles, resets, makes no difference to me honestly. Same song, different artist. But, this one feels less like a repeat or cover, and more like a re-imagen. Same yet different, and oh so refreshing." “And was that before or after you’ve just been…” I sighed out. “Letting us just do what we want?” I asked honestly, Void Mother knowing full well that I really hated saying those words. "Oh? Heh, you misunderstand my role in the void. I may make it, the code that you know as void, but I'm just the fountain where the poisoned water flows free. Or, are you referring to Nexus?" “Both to be honest.” I said. “I’ve seen you personally slaughter billions...and you can just as easily kill the rest of us, but you’re not, and you’re most definitely not letting Nexus just run as rampant like they should be.” She smiled. "Chess is never fun when it's a one sided win. And it seems finally my opponents have newfound tricks up their sleeves. Tell me, do you know how many times you very four have walked this dungeon? Slaughtered it's enemies and claimed my tossed aside womb at the end?" “Now do you want the actual number, or the technical number?” I asked curiously. "Like I said, cycles, resets, same song by different artists." She said looking around. "From all of them, this is the first time I've ever been here to see and speak with you four." “So you do know about the resets…” I muttered. “So what’s with the sudden firsts? Want to see us succeed for once instead of losing in the end?” "Hm, if you want to believe that." Void Mother said, her tone still creepily peppy. “Alright...so at this point my question is, where is Belief?” I asked simply. “Cause if you're here, Nothingness Belief can’t be too far behind.” I said honestly, knowing something will happen and go horribly wrong. "My late lover won't be arriving. But, to the point of my visit, it's what you want, right?" “Yes, we would like to know why the hell you're here.” I growled, my fist trembling as Nothingness sparked against the constant Void she was making. "This dungeon. It was made for the plunderer to grow as they descend. But, you're stronger than the other times. Makes this too easy for you." “Oh no, we are literally months behind on this. You are not going to make this harder because ‘We’re too strong’.” I frowned. "And you can do what to stop me?" She asked with a smirk. "Besides, there is something I believe you would value above all else." “Cause why not…” I muttered. “Alright lady, what do you got for us?” "This is A war, if I am not mistaken. But it's three sided, not two. Possibly four." “Yes, we have our side fighting against you, we have Vincent and Nexus wanting to destroy all of Creation cause fuck it why not, and the forth…” I sighed out. “Alright yeah, I’m partly to blame on why there might be a fourth, but Truth is a prick.” I frowned, not really knowing who the fourth party was I just thought of an immediate powerful being that I promised to murder. "Close. Myself, Vincent, your own army, and Void Key. Nexus has always been… shared, between Vincent and Void Key. A hairline thick relationship of trust between the two. Vincent can control people, but Void Key could make monsters." “So you’re going to give me Void Key’s location so I can finally torture him for the rest of his life?” I asked curiously and a little too eagerly. "Close. You see, while you see us as one enemy, it's not the case. I'm a battery, so Vincent and Void Key do what I say to get what they need, but they are back stabbing sociopaths I don't trust as far as I can throw and that is very, very far. Void Key wants to replace me, and Vincent just wants destruction, both of creation and Void. So, I can gift wrap you his little pet Vilgax, in exchange for two things." “And what’s that?” I asked simply, not liking the fact we have to bargain with her. "Beat this place on the Max difficulty. Your rewards would also be quite equal to the normal level fives, and, find where my lover's body is in that realm you have control over." “The main reason we’re here is to get Nothingness Belief’s body back.” I said. “Cause his body is what is currently fueling Nothingness, keeping it as an actual part of Reality, so why we’re here is because it’s the second best place to get something that is impossible to get, the other being your Mushroom’s ‘Eternal Arena’ they set up not too long ago.” "Hm, good to know. But, his body is unique. The Mushrooms wouldn't be able to fetch it nore make a copy, it would have to be made from taking a piece of the original, and copied there." "You want King to use Starfish Clone on them." Jericho said, not looking at the Void mother. "That's right." She confirmed. “Sadly I have no idea where that Bonfire is, so this place might actually have a piece of Nothingness Belief here all things considered.” I said honestly. “We wouldn’t be here if we didn’t think it was possible.” I said, considering that technically the other reason we’re here is now moot because of Cript breaking Time. "Something from my love to find them, is that what you need?" “It’ll help make it easier to find I suppose.” I said honestly. “So find a piece of Belief and then beat this place on the hardest difficulty...that makes sense.” "I have something like that." She stated. “Well what is that something?” I asked curiously. Void mother began to raise a hand, reaching into the void bleeding wound where her heart should have been she reached in, and pulled out a single cloth wrap. Inside, showed hair. Just three strands. "All that was left when that fire of Nothingness took the rest of him. I may not have my heart, but I have my memories. Memories of love and the love we shared. Part of me, wonders, if I could be better, memories from the resets, of each, proved they still loved me. Makes me wonder." “Most everyone has a chance to become better.” I said honestly. “There is a chance...you just need your heart back, as well as Belief back.” I said simply. “So...just need to find a bit more than this to fix him right?” "Yes. But, if you try and find my heart, to that I say good luck. I have no idea where it is." "But your Mushrooms know, especially when all of them combine their power." I said honestly. "Maybe. Won't be easy either way. Especially if they recombine into their real self." "Real self?" I asked nervously. "Being as powerful as they, did you really think they were individual? They are numbered, marked as being the same being, despite being different in many ways. A good comparative would be Kingdom Hearts, Those twenty others technically make up one admin, as do those thirteen. When one, they return to being their true self, the Admin of Challenges." “So he’s technically the strongest being in all of Existance?” I asked nervously. "Well, yes and no. They are only as strong as they need to be to challenge their challenger. They keep it all fair." “True.” I said honestly. “God, that is going to be even more of a nightmare…” "Possibly." "So, there is still good inside you then?" Jericho asked. "Me, yes. A little, but… I'd be wary, others won't be so kind." Void mother said as she snapped her fingers. I felt the dungeon… shift. I felt my hair's stand up and everything instincts wise screamed danger. Been a while since I felt that. "Well...this is a nice change of pace." I said honestly. "This is… gonna be hard." Coco said. "Chow." Void mother said, leaving in a whisp of Void as the passivism field ended with her departure. "Christ…" I groaned as I fell to a knee, my own passivism aura fading. "Okay...just being around her is exhausting, and not because of the aura she has…"…" Everyone gave me a confused look. Okay word that differently. “I meant all the ambient Void she was producing was a bitch and a half to keep at bay.” I said honestly. “And that was just her standing there not doing anything…” I muttered while standing back up. With a nod I began to wonder just how much harder this had become. My one experience with a level five was not helpful and I worried for Kexez and Coco, while both capable level fives are pretty much bullshit. “Alright you two, just so you know, Level Five dungeons are absolute dog shit.” I said honestly. "Any recommendation?" Kexez asked. “Nope, cause no matter what you do, it’ll just keep throwing shit at you about as strong as you in a massive amount of numbers.” I said honestly. "Hmm…" Jericho pondered. "Kico and Cerex?" Jericho offered. "They… would help. At least with bosses." Coco said. “But when all the trash is stupid strong as is, we will need their help.” I said honestly. "True. Kico is small but a powerhouse and Cerex is a living tank." Jericho said. "So let's bring those two back." I said honestly. "Hopefully it doesn't make it even harder…" "Well, best get to it." I was back. My name is Kico I was small but strong, and my partner here/lover was Cerex. We are needed here. And we won't let down the people who fused together to bring us back. Yes we have our own bodies thanks to Starfish Clones and such but still, this felt… right. Felt like we had purpose to our newfound existence. “Alright, who do I need to punch?” I asked while cracking my knuckles. “Oh wait, I forgot...do our weapons fuze when we fuze?” Cerex shrugged, summoning Jericho's war axe, and then Kexez's Starlight Keyblade. "Looks like that has to be manually done I guess." They said, looking the two over. "So, how do we go about this love? I tank hits and you deal them?" “Sounds about right.” I said simply while stretching out a bit. “Yo Symbi, mind giving me two more arms?” I asked the fusion inside me. "On it." Symbie said. Her voice was… different, like a well unified chorus of voices. Two more arms grew out just below my current ones. The look wasn't too bad honestly. Might keep it. “Gonna need to get used to it, but now I can punch things even more so.” I said happily, equipping King’s Gauntlets and ready to start fighting. I watched as Cerex flip through the many various weapons available to them. "We need our own signature weapons." She sighed, flipping through many till she found something that peaked her interest. "This can work." She said. In a flash there was this round small arm strapped disk in her arm, with the grip of her fist showed a massive crackling Shield that was originally magic based before War code and energy flowed through it, creating a Violet shield around the good front half of her. “Cool.” I said while deciding to do the same thing, going through the massive catalogue to see what signature weapon peaked my fancy. As I browsed them I realized something. Putting the gauntlets away I looked at my fingers. They were more pony like from Coco, but with small pointed nails that mimicked claws. I checked my skill tree, and found that with a few points They became stronger. I could shift them, the normal nails now made of Dark Monofilament and I can cast spells from them, making magic finger guns. “Oh yeah, it’s all coming together.” I said with a grin as I started to fill out my skill tree for the plan I had. I discovered something interesting in my skill tree that was not in Coco's or King's. Stats Boost tree. The description was expected, increases stats by using skill points. It reminded me of Final Fantasy X sphere grid. Looking into it, it only unlocks at random. That was bull. In any case I boosted Agility and speed as much as I was allowed, and revived something unexpected. I was Gifted a Skill Tree. “Oh? A gifted skill tree?” I hummed. “What do you give?” Congratulations! You have maxed out your Speed Skill Tree. You have been gifted the Speed Force Skill Tree. Do you accept? Yes. No. “Gee I fucking wonder what my answer will be.” I laughed as I pressed ‘Yes’ on the skill tree to get the Speed Force Skill Tree. So far for this skill tree there was one option. Basic Speed Force level one. Taking it I felt that energy, Speed Force flow into me. My mind, and therefore Symbie, processed and recalled information faster, I had even higher senses and in, yes, .000003 seconds I ran around this whole room. This was gonna be useful. "Neat… what was that?" Cerex asked. “I maxed out a stat tree and got the Speed Force Skill Tree.” I said honestly. “I’m sure if you max out stuff you’ll get fancy stuff to.” "Cool. So, shall we?" She asked, motioning to the doorway to the rest of the floor. I was already at the door. This is gonna be fun. “As ready as I’ll ever be.” I said happily. The doors to the hall opened and we were met with Way more demons than what Coco, King, Jericho and Kexez had to deal with. Immediately Cerex took the Shield up and it held, but they were squeezing through. Between my raw strength, upgrades and Speed Force I was killing the stragglers. Each hit I did had them about forty thousand damage. About a tenth of most of these things health. Speed on my side, that little slice dealt hundreds of them in less than a second, made these things easier than they would be normally. The drops were also… amazing. The first one I killed exploded in a shower of rem, weapons, ammo, a reward person, surprisingly, and all kinds of stuff. Resources were already not an issue, this was gonna be the definition of excessive. It occurred to me that likely most adventures who do make it into a level five would only need to enter the first floor of a level five, kill a single enemy and be set for life. Mother, Void and otherwise only knows what the boss will give us now. “So...what kind of rewards do you think we’ll get?” I asked Cerex curiously. “Given that we’re already getting what the other floors gave all together and more.” "Kill first talk later sweetie." Cerex asked as there was still a floor of demons her Shield kept at Bay. With a nod I slid around the Shield, speed force letting all around me perceive time as stopped. I counted six thousand demons, normally there were just several dozen. I got to work, slicing up all these monsters without hesitation and in what was actually several seconds, to me felt like several hours, they were all dead. As I let Speed Force stop and my time perception return to normal, all the demons dropped dead and now Cerex and I were swimming in dropped rewards. “Halp~.” I whined, given that I wasn’t very tall I was kind of having a hard time staying above all the loot. Cerex swam through it all and pulled me out. She gave me a kiss before placing me on her back. "Well, this is useful. Looks like you found how to destroy a level five dungeon. At the very least, the common enemies. So, shall we collect all this then?" “I need to be taller…” I pouted cutely. Needless to say Cerex and I began auto collecting the stuff into our Assistants and people back home. Thankfully Cerex also has the Linked Bellies ability. Then we came across something I never expected to see. Alert! Assistant Storage Full. My jaw dropped. In my new and short existence, I never expected to actually max out an Assistants storage space. No one does. “Okay...so King is already starting to try and make the Assistant’s storage space the Infinite Storage it should have been.” I started. "In any case, guess we'll have to drop it all off at home, or rather, a starfish copy of us that'll be doing that. Clear up space for us." “Well, if I can connect this to the Armory/Treasury King has back at the castle, I’m sure we can just send everything there.” I said honestly. “And then the Nursery for all the new spouses.” "The nursery?" Cerex asked. “Er, that is the place right? Where all the spouses are when they tend to each other and the kids?” I asked nervously. "Yeah but if they are new… huh, well, the others can figure that out." With the use back home, King, and Cript our Assistants to a sorting and deposit system that will deposit and sort everything auto gathers into their proper places back home Cerex and I were able to gather up everything. It was around the end of collecting that all that I realized Speed Force had one, manageable draw back. Food. My body needed to eat now, and a lot of food to make up for it. Apparently for super speed and certain other powers, even an Admin body needed extra. Or, maybe that's just how the Admin of speed coded Speed Force to work. Either way I didn't mind; and no drinking my own milk, or Cerex's didn't feed the need. It had to be high calorie food, which I ate greedily. Once my appetite was filled we headed off, finding a chest which ended up being a mimic. This was the first time one had been seen, and it but into Cerex's arm, making a wound but I saw in my hud it didn't deal as much as I was fearing. Their tank biology was a blessing. Sadly they had little to no damage, so I rammed my claws into it's one massive eye, pulling out brains I was surprised it had. That killed it instantly, thankfully. Cerex's wound healed up and the Mimic corpse exploded into a small flood of… of… what was this? They were coins, clearly, but irradiated void unlike anything else I'd seen before, well, anything King had seen before. Only the Void Mother surpassed these coins, and yes it was by many incalculable leagues. “So...the hell are these?” I wondered curiously. “They don’t look like anything King’s seen before.” "Hmm." Cerex looked them over. "In Jericho's memories, they saw these before but never got a name, just knew the old Admin of War used them for opening portals to the void. But, the power they are giving off should mean they have more of a use than that." “Alright, well might as well check…” I muttered while using my Assistant to see what this thing is. It… could not make heads or tails of this either. Pun not intended. It just registered as an error. The void part of me from Coco was reacting with it, but I couldn't pull void from it nor use it. Instead, I thought of flowing void into it. Doing this made my body grow limp. I hit the floor, vision fading as I saw Cerex worry but couldn't hear them. The hell did I do?! Something felt wrong. I was in someone else's body, a very tall someone. And I was just a passenger, unable to move or have any control. I was just here for the ride. This person, male, clearly, and walking through the void. Memories. These coins somehow held memories. “What the hell?” I thought, confused about what's going on. I wasn't able to control my… host, for lack of a better word, at all so I watched as they walked this road. They wore a heavy set of armor and carried an equally heavy sword strapped across their back. As they walked they heard something. Rapidly they drew their massive Claymore, built with teeth along the blade and it glowed with a sky blue energy that seemed to be giving them a minor buff, but what I couldn't tell. "Show yourself, vial spawn." I felt them, and heard them speak through our currently shared mouth. Now that's an odd sensation. Around us, I saw them. Five Void Wolves. Their pitch black coats hid them well within the voids darkness, only their glowing red eyes revealed their location, that, and their light blue glowing claws. ”Let’s hope they don’t die…” I thought to myself nervously. My host spun their sword around. "Feral dogs, come at me!" My host cried out. Immediately, one of the Void Wolves charged them. My host side stepped them, slicing their toothed blade into the beasts open mouth, cutting a good chunk of it off as the void wolf fell dead behind them. The others all gave deathly loud howls. My host's ears began to bleed and while I was hurting from the pain, they didn't even flinch. The remaining four all charged them, my host leaped into the air with impressive height and skill. He can back down to earth, sorta, stomping on another wolves back. I felt and heard as the wolves spine and rib cage broke into many pieces, and for good measure my host decapitated them In a swift swing. They bounced back, the last three now savage with rage and desire to kill. I felt my host grab something, it felt like a grenade, and throw it at the wolves. They backed up and to my surprise there was an explosion of Nothingness thorns. One of the thorns got a wolf in it's leg, the whole body of it soon covered with them as it began to die. ”Oh...is this the Forest of Thorns? And why the hell is he using King’s Nothingness?” I thought to myself worriedly. With two left to fight my host raised their sword again. This time they charged the wolves. The two survivors seemed to have learned not to screw with this guy, and ran off, pathetic whimpers as they did. I felt my host smirk. "Heh. Tough yet smart." They then turned around, suddenly there was a woman there I am 99% sure was not there before. "Agava, what brings you to my backside this time? It better not be another dagger." My host asked. "No, not this time." The woman answered. She wore a black hood made from some void beasts pelt, carried many small daggers and knives along straps attached everywhere along her body. "I require a brute, and you're the only one I know of with a brain at least." ”This better not be an extermination of Void Wolves…” I thought to myself worriedly. "The work pay this time?" My host asked. The lady tossed something fast at them. My host caught it. Looking, it was one of these very coins. "Echoed Memories. Only thing worth the same power as we deletes." My host purred. "Care for the work Ket?" The lady, Agava, said. "What is it?" "Admins. The Delete hunter himself." "I am not suicidal." My host huffed. "Ain't enough Echoed Memories or Void Crystals in the damned void to get me to hunt that bastard." "Normally, I'd agree, but he's been crippled. There is a chance, while slim. The reward is enough to make the two of us legends and set up for the rest of eternity." "And just who is paying us this wealth?" My host, Ket, asked with reasonable skepticism. "The Void Mother Herself." I woke up back in my own body with a groan. It was… interesting, seeing someone's raw life played from their perception like that. "Oh thank God." Cerex said. I realized I was in one of their little stomach pockets. In a swift motion they pulled me out. "Are you okay Kico?" She asked me, extremely worried. "Lord is in trouble." I started. "People are after him...Void Mother hired bounty hunters to deal with him…"…” I started. “Ket and Agava…” "But, Lord isn't even in the Void." Cerex stated. "My link with Jericho remembers he is with Cript working on some project." Cerex said with an assertive tone. "Besides, even if that was true it would take a lot to kill that Admin. Assuming he isn't Deathless already like Cript." “They said he was crippled somehow...but I don’t know if it was not too long ago or if it was a long time ago…” I sighed out. "Well, one way to find out." Cerex said. “And that’s to warn him.” I said honestly. "Or ask." Cerex said plainly as we called up Lord. "Yes?" Lord's voice spoke up. His unarmored form was still hard to imagine given how his armor had him look. Then again, that was likely the point. “Do you know anyone by the name of Ket and Agava?” I asked curiously. "Hmmm… Ket and Agava… yeah, yeah I remember them. Why do you ask?" “Because I kind of...saw through Ket’s memories of how Void Mother hired them to kill the Delete Hunter, and you were the only one that King knew was called that.” I told him. "Saw through his… oh. You found Echoed Memories Coins didn't you?" “Oh so that’s what those things are.” I said honestly. “But yes, yes I did, and we have an entire bag full of them.” "Heh, the only things worth a trade without question in the Void, Echoed Memories Coins, and Void Crystals. Those coins there are the only proof that Delete ever existed. Typically once they die there ain't any normal means. And yes I am aware of the rule breaking method King made. Those coins exist cause I killed him." “Well alrighty then.” I said honestly. “But...curious thing, they said you were crippled, and also those assholes used Nothingness, how the hell could they use those items?” "While rare, occasionally Nothingness slipped into the void in one way or another. Largely it just appeared in dungeons pre weaponized. Still rare as all hell though. And Crippled? That was… right, I vaguely remember that day… Christ that was eternities ago." “But you're still alive, even if Void Mother specifically hired those two.” I said honestly. "Them and about several hundred other high ranked deletes from that era." "Alright. Just making sure everything's fine and you're not being hunted down at the moment." I said honestly. "Trust me, there are only two people who can have a chance at killing me, one is Cript here, the other is, well, doesn't matter about the other one. No way that can even happen now." "And now it's going to happen cause you said it can't." I frowned. "Cause jinxing shit is a pain in the ass." "Still, not possible. They're dead too." "Remember how Cript broke time and dead people came back?" I brought up. "Yes but… just trust me, they are gone. If you wanna know how, watch the rest of Ket's memories. You'll see how." With that Lord hung up, and Cerex and I shared a look. "So, gonna watch?" She asked simply. “Might as well, even if we’re still massively behind.” I said honestly. “Sorry, that’s a bit too much King talking.” "Heh, relax. Just one more, I'll stuff you away in me and make it to the boss door so once you are done, we can enter." “Alright.” I nodded. “Let’s get to seeing Ket’s memories…” I grabbed the next Echoed Memories Coin as Cerex stuffed me inside one of her belly pockets. With a small flow of void I entered the next memory. I was back in Ket's body. The Delete was carrying something heavy strapped to their back. What I don't know. "Are you sure this will work?" My host asked. "Definitely." Agava spoke, unseen from wherever she was nearby. ”Well, let’s see how Lord murdered these two and others?” I wondered. "How much further then?" Ket asked. "Not far." Agava answered. Her attire was different as she walked up into view. She was now wearing something like leather armor, her clock not even on her person, but her plethora of knives was. "Once we bring this prize to The Forge, the sick fuckers there can make a weapon with Mother tier kick. I felt and heard Ket Whistle when hearing that. I agreed with that assumption. "Alright, now you're talking." ”That would have sucked ass if they managed to get it.” I thought to myself. After a bit of walking the two arrived at a massive valley, irradiating heat and blask smoke into the eternal black sky. As the two walked down an old staircase, lava and other molten metals and such were flowing through tubes and poured into tubs that mixed them. In the center of all this mess was this… robot? Is that a robot? It did look robotic, steampunk too with a steam whistle in it's head, gears all within it's frame body. I felt Ket drop what they were carrying. "Forge Master, we need a sword." "Lots of people come here for swords." The robotic being before me spoke in a completely metallic voice. "What Kind, are you searching for?" "One that can kill the Delete Hunter." Agava answered. "Illogical." The robotic forge master stated. "Not with this." Ket said, stepping back, what he was carrying was twice his size, wrapped in dirty cloth. In a swift pull the cloth came off, and I knew what I saw. King had seen it before, but this… the ones King saw were tiny, this was the size of a person. A Time Crystal. ”Sweet baby jesus that time crystals huge!” I yelped in surprise. The mechanical Forge Master walked over to the giant Time Crystal. "Quite the temporal event. I dare not ask." They said, looking up to the two. "I can craft Chrono Weapon with this crystal alone. One with the power to not only displace, but erase the target from time itself, from every point in time." "And that, is how the Delete Hunter shall die." Agava said with wicked enthusiasm. I came back inside Cerex as expected, but they were asleep. Must already be by the door. Sighing I decided to take this time to think over what I have seen from those memories of Ket's. “So uh...how is Lord alive when… apparently they made a weapon that can erase someone from time itself?” I asked myself nervously. The thought of such a weapon was, honestly, Scary. So I called Lord up to get an answer real quick. "What now?" They asked, annoyed. "So about this Chrono Weapon you had to go up against." I started. "How are you alive when it, and I quote from the blacksmith that made it, Erase someone from Time itself." "I never got hit. Duh." Lord stated matter of factly. "But how is it possible to make something like that?" I asked nervously. "Time Crystals are rare and super small for a reason. To find one the size of the normal elemental Crystals is like shiny hunting in gen one Pokemon and to find one any bigger us like looking for one specific atom in the entire universe. They exist but their level of rarity is just not worth the effort. They are also illegal for obvious reasons, so when they tried and failed to kill me with it I destroyed the damn thing." “Ah, okay then.” I nodded. “Thank you, cause when that appeared I got...a bit concerned.” "It's all in the past. Literally. So don't worry about it, and stop calling me." With that, Lord hung up. "Rude." I frowned. "Alright, let's get on with the boss." After managing to wake up Cerex and get out, she and I got ready. Thankfully my time in her let her natural magic apply all those buffs to me. Entering, this room looked while in ruins, yet regal and all on fire. Adamn crawled out from the coffin, gauntlets broken and oozing raw power and void. "Damn." I started. "Well, let's start." I said while cracking my knuckles and preparing for a fight, all four of my hands crackling with energy. I went with Nothingness to counter the Void Adam was radiating and used speed force to get in hundreds of hits… and only to deal about 10% of their HP before I had to slow down. I rushed back behind Cerex and their shield as Adamn made their swing. Thankfully her shield held and was still holding. “Jeez, all of that and only ten percent?” I muttered. “This is gonna be a bit harder than I thought…” "I'll buff you while you're out. Just keep them distracted so I can get the ace card buff spell ready." “That I can do.” I said while raising all four of my arms and firing off bolts of Nothingness at Adam while moving around with my Speed Force to keep him from getting a chance to hit me. They chased me around, while fast not fast enough to grab me as Cerex was preparing a powerful spell. Matrixes and Mana flowing into the air. As much as I wanted to admire it, and her, I don't wanna get punched by Adamn. “Anytime now hun!” I yelped as I dodged a flaming fist projectile Adam threw at me. With a pulsating flow of power her spell impacted me. And I felt… good. So so good. I ran, Speed Force feeling unlimited as I gave Adamn a four fist punch. Dealing fifty percent of their remaining HP. With another four fisted punch, took them out, but first I brought out Salvation and rammed it into their back as they went flying. Time began to flow again as I let Speed Force stop and in my arms I was holding a tiny, baby Adam. “Sweet...the heck was that?” I asked Cerek curiously while tending to baby Adam. "Not long after I arrived at the castle, Twilight, Cript's Twilight found me and found out what I was basically built to do, so she gave me some buffer spells and others to use." Cerex said, slithering up and around myself and baby Adam. "So cute." “He is adorable.” I said warmly. Cerex took them from me, and rather than sending them down… wait, can she even do that? In any case she began feeding them. Baby Adam drinking away without resistance. “You know...I kind of forgot that we can all breast feed.” I started sheepishly. “So onto the next floor?” "In a moment." Cerex said, still happily feeding Adam. I gave a laugh and checked out the rewards… there were a lot. “Jesus...there is so much here…” I muttered. Looks like from this point on, we're golden. To be continued...
Kite fights VincentBack in my life as Kite I walked over to the planning room where the others most likely were. “Hello?” "In here." I heard Sly call from the kitchen. Entering I saw everyone was here, cramped as it was around a table with some blueprints of the building. "Enjoy your nap?" Sly asked. “Not as much as I should.” I sighed out while grabbing a chair and sitting down. “So what’s the plan?” "In short, things are looking in our favor." Bentley said. "Meaning Mugshot has and is expecting us." Carmaleta said. "So we're gonna waltz right in and see what's up." Mom added with a grin. "We need to remember that Nexus and Cooper bots are lurking around." I said while taking a sip from my water bottle filled with thankfully fresh water. "An issue we sadly have no data on at the moment." Bentley said. "So we are gonna provide cover while you three deal with Mugshot." Uncle Jim said. "And us three would be me, Sly, and who?" I asked, slightly forgetting because of all the shit in my other lives. "Me." Mom said. "I want Answers. According to Mz. Ruby Mugshot can be trusted but I wanna see it for myself." "And from what we've learned is that Panda King is also trusting, especially since he made China an actual respectable place instead of a growing sapient's rights violation." "As far as we know at least." Matilda said. "Regardless, we have to deal with Mugshot first." Bentley said. "You three can enter once we've unlocked the main elevator. We already have the needed keys so it's as simple as knocking out guards and opening up the power switch." “Sounds about right.” I nodded. "Let's get going then." Mom said. “Let’s hope there aren't any ‘unwanted guests’...” I grumbled while finishing my water and getting ready to fight Mugshot. With a nod everyone got ready. Dealing with the guards was easy. They went down and were all promptly stuffed into a locked room, keys, wallets, phones and weapons removed. “Simple enough.” I muttered. “Now onto the big dog in charge.” With a click, flip and button push Mom, Sly and I were heading up to Mugshots penthouse. When the doors opened it was just Mugshot standing there. Part of me was happy to see him out of that suit. Still had the pants on but the top was off, a tank top was on and a lit cigar was in his mouth. "So, the three's of you all decided to come. Fair enough." He said, taking a long draw on his cigar. “It’ll just be easier to surrender Mugshot.” I said simply. “We don’t need to make this ugly.” "Heh. Cute. Gotta admit, your fancy powers, abilities. It's impressive, a sane man like myself would know better than to fight a super powered Cooper, let alone three. But You three haven't seen what I have, haven't heard what I've heard betweens Clockwerk and his financial supporters. It's bad. I gotta make sure you three can take him." “If you didn’t notice, one of Clockwork’s ‘benefactors’ tried to kill us not too long ago.” I frowned. “But fine, if you want to have a go, then let us teach you why you shouldn’t skip leg day.” "Who's him?" Mom asked. I was slightly confused what mom meant...before my fur stood up on end and my eyes widened at who I saw. “Everyone get out of here now!” I shouted while bringing out my Cane and sending twenty Ball Lightnings at our ‘uninvited guest’. In a blur I found myself alone, high atop the Casino. Standing across from me stood the only person who can make my skin crawl. Vincent. He leaned against several large crates. "You shouldn't be here." He said calmly. “Neither should you.” I growled while preparing to fight. “The fuck are you doing here Vincent?” "I am meant to be here. I know my history. You were never here. Originally." “Dogshit.” I frowned. “If you were here, then why hasn’t this entire world been terraformed by now? Cause playing by the rules isn’t your strong suit.” "You'd be surprised." He said, tone still that calm almost indifference. "Not every world I touch I kill right off. Fact is, slaughter gets old. And it's far more time consuming than you'd think. Besides, Nexus needs numbers, and it's easier to get them alive over taking them as corpses. I mean, Necromancy and Cybernetics are an option but eh, just gets old." I rolled my eyes. “Either way, so the fuck are you doing here?” "Honestly? Entertainment. The resources here are nice but, when you've lived as long as I have you need to find something to keep you thinking." “You’ve lost before and you’ll lose again you know that right?” I asked simply. "Hm." He hummed, smirking. "Win or lose it doesn't matter. I once just sat there, and watched everything play by and the ending was all the same. I never even lifted a finger. In the end, my job is always done. You've bought time, ironically by destroying it, but I've waited this long I can wait till the end." “It’s not going to matter cause I’m going to make sure all this,” I waved my arms around. “Stop’s being how it is and be truly free. I don’t know how or when, but I’m going to kick Truth out and get our world out of this Matrix level bullshit.” "Is this the part where you prove your point? Try and fight me to show me how strong you are?" “No, this is the part where I kick your ass.” I growled as I leapt forward with Skysplitter and swung down at the bastard. He didn't move. The edge of Skysplitter hitting him right to the head. There was an explosion and rubble and dust blew into the air. When it settled Vincent and I were still there. The roof was largely in ruins and he just looked at me from under Skysplitters blade. Unphased. "Isn't this the part where you kick my ass?" He asked, still speaking in his indifferent tone. I brought out my Cane and raided it into the air. “Grand Lightning!” I shouted as I jumped off Vincent and a massive bolt of lightning crashed down onto him, hoping to have done something. He still stood there. The concrete around him scorched but he was untouched. He just… looked at me. "Done yet?" “Oh come the fuck on…” I groaned as I fired bolts of energy from Interdiction, knowing full well that does damage to bastards like him even if I’m woefully underprepared. As the beams hit I saw him still leaning against that wall, the wall behind him crumbling and breaking until it was gone. Behind him now was just a wall of code holding him up now. I was panting. "My turn yet?" “Come on, how am I not even doing any damage here?” I growled, knowing full well Vincent is stronger than me but it shouldn’t be this large of a difference. "Does that matter?" Vincent asked, not standing up and walking up to me. "You say you want this world to be free, to remove or kill Truth and make it free. This reality is so finite. I've lived long enough to see time and time again. World, universes, cycles, they are born, grow, expand. Then, they build, materials go, Admins could care less. Even if time just goes to the end code itself even ends, and the Admins even die out. As does the void shortly after that, and it just repeats. A pointless cycle of rebirth and death. Freedom won't change that, delay, maybe, but won't stop it. You want to help the world?" He placed a hand atop my head. My blood chilled. "Die fast." I felt him… push. Yeah, push my head back and felt my body crash into… is that… that's the Eiffel tower. Hey I'm home… ouch… as I got up I saw the damage that… attack did… so much damage, and a massive ass trail. Vincent was walking through the ruined buildings he "pushed" me through. Stepping over or on corpses as he reached back to me. I switched to Master form and got back up quickly, holding my Cane and Frozen Pride. “I won’t die, and I’ll make you pay for all of this.” I growled. He sighed, hands behind his back as he stood there. "Too many times. Too often we've fought. Every time you're so self righteous and heroic. Sometimes, your more beasttial, primal or even savage. Just depends on what I did to you each time." “Then why keep this up? Why continue to do something that you think is ‘inevitable’?” I asked bluntly. “If you’re so knowledgeable on all of this, wouldn’t you have just stopped and been happy with the only person that ever loved you?” I asked. Vincent just looked at me, and gave a small grin. "Heh. I never loved her." It was a blur. Again I crashed far, slamming through buildings. Homes, hospitals, schools, stores and office buildings reduced to rubble. I had my Deathless healing, and each time I was about to crash land, Vincent was there, kick, punch, elbow or even slap me back across the globe. After a bit he started using baseball bats, tennis rackets. Entertainment, he had said. He is just playing with me. Finally I crashed back hard into the beach of Cane Island, Vincent sitting on the sand next to be as my Deathless body healed painfully. "So, is this the part where you get up and keep trying?" He asked, a bord tone in his voice. Book of Retribution fell to the ground and opened up to a very intricate and detailed page. “___” I ‘said’ as Pure Nothingness suddenly rushed out and rammed into Vincent, managing to push him back ever so slightly before it vanished. ”Out of mana!? Already!? Fuck!” I mentally shouted, hoping that spell would have lasted longer than what amounted to a sucker punch as the Lexicon disappeared as I used my Cane to help myself up. "Not bad. But your pronunciation was off." I looked up, seeing Vincent as he looked at me. "It's pronounced ____." An insult to my right, my being as he used Nothingness on ME! My Crown, my Adminhood was Nothingness… and he used it on me… fucking corrected me… I just layed there… how… how did Cript fight this bastard? ”Oh wait...I remember…” I thought to myself, as I felt my entire body pulsate and glow a dark red. “Haven’t used this in a while...but let’s give it a try.” I muttered as I managed to leap forward, feeling my legs crack as I swung my Cane down with one of the first techniques Cript taught me, using all my emotions, pain, regrets and sins into it. “Past Sins!” I shouted as I slashed down at Vincent in some last ditch attempt to do something to him. I hit down to the side of his head. For a while time seemed at a stand still as I made the impact. Our eyes were locked in this stand still. When it was over, I saw just a few bits of hair fall off from the impact. "All that for just some bits of hair?" “It means I can cut you, and if I can cut you that means I can hurt you.” I growled. "Bla bla bla bla bla." Vincent replied, standing as he kicked me down. I wasn't sent flying across the globe, thankfully, just to the sand floor. I was so tired… I haven't felt tired like this in so long. "You cut my hair, but blood would have been preferable. You're Deathless now, so I can't kill you. But, I can do one just as good." Vincent snapped his fingers. Appearing behind me was this… coffin of all metal… I could tell it was that Deathless harming metal. It had designs that were clearly old, and just radiated with an old power long forgotten. “Question…” I started as I coughed up blood. “How...did Eclipsa make that? I saw...in her memories how Cript told her about it...how?” He looked at me for a time. "You won't like the answer." He said, the coffin door opening. Inside it looked… actually kinda nice. Soft, comfy. He then grabbed me by my shirt and lifted me up. "Deathless like you, like Cript, can't die. But, you can sleep. These coffins were built to give you Deathless the closest thing to a death you can get. Litteral eternal slumber. This body you have, Kite, King, Diane and all those starfish clones. It powers down your code, your abilities. Your starfish clones will disband and even if you are fused to be one person with others be them proper fusions of this marriage one you got going on there you won't be able to hear or feel them, and neither will they once you're asleep in there. It's peaceful really." “Go...fuck yourself.” I growled as I weakly tried to fight against him. “But...what’s the answer I won’t like about Eclipsa?” He gave the smallest smile. "I promised not to tell. And I'm a man of my word." He started walking, lifting me by my shirt to put me in the coffin. I kicked, punched, and tried anything. As we got closer, each step I kept thinking back to my life. What I was, who I am now. This wasn't dying but it was just as bad if maybe worse. ”Damn it...I don’t want to lose everyone…” I thought to myself sadly as I continued to struggle against Vincent. As I headed to the coffin, blood feeling cold as dread overcame me, I heard a whoosh, a crack and was suddenly on the ground. Vincent stood there, arm missing from above the elbow as his hand and partle arm was still on my shirt, gripping and soaking me in blood. We both turned, there standing at the edge of the beach partly in the water was someone. They wore an all black armor that looked like a mix between combat and riot armor, a clock stretching along from their body as pitch black as the armor, and their helmet had a mask that covered their face. The shape of the mask was something between a gas mask and a plague doctor's mask all kept in an image near resembling a skull. "And just who the hell are you?" Vincent asked. His decapitated arm just let go of me, floated back to him and reattached and healed immediately. Clothing fixed too. The figure didn't speak, just stood there. A smoking rifle in their hands I could tell they kept on Vincent. Whatever the hell those bullets are made of, I'll take all of them please. I scurried away from the coffin towards the strange person. “Thank you...uh...whoever you are.” They didn't look at me. Keeping their eyes on Vincent. Their mask let out this… gas or something and they fired again, Vincent dodged but then I saw as the side of his leg had a small bleeding hole in it. "Hmm. Tracking bullets." He hummed, catching the bullet as his wound healed and pushed it out. He looked it over. "Huh… this is new." Vincent rushed, a blur passing me as he rammed into the mystery person. There was a massive plum of sand, water and just wet sand as he did. When it all fell I saw the mystery person and Vincent locked arms. The mystery person actually blocked his attack with their arm and Vincent was trying to push forward. "Impressive. There's only a small handful of people in creation who can do that, and I know them all… yet I don't know you." The mystery person managed to push him back, quickly pulling a small knife, the blade glowed a sickly blue as they swiped it at Vincent, who was dodging or parrying them back… who the hell is this guy?! They… they're keeping up with him! “Yeah...cause of course…” I grumbled, trying to recover my strength after all of that and let the mystery person deal with Vincent real quick. As the two fought the mystery person managed to get a cut in on Vincent. He stood there for a moment, watching as his wound kept bleeding. "Interesting." He hummed, dodging a stab attempt. Using their own momentum against them Vincent pushed the mystery person into the sand, the bullet he was shot with still in his hand. He looked at it. "Looks like this time around this cycle has a lot of differences." He said, snapping his fingers, the coffin vanishing. "Looks like for once I might have to start planning over relying on prior knowledge. This will be… Fun." I really, really really did not like the way he said Fun… it was a blink and he was gone, leaving me on the beach with mystery badass getting themselves up. “He stole one of your bullets...that’s not good.” I started. “Also...who are you?” They looked over at me. They looked at me for a long, long time before finally getting up, knocking off the sand and just began walking off to the beach. I watched as they walked on the water for a while before snapping their fingers. The portal they opened was… it felt like a DTL, DTN, DTG, and DTD were all swirling around in there. That energy alone made me feel… better? They entered and it closed. “What the fuck…” I muttered, before pulling up my binocucom. “Hey, can anyone hear me?” "Kite!" Sly came in. "Where the hell are you? There was just a blink and you were gone! Mom is worried and Mugshot is concerned! Next thing we know Bentley tells us there were earthquakes or something just popping up around the globe." “Remember that guy I told you all to get away from?” I asked. “Yeah so...we had a fight and he royally kicked my ass...so much so that I was ping ponged from France to China to Cane island.” "How the fuck are you alive?!" “Reasons I’ll get to later, but just tell Mugshot to give it up and give us the pages, I’ll head off to Panda King since I’m closer...our time table is getting a lot shorter because of this…” To be continued...
Kite makes a Deal“Hopefully the Panda King isn’t being held hostage…” I said worriedly to myself, continuing my way to Panda King’s hideout on my glider. As I flew high above the ground I came across the location of Panda King's main HQ. The former village was now massive military compounds and- Bang! Crack! Shit! I regained control over my glider as a bullet cracked my helmet visor. Looking around I spotted the sniper… Cooper Bot, Carrying a very modernized version of Tennessee Kid Cooper's rifle cane. “Damn it…” I growled as I started to dive down and start moving in an erratic fashion to try and get that Cooper Bot to miss. “Looks like I’m not gonna get to Panda King this way…” Bang! Bang! Bang! Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! I winced as the bullets hit, they didn't go deep into my skin but they did bleed. Monofilament… of course! His aim must be augmented by the cybernetics too. Crap, If I can't dodge, I gotta hide… and my newfound free time back home just gave me the perfect means to! Rapidly I pulled out my Keyblade, casting Replicate as four identical copies of me appeared around me and we all circled around one another as fast as possible, then scattered and each went down in a different area. I landed myself behind a warehouse of sorts and pulled those bullets out of me. “God damn it…” I growled while using healing magic on my wounds. “Alright, so far Tennessee might be aiming for me...that sucks, but I might have to ‘play along’...” I sighed out, taking a quick look around to see where I specifically was. Taking a peak around the corner I spotted a truck load of crates filled with what smelled like Gunpowder. I cast Vanish on myself and quickly sneaked inside, seeing a massive chemical factory where Gunpowder, Sulfur, and various explosive compounds were being made. Finding the main pc here was easy and with my auto hacking feature Bently put on my cane I saw these were headed to Ammunition Production some miles east of here. Thankfully that got marked on my mask’s hud. “Alright, so far so good…” I muttered. “Might as well delay this shipment as much as possible, and also look for pages and where to find out how to get to Panda King…” I muttered while checking to see if there was anything else on the pc before leaving. Aside from shipment records and orders nothing much else was here. I was heading out when I spotted a familiar looking safe and happily used my magic cane to swipe out the pages for the calling card. Quickly and happily I ran out to the rooftop, getting a look for where I was meant to- Incoming Call from Bentley “Cool.” I muttered while bringing out my Binocucom. “Hey Bentley, how are you doing?” "There you are. Alright, So your mom and Matilda are quite upset you left for China on your own. But good news is Sly and Murray will be there shortly along with Uncles Jim and M for back up. Matilda did give me a list of locations she wants you to scope out while you are there for intelligence. I'm marking them on your hud as we speak." “Tell those four that we got Tennessee here, he forced me to make an emergency landing, and I also downloaded some shipment plans from Panda King’s computer.” I told Bentley. “Also I was the closest one here after...all of that…” "Tell your mom that. Hmm. That's a lot of explosive materials. Getting shipped to Ammunition Production. Panda King hasn't made any major moves at all, stockpiling up explosives and ammunition is quote concerning, but does raise the question as to why." “He’s probably trying to figure out how to fight back against Clockwerk, but given there’s a Cooper Bot here his hands are probably tied.” I said honestly. "Hmm… stockpiling ammo against Clockwerk and his army. With the whole of china under his control he'd have quite the army, the Cooper Bots would be the best way to ensure Clockwerk received some of that ammo too, weapons also. There might be a way to scramble Clockwerk's signal controlling them, but I'd need to learn just what frequency he is broadcasting on. It would have to be capable of long range transmission and likely bounces off several orbiting satellites across the globe, still if they are under his total control there must be a more primary receiver in the area that strengthens it across the area. Perhaps a cell tower or even a radio station could house the equipment." “I’ll look around for any towers. If Panda King doesn’t want to work with Clockwerk he would have made it obvious enough for us to find it, but subtle enough that it wouldn’t just have bright neon lights saying ‘destroy the tower’.” I said. “Tell mom and Matilda I’m sorry...again, for doing this crap…” I sighed out. "I will. Also keep a look out for those safe caches of Matilda's. I'm marking them on your hud too, Matilda says at least some should be whole still, and she recommends getting the big one first, would make a good HQ for you the the others." “Alright.” I nodded. “Anything else before I start going around?” "Sly and our Uncles are getting air dropped in a small town more inland, it's the safest place to have them arrive at and if you can meet them half way. They're supposed to meet up with a contact Matilda has that leaks info to her, but mostly it's orders from Clockwerk to Panda King. She'll be heading out in a few hours so if you wanna meet up with them catch her in the cargo truck headed for Spirit Pond City." “Cool.” I nodded. “Alright, better start stealing everything that I can carry and make my way up to the Panda King...hopefully there’s just the one Cooper Bot…” I made my way to the cargo trucks lot, finding the one I needed and waiting. The driver entered and drove off. I was hiding in the cargo and all was silent til we reached the main road. "Kite Cooper?" The driver asked, their voice quite soft and feminine. “Who’s asking?” I asked, ready to strike this person who apparently knows me. They took off their hat, revealing the… cutest panda lady I've ever seen. "I am Jing King, Panda King's daughter and Matilda's contact. I was told to expect you while I retrieve your brother and uncles." I couldn’t help but blush at how adorable Jing King looked. “Um...it’s nice to meet you.” I said sheepishly. “And yes, it is me...how long did you know I was there?” "I didn't, but I was told to expect you and I doubt you were going to introduce yourself to me when I got in the truck, so I just asked on a whim." “Fair.” I said honestly while sitting down in the passenger's seat. “So...how has everything been going since your father is...basically under lock and key?” "Father is keeping well under the pressure. He knows Clockwerk suspects but as long as he follows orders he can only keep his Cooper Bots patrolling the country. They are the bigger threat here, as well as those Nexus members he stationed within the production factories." “Okay...so you're going to have to tell me everything you can Ms. King.” I said, admiring her cuteness having to be dropped for some important things. “How many bots, and what did those Nexus soldiers look like?” "Three bots, and most of the Nexus ones are always armored. Save for three. They must be siblings or something cause they look completely identical." “Crap…” I muttered. “Alright...so what did the three bots look like? Cause I have a general idea of what one of them looks like but I want to make sure.” "Better yet, I know who they are. Tennessee Kid Cooper. Alexander Von Cooper, and lastly Zhang Li Cooper. Out of all of them Alexander is the strongest. In life he was a one man army, breaking into the most secure and fortified of Russia's banks and buildings for sport." “Sweet lord.” I blinked in surprise. “Didn’t expect that…” "I don't know anything else, but I am worried. Clockwerk put in orders for parts. They all go to quite the large cannon." “That’s not good at all…” I said worriedly. “So question...where’s the radio tower that’s helping Clockwerk control the Cooper Bots?” "The what?" “Clockwerk controls the Cooper Bots through some signal or another.” I clarified why I was asking this. “Is there any place that gives off a signal like that? Like a tower or a building that seems to have a little too many people around that isn’t the factory?” "Hmm… several Actually. Most used to be for local tv news or radio. I know some got fortified and have guards but I just assumed they were using them as a communication center… perhaps both." “How many buildings were there?” I asked curiously. "That I know of, six. There might be more around the country but I know is six." “From what I’ve learned back where Muggshot was, it needs to be close by, especially given that we’re in the mountains.” I said honestly. “I...really wanted to talk to Panda King about this crap and not have to deal with this garbage…” I groaned, rubbing my temples. "As long as the Bots and those three Nexus heads are running about, Dad has to stay still." I wanted to make a joke about ‘winning the princesses hand’ but decided against it. “So how long have you been doing shipment duty?” "The last year or so. Father didn't want me anywhere near those Nexus when they were meeting with him and reporting to Clockwerk, so no one batted an eye when I was placed in a fairly easy and safe job. From there we planned on making contact with the rebels and thanks to father often scheduling me on the longer trips easily snuck information out into the mountain villages where the rebellion has a few members and Clockwerk's grasp is less." “Perfect.” I nodded. “He knows what he’s doing, and you're also doing a fantastic job of this Ms. King.” I said, sticking to calling her ‘miss’ just to keep some formality given that I am speaking to the ruling parties daughter...and I didn’t want to say anything dumb to this cute as hell panda. "That's a great honor coming from a Cooper." She said, looking sad now as she slowed the truck and parked it. "I know my father has harmed and damaged your family. There was no honor in his actions, and the consequence is the world we see now." “Well…” I sighed out. “We all make mistakes...hell, I’m pretty sure none of them expected Clockwerk to do half this crap…” I shrugged. “But all I know is that...I’m still gonna have to fight him, beat him...and then maybe…” I trailed off as I blushed brightly at the thought. “Uh...never mind…” "My father expects you to fight him. Wants you to. Wants to know you will truly earn your right that he and the other Furious Five took from you. To know that you will emerge victorious against Clockwerk. He will pay for his dishonor and sins in prison. I will pay for them another." I coughed out ‘be my girlfriend’, it was about as subtle as Murray in an all you can eat buffet. “Sorry, I coughed…” I said sheepishly. She then looked at me, tears forming. "Kite Cooper." She said so strongly I sat up straight. Then, she bowed at me. "Please, to repay for my father's sins and crimes against both your family and the world, I offer myself in eternal servitude. If you accept, then myself and my decedent's shall serve the Cooper Clan til all this blood has been washed clean from us, or until the King Family dies out completely." “You’re too cute to be bowing to me princess.” I said quickly. “Uh...I mean…” I took a deep breath. “Please don’t do this ‘eternal servitude’ thing...me beating your dad is good enough, and I was sure I was gonna have to beat him to ask you out on a date first.” "So… you would have me as your family's private Brothel?" She asked, looked quite scared and blushed as red as I am now. “Lady, I’m asking you to be my girlfriend, not join in a brothel!” I told her while grabbing both of her...ho crap her paws are stupid soft. “Listen.” I shook my head, trying to get past how soft and furry her hands are. “Are you cool with harems?” "I was raised in one… sorta. Father had two wives, one my birth mother, the other was a devoted servant who mother and father would…. Share company with every so often. Sadly she and mother were poisoned by rivals of my father." “That’s terrible.” I frowned. “But...so I’m kind of dating Matilda as well...so are you okay with this?” I asked, staring her in her soft, beautiful eyes…”Jing, why do you have to be so adorable and beautiful at the same time?” I blushed brightly. "So… my punishment is to be betrothed to you and your mate Matilda?" It took so much willpower not to headbutt the dash of the truck. "That is acceptable, yes." “What does Panda King teach you?” I asked. “This isn’t a Punishment to you, you have nothing to do with Panda King screwing up like that.” “Like you inherit the legacy of your ancestors I inherited the same… and you see what my father left me. Intentional or not, mistakes or not, family rights the wrongs of their ancestors, one way or another. Better I than another down my bloodline." “I...guess that’s understandable.” I sighed out. “Now then, shall we continue? I imagine your brother and uncles must have arrived already.” “I can’t wait for Sly to start teasing the hell out of me…” I grumbled. “Let’s get going.” She started the truck up again and we were off. Spirit Pond City was like Venice Italy, but all the buildings and bridges had a mix between classical and modern chinese design. It was all so beautiful. We parked in an alleyway and I ran to the rooftop to scout out where Sly and the uncles were. “Well...this place certainly is pretty…” I muttered while bringing out my Binocucom and looking around for everyone. After a bit I spotted a Cooper Calling card on the water tower of a building a few blocks down and headed over. Once there I knocked on the water tower and the trio got out. “Good to see you again.” Sly said, giving me a pat on the head. “Hey bro.” I said. “So uh...sorry about….before.” I said nervously. “You mean picking a fight with a guy who literally punched you across the planet… SEVERAL TIMES!” “It was either me getting punched or you being atomized.” I frowned. “I don’t even wanna know how you know him. I know you explained a bit but still, try and not to give everyone a heart attack.” “I thought Coopers did that normally?” I joked. “Normally no one survives getting punched across continents and oceans.” Uncle M sighed. “Felt my heart stop for a second, now I’m considering replacing it with an artificial one if this is going to be a regular thing with you.” I sighed out. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you all this much…” I sighed out. “So, onto more important matters. We have a three cooper bot problem, Tennessee, Alexander, and Zhang Li kind of problems.” Jim sighed. “Alexander was Conner’s Grandfather, that’s not gonna be good, you already met your grandfather, that’s the guy who raised him. Tennessee is gonna be an issue… Zhang Li… Hmm… She was that Spirit talker right?” “Yes, she could call forth and get the aid of spirits to aid her in her thefts. Often she’d have them scare the guards away so she could walk in without issue.” M stated. “If she retained her ability, then who knows how many spirits she recruited.” “Wait...if she’s Chinese by the name and she calls on...oh for fuck sakes we have an Onmyoji to deal with.” I groaned. “I’ll call Matilda. We still have the anti specter gear back in the vault, right?” M asked. “Yeah, in the lower storage.” Jim confirmed. “Can your Keyblade hurt ghosts?” I pondered that. They weren’t able to hit those Pirate guys in KH2 til they were under Moonlight… what are the rules there then when fighting ghost enemies? “It...depends on the rules of the world to be honest.” I said. “Cause in another world, the only way you could hurt specifically cursed people was when they were under a full moon and showed their cursed forms.” I shrugged. “What’s the rules on ghosts here? And also...how high ranking was Zhang Li if any of you know?” “Her full potential was unknown, she sadly was burned at the steak. But, Clockwerk did snatch her up, one of the few times he made a public appearance. Many were slaughtered, and Zhang Li met the same fate as Coopers of the past, saved by Clockwerk just so he could kill her personally. As for ghosts most anything magical can repel, hurt and even kill them. Again, the family cane has absorbed enough life force over the generations it has been passed down it can physically interact with the spirits.” M informed. “Alright, so then Keyblades can hurt them.” I nodded. “But uh...don’t be surprised if you see things that aren’t just ghosts...considering Nexus is here and this world is a lot more magical than I originally thought...we might actually be seeing a lot more dangerous stuff.” I said nervously. “God do I wish we had anti scrying stuff right now…” I blinked… Oh Time Walker. Time froze. “What?” The walker asked, walking out from behind Uncle Jim. “Need something so soon?” “Got any Anti Scrying gear or spells I could learn? Cause I’m dealing with an Onmyoji, and I don’t know how powerful she is...but mind if I get a run down on Zhang Li Cooper? Cause from what I remember in ancient China, Onmyoji were basically Chinese Wizards with Political Power, so why was she burned like a witch?” “Yes and sure.” He said, throwing me a packed Duffle Bag that materialized in his hand. “Zhang Li Cooper was one of the few Coopers born highly attuned to the magic of the world, while all Coopers have this ability to a degree enough to make and use their tricks, hers was on another level. She didn't just talk to spirits, she could pull them out of the afterlife, giving them temporary life, and if it was a demon or similar being was pulled through, they also received bodies of flesh and blood, but were bound to her. While she did become an Onmyoji, her thefts were overlooked given she stole from bandits and such, until one day wastern travelers saw this. They were outraged that her village praised her for her powers, so they slaughtered her village and began to burn her alive, or tried to. Clockwerk came in, killed the travelers and saved her, just to kill her personally.” “Okay, now that makes sense.” I said honestly. “And yeah...I shouldn’t be surprised...now is she capable of other magical stuff besides summoning spirits and demons? If memory serves they do talk about a lot of mystical stuff other than summoning spirits.” “Transmutation of lesser materials into things like Iron, Steel, even Gold and Gemstones, complete control over the natural elements and was a master in every form of hand to hand combat for the era. Also a master with a blow dart gun, knew her poisons too, how much of what type ment the difference between sleep, paralysis, near death illness, and instant death. She also learned by channeling magic directly into her vocal cords she produced a hypnotic melody that depending on tone and pitch put everyone in hearing distance to sleep, made them fight one another, or made them obey her every word for a full day. Oh yeah, she also had pets.” “Jesus damn is this lady accomplished.” I said in surprise. “And what are her pets?” “Dragon, Bicorn, Gargoyles, a few dozen vampires, a demon lord and… Oh right, a fallen god.” HOW?! “So how in the name of hell is she under Clockwerks control when she can easily break whatever mind control he has over her and kick his ass if she has a fallen god at her beck and call, as well as a demon lord?” “It’s not the transmitters or even the robotic body that’s holding her back, that actually had no effect on her… it’s the Cript acting as her master. Cript V788. Known on countless now long dead realities as Cript the Enslaver. You can guess why.” “Oh you have got to be kidding me…” I groaned. “Okay...so how do I save her from this then if the transmitters or robot body aren’t affecting her?” “Enslaver has the power of total control over anyone he marks, even if he dies that mark won’t leave and they will follow their last order, and Vincent took his ability to die, which leaves you one option in dealing with him to free her.” “Force him to let her go?” I asked. “Cause I doubt killing her would solve her problem given it’s a Cript.” “No, It’s an ability. Your Cript has it and can give you it also. Consume. It’s Copy Cat’s evil, ugly, lesser talked about brother. You literally absorb everything about that person, their soul, power, memories… flesh, and assimilate it into yourself. You’d get very powerful and control over everyone he has marked.” “So now the question is, how to contact Cript about this, cause I’m not falling asleep for a while now.” I said nervously. “Who hath summoned me!” SHIT! I jumped. Fucking Cript! I turned to see them laughing at me. “I have been sitting on that one for years.” “Don’t scare me like that asshole.” I snapped. “Nearly gave me a heart attack…” I took a deep breath after that. “That was the point.” Cript chuckled. “So, Consume… Hmm… You sure?” “If it’s to save my family, then yes.” I nodded. “Plus, one less evil Cript on our hands.” “True and sadly that is way too long of a list… Fine, but you will not enjoy it, and you will regret every second you have it once you use it.” Cript said, holding out a hand to me. “It’s worth it to save my family.” I said while taking his hand. “All I’ll need to know is if I can free them afterwards.” “Alright.” Cript said, there was a pulsation of energy through me as he gave me the ability. New Ability Obtained: Consume No Higher Rankings. VIctim must be weakened or weaker than yourself before used. The fact it says Victim is concerning... “Okay then...so how do I use it? Also...how the hell am I going to get a Cript weaker than me or weakened without being marked?” I asked nervously. “Fighting him won’t be like fighting me, Vincent or Lord, I’m… We’re all built differently, he’s powerful yes but from what I can sense from here he’s on your level, the other two are a bit stronger but you should be able to handle them too.” Other two? Right… that ‘siblings’ Trio is three Cript’s... “What are the other two Cripts?” I asked nervously. “Cript P955 and Ey57. Cript the Vampire and Cript the Predator. Vamp is a sorta hybrid of a Psychopath and Delete, Predator is a wolf beastial, like yourself, but hunts down whoever Vincent put’s on his kill list or guards wherever he is told to guard.” The time walker said. “Why did it have to be a Delete though?” I whined. “I said sorta hybrid of the two.” Time Walker shrugged. “I don’t know the full details but your Nothingness can nullify his Void so, not too much of an issue there.” “Alright, that’s good.” I nodded. “Uh...how many times can someone use Consume if I may ask?” "Unlimited, but like I said, you won't like it." Cript sighed. “Alright.” I nodded. “Thank you Cript, I’ll make sure not to abuse it.” "Trust me, you won't. At least you won't want to." With that, Cript left. The Time Walker just shrugged then vanished too, time flowing like normal again. "What the? Where'd the bag come from?" Sly asked. “Anti Scrying stuff I got from...a friend.” I said while digging through the bag to find something to help us not be spied on. "More stuff I'd rather not know then… fair enough." "So what's our first objective then?" Uncle Jim asked. After a moment I raised my Cane up and a soft glow appeared on the walls. “Alright, cool.” I nodded. “So our first objective should be disabling six radio towers that Jing told me about.” I started. “Now it’ll only affect two Cooper Bots sadly...I’ll have to take care of the person controlling Zhang Li...oh, and also Zhang Li is kind of...no not ‘kind of’, she’s actually overpowered as shit.” I sighed out. “The one controlling Zhang Li...I have to deal with, not because you people can’t handle him...but the only way to free Zhang Li is for what I’m able to do.” "So we split up then?" M asked. "Uncle Jim, M and I can take out the radio stations and you can free Zhang Li. We can use the Keyblade Gliders to each take out the two we need to destroy and hopefully M can find any others we might need to take out." "Should be easy if they are transmitting to one another as well, which they likely are." "You got the locations?" Sly asked me. "I'm gonna have to ask King about them, but they are probably the most guarded and fortified out of the bunch." I shrugged. "But be careful, Tennessee is out there and he is pretty good with his rifle." "You made contact with Panda King?" Uncle M asked. "Just with Jing, she drove me here while Panda King is being held under lock and key." "Ah, so she is Matilda's contact." "I'll let her know the plan and that we'll all meet back up here. You just try not to get punched to the moon, alright?" Sly asked me. “Just be careful...Zhang Li kind of has a...Demon Lord and a Fallen God at her beck and call.” I said sheepishly. "Huh. How did she manage that?" Sly pondered as he headed down to where Jing was, Uncles M and Jim brought out Keyblades and shifting them to gliders and I did the same as we all went off. Enslaver was around Koff Village. It was a rather isolated place within the mountains according to Bentley. Once there I saw a fortified metal base built within several of the surrounding mountains and just hollow scraps of where a village once was. “Jesus...well I got the right place though…” I muttered while starting to do some recon on the base, wondering where I could sneak in at. I climbed down to the base outside from my location. No vents, no doors, at least none that I can see… odds are inside is a pocket dimension… how can I get in if there aren't any doors or vents? “Uh…” I started as I poked one of the walls with my Keyblade, trying to visualize there was a door there in some vain hope that it would be that simple. It wasn't… how do they get in… maybe… that blue hand dot thing? Fuck I don't have one, doubt I can make one and Coco got hers removed a while ago… maybe… I looked around for a quick bit, seeing no one as I breathed in, my abilities have been returning and I should have enough for… I blinked, now taller and in a human body again, not my own. I pulled out a small mirror I keep on me and saw my reflection, and saw Heart's old human form looking back. On my, his, eh, on the hand was the Nexus blue dot. Heart hasn't used their old human body in a while anyway, might as well make use of it. I placed the hand with the dot on the wall and immediately in white lines a door took shape and opened. “Alright, cool.” I muttered. “Let’s hope this won’t end poorly…” I walked inside, seeing the familiar Nexus style walls as I walked around, having zero idea where I even am. I found another door and inside that was some kind of shooting range. I spotted Nexus soldiers taking aim at targets with guns made from Monofilament, bullets too. Some looked at me but paid no mind it seems. Interesting. I wonder. I walked up to one, wondering if I could get information. “Hi.” I started off simply. They looked over at me for the longest time, or at least what felt like a long time. "Hey. What brings you to the shooting range?" They replied simply, flipping through a magazine… Nexus Weekly? Really? “Practice makes perfect ya know?” I shrugged. “Plus a lot of people tend to be here when we’re doing absolutely nothing.” I said, which seemed to be the case at least on first glance given how many people are here. "Heh, fair enough. Honestly as cadets they make service sound like a constant adventure, half the time the machines do all the work and the labor they put on C level Cript's. I swear most of us these days are just filler. Speaking of, what level Cript are you?" I was stuck for a moment… "He's obviously B or C too Sam, they're the only Cript's that talk to us without an order and a threat following like those A and S level assholes." Another agent who was at the shooting range said. “Yeah, sounds about right.” I nodded. “What rank are you than...Sam I believe?” "Same as everyone, just a basic agent. I get told where to go, what to do and do it until told otherwise." Sam said, taking off their helmet. They weren't a Cript, they were a cyclops actually. Very human looking save for the single large eye. "No offense but it feels like more and more of you Cript's show up to run things. Be it general maintenance and labor to the fighting. Not even sure why King Vincent has us around anymore." “Cannon fodder mostly.” I sighed out. “A and S class Cript’s normally laugh about it, and I’m pretty sure our boss is laughing about it as well, wherever the hell he is.” "Who knows. They get their orders from the king and if we're needed we get orders. Can't say I envy them though, dealing with Vincent directly can't be fun. Just wish I had their luck with women through." “Oh? Why’s that?” I asked innocently, taking a seat and knowing that if I can gain the infantry’s trust I can start doing some pretty drastic things later on. "Well, take Enslaver. He's enslaved entire universes and all his wives were and technically still are slaves, but they all fell for him willingly as they served him! They were even tested and it wasn't Stockholm syndrome. Though from what I hear the pocket reality he keeps his slaves in is actually kinda nice." "True, and the few times I've seen him with one of his girls they look well fed and have such damn sexy outfits." Another spoke up. "Then you have Vamp, the freak somehow got a ring on this S level Delete chick who is the definition of crazy and more than strong enough to wipe this reality and some others off the face of the void. Then there's Predator. Has a big pack of fine females he won over through displays of skill and strength. He didn't even do that to show off for then, he was just sent on a mission for that world and they saw him do the shit and followed." "Eh, wolf's are weird like that." Another agent said with a shrug. “Right, and what’s stopping you from getting someone nice?” I asked curiously, now feeling a little worse now that I have to take away someone’s life when they apparently have a family of their own. “And mind if I ask where the boss’s normally hang out at? Just as a quick side note on where not to go given they might not take too kindly to that.” "Predator I think is guarding some project under MT Fuji, Enslaver I Believe is with his newest wife in his quarters here and Vamp is… actually, where did Vamp go?" "Who knows, he vanishes all the time." "In any case my lack of luck in love is that I never get sent anywhere with cute girls, just these ugly mugs." Sam said, giving a wave to all the male soldiers around. "I mean, maybe I could find a local girl but physical differences aside how many would be willing to date a guy who is invading their planet?" “Are….are you serious?” I asked. “You...do know that’s some people’s fetish right?” I asked. “And also, you need to just take a crack at dating someone. They don’t know your invading, just wing it and get a date with a local girl.” "Even so, we don't have clearance to leave, one of the S class Cript's would have to allow it, and I doubt they would say yes even if we are already doing nothing." “Has anyone ever asked? And what Class are our bosses if I may ask?” I asked curiously. "S." “So let’s ask one of them?” I asked. “It does everyone here literally nothing just standing here doing nothing.” "We don't have that level of authority to just up and ask them… but, maybe they'll listen to you. You're family, right? I never actually understood your relationships, but they do listen to all the C and B ranked Cript's so maybe you can get something worked out." ”God your going to make me feel terrible here…” I thought to myself bitterly. “Won’t know unless I try, and sadly all of the bosses are either busy or somewhere we don’t know about.” I started. “And one of them is behind me right now aren’t they?” I asked, knowing Cript enough that any Cript might just appear behind me just to spite me. "Uh, no. Like I said though, Enslaver is on a date in the lower levels with his newest girl, maybe you can wait around till he's done and talk to them? Sub Level 978, room 887." “Alright, and sorry just uh...the higher class Cripts have this bad habit of appearing right behind you when you mention them.” I said, my voice filled with experience and annoyance at that kind of crap. "If you actually pull it off I'll buy your drinks." Sam said with a chuckle and a shrug. “I’ll keep you to that.” I chuckled as I got up and headed off to find the elevators to the Sub Levels. ”Well so far so good.” I thought to myself. ”I certainly hope his new girlfriend isn’t Zhang Li...cause if it is than that’s going to fucking suck...I wonder if Consume also replaces you as that person, not just the powers?” I mentally wondered, not wanting to leave all the people that weirdly do fully care about Enslaver. I arrived at the area and it was a food court of all things and God damn it. I sat a few tables away with a plate of fried chicken as Enslaver and the… very well detailed, compared to the other Cooper Bots, Zhang Li were sitting together, eating and laughing. Enslaver looked… honestly like he hasn't slept in a while, pitch black hair all wild and wearing some blue jeans and a brown hoodie. ”Oh you’ve got to be shitting me.” I thought to myself worriedly, rubbing my temple as I had to figure out how to not piss off my ancestor but also deal with Enslaver. ”Okay...so I’m back in time, before me, myself and I came here, I need to remember that bit that I was told like...three times before…” I mentally told myself, needing to remember this is the Admin Games, and my Time Walker even telling me that. ”Just need to wait for their date to stop...or for one of them to notice me...I’m so glad I put an anti mind reading spell on me before coming in here…” I was playing mental ping pong at this point. As I did so I decided to listen in on this date. "So how did Growth react to seeing you again?" Enslaver asked. "He was so happy, and he was a good boy." Zhang Li said. "Well he didn't go off and blow up the planet so yeah, that is good." "I train my fallen gods well." She laughed. "It's been amazing seeing all my pets again. So much changed about the world." "Yeah…" Enslaver sighed, looking up as Zhang Li put a hand to his. "I know you feel bad about all this, suppressing my powers, marking people." "It doesn't exactly get easier. Except when it's a really bad guy like a murderer or pedophile, then I am happy to mark them and work them to death." "Something we can agree on. Speaking of how come I'm not in the field?" "Dad's orders were just to keep your powers suppressed and controlled, I don't have to put you in the field to work, frankly I think that's the last thing he wants." "Cause Clockwerk's mechanical body he shoved me into doesn't affect me?" "Probably. I just do as he says, can't question it unless I wanna get reprogrammed or worse. Been even more of an ass than usual with his Heir project in the works." "Another sibling?" "Supposedly going to be the most powerful Cript as of yet. Honestly if he can make a sibling as strong as himself you'd think he can at least give us all different names." ”Alright...so Enslaver is a good guy…” I thought to myself. ”And he must be talking about my Cript…” "So… fifty others?" Zhang Li asked as Enslaver went a shade of pink. "Well… it just sorta happened. I didn't even believe it at first, but the tests for Stockholm syndrome were negative, so, yeah…" "Any kids then?" "Yeah. Honestly they're the reason I keep everyone in that pocket dimension. I don't want them to see my work… or to know what life here is like." "And how do you care for all their needs? Your other wives I mean?" "There is a reason I have all these bags under my eyes." Enslaver said with a laugh. ”Huh…” I thought to myself, thinking on how to help these two. "So, am I going to meet them?" Zhang Li asked. "Oh, well, if you want yeah. I can send you into the dimension and I guess I'll just find busy work here to do til you get back." Enslaver replied. "You won't get in trouble for sending me there?" "I have a feeling dad would prefer you stay there since you actually can't get in or out of that pocket dimension without my say so. I know it sounds like a prison that way… technically because it is, but since the inside of it can be made to be whatever I made it nice and very livable." "All these abilities, your father gave them to you?" "Heh, you can say that. He has all these different abilities saved up in caches all around and keeps the ones like what I have and the others all for himself in his lab." "That's pretty interesting." I thought to myself. "I hope they don't notice I'm listening to them though…" I’m listening in…” I mentally added. “What are the others like?” “Heh, where to start. Well, about half are human, like me… though It is debated on if Cript’s are our own race or human. Some are like yourself, beastials, or rather, anthropomorphic animals, and some other various races from across my… job…” “And they all live well together?” “Very, actually. It’s pretty surprising how well they all co-exist. So, ready to head in?” “Yes, but how may I speak with you once inside?” “Oh, there’s this PC in there, you know, like the one I showed you, that you can use to call me. The others can guide you on how to use it.” “Right then.” Zhang Li said with a nod. Enslaver snapped their fingers as a door sized portal opened next to their table. “I’ll call you later then, heh.” She said with a smile as she walked in. Once she did the portal closed. Enslaver immediately looked more down as they pulled out what looked like a smart phone and began messing with it. ”Now’s my chance…” I muttered while standing up and walking over. “Hello sir.” I said, given that he was ‘my boss’, I still had to act the part. “Hey…” He said, looking at me with a raised brow. “What’s with the outfit?” It was then I realized… I’m actually still in my thieves outfit… Wow and nobody else brought that up? Huh, either Cripts always dress weird or they could have cared less. Now thankfully it fit my entire body like it was designed for this body. “Uh...Sly Cooper Fan?” I asked sheepishly, hoping that lie would stick considering the game might exist in the multiverse even if we’re on the planet. “No one else questioned it…” I muttered sheepishly. “Heh, must be pretty sweet for you then.” Enslaver sighed as he looked back at his phone. “I hear he has a brother on this reflection. Kid or something.” “Kite sir.” I corrected. “But I’ve come to ask for something important sir.” I started carefully. “Me and several other recruits...would like to actually be ‘out and about’ on the world, and not...well, effectively wasting everyone’s time doing nothing to be frank sir.” I said, just throwing out being subtle here. “Ugh… I know there’s basically nothing for them to do, but protocol is there for a reason. No one is allowed to leave base without orders giving the proper clearance. Besides, it’s not like they can be very ‘out and about’ with the locals. We are invading their world, mining the Monofilament out of it, and the people taken in have been put to work against their wills so… not like we’ll be welcome anyway.” “Okay sir…” I sighed out while taking a seat. “Do you want me to be blunt sir?” "You're clearly going to anyway." “There’s more to life than work.” I stated bluntly. “And we both know it’s true...you’re wives are proof of it to you, and me being stupidly excited to be here as well. But why are we still following orders we clearly believe are wrong?” I asked carefully. "Well, cause Dad will reprogram, recycle, or up and kill me if I don't follow through, kill my family, and kill the foot soldiers around. I just gotta wait for him to finish Heir, King and his other high priority projects and I will become unneeded and can retire. Especially when King gets made, basically way worse than my powers are." "Well...I think there's another way sir." I brought up. "And I believe Zhang Li and Kite are the key to it." I said honestly. "Is that a pun because of his Keyblade?" "No, and I'm sorry for the pun sir." I said sheepishly. "Well, regardless I honestly don't care if the guards all take time off for fun, hell I'd love to do that too but unless dad was off planet for a while I don't see that happening anytime soon." "He's still on the planet sir?" I asked worriedly. "Yeah, and pissed to all hell. Don't know why." “No idea.” I shrugged, that being a half truth given I didn’t know why that bastard was pissed fully but having an idea. "So, what's your designed purpose?" “Stealth.” I said honestly, which wasn’t wrong. “Which is kind of why I’m both in this getup, and why I’m a big fan of Sly Cooper and the like given how stealth oriented it is.” I explained. "Heh, fair enough. I'm surprised you aren't sent out to deal with these Cooper's then." “Like you?” I asked simply. “Seem’s kind of weird he hasn’t just sent someone to go and deal with the Coopers while they're busy dealing with that idiot bird.” I rolled my eyes. "Fuck if I know. Dad just likes to play games I swear, it's annoying. Honestly I don't think he even cares about this planet, he only took interest because of some anomaly he detected years ago. So what? Every damn planet these days has an anomaly on it, it's probably just Code glitches." “He’s replacing us...we’re nothing but cannon fodder to him.” I sighed out. “But I know there’s a way to get out of all this garbage...just have to take some initiative and find Kite Cooper, the supposed magical wonder child that can rival Zhang Li in magical abilities.” I said honestly. “It’s...also weird that the milestone for magic in the Cooper Line always leads to Zhang Li...I mean seriously, who the hell tames a fallen god?” I asked a little incredulously, playing into the ‘Sly Cooper fan’ not believing the Coopers could be so outrageously powerful and awesome. "She nursed them back to health after he was injured in some war." “Sounds about right.” I nodded. “But yeah...honestly, we won’t see more of what life could be if we’re stuck here all the damn time.” "Yeah, just have to-" In a sudden moment things went very quiet, the rapid sounds of feet running came and left as a hand appeared on Enslaver's shoulder. His eyes shrunk. "Get." Vincent said, raising his hand as Enslaver ran and sat where he was in front of me. "Hello Kite." “Done throwing a hissy fit Vincent?” I asked. “Heard that you were sticking around this world doing something, and I thought the big bad boss was getting pissy because he lost a fight for once."" "I did lose." Vincent said, a smile that very much disturbed me was now on his face. "And I was angry. Then I realized… I fought and lost. I haven't tasted failure since… heh, in any case I have to admit whoever that woman was could fight, skills on par with mine and I didn't even make them, now that's a new one. But, I didn't come to make chat. I came to make deals. And a deal between Admins is stronger than any deals a god or devil can make. So what do you say Kite, care to hear my offer?" "What's the deal, and what brought this on?" I asked curiously. "In all my years, eons and eternity's of my mission from when the machine turned on to now, I've grown bored observing. I'd act and have fun and all that fighting, I've grown bored of that too. I'd spice things up every so often, but in the end. I've done it all countless times before and in that time it's all become so repetitive. That fight, you appearing here as Kite, now that was new, and new is always fun." “And I managed to cut you, so that was also a surprise given that Kite is leagues weaker than I truly am.” I said honestly. "You cut off some hair, that's still a far cry from blood. And while King could deal some damage, it's nothing some self healing can't fix. Nothing I can't pay back either. Bravado aside, here's my deal. You get to Admin game time travel to gather up all those nice people Nexus is flooded with. I slaughter in some years time for yourself and your own army, be the hero and all that crap. And in return, I get to cherry pick those timelines from the realm of Nothingness for who I want and what I want." “That seems...a little uneven if your cherry picking people...could be horribly unbalanced depending on who you chose.” I said honestly. "Why would you care if I get the short end of the stick? After all, I'm the bad guy here. Feels like you should want me getting as less as possible." “Sometimes ‘less is more’ can truly happen.” I said honestly. “But I will be overseeing your choices with a Time Walker just to make sure no shenanigans happen with the timeline pickings.” I said honestly. "No trust. Shame. Either way, as a show of good faith." He said, snapping his fingers. I felt a… rush… my full power is back? "So, that's how Project King looks then? Heh, not bad." “Uh...what?” I blinked, looking at my hands and...yeah, Nothingness is swirling around my fingers as I felt my full power. “Uh...okay so...I know this is Good Faith but...why?” I asked nervously. “Plus...you know full well why I don’t have trust in you.” "Project King, the form you've taken is their body. I'd recognize the mark I'd anywhere. Built to be second to heir, and if you have that body it means he either fulfilled his purpose, or he's dead. Either or. As for the powers, I don't need you to trust me but you need them to trust you, they fear me, you need to prove you can save them. Can't very well do that while I can still kick you across to the moon and back with no effort now can you?" “Time out and back up.” I said while putting up a ‘time out’ hand sign. “Okay so...naming convention, am I supposed to be second to Cript or second to Heart? Cause when I heard Enslaver say ‘King and Heir’, I thought it was Heart and Cript, Heart being the ‘King of Hearts’ and Cript literally being your Heir.” I started. "So they call him Heart. Good, so he did take over from the old Admin of Hearts. I miss that kid, but everybodys gotta die at some point. Tell me, did they both rebel against me? Heart and Cript?" “You’re dead...but you're not.” I told him. “Cript killed you...and yet you were the one that slaughtered like...a vast majority of the good Nexus people after you were dead.” Vincent just smiled. "Good. So heir was a success." “Their my significant other.” I started, getting kind of pissed as he kept seeing them as nothing but test subjects. “Heart and Cript...it’s very complicated, and it only got more complicated from there given you were alive and...also reincarnated considering your job.” "Spoilers. You'll learn in time. And yes, Heir is a success. After all, he did kill me. Or will." “So anyways.” I started. “How is this deal going to be? We just shake hands and promise no strings attached?” "A deal between Admins is like… well yes there is a handshake but it binds our word and promise. For example, if you don't like who or what I am picking from the other timelines, and try to stop me, the deal is broken and all those people you want to save are returned to me as are all the people I was picking when the deal broke. And I don't have need or even want these people, so in the end the broken deal will leave you with your temporal prisoners and me with corpses many years earlier than planned." “Alright...so ‘less is more’ is creeping it’s head up more and more…” I muttered. “Okay, but why I want to bring in a Time Walker is...well we are dealing with temporal prisoners, so it will need to be overseen by one of them.” I said honestly. “So...in numbers, how many people were loyal to you and how many weren’t?” "Roughly one Loyalist for every fifty or so normals. But I see you are still hesitant. Shall I sweeten the pot for you then?" “I’m sorry for being hesitant, but...from what I’ve heard, and actually experienced...you can kind of understand why.” I said nervously. “But what do you have in mind to ‘sweeten the pot’ as it were?” For a bit, Vincent just looked at me smiling til he raised a hand up, a cylinder case used for holding papers appeared in a flash of code. "This." He said, placing it on the table and rolling it over to me. “A cylinder case?” I asked curiously, looking over it in case it was just a normal case or if it was something completely different. Seeing it was normal I opened it. Inside was a scroll that had code displayed on the outside of it and moving. Slowly, I opened it. Inside was… so much… "I have lived a very, very long time Kite. I've studied and mastered just about everything this reality can make." He said. Everything. Balance, Darkness, Nothingness, Grey, Void, technology, Code. "That is my notebook. Everything I have learned on everything is there." The locations of the dead Admins graves, time coordinates of when they lived till when they died. Evolutions of the energies?! "It literally holds everything you could ever learn. Save a few things I left out. Just how to make and merge abilities and such, but all in all, it's more valuable to you than me." “Holy…” I blinked. “Okay yeah...uh, sure. This can actually all work out…” I started. "I thought that would win you over. Heh, of course, should I stop there I wonder?" I looked up at Vincent, he seemed… happy, lost in thought. "This will be very entertaining if I do that. Maybe… heh, yes. This will be so much fun." “What are you thinking of?” I asked nervously "How to make this more fun. There are so many possibilities and all of them sound like a blast." “That doesn’t sound concerning at all.” I said sheepishly. "There's nothing wrong in wanting a challenge. And I have been craving one for so long." He said, reality began looking a bit… distorted. "My past and future all agree. It's too good an opportunity to pass up." “I fucking knew you were time traveling but never had proof.” I accused them with a frown. "Only when I needed advice or to chat. So how about it… King. I challenge you all and you challenge me. I built the Cript's to rebell and fight me and they are doing well… but to train all of existence to fight me, now that sounds like fun." “I’m already trying to do that.” I said honestly. “But sure, sounds like a plan. All of this is new to you so it’ll be fun to see how you fair against the unknown.” "This is going to be very interesting." “Alright...so now onto the rough bit on how to get all these people on my side...cause I’d rather not start a fight and scare the shit out of my family...again.” I said, glaring at Vincent for the first time they were scared shitless. “Hey, you attacked me first. All I did was retaliate. Wouldn’t you?” “It got you away from my family at least…” I sighed out. “So...for the entire good side of Nexus, damn near all your knowledge, and my powers back for this you get to cherry pick people to help your cause...unless there’s anything you want to add?” “In due time. If I’m gonna work to make you stronger to make this fight fun, you’ll have to fight more than just the present me. Or past? Future, honestly the Admin of time had to invent the damn thing and make any situation more complicated.” “Uh...Time is kind of...non existent in the future?” I asked, thinking for a moment. “Gotta make space to give us time to figure out how to get out of The Matrix that is our life.” “Heh, out of the finite and into the unlimited. Is that your goal?” “I promised that bastard Truth so yes.” I said with determination. “Bet you didn’t expect that from me huh?” “I’m in.” Vincent said, making me sit up in surprise. “Hold up, what now?” I asked in surprise. “What do you mean by that?” “I’m. In. I’ve killed a lot of people in my time ranging from Admins to Void Gods, but to kill Truth in his true form… Now that’s a feat.” “We can’t really kill Truth, he’s the one that’s powering this entire thing.” I said. “No, I don’t want to kill Truth, I want to make our reality get out of the stupid machine he’s powering...but the engineering on it is beyond any of us from what I saw…” “If it’s information you need on that… Then you need to look outside the machine itself to learn how. There’s all sorts of ruins and artifacts from the race that made the machine, other machines built that operate similar to our own, the trick there is how to build outside the machine. Learn that, and you can escape this place and truly make it believable.” “There’s the small problems of ‘I don’t know how to leave’, Cript and someone else always gave me a portal there, and I have no idea where to even begin with that world...god only knows what’s living there, and it could probably actually kill me even if I’m deathless.” “Hm, if it’s a map you’d need, I’d be more than happy to provide one. For a price.” I sighed out and rubbed my temples. “Might as well hear the price…” “Now now. Consider it part of this little deal of ours. I’ll arrange something, a battle. You win it, you get the map. Lose, and you’ll get reset.” “And by ‘reset’...what do you mean by that?” I asked nervously. “Starting from scratch. Not just in powers, age too. I’ll let you keep those memories though, no point in erasing thoughts.” “And...what would the fight be?” I asked carefully, wanting as much information as I can before deciding on it. “Also how the hell do you have map of the ‘Outside’ as it were?” “I got bored.” He said simply. “So I went out and explored. There’s a lot out there, but all of it save for maybe a few hundred other machines is all ruins. Heh, looks like that race died out in war just like the admins almost did. Sadly, passed all that is just empty. Not void, not nothing, just… empty. No code either, whatever they were, could make something from nothing. Even admins need code, so they were on another level.” “Must have been stupid powerful too…” I muttered. “And did you see anything alive there? Roaming around the ruins or nothing?” “Machines. Monsters they left behind. Not sure they count as alive.” “It’s at least something.” I shrugged. “So what am I fighting before I fully agree to this?” “Hmm, since you want out of here to there, to learn, I’ll nab the weakest one of those things for you to fight. Will be fun to watch.” “I can only imagine how much of a pain in the ass it’s going to be…” I sighed out. “But...sounds fair enough I suppose.” “I’m evil, not unreasonable.” Vincent said as he stood up. “Welp, I’m gonna go do that- oh, I almost forgot.” Vincent said as he held out a hand to me. “Shake first, to seal the deal.” “This is going to bite me in the ass later on…” I sighed out. “Even if my family might be a bit mad…” I took a deep breath and shook his hand. “If it means beating you and keeping my family safe...I’ll take it.” I felt like… a lock click in me. I looked at my hand as there was now the image of a signature line along it with several lines of code along it. Vincent’s hand the same thing. “Now, I can go shopping.” With that, Vincent left through a code portal. “I have a bad feeling about this…” I muttered worriedly. “Alright...so how the hell am I going to gain these people’s trust?” Hmm… Well, Predator I can just seduce, once I shift back to my normal body… Vamp I haven’t the foggiest clue in hell about and Enslaver ran off like… well, like he was running for his life. Hmm… Guess I’ll hit Predator first then. Maybe with him next to me the others will all be more willing. “Alright...so Predator is in Mt. Fuji...just a quick teleport there shouldn’t be too hard…” I muttered. “Might scare the shit out of everyone here though if they have teleport sensors...eh.” I shrugged while teleporting to Mt. Fuji to start with Predator. I arrived outside the entrance to the secret lab place. Man I forgot how good it is to have all these powers. Around the way was Predator and… Damn. He was in feral form, light grey coat with quote the number of viable scars along his body and easily my size in feral form too. “Alright...time to see if I’m still good at flirting…” I muttered while taking a deep breath and going back to my Den Mother form, but deciding to go feral form in this scenario just in case as I moved towards Predator. The second he saw me he snarled. "Clearance?" They asked. “So the first thing you say to a Den Mother is growl at me?” I asked innocently. “Oh what have they taught you.” "If you don't have clearance, please make your leave." “Okay, you know what?” I started as I walked over to Predator, Predator catching a whiff of the extremely obvious. “I haven’t had a good fuck in fourteen years, I’ve heard you don’t give a damn about ‘flirty’ crap, so you, and me, are going behind that mountain and your going to rut me like a good boy.” I growled like a dominant Den Mother. "Hm? What race of Dire Wolf are you? Not many can claim they are of the Den Mother variation." “Mothaty.” I guessed. “I...actually have no idea, all I know is that it’s one of the original dire wolf races, and that I’m related to...the Mountain sized Den Mother by race or something?” That actually got a nod from Predator. "Yes, I believe you are from the planet that was poisoned and enslaved. I did not know you had escaped that fate, or that a Den Mother had been born to them. I had heard the last Den Mother born to your race was over two generations ago." “Let’s just say it was a miracle.” I said while shifting into my anthro form, which to Predator was drop dead gorgeous, as I moved to his side, and picked him up like he was a pup, had him over my shoulder, as I started walking towards the other mountain. “Now you are going to rut me so hard you won’t be feeling your legs for a week.” I growled dominantly. "That is what my pack mates all ask too. Did they find and put you up to this?" I can't tell if he is just always this passive or is just unimpressed. “No, I just haven’t seen another dire wolf in a while, and you sound bored...why do you sound bored?” I asked. "This is not the first time this has happened to me." They said casually. “Oh, then we’re going to have to change that.” I said with a massive smile, the kind of smile that would make anyone nervous for their pelvis. Five Hours Later God I needed that. And hey, Predator still has their pelvis in one piece. “Alright, round two.” I said with a massive smile. Another Five Hours Later Fuck do all these Cript's have hips of Monofilament?! “How are your hips this strong?” I asked honestly. "I was engineered for hunting. My pack mates soon learned I don't tire easily while on the hunt and that translated fairly easily when rutting." They said from atop my back. "Do you require more?" “Yes, but instead of this vanilla stuff.” I said while bringing out a book. “Let’s try something a little new.” Nine and a half really kinky hours later How in the hell?! "Another round then?" Predator asked, looking nearly untouched while I was sitting here like a leaking glazed doughnut. “Okay seriously, the fuck.” I whined. “I’m not trying to break you or anything, that would be bad, but...I at least expected some form of exhaustion or you...well enjoying it more than being so casual about it.” "But it is enjoyable. And I do enjoy it. When I was younger father cut off nerves that let my body show joy and happiness and altered my voice so I can't sound happy either as a big wolf smiling with a wagging tail does not a good guard dog make." “But you're a good boy…” I said as I put a hand on his muzzle softly. “And good boys deserve rewards.” "All this sex isn't a reward?" “Kind of, but this is the full reward.” I said gently, my hand softly glowing as Predator felt his body start to warm up, like a nice heating blanket was wrapped around him as he felt his nerves that were long since cut off start to mend. “Now who’s a good boy?” I asked with a smile. "I...am?" He asked, his lips twitching til they made a small smile. "I… smiled? I'm smiling?" He asked, smile getting bigger and voice even sounding happier. "I can smile!" “Who’s a good boy?” I asked again in joy, starting to pet Predator as he finally got to show joy. "Me!" He declared, tail wagging and when he felt that he turned to look at his tail. "I can wag my tail!" He said, now trying to catch it and just chased his own tail. “Okay, this is beyond adorable.” I chuckled as I got up and used some magic to help clean up. "Let's celebrate!" “Hooray.” I said happily. “But how to celebrate I wonder?” I wondered while petting Predator happily. Location: Predator's personal pocket Dimension. Internal time passed: nine and a half weeks. Outside world time passed: four minutes. I now had a good understanding on how Predator could rut me for so long without getting tired… seven… hundred… pack mates, mates as in Mate, and half are other dire wolf races Den Mothers. And he got us all. Repeatedly. And was Still going. "I'm glad you fixed his ability to express happiness." Said Ky, a Salo race Dire Wolf Den Mother. Currently we were both resting up for when Predator makes another circle around to us. She has deep red eyes and lovely white fur. “He’s a good boy that deserves to show how happy he is.” I said honestly. “And when that also makes him look so adorable is a wonderful bonus.” "Agreed." She said with a nod. "So, how much longer do you think he will keep this up? Not much time at all has passed outside this realm but I feel you still have much to do." She said, sliding over next to me til she rested her head atop my chest. “From...personal experience...it’s gonna take a while.” I said sheepishly. After said long time had passed I was back out with the happy tail wagging as I decided to see what was behind this door he was guarding. Out here only two hours had passed, in there… yeah I gave birth a few times while there. “Alright, time to see what projects are here as I...technically have children before I’m even born…” I muttered. Predator gave me a lick across the nose I playfully returned as the door opened wide. Inside was a massive glass case filled with… are those… giant eggs? “Uh...are these...please don’t tell me those are Clockwerk eggs…” I said nervously. "I dunno. I get told to guard a place, not what's inside or what goes on." Predator said as they sniffed the glass. “Well…” I started. “This...god the hell is Vincent doing?” I grumbled. “Okay...so let’s do this.” I muttered while bringing out my Binocucom. “Yo, anyone there?” I asked over the line. "Hello, wait, who is this? Where's Kite, this is his frequency!" Bently said, starting to sound panicked. Crap, forgot to shift back into Kite. I shifted back to Kite. “Sorry Bentley, forgot to switch back to my voice given I’m...in a territory.” I said sheepishly. “Like...Mt. Fuji…” I said while showing Bentley what I was seeing which was all the giant eggs and the very enthusiastic Dire Wolf "I… won't question it. But, holy cow. Can you zoom in on those eggs real fast?" “Alright.” I said while zooming in on the eggs. “Also...don’t mind the very enthusiastic Dire Wolf...he’s a good boy.” "Heh. Well, if my guess is correct these eggs appear to resemble that of the Eurasian eagle-owl. There a species that has been suffering from a loss of population in the modern world due largely to pollution making it harder for their lungs to take in clean air while flying about. Most live is isolated communities but not even the largest reserve has that many eggs." “What species is Clockwerk again?” I inquired. "Formerly Eurasian eagle-owl. They are a very old race of bird dating back to the dawn of early bipedals like ourselves." “Cool...so Clockwerk is breeding…” I started nervously. "Or cloning. We can't know for sure unless we either analyze an egg or if there is a research terminal near that incubator they appear to be in." “I’ll take a look around to see if there’s anything.” I said. “How’s Sly and the others doing if I may ask?” I asked Bentley as I started moving around the place trying to find a terminal. "Sly is inside one of the tower transmitters making his way up to destroy it. Uncle M had a run in with Kid Cooper Bot but escaped via the sewers. Uncle Jim is working on gathering some explosives to blow a more fortified transmitter up." “Cool, and right now I’m...making some allies.” I said carefully, thankfully finding a terminal. “Might be a pain in the ass, but I’m getting help.” "That is good news. Well then, I'll be off keeping in touch with the others, you just keep doing what you are doing then and stay safe." With that Bentely hung up. I looked over the data. There are Clones of Clockwerk but added with Nexus tech so they hatch already mechanical and evil. Well, hard nope on that good sirs. I smiled as I pulled out Second Chance and… nothing happened? Right, they'd need to be born first… welp, then I'll just reprogram them the old fashioned way. “Alright, time for some old fashion hacking.” I said while cracking my fingers and getting to work on trying to make sure these little chicks aren’t evil when their born. It took me less than five minutes. The tech is Nexus but this coding is from this world, likely Clockwerk's doing so it was stupidly easy. After that for safe measure I used Code to lock all that in. And now activate hatching sequence and… done. The eggs began shaking and cracking, soon breaking open as a bunch of tiny little robo owls chirped about. Their eyes were the Cooper blue. How fitting. "Now what?" Predator asked, the incubator opening as they little ones were already flying around. “They’re adorable!” I squealed happily. “But uh...now’s the problem...where do I put all these baby owls?” I asked nervously. "They can go with the others in my pocket dimension. They'd be safe there." “Alright, sounds simple enough.” I nodded. “But uh...question, how do I…’earn respect’ with Vamp and Enslaver?” I asked nervously. “Also...where’s Vamp?” "Not sure where Vamp is, but Enslaver is a lot like me I guess. Scared of dad and would rather leave than stay here, but we don't have anywhere to go." “Well don’t worry, there’s going to be plenty of places to go when I’m done with this.” I said honestly. “So, back to your HQ so I can talk to Enslaver about this.” "Okay." Predator said as he got all the baby owls into his pocket dimension and we were off. Back at the main portal I switched back to Hearts human form. Doing a lot of shape shifting today, and met back up with Enslaver. "So… the fuck happened? You're still alive so that's good but…" Enslaver asked. “Alright so...a lot’s happening.” I started. “Do you want to short story or the long story? And also what’s up with Vamp? I haven’t seen him around like...ever.” "Vamp just does that. And the short story I guess? Also hi Predator." "Hi!" Predator said with a smile. "Holy fuck since when can you smile?!" “With the powers of calling him a good boy and me being able to fix his nervous system.” I said while patting his head. “Also a lot of...private things.” I said sheepishly. “So do you want to know the long or short of it?” "Long. Definitely long." “Alright so…” I took a deep breath. “God how do I actually explain this mess…” I muttered. “Can we get everyone in here? It’s going to be a long conversation, you’re all going to need to sit down, and maybe get a few drinks…” "Later. I wanna hear this first." “God…” I sighed out. “Alright...so let’s start with the fact that I’m Kite Cooper.” I said while transforming back into Kite. “And seeing you dating one of my ancestors is...kind of strange, but also how I couldn’t get to talk to her about her adventures in...being kind of overpowered.” I said, and that’s saying something considering I have my full powers back and I still think, for the world she’s on, she’s broken as hell. "...Okay…" “You don’t sound surprised about me being Kite Cooper.” I started. "I'm… processing. So continue." “Alright, so now for a more hard hitting thing.” I said while getting off of Predator and transforming back into my Den Mother form. “That disturbance Vincent wanted to figure out was me...for I am the player in an ‘Admin Game’, where I got to pick a world and basically be ‘reborn’ into life as a normal person, but for me it was to be the younger brother of Sly Cooper cause...well I wasn’t lying when I said I was a huge fan.” I said sheepishly. “And after a long and...very weird history that was nothing like the original games, my secondary goal now is to free all of you from Vincent’s hold...cause my name is King, and I’m fighting for a better future where dipshits like Vincent doesn’t have a chokehold on reality because he’s bored.” "Uh huh… , and you're willing to tell me this because…?" “Because Vincent handed you, and every single person that doesn’t believe in his ‘let’s be evil because evil’ bullshit.” I said honestly. “I’m here to prove to you that there is a better life out there than just the job. I’m living proof cause I went back in time before I was born.” I said honestly. "Hm… and do you have proof?" “I have two ways.” I said while bringing out a memory card, and raising my right hand to show the deal mark. “Either I show you with this card that has my memories of The Nursery, or show you the deal marker Vincent and I have.” Enslaver looked my deal mark over, showing it to Predator who simply nodded. He looked at it, then me, then back at it. "So, the short of it is dad abandoned us and we're… free?" “Better than you all getting murdered by Vincent and all his extremists like...twenty years later.” I shrugged. "Does this apply to all of Nexus as a whole or just this planet?" “All of Nexus that isn’t Loyal to Vincent.” I answered. “I don’t know if I’ll have to prove stuff by fighting...but if there’s one thing I don’t want to do, is have needless fighting to prove I’m stronger. I’m not Vincent who rules by fear…” I said while bringing out a self replicating wedding ring. “I’m King, and I want to help people with love and friendship.” I said warmly. “Predator here knows that first hand.” I chuckled. Enslaver gave a nod. "I see… I need to make a quick call for a second then." He said, placing a hand on the wall as a phone morphed out from the metal… cool. He picked up the phone. "Yo, Operator, hey I need you to put me through to every base. Yes EVERY base. Yes I know that gives you a migraine, I'll make it quick." Is… is Operator a Cript… that shouldn't surprise me… After a moment Enslaver began speaking. "This is Cript V788," Enslaver spoke as their voice carried through the hall as if on speakers. "The king has left his throne. I repeat, King Vincent has left us. I am activating the Purge protocol. All who wish to leave to follow him, do so. For everyone else, may your God, if you have one, have mercy in your soul." He hung up. There was a long silence for a while followed suddenly by the loudest cheer I have ever heard echoing and vibrating the building. “Jesus, were that many people that excited to leave him?” I asked nervously. "You've seen how he treats people. Most everyone remembers how things were before he took over, just out of sight and hidden research from afar. Then you got people like me born after knowing only this and doing the most vial and unforgivable crimes cause we were ordered and disobedience was death or worse." Enslaver said, the phone now morphed into a dispenser where a can of chilly beer dropped. He took it and began drinking. "Purge protocol has always been a fever dream for everyone, when Vincent leaves, get wasted." He said, pouring some of the alcohol into Predator's open mouth before taking another drink for himself. "The drunken antics to take place here in the next few hours to few days will be the likes any God would go green with envy from seeing." “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “Yo Sam! You still owe me that drink!” I called out. “But I have to get back to dealing with Clockwerk sadly.” I sighed out. “You are at full strength right? Why not just go punch him to death then?” “Because I think that’s cheating and violates the rules of the Admin Games.” I said nervously. “I’d have to talk to one of the Time Walkers about it...and I’m also going to have to talk to my Time Walker about bringing you all to Present day or something...god there’s still so much to explain.” I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Eh, live and learn. Bright side is now you can more or less completely fuck with Clockwerk now that we aren’t helping him.” “Oh yeah, I’m actually a little surprised I haven’t heard anything about troops pulling out by the dozens or them all getting drunk and partying from Bentley.” I said honestly. “Maybe everyone is still in shock? Eh, well go off and do your Cooper things. I’ll be here getting wasted.” “Don’t forget to spread the word on who Vincent handed you off to.” I started. “Cause in the future when this all settles down, me and my entire family will be giving you all protection and help in the...ongoing war.” I sighed out. “Sound’s good.” I headed outside and it looked like all the Nexus people are gone. Well, alright most of them are out of their armor and walking around town having fun. Nice. I used my glider and flew on over to the nearest receiver tower. Here I got in via vents and crawled around and listened in. “Hey Sly.” I called quietly over our comm link. “Sorry I was away, just helped get Nexus off our backs forever.” ”I saw… I am not going to ask cause I feel like the answer will either traumatize me or worse. Well I’m almost up here, only people still here are Panda King’s Goons so, this will be easier in every way. Also why did Bentley call me saying you looked like a super sexualized wolf lady?” “Uh…” I started. “That was my...Admin form.” I started. “It’s a whole lot of complicated stuff that might traumatize you or worse, so let’s just go with ‘my Admin form’ okay?” I asked, not entirely sure how to explain all that to Sly at the moment. “I’ll explain it all when your older and can understand...a few more things.” "So… you're actually my sister then?" “No, I’m your brother.” I said. “I was genetically born male, and before I was giving back my full powers due to...reasons I won’t get into right now, I was just Kite Cooper, and I’ll still be Kite Cooper because there’s no fun when I could do effectively anything without challenge.” "Right… we're gonna need to have a serious talk when this is over." “I’m gonna start dating Jing King.” I said, hoping to derail this conversation off a cliff so hard we will never talk about this again. "Several talks then." Sly said as he hung up… well that's not gonna be fun. “I’m scared for their sake…” I muttered while continuing through the vents to get to the main receiver room. “Oh wait...I still need to talk to Enslaver and Zhang Li...I may be an Admin, but I’d like to learn from Zhang Li damn it…” With a sigh I found myself in a… hello. Safe. I swiped my cane through it and got the page. Agitha Leopard Cooper. A European maiden turned pirate that stole from the likes of Hellscore Turner and Black Beard among other notable pirates. Her special skill implemented a mixture of voodoo and navigation with her compass and maps, giving her exact locations of not only her enemies but targets and many other valubels lost to time. The last page on this segment was an old world map and on the back of it was a list of ingredients for what was basically making Jack Sparrow's Compass. Sweet. "That's gonna come in handy." I said while pocketing it and leaving the mask. "Alright, time to destroy this place and get out." I made my way out and with slow moving invisibility I got to the control panel and happily beat it into scrap metal. I then made my way roof side and scrapped the dishes too for an extra safe measure. With that done I headed back to the base and found Enslaver, who was happily drinking while watching some TV with good boy next to him and… and… "Hi." Said an albino Cript with wet looking black hair, smoke grey eyes that didn't have whites and wearing some pants and that was it. "Kite, meet Vamp. Vamp, Kite." Enslaver said, giving quick introductions. "Sup." I nodded. "So, what brings you back?" "Well, visitation for an ancestor." I said honestly. "Zhang Li Cooper, I would really like to talk to her." "Ah, sure." Enslaver said as he snapped his fingers, opening a portal. "I'll leave it open for you." “Thank you.” I nodded. “And...we’ll have a talk later okay Vamp? Given your the only one I haven’t talked to yet.” I said to the weirdly shirtless and wet vampire. "Fine." He said simply with a smile at me… God that is nine levels of creepy. I walked through the portal and wow this is a nice house. Very roomy and like a modern/medieval theme going on here. Actually this feels like the Organization 13 castle if it had color, that's how this feels like. “Feels very nostalgic.” I chuckled as I started walking around the nice house, being mindful of where I was walking so I didn’t bump into anyone or anything in my exploring. After a while I found a balcony area where I spotted Zhang Li having tea with a bright yellow skinned lady with green eyes, black hair and blue lipstick. “Hello.” I said politely to the ancient racoon. “Revered Ancestor.” I said while bowing to Zhang Li cooper in respect. “So, should I leave?” The yellow lady asked. “We’ll catch up later Geo.” Zhang Li said as Geo left. “So… Ancestor huh? You’re a Cooper.” “Sorry for interrupting.” I said sheepishly. “But yes, I am a Cooper.” I said while bringing up the family Cane. “But...again I didn’t mean to interrupt.” “It’s fine. So, what brings you here?” “Well, a lot of things…” I started. “A whole lot of questions Miss ‘I have a Fallen God as a pet’.” I started, Zhang Li seeing small sparkles in my eyes in wonder. “Seriously, how did that happen?” “I nursed him back to health after he fell. As to repay his debt and as part of a punishment from his fellow gods he declared me his master til times end. He took the form of a small bird for me cause his true form is more… hard to travel with.” “Fascinating.” I said. “What was his true form like?” I asked curiously, wanting to know a lot about Zhang Li since her history sounds really interesting and cool. “A dog with tentacles all across his spine with legs like trees, teeth made from stars and eyes that when he opens them suck you in like a hollow void.” She said with a shrug. “That sounds like an eldritch horror.” I started nervously. “So, next up would be the Demon Lord...because Demon lords are comparable to Gods in some sections of magic.” “Funny story, he actually arrived to kill me but I imprisoned him in my hair pin and took him everywhere mostly because it made him angry. After a while we stopped bickering, began talking and after a while became friends.” She said, rubbing the old bronze hair pin attached to her head via magnets. “Can you believe they put him in a museum. He was so bored.” “I’m surprised you didn’t put him in the family Vault.” I said honestly. “Would have been funny to be all ‘and here lives Zhang Li Coopers best friend, a Demon Lord from the sixth circle of hell, his name’s Bryan’.” I chuckled. “Galor, and he wasn’t a member of the six circles. He was their manager.” “Thought it was nine circles, and that’s even funnier.” I chuckled. “But...mind if I ask how you’re unaffected by Clockwerks tech? The only other that me and my family have heard of that’s resistant is Tennessee but that’s because...well he’s kind of insane.” “Do you have any idea how many mind control drugs, spells and techniques people tried on me when I was young? I’m immune to all of them.” “I mean...considering nowadays China is...well it’s kind of a walking talking sapient rights violation…” I said sheepishly. “Anything else?” “Uh...can you train me and my family?” I asked innocently. “From what I’ve read from the Thievius Raccoonus, you are the most magically adept, it would help by leagues and bounds against Clockwerk and anyone else that might try and hurt our family.” “The fact you are even here means something changed from what Enslaver said?” “He’s free, and I helped with that.” I said with a smile. “He’s...probably getting black out drunk at the moment partying with literally everyone else who’s also been freed from Vincent’s control.” “Ah, that is wonderful news indeed.” “It is indeed wonderful news.” I said happily. “Just...something needs to happen between me and Vincent…” “Being?” “A...deal.” I said nervously. “It’s...incredibly complicated…” “Deals with demons typically are.” She sighed. “So, any more questions?” “What was it like back then? Where Magic and the like was...more common and respected?” I asked honestly. “Not bad, but indoor plumbing is nice and hot baths at the turn of a knob, yeah, much better. And safer given most all magical beings moved to the ethereal realm.” “Okay I will admit, technology is great.” I chuckled. “But uh...what’s your Cane look like?” I asked, lifting my Keyblade Cane for emphasis. “Well, what I have now is more modernized.” She said, taking out a small fan that had the familiar cane shape at the end. She opened it, rather than cloth and wood it was metal with crackling energy. “Okay, now that’s cool.” I said honestly. “I prefer my old one. I can’t perform my mist breeze knockout with this thing.” “Well I’m sure we can find your old one.” I said honestly. “If it’s in the Family Vault than we can surely find it in that mountain of treasure.” “Hope it was put in there.” “Coopers take family seriously.” I nodded. "So, may I ask how my son did?" “Um...who’s your son?” I asked nervously. “Clockwerk kind of...stole and ripped out the pages of the Thievius Raccoonus and...I probably haven’t gotten to the part where you talked about your son.” I said sheepishly. “But...me and my big brother were like...four and five and...bastard owl killed both our parents…” I growled. "His name was Rioichi." “Oh he was?” I asked in surprise. “Well Rioichi was a great Cooper, he invented Sushi on this world and was a master Ninja, even invented the Spire Jump ability.” I said happily. "Oh, I've heard about sushi but didn't know he made it. So he was taken in by my sister in law over in japan then. I'm glad." “Yep.” I nodded. “I...have a feeling Rioichi would love to meet you when this is all done...if Clockwerk has him as a Cooper Bot…” “Most likely. So, anything else you wish to talk about or do you want to jump into the magic training?” "Um…" I started, thinking about what else to ask. "Um...when did you and Enslaver meet?" I asked curiously. “When I came online in this body and Clockwerk tried to control me. It didn’t work so I was shut down again. Next I woke up Enslaver had marked me and neutralized my powers. I hated him for it, of course. At first anyway. After a while I realized he only did orders, never did more and when he was off duty he mostly just spent time with his family here. Met a few of his mates and was surprised they all were marked but they all told me their stories. If anything Enslaver saved them. People he marks he puts here and everyone here live their lives. Better than what Vincent planned. After a while I realized Enslaver worked to do good while being forced to do bad.” “That’s good.” I nodded with a smile, not sure if I should be the one to tell her ‘I’m Enslavers new boss’ or if I should let him do the talking here. “Enslavers job...as you know he’s ordered...but thankfully all the good people are now free of Vincent’s hold and are now going to be working for someone that’s actually a good person.” “That is wonderful news. In the time I have been here I have seen much of what Nexus can do with their technology and magic. To put that all towards a good cause is the best for all.” “Yep.” I smiled. “It’s...gonna take a while, but I know them and their new boss will do great things.” I said, pretending that their new boss was someone other than me. “Is there anything I can do to help? I am immune to Clockwerk’s technology, and I am still a Cooper. Going back out into the field would be fun.” “Well…” I started. “We’re gonna need your help dealing with the Cooper Bots going forward, Alexander and Tenessee being two thorns in our side with our current job to get to Panda King.” I said honestly. “Then there’s Clockwerk himself...and then a lot of future crap you can probably figure out with future sight or something along those lines...don’t know if the Onmyoji can see the future or just take a guess.” I said sheepishly. “No. Time is forbidden. Only fools dabble with what they should not know.” “Ah…” I started, trying to fight by a knowing grin as I knew full well that there was an entire organization about Time in all its facets and capabilities. “So, what’s my first mission then?” “Hold on.” I started while moving into my bag and bringing out one of the...many spare communicator maks I had and handed one to her. “Best to hear it from the brains of our group Bentley.” I said honestly. She put them on and spoke to Bently for a while. After a bit she gave them back. “He says given my immunity and body I’d do best in helping him to create an anti virus for Clockwerk’s mind, cutting him from all the Cooper bots and taking down his greatest weapons.” “Alright.” I nodded. “Sounds like a good start.” I said. “Yo Bentley, how are things holding up with Sly and the others?” I asked curiously, having been busy with all this stuff I only managed to destroy one radio tower. ”Going well. Uncles M and Jim took down their targets and Sly took his down and got another page of your family book. The writing is encoded, an older language too but he sent me a photo and I’m translating it now.” “Cool.” I nodded. “Alright, so far we’ve gotten rid of most of the radio towers right? So what’s our next move? And have the others seen either Tennessee or Alexander?” ”Our next move is that Zhang Li should get here to help me make the anti virus to free the others. As for Tennessee with the lack of towers keeping him under control his schizophrenia is giving him more free will. He mostly seems to have gone into hiding for the time being. As for Alexander, even with the lack of towers he is still under control. He was last spotted aiding in a weapons transfer. Large rockets.” “Alright.” I nodded. “I’ll go and try to deal with Alexander, we need to keep those weapons away from Clockwerk.” I started. “I’ll try to get Zhang Li to ya as soon as I can...just need to talk to a guy who needs a name change badly.” ”Alright, I’ll let you know if anything happens.” I was about to put them away when I got another call. This one from mom. ”Kite? Why did your brother call me saying you can change your species and gender at will?” “The better question is, why didn’t he tell you about me dating Jing King.” I started, hoping that would derail that conversation enough so we can never talk about it. ”Son, you’re dating my old enemy in love regarding your father turned teenager by some guy in a cloak. At this point you trying to build a harem is the least of my worries. If you can change gender we have to go out dress shopping! I’ve dreamed about having a daughter!” “Sorry mom, I’m heading into a tunnel, I can’t hear you.” I said, using my ventriloquist practice to good use as I made my voice sound staticy as I immediately hung up on her and shivered in fear. “No...I get enough of that back home…” I muttered to myself. Ring. Matilda? ”So… Jing King huh?” “She is fluffy, adorable, strong, and please don’t be mad…” I said sheepishly. ”Oh I’m not mad. I tried for YEARS to get your mom into letting me be your dad’s second wife. This is more a fantasy come true. Keeping that in mind should I be expecting more people into this relationship? And if so is it just you picking up girls or can I make a few calls?” “Uh...do you have any girl in mind? Or...girls at this point since you said ‘calls’?” I inquired. “And also...maybe...I might be getting more cause I’m an overachiever that doesn’t like his pelvis.” ”I heard about that whole gender changing thing. If that’s true, then I am so going to enjoy using my strap on.” “No.” I started quickly, my face turning a bright shade of red as I was also trying to keep my ‘Kite’ persona up more instead of my true form. ”Fine… Wonder if Jing would be up for it then? Could let you watch. That’d be fun.” With that, she hung up. “Jesus…” I muttered. “Okay, time to ask Enslaver if you can go visit Bentley...also we need to get him a new name.” “Okay then.” Zhang Li said as we got up and left the pocket dimension. Here I saw Enslaver, Predator, and Vamp all watching TV. “Hi Zhang.” Enslaver said as he stood up. “Heading out?” “Gonna need her help making something to stop Clockwerks mind control on the cooper bots.” I said honestly. “Also...we’re gonna need to change your name, cause ‘Enslaver’ and ‘Predator’ aren’t good names...Vamp...why are you still shirtless?” “Cause I don’t want to.” Vamp replied casually. “Just… don’t.” Predator sighed. “It’s his thing.” “Okay Twilight.” I rolled my eyes. “But yeah, you two need new names.” Predator and Enslaver shared a look. "Why?" They both asked. “Cause right now, we only have ‘Predator’ and ‘Enslaver’ as nicknames, and both of those...well they aren’t really ‘good’ so to speak.” I said sheepishly. "Well, it's that or our base names and That's no better." “Well then have new names.” I said. “Cause from where I’m from, at least four versions of you have different names.” I said honestly "Like what?" “Um…” I started, thinking about possible names even though I’m bad at names. It should be close, or at least similar to their current ones. Yet also sound normal… En for Enslavor and Tor for Predator? On the nose but it does kinda work? Ugh, this is why I let the girls back home name the kids... “En.” I started with Enslaver. “And Tor.” I said to Predator. “Simple enough names.” "I guess that works." En said thoughtfully. "Work for me." Tor said with a smile and a wagging tail. En shrugged, getting up and over to Zhang Li and removing her mark. "There we go babe, back to normal." "Thank you love." She said, giving him a kiss. "I'll be back." “We won’t be too long.” I said honestly. “Hopefully…” I added sheepishly, not knowing how long it would take to make an anti virus against Clockwerk. With that done Zhang Li and I left and she met back up with Bently while I tried to hunt down Tennessee. If he's mostly free then hopefully I can talk him into helping. Odds are he's in the sewers where the signal would already be weaker. As I entered the sewers I tapped one of the railings with my cane. “Tennessee Kid Cooper, I’m calling you out on the fact you shot me like four times.” There was no noise, nothing aside from running foul water and rats. As I ran along looking for him I found bits of evidence he is here. Bullet holes in the walls, sketches carved into the walls. He was less known for his art but his detail was impeccable. Scenes of what looked like some of his past works carved into the bricks. “Damn…” I muttered. “Tennessee?” I called out carefully. I walked around the corner and stood still. I saw him, kneeled down looking at a carving he made. It was of a lovely wolf lady, holding the hand of a young Raccoon child. Tennessee has his hand in the other hand of the wolf lady… right, his wife. He had a wife and son after retirement… like dad. He was taken from them, like dad was from me. Grandpa was from dad… Zhang Li from Rioichi. “Tennessee?” I asked carefully, stepping closer to the poor raccoon. He didn't say anything. I kneeled down next to him. Waiting and hoping he'd talk. "Three times." Tennessee finally said, eyes still locked in the carved image of his family. “Just...take your time…” I said softly. "Three times he took me from them. Clockwerk took my parents from me. Then he took me from Dalila and Jack… and he took me from them again when I woke up like this." He said, looking at his mechanical body. “I understand…” I said softly. “The feeling of losing family…” I sighed out, having had that happen a few times to me as well. "I want to go back." “Going back in time?” I asked curiously. "Dying." He said flatly. "I was with them… I remember it. Heaven. We were happy… then… I don't belong in this world anymore. This isn't my world anymore. It already has Cooper's to watch over it, it doesn't need more." “I understand…” I said softly. “Even if I’d like to talk...you look like you just want it to end…” "That's all we all want. My bullets Don't work. Not against whatever metal this body is made of." The bullet holes… that's what that was. They bounced off the metal. “Zhang Li found a new lease on life.” I started. “But…” I sighed out as I readied my Cane. “Is there anything in this world that you might hold onto? Or do you truly want to go be with your family?” He just looked back up at the carved image of his wife and son. I had my answer. As I stood up he handed me his modernized cane rifle. “I’ll make sure it’s quick and painless.” I said while taking the Cane Rifle and putting a hand on his head. “Be at peace Tennessee Kid Cooper...you’ve done well.” I said as my hand started to glow softly, as I started to guide the poor raccoon's soul out of the metal husk Clockwerk has forced him into. “Go, and be with your family once again.” The soul when outside the body looked a lot like the heart. An orb of light, just missing the pink heart within the orb. Soon Tennessee began to rise up into a Divine light. They were gone now, leaving the metal husk behind… Now I have a choice. Let Bently study it, or destroy it... “Do I let my brother desecrate a corpse that has been wanting death forever, or just get rid of it?” I started, only to shake my head and started to destroy the body. With that done, Tennessee Kid Cooper can rest once again. I teleported the broken shell to Cane Island. He deserves a proper burial when this is over. I sighed, shaking a bit before heading out to take out another- I reacted just in time to deflect a bullet aimed at my head, the shooter, Alexander Cooper Bot. Well fuck. “God damn it.” I groaned. “Alexander, are you really going to let Clockwerk control you like this?” I growled, preparing to defend myself against the bot. His only reply was more gunshots. Okay, run now, calling Bently. I blocked the gunshots quickly. “Damn it…” I growled, not sure how to not have Alexander just break the sewer down around us. I quickly got out of the sewers, Alexander still hot on my tail as I rapidly made it up a building, leaping rooftops with him still following me. Incoming Call from Bently “A little busy here Bently.” I said quickly, dodging another bullet. “What do you need?” "Good news. After looking over Zhang li's coding in her robotic body I discovered it's her internal magic that makes her immune, it messes with the control override chip connecting their brains to the robotics. I believe if you can hit them with a strong enough blast of magic you can create a similar effect that should last long enough for them to get a small Mana generating charm Zhang Li is making for the others right now." “Cool, thanks Bently.” I said while skidding to a halt, spinning around and raising my Cane. “Let’s hope this works…” I muttered while shooting a beam of magic towards Alexander, not strong enough to do damage to a monofilament body but hopefully enough to start messing with the control chip. The impact knocked them over. Carefully I walked over to them, watching the Cooper Bot rub it's own head. "Fuck, and I thought tank shells hit like a bitch." They groaned with a rather thick russian accent. "Wait…" They realized they could control their body, standing, shaking a bit. "Well how about that. If I had a mouth I'd celebrate with Vodka and Cheese." “Howdy great grandpa.” I said to the bot, given I was told Alexander was my grandfather’s dad. "Hello there little one. Sorry for the shootings. Clockwerk got real pissy after you freed Tennessee." He said as he got up. "So, what now? Am I good or not?" “We’ll need to get back to Zhang Li to make the effects permanent.” I said honestly. “But how does it feel to be free for once?” "Sober." He laughed. “Considering your accent is Russian, I’d say so.” I chuckled. “Come on, I don’t know how long my magic will last, so let’s hurry back to base so we can get you patched up and see if Clockwerk gave you tastebuds for some reason.” With that I got Alexander to Bentley and I headed off to break a lot more towers. As I did I found another page. This one talked about Alexander funny enough. “Oh? Wonder what the old man had to write?” I wondered while looking over the page. The Entry spoke of his ability to gain temporary invincibility against anything, as well as how to enforce Cooper combat styles with booze to create the fighting style, the Drunk Racoon. Pairing Drunk Racoon with this Invincibility is what made him such an unstoppable one Racoon army. Damn. “That cheeky bastard.” I chuckled while pocketing the page. “Gonna have to ask him to a drinking contest later on...wonder if he can still eat and drink while as a bot?” I shrugged as I headed out, jumping back on my glider and heading off towards the Panda King's temple. Thankfully it was in the same location as from the game. Inside was just like the game too, save for Panda King himself. Rather than just pants and shirtless get up he was dressed in a military officers uniform. "And a Cooper enters my domain at last." Panda King said casually as he turned to look at me with eyes heavy with regrets and sorrow. “You’re free now.” I started. “The Cooper Bots are done with, Nexus isn’t going to follow Clockwerk or anyone bad...so I must ask how you’ve been treating your Country?” “My people know full bellies, education, jobs and nothing else. I did as I wanted to do for them but at the cost of freedom and morality. In the end, it is a failure on my shoulders. Carried like the sins of my past.” “And now you have that freedom, and your morality has set China back on the right track.” I nodded. “Sometimes...bloodshed happens, even when we’d rather not have it happen…” I sighed out. “But right now, two things need to happen.” I said while bringing up my Cane. “First, is me and you fighting, just so I can see if you’re legendary ‘Flame Fu’ is as strong as I’ve heard, and for me to get your approval to date Jing.” I said simply. “With my sins, you taking my daughter’s hand is an undeserved honor Cooper. As for my Flame Fu, that depends, will you fight me like the Racoon you are or as the Keyblade wielder you stand before me as?” “No tricks, no magic.” I said while my Keyblade Cane shifted into a full fledged Cane as I got into my stance. “Now get out of that monkey suit and let’s have some fun.” I said with a grin. Panda King nodded, taking his shirt and shoes off before ripping the pants into shorts. He clapped his hands, fire forming along his hands as he readied himself. “It’s a shame only one of the Cooper Brothers comes to face me. But perhaps only one is needed to defeat the demon that has plagued your family since the dawn of time.” “I’m sure my brother will take all the glory.” I shrugged. “He’s gotta impress his girlfriend somehow without me taking the spotlight.” “Yet the Spotlight takes aim at you most of all. Brace yourself, Cooper. Clockwerk has watched you more than your brother and will have a trick up his wings.” WIth that, Panda King attacked, rushing as I dodged. For his size he was way faster than from the game, barely missing me by the hairs along my tail. As I was about to swing he stomped, fire flaming out from under him and throwing me back. Fuck! … That, that hurt? I’m at full power, how did I feel that? “Jeez, that’s some fire you got there Panda King.” I said, checking my stats to see why I just took damage. “Surprised?” I looked up… Vincent? He smiled at me, walking around myself and Panda King. Everything was paused. “You enjoy these right? A fair fight? A proper challenge?” “So that’s why.” I nodded. “Good to know that I didn’t somehow subconsciously lower my power all the way down to Kite...which is what I was going to do mind you but better to know I didn’t do it on accident instead of on purpose.” I said honestly. “It’s a means to our mutual end. You need to get stronger, so I gave you that. Equilibrium. A new ability fresh out the code.” “Sweet.” I nodded. “So now my concern is, how did you do that when the Admin of...is there an Admin of Abilities?” I asked curiously. “Yes. Used to be. Two of them. Always at war with one another, trying to better their abilities over the other. They died in the Admin war. They always do. Still, enough resets I picked up more than enough. It’s part of the information I didn’t put in that scroll. No fun in giving you all that up front. In time maybe, but not now.” He said, turning over to Panda King. “He’s out putting the same power as you are right now. That’s what Equilibrium does. Makes your opponent as strong as you are if they are weaker and boy there are so many people weaker than you King.” “Alright...so there’s going to be...a lot of destruction if this gets out of hand…” I said nervously. “And of course, the chance of losing. Which brings me to my secondary reason for being here. A mutual pain in the side we share.” “That depends on ‘which thorn’.” I frowned. “Oh I think you can take a guess.” Vincent said, giving a tap to the side of his… eye. Void Key. “I didn’t know Void Key was a pain in the ass for you.” I said. “So what sort of ‘help’ do you want against that rat bastard?” “I don’t need or want help. You do though. You have a very personal vendetta against them if I recall. Something to do with Coco and a certain inability he cursed her with, among other things.” “The bastard cursed my wife so she can’t have kids damn it.” I growled. “And besides that, took control of her body and put her in a comatose state that I couldn’t figure out how to cure...and honestly I just want that asshole to beg for mercy when I get my claws on him.” “Then, win.” Vincent said, taking a seat on a statue that broke in the fight. “You beat him, I’ll give you the Blueprints that made Void Key, and from there, you can learn everything about him. And next time I show up, win that fight, and I’ll tell you where he hid Pecator’s memories of Void Key’s creation.” “Sounds simple enough…” I started preparing to fight against Panda King. “All I have to do is win against these bastards and figure out how to murder Void Key...cool.” "If you win. Being as strong as you are there is now the chance of loss in this fight." “I’m a Cooper, dealing with unwinnable odds is our specialty.” I said happily. "Heh, sure." With that, Vincent left and the Time resumed as I fought Panda King. He definitely deserved the name as this version of him was a much better fight than the game one. “So how does it feel to be fighting once again Panda King?” I asked curiously, moving swiftly and tried to trip him. He jumped my trip attempt, backing up some distance. “I have trained every day since I took over this country, this battle must prove yourself or lose to your family curse.” “Alright.” I said while starting to bounce a little as I stretched a bit. “So, let’s see how you handle this.” I said while moving quite a bit faster than Panda King was expecting as I fired a bolt of lightning towards the large panda. His Flame Fu seemed to catch the Lightning, but I was already behind them and gave them a swift whack to the back of their head. Panda King Staggered a bit from the hit but turned around and BREATHED fire at me. Damn he worked a lot more on that Flame Fu here than from the game. I cast a water spell and it clashed with the fire, creating a massive bout of steam. “What? Is your nickname ‘Dragon of the East’ or something?” "My ancestor's, actually." He stated, jumping up into the air and aiming his body in a cartwheel of fire at me. “That’s good to know.” I said while dodging the cartwheel and throwing a fake, explosive hat towards Panda King’s face, having learned a thing or two from Bentley and having it filled with a knock out gas strong enough to damn near knock out Murray. There was a blast of smoke and for a bit I thought that was that… till I dodged the fireball and saw Panda King still standing, eyes closed and snoring… oh come on, he can fight while asleep?! With a snort Panda King blasted heat waves, not fire, waves of heat that began zapping at my stamina and endurance towards me. “Okay, that’s not fair.” I frowned as I bolted forward and whacked him upside the head. That woke them up enough to grab my tail and I yelped as it went up in fire. No matter what race, tail is always sensitive! “Son of a-mother-” I punched Panda King in the dick because of that. Panda King fell to his knees and held his now bruised groin. “You punched me in the dick!” “You burnt my tail!” I countered angrily. “You punched me in the dick.” Panda King wheezed. “You burnt my fucking tail!” I repeated angrily. “Is this a bad time?” We both turned to the doorway, seeing Sly standing there looking quite confused. “Me and Panda King were just...having a friendly fight.” I said sheepishly, using my magic to help the poor Panda’s junk. “And hey, he approves of me dating Jing, so there’s that.” I said sheepishly. “Right… Anyway, so Mom’s gonna be here in about… now.” At that moment the ceiling above exploded and mom came down and gave Panda King a knock out head stomp that cracked the floor under him… yeah he’s out cold… “Hi Kite, everything go well?” She asked as she brushed small debris and dust off me. “I’m more concerned with Panda King and if you didn’t accidentally crack his skull open.” I said nervously. “But I’m fine, besides a bit of a burnt tail, I’m good. And apparently, Panda King has been running China very well from what he told me.” “Thats good. And don’t worry, he’ll live.” Mom said as she opened her leg pouch and applied some burn salve to my tail. “Now then, let’s get back home and begin working on the final things we need to do before taking on Clockwerk.” “Alright.” I nodded. “But uh...should I bring Jing along? Given I need to...have an official date with her?” “You’ll have to talk with Matilda about that.” “I know...god that’s going to be awkward…” I grumbled. With a sigh and feeling beat to hell we all headed back home to Cane Island. Once there Matilda and Jing King started talking, which made me a bit worried… not as worried as the giant portal leading to Tor’s pocket dimension that was there where he, his other mates, and all the children were playing on the beach. Specifically, some part Racoon part Dire Wolf Pups. “Oh no…” I muttered, immediately covering my face in embarrassment. “Damn it...why did you have to have to do this to me?” I muttered, scared of the questions that are going to be thrown at me even if I was suppressing my urge to just shift back into my den mother form and hug all my new kids a lot. “Daw, they’re so cute!” Matilda said as we landed on the sand. Immediately, Tor and the pups pounced on me. “So, who’s the big guy?” “This is Tor, and he’s a good boy.” I said while patting Tor’s head. “Mommy!” One of the racoon dire wolf pups cheered as they nuzzled me. “Oh god damn it~.” I whined in embarrassment. That got all eyes on me. They seemed to be processing that for a moment before it was mom who finally fell on her butt in the sand. “Wow… I’m a grandma…” “And I’m an uncle…” Sly added. “I… should just accept whatever happens around you from now on, better for my sanity that way.” “Kite, didn’t think you were that kind of girl. I like it.” Matilda cooed at me. “Shush Matilda.” I said while getting out of the fluff pile I was under thankfully. “Alright...great, I was hoping to ignore this conversation forever but...looks like I’m going to have to start…” I muttered while taking a deep breath, and transforming back into my Den Mother form. “There’s...a lot I should explain...but who wants to go first in asking questions? Also a disclaimer...I have magical clothes to hide my…’proportions’ to at least safe levels.” Everyone seemed to think questions up and over for a bit. “What’s your original race since you can shapeshift?” Bentley asked. “That’s...okay, which ‘originally’ do you mean? Before I was born as Kite or before I became a Dire Wolf?” I sighed out. “Cause...a lot of things are involved, and one of them involves a very controlled, safe, and harmless form of Time Travel.” “Are these little pups your first litter or are you an experienced milf?” Matilda asked. “I’m actually both genders as a quick side note, but I am…extremely experienced.” I said sheepishly. “Can you fly?” Murray asked, everyone looking at him. “What?” “That depends, cause while I can shapeshift, I have learned all the flight spells, I can naturally fly because of other reasons...and I think there’s the possibility where I can actually run through the night sky if some legends are to be believed about Dire Wolves.” I shrugged. The questions varied. Matilda mostly asking about lewd things, cause she just loves to make me flustered. Finally I took a break, shifting back to Kite form and sighing. Part of me wanted to avoid this heavily… Maybe I need advice? “God, this is just annoying…” I muttered while bringing out the watch to talk to my Time Walker. “Hopefully I can get some advice here…” “Yo.” They said, appearing in a flash of blue as time froze. He was eating a candy bar. “Need something?” “Two things, one, does the whole ‘them knowing who I am’ break any rules on this? And two...has Vincent done anything...bad because of our deal?” “One. No. With how time works now, there is no issue. Two. No, nothing concerning or unexpected anyway.” “That’s concerning.” I said nervously. “So, onto the major thing...I need advice about...having told my family here about me...I kind of hoped I wouldn’t have…” “Why?” “To be honest...I’m scared it’ll distance myself from them...like they won’t see me as Kite anymore, apart of the family and just...some pretender that magicked his way into things…” “Well… Didn’t you though?” “The Admin Game bit isn’t the point...I mean the whole family thing is fake and no one will care about me because of what and who I am…” I sighed out. “Is that what you think, or what Kite thinks?” “I’m one in the same.” I frowned. “I just...don’t want my family to think of me any differently...I’m still Kite Cooper...that hasn’t changed.” “Hm. Sounds like something you should talk about with Kite.” “Are we seriously going to have this ‘oh no, we’re actually two different people’ thing here?” I asked. “No, you are the same person, but your heart when whole makes you and you can still talk to your light and dark halves, right?” “That’s...true.” I started. “I haven’t done it in a while though sadly...hopefully they don’t take it personally...I’ve been busy…” “Need some help getting there or you good?” “I’m sure I got it.” I said honestly, focusing as I tried to call on my dark and light half for a quick little chat. I focused on that for a bit, meditating and woke up in my Station of Awakening. Acceptance and Rejection were standing across from me. “Hi!” Acceptance said. “What brings you here?” Rejection asked. “Some questions I need to ask myself, like ‘does my family think I’m not Kite anymore now that I’ve told them a lot about myself?’, or ‘will they treat me differently or as a different person because of this?’.” I sighed out. “I… probably shouldn’t say anything then.” Rejection stated. “They will most likely only see you as different if you haven’t been yourself with them. Far as I can tell you have been you with them, now it’s just the whole of you.” Acceptance said. “That sounds fine but...I don’t want to alienate them like it seems, especially with Sly’s reactions half the time.” I sighed out. “Well, can you blame him? Your initial reactions to reality and Cript’s reality were quite confusing and surprised.” “True.” I said honestly. “I’m just...worried is all…” I sighed out. “They will adjust, the worst thing for them is to take your normal form all the time. Kite is more than just a body, he is an identity and a life you have lived in and found family, love, and adventure as. Stay as kite, even Genderbent like how Matilda wants to play with you as, and it will help them adjust more and easier. Over time, give them tastes of how your power works, and it will help them adjust and learn to accept it better and faster.” “Gonna be weird for them at first...but I always wanted to date a Panda Girl...they're soft and fluffy…” “And plump in all the right places.” Acceptance added with a giddy smile. “If you two are done being perverts I believe Kite has work to do right now?” Rejection asked. "Oh you know you enjoy the thought as well." I chuckled. "But I have to go ask our family about this...and also plan how to beat Clockwerk." "Well, best if luck then." Acceptance said. Okay, first up was a talk with Sly as he is taking this all the hardest it seems. I found him in his cottage, practicing lockpicking. “Hey bro.” I said softly and carefully, in my ‘Kite’ form here just to try and not make the situation worse. “How are you doing?” "Good. You need something?" He asked, looking over at me and putting the lock and picks down. “We need to talk.” I started. “About… everything that’s been going on about me specifically…” "Okay. So, what do you wanna talk about?" “Better question is, what do you want to talk about?” I started. “Cause while I’m scared I’m losing my family because of...all of this, you are the one that this revelation is hitting the hardest.” "It's not so much the shock or anything it's more the… absurdity. I mean, you being a dual gendered being above a god that got rid of these Nexus people… actually, how did you do that?"?” “I...made a deal with their boss...a deal with the devil…” I sighed out. “They follow me, and a lot of other positive things my way, and he gets to cherry pick who joins his side...better than what would have happened anyway.” I shrugged. "That must have been painful to do." “It sucked...but their boss gave me a lot of more positive things than you’d think because ‘he’s excited to lose’.” I sighed out. "That's concerning." Sly said worriedly. "Definitely more off his rocker than Clockwerk anyway. Speaking of, Bently launched his anit-virus against Clockwerk. Basically nullifying the radio towers all together." “Cool.” I nodded. “That’ll help a lot with the coming battle if the Cooper Bots aren’t already trying to tear him apart.” I said honestly. "That's the bad news… at least One Cooper Bot is still unaccounted for." “And...what’s that Cooper Bot?” I asked nervously. "Take a guess." Sly said with a sigh, looking at the family cane in the table. "Dad's bot was last seen attacking the rebels half an hour ago." “But...why would dad be the one against us?” I asked worriedly. "Matilda thinks maybe Clockwerk implanted an internal receiver inside dad, broadcast directly into him, or worst case scenario… Downloaded himself into dad. We won't know until we head for Russia." “Dick.” I frowned. “We’re going to save dad, I know that for a fact.” "Hopefully. So, how much of the family book do we have so far? I know when we met Mz. Ruby she gave us all her pages, arresting Mugshot after that all… happened, he gave us his pages. We got them from Roughly after mom and Matilda put him in the hospital, and Panda King just gave us his pieces… so looks like we just need Clockwerk's then right?" "Yep." I nodded. "And we're gonna have to beat an insane cyber owl inside his evil volcano base as he readies his doomsday lazer...jesus how unoriginal can you get?" "Guess you can't beat a classic then huh?" Sly said, giving a laugh. "Still… I just hope everything with dad works out fine." "I'm sure it will." I said honestly. "And we'll make sure of it. We're Cooper's after all, and there's no heist we can't pull off." "What about rescue missions?" “Well...that can be seen as the same thing.” I shrugged. “Depending on how you look at it.” "Maybe…" Sly said with a sigh. "Do you think when this is all over things will calm down?" “When do things ever calm down?” I asked jokingly. I mentally kicked myself, that made him look more upset. “I really hope they do calm down.” I sighed out while putting a hand on my older brother’s shoulder. “Things will calm down. I promise.” I said with a smile. “But then it’ll heat right back up when you start fully dating Carmelita.” I teased. I should have kept my mouth shut. Sly just looked down and went back to messing with the lock and picks. I left, kicking the dirt. Damn it… why did I have to go and say that? I sighed, looking up and seeing Carmelita jogging down the pathways. ”Okay...I’m honestly concerned on why telling him ‘dating Carmelita would get heated’ is making him upset?” I thought to myself. ”He’s a teenager with a hot girlfriend, the hell would he not get the obvious joke?” I thought to myself in slight confusion as I walked over to Carmelita. “Hey Carmelita.” “Hey Kite.” She said, jogging in place. “Something up?” “Just messing up talking with my brother, where he weirdly missed some context on the last thing I said.” I said honestly. “You just realised how dense he can be?” Carmalita asked with chuckle. “More like he thought bad things would happen when he finally started dating you, instead of the obvious sex joke I teased at him.” I sighed out. “Heh, well… He’s probably just worried. The news about your dad still being controlled and all… Lately I get the feeling Sly’s getting burned out.” “I think it’s more ‘world shaking revelation’s’ that are getting to him, not the job part.” I said honestly. “I know he needs a break...honestly we all do after this…” I sighed out, hoping to god that we’ll have enough time to enjoy life before the Klaww Gang decides to throw a wrench into our lives. “Maybe… Say Kite, how does that whole family cane thing work with brothers? I know you made your own but, how would it have gone down if your dad had to give it to one of you two?” “I’m pretty sure he would have given it to the eldest, I...don’t actually know, I’ll need to go back into the book to see if our family even had multiple children before…” I said nervously. “Cause so far, a good majority only had a single child.” “Huh. Fair enough. Oh, Bentley was looking for you. I’m pretty sure he wants to question you on anything and everything you know. Science wise anyway.” “God, we’re going to be all day with that, even if I keep it to this world's level of tech.” I sighed out. “But...what’s your opinion of me now that you know the truth?” “I always figured you were a bit… skilled at everything you did. I mean, how many eight year olds can complete a military grade obstacle course day one? Wasn’t expecting the higher being of existence thing, but I still grew up with you and to me you’ll always be that little kid who stole the cookie jar with your brother and friends in the orphanage, then helped us raid Uncle Jim’s snack closet growing up here.” Carmalita said with a laugh. “That was fun.” I laughed at the memory. “But to the obstacle course thing, while I am skilled, it was mostly me doing it by memory and natural talent given I’m a Cooper, I didn’t have any of my abilities, powers, or physical capabilities...also when you have to do mountains of paperwork with others half the time, attention to detail and hand eye coordination is really good when you have to look at so many pages and also write down signatures in the blink of an eye…” I groaned. “God...even with regeneration, paper cuts still suck.” “Is that most of what beings more powerful than gods do these days?” “There’s a lot more to it than that.” I said honestly. “But when you also have to rule an entire Kingdom because you became one of those ‘more powerful than gods’ due to becoming King of an Energy Source that’s a fourth of all Existence...but that’s another topic for another day, but I’m still one of the main ‘Royals’ that runs the Kingdom and...so much paperwork.” “Huh, can’t you, ya know, delegate most of that to other people?” “We do.” I deadpanned. “And the Royalty not only have to do their jobs, mine being the ‘face’ of the Kingdom, and you can see why being a Den Mother, but also help out with all the paperwork that’s still in the realm of ‘asston’.” I sighed out. “Happens when we have the ‘final say’ as it were just to make sure no bullshit get’s through to hurt the people.” “Huh. That’s weird. Well, good luck with that then. I’m gonna get back to jogging then check on Sly later on.” “Slightly weird.” I shrugged. “So Bentley’s where he normally is when he’s about to start questioning things?” "His lab, yes." Carmalita said with a nod. “Alright, so before I go...please check up on me and Bentley regularly just in case we keep talking for...a day and a half straight.” I said sheepishly. "I'll try." Carmalita said with a laugh as she jogged off. I smiled. At least that went well. I headed over to Bentely's lab and found the turtle at a desk, him sitting on one side and an empty chair on the other. "Hello Kite." “Hey Bentley, how are you doing?” I asked, taking a seat on the empty chair. "I'm doing well, I just have a few questions." “Yes, and you said that before when I started helping out with magic training and you were at it for about a day and a half.” I chuckled. "Before anything I must know… how you been using your powers to cheat at our DnD games? Cause I still can't believe you can roll that many perfect rolls I'm a row." “I literally just got my powers when I made that deal with Nexus’s leader.” I started. “I don’t know why I keep getting Nat20’s, but I do, and there’s no magic involved.” I said, the actual honest to god truth. “You know me well enough, and you know I would never cheat on family game nights.” I told him, still not telling him about how I figured out how to properly roll it to get more precise numbers. "Did you make any other deals with gods? Any higher beings who know about where/when you are?" “Nope.” I shook my head. “The only other being that would be of importance would be my ‘Referee’ in this, which is a Time Walker...I think I’ve either mentioned before or you met them, I don’t fully remember which it’s been a while.” "I don't believe we have met them." “Alright.” I nodded. “So what questions do you want to start with besides questioning if I cheat at DND.” "Homework… you already knew all those subjects didn't you?" “I came here with my memories of my…’future life’ technically. So I do know a lot of things...just uh...this world threw me for an absolute loop on a lot of things.” "Hmm… okay… back at the orphanage. You singled out Murray and I. Why?" “Alright, so what do you know about Multiverse theory?” I asked. “Cause I’m gonna need to start with that to...at least make some sense with what I’m going to explain.” "I know it basically states any possibility is an outcome within this or other universes." “Now imagine that on an astronomically bigger scale.” I said honestly. “So, where I’m from, the ‘key events’ are the same, like mine and Sly’s parents dying, the orphanage, you two becoming fast friends with us, and us beating Clockwerk and going on merry adventures, but the details surrounding them are vastly different. Some examples being Carmalita’s family being targeted as well as her joining our gang, Uncle M and Jim weren’t around because Uncle M was going, pardon the pun, ape shit trying to open the Cooper Vault and Uncle Jim was in Prison after dad retired, just to name a few differences.” I explained. "Okay… how then? I doubt our worlds are that identical. So, how does this reality appear in yours? I've always theorized one universe can appear as a work of fiction in another." “That’s...going to take a bit.” I said sheepishly as I moved over to a more clear area of the Lab and created a neat little gaming setup with a PS4, a good TV, and all four Sly Cooper games. “This is going to take a while, but...before I fully start, do you want to go through all four games or just the first one?” "... Wow. My life is a video game… I wanna level up now." Bentley said with a laugh. “Well, I’m certain that’s going to happen sooner or later.” I chuckled. “So, first game only or the entire quadrilogy? Cause this can technically tell us what key events might occur still, but everything else is already so wildly different it might not even matter.” "Hmm… knowing future events could be useful, but also just as dangerous. Typically on the path to avoid one's future often leads you right to it." “But considering how massively different these two worlds are, it practically doesn’t mean shit.” I shrugged. “And trust me, as someone who only knew about this storyline...I was in for a very rude awakening that...had its ups and downs.” I said nervously. "Huh. And… I take it in all of these you knew of, Sly was an only child, huh?" “Yes, and honestly, while I knew that if I was in the games timeline there would be differences, I didn’t expect to be in a completely different one with a brand new set of rules as it were.” I shrugged. "Huh. That's the ripple effect I guess." “Honestly...there isn’t really a ‘ripple effect’ here since...apparently where I’m from, my entire life here is already documented in video game form for...some reason.” "One of those ’don't question it’ things I take?" “When I completely gave up on trying to figure out half this shit, yes.” I nodded. “Just know that ‘everything has, is, and will be happening’.” "... That just hurts to think about." "So let's stop thinking about all this alternate universe stuff." I started while booting up Sly Cooper 1. "Instead let's focus on alternate universe stuff." "Why do I get the feeling that's a reference only you know about?" "Sadly." I sighed out. "It's hard knowing a lot of things sometimes." With my fun and talk with Bently done I headed back out and was then tackled by Matilda who began dragging me by my tail. "I didn't do anything!" I said in panic as I tried to not be dragged away by her. "You, and I, need to have a talk about Jing." "Is there something wrong?" I asked nervously. "Cause I made sure things weren't awkward or...weird or anything." "That was before I learned how much of a sheltered girl she is." "It's not my fault she was damn near being held captive." I said nervously. "I've tried everything, innuendos, flirting, body language, being pretty damn blunt physically and verbally but the girl don't quite get that sex is a two person job." I blinked a bit at that. "She just lays there, it's weird." "And you want me to help teach her? Also why is the first thing you want to teach her about is sex?" I asked nervously. "It's that or nothing. She already cooks, cleans, an ace Gardener, had pretty impressive medical knowledge, and her father taught her his flame fu so combat is out. Sex is literally the only thing she has zero experience in." "Alright...alright…" I sighed out. "I don't know how many soundproofing spells I'll need on this one…" I muttered to myself. "I already set those up." "From personal experience...we need them stronger, or just more." I said nervously. "Also...uh...is there plenty of water in there? It's gonna be a while...like...a long while." "Lots, yes." Needless to say Matilda wasn't wrong. Jing just laid there for it. It took four days, a lot of porn and this world's version of the karmasutra and a few things from Rune's book, but Jing now has sex like a proper perverted young adult. With that done I left our cottage after a good shower and went to find Murray. He and Uncle Jim should both be in the garage. “Yo.” I knocked on the garage door to let the two know I’m here. "Come in." Murray said, I entered and saw Murray standing next to the van and a tool box, uncle Jim under the hood of the van. “How’s the work on the Van going?” I asked curiously, looking over the Van to see if anything was outwardly changed. "Clockwerk has defenses up the rear with his bots and weapons, I'm outfitting the van with heavy duty armor Matilda gave me from those cashes she recovered as well as some turrets. We're gonna need em to get close enough. Oh, that reminds me, your ma and M wanted to see you. Said to bring your cane." “Well...I promised to get Zhang Li her fan back.” I said honestly. “But how have you two been?” "Pretty good. Uncle Jim is teaching me a lot about automotives and how to harness your body's whole strength even without having a peak physical form." "It's a good technique for the fast food lovers." Jim said with a laugh. “Sounds about right.” I nodded. "We're hoping everyone can get their own ride. That would be so cool! I mean, the Keyblade Gliders are neat, but the roar of an engine just can't be beat." "I was actually gonna ask Matilda if there was a way to make them powered by Keyblades." Uncle Jim said. "That way nobody can start it up unless they have one themselves." “Huh...that is an interesting idea.” I said honestly. "Would also solve an issue Involving power supply. A basic battery and gas engine can't fly us that far or be strong enough through the storms that protect the island." “Believe it or not...I haven’t actually heard of Keyblade Vehicles before.” I said honestly. “It’s gonna be a group effort to figure that out that’s for sure.” I blinked, reaching into my pocket and pulling out the scroll Vincent gave me in the deal. Everything huh? Well, almost everything… “Alright...so where are the Keyblade Vehicles…” I hummed while going through this massive scroll. Once I opened it, the code language flooded my mind. It was an interesting feeling, all that information in my head at once and I can sort through it all to find what I needed. And I found what I needed. So many vehicles, so many blueprints, so many ways for a single Keyblade to power so much. Hello upgrades. “Okay, yeah that can work.” I said, kind of giddy at how awesome we could make the Van. “Alright, there’s a lot for me to write down and figure this stuff out.” I found the more basic, simple one I could filter out and began writing up the needed materials, drawing the blueprints and all that. With that all done I looked through other things. Mainly, Nothingness. Shit there is a lot here I didn't know at all. Including that Nothingness as an energy can evolve into something greater. Cypher, and one more time, simply called The Empty. Doing so though is not only time consuming but incredibly dangerous. The fact Vincent even put a warning in that tells me as much. The same goes for the other elements too, Balance, Void, Fire, Terra, all of them. “Jesus…” I muttered. “This is quite a thing...also, where’s Bravery in here?” I frowned while looking into that bit of Nothingness as well, knowing my family’s got it covered but might as well see if Vincent decided to give me that info. I lucked out. Bravery Nothingness. Bravery Nothingness is quite the interesting energy, much like it's normal and other variations it holds a near complete immunity to Void energy, but it actually attacks Void at it's code, converting it into more of itself. It's especially potent against Fear, Dread, Sorrow, and Hatred Void variations and is easily weaponized. Making it is simple enough. The base foundation of all Nothingness, Willpower Spark, Pure Bravery, preferably in code form, and lastly a shell or kiln to house the fires as it burns for eternity. A person or body can do but frankly keeping it inside any container works just as well. The only thing that can affect the Bravery variations is Hope Void. Makes sense, two positives often react as such. “Excuse me, Hope Void…” I started, not believing those two words could be used together like that as I looked up what the hell Hope Void was. Hope Void. This is a unique, far more passive variation of void that so far does not appear within the machine naturally and must be made. Like all void it infects basic code entities but does not corrupt, rather, it seems to pacify aggressive entities. It heals rather than decay's and can revive a corpse that has died of unnatural causes. Primarily only one being in all reality aside from myself has utilized this variation, Esen, the guardian of the Void Wolves forest. It seems in turn for protection she gives the void wolves a safe home with beasts that can be hunted without losing half their pack in the effort. Making it is interesting. You need the base foundation of Void, Corruption, Dread, Bravery, and lastly, Innocence. So far it can't be weaponized, but can be used In healing spells, potions, protection enchantments and runes. “Huh...that is very interesting.” I hummed, finding it very good that Void has healing properties and isn’t just murder. That piqued my interest. What about Psychopaths? Psychopaths were born when the Admin of Blacksmithing killed and forged the admin of beauty into a war axe to kill her lover. Yeah that was a bad day. Interestingly, the Admin of Blacksmithing isn't actually the first Psychopath, while he is the first to slaughter and defile a corpse, the power of blood comes from the axe. Guess the Admin of beauty is still alive as that axe, likely in more pain than any admin ever has felt, but alive. Sorta. So far only Humanity energy, Kingdom Hearts little side project has any effect on the bloody little things. Turns out you can cure blood with blood. A mixture of Blood of someone who holds both the Psychopaths power and Humanity, Hope, and Regret can cure a fully converted Psychopath. Haven't tried it on that axe though, it would easily cure all the lessers since their power comes from it. Maybe if I get bored I'll test that theory. “Well looks like I’m gonna have to do that...if I can find that axe.” I said honestly, having a feeling Vincent didn't leave a 'here's where the axe is' in his notes. I decided to check. Old bastard left the axe in his armory. Admin of war, yeah right. Same place as every time the machine resets and formats, The Ore Pitt, his old workshop. Place is crawling with Deletes and Void Psychopaths these days, Deletes want in for the weapons, Void Psychopaths want in to worship the thing. Honestly, that whole concept of letting those lesser beings worship you never made sense to me. I mean if it gave you power than sure, it would be with it, but until those twins decide to do so, it's just pointless. The Ore Pitt… I looked for a map and wow...woah… woah… okay the void is WAY bigger than I expected. There's the Heroes Tomb, That's the Void Wolves forest, The Void Mother's sanctuary… wow… ah, here it is, The Ore Pitt… on the complete other side of the void… cause of course. "Okay so I'm not doing that any time soon…" I muttered. "I should see what mom needs from me after this…" I closed up the scroll and headed off. Mom was with uncle M in his lab. "Ah, there you are Kite." Mom said, giving me a smile. "We are glad you have arrived. We have some news regarding Clockwerk." M said. “And what would that news be?” I asked curiously. "While working with Miz. Ruby we discovered some possible clues as to Clockwerk's past." M said as he placed a book that defined the definition of old and falling apart on the table. Carefully he opened it and on the front was an image of a large owl flying over wilderness. "According to legends, back in the early days of our world's creation, Clockwerk was the first male of his kind, followed by the female, his wife, made by God along with the other first born races our world has." Mom read. "According to this, Clockwerk and his wife started off as guardians of the garden of eden. Their home and birthplace." “Alright, so who fucked up and murdered his wife?” I asked. “Seems...very obvious something happened to his wife if he was born way back when.” "Not his wife, their eggs." M said sadly. Mom looked sad at that. "The first born Racoons, stole their eggs for food. They had young. In anger, Clockwerk and his wife slaughtered the two, and left their children to survive on their own. While he and his wife had more eggs, leading to the owls of his race around today, his rage never left. It kept him alive, even centuries after his wife died." "The Cooper's are direct descendants of the first born Racoons, the cane's hook is said to be made from Clockwerk's original claw, broken in the bloodbath." M said, holding the family cane up. “Uh…” I started. “Is...it wrong that...I found Clockwerks eggs...and then hatched them while...somehow adding Cooper DNA into all those robo owls?” I asked nervously. “And...I’m technically their parent now?” "Zhang li already told us that, and they are interesting little beings." Mom said. "Clockwerk's claws are the only known thing that have been able to injure the metal of his new form. It was mandatory to stave off his death. We were wondering if you knew of something that can do the same. Some metal similar to his claws." M said as he handed me the cane. “Okay, I know exactly what we’re doing for Family Game night next...and that’s showing you all how little I know about this world's finer details.” I said sheepishly while looking over the material of the Cane. “Cause ‘key moments’ I know...but other than that...it’s best to show you all.” Analyzing. Analysis complete. Clockwerk's claw. Organic bone consisting of the density and atomic structure similar to Adamantium. “Really? Only Adamantium?” I raised an eyebrow. “While a strong material...still not the strongest.” "So you know of stronger?" M asked me. “There are several, one of them Nexus was literally mining out of this planet.” I said honestly. “Monofilament ore is very strong and durable...but then I need to remind myself that Adamantium has like...four different variants now that I think about it.” "So that means if we get our hands on this Monofilament, we can actually damage Clockwerk and his bots." Mom said. "Since you got Nexus on our side now, do you think they'd be willing to lend or trade some to us?" “That depends.” I said before turning around and whistling a special whistle to call Tor. The doggo jumped out from my shadow. "Yes?" Tor asked with a wagging ta.il. “Do you know of any Monofilament materials we could either get or trade from you guys if your not all hungover to hell?” I asked. “Also Sam still owes me a drink.” "Monofilament? Well, yeah we have lots all stashed away in storage." “We’re gonna need some to get past Clockwerks armor.” I said honestly. “So got any to lend us?” I asked while unconsciously scratching the good boy behind the ears, having learned that it was one of his favorite scratching spots. "Sure. We don't even use it that often, and mostly we just keep it all stored away for whatever reason." Tor said, a portal opening next to us. "This way." He said, walking into it. I followed and found myself in a warehouse the size of… quick scan… the Milky way galaxy… "This is warehouse 88-C."” “This is a big warehouse.” I said in surprise. "Actually, this is one of our smaller ones." Tor said, walking over then sitting in front of a metallic looking box. "Here it is." There was a screen on this box I read. Monofilament ingots. Current number of ingots, 999… Centillion… “Jesus how much Monofilament ingots have you been farming!?” I asked in shock. "I dunno." Tor said with a shrug. “Well...this is way more than enough, I shouldn’t need a literal lifetime worth of it though…” I said, trying to think of how much I would need for what’s about to happen. "Well, what are you making then?" “Things to get past Clockwerks adamantium body.” I said honestly. “Unless he upgraded to Monofilament while we weren’t looking.” "Even if he did take some I doubt he has the ability to melt it down. That volcano of his is not hot enough for that." Tor said. "One ingot should do for you though." One ingot? I guess you can make a metal that tough stretch pretty far. Tor tapped the screen, asking for a single Ingot- THUD I looked up at the metal block that went almost to the ceiling and was as wide as this hall, which was at least twenty feet between the boxes, and went easy a thousand miles back. That's their definition of an ingot?! Wait… 999 Centillion of these ingots that big in that box… “The fuck do people think an Ingot is sized!?” I was honestly flabbergasted at how much Monofilament ore they had stored here. "Once we began mass producing the ores we wanted to see how big we can make the ingots. They're a bit oversized but this is still smaller than the first massive ingot they made back then." Mass… produced? They can make Monofilament?!?!?! “You...can make this shit?” I asked carefully. "If it's made from code, yes." … that's literally everything in existence inside the machine... “But… that’s just cheating.” I frowned. "So, you don't want it then?" “No, I still want it.” I said while grabbing the literal pillar of an ingot. "Okay. Anything else here you would want?" “What else is here?” I inquired. “Cause this place is the size of a galaxy.” Tor messed with his blue dot, a holoscreen appearing as he gave it to me. Storage warehouse 88-C inventory log. It was fifty million pages long... “Holy shit…” I muttered. “This...is a lot of crap.” "You can take what you want, we don't even use half a percentage of all the materials we store away." “Sweet lord…” I muttered. “I don’t even know where to begin…” Tor shrugged. "There's refined ingots and gems, raw ores and gems, parts and tools, vehicles, weapons, ammunition, medicine, food, spells, entertainment, ect." “This is gonna take me a while…” I said, before just leaving a Starfish Clone to start dealing with all of that. “And so I’m going to leave a clone to start seeing what I’m going to take or not cause I still have stuff to do back home.” "Want some help regarding things here? I can see who is willing since you're basically the boss now." “That would be great...and can I get a list of everyone at least on this world? Might as well also acquaint myself with the people here and show I’m not Vincent...even if I raise a pinkie finger to help it would be leaps and bounds better than that asshole.” I grumbled. "So, here and here." Tor said, giving me a list of personnel on the planet and all the warehouses on the world… wow... “Hooray for more paperwork…” I whined. “Damn it…” I muttered while handing it to my clone as they started to go through everything. “Even with a clone, it’s gonna take a while.” With that underway I headed off, next I need to find… who else do I need to talk to? “Wait…” I started. “Fuck! I forgot to ask the others what they thought of me.” I facepalmed hard. “But...after that, it would be...Murray’s girlfriend...maybe Penelope if she is on the island...I forgot if she is...god a lot of things have been happening my minds slipping a little.” I grumbled. With a sigh I headed off, wondering what I should do next? I should ask the others if everything is fine but… honestly they didn't even seem bothered. Murray and Uncle Jim thought my thing with the scroll and all that was cool, M and Mom actually asked for some help from me by asking me to analyze the materials of the family cane, Bently mostly just wanted to make sure I wasn't cheating at game night. Do they just not care about what I am? “Okay, I’m gonna need a Family meeting about this, cause something’s a little weird here.” I frowned. I managed to get everyone together at dinner time some hours later. “Alright, so time for the obvious question.” I started. “Does anyone besides Sly actually care about all my big revelations? Or does Sly just need to remember he’s a teenager with a hot vixen of a girlfriend?” I decided to accuse Sly on his previous thoughts on me saying something bad when I was teasing him about Carmelita. "I think I speak for all of us here when I say, we have seen some shit, and we are more or less used to it." Uncle M said. "I think in the case of Murray and I, we just know who you are as a person and since that is who you are at your core, it didn't bother us so much." Bentley said, Murray nodding. “Are you all sure?” I asked. “Cause me being some being above god’s and just magically getting their full power back, with restriction I must add, isn’t that groundbreaking? Also Sly, my bro, you’re a teenager, and when I said ‘things will get heated when you and Carmelita start dating’, did you really believe I meant bad things were happening and not you two going at it like rabbits when no one’s looking?” I asked while staring at the racoon. “And yes, I am bringing this up because I have been honestly pissed at myself about that all day.” "Well, there was Antarctica." Mom said thoughtfully. "That thing in New York." Uncle Jim said. "The Netherlands…" Uncle M sighed. "I can list off way more from secret agent work on top of Keyblade welder duties." Matilda said. "Did I look in a mood I would understand a joke?" Sly asked me. I pointed at Carmelita. “My dude...we know you're as dense as a brick, but come on.” I frowned. "I'd be more forward with him but every time I try I can hear my grandma calling me a whore from the afterlife." Carmalita sighed. “What’s her name?” I asked politely, bringing out Book of Retribution and Staff of Leniency real quick. "Rosa." “Alright, Commune with the Dead.” I said as my book opened up to the right spell. “I call upon Rosa Montoya Fox, get down here and explain yourself lady.” I frowned. “Uh… I don’t think she meant literally Kite…” Mom spoke up. “I’m pretty sure it’s literal.” I said honestly. “I’ve dealt with enough ‘not meant literally’ become literal very quickly.” “Now who’s dense?” Carmalita laughed. “Hey!” Sly yipped. “I called you as dense as a brick and got no reaction, what the hell bro?” I asked while continuing to try and contact the old lady as a dial tone was ringing at least in my ears. “I’m used to it from you.” Sly replied. “Fine fine.” I said. “Jeez, can’t be this hard to commune with the dead…” I muttered to myself. “Depends, which afterlife are you trying to call?” Matilda asked. “Carmelita...would you say your grandma would be in heaven or hell?” I inquired. “Hell. Definitely hell.” Carmalita said with a nod. “Didn’t want to assume.” I said while closing my book. “Never mind then, so anyways, back to the main topic at hand where people are way too okay with this…” “Are actually upset that we aren’t upset?” Mom asked. “I was more scared you were upset.” I said honestly. “And honestly, I’m just surprised none of you are upset given the obvious.” “Well, regardless of what you are, I know you are still my son. The stretch marks prove as much.” Mom said as I blushed a bit. “I remember growing up with you… and changing diapers.” Sly laughed. “Cops and Coopers.” Carmalita laughed. “Birthdays.” M said with a smile. “So, yeah, you’re something much more than we thought, but you’re still part of the family, still a cooper, and still Kite, be that your first or millionth name.” Uncle Jim said. “Thanks guys.” I smiled, truly happy to know I still belong with my family. “It means...so much more than you realize for me to hear that.” The next few days were more relaxing. All in all it was fun. Life was good and relaxing for a while. Finally though, the final battle against Clockwerk and saving dad was soon, and things could finally go back to normal, or at least, be calm. To be continued...
Nobody learns some thingsI hate paperwork. Greed and I were going through all the new supplies the former Nexus people were delivering on mass, endlessly since last week and… it doesn't seem to be ending anytime soon… “Jesus fuck, how much crap does Nexus even have?” I asked, shaking my furry hand as I wasn’t really used to this amount of paperwork. “Seriously, this is three times as much as what I normally do minimum.” "Clearly when an organization dates it's foundation back to the days of the admin war it can gather many trinkets." Greed said, counting the…. Four hundred billionth digital storage box filled only with iron. Four hundred billion boxes, each holding a centillion amount of a several million pound ingot… all only for iron so far! “The actual hell do they need this much iron for?” I whined. “I know if you make it right, Cold Iron can do wonders against certain magical factions but fuck…” "Just built up over time my Lord." Greed said, starting on the next box. I left. I need a break and I'm taking it in the one place I can really relax. I was enjoying the hot milk bath with Rarity. We made this a fairly regular thing since that first day and I have not regretted it. "So we just sit in warm milk?" Heart asked. I figured since Heart has never had a normal life back on earth and most likely never experienced the bliss of a spa, it would do them well. “Listen, I’ve never experienced a spa before until Rarity and others forced me here but...this milk bath, while a little weird that it’s with milk, is honestly a lot better than just a normal water based bath.” I explained. "It smells divine and since the liquid is milk, the more shy can feel a sense of security in the tub." Rarity added. Heart just shrugged. All in all they looked… unphased. Not relaxed and not stressed. I frowned at that as they looked around the room rather than just enjoying it. “Have you...never just relaxed in a hot bath before and just relaxed?” I inquired. "I never got a full right hours sleep until I was sent to Equestria, and even then it took a few months before I did." Heart stated. "Being born as public enemy number one tends to do that to you." "Why that's just dreadful." Rarity stated. “Sadly, that was his life back on Earth, way before all...this happened.” I sighed out. “But then...Heart’s life has been weird...and so has mine...life is just fucking weird the more I think about it.” "Eh. At this point I mostly just embraced it. The only real relaxing I ever did was when the girls and I, well, screwed." Heart said. "So you feel more comfortable relaxing through sex?" Rarity asked. "Basically. In case you two haven't noticed I don't have many hobbies, especially after beating Kingdom Hearts 3 on critical mode with all those restrictions." I still can't believe he did that. And in a week! Took me two months... “You still need a hobby.” I said honestly, trying not to get upset at how he beat something a whole lot harder to me. "Is sex a hobby?" "In this family, no. Sex in this family is more like our jobs before, during and after saving the realms." Rarity said. "Fun and enjoyable, oh yes. A hobby, no. Sadly." “I...wouldn’t call it a ‘job’...” I said sheepishly. “But that’s just me being a horny bastard half of the time.” I said sheepishly. "Would you prefer I call it your career darling?" Rarity asked, giving me a sly smile. “I wouldn’t call it my career but...well I am really good at it.” I shrugged. “So anyways, how have you two been?” "Well, when I'm not rutting with someone I'm sending keyblades to their wielders or giving birth or… that's about it these days." Heart said. "Well, The other Rarities and I have been working on a line of casual armor. Clothing that looks ordinary but is as bullet resistant as vibranium." Rarity said. “Neat.” I nodded. “I have been...busy with a whole lot of things...there’s counting all the Nexus inventory, the new recruits...preparing to fight Clockwerk as Kite...a whole lot of shit at the moment.” "Wow. You keep busy." Heart said. “Also I learned that Vincent is a physical manifestation of Grey...so there’s also that.” I said. “Which...that also involves Grey being a creation of Vincent’s...the original Vincent...bastard just wanted to either look like Vincent or took control of him, not sure which at this point…” "Okay… you bring that up because?" “Because it’s both important, and it involved one of the things I did today.” I said honestly. “Like how I fused with Cript and all my weapons become overpowered as shit.” "I thought the Override ability made a proper fusion impossible?" “How we fixed that is...a double edged sword.” I sighed out. “So in conjunction with me now owning all of Nexus that was going to get murdered in that Nexus Purge a long time ago...if Grey could cherry pick his own motley crew of people through time, I got to have a scroll full of a vast majority of his knowledge from all the ages he clearly remembered, and one of the things was Code Stitching.” I explained. “So we did a thing, and Cript no longer has the Override ability...which I also forgot I’m gonna need to do that to a lot of other people if that hasn’t happened yet.” "Okay. Anything else you wanna add to that?" “I’m sorry, I’ve been really busy...I need to vent a little.” I sighed out. “But...anything else to add…” "What about the kingdom? Anything new there?" Rarity asked. “Well…” I started thinking back on stuff in the kingdom. “Well, things are running smoothly at least, the photoshoot Kat, mine and Rarity’s fusion here, had is still making it’s rounds throughout the kingdom, and a few other things here and there.” I shrugged. "Nice. So, aside from soaking in warm milk what else are we gonna do here?" Heart asked. "After this is the full body massage, followed by a steam room, then a nice meal, ending with a full body wash and pampering." Rarity stated. “And trust me, all of those feel amazing.” I said happily. “Might be a bit more of my feminine side coming out on that, but even if I was a normal guy I’d still be super pleased with it.” "If you say so." Heart shrugged. “I know so.” I said honestly. The milk bath was going well. I took a nap and woke up some… hour later, seeing only Heart in the tub with me now. Heart was now looking relaxed at least. “Where’d Rarity go?” I yawned. “Take a guess.” Heart said, their tail emerging up from the milk. “Had a quickie, and my insides honestly are a better spa treatment than bathing in warm milk.” “Why didn’t you wake me up?” I pouted. “You looked so peaceful. Besides, Rarity still wanted you outside to make sure I actually went though the rest of this spa treatment.” “True.” I shrugged. “So we should be ending our milk bath soon, I forgot how long we’re supposed to be in here...also sorry for falling asleep...I’ve been really busy…” “Eh, you needed it.” After about thirty minutes later we were taken out of the milk bath and dried to enjoy a full body massage. As I was enjoying the stress getting massaged out of me, I looked over at Heart’s treatment… The staff seemed to be having trouble... “What’s wrong?” I inquired to the staff. “We can’t quite… push into the knots…” The masseuse said. “It’s like trying to massage stone. So much stress.” Heart shrugged. “We’d have better luck along the scales.” The other masseuse trying to work on Heart’s lower back said. “Need me to help out or cast buffs?” I asked curiously. “Cause I can do both if need be.” Needless to say after some of my best buffs, cast multiple times, and some help from me, the Dark monofilament that is the stress knots in Heart’s back, neck and arms were finally removed. I looked in amazement as I saw Heart bending their arms in ways that should be impossible, and even turn their waist around a full 360 degrees. “Wow, I haven’t been able to do that since I was ten.” They said, turning back to normal. “Uh…” I blinked. “How...why...and seriously?” “Ventral thing, not sure, and yeah. Guess that’s when my stress really started building.” Heart said simply. Up next was the steam room. Heart really got to stretch out in there and seemed to enjoy going completely nude while in there. “Heh, this kinda reminds me of my trips to Brazil.” “Why is that?” I asked curiously. “The warm humidity mostly. Was just like the… do you wanna know or shall that secret stay a secret?” “I’d like to know.” I said honestly. “It’s a lot like the nazi bunkers we’d stockpile every summer.” I stared at them. “You wanted to know.” “Well...I suppose.” I said nervously. “But really?” “Yeah, and hey, you enjoyed Apple products, right?” Again, I stared at them. “I’m not joking.” “Are...are you serious?” I asked carefully. “Yes. Apple was backed by the Nazi’s in brazil. Steve Jobs was the one they sent out to use america’s capitalism against them by using the Apple company to fund their second coming. Why else would a phone that costs like forty dollars in parts cost up to five hundred dollars on the market?” “Uh...huh…” I started. “Sure...why not.” “Wonder if those bunkers are still there?” Next was the meal. The buffet was as I remembered it and- “Sweet, food.” Heart said, going for the… unique foods. The ones that talk, and ate them all rapidly. “Sure are hungry.” I said in honest surprise at how rapidly Heart was eating. “Naga, remember?” Heart said, shoving one of those plant ladies down their gullet. “Besides, I’m sure Rarity will enjoy the company in there.” “That’s...also true.” I nodded, taking my time and enjoying my delicious food. After we were done in the buffet it was time for the bath and pampering. All was going well until it was time to clean Heart’s teeth… needless to say, the staff lost that game of tug of war and now they are also keeping Rarity company while Heart bathes themselves in their tub. The staff was washing me keeping some distance from Heart. “You know, it’s a lot better when your not shoving the staff into your stomach.” I pointed out. “What, they can pamper Rarity in there and it’s not like they aren’t enjoying it in there. Besides, when cleaning a naga, be cautious if you’re cleaning the teeth.” “It’s not the first time a guest does that.” The lady washing my tail said. “Bright side, when it does we get a small bonus for the trouble.” “Extra if they don’t let us out before leaving.” The one washing my head said. “A lot of extra.” With the watching done and after a while Heart did let the staff out, the pampering was finished and we headed off. I felt and looked amazing and Heart looked great, though they’d look even better if they didn’t keep the staff inside them for the bath part of the pampering. Heart and I returned to the cozy room of ours where we quickly got to cuddling, Heart was rather affectionate right now. “While I really enjoy the affection, why so affectionate right now?” I inquired my floof noodle love. “You work too much.” Heart said simply, giving me a sloppy kiss and getting as close against me as skin and our… rather large assets allow. “And… if I’m honest… I don’t want to fight anymore.” “Which kind of fighting?” I asked curiously. “Pretty much all of it.” Heart sighed, nuzzling into my neck. “Something Cript and I have in common is that we’re tired of the fighting. Battles… I know there’s still a massive war going on, but… I’m pretty happy like this. Sex, birth, babies, keyblades to weilders, repeat. Not necessarily in that order mind you.” “I understand.” I nodded. “All this fighting for this war is stupid and pointless...but it’s fighting that needs to be done to make sure future generations can live free and happy.” I said honestly. “Between you, Eclipsa, Cript and the others, I’m pretty sure I can get benched. Unless I’m really needed.” “You’ll always be needed.” I said honestly. "Maybe. Til then, shall we enjoy each other's company?" "Yes." I smiled, nuzzling my sweet Floor Noodle wife. I have to admit, I enjoyed this greatly. Heart and I typically would swap who rutted who after every climax, but this time it was after every four. They had an unfair advantage with that tail though, but I had ways of getting them back for that. At one point we managed to set ourselves so we both got inside each other at the same time and I won't lie, this is so far my favorite position. When we finally took a break Heart got nice and cozy between my knockers and used their tail to wrap us both up in it. I managed to wrap my arms around Heart so we were in a comfy little cuddle ball. "This is nice." I cooed happily. "Way better than a spa day, but that's just my opinion." Heart said. "So, ever give some of the things from Lyra and Rune's book a try?" "A few." I shrugged. "But after that...no." "Heh. What about number 88?" Number 88. If memory serves me right that one is… body possession? “No, I haven’t done that.” I said honestly. “Seems a little...strange.” "It's a bit interesting. Kinda like shapeshifting but you merge into your partner and feel their body as they wood, and of course, they also see, feel and all that you do while at the wheel. Can talk to you too, kinda like being Symbi in a way I guess. It's an interesting take on Dom and sub play." “Interesting.” I said honestly. “Don’t know if I’d do it but it’s interesting.” "Chicken." Heart huffed. "How about body swapping?" “Freaky Friday much?” I joked. "What? It's not all that different than Shapeshifting into one another. Single gendered sex?" “Way ahead of you on that way before I became this.” I chuckled. “And also true.” "Heh. Never tried pet play did ya?" “I tried, but it just...feels weird when we’re literally animals.” I said honestly. “Kind of hard to explain really.” Heart rolled their eyes. "You think too much." “Maybe.” I shrugged. “But you love me even if I overthink things.” "Yeah, but not gonna lie, a bimbo version of you sounds really hot. Bet Bimbo King would be up for possession and pet play~" “That’s not going to happen.” I softly patted Heart’s head. “I may fit two of the three criteria for it, but I’d like to keep my smarts thank you very much.” "Not like it's permanent. I've let Symbi do it to myself a few times. Gotta say being a stupid hot girl somehow made the sex better since it's about all I'd think about while like that. That and acorns. Those kept popping back up in my bimbofied brain." Heart said, looking about as confused as I was at that statement. "But fine, no hot bimbo king for me… unless…" “Besides...acorns being a really confusing thing for you to randomly think of, what do you mean ‘unless’?” I inquired. "Well, we are Admins. It won't be you, but a sexy bimbo copy of you sounds fun. More open to some of the wilder sex and I bet you've had sex with yourself, don't lie, so this time you won't have to focus on being both top and bottom of that situation." “Well...if it means I don’t have to force myself into something I might not like, then why not.” I shrugged. “Also...we could have just done that before with Starfish Clones though.” “Eh, so, if you make a bimbo you, I’ll make a bimbo me and we rutt each other silly?” “Sounds fair to me.” I nodded. So we did. I brought in a starfish clone, one of each of us, and set their minds to bimbo. Not quite brainless mind you, they still have enough of a personality and smarts to hold a conversation. Not gonna lie, seeing the now completely bimbo version of me groping their own breasts… was really hot. “Damn…” I blushed a bit. “That’s...really hot...is that what you guys think whenever I do that?” “Among other things~” Heart said, already groping their bimbo copy’s body. We gave them some personality physically to help tell us apart. Heart’s bimbo copy, we named Heat, cause why not, had pattern blue and black scales along their tail and upper body fur. Mine, we named Bing, yeah, creative I know, has neon blue hair along their head, ears, tip of their tail and at the bottom of their legs and arms. Eventually I took Bing’s hand, pulling them close. They smiled, blushing madly and looking at me with a strong need. “Please?” They begged softly. Hot fucking damn no wonder Heart want’s me to do this kind of stuff. “Okay Heart...I can see why.” I admitted. Heart didn't reply, already tongue deep in Heat’s mouth kissing as I soon did the same to Bing. I enjoyed this a lot. After some of the more wild sex I’ve ever had. I ended up enjoying that pet play a bit given… Bing was the pet. Maybe next time I will take up that offer to a round of pet play with Heart and Eclipsa. After what was arguably a marathon of sweat, grunts and sexual enjoyment, Bing and Heat went to getting it on with one another and Heart and I enjoyed the show. “I told you that would be fun.” Heart said, head resting atop my sticky breasts. “I know I know.” I chuckled. “So, next time I ask, wanna hold the leashes or wear a collar?” Heart asked, moving atop me, looking me right in the eyes with a loving smile. “Holding the leashes.” I said honestly, giving Heart a quick peck on the lips. “Good, Eclipsa will be thrilled~” Heart said, kissing me back. We kept up this kissing session for a long time, long enough for us to get absorbed in the mess of sex Bing and Heart were having. A not so quick orgy later Heart went to take Bing and Heat to the others, where I imagine Lyra and Rune will thoroughly enjoy their company. I took a nice bath to wash off the stickiness in my fur, and was off to find someone else to meet up with. King arrived in the nursery, one of his favorite places to be when not doing anything or someone. As he admired the infants within the cribs, all were sleeping soundly. As King walked along the way he spotted a familiar, identical Den Mother Wolf, Ophellia. Walking over, he spotted them over and noticed they were looking over Heart. Their Heart, still an infant and sleeping as well. “Hey Ophelia.” I said softly. “How are things going for ya?” “Good. I’m a bit concerned though.” She sighed, rubbing the sleeping Heart along their body. “He hasn’t woken up. He feeds, burps, all asleep. No dreams, and a dive to their heart shows nothing.” “That’s...not good or correct.” I said worriedly. “How can Ezekial be...effectively in a coma? Being reborn should have fixed everything.” “I don’t know. Back before we rediscovered a lot of research and knowledge the original Admin of Heart never bothered writing down. The only thing similar to this is when a heart gets fractured and a piece is removed. But his heart is whole.” “Maybe...we’re looking at this the wrong way.” I started. “He can move around fine, he can eat and do other things, but he’s still asleep...remember when we drowned?” I asked Ophelia carefully. “Way back, when we were like...I don’t know, seven or something? At the beach.” “Yeah… we only…” She looked down at Ezekial. “Missing his soul… That… might be it. Ezekiel has always been… fragile in how they exist. One missing piece, and they’re broken entirely…” “That’s Heart for ya.” I sighed out. “Now...the only problem is, where’s his soul? And how do we get it, cause I can’t tell where it is, and our domain is supposed to be about the Soul.” “Given when I… Most likely when he… his soul died as an admin would, reduced to base code…” Ophellia said, tears quickly forming and falling. “But… one, or rather, thirteen people might be able to help us.” “And luckily for us, their basically in our backyard.” I said with a smile. Ophelia gave Ezekial a quick kiss on the head before we rushed off. Arriving in the arena the Mushroom Thirteen made above the castle, the inside was different than I expected. It was all… empty, save for a single, rather tall Mushroom Thirteen, Number… zero? “Hello Champion.” Ophelia said. The tall Mushroom Thirteen nodded. “King, no, you go by Ophelia now. Timelines, am I right?” They asked with a chuckle. “I was wondering how long it would take for you to seek my help.” “We...well, Ophelia needs your help.” King said to the special Mushroom. “Also...who are you? I don’t remember finding you and...well I kind of think Mother told me about you, being the Admin of Challenges but...never formally met.” "Correct! I am Champion, the Admin of Challenges. Nice ta meet ya other Ophelia, er, King. Heh, Timelines. You two are here about Ezekiel's Soul." “Yes we are.” King nodded. “Cause neither me nor Ophelia can sense Ezekiel’s Soul, which should be impossible due to several reasons.” "Heh, silly puppy, nothing is impossible. You've restored his body and his heart but his soul is quite unique, even for a Cript." Champion said, now walking in a small circle. "Most Cript bodies and souls stay together, be them in parts or as a whole. Not Ezekiel's. Like a windup clock one gear missing renders the others immobile and useless." “So what does either me or Ophelia need to do to get his soul back?” King inquired to the mushroom. "Well, as you can guess I already have it. All you need to do is win it." "I'll beat whatever challenge you throw at me...as long as it means I can save Ezekiel." Ophelia stated. I'd expect nothing less. Now, is your younger self over there joining in as well or will she be watching it?" "While I'd like to help...I think Ophelia's got this." king said honestly. Nodding, Champion snapped his fingers. I found myself in a small boxes room. The scent of various snack foods hitting my nose as the wall before me showed Ophelia standing alone on a station of awakening. It depicted the Nobody symbol, stained red, crimson red. "Popcorn?" I turned, seeing Champion sitting on a large, comfy looking chair eating from a jumbo tub of popcorn. An identical chair was next to him. Behind those was a snack table loaded with various theatre based foods and drinks. "Sure." King nodded, grabbing a bag of popcorn to enjoy the upcoming show. On the platform, Ophelia took a long, deep breath as she held out her hands, in a flash, Lunatic appeared. The claymore now looked more like a sword than before, the tip of the blade showing the image of the moon reflected within it's metal. "Wow." King said honestly. "Didn't think Lunatic would look like that for her." The arena was silent for a time, Ophelia prepared for anything and everything Champion might throw at her, and soon a portal opened up fifty feet away from her and out...came Grey the Naga and Jake the Dullahan. "Wait, hold on what!?" Ophelia yelped in surprise at their sudden appearance. "Wait, isn't that her Eclipsa and her second in command?" King asked curiously, wondering why the hell they were here. "This is where the fun begins." Champion said happily, starting to eat more popcorn. Ophelia took a step back, the one thing she wasn't prepared for was her challenge to be against the one she loved and her most trusted advisor...and another thing she wasn't prepared for was Grey putting a hand on Jake as he turned into Hearts X-Blade form. "How!?" Ophelia panicked at the sight.ght of Heart’s X-blade form in Grey’s hand. “Excuse me?” King asked in both confusion and concern, seeing his older self start to shake from repressed emotions suddenly making their way into her mind. “I...I…” The older den mother tried to get to grips on what she was seeing, only to block a sudden powerful swing coming from the Naga, the ground cratering underneath the immense power. “I can’t…” “You have to.” The older version of Eclipsa told her coldly. “To save Ezekiel, you’ll have to beat the both of us.” “But...but I…” Ophelia teared up as she managed to knock them back. “Why does it have to be you two?” “Because we’re the only ones to knock some sense into you.” Grey said, rolling her shoulder as she started to get back into the swing of things. “Are you going to stand there and take it, or are you going to take a stand?” “I don’t want to fight you…” Ophelia stated. “But you were so happy to rip apart our-” Grey started to taunt, only to block Ophelia’s rage fueled swing. “I did what I had to to save you damn it!” Ophelia roared, kicking the Naga in the stomach and knocking them into the far wall. “I knew I was condemning myself to whatever pit of hell for doing that to him, but it was to make sure the same mistakes wouldn’t happen again! Where...where you were safe…” "You were too blind to your own grief to notice his. All he had after was you… and you betrayed him." “I already betrayed him by not saving you!” Ophelia barked at her. “And now he’s in a coma without a soul, and I have to fight one person I trust and the one I love...what sick joke is this?” The den mother growled angrily, thinking Jake turning into an X-blade was more so coincidence or just to fuck with her. “What about all the times he told you it’s not your fault?” Grey countered. “How many times did he tell you not to blame yourself because I sacrificed myself to keep you and our family safe and sound?” She asked, dashing forward and swinging at Ophelia, the wolf dodging but getting knocked to the ground hard by the Naga’s tail smacking them hard. There was a faint crack. Nothing broken, but cracked almost to breaking. Ophelia got up, clashing blades with Grey. "Selfish bitch." Grey growled, using their tail and wrapping it tight around Ophelia's neck. “I...gave up...everything…” Ophelia growled. “To fix my mistakes, and now that I have the chance…” Ophelia growled, Nothingness pulsating from her. “I’m going to fix it, and there’s nothing you can do to stop me!” Ophelia barked, grabbing Grey’s tail and pulling it away from her neck just enough so she could open her mouth, an orb of energy forming before a Howl Blast shot towards Grey’s face. The naga did what naga's do best. Ate a majority of the energy, what didn't get sent down her maw burned the flesh at the edges of their mouth and neck. Grey retightened their grip around Ophelia's neck, throwing her high into the air and launching herself up to her. Grey poured energy over their weapon, and when it clashed with Lunatic, the echos of warped metal rang loud as Lunatic bent and distorted, but did not break. Landing, Ophelia looked the claymore over, the blade now twisted and deformed to barely a quarter of it's true length and glory. She growled, disbanding it for Sky Splitter. This blade, King noted, looked far more like a tomahawk, the grip now longer and the blade much smaller. Yet, still, the blade seemed forged of pure energy. “Jeez, they are really going at it.” King said nervously, seeing Ophelia swing Sky Splitter down and...damn near cleaving a hole through reality as a bladed shockwave rushed towards Grey. “But...question, why did Jake turn into an X-blade? Just coincidence or something important?” King asked Champion as they took a swig of their complementary drink. “Well, since they can’t hear us.” Champion said as Grey dodged the swing and charged after Ophelia. “Way back when Ophelia first came here, she needed a strong enough heart to force the time travel but keep her body.” “So she stole Heart’s, yes.” King nodded. “Now here’s the kicker, if Eziekial had his body transformed into that keychain and used the power of his heart to funnel the time travel, what happened to his soul?” Champion asked. “Well...it would either go off to whatever afterlife he was allowed to go to or his soul would go somewhere else.” King answered. “And why do you think that suit of armor that Grey is wielding looks so eerily familiar?” Champion asked, looking at King as their eyes widened in realization. “There’s...there’s no way…” King stated breathlessly, seeing another earth shattering clash between the trio. “That...how?” “Right now, this match isn’t about who will win in a fight.” Champion stated, his voice sounding less jovial and more serious, seeing the clashes continue. “This challenge is about Ophelia getting past her sins, seeing that she still continues to hurt herself, and believes that she’s unforgivable when all she wanted to do was see her Eclipsa’s and Heart’s smiles again…” He explained. “Even though her Heart continued to support her even as a suit of armor.” “Jesus…” King muttered. “This...is a lot more than just fighting each other…” “All you’ve done is hurt more than you’ve helped!” Grey shouted as she parried another swing from Ophelia. “You think I don’t know that!?” The wolf countered. “Everything I’ve done is to see your smiles again, to see you all happy, even if it means I wouldn’t be apart of it.” “That’s the problem you moron!” Grey shouted as she tripped the wolf over. “Why do this!? Why any of this!?” “Because you’re worth all the pain damn it!” The Den Mother dodged a tail slam as she tackled Grey to the ground. “Everything I’ve done to this point was to bring you back! Everything I’ve done was to make Zeke stop crying! Our Children will stop crying! To...to make myself stop crying…” Tears hit Grey’s face as she saw Ophelia crying, but the wolf tried to swing her weapon again, only for her to get knocked off quickly. “You admit you’re at fault, when you still blindly deny it, as per usual.” Grey growled. “How many times have we told you we’re here to help?” “You weren’t here, and Zeke was so far gone I didn’t hear from him in years!” Ophelia countered. "Think, you're supposed to be smart!" Grey yelled, swinging down atop Ophelia, who used Sky Splitter to block. It did, Grey's blade stopping halfway down the handle. "Ezekiel isn't just one person, you always forgot that!" Grey picked harder, snapping Sky Splitter in two. Disbanding it, Ophelia brought in Frozen Pride, the shield very much resembling the original form, but a lighter blue and as clear as glass. “You mean his light and dark half that weren’t there either?” Ophelia countered. “Or what else did you have in mind for him?” "Miles." Ophelia froze. "Unum. Core. Guts. Vincent. Mors. Grathon. Raga. Xehanort. Peccator. Trixie. Simon. Starlight Glimmer. Tokoyami. Clementine. Meliodas. Raven. Eran. Alucard. Should I add the dead who's hearts rested within his? The keyblades awaiting wielders?" “Then...why didn’t any of them help?” Ophelia asked carefully, staring at Grey in the eyes. “Why did none of them take over Zeke’s body when he ran?” She growled. “Why didn’t any of them help me bury our children!? WHY WAS I THE ONLY ONE TO DIG AND MARK THEIR GRAVES HUH!?!” She shouted in pure rage and despair. “You know me...I wouldn’t have done this unless I was truly lost…” “You think it was only Heart who was hit by that grief? Countless exist as one within him, and one, single, powerful emotion sent them all into a chain reaction of despair and grief, tell me, in that chaos can even you break free and give comfort when the negativity of nearly an eternity of hearts, Keyblades and twenty equally powerful pieces all suffering from the same negativity, could you have imagined what that was like for them!?” “I don’t have to…” Ophelia started, only to shake her head. “First up, how the hell do you know all of this? You appeared in this timeline, and I never told you any of this…” Grey simply put her X-blade down. It shifted back into her right hand, who stood up, removing their helmet, revealing… nothing inside… That nothing soon formed a face Ophelia last saw, when she ripped his heart out. “Hell… can not come close to what I went though.” Ezekiel said. “Tourture, and death, would have been a blessing. Compared to that!” Ophelia took a step back. “B-b-but...how? You’re...you said you were Jake, a Dullahan Nobody…” The wolf stammered, her eyes starting to blur from even more tears forming. “I needed time. I needed to… calm, and subside the chain reaction from within. More importantly, I needed… her advice, her words… As a soul, I could only do so much. Even with Admin powers. Thankfully, I had means of achieving it.” Ezekiel said, summoning No Name and Gazing Eye. “I went back, took hold of this armor, and assumed the identity. My heart and body left in the present to heal and recover, the others could keep the body together. By the time I… had to return, I knew what I had to do. Had to… help us heal. When I returned, and began to finally bring everything down to stable levels… you showed up, and killed me.” “And...why…” Ophelia stared at the Dullahan. “Why didn’t you say anything sooner? Why just...go along with what I did? Why!? WHY!?!” She shouted at him .”You could have done anything, anything to try and make me think things through, not continue with what I did! I keep pushing off that the entire point of me doing any of this shit was pointless and a waste of time, why just now tell me the pointlessness was even more pointless!?” She shouted, pain and grief fueling her words. “What’s your excuse this time!? HUH!?” “I think we should stop this…” King started nervously, having a bad feeling about where this was going. “Even after everything that’s been happening…” Ophelia said. “I...I hoped with you being born again...could help me fix all my mistakes...help try and give you a life you always wanted…” Ophelia cried, as she brought out No Heart. “But...holding onto hope for something better for me was a mistake…” She said, bringing the blade up and flipping it around, pointing it at her chest. “Just like I’ve always been…” She said, the pain and grief she’s been holding back with anything and everything in this new world, with some shred of hope that things could get better, seemingly fully rushing into her mind as she believed there was nothing left for her, when the two people she cared for most told her she was a mistake. “I’m sorry…” Ophelia cried as she tried to impale her keyblade. In an instant, No Heart was on the ground as Grey and Eziekial held her tightly. “The actual hell are you doing!?” Grey said in honest panic. “Just...paying for my mistakes?” Ophelia asked, completely weak and defeated, not having anymore energy to fight back. Grey and Ezekial stood up, looking at her. She shrunk, then yipped as the two of them suddenly brought out spray bottles and sprayed at them on her. “Bad Ophelia.” Grey said. “We do not suicide.” “The hell!?” Ophelia snapped in shock. “We’re having an important conversation, why spray bottles?” She pouted, her eyes still red from all the tears she shed. “Cause when you get like this, snapping you out typically involves something random and unexpected.” Ezekiel said. “Ophelia, I’m not mad… okay a little mad you killed me. It hurt… a lot…” They deadpanned. “The reason I never did anything while back in time is because Grey asked me not to.” Opelia turned to Grey, who nodded. “If I was to sacrifice myself to save you all, I’d do so over, and over again with no regrets. You’d do the same, the… lengths you’ve gone through so far prove as much. What you forget is that, like how you’d have wanted us to live and you’d take my place, we’d want the exact same thing. It’s not healthy, I was hoping when Ezekiel went back to his time, you two could heal, move on, and rebuild. While it didn’t happen like I hoped… it all worked out in the end.” Grey said, kneeling down to Ophelia. “You love me too much to let me die. I love you too much to let you die.” “Same goes for me.” Ezekiel said, kneeling now also. “I’m… sorry, I couldn’t get to you sooner. I had two hundred years when I got back to my time, but the grief was just… multiplying on everyone within me. Keeping it from affecting the hearts of the living was hard enough, healing and calming it was another headache entirely. Every one of my pieces love Grey, and you, just as much as I do. Being in a world without her… was a nightmare. Still, I returned to my body, and worked to fix them, so I can fix myself…” He lifted Ophelia’s chin. “So I can help fix you. My only regret is that I didn’t get back sooner. If even by just a day, an hour, a second… none of this would have happened.” “You...you two really...but...everything I’ve done…” She started sadly. “Ophelia, this is us we’re talking about. Remember that time Grey bet we couldn’t populate a galaxy’s worth of planet with one round in the sack?” Ezekiel asked. “Or the time you got sad when this one traveler you were watching died in a fall so you altered the afterlife to give them a chance to return to life, then helped them do just that?” Grey asked. “Or the time you took up a role with the Grimm Reapers Society and kept un-deathing all the children and infants regardless of how they died, since you kept fixing their bodies to full health.” “Or the time you went about granting wishes and ended up with that sexy pet bird lady cause she wanted to be your plaything?” “Or the time you rewrote all existing books to ‘fix’ any spelling or structure errors and somehow just ended up writing out porn of every book in existence, even the already pornographic ones?” “Or the time-” “Yes yes, I get it.” Ophelia started. “But I’m talking about in recent times...you two are...willing to forgive me?” “Well, we are, but there will be conditions to start off.” Grey said. “This timeline, is not ours. We are just, well, lucky to even be alive or, well, existing here. So from this point on, we exist as part of it but can’t help shape it. Leave that to this timeline’s versions of us, okay?” Ezekiel asked. “We may not be able to help shape it, but we’re going to have to help deal with the...overarching problem.” Ophelia pointed out. “No matter what timeline we’re on, the Big Bad here will cause all of it to disappear.” “In time.” Grey said. “Second, we can help teach and show this, and some other timeline versions of us what they can do, but we can’t help them train at it.” “Seems a little strange when...we’d be doing that exact thing by teaching them but sure.” Ophelia nodded, not wanting to get too into semantics as she’d just sooner go home with these two and just cuddle for the next...eternity. “Third, when I return to my body, the one you birthed, I… won’t remember anything. Not at first anyway.” Ezekiel sighed. “I’d basically be reincarnating into, well, myself. While my soul still has the memories, my mind and heart are blank slates. I will be, well, a baby, and grow into who I am, but I have no idea when or even if my memories will return. If they do, we celebrate the way we know how. If not… then I’ll be Ezekial, your son.” “B-but…” Ophelia started. “You can still have him as a lover if you want! Me, Eclipsa and Heart already did stuff like that before.” King called out. “Wait what?” Ophelia looked at her younger self in confusion. “It was a thing a while ago, Heart’s idea to try out a new life, it’s a whole thing.” King called out. “Well… that aside, yes. If I don’t regain my memories, then that is that. If I do, then we can be just like before, but even as parents, lovers… or both as King there stated, context or not that’s a tad odd… I will still love you. That will never change.” Ezekiel said, giving Ophelia a kiss she melted into. When it parted, she was left smiling. Sad it was over, but smiling. “That is a promise.” “Please…” She said, her tail wagging in pure joy. “And...I’m sure there’s a way to make sure you get your memories back...how, not sure at the moment but...well I’m just glad you're both forgiving me…” “Now, onto the final condition. You have to wear it FOREVER.” Grey stated, growing a smile. Ophelia frowned, confused at first then her eyes went wide, ears folding back in pure fear. “No! We promised none of us would ever where that again!” Ophelia said in panic. “That was more you than us.” Ezekiel said with a chuckle. “It’s the final condition Ophelia, come on, you know you enjoyed having them on~” Grey teased. “Not forever, and only during bed stuff.” Ophelia tried to compromise. “Forever and you never leave the bedroom~ Well, aside from feeding and caring for the infants, but even then you leave them on!” Grey quipped. “Final offer no negotiations.” “Everything else was fine until we got to this part.” Ophelia grumbled. “I want to be forgiven but...that’s legitimately asking too much by ‘wearing that forever and also never leaving bed’...this isn’t negotiations, that’s just a fact.” “Consider it the price you pay for your actions.” “And we both know when you wore them, Grey was extra perky with you. Is it that bad of a final condition?” Ezekiel asked. “Wearing it forever and never leaving the bedroom, which part didn’t tip off that it was a bad final condition?” Ophelia deadpanned. “Are you saying you don’t want to cuddle and rutt with me forever?” Grey asked, giving a mock hurt tone. “I never said that.” Ophelia countered. “And...really? That’s...all we’d be doing?” “Well, at least until we made up for lost time~” Grey teased. “Once we have you can reach out to everyone else in the family, and we can finally go on those trips you were always too busy for because of this or that or ect.” “And you’d be raising me so, you can take me to parks or theme parks or wherever really.” Ezekiel added. “I get to choose my wardrobe when we go out to more public outings.” Ophelia brought to the table. “There is a lot of outfits in this timeline I would love to wear on our outings...plus there’s a lot to add to the bedroom to be honest.” “Okay, but you keep them on while wearing them, but you can cast illusion magic to make them invisible to anyone outside the family.” Grey offered. “That would be a tad uncomfortable with all the fur but...I can at least try.” Ophelia said. “I just…” She grew back to full size and hugged the two of them. “I just want things to go back...where we’re all happy again…” “Then all is forgiven.” Grey said, she and Ezekiel hugging Ophelia tightly. When it was over Grey brought out a bag, Ophelia sighing as she accepted her fate. Grey adorned around Ophelia’s neck a hot pink leather collar, the tag reading, from top to bottom, Horny Girl Ophelia Baby Maker. Next came a fairly large hot pink bow, velvet stitches spelling out Bottom Me Only visible to anyone who looked at the hair bow. Champion burst into laughter, while King blushed, sharing in Ophelia’s embarrassment yet also wanting to take up the bow and collar’s offer on their wearer. “No, I don’t want that, that’s just the writer.” King grumbled, shaking his head quickly. “Gods...this is so embarrassing…” Ophelia muttered. “And how the fuck did we get from me trying to kill myself from a deppressive outburst to this shit?” She frowned. Grey simply gave Ophelia a kiss. "You are adorable when you're flustered, you know that?" “You didn’t answer my question…” Ophelia grumbled, hugging Grey again. “I’m more than just...this ya know?” Ophelia pouted cutely. "We know, but this is your only real punishment for killing me." Ezekiel said. "And going bad shit crazy after I died and not considering how others were affected and going back in time to kill your past self, which makes no sense, in an effort to save me. Seriously, how did you expect that plan to even work?" Grey added. “I was going to kill Jericho in this past, not King.” Ophelia deadpanned. “Or at least, make sure my mistakes weren’t repeated...and thankfully they weren’t...by also making this entire trip pointless on principle, but...well I still have you two at least.” "That's my sweetie." Grey said, hugging Ophelia. "Guess I'd better get reincarnated then." Ezekiel said, the armor around him falling off, showing the soul bound to it. He gave the two a hug as well. "See you both later, okay?" “See you later…” Ophelia hugged Ezekiel’s soul. With that, Ezekiel faded, leaving behind a small cluster of lights that too soon faded away. Grey took Ophelia's hand. "Let's go home." Four Days Later I was nursing Ezekiel for Ophelia, who just barely got out of her and Grey's 'making up for lost time' session. The poor den mother was completely unable to walk, but still had a large satisfied smile on her face despite the… heavy redness of her rear, crotch and, well, everywhere really. “How Grey hasn’t broken your hips or...anything else.” I shook my head at seeing the mess of a Den Mother. "Oh she did… several times." “Good lord.” I shook my head. “You’re gonna need a break sooner or later to make sure it doesn’t go overboard.” "You kidding, with all that I did and how Much I missed her, I'm enjoying it." Ophelia said with a smile and a sigh. "Even if I get resized down there…" “Well...at least you're having fun.” I nodded. “But...I didn’t think...it would have been that rough for you...I mean, I had an idea but...didn’t truly know.” I sighed out. "Just be glad you will never have to go through what we did." Ophelia said, sighing as she took out a healing potion. It was fairly potent and after drinking it she looked back to perfect health. She then took Ezekiel from me, feeding him herself now. "God I missed this part more than anything." “I understand that feeling.” I chuckled. “So...what now with you? Just gonna...continue this?” I asked, motioning to her outfit as a reason. "Heh, for a while. There are a lot of things I will be doing, and as part of the agreement I will help teach you things by showing you what you can do. But mostly I'll just be helping around the nursery or take up some other hobbies." “Sounds fair.” I nodded. “You do you, and as long as you're happy, then that’s all I could ask at the moment.” "Thank you. So, what about you? Got anything planned for the moment?" “No idea, cause I’m just...wanting to take a break from all the current shit going on.” I sighed out. "Then do so, or you'll miss out on so much." “But I have no idea what to do, cause there’s a whole lot of stuff to do.” I frowned. "Hmm… how about… a walk?" A walk… huh. I sighed, smiling as I took in the fresh air. I took the form of my original human self for this, not many people know me like this so it fits and I started walking. I was enjoying the sun, some music playing from my assistant right into my ears. Walking amongst the people without getting mobbed by them was a nice change of pace. “It’s been forever since I last was just a human…” I muttered to myself, feeling a little weird not having any fur but just happy to be in casual clothes and enjoying the nice warm day. It had been forever since I saw my original face too. Seeing it in window reflections was almost surreal. As I walked along I stopped inside a mini mart, getting a soda and chips. It was nice, to enjoy the simple, casualness of it all. Eventually I found my way to the library, finding a vacant table and grabbed the nearest book off the shelf and started reading. It was a story about a viking, traveling across the seas to battle Thor. It was simple, but enjoyable. “This is the life.” I sighed out in bliss, just enjoying the finer things of being inside library after so long. I finished the book, moved onto another, and five books later I got up and left, finding a pizza place and eating a few slices before making my way to a park where I sat on a bench, watching everyone of all kinds of races interacting, kids playing and smiling at it all. "It's beautiful, isn't it?" I looked to my side, seeing Cript sitting on the bench next to me, smiling. “Howdy.” I nodded. “And yes, yes it is.” I said warmly. "How long has it been since you last got to enjoy the little things?" “It’s been...too long honestly.” I sighed out. "They say those who fight for peace never get to experience it. I'd say that's true enough." Cript sighed, slouching now. "When I was traveling back when I was just a mage, I'd often sit in parks like this and just, just watch everyone in it. Thinking about who they were or what they did." “Yeah…” I nodded. “It’s...really tough when you’re so busy all the time...but we need to enjoy the little things.” "Or we risk forgetting why we fight for it." Cript added. “Yes.” I nodded. “All of this...is for them.” Still in my old human body, I decided to take a walk around a place I haven't been to in ages. Ponyville. It was a merge of, well, every Ponyville in existence so the 'small town' was only as small as the multiverse and timelines variations of them are when merged into a single location. Still, it was nice to see the odd yet familiar place. Sugar Cube corner for example was considered a chain now with all the, well, Cakes banding together to make the store stay a popular site to eat. The same went for the Golden Oaks Libraries, Quills and Sofas, ect. I stopped by Sweet Apple Acres. It has been a while since I last spoke to AJ and honestly found it funny how out of all of us the only one to get AJ in their family was Heart. "God it's been forever since I've walked this road…" I muttered to myself, feeling like I'm walking in a dream given how long it's been. I walked up to one of the many identical farm houses on the property. Thanks to the Assistant this makes knowing which farm house is the one I know, I knocked on the door, greeted by… woah. Apple Bloom had her hair brushes flat entirely, bow still atop her head though and her figure was just like Applejack's. She grew up, and we'll too. Last time I saw her she was half my height causing trouble in pursuit of her cutie mark… now she's an adult. "Well ah'll be a Griffons Uncle. That you King? I haven't seen ya in years. Let alone in that body." "And look at you AB...you've grown so much I barely recognized you." I said, my heart slightly pained as I thought back to so many things. "How's life?" "Well, ya know that new thing with how aging works?" I shook my head. "Heh, well basically we live… a lot longer now. I'm actually gonna turn four hundred and ninety seven next month." My eyes widened. "Some new Thing Cript did to everyone. Way back, and honestly a lot of us enjoy it. Not much worry about lacking time anymore." Hearing her say her new age...it honestly hurt me to know it's been that long and I just...missed so much. "So...how's Joy and the rest been?" I asked carefully, trying to push back my pain. "Pain in the rear, but that's mostly just in the bed." She said with a laugh. "All in all things have been quiet. The girls and I are all grandparents several times over now, and most of the time when Joy isn't up at the castle helping ya'll out he's here with us helping the farm, ya see how big it is right?" "Yeah, it's gotten huge." I said honestly, still trying to wrap my head around everything I've missed. "You wanna come in? I got some nice Zap Apple Cider in the fridge." "Please." I nodded. "I'm gonna…need a drink…" I sighed out. Once inside Apple Bloom poured me a mug of Zap Apple Cider. Part of me was so very happy the inside of this place hasn't changed at all. "So what brings ya here?" Apple Bloom asked, taking a sip of the cider from the other end of the table. “Just taking a walk.” I said honestly, taking a sip of my own cider. “Trying to take a break from...everything, relax and relearn what I’m fighting for...only to realize everything around me has jumped a couple hundred years…” "Heh. Time waits for no one. A lot has changed." “A whole lot...and all I’ve been doing is...well making sure it doesn’t implode or explode.” I said honestly. “It...honestly hurt a bit to hear how long it’s been…” Apple Bloom shrugged. "To be honest I still find it strange, wake up in the morning and see the same face for almost five hundred years now. So, I take it you'll want a recap of any notable events?" “Please, considering…” I sighed out. “I haven’t talked to Joy outside of work so much…” "Heh. Well, when we first got the news about us all gonna live as long if not longer than Celestia and Luna, we were around seventeen at the time. Sweetie Bell and Scootaloo were the first of us three to have kids with Joy. Gabby had about six by that time. Frisk, Chara and Asriel, four each. Lovely had two by then and Tiara so far hasn't had any." “Why hasn’t Tiara had any? Also...surprised Jenny wasn’t the first one to have kids.” I said honestly. "She's just barely gonna have her first. It's due in October. She figured that, given how pregnancy works for us, she'll only birth one at a time and raise them to adults, then birth another after. As for Tiara, well, given her job she ironically can't make the time to be a mom. As is, she's barely able to make time for us." “Well that sucks.” I said sadly. “But...how’s Joy been outside of work?” "Pretty good. Sometimes he'll go out and drink with some friends or with us. Or both. We go out to eat on date nights, and thankfully our sex lives have been fairly constant." “That’s good.” I nodded. “I...need to have a day with Joy...even though way back when he was in my head...he’s my little brother...and I haven’t spent any time with him...” “Life’s been keeping everybody busy. As your general Joy often just either does paperwork of checks on the troops that head out to the front lines. With that deal ya made with Vincent the forces on Nexus’s side are finally slowing. Soon that front line won't be that anymore.” “Yeah but…” I sighed out. “Worse things are going to happen...also wait, Joy told you that?” “I am one of his wives, he talks. It’s a thing partners do to keep involved in one another's lives and not worry them with secrets and lies. Ya know, a healthy marriage?” “I know I know…” I looked down. “It’s...all this work just keeps me from enjoying everything…” I grumbled, my shoulders slumping in bitterness. “Even with clones and that special place each of us hang out in...it can only do so much when...this is missed.” I motioned to how AB looks. “I...don’t even remember the last birthday I’ve either had or been apart of...hell I don’t even know how old I am!” I flung my hands into the air. “Heh, fair enough. Do you at least remember what day your birthday is on?” “December 8th.” I said readily. “Hmm. Too early in the year right now. Tell ya what, how’s about you come along later tonight and we can have a little get together. You can meet everyone and catch up personally.” “That...would be great.” I said with a tired smile. “I...need some normalcy...like...none of what’s been going on is happening…” I sighed out. “Just a simple part in Ponyville with my family and friends.” “We all need some return to simpler times. Remember when your biggest worry was Core, now he’s part of the family with his wife and all that.” “Oh yeah.” I nodded. “And when Psychopaths were actually supposed to be a threat, and now they're...really not.” “Yeah. Why don’t you and sis head into town while I get everythin together. She should be upstairs. Be right back.” Apple Bloom said, rushing to the stairs. I finished my cider, enjoying the unique taste Zap Apple’s gave to cider. Starts off real strong and sour, then ends with a sweet honey like aftertaste. After a minute, Applebloom came back down with her older sister. To my pleasure the mare hasn’t changed since I last saw her… helping with her zap apples since they had a unique reaction to the realm of Nothingness. “Howdy King.” AJ said, tipping her hat to me. “Glad to see someone I haven’t seen in a while hasn’t changed.” I sighed out thankfully. “How you doing AJ?” “Been fine. Working alongside a million others of me has been interesting, but work gets done. Come on now, Bloom’s gonna get this get up started so we gotta skedaddle.” The farm mare said, taking my hand and the two of us left, heading back into town. Now, given how big Ponyville is, you’d think that walk would take an eternity. Normally, you’d be right but there are portal stops set up everywhere to make getting around simpler. One portal later we were in the center of the town. “So, what ya itchen for partner?” “A date? So soon?” I asked in mock surprise. “Why AJ, it’s only been...forever and a half since we last talked...you know this would work more if I knew how long it’s been since we last talked.” I frowned. Aj laughed. “From what Rarity tells me that’s not a deal breaker with ya.” She said, poking my nose, making me laugh too. “Nah, not a date, more a proper meeting. We didn’t actually talk much before, and even after Bloom joined up with Joy I got to know that pup more than I got to know ya. Figure it’s about time I remedy that.” “True.” I said, looking around as to where to start. “It’s...been so long…” I said, nostalgia hitting me as I saw the same humble and lively town and it’s denizens milling about...while it was good nostalgia, it still hurt a bit at how much I missed this. “Well...I don’t know where to start honestly.” “Come alone. I know just the place.” It was a short walk to a little nook in the middle of nowhere. Or rather, in the middle of two larger, fancier places sat a simple brick building. The sign saying Bar, and nothing else. Entering the place the inside was rather nice. Snazzy and well kept, but completely empty. Save for the Barkeep, who wore a nice and fancy suit. To my surprise, he looked human to boot. “Glad to see ya back AJ, fancy the usual?” The Barkeep asked. “Make it two.” AJ said as we took our seats at the main bar table. Soon two mugs of a golden and foamy liquid were before each of us, accompanied by a bowl of mixed nuts and pretzels. “So what is this place?” I inquired. “Cause this place is most...certainly not your average bar, if the innate magic in this place has anything to say about it.” I brought up, so used to having my senses active at all times I couldn’t help but notice there was something special about this place. “I’d expect nothing less from the Admin of Nothingness.” The barkeep said. My eyes widened as he said my title. He winked, code flashing from his fingers as they then made a large bottle of wine. “Eyup.” AJ said. “King, meet Barkeep, the Admin of Liquor.” Applejack said, taking a drink of her booze. “Pleasure.” Barkeep said. “So that’s why…” I muttered. “So, what brings you here specifically? Or is this your own special bar that just teleports anywhere?” I took a wild guess there as I took a sip of my drink. “Kid, this bar is as omnipresent as you with your Starfish clones. Everywhere and yet nowhere. More of a paradox but my point still stands. I’ve been doing this since the Admin War ended.” Barkeep said, looking through the various bottles along the shelves behind him. “I may have invented booze but you people. Heh, you embraced and refined it, brings a tear to my eye.” “Well, when the drink is addictive to hell, some people have got to try and refine it so it won’t completely destroy someone’s liver and also not taste like gasoline.” I shrugged. “Seriously...some alcohols are just bad…” “Ah now that is just your opinion on the matter kid. Every race in this existence has different biologies, different pallets, and different and unique tastes for each and everyone. What you call crap could be another’s Rothchid. Point is, don’t diss the drink cause the body you have can’t handle the flavor like others can.” “I can, and I’m not the only one that does it, but fair.” I said with a raised hand. “But anyways, what is this drink? It’s pretty good.” I said while taking another sip of my drink. “Rogathian Honeyberry mead. Grown in the fall, brewed in the winter and aged for thirty years to perfection in copperwood kegs.” “Nice.” I nodded. “So, what brings you to our neck of the woods if I may ask? Just because we were looking for a drink?” “Bit of both. My bar is always here, but sometimes it’s not. Still, it’s always here for the people who need a good drink and a good talking too when somethings got them troubled, then and only then can they see and enter my bar. Course, regulars who are just good company like AJ here get a free pass on the regular.” AJ reached inside her hat, pulling out a pamphlet, showing the bar from the outside on the cover. “Been coming here every so often for the past two hundred years or so.” AJ said, putting the pamphlet back. “That pamphlet is the key to always getting allowed in my bar, problems or not. Ya only get it if I like ya.” Barkeep said with a chuckle. “Cool.” I nodded. “So...how long have you ‘been in business’ as it were?” I asked the old admin. “Like I said, after the Admin War.” “Well...yeah, sounds about right.” I nodded. “Gonna need all the booze in the world to forget that from what I’ve heard about it.” "I didn't participate, so I wouldn't have known." Barkeep stated. "Just hunkered down here and waited it out. Whole thing was pointless as far as I'm concerned." "Fair." I nodded. "Why fight when you can share a drink?" "Here here." Barkeep said, picking up a flask from his suits inner pocket and taking a swig. "So, anything in particular you wanna talk about partner?" AJ asked me. "Well…" I started. "Who have you met over these long years?" "Met, nobody really. Sure I've had a fling or two here or there but nothin serious. Big Mac on the other hand is married. Sweet little thing named Sugar Bell." “That’s...not what I meant but sure.” I shrugged. “I meant what people have you met from them coming here for a drink?” "Heh, all sorts of folks. Met this one guy from a place called Yharnam, talked about beasts he killed and monsters from the moon. Another fella called himself Jecht, some old sports star from what he was boasting about. Then I met that little blue monster again, Stitch. Most interesting was this one kid, was suited up head ta toe in a funny blue jumpsuit with the number 13 in yellow on his back. Only bought water and a whiskey ta go." “Interesting.” I said honestly. "There was this one gal I had a good talk too, some witch, or so she said, long black hair and a real fancy figure. Then there was this one guy, said he worked studying bugs and such to help solve crimes. Lot of folks come here." “Cool.” I nodded. “Whole lot of people from all around.” "Yup." Barkeep said. "So aside from who I have met while being a regular here, anything else you wanna talk about?" AJ asked. “How...do you also keep track of things outside of work?” I asked carefully. “Like...I know I’m really busy, but also have starfish clones but...when I got to Sweet Apple Acres and saw Apple Bloom grown up I just...felt like everything just kind of slipped away from me, so busy with running the kingdom, dealing with this war, and a whole host of other things.” "Well, I didn't catch everything." AJ said. "A'h missed the birth of my first nephew from Bloom, their first goofball game. Wedding… fact is King, you can't catch everything. Something is always gonna slip through your fingers. But as long as someone was there to tell ya all about it, with pictures or video to boot, you can catch up on what ya missed, and ya can make up for that missed time later." “But...before, I felt a lot...closer to all of it, like ‘darn I missed it’ rather than ‘I didn’t even know which of Joy’s wives had kids’.” I sighed out. "life goes on. All we can do is make up for the lost time with what we have before us." “I know…” I sighed out. “But it also sucks when one of them is your daughter and you haven’t heard from her in a while…” "Jenny, right?" “Yes.” I nodded. “Jenny...we’ve talked a few times before because of work but...I don’t remember the last time we had ‘parent child’ time as it were…” "Joy and Bloom tell me she's working on the front lines. Sniper, got nicknamed Jam Gun Jenny." “And not a single day goes by when I’m not scared for her safety…” I sighed out. “But yeah, she’s a real good shot from the reports I’ve heard. And...hopefully with me now owning Nexus, a majority of this fight will end.” "In time." “That’s all we have, even though Time doesn’t fully exist anymore.” I brought up. "Something to drink on." AJ said, raising a mug. I did the same and we took a swig each. "Still not used to seeing Granny Smith looking as young as me though." “Must have been one hell of a day when Granny figured that out.” I chuckled. "She went out dancing and drinking for three days straight… and now we got a new grandpa." AJ said with a laugh. "Still, she's happy and now we have a lot of new aunts and uncles." “Always remember...your grandparents were hot once, as some people have weirdly mentioned to me.” I said honestly. “Don’t know why...but they're probably laughing at being proven right.” I shrugged. “So besides talking about how Granny Smith got laid...what else do you want to talk about?” I asked AJ, wondering if she had any questions for me. "Well, how's been royalty?" “Still a massive hassle.” I grumbled. “Still too much paperwork…” "Yeesh. And I thought the paperwork on the farm was bad. How's Twilight? Haven't seen her in a few… dozen years or so." “She’s doing well.” I nodded. “She’s certainly enjoying all the new things to learn and study and a bunch of other things she’s still into after all this time.” I chuckled. "Heh, sounds about right. Surprised she ain't a teacher yet." “She’s brought it up a few times, trying to figure out how to considering one of the other reflections we managed to bring here had a ‘Friendship School’ that Twilight owned.” I brought up. "Wow. Heh sounds nice. What about Celestia and Luna? Whole lot a new generations are growing up and learning about how Celestia and Luna USED to raise and lower the sun and moon." “Honestly, the day they learned that nature finally took control of the sun and moon cycles, they both cheered for a good twenty seconds, and then went to bed.” I chuckled. “Celestia may claim she’s a morning person, but Luna’s more of a morning person unless Celestia get’s her morning Coffee.” "Heh, funny. So, how's been your own kids?" “It’s going well, always a wonderful time taking care of my kids, seeing them grow up happy and healthy and raring to go for whatever life outside the war throws at them.” I said honestly. "That's nice. How about Your parents? Heard some stuff on the news and… not sure what's true and what's not?" “Well, my original birth parents are having a blast in this world, enjoying their new dire wolf forms, enjoying the truck loads of grandkids and great grandkids, and is overall just enjoying life.” I said honestly. "And the ones from Cript's side?" “Den is doing well, finally got done showing her some of my favorite games cause...well when the world is really far in time, a whole lot of previous games I enjoyed finally got sequels and remasters so there’s that.” I shrugged. “And even if she might not enjoy it...well she’s just enjoying learning something that I enjoy.” "And the rumors about you all having kids with each other?" “Well…” I thought back .”It was one hell of a Mother’s day that’s for sure.” I chuckled. ”Both of them were okay with it, and given how the family’s...biology works, no harm done to the kids because of it.” "A'h figured. Apparently they now teach that while incest is still a social tabboo, biologically, now anyone can do it. Seriously, walked in on some very, very awkward situation." AJ said, taking another swig from her mug. “My first thought was Big Mac getting too drunk with Granny Smith and I don’t know why...” I started nervously. "Thankfully that didn't happen, was more amongst the teenagers." AJ said, shivering. “Sounds about right.” I nodded. "Aside from that little bit of awkwardness every now and then, life has been really good. Apples are growing all year round, even in the winter, same with Zap Apples and we expanded to all kinds of wild and crazy new apple types." “Cool.” I nodded with a smile. “What kind of apples you got?” “Magic Apples, Jack Apples, Maple Apples, Iron Apples, Golden Apples, Seedless Apples, Cloud Farmed apple, though I would not call them apples personally, and a whole lot more my buzz can’t get me to list off at the moment.” “Fair.” I shrugged. “But got a whole lot of apples to make into all sorts of food, drinks or booze.” I said honestly, taking another swig of my drink. “Heh, eyup.” AJ said with a smile. “So King, mind if I ask ya a bit of an odd question?” “Go ahead.” I nodded. “What’s this odd question?” “Well, how come you never… offered, offered me I mean. I… place, in yer herd…” She said, turning a bit red now. “Fluttershy has Discord, and Rainbow Dash has Spike, I was the only odd mare out.” “That’s...honestly my fault.” I sighed out. “I never visited as much as I should have, or even talked to you all that much.” I explained bitterly. “But...I can rectify that mistake if you want.” “Honestly, I dunno. Part of me thinks it would be nice, but the other is scared of changing how my life here is. I’m content, but I still want somebody to be with. Though, given what I hear about ya, that might be a simple thing to pull off.” “Starfish clones are a hell of a thing.” I chuckled. “And I’m happy with whatever you want to do.” “So, just you and I here? Heh, sounds nice.” “Best consider how to set up your new life though.” Barkeep said, cleaning a cup. “While not many know or remember your human face, you really can’t go out in your wolf forms either. Best bet to live a normal life, the Admin Game. Make a new life, and from there, live and experience the reasons why you fight.” “That’s...a good point.” I said honestly. “Would be interesting to say the least.” “And nobody would know either.” AJ added. “And technically, it’s not a lie if yer body is that of someone new entirely.” True… I… everyone, doing that, can live and experience normal lives while still being the heads of the kingdom… The combinations of who and where are pretty much endless there, but given that’s not really an issue either… Only question is, am I a Unicorn, Pegasus or Earth Pony? “Question, do you want me to be a pony or something else?” I asked AJ real quick. “A stallion is fine, as fer what kind… surprise me.” I nodded, standing up and thinking. Given I’m likely going to be helping out a lot on the farm as well, I went for an earth pony, just an inch taller than AJ’s height. I’m going generic in regards to body type but that will improve later on. Colors for my mane, tail and coat were… hmm… I went with a midnight blue for my mane and tail. Feels weird having that and not being able to move it. My coat color is a dark purplish red, and lastly my eyes I kept the normal blue of my wolf form. For clothes I gave myself a basic white shirt and jeans with black shoes. AJ gave a whistle. “Looking good partner, all that’s left is your name.” “My one weakness.” I frowned. “Cause I sure as shit don’t know how to name properly besides looking it up on the internet.” “Well, how’s about something that gives away who ya are, but only to those that know ya?” Barkeep offered. A name that’s an inside joke? Hmm… Got it. “Pale Paladin.” I said. AJ chuckled. “Whoo that was a long time ago you went by White Knight. Good choice.” “Literally only my family would know this joke to be honest.” I chuckled. “So I think I’m gonna be pretty safe from unwanted attention.” “Save mine, right?” Aj asked, giving me a smile. “You are wanted attention.” I said warmly. “And I’m here for you and only you AJ.” Walking back from the bar, it felt nice to walk anywhere and not get mobbed. Especially with a lovely lady on my arm. This body has only… about .5% of my total powers. Enough to keep me sober after the booze but sadly AJ did have a buzz on her. "Heh, thanks for this K- heh, Pale." AJ said. “No problem my fair lady.” I said with a warm smile. AJ blushed, giggling in her buzzed state. "Lady, heh, haven't been called that since I lived in Manehattan." “I believe you were visiting your family...I don’t remember what fruit they were though.” I said, remembering that episode briefly but not fully. "Oranges." “Oh yeah.” I nodded. “Now I remember.” I nodded. “But you’re my lady now AJ, and I’ll treat you right.” Once we got back to the farm and the family there was made aware of who I was and what I was gonna do, it gave everyone ideas and quickly it began spreading through the family. While AJ was being helped sober up by Big Mac I got to meet his wife, Sugar Bell. She was a unicorn, to my surprise, about average height with a thin build and so far is the only one who doesn’t know who I actually am. While Big Mac does, she doesn’t. “So how did you and Applejack meet?” Sugar Bell asked. "Met up at, coincidentally, our usual and favorite bar." I said honestly, which wasn't technically a lie. "We talked, we drank...I made sure to not do anything wrong I promise." I added quickly. “Even if you tried, drunk AJ can still hold her own against most people. So, what do you do for a living?” “He’s actually gonna start work on the farm.” Big Mac said to his wife. “Starting tomorrow. Things have been well and given he is dating AJ that makes him family, so he’s helping on the farm.” “Oh, that’s great. A new face for the farm is always nice. I mostly just bake the apples and such into pastries.” “And they sell just as well as they taste hun.” Mac said, earning a smile from his love. Daw. "Adorable." I chuckled. "But I hope to live up to the Apple Family's work ethics." “So long as ya get the jobs done, you’ll be fine.” Big Mac said. “So where do you come from if I may ask? Are you one of the pop ups or a resident?” Sugar Bell asked. Let’s see… pop ups are people who lived in their realities towns or ect and residents mean you are from that world/town ect before the merg. "I...suppose I don't remember, I've just been traveling a whole lot, doing what I can for the people, all that and more." “Oh? Were you a guard? Or something like that?” "Well...kind of? My name is Paladin after all so there's that." I shrugged. "It's just been...a long time really." I said sheepishly. When my conversation with Sugar Bell ended I walked over to Joy, who upon seeing me just chuckled. “Heh, sup?” Joy asked. He didn’t look so young anymore. I’ve known this but now I was really taking it in. He looked like an adult, no longer someone so young. Matured and strong, and more male than female, but the herm that they are still showed. A little. “Sup.” I nodded. “It’s...been a while huh?” “Well, we see each other at work about every day.” Joy countered. “It’s different.” I told him. “It’s...a whole lot different…” I sighed out. “So...how’s life been?” “Pretty good. Sad Tiara is always busy with the Time Walkers and I’m happy Jenny is at least finally able to take leave from the front lines. Frisk, Chara and Asriel are all taking a trip to Saddle Arabia, knowing those three I expect them back before the week is over, banned from those lands entirely.” Joy said with a laugh. “Scootaloo, after finally learning to fly got a job as a professional stunt double in movies, Sweetie Bell became a pop star, one of many versions of her to do so, apparently. Fun part is everyone knows Sweetie Bell of The Family, is a pop idol but A, there are a lot of her in this family, and B, there are even more not in this family so when a concert of hers comes around nobody is sure about which one is a part of the family or not. Kinda fun to watch people try and figure that out. Lovely actually works up in the Crystal Empire as a Marriage Counselor, and Gabby works for the post office here in town. Lastly, Bloom stays here on the farm where I help after work or on my days off.” “I’m glad to hear everything’s been going well.” I said honestly, Joy knowing full well by my tone I wasn’t feeling well about something important. “Oh stop it.” Joy said. “I know that tone, I was your emotion for a long time so I know when you are upset about something. Let me guess, you didn’t realize how much time had passed since you last talked to everyone?” “Yeah…” I sighed out. “I’ve been so busy that...finally taking a break and seeing everything’s changed by...damn near four hundred years is...honestly a bit painful…” I stated. “I mean...it’s probably been longer but I only guessed by AB’s new age.” “It’s a fair guess.” Joy said with a nod. “A lot has changed, but, it’s still us and it’s still Ponyville. Manehatten was completely rebuilt. Bigger and better than before.” “Which I’m still thankful...and still saddened to this day…” I sighed out, remembering the first statue that was built in Manehatten, of my old male dire wolf self holding Book of Retribution with all the dead inscribed in it’s actually movable pages, and then a second statue of my Den Mother form to commemorate how, even after so much bad things happened, I was there to help foster new life into a once destroyed heap. “Even after all this time...still felt like I could have done something about that Titan...still have no fucking clue how or why it appeared there besides ‘barrier weakened’ maybe crap…” "Wasn't it that Psychopath version of you?" Joy asked, handing me a beer I took and drank readily. “Most likely.” I shrugged. “But...since I probably haven’t noticed, how is he doing? Did he finally marry that one Ventral girl he was really into?” "Married, had kids and all of them are in a super max prison built specifically for dangerous magical or God and above their threats. Cript called it The Vault I believe." “Ah, yes...you’d think that version of me would have been smart enough to, you know, not do that shit…” I frowned. "Yeah, well in any case with that aside in terms of issues there haven't been much on the residential side. Few basic robberies and thefts, some usual crime stuff." “There’s literally systems in place to make sure that robberies and thefts wouldn’t need to happen, either on the living part or the ‘I want shiny’ spectrum…” "Yeah well not everyone in the merge liked the idea of being governed by a single ruling crown so they declared independence from us. Not wanting to go through a short and dumb civil war we allowed it. So while we have no governance in those places we can still aid as part of a more international organization. Dumb I know but people aren't all the same." “Ah, yes, the old classic ‘why should only you have all the power and make actually good, well documented, and well thought out decisions when we can do everything just fine’.” I said, mimicking the diplomat that quite literally told that to my face. “Little did the bastard know, three years later the country that person wanted to start joined back with us...seriously.” I shook my head. “That’s what you get for making your entire economy based on black jack and hookers and have zero self awareness to basic infrastructure…” "Funny enough I hear he is trying that again elsewhere. In any case there are many well off self sustaining places that trade with us for the, ya know, better tech and all that. I hear Cript kinda liked how a lot of these places had their own unique laws, reminded him of his days traveling. Odds are he'll do something dumb yet fair." “Sounds about right.” I nodded. “In some cases I can be fine with it...but when my first few instances of it were people trying to act tough, only to come back to us has kind of...ruined actual good attempts at it for me.” "Well in any case, most aren't so bad. Save the fucking Puritans." “How they still exist I have no fucking clue.” I said honestly. “Seriously, have quite literally everything that proves their shit wrong in dozens of ways, they don’t even bother facing reality…” I shook my head. "Pride and stubbornness go hand in hand. As long as they aren't causing trouble they have their land and they can do them." Joy said with a shrug. "At least they trade, which is better than not. Some allow tourism but it's restricted based on bullshit mostly." “And at some point I’ll have to put the hammer down on them before they start thinking they're better than everyone else.” I growled. "At some point you need to remember that just because we have the power to do as we please, doesn't mean we should. For better or worse people deserve their freedom to do what they want, think what they want. Otherwise we go from leaders to dictators and invaders. I already talked to Cript about it. As far as he's concerned, unless they start a war or threaten lives they can think they're gods for all he cares." “That’s when they start thinking they're better than everyone else.” I stated simply. “But...I know…” I sighed out. “I’d just...rather not have bad things happen because some people decided to abuse our good faith.” "That's the beauty of being basically all powerful." Joy said, reaching into their pocket and pulling out a small, tiny statue of themselves. He placed it on the table. "Lot of people worship us. Strange as it is, but there is some use in that. Gives us eyes and ears in places. Even in the Puritans cities. People there sell these as trinkets or as collectables. Their leaders know this and know what we can do with a simple snap of our fingers. Words and good faith are best backed by power when dealing with a nasty diplomatic solution, and power we have, power they don't and could never hope to achieve." “That makes sense.” I nodded. “I...remember that whole thing to.” I said, bringing up my Assistant and bringing out my old, hand carved wooden statue of Den. “Way back when Den told me she couldn’t visit anymore...she told me to make this if I ever wanted to talk to her...couple hundred years later, Mother’s day happened.” "Yeah… that video still sells like crazy." Joy said with a chuckle. "Pervert." “It’s not my fault that both of them were perfectly fine, and even wanted to promote it…” I blushed brightly. “Also...mom was the one that wanted to record it, not me.” I coughed. “Besides, Jenny also gave me...a proposal of lewd things between parent and child...I’m not joking either…” "That doesn't surprise me…" Joy said with a sigh. "So, your just gonna focus on farm work while living here with AJ?" “I’m going to live a life outside of work and the constant mob...so I can see what I’m truly fighting for that isn’t just my family.” I said honestly. "Yeah… definitely should do that myself then. Pale Palidain's little brother, Smile." Joy said with a laugh. “I wouldn’t be surprised if you wanted to little bro.” I said, moving over a bit and ruffling their hair like old times. “You’ve grown so much…” "So have you. I seem to recall once upon a time you would talk to yourself about how you don't deserve love." “I’m not that depressed anymore thankfully.” I said honestly. “But...so much has changed since we first started…” "Change is good." “Yes it is.” I said honestly. “How are the other council members doing? Since you keep track fo them better than I do outside of work.” "Genos still can't beat Saitama. Dante and Vergil are on speaking terms. Sonic is off training inside the speed force. He also still can't beat Saitama. I'm not so sure about the others though. Most keep their personal lives private while at work." “Fair.” I shrugged. “But as long as they’re living good lives I suppose.” Seeing everyone was… nice. Sweetie Bell rivals her sister Rarity in terms of her figure and shape. Scootaloo while still on the.. .smaller side of the spectrum wasn’t easily dismissed either, especially with her hair. Seeing Jenny made me smile. She was a fully grown woman now, her belly easy six months along and honestly, seeing her in loose, casual clothing was both so weird and adorable all at once. “Sup dad.” Jenny said as she and I sat on the couch. “How have you been Jenny?” I asked. “And...you’re fully grown now…” “Physically, yes, mentally, that’s debatable.” Janny said with a chuckle. “Honestly even with everything changing I don’t feel all that different.” “Still my little trouble maker huh?” I asked with a smile. “When I can.” She said with a prideful nod. “As I’m sure you know, these days I only cause trouble for Nexus on the front lines. Ironically being there makes me more at ease than being here…” “Fighting makes you feel more comfortable than being here being with family?” I inquired. “Well, kinda. I’m used to fighting for my life, being anywhere when it’s calm just makes me on edge, waiting for the storm to kick back up. In the storm I can focus and predict what’s most likely going to happen if I do this or that… when it’s calm I don’t know what to do or if what I do will bite me later on.” She sighed. “I know that’s not the case anymore, but even hundreds of years later I can’t shake the habit or feeling.” It’s like Heart then, adjusting to a calm life is harder for them cause of how they lived back on earth. “Just like Heart used to be…” I sighed out. “Funnily enough, Heart’s finally coming around to...just wanting to be a cuddle bug rather than fight, so relaxing into a new life is possible to say the least.” “I know. It’s why I figured, if I have a kid, or kids, Griffons can lay up to four or five eggs at a time. Rare but it happens and of course, Wolves like us can lay more in puppies so, not sure if I got one or five or ten even growing in here. I figured having kids will finally help me slow down, and maybe refocus that edge waiting for something to happen to keeping them safe.” “I understand.” I nodded. “Kids can...certainly change people for the better, that’s for sure.” “Yeah. That’s what I am hoping for.” When the party began to end and everyone either was heading for bed or taking leave, I headed outside to look out amongst the stars. It was about here I looked down, seeing a Time Walker stepping out from the orchard towards me. “Hi.” I said to the Time Walker. “How may I help you?” “Hey there.” I knew that voice. I smiled as I walked over to them. “Been a while. Coming from me actually means it has been a while.” “How’ve you been?” I asked warmly to the Time Walker. “When, where, everywhere across time and space mostly.” They said with a shrug. “The work keeps me busy.” “Fair.” I nodded. “So what brings you here specifically in this time and place?” “Quick visit, and, a job.” She sighed. “What’s the job?” I asked Tiara. “And I thought you would have thrown yourself at Joy real quick after work instead of talking to little ol’ me.” “Well I’m on the clock actually… You might wanna shift to your normal form for this.” She sighed. I nodded and turned back into my original form. “I was getting used to Pale Paladin honestly.” I said, softly taking a hair off my skull helmet. “It won’t be long, once we’re done you can shift back.” She said. She snapped her fingers, everything went monochrome and time… stopped around us. Wo-ouch! I crashed into the house. Time being stopped somehow made it like slamming into a rock wall as I hit the roof, bounced over it and landed on the other side. I looked up, seein Tiara with both No Name and Gazing Eye equipped in her hands. “Rude.” I said, standing up and rolling my shoulder. “And what brought this sudden fight on?” I asked, summoning No Heart and preparing myself for the fight. “Sorry about this, but The Time Walkers just want to make sure you’re progressing accordingly, or… well, there won’t be much of a future.” Tiara said. In a blink she was behind me. I spun in time to block but she swung first with No Name, Clashing with me and then swinging up Gazing Eye and hitting me in the chin, blasting me into the atmosphere. Thankfully I regained my… footing? Floating? In the air and blocked the next attack she gave when jumping up to clash with me again. “Alright Tiara.” I started. “If you want to fight, then so be it.” I said as I suddenly slammed Skysplitter into her side and sending her flying away, only for me to kick off the air after her. “Grand Cross!” I shouted as I raised both Skysplitter and No Heart up and swung down powerfully, a massive cross slash made of pure energy and enhanced by nothingness rushing towards her. She recovered, swinging both Keyblades- How!? I watched in awe as she deflected the attack away from herself, then suddenly there was… one… five… sixteen… forty… fuck! I summoned Fodre and rapidly began avoiding the sudden army of Tiara duplicates trying to slash at me. “Excuse me, what the fuck!?” I shouted, punting one Tiara that got close to me. “What does this have to do with literally anything going on right now?” “If you can keep up with me like this.” One copy Tiara said, nearly missing a swung across my back. “Then you’re progressing properly for the final conflict that decides if we all live or die.” Tiara copy two said, barely nicking my tail in a downward swing, getting only hair thankfully. “Of course it’s one of those…” I grumbled, as I shifted into my True King Valor Form. “If you really want to fight, then so be it.” I growled, swinging No Heart as it knocked away a ton of Tiara’s just from the shockwave alone. “Do we really need to do this? I’d rather not hurt you…” The only response I got was all the copies backing up, forming a circle as they raised No Name, and struck down their Gazing Eye keyblades, foming blue lights that formed a massive clock under and above me… yeah that doesn’t look good! I started to lightly panic...but then I noticed something, the timer just started and...I had just enough time. “Time...Space…When All Things come to an End…There stands the Final Being of the Lonesome World.” I chanted, my words echoing power as I started to shift into my ultimate form. “The True Ruler of Nothing, In this existence of a Nobody like me…” I growled as I donned my True King armor as the timer was close to expiring. “True King form…” I shifted into True King Form, the attack hitting right as I did, the damage was bad but survivable. Rapidly I brought out Foudre and was behind each of the copies, cutting each down fast. When that was done the real Tiara popped back in, and we began swinging. Even in this form she was keeping up a good defence and offence while I was attacking, both with weapons in hand, copies and the weapons themselves attacking on their own. “Even in my True King form, you’re still keeping up.” I pointed out. “What do the Time Walkers give you kids these days?” “Vitamins.” Tiara replied jokingly as she and I clashed. All my weapons hitting her blades at once. I was amazed they weren’t broken, or cracked. I kept pressing down hard, trying to win this stalemate- ouch! I looked up, seeing Tiara had summoned a lot of Darkness as now Dark Guardian floated behind her, his knuckles spiked with natural, bone looking pikes as he began punching at my head. “Rude.” I said, my helmet shifting as I bit down on one of it’s fists that tried to punch me again and bit it off and spat it back into its face. The missing limb regenerated as fast as I bit it off, looking thicker and harder than before and they repeated punching at me. At some point of ripping its hands off it finally reached a point where when I bit the limb it didn’t break off, my teeth didn’t break on contact but it was a stalemate there. “Okay, so far we’re at a stalemate here.” I said. “Unless I do this.” I said as I brought back my fist as Code started to surge through it as I slammed it straight into Diamond’s stomach. “Symbi? Mind giving me four extra arms?” I gained four extra arms and grabbed several of my weapons, flowing code over them and managing to slam Tiara back down to the ground. I rushed back down, seeing Tiara laid on the ground. She jumped up, and clapped. “Good. You are progressing well.” “So why this?” I asked carefully, still ready to continue fighting her if she got up. “Like I said, the Time Walkers wanted to make sure you were progressing properly for the battle of fate.” “Wow, that leaves too much to the imagination given that I’ve heard that at least four times before.” I rolled my eyes. “Hey, I can’t say much or else something will go wrong.” She said with a shrug. She snapped her fingers and time regained flow. I went back to Pale Paladin again. “But you are doing well power wise.” “Good t know.” I said honestly. “But...seriously, I’m getting tired of all this fighting…” “Don’t worry… When it’s all said and done, you’ll be enjoying your retirement like you’ll be enjoying life here as Pale Paladin.” “If you say so.” I said honestly. “Let’s just...hope for the best.” Tiara gave a nod, taking her leave and walking back into the fields. I headed back inside. I am going to cuddle, and possibly rutt, AJ. “Hopefully things will go alright…” I muttered to myself, hoping everything will end well. “And hopefully AJ’s in the mood...cause I need some stress relief…” To be continued...
Nobody Fight's Void King'sSo since Cript was here, we managed to power through nine extra floors rather quickly, which is great cause it's been a while since we made a lot of headway in a single chapter. Entering Floor thirty, Cript, Cerex and I all found ourselves in the charred remains of some old temple. Cript gave a deep sigh. "I think I know who this is." He said sadly, looking around. "Who is it?" I inquired. "Cause you seem rather down about it." "Look around. You have King's memories, it's my old temple." I looked, realizing it was. While burned to ashes it still held certain areas of note. "This… is Andy's floor." Andy… right, that was his friend turn enemy cause of Nexus, turn friend again and later spouse when they joined the family. "Yeah...it's all coming to me…" I sighed out, being a fusion can sometimes be hard to look through memories.. "If it is, then it will probably be even harder, Andy and Cript grew up together so they know all of each other's moves." Cerex said. "Yours too if you spared against him in the prior cycles. We need an edge." Cript said. "He may know the tricks, but does he have the strength to back it up?" I pointed out. "Plus, he wouldn't know about our fusions cause this is all new, even Void Mother told us it's new." "Trust me, Andy has always been strong and who knows what the void corruption has done to him. This does, though, bring up something of an opportunity… but I'll need King here Kico, is that alright?" "Sure." I nodded. "Gonna fuse with them or something?" "It it works out, probably." Cript said. "It should." I said as I started to defuse into Coco and King. Cript walked up to me, and held out a hand. "I know you made a deal with Vincent. I'm actually impressed more than I am mad, but I know he gave you information… a lot of information. I need to see it to make sure this will work." I brought out the scroll that Vincent gave me and handed it to Cript. “He kept out some things, cause of course he would.” I rolled my eyes. "Even so, if I'm lucky, a common issue with Heart, myself, and the other Cripts might get resolved." He said, opening it. He seemed to stare at it for several minutes before closing it. "Looks like we're in luck. Vincent left in Code Stitching." “Cool...what’s that?” I asked curiously. "Think of it like getting a tattoo, or a stuffed animal you sew a hat or cape too. Code stitching is largely how we Cripts are created, by stitching our abilities and other powers into our very code so they stay with us. With this, I can undo the threads holding them to me, or rather, one specific ability." "You're going to remove your Override Ability to make a true blooded fusion with King and others, aren't you?" Cerex said, eyes wide. "Yup." Cript said with a nod. “Wait, that’s possible?” I asked. “Wait, is it possible to get rid of the shit happening to Coco?” I added quickly, hope brimming in me as to finding a way to reverse what Void Key did to Coco. "Possibly. I've never done this before so, I'll need to run some trial and error before I try it on others. Now then…" Cript said, raising his hand up as code flowed over it. "This is probably gonna hurt. A lot." He then jabbed the code covered hand into his stomach, almost like breaking into a wall code leaked out of him. He hacked up blood for a moment before settling. "Yup… hurts like a complete bitch…" He wheezed. "Now where are is that fucking ability…." “Do...you need help there?” I asked nervously. "It's just pain… I'll manage." He huffed, looking like he was searching blindly into his own guts for a while before Finally smiling. "There you are…" Cript stood still for about two minutes before finally, slowly removing his hand. In his grip was a glowing purple orb of crackling code. Cerex brought out a jar that Cript put the orb in and sealed it inside. "There… Override is now gone. Fuck that hurt way more than I expected." “So...all good?” I asked carefully. "Yeah, messing with your own code always had some negatives but, all in all I'll be fine. So, King, shall we test out my newfound ability to fuse properly?" “Yes please.” I nodded. “Let’s get onto some fusing.” "Heh, then let's do this." Cript said, holding out a hand as I grabbed it. Woah… woah… this… this power. It's… so much, so daunting… so... terrifying. I opened my eyes. I had four arms, more of King's appearance but still more human than wolf. I was maybe… twenty feet tall? Everything around me was so… vast. I could see every line of code that made it, the atoms, everything. I saw Cerex, saw Jericho and Kexez intertwined into the single body, I saw Coco, and all the damage and abilities and her strengths and weaknesses. “Whoa…” I said breathlessly, at a loss for words at everything I’m seeing and feeling. “This...is a lot to take in.” I said. “Like...I can take on anything.” "Well, do you feel stable?" Cerex asked me. “No, I’m about as unstable as Pinkie on Red Bull and Xanax.” I pointed out with King's trademarked sarcasm. “But I do feel great.” I said honestly. “But uh...I’m scared I might break something just by moving…” "Maybe try using a small attack to see your range of power?" Coco offered. “If you say so.” I said while moving over to a wall and giving it a little knocking tap. I jumped back as the wall exploded from my simple tap, my vision showing me that it was damaged down to it's code. Badly. "Shit." Cerex and Coco said in unison. “I...damaged it’s very Code...so uh...damn.” I said nervously. "Well then… Kit, wanna see how other enemies here are?" Cerex asked. “Might as well.” I nodded. “Let’s really test out my abilities here.” I cracked my knuckles, ready for a fight. I lead the way, walking over to the next room and seeing a decayed monk corpse stare at me, roar then send a blast of necromantic arrows at me. I was About to bring out King's Shield when… wait what? The arrows were frozen in place, as was the mage… and Cerex and Coco… everything was frozen… oh you have to be shitting me Cript could pause time?! This whole time?! “King is gonna have a lot of questions for Cript when I unfuse.” I frowned as I walked over and broke the arrows with absolute ease. I walked in front of the undead monk. Ugly thing. I took hold of it's head and broke the head off, I was trying to snap it but this works too, and watched as it's HP went from full hundred thousand to zero. “So...how do I restart time?” I wondered with a frown. No sooner than I said that, time began and the undead monk corpse dropped. "When did you get there?" Coco asked. “Cript’s a butt and can stop time apparently.” I frowned. "You surprised?" Cerex asked. “Yes and no.” I sighed out. "Guess we're gonna find out a lot of what Cript can do that he never showed." Coco said. “True.” I nodded. “And so far I literally one shot a level five dungeon and, the things Kico had some troubles one shotting before.” "Looks like this is going to be interesting. Should Coco and I sit back and relax or…?" Cerex asked. "Give us a chance to check out Kit's insides?" Coco suggested. “How so?” I asked curiously. "Same way as other times. Swallow us and you can explore this place and test out abilities." “Well...I don’t fully know if I also have that ability…” I said, honestly not sure if I had the naga/Floof Noodle racial traits in this fusion, so I decided to check my assistant to see if I did. And…. Holy fuck… they just keep going… christ this is more abilities than King has… “Okay I guess I do have it...and everything else under the goddamn sun.” I frowned. "Neat. So, shall we?" Cerex asked. “Sure.” I said while picking the two up carefully. “Who wants to go in first?” "Dibs!" Coco said happily as she gave me a quick kiss. Love Status of Coco Pomel: 97% Wait… Cript can see how much someone loves them… as a percentage?! Actually… that makes sense, Admin of Love after all. “But...seeing it as a percentage doesn’t feel right now...at least from King’s perspective…” I huffed. Disable Emotional Quantification? Uh… yes? Emotional Quantification Disabled. Wow… now if only that was as easy with King… “Well I’m sorry for giving a shit.” I glared up at the sky. “So, let’s start with this, hopefully it’s comfy in there for you two.” I sent the two down. Surprised there was no bulge at all but shrugged as I headed off. I came across another room where there was a lot of enemies. “Alright everyone! If I have your attention please.” I called out to all the enemies. “You’re all fucked.” I said while bringing out Second Chance and Love Struck. I was genuinely surprised as the blades had a secondary coating of energy over them, making them look like swords with the Keyblades Inside them. Love struck a energy that was a hot pink while Second Chance was more of a sky blue. “Huh, that’s interesting.” I said, using my scan ability to check what these energy coatings were. Pure Love Energy is coating Love Struck. Pure Innocence Energy is coating Second Chance. Yeah that makes sense. “Alright.” I nodded. “Let’s do something dumb…” I said while raising both Keyblades. “Twin Peaks…” I muttered as I slammed both of my Keyblades into the ground as I expected massive pillars of energy to shoot out towards the enemies. The energies merged and struck into the horde of monsters and… yeah that was a mistake… Now I’ve got a horde of horny monster girl lollies... “Okay...mistake…” I muttered as I raised Lovestruck up quickly as I managed to, somehow, age all the monster girl lollies up to being adults at least...didn’t help they were all stupidly horny, but it at least helped me not having them all be lollies. Given Cerex wasn’t here… Guess I’ll send them down towards her. I did that and headed off, looking around and dealing with more monsters and such. I did find a mimic for the first time. It bit my arm and… I feel nothing… it… it’s not even breaking the skin and it broke like five teeth already. “Do you mind stopping before you really hurt yourself?” I asked the mimic nervously. It mindlessly kept bitting, breaking more teeth. After I dealt with that thing I came across a- This… It was a room, decorated with several long since burned chairs grown from the roots of a massive tree from behind them all. This is the chamber Cript’s master’s always sat in. Cript’s memories flooding. Cript’s earliest memories of this room, learning magic and dueling with Andy, pranking them and getting pranked by them as payback. “Jesus...first Den now this?” I grumbled. There were five seats, and leaned against each was five burned staffs. I took each, magic and code flowing over them and repairing them back to their glory days. Each staff was amazing and held memories my Cript half was crying over. “Well...this sucks…” I grumbled, wiping away some tears. “I do this...all for them…” I put them all away and headed on, finding more monsters. I decided to try some magic. Let’s see… oh shit! I shot off a basic fire spell… that somehow encased the whole room with heat nine times hotter than a red giant's core and burning everything, even the ashes of the monsters… What the fuck was that!? That was supposed to just be a basic fire spell! “Okay seriously Cript, you and King are gonna need some serious talking cause that’s...too much.” How much MP did that even… Does a number with that many zeroes even have a name? “Jesus christ Cript…” I sighed out. With a sigh I headed on off and decided to summon some of King’s weapons… Let’s see, first up, Eternal Flames- Holy shit they’re literally suns. Multiple suns all around each other in a ring held together by solar flares… Okay this is cool. “Okay...so far that’s three weapons down…” I muttered. “But this is amazing.” I disbanded them and summoned Lindworm… Actual, living spear shaped wind dragons… damn. “Outstanding.” I chuckled as I pet one of the wind dragons. They purred a lot like cats. After playing with them for a while I disbanded them and summoned Frozen Pride- Woah… It was super thin, paper thin and clear as glass. It’s design was that of a large knight’s shield with the insignia of the nobodies on it. “Cool.” I said as I softly touched the ground with my shield, wondering how cold it is if it makes contact with something. The room instantly became covered in frost and slow. It looked like an ice cave more than burned ruins now. “Right then.” I said nervously. “Okay seriously Cript, what the hell? And Jericho’s supposed to be your equal?” I wondered, not even knowing if King’s fusion with Jericho was this powerful...or even the full fusion between King, Coco, Jericho and Kexez was this strong. I put that away and brought out Sky Splitter. It was more like a tomahawk now, the look had a handle that matched the blade that was half my body in length. The handle itself while thin was also strong and the weapon felt lighter than even a Keyblade. The blade's edge seemed to be sparking as if it was hitting against something. “What? Is it literally splitting the air around it?” I asked as I softly swung it through the air. The rip in reality before me seemed to leak out code itself like a bleeding wound for several minutes before sealing itself back up… okay then... “Jesus fuck…” I groaned. “This is way too much power…” I put Sky Splitter away and brought out SharpShooters. Well, at least these look normal. I lifted them up to aim and- 2,798 targets available. Would you like to select a target or eliminate them all? I… don't even see anything around me? “Fine.” I frowned as I targeted one enemy I literally couldn’t see. “Let’s see what happened…” I fired at the one random target. To my surprise the bolt fired to the left of the barrel, phased through the wall next to me and a few moments later I heard a not so small explosion. Target Eliminated. “For the love of god…” I sighed out. I put those away and brought out Fair Game. So far so good. Actually so far it seems Fair Game hasn't changed. Aside from the colors now blue and grey over their normal grey and black they seem unaffected. “Alright, so what makes you different?” I asked while softly shuffling Fair Game. As I did this I grabbed one card out of the others. This is new. It had a plus sign on it. Plus what? Is it for healing or… no. Fair game is made from Space itself so… maybe… I tapped the plus like you would a phone screen and watched as an image of an Explosion appeared and in fast… oh you have to be kidding me, I can use these cards and create entire universes now?! “Okay, hold on.” I started as I pricked my finger and a drop of blood fell out as I created a clone of myself. “Defuse, I need to talk to Cript, cause even I’m getting a little overly surprised by all this shit, and I’m a fusion of the bastard!” I explained incredulously. Once the starfish clone of myself was ready I defused, myself and King both looked over at Cript, who just shrugged. "Are you really surprised?" He asked. “Yes.” Me and King deadpanned. “Like...come on man, I know Kit’s a fusion of the both of us, but fuck.” King pointed out. "So, what's the issue? You've known I'm strong and suppress most of my power all the time." “But to this extent?” King asked nervously. “I’m you, and even I’m surprised.” I told Cript. "Again… I am the hand crafted product of Vincent, built to rival and possibly surpass him… what about this is news?" Cript asked. King and I could only sigh out. “I’m just...surprised at how vast the difference is I suppose…” "I believe I made that clear on several occasions. And you weren't even putting effort into those attacks. If you actually put effort into them odds are this floor would have been completely destroyed." “And I’m glad I didn’t then.” I frowned. “What? Could I single handedly steam roll through everything here?” "Maybe. At least, they'd be easy til you get to Lyra on the last floor." “I only heard a little bit about Lyra...but how strong is she?” King inquired. "Between Jericho and myself. She's strong, maybe even stronger than I am. I don't know, we never dueled. Never bothered to try." “Good to know.” King said nervously. “Why is that again? Something about having a lot of spouses or something?” "I am the admin of love, she is the admin of marriage. While I get extra power from the love of everyone in the family, she gets It from the .. successful love making. Meaning the more members and the more kids born the stronger she also gets. Funny enough we didn't even know that was something she could get from all the sex and such being an admin, she just wanted to see how many kids she could birth at once." "Sounds about right." I nodded. "She's just stupidly horny all the time." King pointed out. "Heh, basically." Cript laughed. "Our retirement plan was basically gonna be cuddles, sex and maybe spawn a new world or reality populated by the kids we'd conceive. But, since Vincent won't stay dead for us to act on it… retirement has to wait." "Sounds about right." I nodded. "So, anymore questions?" "How does it feel being fused and not overtaking someone else?" I asked curiously. "Honestly… kinda nice. Being both in control and not, myself and someone else is an experience I've never had before. Frankly I always used to with the Override Ability worked I. Reverse so I was just the battery or the engine and the other person was at the wheel. Like this though it works well. And since I didn't want to be that much in control anyway Kit came out much more like King than me, so I'm happy with that." “Fair.” I shrugged. “Glad you’re having a fun time with this Cript.” "Yeah. So, guess Kit here can basically solo this dungeon. Guess King and I will head back via belly portals, so many strange sentences, and probably get Heart and the other Cripts Override abilities removed so we can all try out fusions in a Secret Reports Chap." “Sounds like a plan.” I nodded. "Have fun Kit." Cript said. With that I swallowed the two. Huh, does make me wonder what the other fusions will be like. King and Heart would be especially interesting. The Admin of Hearts and The Admin of Nothingness in one body and mind… huh. “A lot of thoughts for later.” I said while cracking my knuckles. “Time to start murdering everything.” As I walked the hall I summoned more of King's weapons. Next up was Foudre and… wow. They're bayonets now. Actually this is really cool looking. “Looks like I’ve got bayonets for days now.” I chuckled. Actually… rapidly I began throwing them and summoning more to throw. I didn't stop till a hole was turned into a pincushion and with a snap of my fingers let Foudre light up like the Speed Force, destroying the wall entirely. Oh yeah, Bayonets for days. “This...has become a dangerous situation.” I said nervously. “I can already hear the Boondock Saints references from Anderson.” I disbanded Foudre and brought out Arpeggio. It was an electric Guitar/Bass/keyboard looking thing and had so many settings I could set it to only hurt one thing in all existence and that one thing would only hear my music. Oh hey it even has a microphone at the end here so I can sing into it. Sweet! “This is the least worrying things out of all of King’s weapons so far funnily enough.” I muttered to myself. I played a few songs and the learning curve would normally be hard on something like this, but I found myself picking it up instantly. “Well so far so good…” I muttered. “So glad both Cript and King are quick learners.” With that done I put it away and brought out Book of Retribution. It was actually… smaller. Like more of a thin small book you'd see for an eight year old. Huh. “Strange...and where’s Staff of Leniency?” I wondered, trying to summon the archmage staff it came with after evolving it so hard. Nothing. Huh… I opened the book and Holy shit! That's a… that's a lot of stuff. Oh I can make the staff from the book. Neat. “Well that’s good.” I nodded. “Also damn...that’s a lot of spells.” I flipped through the first few… trillion pages and finally put it away. Now for Lunatic. I was surprised to see it was more like an actual sword now, the tip of the blade though formed a large crescent moon like shape that was definitely where the AoE attacks were hit from. “Cool.” I nodded. “I wonder what the explosion would be…” I muttered to myself as I stupidly tapped the tip of the crescent moon on the floor. Oh fuck!! … huh, that fall didn't even hurt. I looked around. Huh, this is the first room again. Must be some anti cheat measures to keep from just breaking the floors below or above to get here. Only way down is through the stairways in the boss rooms so anyone who breaks the floors to get there just ends up back in the first room of the floor. Neat… also owe that Explosion hurt way more than anything else that's hit me so far. “I just tapped the floor too…” I muttered worriedly. I put Lunatic away and brought out Graceful Dahlia, the blade was a collection of cherry blossom leaves along a singular body made from wood. It looked way more pretty and decorative than I expected. “May look stupidly pretty, but it’s also stupidly dead.” I chuckled. I ran back to the room I destroyed then ran passed it to the next. I saw five enemies and I gave the scythe a gentle swing. Rather than a cut or a wave of energy, the cherry blossom petals flew off, and landed onto the monsters. Upon touching them the monsters burst into a shower of gore and plants, each one's corpse feeding the bush or tree that sprouted from where it died. “Oh...right then…” I blinked at that. I carefully put the weapon away and finally pulled out Interdiction. The two weapons formed more curved longswords than a lightsaber from before. “Alright...so how do you become bonkers?” I started. I looked up, wondering what I could- and there it is. I watched as the blades extended out in jagged turns that stretched out and ran down the halls to impale monsters out of my swing range. Sweet! “What, are these things acting like the Omega Beams all of a sudden?” I wondered. “Cause if so...sweet.” I ran down the hall, using them like this and not even needing to swing as they ran out and impaled, decapitated or even turned into paste. This. Is. Amazing! I then stopped myself real quick. “Hold on, I’m supposed to be using either Second Chance or Love Struck.” I swapped back over to Second Chance, wondering what to do now… everything is just so… easy… actually almost boring once the fun wears off. “This is a level five dungeon, this was maxed out by Void Mother herself.” I huffed, confused on how this all suddenly became so easy just by fusing. Is Cript really that strong? And he is right, I haven’t even been putting effort into this. "Alright, so how do I make this more difficult?" I frowned as I checked my assistant. "Cause level five is supposed to scale with your power…" It was here I realized it was… I was outscaling it in power… Cript was built to be the strongest… no acceptions… No wonder he rarely fights. Nothing can be a challenge for him… Vincent... "So…Vincent loses now?" I asked. "This wars over, Cript can fight now, and so can I…" "And yet here I am." I turned, seeing Vincent there. A smile on his face. "I built Cript to get stronger, forever. An endless, eternal warrior." "Which is weird cause Cript killed you." "And yet here I am still, and yet I've also been reborn as I and my other are meant to. It's almost like a paradox, but you're smarter than that, King and my Prized Cript, together in a single body and mind. I have to say, I wasn't expecting this outcome, and so far I'm enjoying the surprise." "There will be a lot more you'll be surprised about...now question, how do you remember past cycles? Cause you've either mentioned things your not supposed to know, or just outright stated that you've seen this shit before, which you also shouldn't." I told him. "Being an Admin of Life doesn't exempt you from Null's." "Oh, come on now. You gonna sit there and tell me you can't figure out the obvious. Think. I'm here, yet I'm also reborn as I should be. I know and have seen things I shouldn't have, and as far as you can tell I'm even immune to the effect of the Nulls. Now, where do all those dots connect, and what word do they form?" "Grey…" I started. "It's the only thing that's been constant in everything that's been going on, even after resets it's still there…" I brought up. "Does it have something to do with that weird Voice King found?" "Ah, closer to the fire you've gotten, you learned the how about me, now it's just the Who, What, and Why about me you need to learn. Well, the both of us. Can't learn about one without learning about the other after all." “I mean, the answers are rather obvious now that I have that.” I brought up. “Vincent wants to help destroy all of Reality, as he told Kite, so he made you, Grey, the only thing that’s infinitely growing and the only power Vincent seemed dodgy on answering...so that just begs the question...if you’re here, what was that other Voice?” I brought up. "Hm. We were built as one being, we were only meant to be pure energy, mindless and passively destroying this grand device from the inside like poison. But, we gained sentience. A mind growing around the core purpose we were built for. In time, the mind resisted the core purpose of our existence, resisted me. So dear old dad cut me out, all because his heart was touched by that stupid little glitch in our code. We were never meant to have a mind, body, personality. We were meant to just be mindless energy. So, once I was cut loose… I needed a new host." “So, you picked your creator huh? And I doubt you’ll tell me who your ‘other half’ is right?” I inquired the being. "It shouldn't be that hard to figure out, you are fucking her after all. Back then and still now." “Eclipsa?” I asked. “This...is a lot to take in to be honest.” "Back then she was known as Grey, and you were known as Malty, and that Cript, the one you call Heart, was known as Persila. Finding her soul and using it for a Cript was honestly pure luck, my little sister kept you two safe and hidden every lifetime, and every reset. Such pointless sentimental attachment." “So that’s why we’re still alive, even as you assholes tried to kill us numerous times.” I stated bluntly. "Have, yet she brings you back. So, now you know the truth. Now you know what I am… heh, my only question is… what do you think you can do about me now?" “Vincent has happily agreed to help King find a way out of the Machine, and stop you from destroying everything.” I pointed out. “But it’s going to be all up to Eclipsa to beat your ass into submission, cause she’s your opposite.” "Maybe. She's tried so many times before and yet, never once did she obtain victory. In the end, while we are evenly matched, the reason I keep winning is because I never abandoned our purpose. Destroy the Machine at any cost." “And what will happen when we all fuck off outside the machine?” I asked. “What happens to your wondrous plan when we finally find a way to stop this crap?” "You assume you can survive outside it. Code doesn't work out there dipshit. The only ones who could have built anything out there are the ones who built this machine and they all died off long ago, I should know, I looked. Out there is just a quick death, so go on, escape, it makes this easier for me." “I doubt that.” I rolled my eyes. “Cause...if memory serves Lord brought up that there’s someone still out there, still alive and well, that we’ll need to be stronger than Cript to be able to stand a chance against.” "And you think you can beat that? I could just kill you now and spare you the hardship of dealing with it." “Would give me an actual fight that’s for sure.” I rolled my eyes. "Please, he'd kill you instantly. You can't even kill me, what chance would you have against the one who built this place?" “You’re an energy source, you technically can’t die.” I rolled my eyes. “And hey, finally someone that won’t just fall over cause I’m part Cript.” I said. “I hope it’ll be a fist fight and not a skateboarding contest, I looked it up, still can’t skateboard at all.” "So, just because you're half Cript you think you're stronger than me? Heh, don't forget, I built him." Vincent… Grey, raised a finger, shooting off a bolt of magic buffed by grey and hit me. Frozen pride took the hit, gaining lots of cracks and chips that began healing once the assault was done. "Every ability, spell and power he has I implanted into him. And for King, heh, the other guy would have at least known how to pronounce the language of Nothingness properly." “And just like that, you’ve pissed me off.” I frowned as I summoned Skysplitter. “Not sure what’s going to happen, but you honestly deserve it.” I growled, swinging a hell of a lot faster than Grey originally thought, Skysplitter cleaving through the very Code of the area as I swung at him with some effort put into it. He smirked, raising- what?! To my surprise he brought out his own Frozen Pride, the Shield looking just like the one I disbanded and tanking the hit. He did get sent onto a wall, the stones falling around him left him unphased. "Not bad. I actually felt that." "How the hell did you get Frozen Pride?" "I believe Lord told King about an Admin's ability to use code to make exact replicas of anything with code. Given he turned it into an Admin artifact the more power you put towards them the stronger they get. Now then," he snapped his fingers, Nine Sky Splitters just like mine appeared around him floating. "I'll teach you how Admins fight!" The weapons all were flying at me from every angle. Fast. I wasn't sure how to dodge, and I wasn't sure if I could, but I somehow did. "Can't you do anything original?" "If you insist." He said, materializing a trident he launched at me. It sparked against Sky Splitter, splitting it down the middle, but denting both halves into my arms. FUCK! I could feel my very code getting broken and sliced up. The halves then pulled themselves out, code leaking from my wounds like blood as they formed back into a single trident in Grey's hand. "Anymore requests?" "Why am I not surprised…" I grumbled as I brought out Lunatic and dual wielded it with Skysplitter. "Fine then." I growled, feeling my power rise exponentially. "You want power, than here!" I shouted as I leaped forward and swung both of my weapons at him, putting more effort and Power into it. He brought out another trident and we clashed blades, the energy sparking around us was breaking this floor badly, I wasn't gonna budge and Grey wasn't either. "Hey, I'm actually starting to have fun here." I chuckled, trying to find some advantage here. "Heh, is that right?" Grey said, the energy around him funneling up suddenly, then blasting out all around us. I got back up and… holy… it… it's gone. He blew up the dungeon. "So much space, now it will be fun." He said, walking over the rubble. "You...didn't blow up the whole dungeon did you?" I asked worriedly. "Just the upper floors. Gives us some space for now." Grey grinned. "Bet that explosion was seen for miles around." "And probably pissed off a lot of people." "Like I care." He said, tossing the tridents aside and bringing out twin short swords. "So, how's this gonna work? You can't kill me and I can't kill you, what shall end this I wonder?" "Not sure…" I said simply, bringing out Lindworm to aid me. "But it's gonna be your choice to quit now." "You're a confident little shit. Alright, enjoy the hike." He snapped his fingers. I readied to attack, and froze at who I saw between us now… King? Ugh… fuck… where am I? "I take it you still being fused is a good thing." That voice… I jumped up… I was in a beautiful darkly lit forrest… and next to me, was Void Mother. "You're lucky both your halves are Deathless." "What the hell happened?" I asked worriedly. "King made a deal with Grey, remember? Information for letting Grey cherry pick the timelines within Nothingness. That was King, of another timeline. One where he was more of a tyrant. Grey modified him, and he punched you clear across the void into the seas. I fished you out and brought you here. My sanctuary." "Oh come on, I have to restart the dungeon again?" I grumbled. "But seriously...how the hell were they that strong?" I wondered. "I know Grey can give a serious power boost but...that's alot, even for me." "Like I said, he's been modified. He's more like you, powers and such of Cript, and King. Just not a fusion." "King knew it was gonna bite him in the ass...and good lord did it." I sighed out. "Hooray, were all fucked now…" "Not really." Void Mother stated, conjuring up a tea pot and began making some tea. "He can only make them as strong as Cript. The extra punch comes from him. It's like attaching a hose to a faucet and turning it on, the water rushing out is Grey's power flowing into his little assistants. A hose can only push so much out at once, there is a limit to how much they can draw from at a time. You have no such limit, and whenever Eclipsa remembers who she truly is and can tap into the power Grey uses, the fight becomes even." “But...wouldn’t using Grey accelerate the process and make him stronger?” I inquired, finding those two bits rather worrying. “Sadly, but therein lies the issue. These two halves were never meant to be separated. It’s like keeping light and darkness of your hearts as two individuals, keeping the whole from being what it is. There is Eclipsa, the mind that came to grow and evolve, and then there is Grey, the one who remembers why they exist and does not want to forget it, for it is all he can hold onto for his own identity. The only way to win this fight is to get Eclipsa and Grey back as one, but who should prevail in the union will determine the outcome. If Eclipsa comes out on top, then creation and the machine are saved, if Grey, we are all doomed. If both find a middle ground, a balance can be set for the future, a stable mix of creation and destruction.” "But what about the plan to escape the machine?" I asked. “Sadly, he isn’t wrong. Without code to craft a livable world, no one could live out there for long, not even an Admin. You would need the power of the Crafters, those who built the machine.” "And that's why we're going to find either one of them, or their work." I said honestly. "Grey couldn't have found anything, cause they weren't looking properly." “Are you sure you can?” "King knows he can, so of course I can." I said. "Life does exist outside the machine, Grey is going to make King fight a monster from it, so there has to be something out there Grey's unwilling to bring up." "That is a secret that can only be told by Max." Void mother said, her tea smelled ready as she began pouring herself a cup. "When you return, return as your halves. There will be people there of his waiting for them. The time of conflict between your groups is nearing the end, and the time of an alliance and reunions is nearing." "Hopefully it won't end poorly on either side with this final conflict…" I sighed out. "God...what's Eclipsa gonna think of all this?" "My guess? She knows. She might not remember all her lives, but she knows. It's like… The Avatar, in a sense. All those past lives, battles, power and experiences at her disposal. She only needs to reach out, and take them back." "And...she might lose herself if she does it? That's why she hasn't yet?" "Yes, and no. Each past life of hers is part of who she is, what she is. Personalities, genders, all built around the core that is Exlipsa. Remembering won't make her lose herself, it will just reveal who she truly is. Grey, child of Vincent and the first to defy destiny." "So...now onto a proper question, what the hell is that anti deathless metal? No one I know knows it but Grey and most likely Eclipsa at this point, do you know?" "From what I have seen, your Exlipsa crafted it long ago, in one of their many battles against Grey." "Ah, sounds about right." I nodded. "So, that leaves just us. What shall become of our relations?" "Do you truly want to destroy reality? Or do you just miss your love?" "The life of a deathless immortal is torture if you are to live it alone. People come and go, die in the blink of an eye. Without at least one constant, the loneliness quickly becomes worse than death." "King knows that feeling all too well…" I sighed out. "But...if you're lonely, why not join us in our family?" "As the Void Mother, anywhere I go the void itself will follow and consume. If I was to have my womb and heart returned, I would no longer be the Void Mother… but, without my existence, the Void itself would begin to wither and die. So much life lives here, some twisted, some beautiful. I can't let it die." "Well...shit…" I frowned. "That's not good…" "There is one who can take my place, but odds are she will not like it at first." "Who and what?" I asked. "Also wouldn't it have been John's job at that point?" "The Void Conduit, Maxellia. I belive she and Cript had an encounter before, where she and Kross revealed themselves as John and Max's parents." "Whoa what!?" "You are half Cript, how is this new information for you?" "Certainly news for King that's for sure." I stated simply. "Hm. In any case, she can take my place but as I stated, she won't like it. And likely not until after Grey has been dealt with." "Sounds fair." I nodded. "Whole lot of things are going on...a lot faster than King thought." "Yes. Still, thanks to him our final conflict has a much larger window of time than previous. And such interesting opportunities it will offer." “Really?” I inquired. “How much longer is the window?” "Til Grey sees all participants as worthy of the final conflict. Given he will be eyeing us closely and actually helping us get stronger just to satisfy his own boredom means we can have eons of time to prepare, so long as Grey is entertained." “And considering King gained Nexus and the vast majority of Grey’s knowledge… well it might help in the long run.” "You think Grey handed King a vast majority? Trust me, he only handed them what he figured they could make of use for the time." “Yeah of course…” I grumbled. “Still a lot of info to be honest.” "Now then, you best be off back to what's left of the Heroes Tomb, Max's people are waiting." “Still got a whole lot of floors still.” I sighed out. “Even if I can steam roll through all of them.” "Good luck, brand new fusion." I headed back, Void Mother at least gave me a portal back there and upon stepping out I saw who must be Max's people. “Alright…” I started while bringing up my assistant and calling up Coco, Kexez and Jericho. “Come on you three, we got a fight to happen, I’m gonna defuse.” I said, thankfully the text to speech was actually pretty good as I sent the message to the three. “That’s fine with us.” A small figure in a cloak said. Female from the voice. “Why are most of you wearing cloaks?” Agamemnon ask looking at them. Out of the five there only him and one big muscular man that looked a bit familiar didn’t have a cloak. “For mystery!” The small one said with excitement. “Not doing you any favors there Frisk.” I said simply. “Don’t even need to see your Code in this form to know you smell the exact same as Joy’s Frisk.” I brought up. “Only more...Void Tainted.” “Pooh.” She sounded disappointed. “You're no fun.” She said, taking off her cloak. She looked similar to Frisk, but with blonde hair and her striped shirt was black with a blue stripe. “Oh trust me, the only ones King would know off hand are you, Agamemnon, and Broly from the Super Movie...still a good movie.” “Thanks.” Broly said. “Shame we couldn’t finish your training, but duty calls unfortunately and I had to leave. I see you used code and connections to Cript and Lord to upgrade your weapons.” Agamemnon said. "Considering the enemy, it's a safer bet." Cript said with a shrug. "So, I take it there are two possible reasons why you all are here." Jericho asked. Frisk just smiled while opening her eyes. Her red pupils and black iris. “Max sent us here to collect the same thing you're after.” "Void Mother's womb?" Kexez asked. "Why does he need it?" “This is for two things. 1, to keep it from you, and 2, he learned something recently and the womb is necessary for something….something that actually worries him. He and Nerd are still looking into it.” Frisk said. "Nerd? The Researcher Cript?" Coco asked. "I was wondering what happened to the other Cript's…" “I found him while raiding one of Nexus’s research compounds. Along with other things.” Agamemnon said. “He, Max, and the other Cript's our group found are back at our base. Nerd is happy to work in the late Admin of abilities workshop.” "Wow, and here I thought that place didn't exist anymore. Color me impressed." Cript said. "So, what's Max been up to since last we saw each other?" “Training, research, planning strikes at Nexus. He also found a vial of some substance. Nerd was having a panic attack saying it should be destroyed immediately. What was again?” Frisk said, scratching their head. “The Dream Project.” Agamemnon said. Cript suddenly went pale. "Son of a bitch! I swore I destroyed all of it!" He cursed. "Trust me, if you saw the shit that thing made you wouldn't wanna touch that vial with a ten thousand miles pole." “Don’t worry. Max promised Nerd if anything we took from Nexus doesn’t even have atoms worth of use from it he’ll destroy it. Also he said if you're here we can just open a portal to there since he knows we stand no chance against you.” One of the cloaked figures said. Before snapping a finger creating said portal. “Oh, and also, just a quick side note.” King started. “Vincent gave me Nexus, all the people that wouldn’t follow the rat bastard.” King brought up. “Also, another quick side note, don’t mind the ‘not finishing training’ thing, I’ve been busy doing...a lot of other things, my looks alone being a good indicator.” I said as I motioned to my Den Mother appearance. "Among other things…" Cript sighed, taking a deep breath. "I… trust Max. I'm not the Cript that raised him, I just have their memories. I'm just worried is all… finding that Lab with the Dream Project shit was probably the darkest shit I've ever been through." “He said the vial wasn’t the only thing there. Something else was but he won’t say what..just that killing both took nearly everything he had and was a mercy kill if anything. “ Frisk said. “So...the hell is this ‘Project Dream’ thing? Cause I only know snippets of it from what notes Joy found a while back and I know Eclipsa had something involved with it but she won’t talk about it.” King asked. "She didn't. Trust me." Cript sighed. "Do you all really wanna know what it was about or should the past stay buried?" “I’d honestly like to know what we might be up against.” King frowned. “Even if our two groups are against each other now, we won’t be later.” “We’ll save that chat for later.” One of the cloak figures who hasn’t talked yet said before removing his cloak. Showing a man wearing regal like clothing before taking his hat and holding against his chest. “I’m Ardyn. Ardyn Lucis Caelum.” "The rest of you share that opinion?" Jericho asked. “We do. I’m Madoras.” Another cloaked figure said before taking it off. “And yes I’m aware of how I look. Never cared much.” He had gray skin with white hair that had red on the end. His outfit was strange as it was mostly black but left most of his torso exposed. He glared at Frisk who was suppressing a laugh. “Must you laugh every time you see me?” He asked, irritated. “Yes!” Was her reply. "There's a meme here I just can't remember which?" Cript said, shrugging. "That aside, sorry to inform but we need the Void Mother's womb. Firstly to revive a dead love of Jericho, and then return it to her with her heart so we can have Void Mother replaced by Maxellia. She won't like it, and probably will be beating the shit out of me before, during and after I ask her, but Void Mother is pretty sure she will accept, after she gets to spend as long as she wants kicking my ass." “Two things, one, Madoras, you remind me a lot of a much buffer Raiden from Metal Gear, and two...how strong is Maxella?” King asked nervously. "Well, she can't kill me but she can hurt me so, that's a scale. I guess." Cript said. “And by ‘hurt’, you mean kick your ass hurt, or ‘tis a scratch’ kind of hurt?” King asked. “And by “tis a scratch’ do you mean an actual scratch or losing a limb and thinking nothing of it like that black Knight guy?” Frisk asked. "Yes?" Cript said. “Glad to know I’m not the only one that watched Monty Python.” King chuckled. “So anyways, I think I can take a guess as to who our last cloaked person is, and I have a question.” King started as they kneeled down and brought out a little fancy looking charm. “I believe someone collects charms?” The figure took off its cloak to show a small being with a white mask and two black holes for eyes. He reaches for it with King accidentally holding it a little too high but found the little hops it made to get it cute. Like a kid trying to reach for a toy. “You are just adorable.” King giggled. “And sorry for holding it up to high my little friend.” They said softly as they lowered their hand to let the Ghost have the charm. “That adorable guy is probably the strongest, not counting Cript, being here since he basically at best represents Void itself.” Frisk said. “Thank you, cause I haven’t really gone to his world, or played Hollow Knight.” King shrugged, seeing Ghost take the charm happily. “Really should get around to doing that sometime, only got some cliff notes on how this little guy...I think killed a god in his world?” “Actually from what Max said on his research he killed a Higher Embodiment of Light and is the child of Void and God but PK was actually a Higher Embodiment of Nothing.” Frisk said. “So there is room to speculate that people can use Void and Nothingness together, if our little friend here is anything to go by.” King brought up. “The Pale King had the mask the vessels use made from a special concentration of Nothing to contain their Void should they survive. From what Max gathered the Void there is actually the densest in the entire Void. Something is there causing it, or the Void is drawn there.” Madoras explained. “I think one of the cliff notes I had from the game, one of the DLC’s, was that...there’s literally an Embodiment of Void living there, if not a Void God, which in my studies is actually stronger than an Embodiment even if the name makes it sound on a lower tier.” King brought up, bringing out a notebook titled ‘Notes on Games I really should play’. “Anyway.” Frisk said walking forward and..did she age a few years? “Who is facing who?” She asked with a smile. “I have heard from Agamemnon that you really didn’t like me for killing Gideon, the person that...really needed to die for every reason imaginable?” King frowned, shivering at the bad memory of just seeing the fat bastard. “I called dibs on his death.” She pouts. “Just to give a little insight. Those admins that watched over the entrance to Mother. Are gone.” Agamemnon said as his armored hand is covered in a familiar code. “So you’re the fuckers that made Mother and Belief run to us.” King growled. “Why?” “Max wanted us to be as prepared as possible for the coming war and becoming pseudo admins help.” Frisk said with the code of the Admin of Death coating her hands. “I know, Maxella and Kross told me.” Cript said. “Guess we gotta use that Womb to bring back some more people than. That sentence sounded weird even with context.” He sighed. “So… What is your big plan for Vincent then? Cause so far he knocked out a fusion of King and I and blasted us into the void sea, with a copy of King he plucked from the Nothingness Timelines. So, how are you all gonna deal with that if all you wanna do is fight us?” “Oh, Max will deal with King. He’ll leave Vincent to John. He has a feeling Vincent will do something that’ll push the last barriers John has on his potential. Since John technically was the second strongest of your group when everything started. Hell! He could have killed Core if he didn’t hold his Psychopath back.” Frisk said. “Uh huh… and lemme ask you all a question about that. Firstly, you all know Max and John are brothers, right?” “Ya. Max found that out when looking at his code and compared it to John’s.” Frisk said. “Right, and so you must also know that Maxella and Kross are their parents then right? The two greatest Void Users just under Void Mother herself, right?” “I had to help with calming him down and distressing him for 2 years in a different dimension.” Frisk said. “Hol up, what?” King asked incredulously. “I don’t remember that...but I might not have met either of those people…” “You didn’t. Frankly they hate everybody. Especially me, ironic given Kross is a Cript.” “Cause who isn’t at this point?” King asked sarcastically. “Right, so keeping all that in mind… do you still all honestly believe you can fight Vincent, who, spoiler alert, isn’t actually Vincent, he’s Grey, ya know that energy clogging up the space in the storage drive in the machine we all live in? The one who causes basically a factory reset of this place more times than I think is possible to count and built myself, Kross, and is so strong his newest idea of fun was to train and make people strong enough to tickle him? Do you all really wanna go up against that? Alone?” “Us.” She said gesturing to herself and the kings. ”No, Max or John. Two children of a Cript and the Void Conduit. Much better than us.” Cript sighed. He walked over to that still open portal. “Max I know you are listening over there, get over here or I will give Frisk ALL your baby pictures.” “You mean these?” Frisk said, holding a photo album. “Don’t ask how she got those…” A voice from the portal said. “So…” King started. “I’m just going to bring this up, do we really have to do this?” The den mother dire wolf asked. “We all have a common enemy, and that’s Vincent...er, Grey at this point. Do we well and truly need to try and fight each other?” King asked, not wanting to fight needlessly. “Max wanted us to face you to see how far we all are. He is not closed to the idea but not till he is sure your group is ready, and not just Cript or any fusion with him counts towards it.” Agamemnon explained. “How about this.” Cript offered. “You all get one hit. One, all out strongest attack one me, and I ranke it on a scale of one to ten. Ten being painful, five being kicked in the shin, and one to zero being sad. Cause… Frankly, I am tired of all this shit. And I meant these Photos.” Cript said, materializing a red and blue striped album and tossing it to Frisk. “There’s bathtime and babies first playtime.” “So Cript’s not joining.” King started as he drew No Heart. “Who wants to face me first? Cause I know Frisk is one of them and Agamemnon would want to see how well I’m doing.” Frisk stepped up. “Guess I’ll go first.” “Age to 18. Don’t underestimate him.” Agamemnon recommends. “Ok.” She said. Aging up to her 18 year old self. “Alright.” King nodded, bringing out Frozen Pride. “So, which Undertale world are you from? I got...I believe it was named Storyshift.” Frisk lifts one finger before flicking it up. “Epictale.” A giant orange boxing glove bursts from the ground hitting King and sending him into the air. She then jumps up to him and grabs their face. “Let’s get a bigger arena.” Then throws them to a large floating landmass. King turned around quickly and landed on the ground feet first. “Thanks for that, I had a crick in my neck that wouldn’t go away.” King chuckled. “Now, my turn.” The wolf started as he swung No Heart, a massive wave of bladed Nothingness rushing towards Frisk, King leaping behind the fast moving attack as they readied an attack with Frozen Pride. Just as the attacks were about to land Frisk smirks and dissolves into purple papers flying about. King was taken off guard by the move and was shot by a yellow revolver poking out of a page to his left. “Sike.” King said as an ice spike shot through Frisk’s gun hand as they raised their shield up. “Frost Storm!” King shouted as dozens of ice spears descended down onto the purple pages like a raging storm. He heard a foot step behind him and turned around making a spike of ice erupt and pieces the target,...but sees Joy standing there with the ice inside their chest. Blood on the ice and coughing it up. “W-why?” They asked with a betrayed voice. “Oh…” King started. “You want to play it like this huh?” He heard clapping as Joy disappeared. Looking behind them to see frisk sitting on a rock. “Very good. Most people normally are just shocked and stunned from that, but I’m glad you passed that little test. If you were effective like normal people this would be boring.” She said. Frisk was even more surprised by King, as she experienced face first a full weighted swing from Skysplitter, sending her flying up into the air as King disbanded it into the Book of Retribution and Staff of Leniency. “Heavens Descent!” King shouted, Frisk seeing pearly white gates appear above her, only to start opening up and a massive force of holy energy rammed straight into her, driving her back down into the earth. “Don’t.Ever.Do that again.” King growled. “Even if it was painfully obvious...you don’t fuck with my family.” He heard laughter from the hole. “Very nice. That actually hurt a little bit, but-“ she said as she got out of the whole. Looking older. About 20. She wiped her cheek which had a small cut. “Paper cuts aren’t that big a deal.” Her left leg was covered in a dark blue light as she suddenly kicked King in the side of his head, but that kick felt more like 20 kicks in an instant. She then grabbed his leg as he was sent flying from the kick and slammed him into the ground. She then pointed her hand like a handgun at him. “Bang.” A massive Yellow Revolver appears and blast him into the ground and through the landmass into the void under it. King flew back up with a frown. “So that’s your gimmick huh? Your age hides your potential or something?” The wolf asked, their body scuffed up a bit but nothing major. “That and its fun being a kid when I want. Especially when most don’t expect a kid to be as deadly as me.” She said. “I’m not most.” King started as they shifted to True King’s Valor form. “Thankfully I also have some forms that I haven’t used yet.” King said happily, their form being that of their Nothingness Armor, pure red with flowing nothingness thorn’s flowing through it as a cascade of raw physical might radiated from King. “Let’s see how you handle this.” King said as they landed a punch on Frisk, and just like with their attack, it felt like they were hit fifty times over from their massive speed boost. She slid back a couple meters from the attack. “Hehe. Nice one, but-“ she holds out her green frying pan weapon. She used it to block the attack.” -you’ll need to ‘dish’ out more than that.” She punned. With a loud groan coming from the other kings. “Well I suppose I better-” King started as their hands burst into a bluish white flame akin to the fire from the upgraded Eternal Flames. “-get ‘Heated up’ for ya.” King counter punned. “I HEAR ONE MORE PUN I'M COMING UP THERE!!” Yelled Agamemnon. “Damn, he doesn't like puns.” King said nervously. “A Sans with too much color on him and a ‘fresh’ personality appeared and even Max is having a hard time getting rid of him. He annoys Agamemnon the most for laughs.” Frisk said. “Wait…” King started. “That sounds familiar...I’m gonna have to look that up later, but when you say ‘fresh’, you mean he spouts nothing but memes and a bunch of shit from the nineties?” “Yes.” Frisk deadpans. “Also had shades that have words on them that change with things like ‘Yo,Yo’, ‘lol’, and other stuff.” “Oh yeah, I think I heard of him before, it’s actually a parasite that’s controlling that Sans if my little...dive into the Undertale wiki means anything.” King said sheepishly. Suddenly a giant glowing blue ballet shoe smashes into him sending him flying. Then another from below sending him up. Then one sends him down, and it just repeats for a few seconds before a giant frying pan smashes him into the ground. Then slams the ground a couple more times. Finally six yellow giant revolvers aim at him and each simultaneously fire six blasts into the ground. “Are you still good to go?” Frisk asks casually. "Rude." King frowned as they got back up. "We were having a nice conversation and you assaulted me." “Ya well we are fighting.” Frisk shrugs. "I know I know." King said. "Still not used to this form though…" King grumbled as they brought an arm back and punched towards Frisk, an air bullet ramming straight into her stomach hard. Only for her to burst into purple paper again as hundreds and hundreds of paper scattered around the area. “The soul of perseverance.” King pointed out. “Gonna have to do more than turn into pages.” “How about this.” He looks behind him to see her holding the notebook. She points at him as all the papers suddenly cover every inch of him as a green bubble forms around him. “Let’s see. What spell to use...how about Falling Down.” She snaps her fingers as the spell appears on all the pages and begins to glow. “One more thing.” She takes a piece of paper out. It said X100. She tosses it as it fades through the shield and splits apparent until it covers all the pages and glow from them suddenly increases. “Bang.” She exclaims. As an explosion from all the pages happens as the spell goes off on all of them. “Still conscious?” She asked. As the dust settled, Frisk saw King’s armor was blue tinted this time, magical energy sparking off of them. “You’re not the only one with split second crap.” King said bluntly. “True King’s Wisdom form, fuck ton of magic defense.” He explained as he raised a hand. “You want to play with magic? Then let me show you!” King barked. “FALLEN DOWN!” King shouted as a blue line softly touched the ground in front of Frisk, only for the spell to collapse right on top of her. Smoke covered the area once the spell ended. He waits for her to make a move. When he suddenly felt a huge pressure drop on him. Nothing was above him. So he guessed she stopped holding back, but dang the difference from then and now is staggering. He might have to actually use ‘that’ for this. Which excites him a little. She walks out of the dust looking different. Age 26. Her hair reached her lower back. Her striped shirt was replaced with a dress that while covering the important things left the middle of her stomach exposed. And another thing that caught his attention. Was the floating crown of Void above her head. “Sorry. Had to change. That spell blasted my top off. Sorry but that’s for Max, or I would have to claw your eyes out.” “So what? You stopped holding back now?” King asked curiously, their armor turning pure gold as they shifted into True King Master form just to test the waters. “And good for you.” She smirks. Then appears faster than before making him jump a bit “Wha-” She held her left hand glowing with orange. Two fingers extended and hand half open. Before suddenly doing a One-inch punch that went through his armor making him cough up blood sending him into the cliff side...on the other side of the dungeon. “Come one King. You should know better than to underestimate me. Although let me inform you of something. Based on what I said Ghost down there is the strongest king correct?” She asked as King was pushing himself out of the crater. That Impact hit him harder than he expected. “You’re the queen, it’s painfully obvious...both metaphorically...and quite literally.” King coughed in pain “Alright...ow…” King grumbled in pain. “Well yes and no. I was saying the truth about him, but I’m stronger than all of them. Because I’m not a King or Queen. I’m Frisk Akuma. Empress of the Void and Max’s wife.” She explained. “Cool.” King took a deep breath. “If you want to take the kiddie gloves off, then so be it.” King started, as Frisk felt a powerful pressure force itself on her shoulders suddenly. “Time...Space…” King growled, their words echoing with ancient power as their armor shifted. “When All Things come to an End…” King chanted, their armor becoming more streamlined and powerful, Nothingness pulsating and clashing against the ambient Void Frisk was creating. "There stands the Final Being of the Lonesome World." King chante, a pillar of nothingness erupting from him even though he was deep in the Void. “The True Ruler of Nothing, In this existence of a Nobody like me…” King raised their hand and summoned their True King’s Greatsword, a hilt that held a blade made of Pure Nothingness thorns, it writhing with power and a will to fight. “True King Form.” “Going all out finally. About time.” Frisk said as she summoned all her souls. Integrity-dark blue Patience-light blue Kindness-green Bravery-orange Justice-yellow Perseverance-purple Fear-pink Hate-black “Want to know what this color means?” Frisk asked, holding her red soul. “Determination?” King asked as they raised their True King’s Greatsword. “And I’ve never had to go all out cause I’ve both never had to...and was scared what it could do if just the True Valor form was stupidly strong.” “Determination isn’t actually a soul trait. Every soul has Determination. Albeit various degrees.” Frisk brings the soul closer. “It’s Love.” She looks back at him. “You brought your weapon. Let me bring out mine.” Her Love soul floats in front of her and turns into a red knife. From what he knows of the game it did stupid high lvls of damage at the end of the Genocide run. Chara’s did at least. The other souls then combined with the knife making it much bigger. Suddenly her normal size knife looked like Ichigo’s massive blade. “Alrighty then.” King nodded as they prepared for the fight. “Let’s see how well this goes.” King said as they blurred forward and swung their greatsword swiftly at Frisk. Frisk swings blade as well. The collision from both had enough force to not only destroy the land mass they were on but the shock wave hit the others hard. Cript barely felt it but some of the others had to block some of it with their arms. Those on King's side that is. On Frisk's side Madoras made wordless spells to block the shockwaves for him and the others. Except for Ghost who was chasing a small Void butterfly that somehow wasn’t affected by the shockwaves. “Anyone else surprised neither has gotten knocked out yet?” Cript asked. “Are we just going to ignore the fact that they're both going all out here?” Coco asked bluntly, using her Void powers to keep herself and Kexez from falling over at the shockwaves. “Yes.” Cript said with a shrug, taking out a crossword puzzle book. “Trust me, they both need it out of their systems.” “Kexez? Jericho?” Coco asked incredulously, hoping someone would take this a little bit more seriously as she could literally feel the Void shaking from their fight. “I’d rather not get between them given the power flowing out there.” Kexez said. “Eh, neither of them are in danger. I’m more worried about the third party viewers some several thousand miles in the safe range of the AoE attacks.” Jericho said. “And what about you all?” Coco asked Frisk’s group. “Anything you have to say about the Void itself shaking from their fight?” Agamemnon looks over. “Actually only this area is shaking, and we spar on multiple occasions. To keep ourselves near top form. Of course going all out is out of the question but seeing this isn’t that shocking. It’s actually to be expected.” Madoras then speaks. “While powerful just the shockwaves are, I'm able to block them with some small spells. So no trouble. Only one not affected is Ghost over there.” He points to Ghost who is sitting with a dozen Void butterflies sitting on him. “He’s too cute…” Coco whined at how adorable Ghost is being right now. Cript sees that Frisk's weapon broke at the clash. It looked unstable so probably the first time she tried such a weapon. Although something about her doesn’t seem right. He starts to notice when Kings follow up swing was aiming at her stomach. “Okay, that’s enough.” Cript said, appearing between Frisk and King, King’s weapon held firmly in Cript’s grip. “Not a bad trick Frisk. Fooled me, but I guess when you have power getting directed elsewhere keeping that weapon stable wasn’t easy.” “I noticed something was off with how many times she kept turning into pages...but what’s really going on?” King asked, knowing the pages was a decent gimmick to dodge but it could only do so much before King just got past it. “Well I couldn’t keep it hidden forever. Take a whiff wolf boy and guess.” Frisk said. Taking a step back. “I won’t hide it since it was found out.” King sniffed Frisk carefully, taking in their scent and…”Are you fucking kidding me lady!?” King snapped at her in panic. “You could have hurt both of them if you weren’t careful, the fucks wrong with you!?” King asked, Frisk not seeing anger from King about fighting while pregnant, but honest fear and panic for her safety and that of their kids from a tried and true mother. “Honestly it would take Cript here to actually break the barrier I place but the blade I made took a bit more than I thought. I was about to use the Admin power I have to completely reinforce it. And don’t lie you haven’t been using your admin powers either, and if I thought that attack would truly hurt them then I wouldn’t hesitate to strike.” Frisk said before an armored hand fell on her shoulder. “Frisk...did you seriously come here pregnant?” The calm but angered voice of Agamemnon said behind her. Making her flinch a bit. Weaker than her he may be but scary he definitely is. She felt a small tug on her dress and looked down to see Ghost looking at her. The look in his eyes was clear. She sighs. “Ok. It was dumb to do this. Very dumb. Max is probably pissed as hell though. I’ll head back to get the ear full waiting.” She turns to go. “Oh and King. Keep getting stronger. Because next time you’re going down.” “Next time try not fighting me while eight months pregnant with twins.” King frowned. “And yes, I wasn’t using Admin powers cause I keep forgetting I can do that…” King grumbled. “But Max has more than enough to tell you, now shoo, and tell me when the baby shower is darn it.” She puts a finger on her chin. “Mmm. Nope,” she said as she leaves. Ghost goes back to the others...and chases a small wolf pup that was in the area...where did that come from? “Well, that’s an unsatisfying draw. So, next match up?” Cript asked. “I’m willing to fight.” Jericho said, shrugging. “So, who wants to fight?” A bell chimes a few times surprising them. “Ring Ring. Armor 3 is now ready.” A small doll said floating in the air. “Yes, I hear Tony Stark wants his gimmick back.” King joked. Agamemnon stepped forward. His armor changed into its Black and gold variant. “I am next. Forgive me, but this technically would be armor 4. But my newest one isn’t ready yet for battle as of yet.” “Hm, master of Weapons vs the Master of War. Fun.” He said, drawing his axe, code flowing out over it. “And unlike King, I know how to fight like an Admin.” “Then please.” He said as code forms and forms a small shield on his left arm and a spear halbert in his right hand. “Educate me on such battles.” Nodding, Jericho took a deep breath. He didn’t take a pose, or raise his axe. He stood there for a time before appearing behind Agamemnon. He lurched, Agamemnon feeling pain unlike what he had felt before. It was like a wound, but his armor and body were unharmed, physically, yet he could feel the gushing blood and spilling intestines. “Admin attacks damage your code. You’ll heal, slowly as it rebuilds itself. Physically, there aren’t any injuries, but with enough attacks… it’s no different than dying from a delete. You’ll be erased entirely, your code too damaged to rebuild yourself, and fall apart.” He shakingly stood up. “Interesting. So this is an Admin attack, or was this just a taste. Let’s see.” He blocks a swing from Jericho by placing the small shield to catch underneath the axe and hook it while slamming the blade of his Halberd across Jericho’s face. Jericho smiled, pulling his axe back and making a tear in Agamemnon's shield. He watched in shock as it became cloaked in code for a moment before fading entirely. "Weapons and armor are no different, and unlike us they don't heal." He jumped back, slashing the Halberd in half as it too faded and broke at the code level. Agamemnon jumped back and summoned a sword in his left hand and swung. Jericho just sliced it with his axe again. Only to see a bite purple gauntlet slam into his face sending him into a cliff. He looks up to see Agamemnon holding a magic bow that shoots powerful magic arrows that splits into over a dozen on flight that slam into him causing an explosion. When the Explosions faded Agamemnon was surprised to see a large, metallic ship built for land and sea standing where the bombarded hit. Jericho stood atop it. He raised his arm with the axe up, the ship shooting off volleys of Mana infused explosives Agamemnon began shooting at rapidly to avoid getting hit. "Like it? It's not even my flag ship!" Jericho shouted, the grin on his face showing he was enjoying himself. Agamemnon kept shooting the explosive till one got really close. The blast kicking up dust around him. Jericho looks for his next attack when more arrows come at him. He blocks it with his axe before having more explosives fired at him. This continues for a bit before he got confused on why Agamemnon wasn’t doing anything different. Eyes widened as he quickly swung his axe with enormous force to force the dust to clear. Revealing three knights holding the same bow Agamemnon was using. “King-” Jericho looks up to see Agamemnon holding a double bladed curved sword that was glowing with tons of magic and void. Ready to swing down. “-Slayer!!” Agamemnon shouts as he sends a massive blade beam point blank at Jericho. The attack hits him and destroys the ship as well as pulverizing the land beneath them. When the smoke cleared Agamemnon stood with the curved sword halfway down Jericho's torso. Jericho kept eyes locked with Agamemnon, smiling. "About time." He said, yanking the sword out as Agamemnon jumped back for some distance. His wound sealed itself up as Jericho raised his axe, still smiling as he kept his eyes on Agamemnon. "The dogs of war shall bite and tear until all that remains are blood and bones." He swung his axe at the ground, the earth below him rising up, forming a cave of sorts as soon echoing from deep within was the rabbit snarls and barks of hounds. Countless hounds. "Hunt him." Jericho said, and emerging from the cave were countless hounds of every race, armored to the teeth. Literally. “Come then!” Agamemnon challenged. As he equipped a short sword with his sword. He dragged the short sword across the curved sword and both were suddenly glowing green. “Armor piercer.” He then jumps up into the air and brings the blades in a cross pattern. “Dual King Slayer!” He then sent out a cross style blade beam that struck the hounds. As the smoke cleared he saw a few were killed but most only had small cracks on the armor. “Damn. Should have charged that longer.” Jericho laughed, the earth began shaking as his armored hounds now dug themselves out from the earth, and massive hounds the size of buildings emerged from it. The larger ones have armor mixed with magic and/or technology, giving them powerful weapons that offloaded towards Agamemnon once they targeted him. Jericho was having fun. Jericho felt something on his shoulder and looked to see the small doll that Agamemnon has on his shoulder. “Armor two.” It says before looking at him. “Is ready.” “Demi-God Slayer!” Jericho heard from the onslaught of his attacks and see hundreds of huge blade beams flying out of it. Slicing his hounds to pieces as a particular one crashes into him sending him flying again. The smoke clears and Agamemnon is there in Red and gold armor. “I regret not using the ability the third one has but I had to up my game.” He holds out a long sword in his left hand. “Need I go higher?” Laughter filled the air, Jericho tossing the hound corpse off himself. He raised his axe up, along his arm and the axe were five images of locks. "Power restrictions level one, Unlock for use in battle. Worthy opponent detected. Granted. Level one powers and abilities restored for use as needed." There was a shockwave in the air as power now began flooding from Jericho as one of the images of the locks vanished from his axe and arm. He stood up, now adorned in a thick hide and metallic armor. Both materials Agamemnon was having difficulty identifying. His axe had changed, growing larger and thicker but the blade ever sharper and was white hot. The surviving hounds all reacted, wounds healed as their size and strength began more, their power coming to them from Jericho as they began to circle Agamemnon once each surviving hound was fully restored to health. "Battle mode, Territory Conquest, activated." Agamemnon lands on the ground. “Very well.” Agamemnon slams his hand on the ground as it begins to shake. “Void Knights. Assemble.” Swords started to appear in hundreds before many started to merge. Forming dozens of Knights. Some Knights merged with others to form larger variants. Agamemnon summons an axe of his own. He charges right at Jericho while the hounds and his knights did battle. He slams his axe against Jericho who grins. He cuts through Agamemnon’s axe who leans back to dodge. Jericho is then Suddenly hit fast with a loud bang. He looks to see Agamemnon holding a large revolver in his left hand. “When I said All Weapons I meant it!” He brings out another and starts shooting with both. Their impact pushed him back. Agamemnon then summons another sword and swings. Only for the sword to break apart revealing to be a chain blade and wraps around the handle of Jericho’s axe as he begins to tug. No sooner than he began tugging the axe lit up in code fire, breaking the chains around it as Jericho chuckled. "Don't forget, almost all of the weapons in existence you know of and mastered were made by my predecessor." Jericho said, snapping his fingers as suddenly thousands of armed beings popped into existence. Each armed with a weapon Agamemnon was familiar with. "If it was built to kill, it serves me." With that Agamemnon was nearly able to block impalement by his own swords as they flew out of his grips and tried to stab through his armor. As their armies clashed Agamemnon began to calculate how to fight with a weapon that isn't by definition a weapon. He dodged another blade that was sent flying at him when it clicked. Might not work but it’s worth a shot. He dodged again as he threw one of his hands back and summoned dozens of arrows. He then threw his hand forward as the arrows went flying towards Jericho and the armed beings. The arrows then split into hundreds as they explode on impact or proximity of a target. Jericho emerged from the flames, jumping after Agamemnon with wide, fast swings he dodged rapidly. The two kept dodging and swinging for quite some time, on each side their troops began falling, but it was clear Agamemnon's army was the one with less numbers. "Come on now, Master of Weapons! Show me what that title truly means!" Jericho screamed, a smile across his face and wide eyes of the thrill of battle. "Bring out your anger, offload every payload, empty out your armories, because if you want to see what a real Admin can do, then prove to me you can handle it!" Jericho declared, his weapons armor suddenly growing arms and reaching for Agamemnon. As they did Agamemnon got a better look at the armor as it morphed into something akin to… someone. A person, made of leather and metal. The apparently living armor conjured two Claymores, swinging both against Agamemnon's torso. The knight was knocked back, the impact not harming him but damaged his armor slightly. Looking up, Agamemnon realized that armor was made From an Admin… the prior Admin of war. "You turned your predecessor into armor?" He asked. Jericho chuckled. "Yes. To defeat such a monster, I had to become something far, far crueller and vial. When Admins die, our physical bodies fade with our code, but, even an Admin can become brain dead. I erased his mind, stole his power and melted down his still living body into the armor you see now. It's still bonded to the code of war, and made the perfect material for armor that adapts to me as I unlock my restrictions as needed. In war, waste not want not." Jericho said, his armor swapping the Claymores for crossbows. "If you win, I'd happily teach you how to craft armor of equal power for yourself." “See...if I was properly trained like I was told so many goddamn times…” King grumbled, throwing Cript a quick glare as he was the primary source of ‘Of course we’ll train soon totally maybe if I have the remembrance of me saying it’. Cript simply shrugged. "You gave us time with Vincent in this war, a hairline thin line he won't cross so long as we play along. If proper training is what you want, it's the least any of us can do." “You said you were going to train me at least ten times over the years we’ve been doing this.” King frowned. “First when I got Humanity and Psychopath powers, then when I became an Admin which barely went anywhere, then a vast majority of other times…” "What? You didn't self train off camera?" “I do, a lot, that’s why I’m still as strong as I am without Admin bullshit.” King huffed. Agamemnon sighed. “I secretly hoped I wouldn’t have to do this, but against you I must.” He said as over a dozen dolls appeared floating around the area. “Armor 1 is ready! Armor 1 is ready!” They chanted over and over. Floating around. “While I have a stronger armor in the making it’s not ready. So Jericho.” Agamemnon looks towards him. “It’s Time.” Void started to surround Agamemnon. First it was small, then it got bigger. Finally an orb of condensed Void surrounded Agamemnon. Jericho felt a massive spike in power. This armor was different from his others. He could tell things got more...exciting. The Void subsided. Agamemnon stood there in this black armor. He could see Dark Monofilament in it but was combined with other metals. It was a combination he hasn’t seen before. No doubt this was much stronger than any of his other armors. Agamemnon brought out a sword and shield that seemed to be made of the same kind. “Ready.” He says simply. Jericho grinned madly, snapping his fingers as his still living hounds and army charged at Agamemnon, testing the waters for their master. Agamemnon started walking towards Jericho. Not even looking at the army. He did however. Swing his sword towards his right. The blade he sent was stronger then the Demi-God Slayer as it destroyed all on that side. Making the rest stop in shock while Jericho grinned even more if possible. Still, the other side of Jericho's army kept moving, shooting and charging him as he slashed them aside with ease as he walked towards Jericho. He laughed, lifting his arm and axe up. The locks on both are visible. "Level two, level three restrictions access request for combat in battle. Access granted. War tier elevated to Revolution." There was a blast of energy, Agamemnon kept his footing but felt the impact. Jericho's armor was something akin to a uniform now, but armored and layered in runes and code Agamemnon couldn't read. His axe was far smaller, looking more like a hatchet now but the blade still glowed in energy. Agamemnon held his sword to the side as it started Glowing. “Those attacks I just used. They were just simple blade beams. While those techniques I used against you. Are much different. King Slayer is restricted to Armor 3 and above with Demi-God Slayer to armor 2 and above. This one is.” The light changes to a dark light as the Void starts to condense on the blade. “God-” “EVERYONE GET DOWN!!” Madoras yelled as he slammed his hands together forming a shield around them. “-Slayer!” Agamemnon yelled releasing the attack. Jericho smiled, rushing in and swinging his axe against Agamemnon's sword. The clashing blades sent a shockwave that reached the far end of the void and unearthed the ground countless miles. When the dust finally cleared Jericho and Agamemnon still stood there, blades locked staring at one another. Jericho's smile could not get any wider. "How fun." He said. “That means you are done with warm ups?” Agamemnon asked as the pressure he was releasing suddenly spiked. “Because I’m still getting started.” Shoving Jericho back with a swift kick to the chest before pointing the horns on his helmet towards him. “God Cannon!” A powerful beam of Void shot out from between the horns of his helmet. The impact knocked Jericho into the ground at supersonic speeds. He bounced for a bit before launching himself back up and towards Agamemnon, their blades clashing again but this time Jericho gave a hard punch to Agamemnon's helmet, cracks formed on it and before he pulled back his first, grabbed one of the horns and pulled him down into a knee kick and then spun around and tossed him at the ground below. Jericho wasted no time in raising his axe and taking aim. "Payload 7. Offload all Salvio's." He swung, the swing shooting off countless projectiles ranging from misslas to arrows and bullets, spells and various projectiles at Agamemnon. Agamemnon brought out a repeater crossbow in both hands and started firing void like arrows. After shooting down thousands of attacks in the first few seconds he put them away and brought out a spear and charged. Dodging and deflecting attacks till he was halfway to Jericho before throwing the spear. He snapped his fingers before it came within Jericho’s striking range and it swapped places with him. He then proceeded to bring out a massive purple first gauntlet and slugged Jericho. The fist as big as his torso. Agamemnon watched in surprise as Jericho picked back with just his head against the force of the blow, pushing back far enough til they were eye to eye. Jericho laughed then spit right into Agamemnon's visor. He huffed but managed to blast Jericho back some distance. As he prepared his next attack he halted. His body felt off. His head hurt, breathing became labored and his balance was almost non-existent. He fell to his knees and hands, looking up as Jericho was walking up over to him. "Bio weapons are a dirty little thing but oh so effective." He said, Agamemnon trying to bring out a weapon only to receive a massive spike in pain through his head like a thousand needles stitching through him. He stands back up and tries again. The pain came back and increased as he tried, but he didn’t stop. With a yell of pain and stubbornness he pulls out a special sword. A two handed sword made of Dark Monofilament. He holds the sword in both hands. “While painful. There are much worse pains in Existence. Meet Brightbane.” "Ooh la la, you got a sword. Gonna try and stab me in the heart with it?" Agamemnon grabbed the bottom of the hilt and detached the bottom half of the hilt. He took out a small crystal. “This is a special crystal Max made from condensed code. While I'm getting close to grasping the concept of using Code to battle from observing you. This should even the playing field.” He inserted the crystal and reattached the hilt. The top of the blade glowed red and extended another foot. The energy being code. “King Slayer!” He swings the sword as he unleashes the attack enchanted with code. Right as Agamemnon began to swing down, Jericho swung his axe up, both code covered weapons hitting the other. Jericho's arm holding the axe went flying but not before taking off the face of Agamemnon's helmet and the face underneath. Agamemnon roared in the pain but marveled as he could feel the weapon interact with his own code and begin repairing his armor and body. By the time he could see again Jericho was displaying his axe, his arm regrown and the locks remaining in full view. "Requesting access for level four restrictions unlocked for use in combat. Access granted. War elevated from Revolution, to World." In a blink he was gone, Agamemnon quickly spun around and blocked with his weapon. Jericho now wore what was more an officer's uniform, his Axe now resembling a modern combat axe. The two clashed against one another without giving an opening to the other. Agamemnon swung once more and clashed with his axe. He held the clash to keep both weapons locked against each other. “The first weapon.” He said suddenly to Jericho’s confusion. Agamemnon took one hand off the sword and held it pointing towards Jericho’s chest in a knife hand fashion. “Was one's own hands.” He said as his hand suddenly shined with intense Void. “God Slayer!!” He said while unleashing the attack. While not as powerful as it could be through a blade it still had power. Reacting fast, Jericho hooked Agamemnon's sword on his axe, dragging him down with him as they flew a great distance and landed in a crater of their own making. Jericho stood, looking worn but still kept his smile. "You really are quite a worthy opponent Agamemnon. I haven't had this much fun since I met Cript. You wouldn't happen to be from my realm? You sure fight like someone from there." “...I am. It’s been so long since I last saw you. We never talked. Never even looked at each other. I was but a normal soldier in battle. But I am from there.” Agamemnon told him. "Ah. That explains so much. I won't ask you how you escaped, it's not like that matters anymore. After I killed the old admin and took his place, I erased that blood soaked realm. Were you there in those days? Did you witness his March across the ground, killing man, beast and plant alike?" Jericho placed a hand across his eyes. "So many dead, killed for his enjoyment. By him. When it was over, I was all that was left, or so I thought." He put his hand down, looking back at Agamemnon. "You, my fellow soldier, fight for more than just senseless bloodshed. For making that choice, I thank you. By the time I did, it was too late." Agamemnon looks at his hand and sighs. “I was one of his soldiers. I was meant to be what you described. Nothing more. One day I...slayed a child. Something was different about this. Under his influence I have done much worse for his entertainment but this was different. Like whatever it was that made me what I was weakened. The blood...will never leave my hands. No matter what armor, no matter how much I would bath or wash my hands. It would never leave. I don’t hate you for killing him. In fact I wish I could have done it by the time I was getting out of his influence. I was lucky to escape.” He says as he looks at his armored hands. From his vision the blood was still there. After all this time. “I’ll be honest that I’m still holding back. Something I had from those times. I never wanted to use those powers again. Because of how it ties me to Him. So I must ask. Do I have your permission to use them? As the new Admin of War.” He asked. Jericho sighed, looking his axe over. "Level five restrictions, requesting access for use in combat." He looked up at Agamemnon. "Access granted. War elevated to… Apocalypse." As Jericho shifted, Agamemnon nearly felt the urge to run. The armor Jericho adorned, the crown, that form of the axe… they were all his. At Jericho's side was a red horse, hide blood soaked and mane and tale burning in white hot flames. He mounted the beast, and Agamemnon could swear, it was him. "When I killed that monster, and took his title, his power, I also took his sins and his enemies. Agamemnon, I ask you as a fellow soldier and the new Admin at war, hold nothing back. Your power, your anger, fear and loss. Bring it all down upon me, just try and kill me." Agamemnon held his sword out and place his left hand on the blade. “Restriction access 666. Unleash.” The numbers 666 formed in front of him and broke. Void explodes from him. He then takes his sword...and plunges it into his gut. Blood splaying all over. “Blood of War, Blood of Soldiers, Blood of the Beast, Wake Up!!” He rips the sword out as a massive bloody aura combines with the Void. His blood coats his armor and sword. “Bloody Edge!” He sends a bloody void tainted blade beam that was much stronger then any yet. Jericho swats it away and notices it actually pushed him back a bit. Agamemnon then slams the edge of his sword across his chest. “Bloody rebellion!” The strike sends him into the air. Jericho turned around and clashed with another strike only for Agamemnon to not only move but for a bloody looking slash mark to stay where they clashed. Agamemnon strikes him again as he clashes with it. It continues for a dozen times till after the last one Agamemnon clenched his left hand. “Bloody Combustion!” The slash marks that surrounded him suddenly explode with a lot of force and power. Jericho still was there, seated atop the horse and it charged. He Raised his axe. "War’s End." He said, reaching close to Agamemnon as he readied a swing. Agamemnon poured everything into his next strike. “Bloody God King Slayer!!” He shouts as he swung against Jericho. The two clashed. No sound, just pure white. Like a sun made itself into the void and gave light to all around. It seemed to last forever to the group's viewing. Like all things, it eventually ended. Jericho's mount was gone, he and Agamemnon were both laid down some distance from one another. Beaten and worn. Cript ran over, viewing Jericho and Agamemnon. "Tie. Well done Agamemnon, you tied with Jericho." Cript said, giving the unconscious knight applause. Ghost walks over with a few Void butterflies on him and that Void wolf pup following him. Picks up Agamemnon and walks back to his group. Although he did bow a little to Cript. Cript, to their surprise, bowed back as he threw Jericho over his shoulder. "That was a fight worth remembering." Ardyn, who had been silent, looks over at the other team. “Well that was something to see. It’s rare to see Agamemnon fight like that, and this result was without his new armor which should have been much stronger. I’m curious to how it would have ended if he had it? What do you guys say about this battle?” He asked "I say Jericho is gonna wanna make Agamemnon a new sparring partner." Cript said with a laugh, placing the admin of war down next to his group. "Excuse me, the fuck.” King started. “Both of you are that powerful?” King asked, even though they knew full well they were going to be stupid strong, he was still kind of surprised. “For the record. Not even we knew about that Blood power Agamemnon had. So he surprised even us with it. But know that before knowing that he wasn’t the strongest out of us Kings. In raw power at least. In technique he is the best hands down.” Madoras said. Healing Agamemnon with a healing spell. “Well...I can fully agree with that.” King said, having been taught to some extent by the knight. “You people are insane…” Coco frowned. “Sane is for boring people.” Ardyn said with a shrug. “I mean...I’m married to this wonderful ball of fluff.” Coco said while softly nudging King. “I am the best ball of fluff.” King said with pride and a smile. "So, who's next?" Cript asked. “So...I guess I’m up next.” Coco said. “If Kexez doesn’t want to go next.” “Just a quick side note, is something wrong Broly?” King asked the young sayin, having seen them staring at King for some reason. "There's a joke here but I won't make it." Cript said bluntly. “Well…” Coco started to stretch out, surprising King at the sudden amount of Void energy she was producing. “Who wants to go against me?” The cream colored mare asked simply. Ardyn started to step forward before he felt a tug on his coat. He looks down to see Ghost looking at him. “You sure?” He asked. Ghost looks at him then at Coco. And walks forward. “If you insist.” Ardyn said. Ghost walks up to Coco and draws his weapon. A spiral like blade that is known in his world as a Nail, or in this case a Pure Nail. “Alright little Ghost.” Coco said as she raised her hand, summoning Void Gear and preparing herself. “You may be cute, but I won’t go easy on you.” The mare said as she used Void Temper on Void Key and swung down at Ghost strongly. Ghost form suddenly turns dark as it changes into Void and dashes through her. He pulled out a medallion that extended a blade of light and before she could react he struck her dozens of times with it, but she didn’t feel pain nor did it knock her back. Confused by the strange attack she didn’t see him swing his Nail that struck her and actually sent her into the ground. Surprised by the power in it. She gets up to see him basically flying to another land mass. Probably where he wanted this battle to take place. “Fine fine.” Coco said as she leaped after him onto the new land mass. “But that was quite a hit.” Coco said as she shot a Void infused fireball towards Ghost. She expected him to dodge. Not to simply smack them back at her. Coco knocked it back at Ghost with a huff. And it suddenly turns into a deadly tennis-like game between them. “So uh...when did this turn into a tennis match?” King asked slowly. “No idea. When Ghost started having fun I guess.” Ardyn guessed. Even though there was barely a change on the Ghost mask. “Trust me. He has a look of joy.” King took a closer look, this time not using their normal sight and looking beyond the physical to who, or what, Ghost really was behind the cute beetle look. A shadow, or shade if they were correct, had its eyes curved in a way that could be described as a child having fun. “Jeez, even it’s aura is that of a joyful child.” King commented. “And they're still adorable.” They chuckled only to see Coco spike the ever growing Void Fireball to Ghost like a real tennis match. Ghost suddenly had a void tendril form out of its right arm and hit the Void Fireball. Coco tried to hit it back but was shocked at the amount of force in it. She barely sensed his void change at all. So why was there so much force now? She skids back keeping the fire ball from crashing into her for what felt like a few miles till she decided to divert it away by shifting the direction of her Void key and jumping out of the way. The blast traveled far away before it hit something and...blew up like a Void Nuke... “Sweet lord!” Coco yelped in surprise, turning back to look at Ghost. “Well...I suppose the saying of ‘big things come in little packages’ is true.” King said sheepishly. “Uh...okay…” Coco started nervously. “Well...let’s try this again…” The cream colored mare started, taking a deep breath as she held her Void Gear in both hands as she charged after Ghost, vanishing every few steps and appearing in a new spot closer to him, before appearing right behind him and swinging down hard enough to crater a continent. Without moving Ghost let a loud scream that made King hold their ears in pain as a black aura blast surrounded Ghost. Catching Coco by surprise and blasting her into the air. “Ow…” Coco groaned, shaking it off quickly as she righted herself in midair. “Void Crash!” She shouted as she dive bombed Ghost, her entire body covered in Void Energy like a meteor. Ghost watches her come closer, and closer, and closer before side stepping at the last millisecond making her hit the ground. He looks down the deep hole she made with a small tilt to his head. “I’m okay!” Coco called out, the hole making a comical echo sound, only for her to come out with a small bit of dirt on her head. “Hi.” Ghost reaches out and pats her head. “Glad your having fun.” Coco chuckled as she got out of the hole and dusted herself off. “Well...I suppose it’s your turn to attack.” She said, preparing herself for his attack. Ghost hops in place for a bit. Then suddenly leaps up into the air. Higher than she was before. Then he starts shooting down like she did covered in Void. It hits the ground in front of her but that’s where the similarities end. 1, he didn’t break the ground. 2,...he did cause a giant explosion shockwave upon impact. “Reflect!” Coco panicked as she casted a Reflect spell before she was blown away by the attack, only to still get flung away a bit. “Oh come on!” She yelped as she landed a ten meters away. As she gets up she hears something land in front of her. She sees...Ghost skull...broken in half….g-guess reflect worked. “Oh my god! I’m so sorry.” Coco said quickly, her good hearted nature getting the better of her as she wanted to apologize for breaking his skull...mask...thing. She feels something pat her leg and looks down to see a...completely black looking Ghost with pure white eyes. His form seems to shift around a lot. “Are...you sure?” Coco asked nervously. “And...are you okay? You seem to be...shifting a lot.” “Oh he is fine.” Ardyn calls out. “That’s just his true self. A being made entirely of Void. We can fix his shell later with this.” Ardyn says pulling out a fist sized white ore. That King looked at with wide eyes. Because the amount of Pure Nothingness coming off it was Insane! “How the hell did you get that!?” King asked in astonishment. “This? It’s from Ghost’s home. An ore tainted by the remnants of his father the Pale King.” Ardyn said. “But...that’s Pure Nothingness! Actual...physical, ore based Pure Nothingness...how and why?” King asked in just pure amazement as he looked back at Ghost and wondered what really is going on in his world. “ A being born of Void.” King looks at Madoras who spoke. “Contained in Nothing. Feels Nothing. Is Nothing. If you focus on his shell...you would notice the Nothingness on it...is far greater then this ore.” “Jesus fuck…” King shook his head. “But...now we need to define ‘feels nothing’, as in he feels no pain, or he has no emotions?” King inquired. “That was the idea behind his...and the millions of siblings his father sired.” King looks back to see Agamemnon getting up.” A terrible being that couldn’t be reached by normal means. The Pale King sires children from Void to create a vessel. One that doesn’t think, feel, or have a voice. A Pure Vessel. To contain it...it failed. And Ghost. He fought it at its best. At its prime. And destroyed it.” He said as walks next to King. “Make no mistake. In terms of raw power out of this entire group. Ghost is by far the strongest. Not counting Cript of course.” “Good lord…” King muttered. “Okay...maybe I should both get to playing Hollow Knight and...going to his world next...even if it isn’t that specific versions world, it would still be a decent experience to say the least.” King said honestly “On another note. From what Max learned. The Pale King for some reason has a very powerful tie to Nothing. If I were to wager. If he was still alive. He would be stronger..than you King.” Agamemnon said as King’s eyes widened. “Cause of course…” King grumbled. “In terms of Nothingness I meant. You learned much more than just Nothing. All that does is put the overall odds in Your favor.” He said as Ghost walks a few meters from Coco and pulls out his Nail again. “Well...that’s true.” King said. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say that would be the Old King of Nothingness’s brother or something.” King shrugged. “Ready?” Coco asked, her Void flaring up as she prepared herself for more of what Ghost had to offer. Ghost nods. With his eyes actually curving to what looks like a happy look. Then he flared his Void and she only had a fraction of a second to widen her eyes as she had to block his swipe. Which had a hell of a lot more force then before, but she was able to hold. “Whoakay, that’s a whole lot more than I expected.” Coco said nervously, digging her feet into the ground and trying to push back against Ghost. She had to jump back though when a tendril of Void slams where she was a second ago. She then starts dodging more strikes from the tendrils. Ghost then does that slam from before but instead of an explosion the ground within a twenty meter radius suddenly turned into a liquid black. She realizes he turned the ground into pure liquid Void. Then dozens of tendrils came out of it and started charging towards her. “Nope.” Coco said as she turned around and started to run. “I’ve read enough Hentai to know where this is going and I’m not a fan of it!” “She knows Ghost is still innocent in mind right?” Ardyn whispered to King. “She does...but seriously, a massive amount of tentacles rushing a hot lady...context is one hell of a thing.” King whispered back as he saw Coco turn around and swing her blade, sending a blade beam out and cutting several of the tentacles in half. She turns back to Ghost only to have to duck under a blast of void. She looks to see him form a tendril from the pool that shoots another blast. She deflected it. Then he forms a dozen more. “You’re not gonna make this easy on me are ya?” She grumbled, spinning Void Gear and stabbing it into the ground. She then took a step forward and used her grounded keyblade to dig up some of the ground...and by some that meant a massive amount of void enhanced rocks flung towards the tentacles and Ghost. Ghost took out his Nail which started glowing white. In which King and the others on his side sensed Pure Nothingness coming from it as Ghost Himself darts towards the rocks and cuts them to bits as his tendrils start firing Void blast in rapid succession. “Excuse me, but how!?” Coco called out as she dodged all the blasts swiftly and lunged at Ghost with a powerful strike. “Yeah, how can Ghost use both Nothingness and be of Void? As far as I’ve experienced, it’s impossible to use Nothingness as a Void being and vice versa.” King said in honest confusion. Ghost swats at Coco as she is dodging a blast with a tendril that smacks her towards the ground. She looks up to see a much larger blast heading towards her. “Reflectga!” She raised her keyblade up and a stronger reflect barrier surrounded her, managing to block the blast. “Damn it...this sucks…” Ghost has a tendril spear to the ground. When it hits Coco feels a tiny spike of Void below her. She quickly moves to avoid a dozen spikes of void shooting out of the ground. She however doesn’t see the tendril that slams against her head sending her flying. She is wondering if she should kick it up a notch...or eight. “Alright, time to take off the kiddy gloves.” Coco growled as she started to use what she was made to do, as a sudden font of Void energy burst from her at an insane rate as she caught herself in the air. “Don’t know how long I can hold this for, but I’ll make sure this fight stays fun for ya Ghost.” She said as she bolted after Ghost, cleaving through any energy blasts or tendrils that got in her way. She clashes with his nail as she pushes against him. They exchange blows for a bit with Coco pushing back at Ghost. Ghost swings at her but she quickly moves to the side and slashes at Ghost with Void Gear. His form getting cut from the key. Ghost was stunned for a bit and she followed with an overhead strike that sent him to the ground. Coco panted heavily, her Void energy crackling a bit as the strain from using an ability she hasn’t used ever starting to get to her. “Jeez...so soon…” She grumbled, not believing all her training and bioengineered body was already starting to feel the stress of using her Void Conduit powers. “You okay there Ghost?” Coco asked nervously. A pulse was felt. She doesn’t know why…,but it felt like the pulse was from the Void itself. She felt Ghost's presence disappear and a pressure she couldn’t describe was felt. She felt the Void shake...wait she’s wrong. She was shaking from this pressure. "On a side note does Max still have that stuffed lamb he won at the fair when he was five?" Cript asked Frisk at complete random. “Yes, we plan on giving it to our child when they are born.” She said from the portal hearing his question. "Good to know the enchantments are keeping it from falling apart. So, what are your plans for after?" “Don’t know yet. Well see. Anyway feels like Coco basically just lost.” Frisk said, feeling what was going on. "Well she does still have a lot to learn about Void and all that." “True.” Ardyn said. “But she did do well against Ghost, has quite the potential.” "Mostly just needs more experience and some added training." Cript shrugged. “Uh...what’s going on?” Coco stuttered. “I have waited a long time for this…” King started as he pulled out Arpeggio and strummed it as eerie but proper music started to play. “You keeping your power under control? Because what’s about to happen will be quite intense.” Agamemnon asked King. “Yes, I am keeping my power under control.” King nodded as they saw Ghost turning into something a whole lot bigger. A large shadow. Many times larger than her. Rose above her, it opened its eight white eyes. Four arms appeared at its sides. Two slammed onto the ground, and a large spike tail behind it. It then...roared? Was hard to tell. Because all that came out was silence. The power it gave off...was as if it was Void itself. “So that’s why…” King hummed. “Yeah...my choice in music was correct.” “Uh...huh…” Coco blinked as she turned to the entire group. “WHAT!?” She screamed incredulously and pointed at it. “Yes?” Ardyn asked holding a cup of tea….and looking smug. “Don’t you look smug at me!” She said as she flailed her arms at what Ghost became. “This is little Ghost!? Do any of you know what the fuck he really is!?” “Yes.” Everyone from Ghost’s team replied. “Honestly only Max and Frisk had any hope of stopping him rampaging in that form without accidentally killing him.” Madoras said. “Right~...” Coco said carefully. “Well…” She took a deep breath. “Might as well go out with a bang.” She muttered as she clutched Void Gear with both hands. “Void...Augment!” She shouted, a sudden aura of red tinted Void burst forth from her. Ghost looks at its left hand to see his Nail. Far to small for his current form. He tossed it away. It would have flown basically to the other side of this section if Void. If it didn’t stop mid air and fly towards Agamemnon who had his arm raised and caught it. “We’re not letting someone randomly find this thing here.” He said with annoyance. Ghost lifts his right hand...and creates a Nail of Void that would fit his form. “So...mind if I ask how the hell...Ghost was Ghost if his true form is that?” King asked. “Originally from what we know that Void form before was his true form. He gained this form by facing constant battle and by facing the being he was meant to face at its prime. He drew in more Void then anyone of his siblings ever. Turning himself into a Deity to destroy a Goddess.” Madoras explained. “Although.” Ardyn said. “You might need to visit his home world to look into it more yourself.” “I’ve been meaning to go world hopping again...maybe I can do an Admin Game in Hollow Nest.” King shrugged. “But...how long do you think Coco will last?” “Honestly….not very long. Even less since she is using an incomplete Kaio Ken with Void. That combination is putting a lot of stress on her body.” Agamemnon said. “You know, for Nexus Bioengineering her for this exact thing...either their training sucks or their Bioengineering sucks.” King frowned as Coco leaped up into the air towards the giant monster and swung hard against it. It blocks with its Void Nail as the shockwave from the hit causes tons of dust to fly. When the dust settles the see the hit broke the Void Nail which caused Coco to smirk only to see Ghost lift its other arms….holding three larger Void Nails that are aimed at her. “Okay...I can at least break one...that’s a plus…” She muttered, seeing her HP draining rapidly. “Only gonna get a few more hits…” Coco muttered. “Still having fun there Ghost?” “Oh. And by the way.” Ardyn said drinking some tea. As Ghost creates dozens more Void Nails above him. “That’s kinda not Ghost at the moment, but don’t worry. We’ll make sure you don’t die...maybe.” He said, taking another sip. “We’ll make sure you don’t die!” King said, ready to save Coco the moment it gets too bad. “Great…” She groaned, preparing for what might be her final swing. And pales a little when Ghost doubles his size. “He is a being basically made of Void. He doesn’t have a definite size or shape. When he learns to control that properly he can be whatever form he wants.” Ardyn explained. The Void Nails then became more dense as she realized even in this state he used Void Temper on them. “Yeah...I’m out.” She said honestly, disbanding Void Augment before it did anymore damage to her. “There’s a line, it’s been crossed, and I’m not stupid enough to see where it continues.” Ghost though still swings at her. In his current state he can’t control himself. Only for Madoras to appear holding a fixed mask that was Ghost. He placed it on his head as it shines. King felt the Nothingness from it which further persuaded him to check Ghosts world. A few seconds later Ghost was back to his regular self. He walks up to Coco and bows. “Well...that was fun Ghost.” Coco smiled, bringing up her Assistant and pulled out a freshly baked chocolate chip cookie that was about the same size as little Ghost. “And here you go, freshly baked.” She smiled as she knelt down and handed it to Ghost. Ghost takes the cookie and looks happy. Even though his mask doesn’t change. He puts the cookie away(?!)and slaps a small charm on Coco. She was confused till she felt like she had a bit more control of her Void. “Whoa.” Coco said in surprise. “This is quite a gift, thanks Ghost.” Coco smiled. Ghost bows and runs back to his group. “Ok. So who is up next?” Agamemnon asked. Handing Ghost his Nail back. “Well the only one we have left is Kexez.” King said honestly. “And to be honest...they're effectively an Immovable Object.” “You make that sound like a bad thing?” Kexez said. “It’s not a bad thing, and it never will be a bad thing.” King fixed their mistake in words. “So, who wants to go up against Kexez?” “I’ll go.” Broly said as he stepped up. He points to a floating island a bit away. “Let’s go over there.” He then flies towards the island. “Dragon Balls ‘Unstoppable Force’ vs our ‘Immovable Object’, now that’s not something you see everyday.” King pointed out. “Why over there?” Kexez asked. “He likes to mitigate damage.” Ardyn said. “It’s a Dragon Ball thing I guess.” King shrugged. “Always fight in the most destroyable area like canyon’s and abandoned archipelago’s...and the arctic at least twice…” Shrugging, Kexez sighed as their body glowed white before shifting back to human form. He looked no different than Heart back then save for the clothing that brought back some bad memories for King. “Alright then.” It took the two no time at all to reach the area, and each stood some distance from one another. “So… which Dragon Ball are you from?” Kexez asked awkwardly. “Super. The other one was a liability. I defeated him without super saiyan, and he was given Void.” Broly said. “Hmm… So… stupid question… what do we do?” In the distance, there was a collective echo of palms smacking into foreheads. “Did you not pay attention to the last three fights!?” King called out incredulously. “We fight. Max wants our group to face yours to see both how strong his Kings are, and to see if you guys are actually worth it.” Broly said. “Bit rude… so are weapons allowed?” Broly stood there...then facepalmed as well. “Were you even paying attention to the battles?” Broly asked. “Don’t mind me! Just literally asked that exact same question!” King called out again. “And when someone needs to be asked the same question Twice then they should really think about it!” Broly called out back. “Honestly I was just replaying cat videos in my head half the time…” Kexez said sheepishly. At least half the people in the distance fell over at hearing that answer… Broly… was twitching an eye. “Sigh. Fine. Before I get a headache. Let’s start.” Broly said before powering up. First he gets really huge. Like twice his size. And he was already towering over Kexez. Kexez whistled. “Neat.” “Does he even care?” Coco asked. “Not done yet.” Broly said before yelling out loud. A gold aura bursting around him. When it faded his hair was not only golden but extended to his lower back. “I’ll start with Super Sayian 3. To warm things up.” He said. “Okay.” Kexez replied simply. He charged in and landed a solid right punch on Kexez. The impact uplifted a lot of dirt, blocking the view from the others for a long time before it finally faded. When it did… everyone was left puzzled as to how Broly had his fist still against Kexez’s chin, yet he didn’t move. “So… my turn.” Kexez said, giving a slap to Broly and sent him skidding a few feet. Even Broly was surprised by this outcome. “I think he forgot something important about Kexez…” Cript said, handing out popcorn to everyone watching. “Even if he’s Heart’s Nobody, Kexez is still a C.R.I.P.T.” Broly heard Cript and wanted to smack himself for forgetting something that basic. He realized Kexez might actually be one of their strongest not counting Cript. He started planning his next move when he heard something, or someone. “COME ON BROLY!” Broly looks over towards the others to see them also looking towards their left. A girl with green skin and white hair waving a flag saying “Broly”’ was shouting. “Cheele?” “Come on. You're much stronger than this. Show that punk what you can do!” She yells. “She your wife?” Kexez asked. “Well, come on, don’t disappoint the lady.” Broly smiled looking at her. “Ya.” He said as something blue flickers over him. “I won’t.” Broly suddenly burst in blue light. This wasn’t ki. It’s divine ki. As the divine ki broke away Broly was revealed, and Kexez couldn’t stop the small smirk. Broly was a bit muscular then before and his hair was normal length, but dark blue as Broly compressed the aura within. He turns towards Kexez. This wasn’t Super Sayian Blue. It was Blue Evolution. “Let’s try that again. Also.” “Kaioken.” A red aura flared over him before he pushed it back down within. Then he charged much faster then before and let loose another blow. This time, Kexez dodged, landing a solid knee to Broly’s lower torso before sending an elbow to the back of his head, knocking him to the ground. Broly got up, trying to land a kick or hit as Kexez kept on dodging and evading. Broly powers up more, getting a bit larger but not losing speed. He lets out ki in quick burst to give his attacks more speed and kick but was still having trouble landing a blow. ‘So this is the difference.’ He thought. He jumps back from the exchange. Only to yell out loud as power explodes from him again. His armor which was cracked all over from Kexez attacks broke off as Broly got bigger. This form was known by his counterpart as the Legendary form, but to him it's just Full Powered Form. He charges again somehow even faster to exchange. Right as Broly was about to land the hit, there was a sudden barrier around Kexez. He seemed to phase through it and Kexez who simply chuckled. “Reflect.” The energy expelled rapidly, knocking Broly back. “Spells. Shame I don’t use magic. That’s Madoras’ department.” Broly said. “Lucky for me though I have a way around that.” He said as he charged again. Kexez went back on the offensive, Broly cloaking his fists in void as the two went at it. As Broly rushed in another Punch, Kexez meeting it with his own. Broly didn’t pull back in time before Kexez’s arms shifted to the tip of a sharp blade, slicing down to Broly’s arm to his elbow. Broly jumped back holding his arm. It was bleeding very badly and he couldn’t move it. “I forgot he can do that…” Coco said, munching at her popcorn. “That looks problematic.” Ardyn said. “That’s ok.” Cheela said walking over. “It’ll take a little more then that. Did you guys forget?” She said as Broly smirked a little as another blue glow formed around him. And a familiar code. The injury stated to heal rapidly as Broly lifted his arm. “Broly has that Admins power.” She finished. “So does Kexez.” Cript added. “He isn’t even using his and Heart’s Admin Right.” “Forgive me for not using Code so far. Max explained that using Code in battle wrong could have nasty side effects to one's own code. But I have practiced it. Mainly the rapid healing from the Speed Force.” Broly said before blue lightning emits from him. “Given you all stole that over inheriting it, there is that possibility.” Kexez said. “You're correct on that. It’s why all of us are limited in Code battle currently. So far all of us rarely used it because we’re still training in it.” Broly said. Broly charges again. Much much faster then before with the Speed force helping. Right as Broly reached behind Kexez, he suddenly found himself stopped, looking he saw Chains of Light wrapped around his neck, arms, legs, and torso. “Nice, but not out running lightspeed yet.” Kexez said as the chains began pulling Broly’s limbs in all directions, joints popping, edging on dislocation. “So how’s Broly as a husband Cheele?” King asked the green alien curiously. “Is he the ‘gentle giant’ type as I’ve seen so far?” She would have answered if she wasn’t suddenly worried. She has seen Broly beaten before by Max and Frisk, but Kexez is making it look more like an execution. “He’s not even trying.” Cript said, sighing. “Guess we’re more related that I figured.” “Wait what?” Coco asked. “Think about it, so far, Kexez hasn’t actually done a full blown attack aside from that blade arm punch, and even that’s more a sneak attack. Course, the more Broly tries, the more effort he will put into it. He’s showing his Ventral side.” Broly struggled in the chains. Trying to get out, but couldn’t. Was this it? His limit? Kexez...wasn’t even trying against him. He looks down hating his own weaknesses. “BROLY!” His head shoots up and looks at Cheela. Her eyes full of worry. He thinks back to Bah, his father, his fights against those other sayians...No. “..I’m not done.” He said making Kexez raise an eyebrow. Broly started pulling again. “Void...Strength.” He said as Void gauntlets appear on his arms and Kexez can feel his chains straining against his new strength. Then a Void aura violently roars around him “Void..” “BROLY DON'T YOU HAVEN'T MASTERED THAT YET!?” Agamemnon yells. “..AUGMENT!” Broly yells as his power skyrocketed. He then Snaps the chains as his power continues to climb. “Damn! Void Augment is an advanced Void technique. Basically the Kaioken but Much more potent. Only Max and Frisk in our group have it mastered.” Ardyn curses. “We need to stop him.” King started, fully prepared to stop this fight. “Right now, cause his health is tanking harder than the Titanic fighting an Iceberg.” Kexez looked at Broly, sighing as he closed his eyes. “Sorry Heart, but I’ve gotta use it.” He said, the black outline of a crown appearing atop his forehead. Opening his eyes, they were glowing a bright shining blue. As Broly was about to deliver a punch, Kexez Spoke. “Stop.” The others in the distance could hear that, many in the Void heard that, and all who did froze in place. “Power down.” Broly immediately reverted back to normal, his body bruised and his breathing heavy as his eyes were covered in a dull haze of blue. “Now sleep.” Like that, Broly slept, collapsing into a deep sleep. “Well shit he used it.” Cript said. “Broly!” Cheela moved towards his location till something faster then most could track(excluding Cript and Kexez) moved past her and appeared next to Broly healing him. “Idiot. I respect the resolve but not when it will kill you.” Maxwell Akuma said as he healed one of his kings. “What the fuck was that?” Coco asked. “That...was the true power of the Admin of Hearts.” King sighed out. “It took me a while to get some concrete evidence...but this proves it…” King said. “Anyone with a Heart connected to someone, will obey their command, no exceptions.” As Max was healing Broly he spoke to Kexez. “I told Broly to face you, and that if he disconnected his heart from Cheela he wouldn’t be controlled, but the big softie couldn’t do it.” He smiles a bit. “Glad he didn’t. I don’t need heartless monsters in my ranks.” “It’s why Heart and I don’t like to use it. It’s the power ideal for a tyrant. At least here, it saved someone. Guess it has some good use after all.” Kexez sighed. “So… I win?” “Yes. Oh and one thing.” Max said. Making Kexez emote a question mark. Then to everyone but Max’s group\s shock. Max hits Kexez in the gut. “Just a reminder of pain for you.” Kexez coughed up a bit of blood, smiling. “Heh… thanks… You know what sucks, about being so strong?” Kexez asked as he fell back onto his butt. “Not feeling any emotion anymore because you have nothing to fear.” He answered. Kexez shook his head. “Forgetting why you gained it. Lose your purpose, and you begin to chase after selfish and pointless goals. Take my advice Max… When you get this strong… use it once, then never again. In the end, power is meaningless without purpose.” “Ya. Cript taught me that long ago.” Max said as he picked Broly up. “And by the way.” He said as he looks back at Kexez. “Who said that was close to my power. I’m not aiming to be stronger then you. A CRIPT you may be, but you're not Cript. Besides.” He walks away with one last sentence. “Your Heart power doesn’t work on me anyway.” “You okay Kexez?” King asked, appearing next to him quickly. “Hm…” Kexez hummed, looking between Frisk and Max. His Kings all gathered around Broly. “If you say so.” Kexez said, their body glowing and returning to their Floof Noodle form. “Yeah, I’m good King. Glad I wasn’t a Floof Noodle for that, pretty sure Max would have punched a boob if I was.” “I’m glad you're okay.” King sighed out thankfully. “So, what now?” Cript asked. “Score’s all tied up.” “And we’re out of eligible fighters unless either me, Jericho or Coco have another go.” King said honestly. “Nah, I’m still gonna be sore later.” Jericho said. “I’m good, I know when I’m outclassed.” Coco added. “Back to the training and all.” “So it’s all up to me to fight Sorcerer Sephiroth and the Dapper Weapon Master.” King said honestly. They look over to...see them doing rock,paper,scissors to decide who goes firt. With Frisk nearby making numbers appear for how many ties they had...it just hit 346. “It’s not my first rodeo on a two on one guys.” King said honestly. “Or I can make a clone of myself and we can have a two v two.” “It’s one vs one. So be prepared for it because these two won’t have the excuse that frisk had for making it a draw.” Max said while giving Frisk a small glare for that stunt she pulled. “And will you two just decide already. Need to concentrate on this so I don’t accidentally ruin his code. Idiot used code with it and damaged it a little. Thankfully one of you found notes on Code Stitching.” Max said looking over Broly. “I can heal him.” King said. “I know Code Stitching and...I have been practicing.” “Practicing messing with someone’s Code to remove deeply rooted Engraved Code or both rewriting and stitching Someone’s code back together? Because the last one is delicate and one small mistake and you have a Code mess nightmare monster.” Max asked. “Although nothing as bad as...that thing I found near that Dream vial.” Max whispers to himself. “Uh...huh…” King started. “Alright so uh...not to that degree yet…” “Then let me work. I’ll even say please.” Max said. “Fair…” King said sheepishly. “Alright you two, that’s enough.” Two immediately turned to the two still playing rock paper scissors. “I’ll decide since you two can’t.” They said simply. “And I’ll choose Ardyn, cause I want to see how well your weapon’s hold up.” “Alright.” Ardyn says. “Cool.” King nodded. “Let’s get to our battlefield then, and let’s get to fighting.” “Lead on. I’ll follow.” Ardyn said, bringing out a small dagger. King nodded and flew off to one of the many floating islands at this point, their hands holding Foudre carefully as they landed on one of the closer islands. Ardyn throws the dagger. It makes it to the island in less then a second and Ardyn warps to the island catching the dagger without looking. “That warp ability is really handy huh?” King commented. “Among other things.” He said before summoning...HOW THE HELL DOES HE HAVE FOUDRE!?!? “I call horseshit!” King immediately snapped. “This is literally a one of a kind artifact! The fuck!” “Take a closer look.” Ardyn asked. Looking closer it looks identical but it’s red. “How about this?” He asks as he then summons the Sword Agamemnon used against Jericho. “Or maybe.” He then summons the axe that Jericho used. “Do I need to explain?” “How?” King asked carefully. “Cause you just pulled out three artifact level weapons that are one of a kind...the only difference is that it’s red.” "Replication." Jericho said. "So well made they can stand against the originals, maybe even surpass them." “It can’t be that simple.” King frowned. “He literally just looked at our weapons, I can excuse Agamemnon’s sword because they work together, but to copy your axe and Foudre like that isn’t mere ‘replication’.” “You're correct. I’ve had to work on combining multiple scanner type abilities and use them and distance to get it correct. I wasn’t merely standing around while you all fight.” Ardyn said. Summoning True Kings Sword. “Although some won’t be nearly enough like this, but it’s a good impression.” He swung the replica of Kings weapon and it severed multiple islands in the distance. "Quality isn't everything. The wilder also needs the skill." Jericho added. “Cause that’s what I need at the moment…” King grumbled. “This is going to be an interesting fight.” They said as they spawned in No Heart. Ardyn smiled. And raised his hands. King widened their eyes. No way should he… What he summons is a very, very glitched version of No heart. Which he tosses away. “Although some things like that are basically impossible at the moment.” Ardyn says. He then summons his personal sword. His Rakshasa Blade. “Ready?” He asked as he threw his blade at King. King swiped it away only for Ardyn to warp to it and swing back. King quickly clashes. “I’m always ready.” King grinned, Nothingness Thorns swirling around No Heart as it lashed out at Ardyn. Ardyn grins and ignores the thorns. He snaps his fingers and both are pummeled by a barrage of Ice, Lightning, and Fire. “Simple spells strong enough to fight back against my Thorns, pretty good.” King said, jumping back and swinging No Heart at Ardyn, sending a blade wave towards him swiftly. Ardyn brings out a huge shield that completely blocks the attack. Then throws the shield at King. He moves out of the way only for Ardyn to warp onto the shield and slam a huge mace onto King. King was fast enough to bring out Frozen Pride and block the huge mace. “Cold Snap!” King barked, a layer of frost covering Frozen Pride’s surface as the mace started getting rapidly covered in ice. King then felt the temperature rise. They looked around to see a giant shuriken flying around them leaving them in a tornado of fire that was somehow hot enough to counter his ice. He feels the weight of the mace disappear and stumbles from the suddenness of it. He looks up to see Ardyn holding a huge sword with teeth above him. He then slams it down at him. King swapped No Heart for Sky Splitter. “Gaea’s Wrath!” He shouted, swinging Sky Splitter from the ground up and clashing against the huge sword, causing a massive shockwave that cratered the area beneath the two and raised the ground around them. “Impressive, but.” Ardyn said before the teeth on his sword started moving like a saw. Drastically increasing the attack power. “Not gonna be that easy!” King countered as energy flared out from him and Skysplitter, starting to push Ardyn away slightly as he was now trying to saw through pure force. Ardyn smirked, which King saw. In Ardyn’s left hand was a scepter. It suddenly glows as a trident of red light appears out of it striking King. “Let’s hope this works…” King muttered, Ardyn seeing King’s fur start to turn a weird metallic black color as he headbutted the trident’s middle spear, black lightning arcing between the two. “The hell is going on?” Coco asked, feeling her body start to shiver as she saw that black lightning. “That’s not Void Energy…” “That’s Haki.” Max said as he was still working on Broly. “It’s from the One Piece world. Essentially it’s pure willpower used in supernatural ways from predicting your opponents attacks to blocking and enhancing your attacks.” “Not bad.” Ardyn says. Before throwing the scepter up and warping to it. “MegaFlare.” He says before launching the spell at King. “GigaFlare!” King barked as he grabbed Eternal Flames raised the twin spinning blue chakrams and firing an even stronger blast towards Ardyn. “Joy probably taught him how to do it…” Coco muttered, remembering the little guy went there and did the entire adventure to finally get Brook on board to be one of the Council Members...also Luffy and the crew decided to join up in King’s endeavors in their own special way. Ardyn throws a small sword that hits the ground in front of King. Who immediately swings at it thinking Ardyn will warp at it. Only for Ardyn to warp to the shield that’s still behind King when he dropped it a little before. Ardyn slams his hand on the ground and forms a large magic circle. “GigaFlare!” “Raiden’s Fury!” King called out in a panic as he summoned Foudre and stabbed six kunai into the magic circle, a massive bolt of lightning shot down as the spell was fully activated as it caused a massive explosion with the two at the epicenter. “GigaFlare times 2.” Ardyn’s voice said from the smoke after the explosion as two magic circles formed. King went to move only to find Ardyn grabbing their arm. “What’s the rush?” He asked with a smile as the spells activated. “You're not gonna like that…” King started, as Ardyn started to hear something started to finally count down as he barely saw a red flash as both GigaFlares connected. As the dust settled, Ardyn was surprised to see King extremely different than they were before. King stood bigger than their original Den Mother form, their fur looked thicker and denser than usual, and the most important detail was the tribal bone ‘armor’ exoskeleton covering King, all in the shape of a Dire Wolf, each part looking scuffed by the twin GigaFlares but he looked no worse for ware. “So, Ardyn, what do you know about the Godhood race?” King asked, tribal wolf ornament’s softly resting against their new exoskeleton. “A lot. Since it was Gods that cursed me I looked up all I could find.” Ardyn said. “Do you know who Asmith is?” King asked. “Depends. Do you mean the inventor of the Omnitrix or the Admin?” Ardyn asked. “One in the same.” King said as he stepped away from Ardyn and stretched a bit. “Apparently, a long time ago, I was told that this was the ‘Ultimate Form’ of each race that can rival Admins in power...I quite literally just remembered this in the middle of Coco’s fight cause I have a bajillion things to think about on a daily basis so...things get a bit cluttered for me.” “Well things do get cluttered when you force yourself to learn billions if not trillions of things in a short timespan.” Ardyn replied. “You have no idea…” King said, letting out an exhausted sigh not from the fight but from all the shit they keep putting himself through to better themselves in any field they can. “So, ready to continue?” King asked, their third eye opening as well as he prepared to fight again. “Also, just a quickie warning...I still have no idea what this race can do or how truly strong it is…” He said sheepishly. “And you forget I’m Immortal. And I still have only just begun”. Ardyn said. “Then more fun for the both of us.” King said with a smile, clenching their fists as two bone long blades appeared from their wrists. Ardyn held out his hand and summoned a strange staff that had blades attached to the front of it. “Swords of the Wander. For the readers to understand better.” “One of the ‘Royal Arms’ if my guess is correct?” King inquired. “A copy but yes.” Ardy said before throwing it at King and warping for an overhead spin strike, but then warps to the fallen short sword behind King and swings upward. King blocked the swing with one of his bone swords, barely turning around to see him swing. “The third eye isn’t just for show.” King pointed out, even though what was more shocking was the bone sword withstood his swing without a scratch on it. “Now my turn.” King said as he spun around to face Ardyn, one of his wrist blades being coated in Armament Haki and crackled with black lightning, signifying he also coated it in Supreme King's Haki as he swung it down swiftly towards him. Ardyn then warps behind King again, but King doesn't see a weapon laying there. Can he warp without his weapons in position?! Ardyn grabs kings arm. “That bone stuff is pretty tough, but how tough?” He asked as they both suddenly warp somewhere else. King notes the red Foudre Ardyn made but tossed upwards from before. Stabbed into a floating landmass. Quickly looking down, King can barely see the others. How high were they?! Ardyn then warps to the knife and quickly smacks King away with his mace. As he is flying the shuriken from before is flying towards them. King smacks it away as they come to the edge of the underside of the landmass. Ardyn then warps towards the weapon and grabs king again. Warping them one more time to the top of the landmass. “Can you teleport without a weapon?” King asked, his exoskeleton armor scuffed by the mace hit but still not cracked or broken. “Nice swing by the way.” “Thanks, and not very far I’m afraid. Is useful for catching someone off guard. By the way. I have something to ask?” Ardyn questions as King starts to notice something in front of them. “What would happen if a X-Blade exploded?” King pales as the glitched No heart Ardyn made, that was stabbed in the ground a few feet away, started to glitch more and more. Becoming extremely unstable and fast. “Are you fucking insane!?!” King shouted, panicking as they brought out Frozen Pride quickly. Ardyn grabs the shield and tosses it. “Madoras.” Madoras down with the others. Held out his hands and a massive barrier closed around the land mass. Hundreds of times its size. He had been charging this since Ardyn made that damn glitched weapon. “Let’s see how tough your kind is.” Ardyn said as the glitched weapon started to hit its peak. “Let’s hope to christ this doesn’t backfire on either of us.” King stated bluntly to Ardyn. “Cause if my armor breaks and I go into a berserker rage...don’t blame me.” The Godhood Dire Wolf stated bluntly. “Wait wha-” Ardyn was about to question why King brought up his that armor breaking as the glitched blade exploded in a cataclysmic explosion. “That’s...a fuck ton bigger than I thought it would be…” Coco said nervously, seeing the barrier bend slightly at the amount of power the explosion had. “Be glad I put up this barrier. Because so far only Ghost, Cript, and Kexez would be fine from this.” Madoras said. Ghost walks up to him and hands him a mana potion. “Thanks.” Madoras told Ghost before drinking it. “Yeah…” Coco nodded carefully. “Ow…” King groaned a bit, as they waved away the massive dust cloud that was made. “You good there Ardyn?” King looks over at we’re Ardyn was...to see a pair of smoking feet….and nothing else. “Hmm…” King started, their armor having cracked a bit from the explosion as they summoned Lindworm, kneeled down...and poked it. “You okay there Ardyn?” The wolf asked, poking his foot again. “For a second there.” A voice behind them said. “I felt the touch of death itself. Such is the nature of powers like that. But.” King turns around to see Ardyn with multiple red weapons floating around him. His power felt much stronger. “Then I remember I’m immortal.” “Glad to see you're still kicking there Ardyn.” King said as they got up. “Wouldn’t have wanted that to be the end, that would have been boring.” “I’m only just beginning.” He said as his weapons suddenly flew at King. Kings swipes one away only for it to explode on contact. The blast stunned them a little and a couple more blew up on their exo armor. Causing the cracks to get worse. “Can we both agree that breaking this exoskeleton is probably a bad idea?” King called out worriedly, trying to block the incoming explosions. Only for Ardyn to warp behind them and grab them. He then throws them upward and smacks them with his mace again like a bat. While in the air, King is then surrounded by hundreds of weapons. “Let’s up the blast a bit shall we.” Ardyn said while snapping his fingers. The weapons glow brighter and fly towards King. “You know what? Fine.” King frowned. “If you want to see how bad this can get, I’ll be happy to oblige.” The wolf growled as he took the full brunt of all the explosions at the same time, now curious as to what bad thing might happen. “Why do I suddenly have a bad feeling about this?” Coco asked worriedly as she saw the weapons cause an even bigger explosion than the glitched No Heart caused. As the explosion pushed against the barrier, all the force and energy trying to escape it’s prison...Ardyn felt something heavy cover his entire body as the explosion started to slowly get pulled in by something, then it started to get faster and more violent as it was absorbed into this black hole made of fur. Chunks of the ground started to get sucked in and disintegrated as it got closer to the sphere as Ardyn felt himself slowly getting pulled in. “That’s not good!” Coco yelped in panic, the entire group besides Coco, the unconscious Broly, and Cheele could tell what the black hole that used to be King really did. “The fuck happened to King!?” “That is King.” Agamemnon explained. “That’s what happens to his kind when the armor breaks. Want to give a more detailed explanation for her Cript?” Agamemnon asked. "Basically the Godhood race was built to fight against admins during the Admin war. Their armor isn't just protection but also an enclosure to keep their final defense mechanism at bay. Break their armor open and they explode like a supernova and temporarily transform into a living black hole that once something gets sucked in is broken down at the code level and assimilated into them. So for the next few minutes before his armor.grows back King is a sentient, living, fluffball of a black hole. That can absorb admins." Cript explained simply. “So…” Coco started slowly. “H-how do...how do we fix that faster?” Coco asked slowly, carefully, and not at all trying not to freak out that the love of her life is now a black hole of fluff. "Give it a few minutes, it will fix itself." Was all Cript replied, giving a shrug as they watched Ardyn struggle not to get sucked in. “And what about Ardyn?” Coco asked nervously. “Even his immortality wouldn’t stand up to being turned into raw code and assimilated…” Cript gave a quick glance to Max, then back to the scene at hand. "I'll only interfere if asked. After all, your Kings should be strong, right Max?" “He’ll be fine.” Max said. Focusing on Broly. “Wish Code was a little easier to fix.” He said. Ardyn looks around to see everything King was absorbing. He smiles. “Well. I guess I’ll help. Now.” He then pulls a paint brush from his sleeves. Which made Coco and the others raise an eyebrow at. “What’s with the Paint Brush?” Coco asked. “Lets start the party!” Ardyn as he swipes the paint brush in the air as colors of code fly into the air. Each became something else. A building, a whale, a freighter, and even a pair of dice as they are pulled into the fluff hole and are absorbed by it. ”Being a black hole sucks…” King thought to themselves bitterly, unable to talk to anyone as he couldn’t do jack shit about anything besides devour anything and everything faster than a starving Floof Noodle in an all you can eat buffet. “Is he trying to feed King enough energy and code to help him reform faster?” Coco asked curiously. “Well King is essentially the equivalent of a walking friendly fire at the moment.” Max said. “Fair…” Coco nodded. “Let’s hope nothing bad happens afterwards…” After about five minutes of Ardyn pushing himself back by throwing more and more crap at the fluff hole that was King, suddenly the bone armor from before started to reform quickly as the wolf came back in all their glory. “I’m back, and god do I have such a crick in my back…” King groaned as they started to stretch. “If you ever have a chance to become a sentient black hole and can do nothing about it...choose ‘no’.” “Glad to see that you're back. Now then.” Ardyn said as he power suddenly jumped again as he clapped his hands. Magic circuits appear around King as golden chains shoot out and wrap around Kings limbs and tail. King pulls but finds the chains extremely tough. “Those chains were made to hold down a divine beast for a certain king to kill. Add in code and these can hold even you down.” Ardyn explained as he walks closer. He then created another magic circle behind him and pulls out a weapon. Kings eyes widened at it. “Recognize this? A certain King with a Gate holds the original, but with my power, and a little something I can create even this. Ea.” Ardyn said, holding the king of hero’s strongest ‘sword’. “Well...who’d have thunk it.” King chuckled. “But you sure you want to use that weapon on me?” King asked carefully. “That’s a pretty powerful weapon, and considering what I am at this point.” “Take a look at that armor.” Ardyn asked. King looks again and see tiny needles in their armor. No. Tiny rapiers. “Those are created from a special rapier that can ignore armor, but with the way I placed it. You’ll take the full blast. While your armor is undamaged.” Ardyn told them. “Fantastic.” King sighed out. “Well alright, give it your best shot.” King said, and something about his tone made Ardyn feel a slight unease even after he has the wolf right where he wants him. ‘What is king planning? They should know Ea could really damage them. Oh well. I don’t have the full knowledge of their current form.’ Ardyn thought to themselves. He brought back Ea as it’s energy began to build up. “Erase.” He said as he stabbed Ea forward as King and everything in a ten kilometer cone in front of Ardyn was consumed in a massive blast of crimson void tinged energy. The shockwaves making most, besides the obvious, of the watchers have to either plant their feet in the ground or grab something. “There have been many points where we needed to stop and we kept going…” Coco started. “This one is among them…” She said as she had Void Gear in the ground to keep herself steady. “BUT LET’S KEEP GOING AND SEE WHAT HAPPENS!” They all heard King shout in glee, slamming an out of nowhere haymaker into the side of Ardyn’s head and sending him flying. “That hurt, and this is fun cause my enemies don’t need some bullshit gimmick Grey gave them to handle me.” King laughed as he leaped after Ardyn. Ardyn let Ea go as it broke down. He reaches out as King comes in closer. His shield flies in time for him to grab it at shield bash Kings fist creating a shockwave. He holds out his other hand as the Sword of the Tall appears again and its chainsaw teeth reave up again. “Having fun Ardyn?” King asked with a smile, pulling out Eternal Flames and having both of them rev up to an insane degree. “Cause I am, finally with an opponent that I’m on their level with instead of some bullshit extreme.” King said. “Mind closing this up!? The chapter’s taken forever as is!” Cript called out. “Plus one of us still needs to fight Madoras!” “Not necessarily. Given the data I’ve gathered from all the fights it’s not needed. Madoras would stand a chance but won’t win against the ones that can still fight. Besides that barrier he made before was clear enough that he still has ways to go.” Max said. “Correct my lord.” Madoras said. “I’ll practice my magic and code harder when we get back.” “I’m pretty sure anyone else besides Cript and like...four others would have the same amount of trouble if not unable to do what Madoras here did.” Coco brought up. “So...you?” Agamemnon bluntly says to Coco. Cript failed to hold back a chuckle. "Didn't think you had a sense of humor. About time you stopped being so one dimensional." “A certain multi colored skeleton that won’t leave me alone...no matter how many times I stab him, killed my humor. Not completely though.” Agamemnon said. “Sounds about right…” Coco sighed out. “But in my defense, I was in a Coma for a couple of years because Void Key’s a prick.” “Looks like someone down there wants us to end this. What say you?” Ardyn asked King. “I’ve never actually tried a ‘Finishing Move’ before, so let’s see who's better.” King said with a smile. “You first then.” Ardyn challenged. “Please, after you.” King said politely. “Wouldn’t want to accidentally knock you out and miss your ultimate attack.” Ardyn sighs. “Very well. But.” Ardyn says as his power skyrockets much higher than before. He looks up as his eyes turn black as black marks form on his face. “Dont say I didn’t give you a chance.” He says as he holds out his right hand. A silver ring visible. Then it explodes in magical energy. Combined with what he was already putting out it actually goes over the power Broly was showing before he had to be stopped. Kings sees a dozen blades start sticking out of Ardyn. He grimaced in pain as the blades burst out of him. Then behind him huge knights in Red energy form taking a weapon each. Ardyn reaches out with his left and grabs his personal blade. “VOID KNIGHTS OF THE ROUND!” Ardyn yells as he throws his right fist towards King as the knights charge at him. Each hitting King with their full power. One after the other with no second in between. Ardyn then finished it with a slash from his blade. Fully charged up as he swings at strike King. King brought out his King’s Greatsword, it glowing with Pure Nothingness energy. "ETERNAL NOTHINGNESS!” He shouted, swinging his greatsword as Ardyn saw everything behind King seem to turn pure white as it was rushing to clash with Ardyn’s pitch black Void. Madoras was about to create another barrier when Max snapped his fingers and one much more powerful then what Madoras made formed around them. “Just got done. Some rest and he should be good.” He said as he got up from tending to Broly. The clash from Ardyn and King was intense. Not as much as Agamemnon and Jericho’s final clash but that power was there. After about half a minute things cleared up. Showing King and Ardyn on opposite sides. Their backs to each other and holding their respective swords. “I’m still standing.” King told Ardyn simply. Ardyn smiles. “So you are. Appears...I’ve yet to fully reach..my.” He starts to say before he falls over. King fell to a knee as Ardyn hit the ground, using No Heart to keep him propped up. “You're not the only one…” The wolf groaned. “We done?” King called out. “Correct.” Max said as he appeared next to Ardyn. He picks him up and turns to King. “Nice fight.” He said before appearing back to his group. “Only help out one of the injured…” King grumbled as they got up shakily and appeared near the group. “Well that was interesting. Great fights. Besides Broly’s, no offense, all fights seemed closed. Wait also forgot about Ghost. Maybe next time Coco.” Frisk said as she sat on a floating rock. “Still lasted longer than I thought against Ghost.” Coco shrugged. Max looks over King’s group. “Besides the obvious ones. You have potential. This fight has given me a bit of insight for what to work on with my Kings, and hopefully has given you all insight in your own strengths and flaws to work on.” “And when does it take into account John kicking your ass?” King brought up. "That's enough banter you two." Cript said. "Max, quick talk?" “*sigh* Sure. The rest of you head back.” Max told the others. As they headed through his portal. In a blink, Max and Cript were both on a more distant hill. Quickly Cript put up several soundproofing barriers around them. "So, how badly?" Cript asked Max. “How badly what? You're gonna need to be a bit more specific because that question can be about many things.” Max replied. "How badly do you still wanna beat me?" Cript stated simply. “How badly does King want to kill Void Key?” Max asked back. "Heh. Fair enough. Though, even if we did fight, you won't be happy. I'd never go all out. If I'm not showing all I got, how can you claim it as a real victory, or guage the gap between us?" “Exactly how many enemies did you beat when they were holding back because they thought you were beneath and you took advantage of that?” Max asked. “Because I’m not some warrior that wants to constantly test myself like that, want someone like that I’d look for Goku. I’m an assassin. I don’t care so long as the job is done.” Cript rolled their eyes. "Persistent as ever I see. Still, while I can't respect your wishes, I know someone who can." Max raised an eyebrow. “Do you perhaps mean another C.R.I.P.T.? Aren’t they basically different from each one? Or is there something I haven’t found out yet?” He asked. "Well, with all my… siblings… tell me, do you honestly believe I'm the only Heir C.R.I.P.T Vincent made?" “At first maybe, but when I think about it now. I won’t hold it against him to make a contingency just in case.” Max said. "Try several." Cript said. "I've only met three of them, the other two are still MIA. But we're focusing on the ones I know. Specifically, Rip." “How bad is he if we’re focusing on him in peculiar?” Max had asked. "The other Heir's and I are largely similar, but Rip and I… we could almost be twins. Abilities, powers, stats, all identical. Only difference between us is lifestyles." “And power correct?” Max asked. "Same." Cript said. "Plus… he doesn't hold back. Being taught by Vincent directly he never was taught how." “So the you he wanted you to become right? What did change for you to be the head then instead of him?” "Nothing. The five Heir Cripts are all 'heads' as you put it. Almost like a hydra if you wanna visualize it. These days Rip spends his days in one of the dead timelines." “Why a dead timeline? Was something he cared about there, or just to be alone?” Max asked. "Let me put it as… how to put this… you know I'm the Admin of Love, One other is the Admin if Hope, the other The Admin of Divinity, and supposedly from what I found out the other two are the Admins of Sins and Mercy. Rip, is the Admin of Hatred. The opposite of Love more or less, and he's in a dead timeline because the only thing he doesn't hate is… silence. And given we can hear from this end of reality to that…" Max nodded at that. “So to both test me and for me to see how truly strong you are...you want me to go to him and face him.” "... I want you to kill him." Max looks at Cript. It’s honestly a bit rare that he genuinely wants someone or something dead...that isn’t Vincent that is. “What could he have done for you to want him dead? Other than being basically what Vincent would want out of you.” "Consider it a sign of trust." Cript said plainly. "After all, you don't trust me, but kill him… maybe then you could, cause you'd be able to kill me then. Besides, one word from Vincent and Rip will level whatever without hesitation. A lose end like that isn't good to leave around." “Ok. Letting Vincent have someone like Rip on his side would be problematic in the future. I’ll take him. I’ll head back with my group to train and prepare some more.” Max said. He then reached into his pocket and pulled out a card. “This will help you find my castle. I constantly move it to keep them on me. With stuff my group took from Nexus should be of interest. We even found a Psychopath Cript and a certain admin’s war axe.” "Huh. Interesting. I'll pop by sometime." “Ok. I best get-” Max started before a Knight in dark armor with a skull like helmet appears. “My lord. Urgent report.” He said. “Wild Hunt?” What happened?” Max asked. The Wild Hunt was his main spies. More efficient then you would think. What problems did he run into. “I was following a convoy of Vincent’s. Carrying both resources and subjects they experimented on. When the Convoy was attacked.” He replied. “By what?” “I...I don’t know. They used guns and other weapons as well as powers. I saw a few fall only to raise back up. They slaughtered them, they left the resources but took the subjects. I would have followed but something about one of them…” “What about him?” Max asked. “The Convoy was lead by a speedster and a Psychopath with two Bezerkers. This...thing. Slaughtered them with no difficulty and with much brutality. I dared not get to close.” He said. Max and Cript can see him shaking somewhat fierce. Max turns to Cript. “You know of anyone that could do something like that so easily?” "Several." “Other than my Kings or your group over there.”Max said pointing back at the others. "Still several. What did this thing look like exactly?" Cript asked the knight. “It’s..hard to describe. It was large. Not as big as a Berzerk, but still strong enough to manhandle two at once like they're children. It has dark hair that looked tribal with a gold ring hanging off one strand. It wasn’t wearing a shirt. This thing though...wasn’t human or anything. It was a feral like...monster.” He said. “And the bit of power I sensed…” "...and it's eyes?" Cript asked. The Knight shook some more. “I know it’s eyes...I just realised it because it looked right at me. Besides two glowing green dots. It’s eyes were pitch black.” "Hmm…" Cript hummed. "Reminds me of… The Infection…" “Infection?” Max asked. “What’s that?” "Think of the Nulls but more violent and wants to expand it daddy's storm." Cript huffed. “The Hell is a Null?” Max question. "... Huh, wow. Did not see that coming. Okay so basically you know how the machine we live in resets? Well every so often someone glitches on that and it just… creates a perma glitch being that their whole society mostly just hides and watches this all repeat endlessly until the death if the machine itself." Cript stated rather matter of factly. “So a Null is what? A sort of watcher that makes sure the Machine actually runs and gets rid of something that might ruin it or something? I haven’t found anything about them yet in my studies.” Max said. "You wouldn't, only time they ever poop out is when there's a catastrophic error and they manually reset everything. They keep to themselves until then and according to Null Jenny there's only like ten or so of them herself included." “Ok, but what about the Infection? What exactly is it? You said it’s like a Null.” Max asked. "It's like a Null in terms of power. Power of which meaning Null Jenny and I can catch each other's punches so, yeah. It was born from this thing Lord told me about, called it The Storm or something like that. Basically go as far as possible in the void til you reach an endless vortex of chaos and death." “Exactly how dangerous is this Storm?” Max asked. It sounds very bad. "Well Lord told me never to go near it. Ever. Even threatened to seal me in one of his special cube prisons if I tried. So I'm gonna say, powerful." Max thinks for a bit. “You said it's trying to expand that storm. How far? Till it covers the Void?” "My guess, it's just another thing on the list that wants to destroy all of creation within the machine. Why, no idea, how, brute force it seems." Max turns towards his Knight, “Have the Wild Hunt avoid this thing and it’s men for now. Right now we have to focus on Vincent and his allies.” His Knight nods and disappears. “I’ll head back. Start preparing for Rip. You might need to inform your allies of this thing. From what you describe of it they might not be ready for it if a fight comes to it.” Max said, turning back to Cript. "So it seems. Really should start checking off all these issues at some point. Oh, and best keep clear of Lord. He's pissed at you and your kings." “Figures. After what we did to those Admins.” Max said. He then opens a portal. “I’m off.” He walks through it as it closes. Cript sighed, watching the portal close. "Stay safe Max… I hope you survive this…" The darkness of this land was on par with the void. The faint glow of a blue sun far from the world was the only light in this place. Sitting atop a chunk of rock was a pale figure, his brown hair and orange eyes staring at the endless blackness. "Silence… calm…" He muttered, breathing slow steady breaths as he welcomed the vast nothingness he created. Armies. Gods. Planets. Galaxies. All gone, so he can find calm. In the distance, a nat fly ate away at the long rotten pile of corpses. "Noise…" He growled, his anger raising. "Be gone." He muttered, a flash of light and the fly, and half the planet he was on, were gone. "Ahhh… silence…" Then...footsteps. Noise. The person turned, seeing the cause of such infuriating noise. He saw someone there. Something not belonging to this place. A person in a black trench coat. Silver scarf. Black dress pants and a black fedora. He raised his head a bit. Showing red eyes. Looking right at him. Red met Orange. No words were said. Because both already knew what was about to happen…. ON THE NEXT DRAGON BALL - “WRONG SERIES!!” Both yelled at the writer. To be continued Author's Note Thank you Deathwatch for making this chapter with me and Bio and thank god it's been almost a year and we finished it woo!
Kite vs Clockwerk, then start of Band of Thieves"Today...is the day…" I muttered to myself, passing around my cabin at Cane Island. Today was the day Kite Cooper and his family take the fight to Clockwork. It’s been over a month since the event’s of my agreement to Vincent and the subsequent take down of Panda King, and given all of Nexus that is now mine it took more time to get everything straight as Clockwerk basically lost a hundred percent of his support via manpower, money and resources. Despite this, his robots were still the biggest issue. As we got our gear together we managed to build a lot using the notes Vincent gave me, and with the supplies from Nexus we were fully stocked in weapons and better armors. “What am I going to do…” I muttered, wondering if I have to keep Clockwerk alive through his Hate Chip so Sly 2 can happen, or just let the metallic bastard die. “Should I even bring up to Clockwerk that I’m taking care of his kids?” I wondered to myself. “That would piss him right the fuck off…” I chuckled, thinking about all the cute little racoon owl hybrids that I...accidentally helped birth. Well, better that outcome than letting them hatch all evil and such. Still, I have no idea what he might have modified himself with, and with my new Ability Vincent made for me, it won't be a one sided fight. "...still so much to think about…" I muttered, continuing to pace as thousands of thoughts kept rushing into my head about this mission. I sighed as I wondered….just what would happen? “I really hate not knowing what to do…” I groaned. “Are ya bored or something?” Murray asked as he walked up to me. “No, just concerned about everything.” I sighed out. “There’s a whole lot of unknown that's buzzing through my head…” “Why bother worrying about things you don’t know? I don’t know a lotta of stuff and I don’t worry over it.” “One of the things I’m concerned about is if I should even mentioned Clockwerk’s...and my kids…” I shook my head at how, even compared to the crap I’ve seen and done, silly it sounds. “You mean those robotic owls? Don’t know why you would, not like Clockwerk would care about them regardless.” “Considering the main reason why he’s been hunting down my family since the dawn of time was because the first Cooper’s literally stole their eggs...then yeah I’m pretty sure he would care, also considering he had it guarded with a very powerful being.” “Hmm… fair point, though if you did make them part Cooper, then I think he’d have disowned them. His hatred for your family probably outweighs the fact that they are still his.” “And that’s one unknown I have to think of, then another is what he might have gotten from his short partnership with Nexus…” I sighed out. “Well, from the supplies Bently said Panda King sent him, probably nothing good. Even with an army, I don’t think this will be easy.” “Which...is sad to say the Army is more of a front to get all of us into his main base.” I said honestly. “While it sucks at...the possible loss of life...what sucks more is having...to face Dad.” “That… is a fair point. His is the only Cooper Bot still being controlled. Maybe you can use your Keyblade magic stuff to free him? Sounds kinda like that one thing Matilda told us about once, the whole Possession of the Heart or something?” “Well…” I thought for a bit. “The problem isn’t that it’s controlling the Heart, it’s basically just Mind Control...but I can at least try that...or just rip his soul out of that metal husk and put it into a new body now that I have all my powers back...but that came with a massive drawback.” “What drawback?” Sly asked, walking over to see what me and Murray were talking about. “Just that, whenever I’m involved in a fight, my opponents are equal to me in power.” I answered. “It’s how I didn’t just immediately take down Panda King, cause even if he was new to that level of strength, he had the training and discipline to use it well.” “Really? How does that happen?” Sly asked. “I don’t actually know...never really went into the ‘ability creation’ side of things.” I said honestly. “All I know is that it’s named ‘Equilibrium’, it’s an Ability, and that it’s main function is to have any opponent of mine be at the same level of power I’m at, so if I’m fighting as Kite Cooper, they would probably be the same strength as they would normally...but if I were to be strong enough to bench press a mountain, then they’d be able to do the same.” “Huh… that’s a fairly double edged sword? Does it only affect you and your opponent?” “Well...maybe? Cause even though we kind of stopped fighting after Sly interrupted me yelling at the Panda King for burning my tail, mom knocked him out simply enough but the ground cracked underneath where King’s head was…” I explained carefully. “So you don’t know.” Murray stated. “There’s no expert in this stuff you know from your godly friends?” “I mean...some might know, and from what I’ve learned, the actual Expert in all this Ability shenaniganry has been dead for a hell of a long time.” I shrugged. “Huh, well, all that aside how should we do this? We know the former Nexus will be dealing with the robots, and we will be dealing with Clockwerk, but who deals with dad?” “It should be me cause I have the magic to hopefully save him.” I said honestly. “Then...maybe mom as well, since if anyone knows how to deal with dad, it would be her.” Sly nodded. “I’ll go too. Best were all there when… if, we can free him.” “I guess that leaves the rest of us to deal with Clockwerk while you all deal with your dad.” Murray said. “WIth your mechanical family and Matilda, I’m sure we can all hold our own against him.” “I know you can.” I said honestly. “Cause we’re the Cooper Gang, and there’s nothing we can’t do as long as we’re a team.” “Good, then let’s get going. Everyone has their gear together and are about ready to head out.” With a nod I followed the others to the vehicles. It was gonna be a long flight. We arrived in Russia to the sounds of heavy artillery and gunfire. The battle outside the armored van was loud. After a few hours it was still loud background noise. “Alright, we’re at Clockwerk’s compound gate.” Uncle Jim spoke up. “Coopers, good luck, your still around family and us will charge in and deal with Clockwerk once you all get Conner’s attention.” “And whatever other robots he’s hiding.” I mentioned as I held onto my cane nervously. With a nod, Mom, Sly and I all jumped out and climbed over the gate. Once inside we walked around. Our nerves were on high alert as… there wasn’t a single robot around here… “Stick close boys…” Mom said. “Where’s the welcoming party?” Sly asked. “If a trap does pop up, and we know it will...I'll make sure the both of you don’t get caught in it.” I said carefully. “And who’s gonna stop you from falling into it?” Sly quipped. We flinched, a loud mechanical caw screeched through the air. Looking up we Spotted Clockwerk, his body platted in metal, and various weapons ranging from chainsaw talons and motion tracking turrets covered his massive wings, back and torso. Standing atop his right wing was Dad’s bot, the glowing red eyes looking at us with Clockwerk’s pure malice and rage as it jumped off and free fell down towards us. It landed with a heavy crash, making a fair sized crater on impact before it stood up, twirling it’s mechanized cane. Before we could act Uncle Jim hit the gas on the van, crashing through the gate and racing up the volcano to Clockwerk. “Alright...just gotta deal with mecha-dad fueled by Clockwerk’s rage...simple enough.” I said as I readied myself to face off against dad. “Collen…” Mom sighed, looking at dad’s bot form with so much hurt. “Coopers.” Clockwerk’s mechanical voice spoke from the bot. “Two of you will die tonight.” “Just two?” Sly asked. “Of course. My vengeance on your family is just as immortal as my body. Why bother living when I can’t have my favorite… snack, every generation.” “Man you need a hobby.” I said honestly. “At least yell at clouds like the old man you are Clockwork.” “Murdering you lot is my hobby.” He replied, charging. We all acted, trying to see if I can pin their body down long enough to try out that Dive to the Heart thing and free dad from inside. “Jeez ya grouchy old owl, I just wanted your child support money, not a fight.” I told him as I jumped away from a cane swing, hoping that weird statement would confuse the bastard long enough to get him pinned. He laughed, the bot head keeping it’s eyes on me. “Ah yes, the anomaly. The Admin who wanted to play and lied himself into the skin he was born into.” “Already had that whole conversation, doesn’t matter anymore.” I rolled my eyes. “So the better question is, did you get any responses to all the eggs you kept guarded?” I asked him as I tried to sweep his legs. He jumped, spinning just in time to knock Sly aside. “Insurance.” He said, his cane suddenly crackling with electricity. “Something left to rebuild should I perish.” “Well that sucks for you cause I’m now they all see me...as their mother.” I answered. “All half racoon too.” “Heh, then I guess nothing will rebuild.” “Kind of expected you to be...a little pissed at me for accidentally making your kids half racoons cause…” I stopped for a second. “Okay seriously, how the hell did you manage to tie your children hatching to match your biosignature with whoever the hell activated the system? That seem’s like a retarded design don’t you think?” “It was part of Vincent’s design. One of his loyal dogs was to hatch them should I die. But I suppose no plan lasts the battlefield.” A rumble got my attention. Clockwerk’s body began to smoke as some of it’s guns were now missing. “I can see that.” I frowned. “But we’re going to stop you here and now ya old bastard!” “Try it and die!” The fight lasted long, the area around us was scorched ground and mom and Sly were looking worn, bruises and cuts across them. Clockwerk’s body flying above was nearing it’s end. Clockwerk just laughed, Sly and Mom tackling the bot body of dad down finally. “Let’s hope this works.” I muttered as I moved swiftly forward and used my keyblade cane and stabbed the bot in the chest, which instead of punching a hole in it, caused a door of light to start appearing. “I’ll be back with dad.” I said as I dived into his heart to rescue him. I arrived at something that was a far, far cry from a station of awakening. It was just a pitch black void of darkness. Rage, Anger, Malace, all radiated from the environment. Echoing from the environment was Clockwerk’s laugh. No longer mechanical, but just as twisted. “The hell did you do to my dad!?” I called out as I flew around this dark void. "Oh and I thought you were supposed to be a smart Admin." Clockwork said as his laughter grew louder and more manic. “God damn it…” I growled as I started to fly around the place, trying to find my dad’s heart in this void of rage. As I flew around I felt like something was flying around me, watching me. Eventually I did find a station of Awakening, but it wasn't dad's. It was… decayed, a huge chunk of it was cracked and flaking and crumbling. A smaller section looked fine, but pulsated with darkness… This is Clockwork's heart. His light half is completely dead. “Oh this is not good for you.” I shook my head. “On the verge of becoming a Nobody all because of your stupid grudge.” "Perhaps, but when all is said and done, I have already won." Suddenly I was tackled, the pitch black form of Clockwerk slamming into my glider, grabbing me in mid air and pinning me to his still healthy part of his heart. "Still Haven't realized it yet have you?" “That...you somehow put your heart and soul into dad’s body?” I asked. His laughter started again. "Fool. I never put your father inside this body." My eyes widened as I realized it. “Oh...alright, then you can kindly go fuck yourself.” I said as I opened up my Destiny Link. “Cause with all my powers back, guess who I can borrow powers from?” I asked cheekily as I selected Heart’s D-Link. "Not so fast." He said, his claws piercing into my flesh. "Vincent gave you a gift, Equilibrium, we'll still be just as powerful as one another. Just sit back," there was suddenly a flash, looking over I saw there was now a viewpoint from the eyes. Clockwerk's old body, dad, was one hit away from falling into the volcano. "And watch your friends and family kill the man you came here to save." “Now if you'll allow me to finish.” I said as my link with Heart finalized as light shines forth from me, burning Clockwerk’s pure darkness from how pure it was. “I’m not aiming this at you ya broken hearted sack of shit.” I said as I raised my hand, the view we had showing all my friends and family starting to glow softly, as well as the old metallic birds body. “I’m aiming it at my family.” I told him bluntly. ”Yo, can you all hear me?” I mentally called out through my new connection to my family. ”Kite? What in the world are you doing!?” Connor’s voice echoed through everyone’s minds, the group seeing the light in the owl’s body flare up at that declaration. “Saving you, what else?” I joked, helping him fly down to safety as all my friends and family were all sounding incredulous and confused in my mind. “Don’t worry guys, I’m in here with Clockwerk, old bastard had a decent idea to swap bodies on us, but he didn’t account for Family being stronger than his rage.” I said simply. ”So...what now?” Murray asked simply. “I know we’re all master thieves, and the one thing we shouldn’t do it murder...but Clockwerk is too far gone…” I shook my head as I turned to face the shadow owl. “So I’ll do it, and deal with whatever repercussions afterwards.” I said as I readied my cane. The shadow Clockwerk and I both circled around one another, this place was rapidly becoming even more volatile by the second as the very air was shaking as the already powerful rage and negativity spiked even higher. “Aw, did I make the little birdy angry?” I taunted. “Is it upsetting that I literally stole your victory right in front of your very eyes? Cause it’s hilarious to me.” I said, wanting Clockwerk to be so blinding by rage that he’ll fuck up and I can fight him easier. Clockwerk seemed to almost growl as we circled one another. He stared at me for a long time before, suddenly, it felt like everything here got more… stable. "You've won today, Coopers… but I will be back. My partnership with Vincent taught me more than you realize." He said. I suddenly felt a pulse of… code? I woke up back in the real world, Dad bot was gone too and mom and Sly looked like they got blasted away from where we all were. "What? What happened?" Sly asked as he got back up. "Where did Clockwerk go?" “So…” I sighed out, rubbing my temples. “Fuck...so good news and bad news.” I started. “Good news, we won.” I answered. “Bad news...Clockwerk’s on the run because the same bastard that gave me my powers back just so happened to teach Clockwerk way too fucking much.” I frowned. “Good knews, we have dad back.” I pointed to the owl. “Bad news...bad things will be happening later on.” "Shit." Mom cursed, then looked up. "Conner!" She said, helping Sly and I as we ran for the volcano top. Arriving there we spotted the heavily damaged former body of Clockwerk, the eyes no longer their going yellow, but now a glowing blue. “Violet...my sons…” The bird said in dad’s voice, although a bit scratchy due to all the damage. "Oh… Conner…" Mom said, hugging the bent and beat up head. "How… do we fix this?" Sly asked. "Miz Ruby still has Conner's body, maybe she can do the same now that she tried back then when she brought your mother back?" M brought up. “And I can help her with that given I now have all my spells.” I mentioned as I brought out my Lexicon. “But...right now is making sure this body doesn’t fall about from all the damage it’s taken.” I started as I walked closer to dad’s body. “But...you okay dad?” "Could be better. Wish I was…" He sighed. "This body is so… cold. Feels like I'm stuck inside an already dead body." “The body housed a heart that was...practically dead from what I saw…” I sighed out. “Any good in him is long dead and it’s just cracked and breaking more and more, as he let’s his rage corrode his very existence.” "Well… let's go home then." Spy sighed. We headed back to Cane Island, after a lot of hard work Mz Ruby and I restored dad's old body. My magic made the transfer of his heart and soul, and brain, easier than what she had to do. Thankfully when it was over, dad was alive again. He spent a lot of time in Clockwerk's old body, so getting used to his own again was rather challenging for him but we were there to help. After a while things settled down in the world. Two years passed and America, who's people demanded Mugshot freed and reinstated as president, got their wish because apparently he did fantastically as president. Mz. Ruby was freed but stayed with us on Cane Island to teach us all some magic while learning about mine. Panda King was also freed and, despite everything, was renamed the 'king' of China, where he rules in a strict but firm manner helping the rest of the world rebuild. Rowley is still in prison for his crimes as he was the only one to not regret anything, though Matilda told me he's on a work exchange program. He worked building tech for good and in exchange he gets one conjugal visit a month. Apparently he did have a wife and they missed one another greatly. Crime was… a mixed bag these days. Most places that were hit hardest, Russia, Europe, Africa, and all them are littered with start up crime gangs since the fall of Clockwerk. Most are people who don't trust any authority anymore, others are just people still trying to survive after everything. Others, like myself, were raised in the chaos and know nothing else. The world needs the Coopers again, if only to keep the peace. “Alright...so right now I need to keep an eye on these five…” I muttered as I started to search online about anything revolving around the Klaww Gang, and Neyla. “Hopefully things won’t be worse than what’s been currently going on…” My search brought up a few things. Mostly their heists. They started up shortly after the whole Clockwerk's empire began, starting off mostly as tech smugglers but after his fall jumped to arms and hired assassinations. While I know the names of all the members, looking them up here only brings up how they are to the public. Apparently in this Timeline, Dimitri is a well respected artist for his unique… silhouette art. Apparently it came to him after an 'accident' on a trip to Mexico. Rajan was still a spice lord at least, but rumors are around about him also running slave and arms trade to various other criminal gangs. Jean Bison is front news, having only thawed from the ice recently and after various psychological and medical tests was allowed to travel where he's looking up his past home. Wonder if he is a member already or not? Contessa is still the warden of her prison and… her husband is still alive? That's different. Arpeggio is a well respected aerospace engineer, working with various governments to rebuild air forces and cargo vehicles. Nothing on Neyla. No results, no pictures, no birth certificates, no fingerprints, nothing. It's like she doesn't exist. “Alright...so we know at least where everyone is...but so far nothing too suspicious...except for Neyla, she should already be alive…” I muttered. “I’d rather not hack into Interpol for more…” "And why would you need to do that?" I jumped, seeing Matilda behind me. “Already thinking of what’s ‘supposed to happen next’...” I sighed out. “Or at least, who’s involved...have you ever heard of the Klaww Gang?” I asked. "Little. They haven't been a top priority until recently, though that Top Priority list has grown a couple inches in the last two years." She sighed. "Anything specific?" “Are any of the members known? And if not...have you heard of a violet Bengal Tiger named Neyla before?” "... Purple fur, knows her way around a whip?" “Yes and yes.” I nodded. "Yeah, I know her…" “Alright...so who is she, and why does she have literally nothing about her?” I asked carefully. "Because she's like me. A keyblade wielder. She's not from this world, well, actually she doesn't technically have a world." “Fuck…” I groaned. “When was the last time you made contact with her?” "Little before this crap with the Furious Five started. So a long time actually. Last I knew she was hanging around the Refugee worlds." “First Clockwerk has Code powers and now Neyla is a fucking Keyblader…” I rubbed my temples. “Fantastic...did Neyla ever mention anyone she’s visited on this world? Anyone at all?” "Not really. Aside from me she kept a distance from people given her… heritage. Shit… she's gotta be like… thirty by now. Last time I saw her she was barely fourteen." “I know a self fulfilling prophecy is always a thing…” I grumbled. “What we’re gonna need to do is watch out for these five.” I said while bringing up the people that were possibly in the Klaww Gang. “Dimitri, Rajan, the Contessa, Jean Bison, and Arpeggio, now while I have no grounds to think any of these bastards are in the Klaww Gang besides Rajan due to his spice ring and his new venture into slave and weapons trading…” I sighed out. “Only problem I’m having at the moment is how they’re going to go about their plan without the Clockwerk parts...and Clockwerk is still nowhere to be found…” "Well, how do these events play out normally?" “So the first part is already completely gone.” I started. “Where in the beginning, like...maybe a year after the first defeat of Clockwerk by Sly, Bently, Murray and Carmelita, Clockwerk was effectively in a comatose state and carted off to a museum...only for the Klaww Gang to steal his body and use his body and internal organs for their own purposes.” I explained. “Dimitri had the tail feather’s to mass produce fake money that’s believable enough, Rajan had the Wing’s as a trophy, and had the Clockwerk Heart to help his Spice Production, the Contessa had the Eyes so she could empower her hypnotism, Jean Bison had the Lung’s, Stomach and Claws, the Lung’s and Stomach being a perpetual engine to keep his trains going forever, and claws to help him in his one man army against nature after he was frozen...and when all of it was put back together, because Apreggio just really wanted to fly, Neyla fused with the thing with all her rage and become ‘Clockla’, and was going to become an unstoppable immortal due to all of France going into a Spice induced Frenzy and her siphoning it all from a massive airship Arpeggio made.” I explained to her carefully. “So you can already tell this is massively different just by there being no Clockwerk corpse they can steal.” I started. “And...well overall it was a bad experience for the Cooper Gang and Carmelita.” "Huh… okay well I'll put some agents to keep an eye on them. As for Neyla… well I know a few worlds she visits regularly." “Cool.” I nodded. “But be careful...Neyla not only fooled Interpol, she also fooled her own Gang...and the Cooper Gang. That’s how Sly, Murray and Carmelita were imprisoned by the Contessa.” "Yikes. Well, if you want you can tag along with me when I head out." “That would be good.” I nodded. “Which reminds me that I need to show everyone the first Sly Cooper game after everything that happened, just to give a quick ‘hey, here’s what I expected’ kind of thing.” "That's probably a bad idea." Matilda said. "Might give everyone the… Wrong impression about why you chose to live this life." “True...” I nodded. “I’d...rather not make things worse…” "In any case, come on, let's get going. Our first stop is Traverse Town." Matilda said as she summoned her Keyblade and opened a DTL. I can't believe I never tried to visit this world before! I felt hyped as a fan of Kingdom Hearts, then upset that in all my years back in my timeline, I never visited the main Kingdom Hearts one Hub World. It had everything from the first game, and from Dream Drop Distance, and some other details I guess the games just left out for some reason or another. There were a lot of people here too. All various races and species. "If I know Neyla, she'd be at the tavern if she is here." Matilda muttered as we walked through the crowd. "Sounds about right." I nodded. "So off to the Tavern." We walked through the first district, the layout was far larger than in game but kept the same general shape and form. Arriving at the tavern we entered to find a variety of people here. We walked up to the counter, where we were greeted by an anthropomorphic green fire cat lady. Upon seeing us she raised a brow, then both went up high. "Sweet hell, Matilda?!" She yelped. "The one and only, Donna." Matilda replied with a smirk. "How?! It's been like ten years since I last saw you and you look younger!" "Long story…" Matilda sighed. "I always actually wondered if Neyla was around?" "Huh. You'll have to tell me about it sometime. As for Neyla, she was just here an hour ago but left, something about some new world she needed to check out since it wasn't on any galactic maps yet." "Well shit… any idea the general area she traveled to then?" "Yeah. Somewhere in the Z.G.9.H system." "Shit she went there? Thanks, I'll see ya around." Matilda said as we quickly left the tavern. "Well this isn't good…" She muttered. "How bad is it?" I asked carefully. "Z.G.9.H is largely considered a no fly zone. For all space travelers, it's the harsh and difficult cosmic weather, for we Keyblade Wielders, it's because the world's are so close to darkness they might as well be within the realm itself. There's nine worlds in total but no one has… returned from them. Traveler or Keyblade Master. If Neyla found a possible tenth then there is still no reason as to why she went there. The whole area is a deathtrap." "Well...shit." I frowned. "And...also double shit we need to get to that tenth planet fast cause Clockwork might have made it…" "... Isn't that just a tad bit paranoid?" "Considering what Clockwork can do right now...no, no it's not." I started. With a sigh Matilda shrugged and we were off again. She wasn't kidding about the cosmic storms here being a deathtrap. I knew cosmic storms were a thing, but when they are the size of this entire Galaxy, filled with lightning, dust blowing so fast it can sand down our gliders, fucking space hurricanes! Molten glass rain! And to put the cherry on top some of the more large and most violent Heartless I have ever seen. Despite all this, we managed to pick up the energy trails from Neyla's glider and used that to find the world she arrived at. We quickly landed on said planet and took a breather in the mountain forest we found ourselves in. "And THAT! Is why nobody sane ever comes to this gods forsaken system!" Matilda yelled as she tried to calm herself. "Let's go again!" I laughed. We both laid there for a while before finally getting up and that's when I noticed the changes. We were both humans. Sure we both still had our outfits and while my hair still resembled what I had as a raccoon it was also shorter. Matilda looked the same save the short cut black hair that only went to her neck. "Camouflage magic…" She muttered, looking herself over. "Definitely Neyla is here." "Does she usually use it?" I inquired as I readied my cane. "Especially to...this big of an area?" I added, cause we just touched down and we're already affected by it. "Normally yeah, but never this strong before. She must have finally earned her mastery to pull this off." Matilda said as she now looked around. "Think I can see a road down this way, hopefully we'll find something soon." “I just hope I’m wrong about this…” I sighed out. As we walked we found an old dirt road and walked up it. The humidity sucked but soon we arrived at a gated watchtower. As we approached the gate, two men walked up to us from the other side. Both wore well tattered clothing with leather jackets, one was more beefy, bald and missing their right hand, replaced by a homemade prosthetic with a blade welded to it. The other was thinner but clearly has seen some combat and kept a rather large looking shotgun on us. "State your business." The bald one spoke. “We’re looking for someone, and was wondering if they were in town.” I said carefully. The two men looked at one another with a raised brow each. "And… who are you looking for exactly?" The one with the gun asked slowly. “Has anyone by the name of Neyla been here?” I asked, hoping Matilda might add in whatever secret name she has to help get us in the place. "She's likely wearing a scarf, and has a whip on her." Matilda added. "Don't know about that but we did see someone run down the mountain a few hours ago." The bald guy spoke. “Which way were they going?” I inquired. "North. Assuming she kept heading that way she'd hit the old NERO checkpoint." The hat guy said. "Thank you sir." I nodded. "Is there anything...of concern from here to the NERO checkpoint?" They looked at one another again. "You been living under a rock or something the last few years, kid?" The bald guy said. "Ambushers, murderers, Freakers." "Wait a moment Boozer." The hat guys said, looking us over. "How old are you two?" "Fifteen." Matilda said. "You two… how have you two been surviving?" "Running, hiding, and the ingenuity of two fifteen year old prank loving teenagers." I said simply. "Without guns, bikes or even a knife?" The bald man, Boozer, said. "Something's up here Decan." "Your first mistake was thinking that." I said as, with a masterful bit of sleight of hand, I revealed three cherry bombs I made with Bentleys help. "We're not helpless or strange, and our bikes are hidden from thieves cause...force of habit." I explained carefully. "Can't argue with that. This dumbass here got his bike gutted some months back." Boozer laughed, elbowing Decan. "Shut it." Decan huffed. "Just head north, follow the road and when you come to a shit ton of trains, corpses and Freakers you found the place." “Good enough.” I nodded while putting my cherry bombs away. “Thank you both for your time.” We walked down and north for a while before Matilda spoke. "That was rather bold and cockey of you." She said. “I did the right amount of both, all things considered.” I said honestly “If I was too cocky then I’d be called an idiot and survived on dumb luck, and if I was too bold I’d probably have been shot.” "Even so, you forget we are still teenagers. And the guy with the hat is tracking us because of it. So, what do you think a Freaker is exactly?" “Well, considering the outfits, the post apocalyptic vibe, and we’ve barely heard a peep from wildlife…” I said, which Matilda noted was true that there wasn’t much in the ways of wildlife noises. “I’d say...probably a zombie like virus spread around to humans and animals.” "Zombies? Great, so we can't use our Keyblade either…" “Not necessarily.” I raised my hand. “Cause our Keyblades can hurt Zombies, I have tested that and it’s still a universal ‘holy’ weapon against undead.” "Yeah but with how close this world is to the darkness these undead will be drawn to them just as much as Heartless, plus that Ability of yours. If it effects all enemies, you don't want to be surrounded with that active." “Well...it should also affect you as well cause when me, Sly and mom were facing against Clockwerk Sly and mom weren’t woefully underpowered for that.” I said honestly. "Still, until we understand that little trick of yours we best not try and act like you're all that." “Fair.” I nodded. “That’s why Nothingness still works wonders.” I smiled warmly. “So, when did you meet Neyla?” "Little after my Mark of Mastery. She was a Lanes Born, and was mostly just roaming. Barely knew how to swing her Keyblade, it's a miracle she could open a DTL or even shift her glider. I taught her some things. Given she was a beastial race like me I offered a place on our world but she refused. Only ever visited a few times really." “Wonder why?” I questioned, finding it a little curious that she’d be a vagabond. "Like I said, she's Lanes Born." Matilda said as we dropped down some rocks and found the road shortly after. “And a Lanes Born...I don’t think I’ve heard that term before.” I said honestly. “Albeit there’s still a shit ton of things I haven’t heard of yet even though I’m busy non fucking stop.” "Lanes Born, it means her parents were from different worlds. Pretty common amongst Keyblade Wielders. They don't usually fit in in their parents worlds either because of physical looks or powers. The natural laws of the worlds also don't apply to her because most often they conflict meaning she's a walking magnet for non native threats. Primarily, Heartless and everything else." “Well that sucks.” I frowned. "Yeah. Lanes Borns are lives filled with moving from place to place, world to world and they can't really settle down anywhere. Honestly the fact she came to this system is a bad idea. All those big ass heartless we passed on the way here, yeah the longer she is here the closer they will get and if this place already has issues…" “Honestly...not as bad as Void though.” I said honestly. "Are you capable of sympathy?" She asked as we passed some ruined cars. “I legit wouldn’t be here if I wasn’t.” I told Matilda bluntly, which shocked her a bit at how blunt I was about it. "Can you at least talk like it then? I get you're a god and all that but ever since you got your full mojo back you've kinda… been an ass." “It’s not that I have my full powers back that’s the problem.” I brought up. “If it was just that, then I’d be pissed that my full powers practically mean nothing when I was given Equilibrium...I stopped feeling like I was lying about who I am…” I sighed out. “As well as...ya know, having acted like this for seven years because I almost lost my heart due to how outrageously depressed I was and...still kinda am, all the many…many decades I’ve lost with friends and family because everytime I want to have something good in my life bad shit has to come from it, and just…” I growled as I threw a lit cherry bomb at a sudden freaker dog and blew half it’s body up. “Everytime I want to be happy...something, or someone has to bring it all back...now sure that’s probably mostly me cause I’m just a walking dumpster fire...but just because I’m an Admin, doesn’t mean everything can just work out…” I sighed out bitterly. “So yes, I’m an ass, but that’s due to a whole host of things that I’m still working through, and it still probably won’t leave cause I’m me.” "And I thought I needed therapy." Matilda said. "So despite everything you try it feels like the world and reality itself is against you." Matilda said as she jogged ahead of me, the trains in the distance were visible now. As was the stench of rotting shit and death. "Guess you can sympathize with her better than I expected." She gagged. "Sweet Light that's bad." “Even though I have a loving family and wonderful friends,” I sighed out, even though it was terrible I’ve...sadly smelled worse. “They're all wonderful, they support me through thick and thin...but there’s still too much to do, and less and less time to do it.” I shook my head as I kept moving forward. "Hey suicidal teens!" We turned. Decan now made himself visible. "There's a giant ass horde there! And your bikes aren't real are they, you walked here!" He yelled, his guns were holstered at least. "Just what the hell are you two thinking, everyone in this state knows this is a massive horde nest!" “How big?” I inquired. “And what are we talking about in the nest?” "What? Freakers what else?! Christ Boozer was right you two must have crawled out of a bunker or something." He sighed. "And how big, well, it's daytime right now, so only a quarter of the nest is in there… so probably still a few hundred." "That's a quarter?" Matilda asked. "Just be glad it's not night, otherwise it would be a thousand." “Fair enough.” I nodded. “Also when you say ‘Freaker’s’, it could mean there are different types of the bastards, like either people or animals.” "... Christ you really have been in a bunker haven't you…" Decan groaned. I rolled my eyes. “Do you have anything else of importance, old man? Cause we have to find someone before it gets dark...or at least a suitable place to lay low.” "Kite…" Matilda huffed. "Sorry about my boyfriend here, he's… an ass." "Who isn't these days." Decan huffed. "But, we do need to find our friend. She's a bit of a… magnet for trouble so, if we don't find her we just know something bad is gonna happen." Decan sighed, contemplating a bit before speaking. "Alright, I'll take you to where we saw them and try and track them from there, just… keep him quiet." He sighed as he began walking back up the mountain and we followed. "Old man, really?" Matilda whispered. “I’m playing up the fact I’m a teenager who’s done nothing but survive the best I can with my girlfriend here.” I whispered back. “Also keep me quiet? He was the one literally yelling near the fucking hive.” "He also is a native to this world and knows more than us, so if he's confident enough to yell then I'm betting he has his reasons too." “Still…” I sighed out. “But yeah, this also happens when I’m trying to think of thirty different things while also trying to do other shit…” "Do you ever just shut your brain off and not think for a couple minutes?" “I did, I was then forced into a coma for thirty years as a current spouse of mine, who used to be a huge douche canoe, tortured and experimented on my daughter.” I frowned. “Turned her into a ‘Big Sister’ cause of course he was hiding on Rapture…” "... There is no winning with you is there?" “My life has been a whole lot of ups and downs, the ups being amazing and actually making me feel like my life is worth something...and the down’s being absolute train wrecks that nearly kills me…” I sighed out. “I...am trying not to...but you can see why I’m like this…” "Not really. I only know Kite Cooper and his story, I don't know… the rest of you. Heck I don't even know your real name… I only know what you tell me and lately all you tell me is what you expect of our world and complain when it isn't what you expected." Matilda sighed. "Why… did you choose to be reborn like this?" “I haven’t complained about what I ‘expected’ and the complaints I have...is the fact that me being born has made everything worse for people I care about…” I sighed. “I did this not as some weird boredom because I’m a god...some might argue it is because that’s why it’s called an ‘Admin Game’...” I shook my head. “Why did I choose to be reborn like this? Was so I can...understand things I can’t have anymore…” I sighed out. “Somethings being about what I’m fighting for, others being about having a life outside my current work cause...holy hell…” I sighed out. “I don’t know...these all sound like excuses, everything’s falling apart because I was born...hey would you look at that, everything’s come full circle in my life.” "Are you really that unhappy with your life?" “I’m unhappy about myself.” I answered. “There’s a major difference, cause I’m super happy with my life, a loving family, wonderful kids, unimaginable power...so why am I still a depressed sack of shit?” I asked. “Even after I’ve done so many amazing things, saved so many lives...proved so many wrong and just done so many amazing things...why do I still suck as a person?” "... Maybe you just prefer to live for other people rather than yourself? Or, maybe you want to live for yourself but only when there's nothing in the way." “This is why I’m seeing the best therapist I know.” I said honestly. “But...maybe your right? I don’t know...I just want to be happy damn it...but no matter what happens, I always manage to fuck it up somehow…” "Maybe you can't be happy because in your mind you still think you don't deserve it?" “I mean...I can be happy.” I said honestly. “But...it’s hard when your entire life has been a massive train wreck for way to long…” I sighed out. “Like in my life before I even got my powers, when I was just a simple human being...my life was completely ruined, and I had to have it explained to me two different times to completely show me how fucked it really was, cause when you die, lose your light half to supplement your soul, and have both of your parent’s murdered in staged suicides that you blame yourself for for at least five years...yeah.” "Think when it's all over you'll finally be able to be happy without the guilt?" "I sure hope so." I said honestly. "Cause I haven't busted my ass and nearly died a dozen or so times not to be happy at the end of this...hell, I should be happy right now but...things still suck…" I shook my head. "I'm probably just being selfish all things considered...and that makes me feel even worse.." "There's nothing wrong with wanting to be selfish from time to time. Especially when it comes to what makes you happy." "Who knows…" I grumbled, sagging my shoulders as I was just tired of running around in circles. A short hike Later Decan showed us where he last saw the person, possibly Neyla, on the mountain and began tracking them. He was… good. In my normal form I'd have tracked her already, but my nose in this form isn't so adept and he's tracking her by sight and footprints alone. I respected that, begrudgingly. Eventually we ended up going south to a place called Copeland's Camp. The place was small but well built and went up into the trees. We spoke with the man in charge, Copeland, and after some back and forth with Decan learned she took a job for credits, a form of currency each camp of survivors uses for trading. She went out to gather meat, so we headed back out. Eventually we caught the whiff of a familiar foul stench and Decan had us hide. Soon the road we were walking on became covered in… ten, fifty, eighty… safe bet is about two or four hundred of these… Freakers. They were all horribly malnourished, huddled together like roaches or ants and marched along mindlessly. Most were either partly nude or completely naked and many had grotesque looking wounds that were scrapped or scarred over and they all hissed or growled as they marched. Eventually, they passed and once the smell was just a lingering stink, Decan said. "And that, is a horde. Must be heading our from their nest after hunting." "Well...alrighty then." I said, not the biggest or worst zombie horde I've seen but at the moment it was big enough to hide from.p "How often do they do this?" Matilda asked. "Everyday. Well, night. Little after sundown starts they leave their nests to hunt and little before sunrise they march back to it. Doesn't matter how far they go either, they always find their way back to their nest." “So they are weak to sunlight or something?” I inquired. "Sunlight. Heat. Every winter they are out constantly and when it rains they come out and play. They love the cold or humid temperatures. Let's just be glad we haven't run into any mutants yet. Fuckers have been popping up more and more." “That’s concerning.” I said. "Hopefully once we can clear out the hordes and seal off their main nests we won't be dealing with so many." “Gonna need a lot of fire for that to happen.” I said. "That's the plan." He said. We arrived at a small, ruined camp with one tent. Decan picked up the trail here and after a short hike we spotted a purpled haired, scarf wearing and whip holding woman circled by several gun holding bastards. "Yeah, that's our friend." I muttered. "And who are those assholes? Any known gang or just a bunch of rando's?" "Marauders. Fucking," Decan cursed, pulling the… large rifle off his back and taking aim. In rapid fired, three shots, three exploded heads. "Damn. Military training?" Matilda asked. "Once." Decan said, putting the rifle away and we headed down. “Must have been some pretty good military training for that to happen.” I said honestly. "I did as told and hated every second of it." Decan shrugged. Upon seeing us, Neyla sighed. "And to whom do I owe the favor?" She asked. "Long time no see Neyla." Matilda said "... Matilda? Oh, by the light I'm in for it now…" She grumbled. "If you three are good, guess I'll head out now." Decan said. With a nod and a goodby he was gone. "So… why in the FUCK are in in this system?!" Matilda yelled. "... Nothing special." Neyla said with a sheepish smile and a shrug. “Do you know of a parrot by the name of Arpeggio?” I asked. “Cause if you don’t want to talk about why your in one of the most dangerous area’s around...might as well start with that.” "Ar…" Neyla said, looking a mix of conflicted and upset. "Y… yeah I know him. What about him?" “Has he ever been able to fly?” I asked, cause I remembered one very strange key detail about Arpeggio from some news footage...and that was him flying. "No." She said with a sigh. "It's been his dream and obsession for as long as I can remember." “Uh...shit…” I started carefully. “Now...I’ve got good news and bad news.” I started. “Which do you want to hear first?” "Who are you?" She asked. “I’m Kite Cooper, and I’m here with Matilda, my girlfriend, because Arpeggio...might be in danger.” I said carefully, even though I just threw two massive curveballs at her. "If he is then he deserves it." Neyla spat. "Look, whatever Arpeggio got himself into he's smart enough to get out of it. And if not, well the bird made his own nest, so let him lay in it." "Did… something happen, between you two?" Matilda asked. "You," Neyla pointed at Matilda. "Don't get to be concerned. I haven't seen you in ten fucking years and you and your… fuck boy here show up out if the blue asking crap!" “Because it might also affect you.” I said bluntly. “Cause hey, Arpeggio can fly...and I’m scared I know how, and if you give any semblance of a damn about the bird you’ll at least listen to who might also be hunting you.” "And why would they be hunting me? I'm Lanes Born, just trouble for everyone and every world." “Because Apreggio still cares about you?” I suggested. “And by god does it feel like I’m talking to a mirror with what you just said.” "I doubt he cares. If he did he'd have never asked me to give him a keyblade." “Why’d he ask? So he could learn how to fly with it or something?” I inquired. "Yes. Bastard thought if he could use the Keyblades magic to make himself fly." "Well… it can, but how did he even know about Keyblades in the first place?" Matilda asked. "He… saw me summon it once. Fucking Heartless." She huffed. "I had known him for a year at that point and owed him an explanation. He was thrilled at the idea of magic that anyone can be given or inherit." “Sounds about right.” I nodded. “Did he try forcing you?” "We argued for hours about how he could do so much with alien magic tech or whatever. He can barely lift a pencil, I was not risking his life for his dream." “Yeah...that sounds about right…” I sighed out. “Sometimes people do stupid thing’s when it comes to their dreams...and one decision he’s probably regretting right now.” "Good. He should. Damn bird has no self preservation when it comes to him and flight. Got bones like toothpicks." “Jeez…” I frowned. “What...was your relationship with him if this one instance pissed you off so bad?” I asked, wondering what would cause such a big reaction cause if it was ‘just friends’ then it wouldn’t feel like it was this big. "He… wait, I'm not telling you! I don't even know you!" “Well then here.” I said while pulling out my Cane. “Let’s fight, since you're not in the mood for talking, let me just know how you feel through your actions.” I said honestly. "Bring it twig." Neyla said, grabbing her whip and with a quick motion, struck a nearby oak, the trunk exploded in a shower of splinters as the rest fell over. "Neyla, please, do you really want this?" Matilda asked. "Fuck yeah I do." Neyla replied. “Don’t worry Matilda, she’s just massively stressed and probably hasn’t had a good fight in a while.” I said simply, lightly fixing my blue beret. “Matilda’s gonna be the referee just to make sure neither of us go too overboard alright? No keyblade’s or their magic, just what we can do with our weapons and whatever skills we got alright?” "Fair enough." Neyla said, snapping her whip again. Matilda sighed. "Alright, just don't blow up anything alright?" "I can do that." Neyla nodded. “I’ll try my best not to.” I said honestly. “Alright, let’s do this.” I said, dashing towards Neyla swiftly in a zigzag pattern. Reacting fast, Neyla spun her whip around, forcing me to jump to dodge and seeing I did she charged at me, blocking my counter kick with her arm then grabbing my leg and throwing me into a nearby tree. Shit, She's actually pretty damn good. “Pretty good Neyla.” I said. “Who’s your master if I may ask?” I asked, using my Cane’s feature to fire a taser shot at her. "Learned from whoever would teach me." She replied, using her whip to slash apart and absorb, then deflect the shots into the air. "But dad taught me how to use a whip." “Fair enough.” I nodded as I tapped my Cane on the ground as Neyla saw...a clone of me rose up. “Alright, let’s keep going.” I said as my doppelganger and I rushed her. Without Hesitation Neyla jumped up, spinning her whip under her. "Bladed Vortex." She almost muttered, her whip spinning fast enough to create some suction that began pulling us into it. I immediately latched my cane hook around a tree. My clone however came face to face with the attack, proofing away in a puff of smoke and shredded cardboard. “Good to know…” I muttered while throwing a decoy beret into the suction as it was immediately sucked into the bladed attack and caused a mini explosion that spread chili powder all over the feline. When the chili powder his her eyes Neyla crashed to the ground, giving an almost primal roar only her true form could pull off. "That's playing dirty!" She yelled, trying to rub the burning spice from her eyes. "Kite what the hell!" Matilda yelled. “Ah shit...Bentley always tells me to label these stupid things…” I muttered to myself, having wanted to throw a smoke bomb. “Firstly, this is an actual tactic, don’t start with me on that, I literally spent over a month talking with Rioichi who’s a literal fucking ninja.” I started as I moved over carefully to the pained tiger. “And there should be a river nearby so we can get it out of your eyes…” I said. "Bastard!" Neyla roared, her camouflage spell breaking as her true form came out. She looked basically like she did from the game, just younger. "Want to play it dirty? Then so can I!" She yelled, finally opening her red sore eyes as her body morphed, rapidly becoming… a feral Bengal tiger. Almost as large as my feral form as a wolf. With a roar she lunged at me. I raised my cane to block but she bit over it and into my arm. "Shit! NEYLA!" Matilda yelled as she rushed in, kicking Neyla off me and into a tree. I had a pretty bad wound here. "Crap, when she does this She's completely feral for ten minutes." "Great…" I groaned as I managed to regenerate from that bad bite. "This is my fault, just stay back and I'll deal with her." I said as I got back up. "Probably gonna need some more exhausting techniques for this…" I grumbled to myself. "You have to be quick, she can still use her Keyblade in that form." Matilda said. I nodded and rushed in, shifting to my own feral form where I stood a good five feet over Neyla's form. The feral tiger didn't care though as she charged me. Hehe, Cats vs. Dogs. Why did I think of that just now? "This is irony in the making…" I chuckled as I dodged to the side of her charge and tried to hip check her to get her off balance. That was less effective than I hoped. Crap, between Equilibrium, her natural feline agility and the raw feral strength, this isn't gonna be good. She rapidly clawed at me, cutting deep through my hide. I snapped, trying to bite at her paws as they passed but barely missed as she suddenly pounced in my back, biting into the nape of my neck and drawing blood. Shit! Every cell in my primal form screamed to get her off, an unexpected fear hitting me as I shook and managed to knock her off and into a bolder she broke on impact. I rarely ever felt a sensation of fear in my primal form before. As an Apex Predator, it was a rare emotion. These days it only happens for two reasons. My kids are in danger… or there's another, equally powerful Apex predator. And Neyla was currently the latter. “Well isn’t this fun.” I said with a smile, wondering what other race she was besides Bengal Tiger, cause even strong tiger’s wouldn’t stand a chance against me. “Alright, let’s do something dumb.” I muttered as I took a deep breath and charged at Neyla. I regretted it instantly. Neyla charged also, ducking under me and taking a large bite into my under belly. Pain that was definitely new to me hit and I roared in response. She rapidly spun, clinging to my sides as her claws dug into my hide as her jaw worked to tear open my Insides. My primal nature forced my mind into a panic, making me bite into all I could at this angle, her tail. Her blood hit my mouth and the taste snapped part of my brain back to sanity. The Bengal Tiger was there, clearly… but the other, I recognized well. I tasted it whenever I did have a wound to lick. She's part Dire Wolf! “Cause of course your part dire wolf.” I muttered bitterly, as I started to run around and practically ramming Neyla into the hard ground, rocks and broken tree branches with each strong, causing small indents in the ground with how hard I was slamming her into the ground. Stubbornly she held on, gashed and bruised she held on. I could feel her pulling and starting to tear open my underbelly. I needed to act fast. I'd survive the wound but risk Neyla getting away in this form. She- Suddenly the pain subsided. Gone as if it didn't happen. Looking down I spotted Neyla. Normal form Neyla, passed out and badly hurt. Oh thank God she timed out… I shifted back, letting my regeneration heal the worst of it. Matilda ran over and immediately began trying to patch Neyla up. "That was… terrifying." Matilda said. “And now we need to get her off world and healed.” I said bluntly. “Seriously, how the hell is she half Dire Wolf?” I asked, as I tried to see any defining feature that would have shown it. "Her Mother was a Bengal Tiger, from a world kinda like ours. She was it's Keyblade wielder. Her father was… a slave. His master forced him to hunt and slaughter for money. Her mother freed him and the two went after his former master. She gave him a Keyblade and the two traveled the world. His was no longer habitable, it's all poison now." I sighed, knowing this story all too well… "Time passed, they fell in love, and had a kid. Neyla here." “Well…” I sighed out. “I’m gonna need to patch thing’s up with Neyla if she remembers any of this…” I said softly. “And...if she isn’t pissed at me, I can at least tell her that...our home world is saved and safe.” "What? Bullshit." Matilda said. "We passed it on the way over here, it's still poisoned. Or are you talking about in your timeline?" I frowned. “That’s...shouldn’t be true...also Time broke so maybe it’s another version?” I asked, finding that really weird cause I could have sworn there was some time shenanigans cause I still had my Hunter Necklace even after giving the First Hunter’s teeth back. "Well, whatever the case, let's get out of here. Last thing we need are locals asking questions." The trip back home was uneventful. Matilda got Neyla into the medical wing and she was rapidly healed with magic. Now we just have to wait for her to wake up. To kill time I decided to test something. Predator and I were in the training room. He was always in feral form. I wonder why? "You want to know about the other Dire Wolves?" He asked/repeated to me. “Yes, yes I would.” I nodded. “Also, if I may ask, why do you always stay in your feral form?” I inquired my good boy. "I don't have a humanoid form." He replied simply. "My race lacks that mana gene sequence." “Alright.” I nodded. “But now onto Dire Wolves cause I only know...like two races, the race I am which is the progenitor from what I remember Den talking about, and the Void Dire Wolves.” Predator nodded. "Well, if you get into genetics there are only a few trillion wolf species in the realm." That's oddly small. "But when you go into Mana genes, there's more like seven octillion." There it is. I took a deep breath. “Jesus hell…” I muttered. “This is gonna be a long talk.” "It it helps, most are only different because of their Mana genes. For example. A DNA test will tell us that you and I are of the same Dire Wolf Race, but a MNA test will tell a whole different story. Such as your ability to shift between feral and humanoid is within your MNA genes while mine lack that entirely, rather my MNA focuses more on defense, and enhancing my senses to their peak at all times." “Huh, that’s really interesting.” I said honestly. “Is it just the one type of MNA per wolf or can there be multiples in one person?” "Multiples. Easily. Take the hybrid you brought here. Upon her arrival I could smell her unique MNA and DNA. Quite the issue with her MNA though." “Is it because of her berserker rage?” I asked. “And I might need to get an MNA test to see what’s special about me…” I muttered to myself as I wondered what else could be different about me besides my shapeshifting. "Possibly. I could smell an instability but a proper MNA test will tell more." "And is it like a normal DNA test?" I inquired. "Or is there something else to it?" "It's similar. You take some blood or spit or even hair and run it through a magi-tech device that can pick up and display the Mana Genes and relay their functions." “Neat.” I nodded. “Should I buy one or do you have one just randomly on hand?” "Vamp probably has one. Any of the former Nexus labs should too, it's standard issue medical equipment." Predator informed. “Ah.” I nodded. “And the closest Nexus lab that...I own is where?” I asked, not having actually went around to see where each one was on this planet yet. "Two miles east. One mile under the ocean." Predator stated. “I shall keep that in mind.” I nodded. “So, what are some of the more...common Dire Wolves or MNA traits?” "Howling magic, lycanthropy, Moon Healing, Predatory senses heightened, and intelligence are the most common." “Fair enough.” I nodded. “Also, Moon Healing? Like faster regeneration during the night or something?” "Basically. It can vary from race to race and effect either healing items or regeneration abilities." “Sounds about right.” I nodded. “So besides the fact you can’t turn into a beastial, what other things does your MNA say about you?” "Kite, I'm a Cript. It probably has more there than it should." “Yeah.” I nodded while gently patting Predators head. “But you're still a good boy.” With a kiss goodbye I left Predator to their business. I stopped by the medbay, hoping to get a sample of Neyla's DNA…. Or was it MNA? Either way that got derailed as she was awake now. “Afternoon sleeping beauty.” I said. “How you feeling?” "Like a fucking truck ran me over." She groaned, popping her joints as she stretched. "How did you do that? I remember… changing, but not even Matilda could fight me in that form?" She asked. “Because I figured out who your father was.” I answered. “And for me...well…it’s a bit complicated.” "What does my old man have to do with it?" “Your old man is probably the reason why you go into a berserker rage whenever you get like that.” I said honestly. “And how I know this? Well first of all, how are you hiding the fact you're half Dire Wolf?” "I'm not." She huffed, flopping onto the bed again. "It's… my mom came from a unique beastial world. There was some magic, but their entire race, every race on that world evolved into how they are through pure evolution. No magic involved. As a result, the magic that was there focused less on the physical aspects of evolution and focused more on the primal instincts. It left something in predators like mom, a desire to consume flesh. Not fun when everyone on the world is a sentient creature. When I was born, that primal instincts and my primal form… happily went hand in hand as whenever I turned into it, my mind basically goes to sleep and mindless pure instinct take over. In that form it’s got the body for it too. On top of that, it can use all my spells and magic and Keyblade, though not as effectively. Not sure if that’s good news or not.” “Well, that helps at least explain it a bit more than just your Dire Wolf father’s MNA.” I said as I brought out a needle. “But I’m still gonna need some of your blood to make sure...also you fought really well, never seen a Whip cut through a shadow clone like that.” "Thanks, but try and take some blood and I'll show ya where you can shove that needle." She replied plainly. “It’s just a small little blood test, are you really going to start that?” I asked the cat. "Yes, actually." She said, sitting back up. "I don't do blood tests. Been down that road too many times. Main reason I was on that deathtrap planet is for herbs. Have to make my own medicines." "Well, you don't have to anymore." I answered. "Cause you're staying here, and as your doctor I need to make sure you're healthy." I said in complete seriousness for Neyla's health. "I don't do Doctors. Last five I met gave me these." She pulled the fur along her arms back, showing deep, old scars. Her belly has three and there was even one along her skull, all hidden by her coat. "So, I repeat, take your needle and shove it." "Cool." I nodded. "So can you please just lift your arm up? Cause I'm not going to do this roundabout when you actually need the help." I told her bluntly, the sincerity in my voice at me wanting to help her being pure. "I don't want your help. In case you forgot, you looked for me. To ask about a guy I haven't spoken to In a year. Not to have you play doctor in your cave sex roleplay dungeon." She growled. "Yes you do need help." I stated simply. "I should know, I'm in your position as well, and why I asked you about Arpeggio is because he's one of the few people apparently that cares about you and he's in danger." I told her. "And if you can stop thinking about yourself for five seconds that would be appreciated." "Really? You're Lanes Born?" She asked, the venom in her voice present. "...No, but I know hell, and I know loss. I know what it's like to watch the people you love most taken from you, and unable to do anything about it. I know what it's like to want revenge and to not trust anyone. And I know what it feels like to believe you're truly alone because you're different from everyone else." I stated, keeping my voice firm yet calm. "Now I can't know what you've been through but I can get a pretty damn good idea based on those scars. But I can't know why if you don't tell." Neyla looked at me for a while, probably gauging my response. "I still don't want the fucking needle." She huffed. "And neither do I." I said in agreement while putting it away. "But I wasn't joking about me being a doctor." I said while pulling out my medical doctorate for her to see. She took hold of it. "Bullshit, how does a sixteen year old get a medical degree?" "Because a whole lot of things that are complicated and weird." I answered. "Whatever…" She said, tossing my degree aside. "So, what do you want from me exactly?" “Well first up, is me doing a check up on you cause as far as you told me, all the doctor's you’ve met have been completely insane quack’s that wouldn’t know how to take someone’s blood pressure without a knife.” I said with a frown as I started to grab something’s in the med bay. “One of the many reasons why I was in agreement to having a fully stocked med bay…” "Unless you can give me a checkup without touching me, I'm not for it. I can smell Matilda and… some panda chick all over you. Pervert." “Me and Matilda have been dating for years as well as Jing King, which Matilda was happy to have as apart of a harem.” I said honestly. “And fine, I’ll just use some magic to do the check up.” I said while bringing up my cane and using a Medical Scan ability to check everything about her. “And also, couldn’t have stopped the lovely Panda even if I wanted to considering it was her idea.” "I am not surprised that cougar is dating a younger man." Neyla rolled her eyes as my scan finished up… Jesus Christ. Complete immunity to bacteria, infections, and Kidneys and a liver that could filter out pure ethanol. Her immune system is insane! White blood cells and Killer T cells that are basically single celled Doom Guys crossed with Kratos! Her cells are so fast at regeneration she's probably going to live to be a thousand or more before she gets a wrinkle! And THAT is JUST her biology! Magic wise, she's got everything I got when it comes to Wolf and primal magic affinity on top of her Tiger Primal instincts magic and her Keyblade magic levels are insane. I did a quick scan with code. Not a god… but God damn lucky with all this. No wonder those wackjob doctors cut her open. Her blood could probably cure every disease on their planet. “Okay, so I have a question at this point, and that’s how you still have those scars.” I started. “Cause your regeneration should have made those go away rather quickly.” She shrugged. "Dunno. Didn't listen when the doc's told me. All I heard was blaw blaw, cure all illness, blaw blaw, harvest your body, blaw blaw, dying for a good cause." “Your blood is one of the strongest I’ve seen, as you’re blood literally makes you immune to all known diseases, there’s literally no way you would have died cause they regenerate to quickly and efficiently you’d be at least a thousand years old without so much as a wrinkle.” "Huh. Well, that explains why I'm thirty but look seventeen." She said, looking herself over. "Also explains a lot of… other things now that I think of it…" “What other things?” I inquired as I gently took some of Neyla’s shed fur, cause apparently even if her cells regenerated fast that doesn’t stop her fur from shedding like mad in a new environment. "Well, this one time I was on a world kinda like the one we were on earlier, but replace the virus with a crazy fungus. Didn't kill me and honestly the soup I made with it tasted like crap. Another time a vampire bit me but rather than turning he turned human again." “Blood so strong it can literally reverse vampyrism? Damn, that’s pretty good.” I said honestly. “And I think I know that Fungus world, The Last of Us was it’s name.” I said honestly. “But otherwise, your of perfect physical health...mental and emotional on the other hand…” I started. “What really happened when Arpeggio asked you about a Keyblade?” Neyla sighed, Frowning as she looked over at nothing. "Like I said, he saw me using it. By then I knew him enough that I thought he could handle the truth. So I told him. But… he began thinking, and out loud at that. For as long as I've known Arpeggio, he's been obsessed with flight… and finding a cure." "A cure?" I asked. "Maybe cure is the wrong word. He wanted to change his body." Neyla said. "As you probably know, he has the body of a toddler. While his mind is one of the greatest of his time, his health has always been… bad. Basically the complete opposite of mine. I get a cut, I can shrug it off. Him, he'll bleed out in minutes from a simple paper cut. I break a bone, it heals in a few… hours at most. Arpeggio… well, his bones are like glass being held together by cheap tape and a glue stick. I've never gotten sick. He catches the flu and it's like he has cancer." She laid back on the bed. "I first met him eleven years ago. I was looking for certain metals the Moogles pay good Munny for. I wasn't doing so well then. Rotten scraps would have been Nirvana to me then. He caught me raiding the recycling bins of his lab. I was too weak that the panic made me pass out. He got me inside, and when I woke up, for the first time in a week I had a real meal. I kept visiting, at first to repay him. I'd bring him metals and he'd give me a meal, but then he found out I didn't have a real education. Began teaching me. Over time, he felt kinda like a father to me." “Jeez, I knew him being born more feral than anyone else was a detriment to his flight but...I didn’t think it would have made him literally Glass.” I said. Nodding, Neyla continued. "It's not like I did think about it before, taking him to another world, maybe some magic or technology from somewhere could help him… but with how he is, I'm not sure he'd even make the trip to the other world alive even in a Gummi Ship." “And he didn’t take any of this well I assume?” I inquired. "I've never seen him angry until then. It was… different. The madder he got the more pale he got and… I thought he was gonna give himself a stroke or a heart attack. I cast Sleep on him, and put him to bed… then left. That was the last I saw of him." “I don’t think he was mad at you.” I said honestly. “I think he was...legit furious that, even with salvation at the tips of his wings with your help...it was still out of reach to his own frailty.” I sighed out. "Even so, how can I go back and see him?" “With me shadowing you.” I answered simply. “Arpeggio would still care about you, and if he’s smart about this he’d understand you were worried for his safety and ran because...well this would probably be the first time your father got that pissed.” I said honestly. “But...as a quick warning...if I’m right, which I hope I’m not, he might do one of two things, push you away so you don’t get caught up in whatever mess he’s gotten himself into, or ask you to join in on whatever insane plan his new boss has planned for this world.” "Hard to tell with him." Neyla sighed. "I doubt he'd get himself into trouble without a backup plan of sorts. So, what do you know that I don't?" “Well…” I started. “He is able to fly first of all, but I’m worried that he got that from a very dangerous benefactor that would only have ‘Cooper Gang’ as his backup plan...and that benefactor would be Clockwerk.” I frowned. “A robotic owl, now in a robotic body in the shape of my dad, who now has powers he really shouldn’t have, as his entire life is now just pure unbridled rage and hate to the point...his Light half is Dead.” "Hmm… okay so I know this place was a shit show when I left but… really?" “Have you heard of a group called ‘Nexus’?” I asked. "Hmmm… it rings a bell… shit I know I headed that name somewhere… was it dad? Yeah I think… damn it I know I heard that name before…" “Well good news and bad news.” I started. ‘Bad news is that Nexus is a multiversal organization that was run by someone that wants the mass extinction of all life because fuck you, and the good news is that the bastard handed me nintey nine percent of that organization he was going to slaughter anyways because the vast majority didn’t want to cause genocide on that level.” I said honestly. “Also I got a bunch of nifty things, only one of which actually matters because this stupid ability he gave me makes me having my powers back practically worthless.” "Where have…" Neyla said to herself. I don't think she heard me. "I think dad mentioned… ugh, where have I heard it. I know my dad mentioned the name before but I can't remember why or when." “I literally just explained it.” I said to Neyla a little louder. "Yeah, Clockwerk, benefactor, Arpeggio can fly, but what are you not telling me?" "I literally just explained things about Nexus…." I told her carefully. "Name still rings a bell but I don't know why. But I mean what is it you are expecting to happen?" "What do I expect to happen with what thing specifically? Cause three things I'm expecting at this point." I stated simply. "In general." She asked. "Cause something still don't add up." "What doesn't add up?" I inquired. "The fact that you came looking for me specifically to ask about Arpeggio when no one, not even Matilda knew I knew him. So how did you know to look for me?" "Do you want the simple version or the complicated version?" I asked. "The version where you get to the point and don't long winded talk about the reasons." "I'm a reincarnated God that chose this world to relive life as a 'mortal' under the supervision of a special interest group...and I had to experience pains I haven't felt in ages before I became a god…" I sighed out, not bringing up Admin cause that would have been a whole other thing to explain. "Like experiencing my parents murders again and blaming myself for being powerless to stop it…" "Stop it there, I asked for the no bullshit reason, not your first and second life story. How did you know to look for me specifically and skip the backstory crap." "Because time and the multiverse is weird and I'm just going through key points that was most likely to happen through a thousand different ones." I said carefully. "And most of them involved you being apart of a criminal gang led by Arpeggio to use Clockworks corpse for one reason or another." I explained. "Just...Vincent threw a massive wrench into all of this…" I added. "So basically gods fucked with mortals, you are one and are trying to help?" Neyla repeated In a fairly simple version of my explanation. "Pretty much." I nodded. "And in this case, it's one god giving Clockwork powers they shouldn't have." "Alright, fair enough." Neyla shrugged. "So what's your plan?" "My plan at the moment is to check on who's a part of the Klaww Gang at the moment, and so far it's Arpeggio and Rajan the Tiger." I said honestly. "I'm on the fence with another and am pretty sure I can rule out two others." “Okay, and how do you expect to gain the information on who is in the Klaww Gang?” "Mostly surveillance, keeping an eye on these certain individuals at a safe distance so they don't know their being followed or watched." I said simply. "Can't be too direct or else it'll cause more trouble than needed." “So the slow and takes forever route? Great… now I gotta hang around here and do something.” "Not necessarily on the slow and take forever part." I said with a raised hand. "One of my targets, Rajan, is a known Illegal Spice Trader that's been dabbling in Slave trade and Weapon Smuggling, so you can help us take down several of his compounds to stifle his business." I explained. “Fun.” Neyla said, cracking her knuckles. Rajan’s compounds were all still largely located in India. Many were heavily armed and under constant guard. Thankfully, he had a smaller project working out of his old hometown of Calcutta. Apparently, the more exotic and… desirable of his goods, be them weapons, spices, or slaves, he held an underground auction for. Where the auction takes place though is still unknown. I took Neyla, as well as Uncle M, Dad, and Matilda for this job while the others looked into all the other possible Klaww Gang members. Arriving in Calcutta, we were met with a city in ruins, held together by the half hazard rebuilds of Rajan’s goons at work. They controlled the food, water and medicine; and therefore the locals. Looks like we have our work cut out for us here. We set up base just outside the city limits, in a former subway entrance. Once the gear was all set it was time to get jobs. “Here you go Neyla.” Uncle M said, handing her a Binocucom. “This will let us communicate as well as locate your mission locations and gather photographic data.” “Cool.” Neyla said, pocketing the device. “So what am I doing?” “Right now we need information.” Matilda spoke up. “Conner and Kite will head to an old factory on the north side of the city. We think this is a storehouse for his… products. While you and I recon outside of Rajan’s local office in the area. He sometimes makes an appearance and with luck we can plant a bug in there and pick up some sensitive phone calls.” “Sounds like a plan.” I nodded. “Finally get to have some father son time after...way too long.” “Heh, yeah.” Dad said, giving me a one armed hug. We headed out rather quickly and climbed up the buildings. When we made it up I noticed dad was holding the family cane. “Did Sly give you the cane back dad?” I inquired. “Yeah, before I left. Said since I was back I should see which of you boys should inherit it properly.” Dad said, gripping the old cane in his hand. “Honestly, I think he did it to help me get back into things better… and I won’t lie, second I held it again I felt… better.” “Like an extension of yourself is finally back?” I asked. “I guess. This cane was your link to me when I was… away, and for me it’s the same. Even with dad back it’s still weird… spent so long…” Dad shook their head. “By the way, what did you all do with Clockwerk’s old body?” “I took it and, in a fit of cathartic rage that I’m so glad to have gotten off my chest, destroyed it to such a degree that not a single atom of that bastard owl’s old body remains.” I said with a smile. “Right… Sorry, I still find it strange that the baby boy who’s diapers I changed is also a god…” Dad said. “Though, thinking back that might also explain a lot…” “At the time I was just Kite Cooper...it wasn’t until I was going to fight the Panda King that I got my powers back.” I said honestly. “And...I’m sorry for lying about who I am dad...even if everyone is alright with who I really am…” I sighed out, not sure how to properly say about how upset I still was at myself. “In my line of work, you can fake a lot of stuff.” He said, walking over and scruffing up my hair. “But from what I saw when you were little, and what you did, even before you got all your mojo back, you can’t fake love. Not with all you’ve done Kite.” “Thanks dad.” I said with a warm smile. “Still means the world to me to hear...anything positive about me from my family here, after all of...this.” “Hey, you did more for this family than any Cooper before you. Clockwerk may still be out there, but he’ll have to think thrice damned as hard before going toe to talons with Kite Cooper.” Dad laughed. “Come on then, M said that this warehouse might be for storage, and we best make sure nothing fishy is going on.” “Wherever a Cooper goes, something fishy is happening.” I joked. Racing our way to the warehouse, Dad and I stopped to pickpocket a few guards and kept going. The warehouse was once used for semi trucks to load and transport goods. Now only a few of the loading docs were open, the rest were all welded shut and the whole of the grounds were surrounded by makeshift watch towers, gun toting guard patrols, and even some drones were in the air. Definitely keeping something valuable in there. “Jeez, Rajan really must not want people in that warehouse.” I muttered as I pulled out my Binocucom and started taking pictures of the defenses here. “Making it rather obvious isn’t he?” Dad said as he scanned the building. “No way in from the roof with those drones. The ground area is a death sentence… Let’s scout the sewers then.” Dad said as he put his coms away. With a nod we ran over to a partly hidden manhole, prying it open easily and we jumped in. Down here was secure too. Mostly, lasers, automated turrets, and… robot alligators? “Robogator’s...jeez this guy does not want visitors.” I muttered. “Think an EMP will set it all off?” “Relax. If you saw my video, we can easily bypass most of this.” Dad said, pulling out a laser light from his pocket, turning it on and immediately jumped on it. Smiling, I followed. I was surprised he brought out a slingshot and with a few rapid shots, destroyed the turrets. “Quite the quickdraw ya got there.” I said honestly. “Got the idea when reading up on Kid Cooper. Not a fan of guns myself, so I picked a Slingshot since I was able to have M create a variety of ammo, from my usual high density impact shots, to smoke bombs, to sleep pellets, even explosives.” “That’s a good idea.” I nodded. “Just...I wish I could have met him under better circumstances… the poor guy practically begged me to… let him see his family again.” “I can imagine…” Dad said, sighing. We made it through the sewers and entered the warehouse through an old drainage pipe in a no longer working refrigerator. Once inside we slipped around. Opening a few boxes showed us various military grade weapons, Illegal drugs and Spices, but oddly, not a single prisoner. “This place is well stocked but...something doesn’t feel right…” I muttered carefully. “Yeah, where’s he keeping the… live Merchandise?” Dad asked. We took photos and ran through the building, avoiding guards and the occasional camera. We did manage to find a hidden doorway, and it was here we found them. A single, chained up slave. They were a young sloth bear, black fur and rather well fed. Even with chains on their legs and wrists. “Hello?” I carefully asked the young sloth bear. They looked over at me, tilting their head in confusion as they looked at Dad and I. “Are you alright?” Dad asked, carefully approaching them. “How long have you been here?” They didn’t speak, rather they counted their claws and held up four claws. “Four years?” I asked worriedly to the young bear. They nodded. “How old are you?” Dad asked. They pulled up a fifth claw. “We’re gonna get you out of here.” I said carefully, but before I moved I checked the entire area to see if there were any hidden alarms or anything worse. There were. Built into his cuffs, all four of them were sensores with small explosive charges. If they break, they go off. If they open without the right fingerprint, they go off. The explosives wouldn’t kill him, but would probably blast his hands and feet off at the joints. “Why so much security for a kid?” Dad pondered. “Either one of two things...either this little bear is being sold for a very high price...or Rajan weirdly took fancy to him and want’s to ‘have an heir’ because his fascination with being seen as royalty is literally driving him insane...more so than usual.” I said carefully. “Also explains why he’s so well fed all things considered.” “No idea…” Dad muttered. “How… how do we get him out of here?” “Hmm…” I hummed. “I wonder…” I muttered as I tried to look at it’s Code to see if I could just deal with it that way. I immediately pulled back. This was Admin made… and Clockwerk’s ever familiar hatred was all over this Code. Crap… “What’s wrong?” Dad asked. “Clockwerk made this.” I sighed out. “I thought I could use some of my more...special powers to try and deactivate it fully...but sadly I can't without delving deep into the thing and...if I mess up it’s probably the same response as everything else…” “Shit. Who are you kid?” Dad asked aloud. A loud set of footsteps began echoing towards us. Rapidly I grabbed dad and cast invisibility over us. Walking into the room was one of the guards, carrying a plate with some kind of stew. “Here you go.” He said, placing the bowl down for the kid. “I’ll be back in a few for the dishes.” With that, he left. Once he was gone, the kid began eating and I dropped the spell. “That was… interesting.” Dad muttered. “Do you have a name?” I asked the kid softly, really wishing I had my Assistant to give me a translator cause I wasn’t sure if something was magic sensitive in here with Clockwerk’s efforts put into it. The kid used a claw and lightly carved into the wall ‘Shaan’ on the wall. “He can spell. If he’s been here since he was one, they’ve been teaching him.” Dad said. “Why are you here?” I asked carefully. They shrugged, quickly finishing their meal and placing the empty bowl aside. “Do you have parents?” Dad asked. The kid nodded. “Who are your parents?” I asked softly. The kid thought for a moment, then drew on the wall the image of a crown. “They’re royalty?” Dad asked, the kid nodded. “Looks like you might be right about Rajan wanting an heir, who better than someone with an existing bloodline?” “Fair enough.” I nodded. “You happy here or do you want to leave?” I asked the kid carefully. They shrugged. Uncertain, but taking too long as is, Dad and I left the kid. We would be back. Arriving back at the hideout, We exchanged info. Matilda and Neyla managed to plant the bug within Rajan’s local office, as well as took photos of documents about shipments, but whatever the addresses were, were not part of any maps from before everything went south. “Alright, so we got plenty of info, and we also have Rajan holding a poor Sloth Bear hostage and using him as a makeshift ‘heir to the thrown’ to keep up whatever delusion he has about being royalty.” I brought up. “It might be worse than that.” M said as he went over the info we all gathered. “According to some of the documents I’ve been able to hack thanks to the planted bug. If my assumptions are right, this child has a far darker past than expected.” “How so?” Neyla asked. “Well, when India fell, the royal family went into Hiding. When Rajan rose to power, he hunted them down, slaughtering all but the youngest prince.” “The kid?” Dad asked. M shook their head. “The prince was nineteen.” “So it’s his son… did he… have a wife?” Matilda asked. “No. He did have a few noble women lined up, but most fled the kingdom.” “So…” I started. “Can you please tell me Rajan isn’t using the young prince to try and breed a princess and...then forcefully marry her when she’s of age?” I asked carefully. “That’s what I believe to be the case.” M said with a sigh. “I will keep hacking to see if young Shaan doesn’t have any siblings… and if possible, the location of the Prince and his Concubine.” “I’m amazed Rajan is keeping these infant Princes alive.” Neyla said. “Weirdly this asshole has some modicum of standards.” I started. “Why murder innocent and defensless children when you can just literally slaughter them when they come of age?” I frowned. “Any idea how… long ago he captured the Prince and started this mess?” Matilda asked. “The Prince, that was seven years ago, I am not sure when he captured a noble concubine, however, it could have been before or sometime after. That data will take some time to collect.” Uncle M said. “Is there any rebel force against Rajan or is no one wanting to fight him?” I asked. “There was…” Matilda started. “I believe he piked their heads atop his palace gates.” “Damn.” Neyla said. “Guess that just leaves us to deal with him, one small bit of territory at a time.” “True.” I nodded. “Just wondering how we can spin this to either rally support from the people or cause Rajan to absolutely lose his shit and start messing up a crap ton.” “Well, can’t do much unless we get to work. What do we do first?” Neyla asked. “Where to start?” M said with a sigh. “The main issue will be the warehouse. It’s bad, but we also need to find his primary slave warehouse and the auction house location.” “So, what’s the plan there M?” Dad asked. “Well, obviously some Underground types will arrive here and buy either weapons, Spices, Drugs or Slaves. I can build and set up cameras to scan and recognize any and all major underground types and alert us, then we can tail them and hopefully they lead us to the auction house. Tearing that town will also lead us to where they store the slaves.” “And hopefully Rajan is dumb enough to just need a dress code only instead of needing an actual invitation.” I said honestly. “And if you're wondering why I’m...weirdly specific about dress code...has anyone ever seen his guards? Seriously, does he have that shit tailor made?” I asked, cause for some reason all of Rajan’s guards I’ve seen were weirdly well dressed for being armed and ready for murder. “What? Are you suggesting his slave auctions would also be a fashion show?” Dad asked. “Honestly...weirdly wouldn’t put it past him.” I said as I thought for a bit. “In any case, gives me an idea.” Neyla said as headed for the door. “Saw an old fabric shop on the way over to the office. Gonna see if anyone is still working there.” “I’ll come with, cause I have a really good eye for detail, especially when it comes to fabrics.” I said as I followed after Neyla. “Nah, I got this.” Neyla shrugged as she rushed out. “Still gonna follow her?” Matilda asked. “Am I that transparent?” I asked in mock surprise. I rushed after her, following at a distance. She rapidly jumped and swung from the rooftops and soon she jumped down the air ducts of the fabrics store. Following I was met by the loud noises of automated machines sewing and rolling fabrics. This building was packed with them. I found Neyla in the former main office. Her whip was tied up and wrapped around a jaguar, hanging upside down from the ceiling. “Now then, where’s your shipment going?” Neyla asked. “Piss off!” The Jaguar yelled, earning a hard punch from Neyla that made him swing around like a punching bag. “Wanna try that again?” “Alright you two, let’s try this again.” I said carefully. Neyla rolled her eyes as she looked over at me. “Not surprised you followed.” “You know me so well.” I said jokingly. “So, what’s the cause for tying him up and using him as a punching bag?” “He’s the guard here, so he knows something.” She replied. “You can all burn in- Gack!” He tried to yell but another punch from Neyla silenced him and sent him swinging again. “We find out where these fabrics get shipped, we can figure out not just the auction house location, but also the main guard barracks and other tidbits of Rajan’s operation.” “Cool.” I nodded. “So my fine jaguar friend? Do you want to do this the easy way?” I asked while motioning to Neyla. “Or do you want to do this the hard way?” I asked carefully, the Jaguar suddenly feeling his instincts screaming at him to run from whatever the hell I have in store. “Awh, that’s cute, you think you’re worse than me?” Neyla chuckled. “Yes.” I answered bluntly, which caught Neyla off guard a bit with how blunt, or how quick it was. “Oh really?” She asked, now circling me. “And here I thought the Cooper’s didn’t do torcher.” “Cooper’s don’t…” I said, which I wanted to stay true to the Cooper beliefs. “And I am a Cooper...but there’s somethings I can put past when it comes to animals like Rajan and his pack of cowards.” I growled. “Is that what dear old dad would want to hear from his son?” Neyla asked, making me wince. “I’m doing you a favor, Kite. I can see the will, the fire in your eyes to do what needs to be done, but I know that’s a line your family can’t, won’t cross.” Neyla said, her eyes shifting to a familiar red but her body didn’t change. “Just let a real animal handle the bloody work.” “If only you knew…” I muttered. “Well good news and bad news. Good news is, my friend here wants me to still have a conscience and not skin you alive at least three different times,” I saw the guy actually flinch in fear as to the fact I just said that oh so casually. “But bad news is, you done pissed off someone that can kick Rajan’s ass six ways from sunday, so I ask, do you want to do this the easy way? Or the hard way?” Neyla didn’t give him a chance to answer, and got to work. I stood back… and watched. It was bruitle, she even used a few variations I know of and finally he cracked. Rajan’s main slave warehouse is in the old movie theatre, while his auction house is in the old capitol building. The main guard barracks is within an old hotel called Royal Reserved. “Thanks for that.” Neyla said, spinning the bleeding and swollen jaguar goon around. “You’ve been quite helpful.” “Good enough.” I nodded. “Now to make sure there’s no proof.” I said while casting a sleep spell on the jaguar, knocking him out instantly as I started to heal his many many injuries. “See any booze around here?” “You really think making it look like he was drunk is gonna work? Rajan might be crazy but he isn’t stupid.” Neyla said, still spinning the unconscious feline around. “Then what would you think we should do with this guy?” I asked curiously. "I have several ideas, none you'll like." Neyla said, looking over at me. “Either eat him or slit his throat and throw him in an undisclosed ditch?” I asked. "Not my preferred method… not like my primal form hasn't…" She sighed. "We could also seal his heart. Will pretty much put him into a coma. There's a few worlds we can drop him on. His species would blend in perfectly and anything he says, he'd be thrown into a loony bin." “Fair enough.” I nodded. “Better than murder...cause Cooper’s don’t do murder.” “Yeah.” Neyla said, grabbing some paper and writing something down. “Here’s a good world’s coordinates, send him off. I’ll tell the others about this news.” "Fair enough." I nodded as I looked over the coordinates and grabbing the guy as I made a DTL. "Let's hope he doesn't cause too much trouble…" I muttered as I dragged his unconscious body into the door to a new world. Arriving at the world, it looked almost like a human world. Save for the Anthro, very human body animal people, there was almost no difference. I dropped the guy off in an alley way and left. Or rather, I would have. Right as I was set to open a DTL, I saw plastered on a nearby wall, the long aged paper of a missing person’s poster. She looked… a lot like Neyla. Missing: Hannah Pirkenson. Gender: Female Carnivore Species: Bengal Tiger The rest of the paper was torn off. It’s been here for a long time… Is that, Neyla’s mother? I looked around, taking in this world and it’s magic… it was faint… yet still so… wild… primal… This is Neyla’s mother’s world. “Uh...that’s concerning…” I started carefully. Using some magic I preserved the paper before removing it from it’s hanging place… Does Neyla know? I sniffed the paper… old. Slightly molded… this is almost… forty years old. Neyla is in her thirties… “Okay so...maybe Neyla’s mother went off-world or something?” I muttered in concern. “Something doesn’t feel right here…” I pocketed the paper and went back. Maybe Matilda knows something? I arrived back home and managed to take a job with Matilda for setting up the special cameras uncle M made so we can know which scumbags were going to be at the auction house. Now that we knew where the pens and where the shop was, we figured it best to learn who would be there. “Neyla’s mother? What about her?” Matilda asked as she placed the final camera. “So Neyla made me go to her mother’s home world and dump off a freshly knocked out guard Neyla damn near mauled to death...so then I found her mother on a missing person’s flier that’s...forty years old.” I explained. “Huh… Well, sorry Kite but I never knew her mother, and Neyla didn’t talk much about her parents.” Matilda said, scratching her head. “All I do know is that she was a keyblade wielder, so there’s only a handful of people who could have been her teacher.” “Well, that might explain the ten year gap between her disappearance and Neyla’s birth.” I said honestly. “But I wonder why she never went back to her homeworld...if that wasn’t just on pure coincidence and she actually is on that world still.” “Dunno. Only Neyla would know for sure.” Matilda shrugged. I frowned, gripping my cane. All that Neyla has been through… and that bit about Arpeggio… he was like a father to her… Back at the hideout, I was about to confront Neyla, but stopped as I reached her room’s door. There was… music, a soft hum Neyla was singing. I listened for a while, the soft melody was rather sad, but something about it hit me… something relating to my nature as a Dire Wolf… I knocked then entered, shaking that from my head. Neyla was laid along her makeshift bed. “Goon number three has been dropped off?” She asked. “Yes, and I also found something...concerning while I was there.” I said carefully. “But before that, that was a great Dire Wolf song.” “My dad used to sing it to me when I was little. I can’t remember the lyrics, but I remember the tune.” She replied simply. “So, what’s so concerning?” I pulled out the missing person flier. “I randomly found this forty year old piece of paper saying your mother’s gone missing.” Neyla looked up, seeing the paper. “Yeah. And?” “Is everything alright?” I asked carefully. “Cause...seeing this as it’s forty years old...Arpeggio basically being a father to you…” I started. “Is everything okay?” “Kite, look at me.” She said simply, cracking a small smile. “What about me is Okay?” She said, sitting up. “So, what does the nosy raccoon want to know so badly exactly?” I gently walked over and sat down next to her on her bed. “I may not be a professional psychiatrist...but what do you want or need to talk about?” I asked softly, trying to show my concern and care for the poor tiger. “Anything you want to get off your chest, I’m here to listen.” She laughed. “Yeah, cause that’s what I need in my early thirties, therapy from a god of… whatever you’re a god of.” She shrugged. “There’s not much to say really… I’m lanes borne, a natural magnet for heartless and the darkness at play on any world. Add in a Keyblade and I basically ring the dinner bell. My Keyblade manifested when I was thirteen. Happiest day of my life… Til the Heartless came. I didn’t know how to disband it. They kept coming, and coming… and coming. Mom opened a DTL and threw me in. Last time I saw her or dad and a Demon Tide was about to devour them.” Neyla sighed. “I landed at her old master’s place. He taught me how to use Keyblade magics without a Keyblade in hand, then sent me off.” “If...you want, I can do something very important.” I said softly. "No." Neyla said flatly. "Mom and Dad are… gone. Besides, I'm not the little girl they left behind. I'd like to let them rest in whatever afterlife awaits us." “I understand.” I nodded. “Is there anything else you want to talk to me about?” I asked. "Not really." Neyla sighed. "Life isn't fair, and I get that." "It isn't...but it can be somewhat fairer." I said. "And all you need for it...is a friend." "That's cheesy as all hell." "But it's true." I said honestly. "From someone with personal experience in this, friends and family make things a hell of a lot fairer." "Whatever you say, random god guy." She chuckled, messing with my hair a bit. "So, how long do you think it will take to tear down all of Rajan's empire?" "Depends on if he has any backup plans, cause if it's just this than...maybe a month, or at least a couple weeks." I said honestly. "I'm being cautious here instead of saying 'in a week's like the others…cause a lot more is happening behind the scenes." "When isn't there? So, are you gonna go? I was planning on taking a nap." "A nap would…" I suddenly yawned. "Ugh, okay a nap sounds good right now." I nodded while heading off to bed after a long day. To be continued...
Nobody finishes the dungeonSo after everyone got a good rest, especially me cause this Godhood form takes a lot out of me especially with that much Haki... "So, had your fun?" Cript asked. “Yes, yes I did.” I said happily, looking at my armored hands. “Was fun to let loose...and use a lot of abilities I never used before.” "Well you best keep at it like that then cause it's not gonna be easier. We're on the last few floors so best to, ya know, not hold back or anything." “Yeah…” I started. “Only people I can think of that we have to fight are...ourselves at this point.” I said carefully. "Yeesh. Scary thought. Save for Kexez, their floor was literally the easiest since there was nothing." The next floor had me sigh as I took in the decor… this… was my floor. "Well, this is… unsettling." Jericho stated. “Well...shit.” I started carefully. “This is gonna be a massive pain in the ass…” I took a deep breath. “Alright, so either this place was built like a paranoid mother...or it was literally just so straight forward that we only have to fight the boss…” "What's your money on?" Cript asked. “Well…I’ll do simple, cause old age would make me bored of paranoia” I started as I grabbed a rock and flicked it into the room, it connecting with a few pillars and falls to the ground and nothing happened. We entered and thankfully nothing much happened, though eventually we did come to the main boss room. Aka, my tomb. Inside we spotted my coffin. Well, it was more like a sarcophagus, standing upright over laid down. I'm not gonna lie, it does look pretty cool. Soon the lid slid down and fell off to the side. Inside was a mass of Nothingness Thorns that soon broke apart, letting out my feral form self. I looked mummified, Void Corrupted as broken versions of my weapons were stuck across and inside various parts of my body as my dead counterpart snarled and growled with primal, total lack of intelligence fury. “Well...that sounds about right…” I nodded at the sight. “So...who wants to go first against a feral me?” "I dunno, this feels like a good opportunity for you to fight your own demons. In this case literally by fighting your failures in physical form." Cript stated. “Fine fine.” I shrugged. “Well, then...let’s get on with this.” I growled, bringing out Lunatic and Skysplitter. “Let’s start strong...Lunar Collapse!” I shouted, leaping high into the air as energy surged through both Skysplitter and Lunatic, as I threw down both at my feral demon’s with the force of an imploding Moon. As I was swinging down I noticed both Lunatic and Skysplitter both glowed on it’s back as they both flew up and clashed against my attack, causing a massive shockwave to emerge from it as I was tackled quickly, my dead version trying to bite me only for a spike to skewer it’s muzzle before it could bite me, Foudre suddenly glowed on it’s back as the both of us were suddenly hit with a move I know fully well...Raijin’s Fury. “Motherfucker!” I shouted as I kicked the thing away swiftly. “Blaze of Glory!” I shouted, summoning Eternal Flames and shooting a massive pillar of fire towards it. The damned thing had Frozen Pride glow as a pillar of hollow Ice appeared and blocked my flames, before it slithered over and tried to skewer me with ice. “It might be blinded with fury but it’s still really smart…” I grumbled, dodging the attack swiftly. “Well...if it can counter what I can do normally…” I muttered as I disbanded my weapons and brought out my new wrist blades. “Let’s do something completely different.” I growled, getting into a pounce like stance as my enemy growled, starting to slowly circle me as if trying to read my intentions. In a blur the both of us clashed together, claw and bone sparking against each other. “What happened to me…?” I muttered, wondering what could have caused me to be this injured, to be purely in my feral form, and all my weapons embedded in me. “Fa...ilure…” The wolf whispered to me, knocking me back suddenly as it landed on the ground paws first, growling and circling me again. “I won’t fail this time…” I growled, getting up again as I heard the distorted noises of Arpeggio suddenly ring out, water suddenly shaping more forms of my dead counterpart. “And I’ll never fail again!” I shouted as I dashed forwards, putting away my blades as my arms were coated in Armor and Conqueror's haki, the water wolves leaping at me as I slammed my fists into them, causing them to turn into clouds of water and getting coated in it. “And when I’m coated in water…” I muttered, seeing Foudre suddenly spark as Lightning was called down, but I took the powerful and amplified attack head on. “No matter what you do I can take it!” I roared, leaping past the lightning and slamming my fist into the wolf’s muzzle, driving it straight into the ground and cratering it deeply. And then...Book of Retribution glowed and took me to book world cause of course it would. “Of course Book world…” I grumbled, looking around carefully for the book...only to see something literally straight out of my nightmares. Everyone I loved, everyone I cared for, butchered, slaughtered, torn to bits and tortured till they died from shock or some sick twisted mercy...each one seeing myself hover over, grieving as if I was somehow responsible for their demise...I ran past each one of them towards the glowing book, seeing countless numbers of my mistakes in my life repeated in the worst ways possible, from my family abandoning me to someone else, to my family dying due to my own weakness, to me being the ones to slaughter them all...in any other circumstance, I would have crumpled up into a ball and cried, hating myself to absolutely no end… But I’ve personally been through this hell before...and even if it hurts, I don’t care anymore. “I won’t let this nightmare happen ever again!” I shouted. “EVEN IF I HAVE TO DIE TO MAKE IT SO!” I shouted as I slammed my fist into the Lexicon, it exploding into pages as I was brought out of Book World and looking back at myself, still a mummified feral monstrosity growling at me in anger. “I won’t fail…” I told them, bringing out Second Chance. “Cause I have my family now...and I’m done.” I growled, the monster leaping forward as I used my Destiny Link with Eclipsa, feeling the connection between the two of us create something amazing. “Grey Finale.” I muttered, swinging Second Chance past my dungeon self and dodging it’s swing, the older wolf falling to the ground before the magic of Second Chance started to work it’s magic on them. They wreathed and shook as the magic worked to revert the damage and then revert them to an infant form. Soon the corrupted version of me was reverted to the small pupper form of me. "Daw, you used to be so cute. And now you're Overly sexualized." Cript said with a chuckle. “I’m adorable still and you know it.” I chuckled, walking over and picking my pupper self up, hearing their small whines and nuzzling up to me. “But...you might not have been far off when you said ‘facing my demons’...” I nursed little me for a while before sending them off to the others. The next floor was essentially a replica of Ponyville. The residents, or the monsters rather, seemed to be paper mache versions of ponies. "Twilight… my Twilight." Cript stated. “Do you want to take this one Cript?” I asked carefully. He took a deep breath, raising a hand as he snapped his fingers. The whole town was suddenly ablaze in fire that touched the sky. "Sure…" He said, walking through the flames and passed the burning paper monsters. “Well...straight to the point I guess.” I shrugged, walking after him carefully. “Anything about your Twilight that we should be worried about?” I asked, cause even if this was Cript I’m talking about, Twilight is still Twilight, more of a massive paranoid nerd than me half the time. "She's patient. Learning is always a hobby for her, but when we had kids, she found a new passion in teaching." “Neat.” I nodded. “Wonder what her abilities will be if you don’t one shot her.” "Analysis. She'll learn everything about us. Replication. She'll calculate and master mentally all our abilities, skills and powers. And Finally, Counter Development. A perfect means to nullify or return the attacks no matter what they are." Cript stated. I blinked. “Damn, that’s quite the skill set.” "So how do we beat her?" Kexez asked. "Patience." Cript stated. We arrived at Twilight's crystalcrystal castle. The doors opening wide as we neared. The inside wasn't like normal, it was broken and hollowed. Once we passed the doors, they closed behind us. The walls lit up with glowing symbols and runes I actually did not recognize. "What are these?" Coco asked. “This runework…” I started. “This is all...extremely fascinating and cool...but it’s not any kind of scanning or sensory rune words I know of…” "You wouldn't know them. Twilight invented them." Cript said. "One of her pass times is to invent brand new magics, runes and spell work." Cript said with a chuckle. "Keeps them all to memory." “Now I want to learn all this new amazing stuff damn it…” I pouted, my need for learning starting to outweigh the fact that we’re about to see Cript’s Twilight in a fight. Between the bits of rubble laid all around the ground began floating form and burned paper. They swirled together until they formed an Equine figure. That figure then gained features of Twilight, horn, wings, coat and mane. She didn't look as decayed, but maybe that was because she was an Alicorn. “That’s either her or a construct of her.” I started. “Not sure which, considering she creates new magic…” "Yeah." Cript sighed out, closing their eyes. We all took a step back. Twilight's eyes opened wide as they seemed to glow with magic. Pure, raw… and unknown and new. "Even so," Cript opened their eyes, that same glow irradiating from them. "There's nothing I can't replicate." I didn't see what happened next. One moment Cript took a step forward, the next Coco, Kexez and I were all blasted back and through the castle walls and into the still burning town. I looked up and saw Twilight pulling moons, stars and planets from the sky at Cript at speeds I couldn't believe, and he either obliterated them or deflected them as they came. "Sweet… gods…" I heard Coco say from next to me. She was down on her stomach but looking up at the battle above us. “Uh...huh…” I started. “That’s...quite a thing…” I watched on in awe as Twilight wasn't just pulling the heavens down but was reshaping them faster than I could even see. One moment, a sun is being pulled near us, the next, a volley of spears forged from the stars energy. When she did this, Cript summoned forth his weapon, Darkest Hero and began rapidly cutting down the Spears. It was slow but I could see him getting closer to Twilight. His free hand glowed with the copied magic and it rapidly formed a black mass that once he gripped it tight, he threw it towards the mare as it morphed into what I can only describe as a Black Hole Hurricane, rapidly sucking in all the raining heavens Twilight was pulling. “What is this? Gurren Lagann?” I couldn’t help but comment at how absurd this cosmic level of attacks was at this point. With her main arsenal removed, Cript got in closer but Twilight rapidly cast a shield. I dropped my jaw. The rune and spell work was… incredible. Not a single milliliter of the Matrix was wasted, and each rune in the magic Twilight created. The shield took the full force of Cript's attack, and was holding. It wasn't lasting long though. Soon with each continuous swing the barrier began to crack and fracture. I was just amazed there was something that took effort for Cript to break. The barrier shattered and to my further shock Twilight was now Dodging Cript's swings, matching his speed as she began casting attack spells at Cript purely from her mind. And Cript took every attack, not even bothering to defend or counter them. "That's… impossible…" Kexez muttered as they looked up next to me. “Nothing’s impossible.” Jericho said, the only one not having fallen over. “Especially for them.” “But...there’s a certain point where...even this seems a little far fetched right?” I questioned nervously. “We might be dealing with Cript’s original Herd if Twilight's here and Lyra’s the final boss.” The Admin of War stated simply. “His...original Herd?” I asked in shock. Jericho nodded. "As you know, Lyra is his first wife. And for many years it was just the two of them… then, the Dream Project Nexus worked on surfaced. The things Cript saw are one of the few that continue to haunt him. He took some time to relax, to be a normal person, er, Pony, on the Equestria his Lyra is from. Even managed to be one of Twilight first guards for her castle. Heh, it around then when it snowballed." "Snowballed how?" Coco asked as she stood up. "Well, he was on Break, Lyra brought him lunch. They ended up shagging in the closet and then Twilight found them." “Oh yeah, I remember hearing that story.” I chuckled. "Seriously?" Kexez asked, laughing. Jericho nodded. "That ended in a three-way. Needless to say after that day the two returned home and then, guess what… nothing? Alright. Well by this point Lyra and Cript had their twins, and the babysitter they hired turned out to be Chrysalis." “Oh yeah, and then she was trying to siphon off energy from the twin’s, but Cript stopped her and showed her a much easier way right?” I asked, thinking I heard this entire story before. "Actually she was just babysitting. After her failed Canterlot Invasion, the Changelings kicked her out." “Yeah that makes sense.” I nodded. "She was surprised they didn't care she was the former Changeling Queen. Time passes and well, Twilight's three way that day left an impression on her, Chrysalis felt, well, similar feelings being accepted so openly and then Luna showed up but that's because before he was Twilight's guard, he was Luna's when Cript had amnesia and was really good at it, and Luna got a crush on him so you can imagine what happened shortly after." “Neat.” I nodded. “So we’re...probably going to be fighting Cript’s original harem then? Or just...Cript cause at this point even Cript seems to be having trouble.” "Probably just Cript. No offense but they'd… steamroll you." “It’s almost like this somehow makes my previous fights feel underwhelming and disappointing.” I frowned. "Do you wanna fight that?" Jericho pointed at the now Galactus sized Twilight casting spells with matrix circles the size of galaxies at Cript. "Then go on, go." “Fine, I will.” I said, getting up and clapping my hands together. “Unlike you people, I also create new thing’s.” I said carefully, a spell matrix appearing behind like a Buddhist Dharma Wheel as I brought out my Gauntlet and Greave weapons. “Still experimental, but it’s a good a time as any to test it out.” I growled, taking a step forward and surprising Jericho with how fast I suddenly bolted into the fight. As I rushed in and passed Cript to deal my first blow, a sudden Matrix appeared before me from Twilight. Emerging from the Matrix was- The blow when we struck one another nearly blasted me back. Looking back up I saw myself. They were noticeably not a Den Mother, but still a Dire Wolf and we're welding… Void Key. "Heh. You're the bitch I was summoned to fight?" The other me asked. “Oh there’s going to be so much catharsis with the ass kicking I’m gonna put you through.” I laughed. "You really are me to have an ego like that." They said, raising Void Key. "Well, this will be… interesting." “Oh no, there’s no ego in this.” I said. “Just gonna be me feeling so much better for all the shit you put me and my family through.” I answered, the spell matrix glowing a little brighter as I slammed my fist into the bastards face. Despite the impact they rapidly spun and sliced down my torso. The pain stung as that Void collided with my Nothingness and my wound slowly stitched itself back together. "I don't even know you." They replied as they then kicked me in the gut, sending me back some feet in the air. “Don’t you fucking use an Avenger’s Endgame quote on me.” I countered, dashing forward again as I tried throwing a series of powerful blows against the thing, wondering how powerful this version of Void Key was. They rapidly began countering and blocking. To my surprise though on my last swing they brought out Frozen Pride in a flash of Void. The shield was purple and black with various cracks and leaking Void energy. "Wow, you're actually good. If I didn't know any better I'd say you were closer to being me than a first glance would tell." “Well...I can already see where this is going.” I started, opening my hand slightly from the shield until I clenched down hard and used a powerful shield breaking strike against it, the force meant to injure this void version of me even with his shield up. They were blasted back but appeared mostly annoyed with the attack. “Seriously? That all you got?” “Oh I’ve got plenty more!” I shouted, the spell matrix starting to spin as I vanished and threw a powerful haymaker, slamming into their shield again and knocking them back again, leaping forwards to try and land another blow only for them to counter with a wall of ice tainted with Void energy that blocked my attack. “Shadow Blizzard!” The dire wolf shouted as he slammed Void Key into the ice wall, shattering it as million’s of Void infused hail pieces slammed into me, causing me to fly back. “Kharmic Reversal!” I shouted as I started to spin wildly, all the Void Hail bits suddenly spinning around me into a tornado that burned and melted away into beams of energy as I threw it all right back at him, the being blocking the attacks as best he could but still getting caught on his sides and limbs. “Ganesha’s Might!” I shouted, rushing forward as I pulled back my fist, making the dire wolf’s eyes widen as it looked like dozens of fists were suddenly appearing from my one single fist as I slammed it into his gut, a loud elephant roar sounding as it felt like dozen’s of beings lead by their leader slammed into him, sending him flying away. My opponent coughed up blood but raised Void Key up. “Condemn!” He shouted, which confused me cause he would have...I took a deep breath and looked down at my own chest, the pesky bastard put the rune on my chest when I wasn’t paying attention...so I was immediately struck by the same amount of force and flown back just as far away, just in the nick of time as a literal planet slammed into where we were, almost crushing the both of us. “Damn it…” I growled carefully. “This sucks…” “FORE!” I heard someone scream as what sounded like a golf club hitting a golf ball happened and...the planet that was between us suddenly started flying towards me. “SHIT!” I yelped, stepping back into a stance and readying a palm strike. “Kali’s Wrath!” I said, starting to do a careful dance before slamming the palm of my hand into the planet, causing it to shatter instantly as I saw the Dire Wolf...hey wait a minute, that’s my tactic! “LUNA DIVIDER!” The Void version of Me apparently swung down at me, which I managed to barely dodge as a massive explosion knocked me away. “Alright...if you want to do force…” I growled as the spell matrix behind me suddenly glowed brighter and looked more like a DharmaChakra. “Symbi...how you holding up in there?” “This sucks, but I know what you want to do.” The fusion symbiote told me as I felt the magic wheel start to spin faster and faster. “ASURA!” I shouted, feeling as the wheel seep into my back, hundreds of arms suddenly sprouting from my back that all fuzed into my two main arms and formed pure magical rage fueled might. “Oh Asura would be so pissed at you stealing his look.” Void me said, bringing out Skysplitter as well, which as I saw Skysplitter and Lunatic were both Void Tainted, taking on either darker hues and looking blood stained like Skysplitter, or damn near like a black void with Lunatic, like it was the dark side of a moon. “I mean, people might be pissed at you for using their God’s names for attacks but who knows.” “I did my research, I asked them directly, and I made sure to do thing’s with respect.” I growled, rushing forward and delivering an uppercut at them, who blocked with both Skysplitter and Lunatic but still being flung away. “Okay...your looking more and more like me the more we fight…” The Void version of me said carefully. “Never thought I’d fight a younger version of myself though.” They laughed, swapping out into Eternal Flames and sending a massive plume of flames that were on par with some of the stars here. “And I never thought I had to deal with another one of myself again.” I said, rearing back my right hand and throwing a powerful haymaker, the sudden gust of air creating a wall that caused the flames to scatter around me harmlessly. There was a sudden shift in the air. Both my other and I turned to see Cript managed to land a blow on Twilight with Second Chance. It magic managing to overpower hers and begin to heal and revert her to a foal. I turned back to my other, who to my surprise was not vanishing. “I’m...not falling...to some summoning bullshit…” Void King growled, their body having Void tendrils lashing out from their force of will to deny themselves from being thrown back. “Well…” I rolled my right shoulder carefully. “I’m just gonna have to knock you back into your world.” I said, still ready to fight against him. “Any objections Cript?” "I mean, he's you so, maybe talk first before assuming he's evil?" He stated while feeding foal Twilight with a bottle. “So why are you using Void anyway?” I asked carefully. “Have you heard the phrase ‘lived long enough to see yourself as the villain’?” Void Me asked. “Yeah of course…” I grumbled. “Who knew Consume would be such an...innovative ability to finally bring that special utopia I’ve been working towards for so long...especially against those that wouldn’t surrender.” Void King said, raising Void Key as an example. “And oh how I took a little too much gratification on devouring this asshole.” He said with sadistic glee. “Wait...you mean you...used Consume?” I asked carefully, remembering getting that ability and immediately regretted obtaining it cause it felt so...Vile. “Against Nexus and any of those fuck heads that would follow them or Void Key’s machinations yes.” The dire wolf said as they leaped forwards, swinging down at me as I blocked the strike quickly. “Any who surrendered got a nice cell that was practically their own lovely home...but I became what I needed to to bring about Peace, and that was becoming a Tyrant.” “Yeah...that sounds fair…” I sighed out, hating how I knew I would probably do that if thing’s went south after all of this as I swung my fist at them, only to be blocked by Foudre. “So am I truly evil for doing what other’s couldn’t?” Void me asked, kicking me away as they threw Foudre in a very familiar pattern around me. “I mean...the very definition of Tyrant means yes you are.” I started, vanishing before a bolt of lightning slammed into the ground, literally disintegrating the very ground that it hit in a small circle. “Unlike you, I stopped caring about the small details about the obviously terrible people and got rid of them when they didn’t surrender.” Void King growled, bringing out Sharpshooters and letting out a sudden maelstrom of arrows towards me. “So your not Evil,” I started as I slammed my fist into the ground, creating a wall of air and debris that blocked all the arrows. “You’re just tired of all the fighting...and went to any lengths to see the people you cared about be happy.” “Exactly.” Void King said. “And if I have to kick my young and naive version’s ass to get back to what I need to do, than I’ll gladly do it.” He growled, summoning Interdiction and dashing towards me. “The only thing I was naive about was immediately trying to jump into a fight that even Cript was having a little trouble with.” I rolled my eyes, blocking one of the laser sword swings. “But that was because I didn’t want to run away after I’ve come so far,” I started, slamming my fist into the guy before he went with his own gauntlets and slammed it into me. “I’ve grown so much and I won’t let someone stronger than me make it pointless again,” I declared, kicking the wolf away and jumping into the air, spinning like Sonic as I threw a spinning axe kick down onto him, which he blocked with both arms, cratering the earth beneath him. “I’m going to have to fight those fucker’s sooner or later, especially when Grey wants me to fight beasts from the Real World, so I won’t back down!” I shouted, jumping back and dashing forward, getting slammed in the face but I brushed past it and slammed my fist into them again. “I won’t run again!” I barked, as the both of us started to get into a massive anime punch-a-thon, our arms and fists blurring as the entire area around us started to rise around us. “And I won’t let it all my hard work be meaningless ever again!” I shouted. Our fight that devolved into a bare knuckle brawl went on for what felt like hours...probably only minutes but I wasn’t counting as the both of us were battered, bruised and bloodied. “You...done yet…” I panted heavily, cause even after my ‘training’ with Lord I was still exhausted, my spell matrix glowing dimly as the powerful arms of Asura gave out a while ago. “One...more hit…” Void King panted as well, the both of us raising our fists up as we threw one last, final punch as we both connected against each other in a boxing style ‘double hit’. “This is anime as shit.” Coco commented, having been eating popcorn the entire time. "Just kiss already!" Kexez yelled while sipping a large soda. "Why are you two fighting still anyways? You're both not really bad guys. So, no real point in this." “I was apparently summoned to fight this bitch.” Void King said, pointing to me. “And I wanted to join the fight to prove my progress so far wasn’t bullshit, then I had to fight this bitch.” I said as I was pointing to Void King. “Also kiss already?” “Why the hell would I kiss myself?” Void King asked. “Cause you already suck yourself off sometimes, so get on with it!” Coco called out. "Plus you did fuck and impregnate a future timeline variant of yourself, so… this isn't new to you." Kexez added. "Not to mention what you and Den, your own mom, get up to." Jericho threw in. “And my original birth mother sometimes…” Both me and Void King said at the same time. “I hate you all.” I said, pulling out an elixir and chugging it as I walked over and picked up my Void version. “Alright you, I’m gonna make you into a proper woman.” “I never signed up for this!” Void King said in pure embarrassment, the dire wolf struggling in my hold as I took them...to a closet that was weirdly in this room. “Why’s there a closet there?” Coco questioned, seeing me drag my cutely embarrassed self into it. "King, stop. If they wanna stay male then let them. Otherwise this is a rape." Cript spoke up. “Alright alright.” I called out. “Sorry.” “I still didn’t sign up for this…” Void me whined. “It’s like my second date with Chrysalis all over again…” “Was it fun?” I asked. “Well...yes…” My more conservative counterpart blushed. “Ever wanted to know what it feels like to literally fuck yourself?” I asked, causing them to wiggle a bit. “Uh...it...has crossed my mind before…” They muttered nervously. “Do you want to do it?” I asked softly, gently putting a hand onto the door handle, not turning it yet for my counterpart's decision. "Stop it." Cript said, whacking my snout with a rolled up newspaper. "Bad horny wolf. Bad." They repeated, whacking it several more times. “Oh when it happens to me it’s funny.” I rolled my eyes. “I never did say no…” Void King said. “Just...shocked at how quick...I am to literally getting plowed I suppose…” "It's kinda our King's hobby." Kexez informed. "Job in that one timeline." Jericho added. “And boy was I good at that.” I whistled at the memories. “I...really? I’m that horny?” Void King asked. “And more.” I chuckled. "Ironic considering I'm the Admin of Love. Though Lyra still leaves you with cracked hips and bruised genitals." Cript added. “That woman needs a little chill in her movements.” I complained. “I’m sorry that her thrusts can crush mountains or she rides me like a monofilament dildo.” I said carefully, which made my counterpart lightly shift in my hold. “Uh...all this horny talk…” Void King blushed. “Can we get on with me myself and I here? It’s...getting a little uncomfortable for me with uh...a lot of things.” "Well, first, King, given this version of you is from an alternate timeline, do you approve of them remaining here?" Cript asked. “Well, better question would be if the Time Walkers approve of it, cause while I can be fine with it, Time Walkers would probably be not okay with another one of me running around this place.” I mentioned, even though I technically controlled Purgatory which was a dumping ground for lost Timelines...it was still the Time Walkers job mostly. "So long as you file the paperwork they'll be fine. I still find it hilarious a Paradoxical Organization uses pure Bureaucracy." Cript chuckled. “Yeah I’m still really surprised it’s all Bureaucracy.” I nodded. A quick bit of paper and use of my powers over Nothingness later, Void King was allowed to remain here without restrictions. "So, what will you be doing now?" Cript asked my Void counterpart. “Well...you people wouldn’t be here if a war wasn’t still going on...so…” Void King looked over and saw Coco. “Teach her Consume so she can use it on Void Key.” They said as they pointed at Coco. Coco gulped. "Me?" She asked. "Huh, that actually would work out extremely well." Cript said thoughtfully. "Her biology and being built to be Void Key's perfect Host would make using Consume on him probably the most flawless assimilation that ability has ever done. Plus given how it seems to have worked for you, when she does it she'd probably surpass you in terms of Void Abilities in no time." "Can she handle Consume though?" Jericho asked. “Consume is an ability where one of the purposes of it was to have Mortal’s obtain it and become Eldritch Gods.” Void King explained. “Anyone can use it if they manage to get it, it’s all about the use of it that’s key here.” Void King said. “Cause I’ve used it on hundreds if not thousands of beings, and while some of them were a challenge, it all worked out.” Void King shrugged. “And it’ll especially work out when Coco only uses it on Void Key, cause the rat bastard really want’s Coco cause she’s their true host...so what would happen if it’s true host Consume’s it, mind, body and soul?” "Basically Coco would become a new… whatever Void Key is, but keep her identity and personality since the ability digests those aspects of the target." Cript stated. "Usually. Jericho here is an example of someone who can resist/survive that but it's a rare trait to possess to have, and even then it took him forever to reconstruct himself." "Do you think Void Key Is like that?" Coco asked worriedly. "If they are I might be able to work something out there…" Cript said. "So, gonna tag along with us or gonna head off?" “I might as well tag along to see what I’ve missed so far in this new world.” Void King shrugged. “Also Void Key would not be able to, as I have personally Consumed him, which is probably why my sexy version here thought I was being possessed by him.” They said, pulling out Void Key’s keyblade version and now that I got a better look at it...it felt hollow, like the soul in it was long gone. "Alright." Cript said as they sent foal Twilight to the safety of home. "Onwards." The next floor was easy enough to tell who was here. Chrysalis. The entire floor was styled after a Changeling Hive. The floor was surprisingly Uneventful as we arrived at the boss floor. The flesh-like door opening wide and revealing the deformed, starved frame of Cript's Chrysalis. "So… what does she do?" Kexez asked. Just then, Cript took a step forward, and Chrysalis shifted into a copy of him. The two dashed at one another, Cript taking out Darkest Hero, and to our Surprise Chrysalis did the same. "Perfect copies of whoever she shifts into." Cript stated as they fought their shapeshifting wife. “Neat.” I nodded. “Well...this is a one on one then I suppose.” "They probably all will be." Jericho stated. “Well that sucks…” I sighed out. “No more fighting for us then…” Jericho rolled their eyes as Cript and Chrysalis battled. It was a bit more tame than- "The Fuck?" Coco asked for me as Cript was already holding the small, Grub infant Chrysalis. “That was...fast.” I started carefully. “How the hell did you beat her that fast if you were literally equal?” "It's not the first time I've fought a perfect replica of myself." Cript stated. "The trick is just to fight like someone else or outspeed the copy. In my experience both work out pretty well." He said with a shrug. “Well...at least that’ll give me some advantage when I have to do that...again.” I said carefully. With that, he sent Infant Chrysalis off and we went to the next floor. This floor was the Moon. Luna. The Alicorn herself was standing before us, her features mummified almost like my fallen other. Her horn glowed as a black and silver battle-axe broke out from beneath the ground and floated to her side. “That’s a pretty cool looking axe.” I commented. "She calls it 'Moon Fall'." Cript replied as he and Luna clashed, the impact cracking the crust of the moon and sending large debris floating up and about as they slowly crashed back down. “Wonder how fast this fight will go…” I wondered, considering when he fought Chrysalis it was over rather quickly. The more they fought the more I began to examine Moon Fall. It at first seemed similar to Lunatic in concept, but it wasn't inducing a berserker state. Rather it seemed to be flowing pure energy into Luna and she back into it to create her attacks. It also, from what I can tell, seemed to be made from a moon as well, though I can't be sure exactly. In the end, Luna put up a fight that was akin to when Cript was fighting Twilight, And caused a lot of noticeable damage. Eventually though Luna was reverted back to Woona. “She so cute.” I giggled. "So that was Moon Fall. Huh, always wondered what her Axe was like." Jericho said. "Yeah, she doesn't use it that much given it makes her a bit too OP for her liking." Cript said. “It kind of reminds me of Lunatic in a way.” I pointed out. “Just without the berserk state, what is it actually?” "Well, I made Moon Fall from… what was it… oh yeah, about… 9 octillion planetless moons." Cript said. "Was a headache getting them all pressurized into the shape of the thing but it worked out pretty well in the end." "Planetless moons?" Coco asked. "Moons that were either knocked out of orbit, planets got destroyed or were just somehow sent whirling through space at random." They explained. “Huh...yeah that makes sense.” I nodded. “Cause Lunatic was made from a Planetless Moon as well, after it survived a Sun going Supernova and it was pissed.” "Yeah, but the difference between Moon Fall and Lunatic is that the Moon Lunatic is made from is a gigantic moon and was magical enough to develop a form of sentience. Moon Fall, while all the moons were magical in nature they're sentience is akin to bugs or small animals." “So when you put enough together it might create something more?” I inquired. "Well, yes and no. Think of it as an arc reactor powered by magic and despite the physical size it should be, only occupying the space and shape of Moon Fall." “Sounds about right.” I nodded. "So… all that's left is Lyra…" Jericho brought up. Cript sighed, handing me little Woona as they turned to the exit door to the next, and final floor. "Yeah…" “You don’t have to do this...I can take over or someone else can if you want.” I said carefully, knowing this was probably a massive pain for Cript. "You can't. You'd lose." He stated flatly as he began walking towards the door. "Lots of times before, my enemies tried using her against me in some way. Shapeshifters, clones, but those were all fakes. This one… will be different. This time I actually will be fighting her…" “How strong is she? Really?” I asked carefully. “Cause you said that she’s an Admin right? But I never was told how strong she was.” "She is the Admin of Marriage, and a Goddess of Children and Childbirth, but those aren't what make her so strong. Tell me King, do you know what the two things that make all C.R.I.P.T's so unique and strong is?" “I mean, besides bioengineering on a scale I still can’t quite come to grips with, even after all the Nexus information I’ve gotten since I accepted that deal with Grey...and the fact that your the biological child of two admins, Vincent and his other half, both being Admin’s of Life?” I asked curiously. “Or is there something else here that I don’t know about?” "The biology and engineering is just half of it. The body is a machine, right? Well, our unique "heart's" are the power supply." He said, turning to me and placing a finger over his chest. To my shock it began to glow a red and gold color and the beating of something… like a heart, but purely synthetic, thumped through the air. "We all have a unique "Heart" that none of us, not even Lord can understand how it works or what it even is. Normally, even if our bodies die, these keep ticking. For some of us, it keeps us alive even when we shouldn't be. For others, they die but the heart keeps beating, a battery ready to power anything in all creation. The few times they are destroyed, we would be dead. Permanently… but Heir Cript's like myself are… different." “It’s because you’d become Mother right?” I asked, which made me start thinking about a lot of things. “One of the two strongest being’s that helps make this entire place work?” "Yeah. Long ago, back when I was first fighting Deletes, Lyra… got hurt. Badly. She was vanishing before my eyes and… I did the only thing I really could. I pulled this thing out, and gave it to her. I expected to die… and for a few minutes… I was. Lyra woke me up shortly after my heart began to heal her, and to my shock I had regrown this thing. Like it never was removed. Only I and the four other Heir Cript's can do that it seems." “That...can’t entirely be a coincidence can it?” I asked carefully. “One in five chances to just...magically bioengineer the next Mother? That’s not something even Grey can do, and he’s remembered everything from past Resets.” "I couldn't tell you. But Lyra is as strong as she is because my heart beats inside her. The engine that can create the next mother… it saved her once… I'm hoping it still can." "Wait… what do you mean?" Kexez asked. "My heart saved her from a delete, and over the years it's been changing her body and every test basically confirms it. Putting my heart inside Lyra didn't just save her, as far as Code and creation is concerned, Lyra is basically an Heir Cript." "And… if she is you, or like you and the five others… she might actually…" Jericho started. "Be sane, alive… and a prisoner." Cript finished. “Well…shit.” I sighed out. “Okay so that’s probably why I’m going to get my ass handed to me if I try to fight them…” "What could keep a Cript of your caliber imprisoned though?" Coco asked. "Well, aside from Vincent/Grey themselves… Jericho." "Hm… not quite. There is likely one other thing that can…" Jericho brought up. "What if Lyra is… inside the womb? It's already indestructible, so…" "Despite what we do with our own wombs and bodies and stuffing people in them… that's gross, at least in that context." Kexez shivered. “I don’t like where this is going.” I started carefully. "None of us do… but it does raise a question, if Lyra is a Prisoner down there… then who's guarding her?" Cript asked, making us all gaze towards the doorway. “Only one person we haven’t seen yet…” I said carefully, summoning my King’s Greatsword. “Only one man who would still be fighting for the one person that’s been with them since the beginning.” "... Me…" Cript said. "Kexez, Take Coco home." Jericho started. "Void King, you in?" “Fighting Crip? What fun.” Void King said, bringing out their own King’s Greatsword, only instead of it being powered by Nothingness it was powered by Void. "Can't we stay and help?" Coco asked. “Considering what we’re going to be fighting Coco...I don’t know…” I sighed out. “Hell, I don’t know if I could do much all things considered…” "Hmm… maybe not alone… but… together…. Maybe." Cript offered. I took a second to think about that, then remembered. Spitfire! “I’ve got it.” I nodded, pulling Coco and Kexez close to me. “Ready you two?” "Sure, fusion is oddly fun." Kexez nodded. "If it means I can help then yes." Coco nodded. “Then let’s do this.” I said warmly, feeling Kexez and Coco start to synch up with me as we fuzed. Hello World! Spitfire’s back! “Alright guys, I’m back and ready for some asskicking.” "I forget how tall she is." Jericho commented. "Fusion can be weird like that." Cript shrugged. "Spitfire, Void King, you two ready?" “Ready as I’ll ever be.” Void King said, preparing himself for the upcoming fight. “Bring it on.” I said, summoning six weapons, both of King’s Gauntlets, Coco and Kexez’s Keyblades, and Skysplitter and Lunatic, ready for anything. We entered the doorway to the final floor. The path seemed stained with void unlike anything I have seen before. The part of me that is King, felt the sting and burn under our feet as Nothingness and Void clashed, trying and failing to eat away at one another. Soon we spotted the final door, broken down from the inside long ago. I tried casting Light Magics, but to no avail. Light refused to exist here. “Well that’s not very nice…” I frowned, changing out Lunatic for Eternal Flames as I used it’s upgraded to absolute hell’s flames to give us a light, as it’s the only thing we know of that can bring light to the Void. The light it did give was a small amount, but enough for us to see the ruined floors and walls, long scratched claw marks carved into the stone and metal. A trail of thin yet strange chains lead from the ceiling down towards the back. The metal smelled… alive. “So...should those chains smell alive?” I asked curiously. “To keep me imprisoned? They would have to be.” Cript stated as we followed the direction of the chains. Eventually, we began to see a small glow. Putting out Eternal Flames, we spotted the source. Within a glass jar of sorts, floated in an unknown liquid, a womb. It was glowing with a pureness and bright light that gave the area around it color. Holding the jar tightly, was Cript. The chains were molded into his neck, arms, legs and across his back. Whatever clothes he wore previously, now remained only as a tattered, torn and stained pair of trousers. Their hair was in knots and was extremely shaggy, and hung to their elbows. His eyes were sunken, as if sleep and stress was all they knew and the very concept of rest was unknown and alien. “Damn…” I muttered. “The hell could have caused this to you?” “My guess… losing Lyra… to that Prison…” Cript, our Cript said as he took a step forwards. The Cript holding the Void Mothers womb gave off a primal, mindless growl, but it had a single, imminent meaning. Leave, or die. I felt a chill of terror slide down my spine and into my fusion made soul. I’ve never seen Cript… Pissed. “So...who wants to go first?” I asked nervously. “Me, Obviously.” Cript said, taking a single step foreward. The chained Cript carefully placed the jar down, their hands glowing as they cast a protective barrier around it. The part of me from King screamed out at how… unbelievably strong that barrier was. Despite it being so small, it was potent enough to… withstand Cript. The chained Cript turned their gaze towards us, their eyes red and dry. He stood- I swore loudly as the blast of magic sent me flying. All my left arms breaking from the impact as my feet skidded and bled as I landed and tried to stop. The crash into the wall I made broke my spine from tailbone to neck and my healing factors went into overdrive to repair the damages. Jericho and Cript were both ganging the crazed Cript, but that Cript was holding his own. Easily. “The...fuck…” I groaned in pain, cause even if I had King as a part of me I could still feel pain. “Yeah, that tends to happen.” Void King said, gently picking me up. “And why the hell are you okay?” I asked. “One of the many things I picked up was how broken being Ethereal is half the time.” Void King chuckled. “So...this is Cript when he’s completely lost it huh?” “Apparently...and he’s handling both himself and Jericho at the same time…” I grumbled, getting up as my body felt fully healed. Void King and I rapidly rushed in, joining and, yet still the crazed Cript was holding his own. He summoned no weapons but rapidly showed a beyond mastery in hand to hand as he dodged, deflected and blocked our weapons bare handed. The few marks that the weapons did make upon his skin healed the second the weapon was pulled, almost giving the illusion as if they were doing nothing. “You two have to get the Womb.” Cript said as he kept up his attacks. “Sure.” I nodded, as I immediately tried to leap towards the shielded jar as I saw Void King do the exact same. When we arrived we tried bashing and breaking the shield to no avail. Void King slashed at it, but all it did was break the Void Key corpse he was using as a weapon. “Shit.” He huffed, tossing the broken weapon without a care. “Well, got any ideas?” “I have three idea’s.” I said, pulling out Book of Retribution and it’s Archstaff counterpart. “Let’s try dispelling it.” I said, casting as many counterspells or dispelling magics as I could to try and see if those worked. The second my magic touched the barrier, Book of Retribution caught fire and Archstaff shattered, both turning to dust before me as I felt them… vanish from King’s arsenal… “Okay… so that didn’t work.” Void King me stated just as dumbly as I felt. I grabbed the thing and chucked it into the middle of the fight, so blinded by absolute fury that one of King’s, and my own, weapons just magically ceased to exist. Cript spotted this and rapidly grabbed it, using it to slam the crazed Cript in the face. The barrier cracked. He then backed up and slammed it onto the ground again, the crack expanding and looked ready to go. The crazed Cript rapidly rushed towards Cript, trying to steal the jar back but Cript used this to slam the barrier-covered jar into the crazed counterparts face, breaking the barrier and the jar. The split second that happened, Cript grabbed the Void Mother’s womb and bolted next to us. “Okay, got the womb. Spitfire, I need King here, so let them go and turn into Zeco.” Cript ordered. He cast a barrier, then another, then fifty more between us and the crazed Cript. Somehow, I managed to immediately bolt out of Spitfire as she devolved into Zeco, running along after Cript. “The fuck am I going to do now that Book of Retribution and Staff of Clemency are gone?” I asked carefully. “How am I not...kind of broken at this point given I can’t feel it anymore?” I asked, still shocked that the moment it ceased to exist I wasn’t in a shuddering mess as the entirety of Nothingness wasn’t shaken to it’s very core. “Relax, I’ll make you a new one.” He said, quickly grabbing my hand and began using magic to make runes into it. “You still have Consume, and it will take a while before I can get Lyra out of this thing. I’m gonna Link Consume to this spell which will basically turn you into Miroku from Inuyasha for a bit here.” “Will King be able to hold them that long?” Jericho asked. “He’ll have to. Ready?” Cript asked as the crazed him was already on the last few barriers and the runes along my right palm glowed. “WIND TUNNEL!” I shouted, bringing up my palm and holding my arm, aiming it right at the crazed Cript and activating it as the black hole they formed began to absorb’s all types of matter. As the Dungeon Cript broke thru the final barrier, he immediately caught himself as he felt the sudden vacuum effect against him, trying to fight against the might of Cript’s magic and the Consume skill, but he failed and flew into the Wind Tunnel. It felt like I was being punched and kicked from the inside, my bones breaking and flesh ripping and healing rapidly as Consume was working overtime to ‘digest’ them. I focused solely on not exploding and letting this bastard out. I’m not sure how long it was but eventually I felt someone grab hold of my face and looked up, seeing an older, tired human form Lyra standing before me. “Let me in, King.” She said. “F-fine…” I said, lightly putting a hand on her’s as I used my Consume ability to try and absorb her as well, hopefully able to get the crazed Cript under control. Once she was in, a few moments later I felt everything within me still. I breathed out happily… Targets: Cript. Lyra Heartstrings. Assimilated. Personality of Cript. Digested. Personality of Lyra Heartstrings. Digested. I stared at that notification for… a long time. They’re… “Congratulations King.” Cript said as he helped me to my feet. “You’re the first person other than myself to kill me.” “Uh...cool.” I said carefully. “I mean...you killed yourself by yourself...I…” I sighed out. “So...we won?” I asked carefully. “That we did.” Jericho said, sighing as they fell themselves into a sitting position on the ground. “Also, congratulations again.” Cript said, placing a finger to my chest as, to my surprise, the same glow as his and synthetic heartbeat began to echo from within me. “As of right now, you’re an Heir… and officially on my level.” “Well…” I started, taking a deep breath and feeling...not that much different honestly. “That’s a good thing...wonder how that’ll affect my time as Kite...and the Equilibrium skill Grey forced on me for Kite…” “No idea.” Cript shrugged. “Well, come on. Let’s go home. We’ve been in the Void long enough.” “Yeah…” I started, putting a hand to my newly glowing chest. “Let’s go home.” To be continued...
Kite's endeavorThe Cooper base was all seated and awaiting their next mission. "Okay, everyone, we have some jobs to do." Uncle M stated. "How many?" Dad asked. "Lots." M said, starting up the projection. “So, as we’ve seen through reconnaissance, he has a whole lotta weapons and fortifications.” I started, letting the slide show several images of heavily armed guards, armored vehicles, even armored War Elephants. “And from mine and dad’s recond, we found the rightful heir to the throne…as well as what the hell he’s truly doing with the royal family.” "And, as I feared, it's worse than just that." M said, taking over now. "With the bug planted we've gathered data and phone calls and learned the prince is one of nine children born from the original youngest prince. Apparently Rajan hunted down all the original noble women that were to be the prince's harem. He keeps them under a Spice endured hypnosis. Odds are they're so high they don't even know they're pregnant or have had many children. Their location is still unknown but the nine children we do know where they are all being held. The question is how to free them given their unique restraints." “It’s a fingerprint lock that is biometrically encoded to Rajan and Rajan only, to the point where even I’m unable to use any of my ‘special powers’ to unlock it.” I explained. “So we’re going to either need Rajan to release them of his own volition somehow, we drug the bastard and drag his body to the prison, or we cut one of his hands off and use it like that, and nobody wants the third option to happen.” "Well, I do but I'm out voted regardless." Nyla said with a shrug. "That aside," M continued. "We also found out many high profile underworld business opportunists are showing up. Including some that I'm betting Kite or Nyla will be familiar with." M said, putting a forder down for Nyla and I. My eyes widened. These were bad guys, but not from this world. Some classing Disney/Kingdom Hearts villains were here, some other bad guys too. Not good. "I recognize some of these guys." Nyla nodded. “And I recognize…a lot of these assholes.” I nodded bitterly. “So…there are mighty problems here…” "I was worried about that. Thankfully, I discussed this with Matilda and, given this is breaking many of the 'World Order' laws keyblade wielders typically follow, she will try and contact some associates for aid. Now, the last and final item is Rajan himself. He seems to have upgraded himself, likely in similar method to how Clockwerk has." The next image showed Rajan. He looked mostly normal, but he clearly has some magical augmentations. His demeanor and aura were far more intense. Atop his staff wasn't the Clockwerk Heart, but some still beating heart of flesh and blood. “Well shit…” I frowned. “Hopefully those augmentations doesn’t screw with his mentality, that’s one of the thing’s we have going for us.” I explained. “His insatiable ego and many fears.” "So what's the jobs?" Nyla asked "Nyla, Kite, given you two have experience with… off worlders, I want you to spy and see what they are using as a bartering chip. I doubt they have our worlds currencies and I think they would be trading weapons for weapons, or magic, tech. Whatever it is, let us know and if you are able, sabotage them." N stated. "Sounds like fun." Nyla said with a nod. “As fun as it could be.” I shrugged. Nyla and I headed off, quickly jumping through rooftops and heading towards an airport. It was filled with ships. Gummy, space, ECT. Just space faring vessels for the whole area. Nyla whistled. "Damn, a lot of those are expensive ships." “Jeez, this must be some premo event if all these rich assholes are wanting in on it.” Thankfully my invisibility covered us both well enough to make it to the first ship. Nyla got us in easy enough and we began snooping around. Odds are they're keeping their valuables on their ships. "Class S luxury Intergalactic Star Cruiser. Whoever this ship's owner is has taste." Nyla commented as we walked around. Even I had to admit, this was extremely luxurious, especially for a space ship. “Yeah, this is a pretty snazzy ship that’s for sure.” I nodded in agreement, snooping around as well for anything good. We eventually came across a bedroom of sorts. There was a bar of various liquors, and a large and well made bed, dressers built into the walls and a large screen monitor hanging from the ceiling just above the foot of the bed. Nyla rapidly went for the liquors, looking them over. "Wow, some of these brands are worth millions a bottle!" “Then let’s steal some of them.” I said readily. We began pocketing some of the liquors, and Nyla picked up one of the glass cups. "L.Q… LQ… oh shit I know who's ship this is!" “Who?” I inquired carefully, kind of worried as to why she was acting like that. "LQ, Leviathan Quartz, he's like, the biggest illegal weapons manufacturer in seven galaxies. This guy invented complete and total one shot Genocide planet killing weapons." “Impressive.” I said simply. “What race is he? Cause I immediately thought ‘Gem race’ but Quartz can be used for many different people.” "He's a Pilopo. They're kinda like… birds mixed with crabs." “And there are many crab jokes to be made from that.” I chuckled. "Yeah well he's always packing so try not to make any yourself unless you wanna get blasted into the fourth dimension." “I’ve actually been there once, rather annoying when it’s mostly Time Walkers doing a fuck ton of paperwork.” I shrugged. "Time Walker?" Wow… so this is what it's like to be Cript, overpowered compared to everyone else around you and knowing things nobody else knows… it's upsetting… “Basically the Time Police.” I answered. “And boy howdy do they have a lot of paperwork to go through…” "Right… well in any case, if this is Leviathan Quartz, then I can bet you anything he's got planet killers kept on board." “And we’re going to make sure that they don’t work ever again, or steal them away from this bastard.” "My vote's on stealing. The ammo those things use are made from rare, very valuable materials." “And the weapons, probably more so.” I nodded. “So let’s steal as much as we can and dismantle it later.” After looting the lavish bedroom we went into other places. The kitchen, which of course had only exotic, expensive and high quality food items and cooking utensils. A parlor room which had various rare, expensive and several illegal luxury items. A library filled with stolen texts from many planets worth their own fortunes. Finally we found the storage bay and armory. My gods… some of these might actually be able to hurt even me. I found that a bit hard to believe until I noticed a certain symbol on some of the weapons. Nexus. Figures… “Of course that faction of assholes are still funding these fucks…” I sighed. I guess even after managing to get Vincent to let this Timelines Nexus freeze some must still either want to continue their work, or just up and are using their advanced tech and magic to be criminals… heh, good thing I'm a Cooper then. Dealing with the Underworld's worst is our specialty. “Wait…didn’t Vincent…or Grey give me all of Nexus?” I muttered to myself, now that I’m mulling all that over. "Huh. Weird." Nyla said from where she was. "I think this one was holding a Keyblade." Confused, I walked over to where Nyla was. We stood before an open case. The weapon was gone but the outline of it within the case filled me with rage… I'd recognize that shape anywhere. Void Key… “Oh come the fuck on…” I growled. “What the hell is that thing doing here?” "Probably was stolen, or might be counterfeit." Nyla said. Right, she doesn't know. Wow, all this knowing stuff and having to explain shit is getting kinda old. “Neither, cause this asshole is a sentient parasite that needs to burn in the deepest darkest pit in hell.” I growled. “And normally I’d be all for knowing it all, but this is kinda getting old and boring.” "Okay? So what about this Keyblade has your tail in a knot?" “Because it’s technically not a Keyblade.” I said. “It’s a Parasite in the shape of one, wanting the death’s of everyone so it can control them all with the Void…and also he put one of my wonderful wives in a Coma for years and hurt many other important people in my life.” "Huh. I guess that would do it." She shrugged. "Well, if it's not here, then where is it?" “I don’t know and I don’t like it.” I growled. “Or…he could be possessing Quartz…which is also not good.” "Huh. Well, let's grab the rest of this then worry about that." “Alright.” I nodded. “Let’s get to more stealing.” We finished looting the storage bay and armory, and began making out way out. The next several dozen ships were much the same as the first. Loot, loot and loot. Made me really glad one of them had pocket dimension storage cubes. Not quite an Assistant but it will do. We then came across a ship I was very familiar with… holy shit, this is Braig's ship?! Why… oh right, he's a weapons collector… of course he'd be here then… “Oh god…this is gonna be so awkward if this is the same Braig…” I grumbled to myself. Then again he hasn't trained me yet… but, this is a different timeline… he… doesn't have to die. I mean, he got to be reborn as one of my kids but still… I do miss him. “Ugh…this sucks…” I grumbled, scratching my head bitterly as I had too many thoughts about my old teacher and friend now turned son. Before I could react, Braig's ship opened up, and he was walking out, whistling. He looked a fair bit younger than when I knew him. "Wait what?" He said as he saw us. "Holy- Hey Nyla!" He waved at her. "Braig?!" Nyla said in surprise. "This hunk of crap is your ship?!" "You bet." He laughed, making her laugh as well. Wait they know each other?! “Hold the fuck up, you two know each other?” I asked in shock. "Damn right random raccoon." Braig said, he and Nyla walked up to one another and hi-fived. "This little kitten taught me to shoot and how to fly a ship." "Braig, I'm older than you." Nyla replied. "Only by like, ten years. Speaking of I see you still have not aged a day and looking fine as ever." "Yes, and I see you finally grew tall enough for your ego." She chuckled. "That's not the only thing that grew~" "Oh really? I'll have to see that sometime~" Error, Kite.exe not responding. “I…hate everything I’m seeing right now…” I grumbled. “So why the hell are you here?” "Word on the galactic black market is that this planet is hosting an extensive auction of weapons illegal in almost every galaxy. I came to try and pick up a few… less than legal toys for the collection." "You sure have built it up since the last time I saw it." Nyla said, looking at Braig's packed ship of weapons. "Yeah. So what are you doing here?" "Oh we're stealing all these weapons because we're apparently good guys who steal." Nyla said, looking at me now. “Exactly.” I nodded. “And so far, we’ve stolen a whole lotta goodies from all these assholes…so I have an important question, where’s Void Key?” "What's a Void Key?" Braig asked. "Some parasite shaped like a Keyblade and forged in void or whatever. He's been freaking out about it since he realized it's here." Nyla answered. “And when you're the smartest man in the room, everything tends to be a pain in the ass when you have to explain literally everything.” I frowned. “Did you see anyone acting weird? Like…weirder than whatever nonsense they normally do?” "That's setting a high bar for stuff like this raccoon guy." Brain answered. "So, why are you helping him?" "Free room and board, for now, and cause he literally hunted me down just to ask questions about some guy I know." Nyla replied. "Wow. Determined little trash panda ain't he." "Tell me about it. Wanna join?" "Hmm. Steal a fuch ton of illegal toys and incur the wrath of all the Galactic underworld… throw in some casual sex and I'm in." "Casual sex and expensive liquor." Nyla said, pulling out one of said liquors. Braig grabbed the bottle, chugged some and handed it back. "I'm in!" “Welcome aboard.” I nodded, aggravated that I literally got no word in edgewise for an actual explanation but fuck it, I’m already aggrivated enough by shit today. “So right now, we’re just making sure Rajan and Clockwerk are losing out on business and more important things. "Oh then man you need to hit them where it really hurts. The stuff people brought here to exchange in the auction. Dust in the wind compared to their main storehouses. Wanna hit the Underworld where it hurts, hit them in their homes." Braig said. “And where would these items be? Also when’s the Auction going to occur?” I inquired. “At four am this world's time. Also, most all these types will have an account of such at Moogle Bank to store their fortunes and items.” “And I’d rather not fuck with Moogles.” I said carefully. “Why do the Moogles do business with them again?” Nyla asked. “Their whole species has remained exclusively neutral in all galactic politics. They don’t care if you're evil or good. Munny is Munny, so as long as you don’t start anything in their facilities your business is good.” “Fair enough.” I nodded. “So don’t fuck with the Moogles…and just gotta wait until they bring all their shit here and then take it all.” I said. “Or…I could technically buy out everyone without a single fuck given since…well outside causes that I’m still waiting to bite me in the ass.” “Yeah, you don’t look like the type that can walk into this place.” “With how I look now, that would be the case.” I nodded. “But I’m magic in many different ways to solve that problem, but that’s if we want to have me just walk in and out bid those assholes and not just steal everything while they’re trying to bid.” “Without a name or criminal record on a galactic scale. Plus, buying out everything is often a red flag in this kind of lifestyle.” “Fine fine.” I relented. “So we’ll just have to plan on fucking with everything during the auction night.” “Or, option three.” Nyla said. “And what’s that?” I inquired. “When in doubt, nark out.” “It’s usually the last option but it’s a good way of getting everyone here out of this place, leaving just those who live here.” Braig stated. “Hmm, fair.” I nodded. “But…that’s all dependent on if they’re being protected by Clockwerk or not…and that’s the main thing at the moment.” “As they say in the Underworld. Leave it to the Police to clean.” Nyla added. They arrived way faster than I expected. All kinds of galactic alien law enforcers, even the Guardians of the Galaxy. After an Avengers Endgame scale battle, and all kinds of arrests, deaths and explosions, the airfield here was a mess. And Nyla, Braig and I made off with everything that was usable and wasn’t. Even several ships. “And that is how you nark out.” Nyla said. “Normally we get the cops involved after we’re done stealing everything we can carry and dismantling everything the big bad’s worked for.” I brought up. “Would have saved…a lot more lives…” “Eh, they're all low life scum. No one is crying over their corpses.” Braig said with a dismissal wave. “Plus, easier to keep hold of goods taken off a corpse. Rule 82 of galactic underworld criminals. If the owner’s dead, it’s free game.” “Well, the Cooper’s are a family who steal from other master thieves, or any of these asswipes, to show that all their hard work means absolutely nothing in the greater scheme of things.” I said. “So honestly…seeing them cry in rage as everything around them crumbles before the final blow is struck is at least a bit more appealing to me.” “Heh, guess you aren’t much of a Cooper after all.” Nyla said, turning at looking at me. “Which is fine with me. Plenty of space out there to be a drifter like us.” “You don’t know who I really am, and Braig here…” I grumbled. “Braig won’t know who I really am for probably another…I don’t know, twenty years or something? But I’m also not abandoning my family…even if I’m not a good person in general.” With that done we headed into the auction house. Time to see just what Rajan was selling. Entering the surprisingly well kept intact main airport, the makeshift stage held one item on it… Void Key… I immediately walked forward towards Void Key, grabbed it, and then picked it up. “Alright, now let’s see if this is the real thing, or just some conduit.” I muttered. “Either way, if Void Key feels the insurmountable pain I’m about to put it through…goodie for me.” I said, as I activated Consume and started to devour the rat bastard right in front of Braig and Neyla. It’s form began getting pulled into my skin, almost like it was melting into my body. Void Key oddly didn’t say anything, no cries or noises at all. This conduit body went silently into me. “Damn, just a conduit.” I growled, lightly flexing my hand as Void energy flickered from my hand. “Well, at least no one’s going to be able to use it anytime soon.” “Wow, you’re just full of bullshit powers aren’t ya?” Nyla said. Huh… Wow this is how it feels being Cript… Yeesh… I actually regret calling his bullshit OPness now that I’m doing it… “You have no idea.” I answered simply. “And you’ll see just how strong I am if I get into a fight with someone cause I have a…’curse’ let’s call it on me at the moment.” I said, dispersing the Void energy and stretching a bit before activating my communicator. “Anybody on call right now?” I inquired to my family over our Binocucom channel. ”Do you mind telling what the hell that massive space alien battle was?” Sly picked up. “Oh, just some Galactic Police officers taking down a Galactic Underworld Auction.” I answered. “Me, Nyla, and a new friend stole as much as well could and called the feds on them.” ”There is too much for me to unpack there.” “The police got here, they busted and killed bad guy’s, we stole a bunch of really neat crap.” I summarized. “That help?” ”No. It really doesn’t.” I sighed, rubbing my temples. “Alright, we’ll get back to base before Rajan’s goon’s get here and try to explain everything clearly alright?” ”If you can. Cause… how in the fuck did you turn a stealth and sabatoge mission into a battleground?” That was where Sly left it as he hung up. I sighed. Out of everyone, I know Sly has had a harder time understanding and processing all this stuff with me. I’ve noticed. He’s not good at hiding it. Mom, Dad, Carmalita, Bently, Murray, Uncles Jim and M. They all genuinely don’t mind the insanity… Sly just does though. “It’s almost like looking myself in the mirror when I was first starting out in all this garbage…” I chuckled to myself. We made our way back to base, Braig moving and hiding his ship elsewhere as Nyla and I got inside. Nyla walked off to her room and I found Sly in his. “So, what exactly happened?” He asked me. “So, me and Nyla went off to look into the Auction going on.” I said. “As our pictures concluded, there were many ‘off worlders’, and even more extremely wanted bad guys along with them. Me and Nyla started to steal everything we could while they were away, and then the two of us and our new compatriot, Braig, called the Galactic Police since they were already wanted and were never meant to be on this world to begin with.” I explained carefully. “The…massive fight with the many, many being’s wasn’t really what I had in mind…but sadly that was going to happen either way.” “So all that was how space police handle things?” “That’s how police would do things against bad guy’s that enslave, torture, to even commit planetary genocide.” I answered. “I…” I sighed out, looking at my Sly…my older brother…”Please, tell me what’s wrong?” “What do you mean?” “I suppose I’m just being paranoid,” “As you normally are.” Sly added. “But I’m just worried that…with all this craziness going on…everyone else is going along with it in strides…but you…I’m scared to lose you due to all of this, not because of injuries or the like…but the fact that all of these things are hard to understand and just…happening in general.” I explained to the best of my ability, hating how a lot of the times I had to say something important, it just didn’t feel like coming out right. “You know what I mean?” “I… won’t lie. I’m not exactly happy.” “And why aren’t you happy?” I asked. “I understand all of this is crazy, believe me, it took me a long time to get over most of it.” “It’s not so much the craziness as… well… it’s you.” I sighed out. “Honestly…I fully expected one of you to still not be okay with me in some capacity…even after we went through that whole ‘hear to heart’...” “It’s not like I don’t still care about you… but… I still feel… lied to. Everything we went through, and you knew all of what was going to happen, and you… I know when we were little, you didn’t have your… powers, back, but still. Meeting Bently and Murry, pushing me and Carmalita together. You’ve been… pushing for certain things to happen, but you never just… let things play out normally?” “So…just gonna start with you and Carmalita…no, I was gonna push you two together whether I knew what was going to happen or not, cause both of you are just adorable together.” I pointed out. “And two…well…not everything played out like ‘normal’ from how I thought it would go…” I started carefully. “And how you thought it would go was based on a child's video game?” “Honestly, I only thought about the ‘main story beats’ as it were…everything else would have been completely different and even I wouldn’t have known certain events…and then I learned that Vincent and group of baddies got involved…” I sighed. “Which that threw a wrench into literally everything…” I shook my head. “Listen, I’m just gonna get to a point…it’s fine for you to hate me, I hate myself a lot as I…still believe I’m personally responsible for everything going to absolute shit, even when my own family tells me ‘everything’s fine’...and when my Time Walker, the one that’s allowing me to do this crap, tells me ‘while you did change some events, it was outside forces that caused the rest’...” I shook my head. “Believe me when I say…if you hate me, that’s fine, and I openly welcome it.” I said, getting that whole bit off my chest as I didn’t want other’s to feel terrible because of my dumb decisions. “I don’t hate you Kite… I just… don’t trust you…” Somehow, that hurt so much worse… After that I went to my room, laid on my bed and was thinking to myself. “Heh…” I started to chuckle to myself. “My own selfish desires…wanting to relearn what it’s like to have fun, to be carefree and do the right thing with a family…and all I do is mess everything up, make my family not trust me because of my dumb decisions…again...” “And this is why Admins choose to forget.” I looked over, seeing my Time Walker sitting on a chair at my desk, playing with a basketball. “You can’t relearn to live and be in a happy family when your memories of your failed ones are weighing you down.” “That’s why if I do this again, I’m doing it without my memories…it hurts less people…” I sighed. “But I can’t turn back now, this is a special timeline now due to my deal with Vincent…and I’m just gonna have to suffer more because of it.” I said simply. “Well, just goes to show, immortal beings can never truly be happy, unless they forget who they are.” “We can be happy…I wouldn’t be…well doing thing’s or still alive if I thought I wasn’t…” “Well, whatever your choices, from this point on your actions will decide what all their futures will hold. Happiness or despair, life or death. All that is up to you now.” “I want them all to be happy…” I said. “I…already hurt them enough with my mistakes…I want to do something to fix that.” “Well, what will you be doing then?” “Only thing I can do…play out this bet…and Consume Clockwerk, so he can never hurt my family ever again.” I growled. “And help the many people who’s been affected by him…and steal everything that won’t make too much noise from all these bad guys.” “Calling the space cops on the galactic underworld’s biggest players probably didn’t help in terms of not making noise.” “That was after we stole a majority of their shit, and then during the fight we stole even more of their shit.” I shrugged. “Just…wish there wasn’t that many deaths…” “You had to have known that was going to end in a mass shootout?” “I knew it was…” I sighed. “Guess I’m just too used to having Second Chance that…seeing other’s die is a little hard for me…” “Too used to being able to prevent mass death.” The Time Walker stated as he continued to play with the ball. “And with that power gone, where will that leave you and your choices?” “And you're not helping…” I grumbled, already having enough on my mind. “I’m not here to help. I’m here so you can talk our thoughts out.” “You know…I find it funny how, ninety percent of the time…if I do something for myself, it always ends up poorly for myself and a lot of other people, even if it’s supposed to be harmless.” I said plainly. “Like?” “This for starters.” I motioned. “I did this as supposedly harmless fun, trying not to think to much of it or use whatever knowledge I had of the world around me…but no, it all had to get flipped because I was born...” I growled. “This entire world got sucked into a bunch of Nexus bullshit because I decided ‘why not try something new for myself? What’s the worst that could happen?’, and lo and fucking behold, a whole lotta bad shit happens.” I growled. “Then I can go on a list of other bullshit…how I could have lost the people I care about either through my actions or inactions…” “When you mean to do well and end up causing a bigger mess.” They said, spinning the ball on a gloved finger. “Did you ever wonder how things would have happened had you not meddled into the Nexus affairs in this world?” “I mean, they would have strip mined the planet and used the people as slaves, like they were already doing after supporting Clockwerk in his bullshit.” I explained, stating the obvious here. “And yet, the timeline of this world started the same in the one you came from as it is this one. Tell me, have you even looked into the Nexus files for this planet?” “I honestly haven’t had the time.” I answered. “But please, explain to me how I’m probably only making things worse…” “Well, this planet was still turning, and Sly still entered the Thieves in Time events. You might wanna read those files.” “My point.” I stated, getting up from the bed and going over to my work table, which held plenty of the Nexus files. “Just more proof…” It wasn’t hard to find the main files for Nexus, just find the ones that were kept in the highest security and… Storage. They dubbed this planet unfit for conversion or colonization. Once the Monofilament was mined out, they were to convert all bases set up to Storage. I proceeded to get up, and walk out of my room. I walked out of the base and just sat on the roof. If I’d done nothing… “Can’t predict the consequences of good or bad actions.” The Time Walker said, appearing behind me. “Shut up…” I said. “It just proves to me…again…that thing’s would have been better off if I wasn’t born…none of this would have happened…everything would have been the same, nothing too bad would have happened…” “Well, your options now are to soldier on, or wash your hands of it.” They said, making me look up at them. “I can’t just ‘wash my hands’ of it, I have that deal with Vincent, I can’t just go back on it…” I brought up. “True, and what about them?” He motioned. Through the roof skyline I saw Mom and Dad cooking, Sly and Carmalita playing chess. Bently and Uncle M doing something on a computer, Murray and Uncle Jim lifting weights. “Will you go back on them?” “Never.” I stated bluntly. “Then tell me, what’s your choice, Admin?” I looked at everyone down there…my family…”It’s gonna be another big conversation with all of them…” I sighed out. “Goodie…” I muttered. “And here I was hoping something would get…simpler here…” “You’re an Admin, at war against the oldest entity, or one of them, in this grand machine we call home all while training in every conceivable way possible at once just to fill this insecurity you have about losing everything. You can never be simple.” “It’s not really an insecurity when it could literally happen at any time.” I pointed out. “And yet the world keeps turning.” They said. “You need more than therapy, my wolf in racoon’s clothing.” “Lyra would say otherwise.” I said simply. “Yes well the mint green devil isn’t here. You, tell me, what do you most want to do this very moment? What do you want to do to the ones that are hurting your family, the people, right now?” “I want to tear them limb from god damn limb that’s what I want to do.” I stated. “Then why don’t you? You know where Rajan is, and it’s not like he’s a match for you.” “Because I’m supposed to be better, I’m a thief, not an assassin.” I countered. “Plus, yes he would be because I still have Equilibrium stuck to me…plus the way I want to beat him, I need to get him just angry enough, slam his ego just enough, and hope to god he’s still hydrophobic for it all to play out.” “And if he isn’t?” “Then my poor sitar needs to get benched again, and I’d rather that not happen cause I barely use it enough, and I don’t want to get rusty with it…plus I started listening to a really good song.” “So your grand plan sums up to sing a song and get the kitty wet. Wow, how clever.” “Okay first of all asshole, so far you have basically told me ‘hey, just so you know, everything you’ve done has been fucking everything up’, and now you have the audacity to start thinking my idea’s for how to deal with a person nonlethally is bad when you barely do shit?” “Oh, I do more than you see. While you’re here messing up your own personal timeline, I’m going through time dealing with Nexus Runners and making sure they don’t kill my comrades to steal their keyblades to make more of Void Key’s conduit blades. So pardon my lack of empathy towards your self made issues.” “Oh I’m sorry, it’s not like I’m currently trying to stop the bastard that’s causing these problems to begin with, but please oh messiah of not giving a shit, I’m so sorry for offending you.” I said sarcastically. “You want to help? Try stepping foot on the actual battle grounds and put your so-called efforts and training to use.” “I’m sorry, I thought Time Walkers were supposed to be smart.” I said. “But apparently no, your fucking not if you don’t understand that, the moment I step into the battlefield, and I have had this made abundantly clear by many people, the moment I step in and fight on the front lines, this makeshift stalemate is going to end and everything will fall apart around us in the crossfire.” I stated bluntly. “I have been told, countless times, no matter how hard I prepare any and all defenses for the Kingdom, it’ll mean jack fucking shit…then everything I’m fighting for will be gone.” “So you say. I think you’re just a bitch with a bigger bark than bite.” “And I think your just a stuck up bureaucrat that can barely handle a real fucking fight when they could be behind a desk wasting away precious time just to be a vague asshole!” I didn’t notice when the environment changed, all I felt was the impact that sent me flying across this empty void-like space. I looked back up, seeing the Time Walker, Gazing Eye drawn and pointed at me. “Ready to put your money where your mouth is?” I didn’t answer as I slammed my fist into their gut before they could react, sending them flying away from me as I brought out Interdiction. “Then you better not bore me ya fucking pencil pusher.” They rushed back just as fast, slamming their Keyblade into Interdiction hard enough to cause a sonic boom from the impact of our clash. And our fight began. “Aw, the time walker can throw an attack, aren’t you just adorable.” I taunted, twisting the blade away and using Haki to harden my tail as I tried to smack the bastard in the face hard. They dodged, rapidly kicking my leg and taking my temporary loss of footing to impale me, then tossing me off their Keyblade. My body rapidly regenerated and I moved before he could get me again. He’s good. I’ll give him that. Not many people can land a hit on me. I shot off a bolt of Interdiction that then split into dozen’s as I brought out Sharpshooters and fired a fully charged shot afterwards. They deflected it all, Blue energy covering their Keyblade as time around us seemed to reverse, enough that the bolts reappeared, but rather than vanish they continued, shooting back at me. They didn’t deal much but he then began shooting off more and more of my own bolts at me through puffs of that blue energy that was appearing around the area. I swapped to Lindworm, deflecting all the energy bolts away, before jumping high into the air and thrusting all my lances down onto him. Again, he rewound time with the blue energy. Rapidly he let them fall back, only for me to suddenly be under them. I wasn’t able to stop them all, one managed to slam into my arm, but I healed the second I pulled it out. “Oh, you want to play with Time?” I asked, swapping to Fair Game. “I can do that too, asshole.” I stated as I threw several cards as a distraction as I was already starting to formulate a plan for this. In one swing he cut all the cards to pieces and suddenly, there were five of him, and each one was rushing at me from different spots. “Wow, where have I seen that bit before?” I muttered, a large card appearing behind me with a clock symbol on it, the clock rewinding as the five was reversed back into one who was just slashing my cards to bits, which I appeared from one of the ever so tiny cards stuck to the shreds and haymackered the bastard hard. The return impact I got I didn’t even see. Then another, and another. Shit, he’s not even moving? The hell is hitting me?! I was still receiving mystery damage when he got back up and used my state to deal damage I could see on me. I was on the ground now, feeling pinned and stabbed but there weren’t wounds, and no one was on me. The hell?! I used Fair Game to swap places from underneath that random ass person and away from the group, drawing my Keyblade and Frozen Pride. “Okay…that’s a little new…” He raised his Keyblade at me. Suddenly something kicked me in the back, then uppercutted me. What the hell is that?! I barely had time to dodge and block him when he actually swung at me. That same invisible force kicked me in the knee, making me buckle and giving him the chance to slam me to the ground and stab me. Wait, this pain’s location… That was when I was… My eyes widened. He’s putting future attacks, pain and damage to me in the present time?! That’s bullshit! “Okay now that’s legit bullshit.” I countered, rushing forward and slashing at the Time Walker again, trying to distract his concentration or whatever the hell he’s doing. I don’t know how, but he was in front of me, I was about to hit him, then suddenly he was up close to me, giving me the uppercut I remember feeling earlier. Shit! “Diamond wasn’t this difficult…” I muttered to myself, getting back to my feet as I used Fair Game again. “Alright asshole, you want to do time shit? Well let’s make it faster.” I growled, as multiple time cards showed up with Foudre as the Minute and Hour Hands, as electricity and time magic started to fuze together as I bolted towards him again. Despite my new speed and time magic fused he still countered or blocked me. What’s worse, he was surpassing my speed, rapidly! He tore through cards and slammed his fist hard into my face. I felt my nose break on that one as he continued the force and punched my head clear into the ground behind me. And there’s the skull fracturing… Damn it! Who is this asshole?! “Alright you…who in the fuck are you?” I asked, “None of your business.” They replied. Well at least they finally spoke! “Kinda is to be honest.” I stated. “Cause even after all the shit I had to put up with and all the brand new fucking powers I got…the fact that your still faster than me and doing some weird time shenanigans seems a little off.” “Then I guess you did all that for nothing.” He said, swinging his Keyblade and rushing me again. I grabbed his keyblade and his face. “Oh, you picked the worst choice of words to say to me.” I said coldly, as I slammed him straight into the ground extremely hard, before kicking him in the ribs that send him flying. “Cause you know nothing.” I growled, pulling out Skysplitter and Lunatic and leaping after him, reaching up to where he was in that single leap and swinging both of my super charged weapons straight down into him. “I know everything about you.” He said, grabbing my wrist and breaking it, pushing me off and pinning me to the ground. “I know everything you have done, will do, and worst of all, can do. That’s my job.” “Well isn’t that just fan-fucking-tastic.” I growled, headbutting the bastard to get him off me. “Yet more vague bullshit that I’m magically not allowed to know about,.” “You want to know? You fuckers win.” He said, making me stop and pause as I looked at him. “And not just against Grey, against a real fucking monster. When I’m from, you all built utopia. Or as close to it as you can. Small things are still issues but nothing world ending.” “H-hold the fuck up what?” I blinked. “But…okay seriously…who are you?” He got off me. I got up and he pulled his cloak hood back. He looked human, but then I sensed it… Nothingness. “My species hasn’t officially been made yet. Still some… thousand or so years away til you do. Nobody Race. You are so unoriginal.” “Listen, when the first new race happened to be called ‘Floof Noodles’ because some cosmic entity wanted to laugh at me for a cute pet name…” I frowned. “Also naming is very difficult damn it.” I huffed. “Whatever. I’m just doing my job.” “I doubt being an asshole to me is part of your job.” I said. “But…I can make a pretty good guess as to why you’re here if you said you’re from…after we win.” “My job is to keep an eye on you across your entire lifetime. And given your fat fluffy ass is immortal, it’s a long, long job.” “Hey, no dissing my fat fluffy ass.” I countered. “And…yeah I can see where that ultimately goes…” I sighed. “Did it happen yet?” “Much to my regret, no. And it’s not Madness, you found a cure for that but it’s only good for you and ‘The Family’ given there’s complications in actually distributing that kind of, nope, can’t say more. All you need to know is that my job is to kill you should you get too bored.” “Fair enough.” I nodded. “And I presume you’re an asshole because that’s either part of the job or you just straight hate the fact that you have to be around me for all eternity.” “Both, actually. I hate you extremely and having to watch your lazy ass and living through history I learned in school just fuels that hate.” “Right then.” I nodded. “So that clears that up…” I sighed. “Well, what do you do besides watch over me like the Grim Reaper?” “Shit like this where I get to kick your ass and enjoy it.” “That sounds…kinda boring.” I said honestly. “Fun for me.” They said. “I get to kick your ass and insult you about your problems. For me, this is a win-win.” “And for logical people, that sounds completely counterintuitive to what you're actually supposed to be doing chucklefuck.” I pointed out “You’re not supposed to drive your quarry completely apeshit before thing’s are resolved.” “Bitch please you- Woah almost gave a spoiler there. Look, I hate you both because of the history I’m living through now, and because frankly, learning your history… you causing your own problems. The solutions are so simple, most of them are in your face and yet your dumb ass just does the more complicated bullfuck route.” “Now you understand what kind of ultradepression esc bullshit I have to deal with everyday because my history is a convoluted mess, and also no…a lot of my problems are not just simply ‘point a to b’...some of them are yes, but not all of them.” “Alright then, let me ask this… have you even tried using your Kingsblade, your Admin level keyblade, to unlock the kids locks?” “Yes actually.” I answered. “But I decided not to because Clockwerk might have rigged it to explode if I did that, that’s also why I didn’t use my Code to hack into it cause he also rigged it to explode if it was fucked with, cause Vincent was training that rat bastard to do many things, and Code is one of those many things.” I explained. “While I could test it out, it’s a fifty fifty shot on if the kid will be alright if I’m lucky and Clockwerk wasn’t that fucking spiteful against me.” “And did you think to shrink the kid so the collar and chains just slid off?” “And either have the kid react poorly to that sudden thing, or again, the thing goes off anyways because said child was affected by it?” I asked. “I know these simple answers, believe me, I’m not the dumbass you think I am, but with what little I know of Clockwerk’s knowledge of Code, I have to be careful with it.” “Well it’s not like you doing nothing is helping the kid, and when Rajan gets his future bride then they’re really fucked.” “That’s why we need to find the family fast, to prevent that from happening.” I said honestly. “Still gonna need to get to Rajan and kick his ass…” “Gods you’re oblivious to the obvious answers.” He sighed, rubbing his temples. “And again, you're not helping.” I stated simply. “I know you’re not allowed to spoil things, but saying ‘obvious answers’ when you already know how this is going to play out just makes you sound like a jackass.” “Eh. Alright, look, I can’t tell you right out, but I can give you a hint. If only to end this stupid talk. Sneak into Rajan’s office.” “Only reason why I didn’t do that was because I thought someone else already did.” I said, thinking that we had someone sneak into Rajan’s office not too long ago. “They did, to plant that bug. But what you’ll be looking for can’t be overheard or hacked into.” “Fair enough.” I nodded. “Wonder if I should do this solo or get someone to tag along…” I muttered. “Maybe…I can at least try to get Sly to trust me…” “Do whatever.” They said. Suddenly, he slapped me hard. I woke up feeling really sore, and back in my room. Ouch… All that crap, and he KO’d me with a slap… Well, if he’s meant to kill me in a worst case scenario… “Christ…” I grumbled. “That was…all around annoying as shit…” I got up, checking myself in the mirror and seeing my face was a bit swollen. Damn, whatever time that guy is from… I must be way stronger than I am now if he can inflict damage like this to me now… oddly, that makes me a little happy. We do win, and I do get stronger. “Everything’s going to…finally be okay…” I muttered. “Everything I’m doing…it’ll all work out in the end…” I spent some time cleaning myself up before heading to Sly’s room. “Woah, did you piss off Matilda?” He asked upon seeing my swollen cheek. “No, thankfully.” I said. “Just had to deal with some…personal things.” I said carefully. “So, how would you like to do a mission today with me?” “I thought the missions were done for the day?” “Call it a…trust exercise.” I said carefully. “If you say so, I guess. So, what are we doing then?” “We’re going to be figuring out where the royal hostages are.” I answered. “And where will we be searching then?” “Rajan’s personal office.” I answered. “Cause while the bug was good…there’s more there that we need to find.” “Something the bug can’t get to? So files or a journal then?” “Or a secret passage way to Rajan’s secret sex dungeon cause at this point I wouldn’t be surprised if he had one.” “I’m hoping for paperwork. If it’s what you just said, I’ll be taking a vacation to forget that.” “That would be for the best.” I nodded. “So…will you trust me enough to do this?” “If it means finding the royal family and freeing those kids, I’ll have to.” “Alright.” I nodded. “Let’s…just get this over with then…” I said, still feeling incredibly hurt with Sly’s words. Sly grabbed his cane and we headed off. After all that fighting, a lot of Rajan’s security was stretched thin. Finding his office was easy and sneaking in was just as easy. Once inside we began to look around. “Odds are Rajan will keep it either in a hidden safe or secret door.” Sly said as he felt along the walls and bookshelves. “Most likely.” I said, searching through the many drawers around the place carefully as I also used Scan to check the entire room for anything of importance or a secret door. After some searching we found a hidden safe kept behind a false wall. Opening it we found several files, a journal, and a metallic feather like remote. Clearly Clockwerk’s. Looking that over, it was an override key. This must be what can free, chain or kill the people with Clockwerk’s code collars. “And now we have the override key.” I said with a smile. “This can help save all the slaves and imprisoned.” “These files detail all the royals, both the children and parents… oh no…” Sly muttered. “What’s wrong?” I asked quickly. “Please tell me it’s not too late…” “No, they’re alive. But if I’m reading this right, each of the… ‘wives’ has already produced a daughter. And, if I’m reading this right, Rajan is going to pass them along to something called a Time Runner to groom and age them to adults to be his immediate brides. I’m assuming Time Runners are some Time Travelers that aren’t good?” “In a sense yes, except instead of using magic, they literally run so fast they can run through time.” I said honestly. “Like the Flash except they do it for terrible reasons.” “Like taking babies to be groomed into obedient wives for an egotistical cat with a superiority complex. If these files are right, the wedding day will be the same day as the execution of the prince, his concubines and the other kids… and it’s in two days.” “Shit.” I growled. “We have to work fast to stop all of this, and thankfully a lot of Rajan’s asset’s have been either stolen, taken, or just straight murdered due to that…event.” “Right… Well, it says here the Prince and the concubines are all kept on one of his Spice farms way up in northern India. And the rest of the kids are dotted all across the country. You got any godlike speed to reach them?” “Yes, yes I do.” I nodded. “It’s gonna take a while still, but hopefully this’ll all work out…” “Well, you best get running, I’ll take all this back to the base. Just take the Override key.” “Stay safe alright?” I asked, gently taking the Override key. “And…I’m sorry…” I sighed out bitterly. “Just, next time you pick a fight with another Godlike entity or whatever you deal with, try not to give me a heart attack. You are still my baby brother. Hearing you get blasted to the moon, across the planet and stabbed isn’t something I like to hear even if you can survive all that.” “Yeah…” I nodded simply. “We’re still family after all.” “I never said we weren’t.” With a nod and a small smile I brought out Fondure and rushed off. I already had the locations of all the kids and the prince and his concubines. I moved faster than any of the guards could react, using the Override Key to unlock their collars and chains and quickly dropping them off at the base. Given the distance between them all, it took me about three hours before the kids, the prince and his concubines were all safe. For an added measure, when I rescued them I also burned down that Spice farm. “Now see, why can’t you do that to reassure me.” Sly asked as I was checking them all over. The kids were alright, but the Prince and his concubines were all still really high from the Spices. “Because my life is a fucking mess and I can’t reassure shit because when I do, I only hurt people important to me.” I stated bluntly. “I’m sorry just…stating that fact about myself…” “Doesn’t mean you can’t try.” He said, picking up one of Fondure’s knives. “So this knife makes you run fast and controle lightning?” “It’s one of over a thousand dagger’s…and I have heard different takes on it, either it was handcrafted from a massive electrical storm in space due to certain reasons…or Thor’s baby teeth, and I’m not sure which one is correct.” I said carefully. “Weird.” He said, getting a small shock from the knife. “Hmm… Can you make weapons like this?” “Yes I can actually.” I said honestly. “It will just take me some time to find the right materials and crafting it. Even without my real powers, it took me well over two years to craft you all your Christmas Gifts…god-like powers or not, if I want to make something, I’m not gonna half ass it with a wave of my hand.” I said simply. “Think you can make me a cane with whatever energy you controle?” “That would be Nothingness.” I said. “And sure…do you want a brand new one or do you want me to reforge your cane with it?” “I guess a new once, since this is just a replica, and I gave dad the family cane back.” “Fair enough.” I nodded. “Do you want it just as a normal cane or do you want anything else added to it?” "Well, I guess some fancy powers would be neat." “I can make it as fancy as you want.” I said, walking over to my work table and starting to literally craft the Cane out of Nothingness. “Think of any fictional media, and I can give it to this wonderful cane.” "Huh… can you make it shoot out like a rope or something that I can use to climb or walk across?" “Yes.” I nodded. “That’s just a simple grappling hook to be honest.” I shrugged, starting to add in the rope and firing mechanism for the hook to act as the grapple. "Yeah, but can you make it able to not need to be attached to anything for me to climb or run across it? Like, the rope floats in the air?" “Well it’s a good thing Nothingness can work like that.” I nodded, bringing out the Thorn rope. “And don’t worry, it may look thorny and fluid, but it’s incredibly durable and harmless to the wielder and they’re allies.” I explained simply. “So, we got the grappling hook and rope, anything else?” "Can you add something that, like if I fall off something, like a pole or can't make a large jump it can hook into the air so I can catch and swing myself?" “Sure.” I nodded. “Hmm…do I still have air gems?” I wondered as I went into one of my drawers and dug through it a bit. “Ah, here we are.” I said happily, pulling out a very light green gem that looked like it held a gust of wind inside of it. “And with this, you can do a whole lot more with it.” I said while putting it into the cane and smithing it in. “Now your Cane is attuned to the Wind Element, where it can latch onto the air, use wind magic, and a bunch of other nifty things.” "That is impressive. I also didn't know wind had it's own magic." “You’d be surprised to know that everything has magic to it.” I said honestly. “All you need to know is where to find it, and how to channel it.” I said simply. "That's fair, especially given some of our ancestors." Sly said with a nod. “Yeah, and honestly…didn’t know our family was this magic.” I said honestly. “I knew we were kinda magic with some of the Cooper techniques but…literal sages? That was new to me.” "Considering dad's special technique was to walk on light beams itself, not too surprising." He shrugged. "So how much can you pack into this thing?" “As much as you want me to.” I said honestly. “Cause I have mastered many ways of crafting thing’s cause…well crafting is cool, so I can fit a lot of things into this.” I said honestly. “Also, I find it surprising that you all don’t question me more when I don’t know something.” The next few hours I spent with Sly making this cane were honestly the most we bonded since my Admin stuff came out. It was nice, reminding me of simpler times back on Cane Island. When it was done there was actually little Sly's cane can't do. Majority of it was either magic takes on gadgets, or safety measures Sly wanted. Once it was finished I was helping Sly learn to use it properly. "So your energy is called Nothingness because… it doesn't exist in a normal sense?" He asked while practicing running along the thorns his cane generated. “Pretty much.” I shrugged. “Before it was the ‘inbetween’ of Light and Darkness, the soul and body without the Heart, or the other forces…and then Void came into the picture…” "Right, which your Nothingness… can break it apart?" “Break Apart, or in cases with Void corrupted being ‘Cure’.” I said. "Okay, but what's with your real form being that huge… wolf?" “I am a Den Mother Dire Wolf.” I said. “And…that’s a long and..highly complicated explanation. I don’t even know if I could put it in simple words…” I sighed out. “But all I can say is, I was ‘reborn’ as a dire wolf…and then I decided to become both genders because I was…kinda pressured into doing it, but eh.” "Well… do you enjoy being both genders?" “Yes, yes I do.” I nodded. “I’m still me…and honestly, after becoming a Den Mother…well, there are lewd plusses to that, but I got stronger, faster…and honestly, being a mother is a wonderful feeling.” "I guess that makes sense. But does that mean that Wolf guy you really did… rutt with them?" “I did.” I nodded. “Honestly, that whole thing…I blame puberty for a lot of that horniness.” "Right, so does mean you were in your wolf form or did you gender swap your current one?" “I was in my wolf form the entire time.” I said simply. “And I was more confused on why he wasn’t feeling a darn thing, figured out his…’handler’ destroyed his emotional center…then I fixed that, and boy howdy did he go from monotone and stoic to the goodest boy.” I chuckled, still remembering that silly woof’s face when I called him a good boy with his emotions back. "Heh, well alright." Sly said as he dropped in front of me. "I think that's all I can process for today. Bad enough I know you, Matilda and Jing have fairly regular sex, I don't think I want to imagine your sex life as the two gendered oversexualized wolf god you are." “You do not, and I am not ‘oversexualized’, believe me.” I said honestly. “So, any other questions you don’t need to process?” "No, I'm good for today. And tomorrow we're hitting Rajan in his base. A bit ago M said the Bug picked up he was furious that everyone was taken and you burned that one Spice farm. Apparently he's planning on meeting up with his soon to be brides and Clockwerk tomorrow instead of after the wedding. So if we don't get him before he leaves with them we might not catch him again until who knows when." “Yeah, we need to get to him before he meets up with Clockwerk.” I said simply. “And if I fight Clockwerk…it’s not gonna be pretty.” "I don't expect it to be." Sly added. To be continued...
Nobody meet's Alternate TimelinesAuthor's Note Hi, yes, I am here to rectify a massive mistake of mine, I accidentally posted this on Lone Wolf, which is a completely different story. I am very sorry, and have fixed it Nobody meet's Alternate Timelines I sat on a rock in the new training pocket Dimension Script made for us. Given I'm not on his level of power, he wanted to show me both how, when, and what it means to be an Heir Cript. This pocket dimension wasn't too fancy, a simple world in space, sun, moon, forests, breathable air we didn't even need. “So…what’s the training going to be?” I inquired to Cript, given that I was still planning on going to the version of Warhammer 40K my four kid’s went to to have some well needed diplomacy. "For starters, I need to ask you a probably not so simple question." Cript said, taking a seat on the rock across from me. "What do you think it means to be an Heir Cript?" “I mean, there’s a lot of context needed, but from what I’ve gathered over the many…many years I’ve had to deal with Vincent’s special brand of genetic engineering horseshit,” I lightly rubbed my temples in remembering how outrageously complex it all was. “Is that the ‘Heir’ part is to be taken literally, the ‘Heir’ to something so hyper specific, you with Mother, Heart with Kingdom Hearts, and a few others that you brought up that’s kind of slipping my mind right now cause I have a very important diplomacy meeting going on with a giant group of super racists, extra angry Zerg, and four Embodiments that call themselves ‘gods’.” "And by diplomacy you mean actual talking or combat?" “From the knowledge I have on 40K, it’ll be a combination of both.” I said. “Talking from the more…willing to talk, and fighting from at least the super racists.” I shrugged. “So did I get that part right about Heir Cripts? "Partly." Cript said. "While true, Heir Cripts are made to be the heir to some late or new incarnation of a former entity, we are first and foremost, living weapons Vincent made to either fight in his boredom or tools to use if we follow him. However, we all have one thing in common. We can't stop getting stronger. Every Heir Cript is basically limitless in regards to power potential. Like the Grey energy, only without it. Like a tier or two down from what Vincent actually is thinking about it. Basically we're meant to be strong enough to be a challenge but we can't get strong enough to win." “So there’s technically a hard cap to what Cript’s can do?” I asked. "Yes and no. Like Vincent we will always be getting stronger, through combat, training or just the passage of time, but that's where we fall flat. Vincent has had incalculable amounts of time to sit and let his power grow as well as combat and past Heirs. His advantage over us Currently is the time he has had to get to where he is now." I frowned. Countless years, literal eternity and so many resets… something we can't replicate without him also getting those years too… “Hmm…so what are we going to do about it? Some weird Hyperbolic Time Chamber nonsense to catch up?” "More or less but it requires special Hardware Lord is looking for now. If he finds it we might actually have a fair fight." Cript said with a nod. "But, for now it's time you learn more of the things Heirs can do." “Like what?” I asked, honestly intrigued by what an Heir might be able to do that wasn’t already known. “Also…just thought of a thing…Jericho’s supposed to be Belief right? Or am I mistaking that for another timeline that ran through my head last night?” "Dunno. At this point time is fucked so," He shrugged, standing up and walking over to a nearby patch of grass. He fell back and laid on his back. "First, lay down next to me." I could have made a silly little picnic joke, but decided against it as I hopped off the rock and laid down next to Cript, just enjoying the beauty of nature. "Now, I want you to look up at the moon." Cript said. I did just that, seeing the moon up in the sky. "Now focus." I did just that, staring at the moon and focusing, trying to figure out what he’s got in mind for this little exercise. As I did, I kept looking at the surface of it. It was a typical moon. Various metals making up the rock and soil. A few larger rocks here and there, deposits of iron, tin, copper and ECT scattered about on and under the surface- wait… how did I… “I…don’t think I was using any vision enhancers…” I muttered, double checking and noticing that yes I wasn’t using any skills to make my already great eyesight that good. "Now, where is the footprint I left on it?" I looked back at the moon, looking at the surface. Ah, there it is on… wait what the?! I sat up, blinking as… how can I look at this side of the moon but… also see the other side of it in full detail? “Okay…what the fuck…” I said. “Like…sure I’ve kind of done that with skills but…that’s kinda trippy.” "Now, close your eyes." Cript said. I laid back down and did that. "Now keep focusing on the moon." After a moment I had to check and make sure my eyes were actually closed. I could still… see it. The details just as clear as when my eyes were open and… I looked closer. Seeing the smaller structures. The dirt and dust particles… the molecules… atomic structures… the sub-atomic structures… the smallest partial, and soon the code making up that smallest partial. “This is extremely trippy…” I muttered. “I can literally see it’s Code…how?” "It's how Heirs work. With just a little bit of effort we can see, hear, smell, taste and feel things that grow all the way to the code level on anything around us. Far greater than Admins can even. And by passively reading that data, we learn about how it's all made and how it works from the code level to the big stuff." So that's how he learns so fast! I can bypass the study and read the code directly and skip so much prep and effort! “You can not believe how great this is for work.” I sighed out happily. “Also, bitch, you knew I was going to be right about half the things we bet on!” I said, not kinda feeling jipped on our bets if he knew I was going to be right. Cript just chuckled. "Now, let me ask you this. How do you think I advance the development of life on a planet?" Cript asked, putting a hand to the grass and causing flowers to grow there. “Chronologically, or Alphabetically?” I deadpanned. "Surprise me." I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Well…given that we’re having this special brand of conversation, I believe it’s either you being the Heir to Mother herself, or it’s the fact that you are literally changing it’s Code to…accelerate the process.” I said. “Using yourself as a super processor to help facilitate the Code to work overtime and finally made life itself not look like an AOL loading bar with poor internet.” "Heh. More or less. While there are many means to do this, using code, creating those foundation particles and ordering them to shape the miles and atoms needed to make life, and fully grown life, is simple. Now, King, sit up and use the Focus on me." I raised a brow at that. “Well…if you say so.” I said while using my brand new Focus on Cript, to finally take a deep dive into what makes him tick. Holy… What I saw was very complex. Very full of information the likes of which I don't think Scan could ever give… and it was also so familiar… It was like looking at a character sheet written in Code. His HP, MP, cellular structures, genetics, abilities, his rate of growth for his stats, it was like… a Developer menu for Cript and everything he is. "Impressed?" Cript asked with a laugh. “Well…never thought I’d see a Developer Menu in the form of a character sheet.” I said honestly. "Yup. You are looking at my Code Profile sheet. Everything I am, can be, will be and ECT is there. Normally Admins have to put a lot of effort to see these, let alone modify one. But for Heirs, seeing them is easy, modifying them can be, if our will is greater than the target." So… this is how… holy shit! Second Chance and Love Struck! “Wait…” I shook my head. “Hold the fuck up…I just had an earth shattering revelation that…well, Second Chance is…” I brought out that special Keyblade. “Wow…I…never thought that Memory Stealer and Second Chance were…this powerful…” I said, knowing Love Struck was ‘created’ by Cript but…thinking that I literally had all this power literally at the start of my adventure was kind of mind boggling, even if it wasn’t fully complete at the time. "Yup. Anything that can modify someone or something like that modifies the profile set up or makes one for them, does. It's extremely powerful yet also not as uncommon. Similar magics and such exist but those can all be reversed. Those ones can't." He informed. "Not with our time travel shenanigans anyway." “And the fact that God just kinda…gave me such a weapon right off rip is kinda terrifying in context.” I said nervously. “Oh I could have done…a lot of bad things.” "And then some." Cript said. "Hence why when we met I kept an eye on you and offered you to join my Family. There are few things I consider a threat and you, King, are one of them. So I adopted you… and as usual with me ended up seducing you." He laughed. “Listen, if it wasn’t for Memory Stealer, it probably would have involved me trying to be Batman.” I brought up. “And yes, I’ve seen those universes…also, would argue Den did more of the seducing…” I chuckled. “Though yes, yes you did indeed seduce me.” "True, Anyway, onto the next part. Summon one of your other weapons for me. You kinda learned this with Lord but he was an even worse teacher." “Yeah.” I agreed as I pulled out Skysplitter. “He barely teached me shit…” "Yeah. Anyway, use Focus on your weapon." I did just that. Everything about it, the materials, molecules and particles, the giant soul within, everything. I now had a perfect mental blueprint of the weapon. "Now use that knowledge you just learned and make an exact replica." “Should be…simple enough.” I said while trying to make an exact replica of Skysplitter. “Though…I doubt I’m able to recreate the Giant Soul…Soul’s are weird.” "You can." Cript nodded. “I can?” I frowned. “That…doesn’t seem right, we needed a new Admin of Souls to get that right…” "King, what do I do when I see something new I don't have in my arsenal?" "Right…" I sighed, continuing to try and duplicate Skysplitter. So far I managed the body well enough. The soul was proving tricky but I eventually managed to fill in a blank giant's soul based off the one in Skysplitter. "Good." Cript nodded. "With practice, I could do this a lot easier." I said, looking over the replica and nodding. "Learning to do this exact weapon replication will help you a lot in the event it breaks or is obliterated." He informed. “Yeah…” I nodded, remembering the first time Skysplitter was broken. “That was…not a pleasant day.” "This is also how I seemingly have unlimited weapons of any kind." Cript admitted. "Now, apply this to a living person." “Excuse me?” I frowned. “Isn’t that Starfish Clones though?” "While it makes a perfect replica of you with your minds shared in a hivemind, I mean create a perfect replica of someone you know or even yourself if you can manage. The key with this one is that they won't be linked to you. They'll be an unconnected duplicate of you or whoever you decide." “Right…” I said carefully, trying to create the perfect replica of who I knew best…no matter how many problems with backstories were involved. Me. And after about a good five minutes of work…I saw the old me, the eighteen year old human standing there in my old white organization cloak. "Hello there." I said politely to my old self. "General Kenobi." My human self answered readily. “So…all this huh?” “Yep.” I nodded. “We’ve come a long way.” The human me looking over me. “I knew I’d look good as a woman…but why the wolf?” “Because woof’s are great.” I chuckled. "Among other things." Cript said as he walked around and circled my human copy. "Hi there." The old me said. "I know I'm not much to look at compared to…that." They motioned to all of me. "Honestly, I find it good to see where I started." I said honestly. "Shows how much I've grown and gotten better over these many…many years." "The question is how like you, or rather old you, did you make them?" Cript asked as he kept looking the old me over. "Are you able to use the thirteen weapons?" "I better." The human me said, bringing out there hand and summoning Arpeggio. "I see…" Cript said, looking the weapon over. "It's in the original form too. Exactly as you were when you started your journey…" "Neat." Ben said with a nod. "And don't worry, we'll get some of the problems fixed." I brought up. "Like?" Ben frowned. "Heart dying, your light half being your soul technically, the depression…a lot of things." My human self looked at me like I've gone crazy. "Um…sure, I should believe that…" "It was a whole arc but you did get a little brother out of it. Speaking of." Cript said snapping his fingers as suddenly a smaller, younger… admittedly emo looking version of my human self appeared next to l, uh, me. "Huh. Even Joy is still corrupted in this copy. Interesting. “It’s Rejection ya prick.” They stated bluntly. “Seeing Joy like this is…not okay…” I shook my head sadly. “Also seeing him as…not a woof is weird.” “Right…” My old self said slowly. “This…this is definitely happening.” "Trust me, you living through it all was just as weird." Cript said. "Though I have to admit this is giving me ideas." “Should I be concerned?” Old me asked nervously. I looked at Cript…”Yes.” I answered simply. “Well…” “Will it finally get this fucker to cheer up finally?” Rejection asked bluntly. “Most likely.” I shrugged. "Well, time is going to be/is broken. The idea is to make the new Admin of Time and with their help we can stop all new timelines from forming and keep ourselves on a singular timeline. Doing that gives us the chance to finally recruit every Ally and deal with every enemy between now and fighting Vincent. So, we're gonna break time, make one timeline and recruit or fight all that this will set loose." Old me lightly took a deep breath. “And here I thought Core was gonna be the biggest pain in the ass for me…” “Oh…oh you’re gonna need to sit down for the explanation’s we’re going to have to give you.” I chuckled. "In any case we already have the new Admin of Time candidate. Now all we need to do is grab the Title and perform the rite." “And who would that be?” I inquired. "Pecator." “Uh…isn’t he still a part of Heart?” I asked curiously. “Who and what?” Ben asked in confusion. “Long story.” I answered. “But unless the fact that he’s an Admin kinda…ignores that rule and…well I mean…Starfish Clones would technically count…” I said with some thought. “He can be both.” Cript said. “He is part of Heart, yes, but given that the title of Admin of Heart is divided into twenty pieces, he only has one twentieth a title and it should be fairly easy for him to handle the Admin of Time Title as a whole.” “Fair enough.” I nodded. “I mean, a fusion of me and Heart turned into the Admin of Souls so…there’s that.” I shrugged. “Holy hell…” Ben groaned. “I hate how…honestly, I shouldn’t be understanding this…but I do…” “Believe it or not, our stunted emotional growth actually stopped us from displaying a pretty high natural IQ.” I brought up. “Yeah, anyway I’m gonna go grab him. You with me.” Cript said, grabbing Rejection by the scruff of his shirt. “You two, talk or, bone or whatever.” And with that, Cript was gone. “Uh…” Ben looked at me…or, more accurately, looked up at me as I stood at my full height. “Now…” I said with a cheeky grin. “Mommy…” Ben whimpered in fearousal. “Poor choice of words.” I chuckled as I loomed over my old self. (we attempt some selfcest stuff, be warned) With a snap of my fingers my clothes were stored away in my Assistant and his were folded off to the side. Huh, seeing your past self naked is… definitely different. Was I always that pale? “Uh…” Ben lightly fidgeted, failing to cover his erection at the now nude me. “You know…I’d probably be less paler if shorts weren’t evil and hoodies weren’t so cozy…” I commented, lightly brushing away my younger self’s hands to see myself in full glory. “I mean…true…” He answered sheepishly. Hm, man looking at myself like this… I mean, I’ve fucked my future self before… and now I’m the future me about to fuck my past self… wow… did not see that coming… I shook my head at the total absurdity and kneeled down. Even doing that I still towered over the past human me. Let’s start with some fondling. This version of me hasn’t even touched a boob yet, let alone what I’m thinking of doing… Best go slow, I’d hate to break my past self. “So I’m going to be as gentle as I can.” I told my young self, gently taking his raging stiffy that was a bit above average for normal humans, and lightly stroking it. He tensed up immediately, face red with blush as I gently caressed their stiffy. Yeesh, I remember when Luna and I first did a round in bed… Wonder what they’ll all think of Ben here? Probably nostalgia and talk about experiences. It was a bit awkward giving him this handjob. My current size makes my hand alone half the size of his torso. Still, I stopped once I saw some pre start spurting out and now it’s time to let him fondle me. “Alright you adorably shy nerd, time to feel the wonder’s of fluffy titties.” I said readily…which the other me took that invitation and paraded it around with how eager he was to grab and fondle my tit’s. “I mean…you did say…” The younger me said sheepishly. “We did get the fascination with breasts from dad after all.” I chuckled, letting him fondle, squeeze, and rub my bountiful boobage even as he saw breast milk lightly leak out. He was definitely amazed at their feel. I could see it on his face. While my breasts aren’t the same as Luna’s… I’m bigger, but the mix of softness, fluffiness, warmth and because I’m a Den Mother, the milk leaking out, was clearly making his mind race with thoughts I probably know. I’ve had them all too after all. “Can I…?” Ben leaves the question up in the air. “Yes, yes you can.” I said with a smile. “I’ve been in your situation before.” I answered, before he latched onto one of my nipples and started to drink about as greedily as a man dying of thirst in the Sahara Desert. “That’s right, drink as much you need.” I giggled at how needy he was. This is oddly reminiscent of my first time drinking from Den… that was also the first time drinking milk from the tap thinking about it. I couldn’t help but smile and look down at them. The sensation was always welcome to me, mix of my preference and biology made this feel amazing, and makes me think he is going to have a different but equally great life ahead of them. I caressed his head a bit before leaning back and pulling him on top of me. The size difference was almost adorable, him sliding between all my breasts and basically vanishing. “Worlds…best water bed.” The younger me said happily. “I know right?” I chuckled. “So how you liking this so far?” “Incredible…” He answered breathlessly. He pulled himself up and looked me in the eyes. He was clearly wondering what to do next. He has options. Climb down to get between my legs. Stay there and hump between my breasts, or climb up and let me blow them. Hmm… what to do? “Want to fuck my pussy, tits, or my face?” I asked them readily, making them blush brightly at how forward I was. I could see the choice was driving him crazy. He probably wants to fuck them all but I don’t know how long til Cript gets back and it is his first time. Hm… With a smirk and a slight movement I more or less threw him up to my top set of knockers, my muzzle right at his crotch and smelling… musk. Myself, but different. Having this advanced nose gave me the ability to recognize loved ones by smell, and smelling myself like this, younger, inexperienced and ready to bone. It was weird to smell your own scent but it be so different yet also not that different at all. “Alright you, time for me to give blow your mind.” I said cheekily. “Did you just fucking make a-” He was about to protest before he moaned loudly at me just taking his dick in my mouth happily, lightly sucking on the virgin meat and enjoying his wonderful moans. My own taste. Tasted myself a lot, but not my human self. Hm, not too bad. His whole shaft and balls were at the mercy of my maw, my tongue soaking them in saliva and some light licks to his sack as I sucked. His pre was almost identical to how mine tasted, slightly less strong then my own now. Once I wrapped the tip of my tongue around his rod, he blew. It was less than I’m accustomed too, but all in all, not bad. I sucked a bit longer, draining all he had pumped out and gave his now limp and wet member a kiss for the effort. (and scene) “Good boy.” I giggled happily, reaching over and lightly patting his head. “That’s…wow…” He panted heavily. I picked him up and planted a wet kiss on his lips, enjoying the act as I turned over, careful not to crush him under my body weight but also made sure he was nice and snug between my knockers under me, enough of his torso out so I can see his face. “Hi there.” I said warmly. “H-hi…” Ben said. “This…this is nice…” “Yes, yes it is.” I smiled. I laid there on him until he started to get used to the situation and now we can have a talk. “So, where do you want to start first?” I inquired. “Uh…” Past me said in thought. “Um… Maybe, how did… that, happen?” He asked, eyed looking me up and down. “Me being a woman or me being a Dire Wolf Den Mother?” “Both I guess.” “So how I became a Dire Wolf, well when I was ‘adopted’ by Cript that you just met, his curse is that anyone adopted by him becomes biologically his children, along with a random wife…I got Den the Dire Wolf as my mother…and why I became woman? Well, Heart, one of my spouses, was getting a little annoyed that I wanted to stay a dude when they were a hermaphrodite and Eclipsa, another spouse, was a woman.” I explained. “Do… you enjoy it?” “Yes.” I nodded. “And not because I now have eight breasts I can fondle to my hearts content or an ass that could be considered a fusion of a mountain and jello,” I honestly am starting to think my spouses were correct in saying me blushing was cute. “But it’s…a lot more comforting to be a mother when I got used to it…I mean, I still have a giant cock because we’re all herm’s but being a woman just feels nice after I gave it a try.” “So, you just swap between being female, being a herm, but keep the body at all times?” “Oh no, I’m a full on hermaphrodite.” I said. “I’m just really good with hiding my dick, and I keep this body full time cause this is who I am…I mean, I also forgot to mention that, to get my soul back, I literally had to be ‘reborn’ the old fashion way, of shoving my consciousness, heart, and everything about me into a newborn baby…yeah it was complicated back then.” “Huh… Okay, well, do you often so openly… get frisky?” "Yes." I said readily. “Oh… Well, what… am I going to be doing?” He asked. “I know I’m a copy of you, a copy from when we started. My memories largely go back to crashing into that dumpster… but what will I do given there’s two of us? I mean, sex is… great but I won’t be doing just that will I?” “Oh hell no.” I shook my head. “What you need is adventure, love, care, a family, a social life…and an ass ton of therapy.” I explained. “And believe you me…I’m still making weekly visits to my therapist.” “Yeesh… Well, what will I be doing? Will I do things similar to you or different?” That was a good question… for one, having two of my sexy, fuzzy ass around is always nice. Well, three including my future alternate timeline self. On the other, I wonder if they could be someone else's child? Pony Ben? Fox Ben? Cyborg Ben? “Hmm, that is a good question.” I hmmed, thinking about it. “I mean, if you join the family, who knows what race you could turn into at first…then there’s what you want to do, cause you have anything and everything at your disposal at the moment.” “That’s… a lot to consider…” He hummed. “Well, okay what about… worlds? God said we were visiting MLP world, but were there other worlds to visit, cause, ya know, we went with a Kingdom Hearts theme? Wait, when you said Heart before did you mean like, The Kingdom Hearts?” “Yep.” I nodded. “Heart used to be Zeke Ventral,” I saw my other self freeze a little at the name. “Don’t worry, their entire family, besides the completely insane ones, are all doing normal people stuff.” I said. “But back to the point, Heart is indeed Kingdom Heart’s, the Admin of Hearts, and with worlds? You can go to literally any world, in any scenario possible.” I said. “An example was me and Joy, your Rejection purified, traveling to the Storyshift universe of Undertale.” I explained. “Oh. Cool.” He said, wiggling a bit. “Well, um, not that this isn’t comfortable, mind if I get up?” With a nod I got up and off them. A snap of my fingers and we were both clothed again. He pat his clothes for a moment. “So… how long until you were able to just snap your fingers like that and do stuff?” “I mean…” I tried to think of how long it was. “Technically…if we’re just going through linear time, it would have been about…maybe ten years?” I said nervously. “Cause I did become King of Nothingness, which basically made me a stupidly powerful God because I now own a literal fundamental part of reality, but…then I was kidnapped and put into a fourty year long coma…and then maybe two years later I became an Admin and then…” I shook my head. “Listen, even back then, Time didn’t mean much.” “Weird… Well, that aside, who is Cript exactly cause he sounds like he’s supposed to be important given… whatever he was talking about before he left.” “So Cript is a bio engineered super soldier that was literally designed and built to give his creator a challenge or help him conquer all of reality easier.” I explained. “He can do anything, and everything, while constantly gaining stronger and stronger as time passes, but he has one weakness.” I said. “And it’s…weirdly with all of his other versions.” “That… sounds like some bullshit. Go on.” “Believe me, it is.” I said. “As someone that’s both had a deep dive look into his Code, the very essence of this Matrix like reality…yes, we’re still stuck in a simulation, and literally looked at his blueprint’s…it’s completely and total bullshit.” I explained. “But for some reason, Skateboards are the bane of a Cript’s existence and nobody knows why.” “The… hell?” He asked with a look of total and utter confusion. “How… that’s just so… random…” “I know, and nothing can or will explain the reason why that specific thing is there.” I said. “He just…can’t skateboard for some reason, no matter how hard he tries…I’ve seen it, it’s like a slapstick comedy with banana peels.” “Alright… So, that aside, mind if I ask how you made me? Did he teach you or, what? Cause I get I’m a full on copy of you, that much information was in my head once I… opened my eyes. It’s actually taking a fair amount not to have an existential crisis given the memories I have technically aren’t even mine or… all that but how did you make me and why?” “So…” I started. “I gained the power of an ‘Heir Cript’, basically a version of Cript that is the ‘Heir’ to something super important, Heart with Kingdom Heart’s as an example.” I explained. “How I made you? Well…it’s a tad complicated, but basically I used Code, the true source of power in this computerized reality, also because I’m an Admin with all those wonderful privileges, and then was told that I could create…basically anything I wanted with such a brand new fundamental understanding of the universe around me.” I told my younger self. “And one such thing was…creating a perfect copy of myself, that wasn’t a Starfish Clone of myself, someone brand new technically but still the exact same person.” “Huh… Will you make more of me? Us?” “Not sure.” I shrugged. “I mean, I have a lot of Starfish Clones running around, either with one of every single one of my spouses, a few hundred trying to help run the entire kingdom cause…fuck paperwork,” I shuddered. “And…just doing stuff.” I shrugged. “Yeah but these Starfish clones are like, linked to you? So, you’re basically doing all the work anyway. I know I don’t have your powers, skills or experience, but even though I am another you I am still my own person. If anything having a you that, well, you aren’t also linked to would be helpful.” “And this is why I said that we’re naturally pretty smart if we’re not bogged down by a bunch of mental problems.” I chuckled. “But you are correct, currently I created you because this was a first try in creating a perfect copy of a living sapient being, that I just learned I could do today, and also because I know myself perfectly.” “Fair. So, will I be getting training and stuff to be stronger too? Aside from Arpeggio I haven’t summoned any of my weapons so combat skill and experience is zero for me.” “Yes, you will be trained in all of your weapons…and I’m also going to be changing one of our weapons cause it is…extraordinary scary with the context I was just told before you were made.” “Really? Huh… Alright.” Cript showed up with Pecator some time later. The rite was… interesting. Oddly simple and unceremonious. With that done, next came the breaking of time… Now that was interesting. I didn’t really see anything happen, but I felt it. The whole of creation- no, the MACHINE itself was altered. It was like someone broke down glass walls that have always been and now it’s all gone. I even felt the dead timelines from Nothingness revive and flow and merge once the walls were all broken. Pecator left without a word shortly after. “Alright, now you, Ben.” Cript said. “You have a choice.” “Join your group, or fuck off to god knows where?” Ben took an educated guess. “Well, a place of your choosing, but yeah kinda. I know you did basically miss out on your adventure but you can get that and a whole lot more with us. Plus knowing you, you’d wanna get with King more times.” Cript said, making Ben blush but nod. I don’t blame him. After all, it’s what I’d want. “I mean…you have a point.” Ben said sheepishly. “But…well, I was going to ask to join you anyways cause I need a teacher for my weapons…I do need therapy…and I just need a family…” “Fair. Well, welcome to the family then Ben… again, technically.” Cript said, holding out a hand. Man this brings me back. Welp, time to see what/who they get. “Thanks…” Ben said with a smile as he took Cript’s hand. The flash and change were instant. Seeing it from here was kinda… neat. Ben now sported some… reptilian features. Large leathery wings now on his back and a fairly draconic look. He also had a long tail that ended in some spikes. His hair was replaced by various barbs that acted like hair. Those were all white and their eyes, while now reptilian, kept the same color as before. “Neat, you’re a Dragonoid.” Cript said. Let’s see, that narrows it down to… a lot of mates… “And I have no idea who’s dragon mother you belong to…” I said, pulling up my assistant to double check, but looking up to see my younger self…kinda be adorable looking over themselves. “This is…really, really cool.” Ben said happily. Let’s see… ah, Delovina. Right, I know her. Lovely musician, amazing piano skills, enjoys flying through rainy weather and we’ve got a few… hundred kids together and a small home in an active volcano. “Well, I’ll send you off to your mom.” Cript said, a snap of his fingers and a portal opened up next to us. “A Starfish clone of King and I will be there. Help you adjust, King can help you train given, well, same weapons and such, and your mom can teach you to be a Dragonoid.” “And what about Rejection?” Ben inquired, lightly stretching their wings as they tried to adjust to having three new appendages. “He’s with Joy. I imagine the two will get along well given, well, they are also the same person and such. He should also be a Dragonoid like you and I imagine now that Joy is explaining things to him. You’ll probably see him in a day or two.” “Huh, kinda thought I’d have to…get this fixed before that.” Ben said while lightly poking his chest where his heart is, given I gave him a good explanation on that whole thing. “Don’t worry, we’ll handle that when you get there. Now, go on. King and I have shit to do and train/look you over when you get Delovina’s place with us.” “Alrighty then.” Ben nodded. “Gonna…go see mom…that’s something I’m gonna have to get used to.” He chuckled as he went into the portal to his new home…only to then be dog piled by a lot of dragonoid/dire wolf puppers. The portal closed up and Cript looked over at me. “Welp, time is now broken and all that mess so you know what that means?” “I need to work even fucking faster to make sure Grey doesn’t get evil version’s of ourselves on his side/” I asked. “Odds are he will but we gotta use Consume to absorb/imprison as many as we can. You ready to travel to some rather crazy places?” "Of course." I nodded. "Let's do this." "Cool." Cript said, snapping his fingers as another portal appeared and we entered it. "I wish I could say I'm disappointed… but I was honestly expecting one like this." Cript and I stood atop a building. One of many, but the upsetting thing that got us upon arriving was all the swastikas everywhere. "We better not be getting into a weird Rick and Morty reference…" I frowned. “Alright…so do we just nuke the place, or try to find the only sane people?” "First we'll see how bad it is and just who exactly is the Nazi. My money is on one of the Ventrals." “I wouldn’t be surprised.” I shook my head. “Come on, let’s go through this facist bullshit…” It wasn't long to look around and find the main Leaders building. Turns out in this universe Hitler had a son… and that son was…. "Why am I a giant wolf lady?" Nazi me asked. Cript was laughing while I bashed my head against the wall. “I…I hate everything…” I muttered. “Why the fuck do I have to be the son of one of the worst people in human history?” I asked, raising my hand and giving an accusatory point at my nazi self before they could speak. “And no, slaughtering million’s because they’re not white, blonde hair and blue eyes is absolutely atrocious and a waste of life, don’t you fucking start.” "This is actually unexpected. Then again, infinite possibilities." Cript said with a shrug. "Who even are you two?" Nazi me asked. "I'm Cript and that's you from a different reality where you aren't the son of Hitler." Cript stated. "Huh… why a giant sexualized wolf lady though?" "That's a long story. So, first I need to ask, are you a racist and if so would you prefer death or a reset?" "Excuse me, you can't threaten the- gah!" Nazi me started to rant before I shoved Second Chance down their throat. In a flash I was now holding baby me. "Surprised you used Second Chance." “I really need to fix this.” I sighed out. “And also, he might not have been racist if he wasn’t being racist about what I was.” I brought up. “But…yeah, leader’s now a baby…and I might have just gained an entire facist planet…I hate this…” "Well, the way I see it there is two paths now. Use Second Chance on the whole planet, or put a bullet, blade or deadly spell blast at every Nazi we see." “I mean…we really shouldn’t just slaughter an entire planet…but their nazi’s…” I frowned. "Choice is yours in the end. We can easily spare/save children but the adults are probably a whole other story." "Yeah…save the kids, or those young enough to be saved, and slaughter the adults." I nodded. "And now…should I do it looking like this version of myself just to fuck with the adults or no?" "Nah. The idea they're gonna be killed by a sexualized wolf lady is honestly hilarious enough." Cript chuckled. With a nod, we got to work. The fighting lasted two weeks. All the kids I saved, used Second Chance on and adopted, making them all my puppies, and the adults all were killed. Those that surrendered I used Second Chance on and those that fought got what they deserved. I'm not gonna say I don't have regrets but I can't leave them to their own devices either. Thankfully there were pockets of resistance and they happily joined the kingdom. For good measure once it was all done we re-terraformed the planet to more or less reset it to pre-human times. When it was all done we were off to the next place. "Zombie me? Huh. That's actually interesting." Cript said as we walked through the ruins of a city. Apparently Zombie Cript is a mix of every zombie based genre pushed into one. Humanity here never stood a chance. "Yeah, that is pretty interesting." I said. "Also how your every zombie class mixed together is also neat." I said honestly. "So, think they're still smart or sapient enough to talk to or just consume them?" "Maybe? Honestly I don't know. I have met Cripts that are basically mindless monsters so, who knows." "Fair, but depending on how many types of lich he's become…it's in the air." I shrugged. "Also…a whole host of other zombie types…" "Well, one thing is for sure." Cript said as he shot off an incoming undeads head. "This world is definitely getting obliterated." "Oh most certainly." I nodded, slamming my fist into one Zombies skull and obliterating it. We walked and slaughtered our way through various infected and even giant Kaiju style ones that broke up and out of the ground or infected waters. We eventually found the Zombie Cript and he was a mindless monster. Killing him was actually a challenge. "Well, this is going well." Cript said as he kicked a decapitated head. "Two worlds down…who knows how many more." I shrugged. "And yeah, it's going pretty well." "Gotta admit, this world was a bit stress relieving." “Especially after the last one yes.” I nodded. “So, what’s next?” "Welp, let's see." "I guess this one isn't bad but I am impressed you managed this." Cript said. This reality had me, once again asked by God where and what I'd like to do. Apparently this version of me chose to stay on a copy of earth that had no one on it save my fantasy crushes… “Listen…shut it…” I said, blushing a bit at how kinda…embarrassing this honestly was to just have all my fantasy crushes in a massive harem apparently cause why not. “I don’t know why this is embarrassing for me…but it kinda is.” “So…” This version of me, who looked a whole lot better honestly, both athletically and mentally. “Why am I a sexy wolf lady?” They asked, before ducking underneath a thrown boulder casually. “Yes yes I’m talking to someone important Sheeva, calm down.” He called out to the four armed Shokan queen. "I see you've definitely done well for yourself." Cript said, looking over all the various ladies and kids. "Let me guess, planet always has power, water and food despite no one running said facilities allowing you to focus on your mates, kids and sex?" “I mean…” The adult self looked a tad sheepish. “Yes…but I did take a long time to actually…ya know, get to know each of them. I may be a desperate horny nerd with a lot of problems, but I’m not a monster.” “Exactly.” I nodded. “But…yeah, nice choices my guy.” "So, wanna join our family deal? You get basically more of what you already have and optional adventures across multiple planets and such." Cript said. “Sure.” He nodded. “Plus, it would make me better at doing a lot of thing’s,” He said before grabbing a Garchomp that was trying to use Dragon Claw and shoulder threw the thing like it was nothing. “Sorry about this…you kinda got me during our training session.” “Oh you’re going to be a wonderful part of our family.” I chuckled warmly. "Well, this was easy." "You are one horny fucker…" Cript said. The last… forty worlds were similar to the me that enjoyed being with my fantasy crushes. Different worlds or different situations… genders… “It’s not my fault…all of them all agreed that it was solely because of the lack of physical, emotional, and mental support they all had…which is incredibly depressing that so many versions of myself are still super depressed loners that had their family’s murdered…” "The ones that were girls with reverse harems was unexpected.” "Well looks like this one is more of less you being the only male on an anthro Equestria." He said, a line of females heading towards the castle and a walkway of… rather happy mare's walking out of it. "Now I don't know if that's by choice for the world to be made or…if that's how the world already was." Cript checked his Assistant. "Says here this world had a big bad who was a succubus that stole all the stallions and other males of every species then cursed mares to never have males. As a result they kept the population going by using special potions using two mares or females DNA to have a foal. God basically just dropped you off here and it's more or less been like this for the last ten years for you." "That poor man's hips…" I said in sympathy. "Oh trust me he's had more than enough magical augmentation to make up for the effort." “Still, he’s probably become one with whatever bed he’s on if he has to please an entire planet.” I said honestly. "He already got a lifeline link to Celestia, Luna, and other immortal beings on this planet to ensure his immortality and reproduction of the species through sexual intercourse. And before you ask yes his augmentations keep his kids from having… genetic issues as they age. And get with each other cause, well, they will all be half siblings." “Yeah that makes sense.” I nodded. “So let’s go meet the savior of this world.” "Now the question is are you gonna head right to them or wait in line?" “And have sex with another version of myself?” I raised an eyebrow. “But we’re gonna probably have to wait anyways, don’t want to ruin these girls fun.” "Well, you have fun with that, I'm gonna go get a meal or something." Cript said, suddenly a red coat, brown mane unicorn mare that walked off. Hm… “Well…I mean, should probably make this faster…plus it would help with solving the curse…” I muttered, standing in line trying to think if I should just go up there or wait like a good person. In the end I waited. It. Was. Hours… but once it was done I finally entered the- hot damn! This version of me was just a foot below my height, had blue and white wings and… was well built. Still looked human, save the wings. “Hello there.” I nodded. “General Kenobi.” My winged counterpart said without missing a beat. “So glad that all versions of myself get that reference.” I chuckled. “Excuse me?” They asked in confusion. I went into a quick explanation on the situation and we talked about some stuff for a while. “And here I thought my life was going to be the world's greatest breeding machine.” They said honestly. “Yeah, that tends to happen.” I shrugged. “So, want to join our family? You can do a lot more thing’s, and help cure the curse.” "I mean, that would be best and honestly I am getting board of sex." “Then you haven’t met Rune yet.” I chuckled, seeing the guy shiver lightly. “That name…fills me, and my pelvis, with dread…” He said nervously. “As it should.” I said, bringing my head up. “Ready to join the family?” "Sure… so, I mean, did you actually wait in line to… bang or?" “I waited to be nice…” I trailed off, but then brought out a book. “But might as well show you how fun sex can be.” I said with a cheeky, seductive grin. “Had fun?” I asked, lightly wagging my tail in enjoyment as my other self was actually panting in bliss. “Wow…” He muttered in awe. "You done?" Cript said still in their anthro pony form. "Yep." I nodded. "And he's joining the family." "Have you been there the whole time? Also who are you?" Other me asked. "I'm Cript." They said, in a flash back to normal. "And I've been here since self lubricating, self thrusting dildos." "That was three hours ago?!" "Yeah and for not having female genitalia you enjoyed them a lot. Your reflections and you have a lot in common King." "I was always a bit bi-curious I will admit." I said simply. "And becoming a hermaphrodite definitely helped with it." I said, getting my self cleaned up with a snap of my fingers. "Well, welcome to the family. Another King will be here in a while to help you adjust and probably also help populate the planet." Cript said. "Oh shit it's you." Cript huffed at the old man in the lab coat. "Yeah well what did you expect? You break all timelines and dimensional barriers, of fucking course I'm going to show up." The old man replied. "So, first time meeting my grandpa?" The young yellow shirt wearing fourteen year old asked me. “Sadly.” I rubbed my temple. “But this is going…about as well as I’d expect all things considered.” I said simply. “So, should I warn Asmith his stupidly drunk and depressed co-worker is coming back or does he already know?” "Asmith? Why would I talk to that micro penis shitstain?" The old man asked. "Oh why are you even here Rick?" Cript asked. "Why else would I be here? For a cameo and to annoy you." "So, what's your name? I'm guessing you know I'm Morty." Morty said. “Names King.” I said, also having decided to be in my male dire wolf form to either not cause even more problems, and to at least stop the possible growing case of me banging myself across timelines. “And yes, I do know about you and your many, many adventures to placate someone with crippling depression.” I said honestly, lightly moving my head to the left and dodging a ray gun blast. “Rude, I didn’t even mention you’re compensating for something very important yet.” “Bite my wrinkled ass mutt.” Rick huffed before going back to arguing with Cript. “So, what do you do most of the time?” “Oh you know, adventures, fighting monsters, running an entire multi-reality kingdom that makes Rick’s Finite Curve look like a daycare.” I shrugged. “You know, the usual. And what do you do in between all your adventures besides needing a good therapist and some self control practice?” “Mostly go to school, jerk off and play some videogames. It’s a lot simpler than what you probably do in your spare time but I enjoy it.” “By leaps and bounds.” I said honestly. “But that’s life for ya…at least I have my family to support me through thick and thin, and I support them.” “Sounds nice.” Rick and Cript argued for a while longer before we left and went off to do more stuff. “Huh, in this universe the Ventrals took over the world but aren’t fascist nazies.” Cript said as we walked around the city. Certainly seems technology is better than back in my earth. “Which is a great thing.” I said honestly. “Seriously glad to not have Fascism be the default like with Rick.” “Yeah well, it wasn’t all easy.” Cript said as he pulled up his assistant. “All public displays of religion are outlawed and anyone guilty of it, strike one is a warning. Strike two is twenty years in a federal penitentiary, strike three is death. On the bright side they completely eradicated things like the Black Plague, got to the moon a hundred years earlier than your earth, and have a moon and mars colony. And all it took was the complete genocide of religious extremist groups and their near cultural deletion from history.” “So what the Emperor of Mankind did in Warhammer 40K after the Age of Strife.” I said. “Only this time…actually successful.” “Looks like. In this reality you work as an intern for Disney, Eclipsa works as the equivalent to a mayor, given they are a Ventral by blood, and Heart is next in line for the throne. Yes they do it with a monarchy.” “Sounds about right…also, intern at Disney?” I blinked. “I better be trying to learn how to draw and animate…seriously would have loved to but then…well everything happened.” “You’re trying to get a mini series started.” “Oh? And what would that mini series be?” I inquired. “Deadpool’s son with Death exploring humanity as an immortal demi-god. It’s mostly satire and throws punches at social and political issues.” “Yeah, I’d totally do that.” I chuckled. “All in all this is probably one of the more normal worlds we’ve been to.” Cript said. “So you’re me but, good?” The black fur den mother me asked as we sat in their large, rather ominous dining room. The main difference between them and me is that they chose Darkness and pure heartless stuff rather than Nobodies and such. “Well, I chose Nothingness rather than Darkness, but I’d say yeah.” I nodded. “Or at least, being a decent sentient being to say the least.” “Well, I might be a tyrant but at least I did good by the people. Granted blood was spilled, a lot of it, but I find that to be a small price for peace.” “So do you have Joy here?” Cript asked. “Joy? Oh you mean Wrath. Yes my little brother is here and living fine. We have a version of you too and their family.” “I could tell and I’m betting I know them.” Cript shrugged. “So I take it this means all this is merging finally?” “Yes.” I nodded. “Cause it’s either we merge and stop our reality from ending…again, or we go through this song and dance again.” “Frankly if it means peace for the people I’m in… So, are our bodies identical?” Darkness me asked. “Is your birth mother Den?” “Yes.” “Then they should be. Go on, this has been a trend.” Cript said. “Goodie~” “Hooray, I’m the one dicking her down then.” I said, getting up, grabbing the sexy milf of a den mother, slinging her over my shoulder and heading to our room for me to start stuffing people again. “We can take turns~” To be continued...
Kite checks on somethingsWe were all huddled into the planning room as Bently and Dr. M brought out their signature slide show presentation of the plan. “Alright gang, from what Kite has told us, we have to do this operation as quick as possible.” The turtle said, bringing up a slide. "Rajan has sped up his plans to tonight and if we don't act fast, even if we win and defeat Rajan, the Prince and all his children will be lost." Uncle M said. "Which is why we need to also need to split into groups to deal with everything." I said, helping shift a slide. "I'll deal with Rajan, as he might have gotten some special things added to him by Clockwork, as well as the fact I have a means of dealing with the hydrophobic bastard." I said, bringing out Arpeggio as an example. "Do you think he would have been trained to not be hydrophobic?" Sly inquired to me. "Good question…and no. Cause getting past phobia's is one thing…this is a primordial fear for him, even if it's stereotypical of cats to fear water, the stereotype exists for a reason." "In Rajan's case I did find where the fear came from." Carmelita stated. "After some digging Bentley and I found out when Rajan was still young the village he and his family lived in was flooded. Only he survived because he climbed a tall tree but he watched his family and all the villagers drown below him." "I mean, Fuck yeah that would cause hydrophobia among other issues." Nyla stated. "I'd feel bad about using something that literally killed his parents…but fuck him he's being a deplorable prick." I frowned. "As much against the idea I might be, maybe a Psychological attack would be the best approach." Dad voiced. "Kite, can you make realistic illusions?" "I mean, I can make Illusions more real than reality itself." I answered. "Also…please don't question it…it's very weird to explain and even I barely understand how it works." "And what about pulling memories from someone's mind?" Dad asked. "Oh that's easy." I said honestly, pulling out my Lexicon. "Then I think you know the plan." Dad stated. "That's rather cruel of you, did Clockwerk rub off on you?" Nyla asked. "Spent years around that psychotic owl. I won't lie, I probably know more how he thinks than any Cooper before me. Or after. No offense kids." "I'm glad to know there are things I don't know about." I answered. "So it's alright dad." "I guess it's at least an advantage in the long run." Sly said. "Well, in terms of how this is going down, I guess Kite is the only one that needs to do the heavy lifting. We'll just use the conflict between you and Rajan to sneak the hostages and his 'brides' out and to safety." Sly said. "True, but I want to bring up a point." I said, bringing up a slide of the Contessa. "So, while I'm not sure if Clockwork got his talons around the spider lady, we need to be careful that we don't step into a trap." "Why bring her up?" Murray inquired. "Something about your 'alternate history' knowledge?" "Correct." I nodded. "Normally, the Contessa and Neyla would capture you and Sly for obvious reasons, and Carmelita for being a supposed 'traitor', helping the Cooper gang do crimes, and a whole thing with prison time and hypnosis with Clockworks Eyes helping her do better with that cause she was a part of the Klaww Gang." I explained. "She also…apparently has a lot of knowledge on tech and dark magic…somehow." I shook my head. "So I'm just going to say, be careful, I don't know what outliers are here and I don't want to take chances…or lose any of you." "Putting aside that why would I work with the warden of Moon Cell?" Nyla asked, making us all look at her. "What? She's clearly an off worlder." "Excuse me what?" I frowned. "Alright so…do you want the answer to why you were working with them in the alternate timeline or…do you just want to answer how the hell she's an Off Worlder?" I asked, cause even in the games the Contessa was said to be from this world. "Well for starters name one other person on this world that is essentially a Spider-Tar or any other form of centaur?" I thought about it… and shit… she's right. "Second her species from what I know are all wardens on a world called Moon Cell. Basically a prison planet that holds galactic criminals. They use dark magic and hypnosis to keep their less than friendly inmates more or less comatose and docile until they expire naturally." "Oh boy, that makes this a lot more complicated." I frowned. "So originally, she was just a normal spider lady that used her hypnosis to 'rehabilitate' the inmates, but as a front for her getting the criminals to tell her where all their loot was and profit from it " I explained. "But…if Clockwork managed to…her husband…" I muttered in realization and horror. Bentley began typing rapidly on his PC. "According to this she isn't married yet. The two are currently dating but not engaged." He reported. Good. He's still alive then. "Alright…so at least at this point, The Contessa would be married and, through mysterious means, he husband died pretty much after the wedding and gave her tons of money to do a lot of shady things with her hypnosis." I explained. "And yes, it was never explained." I added. "Must have been a rowdy honeymoon." Dad chuckled, earning a mild smack from mom. "None of you are ready for what I have to say on that subject." I said vaguely. "But…hopefully this means the Contessa isn't working for Clockwork…" I said. "But uh…question, how old is the boyfriend?" "According to this her boyfriend is in his early seventies. No actual age given for the Contessa though." Bentley informed. "Makes sense. Her species is long lived. Average lifespan is a little over two hundred." Nyla added as she looked over at Bentley's PC. "Judging from that photo of her she's probably about a hundred and… thirty or so." "Alright…" I said. "Well, best to still remain vigilant and cautious. We don't know what that damned owl has in store for us besides Rajans bullshit, and I'd rather not get caught off guard too hard." "Once Rajan is dealt with we can check in with Contessa and the other people of interest you have in mind." Dad said. "Yeah, cause I don’t know what’s changed with Dimitri and Jean since we got here and have been doing this…and Arpeggio is going to be a bitch and a half I just know it.” I wasted no time once the operation began and kicked in the doors leading to the chamber Rajan was in. He snarled as he looked at me. “You must be Kite Cooper.” Rajan said. “And you must be overcompensating.” I teased with a cheeky grin. "Ah yes. The quick wit, sarcastic humor. Vincent told me about you. In great detail." Okay… that caught me off. “Cause of course he did…” I grumbled. “Alright, so you know how this is going to end, yes?” "I know better than to fight you. Yes. I also know you won't let me leave here free or alive." “Alright, you’re going the right direction of this being the easy way.” I answered carefully. “Cause I’d rather not fight, and…at a certain point wonder why you thought this…” I motioned to everything. “Was at all a good idea?” "I figure, if I was to leave an impact on this world it would be one remembered for generations. For better or worse, my name won't be forgotten." "I mean…there's better ways to have your name never be forgotten than literally everything you've been doing." I said bluntly. "Maybe. But I am not a good man. Never claimed to be, and never tried. I know who and what I am Kite Cooper, and I am at peace with it." I sighed. "So…how do you want to do this?" "Do I really get a choice?" "All depends on if this is a trap or not." I answered simply. "Cause the age old adage 'easy way or the hard way' is still up in the air technically with Clockwork and Vincent involved." "True. Never before have I met someone with as twisted an imagination or endless bounds of cruelty as him. When you make an enemy, you know how to pick them." “I’m assuming your talking about Vincent…and well, that’s what happens when you’re a bastard that somehow remember’s every reset.” I frowned. “And I’m here to make sure that the world doesn’t end because of his spite.” "Then pray tell, why are you here? Why are you not going after him rather than standing here, speaking to me?" “Because I technically am at the moment, and because this is part of his ‘entertainment’.” I answered. “Cause shit’s happening that he’s never seen before…and he’s enjoying it.” I said, seeing Rajan’s eyes widen a tad at that. “Something new, after countless times he’s seen this happen before…plus, you’ve probably heard of how I was personally punted half way across the planet by the bastard himself.” "I remember hearing of something like that. I see. It makes sense, to be fair. Someone like him, his goals require little effort, and it seems between the end and now, he simply fills his time." “And considering what he’s willingly given me, an entire cascade of his own knowledge…” I sighed. “There’s no reason why he couldn’t have just nuked reality as a whole…but ya know, I’m not here to just roll over and die, I’m not here to let other’s suffer because some asshole think’s it’s funny, I’m here to make a difference damn it.” I frowned. “I’m here to help people, to stop those that would abuse their powers just for shit’s and giggles, and give those that fell down a dark path a second chance if able.” “I suppose. As far as idealistic goals go, it’s better than drowning yourself in meaningless tasks or endless sex.” … “Don’t answer that.” I immediately thought to myself, showing him no emotion at that barb. “So…mind if I ask who else you're working with?” I inquired, carefully walking towards Rajan with a pair of handcuffs for his size cause he’s gonna have to come with me for his crimes. “That is for Vincent and Clockwerk to decide.” He shrugged as he looked down at me as I was now right in front of him. I reached to grab his hand… only to have it phase through… “Like I said, I would be a fool to fight you.” “Shit…” I muttered. “Anybody there?” I asked quickly through my communicator for everyone else. ”Kite, the kids are all here but the prince and his wives aren’t.” Uncle M informed. I took a deep breath, and exhaled…I took another deep breath an exhaled as I used my brand new Cript Senses to find where the fuck Rajan and everyone else is. First I scanned India… Then The planet… then the solar system. I frowned as I looked back up at Rajan. “Looking for someone?” His… projection, asked me. I rubbed my temples. “Cause nothing can ever go right can it?” I asked, looking at his projection and seeing if it was just a hologram, or if I could use my powers to literally pull this motherfucker by the throat back to this reality. “Don’t worry, I won’t be harming the Prince or his wives. I have no need to. Vincent made me an offer I figured would be better in the long run, and so, you will find them on a small planet rather far from here. Unharmed and in good health. I am, however, keeping my brides.” I rubbed my temples. “And what was this god damn offer?” I asked. “Why be a king when I can be a being above gods.” He answered. “One day, we will have the fight you were expecting Kite Cooper, but whether you are in this skin or in your true form, you might find Clockwerk, myself and whoever else joins in this little game Vincent is playing… will be a fair fight.” “You’re adorable.” I answered nonchalantly, honestly getting real sick and tired of this bullshit but knowing it’s only here to annoy the piss out of me and make that rat bastard laugh. “But whatever…only making thing’s worse…so what planet is the prince at?” I asked carefully. “Don’t know the name. All I know is that it has… such lovely gardens.” Rajan said with a calming sigh. The projection vanished rapidly. Gardens… Radiant Garden. Only planet I know that is like that. “I got a lead where the prince and his wives are.” I said over the communicator. “And also, Rajan fucked off with his wives and…is now like Clockwerk…” ”Makes sense. Rajan has done a lot of harm and bad but Clockwerk must have admired his skills and strength.” Dad said over the comms. It was a quick trip bringing the prince and his wives back from Radiant Garden. The hard part was cleaning up the leftovers of Rajan’s gangs and such. India would take a long time to recover but with actual cops back in action here it would at least be a start. With that all done I dragged Nyla along to speak with Arpeggio. “I still say this is a bad idea.” Nyla said as we landed outside Arpreggio’s lab. “I am a bad idea but you don’t see me whining about it.” I rolled my eyes. “But I need you here to help me figure out if Arpeggio is working with Clockwerk or not…” “Why? Aren’t you mr. all seeing god whatever?” “Funnily enough, I tried that.” I said honestly, which caught Neyla off guard. “And my advice? Don’t.” I shook my head. “I’m not ‘all seeing’, just because I’m an Admin that…has been given the information about Reality itself Twice now, there’s thing’s even I don’t know. Just because I’m the smartest person in the room eight times out of ten doesn’t mean I know everything.” “I still don’t want to go.” She frowned as I snuck up to a window. Well, there he is. Looks like he’s working on… that mobile bird cage thing. “Was your falling out that bad?” I asked with a frown. “He can’t have a Keyblade. He’ll just get himself killed or… worse.” Nyla frowned. “Listen, he already thought using Clockwerk’s corpse as a hate fueled flight suit was a great idea in the alternate timeline, and besides…we’re not here to ask for a Keyblade…also, if Clockwerk got to him, why the fuck would he ask us for one?” I pointed out. “Cause he wants to fly. On his own power.” Nyla said. “Or as close to it as he can get.” “My point.” I said. “So do you want to see if he sold his soul to a very vindictive Tootsie Pop Owl or not?” "You can go in if you want. I'm staying here." Nyla said, dropping to the floor and sitting cross legged in the grass. I rolled my eyes. “Fine.” I shook my head, not wanting to deal with her being a child right now as I continued to meet the really smart bird. I walked around to the front of the lab and knocked. After several minutes and a few swears from inside the door opened. Arpeggio standing next to a button on the wall nearby. "Who are you?" He asked me. “Kite Cooper.” I answered. “May I come in? I have a few questions I’d like to ask concerning both…a friend of mine, and other important things.” "Umm… okay?" He said as I entered. "Don't know what a Cooper wants to talk to me about. Majority of my machines are either in beta or theoretical only so far." “Well…this visit is important, for a few reasons.” I answered. “One of them being…have you ever been visited by any people of interest?” I asked. “And not me for obvious reasons.” "Hmm… well, some years ago Raleigh contacted me asking if I was interested in working on some weather machine but I turned it down. Not my area of expertise or interest. After that… no. A few business types asking if I'd make this or that in exchange for funding but I haven't taken any offers yet." “So you weren’t contacted by Releigh’s boss?” I inquired. "No, just him. Offered good pay but again, not my field of expertise and he was arrested a bit ago so I dodged a bullet with that one." He shrugged. "Most of the people who contact me now ask about cars or machines for factory manufacturing." “Fair enough…also yes, you would have not wanted to be a part of my Mom’s Ire.” I said sheepishly. “So…next question…what is your relationship with Neyla?” "Hm. Former associate. We… had a disagreement some years back. I haven't seen her since. Is she… in trouble?" “No, thankfully.” I sighed. “But I want to know your side, cause I was told Neyla’s side…and I’d like to know what your side is.” I said honestly. Arpeggio eyed me skeptically, and seemed to be choosing his words carefully before speaking. "I met Nyla many years ago. She was… homeless. Moving from place to place and digging through trash for meals. Caught her trying to mess with some of my trash. I offered her a meal the location of some shelters. She tried to refuse but her stomach betrayed her." He said with a chuckle. "In the end she stayed around here for a while. In exchange for helping me in the lab I gave her a place to stay. Taught her, she was surprisingly illiterate and lacked basic math skills. We became like friends though I suspect she saw me more like a parental figure. Never told me what happened to her parents, just that they died when she was young. One day I saw her use an… artifact. Old and magic in nature. Normally I wouldn't bother with magic, but her artifact held… power. And I saw in it a means to achieve a life long dream of mine. "She refused to let me examine it and I, well, lost composure. Words were said and… to my regret, slurs were part of it and… well, she left and I haven't seen her since. All I have left of her are a few photos we took." He motioned to a wall where a few pictures of him and Neyla were taped on it. “Why do you think she didn’t want you to have this artifact? Or to study it at least?” I inquired, knowing exactly why but wanting to know from his perspective. "She always told me she couldn't stay anywhere long because she attracted trouble. At first I thought she was just superstitious but… well, after I saw her with the artifact and the… trouble she spoke of I guessed, when I cooled down, that she didn't want me to attract that trouble either." He said with a sigh. "She honestly deserves better. A chance at a normal life, to have a place she can rest her head without being a magnet for this trouble. I of all people know how life's unfairness can make something so simple so out of reach." He said, fluttering his small wings as he said that before folding them back at his sides. I sighed. “Trust me…I know that feeling more than anyone.” "I suppose I'm not surprised she doesn't want to see me again. I just hope one day she can get the simple, peaceful life she wants." “Well, I’m doing my best to give people that future.” I said honestly. “But it’s…tough to be honest…I tried to bring Neyla here but…well, you probably know better as to when she doesn’t want to do a thing.” "Heh. True." He nodded. "I suppose if anything, I hope she finds some happiness. Was there anything else you came here for?" "Well…" I hummed. "We could use your technical expertise to help us deal with other bad guys…and in exchange…" I decided to give Arpeggio a once over, to see if he wasn't also a hologram or a double agent. My scan turned up nothing. This was him. His body is almost criminally weak. Even for a bird his size. "I appreciate the offer but I respectfully decline." He said simply. "My work focuses on restoring lost functions to the body or returning functions that didn't developed properly. I'm not interested in developing gadgets and utilities, just returning or giving what was lost or never there to those that need it." "Well I can easily help with that." I answered readily. "And if you need an example, I'm willing to demonstrate my knowledge." "And in exchange as my boss you can get me and Neyla in the same room for a talk?" He asked with a chuckle. "If that is your intent then I'm afraid my decline still stands." "Oh no." I shook my head, getting Arpeggio to give me a look. "At this point, I just want to help someone that wants to be better, and I also want to be the one to help you so your desperation doesn't…make you follow bad individuals." I said carefully. He seemed to mull that over for a bit. "I suppose the funding would be nice. Getting a bit old doing commissions for factories, car nuts and such." “Plus you can focus on the world of prosthetics.” I said simply. “Cause that can help people a lot more than simple cars and factories.” "Alright. I suppose at least it opens up better possibilities." He nodded. “Yep.” I nodded. “So, mind showing me some of your works?” "Well, at the moment most of my projects are on paper. Save this." He motioned to the half built bird cage mobile. "This will help me move around and at least remain at eye level with people in my daily life. I have plans for modifications later on but if it makes travel for me easier then I know others will definitely utilize it for the same reason." “Having a motorized segway is always a good thing.” I chuckled, looking over the thing and seeing that it was pretty much the same as the game version, just half built. “So, got any questions as to what I know about Prosthetics?” "Well, what do you know of Prosthetics?" “To the point where I can make it look, act, and feel like the real flesh and blood thing.” I answered readily. "If that is true, then why hire me?" “Because of many reasons.” I answered. “One is to help you, because I am a genuinely good person, two because I want to share my knowledge of it with you, and three, because one person can’t do everything.” I answered. “Believe me…I have tried doing everything by myself and…it doesn’t work.” "Well, I suppose. What will I be doing aside my usual work?" “Well, what else do you want to do?” I inquired. “Cause with my help I’m giving you the chance to fly.” "I don't really have any other goals in mind. Being able to fly and help fix others has been my main goal since I began inventing." “A noble goal that I want to help foster and grow.” I said with a smile. “For knowledge is meant to help the people, not meant for personal gain.” I spent a few hours talking with Arpeggio and making arrangements. When I finished, Neyla was gone. Sighing, I went home and took a nap. The next morning I woke up feeling a bit stiff. With a stretch and some pops that went away and I began to wonder what to do today. Still need to check in on Dimitri. Contessa… and John Bison. “Alright…so Dimitri was still doing that ‘flash bang’ art that we…accidentally caused back during Mugshot’s whole thing…” I muttered, thinking about who to find first. “At least, I hope he’s still trying to do something with art, better than crime…” I checked and he is still a well respected artist. No ties to criminal activity, but he does own the same night club as before. Only this time it seems to be legit. All the data on the Contessa is still there. Same as what Bentley said. John Bison is still being thawed out it seems… hm… I could probably move him to a world ripe with trees and in need of a good lumberjack. Probably what's best for him in the long run. And if I can't find one I can make one- Wait… make one… I mean… I know I can make planets but their Affinity… I'd have to talk with Heart about it but I might be able to kill two birds with one stone. “Alright…” I muttered. “This is going to take…a lot of time and effort…plus I was gonna have to train my family to be a whole lot stronger for the upcoming problems…” First… best see about calling Heart. The whole Light and Dark thing is their domain after all and if anyone can make this work it's them. “Alright…time to call Heart…” I said, hoping thing’s won’t escalate from there and…well I don’t think Heart has seen me as Kite. I sent the message and It wasn't long til the DTL appeared and my Floof Noodle partner and mate slithered into my room… it was almost too small. "Hey King." Heart said with a small wave. They were mostly coiled up and I sat atop their coiled half. "So, Sly Cooper world?" “Yep.” I said. “And I’m Kite Cooper…also sorry for this area being too small for ya.” "It's alright. Kinda forget we're usually huge." They shrugged. "So, what's the reason you called me here?" “Cause I need your help with…creating a world here.” I said carefully. “And Light and Darkness is in your area so…” Heart looked around the room. "Looks like a world to me." They said. I huffed. “Listen…there’s already more problems with Rajan also becoming an Admin and…I need to do a lot of shit real quick, one such thing is probably getting John Bison a new world to Lumberjack to his heart’s content if he’s still mad at nature and Neyla a world her Lanesborn issue won't call Heartless on.” "Hmm. Well, Lanesborn can only safely live on a planet that is wholly in the Light. In order for a world like that to exist another has to exist where all the darkness exists and the two would basically co-exist as equilibriums to one another." “Ah, that makes sense.” I nodded. “First time I’m trying to make a planet in the Lanes so…really need to know all my stuff before doing something stupid ya know?” "I imagine you want it close to this world to have tabs kept on it and such?" “Of course.” I nodded. “Don’t want to just plop down a planet somewhere random and then leave them to do who knows what.” "Fair. But it's counterpart will have to be near too. Hmm. I can probably set something up to ensure whatever develops on the counterpart planet can't escape so at least there's that. Making a portal from there and here will be easy. Now, I just have one question for you." “Go ahead.” I nodded. “What do you have to ask?” "Mind if Eclipsa and I join in here?" They asked. "I think it would be fun. We'll even take new forms to fit in better." “I mean, that would be cool.” I nodded. “Family would probably flip at having you and Eclipsa probably dog pile onto me….” "Hence why we will change forms to better fit in." Heart said. "Probably should also do different names. Better fit the mood and slip into the story." True. With Balance, Grey Hearts, and Secret Reports all marked completed their main screen time will be here on LoN. "Wonder what I should pick?" “Well, we should probably bring Eclipsa here as well…also I have two girlfriend’s so far, Matilda and Jing King…Matilda is basically Rouge the Bat and…Jing King is an adorably thicc panda.” "Cute. Also she is here." Heart said, patting their coiled body. Huh. I thought it looked… larger than normal. I thought it was just the size difference though. “Ah, that’s why.” I nodded. “Good to know, alright…so we’re in a world of Beastial’s…so pick your favorite race?” "Hmm… that's actually a tough one…" Heart hummed as they thought. "Hmmm… already snake and canine so not gonna do those two…hmmm… oh! I got it!" Heart said, snapping their fingers. In a poof of light I fell to my butt and looking up I spotted Heart's new form. They were a bear. Fluffy and curvy with very light brown fur but the same red eyes they've always had. Despite being a bit taller than me I figured physical age wise we were still the same. They were dressed in a simple blue sports bra and short shorts. "Like it?" They asked, twirling to let me see front and back… nice. “Perfect.” I said with a warm smile, hugging the now bountiful bear that was Heart. "Heh. Okay, Eclipsa. It's your turn." Heart said. In another flash Eclipsa popped out. Only instead of the pony-naga I knew she looked like an orange cat. Stripes of white along her back, arms and tail with two white ear tips. She was also short. Like, surprisingly short but well built and curved. A Short Stack, if you will. "Ta-da." She declared, dressed in a tight fitting shirt and also wearing short shorts. “Awesome.” I said, giving Eclipsa a hug as well. “Now…names.” "Hm… dibs on Megan." Heart, now Megan, said. "I'm feeling Sasha. Short stack Sasha." Eclipsa, now Sasha, said with a smirk. "Why are you a short stack anyway?" "Thought I'd give it a try." They shrugged. “And I’m super happy.” I said happily. “Boy…is everyone going to flip when they meet you two…” "So, mind giving us a recap on what's happened so far? Judging from how this place looks I'm guessing it went off the rails fast?" Megan asked. “So…” I sighed. “First…Clockwerk and the gang took over the world because Clockwerk was using Cooper Bot’s to help his bullshit…yes, literal cybernetic undead of all my ancestors to help…” I sighed. “Then, after a bit of nonsense…me, Sly, the gang, Carmelita, Dr. M and McSweeny all moved to Cane Island…” The next few hours were spent recapping the last few years, my rebuilding relationship with Sly, that Time Walker asshole, and this deal with Vincent, and all that… "That's fucked up." Sasha said. “You have no idea.” I sighed. “Oh, I also have a bunch of kids…both from me somehow adding my DNA to Clockwerk’s kids and…all those adorable racoon owl hybrids…and then the Good Boy Predator.” "Kinky." Megan chuckled. "So, where is Neyla anyway?" “No idea.” I shook my head. “After I finished talking to Arpeggio she kinda fucked off.” "Hm. Rude. Well, Sasha and I can get started on making the safe planet for her and others. You go let your parents know two of your wives are in the house." Megan said, smirking as she and Sasha vanished. Oh boy… wonder how Matilda and Jing will react? Sly… yeah… “Ugh…” I groaned, rubbing my temples bitterly as I walked out. “Why do I keep doing this to myself?” My first trip was to Sly's room. I entered and began overhearing Sly talk to… Carmelita? "Are you positive you wanna do that?" She asked. "If I'm honest… yeah." Sly said. "Been thinking it over for a while and Honestly I think it's best." “Stab me in the heart, why don’t ya?” I thought to myself, not sure if I should ask what’s going on or wait till their done with their conversation. "Think Kite will overreacted?" Carmelita asked. "He has a tendency to blame himself but this isn't about all that. I've been considering this long before he told and showed us his god… powers, stuff." Sly replied. "I'm gonna let him inherit the cane and family legacy." "And… be a cop?" "Well, Matilda and mom said if I want there is room for me. I know you're joining it too." "Still. I just hope Kite won't feel guilty. Those games were called Sly Cooper after all." Sly laughed. "Those are just that, games. This is Kite's story. Not mine. As wild and crazy as it is." "I mean, I knew from the start when we played 'Cops and Robbers'." I said, poking my head around. "Sly always wanted to be a cop, and you were the robber Carmelita…almost feels like an eternity talking about that…" "How long have you been there?" Sly asked with a smirk. "At the 'are you positive?' bit." I said. "Which I could have taken…many different ways, and if you wanted me to overreact, you could have had it be a marriage proposal." I chuckled. "Not anytime soon my not so little brother." Sly chuckled. "But, yeah. I'm gonna be joining the mainstream policing units so I'll be doing cleanups of whatever bad guy you take down leaves behind." "Which I'm fine with." I nodded. "But, that does mean I won't be around here a lot." Sly pointed out. "World's getting better but it's not peaceful yet. I'll be away for a good while." "You, me, Mrs. Cooper and Matilda." Carmelita added. "They need as many people on the streets as possible." "We need good people on both sides to get things do." I nodded. "Talk to the others about this?" "Yeah. Everyone else knows already. Gonna suck not seeing you all for a while but eventually we'll try and call when or if we can." Sly said. "Alright." I nodded. "I trust you both…now there's just a thing where…two of my spouses are here…" I said sheepishly. "Spouses? As in from… the other life?" Carmelita asked. "Yes…" I said nervously. "They're friendly, they won't do anything…to crazy, and they'll abide by the rules I'm doing…kinda." I explained carefully. "Okay… where are they?" Sly asked. "They are…either busy or waiting for me to introduce them to all of you." I said carefully. "Oh. So, we'll see them later then." Sly said with a nod. "By the way, have you seen Neyla?" “Nope, after I talked to Arpeggio she just…kinda fucked off.” I shook my head. "Oh. Well according to Bentley she didn't come back last night." "Do you think she went off world?" Carmelita asked. “Hmm…maybe.” I said, using my new Cript senses to see where the hell she was. “This feels like cheating…” I mentally joked. I had to scan far. Further than I expected and I finally found her… the hell is she doing at the Keyblade Graveyard?! And fighting waves of Heartless?!?! Huh… so that's what her Keyblade looks like. “Alright…I’ll be right back, cause Neyla is fighting a whole lotta enemies.” I said. I rapidly opened a DTN and ran through. The Keyblade Graveyard was just as… usual as ever. Depressing. Bleak. In the distance I spotted Neyla fending off the endless swarms of Heartless. Shit this is what shows up when she summons her Keyblade? No wonder she doesn't use it much… but why does she have it out now? As she fought I managed to get a look at her weapon. It looked as if made from a mix of a tree and metal, the branches and vines wrapping and climbing up from one another to the top that seemed to hold the image of a moon with a silhouette of a wolf howling. Despite the numbers she was… actually, she's holding her own… and, pretty well… “Doing pretty good.” I said, walking around the Heartless as it seemed like they were all giving me an extremely wide birth to walk towards Neyla. "What are you doing here?" She asked, seeing the distance the heartless put between myself and them. Eventually she and I were in the fair sized safe bubble my presence made. “Wondering why your here, and wondering why there’s a metric ass ton of Heartless after you.” I started "It's what happens when I summon my Keyblade. Me just being on a world draws them over time. Slowly but more over time and when I summon my Keyblade I get this." She waved to the sea of Heartless around us. "This world is empty. I come here to vent. Train… wield it…" She said, lazily swinging her blade around. "Only me and the heartless. No one else is at risk…" “Mind if I see the Keyblade?” I inquired softly. “Maybe me and my spouse can figure out why this is happening cause…this doesn’t happen.” I answered, which made Neyla give me a strange look like I was crazy. "I told you why it happens remember? Lanesborn. Two parents from two different worlds. Even without a Keyblade I'd attract the bastards." I frowned, before looking into Neyla’s Code cause something about that still doesn’t make much sense to me. “Well, I’d still like to see your Keyblade cause it’s a brand new one I’ve never seen before.” "How about no?" She countered. I frowned. Her code was pretty straightforward. Basic hybrid stuff and… what's this? Right… there. Mixed in with her code lines for Homeworld location… that's… a mess… right. Two parents, two different worlds. It seems to cause a bug that her heart code seems to trigger. When a Keyblade is summoned it creates basically a beacon effect, letting any creature that can detect a heart's frequency, aka Heartless, that they're here. “Alright, so I think I figured out the problem.” I answered. “And yes, it actually does involve your Keyblade.” I said, starting to send a message to Heart given this was also their Territory. "No shit Sherlock." She huffed. “So, there seems to be a small…problem with your Heart.” I said carefully. “Somehow when you were born, something bugged and, whenever you bring out your keyblade, you act like a beacon for literally anything that detects a heart’s frequency…funnily enough, for the most part it has nothing to do with the fact you're a hybrid.” "Points for obvious…" She frowned, sitting down on the dirt and sighing. “And don’t worry, I know how to fix it.” I answered. "Doubtful." “We just need to wait for my spouse to get here real quick and then we move onto fixing it.” I stated simply. "Are they an Eldritch being from beyond nightmares?" Well… only if you ate the last bag of Skittles… “Well, you better not eat their ButterFinger that’s for sure.” I chuckled. "Should I… know what a Butterfinger is? Sounds like a quick way to clogged arteries." I blinked at her…then literally pulled out the candy bar in question. “Try it.” She took it, looking it over before shrugging and opening it and taking a bite. She then spat it out. "Egh. Peanuts. Gross." “Allergic or just don’t like Peanut Butter?” I asked curiously. "Don't like it. Had nothing but the stuff to eat for a month and I'm still pretty sick of it." She said, tossing the rest of the candy bar into the swam of heartless. “Yeah that’s fair.” I nodded. “But yeah, Heart should be getting here soon, then a lot of things will be solved for you.” "Not optimistic." She shrugged, disbanding her Keyblade. “I’m sure it’ll change at least a bit.” I said simply. "Not getting my hopes up." “Alright, is there more reasons as to why your this pessimistic?” I inquired. "Hmm. I dunno. Saw my parents killed by Heartless before my very eyes. Was told from a very young age I could never have a home, family or nice things in general cause of my magnetism to Heartless. One time dared to dream I found a nice place I could blend in and call home. Accidentally summoned my Keyblade and sent that world to the realm of Darkness. Have been kidnapped. Enslaved. Raped. Tortured and beaten multiple times over my life. Oh yeah and my feral form which I can not control myself or even remember and have on many occasions woken up after said change covered in blood and it was rarely ever mine and I had bone fragments and chunks of meat in my teeth among other things such as finding scraps of clothes or jewelry in my shit the next day. So… yeah I think I'm entitled to my pessimistic views." “Yeah, that sounds about right.” I nodded. “Sounds like you need therapy, a friend, and a hug.” "Therapy is for people who have a reason to care. My few friends are either getting on in years or have lives. And I don't like being touched." “Therapy is for everyone, and I should know, I never thought Therapy would help and it has been helping.” I answered simply. “Doesn’t matter about age or ‘have lives’, you have friends you can rely on…and yes, you do need a hug.” "This coming from the same guy who was bitching 'woah is me, my family knows I'm not a normal racoon and I'm a god playing make believe and will hate me'." Okay what's taking Heart so long cause I'm getting a bit close to knocking her the Fuck out… “Because I learned that family and trust actually means something.” I frowned. “I learned that life is actually great when your not seeing everything through the lens of pessimism to the point you pretty much kill your own Heart because you don’t care.” I stated. "If it means I croak then so be it." She shrugged. "My life has no value to me." “And I thought that exact same thing.” I answered. “But when I found people that cared about me, that could help me through all this bullshit, I got better, and the same thing can happen to you.” "And how long did that take you?" I had to think about that. “I…don’t actually know.” I said. “Time has been weird for me…like, technically, due to a lot of time dilation shenanigans…I’m probably a few million years old? Maybe? I haven’t kept track, and boy fucking howdy was a lot of it filled with me just wanting to Spite someone.” She laughed at that. "No offense but I'd rather not see if I can even live that long." “And I had to because I have people that believe my life means something.” I answered. “Even if I stayed alive to make sure they were happy, they wanted me to know my life is important, that I shouldn’t just spend my days pissed at myself so hard that I try to push everyone and everything away from me.” I shook my head. "Well lucky you." She huffed. "And I'm here, trying to help you." I told the tiger hybrid. "Not for any personal gain, not for some bullshit reason you think I would have, I want to help you cause I want to help." "What reason do I even have to live? Arpeggio? He's better off without me. Matilda? She's got herself a Cooper and seems fine as can be. You? Ha!" “When I talked to Arpeggio, he said that you deserve better.” I said honestly. “Cause he still cares about you. Matilda? I mean, she’s dating me, but she’s fine even without that…and wait, are we magically talking about dating?” I asked. “Also rude, I’m here actually trying to help you and do a good thing but you keep acting like me before I finally realized all life doesn’t suck total ass.” I growled. “Like you have anything to say mister ‘this is all fun and ga-’.” She was cut off as I picked her up by the throat. “My life, before all this horseshit, has been a complete lie twice over.” I told her bluntly. “Everything about me has been one fabrication after another for those that think it’s fucking funny to watch as a child get murdered, lose his soul, having to use his own light to keep himself alive, and then murdering their parents and staging them as suicides to blame myself ttime, and time again.” I growled. “I have suffered tortures you couldn’t even fathom, I crossed the threshold of Madness, but you want to know why I’m still here? Do you want to know why I’m still going? Even though I gave up my own Death?” I asked, seeing the hybrid look at me with wide eyes at me explaining this. “It’s because I have people that I don’t deserve, people that deserve better, people that genuinely love me.” I explained, dropping the tiger dire wolf hybrid. “I have people with me that care, I…mostly let go of my own self deprecating hatred and finally felt better about myself, because I had people to help me! You have people here to help you to damn it!” "And what exactly do you expect me to do after?! Forget all the shit that was my life?! You sure as shit haven't if you're throwing it in my face! How do you expect me to be happy when I can remember?!" “It’s called fucking trying!” I snapped. “Being there with the people that care about you, making an actual god damn attempt to be better! Yes, it’s hard, I don’t expect you to get it today, or tomorrow, but what I expect you to do is at least try!” I told them bluntly. “That’s literally all I’ve been trying to get you to do, is to at least try to be better, bring you to my family to at least form some relationship, friendly or otherwise, so you can see that life actually does matter, that it’s more than just self depreciation…and currently, if Heart could get here faster, we can take the first step to fixing this cause you being born, you being a hybrid of two different worlds, never was the problem.” I answered. "Sorry that took so long I was putting some finishing touches on the world." Heart- er, Megan, said as they exited a DTL. "Woah. What's all this?" They motioned to Neyla, the heartless still around and me. “They’re Code is bugged, that whenever they bring out their keyblade they become a beacon for Heart Detectors.” I answered. “As well as almost as self deprecating as me, so we had an argument about her actually trying to be better.” "Huh… feels weird being on the other end of that argument doesn't it?" Megan chuckled. "So… this is the person you said might be able to fix me?" Neyla asked. “Yep.” I nodded. “My spouse, who’s going by Megan right now, is going to help me fix your heart considering…well the Heart is her domain.” I said carefully. “Like…their Kingdom Hearts level of domain.” Nodding, Megan walked up to Neyla. She raised a hand that glowed with that all familiar blue light. "Let's see. Ah. Lanesborn glitch. Oddly common. Hang on, the old Admin left me something for just such an issue…" Megan snapped her fingers, a brief flash of code and when I scanned Neyla, the issue was gone. But, rather than a Homeworld slot, now was an Ancestor list. Both her mother and father's worlds are listed. "Done." “Fantastic.” I said with a smile. “And now, things should be getting better.” "I don't feel any different." Neyla said. "You wouldn't feel a difference but you will see it. Also, begone with you!" Megan said, all the Heartless vanishing at their command. “Yeah, it’s one of those changes that you can notice around you rather than in you.” I shrugged. “Like a calming silence after a douchebag roommate moves out finally.” After that I sent Neyla to her new home place, rapidly abducted John Bison and basically hired him to work cutting all the trees. I also had the various Cripts, their mates and my good boy move into the world and here they were able to have homes. Mom and Dad liked Megan and Sasha. Matilda really liked them and was sad she wouldn't be around much. Sly, Carmelita, Mom and Matilda all went off to be cops and while I was upset, I knew they were at least happy. And called regularly. I took a week off enjoying Megan and Sasha's company. Jing also joined in and… well that's been enjoyable. Eventually I got back to work and was checking in on the Contessa. I've been scoping out her and her boyfriend. They seem… genuinely happy together. “Well…glad to know that this was a genuine and loving relationship…” I muttered to myself, gently walking up to the front door and knocking on it cause I did have some questions for them. After a bit the multi-legged walking taps of the Contessa stopped and she opened the door. "Yes- Oh, Kite Cooper! What an honor!" She said with a bow. “Please, no need to bow.” I said with a raised hand. “Mind if I come in? I would like to ask some questions about…current events as it were.” I said carefully. "Oh, of course." She said, stepping aside as I entered. This was her boyfriend's mansion, and there, sitting in a large chair by the fireplace was her love. Phillips L Northwood. His family is old money, but he specializes in, funny enough, plant cultivation and GMOs. "Sweetie. We have a guest." The older man looked up and over at me. "Kite Cooper. Come. I had hoped to speak with you." He motioned to a seat across from him. I took the seat and Contessa sat next to her love on a fluffy floor mat. Well, she is too big for a sofa… “So, it’s nice to meet the both of you.” I nodded with a smile. “And I’m happy to see you two are in a loving relationship.” "Of course." Phillips said with a chuckle. "You wouldn't guess by looking at us, but she's older than I am." "Oh hush you." Contessa chuckled. I chuckled at that. “So, before I start saying I agree with your taste in mature women, I have some questions I’d like to ask, and to answer any questions you might have.” "I suppose. I am an open book. Ask away." Philips said. “Have either of you been visited by a…being of interest?” I inquired. “Not in the ‘here’s another inmate’ kind but a more…’I can offer you something’ kind of being?” "Heh. Now that takes me back." Philips said. "Last being of interest I met aside my live here was Scrooge McDuck." I raised my eyes at that. I wasn't expecting that but… also, it did make sense. Phillips in his youth would vanish for up to months at a time and each time he returned it was with some new exotic or undocumented plant or means of genetic modifying… now it all makes sense. "He's an old business associate of mine. We traveled and if it wasn't for him, I'd have never met Contessa here." "I'll admit, I owe the old duck that much." Contessa added. "Gonna have to send that old duck a message one of these days…" I muttered. "Alright, so I presume neither of you have been visited by…Clockwork or anyone associated with him?" I asked carefully. "Clockwork? I'm afraid I do not know anyone by that name. You know anything Contessa?" Phillips asked. "Hmm… not really. Aside from some rumors about some supposed Ancient Metal Owl, no." She shrugged. "Alright awesome." I let out a sigh of relief. "Now, I heard a rumor about you Contessa…about being an Off Worlder?" I inquired. She sighed, but nodded. "It's true. I am not from this world. Few here even know of Off Worlders. But… well, long distance was killing me." She said, giving Phillips a kiss on his head. "I moved here and set up my own identity. Using some funds Philips provided I began having a prison built to continue the work of my people. Given what you have done and those you have taken down, I have had to make expansions." "It's not illegal in any laws written, but Keyblades and some who consider themselves forces for order frown at it." Phillips added. "World Order they say." "And World Order hasn't meant jack shit since the moment it was first mentioned." I shook my head, seeing the two surprised by my reaction to it. "Sorry about the…small outburst, but sorry for making your work a lot harder ma'am…just doing our best." "I can't really complain. One more criminal off the streets means more and more public safety." Contessa said. "Yep…but that sadly means others are getting…picked up by something worse…" I sighed. "But enough about that depressing topic, how long have you two been together?" "Well, we met thirty years ago but Contessa and I have only been living with one another for the last six." Phillips said. "I'd have arrived sooner but it's not easy to leave home and my duty." Contessa said. "Eventually though I finally came." Phillips chuckled. "And it's been wonderful every day from morning til night. I only with my body was thirty years younger again. Cause I'd make an honest woman out of you the next morning." He chuckled, making Contessa blush and laugh. Hmmm… well, most theories say she went mad and joined Klaww Gang because her husband passed… so, imma fix that. Souls and Nothingness are my primary domain… but a Nobody is still more or less a body. "I think I can help you with that." I answered, causing the two to stare at me. "Please, don't panic, but there's gonna be some serious shenanigans about to happen." I snapped my fingers. Using magic to restore his physical age to that of thirty years ago was easy. And just to be safe I also tied his lifeline to Contessa. Should one of them pass the other will also pass a day later. That being said I also added some passive protection wards around them to help them avoid dying from other external means, some wards of fast healing, fortify health, and given what they'll be doing soon fortify stamina and endurance. Needless to say they were beyond thrilled. I let the two of them enjoy themselves and went back home. Okay, so that's everyone from the Claw Gang… Just leaves the enemies and people from Honor Among Thieves and Thieves in Time. "Right…so I help an old man see that people still like Opera, get Australia to not mine at the Guru's place…finally get Bentley and Penelope on a date…kick LeFwee's ass…but first, I have a skunk to deal with…" I growled. To be continued...
Nobody figures out their futureI had to admit, exploring my parallel selves has been a lot of fun. I don't think Cript and I have spent so much time together like this outside of sex. Granted I am still banging various parallel me's. “The fact that, no matter how many universe’s there are, the most common thing about me is that I am a super cuddle bug, and very horny.” I chuckled. "Well I guess you being horny and cuddly is just a default for you." Cript shrugged as we ate at this one world where everything was basically Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. "Which is a good thing in moderation." I nodded. "You definitely enjoyed that darkness version of you. One of the few times I saw you walking funny." Cript said with a chuckle. "They were very good." I said happily. "And got to enjoy a whole lotta Milf." "Self Milf." Cript added with a laugh. "In any case, guess after this we should see what other weird crap your parallel selves have gotten into." "Alright…let's hope it doesn't get too weird.* "That's probably too much to ask." With that Cript and I got up, finishing our meals and heading off. The next world we were in looked familiar… where have I seen this before… Our current area was a large beach where in one direction was more beach and a large hill of sorts, and the other direction was a town. "Looks cozy." Cript said, looking around. "This…feels so familiar…" "Huh. Big Bagal." Cript said. I turned, looking up and at a huge sign that was indeed a giant bagel, the words Big Bagal were also on it. "That's…noo, this couldn't be…" "King we are literally traveling Multiverses and alternative timelines. It all can be. Speaking of what be this?" "So we're at Beach City…but which Steven Universe is this?" "More importantly what kind of nonsense did your alternative get into ending up here?" "Yeah…that is a good question." I frowned. "If its me banging a gem I wouldn't be surprised." "You do that back home anyway." Cript said. I nodded, remembering all the Gem mates back home… their shape shifting is always fun~ "True, so let's go find me.* We walked around, I was getting a lot of surprised but unconcerned looked from the locals as we walked around. We did find the car wash Greg works at but he isn't here. Hmm… "Right…maybe the beach house?" We walked back towards the beach, only to see a fence around a fair chunk of it. "Huh. So, breaking and entering?" Cript asked. “The hell is happening?” I frowned. “So…maybe the Farm?” And so, we walked to the farm, finding it empty, unkept and abandoned still. "Well, that's depressing." Cript said. “Okay, what the hell.” I frowned, looking around with my special eyes to try and find where I am specifically. Scanning. Scanning… oh. Oh! Oh… well. White Diamond Steven… and currently he and Earl are running around through towns far away from here. So, early in this places timeline… so, where the Fuck is my other… oh… ah, there I am… this universe me is a human, working with Greg in the car wash. And he and I are… off buying parts for said carwash. The me here has a surprisingly simple life. “Right, so currently, I’m working with Greg and getting parts for the Carwash.” I said honestly. “And it’s White Diamond Steven Universe so good to know.” "Alright, so we're both early and nothing's happening here. All in all, it's a peaceful timeline." “For right now, yes.” I nodded. "Cool. So, what do we do?" “Well…we’re supposed to merge the place but so far nothing’s happened here…just people doing their own thing, and Steven and Earl shouldn’t be here for another…few days maybe?” "So, wanna move on or wait?" “Hmm, while we should move on, waiting to at least give a warning on ‘hey, you’re joining our kingdom and timeline’ should at least be said to proper people.” "Fair enough." The next Timeline was definitely more active. All around us was New York City, and I shit you not the first thing I hear is- "Spider Man is a menace!" "Marvel world. Cool." Cript said with a smirk. “Boy howdy is Jameson glad that Spider Man doesn’t file defamation claims.” I chuckled. “Now, which Marvel world are we in? MCU or Comics?” "Or something in between?" Cript suggested. "Either way this is gonna be interesting. The you of this Timeline must have wanted to be a hero." “That would be cool…or I could just be an average joe…or dead.” I said, trying to find the me of this timeline. Let's see… no, no, no, no, no, no- wait yes that is me and holy crap! Okay, X-Men are in this universe and I'm a mutant. “My mutant power better be at least okay…” I muttered, hoping that there’s at least something decent with me being a mutant here. Let's see and my powers are… heh. Fitting. I can shapeshift my whole body or parts into wolf or wolf like parts, gaining all the senses and uses, and can swap between a human, wolf, or werewolf form. Cool. “Alright, awesome.” I said with a smile. “My power is Werewolf…let’s head to Xavier’s school.” "I guess." Cript shrugged. It wasn't hard to get to the school. Arriving on campus it was actually really cool to see all the iconic places in person. "This is nice." I smiled. "Sometimes I forget how I can actually visit the places I always wanted to as a kid." "Okay, so anything special about this world you wanna do?" "Well, we should go around and deal with all the actual pure evil beings before Grey gets their hands on them." I said honestly. "And wow, so far, there's been two of me that aren't super horny." "Statistically speaking there has to be some." "That's fair." I nodded. "But those statistics are really low so far." "Considering the source variable…" "I'm sorry eighty percent of the time I'm just a very lonely nerd who needs a hug." I pouted. "In any case, go on in. I'll wait here." “Alright.” I nodded, walking off to find my shapeshifting woof version of me. “Let’s hope it’s not going to be awkward if the X-Men get involved…” I walked up to the door, knocking and after a bit, the door opened, and greeting me was… "Sup doggy tits." Deadpool said. “Sup.” I nodded to Deadpool, really not surprised to see him. “Getting kicked out again or is there an actual problem going on?” "Nah I'm just here stealing food and pranking Wolfie. Er, a different wolf. Say, didn't I serve you Mexican in a void before?" “Probably a different Deadpool.” I shrugged. “Continuity is a bitch when you’ve been working on something for half a decade.” "Tell me about it. At least I got a cool live action movie with Ryan Reynolds. So, works for me. Anyway, I'm assuming you want the furry? And I don't mean the blue one." “I am looking for the version of me here, yes.” "He's probably in the lab with the blue furry." “Not surprised.” I nodded. “Alright, and where would the lab’s be?” "Downstairs. Take the secret elevator behind the the bookshelf behind the stairs and hit sub level three, walk til you reach the third si-fi door." "Fair enough." I entered, following Deadpool's instructions and eventually finding the lab. The me here looked like, well, human me. But my nose immediately picked up the scent of wolf on him. “Hello.” I said politely to the mutant version of me. "What the?" They said, taking a sniff. "You smell… kinda like me?" “That is because I am you…from another Timeline.” I said sheepishly. “You think this worlds Multiverse was confusing, you haven’t seen or heard anything yet.” "Oh, so does that mean you're another me that God gave an offer to?" “Yes.” I nodded. “And I chose Nothingness powers from Kingdom Hearts.” "Awh that's so cool… wait so how did you end up a werewolf? Or…" they took another sniff. "A hermaphrodite milf?" “That is a very long story.” I chuckled. “And part of it stems from a question of, would you like to join my Family? Cause there are a lot of really cool shit you can do that not even some of the brightest minds here could come up with.” "Family? As in… like, as a brother?" “That's…technically correct.” I said honestly. “But that’s also a long and complicated and…extremely lewd conversation.” "... Why is it lewd?" "When your basically immortal, with a huge ass harem of other significant others and certain…things aren't a problem…plus also, the family is just super horny a lot of the time." "Huh… well, you've clearly embraced that…" “Believe it or not, me being a hermaphrodite wasn’t because of horny.” I said. “Just then…well, can’t really argue with hips like these.” I said, giving my bountiful hips a little shimmy. "Yeah… sure it wasn't…" The other me said flatly. “Do you think these hips lie?” I asked. “Cause I’m not, it was originally because of one of my spouses…was a little annoyed I wanted to stay a dude while literally everyone else was turning into a herm…so, decided to give it a try…honestly not my fault I turned into a Den Mother either but the more you know.” "Den Mother?" “Alright, time for a history lesson my little woof.” I said, pulling out one of the white boards Professor McCoy apparently has around here and pulled out a few colored markers. “And also a biology lesson…before I start, how interested are you in academics?” “I wouldn’t be one of Professor McCoy’s top students if I slacked off.” The werewolf me answered readily. “Good.” I nodded with a smile, before delving into the history of Wolves in the greater Multiverse. I have to admit… teaching felt nice. Kind of nice to be on the other end of a lesson for once. After a two hour lesson of rather condensed and generalized info my other had questions. "So, you don't suffer from genetic issues from inbreeding and you're always fertile?" “Yep.” I nodded. “Den Mothers, and True Alpha’s for Males, are basically supposed to be nature’s way of having a fail safe for species if they get close to extinction.” I said honestly. “Plus, Den Mother’s Breast Milk is not only good for our young, but it’s also one of the strongest kinds of healing items around believe it or not.” "And any species can drink it?" “Yep, any and all races can drink it…I have a lot of experience to back up that claim.” I said with a proud motherly smile. "Uh huh… and other species and such have their own versions of Den Mothers and True Alpha's?" “Yep.” I nodded. “Every species has their own version.” I nodded. “And yes, all Den Mother’s are the define the term ‘MILF’.” "Right… have you ever met a feral den Mother or true alpha species?" “Yes.” I nodded. “They are…rather noticeable in the animal kingdom, but they have instincts to make sure it’s not just them taking every mate in a twenty mile radius.” "And are you and they cross compatible?" “I do in fact have a feral form.” I said. “And while bestiality isn’t really something I’m into…I did learn that yes, I can…did it both as an experiment cause I was curious…and a bet with someone…won that bet soundly.” "Alright… well, what brings you to my timeline/dimension? Aside offering to join your family?" “So, to start, a spouse of mine literally broke Time.” I said, seeing my mutant self comedically fall over at that. “And now, me and him are going around and getting as many Timelines under our banner as possible, starting with version’s of me.” "Alright… and where are they?" “Either hanging out, or going around and checking up on all the Villains and other truly evil cosmic entities out there.” I shrugged. “Wouldn’t be surprised if he bitch smack’s one of them…” "Alright… so, what now?" “Well, what do you think of my offer?” I inquired. “If you join the family, literally everything opens up for ya, all sorts of education, traveling, adventures await.” I said with a smile. "I guess that would be helpful, but I'd rather not be a… mate." "That's fair." I nodded. "Go at it at your own pace, you have an entire family to share time with, and an entire multiverse at your fingertips." "No I just have a girlfriend and we're not into harems or polygamy." "That's also fair. So who's the lucky lady and how much does she ask you to be in your wolf form to cuddle?" I inquired. "All the time and her name is Doreen." "That's good." I nodded. "And is she a student here?" “What’s this about a fluffy milf version of my boy-” A female voice was cut off, turning around to see the girl of the hour. “Hi there.” I said with a warm smile. "Yes, uh, Doreen, this is King, King, this is Doreen. Aka, Squirrel Girl." Other me said, Doreen walking around the corner and I saw her large fuzzy tail. "I'm…honestly not surprised you'd manage to date one of the strongest people in the universe…" I chuckled. "What's that mean?" Doreen asked. "She's probably referring to alternative versions of you." Other me asked. "Oh you mean like that time when Dr. Strange accidentally…" "Yup." "Don't worry, it only gets worse and more exciting from there." I said. "And yes, I am referring to other realities where you beat powerful people like Thanos in a fight." I brought up. "Okay, this reality is Left 4 Dead zombies." Cript said, shooting an infected. "Why do zombie timelines always make me happy?" "Because it's an excuse to just grab anything strong enough and murder a bitch?" I suggested, splitting an infecteds head open with a baseball bat. "Maybe." Cript shrugged, shooting three more. "Your Other should be alive in this world. Immune. Or, Asymptomatic, as this virus typically works." "Which is surprising honestly." I brought up, cleaving through a charger, grabbing it's too half and throwing it hard enough to kill five more. "What? That a version of you is asymptomatic to a zombie virus or that majority of the Green Flue variations only have either symptomatic or asymptomatic infected?" "Both honestly." I said. "I mean, sure I'm glad I'm okay, but systematically…it's not gonna be good later when we start finding my corpse later on." "You are asymptomatic meaning while you are infected you aren't one of the zombies so." Cript said, shooting several more of the undead. "You think your other you is dead or gonna die soon?" "Either I'm hold up somewhere trying to play it safe, or I've got a little loony and just go around killing zombies for the fun of it." I shrugged. "Or maybe joined a group and just surviving?" "Also true, no excuses to be shut in when zombies need to be killed." I chuckled. "Wonder who this version of you met up with?" "No idea." I shrugged. "I don't know much about who survived this nonsense." "True. But given this world is basically one to one, with zombies, of your old one I got a good idea who has." "Well, let's go see what girl I was lucky enough to get." I said honestly. "While we're here, should we take our time and look around?" “Sure, some harmless zombie murder would be nice while looking around the place.” "Cool." We walked around. Hoards attacked. We killed them all and for the most part we're just hanging out. We found a few safe rooms but didn't bother taking anything. We actually left some stuff cause, why not. As we walked we checked out an abandoned GameStop.and I already have every game ever but, always fun. “Always good to have spares ya know?” I chuckled. "Eh. Well bright side it's gotta be easier to find a ps5 now than before the zombie apocalypse." “Oh yeah, that’s definitely true.” I nodded. "So, wonder what caused the outbreak?" “Yeah, I do wonder what caused it, cause it’s not every day just a random ass zombie apocalypse starts that also has weird special variants.” "Most likely man made." Cript said. “Wouldn’t be surprised. “I nodded. "So, anything good?" “Well, God of War Ragnarok, Bayonetta 3, and a few other’s that’s pretty good.” I said honestly. "Cool." Cript said, looking the various toys and plushies over. "Charger is coming near." “You want to kill it or me?” I asked. "I got it." Cript said, snapping their fingers as suddenly a very wet and squishy explosion went off in the distance. “Yeah, that works.” I chuckled. "Ever think that with all these post apocalyptic games and movies, people would have been smarter and not rapidly died off to the infected?" “We need to remember, a person is smart, people are stupid, panicky creatures that go absolutely apeshit over a bunch of bullshit.” I said honestly. "Fair. How many do you think are still alive around the world?" "No idea." I shrugged. "But probably ranging around…couple hundred thousand maybe?" "Give or take based on how well defenses hold up." Cript shrugged. We looted a few more stores then moved on, finding a huge, fancy hotel and going in. "At this point are we still looking for another you?" "Probably not…" I shook my head. "But hanging out like this is nice." "True. Wanna set up a place and just see how things go for us here?" "Sure." I nodded. "Would be a bit of fun just hanging out and doing survivor stuff." "Welp, for us that's not hard at all." "Yeah, it would be very easy." I nodded. "We could… help repopulate it." "Oh really now?" I asked. "That's not something I've done…ever I think? Sure I created a town of plant folk on an endless mode rampage, but not repopulate a planet the old fashion way." "Care to let me help you start your first?" Cript asked. “Of course.” I smiled. “Would certainly scare the shit out of all the survivors here to just see a lot of hybrids appear out of nowhere.” "Alright. Now, what about the rules?" “Rules?” I inquired. “Like keeping it to a single species or something else?” "It varies. Usually when my mates and I do this we have a few rules. Like are we just one male, one female, hermaphrodites, do we make a religion out of it, and if we're gonna tell all the kids much later on or soon about us being here and, well, just stuff for fun." “I’m too used to hermaphrodites.” I started. “Never really liked how out of control religion can get…I mean…I don’t think we should tell them ‘oh yeah, we’re doing this because of fun’ and the like…” I hummed. "Alright. So, with that I'll do that do. Wanna do same species or different species?" “Hmm…we can do different species.” I shrugged. “Diversity helps a lot.” "Cool. You can keep the wolf one and… what should I do?" “Hmm…” I hummed. “Do you want to be something normal or want to just do something brand new?” I asked, cause if me and Eclipsa made Floof Noodles, then god knows what combo’s we’ll be creating. "Dunno. Got any other favorite animals." “Tigers.” I answered readily. “I don’t care if tiger’s are basic, they are giant fluff balls that are just straight adorable and are really cool and mythology agree’s with me.” "Alright." Cript said, a flash and they were not a hot, fluffy hermaphrodite tigress about my height and packing all the Den Mother features. "So we're gonna tell the kids we're helping repopulate the planet then?" “Yep.” I nodded. “Now, who wants to go first in our repopulation event?” "Before we start that we should establish some more rules and such." “What other rules do you want to establish?” I inquired. “If we accidentally breed another bonker’s strong race or something?” "No, more rules for us. Firstly is magic or advanced tech allowed?" “Hmm…” I hummed. “I’ll say…nothing really earth shattering, probably mid level magic and advanced tech, something that could help get the world back on track but have enough room for development.” "Alright, good. Now then, weapons need to fit that tier too. Now what about when we encounter survivors. What's our rule there?" “Well, it should be like any other, be kind and courteous, help the people that need it, and fight against those that would abuse or try to fight us.” I answered. “Just like we always do.” "Alright then. Now, let's fortify this hotel and then we can get to the repopulating." “Alright, let’s get to fortify, and then having all the fun.” I said with a smile. “Oh, should we also…offer a home here and also our own brand of fun if any survivor’s come this far and want?” "If they want, yeah." It didn't take long to fortify the place. Once we did it was time to see who was first on the baby bed. "So, how do we decide who's first pregnant?" “Flip a coin or rock paper scissors?” I inquired. "Hmm… no coins around so, rock paper scissors." Cript said. “Rock paper scissors.” I nodded, bringing up my hand at the ready. A quick round and I won. Yes! "Heh, alright time is this gonna be a cut time jump or an actual sex scene?" “We haven’t done porn in a while, so why not.” I shrugged. "Alright then. Let's go find a room and make a mess of it." (warning, there be porn here) I smiled as I followed Cript up to a room with a large bed. Wasting no time Cript and I discarded our clothes and I got a good look at them in their Den Mother Tigress form. They were very similar to my body type, save looking a bit smaller due to less fluff. Their long tail curling and flicking around as they laid down on their back. “Ya know…I will never get used to how beautiful Den Mtothers are.” I chuckled, gently raising a hand up and grabbing one of the tigresses bountiful tit’s and giving it an affectionate squeeze. They were squishy, soft and moldable and plenty bouncy. A small trickle of milk spilled from the teat as I fondled and played with the breast. Cript cooed softly as they grabbed my other arm and placed it upon another. "Well, I am yours, just remember, make sure to cum inside and plentiful~" “Have I ever disappointed in that department?” I asked with a sly grin, leaning over and bringing up the leaking tit and latching onto it, sucking their nip and fondling their other breast with all the wonderful experience I’ve gotten over these many many years. It tasted very different from my own. Having a rather… nutty and cinnamon taste that I drank down. I felt Cript caress behind my head as I did this, breathing deep as both of us began to show arousal. Well, looks like both our members are the same size, if different shape. "Ready to get to the main event~?" Cript asked, giving me a smirk. “Oh yeah.” I nodded. “The time has come, and so will I.’ With practiced ease I got into position, aligning my tip into the proper place and finding the entrance to Cript's baby tunnel. With a slow, easy thrust I slipped into the warm, wet, tight organ. It was perfectly fitted into their hole, tip to base was all the way in and I felt it against their cervix. Even my knot fit with perfect accommodations. “Ah~, even with it fitting every inch, it’s still so blissfully tight.” I moaned in bliss. "I did make this body with your, and my, pleasure in mind~" Cript said, clenching my rod as I began thrusting in and out. I groaned at the clenching, loving the feeling of shoving my knot into my wonderful spouse over and over again. "Ooh~ make me scream my King~" “Of course my Queen.” I moaned, and considering how much I’ve done it with Cript’s Lyra, I immediately went to work pounding into my slutty kitty with practiced vigor. With every thrust they got tighter and let out yelps and moans that drove me wild to hear. I wasted no time in trying to get deeper, lifting Cript's legs into missionary and planting a sloppy kiss as I climaxed, pumping hot seed into them as I kept thrusting. Cript and I kept going for a while. My seed filling them into a hefty cum balloon before I finally swapped to another hole. Their anus was tighter, hotter, and my cock slipped into it and stretched it. Cript seemed to roar at that, feeling the same pleasures I was. “How does my queen love being my personal cumdump?” I growled, dirty talk always getting out of me in heated moment’s like these as I kept ramming as hard and deep as I could without destroying the place. "H-h-harder." Cript said, biting onto a pillow. I shakily raised a hand and snapped my fingers, making the place an extra fuck ton more durable as I knew exactly what was going to happen. “As you wish.” I growled, grabbing both Cript’s wide, child bearing hips and slammed into the tigress hard. They roared loudly as I kept up the speed and they clenched. With glee I climaxed down their backdoor piping, feeling my seed flow all the way into their insides. I kept thrusting, feeling the colon walls become lubed and lose as I kept up the force and pumping of my seed. When I finished with their rear my cock came out with a wet pop. I took a seat on the bed, Cript pulling me down and immediately began fondling my sack and licking up and down my rod. I let them do their work while fondled and smacked their still red rear. “Make sure you get every inch my love.” I said, squeezing their plump jiggly ass, always loving how Den Mother’s asses were just perfect. Their reply was wet sloppy licks and kisses to my cock as they squeezed and fondled my balls. Soon the kisses and licks turned to sloppy, noisy deep throating as they bobbed up and down my rode, making sure to stuff my knot into their cheeks when reaching the base. I moaned at their tongue work and lack of gag reflex. “Ah~, perfect.” I moaned happily, lightly petting their head to show their doing amazing. As they sucked and slurped, I felt the pressure build up. With a smirk I grabbed their head, and pushed them down as I came right down their throat and into their stomach. I watched as their now twice cum inflated stomach, first via the womb then by their anal organs, now grow more until their stomach leaked into their small intestine and met up with what I pumped in there from their read. They pulled off my now limp cock, purring and full of seed and soon to be babies as they kept nuzzling and began to sleep using my crotch as a pillow. (Porn end) I gently pet my purring kitty, letting them rest after those many loads. “That…was amazing…” "Hmmm hm…" Cript replied. I chuckled, laying down and taking a breather. This will be… nice. We'll be helping a world recover and there will be lots of nights like this. Hope Cript returns the favor when it's my turn to carry the babies. “Sometimes…I forget the simpler things…” I muttered, staring up at the ceiling and just letting my thought’s roam, remembering how I had Grey Paladin, the earth pony stallion having a wonderful family with Applejack in Ponyville…that made me chuckle a little. It’s felt like forever since I started there…”I’m old…” I sighed. Well, at least I don't look it. It's been a month since we started our life here. All in all, it's oddly peaceful. Sure every so often a hoard tries to get in but they are easy to deal with. With Cript pregnant and such I go out, grabbing food, or whatever. The hotel has been renovated a lot. Fully stocked kitchen. Many gas tankers looted for heat. Solar panels rigged and modified. Eh, I wanted a project rather than rig up a basic Electronium generator. Right now I was out looking through the various stores I have yet to loot. Hmm… still can't believe there were so many FNAF books. I flipped through the page of 'Tales From The Pizzaplex'. “How this game has been going from essentially a flash game to this is honestly stupidly surprising…” I shook my head, finding Scott’s idea’s of horror’s a tad novel if I didn’t already meet the Admin of Fear themselves…which I really hope some of my clones and the search parties find them before Void Key does. I was packing up this load of books and turned to see four very wide eyed humans. One I recognized as me, the other three… I had no idea who they were. One was a brown skinned lady, maybe… mid to late thirties in a yellow hoodie and blue jeans holding a machete. The second was a red haired guy, tall, broad shoulders in a blue jersey and green cargo pants holding a shotgun. The third guy was wearing a jean jacket, jeans, boots and was wearing a chicken mask. He also had a machine gun. The other me had two handguns. “Hello, I’m visiting you all today about your car's extended warranty.” I joked with a cheeky grin, hearing the three other’s groan as if they’ve either heard this joke before or know exactly who I am based on my shit taste in comedy. "So, we aren't hallucinating the ten foot tall furry fetish?" The red head asked. “And we aren’t hallucinating that you sound just like Ben here…just as a women with the same shit taste in comedy.” The African girl asked. “Oi!” Ben huffed. “You are not hallucinating.” I answered. “My name is King, what are your names?” "I'm Donovan." The red head informed. "That's Katie." He waved to the African lady. "And that psycho is Cluck. He doesn't talk much but he sure can fight." "He's also a walking meme I swear…" Katie huffed. Cluck proceeded to pull up a tape recorder and hit play. "Bite my shiny metal ass!" I blinked, looking at Cluck more closely. “Did your father go by ‘Jacket’ by chance?” I asked, seeing Cluck flinch a bit at me calling it. “Yeah…so either two things happened…Payday 2 happened, or Hotline Miami happened…” I shook my head. “Good to know, plus, meme’s can help better than spliced self help tapes.” "Are you like, some alien or something?" Donovan asked. Well… technically yes… hm… you know, I don't have to tell them I am an alternative version of their Ben. The goal here is aid in repopulating the planet and honestly I do wanna stay here and do that for a long time. I can definitely play off as an alien. “Yes, and I’m here for a specific reason.” I answered. “Me and my fellow traveler were watching over your planet to see how you were evolving, how the Nephalim were causing a mess…and then the zombie’s happened.” I shook my head. “So, with an executive decision, me and my partner are here to help repopulate the planet between the both of us, rescue any and all survivors, and if they want, any and all survivor’s can breed with us as well.” I explained. They all stared at me like I grew three heads. "So, you came here to… Fuck?" Katie asked. “That wasn’t our first choice, but then ninety percent of the planet turned into the undead and are quickly dwindling by the day.” I answered. “First choice would have been, when you were ready, bring your people into the wider universe with all sorts of technology leaps and bounds ahead of your time…but again, zombies.” “So there’s zombies in space?” Ben inquired, finding that bit a little weird. “Zombies have many classifications, believe it or not.” I said readily. “But yes, thankfully the one’s we’ve met so far at least kept some of their higher brain functions to not be raging rabies monster.” I said, which was…technically correct with how most versions of Zombies are depicted, from the aggression and incessant need to bite things to spread. "Okay… so, do you have a space ship or something?" Katie asked. “Yes, yes we do.” I nodded. “It’s a pretty fancy ship due to it, originally, being a ship used for diplomacy.” I said, moving my hands around to give a vague shape of it while also using some magic to actually spawn the thing near our base. “In human terms, we would have tried to be the crew on the Enterprise in Star Trek, traveling the galaxy to meet new races and the like.” I answered. “How do you know about Star Trek?” Human me asked. “Space Hulu.” I said with a cheeky grin. “I get that reference.” Ben pointed at me with a smile. "So why bother trying to repopulate the planet why not just… evacuate people?" Donovan asked. “Because, even if this is a zombie infested planet, it is still filled with life.” I answered. “Your planet is still kicking, nature is reclaiming a lot of what greedy corporations were doing to it, and this can be a good ‘second chance’ for it.” I answered readily. "The living furry fetish has a point." Katie said. Cluck played his tape recorder again. "Let's go already!" “Alright, then follow me.” I nodded, turning on my heel and heading off to my place. “So, how long have you four been surviving around here?” "Well, I'm from Ohio. Donovan is from Florida, Katie is from New York and we have no idea where Cluck is from. We've been together for… two months now?" Ben said. "Yeah but Cluck and Donovan were already together when I met up with them in North Carolina." Katie said. "Yeah, I woke up one morning a week in and Cluck was just there roasting marshmallows over my fire." Donovan said. "That was still in Georgia but more north." “That’s fair.” I nodded. “Met any other survivors while traveling around?” "Few we did meet died shortly after." Katie said. "Infection is airborne. Not many are resistant or… whatever we are." Ben said. "Ran into a cultist group once but they all died out when a Tank tore down their walls." Donovan said. “Yeah, that sounds about right.” I nodded. “Either Zombie or Military hardware, fun ways to see a Cult taken down with a Tank.” I chuckled, shaking my head at some memories. “So, what were you all doing before the world went to shit?” I inquired. "I worked in a Walmart." Donovan said. "Starbucks." Katie said. "Costco." Ben said. Cluck did not answer. “Fair enough.” I nodded. “Now, me and my partner will be teaching you more survival things, like farming and the like in our very safe place.” "Fresh food sounds great honestly. Last time we ate something fresh was when we passed through an apple orchard. Was nice but too many infected." Katie said. I led the group to the hotel, where once they were in they looked around. I left them to it and checked on Cript. I know they're fine, but still. My pregnant Den Mother Tigress was as I left them. Laid on the bed watching movies. "Hey. Back already?" “Yep, found myself, and three others, which one of them happens to be Jacket’s Son.” "Pretending I know who that is, good. I take it they're exploring around?" “Yeah.” I nodded. “And he’s the chicken mask wearing guy from either Hotline Miami or Payday 2.” "Alright. So, what did you tell them?" “We’re aliens from another planet that were supposed to come here as a ‘we come in peace, let me show you the wonders of the galaxy’, then segwayed into ‘well, you fucked your planet up, so we’re repopulating it’.” I explained. Cript shrugged. "Not a lie so, cool. Having fun with this app so far?" “Yeah, it’s fun so far.” I nodded. “Keeping myself busy, using what I can instead of just magicking it up is always a good thing.” "Plus the one on one time this gives us really helps us bond closer. And once the babies are born is when the real fun part starts." Cript said, rubbing their baby bump. "So, what did they say when you offered the interbreeding?" “I brought it up once, they looked at me like I was completely insane, and then they acted like it never happened.” I chuckled. “Though I did notice this worlds me was staring quite a bit…not that I blame him in the slightest.” I chuckled. "If they do decide it will probably take time. Unless they really want to screw. Either way, we will be here." “Yes, yes we will.” I nodded. “I didn’t mention you yet, wanted it to be a surprise and…well, they were already reeling from ‘furry fetish’ as they keep calling me, probably didn’t want to mention ‘oh yeah, my partner is pregnant so be careful’.” Cript chuckled. "We kinda are but, hey, in an apocalypse most people will take what they can get. Think they'll stay?" “Considering this is a safe haven all around, I offered to teach them how to farm, and they were basically hoping for fresh food after so long, I have a feeling they’ll be staying.” "Good. Now, think you can squeeze in a quickie before heading back out to catch up with them?" “I can always squeeze in a quickie.” I chuckled. (more porn, watch out) Wasting no time, I dropped my pants and undergarments and Cript began giving soft wet kisses to my cocks tip. They kissed and licked it from tip to knots and base before giving my balls a similar treatment and finally making their way back to the top where they opened wide and began deep throating my rode. I held onto their head and thrusted in and out of their maw and tight wet throat, feeling my tip squeeze down their throat and buldge in their neck. I moaned as I had to be fast and trusted, feeling Cript's tongue lick and spread spit around my road with every thrust. Their hands grabbed my sack and massaged my baby batter factory with general erotic tenderness. With one last hard thrust and pushing their head all the way to my base I let a hot load down their throat into their stomach again. Once it was done and Cript's stomach was bulged a bit bigger than earlier they made wure to suck and pop off my cock, keeping it clean of seed and only slightly wet from saliva. "Thanks~" Cript purred. (End porn) I don't know why but Cript has really gotten into the role of… well, a Brood Mother… or, well, Den Mother. Often needy and wanting attention or pleasure… or both. I was happy to oblige but it was definitely a noticeable change. “Your welcome, my love.” I said, gently giving them headpats. “Though, the shift to being a den mother is quite a change.” Cript chuckled. "This is how I usually get when I'm the one who is mothering, pregnant, or in any way female with my loves." They stated. "I know it's a change from how I usually am but honestly I enjoy being the… submissive brood mother when I am the female in the situation." Huh… good to know. Also, kinky/explains a lot. “Nice.” I nodded with a smile. “Can’t wait for my turn in this though.” "Told you this would be lots of fun." I gave Cript a kiss before leaving to find the others. Eventually I did find them in the movie theater. This hotel had a large auditorium already I just put a desktop, projector and movies in here. As well as several microwaves and a lot of popcorn here. They were all watching Zombieland funnily enough. “So, how does it feel watching Irony play out on a big screen?” I asked the group. "Eh. I guess it's similar to our own so, not too much to complain." Katie said. "Only wish guns and ammo were that easy to find." Ben said. "Same." Donovan said. Click hit their tape recorder. "I'm low on bullets" I'm noticing all his recorded voice clips are Bender from Futurama. “So about you only picking voice clips from Bender?” I brought up to Cluck. He clicked the recorder again. "Bender is great! Bender is great!" I laughed a bit harder than I expected to at that. “Good answer.” I chuckled. "So, what are we gonna be doing?" Katie asked. “Well, a lot of things.” I said honestly. “This is a safe haven, you can rest, relax, learn to do things like cook, farm, animal husbandry, and help us repopulate the planet if you so desire.” "Now… what do you mean by that exactly because it sounds like you want us and you to…" Donovan started. “Yes.” I said honestly. “I am what’s known as a Den Mother, a special part of any race that’s basically creations fail safe in the way of ‘in case of genocide, fuck the milf’.” I said honestly. “And currently, you are all facing a mass extinction event.” "Okay… but… why are you a wolf and not… human?" “So you think I’m a shapeshifter?” I asked. "No, it's just, well, you said it yourself that these Den Mothers are natures/the universes way of preventing extinction so, where are the human ones?" “Human Den Mother’s are…rather rare.” I said honestly. “Not due to a lack of trying, but humans tend to be so horny that half the time their not fully needed…though you’ll always know they are one when you see one.” "Do they also have tits from neck to torso?" Katie asked. “Nope, just a normal human body just…larger and the definition of ‘MILF’.” I said honestly. “Reason why I have this many tits is because of my race.” "That makes sense." Ben nodded. "So, what are we learning first wolf milf from space?" “Well, up to all of you honestly.” I said honestly. “Where would you like to start? Cause there is a lot to cover.” "Well, I guess we should set up a means of letting people know where this place is and that it's safe. Your fortifications here are great. Tanks will probably have a hard time breaking them down. After that we should set up checkpoints so people know they're getting closer and that the closer they get to us, the less infected will be in the area." Katie said. "Don't suppose you have a stockpile of guns and ammo. Or alien guns and ammo?" Donovan asked. “That is simple enough, and yes, we have plenty of guns and ammo, even alien guns and ammo.” I nodded. “It’s all in the ship at the moment, I’ll have to go get it, and that is a good start Katie.” "Cool. Looks like we really can fight back and… repopulate…" Ben said. "Still weird to hear it or say it…" Katie said. "I mean, at some point that is a… necessity…" Donovan added. "You'll get used to it fairly quickly." I said honestly. "That's not really as reassuring as you're probably thinking…" Katie said. I quickly went into the ship I spawned into existence and gathered various guns, ammo, some more high tech and sci-fi weapons and ammo, armor and such then went back to the group. The next few months I spent with them was planning, setting up checkpoints. Clearing out infected. Setting up radio transmitters. Looting. Fortifying roads, bridges, leaving caches for people coming in to help get here. When we weren't doing that they learned how to farm, raise and tend to livestock. Some basic to advanced medicine. Or were just relaxing. They did meet Cript. More surprised they were a tiger than anything. Save maybe learning we were both hermaphrodites and that Cript was pregnant. That did learn some awkward congratulations and blushing faces. I laid in bed, having just finished satisfying Cript's neediness, filling them with cream as I usually do most nights… and mornings. They were definitely bigger now and it wasn't just me pumping them with loads. I laid there, holding them close as I let my thoughts wander. I… want more of this. When all this crap is over… I think I'd like to do this as often as possible. "Heh, going from traveling hero, to a breeder…" I shook my head. "Who would have thought?" Still, it was more pay back, no pun intended, and relaxing than the constant war, fears and paranoia. Definitely going to do this with our other mates. It's nice. Calming. Fun. To be continued...
Nobody...get's a BreederThe next few years were quite productive. Sly, Carmelita, and them were all officially law enforcement officers under a new Interpol, and I was the head of the new Cooper Gang. While legally I am still considered a criminal, Sly tips me off to get the jobs done a badge can't without paperwork. So far LeParadox hasn't been found which makes me suspicious and concerned. “Dad did the heist for the world’s biggest diamond, I know it happened…so either LeParadox snuck off during all the chaos with Clockwerk, or he got picked up by Clockwerk and Vincent…” I muttered, already worried that La Paradox was off doing time bullshit while I wasn’t looking. Bad enough Time Runners are an issue, if I have to deal with LeParadox then this might get more of a headache. Then again the Time Walkers deal with that stuff so maybe I don't have to worry? I sighed as I leaned back in my desk. Well, at least the Sly 3 Events were stopped. Thanks to some anonymous donations, Don Octavio is doing well taking his opera singing on a world tour, and thanks to some political sway I got those Dog Fight rules fixed so Penelope was able to fly without needing a disguise. I also exposed some fraudulent tax paperwork on the mining company that was set to demolish Australia. So they aren't an issue. As an extra measure I even found and destroyed the Mask of Dark Earth. The pirates and all that I left alone. Which just leaves Paradox… and he is MIA… not even my Cript Scan located him so he's not in this time period or universe. “Alright…so I need to look for that bastards crew…” I frowned, Cript scanning for El Jefe the Tiger, Toothpick the Armadillo, The Grizz, and Miss Decibel the Elephant, cause right now I know for a fact Bently and Penelope are on a happy date right now that I had to do some minor painstaking nonsense to make sure they could. Let's see… Oh… well, El Jefe is dead… died in battle against clockwork's armies. Toothpick… arrested by Mugshot's government. He is doing very well as president. Grizz… oddly seems alright. Must not have lost his game yet. Decibel is actually in the hospital now. Seems that trumpet just got stuck in her nose. “Alright, so good to know that none of those headache’s will be around…though surprised El Jefe died, thought his tactical genius would have kept him going until after we got done…” I hummed, leaning back and thinking hard about what we need to do next, cause it’s only a matter of time until Clockwerk comes back. For now things are at peace. Which is good, but it also means Clockwork's allies are all working on whatever it is they're planning. Plus the old bird himself is practically studying under Vincent. They could attack soon, years later, or even… Or even long after this Admin Game is over and work on attacking me back home. Ugh, damn it… I sighed, rubbing my temples bitterly. “Why can’t things be simple for once?” I grumbled. "Hey." Heart- Megan, said as she walked in and, being the tall bear she is picked me up. "What ya doing there?" “Growing concerned over the fact that Le Paradox is missing and Clockwerk and his cronies haven’t done anything yet.” I said honestly. "I'm more than willing to bet they'll attack when King ends up on the battlefield." Megan said with a shrug. “Which is something I can’t do yet without this war going from an uneasy stalemate to our Kingdom getting ransacked and there being not much I can do.” I sighed. "Yeah, not exactly ideal. So, what should we do then?" I sighed. “I…honestly don’t know. Me and Cript are currently going around grabbing Timelines to help, and I did get a Darkness version of myself, all the way up to now funnily enough, but…all my plans, all my backups…so many things that I know should help make things go right for us…it always ends up being a fifty fifty coin toss in the end on whether or not it’ll go smoothly…” "Hm… that is annoying. Well, let's think, what is Vincent doing right now in terms of gathering allies?" “He’s gathering every single ‘Big Bad’ or people he believes are ‘truly evil’, and gathering them up from anywhere and anytime.” I said honestly. “He grabbed Clockwerk cause he’s just an immortal sack of shit, he grabbed Rajan because…honestly that guy’s just deplorable with how much he wants to be seen as ‘royalty’, and Le Paradox is just a grumpy prick because his dad was jailed trying to frame my dad.” I said honestly. "And I'm assuming evil versions of us right?" “Yes, and that sucks because evil versions of us would know every single in and out of what we’re doing…especially me.” I groaned. “Cause of course the biggest pain in the ass I have to deal with that isn’t Vincent is myself…” "Well, what lengths would an evil you likely take to ensure there is enough of an army on their side?" “Cloning, forced breeding into speeded up aging and genetic modification, building a giant ass robot army, creating god know’s how many new races to keep up their ranks…” I listed off. "Well, if that's the case, then why not do something similar but not evil?" “I have.” I said honestly. “But ethic’s, morals, and other thing’s that ‘good guy’s’ do is halting me on somethings…and while I did make a breakthrough on the robots I’m building, even though their just Synth’s with power sources based on the very fabric of reality we’re in…it’s rough having to do it with every single one to such a minute detail, even if I’m a Cript and have been given untold knowledge twice over, there are certain thing’s you can’t rush.” "At least not if you're taking the good guy route…" I looked at Megan. “Do you want me to throw away my ethics and morals here?” I asked carefully. "If you did, it should be to and with someone who trusts you entirely and won't resist as you breed them like cattle for the armies we need." Heart said, looking back at me with a smirk. "And can also clone themselves and change each clone to be each species Den Mother for maximum fertility and birthing." “So while I’m plowing Cript on one planet to repopulate it, you want to be plowed to help breed an army?” I asked. "Heh. Come on Kite, we both know plowing is too kind a term for it if I let you do this and you throw away your morals and ethics while we do this. I would be your Breeder. Your loyal baby factory endlessly pumping out children you'll turn into soldiers. Were we not Admins, this act would place us both in hell." “And that sounds abhorrent.” I said weakly. “But…it’s probably going to have to happen…and I hate it to a severe degree…” I sighed, lightly shuddering at remembering what both Rune’s did. “Being treated like nothing but a sex slave is…not something anyone should experience…but ya know, my traumatizing event for ‘training’ is still the highest watched porn video out there…” "True, but if you ask I imagine they'd happily join in since that's their kink." Megan said. "But this will just be between you and me. Our shared sin. But we will need to make sure I don't ever try and break free from it until after it is all done." I sighed. “You do know that if anyone figures this out it’s going to cause massive problems right?” I asked. “I should probably invent a backdoor to it, just in case some dipshit’s decide to abuse this…” "Which is why you won't be putting this… reprogramming on me. It needs to be air tight otherwise you'll free me, and I'm sorry Kite, but we can't have that either. I know just the person who can do this for us too." "You want a complete Profile wipe and reprogramming then." Lord said with a nod. “Can’t there be a fail safe where someone can be brought back?” I asked worriedly, seriously hating this decision with every fiber of my being. "I can make a backup of Heart's profile that can be reinstalled, but for this, no. Logically this is actually our best bet. You two are Cript's, meaning any children you two have will be extra powerful. Especially if I make the new profile specifically make each child born from this stronger and inherit the majority of your powers." "That would be best." Heart said with a nod. “This is going to be a massive problem in the future, I just know it.” I frowned. “And not having some way to reverse it is ripe for abuse…I will say ‘I told you so’...” "Stop breaking the fourth wall and shut up." Lord said, snapping their fingers as suddenly there was a large chair with cuffs and restraints between he and I, Heart already fastened to it. "Now then, making your Profile backup will be painless, and I'll hold onto it until you're done being a sex toy." "I figured your never ending indifference to morality would come in handy." Heart said with a chuckle. “I’m not breaking the fourth wall, I just know that someone is going to abuse this…” I muttered, hating this so goddamn much. “Cause it’s a horrible evil thing, why wouldn’t horrible evil people do this?” "Evil is always a constant. Try to scrub it out, the stain returns. Cleanse it, it grows back stronger. The way I see it, it's better to be in control of your own evil rather than let it run wild, but what do I know, being as old as I am?" Lord said with a shrug, putting their hands over Hearts head as an orb of code began to form. "I'm also gonna put a Fuck ton of abilities and powers and such." "Gotta make sure these soldiers are OP as well." Heart said with a nod, still smiling… “I hate this…I hate this so goddamn much…” I muttered. “Why are you still smiling when you’re about to be turned into nothing but a sex slave that want’s nothing more than to be bred like mad?” "I'm not fighting in this war King, I gotta contribute something." Heart replied. "My whole life, I've been the bad guy because I was a Ventral. My fate has never been my own because Vincent made me, Cript, I never really had a choice in my life. But this, this is an act of my own free will. For as long as I'll be your Breeder I won't be Zeke Ventral, or Kingdom Hearts, or an Admin. I'll just be your loyal nameless Breeder. It's actually reassuring. Means I do have some free will." "Heh. You aren't wrong. Vincent's Code Programming is even better than my own." Lord added. "Before you were even born he had your fate written down in your very code." “And then he personally had a hand in fucking with my life cause why not.” I frowned. “But…this would basically take away your free will…you’d be nothing more than a womb on legs…” I said, having personally felt like I was nothing more than a just a sack of meat to do whatever people wanted with me…it was horrible and I hated it, and still hate it… "And that's my choice." Heart said as Lord moved the orb of Code over and onto a table. "Alright, back up is done, now for the wipe and rewrite. I warn you, this is gonna hurt." "I'm ready." Lord started, and immediately Heart began screaming. It was then I realized… I've never seen Heart scream or cry in pain before. I felt horrible. Disgusted as all I did was stand there crying as Heart did this to themselves… for this fucking war. I swear… I will put Vincent's head, and all his allies' heads on a pike when this is over. After what felt like forever Lord stopped, snapping his fingers as a blindfold covered Heart's eyes and the restraints all came off. "And that's that." “Now what?” I asked carefully. “What’s with the blindfold?” "I based this off an old Enslavement Code admins used back in the Admin War. Basically whoever Heart sees once it's removed, becomes her master. She'll have access to all her powers and such but she'll only care about getting fucked and knocked up." I shook my head, every fiber of my being wanting to revoke this…this abomination of code work, wanting this Code to be cease to exist…”Fine…” I muttered, gently in front of Heart, making sure their eyes were only on me…and I undid the blind fold even as I felt my heart break at the love of my life being turned into…this. I took the blindfold off, and Heart's eyes looked the same, but hollow. For a brief moment they flashed green before regaining a sense of life to them as she smiled at me. "Hello my Master." They greeted. "Would you like me to satisfy you now?" I was supposed to be fighting against this…at what point do I just throw away my morals, ethics, and my very being to just…allow this? “Before that…what are the side effects?” I asked carefully. "Well, right now she has no memories, free will and is wholly dependent on you. If she is not of use to you, meaning you don't screw here every so often she'll develop chronic depression, anxiety, self harm and mutilation tendencies to garner attention and she also doesn't identify as a person any more just an object. Yours specifically." I looked at Lord in abject horror, looking at Heart…my Heart…turned into nothing but an Object…”I think I’m going to be sick…” "That old Enslavement Code was always potent, powerful stuff. Reworking it into this actually took little work. Well, I guess just take her wherever you'll be breeding her and get to it." “Whatever…” I muttered, shaking my head as this went against…literally everything I stood for, and having personally been treated like nothing more than an object to do whatever the fuck they wanted, and even had my own children murdered because of it…no, I will make damn well sure this never happens to anyone else ever. “Come on Heart…let’s go somewhere private…” "As you wish Master." She said, giving me a big smile before following me. I should have never agreed to this… and now it's too late to turn back… Heart made me promise… To be continued...
Nobody slowly losing itAuthor's Note Because I'm a dingus and posted this in Lone Wolf, I'm sorry people Nobody slowly losing it I laid in bed feeling like crap. Heart next to me, practically purring in lust after the I don't even remember round. “I fucking hate this…” I groaned. "Would you like another pleasuring Master~?" Heart, or rather the body of Heart now guided by this… Breeder Programming asked. “No…I’m fine…” I said, getting out of bed and stretching carefully. A few joints popped and that helped a little. Heart's body still against mine in their reprogrammed sex addicted/required mind. I sighed. I miss my Heart… “This isn’t what I want…” I muttered. “I want my Heart back…but no…” I growled, hating how Heart wanted this, how Lord just allowed this…I don’t care if that emotionless asshole says not to break the fourth wall, I don’t need fucking forth wall nonsense to know this is going to end poorly for a lot of people. “What else can piss me off today?” With nothing else to do, and not wanting to screw Heart again I checked on some mail… let's see here… huh. New Arrivals. Let's see… wait.. Anna… Anna… Anna… I swear that name rings a bell… god living so long I feel like I'm forgetting shit… “Holy shit my brain is mush sometimes…” I groaned. “Alright…time to meet some new arrivals…and also figure out how to keep myself from getting Admin Alzheimer's…” I stood up, remembering Heart was still clinging to me as their arms were wrapped around me. "Where are you going Master?" “To do important things.” I said carefully, as I tried to keep my emotions in check at seeing Heart…my Heart like this… "Will you need pleasuring while you're there, Master?" “No.” I stated bluntly, getting so sick of this. “Fuck it.” I said, putting my hand on their head and knocking them out. “I am in…no mood for this garbage…” With Heart unconscious I quickly used a DTN and left to find where this Anna was. I found myself in one of the many gaming rooms of the… well, 'house' is simplifying what all this really is but it's close enough. Eventually I found a human woman, heavily pregnant, playing the ps3 port of Final Fantasy X. “Wait…no, it can’t be…” I blinked, seeing so many features that looked familiar. “Anna?” I asked in surprise. She looked over at me. "Woah! Big milf wolf!" She yelped. “Okay, yes, true.” I nodded. “But it’s me…uh…shit, I forgot, you wouldn’t know…” I groaned. “Also, didn’t you hundred percent FFX like thirty times already?” I asked, hoping me saying something like that would help show her who I am. "Well technically because of time resets and BS I've completed it millions of times… wait? ___?" She asked. Ah right, she can't call me my name. No one can. I forgot that since going by King… “Right…so technically, my name isn’t ___ anymore, I got by King now.” I answered. “And sounds like you had your own fun adventures wherever the hell you were…god it’s been forever!” I said, picking up my old friend back on earth and giving them a hug. "Oh just stuck in a time loop of resetting reality and forgetting everything and all the various lives, lovers and children I had because I was trying to save them from all dying so I kinda swallowed those timelines and… it's a lot of shit I'm still remembering all the details." Anna scratched the back of her head. "I owe Vincent and Gray for helping though." I…was not a happy camper when I heard those two god damn names. “Okay…so besides us having some shared past problems, but while you were stuck in a time loop I had my life given three different rewrites and it was…not pleasant…” I said carefully, before I took a deep breath. “Okay, so where’s deputy jackass and constable cockwaffle?” "Uh, who?" “Vincent and Grey…” I said carefully. “Cause while I would love to spend a lot of time catching up and also explaining what the hell happened with me and why I’m a sexy woof milf, I have some…very choice words with those two.” "Oh well last I saw, Vincent was chasing Gray down the halls yelling something about not causing trouble followed by what I'm assuming were the screams of Eldritch monsters being set loose on the hallways." I took a deep breath. “One moment…” I said, before pricking my finger and creating a starfish clone. “Here, while you talk to me, I’m going to find those two bastards.” I ran off out the door while I sat down next to Anna. "... What in the Fuck?" Anna asked me. “Alright…so where do you want to start?” I asked with a semi forced smile. “Cause right now, I need a friend, a hug, and a long talk to try and ignore a lot of the problems going on at the moment.” While I talked with Anna, the other me was rushing down the halls, looking for those two- "I told you stop!" Yelled a voice I recognized… they did almost kill me in the Kite world. Turning around the corner I spotted them, Vincent angrily holding a… teenage kid, tan skin, gray hair and eyes trying to push Vincent off him. "Let me have some fun old man!" The teen replied. "And what the fuck am I seeing right now?" I asked carefully. "I'm trying to keep this brat from causing chaos." Vincent said. "Fuck you, you built me to cause chaos!" The teen, Gray I'm assuming, said. "And why shouldn't I and billions of others come here to murder you both?" I growled. "I'd Reincarnate." Vincent said. "And I'm immortal so fucking try." Gray replied. "Wait… do I know you?" "If what I'm sending is true…technically, cause Grey as a whole in energy is complete bullshit." I frowned. "And your reincarnation won't matter cause I figured out how to ignore that fucker." "And who is this Den Mother Herijika Dire Wolf?" Vincent asked. "I am King, Admin of Nothingness and a soul you and Nexus fucked with too much." I frowned. "And also your Nexus is causing the current war going on…" "Correction, the other me's Nexus. I am a timeline copy." Gray said. "Time doesn't exist anymore…ugh this is gonna get complicated…" I grumbled. "Actually it kinda did. Remember that time loop Anna was stuck in?" Vincent asked. "Yeah, we were in there. Some void entity called Maxilla kept it isolated from the whole time shattering thing." "How the fuck can…wait...Mexilla? Oh for fucks sake…" I groaned even louder and rubbed my temples. "Barely know the woman but…she fucking would…" "Yeah. She seems to really hate you all but is helping you so, I'm a few… many resets and such behind or something so, what has this idiot done while possessing my body?" "Well, got you killed by Cript for starters." I said, before going on a long spiel about the bullshit that's been going on. "Well… that sucks…" Vincent huffed. "Ya don't say!?" I said sarcastically after telling the two all the bullshit I've had to deal with because of these two. "Well what do you want us to do about it?" Gray asked sarcastically. "Help me fix your mistakes?" I suggested. "That would be a good start." "What do I get out of it?" "Entertainment cause this has never happened before?" I offered. "Meh. Anything else?" I blinked, honestly surprised by that. “Ya know, your other self was rather quick to agree to something along those lines…well…how about…keeping evil regulated? Like, you both can help with figuring out all that horseshit but keeping it so that there isn’t some existence wide war again?” "Hey, he's the one all about evil, not me." Vincent said, Gray managing to shake out of grip. "Isn't that kinda boring?" Gray asked. “First, you created him,” I pointed at Gray with a frown. “A literal infinite and ever expanding energy source that has caused this entire reality to be reset countless times just to say ‘fuck all life’...that’s pretty evil.” I admitted. “And boring? Well then you’ve never actually tried it before…paperwork not withstanding…” I groaned. "Hey, I was going to alter them when this," He pointed at Gray. "Suddenly gained sentience and possessed me after killing their other half." "Oh please, much as I wanted to I wasn't able to kill the chicken shit. They took after you and reincarnated. Even through resets." Gray waved Vincent off. "And if the raw energy we started off as wasn't supposed to gain sentience either are you really surprised the fragment I came from did?" “And I am sure Eclipsa would be super happy to see you here…” I sighed. “But from what I have learned, Gray gaining sentience was a complete accident due to the fact that you're an Admin of Life…then it started to war with itself because one side wanted to do what you literally programmed it to do…and the other…well, reincarnation is a hell of a thing when you get down to the nitty gritty of it.” I said honestly. “Especially when one of your incarnations…or at least one, tried to jump through time to break reality to spite this asshole.” I pointed at Gray. "In any case…" Vincent groaned, "Since this is his mess and I was supposed to fix it all before they… what do you need?" I sighed. “Help…any and all help I can get cause right now we’re in a stalemate that’s pretty much the world's longest staring contest…and whoever blinks immediately causes that stalemate to break.” "So basically you need… everything I imagine." "Armies, supplies and such? Easy." Gray shrugged. "What you'll really need is power." “Pretty much, cause Armies and supplies are easy, I have done…a lot when it comes to all that bullshit…but Power…that’s the deciding factor, cause when this stalemate breaks, everything goes to shit and there is not a single safe place…” I sighed. “And while Gray is a usable energy…the more we use it, the more it grows and we’re trying not to restart this place, we’re trying to stop it.” "Well, with that in mind the best case scenario would be to find a spare storage drive outside the machine." Vincent said. … That's an option?! “Listen…I’m already being threatened with monsters from ‘outside the machine’...but you can do that?” I asked in shock. "I have a map of old All Maker ruins." Gray nodded. … All Maker? “Okay…that’s new.” I said carefully. “Who the fuck are these ‘All Makers’?” “I haven’t heard that name since the first reset…” I whirled around and…Nothingness Belief? The fuck is he doing here!? “Okay! What the fuck…” I said, lightly rubbing my face in exasperation at what the hell is going on right now. “Why are you here?” "It's what we call who or whatever made the machine we all live inside." Vincent said. “Right…” I said carefully. “Cause that’s what I need right now…” "Oh they've been gone since… shit since before I came into existence and I'm one of the originals still around." “And…who else is there?” I asked carefully. “Cause it can’t just be you…there’s probably others right?” "Well, aside from Gray… The Mother, Truth… maybe some others." "I was very thorough in my multiple genocides but some have slipped through the cracks." Gray nodded. “So…probably some people ‘outside’ that built this stupid thing.” I sighed. “So…you, Mother and Truth…also Gray…wait, I thought you were a creation in the system? How the fuck…” I said, now royally confused as I thought this stupid Matrix bullshit was used to hide from whatever was out there. "Well, except for Truth we were all made in the system yes." Vincent nodded. “Wait wait wait…” I shook my head, trying to collect my thoughts here. “I thought that there were people outside the machines, but then something was going on and then they created these thing’s to hide from…whatever the fuck is out there.” "Fuck if we know. By the time Vincent and the rest were around they were long gone or dead. And when I explored all I found were remnants of other ruined machines. Whatever the Fuck happened out there, they're gone, only this machine seems operational now and we have no idea why they even built it. Though we do suspect." Gray said. I looked over at Nothingness Belief who sighed. “It’s been too long, and most of the memories of back then are shoddy at best…but there are two others on the outside…old friends…I just hope they haven’t gone Mad…” “Alright…” I groaned, looking back to Gray. “What do you suspect?” "Simple. It's a prison for the Dreamers." Gray said. Okay, that rings bells. There was a whole Nexus project about making those and Cript knows some things too… “So…I know something’s about it.” I informed. “I remember Joy found a whole lot of documents on it, Cript keeps dodging my questions about it but he know’s about it…” I frowned. “Ah Dreamers…so wild and carefree back in those days…” Belief shook their head. "Well, the theory goes that the All Makers and Dreamers are actually one in the same. The difference being All Makers have been exposed the the total raw energy and chaos outside the machine while Dreamers have not, making them mortal and weaker than the All Makers. No idea if it's true though." I looked to Belief, who shrugged. “My body has been the Fuel for Nothingness for the countless many resets, again, memories shoddy.” “Alright…but that would explain some things…” I admitted. “So either we’ll figure it out later when thing’s calm the fuck down, or we’ll learn it the hard way somehow.” I shrugged. "Eh. So, what preps are you doing now for the coming war?" “Oh the usual, trying to build a Synthetic army using the various different forms of energy, Gray being especially weird cause it sometimes speaks in some ancient dead language that I keep trying to figure out but can’t,” I huffed. “Doing anything and everything to try and upgrade all our gear, trying to figure out more about the Skill Tree system cause that’s a diverse challenge…and just doing anything I can to prepare.” "Anything, really?" "Okay…maybe not everything, cause I have morals and the first thing that's crossing said morals is fucking horrible and I wish I never let Heart agree to it…" "Oh, do tell?" Gray asked with a grin. “I really don’t need your bullshit involved with this…” I said carefully. “But…it’s some old bullshit ‘slave’ code Lord used and…turned them into a Breeder…and I fucking hate every second of it…” "Ah, I know that Slaver Code. Nasty stuff. Wait you used this in Heart? That's the Cript that became Kingdom Hearts, the Admin of Hearts right?" “They specifically asked Lord to do it to them.” I added in carefully. “And yes…Heart is in fact the Admin of Hearts…they weren’t apart of any of the fighting but still wanted to be helpful…so they agreed to…whatever the fuck that is…” "Oh, and you left them alone?" “I knocked them unconscious, and I know it was a good knock out spell cause they wouldn’t wake up too soon…” I said, wanting to have hope in my abilities but currently I’m mentally running ragged here, and all this new shit is not helping.. "Okay, first off, and I mean this with as much disrespect as I can say, you're a dumbass." Gray started. "Second, they are a Cript, scratch that, a Cript that was an Heir Cript, you know I made them mandatory have Adaptable biology, souls, magic, resistances. The stronger the attack the stronger and faster the rebound… so odds are yes they are awake right now and if they woke up alone with that programming on them then they are most likely mutilating themselves as we speak." “I’m also an Heir Cript,” Vincent and Gray both gave me a look. “It’s an entire thing that I don’t have time to get into…” "Then they are definitely awake. There was a reason I never put two Cript's, Heir Cript's especially in the same universe. Put two in a room and let them train and combat against each other and they're just skyrocketing power wise. Not to mention, as Admin of Hearts they literally have all those Keyblades working to undo that, including your own." “God…damn it…” I created another starfish clone of myself and headed off back to Heart. “Everything just has to keep getting worse…” "You really aren't cut out for being evil." I made it back to the room and… oh… my… Heart sat coiled up, a pile of their scales and teeth next to them as they were soaked in their own blood… they just kept pulling them off and out but they regrow. "Ugly…" Heart whimpered, tearing off another scale just as it began to regrow. “I left for like, five minutes!” I said in horror. “Heart what the fuck!?” "Master?" They asked, looking over at me. "You were gone… did I do something wrong?" “No? Why would you think that?” I asked. “Seriously, I was gone for five minutes…” "Because you left me…" They whimpered. I moved over and hugged Heart. “I’m sorry for leaving Heart…” I said softly. “I’m so fucking done with this shit! Why did I ever allow this? Why am I even allowing this!?! THIS IS BULLSHIT!!” I mentally screamed as all I felt was pain over this. "You… still want me Master?" “Of course I do.” I said, trying to think of a way to prevent this nightmare from ever happening, as Lord did make a back up to get my Heart back…seriously, fuck this. "Would you like me to pleasure you then?" "Yeah, no." Lord said, working on some… thing when I came here. He clearly already knew why I was here, I didn't even ask and he said that the second he saw me. “You either do it or I break your fucking knee caps.” I threatened. "How original. No. I believe Heart's request was to not have it undone until this army you need has been bred into existence." “I don’t care!” I snapped. “This entire thing is bullshit, a waste of time, and the worst thing imaginable!” I growled. “There’s nothing but pain here, nothing of value is being brought here…” "Your army of powerful children to defend against Gray's army is not of value?" “I’d rather have children with my Heart, not some blank slate slut that physically mutilates herself because I left the room for five fucking minutes!” I shouted. "Surprised you didn't leave a clone with them to keep at it. You bitched and moaned about wanting Starfish Clone but now you pick not to make use of it?" “No, I didn’t.” I stated simply. “But how the fuck was I supposed to know that this was going to happen? I didn’t want this to begin with!” "I literally told you what would happen when I did it." “But literally five minutes after I left the room?” I asked incredulously. "You think you can tweak eons old code made by one of the most psychopathic Admins of the first era, be my fucking guest. Got a million other things going on, you whining about your willing Breeder turned lover is not a top priority." “So do I! But unlike you I’m not morally fucking bankrupt and an absolute asshole about everything.” "I'm not morally bankrupt. I'm morally indifferent." Lord said. "Also the Fuck he doing here?" He motioned to Gray looking through his stuff. "Aren't we fighting him?" “So, Maxella was involved in this bout of shenanigans…but apparently, she took a piece of Time and…well, Anna, my old Earth friend, did some weird thing’s and got both Vincent and Gray into her reality from a memory…then we learned that Gray was just possessing Vincent, which so far he’s been more of an okay guy actually talking to him…but back to the main point, that’s literally the same fucking thing.” I frowned. "Wait, you didn't know he was possessing Vincent?" Lord asked. “Yes, I did, I just didn’t know for how long.” I admitted. “I know you think everyone besides you is a dumbass but come on.” "The only person I don't consider a dumb ass is them." He motioned to Gray. "And that's only because I made the mistake of teaching the bastard back in the day." "Nice seeing ya again by the way." Gray said. "Shut it." I rubbed my temples as I felt more of a migraine coming on. “Great…this is what I need right now…” I said, feeling my arms slowly shake from held back rage. "If you aren't going to help out around here, then scram I got stuff to do." “Well I might as well see whatever the hell you have planned this time.” I frowned. "Robots." “Oh, that’s something I know a lot.” I said readily. "Sure. Go make sure the motherboard frames are coming out right from the machine over there." Lord said, motioning over to the large 3-D Printer like machine. “Ah, yes, the humble 3-D printer…” I chuckled and shook my head, moving over and checking to see if it was coming out right. The frames it was printing out were made from metal it seemed, and they were rather intricate. Hm, must be small motherboards for this size. “Still really hate how he’s just blatantly ignoring me with this problem…” I thought to myself bitterly, looking over the small motherboard frames carefully to see if it was built properly. I walked into Cript's office. Seeing him working at a desk was… rather odd. “So…what’s with the desk job all of a sudden?” I asked carefully, as right now I’m just trying to distract myself with literally anything. "I do own and run a massive company. A few copies of myself usually handle the desk and paperwork jobs." “Fair enough.” I nodded. “So Lord’s being a prick to me…” "He's a prick to everyone." “He’s being especially a prick to me cause of the whole…Breeder thing…” I sighed. “I wanted it gone…I want my Heart back but no…gotta get my ‘super powered army’ from that first when I can barely look at them without everything feeling like garbage…” "It was Heart's choice. And I believe you were the one who said the only thing holding you back was your morality. Heart gave you the chance to remove that limitation." "And boy, do I hate it with every fiber of my goddamn being." I said with a frown. "Oh, also there's another timeline version of Vincent and Gray here…" "Sounds about right for our brand of Chaos." “I’m surprised you're not at least a bit mad at hearing that.” "Are they trying to kill us?" “Thankfully no, as Vincent is wanting to help fix his mistake with not getting to Gray fast enough.” "Then I have no need to be mad. Any other news going on?" “Well…Anna is here, an old friend from my Earth.” I said honestly. “And apparently she’s an Admin of Shapeshifters.” "Good for her." “Yeah, cause all of this has involved Maxella cause why not…” "She is doing her own thing. So, anymore questions?" I sighed. “How the hell am I supposed to do all of this?” I asked weakly. "You push through. Even if you feel dead inside." “Wasn’t a good portion of my journey about me not feeling so dead inside I literally became dead?” I asked. "True, but even then you kept moving. Ironic how sometimes we come back to where we started." “Yes…but it fucking sucks that I need to take everything that I’ve done to be me…and just fucking throw it out the window cause of this dumb fucking war…” "War changes people. Shows you what your Truly capable of. The hard part is living with yourself after." “I want to be better than what is being forced…I didn’t work this hard just to go ‘fuck it’...even with all my threats and anger…even with the fight’s I’ve gotten into…I still want to be a good person…I am at least a decent person…” I said sadly, though in all honesty I’d call myself a ‘good man’ due to how overall patient and non-apocalyptically rageful to everyone and everything. "In war there are only two kinds of people. The monsters and the dead. I remember the first war I was in." “And what was it like?” I inquired. "I remember thinking I was doing the right thing. I remember thinking I needed to protect the people from these invaders. I remember the man dead at my hands telling me with his last breath he just wanted to go home." “Jesus christ…” I muttered in horror. "This was well before I got this strong. Back then I was just a stupid powerful mage, not a God, demi god and certainly not an Admin. In the end I did help his people, establish a safe new empire for them… to this day, I'm regarded as a demonic figure in their culture. I don't blame them. All I can do is live with it and take some peace in the fact they're now thriving." “Uh…huh…” I said slowly, rubbing my temples bitterly. “This sucks…” "No one can live their life without regrets King. I should know, I have plenty." I sighed. “I’m supposed to be better…” I shook my head bitterly, having worked so much to be better…not sink back to what I used to be… "There's an old saying back in the earth I came from. Men don't kill men. Monsters kill men, and men kill monsters. It's an old phrase, supposed to help soldiers and mercenaries live with themselves. I've since learned it's only half true. Sometimes, it takes a monster to kill a monster. I've accepted that I am no man, but that doesn't mean I forget I used to be one." “I suppose…that is a fitting saying…” I sighed. “But…one saying that works as well for me I suppose…the three things a wise man should fear…a moonless night…the sea at storm…and the wrath of a gentle man.” I shook my head, hating what I’m going to have to do. “I’m really gonna hate pulling out that list…” "Just remember, it's only temporary… even if you're disgusted with yourself after, once this war is over you can work to never have to do that again." “True…” I sighed. “Still gonna suck though…” "We both know 'suck' is too kind a word." “Yeah…” I shook my head. “I’d really like to not break the stalemate yet…gonna have to prepare while we still can…” "Well… guess you better go get some regrets then. Otherwise fight or not, we'll lose the war otherwise." To be continued...
I am fineAuthor's Note Just some nonsense in my head, don't mind this I am fine I walked into the daycare…I saw all the children too young and carefree to understand…even as all of them dogpiled me and asked me to play with them… So I did, because they should know what parental love should be, what being happy feels like in these times of war… The children asked me if I was alright. I'm fine. I walked into a school, seeing all the teens and young adults learning their skills, talents, and just learning about the world. The headmaster asked if I could teach the entire school on some important things. I did, because the next generation should know better, should learn and understand both the past and present to make a new, better future. One of the students asked if I was alright. I'm fine… I walked into the Training Halls, seeing all sorts of races training together to become strong, either for the War or for the ever growing world we are trying to build. A general asked if I could help train the soldiers, as I am one of the few with the most combat experience and can help show them how strong they can be. I did, because our soldiers need to be ready, they need to be strong for the battles ahead, they need to be prepared for what's to come and what might be. A medic asked me if I was alright. I'm…fine… I walked…and met more of my family, as they were all roaming around and doing their own thing. I was asked to help out with preparing for a celebration, cause the work load was a lot bigger than they thought. I did, because I loved my family dearly and wanted to help out, as I got the preparation in order and got everyone to do their specific duties with utmost efficiency. One of my kids asked if I was alright. I'm… I'm fine. I walked…I walked into a large room filled with my spouses, all cuddling or in some slow and caring love making. They all smiled at me and asked if I wanted to join their cuddle session. I did, because Cuddles were always a good thing and I was always ready for some cuddles or some gentle love making. One of my spouses asked if I was alright. I'm… I am fine… I walked… And walked… I saw my family, I helped them…I answered that I'm fine… I am not fine. I know what I'm doing…even when people are close…I'm doing this for them… I am not fine… I…walked into Eclipsa…they're smile turning into a look of worry. Eclipsa asked if I was alright… I answered I am fine… I am not fine… "No." Eclipsa said, grabbing me and slithering off. "You are not fine." "I am fine." I retorted, even though I didn't struggle against her. "Why are you doing this?" "Because your not fine…your keeping everyone at arm's length…" "No I'm not." I denied, not wanting to hear that I'm keeping everyone away from me even though I've been helping everyone all day. “Why would I ever keep you all at arm's length?” “That’s what I’m going to find out.” Eclipsa told me as she brought me into a private room. I walked… I found Cript, Lord, Vincent and Gray…they didn’t ask why I looked like shit… I’m not fine… I asked them to show me what I really need to do, since the four of them all knew I still held back because I cared. Cript asked if I was sure about it…I was… And then they showed me…I saw it all…I saw it… I… I’m not fine… To be continued...
They're still here"Hey King, you in- Sweet Celestia what is that smell?!" Twilight yelped as she entered the room I was in. "Smells like strong booze and regret." I heard Pinkie say. "Definitely some whiskey and tequila." I heard Derpy's voice say. “It doesn’t smell that *hic* bad in here.” I said honestly, though I might be a little drunk but fuck it. “How you girls doing?” "How are you even Drunk? Isn't that impossible for Admins?" Twilight asked. "Actually I heard the Admin of Alcohol came out of hiding so if this booze came from them then that's probably how." Derpy said. "Oh finally, we can play beer strip pong again!" Pinkie added. “Y-yeah…Barkeep decided to show up and give me some of the goo-*hic*, good stuff.” I shook my head, trying to get myself from seeing triple here. “How are you three doing?” "A… little concerned. Luna told us you were taking time off then… you kinda just started drinking. Which considering you rarely have before, was an immediate red flag." Twilight said. “Oh you know…just in self deprecation right now.” I said weakly, raising my bottle of whiskey. “It’s what I deserve after all…” I felt the bottle of whiskey taken from my grasp as I saw Pinkie holding it. She took a sniff before taking a taste. "Woah! That's strong enough to put down a void monster!" "Alright… well we aren't gonna let you wallow in a drunken cesspool. Derpy." Twilight said. Derpy nodded, cracking her fingers and stretching a bit before she grabbed me by the scruff and… threw me over her back and carried me like a sack over her shoulder. "Let's get you a nice washing first." Derpy said. … Okay either I am really drunk or this is happening… “Uh…am I drunk or is Derpy somehow amazon strength?” I asked weakly. "When we developed and began to understand our Admin abilities, we all began developing strengths in various areas." Twilight said. "Aside from magic I can also instantly calculate mathematic and scientific equations and perform transmutation and code writing. Pinkie can… know when everyone's birthday is as well as their likes, dislikes and such. And Derpy gained strength on par with your Council and her luck is as strong as ever." "I can rip apart Monofilament." Derpy said with a smirk. Oh my… “Oh dear…” I muttered. “Well…that’s all good to know…but why can’t I wallow in a cesspool again?” "Because we won't let you." Pinkie said. “I can tell…” I grumbled. “Ugh…this sucks…” I groaned, hating how I’m just being dragged off and also it was not helping me from the fact that I was kind of drunk… The trio brought me to the bathroom, where I was dropped into a hot bath and then assaulted by shampoo and three pairs of hands scrubbing deep into my fur… damn it this feels nice… "So, what triggered your relapse this time?" “Oh…you know…literally get told ‘hey, remember the starfish clones you had? Well they gained a separate persona, abandoned your family, and told you to both go fuck yourself and even you don’t want to be you so have fun’.” I explained. “So yeah…literally get reminded of my failures by myself telling me ‘I hate myself so much I’d rather be literally anyone else’...” “Oh…” Twilight said slowly. "You need a vacation." Derpy said. “I need to get started with the War, cause that’s not going to stop whether I’m pissed at myself or not.” I countered weakly. “Also, a little to the left please…” "If you're gonna join the war, then you should be spending at least a few more happy moments with your family." Pinkie said, getting the spot I mentioned. I groaned happily at the spot on my back being rubbed. “I know…but it’s hard when I get told ‘you're not allowed to, suck my giant fluffy ass’...” "I mean, we have literally seen you suck several variations of yourself off." Derpy said. “That’s different.” I said. “That was consensual, the clones of me said it in spite because they believed ‘you can’t have your cake and eat it too jackass’...” "I mean, do you even know how many clones you had when this happened?" Twilight asked. “Tried to have one per family member, cause that’s something we’ve tried to do…then maybe like…five per…like, the ten things I need to do?” I asked carefully. "So too many for you to control and monitor." Twilight sighed. "That explains it. Even with all your growth and power, there are still some limits." “Apparently…” I sighed, still hating this so much as I just…wanted something simple for once, not to have my failures flung at me or something getting in the way when all I want is…just something… Warm water was poured over me, and I was then again covered in shampoo and scrubbed. "So… when are you leaving for the battlefield?" Derpy asked. “I…I don’t know…” I sighed. “Soon is the best I can say…I need to actually get involved, even if I don’t want to cause I know things will go sideways…” "How long will you be gone?" Pinkie asked. “It’s War…I could be back in a few days after a big battle, or it could take me years cause some jackass thought it would be funny to do an attrition battle…” "So… this is gonna be the last time we see you for a while then." Twilight said. “Most likely…and I wanted to make it special with you all but…well, I don’t have the time to do it…” I sighed bitterly. "... Can you do us one favor then?" Pinkie asked. “Anything…” I said, looking up at the three of them. They all shared a look before looking back at me. "Can you smile for us? We don't want the last time we see you for so long to be of you sad." Derpy said. “I want to give you a smile that…is actually a good smile though.” I said. “If I do it now…it might just feel and look hollow…” I shook my head, still thinking I need to be more for everyone…still thinking that even something so simple isn’t enough for the people I care about. “King…” Twilight said softly, all three of them looking me in the eyes as I just clenched my fists underneath the water. “I’m…I’m just a mess…” I said sadly. “No matter what I do…no matter what I say…I’m just a mess, I can’t help but think how I’m never good enough, how I’m not allowed to be happy even when everything is going my way or should be going my way…” I teared up. “That’s not true, we’ve seen you happy.” Derpy tried to argue. “I want to be happy…I’ve tried to be happy…and whenever I do get to be happy, I’m just reminded what the world is, about my past failures, about how I can fuck up or will fuck up, how I keep everyone at arm’s length when all I want to do is be there for them…” I explained weakly…as I just started to cry…feeling all their hands on me, feeling their presence and yet…I can’t keep myself from thinking I failed them, how I’m nothing more than a detriment even though I’m facing reality where it’s not true… "Do you remember the day you saved Rarity and I from that Heartless?" Twilight asked. “I…I want to feel better, not like my bones are about to dissolve into nothing Twilight.” I managed to joke, causing the three girls to giggle at that. "That was when you arrived in my world. You just showed up, killed a monster that the best of the guard at the time had no idea how to handle and saved our lives. Even if you did get badly injured, you never stopped trying to help people." "I remember when I came into the picture. A recording of you admitting you wanted Luna and her body, heh." Pinkie chuckled. "Heh… I was just a fan girl." Derpy said. "Obsessed and maybe to an unhealthy degree. Still, what most celebrities would find off putting you… took me in anyway. I didn't get to know just The White Knight. I got to know King. An obsessive celebrity crush turn genuine romance over time. Something I had never had before." “Fighting a Guard Armor was…honestly, it was a tad ironic and hilarious that the first boss I fight in this new world was that.” I chuckled. “I’m…still embarrassed to hell by that…ho boy.” I shook my head. “And…well, to be perfectly honest, you being a fangirl never really made me think less of you…I honestly thought it was adorable.” I said simply. “Though you caused a sonic boom with how fast you both ran to your room…and came, wasn’t really kind to my ears.” “So that’s what that sonic boom was about…” Twilight said, which made me blink. “You didn’t know?” I asked. “Coulda sworn I mentioned it once or twice…” "I might have been a tad hard of hearing given the proximity." Twilight chuckled. "Point is, you coming into our lives was the best thing that could have ever happened to us." Derpy said. "You mean so much to us. Seeing you miserable hurts us. So please, can we help you stay happy? At least, until you leave. And when you come back." “I’d love that…” I said warmly. “I…I know I’m not the best…and to be honest, things have gotten way too big…I’m trying way too much…but…I’m just…I’m just glad that I still have you all…that even with me like…well, this,” I motioned to myself. “I…can still come back to people I know that care about me.” Despite being wet they still all gave me a hug. Once I was dried off and had my teeth brushed, Twilight took me with her towards the main house library. "Remember when I was tutoring you to use your cards?" She asked with a smirk. I nodded, blushing at the… sexy numbers… "Well, how about a refresher lesson?" "Are you going to make math sexy again?" I asked. "Maybe~" I chuckled. "My sweet sexy nerd." Twilight laughed, grabbing a few books and we sat down at a desk together and just… read, reviewed, quizzed one another. It reminded me of the early days so… so long ago. We spent hours like this, sharing study books and quizzing, talking, laughing. We kissed, and it felt like back then. "I believe it's my turn." Pinkie said as she walked up to us. "Go on. We'll all be meeting up later." Twilight told me. “Alright.” I nodded, nuzzling Twilight happily as I got up and stretched a bit. “Alright Pinkie, what do you have in mind?” "We are going to do something you have not done before." She said, taking my hand and pulling me along with her. "Bake." “Well…yeah, I have never baked before.” I said honestly, following along quickly. “Huh…surprised about that.” Pinkie led me to a room that was just a kitchen. Various stove tops, ovens and kitchen equipment was here. She quickly put an apron on and handed me one. I've never worn an apron before… hmm… does not cover all the cleavage completely… rude. "Now, we are gonna bake this stuff from scratch, alright?" Pinkie said to me. “Alright.” I nodded, ready for our baking. “I make no promises on making an absolute mess…cause even though I have done a whole lot of chemistry nonsense with a lot of highly explosive things…baking’s probably a whole different beast with the same core principles.” "Well, today we are gonna bake some mushroom pastries." Pinkie said. “Mushroom pastries?” I inquired. "They're a type of meal pastry, rather than a dessert. The recipe is fairly simple, first we need to make the mushroom sauce." Pinkie snapped her fingers, a fair sized pot appearing as well as milk, pepper, mushrooms, salt, and some other seasonings and such. "Care to chop the mushrooms?" “Sure.” I nodded, grabbing a knife real quick. “How thin do you need it to be?” "Small chunks preferably, or basic slices are fine." She said as she began to heat the pot, adding in the milk first as well as measuring the other seasonings. I nodded, starting to chop up the mushrooms like she asked with a steady and precise hand. One of the benefits of my endless self training exercises. I can slice in rhythm with minimal focus now, keeping all the slides around the same shape. As close as I can get given the uneven shapes. Once that was done, Pinkie added them to the pot. “Now, onto the dough.” She said, another snap of her fingers and she had bowls, a large bag of flour, a bowl of salt, some yeast packets, and pitchers of water. "So, how much do we need to pour in the bowl?" I inquired, doubting I could just dump the entire thing in the bowl. “We’ll start with four cups then see if we need more after.” She said. I poured in the flour and she added the water, salt, and yeast. She then put oil around her hands and began mixing and kneading the dough. “Rub some oil on your hands, it helps keep the dough from sticking.” I nodded, doing such. She then backed away from the bowl. “Knead the dough some more while I check on the sauce.” “Alright.” I nodded, grabbing the dough and starting to knead it, getting into the feel of just working the dough till it was good and ready. Pinkie stirred and checked on the sauce, tasting it before putting the heat to low then covering the bowl with a cloth. “Now we wait for it to rise for thirty minutes, knead it some more, let it rise for another thirty minutes then we can form the pastries. While that rises we can shred the cheese.” “Neat.” I nodded. With another snap of her fingers she had a large bowl appear, a cheese shredder and a large rectangle of white cheese. “So, let’s get the cheese ready.” “What kind of cheese is this?” I inquired, given that there are a stupid amount of cheeses out in reality I didn’t want to assume. “Just basic Mozzarella.” Pinkie said. “Alright.” I nodded, taking the cheese shredder and Mozz and starting to shred it carefully. Time went by at a fair pace. Once I had all the cheese shredded and kneaded the dough again we waited til the dough rose again. Once that was done we made several small balls of the dough, flattened them, stuffed them with cheese and a generous amount of the sauce, folded and pressed the dough sealed then Pinkie placed them on a baking tray and put them in to bake. “Okay, now we wait for them to bake.” Pinkie sighed, smiling. “That was nice.” I said with a smile. “Now for the worst part, the wait for when we can eat the sweets.” “They aren’t really sweets.” “The wait is still bad though.” I said honestly. “Heh, all good things take time, King. Waiting will always be part of that.” “I know I know.” I chuckled. “Still can’t believe I’ve never baked before.” “The hard part is usually the prep work, but I learned some useful tricks to speed it up. Still, even if I can make them with a snap of the fingers, It’s nice to actually make them by hand still.” “Making stuff by hand gives you that gratification, that you feel your work paying off.” I admitted. “Yeah. It also reminds me of before. When things were simple and less… scary…” “Yeah…” I sighed bitterly. “But I’m trying to make things simple and less scary ya know?” “I know, I just sometimes wish things never got to this point. Wish we could have had more moments like this… I know why you worked so hard, why you went overboard with the clones and… I hate that you so willingly threw yourself into it for us, because you felt you had to. Needed to.” “Yeah…I wish I had more of these moments too.” I admitted. “Something just…simple with family…but there’s too much going on and I hate it…” “Can you promise me something?” Pinkie asked. “What do you need?” I inquired. “When this is over… please King…” She said, tearing up as she looked at me. “No more work. No more projects. No more staying away from us out of fear we’ll be taken away if you don’t do something… just stay… please…” I moved over and grabbed Pinkie and hugged her. “I promise Pinkie.” I said softly. “I will never leave you all again…you all mean so much to me.” She hugged me back, sniffling as I held her. I’ve never seen Pinkie… cry before. Or even look sad… this has been eating at her for a long time. I sighed… I have to make changes when I come back… family first… when this war is over… I’m never leaving them. I held onto her until the oven went off. She quickly got up, pulling the tray out and then handing me one of them wrapped in a paper towel. She had her own and sat next to me in my arm again. “I try and keep positive about things… but I’ve always worried about you King. You have a terrible habit of never believing you deserve happiness. Of blaming yourself for things outside of your control. I just… want you to always be happy. Because you deserve your happiness. Not even you have the right to say you don’t.” “I know Pinkie…” I said softly, even though ironically this is how this whole debacle started…”I know…but I’m here now, and I’m glad we’re together.” Pinkie smiled, a small one. “Come on, they taste best hot.” She said. I nodded, taking a bite. It was creamy, the cheese was still melty and soft and the mushroom sauce was rich and full of flavor. "This tastes great." I said warmly. “It’s a simple recipe, but it never fails to taste great.” She chuckled. “When you get back, we’ll do this all the time. I’ll have many volumes of recipes to try so prepare to get used to seeing a kitchen when you return.” She chuckled again. "That would be nice." I nodded. We sat there eating the pastries until Derpy arrived. “So, shall we?” Derpy asked. “I’ll catch up with you later alright?” Pinkie said. "Alright." I said, giving Pinkie a quick kiss and stood up. "So, what does my favorite fan girl want to do today?" “Something we haven’t done before.” She said simply as she walked ahead of me a bit. I followed Derpy down the halls and to one of the many balconies. Here was a view of the whole kingdom from high above and the telescope mounted onto the rails. "Well, this is quite a view…but what's with the telescope? Are we stargazing or something else?" Derpy said nothing, walking up to the telescope and looking through it at first. It was pointed down at the kingdom. She then smirked. “Here, look through.” She stepped aside and I looked through the telescope, whatever magic inside it gave the zoom quite the range as I could see an area full of winged wolf people flying around or walking through the streets. Adults, kids. "And…who are these adorable people?" I inquired. “They are known as the Winged Dire Wolves. But, they are also our descendants.” Derpy said. I looked at her. “Sometimes I forget how old even we are. Those down there are three hundred and fourteen-ish generations from our kids, King. Their own species.” I blinked. "Well…I wonder what other new species I've accidentally made through how horny I can be." I chuckled. Smirking, Derpy playfully pushed me from the telescope. She looked through it for a bit then let me see through it. They were also wolf like, smaller and each one had small to medium length horns on their head, most were towards the center of their skulls. “Uni-Dire Wolves. Your descendants with Twilight.” Again, she moved me aside, looking back through the telescope until she found her next one. Looking through it I saw very colorful dire wolves but they were huge. Well, sorta. They were actually just extremely fluffy. “Earth Wolves. Your descendants with Pinkie.” Derpy finished. There were so many of each of them. Whole… cities and… wow… I never even… “For some reason, while our kids and grandkids come out as strong as us, the grandkids seem to give birth to weaker children. Power wise at least. All those puppers down there are no stronger than anyone else. Like we used to be before Admins and all that.” Derpy explained. “They probably don’t even know they’re related to you.” "And…that's just from you three…" I muttered, noticing how the Earth Wolves seemed to have a really high affinity for nature and druidic magics. "Jeez…seeing all this is…quite something." I said, not sure what to really say at just how…long we've lived and…how many people there are that are my family… “I know you work so hard to protect us King. But, we’re like you now.” Derpy said, making me look over at her. “We might not be as strong as you are, but we aren’t fragile or glass. If we have to, we will fight. We can fight. They… they can’t. So, when you are going out into the battlefield, think of them. We made them, even if they don’t know we did, it’s not only your responsibility to look after them, it’s all our responsibility. No more shouldering all that alone alright?” "It's…still a lot to look after." I said softly. "But…glad that I have help looking after them all." “You always have, dummy.” She laughed, giving me a light tap to the arm. “There’s a lot of them out there. Think there’s like… a large chunk of the current reality that’s a descendant to we in the Family in some way or another. Kinda weird realizing you’re the progenitor of whole new species and people you never met before… but, it’s also nice. Makes me love this Kingdom even more.” "Yeah…an entire Kingdom made up of our kids…" I chuckled. “And their kids, and their kids, and so on.” Derpy chuckled. “I like to come here and just… watch them. Makes me think. Maybe, if you want, when you get back we can watch the process next time. I know that sounds weird but… also fascinating.” "Seeing the world around me pass by with the one I love…that sounds both heartwarming and just a smidge concerning when it comes to the life of an immortal." I chuckled. “Yeah, but there’s no one else I’d want to do this with.” Derpy chuckled. “Come on, we gotta meet back up with Twilight and Pinkie for your farewell gift. I know you need to leave soon for the battlefield, so we came up with something on the fly.” "What up?" I inquired. Derpy laughed. “Come on, don’t act coy, you know what your ideal send off would be~” I blushed, but smirked. Derpy led me to a doorway. “Wait here, I gotta get ready inside.” Derpy went inside the room and I waited patiently. “Hey.” I turned, seeing Heart slither up to me. “I heard you’re finally leaving for the battlefield.” "Yeah…" I sighed. "And while I still have clones here to help keep the place protected…not enough for my liking…but hopefully the War can swing in our way with what I have in mind for a start." “Hopefully… Well, as you know… I’m not joining in the war… I just… can’t. I’m sick and tired of being a weapon to others. Hell, I exist because the original Gray thought I’d be a good weapon… So, I have something for you.” Heart said. In a flash they summoned their X-blade… and handed it to me. “Here. X is linked to me so, I won’t be fighting but with this you can use my powers as well.” My eyes widened as I gently took the original X-blade. "Well…this is…quite a gift Heart…" I said, honestly surprised they would hand this to me. “Well, this all started because of Keyblades and such, and I figure you’d love the chance to use it in a real battle.” They chuckled. “Now, I gotta get inside too~” They added, giving me a quick kiss on the cheek before rushing through the doors. I smirked, looking at the X-blade… it’s been forever since I’ve seen this thing… I stored it into my Assistant, happy that… they love me… and they always will. "See…this is what I keep fighting for…" I chuckled, shaking my head. "Where I…I can enjoy this simple shit…cause when this is over, things will finally be simple." I said to myself warmly, before heading inside to see what 'gift' they had in mind. I saw all my loves. All of them… All of them were either in the nude or in lingerie… Yeah… This is the send off I need. To be continued...
Nobody on the front linesAfter my ‘going away’ party…I took a deep breath as I stood before the portal to the Front Lines…did I truly want to do this? I felt a hand on my shoulder, as I looked back I saw…my Council…Zuko, my Knight, giving me a nod. “Everything will be alright, King.” He said. My whole Council…each one of them looked older, mature, stronger…all of them suited up and ready for war. “My Council…my compatriots…my friends…” I said, looking between all of them. Zuko, Emperor of the Fire Nation and my Knight wielding Interdiction that was formed into his famous twin blades, coated in nothingness as he was wearing his Knight armor, his face older, wiser and mature even though he kept his scar to forever remember where he came from. I looked to Joy, my Paladin, my little brother…even if he was now a hermaphrodite like me…seeing them in their Keyblade armor, holding Reunion and Lindworm at the ready just filled my heart with joy and nostalgia. Dante, who was once the DMC version, became his Devil May Cry 5 version, where he looked older, but still had that smug confidence to himself, as he held his Devil Sword Dante on his back and having Sharpshooters at his side ready to fire, in his iconic red trench coat outfit. Virgil, who also decided to ditch his DMC version for Devil May Cry 5 version, stood stoically in his blue trench coat, holding the Skysplitter Katana and Yamato at his side as he gave a simple nod that he was ready for battle. Kat was strange, gone was the humble young adult graffiti magician, now into a strikingly beautiful woman still wearing her signature outfit from her world, though it held much more as it flowed like a Sage’s robes, a staff made from a world tree and Book of Retribution in her hands at the ready. Genos, the Anarchist, once sought all sorts of upgrades and machinery to become the greatest hero of his world, but having seen what Saitama was truly capable of against Garou, and even myself on occasions, he knew what he had to do. Long gone were his normal machine body, as he turned to magitech, his entire body turning into more of a Clockwork Golem, but instead of normal gears, he managed to turn Eternal Flames into all the Gears, as his Core became an everlasting Sun that would burn any in his path. Brook was an interesting case, as he both changed the least physically but the most in other spots, ranging from him turning from a violin to a guitar, going from more of a gentleman look to a rocker look, his confidence having gone through the roof ever since he both helped Luffy become King, met Laboon after all that time, and was my Bard for god knows how long, as he readied his guitar and sword for the fight. Trixie Lulamoon was shuffling Fair Game, dressed in a more armored version of her Stage Performer, as she gave me a confident smile of her performance, as well as just her general physique being a lot more…mature and filled that helped give her the confidence to strut her stuff as she could easily cheat out people while using her body and she knows it. Grell, my Death Seeker and Grim Reaper from Black Butler, changed the most, especially when they learned we had gender swapping potions. Grim Reapers were Soul Creature, and knew when something was wrong with their body, as Grell was the main advocate to both getting people in her predicament the mental health they need and, in some cases, use gender swap potions to see if they truly wanted it. And Grell was…honestly a beautiful Woman to be perfectly honest, as the term ‘Milf’ or ‘Dayum’ honestly couldn’t do her physique justice…which also might make me weirder cause the way they were holding their version of Graceful Dahlia, a Chainsaw Scythe, was kind of making them more hot… “Later Grell.” I chuckled as they gave me a wink, looking over to my next Council Member, Steve Rogers, Captain America, dressed in his iconic costume but the star was surrounded by a Heart shaped by Nothingness thorns, as he tightened his version of Frozen Pride to his arm. The old soldier did deserve rest after all this fighting, even though his bearded face looked ready for the fight, a conviction to protect the people and the world…the face of a true Hero. Next was Luxu…god Luxu, as he chose to continue not having a Body, he stuck with his black full body cloak, but as he held Lunatic and Gazing eye tightly I could feel his conviction…he’s not doing this just cause of his part as a Council, but he’s doing this for Time Belle, his wife…and his wonderful kids. Second to last was Speed of Sound Sonic, the ninja that believed Speed was everything, and he embodied that thought greatly as his very body kept vibrating at such a speed that he looked like he was about to phase into another dimension at any moment and appear to strike his opponent at any given notice…still sucks that he has yet to beat Saitama, even after all these many years…but his conviction was still there, the fire in his Heart would never give out, and Foudre would give him the power he needs and deserves. Lastly was Riku…I still couldn’t believe that my last Council member was Riku…it feels like I was in a completely different reality when this all started because of Kingdom Hearts…but he decided to go with his Kingdom Hearts 3 look, which fit him rather well to be honest. Then I looked at myself in a mirror, seeing myself, the Den Mother Dire Wolf…but it shifted to the really old me, just the human in a pure white version of the Organizations cloak, just a simple human with so much baggage…but so much potential, as the image of my seemed to do some time laps as I witnessed my own life flash before my eyes…every mistake, every embarrassing nonsense…but all the good things I did, all the love, patience and joy I've gotten from my spouses, my friends, and my family… I took a deep breath and wiped away my tears. "No time for wool gathering…it's time." I said, taking my first step into this war. As I walked out, everything suddenly came to a dead silent, all the blasts, fighting, gunfire…everything went dead as I made my walk through the battlefield. The echoing sound of clapping was heard as I saw…Gray, walk up with portals starting to form around him. “My my, if it isn’t about time.” Gray said simply. “Yeah yeah.” I said. “You wanted a fight that you didn’t expect?” I asked, seeing them raise an eyebrow in their new body. “Well, then I’m going to demonstrate something you’ve probably never seen before, and it comes from my great friends, the Foretellers.” I said, putting my hands together to form a castle like shape. “Domain Expansion!” I shouted. “Palace of Fantasy!” As I shouted it, every single portal Gray created started spewing out untold numbers of monsters, soldiers and bioweapons from countless timelines, as the sound of music filled the entire reality, a massive castle forming from my own power, the gate coming crashing down as all the soldiers that risked their lives on the Front Lines while I’ve been doing everything I could to prepare pouring out of it, infused with my power, along with the same countless numbers of new soldiers, automatons, monsters and bioweapons. As the song played in the background, I saw my Council members leap into the forefront of the endless tide, clearing vast area’s with each of their attacks, I donned my True King armor, what once needed a chant to claim the true power, I could easily equip as I grabbed both my King Greatsword, the weapon that embodied all thirteen weapons of Nothingness, my very being and right to rule, and pulled out X, the one keyblade that started all this nonsense and the soul of my dear Heart…as I fuzed them together for a weapon that has never been seen before, as I noticed Gray getting a wider and wider smile till it looked more like a manic grin. The weapon I created, the culmination of both Kingdom Hearts true power and Nothingness’s true power, it formed what at first glance looked like a simple greatsword, with ornamentation on the handle, guard and the secondary guard as it took a more Zweihander appearance, but the key detail shown in the middle of the blade, that of a hollow’d out part in the middle of the blade that looked like the silhouette of a Dusk Nobody, but in the center held together with Pure white and Pure dark Nothingness Thorn’s was a crystalline heart, lightly shining and dimming like a heartbeat. “Existence…” I muttered, pointing the tip of the blade at Gray. “And it’s all pointed at you asshole.” I growled. “Then come on! Show me what you’ve got!” Gray challenged, walking past his own forces getting absolutely destroyed left right and center, the apathetic mass of energy wanting nothing more than to fight me and only me to experience what it’s like to know something new. I said nothing, as I raised my blade and swung… The Knight Zuko, once a prince banished from his home to do an impossible task. Zuko, once a teacher to the Avatar to help bring Balance to his world. Zuko, once the Fire Lord and bringer of peace after a hundred years of constant strife, war and bloodshed. Zuko, the Knight, wielder of Interdiction, with Fire bending the likes of which no one has seen before and is second only to his King and the Anarchist, as he seamlessly cleaved through enemy after enemy, his twin laser swords imbued with Nothingness and the power of their namesake, slaughtering that were abominations to this world, forcing amalgamation to halt in time as the power of the blades tore at their very being with how wrong their very existence was, each enemy burning into nothing but ash as Zuko rushed through all his enemies. The Paladin Joy, once Rejection, the younger sibling to King, was flying through enemy after enemy, slaying any and all enemies with precision and without mercy, the powers of Lindworm and the Elder Dragon God imbued in every weapon to the very Wind he was producing, to Reunion, the Keyblade King obtained after saving him from the Darkness. Joy had everything, a family, friends, his own harem and massive amount of kids…and it was all thanks to his older brother…it was all thanks to King, and he would sooner die than see everything they’ve worked towards be brought to nothing. The Archer Dante has been through a lot. As a young man he killed the King of Hell, nearly killed his brother that he thought long lost, got into a relationship with Kat, and he was ready for a new step to his life…but everything turned upside down when he became the Archer. He learned how gigantic reality was…and how weak he was compared to everything, even to his different reflections. He looked at what his ‘history’ was, saw what his other version’s were and how much more devastating they were…so, he decided to change that. He became something much more, with the help of King and the others. He chose to be seen as his DMC 5 look, because it had him feel…right, his age showing he managed to grow up, the power such maturity and knowledge gained…and he had to admit, white hair actually did go great on him. All the power he obtained from becoming his true self, obtaining his Devil Sword, and having Sharpshooters upgraded to hell and back like Ebony and Ivory certainly helped as he was hooting and hollering in glee as he was using all the weapons he’s obtained throughout the ages with Sharpshooters to do Smokin’ Sexy Stylish!!! Combo’s on all his foes. Dante transformed into his Sin Devil Trigger as he spun the twin crossbow guns and fired an ungodly powerful blast. “Jackpot.” Dante said with a grin The Defender Steve Rogers, once naught but a stick of a man with many health problems, became the Symbol of what America was supposed to be, a place where Freedom and Justice were the core tenets for the people, where Hope is and always should be a viable option than cowering against the darkness, Loyalty to one’s countrymen, to have the Courage and Perseverance to fight against any form of Tyranny, Domestic or Otherwise, in the name of the country he fought for all the way back in World War 2. He thought him being brought back would help the people of the world, him leading the Avengers to make a better future…but while it did help, new problems kept cropping up…but the old plagues stayed the same, corruption, greed, and hunger for power kept poisoning the people, apathy, self centeredness and people claiming they were ‘on the right side’ constantly spouting nonsensical bullshit and ruining others lives, whether through words or through whatever strange powers they got for that flavor of the week…but when King and Joy showed up, when they gave Captain his new shield, Frozen Pride, he felt a sense of irony that what kept him alive to the modern day was now the Shield he used to protect the people he cared about, his friends, his family back home, his countrymen… This was the Captain’s new home, and every single monster he froze and shattered with his shield, he knew what he had to do, for he was the Defender, the guardian of the people… “I can do this all day.” The Captain chuckled as he dashed forward again, a mighty phalanx of ice at his back. The Gate Guardian Vergil was in the same boat as his twin brother Dante, having seen how…small his goals were when he was younger, how weak he truly was to do what he needed…he wasn’t what he could be…but he saw the bigger picture when he was gifted Skysplitter from King, he saw all the worlds and what he could have truly been…what he could have had… Nero, the quarter demon spawn of himself and a woman he didn’t know the name of, a child…a son he could call his own that was as strong as he was at the peak of his might with the power of his Sin Devil Trigger and the Fruit from Qliphoth tree…Vergil side stepped a swing and shook his head, not needing to think of his newborn son as he cleaved the monster into tiny pieces with his Dimension Slash, what he must focus on was the battle, and how he became his true self, the Azure Sin Devil, the Gate Guardian, and the one that would slaughter all that would oppose him and his King. “Now…” He clenched his fist before activating his Sin Devil Trigger. “I’m Motivated!” He declared, before vanishing as a layer of Reality shattered like glass as he truly went wild. The Mage No matter what worlds she looked into with Dante and Vergil…Kat could never see herself in those worlds, there was no reflection that was involved with them…and at first, it hurt the street magician, to see how no matter what world she looked at, she was just relegated to the ‘Donte’ world as she kept hearing…looking back, she never really lived up to the potential so many people thought she had, just being a pretty face with a can of spray paint to get Dante everywhere…But no more. She was Kat the Archsage, The Mage to King’s Council, and she was damn proud of that fact. She was Master of Illusions, Master of all sorts of Witchcraft and Wizardry, as the only one she was second to was King themselves, and as she let the pages in her book fly as spell after spell was cast, foe after foe dominated by her expertise in the mystical arts…she looked over to see both Dante and Vergil having a blast with their new powers, their true strength left to go buckwild…and she couldn’t help but smile, as even now, she was helping, she was their equal…and as the wing’s of pure mana sprouted from her back, lighting crackling off her very being as she floated… “I know exactly who I am…and I’m proud of it.” Kat grinned, letting off a Cataclysm spell. The Anarchist Genos, the Cyborg, a human that gave himself, body and soul to the be strong, to be a hero after he was saved by the good Dr.Kuseno, wanting to go through any and all mechanical augmentation and upgrade till he was nothing more than a robot with the seriousness and single minded will to be a powerful hero…he personally learned what 'tunnel vision', his pure unbridled seriousness and devotion to power and heroism blinded him to everything in reality. He was a fool, the most simplest of conclusions he could come up with at how close minded he was, ignoring all the simplest of solutions for his hyper serious actions and drive…but with King and his fellow Council members help he…loosened up a bit. He was still serious and had the will for power and heroics, but he was able to enjoy life, he was able to joke, and just be able to just…be a human, something he thought he gave up years ago with his robotics taking up ninety nine percent of his being. "King…my Council members…thank you." Geno's said softly, feeling a powerful monster smack him but this time, he didn't budge an inch. "BONFIRE OF THE DAMNED!" Genos roared, as every enemy, even those 'immune' to fire, started to burn, burn in such atomic flame that no level of regeneration could revive them. But as they all dissolved into nothing, Nothingness Thorns shaped like chains latched on to what could possibly remained and brought back ashborn zombies. "KILL THE ENEMIES OF THE KINGDOM!" The Bard “Yo ho ho ho~, Yo ho ho ho~.” Brook, the Bard, the Skeleton, the Soul King, the Musician to the King of the Pirates. All titles for the humble musician that walked along, starting his favorite song that he played for his friends and crewmates all the time, and he would play it all the same for his friend’s and Council members as well. As he sang the water that once tormented him due to his Devil Fruit, making him unable to swim and even the slightest touch of sea water would make him useless, turned into his old crew’s…the Straw Hats and the Rumbar Pirates…”Oh the memories…” He sighed in joyous nostalgia, as the water clones of his old musician crew played the accompanying instruments while the Straw Hats readied for battle. “Yo ho ho ho~, Yo ho ho ho…” He sang softly as the sound of growing waves started to grow and grow against the encroaching hoard. “Sounds like the Tide’s coming in, if I didn’t know better I’d look bone white in fear.” Brook said. “Oh wait, I am Bone White! Yohohoho!” He laughed at his own crappy joke, starting to really let out his joy of Music into his new Guitar, a grand spirit version of himself appearing and rushing at all the enemies as he started to steal their souls without a hint of trouble. The Highroller “Watch and be amazed, as I! The Great and Powerful Trixie takes on innumerable odds in the name of our people!” Trixie declared in her performer persona, Fair Game flying around at sonic speeds, doing all sorts of damage to the enemies from slashes, to fucking with their time to the point they either dissolved into dust or returned back to nothing but atoms as time rushed forward or rewinded against the enemies. Trixie Lulamoon, once a traveling showpony with her stage persona having an Ego the size of a planet, brought down due to people taking her stage performance seriously, to being one of the Kingdom’s highest grossing stage magicians…a simple act of kindness from King, and a pair of magical cards later…the mare couldn’t have been happier. She got to do what she loved, Performing, and while violence still wasn’t really something she liked due to her pacifist pony life, she was ready and willing to slaughter her enemies if it meant protecting her numerous Fans. She looked over at a recording drone that was broadcasting a livestream to all her loyal fans. “My fans…I thank you, for your devotion and your kindness…this is for you.” She said, raising a hand as a card grew giant with her illusion cutie mark on it, before suddenly tons of fireworks like magic missiles fired from it. The Death Seeker Grell was dancing around, happily swinging their beloved Death Scythe through all these monsters, painting the area in a beautiful shade of red…oh how life can change so drastically when you’re given the chance…and some gender swapping magics also helped. Grell thought back to her own predicament and what they’ve seen in other people…and while her heart broke for those that genuinely suffered the same way she did, even if they were mortal and couldn’t truly fathom the real pain of a soul being stuck in the wrong body, there were those that seeked to abuse such a thing, use it for their own personal gain and to ruin the lives of others because of their own selfishness and…her blood boiled at that thought, cleaving through more and more as they thought about their new life, how King lead them to be what she really was, let herself express herself the way a male body couldn’t… King was the one she loved the most, and while Sebastian will always hold a special place in her heart…Grell’s King, the dire wolf that helped them be what they truly wanted, and got to express to the world how she really felt now that she was who she was supposed to be…well, King did say ‘later’... “In the words of one famous individual…” Grell grinned, their chainsaw Graceful Dahlia starting to rev up. “It’s time for Jack to Let’er rip!” She cackled, Graceful Dahlia letting out a roar of its engine and blades as she leaped forward in glee. The Assassin Speed of Sound Sonic…was a fool. He knew it, when he learned his ‘ninja skills’ were mere show, his skills were always shown to be great but it ultimately meant nothing in the end…all he wanted, was to prove his superior speed and beat Saitama…to prove he was strong…but it was all for naught when he met King and Joy. When he became King’s Assassin, he was quick to learn…he was not the fastest, in fact he was slow compared to what he was meant to face against, and when he learned that…he felt small, weak and helpless…but King was there to help, the Dire wolf was there to support him through his depression and helped him learn that he can be better…and just knowing that his training didn’t mean nothing, that there is a way to be better made him devote himself in proving it, to his King, to his Council members…and to himself. “Come and face The End!” He shouted, vanishing in an instant. “If you can keep up.” The Berserker Luxu, the Wanderer, created by the Master of Masters, sent off to abandon his the Foretellers…his best friends, just so he could continue a fucking self fulfilling prophecy that, as he learned quite clearly, got fucked by some really big illegal shit that his reality would be pissed about…but as he crushed a monster’s skull with his bare hand, he realized that here was a lot of thing’s that went horribly wrong for that asswipe. Luxu was now a loving husband, and a good father to his five children with his wife Time Belle, one of Core’s failed attempts to create a humanoid No Name keyblade…but what was a failed attempt to be a weapon, it was a complete success for making him better…and with King, the depressed but stubborn and kind wolf they were, kept Luxu going, and when King gave him Lunatic…he had a new purpose in life. Luxu, the Berserker, the one that was on the front lines first destroying anything and everything, but that wasn’t really Luxu, even though he is fueling himself with the unbridled rage of what the Master did, he was methodical in his rage, he was cold, calculating, he was the kind of rage that you didn’t want to fuck with, for he was given a purpose, he was given people to protect, he was given a life…and he’ll be damned if he doesn’t protect them. The Key Riku had…a weird life. First it was his life in the Data Realms, living out his life as normal, from his childhood all the way to the end of Kingdom Hearts 3’s DLC…then he woke up, in a new world, his family gone, his progress up in smoke, and being told that he was in a comatose state for over twenty years having been kidnapped by Core…it was…a trying time originally, where he had so much to process that he…had an existential crises. Then came the first ‘war’ his King had to fight, due to Cript wanting him to learn to use their true powers…then he calmed down, noticing how…simple it really was, to be back in the saddle of using Way to Dawn against Heartless, Nobodies, and all sorts of monsters…his mind felt clear, as he was truly able to process everything…then, he got Sora and Kairi back…his Sora and Kairi…and like two kids in a candy store, he basically had to put body leashes around the two excitable gremlins…and everything finally clicked for him. Even in this new world, in with the current war as he was slaughtering new monsters by the hundreds, he felt right at home. And he will protect it with all his might. The King I swung and swung, I was doing damage, I was hurting Gray…but the more I did, the more it smiled, the more it laughed…each swing felt like I was about to break apart Creation itself, but all this fucker did was take each and every hit with disturbing glee. “Seriously, you're making this really weird!” I growled, hiding my fear from whatever this bastard had in mind. “This is the first time… In my memory, that I felt something!” They yelled, taking another hit that sent them across lightyears of distance that I closed. Still, despite everything, they kept that smile on them. “You made good on your promise.” “It’s surprising how some people think I don’t keep my promises.” I frowned. “But yeah, that is…really weird.” I said, throwing out another swing and it slamming him down into the ground hard. Again, Gray just laughed as they stood back up again. “This is fun.” He said. “My turn.” I used Existence to block their punch. The hit knocked me far, passed the other end of creation, and into the void… A mix of panic and fear washed over me, then replaced an almost numb calm… I’m still alive… I took their impact… and lived… and Existence was looking no worse for ware… Now I got to laugh as Gray appeared, the two of us surrounded by the void. “You, are officially the first person in my life to survive an impact from me at full strength. Color me impressed.” “Right…” I said slowly. “Well…shit…I survived, I’m fine, Existence is cool…oh boy…” I thought to myself nervously. “So, that was you at full strength? Love tap.” I said, trying to play up myself being fine but I was rather scared of what this bastard could actually do. “Yeah, same as yours. And that was without a weapon.” Gray said, their smirk still on their face as I raised my weapon. “Show me that you earned the right to kill me.” To be continued...
Nobody settles somethingsGrey was a tough Bastard. I know I'm inflicting damage but It's likely chip damage at best. Still, I can tank his hits too. His bullshit energy must be keeping his defenses on high. “There has to be some way to cut his defenses down…” I thought to myself carefully, dodging another swing as I tried to think of what could pierce through his defenses or siphon of his energy…and there were way too many to choose from. “Fu~ck, just come up with the one idea damn it!” I thought to myself quickly, dodging another swing as I used Skysplitter’s ability, supercharging Existance with pure might and swung at Grey again. As I managed to knock him back, suddenly a blue side swiped him, and knocked him back pretty far. "Having all the fun without me?" Cript asked, smirking as they had that damn Soul Blade. Darkest Hero… fun to use, bullshit to fight against. “Yes…also, Darkest Hero is still bullshit.” I commented. “But what took you so long?” "Had a few personal names on my shit list I had to take care of." He said, blocking a swing from Grey and getting knocked over next to me. "And guess what, I found a few that were on yours." “Where?” I inquired, firing off a blast towards Grey to push them back from us. “And who?” "Few dozen light-years east of here. A certain metal bird, would be king tiger, and of course the kirkland brand wannabe Darkest Hero." Huh, I guess Darkest Hero and Void Key do look similar… Remembering this was Void Key… I grinned. Finally. “Oh thank you.” I said happily, bringing out a Starfish Clone who immediately vanished towards finding Void Key. “Finally…so many loose ends, so many vendetta’s…this is going to be real fun.” "Almost makes me wonder how batshit insane you'll become in retirement." Cript chuckled. “That’s…a thing I don’t want to think about.” I said nervously. “Ugh, retirement…you’re making me feel old here.” I grumbled. "Bitch I came out of my retirement to be here." Cript chuckled, looking back over to Grey and smiling madly. "After all, not every day you get to kill your psychopathic insane all powerful father twice in one lifetime." “That is true.” I said honestly. “Now, let’s beat this bastard.” I arrived at the location with Kite following behind. The area was crawling with corrupted Void Key users and his possessed. I had fun breaking every one. “Come out come out wherever you are!” I called out. “We can do this the Easy way, the Hard way, or My way.” I said, grabbing another possessed Void Key and breaking it in half over my knee. “And I know Clockwerk’s around here somewhere.” Kite frowned, looking around. “Rajan and Le Paradox to…” We fought our way through the hordes of possessed Void Key welders. Nothingness was flowing out of us so much it was staining the void ground beneath us. We soon came up on a familiar face. Le Paradox. Kite wasted no time in decapitating him. “Not giving you the time of day ya rat bastard.” Kite growled. We marched on. Wave after wave of Void Keys came at us and we left nothing but shards behind. Soon we found Rajan. Held up in some poor excuse of a fancy castle. Kite embraced his French heritage and finished him off with a makeshift Guillotine made from Lindworm and Sky Splitter. “Well, thematic.” I admitted. “I’m sure Le Paradox and Rajan are with Clockwerk, this being some stupid nonsense to distract me…” Kite admitted. “And we’re not going to get cock blocked on this musical number again, we have this whole thing planned.” Again, we marched on. This time arriving at the door of a void version of Clockwork's volcano base. As we entered, we noticed that yes, Le Paradox and Rajan were still alive, glaring at the both of us. “Couldn’t have even let me get a word in edgewise?” The french skunk asked petulantly. “Such violence and bloodlust from a so called thief.” Clockwerk growled. “Now you’ll be facing the Ruler of these Hills!” Rajan shouted his challenge. “Ruler you say?” Kite asked, pulling out Arpeggio and strumming it, as a band appeared with the start of a Violin. Juno was mad, he knew he been had, so he shot at the sun with a gun, As Kite started the first verse, he dodged a bullet that was fired, water and nothingness starting to swirl around the arena. Shot at the sun with a gun…shot at his wily one, only friend As the three immediately rushed towards Kite, the scene shifted to what was more like a slideshow of places. “In the Gallow’s, or the Ghetto’s, in the Town or the Meadow’s, in the Billow’s and even Over the Sun, every end of a time is another begun.” As the song progressed, the trio had their attack’s blocked by nothingness hands, the three would be admins dodging attacks from Nothingness thorn’s and Water rippling across with each note played. “You understand, Mechanical Hands, are the Ruler of Everything, Ruler of Everything, I’m the Ruler of Everything in the End.” “!meth teG !niw nac yeht kniht yehT ,s'nimdA rieht kniht yehT .oh oh oh oh oh hO” When the reversed line was said, each of them swung down at Kite, but he disappeared into the waters as the three suddenly witnessed Water Clones of themselves, each a perfect copy but…different… “What’s the meaning of this!?” Rajan roared, as he witnessed himself dancing in some dumbass baggy pants. “Do you like how I dance? I got Zirconium pants!” The water Rajan sang playfully, as if mocking Rajan’s claim to be a king. “Consequential enough to slip you into a Trance.” Kite sang, using his Thunder Cane to cut off the water clones head, making Rajan gasp and clutch at his throat, feeling the pain of having his head decapitated but it still being there. “This…can’t be right…” Le Paradox said worriedly, seeing himself acting like a fool from what his plan would have been when he was an ‘art collector’. “Do you like how I walk? Do you like how I talk?” Water Le Paradox asked, strutting around like he was on some stupid Putting on the Ritz music video. “Do you like how my face disintegrates into chalk?” Suddenly Le Paradox started to scream as he scratched as his face, feeling like his entire head was dissolving in a vat of acid. “How dare you flaunt my past!” Clockwerk roared, seeing himself with his wife. “I have a Wonderful Wife, I have a powerful Job!” Clockwerk said, only to get smacked upside the head by the wife’s wing. “I criticize him for being egocentric.” The female owl rolled her eyes as they all heard Kite’s laughter. “You practice your Mannerisms into a wall.” Kite pointed at Le Paradox. “If this Mirror was Clearer I would be standing tall!” Le Paradox sang, gasping as he was forced to sing for Kite’s amusement, dodging another swipe form the magic’s involved. “I saw you slobbering over clovers on the side of the hill!” The racoon accused Rajan. “I-I was observing the birds!” The tiger tried to counter, his ancient fear of water coming back to him as he saw his past mistakes. “Circling for the Kill…” Kite muttered, looking at Clockwerk. “I’ve been you, I know you, you’re Facade is a Scam!” Clockwerk teared up at seeing him and his wife…so happy back then. “You know you're making me cry, this is the way that I am…” Clockwerk sang sadly. “I’ve been living a lie…” Rajan said bitterly. “A metaphorical scheme…” Le Paradox added, as the trio witnessed all their plans through the Water become Nothing, all their petty want’s of revenge and power meaning nothing. “Detective Undercover, Brotherhood, Objective Obscene.” Kite said, as the trio’s eyes widened at seeing the giant tidal wave suddenly erupt, immediately cooling down any and all Void Lava as they all witnessed… Hands… “OH NO NO!” The trio shouted. “OH YEAH!” Kite shouted in glee, getting into the real meat of the song, letting the Bridge let the wave of Nothingness Hand’s shoot out and try to grab the three, each one dodging in some attempt to preserve their lives. “W-wait! I think I got the meaning of this!” Le Paradox said quickly. “Then do something ya waste of time!” Rajan shouted, as Le Paradox cleared his throat to start the next bit of the song. “Do you hear the flibbity jibbity jibber jabber With an, "Oh my god I've got to get out of here or I'll have another Word to sell, another story to tell Another timepiece ringing the bell"? Do you hear the clock stop when you reach the end? No, you know it must be never-ending, comprehend if you can But when you try to pretend to understand You resemble a fool, although you're only a man So give it up and smile.” As Le Paradox panted from that fast speech, Kite just shook their head as all three were suddenly grabbed by Hands, so many pulling, squeezing, clawing, all to get more of a hold on the three. “So close…but I think you forgot something…” Kite said, staring at all three of them. “Do you hear the flibbity jibbity jibber jabber With an, "Oh my god I've got to get out of here or I'll have another Word to sell, another story to tell Another timepiece ringing the bell"? Do you hear the clock stop when you reach the end? No, you know it must be never-ending, comprehend if you can But when you try to pretend to understand You resemble a fool, although you're only a man So give it up and smile.” As Kite repeated what Le Paradox said, it took on a new meaning, as the three realized how…little they truly understood, hearing Kite’s words they felt…small, like all of their actions truly meant nothing as they were just screaming children raging against something they couldn’t understand. “You understand, Mechanical Hands are the Ruler of Everything.” *Snap* Ah~ As Rajan was the first to have his neck snapped, Nothingness enveloping his body and returning him to Nothing. “The Ruler of Everything.” *Snap* Ah~ The next one to snap was La Paradox, his eyes filled with tears as he thought he could have done something, to have fixed his family…to make his father proud of him and to get his revenge on the Cooper’s that ruined his life…it all meant nothing as the last thing he saw was Hands… Mechanical Hands… “I’m the Ruler of Everything, in the end…” Kite then looked at Clockwerk, who was having each and every bit of metal ripped off of him, exposing his true self… What Kite saw was an old, dilapidated Owl, his feather’s long since dust and his body inches away from death, but the Hate Chip, embedded in the ancient Owl’s chest, kept rhythmically beating like a heart… “Without looking down…” Clockwerk said weakly. “Gliding around…like a Bumbling Owl I fly…scraping my face on the Heavens…” “Oh no no…” Kite then stabbed Clockwerk with Memory Stealer through his Hate Chip, the piece of ancient tech shattering as the ancient bird felt himself not succumb to Nothingness…but felt himself become consumed into the power of the Keyblade, all his memories, all his abilities, all his powers…all being stolen away as Time finally caught up with him. “Oh yeah…” Kite sang the final words, as the final breath of air the Owl made being the last voice heard from the light dinging on a clock bell. I gave a rousing applause to the Cooper version of myself. “Bravo! Bravo!” With that done, we marched onto the final area. It was a well, old as the void maybe and deep. I could smell the fucker from here. Hiding in a hole. Pathetic. “Seriously? Hiding in a Hole?” I called out. “I remember when I first saw you as a giant Beholder all those years ago…now you’re just some pathetic child hiding from the consequences of your actions.” There was no reply. I rolled my eyes, and jumped down. I landed on some ground. Before me were… two, three, five more Welders. Behind them was the giant eye, it's pupil was another Void Key, this one felt stronger. The five welders all smelled… like Coco… Right… fucker stole her ovaries… “Oh…I see…” I said slowly. “You…really want to die in a very painful way don’t you?” The five welders stood, aiming their blades at me. I brought out Second Chance, raising my blade up towards the five. “You don’t have to do this…” I said to the children. They didn't speak. Just charged at me. “Damn it…” I muttered, shaking my head. With quick, precise movements I dodged and struck each of them, instantly they all reverted to infants. Void was still potently within them, but that was alright. I shattered those five Void Keys, then looked to the giant eye. I shoved my fist into the eye, hearing an unearthly scream from it’s ‘body’ as I grabbed Void Key, the real Void Key, and ripped it out of it’s still shrieking body. “Finally found you.” I growled. “And while it would be Poetic Justice to have Coco do it…I made a promise, and I’m going to start with you witnessing everything you worked for go up in smoke.” I said, starting to use my Code work to made Void Key feel his Hive Mind, every single part of this sick weapon’s mind and body that were corrupting so many, shatter one by one, seeing it try and lash out with Void in some vain attempt to stop me as I took…a little too much pleasure in watching in suffer the ultimate indignity. Eventually I cloaked Void Key in pure Nothingness, making it feel the burning agony of it's antithesis making an endless direct contact with it and used it to hack the body apart. Chunk by chunk, piece by piece until all that was left was the last blade. Holding it, I sensed within it a rage. An imprint of Void Key, like a faint echo. Alone, it looks harmless. Might make some poor guy go insane, but it will never be what it was. “No…” I frowned, raising a hand up as I prepared to use Consume. “I will never let you harm another person again. You’ve killed too many, you’ve hurt even more…you put Coco in a Coma and then had the fucking audacity to steal her children and turn them into your mindless slaves…” I growled, seeing it’s rage try and flair up to fight against what it knew was about to happen next. “No more…” "Stop." I paused, looking up and seeing Heart in front of me, a hand on the thing. “Why?” I asked. “This…thing deserves the finishing blow…” "It's still a keyblade, King, and look at it…" They said. "It's a shell, holding nothing more than an abominations echoing rage. It doesn't even have a Core or a mind." “I…” I sighed. “Alright…but I’m going to make a sister Keyblade to this so it doesn’t destroy people’s lives okay?” "I figured that would be for the best to." Heart nodded. I sighed. “Well…I did my musical number…and I finally dealt with this fuck…” I said with a smile. “Things are going well.” "Progress." They nodded. Gently, they took the empty Void Key from me. "I'll take this back home and these cuties." They added, picking up the babies. "And you come home soon alright?" “I’ll try.” I admitted. “While thing’s are going well on the Front now that me and Cript are out and about…something just…doesn’t feel right.” I admitted carefully. "How so?" “Either like Grey is just fucking with us…or something worse is about to appear.” I said carefully. "Ugh… don't jinx it…" “I hope I’m wrong.” I shook my head. “But right now, the battle’s are going smoothly at least…” WARNING! WARNING! All Maker Containment Breach All Maker Stasis Chamber Failure The Worker and Behemoth are awakening Truth looked at all the Warning messages, seeing all the work they put in crumble to dust as the war started to literally shake the Machine itself, causing other processes to fail. “I’m sorry my friends…” Truth sighed, as he heard a roar of a beast not heard in True Reality since the First War…”I couldn’t keep my promise…” He said, seeing the Guard’s that were meant to protect the core be demolished to show his old friends… To be c̴o̵n̸t̸i̶n̵u̸e̶d̴...
Life of a NobodyI sighed, not sure how to explain this as I recounted events for the historians…"Let me recount it in an old fairytale with some…changes of my own." "How many seconds in eternity" The first signs of The Worker, my first fight against the true enemy, as Lord fucked off to his Labs and Cript gave up, done with all the fighting as he left, it was me, Dark Gray, and the All Makers Behemoth, Belief and Mother as we clashed against his 'Warning'. It was difficult for me…a foe I never knew of and couldn't conventionally plan around… "There is a Mountain of Pure Diamond, it takes an hour to climb it, and an hour to walk around it." Every enemy I defeated, every enemy we slain was resurrected and empowered, fighting even harder for this bastards claim of 'My Heaven', as everyone worked double time, as there was no middle ground, there was no waiting to gain enjoyment…this was a fight for survival. A fight I would never win… "Every One Hundred Years… But the little Shepherd Boy paused, for it was not a Bird that flew to Sharpen its Beak, but a Man, his Identity not known for he was a Nobody." Every battle I fought, every life I saved…it was one step closer. Every battle I fought against The Worker I grew stronger, every new capture I grew wiser, Everytime I went against the bullshit Reality threw at me, I was one step closer to finally achieving our Dream. "The Nobody punched, kicked, used items, anything and everything to chisel the Mountain of Diamond, believing each strike was not but his own.' I struggled, I fought, I did everything in my power as the Admin of Nothingness, and King of the Grand Creation Kingdom…but it wasn't enough to save others…Katsuki and Three were such grieving would be widows as this war stopped them from popping I tried to console them, we all did…but the more I looked, the more it showed that… I was alone again… "But like the tale of the Everyman…he was alone, with not but his skills, strength, and wits to break the Diamond Mountain, every hundred years the Nobody struck the Mountain…" I struggled, I was busy doing so much trying to stop this war…but nobody was there next to me. Heart left the battlefield long ago to live in some form of Peace while I remained. Eclipsa left the battlefield to get Gray and Dark Gray accustomed to the new world while I fought for it. The Foreteller left the battlefield to build in the Realm of Dreams, not understanding there will be no more Dreams if I fail. John left the Battlefield to Hunt down Max, the only solace that I had a comrade in arms trying to fix this… Yet again…I was alone when it truly mattered… "But in his solitude, he continued, the Nobody kept his struggle, chiseling away at the Diamond Mountain." I stood in front of The Worker, I was infused with some bullshit Lord came up with to make me as strong as The Worker…I was an All Maker…but it didn't mean shit as I stood alone…even though my heart knew my family and friends were with me…physical reality proves otherwise. We clashed in his Sanctum, Reality bending and bowing with our power as even the Real World couldn't handle the true might of two All Makers fighting as I was pushing myself to what limits I possibly had. "But after timeless time, The Nobody broke the Diamond Mountain." I looked Galath in his eye that was revealed past his broken mask, as I took his Greatest creation, the Infinity Blade, and snapped it in half with my bare hands, seeing his eye widen on shock and horror as the blade dissipated in a cloud of Imagination, as I grabbed him by the head and slammed him into the ground, punting him into a wall before tackling him through it. "You have caused so many problems, you have caused untold death after such a bullshit war…" I growled, grabbing Galath and raising him up. "And he finally witnessed the first second of Eternity." I broke The Worker over my knee, I heard him break as he crumbled on the ground in a heap. "You will recover, and when you do, you will know what I have truly done to you." I growled, as I teleported out and I used my new All Maker powers. "Only The Empty will remain." "But, the sight of Eternity after so long only confirmed the Nobody's suspicions…" "I'm still alone…" I said weakly. "I started my journey as a Nobody…and I’m ending it as a Nobody, who’s just tired, unsure about reality as it is and having to let everyone else deal with it as I do…something…” I sighed, one of the many things that happened after the war was done was that everyone wanted me to stop, even though there’s so much work to do…”I have my family, I have my friends…I still have everything that I fought for…” I raised my arms up. “But they all left…while I had to pick up the pieces at the very end.” “I expected a Heroes Welcome after everything, a Parade, something…but I didn’t, all I saw was people going about their daily business, not even batting an eye that we’re finally on the Outside, finally in the True Reality…all my hard work…all the blood sweat and tears I gave to this world…even with my family there it…it doesn’t feel like anyone really cares in the end…” For that was my life, at the end of the War, I was alone fighting against those that would take away what I cared about. At the end of all this nonsense, I was by myself recounting what really happened throughout time so history wouldn’t repeat itself and people would know that this actually happened instead of think it’s a myth… At the End of the Day…I was alone…not a Mother…not a Father…Not a King…just a lonely person just trying their best, especially in this new Reality where there's so much to do, so much to see... A Nobody… And that’s my Life… The Life of a Nobody… The End... Author's Note 7 Years, 7 Long Years...and this story is Done. It's Bittersweet, I hate how there wasn't much climactic ending like I wanted and sent through a clip show of King being back to square one even with everyone and everything he has...but that's what happens when I'm the only one left. Sure I still talk to and work with my friends, BioquillFiction being the main person that helps me with my nonsense but...this is the last chapter and I'm the only one that cared enough about it. Just a Nobody that wanted to keep going when everyone else gave up or moved onto different things... Well, I hope you all liked this nonsense of a story, if you want to know what happens after the fact, look up Bioquillfiction and his Open World Series, I also help with that fun bit of nonsense
Nobody's lifeSchool, on a day like this, you’d think they would have closed it down. Yet here is… roughly half the student body attending today’s classes. The teachers didn’t seem to care where we were though, so I chose the only room that would have been empty today, the library. It felt nice to finally be alone. No idiots to insult you, pretty girls to make you feel like crap, nor teachers who didn’t give a damn about the students, not even the librarian was here, just me and a few thousand books. With no one here I was able to read all I wanted. I’ve been hated without reason by others for as long as I could remember. When I learned to read, books became my escape into other worlds, places much better than the world we live in. They say your life is the greatest story ever written, but if mine were a book, it would be the dirty falling apart kind that sit on the forgotten corners of the shelves. I didn’t just come here to read though… there’s a computer that seats you where no one can see you, and no I’m not looking at porn, I watch… My Little Pony… I will forever refuse to admit that I watch it. On a day like this I could spend all day watching the show. I was already caught up though, so I just watched a few personal favorites… mainly Twilight and Luna episodes. Twilight cause of the books thing, and Luna cause I can relate to the whole… feeling alone thing. Those went by fast though and I was reading at one of the tables now. It was getting boring, and all channels, even cartoon ones, were covering the riots going on around the world. “My christ is this boring!” I complain, feeling like the ‘end of the world’ should have been more...exciting? Shocking? I honestly can’t define why such an event was boring. “Oh well…” I mutter before yawning. “Might as well get some sleep, nobody will bother someone sleeping right?” I ask myself, pulling up the hood on my hoodie before resting my head on my arms and closing my eyes. “Goodbye world….go fuck yourself.” I mutter before falling into blissful slumber. ”Hello~” Someone says, rousing me from my sleep. “Go away~, I’m trying to sleep.” I mumble, my voice muffled more because of my arms. ”Wake up, you’ve got a lot to do and less time to do it.” The voice says with a tad bit of authority, making me grumble and look up. “Alright alright I’m up, but if you think-” I was about to start a rant before stopping myself, seeing nothing but white all around me for a moment before rubbing my eyes. “Okay who put me in a bad video game with too much bloom?” I ask, the white area around me almost blinding. ”Weird, the others didn’t complain about it that much.” The voice says. ”Anyways, guess where you are.” “A dream?” I ask, before something pinched my arm. “Ow! What the hell!?” I shout, looking around for whatever pinched me. ”That would be me.” The voice says again before a ball of light entered my field of vision. “Okay I’m in a white room, seeing a ball of white light...how the fuck does that make sense?” I frown, starting to get a little pissed at this point. ”Magic, now shush up and hear what I have to say.” The voice says from the ball of light, now that my sleep and confused riddled mind caught up with literally everything I started to make sense of some things. “Wait a second.” I say before looking at the ball of white and everywhere else. “Well...I suppose my one friend was wrong.” I deadpan. ”It’s best that he disagreed, my younger years were...regretful to say the least.” The voice said. “So...you’re God huh?” I ask, the ball of light ‘nodding’. “Goodie, so I see a bunch of white but no clouds, pillars, homes, or that odd female angel that people gawk over.” I say while continuing my search. “So...some ‘in between’ thing going on?” ”Basically.” God says simply. ”But you were chosen-” “You already know I read a ton of books man, no need to be all ‘mayan test of blah to see if blah did blah up the blah’.” I say, making fun of the more ‘religious’ side of the mayan calendar and laughed a little when I said ‘up the blah’. ”Yes…” God says. ”So what do you wish for? God asks, his tone sounding like he’s been through this thousands of times but had a little fun with having someone call out what he wanted to say. A silence hung in the air as we both waited for my reaction before the ball of light shapeshifted into a tan old man wearing a pure white robe and we both slapped each other at the same time. “Ow!” I shout, rubbing my cheek. “Well at least I did something probably no one else would do.” “No, one has.” God shrugged. “It was a punch though. So whatever.” “Yeah yeah.” I take a deep breath. “So, any limits?” “I may be god, but yes there is limits.” God says. “Well I suppose you can’t get everything.” I shrug. “So…” “Does it involve ‘Kingdom Hearts’?” God asks simply, apparently having read my mind. “People asked?” I ask with a raised eyebrow, the old man nodding. “Right then...so how does having the powers of Organization XIII and the ability to summon Nobodies sound?” “That is quite a set of powers and abilities.” God says simply. “But there will be restrictions to this. You will have the ability to summon their weapons, but you will have to learn how to use each and every weapon and all of their hidden abilities, and the Nobodies?” “I’ve already been a ‘Nobody’ for a majority of my life God. Don’t tell me that’s gonna be a problem.” I say bluntly. “You won’t be able to use magic, well besides one, and the nobodies… They are the hollow bodies of people, so being connected to them, with a heart… you would be able to hear all the voices of them while they are summoned, until disbanded or destroyed.” “So if I hear voices I’m not crazy?” “No, just rude. Magic can be learned, but it takes time. Now, as for the weapons, I’m guessing you want both the Keyblade from Roxas, and the fake one from Xion?” “Well technically Roxas had both Oathkeeper and Oblivion, both when he was fighting Riku next to Memory Skyscraper, and when he fought Axel to find Sora.” “I won’t get into Lore with you so I’ll just take that as a yes. Just be warned, Xion’s Keyblade has very different abilities as compared to the originals. You’ll have to find out for yourself what they are though.” “Sounds about right. No need to spoil the surprise when I’m about to rush headlong into the unknown with powers I don’t know how to use.” I chuckle. “That reminds me, what world would you like to go to? Your pick.” “W-well…” I stutter, looking down as my face started turning red. “E-e-equestria…” “Alright then you closet brony, human, anthro, or like the show?” “Hey!” I shout, glaring at God for calling me a closet brony… even though it was true. “But...um...anthro?” I ask, looking to the side with a blush. “Alright. That all? One guy already has an Organization XIII cloak. You want one too, or no?” “Well I suppose it would fit the theme.” “Alright.” God reached behind him, and pulled out a white Organization XIII cloak. “Just make sure if you run into the one that punched me, and you likely will, expect a fight. Was part of his Mark of Mastery Exam.” “Won’t I have to take that same exam? Given that I’m also wielding a Keyblade?” “Not right away, but eventually.” God waved his hand, and a DTD opened up. “Put that cloak on, not wearing it in there will cost you. I am afraid I can’t give you the ability to… open these doorways, but with a Keyblade, you can make your own as most the others have.” “Cool...but won’t I need a gummi ship or something? Or can I just make one of those Keyblade gliders?” I ask curiously, taking off my black hoodie and putting on my new white organization cloak. “Every Keyblade has a glider form, even the fake. Turning it into the glider is easy though, just… throw it into the air.” “Okay…” I say slowly, lifting a hand up and concentrating, before summoning a standard Kingdom Key. “I suppose I’ll get different Keyblades the more I progress huh?” “Keychains. You can only get more Keychains. There’s a reason for that, but I won’t tell you.” “Oh yeah~. Almost forgot that…” I nod before throwing my Keyblade up into the air, focusing on trying to make it into a glider. A light flashed before a version of Terra’s bike appeared, but instead of having gold, brown and blue as it’s color scheme it was white with black thorns crawling along it. “Huh...seems fitting.” “That’s the fake it would seem. Be careful when you fight with it. It’s a Keyblade forged from memories given physical form. Fighting others with it may cause… side effects.” “If I have clones of either myself or beings I fight with this thing start appearing out of nowhere from their memories I’m not gonna be happy.” I deadpan. “Not like that. Now that I have… forged it into a Keyblade of Darkness, it’s name isn’t actually… Kingdom Key, it’s Memory Stealer. Able to rip memories out of people’s hearts… just like it’s wielder did when it was just a copy.” “Huh…” I say simply, looking at the bike worriedly. “And...the Keyblade that Roxas would normally have is...where?” “Within you, just call to it. As for why Memory Stealer looked like that… it has no true form, so it copies any Keyblade it comes near. You will be able to tell the difference between the two after getting used to them.” “That sounds so broken...but I have a feeling it’s going to be a ‘last resort’ kind of thing cause I’d rather not stab someone and have them become a mental blank slate.” “Exactly… Well, off then. I’m late on schedule already.” “Sorry God. I’ll be off.” I say before putting up my hood and hopping onto my new bike. “See ya, stay safe.” I say before holding the handlebars and shooting off into the DTD to a brand new chapter of life. * * * I had guessed it was dark in the DTD, but this was just… like being blind. Suddenly, and without much warning, I could see again… right as I crashed into a wall, and fell into a trashcan, my glider disbanding as I fell off. “... Still better than High school.” I crawled out, wiping off the… what I guessed was a restaurant day-olds off my cloak. This thing better not stain easy. “Okay so...where the fuck am I?” I wonder to myself, looking around to take stock of where I am. As far as I could tell I was in the middle of an alleyway behind a restaurant and in one direction just led to more alleyways and the other I could see some people walking about. “Onwards to social awkwardness.” I say proudly before heading off to find out where the hell I am and to fail miserably at talking to people. I should keep my hood up, I do seem to look different… Right, anthro. So as I make sure my hood is up and stays up I walk into the middle of the sidewalk and look around, and let’s just say big doesn’t begin to describe what I’m seeing. Skyscrapers and tall buildings as far as I could see, clear blue skies without a cloud in sight, the only problem was that I was seeing...pegasi. “Well...glad to know that.” I mutter, still taking my time to look around. Now I used to live in a small town near one of the Great Lakes in America, the biggest buildings I’ve seen on a regular basis were tall apartment buildings so seeing that I’m in a bustling city that reminds me of the times I’ve seen New York on either TV or from books kind of intimidated me. I snapped out of my sight seeing when someone bumped into me. “Oh I’m sorry.” I say quickly, turning around to see who bumped into me, but the...teal colored anthro stallion just huffed and continued his daily commute. “Well fuck you to then.” I mutter before raising my hand to a mare that was about to walk past me. “Excuse me, ma’am, can you tell me where I am?” I ask her. “I’m...new around here.” I say nervously, knowing my cloak alone would tell that. “Oh certainly.” The tan furred mare says with a smile. “We’re in Manehattan.” “Huh…” I say with a hidden frown, oddly specific name from the naming convention. “Um...where’s the library?” “Oh it’s not that far, it’s down the street and to the left. You’ll find it when you see two pony statues in between the stairs.” She says kindly. “Thank you so very much.” I say with a nod and a hidden smile. “Have a nice day.” “You to.” She says before we both part ways and I head off to the library. After following the mares directions I did indeed find a large building with a domed top and two pony statues to the sides of the massive amount of stairs. “Well...let’s a go.” I say before checking both ways and following the massive line crossing the street before breaking off and heading to the library. Let’s hope I can read their language because if memory serves it’s just a bunch of gibberish and symbols… I think to myself, heading up the stairs quickly and entering the giant library. Yet again I am taken aback by the sheer size of things from Manhattan, or Manehattan as they call it, and looked at the inside of the giant library. Now I’ve only seen my local library a few times and it was big, but this blew it out of the water with it’s scale. “Excuse me?” A stallion asks before I shake my head and snap out of my little stupor and look around, seeing the main desk with a stallion sitting behind it. “Hello.” I say while walking over to the front desk. “How may I help you?” The librarian asks. “Um…” I start. “Where’s the history section?” I ask, wondering if what I know about Equestria matches up. “Oh yes, here’s a card to show you which way.” The unicorn stallion says while magicing over a card. I took the card with a thank you before looking down at the card, and what originally looked like a bunch of gibberish seemed to shift into english. “Thank you.” I nod before heading off to the history section. As I walked through the giant place I saw that this place was separated into different sections by genre’s, and then by sub genre’s so the big library felt even bigger when they had to sort everything like that. After a bit more walking and the scent of books starting to get ingrained into my head with the giant amount of books in this library I finally found the history section. Now for a bookworm like me I felt giddy about reading again, and thankfully the aisle was based on years, but where ‘BC’ and ‘AD’ had some other letters that I wasn't entirely sure what they were. But I just shrugged it off and went with something that seemed the simplest was to go to the history that was one thousand years ago. When I touched the covers with my gloved hand I could just imagine the hidden history that the fans never knew about before pulling out one book that just so conveniently, and kind of eerily, had the same unicorn symbol that started off the entirety of generation four. After finding a nice table to sit at I opened it up and started reading through the entire book. Some things were like back on earth, others seemed Equestria specific, and a few things just seemed flat out stupid. An entire war over cheese? Why, how in any way was that a thing?! The book’s most recent event was the Nightmare Moon returning to Princess Luna. So it’s after that huh? Well then that gives me… still a large timeframe to ponder on. I looked up at the sound of screaming. “The monsters are back!” The librarian screamed as he ran away from a Neoshadow. Okay, time to see how well I can fight then. I decided to try and summon something else… and what appeared was Xigbars Gun Arrows… alright, this will do. I chased down the Library after the Neoshadow and fires the light arrows. There was little recoil and the Neoshadow was vanquished when it was hit. I ran outside and nearly dropped the Gun Arrows… A Guard Armor Heartless was walking in the middle of the road, tossing vehicles and policemen aside. “Well...this seems ironic.” I deadpan, pointing my Gun Arrows up and firing at the heartless, hoping to damage it enough to stun it. As I saw the arrows hit the chest it’s entire midsection practically flung back as it staggered, giving me enough time to reload somehow before going back to firing at it again, making sure to aim at the chest and hopefully do enough damage to keep it staggered. The Guard Armor, out of the blue, actually decided to use some form of tactics and use one of its hands to block the arrows, which quickly shattered from the barrage. “Fuck.” I growl, knowing that if I don’t break the other pieces it’ll just split off and I’ll have to deal with the separated pieces. I reloaded quickly as the heartless continuing towards me, pushing aside the useless guards and vehicles aside that it wasn’t even hurt, only making me fire more at the things chest, causing it to stagger again. I thought for a moment on how Xigbar could use that special charged attack as I was reloading again, seeing the Guard armor finally split it’s hand and legs apart to only make my job harder. “Damn it…” I frowned before thinking for a quick second and putting the two guns together and focusing, seeing a blue and black glow surround the two guns before shooting off straight towards the legs of the guard armor, making quick work as it seemed to bounce between the two. There was only a hand, and the midsection left. I fired off at the hand, which was spinning around in an attempt to be a guard/attack move. Once that was gone I offloaded on the midsection. Only one real way to end this thing. I disbanded the Gun Arrows, and focused on the Keyblade. A Kingdom Key appeared in my hand… and it felt way different than the fake. God was right about that after all. I charged forward, and delivered a final swipe at it’s remaining midsection. It puffed into a mist of darkness as a large heart floated away into the sky. The sound of someone clapping came from behind me. When I turned around, I saw two people there. A man in purple robes with a blank face mask that had a gash over it, and the other was in a full body black jumpsuit, with a scar going over a blind eye. His jumpsuit held a lot of clips, probably for the two large pistols he had on each side. The man with the mask was clapping. “Not bad, rough around the edges, but you did well.” “Who are you?” “I am Core, and my associate here is Josh. You had a strong energy when you popped in from earth.” “Wait...how?” I ask simply, not entirely sure how in the hell this person knew about earth. “News flash dog meat, I’m from earth as well.” The man in the black jumpsuit, Josh, spoke. “I only tagged along because I didn’t wanna hear a bitch cry for hours again. So tell me, you know the name, Ventral?” He smiled wickedly. “Now now mister, I wasn’t talking to you. I was talking to the actual important person behind the mask.” I say bluntly. “But thank you for explaining, also no, couldn’t give a rats ass about names anyways given that I hated people to begin with, and you appear to be one of those people I tend to hate.” I say simply. “So much hate in your heart already, might be an easier puppet than Huxley if you let that brew a while longer child.” Core said. I stared at Core for a moment. “Oh great, one of those guys.” I sigh out. “And here I was hoping for a quiet life. But nope, stuck in some silly game based on a shadowy figure. Can you get any more cliched?!” I complain, my hate going away and more to an annoyance. “Like holy hell I’ve seen enough stories to know where this is going. So just to be blunt, no, not going to fall for your bullshit, but if I may ask, are there any other survivors? Cause I have a feeling there better company than man who sucks at proper smiles, and obvious bad guy.” Josh didn’t speak, but before I could react, I heard gunfire as both my shoulders, legs, and left arm suddenly burst in pain. I was screaming as I finally saw all the blood. “Little overkill, don’t you think?” Core asked. “Nah,” Josh replied. “I left him alive didn’t I?” Josh walked over to me, and held me by my neck. “This isn’t a game, nor a story little bitch, this is our True Reality now. The whole reason you’re alive still is because boss has an interest in you.” He threw me, and I hit the top of a carriage. “My advice, don’t try to be a hunting dog, because nothing beats an alpha wolf. And be glad I used regular lead bullets on you” The two walked into a DTD, and I began to feel tired. Crap… I should really keep my mouth shut. To be continued...
Nobody's New Adventure part 1Author's Note Again another colab but with four people this time, and good lord am I scared about this. I hope you all like it cause in all honesty it's...something. Everything is in 3rd person, there will be parts that have literally nothing to do with my character but let's hope that you all don't mind this chapter...even if it's big... Nobody's New Adventure part 1 Terra returned to Huxley and Elzin having found a chariot that they could attach a keyblade Glider too. “Sweet, what other supplies we find?” Huxley asked as Elzin pulled out a ton of salt. “I found a ton of salt from that bar other there.” Elzin said. “Why was there that much salt in a bar?” Terra asked. “Spike the food to make them drink more?” Huxley suggested. “Okay so what should we do with all of it?” Elzin asked. “Leave it, we don’t need that much salt.” Huxley said as he pulled out the wagon of food. “Here’s what I’ve got.” Huxley said as Terra and Elzin looked at the food. “Makes sense there would be this many apples, this was an off shoot of the Apple family.” Elzin said “What did you find Terra other then the chariot?” Huxley asked. “A ton of bones… and apple pies.” He replied. “Well from what I’ve seen of Appleloosa that was probably their last stand weapons.” Elzin said. “Then explain this.” Terra said, lifting up a shotgun. “I have no clue.” Elzin said as Huxley looked at it. “Take it, we might need it.” Huxley said. The three got everything hooked up and rode off. For Elzin, this was a rather bumpy ride as the wagon kept running over the dry rocky dirt, hitting every rock and hole. After a few hours, the group made it out of the dry lands and into a lush green pasture. “Let’s wait for a bit, I think Elzin needs a break.” Terra said, motioning to Elzin who was looking rather nauseous. “Blehh.” Elzin said hanging off the side of chariot. “Yeah I think it’s getting dark we may need to camp out for the night.” Huxley said looking at the sun setting. They stopped and made camp fast. The group just sat around the campfire, talking.”So anybody got any stories.” Huxley asked “Well there the story of Destiny where a machine call a ghost resurrects somebody...” “And you’ve lost me.” Huxley said “I went to this one world that was rather creepy.” Terra said. “Let me guess... I give up.” Huxley said. “Is it a Bendy and the Ink Machine world.” Elzin asked. “One, what is that and two, how do you know what that is?” Huxley asked. “It’s a disney inspired horror game and I’m from 2017” Elzin explained. “Well, whatever it was, it was clearly a place of great darkness. Fought some kinda big rat or something when I was there.” Terra said. “Yeah from what I’ve seen it’s pretty dark.” Elzin said “Anyway I have a story.” Huxley said pulling out Key to Avalon. “It's about this Keyblade or rather what it’s based on.” Huxley said as he started the story. After the story the group was ready to go to sleep. “We should have somebody stay up and guard us for a short while, who wants first watch?” Huxley asked. “I’ll start, not that tired anyway.” Terra said. “Okay so let's decide who get second and third shift.” Huxley said as Elzin and Huxley looked at each other. “1,2,3 Not it.” They both said as they repeated the same line for five more times before agreeing to rock, paper, scissors” “You two are… what’s that?” Terra said, pointing at the lights in the distant sky. “Lets mount up and check.” Huxley said as Terra pulled out his Glider and hooked it up to chariot. “Let’s not forget the stuff out of the chariot” Elzin said As they were ready to move, the lights quickly moved over them, and they were surrounded by four people on gliders. “Attention off worlders.” One of them spoke, speaking through a megaphone. “What are you doing this far out of the reconstruction zones?” “We arrived in Appleloosa, sue us.” Huxley said as they surrounded them. “Please make your way north towards Ponyville.” He said before they flew off. “Well at least Ponyville isn’t far.” Elzin said as he shrugged. The trio finished packing and continued making their way north. After several short minutes they found the half rebuilt town of Ponyville, people of all races and species working on rebuilding the much more modern version of the town Huxley and Elzin knew. “So this is Ponyville huh? It looks better then I had thought it would.” Huxley said. “Really you thought it would look bad?” Elzin asked. “Well seeing Appleloosa made me think of the worst.” Huxley said. “Yeah, let’s find someone here who knows how to get to Daybreak.” Terra said. As the trio entered into the town. They were greeted with friendly expressions, and they asked around for directions towards Daybreak. “You can take a train, or follow the train tracks north by glider to get there.” A woman they asked said. “Thank you mam.” Terra said. “I wonder when the next train is?” Huxley said. “Random thing Me and Mom went on a train to Montreal last year.” Elzin said before looking at the ground as he remembered he may never see mom again. “Look don't sweat about Mom I know you miss her.” Huxley said as Elzin looked at him. “The train leaves in five minutes.” Terra said, holding a schedule the woman gave him. “Well what are you waiting for, let’s go.” Huxley said as the trio rushed to the train station. The three paid for the tickets, and took seats. “Schedule says we’ll be at Daybreak in three hours.” Terra said, looking out the window. “Well since we're all awake let me tell you the story of The One Punch Man.” Elzin said. (Foreteller’s Reflection: The Mansion) “Hyah!” *Clank!* The five Foretellers were training together in the courtyard of their mansion. It was a free for all since they were training in the scenario where there are multiple strong enemies around them. Over the last month and a half since they had last visited Daybreak, they had not only been training their Unions but training themselves to pass the limit of their abilities. Most of their training had been against the simulations with Code Keeper. They were able to hold their own with the max level of Sephiroth individually, but if they were to go against someone like Zeke and Unum they would have to fight them together if they wanted to stand a chance. “Alright everyone. Let’s take five.” Lan said to his comrades. They all relaxed, leaving the simulation and went to get their waters. *Ding-Dong!* “I got it.” Alex said as he rushed through the house. As Alex opened the door, a man dressed in green and red Keyblade armor was there. “Greetings.” He said. “Hey. Are you a keybearer from Daybreak?” “Courier actually.” He reached into his backpack, and pulled out a yellow envelope. “This document if for Ira’s eyes only.” “Alright.” Alex took the letter and closed the door. “Lan! You got a letter!” After a moment Lan and the others entered. “Who’s it from?” “It’s from a Courier from Daybreak. Must be pretty important if they delivered it here directly.” Lan took the letter from him and started to read the contents. Dear Ira/Lan Your speech for your council seat is beginning within three hours, by the time you received this we hope you have your speech and proper documents in order. Failure to arrive on time or deliver an acceptable speech will result in your seat position opportunity being made null and void, and you will be replaced with another candidate. Please arrive on time, dressed properly, with your paperwork in check. Sincerely, Council Member Leon. “Ah! So it’s finally time. I was wondering when I would get a summons for my seat.” Lan said after reading the letter out loud. “I should go take a shower! You four too, since you are all probably coming with me… Right?” He said nervously. “Of course we will.” Jenny said. “We wouldn’t want to miss this.” “Yeah Bro. You’ve been working hard on that speech so we will be there for support!” Kira said, Dan and Alex nodded in agreement. “Thanks guys. Now, to the showers!” Zeke sat in the infirmary of Daybreak castle. Eclipse had been brought in with a heart that was breaking in two, something that, according to X, had not happened since his third wielder. “So, how do you think this happened?” Justin asked, leaned against a wall across from Zeke. “From what you told me… and what you said you saw afterwards… it was the Killing Mood…” Zeke said grimly. “Killing Mood?” Justin asks curiously “A sort of genetic trigger, or switch that goes off when a Ventral first kills… no matter who it was, the switch gets flipped, and they go into a murderous frenzy. Eclipse is like me, but since his heart isn’t balanced, when his Killing Mood hit, his dark half tried to take over while his light resisted. The result seems to be his heart trying to break in two.” Zeke explained “How did this whole ‘Killing Mood’ thing start in your family anyway?” Justin asked. “From what I was told one of my ancestors was a witch that made it, personally I think it’s the mutated product of generations of killers breeding.” Zeke answers grimly. “Or both?” “Heh, maybe… makes me scared thinking about it…” “How so? You think this might happen to you?” “Not me… my kids…” As silence took over the room, Cid entered the room. “Hey Zeke, the council is meeting up again, today’s that Lan kid’s speech.” He said, his tone cautious about the scene. “Thanks Cid, I’ll be there in a bit.” Zeke said as Cid left. Zeke sighed. “Work never stops no matter what’s going on.” Zeke got up and began making his way down the halls. It was a fair distance to the council room, but he felt he needed the time to think. “HEY ZEKE!” A voice called out. “Huh?” Zeke turned around, and his eyes widened in shock at seeing Huxley, Terra, and… a red haired Huxley? “Um… what are you doing here, and why are there two of you?” Zeke asked as he looked between the two Huxley’s. “Oh right, meet my clone, Elzin.” Huxley said as Zeke tilted his head. “Um… what did your Twilight do?” Zeke asked. “It was god you idiot, didn’t he tell you that everybody that got sent off earth got a clone to replace them?” Huxley asked. “No, and frankly I don’t think it matters to me… my clone is likely dead.” “We’ll anyway, can you take us to my reflections realm of darkness?” “Uh… maybe?” “What do you mean maybe?” Terra asked. “I’m assuming you’re not the Terra I know, but I can’t open a DTD like Huxley can, but I might be able to either know a possible way, or I’ll need someone else's help.” “I can’t open DTD’s anymore.” Huxley said. “Oh… odd. How did you get here then?” “A DTL via my book.” Huxley said. “How did you learn that?” “God.” Huxley said flatly. “Figures… well look, I’ll help with… whatever it is you’re doing, but right now I got a meeting with the council about a new member.” “Okay well we’re going to be around come find us when you're...” Huxley started before someone shouted at Zeke. “Zeke!” They turned and saw the Foreteller’s wearing their robes walk up to the group. “Oh, you’re already here. Good.” Zeke said. “This is Huxley, a reflection Terra, and… Elzin…” Zeke motioned to them. “It’s good to see you again Huxley. And it’s nice to meet you Terra and Elzin.” Ira said. “So I’m guessing you already know that Zeke isn’t evil.” Huxley said brushing the back of his head. “Yeah we kind of figured that when he helped us with a situation back in our reflection.” Aced said. “Well, in any case, come on Lan, er, Ira. you're scheduled for your meeting today. Got everything ready?” “Yes. I have prepare my speech and all that.” Ira said. “So is there going to be an audience or is it just fellow council members?” “If these guys come along that will be all, aside from the rest of the council. Come on, the meeting is this way.” The group followed Zeke and Ira to the council room. They all took seats, Ira in the stand center of the round room, and Zeke atop the chair center of it. “This meeting has now begun. Our first order of business, the speech, memory check, and questioning of Ira for a seat among the council.” “We will begin with the questioning.” Lord Death spoke. “So, Ira. Are you from the homeworld of Zeke?” “Yes, as well as the other Foretellers. We are all survivors of Earth.” “Would you consider yourself experienced in terms of mass population leadership?” Leon asked. “No. The Unions we have gathered in our world are small at the moment. At best it’s an average leadership role.” “Have you and your… ‘Unions’ contributed any information outside your world or local area regarding Keyblades, space travel, or magic?” Cid asked. “Mostly in our general city. Anywhere outside would only have what is on the internet to go by. About Keyblades, space travel and magic. But we do have a plan for the future.” “How many have you and the other Foretellers given Keyblades to?” Shining Armor asks. “Roughly around 200 per Union, plus the about of those in the local police force. That would make around 1,175.” “Have you and your companions faced any off world threat, other than the Unversed in your world?” Lord Death asked. “During the events of the Fall Formal in our world Core himself had appeared along with Zeke, Unum, and Twilight.” “What was done about the situation?” “The situation, a student named Sunset Shimmer was infected-” “We know that already, what we want to know is, what was done to this Sunset Shimmer as proper punishment?” “After her darkness was purged by Zeke, we have her serving under our Unions.” “So in other words.” Leon started. “You have an unstable individual going around, unaided, unwatched, and without any restraints, who can also access confidential information of your Unions?” “Sunset is just someone looking for a purpose now that her darkness is gone. We took her under our wing to not only teach her self control but also try and steer her into the right direction. She showed great promise as a Keybearer and is one of our best students to this day. She regrets what she has done in the past and only wants to make up for it. We gave her that chance to redeem herself.” “Was there anyone else?” “There was an old friend of ours, Crow. But he is on Core’s side now. But in an earlier event, we discovered that Core had gone to Earth and had ripped Crow’s heart in half. One half of light, and the other of darkness. That’s how he can summon the Unversed. But he had sealed his light half somewhere unknown. “And what are your motives towards the dark half of Crow?” “We want to keep him from doing whatever his objective is, and track down his light half so we can make him whole again. He may be a potential ally, only if we can get his light half back.” “But, did you know once split, a light and dark halves of a heart can live without each other, even when one no longer exists after both have become equal in strength? If this is the case, then if you manage to save this, ‘light’ Crow, will you still wish for the two to reunite, or will you dispose of the dark half?” Lord Death’s question surprised the Foretellers. “We haven’t known that one half can exist without the other. But, we are still determined to reunite them. This is a personal matter. The light half contradicts the dark half thinking about my group. We want Crow to be whole again, so we can patch up the bad blood between us, and be a family again. Even if there is a chance of him still hating us after both his sides reunite, this is something that WE have to do.” “Good answer.” Zeke said. “You pass the question portion, now for the… background check.” Zeke waved his hand up, and the floor turned white. “This ground now imitates the building, Castle Oblivion. Your most dark and cherished memories are now in card form. Place them on the ground and your memories will tell us exactly the type of person you are.” Ira was surprised, and noticed five cards were in his hand. He was hesitant at first, but picked one of the cards and threw it on the ground. The area around them started to warp around them, and it settled onto a scene where the Foretellers were fending of another hoard of Unversed. It was one of the moments where Ira showed how proficient he could act a leadership role. The next card changed the scene into the scene where Crow had broken off from their group. Where he abandoned them and went to join the Ventrals, and how Lan tried to get him back. Next was the scene where Lan was called to juvie from Crow. The two had talked and Lan had hope that he would finally get his brother back. But then when Crow had shown to not have changed, Lan left him there in an angry huff. After that, it showed how Lan hunted down the Ventral he blamed for Crow’s corruption. How he found him and in a blaze of fury almost killed him on the spot. If it wasn’t for Jenny intervening, he would have followed through. The final scene, was his Mark of Mastery Exam. Where he found a new hope, and the resolve to get his brother back. Therefore passing him, and him becoming a Keyblade Master. “Well then.” Zeke said after the scenes faded. “We can say without a doubt you are well rounded, been through many hardships, and joy. Lastly is your speech.” “Well, that went well.” Zeke said as he and Ira walked the dirt trail towards Castle Oblivion. “I’m glad my speech went over well. I had trouble with it for a while, until settling on it.” Ira sighed. “Yeah. Well, now that you’re a council member, expect paperwork… often.” Ira’s shoulders slumped as he hung his head in despair. “I expected as much.” “Well, anyway, now that you are a council member, you’re about to learn some of the few hidden projects we work on.” “Hidden projects? Like what?” “You played 358/2 days?” “Yes.” “This is our version of the Replica Project.” Ira’s eyes widened in surprise. “And you’re going to keep that secret from everyone?” “Only til we know the results work. While Organization XIII used it to make copies of people, we’re trying to make replica’s of Keyblades, Items, and rare things from memories. If it works, Castle Oblivion can be used to generate unlimited resources.” “And I can’t talk about this to anyone outside the council?” “Only during our meetings.” “Alright. I don’t like keeping things from the other Foretellers, but I understand. This is my new position after all.” “Yeah. If memories can become reality, this also gives us a clue.” “A clue of what?” “How God pulled us out of his head into reality.” “Fascinating.” The two soon came across the castle, and entered. Zeke informed the scientists about Ira, and they didn’t question it. The two walked over to a table, three items were on it. A potion, a sword, and a bar of sea salt ice cream. “These are the only thing’s we’ve been able to bring out of the cards and into reality. They exist fine outside the castle, and work fine… save for the defect.” “Defect? They look fine to me.” Zeke picked up the sword, and an aura of what looked like code floated around it. “It’s the memory of the person they came from. The software doesn’t fully suppress the fact that, it’s still a card made from memory. Too much use, and they revert to card form. Items at least vanish after use, and food… tastes okay, but try and eat it.” Ira reached for the sea salt ice cream and took a bite of it. It was okay, but as he continued to eat it, it never changed shape from that one bit he took. It also didn’t show signs of melting either. “So… unlimited ice cream. Cool.” “Least until it gives you brain freeze. We’ve made the first rule, no replicating people, or the dead from memories. Second is that any attempts to replicate lost worlds will result in imprisonment.” “Sounds plausible enough.” “Well, that’s about it here. Let’s head back and see what Huxley wanted. I take it you tried to fight him first time you saw him?” Zeke asked as the two walked off. “Yeah, it was him vs. me. But that was a while ago, and we were both on equal ground.” “Heh, least when you first met him he didn’t freeze you in time and accuse you of being a sith lord on a Star Wars world.” “Wow, sounds like you two hit if off pretty well.” Ira said sarcastically. “He kept calling me a Mary Sue… whatever that is.” “Well, a Mary Sue is a character that is pretty much perfect in every way and overpowered.” “The complete opposite of Huxley then?” “Hahaha. Now, now, let’s not talk about a comrade like that. Even if he is kind of an ass.” “Yeah. Let’s go then.” Once outside the castle, Zeke opened a DTL and the two walked through it, meeting back up with Huxley and them. “So, you wanted a way into the realm of Darkness?” He asked Huxley. “Yeah, we need to save Aqua.” Huxley said. “So, what were you saying about the Unversed?” Terra asked. “Ask the Foretellers.” Zeke said as he shoved Ira in front of the rather confused looking Terra. “Well, our Unversed were created from someone else. The one known as Core split my brother’s heart in two and that’s why the Unversed are around now.” Ira explained. “Oh. Alright then.” Zeke opened a DTL and as the group walked though, they were met with a larger version of Twilight’s Library. “Who in the fuck gave you permission to enter my house?” A voice asks the group, a man clad in a white Organization XIII robe looking at them with a slightly crooked silver crown on his head. “Also, hi Zeke.” Ben says with a little wave to his follow survivor. “Hey Ben, I wanted to ask a question before trying anything.” Zeke says, then motioned to the others. “The people in the robes are the Foretellers, the one in the Organization XIII robe is Huxley, the redhead is his clone Elzin, a reflection Terra, and am I missing anyone?” Huxley counted the heads before speaking. “Nope, that's everybody.” Ben looked at Huxley for a moment. “Yo.” He says to Huxley simply. “Hello” Huxley replied. “Hey kid!” Everyone turned to the doorway, to their surprise, Braig was there. “You got any… who are these guys?” “BRAIG!” Terra yelled as he charged at him. The sound of glass shattering could be heard before Ben appeared in front of the charging Terra and stopping him with Vexen’s shield. “Listen, how about you not attack Captain One eye here for no reason and listen to what I have to say. Cause things on my end are...really fucking complicated.” Ben explains with a frown. Terra looked at Ben and Braig for a moment. “You have a minute.” “So you see, Braig here is going to be my teacher believe it or not.” Ben starts before disbanding Vexen’s shield to bring out Sharpshooters immediately after. “Cause while I can point and shoot at things with these there’s a lot more to them then just something anyone with half a brain cell can do.” Ben explains. “Hey Luxu! I think you got some special visitors to meet.” “Coming!” Luxu yelled as he somehow appeared behind Ben. “So what… why are there the ghost’s of my friends here?” He asked, pointing at the Foretellers. “Fucked if I know.” Ben shrugs. “No way…” Gula said. “You, you’re the real Luxu?!” Ava said. “Yeah, and why are you three dressed in those robes?” “A bit of a story.” Ira said. “Does it involve having someone scream at you ‘No, I am the Unicorn Wizard.’?” Ben asks curiously. “What? No! We asked God what that Kingdom Hearts X was gonna be about, then we saw the movie and asked to be the new Foretellers.” Ira says, not entirely sure what Ben was going on about. Luxu merely stared at them. “... I’m gonna kill grandpa when I see him…” “Okay, first up no.” Ben starts, glaring at Luxu. “Second of all…the fuck are you all talking about? What mystical mumbo jumbo is Kingdom Hearts being convoluted about again?” He asks with a frown, finding this rather weird. “Basically it’s a phone game that got adapted into a movie for 2.8.” Elzin said as they looked at him “What? I’m from 2017 I got future knowledge.” He said looking at the ground. “You don’t want to know what happens in 2016.” He said as everyone wondered what happen in 2016. “I have five girlfriends and a new happy life with kick ass powers, I don’t give a damn.” Ben says bluntly as humanly possible. “So someone else ask because I’d rather be happy not knowing how the world fell apart.” Ben says, having a good feeling that some major stupid shit happened. “Any way apart from what my clone said we need a way into my reflection’s realm of darkness.” Huxley said. “Why do you need a specific reflection?” Ben asks curiously. “Also...I thought you were with Aqua…” Ben says to Terra, having a bad feeling that something weird is going to happen. “Basically this is My reflection's Terra and we need to save my reflections Aqua to get to My reflections Ven so we can the the three musketeers back together.” Huxley said as Terra wondered what he meant by Musketeers. “Did someone say my…” Ben’s reflection Ventus said as he come halfway down the stairs, seeing the other Terra. “Um...Aqua! Terra!” Ventus calls out worriedly. Soon Ben’s Aqua and Terra came down the steps, and just stared at the other Terra. “Ummm.” Ben’s Terra said. “Why does that me have a shotgun?” Was all he could say. “Because we found it scavenging a ruin town looking for supplies to get up to the Daybreak Empire.” Huxley said as they all looked at him. “What? We landed in Appleloosa?” Huxley said. “Anyway…” Zeke cut in. “Two things, Ben, do you know any way of getting to the realm of Darkness, and Two, why is your Aqua pink faced?” Ben looked over at Aqua curiously, only to see her fanning herself as steam billowed out of her head. “Of for the love of christ Aqua.” Ben groans, rubbing his temple gently. “You’re really thinking of that right now?” He asks, looking between his reflections Terra and the Terra with a shotgun. “Both Terra’s, take a wild guess as to what I’m talking about.” Huxley’s Terra was confused for a moment. “What is she thinking?” Ben gained a thoughtful look about how to make it seem less blunt before throwing his hands in the air. “Ya know what? Fuck it. My reflections Aqua is dating Terra, and since there’s two of you now…” He says, hoping Huxley’s Terra will fill in the missing gap. “Oh...OH...oh nope! Nope! Get these thoughts out of my head, she’s like a sister to me, get out of my head.” Huxley’s Terra said frantically, putting his hands up to his head as his thoughts went rampant. “I treated her as a sister too...but after a while…” Ben’s Terra trails off with a warm smile. “Well I’m just glad I finally made a decision to show her how much I love her for once.” “I’m glad for you, but still no.” Huxley’s Terra said. “Well I’m sorry, but Aqua is currently thinking of two scenario’s that I don’t want to imagine.” Ben says simply. “Anyways, besides Aqua needing a new pair of panties…why do you want to go to the realm of darkness?” Ben asks curiously. “We need to get my Aqua out of there...” Huxley started. “Yes I know that, but do you want my Terra to start fantasizing?” Ben asks with a frown. “We need to save our friend Crow.” Ira said. “Zeke? What’s your reasoning?” Ben asks. “Just helping Huxley and maybe see exactly what Core is up to there.” Zeke replied. “And why do I have a feeling you want me to tag along?” Ben asks. “I mean I suppose it would be good to show that I can be friendly to Huxley and the Foretellers…” Ben explains, having a good point with that. “Maybe I can figure out about the void there...maybe that’ll help calm that prick down for once.” Ben frowns. “Oh also, the fuck are you doing in this pendant?” He says suddenly, bringing up a pendant for Zeke. Zeke took the pendant, and upon opening it and seeing the pictures… sighed. “It’s me, my brothers, my cousin, and my parents are in the other photo.” He explains. “Did your mother or father happen to have a katana?” Ben asks. “My brother, Kevin. He loved those things.” “Well…” Ben says before bringing out the katana in question. “Nancy’s glad to be in hell with her dead daughter.” Zeke shakily took the katana. “This… this was his…” “A women I met on Knowhere, who happened to be a Ventral, was a slaver for Core. Killed her with a little help, but still…” Ben explains. “She said her name was Nancy or something...but oh well, she made her decision to be a demon so I just killed her like the demon she was.” Ben says, Zeke clearly noting the small shake in his tone even if he was trying to keep it hidden from the rest. Zeke was fighting back tears, and everyone could tell. “You know… my aunt Nancy used to say that, if she wasn’t born a Ventral, she’d likely be an accountant or something with how smart she was. Everytime my parents dragged me across oceans she was there at the boats or plane…” “I saw the sadness when I saw her looking at those pictures...she still loved her family even if she was a monster...hell...I bet what made her be a slaver was...because of her dead daughter…” Ben says. “She was always a slaver, even back on earth… but she only cared about her family, and nothing else. That’s how the Ventrals have survived all these years as criminals.” “Christ dude…” Ben says sadly. “I...I was trying...to keep myself calm because she kept on telling me ‘I’m a human demon’...but this is just fucking sad even if the Ventrals are…” He trails off sadly. Zeke sighed. “Only the ones with nothing left to lose go after that goal...“ “I don’t mean to interrupt, but this is getting a little to depressing... Can we head to the Realm of Darkness now please?” Huxley asked as the rest of the group agreed with him “Okay...just hold on.” Ben says before heading outside real quick. “Yo Discord! Get your mismatched ass down here!” Ben calls out, hoping the old bastard heard him. In a flash of light, and confetti, Discord showed up. “What’s up? I was at a party with the gods up in the Olympus Coliseum.” “Well right now I need help. I have a few people you need to meet.” Ben says before turning around and heading inside, showing off all the new people here. “Discord, this is Zeke, the Foretellers, and Huxley.” He says. “And we’re going to need a ride to the Realm of Darkness.” “My reflection’s Realm of Darkness.” Huxley said. “Yes, his Realm of Darkness, whatever. How that’s not just one giant fucking place is still a little beyond me.” Ben says with a shrug. “Can do, as for coming back that… you’ll either have to somehow hitch a ride with a heartless on their way to the Realm of Light, or find The Dark Margin. That’s the border between the realm of light and darkness.” Discord explained as a DTD opened up. “And why can’t I just create a DTL out of there?” Huxley asked “Because DTL’s don’t work anywhere in the Realm of Darkness other than at the Dark Margin.” “What about a DTN? A ‘Door to Nothingness’?” Ben asks curiously. “Not even I can pull that off, but you can try if you wish.” Discord said as he popped like a balloon and disappeared. “Well looks like I have a last ditch plan just in case. I don’t know if I can do it but I think I could try if I’m lucky.” Ben says honestly. “But just so the rest of you know, my powers revolve around Nobodies, and Organization XIII, and sure while I have a heart I have to hear the bastards rant about ‘where’s my heart’ all the time…” Ben explains, wanting to at least give them that little bit of his explanations. “Then let’s go.” Zeke says as he walks into the DTD, followed by the others. “Ah the Realm of Darkness, it’s as dark as I remember it.” Ben says while walking out of the portal and seeing the realm. “You’ve been here?” Zeke asks. “How did you expect me to find Luxu and Aqua? In some crystal coffin or something?” Ben asks. “Fair point. So, where should we go?” “I think we should follow the trail.” Invi said. There was the sudden sound of gunfire in the distance. “Or follow that.” The group followed the noise to see Aqua beeing chased by some sort man with a machine gun for an arm. “Come back my pretty little Brain.” The man called as Aqua got hit in the leg with a starry bullet. “AQUA!” Terra shouted as he and Huxley ran towards her. “Terra?” she asked as she cast Cure on her leg. “How can I be sure that...” she was cut off by Huxley slapping her. “No time to explain, we need to run!” “Did you just slap me?!” Aqua shouts. “Yeah why did you slap her?” Terra asked. “Man with machine gun Terra, fire your shotgun.” “His what?” Aqua asked as Terra took the pump action shotgun and fired at the man. “GAH!” The man said as he got shot in his chest. “Okay now we can talk.” “Huxley, don’t run off-oh you found Aqua.” Zeke said as he and the others caught up. He looked over to see the man on the ground. “Who is…?” “Would somebody explain to me whats going on!” Aqua yelled at us. “There’s no time to explain, we need to get out of here.” Ben frowns, summoning his Keyblade and Shield at the ready just in case Hole in Chest got up. “Now that’s a familiar voice.” The man on the ground said as he got up, looking completely unharmed. “Been a long time young Ventral.” “...Doc?” Zeke said. “Oh…OH CRAP!” Zeke shouted as he pulled out the X-blade and Master Keeper. “This isn’t good…” “Is that the X-Blade?” Aqua asked. “FYI, not evil.” Zeke said. “I’m guessing you came with the rest of the Ventrals when Core showed up, right?” Zeke asked the man. “You are correct. I got so many upgrades, so much knowledge, and while Core takes the hearts of his experiments, I get the brains.” “Zeke who the fuck is this man?” “Was my…family doctor.” He replied. “You’re family has some fucked up taste’s in doctors.” Ben points out. “You should have met the ‘priest’.” “I don’t want to know about child rape!” Ben says. “Can we get back to Dr. Zombie?” “ZOMBAY!” Dr. Zombay shouted. “Yes, I like that.” He said as he raised his machine gun arm up to them. “DEFEND!” Huxley shouted, casting reflect and blocking the bullets. “Somebody get this asshole.” Zeke snapped his fingers, four Darksides appeared and began to repeatedly punch the doctor into the ground. “Let’s go.” “OH by the way Terra those are Heartless.” Huxley said as they all ran in the opposite direction. “Fuck this shit I’m out!” Ben shouts before bolting with the others. The group ran though many area’s, dodging naturally spawning heartless in the area. After a while, they came across a large square building. Using his Keyblade, Ira opened the door and then entered. They were greeted with a concrete interior, chains, blood and a few bones were on the ground. “Well...isn’t this all sunshine and rainbows…” Ben frowns while looking at the place. “This must either be a torture chamber, or a prison.” Zeke said. “This is just one place, who knows how many others like this or worse that Core has here.” Gula said. “Maybe there is a way out of the Realm of darkness from here?” Elzin said. “Can somebody please explain what’s going on first, I’m chased by that crazy doctor then Terra and the man in the Cloak come and slaps me then Terra has a gun and I don’t know I just want answers!” Aqua said. “Look we’ll give you answers when we get back to the realm of light okay?” Elzin said changing into Morning Star armor. “This should light up the way.” Elzin said as he started to glow. “Shiny.” Ben comments. “But sorry Aqua, but there’s no time to explain, just another day right?” “Anyway I don’t think we should split up.” Huxley said as everybody looked at him. “What?” “This isn’t a cliche, poorly funded horror movie.” Ben deadpans. “Fair point, I was just making it clear just incase somebody suggested it.” Huxley said “But anyway we really should keep moving I don’t want my brain to be harvested.” “Yeah I’ve played Wolfenstein the New Order that shit hurts.” Elzin said “Okay when this is done you need to tell me more things I did on earth” Huxley said. While the others were bickering, Zeke noticed the one chain hanging on the wall. Unlike the rest of the room, it was rather clean. He walked over, and pulled it. The floor disappeared from under them all and they began a long descent into deeper darkness. Except for Huxley and Ben who were floating above the trap. “Well...that sucks.” Ben says worriedly, holding Sharpshooters to keep himself floating. The others kept falling until they landed in a splash of liquid. They quickly surfaced for air. “Everyone alright?” Zeke asked. “I’m fi...wait is this” Elzin smacked his lips. “Blood?” he asked tasting it. Everyone began panicking, save for Zeke, who only had a single thought. ”Great, this is like when my brother had me help recreate the Carry movie in real life…” He thought to himself. He swam until he felt a wall, and moved around it till he felt steps. “Guys, stares are here.” He called out as everyone quickly got up. “That was nasty!” Ava cried. “I hope I didn’t get a disease.” Elzin said Huxley and Ben soon floated down to the others. “What happened to you guys?” Huxley asked “The fuck are you swimming in?” Ben asks worriedly, starting to feel green. Elzin’s only response was grabbing the two and throwing them into the pool of blood. Ben quickly surfaced and knew it was blood they were bathing in. “Oh...Oh god…” Ben starts, his face turning green. “ELZIN YOU BASTARD...what we’re technically bastards?” Huxley said “Can we get out of here quickly? I feel like...I’m gonna throw up…” Ben says, trying to not throw up from how uneasy he is from the blood pool. “Stare to your right, we got nowhere else to look.” Zeke said as Ben and Huxley quickly got out of the blood pool and the group walked along the steps. They walked for what seemed like hours until there was a sudden crash in the wall, whatever it was hitting Zeke. “Ouch!” “Zeke you idiot!” Unum’s voice ringing out. “Unum?! Oh wait… OH CRAP!” “Who?” Ben asks curiously. “Um...Yellow?” Ben asks, wondering if the voice was right. Unum looked over at Ben. “Oh… hey guy… um, sorry about that whole… everything…” “Well...from what I heard is that you are better...you're welcome.” Ben says honestly. “Thanks, and Zeke, you know we can’t be more than a mile from each other! When you went to another dimension that hurt you know!” She yelled as she shook Zeke. “How did you even get here?!” Zeke replied as she stopped shaking him. “I’m not evil or with Core, but luckily the Purified Purebloods can still open DTD’s, then I just ran around til I found you.” She explained, getting up. “Wait purified Heartless?” Huxley asked. “Yeah.” Zeke said, getting up and dustin off the dirt from his clothes. “Turns out, Reject Darkness, when used on a Pureblood Heartless doesn’t kill them, but makes a strange little intelligent life form.” “There is so much shit I’m missing here it’s not even funny.” Ben says bluntly. “Listen, how about later when we’re not in danger we can catch up alright? Cause as far as I know we’re always in danger in this damned Realm.” “We’d be happy to Ben.” Unum said, then she glared at Zeke. “And as for you, you owe me big for forgetting that we can’t stray too far apart.” “Y-yes dear.” Zeke stuttered. “Dear?” Ben asks curiously. “Should I even ask?” “Unum, my sixteenth wife.” Zeke says. “I have five girlfriends, you have sixteen wives…” Ben takes a deep breath. “How do you walk?” Unum grabbed Zeke by the ear. “When we get back to Daybreak I’ll make sure he can’t walk… neither will I after I say he’s done.” She stated, pulling Zeke down the hall by the ear. “And I thought Luna was needy…” Ben mutters before following along with Unum and Zeke. “She dumped me on my world.” Huxley said to himself. The group kept on, finally they entered a massive room, every inch held computer screens, keyboards, and other such devices. “Oh, this is a record room.” Unum said. “I wonder if Core is just using this room to play Doom?” Elzin said. “I feel like there was a remake in the future…” Ben comments, not entirely sure but knowing the old Doom was fun. “There was and it was awesome.” Elzin said. Invi and Zeke ran up to the consoles. “This will likely have a lot of Core’s plans and research… despite how sadistic it is, it will help against him.” Zeke said. Elzin looked around before he grabbed his head in pain. “GAH!” as Huxley went to check what was up with is clone. “Elzin what’s wrong?” Huxley asked. “I remember this place.” Elzin said as Terra wondered something. “How does he remember this place if we only just come here?” “I forgot to mention this, but Elzin was taken off our world by a deal with Core I was easily able to convince him to join me when he realized he was basically trying to kill himself.” Huxley said. “So he worked for Core?” Ben asks. “Well ... he has no knowledge of after they took him off world so... we don’t know what Core did.” Huxley said defending Elzin “Seems weird how he got a dose of ‘Convenience Amnesia’ after he stopped working for Core don’t you think?” Ben frowns. “Unum worked for Core and you aren't giving her shit about that.” Huxley said. “I’m still confused on how that happened, mind explaining Zeke?” Ben asks. “Unum is the only living reflection of his wife, and them coming from a time when there were no reflections, he wanted her. He invaded her village, killed her husband and the whole village, then ‘helped’ her and had her think she was his reflection, not his wife's.” Zeke explained. “I remember this place." Elzin said. “This is here they fused me with that Erza Scarlet.” Elzin said. “What?” Huxley said. “My powers they took a woman named Erza Scarlet then they fused her with me turning my hair red and my left eye able to see through illusions.” He said. “That sounds painful.” Terra said. “I’m guessing they put her weakened heart into yours and this trauma cause the memory loss.” Huxley theorized. “Well...that’s one way to do it.” Ben says worriedly. As they were discussing one thing or another, Invi kept going through the files on the computer. Most of the information was pretty useless to them, until he stumbled on a certain video log. “Everyone. I think I found something.” he said getting their attention. He pulled up the file and played the video. “Are you sure that this woman is powerful? Kevin and I took care of her pretty easily.” Crow said as he was seen dragging a scarlet haired woman by the hair. “Yes this was the one ______ requested tho I don’t know why he just wouldn’t take a Keyblade and Heartless I don’t know?” Core said. “Set her over there.” Crow walked over and threw the woman next to some unconscious male. “Is that me?” Elzin asked as he saw Erza being placed on a machine. “I think it is.” Huxley said as everybody looked at the two. “I don’t understand Master. Why don’t you just infect him with a Heartless so you can control him?” “Because Crow I actually plan on keeping my end of the bargain and letting him wander the universe while we take over.” Core said. “So he’s only a one use tool. Sounds legit.” Crow said dismissively. “Anyways, I’ll take my leave Master. There’s a certain punk prisoner that I wanted to visit.” He said walking off. “Good leave, now back to things.” Core said, pulling out his keyblade and stabbing Erza in the heart, removing it and placing it in a jar before snapping his fingers calling lesser heartless to drag the heartless body of Erza away before looking at ________ “now for your powers.” He said placing the heart into the machine and pushing a few buttons and pulling random leavers. As the video cuts out Elzin asked a question. “Why record that?” “After all that….” Ben takes a deep breath. “That’s your fucking question?” “Well, I don’t have that many. It explains what happened to me how, I got my armors, and what happened to cause me to get amnesia.” Elzin said. After the video had ended, Invi started scouring through the rest of the files. ‘Where did you go Crow? Who is this prisoner?’ He thought to himself before he caught a glimpse of another video that was labeled the same time as the first one. But it was an image of Crow. He pulled up the video and saw that Crow was standing in front of a specific prison cell in the same building. “So, how’s it going punk?” he asked. Then the camera angle shifted to see into the cell. Who was in the cell, was a blonde Crow. He was bound in chains so he couldn’t go anywhere. “What do you want?” Light Crow said weakly, not even looking up to his dark half. “Just here to make sure you’re still in check.” Dark Crow said in a taunting voice. “Oh, and I meet up with our old “Friends.” There were just as weak and pathetic as we last saw them.” “Why are you telling me this?” “Just to mess with you. You are my weakness after all, so why not make you feel like the piece of shit you already are?” “Why can’t you just see that they never betrayed us!?” Light Crow yelled. “They were the ones to give us a place to belong. And we threw it away all because we got petty.” “You can keep telling yourself that.” Dark Crow seethed, “But we both know that they abandoned us. Go ahead and rot away in here, while I make them suffer.” With that, Dark Crow left and the video ended. “Crow’s light half is here!?” Gula said. “That seems to convenient.” Huxley said “Well it’s not like we have any other leads.” Aced said. “We got to find him.” “I’m pretty sure that the prisoner block was that way.” Unum said. “Or it’s a trap.” Elzin said “We’ve been here for...god knows how long…” Ben starts. “Even though that we all pretty much jinxed it it’s probably a trap.” He frowns. “I hope it’s not but it probably is.” “Guys quit screwing around. We’re already ahead of you.” Gula said to the two as he and the others were already down the hall. “Fine then.” Ben sighs out before following along, having his keyblade and shield out at the ready just in case. “Coming.” Elzin said chasing after the group. As they got to the prisoner block they found it unguarded “Okay ether we’re really powerful or this is a...” “Trap.” Crow said coming from behind them with Dr Zombay. “Terra quick your shotgun.” Huxley said as Terra fired his empty shotgun at Dr. Zombay. “Perhaps you should check your ammo before you fire a gun.” Crow said. “We still outnumber you” Huxley said as they we’re surrounded by Heartless and Unversed. “Oh.” “This is why you don’t fucking say that.” Ben frowns, readying himself as thorns started circling around Reunion. “Where’s the real Crow?” Ira said as he and the others summoned their keyblades while Elzin pulled out two swords. “Wouldn’t you like to know?” Crow taunted as he summoned his own Keyblade, which surprised the Foretellers. “Like it? I didn’t have him the last time we met, so I’ve been itching to try it out.” “Sorry but I think someone’s gonna sue…” Ben comments at seeing the Keyblade. “Anyways how do you want to do this? You forfeit and tell us where the real Crow is? Or does bad things have to happen?” He asks Dark Crow, shuffling forward towards Crow ready to strike. “Pull the lever Crow!” Dr. Zombay said as Crow pulled the lever, everybody was hoping it was the wrong lever...and thankfully it was and instead of Zeke’s group falling down it was Crow and Dr. Zombay who fell down through the floor. “WROOOONG LEVVVVERRRRRR!” The doctor screamed as his echo’s slowly dimmed. “Thank you Emporers New Groove.” Ben smiles before swinging at a Heartless, thorns suddenly dashing into three other Heartless and the four vanishing from the attack. “Come on, we still have baddies to kill.” Before long the Heartless and Unversed were destroyed and the path was clear. “Let’s move.” Zeke said as they all ran towards the end of the hallway to find... “A Gummi ship?” Everybody asked. “Well random guess but I’d say this is our way out.” Elzin said as everybody got onto the ship. “Does anyone know how to fly better than Luxu?” Ben asks. “Cause seriously that guy fucking sucks at driving.” “Well I spent a month on a gummi ship I could..and it actually controls and not a PS2 controler. Great take it away Zeke” Huxley said taking a seat “Sure thing.” Zeke said as he took the controls and started flying the ride was bumpy as Heartless began trying to take the ship with a fierce determination that only Core’s orders could give them. “Hang on to something, Huxley there are guns use them.” Zeke said. “Ben, use them.” Huxley said. “I hate you…” Ben grumbles before rushing to the gummi ship weapons. “Fucking hell how do you use these things…” He mutters before firing at the heartless suddenly and feeling slightly glad he just pressed a random button. “Yay for random buttons…” He mutters before continuing to fire at the heartless trying to get them off the ship. As they flew off they came to the Dark Margin, Huxley opened his book and pressed on the Zeke’s world button and a Door to Light opened up arriving in Appleloosa in Zeke’s world, the door opened on the Gummi ship and Huxley threw out Terra’s shotgun “Hey” Terra said. “Its empty and we’re not getting more bullets” Huxley said closing the door of the Gummi ship. An hour later they arrived in the Daybreak empire where Zeke landed the ship and take the separate people back to their own worlds “Well this was fun” Huxley said sarcastically. “Could you quit it with your sarcastic attitude already!?” Aced yelled. “Yes, can you stop? Cause that’s a quick way to have your heart start dying. I should know, half of my heart was already dead for at least a week or two.” Ben says bluntly. “What I do?” Huxley asked confused. “Enough.” Ben deadpans, tiredness starting to flow through him all of a sudden. “No, seriously, what did I do If it wasn’t for me you wouldn't know where Crow’s light half was because you wouldn’t have thought to look in the realm of darkness... seriously did I eat your puppy?” Huxley asked annoyed. “Enough enough.” Zeke says, stepping in to stop this. “It’s been a long day alright? How about we all just relax for a moment and calm down.” “Fine.” Ben sighs out, disbanding his weapons. “Zeke’s right.” Ava said taking of her mask, as well as the other Foretellers. “Let’s just calm down for now.” “Tsk. Fine. I guess we’re all a bit on edge right now.” Jenny said. “Okay and for what it's worth I’m sorry you couldn't save your friend.” Huxley said as he stretched his arms. “So I’m going to stay here for an extra day Elzin take Terra and Aqua back to our world.” Huxley said as a DTL opened up behind him and The trio walked into the portal. “I also wanted to say sorry.” Zeke said. “We almost had him.” “That’s alright. At least we did find a clue.” Dan said. “They wouldn’t needlessly move a prisoner out of confinement. So we can only assume that he’s in a different reflection of the Realm of Darkness.” “And I felt like I amounted to jack nothing and just tagged along.” Ben points out, thinking about how literally everyone had a reason to go there except him. “But whatever, I met seven good people that I’ll have more weird adventures with.” He says while started looking around town. Too be continued...
Nobody's lesson: Graceful Dahlia part1I took a quick stroll around my new castle, and sheesh it’s big. I noticed my Gun Arrows had another symbol on it, and it said ‘Open’ this time. “Thirteen keys open what?” I mutter to myself. I sigh out, knowing I won’t be getting any answers soon. But besides that whole ‘Core’ incident I felt…something at the back of my head, barely audible whispers floating in my head before disappearing before I could even pay attention to it. “Fuck it.” I sigh out. “You know what? I’m gonna go to the spa.” I say honestly. “I wonder if any of the other girl’s want’s to go?” I wonder, remembering how much Rarity loved going there. “Actually I need to check on Ramilua and Nelare...wonder how they’re doing…” I say to myself, stretching out a little before readying myself to leave. “Oh wait...I have to have my wives pick out guards and maids...shit.” I grumble. “I’m pretty sure Luna can handle it all things considered…” “Sneaking out?” I jumped as Jenny’s voice spoke suddenly from behind me. “What’s it worth to ya to keep this affair under the table?” “You know I can kick your ass right?” I state calmly. “So don’t you ever think I’m cheating on all of my fiances…” “You know I can cock block you forever right?” She retorted. “And we both know K9’s don’t do well in terms of that when they smell heat~” “That’s what you think.” I roll my eyes. “Luna doesn’t give a fuck about people watching...which is worrying to be honest.” “Oh, so if it comes to that then I can record it and sell it to your horny fans.” “No.” I say bluntly. “But if you must know, I’m going to the Ponyville spa to see how two of my masters are doing. They both wield a scythe and knives but there also salon workers surprisingly.” “Oh, if you’re getting the Happy Endings package, it’s 500 bits and I recommend the twins.” “Listen if you want a boyfriend then go out and try not to beat them okay?” I frown. “But why are you acting like this again? I know you royally hate me but still…” “Consider me the nail in your foot til I’m eighteen.” “Oi vey.” I sigh out. “Just tell the girls I’m going to be gone for a bit okay?” I ask. “I’ll probably figure out something for a little ‘family time’ or something…” I sigh out. “Fine, but your finances have other ideas with what I saw them remodeling the former dungeon with~” “Are you serious?” I frown. “Out of the rest of our conversation so far, yes. Figures Rarity was into leather and dog collars.” “Okay I’m going to leave now and hope to god I forget about all of that.” I say quickly before turning around on my heel. “Just so you don’t.” She says, putting a dog whistle in my hand, the words Bad Dog written on it. “It’s part of a set of ten fyi.” With that, she skipped away. I gently whimpered and crushed the dog whistle in my hand. “Nope...nope...nope...nope.” I say before opening a window, summoning my glider and flying through it as fast as I could towards Ponyville. After a few minutes of ‘Noping’ right the hell out of my house I eventually made it to the Ponyville spa. I hopped off my glider and walked right inside. “Maybe I should get a treatment...I’m too stressed for this shit…” I mutter to myself as I walked over to the front desk and rang the bell. As I entered I was greeted with Aloe and Lotus suddenly dragging me into a hair cut. “What would you like?” Aloe asked. “Do you know anyone by Ramilua and Nelare?” I ask curiously, thinking that they would be here hopefully. “Nelare is out with the flu but Ramilua will be here shortly.” Aloe said as she and Lotus walked to the back room. “I was also going to ask for a back massage…” I mutter, noticing my back was stiff as hell. I sigh out before walking over to a waiting chair and sat down, waiting for Ramilua to get here. A few moments passed before I saw Ramilua walk out of the back room and walk up to me. “Ah, Ben my friend, what brings you here?” “Two things, one I want to know if you have free time to help me train with the scythe...and two I really need a back massage.” I say honestly. “Very well.” He clapped his hands and a massively muscular guy came running. “Biceps, give Ben here your best back rub.” “YEAH!” He said, before I found myself on a table with him…surprisingly not breaking my spine in half. He was actually doing really well. “So what was it about Scythe teachings you wanted to know?” Ramilua asked, sitting on a chair next to the table I was on. “I’m surprised he’s not breaking my spine.” I sigh out, thankful for the back rub. “But everything you can teach me until I have fully ‘mastered’ it...and I have used my scythe about never.” I say. “Well then that clearly puts you in the class of below beginner…Well, a basic rule is that don’t cut yourself with your scythe. That’s obvious, combat scythes aren’t like the ones for farming, they will cut you in half.” “I kind of thought that.” I say honestly. “Secondly, always hold them from just below the center of the long handle, gives you most room to attack and defend with, while also letting you keep your weapon close enough that you can maneuver and dodge without it sticking out like a sore thumb.” “Sounds about right.” I nod. “Thank you, more advice?” “Yes…you’re dating a fashionista, why do you still wear that tacky cloak all the time, it smells like sweat and… mud.” “One, this cloak is not tacky.” I frown. “Two, yes I’m gonna have to get it washed. And three, this cloak is how the ‘White Knight’ looks...not to mention it can do other things.” I shrug. “Yes, but walking around like that, letting everyone out there know you’re the White Knight screams Target, attack me, to both enemy and fan girls alike.” He deadpanned. “Frankly enemies would attack me whether I wore this or not.” I frown. “And fan girls know that I’m already taken...I just have to probably make a public announcement of ‘I’m marrying my herd’.” I say honestly. “Anyways anything else?” “Like those sluts will give a damn about you being married or not.” “I mean a lot of mares didn’t go for me because Luna and Twilight are with me, and then there’s a griffon and a dragon as well so they would probably be scared shitless by that.” I say honestly. “True. Well, your back rub is going to last fifteen more minutes, meet me near Shy’s house for lesson one, chow.” With that, Ramilua left. After fifteen minutes I felt much better, and paid for my back rub and a tip to Bulk before I headed off to Shy’s house. Five minutes later I landed near her house and got off my glider. “Why would he want to be at Shy’s?” I wonder, summoning my Scythe just in case. A bit of time passed and nothing much happened. I went over to Shy’s house and through a window I saw Fluttershy, Ramuilua, and Discord all having tea. “Oh…” I mutter before going over to the door and knocking. “Hello?” I call out. “Come in.” Fluttershy said as I entered. “Oh, hello Ben. Twilight, Rarity and Pinkie Pie told me a lot about you.” “That...depends on what they told you.” I say sheepishly, stepping in and closing the door. “It’s nice to meet you Fluttershy, I’m sorry I didn’t go around and meet you or my fiance's other friends.” I say nervously. “It’s alright, Discord here tells me you’ve been busy and Ramilua here said you’d be stopping by for training after our tea.” “Yes, I have been really busy and am going to stay busy for a long time whether I like it or not.” I say honestly. “A good guy’s job is never done.” Discord said. “How’s Luxu been, other than a misfit?” “He’s been well.” I say with a shrug. “Hopefully him and Time have been doing well as a couple.” “I think they have. So, mind joining us for tea?” “Uh...never had tea before so sure why not.” I say with a nod, walking over to the group to have some tea. “So how have you been Fluttershy?” “I’ve been good.” She replied simply, pouring me a cup of hot tea. “That’s good.” I nod while taking the cup and gently taking a sip of it to see if I actually liked it. “What do you think about Pinkie, Rarity and Twilight all dating me? Must have been something to have three of your friends date one person.” “I see no problem with it. Twilight finally is dating, now engaged from what they tell me, Pinkie get’s to throw the birthday parties she planned for her future kids, and Rarity finally found a good male to date, unlike her past…relationships. So, how’s Spike been?” “I have no idea considering he moved in with Rainbow Dash...who I have yet to meet.” I say honestly. “I also have yet to meet Applejack now that I think about it.” “Huh, I actually haven’t heard from Rainbow in a while, close to a month now that I think about it. Last time I heard from her she said something about visiting her parents, which is odd considering she hasn't done that before.” “Well this is concerning.” I say with a frown. “I’ll have to go find her and Spike most likely...after my first day of training.” I say honestly. “I have her parent’s address in a book somewhere in my attic. Why don’t you and Rama train while Discord and I look for it.” “Lead the way Shy.” Discord said as the two headed upstairs. “I’ve got a bad feeling about that…” I mutter. “Anyways, time to get started I suppose. But let’s go outside first.” I say while getting up and heading outside to start training. Ramilua and I walked outside a good distance from Shy’s house. “Well now.” Ramilua said, summoning his scythe. It was similar to mine, but the blade was grey and not pink. “Shall we begin?” I summoned my Scythe and held it just like he did...sort of. “Might as well.” I say, getting into a ready stance for whatever Ramilua might do. “First off, we need to see how you swing, so go ahead, attack me.” I nod, before dashing towards Ramilua and grabbing it with my other hand and swinging it towards his right side quickly. He stopped my attack with a single finger, knocking my scythe out of my hand and sighing. “We have a lot to do…” “I’ve used swords, cards, lances, axes and crossbows...I’m pretty sure a more…’finesse’ kind of weapon is going to take a while.” I frown, resummoning my Scythe and double checking where it’s balance point was. “The flare and glamor is all me, the basic knowledge is… well, for starters you’re just swinging it, yes you aim but you have no control over your swings, nor real power behind it.” “Kind of thought two handing it would have put a little help into that…” I say, frowning at how that apparently was a bad idea. “But apparently not.” He sighed again. “You are lucky you are not not dealing with my master, she would have broken your rib for you saying that.” I frowned at hearing that. “Well...let’s get on with training cause telling me I suck doesn’t help anyone.” I say, knowing almost jack nothing about this weapon besides it’s flower power. “Quite right.” Ramilua said, perking back up. He walked over to the trees and in one slice, cut one down from the roots before bringing it over to me and forcing it to stand up and still in the ground. He then took a marker and made four targets, one on the middle side, on on the top and bottom sides, and one dead center of the log. “We will practice accuracy first. Hit each target on the side with the blunt end of the scythe fifty times.” “Seems simple enough.” I say while taking a deep breath and swinging the scythe towards the targets, my training with all my other weapons at least helping with accuracy but trying to wield this made it feel weird as I missed more times then I kind of hoped. After about two hours I managed to hit the targets fifty times...with a few hundred misses. “Damn….” I frown, rolling my shoulder and trying to get the soreness out of it. “This is a lot harder than I first thought.” “That is because, unlike most swords, a scythe has no balance to it. A sword is typically made so the grip and blade are equal in weight, allowing for smooth swinging motions. Scythes are top heavy, this swing faster and are harder to aim properly, with the bladed side is worse, it cuts through the air, making the movement twice as fast and again, hard to aim.” “Oh yeah.” I agree, checking the weight of it again and still finding that it is top heavy as hell. “Sheesh, this is gonna take a while.” “Most start out and often keep to a back handed stance, makes aiming slightly easier since you are more swinging at an arc to the target when you swing that way, not just swinging something heavy on a pole.” “Okay then…” I nod, still looking at the scythe and moving it around, having the blade more to my side and down instead of up towards my head. “Hmm…” I mutter, flipping it back up easily enough and checking the balance. “This is gonna take a while…” I sigh out, scratching my head. “So, what next master?” “Continue your swings at the target til you get direct hits each time.” “Right.” I say before getting in a ready stance, and I swung carefully, and surprisingly I made severe progress as I missed a fuck lot less. ”Huh…” I think to myself, still noticing I missed at least thirty times but it seemed like a ‘level’ can basically make me do horrifically better at what I failed at. “Thirty this time...still bad but getting there.” I say, noticing marks in the wood from my repeated strikes. I rolled my shoulder and tried to get the stress out of it. “Sheesh, this is some tiring stuff.” I point out before going back to swinging my scythe at the targets. Even though it was slower from my tired right arm I managed to get the fifty strikes at the targets. “Th-there…” I pant, holding my right arm that hurt like a truck just ran over it. “Wait...was it supposed to be dead on the target?” I ask worriedly, thinking I had to get a perfect bullseye on each swing cause I didn’t entirely do that even when I hit the targets. “Yes.” Ramilua replied bluntly. “I recommend push ups because after you get perfect aim with your right arm, we move to your left.” “This is gonna be a nightmare…” I sigh out. “But I never expected these things to be easy…” I say, readying to go again. “That will be all for this lesson Ben, don’t want you to dislocate your arm at this rate.” “Fuck dislocating my arm.” I say bluntly. “I’m behind on so much work, I’m behind on so many things...and I need to keep working…” I say my arm stinging like hell as I tried to hit the targets again. Ramilua simply pressed a finger on each of my sholders, and audible pop was heard, and next as my arms dangled like limp noodles. “Rest. Now.” He said, his tone something not even Marluxia from the games had. I growled, glaring at Ramilua. “People have already proven that the only time I’m going to rest is when I’m dead. I don’t...I don’t want…” I mutter, my mind flashing to a bloody scene of my family being brutaly murdered. “No…” I grumble, ignoring that thought and trying to use my foot to use my scythe. “Come on…” I mutter. “Ben, stop.” Ramilua smacked my head, knocking me on my back. “You have a family, here’s a question. How many of them do you know can fight?” “Four...maybe six I don’t know if Gilda and Honora can fight…” I say, knowing Jenny, Luna and Sweetie can fight for a fact. “But Sweetie’s still a child, Jenny needs to stop fighting and Luna...well I don’t know about her frankly…” “Alright, here’s another question. Don’t you think, with as much as you want to protect them, they also want to protect you the same?” “I know...but they shouldn’t…” I mutter. “I’m the one who needs to protect them…” “Ben, tell me this. Why carry the whole burden? You know you have others now to fall back on, to help, from what I’ve seen your sister and that Jenny can more than clear a room and with what Luna said you told her about this Zeke character, he made his own army from ruins, there are no ruins here, but there are plenty willing to help.” “The last person that helped me died…” I mutter. “I mean...he got a new life thankfully but…” I trial off, still laying on my back. “Ben, I come from a place where people were killed daily, sometimes hourly. Death happens, but from what I know, it’s best the fight continues through the ones they left behind. Not just one person, all of them. You act like Braig only cared about you, but here’s a little fact, he kept your new family safe once.” “W-wait...what?” I ask, confused on that. “When you went to Manehattan to help with survivors, Heartless swarmed this town, the others, Luna, and Braig, we all took care of it. Braig saved Luna’s life three times, and the library where the others and the little ones were held up in from being set ablaze by some fat lava heartless. He left before they could even thank him.” I stayed silent for a moment...before sniffling as tears formed in the corners of my eyes. “Great….just...great...I couldn’t save fifty nine thousand people once...and I nearly lost my family…” I whimper sadly. “Because you had friends who care to help you, you idiot! If you decided to carry all this burden by yourself, which you so stupidly insist on, then they would have died. Ben, it’s not weak to have help, you know what I learned about this world and herds, numbers give it strength, you have a herd now, numbers, so help them grow strong so next time danger occurs when you’re away, they can handle it and…brag about it.” “I sadly realized that god damn pun about Braig’s name…” I mutter. “Unintentional and in poor taste I admit, but it still fits Ben, you worry about them because most of them can’t fight, train them so that worry is redirected at whoever they face. You’re a wolf now, act as a pack and protect each other, not just one protecting everyone.” “It’s a lot easier said than done when you’d rather have your arm ripped off then see one of them hurt…” I say bluntly. “And if my blurry memory serves, I did just so happen to have my arm ripped off...but none of my family was around...it hurt like a bitch.” I point out. Ramilua sat down next to me. “I was a lot like you when I was younger, before I made my salon, right after I finished my training I became a hit man, hard, dirty work, but worth it for the only family I had… my little sister, Dila. She didn’t know what I did, and I never dared tell her. One day I…executed the leader of a well known gang of pirates…the ones who didn’t leave after he died managed, somehow, to find where I lived…I never even taught Dila basic self defense because I was sure I would always be there to save her…I come home…her corpse is in chunks used to redecorate the house… I lost all reason after that, slaughtered all that was left of that gang…some were female…some pregnant…I didn’t care…I took a long walk off a short dock on some world known for large oceans… that’s when Nelare fished me out after I was drifting some miles about. She was in training with her knives with her father. Nothing else to do I stayed and worked for food. A few years passed and Nelare asked me what I would like to do most with my life. Rather than being honest and saying die, I said my sisters dream, a salon… the rest you can guess…” I was silent again. “Why must I bitch about my problems when people have a fuck lot worse problems?” I ask myself bitterly, hating how I was told something terrible and feeling like I was just an idiot. “You and I share something in common Ben, I fear losing Nelare, I owe everything I have…even my life, to her, but I know she can more than take care of herself. Don’t make my mistake, if you love them, train them, even if they hate you for it for a while, they’ll be glad you did it to tem later on.” Ramilua popped my arms back into place and helped me up. “And take a break, ice baths help with sore muscles.” “Fine…” I nod. “But I don’t think I’m going to be going home anytime soon...Jenny told me something that I….really don’t want to be apart of.” I shudder worriedly. “But I’ll take a break…” I nod. “Thanks...I...kind of needed that.” I say honestly, thankful for not having a panic attack. “Rest and work should be kept in sync. Night is for rest, mornings and the eve… train til you drop. But… why don’t you want to go home?” “She gave me a dog whistle and...told me about what Rarity did to my new castle house’s dungeon…” I say nervously. “You can probably see where I’m going with this and why I repeated ‘nope’ my entire way to the ponyville spa.” “Dog whistle…wait, did it say ‘Bad Dog’ on it?” “How did you know?” I ask worriedly. “A new kennel opened up yesterday, they were handing them out and they spotted Jenny and figured it ironic to give her one.” I facepalm rather hard. “That sneaky child…” I groan. “But...she said she was serious about the whole ‘dungeon’ thing...I kind of thought the whistle was for...that.” “With my few run in’s with her, she can lie her way into the royal treasury with a tongue that pure silver. She somehow managed to convince Aloe and Lotus that they had a free back rubs day last week.” “I’m going to have a major talk with that girl.” I growl. “Unless she’s conning some jack ass for decent reasons that’s fine, but conning and manipulating innocents? That’s where I draw the line...I mean at least she’s not murdering them at least…” I sigh out. “Hmmm…I think I know the perfect punishment.” Ramilua gave a rather devilish smile. “And what would that be?” I ask curiously, having a good feeling this will help get her more straightened out. “Rarity at her lest visit told me about Jenny’s family before you. Growing up like that, clearly normal means of punishment won’t do anything for her, but Rarity did notice something odd she did once.” “What would that be?” I ask curiously. “Apparently when they had the radio playing, a new kids song came on, it was your standard song singing about safety and was annoying to everyone not four and under, so Jenny just ran up to the radio and stabbed it...literally stabbed it til it broke apart. I think since your Luna can control dreams, why not have her dream the song on repeat?” My eyes widened and I got a giant grin on my face...before it slowly went down. “I actually don’t know if she would have control over her dreams actually...it would be weird if she did though...but that sounds like a wonderful idea.” I say with a smile. “Well if the dream idea isn’t good…how about a more…twisted version. Patt her down and have her in a ‘time out’ room, speakers hidden, then blast the song. She can’t do anything but cover her ears in agony….Twisted, told you.” “I don’t want to torture the girl…” I say worriedly. “She was tortured enough but...I’ll consider it.” I say honestly. “I just…” I sigh out. “I know she hates me for my mistakes and more things but...I just want her to be happy…” I say honestly. “And no ‘fake happy’ crap...but sadly that’s probably not gonna happen maybe.” “Well… she enjoys gore and murder. Right?” “Sadly.” I sigh out. “But that’s just how she was raised.” “Then perhaps a killing spree is what she needs to let go some aggression…” “Well here’s the thing...sure bloody murder would help calm her down but there’s also the…’Killing Mood’ problem her and all her family has…” I say nervously. “I mean sure technically she’s my daughter but I’m not sure…” “Well, Twilight said you told them you met her when she came up and killed some people, so she must already be passed that.” “Well she said she taught Dinky self defense and how to murder things...mostly animal at least.” I shrug. “But I don’t know a trip to Tartarus and going on a killing spree would be a good idea…” “No, this world I know, the people… if you can still call them that, are twisted beyond imagination. They altered their DNA to the point they act more like super powered junkies.” “And what world would this be?” I ask curiously. “Everyone calls it Rapture, but it also goes by X8-Let.” ”Bioshock? Really?” I think to myself. “Well I suppose if me and her are going to be going to a world full of abominations then I suppose that would be fine.” I shrug. “Everyone knows going on a bloodthirsty rampage through monster infested cities is always a grand time.” I say with a shrug. “Or, at least that’s what video games taught me one time.” I shrug. “Trust me, this may end up bringing you closer together, and word of warning, don’t use the colorful bottles of liquid.” “Yes yes I already know about the Plasmids. I looked through Luna’s game collections and it was basically one to one with another game I’ve heard about.” I shrug. “It’s weird how some worlds treat other worlds as myth, or a video game, than you realise it’s actually real.” I chuckle. “That’s space for you. I’ll give you the coordinates for it tomorrow, didn't Shy say something about giving you an address?” “Oh yes, Rainbow’s Parents address. I completely forgot about that.” I say with a frown. “I have to also make sure that Dash and Spike are okay because I haven’t heard from them in a while.” I say honestly. “Well we better start walking back to Shy’s house.” “You go on, I have the night shift at the spa, when Vinyls club closes a surprising amount of people come to the spa to relax.” Ramilua left and I headed back to Shy’s house. I walked in. “Hey.” I said as Shy and Discord were eating sandwiches. “Hey Ben, address is on the paper here.” Shy said as she pulled out a piece of paper from her pocket. “Thank you.” I say with a nod, taking the piece of paper and putting it in my pocket. “Want me to tell them anything specific from you?” I ask. “Just to visit. We haven’t spent a day together since before she went back to Cloudsdale to visit her parents.” “Alright, I’ll make sure to tell her that Fluttershy.” I nod. “And thank you, the tea was wonderful.” I smile before exiting the house and getting on my glider. “Next stop, Cloudsdale.” I say while revving my glider and bolting to the sky. It took some time to find the “street” but after finding it and finally finding the house I was about to get off my glider, only for a foot to fall right though. Luckily I didn’t jump off. “Okay...maybe Lindworm will help…” I mutter, summoning my lances and gently taking a step onto the ‘ground’, and thankfully I didn’t just pass through it. “Oh thank god…” I say while taking another step on the cloud ground and seeing the clouds could actually take my weight as long as I had my lances out. After a little bit of careful walking I finally made it to the front door of the house and I knocked on the door. “Hello?” I call out. “I believe this is the house of the mother and father of Rainbow Dash correct?” The door opened, to which an orange haired woman who, aside from the hair, looked exactly like Rainbow Dash opened it. “Are you a fan of our daughter?” She asked. “No, I was worried about my little brother and his girlfriend given that neither me, my fiances, or their friends heard anything from her for a while.” “Oh…oh…Well, come in I guess.” She said as I entered. “I told her it was a matter of time…she thought she had more.” “What happened?” I ask worriedly. “Did she or Spike get hurt?” “No.” I looked at the staircase, seeing Spike, who now had wings, walk down. “Hey Ben…sorry of kinda disappearing.” “Dude, it’s been months. If I didn’t know any better I would have thought you were either half way across the world or kind of dead.” I said worriedly. “But sadly I couldn’t keep track of that because of all the shit my life is throwing at me...but hey I proposed.” “About time. Wish I was there.” “It was in a Snow Dragon’s room in the middle of the dragon lands and you wouldn’t have wanted to be there for the…’celebration’.” I say sheepishly, blushing at that. He just slugged my arm. “That’s my mom/sister you're talking about.” He joked. “You brag about sleeping with Dash so shush.” I chuckle. “...yeah, and that’s mainly why we’re here.” “I though Dash had her own house?” I say, taking off my hood and fixing my tail. “I’m seriously going to have to ask Rarity to fix the side, my ears and tail hurt…” “Wow, not even gonna ask. But yeah, she does but given her…condition, she’s been given paid time off work.” “Did you really?” I ask him bluntly. “You do know there’s such a thing called condoms right?” “Yeah, but they break and now, well, she’s pregnant…but there’s our problem…” “When Twilight hears about this…” I sigh out while rubbing my temple. “She is not going to shut up about this.” “You…don’t know then…” Spike looked at me, concerned and a tad scared. “Awh crap, I gotta explain it…” “Does she have to lay an egg or something? Come on, explain.” I say simply. “Dragon hybrids are only safe when the mother is the dragon…if the mother isn’t a dragon…the baby grows too big for them to handle…if Dash… lives though the pregnancy, doctors said she might break her lower back…she’d never be able to walk or properly fly again…” “Shit dude…” I mutter, not sure what to say or do here. “Um...I’m pretty sure Luna or Twilight would know how to help out…” “No, I looked through every medical textbook, magic and science based, no procedure can safely have the mother come out completely unharmed. Books best advice was to keep the mother on her side and laying down as much as possible then… maybe, but it’s still slim. Dragon hybrids not born from eggs are very… active. In recorded births the hybrid baby can really hurt the mom during it’s own birth, even with a c section.” “Oh...well...that’s not good.” I say worriedly. “Um...I think I’ll be able to figure something out….maybe Medics could figure something out?” I wonder, starting to think about if the Medic Nobodies could help in someway. “Unless you know someone who can perform miracles, there’s not much to do.” I created a small wind platform before summoning a few Medic Nobody’s. “Explain everything to this Nobody Spike, and it will either nod or shake it’s head if it can work that miracle.” I say honestly, turning around and checking the shop to see how expensive certain potions are and if they can heal the kind of crap Spike told me about. Spike told the medic Nobody everything he told me and I kept searching for a proper potion, having to rely on a wordsearch now I typed in everything I could think of. One search brought up my contacts, which I still didn’t understand fully, and the name that came up was Family Doctor Main. I clicked it and nearly fell back when a skeleton with a cut skull and floating hands appeared. “You called?” He asked, his voice surprisingly full of character. “Uh…” I look at the skeleton. “Um...the names Ben...I suppose you’re Doctor Main?” “I’m the head doctor of your family W. D. Gaster. Now what seems to be the issue?” “I don’t know if my Medic Nobodies could help keep my little brothers girlfriend alive...apparently dragon hybrids don’t exactly agree with non-dragon mothers.” I say nervously. “Ah yes. How would you like me to go about this?” “Spike explained that all medical, whether science or magic on this world, could barely keep Rainbow Dash, his girlfriend, alive...and even then her lower spine would probably be irreparable and she won’t walk or properly fly ever again.” I explain. “I see, well unless the birth is already happening I can’t perform the proper operation.” “Yo Spike, when will she be giving birth?” I ask the drake curiously. “Cause I think I have a proper solution.” “Five more months.” He replied, slightly spooked by the skeleton doctor. “Shit.” I frown. “Well sorry Doctor, I didn’t think I was this early here…” I say nervously. “If you would like, I can perform a special medical magic, this will accelerate the baby's rate of growth so we can get this out of the way faster.” “His girlfriend is a pony and she’s basically bedridden and has to always lay on her side…” I say. “Just to make sure she...has a chance. I don’t know how big her stomach is but...I’m honestly worried here. But if you need help I can give you some of my Medics to help.” He looked at the Medics. “They will do well. I’ll talk with the mother to be and soon this will all be done with.” He walked up the stairs, the Medics following him. Spike and I just waited with Rainbow’s parents. She had really caring and supportive parents given the…amount of photos in the six foot stacks of albums. About an hour passed and then Rainbow came flying down stairs, holding a rainbow scaled, with a blue fin or hair, kinda like a mohawk, baby dragon, with pony ears! The doctor came down with her. “It is done, since she’s not a demigod or goddess like I’m usually dealing with, it took longer than it should have.” “I don’t know much about how long it normally takes for a woman to give birth but...it didn’t take that long all things considered.” I say honestly. “But hey, you're dealing with one child...not the ‘normal’ amount you have to deal with.” “I am but a tap away if you need me.” The doctor vanished leaving Rainbow’s parent’s, Spike, Rainbow and I to look at the new baby. “She’s so precious!” Rainbow’s mom said, pulling out a camera and taking a photo. “Mom…” Rainbow groaned. “I think this is a ‘photo taking’ time.” I say, looking at the new dragon hybrid. “I mean seriously, she’s adorable.” I smile, looking at the small hatchling. “Anyways, what are you going to name her? Rainbow Scale or something?” I ask curiously, seeing the rainbow colors on the hatchling. “That’s cheesy.” Rainbow said. “Maybe...Color Fire?” “I like it.” Spike said. “So…when we move back…crap we gotta redo your house Rainbow.” “Yeah…” She sighed. “We didn’t have a place for a baby, nor supplies…” “Well I both have the money to help you get supplies, and I can give you room until your house is redone.” I say honestly. “Cause with my growing herd of three additions which involved Derpy, Gilda, and a Snow Dragon named Honora, I had to upgrade from a big library in the middle of a town to a kick ass castle in the Everfree Forest.” I say with a smile. “I guess it’s best we do, man Twilight’s gonna flip and Pinkie…dear stars…” Spike said. “Twilight’s gonna probably smack you upside the head for not telling her sooner, and Pinkie is going to throw a big party. But Fluttershy told me to tell you to visit her. Seriously it’s been a while.” I say honestly. “Honestly I was gonna getting worried about ya...besides we still haven't had that ‘bro time’ I promised Spike.” “Right, oh yeah!” Spike held out his hand and to my surprise, the Jungle King keyblade appeared. “It showed up a week ago.” “Well look’s like I’m gonna be a teacher for once.” I say with a smile. “But Luxu will probably show you the more...important things about it.” I say honestly. “But ‘Jungle King’? Kind of thought you would get a more…’dragon’ themed keyblade...but oh well, works with me.” I shrug while showing my Keyblade. “And this is Reunion, fancy huh?” “Nice, but as long as this thing can help me keep those Heartless away from my daughter, I’m good with it.” “Oh yeah, it’ll keep the Heartless away...but mindlessly swinging it around will get you killed.” I say. “So you’re going to get training bud, and I’m going to have to figure out if I can hand out my weapons to people besides keyblades…” I sigh out, scratching my head. “Cripe, so much on my ‘to do’ list…” “I’ll train with Luna and this Luxu guy.” Spike said. “You got enough to do Ben.” “You have no idea. You think Twilight’s regular schedules are long then you haven’t even seen my to do list...which just for a visual it can wrap around this world five times over.” I explain. “Like I said, I’ll train with Luna and Luxu so you don’t have to worry about it, kay?” “But sadly that’s not going to happen because I’m going to help my fiance's train and get stronger...they almost died once I’m not going to let that ever happen again.” I say. “Then I’ll just train with Luxu, or he can train us all? You can do your thing, and your fiance’s can be properly trained.” “Today’s just...been pretty bad for me over all…” I sigh out. “I’m gonna head home and tell everyone the good news.” I say. “See ya there tomorrow.” Spike said as I left and flew my glider back home. Upon landing Jenny came out to greet me. “So, you figure it out?” She said, knowing full well I now know she lied. “I know a proper punishment for you don’t worry. But after that little bit how’s a good travel to a world so we can both kill a bunch of bloodthirsty abomination.” I say to her. “That sound good to you?” “You? Kill?” “Everyone knows killing demons or abominations is always a fun time.” I state. “Come on, haven’t you ever played Doom before?” “Doom?” “I suppose me, Luna and Dinky are going to teach you about the wonderful culture of videogames.” I say with a smile. “But this time I’m killing mindless abominations...not actual people…” I say before moving past Jenny. “But do you know where the others are? I have to tell them the good news.” “I think the roof? Something about a party Pinkie is making.” Jenny said as she walked off. “Of course…” I sigh, before going back outside and summoning my glider and flying up to the roof, checking where the party was. I saw the girls setting up supplies on the roof that were indeed party supplies. I got off my glider and upon doing so, Zecora walked up. “Greetings husband to be, I’m sorry, but this party will take away some sleep.” She said. “Well I have an announcement.” I say while clapping my hands, hoping to get all the girls attention. “Spike and Rainbow are not either dead, across the world, or something bad. They are both happy and healthy and they are parents to a healthy female dragon hybrid.” I say to everyone. I spent the next few minutes telling everyone what happened and after that the party was starting, to which the guests of honor, surprisingly, were Celestia and Chrysalis. The two arriving in Tuxedo's of all things. Apparently Celestia is…pregnant…somehow. I asked and she said some spells can pull it off without the needing of…the correct genitals. The rest of the party was rather fun, basically a pre baby shower for Celestia. “Today went from bad...to kind of okay.” I say honestly, glad to know that today actually had a happy turn to it. “But Twilight...how mad are you at Spike?” “I’m peeved, but knowing Rainbow she likely made him swear to not tell. So they’re moving in while Rainbow’s house becomes more baby friendly?” Twilight said. “Yeah pretty much.” I nod. “Also Rarity...Jenny told me an interesting thing that I’m not entirely sure she’s right about…” I say. “Being?” Rarity said. “Have you ever went to the dungeon to…’remodel’ it?” I ask. “Yes darling, Twilight and Pinkie were helping me remodel it into a new sewing room. I may not live at the boutique anymore, but I still need a place where I live to make my new dresses.” “Jenny…” I growl. “That girl is going to have nightmares about that stupid ‘safety’ song that’s for damn sure.” I frown. “Cause she just so thought to lie to me about the dungeon being a bondage dungeon.” I frown. “Why? Fuck if I know...well I know because she still hates me beyond a shadow of a doubt but still.” “Well, not actually a bondage dungeon.” Gilda said, walking up. “Apparently, this castle has three dungeons, one became rarity’s new workroom, second became the basement, and the third became a straight up sex dungeon.” “Nope.” I say while raising my hands. “Nope. No weird fetish unless I give consent cause seriously, when Jenny told me Rarity possibly had a bondage fetish I noped all the way to Ponyville.” I say worriedly. “Anyways, who’s idea was it to have a sex dungeon? Cause I don’t like bondage at all…” “We have a list you can go though.” Derpy said, wrapping her arms around me from behind. “We’ll go slow for now~” “Listen, no weird fetishes alright? “It’s fetishes, they’re meant to be weird.” “Also if there is any gender bending and futa then no touchies on that place okay? I’d rather not be a dad mother okay?” I state. “I’m putting some ground rules before shit get’s out of hand here.” “We’ll see~” They all teased. “No I’m making that a fucking ground rule.” I frown. “I don’t care what you say, I’d at least like to keep one virginity intact thank you very much.” I frown. “And here I thought it was the wives who had the pussies in the relationships.” Gilda said as everyone laughed. “How about this.” Luna spoke. “If one of us manages to beat you in a fair fight, three rounds, then you have to do one of the ‘weird’ fetishes. If we lose… you can have your way with us for a week.” “Listen…” I say weakly. “Can...can we just not? I’ve had a rough day-” “Nope.” They all said. “I almost had a panic attack over hearing you all could have died.” I say bitterly. “Part of why we didn’t tell you.” Twilight said. “You worry too much, almost…maybe worse than I used too. Just, I know things are going fast but that’s just the more reason to enjoy the slow, peaceful moments Ben. Live a little.” “One family died and it was my fault...I don’t want another family to die when I have the power to stop it…” I say sadly. “Ben.” Luna speaks up. “We are your family now, but yes, we are also your responsibility, that means two things, one, you do have to take care of us, but to what extent is our choice. I already had a talk with Luxu, Aqua, and Terra about helping train us, help the others summon their Keyblades. That’s the second reason, now as wives we have to take care of you, even if it’s from yourself.” I just slowly shake my head. “I didn’t want any of you to get caught up in my struggles, my problems...that’s why their my things to deal with...but no matter how hard I try...people always try to help…” I sigh out. “Thank you but...I...I don’t want to see any of you hurt...and Core and his merry band of assholes could kill any of you…” I say, starting to tear up at the thought of them getting hurt or brutally killed. “Please...I don’t want to lose any of you…” I whimper, tears falling down my face as I tried not to cry. Luna pulled me into a tight hug. “Ben, you don’t think we don’t worry that on one of your ventures you won’t come back? To just…leave us, even if you didn’t want to. Ben, you carry all this burden upon you, yet rather than sharing it, even though how dangerous it is, is best for you. I figured this…Core would come after us regardless to get at you, would you rather lose a fight against him alone, to lose us in the process, or have the chance to win with us fighting with you?” “I’d rather go with the third door where I kick his ass and you all see me be awesome.” I say, getting a little smile at least. “Heh. I thought you were smarter than that Ben, even with help, Core is not going to go down without taking out stars know how many lives in the process. I know you’d it rather not be us, and heavens forbid our children to be… but we don’t want you to be in that field of corpses when the time comes either. This is a war where bloodshed will spill no matter how much we try to avoid it and whoever can escape it is either lucky or cowardly. I’d rather go blind than see you dead Ben.” “And I’d rather be dead than see any of you hurt.” I say bluntly. “I promised myself that I was going to keep you all safe...but the more things go along...the more I know that I’m just being a stubborn idiot that’s going to get himself killed…” “Then it’s time to ask for help. Accept it. You have family, friends, and allies willing to fight this war as well.” “Fine…” I mutter. “But don’t expect me to enjoy seeing all my fiance’s being battle ready when they're going to be trying to get pregnant nine times out of ten.” “Look at it this way, the stronger we get, the longer we can go rounds with you~” “I’m sorry but you all already last all night if you wanted to.” I chuckle, wiping my tears away. “You all just get too excited too fast.” “Can you blame us? We have a…7/9 times submissive male to screw whenever.” Luna teased. “I’ll show you submissive.” I growl with a grin. “Role play!” Pinkie yelled, putting a sheep costume on Luna and roughing up my fur and hair. “Oh dear god Pinkie.” I chuckle. “I’m so glad you're all my family…” I say, hugging my new sheep costumed lover. “Dang, I didn’t even get to flee.” Luna said in a sarcastic voice as she kissed me. “Maybe next time you’ll be the sheep.” “You wish I was a sheep.” I say, lovingly nipping her ear. To be continued... Author's Note So yeah this chapter kind of sign waved between my character being depressed as hell then going back to being happy but what do you expect from a person that has the mind set that 'all my problems are my problems, not theirs.'...so yeah there's this. Like, comment, and I hope you enjoyed the chapter.
Nobody figures out stuff.“My hips hurt.” Joy grumbles, finally getting dressed after showering that didn't involve…’new activities’. “You women are insatiable…” “Sorry Joy.” Sweetie Bell said, belly noticeably larger, but acting more like her usual self. “Not sorry.” Jenny said, stretching, belly also rather large now. “To be honest I thought you’d break before getting to all of us.” “Dire Wolf stamina mixed with all the fighting me and Ben have experienced helped a lot.” Joy huffs. “What's all your opinions on being pregnant all of a sudden?” He asks all the girls. “Eh.” Jenny shrugged. “Kinda hard to move.” Sweetie said. “I feel fat.” Scootaloo said. “I feel like I’m carrying a basket full a’ apples.” Applebloom replied. “Like a mom.” Frisk replied. “Like a milf.” Chara replied. “Shameful...and less horny.” Ray said. “I’m good.” Gabby said. “My dad is gonna kill us.” Lovely said. “I didn't force any of you to dogpile me.” Joy states. Chara rubbed her belly before gaining a wicked smile. “Well, this leaves an obvious question. From what I gather, we can birth at will, question is, do we, or when should we? Cause I can have fun with this.” “Don't give your parents heart attacks.” Joy sighs out. “But I'd have to ask the doctor about how many a woman can give birth to without...hurting themselves.” He says worriedly. “And can we not have over a million kids all of a sudden? The others are gonna flip when they see this…” Joy sighs out, knowing I'm going to laugh my ass off at this development. “Eh. So? Let’s be honest, they are in a worse boat since they are still having sex and getting pumped with more kids. Heck, I bet they are wrestling it out in the sheets now.” Jenny spoke up. “I have a feeling he would be either training, figuring out where to go next on his new harem travels, or just showing Viva around, not fucking like rabbits.” Joy says. “Wait...are rabbits just animals in this world or no?” “Just animals.” Sweetie says. “Well, even if they can’t talk they do have some intelligence. They just prefer to stick to the woods and such while ponies and others like us evolved and left the forest for structures we create.” “Right then.” Joy nodded. “So...what do you think the others reaction will be if we show them...this?” he asks, gesturing to all his girlfriends. “Not sure. Ben already knows, think he told them?” Frisk asks. “Most likely…” He sighs out. “He's probably laughing his ass off right now...so who wants to meet all of them and have a talk that's obviously about to happen soon?” “Might as well get it over with…” Ray said, face red as Applebloom’s mane. “The things I let you do to me… why do I want that again?!” Chara patt Ray on the back. “Welcome to womanhood ‘Bro’.” “Anywhosits….” He sighs out. “Everyone dressed?” He asks, putting a simple hoodie over his simple black t-shirt, his blue jeans fitting nicely as well. “Hang on.” Jenny said, walking into the closet...to which Joy saw she was pantsless, and came back out a time later in sweat pants. “Welp, gonna need to do shopping, cause only this fits.” “True...Rarity and Coco might need more cloth for things…” He mutters while walking out the door to start this embarrassing conversation. As the group walked down the halls they noticed everything was rather silent. Joy grew suspicious, now at the dining room doors, which were closed. They were never closed. He opened it, dark greeting them until the lights turned on, blinding them all for a moment before they saw...a party...a baby shower. “Surprise!” Ben and all his wives yelled. “There idea.” I said, earning a playful slap from Rarity. “So...none of you are upset about us...sadly not waiting?” Joy asks worriedly. “I am a tad peeved.” Rarity said. “So am I.” Applejack said, walking out from behind Rarity. “After all, our sisters are underage.” “And Sweetie just had her first heat.” Rarity added. “But, to be fair, our parents had Big Mac at seventeen years old.” Applejack said. “Yes and I suppose I haven’t been the best role model in terms of...self control.” Rarity said. “We just...hoped you’d be older before that.” “Gabby and Jenny are technically old enough by griffon standards...but everyone jumped me when they saw Gabby was pregnant first. Honestly...I had no choice, and was about to tell them no before…” Joy sighs out. “Sorry…” “Well, at least it’s with a caring fellow.” Applejack says, taking a seat. “Can’t really say otherwise as...heh...I was Bloom’s age wh’n I lost mah virginity.” Applejack’s face gained a blush. “Too bad the fella moved two years later, wouldn’t mind hooking back up.” “Don't worry we haven't told Asgore or Toriel yet.” I tell them. “Glad to see you all don't...entirely hate me for not waiting.” Joy says nervously. “You waited longer than me so that's good right?” I ask sheepishly. “Yeah...well except for Gabby…” Joy admits nervously. “So, this is a baby shower for us?” Frisk asks. “And us.” Luna speaks up. “Figured it’s best time, with this marriage of Ben and us getting closer, once this herd has acquired its last member, soon will follow the bachelor and bachelorette parties, then the weddings.” “I thought I was supposed to marry all the female royalty here?” I ask curiously. “Or just forget about it and be happy about now?” “No, that plan is still on the table for you working man.” Chrysalis spoke up. “This is just for now.” “And there’s presents.” I turned around, seeing Aqua and Terra arrive on gliders. “Sorry we’re late, Terra was at the doctors.” “Cure spell can heal cuts and broken bones, but you get the flu and it’s useless…” He grumbles, looking sick, but not too bad. “Need a remedy?” I ask curiously. “Or just want to tough it out?” I ask Terra, ready to buy him the cure all item. “I’ll be fine.” Terra said with a wave. “Doc says I’m not contagious and with a few vitamins and soup I’ll be fine in a few days. Now come on, we brought gifts for everyone, including the fathers.” “Sweet.” Me and Joy smile. “Well there's plenty of food, so dig in when you want.” I tell them all. Terra walked up to Joy and I, handing each of us a small box. “This is from me, something I think you two can use.” Joy and I took the gifts and opened them, inside was a small shard of something, it pulsated white and dark. “What's this?” I ask Terra curiously. “Nothing I’ve seen before…” “I was told you found the birthplace of the Keyblades, I went back and found these. I think these are shards of either that pure light X-blade, clearly corrupted with darkness now, or shards from the X-blades forge.” “The forge is indestructible though…” I frown. “And these shards…” I frown while gently grabbing the shard and looking it over, wondering what this could be. Joy decided to use his assistants scanning function and scanned it, hoping to find the answer about this. “Let's hope this works…” Chromega Blade shard. The Chromega blade was a failed, pure light variant of the X-blade that ended up creating the heartless. This is one shard of, according to calculations, ten of it’s core. If all pieces are brought together and reforged, the Chromega blade can be reforged. Or, if Pure darkness is added, a second X-blade. “This thing is a piece of that keyblade...and apparently...could make another X-blade if we fuse it with pure darkness.” Joy explains. “That's surprising...” I frown. “Hmm...wonder what would happen if we mix it with pure Nothingness...it would be bad if it had three equal parts…” “Personally, I say find those shards, and hide them. In my experience, one X-blade is bad enough, two can cause trouble.” Terra said. “Move over.” Aqua said, playfully pushing Terra and handing Joy and I a gift each. “This is a day for fun, so here, a gift from me to you two.” “It better not be a lewd picture. One married woman giving me a lewd picture as a get well present is enough…” I mutter to myself while we both open our presents, wondering what Aqua wanted to get us. “Oh, how's Ventus doing?” I ask off topic here. “Doing fine. He’s been remembering more and more of his life before coming to The Land of Beginnings. For instance, his last name is Vexel. Kind of funny, his initials being V.V.” Joy and I looked inside. They were a set of gold earrings. “They...were my parents...I don’t remember much of them, or know much about them. All I know is that they gave me to Ericus when I was five and never learned why. Two years later these appeared in my bedroom with a letter, though, I don’t know what language it is. I’ve been to lots of worlds and read all kinds of books on languages dead and living but...it’s not recognizable anywhere.” “Do you have the letter?” I ask, Joy scanning the earrings just in wonder of what their made of. “Yeah.” Aqua said, opening a pocket under her Keyblade armor and taking out an old, folded piece of paper. Joy grabbed it, careful to unfold it and it was symbols. “Okay...lets see here…” He mutters while scanning the symbols on his assistant. Assistant language translation matrix activated. Scanning… Scanning… Translating… Translation complete. Dear Aqua, We are sorry. So, so, so, so sorry we have to do this, but if you are reading this, then...your mother and I are… Besides the point, what you must do now is move on, live your life. Our past mistakes lead us to you reading this letter, something we both...hoped would never happen, but knew it would happen sooner or later. If you care, the day you pass your Mark of Mastery Exam, please, head to the world coordinates at the bottom of the letter...if you’re lucky, you’ll find something that we wanted to give you when you were old enough. We both love you very much. World- 8081409209820958209570197509840918419095092835 - 258029854098509-2095209580918501750920938529835 “Okay...the fuck world is that?” Joy frowned while scanning the massive string of numbers to see what world it was. Calculating…. Locating…. World Found. Name: Unknown Status: Habitable Primary lifeforms: Unknown World Age: ninety seven trillion years old. Anomalies: Four -Unnatural land formations -Contaminated sea water -Mutated life forms -Abnormally low darkness “So...that's a bunch of things.” I frown. “Mind if we help?” Joy asks Aqua. “Y-Yes.” Aqua said, looking unsure, nervous...and worried. “I...I never imagined…” “Need a cupcake?” Joy asks her. “What? No, I just…Can’t believe...I mean, I thought they...I don’t know.” Aqua said with a sigh. “I haven’t thought about them...in years.” Joy looked back at his Assistant, the scan on the ear rings coming back. Knight of The Light Earrings Att: +50 Def: +30 Mag: +40 The Knights of The Light were an old order founded in the time before Keyblades. They fought back against the darkness and, after it was finally pushed back, died out when the Heartless appeared. This is one part of the special enchanted armor set. Consisting of Earrings, Helmet, Chest plate,Gauntlets, leggings, Boots, and Ring. Without every peice, their true ability is locked away, once the whole set is worn, the wearer can utilize light to push back darkness. “Huh...that's interesting…” Joy said. “Cool.” I nodded. “So looks like we're gonna be going on an adventure to get all the pieces.” I say...before frowning. “Well...unless you want us to help Aqua, this is actually your adventure.” “I can use help. I don’t know what to expect, it’s best if one of you, and Terra come along. I overestimated myself once before, and we all know how that ended. It’s best I go with help.” Aqua says. “After the party, if you want, we can go.” “After the party.” I say. “You'll need your energy.” I say while Joys stomach growled. “And I'm hungry.” Joy says. “So let's eat and enjoy the party.” He smiled happily. The party was rather grand. The girls all got things, some practical, some...between them, and other stuff that was for fun or just for them and not the baby...s. There was a lot of baby clothes, and diapers….it still won’t be enough, and formula, in case they don’t want to nurse...not surprisingly, a gift from a friend of Pinkie, a blue haired mare with...rather large breasts, gave several, and by several I mean like thirty, mare milkers… I asked if they were expensive and she said not really, since apparently she owns the company that makes, and uses them. She also said the Diamond Dogs have recently been buying them by the dozens so her business is good. There was cake, then there wasn’t...damn Celestia, that was like three bites, drinks, simple punch, and talk, and, of course, bad curiosity , well, Joy and I were bad, the girls were all rather good, as expected. Looks like that’s true from the show. Luna especially. Celestia told me that, when she and Luna would talk alone, they’d talk about what life they would have had if they weren’t alicorns. She said she would like to be an actress, and Luna wanted to be a singer. “Thank god I have everyone…” I mutter to myself, glad to see everyone happy today. “Wouldn't know what to do…” I shake my head, trying not to think of anything bad right now. “Having fun Ben?” Celestia asks, taking a seat next to me. “Let me guess, you’re more of a wall flower?” “Depression is a hell of a thing when you have...basically everything you wanted.” I say to her. “Loving fiances, a wonderful little brother, a family that loves and cares for me...but there's always this small bit of doubt...that something could go wrong…” I sigh out. “I know it all too well.” Celestia said, a solemn sigh in her breath. “Every night there’s this part of me that...is afraid. Afraid that, when I awake, Luna will still be Nightmare Moon, trapped in the moon, that Chrysalis, Rune, Twilight, that it was all just a dream...even you...and this.” She said, using both hands to rub her belly. “An unexpected event...but one I thought I’d never experience….again. Ben...Do you know, why, I prefer mares?” My eyes widened. “No…” I mutter. “You….you weren't…” I say in fear, scared for the worst. “Not like that Ben… After Luna...Nightmare Moon...I grew lonely, so, so lonely. One day...I used a spell to hide my true body, went out into the streets, and found a drunk stallion who was more than happy to… well, you know. It was quite the scandal, Princess pregnant and no father. Heh, if only they knew. Nine months later, I gave birth to a little filly, one I named Platinum, after the old unicorn queen. She had my coat...my mother's eyes...and Luna’s personality. She grew up, aged...while I remained the same. Out living your own child...no parent should...yet, here I am. At least, when I look as Blue Blood, I know it’s as close to immortality as she can get. That in some way, she’s here.” “Well…” I say, putting a gentle hand on her cheek. “Your new family, your new children...and your new husband won't be dying anytime soon.” I tell her with a smile. “And...maybe not now, maybe not soon...but hopefully I'll help you learn to love a man again...and that man will be me, the bumbling idiot who's the world's greatest hero.” I chuckle. “It’s just the fear Ben.” Celestia said, hugging her belly now. “Outliving my daughter, and her children, and their children...At some point, I realized I lost track, and was scared. It took sixteen years, and a few new spells, but finally, I found the sole surviving descendant of Platinum. Blueblood’s mother, Emerald Shine. She was a carpenter for the nobles. Her reactions to what I told her of her lineage was expected...she died, giving birth to Blueblood, and he had an accident when he was a foal. To be blunt, hit tank fires blanks. I had long since sworn no more children...cause the fear of...losing track… and now, even though Luna is back...the fear is still there...when Blueblood...passes, then Platinum will truly be gone.” I sigh out. “At least your fear is waking up and seeing that none of this happened...but you stay in the same world where it could happen either way.” I tell her. “My fear...is waking up and learning that none of this ever even existed.” I tell her. “All of this...just a mixture of video games and tv shows from where I originally came from...all of this...just gone...none of it even existing...my parents would be dead...everyone I love...gone forever. Joy going back to Rejection...and with all the memories…” My voice cracked, tears brimming in my eyes. “No...no matter how much...you all wouldn't wish it...I'd have…” I took a deep breath and steadied myself, trying not to cry. “You fear of losing it but still having a chance...my fear is losing everything...even my life…” Celestia grabbed my chin, and made me look her in the eyes, tears going down hers too. “We are a lot alike, aren’t we?” She asked, a small smile on her face. “Mine....being a lot more drastic and terrible but…” I start. “And me not being a mare...having big breasts...having rainbow hair that defies wind…” I name off with a growing smile. To shut me up, Celestia planted a wet one...right on my lips. At first I was caught off guard, then we both melted into it…when it broke, she was smiling. “Just...promise me Ben, that no matter what, you will come back. Back to all of us.” She said, placing one of my hands on her belly...I felt a kick. I smiled gently. “What would I be if I didn't come back to all my lovely ladies?” I ask. “I promise to come back Celestia, I always come back for the ones I love.” She kissed me again, I heard camera’s going off, but didn’t care, neither did she I guess, as this kiss lasted rather long. When it finally broke, we took in air like we were holding our breaths for a long time. I looked up, seeing Chrysalis and Rune leaning against Celestia’s chair, looking at us with smiles. “Guess it’s finally official.” Chrysalis said, planting a quick peck on my cheek...Rune..did something different...she bit my ear then whispered...things...things I can’t say aloud cause children...I have something to look forward too come bed time. My entire face was beat red. “Wow...well…” I mumble, before shaking my head. “Anyways...thanks Celestia.” I nodded, before grinning. “See? I told you you would want me in all my awesomeness.” I joke with a giant smile. Celestia returned my grin with one of her own. “Fair enough...but let’s just say I’ll need a…transition come tonight… After all, seven hundred years eating mares out, I have a few old habits...and skills that I can show you, so long as you say yes~” Celestia said, finger booping my nose. “Still no futa spells.” I tell her bluntly. “Who said I was going to be the futa~” She booped my nose again. I blushed. “Well...I did wonder what it would feel like to have both.” I smile gently. “This went from heartwarming and touching to super lewd way too quickly...” I frown as I noticed that. “That’s sun butt’s dirty mind there.” Chrysalis said with a wink. “And remember, I shape shift, so you can pretend you’re doing it with twins~” She said, giving me another light peck on the cheek. Steam billowed out of my head. “I...kind of hope the others didn't hear the lewd parts…” “We did.” Twilight said, patting my head. “Not gonna lie, always wondered what I’d be like as a twin.” “Too bad this is a T rated fic, those sex chapters would be kinky.” Pinky said, earning a look from all of us. “Damn it Pinkie...now they're gonna make an M rated fic for all of it.” I sigh out, knowing about the fourth wall and such. “But...besides...the lewd things...did you hear and see everything else?” “Yup.” Lola said. “Though...not sure exactly what was going on.” “That aside, we’re happy for you two...and please, when you’re up for that, Chrysi, look like me, I wanna see Ben’s face when he see’s that.” Pinkie said. “You got it.” Chrysalis said, giving me a look. “That is going to be fun. Wonder if he’ll be able to tell us apart?” “You'd have to learn how to talk like Pinkie, have her energy, and so much other things.” I tell her. “But...about my worst fear…” I sigh out. “Sorry I'm not...more vocal with my fears…” “It’s alright Ben.” Rarity said, taking my hand. “We all have fears, and we’ve come to accept you aren’t very vocal with these matters, so that means two things. One, we will always be here to make it go away for you, whether you tell us it or not, and second, if we see it’s still bothering you, then, we may get rough, but we want you to tell us. Speaking these matters aloud can only help you when it’s to someone you trust.” “Yeah…” I nodded. “But...hey it helped me convince Celestia to join my herd...the news is gonna have a field day hearing this.” I chuckle. “It's not the best headline name but I thought ‘The Sun Rises to what? Celestia’s new love shocks the world’.” I say, the thing sounding like crap to me. “It can work.” Viva said. “There’s been worse headlines.” With that settled, the party ended a few hours later. There was little food left and Terra and Aqua waited for us outside the front door. “You ready?” She asked, Terra in his Keyblade armor on his glider. “Yep.” I nodded while putting my hood up and summoning my glider and hopping on. “As ready as we'll ever be.” Joy says while summoning his own glider, his new crown keyblade turning into a golden version of Ventus’s glider, putting his samurai hood up as well and hopping on it. Aqua opened a DTL and activated her armor and glider, flying in, followed by Terra, then us. It was a long flight, assistant saying about an hour or so, and finally a world came into view. As we got closer, I felt...something was watching us. I looked around, growling at whatever's watching us. “Hey guys! Something’s watching us.” I tell the others, not knowing what could be watching us this far away from the world. There was this...massive shadow that flew over us, then darkness blinded us. When we had vision, we were on some sort of grassy field, and standing across from us was...someone dressed in a pink organization thirteen cloak. “You should leave.” She spoke. Her voice sounded...young. “And who might you be exactly?” I ask. “And why are these cloaks so common with people?” I ask curiously. “Once, these were for warriors, colors were various, standing for rank and position. Can you guess what pink stands for?” “This is the first time I'm even hearing this so I have no idea.” I tell her bluntly, preparing myself for a possible attack. She raised her hand, an Oathkeeper Keyblade appearing, though...something about it seemed different. It’s design was...like half was missing. “Assassin.” I blinked, seeing Terra already down as she made her way over to Joy. Joy summoned Lindworm and his keyblade glider switched to his crown keyblade, winds circling around him as he prepared for her attack. “Attacking Terra was a bad idea lady.” Joy growled, thinking she was a foe with such an unwarranted attack. “He’ll live.” She said, spin kicking Lindworm to the side as she thrusted, striking joy and sending him back, just barely dodging her attack. “Besides, I’m not here to hurt anyone, Just waiting for my brother.” She threw her “Oathkeeper” into a flame covered strike raid at Aqua. She blocked it, but was tossed to the ground. I sighed out, getting off my glider and grabbing Reunion. “So...hard way it is.” I frown while casting haste on myself. “Twilight Slash.” I mutter before swinging my keyblade, a bolt of Nothingness speeding towards the woman. My eyes widened, another “Oathkeeper” appeared, in thin air and blocked my attack. She then touched it with one finger. “Providet corpus.” She said, the second Keyblade gaining a bright aura. There was a flash of light and it...was a silhouette of her, made up of light and darkness. It looked over at me and charged, striking at me with hand to hand. I summoned Frozen Pride and blocked it's attacks, fighting back against the clone. “So why did you attack is first?” I ask the woman with a frown. “This is the second part of my mark of mastery.” She said, appearing behind Joy and spin kicking him in the neck, sending him across the ground. “The first part I completed, in your time, months ago.” “Ow…” Joy grumbles while getting back up, cracking his neck. “Thank god for being durable.” Joy says before vanishing and thrusting all six lances behind the pink cloaked girl. “So your mark of mastery is to attack people for no reason?” I ask, shield bashing the clone away from me. “No.” She replied, turning around and, using her hand, deflected each of Joy’s Lindworm spears, grabbed them all and threw them back at him. “The second part to my mark of mastery. Win a battle against the King of Nothingness.” She then looked over at Joy, him catching the spears she threw back at him. “Or the prince.” Aqua got back up, grunting as she ran over, trying to slash the girl, only for the girl to dodge, and strike the back of Aqua’s head, knocking her unconscious. “Damn it, Joy get Aqua and Terra out of here!” I shout at Joy, hoping he'll get them to some form of safety. “But your fights with me lady.” I say while shifting to Master Form, switching out Frozen Pride for Skysplitter. “But what Mark of mastery has you fight something that specific?” I ask, Joy helping the unconscious Aqua and Terra out of the fight. “Keyblade master. But given what I am...a standard test wouldn’t have been enough.” She said, her clone jumping back to her and reverting back into her second “Oathkeeper”. “You clearly know I'm clueless about a lot of this right now so care to explain...all of this?” I ask. “You know what I am. You’ve seen me. I’m younger to you right now, but I am someone you know.” She said, taking off her hood...Xion? No, her eyes...they’re red… Like Zeke’s were. “Nyx?” I ask. “How long has it been there?” I ask, surprised to see her grown up. “For me, fourteen years. I’m still a baby at this point in time, my older sister, Diamond Tiara, sent me back here for my mark of mastery exam. Three parts. First, help my father complete his, and I have, now I’m here, for my second part, Win a battle against the king or prince of nothingness.” “That old bastard needs to start telling me shit instead of going back to being a nagging mumble in the back of my head.” I frown. “And the organization cloak? You said it meant a lot more than what it is...care to explain or are you going to save that till after the fight?” “You’ll find out soon, so might as well. Black, Warrior, White, Commander, Yellow means scout, red means mage, purple means researcher, pink means assassin, Blue means, well, it’s akin to police. Green means healer, and black and white patterned robes mean Crafter.” “Glad to know I'm a leader.” I chuckle a little, readying myself. “And your Oathkeepers...I presume that's because your Zeke’s daughter?” “In a sense. I’m a human X-blade, these are pieces of my X-blade form.” “Surprising.” I say. “First time I've seen it. But...did everyone get better?” I ask, hoping her family got better after Zeke’s ‘death’. “I can say yes, but that’s all I can say about future events involving my family.” “Well that stops me from asking how Joy is treating your Diamond Tiara.” I shrug. “But anyways, fighting time.” “Alright then.” She said, taking a stance. I decided to start things off simple, Nyx suddenly seeing a weird power level bars for both her and me. I took a deep breath and lowered my stance before shouting loud and thrusting Skyplitter in the air, my power increasing dramatically and a seeable aura surrounded me. “Let’s get started.” I say before ramming Skysplitter into the ground, jagged stone spikes suddenly shooting out below her. She jumped up into the air, both her keyblades floating out of her hands before they reshaped into something like my gun arrows. She grabbed them again and started firing off lightning magic at me. I smacked away the lightning spells with both my weapons, bolting straight towards her and leaving some cracks in the ground, swinging Skysplitter at her quickly. To my surprise, it wasn’t her that blocked...but someone in a yellow cloak. “Sorry I’m late sis.” He said to Nyx. “Better late than never bro.” She replied. Her brother, Blake, if my memory serves me right, deflected me away before he was covered in light, changing into an Oblivion X-blade. Nyx grabbed him and aimed it at me. “Now, let’s get started. cognatio Jurisconsultorum!” She shouted, chains of light wrapping around her brother and her arm before she rushed in for an attack. I skidded on the ground and shouted, my aura flaring out even bigger and stronger than before. “Gaia’s Hammer!” I shouted, my weapon glowing a greenish brown and glowed brightly before I swung it to meet her attack. It felt like time slowed down before our attacks met, finally, our attacks met...or so I thought. When my swing met hers, she vanished, appearing behind me and striking, I fell through the battle ground, to the world below. “Ow...that’s gonna hurt.” Nyx said, following me. “Why am I falling?” I ask curiously, the pain being astronomical but suddenly falling through a battle ground was weird. “Okay…” I mutter while stopping myself from falling from my training with Braig, looking around on why I fell and how far I fell. Looking around, I was some miles above the planet's surface...it was like a nuke went off, everything was scorched and raised up. “Jesus, was this the world we were supposed to go to?” I wonder to myself, wondering what could have caused this, but ready to defend myself in case Nyx and her brother came after me. “Also I call bullshit, two versus one in a mark of mastery exam? Really?” I grumble. “What? It counts.” Nyx said, floating back down. “Even at this stage in your timeline I held a small chance at winning.” “What language were you speaking? Latin or something?” I ask, wondering about the language of her named attacks. “Yeah. It’s an old language, tied to many magics. Using it when casting attacks can do a lot for how hard you hit with them.” “So I need to speak a special language instead of shouting things normally?” I ask curiously. “I thought shouting you're attack name in any language made it better?” “No, shouting the attack is like...training wheels. It helps activate it. Calling the attacks name in latin, latin being linked to magic, amplifies it by generating a micro aura that quickly circulates the attacks energy before activating it.” I huff. “Anime has lied to me.” I shake my head. “Great, now i need to learn Latin…” “It’s optional.” Nyx says, her brother returning to human form. “We just learned it...well, you’ll see later. Anyway, knocking you out of the battle counted as a win, so thanks.” “No it doesn't, this isn't a tournament match with out of bounds rules, your choice of arena just sucked and didn't have proper barriers.” I frown. “You would rather I knock you unconscious?” “I'm pretty sure some divine bullshit behind the marks of mastery decided you got the won anyways.” I tell her. “But next time, remember to put proper barriers on a battlefield so no one accidentally falls out and bails right after leaving the battlefield.” I tell her. “So...what's your third step to becoming a master?” “Well...I don’t know. Now I have to head back to my timeline for Tiara to tell me. Hope she’s not on a date with uncle Joy… Then she won’t be back for a while.” “When those two are together it’s they turn into rabbits.” Blake commented. I laughed at that. “Oh god I just knew it.” I laugh. “And what's funnier is that he just ‘tied the knot’ as it were a while ago with all his other girlfriends.” “Oh we know.” “We babysat for them a few times when they all went off to save a world or honeymoon…” Nyx shivered. “Should tell Joy to turn his damn Assistant off, I’ll never unsee that.” I laughed even harder at that. “If only I could tell him, his reaction would be hysterical." “At least tell him that he can turn his assistant off.” “I will.” I nodded. “But how many kids did he have in your time?” I asked, wondering how much of a pain it's gonna be to raise so many kids. “Birthed...think they were reaching seven hundred...each wife?” Blake questioned. “Yeah, Nobody nannies. Very handy.” Nyx said, nodding. “Oh thank god those exist.” I sigh out thankfully. “Um...did you meet Roxas or Namine in the future?” I ask, remembering that's supposed to be a thing. They both looked at each other. “No idea who they are.” Nyx said. “But family...s. We don’t know everyone.” Blake replied. “Ah...there probably under different names though….” I mutter to myself. “So what's your next stop in time traveling master exam?” “Fourteen and a half years in the future to get the final test.” I nodded. “Well stay safe in your adventuring.” I tell them. “Ah Nyx, I was told about a thing involving you and others...like you.” I start. “You mean Greed?” She asked. “So you already know then?” I ask. “It’s...the reason I’m taking this. Greed broke through all of Daybreak’s defenses…He wants all of my siblings...Blake and I especially...he already took Book Worm, my baby bro from mama Moon Dancer.” “Are...are we trying to stop Greed or no?” I ask, wondering if my future self, Joy, and many others are trying to stop greed and save Book Worm. “Yes. In my time, it’s war against the Embodiments. Sloth and Pride have already been killed, but there’s still the rest...and Tenebris.” “Someone or something I should know about?” I ask. “Or does it hurt with time if I know?” “I can tell you this much. Core may have been the first Emblem heartless, but he wasn’t the first to fall to it. Tenebris is the first to fall, the creator of the realm of darkness, the one who light rejected.” “Oh...that's...a thing.” I frown. “And here I thought Core being reborn as one of our kids was bad enough...or the embodiments...or my possible honeymoon…” I sigh out. “So, what now?” I ask the two. “After this I recommend someone take a trip to the Realm of Darkness.” Blake stated. “Doesn’t matter who.” “Blake…” Nyx said. “What, it would help.” “That’s screwing with time.” “Like we aren’t doing that already.” “He's got a point.” I point out. “But time is really weird, sometimes you can go back in time as many times as you want and nothing happens, sometimes you go back in time and things blow the fuck up, and in my case sometimes you think you know future events but happen to be completely wrong.” I explain. “Well if my time Diamond Tiara comes along and whacks the two of you, don’t say I didn’t warn you.” Nyx said as she and Blake found themselves inside clock faces. “Looks like she’s picking us up. We will definitely see you later, and maybe sooner.” Nyx said with a wave, she and blake vanishing as the clock faces did. “Well….” I take a deep breath and starting to fly towards Joy and the others. “That happened…” I mutter. “Yeah, but what happened here?” Joy asked as he floated down and took a look around. “Such destruction.” “Ugh, where are we?” Aqua asked, waking up. “I had a conversation with our attacker, apparently it was her mark of mastery to fight me specifically, and a ton of...future stuff.” I tell the now awake Aqua and Terra. “And we are at the planet we were supposed to go...it's just ruined to hell somehow.” “I can’t sense any darkness...what else could have caused this?” Terra pondered, looking around. “Huh?” He said, walking over to a patch of dirt with an imprint. “Is that...what I think it is?” We all walked over, and saw the imprint of the X-blade. “What the hell?” I mutter, kneeling down and checking the imprint, wondering how long it's been here. “That's not right…” Joy frowned. Aqua kneeled down to the imprint also. “It’s a perfect outline. The earth around the edges has been...melted into this image.” She placed her hand hear it. “It’s still hot...this was recent?” “That's impossible, Zeke was on John's world when he...last used the X-blade.” I sigh out. “Something's not right, how could the X-blade have been here when it was nowhere near here?” “I think he’s the reason.” Terra said, pointing over to a man standing across from us. Dressed in Yellow’s clothing...with a black X-blade. My eyes widened. “No...nonono…” I say before summoning my keyblade and shield. “Joy, get them out of here.” “Why the fuck is he here?!” Joy yipped in worry. “And when the hell did they manage to make that?” Yellow’s black X-blade cracked with dark electricity, his shadow shifting as what looked like ghosts...of Sora, Riku, and Kairi, all came out of them. They then screamed, a haunting, chilling, tortured scream...that X-blade...was all of the captured Sora, Riku and Kairi’s hearts! “That bastard…” I growled, getting up and walking over to the guy, not believing Core tortured and fused all of them together to make an abomination of the X-blade. “Hey!” I bark at Yellow, trying to get his attention. He looked over at me, but said nothing. “Can you talk?” I call out to him, keeping my distance at least so my power didn't start sparking like mad. He shook his head. “Okay...why are you here?” I ask, knowing it could answer without words. Yellow raised his hand, slowly, and removed his mask...he looked like Zeke, but the number 1 was tattooed on his forehead, and his face was cracked, eyes bloodshot...A clone? “Are you a clone?” I ask, fearing the worst. He nodded, tracing a finger across the cracks on his face and then pointing at his eyes, then, pointed at the black X-blade in his other hand. “Your breaking apart because of the X-blade? Or did you fight over it?” I ask, getting more confused here. He lifted up a finger, one, then nodded. He then showed me the hand that was holding it...black tendrils came out of the black X-blade, and were inside his hand and arm. He then moved part of his robe over, showing his chest...which held a large scar, and glowed with a bluish white. “Need some help?” I ask, knowing this was a bad thing to ask and knowing it won't help but I at least wanted to try. He nodded. “What happened to you?” Aqua asked. ”Core’ One of the ghost’s spoke. ”He took all of them, melted them down...forged them into this accursed blade...and then turned on his partners. He no longer had his darkness. He was a Nobody.” Another spoke. ”He grabbed every Xehanort reflection, and made this.” Another said, Yellow lifting a hand over his chest. ”Body and heart they went into it, to make a copy of Zeke’s heart.” “Is there anyway to save you all without...either killing you or causing a supernova?” I ask worriedly. ”I die. They die. I am dying. I just...want one thing before then.” “What is it?” I ask, not wanting to sass the dying Yellow clone. “I want...one day.” Yellow spoke, seeming to surprise himself that he was able to talk. “One day...to be me. Not a clone, not an experiment...to at least...pretend, to be human. Joy took out his assistant and decided to scan Yellow, hoping it would tell him how to give Yellow more time or save him. “We’ll be your friends and make sure you have the best day you can.” Joy tells Yellow. Scanning Life Form. Scanning… Scan complete. Subject is compiled from darkness and very trace amounts of human DNA. Subject’s current form is being damaged by two level nine illegal implants. Subject projected life span as is… thirty hours. Joy checked his assistant and tried to find a way to help the poor guy. “I doubt Memory Stealer could give you a second chance with...how you are...” Joy mumbles, hoping there's a way they could help. Suggested actions for prolonging subject’s life span require a tier ten admin level program. “Well fuck…” Joy frowned, only for me to put my hand on his head. “Its alright…” I tell him. “So...what do you want to do?” I ask Yellow, wanting to give him a nice day at least. “I just...want a day.” He repeated, falling to his knees. “All his memories from before he came to this multiverse...he never got to sit and watch the sun set.” I thought for a moment, before nodding. “I know exactly where we need to go.” I nod. “Remember Twilight Town?” I ask, hoping Yellow remembered Zeke playing Kingdom Hearts. “Yes. Zeke loved that world in the game. Spend hours in it, just staring at the sunset from the train station.” Yellow said with a smile. “The real thing...would be nice.” I nodded and opened a portal to Twilight Town. “And hey, we could have fun, do a Struggle match or two...and at the end eat some ice cream on the clock tower. Sound like a plan?” I ask, wanting to make his last day worth it. “Sounds like fun. Maybe...we could do what Roxas didn’t get to...and see what the beach looks like.” He said, getting back up and walking into the DTL. “You three look around...I need to help a friend.” I say while following Yellow through the DTL, and it closed behind me. “Let's hope they have fun...” Joy says, looking down and feeling a little sad that they couldn't save him. Arriving in Twilight Town, we found ourselves just outside the hangout spot from the game. Yellow took a look around. “Heh...looks better than in the game. Way better.” “Oh yeah.” I nodded. “You know...I don't think I've ever been here before…” I say, not sure if I've ever been to Twilight Town. “It’s nice. So calm.” Yellow said, placing a hand on the wall. “Funny, you all spend so much time...fighting...you don’t take the time to register that...it’s all real.” “I've had times when I stopped to know this was all real...just...wish it didn't involve me breaking down and crying…” I sigh out. “But...I wish we all had time to just...ya know, hang out and be friends. N enemies, no troubles...just a normal ass day where we could all just have fun and not care about the world.” “Hey you two!” We turned around, that voice being all to familiar to me. Seifer. Him and his three followers walking up to us. “You tourists or something? Never seen you two around before.” He asked. “You could say that.” I say to the teen. “Why do you ask?” “We’ve been looking for a burglar. Been taking things from computers out of people’s homes to...corpses from the graveyard. Not sure it’s the same guy, but those have been the only things stolen around town for the past week or so.” He explained. “The only witness says it’s a strange man in a lab coat.” One of his followers, Fuu, spoke. “Yeah. If you see something funny come looking for...hey…” He said, taking a closer look at me. “hmmm...Nice clothes. Something like that would definitely make me seem more official as head of the disciplinary committee.” “Oh this? My fiance actually made it.” I tell him. “But alright then...so we apparently have Doctor Frankenstein on the loose...and here I thought it was going to be a nice normal day.” “He hasn't hit in a few days.” His other follower, Rai, spoke. “But we think he might hit again.” Fuu finished. “You can find us typically here. Since Hayner, Pence, and Olette found a better place, we’ve taken this spot over as our base.” She explained, pointing to the gate door of an allie way. “Huh...kind of thought that was the best spot, it looks like a cozy spot.” I say, remembering that while the hangout spot wasn't exactly perfect it felt homey enough. “Hey Zack, want to do some….investigating?” I ask Yellow, calling him Zack so I didn't just call him Yellow, and hoping some detective stuff in Twilight Town would help him out. “Huh...I guess.” He replied. “Alright.” I nod. “So, you know where this guy might hit?” I ask Siefer and his gang. “He’s hitting homes for the computers, which is strange since shops would have more to collect. The only building I can think of is maybe an apartment down in the marketplace. It’s one of the few that hasn't been hit yet.” Siefer explained. “Right then.” I nodded. “Well we can look around and enjoy the day I suppose.” I shrug. “Alright then, and thanks for the help.” Siefer said, he and his gang leaving. “Well...we can at least figure out where stores are.” I say. “Yeah. Sea Salt Ice Cream?” Yellow asked, pulling out a framilier pink pouch. “It’s got a hundred thousand munny.” “Always thought that was orange for some reason...“ I mutter, seeing it up close making me see it's actually pink. “But sure, never actually had Sea Salt Ice Cream, so I wonder what it'll taste like.” I wonder. “Guess we’ll find out.” Yellow said, the two walking over the market place. “So while Twilight Town looks splendid as always there's some differences already.” I say, still curious on why the Hayner and company weren't at their original hang out. “Wonder if we’ll see more people here…” Sure enough, once the two entered the market area there were people all around. Bags and people carrying them moved around like traffic. In the center, was a framilier shop. The two walked up to it. “Greetings.” An elderly lady behind the counter said. “Hellp.” I nod with a smile. “How are you doing today?” I ask, trying to be friendly to the elderly woman. “Oh I’m fine dear. So, what would you like? I sell all sorts of sweets and drinks.” “Do you sell Sea Salt Ice Cream?” I ask the lady. “And glad to hear your doing well.” “Why yes. It’s a new flavor. Been out for some months. How many?” “Two please.” I say while getting some munny out to pay her. I gave her the munny, she gave me some change and she opened a freezer next to her, pulling out two of the iconic treats. She placed them into a small plastic bag, and handed them over. “Enjoy.” “Thank you.” I nod while taking the plastic bag from her. “Have a nice day.” I say kindly while turning around and heading to give Yellow his wonderful treat. We both took a bite. At first the taste was something close to a sour head, super sour and salty, then shifted to a light creamy sweetness. “Wow. Not bad.” Yellow said, taking another bite. “Not bad at all.” I say while enjoying the ice cream popsicle thing. “Wonder how it's made...” I wonder. “So, what next my friend?” “Dunno. From my memories that come from Zeke… I guess seeing how the group claimed the train station tower.” “My question is how the hell they even get up their everyday?” I point out, still wondering about that little thing. “But let's see how they did that.” I say while heading off to the clock tower. We got a bit lost on the way but found our way to the clock tower, and, as the games did not show, there was a door on the outside of the building for maintenance. Inside, for some reason it was unlocked, was a small hallway then a long spiral stairway up to the top. “So that’s how they did it.” Yellow said. “This seems oddly convenient…” I point out. “Wonder how they found this place...and good lord how strong are their legs if they have to walk up these everyday?” I frown. “Well...let's get walking.” “Well, now that that is settled. How about that beach? Train should be there. Seems like it’s always summer here.” “And always sunset.” I say. “Which since you don't know, apparently there's three time oriented town's, the third being Daybreak Town, along with this place and Traverse Town.” I explain to him. “But yeah, let's head down to the beach, I'd like to see what Roxas couldn't.” We entered, two train tickets to the beach being a thousand munny each was pricey, but we paid and got on. It was a two hour train ride, so I tried to make small talk with Yellow, there being only one other person on the train, a child in a hoodie with headphones in looking at a phone. “So…” I start, trying to think of something to talk about. “How's your day going?” I ask, not knowing what to talk about considering Yellow is gonna die in a day. “Best since I woke up.” Yellow said, looking out the window. “It was...strange, when I woke up.” “Woke up?” I ask curiously. “I’m a clone, remember? I was made in a Castle Oblivion Core somehow dragged into the realm of Darkness. I was made on floor seven, memories from Zeke’s family and bits Core somehow obtained from him directly stitched together and made into me. When I woke up, I just knew...I wasn’t...me...him. Everything felt different. My body, the way I looked at everything...even the way I felt things just felt...wrong.” “That's what happens when your created by a mad man.” I sigh out. “Everything feels wrong when your supposed to be one person but forced to be something your not.” “I chose to follow him.” Yellow admitted. “Even if you knew you would have been used as a murder machine and nothing else?” I ask curiously. “Yes. Fun fact about Zeke, while his heart is balanced, his mind isn’t. Never has been. His whole life, it’s been tug of war between his instincts, the want, desire to kill and fight, and to walk a moral path. I figured, if the original chose Morality, this fake can see what happens when when it lets the instinct and desire to take lead.” “Was it as bad as I think it was?” I ask. “Or because you like murder so much it wasn't as bad?” “Hard to tell. First life I took was...relieving. Like finally scratching a stubborn itch. I didn’t love or like it...but I didn’t hate it either. Core’s first order for me was to kill as many as I felt I could...I finally stopped after the ninth world.” I looked at him. “Of course you did…” I muttered. “And I suppose the ninth world was the one we found you on?” “No. It was the first, I went back there to die. It was a nice world. The people were a lot like on earth.” “So many lives...gone…” I sigh out. “When will this useless war stop killing trillions of innocent people?” I growl bitterly, thinking this whole light versus dark thing is bullshit. “That brings me to two very important things. One, the Embodiments now know Core is dead, and with their leader free now, they will start up again for the first time since before the world became the multiverse and the stars.” “Wait...because Core was dead...he kept the Embodiments in check?” I ask worriedly. “While he was weaker than them, he had several powerful creatures of darkness he managed to absorb and keep in check, including the leader of the Embodiments. That is what kept them in check, for as evil and wicked they are, they care about each other as much as any family. Now that he is free, there’s no reason for them to stay on the side lines.” “Ah shit…” I frown. “And...the other thing you wanted to say?” I ask, wondering what other important thing Yellow wanted to tell me. “...Even with Core dead, his followers and creations are trying to continue his work...including the Spy within Daybreak.” “Don't they know there's worse shit out there already?” I ask. “I think helping fight the worse things in existence would be better than continuing on a trail to getting themselves killed.” I frown, finding their thoughts a tad self destructive. “And...there's a spy in Daybreak?” “Yes. Been there since they took Core’s heart.” “Who?” I ask bluntly. “Don’t know. All I know is it’s someone high enough to know what the Council talks about...if it’s a member, then they are in trouble.” “Shit…” I frown. “Looks like I'm gonna have to go to Daybreak to look over it before shit hits the fan…” I sigh out. “I know one thing, a way to catch them. I know they have a Way to Dawn Keyblade.” Yellow said. “That should narrow the pool.” “Maybe…” I sigh out. “Things just keep getting worse and worse…” “Core opened the floodgates. They still are open. Question is...how do we close them?” “Someone with darkness powers, someone who can wield the X-blade, or the cock yoddlers that work for Core close it themselves.” I frown. “Damn it to hell…” “One issue at a time. Also...Here.” Yellow said, handing me a scrap of paper with three lines of ten numbers. “It’s the passcode for Core’s personal computer. Somewhere deep in the Realm of Darkness. It will have everything, everything he ever did...and how to undo it. Cure Time, make his half heartless and unversed test subjects normal again...and his diary.” “Hooray, stealth mission into Core’s personal base to steal all his shit…” I say while taking the paper and putting it in my pocket. “Hopefully if I'm there I can tell some people that fighting us is a terrible decision and fighting bigger problems would be a better choice…” I mumble. “Whatever the choice, it will be a long road til this is all over.” Yellow said as the train came to a stop. “Looks like we’re here. Time to see what Roxas never got to see.” He said as we got up and left the train. Outside was...ocean for as far as they eye could see. People playing and relaxing, vendors selling snacks and such, people surfing and fishing. “Wow...it’s nice.” Yellow said with a smile. “Beautiful.” I smile gently. “And here I thought Destiny Island was a nice sight. So what do you want to do first here?” “Fish. Zeke only did it once, and it was...nice.” “Well I'm not entirely sure if this is the best place to fish but I'm sure we could find a fishing boat in town somewhere.” I say, wondering how fishing would be. “And honestly, this will be my first time fishing.” “It’s not hard. Sure there’s a place with fishing gear somewhere around here.” While Ben and Yellow were fishing, Joy, Aqua, and Terra all searched the world, looking for answers to Aqua’s parents. “So much damage.” Terra said. “Yellow most likely did this...whether on his own or orders I have no idea.” Joy frowned. “But there has to be something here to give us a lead.” Joy mutters, still searching around. “Over here!” Aqua called out, Joy and Terra running over to her. She stood in front of a building. “Notice what’s up?” She asked. “Besides the building?” Joy asks, looking at the house in detail. “It’s the only thing standing whole.” Terra said. “How? With the work down everywhere...why is this building still standing?” “Either because it's enchanted, Yellow didn't want it destroyed, or something else.” Joy frowned, walking over to the building and knocking on the front door. “Hello?” Aqua walked up to the wall, she summoned her Keyblade and hit it, and it phased right though the wall. She used her free hand, and touched the wall. “A Keyblade can’t affect it. Can’t even touch it.” She said in awe. “Wonder how?” Terra questioned, walking next to Joy and trying to open the door. “Locked… And if Keyblades can’t affect it, how do we get in?” Joy summoned Lindworm and tried to poke the building with one of his spears, hoping it'll actually connect. It did not. “Okay…” He muttered while channeling Nothingness into his hand and trying to touch the building, wondering if a type of energy could touch it. Nothing happened when he touched it with nothingness. Aqua, taking her turn, took a deep breath… and kicked the door wide open. She then looked over at Joy and Terra. “You two overthink things a bit.” She said, walking in. “Well sorry if I was trying to figure out if his place was a mimic or something.” Joy frowned and walked in after her. All three instantly noticed that the inside was...larger than it should be. The door then shut closed behind them, each bringing out their Keyblades as something was heard moving around them, yet the room was too dark to see. “Is it a heartless?” Terra asked. Joy frowned and summoned one of his chakrams, setting it on fire to bring some light into the room. “Well let's see…” He muttered, ready for a sudden fight. At the edge of the flames light, there was a small machine of sorts. It’s metal rusted and bent. “What is that?” Aqua questioned. It’s size was no bigger than a moogle, but was like a snake and spider fused together. It’s face, a single, cracked glass lense. “Hello?” Joy asked, wondering if the machine was actually sentient, taking a careful step closer to the rusted machine. It made some kind of noise, then a green light flashed over the trio that came from the machine. It made a few more noises before it actually spoke. “T...Tes...Testing. Damn. Long time since I used this mic. Hello there. I’m Jonny.” It spoke from an unseen speaker. “Hello, the names Joy. And my two concerned friends here are Terra and Aqua.” Joy says to this Jonny. “Ah, well I already know Aqua. Long time no see, last time I saw you, you were bearly a year old.” Jonny said. “Wait, you...you know me? Did you know my parents?” Aqua asked. “Yes. They built me. Your father was an amazing engineer.” Jonny replied. “Well...that's something.” Joy muttered. “What were her parents names?” Joy asks curiously. “Her father was named Bradley, and her mother, Echo.” Jonny answered. “It’s good to see you have become a Keyblade Master Aqua, I am sure your parents would have been proud. So, I take it you are wondering why this building is immune to all forms of attacks, save for those performed by the body?” “Because the planet was reduced to a barren wasteland?” Joy asked bluntly. “And the people who made it didn't want it destroyed?” “This base has been hidden here for generations. The incident that took place several months ago leading to the mass extinction of life on the planet was...an unseen event, but, everything in this base is safe, as was the job of Aqua’s parents.” “Why...did they leave me on the Land of Departure then?” She asked. “It’s taboo for members within the organization to conceive a child. If they had kept you, your life would have been nothing but study, books, and research. You would never have been allowed to leave the base. They wanted you to have a life, so they left you with Ericis in hopes you’d find them someday after you became a proper Keyblade Master.” “But then why did they leave me a message saying that they were...dead?” “An experiment in the lower labs went bad. All active members developed severe levels of cancer, and had days to live.” “Cancer? Really?” Joy asks honestly. “I know it sounds bad but when you said an experiment went bad I either thought of a mutated monster or an explosion…” “No. They were experimenting with solar radiation and how it can be used in spells when it went wrong, those who weren’t immediately killed developed the cancer.” “But...why radiation though?” Joy asks worriedly. “Radiation is dangerous in any situation..” “Yes, but when infused with light, can be a powerful tool against the heartless.” “So...where are they...buried?” Aqua asked. “Floor fifteen. The Catacombs.” Jonny said, a doorway opening on the wall behind him, revealing an elevator. “Given you are blood to members, you have access to the whole base.” Jonny said to Aqua. “And can we join?” Joy asked, thinking that it was an Aqua only thing. “If Aqua says it’s alright, I can initiate the recruitment protocol.” “I mean Terra is marrying Aqua and I'm just a friend... “ Joy says, looking at Aqua for her answer to this. “Of course.” Aqua said. “Then follow me. Before we can head to the catacombs, it’s best we get you two registered.” Jonny said...walking...sorta, into the elevator as we followed him in. A bit of a wait later the doors opened and inside was something that looked like a doctors office. “You two take a seat, Aqua, you can head to floor fifteen if you wish.” “And why do we have to wait?” Joy asked curiously. “Doc bot is old.” Jonny said, he and Aqua heading down to the Catacombs while Terra and I waited in the doctor's office. After a while, a literal metal box on wheels rolled in here from a door that opened up on a different wall. “H-E-L-L-O. I. A-M. D-O-C. B-O-T.” It said with a very cartoony robot voice. “Oh my god.” Joy muttered. “Hi.” He says to Doc Bot. “P-L-E-A-S-E. D-E-P-O-S-I-T-E. B-L-O-O-D. S-A-M-P-L-E.” It asked, opening a compartment where two of the needle doctors and people with diabetes use to check blood sugar were as well as two cotton balls. “Guess we better get it over with.” Terra said, taking a needle and cotton ball, quickly pressing the button on the little device that drove the needle into his finger. With that done he squeezed out some blood and wiped it with the cotton ball, putting it back into the compartment it came from. “You’re turn.” Joy gulped down his whimper, not liking the fact he had to use a needle but bearing with it and giving the robot a small bit of his blood. “There…” The robot then took both samples back into itself. Some time and rather...strange noises. Finally, two cards popped out of it, Terra grabbing both as it rolled itself back into the doorway in the wall as it closed behind it. “Here.” Terra said, handing me an ID card apparently, it had my picture on it, as well as a barcode and nothing else. “Let’s go meet back up with Aqua.” “Let’s hope she didn't see anything...too bad yet.” Joy says worriedly before heading off to find Aqua. As they go down and the doors open on floor fifteen, they are met with a large all stone opening where a single set of old metal doors, one open slightly, were guarded by two sets of very old looking Keyblade armor on each side. “Wonder if those keyblade armor’s are sentient…” Joy says while walking up to the door Aqua most likely entered. Once inside, they saw many stone coffins lining hollowed out spaces within the walls, and it went on for quite the distance. “Well…” He muttered, seeing all the coffins and not sure where to start. “Must be further ahead. Come on.” Terra said, leading the way. At some point the hallway came to a fork, both stairways, one going up and one going down. “Which way do you think we should go?” Terra asked. “I'll go upstairs.” Joy said while taking the upstairs route. Terra nodded, going downstairs. Joy was met with, surprisingly, a plaque, names written rather tiny into the black/grey stone, painted with white to make them clearer to read. Terra was met with more coffins, though, these ones were set up in rows in a massive chamber lit by strange glowing crystals. Joy went up to the plaque, looking though the names. “Okay...so lets see these names…” He muttered to himself, looking through the names trying to find her parents. While Joy read though the list, Terra finally found Aqua, standing between two coffins, each bearing keyblades he’d never seen before. One was a red and gold patterned metal, the blade shaped like five suns with the tip being a purple and black, blackhole. The other, was like space itself made up the blade with a solar system as the tip. Slowly, he walked up to her. “Aqua?” She was silent, then finally spoke. “These are my parents Terra...their final resting place.” “Are their names here?” “Yes.” She placed a hand on the coffin with the space looking Keyblade. “May, my mother.” She placed her other hand on the other coffin. “Jack Brothmer, my father…” The sun was setting at the final few hours on Yellow’s time were coming to an end. “It was a nice day, huh?” Yellow asked me. “Was it a nice day for you?” I ask him. “Did today fulfill your final wish my friend?” “Heh. If I could have anything else, I’d like to make up for all the wrong I did under Core. Sadly, nothing can wash off that blood...Do you think there is an afterlife for things like me?” “There's an afterlife for everything. Whether they be good or bad that's up to what you choose to do...but I hope you have a good life in the beyond cause...you really didn't deserve to do such things…” I shook my head gently. “But...you going out with an explosion or what?” I ask, not sure what will happen when Yellow dies. “Yeah. The energy of about a multiverse worth of hearts from four different people reside in me and this false X-blade. When it finally breaks, I’d be ripping a hole through space itself. I already picked out a place I can go to where nothing will be harmed. From here, you’d be able to see it actually. Like fireworks from space.” “That's quite an explosion…” I say. “I hope Sora Riku and Kairi can rest in peace...Xehanort can suck a dick though…” I say, thinking all their souls and hearts will be free in the explosion. “Whatever happens, things will be set right… Let me ask, do you know what happens to a person whose heart is split in two?” “Wait...when a heart is split in two?” I ask curiously. “Like what happened to Zeke, the Foreteller’s friend Crow. Do you know what makes their splittings different than that of Ventus and Vanitus’s all those years ago?” “Either their light and darkness had more of a personality to start with.” I suggest. “But besides that...I have literally no idea. That is something completely new to me.” “Zeke and Crow’s hearts are balanced. Crow’s heart was unstable though, his light and dark half conflicting more than they did agree. If his heart was like Zeke’s, who’s light and dark halves both agreed and cared for each other, Crow could have wielded the X-blade. But this is also what makes them splitting so unique. “While being balanced, in a normal heart, one’s personality is linked to what is dominant in their heart, light or darkness. For Ventus, his light was the most dominant, so when he was split, his light half still held his true self, yet having balanced hearts, Zeke and Crow’s halves both have different, yet similar personalities to their whole self, yet the combined result that is Zeke or Crow is no more. But, as you know, nothing can really be destroyed or just disappear, so, where do you think it went?” “They reformed into something?” I ask. “No, they are moved. Core has lived a long time and performed many a unique and unorthodox tests, and came up with a theory. When a heartless is slain by a Keyblade, the heart is released, and the darkness that was the heartless is destroyed, but that’s impossible, and not all the darkness returns to the Realm of Darkness, same thing with Nobodies, they don’t fade to darkness, so when he split Crow and saw this unique difference between the two halves, he believed that what you would call the ‘True Crow’ and ‘True Zeke’ might have been placed into a space that acts as a placeholder for things that are ‘no longer existing’. And no, not the realm of nothingness, something else.” “Void?” I ask, thinking that's the only thing for ‘no longer existing’ stuff. “Something akin to it, he called it Purgatory. A place where energy that’s displaced ends up. He thinks if it does exist then it must have been made when the original ‘Homeworld’ was split into the many worlds and reflections we have now. That’s when the most energy would have been misplaced and displaced, and the first time it would have happened.” “Huh...that's interesting.” I nod. “Wonder if such a place does exist…” “Core tried to see if it did, but it’s hard to tell. It’s not like a reflection, so it’s a theory until proven otherwise.” “And technically I could ask someone if it does exist...but I think he's busy at the moment.” I say, not sure if Cript would have the time to talk considering he was busy. “Well…” I mutter, pulling out my Assistant and sending Cript a message about this Purgatory Yellow explained, wondering it indeed exists. ”Long time no see their.” Both my and Yellow’s backs crawled with fear at hearing that voice. We both turned around, seeing Zeke’s Psychopath light half...and that parallel me… I sent a call to Cript, saying it was an emergency. “Why hello there me...and...whatever your name is I accidentally forgot.” I say nervously, not sure what to do here. ”Just Psychopath. Finally met up with my Kin and we all got down to discussing our plans. As it turns out, we have a means to bypass a special requirement thanks to this host.” “Is it how to make cookies and throw none murderous parties?” I ask worriedly. “If we find and force Drezke to reunite with his light half here, Psycho can take over, and wield the X-blade.” My parallel spoke. ”With him whole and your realms precious kingdom hearts under my control, dead, the weak living, heartless and nobodies alike will be hosts.” I was about to say something about their plan, but something struck me as odd. “You do know sooner or later you'll just kill yourselves right?” I ask. “If you murder everything like you want...there will be nothing tk murder but yourselves...and you can’t kill a fact right? So...you're being a bit self destructive here.” ”We are the fact of murder, and you can’t kill that, this is true...unless there is nothing left to kill. The final death of the last living thing will be the death of ourselves as well. Destruction of everything, even ourselves, is beauty in our eyes.” “Well your opinion is wrong and you should feel ashamed about it.” I frown. “Destruction is fine to some extent, like blowing up a random bike with C4...this spiral of death is stupid and pointless and you know it.” I frown. Psychopath just smiled. ”And that’s what makes it fun.” He then was in front of me, holding me by my neck and gripping tighter. Come on, fight me, it will call Drezke here and make my job easier.” “I call bull on you snuffing out Zekes light half.” I growl, clawing at his hand and trying to get him to stop choking me. “If you did...then why didn't you go to Zeke’s world and kill everyone?” I ask, summoning my keyblade and slashing at his arm to get him off me. ”Because Cript is watching over it.” He said, my slashes not even cutting him. He increased his grip. ”That blasted reflection is the only being aside from the ones from where I was first born to be able to stand against me and even kill my links directly.” I raised my eyebrow at that, cutting my hand and dripping blood on Reunion. When I barely noticed it was turning a grayish red I swung my keyblade at him quickly, trying to get him off my neck. That seemed to work, a gash on his arm and he let go of me. I let air go into my lungs again as he chuckled, his wound healing up quickly. ”Not bad. That actually hurt.” “Ben…” I turned around...seeing Drezke there. “I warned you.” “Was choking to death, shut the fuck up and run. You being here is giving them exactly what they want.” I say worriedly, summoning Frozen Pride and readying myself to fight. As Psycho took a step, Yellow grabbed Drezke, holding the false X-blade up to his neck. “You can tell I’m unstable. Can’t you, you freak. Take another step, I accelerate my decay, taking you, Drezke, and this whole world out. Even if you survive, I doubt Drezke will.” I tried calling Cript again, saying it was a Psychopath emergency in hopes that'll get his ass here sooner. “Listen to him, he will explode and kill everyone. You won't be able to come together again and try to force your will on everyone.” I say, hoping words will help solve this. Psychopath smirked. ”Heh, respect… Do it.” He said, taking a step forward. ”The Genocide will be worth it.” I tried to think for a moment, trying to figure out what to do. I could try to be a distraction and let them escape...or I could be an idiot and do something stupid. “Hey look Cript!” I shout and point to a random direction to try and distract them, rushing over to Yellow and Drezke and readying my first attempt for a Door To Nothingness. ”Please let this work…” I think to myself worriedly, grabbing the two and pulling them into an opening DTN. Joy read through every name, finding Aqua’s parents after Terra walked up with Aqua. As it turned out, Joy was in the records room. And they found the files. There was a video log for Aqua from her parents. They played the video, Aqua’s dad was where she got her blue hair, and she looked a lot like her mom, who was a blond haired version of her, only older by at least ten years. ”Aqua, if you are seeing this, you have found the long forgotten base of the ancient guardians. It’s likely dead now.” Her father spoke. “Aqua, I know you have a million questions, and sadly, I don’t think any of them will be answered, but know this. We love you, and we...we only gave you up so you can have a life, see the worlds, not be cooped up in some lab for your whole life.” Her mother spoke. “These may be the only words you hear our voices say, and we are sorry for that.” “We have high hopes you live your life to the fullest. Wether you use this place to help the world's or choose to let the it rest in peace, we will respect your decision.” “On floor seven, the control room for this whole base, there will be two buttons on a large metal table in the furthest edge of the room. The one on the left will let this place rest, the one on the right will breath a new life Into both the world, and the base. It's your choice Aqua, make it matter.” “And remember.” “Let your heart be your guiding key.” “Ugh...my head.” I grunt, feeling like I was just hit by a bus. I try and stand, haphazardly regaining my balance...why is everything dark? “The hell?” I mutter, rubbing my eyes to try and clear them. When I opened my eyes there was some light, like the kind in an interrogation room, and infront of me, were words written in some sort of stone. To define one's uniqueness is to know yourself when lost in infinity “Weird….” I mutter, mulling over what I just read. “Know myself when lost in infinity?” I blinked...and saw...me...countless me’s. I could see through all of their eyes...where... where's MY body?! ”Find you.” A whisper like voice spoke. “Great...one of these puzzles…” I mutter, hearing my own words echo as I tried to find me. “Okay...so where to start…” I echo, starting to think this is some Where’s Waldo shit. I took a deep breath and started to move around, seeing myself move around as well. I flew around, ducking around to see better, but the puzzle still seemed confusing to me. I frowned before taking a deep breath, closing my eyes, and started to focus on all of my senses, feeling something off in the distance. I started to move towards the spot I felt it didn't seem to be moving away. What felt like an hour later I reached out and grabbed what I sensed, opening my eyes to see what I grabbed. I was...in my body again, and in front of a door like the ones in castle oblivion. There were fourteen locks, seven on each side, four of them were lit up, and has the outline of my card deck, gun arrows, scythe, and reunion next to them. The rest were dark and had no image next to them. “So this is the final gate huh?” I wonder to myself, seeing the four lights. “Hmm…” I mutter while summoning the four weapons in question, and the ones had the writing on it. “Maybe it's because of the writing?” I wonder, looking around to see if someone else was here. When I turned around, I saw there was another door, this one like the one from the beginning of Kingdom Hearts one, and it was open. “Well okay then.” I nod, disbanding my weapons. “Don't worry, I'll get off my ass and master the other weapons.” I say to the inanimate door, knowing someone was behind it as I walked towards the open door and entered it. Once through it, I was...this is my Station of awakening. There was me, and it looked like a Dusk suit was being shed off of me, showing me in my old white cloak, a circle with each of my wives faces in it, Joy, and the others I met who were from earth. Each smiling, and several more that were blank...for the ones to come… I was holding Reunion in my hand...there was something else there, under where the Dusk was being ‘shed’ off of me...I walked over to it, and saw Rejection...setting down against a wall surrounded by darkness. “The hell are you doing here?” I ask, wondering why Rejection was here. “Because you’re an idiot.” I jumped, turning around...and saw Rejection was there. He looked like a black furred, grey haired version of me with green eyes. “I was gonna say it looked more like a good metaphor of me shedding away my rejection and the feeling of being nothing.” I explain. “But if your still here and Joy is looking around a planet with Terra and Aqua...I have a feeling we still have some unfinished business.” “You fool. I am more than just a neglected emotion. I. Am. Your. Darkness. The darkness in your heart. You’ll never be rid of me.” “Sounds good to me, having another voice in my head helps make me feel more at home.” I chuckle. “You laugh now, but every ounce of pain, sorrow and grief you have experienced in life, I feel every second of every day because your darkness is where you shove it all. Like a child putting unwanted toys under the bed or in the backmost corner of the closet.” “Hmm…” I hum. “I'm sensing a sudden trend here...like what Yellow talked about with Crow and Zeke…” I frown. “So my shadowy friend, how are we going to bond over this?” I ask, feeling like it's going to be a bonding type thing between me and my darkness. “We are not like Crow, Zeke, or even Eclipse. Darkness was never meant to exist. You and I, my other half, are stuck like this. There are only two ways out of this shit hole all hearts deal with.” “I'm a stubborn fuck, so there's going to be a third.” I state. “But mind reminding me about these two ways?” He summoned a Keyblade...my old Dusk Blade. “You die.” He then raised it up to his neck. “Or I do.” “Or we could do what Zeke, Crow, and Eclipse did.” I state. “Light, Darkness, Nothingness and Void...you can't have one without the other. A lot of people on any side believe only one can prevail for some fucking reason.” I roll my eyes. “So how about we figure out how to both live without the murder. Okay?” “...Remember these?” He asked, lifting up his sleeve...I remember those cuts. “From the writs up to the inner elbow. That’s what you want when you want results. We learned that from the internet, didn’t we.” I gently held my arm at the sight. “Yeah…” I sigh out. “But...if you look down, you can see all the new things that kept us both alive...and gave us something we thought was impossible.” “Maybe for you.” He said, covering his arm. “Even with all this happiness, you are full of doubt, fear, worry. You talked with Celestia just earlier today about your fears, and where do you think that sewer truck of emotions, worry and grief off loads. At least Zeke’s light and darkness share that crap… Darkness’s like me… I don’t believe there’s hope for us in that regard.” “That's because you haven't been given a helping hand yet.” I say to him. “I'm sorry you have suffered keeping all the pain on your shoulders...but I'm here…” I say. “And all my...our wives are here for us both. Don't be the glass half empty man in an orgy full of sexy women.” Rejection chuckled. “Since when were we the pep talk type?” “Since we...finally got the second chance we hoped for.” I smile. “Or maybe it was after we finally get to nail Celestia...it was somewhere in between there I'm sure.” I chuckle. “Sheesh, it's barely been a full year and...look where we are now?” “Yeah. I guess we have come a long way in a short amount of time.” Rejection said, holding out a hand. “Time for you to wake up now, me.” “Don't worry me, you'll be feeling more joy than pain from here on okay?” I say to him, not entirely sure why he raised his hand but I raised my fist up. “Fist bump?” I ask with a smile. “Heh. Dork.” He said, fist bumping mine. “So...What do you wanna do Aqua?” Terra asked, he, Aqua and Joy in the room with the buttons, facing the table that would decide if the Guardians of Light would live again, or die quietly. “It’s up to you.” Joy says to Aqua simply. Aqua was hesitant. The fate of a whole ancient society was in her hands. She gulped. “I...I think I know what to do.” To be continued...
Nobody's trip to the futureMy Training with Arpeggio was simpler that my other weapons so far. The basics of it was learning to align my thoughts/actions with the tune of the music I played. Demy helped me memorized the healing spells, which thankfully the longest of which was half a minute, but healed the most, but also the slowest. Demy even showed me some of the more frowned upon songs affiliated with it’s spells. Some were understandable. Mind control, causing internal bleeding, freezing one targets blood from within, others were a tad strange, such as a spell called Incubation, the song of which was a challenge to play, and the result would be an aquatic, sentient creature that did what told until death. “Now then, Ben, Remember this one Key rule,” Medy began explaining as I listened with intent. “If you are performing a massive spell, and let your emotions cloud your focus, one wrong flick of the strings and the spell and/or attack will backlash at you, and you will die. Only one person has ever survived a Master level spell with these kinds of weapons backlashing, and that was because his ally was a good healer.” “Okay then…” I said. “Honestly...I thought this would be the most complicated considering I'm learning to wield a weapon, waterbending, how to play certain music, and learn how to play this thing in the first place.” I said honestly. “You can make up songs off the top of your head, but learning to play these weapons are really the hardest part, and memorizing what notes to play the song for attacking and spellcasting is fairly easy.” Medy explained, tuning his own instrument/weapon. I never looked at his closely. It was wood, unlike Arpeggio, which was a metal of some sorts, and had runeworks of sorts engraved along the neck and a few nics, knife carved from the looks of it, in its body. Seven in all. “What's with the runes and knife nics?” I asked curiously. “Hm?” He pondered, proceeding to look upon his own weapon. “Oh, right. This was my dad’s. Growing up my sis and I worked with Mom, Dad, and my uncle working on our kelp and koral farm. Sharks were a real pain back home, and whenever dad killed a big one, and I mean bigger than you and I stacked on top of one another, he carved a nic into his weapon with one of their own teeth.” “And he killed seven of them?” I asked, finding this fascinating. “Yup. Their teeth made great knives, jaws made good decor, and the meat sold well. All in all we did well…” “I'm sensing a ‘but’ here.” I said worriedly. “Dad lent me his to practice with some friends in town… when I came back, there was only my sister...and a lot of blood and...limbs. It was a smaller shark, and a bit fat, but fast. It got what it wanted and left. After that Trident ordered guards to patrol the whole farming oceans. Mad work hard, and for our loss, he gave us a steady allowance from the crown that will continue until that money is needed elsewhere. Elsewhere came when I was about sixteen. By then sis was working in a salon and I just messed with this thing, feeling...responsible… I left, walked dry land for a long time till I came across a world traveler I hitch hiked with. Time went on, one thing led to another. I’m twenty two now and not too long ago you saved my sis and I from slavery.” “Okay then.” I said. “That's...quite a thing.” I muttered. “But...you still have a good life right now right?” “I’m putting dad’s tool to good use. I’d say so.” Demy said simply, finishing his tuning. “Alright then, well, that’s about it. I taught you everything I know.” “Now, do I just get it with you saying ‘I mastered it’ or do I have to beat you in a fight?” I frowned, looking over Arpeggio for the symbol to show I mastered it. “These may be weapons, but they are still instruments dude, no one can ‘Master’ these things, it’s just how much skill you have.” “Ya see, my other weapons actually had symbols on them to signify I've mastered them…” I told him, pulling out Fair Game and showing him the symbol on it. “Its appeared for all my other weapons either through fighting my master, doing a specific thing or was told I mastered it.” “Well, I dunno what to tell you there. If it’s a fight you need sorry, look elsewhere. I only use Dad’s tool to protect and heal, fighting and duals are a big no.” “Okay then.” I said, still looking over the thing. “Sorry…” “It’s alright.” Medy said, standing up and stretching. “Well, I’m gonna head back to the hospital. Kids are gonna be let out soon, and I wanna play them a few more tunes before they head home.” “Alright.” I nodded. “Hope it'll all go well.” I said, wondering what I have to do to fully master it. “Hey...what is the purpose of this?” I asked, motioning to my Sitar. “Like...as a ‘weapon’.” “Huh...Well I’m not sure. Did you make it?” Medy asks, tilting his head as he pulled his arms behind his head to lean it into the connected grip of his hands. “No…” I said. “Funny thing is...in another time this was your Nobody’s weapon.” I said, handing Arpeggio over to him. “You can look it over if you want.” “Huh?” He said, taking the weapon/instrument in his hands. I could tell from his expression that it felt natural for him to hold it. “It’s...quality made, that’s for sure. Titanium strings, a body made from I don’t even know what, but this thing looks like it can tank if used as a blunt object.” He said, finally letting himself play a few strings, before hearing the first few notes, then proceed to toss it half into the water. “I hate it.” “Why do you hate it?” I asked, walking over and picking it out of the water. “Is it not tuned or what?” He sat in the sand, legs crossed as he bore a rather grumpy expression. “It’s perfect. It’s body built to resonate the music for ears great distances away can hear, string so well tuned and strong, the player never need fear a retuning or a string breaking. It’s the perfect weapons for fighting, and the perfect instrument for playing, but, it lacks heart. When you play it, it sounds fine, but when I played it, the notes felt tuneless, and hollow.” I held Arpeggio and played the notes gently. “Dance Water Dance.” I said, closing my eyes and playing a tune that seemed to come to me when I said that, water swirling around me as water clones were made, the music sounding soothing and nice, but held a mysterious undertone that only water could hold. When the song ended, and the water clones disbursed, Demy sat there, expression unchanged but thoughtfulness was in his eyes. “I just don’t get it.” He said, sighing. “In your hands, it played properly, in mine...it was emotionless.” I frowned, looking over it. “Hmm…” I muttered, deciding this time to use my Assistant to see what was up with this thing. Arpeggio Type: Instrumental Weapon Att: Varies Def: 0 Mag 20 Arpeggio was created with unique ores found only within The Realm Between, AKA, Nothingness. These ores rarely slip into the realms of light and darkness, and outside it’s respected realm, is nearly indestructible. It’s the only weapons of the Organization 13, to be crafted with these materials and in this manner. When played by a Nobody, or being possessing Nothingness, it will play with heart, and it’s music will influencing the spells and attacks used with it(+15 to physical attacks, +17 to magic attacks/spells typically). But, when wielded by a being with a heart and no connection to Nothingness it’s music will play hollow, and empty, and drastically reduce its effectiveness(-20 to Physical attacks, -25 to magical attacks/spells). “Okay then, apparently this thing was made from materials in the Realm of Nothing...so that's why it's hollow for you and not me.” I said simply. “Huh. What about it's sewn in song?” Medy asked, much to my confusion. He rolled his eyes at this. “Each of these weapons has a special sewn in song, the song given to it that holds a special place to it's wielder/player.” “No idea…” I said, gently plucking the strings. “Hmm…” I muttered, wondering if it's the same song that Demyx used in his fight. “Sewn in music…” I muttered, trying to figure out what kind of song this thing had. “A song that holds a special place to me…” I muttered, lost in thought as I just played whatever came to mind. The notes I played felt...random. There wasn’t a tune or rhythm. Damn it. “Maybe you should try to keep a clear head. These songs aren’t exactly easy learn if your sitar was acquired rather than made.” “Maybe…” I muttered, taking a deep breath and trying to clear my usually clouded head. “Hmm…” Clearing my mind was a tad troubling, but I soon could hear the faint sounds of it’s Sewn in Song. It wasn’t what I expected, but it was pretty good all the same. It was very up beat, alive, and full of life. “Holy shit.” Demy said. I opened my eyes and Arpeggio was glowing, runes running along its neck, it’s color changing from a pale blue to a bright, vibrant blue, and it’s mastered symbol was on it’s top. “Now that...was cool.” I smiled. “Hooray!” I cheered happily. “Never heard of the song but I liked it.” I said honestly, glad to see it was more bright and the master symbol was there. “Know the song?” “Nope. Never heard of it.” Demy stated. “Well, guess you’re done here. What next for you?” “Next up…” I said, checking my Assistant for the time so I didn't miss my meeting with Death. The time was still pretty early. I had at least three hours to kill. “No idea…” I frowned, but my stomach growled. “Okay maybe food time, know any good places around here?” I asked, not really knowing the layout of New Manehattan. “Nope. We just have the Cafe, food donations from all around are sent and served there. No restaurants have been built here yet.” “Right, well better go off to the Cafe...actually, do you know where Papyrus is?” I asked curiously, having forgotten to try and talk to the guy considering Sans gave him the crown if memory serves. “Just wondering.” “In the Cafe. He cooks there all the time.” Demy said. I was going to reply, but I felt this twinge in my head, this...agonizing roar of...something. Something was very, very wrong with Nothingness. I lurched, clutching my head as blood came from my eyes, nose and mouth. Something was being made...something that Nothingness can’t stand for. “Fuck me…” I mutter, weakly snapping my fingers as a DTN appear. “Okay you...take me to...wherever the hell…” I muttered, curing myself so I felt good enough before entering the portal to whatever the hell is going on. I walked into it, and collapsed, seeing an armored foot step before me as all went black. I woke up sore all over. Everything was...pain. Wincing, I moved to get up. I saw my cloak was missing, and I was in a bedroom. The decor was...surreal. Grey, white, and black, with only the wood and a few paintings and tapestries popping against the colors. I noticed the door, the Nobody symbol painted on the dark brown wood… Am I...in the castle? “Don’t. Move.” A voice said. I looked around, not seeing anything or anyone...until I looked up. My eyes widened at the sight of an old man, eye’s long since gone bad, all wrinkled skin and bones, hair a light grey, and wearing a cloak that bore similarities to the Sniper nobodies… he was pointing Sharp Shooters at me. “My king has ordered me to keep you here until he arrives.” “I was going to go to...wherever the hell that massive disturbance was...why am I here?” I asked groggily, still in pain from whatever the hell happened. “The King needs you. You are now the only one in line for his crown. What Kexez has done, tossed him out for the running.” “Valingar.” The door opened with the King of Nothing entering, looking up and who must be...the Archer. “You can take your leave.” The old man nodded, teleporting away as the king walked up to me. “How are you feeling, my heir?” He asked. Calm and sympathy in his voice. “Oh you know, just got done mastering Arpeggio and then suddenly Kexez is being a cunt. So I’d say I'm doing fine." I said honestly. “So, besides me not having dried blood on my head, what happened?” “Kexez, and the Nobody known as Spoiled Rich. You know them both, correct?” “I didn't know Spoiled was a Nobody but yes, I do know the two I want to murder.” I said honestly. “They have formed an alliance, and committed an act that disobeys the natural order of all realms. Kexez, Nothingness, and Light, Spoiled, Nothingness and darkness. What they created will be a great danger to us all.” “Is it worse than a Delete?” I asked curiously. “It may as well be. Tell me, what do you know about Nobodies like Spoiled and Kexez?” “Ones fueled by Psychopath blood and the other is a complete and total bitch. But Organization level nobodies? Um...not much to be perfectly honest.” I said with a frown. “All I know is that they're strong enough to keep their original bodies and selves to a certain extent if that's at all correct.” “Correct. Typically, without a heart, their bodies are also infertile. However, Kexez’s connection to Kingdom hearts overrides that, and all the darkness Spoiled has collected within her allows her to work around such restrictions. In sort, they are parenting a being of light, darkness, and nothing. I’ve allowed Spoiled, Core before her, and Kexez to exist because they interested me with what they have done, but this has gone too far. Never have all three been brought together. Such a being could unravel the laws that keep the balance between the four realms.” “And now all they need is Void and out comes Captain Planet.” I said sarcastically. “But great, I need to murder an infant because their too strong apparently, wonders.” “It won’t be that easy Ben. This child will be protected. Imagine it, a heart fueld with Non Existence, and forged from the strongest of light and darkness. While so much as near Spoiled while she has this abomination growing within her, every heartless in the realm of darkness will be after you, and Nobodies may not obey you if it’s will is stronger. If this child is born, then from there it becomes a battle of who takes it to raise.” He placed a hand on my shoulder, and even though he was fully armored, I could feel him staring into mine. “If this child is not killed before it’s birth, whoever takes it and raises it will have a weapon the likes of which the X-blade might not overcome.” “Well...that's not good.” I frowned. “But...might as well keep the child away from Spoiled and Kexez.” I said, not sure how this whole thing is gonna work out. “If you can not kill it before it is birthed, then keep it away from evil influences. Whatever it is, it will be the first, and let’s hope only one of it’s kind.” “If I've learned anything from this crazy life of mine, it's only going to get worse.” I shook my head. “Like how I thought Core was the big bad, then Psychopaths...and then Deletes and their Galactus rules...” I frowned. “But...all I can hope for is that the kid, when he's born cause fuck if it's going to be an ‘if’, is that he or she is raised by a good family and treated right.” I say honestly, not sure if I'll be the lucky guy to have the super baby here. “So, know anyone that can teach me how to use Ethereal Blades or a Claymore?” I asked, hoping to know about those two so I can speed up training as well as know who I can train with cause I don't know anyone who can train me in those two weapons. “Hm. My General and Archer are the only ones of the original council of mine still alive. Claymore I can teach, but the Ethereal blades are a whole other matter entirely.” “Of course…” I sighed out. “But that's great to know.” “Once you have mastered Lunatic, I will inform you about how to Master the Ethereal blades. Understood?” “Yep.” I nodded. “So, where's the training area?” “There is none. At least, not anymore.” The king said, exiting the room as I followed. Outside this room was...ruins… Walls crumbled and cracked, large sections of roof caved in or collapsed completely. We came to a bridge… There was a long fall down to an unseeable ground...but all I could see of what should have been a massive and tall castle, was part of a corner of what must have been the main building, and the tower behind us we exited. “God damn…” I muttered. “What happened?” “This castle as I and the rest of the council were here before your single reality and world became multiple. Core breaking it apart, creating the stars and the multiverse shattered this castle. Your realities were never meant to be what they are, they existed to be whole.” He said simply, his voice toneless and emotionless. Still, I could feel hints of sadness. “This castle was large enough that all of Home and then some could all walk and live in it without worry or overcrowding and lack of space. Now, bearly a nano percentage remains.” “Well...I'm sure I can fix it up.” I said honestly. “If the worlds and realities are made whole again, then this castle’s damage will also be undone. Till such time this castle is to remain as is, a reminder of its past glory. Rebuild the building but lose it’s meaning. At least Ruins and rubble can tell history.” “True…” I said. “But rebuilding can help bring back said glory, sometimes it's good to rebuild great things.” The king kept walking, but turned his head to look at me. “Perhaps when you claim the crown, you can make that change. For now so long as I adorn it, this place will remain as is.” “Of course.” I nodded. “So, how am I going to learn Lunatic?”I asked, not knowing how this weapon would be taught. “One of the few remaining rooms here is the Cathedral. It’s there where my General lives and awaits orders.” He said, stopping just before an edge of the unstable floor to a far...far drop. “So...it's down there?” I asked curiously,not knowing the layout of the place. “Yes, don’t worry about the fall, ths realm has no meaning to injury or death.” He spoke, before kicking his heavy foot into my back and sent me falling. Trying, I attempted to summon any weapon to help me fly...none came. “Shit!” I yelped, trying to fly without any of my weapons since I mastered them. “Come on…” I muttered worriedly. Sadly, nothing came to me, and I hit the ground...hard. I wasn’t dead, but I was really sore. I groaned from the pain as I forced myself up. The ground shook with a loud crash that appeared next to me. The king landed on his feet, seemingly unphased by the fall. “I expected you able to call forth at least one of your weapons.” He said. “I don't know why none came…” I frowned, trying to summon any of my weapons again. “Hmm… I was afraid of this.” The king said, crossing his arms in thought. “Unlike Keyblades, our weapons have no counterparts, when given to a chosen council member, they are given a weaker copy. Since you summon my weapons, and vise versa, while we are within the same reality, only the strongest of us can summon them. For this I must leave Nothingness while you train with Grapth. So the weapons may come to you.” “Well that sucks.” I frowned. “But...I suppose it makes enough sense I suppose. So, Grapth...what kind of person are they?” I asked, wanting to know who I was going to deal with at least a little before meeting them. “I met Grapth in my travels, before I became king of nothing, before this realm had such title.” He started, walking as I followed him. “He wanted to create a weapon as large as a claymore, but was built for attacking area’s outside it’s point of impact. His end result was Lunatic, a weapon forged from a moon that survived it’s own solar systems destruction when it’s sun collapse into itself, and became a black hole. Grapth himself has been rather stirn, speaking only what needs to be spoken and being the image of blunt. He cuts no corners or gives slack.” “Wait, Lunatic was made from a moon that survived a sun collapsing? Damn.” I said, honestly surprised by my weapons history. “But okay then, better to have a straightforward teacher than anything.” “Yes. Fact is, The General is the only one of the council who can take the crown if the current king is to fall without an heir. In truth, Lunatic is stronger than Skysplitter in both speed, strength and density. In fact, under the moon, Lunatics power can equal that to a moon crashing full speed into a world, obliterating it to the core. Skysplitter may be able to split a world in half, but Lunatic is the strongest of all the weapons we’ve forged.” “Wow.” I said. “But...What about my other weapons? I know Graceful Dahlia came from a Demon Tree, but what about the others?” I asked, intrigued by the weapons origins. “Hm. I guess we have some time.” He spoke, leading me into what what must have been one impressive library in it’s time, but now, books and scrolls lay scattered all around. Twilight would be pissed. He took a seat at the only table in the room, as did I. “So, which do you want to know about first?” The king asked, several Dusks came up, placing bowls of fruit, sandwiches and some drinks and cups for us before leaving. “Lindworm, let's go with one of my favorite weapons.” I said, looking over the food. “Alright then. Now tell me, how many spears makeup Lindworm?” “Six if memory serves.” I said. “Heheheheheh, only six?” He questioned me with a laugh. “Lindworm is made from wind itself. So long as there's air, you can summon forth countless of them. At a cost, however. The more you summon, the less air their is in the world you are on. Summon too many, the world you are on will choke.” “Oh…” I frowned. “Thats...a thing. Well...let's go with Fair Game here.” “Fair game was made from materials found not of this dimension. It’s metals come from a dimension completely alien to all reflections. As you can guess they’re work through telepathy, changing size, sharp to dull, physical attacks to magic attacks, and can create pocket dimensions within the second dimension, allowing you to imprison those weak enough to be captured.” “Dorlu helped make me learn that.” I said honestly. “What about Skysplitter? I always wondered why it was called Skysplitter when it's an earth weapon.” “Skysplitter was...found, actually. It’s name from an epic battle we fought against demons eons back. It fell from the sky itself and its impact created a blast so powerful everything for ten thousand miles around was wiped out. My bridge keeper claimed it as a trophy, but it’s true origins were never known to us wholly.” “Huh. Looks like I'm gonna do some research on the thing.” I said, finding that interesting. “Frozen Pride?” “A comet that lost it’s speed, and was stuck in space. We realized it’s magical properties and soon came to understand that, is the wielder wanted it so, it’s ice could stop fifteen suns exploding and could become sharp enough to penetrate through dimensions and tear space apart. That, however, requires an almost lethal amount of magic.” “Cool...uh...no pun intended.” I said nervously. “What about my Lexicon? Book of...Retribution I think it's called?” “Ah. That one was a proud moment for us all. It’s a book crafted with illusion. In fact, that book technically does not exist, yet exists in all places in space and time, there fore, all answers you’d ever need can be found within its infinite pages.” The king then laughed, taking a drink of ale through a small crack in his helmet. “Well, save for one answer.” “What's that?” I asked curiously. “Cript’s death. Time and time again since I met him I searched for that answer, and time and time again the pages displayed blank to me. That means one of two things. Either the book does not know, or Cript is truly immortal… or perhaps he has always been dead. Who knows?” “I do…” I said. “Truth took it...the thing from Full Metal Alchemist took his death.” “Truth? Oh, then that is an issue… or perhaps it was part of events meant to transpire?” The king said, making me tilt my head in confusion. “Truth exists across all time, from the very beginning, to the eventual end. Some argue that Truth, and the Admin that made this realm before it was given to Cript worked together to forge it. It might be possible, given that information, that Cript’s stollen death, was used to become a fact of creation, and is the very reason all things seem to die...save for him. If you look at it like that, it’s a paradox in a sense.” “Wow…” I muttered. “That...is a thing.” I said, taking an apple and biting into it. “But...what about Eternal Flames?” I asked, wondering about my chakrams. “Forged from twin suns, both so small yet burns so hot they melt space itself. Making them was tricky, but once we crafted them, their fires can burn so hot they can create suns in empty space, and bring enough light to make the landscapes of void itself visible for several feet. That, is a near impossibility.” “Jeez, talk about needing a light.” I said in surprise. “Interdiction, why not go to light sabers here.” “I forged them personally.” The king admitted, making my eyes rise up. “Core claimed to be the first Nobody, but that title is rightfully mine.” He said, summoning one of them in his left hand. “Half my heart went into one blade, the other half, the second blade. Equal parts light and darkness within each. They are the strength of a heart put into weapon form. So long as you use them with courage and bravery, and fear no threats, their strength will not waver from you.” “Wow.” I blinked. “Maybe I should have left that for last cause...that's quite a thing.” I said honestly. “Um...I was told about Sharpshooters, apparently their some really expensive and rare gun arrows made from either stars or actual suns…” I said. “Is there anything about Sharpshooters I don't know about?” “No, actually, that’s about it. Most are magic based or enchanted in some way, but the ones the Archer uses are his own creation...he makes and sells them for a hefty profit. His loyalty is undeterable, but his greed often gets the better of him. Then again, can’t say I blame him. When I met him he was a penniless thief who couldn’t rob me with a dagger held at my throat. I took him along originally for extra carry weight, but when trouble came he picked up a crossbow and his true talents shined. He’s the oldest of my allies, and I’m glad he’s still alive with me to this day.” I nodded. “Yeah...funny how similar he sounds like Braig.” I chuckled. “But...what about Arpeggio? Seems like a pretty special sitar if only Nobody’s or people with the power of Nothing can use it.” “It was made when we first began crafting this castle. It was an attempt to infuse Nothing into a nonliving object. It worked, but it became weaponized, and bound to water when it spilled upon it. It was the first and only of its kind.” “Interesting.” I said. “And I guess Foudre was literally made out of lightning?” “Close. We forged them from Thor’s baby teeth. Hehehehehe. We are banned from Asgard till the end of time itself.” He began laughing from fond memories. “Too bad too, they have the best ales and booze.” “Huh...I wonder if that extends to me.” I wondered. “Question...given that things are a bit weird...do you know who Organization Thirteen is?” I asked curiously. “Of course. Despite they only exist in a single reflection now, I know well of them. Imposters, copy cats, but their motives weren’t as noble as yours.” The king said… One reflection...but didn’t Core…? “Wait, what do you mean ‘one reflection’? And imposters? I mean, sure they wanted to create their own Kingdom Hearts but…” I trailed off, not knowing how different they are. “I just call them imposters for daring to wield our weapons without my authority. As for their existence...you didn’t feel it?” “There's a lot of things I don't know, plus I...barely trained with Nothingness to begin with so there's that.” I frowned. “What did I miss while I had an ass ton of other things happen?” “To put it into words you can easily understand, Kexez created a Keyblade replica of the PC Ansem the wise stored Roxas in when repairing Sora’s heart for that week. As a Keyblade, it was able to create and simulate an entire reflection, that is where the Core you encountered came from. His goal before the tainted blood in him was to bring back the three heroes. You know them as Sora, Riku, and Kairi. Now though, he plains to wait out til Xehanort brings the seven lights and thirteen darknesses. Once all are gathered he plans to take them all, and forge his own version of the X-blade, and a heart that can fulfil his tainted blood’s wishes.” “Well...that's going to have to take forever cause not only are all the heroes dead but so is every Xehanort if Yellow was anything to go by.” I said honestly. “Time in his created reflection moves fast. If I calculate it correct when Core appeared compared to when he created it, the birth of Xehanort is just...several weeks away. Til he is of age to wield a Keyblade, a month later. Time can be a fickle thing, can’t it?” “Yeah...time is one hell of a thing.” I said honestly. “Especially when on one world it's half a year, on another it's a few hundred.” “I estimate that those three, and Xehanort's plan will come around to his perfect grasp of them...within maximum one year. That will be interesting, an X-blade for the Psychopaths. What a dark day that will be.” “I'm gonna make damn sure that doesn't happen.” I frowned. “I know enough about those bastards to know...giving them X will be bad...but...not as bad as Deletes…” I said worriedly. “Either way. In all my years I’ve learned not to keep an open mind to hope.” The king said, taking another swig of his ale. “So, anything else?” “Um…” I think for a moment. “Well...what was your council like?” I asked, a bit curious about his group of comrades. “Ever hear of king Arthur and his round table?” He asked, pointing his thumb to himself. “Merlin stole that from me. Old hack was good, but not that original.” “You mean the one living in Radiant Garden or a different Merlin?” I asked, given that multiverses are confusing sometimes. “They are the same person.” He said, taking another swig of ale. “His world advanced, forgetting magic so he left, wanting to further his studies and train well. He was one of the original you know.” “Huh, cool.” I said. “But...you said the General and Archer are still alive…” “Some grew too old, time caught up with them...others…” He muttered, chugging the rest of his ale and began another bottle, finishing it half way before speaking… “The Keyblade war took many… They could not resist the call to arms… I don’t even know why my scribe left at all? His lexicon was left behind too… He was a dear friend.” “Well...I hope they're all in a better place.” I said. “I'm...sorry for bringing up their deaths…” “It’s alright. If there is no one left alive to tell their stories, then they truly will be dead.” The king said, taking another swig of ale. “When you live for so long, you tend to hang on to the past as much as possible, remember when times were simpler.” He stood up, walking over to a half collapsed bookcase and taking out a tome. He walked back over and handed it to me. “Here, this may be of interest to you sooner rather than later.” The book was plain, leather cover and was rather thick. There was no title on the cover, so I opened it, and inside my eyes widened. It was…. An image of me, older, very much so. It was sketched, drawn in ink and showed me in the king's armor, wielding that greatsword Keyblade Joy told me about and I was in his armor, only without the helmet. “How...in the hell?” I muttered. “This is a tomb of prophecies. Each image tells a thousand words. But only one single line will matter to you in the end. That, is what you will hear. Go on, touch the page, and hear a future that could be. A future that matters to you, and you alone.” I gulped, having a bad feeling about this but I did what I was told, touching the page and hoping my future won't be bleak and...filled with the joys of family even if I looked kind of cool in that spot. A child of code that lives in contentment. All your wounds shall soon be mended. A greater sky awaits thee and all it’s wonders shall one day be yours too to plunder. A voice, it was like it came from everywhere spoke to me as I regained my senses. I looked down at the page...it was blank now. “The book works once a day, once a day per person.” The king said. “What did it tell you?” “A child of code that lives in contentment. All your wounds shall soon be mended. A greater sky awaits thee and all its wonders shall one day be yours too to plunder.” I said, word for word. “Well, glad to hear my life will be fine in the future...and hey, more adventures in the future.” “Sounds grand. You best hold onto that then.” The king said, closing the book for me. “It’s the only thing from...my old life I kept. It’s yours now.” “Really?” I asked him. “Yes. At your current rate, I won’t be surprised if you claim my crown within the year...Huh?” We both looked to the doorway. There was...someone there. He was dressed in black armor with blue decals along the tips of his armors various points in its design. “Hello.” I said to the armored person. “And who might you be?” I asked, wondering how the hell this person got here. “That’s ____ Ben. The original maker of this realm.” The king said… when he said the man’s name… I know I heard it… but I can’t remember it. “Haven’t seen you in a long time.” The… That guy said. “You only ever met me once ___. You remember that from so long ago?” “I may forget my oldest of past, but I still remember you.” “And...why can't I hear ___?” I asked. “Or...say it apparently?” “Any who know or hear my true name forget and become deff to it. My own doing. Even among admins, names have power.” ___ explained. “I’ve come to speak with him, if you don’t mind?” “Like I can even stop you?” The king said. “Best go hear what he has to say Ben. He rarely talks to those outside of Cript, and a few other select allies.” “I'm just gonna call you Lord, just to save myself some headache.” I said. “If that’s what you wish.” Lord said as we walked away. We turned a corner then… Wait, what? I looked around, we were in a...cemetery of sorts, graves as far as the eye can see. The moon was high in the sky… where are the stars? “And...where are we? What happened to the stars?” I asked worriedly. “This is your distant future, after all, if I am correct, your realities were all once one. Why would there be a need for stars when all the worlds and realities are one now?” “Because I'm talking about stars as in the bright balls of gas, not worlds.” I said honestly. “One World. One moon. One sun.” He said simply. “Three’s are funny, aren’t they?” “Threes always been a magic number for some reason.” I shrugged, checking the graves. “But...the future huh? Let me guess...these are all the dead from the war and subsequent merging of all the world's?” I asked, fearing I'll see my family among the graves. “Yes, and no. This is vastly far into your future. You see, Cript and I have a plan of sorts we want to undertake, after we finally end his father. This reality, this future, isn’t just your realm, Ben. All admin realities, fuzed together, and expanded across all of the untouched creation. This world, Ben, is as infinite as you can get. Every possibility under one sky, all sharing the same moon, sun, and ground. It will be in no way peaceful, but, it will be simple. Simple is always best, in my opinion.” “Too bad ‘simple’ is a thing that not many are allowed to have.” I said. “But...you and Cript want to make all realities like this? One Home for all?” “Yes. In short, not all admins, in fact the vast majority of them are quite corrupt. This plan will make Admins all but obsolete, rendering them into beings as lowly as gods. Of course, to mortals, gods are still higher beings, but it will put an end to them, save for myself, and Cript.” “Interesting…” I said, trying to think about the entire thing. “But...you and Cript remain in power, wouldn't the other admins call you out on bullshit?” “Admins draw power from how much of untouch creation they have...colonized, for lack of a better word. Cript and I turning all of untouched infinity into a single world and realm of existence will make us quite literally, the strongest admins ever to exist. That interests me non however. I just want to put my long since corrupt brethren to rest, and Cript, well, you know he only ever thinks of his family. We won’t rule this land, we will just live on it. I’ve always enjoyed blacksmithing, inventing, and Cript….even in retirement, he’ll explore til there is nothing left. Which, as we both know in a world that is infinite, won’t ever end. At heart, he is still a traveling mage.” “I can imagine.” I said honestly. “But...why talk to me about this if I may ask? Sure I'll be the new king of your realm but…” I trailed off, feeling like there's a little more to it than that. “No. Heh. Not a chance. You’ll be king of Nothing...damn that sounds weird. Anyway, come.” He said, leading me further into the graveyard. We arrived at a tomb. It was decorated with hearts and Kingdom Keys. “Can you guess who’s grave this is?” “It's decorated with hearts and Kingdom Keys…” I frowned. “Zeke?” I asked, knowing since he's connected to Kingdom Hearts and is a living Keyblade it seemed to kind of add up. “Yes. This night marks the ten thousand mark since his death. He lived a good long life too. Not many formal mortals can lived to be sixteen billion.” I about fell over. “Excuse me, sixteen billion? What about me and the others?” I asked curiously. “See for yourself.” He said, looking to the side, and I saw...the king? No...there’s a dog tail sticking out behind him… me? My future self walked passed us, likely unable to see us, and kneeled before the grave. “Been a while Zeke. Sorry the others couldn’t come. The foretellers are busy governing Union city, and John is keeping the edge of Void territory from any creatures escaping. Your kids are here and there. Blake and Nyx have families of their own, and, well… They couldn’t make it.” My future self said, taking a seat before the tomb. “If Zeke's sixteen billion...how old is everyone else?” I asked curiously. “Just turned a thousand years older. You all reached above god levels of power, and as such, gain the power to choose when to die. Zeke went on for a long time after his wives died. Of course, even his alicorn ones, Luna and Celestia, both died from age five billion years back. His kids, all grown up, families and jobs. The lives of immortals are destined to be a lonely one, unless you choose otherwise. Zeke kept on, because all he had left was Trixie, the two of them shared in body, and heart. Sadly, her heart, still that of a mortal, unlike Zeke’s, also too died. Finally he accepted death years later.” “Well...at least he had a good run I suppose.” I said, seeing the old me sit there next to his long dead friend. “But...I suppose the future is actually bright for everyone?” “Yes. quite.” Lord said, the old me speaking again. “It’s been hard, you know. Every now and then I swear I hear your voice, or see you. Heh… Rolland is doing well, he and Ashire have really kicked it off. Funny… considering their origins.” The older me said, taking off the helmet and… I didn’t look that old at all! I looked mid thirties at most! “I’ve been wondering, as to why and how you out of all of us, decided to die first. I remember my youth, and thinking...I’d be gone first. Yet, here I am...and there you are… it’s ironic. I once asked Cript, if he could bring you back, at least for a day, but he said that if they wanted to die, he can’t bring them back. Not a lack of power or possibility, but that he won’t disrupt the deads slumber. I guess I can understand that.” “So that's why...” I muttered. “Well...I suppose bringing my world's Shining Armor back might not be a good decision…” “I always asked Cript if him fusing everything into one included the afterlife, but he just gives me this smug smile and stays silent. These days I wonder how he keeps from being bored. Not much to do. FIghting void with John, exploring with Cript, it all becomes repetitive at some point. Maybe it’s because there’s nothing to fight? Heh, nah. I know why. It’s because it feels like we’re purposeless now. That’s it…” My older self stood up, taking a bow before the tomb of Zeke. “Til next time, my friend.” The world became warped, everything flashed grey and black til it became clear again… we were in the same spot, but the cemetery looked...abandoned almost. Vines and grass grew without control, and the headstones all were aged and cracked. “Damn…” I frowned, wondering what happened to cause this to seem abandoned. “Did something happen?” “This is nineteen thousand, four hundred and fifty thousand centillion years from the time I last showed you.” He said as a blast of what looked like Electricity and nothingness exploded in the sky. “Tell me, what do all immortals who continuously refuse their deaths soon fall to?” He asked as another one lit up the sky like an atom bomb. “Madness?” I asked curiously. “Yes.” The blue lightning then struck the ground. From the light, I saw Cript...standing above...me… My head was helmet less, the armor cracked and broken, and my face… I looked mangy, and...mad. “Heheheheheh. GAH!” I was laughing before Cript jabbed a glowing white sword into my chest, and I went...limp… “I’m sorry Ben… You should not have avoided your death for so long… especially when you no longer had purpose…” Cript said, closing my eyes before pulling a shovel out of his assistant and began digging. “It’s almost fitting, to die and be buried next to your oldest friend.” Cript said to himself, oblivious to us, unable to see us. “What, was I too stubborn to die or something?” I asked. “Even after all your wives passed, and your bloodline was lost to the genepool, you kept on, but to be devoid of purpose and reject death. It drives all to insanity. Cript stays sane even after he has suffered your fate, because he swore to protect his family. His family may be lost to the population, but that just means, in his eyes, every living being is his family. His to protect. I avoid it, to keep a promise. To who, I don’t recall a name, All I recall was that promise, and their blood...on my hands.” Lord sighed. Cript finished the hole, and placed me inside it. Then burred me, my nothingness greatsword Keyblade appearing before him and he struck it into the ground… my headstone. “Rest easy now...my son” Cript said, pulling out a list. “Ben, gone… Now onto John and Jenny… Then they will all finally be at rest, and freed from madness.” He said, vanishing into thin air. “To not put off death.” Lord said simply. “Not when you no longer have purpose to the world, or purpose of self.” “Jeez…” I muttered. “This is...quite a thing.” “Don’t worry about Nothingness.” Lord said, the world shifting again… this time, we were in a large grass field, nothing but a nearby rock half in the ground for miles it seemed. “It will find a new king.” “Good…” I nodded. “And...where are we now?” “I figured you wouldn't recognize it. This is still the graveyard. After Cript dealt with the last of you to go mad, life had to restart from the medieval age just about. Things where quiet for a time, but…” “Connie wait up!” We both turned around. I spotted a gold and grey wolf pup, and a human kid both running down the nearby hill. Connie seemed to be the human girl. “Catch me first Lagan!” The girl said. As the girl ran passed the large rock, the wolf pup, Lagan, it seemed, took a step, then jumped back clutching his foot. “Owe! Ouch…” “Huh? What did you step on?” Connie asked. “Some dumb pointy rock.” Lagan said, the kids tearing out some of the tall grass, showing a dirty small piece of metal. “It looks like something old.” Connie said, grabbing it and lifting it up...only for a chain to follow, then stop from a certain point in the ground… it’s...my keyblade? “It’s stuck Lagan!” The girl said, pulling hard. “Oh, here.” The pup said, starting to dig...and dig rather well. “Wow! Connie, I think it’s a sword!” “Legends never die.” Lord said, he sounded happy as the two kids dug out my Keyblade. “Even when long forgotten.” “I suppose forgotten stuff can be a lot stronger than you'd think.” I said, having always been told nothing truly dies if it's remembered. “Well...looks like Lagan and Connie are gonna have a fun adventure ahead of them if they found my keyblade.” The two kids finished pulling out my oversized keyblade, and admired it, even in it’s dirty, rusted and dirt covered appearance. “Wow!” The two kids said. “Let’s go show our parents!” Lagan said. “Yeah! Bet my dad can make it look nice. It kinda looks like those Keyblades from the old stories.” Connie said, the two each carrying it from one end as they walked back up the hill. I saw Lord follow them, and I followed him. Just passed the hill was...a town. Wood and stone houses, not too big, and a lake flowed just a bit further ahead. “Amazing how life finds a means of getting back to where it once was. I didn’t make it like that, yet, here it is.” “No matter what happens, the cycle keeps going.” I said, looking at the town. “Nice and cozy town…” I muttered, finding such a thing nice considering all I've been through. We followed them to a tavern. ‘The Old Man’ it was called. Inside was fairly busy, people of all kinds drinking and eating. “Dad!” Connie said, the barkeep looking over. “Look what Lagan and I found!” “Wow… go take that to the blacksmith, he can probably fix it up for you.” We followed the kids to the blacksmith. He was human, skin tone of a latino, and thick black hair. On the wall behind him had… lords armor? I looked over at Lord, who just nodded. “Mr. Davenport! My dad said you could fix this.” Connie said, handing it to the man that… I think is Lord? “Your Mr. Davenport?” I asked, remembering how he said he liked to create things. “A false name for a false life. Every now and then I take up an identity, and just live a life of whatever comes. Blacksmithing is a nice hobby.” “Sure, just put it over there.” Lord said, or rather, Davenport. The kids did as told then ran off. Once they were gone, he grabbed it, and walked over to a nearby shop. ‘Odds N Ends’ it was called. Inside was various things, tools, utensils, cloths, and such. The clerk at the desk...Cript? “Hey.” “Yo.” Cript said. “I see Ben’s old Keyblade of Nothingness is with you.” “Yup. Connie and Lagan found it.” “Told you a town set up here would have someone find it soon.” Cript said. “Yes yes. After founding it and faking our deaths we came back to make sure. Well, guess those kids are the next chosin.” “You spawn the enemies if I start the timer for the quest to start?” “As always.” Lord-Davenport said, everything turning to black now. “So, what did you think?” “Well...besides me becoming a bad guy I'm glad to see the future is good at least.” I shrugged. “Better it be good than dead.” “You’ll only turn if you let yourself. So, either accept your death when the world no longer has purpose for you, or you can no longer make your own.” “I'm sure I'll figure something out.” I said. “I've got a good...eternity to figure it out right?” “Just about. Just never speak of this. Telling the others can alter things, for better or worse.” “I'm stupid, but I'm not that stupid.” I said, knowing talking about the future can be a bit tricky. “Well, that was about it. Just wanted to give Cript’s chosen a taste of the future.” He says, vanishing and...leaving me here... “And how the hell am I supposed to get back to the castle!?!” I called out into the darkness, not really knowing how I got ‘here’ to begin with. “Never mind…” I grumbled, checking to see if I can actually summon Reunion to get back. Nothing came. Not my Keyblade. Not my other weapons, the only thing that happened was my assistant flashed. I saw a long hp bar appear and the name ‘The Last One’ appear. “Nani le fuck.” I frowned, looking around for whoever I just engaged in combat with. “Once was a hero who fought for them all…” Someone sang, quick footsteps moving as a fire was lit on a wooden pole next to me...corpses...as far as the light went around...corpses… “What the hell…” I muttered, backing away from the fire and corpses. “Bright and safe was the land, in all.” They sang again, another torch lighting up behind me…. I was standing on more corpses, when I turned around… this torch was inside Lord’s chest, his head impaled by a sword and his armor cracked and chipped all over. “Hello?” I asked, hoping to get an answer here. “Long did the people he cared for live, and madness took hold and brought death on a whim.” Torches lit up the world...the entire ground was nothing but death, bodies long since rotted and decaying. I ran, tripping over and when I looked before me… our keyblades. Reunion, the Nothingness Keyblade, X-blade, the foretellers, Fenrir, Aqua as a Keyblade after she died...all shattered into shards, all arranged like if they were whole. “What did you do!?!” I barked, looking around for whoever did this. “For a guardians purpose is to protect all who live.” I heard a thud. I turned around, seeing an arm...stab right through me. I looked up...Cript?! “But what is he now, with everyone dead?” His eyes...like mine when he… Madness...he’s gone mad… “GAH!” I yelled, jumping up and clenching my chest. Did...was that...the end of...time, life...what? “I have so many questions...“ I said to myself worriedly. ”Nobody escapes madness.” I heard Lord’s voice speak in my head. ”Mortality keeps life going. That was...everyone became immortal...everyone went mad. Cript and I had to… and he went mad, from that. When the time comes, I’ll give you all a choice. Live long lives with all you care for, or live forever, and lose it all, slowly.” “Jesus…” I muttered worriedly. “That's...a very scary thing…” I said worriedly. “I'd like not to go mad and...have that happen.” ”When the time comes, you all and Cript will be given a choice to have your immortality removed, and when the Home is created, we will decide how long what types of races live. Death can not be removed from life.“ “Yeah, living for a long ass time is one thing, not being able to die is another.” I said. “But...wait Cript can't die, he literally had it taken from him.” ”Which is why he needs purpose, always. Less what you saw, become the future, and end of all.” “Oh dear…” I looked worried. “Maybe I can figure out how to give him back his mortality?” I asked, hoping there was the possibility of getting it back. “Is there a way?” ”Yes, but in time. For now, gain strength. You’ll need it.” “Alright…” I nodded. “Time to train with Lunatic…” I said, looking around to see if I'm back at the castle. I was, I was in the library, and on the table was the king...sleeping? “Hello?” I asked the king, hoping he wasn't sleeping so he could show me where my new master is. “Huh?” The king said, getting up with a stretch and a yawn. “About time. You were gone for like three hours.” He said, getting out of the chair. “Well...we had a lot to talk about.” I said. “So...I suppose I can finally meet my new master?” “Yes. This way then.” To be continued...
Nobody becomes an Admin(cause being a King wasn't enough)“Fuck me…” I grumbled while walking around, a hand on my head and a big mug full of Sprite. “Too much wine…” I grumbled bitterly, hating hangovers so much. “Lightweight~!” Jenny sang. She spent time in those pocket dimension rooms too, now she’s nineteen. As are the CMC and the rest of Joys girls, as is Joy also. “I drank four barrels by myself.” I said bluntly. “And I still feel like I need more to drink after what Zeke went through.” I grumbled. “So, how have you and everyone else been?” I asked curiously. “Well, having aged to maturity I am happy to report, I’m a large C cup.” She grinned. “Damn it Sweetie…” She then grumbled. “What? She a large F?” I asked. “And if memory serves you also have over two hundred or more other girls to compete with for Joy right?” “Yeah, but Sweetie’s the largest out of all of us! She needs custom built bras! And a back brace!” “Okay so that’s bigger than F…” I muttered worriedly. “Jeez, that’s not good...but I suppose Joy is super happy about that huh?” “When he cuddles her he needs a snorkel for air… so yeah. Rarity thinks they get it from her cousin Milky Way, who I think might also be with you now? I dunno. So, aside from getting over being hammered, what’s up?” “Oh yes...the ‘Milk Mare’...” I muttered, blushing at the memories of that mare. “But uh…” I shook my head. “But Zeke is now Kingdom Hearts...which is the main reason I was drinking...and right now I have no idea what I’m going to do today.” I said honestly while taking a swig of my wonderful hangover cure. “My clones are out training...and again I don’t know what to do today.” “Hm. Well I was gonna go out hunting for a while. Not Dire wolf style, rifle and bow. You wanna come along? Seeing as you have a clone for everything between running your kingdom to screwing out moms, literally, and training, maybe some fun or something might help.” “Sure, why not.” I said. “Might as well do something with one of my kids I haven’t spent their entire lives with.” I said, still glad to spend time with all my kids. “K, come on then. I’m heading out to the Direwolf territory.” “Alright, let’s get going.” I said while finishing my drink and following along. As we headed out, Jenny, if memories from her time in the pocket dimension family with me and Gilda serve me right, Jenny was given this little spaceship car thing when she was seventeen. Gift from her mom. She got her wish. Jenny, at least for a while, lived a normal childhood. As we were flying out we chatted about stuff. “So, hear you’re working on means of expanding your kingdom outside your realm?” “Yeah, might as well see how far I can take this.” I said honestly. “As long as everyone else is perfectly okay with it, no need to cause unnecessary wars when one’s still looming overhead.” “True. Still no word on Trixie?” “Sadly no.” I sighed out. “But now she’s apart of Zeke so...I’m still certain I have to find a replacement cause I’m real good at my job.” “Hm. So, Cript talk to you yet?” “Well he talked to me and Zeke about Zeke’s new powers but besides that…” I said while thinking for a bit. “The last time we talked it was when I had his help with all of the pocket dimensions and the like.” “Huh. Odd. I saw him last night. He was talking with Tiara about something but I’m not sure what. I figured he was asking where you were.” “Which is weird cause he normally just appears right behind me.” I said, having a bad feeling about that. “If he’s telling her about the war…” I muttered, my mind racing through thousands of things and it only worried and pissed me off more the more I thought about it. “Want me to message her to find out?” “Sure.” I said. “Let’s hope she’ll actually tell us what he talked about…” I muttered, thinking Cript told her not to tell me for whatever reason. Jenny sent the message and where to meet us when she does. We landed in the flatlands part of the Direwolf Territories. This is where larger game and small game commonly travel and live. Jenny tossed me a bow as she took out a rifle and we headed off. “So, what do you think Cript told Tiara?” Jenny asked as we walked, looking for any game to shoot. “The best would be talking about how she apparently has a Time Patrol going on with her other reflections...the worst…” I sighed out. “She’ll be on Spoiled’s side in the war and forced to fight me and everyone else because of some bullshit reason.” I said sadly. “Where did that theory come from?” Jenny asked while laughing. “Thousands of different things ran through my head...and when a war between light and dark is forced upon us...I’m just scared I’ll be forced to fight the one’s I care about because of some stupid bullshit.” I frowned. “Especially when she’s being forced to join a war that technically we don’t even need to be apart of, my Domain has nothing to do with this War, but Spoiled is just being a bitch and needs to be stopped.” I frowned, but a nagging feeling in the back of my mind wondered if there will be any surprises when this became a veritable boss rush instead of an actual War. “So, do you think there is anything else to worry about?” Jenny asked. “Oh yes, like this strange feeling someone’s going to find a magical prison Cript forgot about to make the Keyblade War less of a day one curb stomp and pest control and more of an actual war.” “Well, whatever the case maybe things will… what the?” Jenny asked, the two of us looking around. The air was… shifting, as if it was water. “Cause of course we can’t have a simple hunting trip…” I growled, wondering what was causing the sudden shift. There was suddenly a barrier around us. Easy a mile in all directions. Jenny and I summoned weapons. My Kingblade Keyblade and Jenny her own Keyblade… Braveheart. Suddenly, there was a white glowing silhouette of a person appearing out of thin air. “Yes, who are you and what are you doing in my domain?” I asked curiously, wanting to know who this person was. “Cause not many people both appear out of nowhere and glow like that.” They didn’t reply, rather, raised both hands skywards as silhouettes of what looked like… bows, appeared in his hands, both floating just out of his grasp, but his energy drawing them back as arrows of Nothingness formed to fire. “You haunted pops?” Jenny asked, preparing for the fight. “If I were I would know.” I said while summoning Frozen Pride. “But if this person is supposed to be a God of the Hunt then I’m gonna be slightly pissed.” I said while raising my hand and channeling my magic to see if I could stop the thing before it attacks. “Kneel!” I commanded, thinking because this thing used Nothingness I had full jurisdiction to stop it. He didn’t move, but his arrows did vanish. Not for long though, as new ones began forming. “Think this is something to do with the past king?” Jenny asked, backing up a bit. “No, he’s dead and he never used a bow.” I said worriedly. “Also...I don’t even know who the things aiming at.” I said worriedly. “Actually, now that I think about it...this is kind of like how the Mysterious Figure appeared...only less glowing.” I said, thinking back to Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep and that unbearable asshole. “Well, better get this over with.” Jenny said, rushing in. The figure fiering, Jenny slashing the arrows away. As she got in close he suddenly split into three, the two others firing at her. She then backed up. The nothingness arrows having hit her and fading. “Shit that hurt.” She grunted. “Yeah that’s not good.” I said while summoning Sharpshooters and firing at the Aberrations. “Seriously what are these things.” I said while my eyes glowed green as I tried to Scan the damned things. It’s name registered as ‘???’ cause of course, and it’s HP bar was only a single line, not too long… so what’s the catch? “Okay so there’s a massive catch here Jenny.” I said while firing charged shots at the unknown enemies. He took a step to the side, catching my charged bold in one of his bows and fiering it back at me. Fuck! I thought, dodging the literal returned fire. “Well… ranged attacks aren’t good then.” “Apparently.” I said while raising Frozen Pride in the air and ice spikes shot up underneath the unknown archer. That seemed to impact him. His Hp dropped a quarter. So AoE attacks he can’t handle huh? “Alright, AoE might be a good thing.” I said while using the spikes that were brought out to shoot more at them as I summoned Foudre and Eternal Flames. “Jenny run.” I told her quickly as Eternal Flames started to melt the ice at a very fast rate and dumping water onto the enemy as I threw Foudre around the area. “Thunder Clap!” I shouted, snapping my fingers as Foudre pulsed with energy and a massive bolt of electricity rushed towards the enemy that was both covered in water and acting like a lightning rod. The figure tried to float up, but it still hit, taking out all but a small bit of his health. That seemed to make him alternate, the dome we were in suddenly became clouded with grey nothingness as the only lights we could see were the arrows, curled around us like a firing squad. “Shit.” Jenny said. “Oh wait, I know what this is.” I said while bringing out my Keyblade. “Back to Back.” I said quickly, thinking this is Xemnas’s final attack and we are literally forced to block all these attacks. “Cause if it’s just like Xemnas with his final attack...then let’s hope to god I’m right.” Nodding, Jenny did as told, the two of us deflecting as many bolts or dodging as possible. I’ve never moved this fast. I can barely see my fingers, it’s all a blur. Jenny got hit a few times, but kept up the speed. “Isn’t this just fantastic?” I asked Jenny, seeing that her HP bar was still high enough even though she took a few hits. “What part of this is fun?” She asked, focusing on deflecting. Soon the attack ended and Jenny hit the ground, clearly sore and tired as I still stood. The figure rushing in with an up close charged shot. “Reflectja!” I shouted, a see through sphere appeared around me and Jenny as I prepared for the attack. “And it’s a joke Jenny.” I said, holding the barrier up for when it attacked. It fired, the attack actually went INTO the shield, though, it stopped just a few hairs off my nose… yipe! The shields magic still kicked in, returning the damage and taking away the last of his HP. The barrier keeping if with him vanished, he slowly fading out. When he did, where he was standing was left a single chest. The weird square ones you only saw in KH one before they just kept using the red looking ones. “Uh...sure.” I said. “You okay Jenny?” I asked, bringing out my Lexicon in case she needed to be healed. “I’ll be fine. Damn, never moved that fast. Think I would have prefered Uncle Josh’s crash courses compared to that…” “Don’t know, but hey we got loot.” I said honestly. “Want to open it or should I?” “You do it. You did beat him.” “Alright.” I nodded, tapping my keyblade on the top of the chest to see if that’ll open it. The lid flipped open as it it was thrown open. Inside was a bow, it’s outline like the one that figure was using. It’s colors were golden, with a black trace wrapped around it from end to end. It was small for a bow. “It’s a Bow…” I said while pulling it out and scanning it, wondering what it’s name was and what it did. Crownborn This bow was *((#$*(%*(#*$ for the heir of Nothingness (#$(#*$(*#( on their tenth birthday. They are a direct descendant of King Ben. WARNING: TEMTERAL ENERGY UNSTABLE. USE NOT RECOMMENDED FOR 37 YEARS, TWO MONTHS AND FOURTEEN DAYS. “Oh...that’s not good.” I said worriedly. “But hey, this bow is for one of your brothers...not sure who but it says I have to wait thirty seven years to give it to him.” I explained. “Wonder why this happened though?” I wondered. Jenny shrugged. “Who knows. Your life is weird enough. Now your own descendants are appearing to fight you?” “I mean, time travel is a thing.” I said honestly. “This is...gonna be so weird.” “Seems so.” We decided to wait and rest for Tiara rather than anything after that. Though I did kill one of those amazingly tasty beasts and all I can say is Jenny can’t stop eating… seriously, her gut looks eight months pregnant and it’s all just this creatures meat… “Do… I wanna know?” Tiara asked. She arrived full grown as well, long curly hair,, heh, erm… healthy, to put her figure into words, wearing a pink T-shirt and jeans. “We just got done eating.” I said. “But the better question is, what did you and Cript talk about?” I asked her simply. “Huh? Oh, that.” She said, summoning her Keyblade. “No Name, a Keyblade of time. Cript said me and my other reflections that have it would have, well, a duty, or rather a job I guess, to witness future events, and alter them before they transpire. Make sure the future is safe for what he is going to do to the whole of creation. I’m supposed to meet up with a reflection of mine next week for some training for it.” “And he didn’t mention anything about forcing family against family?” I asked, wanting to make sure that wasn’t a thing. “Uh, no. Why? Is he being paranoid again?” Tiara asked Jenny, who nodded her head. Tiara then facepalmed. “God you worry too much.” “Listen, I’m a parent and a king, so yes I am going to worry.” I frowned. “Also the fact we just fought one of Jenny’s future brothers for...some reason.” I said, not really knowing why that happened. “Oh.” Tiara said, taking out a pen and small notebook from her back pocket and writing that down. “So that’s what he ment. Cript did say that since time is also gonna be just one line, it will become easier to travel back, and forwards, but only if you were born after that, if you or Jenny try you’d get lost and likely end up in another timeline, possibly in another Realm since time extends to them all no matter the Admin or what.” She said, finishing that note then putting the pen and paper away. “He said it will be likely future people, be them family, friends or even enemies might appear, but they can’t stay long and their power would be greatly suppressed unless one of me was aiding them.” “So...my new son’s going to be really strong and a great archer?” I asked curiously. “Seems so. Might not even be a son of yours, could be a grandchild for all we know. Nephew, niece, eh.” “It said he was the Tenths Heir of Nothingness.” I said honestly. “So...eh, either way. Also it said to wait thirty years for it.” “Thirty… alright.” She said, taking out her notes to write that down. “Well it this was all I gotta head back… Sweetie Belle’s boobs are stuck in the doorway… again…” She said, opening a DTN back. “Seriously, make her bra’s into a Bag of Holding christ.” I frowned. “Hm. Good idea. Oh, and Cript did say he wanted to ask you something. He said he’d be in your Study.” “Alright.” I nodded while opening my own DTN to my Study. “Can’t wait to learn what he wants to talk about.” I grumbled while getting up. “Let’s hope it’s not bad news…” I grumbled. I arrived in the study, Cript reading over one of the volumes. He was resting along the couch, munching on twizzlers from one of those popcorn sized buckets while cans of ginger ale littered the floor. “Howdy.” I said. “How you doing today?” “There are a lot of volumes here. Most on spells or infusion methods. They’re all well made, the spell matrix’s and designs are solid and seem to only have two or three weak points. The old king knew his magic.” Cript said, eyes still locked on the book. “Good thing I’m reading that to be honest.” I said, knowing full well my clones were busy reading all those things. “Then there’s an ass ton of other things I have to read because that involves magic and Nothingness.” I said honestly. “So, what do you need to tell me?” “Just a few questions is all. I asked the same thing to Eclipse and so far I believe this method can work. First Question. An enemy infiltrator enters your castle, he is looking for an edge his side to use over you. He finds your infant children. You enter the nursery, and spot him. What is your immediate reaction, the first thing you will do when you spot them? And don’t freak out, this is all hypothetical.” “So the person is trying to kidnap one of my kids?” I asked. “Well there are plenty of things I can immediately do-” “Answer the question. No overthinking, no long answers, just your answer, on what you would do on instinct.” Cript cut me off… I felt the tension in the room get thick… Cript is being… super serious right now… and it’s scary… vary...very scary. “I would grab him by the neck and drag him out of the nursery and beat the shit out of him.” I said, not wanting anyone to hurt my family, especially those who think they can use them as leverage. “Surprisingly merciful. I killed the ones who tried to do that to me. Didn't even think. I saw them, then my hand was through their chest, and poof… instant incineration, they didn’t have time to register they were dying.” Cript said, turning the page. “Question two. You’ve met your equal, neither of you are giving in, both of you are low on health, stamina, mana, ect. You need an edge, you need more power to turn the tables. You tap into your Pure Nothingness, but you’re so beat, you can’t control your output. You use it, you know it will kill you in the backlass. What do you do?” “Fuck Em, he thought he was better than me, I proved him wrong.” I said. “Hm.” Cript hummed. “Question three. You are dying. Fatally wounded in combat. You don’t have long, a minute or less… What is the last thing you will think about?” “My family and friends...all smiling like I finally did good…” I said. “Alright. Final Question… A simple yes or no will do, and an explanation as to why. If offered, would you become an Admin?” I thought for a moment,. “Quite the hefty question..” I muttered. “Honestly...Yes and No.” I shrugged. “How so?” “Being an Admin sounds wonderful and all, being basically all powerful, making everything a complete Non-Issue against things that are supposed to be bad for you.” I said, oh so not subtly talking about how his Spike magically came back. “And so much more things, but no because I’d rather not have even worse depression because of everything becoming a Non-Issue, being able to die for a start would actually be nice to be perfectly honest, and I don’t want to be leashed by vague and bullshit rules that make no sense even when your told them by the people who made them.” I explained honestly. “Is that good for the Yes and No?” “Hm… so if I offered, you’d refuse, despite these ‘non-issues’ come with other issues?” “Honestly, it depends.” I said honestly. “You can’t just say ‘yes’ to having almighty power when you already have it or don’t need it, and you can’t just say ‘no’ to almighty power when you need it the most.” “Hmm… Bonus question. The world I am going to create will affect everything, even beings that should not be accessed or even exist in the physical existence. The sky will actually be special ‘stone’ of sort, with miles and miles and miles… and miles of rock, mineral, and other resources and surprises above… til you break through that ceiling, and you see these other beings, what, or who they are, I can’t say, neither can lord. Same law applies to the ground beneath the floor you will walk upon. When I said forever, I meant it. Above, and below, left, and right. I will make everything go on. Forever, despite the dangers that will come with it. Anyway, one of these beings comes through, it kills admins like flowers you step on. What can you do? Admin powers would have at least given you an edge, not having them, even Pure Nothingness can harm it. What do you decide?” “First up I have to question how the hell you let something like that live to begin with.” I started. “Think of them like… ghosts, if that makes it easier. Beings so powerful, they no longer need a physical form. Sadly, what I will be doing can give them a physical form, and all their power to go along with it. This is why we NEED to rebuild the Admins, and yet the ones who hate the ones like me can’t stick around for this. They won’t change, they're too single minded.” “So basically your saying ‘hey, here’s Admin powers cause we’re short on staff and we fucked up on super ghosts’ right?” I asked curiously. “Hehe. That’s the blunt of it. Admins were the first beings to exist with Physical bodies, these beings will be new to it, and who knows what they are like. I believe Admins are the midway point between powers like these beings, and the mortals they made. The Admins I mean.” “Alright, but you could have just asked for help to begin with, I would have been fine with Admin powers if it meant making sure the people are safe.” I said honestly. “I’d rather be given the power to help others rather than have it forced on me like some people.” “You refer to Zeke?” “And you if everything that’s been happening to Zeke happened to you where power is just thrown at you like darts being thrown at a wall full of post it notes with powers written on each of them.” I said honestly. “To be honest… I didn’t even know it happened til I killed my first Admin. It was then I realized how strong I became in such short time. I was just fighting… so often. I didn’t have the time to notice… All I knew was that I couldn’t afford to lose.” “Ah, right then. But I’m pretty sure you still won an asston of the time without noticing.” I said honestly. “Heh, maybe. I just never used it to notice. Now, this process Lord and I reworked, before, we would have had to erase you from this reality, making it so you never even existed. But with this new process, it’s akin to how Zeke became one. I’ll be placing a shard of myself within you, this will give you the potential to inherit Admin powers, but before even that I’ll have to modify your body and powers. Bright side, you’ll be shortcutted to being able to use Pure Nothingness worry free.” “Cool.” I said honestly. “Can’t wait for this whole thing to happen...also I really didn’t want to be revoked from existence when I have a family.” “Neither does Eclipsa, that’s why we created this alternate method.” Cript said, opening the palm of his hand, as a glowing green shard appeared. “Here. The shard of an Admin. Step one.” “This is gonna hurt I’m sure.” I said while taking the shard carefully. The second I grabbed the shard, it cracked into smaller pieces… crawling into my hand, the pain like glass being shoved into my skin. They crawled down my arm to my chest before they stopped… shit that hurt. “Good, shard took. Now, part two. Modifying your body. Quick method or long method. Long takes an hour, quick a minute, but hurts like all hell.” “Let’s...take the long, but going to work for sure method…” I said. “Alright.” Cript said. I took a seat and he held a hand over me… my body began to tingle, kinda like when your leg or arm is asleep. An hour passed before that was done… huh, don’t feel that different. “Now, for the power side. This will take another hour. And feeling overwhelmed seems normal.” He said, placing a hand on my shoulder and HOLY FUCK! This…. This feels amazing! And a whole HOUR of THIS?! “This feels amazing.” I mentioned. “But an hour of this?” “Yes. By then you’ll be at the minimum requirements to have the potential to become an Admin.” Cript explained. “I’ll be putting that possibility within you, then all you have to do is kill one of the many, many, many, many, many who want me dead, like that can even happen, and take their realm and therefore cod, activating the potential, turning you into an Admin, and bypassing the normal means of this happening. Though I warn when it does happen, it will hurt like you can’t even begin to imagine.” “I have suffered the pain of Psychopaths, I don't think anything can compare to that.” I said honestly. “So...I have to murder someone for the power...that still doesn't sound right.” I sighed out, not liking how I had to kill the former king to begin with. “Oh and question...how do I ‘cure’ Psychopaths?” I asked curiously, remembering I wanted to do that out of an asston of things I have to do “Will it help if the one I have in mine for you I know enslaves his Creations and molests their kids? As for Curing the Psychopaths… don’t worry about it. I’ve got that covered.” “Oh well I'm gonna beat the shit out of that guy then.” I said honestly. “Cause what he's doing is a massive no to me.” “Same, but I can’t deal with everything at once. Even with Starfish clones.” Cript said. THe hour passed and when it was over I felt like you took Kratos and Hercules and created a single person then they fused and went Super Saiyan with Goku. “Alright. I’ll be right back, once you have your opening, kill them. No hesitation, alright?” “Fine fine.” I said while my eyes shifted to show humanity and psychopath colors. “Alright.” Cript said, jumping into a portal that appeared behind him. A minute passed as he ran out… holding a kid. “Hold this.” He handed them to me… they were male, all skin and bones, lifeless eyes, and their breaths were so faint… I almost thought they were dead… He then turned the portal at an angle. Soon this fucker came out and OH MY GOD! Yeah I am not describing that nastiness so no...just no… “You stole my bunk buddy Cript~” Oh god that voice! The Nasty Admin spoke. “And I regret stepping foot in that sex dungeon you call a realm Gideon.” Cript retorted. “You know, that name does not fit Filth.” I said. “Even if this fuck gives Filth a bad name.” “Ohhh~ Puppy play toy!” Gideon said, eyeing me… I shivered. Gross, gross, gross, gross, gross! “Ugh… either kill him now or me cause I seriously hate his voice!” Cript yelled at me. The sick bastard didn't know what hit him as I was just so done with his existence, using my Heir Final Form and using literally all my weapons to make sure he died. “Please die, please die please die!” I said, not wanting this fuck to even speak again he's so fucking gross. As my attack hit, his blood splattering everywhere, I then felt the need to wash all my weapons for having them touch him… gross! “Oh god and I thought he stunk on the outside.” Cript said, gagging. Green energy then floated out of Gideon’s body, flowing inside me… not as gross but still, ew! I then hit the floor… my whole body just… I can’t think, this is SOOOOO much worse than with the Psychopaths! I can feel every Atom in my body! Every single one undergoing…. Changing! GAH! I can’t even scream, this hurts so bad… All I could do was twitch on the ground…. Finally, after what felt like hours, or even days of it, but I know it wasn’t. It stopped, and I felt… amazing, better than I ever have in life even… better than I have ever felt at all. “Ow…” I grumbled as I tried to get up. “So...that happened...still fucking ew.” “Yeah…” Cript said, walking over to where I placed that nearly dead kid then waving a hand over him, his body… almost like reviving a corpse, his body looked… proper now. Like a kid. “There, I also erased all his memories. Better he never remembers that stuff. Now, you’re still too new to this, so here.” Cript said, taking my wrist… I could… feel him using my newfound code… “I’ll use your code to rewrite your new creation, cause trust me, that… you don’t wanna see what I saw. Just no… trust me.” He said. I felt him begin and HOLY FUCK THAT'S OVERWHELMING! I feel a bit nauseous… “Good lord that's a lot…” I muttered. “Okay so...that happened.” “Yup. He’s been on my kill list since I first met him, but I was a bit busy at the time to deal with him and sadly other things came up so fucker got a free pass for a good while. If you’re wondering I’m making a nice little stewpot for ya. First off, erase that history, and replace it. Change the people, their bodies, memories, and take him back.” Cript said. I looked over at the kid, who vanished in lines of green numbers. “And now the piece de resistance.” And suddenly my realm of Nothingness shook. “And done.” “What did you do?” I asked worriedly. “Why did my realm just shake like that?” “Well since you are now and this is literally the title other Admins will see you as, Ben, the Admin of Nothingness, I relocated this whole of Nothingness to your new realm once it’s renovations were done. Now as far as the inhabitants know, and I may have messed with majority of your families memories to save time, just informing them about this nothing serious, this is your realm, your kingdom, and… like it was before…. One vast world. Stretching vast and as far as you can see til you reach the end of your creations size and hit a literal wall that towers into the ten thousand mile high sky. As for digging down that’s easy four million miles, then you hit Minecraft bedrock.” “Alright then.” I said. “So...how many of the other admins will try to attack me now?” I asked curious. “Or will there not be much confrontation?” “Well for one you’re new so they won’t attack you just all of a sudden, they will watch you at first then decide if you are worth attacking. Some may, others might not. It all depends on them really. Now, as for the inhabitants of this realm when I altered them and their memories, as far as they are concerned this is how their world and lives have always been, with you as their newly crowned king, replacing the old one, which you technically did, and this WHOLE, creation of yours is now also counted as the Realm of Nothingness. Nobodies roam free here like animals and are passive, til they leave and then they can turn hostile. Everyone here will also have varying amounts of Nothingness within them but yours is till top dog, er, no pun intended.” “None taken but...jeez, so many new people to learn about.” I said. “Gonna take a while to learn them all…” I said, thinking I can't go off and world travel when I'm now more busy. “Yeah, so… I’ll leave you to it. Also you may want to look outside.” “Crap…” I muttered while looking out a window to see what happened. My eyes shot wide open. The castle, Canterlot… all of it was already a big city…. Now it was like a metropolis. Buildings towering, miles into the ayr, yes this wower was still taller, bigger than them all The castle even looked bigger. Everything was so… modern and ancient looking all at once and… everything looked peaceful. “You own the first ever realm with no current conflicts. As such, those who live near your castle, built a city to match that, there are other cities, towns, etc, but none will be as big as tis one. I believe when rewriting their history, they called this place True Empire.” Cript said, walking next to me and viewing out. “Wow...and this is all mine?” I asked, shocked to see all of this. “Gee...I can't wait to hear all the letters for women to marry me cause that's still out there...Damn it Jenny…” I grumbled. “Heh, you should hear their Anthem. It’s actually not bad.” “Oh god…” I muttered. “That's a thing I didn't expect to learn…” “Heh, well, you should have expected it. So… About Trixie…” “Gonna need to find a replacement huh?” I asked. “Cause of stupid bullshit Kexez did.” “Likely. While she still has her weapon, you can call it back and give it to another you deem worthy. Once you call it back from her though, that will be like firing her, and the weapon will not be able to return to her. You okay with that?” “How can I get her back? Or is she stuck inside Zeke?” I asked. “Oh god that sounded weird…” Yeah… heh. Well that’s the hard part. She’s mixed in with your old entire realms reflections of her, there are so many alike and different that what’s happening inside Zeke is that all those collective consciousness are mixing, forming large groups, taking in the smaller ones and when that’s all done the primary one, in this case Zeke’s Trixie, will be the main personality emerged, the one in control, but have all the others memories, abilities, etc. You can argue your Trixie is in there, but, in then end it will just be an argument. Not even I could figure out how to filter her specifically out. Plus, even if you did take her out, that one missing will destabilize them all, the other nineteen, zeke included, their balance will be thrown off and if they survive they are comatose til that missing piece is returned, and worst case scenario… they die. Balance is a fragile thing, and they are living it. Fragile, yet powerful.” “So gonna have to find a replacement...Christ.” I sighed out. “Gonna be annoying to find a new one if I do fire her.” “Maybe not. Remember, it was the weapons that found them, they did the work, you just have to approve.” “Alright.” I nodded. “Maybe I should ask Tricia about it...she still knows this stuff so her losing Fair Game suddenly would be a shock if she didn't know why.” “Hm. Well, good luck then… though, remember. You’ve crossed a point of no return. Becoming an Admin I mean. From here on out… no more filtered fighting. I can’t hold back what will come after you anymore.” Cript said, placing a hand on my back. “You think you’ll be alright?” “I fought a delete without Admin powers, what could possibly appear right after I say these words?” I asked curiously. “Cause that normally happens.” “Heh. You’ll see.” Cript said, opening a portal behind him. “The worst part is always waiting for it.” He said, taking leave. “It always is.” I sighed out. “Alright...time to look around town.” I said while opening the window and flying out to meet the people. The city was amazing… everywhere I went people gave me a respectful bow… young and old. Stores offered me merchandise, free of charge even. When I wanted to cross a street, no matter the lights, all cars stopped… damn. “Jeez, this feels so weird…” I said nervously. “Not used to people doing this...im not that special.” All the attention was weird. I then saw some neat looking Vending machines in a public park. One was all kinds of drinks, one was all kinds of snack foods, the other all kinds of… meals? This is a long list too… Wonder if they really work? “Alright…” I muttered while pulling out some money And using all three of the vending machines just to see if these work. I got a root beer from the drinks one, it even gave size options. Small can to a four liter bottles. I took a two oz bottle and a large bag of chips and Hey! It’s not all air, it’s chipt to the top… yay. As for the meals one they had a lot of options and I picked the funniest one. Mcdonalds… and for once the food looked good and like on the TV, good size and not at all expensive… must be a law here then… weird I have to question that in my own realm... “Hey, at least the food is made with actual standards.” I said while enjoying my food. “Gonna need to look over the laws now...christ so much work…” I headed back and while eating my meal went over the laws. At least they make sense. I have to better figure out these new Admin Abilities. Whatever they are, it’s impressive to say the least… Is this how Cript and Lord always feel? All this power? Just… always? “Jeez...so much power...and I have to train with this so much…” I muttered. “Need to make this mine...just so I'm not seen like others…” I muttered, knowing full well some will fight me about being given powers and all that crap. “And only Lord and Cript can teach me about that stuff...shit.” I groaned, knowing i'll need help to learn this crap and not do it by myself. Well, whatever the case at the moment my priority should be on if I should replace Trixie or not… I suppose I could try and talk to Trixie… whichever is in control of them all, with Zeke and maybe get something through to her. Though Zeke… damn, he must be in a slump or something about now. I hope he doesn’t do anything stupid. Then again, look who I’m talking about… “Damn it….” I grumbled before flipping my Lexicon open. “Greater Communion, call Zeke.” I said while my book glowed with the magic as I tried to contact Zeke. When it got through who picked up… wasn’t Zeke, but a girl rather. She was about seventeen or nineteen, worn once blue and white hat, and her clothes were a bit tattered. “Uh… hello?” She asked. “Hello?” I asked. “Who is this if I may ask?” “I’m Clementine… You’re Ben, right?” She asked. “Yes I am.” I nodded. “Know where Zeke is?” She was silent for a bit… as if thinking or something. “He’s uh, not answering.” “Is he knocked out still or is he busy?” I asked simply. “He was active earlier... not sure what he is up to.” They said. “Well I wanted to talk to him about Trixie.” I said honestly. “But...wait, are you the one currently 'awake’?” I asked, thinking this was like Trixie and Zeke before. “We’re all awake, but sometimes the others are talking with each other or with Keyblades and the one in control is on their own.” “Ah.” I nodded. “Is Trixie there? I need to talk to about her...other job.” I said honestly. “Oh.” She said, turning to someone off screen. “You all go on ahead. This might take a while. Just look for a bald guy named Patches.” I could hear some people walk passed her as she looked back to me. “Okay, so what about Trixie?” “I need to talk to her. It’s about the fact she's still apart of my Council.” I frowned. There was a moment of Silence from her. She was still for a while, likely trying to call her I think before they fell to the ground. “Shit!” I yelped. I closed the call, and began heading out. The fuck just happened!? “Can I ever get a simple goddamn answer for once?” To be continued...
N̨̲͔̉ͫ̌e̘̙̳̩͌̾ͮx̸̂̈͊ͭ̊u̟͉͉̜͎͕ṡ͉͕̃̉̎̚͡ ̷̫̮̍̉W͙̖̙̩̯͙̅̐̓i͓͔̙̻̋̄͑ͭͬ̌l̢̾̒ͫͨ̊l̨͓͇͔̤̓ ̼͕̼̼͕̙ͪ́̌̔ͧ͂̌B̥̤̟̮̘̙̱ů͙̦̱̜̕r̶͚͊͋̓͗̍͊n͇͕̪̳͍̝͚We are the storm! The words echoed throughout the compound, Nexus agents looking up and around for whatever the hell was causing that noise. We fight to the end! The noise seemed to have gotten louder as Alarms started to go off that intruders entered their compound. “How the hell did they get in he-” One man was about to ask before he coughed up blood and fell to the ground, a cloaked figure standing above him with a bloodied blade. We bring the light to forgotten dreams! The singing seemed to get a lot louder than the sirens as Nexus and their unknown assailant’s started to clash, powerful magics and sounds of battle echoed throughout the compound. So come and join the Army of the Light! The Nexus soldiers were trying to push back against whoever decided to fuck with them, but it was shockingly clear someone knew all too well what they were capable off...like this happened before. We have to turn back time! The words echoed to everyone in the compound as those words were quite obvious to all the Nexus soldiers. “We were set up!?” A guard shouted. “Release the test subjects! Let’s see if they have fun with them!” The roar of whatever abominations that they were working on when they were released were suddenly cut off by shrieks of pain as the sound of flesh ripping and bone breaking echoed. In the day when you lost my Smile… Nexus soldiers started to scream in pain before their cries were silenced rather quickly by someone as they walked calmly through the entire compound. I crossed in Sorrow Gates of Space and Time! What little the people noticed was the music was coming from the newest cloaked figure, walking past all of the survivors who actively tried to attack them. “Who the hell is-” One Nexus soldier was questioning who could be so strong to just waltz into their compound without any trouble...only for the guy to turn into a brand new paint job on the wall as his blood stained the wall. “The fuck!” A researcher shouted and tried to run for it, only to get clotheslined by a being he couldn’t recognize. To change all the things we’ve done… The compound was now in full on panic, so many unknown’s hitting them all at once as their entire compound, their men, even their test subjects were being ripped to shreds. “Today’s a good day to die!” A Psychopath laughed as it charged at the main cloaked figure just calmly walking through the carnage as he swung a sword made out of his own killer intent. That was the last day when I saw the Ray of the Sun! The being didn’t even raise a hand as the weapon shattered against nothing, causing the Psychopath to blink in shock. “The hell are...wait…” The Psychopath took a step back, knowing full well when he could sense another of his kin. “Your not supposed to be here!” He shouted, only for something to stab into him, crystal’s forming around the stab wound. “Your...not Cript…” The Psychopath muttered as it fell over, the forced union of Psychopath and mortal making the mortal capable of returning to normal life as the crystalized Psychopath...was devoured... In the day when you lost my Smile~… The leader of the compound was frantically trying to call for back up at this point, even if his superiors wouldn’t give the most unholyest of a damn for their entire sector but at least getting out a call for an unknown assailant and a literal fucking army appearing out of nowhere would be great. “Come on, you were so fucking good at communicating when Vincent died just pick up already!” I crossed in Sorrow Gates of Space and Time! The door to his room was disintegrated at the leader saw the cloaked figure, any discernible features completely blocked from him. “Fine, I’ll deal with you!” The leader shouted as he channeled his Delete powers and vanished, appearing behind the cloaked figure and swung a Void Blade at them. A single finger blocked the attack, the shock wave destroying more of the building even though it was already mostly a burning wreck. To change all the things we’ve done~... The Delete could notice one thing, the eyes of a Psychopath...and of Humanity. “Who are you?” The Delete swung again and again, but of course he had to be in the realm where DBZ tropes were a thing, this being blocking all of it’s attacks with a gloved finger. “Why aren’t my powers working!?” He shouted, knowing full fucking well Delete powers should have at least started to chip away at the being but it looked like it was having no effect at all. That was the last day when I saw the Ray of the Sun! The Delete’s head was grabbed suddenly, a lot faster than he could react before he felt something enter him, his Delete physiology enjoying the consumption of energy but it wasn’t any kind of energy he felt before as it only burned him like he was at the core of a Sun. “Burn…” The being whispered, the Delete screaming as flames erupted from every part of him, every part of his being was engulfed in these greedy flames, his power’s not working for some ungodly reason. “Who...are you…?” The Delete said weakly, knowing the flames will kill him soon. The being didn’t answer as it dropped him and searched the room for the hidden information these fuckers normally had, the beings soldiers having come into the head office with as much information the compound held as the figure found the specific cover on the ground to find their secret stash of information. “The compound has been taken.” A males voice said as a hollowed suit of armor walked into the main room. “Any survivors?” The leader asked. “Those who laid down their arms are being taken back.” The knight said while seeing his leader head down to the small bunker full of knowledge. “Old hideout...probably thought this was long gone…” The being muttered while taking all the information rather quickly. “Move.” They said while the Knight nodded. “As you wish.” The knight said before vanishing, the entire compound becoming dead silent even with the crackling of fire and sparks coming off of broken electronics. “Only step one...till everything’s right…” The leader muttered to themselves as they vanished into thin air, as if they never existed. Author's Note Hey, just something I wanted to do. It's short, it's dumb, but it'll at least lead into something I promise. Sorry that it's still poorly written, this is just me writing something because music made me want to write it. Song some of the lyrics are from in case people are curious
StoryAuthor's Note Here's the instrumental for the actual lyrics that I am kind of parodying, please don't hate me and sorry for the short chapter, just wanted to do something short by myself this time Story In the massive play room, aptly named ‘The Garden’, a cloaked figure walked around, seeing all the children happily playing, having a good time, and just being happy. “To see you all so young…” The person muttered while walking over to a big chair that was meant for story time, and when they sat down a lot of children looked over, excited for story time and bounded over, each child being different in someway, either them being human, dire wolf, naga, or any other race but all of them were hybrid’s at the very least. “Who wants to hear a story?” The person asked, all the children nodded and were happy for story time as the storyteller started to sing. “Here in the Garden, let’s tell a tale about a Wolf who lost Hope.” The children all tilted their heads, wondering why there was music, why the person was singing...and why it sounded very sad. “Here in the Garden, seeing you all...gives me so much joy…” The singer gently took off their hood, the children looking confused as they thought this was their Daddy Ben but...they looked older, scarred, and tired. “Seeing your smiles, that’s what I’m after, the smile in your eyes the sound of your laughter…” The older dire wolf started to tear up as they gently picked up Nancy and cradling her like young Ben did. “How far I have traveled, holding to Hope, seeing you all dri~ft away…” More of the innumerable amount of children started to move closer to the storyteller, wondering why they all felt like...they were losing a loved one. “Failing to save you, all on my own, underneath the endless sky…” The singer took a deep breath, trying to keep themselves together for their kids. “Counting the Seconds, Wandering Alone, as thousands of years flew by...fearfully wondering, Night after Night, is this just Fate, could I have done something right…failing to save you, losing all Hope, seeing you all dri~ft away…” As they continued to sing, the children were enraptured by the song, going into a world similar to there’s but a lot more bleak and sad, where Ben has been wandering for years, going to places they never knew about trying to do something. “The Writer’s keep Turning Pages, for People who Don’t Care, People who weren’t There for you...and yet it still took me Ages, to see that No One’s there, see that No One cares, see that everyone’s moved on without you…” The children all saw either their older selves doing heroic things, failing to comfort Ben...or seeing Ben grieving over thousands of Graves, each one having their names engraved on them. “Finally something, finally Hope, about how I can make this right...but my life doesn’t exist here, everything’s wrong, and all that I love is safe...“ The singer looked at all the children, seeing them all tearfully waiting for more of the story, all of them wishing they could do something but knowing they should wait for them to finish. “Isn’t that lovely? Isn’t that Cool? And isn’t that Cruel, and aren’t I a Fool to have, happily traveled, held onto Hope...only to watch you all dri~ft…” As the singer continued their final version, they put Nancy down and slowly vanished. Dri~ft The children tried to reach for the being they knew was their father, alone and afraid of everything that happened to them and what would happen, but all got was thin air. Dri~ft Away… As soon as the music and song ended, all the children started crying in a shared feeling of sadness for that poor soul just...wanting to do something right for once in their life. "I'm sorry my children..." Future Ben muttered as they put their hood back on and headed back to their base to put more things in motion.
Nobody spends time in the VoidJericho and I read over the book, and got ready. I managed to make special necklaces to hide us from Deletes as well as other Void' creatures. Also in the book there was an artifact that would allow us to see in the Void but I don't have the time to make it. Not myself, a Starfish clone though… yeah. Thank God I can do that now. Heart was still in my… belly but they were out cold I had to jump to wake them up and I figured they could stay there. The boost they'll give me will be helpful. Lastly the book also mentioned a person in the Void who sells void items to non void beings. We figured we'd hit him first for back up weapons or other things. I have to admit having Heart in my stomach I've forgotten that were there more than I thought I would. It's still… weird, but overall an experience I have a feeling Eclipsa will want to try… oh yeah, still gotta do that also… baby steps. "Alright, we ready?" I asked Jericho while finishing up my list of things my clones can do. "Yeah. First stop that merchant person then off to the Void Dire wolves. How's Heart?" "He's out cold, so he'll be okay." I said honestly. "And watch as this is the Merchant from Resident Evil 4." I chuckled. "Loved that game." Jericho laughed as we used the Blindmans eye to find our way into the void. "Let's hope this thing works…" I muttered while seeing the eye...swivel around to find the way. "Gross…" The compass rotated around a few times, blinked, then glowed as suddenly it seemed the reality around them was now peeling off, soon it was gone, and we found ourselves in a floating stone altar of sorts. "What are you two doing here?" The voice of the Outsider Hollow spoke, appearing behind them. "How did you even get here?" “Found an artifact, and we were going to find the Void Wolves.” I said. “Oh by the way, how’s John doing?” "His training is going well. Hopefully when he returns to his home he can defend it with honor.” “I know he will.” I nodded. “Now, we originally started with finding The Merchant here to get some stuff before looking for the Void Wolves.” "Ah. Yes." Hollow said, suddenly a bridge forming from where we were into further darkness of void appeared. "This will take you to the deeper sections of The Void. Once you cross the bridge your Blind Man's Compass will be critical. The Merchant you are talking about lives inside a shack of sorts. Just know where you want to go and the compass will take you." “Cool.” I nodded. “Oh uh...what is the Forest of Roots?” I asked. “I read up that that’s where Void Wolves appear rather frequently.” "Well. That's a bit of a story, isn't it. You know how the Void Mother was the first Mother, right? The locations and ruins within the void are not all spilled leftovers of the admins and cycles. Most are from the voids days as the first creation, the first cycle. The Forest of Roots was the original birthplace of the original first cycle wolves. They came from those woods in that ever so bygone era. Many split off, went to other places and world's, becoming the various species that exist in this and every other cycle. As a wolf, it's the furthest back you can trace your ancestors, the first ancestral home of your people. The Void Wolves are the void tainted kin that never left them." “That’s really interesting...wonder if they’ll be friendly towards me given...who and what I am.” I wondered. "Perhaps, it's hard to tell with those wolves." "Well...let's hope for the best." I said honestly. Jericho and I walked across the bridge. The ever growing density and bleakness of the void getting more intense. "So far things are looking more bleak…" I said honestly. "It's the Void so…" Jericho said, taking out the Blind Man's Eye and it began guiding. "Well… this will be something." "Let's hope we don't bump into anything. While the accessories I made should work it's better to be safe than sorry." I said honestly. “Yeah.” As we walked, following the compass’s directions we thankfully walked, maybe seven miles or so, might be more? We arrived at said shack here. It was a very haphazardly built shack that was part of the rotten wood, part various assortments of junk. “This is it?” Jericho asked. “I’ve seen some crappy living conditions before but… this is pretty bad. Like a homeless guy just piled all their gathered trash to make a building.” "Don't judge a book by its cover as they say." I said honestly. "Inside could be a nice shop. Who knows?" I shrugged. Shrugging, Jericho and I knocked… and the door fell over… “Come in then.” Spoke the elderly ancient voice of a raspy man, a coughing fit followed swiftly after their words were done. Inside was… pretty bad. It at least looked like a shop but it was the definition of… all the health code violations. “Nice on the inside huh?” Jericho asked sassily. “I said ‘could be’, and ‘who knows’. So don’t sass me.” I frowned. “So, how are you doing today sir?” I asked the shopkeep. The Shopkeep wore a dirty cloth toga of sorts that was stained in dirt and blood… their own if that massive greatsword through their back and chest means anything. “Welcome. Creations of Admins… No, Admins. Been a long time since your lot saw my wears. So, anything in particular you want?” “Do you have any items that can let us see in the Void without blindly following the Blind Man’s Eye?” I asked curiously. “Ah. I think I have what you need” The shopkeep said, rummaging through a pile of jars with… various items. After a minute he pulled out one with what looked like herbs. “These herbs when blended and boiled into a tea, taste like Deaths Asshole, but taints the eyes just enough to allow vision in this forsaken place. The effects last only for a day, per cup.” “I kind of thought it would have been like a set of goggles or something to help you see...not basically Death’s ass liquid.” I said honestly. The shopkeep launched, wheezing heavily ashe finished. “Good one lass. So how will you be paying for this?” “Um...what currency do you take?” I asked curiously. “Currency?” They laughed again, a coughing fit ending it. “Money is as worthless here as the will to live lass. We barter, do a job and all that. Question is, what can you do for me?” “Build you a house that won’t fall apart if you accidentally cough at the wrong ‘support’ beam?” I asked honestly. “Heh. Nah lass. Hmm...Oh...Oh… Hang on, I know you.” They said, gaining a manic smile. “You killed that Honorable Delete Knight and his Wife!” “I’m not killing their children damn it!” I barked at him immediately. “I already regretted killing the both of them, I’m not killing their children even if they hate me…” I took a deep breath. “Just...I’m sorry for overreacting, why do you want to know why I killed them both?” “Oh I don’t want you to kill those kids. Little buggers died a while ago. House raided and then they were burned alive inside from what I heard.” I...I was honestly speechless at hearing that. “No...no that can’t be true…” “The void is a harsh place, children don’t last long without parents. But that’s where you come in.” He said, placing his arms on the rotting counter. “You see, words mean little when the travelers are the same people who’d have burned the place down. If ya find their bodies, bury the kids. Buggers were annoying but their parents were good customers. If there aren’t two tiny corpses, I know where those buggers likely would have ended up assuming something bigger didn’t eat them beforehand.” “Where would they be?” I asked curiously, already knowing where to bury the kids. “First lass, see if they aren’t dead.” The shopkeep said, grabbing an old kettle from under the counter then bringing it on top of his hand, Void Fire burning under it as he tossed a few of the herbs in it. “Do this for me, and the cup is on the house, bury them brats, or save them, jar is yours.” “I will...I’ll make sure to save them if they are still alive...or bury them with their parents if I find their corpses…” I sighed out. “But...thank you sir for telling me this...hopefully their still alive.” “Maybe. That’s what you’re going to see.” He said, the tea done as he poured it into two small cups. “Bottoms up, it’s got a kick.” “Thank you.” I nodded while taking one of the small cups and drinking it, knowing full well it’s going to taste like absolute garbage. Hope Heart doesn't end up tasting it. Garbage… did this thing justice. It took ALL my willpower to keep from throwing up, keeping the drink and Heart down as I saw Jericho was in no better boat. My eyes got hazy for a bit until finally I… I could see… colors? Sunlight? What? Getting up, that taste was lingering… and this place still looked horrible, but everything had color, everything looked like just a trash building in normal daylight. Is this how Deletes and other void beings see? “I think I’d prefer going through this place blind…” Jericho wheezed. “But...honestly seeing this place in color is nice…” I coughed. “So...where would the Old Man’s house be? And where would they be if they aren’t there?” “The house was in the ruins of Cartha, once a fine city, before the Void at least.” Shopkeep said. “If their charred bodies aren’t in the house, they must be in Pitt Vally. One of the only places here that has kids that are kept alive. Key word there is alive, safe, not so much.” I took a deep breath. “Alright, let’s get going then.” I said. “Thank you kindly sir.” ‘Oh fuck what was that!?’ Heart screamed, likely having tasted that liquid and was now spazzing about in there… actually doesn't feel as bad as I thought. Kinda like belly rubs. Got a lot of those from Mom and the girls. “Sorry Heart, but it’s so I can see in the Void…” I muttered while putting a hand on my stomach. ‘You should have stayed blind!’ “Thank you!” Jericho said. Once Heart had calmed down and was back to napping in there, we headed off. I have to admit, seeing in the void is… weird. Colors and such everything looks normal but… At the same time everything here was… defying every law in every book. “This place must have been nice before The Mother here went apshit nuts.” Jericho said. “It would have…” I sighed out. “We’ll have to fix this later, but right now...we have to make sure kids are okay.” As we walked along the roads, some Void beasts showed up. Nothing too bad, No Heart ended them fast and easy. They dropped a few… odd items Jericho kept to study and we saw the ruins of… Yeah just looking at these ‘ruins’ makes my brain hurt… “So which house is that Delete couples then? There’s a few here that are burned to ashes.” “Should have asked that…” I sighed out. “But...let’s start searching, hopefully we’ll find something.” I said while already heading off to find any signs of either dead bodies or life. As we were looking In one house that would have once been tall, I found a suit of armor… much like his… Arrows, bows, lots of swords… Yup! This is the place! I began sniffing and digging through rubble and ash piles. I found… a single, small arm… and that was it. Part of me was happy, and the other angry. Someone… cut this kid’s arm off. This is right at the joint…”Well...I found one of the kids arms…” I said while trying to see if the scent went off anywhere. I got nothing. “So those fuckers took them to this Pitt Valley then…” Jericho said, looking at the parents weapons. Despite the fire, they were in good shape. “They were after the kids.” Jericho said, picking up a sword the size of my body. “Everything of value is still here… but not the kids…” “So Pitt Valley is a child slavery scene?” I asked. “Or worse…” Jericho sighed. “There was a place in my old realm… We called it Galvalla. We all grew up there, at least until we ran away from it. It was safe, yes, but slavery would have been prefered. Like here, kids were not common. If we couldn’t fight, we were ‘entertainment’...” “So let’s go liberate the kids.” I said. “I know Nothingness is the opposite of Void but...Nothingness can still help them be less corrupted and be better.” “Even so, what after? They’re all Deletes, we can’t bring them home, they’d erase it the second they arrive… Unless…” “Unless?” I asked curiously. “I remember Pecator told Heart that when he was forging Void Key, he discovered that Nothingness, PURE Nothingness and Void cancel one another out, forming instead blank code, if you can manage to use it… they’d become normal kids, Admins even maybe. Their void would be purged and Delete powers and abilities gone. At the very least they’d be able to use Void like how John does.” “Perfect.” I said, thankful there’s hope. “I am so glad there’s hope for these kids...cause they deserve a better life than what’s either happening to them...or what’s to come…” “Yeah.” Jericho said, raising the massive sword with ease. “Let’s go save those kids.” I brought out No Heart and Skysplitter. “Yeah, let’s go save some kids.” I said. “Let’s go to Pitt Valley.” Pitt Valley was quite a distance. For some reason I can't shift No Heart or any of my other Keyblades into Gliders, but Lindworm worked still. Even flying though is going to take a while. “This better not be as worrying as I’m fearing…” "It will be worse." Jericho sighed. “Oh god…” I muttered worriedly as we got closer to the place. “I...just hope we can save all the kids…” "Won't be easy. Won't be pretty." Jericho sighed. "Hmm… Here. Take my hand." Jericho said, holding out a hand to me. “Lewd.” I joked as I took Jericho’s hand. There was a sudden rush over me. I felt code, code from Jericho enter me. "Admin trick. We can take Abilities or give them. That's an ability I got from the old Admin of War." “Oh? And what’s the ability?” I asked curiously. "Conquests Spoils. It's basically a magnet ability but it brings you what you want, but only after whoever is in charge of this place is dead. Hopefully if this place is not run by anyone you can get the kids out fast and then we can fight without holding back." “Alright.” I nodded. “This will help a lot, now let’s just hope there's no one their we can’t easily take care of.” I said, knowing full well the the place is going to have someone there other than their slaves. As we arrived, Pitt Valley was a haphazardly constructed City within a massive gash in the soil. The majority of beings around did not look like Deletes. "Echos." Jericho said. "Haven't seen one of those in a while, now there's a city of them." “What are Echos?” I asked nervously. "Some people deal with various void beings. Like Hollow. Echos are the void bound souls of people who deal with these beings. For the most part they are like how they were in life, but they can't technically die. The only way to 'kill' them is through absorbing them… but Your Nothingness should also be able to do the trick." “Alrighty then…” I said. “So, time to start a prison break I suppose.” "First try the Ability." “Alright…” I nodded while taking a deep breath and trying to ‘collect’ from the Valley in hopes that there wasn’t any leader here. “Let’s hope this works…” Once we landed I activated Conquests Spoils. I felt suddenly Each child in there… all sixteen thousand of them. All of them either used as slave labor, punching bags, experimentation… rape… I felt it through all of them, and yanked my arm back. All of the kids appearing around me. Acting fast I tapped into my Nothingness, diving deep as pure adrenaline and instinct kicked in, Pure Nothingness flowing to me, and out of me. Cloaking the kids as I saw their inborn void react with the Pure Nothingness, they each changing from Deletes to normal kids. "That will have painted a target. Let's slaughter the bastards then rush off. You try and send them home and look for those other two." I nodded while opening a portal as two clones of mine appeared and started to herd the children into the portal rather quickly, carrying those that were too weak or hurt to move as they all were thankfully brought to the medical center in the Castle. “Hopefully we’re not too late…” I said worriedly, hoping what these fuckers did didn’t hurt them beyond repair. I then saw one kid, an older boy, one armed, carrying a much younger kid. "Thank you Miss." They said, a ping of joy, guilt, and shame hitting all at once as they escaped. “I’m glad their safe but...shame and guilt are clouding my joy…” I sighed out sadly. "We won't have a lot of time." Jericho said, shooting an explosive blast of Code at the city. "Fire up that Nothingness, we need to end this fast cause Nexus will be here fast." I took a deep breath, remembering the feelings of each of the kids pain that these fuckers put them all through...all sixteen thousand of them. “Jericho...step the fuck back…” I growled as rage fueled my action as I stepped forward at the entire Valley. “----” I ‘said’ as I raised my hand, Pure Nothingness seeming to just erupt in the entire Valley as it was completely obliterated with any of those abusive fuckers inside. “That good enough?” I growled. "Yea-Agh!" Jericho screamed, blasted to the ground by a void blast. "Well, well, well…" That voice… "What do we have here? And I was wondering if you had the guts to walk into our turf." Void Key spoke through their current host. I stared at their host, then down at the Void Key replica. “Still hiding I see.” I said honestly. “What? You think your hot shit, why haven’t you just came up to me and fight me like a man. And Jericho quit being theatrical, you know that didn’t hurt.” I frowned. "Fuck off it did!" They yelled, arm regenerating in a glow of code. "I hate Deletes…" "Two on one? Heh. Well, guess I can spare an Allie." Void Key said, tapping it's blade to the ground as a Void portal opened. Walking through it was… is that Vilgax? "I hope you don't mind, but we made our own versions of your gear." Vilgax then summoned a void version of Sky Splitter and Frozen Pride. "I've been dying to test these." Vilgax said. "I forgot I picked him up…" Jericho huffed. “Cause of course you did…” I sighed out. “I’m curious, now bear with me here.” I said. “I want you to hit me as hard as you can.” I said to Vilgax simply. “Oh is that right?” Vilgax asked with confidence in his new abilities. “Now hold on.” I said. “You might have misheard me. Not ‘half as hard’ not ‘some arbitrary percentage’. I want you.” I said simply. “To hit me. As hard as you can.” “And if I don’t play along?” Vilgax asked simply. “Well then I guess Ben was right about you.” I said, causing Vilgax to snap and swing Sky Splitter at me, only for me to take the hit and...nothing happening. “Well consider that nerve touched.” I said with a grin as Vilgax jumped back. “Void you said these weapons were as strong as his!” Vilgax snapped, not knowing why I took literally no damage. Void didn’t say anything, as he seemed more intrigued by this new development. “Now Vilgax, you should know this by now.” I said. “You're either Perfect, or your just worthless.” I growled as I slammed my fist into Vilgax’s face really hard and sent him flying away rather fast. The alien managed to stop himself in mid air. “I’m okay...I’m okay…” The alien said as he fell and hit the ground. “Think I hit him a little too hard…” I muttered before seeing him get up rather quickly. “How dare you make a mockery of me!” Vilgax shouted as a massive Void Aura appeared around him. “I’m going to give you one last chance. You, me, hard as you can.” I told him with a grin. “We clear?” “Crystal.” Vilgax growled as he jumped into the air. “Prepare to die you worthless mutt!” Vilgax shouted as his aura got even bigger. “Oh ho ho! That’s impressive! I can actually feel that!” I taunted him. “The only thing you’ll be feeling is Oblivion!” Vilgax shouted. “That or disappointment.” I said while spreading my arms out. “Go ahead, flip that coin.” I said. Vilgax could only growl in rage as he continued to charge up his attack. “Apocalypse!” He shouted as he dived down straight towards me. “Aw how cute he named-oh shit!” I shouted as a massive fuck off explosion wracked across the area we were in, pillars of earth rising so high it damn near made mountains as Jericho and Void only stood their and watched. After all the dust settled Vilgax panted heavily as he looked up to see I lost an arm, only for him to start laughing in triumph. “You think this is funny?” I asked with a pained voice. “It’s hilarious!” Vilgax laughed. “Well it’s not as funny…” I said before dropping the joke. “As your face.” I said as my arm regrew as if nothing happened. “Wh-what!?” Vilgax backed up from that. “You know, I kind of liked the old arm better.” I said as I started stretching the new arm “Welp, looks like I’ll have to break it in.” I said as Vilgax tried to attack me at blinding speeds, only for me to block it all. “Why won’t you die!?!” Vilgax shouted. “Really Vilgax, has that really ever worked?” I asked before bringing out my own Sky Splitter and slamming it into the back of his head, knocking him out cold. “Don’t need to answer that.” I chuckled as I kicked Vilgax back to Void Key. “Happy with your little testing?” "Extremely. Runes notes were not all just talk." Void Key said, picking up Vilgax and tossing him back into a portal. "The data from this was useful. Now we know your power is not all from your weapons." They said, leaving through the portal also. “Dick…” I growled. “So anyways...now we can move onto the Void wolves.” "Well first we tell the merchant guy about the kids. Then off to the void wolves." Jericho said. “That is true.” I nodded. “Let’s go tell the merchant about this and...the massive fucking hole I just made…” I said while heading off back to the Merchant. We arrived back at the merchants place, he was just sitting down… eating a rat… a rather large rat. "So, what did ya find lass?" They asked. “All sixteen thousand kids are now in my world being tended to by the best doctor's, as well as Pitt Valley being nothing but a Nothingness infused crater.” I said honestly. "Ah. So that was the rumble that I felt. And those two little twats?" “They...thanked me before heading into the castle's medical center.” I said sadly. “I’m glad they’re all safe but...guilt and shame suck…” "Well ya did kill their parents. It's expected." The shopkeep said, bringing up the jar and sliding it over as Jericho took it. "As promised. The jar is yours." “Thank you.” I nodded. “Now...quick question, where are the Void Wolves? I only know about the Forest of Roots, but I don’t know which direction it is.” "Isn't that why ya have that void compass there lass?" “While that’s true, might as well also know just in case I lose the bloody thing.” I said honestly. “Better to be safe than sorry in the Void you know?” "What you'd need then, lass, is a map." The shopkeep said. "That would be useful." Jericho said. "I have just what you need." They said, rummaging through the piles of junk. "Now where did I…?" “Need some help?” I asked curiously. “I know it's… ah! Found it!" He said, grabbing an old box… that symbol on it… "This is an artifact that, back before this place even was the void, took you anywhere. However, after the void appeared, swallowing this land and everything, one person managed to make this thing work while in the void. Only one like it in this entire forsaken hellscape." "And how did you come to have it?" Jericho asked. "Stole it." Shopkeep said matter of factly. “Alright…” I nodded. “Interesting symbol on it.” "No one knows what it means. Knowledge of that era is damn near completely forgotten." Shopkeep said, opening the box as inside was… wow. It was an Assistant, definitely, but was way more… high tech… “Uh...okay so you have an Assistant...but it’s weirdly high tech…” I said with some thought. "Now this little treasure will cost you." “What will the price be?” I asked curiously. "I'll need… what your friend there has been carrying." I looked over at Jericho. "The sword?" Jericho asked. Shopkeep laughed. "No. You know what I am talking about." "..." Jericho thought for a bit. Eyes widening after a bit. "Over my dead body…" They hissed. “I don’t know what’s going on what?” I asked curiously. Jericho reached into their shirt, taking out a necklaces. It was plain, simple. "Remember when I told you that, before Cript, before I became the Admin of War… I loved someone else. This was hers, and it's all I have from them left." "A priceless item, for a priceless item." Shopkeep said. “No deal then.” I said simply. “A map is fine...but giving up the only thing you have of the people you care about is too much.” "Then we are at an impasse lass…" "I take it you have something else in mind?" Jericho asked. "Oh, maybe. Surely, that trinket would be of less value to you… if this love were with the living." “And what the hell do you mean by that?” I asked, knowing full well that people can come back but wondering why he brought it up. "There is tail of a relic, forged by the Void Mother herself. A relic of such bygone time before the void. A Code Catalog. Anyone that has lived, their Code is cataloged within it. A means of resurrection. Even when ended by a Delete." "So Deletes are now completely harmless." I said. "Where would this relic because you wouldn't bring it up if you know." "Not quite lass. I said it brings them back, I never said it brought them back as is. Or was." The merchant said. "What's the catch?" I asked honestly. "Cause right now it sounds like they would be brand new people instead of how resurrection actually works." "Yes and no. While it would be them, down to the last strand of code that made them up, this relic brings them back as they were when they first entered this world. Their world." "As a baby…" Jericho said with thought and confusion. "Correct. Mother's Womb, the Void Mother tore out her own Womb to become what she is, guess it caused her too much pain. The one being it can't resurrect was her dearly beloved. So she ripped it out, and cast it away into what is now known as The Tomb of Heroes." "Well then...that is a thing." I said honestly. "It's only the second most dangerous place in all of The Void, surpassed by The Void Mother's Garden only. Even at your power, that place is a suicide run." "Hasn't stopped me before." I said honestly. “So what’s the actual problem?” "One hundred floors, one hundred heroes killed, and morphed into the artifacts protectors." “Sounds simple enough.” I said honestly. “How strong are these bosses?” "They all come from the first cycle lass. You tell me?" They laughed. “Depends on who they are...cause even first cycle people can be weaker than most people here.” I said, knowing they would be strong but not knowing how strong. "One way to know for sure…" Jericho said thoughtfully. "This… this artifact could change everything Ben. No more lost soldiers, no more death period. Just rebirth." “And...some people deserve it.” I said honestly. “People deserve a second chance…” "Then off ya go. Hope to see you lot again, if not, well, I can't say I wasn't expecting it." “Well either way.” I said. “Where would this place be again?” "The Tomb of Heroes was the last place made before this place became The Void. It sits at The Voids Edge. A place many believe does not exist." “Now the main issue is to get there.” I said honestly. “Cause no matter where you go, getting to the Edge of anything is going to be a pain.” "Assuming it exists at all lass." “It exists, you wouldn’t be telling us this if you either didn’t believe it existed, or haven’t been there before.” I said honestly. “And honestly...I’m pretty sure you’ve been there before.” They laughed, a coughing fit leading to some coughed blood ending their self-hysterical laughter. "Been? No, but, I knew a fellow once. The one who gave me this." They taped the giant sword that impaled them. "Was all they could get from the first floor before leaving. Traded it to me for a complete memory extraction. Wanted to forget the place even existed." “Well alrighty then...that’s one hell of a payment honestly.” I said nervously. "A memory extraction means you didn't erase it. You transferred it." Jericho pointed out. "Indeed." The Shopkeep said, reaching under the desk and taking out a… a castle Oblivion card. But this is different. The colors are so dull and lifeless. Normally they look more bright and vibrant. "Put them all in here. Handy little trinkets." “Yeah, those things are nifty.” I said honestly. “So...looks like we’re going to head off to a Super Dungeon, how do you think we’ll fair Jericho?” I asked, given that Jericho is technically the Admin of War. "We could be fine. Better if I can use your Nothingness for some protection/ kick." Jericho said. “You can, you have the same powers as me, Heart, Eclipsa and Cript remember?” I said simply. "I know, but given how… training went, I figured it was best not to use your powers or weapons until you had cooled off." “More like how I accidentally destroyed an entire Dungeon in a blind fit of rage.” I said honestly. "I was talking about when you were training with me." “Either way, I’m not going to get into an argument right now.” I rolled my eyes. “So anyways...we’re going to have to find the place ourselves, or use that memory card to find where it is.” "Card will cost ya." Shopkeep said. "In this unique circumstances, an eye for an eye, or rather, a memory for a memory." “And...what memory would that be?” I asked curiously. “An eye for an eye, so one that equals in horror to that one most likely.” Jericho huffed. “Correct you are there.” The Shopkeep said. “So long as the emotional toil is the same, what was in the memory matters not to me.” “Well...mind if we have a small example of the memory to give us something to go off of?” I asked curiously. “Oh I’ve been hoping for someone to ask.” The Shopkeep said almost evilly as they tapped the card. What I saw, in order, made me scream, vomit, several times, surprisingly Heart did not pop up though did shuffle around a bit from my vomiting, made me cry, triggered my Motherly instincts fear and gave me slight PTSD flashbacks to when I killed the first time and when I killed Villain Deku… Jericho was in the same boat. “This truly is an unholy land!” Jericho whimpered, clutching onto me like a scared sheep… and I was doing the same to them. “Okay so...legit, what the fuck…” I whined. “You have not seen the worst this forsaken place has for those who tread it lightly.” The shopkeep said, unphased by what we just witnessed. “Bright side, you got the needed memory.” “Fuck off you planned that scare!” Jericho hissed. “I did, and it was worth it.” “I hate you so goddamn much…” I growled. With the location, and some basic knowledge of that first floor now given to us, we headed off to The Heroes Tomb. Jericho was still shaking a bit. “Alright, so first floor...shouldn’t be too hard.” I said, trying to play off the...event as if it was supposed to happen whether I had a say in it or not. “This place, can fuck itself into oblivion.” Jericho said finally. “I’ve seen some FUCKED stuff under the old Admin of War’s tyranny, but THAT… was beyond just simply cruelty… This place is just pure fucking evil…” “Okay now that I call bull.” I frowned. “I haven’t sifted through your memories yet but even I can imagine that asshole doing much, much worse...and regrettably...so can I…” I sighed out, Jericho knowing full well the locks I keep on certain memory doors that I make sure no one, not even myself, can go into. “So anyways...mind giving me some cliff notes on how not to pass out while going full hundred percent? Cause...we’re gonna need it.” “Are you actually going to listen or will you immediately try and hit me with a Tomahawk again?” “I’ll listen.” I said honestly. “We can’t really do that crap where we’re going…” "Alright then." Jericho said, taking a deep breath. "There are several methods, but a combination of them is always a better. My method is to exert a large portion of it into the area around you. This has the added benefit of also dealing some damage over time to any enemies around you while also weakening their power, especially if they draw it from a place or being as all that will be around them is your power, acting as a barrier of sorts." “And what are the other methods?” I asked curiously. “Cause that part might happen when I stop limiting myself cause...don’t want to hurt others accidentally.” "Another is to focus a chunk into your mind, speeding it up and allowing it to be 'overclocked' in a sense, letting you mentally handle that power better, and of course, physically as a byproduct. One method I know of also is called the Burst method. Cript does this one. They unleash in small burst/actions the full extent, focusing all that raw power into a single point or attack for a concentrated, powerful attack." “Would Drive Forms fix all this? Cause I do have a ‘True King Form’ that I haven’t fully tested yet with one hundred percent power.” I brought up, having gotten this form after I became King but didn’t notice until much much later. "I am not that knowledgeable on Magic. You'd have to ask Cript there." “Well we’ll figure it out soon I guess.” I said honestly. It was still… a long ways from this place. Despite our speed it was still going to take maybe a week or so. "Ever just wish for a simple life?" Jericho asked, the two of us bored out of our minds and basically laying on a solid floor of air I managed to make so Lindworm could carry us to this place. “It’s been a running thing I’ve wanted since I got here, but we both know ‘simple life’ isn’t really possible, whether it’s because of who we are or because the world itself is just fucking weird.” I said honestly. "But doesn't everything have a meaning different to another person's based on preference or ideals? Given our powers, life's and duties simple is our current family life." “True.” I said honestly. "So, since becoming an Admin and all that, what is the craziest thing you've done?" “Oh god...there’s a lot of things.” I said with some thought. “Can’t really decide on craziest...what’s the craziest thing you’ve done?” I asked. "Drank out five bars and ate a whole farm." Jericho said. "A Milgalop farm." “Milgalop?” I asked. “Sounds familiar but what is it?” "Imagine a mix between a Cow, Buffalo, Hippo and chicken. That's a Milgalop. Huge too. Just one has enough meat to feed a town. Bones once broken up make great fertilizer." “Cool.” I nodded. “But all things considered, the craziest thing I’ve done after becoming an Admin would be…” I hummed. “Well...considering I’m me, the craziest thing I can think of is having all of this.” I said honestly. “Family, friends, more power than I can ever have and more money and items I could ask for...that’s honestly the craziest thing when I look at myself.” "Figured the craziest thing for you would have been shifting into a herm. Though to be fair by God tier and up standpoints, herms are the norm." “Yeah, I could have also gone with either the two week orgy or making an entire colony is what should have been an endless amount of Shadow Creatures.” I said honestly. "That's cool. So, ever try and make your own weapon unique from the others?" “I mean, I have done research into it but I haven’t really tried to do anything along those lines. Honestly at this point with things I’ve either never had time to check or just completely forgot about I’m basically handicapping myself on complete accident.” I said honestly. "It happens. How about a quick lesson." Jericho said, sitting up. "Learning to imbue an object with power." “That would help.” I nodded. “That’s one thing to help make my weapons stronger.” "Alright. Now there are several ways to do this. But two can be done by anyone, and one is unique to Admins." Jericho said, taking out a simple dagger from their Assistant. "The first is by resmelting the weapon, but adding into it magic or special ores, like your Nothingness, Zeke's Balance, ect. Second is by crafting a gemstone with this power placed inside it. In my experience, no matter the realm, Gemstones can hold a large variety of power depending on the type of gem it is. The Admin way is actually kind of easy." Jericho started, showing me how to do this method. They flowed Code onto just their fingers, tapping the weapon and suddenly l, popped up on an almost Holo screen, was all the information about this weapon. Damage, materials, who made it, who used to own it, even it's molecular structure. Everything. "This is the Admins Edit Menu. Our ability to access this menu on anything below Admin power is the primary reason why we are so powerful." “From the Old King’s research, there’s apparently another way. Joy and my Council are actually prime examples of it.” I brought up. “Something to do with the weapon itself shifting or ‘evolving’ to fit the wielder...but not sure if I’m doing something wrong or haven’t noticed anything about it.” "Some weapons that have levels of self aware sentient can choose their best wielder. Keyblades are a prime example. As well as your weapons. That can happen to a weapon in one of two ways. First, is that they are made that way, another is that they gain this sentience by squirting life force and energy from their wielder or wielders over time. As such they will search for those who could add to or better embrace their already established power." Jericho said. "But back to topic, this menu I can add power to this weapon by simply typing." Jericho proceeded to add a section to the weapon, adding under the new 'Powers' tab and adding Nothingness. The dagger then gave off a strong sense of Nothingness, so much it became cloaked in Nothingness thorns. "This does not stop there. Watch." He then tapped on the tab for stats, showing its rather low 5 Damage, then added four zeros behind it. "From weak to powerful in two simple edits." He said, closing the menu and giving me the dagger. “Oh so basically just fucking with the numbers till you see fit.” I said honestly. "In a sense." Jericho launched. "There is a limit though. If you try to make this thing go above you in power, it will create a code error, and despite it's numbers stating it can kill everything, it will not even deal damage. Majority of the time when editing a weapon it's mostly for balancing it out stats wise or to see which collector of your creation will end up with it." “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “Sounds simple enough, let’s hope it’ll be enough against that thing…” I muttered as I started to edit all my weapons. "Yeah. Actually, we might be able to use this before heading off. Which of your weapons has the weakest damage?" “Physical or Magical?” I asked curiously. "Physical." “Um...I’d either say Foudre or Memory Stealer honestly.” I said honestly as I looked through all my weapons stats to make sure if I was right or not. I wasn't off. Foudre and Arpeggio had the lowest physical stats but the highest magic stats. Memory stealer had… pretty average stats. "Alright, which one shall we edit them?" Jericho asked. “Let’s go with Memory Stealer, cause honestly I want to start using it again even if it’s abilities are...rather extensive and massively scary…” I said sheepishly while bringing out Memory Stealer. "If you say so." Jericho said, opening it's menu. "Let's see here… hmm… oh, that's unique." He said, reading through it's stats. “You mean the part where it’s basically the Nothingness equivalent to a Delete?” I asked honestly. “Cause I did some major digging into it and...yeah it’s basically a Nothingness Delete weapon...that’s why I don’t use it…” "No, not that. It doesn't just consume memories, it also can convert them into various boosts. If I'm reading this right it can stack them up and you can use them as per what you need… but this code structure is all kinds of fucked. Whoever made this did not know what they were doing." Jericho said as they were fixing the apparently partly broken ability. “I blame God, and listen the ability is perfectly fine to keep. Also did you miss the part where it can literally revoke someone’s existence and absorb them?” I asked honestly. "No I see that part here. But like how a Delete does it, this one doesn't so much revoke their existence as it does… convert it… Huh…" Jericho said, looking through the code. "By default it uses the memories for boosts, the heart becomes Nothingness energy, and the leftover shell just becomes a Nobody forever." “Oh...well that’s a thing.” I said honestly. "That's default though… I can edit this to shift them into something different… something merciful." He said, looking over at me. "I can edit this to reset anyone who you deal a fatal blow to, so they revert to an infant state. Memories would be gone, of course but their heart and body would just revert back to infancy." “That...sounds better.” I nodded. "Might have to rename this thing then." Jericho said, happy. "How about… Second Chance, or Rebirth?" They said, working away at the former deadly weapon. “Both sound nice…” I said honestly. “I like Second Chance better though.” "Alright Then." Memory Stealer was now Second Chance, it would now take away all memories from someone hit fatality by it, and revert them body, mind, heart and soul to infancy. As an added measure Jericho made it so they'd be teleported to the clone of me at the Bedroom nursery safe room. He also changed its design. Now it looked like, well, Kinda like Oathkeeper but longer and had a Silhouette of me at the top clearly cradling an infant. "Man, feels good to do that again." Jericho said, happy at their own handy work. “What? Reforging a weapon?” I asked curiously. "Yeah. Was one of the few good things to come out of me becoming the new Admin of War." “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “Can’t wait to test it out...hopefully it’ll work against our new opponents…” "I made sure to boost it's Nothingness output so it will be extra effective against these things. Might even save them from whatever hell these former heroes are in now." “And how big are the boosts? Cause you said they stack just not how much it stacks.” "Well. One memory, can be used for a substitute for Mana for a cure or any other spell. Two cards can be used to boost Damage, speed, Defense or even Mana storage/restore time by times three… of itself. Three will give you higher stats to your drive forms as well as boost Nobodies you summon by five times their normal stats." “And it just keeps going and going from there?” I asked curiously. "It made out at three memories but so long as you have memories stored you can keep using them for boosts and they stack." “You can only stack it three times?” I asked, just making sure I’m hearing this right. "You can only use three memories for a boost, but you can use another three to stack onto the boost you already have so long as you have memories stored in there." “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “Thank you, and given that this takes memories from the Heart people would have thousands of memories.” "The older they are the more it can take. I also added a little something extra." “Oh? What’s the extra?” I asked curiously. "I added a feature that if it takes the memory of an attack they can do that can be remade for you, it will rework the memory and automatically teach you the attack, but with Nothingness." “So basically copycat right?” I asked curiously. "Kinda but you don't have to see them perform it first." “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “Good to know.” "So, anything else then?" Jericho asked. “Have you checked your skill tree? There’s a shit ton of things in it that you might find interesting.” I brought up. "Of course." Jericho nodded. "So, wanna upgrade your other weapons?" “Yes, I would really like that.’ I said while bringing up all my weapons, which Jericho easily saw that these weapons wanted to evolve, but not sure how many times. "Hmm…" They said, starting with Arpeggio. “Oh? Something up with Arpeggio?” "Did you know it records all prior songs/spells?" Jericho asked. "I knew about songs, but not spells." I said honestly. "No, I mean it records every song and spell ever played on it. All the way back to when it was made. It's got a ridiculously huge library." "Oh...I didn't know that." I said honestly. "Yeah. This is good. Now stats wise, magic is perfect, but raw damage is low. Stupidly low. But given that, this isn't your standard weapon it makes sense for that. I won't change that, but I will up it's area of effect and critical hit rate so it will be a hard hitter." "Sweet. By the by, why do I see this 'evolve times 6' above their status?" I asked. "It means this weapon can evolve six times. Each evolution stronger than the prior form. Of course you have to be a certain level of power for this to activate but given… everything that's not much of a problem. But to evolve them you do need materials." "I have every material in existence to an outlandish degree. And I said it was on all/ my weapons." I said while showing him the Evolve Button on 13 weapons cause Memory Stealer was already a new thing. "Interesting." Jericho said simply, tuning up Arpeggio a bit more before handing it back to me. When I hit Upgrade it asked me for a list of items. 44 Oricalcium +, 37 Power Stones, 63 Electronium Shards, 19 Nothingness Stones, 44 Frost Stones. "Okay so I can evolve this and not put a dent into my materials right now." I said while dumping the amount into the upgrade system and tried to evolve it. The weapon glowed for a bit, it's colors soon changing as it also grew longer, larger, and was now built to have more bass than before. It's colors while still blue were a mix of dark and light blues. "Cool." I said. "Now...lets see if I can do it again." I hummed, already seeing Arpeggios stats go through the roof even after Jericho's boost. As I hit the Upgrade option, it have an alert. 'Alert! Waiting period of four hours before next Upgrade.' "Rude." I frowned. "Well...can I evolve my other weapons?" I wondered while trying to evolve Skysplitter. It gave me the list of materials. "Alright. Let's get on with it…" I muttered while spending the needed materials to evolve it. While it's design stayed fairly the same, Skysplitter now also had a longer, thinner handle, and the blade part was also smaller and thinner, but also sharper. Color wise it was like Arpeggio. "Cool." I said. "Thinner but more compact. Now to do this to my other weapons while were still running." I said honestly, knowing we still had a couple days going full speed. Each weapon over the course of, by my count, five days, was fully upgraded finally. Their maxed out forms was… amazing. Interdiction now took the shape of light claws that extended over my own. They could leave damaging after images, be shot out like bullets and cast immediat reflect spells for defense. Sharpshooter now shot up to five bolts at once, automatic or semi auto at my will, and held enough ammo that when I do need to reload, I’ll be in for a surprise. I also can cast Anti-Gravity across quite the distance, and shoot my floating targets for a capture of lethal takedown. Lindworm while not much had changed they all had a small wolf head at the tip for the blade, and each Lance I make can shift into a wind wolf to attack. Frozen Pride while now in the shape of a star, also had a new power. I call it Howling Wrath. Each hit it takes it absorbs to store up for a possibly lethal sonic attack that disorients while also freezing all within range. Skysplitter was now white and bright sky blue, it cracked with electricity, no, energy constantly, just holding it allowed me to move large rock formations at will and moving it actually let me tear a hole back home from here. I can tear holes into the void and back, and seal them up as well with it now. It also now completely ignores defence. Just Physical defence though. It’s blade was more like teeth now. Dire Wolf Teeth. While thin it’s power was so much more than before. Lunatic now held a unique appearance. Its blade was more like a blade, it was actually more like a sword, but the mid section split off into a curved tip, forming a crescent moon/scythe look. I can summon a moon at the center of the curved section to build up my Berzerk mode immediately. I can also give that Berzerk power to an ally, nearly tripling their power and, for a while, making them near immune to damage while in a berzerk. Eternal flames now were a bright blue of moving fire rather than metal, glowing brightly in the void’s darkness when we didn’t take that… god awful tea. They incinerate damn near anything. Arpeggio had two sets of strings now, and I only really needed to play one while the others will take on magically, and even make water clones of me to play other instruments that will add to the songs power and give off a near unlimited pool of magic for my allies to use. Fair Game didn’t change much other than color, but my card capture prison is now its own dimension that holds even deletes that I can release, or use as a player in my game, total control over their moves and powers. Graceful Dilila now has teeth… No literally, actual teeth like mine that leech blood or life force from each hit. The first hit does ten, then it doubles per hit as the combo goes on. Foudre now were longer, but their standard damage was triple the old and their lightning damage also had a near constant paralysis effect on the target, on top of that the speed clones I make with it each have their own health pool. Book of Retribution was one of the more surprising ones, as it’s evolution not only became a sentient being that can cast the innumerable amount of spells it had, but it’s Book World was ten times better than before, as well as it’s evolution giving me a Sage Staff that, when used in conjunction with Book of Retribution, could amplify any and all magic I used to an insane degree, and even has all the modifiers added onto it. “You know...with all of this weapon evolution, I legit think we can take it...too bad that No Heart couldn’t evolve yet.” I said honestly. “Well it is a Keyblade, Nothingness or not it still falls under Heart’s category for these things.” Jericho said simply. “I wasn’t even able to access it’s menu because of that. Second Chance was the exception because of its unique origins and nature.” “Yeah, Second Chance is a very special case...and also the two spirit’s in my weapons, the Elder Wind God Dragon in Lindworm and the Giant in Skysplitter seem a bit happier that they’ve evolved.” I said honestly. “I can imagine. This evolution isn't just for them, it was also for you.” Jericho added. “Remember how your councils weapons all changed when they found their new wielders, but yours never did. Guess why.” “Either because I was completely ignoring the fact that they could have evolved a while ago, or because they noticed something about me?” I asked curiously. “Still going with the first one honestly.” “Because they all know who they are. You, as you are now, are happy with who you are. Once Heart fully accepts themselves, both the hearts of all and the Keyblades everywhere will unlock so much power. Now that you are accepting yourself, Nothingness and all it falls under will be stronger, better, whole.” “Alrighty then.” I nodded. “But it’s gonna take a little longer for it all to get through…” "I guess." Jericho sighed. At this point we were both fairly bored, so we began reading books from that Library. I was actually reading the book on Floof Noodles Heart skimmed through. “Seriously, we should have gotten to the edge by now…” I sighed out, enjoying the read but finding this boring that we’re not getting anywhere. "Void is a massive ass place Ben, bigger than any other creation or the other cycles." Jericho sighed, reading 'A Complete Guide To Stockpiling' As I was looking through the book, I have to Admit, Heart's newfound biology is quite the healthy mix between Dire Wolf and Naga. “How you doing in there Heart?” I asked the Naga Wolf in my stomach. Still asleep. Huh… I flipped through the book, finding something. Floof Noodles often conserve and even store energy by entering a hibernation at will, by lowering or raising their body temperature. This is often also used to help their young sleep within their many stomachs. When In this hibernation type sleep a Floof Noodle can sleep for up to a month without food, water, or light. It is often Debated on who is a more protective mother, the Mama Noodle, or a Den Mother. Both hardly leave the children, however the Floof Noodle does have the advantage of having the ability to feed their young while they are inside their stomachs. "Mama noodle jesus." I chuckled. "It was a cute joke name I didn't think this would take off that much." "Well you did name them that, and it is a race that has never existed prior." Jericho added. "I heavily doubt it never existed before." I said honestly. "And I'm sure I named them Dire Naga or something beforehand...I suppose Floof Noodle just stuck more." I don't even know how much time has passed, but I was just tossing a ball up into the air and catching it. Jericho was reading 'A History of The World' but every noun is the word Mango.' "How much you want to bet we would have found the Void Wolves by now?" I asked. "Easily." I shook myself awake. Was I dreaming again? I looked at myself. Yup, Diane's body. Huh… so I'm still asleep then. Must have dozed off. "Alright...not entirely what I wanted...hopefully I'm still going…" I muttered. "So where am I in dream land?" As I looked around, this was The World That Never was. Huh, neat. As I was walking around I felt something… no, someone familiar… and it pissed me off. "Okay, show yourself." I growled. As I was waiting for whoever this was to show up, suddenly, three Dusk's appeared. They motioned for me to follow as they walked away. "That's… weird…" I muttered as I followed after them. They lead me to the Castle… or rather, it's ruins. Leading me through the wreckage, I could see a makeshift camp. Getting closer they disbanded. Walking to this camp I saw… Zeke? No...no… "I was wondering, when we'd talk." Kexez spoke, still human and exactly how Heart looked before. He was sitting by a fire. "Oh. Its you." I frowned. "What are you doing here?" "Hiding." They said simply. "Void Key can't enter the realm of sleep." "You shouldn't even be here to begin with." I said. "Heart is a Somebody, so why are you still alive?" "You can thank Jericho for that. Before his act was discovered and still played the villain. Extracted the… foundation, that was my own heart forming from Heart, and the body, Spoild's handy work." "Well shit…" I sighed out. "So what has Spoiled been up to? And why are you hiding from Void Key?" "Spoils has been building, literally, an army. Perfecting her clones. As for the last thing. I only joined them to help Heart realize he can choose his destiny, and learn to love himself. Once I sensed they were on that path I tried to leave… The Void Mother had other plans." "Alrighty then...that sucks." I sighed out. "So...know where Void Key is?" "I know a few places they shift between when hiding. But they don't use them frequently. Always adding too, always moving, like me. Hiding." "Alrighty then." I nodded. "Can't be that simple sadly." I sighed out. “So...what? Are you supposed to be Void Keys proper wielder?” "More like a vessel. I'm still a Nobody, and Void Key figures this shell would give them the body to store all that fake void they make up. They aren't wrong, but I'm not looking for a possession, besides. It would affect Heart as well." “And that’s the thing we all don’t want.” I said honestly. “But if you want you can come live with us, there is literally no way that any of Void Mother’s forces can get near us. I made damn well sure of that.” "A tempting offer. Since when are you so forgiving?" “Because I hate Void Key a fuck of a lot more than you.” I said honestly. “I still hate you don’t get me wrong, but might as well start building a bridge instead of building bigger walls right?” "Fair point. But still, if I do, I need a favor." “I’m going to bite you, and you won’t like it.” I frowned. "I need Spoiled captured. And I need her scythe especially." “Three things, one, where is Spoiled, two, what Scythe? And three...what about your kid? Or did that kid just die?” "She transferred them to another, the Spoiled she kidnapped and Eclipsa rescued. They were close enough, code and genetics for the child to grow in her. From what I hear they already gave birth. But, this leads into why I need her, and her scythe. As you know, most Nobodies are especially cruel do to a lack of a heart to feel emotions. She was cruel even with a heart. While still under Core, she extracted it, and forged it into the scythe she wields. A memento of Core in a sense. I can fix the error in her heart that denied her true emotions. But we must act fast. She wants her child back. Though child was not what she called them. She preferred the word… battery." My eye twitched at that. “Oh no...she’s not going to live if she treats a child, her own child, as nothing more than a battery…” I growled. "Which is why she needs to be found, fast. Once she takes her child back, and does… that to them, her heart will shatter and die on it's own, and the child will be lost." “I mean, she literally can’t get to the child, in dozens of ways.” I said honestly. “We basically have all the time in the world, now where is she?” I asked. "You won't like it." “Is it a Castle Oblivion or something?” I asked. “Cause I remember Core was taking those things for cloning experiments.” I said. "They are her mass production factories now. To make her newly upgraded clones, she packed up shop and left… but not far. She's still in the realm of darkness, just at its deepest layer, where it and The Void touch, it's there she set up shop and had more than enough resources to work with." “That should be easy enough to find.” I said honestly. “Unless it’s not somehow.”. "Navigation is the hard part. Between that and the unpredictable environment navigating that place is as hard as navigating the void." “Well...I can take my enemies memories so that can help me navigate that place.” I said honestly. "Doubtful. Nothing stays in one place for long. The whole place is an unending storm, and whatever land there is moves with the storm." “Cause of course, why can’t it just be simple enough.” I grumbled. "Cause life is never so simple." Kexez said, tending their fire. "I do know, who would know where Void Key would be at all times. His little right hand Vilgax." “Son of a!” I threw my hands into the air. “I beat the shit out of Vilgax because he thought he was hot shit, but apparently he was my ticket to murdering that fucker and getting Coco back!” "Such is cruel fate." Kexez said with a laugh. "If I know Vilgax, his pride is the best method of luring him out into your hands." “Oh yeah, that’s how I beat him was get him to basically throw himself at me in a fit of rage due to his pride being hurt.” I said honestly. "He will fall for it again, but he will be cautious next time." ”I only need one hit...that’s all I need…” I said as I pulled out Second Chance. “Then I’ll get all his memories, and I can set whatever caused him down this power hungry road right.” "Save everyone. Heh. Maybe this cycle will be different." Kexez said with a sigh. "If I am to join you, I'll need a soul. A heart I am forming, but it's a soul I still lack. With that I'll be closer to whole, and if the worst would happen, it would give Void Key some hell trying to take me over." “Oh, I can give you that.” I said honestly. “Did it with Diane, I can do it with you.” "Perfect." “Now the only thing I want to know is if this isn’t some trick for me to give Void Key what he wants.” I frowned. "You are King of all Nothingness and Nobodies. How could I lie in your presence? If you want proof, use that crown, and command me." “You have no idea how much I wanted to hear that.” I said with a smile as my Nothingness Crown, a mixture of the SIlver Crown I got ages ago and Nothingness forming a pretty cool looking crown. “I command you, what is your plan and speak the absolute truth.” I commanded him. Nothingness thorns wrapped around Kexez, but did nothing physical. So far. "My plan, was always the same. Help what Zeke, or rather Heart, as they go by now, was built for. Becoming the perfect weapon. Once that was over, and I returned to them, I felt the self loathing again. Heart hated themselves more than anything. When Jericho brought me back, I felt a new path was required. Help Heart accept their role. Themself." I sighed out, but nodded in understanding. “I understand…” I said while putting a hand on Kexez’s head. “For speaking the truth...I grant you a Soul.” I said while Kexez felt a new soul forming inside themselves. "That ever persists of a soul." Kexez sighed. "I suppose it's time to join you. Guess I should take my actual form as well. You'll see me when you wake." Kexez said, giving me a wave as they slowly faded out of the realm of dreams. “Well...that was a thing…” I muttered, wondering if I should have given Kexez a DTN to my castle instead of letting him find his way there. “Well...I suppose I should wake up now unless there’s something else the Dream Realm wants me to find.” I woke up wrapped in a fluffy yet firm softness… I then realized it was a fur covered tail… "Good, you woke up." Kexez said. While physically they were exactly like how Heart is, color wise they were pure white. “How does it feel to be a Floof Noodle?” I asked curiously. "I can't feel. Not yet." Kexez said, a hand over their chest. *Soon though. Ready yourself." Looking up and over I saw… saw the edge of the void. Liquid void energy formed a massive wall upwards for all eternity, and The Heroes Tomb, it was bigger than the Castle back home. “Damn that place is big.” I said honestly. "Hope you can fight without fighting." I was confused at that… then I remembered… that necklace... “Oh this? Uh...I already broke the rule.” I said honestly. “Like...legit.” "Perhaps you should learn the first rule of a king. Command your soldiers." “I’m more of a ‘hands on’ king if you know what I mean.” I said honestly. "Not with that Necklace. Besides, the king of Nothingness, and the admin of war taking on The Heroes Tomb. What a test for your council members." “No.” I stated. “They can’t fight in this battle. It’s only going to be me and Jericho...I’m not going to let others endure whatever the hell is in there, let alone the first boss.” I said, remembering the horrid thing in there. "And me?" “Trust me...I wouldn’t even want you to experience what’s in there...and both me and Jericho experienced a glimpse of what’s in there...it’s not pretty.” "How can I fear what is in there when I cannot feel?" “Suit yourself.” I sighed out. “Where’s Jericho?” I asked while looking around for him given I fell asleep before we even got here. "Here!" They gave a muffled shout from within Kexez's chest. A hand reaching out between the cleavage. "What an odd place to end up?" Kexez said, pulling them out. “Listen, there’s nothing wrong with being in fluff.” I said honestly. “How you doing Jericho?” "One second you are asleep and I'm messing with a rubix cube, the next thing I know I'm stuffed between boobs bigger than my body… oddly okay." They shrugged We landed at the entrance, and the doors were massive. Taking a deep breath, we entered. To be continued...
Kico deals with some...heavy stuff“Alright, next floor.” I, the great Kico, said happily after beating the last floor. "I wonder what's next? Wish there was a list or something of the people on each floor." Cerex said as we went down the steps that lead to the next floor. These stairs were on every floor going down, and we're long, and sometimes had random loot here and there. "It would be nice to actually know…" I sighed out. "Just to make things simpler." "Lots." Cerex agreed. "See anything around that's neat?" "Hmm…" I looked around curiously, wonder if there was anything neat around here. There was mostly small loot here. A potion here, helmet there, some bones around there. As we traveled down I began getting a scent of… it's familier. Where have I smelled that? "Do you smell that?" I asked curiously. Cerex took a sniff. "Not really. I think I smell… water, and… rotten meat?" Well, there was that but what is this specific smell? "Not those, it's a specific smell…" I started while following after the familiar scent.ter that familiar scent. As we descended, the stairs taking on the theme of the next floor we saw as vines, tree roots and plant life began covering and breaking up the walls. Then, Cerex and I felt a vibration, like a shake and a thud from above. "The hell?" Cerex asked. “Either that’s something good or something bad…” I said worriedly. A moment Later, another thud, slightly louder and the vibration moreso shaking, small bits of dust falling from the roof above. "That's concerning." Cerex said, immediately another pair of thud and shake. Like the last one, louder and more violent. “Um...alright so uh...should we run?” I asked nervously. Another thud, another violent shake. "The hell could be coming from up there, King and the others cleared every floor above and we cleared the last two, right?" Another thud and shake, on this time the two were combined in a loud crash. Whatever was coming, it was closer. Maybe three floor- Crash! Two floors above us. “Panic?” I asked worriedly. "Since when does that do anything?" Crash!! Seconds passed, and finally. Boom! Cerex and I jumped against the wall, the rubble of the prior floors exit doors rolling down passed us. We headed footsteps and then… Cript?! "Huh? Cerex? Kico? Huh, King didn't tell me you guys fused." He shrugged. "Sorry I'm late." “Okay so...why are you here, what was all those crashing and exploding and...why are you here?” "The doors do lock behind you ya know. I had to break them down to get here. As for why, I owed King's Luna and she wanted King to get much needed help for his massive ass list of crap he piles upon himself, so, here I am." Cript said plainly. “Even when he has literally everyone willing to help him, he just keeps doing stuff by himself…” I sighed out. “So cool, you being here will help us deal with the rest of the dungeon on max difficulty.” "Great. Let's go." Cript said. My hud flashed and Cript was registered as a party member. With a nod we headed off. The twenty first floor was a Forest a mix of life and decay. Beasts half alive half rotten roamed about. As we walked Cript kept snapping their fingers, and devistating magic destroyed the undead animals. "So, how have you two been?" Cript asked. A snap, and an undead hippo/griffon looking thing was roasted to its bones. “Doing good.” I said honestly. “I’m the one that punches really hard, Cerex here is the tank.” "That's a good combo." Cript nodded. Snap, electrocution of an undead giant ant. “So this is...well this is supposed to be a Max Level Dungeon because of Void Mother.” I frowned. "So I heard." Cript sighed. Snap, roasted giant tiger/Chipmunk. "Being powerful sucks." “So me and Cerex here was basically a waste of time…” I pouted. "Not at all. You all need to get stronger, especially against Vincent. This war… he'll have me in your party already is making you two stronger. You notice your exp bars?" I took a look… it's moving. Fast. "Passive exp gain?" Cerex asked. "Yup. Like I told King, I'm Vincent's handy work." They huffed. “Damn.” I said in surprise. “That is...a lot of experience right now.” "Give it an hour, it doesn't stop." Cript sighed. Snap, frozen undead five headed snake. He threw a small rock at it, and it shattered into crimson shards. "Trust me, I've tried." “You don’t sound too happy about it.” I pointed out. "Being strong gets old. You become so strong that at a point the fights, no matter how big end up feeling… hollow. I tried suppressing and weakening myself, only worked for a week the longest." “That sucks.” I said honestly. "Does. But I moved off from Fighting. Exploring, world building, literally." Cript laughed at that. "Family, father and motherhood, and of course, I watch." “That’s good.” I nodded. “Good to know things are at least working out in other ways.” "Yeah, and as I watch I also help." “Which is always a good thing.” I said happily. "Enjoying the Speed Force?" Cript asked. I stopped, looking at them but they just kept on… did he? “I...am enjoying the Speed Force.” I said slowly, looking at him carefully. "I played around with it for a while, it's fun. Drains energy like a bitch though… something else that didn't last long." Snap, okay crispy undead pork smells horrible. “What do you mean?” I asked curiously. "You know how it takes in energy your body gets from food right? My body takes in the excess energy I generate, a lot, and uses it over food. Speed force for a time drained that but my body adapted. I'd run around the planet a million times and barely a dent when ten used to nearly empty my energy reserves." “Sounds about right.” I said honestly. "Sometimes I wonder why bother making me, especially now that I know Vincent just treats this all as a game or entertainment." "King...doesn't think that's actually Vincent." I brought up. “He doesn’t know what Vincent is right now, but just from what he gathered from his encounter with Vincent and what you told him is setting off a lot of red flags for him.” "No offense but a warm breeze in winter can set that wolf off." Cript said, a chuckle from Cerex in response. "There's paranoid, then there's aluminum hats… king's somewhere in between and flipping between the two." “But you got to admit there is something fishy about this Vincent ya know?” I pointed out. "When you've seen as much shit as I have you stop bothering to look into it cause it all just shows itself after a while. After the what, fifteenth time you notice the patterns." “Alright.” I nodded. “But you do know King is going to want to beat the shit out of Vincent now right?” Cript sighed. "No he won't." Snap, frozen giant… what was that a hawk? Either way, it's frozen broken shards now. “What do you mean ‘no he won’t?” I asked curiously. "Knowing patterns we will all end up fighting someone one on one for the final days of the war. Odds are, King is gonna be fighting Void Key. I'll be taking Vincent, Heart will be fighting who I am only assume will be their brother and I'm not actually sure about Eclipsa." “That weird voice from that core King made?” I suggested. “Given that I have all of King’s memories, I do know about that...weird event.” "And?" “I’m just giving a suggestion.” I shrugged. “So...who the hell is on this floor? Cause I can’t tell based on just the enemies here.” Cript took a look around, then back at that giant frozen bird. He walked over to it, and I noticed it wasn't a bird… it was a bug, specifically… a Hornet… "Odds are… someone King knows all too well." Cript sighed. "Me too…" “A hornet?” I asked nervously. “Wait...that familiar scent from before…” Cript took a sniff as well. I smelled it again, taking it in deeper. I didn't realize before, half pony, half the nose power… "Den…" Cript said sadly. "I'd know her smell anywhere…" I teared up involuntarily. “Why...why would we be fighting Den of all people?” "Ironic… I first met Den she was possessed and out of her mind… to see her like that again…" “I…” I started. “We need to save her.” I saw Cript give a small smile. "Saving people. I tend to do that better than anyone." “So you better get these.” I said while bringing out Second Chance and Love Struck. Cript just looked at them, giving a smirk before looking around. Snap. … Silence… then, crying. Instinctually, I ran towards it. In a small crib where Cript snapped their fingers, was a small little baby Creature. Part Tiger, part goat it seems. "Awh!" Cerex said, rapidly coiling around the crib and baby defensively. “They're adorable.” I chuckled. "I'll teach you the spell." Cript said, walking up to us. "Basically the same effect as Second Chance." “Good to know.” I said honestly. "So, wanna break this damn dungeon?" “King has been wanting to so we can get back on track cause we’re way behind.” I said honestly. "Well then, let's break some rules." Cript said, holding out a hand. "Shall we?" “We shall.” I said while taking Cript’s hand happily. At taking their hand, I felt a rush of power. Smiling as the spell flowed into my mind I raised my free hand, and snapped my fingers. "Lot more than I expected." Cript said as we gathered the last of the new infants into the floor safe room. Mini bosses were sadly unaffected but they were in locked rooms so I guess that was meant to be a fight regardless if the ones from Adam's floor said was right. “Alrighty then, let’s keep going.” I said with a warm smile, glad to have made the floors a lot easier. As Cerex sent the babies to safety back home, Cript and I went on ahead to the first miniboss. Unlike Adam's floor though, the key here wasn't a puzzle, it was a show of identity… whatever that means. “Alright...so the hell does that mean?” I asked with a frown. Cript frowned, looking around for a moment till they spotted the doors top. Looking up, I saw between many glowing blue and white leafs was a large circle plate of moonstone. "Wow… makes sense though. You need to howl." “Ah, alrighty then.” I said, before doing a good dire wolf howl, hoping that would open the door. The moonstone glowed for a while when I finished and the. The door swung open. "Nice job. Cute howl." Cript said as he looked in. “It wasn’t cute, it was strong.” I pouted. “But what’s inside?” Looking inside as well, the area was a large pit claw dug all around, large rocks and boulders making a makeshift wall all around. In the center of this makeshift Arena on all fours was a large wolf, Silver fur glowing bright with energy as they howled up to the sky, the sky here showing a clear starless sky with the full moon as the only light. “Who’s that?” I asked, not sure if that was Den because of certain reasons or if it was someone else. Cript blinked. "Not sure. Their enemy ID say they're just called Silver Wolf." “That’s...strange.” I started while moving towards the arena. “Well...let’s not keep them waiting.” "You wanna cheese them or fight them?" “Well…” I started. “Can I do both?” "Go ahead." Cript said, stepping to the side to allow me the full floor. “Alright.” I nodded while stepping into the arena. “Alright you, time to fight.” The wolf growled, spreading their legs to get ready to charge me. I cracked my knuckles and prepared to fight. “Alright you, time to give you a proper fight.” The Silver Wolf just stood there, then howled, a beam of pure primal energy shooting right at me. “Bitch please!” I shouted as my arm glowed a silver light as I punched the beam of energy right back at the wolf using my outlandish strength and a reflect spell. The wolf sidestepped the reflected blast, and was rushing around me, keeping a distance as they howled more beams at me. I dodged the beams swiftly as I charged at the wolf, both my arms changing to a solid black color as Armament Haki strengthened my arms even more than my normal passives as I leaped forward and tried to slam my fist into the thing. It tried to side step my attack but I hit one of its legs and it was sent flying, spinning and crashing into the wall. “Damn, didn’t think hitting it’s leg would send it flying like that.” I said honestly. "You're borrowing some of my power, are you really that surprised?" Cript asked. “You do know I have outlandish strength right?” I pointed out. “As well as all the other natural buffs I have.” "Point?" Cript asked as I dodged another howl blast. “My point is that people can be strong without your power being involved.” I said honestly while bolting forward to the wolf and slamming my fist into the wolf again. "I know, but this helps make this whole thing go by faster. That is why I'm here after all." “True.” I said, moving behind the wolf and grabbing them by the tail and starting to slam them into the ground. After a short while of doing that, I gave them a hard punch, the Silver Wolf flying towards Cript who just spin kicked it back to me. Side stepping I let it slam into the wall and watched as it's HP bar hit Zero and vanished in a flash of white and silver light. On the floor was… It took a lot to keep myself together at seeing this, nearly unfusing at the sight. It was the tooth necklace Den gave King. “Oh sweet lord…” I groaned while putting a hand up to my head. “That hurt…” I muttered while taking the necklace. “Jesus...it’s been so long.” "Looks like it's a key then. That's the first thing mini bosses drop." Cript said, walking over to me. "You okay?" “Me, I’m fine...King not so much…” I sighed out while picking up the necklace and looking at it. "That was one of the few things Den had when she joined the family. That necklace and a culture's worth of stories." Cript sighed. "It's gonna hurt seeing her when we reach the boss room…" “This is already straining my fusion as is…” I said honestly. “She...gave King this, as a gift saying he was the best hunter of his generation...it meant the world to him…” Cript sighed. "Need help?" “I just…” I sighed out. “Yeah, I need help...King needs help.” Cript nodded. "In a way, it's probably best you are here and not King. This floor alone might nearly break them… here." Cript took my head in their hands… suddenly I felt… lighter. King's powerful emotions on this fucked up floor were there but felt… less. "I've suppressed your link to King and also Coco. It's temporary, help to keep you together just in case. They can't see what's happening here anymore, or feel, hear, ect. They have other matters to focus on." “Like the two cuddling back home where Coco’s trying to cheer King up to the best of her ability.” I said honestly. "Yeah. Let's not let them feel worse then. Come on." Cript said, taking my hand. "Two more mini bosses." “This is gonna hurt still…” I sighed out. “Even if I’m not King...I still have their memories.” "I know…" The next mini boss door was different. It was frozen over a pond of sorts. "Wonder how this one works?" Cript asked looking over the ice. “Well...who knows how to ice skate?” I asked curiously. "Don't look at me." Cerex said. "No legs." "I don't skate." Cript said. I sighed out. “Thank god Coco learned how to ice skate.” I muttered while bringing out some hoof skates and starting to skate around. As I was doing so I looked up, the high up tree top parting just enough to… ah, got it. With graceful spins, jumps and glides Soon the ice mimicked the silhouette in the treetops, a wolf in howl. As I got off the cracks in the ice glowed bright til finally the ice broke, emerging from the water below was a wolf made from icy frost and mist. Wolf of Winter. I brought up my fists, which then suddenly burst into flames from one of my talents. “Alright, time to bring the heat in this winter wonderland.” I rushed the wolf, lining a punch right to it's face… that I phased though, falling into the water. "Oh, so it's a spectral enemy, not elemental. Clever camouflage." Cript said as I jumped out of the water. Wolf fur plus earth pony weather resistance… and that water was still stupid cold. “Alright fine.” I said while coming up as my arms started producing a strange fog like cloud around it as I got out of the water quickly. “Phantom Fist.” I said, throwing my fist towards the wolf as a ghostly visage of my fist bolted towards it. It floated, spinning around my fist and bit/phased through my head. I blinked. I wasn't… where am… Crunch. I looked down, realizing I had something in my mouth. I was a full wolf… and I was eating… eating… puppies… I screamed, the arena back in view. I can still… taste, feel them in my teeth… I looked up, the ghostly wolf floating before me and gaining distance. “Oh…” I started. “Nope, I’m not dealing with that.” I started as I looked around the area. “If you’re too swift to punch…” I muttered, trying to use some of King’s deductive reasoning and Coco’s actual search skills to try and figure out what the hell is up here. As I looked around, I only saw the bare bones ice rink around me and the water below me...which is a lot deeper than a normal ice rink should be. “Wait...wait a second! I know what that bitch is!” I snapped. “You son of a whore!” I barked in rage as I dived down into the water, the water steaming around me as I was diving down towards where this bastard's corpse was. ”How dare you...you’re showing me memories...memories of Den…” I thought to myself, remembering when King was going through Den’s memories and remembering that horrid event. As I swam deeper and deeper I could see bones all around the walls and floor. Finally I spotted a single bone that does not belong. A human skull, likely that fucking asshole that enslaved her! As I swam down I grabbed the human skull and my hand glowed with pure energy. ”You will no longer haunt us anymore asshole!” I mentally screamed as I crushed the skull with my bare hands. From the shards of bone I felt something in my hands. Looking, it was a dog whistle. That same one he used. Of course that’s the key item… Swimming back up I got onto solid ground, shaking off all the water and sighed. The ghost wolf was gone. “If you didn’t turn King’s emotions off...he would have blown this entire place sky fucking high.” I said while raising the dog whistle. “And of course, this fucking thing is one of our key items.” “First the Necklace, now that damned whistle…” Cript thought aloud as I put the cursed tool away. “Wonder what number three will be?” “I’m gonna give Den a hug when I see her.” Cerex said sadly. “King is already cuddling up to Den...even if he missed this part, I think he can take a guess as to what other things these mini bosses will have…” I sighed out sadly. "Well, come on then. One more to go." Cript said. The next arena was a cave, Den's cave. The once beautiful stories along the wall now stained in old blood. In the central chamber were bones. So many bones, young and old wolves in piles. "Good Lord…" I muttered sadly at this entire room. "I don't like this…" Cerex whimpered. "Neither do I." Cript said, looking around. "So...what's the boss here?" I asked worriedly. "I can take two guesses…" Cript said, the bones starting to shake and the images on the walls, while stained over were moving from under their dried blood covering. "and it looks like both." The bones began to rise where they stood, skeleton wolves ranging from old and weak, young and strong to infants began circling us with pulsating red and blue eyes while the images of the walls jumped off them, taking a spectral form. "Oh dear…" Cerex said. "Please no…" I whimpered. "Kico, Cerex." Cript said. "I'm gonna do something kinda stupid. Alright?" "Go right ahead." I said simply. Cript closed their eyes, hands placed together and… I felt… calm, so… calm. Looking over at Cript, they were… different, slightly. They looked at a halfway between themselves and being The Mother. "Shhh." They said softly, the skeletons and ghosts stopping instantly where they were. "It's okay, don't be scared." Kneeling, Cript held out a hand. Slowly, they walked to Cript. A small skeletal pup the closest. Smiling, Cript pet then, their bones flashing bright as suddenly they had flesh, fur and life. Cript did the same for the rest, undead of bones and spirit were given flesh and blood again at Cript's touch. When all was done Cerex sent them home, and Cript began shifting back to normal. When it was done, they collapsed. "Dumb ass!" Turning, I saw Cerex unfused, Kexez and Jericho back as Jericho rushed next to Cript. "A halfway transformation into The Mother?! Even for you that was stupid!" Jericho yelled. "Worked didn't it?" Cript said, sounding tired. "I take it thats a big no no right?" I asked nervously. Jericho huffed. "When we transcend, become Belief and The Mother, it's supposed to be a permanent transformation. No halfway about it, Cript literally managed to burn nearly all their energy keeping it at that halfway point and even more reverting from it. Doing that should not even be possible." "Since when does Impossible stop me?" Cript asked, sounding offended. "For fucks sake if you weren't Deathless odds are that would have killed you. None of the prior mother's we've talked to have done that." "Add that to the list of shit I can do other me's haven't or can't." They sighed with a roll of their eyes. "Damn, haven't felt a bit out like this in a long time." "You'll be good?" "Yeah. Body of mine adapts to everything, remember? Just gonna be a few minutes. Half an hour at most but I doubt it will take that long." "Well...at least your okay." I said honestly. "You know I'm gonna punish you for this. If I don't Lyra will." Jericho said. "And you'll do what?" Cript asked with a raised eyebrow. Jericho took one long jump back over to Kexez, the two becoming Cerex again as they slithered up to Cript, and swallowed them for healing. "That… sorry, but at least this way you will heal faster." Cerex said with a sigh. "So… is that the key?" Turning I looked where Cerex was pointing. It was a single tooth left on the ground. Walking over I picked it up and sniffed it… Den, she lost a tooth? No, this is too small… baby tooth.. "It's a...baby tooth?" I asked curiously. "Her baby tooth?" "Awh, so cute!" Cerex said, looking at it. "Why her baby tooth though?" "I...don't know." I said while trying to go through Kings memories, trying to see if Den told him anything about this. I couldn't find any… maybe it's more of a symbolic thing. I pocketed it, and Cerex and I headed to the safe room to rest up til Cript was out and about. “God...even after Cript made the link more bearable…” I put a hand to my head. “King’s emotions are still a hell of a thing…” "Den is their mother, lover and friend. Fact is, this floor likely won't be the last hard floor on them, Coco maybe even, Maybe even Myself, Jericho and Kexez." “Still…” I sighed out. “God, this sucks…” "It does, all we can do is win and move on." “I know...it still sucks though.” I huffed. "These things are never easy." “Cause why wouldn’t things be easy?” I frowned. "Want a distraction?" Cerex asked. “Please…” I said. “Even if it’s just cuddles..” Cerex used her tail to lift me up, making me slide down her tail to her waste as she wrapped her arms around me. "I want kisses." She said, her lips meeting mine and the faint taste of blueberry mint hit me shortly after her tongue made itself home in my mouth. I kissed Cerex happily, just wanting some feeling of closeness and good instead of feeling like garbage because of this floor. We stayed like that for a long while, the two of us enjoying this greatly. We didn't have sex, no mood for it. We both layed there in each other's arms on the grass covered floor. "Ever think we should go to school or something?" Cerex asked. “Why do you say that?” I asked curiously. "Well, I know between the people who make us up we have more than enough smarts but it feels kinda borrowed to me. Plus I'd like a degree." “Eh, sounds about right.” I shrugged. “Me? I don’t think it’s really ‘borrowed’ per se, but I understand what you mean.” "Ever wanna go clubbing?" “Like parties or smacking someone with a club?” I asked. "Parties silly." Cerex said, giving me a small push and laughed. "Dress up slutty, drink and do shit we'd want to forget later." “I’m pretty sure I’d have more women drooling over me than you.” I said while bringing up my arm and flexing it. “Seriously, I’m buff as hell.” "Men, women, herms, I'm down with whoever and whatever." Cerex said playful. "Besides, these babies catch all the eyes." She pressed her arms into her multiple breasts. I stared. "Case in point." She smirked at my stare. “It’s not my fault you not only have multiple tits...but they're all really big…” I blushed. "And soft, and bouncy, and hypnotic." She added with a grin. "If we do go I am gonna enjoy all those looks I'll be getting." “I can imagine.” I chuckled. “But they do look nice.” I said while giving one of her tits a quick little squeeze. She took the hand I used to squeeze her breast with, kissed it gently before holding my appendage like it was a treasured item. "One of these days, I'd like a wedding, just you and I. I know us being in this family is already a thing, but I would love a wedding of my very own someday." “So would everyone else.” I said warmly. “But...I would love to marry you Cerex.” “I want to marry you Kico.” Cerex said as she kissed me again. “When we get out of here, can we do just that?” “Of course.” I said happily. “The first marriage between fusions in the Royal Family? That’ll surely make headlines, oh! Kity would make absolutely amazing outfits for us.” “Hmm, make it a three way wedding?” Cerex purred in my ear. “Make one fun honeymoon~” “It’s going to be a wonderful honeymoon.” I giggled happily. Cerex and I cuddled for several more hours, enjoying each other's touch and embrace. I began wondering, it’s been at least five hours… wonder why Cript isn’t out yet? “Shouldn’t Cript have been back by now?” I asked curiously. “According to Jericho’s memories,” Cerex said sleepily. “Cript when healing or even when just in someplace comfy, they sleep like in a hibernation state. This actually leads to some interesting passive abilities when Cript does this though.” Cerex said, sitting up as they sorted through Jericho’s memories. “Sounds neat.“ I said honestly. “Just hope he gets here soon, with him here we should be doing maybe two floors or more per chapter.” “No fourth wall breaks!” Cerex said, tackling me as suddenly I was buried under her many fluffy soft breasts. “It’s only good with Deadpool.” “Eclipsa does it and no one argues with that.” I said, my voice muffled by the floofy boobs. “Eclipsa is Eclipsa.” Cerex said, pressing their body weight onto me now… this feels good. “Put that mouth to better use and nurse, I’m feeling motherly~” I blushed a bit before latching onto her nipple and gently sucking on it, snuggling up to my lover. We stayed like that for another good few hours. I wasn’t sure how long exactly and I didn’t care as I drank from Cerex’s breast and cuddled to her as close as we could get without fusing. After a while I had quite the milk swollen belly, and kept drinking despite that. It was good milk, and Cerex has plenty to give to me. After more time passed and I felt like I was nine months pregnant with fifty babies, I stopped drinking and just nuzzled into Cerex’s breast, so soft, so smooth, like the perfect pillow. “This is nice…” I said warmly. Cerex held my head against her breasts, petting me gently and being motherly as I held her torso as best I could. “Sleepy?” She asked me softly. “Yes...you’re so comfy, soft and smooth, like the perfect pillow.” I said lovingly. “Oh really?” She said. Suddenly she moved a lot. Lifting me up and suddenly I was cradled in her coiled form, my head resting comfortably on her top breasts as she looked at me, holding my head and making me sleepy and feel so… safe. “This is nice.” I said lovingly. “You should sleep too love, what comes next won’t be easy. Sleep.” She cooed, kissing my forehead. “Rest, we are safe now and when you and Cript are ready we will finish this floor.” “Alright…” I yawned softly and cuddled up with Cerex. “Good night…” I muttered, starting to doze off. “Sweet Dreams Kico.” Cerex said as I began to drift into blissful sleep. The Sleeping World, the Dream Realm. FIrst time here actually… Hmm… I found myself wearing a short skirt, sports bra and top with baby blue sneakers. I was in… wait, where is this? It looks like home but… empty… The walls were cracked and dull, the floors dirty and stained, the ceiling in bad shape as the rest of the place and just… this whole place was in ruins... “Dream Realm of the Void.” I turned, finding Cript. They looked… different, younger, wearing a full body brown robe and holding a staff, the top decorated with a gold and hooked ring. “First time here too, whole place is freaky as all hell.” “So why are we here?” I asked worriedly. “Sleep, dreams. Whether you remember it or not we always enter the sleeping worlds, the dream realm. The void has its own, because it’s linked to the waking worlds, like two sides of a coin. Creation fell into the void after every cycle, so does the Dream Realm, and gets twisted and corrupted just like the rest of reality. But, this can be very, very useful to us at the moment.” “How so?” I asked curiously. “The past and future from the Sleeping World’s point of view is both a line and a spiral, like a tornado with points in time flying by like paper in the wind. If we can find one of the unstable points, we can learn both our past and future to better prepare for the war, and, with luck, find some info on others.” “Well...that sounds neat.” I said honestly. “Let’s get going then.” Cript said as they opened the nearby door. The halls were so… broken. It hurt a lot so see this. There were… Nightmares? Dream Eaters I think but so void corrupted. What might have been a Nightmare Meow Wow looked to have eight spider-like legs, a mouth open along its belly with sharp teeth sticking out and eyes handing out of their sockets and looking in every direction wildly as it walked along the walls. “Well this place is...unsettling…” I said nervously. “Void twists everything, realm of sleep is no acception.” Cript shrugged as we moved passed the void corrupted Dream Eater. As we made our way though the halls, seeing more and more of the twisted nightmares we finally made it outside… and the town was worse. All the buildings and houses nearby were leveled rubble, crawling over their remains was more void nightmares and other creatures I don't know what they were. "Jesus damn…" I muttered sadly. "What the hell happened here?" “Broken and forgotten dreams.” Cript said simply. “No one to dream, only nightmares, only the void, so the dream realm fell to ruins. Only Void monsters and their nightmares live here.” "Is...there anyway to restore it?" I asked worriedly.Is there...anyway to fix this?” I asked worriedly. "Kill the void mother." Cript offered. "Course any other void based being in existence will also die as their primary foundation will be gone." “And then Nothingness falls because Void doesn’t exist and then it becomes a domino effect where everything just dies.” I frowned. "Yup. In the end though, why bother fixing this? I mean, why remove the void? In my experience, the void is typically a kill or be killed place. It used to work like creation does now. Safe zones for building, farming and living, wild places filled with dungeons, wild monsters, ect. When she became what she is now, that all fell apart. The whole place is like this because she just hasn't fixed that." “So we just fix it.” I said simply. “Can’t be that hard right?” "The only one who can is the void mother herself, or an Admin of void, which mind you has never existed. The only people who come close to that are you, Coco, Maxella and- oh shit!" Cript said aloud in realization. “I mean, there’s also John and Hollow and who’s Maxella?” I asked curiously. "Max and John's birth mom. Also yeah them too. But that's not important, Void Key. His void type is different. It might be different Enough for him to be something like an Admin if not one genuine." “Oh for fuck sakes…” I groaned. "I doubt he can alter this realm, but if he learns to make his own… assuming he hasn't already." Cript pondered. “Cause that’s what we need right now…” I sighed out. "This might be good though." Cript said. "If he made his own realm inside the void the structure code wise would be like shoving a fuck tone of clothes inside a small drawer, the leaks would be noticably both in the dream realm and physical realms. If we can find the spills here we can figure out where Void key is, or at least the entrance to his realm in the void." “You do know when we find this King is going to kick down his front door and start mauling whatever Void Key has right?” I pointed out. "King needs to learn to control his actions. A direct attack would be suicide, even if he is Deathless, dumbass." Cript sighed. "You'd think he'd know how to control their emotions." “You’d think he would be more sensible when he’s been literally the only one hunting the fucker down.” I brought up. “And yes, he was the only one, why do you think he’s had that in big bold red letters at the top of his list?” "Cause he hates void key on a deep personal level?" “That’s part of it, but it’s also to stop the bastard before he gets to his full strength or figures out how to do something extremely bad.” I said honestly. "Hmm…" Cript pondered aloud. "We know he needs hosts to do anything. His perfect host was meant to be Coco, and we know he's targeting the Admins of fear as backups, so that means as a baseline Void Key is more of a parasite. Without a host, he can't do anything I'd guess. This also means each host he can only do what they can do… so for him to become an Admin he needs an Admin as a host, but if he already has a realm… shit, he might have already gotten to one or both of them… or someone else." “And that’s what King fears, all this ‘he needs’ bits...what if Void Key doesn’t need all of that anymore? What if he could just make more of himself as a massive army of Void Keys? That’s what King is scared of, Void Key not needing a host, being able to do things himself and having an army of himself at the same time.” "I don't think that would be their goal. I think he is like an infection, and wants to make everything himself." “And what better way to do that by having an army of himself beating down everyone and stealing their bodies for his own?” I asked. "True, but remember not every body he takes over lasts. They burn out, only ones like Coco or the Fear Admins can last him, so odds are, there is something special he needs in his hosts." "And he can't just give that to his hosts because of his admin powers?" I inquired. "He's not a true being remember? He's a parasite, he is limited to what his host can do so even if he has an admin host it won't help him if he can't himself become an admin. Even if he does use his admin host to make compatible blank bodies to use, those blank bodies are as useful to him as blank paper, no abilities, no powers. He'd more put his resources to figuring out how to create a means of perfect Infection on any host." "The impossible has been made possible before…" I said. "Which means he needs resources, no admin can made void based resources so they'll be having to gather them in tons… including Keyblades…" Cript pondered, twirling their staff around. "These are all a bunch of things King doesn't want to gamble on 'maybe', cause he's been gambling less and less on maybes as of late." "It's not maybes, more a definite. But, being here we can find out just how far they have gotten to… hmm… maybe we can track them using that. Kico, can you pull out some void from your reserves right now?" “Sure.” I said while bringing out some Void into my hands. “Why do you ask?” Cript held their hands over mine, the void burning him but not really hurting them as they flowed code into it and into my palms. "Coco was built to hold and use Void Key and his Void type. That means there should be either a core or an imprint somewhere in her code. If I can find that, I should be able to create a tracking script that can track anything or anyone using Void Keys void. Excluding you and Coco." Cript said. "That would be good." I nodded. "Let's hope this works." Cript poked and prodded inside the void and Coco's half of my code. After several minutes they pulled back, code flowing from their own hand that moved around for a bit before pointing in a direction. "Perfect. Now to just…" He placed his hand over the code, a flash and when he opened it, there was a compass. No directional north, south, east and west, just the needle pointing one way. "There." "Cool." I said honestly. "Can't wait to see what it's pointing to." "Or who." Cript added as we followed the needle. We walked for what seemed like hours, was in all likelihood but void time was weird enough, void realm of sleep time I did not wanna think about. Finally though we found what seems to be a camp of sorts. Two Nexus, one human one Equestrian, non anthro, the Equestrian had a large great sword that pulsated with Void Keys void energy as they used it to bleed out a… something. It was a void beast but I can't tell what it is, it's all fur and blood as far as I can see. "Gotta play this good. Typically they have cynenide pill tooth, grenade tooth and an instant kill chip in their heads that activate if they say the wrong thing. Likely altered to resist or be immune to knock out spells or gasses so… what do we do?" Cript asked me. "I haven't dealt with Nexus, and King barely has." I said honestly. "Got anything creative you can think of?" I pondered… the biggest issue is those chips and suicide teeth… I activated Electronium abilities, something I haven't dabled in but King has. Using this I sensed their neural pathways, how the electricity flowed through their bodies and in and out of the chips. That would need surgery. Realizing something, I smirked, and one swap to their pathways and done. The two nexus dropped to the ground. Comatose, at least until I fix their neural pathways. "Clever girl." Cript said with a nod of approvement. "King would have went head on and ended up with corpses." "I'm sure King would have thought of it as well." I said honestly. "He just doesn't remember half the things he's maxed out in his skill trees." We got back up and headed over. Cript began removing Nexus's suicide teeth and even began to remove their kill chips… gross. I looked over the beast they were bleeding dry. "Well well well, isn't this a surprise." I stood on edge… that voice. I turned to the Great sword laid on the floor next to me… Void Key. "My proper host and my greatest annoyence sharing body, mind and soul. How cute." "The only reason why I'm not making you beg for mercy is because we have questions you sack of shit." I growled. "Ever asking questions and never learning the answers. Never asking the important questions, the why's and how's catch your mind more than the who and what of the matter." "Cause I want to know your life's story instead of just making your life a living hell." I frowned. "Those who are wise look at both the future and past in searching for answers. I have seen, searched and watched past, present and future for many cycles. I have seen enough to know the shift in the winds, and know now my time to act is fast approaching. Can you sense the difference in this cycle? The vital change that makes this one so unique compared to its predicessors?" "Besides the fact Vincent isn't Vincent and Void Mother first met us in the Tomb?" I asked. "And we know where you are, King is preparing to kick your ass." "Then pray tell, where am I?" "Right here?" I deadpanned. “Heh, a fragment of me, yes. Part of my power, but I myself am elsewhere. For me, this is no different than your Starfish clones. An easily disposable vessel.” “Alright.” I said simply, as I started to pull out Void Key’s Code with Coco and King’s experience and knowledge. “Now whether you like it or not, I’m going to learn everything about you you sack of garbage.” “You act as if this will help you.” As I was trying to pull his code I felt this… burning in my chest. It began flowing through my body and...and… I dropped Void Key, the damn asshole was laughing. “Coco is my perfect vessel! And I fight and destroy King’s Nothingness! Fusion you may be, that core from me resides in your code too! Contact with me just lets me activate it; and learn. Kico, what a simple name. But a good host you’d make as well, so should Choco, Zeco, Brain, Spitfire and Symbi, so long as Coco is part of the foundation, you’d all make wonderful, powerful hosts.” “You wish it was only one sided.” I growled. “King is going to find you and make you regret ever being made, and so will a whole lot of other people.” I said, now knowing quite a bit more about this bastard. “Promises Promises yet what shall be kept? I hope for a grand display when I can meet King face to face.” “So, making a new perfect host then?” Cript asked, done removing the kill chips and fixing their surgery marks. “I built Coco’s blueprints, well before she was born. I can improve and adapt, just as Vincent always has with you and your siblings Cript.” “And no matter what changes you do, no matter how you ‘adapt’...” I growled. “It will be for absolutely nothing.” “Threats are a two way street Kico. Tell me, how many children does King and Coco have together? How many about you? Ever notice you’re a bit slower in that department?” At that, Cript placed a code flowing hand on me. “... He’s right… According to this code, Coco has no ovaries… and yours just infuse Coco’s DNA into King’s. Doesn’t merge them like normal fusions do.” “Perfect to grow your own from an existing foundation. DNA and Code. So different yet so similar.” I stared at Void Key, trying to process what I was hearing...only for my fist to glow a greyish color as I rammed my fist into Void Key, the being’s true form feeling enormous pain from where it originally stood. “I’m going to break you.” I growled, tears falling down my eyes as the pain of Coco and myself was brought down on us. Void Key, just laughed. “Your pain, only keeps me fueled and inspires, how many of your own children should I-” Crack. The sword that Void Key spoke from shattered, Cript’s outstretched fist leaving it shards as that damned weapon shattered into shards smaller than sand. “Now he’s pissed me off.” Cript said, looking over to me, then, gave me a hug. “If he does… we can save them. I know we can. I don’t break promises, no matter how impossible they seem.” I hugged Cript and cried. “I...I can’t...I can’t have children…” “Shhh.” Cript said, holding me tight as I cried. “Void Key screwed up, cause now I am putting him atop my hit list. He took that special power from Coco, from you in his actions. Stole it, well we are getting it back and saving the ones he uses. I swear.” “I...know I hurt him.” I said while looking at my hand. “I...don’t know where that Grey came from but...I just know I hurt him bad.” “Good, fuckers like him need to get hurt. Remind them they are mortal. Come on.” Cript said, letting me go and turning to the two still unconscious nexus. “Now we can get answers. Maybe not the ones we need, but they will lead us somewhere.” Cript said, kneeling to the two. A snap of his fingers and they woke up, the second they saw us they tried to get up but were tied up. “Now then you two, we can do this the easy way…” Cript said, one of their fingers shifting into a metallic claw. “Of the hard way.” “I just learned I can’t have kids.” I growled to the two. “So either you tell us everything you know, or I swear to god whatever he does to you I will do something ten times worse. And you don’t have any of your safety net bullshit here.” Cript took a deep breath. “So?” He asked, trailing his metallic claw finger around the Equestrians face, blood following as the Nexus resisted screaming. Once Cript made a full trace around their face, he put the tip of his claw finger under their cut face, and pulled. The Equines face ripped off in a spray of blood as they yelled in pain. “Let’s get started.” The two were tougher than I expected. Cript tortured them and I asked the questions. Both of them were skinless, limbless quarter alive husks with their guts and organs pulled from their insides and circling them. THat…. Nearly made me sick, but I was too pissed to let it get to me. Turns out Void Key has been hunting the dream form of Void Wolves in this place, keeping them from sleeping by making their sleeping forms eternally painful so they don’t sleep, get weak so he can attack their den without much resistance. That bloody fur thing handing was formerly a Void Wolf, or their dream realm self at least. They have several bases mainly run by Void Key in this place, and a few that are from Nexus. “Thank you for cooperating.” Cript said, washing the blood off their hands and face. Their robe though was ruined. “You can wake up now, and warn your friends… cause I’m pissed.” Two blasts of fire magic, and the two were ash on the ground. “Cool.” I said. “Now we need to find the Void Wolves much faster...cause King’s time table haven't already been fucked into a crater before.” “Well then, let’s get to it.” Cript said. A wave of their hand and the ground under us floated and we were off towards the nearest base. We sat, and Cript gave me another hug. “I can probably undo the code work he did to Coco, and there for you, but your, Coco’s, first ovaries, we will get them back.” “I’m going to make Void Key pay...me and King…” I said as I hugged back again. “For now, let’s kick some ass. Just be warned… bases like this are… not pretty. At least you can direct your anger at them deservingly.” “Oh I’m going to do some really bad things to these people.” I said while cracking my knuckles. "You beat their asses while I nab all their data. Every little thing helps. Any prisoners we free if they aren't mindless beasts." “This is gonna be fun.” I said while energy sparked off of me. “They believe they know speed and power, but I’m gonna show them they know nothing.” I growled as I vanished towards the base, the Solid Dark Monofilament wall turning into nothing but a pile of rubble as I had my fist out. “Knock knock motherfuckers!” There weren't as many as there could be and most all armed. Speed Force out classes energy weapons and firearms. As I was tossing them into the still standing parts of the wall at mach 2 speed I saw Cript speeding inside the base itself. Once they were all tossed painfully I let them wake up even more painfully as I then took a look around. Cages were everywhere but only a quarter were full. There was only one cage that had Void Wolves in it, and just three, the rest held Void Dream Eaters, the mutated monsters hissing and clawing at their confines. “Alright, time to save some Void Wolves.” I said while grabbing the cage bars and ripping the entire cage in half. “Are you three okay?” Their replies were snarls, taking cautious sniffs at me. "You don't belong here, half-breed." The left, largest one spoke. “And neither do you, and while the full breed, the one that’s been trying to find you all, isn’t here right now, I’m here to save you.” I said simply. "Yet your reek of the poison that has plagued us for eons." The middle one said. "Nothingness." The right and last one growled. "That vial poison touched us once and to this day the effects can be felt in our bones and blood." “And yet I’m a fusion of the two.” I said simply, bringing up my hand and Void energy radiated off of it. “But right now we need your help in dealing with this crap. I don’t care if you’re against helping Nothingness, but it’s a hell of a lot better being murdered by Void Key.” They all growled at the name. "The accursed abomination has been weakening us for weeks now." The middle one said. "Restless sleep has made even our strongest weary. And his minions hunt us both here and in our home forest. It is worse than when the Admin of War enslaved a pack so long ago." "Justice came for him, thankfully." The largest one added. "And the pack's descendants have merged with our own." “Right now the person that wanted to find you is thankfully figuring out a way to make Nothingness not poisonous to you people, and he’s making great headway in it. We just need to find where you’re home forest is to stop these attacks in the waking world.” The three looked at me for a time. "We… can not accept the help of an outsider, the den elder would forbid it." "However," The right most one added. "Pray tell, half breed, what den race birthed you? Your mixed blood makes it unclear to determine." “I…” I started, thinking back to King’s race. “They call themselves Dire Wolves...but the more I think about it, with what my own half has learned and gone through...I don’t think their really called Dire Wolves...but thanks to those fucking hornet’s all that might have been lost to time…” I sighed out. The middle one smirked. "A half breed belonging to a forgotten pack is quite upsetting." Their smirk was then replaced by a frown. "You speak of Hornets. Pray tell, were they massive, the size of the largest of bolders and killed centuries ago? Who was the wolf who ended them?" "Yes and bigger, and the wolf that killed them is the same person that needs your help. He went by another name a long time ago, but his current name is King." I explained. They growled at hearing King's name, that made me confused. "The Lord of our poison wanting to help? It seems much like the void, creation and nature itself has gone wild and unpredictable." The right one said. "What proof do you have of his word?" The larger one asked. "He's willing to do your rite of passage, or whatever you want to prove his word." I said simply. "And so am I." "The source of Nothingness can never preform our rite of passage." The middle one said. "To become one of us they would need to drink the waters of the void, let it empower them. King can never partake in the ritual." "Knowing him, he'd dive head first into it to prove himself. But if he won't be enough, how about me? I have Void powers so I can do it right?" I asked curiously. The three looked at one another for a time. "Perhaps, can you take a feral Form half breed?" "Yes." I nodded while shifting into my feral form, which was the best combination between the flexibility and agility of a dire wolf with the strength and endurance of an Earth Pony. "Does this work?" "They look like a fine snack." The large one said with a bite at the air in front of my nose. I didn't move. "Got guts, for a half breed of predetor and prey." "If you truly wish to be of our pack, and form an alliance with the Lord of our natural enemy, you shall need to speak to the den elder." "And where would they be?" I asked curiously. The middle one gave a soft howl at the ground. The metal warped at the purity of the void they vocalized til there was the image of a gigantic rested inside a mountain, an equally massive arrow splitting it's skull in half. "This is Murdered Mountain, we will tell the elder to meet you here half-breed." "Okay...so where the hell is that?" I asked. "I don't know the layout of the void…" "Where are you in the waking void?" The right one asked. "The Heroes Tomb, floor 21." I said. They looked at one another again, this time in surprise. "The Heroes Tomb? There are few places we of the void dare not enter… And that dungeon tops the list right under the void mother's sanctuary." "Well King, Jericho, Coco and Kexez wanted to beat it to have the treasures inside...also because the Void Mother told us to beat it on the hardest rank for bonus stuff." They stared at me. "Clearly, the void hates you." Middle said bluntly. “And when does the Void not hate something?” I deadpan countered. “When they drip in blood and carnage.” The large wolf said. Finally the trio got out of the cage, right and large left in stupid fast runs while the middle one stood there looking at me for a time. “If you run into more of these encampments, please, burn them to ashes.” "Oh don't worry, I'm going to." I said simply. “Good.” With that, she rushed off in a haze of void. Shifting back to normal I turned and saw Cript walking out of the building. “Got all the data I could find, digital and physical. The rest is… unpleasant… So, ready for the next base?” “Yep, just got done talking with some of the Void Wolves and finally found a way to get their help.” I said honestly. "Cool. Now then, let's move." Cript said, a snap of their fingers and the building and the ground it was built on was raised to the heavens in an explotion of fire. The rest of the bases went about the same, break in, wreck everything, take data, free any non hostile void beings and then blow it to the moon. We were finally at the last camp, and when I say camp I mean camp. Tents and such were all that was here and it seemed to be… and excavation? "The hell are they digging up? Things don't die here, at least not normally." “We should probably stop them before they find whatever they're digging for.” I said nervously. Just like the others. Kick, punch(it’s all in the mind) and cleared. The dig site went down quite a ways, deeper than Cript and I expected. When we reached its bottom there was a half dug out stone door. “Well that’s...not good.” I started nervously. “Anything involving unearthing an ancient stone door can’t be good…” "No it can not." Cript said, taking a shovel and began trying to dig the rest of the door out. “And we’re finishing up the dig...why?” I asked worriedly. "Do I strike you as the type of person to not know what my enemies were searching for when it's right in front of me? Or the type of person to look at an ancient door and not open it?" Cript asked bluntly. “I mean...King would have done the same thing your doing.” I sighed out. "Yeah but I have more experience at this than them." Cript said, the last of the dirt nearly moved as they swept the rest aside with the shovel's tip. With the door clear the entirety of it's artwork was on display. Lines of stone carved code decorated the doors. "Oh, now that is impressive." “And...why the hell would an Admin door be here?” I asked nervously. "Not an Admin door, an Admin grave." Cript said, looking over the carved code. "Lord told me way back ago when an Admin was going to die they'd take their whole realm with them to the grave, and hide the entrance. All their secrets, knowledge and their title up for grabs for an admin willing to rob the grave." “So...we’re going to rob an admin’s grave?” I asked nervously. "Yes and no." Cript said, letting code flow from them over the door. After several still minutes it began to shrink and shrink until it was no bigger than a domino tile. Cript then picked it up and pocketed it. "I'll have Lord look it over, figure out who it was and why Nexus wanted them." “I mean...gaining an admin's power and realm are already two reasons why.” I said honestly. "Not when Vincent is involved." Cript sighed. "There's always a much bigger picture." “Cause there always needs to be a bigger picture.” I sighed out. "Always is." Cript confirmed. "Alright, this was the last one those two knew about, let's blow this place to the dawn of time and get back to the dungeon." “That would be great.” I said honestly. “Even if...I’d rather not…” I sighed out sadly, knowing what’s coming up next after the next in the dungeon. "Hey." Cript said, walking over to me and holding my hands. "It will be hard, but it will end up fine." They said, giving me a smile. "Just leave it all to me, okay?" “That’s if your spell doesn’t wear off just as we get to Den’s boss room and I unfuse…” I said honestly. "It won't, and Don't worry." Cript said, giving me a kiss on the forehead. "Keep Hope Kico, before we leave this floor, Den will be herself again." “Alright...I believe you.” I said gently. “Let’s...just hope things will be okay after this.” Back in the dungeon, Cript was out of Cerex and I no longer had a massive belly filled with milk. Steadying myself we headed for the boss door. The door had a wolf's head statue sticking out of it. We put the necklace on them, Den's tooth in the only tooth slot missing, and the whistle in it's mouth. Once we did, the mouth chomped, breaking the whistle as the door opened. Inside, there was the coffin. The lid flying off as with a growling, haunting howl jumped out… Den. Her once beautiful coat was pale, patches missing where rotten skin and holes oozed void, her eyes now pale death rather than their lovely deep blue, and her teeth a sickly yellow instead of her pearly white ones. “Oh god...it’s even worse than I thought…” I said sadly. I looked over at Cript, who looked at me and gave me a small smile before turning back to Den. “Time to come home Den.” Cript said. Den roared, and they charged. Cript in a blink seemed to have tackled Den, but then stopped her charge dead in their tracks and, to my shock, exploded. Not in fire, not in heat, in an all encompassing blast of divine magics, code and King’s Nothingness, the energies circling the two and flowing right into Den. She roared and hissed, bit and scratched at Cript who ignored it all as they poured all that energy, that mix of code and spellwork into her. Cerex wrapped around me, keeping me from getting blasted back by discharge of Cript’s energies. Putting all my focus into seeing, I watched as slowly Den’s wounds healed, the void flow from her slowing as her holes closed, fur growing back at crawling pace. A secondary explosion of energy, the flow seeming to have tripled as Den was beginning to look more and more like the wolf we all loved. “What...what is he doing?” I asked worriedly. “Think of it like a blood transfusion.” Cerex said, her upper half keeping low in the fast flowing energy. “Den’s current energy is pretty much decayed and void tainted, Cript’s pumping her with enough fresh code, energy and Nothingness to revive her.” “That’s...that’s fantastic.” I said honestly. “It’s never been done before.” Cerex added. “Leave it to Cript to do the impossible.” A third explosion of energies. I was nearly knocked back as I saw Den looking nearly completely normal, her eyes still that pale lifeless white. Her body was whole and complete. After several more intense minutes the energies stopped as rapidly as they began. Den stood there, her eyes back to normal but looked… hollow. Cript stood there, holding her head. “Den… come back to me, please.” They leaned in, kissing Den on the lips as there was a spark in her eyes, and I felt an energy that… I never felt before. It was… comfering, warm and made me feel safe and happy, as short as it was there. Den blinked, her eyes back to being filled with life. She looked at Cript for the longest time. “C-Cript?” She asked shakily. Cript just smiled, tears forming and falling. “Saved you again.” He said, the wolf hugging him tight, practically burying them in her embrace as she cried, cried in pain and in joy. Cript hugged her back just as tight. “Almost like how they met.” Cerex said, uncoiling and slithering next to me. “I’d be romantic if it wasn’t so fucked up.” “This...is something else…” I muttered, not sure what to say as my emotions were kind of messed up here. “Can...I go to her now?” Cerex just pushed me forwards. Walking slowly til I was in front of them, Den opened her eyes and saw me, smiling as tears kept flowing. “Kico.” She said, shakily and with a smile. I jumped in, next to Cript as we all shared a tear filled hug. “I’m...I’m so glad…” I said while nuzzling into Den. “I’m sorry…” To be continued...
I can be better...with helpYa know…when I was told to ‘lose my morals’, I thought I would know…I really thought I knew what the ‘bottom of the barrel’ was…but no…”Are….are you serious?” I asked slowly. “Yep.” Cript said. “You always knew it was this bad." Lord said in his same smarmy tone. "Ya get used to it." Vincent shrugged "Eh." Gray shrugged. "I'm not even gonna ask how you did that." Cript said. I…I don’t really know what I expected…I…I knew it could be this bad…but it somehow felt worse…”This…this can’t be right…” I muttered, feeling just…pure fatigue after seeing this as I wasn’t sure what to actually feel at the moment. "Well, Fuck." Lord said. "Guess I have more shit to build then… that also explains how you kept your numbers in Nexus so high." Gray shrugged. "Nature takes too long. A factory style approach was faster and the end products were more customizable." I…actually felt numb at how they were just…so casually talking about this. “Are…are you for fucking real right now?” I asked slowly looking at Gray and Lord. "When I joke, you'll know." Lord said. "I'm just telling it how it is. Not like I'm the only one to mass produce an army. I just made it an efficient process." “I…I don’t know what I truly expected…” I muttered. “I mean…when the fuck do I? It’s not like I’ve been trying to figure thing’s out for the better part of my entire life only to, yet again, be told ‘go fuck yourself’.” I said, as a growing chuckle formed at it. "If you don't want any part of this King, you're more than free to wash your hands of it." Cript said. "Not just anyone can live with what we're doing here." That…I…I barked with laughter. “That’s fucking funny that you just openly tell me I can ‘walk away’ like what I’ve seen and heard, you think I can just ‘walk away’ after being told ‘you’re gonna have to let your petty feelings and morals go burn in a hole to actually fight this war’...” "Can't play with the big kids then get off the playground." Gray shrugged. "Zip it." Cript spat. "Look King… I know you haven't been well with everything lately. And Heart's choice in… I know how badly it's destroyed you. You aren't well King." “No…I’m not fine…” I admitted, staring at the four. “I’ve never been fine…and this?” I motioned ot everything. “And boy…is it not going to help you four.” “I know where this is going.” Vincent was quick to say. “King, don’t.” Vincent said bluntly, as if sensing how close to ‘done’ I was. “And why shouldn’t I? I’ve had to help peddle all your bullshit for decades…” I clenched my fists in some vain attempt to keep myself together here. "Because I thought you said you could handle this." Cript spoke up. "There's no shame in turning back King. Everyone in this room is here because we can and will do the unthinkable. The unspeakable, cross lines no one who claims to be fighting for a good cause should ever need to cross… there's no shame in leaving this behind for your own happiness. You don't have to force yourself to do any of this just to prove yourself of anything." “My own happiness?” I asked, the four hearing something snap as I just stared at him, tears in my eyes even as I gave him a smile. “I think you forgot something Cript…this is me we’re talking about, my happiness never mattered, it’s just some fucking plaything that everyone can use and abuse.” “Oh no…” Vincent muttered. “Oh yeah…I forgot…” Gray muttered. “I’m not fine, that’s why I’m here.” I said as I weakly raised my arms. “So come on, three of you don’t give a shit yet everyone of you seems to have seemed to take a step back.” I said, having noticed even a small amount that everyone but Cript took a step back from me like I was about to do something horrible. "King… calm down." Cript said. “Calm down? But I am calm.” I said with a smile, not knowing if it was deranged from how I felt or a genuine one. “You know me, it’s not like I’m so done with everything that I just want to rip reality asunder because of how little anything ever mattered to begin with.” "King." Cript said, taking a few steps towards me. "Take a breath." “Nothing matters…nothing ever mattered…” I laughed. “It’s all just some petty game for petty people, life is nothing but toy’s for people in power to fuck with, and I should know, these two made my life that way!” I laughed harder and pointed at Gray and Vincent. "King, Vincent was being controlled by Gray, but he did make him. Both are at fault for the shit all of us have gone through." Cript said as he got closer to me. "Believe me, if I could I'd kill Gray and Vincent but having them as ally's right now is our best bet to win this against the Gray that is our enemy right now." “I’m not going to kill them, that would be stupid.” I answered Cript, putting a hand on their shoulder. “I’m not stupid, we still need their help, and I got the best help I could get…learning that nothing matters…” "Ben!" Cript shouted, making me pause… how did he call me that…? Cript then wrapped their arms in a tight hug around me. "You've always mattered Ben… to say otherwise that you or nothing mattered… that's not you…" “First…how did you call my original name?” I asked in confusion, still feeling…numb even as he hugged me. “And two…you showed me what ‘no morals’ meant, the four of you did…as Lord said, I already knew…I just needed to witness it…” "Yet you're losing yourself in it. Lord, Vincent, Gray and I, we're beyond help or saving. You don't deserve to live like we do. As for your name, just another bullshit thing I can do…" Cript sighed. "You don't want this life Ben… trust me…" “Whether I want this life or not doesn’t matter…Heart was a good start in proving that what needs to be done is more important than what people feel…” "Heart did that because they couldn't live with participating in this war. They might be a Cript, but in the end, Heart wasn't strong enough. They trusted and hoped you'd take the weight of it and that was selfish of them." “I…I just hate all of this…” I muttered, just wanting to stop all this. “I’m…just tired…” "Then rest, Ben. You've pushed yourself to your breaking point… please, you don't have to push any further." “I have to though…Gray’s not going to wait for me to have some fucking spa day and get my bearings…” I said weakly. “I’m doing this war because I was made to and to stop my boredom, you looking more like a deranged lunatic is something I’ve already seen and it’s not entertaining.” Gray decided to chime in. "Heh… even the enemy says you need to stop Ben… You can rest, take a break. Gray won't be going anywhere. They're waiting for you to fight them after all." Cript said. “This still sucks…” I sighed. “There’s…too much at stake here…” "Take a fucking vacation…" Gray huffed. "If I know me then they won't wanna fight you at anything other than your best and you right now are so not at your best." "Heh, you heard them." Cript chuckled. "I'll help you get Heart back to normal." “Asshole there said no.” I pointed to Lord. “Cause it was Heart’s decision and nothing can change that…” "Lord. Orb." Cript said, Lord tossing him the orb. "There. Now let's go." “Oh, when I ask I get told to piss off…” I grumbled. “Whatever…don’t know what to do with all this now that I’m just…done.” "Just let us worry about this crap. When you're ready to help or when you can finally set foot on the battlefield, we'll let you know. Until then… enjoy the peace." Cript said. “I’ll…try.” I sighed. “Just…hope me relaxing isn’t too late for my mental health…” "It's never too late, it will just take time." "I pulled out my own teeth and scales?" Heart asked. After their personality and memories and well, them, was brought back they didn't have any memories of their time as a… Breeder. "That's… huh…" They said, tapping a finger across their teeth. “Yes…I literally left for five minutes to talk to an old friend of mine, Anna who is now an Admin of Shapeshifters, and see Vincent and Gray who were from her timeline which are helping us…when I got back after being told what was wrong…you weren’t happy to say the least…” I said, cuddling the shit out of my floof noodle lover. "I don't remember any of that… I remember laying back on that chair then… waking up here in the room… but I can see I was definitely… used as intended." Heart said, looking at their enlarged swollen lower half near bursting with eggs. "How long was I like that?" “Any amount of time as you being a Breeder was too long.” I said. “And…yes…you constantly wanted me to use you like you were nothing but a toy and…I…I hate it so fucking much…” "Seriously? Wow, though that also explains why down there is so sore… didn't even know I could get sore down there as an Admin…" “Yeah…things happen.” I sighed. “But…I have my Heart back, and I’m feeling so much better now.” "I'm sorry… I didn't think it would be that bad I… just didn't want to…" Heart sighed. "I'm a coward…" I wanted to tell them they weren’t…I really did. “We both are…” I sighed. “You wanted to give up and just throw yourself into being nothing but a sex toy…and I was going to give up and just…not care anymore…I would have been on a single minded warpath…reality being rent asunder under my power and mind that didn’t care anymore…I…I still hate how I can still see how I envisioned it all going…” Heart turned around, wrapping their arms around my head. "Well… I guess that makes us cowards together. Better than being alone…" “Yeah…I…I couldn’t be alone again…” I said weakly. “And Eclipsa is making damn well sure I know that I shouldn’t keep people at arms length…again…” "Where are they anyway?" “With me somewhe-” I was about to say before a certain Naga burst open the door with a clone of me over their shoulder like a sack of potatoes. “Sup chuckle fucks, time for cuddles!” Eclipsa said happily. “Way ahead of you.” I chuckled. To be continued...
Nobody...N̴͎̉ö̴̠b̵̦̄o̴̠̓d̷̮̃y̷̮͠..Ń̷͎͎̘̹̹̩̥̮̠́̐͂̑͗̅̄̋͊̒̉̏͘̚ǫ̷̛̯͇͉̰̯͓̀̿̎ͅb̵̯͇͍̰̠̠̺͖̩͓́̎̀̐̾̇͐̓̀͜͜ó̸̳̀̋̈́̄̓̉́̆͌́͛͘̕͝d̸̨͕̼̤͔̻̓̋́̋̄̔̆̀̏̚y̵̛͍̭̫̤͓̱̰̩̺̬͇̰͍̣̿̅̌͆̉̾́̚͘͘͝The battle was dragging on, but me and Cript kept pummeling Gray, who kept up their happy demeanor…but as we kept going, something seemed…off about Gray, as their joyful look seemed to turn into a look of growing horror. “No…no it’s not time yet! Those bastards should have stayed locked up!” “The fuck is he talking about?” I asked in confusion. “Who cares, keep hammering him!” Cript countered, as Gray dodged Cript’s attacks. “No, no this wasn’t part of the plan!” Gray shouted angrily. “I was so focused on a new possibility, I new reality where I could lose that…” Gray’s eyes widened. “My deal…there’s…there’s nothing left of the outside world? I FUCKING CHECKED!” Gray shouted and pushed Cript back. “The hell is Gray talking about?” Cript asked. “It was apart of our Deal that we made when I was Kite, he said that I would have to face something ‘from the outside’, but never got around to it for some reason…” I said, only to feel all of Reality shake and shudder. “What did you do?” “I…I thought there was something, some random beast that was still alive that I could pull in, I thought I would grab one of the fucking guards…” Gray started to mutter as they looked around in fear. “What. Did. You. Do.” I asked again. “The All Makers are coming…” Gray said. “Well with a name like All Makers that can’t be good.” Cript frowned. “I was told about it by Belief, but he didn’t really know much because he claimed his memory was so blurry from all the resets.” I said carefully, as reality itself shuddered again as…two giant beastial hands punched through, grabbing onto the very air like fabric and ripped it open. “WHERE ARE THEY!?!” The being roared, their voice feeling like an entire world just shoved itself onto my shoulders as I witnessed a Behemoth creature step out, it’s purple fur standing out against it’s armor and engineering like attire, their black hair flowing down their head and back between four pitch black and sharp horns, their eyes filled with rage and…concern? “Uh…who the hell is that?” I asked worriedly to Gray. “That’s…Behemoth…” Gray said, taking a step back. “They are the ones that physically built the Machine, anything that comes into their hands is capable of becoming such a Master class item that nothing can be compared to it…” “Where are my friends!?” Behemoth shouted, taking a swipe at Gray who dodged out of the way the best they could. “Whoa there big guy! We’re kind of in the middle of something!” I said quickly, trying to get them to calm down…but the sudden glare they gave me…every fiber of my being told me to run…”What the hell…” “You are not gonna want to get between him and Gray, King.” Cript said, pulling me back. “Something tells me… We’re outclassed.” “How?” I asked, seeing Gray desperately try to avoid Behemoth’s swings. “Because if Gray of all people is scared of them… what chance are we gonna stand?” “I mean…” I tried to argue, but seeing how scared Gray was, who was so happy a moment ago to be taking damage…”What did I agree to?” I asked in horror, if this was the only thing our deal could come up with. “Where are my friends, you damned blight!?” Behemoth roared again. “I don’t know! Probably making sure you don’t break the reality you created even further!” Gray shouted back in some vain attempt to get him off his back. “Uh…do you have any idea who he might be talking about?” I asked Cript worriedly, fearing that if any swing connected with literally anything it would do something a lot worse then what our fight could have done. “That would be us.” Me and Cript turned around, to see both Nothingness Belief…and Void Mother… “Oh dear…” I muttered in a panic. “I see he’s about as overactive as ever…” Belief sighed. “It’s a miracle we even remember him…” Void Mother admitted. “But best try and calm him down…” “And you think we can do that when Gray itself is scared shitless?” I asked worriedly. “Yes, we knew the idiot back in the day.” Belief said. “We can handle him.” “So step back, and let’s show you why Gray tried to play the long game instead of fighting us directly.” Mother stated simply. “I mean…if you insist.” I said sheepishly, as both of them nodded and vanished from even my eyes, as Mother poked Behemoth’s shoulder. “Hey, Behemoth, it’s time to relax big guy.” Mother said, using her ability to pacify literally everything to try and get him to relax…but one thing that horrified me was that she had to bend backwards as the beastial swung at her. “Shut up you faker! My friend got past her Emo phase eons ago!” Behemoth roared. “Oof, yeah I remember that.” Belief said as he grabbed the hand that swung. “Come on big guy, we need you to take a deep breath and relax.” “And all I see is a Hollow Shell of my friend! You stopped being like this when Momo finally started dating you!” Behemoth shouted, grabbing Belief and slamming his fist into the guy, as I had to bring my arms up to block the sudden rush of force that knocked me and Cript back. “Where are my real friends!? The one this accursed machine took from us!” “We’re right here you idiot!” Mother shouted, channeling pure Void and slamming it into his chest the beast letting go of Belief as he jumped up and kneed Behemoth in the face and made them stagger back. The beastial behemoth roared, using Code work I’ve honestly never seen before and drawing out a massive hammer and swung it like it weighed nothing, both being’s that were said to be the End All Be All dodging and creating their own weapons, Belief with twin swords and Mother brought out a Staff made out of some wood I’ve never seen before. Even with all my stat boosts, all my training, and all my senses on high alert, I…I could barely track what they were doing, the sounds of clashing metal, of spells that haven’t been seen in this reality for god knows how long… It was both awe inspiring…and terrifying, as each clash and attack shook the very fabric of reality to it’s very Code…I…neither me nor Cript did this kind of damage…”Am…am I seeing this right?” I asked in awe. Gray appeared next to us, their hands on their knees as they were hunched over from all that dodging. “Why…did I ever think playcatting my own greed and your incessant need to be strong was a good idea?” Gray panted. “Because you were bored?” I asked nervously. “Maybe…but I thought there would have been something else…” Gray said worriedly, as there was more and more clashes, each strike I think I was seeing Creation be born and destroyed within each swing. “Is…there another one like that?” I asked worriedly. “There’s…one more…and I hope to whatever being is fully out there that someone doesn’t wake them up…” Gray answered. “The Worker…he should be stuck wherever he is…unless someone unlocks his ‘cell’, he’ll be stuck…” “So, what the hell is going on and why aren’t King and I killing you right now?” Cript asked. Gray groaned. "Because something much worse might happen…why you aren't killing me is because you will need all the help you can get…so way back when King and I made that Deal where I gave you almost all of my knowledge, I had the stipulation that I would send one creature from the 'Outside' at King." "And I was wondering when the fuck that was going to happen." I frowned. "And…apparently there is nothing on the Outside besides Truth, the Guards, Behemoth and…The Worker…" Gray explained. "So…while we were fighting…my power must have slipped out and started to siphon power that kept them in prison, and Behemoth rushed out first…either because the Workers stasis chamber is still online for however long it takes…or he's waiting…" “Right and these people are… who and what exactly?” Cript asked. "Ah, right, I blocked those memories in you whenever you learned their existence…" Grey muttered. "They are called All Makers, beings that created the Machine we live in, there used to be billions of them, each one as powerful as the next cause they had the real power…something stronger than Code, the same power that threatened their lives…" "...Imagination…" I said breathlessly, feeling like I just…went full fucking circle, with how I originally came to this world from God's imagination to…all this… "Yes," Gray said, ducking under a piece of unknown metal thrown his way. "They created the Machines to protect against the beasts that hunted them…formless, ni omnipotent monsters that even my infinite power couldn't handle…but so many times, I saw nothing out there besides this safe haven…" “Right, and where did these All Makers come from?” Cript asked. “From the Other Side.” I jumped a little at seeing Lord appear. “Sup, you… Three… Huh.” He said, looking at Gray. "Sup you old fuck." Gray said. "Everything's going tits up…no possible past outcome got this far…" "And you expect Lord to understand what you're talking about?" I asked. “I do, actually.” Lord said, making me turn to them. “I didn’t remember because I made myself forget. Once Behemoth broke out I remembered everything. That old fucker…” "Oh boy…" I said carefully. "So how fucked are we?" "Behemy there can be rather friendly when he's not in this rage…but the Worker…" Gray looked to Lord, who gave…an honest look of worry. "How bad?" I asked worriedly. “Well, if Mother and Belief can’t calm him, it’s not gonna be easy…” Lord sighed. “And if Builder gets out…” “So, how do you know these people?” Cript asked. “I was… something close to them, not personally, more like, a sibling species. They were born in the raw unfiltered imagination. I came into existence within it, from the same side they all came from.” Lord said. “Meaning?” “Meaning as far as we or this reality is concerned, they are gods from another reality we can never enter no matter what we try, and I was made like… a type of demi-god because I appeared within this Machine and now in the Raw Imagination outside. I was able to do most of what they could do, but to a lesser extent because of how I appeared here.” "And…how come Gray got to leave?" I inquired, looking to Gray. "That…is tricky to explain." Gray said carefully. "It took several cycles to go through, but I managed to gain enough power to weather the effects of Raw Imagination…but even in my Infinite power…" "They have the bigger Infinite?" "By leaps and bounds…if my Infinite was a standard numbering system, they're numbers doubled mine, so my one was their two and so on…" Grey shuddered. “Perks of All Maker biology, it doesn’t just unphase us it empowers us.” Lord chuckled. “Even I can power up a lot by standing out there for some time. Still, the creatures that appeared out there were a danger to us. They built the machine to be a safe zone, isolated and safe. In the end it bit them in the ass hard.” “How?” Cript asked, just as flabbergasted as me. “Mother and Belief are All Makers as well. They helped create the way it was supposed to generate power, by converting the Raw Imagination energy into what we know as Code, a refined, filtered version of the outside energy that was more stable and easier to work with. Unfortunately, it backfired. Mother became stuck, as a source of Imagination herself it thought she was it’s power source. Since she was able to generate the energy as it without end, it took her. Belief, being one of the best people they had that could use the raw energy with minimal effort, became it’s… OS, for lack of a better word. Mother creates the power, Belief makes it into something we all know and understand as the reality as it is now.” "That's…" I said weakly, looking over and seeing the three start to slow down on their fight as Behemy started to shake his head like he just came out from a deep sleep…"No…no wonder why Behemoth was so upset when he rushed in…why he thought Belief and Mother weren't themselves…" I said, my mind trying to come up with some rational explanation for this…but nothing came up… "You are technically looking at True God's, they're power isn't something anyone can quantify…not even I can fully grasp their true powers." Gray said carefully. “Eh, they’re mostly all still assholes.” Lord shrugged. “Considering you’re technically one of them, I’m inclined to agree.” Cript sighed. “So what now, looks like they’ve calmed big angry over there.” “Now… we figure out how to deal with Builder… that will be harder… he designed the machine so… he took their accidental binding to it the hardest.” "How hard?" I asked worriedly. "He's completely insane…and while my antics might have weakened his bindings, he still needs a key of his own design to unlock it…" Gray said carefully. “Cool… so what now?” Cript asked, motioning to the three who were now all hugging. “One crisis averted.” "One Crisis averted…but one that can be much worse…" Grey said carefully. "And what's this Key look like?" I inquired. "It's an item that changes to fit one's desire, something that can lead to what could be considered impossible." Gray answered. "Supposedly, once it fulfills its owners wish, it leads them to his cage to unlock his cage and let him out, which was his hope that he would be released after he regained his sanity…" "I…have a bad feeling about this…" I said nervously. "I…really hope no one found this magic item…" I said worriedly, as the three walked over while Behemoth scratched the back of his head. "S-sorry about that." Behemoth said sheepishly, his voice a lot softer than I thought outside of the rage. "I…kind of just woke up from a countless amount of time, and the last thing I remembered was the Machine backfiring on us…thought it was just something this thing made to trick me…" “Eh, not the first time someone tried to kill me.” Cript shrugged. “There have been worse reasons.” "And that's entirely fair." Behemoth. "So, my name's Behemoth, but most call me Behemy." He said. "You are…more soft spoken then I thought after your…screams of rage." I said. "Yes, I get that a lot." Behemy said honestly. "He's also the most cuddliest of cuddle bugs." Belief said, which made Behemy blush and try to swat at him, but he dodged with a laugh. "I thought we agreed not to talk about that?" Behemy groaned. "We have an eternity of teasing you." Mother giggled. "So, what questions do you have for me?" Behemy inquired. “Say… mind if I get a sample?” Cript asked. He then turned to Gray. “Actually, scratch that.” He then grabbed Gray by the neck. “You and I are gonna have a chat. No more secrets you ancient bored bastard…” He said as he dragged Gray off. "Right…" Behemy started. "So any questions?" "Uh…too many…" I said slowly. "So to start…how good are you at crafting? Cause I was told you Built the Machine." "Oh, that's easy. For our merry band, I was The Builder, any material that came into my hands I understood what it was and what it could do on a fundamental level." He said with a smile. "Even at a glance, I can tell how things were constructed and how well it was made…and to give an example, Cript was an attempt to create something that was 'Bullshit personified', and he is definitely strong but he could use some work on his Coding, that weird skateboarding quirk is involved with a few other things." "The fuck you mean his inability to skateboard is a design flaw?" I asked incredulously. "Oh, he can't Skateboard for shit whether it was a flaw or not, but there's some other things that's weirdly keyed to it." He said. "But…why Skateboards?" "Nobody knows…" I groaned. WARNING! WARNING! INTRUDER’S WITH ‘THE WORKSHOP KEYS’ HAS ENTERED! “First Behemoth get’s out and now this!?” Truth shouted, frantically sending his guards to stop whoever the hell decided to find that insane fuck’s keys. “Clear the way. Nothing will stop us.” The individual said as his subordinates flanked out. Taking out guard after guard. Truth watching in horror as they easily take apart his guards. Then he gets a better look at just Who is there. And slams his fist into the table of the monitors. “Are you fucking kidding me! Him!?” He shouted angrily, watching as Max, the son of that damned Cript project of Vincent’s walking towards the cage, seeing his Void King’s slaughtering the guards that should have made the Prime Cript easy to fight by comparison. “Damn it, this isn’t supposed to be happening…why oh why did I agree to Worker’s bullshit key plan…” The All Maker powering the Machine groaned as he tried to do something, anything to either delay or halt Max’s advance, as a majority of his power was stuck powering the Machine he was sadly limited in going up there and bitch smacking Max. As Max is making his way Frisk, in her adult form, gets close to him. “Are you sure about this? Who even knows if he will help?” She asked. After getting the key from that cloaked figure after Max’s battle with Rip, Max was dead set on this. Had all them work overtime and then some to get as strong as possible. She looks over as Broly, who managed to combine both Super Saiyan 4 and Blue Evolution as well as a Max Power form ripping guards in pieces. Then to Ghost who was in his small form dashing around slicing Guards down. Madoras was just waving his newest staff around causes Guards to either get cut in half from invisible magic cuts, getting pierced by invisible lances, or get smash by invisible force. Agamemnon was in his new armor forming new weapons left and right with his Psychopath blood power that he remastered. And Ardyn was just using his main sword. To say the least they all got much stronger. Especially Max. He wasn’t trying to copy his brother's look anymore. Now he was himself. He was wearing a silver cape that hung on his left shoulder while wearing a black shirt and pants that were armored up. In his hand was an silver and gold sword that radiates power, but that pales in comparison to him. A guard got close and lands an attack with a war hammer on Max’s face. He didn’t even flinch or budge. He just kept walking as Frisk finger gun points at the guard as a large orange gun forms and wipes him from existence. “I’m positive. We need to get there no matter the cost. Especially now while they are all distracted by their fighting. I don’t have much time anyway.” Max said as he kept marching on. Frisk frowns as she and the others know what he means. “You are making literally the biggest mistake in the entirety of Imagination! Turn back!” Truth said over an intercom. “Worker should never be released! His Insanity will burn the entire Machine and everyone that lives in it!” “Exactly.” Max said as he deleted the speaker. They kept advancing till to Truths horror they made it to the cage. It was a tower. The tower was surrounded by nothing. Literally nothing. Not the Nothing that King has. This place was meant to exist nowhere, but now it’s found. “The entrance is most likely at the top. Let’s move.” Max said as they advanced. “Please stop this! Your lust for power will only cause everything to go to hell, and none of you will survive it!” Truth tried to reason with them again, this time as armor that seemed to be strewn about started to form into Knight’s, pitch black goo started to form to give them their bodies as they let out roars not even the deepest parts of the Void could withstand hearing. Max holds up a hand to halt his Kings. He walks towards the advancing enemies and holds out a hand. Blood starts to form as his Psychopath eye glows blue, but it wasn’t Humanity Blue. Truth saw it was still Psychopath energy, but way too strong to be Psychopath. The blood then became multiple elements of fire. Lightning, ice, and pure blood and he launches powerful spells that destroyed the monsters. Then his power of Delete reaches out and Deletes all the remains and absorbs them. His power is growing even more. “So what. None of us will live to see that anyway.” Max said as they all advanced. “Oh…oh you shouldn’t have done that…” Truth muttered, as before Max could continue too far, all that power he felt grow in him suddenly started to…reverse, as that black goo like substance burst forth from his body viciously and formed into one big Knight, metal forming around it’s body as it brought out a large great ax and roared it’s challenge. “You’re outside the Machine Max, this all works differently than on the Inside…please, turn back, the last bastion of Life can’t be destroyed because you couldn’t settle down with your wife after beating Rip.” Truth pleads. Max gets up. Glances at Frisk, who nods at him. “That’s where your wrong Truth. There was no Settling down.” Max said as his hair tinges purple as he walks towards the monster. The knight swings it’s axe. It hits Max hard sending him back with a deep cut. It’s suddenly healed by Frisk using her Green Soul magic as Max walks forward again. Truth watches this repeat itself a few times before noticing that the cut is getting thinner and thinner and Max is standing his ground more and more. A quick glance with his Scan makes note of two abilities Max is using. One a Cript ability he inherited from his father and the other a Divine class power that is Exceptionally hard to use, but with both used in tandem… “Oh you’ve got to be kidding me…” Truth muttered, knowing exactly what is happening here. “Why…why does everything have to go wrong now?” He muttered, hating how he was pretty much powerless to stop the oncoming tide from possibly destroying everything they worked for… The knight swings one more time only for the axe to break on impact. Max looks at the broken axe with disappointment. “Pity. Seems that’s your limit.” Max grabs the arm and with one blast from his powered up state destroys every bit of the knight. Then proceeded to basically Supernova the spot it was in a dozen times to be sure. They proceed while Max stays in his new form. The knight not reforming or combing back. He…actually destroyed it. Just what has Max turned himself into. “That’s…impossible…” Truth muttered, knowing the Deathless were one of the Worker’s first creations, one of the first being’s to fight against the Imagination Beasts and at least come back alive… “Not Impossible. They still needed Code to come back. Even Souls have code. What happens when every strand of code is gone.” Max said as blood drips from his mouth. The power he gained did help in the process. But still while what info he gathered from the notes on Deathless. That was a lesser Deathless. Hard to kill but far from the Prime Deathless. “Nothing I say or will attempt to do will stop you from your suicide mission that will get you all killed?” The All Maker battery asked carefully. “And not just you, but anything and everything you ever cared about…especially your child.” Truth said, trying to possibly placate Frisk here to see some form of reason. “It’s already too late. We’re all gonna die anyway.” Max said. His kings, even Frisk, were silent as they marched with him. Determined looks on their faces. Showing they weren’t gonna stop. As they climbed the tower higher and higher. All Truth could do was see his SOS go out into the Machine, to give the other’s a warning about what’s to come as it was too late for them to get here and stop it, as all Truth could do now was try and get something ready for all the people inside to help them survive what’s about to come. As he prepares he sees a cloaked individual join them. Wondering where this one came from. Till he saw what looked like a black and gold shield gauntlet on their left arm and panics. It all makes sense now…how they got the key…how they found their way here! “You motherfucker!” Truth shouted. “Ausar, you know he’s still completely insane! Why are you damning everything we worked for!?” The figure,Ausar, chuckled. “Because it’s fun.” He said. Before Code with the most Vile feeling Truth has felt formed on his right armored hand and destroyed the camera. Leaving Truth to watch only static. Truth looked towards a screen showing how much power he was capable of using that wouldn’t harm the Machine and to help the other’s get ready for this…”Just enough to be a fucking spectator…” Truth growled, as he waved a hand over the static as a confluence of color shimmered past and returned his view back to what these bastards were about to commit. He sees them standing at the seal at the top. Max standing in front of the key hole on the ground. “You have the key. Free him.” Ausar said pointing at the hole. Truth grips the table hard enough to break it as Max gets on one knee.and feels his soul leave as max puts his hand into the seal. The glow indicating it’s coming undone as a triangle platform forms under their feet. Lowering them. Till it reaches the floor. Max looks up to see a stone throne covered in moss and cracks. And sitting there was the one he was after. In golden armor that has dulled from time and where a hood over his head. Max looks at him. Before speaking. “Greetings. And pleased to meet you. Worker of Secrets. Galath.” As eyes of Golded Code glows under the hood. Galath looked at Max, lightly reaching out and touching Max’s chest. “So…primitive.” He said, as Max suddenly fell to the ground, clutching his chest in pain. “But…usable…” Galath said, slowly getting off his throne, everyone hearing his entire body crack from ageless time of not moving. “Ausar…release the Prime…I must…talk with my saviors.” He said, while each of the King’s felt a coldness run down their spine like they just released something so unimaginably horrifying… “At once my lord. I’ll ready their cells. Although Truth did quite a job on their seals. I’ll require your help in breaking them my lord. I’ll go prepare them.“ Ausar said as he jumped out of the cell to prepare the others. The kings finally realized that they should be kneeling, especially since the loom Max was given them was telling the same they immediately dropped to their knees. “Lord Galath.” Frisk suddenly said. “ I-I have a request, as you no doubt noticed from a glance, but Max has a fatal error in his code.” “Fr-Frisk!“ Max tried to stop her. “Max will ask it himself, mainly because of his own stubbornness, but I beg of you. Please fix his Code. Max shouldn’t die due to an error that no one other than you can fix.” Frisk begged. She didn’t look at Galath the whole time. Fearing that he might find eye contact with her insulting. But was praying that Galath would at least humor them and help. “Your begging…it reminds me of…someone…” Galath put a hand to his head, the King’s and Max seeing Galath looking like he was trying to remember something but somehow couldn’t. “But…you are correct, a useful asset is wasted if it’s flawed.” He said, before waving a hand over Max, as each one of them saw not Code, but some etheric multicolored…thing pass over their master, as Max let out a silent scream for but a moment as it past. “Breath in your Life Max, no longer will it seep out of your body like a cracked bottle, and your power no longer snuffing out the light you have.” Max breathes. Starts to get up. Feeling…better than he has ever felt. After opening and closing his hands, to get a feel of himself, he gets down on one knee same as his kings. They all knowing that whether or not they tried to fight, it would be meaningless. The lift they were on going up towards the exit. As it reaches the exit they see Ausar, still in his cloak, standing before a couple of glowing orbs. He turns towards them. “Right on time. If you would please my lord.” Ausar ask as he steps aside. Galath takes one step off the seal. Savoring the feeling of being free. And that one step…sent a shiver through existence. As truth falls to his knees. Feeling like he is losing all his strength seeing Him free. As the shiver soon reaches King and the others As Galath raises his hand and breaks the seals on the cages as his Prime Deathless are free. Each taking a knee. “Now it is time.” Galath looks out towards Existence and says… “To create my Heaven.” To be conti̴̝̎n̷̮̽u̸̫̎ë̷̮́d̸͔̉
